DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT OWN FF7 OR ANY OF ITS CHARACTERS

Chapter Two

In the depths of the forest near Cosmo Canyon, a solitary figure sat hunched beside a small camp-fire, deep in thought. Poking at the fire with a stick, the AVALANCHE traitor tried to decide who their next target might be. Killing Red XIII hadn't been too difficult – after all, the lion had been taken completely by surprise, never having known of the traitor's duplicity. It wouldn't be long though, the traitor reflected, before the rest of the party realised they were being hunted down one by one. What would they do then? Gather together in the hope of safety in numbers? Run off alone into hiding?

The traitor had managed to sneak out of Cosmo Canyon during the uproar following the shooting – confident that they had escaped unnoticed – and now planned their next move. Hopefully the other party members wouldn't find out about Red's death until some time the next day, by which time the killer planned to have struck once more. Then things would begin to get difficult, which meant the next target had to be chosen carefully. The traitor had once again run through the targets in their mind – it was easier now that the number had been reduced to six – and after a couple of hours' deliberation, came to a decision.

The traitor stamped out the remains of the fire, and covered the ashes with some fallen leaves and branches, not wanting to leave any evidence that they had been there. Ducking back inside the tent, the traitor planned to get a few hours' sleep before heading north-east.

* * *

Once they had got over the initial shock and horror of finding Red XIII dead in his reading chamber, Cloud and Tifa quickly searched the room for any clues that might lead them to the identity of the murderer. After an hour's work, both of them had to admit that they were getting nowhere.

"This is hopeless," Cloud sighed, flopping down in one of the armchairs. "I just don't understand why anyone would want to kill Red."

Tifa was still kneeling beside the dead lion, her hand resting gently on Red's neck, "We have to find out who did this."

"Damn right we do. Red was one of the kindest, wisest friends I ever knew. I'll kill whoever did this!"

"Hmm – I'm trying to think. We got here more or less right after we heard the shot fired, right?"

Cloud nodded.

"So, it's probably a fair assumption that whoever murdered Red isn't around any more. They must have run off as soon as they killed him, knowing the sound of the shot was sure to attract attention."

"Yeah," Cloud agreed. "We should ask around, find out if anyone noticed anything earlier tonight, maybe saw somebody acting suspiciously."

"We have to call the others too. We have to let them know what happened."

"I'll do that. You keep looking for clues; you're probably better at it than I am."

Tifa watched as Cloud left the room, dialling a number on his PHS, in preparation to spread the bad news. She sighed and her head drooped, staring down at the still form of Red XIII. She felt tears creeping into her eyes at the thought of never again seeing Red's wise head bowed in thought, or his proud, powerful figure running into battle. Who could be so utterly cruel and heartless as to end the life of one who had done nothing but good for the sake of the Planet and his friends? Tifa was getting angrier by the moment, and she finally jumped to her feet, striding towards the exit, vowing to find out who had done this and make them pay.

* * *

Barret Wallace stood and waited patiently by the small wooden fence that surrounded the local school in Kalm. He was twenty minutes early for Marlene getting out of school, but he didn't mind the wait. Barret was happy to stand and think about the bright future that his daughter would have, now that Sephiroth and the Weapons and the Shinra were no more. He loved standing in town on a warm spring day like this and simply enjoying looking at the flowers and trees. Barret had spent so long in Midgar, where such beautiful things no longer existed, that he delighted in the works of nature. When buying his new home, he'd made sure that it included a garden. One of his first actions had been to plant new flower-beds alongside the path that led to his front door. Hopefully those plants would grow and bloom before long, and he would have his own personal part of nature's beauty.

On hearing the footsteps behind him, he turned round out of idle interest to see who was there. Barret had got to know a few of his neighbours, and they seemed like good, friendly people, so he was always keen to get to know more of them. To his surprise, the person approaching was one of his fellow party members.

"Hey!" exclaimed Barret. "What you doin' here?"

"I was in town," the other replied. "I thought I'd come and say hello."

"Nice of you," Barret smiled. "I wasn' sure when I'd next be seein' any of ya."

"I'm doing a spot of travelling, so I hope to bump into most of the rest of the party at some point."

"Be sure to say hi for me. Say, the school's out in twenty minutes, do you wanna go and have a quick drink?"

The traitor nodded, "Of course."

Barret led the way back to his new house, where he went into the kitchen to grab some beers from the fridge while his guest waited in the front room.

"I've had the back room converted into a spare bedroom, so if you wanna stay for the night you're more than welcome," Barret was saying as he re-entered the front room holding two bottles of cold beer.

On finding the front room empty, he frowned, "Huh? Where'd ya go?"

The last thing he knew was a crashing pain in the back of his head as something smashed into the back of his skull with incredible force. Barret pitched forward and landed on the floor, the beer bottles rolling from his fingers to hit the wall. The traitor threw aside the heavy metal wrench which Barret had carelessly left lying around in the hallway, and crouched down to make sure the big man was dead. He was. The killer left the house, carefully closing the door as they went. So far, so good. Now to lie low for a day or two and see what the party's response was.

* * *

Marlene Wallace waited impatiently at the entrance to the school, wondering what was taking Daddy so long. He'd promised to be there to meet her as soon as school had finished, but he was nowhere in sight. Maybe he was busy in the garden again and had lost track of time. Marlene folded her arms grumpily. All her friends had gone home already and there was nobody left to talk to. To make matters worse she was starting to get cold. She looked at her watch. They'd been learning to tell the time in school today, and she calculated that she'd been waiting for nearly twenty minutes. Daddy had never been this late before; in fact, before today he had always been early.

Eventually Marlene got tired of waiting, and decided to walk home on her own. Daddy had warned her not to wander about the town on her own, but she knew the route to get home, and she wasn't any safer standing outside the school on her own. It took her ten minutes to walk home, stopping to laugh at a pair of kittens fighting over a ball in the street. When she got to the house, Marlene reached up to turn the door-handle, pushing the door open with her other hand.

"Daddy? Are you home?"

There was no response. Marlene dropped her schoolbag in the hallway and headed for the front room, planning to watch some TV before Daddy showed up and made her do her homework instead. On entering the front room, she found Daddy lying on the floor, not moving.

"Daddy? Did you fall over? Did you hurt yourself?"

She ran round to grab Barret's hand and tug on his arm, "Daddy, wake up! Are you asleep?"

Still Daddy did not move. Marlene shook his shoulders, beginning to feel scared. What was wrong with Daddy? Was he sick? Should she phone the doctor? She couldn't, she didn't know the number. Marlene hurried into the hallway where Barret's PHS sat on the table. From memory she dialled the number Daddy had made her memorise in case of an emergency, and waited for an answer.

"Hello?" came a voice she recognised.

"Uncle Cloud, Uncle Cloud!" she cried. "Daddy's ill and he won't get up! I think something's wrong with him!"

For a moment there was silence, then Cloud replied, "All right, Marlene. We're on our way. Go round to a friend's house or something until we get there."

Marlene agreed and hung up. She grabbed her coat and headed for the door.

* * *

On the other end of the line, Cloud felt a sickening feeling coming over him. Barret…what had happened to Barret? Had he been attacked too? Surely it was too much coincidence, coming a day after Red's murder. Cloud left the room, in search of Tifa – they'd stayed overnight at the Cosmo Canyon Inn – and found her in Red's quarters, still scanning the room for clues.

"Any luck?" he asked.

"Nothing. Not a single piece of evidence that anyone else was here."

Cloud ran his hand through his hair and said, "I just had Marlene on the phone. I think Barret's been attacked."

"Is he – dead?"

"She didn't say. She probably doesn't know. We have to get up there immediately."

"Let's go."

It was a few hours later when they arrived in Kalm and asked for directions to the Wallace home. When they got there, it didn't take long for Tifa to make the discovery of Barret's body in the front room. She called Cloud, who hurried in from where he'd been searching in the back room, and they knelt down beside the big man's unmoving form. Tifa put a hand on Barret's neck and felt for a pulse. There was nothing.

"He's gone," she whispered. "He's dead."

Cloud had picked up the wrench and was looking at it, then at Barret's corpse alternately.

"This must be the weapon used," he said. "This is another murder."

Tifa gasped, "Do you think it's the same person who killed Red?"

"It has to be. It's too much coincidence otherwise."

"What do we do?"

"It's obvious somebody is out to kill the members of our party. We've got to gather everybody together for extra safety, and try to work on finding out who's responsible. We've got to do it now. We mustn't lose anybody else."

"But who can it be? Who's trying to kill us?"

Cloud shook his head, a blank expression on his face. Then his eyes focussed on something lying beside Barret's dead body. He picked up the beer bottles and said, "Tifa, look at this."

She looked over, "So what? Maybe he was thirsty."

"But there's two bottles. He was getting a drink for himself and somebody else. Which means that there was somebody else in the house, somebody Barret knew."

"The same person who killed him?"

"Must be. The bottles haven't even been opened. He must have been bringing the drinks through when he got killed."

"So the killer is somebody we know. But who? There's none of the Shinra left. Maybe the Turks?"

Cloud snorted, "Barret wouldn't invite any of them into his house for drinks. I don't understand it at all. Somebody who Barret knew – somebody who knew where both he and Red lived – somebody who wanted both of them dead."

Tifa's eyes widened and her mouth opened in horror, "Cloud…you don't think – you don't think it's one of us, do you? A member of the party?"

"It can't be. It just can't be. But it has to be. There's no other explanation. There's a traitor among us."

But which of the six remaining party members was it?