Author's Note:

Reno: Wow, two chapters in the span of twenty four hours, and now Tyramir's working on a third!

Reeve: Amazing!

Reno: Hey, silence you. I just saved your ass in the last chapter, so now you have to do what I tell you.

Reeve: You do know that this is a slightly OOC version of ourselves, right?

Reno: So?

Reeve: So, anything that happens in the story doesn't affect us in the disclaimer.

Reno: You suck.

Reeve: Whatever. Tyramir doesn't own the rights to Final Fantasy or any of its characters.

Chapter Twenty Six

The Path Home

On the evening of the fifth day since departing Kalm, Tifa finally declared that she and Rude should head back. While the extended picnic turned camping trip had been fun, the weather was beginning to turn foul, rains coming and going, with darker clouds coming over the horizon. Rude had said nothing, just silently nodded and followed after her as she packed their gear into the two backpacks that they had brought with them.

The weather had begun to look dismal and cloudy, blocking out the sun in the area of Fort Condor, which lay just to the north of them. Tifa figured if they hurried, they could get through the area and away from the rain before it completely ruined their adventure. Rude managed not to chuckle at that comment, despite all urges to. Adventure, indeed. This was the woman who had seen her home burn to the ground, humbled the largest corporation on the Planet, fought off alien enemies from the sky, defeated Planetary Weapons, and stared down Sephiroth himself. And she was calling a camping trip an adventure?

As soon as he thought it, trotting behind her, trying to keep up, Tifa slowed down slightly, looked back at him, and smiled, as if to say, Lighten up, have some fun, this is an adventure.

He repressed the frown, wondering just how she always seemed to know what he was thinking. Rude had always thought that his silent attitude coupled with his ability to control what facial expressions showed -- which were none -- gave him a certain air of mystery. 'What is that man thinking?' people would say. But within almost two months, Tifa had figured him out. He supposed he should take that as a compliment, but for some reason, he felt oddly offended. And every time he thought of that particular thing, Tifa would again Turk to look at him, and smiled.

Damn, but he loved that smile. It unnerved him, challenged him, and made him feel whole. He didn't think of himself as a 'good guy' -- hell, he was a Turk -- but for that smile, he'd fight Sephiroth, Jenova, the Weapons, and Shinra all combined.

Reno would never understand. He was too focused on the money, on the reputation of being a Turk. Elena would pretend to, but she wouldn't entirely get it either. Too much into her own ambition, determined to be someone and go somewhere. Tseng would have understood. He liked the money, liked the thrill, liked the reputation and the prestige you got from being a Turk, but everyone damn well knew just from looking at him that if he thought he had a shot, he would have abandoned it all for Aeris.

But no, Tseng was dead, and not here to tell Rude that he had 'done the right thing.'

It was nearing night when Rude finally noticed something wrong. "Where is everyone?"

"What?" Tifa asked., stopping to look back at him.

"Travelers. Merchants. Farmers. Hunters. Anyone. We're near Fort Condor. You'd think we would have seen someone by now."

Shrugging, the girl responded, "Maybe they just wanted to get away from the rain."

Rude didn't buy it. His Turk instincts screamed that something wasn't right. When they had first come out for this picnic, they had seen hikers and travelers. Not many, but they had been there. Now... A thought occured to him.

"What about monsters? Or animals? When was the last time we even saw a chocobo?"

"I can't remember, but that is a bit weird. What do you suggest?"

"Take shelter in Fort Condor. See if they've heard anything."

"That's a good idea," she agreed. "At the very least, it'll get us out of the rain before it starts up."

Glad that she had decided that his plan was a good idea, Rude adjusted their north-bound course to go a little to the east, and within less than an hour, the two found themselves at the base of Fort Condor. Tifa climbed the rocky area ahead of the ex-Turk, familiar with the rocky slopes and bounding up them with ease. Rude, less familiar, struggled, but managed to keep up. Night was just setting in, and Rude was forced to take off his sunglasses so that he could see where he was putting his feet. When he made it to the top, he saw Tifa staring at a pile of rocks at a section of the mountain that the reactor sat upon.

He gave her a questioning look, and she answered, "There's supposed to be a cave here. It leads to a ladder into the reactor. But it's not here. It looks like someone purposely caved it in."

Rude nodded, and began to look it over. He checked around the edges, and found small traces of blackness around the edges of the rocks and where the cave entrance apparently had been. Wiping away some of it with his fingers, he held it to his nose and sniffed. Just as he expected. He held the two fingers covered with the black powder and held it up for Tifa to smell. When she did, she made a disgusted face. "Ugh, smells like rotten eggs. What is that?"

"Residue from a sulfuric discharge. Old gunpowder. Someone rigged a primitive explosive to collapse the cave from the inside."

"Why would they do that?"

He couldn't say for sure, but his Turk and Soldier training came up with one logical answer. "The people inside wanted to keep someone out."

"Who?"

He didn't have an answer. She knew that. Instead, he stepped away from the cave and began to search the ground, looking for any footprints, or signs of anyone having been here recently. The darkness didn't help him. As he searched, he heard Tifa begin to yell to the Fort, demanding that if anyone was there that they answer.

Swearing at the rocky ground and its inability to take footprints, Rude began to search the rocks at the side of the path and found that several small boulders had been dropped from on high. Probably from the Fort itself. Meaning a siege. He checked a few, and found no bodies, only white ash. Several times he bent down to examine it, but found it difficult in the fading light. It had no smell or taste, and no particular texture, or any source of where it may have come from.

"Rude!" Tifa yelled.

Whirling about, he looked to Tifa's location. She was waving frantically at him and pointing off to the northeast. He glanced over, and paled. Charging up the mountain-side was a small attack force of white shapes. They weren't close enough to make out, but Rude knew a hostile threat when he saw one. Racing to Tifa's side, he began bellowing as loudly as he could, yelling far more effectively than Tifa had been.

"Ho, the Fort! Drop a rope! Drop a rope!"

He looked up, and above, someone looked out from a hole chiseled in the rock wall. They had been seen. But would anything be done?

"Help us!" Tifa yelled.

Not waiting for the unlikely to happen, Rude pushed back his shirt sleeve to reveal a metal bracer. On it were two pieces of Materia. Fire and Lightning. He chose to go for Fire, and focusing on it, prepared to slam the front rank of the enemy with as much heat as he could. The Materia glowed bright green, then faded. Nothing happened.

Panic began to climb into Rude, and he tried again. The Materia once more glowed green, and a small flicker of fire appeared, hitting the center of the enemy ranks, then disappearing entirely. Abandoning his attempts with the Fire Materia, Rude moved on to the Lightning, and concentrated. This one flared to life, lashing out from the skies with a brilliant bolt of blue electricty, shattering the front row of enemy invaders.

Tifa continued to yell, and Rude sent wave after wave of lightning at the enemy, but each one was more diminished than the last, as if something was affecting the Materia.

A hundred yards away, the enemy looked dangerously close. Rude began to focus the inner-power his Mako infusion had given him into his fist, charging it up for an attack.

"Rude!" Tifa called.

He looked back, and saw that a rope had been lowered. Tifa was already scrambling up. She knew he'd be close behind. She probably expected him to make for the rope right away. Looking around, the ex-Turk spotted a narrow gap that the enemy, obviously albinos from this distance, would have to travel through the rocky path. If enough force hit it, the valley-like area might collapse on the albinos, killing some and preventing the others from getting any further for a while.

Without another thought, Rude lashed out at the ground with his fist, and the earth began to shift as a small spike of fire and electricity hit the ground and began to travel towards the valley-like walls. The Grand Spark did its intended job. The walls began to shake and instantly collapsed, crushing the invaders that had been between them. As they died, the few that were still visible from the collapse, Rude noted that they turned to ash. For a moment he was taken aback, unsure of what had just happened.

"Rude!" Tifa yelled again.

Shaking himself out of his momentary shock, he turned and headed for the robe and began to climb as quickly as he could to the top. He glanced down a few times and saw that some of the albinos had already made it over the large hill he had made and were beginning to climb up after him. He forced himself to climb faster. Looking up, he saw the rope had been lowered through the hole chiseled in the mountainside he had seen before, a sort of make-shift window for a cave. As he made it to the top, a hand reached out, but he ignored it, instead grabbing the ledge of the window and heaving himself in. He was far too heavy for a normal person to pull him in.

"Cut the rope!" he said as he fell inside.

A twang sounded, followed by a few screams. Rude was too busy to look back and check, though, as his attention was more occupied on the sword-point being held to his throat.