Lyra wasn't sure what she expected the WRO's training center to look like, but she was thinking more along the lines of gun ranges and exercise equipment. Tifa and the kids led her past the gun ranges and they entered a spacious room.

On the far side of the room, just outside locker room doors, were various types of exercise equipment. A large portion of the room was padded and divided into sections. A line of somewhat humanoid dummies were shoved against a wall. The nearest corner was dedicated to a weapons rack with spears, swords, daggers, axes and other weapons messily put away. A track ran around the room, but it was empty.

Something shiny caught Lyra's eye underneath the weapons rack. She left Tifa's side to investigate.

"What are you doing?" Tifa asked. Lyra shrugged as she knelt down and reached for the shiny metal cylinder laying underneath. It was slender and mostly smooth. She pulled the cylinder out and showed Tifa.

"What's this?"

"I'm not sure. Probably a prototype of something a techie is making." Tifa took the cylinder from Lyra and found a small indent in the middle. "Maybe this will turn it on?"

Lyra pressed the small indent in the middle and two red lasers came from the ends. Lyra backed away from Tifa and the kids and twirled the cylinder between her fingers. She smiled wide and mimed a few swings as if it were a sword.

"Having fun?" Tifa asked. Lyra nodded and found the indent in the middle to turn the lasers off.

"Great." Tifa took the weapon from Lyra and threw it back at the weapons rack.

"Can I play with it?" Denzel asked. Tifa laughed and shook her head.

"No!"

"Can I?" Marlene piped up.

"If I can't, I don't think you can," Denzel whispered to her. They ran off to the punching bags and Lyra and Tifa followed.

The rest of the evening was mostly uneventful. Tifa taught Lyra a few basic self-defense moves and they left. Tifa told Cloud that Lyra was a fast learner and the next day was planned as a day for fun after the chaotic week.

The farmers' market had been postponed because of the storms during the week and then the power had gone out for half the city.

Cloud and Tifa woke everyone early in the morning as the sun rose. Marlene and Denzel bounced around, trying to find various objects around the bar and living areas that they were willing to trade for treats and toys. The people selling at the farmers' market accepted gil, but they also accepted trades as a form of payment.

The morning was cool and the sidewalks and roads were wet from the humid air as they made their way to the farmers' market. Marlene and Denzel took Lyra's hands and dragged her through the crowds, always in view of Cloud and Tifa. Cloud and Tifa took their time with buying fruit and vegetables, but so far they were spending all their time surrounded by food. Lyra had a few gil from helping Shalua organize her lab but she wasn't entirely sure if she wanted to spend her money on anything.

Eventually, Cloud and Tifa finished buying and trading for food and they herded Marlene and Denzel farther into the crowded market. The stalls and open truck beds weren't filled with fresh food after a while. They were filled with toys whittled from wood and homemade clothes. The smells of baked goods wafted through the market as it got closer to lunchtime.

Lyra wandered around, stopping every once in a while to admire the knickknacks and pies made from scratch. The smell of food made her stomach growl, and she bought herself a snack. The sticky roll was delicious.

The sun was high in the sky at this time, but Lyra didn't have a watch. She turned to ask Tifa- Oh no.

Where are they?

Lyra stopped walking and looked around her, hoping to see Cloud's spiky hair through the crowd. That guy's hair was hard to miss. She heard it be compared to a dead chocobo earlier and she had to agree.

Unfortunately, she couldn't find him. And Lyra would have no luck listening for Marlene and Denzel. The market was filled with people and noise.

Lyra started to panic. She tried to backtrack to the stall she had last seen them, but she couldn't remember what the stand had or even when she had last seen them. She mustered up the courage to ask stand owners if they had seen Cloud or Tifa, but most of the answers were no with a side of 'I've seen so many people today that all the faces just blur together, sorry.'

In the end, Lyra decided to find her way back to the 7th Heaven. She trudged through the crowd until she found a side street. She followed it, but nothing looked familiar. Everything looked more worn than usual, with litter in the streets and bags of trash crowding the sidewalks. The people she came across gave her strange looks and glared as if she wasn't supposed to be there.

Lyra definitely wasn't in the right area. She turned around to go back and almost had a heart attack. A tall man had snuck up behind her and he was standing far too close. She almost turned right into him and she could smell his breath on her face.

"Hey good-looking," he drawled. Lyra gave him a nervous smile and tried to step around him, but he followed her movement. "Where you going?"

Lyra scowled. "I'm trying to go home. Please get out of my way."

The man didn't seem to hear her. Or maybe he did and he just pretended not to.

"Wanna get a drink? There's a nightclub still open down the street."

Lyra tried not to roll her eyes. "If it's called a nightclub, I doubt it would still be open at this hour. Please move."

He didn't and she felt her eye twitch. She tried stepping around him again, but he reached out and stopped her.

"Come on, it'll be fun," he promised, his hand gripping her arm tightly. Lyra looked around, but no one seemed to notice. A group of people passed them and they didn't even give Lyra a second glance.

"I don't want to go," Lyra said in a firm voice, trying to ignore the pang of fear shooting through her. She tried to pry the man's fingers from her arm, but he clasped her hand with his free hand. Lyra jumped and tried to yank away from him, tried to twist away, but he started to drag her down the sidewalk, yammering on about how fun the club was and how they would have a drink or two and she would warm up to him. She felt sick and desperately prayed to anyone that would listen that she could get someone's attention.

helphelphelphelp

It's coming.

Lyra froze at the sound of the foreign voices in her head all speaking the one line, causing the man to stop as well. He snapped at her. She ignored him and stared at the sidewalk, listening for any more voices. The man yanked her forward, but they weren't able to continue.

"Hey, I've been looking everywhere for you!"

Lyra gasped and smiled when she heard his voice and was actually glad when another pair of hands gripped her wrists.

"Kadaj," Lyra managed to say, turning around. "I've been looking for you too!"

Kadaj was moping around the apartment, fully aware of how sad it was to mope around an empty apartment when there was a nice market a few blocks away and the sun was shining when he felt the burst of panic. It wasn't his panic, and suddenly the familiar tugging became too much to ignore.

He had to follow it. Something was wrong with Lyra and he was curious about what dangerous thing she had gotten herself tangled in this time. And Aerith probably wouldn't be very happy if something really bad happened to her.

Kadaj didn't have to look for her long. All he had to do was follow the tugging around a few corners and he saw her.

Lyra looked healthy enough, a bit uneasy, but she looked well. Her dark messy hair was pulled into a ponytail with a lilac ribbon and she was wearing a T-shirt and jeans and a plaid overshirt-

And she was being dragged behind a man.

Kadaj tried not to snap. He had left his sword in the duffel bag, which was probably for the best if he wanted the Lifestream and Planet to accept him the next time he died. But Lyra obviously was not pleased with her situation and she obviously did not know the man.

Kadaj hastily thought of a way to help and- wait, how did she get here? Was she following the tug?

"Hey!"

He dissolved into mist and appeared behind Lyra, materializing and grabbing her wrists. "I've been looking everywhere for you!"

Lyra smiled at him and he could feel her relief through the tug. She mumbled something back to him, but her voice was so shaky and soft that he couldn't hear. The man turned around and stared wide-eyed at Kadaj. Kadaj narrowed his eyes at the man and the man glared back. The man was taller than him, but if he tried to start a fight Kadaj was sure he could take him.

"We have somewhere to be," Kadaj said, just slightly taking on a threatening tone. The three of them were silent, the man's eyes going from Lyra to Kadaj and back to Lyra. He seemed to weigh his options. Part of Kadaj hoped that he would start a fight, but he also knew that a fight wouldn't be the best thing at the moment, unfortunately.

The man seemed to think this as well, as he let go of Lyra. He swore a few times under his breath and continued down the street. Kadaj watched the man until he turned a corner. Lyra let out her breath.

"Holy shit, I didn't think he was going to let go for a second there," Lyra exclaimed, pacing away from Kadaj in a circle. She took a few breaths and beamed at him. "Thank you, thank you, thank you so much!"

"What are you doing here?"

She blinked and her smile faltered. "I…I got lost."

He tried not to feel too disappointed, but then again she hadn't outright said anything against following the tug. And even if she hadn't actually followed it, it felt good to have someone to talk to. He had looked for his brothers earlier, but they still hadn't shown up in the Church.

"It happens to the best of us," Kadaj said. "Where are you trying to go? Maybe I can help you find it."

He hoped she hadn't heard him mumble under his breath, "If I can find it."

Lyra's smile widened. Nope, she hadn't heard him.

"Lead the way," she sang, looping her arm through his. Kadaj grinned as they turned around. "I'm trying to find Tifa's bar, 7th Heaven, and I lost her and Cloud and the kids in the farmers' market."

"I know where it is," Kadaj assured her. "I found it before I died."

It went awfully silent after that lovely remark. They walked a block in silence before it got to be too much.

Oh my gods, say something! Make her laugh! Anything!

"So you were at the farmers' market?" He blurted. "Anything interesting?"

It was like a floodgate opened. Lyra started to babble about all the food and baked goods and 'wow, everything is so colorful there, it was so fun and wonderful until I lost Cloud and Tifa.'

"What have you been up to?" Lyra suddenly ended with. Kadaj didn't want to tell her that he had mostly been sitting around an empty, falling-apart apartment wishing that he had someone to talk to and his brothers back, so he lied.

"I've been reading," he said. Lyra's dark green eyes lit up at that and he instantly regretted his decision to lie. Or at least regret that the first thing he had thought to say was that he had been reading. He didn't own any books and the books he had read were instruction manuals for air conditioners.

"Reading what?"

He looked away from her. "Uh, nothing that interesting."

She made a disappointed noise. "That's too bad."

They were silent again, but the silence was more comfortable now, and Lyra was holding his hand now.

Kadaj could count on one hand the number of times they had talked in person instead of in dreams throughout their childhood. The physical contact was nice. They had held hands before but holding hands with someone who can only talk to you in dreams wasn't really the same as holding hands with someone in person.

"Did you follow the tug?" Lyra asked, her voice clear and soft. Kadaj glanced at her, but she wasn't looking at him. She was looking at the sidewalk before them.

"Yeah. Did you?"

Lyra met his eyes and the corners of her mouth twitched.

"I was trying to find my way home," she said. "I don't think I was following it on purpose." She squeezed his hand. "Thank you for helping me."

You're the only piece of home I have left, K.

They found the market and stopped, watching the crowd of people milling about. Kadaj couldn't help but feel disappointed that their time together was about to be cut short. The crowd was big, but it was small enough that Lyra could make her way to the bar without him.

"We need to find a way to talk to each other without the tug and dreams," Lyra muttered.

"Great. Any ideas?"

Lyra shrugged. "Well, this is going to sound awkward, but since all the crazy going on with Rosso and you showing up, Shalua and Tifa convinced Reeve to let me get a phone. In case of emergencies, you know?"

Kadaj snickered. "Are you trying to ask for my number?"

Lyra's face turned pink and she bowed her head. She shrugged and mumbled, "Kind of. I told you it would sound awkward."

"I don't have any paper on me," Kadaj told her. "But I'm sure we can find some."

Lyra tugged at his hand and he followed her. They wandered around the farmers' market, just looking around in case Cloud and Tifa were still there. Kadaj found a piece of paper at one point and scribbled his number for her.

It was nice to spend time together. The sky was clear of clouds and it was warm outside, not so warm and humid that it was miserable.

"I'm not seeing them," Lyra said. "They really might be at the bar."

"That's okay."

They continued to wander around, enjoying the sunshine.

Kadaj wasn't sure when he noticed the feeling of being watched, but it was off-putting enough for him to stop enjoying himself. Lyra didn't seem to notice anything was off. Kadaj hardly kept up with their conversation about an arts and crafts stand as he scanned their surroundings.

Nothing out of place, just the smiling faces of families enjoying the weather and market.

"Kadaj? You alright?"

Kadaj looked down at her. They had stopped walking, causing the people visiting the market to walk around them to avoid trampling them.

"Something isn't right."

Lyra frowned and looked around her, seeming to finally feel as if something was wrong.

"What is it?" She asked, her hand squeezing his. Kadaj didn't answer, still scanning the marketplace. He thought he saw something, but whatever it was it was gone in a blink.

He knew what was happening when they moved aisles. He saw the dark head of hair disappear behind a truck as it drove by a side street, disappearing as soon as he spotted it.

"We're being followed," he told Lyra. Lyra nodded, placing the dumbapple she had been examining back in the crate sitting on a truck bed.

"What should we do?" She asked, her free hand curling into a fist.

"Not sure. Keep walking to be sure?"

He saw the hair again, and a glimpse of a pale, pale face as they entered another aisle. Lyra's hand was cutting the circulation in his hand.

"I think I saw something," she muttered. Suddenly a scream filled the air and the crowd dispersed. At the end of the aisle, a tall pale man with dark hair glided towards them. His limbs and torso seemed to stretch and his face grew. His fingers turned to claws and his skin turned dark and tough.

"What the absolute hell is that?!" Lyra shouted.

The man grew and grew until he was a large, wingless lizard. A pair of legs grew from his middle and his clawed feet squashed the stands around him. His mouth was filled with sharp cone-shaped teeth, yellowed and bloody from past meals. His head was flat and his eyes were dark and beady, zeroing in on Kadaj and Lyra. He roared, breaking windows in the surrounding buildings. Kadaj covered his over-sensitive ears.

He remembered this man. He was the Vigo, Azazel's bodyguard. The Vigo terrified Kadaj and his brothers, never saying a word, just glaring and smiling in a way that just wasn't right. Kadaj had only seen the Vigo transform once before that was enough to keep the boys in line.

Kadaj pushed Lyra before him, nearly tripping over himself as he shouted over and over again for her to just run. Why did he leave his damn sword?

The Vigo roared again and Kadaj heard the stands behind them splinter as they were destroyed. Lyra yelped as WRO vehicles pulled in front of them. The soldiers filed out and wasted no time evacuating civilians. An unfortunately familiar airship hovered above the ruined farmers' market.

"Oh great."

Lyra looked up at the airship and then at Kadaj. "What? What is it now?"

He didn't get the chance to answer as Cloud miraculously appeared, sword in hand and Tifa riding on his motorcycle behind him. Neither of them seemed pleased to see him.

"What are you doing here?" Tifa asked as she approached them. Kadaj scowled and didn't answer and she rolled her amber eyes. "Whatever. You two get out of here. Find a safe place to hide."

"I want to help," Lyra countered. Tifa shook her head.

"No, you need to stay out of the way," she said. The Vigo roared again as Cloud and the members of AVALANCHE that had been in the airship attacked, throwing the pilot guy into a tented stand a few aisles away and almost swallowing the Gun-Arm whole.

Much to Kadaj's annoyance, Tifa pushed them behind the closest vehicle as a truck flew across the market. It screeched as it hit the stone pavement, sparks flying all over the place and actually starting a small trash fire. The truck blocked the side street closest to them and they crouched behind the truck as the sounds of fighting subsided. The Vigo roared once more and the market was silent. Kadaj peered around the vehicle. Cloud was talking to the pilot and Gun-Arm as Gun-Arm's arm turned into a metal hand. They were joking as they made their way to Tifa, but they stopped when they saw Kadaj.

"They're back?" Gun-Arm's hand turned back to a gun and he aimed it at Kadaj. "Say the word and I'll blow him to pieces."

Kadaj rolled his eyes. "Or I'll just leave. Clearly, I am not welcome."

"He's fine," Lyra said. Gun-Arm turned his scowl from Kadaj to her. He glared some more, not looking very impressed or moved by her words.

"She's shorter than I thought she would be," he said. Lyra raised an eyebrow and glanced at Tifa.

"Who is this?"

Tifa didn't get a chance to answer.

"Barret Wallace," Gun-Arm said for her. His gun-arm morphed into a metal hand and he walked away, shuffling around the wreckage and just being grumpy in general.

"Now might be a good time for you to leave," Tifa said as she followed him. Kadaj shuffled his feet.

"Problem?" Cloud asked. He crossed his arms. Kadaj scoffed.

"Yeah. Lyra needs to remember how to fight and defend herself," he answered.

"Tifa took her to the training-" Cloud started.

"Wait, what do you mean remember?"

Kadaj glowered at Cloud. "Aren't you supposed to be helping her with the mind block?"

"It's time for you to leave," Cloud snapped. Kadaj resisted the urge to run him through with his own sword and let go of Lyra's hand. Lyra pouted and tried to stop him as he backed away.

"See you later, Ly." He turned at dissolved into mist, flying over the wrecked truck. He materialized in an alley near the apartment building and made his way inside. The streets were strangely empty, probably because of Vigo and the WRO evacuating.

His apartment was empty as ever and Kadaj planned another trip to the Church to meet his brothers, but he already knew that it would be empty and dark.

The Vigo had failed, much to Jael's disappointment. He was injured and bleeding, but not so injured that he wouldn't survive his wounds. The Vigo morphed back to his human form and sat, exhausted.

He was emptyhanded.

"Where is my favorite subject?" Jael growled. The Vigo raised his head. He stared blankly ahead. He didn't say anything.

"Subject 6676? Otherwise known as Lyra?" Jael continued, his voice rising with his anger. "Ring any bells?!"

The Vigo blinked. "Subject 6676 is never alone. There is always someone around her. I fought members of AVALANCHE-"

Jael roared and threw a chair. It crashed into a wall, leaving a large dent. This was not something he wanted to hear. Of course, he didn't get to his favorite subject first and of course, the people who got to her first were part of that blasted terrorist group. It would have been better for the President and his Turks to find her. At least then he would have a greater chance of getting her back.

Jael took a breath and thought about his options.

He needed to find a way to intimidate the WRO and AVALANCHE enough to hand Subject 6676 over. Likely, they had files on her. Jael could remotely declassify certain parts of the documents for them to read. If they found all the things Shinra Electric had her do, maybe just maybe the information would disgust them or scare them enough to throw her onto the streets. Then again Reeve Tuesti was in charge and he was too human to throw anyone out. Jael had sent Rosso the Crimson to retrieve Subject 6676 and instead she was placed into a rehabilitation program, according to the Vigo.

No, he'd have to go with intimidation and threats.

Jael crossed the dark room, throwing furniture out of his way. He grabbed for the small black box and gingerly opened it. He lifted the small red orb. It looked like any other Materia except for the occasional grainy black line that swirls around inside.

The reason he missed his chance to take Subject 6676. This Materia had been just waiting for Jael. He closed his hand around the Materia and his hand started to glow. Jael yelled as he slammed his fist down on the table, causing it to crumble and dissolve into dust.

Jael knew what he would have to do.

Author's Note: Whew! Got this chapter finished! I got past the writer's block and everything has settled down a bit since my finals! Also, the outline isn't finished but it's gotten far enough for me to write the next few chapters! Thank you so much for being patient and thank you so much for your support! Be sure to leave a review and a favorite/follow! Thank you so much again!