Chapter XIX

Lonely in Your Nightmare

"Holy Shinra. Does our floating sadist expect us to climb that?" - Cloud

Tifa clung to Cloud as they tumbled down the embankment, the moss and vines dampening the impact but the hits still landing like hammer blows in succession. She heard his phone shatter on a rock, while hers tumbled end over end ahead of them. Finally, she fetched up against a jutting log, her head striking a chunk of granite hard enough to split open her helmet and fill her head with bursts of stars. The impact tore Cloud loose and she heard him snap through a patch of cane below. She dangled supine down the hillside like a dog's tongue, one foot caught in a tree hollow, limbs akimbo, her chest screaming as if a lawnmower had fallen onto it.

A moan came from down below. Good. She wanted him alive so she could tell him "I told you so."

Plop. Her phone dropped into the pond below. Not so good.

Above, the bike sputtered and died. Perhaps Violet Jenova had put it out of its misery. She at least had heeded Tifa's warning shout. Below, more groans and the rattling of cane. Beyond where Cloud now tried to unfold himself like human origami, a green crusted pond puffed out an odor strong enough to curdle vinegar. She rubbed some mud under her nose to drown out the smell.

"And that, my dear friends, is why we wear leather when we ride."

Tifa waited until Carmine's circular sled stopped eclipsing the sun. "Thanks for the advice, Carmine. Now can you possibly keep your, pet, from lying in wait for us every turn?"

"Mashmouth gets jealous. You need to get used to it."

"Lying in ambush? Get used to it?"

"Die, Yuffie!" came the guttural voice from above. The remains of a parrot-mostly feathers-drifted down the hillside.

"He has his lovable side," Carmine said.

"Which one?"

"His back side, when he passes by your hiding place."

Tifa glanced down when the canes rattled again. Cloud's hand appeared and he began to drag himself up the hillside.

"Oh dear." Carmine rotated her disk. "That has to hurt. But Tifa, you strike a great pose. Anyone passing by can look right up your skirt."

To her surprise, Tifa broke out in laughter. Carmine looked nonplussed, which made her laugh even harder. Priscilla, Carmine's passenger, glanced in Tifa's direction with sightless eyes. "I'm just hanging in here, kid," Tifa said, wincing at her own joke. "And considering the pain I'm in, the prospect of someone looking up my skirt ranks, somewhere below watching television bowling - " A sharp pain in her side made her cry out.

"Just a rock," she called out, mostly to reassure herself. Now, to curl into an inclined sit-up. Deep breath. After several false starts she gathered enough momentum to launch her torso up, though with a screaming groan that nearly knocked leaves off the nearby trees. At long last, both hands grasped the rim of the hollow that had seized her twisted ankle. The release of pressure flooded her lower leg with pain, to which she responded with a metal-tearing screech.

"My Lord, girl," Carmine said. "You sound like you're giving birth."

"Have you? Given birth?"

"Goodness no. I have people for that."

"Figured you'd say that." Tifa inched her bottom up the log, bending her caught leg at the knee while trying to catch a foothold with her good leg. She found a sheared off stump, if too far down the slope to both brace on it and extract her ankle. And she could not get much leverage doing the inclined splits in any case.

"Are you going to help me up or not?"

Carmine bobbled in surprise. "Well, I suppose if I let you fall to your death, I'll have a lot harder time fishing your lovely legs out of that slime so, sure. Here." She extended a hand.

Tifa grasped it, and with her other hand, the floating disc. With excruciating groans and thread-the-needle movements, she finally teased her twisted ankle out of the hollow. Carmine glided them free of the vegetation, pausing over the pond, until Tifa said, "My lovely legs. Remember?" Gliding up over to the path, she set Tifa down more gently than expected, except Tifa accidentally put some weight on her bad foot.

"Ahhh! Gah!" She collapsed onto her back, blackness filling her vision as she panted a full minute to make the stars disappear. A pair of Violets leaned over her.

"That looks painful," said one. "We will need to set the bone before you cast a Cure spell. Unless you want to spend your life walking on a club foot."

"Not yet. Help Carmine save Cloud first."

"Oh, so I'm going to rescue your boyfriend as well? Huh." The disc whirled a full three-sixty. "Then again, he will also owe me a favor for the rest of his life."

"Don't bet on it," Tifa said as the disc whirled off.

The Violets had already tied a coil of rope to a tree, and one of them hurled the loose end down the slope. The other Violet laid a cool hand on Tifa's forehead and massaged one of her shoulders.

"You must be the Cetra."

"I only wanted to dance."

"You both say that. But you take less pleasure in tearing my foot off."

Cloud's cries of pain echoed from the sinkhole.

"The Jenova delights in other people's pain. Why do you think she became a nurse?"

"That's not why anyone becomes a nurse."

"She actually started as a midwife."

"Wasn't she like, frozen inside a crystal or something?"

"That's her story."

With a final cry, Cloud heaved himself aboard their trail, flopping next to the stranded bike, his leg dragging off to the side in a pose that hurt Tifa to look at it. Carmine drifted by on her disc, tut-tutting about how she now owned both of their souls. Tifa tuned her out. Blue Violet approached Tifa and gazed down at her foot with what looked like hunger in her eyes.

"You feed on pain, don't you?" Tifa said.

Green violet grasped Tifa's hand. "What's that Shinra people say? We can give her a cake and let her eat it too?"

"I don't eat cake. Trying to cut down on carbs. Sorry, Tifa. This is going to hurt." Jenova Violet seized Tifa's calf and her injured foot. "On the bright side, after this, giving birth will feel like a breeze."

Tifa opened her mouth to scream but found herself - at a country fair?

"Over here," the almond skinned girl said. "I need a dance partner."

"Where are we?" Tifa asked, gazing at the decorated tents, sniffing roasted meat and baking bread.

"I told you. Midsummer harvest festival. But I need a dance partner. Will you dance with me?"

"I don't know how to dance but I'll give it a try."

"Great! You don't need to know how - just move your feet and the music will carry you."

She found herself in a crenelated ring, over a hundred dancers wearing flowers in their hair, Violet wearing . . . yellow violets contrasting with her azure sundress. A violin struck an opening note and the crowd adjusted their formation into a giant snowflake. Everyone froze when a teary-eyed woman ran into the middle.

"Where is my little Iffy? Anyone seen my Iffy?"

Iffy. "Ifalna?" Tifa said, seeing the resemblance on the woman's face. Her hair even had Aeris' wave.

"You've seen her? She's run off again. She will miss the dance and with those clouds coming in, she'll get soaked. She's afraid of thunder, my little Iffy."

"You all need to run!" Tifa felt alarm build. The drumbeats of helicopters grew closer.

Streaks of fire shot into nearby tents. Screams and frantic movement came from all around.

"If you can't run, at least play dead!" Tifa herself screamed as a young couple flew to the ground in front of her. She searched the madness and smoke for Violet. She spotted her huddling near the outside of the ring. Tifa ran to her, searching the sky for their attackers. More shots. More screams. Tifa reached Violet just as the Shinra blue helicopter hove into view. Multiple flashes fired from its open doors.

"Get behind me!"

Violet actually obeyed. More people fell around them. Tifa, rage burning, stared up at the whirling death bird.

"Die you pig licking Shinra bastards!" The streak of fire shot from her fingertips, struck the helicopter amidships and blew it apart in an orange starburst.

"Well, that didn't happen before," Violet said.

Tifa awoke, her leg on fire but she barely felt it. Jenova Violet looked at her with a satiated grin. Tifa wiggled her injured foot. At least her toes pointed the correct way.

"Die you pig licking Shinra bastards?" Carmine said with a raised eyebrow. "I should use that one with my cousin."

"I still didn't get to dance. But at least I had a partner."

Tifa struggled to her feet. She had to throw a couple Cure spells on herself but, with the help of a tree, she stood on her own.

"Teef?" Cloud said, barely above a whisper. "What did you - "

Tifa activated her Seal materia, casting a Deep Sleep spell on Cloud. "Sorry Violet. And Violet. You have both eaten enough pain for today. Fix his leg, please?"

Carmine buzzed beside her as Tifa stumbled a few steps along the path. A pair of switchbacks - which Cloud would have missed if he hadn't wiped them out on that rock - led them to a viewpoint through the tree line. Above the jungle, a stone butte rose above the mist and clouds, capped by a darker green crown of forest. Near the top, Tifa could see vines trailing down the sides and, if she squinted hard enough, a trail that snaked all the way up the cliff face to the summit.

"Feel up to climbing that?" Carmine pointed at a tumble of rocks near the base. "After you get through those, you have clear sailing all the way up."

"With you hovering alongside taunting me the whole way, I suppose?"

"I give you encouragement when I see opportunities. Just as they do at the Academy."

"Except I know you're lying."

"I do not lie. I give alternative facts."

"Well, when we get half way up, and you start encouraging me about my, opportunities, I will take this rock and knock out that Gravity materia under you, and see if you can pull off 'alternative flying.'"

"No fighting," Priscilla said, facing in the direction of the butte.

"I suppose you could use the portal in the ruins of Ithell to access the Ancient Forest, since you don't have a green chocobo, or the stamina for a brisk hike."

"And these ruins are where?"

"In that hollow near the base of the cliff. But you will have to travel through the Wasting."

"It's always something with you, isn't it? And you never told us why you blame yourself for that, what did you call it? Wasting."

Tifa heard a groan behind them. She turned to find Cloud hobbling toward her, braced by a Violet on either side, though he couldn't lean on the corporeally challenged Violet. Tifa ran to him and took his other arm.

"Leg looks good. Maybe Carmine will ask to take your legs instead of mine. Did you feel any pain?"

"Plenty, trying to crawl up that hill. What on the Planet did they do to you, Teef?"

"Well, ghost Violet here, showed me, some things."

"She would have danced with me," Green Violet said, "But we didn't get the chance."

"You have to stop reliving your death over and over. Suppose the four of us reenacted your midsummer dance. Carmine, can you play the fiddle?"

"Goodness no. I have people for that."

"Holy Shinra," Cloud said, gazing up at the butte. "Does our floating sadist expect us to climb that?"

"My nurse is the sadist," Carmine said. "I prefer clean kills."

"You mean like, stringing people up on from poles by skewers through their flesh?"

"That was different. That, Zinnia girl, annoyed me."

"No fighting." Priscilla's voice made Cloud release his grip on his sword.

"You sound like my mother when Tifa came over to play."

"And you still don't have the guts to ask her out, eh spike?" Carmine grinned. "With or without your big sword."

"Priscilla, is there a way you can shut her up?"

"Wait," Tifa said. "First, I want to hear about that village of Ithell and how you caused the Wasting."

"I didn't actually cause it but, I may have, helped it grow a bit? Or maybe a lot. Ravaging is old school. I may have smashed a few shell houses but my heart wasn't in it." Carmine levitated her disc as if for a better look. "Oh screw it." She returned to ground level. "It was my fault. I gave Gregor the location. And, helped him a bit. With, things I learned at the Gold River Academy."

"Like how to kill people."

"He already knew about that. I offered ways to make it - ugh. I'm beginning to think I'm not a nice person."

Cloud snorted so loudly he nearly dropped his sword. He grabbed Tifa with free arm. "Because of you, Carmine, I held Tifa's broken body in my arms. Because of you - " He sniffed. "I lost her, and I - "

"You have her now, don't you? You also have me. Talk about a hate triangle."

"Die, Yuffie . . ." The voice bubbled up from down the trail. Tifa clenched her fists.

"Priscilla, will you at least let me smash that thing? I don't want it slobbering that line when we actually rescue Yuffie."

"Just run on ahead out of peace-zombie range," Carmine said. "Remember to scream loud enough when the acid burns the flesh off your bones. It will let us know it's not safe."

"Thanks for the pep talk."

"Five minutes, Teef." Cloud picked up a sturdy stick and hobbled a few steps ahead of her. "Just remember what that thing did to my sword."

"I don't plan to use my bare hands." Tifa located an Ice materia. Dodging his attempted grab, she hurried down the trail, pausing at each switchback, trying to draw a visual. She yelped when she nearly ran into Violet half way down the hill.

"Would you like me to scout ahead? Or would that spoil the surprise?"

"You're my ghost Violet, right?" Tifa paused for breath. "Else how did you get down so fast?"

"Answer my question."

"Of course I want you to scout for me. Duh."

"Huh." Violet vanished.

"Whatever." Tifa continued her descent. Two switchbacks later, she nearly plowed into Violet again.

"Will you stop doing that?"

"Take a look at this. I promise you'll like it."

Tifa crept to the edge of an outcropping, allowing her a view below through a break in the trees. "Well, I didn't expect that."

"Ho-ho-hoo! What did you expect?" Bugenhagen drifted along the live-looking stone and metal wall. "The City of Doors. Ages since I've been here. Fascinating place."

"Of course you've been here," Cissnei said. "Find a place in the universe he hasn't been. That's your challenge, folks."

"Oh, we are in the multiverse, daughter of Shinra. You won't find any stars shining here."

"Same difference. I take it we go through this locked gate?"

Vincent gave his signature shrug. Barret looked at the knotted lock and hasp array as if they would bite him. And he would bet money they could.

"The Alley of Sighs," Bugenhagen said. "I helped it give birth once."

Barret coughed. "I don't even want to know what you mean by that."

"Looking for a good time, cutter? Oh, it's you again."

"Excuse me. Did you see a muscular young man carrying an unconscious girl past here?"

"Sod it! I don't make it my business to notice such things. Good way to get your guts spilled on here street, berk."

"Yo. In theory, if someone like that did come along, which direction would he sod off to?"

"Can you make it worth me time? Perhaps if yonder genie granted me one of them wishes it might jog me brain box. Otherwise, you need to talk good ole' jink-jink."

"Genie! Ho-ho-hoo!" Bugenhagen bobbed in a most genie-like manner. "I have no wishes to give, but I do have dazers."

"What ye be talkin' about?"

"With enough of these, ho-ho-hoo, legend has it you can take down Ruby Weapon. I offer you a pack of twenty, plus a Heal materia. It will remove any diseases you may acquire in these less than sanitary locations."

"Do ye have any rubies from said weapon? Those rattle better than copper jink any time."

"You don't want to meet Ruby Weapon. Not even the Lady would care to tangle with that enemy."

"Ach, are ye daft? Ye cannot invoke the Lady and live! Just, open the latch here. That will get you to where you seek." Her hands invoked mystical symbols in front of her.

"Here are your dazers. Ho-ho-hoo! Barret, give her the Heal materia."

"What, me?" He grumbled. "Fine. But I'm giving her Yuffie's. We can grow a new one after we rescue the brat."

Vincent lifted a blade-shaped lever and the gate swung open as if on oiled hinges. "The axe says go this way."

"Lead on then." But Vincent had already drifted through, Bugenhagen bobbing behind him with swishing noises. This continued down several switchbacks, until they emerged through an open wrought-iron gate into a tiled plaza, business buildings all around, including a fume-belching foundry and a central, spire shaped tower thrusting up into the layers of haze.

"This place smells like mako exhaust," Cissnei said, covering her face with her shirt. "Where to now?"

"The axe points to that tower."

"Oh hell." Barret glanced about, from an abandoned church with glowing stained glass in the steeple, to the foundry gates guarded by ogre beasts in so much armor he doubted they could bend over, much less move.

"Of course it's the tower," Cissnei said. "The place I least want to go. And that says a lot here."

"Is that a goddamn slave auction?" Barret pointed to a paddock near the foundry where several men stood linked in chains and an auctioneer babbled to a gathering crowd.

"Let's not get separated." Cissnei pointed ahead to where the other two floated forwards. They ignored calls from street vendors and hucksters until their reached their goal, the black metal column with no perceivable method of entrance. "Now what, fellas?"

"The axe wishes to enter the tower. Perhaps we enter higher up?"

"I don't plan to huff in that smog. Besides. You don't see any wings on me, do you? Though Barret might be able to grapple his way up."

A sulfurous hiss snapped them to attention. Another abishai, this one larger and with an olive-green shade, stalked its way up the wooden ramp toward them.

"Oh, not this again. Form up!" Barret aimed his gun. Checked for actual ammo. Yes! About time.

"You . . . die . . . " the creature said, belching sulfur dioxide with every step. "Get me . . . in tower . . ."

Cissnei readied her shuriken. "I have absolutely no desire to help you or get into your tower. So buzz off!"

A blue swirl of a portal opened beside her. Bugenhagen flew in with a "Ho-ho-hoo!" Vincent shrugged and followed. Barret fired one warning shot and pulled Cissnei through, the image of the snarling beast leaping through the air at him ending with the scrabbling of claws on black metal.

"It, didn't get in?" Cissnei said. "It looked like it really wanted to."

"Ho-ho-hoo! If the rumors are true, you can only enter the tower by having no desire to enter the tower. We did it, first try!"

"I still have no desire to be in here. How will we get out?"

Vincent said, "The axe says go up."

The cylinder had a metal ladder against its skin, but Vincent did not deign to climb it, opting to rise on an invisible thermal. Bugenhagen also floated up like a bearded smoke signal.

"Swell," Cissnei said.

"Wait. Grab me around my waist." Barret flipped his gun to grapple and aimed for a metal catwalk high overhead. "We'll show those smartasses to abandon you."

"Ha!" said Cissnei when they rocketed past Vincent. Bugenhagen responded with a "Ho-ho-hoo!"

"Wow. Good thing I'm not afraid of heights." Cissnei tested the catwalk. "And I never wear heels."

"I never understood why women torture their feet with those."

The path led to an adjoining chamber and took a right angle. Cissnei peeked around and cringed. "I don't suppose we can go around the giant head."

Metal clanging echoed from the other room. "The axe wishes to go that way." Vincent hovered over the catwalk.

"Sure it does. That giant golem probably lost it."

As a group they turned the corner. Barret peered through the catwalk to ensure the metal head indeed had a body attached. Though trapped inside a form fitting metal shell, the metal creature still had enough room to pound on a giant anvil. Arrays of armor, shields, and weapons covered the walls, some hanging from pegs and others lying in piles on shelves.

Vincent floated forward, holding the axe sideways. "It says, home is on that curved hook."

"Maybe you should take up finding lost puppies and rescuing kittens from trees next," Barret said, stomping a foot. "But thanks for the wild goose chase."

"WHO ENTERS MY DOMAIN?"

"Damn!" Barret leaped back.

"WELL, DAMN, WHAT IS IT YOU SEEK?"

"Not damn, I'm Barret. I seek a thief and a killer. Who the hell are you?"

"COAXMETAL. THE FORGE OF CHAOS."

"Do you work for the cable company? Never mind. Have you seen our thief? He's about yay tall, has a bad haircut, takes steroids, and keeps a stupid grin on his punchable face."

"I GET FEW VISITORS."

"You'd remember this one. He pisses everyone off wherever he goes. And he came in swinging that axe and Vinnie said the axe was telling him where to find this weasel. So I figured he might have passed through. Maybe he lifted the axe from you?"

"THE BUTCHERER OF INNOCENTS. AN AMAZING PIECE."

"Yea. We want the thief who stole it from you. You can have your, ahem, amazing piece back for all I care."

"AND YOU WISH NO REWARD?"

"We only want the thief. He stole something from us."

"THE THIEF WAS FLEET OF FOOT, SILVER OF TONGUE, SLIGHT OF BUILD."

"Well that doesn't sound like - "

"AND, FOR SOME REASON, WORE A YELLOW LEOTARD."

Barret gulped. "Yuffie stole your weapon?"

"WEAPONS."

"That other thing he had. Entropic hammer? She stole that too?"

"THE ENTROPIC BLADE, YES. SHE WOULD NOT GIFT ME THE MEANS TO ESCAPE."

"She, had the means?" Well, thank the Planet she didn't let this overgrown mannequin loose on the world.

"AS DO YOU."

"What the - " The Torment materia? Cutting portals as if the planes were paper angels? "I feel like, lettin' you free ain't the wisest idea."

"TO RAVAGE. TO DESTROY. TO LAY WASTE TO THE MULTIVERSE. AND YOU WON'T LET ME FREE?"

"Yea, like that. That whole ravaging thing. It's hell on property values. But do you know where your thief is now?"

"YES. I KNOW THE LOCATION OF ANYONE WHO STEALS FROM ME. AND WHEN I AM FREE, I SHALL REND THEIR FLESH FROM THEIR BONES, ONE MUSCLE FIBER AT A TIME."

"How about you tell us where to find your thief and we will get that entropic hammer thing back to you? And you can keep this damned axe as a gesture of goodwill?"

"I, CAN DO THAT. THIS LOCATOR CHARM." Ching! "AND YOU WILL RETURN WHAT WAS STOLEN?"

"Yes. Absolutely, man." Unless he could find a way to destroy it.

"AND YOU WILL RELEASE ME TO RAVAGE, DESTROY, AND LAY WASTE?"

"Are you out of your mind?"

"IT WAS WORTH A TRY."

"So this thing, will find Yuffie, huh? One question. Who trapped you in here?"

"THE LADY OF PAIN."

"I guess she didn't approve of all the ravaging, huh?" Barret took a few more steps down the catwalk, the metal charm vibrating like an old PHS phone in his good hand. At the far end, a blue portal opened up. "Don't tell me you had an exit all this time." Though with a glance back at Coaxmetal, he figured his size might stop him. Hoped, anyway. Unless he sliced himself into pieces. "This way, gang."

The rest of the group filed past, Bugenhagen with a "Ho-ho-hoo!"

"Don't underestimate him, metal man. He says he dated the Lady of Pain."

"I KNOW. HOW DO YOU THINK HE LOST HIS LEGS?"

"I told you not to do that. Do you want to break your legs?" Violet stood on an outcropping of basalt. Water and moss trickled over the side. Tifa, having taken a shortcut, had to launch herself into the air when the going got too steep. She stuck the landing, but the cursed rock shifted beneath her good foot and left her sprawled on the path. "Always stick to the trail. Don't you know that?"

She grabbed a hanging vine and grunted to her feet. "Care to help me up? Oh, you can't. You don't have a body."

"Bodies are more trouble than they are worth. You work years to get it into passable shape and a squirrel muncher in a helicopter shoots it."

"I'm sorry but I'm in a hurry right now." Sounds of combat rang through the trees.

"You need a white horse the way you charge into battle."

"Care to scout ahead? For real this time?"

"I didn't tell you to leap down that cliff."

"Die, Yuffie!" The voice came from beyond a row of trees. Shots rang out in response, followed by the sound of a colossal pig vomiting. Tifa bounded down the final two switchbacks, albeit with a limp, emerging on a bluff above a rocky stream. A meadow on the far side rippled with fleeing animals, except for one grizzled goat that charged, horns lowered, straight into Mashmouth, who had just climbed from the water. They collided with the sound of a bowl of Jello hitting the floor.

"Bessie!" A man said. He raised a rifle and fired in the direction of Mashmouth. "Wait. That ain't Bessie. That's Mack." He fired again. "Get 'im, Mack!"

Mack pawed the ground with front legs and waited for Mashmouth's next appearance. The green frog-dog thing attempted a trick leap; it angled to Mack's left, unleashing a barrage of vomit midair, but another rifle shot caused the goat to bolt just in time. The spew burned a circle in the meadow. Tifa took the opportunity to blast the monster with a full Bolt spell. Mashmouth froze and twitched under the strike.

"Ice, remember?" Violet said and disappeared again.

"Hey Lulu!" The man said. "A hot babe just spiked that monster!"

"Oh Snorker, you're seein' things." An electronic whine presaged a ball of green light that streaked from a shack window and struck Mashmouth square in the chest-or thorax. In any case, the thing ripped apart in a cloud of acetone tinged smoke.

"Ha!" said a woman's voice. "That thing'll never nosh with our goats again. Now finish haulin' in the tackle."

"I told you. I saw a hot babe fry it with a lightnin' bolt."

"You been watching them Shinra soap operas again, you old coot."

"Don't shoot!" Tifa held her arms high and crept down the stone-cut steps leading to the creek bridge. "We're only passing through. And also hunting that, thing." She pointed at the vomit burn spot amidst the rising steam. A trail of green dribbled into the stream and steamed as it followed the current. Oh, please, dear Planet, tell me it did not survive that shot.

"Jee whillickers," Lulu said, "You did find a hot babe. Though she looks more like a wet mud wrestling babe to me."

"I only feel, hot, in the literal sense." Tifa squinted at the pair, thankful that they lowered their weapons. A green aura bloomed around both. "Survivors, I see?"

"Oh, we can survive anything. I'm Silas, but my wife Lulu here calls me Snorker just to annoy me."

"I was Luliana back when we eloped. But that's a stuck-up Shinra name."

"It's a beautiful name," Tifa said.

"Ha!" Lulu spat in the shrubbery. "I think we can call the young'uns now, don't ya think? They've been waitin' to see a real live demon."

Tifa jerked her thumb back at the burn spot. "Not so live anymore."

"Ha. You ever see a real mansion before, Miss . . . "

"Tifa. Tifa Lockhart."

"Why is your heart locked, Miss Tifa?"

"I . . . " She felt herself blush.

"Lulu, stop messin' with her."

Tifa heard the voices of children. She followed the pair around the corner of the fishing shack and gasped. A cone-shaped, tree-covered crag jutted up from the valley floor, and clinging to it - anchored to it with cables and railroad ties - she spotted numerous fabricated houses, connected to each other by wooden pathways and corrugated culvert tubing.

"Eleven single-wides and eight double-wides. Have you ever seen such luxury?"

"Not all in one place, I must admit. Is that all for your family or do you have neighbors?"

"We are survivors. Lulu and I fought off a Shinra raid just last year. Up near the top of that cinder cone we have a nest of borrowed Shinra 88mm anti-tank guns. They never knew what hit them. Shinra bastards."

Tifa glanced up the hill. A few scraggly bushes clung to the top. Three to one he just made that story up. "I would have thought that would have made the news."

"It did. We sent Shinra a special communy-kay. 'So sorry, sir. You've lost them all.'"

"Did you shoot down something of theirs?" Tifa recalled her dream. Or vision.

"Nah. We woulda, but one warning shot and they fled like scared bunnies. Not like you and them mako reactors. Yea, we know who y'all are, AVALANCHE. You used to be crazier than a cave of helium sucking bats before that guy Barret took over. Then you just got scary."

"I have Cloud with me up the trail. Along with, well. Guests."

Tifa backed into the open so as to remain visible from the hill. The Hardy Daytona puttered to a halt.

"Who you bringin' with you?" Lulu aimed her metal crossbow square at Tifa's chest. Tifa raised her arms but flashed a peace sign to Cloud. Lulu advanced. "You tell me a lie and I'll know it. I've got the sight, demon."

"Why do you keep calling me a demon?"

"I knows one when I sees one. And you's one. You's got the silver fire flickerin' around you."

"I am not a freaking demon. Now put down your weapon before Cloud goes full lawnmower man on you."

As if in response, the cycle roared to life, rattled down the stone steps, sped across the creek bridge and spun sideways to a halt, knocking Lulu sprawling in the dirt. Her weapon flew from her hands. "Leave it be." Cloud pointed his sword at her. Tifa shook her head, moving to stand on the crossbow.

Lulu rose. "Put it down, hothead Cloud. Snorker has a rifle pointed at your back."

"S-snorker?" Cloud nearly dropped the sword again. "Is his name seriously - Uh, I see your point."

"Mayhep the demon babe will get off Lulu's crossbow and we'll settle this like ladies and gentlemen," Silas said.

Tifa shrugged, stepped back from the fallen weapon and raised her arms again. Lulu angrily snatched her armament.

"Mayhep you think jus' because you're Jenova enhanced you can take a bullet. What you don't know is I loaded this with tracer rounds. So iff'n I don't kill you outright, you'll spend the next week wishin' I had. Now, call out the rest o' your group, nice 'n easy now."

"Hello there, fellas," Violet said, descending the stairs like a pageant contestant. "Help out a lost girl, will you?"

"Jumpin' jeepers, a Jenova!" Snorker spun his gun around.

Tifa dispatched Lulu's crossbow with a high kick. As it arced end over end, she leapt over the bike and kicked away the rifle with a "Hi-yah!" The weapon bounced, discharging a bolt of fire into the hillside. With a flip and a somersault, she had Snorker on the ground without his gun before the crossbow landed.

"Was it something I said?" Violet strolled across the creek bridge.

"You dare bring a Jenova into our sacred vale?" Snorker struggled to rise. "I oughta - "

"Zip it," Tifa said, having collected both weapons. She took care to stay out of sight of the mobile home pile, lest an enthusiastic young'un take a shot at her with one of those alleged 88s. "You mentioned discussing this like gentlemen? And no fair pulling a backup gun out of your ankle holster."

"How'd you know I had one o' them?" Snorker said, sitting against a stack of firewood.

"Y'always carry one o' them." Lulu bowed her head and sent a wave of energy toward her partner. "Don't be such a baby. Hey!" She shook a finger at violet who stepped into the effective range. "Don't you be snipin' my Healing Wind. As if you even need it."

"A simple enough method of healing," Violet said. "Though it denies the body the therapeutic experience of pain."

Tifa rolled her eyes.

"Oh? You want to experience pain, Jenova? How's this for pain?" Another burst of energy shot forth, catching Violet in the chest. She froze, a surprised look etched on her face for a half a minute before dropping in a limp heap.

"Seal Evil?" Tifa took a guess. "I guess you are a bit evil after all, nurse."

Violet moaned and twitched. Lulu herself looked a bit spent the way she leaned against the shed door for support.

"Lucky I didn't do it on you, demon."

"I'm not a - fine. Can we talk about this? We only want passage through your valley to the village of Ithell. Then you won't see us again."

"There is no Ithell. Don't you know anything? Dirty Shinra dogs burned it down. Only reason Snorker and I are here is 'cause we went off and eloped 'cause our families didn't approve of us hangin' together. Now they's all gone. Exceptin' my crazy cousin Jack-Jack, who spends his time sitting fully clothed in the creek talking to his dead mother."

"I know how he feels," said the other Violet, appearing from behind Tifa.

"Yikes, another one?"

"She's a ghost," Tifa said.

"Revenant."

"Whatever. She takes form when she gets near her lookalike. They either go into mortal combat or play Triple Triad."

"You play Triple Triad?" Snorker said. "Do you know how hard it is to build a deck out here in the jungle?"

"Think you can beat me?" Jenova Violet said. "We can play on that old cable spool over there."

"I think that counts. Do we all have a truce?" Tifa lay the two confiscated weapons against the shed, helped Cloud to his feet and offered a hand to Snorker - Silas, who shook her off. At least Lulu accepted her help, though she immediately reclaimed her weapon.

"Who's that?" Lulu said.

Tifa didn't have to look. The faces turned to the sky told the story. Except for Jenova Violet, who, on a checkerboard cloth, shuffled and laid out her cards.

"Let's see what you're made of, tough guy."

"We use the random rule 'round these parts."

"Of course you do, swamp dweller. Fine, we'll play like barbarians."

"Hit the music, won't you Lulu dear?"

"But there's a couple girls flying in on a garbage can lid."

"I see them. But I can't rightly play without music. You wantin' me to lose to this Jenova?"

"Ach." She swung inside the shack, rattling around until she came out with a corded boom box. She clicked a button and an instrumental march tune crackled out. Dun ta-dun ta-dun ta-dun, ta-dun ta-dun ta-dun ta-dun . . . "Now, make hash of that Jenova, you old coot."

Meanwhile Carmine and Priscilla settled to hover a meter off the ground beside Cloud. "She steals my cousin's deck and fancies herself a champion." Carmine waved at the card players. "I don't know if she has ever faced someone without teeth, however."

"Hey!" Lulu waggled her crossbow. "I have all my teeth. You, however, seem to be missin' a pair o' legs. You Bugenhagen's love child or somethin'?"

"No fighting." Priscilla's eyes would have glowed, had they still existed. Lulu fell back with a "Ugh!" The crossbow drooped to the grass.

"Yet again," Carmine said. "Peace in our time."

"You got three tonberry cards? On a random draw?"

"Can't help if I'm lucky," Snorker said.

"Ha. Flipped it. Tifa card always delivers. As long as you protect her weak top."

Tifa felt the top of her head.

"What? A John Philip Sorea card? I've never heard o' that. And one-one-one-A? Just to flip Tifa's nine?"

"One Jenova deserves another. Don't you think? Now hand over that Tifa card."

Violet grumbled. Tifa's Violet snickered. Tifa said, "I feel as if I've just been sold at a livestock auction."

"So Tifa," Carmine said, edging closer. "I expected you to take the high fork in the path. I missed this gated community last time through. But if we're quick, we can ditch Nurse Pain and these swamp aristocrats and head straight through the portal."

"Don't we need her? In case we meet - "

"I need her like I need to roll naked in broken glass. But do take the bike. Whippy will hone in on that."

Cloud shrugged but said, "Won't the Jenova put these folks in danger? Once we leave the scene?"

"Let me put it this way. If you had had that bow-caster when we first met, I wouldn't be sitting here today."

Lulu said, "And don't you forget it, demon." She nudged Tifa in the ribs. Luckily with a finger.

"You need to knock off the demon thing," Cloud said. "I've known Tifa since we were kids."

"Can you read auras? Didn't think so."

Tifa frowned. She read auras; ghost Violet and the locals glowed green while Jenova Violet glowed blue as Cloud's eyes. "You say mine is silver?"

"You should leave while you still can. You don't want Jack-Jack to catch you here."

"And you thought I had a heart of ice," Carmine said. "Let's take her advice."

"Go on ahead," said Jenova Violet. "I'll catch up after I wring this guy's neck."

"No. Get on," Cloud revved the engine.

"He has my Tifa card!"

"Cry me a river. That isn't even your deck." Cloud wheeled the Hardy around and reached out a hand. She sulked and slotted herself between him and Tifa. "Think of this as your exercise in surviving mental anguish."

Cloud roared off. Lulu waved goodbye, with a subtle bob of her crossbow. They drove too fast for Tifa's taste but she relaxed when they disappeared from Lulu's line of sight. Though who knew if she could ricochet a shot off a high crag or a cliffside? Their path meandered through a gully for several minutes before popping through a vine curtain to merge with a wider, gravel path. Cloud paused, waiting for Carmine's disc to catch up.

"Now that you found the main path, we have only a kilometer to go," Carmine said.

Cloud shrugged, limping the bike over the roller coaster hills until they turned into a wide avenue, overgrown with flowering vines that swarmed like coral snakes over young fruit trees staggering under the load. Carmine had halted; when Cloud caught up, they caught her panning her eyes over the sulking lumps of trees. She jerked to attention when they arrived.

"Place has really run down. So much for Heidegger's golf resort."

"Resort? Is that why you slaughtered the local inhabitants? To build a golf course?"

"Ease up on the drama. Gregor didn't slaughter anybody for a golf course. He slaughtered them because he loved slaughtering people. Heidegger only saw the chance to earn some gil, what with all of this land and it wasn't as if the slaughtered people were going to be using it."

Tifa coughed. "And you, had nothing to do with any of this."

"Of course I - " Carmine seemed to catch herself. She sighed. "I did. But like I said - "

"Your heart wasn't in it. Give me a break."

"It wasn't totally in it."

"Mama!"

"Oh great. It's him again," Carmine said. "Follow me."

The hidden man uttered a string of unintelligible syllables, so Cloud gunned the bike and followed Carmine's disc to an exposed ruin of stone. The plants seemed to avoid growing on it; the building edifice and fragments of adjoining walls stood upon a clay mound, three steps leading up to the empty gap of a doorway. To the right of the doorway stood the "X on a stick" emblem like that in Aeris' old church (or as Nanaki explained it, the symbol of the three spatial dimensions).

"Mama!" The young man - Jack-Jack, Tifa presumed - appeared in the doorway, his body gaunt and his clothes grass stained, though his eyes shone from beneath his fedora as if from inner heat. He struck a pose against the stone door frame. "You are not my Mama."

"You guessed that right," Carmine said. "Step aside and we will be out of your way."

"Mother is crying."

"Actually, that's just the rain. It happens a lot in this jungle."

"Mother used to take me here. Didn't you, Mama?"

"If you would just step aside - "

"They are the ones, Mama? They did this to you?"

Tifa said, "Hold on. We only want to help - "

"Yes." His voice began to fry like the body-pierced lead singer of the group The Screaming Succubi. "They made the trees bleed."

Tifa opened her mouth to speak but a force squeezed her stomach like a balloon animal and she began to throw up a stream of blood. Before her vision blurred, she saw that Carmine too had a spray of crimson down her chest.

"Don't. Let it, end like this," Tifa said, sagging off the bike.