A/N: Look! An update! Short chapter is short, but better than no chapter, yes? Next one will be longer, I hope and next time we'll get to see another character come in, someone who's already been in the fic but I don't think anyone caught it~ Thanks to crimsonturk and Willowfur for your reviews and to everyone who faved or added to alerts. Made me very happy~ Please enjoy and thank you for reading.

Disclaimer: Don't own Angeal, Tifa, Rude or Cloud. I do own the slum kids and the vermin. (Not saying much, is it?)

Chapter Eleven

After having agreed on where to start searching, Angeal headed to the slums, a rough drawn map in his pocket, courtesy of Cloud and the Buster Sword safe on his back. He hated having to actually use the sword but considering the situation and the condition it was in, it would have to be used when the occasion arose.

He paused and drew the map from his pocket and glanced at it. It wasn't the best map in the world but he had seen much worse. Often recruits would come to him for advice on maps for their classes and he wasn't sure if squiggly lines and unintelligible writing counted as a map. The corner of his mouth twitched upward. He had remembered something else...something seemingly unimportant but meaningful to him none the less.

"Hm.." he mused, turning down a street that would lead him towards the old Midgar slums.

As he walked, his mind went back to what Cloud had said about the sword, something that hadn't processed at the time.

"I...left it...to mark where Zack...died.."

Zack was dead. His pupil, his puppy, the up-beat kid that you couldn't help but like, no matter how annoying or excited he was...was dead; returned back to the Planet.

Angeal sighed heavily, "I'm so sorry Zack...I wasn't there for you.." he whispered before gently pushing the thought into the back of his mind and turning his attention to the matter at hand.

Ahead of him, was the edge of...Edge and beyond he could see the ruins of Midgar. The Edge Slums sat right on the border, spilling over into old Midgar. Angeal 'hmph'ed and continued on his way, referring back to the map once more. He wouldn't need to look at it again, three times was plenty for his mind to have the imaged saved for instant recall. The buildings started to dwindle in size and frequency; shacks, run down hovels and dangerous looking old stores, some of the taller ones tilting drastically, looking as though they would tumble over at the slightest breeze.

In an empty lot by the road, a group of small children were playing with a ball, kicking it back and forth between piles of rubble and trash. A little girl sat off to one side, holding a tiny kitten and watching the others. Angeal sadly shook his head thinking about how easy it would be to take the little girl...no one would know or notice. It was a sad existence. He had grown up poor, but poor in the country was so much better than poor in the city.

He moved towards them, trying to look the least threatening that he could...which wasn't easy. The kids stopped their game and eyed him as he approached, ready to bolt at the slightest wrong movement and Angeal stopped before he entered their danger zone.

"I'm looking for some one who might have passed through here." he said, keeping his voice neutral.

One of the older boys, maybe about twelve, broke away from the group and moved closer, dark eyes guarded.

"Yeah? Wuzz they look like?" he slurred, tucking dirty hands into his two sizes to small pants.

"Dark brown hair...shoulder length, black tank top, black short skirt, boots."

Angeal watched as the boy moved back to his group and they conversed among themselves for a moment before the boy returned, shaking his head.

"Nah, we ain't seen 'er."

"Ah...well...thank you anyways." Angeal said, turning away and heading back towards the street. She may not have even been in this part of town or some this way. Maybe Cloud was having better luck..

He hadn't walked very far when something small and warm grasped his fingers and tugged.

"Huh?" he stopped in surprise and turned around, looking down.

The little girl with the kitty looked up at him with wide brown eyes and stammered something. Angeal knelt and put on his 'kind' face.

"Yes?" he asked gently.

"I...I saw her..." she whispered shyly.

"You saw my friend? Where at?"

She hugged her kitten close and pointed down a street. "She was going t-that way..."

Angeal nodded and stroked the kitten's head with one finger, "Alright...thank you for your help." he smiled a little, "Hurry back to your friends."

He got a tiny smile in return before she turned and trotted back to her friends and he watched her go, making sure she reached them safely before he headed down the dismal street that the girl had pointed down.

"Tifa, what were you doing down here alone?"

~Shin-Ra~

Tifa ran her hands through her hair and glared at the door. Solitary confinement was indeed very...solitary. The room was tiny and was equipped with a hard cot that was bolted to the steel-crete walls a sink and a toilet. Fortunately she did have privacy; the cell lacked windows and the door was solid with only a small peek hole that opened on the other side. She stood and stepped to the sink and splashed water on her face, gathering her thoughts. Rude had failed to take her gloves from her...whether intentionally or not she didn't know, but it gave her some advantage. The door wasn't to thick but she didn't know how many guards there were on the other side of the door and if they heard her punching through the door, they would be ready and waiting for her on the other side.

Above, there was an air vent, bolted to the ceiling, which one could just barely reach by standing on the cot. Tifa sighed and looked down at her ample chest...there was no way she could fit through the vent. Being well endowed was a pain in the butt...and the lower back. She whirled as the peep hole was opened and a scent reached her nose, her stomach growling and the smell of hot food.

"I brought you pizza." Rude said quietly and a narrow slot in the middle of the door opened as a pizza box slid through.

Tifa moved to grab it and opened it quickly, taking delight the smell and sight of hot pizza.

"Thank you." It was the least she could do...Rude seemed to be a nice enough guy who was honestly sorry any of this had happened.

He made a low sound and was gone again, his shoes clicking as he walked away. Tifa frowned a little and sat on the cot with the pizza, picking a slice up and taking a bite. It had been quite a while since she had even had pizza and she remembered that she hadn't eaten anything before leaving Seventh Heaven. At the realization, she felt even hungrier.

As the pieces in the box grew less in number, she noticed writing in pencil on the bottom of the box and frowned, moving a few slices out of the way to read it.

Guards change out in one hour. Clock across your cell. Keep track.

"Clock?" she said to herself, setting the pizza box aside and moving to the door. The peep-hole she found, had been left open and there, across the hall from her...was a clock.

Returning to the cot, she sat and estimated how much time had passed since the message had been written to her getting it. None the less, with the peep hole open, she would be able to keep track of the guards. If Rude had written the message, then he would probably be helping in other tiny ways and maybe she would be able to escape. She eyed the door, where the slot was in the middle; that would be a weak place, as the slot bisected the door nearly in half...

~Edge Slums~

Angeal made his way gingerly through a rubble pile, having had no luck at all with his search. He suddenly paused and looked at the ground curiously, then scrambled up a tall heap of steel-crete and looked back down. The dirt and dust had all been blown away in a circle, pushed from a central point.

"Helicopter...well isn't that just strange.." he muttered, jumping down and heading to what looked like some sort of chop shop on the other side of the rubble piles where some men where hanging around.

"Tell me about the helicopter that was here." he ordered, looking down at them with brows lowered threateningly.

"Heh dude...what helicopter?" one sneered, taking a swig from a brown bottle.

"Yeah man, we don't know nothin'."

Angeal's jaw twitched and he pulled Buster sword from his back and leveled it at them. He had no problem with threatening low life, worthless scum.

"Tell me what you know."

They laughed, albeit a bit nervously. "What are you dude, some SOLIDER wanna be?"

His jaw twitched again and he stepped forward, bringing the tip of Buster against the closest man's neck, point biting into flesh and the mako in his eyes glowing. They stopped laughing and the man swallowed, leaning away from the blade.

"O-ok...it was some dudes in suits."

"Description."

"Bald guy, dark glasses...and a red head." spoke up one of the other guys.

Angeal lowered his blade a little and nodded. Turks. He remembered them from the coffee shop encounter.

"Anything else you care to share?" he rumbled.

"T-they paid us to keep our mouths shut...and when they came back, they were carrying a girl."

"Yeah that's right. Chick had huge knockers if you know what I'm saying."

Angeal narrowed his eyes at the vermin and stepped back. "Which way did the helicopter go."

They all pointed back towards Edge and Angeal turned wordlessly and walked away, slinging Buster sword back onto his back and leaving the quivering cretins to their devices, mentally loathing how low humanity could sink and the things people would do for money.