Hello there everyone, Moogle Empress here. =D

I would like to thank everyone who had reviewed the story so far, including chapter 9. Your comments have made me so happy and proud of my work so far. I'm really glad that everyone finds this retake of FF7 enjoyable, and I hope that you all continue to enjoy the story as it continues to unfold. =D

Anyway, here's chapter 10, where the real story starts. =3

Enjoy! =D

Chapter 10: Farewell Midgar

Once they reached the end of the stairs, they were back in the President's office that they had previously visited hours before, well, everyone except Aerith, Rene and Zack who were thrown into the cells at the time.

As they approached where the President still was, they noticed something very unusual about him. On closer inspection, they saw a gruesome sight: A large sword had pierced through the President's back. Just as Barret was about to arm his weapon, even he was shocked at what he saw.

"He's dead! The leader of Shinra Inc, is dead!" Barret declared in disbelief.

Tifa ran over to where the President was to check the sword that was stabbed into the dead body. "Then this sword must be...?!" Tifa gasped when she recognized the sword.

Zack recognized that sword instantly, but...it couldn't be him! He died back at Nibelheim's reactor! There was no way he could mistake that sword though...could it really be him...?

"Sephiroth's!"

"...Sephiroth is alive?" Tifa asked with worry in her voice.

"...Looks like it, only Sephiroth can use that sword." Cloud nodded slowly.

"Who cares who did it? This is the end of Shinra now!" Barret proudly stated.

'Sephiroth...? So he really is still alive after all?' Zack mentally asked himself, thinking along the same lines as Tifa. If Sephiroth was indeed still alive, then Zack's mission had just gotten more serious than ever before...

"Who's Sephiroth?" Rene questioned curiously.

"You've never heard of him?" Cloud asked in surprise.

"Rene's only twelve years old, he would be far too young to know about the Nibelheim Incident." Taylor shook his head.

"Nibelheim Incident?" Rene pressed on.

"It's an event that happened five years ago. It was kept a secret from the public and the entire incident was covered up so I wouldn't expect anyone outside Shinra's high-ranking employees to know about it." Nena stated simply.

"I'll explain it to you later, Rene." Zack promised.

Aerith glanced over slightly to the right, to see someone was cowering behind a pillar, she gave a startled cry, alerting everyone, when the frightened employee made a break for it, he was grabbed by both Cloud and Barret.

"Palmer? Of the Space Program?" Nena recognized the obese man as one of the main leaders of the several departments that Shinra had.

"P-p-p-please, don't kill me!" The man pleaded.

"What happened?" Cloud demanded.

"Se...Sephiroth came."

"Did you see him? Did you see Sephiroth?" Cloud questioned again to confirm the truth.

"Yeah! I saw him! I saw him with my own eyes!" Palmer nodded very quickly.

"You really saw him?" Cloud still wasn't convinced.

"Would I lie at a time like this?! And I heard his voice too!" Palmer loudly exclaimed, he then recalled what Sephiroth had said before he killed the President. "Um, he was saying something about not letting us have the Promised Land."

"Then what? Does that mean the Promised Land really exists and that Sephiroth's here to save it from Shinra?" Tifa seemed to have her doubts about what she had just heard.

"So he's a good guy then?" Barret asked in a surprisingly naïve tone.

Cloud simply shook his head, even Zack mimicked this movement. "Save the Promised Land? A good guy? No way. It's not that simple, I know him. Sephiroth's mission is different." Cloud answered calmly in a low voice.

"I don't understand. If he's not here to stop Shinra, why did he kill the President?" Nena wondered.

"Maybe Sephiroth wants the Promised Land as well? He had a vengeful vendetta against the President? We know too little right now to make an accurate theory." Taylor shrugged.

The sounds of a helicopter soon was made everyone to look at the window to see a grey helicopter was outside, landing on the helipad that was right next door to the President's office. Palmer saw this moment to break free and ran out to the helipad.

"RUFUS! Damn it, I forgot about him!" Barret cursed loudly.

"Who's that?" Tifa pressed for an answer.

"Vice President Rufus. He's the President's son."

"The President's son...? Oh yeah, Kunsel mentioned him before..." Taylor recalled.

"Have you ever met him?" Rene curiously questioned.

"Never." Taylor shook his head.

"I've only met him a few times at the official parties held by the Shinra company. He's certainly different from his father, but not in a good way." Nena added her own opinion on the Vice President.

"That's not very reassuring." Zack groaned, he never met the guy but he had remembered hearing his name a few times in the past.

Against their better judgement, they decided to also head out to the helipad to see this 'Vice President' in person.

As the group arrived at where the helicopter had landed, they saw the white-suited young man, listening to what Palmer had to report.

"So...Sephiroth was actually here...by the way..." Rufus simply replied once Palmer had ended his report, he glanced up to see a group of misfits in front of him. Palmer had just ran to the helicopter while Rufus remained still, facing off Cloud, who he assumed was their 'leader'. He also noticed Nena among them when he glanced over the group briefly.

"Ah, I remember you, Nena Tuesti, Reeve's little girl, so we meet again, you've certainly gotten bigger since last time." Rufus smiled almost to sickeningly sweet.

"Save me the false flattery, you snake." Nena scoffed.

"How cold. Anyway, who are the rest of you guys?" Rufus then turned his gaze back to Cloud.

"I'm Cloud, former Soldier, First Class." Cloud answered bluntly.

'Huh? Wait a minute, Cloud? You didn't make into Soldier...Don't you remember? Wait! The Mako Poisoning! Did it mess up his head?' Zack's mind raced at that statement, Cloud's memory must have gotten scrambled thanks to the mako poisoning he had to suffer because of Hojo, another reason to hate the slimy creep.

"I'm from Avalanche, and don't you forget it!" Barret declared proudly.

"Same here." Tifa added.

"...A flower girl from the slums." Aerith had to lie through her teeth since she didn't want Rufus to find out about her Cetra heritage.

"...A research specimen." Nanaki answered bitterly.

"I'm a former Shinra researcher from the Weapons Department and before you ask, no, I am never coming back." Taylor bluntly stated.

"You already know who I am, Rufus." Nena rolled her eyes.

"...I'm also from the slums." Rene more or less followed Aerith's lead, not wanting the Vice President to start thinking he was a Cetra too, he hadn't even decided to beleive that claim yet.

"Former First Class Soldier here too, not that you would understand me." Zack answered, but it only translated into barks for Rufus. Nanaki looked surprised at Zack. "It's a long story, I'll explain it later." Zack sighed.

"What a crew," Rufus simply shrugged. With a flick of his hair, he introduced himself arrogantly. "Well, I'm Rufus, the President of Shinra Inc."

"Oh, you slipped into your father's shoes very fast." Taylor sarcastically noted.

"Yer only President, 'cause your old man just died!" Barret also shared Taylor's distaste.

"That's right. I'll let you hear my new appointment speech." Rufus ignored the remarks and started to circle around the group, weaving through every now and then as he proclaimed his speech.

"My old man tried to control the world with money. It seems to have been working. The population thought that Shinra would protect them. Work at Shinra, get your pay. If a terrorist attacks, the Shinra army will help you. It looks perfect on the outside." Rufus soon walked back to where he started and turned around to face the group once more.

"But I do things differently. I'll control the world with fear. It takes too much to do it like my old man. A little fear will control the minds of the common people. There's no reason to waste money on them." He added coldly.

"I can't tell who is more of a tyrant, the late President or this one." Rene commented.

"He likes to make speeches, just like his father." Tifa crossed her arms, this seemed to have tripped a nerve as Rufus glared dangerously at her for her comment.

"Get outta this building with Aerith and the others!" Cloud turned to Barret.

"What?" Barret repeated, confused at the sudden request.

"I'll explain later! Barret! This is a real crisis for the planet!" Cloud continued.

"The hell's that suppose to mean?!" Barret yelled out.

"Look, I'll tell you later. Just take my word for it now! I'll go after I take care of him." Cloud motioned his head to Rufus.

"You're planning to fight Rufus?" Nena bluntly asked.

"No way! I'm not leaving you with this guy, Cloud!" Zack argued, then he remembered for what was probably the 100th time that Cloud couldn't hear him.

"Awright, Cloud." Barret decided to comply although he was still unsure about what was going on.

"Wait, we're actually leaving him with this guy?" Rene was shocked by this.

"I don't like it either, but this is Cloud's choice." Taylor responded.

"But..."

"C'mon, kiddo, we ain't got time for this." Barret called out.

"Zack?" Rene turned to Zack for a decision.

"Go on without me, I'm sticking with Cloud. I can trust you guys with Aerith." Zack answered.

"What?!"

"Rene, this could turn really ugly, you don't want to be here if it does. Besides, I've already died once, I don't plan on dying again." Zack reasoned. He then mentally noted, 'Besides, I don't think Gaia would be amused with me if that happened.'

"Rene, we need to go now." Taylor urged.

"...Okay, stay safe, alright?" Rene hesitated but in the end nodded slowly. He then turned to Cloud. "You be careful too, Cloud!"

"I will stay to-"

"Oh no you don't, little missy. You're coming with us." Taylor was quick to stop her finishing that sentence and picked her up.

"H-hey! Put me down! I'm not a child!" Nena struggled as Taylor flipped her over his shoulder.

Rene followed behind the others as they made their way back inside, he stopped for a moment to look back before running again, this time not looking back.

"...Why?" Cloud turned to Zack with a confused expression.

'Because this time I'm not going to fail. This time, I'm going to protect both you and Aerith, or die trying again.' Zack vowed. He faced Rufus and bared this fangs as he growled.

"Why do you want to fight me?" Rufus simply raised his arms in question.

"You seek the Promised Land and Sephiroth." Cloud answered as if it was obvious.

"Hm, exactly. Did you know that Sephiroth is an Ancient?"

"Now that I think about it, Sephiroth did mention something about being Cetra...But he's got nothing on Rene or Aerith!" Zack recalled five years ago.

"...A lot has happened. Anyway, I can't let either you or Sephiroth have the Promised Land." Cloud firmly said with finality.

Rufus shook his head. "I see. I guess this means we won't become friends." And quickly lifted out his shotgun from his suit and fired it, Cloud and Zack managed to dodge the bullet barely. Cloud pulled out the Buster Sword while Zack got into an attack stance ready to fight.

Rufus whistled from the helicopter to reveal what looked like a panther-like monster with a long tentacle on its head. "You're not the only one who has a pet who can fight."

"PET?! Oh now it's on! Come at me bro, I'm ready for ya!" Zack was downright insulted and felt ready to draw blood.

"He's not my pet. He's belongs to Rene." Cloud fought back.

Zack fell sidewards at Cloud's comment. "C'mon man, don't do this to me too...You don't know how degrading this is..." Zack sobbed.

The creature next to Rufus casted a barrier spell over him, which meant materia and physical attacks were not going to be as effective as before.

"Oh, the little Cetra boy, I was actually quite surprised when I found out this information. I didn't think there another one besides the girl." Rufus replied as he fired his shotgun again.

Zack decided to attack the panther like monster to distract it from casting anymore spells, he lunged at the beast, holding a strong hold on the beast's neck with his jaws, causing the beast to growl and struggle as it tried to push Zack off.

Using this chance, Cloud fired an ice spell at Rufus, while barrier stopped half of the ice, it did cause some damage to Rufus.

The beast managed to throw off Zack and used its strong paw to swipe at Zack. While the blow did struck Zack and caused him a loss of air for a moment, he was back into the fray. Now was as good time as any to use the materia that Nanaki gave him a while back. Remembering how to use materia, he charged himself, allowing the energy within him to flow, when he felt its peak, he fired a fire spell at the beast.

The fire halted the beast in its tracks causing it to take a few steps back. Zack took this chance to lunge at the beast again, through the fire, this time using his claws and swiping at the beast's side, leaving deep gashes on the side.

This battle continued with a recycle of attacks from Rufus who continued to use his shotgun, hoping to land a fatal strike on Cloud, thankfully, Cloud was far too nimble and his reaction time was too quick for a bullet to hit a vital area of the body.

While the beast was now limping, Zack got ready to fire another fire spell at him until Rufus's voice halted the battle. "Heh...That's all for today." Rufus quickly jumped back far enough to reach the helicopter, he whistled once more for his pet to follow after him, jumping into the helicopter with him.

The helicopter flew away into the dark inky sky of Midgar. Cloud sighed and placed his sword back behind him. "I'm impressed. You're tougher than you look."

"Heh heh, if only you knew Cloud, if only you knew." Zack wagged his tail, feeling proud of himself.

"C'mon, the others are waiting for us." Cloud motioned his head back into the office, to which Zack agreed with completely, he didn't want to stay in this building for any longer than he needed.

Cloud and Zack had returned to the reception lobby, surprisingly they saw that Tifa was waiting for them.

"Tifa? Why are you here?" Cloud asked.

"Aerith was worried for you and Zack, so I told her I'd wait." Tifa honestly replied.

"She did?" Zack felt touched by this.

"I see. I couldn't finish Rufus off, so things are going to get complicated for us." Cloud told Tifa.

Tifa nodded in understanding. "The others had gone ahead of us, let's meet up with them."

They headed to the nearest elevator to start the long journey back down to the main reception hall of the building.

Meanwhile, the elevator that held the rest of the group finally arrived on the ground floor. Thankfully they didn't end up fighting anyone on the way down, not that it was possible to fight in an elevator to begin with...

"I'll go on ahead." Barret told them as he charged outside, and starting firing bullets like a madman. Within a few seconds, he charged right back in. "Damn it, we're surrounded on all sides, huh?" Barret reported.

"That explains where all the security had gone..." Taylor crossed his arms.

"If I had been alone, this wouldn't be a thing, but, I've gotta reputation to protect."

"You all get out while you still can. It's not you they're after, it's me." Aerith shook her head.

"That is out of the question, Miss Aerith. I did not help these people to get inside just so you can go back and become Hojo's lab rat." Nena said it more harshly than she had intended to sound. "...Sorry, I didn't mean it that way..."

Aerith kindly smiled at her and shook her head. "I know what you meant, thank you for your concern. But...everyone's endangered because of me."

"And? We already knew we would be on Shinra's black list when we decided to rescue you. Hell, we were probably already on it to begin with." Taylor shrugged.

"Yeah, well that ain't happenin'." Barret was also against Aerith's idea. "You got caught up in this over Marlene. Now, it's my turn to watch out for you! Okay, playtime's over for ya jackasses!"

"...Thank you, Mr. Barret. To all of you, I'm very grateful." Aerith thanked them all sincerely for protecting her, even when they were cornered on all sides by the remaining guards of the Shinra army waiting outside.

"Who you callin' Mr. Barret? That don't sound right!"

"Well then, if you are through talking, may I suggest that we think of a way to get out of here?" Nanaki brought them back to their present dilemma.

"Huh? Oh yeah...You're cold man. Just like someone else 'round here I know."

"Did you say something?" Nanaki let out a beastly growl.

"Notta thing. So what're we going to do?" Barret brushed off.

Rene tried to look around for anything of use, when his eyes laid on what looked like a blue pick-up truck, an idea struck his head.

"I've got it! Taylor, can you get cars to work?" Rene asked.

"You mean start-up the engine without the car keys? Yeah, why do you ask?" Taylor blinked in confusion.

"Then I've just found our ticket out." Rene pointed to the truck that was being displayed.

"...Rene, you're a genius." Taylor smiled proudly. "Leave this to me, I'll get that thing working before you know it." Taylor ran over to the truck and opened the door that was left unlock, obviously because it was on display and no one would be stupid to steal from Shinra...unless you had a death wish.

He went to work in fiddling with the wires and cross-wiring them. Around that time, Tifa had finally returned to the group with Zack in tow.

"Zack!" Rene cheered brightly, Zack immediately jumped into Rene's arms.

"Heya kiddo, miss me?" Zack grinned.

"So how did it go?" Rene questioned about what happened after they left.

"We didn't get around to killing Rufus, the jerk ran off before we could do any serious damage on him." Zack explained.

"I see. Where's Cloud?"

"Oh trust me, he'll be here in a minute. I won't lie, I'm soooo jealous! I wanted to ride that motorcycle!" Zack whined.

"Motorcycle? Just what did Cloud-" Rene raised an eyebrow at this.

Just then the truck sputtered to life. "Yes! I've got it!" Taylor called out to the group.

Tifa caught on to what they planned on doing and was on board with the idea. "You heard him, let's go!" Tifa guided everyone to the truck, she entered inside the front along with Aerith.

"So you do this for a living?" Tifa smiled coyly.

"I'll have you know I'm a mechanic, I fix things." Taylor corrected. "Don't get any ideas."

"Cool, now scoot over, I'm driving." Tifa nodded and nudged Taylor over so she could get to the driver's seat.

"Do you even know how to drive?" Taylor questioned.

"No, do you?" Tifa argued back.

"Wait...neither of you know how to drive?" Aerith sounded worried.

"The slums usually don't do driving lessons for poor people." Taylor hotly replied.

"It shouldn't be too hard...Uh okay, let's see..." Tifa tried to reassure, experimenting with the vehicle.

"I believe you are supposed to press that gas pedal." Nena pointed out.

"How did you get in here, Nena?" Aerith blinked, she didn't remember her entering the front part of the truck.

"I sneaked through that hole." She pointed to the small gap where a window would usually be.

"Is everyone on board?" Taylor asked.

"Nearly, c'mon, ya big furball, get on the truck!" Barret answered back.

Nanaki managed to jump on just as Tifa managed to figure out how to move the vehicle.

"Okay, good. This is good." Tifa smiled proudly at her achievement.

"I still haven't seen Cloud." Aerith grew concerned, but it was short-lived as she finally saw Cloud zoom by with a motorcycle.

"Big show off, usin' that thing." Barret grumbled.

"Okay, everyone's on." Rene told Tifa.

"Alright, hang on, it's gonna get rough!" Tifa warned them before she shifted gear and found they were going faster than before to catch up with Cloud. Following Cloud's lead they headed towards what looked like a large window.

"HOLY-!" Barret cried out and remembered Rene was in the back with them. "Heads down kid!" Barret shielded Rene as they smashed through the window and landed on the long motorway that was next to the Shinra building.

"Rene, you okay?" Zack asked.

"Yeah, Mr. Barret! Are you okay?" Rene looked up to see if the former Avalanche leader is alright.

"Heh, didn't even put a scratch on me." Barret gloated, despite the obvious small cuts made by the glass.

"Here, let me heal you." Rene offered, casting his cure spell to heal up the minor cuts.

"Didn't really need it, but I appreciate it, thanks, kid." Barret thanked.

Rene simply smiled back but it soon faded when he saw something or someone was following them.

"Aw man, they just don't quit!" Zack groaned in annoyance.

Several Shinra soldiers on similar motorcycles increased their speed to catch up with the runaway fugitives.

"I can handle this!" Barret grinned, pulling out his gun arm and firing wildly at them, even managing to hit and topple some of the drivers off their bikes.

Cloud also helped out by taking out any Shinra grunts who tried to get near the truck.

One Shinra solider zoomed near them, out of instinct, Rene shot a quick fireball at the soldier's face, the Shinra grunt cried out in pain as the fire engulfed him and toppled him off the bike as well.

Zack whistled. "Not bad, kid. You're quite the mage."

"I think that's the quickest fire spell I've ever casted..." Rene looked amazed at his hand.

They ended up having to duck their heads down when they started firing their own guns back at them.

"Eat more of this ya vermin-sucking foos!" Barret yelled as he fired more bullets from his gunarm back at them. Eventually the bikers started slowing down. "What da hell? Did they chicken out?"

"I don't think so..." Nanaki shook his head in doubt. Within a few seconds, a giant looking tank with large wheels appeared, charging towards them at full speed.

"What is that thing?! It's like a death machine...on wheels!" Zack jumped in shock.

"Tifa! The road!" Taylor pointed out that the motorway was at a dead end on the edge of Midgar. Tifa stepped on the brake so hard that she thought she might have broken it for a moment.

Cloud slided as he braked when the truck had stopped at the end of the road. "Damn it, we're going to have to fight it." Cloud cursed.

"I say bring it!" Zack jumped out of the truck ready.

"Now I know why they say don't let women drive." Taylor commented, only to be awarded a powerful punch by Tifa. "OW! Geez woman! I was only repeating what I heard from others!" He rubbed the arm that Tifa punched, he was pretty sure there was going to be a bruise there for a few days now.

"You did deserve it though." Aerith and Nena sighed.

Once everyone had gotten out of the truck, they saw the large tank-like machine also stopped but it soon transformed into a mechanized robot with spiked wheels for legs, armed with attached swords on each arm. It also had two large pips behind it, no one could tell if they were missile launchers or something else entirely.

"So...you're good with machines right? Think you can disable that?" Tifa asked Taylor.

"Ah...this is a little different from a normal everyday machine..." Taylor started. "However, if I have enough time, I can find the main switch and shut it down for good."

"Really? You can shut this thing down?" Cloud asked.

"Yup, this is from the Weapons Research Department, no doubt about it. I'm familiar with the internal mainframe that they use so I'll be able to find the main power and cut it off, but I'll need it to stay off me, I can't concentrate disabling it when its trying to shoot me." Taylor nodded.

"Leave that to us then. I'm good at attracting attention." Zack was eager to put this plan into action.

"Alright, we'll follow your plan then." Cloud agreed to go through with the plan Taylor suggested.

"Be careful, Taylor." Rene turned to Taylor.

"Same to you. Remember, no heroics from either of you, got it?" Taylor glanced at Nena as well as Rene.

"I'm not sure how effective our weapons will be here, most of our weapons aren't really meant for machines." Nena looked a little concern since her weapon wouldn't be much help against metallic enemies like this monstrosity.

"Looks like materia is our best option here." Aerith told them.

"..." Nena was silent on that, Rene picked that up and decided to ask her about it later.

"If it fires rockets, use fire spells, that will trick the rockets into thinking its a heat source. Chances are the rockets are heat-seeking so unless you want to get blown to peices, use those spells, got it?" Taylor hinted.

"Got it." Rene nodded, fire spells were his speciality after all.

Taylor pulled out his twin pistols and made a quick dash to get behind the machine. "Good luck!"

"Awright, eat this ya piece of junk!" Barret started the attack with a blast of bullets from his arm gun.

"I'm gonna try thunder spells, I just hope I don't hit Taylor by accident..." Zack breathed in deeply before charging his materia once more. Once he felt the spell was charged and ready to be used, he casted a bolt of lightining that struck the giant machine, causing its movements to twitch.

Taylor took this chance to climb on the wheels, while avoiding to get impaled by the spikes, and continuing to climb upwards until he found what he was looking for. It was a good thing he grown into that habit of taking his small toolkit bag that was wrapped around his belt wherever he went after all. He pulled out a screwdriver and started on unscrewing the bolts that held the metalic panel secure on the machine's back.

While this was happening though, the machine suddenly charged towards Cloud, swinging its sword arm around like a whirlwind, Cloud managed to dodge the attack by jumping backwards but it that was very close, if he had reacted later, he wouldn't even have any limbs left to use. Cloud retaliated with his own attack, which took on the form of a thunder spell like Zack's, it caused the same thing to happen again to the machine, causing it to twitch in malfunction.

Barret continued to fire his gun-arm towards their giant enemy, while the bullets did puncture the metal, it nowhere near enough to cause any critical damage. It then tried to charge at Barret with the same attack that Cloud had just tried to avoid, while Barret managed to avoid getting skewered, he did get once nasty cut from the attack on his upper arm, causing him to swear loudly.

"Mr. Barret!" Aerith's body reacted right away, she casted a cure spell from the depths of the cure materia she carried with her, quickly sealing up the cut before it could get worse.

"Thanks, damn that hurt. Just what is this hunk of junk made out of, huh?"

Meanwhile with Taylor once the last bolt was loose enough, he tore off the metalic plate and throwing it to the ground. He saw mutiple wires, chips and hardware that was buzzing away with activity. "Alright, I'm in, just keep him distracted while I find the right wire or better yet its main core." Taylor called out, putting the screwdriver back into the safety of his toolbag before starting to dive through the hundreds of wires with various colourings.

Just then, the machine then lowered itself almost back to its vehicle form, causing Taylor to change his grip as he almost lost his balance and fell off. "Uh oh...I don't like the looks of this." Taylor frowned, he doubled his efforts to find that main core or at least the wire that would disable the machine completely.

The mechanized machine lowered it's two long rocket-launcher pipes and aimed it towards the group.

"That doesn't look good. I'm going to try breaking them." Tifa warned everyone as she used her martial arts to jump high enough to get on the head of the machine. She didn't waste time to try and smash the pipes but it turns out they were made of stronger metal than Tifa expected, not that was going to stop her.

Nena seemed to have picked up something odd about the position of the enemy, when it finally clicked in what was going to happen, she rushed in front of the group and tried to fire one of her kunai knives at the killer machine, the blade just bounced off and fell to the gravel road pathetically.

"Nena! Get back, you'll get hurt!" Rene tried to reach out and pull her back, by the time he got there though, the pipes fired streams of fierce flames towards Nena and Rene, engulfing both them.

"Rene! Nena!" Zack cried out in horror at the sight and rushed over to help.

"Rene!" Taylor also panicked when he saw this.

When the flames subsided, much to everyone's shock and surprise, Rene and Nena were unharmed. The most oddest part was that surrounding Nena was a giant crystalized shield, protecting both within its shell of protection.

"Nena...?" Rene looked confused and lost at this, glancing at her for answers.

"I'll...explain later! We need to take care of that thing or we'll never escape!"

"No way...How is that...? How can that...?" Zack was lost for words, trying to think of any logical reason of how they managed to avoid getting burned to death.

Tifa emboldened by this, finally managed to smash the pipes so hard that they became twisted and no longer able to use the 'twin burner' attack again. This however gave Taylor a new idea that could end this fight easily. Instead of looking for the main core now, he tried looking for a certain wire that would cause the mechanized death machine to trick the machine into using the fire burner attack again.

Cloud, Rene, Zack and Nanaki took turns to fire either fire, thunder or ice spells at the machine, forgetting for a moment that Taylor was still there. "Ouch! Careful with those spells, I'm right here you know." Taylor scolded them for their moment of memory-lapse.

Moving another string of wires out-of-the-way, he finally found his target, he pulled on the wire until the live wire was out of its rubber surface, he then pulled out a random wire and carefully switched them around.

Once his task was done, he finally jumped off the robot and ran back towards the group. "Just a bit of a forewarning here, just RUN." With that he grabbed Rene and Nena running to the very edge of the motorway, away from the machine, Tifa jumped off the machine and followed after him with the rest of the group backing away as well.

True to his word, the machine started to freak out, twitching irrationally and shaking on the spot, when it tried to fire its twin burner attack again, it combusted into the fiery explosion, it was a sight to behold.

"Damn...What did ya do?" Barret blinked in surprise.

"I tricked it into using its flamethrower attack again. Usually if a weapon can no longer be used, the built-in A.I within would tell itself to not use it. I just messed around with a certain wire that connects the A.I part of the machine and changed it with something you shouldn't mix it A.I with." Taylor explained.

"...How did you manage to come up with that idea?" Tifa questioned.

"I actually have you to thank for that, Miss Tifa. When you broke the two pipes, the idea struck my mind." Taylor answered honestly.

"Oh...You're welcome, I guess." Tifa blushed very faintly, she hadn't actually thought her attack back then had done any damage, other than having one less weapon to avoid.

"I hope that will be the last time we fight a mechanized enemy." Cloud sighed as he placed his sword behind his back again.

"I wouldn't count on it." Zack morbidly added, knowing Shinra like he did, they would face more killer machines to come, probably ones worse than this...thing.

Nena approached the now burning remains of the giant hostile machine and grabbed her Kunai knife from where it fell. "Um...Nena...What happened back there? Not that I'm complaining that we're not burned to a crisp but..."

"I know." Nena sighed sadly. She then turned around to face everyone. "You saw what happened, didn't you? That crystalized shield that cocoon Rene and myself when that machine used its flame-based attack, right?" Nena started.

"Oh yeah, we definitely saw it. How did that shield just suddenly appear like that? None of us have any materia with barrier spells." Taylor nodded.

Nanaki looked on with interest while Zack sat down next to Rene as he listened on Nena's explanation.

"...There's something you should know about me. I...I cannot use materia." Nena hesitated but managed to force out her secret.

"...Huh? You can't use magic? Couldn't you just ask one of us how to use it?" Rene looked confused, why would not knowing how to use magic be such a big hindrance?

"He's got a point." Zack noted in agreement.

"Unless, it is not exactly that she does not know how to use magic, she is unable to use magic." Nanaki explained cryptically, he understood the true meaning behind Nena's words.

"Isn't that what I just said?" Rene was still confused.

"Oh Gaia, you really are dense." Nena face palmed her face.

"...?" Both Zack and Rene didn't seem to understand why Nena was annoyed with them.

"Wait...Are you trying to say that you're immune completely to magic?" Cloud seemed to have caught on to what Nena was trying to imply.

"...Yes. Even if I knew how to use materia like everyone else can, it won't even react to me. It doesn't matter if it's an elemental spell or even a cure spell, nothing will work on me." Nena kept her head down.

"...What? Is that you meant? ...Is that actually possible? Completely immunity to materia magic?" Rene wondered out loud.

"When you think about it, I could say the opposite yet similar thing about you, Rene. You can use magic without even using materia, you just learn how to tap into the spell you want to use and you can cast it just like that. I...could never do that." Nena pointed out bluntly.

"...Oh yeah, that's true." Rene nodded, ashamed that he forgot about it. "I'm sorry if I offended you."

"No...You didn't offend me. It's always been like this with me. Or at least ever since seven years ago when I first showed signs of being immune to magic." Nena shook her head. She then noted as bluntly, "And by the way, I discovered you didn't use materia for using magic from Aerith while I talked to her the first time."

Rene glanced at Aerith who had an apologetic smile on her face. "I'm sorry, I got carried away when explaining to Nena about my situation." Aerith apologised.

"How did it happen? Usually immunity to magic doesn't happen unless you use it all the time, especially cure spells constantly on yourself." Taylor questioned.

"I don't know. From what my father told me, when I was very little, I accidentally fell into a mako pool that appeared after I carelessly stepped on a loose patch of sand and sank through it. I should have died from the intense mako poisoning yet I didn't. Although I think my immunity to magic was a permanent side-effect of falling into the mako pool." Nena theorized.

"Hmmm, that is a possibility, we know that raw mako is extremely lethal if given abhorrent amounts. Even just a small dose of raw mako is enough to kill even a Nibel Dragon." Taylor nodded, recalling what he knew about mako itself.

"I'm sorry, that must have been harsh for ya." Zack drooped his ears down.

"Zack said he was sorry for you." Rene translated for Nena to hear.

Nena gave what looked like the slightest hint of a smile and bent down to scratch Zack's ear, which he admitted felt really good. He would never tell anyone that though, not even Aerith or Cloud.

"Thank you, Zack." She thanked him before retracting her hand and standing up again. "I will not lie, I had intended to run away after learning that you were coming to save Miss Aerith." Nena admitted.

"Wait...you wanted to be kidnapped? Because that's what your old man is going to think." Zack raised a skeptical look.

"Zack does raise a good point." Nanaki agreed with Zack on this. "Your Father will be very worried about you, especially since you were last seen with the Avalanche group, plus we are now most likely fugitives in the eyes of Shinra." Nanaki reasoned.

"I'm aware of that. I will accept the consequences of my actions and I know Father will not understand right away. However, this is something that I must learn for myself, I want to know why this had happened me. The real reason behind being immune to all magic, I know that my answers will not be with Shinra so I will search for my answers outside of Shinra."

"...Soooo, basically you want to travel with us because you want to find out the truth behind your immunity, right?" Rene smiled with his more simplistic wording.

"...Ugh, yes. That is what I meant." Nena sighed but she had felt...happy about finally being clean about her secret. "You...are not mad at me for hiding it?" Nena asked.

"Of course not. I've carried secrets too, you know." Rene shook his head. "I've been hiding the fact that I could hear voices from most people I've met in life, so I can understand why you didn't want to tell anyone about it. It's not something everyone can understand and accept."

"You said it, pal. I think everyone here carries a secret of their own." Zack nodded in complete agreement.

"We're not judging you, if that's what you were worried about. You did help us, even though we were terrorists." Cloud told her.

"He's right, you know. Besides, I know a lot of people who just can't use magic either due to not having enough willpower, I'm one of them, after all, I just use my weapon to help siphon magic without actually charging it like most materia users do." Taylor added.

"I still think that's cheating." Rene teased.

"Rene, it's not cheating. It's efficiency. We've been though this." Taylor coughed as he corrected his young charge.

"Then...I am content with that. Thank you." Nena thanked.

"I actually think it's pretty cool. I mean if I had a shield like that around me all the time, I would be so over-powered, I would be god-like." Zack grinned.

"Until someone comes along and impales you with a sword or any close range weapon that is not magical. Just because you cannot be harmed by magic, does not make one invincible to all forms of attacks." Nanaki smirked.

"...Why do you have to crush my dreams?" Zack whimpered.

Cloud turned towards the horizon that laid before them at the end of the motorway, he walked a few steps forward.

"Well, what do we do now?" Barret questioned, changing the topic back to their current situation.

"Sephiroth is alive. I...I have to settle the score." Cloud answered, staring at the rising dawn before them.

Zack nodded his head. 'Yeah, I got a score to settle with that guy too. We may have been friends, but ever since the Nibelheim Incident...he was no longer the Sephiroth that I once knew. If anything, I want to free him from his insanity, from whatever that crazy project had done to him." Zack noted mentally to his head. This was probably the threat that both Gaia and Yggdrasil sensed.

"And that'll save the planet?" Barret pressed.

"...Seems like it." Cloud nodded slowly.

"Awright, I'm going!" He then declared.

Aerith also voiced her answer. "I'm going too. I...have things that I want to find out. Just like Nena."

"About the Ancients?" Cloud questioned.

"...Many things." Aerith simply answered.

"Wait, what about Mrs Gainsborough and Marlene, don't you two want to say goodbye to them first?" Rene reminded.

"We won't be able to get to Sector Five from here, besides I don't think we can go back now. Now that Shinra knows that I was hiding in the slums, they'll just try to capture us again if we go back home. And don't forget, they think you're a Cetra now." Taylor reasoned.

"Oh yeah...So...this is exile huh? For some reason, I feel sad about leaving." Rene sighed. "But you're right, I don't think they'll ever let us live our lives again after what happened. Still we should let Aerith's mother and Marlene know."

"Don't worry, I'll send a letter to Mom before we leave." Aerith smiled softly. "You're such a thoughtful child."

"To be honest, I'm actually really glad you're still tagging along. I mean if I didn't have you around, I would only have red furry over there to translate my words." Zack was thankful that Taylor and Rene was going with them.

"Did you say something?" Nanaki growled when he heard that.

"Not a thing~" Zack quickly lied.

"I guess this is goodbye Midgar..." Tifa looked back at the dark metropolis behind her.

They painstakingly climbed down a long dangling wire that was left over and used it to reach the ground outside of Midgar's Gates.

"Wow! So this is what the world looks like from outside Midgar!" Rene excitedly looked around with wide-eyed curiosity.

"You've never been outside of Midgar?" Nena asked.

"Never. I knew Grandpa used to live outside Midgar before he came here, but I was born and raised here." Rene shook his head.

"I see...I only remembered the outside world a little. I used to live out here with my Grandmother, she lives in Sector Eight now." Nena looked back at Midgar, she felt bad about leaving her Father and Grandmother like this without even leaving a letter, but she had to do this.

"Say Zack, what's your hometown like it?" Rene turned to Zack.

"Bah, it's a backwater town that had used to have a reactor before it blew up. Nothing really to write home about. Still, I kinda miss my parents." Zack whimpered slightly at the thought of his parents, he wondered how they were doing now and did they know about Zack's death?

"You know, we could always drop by and see how they're doing." Rene offered.

"You know, I think I'd really appreciate that. Only if we're passing by though, we got a job to do after all." Zack nodded.

"We told Aerith's mom to go somewhere safe, so Marlene should be safe too." Barret told Cloud.

"Yeah, she should be." Cloud nodded.

"She said she didn't want to stay in Midgar anymore. Maybe it's for the best." Aerith added.

"I'll be glad if they get out, Midgar is nothin' but trouble." Barret stated.

"You know what, this is my first time leaving Midgar." Aerith softly laughed.

"You've never been outside of Midgar neither, huh?" Rene turned to the flower girl.

"Yup."

"Really? You worried?" Cloud asked with concern.

"A little...no maybe a lot. But I have my bodyguard, right? As well as our furry hero over here." Aerith turned with Zack and winked.

"You know I'd do anything for ya, babe." Zack proudly vowed.

"You do realize that this sounds a little strange coming from you." Nanaki reminded Zack.

"...Don't remind me." Zack sobbed pitifully.

"I guess this is the start of our journey." Tifa noted as she looked around the surroundings.

"You hate travelling?" Taylor glanced at the martial artist of their group.

"I don't know. But I have don't have anywhere else to go. So I guess it doesn't really matter whether I like it or not." Tifa sighed softly.

"Yeah, I can understand that. I'll be glad to leave Midgar though, all I have are sad and bitter memories about this place."

"Oh, that's right! Your brother...I'm sorry. I shouldn't be complaining." Tifa recalled what she overheard during the exchange with the Turks and what President Shinra had said about Taylor being one of their most gifted weapon researchers who ran away from Shinra with his brother who was in Soldier, the Turks, however, killed Kunsel when he refused to give Taylor back to them.

"Oh, so you know about all that? It's alright. I've learned to overcome my grief. If I see any Turks though during this journey, I'm not showing any mercy. It will never bring Kunsel back, but that won't stop me from getting justice for what they did, their job or not." Taylor smiled sadly.

"I know that feeling." Tifa could understand Taylor's point of view, after all, it was because of Sephiroth, and in a way, Shinra, that her hometown was destroyed and her father was killed. She would never forgive those crimes, no matter the reasons behind it.

Taylor didn't know what she meant by that but took her word for it. "It's not all bad I guess, I did meet Professor Zelpher and Rene through my time here. Anyway, enough of our depressing backstories. We need to start making our way to a village or some settlement nearby before it gets dark."

"I'm going back to my hometown, I'll go with you as far as that." Nanaki told the group.

"Oh yes, you need to get back home to your grandfather and your people. Don't worry, we'll find a way to get there. I swear in the name of Tuesti, a name that can be trusted." Nena reassured Nanaki.

"I never doubted you, child. I appreciate it though." Nanaki softly smiled at the young Tuesti girl. She was definitely one human that Nanaki could never hate and had earned his complete trust. The others though...they needed work.

"Then, let's go." Cloud informed everyone about their impending departure from this place.

"We need a group leader for our journey. 'Course only me could be leader." Barret pointed out the obvious, they needed a team leader.

"You think so?" Tifa tilted her head.

"It would have to be Cloud." Aerith suggested.

"I vote for Cloud as well, since he has the most experience with him being in Soldier." Nena logically answered.

"No offense big guy, but your leadership skills weren't exactly...great." Zack also voted for Cloud.

"Who did Zack say he was voting for?" Nena asked, as she could not understand Zack like Rene or Nanaki could.

"He voted for Cloud." Rene answered Nena. "It's a shame you're not human, Zack. I would have voted for you." Rene turned to their four-legged black wolven friend.

"Meh, I wouldn't be good leadership material anyway. You wouldn't believe the kind of antics I did when I was in Soldier." Zack shrugged.

"I'm not bothered." Nanaki was simply uninterested in the whole voting.

"Well, the verdict has it. Sorry, Barret." Taylor apologised.

Barret grumbled at first about 'spikey-headed morons' and 'unfair voting'. "God damn it, awright, go northeast to a town called Kalm. If something happens, we'll meet there." Barret finally replied after finishing his quiet cursing.

"Oh, you might want to take one of these," Taylor fished out enough PHS phones for everyone, well, minus Zack and Nanaki who couldn't use phones due to their paws. "It doesn't hurt to be safe than sorry."

"What the?! How did you get this many?" Tifa's eyes widened in shock.

"I'm a mechanic, remember? I fix things for a living, Rene found these old phones in the junk pile heaps and brought them to me to repair. All of them work just fine, in fact, only three of them were broken, the others were just thrown out because they were old models. I was planning on selling these until all this happened." Taylor smiled proudly.

"Most of the stuff you can find in those junk heaps can still be used. People can be so wasteful." Rene added.

"You went through junk piles?" Nena looked a little disgusted.

"I had to earn my gil allowance somehow." Rene placed his hands behind his head in a carefree way.

"Father really does need to work on making life better for the people in the slums, no one should have to dig through such dirty things just to earn a living." Nena shivered.

"Heh heh, so you do have some girly habits." Rene teased playfully.

"What was that meant to imply?" Nena narrowed her eyes dangerously.

"Nothing~" Rene whistled innocently.

"..." Nena was not amused, crossing her arms, she turned away from Rene.

"I think you might have made her mad." Zack sweatdropped.

"What did I say?" Rene looked confused, did he say something he shouldn't have?

"You need to work on your people skills when it comes to the female population." Zack advised.

"...?" Rene was completely oblivious to Zack's meaning.

Once everyone who could hold a phone carried one with them, they walked towards the town of Kalm, where their journey was only just beginning. Midgar was nothing compared the great adventure that now laid before them.

Whew, done. =D

I think the chapter could have been better. But I feel this chapter is good enough, it was kind of hard to do the boss battles since I really suck at fighting scenes.

Oh as you noticed, I removed the boss battle in the elevator (seriously that would not be possible outside the game to fight in an elevator. XD)

Now the 'Midgar Act' as I like to call it is out-of-the-way, it's time to get into the real meat of the story. =D I'm so excited to start working on it! I've already got a rough idea for Chapter 11 already.

Oh yeah, I'm currently trying to find a cover image for this story, so if anyone knows where to find a fitting image or would like to make one, please feel free to find or make one. I give credit to the one who created the image. =)

Anyway, please read and review when possible. I appreciate all and any reviews I receive.

Until the next chapter, happy reading everyone. Moogle Empress out!

Moogle: Kupo!