Days After

Chapter 3: One Good Deed

"Do I know you?"

"Do you know him?"

Both questions came at the same time and Tifa just shook your head. Then Tidus's face split into a grin.

"See I told you I was famous. Star player of the Zanarkand Abes," Tidus pointed to himself for emphasis while he leaned towards Squall.

Squall's face looked like he just bit into something sour, and then he called over to Zidane, "You deal with this moron," and walked away holding his head.

"Nice guy," sarcasm dripping from Tidus's words then he turned to Tifa, "Sorry miss, but I don't have a pen for signatures and I gave my last signed blitz ball to these guys."

"I'm not a fan," she said a little too forcefully for Tidus's ego before quickly adding, "I know Yuna."

Tidus simultaneously choked on air and tripped over his own feet, but managed to recover quickly.

"What!?" he grabbed her shoulders so hard that it actually hurt, his eyes wide with hope, "Is she here?"

"We went different ways yesterday," and watched Tidus physically deflate.

"Shit," he ran his hand through his sandy blond hair, "Was she okay at least? Was she hurt? Is she scared? Did it look like she was getting enough to eat?"

Tifa tried to wade through the barrage of questions, "She seemed fine to me but I only met her for a short while. Kain and Lightni- the people I'm with, they were traveling with her before I met them." She pointed to where Kain and Lightning were and Tidus bolted like the devil was on his tail.

Zidane just looked confused, "What's going on there?"

"Irony. Bad luck of the century. Either or both," Tifa said, the pity in her voice spreading, "Kain and Lightning were traveling with a woman named Yuna just yesterday but split up when she wanted to go to Saint Yevon hospital to find Tidus. We came here and found him instead. Looks like he was looking for her too."

"That's rough."

Tifa thought about the time she had found Cloud just in time for him to have lost himself, she thought of what happened at Shinra Academy, and yeah. That was rough.

Tifa went to follow after Tidus and saw Lightning and Kain being bombarded by the increasingly erratic blond. She couldn't make out the words but she could hear his volume raising and his arm gestures were becoming more sweeping and frantic.

Lightning looked from him and then to Tifa's approaching form with a look that said, "This is Tidus?"

Tidus stopped to take a breath and then faced Tifa and Zidane.

"I'm going to find her." There was no hesitation in his voice, his shoulders were square, and his eyes were set and determined. Just like Yuna's was.

Lightning turned back towards the maps uninterested, "I would think the safest way to Midgar Street would be cutting through the par-"

"You're not coming?" Tidus interrupted. Lightning spared a glance at Tidus before wordlessly returning to plotting their way.

"Fuck that, you're coming," he demanded and this time Lightning spun around, pissed to the heavens.

"What did you just say?" she was obviously not happy to be told what to do and Tifa edged closer to Lightning, hoping to calm her down if need be.

"I think you need to sit the fuck down, listen to what I have to say, and take responsibility for the people you were with," Tidus shot back and somehow not withering into nothingness at the intensity of Lightning's glare.

"Listen boy, you don't know who the hell I am and just how little I care about anything you have to say, but I'll be happy to beat it in you. She decided to go on her own-"

"I may not know you, but I know Yuna," he pointed to Tifa's bandaged leg, "I bet that's Yuna. She helped her didn't she, because that's the kind of person she is. And I bet she helped you too," he put that finger in Lightning's face and Tifa was terrified for a second she would break it off, "She always stuck her neck out for people, she was always healing them. She wouldn't have thought twice about coming to save you."

A horrible wave of guilt washed over Tifa; knowing Lightning and Kain better she could only guess that it was Yuna that decided to save her. Hadn't Tifa just thought about how she wanted to remain herself despite this mess, and how she worried about cutting her hair- that was just stupid hair. The old Tifa would have done it, gone with Yuna, that's the kind of person she wanted back.

"I'm going too."

Tidus looked extremely grateful but Lightning's face went even a shade darker, "Midgar Street was your idea, Tifa. And now you're just going to walk away from it, from your goal?"

"I know, and I'm really sorry," Tifa's eyes met Lightning's and held it, "But Tidus is right. I can't walk away from someone who helped me."

"I'm going too. I was a fool to walk away from my debts," Kain interjected and both Tidus and Tifa looked surprised.

Lightning stopped, like she had no idea what to do next, then growled, "Fine. I'll do it on my own."

"Lightning…" Tifa started softly, but Lightning was already in furious a walk.

"Right, let's go!" Tidus pumped his arms in the air, ready to charge forward and save the princess before Kain put a hand on his shoulder.

"No."

"But you just said-"

"Moving in the night is foolish; it'll just leave us more vulnerable or become lost just trying to get to Yuna."

"I'm not wasting time sitting on my ass-"

"Tifa and I spent the entire day running here," Kain was immovable, "you told us to be responsible, you need to think about doing it yourself as well."

Tidus was obviously flustered, but he was calm enough to listen to reason.

"We'll find her, but not if we pass out just trying to get there."

"Crap. Fine. But we leave early," Tidus said before slumping to the ground.

"Well that was fun," Zidane said scratching the back of his head (Tifa jumped a little, she forgot he was there), "I guess you're staying here for the night."

"Sorry for the intrusion," Tifa said, even if the apology was a little late.

"Never a problem for a woman like you," he said casually, "just don't expect it to be comfortable."

"Thank you. For everything," Zidane beamed at that, people probably forgot how to say thanks nowadays.

"I should find Lightning before she burns down the place though," Tifa said.

"No problem, follow me. She couldn't have gone far."

He took her deeper into the tunnel, the entire length was cut into compartments- each probably serving its own purpose but much of it was hidden from the main section they were walking down with curtains and walls made out of scavenged wood. She could guess there probably had guns, food, anything else that was a good idea to horde. Past that was what looked like a makeshift shower system. They did have no problem with water access, Tifa mused, they could afford a shower or two.

Tifa probably smelled like a dead dog. She shifted self-consciously.

"Oi," Tifa saw Squall with another, tall, wiry young man with light brown hair, "Squall. Bartz. Looks like we are having a slumber party."

Squall's expressions could give Lightning's a run for its money, Tifa thought.

"Only for the night," Zidane tried to smooth it over, "Then they are all headed their way to Saint Yevon."

"Didn't I tell you to convince Tidus not to go? And now they are all going?" Squall eyebrow twitched, "that's pretty much the exact opposite of what I told you what to do."

"Extenuating circumstances," Zidane shrugged, "Did you see a pink haired girl walk by here."

"Yeah, she seemed real happy about life too," said the other one (Bartz Zidane called him), then he looked past Zidane at Tifa, cheerfully raising a hand in a greeting, "Heya."

Tifa returned it, and then looked around the room. It was probably the closest thing to their command center, papers of blueprints littered the room, the generator buzzed loudly in the distance, and at the center a table with three chairs…

Wait, just three chairs?

"Are you three the only people running this place?" Tifa's eyes were wide.

"Figured it out?" Bartz laughed without any sense of shame, "Yeah, only three of us defending this place. It's not as hard as you would think, though. The entrances are like a choke point, we know exactly where anyone would come from so no surprises."

"You seriously want to tell every stranger that walks into this place our secrets?" Squall deadpanned, but Bartz was too busy not paying attention to him to care. Tifa got the distinct impression that trouble just seemed to roll off him.

"We use to be six," Zidane said a little more somber, "Us, chain-smoking-Cid, ridiculous-beard-Cid, and overly-regal-Cid. Those were the engineers; they practically built the place themselves."

Tifa looked at him questioningly and Zidane replied, "There's apparently an abundance of engineers named Cid in the city."

"What happened?"

"One left to find somebody. Another died before we could really bunker down and get the place ready. The other is the reason why we instituted the no psychos and no drawn guns rule."

"Sorry," she seemed to be saying that a lot.

"They died fighting to keep this place free," Zidane said, "Before us, a warlord who decided to name himself Ex-Death wanted this place. He was as bad as they come, and if he had gotten it, the city would be effectively cut in half with the only way to travel in the hands of a crazy man."

Realization dawned on her, "That's why you're here?"

"A lot of things happened since whatever ended the world," the flirt and jokester dropped from his face, "It's just one of those things, you know. Do your best to remember what they died for, be a better man for it."

It's that hard everywhere, isn't it? Even if it looks safe in here.

A crunch of footsteps turned Tifa's attention, Lightning wandered back and Tifa wondered if she had heard everything. "The water back there," she said, and Tifa guessed she was making a point to ignore her.

"Ah, resource management," Bartz said stretching, "that would be me."

Remembering that she came to talk to Lightning, Tifa trailed behind the two, but when she looked back at Squall and Zidane she saw Squall's eyes linger at Lightning's back a little longer than necessary. Weird.

Eventually the three reached the next "room," and this particular part of the tunnel was sectioned off especially carefully. Wooden beams separated half the lanes, and on the other side were containers and barrels covering nearly every inch of the road.

"All water."

Each barrel was filled to the brim with water. Had this been two weeks earlier this wouldn't have even fazed Tifa, but a few hours ago she was scooping water out of a toilet. This may as well have been paradise.

"What's this?" it looked like a large water cooler filled with dirt.

"Layered sand, gravel, and charcoal," Bartz said tapping it, "It's a filtration system for the water. It's crude but it does the job."

"And that works?"

"Hey trust me. I was a scout leader. We know everything."

"You probably have a monopoly on water in the entire city," Lightning said, "Do you give out any?"

"Whenever survivors pass through here we give them enough to survive," Bartz said, "But anything more you have to trade."

"That's how you can survive here? Smart, people always need water."

"We're not particularly picky on what we need but every little bit helps. We also do have some help now and then from city runners," Bartz said, and left Tifa to imagine what city runners was slang for. Probably exactly what it sounded like.

Lightning dug through her bag and pulled out some batteries, "What about these? Could you trade them for extra water?"

"Are they charged?" he asked as she handed them to him.

"They should work, but they aren't fully charged. Probably," she told him.

"Always could use more batteries. I recently found a Mozart on tape, but for the life up me I couldn't find any spare AA's."

Tifa didn't know what she should be more surprised by, that Bartz listened to Mozart or that people still had tape players.

"I know what you're thinking and I'll have you know I'm a piano player."

"Really?"

"Well, a work in progress. I still haven't convinced Squall that a piano would be a good addition. Speaking of which, he'll probably want to check this," he tossed the batteries in the air and caught them again, walking away.

Once he was out of earshot Tifa turned to Lightning, "So how angry are you at me?"

"I don't let myself become clouded with emotions like that. If I did, I'd be dead already. I'm not angry, I'm focusing on surviving."

"That's bullshit," Lightning looked surprised at Tifa's bluntness, "If it was just about surviving you would have let me die back there in that store. If you didn't have anymore emotions, you wouldn't be looking for your sister."

"This and that aren't the same things. And anyway, yesterday you and Kain didn't even entertain the idea of going to Saint Yevon and now this is your crusade? What are you even trying to do with this suicide mission?"

"The right thing."

"Half of the people in this city are a bloodsplatter on the wall. The other half are the real unlucky bastards; manikins, psychotics, the starving. And then there's us. This world has gone to hell, and there's no one out that's going to help you and me. Tifa, there is no right thing anymore."

"Really? Because the people here are helping us and trying to do the right thing," Tifa retorted and the way Lightning was silent Tifa knew she had overheard Zidane and the others, "I'm not saying it'll be easy and I'm not even saying I'll survive it. But I've seen enough of the wrong thing to know there has to be a different way. You've seen it too."

"I'm not interested in your nativity or your friendship speeches. I'm leaving at sunrise," Lightning's face hardened. Tifa's in turn softened, and she took a moment to just contemplate Lightning.

"You need to take this moment and look at yourself. Really look at yourself. Are you going to let the worst of this world define you?"

Lightning didn't respond so Tifa walked away.

Tifa swore that the air in the tunnels was so recycled it turned sour, a thin layer of soggy grime covered every inch of the walls to the extent that it was impossible for it not to eventually cling to you, and even with the Christmas lights it's just dim enough to cause everyone to squint and strain your eyes. That said, Tifa had the best sleep she's ever had because for the first in a long time, she felt safe.

She'd taken the feeling for granted. She of course, missed daily showers with water pitter patting on her skin, soft carpet underneath her feet, air conditioning on a hot day, and warm baked cookies. But that feeling of safe was something so all encompassing, it was like every one of those memories enveloping her body in a dream. She even felt well rested.

"Everyone ready?" Tidus asked, and Tifa knew he was barely containing himself from sprinting out full speed.

The sun hadn't quote come up yet and running with only the bare minimum of light was never safe, but they needed the extra time.

Yuna might be the kind of woman that faced down impossible odds, but she wasn't stupid. If she was by herself she would be traveling slowly, trying to avoid as many manikins as possible. She was slower than the rest in general, being less of a fighter and more of a healer (though Kain assured Tidus that she could take care of herself).

Still, she had two days' worth of travel as a head start, one if they were lucky and she followed Tifa's advice to stay low for a day. They'd need every minute they could get.

Tifa shifted the straps of her backpack over her shoulders, Kain was checking his weapons, and Tidus had been ready for an hour and was now practically buzzing with his need to leave. Zidane and Squall came along with them to the entrance to show them out.

"I need a second," came a new voice, and Lightning came in tow. Tidus beamed like the sunrise and Lightning had a clear "don't push it" look on her face.

"I never finished exploring the area," Lightning said a bold faced excuse that fooled no one; "I might be able to find my sister back there."

"Serah," Squall's said and Lightning's head did an exorcist around her neck.

"You know Serah?" Lightning seemed calm and reserved, but her eyes begged like a man dying of thirst.

"If she had the same hair as you, then sort of. We were in college course together when… everything happened."

Ah, that was why he had been staring at Lightning.

"Did she make it out?"

"I'm sorry," Squall said with a perfect poker face, like he was apologizing for bumping into them rather than telling Lightning that her sister was dead. There was a long, drawn out silence that threatened to go on forever.

"Did you see her?"

"I-"

"Did you see her die?" she asked again, short and aggressive.

"No, but it was bad. It's hard to imagine a scenario where a lot of people survived."

"You did."

Squall paused, and then said, "You're right."

Lightning looked away and said to no one in particular, "People are always underestimating her because she's small. But she's a fighter, just as much as anyone here. If anyone survived, then she probably could too."

Lightning said it in the same tone Lightning always would speak in, but Tifa thought she heard just the tiniest, smallest fracture in her voice.

"One last thing," Zidane and Tidus groaned at the thought of spending another second not moving.

Zidane rolled out a map from the tunnels and pointed at a particular area on the way with a red circle and the word "Kuja" written next to it.

"Warlord, right?" Tifa recalled the conversation about the maps.

"Yeah, but if you're looking for the fastest route to the hospital, this would be it. He actually runs the trolley old system."

"That's all well and good, but there's no energy in the city and the roads are completely blocked with debris," Kain said.

"Yeah, don't ask me how, but if he wanted it to work, he would get it working," Zidane said, Tifa sensed a history but kept her mouth shut. If he was circled as a warlord then it's probably not something he wanted to remember.

"Why didn't you just say that sooner?" Tidus said frustrated; frustrated that they didn't already leave, frustrated that they weren't running mach speed to Yuna, frustrated that the sun was rising faster.

"He's… it's worth trying but don't expect something definite from him," yeah, definitely a lot of history.

"Fine, try it, don't worry too much about it, is there anything else? Yes? No? Then let's go," and Tidus took off. Lightning rolled her eyes and Kain said nothing as he followed the two.

"Thank you for everything," Tifa said, bowing her head with sincerity.

"Move it or lose it, Tifa!" Tidus shouted behind him.

"You should go before Tidus has a hernia," Zidane said shrugging and Tifa jogged away.

"You see that Lightning- you came to help me and you get information about your family," Tidus said a bit too smugly, "It's karma. Do the right thing and someone pays it back."

Lightning was ignoring him at that point, and Tidus began obliviously whistling, but Tifa let the words sink in. She only hoped that karma remembered her when she's looking for Cloud too.

-x-

The manikins spotted Tifa, she knew even with her back to them because their slow shuffling had hesitated for a second, a miserable drawl escaped its lips. Their shivering footsteps started to rumble closer to her, and the closer they were to, her the faster they began to sprint. Desperate arms reaching and reaching, ready to strangle and bash the life out of her.

As they dashed toward her, Kain stepped from out the side of a car and took his metal rod to the back of the manikin, its head matter splattered in the air. The second manikin swirled around and screamed in a rage no one could understand. This time it was Tidus that came from behind and with little trouble sliced halfway through its neck. It curdled and tried to screech something, but instead it blood gushed from the wound and the manikin thrashed its arms towards him until Tidus put the machete through its skull.

Tifa was surprised at how capable the hyperactive Tidus was at handling manikins, although she really shouldn't be. If anyone survived for this long then it probably meant they had a talent for these things. She wondered if him being a Zanarkan Abe's player (as he constantly reminded them) let him be so agile.

"Is that all of them?" Tidus asked to the top of an abandoned freezer truck. Lightning appeared from the spot, and then backflipped gracefully off with a perfect landing (show off, Tidus muttered).

"No but from what I could see the rest of them shouldn't be a problem; they're far enough away that it would probably just be a waste of time getting them."

Her eyes strayed to the sky. Even as the day progressed it didn't become much brighter out, dark clouds rolled lazily over the muddy sky, fat with omen. It was making everyone nervous.

"The humidity yesterday was probably a warning of an incoming storm," Tifa thought. And the only thing she could think is that she really, really didn't want to be caught out in a rainstorm. She could barely get by without her clothes being soaked and catching a fever. It hadn't rained since the incident, and one more unplanned variable was not something they wanted as they drove closer to Saint Yevon Hospital.

"How far is it until the station?" Kain asked whipping his weapon quickly to shake off the pieces of manikin brain. Tidus yelped and jumped back to avoid the spray.

"Where are we? Ivalice Avenue?" Lightning asked, "We'd have to change a route just a bit, but it would take another hour if everything goes right. Which it probably won't if the sky is any indication."

"We'll just to plan with that in mind," Tifa said. To be honest, casting her bets with a maybe-insane warlord was something she had rather avoid, but if it was between that and traveling through a promised thunderstorm- the former option was looking more and more attractive.

"The map said there was a grocery store on the way there that's not too far," and Tifa wondered if Lightning memorized the entire map before she came. It was entirely possible.

"We don't need to take a shopping trip," Tidus said frowning.

"No but we probably need to find something to wear out in the rain. And maybe pick up some food if there is any left," Lightning said, "Calm down, if this tram thing works we'll have plenty of time. And Yuna might not even try to traveling in the rain so we'll make good time."

Tidus didn't look consoled but the frown let up a little.

Lightning was right; it had only been ten minutes until they saw a sign with the words "Chocobolina's Fresh Foods" in cheery letters hung on a rather sizable store in a shopping outlet. The shopping outlet was one large building connecting multiple store, but Chocobolina's Fresh Foods seemed the only one that wasn't broken down into itself.

"Stay sharp," Lightning said unnecessarily, they all knew that large stores invited all kinds of trouble. They crouched behind the cars in the parking lot as they made their way to the store, Tidus in the lead with Kain keeping a look out at the back, guided partially be Tifa.

There were a few manikins that needed to be dealt with as they wandered aimlessly between the parking spaces. Lightning went to get the manikin at the doors, Tidus ducked under a truck to get a manikin from the other side.

Tifa spotted, one in a bright blue dress that stared through a car door, one hand was carrying a part of a doll's arm, the other knocking relentlessly on the glass as if it was trying to get somebody's attention.

Tifa motioned to Kain that she would deal with the manikin and Kain nodded, going to support Lightning since she would be the most exposed.

Tifa crept up to the manikin, the dress looked even brighter close up, and wrapped her arms around its head, abruptly jerking it at an impossible angle and snapping its neck with a terrible crack. When it died it dropped the doll's arm and… oh.

It wasn't a dolls hand, it was a real infants. How did she miss the blood? Tifa looked away, she felt a burning in her stomach that wanted to throw up the small can of cold soup she had for breakfast. "Move on, Tifa," she told herself because she'd seen worse, and most likely will continue to.

She met up with Kain, Tidus, and Lightning at the large glass doors of the entrance. The glass was broken, Tifa realized, its shattered remains glittered the floor and trailed into the building, like someone rolled out the welcoming carpet for them. But what made Tifa anxious were the steel shutters that were supposed to be pulled behind the doors. Someone had rolled them down earlier, probably in hopes that it would keep them safe, but it had caved in from an unknown force, torn down and mangled.

"Maybe we shouldn't…"

"It's a bit late to walk away now," Lightning said drawing out her dagger, "We'll go in quietly, keep our exit clear, take what we can, and if it's too much, we get the hell out. With any luck they're gone. If there were still a lot of manikins lingering, there would have been more in the parkinglot."

"Still feels like a bad idea," but Tifa kept quiet as Lightning went in first, then Kain, the Tidus. Tifa looked back and confident that no manikins had spotted them, she followed after them.

There were piles of boxes, drawers, chairs, and everything but a kitchen sink scattered in a heap near the entrance.

"Whoever was here tried to barricade the door," she thought. It failed.

Blood swirled and stained the floor in random abstract and reached the walls, and dear gods in some cases splattered the ceiling. It was everywhere in amounts that Tifa didn't think were possible, but it must have been awhile since the blood long since dried and even looked as if it were fading, like old paint on the wall.

"Right," Lightning simply said.

She wondered where the bodies were, the blood and the clothes, and some of the limbs, were still there, but the majority of the remains were nowhere to be seen. That wasn't new; manikins always did weird things to the bodies anyway.

The manikins themselves seemed to be mostly gone, leaving the store hauntingly hollow. The entire area was unsettling, it reeked of death and decay from every corner and it was unnervingly silent, and in its emptiness everything echoed a thousand times louder.

Tifa immediately found the canned food area and began loading in as much as she could. The fruit and meat were all rotten and smelled something dreadful, but some of the other perishable foods like the bread were still good. She ripped a package open and offered some to the people around her. She wasn't in a terribly hungry mood after the scene but she knew better than to pass it up.

The frustrating thing about being constantly on the move was that they could never carry as much as they wanted. It once took Tifa an hour to sort out what the smartest, most efficient arrangements to carry would be, but they really didn't have an hour.

She searched through the different items, from the food, to the kitchen utensils, but she noticed with a twinge of disappointment that there was no medicine, not even a single bottle of tylenol. It seemed logical that those were among the first things that were picked clean, but remembering how bad her leg felt after the manikin attack- it would be nice to have some painkillers on hand.

"Oh hey," Tidus said picking up an umbrella thoughtfully before twirling it in some whimsical fashion, "might be useful if it storms. Not sure if I'd want to trade a weapon arm for it though."

He gave it an experimental jab in Kain's direction, "maybe if I attach something sharp on it. Like a knife or something, make it a weapon. I could be like the Penguin. What do you think, Kain?" he jabbed it in his direction again.

"A penguin?"

Tidus' jaw dropped dramatically, "Are you kidding? Penguin! You know, from Batman, the best comic book hero ever. Tell me you know who Batman is."

When Kain didn't answer, Tidus turned to Tifa for validation, "How does Kain not know who Batman is? Has he been living under a rock?"

"He knows Hamlet," Tifa offered, "He's probably just an old soul."

"He knows Hamlet but he doesn't know Batman. That's not old soul, that's Medieval."

"Shakespeare is Renaissance," Kain corrected.

"You know when Hamlet is written but you don't know Batman," Tidus amended, "You're Stone Age." He sighed and tossed the umbrella to the side, "Batman would know what to do in this situation."

"This conversation is stupid," Lightning snorted and then tore up a package of trash bags, "This will be enough for the rain. We'll cut holes for the head and arms and just wear it over our clothes. It'll have to do."

"What about our heads," Tidus lovingly patted his hair.

"Get a hat."

Tidus turned back to whistling while scavenging when Tifa noticed Lightning stiffen.

"Lightn-"

But the woman put a finger up to silence her, and it shut Tifa right up. The images of blood trails and the broken doors suddenly came rushing back to her, giving her goosebumps up and down her arms.

In almost a predatory fashion, Lightning flashed to the edge of their aisle- stealthily positioning herself just near enough to the edge to catch a glimpse of "it" without being seen.

Tidus and Kain caught on and instantly became serious, (well Kain was always serious). Lightning signaled them to move to the opposite end of the aisle, and Tifa fell in place next to Lightning. The two men went without question.

Tifa could hear what caught Lightning's attention now, it was the fast pattering of feet, pausing occasionally, and then moving on again.

Lightning held up her hand, and everyone took positions. After one, very long second she motioned toward Kain and Tidus, and they moved into the aisle with a sharp turn. Whatever that was there was obviously shocked, something plastic clanged on the floor and scattered (food container? So it's not a manikin).

The footsteps dashed away towards Lightning and Tifa, becoming louder until it was close to their end of the aisle, Lightning popped out, seizing the offender by the neck and pushing it to the ground with dagger raised high-

"A kid."

Tifa grabbed Lightning's raised arm, but from the look on Lightning's face she doubted she would have really stabbed him.

He couldn't have been much older than Marlene or Denzel, around ten, he had large boyish eyes and baby fat still on his face. He wore a bicycle helmet that seemed too big for him, and it would have looked completely silly except it had been stained with blood or guts, or both.

Lightning's initial shock wore off as quickly as it came, "You were stalking us the entire time here."

"I thought you might have been manikins," he said and he sounded so young, "if not, then I wanted to make sure you weren't a psycho. But I guess you are."

Tifa squeezed Lightning's arm gently to persuade her to put down her weapon and Lightning did. She withdrew her hand from his neck but it didn't completely let him go, it lingered past his shoulders and clamped down on his shirt as he got up.

"Crap, it's just a baby," they heard Tidus say and the young bow scowled.

"I'm not a baby. I lasted here just as long as you guys did," he said.

"You're a baby," Tidus repeated.

"You're an idiot."

Lightning looked between the two, "I think I like the kid a little better."

"Don't patronize me," the boy sulked.

Tifa kneeled down to his eye level, "Listen, you're obviously a smart guy. We don't want any trouble here. But why are you here?"

Tifa had dealt with kids for a long time, she knew how to calm them down. And this boy was smart, still had an air of childishness about him, but he had survived this far and obviously knew what he was doing, the best way to deal with children like that is to give him a bit of respect. That reminded her of Marlene and Denzel even more, and she felt that ache in her chest.

The boy hesitated a bit, then looked between all four adults before deciding he rather talk to Tifa, "This is my spot. To get stuff I mean."

"What about the manikins, isn't it dangerous?"

The boy looked proud of himself, "There were tons, but I know this place inside and out. I lured them all away and escaped before they could even catch me."

That explained why there were no manikins around.

"You were here all by yourself?"

The hesitation told her he wasn't and Tifa gave her most sincere smile, tilted her head to side, and gave her best nonjudgmental look, "We're not here to hurt anyone."

"… There's another person. A girl, but she's … not doing so well," he said finally trusting Tifa. And then finally, a wall broke and he was less of a survivor and more of a kid again, "You're going to help her?"

"We'll try," Tidus said and Tifa looked turned her head to him. She thought he would be the first one waiting to run out of this place and find Yuna, but she was wrong about him again.

Those two, Tidus and Yuna, opposite sides of the same coin.

"Follow me," and he scampered off. He was fast, Tifa realized. Everyone she was traveling right now was fast in their own respect, Lightning like… well like Lightning, Tidus like water, Kain like wind, and Tifa could probably outrun them all in a straight race (wow that kind of sounded corny). But the boy managed to duck and turn and outstrip them all. Whenever they fell back he would stop and wait with a huff of impatience. He took them to the back of the store in the stock room, he ran up a box machine, up a pile of boxes until he got to a ladder leaning hazardously on the wall, all the way to the rafters.

"No wonder no one could find him," Tidus said mumbling, "It's a damn maze."

They managed to climb to the building's roof, the floor perilously further below than was comfortable, but Tifa was never particularly scared of heights. She had remembered that from the outside and the stores had been connected, sharing the same roof like an umbrella.

Smart, Tifa thought. He had access to every store in the shopping center, but could stay in a store that was impossible to get into.

He finally stopped right above what looked like to be a the nail salon, and then, grabbed the edge of another ladder he probably took from the grocery store and went down.

"Here's hoping were done with this," Tifa said, following the boy.

"Who's that?" said a small, delicate feminine voice when her feet touched ground. It sounded like bell chimes in the wind, soft and pretty, and easily breakable.

The girl matched her voice.

She was curled up in a corner with a ragged blanket that was too large for her body. That wasn't saying much about the blanket though, she was petite, and at closer inspection Tifa concluded much, much too skinny; she hadn't been eating properly. Lovely waves of green hair was tied to the back of her head with wisps of it framing a heart shaped face, and she had the most innocent eyes Tifa had ever seen.

She wasn't too young, maybe in later years of highschool, certainly much older than the boy. Tifa was torn between annoyance that she would let the child care for her, and pity because she really did look unwell.

The saloon's door was completely blocked off by a cave in up at the front, but the back where the girl stayed was untouched, the saloon chairs were kept intact (maybe for sleeping?), and boxes of old food and wrappers were piled on the other side. They had been here for awhile.

"We were just passing through here when we found your friend," she said offering a hand, "The name's Tifa, and yours?"

The girl looked at Tifa's hand, then at Tifa and said, "My name is… ah. My name," she looked at the young boy for confirmation.

"Her name's Terra."

"You need help remembering your name?" Tidus said raising a brow.

Terra looked away, embarrassed.

"She can't remember anything," the boy said, "She's got complete amnesia."

-x-

A/N: Terra with amnesia isn't exactly the most unique of situations but eh, I'll take it. (And in case anyone was wondering, that was Onion Knight).

Thanks for the reviews, they really do make my day, Kuchiki Jeanne (a few weeks late) and mjlaub

Romae pretio: thank you for the review, and sorry I didn't get to expand on the tunnel gang. I had wanted too but the story drove forward and I didn't really get the time with the chapter was already getting pretty long. Also, I didn't even think about the Galbadia tunnels… but I'll take credit for that anyway because it makes me feel smart. I chose a tunnel because I wanted them to hold something that was significant, some place that people would need to go through, and I thought a bridge would either have been taken down by the explosion or just impossible to fortify.

The reason I wrote in the tunnel gang is when I was thinking of the story, I realized that the main characters would be running around a lot, and I wanted to make a contrast to that, to have a group of survivors hunker down. Originally the plan was them to be a lot more morally ambiguous, not evil people but not giving. I chose 589 because they are really fun as a group- but unfortunately their characterizations just didn't lend itself to the morally ambiguous.

Speaking of characterization, writing Onion Knight for the past couple of chapters (finally finished with a rough draft of chapter 7), he is easily the most OOC. The appeal of writing a kid in a zombie apocalypse overrode my better judgment, I'd rather give a kid- kid issues and characterizations, rather than just being minisized mature adult in a sea of just taller, mature adults (and Tidus). I tried to keep him intelligence and protectiveness intact, but with a flair of immaturity and for some reason that ended up being kind of sarcastic and indignation when challenged.