Disclaimer: I don't own the Final Fantasy characters or the storyline.

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We made our way to the Wall Market and heard kids talking about a wire outside the Wall Market and a few who climbed it.

"Cloud, there's a few things we need to get before we climb. I'm gonna get them now, Barret come with me," I pulled them to a halt at the weapon shop.

"Alright, but hurry." He nodded.

A few minutes later Barret and I appeared with batteries the size of guitar amplifiers and extra equipment.

"How the heck are we gonna carry all of them?" Barret asked

"Put them in here opens backpack. Don't worry about tearing it, you won't." I explained.

Cloud just shrugged and Barret just dumped everything in. Surprisingly, all disappeared into the bag.

"Ready?" I asked cheekily. All three stared with their mouths open.

The wire was how they had described it. I wasn't much of a rope climber as I failed my scout rope climbing test, so I flew up instead.

But before I did so, I asked the kids who were afraid to climb, to keep a secret, "Okay kids, I'm about to do something special and I hope you don't go telling your parents about this, as I know they won't believe you. Be good now and if you're afraid to climb, so what, many people are scared of heights, including me."

They nodded and I floated upwards following Tifa, Cloud and Barret. The kids rubbed their eyes and stared.

On the way up, I fitted the batteries in the respected places as I lead the three through the vines of loose wires.

"Who knew that the only way up would be so perilous," Tifa exclaimed as they climbed the last few wires.

"grunts you're telling me. Look at the kid, she's got the easy way up," Barret tilts his head in my direction.

"Hey, stop complaining, at least she's showing us the way up," Cloud shushes him.

At the end of the wires, we stumbled upon the main entrance of the Shinra building.

There were two entrances; one was the stairs where we were unlikely to run into any goons as it only stops at the 59th floor or the front door itself where we were sure to be ambushed. Decisions, decisions... which one shall we take...the long hike, or crash the party?

"I don't know what you three think, but I say we split up two by two. Two through the main and two up the stairs." I suggested.

"Not half bad kid, you sure know how to use strategy." Barret patted my back so hard I nearly fell forward.

"Heh, heh, I went to school for 13 years. So, I did learn a thing or two about these things." I smiled back at him cheekily. Cloud and Tifa shrugged their shoulders and smiled, they were convinced that I would be of some use.

"Cloud, Tifa, Barret, what I have in mind will work but I don't think you'll like it much." I explained ... "What we'll do is Barret, you and Tifa run up the stairs while I and Cloud go up main."

A little uneasy with the arrangement, Tifa protested. "Why can't I go with Cloud and you go with Barret?"

I gave a sigh and continued, "I know you don't like my arrangements but it'll have to do, as I need Cloud to keep a sharp eye out for ways to escape. There are also a few things I need to sort out like how not to create a ruckus, as if it does happen, the alarm will sound and more guards will be on our tail. You got me?" I told them sternly as I needed to stay focused. Didn't want mess up anything.

"I guess you're right, Barret and I would cause uproar if we go in there." She reluctantly agreed turning 2 shades of red for being scolded by a kid.

"Oh, before I forget, we're running out of items and that's another reason why I choose to go in main. The shop is hard to spot and I don't want to scare the counter person, too much. Forgive me; if I caused any emotions to stir, I tend to do that a lot back home." I faced the ground as I may have made Tifa a little mad and jealous.

"That plan suits me fine." Barret broke the silence, Tifa nodded in agreement truthfully even though there was a slight color change in her features.

I was glad, "Oh, before you go, take these with you. These are a few things to keep your strength up while climbing the stairs." I said as I passed to them two packets of 'Ribena Glucose' gummies and two 600ml bottles of '100 PLUS POWER' drinks.

"I know it's an odd time to give you things from my world, but believe me it'll be hard to climb stairs without strength, I've been there before." I explained to them while sticking my tongue out childishly.

They just stared at this unpredictable child and sighed. Out of reaction, Barret stretched out his good arm and ruffled my hair like a father would do a daughter which made me nearly bite my tongue.

We split up and as I expected, everyone was screaming like they knew we were intruders.

"Sigh I guess I have no choice but to shut them up with my sleeping powder and stun arrows." I thought to myself and fired a few arrows in every direction as we rushed to the shop.

The counter person was about to scream till I told her we wanted to shop. "Doi... we won't hurt you, I'm just a kid, and what could I do?"

She pointed to Cloud who was examining the area from the store window. "Oh... him, he's my big brother. He's harmless."

I could see that she still wasn't convinced. Sigh... what a nutshell. While I purchased a few necessities Cloud examined the vehicles which were on show. I thanked the counter person whose teeth were chattering away like she was sitting on ice and we were on our way to the elevator.

As expected, there were guards everywhere and we had to move quickly. On the 59th floor, we reunited with Tifa and Barret who were huffing and puffing as they ran all the way up.

"Kesiannya," I murmured in my mother tongue.

We journeyed up using the Cardkey we found and collected more on the way up. At the 66th floor, we overheard the meeting of al, the Shinra employees in the ventilation shaft that we climbed through on the toilet.

They were discussing about such mean things like charging the Mako Energy users 15 higher for using it and about the "Neo Midgar" project where they would conquer the legendary 'Promised Land' and use up the life force. Everything was about money to them, money this, money that ... oogh it made Barret and I sick to our stomachs by just listening.

When the meeting was over, we closely followed Professor Hojo to the scientific lab. There in the suspension chamber was Jenova, and not far away way Red XIII or Nanaki in the transparent tube like tank.

Cloud's heart seemed to race at the site of Jenova and fell back.

"Hey, you ok?" I asked.

"Yeah, I think so," He shook his head vigorously.

"Well, we haven't the time to worry about that. Let's hurry and save Aerith," Barret bellowed.

I rushed to Nanaki's side and put my hand on the surface of the tank. He looked so miserable and was shivering. Vaguely I heard him call out 'grandpa'; he was referring to Bugenhagen his grandfather at Cosmo Canyon.

All he wanted was to go home. My heart sank seeing he cooped up like that and somehow I felt his sorrow.

"Let's hurry and save Aerith, then we can fly this coop." Barret said impatiently. Up another floor we found Aerith trapped in a similar tank to Red XIII's. Hojo was about to start an experiment which included both Aerith and Red XIII!

"Aerith...!" Cloud shouted at their direction as the rest of us surrounded Hojo.

Hojo was surprised as always to encounter visitors. He shouted to the control room to bring up Red XIII. He treated Aerith and Red XIII as animals, test subjects. That was cruel of him to do so. Cloud gave the signal for me and Barret to shoot at the chamber.

Dutdutdutdutdut....Chiu...chiu...filled the air other than the sound of electricity shocks.

It started to malfunction due to the bullet and lightning arrow shots.

"No... not my specimens!!!!"

Hojo screamed and wasted no time trying to save his 'specimens'. When the doors of the chamber opened, Red XIII pounced at Hojo while Cloud brought Aerith out.

Suddenly out of nowhere a huge monster and its companions, which were released by Hojo attacked us. Cloud ordered Tifa to save Aerith while the rest of us fought it.

Grrrrroooo...spleak was how it sounded like as they entered.

"Concentrate on the big one; it gives life to the others." I shouted to everyone.

It was quite powerful as its poison attacks weakened us.

"Braver!!!" Cloud yelled as he flew in the air.

"Heavy Shot...!" Barret cried as he shot a great ball of flame.

"Ixion...!! Valfor...!" I shouted for Yuna's Aeons to appear. "Please aid us pleaded to them."

The battle didn't take long and we were done right before Barret could reload for another 'Heavy Shot'.

Aerith and Tifa came out from hiding not long after it was defeated. I could sense jealousy in Tifa's eyes as Cloud made a huge fuss over Aerith.


(Note to readers: Later you'll understand why Cloud and Tifa have never been close. It comes later in the game.)


I just shook my head as I watched them. "We have to form two separate parties as it's easier to move around." Red XIII spoke.

Everyone jumped as they had never seen a creature talk before. "Of course he can talk; his race is as special as Aerith's. They too, can sense the cries and emotions of the Planet." I explained.

Everyone just stared at me, surprised I knew so much about each and every one of them. They snapped out of their awe and we split up in groups of three. Cloud, Barret and Aerith were the main party, while Tifa, Red XIII and I were the other party.

"Meet you guys below," I gave a thumb up as we left Cloud's party.

At the stairs, we were ambushed by Reno and other guards. However, we weren't the only ones captured. Somehow the others were, too. All of us were taken to the big cheese himself, President Shinra.

"What do you want with Aerith?!" Cloud shouted. President Shinra explained again about conquering the Promised Land and the Neo Midgar project.

"That girl is a sole survivor of the Ancients and I'm expecting a lot from her. We may even breed her as she may be the last of her kind." He continued with his overgrown belly bouncing up and down as he walked towards us.

"You're... you're insane!!" I shouted and was about to ram the President with my head as my hands were bound. I gave a rush... CRASH!!!

"Aghh... get her off" screamed the President as he fell to the floor.

"You will not touch her as long as I live!" I yelled to his face.

Everyone was shocked at my reactions and gasped; none of them had seen this side of me before. I was furious and couldn't hold it down any longer. Rude another one of the Turks pulled me back and literally dragged me away by my hair with the others to the dungeon.

"OW!!!" All the way to the dungeon I bawled in pain.

I was thrown in the same dungeon as Aerith, Cloud and Tifa were in the next one and right at the end was Red XIII and Barret. Aerith rushed to comfort me as I was sprawled on the floor with tears flowing from my eyes enough to fill a bucket. I had always been a sensitive person, every little thing like falling or being teased at; I'd cry or react otherwise.

She held me and stroked my hair like an older sister would do for her younger sibling. I had to let it all out, too much pain and despair had grown inside me and I had to let flow out of me like a river. Aerith was patient with me, unlike any other person would've been. Then Cloud called from the other side asking if she was alright.

"I'm fine, but Enima isn't doing too good, they must've been hard on her. After all, she's only a child. I knew that Cloud would come for me." She replied without getting up from her position.

"Hey, I'm your bodyguard, it's my job." He continued.

"The cost was one date, right?" She asked.

"..." He didn't answer but Tifa popped a question instead.

She asked if the Promised Land was real. Aerith didn't know and tended to me till I stopped crying. Everyone had different things on their minds and not long after, all of us were out like lights. About a few hours later, a powerful and deadly aura woke up Cloud and he found the door to his cell unlocked and found bloodshed outside.

He quickly woke us up by unlocking our doors and patting us on our shoulders. We went to the lab and found blood everywhere and Jenova's chamber empty. Sephiroth was here, it's obvious that he was.

Upstairs at the Presidents room, we found him and a few guards dead. From behind a pillar, Cloud and Barret found roly-poly Palmer shivering in fright.

He squealed that Sephiroth was alive and murdered the President. Palmer managed to escape their grasp and ran out to the balcony, where Vice President Rufus, the President's son arrived on a helicopter.

He came to pick up Palmer, who climbed eagerly on board the helicopter.

"Take Aerith somewhere safe I'll finish Rufus off!" he yelled to all of us after Rufus made a speech about the changes he'd make being the new president of Shinra.

We did as we were told, but Tifa wanted to wait for Cloud.

"You can't stay here alone. Red, you stay with her. The next bosses are tough but the monsters lurking around are equally strong," I told her.

She nodded. Barret and I took Aerith to the elevator. The bosses were already waiting for us. Luckily I had extra lightning materia with me and equipped them to Aerith and Barret.

"They won't defeat us that easily," pulled an arrow from case. "Lightning Charge!!!"

"Bolt 2!!!" Barret bellowed as he raised his gun-arm in the air. KRAKOOM!!!

"Fire 1 !!!"

I shot a couple of lightning arrows at the machine while Barret and Aerith cast lightning, ice and fire spells. As we hit rock bottom, all the bosses were out of order. Tifa met us at the ground floor with Cloud who rode a motorcycle. Red XIII led us to a truck on display beneath the stairs.

"Get on quickly, the guards will be here any minute," he called as we scrambled on the truck.

Aerith took the wheel, Tifa sat beside her, Barret, Red XIII and I sat at the back of the truck. Cloud led us on a motorcycle. Shinra goons were determined to chase us on motorcycles. Seeing how many goons there were, I leapt up in the air and flew to help Cloud get rid of the riders. Red XIII stared in surprise to find out that I could fly, especially without wings.

A tank called Motor Ball glided behind us as we hit the end of the road. Aerith and the rest jumped out from the truck, I floated over to them and we fought it with all our electrifying attacks.

By the time we were done, the tank resembled nothing more than a pile of rubble. It was time to bid farewell to Midgar and journey to farther places in search of knowledge and adventure.

Again we split up, but this time for some reason, there needed to be four in each party. Of course Cloud chose Aerith, Aerith chose me and I chose Red XIII.

"We'll meet up at Kalm, north east from here." Tifa informed us before we parted.

"Yeah, there's a lot that needs to be explained, especially from both of you," pointing at me and Cloud.

"All this secrecy and mystery is pissing me off," Barret bellowed.

I rolled my eyes at his behavior and walked on with the group.

"I don't think I'll be going home for a while, I hope I'll be able to get used to this life." I sighed softly.

With that we set off. What lies ahead would be a new beginning for all of us, but ... why is there an eerie feeling giving me jitters?


Phew!! just a few more pages to go then I'm done editing (till after I've finished with my other fics I'll triple check on these again.).

Better get to it, but after my assignments.

Sea-EnigmaDare