FORTY

I found myself at first in a small control room filled with monitors on the other side and a closed door to my right. It was all made of steel, cold and empty just like Scarlet. And as if my thought had summoned her, a large red hologram of her suddenly appeared from a projector on the floor in front of me, rising to almost twice my height and laughing smugly in that harsh, icy voice of hers.

"So, Jessica, you've finally made it to Advanced Weapons Research. You could've so done much here if you'd listened to me, made so many new discoveries and inventions beyond anything you can imagine. But now it seems we'll never know, will we?"

I glared up at her. "I don't regret the choice I made."

She sniffed. "Such a pity. It seems I have another rat to run through my little maze. I think you'll prove to be far more interesting than they were, however. But still quite a nuisance."

"Another?" I asked.

"Ah, yes," Scarlet sneered. "A pair of Wutaian ninjas snuck through here recently a few weeks ago looking to steal the ultimate materia. Of course, we don't have it—yet. But we will."

I blinked. "Wutaians? Here?"

She nodded. "Yes, but not anymore. One of them actually managed to escape, unfortunately, but her partner didn't. He's quite dead now… and, shall we say, in a very dark place."

Something about the way Scarlet said that made me shudder, and I didn't wanna know just what she'd meant. And I decided that if I could, I'd try to get in a little payback for this mysterious ninja girl while I was here. I didn't know the first thing about her or the friend she'd lost, but no one deserved to die in this hellhole.

"You're gonna pay for that," I promised.

"Please, by all means, try!" Scarlet laughed coldly. "Your prize isn't far very ahead of you, Jessica. But can you get out again once you have it? That may prove to be quite a challenge."

I narrowed my eyes. "Bring it, bitch! I'm not afraid."

She leaned forward. "Oh, but you will be…"

Then the hologram faded and went out. As soon as it was gone, the door to my right slid open with a soft hiss. Looked like she wanted me to find the FEX-01, probably so she could throw some of her creations at me and see how well it held up. If that was her game, then I'd play it, but my way. Before I moved to the door, I took out my new transmitter and pressed the button to contact Cait Sith.

"Cait? Are you there?" I asked.

He replied just a second later. "Aye, lass. Ahn I just heard aboot yer situation with Scarlet—yer friends've been busy ahn got word to us. So don't ye worry, Jessica. Help's on the way!"

I blinked. "Who? How?"

"No time to talk right now," Cait said. "I'll be down there soon as I can, lass. Ahn yer other backup's on the way, too. Reeve'll watch things from this end with Janice ahn find ye another way out, so just keep on going for now ahn I'll meet ye further in."

"Understood, Cait," I told him. "And thanks."

He came back at once. "No problem, lass. We'll beat this broad ahn get ye out safe ahn sound, ye'll see."

I looked around. "Know anything about this place?"

"Not much, I'm afraid," Cait answered. "Only that Scarlet does her top secret research here. I dunno what that is, though. Did she ever tell ye aboot it when ye worked fer her?"

"Only that it was off limits, even for me," I said.

He responded as I got moving. "Ye best watch yerself then, lass. It's bound to be dangerous in there. Good luck."

I smiled as I felt the reassuring shape of the baby chocobo feather's case in my front pocket. "See you soon, Cait."

"Aye," he said. "In a jiffy."

After he signed off, I put the transmitter away and headed through the door. It led into a narrow, twisting hallway that turned one way and then another, a few crates stacked here and there in the corners. It was all made of steel—the walls, floor, and ceiling—and an eerie chill hung in the air as I walked, my high heels clacking on the metal. Not fit for a fight, of course, but I had the feeling I'd find my gear before I'd see any actual combat. Scarlet would see to that.

Halfway down the corridor, a door on my left hissed open. I froze, all my senses alert, but nothing sprang out at me. Slowly, I crept toward it, and it wasn't until I looked inside and saw another short, empty hall that I finally relaxed. There was another door at the other end, and as I went in, it opened as well. Scarlet must've led me here, and as soon as I saw what was inside, I understood why.

Set against the far wall opposite the door in a small, circular room was an elevated platform, and on top of it stood a half-cylindrical thick glass tube about six feet tall and three across. Its floor and ceiling were metal just like the back. And inside, carefully fitted to a female dummy, was the FEX-01. My goal and my prize.

There was a control panel near the platform, and I hurried over to it. My fingers flew over the keys and tapped on the screen as I brought the system online and entered the access codes to unlock the chamber. There were two, and Kunsel had gotten both of them for me when he'd gathered the information for this project. Scarlet must've known that I wouldn't have gone after the suit without them.

When I was done, I input the command to unlock the suit's storage chamber. Several lights on the control panel turned from red to green with a few beeps, a loud metallic clang reverberated through the room as the locks withdrew, and then the glass finally slid upward with a low mechanical hum. My heart hammering in my chest, I slowly walked up the short flight of steps to the open chamber.

I reached out and ran a hand lightly over the suit, feeling the tough black leather and kevlar and smiling in spite of my situation. I couldn't wait for the others to see me in this. Once Andrea had helped me get it to fit more closely and make a few modifications, that was. Madam M, too, now that I thought about it. She'd made Aerith's dress, so I thought she might have some good ideas as well.

Quickly stripping all the way down to my underwear and support, I took the suit off the dummy and put it on, exchanging my high heels for sturdy boots and buckling everything in place. Then, after taking a moment to flex my gloved fingers, I switched on the suit's power. I felt a slight vibration in a few places as it came to life, and as a final touch, I pulled my hair back into its usual high ponytail and fastened my bright red Avalanche headband firmly in place.

The light daggers—I still wanted to come up with a catchier name for them—were snug and deactivated in their thigh-mounted holsters. I slid my hands over the handles for a moment, then pulled one out to check on its materia, then the other. Just as Kunsel's data had indicated, each of the weapons had a single materia slot. They could be upgraded to add more and link them together—and I intended to have that done eventually—but for now this would do.

The slots were already filled—a bright green Fire materia in one of them and a purple Deadly Dodge materia in the other, which would let my next attack after rolling to avoid an enemy's assault hit every hostile target in range. And the Fire materia in the other slot was already at its second tier of strength, which gave it a heftier punch than one that was still at base level. I'd thoroughly researched the FEX-01 and everything that went with it. Now it was time use it.

After putting my transmitter, tablet, and baby chocobo feather into the suit's belt pouch along with Lena's gun and the two raspberries that I'd hidden in my purse along with it—I'd made another batch this week in between my training and all the other stuff I'd been doing—I headed back out of the room and went back to the main hall, ready to keep on going and take down anything Scarlet threw at me. I hurried down the hall and into another small room.

It looked like I was in an antechamber of some kind, and a second door stood right across from me. I went through it and found myself in a large, eight-sided chamber with a high ceiling, ledges in each corner, and several closed gates along with an elevated balcony high up on the opposite side of the room. Had to have been a testing chamber of some kind, and as I walked into the middle of it, Scarlet's hologram appeared again in front of the balcony, hovering in midair.

"Well, it seems you're prepared now," she said. "So how about I give you a proper warm up to get things started? Every one of my machines that you destroy provides me with valuable data."

I narrowed my eyes. "I'll take down whatever you've got."

Scarlet just laughed. "Excellent! This should be quite amusing. Let's begin the show, shall we? You'd best be ready!"

"Oh, I will be," I told her, drawing my light daggers.

The curved blades, bright yellowish-orange and nearly a foot and a half long from hilt to tip, instantly shimmered to life with a snap and a soft hiss when I squeezed the triggers. They hummed and pulsed with energy, weightless but deadly as one of the gates slid open and my first opponent trundled into the chamber.

It was a sweeper, its twin arm cannons spitting bullets. As Scarlet's hologram disappeared, I quickly whipped up my weapons and crossed them in front of me to block the shots just as I'd practiced with Kunsel in the simulator. We hadn't gotten to the point of fighting anything else in there yet, so this would be one hell of a test. But I was determined to beat it and Scarlet and get outta here. I braced myself as the bullets hit, sparking against the blades but not getting through. Then I spun to the right to avoid the next shot and struck back.

I unloaded on it with a blast of fire magic, focusing on the materia the way Cloud had taught me before the warehouse mission. A column of flame erupted around the sweeper, scorching it before exploding. As smoke rose up from it and it staggered backward, I tore into it with my light daggers, slashing at it again and again, energy steadily building up inside them with each hit I landed. They were more than pretty knives. A lot more. And soon I'd take advantage of it.

When I used the bottom of my fist to hit the switch on the back of my right glove, I suddenly felt as if I'd grown a lot lighter. Acceleration kicked in, and I found myself moving twice as fast as before, arms and legs a blur as I circled around the sweeper and continued my assault. It kept on firing, but I was just too quick. Then I swept both daggers low, cutting one of the mech's legs out from under it, and it collapsed just as my speed boost finally began to wear off.

I stopped right in front of the damaged sweeper, my weapons now fully charged. Then I rushed in, unleashing a blinding flurry of slashes that left bright, blazing orange trails in their wake before burying both light daggers into its body and releasing their stored energy in a single devastating blast. The sweeper blew apart just as I yanked my weapons free and quickly backflipped away to land in a crouch on the floor with one leg out to the side, one arm down low, and my eyes fixed firmly on the burning wreck lying in front of me.

I barely had any time to breathe, though. A swarm of slug-rays was next, flying into the chamber from another open gate and firing at me. I knew the effects of their shocking blasts and what they could do—I'd been stunned by one of them on the train to Reactor 5—so I moved as fast as I could, running and slicing at any of the mechs who got close to me. My suit's power was still recharging, so I'd have to wait a minute or so before I could use any of its abilities again. But I still had a few other ways to handle the fight in the meantime.

Before I knew it, I was surrounded, the slug-rays flying around me like giant metal bugs. I hated bugs, and I planned on explaining that to these overgrown steel ticks. So as they kept on shooting, bullets eating the floor inches from my feet, I dove aside, avoiding the attack. When I rolled to my feet, there was a flash of purple light as the Deadly Dodge materia activated, and I jumped into the air, spun around, and used my light daggers to send a ring of blazing orange energy into the mechs. It struck them all and blew them apart.

I landed in a crouch on one knee, my arms out wide to either side, and smirked. "That all you got, Scarlet?"

"Hardly," she sneered over a speaker. "Find me and see."

"I intend to," I swore.

Straightening up, I switched off the light daggers, and they winked out with a soft hiss. After slipping them back into their holsters, I took a moment to catch my breath and then got moving. There was a ladder to the right of the balcony near a fallen cargo container. The cable that must've held it suspended from the ceiling was broken, probably by the Wutaians that had come through here before me. In any case, I headed up the ladder and a few stairs to the balcony, where another open door led into a short, narrow passageway.

I followed it into a materia production area. Metal walkways lined with railings overlooked a massive, bulky machine that dominated the room—wheels, condensers, mako pipes overhead that were big enough for me to walk on, and other parts even I couldn't name. The platform I was on stretched out to either side, where a few steps rose up to meet the walkways that ran along the walls.

I'd only taken a few steps when I suddenly found myself ambushed by three shock troopers. They jumped over the railings and rushed me, their clawed gauntlets sharp and ready to tear me apart. Thinking fast, I slapped my left glove switch, knowing my suit's power had recharged, and a shimmering, spherical grid of vibrant orange energy surrounded me before it rippled and disappeared as the cloaking field activated and I vanished just as the grunts closed in.

Not wasting a moment, I quickly darted out of the way, leaving the drugged-up crazies swiping at nothing but air. While they slashed and grabbed at the place where I'd been, hoping to get lucky and find me, I ran to the right, away from them and near one of the walkways, until I was at a safe distance. Then I took one of my raspberries out of my belt pouch, pulled the pin, and threw it.

The blast tossed the three shook troopers into the air like rag dolls and ripped them apart, leaving them and that section of the platform a burnt, smoking mess. I put my hands on my hips and laughed, satisfied with my handiwork and loving my new gear. And as the cloaking field wore off a moment later and I came back into view, I lifted a hand and gave the dead grunts a jaunty little wave.

"Nice try, dweebs," I winked. "Catch ya later!"

I followed the walkway to another platform at the other end of the room. Several clear glass tubes with steel tops and bottoms stood at an angle all along the walkway's length, and inside each one was a materia orb. They were pretty much all unfinished, though, with the mako still in the process of condensing, so I ignored them. There was also a small elevator in the corner, and I rode it upstairs as high as I could. That put me two levels up, in the development section.

The topmost part of that huge machine was there ahead of me as I walked out onto another platform that was made up of two eight-sided areas with a short stretch in between them. Past the railing, I could see the top of that huge machine and another separate platform on the far side of the room. There was a door nearby, and I hurried inside. When I came to the end of the short hall and into a smaller room, I slowed to a halt, my eyes narrowing right away.

The room had two levels—the upper one, which I was standing on, and a larger lower one about three feet or so below me, with a few steps going down to it on either side. Across from me, on the other end, was another door, and a third one stood open on my left. To my right was a cluster of computers, consoles, and equipment around a tall glass tube filled with liquid mako and a few half-formed materia orbs. It was a lot like the one I'd often seen upstairs in the division's other complex when I'd still worked in that terrible place.

But what had caught my attention and brought up a flare of rage in me was the sight of that chair on the upper part of the room. It was just like the one Scarlet had upstairs, and I remembered how she'd so often made me sit in that damn thing and put my feet up on a hapless soldier just like she liked to do. I'd hated it but hadn't had any choice. A slap on the face was the penalty for not doing what she'd ordered, or not doing it fast enough to suit her. I'd gotten plenty for both in the time I'd been there, and my cheeks stung at the memory.

So before I moved on, I took out my second raspberry, yanked out the pin, and dropped it right onto the seat of Scarlet's chair. Then I ran toward the door opposite the one I'd come in from, diving through just as it went off. The explosion thundered in my ears, heat sweeping over me as I rolled to my feet in another hallway. When the dust had settled, I turned around to look. The chair was a blackened, smoldering ruin, a sight that I found very satisfying. And the rest of the room wasn't much better off, the steel scorched and burnt.

"Looks like you're gonna have to find somewhere else to park that oversized ass of yours, Scarlet," I quipped.

Chuckling to myself, I hurried on, following the hall until it I came to another doorway. It led into a square room open on one side, with a wide bar blocking the way to another platform. This one looked like it could move, but at the moment it was docked. And I saw why. Scarlet's hologram was waiting for me, red and hovering above the floor. I took a few steps closer as she laughed.

"Feeling better now, are we?" Scarlet said.

I folded my arms in front of me. "Much. You know I couldn't stand that thing or what you made me do in it."

She sneered. "I was just trying to help you, my dear."

"You wanted me to be just like you!" I glared. Then I smirked. "But I'm not. And I never will be. You lost!"

Scarlet shook her head. "A pity. We could've accomplished so much together, Jessica. But now we'll never know, will we? In any case, this is my weapons testing ground. You'll need to get through it to find me, of course, but since you've made it this far, I doubt you'll have any trouble doing that. I'll be waiting for you at the end."

Then her hologram vanished, and two green logos appeared above the bar, and I realized each of them stood for a different opponent and I had to choose which one I was gonna fight. They were just barely out of reach, though, and at first I wasn't sure how'd I get to them. But then I had an idea. I pulled out one of my light daggers, and after switching it on, I whipped it toward the image on the right, and a small, tight arc of blazing orange energy flew into it.

The bar lifted and moved aside as both of the images disappeared, and I went on the platform. There was a small console on it, and after I touched a few controls, the lift got moving. It went down first and then forward until it stopped at another, larger platform, this one with eight sides and another closed bar to my right. But two sweepers also waited for me, and I brought up my weapons.

The fight short but brutal, and I had to use my suit's acceleration to stay ahead of them. Several quick blasts of fire magic from my materia and a string of cuts and slashes with my light daggers made short work of them, though. As soon as they were destroyed, another pair of green logos appeared above the next gate. This time, I hit the one on the left, and as soon as the bar moved out of the way, I hurried onto the lift and activated the console. And so it went, several more times—I'd ride to a platform, fight a few machines, then move on.

I was a little surprised at how well I was doing considering I'd only been training for almost a week. But I'd spent dozens of hours, as many as eight a day, in the simulator with Kunsel and alone, learning how to fight with my new gear on top of my therapy and exercise. And when I was in there, I never got tired and never got worn out. It helped that I'd already spent the last year and half learning something of combat from Tifa, so knew a bit about moving around a battlefield and staying alive on it. And I'd been practicing my kicks, too.

Eventually, I came to an enclosed room with eight high walls, steel with an upper level and a docking bay at one end. And standing inside it was a huge blood-red mech about forty feet tall with two cannons on its arms, thick legs with pointed steel feet, and an open cockpit on top. Scarlet walked down the stairs from the upper level, laughing coldly as she patted the mech and looked down at me.

"So, here you are here at last, Jessica," she said. "Well done. You're a lot stronger than I remember, no longer the whimpering girl who used to be my assistant all those years ago. My right hand. Alas, there was so much more you could've done if you'd stayed at my side. But you didn't have the stomach for it, so you left."

"Best decision I ever made," I retorted.

Scarlet glared at me. "Hmph! What a waste. And now I'm going to put an end to your miserable life myself."

I drew my weapons and smirked. "Try it, you old hag."

"You little bitch!" she snapped, hopping into the cockpit of the red mech. "Ungrateful whelp! I gave you a chance few others have ever had in this company, the opportunity to work with me to create weapons of marvelous design and incredible destructive capacity like nothing this planet's ever seen! And how did you repay me after this great favor? By throwing it back in my face! Betrayal!"

"You're one to talk!" I fired back, activating the light daggers. "You altered my designs behind my back! Turned them from instruments of defense into murderous killing machines!"

Scarlet sneered. "I merely improved them, Jessica. And now I'll let you be the next victim of my newest project, the Crimson Mare. Had a bit of a setback when those two troublesome Wutaians damaged it, but it's been somewhat repaired since then. Not entirely, but enough to kill you and leave you as a mere stain on the floor."

I readied myself. "I'll bring that hunk of junk down, and you along with it! Unless you'd rather surrender now."

"Don't be ridiculous," she laughed, activating the mech.

"Then let's dance," I said, narrowing my eyes.

I hit my right glove switch and dashed in, using the acceleration to avoid the beams the Crimson Mare blasted at me. But as I struck its left leg with a chain of spinning slashes, Scarlet brought in reinforcements. Sentry rays, three of them, all around the room, firing their blue lasers. I kept moving, frying one of them with a quick blast of fire magic from my materia, but that still left the other two.

As the speed boost started to wear off, I jumped up and hit Scarlet with a pair of diving kicks before backflipping away. She snarled, firing again with the Crimson Mare's cannons, and I barely managed to avoid getting blown apart as the beams scorched the steel floor. She followed up with a fusillade of smaller shots, grazing my arm as I circled around her and the mech. I winced in pain but didn't slow down, cutting at the Crimson Mare whenever I could with my light daggers and tearing rips into its metal hide with each hit.

Fortunately, although the mech was big, it was also slow, damaged, and couldn't turn nearly as quickly as I could. I still had to worry about those other two sentry rays, though. They kept firing at me as I moved, and between them and the Crimson Mare's cannons, I was in danger of getting caught in a crossfire if I didn't find a way to even the odds a bit. But I had something in mind for that.

Skidding to a halt for a second, I bent my arms inward, then thrust them out to either side, using my light daggers to throw a fiery wave of blazing orange energy into the nearest sentry ray. It exploded, pieces of metal flying everywhere. Then I took out the other one with more fire magic, roasting it in a column of flames.

Another barrage from the Crimson Mare knocked me off my feet, though, and I had to roll aside to avoid being stepped on. I sprang back up and kept fighting, slashing and slicing again and again while mixing it up with a few sharp kicks, driving my booted feet into the metal and leaving behind plenty of nice dents.

As I landed back on the floor, several turrets suddenly appeared up on the second level while the Crimson Mare's twin mako cannons took aim at me. I knew I couldn't dodge all that weapons fire, but I couldn't survive the assault, either. Scarlet sneered triumphantly at me from her seat in the cockpit, no doubt expecting an easy kill. But I hadn't gotten all the way here just to die. So after quickly deactivating and holstering one of my light daggers, I used my free hand to tap the insignia on the large metal buckle fastened at my waist.

As soon as I did, a translucent globe of shimmering orange energy surrounded me only a split second before the Crimson Mare's piercing beams and the lasers from the turrets all converged on my position. As I crouched down, the FEX-01's energy barrier absorbed the bulk of the damage. I still felt some pain, though, as if I was being punched by half a dozen guys all at once all over my body, but by the time the dust had settled and my shield had faded, I was okay.

I straightened up and pointed at Scarlet, who'd stopped the turrets and her own guns to gloat. "Missed me!"

"What!?" she snarled.

"I never realized you were such a bad shot, Scarlet," I taunted. "For a supposed weapons expert, your aim's terrible! Guess you forgot what this thing can do. But I sure as hell didn't."

Scarlet pounded her control panel. "I'll kill you!"

"Not in this lifetime, bitch!" I swore, drawing the light dagger that I'd holstered and activating it.

She fired the mako cannons at me again, but I'd been expecting it. I dove aside, and when I rolled to my feet a second later, a flash of violet light split the air as I took full advantage of the Deadly Dodge materia. I jumped up into the air, spun around with my weapons extended, and blasted the turrets with a circle of flaming energy. They all exploded in a ring of blazing fire that seared the room.

Not wasting a moment, I went after the Crimson Mare next, going for one of its arms. I kept slashing at it with my light daggers, avoiding the beams from its cannons as much as possible. Energy built up inside my weapons with every hit, and soon I'd be ready to unleash it. But not yet. I was saving that little trick for last.

The arm I was attacking finally collapsed and blew apart a moment later, taking its gun with it as smoke poured out of the socket and into the air. As Scarlet swore and tried to bring the other one to bear on me, I spun to the side and struck it with a high roundhouse kick that sent it off course, then sliced at it with my light daggers, intent on tearing this thing apart piece by piece if I had to.

But I let out a startled cry and fell back for a moment when a blast of magical fire suddenly erupted almost in my face, singeing me a little but fortunately not much more—the FEX-01, with its innate resistance, reduced the rest of the damage, leaving my skin red instead of burnt. I shook it off as Scarlet laughed above me.

"You're not the only one here who can use materia, you know," she said. "I'm quite skilled at it myself."

"I'm still gonna take you down!" I retorted.

Scarlet sneered as she touched a control. "Bold words. I'm looking forward to ramming them down your throat."

I readied myself. "Bring it!"

She didn't respond with materia this time, though, but with a large rocket launcher mounted to the Crimson Mare's shoulder. I dove aside just in time to avoid the explosion, then ran in and sliced into its other arm with my light daggers, raining blows onto it until it blew off in a shower of sparks and blackened, twisted metal.

Then, as the mech staggered and collapsed, I stopped and stood in front of it, my eyes on Scarlet and my weapons ready. Just as I'd done to the sweeper, I charged at what was left of the Crimson Mare, cutting it with a blinding flurry of spinning slashes that left bright, glowing trails of orange energy behind them. Then I jumped up, stabbed both of my weapons into the front of the mech's body as I locked eyes with Scarlet, and released the energy from my light daggers.

The explosion tore the Crimson Mare apart as I backflipped away, and although Scarlet used a hidden switch to eject safely just as it went up, I landed before she did and was right there to meet her. She was on her hands and knees, soot on her skin and dress as she coughed on the smoke and slowly looked up to see me standing over her with my light daggers crossed just above her throat.

"It's over," I said.

"Is it?," Scarlet laughed coldly. "You'll never leave here alive, Jessica. I'll see to that. Or do you think me a fool?"

I frowned. "Watch me."

She gave me a small, icy smile. "Oh, I think not."

Before I could stop her, Scarlet touched a flashing red button at the top of her right stocking. What was she doing? What was going on? As I stared at her, I suddenly heard booted footsteps not far away. I looked to my left and saw an open doorway, realizing the sound seemed to be coming from there. Scarlet had called reinforcements. Shinra soldiers, probably. But I had to know for sure.

"What did you do!?" I demanded, glaring at her.

"Go see for yourself," Scarlet taunted.

Growling under my breath, I did just that, leaving the test chamber and hurrying into a short hall that led into another room. But it wasn't empty. About twenty soldiers, armed with rifles, were waiting for me. I didn't recognize these guys, though. Dark gray uniforms with pale blue lines of energy going down them and helmets that completely covered their heads and sported a single bright blue eye.

"There she is!" one of them called.

With my suit's energy recharged, I hit the right glove switch before rushing in. But even with my increased speed, I barely stayed ahead of these strange soldiers as they opened fire. I took down a few of them as I closed in, ducking and slashing with my light daggers, but there were just too many. I blocked shot after shot, cutting, spinning, and kicking, but then I suddenly stumbled forward with a pained cry as the side of a rifle slammed into my back and my acceleration wore off. As the other soldiers closed in, I knew I was surrounded.

I fought desperately, stabbing one soldier in the chest with both of my light daggers, stunning him for a moment while I dropped another of his friends with a backward thrust kick. But I knew I couldn't keep it up forever—there were still over a dozen soldiers left, and I heard more on the way. I saw another door nearby and rushed toward it, but before I could get there, one of them tossed a grenade at my feet. I gasped and jumped, barely avoiding the blast behind me, but when I started to get up, I found myself staring at a gun barrel.

"Shit…" I swore.

But just as the strange soldier was about to fire, there was suddenly a loud crash from overhead as someone smashed through the air vent above us and landed in between me and the soldiers, sword drawn. My eyes widened at the sight of his short brown hair and purple and black SOLDIER armor, and I knew right away who it was that had saved me and who Reeve had sent to back me up.

"Kunsel!" I exclaimed, springing to my feet.

"Sorry I'm late," he said as we stood back to back, weapons ready. "Those air vents were a pretty tight fit."

I smirked. "Just glad you could make it!"

"You okay?" he asked.

"Better now that you're here," I told him, slicing one of the soldiers. "So who are these guys, anyway?"

Kunsel cut down another one. "No idea."

I kept on fighting while he did the same. "Damn! That's not good if even SOLDIER doesn't know. Where's Cait?"

"Working our escape route," he answered. "Come on!"

"Right behind you!" I nodded.

We made a break for the door I'd seen earlier, getting there just as a fresh wave of soldiers stormed in, guns blazing. Kunsel shoved me into the room and pressed a control on the wall to lock the door behind us. It was a small, round place that looked like some sort of simulator. But it wasn't on at the moment. So as I stood there and caught my breath, I glanced at Kunsel and flashed him a smile.

"Looks like you got to save me after all," I chuckled. "I was in a real bind until you showed up out there."

He laughed softly. "I guess I did, didn't I?"

I looked gratefully at him. "You bet, Kunsel. Thanks."

"Anytime," he said. "Biggs called me and told me what happened as soon as he and the others got outside."

"Are they okay?" I asked.

Kunsel gave me a thumbs up. "They're fine, Jessie. Made it back to the slums safely. While they headed back, I took the Gust and drove up to the plate through the Corkscrew Tunnel. Reeve contacted me on the way, then he and Janice had Cait guide me through the air ducts to get to you. We split up just before I jumped down."

I looked around. "Good. So where's the way out?"

"An elevator on the other side of the room out there," he explained. "It's locked right now, but Cait's working on getting it open. So all we've gotta do is hold on 'till he does and get there."

"Got it," I nodded.

Kunsel offered me a potion. "Here, this'll help."

I holstered my weapons and drank it, making a face as I swallowed but glad for the healing it brought. "Thanks. Should've remembered to bring some of these nasty things with me."

"I knew you wouldn't," he smirked. "You always did—"

I whirled toward the door. "Wait! You hear that?"

Kunsel did the same, instantly alert and his sword ready as screams suddenly erupted outside. "What the hell…?"

It was the strange soldiers. Something was killing them, and by the sounds of it, brutally and efficiently. We heard bursts of gunfire, pained grunts, bodies falling, and the whirling whine of a blade being expertly spun and thrust. Then there was only silence, and my eyes widened to see blood seeping in from under the door.

Scarlet must've summoned something or someone else along with the soldiers, and now he or she or it was killing them with ease, maybe to draw us out. And I knew we had to go out there sooner or later. But as I tried to figure out how we could manage that without being killed, I froze when I heard footsteps outside.

It wasn't the heavy thudding of boots, but more like the clopping of high heels on metal. I doubted it was Scarlet, though. And as soon as I heard whoever was out there speak, I knew it wasn't. It was definitely a woman, though, and her voice was different—low, wicked, and harshly accented. Utterly cold and crazy as hell.

"Come on out now, my clever little mice…" she laughed. "Rats in a trap. I do so long to make you bleed."