Chapter Ten

A Step Ahead, and a Step into the Past

Tifa was about ready to go back up and get Cloud when she heard the door open at the top of the staircase. Quickly, she ducked behind a desk. When she saw that it was Cloud limping down the stairs she ran out to him. "Oh my gods!" She cried as she looked at the nasty wounds on his chest and thigh, "Are you okay?"

He nodded and wiped some blood away from his mouth. "Yeah, they're not serious. Where are the others?"

She pointed towards the door. "They went ahead. I heard the alarms go off a few minutes ago, though, they must've triggered the security system."

"Shit," he spat. "This has gone from bad to worse. Things are gonna get complicated." He thought for a moment then looked up suddenly. "Tifa, what floor was that vehicle display on?"

Confusion registered on her face. "I don't know, like, the second or something."

"Okay." He started for the door. "Go find Aeris and the others and meet me there."

"Wait! Cloud!" She made to follow him.

"We're going to steal a ride outta here," he called over his shoulder. "Just go get them to the display floor!"

It didn't take them very long to make it to the bottom of the tower after they had destroyed the main security monster. As they broke out of the staircase on the second floor, gunfire erupted around them. Aeris couldn't suppress a shriek and fell back into the stairwell. Barret and Red had also retreated to the cover of the stairwell. "Dammit," Barret swore, "Surrounded, huh?" He thrust yet another clip into his gun. "Alright, playtime's over for you jackasses."

Aeris grabbed his arm. "No, you can't!" He and Red both looked at her and she pulled his arm a little. "It's just me they want; don't risk yourself for my account!" She looked absolutely terrified and her eyes were shining with unshed tears.

Barret easily pulled his arm out of her grip, then he said gently, "Me an' Marlene got you in here, and I'm gonna make sure that you get out."

A gunshot echoed in the outer hall and a chunk of plaster was blown out of the wall above them. Aeris cried out and Red tensed and turned. Peering out the door frame, he saw that ShinRa soldiers were right in the main doors, rifles trained in their direction. "I hate to interrupt you both," he said, "But this is beginning to look bad."

Barret risked a glance around the corner and uttered a five-alarm swear. With one last check of his gun arm, he was about to burst out of their cover when Aeris let out a strangled squeal and pointed across the floor. He looked and saw Tifa crouched on the stairwell opposite them. She was signaling madly, indicating towards a motor-vehicle display at the far end of the hall. Barett saw there was a small truck on a rotating dais, "She wants to use that to escape?"

Aeris nodded, fear still painfully evident on her face. "We have to try!"

"Alright," Barett nodded, signaling the affirmative to Tifa. He burst out of the stairwell and opened fire on the soldiers in the door. "Go!" he shouted, over the din. "Go!"

Tifa bolted out of her stairwell and made for cover behind the truck. Aeris followed Red into the same position. "Where's Cloud?" Aeris shouted over the gunfire.

"Don't worry!" Tifa yelled back, climbing into the truck. "Just get in!"

Aeris quickly clambered into the passenger seat as Barret came around the corner. Tifa found the keys and jammed them into the ignition, the engine sputtered to life in response. She leaned out the window and shouted for Barret and Red to get in the back.

"Yo!" Barret bellowed, "Where's Spike?"

Tifa repeated her earlier statement of "Just get in!" He finally did so and the giant red cat followed him. She slammed on the accelerator at the exact second the occupants of the truck heard another engine. Barret craned around and saw Cloud barreling down the carpeted staircase on a hulking motor bike. He signaled towards the far window as bullets whizzed past his head. Shooting ahead of the small truck, the motorcycle made a beeline for a huge window overlooking the new ShinRa highway system. Cloud drove the bike through the glass, sending bits of it in every direction and Tifa floored it following out the window.

Cloud's bike landed with a heavy "da-dump" and he accelerated around a curve. He could hear the loud landing of the truck behind him and the slight screeching of tire. Sure enough the ShinRa armed forces were coming around the bend behind them, equipped with military grade vehicles. He heard Barret open fire and some ShinRa shooting back. Far ahead down the road, Cloud saw an unfinished exit. He braked until he was level with Tifa in the driver's side. "Make for the construction zone!" he yelled to her. "I've got an idea!" The truck screamed down the freeway and burst through the wooden barricades, causing Barret and Red to cry out in alarm. He saw with a sudden drop in his stomach, that there was a gap in the road. It wasn't huge, but it was definitely a gamble to try and jump. Tifa looked at him in terror and he signaled for her to keep driving. He just noticed a crane towering a few stories over the pavement with a load of I-beams left in tow. Cloud smiled with relief. He couldn't have planned this better himself. He let go of one of the handlebars and held out his hand where a burst of fire steadily grew. He concentrated on the truck, this had to be executed perfectly or he would get them all killed. As soon as the truck's tires left the pavement he shot the ball of fire at the cable holding the beams and punched his own accelerator. He shot forward as the cable burned away and the steel beams plummeted towards the ground. Tifa cleared the gap. Cloud's bike left the pavement as the I-beams crashed into the highway behind him. He applied the brake as soon as he hit the other side, and peeled out into a stop. The beams had crushed the first line of ShinRa vehicles and at least provided a major block for the rest of them. Tifa stopped the truck a little farther in front of Cloud where everyone was very relieved to be out of the vehicle, especially Aeris, who looked extremely pale.

The highway ended abruptly, and Cloud saw mountains in the distance, through the lessening rain. Barret clambered out of the bed, and made his way over to Cloud, the others slowly following. For a moment everyone was silent, gazing at the rising sun. The sky was open and beautiful, and doubly so because the desolation of Midgar and its slums wasn't able to quite reach the open air miles above the city. As all of them gathered at the end of the highway to follow Cloud's pensive stare, Barret sighed heavily. "Well, what do we do now?"

Cloud's face grew angry. "Sephiroth is alive." He shook his head and much of his anger melted into visible fear and apprehension. He looked towards Tifa who looked just as fearful as he. "I have to settle the score."

Barret watched them both, as did Aeris and Red who remained silent. He did not understand their reactions well. He knew, of course, that Sephiroth had been the ShinRa's prized general in the war, and that he was brilliant and supposedly god-like in battle, but Cloud and Tifa both seemed to be terrified of him. "So that'll save the planet?"

The younger man shrugged. "I don't know, but it seems like it." He ran his hand through his hair, and sighed. "The Promised Land is the ShinRa's and Sephiroth's goal. We already know what the ShinRa plans to do with it, and we can't let that happen. But knowing that's also what Sephiroth wants, but not why he wants it, is the bigger problem."

Barret nodded and turned to him. "Alright. I'm going."

To his side, Aeris spoke up for the first time. "I'll go to," she affirmed, also looking at Cloud. "I have things that I want to find out."

"About the Ancients?" He barely bothered to phrase it as a question.

She seemed to not hear him. "Many things," she whispered, returning her gaze to the mountains.

"I guess this is goodbye, Midgar." Tifa said, not sounding at all regretful. She walked towards the edge of the road and added, "Not that I'll miss it," as she lowered herself over the ledge and began to pick her way down to the free ground beyond Midgar's walls. Red silently followed and slowly descended after her. In the feline's wake, Cloud, Barret, and Aeris also began to gingerly pick their path downwards. The way wasn't difficult to pick out, and it wasn't long before all of them had their feet on solid, earthly ground. It was an unspoken relief, for all of them, to be on natural ground once again.

Red sat on his haunches and looked to Cloud with his yellow-gold eye. "I want to go home. I'll go with you as far as that."

The young man nodded absently as Tifa walked up to them. "I guess this is the start of our journey."

He put his hand on her shoulder, "Well, we'll just have to start with small steps. We're going to have to get the ShinRa off our tail, then we're going to follow Sephiroth's." He locked eye contact with her, "Its going to be dangerous. Are you sure you want to go?"

"Yeah," she nodded vigorously. "But I have a bad feeling about Sephiroth, I'm afraid of him." Cloud looked away wordlessly, and she knew he felt the same. They had both endured Sephiroth, and any of his endeavors could not be good news. She looked at him again, and mustering her optimism said: "I'll be fine as long as you keep your promise." She punctuated it with a playful wink. Cloud rolled his eyes, but he couldn't keep himself from smiling at her.

Aeris joined them after a moment, still staring into the distance. "This is the first time I've ever left Midgar."

Cloud turned to her, "I was just telling Tifa," he said, "Its going to be really dangerous, are you sure you want to come?"

She put her hands on her hips, and huffed. "I knew you would say that." Tifa laughed lightly. "I'll be fine, Cloud. You're still my bodyguard, right?"

He nodded, smiling again and Barret spoke up from where he had been fiddling with his gun. "It's a good thing that we told Elmyra to leave Midgar. It ain't safe in Midgar for her anymore. Even with Aeris gone."

Aeris nodded, causing her braid to sway slightly. "Yes! Mom's always wanted to get out of there, and I know that she'll protect Marlene."

Cloud checked his equipment for a moment before turning to the mismatched group behind him. "Well, then. Let's get going." He seemed about to say something else when Barret pumped an enthusiastic fist into the air, mocking something of an uppercut.

"We need a group leader for our journey!" He jabbed his massive thumb at his chest. "O' course, only I could be the leader."

Tifa crossed her arms and rolled her eyes. "You think so?"

Aeris stepped over to Cloud and put a hand on his shoulder. "I think it would have to be Cloud." He reddened at her compliment and tried to act like it didn't matter to him.

Barret stopped shadow boxing and looked at her abruptly, wide-eyed and a more than a little stung. "Fuck. Alright. There's a town to the northeast called Kalm. We should meet up there."

Cloud looked at him with surprise. "You want to split up?"

The older man looked back, "We can't have five people strollin' the fields!"

"But we should stick together in case we run into the ShinRa."

"We should split up so we don' run into the ShinRa." Barret moodily fiddled with his gun. "Whatever, yo' punk ass is the leader. You decide."

In the end Cloud decided that they should stick together. They were tired form their ordeal at ShinRa headquarters and he wanted to get them to Kalm as quickly as possible. Barret was still morose through most of the day, snapping at any who attempted to talk to him. After several snide remarks, Cloud was able to get him to say how far Kalm was and he was relieved to find that they could get there within the day. The weather remained placid, with only some thin clouds around midday.

Only an hour or so after sundown, AVALANCHE passed into the gates of Kalm. It was a quiet little town, ideal for a relaxing time. Several people who were still milling about on the streets gave them wary looks. Cloud knew that people who lived in towns like this one did not usually like strangers very much, especially such a rag-tag group of travelers that were as armed as they were. Tifa pointed to a small cul de sac in the back of the town. "There's an inn." They all followed her to the front of the building, where Aeris pulled open the door and asked the innkeeper for a room.

"I only got one left," he said gruffly, "but it should be big enough for ya'." He wrote their names in a book, and handed them a small bronze key. "It'll be a hundred-and-sixty." After a small amount of searching, Aeris collected the fee from her comrades and handed to the man with a kind smile. "Your room's up the stairs to the left."

Their room was spacious with two rows of beds on either wall and a desk in the corner. Being as exhausted as they were, each of them picked a bed and began to settle down. When they seemed finally ready to sleep, it was Barret who spoke, as he propped himself up. "So let's hear your story, Cloud."

"What?" Cloud was in the process of removing his shoulder guard and excess clothing. He looked up in surprise and confusion. "What story?"

"The one about Sephiroth and the crisis that the planet is in right now. Let's hear it all." He seemed surprisingly insistent, and still a little angry about being jilted the position of group leader.

Cloud stared at his feet for a moment, and then looked up. "Okay." He seemed to think about where to begin, but then he started. "I used to want to be like Sephiroth, so I joined SOLDIER." Everyone's attention was drawn to him as he began his story. "I got to work with him on several missions, and we became friends."

Barret's dark eyes widened, "You call that a friend?"

"Yeah, well, he was older than me and he never talked about himself." He seemed to have difficulty hiding the anger and hate that was building in his voice. Tifa had an unreadable expression on her face as she stared at the sheets on her bed. "I guess you could call us war buddies. We trusted each other; until that last mission."

Aeris looked up from brushing her long hair, "Last mission?"

Cloud looked back down at his feet and continued, obviously wading through unpleasant memories. "After the war, it was SOLDIER's job to put down remaining resistance against the ShinRa. That was five years ago, I was only sixteen. I remember the truck ride to the mission point. It was pouring and the truck kept bouncing really bad on the way up the mountains. It was me, Sephiroth, and two other guards. I'd never really seen rain like that, the windshield wipers on the truck didn't do anything for visibility."

"Hey, how are you doing?" I asked one of the guards. He was leaning against the wall of the truck, and he seemed ill. He didn't say anything in response, but he waved a dismissive hand. "I wouldn't know." I had said, partly in comfort and partly because I was cocky. "I've never had motion sickness."

Sephiroth looked up from his perch on a stack of crates. "Hey, settle down." His voice was always quiet; he very rarely shouted or even raised it to normal speaking levels. Even though he was soft-spoken, no one ever disputed what he had to say. When he spoke, it was a command, and you didn't dispute orders from your superiors.

I was eager to talk with him, since I had respected him so much. "They gave me some new materia; I can't wait to use it."

Sephiroth shook his head. "Just like a kid," he muttered.

"Are you going to brief us about this mission, sir?" I prompted, even though I knew the basic outline of the mission.

He nodded, staring back at me with glowing green eyes. "This is not a typical mission-"

"Good!" I interjected enthusiastically; I didn't want to seem reluctant to operate with General Sephiroth.

He just looked back down at me, completely unperturbed. "Why do you say that?"

I couldn't stop myself from gushing at him a bit. I bet some of the other men thought I was a suck-up. "I joined SOLDIER so I could be like you, but by the time I made First Class, the war was already over. My big hopes of being a war hero ended with the conflict. I always sign up whenever there's a big mission. Y'know, kind of a way to prove myself." Sephiroth didn't acknowledge the compliment, but he never did, so that was normal for him. "Say, how do you feel, Mr. Sephiroth?" I emphasized the title out of respect, but I'm certain it was taken for sucking-up.

Sephiroth's stare was now focused on the front windshield. "I thought you wanted a briefing." I nodded, not wanting to seem uninterested. Once satisfied that he had my whole attention he began. "Our mission is to investigate an old Mako reactor. There have been reports of it malfunctioning, and producing brutal creatures." He flipped some of his waist-length silver hair over his armored shoulders. "Top priority has been placed on eliminated the creatures, followed by the location of the problem, and its neutralization."

"Brutal creatures?" I tapped my foot thoughtfully. "Where?"

"The Mako reactor in the Nibel Mountains."

"Nibelheim." I remembered the little town at the foot of the cold and bare mountains. "I'm from Nibelheim."

The celebrated general nodded his head towards me. "A hometown." I think he was wondering about something out loud, but we were interrupted. A huge crash shook the whole truck.

The driver turned in his seat to look at the black clad commander. "Sir!" He was in a panic. "Something big just crashed into the truck."

Sephiroth stood with serenity, as though he were about to leave to attend a party, instead of walk out into the downpour and investigate what had hit the truck. "That would be our monster." And he stepped out the back door, clutching his sword, the Masamune.

It turned out to be a full grown dragon. Sephiroth was unstoppable, just like the stories. He was faster, stronger, smarter, and deadlier than I ever thought a person could be. His sword was so heavy only he was able to wield it. He killed that dragon in only a couple of seconds. He took hits full on without getting hurt at all. I was always mesmerized by the way he fought.

He was brought back to the present as Aeris spoke softly. "So where do you come in?" Tifa continued to look oddly at Cloud, but didn't say anything.

Cloud nodded and sat down on his bed. "And then we reached Nibelheim."