Disclaimer: I don't own HP or FF. If I did, I would not have killed Sirius off in the fifth book.

Sirius: Thanks a lot, Cor. That means a lot.

Harry: Okay, go ahead and spoil it for those who haven't read them yet.

Which includes a few people and kids not yet old enough to read. I don't mind.

Harry: Don't be surprised if you get emails flaming you for revealing such a major event with a spoiler warning!

Oooh...flames. Burning. Hehehe. Lemme go get my marshmellows. I know I have some somewhere in this house.

Sirius: I thought you were at school when you wrote this chapter?

Meh...

Like an idiot (at least to Harry), Hojo left the door to floor 67 wide open. Which was a good thing for Harry and friends, since they only had access to floor 66.

"I remember him," Barret remarked. "That Hojo guy? He's in charge of Shinra's Science Department. Cloud, don't you know him?"

The blonde shook his head. "This is the first time I've actually ever seen him. So that's what he looks like..."

They crept along the hallway, slipped past a few doors (one of which was open, but no one was inside). They found themselves in a small storage room. A massive tank stood to their right, and before them was a glass tube, inside was a red-furred, lion-wolf-thingy. The LWT was lieing down, its tail slowly moving itself back and forth along the floor. It appeared to be sleeping.

"Hide!" Cloud pulled Tifa and Harry behind a stack of crates behind them; Barret was already back there. They ducked out of sight just in time, for Hojo and an assistant appeared, walking in from the direction Harry, Cloud, Tifa, and Barret had come from.

"Is this today's specimen?" the assistant asked.

"Yes," Hojo replied immediately, without hesitation. "We're starting right away. Raise it to the upper level." After the employee left, Hojo placed his hand on the glass tenderly. "Ah, my precious specimen." Then, he, too, left, presumably to the next floor.

The hidden quartet stepped out. Tifa walked up to the glass to get a better look. "'Precious specimen'...?" she repeated. "Is it going to be used for a biological experiment?"

"Jenova..." Cloud muttered. Harry turned and noticed he was staring through a small window in the large tank; inside, Harry could just see the body of a female human-shaped creature. It seemed to be missing its head. His attention was torn away when Cloud collapsed. He knelt down and pulled Cloud to a sitting position; Tifa supported his weight against herself. "Jenova...Sephiroth's...So, they brought it here..."

"Cloud, be strong!" Tifa encouraged.

"Did you see it?" the mercenary asked.

"See what?" Barret grumbled. He walked up to the tank and peered through the door.

"It's moving...still alive?" Cloud muttered.

"Where the fuck is its head? This whole thing is stupid. Let's keep goin'," Barret growled.

Cloud stood up. Deeper in the storage, Barret leaned down and pulled up a green Materia. "Poison," he muttered. He slid it into an open slot on his gun-arm before joining the other three on a small elevator. Once they were all squeezed inside, Harry, who was closest, pushed the 'Up' button. With a jolt, the elevator began to take them up.

They arrived in a research lab, far more advanced than the one on the floor below. Positioned so that it was directly above the glass tube on the floor below was another, larger glass tube. Inside there was Aeris; Hojo was standing before them, speaking to an assistant who quickly went up into some sort of controlling mechanism. The four of them burst from the elevator, Cloud and Harry drawing their weapons once they had the room.

"Aeris!"

"Aeris? Oh, is that her name?" Hojo asked, looking at them in slight surprise. "What do you want?"

"We're taking Aeris back," Cloud barked.

"Outsiders..." Hojo muttered.

"Shoulda noticed it earlier, you..." Barret growled.

"There's so many frivolous things in this world," Hojo remarked, as though he was musing outloud to himself. Cloud, Harry, and Barret moved closer. "Are you going to kill me? I don't think you should. The equipment here is extremely delicate. Without me, who could operate it? Hmm?"

"Ugh," Cloud grunted.

"That's right. I recommend you think things out logically before you make any rash moves," Hojo mocked them.

"We don't need to operate the machinery, Doc," Harry said. "We only need to smash the glass tube and we can be on our way."

Hojo waved himoff. "Now, bring in the Specimen!" he ordered his assistant.

The sound of an elevator reached Harry's ears; the LWT from the floor below was raised into the glass tube with Aeris. The creature twitched its tail and stood up. Aeris blinked at it before turning to pound frailly on the glass. Harry couldn't read lips very well, but the expression on the flower girl's face clearly said, 'HELP!'

"What do you think you're doing?" Cloud demanded of the scientist.

"Lending a helping hand to an endangered species...Both of them are on the brink of extinction..." Hojo answered calmly. "If I don't help, all these animals will disappear."

"...Animal? That's terrible! Aeris is a human being!" Tifa cried.

"You're gonna pay!" Barret roared.

"Barret! Can't you do anything?" Harry asked.

The leader of AVALANCHE aimed his gun at the tube. "Awright! Step back!" He ignored Hojo's cry of "Stop!" and fired. The bullets struck the glass repeatedly; the inside began to glow with a brilliant white light as it malfunctioned. Hojo ran to the tube and opened the door.

"Wh...what are you do--Oh! My precious specimens!"

The glow subsided and Harry noticed that the LWT was poised, ready to pounce, at the door. It leapt forward and attacked Hojo. "Now's our chance to get Aeris!" Cloud cried. He ran in and pulled Aeris to her feet.

"Thanks, Cloud," Aeris said. They exited the tube and gathered around harry, Tifa, and Barret. Harry watched as the tube began to glow again, and the elevator started up.

"Harry, what's wrong?" Tifa asked.

"The elevator is moving," he replied.

Hojo managed to throw off the LWT and crawled away. "This is no ordinary specimen. This is a very ferocious specimen!"

To the immense surprise of the group or rescuers, including Aeris, and to the mild surprise of Harry (who, after all, had plenty of experience in such matters), the LWT spoke. "He's rather strong. I'll help you all out."

"It talked?" Tifa squawked.

"I'm not really surprised," Harry said.

"I'll talk as much as you want later, Miss."

"We'll take care of that monster," Cloud volunteered. "Somebody take Aeris somewhere safe..." He looked at Tifa, Barret, and Harry. "I'm counting on you, kid."

Harry nodded. He took Aeris by the hand and pulled her away as a massive, sickly-green monster stepped out of the tube.

"What's your name?" Cloud asked the LWT quickly.

"Hojo has named me, 'Red XIII.' A name with no meaning whatsoever to me. Call me whatever you wish," the LWT replied, bristling at the monster before them.

"How about just 'Red' for now?" Tifa remarked. Red XIII seemed to shrug its shoulders; at least, it rolled its shoulders, and Harry took it as a shrug.

"Come on!" Cloud ground out, ducking under a swing of the creature's long arm. He dashed in and countered with a stab before backing away from a surprisingly-fast counter-attack. Tifa glowed green and threw a bolt of lightning, which had little effect on it. Barret let loose an almost continuous stream of gunfire, which helped to slow the monster down. Red XIII stepped back and put his nose to the ground; he glowed green and cast a flashier, more-powerful looking version of Fire than what Cloud could do. Under the heat, the beast fell back.

"If you can't stand the heat, get out of the kitchen," Harry smirked. Aeris giggled nervously, gripping her short staff from where she had kept it. "Hey...didn't they take that away when they caught you?"

"Nope. It's collapsible; they couldn't find it without extensive searching, which they didn't bother to do."

"Hmm...You know what? I don't think it would be appropiate if you told me where you hid it," Harry quipped. Aeris swatted the back of his head with a hand, but giggled nonetheless.

Under the continued assault of gunfire and two people casting Fire (or Fira, as Aeris called Red's version), the monster quickly succumbed and died. Cloud hurriedly scooped up the coins and split half of it with Red XIII.

"Aeris, are you all right?" Cloud asked her.

"She seems all right, in many ways" Tifa observed.

"I have a right to choose, too," Red XIII declared. "I don't like two-legged things."

"What are you?" Barret asked, somewhat rudely.

"An informed question, but difficult to answer. I am what you see," Red answered. "You must have many quesitons, but first, let's get out of here. I'll lead the way."

"Cloud...so you did come for me," Aeris breathed.

Red XIII leaped over the railing toward the exit. He turned and looked at Aeris. "I apologize for what happened back there. I was merely acting to throw Hojo off guard..."

"Speaking of Hojo, where did he go?" Harry wondered.

"Now we've saved Aeris, ain't no need to be in this buildin'!" Barret grumbled. "So let's get the hell outta here!"

"If all six of us go together, we'll be noticed. Let's break up into two groups," Cloud suggested. Barret and Aeris went with the mercenary; Red XIII and Tifa gathered around Harry.

"Don't forget, the elevator is on the 66th floor," Red remarked.

"We'll be going first! Meet at the 66th floor elevator," Tifa agreed.

Harry, Tifa, and Red went back down to lab elevator to the 67 floor. They blew through the corridors, flying past surprised employees and brushing past dazed guards. They more or less jumped down the stairs to the 66th floor, and immediately piled into an elevator; they were just about to press the 'Down' button when someone else boarded the elevator behind them. Harry heard the 'click' of pistols.

"H, hey! What is it?" Tifa asked.

"Would you press 'Up' please?" he asked.

Harry snorted confidently. "I'm new at cracking wisecracks like that, but even I can tell that one was bad."

"Turks? Must be a trap..." Red muttered.

"It must have been a real thrill for you..." another Turk mocked. "Did you enjoy it?"

"Ggh..." Harry groaned.

Harry: 'Ggh'? I'd never say that.

Don't worry; you only said it because there was a gun pointed at your back.

Sirius: Heheh.

Harry: Don't do that, Sirius. It's just...creepy.