(Refer to chapter 1 for the disclaimer.)

Chapter 5: The Hard Way

"Okay" Cait Sith addressed the team. "We go in through here."

"Yer fuckin' kiddin' right?" Cid glanced at the sewer grate the talking cat had pointed to.

"If anyone has a better idea how a bunch of wanted criminals are going to sneak into a well guarded base to steal one of the Shin-ra's most heavily guarded assets, be my guest." Cait Sith said in return.

Barret looked at the closed grating. "Humph." he muttered and bashed the grating in with a hard thrust of his gunarm. "We gonna' get movin'?" Cid looked at his crossly. Cait Sith jumped down off his overstuffed moogle.

"Okay pal. You just go wait for us back at home base," the cat said to the stuffed cave moogle. "You wouldn't exactly fit in there anyways."

"Not like big ass over there right?" Cid pointed to Barret and lit a cigarette.

"Shaddup." Barret mumbled back.

"Are you two going to stand there arguing or are we going to move onward?" The way Vincent phrased the question there was no question about it. His voice was like ice. Vincent removed the red cape from his shoulders and draped it over the giant stuffed moogle's arms.

Cid was going to ask why but he was afraid that Barret might know and he didn't want to look like the dumber of the two of them.

"Yuffie!" Tifa called out for the young ninja. At the moment Yuffie didn't want to be bothered by anything. She was busy counting and organizing her materia by type, ability, mastery level, and of course personal preference.

"Alright. Fire level 2 and Ice 1, then Slow followed by Hold and Fast level two … Wait. That's a level one," Yuffie spoke to herself. "You're starting to get as old and senile as that dumb pilot." Yuffie looked at the piles she had separated. "I've simply gotta remember to get some more FAST materia." She scooted over to a new position to look at another pile.

"Yuffie, come on now!" Tifa yelled again.

"Now what do we have here? Regain, Heal, Fullcure, Demi. Demi? That doesn't belong there. That belongs…."

"Come Here!" Tifa yelled again.

"Here." Yuffie said putting the Demi materia right back into the pile she had just taken it from. "Arghhh!" She cried out in frustration. "Tifa just had to go and get her self hurt and of course it had to be in a fight with me so it looks like my fault. ARGHHH!" Yuffie batted the pile of materia scattering it across the room. She almost felt a little better and stormed to the door to Tifa's.

"What do you want?" Yuffie yelled as she entered the room.

"What took you?" Tifa asked. Yuffie didn't want to just admit that she didn't feel like coming, so she didn't answer. "Nevermind then. I…um…I spilled my drink all over the bed sheets. Could you help me out a bit here?" Tifa said with a slightly embarrassed tone. She had to remember not to try drinking while she was laying back again but it was so hard to sit up in the position they had laid her in.

Yuffie sighed. Is this what my life is turning into? She thought.

"Remind me again how long we've been crawling here," Cid grumbled to no one in particular.

"Three. It's been three hours" Vincent said not bothering to divert his attention.

"Let me know when we hit five. 'Cuz then I'm going to start getting pissed."

"Fucking Shinra!" Barret cursed as he scooted along the inside of the pipelines. As badly cramped as it may have been for Vincent and Cid, it was much worse for him. Her could barely drag himself along. "Why are we doin' this again? Goin' this damned way? Don't make no sense, can't see jack, and it stinks."

"Ya' think that's bad, ya' ought at' be the guy behind yer fat ass." Cid yelled back.

"Speakin' of fat asses, remind me at' kick yours when we get outta here,"

"Can't even remember that much, huh?" Although none of the others could see it, a wicked smile appeared on Cid's face as he spoke.

"Easy." Cait Sith tried to calm them. It didn't do much good. The fact that he was able to walk upright in the pipeline wasn't winning him any points. "We just have a quarter of a mile left."

"Shit." Barret and Cid said at the same time.

"This isn't as bad as expected." Vincent spoke to reassure them. "There were times….,"

"Yeah yeah, ya' had to walk five miles in the snow across landmines with no shoes when you were a Turk. Up hill both ways. We've heard that shit before too." Cid crawled along bringing up the rear of the group. "When are we going to get to the meat of the sit-ye-ation?"

"What's that mean?" Cait asked. There was silence for a moment. "Really? What does it mean? I have no clue."

"Ignore him" Vincent said.

"Yuffie!" Tifa called out again. It had taken Yuffie hours to gather all the materia scattered across the room thanks to her little tantrum. Now that she had them all back together again, of course Tifa would call her. Heaven forbid she get a moments peace. Yuffie gritted her teeth and clenched her fists but it really didn't make her feel any better. She wanted to smash something just so she had somewhere to direct the anger but there was nothing around she could get away with smashing.

"Yuffie!" Tifa was calling her again. The young ninja couldn't figure out what she had wanted this time. She really didn't care either. Yuffie made the short walk between their rooms and greeted the injured woman with her best, clinched teeth smile.

"Would you mind getting me something to eat? It's about lunch time and, well, I was getting hungry. I hate being a bother." Tifa looked as pathetic racked up like she was that almost anybody would have taken pity on her. Anyone except for a impatient arrogant teenage girl like Yuffie.

"Um…couldn't you have let Red get you something?" Yuffie asked trying her hardest to be nice.

"He's not exactly the best cook in the world. Regardless, I'd like something made by someone who has the same basic taste palate as a normal human. No offense to Red or anything." Tifa said.

"Yeah yeah got ya'. You don't want anything that might contain his dog hair or a dead rat," Yuffie said as she excuse herself to go to the kitchen and come up with something that was halfway edible.

"Vincent, if you please." Cait Sith said as he motioned to an iron grating that blocked their way. Vincent crawled past the others and gripped it tightly with his metal claws.

"Whoa. Hold up there." Barret broke in. "Don't Shin-ra usually got some kinda high-tech sensors and stuff? Probably got 'em down here too."

"What fuckin' lame ass paranoid freaks would put security sensors in their sewers." Cid didn't shout but the tone of his voice was far to loud for the echoes of the pipes.

"We are crawling through these sewers aren't we?' Vincent said. He was almost smiling.

"Nothing here. No sensors that you need to work about. You can trust me on this one." Cait Sith said as he stepped back. Cid mumbled so more curses. "As if standing up straight while we crawl though all kinds a shit ain't bad enough, now the cat's being a smart ass."

Vincent eyed the grates carefully. He couldn't see any signs of security. He tightened his grip slightly and pulled the grating clear with a loud clash of metal and a collapse of concrete. Soon the team was on their way again.

"You look preoccupied with something." Rufus said to Reeve. Reeve was in fact occupied by the vision that came though Cait Sith's monitors to the contact lense view screens Hojo had created for him. Visions only he could see and, with the small wire running down to headphone speaker in his left ear, he was the only on that could hear them as well. Reeve turned a knob on the small remote that restored his vision to normal and looked over to his employer.

"I've been rather busy lately. I didn't know that taking over this position would be so … interesting, for lack of a better term. There are events going on that I never expected, and I'm just playing this off the fly. I'm rather clueless sometimes what I'm supposed to do half the time."

"Make it up as you go along. Just don't forget where your loyalties lie," the tone of Rufus voice told him that it was a threat not a suggestion. "Just let me know if anything comes along that I should know about." The president said as he left the room.

Reeve thought for a moment. AVALANCHE really didn't seem like that bad of people but in the public's view, they were terrorists. The Shin-ra was as corrupt as an organization went but they were praised as the good guys. If AVALANCHE was able to overthrow them, all of Midgar would be thrown into chaos. What was the lesser of two evils? He took a sip of his coffee whishing it was something stronger. Something like the drinks Tifa was fixed for her friends.

Reeve turned his attention completely back to his monitors again, wondering what he might have missed, wondering what side he was going to take.

"Did ya' have to do that?" Cid asked Vincent.

"He'll live. He'll just be out for a little while and have a headache when he wakes up." Vincent said looking down at the maintenance worker he had struck from behind. The greasy man was bleeding slightly from were his head had hit the concrete but there was no serious injuries. "The only problem he'll have is if the insects down here enter his wound."

"You're a sick bastard, ya' know that? " Cid bent down and pulled a small rage he usually used to check the oil on the Bronco and tied it around the man's forehead. It was a bit messy but better than leaving the man to the bugs. Cait Sith looked at the man and from his seat behind the monitors, so did Reeve.

Reeve wiped his forehead and was surprised to find sweat had beaded up on it. He wasn't sure why either. Was it the threat that the janitor Vincent had subdued was going to alert the Shinra to their presence? That couldn't be it, Reeve thought. I'm Shinra. Just there as a spy.

The thought nagged at him. If he was just a spy, why hadn't he warned anyone of Avalanche's approach. It would have been the perfect opportunity.

"I bet you're so proud of yourself" Yuffie scolded Red XIII. "You don't have arms or hands to help out around here, all you have to do is just sit around taking up space."

"And you don't have four legs so you can't run like the wind or a nose that let's you identify any potential threat from passersby within half a mile, or a natural flame to vent body heat." Red looked back at her daring her to continue the argument.

"Yeah well…you're stupid! And…and you eat rats!" she said before slamming a large unidentified piece of meat into a foul smelling stew she was fixing for Tifa. "and she better like this" Yuffie grumbled to herself. Red chuckled slightly and went to check on Tifa himself.

"Are you doing well?" He asked as he entered her room.

"I'll be fine, it's just so frustrating being racked up like this. I can't help but wonder how everyone else is doing right now."

"I'm sure there fine. There's a lot of experience in the groups. They can handle themselves well, I imagine." Red tried to comfort her.

"But…" Tifa started to bring up another point to argue before Red XIII cut her off again.

"Besides it's almost nightfall, wherever they are I'm sure they're going to be stopping to rest soon. So should you. You can worry about them more tomorrow."

"I guess. You sure they're going to be fine?" Tifa asked again feeling slightly like a child in need of comfort.

"They'll be fine, but if you eat what Yuffie's bringing you, I can't guarantee you will be."

"It's that bad?" Tifa asked only half jokingly.

"Sometimes my sense of smell can be a curse." Red XIII laughed.

"Well I hope things are going better for everyone else." Tifa smiled back.

"Well, here we go." Cloud said as he rolled out the sleeping bags. "Get some rest because I want to start early tomorrow mourning." Cloud removed the straps and small pieces of armor he worse and laid them at the head of his sleeping bad. He them pulled his shirt off and used it to make a pillow.

Aeris crawled in her sleeping bag and squeezed out of Tifa's skirt. It didn't feel right sleeping in such a state of undress with Cloud nearby but she knew she couldn't sleep in such a tight skirt either.

She glanced over at Cloud to see him fluffing the shirt and belts up the best he could to make a pillow. There was something that bothered her still. He was sleeping with his shirt and pads off but he had left his gloves on.

Reeve watched his companions from the eyes or a robot cat. One push of a button was all it took to alert security to there whereabouts. One push.

Coming Next chapter: Fight Night