"Hey, you oughta know this building well," Barret said to Cloud as they stood directly outside the towering building. He must have been referring back to his days as a SOLDIER recruit.

"…Not really," Cloud retorted. "Now that I think about it, this's the first time I've ever been to the Headquarters."

"I heard about this place before," said Barret as he looked up. "Every floor above the 60th is special and not easy to get to, even for employees. Must be where they took Aeris."

Barret glanced around inspecting every corner of the seemingly unoccupied entranceway.

"The security's pretty light now. Awright, let's go!"

"Wait a second!" Tifa yelled, "You're not thinking of just going right through the main entrance, are you?"

"Well what else does it look like!?" he quipped back. "I'm gonna kick some Shinra butt and…"

Tifa swiftly interrupted him.

"That's not going to work! We've got to find another way…"

"Ain't gonna be no other way! If we keep wastin' time like this, Aeris'll…"

"I know that! But if we get caught here…" – She trailed off and turned to Cloud. "Hey, Cloud. …What should we do?"

"Let's sneak in quietly," he replied.

Going in all guns blazing might have worked for Barret, but he was still naïve to think that Shinra could be infiltrated so easily. They were sly and sometimes you had to sink to their level if you wanted to be in with a chance of toppling the leaders at the top. Shinra fought dirty. It was time they had a taste of their own medicine.

"See?" Tifa agreed. "Let's be careful and find a different route!"

Cloud spotted a small alley to their left. It may have been a dead-end but it was worth checking out. Entering a dimly lit metal passageway, they followed it through. Cloud half expected Shinra soldiers to jump out at them but instead, he came face to face with a ginormous winding staircase that seemed to go on forever.

"Yo… you really gonna take these stairs all the way up?" Barret asked as they ascended the first flight.

"Well we've got to get to Aeris to help her somehow," Tifa replied.

"Talk about out of the way…" he huffed.

"I don't have time to argue with you!" snapped Tifa. "I'm going!"

She darted up the stairs quicker than a racing Chocobo, leaving Barret gasping for air in her wake.

"Y-Yo, Tifa!" he wheezed. "Don't go off alone!"

He limbered up, cracking his back in the process, and followed her, Cloud trailing behind.

They had ascended a dozen or so flights of steps and Cloud still couldn't see the top. How long did this thing go on for!?

"Don't know…why…the hell…we gotta…climb…" Barret puffed.

"Because we don't want to start a commotion until we've saved Aeris," Cloud replied level-headedly. "I doubt that's possible though."

Barret chuckled as if he wanted it all to kick off. The man had a lot of pent up aggression in that muscular body of his. All he really wanted to do was smash some big wig's face in. Cloud also wanted to. Heck, they all did. Sector 7 was where Tifa made a living, where Barret and Marlene lived, where AVALANCHE formed… where Biggs, Wedge and Jessie had died… Life was so unfair, but they had to keep quiet, at least until they had saved Aeris.

"Knock it off. You're giving me the creeps," Cloud scolded.

They moved up the steps in silence until Barret broke the tension.

"So even you will fight for someone else," he said. "I had you figured wrong I guess."

"Who cares what you figured!" Cloud snapped back.

"I'm just sayin' mebbe I was wrong…" Barret sheepishly replied.

Tifa stopped up ahead, put her hands on her hips and started to giggle as if she'd just remembered a funny joke. Cloud wasn't amused. What exactly was she laughing at anyway? Was it something he said?

"What's that supposed to mean, Tifa?" he asked her.

She didn't answer. That was typical of her. Why did she say and do things and then go silent on him? This wasn't a game and now was not the time to start acting silly. They had to save Aeris before the Shinra started experimenting on her. She was just a specimen to them. They didn't care if she felt pain, or if she was cold or hungry, but they did need her to live. Bastards.

They continued up the flight of steps. Cloud was used to fighting battles but this was exhausting. His legs felt as stiff as wood but as light as a feather. It was a strange feeling, probably due to the excessive amounts of steps he'd already climbed. His muscles were growing tired. He wondered if he was dreaming but he knew how real this was. They were really doing this. They were really storming the Shinra Headquarters, and somewhere within him was the tiniest pang of excitement.

He was roused from his thoughts when Barret started to complain again.

"…How much farther do these stairs go on?"

"Why don't you ask them?" Tifa replied.

Cloud shook his head. What was she on?

"It's not one of them endless stairways or somethin' d'ya think?" wondered Barret.

He was joking, right? Even so, there was something dreamlike about this whole scenario – or maybe it was a nightmare. Perhaps it would have been better storming the front entrance after all.

"Of course not!" Tifa yelled with such vigour that it sounded like she was trying really hard to convince herself.

"Right… couldn't be that…" Barret huffed.

They had climbed so many flights of stairs now that Cloud figured they should be in space. Maybe this was some sort of whimsical method of security that Shinra had cooked up to prevent intruders from entering – never-ending stairs. He laughed. One thing was for sure; these stairs were slowly turning them all insane.

"Are we there yet?" moaned Barret.

"Not yet," said Tifa.

"…there yet?" he asked again not even two seconds later.

"I said not yet!" she snapped back.

"Yo…" began Barret.

Before he could continue, Tifa interrupted him with an extravagant display of annoyance in her voice.

"Look, don't even ask! We're way way way way far away from being there, ok!?"

Cloud couldn't help but shake his head. He was mostly annoyed at the constant bickering but another part of him found it amusing.

"Damn, man!" Barret bellowed. "I've had it! I'm going back!"

"And take just as long going down as you did coming up?"

They stopped for a breather. Tifa was perspiring slightly, her skin shiny, but sweat was pouring from Barret's face and he was breathing very heavily.

"C'mon, Barret. Pull it together!" said Tifa.

"Yeah, well all I know is I'm just flesh 'n' blood… 'cept for this arm of mine. Don't treat me like I'm some ex-member of SOLDIER or somethin'…"

"What about me!?" Tifa retorted. "I'm human too! Oh, do what you want, I'm going on!"

She stomped up the stairs but then stopped halfway up and turned around with a sheepish look on her face.

"Barret!" she cried. "You go first!"

"What're ya ignorant? I didn't mean that…"

"Alright, alright!"

Barret shook his head, took a big gulp of air and continued.

"Cloud, you go on ahead too!"

What was up with her? Not wanted to waste any more time, he rushed past her and could hear her footfalls as she trailed behind.

"Yo… what floor is this?" asked Barret as they were halfway up another set of stairs.

"I gave up counting," Tifa replied miserably.

"Why they gotta build these buildings so damn tall?" Barret wheezed as he stopped for a breather. "That Shinra…they're just no damn good…"

They continued in uncomfortable silence. Whichever way you looked at it, Cloud was the Elfadunk in the room. He was, for a long time, a part of Shinra. He was fighting for a corrupt organisation. He didn't know it at the time. It was a childhood dream of his to join SOLDIER; not just join them but rise to the top. He always strived to be the best and he was blindsided by his pride and he failed to see the bigger picture – that Shinra and all that it stood for was evil through and through. Did that make him evil too? He could understand Barret being standoffish but he and Tifa were childhood friends. Did she see him differently now? So many questions were running through his head.

"Man, I'm beat," Barret huffed. "Marlene, Daddy wanted to see your face one more time…"

"Would you stop acting dumb and climb!?" Tifa growled.

Tifa had always had a temper on her. At least this time she was directing it towards Barret.

"It's just a bit more!" she gasped. "...Maybe."

Man, Cloud hoped that was true. He would be glad to see the back of these stairs. They entered the next level and saw an exit at the top with a bright light emanating from within it. Finally! They pushed themselves to their limits towards the gleaming exit, stopping just in front of it so that they could catch their breath. Even though they had no more stairs to climb, no one knew what lay on the other side.

"F…finally…M…made it…" croaked Barret. "N… never wanna see… no more stairs the rest of my life…"

Limbering up, Barret walked through the door, leaving just Cloud and Tifa in the stairwell.

"This really takes it out of you…" Tifa muttered, breathlessly. "But this is it. We'd better get ready…!"

There was no going back now. They followed Barret through the door and into the main Shinra building.

To be continued…