(Refer to chapter 1 for the disclaimer.)

Chapter 6: Fight Night

"Just a little bit further…." Cait Sith said to the team. "Come on now." He smiled back at his companions. They were tired and cramped from trudging through the small sewage lines but they were following him without question. He only wished they were following him without complaint.

"Next time you say anything that even remotely sounds like you're being cheerful, I'm going ta' rip your head off and shove it up yer ass." Cid barked at him.

"Shut yo' mouth," Barret grumbled back to him. The traveling was definitely taking it's toll on them. Their temper had been pushed to it's limits and they were all waiting for something to snap at, with the possible exception of Vincent. As always, he had stayed quite throughout the trip, speaking only when he absolutely had too.

Cait Sith suddenly stopped dead in his tracks and the others almost plowed into him. Ahead of them, there was a huge opening that Reeve had known nothing about. Back at his desk, Reeve quickly checked his map. Somewhere, he had taken a wrong turn, leaving them completely lost. He quickly flipped through several section charts and passage maps in vain attempts to find their location. It wasn't helping. One map looked just like another to him.

"What the hell is it this time?" Cid grumbled.

"Nothing nothing. I just thought that you'd need a bit of a break," the robot cat cautiously said. "Just a few minutes." It was a pitiable attempt to buy time as Reeve frantically flipped though the outdated documents that showed the area.

"Special training room number 17." Vincent whispered. Reeve dropped the info he was mulling though and focused Cait's attention on the former Turk. "It's been ages since I've been here." the paused to look around. "It's seen better days." The comment was almost jovial. Reeve was taken back by the man's comment. It must have showed up on Cait Sith's features as well. Vincent looked down at the toy cat curiously.

"Ummm yeah!" He said jumping up and down. "I thought that no one would expect us to travel this way. Besides, I have my contact coming to meet us soon!" as soon as the words finished coming out of Cait's mouth, Reeve wondered why he said that. How was he going to have this non-existent contact show up?

"Yeah, so when do we, get to the ship?" Cid said finishing with a huge yawn. "I didn't get much sleep last night and I'm piss tired."

"Aww. Did poor widdle Cidy miss his nap," Barret teased. Cid clenched his fists for a moment before deciding that it wasn't worth it and slumped against the wall.

"Actually, I'm not tooooo sure which way it is from here? Which way the exit is, I mean. Once we get that, it'll be easy to finish going were we're going." Cait Sith scratched his head. "It's just that…"

"Heeeeeey Reeve, did you forget the staff meeting?" The voice made Reeve jump in his seat. He quickly switched Cait Sith's controls to automatic and turned his viewer off. Then he turned his attention to the man standing in the doorway. "I sure hope you're not getting paid any extra for sitting there and going doo-do-doo do-doo-do." Palmer said waving his finger though the air like a moron trying to conduct a symphony.

"I'm coming. I just had a little extra bit of work to do." Reeve shuffled the paperwork that was sitting on his desk in an effort to fool Palmer. It was a wasted effort. Palmer didn't care one way or another. "Tell the others I'll be there in a minute."

"How about You tell them yourself. I left my sandwich in the bathroom. I think that's where I left it at least," Palmer said as he actually took to his tip toes and pranced (as much as a man of his girth could) off. "First things first, you know," Palmer said as he bounced away. Reeve switched the audio control back onto Cait Sith.

"I think we need to split up and take a look around here. Maybe catch our breath before heading in any further." he offered to stall them until he could turn his attention fully back to his compatriots after the meeting.

"So good of you to join us." Rufus greeted him sternly as Reeve entered the conference room. "Remember, your extra activities do not preclude you from the day to day responsibilities of the organization." Reeve looked around and quickly accessed his situation. He seemed to be playing catch up a quite often lately. Although being Cait Sith was a great relief from his daily stress, events such as theses were become much more common. He was beginning to think that splitting his life in two was more effort than it was worth.

Rufus had taken his seat in the most expensive chain in the room. Scarlet was filling her nails in boredom. Heidegar, never the one who liked inaction of any kind was drumming his fingers against the desk. Hojo was mulling over some scientific documents that would have been completely unintelligible to anyone with out an advanced degree in biogenetics. Palmer was eating a sub topped with things Reeve suspected he didn't want to know the names of. It was all business as usual. Reeve settled down to play his part.

"I was just finished up some business with the …extra activities you've had me work on." Reeve directed the answer to Rufus who knew exactly what he meant. Nobody else cared except Hojo. Hojo was suspicious of everything. It was one of the qualities that made him a good scientist and a terrible human being. Rufus smiled and clicked a button to start the presentation.

"Get up" Cloud whispered to Aeris. "What…What is it?' Aeris grumbled, not at all ready to get out of her warm sleeping bag.

"Get up" Cloud repeated. "Someone's out there. Someone or something," Aeris watched as Cloud silently readied his sword and peered out into the darkness.

Aeris started to climb out of her sleeping bag completely forgetting that she wasn't wearing her usual clothing. As the cool night air hit her bare legs she was instantly shocked awake and dove back into her sleeping bag. Quickly she squirmed back into Tifa's dress, wishing that her friend dressed in looser warmer clothing.

"I'm ready," Aeris said grabbing up her battle staff. Cloud unzipped the tent slowly and gestured for her to follow. The two of them stepped out into the cold night air. Cloud stood as still as a statue, tightly gripping his buster sword as he peered into the darkness. Cloud's silence and still manner was almost frightening. Aeris tried but she couldn't see anything in the dark. The icy breeze chilled the flower girl, she pressed up against her companion for both comfort and warmth. She placed her hand on his. As she did this, he jerked it away and gave her a cold look. Aeris leapt back in alarm.

"Pay attention," Cloud said turning his eyes away from her again and back to the night. Aeris gripped her staff nervously. She braced herself against the night wind. As cold as she was, she knew Cloud must have been worse. Even though the glove, his hand had felt like ice.

"Cloud?" . Aeris whispered his name. She wanted to ask him what they were doing, but she couldn't find the right words. Standing alone, still, and quite in the pitch darkness was beginning to give her an eerie feeling inside.

"Quiet. I hear something," he tightened his grip on the hilt of his sword. Aeris could hear it too now, a slight rumbling sound. It seemed to be growing closer to them. Mentally she prepared herself. There was a sound resembling a small explosion as a landworm ripped its way out from the ground in front of them. Cloud rushed to the side of the beast while Aeris readied her materia. Cloud slashed the beast sending blood flying. The worm thrashed wildly at the pain, slamming into Cloud. The thrashing worm smashed Cloud against a small tree. From where she stood, Aeris could see the trunk of it cracked from the impact.

A land worm. Aeris grumbled. The outfit she was wearing reminded her of how badly the last land worm had showed her up. She had been just about worthless then and just the thought of fighting another one gave her the shakes. Even under the best circumstances, she had a Aeris had a natural repugnance of those. The way it twisted and moved seemed so alien to her. Whenever she had the choice, she'd stay in the rear of the formation and her materia to support the others.

All that was in the daytime, however. The worms had been bad in the light. At night it looked like a living nightmare. It's breath came out like putrid steam. It's teeth seemed as long and sharp as daggers.

Slowly she backed away cautiously to finish charging her materia for use. As she backstopped, her foot caught an upturned root sending her tumbling to the ground. "Great," she thought. "the worm has you tripping and falling over everything again," she thought. She looked over to Cloud for help. He was struggling to regain his sword which had imbedded itself in the trunk of a larger tree. The creature bore down on her. It's mouth was easily half the size of her entire body. Easily large enough to swallow her. She shut her eyes as if merely wishing would send he creature way and waited for the end.

Nothing happened.

Cautiously she opened her eyes. As strange a notion as it seemed, she was afraid that the worm was just toying with her. Instead, it wasn't anywhere near her. She saw Cloud holing on tightly to the creature with one arm. With the other he was pounding the creature with his fist. It lashed around wildly jerking to one side then the other trying to throw him. Aeris stumbled to her feet constricted by the tight skirt and grabbed her staff. Holding it out in front of her the materias glowed brightly. "Cloud!" she shouted in warning. "Fire!" Flames shot from the magical orbs imbedded in her staff.

Cloud watched the flames approach like waves. At the last moment he released his grip and leapt from the beast before the flames struck. The magical fire consumed the worm almost instantly.

"Thanks" Cloud said. He walked over and playfully ruffled her hair. It wasn't anything major, just a causal and juvenile display of affection, but to Aeris, it felt as good as a kiss. It wasn't often that he showed any appreciation at towards anyone. Sometimes she thought he was just trying to hide it. She'd seen him taking interested little glances and quickly looking away when he thought someone might have seen. It seemed to be his nature to conceal his affections.

Aeris watched as Cloud went over and struggled to pull his blade from the oak.

"Oh, one more thing" Cloud said after his back was turned. Aeris's interest peaked. "Fix your skirt." He said with the slightest hint of humor. Aeris looked down and almost died of embarrassment. The short skirt she had accidentally borrowed from Tifa had ridding up almost to Aeris's waist.

A blond haired man stood on a hilltop and watched the scene unfold before him. Earlier in the week he'd stolen a landworm summon materia. He'd only had a few chances to use it and most of those times had been against random travelers on the road, but seeing he worm burning below, he decided it wasn't exactly something he'd get much use out of. Next town he got to, he's sell it for whatever gil he could get. He sat there watching the fire. When the two people below went to sleep, he'd sneak down there and get a hunk of landworm meat. it didn't sound to appealing, but he hadn't been eating too well recently anyway.

He stretched out to watch the strangers for a bit. In the fire light, he could only make out small details. The woman was small and dressed in a slutty skirt and a shirt that didn't seem to fit. The man … he squinted a little bit … the man had stayed out of the light for the most part. He couldn't get a good look.

Then the man walked over to the woman. In the light, he got all the details he needed. The man was wearing a SOLDIER uniform. That alone would ranked him as a threat to be avoid, but he knew this man. This was Strife.

The meeting was adjourned and Reeve left the conference room. Most of it hadn't been relevant to him. Really, the only thing he was there for was policy and to give his small say in the salvage rights for the collapsed plate. The last item on the agenda was what had caught his attention most. It was the wanted reports for the members of AVALANCHE.

Multiple terrorism charges, murders of Shinra military members, braking an entering, conspiracy to over throw the government, and then there were the individual charges.

Vincent Valentine disappeared without a trace 30 years ago. Whoever the man he traveled with was, he was too young to be Vincent.

Cloud and Tifa somehow walked away from an operation that killed their entire town and left several high ranking Shin-ra SOLDIERs dead.

Reeve lifted his pHs out of his upper coat pocket to make a call.

He pulled a card from his wallet and dialed the number from it. It was picked up on the first ring. "This is Reeve. I know it's not policy, but I need a favor. I need to get to Junon as quickly as possible. …. Oh trust me. You'll be very interested in this."

Coming Next Chapter: King of the Road