Disclaimer: I don't own final fantasy or any other game, reference, etc. I shove in here. I only own the characters and other stuff I make up!

Ch. 11 Nighttime Stroll

A month after the party I was feeling a lot better and less annoyed with Sephiroth. I was not over the experience, but I was finally able to talk about it. Sheila helped me a lot with that. She was not an expert on it, but I could tell that she had done research and that she was trying to help me through it. It helped and I was finally moving on. Sephiroth continued to be protective making Hojo's job harder, but it looked like he could see that I was making progress and that he did not need to be so aggressive about it.

Sheila brought us our dinner as usual and left. Apparently she had a lot of work to do. Something unusual happened when she left. The door did not shut all the way. It looked like a malfunction, but she did not even notice. It made the same sound it normally would so there was no reason for her to think anything was different. I, on the other hand, was not sure I wanted to sit there with such a blatant opportunity in front of me. Then there was Sephiroth.

I actually went outside and looked around. I looked at him and he was just sitting there staring at me. "Come on, Sephiroth! It's open." He glances over at the open door and does nothing. He is hopeless.

"If we leave there will be consequences." He told me. I frowned and went back inside to try and coax him up.

"Consequences? Like they'd do much to us." I told him. "C'mon!" I grab his arms and pull. He barely had to try to stop me and I ended up falling. "Ow! That hurt." He is now standing over me. "I'm fine." He offers a hand to help me up and just to spite him I pull him down instead. I know he could have caught himself or stop me, but for whatever reason he chose not to.

"You still want to go don't you?" He asked. I nod and smile. He sighs, gets up, and again offers to help me up. This time I take it.

"Let's see how far we get before they catch us." I told him. He said nothing in response, but led me out and we left. We held hands as we walked around. He seemed to know where he was going so I followed him. We went down a few floors before looking around a bit. It was after regular hours so it was pretty empty. Part of me was just waiting for someone to come and drag us back to the lab to be scolded by Hojo…or something to that effect. I also get the feeling that Jenova is watching all of this feeling very entertained.

We have managed to make it to floor sixty-two without being seen. Most of the lights are off and it looks as if no one is here, but we can hear someone pacing. On the far left of the room in a cubicle labeled "Mayor" we can hear someone mumbling. Sephiroth has the better hearing so I tell him to listen in. He leans carefully against the wall to listen and closes his eyes. I wait around the corner for him to finish. After listening for a few minutes we go somewhere else to talk. "So what did you hear?"

"He was talking on the phone. Someone must be causing some trouble in one of the sectors. He said that there was a rebel group that had stationed themselves in the slums somewhere." Sephiroth was interested in this. More than I had expected anyway. I found it somewhat interesting.

It could be the beginnings of something like Avalanche. I think that sounds pretty good. The mayor never seemed to have much power so why does he care?

We explored that floor a little longer hoping to hear some more, but he left shortly after yelling and then hanging up the phone. We hid behind his room until we were sure that he was gone. Sephiroth was about ready to go back and he was sure to let me know. "It's only been thirty minutes!" I dragged him back over to the stairs and we went down to the cafeteria on the fiftieth floor.

It was weird in there at night. We looked at the clock and it said nine o'clock. We had left the sixty-seventh floor at eight thirty and since there were no guards no one would know we were gone for hours. We could be long gone before they knew it, but Sephiroth would never go for that.

Mainly we just went here because I knew there was a clock. Sephiroth seemed to have had enough of our little excursion. "We should go back."

"We could leave and they would be hours behind us." I said sitting down at a table. If we were going to argue about this I was going to sit down. "They might not even know we're gone until Sheila brings breakfast."

"We'd get caught. It's inevitable." He said sounding so final about the whole thing. He sat down too, but made sure to sit across from me. He folded his arms on the table and looked down at them. "You're not the first to try this."

"No it isn't." I said shaking my head for emphasis. I reached over the table and rested my hand on his. "Not if you don't want it to be." He sighed and looked me in the eyes. I felt that piercing feeling again. Like he could see right through me. There was also another feeling there. I felt weak and if I had been standing I would have fallen flat on my face. He looked away and I realized that I had been squeezing his hand and I had also been holding my breath.

"Alright. Let's keep going." He got up and came around the table to help me up. I smiled at him glad that he was at least trying. I found myself blushing as he led me back to the stairs. I looked away from him hoping that he would not see that. I also felt Jenova in my mind watching. She seemed amused by this, but chose to stay as the silent observer.

We had decided to explore every floor on the way down unless there were too many people there. Sephiroth was the one leading me around and he decided if we went onto a floor or not. It made me wonder how he chose the floors. It was late and dark and from the stairs you could not really tell how many people were there or where they really were. After a while we realized someone else was sneaking around and we realized it too late to leave the floor.

"Set the bomb there and then we'll go up to set the next one." One of them said as they rushed in the direction he pointed. They must be the rebels the mayor was talking about.

"What are we going to do?" I whispered. Sephiroth did not answer. We could see what they were doing as they placed bombs in different places in the room. Sephiroth seemed very concerned with what they were doing. There were a total of four and they were setting the fifth charge. Do they intend to bring the whole building down? It was hard to see them, but they did not appear to have a timer that I could see so I guessed that they would remote detonate or other charges would set them off.

"This will show those Shinra dogs!" The man said after the charge was armed. He got a pat on the back from his comrade.

"She'd be proud of you." They pick up their packs and came towards us. When they come into the light I realized that I have seen them before! Back in Corel they had lived near Arna. I did not know their names, but I remembered them well. The one that appeared to be leading was the one that had given me up to Scarlet and probably the rebels too. The other was younger and he had not really seemed like the type to do this, but from the sounds of it something had happened in Corel. It's been years. That event may have happened? If it has…then it might be true.

Sephiroth watched and noticed that they were getting a bit too close to us. We could not move without them seeing us. He gripped me tighter probably getting ready to run and drag me along with him if he needed to. "Hey! I've seen you before. It's been a few years." He said spotting us. Sephiroth froze and I was not sure how to react. I stood there not sure what to say or do.

"I'm sorry about what I did. I just thought that if we gave them someone then they might leave us in peace for a while. I was wrong." He paused getting a faraway look in his eyes. "They cut off our energy supply until they finished the mako reactor as punishment for helping the rebels. Even if it was only one or two of the townsfolk. When it went online a few months later the people begged like dogs for forgiveness. That's not even the worst of it." He looked down as he spoke and sounded sad. He was angry with Shinra for all that they had done to him and his town. He was clenching his fists and his whole body was shaking. I felt bad for him.

"They decided to punish Arna and her daughter for lying when they questioned them. Because they "failed to mention a third guest occupant in their household" saying their actions were in line with hiding someone making it hard to believe they weren't helping the rebels." The other one said. I looked at him temporarily confused. I had thought about them and wondered, but I never expected that. The way he said it sounded like they had been killed. He did not confirm it, but his expression seemed to. "We really are sorry." I was not sure how to feel about this. It was not what I expected to hear. It was not what I wanted to hear. If Shinra punished them, then did that mean they were dead? Or was something else done to them? "You two should get out before the blast goes off. We should be done in about thirty minutes and we've got that long to get out. If we don't then we don't." He said. They left and we stood there thinking about what we should do.

"Well?" I looked at Sephiroth waiting for an answer. He looked over my shoulder and sighed. He put both hands up and motioned for me to do the same. "What?"

"It looks like you two have been caught!" There was a Turk standing behind me. I whirled around and backed up seeing the gun in his hand. "I heard everything so they won't get to finish the job." He said. He phoned the other Turks and escorted us at gunpoint back up to the sixty-seventh floor. We rode in the elevator this time and he put us back in the chamber. This time the door worked properly. It made me wonder what really happened to it.

After putting us back in the chamber and closing the door he left talking on the phone. I wonder what they'll do to them. We sat down on the bed and I could not help thinking about them. I knew what was going to happen to them. The Turks would kill them and it would be as if this all never happened. I am sure that they would disarm all of the bombs before they could go off and everything would be fine. No one would get any justice.

Sephiroth had leaned me against him and he did not try to say any words of comfort. He knew as well as I did that they would die now. Sheila came in acting frantic. She came over to the door and opened it fumbling with the card. "What were you two thinking? Why did you go out alone?" She looked angry as if she did not expect that to happen. I could hear the worry in her voice. I glared at her and Sephiroth looked away. Neither of us was in the mood to deal with her. "What if something had happened? It's late and you two should be in bed!"

"That's enough!" Someone said from the doorway. Hojo stood there with his arms crossed glaring at us all. "Leave." He told her. She got up instantly and left the room. Hojo kneeled down right in front of Sephiroth.

Sephiroth looked away from him and squeezed me a little. "Tell me…now why did you leave this room?" He shivered, but did not answer. Hojo looked at me and I glared back. I'm not answering you.

He looked back at Sephiroth. "Let me guess. It was her idea." Neither of us moved. Duh! "Maybe she is a bad influence on you. I suppose I could…."

"No…." Sephiroth said shaking his head slightly. He was looking down so no one could see his face. Even I knew what Hojo was about to say. "The door malfunctioned. It was just…."

"For fun." I finished for him. They both looked at me. "Do you have any idea how boring it is in here?"

Hojo laughed and stood up. Sephiroth was surprised that I had even spoken to him. I had promised myself that I would not do that unless I absolutely had to. "Fun." He looked at us from the doorway laughing. "I suppose…I shall have to find something to occupy more of your time."

He left us and we both let out a sigh. After a few seconds I realized that we had not moved. Hojo had seen us like that! He had seen him holding me. I hope he doesn't get the wrong impression from that.

"Why did you say that?" Sephiroth asked me.

"What were you going to say?" He did not answer and I crossed my arms. "I thought so." I said smiling at him. "Hey, earlier you said I was not the first to try, what happened?" I asked after a few minutes.

"He was a lot like you. He wanted to leave desperately and actually broke out. He was strong and smart, but there was something wrong with him."

"What happened to him?"

"He never came back. We were told that he was found, but that he would be placed somewhere else." Sephiroth said with a mixed expression of sadness and almost relief.

"What happened to the other one?"

"They moved him too after a while. They were only here a few months, but after that I was alone." This time it was not mixed at all. He was not happy to have been alone for all that time, although I was not sure how long that was.

"Now you're not." I told him.

"No. I'm not."

Author: This chapter has been edited!