Chapter 1 : Many Meetings

The phone rang loudly in Tifa's quiet bar. Footsteps were heard dragging along the upstairs corridor and Tifa came into view at the top of the stairs. She came down the stairs and slouched over to the phone, rubbing her eyes and yawning. She picked up the phone and sat on one of the bar stools.

'Yeah' she said into the phone.

She listened for a moment and then said, ' Ok, let me talk to Cloud, I'll call you back in an hour.' She pulled out a notepad and a pen from the bar and wrote down a name and number on the page. She listened for a moment longer then said 'bye' and hung up.

She sat on the stool a moment longer looking at the pad and then got up. She walked up the stairs to Clouds room. She knocked on the door and called his name. A sleepy 'come in' was the response. She opened the door and entered the dim room.

'What's up Tifa?' said Cloud, who had sat up in bed. 'How come your up so early?'

Tifa walked over to the bed and sat down on the side.

'Didn't you hear the phone ringing?' she asked. He shook his head.

'Yeah that'd be right, it's lucky I heard it! It was the police ringing from Midgar.'

Clouds eyes widened questioningly but he didn't speak.

'Yeah, they wanted to know if we, AVALANCHE, could help them out with this case they have, apparently some guy is killing off young women there and they aren't having any luck in catching him.'

'So they want us to come and find him for them, right?' Cloud finished.

'Yep, that about sums it up.' Replied Tifa, grinning.

'It was bound to happen some time right. I mean; we did defeat Sephiroth and everything. What's a relatively small time serial killer compared to him right?' she laughed softly.

'Yeah,' said Cloud also laughing.

'So, shall we help out the Midgar PD?' Tifa asked.

'Sure, why not, we're not doing much at the moment, though we are going to have to ring everyone to see if they can come along too.' Cloud replied.

'Yeah we'd better do that next before I ring back Chief Lainer.'

Tifa grinned and hoped of the bed.

'I was starting to get a bit bored with this simple life, I think this little mission will stop that.' She said brightly.

'I'm going to get dressed and then I'll call Yuffie and Vincent and you can call Cid, Barrett and Red XIII. Ok?'

'Yeah, ok.' Cloud replied while climbing out of bed. 'I'll see you down stairs.'

Tifa nodded and walked out and went to her room. She got dressed quickly and then picked up her PHS. She called Yuffie first. It rang a few times before Yuffie picked up.

'Hello.' Yuffie sang into the phone.

'Hi Yuffie, it's Tifa.' Started Tifa. She then proceeded to tell Yuffie about the phone call earlier and asked her if she was interested.

'Yes!' Yuffie cried with glee. 'Action at last! Of course I'm coming! Besides this gives me and excuse to see all you guys again.' Smiling, Tifa finished the call. Then she called Vincent.

'Hello.' Vincent answered in his normal toneless voice.

'Hi Vincent,' Tifa replied cheerfully, and repeated what she had said to Yuffie, 'So are you in?' she asked.

There was silence on the other end of the line while Vincent was thinking.

'Ok.'

'Where are you?' Tifa asked.

'I'm in Wutai.'

'Wutai, what are you doing there?'

'I thought I would do some hiking.'

'Hiking?' Tifa blinked.

'…'

'Yes'

'Oh ok, yeah, hiking, ok.' Tifa stopped to regroup. Vincent hiking, she thought, now that's unexpected.

'Well were picking Yuffie up from near her place so you can get picked up with her, alright?'

'Ok.'

They both said bye and hung up. Tifa still had a slightly bemused look on her face. She exited her room and made her way down stairs. Cloud was sitting at one of the tables. He looked up when she came in.

'So are they in?' he asked.

'Yes, how about Cid, Barrett and Red XIII?'

'Yep, they're all coming.'

Just then Cait Sith bounced in the door.

'Hey, guys what going on?' he said.

'Well as it happens we were waiting for you to turn up.' Tifa raised and eyebrow, Cloud shrugged. 'Were heading on down to Midgar to help the Police catch a serial killer.'

'Cool!' Cait Sith exclaimed. 'I'm coming!'

'We thought you might.' Cloud said smiling.

0o0o0o0o

Chief Lainer looked up as the two detectives working on the Sword Slasher case walked in. The media had come up with that name in short order after it had leaked that all the victims had been killed with a sword. Most people tended to use guns now that they were so easy to get. There were still the few angry people that killed their wives or husbands with whatever happened to be nearby and of course the psycho's that big cities seemed to attract but most of the murders these days were deliberate murders or assassinations. Chief Lainer suspected that this killer was an assassin but you never knew. He could simply be a cold organised and meticulous killer who killed for his own reasons. This contributed to the frustration of the detectives and himself as well. They simply didn't have sufficient evidence. They had run out of leads a long time ago and the most recent murder of Kathy Heath finally pushed him into asking from help. AVALANCHE had to be good; after all they had defeated Sephiroth. Admittedly they had lost one of their number, the Cetra, Aeris, but that was only one member, and many could have been lost.

The two detectives working the case were Ben Gray and Chris Hollis. They were the best he had which is why they were on this case. But even the best need help sometimes. They walked to the only two chairs and sat down.

'Ok, boys, I have decided to call in AVALANCHE to help you out.' A grimace from both of them was their only response.

'Yeah, I know it bites but we need help.'

'We know chief, the quicker we catch this asshole the better.' Ben said, 'Right now we'll take all the help we can get, those guys aren't so bad, they won't act like were stupid anyway.'

0o0o0o

Yuffie was standing in the field just beyond her house. Vincent had to be here soon otherwise Cid would get here before him. She sat down on the ground only to leap up again as Vincent emerged from the trees or her right.

'Vinnie!' she cried gleefully and ran towards him, it was so good to see one of their friends, even if Vincent wasn't as friendly as the others. Yuffie decided that she would just have to be friendly for the both of them. When she was about a metre from him she launched herself at him, Vincent only had time to widen his eyes before Yuffie landed on him. He did the only thing he could and caught her. The breath whooshed out of Vincent's lungs from the impact and his breathing wasn't helped when Yuffie squeezed with her arms. Luckily she let go quickly and he released her. She dropped to the ground and grinned at him.

'It's soooo great to see you Vinnie.' She laughed when he winced at the nickname.

'Hello Yuffie.'

'That's all you can say to me after all this time, ok so it's not that long, but it feels like it's been ages and we've all been doing stuff, like I came back here to see my father and then we had a fight and so I've ended up spending most of my time at my house instead of visiting him, but anyway what have you been doing?'

She said all this as one sentence and Vincent could only stare at her for a moment. How could she say so much without breathing, how did she manage not to suffocate. He didn't think he had met anyone who talked as much as Yuffie did or who laughed as much. It was kind of scary, but in a nice way he decided. A nice way, what are you thinking, you never think things like that. I should know. Chaos interrupted. I can think what I like Vincent retorted.

Vincent blinked. Yuffie was jumping up and down in front of him waving her hands and shouting 'EARTH TO VINCENT'

'Sorry.' He said, 'I was thinking. It's good to see you are well Yuffie.'

Yuffie stopped and stared at him, her speechlessness didn't last long.

'Ohmygod, you said more than two words to me. Yes!' she laughed gleefully. 'But you still haven't answered my question. What have you been doing since I saw you last?'

'I have been hiking.'

'Whoa, cool, I love hiking. I didn't know you liked it though. If I'd known you were going I could have come too.' She said enthusiastically.

'…'

Just then Vincent noticed the Highwind approaching and pointed its presenceout to Yuffie. She promptly forgot what they had been talking about and started waving madly in the Highwind's direction. As soon as the Highwind landed Yuffie ran on board dragging a surprised Vincent by the hand.

'I thought you didn't like flying Yuffie.' He said.

'I don't normally but I remembered to take something for my airsickness so I won't get sick.' She replied brightly.

0o0o0o

After Cid had picked up everyone he turned the Highwind towards Midgar. He looked out the front window. It was going to be a good day. Nice and sunny he thought. Just the right weather for flying. He hadn't been flying lately because the Bronco had needed fixing.

Shortly after the Highwind landed at the airstrip outside Midgar. They all piled out and stood around until one of the airport workers came over, leading another man in a uniform. They walked up tothe groupand the airport worker said to Cid,

'We'll look after your ship for you Mr Highwind.' Then to everyone, 'This is Officer Banks from Midgar PD, he'll take you to the station.' He smiled and then left to check the ship and talk to Cid's crew.

'If you'll come with me then.' Said the officer. 'The van's over here.'

He led them over to the side of the airport and unlocked the dark blue van that was sitting in the car park. Everyone got into the van. Yuffie sat next to Vincent and promptly fell asleep leaning on his arm. Vincent continued to look out the window. Cloud, who was sitting up the front, started talking to the officer.

'Do you like this city?' it had just started to rain heavily.

'It's ok. I've lived here all my life so I'm used to it. The weather can get a bit depressing, I know.'

'You don't say. Is it far to the station?'

'No, not much further.'

They lapsed into silence. Officer Banks drove them quickly through the streets and they reached the station just as the rain got heavier. He parked the car under the overhang around the back.

'So you don't have to get wet,' he responded to Cloud's questioning look.

'Thanks.'

'No problem, go straight in those doors and ask at the desk and they'll direct you to where you need to go.' He said with a smile.

'Thanks a lot Officer Banks.' Replied Cloud.

They all got out and Officer Banks drove off. They walked through the doors and entered the Police Station. The woman at the front desk looked around when she heard the door close. There were people rushing around everywhere and phones ringing so it was unexpected that she had actually heard them come in. She smiled and beckoned to them. They all walked forward.

'My, your quite a big group aren't you. The Chiefs been waiting for you, I'll take you straight to him.'

She came around the desk and led them through many corridors and rooms until they came to a door which had Chief Lainer written on the door. The woman knocked and then opened the door.

'Go right on in.' she said and walked away down the corridor.

A.N: just to say that I think Cid's little plane is called the Bronco but am not a hundred percent sure. If it isn't, many apologies and I'll blame my memory. Hope u liked it, reviews welcome.

Nawat