Author's Notes

--------------------

This is an alternate universe story, so expect a lot of changes.

This version of AR has been censored for language. An uncensored version is available on my website which you can find in my profile.

My homepage has been updated with the first two pieces of AR artwork since last week, be sure to check it out if you enjoy the story!

Check back on November 11th for Chapter III.

If you have any questions, ask them in your review, and I'll address them as best I can in the next chapter's Author's Notes.

Luminus

Chapter II

Bed of Lies

Several hours of sledging through the murky waters of Midgar's massive sewage system made it painfully obvious how large the city was and could dampen anyone's spirit. To Cloud and Zach, this was just one more in a series of bad turns that this night had become. They had been led in a completely nonsensical trail in order to confound any pursuers they might have, and Cloud was fairly certain it was also meant to confuse him and Zach. It worked well; by the time they had made their way through a grate, down a ladder and into a tunnel that finally brought them to the series of caves that Avalanche operated out of, he was completely lost. There was no way of telling where beneath Midgar they were at, but that still didn't seem to be good enough for the terrorists. With the exception of Barret, the members of Avalanche watched him and Zach as if they were the criminals. Even once they were situated in what was clearly their lounging room, no one sat down, all eyes were staring with contempt at the two Imperials; the distrust in the air was nearly thick enough to touch.

Zach was the first to speak, his voice surprisingly calm, considering what they'd been through so far tonight. "Okay, so we're here now whether we wanted to be or not. We might as well hear what you have to say."

"You're not gonna like it." Barret solemnly said.

"We just saw demons in an Imperial building, got shot at by Turks, and are in the hideout of the most wanted people in Midgar!" Cloud snapped. "We already don't like this, so just talk!"

"Alright, fine." Barret nodded. "What you've heard about us, that we're traitors and heretics, isn't completely true. Like you guys, we all trusted Shinra once, but all of us wound up like this by learning things we weren't supposed to."

Walking to a small cooler, Barret pulled a can of beer out of it and popped it open. After a short drink, he continued. "These guys," he said, referring to his three team mates. "They saw ---- go down. Me? I was the ---- that went down. I was a cop, a lieutenant at Corel, my hometown."

"Corel?" Zach asked, his brows furrowing. "That was the first place that the demons appeared on our world."

"Yeah, but that's only half the real story. The area around Corel was always rich with mako since long before I was even born, so the Empire decided to build a center there to use it in tests for new technology. The people of Corel weren't happy about it; we weren't all that religious like the Empire wanted its citizens to be, and the facility Shinra built was interfering with our coal mining operations, which just made things worse."

Barret's eyebrows creased as the painful memories began to surface in him. "Over the next couple of years everyone in Corel became disgruntled and resentful of the Empire. Protests were mounting, and things were going downhill fast. Then one night the demons attacked, but they didn't come from the stars or some evil portal to hell; they came out of the Shinra facility."

"Like what we saw tonight?" Cloud asked skeptically.

"Yeah, but they weren't as advanced as the ones here. They killed hundreds in the city. Me and my buddy Dyne led the police force and tried to fight them, but it didn't do much good. Eventually we gathered up all the civilians we could find and went into hiding in the mines.

"While we were down there, something happened on the surface. It sounded strange, almost like a tidal wave. When we came up later to see what had happened, the whole region had been turned into a wasteland. The demons were gone, and there were Turks searching the area." His mouth set in a hard frown, his face contorting from anger and sadness. "Still remember it like it was yesterday. We went out to meet them, thinking they were there to help, but we were wrong. Except for me and Dyne, the rest of the survivors were civilians, women and kids mostly. The Turks lined them up and mowed them all down, every last one of them. Us, they kept alive. Don't know why, maybe just because we were cops, but they brought us here, to that same building we just blew sky high.

"Two years they kept us there." Taking another drink, he sighed, not enjoying talking about this but knowing that he had to if he wanted to make them understand. "Doing things to us that I don't like to remember."

"Is that what happened to your arm?" Zach asked a bit timidly. "I noticed the way it's gloved, and that hit you threw into that demon in Branch Seven was way to strong to be a regular punch."

"Yeah, you got it." Barret nodded, rubbing at his gloved arm as the painful memories tormented him. "I don't really know the specifics or anything. The glove's made of a special material they developed that helps me keep it in check. Without it on, my arm becomes an uncontrollable and unpredictable weapon."

"Right, that sounds perfectly feasible." Cloud mumbled beneath his breath as he rolled his eyes.

"Anyway, Dyne escaped one night and caused a bunch of trouble." Barret ignored Cloud's sarcasm and continued in a quieter voice. "He busted me out and we tried to get out of the center, but they caught up with us. Dyne...he turned around and used what they'd done to him to fight them back so I could escape. I didn't want to, but he promised that he'd be right behind me, so I went. I never saw him again.

"After I got out I did some research and found out that a few people from Corel who didn't know the demons had come out of Shinra's facility had survived. Those survivors spread stories about how the demons had turned the region into a wasteland. The Empire used those stories to spread fear about the demons, and that's when Rufus vowed to stop them from doing it again, so instead of being in league with them, the Empire became the knights in shining armor that were slaying them.

"The four of us found each other a couple years later." Barret motioned to his Avalanche team. "We'd all learned some of the Empires dirty little secrets and had managed to live to tell about it. There are probably others out there who know things, a few people are always gonna fall through the cracks, but who's gonna believe them? The Empires marked us as the bad guys, and everyone trusts the Empire. One of the reasons we started Avalanche was so we could fight back, and try to get this junk to the public. It hasn't really worked so well so far, but we'll keep going."

Cloud didn't buy it; Barret may have been an incredible actor to be able to pull off emotions that real, but there was no way that could all be true. "Do you really expect us to believe that the Holy Shinra Empire is corrupted? That they're allying with demons just to get rid of people who don't share their views? That's just absurd."

"You saw them in Branch Seven with your own eyes and they tried to kill you for it," Jessie responded with disbelief in her voice. "How can you just shrug his story off after that?"

"Because," Cloud growled. "I have faith! I was born and raised in this Empire; I've been in the Army for five years! I've seen Emperor Rufus speak! He preaches about peace and unity; he came to save the world! There's no way I can believe that this is going on in his Empire without his knowledge!"

"I don't know, Cloud" Zach quietly said, his voice shaking. "She's right. We saw it ourselves, and the Turks tried to kill us just like Barret said."

"They tried to kill us because they thought we were with them!" Cloud shouted, staring at his friend in shock at what he was hearing. "Don't tell me you're actually buying this!"

"I said I don't know," Zach sighed. "It sure would explain a lot of it, though."

"How can you say that! You know Rufus would have found out if this stuff was as widespread as they're saying, and he'd have put an end to it a long time ago!"

"Tch," Biggs scoffed. "Not if he's the one doing it all."

Before anyone could stop him, Cloud's sword was unsheathed and he ran at the green clad terrorist, his logic blinded by his anger. The Divine Emperor was the savior of the world; Cloud wasn't about to let some one say such things about Rufus without losing a limb or two.

Moving faster than Cloud could have possibly imagined, Barret headed him off, his gloved palm slamming against the flat side of the sword and driving it into the wall. As Cloud readied to twist it and cut the large man's hand off, a burst of multi-colored energy erupted from Barret's gloved arm and jolted through the blade, making it burning hot. Even through his gauntleted hand, Cloud could feel the heat rising and singeing his glove. With a yelp, he let go of the weapon and backed off as Barret stepped away and let it fall to the ground.

"I know you're pissed." Barret said coldly. "I know you don't want to believe what we're saying, and I know how hard it is to even try and come to grips with it. I want to help you, but I'm not gonna have you hurting one of my friends, and if I have to beat your skinny ass I will."

"Settle down, Cloud." Zach said as he walked over and helped him stand. "Let's just sit for a while and try to clear our minds, alright?"

"Why?" Cloud said, glaring at his friend. "Is that going to make any of this go away? Is that going to make me feel any more comfortable about being in a room full of damned heretics?"

"No." Zach said, the sorrow in his eyes telling Cloud that he understood what he was feeling. "But I can't just dismiss what they've said that easily. It's too much; we need to think about it before we start making rash decisions."

Cloud pushed away from his friend and stepped to the couch where he slumped down. "You're questioning your faith in Rufus. You've already made a rash decision, Zach."

"Maybe so," Zach said as he sat down next to him. Trying to lighten the unfathomably dark situation, Zach added, "You always were the more sensible one, you know."

Cloud merely crossed his arms and sat there with an intense look of discomfort on his face; apparently, he hadn't found it very funny.

With the crisis temporarily averted, Barret nodded his head towards Wedge. "Why don't you go cook us up something to eat? Take our minds off things."

"Yeah, sure boss." The chubby man said, staring at Cloud as he walked out of the room.

Seemingly unfazed by having his life in danger just moments prior, Biggs walked to their receiver and turned it on to see if there'd been any news of their triumph yet. As he walked back and sat down on the arm of the chair that Jessie was once again occupying, the image of another reporter flickered onto the wall.

"-has been no official statement made about the attack yet, but disaster crews at the scene say that it seems consistent with other attacks made recently by the terrorist organization, Avalanche."

"Damn right, it does," Jessie sneered.

"Early reports indicate that there were very few casualties," the reporter continued. "Again, for those just joining us, we were informed by the Turks Intelligence Agency that two Shinra Imperial Soldiers were witnessed fleeing from the scene."

"Great!" Cloud suddenly snapped, only to be shushed by Zach as the report went on.

"While their identities have not been divulged at this time, we have learned that a woman suspected of being involved with the two soldiers, and possibly Avalanche itself, has been taken into custody. She has been charged with treason and is being held for interrogation."

"Oh my god!" Zach gasped, an icy chill rushing over him as he quickly realized who they were talking about. "Tifa!"

"Who's Tifa?" Barret asked.

That flash of anger returning, Cloud jumped up and ran towards Barret, but Zach grabbed him just before he could strike the older man.

"She's our friend, you bastard!" Cloud spat out. "Because of your crazy, personal war against the Empire, they think she's a traitor!"

Despite her distrust for the two soldiers, Jessie instantly shot a look to Barret, whose face was filled with dread. "Boss, we have to - I mean, we can't just let some girl take the fall for what we've done!"

"I know, Jessie." Barret quietly said, shaking his head. "They'll execute her if they think she's involved with us."

"Oh, so now you care!" Cloud yelled as his eyes began to well up with tears of worry and hate. "So what? Going to go play hero now after pissing all over us for the same thing? You're a hypocrite!"

"Yeah, that's right." The Avalanche leader said evenly. "I don't care what you think of us, I ain't letting some girl get the axe for our actions. Are you two coming?"

"We don't have a choice in the matter." Zach said evenly. "They think we're with you, so we can't reason with them, and I'm not about to just let Tifa die."

"I guess you got your wish." Cloud hissed as he jerked his arm free of Zach's hold and glared at Barret. "Now we're going against the Empire too."

Dawn had come by the time Avalanche and the unfortunate soldiers with them arrived near the Sector Seven Prison Complex. Red and pink hues cast down through the clouds above to create a beautiful display in the sky over the capital of the Holy Shinra Empire. They had left Wedge with a transport a few blocks away just in case they needed a fast getaway when they came back. With the exception of Zach, the rest of them now stood behind a dumpster, surveying the complex. Unlike Branch Seven, this was a military installation, and that meant Cloud and Zach were the experts here. During their time in Special Ops, they'd learned how to sneak into criminal hideouts and take down every person there without being seen. Granted, they'd never tackled something quite as large as this, especially not with highly trained Imperial soldiers inside, but with the knowledge that Tifa was being held here, they viewed it as just one more problem to take care of.

Barret had agreed to let them lead for now, so Cloud found himself crouching ahead of the rest; his eyes darting across the building as he awaited his cue. A glimmer of light caught in the corner of his eye and he turned his head to see Zach flashing a small mirror at him from several hundred feet away.

"Zach's finished checking out the possible entrances." He said as he recognized the signals pattern and pointed to a door guarded by two soldiers near the rear of the facility, "We're going with that one, it opens up into the laundry room. There shouldn't be many soldiers stationed in there at this time of day."

"Well what about the ones standing outside, how are we supposed to get past them?" Barret asked.

Cloud looked over his shoulder, annoyance plastered on his face. "That's easy."

Without explaining what he meant, he lowered his head and placed his hands overtop one another. With his eyes closed, the glowing from behind his lids increased as he quietly muttered, "All light, fall into darkness."

Finishing the incantation, Cloud thrust his hands forward, palms out towards the two guards outside of the laundry room; though nothing could be seen, the guards all seemed to jump to attention a moment later as if they'd been struck by something. Grey magic was an offshoot of white, so he was able to use a few of its spells. Normally, he would have a sense of pride at managing to get one to cast so well, but he wasn't very thrilled about assaulting Imperial soldiers. Looking back to where Zach had been, Cloud spotted him racing across the prison grounds, not even trying to hide behind anything as he headed straight towards the two guards.

"What is he doing!" Jessie gasped. "He's gone nuts!"

"No, he hasn't." Biggs said as he realized what Cloud had done a moment earlier.

As they all watched, Zach ran right up in front of the guards, neither of whom seemed to notice him at all. All it took was a few well placed punches and smacks from the flat of his Buster Sword, and the two guards were lying in an unconscious heap. Zach bent down to remove a key from one of their pockets and signaled the others as he unlocked the door.

"Brilliant," Biggs said, obviously impressed.

Unresponsive, Cloud darted out from behind their cover and towards his friend; Avalanche quickly followed as Jessie tried to figure out what she'd just seen. "What did they do, Biggs?"

"Blind." Biggs said as they raced towards the laundry room door. "When cast correctly, it stops your opponents from seeing any approaching threats for a few moments."

"Zach was invisible to them?" Jessie questioned.

"Basically, yeah." Biggs looked to Cloud as they ran, thoughts racing through his head. "But it takes a lot of skill to get it to hit more than one person at a time."

Cloud ignored their chattering as he made it to where Zach stood by the door, and immediately began chanting another spell. This time, as he finished, he placed his hands on the doors and remained quiet for several seconds as he sensed the room beyond. When he broke contact, he shook his head, "No one inside right now, it's clear."

Without hesitation, Zach threw the doors open as Cloud grabbed the two unconscious guards and drug them inside. After Avalanche followed them, they shut the doors and quickly used some spare prison clothes laying in the laundry bins to tie the guards up, gag them, and then toss them into a closet for safe keeping.

"Now what?" Barret asked as he looked around the room, grateful that it was too early for anyone to be washing clothes, even in a prison.

Quickly running to a windowed door at the east of the room, Cloud peeked outside of it, and nodded as he saw exactly what he was hoping for. "Looks like this place follows standard Imperial prison layouts."

Catching on to what his friend was thinking, Zach ran up along side of him. "First level control room?"

Cloud nodded, "I can barely see it from here. Seems to be two guards outside of it, and probably two more inside, but they shouldn't be a problem. There's bound to be more down the connecting hall, but we should be able to block their access without much trouble."

"What are you planning?" Barret questioned as he walked over to join them.

"There are too many soldiers in this complex for us to make it to the third floor where the interrogation and execution chambers are without being caught." Looking back at the Avalanche leader, Cloud's eyes narrowed with determination. "But since I don't plan on being killed today, we're going to start a little distraction that should get all of the soldiers here out of our way."

On the third floor of the Sector Seven Prison Complex, two Turks agents strutted down the dimly lit hallways, passing the cellblocks of those who had been condemned to death. Marx walked with a cocky swagger past the doomed souls of the prisoners. Tobias, a tall and bulky individual with a hardened face and brown hair braided into a tail that hung down from the back, sneered at the soon to be executed. Both of them wore their blue suits; if it wasn't for their deadly demeanors, they could easily be confused for businessmen in such clothing. As they came to a stop at one of the cells, Marx motioned his head towards the lock. Taking his cue, Tobias tapped a code in on a panel next to the cell and the bars slid open. Stepping inside, Marx smirked at the young girl who wore a plain grey prison uniform and was sitting on the floor, barely managing to hug her knees to her chest thanks to the shackles on her wrists.

The professional tone that he'd used when they had first arrested Miss Lockheart had been dropped by now; after all, they weren't in public anymore and there was no longer any point in acting as if he didn't enjoy this. "Aww, would you look at that. Poor thing looks like she's going to cry. What's wrong? Still depressed because your friends left you to die? They must really care about you, huh?"

Tifa didn't respond to the demoralizing comment, her spirits were already too low for it to have any further effect. When the Turks had first brought her here, she'd cooperated with them as best she could out of respect for the fact that they were agents of the Holy Shinra Empire, but she had quickly learned that they weren't the noble protectors that she'd been led to believe. The Turks had seemed convinced that she knew more than she had let on, and so it hadn't been long before their simple questioning had taken a horrible turn. Unable to pry any useful information out of her through words alone, they had decided to attack her on a personal level.

They'd shown her evidence that Cloud and Zach were traitors with images taken by a caster within the building that had been destroyed. Using her shock over the pictures as a spring board, the Turks had slowly pushed her into accepting the horrifying truth; Cloud and Zach were terrorists working with Avalanche. They'd forced her to consider the possibility that everything she had known about her two friends could be a lie. To top it all off, they had pointed to the fact that her so called friends had left her here to take the fall for their crimes. While Tifa didn't know exactly how much of it was true, the seemingly undeniable fact that her friends were hiding many terrible things from her had broken her spirit.

Knowing that they'd broken her heart with that volley of information, the Turks had questioned her again, but she was unable to answer them because she didn't know anything. Unconvinced, the Turks then resorted to more physical tactics. Tifa had been threatened and beaten off and on for nearly an hour before they had finally given up. She could have stopped them. She wasn't as frail as she looked, but she hadn't lifted a finger in opposition. Not only was everything she cared for gone, but the Turks treatment of her had been a brutal display of the dark side of the Empire she had never known existed. Furious at her silence, the Turks had sentenced her to death, but even now she couldn't find the will to resist them; she had nothing left to live for, death would be a welcome escape from this terrible nightmare.

"Think we hit her too hard earlier?" Tobias wondered out loud. "She's being quiet."

"Maybe," Marx laughed, a vile and uncaring sound. "We did knock her around pretty good."

Crouching down, Marx looked her over as a filthy grin crossed his face. "But I bet I can get her to make some noise."

Lifting one brow, Tobias shoved his hands in his pockets and leaned against the cell's bars. "Oh, yeah? How's that?"

"Well, you know." Marx chuckled. "It just seems to me that it's an awful waste to kill something this nice looking without ever giving it a test ride."

As his partner snickered, Marx leaned in a little closer, placed his right hand on Tifa's chin, and lifted her head up. "What do you think, huh? How about offering yourself up as a gift to a couple loyal followers of Rufus?"

Disgusted, Tifa jerked her head away from his hand and spit at his left eye without saying a word. Reeling back in anger as he wiped at his face and glasses, Marx kicked her in the ribs. Tifa was sent tumbling onto her side, where she lay there, coughing.

"----ing -----!" Marx cursed at her. "No one treats a Turk that way!"

Without even needing to exchange words, the two Turks both approached her with vicious intentions. Tobias reached down and grabbed her hair, pulling her up and throwing her against her cot. Tifa didn't resist as he pushed her face and chest into the mattress and held her down with her rear end and legs hanging off the side. None of it mattered anymore.

Still furious, Marx grabbed at her pants and was about to pull them down when he heard footsteps rapidly approaching. Not wanting a common, unknowing soldier to see their cruel and very unholy nature, they both backed off as Tobias tossed her again, this time sending her against one of the cell walls as they both turned in time to see one of the guards screech to a halt outside of the open bars.

"Sirs!" the guard gasped, his voice breaking between pants as he tried to catch his breath. "We have a big problem! All the cell blocks on level one have unlocked, prisoners are running rampant everywhere!"

"What!" Marx exclaimed. "How the hell did that happen?"

"A small group infiltrated the compound, sirs! We spotted them heading towards the first level control room, but they destroyed the hallways supports to stop us from following them. No one in the control room is responding to our calls, the intruders must have taken them out. All the guards in the complex are heading to the first level now to try and fight down the riot and locate the attackers, but we've already lost two men in the initial outburst!"

"Did you see them?" Marx asked as his expression darkened. "What did they look like?"

"I only saw one, sir, a blond haired man dressed in an Imperial uniform, but there were several others."

"It's gotta be them," Marx muttered. "Bran and Strife were in Special Ops, and it'd take that kind of skill to get that far into the compound before anyone caught on."

"They're coming for her." Tobias said as he looked to Tifa, who was now sitting up from the crumpled heap she'd been laying in.

Tifa couldn't believe her ears. After all the Turks had said she'd been nearly convinced that Cloud and Zach didn't really care about her, but now they were here to rescue her. Confusion crossed her bruised but still delicate features. Did this mean that the other things that the Turks had told her of were lies as well? In a burst, all the emotions that the Turks had crushed out of her came bubbling to the surface and she wanted out. As long as Cloud and Zach still cared about her then it didn't matter if they'd done something wrong. She had to escape so she could see them, and she wanted revenge on Marx and Tobias for all they'd done to her.

"Better get going," Tifa growled at them. "Your little guards won't even slow them down."

Marx shot her an evil glare and then yelled at the guard. "Take her to the execution chamber and see to it that she's good and dead by the time we get back up here! We'll take care of the intruders!"

The guard saluted as the two Turks ran past him and down the hall, the click of their shoes fading into silence as they went down the stairs to the second level. Turning towards Tifa, the guard approached her and pulled her to her feet, but with that spark renewed she wasn't going to cooperate any more. He began to drag her out of the cell and towards the execution chamber, but she jerked back and twisted her shackled hands free of his grip. Wrapping her fingers around his arm as he spun around to strike her, Tifa snapped the bone of his wrist in two. Crying out in shock and pain, but knowing that he had to fight back, the guard quickly reached for a dagger on his belt. Before he could make it, Tifa spun around, her leg lifting into the air and her foot crashed into the side of his neck, sending him spinning and smashing into the bars of the cell. Darting up behind him, she tossed the chain of her shackles around his neck and pulled back hard. Gasping, the man clawed at the metal with his good hand, but was unable to break her grip.

"I'm a master of five different martial arts styles," Tifa hissed into his ear. "Stop struggling or I'll give you a very painful lesson on how many bones are in the human body."

"Good." She said angrily as the guard instantly ceased his resistance. "Now pull those keys off of your belt and take these things off my hands. Be quick about it, I have some Turks to catch up to."

The hallway they'd destroyed had cut the level one control room off from the rest of the compound, so after releasing the locks on the prisoner's cells, Cloud, Zach, and Avalanche had waited to give the chaos time to escalate. After a few minutes, they stepped over the unconscious bodies of the rooms guards and slipped into a ventilation duct at the top of the room. Following maps of Imperial prison layouts that they'd memorized long ago in Special Ops, Cloud and Zach led them all through air system, safe from the riot that had begun and the guards who were racing around trying to contain it all. By the time they'd made it to the second level of the complex and dropped down to the floor, it was completely desolate. All the guards had gone to help with the riot on the first floor, and the prison cells on this level were in another section. With no one to contest them, they quickly made their way across level two and were nearing the stairway that led to the third level where they assumed Tifa was being held. Cloud brought them to a stop and carefully peered around the corner that took them to the single set of stairs leading up, bringing his head back behind the wall for cover as a magic round barely missed his face.

"A Turk!" Zach growled, knowing that things just got much more complicated.

"Two of them, actually." Cloud said in an agitated tone. "I barely got a glimpse of them."

Barret shook his head, "There are more of us, we can take them."

"Not without getting shot as soon as we go around that corner, we can't." Cloud grunted. "Turks are hand picked for reason. They're good."

"Cloud Strife!" Came the voice of Marx from around the corner, recognizing the young soldier even though he'd only seen his face briefly. "Step around the corner with your hands in the air!"

"Not likely!" Cloud shouted back at them. "I'd rather not be shot!"

"You have been charged with treason against the Holy Shinra Empire!" Tobias yelled. "Surrender yourself immediately!"

"Look, there's been a big misunderstanding!" Zach yelled back. "We didn't help Avalanche destroy that center! We were in there trying to stop them!"

"Man, I don't think they're going to believe you when we're with you." Biggs said.

"Quiet," Zach whispered harshly.

From around the corner, they could hear the two Turks laughing.

"What difference does that make?" Marx said.

"What are you talking about?" Cloud yelled.

"It doesn't matter if you're with Avalanche or not! We can't just let you live after all you've seen, now can we? Sorry kid, but you're screwed regardless."

"No." Cloud grimaced, the Turk's words stinging like a knife in his chest. Did this mean that everything Barret had said was true?

"I told you," the Avalanche leader said. "They can't let you live now that you've seen the truth!"

Shaking his head, not caring about any of that at the moment, Zach yelled out to the Turks. "You have Tifa Lockheart here! She doesn't know about any of this, she's not with Avalanche, and she hasn't seen anything! Let her go, she's innocent!"

"We already know that, idiot." Marx scoffed. "Nobody could have kept quiet after all we did unless they really don't know anything!"

Lips curling in a sudden an overwhelming anger, Cloud shouted back at them with fury in his voice. "What the hell did you do to Tifa!"

"What didn't we do to her?" Marx cackled as he did his best to infuriate them further. "We were about to ---- the little -----, but you had to bust in and interrupt our fun!"

That was the last straw. The strange glow in Cloud's eyes increased rapidly as a blind rage overtook him. He knew that attacking them was suicide. The Turks would shoot him dead before he could get to them, but he didn't care; no one touched Tifa like that, no one. With a yell, Cloud bolted around the corner, bringing his sword back up over his shoulder to chop the heads off of the filthy Turks who'd tried to rape his friend. For an instance time seemed to slow down, he saw the two Turks clearly for the first time as they seemed to slowly bring their guns up towards him. Yelling something at him, Zach jumped from behind the cover of the corner, grabbed his arm, and threw him back to where the others were standing. Cloud's back crashed into Barret, who caught him as best he could under the circumstances. With fear in his eyes, Cloud watched as Zach started to jump back to them, but stopped in midair as his upper chest exploded in three places, blood sprayed as Zach's shirt caught fire from the explosive magic rounds and began to burn off. Cloud screamed something at his friend as his body hit the ground hard and rolled twice, putting the fire out as a puddle of blood slowly began to build around his body.

Time returned to normal as Cloud stared in absolute horror at Zach's fallen, motionless body not more than three feet away. Trembling uncontrollably, Cloud cried out, a wordless shout of anger and pain as he rose to his feet and readied his sword to rush around the corner again, but this time Barret saw it coming and grabbed him to hold him back.

Marx began laughing as if he'd just witnessed something incredibly funny. He twirled his gun once and aimed at Zach again, this time for his head. Just as he began to pull the trigger, there was a sound from behind him and a booted foot crashed into the back of his head. Marx's glasses flew off and shattered against the wall as he went tumbling forward, slamming hard into the ground and skidding past the corner, stopping just inches away from Cloud's foot. Without questioning what had happened, Cloud raised his broadsword back and slammed it down onto Marx's head, there was a sickening sound of splitting flesh and skull as the blade sliced and crushed through until it hit the metal floor.

Eyes going wide in astonishment as he watched his partner's head be cleaved in two, Tobias whirled around, raising his gun to kill whoever had caused this to happen. He had no chance to get a shot off, in fact, he barely even managed to realize that it was the prisoner, Tifa, before she sent three lightning fast jabs into his face. The third blow had her palm crash hard into his nose, snapping it and pushing it up and back until his brain was punctured by the shattered bones. Tobias slumped to the ground, lifeless, as Tifa ran past him and fell to her knees, sliding several feet to Zach's side.

As she came into sight, Cloud nearly killed her as well, thinking she was the other Turk, but stopped himself as he realized who she was. Without questioning how she had escaped, or how the battered looking girl was doing, he dropped down to the ground next to her as she lifted Zach's head up in her hands.

"Zach!" Cloud gasped, his voice breaking as he looked over his friends wounds; the explosive rounds had torn and burned his chest into a mangled mess. Centering his hands over the injuries, Cloud began to cast a curative spell as fast as he could. "Hang on, Zach!"

"Cloud," Zach barely managed to choke out as he raised a shaking hand to grasp at his friends wrist, his grip strong despite his condition. "Cloud!"

Trying his best to concentrate on the healing spell that wasn't working nearly fast enough while responding, Cloud attempted to blink away the tears forming in his eyes. "I'm here, Zach!"

"Can't see." The black haired soldier wheezed. "Leave me…gotta get Tifa."

Tears streaming down her cheeks, making her already dirtied face worse, Tifa hugged Zach's head to her chest. "It's me Zach, it's Tifa! I'm okay! Just hold on!"

"Tifa." Zach coughed, his voice sounding weaker. "So glad you're okay. Thought we were going to lose you."

"I'm fine, Zach!" Tifa wept. "You're not going to lose me!"

Blood sputtered from his lips as he coughed again and took a sudden, deep breath. His grip on Cloud's wrist tightened as his face contorted with pain, "Cloud! Cloud, don't let it-!"

Unable to contain his own tears any longer, Cloud's concentration broke as he looked to his friends face, not understanding what Zach was talking about.

"Don't let this waste." He quietly whispered. "Make it right."

A deep breath left Zach's mouth, and he didn't inhale again. His body went limp in Tifa's arms, his eyes staring blindly at the ceiling. Tifa dropped her head down, her cheek touching his as she wept bitterly. Squeezing his eyes shut and crying silently, Cloud leaned over and wrapped his arms around Tifa's shaking shoulders as her tears fell down onto the body of their friend.

The others had been gone for nearly two hours, and Wedge was becoming increasingly concerned. Sighing, he shifted his weight in the seat of their flatbed, light blue truck. He looked to the mirrors to watch the streets behind him and towards the prison complex for signs of movement. His eyes went alert as he heard a growling, rumbling sound, but relaxed as he realized that it was just his overly large stomach informing him that he was hungry. After another glance in the mirror, he leaned over and pulled a cream filled pastry out of a box on the passenger side seat and began stuffing it in his mouth. As he sat back up and looked into the mirror again, he jumped and dropped the food on his lap; everyone was running around a corner towards him. Reaching over and hitting the ignition switch, the materia powered engine roared to life as he watched them approach, noticing that there was another girl with them now, presumably Tifa. Wedge didn't see Zach with them, and he feared the worst as he saw that Barret was carrying something large wrapped in grey clothing over his shoulder.

Jessie and Biggs reached the truck first and jumped into the open back. Jessie motioned for Tifa to hop in the front with Wedge as she and Biggs helped Barret and his bundle into the back with them. Cloud was the last; for some reason he was carrying two swords, one of which he tossed in the back with the others. Just then, a loud roaring sound ripped through the air and a Shinra soldier swerved around the corner after them, sitting on a materia engine two wheeler. Rounding the corner had shaved off too much of the soldiers speed and maneuverability, giving Cloud just enough time to swing his sword high as the biker passed him. The rider went flying, blood splattering through the air as his motorcycle tipped over and sent sparks flying as it slid to a halt.

"Go!" Cloud yelled at them as he ran towards the downed cycle and stood it back up. Barret pounded his fist on the side of their truck twice and Wedge slammed his foot on the materia pedal, the rubber wheels peeling out as they took off, leaving black lines behind them. Cloud hopped onto the cycle and kicked its ignition on. His hand pulled on the lever to release materia power into the motor, and then roared to a start after them just as five more Shinra riders swerved around the corner behind him and lay chase.

Personal materia powered vehicles like these were a fairly expensive invention and not many people in the city could afford or steal one, so there was little in their way as they rocketed down the road. They gained speed, but their pursuers were lighter and faster and were catching up. Cloud looked over his shoulder and clenched his teeth as he decided to do something insane. Easing the brake, he caused his cycle to drop in speed and let the first two of the riders zoom past him. As soon as they were by, he squeezed the accelerator to its limit and he quickly came up along side of the rider closest to Avalanche's truck. Balancing himself as best he could, Cloud held onto the accelerator while bringing his sword up with his other hand and swung it hard at the Shinra rider. His dangerous gamble paid off well as he managed to stay on his cycle as his sword slashed hard across the soldier's chest, causing the rider to fall backwards and lose control. Cloud pulled away and raced forward again, the wind whipping through his hair as the out of control cycle behind him swerved and skidded over the pavement, slamming into the rider behind it as it went down. Cloud looked over his shoulder just in time to see the two bikes erupt in a fiery explosion that sent scraps of metal flying, one of them puncturing another rider's chest, causing him to topple off of his cycle which veered off course and crashed into a storefront.

The remaining two Shinra riders accelerated further and made sure to stay clear of Cloud as they started to go up along the left side of the truck. Seeing that they were in danger, Jessie reached to her belt and pulled a small grenade from it that was hurled at the two cycles. The grenade hit the road between the two of them and exploded hard, sending one cycle and its owner flying and burning. Undeterred, the last rider lifted a hand and cast a magical ball of fire at them which struck the side of their truck and caused them to swerve badly, but Wedge managed to keep them from wrecking.

Eyeing the final pursuer, Tifa pulled herself up and out of the window on her door. Sitting her rear down on the door, she held onto the inside of the truck with one hand and aimed her other at the soldier.

"Time, rest and give your kindness to the worthy!" As the rushing wind blew her long hair in every possible direction, the air between her and the rider rippled strangely; a purple field of energy encircled the cycle and it abruptly slowed to half its previous speed. Unaffected by the slow spell, the rider continued to go just as fast as he had been and was sent flying forward where he smashed bloodily into the pavement, his body flipping several times before coming to a broken and twisted stop.

Free from immediate danger, Cloud pulled up alongside of the truck and yelled to Barret. "Me and Tifa need to get out of Midgar!"

Although he didn't know what the young but skilled soldier was planning, Barret nodded and shouted back. "I know a back street that'll get us out without going through any of the main gates! We should be able to make it out and away before the army has time to mobilize and lock the city down!"

"Then let's go for it!" Cloud slowed a little and let Wedge pull ahead of him to lead the way. They rushed down the empty streets of Sector Seven, leaving the wreckage of their former lives in their wake as they headed into an uncertain future.

As the crescent of the moon began to rise in the sky over the Midgar region, the small group of outlaws stood on a rocky cliff overlooking the lights of the city behind them. A flicker of fire could be seen even at this distance, from the ruins of Branch Seven of the Magic and Technology Research Division where this nightmare had begun less than a day ago still burned. They all watched with mixed feelings and emotions as Cloud drove his sword into the ground above where they had buried Zach's body. Walking to the back of Avalanche's truck to where he'd tossed Zach's Buster Sword earlier, he pulled it out and slid it into the sheath on his belt; he had decided to take it with him as a reminder of the friend who'd given up his life to save him.

Behind him, Tifa sniffled as she stepped up and hugged Cloud's arm. They hadn't thought much about it since it first happened; everything had been going so fast that it just didn't seem real. Their mourning would have to wait until this chaos settled and they had time to come to terms with his death. Cloud wrapped an arm around Tifa's shoulders and squeezed her to him as they turned away from Zach's grave and looked to the four members of Avalanche, who had remained quiet throughout the entire ordeal.

"I'm sorry, Barret." Cloud said, the pride that had once been in his voice gone. What he had seen and heard in the complex, and what Tifa had told him about her imprisonment had wiped that from him. "You were right, and I didn't believe you."

"It's not your fault," Jessie spoke up, the stuck up tone she'd used with him up until now no longer present. "It's not something that's easy to accept. We all had to live through it before we believed."

"But," Cloud looked down, his brows furrowing in pain. "If I'd just believed, maybe Zach wouldn't have died. If I had accepted it sooner, I might not have lost my cool, and he'd still be here."

"You can't blame yourself, Cloud." Barret said, knowing all too well what he was going through. "It's not your fault. It's Shinra's. It's the Empires lies and evil agents that's caused all of this."

Tifa's arms slid around Cloud's chest and she hugged him tighter as the young man failed to respond.

"What are you planning to do?" Biggs asked.

Looking up as he sniffed and rubbed at his nose, Cloud shook his head. "We can't stay here. I don't want to be in that city anymore. I want to go find the Emperor."

Confusion crossed Jessie's features as her head shook, "But, why?"

"Zach told me to make it right, even if that's impossible, I have to try to honor that. I'll find the Emperor, and talk to him about it."

"You're not going to like what you hear." Biggs said quietly.

"Maybe not, but-" Cloud hesitated for a moment, but decided that he may as well say what he felt. "But, I just can't accept that Rufus is a part of all of this. I mean, I've seen him, I've heard him speak. He's not like this. They must have found a way to do all this without him knowing."

Avalanche didn't respond, but it was clear that Cloud's decision didn't sit well with any of them.

Cloud sighed and dropped his head, "Even if I'm wrong, I have to talk to Rufus and find out for myself. I can't believe he's the one doing this until I see it with my own eyes. After I hear his side of it all, well, I'll figure something out."

"If that's what you gotta do, then that's what you gotta do." Barret said quietly. "But, it's not going to be easy. You're wanted now. Local authorities, mercenaries, the Army, the Turks, everyone will be after you."

"I know." Cloud breathed. "But it's something I have to do."

Turning to Tifa, Cloud placed his hands on her shoulders. "This is my decision; you don't have to come if you don't want to."

Tifa shook her head, the sorrow in her eyes turning to bitter determination. "No, you and Zach were the closest things I had to family. You're all I have left, Cloud. I don't have anywhere else to go, but with you."

A sad smile crossed his lips as he hugged her to him again, and then turned back to Barret. "Rufus started in Kalm, but he'll probably be gone by the time we could get there. I know he's eventually visiting the Frozen North, and since he'll be stopping at other cities on the way there, he probably won't be using an airship. Chances are he'll be boarding a boat at Junon. We'll go there and watch for him."

"You won't make it on your own." Barret said. "You're a great fighter, but even all your Special Ops training hasn't prepared you for being hunted by everyone. You'll need some one with you who knows how to travel and survive under these conditions."

Taking a deep breath, Barret turned and looked towards Jessie, whose eyes went wide as she realized what he was going to say before he could.

"Boss, I can't go. You need me here, this is what I do."

Barret shook his head, "You're the only one who can, Jessie. You know I can't leave the city, and we need Biggs here for his contacts. And Wedge, well, he's just not in the right condition to be traveling like that."

He looked to the aforementioned soldier apologetically, but the chubby man just shrugged, uncaring; he knew it was true.

"We've already got a room full of bombs and explosives you made for us, we can manage for a while without you. They need your help more than we do." Barret looked her directly in the eyes, "Just like you needed my help back then."

Jessie's shoulders slumped; she didn't want to go, but she knew better than to argue with Barret, especially after he pulled that particular card on her.

"She doesn't have to," Tifa said, not wanting to split the group of friends up. "I'm sure we can make it on our own."

"No," Jessie said as she took a deep, determined breath. "Barret's right. I've gotten good at strutting around places where everyone and their mothers want me dead. You could use my help."

Cloud nodded to her, feeling bad for how much he'd distrusted the strong willed young girl before. Looking back to Barret and the others he asked, "What about you guys?"

"Plenty more Shinra monster farms to blow up." Biggs said in a matter-of-fact manner.

"Yeah," Barret agreed. "Besides, we have other things we have to do in good ol' Midgar. Don't worry about us, we've been doing this for years now without being caught, we know how to get around."

"I don't doubt that at all," Cloud said.

"Here, Jessie." Barret said as he dug into one of his pockets and pulled out a good sized bag that jingled with the sound of gil, the currency of the Holy Shinra Empire.

Jessie took the money from her boss, and then hugged the large man tightly. That act initiated a series of brief good byes between the two groups, and then Jessie, Cloud, and Tifa left, heading west. As they watched them walk away, Biggs stepped up next to Barret.

"You didn't tell them everything."

"No."

"Why not?"

"It's too much for them to take in, especially the boy." Barret reached over and rubbed at his gloved right arm again.

"We all noticed the glow in his eyes." Biggs said quietly as he watched his boss's action. "And I probably don't have to ask, but you recognized their accents too, right?"

"Inner continent." Barret nodded as he looked over his shoulder and watched Wedge get in the truck and start it back up. "He said he'd been in the army for five years."

"So he's been in the army long enough, he's from that region, and his eyes glow." Biggs shook his head in disbelief. "I guess that's the real reason you sent Jessie with them, huh?"

"That was part of it, but I would have helped anyway. I know what it's like to have everything stolen from you."

"Yeah." Biggs couldn't help but laugh. "I still can't believe he's the one we've been waiting for all this time."

"We can't know that for certain, but it'd be an awful lot of coincidences if he wasn't. I feel bad for the kid." Barret solemnly said as he looked down to the grave at their feet. "He's about to learn a lot of things he doesn't want to know."

"Don't you think-" Biggs hesitated, trying to find the words to voice the concern growing inside of him. "It's just; how we ran into him seemed too coincidental, didn't it? Or am I just being paranoid?"

"No," Barret said, his lips thinning into a hard frown. "You're right. Rufus leaves, giving us the opportunity to attack Branch Seven, and then we just happen to find this Cloud guy while we're there."

"The security at the facility was totally lax, too." Biggs noted. "We only saw those two guards the entire time; the place should have been crawling. Plus, the Turks took their sweet time getting there."

"You noticed too, huh?" Barret asked, but he didn't sound all that surprised. "It was all too easy. All of it."

"What does it mean?"

"It means," Barret sighed. "Some one set this up, and I don't think it was Reeves, he doesn't have access to the military or the science division."

"Maybe he managed to pull a few strings?"

"I don't think so. This was too well laid out for him alone." Barret frowned. "He's working with some one, and I'm betting it's not anyone we know."

"So we have a new player on the field." Biggs said as he watched the three figures that were now growing distant. "We better lay low for a while until we figure out what's going on."

Standing in a tall windowed office on one of the highest floors of Shinra Imperial Government Tower at the center of the city, Reeves looked down over Sector Seven and the still burning ruins of the facility that Avalanche had destroyed. After a moment of silence, a second figure stepped up to the windows next to him and joined him in his gaze. The man's skin was rather pale, as were his pastel blue eyes. His hair was cropped short and toned black with an odd tinge of blue to it. He wore a blue Imperial Army officer's uniform with white tassels on the shoulders. The chest of his uniform was littered with medals and badges, signifying the many accomplishments he'd attained in his life, highlighted by the studs on his collar that marked him as Lieutenant General.

"It's done, Zahn." Reeves said, pointing out the painfully obvious.

"So it is." Zahn responded with a calm voice. Though he didn't look to be over thirty-five, a single glance at his face told that he had enough experience for twice that age. Under normal circumstances the two of them would never meet in a public place, especially not here in the tower, but with Rufus currently away it was simple to go unnoticed.

"Did everything go as you planned?"

"Yes." The man answered, a small smile coming to his face. "Cloud Strife is now aware that something is wrong within the Empire."

"I still think you're taking an awful risk." Reeves said, nervously scratching at his chin. "Now that he's left the city, there's no way you can control what happens."

"I don't need to." Zahn said with confidence. "Cloud has worked under me in Special Operations for years now, I know him well. He will undoubtedly seek out Rufus to learn the truth. I imagine he'll catch up to the Emperor in Junon, and I'll see to it that he boards the ship to Costa Del Sol from there. So long as he isn't captured, he'll find the old General in the desert and then it's only a matter of time."

"I hope you're right." Reeves said, but he definitely had his doubts about all of this. "If this fails, we may never have a chance to get rid of Rufus again."

"Just leave everything to me." Zahn said. "And keep me informed of any information your contacts reveal."

Without another word Lieutenant General Zahn turned and walked out of the office, leaving Reeves alone in his thoughts. He continued to stare at the burning center that had now started it all and became lost in thought. Things had been set in motion this day that could not be undone, and when they completed, the world would be forever changed.