Disclaimer: My New Year's resolution was to own FFVII and it's characters/places… Shit, I broke it already.

A/N: Well, my ploy for reviews didn't work. Oh well. It was worth a shot. I completely forgot where I was supposed to be going with this chapter, so this should be interesting…

Chapter 5: A walk through the city.

It was already well after noon by the time the roar of the Highwind could be heard by the inhabitants of the Tranquillity. The buggy Dio gave them a year and a half ago had been given to Barret after AVALANCHE disbanded (he had won it by drawing lots). Before leaving his home town, well on it's way to reaching it's former, pre-Shinra glory, he had left it with his second in command; the vehicle had already made their rebuilding process much easier and he didn't want to take it away from them for his little trip to Kalm. He, Cloud and Cid left nearly 4 hours ago to pick it up. Almost everyone's faces perked up at the sound, except for Vincent (whose face never perked up). It was about time they got to do something.

An exasperated Cid flung open the front door and trudged in, followed soon by the equally tired figures of Barret and Cloud. Whahaha! They're too tired to fight back! Yuffie couldn't pass up her opportunity to take a few free shots. "What's wrong with you guys? Looks like you just fought a dragon… and it smells like he crapped on you when he was done whoopin' you up."

Cloud wasn't going to answer. The look on his face clearly painted the picture of his discomfort, a picture Tifa knew far too well – Cloud was hungry. She half listened for an answer to Yuffie's question as she fixed him a bowl of cereal. It wasn't much, but it would have to do for now – they didn't have time for her to be whipping up a whole meal.

It took a second for Barret to catch his breath before he answered. "First, dem idiots I left at Corel went 'n' got dat damn buddy stuck in da mud 'n' WE had ta pull da fuckin' thing out. THEN dat damn Highwind's cargo door don't be comin' down all da way, so we had ta pick dat shit up 'n' put it in ourselves!"

Anger flared in Cid's eyes upon hearing someone bad mouth his ship. "WHAT THE FUCK YOU SAY?!? My baby's not supposed to be some fuckin' CARGO SHIP! I told you stupid bastards that before we left!"

After fifteen or twenty more minutes of Cid and Barret arguing, Yuffie being a pest, Cloud's stomach rumbling, Tifa offering soothing words and Red simply wagging his tail, Vincent had had enough.

After making plans to go retrieve the buggy, Cloud headed out to the Highwind to meet Cid and Barret, who were already on board. He was about to start his accent of the rope ladder when he caught a pair of cold, crimson eyes in his peripheral vision. "Vincent? What's wrong?"

"Lucrecia is missing." Vincent responded with unusual speed. Cloud had over heard Vincent speaking of Lucrecia before. On the rare occasion that the dark man spoke about personal matters, he always hesitated to speak. When he spoke of Lucrecia, the hesitation was ten-fold.

But from the man's response, Cloud knew that what Vincent had said was meant to be all business. That scared Cloud. Business involving Lucrecia, the mother of Sephiroth, plus a kidnapper wielding Sephiroth's Masamune, plus missing Jenova Project files, did not equal pleasant days ahead for the AVALANCHE crew.

Cloud didn't know what to say. He knew Vincent could already sense his fear. "I'm sure you already know Reeve's missing. I assume that's why you're here. You surely heard that idiot Reno blabbing about something being taken from Hojo's old lab, but something else was taken too. The Jenova files are gone. The same guy that has Reeve and Hojo's stuff took them." Cloud knew he was about to tread on thin ice. The only time he had seen Vincent fight was in battle, in which the ex-Turk had always kept his cool. Even perfectly calm and still seemingly detached, Vincent showed fighting skill that would surely incapacitate Cloud, if not kill him. He wasn't too excited to see (or feel) Vincent's reaction to anything anyone had to say about Lucrecia.

"Do you think Lucrecia is with him?"

Cloud could breathe again. Vincent had just said what he was too afraid to. "Yeah." Then, silent communication passed between the two. Vincent knew how Cloud felt – confused, indecisive, at a loss for words – all feelings a leader couldn't possess. Vincent had been a leader once too.

Cloud knew Vincent could tell what he was thinking. The two of them both knew, personally, that this coincidence meant a lot more for them than just finding a missing ally. "What do you think?"

Vincent returned to his hesitant self. Cloud had never asked Vincent's opinion on anything, but he could tell that the blond-hared leader was looking for more inspiration than Vincent's opinion on the matter. Unfortunately for Cloud, Vincent was never good at instilling hope in others. "I think that, if you believe in a god, you should start praying."

From his and Cloud's conversation earlier, Vincent was not only convinced that Lucrecia was with the man who took Reeve, but that Reeve was in danger. The only place the former Shinra head of Urban Development turned President held in the Jenova experiment was that he was a part of the company that once funded it.

So, with the firm belief that Reeve was in danger, along with his desire to find Lucrecia, Vincent decided that they had wasted enough time. Silently, he walked outside of the bar and swiftly flung himself onto the chocobo Barret rode in on a few days earlier. He hoped the massive man wouldn't mind him borrowing it. If AVALANCHE wasn't ready to move, Vincent would go by himself. He lost Lucrecia once because he didn't act. She fell ill because he didn't act. She was kidnapped because he didn't act. She would not become a part of that blasted experiment again for the same reason.

Most of the group was stunned by Vincent's actions. He may have independent and a loner, but he always waited for instructions from their leader before moving. On their journey to save the world, the tall, dark man would not even eat or sleep without permission from Cloud (even though after Cloud had given him "permission", he rarely did so anyway).

Before Barret had a chance to yell out "Where's dat bastard goin' wit my Chocobo?", Red cut in. "I think Vincent has a point." The canine waited until all confused eyes were turned to him before continuing. "We should leave now."

Unfortunately, that was easier said than done. With Vincent gone and Barret, Cid and Cloud still dead tired, it was quite a mission getting the buggy off the Highwind. The event would've taken much longer if Yuffie hadn't intervened. The others in the group wished to protect the conditions of both the Highwind and the buggy, but Yuffie Kisaragi honestly didn't care about a dented bumper. If even Vincent Valentine, that cold corpse that never did anything, was already on his way to save Reeve, then what kind of losers were they?

So, with her mischievous mind set on its objective, Yuffie's sneaky little thief hands made their way undetected into Cloud's pocket and retrieved the keys to the buggy. Much to everyone's dismay, she quickly bolted into the Highwind, jumped through the door of the buggy that Cid accidentally left open, and started the ignition. The rest of the group barely had enough time to move out of the way, let alone stop her. Soon, after the screeching tires quieted, the Highwind had tire marks all down her ramp, the buggy had a missing bumper and Cid nearly had a heart attack, but their problem was solved.

The little ninja poked her head of the driver's side window with a smile across her face that told she was far too pleased with herself. "Well what are you do-do birds waiting for? Get in!"

Cloud pulled the buggy around to Sector 2. They had been combing the perimeter (well, the portion of the perimeter the could comb with out being detected). So far, no sight of Barret's chocobo, and they all doubted Vincent would've been careless enough to let the bird run off. It was there, outside the gate of the Second Sector, that Maria's green feathers could finally be seen fluttering in the slight wind that surrounded the walls of Old Midgar.

Cloud pulled the buggy to an abrupt stop just in front of the gate. The buggy's contents poured out as quickly as they could (the group of 6 made the moderately small buggy seem like a clown car). The plate above the Sector 2 had fallen after Holy's battle with Meteor. Fortunately for people looking to get in to the Second Sector from outside of Midgar, the Second plate did fall quite as cleanly as the Seventh had. The forced not only blew out the support of the plate, but it also blew the plate itself towards the outskirts of the city. When it fell, it fell with a large crash onto the protective wall of Midgar. Of course, the sturdiness of Shinra construction had not given out completely, but the plate had reduced the height of the wall substantially.

Before, scaling any part of the protective walls of Midgar was virtually impossible to any creature on the planet. Now, it was only virtually impossible to the normal human – not so much because of the great height that the remnants of the wall still possessed, but because of the perfectly smooth surface that provided no footholds. Fortunately for Vincent, he wasn't a normal human. Cloud's suspicions were confirmed upon the sight of the set of five, short, vertical gashes that appeared every so often along the wall. They resembled claw marks. Vincent had indeed scaled this wall.

"Ok." Cloud brought himself out of his thoughts of amazement spawned by Vincent's climbing skills. "Vincent can't be too far into the city. He only left a few minutes before we did, plus we had the buggy. That means he must've only reached here a minute or so ago. Two of us will climb up after him and the rest will head to Sector 5 and use the key. Once there, that group will split up into two smaller groups. Split up from there and comb Midgar sector by sector. If the kidnapper is still here, you all will find him. The two that stay here will, after finding Vincent, search the city for any possible escape route. If the kidnapper left the city, you will find out how."

Cloud stood silent for a moment, surveying his group. Some of them seemed a little surprised at his speech. He was never this formal before. Little did they knew how boring helping run a bar/inn was, and that he loved to watch cheesy action movies with SWAT teams and Special Forces in his spare time. "Yuffie, you stay here. You're small and agile, it shouldn't be that hard for you to scale the wall." But who will go with you? Unfortunately, the only other member of the group that could easily climb this wall already did. Cloud ruled himself out. A huge Ultima Weapon strapped to your back meant running the risk of impaling yourself trying to climb a wall. Tifa might have made it over with out too much difficulty, but neither Tifa nor Yuffie had been good at handling surprise attacks. Together they'd be nearly helpless if the kidnapper snuck up on them. Barret was out of the question due to his size. Cid was out due to what his bad habit had done to his lungs.

"I can go alone." Yuffie's voice sounded as chipper as ever, but it only barely hid a slight tinge of fear. She was pretty sure there were no monsters left in Midgar after the whole Meteor thing, but that didn't mean the place wasn't still creepy. But, she knew what Cloud was thinking – no one else would be able to make it over the wall with her. So, she swallowed her fear and made a stand.

"No." Yuffie breathed a heavy sigh of relief at Cloud's answer. "There might still be a kidnapper on the loose in the city. None of us will be going anywhere alone."

"Cloud." The interjection came from below, where Red stood, almost ignored by Cloud's scrutinizing eye. Before Red could finish his statement, Cloud already decided Red was the least possible choice. With out the ability to stand upright and with no opposable thumbs Red would never had made it up the wall. "Cloud, I can run through debris pretty fast, if not held back by others."

Cloud knew where Red was going with this. He might not have liked it, but the silent plan was their only option. Red could handle himself alone better than Yuffie could. "Ok, Yuffie, you stay here and the rest of us will head over to Sector 5, but do NOT start scaling the wall. Once we get inside the walls, we'll send Red over here. We'll call you when he leaves. Give him 15 minutes and then start climbing. He should be waiting for you when you come down."

Red moved as fast as he could, but not fast enough for Yuffie's patience. She had given up her wait and began her accent. When she had received the call from Cloud, she tried to sound as natural and on the ground as she could. As Yuffie followed Red through the heavy debris near the wall out towards a more open area he had seen on his way in, she recalled how trusting Cloud had been. He hadn't even bothered to ask if she obeyed him. What a sucker…

It didn't take them long to reach the opening. They moved very quickly. Even though on most trips Yuffie complained about them going to fast, she kept her mouth free of complaints the entire trip. In truth, Yuffie never had any trouble keeping up with anyone, she just liked to complain, and since Red was moving so quickly so easily, she hadn't realized that she should be complaining.

Once they reached the center of the clearing, Red stopped short and began to sniff. "He's been through here."

Yuffie had almost forgotten about Red's uncanny sense of smell. Whahaha! Cloud made this TOO easy on me! With that nose we'll be out of here in no time…"So, where'd our little vampy go?"

"I'm not sure." Yuffie's face contorted into a deep frown at Red' disappointing response, but his next words brightened her visage once again. "But he'll be back soon."

If Yuffie had been some sort of video game character or something, a question mark might've appeared above her head. Instead, her face just contorted in confusion. Though the expression was amusing for a while, Red feared that if he didn't say something to help clarify things, Yuffie's face might stay that way forever. "His smell is too widespread here. There's no clear-cut path that he went – but he probably has run back and forth through here a number of times already. The scent is still somewhat fresh, so he probably will return here."

"So what do we do until then?'

"We wait."

"Ooo, sounds fun…" God. Vinnie's even boring when he's not here…

Cloud's body trembled with a mixture of fear and remorse. Tifa had insisted that they be the ones who looked through the remnants of Sector 7. They had no argument from Barret. As much as he loved Biggs, Jessie and Wedge, Barret had buried his past a long time ago. He buried it for the sake of Marlene, Corel, and himself. He didn't think his past would remain healthily interred if he returned to the place that spawned his true and utter hatred for Shinra. Cloud preferred to leave the past as past as well, but he knew Tifa needed to return before she could put her past to rest.

In her time as the owner of the Seventh Heaven and only friend to the original AVALANCHE, Tifa had grown very attached to those hooligans that slept in her secret basement. Barret was a strange mixture of the father she lost to Sephiroth's blade and the trainer she lost to his fire. He watched over her and protected her as closely as he did with Marlene. He also helped train her in ways he never wished Marlene would have to know. He didn't show her fighting techniques, but what he called "self-defense." He showed her how to tell when the train was coming too close to the ID scan. He showed her how to pick locks and to cover up her trail. Basically, he showed her all those near things that made being a terrorist easy.

But Barret was still able to show her all that anytime she asked him. What she had with the others was lost forever. Wedge would never be able to tell her how great her cooking was again. He always stood over her shoulder when she cooked. He never could seem to pick up any recipes well, but he sure did love to watch her go about making them. He would always be the first to taste her cooking and was always the first to compliment her. But he didn't just eat and hand out fake congratulations. He was always sincere and honest. He would always tell her what was off about her sauce on spaghetti day. In fact, his corrections were the reason she had become such a good cook. He was part of the reason her new inn was doing so well (in it's short time, Kalm's Tranquillity had become famous for serving some of the best food around).

Biggs would never give her another noogy (sp?). He was always the annoying older brother Tifa had wanted. Despite her very feminine physical features, Tifa was always looked at as a tomboy. In truth, it was probably because she could suitably knock out any man she met, but she always thought it was because she never had any brothers. At a young age, she took it upon herself to be her parents' daughter and son. Biggs always made her feel more feminine by getting her upset about the little girly things that she didn't have the time to get upset over before. He'd put a fake cockroach in her bed one night and she screamed like a little girl (and woke half the sector up in the process). Another time, he'd put chewing gum in her hair and, for the first time in her life, Tifa pouted about something as superficial as hair. But, like an older brother, he was the one that calmed her down and showed her that the roach was fake, and he was the one that stayed up all night with her helping her wash the gum out of her hair. He also was the only one in the group that would have the courage to fight her when she was in one of her mood swings (Barret was too afraid to hurt her, Wedge was too afraid to get hurt, and Jessie didn't like fighting at all). He helped turn Tifa from the somewhat violent tomboy she was when she joined AVALANCHE into the beautiful woman she is today - who is not afraid to show her feminine side (or kick your ass either).

And she would never speak with Jessie again. Of all her fallen comrades, Tifa missed Jessie the most. Tifa and Jessie had both joined AVALANCHE at the same time, both sharing the title of "The First Women in AVALANCHE." Tifa and Jessie were both slum girls. Jessie was born and raised in the slums of Midgar. Tifa moved there shortly after the incident in Nibelheim. Jessie was the first person in the city to show any sort of kindness to Tifa. The two were very similar, and Jessie saw that right away. Tifa always said that Jessie saved her from the slums. Tifa always thought that the angry underbelly of Midgar would chewed her up and spit her out if it wasn't for Jessie. The two were nearly inseparable. Jessie knew every secret Tifa held, and vise versa. Jessie knew all about Tifa's infatuation with Cloud. From Tifa's detailed description of the blonde hared wonder, Jessie spotted him immediately that cold day in Midgar. She dragged the poor, confused boy all the way to the Seventh Heaven. It may have been Tifa that talked him into helping them out, but Jessie was the reason they found him.

Tifa looked thoughtfully at Cloud. God, I can still remember how she raved about him. Jessie had spoke of Cloud's amazing abilities that he displayed the night of the first reactor bombing. She was held in awe at how kind he had been to stop and help her leg free. Any other mercenary picked up off the streets of Midgar would've left her for dead. She stayed up with Tifa late that night talk about how well he fought, and how he had the courage to stand up to Barret. Jessie couldn't get over the blonde's flashy entrance onto the train. Jessie never said so, but Tifa could easily tell she had a crush on the ex-SOLDIER.

Tifa was violently pulled out of her thoughts by Cloud's tight grip. He pulled her quickly behind a piece of metal jutting out of the ground. "Cloud, what's g—"

Cloud cut Tifa's sentence short as he cupped his hand over her mouth. In a whisper so low Tifa could only barely make out his words, Cloud explained his actions. "There's a person over there. White under shirt, camo pants, SOLDIER issue boots. You can see him if you peek out to the left."

Tifa looked out from behind their hiding place to see the accurately described man looking around nervously. He sensed someone was there. It only took the soft brushing sound Tifa's long hair made as it contacted the ground below her to send the man running. "Wait!"

Cloud knew what happened when he heard Tifa's cry. Immediately he sprang into action, giving chase to the stranger. Tifa kept closely on his heels. A long, red strip of cloth bounced gracefully off the stranger's back as he ran swiftly though what was left of the Seventh Sector. He obviously knew the terrain well, far too well as far as Cloud was concerned. Cloud was determined they had found their man when he saw the figure dive head first into a ditch near the protective wall on the outskirts of Midgar. The figure easily slipped under and was off.

Cloud thought he had lost him, but finding the kidnapper's entrance into the city was counsel enough. Unfortunately, Tifa and Cloud were greeted with a disappointing sight when they made their way under the wall. There they stood in the heart of the large encampment now referred to as Neo-Midgar. Shit… Cloud thought to himself. He was probably just some ex-slum kid that snuck into the ruins…

Yuffie was far beyond bored. She and Red had been standing there for nearly twenty minutes with no sign of the ex-Turk anywhere. They were about ready to forget about Vincent simply walking back over to them when Red said he smelt Vincent getting closer. That was about 5 minutes ago and still there was no sign on the clawed man.

"That's it!" Yuffie threw her arms in the air with frustration. "He's not coming Red! I'm lea—" Yuffie's little speech was cut short by two very loud sounds that both she and Red recognized as gunshots.

A/N: This took far too long to write. Damn me and my writer's block. But, you know what they say helps writer's block? REVIEWS!!! Much plutonic love to Reno Spiegel for being a very faithful reviewer, but c'mon people. Reno can't carry the weight of a world's worth of reviews by himself! If you don't review for my sake, do it for Reno! Anywho, yeah, I'm not very good at this whole suspense filled cliffhanger thing, but I went for it anyway (mostly because I didn't feel like writing this damned chapter anymore).