Marin tested the shackle again. The chain went through a hoop built into the table. The cuffs were too tight to wriggle out of, while they were loose enough to not cut off her circulation.

She licked her lips, her captors hadn't left her any water. Though the lock pick was still hidden in her cheek.

She knew her weapons and armored coat, especially her Materia, were in another room. But she didn't know where. This was going to take some planning if she wanted a clean getaway.

She put her head in her arms to get some rest. At least shut her eyes while she thought of a plan.

Earlier that day, Marin could smell the sawdust on the floor. Wiping down the counter for the umpteenth time that day.

There were three regulars along the wall. Already settled in with their drinks.

Out the window, she saw no passersby on the quiet street.

This was a small town of small people with bigger dreams. She was just a waitress. She only dreamed of survival, food and rent. At the moment she was pretending to clean the counter she had kept clean all day.

A slow day with only a few customers meant slow tips. Or no tips. Which meant less Gil left over after paying her rent.

At this rate, working this bar for another six months would lose her money. Not save any. She had been working the slow shifts for six months. While her boss slept until the busier night shift. When more customers meant more tips, but not for her.

She spied a pair of passersby cross in front of the window. Two men in dark suits, glance at the door of her bar then cross back over across the street to disappear into the building across the way. She couldn't make out faces through the bubbled glass panes.

Safford was a small town. They did have a Mako reactor to keep the lights on, it supplemented the refilling station for passing traveler's cars. Which attracted some business. But not much else.

Making the town just big enough that not everyone knew everyone else. Letting someone like Marin disappear into the crowd. Or fill-in a new waitress job. For a bar that served farmers and coal miners. Until the coal mine, up north, would be closed by the ShinRa Company, anyway. It wasn't closed yet, or a bar like hers would have been full of unemployed workers.

As it was, there were a few people wasting their scant pay while out of work. Drinking the day away. Until the mine made more cuts to the work force.

And two men in sharp black suits had crossed the street.

There were many walks of life that wore suits in this world. But none in Safford.

Marin hadn't recognized them, but she knew the all types that lived in Safford by now. And the types that were passing through.

She was one of those travelers, even as she blended into this middling sized town.

So she paid rent on a shitty apartment, for two. She Tried to make more Gil than she'd started with, and stay out of trouble. Until she figured out the deal with this place, and made a plan to leave.

She had had friends before. In Safford she only had one. While surrounded with acquaintances. Her best-friend Danny, her boss, the bar's bouncer Derry, the grocer, and her land-lady. She was a ghost in Safford. And she preferred to that way.

Now men in Black suits were hanging around nearby.

She needed to contact Danny, the only person she trusted that still lived.

Her neck tingled with nerves at the implications of having Turks in town, the nickname for the Auditing Dept. From the ShinRa Company's General Affairs.

No ShinRa staffers went to this bar. The sort of watering hole Marin worked in was too nasty for corporate types to bother. Not that she let it get nasty during the day. It was just one of those dank places that was darker at night. Meanwhile everyone in the room knew each other. And didn't want to be bothered while they got drunk on cheap local swill.

They had better liquors behind the bar, but it was too pricey for the ones that got day drunk.

Which means she just had to wipe the bar, replace the occasional bottle. As well get her co-worker, Derry, to throw out anyone that didn't pay their tab. Usually before sunset, when more people appeared and was willing to spend more Gil on the better liquors.

Marin stood in a dim bar, so the street in daylight was well lit for her. From the bar, she could see out the window.

Not that she would have recognized every Turk if she had seen their faces. But their reputation proceeded them.

Operatives for ShinRa, they 'audited' problems for the company. That included people that were a problem for the corporation they worked for. They looked for trouble, or reacted to trouble and cleaned up the mess after. They recruited for ShinRa's elite military. Turks meant trouble. It was either being searched for, or was about to be made. Marin hated trouble, it killed people. Which the Turks would also do.

Other than those suits, there had been no extra ShinRa activity today. And one ShinRa Public Security member had been to Marin's bar exactly once, weeks ago. Before balking at the price of the good liquor. And the taste of the cheap stuff.

It seemed that he had told his colleagues about the local swill. As no one else from ShinRa had come to this bar to try it since.

Marin wiped the counter, staring out the window. From the back of the bar, the Turks hadn't noticed her noticing them. While cogs turned in her head.

They were either looking for trouble, or prepared to clean up after trouble. It had nothing to do with her. But she wanted to be nowhere close to what they were here for.

As far as ShinRa was concerned. Marin and Danny were off of their radar. They had been stuck in Safford for the last six months. Finding jobs before they ran out of the little Gil they had started with. When their other traveling companions had left them to fend for themselves.

Marin and Danny had come up with a back story to tell the locals. With few enough details to not lead to further questions, while they got what jobs they could. While they tried to save up enough Gil to leave and get by on their own.

She had been on the road for several months. Attempting to evade trouble and keeping to herself, with her friends. There had been four of them, months ago. Then four had become six. Now it was two.

Trapped in a video game away from the world of her home. She was no hero or villain. Almost alone, with only Danny and her sense for danger for company. A dwindling supply of Gil to spend on necessities, some magic Materia. More recently they had bought a motorcycle.

She ran through her head what was in her apartment she would add to her saddlebags before getting out. She just needed and exit from the bar before got bad.

She imagined a back exit to the bar and a quick route back to her attic apt. She could find her way there on a dark night if she needed to.

"Know how to kill everyone you meet and always have an exit plan." Marin remembered hearing once, a long time ago. she had the second part worked out. But didn't have all the skills, reflexes, or even the strength needed for the first. So at the first sign of trouble, she and Danny were gone.

She was shy and awkward around people. Even a world away from her home and family hadn't changed that. She was slow to make friends in Safford, anywhere really. She had a group of friends to watch each other's backs. Then of the six, two had died and two had run off. Abandoning her and Danny in Safford.

So Danny and Marin had to find their own way.

Then Fate decided for her, on staying or going.

A stranger in strange clothes, still dusty from the road entered the bar. Someone who looked used to trouble. Whether they were looking for or the cause of trouble.

He sized up everyone in the bar and got a small, shy smile from Marin. Derry, standing by the door, was the intimidating one. Marin wanted to be underestimated. Not that she had been intimidating in her life. And she had no plans to start now.

The man got a cup of swill from the bar and kicked it back with no complaint for the taste. Other than a grimace.

At Marin's recommendation, he collected a bottle from her and took one of the tables in the middle of the room. Empty of other people, save for him. She made him pay on the spot, pocketing his money and giving him change from the till. From which a few more Gil notes found their way into her pocket. Starting an 'I quit,' fund from the bar that had never paid her enough to get by in this sand-blasted town.

The stranger didn't complain and left her a tip, a ten Gil coin.

She pocketed the Gil immediately. And went to wiping down the bar some more.

As the man nursed the bottle especially slowly, two more strangers made their way into the bar. Also travel worn, not dressed in the same clothes of the first stranger. But of a similar style. Where one had denim pants, another had canvas cargo pants. One had a striped shirt under their vest. Another had a heavy green vintage-military style looking coat. But all three looked ready to face down trouble if they didn't start it themselves.

It was not unusual to have arms, guns or otherwise, in a town this close to the fiend-infested desert. But it was unusual to have weapons under a coat, hidden guns or knives. These strangers intended to be a lot of trouble for somebody.

They ignored the regulars against the windowless back wall. Had a glance for each other and otherwise sat down to nurse their own bottles.

None of them tried to make conversation with each other or the regulars. Only speaking to Marin to get a drink. She pocketed every Gil she could squeeze out of them.

Within the hour there were ten more strangers in the bar. And she was on the phone to her boss. Waking him up be damned. She enticed him downstairs for the tip money. Claiming that all these customers would have too many orders for her to be able to handle on the day shift. The only truth in her statement was the extra tips at this hour of the day. Which was enough to entice the man downstairs.

The man grumped about being woken up early. But was eager to take any more tips for himself.

Marin took the chance to go on a lunch break. To get out of the building, out the back door. And away from those strangers. Her boss was greedy. He didn't pay her enough for her to stay in town for whatever was coming. He patted her lower back on the way out. Derry saw it and said nothing to the harassment.

That light touch erased any guilt she had for slipping anything out of the till earlier.

Until that pat, she had felt bad for abandoning the two men to whatever those strangers and/or the Turks had planned for today. Once outside, she regretted not taking more Gil from the till's float.

Out the back door was the dumpster. And a place for her boss to sit on breaks and smoke like a chimney. When it was too stuffy to smoke inside.

There was another one of those strangers at the end of the alley, a woman. She appeared to be waiting for someone, while she kept the back door at the edge of their vision.

Marin had another shy smile for the other woman. She thought, 'Don't mind me, I just work here.' As Marin was underestimated and passed that watcher unchallenged. Whoever this stranger was, she was watching the back entrance to the bar. Mostly the stranger was paying attention to anyone approaching the rear entrance to the bar. And did nothing for a waitress leaving the area.

Once Marin had passed out of sight of the woman, she whipped out her phone. Marin was plotting a circuitous route through Safford, back to her and Danny's apartment.

"Home. Now. There's trouble at the bar." she texted him.

Giving demure looks and keeping to herself as she passed through town. Once she knew she wasn't being followed, she made her way to the last block where she lived. The whole walk took minutes as there were a couple hundred people that worked or lived in Safford.

The whole town was the size of one of the neighborhoods she had grown up in, on Earth. It had been simple enough to learn the lay of Safford's streets over the six months Marin had lived in it.

She went through a tune in her head, her first serious composition, as she unlocked her second-story apartment door. Music calmed her nerves as long as they were not completely fried.

"Marin."

Marin jumped out of her skin, but calmed down some when she recognized the voice. Danny was already here.

Marin opened her eyes. Still cuffed to the table. No Danny, no weapons, no Materia. One way out and one shot to take. With no bike for a faster exit from Safford anymore.

She felt as helpless as when Jamie's body had been flung into the darkness on that mountain. Or when Shawn had been dragged by an invisible force off of that cliff. And now Danny was gone too. Thinking of her music to herself failed to calm her now.

She needed to scratch her nose. She rubbed her face on her sleeve to no avail. Her nose itched even more.

This was the headman's jail. A mayor under a different title. One of the differences of this world compared to Marin's own.

There was also no cameras, and no wall of mirrored glass in this room. But the few times someone made trouble in a town this size. A local constable, of a sort, would keep them in this room. Handcuffed to the table, with local cuffs. Which were simple and mechanical cuffs.

She sucked on the lock pick between her cheek and teeth. The window wasn't barred. This was no ShinRa Public Security outfit. Not that she had ever been inside a real one. She had only seen those from inside a video game.

It was just a matter of getting her stuff back, evading two Turks and ShinRa cordon on Safford. 'No big deal', she thought. That was a bold faced lie. But she was feeling bold. Bold enough to take her only shot to get away from the troubles that day.

Jamie's ring was hanging from Marin's neck still. Marin's own promise ring hung next to it, under her blouse. The few things she had from the life she had lived before being flung into this one.

There was also the lone SOLDIER in town as well. The one that had cut up her bike. After that woman from AVALANCHE had stolen it.

But any SOLDIER, even that SOLDIER. Could only cut what he could find.

Yep, escaping would be no big deal at all. She was kidding herself, but even in this mess she could still be sarcastic.

She also knew the layout of the headman's building. There was a proper jail cell nearby. Between her and that, an office for the constable. No doubt that constable was a liaison between Safford's Headman and ShinRa's forces. But ShinRa was only in town to protect the reactor. Not truly police in this town. ShinRa would have left the people to guard themselves. To protect themselves from the troubles within and the fiends without.

Which meant they had a single cell in this building. And an office next to her room. So unless her stuff was outside of the building, it left a very small area for her to search. Before running for the horizon.

Not that she was under arrest, officially. She was just held for "further questioning."

When she was escorted back into town by Public Security. She had seen the smoke and passed a couple shells of buildings on the main streets. Danny and Marin had heard the explosions even over the motor of her bike, while leaving Safford. As suspected, it had been bad.

Except now Safford held a full complement of ShinRa troops to back up the two Turks. And a single SOLDIER.

She shook her head, alone in the room. Of all the operatives in all the world. ShinRa had sent that one into a nest of AVALANCHE activists. Terrorists, as most other people thought of them.

If there were any survivors from the fighting. They wouldn't live long.

That one SOLDIER, Sephiroth, was efficient at killing.

Marin put her head in her hands. A whole world of people and folks in a Video Game. Besides her best-friend Danny, he was from Earth same as Marin. And after all of these months, the first face Marin recognized from the video game was him, Sephiroth. It was a Small world.

The sun was setting in her window. The light of the golden hour.

Marin hoped they would believe her story, that she was just a waitress. She had no idea of the details of what had happened in the bar after she had left and before it had burned down.

The crux of her alibi was if her boss was alive to confirm her identity, depending on who had survived the bar after she had run. If it still stood intact.

She put her head in her arms again, to finish her escape plan. To get away from this trouble and the tangle of emotions inside her.

"Danny, wait here." Marin told him.

"You don't want me to go inside?"

"I know what we need in there. You're on watch."

"What am I looking for?" He asked

"Trouble." She pointed both ways down the street. It wasn't a main road, but they had a view of the horizon to the east and the west of town. Marin continued, "Or the dust cloud of a convoy. You know who."

Danny nodded once, and leaned easily against the wall, much like the stranger in the alley had. No doubt he had his sidearm under that jacket. Danny had been the one to teach her how to shoot, since they had reunited on this planet.

Marin climbed up the squeaky stairs with haste. Not skipping the squeaky ones this time.

Inside was three hundred square feet of an apartment, more a large room. Practically palatial for some inns she had stayed in. Tiny compared to the apartment Jamie, Danny and her had planned on getting together. Before they had been taken from Earth and flung onto this one.

A leaky bathroom with no shower. Two tiny hard beds next to a trunk that had all the junk Marin accumulated wherever she went. As well as Danny's go-bag, which was a small rucksack, and his other gun. The hunting rifle wouldn't fit under a jacket.

Her motorbike's saddlebags were under the bed. The trunk just had extra clothes, and objects she could stand to miss. The saddlebags were her go-bag. None of it included a chest-binder, she could feel her profile instead of see it. But Safford had no one that made or sold them in town. She had to rely on sports bras and the femininity they expressed, no matter her mood that day. And today was a day she would have to push past the look of her current profile. Yet another thing to bother her on top of everything else.

Danny would only have the clothes on his back, and whatever he had in his rucksack. But they had no time for more. And her bags were already full of the sorts of things they would need for travel and surviving. They did not have enough Gil to pay their way very far. But if they got to tomorrow intact, the could always get more money, Gil, later.

She strapped her joey-bag under her blouse, it would have all their extra Gil. She strapped her sidearm under her armpit. Safford was safe enough to not need to walk around town with that. Not when she walked around with magic Materia under her sleeve. Her dust jacket went over that.

She grabbed the two bike helmets last.

Everything else wasn't worth the space, and could be replaced later.

She held Danny's helmet in her hands. It had always felt extra. But she had lived her life with extra stuff 'just in case.'

The rifle was now in Danny's go-bag, disassembled for their exit.

She took a deep breath. It didn't still her heart.

She left the note from her landlady where she had found it yesterday.

The coal mine might close any day. Her landlady had asked for two months rent instead of one. Due tomorrow.

She moved her tip money to her wallet and put that in her everyday pocket. Her joey bag would keep her safe from pickpocketing. Something she had learned to do herself, when there was no steady work to be had.

She could be slippery, and while not as fast as Jamie had been with her hands. Marin had evaded getting caught as a pickpocket so far.

She left the landlady's note behind. Throwing the bags over her should and Danny's helmet in one hand. She went back down the stairs.

Danny didn't look out of place, smoking in front of the stairs to her door.

She handed him his stuff and she strapped the bags to her bike.

They both had combat boots on. They always did. He had a jacket that would suffice for bike riding.

Marin asked him "See anything?"

"Maybe a dust devil or two in the south-west." Shouldering his pack.

"Then we go north-east." Marin told him as she double-checked the straps, making sure they were secure.

Her land lady had yet to appear. The woman was nosy at the most awkward times. And Marin wanted to be gone before the woman delayed them with questions.

"There's a Mako recharging station in a flea-speck town to the north." Marin rattled off. She had a map and had memorized the nearest pit stops in every direction for a day like this. "We can get a pit-stop there. Maybe make it to a town large enough for an inn before full dark."

"Marin," Danny asked "just like that?"

Marin looked at Danny as she straddled her bike. She nodded resolutely, "just like that."

She throttled the engine, roaring it to life. "Get on." She shuffled as far forward as she could manage.

Danny held something out to her, something red and spherical as the engine purred in idle.

"What's this?" she asked him.

"It's Shiva, I know you like that summon Materia."

Marin pulled up her sleeves and swapped out something for the summon Materia. Slipping that yellow Materia into her joey-bag. The rest of her extra Materia were in her saddlebags.

"Where, how-?" she had no idea how he could have acquired something so perfect for her. She had nothing to give that he would see as preciously as she thought of the spell inside the red sphere.

Danny shook his head, smiling "I'll tell you later."

Their time in this world, spent working and running, fighting too. Had shaped neither of them into an easier fit onto that bike. It was a small blessing that Danny could fit behind Marin anyway. She had assumed that all this work would have made her thinner. She remained the same as before, just stronger.

He climbed onto the bike behind Marin he could barely hold his arms around her thicker waist.

He didn't complain for how uncomfortable it was to straddle the bags, while keeping his feet forward enough to squeeze onto the bike. But not push Marin's own feet off where they needed to go.

She pushed off the ground with the bike and jumped forward, down the side-street to the east.

And 'just like that' they abandoned the place they had called home for the last six months.