The tiny, metal-walled cell was cold and cramped. Aerith sat alone on the uncomfortable cot with her face pressed into her bent knees. She was shivering. The thin prisoners' jumpsuit she had been given was insufficient for holding in heat and she was hungry. She knew the isolation, the subsistence rations and the temperature were all part of Hojo's attempts to dehumanize her, but the knowledge did little to help.

She consoled herself with thoughts of the future. After she had been rescued. She held on to her belief, if for no other reason than to frustrate the professor. In her mind's eye, Tifa – her guardian angel – opened the door to her cell, hale and hearty, already recovered from her near-fatal wounding and ready to take her back home. Or maybe they would leave Midgar altogether and go somewhere safe and beautiful where trees and flowers could grow without having to be urged from the barren ground.

The lovely image of a verdant paradise – her very own promised land – was shattered in an instant when a vision of Tifa lying bleeding in the dirt of Sector 6 intruded on her daydreams.

Aerith rocked her head back, thumping it against the wall of her cell. "No," she said out loud. "Can't think of that. She'll survive. Tifa's strong. She'll come for me."

Through the door to her cell, she heard noises. The sound of marching footsteps and voices. Rising from her bed, Aerith crept to the door, pressing her ear against the metal. Were they coming for her again already? She felt like it had been only an hour or two since the last batch of tests and scans. Then again, what courtesy could she expect from the Shinra?

But no… there seemed to be too many pairs of footsteps. More than three. And the sound of something heavy being dragged down the hall. The cell next to hers opened, loud enough that Aerith jumped in place, certain it was her own door sliding into wall, and there was a staccato thud as the heavy object was pushed inside, falling onto the floor. Another prisoner.

Or a body.

"Hojo will be happy to have this sample back," a male voice said. "Especially after the other one was killed."

"They should have let the Turks handle it instead of letting the army get involved." This was a female voice. "We could've had both samples alive instead of just one."

There was a noise from the next cell, a stirring. "You lying bitch," The words were hoarse and slurred and muffled, barely understandable.

The female voice answered, cold and unsympathetic. "I'm a Turk. What did you expect? Enjoy your stay, Lockhart. You'll be here for a while."

Aerith didn't hear the end of the exchange, didn't even notice when the door of the neighboring cell slid closed again. Was it possible? She didn't move, didn't even dare to breathe, as if her discovery was some sort of spell that would be broken if she made too much noise. She waited until the footsteps receded, then waited even longer, making sure there were no guards left behind.

At last, the flower girl took a deep breath. "Tifa?" No answer. She risked speaking a bit louder. "Tifa is that you?"

"Aerith?"

The Cetra almost laughed despite their predicament, relieved beyond words to know her friend was alive. "I can't believe you're here! How's your wound? Are you okay?"

A faint snort of laughter came through the dividing wall. "I should be asking you that question. I'm all right. Recovering. But what about you? Have they done anything to you?"

"Tests. Scans. Injections… mind games. Nothing permanent."

Tifa sounded closer now, like she was pressed against the wall. "Good… I've been so worried." A brief silence. "I'm sorry, Aerith. It's my fault they caught you, and now…"

Aerith raised her hand, pressing it against the wall. She had a sudden, clear vision of Tifa doing the same in her own cell, and she smiled. "You have nothing to apologize for. We're both here. We'll both get out somehow."

"Yeah… yeah we will." Aerith could hear the dark promise in her friend's tone. "There are scores to settle."

"I believe you were told specifically not to involve yourself in this situation, Cissnei." Tseng didn't look at her, instead staring out the window of his office at the thousand tiny lights of Midgar glowing below them, hands clasped behind his back. The room was functional and utilitarian; bare of all decoration. There was nothing in it to hint at the man's origin in Wutai, a necessary precaution after the war between his home country and Shinra. "And I'm sure my orders to all the Turks involved in the Zirconaide situation were clear. You were to stay out of sight until things at HQ changed." The long-haired leader of the Turks looked over his shoulder at her. "I can't protect you now that you're back."

Cissnei stood at attention, not as a soldier, but to display her pride. Her back was straight, her hands at her sides, and her brown eyes were fixed on her superior. "I was given a mission, Tseng. You know better than anyone… the Turks always finish the job."

Tseng grunted in either annoyance or approval. It was difficult to tell with him. "Well since you're here, there's no going back." He turned from the window and approached her, gazing down at her with his dark eyes, which flicked momentarily to the fading bruise on her jaw. A souvenir from Lockhart's punch. Cissnei had used a bit of materia to bring down the swelling, but it was still tender. "You have your new orders?"

"Yes, sir."

A pause. Unusual for Tseng. "Any regrets?"

"I don't know what you mean." Her voice was steady, but Cissnei was now looking past Tseng, unable to meet his eyes.

"Your past," the leader of the Turks said. "You're going to have to let it go. Whatever you felt or feel about Zack Fair, whatever your feelings for the company are right now. It's time to move on."

The young woman looked up at Tseng. "I'm a Turk. We don't let our personal feelings interfere with our jobs."

A faint not-quite-a-smile flitted across her superior's face. "Of course." He moved to sit behind his desk, already turning his attention to his monitor. "You'd better get going then."

"Yes, sir."

Cissnei left his office without hesitation. Tseng was right. It was time to leave the past behind.

Tifa was dozing on the thin mattress of her cell when the alarms started blaring. For a moment, she was fifteen again, awakened from a deep sleep in the SOLDIER barracks by another drill. The pitch and pattern of the alarm was familiar from her time living in this building: an intruder alert. She was up in an instant, leaping to her feet and reaching back instinctively for the Buster Sword. It wasn't there of course. She didn't know where Cissnei had taken it. The dark-haired woman shook her head. She would defend herself hand-to-hand if she needed to, the way she had before Zack had given her the weapon.

Although it seemed unlikely it would be necessary. Whatever the emergency was, it didn't appear to concern her or Aerith. Tifa went to the door and leaned close, listening intently. Over the loud siren, she heard a faint commotion. People were moving in the vicinity, but she couldn't discern how many or what they were doing. A stab of panic went through her slender frame. What if they were moving Aerith? Taking her away to some more secure location? Tifa might never find her friend again.

She was just about to shout the other woman's name when her door slid open, revealing a familiar face. Tifa bared her teeth in a snarl, moving with Mako-augmented speed to grab the young woman on the other side of the portal by the throat and slamming her against the opposite wall. "Big mistake," she hissed, loud enough to be heard over the alarms. "You're going to regret tricking me."

Instead of answering, Cissnei's brown eyes shifted to one side. Tifa followed her gaze to see Aerith emerging from her own open cell, dressed in her own clothes again instead of the prison jumpsuit she said she had been given. Her emerald eyes took in the situation, flicking from one face to the other, and her step faltered. "Tifa… what's going on? She said she was with you."

The ex-SOLDIER didn't respond to the question. She released the Turk and gathered Aerith in her arms, hugging her tightly. "I'm so glad to see you again," she said, her voice heavy with gratitude. "Are you okay?" The flower girl nodded against Tifa's shoulder, hugging her back. "Thank the Planet," Tifa breathed.

After a moment, she disengaged herself from the other woman's embrace and turned to find Cissnei rubbing her throat. "I guess, I…" Tifa worked her jaw for a moment, searching for the right phrase. "Well I don't know, should I thank you? What's your game?"

"Exactly what it looks like," Cissnei said. "We're getting out of here."

"Really?" Tifa asked in a challenging tone. "Was this your plan all along? Why didn't you tell me?"

For a moment, the cool façade of the young Turk cracked, frustration leaking through. "Your capture needed to look convincing or they wouldn't have allowed me the freedom to finish the job. I couldn't trust you to act the part. It needed to be real."

Tifa grit her teeth and shook her head, her long hair waving behind her with the motion. She glanced over at Aerith. "She's too smart," she said. Aerith gave a slight nod, and Tifa was confident the other woman had caught her meaning. They would have to watch Cissnei closely. Her crimson eyes found the dark-suited girl again. "Were these alarms part of your plan, too?"

Cissnei looked troubled. "No. They're a good distraction, but this is something else. I'm not sure what's going on."

"Let's just take advantage of it and go," Aerith suggested anxiously.

"Right," Cissnei agreed. "But first…" she slipped past the two women and walked to a gurney sitting against one wall. She whipped off the white sheet covering the stretcher, revealing the Buster Sword lying on the bed along with the materia that had been taken from them when they were captured. The Turk glanced at Tifa. "Maybe now you'll trust me a little more," she said drily. Tifa just took the weapon and secured it to her back, throwing the copper-haired woman an inscrutable look. Cissnei shrugged and led the way out of the prison.

They reached a fork in the hall and Cissnei beckoned the other two women close. "We're on Floor 67 right now. We'll head through the Science Department and use the freight elevator." The trio jogged down the corridor, past a series of offices to where Hojo's specimens were kept. Halfway there, the alarms suddenly stopped.

"Is that good or bad?" Aerith asked.

"Both," Tifa and Cissnei said at the same time. "It might mean the building isn't locked down quite as tight," Tifa continued. "But it also means there's less confusion, less chance of us slipping out without being noticed."

Cissnei nodded soberly. "Let's hurry."

Despite her words, the Turk stopped short when she entered the specimen storage area. Coming up behind her, Tifa could see why. One of the tanks, a steel container like a bunker, had burst open and whatever had been within had escaped. A trail of what looked like blood led from the metal prison and through the big room, winding between boxes and cages into the shadows at the far end of the chamber.

"Jenova," Cissnei murmured.

Tifa felt a shock run through her body at the word. "What did you say?" she asked sharply, grabbing the shorter woman's arm.

"The Jenova specimen escaped."

"Tell me Shinra didn't bring Jenova here," Tifa said. "After what happened in Nibelheim, tell me Shinra wasn't dumb enough to move that monster to Midgar." Cissnei just stared at her. "And now it's free. This is not good."

Aerith pressed close. "What does that mean? What's Jenova?"

Tifa shook her head. "No time to explain now. Let's just get out of here."

But they had only gone halfway through the room – following the trail left by Jenova – when they stopped again, this time at the sight of the broken glass observation chamber. More specifically, what lay at the bottom of the chamber. When Aerith saw it, she gasped and grabbed Tifa's hand. "That's… Thirteen! What happened to him?"

"Him?" Tifa echoed, looking askance at the creature lying motionless in the shattered remains of its cell. It was a mess of red fur and bizarre purplish growths, as if it had been infected by some terrible disease. From here, she couldn't tell if it was still alive. For Thirteen's sake, she hoped he wasn't. "I don't know… could Jenova have done this?" She looked at Cissnei who didn't answer, but Tifa could see the disgust in her brown eyes. She tugged at Aerith's hand. "Come on. We have to keep moving." The flower girl's horrified gaze lingered on the remains of the creature, but she followed dutifully.

"What's going on here?" she asked in a hollow voice.

Tifa pressed her lips into a thin line. "Nothing good."

The trio reached the freight elevator and took it up to the next level, the main lab. All of them were jumpy, seeing from the mess on the floor that Jenova had also used the car. Tifa's skin seemed to crawl. She felt slightly better when they left the elevator and walked through the lab, but Aerith tightened her grip on Tifa's hand as if recalling her time here under the cruel mercies of Professor Hojo. Tifa remembered the man from her time in Shinra. He had always seemed creepy, but after hearing what he had put her friend through, the former SOLDIER would be happy to throw him from the highest window in this building.

Just as she was about to ask where all the technicians and guards were, Tifa spotted the first body. It lay crumpled in the bloody swath left by the escaped specimen. Cissnei rushed over to the corpse and knelt by it, examining it for clues. When she rose, she looked puzzled. "Claw marks." The next body looked as if it had been drained of blood. Another was strangled. After that, she stopped looking. Through the normal Turk coldness, Tifa could see the young woman was shaken.

They were forced to go up another floor since the Science Department was inaccessible by elevator. Their quickest way down was to ascend to the sixty-ninth level of the building. Cissnei hustled Tifa and Aerith up the stairs and into a waiting area near the elevators. "Stay here," she said. "I need to find out what's going."

"Are you kidding?" Tifa asked, nervous and irritated. "There's no reason for us to spend any more time in this slaughterhouse than necessary."

The Turk seemed to take strength from the taller woman's anger, straightening up and staring at her coolly. "Without intel, we don't know what we'll be walking into when we reach the ground floor. Stay here. Wait. This won't take long." She walked to the door and looked at the other two over her shoulder. "And don't bother trying to leave without me." She lifted a gloved hand, revealing the keycard she held between two fingers. "The elevator won't work for you without this." With that she was gone.

Tifa shook her head and glanced at Aerith, who was making a face. "You're right," the brown-haired woman said. "She's too smart."

Only a few minutes passed before Cissnei returned, pale under her auburn hair. She didn't speak until they were in the glass and steel external elevator that threaded up and down the entire seventy floor edifice of the Shinra building. The Turk slid the keycard through a reader and selected the third level. They were down to sixty when she finally broke her silence.

"The president is dead."

Tifa blinked, stunned. "What?"

"How?" Aerith asked at the same time. "Was it Jenova?"

Cissnei shook her head, chewing on her bottom lip. It made her look even younger. She looked squarely at Tifa. "They're saying it was Sephiroth."

The mercenary reached out blindly to grip Aerith's arm, feeling as if she were falling. "That's not possible," she heard herself say as if from a great distance. "He's dead."

"That's what the reports said," Cissnei agreed. "But they found the Masamune near the president's body. Only Sephiroth can use that swor-"

"He's dead!" Tifa insisted, voice rising to a shout, loud in the confined space. She was aware the other two women were staring at her and she took a deep breath to calm herself. "There's no way he could've survived. It's not possible."

They were silent for a moment, descending past the thirtieth floor. "The president of Shinra, Inc. is dead…" Aerith said, half to herself. "What does this mean for us?"

"Rufus Shinra, the president's son, has taken control. Business will continue." Cissnei peered down through the glass wall of the elevator where the twinkling lights of moving cars and the city could be seen. "They've sealed the building. It's completely surrounded by an army battalion and a squad from SOLDIER."

Tifa watched the numbers indicating the floor drop, counting down the seconds until they were out of time for conversation. "You have a plan," she said. It wasn't a question.

Cissnei looked at her again. "You remember what's on the third floor?"

"The mezzanine, the store, a couple of display models of…" Tifa trailed off. She nodded. "I see what you're thinking. Will they have fuel?"

For the first time, Cissnei gave a genuine smile. "They do now."

Aerith looked back and forth between the two of them. "I don't suppose you're going to let me in on this plan."

Tifa took her hand, eyes fixed on the floor indicator. "Just stick close to me. We're busting out of here."

The display near the vehicle proclaimed it as the "Hardy-Daytona", a motorcycle with a VE4-Ge type engine capable of propelling the bike over 200 km/h. The name and the specifications didn't matter at all to Aerith. All she knew was that it was loud and uncomfortable. She clung to Tifa, arms around the other woman's waist, praying the motorcycle wouldn't tip over or she wouldn't fall off. It rumbled beneath her with a powerful noise and vibration, making her feel like her teeth would rattle out of her skull. Aerith squeezed her eyes shut, muscles tensed.

"Hang on!" Tifa shouted, twisting the throttle and revving the engine. With a roar, the motorcycle sped forward, straight towards a plate glass window overlooking Sector 0.

"Wait, I thought we were going through the fron-" Too late. The window shattered around them, sending a rain of broken glass arcing out into the night. For a breathless moment they were airborne, and Aerith felt a scream rising up through her lungs. It died stillborn when the tires hit concrete with a thud that went straight to her bones. Their jump had landed them on one of the long highways winding around Midgar.

Something slammed onto the road behind them and Aerith twisted to see Cissnei riding her own motorcycle, looking somehow stylish in her impossibly unruffled black suit. Police sirens wailed further behind as the army battalion guarding the Shinra building noticed their noisy escape. With a squealing of tires, the two motorbikes growled down the highway.

It didn't take long for Shinra to respond. Additional engine noises came up behind them, accompanied by Cissnei's shouts of warning. Aerith was forced to release Tifa's waist for a harrowing moment while the former SOLDIER drew the Buster Sword, holding it with one hand and steering with the other. She had been scared before, but it was absolutely terrifying when Tifa began weaving the bike back and forth, varying her speed, slashing down Shinra troopers with her massive weapon when they got too close.

Aerith dared to turn her head enough to check on Cissnei. The copper-haired Turk was maneuvering her own bike as effectively as Tifa was, dodging between attacking Shinra forces and occasionally slashing at them with her massive red-and-white shuriken. One expertly timed throw scythed through two troopers before looping back around to where Cissnei could catch the weapon again.

I won't be useless baggage, Aerith thought fiercely. She freed one hand, concentrating on the green materia attached to the bracelet on that wrist. Warm energy flowed through her body, signaling the magic's readiness. She pointed the hand at another Shinra motorcycle trooper approaching from the right. Tifa was occupied fighting off a similar soldier on the left. Aerith clenched her jaw and let the spell go. A blast of fire engulfed the rider and his bike wobbled and collapsed, taking down a second Shinra cycle behind it.

Tifa cut down her own adversary and half turned to address her. "Nice shot!"

Aerith almost smiled at the encouragement.

The other Hardy-Daytona approached, driving close enough the two drivers could reach out and touch each other. "Follow me!" Cissnei shouted to be heard over the wind and the engines. She zipped ahead, bypassing the next exit and driving straight towards what appeared to be an unfinished part of the highway blocked off by orange barriers and cones.

"What is she doing?" Tifa asked. Nonetheless, she followed, gunning her own cycle's motor.

Cissnei's bike slipped between the barricades and soared off into space. Aerith forced herself to watch as Tifa's motorcycle did the same, though all she wanted to do was bury her face against her friend's back. Below them, unseen until they went over the edge, was another stretch of highway crossing beneath them. With a pair of rattling thuds, the Hardy-Daytonas landed, slowing momentarily as their riders regained their equilibrium, and roared off down the gradual ramp leading out of Midgar.

Their last jump had thrown off the remnants of the pursuit. They were escaping. They were free. The fear of imprisonment and their wild escape drained away and Aerith realized she was laughing. "We made it!" she cried. "We actually made it!"

Tifa looked over shoulder with a tight grin. "You almost sound like you had fun."

Aerith squeezed the other woman in a brief hug. She smiled back cheekily. "Wanna' do it again?"

A/N: This concludes the "Violence Against Neighbors" Arc of "Seventh Circle". The implication going through this arc was that - without Cloud AND Tifa - our heroes keep losing ground. They progress, but more slowly and at greater cost. Nonetheless, this new team has managed to escape Midgar at last. It took longer than I thought it would... it's just a coincidence that the arc ended after seven chapters.

Other things... you may have wondered why I chose to change "Red XIII" to "Red Thirteen" or just "Thirteen". One of the things I try to do (and I doubt I always succeed) is to write every story as if the reader has no experience in the fandom the story is part of. This may not be the best idea, as it means I do have to take time explaining ideas fanfiction readers are already familiar with. Anyways, my point is that "XIII" is kind of an odd way to address someone. Is it Red the Thirteenth? Is it Red "Zhiii"? Furthermore, even in the canon of the game, do you think Cloud and company always addressed Nanaki as the full "Red XIII"? Or would it just be Red OR Thirteen? I've spent too much time justifying this. Moving on.

Materia usage... this is another one that goes with the last point. For better or worse, I treat my writing - even fanfiction writing - more seriously than I should, so I felt the need to translate the way materia is used to make it less video-gamey. So yeah, it works similarly to the way it's explained in the game, but there is no "Bolt", "Bolt2", "Cure", etc. It's more vague than that. Same with limit breaks. Braver was implied in Chapter 1. Aerith used Healing Wind on Tifa in Chapter 5. You can't CALL it that, but that's what I was implying. In the same vein, Aerith's guard stick is never mentioned. It's difficult to justify it appearing and disappearing between disguises and captures and dialogue scenes, so I choose to have Aerith focus on magic instead of giving her a weapon.

Anyways, I'd love to get some more feedback on the story, as its getting more difficult to justify the time spent working on this without reviews. So, please, tell me what you think. Comments, concerns, complaints, ideas?

Regardless, next time, we start the "Violence Against Self" arc with "Five Years Ago".