Cloud finally caught up with Aeris as she passed into Wall Market, a place well known throughout the entire city. "Hey! Wait!" He called to her. She finally stopped.

"This place is scary in a lot of ways." She told him, rather abruptly. "Especially for a girl. So we've got to find Tifa fast."

Cloud frowned darkly. He didn't like what Aeris was implying at all. He knew that Tifa was one of the best martial artists he knew, and she was perfectly able to defend herself, but if something along THOSE lines happened to her he'd never forgive himself. 'No!' He mentally steeled himself 'Stop thinking that!'

He mindlessly followed Aeris around the marketplace, lost deep in thought. They turned a blind corner and right onto the walkway that led up to a building with neon signs all over. They all read 'Honey Bee Manor'. Cloud growled, disgusted. He wrinkled his nose as a fat man in a suit waddled up to him, grinning widely. "Welcome!" He greeted. "Even unpopular dweebs like you may meet your destiny her!! You looking for a girlfriend too?"

The Ex-SOLDIER shook his head. "Do you know a girl named Tifa?" He hated thinking she might be at a scummy place like this, but he kept a level head.

The obese man laughed harshly. "Hey, you're pretty fast! Tifa's our newest girl!" Cloud's heart dropped and his stomach twisted into knots. "But unfortunately, she's having an interview right now. Here at the Honey Bee Manor, it's customary for all the new girls to be taken to Don Corneo's mansion." Cloud's blond eyebrows furrowed, but the fat man was oblivious to it, and kept talking. "Don Corneo is a famous dilettante. Now he wants to settle down and is in the market for a bride."

Cloud snarled loudly and wanted nothing more than to beat the life out of the ass. He felt his own fists tighten, but before he could do anything, he felt a small hand on his shoulder, reminding him that Aeris was still there. She offered him a reassuring smile. "Hey, don't worry, Cloud! C'mon let's go."

He glared hate-daggers at the fat guy before turning around and following Aeris out. He watched moodily as Aeris walked up to somebody and asked about the Don's whereabouts.

"Just keep goin' straight." He heard him say. The flower girl thanked him and returned to Cloud.

"C'mon, Cloud. That guy was nice enough to give us directions." He nodded back to her, and this time, he led the way to the Don's mansion at the edge of Wall Market.

The walk was short and pretty soon, they traveled up another walkway that led to a fairly lavish-looking mansion. Cloud stalked up to the man at the gate. The gatekeeper eyed Aeris and looked up to the Ex-SOLDIER. "This is the mansion of Don Corneo, the most powerful man in Wall Market." He sneered at Cloud. "Look, the Don's not into men, so don't let me catch you around here again."

The blond mercenary scowled angrily, and the other man visibly cringed. He resolved that he wouldn't leave his post and tried to think of something that would keep this battle-worn street rat at bay. "H-hey! If you wanna bring that cute one in," He pointed to Aeris, "the Don'll give you a fat stack of cash."

Aeris quickly dragged Cloud off to the side before a fight broke out. "Hey, don't worry!" She tried to sound calm and confident. "I'll go take a look. I'll tell Tifa about you."

Cloud shook his head. "No!" He hissed, "You can't!" He had no right to bring a total stranger into this dirty situation. Especially someone as innocent as Aeris.

"Why?"

He slapped his forehead. "You DO know... what kind of.... Place this is, don't you?"

She looked over her shoulder uneasily. "Then what am I supposed to do? You want to come in with me?"

He frowned thoughtfully. "Well, being a man, that'll be pretty hard. Besides, if I bust in, it'll cause to much commotion." He was silent. Suddenly Aeris started giggling quietly, but Cloud was utterly oblivious. "But I can't let you go in there alone... Oh, man...." She was still laughing, a bit harder now, but he didn't notice. "First, we'll need to find out if Tifa's alright..." He finally noticed her laughing, he stared at her for a second, a bit annoyed. "What's so funny?"

"Cloud, why don't you dress up like a girl? It's the only way." She suggested, still grinning broadly.

"WHAT??" He looked at her, his eyes wide with disbelief. But before she bothered to explain, she skipped over to the gatekeeper.

"Just wait, okay?" She smiled brightly. "I have a cute friend I want to bring!"

He nodded and Aeris waltzed back over to Cloud. He ran his hands through his hair and then down over his crimson face. "Aeris! I can't..."

She smiled and nodded encouragingly to him. "You ARE worried about Tifa, aren't you?" He nodded through his gloved hands. "Then c'mon! Hurry!"

Nearly two hours later, Cloud dragged himself into the dress shop for quite possibly the third or fourth time. Aeris held a bag out to him, which contained some of the items she had picked up for more 'effect'. He just could not believe what he was doing. 'I hope she appreciates it...' he thought morosely.

He sulked into the dressing room and threw the bag on the bench. He swallowed his pride and slipped on the dress. 'Gods, spare me.' He also put on the wig he had received by beating a couple of freaks at a gym at the squats. After that, he sprayed on some foul-smelling cologne that he gotten after an incident involving about twenty gay men and a bathtub.

**Author's note: Look, I know that Cloud got women's underwear from Mukki and his buddies, but I couldn't bring myself to write that.**

He made sure his original outfit was secure underneath the dress, after all, he was only wearing it to get inside the stupid place. "Okay..." He called, surrendering what pride he had left. "I'm ready." and opened the door.

Aeris grinned approvingly and the dressmaker gave him the thumbs-up. "Hmmm..." He smiled slyly. "Not bad. This may be a new business for me."

Cloud rolled his eyes as he felt his face grow hot. He shuffled closer towards the door. Aeris shook her head disapprovingly. "Walk more nicely, Miss Cloud."

He shook his head. "What do you mean nicely?"

"Take smaller steps, Miss Cloud." She emphasized his new name and he rolled his eyes again. He did so and Aeris clapped, and began laughing. "Oh, you're so cute, Miss Cloud!" She wandered over to the clothing rack and began to shift through it. "Ah, I want one! Do you have one that'll look good on me, too?"

The shop owner and his daughter argued for a second, before Aeris gave up and picked up a floor length red dress. She skipped over to the dressing room and in a few minutes, she came strutting out. "So, how do I look?"

Cloud shook his head.

"Oh! You're no fun!"

Cloud and Aeris briskly walked toward Don Corneo's mansion for the second time that day. Unfortunately for Cloud, it was something he was dreading immensely. To make matters worst, the people milling about on the streets were staring at him. Cloud felt his face burning and his stomach was doing acrobatics inside of him. 'Why couldn't we have just broken in?' He thought, mentally slapping himself.

They walked up to the doorman Cloud had nearly tried to kill earlier. He looked up with a scowl but his expression turned to one of disbelief when he saw the two ladies in front of him. He immediately recognized the one on the left by her long braid that fell softly behind her. The second woman looked familiar but he couldn't get a good look at her face. She was looking at her feet and her hair partially covered the visible part of her face. He decided he liked her shyness.

"Damn!" The doorman exclaimed. "Your friend's hot, too!"

Cloud wanted to die.

"Come in, come in!" The doorman ushered them to the front door. "Two ladies coming through!"

Aeris led Cloud in and they were soon confronted by the receptionest. "Hey ladies," He smirked at them. "I'll go let the Don know you're here. Wait here, and don't go wandering around."

As soon as he was out of sight, Cloud exhaled sharply. Aeris grinned at him. "Now's our chance." She whispered. "Let's find Tifa."

He nodded and quickly made his way upstairs. As if on instinct, he found a staircase heading down to the basement. With Aeris following him, he quickly ran down the steps. The steps seemed to go on forever, but when they finally stopped, the small hallway opened up into a bigger room.

Aeris saw a woman in the corner and approached her. The other one turned around and looked at her questioningly. Aeris smiled politely. "...Tifa?"

Tifa nodded.

"Nice to meet you. Cloud's told me a lot about you."

Tifa's eyes lit up for a second. "... And you are?" She suddenly remembered who she was looking at. "Hey, you're the one with Cloud at that playground."

Aeris nodded. "Right, with Cloud."

Tifa's heart plummeted. She had seen Cloud there with this new girl but was too shocked that he was alive to notice the fact that he'd been with another girl. "Oh..."

The flower girl sensed Tifa's apathy toward what she had accidentially implied and tried to cover it. "Don't worry. We just met. It's nothing."

The martial artist smiled briefly but played dumb for the sake of formality. "What do you mean, 'Don't worry'... about what?" She was a little embarrassed that a total stranger had picked up on her hidden feelings. "No, don't misunderstand, Cloud and I grew up together, nothing more." 'Yeah right.' She thought.

The other girl snickered quietly. "Poor Cloud. Having to stand here and listen to both of us call him nothing."

She was about to question what she meant when she noticed the other woman behind her.

Aeris smiled broadly. "Right, Cloud?"

"Cloud?" Tifa's brows knitted together and she stepped closer to the girl. 'That hair! That IS Cloud!!' "Oh my Gods! Cloud!?"

Cloud wished was dead again as his face burned crimson.

"Why are you dressed like that!?" Tifa ranted. "And what are you doing here!?" Here eyes went wide with complete shock. "Forget that! What happened to you after the fall?? Are you hurt?"

Cloud put a hand on her shoulder to try and calm her down. "Tifa! It's okay. Let me explain." His face turned a darker shad of red, but he desperately tried to hang onto his cocky attitude. "I'm dressed like this... because there was no other way to get in here. After the fall? I'm allright. Aeris helped me out." Tifa nodded excitedly. "Tifa," Cloud started again. "Explain. What are you doing in a place like this?"

This time she turned a little red and looked a bit emabarassed and ashamed. "Yeah... well..."

"Ahem!" Aeris cleared her throat. "I'll just plug my ears."

Tifa looked at Cloud with understanding brown eyes. "I'm glad you're okay."

He nodded, his hair and dress swaying a bit. "Thanks. What happened?"

She crossed her arms and started. "When we got back from the Number Five reactor, there was this really suspiscious little man. So Barett caught him and squeezed some information out of him."

He nodded again, desperately hoping that she would agree with his next statement of: "That's when the Don's name popped up."

It was her turn to nod. "Right. Don Cornero." Cloud mentally sighed with relief before she continued. "Barett told me to leave the lech alone... but something's been bothering me."

"I see. So you wanted to get the straight from Corneo's mouth?" He wasn't exactly thrilled with the idea of her sleeping with a stranger to get information, but he wasn't sure. Something just wasn't right. What if Corneo was somehow involved with the ShinRa? The Don had connections all over the slums.

"So I made it here, but now I'm in a bind." She bit her lip nervously. "Corneo's looking for a bride." Cloud paled. "Everyday he gets three girls, and chooses one of them. And then... ... and, well... I have to be the girl for tonight, or I'm out."

Aeris turned to face them from where she had been standing. "Sorry... but I overheard... If you know the three girls then there's no problem, right?"

"I guess so," Tifa trailed.

"We have two here, right?"

Cloud shook his head, "No! Aeris, I can't get you involved in something like this! Do you have any idea what they do to women here?"

She put her hands on her hips. "Oh, so it's okay for Tifa to be in danger?"

He clenched his fists. "I don't want Tifa in here either!"

Slowly Aeris approached Tifa. The martial artist cocked her head slightly. "Is it all right?"

Aeris smiled thinly. "I grew up in the slums. I'm used to danger." She locked eyes with the dark-haired woman. "Do you trust me?"

The other smiled brightly, erasing all worried thoughts from her face. "Yes. Thank you, Aeris-san."

Aeris smiled yet again. "Call me Aeris."

"HEY!"

The three people whirled to look in the direction the exhasperated voice had come from. It was the receptionist. "It's time ladies! The Don is waiting!" He walked back up the stairs, mumbling under his breath. "I told ya not to wander around... I tell ya, women nowadays."

Cloud sighed heavily as he and the two girls started up the stairs. "I probably don't need to ask but the other girl is.... me... right?"

Tifa and Aeris smiled at each other. "You're right." Tifa grinned. "There was-"

"No need to ask." Aeris finished for her. The two of them were sent into a bout of giggles as Cloud sighed dejectedly.

A few moments later, the three of them walked into a large room, decorated with cheesy lights and other knick-knacks. In the middle of the room there was a large desk and there were two scrubby body guards on either side. The man sitting at the desk, however was a completely different story. He was dressed in a red robe and was lighting up a cigar as the three women walked in. The body guard on the left addressed them. "Alright ladies! Line up in front of the Don!"

They did so and Corneo's face broke into a toothy grin. "Hmm! Good! Splendid!" He jumped off his desk and waddled up to the three of them. He stole a sideways glance up at Aeris and moved towards her. "Now let's see... which girl should I choose? Hmm?"

Cloud didn't know what to do. He didn't want that oversexed pervert anywhere near Aeris OR Tifa, but he didn't want to be chosen either. He stopped in mid thought as the don looked him over.

'Oh gods!' Cloud turned his face away from the cigar-smoking pervert.

"This one?"

'Try it Buddy. I'll make sure you'll never EVER have kids.'

The Don left and started checking out Tifa, and Cloud's anger was starting to build.

"Or maybe this one?" He grinned again and walked back over to Cloud.

'Goddammit.'

"I've made up my mind!" He shouted. "My choice for tonight is..."

'Shit. Shit. Shit. Shit. Shit.'

"This healthy-looking girl!" He swung his meaty finger towards Cloud.

'Oh fuck.'

Tifa started giggling uncontrolably and Aeris sooned joined in as they were led away.

'They owe me SO bad...' He snapped out of his train of thought as he felt a thick fist engulf his own. 'Aaaugh!! That's gross!' He mentally screamed as the Don began to lead him into his bedroom.

"Wa-wait a sec!" Cloud protested, but suddenly remembered how he was dressed. "I mean, uh, please wait a moment!"

"Woo-hoo!" Corneo grinned sadistically. "I love chickies who play hard to get!! Yeowza!"

'I'm not playing!' The mercenary thought desperately as he was led into the tastelessly decorated bedroom.

Cloud gulped nervously as the Don led him off behind a curtain. The room after was so tastelessly decorated he was beginning to get a headache.

The overweight slob smiled as he finally let go of Cloud's smaller fist. "Ahhh... We're finally alone."

The hired mercenary shuddered 'Shit. I gotta stall or he's gonna notice that my sword is sheathed in the back of this dress. Not like I'd let him anywhere that close.'

He was interrupted as the Don clambered onto the bed. "All right, pussycat! Come to daddy!"

'What did he call me?!' Cloud slowly and cautiously stepped to the side of the bed, still wondering what the heck he was going to do.

"You're so cute!" Corneo gushed. Cloud's face turned every shade of red imaginable. "I never get tired of looking at you."

'Gods, either he's a really good actor or he really DOES think I'm a woman.'

"Do you like me, too?" The Don questioned, casting him a sideways glance.

"Uh..." Cloud stuttered; he hadn't been prepared for that. 'What am I thinking! I'm not prepared for any of this!'

Corneo pouted. "You don't like me? There isn't someone else, is there?"

'Why won't you leave me alone!?' He mentally screamed. "Yes! His name's Barett!!" Cloud blurted. He suddenly realized what he just said and his already red face deepened several shades. 'Oh gods, whatever I did to deserve this, I'm sorry.'

The Don faked a look of hurt. "No way!" he seemed to think for a moment as he lit a cigar. "Hmmm? Barett? That sounds familiar."

'Now is a good time to see what he knows.' Cloud smirked to himself. "You know, he's the one you were trying to find out about. You know, AVALANCHE...?"

He nodded, and inhaled through the cigar, "Oh yeah, yeah. In the Sector 7 Slums...." His eyes snapped open suddenly and he leapt down towards Cloud. "And how do YOU know that!?" The pervert reached forward with surprising speed and grabbed Cloud's upper arm and jerked him closer. The fabric of the dress strained tight for a moment before ripping loudly. Corneo looked in surprise at the size of the blond 'girl's' bicep.

Cloud stepped back quickly, and unfortunately, Corneo was still clinging to the dress and it ripped all the way across the front, revealing the swordsman's original outfit, as well as the monstrous sword on his back.

Corneo was immediately enraged. "A man!?" He screamed. "You tricked me!!"

"No shit!" Cloud smirked evilly, now he could do things the easy way!

"Guards!! Somebody get in here!!" He yelled.

"Unfortunately, no one'll be coming to help!" Cloud turned at the sound of the familiar voice and grinned widely. Tifa stepped through the curtain followed by Aeris.

"You're the ones from before! Wh... What the hell's going on?"

Tifa's dark brows knitted together and she stepped up to him. Without warning, she reeled back and swung her fist right at his jaw. He grunted loudly and fell over backwards on the bed. As he sat up again, she roughly grabbed his shirt collar. "Shut up! We're asking the questions now! What did your assistants find out?" She shook him and Cloud watched wide-eyed, she was beginning to scare him. "Talk! If you don't tell us-"

The spikey-haired man interrupted her by putting his booted foot on the edge of the bed and leaning forward. "If you don't talk, I'll chop them off."

Corneo's eyes widened and he scooted back as far as he could. "No! Not that! I'll talk! I'll tell you everything!"

Tifa took a deep breath to calm herself down. "So...Talk."

He looked around nervously. "... I made 'em find out where the man with the gun-arm was. But that's what I was ordered to do."

Tifa locked eyes with him. "By who?"

"No!" He shook his head. "If I told you that, I'd be killed!"

"Talk!" Tifa growled. "If you don't tell us..."

Aeris put her foot on the edge of the bed in the same manor Cloud had. "I'll rip them off!"

"Waaaaah!!" He shook his head, looking like a cornered animal. "It was Heidegger of ShinRa! Heidegger, the head of Public Safety Maintenance!!"

Cloud scratched his head. "The head of Public Safety Maintenance?"

Tifa was now completely infuriated again. "Did you say the ShinRa?? What are they up to!? Tell us!! If you don't tell us, I'll smash them." She smirked and also put her foot on the bed.

"...You're serious aren't you?... oh boy... oh boy... oh boy." He sighed. "Y'know, I'm not fooling around here either. The ShinRa's trying to crush a small rebel group called AVALANCH, and they want to infiltrate their hideout. But the thing is, they're gonna crush them... literally."

The three rebels looked at him oddly.

"... By breaking the support holding the plate above them."

Aeris stepped back in shock, and Tifa's eyes shone with unshed tears. Cloud only looked on in disbelief.

"Break the support?" The martial artist said breathlessly.

The Don smiled and nodded. "You know what's going to happen? The plate'll go PING! And everything's gonna go BAMMMM! I'm just glad I'm in Sector 6."

Cloud looked at him in utter shock. "If they take out the support, it'll wipe out the entire sector!"

Tifa shook her head, her dark ponytail swaying back and forth. "Cloud, will you come with me?"

He nodded somberly, "Yeah, of course."

She took off and was almost out of the room when Corneo stood up. "Just a second!"

"Shut up!" Cloud growled, the urgency of the situation just sinking in.

"No wait, it'll only take a second. How do think scum like me feels when they spill their guts?"

"They don't know what the hell's going on!"

Corneo shouted in triumph. "Close but no cigar!" He slammed his thick fist into a button on the wall.

Cloud was about to cast a lightning spell to shut him up, but the ground underneath him and the girls opened up and they all fell into an inky darkness.

The fat dark-haired man approached the large desk where the President of the ShinRa sat, expectantly. Off to the side, another man stood, also with dark hair, but he was almost half the size of the first.

The President addressed the fat man. "Heidegger, how are the preparations going?"

Heidegger erupted with a loud laugh. "Smoothly, very smoothly! I assigned the Turks to this."

The man off to the side looked up pleadingly. "President, are we really going to do this? Simply destroy a group with only a few members...?"

The president looked down with mock pity. "What's the problem, Reeve? You want out?"

Reeve shook his head, his mid-length black hair swaying with him. "...No. But as head of the Urban Development Department, I have been involved in the building and running of Midgar." He said elaborately. "That's why-"

"Reeve, you should flush those personal problems in the morning."

The ShinRa executive resisted the heavy urge to tell the bucket of lard to shut the hell up. "The Mayor's against this anyway!"

Heidegger shrugged. "Mayor? He just sits in his office all day feeding his face! You still call that a mayor?" He turned back to his boss and executed a neat salute. "Now, if you'll excuse me, sir!" He turned and left through a sophisticated looking staircase.

Reeve stretched out his arm after him. "No, wait!"

"You look tired." The president observed. "Why don't you take a few days off and go somewhere." Reeve nodded and left, as he walked down the stairs, he heard the President laughing to himself.

Cloud squeezed his eyes shut as he, Tifa, and Aeris plummeted from the Corneo mansion. He felt an exploding impact as he slammed into the ground. That was the second time he'd fallen that hard and lived in the past two days. He wasn't exactly sure how much more he could take.

He stood up and realized he was in filthy water that reached up to his knees. He looked over and saw Tifa and Aeris near each other, but seemingly unconscious.

He quickly trotted up to them and gently shook Aeris' shoulder. "Aeris? You okay?"

She slowly got to her knees and coughed up a small amount of water before hastily wiping her face "Yeah."

Cloud saw Tifa pulling herself to her feet, and he walked over and gently helped her to her feet. "Are you okay?"

She averted her gaze and wiped her eyes with the back of her hand. "Man! This is terrible."

Aeris smiled reassuringly. "Well, the worst is over."

As if on cue, a low rumbling noise was heard. The three of them looked up, startled. Whatever it was, it sure was big.

Cloud reached for the hilt of his sword and pulled a handful of materia out of his pocket. He quickly attached a Fire and made sure his Bolt materia was still secured before he divvied up the rest of it between Tifa and Aeris. The flower girl smiled as she equipped a Restore and an Ice to her oversized bracelet. Tifa silently equipped hers after nodding to Cloud.

They had barely locked eyes before a rush of water barreled out of the a tunnel to their left. It was followed by a ground shaking rumbling. The blond mercenary instantly dropped into a low battle stance as a huge blue monster burst through the opening.

Cloud instinctively shot a flaming burst at it, and managed to temporarily stun it. Tifa noticed this and moved in for the attack. She sent a nimble heel-kick to the monster's jaw and was rewarded with a sickening crack.

It howled in pain and lunged at Tifa. Swinging a cumbersome paw, it knocked her directly into the wall of the sewer.

The Ex-SOLDIER snarled and swung his sword at the creature's soft underbelly. Aeris ran over to help Tifa as Cloud was distracting the menace.

She concentrated and she managed to form a small ball of glowing green energy. It surrounded Tifa, whose intense amber eyes fluttered open. She nodded her thanks and shot repetitive ice blasts at the new threat, slowing it down considerably.

Cloud, nearly consumed with the rage of the fight, let out a surprisingly frightening battle cry. He brandished his sword and leapt a great height into the air. He brought the heavy weapon crashing down on the monster's head with all the force he could muster.

The giant beast howled again as the force cleanly cut into its skull. It sunk to the ground and began spilling green blood everywhere.

Tifa hung her head and hugged herself, "It's too late..." She sniffled. "Marlene... Barett... the people of the slums."

Aeris shook her head and put a comforting hand on her shoulder. "Don't give up, never, ever give up hope." She emphasized with surprising dedication. "It's not easy to destroy a pillar, right?"

Tifa looked at Aeris and smiled warmly. "...Yeah... you're right! We still have time!"

The three of them nodded in determination and began to search for a way out.