Tifa found herself dumped onto what looked like an operating table, her wrists and ankles shackled down. She craned her neck to try and see the large machine it was attached to, but a metal bar was suddenly locked down across her shoulders so that she couldn't move. A man in a lab coat stood over her with a smug grin on his face. She glared up at him.

"Didn't I tell you, Doctor Torin?" said the man who had brought her in.

"Yes…" the man with the lab coat said slowly, looking her over. "She's an ideal female specimen." They spoke as if she wasn't even human.

As Tifa stared helplessly at the ceiling she heard a monstrous roar from the next room, and a shout that was undoubtedly Cloud's. She shut her eyes in despair. He's not going to last five minutes in there is he. Her eyes flew open as she felt hands being run over her body, up her legs, over her chest, examining the 'specimen'.

"Oh, yes indeed …the anatomy is truly excellent," the one called Torin went on. He straightened up and gestured somewhere off to Tifa's left. "Alright then Morse," he said to the other man, "hand me those." She couldn't see what he was pointing at but moments later she felt the pricks of needles. Dozens of little tubes were being inserted into her body, all stemming from the machine behind her head.

"What the hell is going on?!" Tifa demanded. He stuck a syringe in Tifa's arm and pushed—it was a sedative. The last voice Tifa heard was Morse's.

"Don't fight it sweetheart," he said sarcastically. "Your boyfriend's dead."

"They're trying to what?" Zack exclaimed, in disbelief over what the Shinra grunt had just told him.

"Could I make it up? I don't think the rest of us are supposed to know, but—"

"Are they high or just stupid? Don't they know what'll happen if they do that?"

"Hey, I don't know man," said Samson, throwing up his hands. "I'm just the messeng—aah!" Suddenly there was loud thump and the whole truck lurched to the left, both men shouting as everyone was sent tumbling. The driver had taken the curve in the road far too quickly. Which would have been fine if the road hadn't been on the side of a cliff. They could feel themselves barrel-rolling over the edge. Then one of the rusty doors broke clean off as the truck hit a bump, sending Samson Zack and Aerith all flying out the back.

Zack pinned Aerith down alongside him with one arm as they landed on a lower ledge. The two Shinra grunts tumbled out of sight along with the truck, which crashed at the bottom in a fiery explosion, shaking everything. As the dust settled Zack saw a small space in the cliff face. He brought her inside and sat on the cold hard ground with her in his arms.

"Hey…Aerith, wake up." With a corner of her sheet he tried to wipe the soot and dust from her face. "I'm going to get us out of here. Both of us." Her silence was deafening. His eyes grew wild and his voice grew fierce. "Damn it, I am not losing you, you hear me?!" He stared into her closed eyes, a feeling of helplessness coming over him. He held her body closer as his head and his voice fell. "Not to them."

Cloud was down on his hands and knees, surrounded by the flames. He clutched his flimsy sword and stared down at the lone faintly-glowing Ice materia in it. It was a wonder the weapon hadn't snapped in half by now. He closed his eyes as the sweat and blood dripped from his face, his forehead almost hitting the floor, ready to surrender. Then his eyes flew open again as he heard a bloodcurdling scream from the other room. Then another. So shrill that they hardly sounded human. He looked up in alarm at the closed door behind him.

Tifa…

Suddenly he jumped to his feet and whirled around to face the Ifrit one more time. The monster was rearing back for Hellfire. The swordsman leapt into the air for a Braver. Both struck at once, in an explosion of fire and ice that defeated the Ifrit and sent Cloud flying backwards through the door.