Tifa
and Red XIII looked up at the sound of the single gunshot. Something
roared, and the entire elevator shuddered violently.
"We're
going to fall!" Tifa yelped.
"Calm down!" Zeo grabbed her
arm. Shrill alarms started to ring through the sound system. A black
device on Zeo's belt crackled to life.
"Suspects heading down
toward the basement area! Close off all stairwells, elevators, and
hallways–"
The elevator shuddered again and Nanaki leapt to
his feet.
"It is going to fall!"
"Stop moving around!"
the white-haired boy commanded. With a groan and a loud snap, the car
dropped rapidly down the shaft. The velocity of their descent made
them rise into the air. Tifa shrieked, Red XIII howled, and Zeo
cursed.
Cloud whirled around as a loud alarm bell started
ringing through the intercom speakers mounted on the walls. Then he
heard the alert and cursed under his breath. Barret and Cait Sith
jumped, then ran for the stairs. At that moment, an explosion came
from the elevator doors to Cloud's right. He ran over and felt the
silver metal, which was hot to the touch. He pulled away quickly and
looked up at the number display above them. Twenty-nine. Faintly, he
heard a girl scream.
"Tifa!" he hollered through the metal.
There was no answer. With a frustrated cry, Cloud slammed his fists
against the doors and wriggled his fingers through the crack in
between them, slowly prying them apart. A rush of flame licked at him
and he flinched. The elevator car sat at the bottom of the chute,
mangled and spewing fire. He scanned the wreckage wildly, searching
for some sign of her.
She screamed again. He looked up through the
smoke and darkness and saw three figures hanging from a snapped
elevator cable. It was the white-haired kid, gripping Red XIII by one
hind leg, Tifa hanging onto the animal's neck.
"Are you all
right!" Nanaki whimpered.
"I...hate...Shin-Ra..." Tifa
gasped.
"You're fine; calm down," the boy called down to
her.
"Tifa!" Cloud shouted. He saw her look down at him; she
squinted.
"Who's that?" the boy asked.
"Cloud!"
Tifa cried back, overjoyed.
"Are you okay!" Cloud hollered up
at her.
"Yeah! What about you! Are the others all
right!"
"Yes! We found the materias!"
"Cloud, I hate
to be a pest, but...get us down!" Red howled.
"I've got
you, I said," the boy stated with a little impatience.
"Cloud!"
Tifa continued. "Can you find out what floor we're
on!"
"Twenty-nine!" he replied.
"Get up here and help
us, then!" Red snarled.
"I can't very well hold on forever,
you know," the boy grunted.
"Okay, you guys hang tight; I'll
get you!"
Cloud dashed from the mouth of the elevator and
entered the emergency staircase. Barret and Cait Sith were several
floors up already. He looked around hurriedly; he had to get to the
twenty-ninth floor somehow. From above, he heard Cait Sith meowing
and Barret cursing. Gunshots rang down the dark halls and echoed off
the metal walls. There was another jolting explosion from below, and
the walls, floor, and ceiling began to shake violently. Cloud paused
on the ninth story, looking around warily. Something burst up through
the cement floor from below. Yuffie shrieked as she shot up toward
him on the back of a huge red, four-winged dragon. Vincent lay
unconscious in her arms and Cid sat behind her, gripping her waist
tightly. They bulldozed their way up the stairwell, past Barret and
Cait Sith battling on the twentieth floor, and up toward the roof.
"Was that the others!" Barret yelled down at Cloud.
"Yeah!"
he shouted back. "You guys get up there too! I'll get Tifa and
Red!"
"'Kay!"
Cait Sith hissed, and his voice sounding
far away and hollow. A red light filled the stairs and a scream
almost deafened Cloud as the black Bahamut dragon appeared in the air
above him. He saw Cait Sith and Barret leap on; the dragon roared,
and they took off after Neo Bahamut. Cloud closed his eyes and
concentrated. The air around him grew hot and started to glimmer red.
Something within him shrieked, and it strained against his conscious
body. Wings burst forth, fire encircled him, talons stretched out and
grasped the iron railing.
Zeo grunted, and they slipped a few
more inches. Tifa began to pray under her breath. Red XIII whimpered,
bowing his head and licking Tifa's arm. The white-haired boy
twitched as his fingers began to lose their grip on the thick metal
cable. The jagged end wires ripped at the flesh of his palm, and he
squeezed his eyes shut.
"I can't...hold on much...longer!"
he grunted, losing more of his grip.
"Cloud!" Tifa
shrieked.
The wall on their left suddenly exploded outward and
fire reached up to brush at their legs. A huge red, gold, and orange
swanlike head poked through the hole and stared up at them with
intense amber eyes. It entered the shaft and rose up to meet the
people hanging from the cable. Cloud reached over and slipped an arm
around Tifa. She blinked up at him in amazement.
"You came!"
Nanaki leapt onto the Phoenix's back behind Cloud. He put both arms
around Tifa and smiled.
"Told you I would," he replied. Zeo
dropped down behind Red XIII and looked at the blond
ex-SOLDIER.
"Thanks."
"I didn't do it for you," he
replied coldly.
"Cloud," Tifa shook her head, "he saved our
lives."
"She's telling the truth," Red nodded to him.
Cloud glanced at him critically.
"Then I guess I owe you my
thanks, but I'll just take my sword back instead," he growled.
Zeo wordlessly handed the Ultima Sword back. Cloud hefted it, then
strapped it to his back.
"Where's everyone else?" Tifa
blinked.
"Upstairs," Zeo answered before Cloud could open his
mouth. The boys exchanged heated glares again.
"Calm down, both
of you," Nanaki snarled. "This isn't the way to behave right
now."
"Believe it or not," Tifa added, "you two are on the
same side. So, put whatever grudge you developed to the side, and
let's work together."
"Just don't get in my way," Cloud
turned away from the other boy's piercing green-eyed gaze. The
Phoenix flapped its flaming wings hard and they shot up toward the
seventieth floor of the Shin-Ra building.
"By the way," Red
XIII called back, "what's this I'm hearing about clones?"
"I
heard that too," Cloud glanced back at Zeo, who shook his head and
looked away from Tifa's inquiring stare.
"I'll explain as
soon as we catch up to the others."
Yuffie hugged her
Conformer when Zeo handed it to her.
"Thank you! Thank you,
thank you, thank you! Oh, how I've missed my beautiful shurinkan!"
she gave one of the blades a big kiss. Vincent leaned against the
wall at the farthest corner of the room, twirling his Death Penalty
nonchalantly. Barret fished the Limited Moon clip from his back
pocket and tossed it to his orange-red companion. Cid lit a cigarette
he had found in his back pocket while waiting around for Cloud and
the others. He inhaled the cancer stick deeply, then hacked and
slammed a fist against his chest.
"Six months without a smoke–I
can barely take it!"
Tifa and Red XIII slid off the Phoenix's
back and watched as Cloud dispelled his summon. He sighed, then
looked around at everyone.
"All accounted for?" he
called.
"Yeah," Cid waved.
"Let's get to it!" Barret
stomped his foot.
"Present!" Yuffie called.
"Here!"
Cait Sith bounced up and down.
"I agree with Barret's proposal
to move," Vincent said.
"Still here," Tifa blinked at
him.
"Can we get going?" Nanaki growled.
Cloud put a hand
on his Ultima Sword and looked at Zeo.
"If you're going to be
in danger, don't follow."
"Bull," Zeo sneered. "You
couldn't find your way to Hojo's lab if there were signs pointing
the way there."
Cloud spat angrily at him. Tifa put a hand on
Cloud's arm to calm him down, and Zeo lost his hard glare.
"If
you two keep fighting like this, we'll just go on alone," she
said. Cloud turned to Zeo again. They glared at each other for a
moment, then Cloud stepped back to let him stand at the head of the
group. The white-haired boy motioned for everyone to follow and they
headed into the darkness of the hallway.
