"Wark!" The Chocobo said sounding a little distressed. I stroked it gently,

"Don't be afraid," I said to it.

"Yo Tifa you do know they can't understand you?!" Barret said. I laughed at Barret as he struggled to control his chocobo. He had one and Cloud and I were sat on one. I was sitting behind Cloud.

"And yet again you get to drive." I said as I poked him in the back gently. Cloud laughed,

"Next time Tifa, next time." He said between laughs. I wrapped my arms around his waist tight.

"Don't think I won't hold you to that Mr Strife." I said as I leaned my head against his back and sighed quietly. This was so... nice.

"Wark!" The chocobo cried as it suddenly started to move quickly forcing me to sit up straight and hold onto Cloud even tighter.

"T.. the man wasn't kidding about these being swift on their feet!" I said.

"Yeah, just don't let go of me I doubt falling of one of these is much fun." Cloud said as he put a hand over mine and gave it a quick squeeze.

We kept going until the mouth of a cave was visible, our chocobo suddenly stopped as did Barrets.

"I don't think they want to go there Cloud, lets let them go, we passed the marshes safely." I said.

"Yeah we can go on foot from now on." Cloud said has he jumped of the chocobo, he then helped me down. The second I was of it the chocobo ran away. "I guess he didn't think very much of us," I said with a laugh. Suddenly a horrible smell hit me.

"Yo whats that stink?!" Barret said with a disgusted look on his face.

"It..." I started, "it smells like..."

"Blood." Cloud cut me of. He pulled his sword out and put an arm around me. "Stay close to me ok? He may still be here." He said while looking around. We started to move closer to the cave the smell of blood getting stronger with every step. Then we saw it, the Midgar Zolom impaled. We stopped dead in our tracks stunned.

"Did Sephiroth... do this...?" Cloud finally managed to ask.

"Amazing..." I whispered.

"This Sephiroth guy's pretty strong, I'd say." Barret said. He sounded just as shocked as I felt. I had always known Sephiroth was strong, but this scared me. I knew if we had battled the Zolom ourselves we probably wouldn't have survived against something that big and strong... how did one man defeat it?

"We have to keep moving!" Cloud said after pulling himself together. He put his sword back and took a tight hold of my hand.

When we entered the cave the climate change was quite dramatic. I wrapped my arms around myself and shivered. The warmth of the sun didn't get to this place. We wandered though the maze, jumping at every sound, still unnerved by the sight of the dead Zolom when suddenly...

"Just a second!" We looked up to see a bald man in a Turks suit and dark sunglasses... he seemed familiar.

"Wh, who are you?!" Barret asked, he was clearly startled to see another person in the caves.

"Do you know who I am?" The man said with a grin, it was hard to tell through his sunglasses but I felt like he was looking directly at me. 'I know him... I know that I know him but I can't remember how!' I thought to myself.

"From the Turks, right?" Cloud said, he did not look amused.
"Well if you know, this won't take long." The man answered. He looked a little relieved. "It's difficult to explain what the Turks do..." he continued.
"Kidnapping, right?" Cloud said glaring at the man a little.

"To put it negatively... you could say that." he said sounding a little annoyed. "...But, that's not all there is to it, anymore..." he suddenly stopped and looked around him then at the floor. What was going on? Had the Turks become more than Shinra's delivery boys?
"Sir!" A woman's voice called. We all turned quickly to see a young woman with short blonde hair stood on the ledge above us. She was also wearing a Turk suit, I didn't know they let women join the Turks. I smiled inside and secretly hoped she would show them we women are just as good at fighting as men.

"It's all right, Rude! I know you don't like speeches, so don't force it!" She said smiling at him.
"...Then Elena, explain." Rude said before looking down at the floor again. He seemed so shy...
"I'm the newest member of the Turks, Elena." The girl started sounding a little nervous, "Thanks to what you did to Reno, we're short of people."She continued. I couldn't help but smile. Reno got what he deserved! ....We used to be friends... "...Although, because of that, I got promoted to the Turks,...." she continued. She was silent for a moment probably thinking it would have been better if she hadn't said that. "In any case, our job is to find out where Sephiroth is headed." she said in a more firm tone, "And to try and stop you every step of the way." she added. A look of distress suddenly crossed her face and she turned away from us, "Wait a minute, it's the other way around. You're the ones that are getting in our way." She mumbled to herself. Cloud and I exchanged glances, she wasn't a threat at all, in fact I felt sorry for her.
"...Elena. You talk too much." Came a weary sounding voice. I turned to see Tseng, I glared at him. I didn't like him at all!
"Mr. Tseng!?" Elena said sounding a little alarmed. The poor girl clearly wanted to make a good impression on her new boss.
"No need to tell them about our orders." Tseng said as patiently as he could but there was still irritation in his voice. I was guessing he found the poor girl a little annoying.
"Sorry... Tseng." Elena said and she looked at the floor. She sounded so upset I was even more annoyed with Tseng for not being more sensitive towards her.
"I thought I gave you other orders." he said, "Now go. Don't forget to file your report." he ordered her.
"Oh! Right!" She said sounding a lot more enthusiastic than I would have. The poor girl seemed to really want to prove herself. "Very well, Rude and I will go after Sephiroth, who's heading for Junon Harbour!" She said trying to sound professional but it didn't really go with her young and girly sounding voice. Cloud nudged me at the mention of Junon. That was where we had to go.
"...Elena. You don't seem to understand." Tseng said, he moved his hands to his temples and the irritation in his voice grew.
"Oh! I'm, I'm sorry..." Elena said and she started to blush.

"...Go. Don't let Sephiroth get away." He said trying his best to stay calm. I bit my lip, that was one professional relationship that was not going to work out.
"Yes sir!" Rude and Elena said in union. Elena left pretty quickly but as Rude was going he stopped and looked directly at me

"...Reno said he wanted to see you after the injuries you gave him healed." he said raising an eyebrow, "He wants to show his affection for you all... with a new weapon." He said as he turned to leave. It suddenly hit me, I knew this guy... he used to come to my bar with Reno sometimes. Reno and I would talk but Rude was always in the background and hardly ever said anything...

I was still absorbed in my thoughts when I heard the voice of Tseng.

"Is um Aeris not with you?" He asked. I looked up to see his blushing face. Did he like her?! You wouldn't be able to tell from the way he hit her last time he saw her!

"Shes with the others!" Cloud snapped.

"Oh... then give her my regards." He said quickly before turning and leaving. I looked at Cloud.

"His attitude towards her sure has changed." Cloud said.

"I wonder what happened between them when Shinra had her..." I said quietly. I suddenly felt someone poke me in the back.

"C'mon fools we gotta get goin to Junon!" Barret said.

"Yeah," Cloud said. "At least we don't have to worry about Sepiroth till we get there," he said as we started moving. It was pretty clear that he was worried about what would happen when we actually found Sephiroth. I moved next to Cloud and took hold of his hand, he looked down at me and gave me a small smile.

"It will be ok you know," I said as I squeezed his hand gently. He gave another weak smile and put his arm around me as we continued walking.

Our long walk to Junon had begun, I was happy to be out of that cold cave and back in the sunshine. We had decided to cut through the forests, there would be more monsters but it would be quicker and we were pretty sure there was nothing we couldn't handle.

Things were going well when suddenly we came across a young girl! 'What on earth is a girl her age doing in the forest all alone?' I wondered to myself. My question was soon answered when she attacked us! I felt a little wrong hitting someone younger than me who I had no quarrel with but it had to be done. When she was knocked out we stood around her unsure of what to do next.

"Cloud, do you know her?" I asked. Cloud just shook his head.

"Wassup with that broad?" Barret asked. The girl opened her eyes and sat up clutching her head. She looked dazed.

"Man...... I can't believe I lost..." She said. I smiled, I know I would have been the same. She looked up at us and leapt to her feet. "You spiky-headed jerk! One more time, let's go one more time!" She shouted at Cloud. Cloud folded his arms and shook his head.
"Not interested," He said dryly. A look of annoyance crossed her face and she started making punching motions trying to show of her moves.

"Thinkin' of running away? Stay and fight! FIGHT, I said!" She shouted. Cloud didn't move. "C'mon...... What's the matter?" She asked looking a little bemused. "You're pretty scared of me, huh!?" She said grinning.
"......petrified" Cloud said, his voice dripping with sarcasm. He clearly didn't want to fight someone he knew he could easily beat as well, it wasn't fair. Unfortunately the girl didn't seem to pick up on the sarcasm.
"Hmm, just as I thought. What do you expect with my skills?" She said looking very pleased with herself. I put my hand over my mouth to hide my smile. She certainly was very enthusiastic, I would give her that. "Good luck to you too. If you feel up to it, we can go another round. Later!" She said and she started to move away from us then she stopped and turned to look at us. "I'm really gonna leave! REALLY!" She said. It was pretty clear she wanted us to stop her, maybe she was lonely. I looked at Cloud, he was still glaring at her. He then turned and met my gaze, he knew what I wanted straight away and shook his head. I mouthed the word please and smiled at him. He smiled back and sighed.

"Wait a second!" He called. We all made our way closer to the girl.

"What is it, you still have somethin' for me?" She asked with a grin. "......Hmmm. So is that it? I know you want my help because I'm so good!" She said looking very pleased with herself. "You want me to go with you?" She asked smiling. Cloud bit his lip and looked at me, I nodded my head gently.

"......That's right" he said, his tone gave away his true feelings on the matter but luckily she didn't seem to notice.

"Heh heh... thought so. You put me in a spot. Hmm, what should I do?" She thought for a second. "But if you want me that bad, I can't refuse..." she said with a grin. "All right! I'll go with you!" She said smiling. Cloud clenched his fists and gave me a dangerous look.

"......Let's hurry on" he said through gritted teeth. He then took me firmly by the hand and started to pull me of. Something told me I was in trouble.

"Huh? Hey... HEY!" Came the voice of the girl. "Wait! I haven't even told you my name......" She said sounding a little offended. "I'm Yuffie! Good to meetcha!"

"Cloud you are being so rude!" I said as I tried to get his hand of mine. He stopped and looked at me.

"I'm sorry, she just annoys me." He said. I smiled at him.

"Most people seem to annoy you at first Cloud, she probably isn't so bad once you get to know her, and we couldn't leave her out here all alone." I said as I rubbed his hand with my thumb. He sighed and smiled.

"You have such a big heart Tifa." he said as he wrapped his arms around my waist and pulled me into him. I put my arms around him and held him close.

"Thats so sweet," I said as. He brought a hand up and started to stroke my hair, he opened his mouth to say something when...

"GET A ROOM YOU TWO!" Came the voice of Yuffie. Laughter followed, Cloud glared at her but I just giggled quietly.

"Don't be too hard on her ok?" I said as I put my finger on his lip. He smiled,

"I'll try." he said as he ran his hands up and down my waist. He then moved towards Yuffie. "We have another party, they won't be far behind us, a young girl and a... well a... you will know them when you see them!" He said as he scratched the back of his head. "You travel with them." He said.

"Humph! Can't wait to get rid of me eh?!" She said as she stomped of. She stopped beside me. "Your boyfriend is sooooo moody!" she said to me. I blushed a little.

"He um isn't my boyfr..." I started.

"Yeah yeah you can't fool me! I may only be sixteen but I know about these things." She said smiling at me. I blushed a little more.

"Don't worry about Cloud, he will warm to you once he gets to know you." I said desperately trying to change the subject.

"Hey how could he NOT warm to me?" She said grinning. "So tell me about the other people? Are they as much fun as Mr moody or as scary as Mr gunarm?" She asked.

"Well I don't know either of the other two all that well, Red seems nice but he keeps himself to himself a lot and um Aeris..." I bit my lip trying to think of something nice to say. "She um.. she likes flowers a lot." I said weakly. Yuffie raised an eyebrow.

"What a fun trip this will be!" She said.

"Hey don't worry, like I said I don't know them very well yet." I said smiling. I felt a hand on my back and turned to see Cloud.

"We had better get going Tifa." He said gently.

"Ok," I turned to look at Yuffie, "See you in Junon." I said smiling.

"Yeah see ya later Tif and thanks for being so welcoming, unlike some people!" She said looking at Cloud. With that she ran of. Cloud shook his head and wrapped an arm around me.

"Heart of gold!" He whispered into my ear.