It took Vincent half an hour to come down from his Chaos rage. Cloud and Tifa sensibly hid behind a pile of rubble until he reverted to his normal state, and hashed out their plan of action. When the sounds of roaring and snarling had ceased, Cloud poked his head out from behind a junked truck and appraised the situation. Vincent was standing stock-still, looking confused, several of Midgar's unsavoury pests lying dead at his feet. "Over here," Cloud called. Vincent nodded at him and gestured for him and Tifa to come over.

As they walked towards him, Tifa murmured, "This wasn't really fair of me to ask, was it?"

"It was the only idea we came up with," Cloud responded quietly, "and it worked. I'm sure he doesn't resent you for it."

Still, Tifa's tone was apologetic when she said, "Vincent, that was too much to ask of you. I'm really sorry."

"Not at all," Vincent responded, brushing some dust off his sweater. "It was a good plan. I don't mind."

"Are you sure?"

Vincent waved away her apologies and put on his dark glasses. Cloud frowned. He knew Vincent did, in fact, mind quite a bit, that the shapeshifting had become painful for him lately. However, he kept quiet. You coward, he thought, you want them together because it makes things easier for you.

"Cloud?"

Tifa's voice broke into his thoughts. "Yeah, I'm listening, sorry," he said.

"I was just telling Vincent that you and I think we should split up," she said. "We all have a PHS, right?" The men nodded. "Okay, then. Are we good with this?"

"Who's going where?" Vincent asked.

"Well, we were thinking. We're only looking in Sector Six, right? So, there are three main areas people there could be living in: the Honeybee Inn area, the apartments above shops in Wall Market, and there are a few apartment buildings not too far from Don Corneo's old mansion." Tifa took a small map of Midgar out of the bag and pointed out the places in question.

"I know where it is, though," Vincent interjected. "Why can't we all go together?"

Cloud cleared his throat. 'There's…somewhere I'd like to visit," he said. Vincent looked at him in surprise, but Tifa slid her eyes away, looking slightly peeved. "The church in Sector Five where I first met Aerith," he explained to the older man. "I want to go back and see if it's still there."

"So, you and I can just go to Sector Six," Tifa responded, finishing his sentence. "Okay, Vin?"

"That makes sense, I suppose," Vincent said. "When shall we meet?"

"You call when you find what we're looking for," Cloud replied. "I won't be anywhere but her church."

"You seemed upset when he said he was going to Sector Five," Vincent remarked. He and Tifa were weaving their way amongst the vast piles of refuse that made up lower Midgar. It was not easy going; the damage done during Weapon's attack on the city had, of course, hit the lower levels worst, and Tifa was having a very hard time finding her way around. The only good thing about the devastation wracked upon Midgar was that the upper plates were damaged as well, letting precious sky become visible to the underlayers. Tifa remembered her late teens in Sector Seven, the street kids who had never seen sky in their lives- and probably never did. Fervently, she hoped that Midgar would continue to crumble, that the whole hideous place would disappear into the ground.

"I think 'upset' is a little strong," she replied, checking a mound of trash for signs of whatever had grabbed Cloud. So far, they hadn't seen anything, but she wasn't taking chances. "It's just that I know how Cloud felt about Aerith, and combined with us breaking things off, it was just insensitive of him to mention it."

They continued picking their way through the garbage. Neither said anything for a few minutes before Vincent said gently, "If I may be so bold, Tifa, it always seemed to me as if Aerith was more interested in Cloud than he was in her…and that he is insensitive in general."

Tifa stopped and stared at him. Indignant words bubbled up in her throat, but instead of defending Cloud's behaviour, she just turned away and continued walking. There was another long stretch of silence before she said, "Well, you've always been down on Cloud, Vin."

"I haven't."

"Yes, you have!" Tifa felt the blood rushing to her cheeks as she grabbed Vincent's arm, forcing him to stop and look at her. "Do you realize that every time I've complained to you about Cloud, you've turned it into an extreme?"

"I'm only going on what you have told me, you know," Vincent said calmly. "You only seemed to mention the negative parts of your relationship to me."

"Look, I'm sick of discussing Cloud altogether, okay?" The lights of Wall Market blazed about half a kilometre ahead. "You know, I don't tell you everything!"

Vincent didn't say anything in response. Miffed, Tifa sped up, trying to put a little distance between them. She wasn't angry at Vincent for his opinion so much as annoyed that her feelings about Cloud going to the church in Sector Five had apparently been so transparent. Tifa didn't know why discussing Cloud with Vincent irked her so much, but she was confused and tired, and not much in the mood for inward reflection.

Presently, Wall Market loomed in front of them. Tifa stopped for a minute to take inventory of what items she had brought- earlier, she had thrown in some simple Magic materia, but she couldn't quite find it. She was rummaging in the bag when she heard Vincent say, in his emotionless, flat voice, "So, the famous Wall Market outlasted everything."

"Greed's awfully hard to kill," Tifa responded, her head practically in the bag. "Vin, did you take the Fire materia? I can't find it."

He didn't respond, which Tifa took to be a "no." "Never thought I'd see this dump again," she continued.

Vincent's voice was low when he replied, "Me, neither." She looked at him. "I have not been here in nearly thirty years." His expression behind those dark glasses was unreadable, his tone as calm as always. "You know, there is not one thing that looks different to me."

"You okay?" Tifa asked.

"Fine, thank you." Vincent looked at her. She could see the sleazy glow of the neon signs reflected in the opaque glasses. "The question is, are you?"

Tifa looked away. "Yeah, I'm all right." She looked down at the ground, hands in the pocket of her shorts. "Hey, Vin, do you mind if we split up? I want a moment alone to think."

He didn't say anything for a few minutes. "I know exactly where the Poplar Building is, though."

"I know." Tifa kept her eyes on the ground. She heard Vincent sigh.

"All right," he finally said, "but stay in touch with me. The Poplar Building is west of here, near Midgar Food Court. I'll give you a five-minute head start. Is that acceptable?"

Now, she looked at him, and managed a smile. "Thanks for understanding, Vincent."

He gave no response, merely turned away to face the ruined façade of a pillar. Sensing her cue, Tifa walked away in the direction he had indicated.

No one ever would have known there had been any kind of disaster in Midgar, looking at the people in Wall Market. Innkeepers shouted at her, waving their arms in order to attract her attention. The various motley stalls still housed loud, red-faced matrons, bargaining madly with customers over the prices for weapons, clothing, materia. Even the Honey Bee Inn seemed to be up and running, despite the death of its owner at Wutai two years ago. Tifa averted her eyes from the garishly-painted girls, cooing and undulating at the passers-by.

She studied her map again. "West" was all Vincent had said, but she couldn't go much farther west than she already had. Maybe the building was one of those unique to Midgar architecture- not on a street per se, but attached to an unpleasant alleyway off a main road. With a slight feeling of trepidation, she flattened herself against the wall and inched over to the entrance to the nearest alley, the peeked into it cautiously. The rusting fire escapes dripped nasty water onto the piles of soggy trash, and Tifa saw a big rat run across it and into a dumpster, but it seemed otherwise deserted. She proceeded warily.

That alley led her to a mucky courtyard, lined with a row of burnt-out sheds. It looked like Weapon had hit this part particularly badly. Tifa took a look inside some of the ruins, but nothing useful turned up. She went back out and tried another side street. Besides the back doors to several seedy establishments, and the leering bouncers who manned them, it presented no difficulties. However, it also didn't present much in the way of evidence.

After half an hour of futile searching, Tifa was getting annoyed. She took the PHS out of her bag, but the weird metal constructs of lower Midgar made getting a signal quite difficult. "Shit," she muttered under her breath. Her eyes on the PHS's screen, Tifa ducked back into an alleyway and started making her way towards the main drag. The little device let out a confused-sounding bleep and started flashing, meaning Tifa was getting a call, but when she raised it to her ear and pressed the TALK button, nothing happened. "Hello? Hello? Vin? Cloud? Hey, can anyone hear me?"

Her focus on the PHS, Tifa didn't notice the slight rustling noises coming form behind her. "Hey, Cloud, if you can hear me, I'm lost, but I'm going back out to Wall Market," she yelled into the phone, probably louder than necessary.

Suddenly, the rustling became louder, and Tifa froze. She spun around, fists out—but no one was there. With her elbows out and fists still raised, Tifa turned a slow, careful circle, but didn't notice anything out of the ordinary.

After a few minutes of standing in the ready position, Tifa lowered her guard and focused her attention on the PHS again. The machine was still beeping and flickering at her. Tifa reached down with one hand to pick up her dropped bag, the other frantically punching buttons. 'Oh, come on, you stupid thing," she muttered, taking a few steps forward, "work, would you?"

All of a sudden, something crashed down in front of Tifa with a loud thump. Her head jerked up and the PHS clattered to the ground as she began bringing her fists into the ready position, but a long, thick, snakelike thing shot up from the ground and wrapped itself around her wrists. Before she got a chance to react, her ankles were similarly shackled. Tifa screamed for all she was worth, but the sound was absorbed by the thick brick walls around her. She brought her arms and legs together violently, hoping to shake the alien appendages, but they held her fast and slammed her against the ground, much like they had to Cloud. Tifa swiftly realized what was going to happen, but she simply couldn't break free as the tentacles sent her flying into a brick wall at top speed.

The air was thick and golden with sunlight. Cloud was kneeling in the ruined church, in the aisle between each row of shattered pews. Before him, the splintered floorboard gave way to a semicircle of pink and yellow flowers growing in lush abandon, their insistent, dense foliage pressing against the rotting wood of the floor. Cloud wondered if it was coincidence that the flowers bloomed in the dead centre of the church floor, under the jagged hole that he had left in the roof two years ago.

Before he reached the church, Cloud had thought of nothing but getting there, but now that he was inside…well, he was unsure about his insistence. In the back of his mind, he thought Aerith would be there, somehow…

"You'd know what to tell me about Tifa, if you were here," he murmured aloud. "How to be what she wants."

"Why don't you just ask her?"

Cloud opened his eyes. Aerith was sitting directly in front of him, so close that he would see the faint freckles on her cheeks.

"What is there to ask?"

Aerith floated up a few inches. Her smile was as warm, the mischief in her green eyes as vivid as ever. "Well, what she wants, silly!"

Cloud shook his head. "What if I don't want to be with Tifa?"

"You'll have to tell her yourself!" Aerith shook her head at him. "Jeez, Cloud, of all people, I never thought you'd be one to beat around the bush! She probably just wants you to tell her what you're looking for!"

Cloud opened his eyes and sat up with a jerk. The church was dark, silent except for the skittering of night creatures. How long have I been asleep? he wondered, hastily grabbing the PHS and flipping it open. Eight missed calls, all from Vincent. Fantastic.

When the older man picked up, Cloud was surprised to hear a note of panic in his normally level voice. "Cloud? Is Tifa with you?"

"What? No, I thought she was with you," Cloud said, getting to his feet. "Did you guys get separated?"

"She said she wanted to be alone for a while, so I gave her a five-minute head start," Vincent explained, the anxiety in his voice rising. "I didn't think she could get very far in such a short amount of time."

"Shit," Cloud swore under his breath. "Vincent, we've gotta find her! Where are you?"

"The Underplating," he responded. "It's a bar in Wall Market, next to the Honey Bee Inn. Are you still in Sector Five?"

"Yeah, I fell asleep…" Cloud frowned. "…I think."

"Tell me about it when you get here." With that, Vincent clicked off. Cloud punched in the number of Tifa's PHS unit, but she didn't pick up. Swearing again, Cloud unwrapped his sword and, sliding it into the back holster, ran off into the dank Midgar night.

"…there?"

Tifa moaned.

"Hey, she's making noises." Louder. "Can you hear me? Hello?"

Her head hurt. Tifa attempted to get up, but a stabbing jolt of pain from the back of her head stopped her, and she settled for making another strangled groan.

"Whoa, don't move." It was a woman's voice. "Stay down and keep your eyes closed. I'm gonna get you more ice, okay?"

Tifa heard a few rustling sounds, the tinny hum of a cheap refrigerator, some cracking noises- the woman, or whoever was in there with her, must have been chopping shards of ice off a block- and the quiet sound of something unlocking. Gently, her hand was grasped, and what felt like a plastic bag filled with ice placed into it. "Put that under your head and try to find a comfortable way to lie on it, all right?"

"Thank you," Tifa mumbled.

"I'm turning the lights down a little." The sound of footsteps moved from next to the bed next to what must have been a wall. "When it feels like a level that won't hurt your eyes, open them and tell me if you can see, okay?"

The light slowly began to dim. Tifa waited a few moments before cautiously cracking one lid. When no pain followed, she slowly opened her eyes and said, "Okay."

She was staring at a dingy, water-stained ceiling until a woman's head replaced it. "Can you see my face?"

"Yes."

The woman held up three fingers. "How many fingers?"

"Three."

"Well, you're not brain-damaged, at least." Her head moved out of Tifa's line of vision. "Think you can sit up now?"

Gingerly, Tifa raised her head a few inches, wincing at the resulting pain. She held her head like that until the discomfort it faded to a dull ache, painstakingly raised herself on her elbows, and then moved carefully to a sitting position. "What happened?" she asked, though she had a pretty good idea.

The woman had one of the most purely lovely faces Tifa had ever seen, though it was dirty and had a scrape on one cheek. High cheekbones, a short, straight nose, with full lips. Her eyes were lowered. The woman's hair was a long, tangled mane- deep red, with streaks of blonde. A true slum flower, Tifa thought, remembering Wedge's old term for the pretty girls of lower Midgar. "Looks like the Tentacles got you." The stranger's voice had a queer lilt to it, caressing of o's and a bit slurred. "They've become quite a problem lately. Good thing I have Restore material. You might not have made it, otherwise."

"Tentacles?" Tifa tried looking around and found that her neck worked, at least. The room was small, with walls badly in need of paint, but Tifa had seen far worse when she herself had lived in the slums. One wall was entirely taken up by grey lockers of various shapes and sizes; another boasted a rusty sink and rickety-looking stove, along with banged-up cupboards, the doors of which hung down crookedly. Aside from the bed Tifa herself lay on, the chair the woman sat it, and a door that must have led to a bathroom, the room had nothing else. Sad conditions, yes, but it was clean at least, if not particularly attractive.

"Not from Midgar, are you?" The woman crossed her arms and laughed bitterly. "Fucking things appeared two weeks ago. No one knows where they came from, or what caused them, but all of a sudden it isn't safe to walk around anymore." Hearing that, Tifa suddenly realized that, except for Wall Market, she hadn't seen anyone walking about, not the usual crush of people she associated with Midgar. "Only thing that seems to chase them off is a Mako light, but there's damn few of those now that Shinra's out of business." She paused and held out her hand. "I'm Keira Halyenne, by the way."

Tifa took her hand and shook it. "Tifa Lockheart…and thank you."

Keira shrugged, brushing a hank of her messy hair back over her shoulder. "I wouldn't normally bring a complete stranger back here, but I'm not gonna pretend I don't see some poor girl getting the shit kicked out of her by those things."

"It took me completely by surprise," Tifa admitted. "I was trying to answer a call from some friends I came to Midgar with, and I lost track of my surroundings. It was stupid of me."

The other woman stood up and walked over to the kitchen area. She was very tall, Tifa realized, watching her reach for a glass from one cupboard. "Not so stupid," she called back over her shoulder. "It's not like you knew, if you're not from here." Keira attached a small, white contraption to the mouth of the faucet and turned it on, filling the glass with water. "There isn't exactly any kind of press covering stories from here."

Keira walked back over and offered the glass to Tifa. Remembering the foulness of Midgar tap water, Tifa waved it away, but the taller woman shook her head. "It's filtered, I promise. Otherwise, I'd drink my own piss over this stuff."

Tifa took it and suspiciously took a sip, but the water was clear and cold and tasted good. She knocked her head and downed half the glass in one gulp. As she lowered it, she noticed a hint of a smile on Keira's face. "I used to live here," Tifa said.

"Yeah?"

"In Sector Seven."

"Hmm." Keira leaned back in the chair, her arms folded. "Wait, Tifa Lockheart…hey! Did you used to run a bar over there in Seven?"

"Seventh Heaven!" Tifa exclaimed. "That was my place, all right!"

"I went there once," Keira said, "back when I was in school."

"Oh, did you go to Shinra University?" Tifa asked.

The other woman looked to be on the verge of answering her, but a shadow passed over her face. "You could say that, I guess."

Tifa wanted to ask for clarification, but Keira had stood up and moved over to the far wall. "Hey, I found a bag near where you were getting thrashed." She turned to Tifa and held up the sack in question. "Is it yours?"

"Yeah!" Tifa exclaimed. "Thank you so much!" Keira brought it over to the bed and handed it to her. "There's a lot of rare stuff in here," Tifa explained, digging through the bag. She checked the secret compartment with the rare items- untouched- and rifled through the main parts. Everything seemed to be in place, except… "Hey, the materia's gone."

Keira stretched. "Sorry. Was it magic materia?"

Tifa nodded. "Basic stuff, none of it mastered. Odd that someone would take it over the X-Potions or the Turbo Ethers."

"I doubt anyone took it. The tentacles like to steal magic materia," Keira explained. "No one knows why, but it can't be good. They don't seem to want any other kind." She took Tifa's PHS out of her pocket. "Found this, too."

"Oh, thank you!" Tifa breathed, grabbing the PHS and staring at the screen rapturously. "It still works!"

"Better call your friends," Keira said. "I'll be outside, so you can have some privacy."

Tifa waited until the other woman had left the room, then punched in Cloud's number and raised the unit to her ear. Cloud answered midway through the first ring. "Tifa! Is that you? Are you okay? Where are you?"

"Yeah, it's me." Tifa put her hand to the back of her head and winced. "I'm okay. I think."

"What happened?"

"Those tentacle things that grabbed you on the way in," Tifa said, "they're apparently a huge problem here now. I was in Sector Six when they got me." She heard Cloud curse. "It's all right. My head's a bit sore, but I'm otherwise fine. A local woman found me and took me back to her place to recover."

"Holy and the Moon…" Cloud said. "Tifa, I was so worried—"

Tifa felt a rush of pleasure at the concern in his voice. "It's okay, Cloud. I promise you, I'm all right. Where are you and Vincent? Did you find the Poplar Building?"

"I'll explain all that to you when I see you," Cloud said, "We're in Sector Six right now, right outside Wall Market. Can we come get you?"

"I don't know where we are," Tifa said, "but I'll ask. One second." She swung her legs over the side of the bed and lurched ungracefully to her feet, the pain in her head a constant reminder to be careful. Tifa walked over to the door and quietly opened it. Keira was leaning against the wall, staring out at the Midgar darkness and chewing reflectively on a wad of gum. "Um, sorry, Keira, but can you tell me how to get to this place from Wall Market?"

The redhead turned to face Tifa. "Your friends trying to get here from there?" Tifa nodded. "It's better if they don't come this far into Six; Tentacles are more active at night. I can take you out, if you like…"

"Oh, that's not necessary—"

Keira fixed her with a particularly steely gaze. Although Tifa was not easily intimidated, the cold gaze of the other woman's dark grey eyes made the words die on her lips. "Tifa Lockheart," the older woman said, the calmness of her voice completely at odds with her vicious gaze, "I am correct?" Without waiting for an answer, she said, "If so, I want to meet your friends." She smiled then. "I have a few questions to ask your buddy Cloud Strife."