A/N: Eh... sorry about the hysterically long wait. I've been bogged down with school and so on. Thanks for the reviews, though, and those for my 'Rhapsodos: Desiderata' fic :)

Sorry for the chapter ending where it does, but it'd have been twice as long as this if I'd continued with it and the events following it any longer. So... sorry. -cough-

The character Emi belongs to Scribbie. Go check out her story, 'a solid definition'! :)

I am seriously thinking about changing the title of this story. Suggestions?

Chapter 10: Only a Plank Between One and Perdition

His leg was in a cast and was propped up on a pillow. Bandages were wound around his arms, chest and stomach, and another was wrapped around his head and over his left eye. He looked bruised, tired and haggard, and although he tried his best to smile for me, I could see through the thin façade.

"Don't try and pretend," I said to him. He jerked his head to the side, in a shadowed imitation of a shake of ones head.

"I en't pretending, sweetheart," he said, smiling hazily, a trace of slum accent slipping into his voice. I stared at him a while longer, then gave a soft sigh, leaning forwards onto the bed and resting my head on my arms. The sound of beeping machines filled my ears and background murmur filtered through the walls.

When Francis' body began to shake I thought he was having a seizure, and panicked. But when I quickly sat up and looked to him, saw the tears running down his face and soaking the bandages around his eye, saw how terribly sad and heartbroken he was, the fear in my heart subsided and was replaced by a heavy, leaden weight instead.

"Oh, Claudia," he wept. "Claudia, what am I going to do?

"I'm out of a job. I've no source of income. I've got a week left to pay off the debt..."

I should've guessed that the day was only going to get worse from 'that' event.

That morning, Francis had slept in. I'd let him, because it'd been a long day and he was tired and worn out from working so hard. He was still sleeping when I slipped out of the house and began to make my way to work.

It was a calm and tranquil morning. As I wandered along, a Shinra MP Commander walked up beside me and raised a hand to his forehead in the courteous gesture of a gentleman tipping his cap to a lady.

"Good mornin', miss," he said politely. He spoke with a pleasant Kalm accent. His eyes weren't visible past the helmet but I could see that his affable mannerisms were sincere.

"O-oh. Good morning, Mr. Commander, sir," I returned, putting on a smile. "How are you today?"

The MP Commander gave a brief grin.

"Heh," he pulled at the red scarf around his neck, tugging it higher. "Very well, thank ye. What about ye'self?"

"Well enough, I suppose," I replied carefully. I hitched my satchel higher up on my waist and nodded.

"That's good t' hear. Another glad soul helps the sun shine just ha' little bit brighter durin' the day." his grin widened slightly. Despite my uneasy feelings to do with anything related to "SOLDIER", "Military" or "Turk" (kinda makes you wonder why I work at Shinra at all), I couldn't help but laugh at the MP's cheerfulness.

The MP Commander glanced over to his left, paused thoughtfully for a second, and then spoke up again.

"So, where be the gentleman who accompanies you ne'rly every day now?"

"Oh, you noticed?" I asked, a little surprised.

"Who, me? Aye, I noticed. I patrol this 'ere area ev'ry morn' and I see y' both walking. Why is tha' by th' way, if ye don't mind me askin'?"

"Oh! Well," I was momentarily thrown off by the question. "We, ah, ran into a bit of trouble a couple of week ago... and he just wanted to make sure I didn't have to walk alone in the mornings..." I laughed nervously.

"Ahh, I see," the MP Commander mused. "'N where be he now?"

"Oh, well, he had a late night last night, and so I let him sleep in." I answered, inwardly wondering why he was asking me all these questions. Quite frankly, they were bordering on personal.

"Eh, that's sweet of ye," the MP Commander chuckled. "But - if y' don't mind me sayin'..." he lowered his voice slightly. "I don't think i' was probably the best idea, on yer part."

I turned to look at him in alarm and opened my mouth quickly to talk, my heart leaping into my throat, but he raised a gloved hand to his lips.

"Shh," he said quietly, cutting me off. "I won't have ye look now, but I think ye'r bein' followed."

I shut my mouth quickly and felt my heart skip a beat.

"Over by that there buildin' - there be a man with dark hair an' stubble an' a suspicious aura about him, carryin' a crowbar. Tha' sound about right?" I hesitated, then nodded. The MP Commander gave me a reassuring smile and clapped my shoulder gently.

"But there's no need t' worry, little miss," he said. "If i' doesn't bother ye, I'll accompany y' to wherever ye be goin'."

"Um, thank you," I said gratefully.

"Ye'r most welcome," the MP Commander replied courteously, giving a little gentlemanly bow. "Where be yer destination, then?"

"Oh - I work at the Shinra building, as a Delivery Girl," I replied.

"Eh? A smart lookin' lass like you workin' as a Delivery Girl! Why, now, tha's almost a shame!" The MP Commander said, sounding horrified. "You should be puttin' your two gil into society 'n doin' somethin' great fer ye'self!"

I laughed. "I'm not sure that I have the kind of talents that people would require, sir."

"Well y' won't know unless ye try now, will ye? Y' have to start small, and keep on climbin', but when you get to the top o' that mount'n, ye'll find that i' was all worth it!"

Ah yes - I know all too well. My favourite of all the sayings that Father ever taught me.

Everybody wants to get to the top of the mountain, but nobody wants to climb.

"This'll be yer stop then, miss," the MP Commander said, breaking into my thoughts. I looked up at the Shinra Building and gave a little smile.

"It is indeed," I replied (a little redundantly). "Well," I turned back to the MP Commander and gave a bow. "Thank you very much, sir. I'm very much obliged."

"Heh," the MP Commander tweaked his nose with his thumb and grinned, beginning to walk away. "No need t' be so formal. Just mind ye be safe now, little miss."

"You seem to be exerting yourself a lot more frequently as of late, Miss Freeman," Mr. Tuesti said, sounding almost concerned as he took the package from me.

"This is the fourth time I've seen you this week and you seem to be increasingly tired with each passing. Are you all right?"

"Oh, h - ha ha," I laughed dismissively and shook my head, fighting the urge to grab at my arms from the pain burning my muscles. "I'm fine, sir, thank you. I'm just... having late nights and not getting enough sleep, and such. It's nothing major."

Mr. Tuesti looked at me strangely for a moment. I was almost ready to start fidgeting, or wildly scratching at my forearms, which would have been a resurrection of a very bad habit that I used to have in my younger teens when I was frustrated and/or very anxious.

"Well, I suppose if you say so," he finally said, in an almost cautious and unconvinced kind of way. "Just make sure that you take care of yourself."

"Yes, sir. Thank you, sir," I bowed a few more times than would've been considered necessary as I backed out of the room, closed the door, whirled around, and promptly walked into someone.

"Oh! I'm so sorry - "

The person I'd crashed into grabbed me by the arms and I looked up, alarmed... into Kaoru's equally alarmed face.

"Ah! Kaoru! Sorry, I wasn't looking - "

"So it wasn't just me," Kaoru said abruptly.

"H - huh?"

"I wasn't just imagining it - you overworking yourself."

"I told you before, I'm not - "

"Usotsuki! Liar!" Kaoru shouted. His sudden outburst scared me so badly that I froze up.

Kaoru shut his mouth quickly, and breathed out hard through his nose, closing his eyes and massaging the bridge of his nose.

"Look," he began. "Look, I know that... times are tough, right now. AVALANCHE is doing their thing and making a stand, the Military seem to have suddenly bought the streets for themselves, and the economy sucks and there's sure to be some kind of recession somewhere along the line. But... what the hell are you doing, Claudia? What are hell are you doing?"

I chewed my lip uncertainly and refused to look him. What do I tell him? Do I tell him the truth?

Noticing my discomfort, Kaoru sighed and pulled me into a kind of awkward half-hug.

"Okay - I'm sorry," he said. "But really - can we just go back downstairs and talk about this? I'm really worried for your health, Claudia."

I allowed Kaoru to steer me back down to his office floor and to his desk. He sat me down in his chair and rolled over another one from nearby, sitting down on it. Resting his elbows on his knees and leaning forwards to rest his chin on his intertwined fingers, he looked at me steadily.

"What is this about, Clau'? One day you're all fine and dandy and happy and the next - you're a workaholic! You're uncontrollable! You run around all day working yourself to death, you dash into work early, don't go home until late and Odin knows you've been coming in on Sundays too."

I shifted uncomfortably.

"... I want to be honest with you and tell you everything," I finally said, in a very low voice. Kaoru unfolded his hands and leant forwards.

"But..." I looked up at him nervously and bit my lip. "I feel as though I'd be hurting Francis if I did."

Kaoru gave a frustrated little sigh and scratched at his head hard. "That prideful bastard," he said under his breath. "So he's the cause of all this?"

"Kaoru - !"

"Okay, sorry, sorry, that was harsh. Is Francis the root of all this, is what I'm saying?"

I didn't like to say it, but... "... Yes."

"Judging from the amount of work you've been doing lately, I'd say that the problem would have to be something financial. Am I right?"

"... Yes."

"Is this related to why Francis has been walking you to work lately?"

Again. "Yes."

Kaoru sighed again and ran a hand through his messy hair, making it even messier.

"... I can't say I can help you, because - quite frankly - it doesn't seem like you want to be helped. I'm not berating you or anything," he added, interrupting my sign at a protest. "It's just that if you say that you don't need to be helped, then there's really nothing I can do about that - so the situation rests with just you and Francis, and thus I trust that you really can handle it all by yourselves."

"Thank you."

"But to be honest," Kaoru help up a finger. "This has been going on for a very long time now, Claudia. And I am beginning to doubt your credibility as a person who knows when to stop and say 'no more'."

I felt myself cringe a little inside.

"However - 'Shinrai'!" he patted his chest with his hand. "Trust. I'm going to really put my faith in you this time, Claudia, and give you," he counted on his hands and held up seven fingers. "Seven days; approximately a third of the total amount of time that you have been exerting yourself to this extent. Seven days to resolve all this, and no more. Oké?"

"And what happens say, if it hasn't been fixed by then?" I said, lifting my head to look at him anxiously. Kaoru looked dead serious.

"Then I will step in, and I will sort it out, even if it means doing it by force. Yes?" Kaoru nodded, and, after a hesitation, I echoed the gesture and did the same, slowly.

"Understood," I said.

"Good girl," Kaoru smiled and patted me fondly on the head. "Now - "

Suddenly, there came a thunderous explosion and a blinding flash of light from the west window. I instinctively threw myself of the chair and onto the ground, burying my head in my arms. Life as a child growing up through 'that time' left its marks on you, and instead of the habits becoming, the habits were becoming of me. Around me I could hear people giving out exclamations of shock, rising from their chairs and running over to the windows to see what had happened. The next sounds that came near near me signalled that Kaoru had done the same.

"What is it? What's going on?"

"Mako Reactor 5 just went up!"

"It's AVALANCHE again. God, I just know it!"

The footsteps came back.

"Claudia, get up!" Kaoru said to me, bending down and pulling me up by my arm. Leading me over to a crowded window, he hoisted me up onto his right shoulder in one swift movement so that I could see over peoples' heads. A wave of terror quickly broke over me.

"Oh, no," I said, becoming even more wary and fearful of AVALANCHE. "It's just like Mako Reactor 1 all over again."

"Yeah, but it's worse this time," Kaoru said grimly. "The Mako Reactor 1 bombing was later at night. This time it's during the day, so - "

"There are going to be more people there," I finished, realising what he was saying.

"Yeah. Not to mention, it's my Sector too. Damn, not only will there be casualties but there'll be a lot of costs in damage. That money could be used to help the Emergency hospitals, or something." Kaoru lowered me back down onto the floor with one arm and ran his free hand through his hair, frowning to himself. "It's like a bad dream, huh?..."

While coming to comprehend Kaoru's earlier statement, I didn't really understand it. This was meant to be a feud against Shinra, not the workers! Was freedom really worth so many lives? Was war really so necessary?

And if you lost, didn't that mean that the blood repaid to the Planet had all been offered in vain?

Bearing witness to the bombing of the Sector 5 reactor had made me weak at the knees. It was as if the nightmares that I thought I'd left behind in 'that' childhood were coming around full circle again.

The whole idea of a terrorist bombing in Midgar was terrifying to me, as well as cruel.

Why would anyone do that? Why would anyone with a grudge against Shinra exact their revenge by killing innocent people? It was so cruel. I didn't understand it at all.

"Claudia."

I turned, lingering in the doorway. Kaoru looked at me soberly.

"Don't think about it too much. Okay?" He shifted his weight onto his other side and flashed me a uncertain but reassuring smile. "I can't promise anything. But I'm sure we'll pull through. Oké?"

He held up his right hand with his thumb and index fingertips touching as an 'o'.

I managed a brief twitching of the corner of my mouth. "Okay," I replied, and turned and walked back out the door.

"Scary, isn't it?" Emi chewed thoughtfully at the end of a pencil, staring moodily out the window. I dropped a stack of letters on her receptionist's desk and blew out a puff of air from my mouth, following her gaze to the place where Reactor 5 used to be.

"Yeah. It's so..." Unable to find a single word to convey my thoughts, I shut my mouth and leaned back on the edge of the desk, crossing my arms.

"Seems unnecessary, doesn't it?" Emi shook her head and hmm-ed to herself. "I know there are a lot of people against Shinra and all. Heck, I've even been told by someone to watch out for myself. But isn't this just going a little bit too far?"

"War is always unnecessary," I replied miserably. Emi studied me carefully.

"So it's like a recurring nightmare for you, is it?" she finally asked.

"... Something like that." I shrugged one shoulder begrudgingly. "... I guess I can sort of imagine what these people are going through, right now. Those who have lost their loved ones."

Emi nodded slowly, turning to look back out the window. "But, then again," she suddenly began. I turned to look at her. "Losing your loved ones doesn't always have to mean that you lost them to a battle."

She glanced at me and gave a wry smile. "Isn't that right?"

"These aren't the result of hunger pangs, are they?" I said out loud. My blue-eyed reflection suppressed a laugh.

"You don't feel hungry, do you?" it replied.

"Well... not particularly." I scratched the back of my head, puzzled, and tried to figure out why this strange apparition had returned again.

My reflection tipped its head to one side and said "You'll figure it out," before becoming my own brown-eyed image again.

I was barely given a moment to ponder over what I might have eaten that morning that had contained hallucinogenic ingredients, before a door near the other end of the corridor burst open loudly. A man came flying out and the momentum made him crash into the opposite wall, causing him to let out a short cry. He was dressed well in a dark suit and white shirt and he had a salt-and-pepper beard.

I gave a gasp, wondering if he was hurt, but then the man quickly regained his balance and took off running down the passageway, mumbling only half-coherently under his breath ("Denzel, Chloe, Denzel, Chloe, Denzel - ") and dashing past me before shoving his way through the door to the stairs.

The steel door slammed against the wall before bouncing back and clanging shut again.

I just stood there, staring after him in surprise. Was there really something so urgent that would compel a man to drop everything and run like that?

Kaoru was right not to promise me anything, or to say that everything was going to be all right. Because it wasn't. Not by a long shot.

Apparently things had been running riot hours before it had even occurred, with AVALANCHE furiously battling the Shinra troops, or so we've all been told. No-one had ever seen it coming, and Leviathan forbid if anyone had been expecting it to happen.

It began with an explosion, much like the sounds that had shaken the peace of Midgar when AVALANCHE had thrown out their terrorist attacks. But... it was different, this time. It was louder, more powerful, and muffled, as if the sound was coming from underground.

It wasn't the sound of metal being ripped apart, with chemical flames welling out of the heart of the Reactors. It was the sound like... a concrete structure, like a building, being demolished, blown to pieces.

Hearing it made me dizzy and light-headed with panic, and memories as a seven year old girl in Wutai during an air raid flooded back and threatened to overwhelm me.

Like only a few hours ago when Mako Reactor 5 went up, people stood abruptly from their chairs, dropped what they were holding, stopped what they were doing and rushed open to the windows, gasping, exclaiming, giving shouts of disbelief. I found my feet and staggered over to join them, pushing my way to the front of the crowd.

A crumbling noise like a tower falling, breaking from the inside-out -

(Where is it!)

- a terrifying, creaking sound, as if something had been stretched to its zenith and was about to give way -

(Where is that sound coming from!)

- a high, keening noise. No, not just a noise - someone screaming. No - not just one person... many. Tens, dozens, hundreds, thousands, tons of people, screaming for their lives and where was that sound, where was that sound -

My eyes finally searched out the source of the commotion and my heart froze cold. The screams were closer this time, all around me, the people in the room, those in the floors above and below me, throughout the building, all throughout Midgar -

I slammed my hands onto the window and started pounding on the glass with my fist but could do nothing but watch as the Sector Seven plate descended onto the slums below with a speed that was too slow - much too slow - as if torturing those who were watching - with a terrible clarity, and there was no denying what was happening and God help us, we were bearing witness to genocide and it was horrible and I felt sick -

I was hammering on the window with my hands again and again and again and the cries around me were nothing - there was a voice close - too close - in my ears, in my head, in my heart - screaming a single name over and over and over again -

"Francis! Francis!"

As I sank to my knees - beating on the glass over and over still - and then slumped into a dead faint, I could barely come to register that the voice had been my own.

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