A/N: Well, I was hoping to get this out last night, but got too tired and fell asleep, so I thought finish it when I get home from college tomorrow. No can do. Collge along with thousands of other schools, was shut due to an exessive about of snow. Nearly twenty cm!! so of course I couldn't pass up the offer of a snowball fight. In the end I was out all day, bulding a snow igloo against the wall in the church car park with friends. I must admit, the igloo was epiclly awsome. It had a door and everything ^^

Anyway, on with chapter 14

Disclaimer: I will never own final fantasy. On the of chance I do inherit the company, You'll be the first to know. But the likelyhood of that happening is like me wearing completely pink out in public. (Never)

"Now what?" Hissed Elena, backing up across the bridge. She glanced downwards, suddenly wishing she hadn't and almost throwing up all she had eaten that day. As hard as she tried, which wasn't very hard before she began feeling dizzy, she could not see any traces of the bottom, whether that was because it was designed in such a way that it gave the illusion of a never ending pit, or it actually was a never ending pit, she would never know, or never really want to know.

"We're a little stuck." Yuffie replied, trying not to look down. She had never really been afraid of heights, but chances of surviving after falling down there looked pretty slim. But right now even that wasn't the worst threat to their lives, and mental and physical health.

Fumiko, however, looked as if she had just won the lottery, smug grin and glowing eyes portraying pure evil happiness.

With the rest of the group finally on the platform and surrounded, it was time to move on the step two of the plan.

Meanwhile, Tifa was still on the floor, tightly holding Reno's uninjured hand, watching, powerless, the situation turn from bad to worse in front of her. Trying to look as calm as she could, she looked up to her sister and Tseng, still struggling against the guards, trying, wanting, to help.

"Ti...fa." Came a faint voice from the floor. Snapping her head back to the redhead, she was met by a pair of green eyes, barely open.

"Oh Reno." She gasped, bending over the weak form, gently pushing on his shoulder so he was lying on his back, and putting both hands on either side of his face. "Are you okay? Tell me what happened? How bad does it hurt?" She gushed, eyes filling with tears.

"I don't think I got any of that." Reno muttered back. "I'm fine, I've been through worse than this." He said, trying to sit up, failing miserably. Tifa put one hand on his shoulder, keeping him on the floor.

"Don't do that to me." She whispered, resting her head on his chest. "I thought.... I thought I'd lost you."

"Can't get rid of me that easy." Reno smirked, looking up at the ceiling. Faintly, coming through what seemed to be a gap, a small stream of light was pouring into the semi-lit room, morning had broken. He closed his eyes, trying to remember something from his past that was nagging at the back of his head, something that might be able to save them. If only he could remember.

"Hello little one." A high harmonious voice almost sung out behind him. He didn't want to turn around, something inside of him was telling him not to. He was perfectly content staring at the blank wall of the examination room he was in, small fingers playing with the cloth on the metal table he had been placed on. But against his own will and better judgement he turned, looking right into a pair of blood red eyes.

"Gah." He jumped back. Or tried to jump back, and slender hand grabbed his wrist, preventing him from moving. The redhead whimpered, trying to draw back from the masked face. Another hand came up, index finger stroking down the side of his face. He could feel the long nail scratch down his skin.

"What lovely eyes." She muttered, grinning, evil clear in her expression. "It's a shame I can't get you to do what I want." She smirked even wider, showing pure white teeth.

With the long, sharp nail on her index finger, she scratched a deep crescent moon shape under his right eye. Blood immediately began to flow steadily down his cheek, green eyes betraying the pain he refused to show.

"And with that, you are under my control." Fumiko cackled. She looked down at the boy, expecting a blank expression looking up at her, instead she got a cocked head, looking up in confusion. "It didn't work." She muttered, bending over to look into his eyes. Nothing seemed to have happened.

Growling low at the lack of reaction, she tried again on the opposite cheek, scratching deep, blood beginning to seep down both cheeks, making the redhead look as if he was crying blood. He tried not to show he was hurting, putting on the best poker face he could, but still finding his eyes showing the pain he did not want to reveal.

"I will get you under my control. You just wait." The brunette snarled, before turning and storming out the room, heels clipping on the hard floor all the way.

Well, it certainly wasn't what he needed to defeat her, but there was definitely something in there that could help them.

"Tifa." He shook her shoulders with his good hand. Lifting her head, she looked at him, quizzical expression on her face. "We've got to warn them, she's got poison, in her..." He struggled for the right words. "Claws." Seemed about right, she was a monster. "It's a controlling poison, it'll put them under her rule, that's how she's controlling the guards."

"You think that's what she's going to do to them, put them under her control?" Tifa said, looking up at the tall brunette, anger flaring in her eyes.

As Tifa began whispering warnings into the earpiece that even Reno didn't know was there, the redhead looked further into his memories, still thanking whatever higher power they hadn't yet been killed. Somewhere in the back of his mind he could hear Fumiko giving some elaborate speech about how they would all soon be under her control, and how the world would bow to her.

It was late, the moon had already risen high in the sky, casting a white light through the small windows that lined the top edge of the large warehouse. Reno was curled up in a small cage among many others, trying to get though another night with no sleep. He was getting very little as it was, a good hour or two a night, not much more. He curled up tighter, fighting the cold.

Suddenly voices were heard, and a pair of high heeled shoes clipped down the long flight of stairs leading from the upstairs of the building next door.

"What have we told you about going into the light?" One voice, a male, scolded.

"I know." That was definitely Fumiko. "I Know. But the snow out there, it was just so beautiful, I just couldn't resist."

Ah snow, that's why it was so cold. But what are they saying about the light?

"I don't care, you could've died out there, your body cannot take that sort of light and heat, you should know this. If you die we lose everything we've ever worked towards." The male continued, sounding much like a scolding father.

"Yes, I know." Fumiko spat out, sounding like the teenage daughter getting in trouble. "But come on, please. Can I go out tonight. There's meant to be a huge snowball fight down in the local town. It's night so..."

"No."

So Fumiko did have feelings after all. It sounded as if all she wanted to do was be a normal girl for one night.

"That's it." Reno breathed, catching Tifa's attention away from talking to Yuffie down the earpiece.

"What's it?" She asked, confused.

"I know how to defeat her." He replied, glancing around the room for some kind of switch that could open the skylight above them. "Look at her back." He said. Tifa did as instructed, confused. Was he trying to be as vague as possible? Besides, Fumiko's back was hidden completely by her hair. She didn't know what on earth he was going on about.

Meanwhile Reno was still frantically searching for a lever or something that might help them. He was so far coming up with no results.

But then, glancing over the high walls he saw it, a large pull down lever with the words skylight written on the wall next to it. He knew it worked, something inside him told him he had been in here before, watched it being opened. Either way it was their only hope, Fumiko was getting dangerously close to Elena, who was holding her ground and glaring right back at her.

"See that switch over there?" He breathed out, keeping his voice as low as possible. Tifa looked over to where he was indicating with his head, nodding as she saw it. "I think that is our solution."

"You think?" Tifa whispered sceptically.

"Hey, I'm no genius, but for now it's out best bet. Unless you can think up something better without getting us killed." He said.

"Fine. But how are we going to get there? There's no platform and it's a good thirty feet in the air above a never ending pit."

Reno simply looked at her as if she was stupid. "You're kidding, right?" He said incredulously. Tifa simply stared down at him as realization dawned.

"No. Look at how hurt you are. I'm not letting you." She said stubbornly.

"As much as I really do agree with you there, we haven't got much of a choice, it's this or let them, and us die." Reno reasoned, pointing out the obvious. He was the only one who could reach it.

Tifa sighed in defeat, it was a lost cause, there was no fighting the logic. "Fine, but you better go before she gets bored with them and moves on to us."

So, moving as slowly as they could at first, Tifa helped him up, noticing the glances they were getting from the captive group, Rude in particular was catching her attention, for a man so well known for his constant poker face, she could see the hurt and relief in his expression. She glanced up at Emily, catching her eye, trying to tell her to cause some sort of distraction. And fast.

Emily got the message, quickly working out what they were trying to do. She began struggling once again, trying to make as much noise as possible, yelling curses and random words down at Fumiko, easily catching her attention.

While everyone was dealing with the loud one known as Emily, Tifa crept backwards with Reno, holding him steady, as he shook out both wings, testing them quickly to make sure neither were injured. Once everything was proven to be in working order, Reno got ready to take to the air, praying no one would notice. As if they wouldn't. He was simply going to have to be fast, he could dodge bullets. He hoped.

"Be careful." Tifa whispered, squeezing his hand. Reno responded by placing a sound kiss on her lips, pouring everything he was feeling into the kiss, not knowing what was going to happen. When they parted, breathless, Reno smirked.

"When have I ever not been?" He said, before silently taking off into the air, powerful wings beating up and down. He sped towards the switch as fast as he possibly could.

Suddenly, a single shot rang out in the hall, echoing throughout the room. Reno had just reached the switch when he heard it, and only a split second later felt the bullet whistle past his ear. Too close.

"Hey, Fumiko." He yelled down, one hand tight on the switch, while the other hung uselessly by his side. There seemed to be a small ledge jutting out from the wall, which he was able to stand on.

Fumiko was close to scratching Elena, and, upon hearing the gunshot from one of her guards, spun around to face the Redhead by the switch. Her eyes narrowed dangerously as she held up a hand to stop the guards from firing. Reno grinned, raising his eyebrows.

"You know you don't want me to do this." He said, looking around at the others in the room, all of which were looking up at him, confused. Tifa and Emily however were both grinning, they had worked out what he was going to do.

"Truthfully, I don't know what you are talking about." Fumiko said, closing her eyes and turning her head away.

"Then why do you look away? I know what you are really like. Or what you were like." Reno said, pulling down ever so slightly on the lever. Fumiko snapped her head back, horror written plain on the lower half of her face. "how long ago was it now? Twenty, twenty one years ago? I believe I was six at the time. Or something, lost all track of the day and year by that point. I heard you saying about how you wanted to go out and play in the snow. You really were just a teenager just wanting to get out."

"I was no teenager." Fumiko growled, looking right up at him.

"Oh?"

"I'm nearly three hundred years old. An immortal, I'll live forever, never changing, I'll stay young forever." She shouted up. "I'll live forever." She repeated, quietly. "And you will never defeat me! I will take over the world!" She screamed, taking a few steps forward.

"You may be immortal, but you can still die." Reno said, before pushing as hard as he could on the lever, the huge skylight creaking slightly from lack of usage. Sunlight quickly streamed through the gap as three plates split and moved away from each other.

Fumiko screeched and tried to move away from the light that was closing in on her. But she didn't get very far as Tifa grabbed her from behind, holding her arms to her side and keeping her from moving any further.

Struggling, Fumiko found all her strength drain from her as the light drew closer.

Tifa was forced to let go as the light touched the captive woman, skin becoming too hot to bear. All eyes turned away as a blinding light filled the room, coupled with a ear-piercing shriek.

The light disappeared as quickly as it came, and the next thing everyone saw was a silver wired mask, clattering to the floor.

A/N: I was going to have the bullet actually hit Reno, but decided I've put the poor guy through enough. And it's official, my planning for this story has reached it's end about halfway through the last chapter. The main planning finished a few chapters ago, but I did have a few notes on a few more chapters, and now those have stopped, so I'm now making it up as I go along. Please tell me if I'm doing a good job at it.

Anyway, thanks to those of you who have reviewed so far. I do try to reply to all my reviews, but if I do happen to forget, I apologize now. Sorry. But please do carry on reviewing, they are my inspiration.