Chapter 17: Back To Wutai

Everybody left Tifa and her family alone together so they could spend some time. Thea almost died earlier after all. And if Ramiel wasn't there, Tifa's mother would have died or they could only prolong her suffering with the curaga materia that Ramiel gave the kids.

"You're a really good kid, healing Thea with your skills without expecting any payments." Claudia smiled at Ramiel and Alexandra puffed her chest in pride.

"Umu, my brother's the best after all." Alex had a smug look on her face and Ramiel pinched her cheeks. "Thanks, but why are you so smug? I'm the one who healed her." Ramiel snorted.

"Ow! Ow! Stop doing that!" Alex couldn't resist and the peanut gallery laughed at their antics.

Ramiel then sent her a message through telepathy. 'Lazard just gave us a comm. We're going to lead the troops to Wutai. The friction is too much and war is starting.' Ramiel looked at her and Alex gave a nod.

Ramiel went up to Cloud and Aerith, kneeling in front of them as he gave them a head pat. "You two take care of your parents and Tifa as well, alright?" Ramiel gave them a key.

"Un, but what's this key for Ramiel-nii?" Aerith tilted her head that made him chuckle. "It's for the game room, silly. Alex and I are going on a little adventure again, courtesy of Shinra. So you guys behave, alright?" He ruffled their hair and they frowned heavily.

"But... You just got here? You're leaving again?" Cloud had a sour face on him and Aerith was giving him the puppy dog eyes.

"Well, yeah. That's just how it is. That's why I'm entrusting the game room to you guys, go and play when you're bored, okay? You better catch up to our characters when we return." Ramiel smiled at them and thought that the game room will keep them entertained for a couple of years at least. Because with their plan of not giving away too much information on them. The war will likely last for quite a while.

Aerith started crying and Alex went up to her, hugging her tightly. "Don't worry, little Aerith. My big brother and I will come back. That's a promise, it might take some time. But we will be here again." Alex put her shades on her.

"Big girls don't cry. And you're gonna be a big girl when I return, remember that." Alex smiled at her and Aerith nodded while she inhaled her snot back.

"Now, now. You're gonna make her cry more, Ifalna, Claudia. We'll be going now, take care of them alright?" Ramiel said their final goodbye and the twins started to walk back to the manor.

"Mom, I don't want them to go." Aerith looked at Ifalna and her mother gave a wry smile. "Honey, you gotta understand... They are really busy." Ifalna frowned for a bit as she understood where they were going. And she could feel that a lot of lives are returning to the lifestream in the west.

"Are they going to be gone for a long time?" Tifa heard their conversation and she got sad that she couldn't even say goodbye appropriately.

"Yeah... They were in a hurry." Cloud still had a sour face and Claudia patted him on the shoulders. "Son, they are special people. They're the types who are always doing something big. You kids just wish them good luck, alright?" Claudia understood that they were high ranking members in Shinra. As they got delivered back to Nibelheim via a chopper. Based on Cloud's story.

"Then I'll be special too! I'll be just as cool as them!" Cloud shouted out and he ran back to his home to train in with the sword that Ramiel gave him. Dedicated to be a SOLDIER candidate in the future so he could follow them to Shinra.

"Then I'll work hard too! I... I need to repay Ramiel-nii in saving mom's life." Tifa put her gloves on and was inspired by Cloud's words.

Aerith looked at their retreating silhouettes and wondered if there was something she could do as well. "Mom, do you know any magic?" Aerith looked at her mother and Ifalna gave a defeated sigh.

"Kids, right?" Claudia chuckled and smiled at Ifalna. "Yes, they're a handful sometimes. Sure, honey. Go wait in the manor with your father and I will teach you some spells." When Aerith left, Ifalna donned a serious face and Claudia too.

"It's much better for them to be positive and dreamers like this. Unlike Ramiel and Alexandra, those kids have so much on their shoulders." Claudia frowned heavily, imagining what they were doing in Shinra as children that haven't even reached their teens yet.

"Yes... Yes it is, let us hope that the twins make them stay that way." Ifalna looked at the sky, hoping that there will be a time where Ramiel and Alexandra didn't basically keep them alive. As Shinra would definitely hunt them down and turn them into lab rats if things went differently.

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Ramiel and Alexandra waited in the middle of nowhere. Firing some firaga spells in the sky from time to time to use as a flare.

After a couple of minutes, a chopper arrived and Lazard was there to pick them up on his own. "You guys ready? It's time to storm Wutai, but you will be leading the troops." Lazard had a mischievous smile on his face and Alexandra raised a brow. She then understood what that meant and paled.

"We're going to lead a bunch of smelly old men in a damned LCVP!? Are you for real?" Alexandra was furious and Ramiel remembered the ships that carried troops in WW2 so they could storm the beach of Normandy.

"Damn, so we're gonna be packed like sardines in there?" Ramiel also didn't want to have to listen to some motivational speech before they went in at the heat of battle.

"Yes, as a matter of fact, you will." Lazard laughed and Alexandra gave her the stink eye. "I'll remember this, Lazard... I know everything about you, I've researched you so deeply, that I know what your birth weight and height is. What your first solid meal was, when you last peed on the bed, how many strands of hair on your head. Oh, I know, and I'm coming for you." Alexandra glared daggers at him.

She always does it whenever there is someone that gets involved with Ramiel. Memorizing every piece of information about that person so she could analyze if they were a threat to him or not.

Lazard gave a nervous chuckle and gulped a mouthful of saliva. He then stared at Ramiel, asking with his eyes if that was true.

"Oh she's not lying, she can memorize that easily. In just a couple of minutes, tops." Ramiel shrugged and he almost shit his pants.

"Ahem... Anyways, this is the briefing for the mission. Shinra will be entering the island at the shores in the south. You already know that's the only place where we can get troops in." Lazard gave them a folder and tried diverting the attention to him, but Alexandra just gave the contents of the folder a glance and continued glaring at him like she wanted to kill him.

"Hmmm, not bad. So Shinra will basically be using the scouted places where they thought it would be safer. I need to inform Godo about this so we could enact our grand play." Ramiel gave a satisfied nod to Lazard's machinations with the higher ups of Shinra.

Ramiel immediately contacted the Kisaragi household. "Hello, how you doing old man?" Ramiel dialed in his number and it was his smartphone that was already beginning to circulate in the slums of Midgar. As well as Wutai, using the radio towers of Shinra for communication.

"What do you think? Did you expect me to say fine?" Godo rolled his eyes and Ramiel chuckled, he then heard the cry of a baby and he raised a brow.

"Seriously, did you just have a fucking kid when you knew you were going to war? What's wrong with you old man?" Ramiel huffed at him and Godo winced.

"It wasn't planned, but Yuffie is my daughter. I will protect her with my life. Besides, I don't think that Shinra is better than this. Sending some 11 year olds as their tools of war." Godo rebutted and Ramiel nodded at his little quip.

"Touche, but you do know that this is beneficial for us? Right? Your daughter can get caught up in this battle old man. You better take good care of her, or I'm gonna kidnap that girl and take her to Nibelheim. I can travel faster than sound, that's a piece of cake." Ramiel snorted and Godo grunted.

He then cut the call and sighed in his seat, rubbing his temples. "Damned old bastard. Can't get it in his pants and decided to have a kid." Ramiel grumbled.

"Why not just take that kid like you said?" Alex suggested and Lazard was weirded out about their conversation. The twins talking about kidnapping someone's daughter nonchalantly.

"Uhhh, can't you just let him evacuate the girl?" Lazard raised a brow and thought they were kinda lacking some common sense.

"What a great idea! Put her where? In the middle of the ocean? Come on Lazard, I thought you were smarter than that. You've got the glasses and all." Ramiel sighed and he frowned at his comment.

"You stupid or something? I guess you are, you did pack us in an LCVP. You know how destructive our battles can get? The only place she'll be safe in is a hundred miles away from the island. In the middle of nowhere." Alex rolled her eyes.

"I don't know, can you just not put out destructive spells that could end entire villages?" Lazard sarcastically replied and Alexandra huffed.

"They have a weapon there that could support their arrogance. I could feel it, Godo only threw the towel because it would be mutual destruction. He's too prideful to just surrender because of our display of power. Not to mention his little band of politicians." Alex squinted her eyes and thought this would be a hard fought battle.

"Yeah, I noticed that too. He might have a summon materia. Wutai has flags of a serpent everywhere. And according to my research, they have a guardian deity. I don't know about you, but there's some weird shit out there." Ramiel remembered Jenova's alien origins and thought that a huge ass serpent is fair game.

"You guys are right, anyways. Just don't go bonkers on the enemy and try to delay it as long as you could while we start building an empire on Ramiel's smartphone idea. President Shinra will be too busy looking at the war and it's the phone's time to shine." Lazard reminded them.

"And if the money starts rolling in, you should start mining Uranium so we could begin gathering some fuel for the reactors. The actual reactors can wait, those take time and garner too much attention." Ramiel ordered Lazard and the director nodded.

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While the twins were travelling via a ship so they could get close enough and then be delivered by a landing craft. One person was sobering up.

"Ugh, w-where am I?" Hojo got up, with a massive headache. After a few minutes, a trickle of memories began entering his mind.

"Damnit... Clever child that one. Truly a genius like no other." He was oddly proud of Ramiel and annoyed at the same time.

He began to recover from his confu brainwashing done by Ramiel because Gast needed a live test subject. And he began putting small doses of the safer Jenova cells in him in order to see results on a live test. And it was successful, Hojo's body began to have the benefits of Jenova's cells without any side effects. And when it started multiplying. He began to recover from Ramiel's confu treatment.

"Well, well, well. I guess my colleague Gast has something up his sleeve? My children sure are cold, using their father for their own benefit. And a Cetra, hmm? I guess you've outdone yourself, Gast. A living Cetra to experiment with. Though my children seems to have reached the apex." He started cackling and gave a sinister smile.

He noticed that his mental faculties were greatly enhanced. And his body was really nice and strong, but he was no match for his supposed children. They were living super weapons that were raised to be absolutely lethal.

So Hojo began planning. He might be crazy, but he wasn't an idiot. "Interesting research~ They're making Jenova cells more accessible and safe. Truly genius minds, thank you for your contribution. I will surely use this data for the greater good. And science of course. Hehe~ Guhahaha!" Hojo laughed like a maniac and reeled in his voice.

"Oh no, I was a bit too excited there." He smiled and decided to bide his time. He would slowly accept more of the Jenova cells from project Minerva and kidnap the last Cetras. So he could make more of them, for science.

He rubbed his hands and patiently waited for his next orders from Gast. He needed his commands to get into the lab after all. In order to access the nice little cells that Gast will give him.

"Perfect timing, the gods must exist. Because they surely have smiled at my intentions and ambition." Hojo sat there, waiting for the perfect opportunity.

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Thanks for reading everyone, anyways. Ciao.

And a little note, I usually post 2k word chapters. But I think I'll cut it in half or so. Just to bump up the chapter numbers. Though of course I will increase the releases. Especially because I will be cutting ties with my hospital. They put me in the emergency room and their system is shit. So I will have a lot of free time now. Unlike with my other fic, so I can give this some more time now.