She remembers her mother's death clearly. It had been a cold Nibelheim day. Bitter wind swept through the village as her father spoke at the funerary service. His voice was barely holding together. Tifa clasped her hands hard, counting the bones she could press with her fingers.

Her mother's spirit, they said, had gone over the mountains. She was young enough to take this literally. When the services were over, the pain of loss was overwhelming. She just wanted to see her mother one last time. She set out into the rocky pass. It was drizzling, and the stones were sleek. The paths were muddy. Tifa didn't care. Tears blurred her vision, and grief hollowed her heart. She felt numb.

Further she traveled, deeper into the Nibel mountains. Beyond the mountains, that's where her mother was. She just had to keep going. The sky turned dark. Her skin froze. She couldn't stop crying. There was a bridge ahead, an old rope one that hikers used. She doesn't remember how she slipped. The rain must've made the planks sleek. The ropes tore through the skin of her palms as she scrambled to catch hold. The chasm gaped at her, the pointed tops of fluffy pines spread far below.

"Tifa." A warm voice. A boy. Someone from town had followed her.

He was the shy kid who lived next door. He knelt on the bridge, offering his outstretched hand. Those bright blue eyes peered at her in grave concern.

"Cloud?"

He grabbed her arm while she dangled over the abyss. The rain stung her eyes. She didn't know Cloud very well. Why had he followed her? None of the other boys from town were here—only him.

His knees braced against the bridge, but he couldn't pull her up. Her feet swung. She grasped his forearm with her other hand. He was slipping, too. He grit his teeth and pulled. She could almost reach the base of a rope support knotted around the rotting wood.

Then the bridge snapped. She plunged into freefall.

She was in a coma for seven days. When she awoke, her father was a wreck, berating her and kissing her and making her promise to never ever do that again. She asked about Cloud. Was he okay? Her father disparaged the boy, blaming him. He got away unscathed, barely skinned knees, while Tifa had nearly lost her life.

"What was he thinking putting you in danger?" her father demanded. He didn't seem to understand that Tifa had ventured into the mountains herself, no matter how many times she tried to explain.

She never saw what was beyond the mountains. She never spoke to Cloud about it again.

A dismal light smears her vision. Slowly, Tifa returns to the waking world. Her mouth is dry. Her body aches. She's lying on a metal cot in a prison cell. There are slats on the window exposing an ocean breeze.

"Where am I?" she says.

Barret is in the cell with her. He comes into view as the dreams lift from her head, looking down with a solemnity she hasn't seen often.

"Junon," Barret replies. "Under Shinra's lock and key. You okay? You had me real worried, girl. You been out for three days."

Tifa sits up. Her bones creak. There's bruising along one arm and shoulder.

"Where are the others?" she asks. "Aerith. Did we find her?"

Barret shakes his head. Something shook from below ground, a creature stirring and rising, cracking open the cavern. Shards of materia smashed against the ice, and the entire area collapsed.

He'd barely gotten out on the Highwind airship, dashing aboard in the chaos with Shinra, though the ascent was a near-death experience. Barret lost consciousness when the airship was thrown. A whirlwind of snow and Mako particles saturated the air, thick. He doesn't know where any of the others are.

Cloud could be dead. Tifa absorbs the information, feeling sick.

"There's more…" Barret says. He motions to the window.

Through the slats, the sky is blood-red, cloudless. Unnatural. The upper tier is a flurry of activity. Armored soldiers and heavy artillery trucks rush past. Scorpion sentinels and hunter-killer drones patrol.

Her gaze lifts to the sky, and her breath seizes. An enormous black sphere hangs like a sinister moon, twice the circumference of the sun, ringed in orange.

Palm pressed to the window, she staggers.

"Wh-what is…?"

"A meteor."

"How?"

Then it clicks. The cleansing. This is what Bugenhagen spoke of. She falls back to the cot, places her head in her hands. The Black Materia is responsible, and they'd brought it right out of that sealed temple.

Barret puts a hand on her shoulder. "I know. And... there's something else."

A creature has emerged from the crater, he tells her. Something primordial. A Weapon, it's being called. If the legends are true, then this is a defender of the Planet, awakened in times of need, but this animal is unrestrained destruction, ravaging the coastlines, unstoppable. Shinra's been throwing every Mako-powered techno-weapon at it, to no effect.

And if that weren't enough, a barrier of light has encapsulated the north crater. Sensors can't penetrate, and the surrounding airspace is a dead zone. Barret's heard the guards talk of this. They are all terrified.

Tifa feels the shock in her system. The vast unknown has reached upward from hell, consuming her world. Angular strips of red light from the window cut across her thighs and boots.

She finds her voice. "We...need to get out of here."

"I been tryin'. But we on lockdown."

She notices his gun-arm is dismantled. A siren whirs by outside.

"Do you think he's alive?" she asks, attempting to keep her voice steady.

"Shit," Barret exhales. "I don't know what to think about him. I mean, he was always kinda strange. Something off, for sure. But to think he ain't even human? I don't know."

Tifa nods, but inside she's screaming. A primal fear has struck her, uncontrollable in the wake of that monstrous thing, towering between the mist. Tentacles searching the ground. Its eyeless sockets probing her. The supreme alienness of its body, the sight and colors, the geometry of it was all wrong. Its very existence opposes hers. She can't help but hate it and fear it. Barret must feel the same.

And now Cloud…

The metal door clicks. MPs enter and cuff Barret and Tifa. Dozens of rifles are trained at his chest and Tifa's head. She knows she can take out two, maybe three. Barret can strong-arm another couple, but the room is too tight, the guns too close. And there are thousands of soldiers in this compound. They wouldn't get very far, even if they managed to break out of this cell.

The squad marches them out. The hallway is aflutter with soldiers and way too much Shinra. Everywhere she looks, Tifa sees that bright red logo. The sight is dizzying. She's in the belly of the beast.

They are led to a conference hall set up with rows of chairs and a makeshift stage. News reporters and cameras fill the audience and onstage is a woman wearing stiletto heels and a deep-cut crimson blazer. Her blonde hair is coiled into a manufactured messiness both professional and alluring.

She speaks like a woman accustomed to being obeyed.

"—and we know how alarming these times are," she's saying to the reporters. Cameras flash and recorders are held out. "Which is why Shinra would like to assure the public that we have found those responsible, and that this absolute travesty will not go unpunished."

Attention shifts to Tifa and Barret as the MPs enter with their captives.

"Ah," the woman on stage coos. "Here are the perpetrators now. Shinra uncovered them at the far north crater, summoning forth these monsters ravaging our peaceful cities. Causing the atrocity in the sky."

"What?!" Barret roars. "That's a damn lie!"

The woman in red does not acknowledge him as the MPs stand Tifa and Barret alongside her on stage. Four of the police hold Barret steady. Tifa can't believe what she's seeing. All these people stare as if she truly is responsible. And isn't she, to some degree?

"The executions will begin shortly in the adjacent chamber," the woman continues. "I invite those with special VIP access to join me in the viewing room. The event will be televised live for all others."

"Executions?" Tifa echoes, diminished. It hardly seems possible things could get any worse, and yet here she is, facing her own imminent death. At the hands of Shinra. After all these years, Shinra would win.

Barret is shouting obscenities and demanding due process. The crowd is muttering and enthralled, and the MPs escort Barret and Tifa offstage. A rumble of questions emits from the reporters, and the woman in red seems all too happy to answer as the door shuts behind Barret and Tifa.

Tifa is barely conscious of the MPs dragging them down a hallway to an inner room sealed behind a metal door. Barret clobbers two guards before a gunshot grazes his cheek. Blood trickles down his face. There are simply too many to fight. Tifa feels it happening around her but not to her, as if she's stepped outside her body and watches as a passenger.

In the sealed chamber, there are tall ceilings and a windowed second-floor viewing area overlooking two metal chairs. The floor is ventilated. It's a gas chamber. A death sentence.

Her heart stiffens her body. She expects survival instinct to kick in, but nothing responds.

The guards hold their position, encircling the condemned.

The woman in red enters.

"Ah, and here we are. Two sad little terrorists getting what's coming to them." The woman examines Tifa with contempt. "No cute blonde here to save you this time."

"Scarlet," Barret seethes. "You fuckin' psychopath. I shoulda killed you years ago."

Scarlet's heels click as she pivots to Barret. "Do you know how many times a man has threatened me? You're nothing special."

"You destroyed my home. Burnt everything I had like it was nothing."

"Hm, doesn't ring a bell. But I can't be expected to remember all of my accomplishments," Scarlet sneers. "Save your breath. You'll need it."

Barret streams insults at Scarlet, who laughs in his face. The MPs fidget uncomfortably. They are afraid of her, too. Scarlet waves farewell and exits the room. The MPs proceed to strap Tifa and Barret into the lethal chairs. Tifa resists but only delays the inevitable and acquires a bloody nose.

Soon, she and Barret are alone. The chamber is deathly quiet. Barret continues to yell, angry at first, then pleading and calling for help. Someone must hear them, he says. This is madness to expect all those people with cameras to actually want to witness someone dying.

"They did it with Jessie, Wedge, and Biggs," Tifa says. "They were supposed to publicly execute us as well…"

"This ain't the end, Tifa. Quit talkin' like that. What happened to the tough girl I know?!"

She doesn't feel tough. Not anymore. It's all broken inside.

Something hisses at their feet. A faint gas swirls in. Her heartbeat races. She tugs at the restraints. Barret throws all his strength against the metal chair. It's bolted to the floor. There is no way out. The gas stings her nostrils, blurs her eyes. She holds her breath. Barret does likewise.

High above, in the viewing room, Director Scarlet smiles down in cruel satisfaction.

Suddenly, a klaxon wails. The lights dim then flash yellow. Scarlet throws her hands up in anguish and disappears from the window.

Gas continues to fill the chamber, but alarms are blaring in the hall. A tinny intercom instructs all military personnel to war stations immediately. Non-military employees and civilians must evacuate to designated safe zones. This is not a drill. Weapon is attacking.

"Weapon!?" Tifa says and regrets opening her mouth. Noxious fumes sneak into her lungs. She begins coughing and cannot stop.

Barret twists at the restraints. Nothing works. The intercom repeats its message. There's commotion outside the chamber, boots running past.

But each breath sears her throat, clouds her brain. A heavy toxin infiltrates her muscles. Things are slowing down. She's back in the mountains of Nibelheim, falling. Reaching up for Cloud.

Then the hissing stops. The metal door opens. There's a whir of wind as a ventilation fan kicks on. It's difficult to understand what's happening, but her head stops spinning. The sirens sound sharp as ever.

A man wearing a very expensive navy blue suit stands over her.

"Tifa, can you hear me?"

The voice is unfamiliar. This man has dark hair brushed back with a neatly trimmed mustache and beard. He unlocks her cuffs and helps her up. The man is helping Barret, too. Soldiers storm past in the hall.

"Who are you?" she asks once she regains her bearings. "Why are you helping us?"

"Let's just say I'm against capital punishment," the stranger replies.

Barret grabs him by the collar. "Whatchua doin', Shinra dog? Get your damn hands off me!"

"I just saved your life, so maybe skip the pleasantries. Follow me."

The suit waits for troops to pass before motioning to Tifa and Barret. The entire facility is on lockdown, but he can get them out. Barret doesn't want to follow.

"What choice do you have?" the suit says. "Scarlet will soon discover you two are gone, so let's get moving."

He slips into the hall, and Tifa runs after him. Barret begrudgingly complies.

The compound is a mess of alarms, lights, and panic. There is enough confusion that nobody questions their escort. All focus is on Weapon approaching.

The suit swipes a white keycard and enters a restricted area. Barret notices the name pop up on the display terminal.

"Director Reeve Tuesti," Barret says with suspicion. "Director of what?"

The three enter an area of vacant conference rooms with floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking the ocean along the upper tier. The meteor is plainly visible, dominating the sky, but in the sea something else is equally astounding. An enormous primeval animal rises from the waters, with sleek sapphire skin and aquatic horned fins. Angry waves curl and slap onto the tiers from its disturbance. It's coming right towards Junon.

"Urban Development," Reeve responds offhand to Barret. "I...never agreed with the Sector Seven decision, by the way. That was my jurisdiction, but Heidegger superseded my authority."

Tifa stares out the windows. That creature must be a Weapon. Reeve is across the room, opening another set of doors when there's a buzz in his pocket. It's a priority one message on his phone. He scans the output.

"We need to hurry," he says. "Scarlet just issued an alert of your escape. She's sending elite Shinra military on it." He looks at them. "You two really got under her skin. But that means we have even less time. Let's go."

There's nothing to do but follow. Outside, the Weapon arcs its fins and sprays projectiles onto the shore. Tifa feels the impact as the lower tier ruptures. There are shouts and cries outside. Reeve breaks into a run, navigating into a gray stairwell with his white keycard and descending.

They head into maintenance tunnels. The walls shake as another wave of impact hits the shore, this time much closer.

A vibration kicks up through the floor, settling in her jaw. A frequency hums at an extremely high pitch. The lights flicker out of sync.

"Don't worry," Reeve says. "That's just the Mako cannon powering up."

Indeed, that pungent smell wafts in from somewhere unknown. Mako is being pulled up from the underwater Reactor at an elevated rate. Reeve's phone keeps buzzing, but he's stopped checking it.

They reach a crossroads with a caged elevator shaft.

"This will lead you straight into the hangar on the upper tier," Reeve motions to the lift. "I can't go outside with you, but you'll find the Highwind there." He quickly takes off their cuffs. "Head straight to the airship. Do not stop."

He ushers them into the elevator and pulls the freight door shut. Through the bars, Tifa and Barret watch him swipe his keycard one last time to activate the controls.

"Wait, who are you really? Why you helpin' us?" Barret says as the elevator hums to life.

Reeve steps backward, arms wide, watching the ascent. A smile graces the edge of his mouth.

"I'm your enchanted fortune teller."

And the elevator eclipses him from view. Barret snorts a laugh. Tifa breathes out, realizing how lucky they'd been. Luck was Cait Sith's thing, after all. It's unreal.

"Guess I can't hate him now, that lousy spy," Barret says. A peel of sunlight appears through the elevator shaft above. "We ain't outta this yet. Gotta stay focused."

The sun blinds as the elevator doors open. They are on the exterior of the upper tier amidst a jumble of scorpion sentinels and armored soldiers moving to oceanside stations. Ahead is the Highwind, parked in the open air outside the hangar.

They crouch and run towards the airship. A sudden projectile rocks the tier, launched from the Weapon. Concrete explodes on impact, and Tifa and Barret leap behind a military truck as a shard of ice slices through the vehicle. The crystalline spike is right at Tifa's shoulder. She stares at it, breathing hard, pulse racing. The ice glimmers with faint Mako particles, melting into a liquid that stings her skin like acid.

"Shit, we gotta move!" Barret says.

There's shrieking and gunfire. A dozen giant shards embed in the tier and crack open. Creatures with razor-sharp claws and oblong humanoid bodies crawl out, darting fast between the scorpion sentinels and latching onto soldiers in a blur of uncompromising slaughter. A sentinel flares its tail laser across three, but there are too many.

Everywhere Tifa looks, more creatures are spilling out, overrunning the tier.

Ahead is the Highwind. It's so close. They just need to get to the hangar bay. Projectiles shake the tier and splinter buildings. Chunks of debris fall as she runs with Barret.

She can hear the airship's engines, but the entire tier quakes under the assault. The top of a building cascades into glass and steel right in their path. Dust chokes the air. She's thrown, and when she gets up Barret is gone.

"Barret?!" she shouts, but it's hopeless. The roar of mechanized munitions deafens the air. She crawls across rubble and exposed rebar.

A hot tunnel of wind blows hair into her face as a beam of energy shoots from the Weapon and sears into Junon. The lower tier is destroyed. Parts of it crumble into the ocean. People are screaming, and then the dust clears, whipped out by the wind.

The airship is visible ahead! She can make it, but Barret… She calls his name again, not caring if any Shinra personnel notice her. She traipses over brick and metal and burnt wood, looking for any sign of him.

Then, in the clearing, she sees a familiar sword. Its broad edge reflects the eerie orange sky in a sliver. The owner fights four of those ice-creatures, slicing them apart with ease.

He's wearing a Shinra uniform again, but it's him. There is no doubt in her mind.

Her heart swims. Her veins are pure lift.

It's Cloud. He's alive. He's here.

She stumbles towards him, unaware of anything else. Uncaring of the explosions echoing around her, lighting up the sky like fireworks. Fireworks outside a gondola at the Gold Saucer, flashing crimson and blues across his face as he leans into her for a kiss.

"Cloud!"

Happiness wells in her chest. She's forgotten about Jenova.

Then he turns to her. The creatures are destroyed at his feet. Silver blood drips from the sword. His eyes lock onto her, but there is no recognition. Something is wrong.

A terrible fear washes up her body. He heads in her direction with purposeful strides, sword out. Her heart catches in her lungs. She steps back, trips on dislodged concrete.

"Cloud?" Her voice is quiet and lost.

He's coming towards her with clear intent to kill. It shakes her to the bone. All that relief vanishes, ripped from her. Ripped out like everything else. He's going to reach her unless she moves.

She commands her muscles to respond. She forces her head to clear. Her heart stammers. Her pulse is ice and despair. The airship, she focuses. She must get to the airship.

His uniform is the deep violet of First-Class. He's back into Shinra's fold. And that otherworldly fear grips her tight. The image of Jenova sears her brain, sends her reeling. It's coming closer. She can feel those tendrils wrapping around her waist, her hands, confining her.

She tries one last time. He's so close, and he's adjusting his stance. The sword angles.

"Cloud, it's me! It's Tifa!"

"I know," he responds.

The voice shocks her because it's still him. The warmth is replaced with cold sterility, but this isn't a dream. And this isn't Cloud. Not the person she knew. Something else is wearing his skin.

She leaps away as the sword cuts the air next to her. Then she runs.

She runs without looking back. The airship, she tells herself, focus on that and not the pursuer. Not the monster chasing her. Not the sword that could end her life. Her body is adrenaline. Her heart is fire. She dodges a sea of squirming creatures from cracked shards of ice.

A projectile from the Weapon strikes her path, throwing her into the air. It opens a chasm of crumbling asphalt and broken pipes between her and her pursuer. Cloud stalks at its edge, watching her, then proceeds towards one end to make his way around. She doesn't hesitate. She scrambles up and limps towards the airship. It's just within reach.

At the entry of the ship, a Shinra crewman spots her. The man anxiously waves to a companion, and Cid comes into view.

"Tifa!" Cid yells. "Hurry! We gotta take off!"

She leaps onto the loading platform as the upper tier rumbles. It's collapsing, and those strange creatures overrun the area. She glances behind, but there is no sign of Cloud.

Cid's gone into the cockpit, and two crewmen help her up. The platform slides shut.

"Wait!" she says. "Barret is down there!"

"There's no time, miss! If we don't lift off, we'll be toast," a crewman answers.

He's right. Concrete shifts unsteady beneath the ship.

Just as the ground gives out, the Highwind lifts. She watches the tier cave-in, dizzyingly, where she'd been standing. She's searching for Cloud, for Barret, but all she sees are Shinra personnel and military weapons through the smoking ice shards and wreckage.

As the airship pulls away, she can see the Mako cannon powering up. It's pointed right at the beast. A flash of energy booms from its end. The impact of the shockwave rattles the cabin, and she must shield her eyes.

A direct hit. The Mako beam slices two limbs from the Weapon. The creature squeals.

Tifa darts to the cockpit. Cid and his co-pilots stand at the sprawling controls, gaping at the sight of the Weapon spewing silver and thrashing in the ocean.

"Is it dead? Did we do it?" a crewman asks.

The blow did not kill it. The creature shakes its head and stretches its remaining fins. Then it screeches and continues its assault.

"Nope!" Cid says and shifts gears to fly the airship higher.

"Barret," Tifa says. "We have to go back for him!"

Cid nods, steadies the airship off. "Where is he? Upper tier?"

Tifa doesn't know, but she's scouring the crowds below for him. "We have to save these people!"

"No can do," Cid replies. "I just mutinied against Shinra with my staff, and I'm not about to welcome any of them aboard."

"What about the civilians?! Junon is full of—"

"Tifa, we can't. I can barely keep her steady in this turbulence, and there's nowhere to land and start an evacuation. Could easily unbalance the ship, or leave us sitting ducks for the Weapon's attack. Let's just find Barret and get the hell out of here."

She falls silent. He won't be convinced, and she's too tired to try. Desperation to find Barret is all she can allow herself to feel.

Somewhere far below, beneath the carnage, Barret snaps awake.

He's suspended over a sheer drop with the scent of Mako and sea salt in his face. A broken metal railing traps his truncated mechanical arm, the only thing keeping him from falling dozens of stories to his death.

"Shit!"

He remembers the building collapsing, Tifa's frightened face, then ash everywhere. He calls for her, but all he hears is gunfire and mechanized blasts. He cannot see onto street level. The Weapon hurls swords of ice, piercing the tiers. The lower tier is on fire. Smoke trails through his boots and snakes up his torso.

The support structure of the Mako cannon is the closest thing to him. A pungent scent implies the cannon has recently fired, and he can feel it charging for another round. That subtle frequency rivets his body.

He grasps the railing with his hand and pulls, but the angle contorts his elbow. He can wrench his arm free, but that could destabilize the railing and he'd drop.

Another ice shard punctures the tier above, showering skittering creatures onto terrified civilians.

He takes that chance and rips his arm free. The railing collapses.

Barret grasps feverishly onto the sleek siding of the copper tier, but his glove squeaks clean as he plummets. An impossible bright light emanates from the Weapon, rending the upper tier into oblivion. Huge chunks of metal fall, destroying the section Barret was just attached to. He rolls onto the top of the Mako cannon as shrapnel hails down. Hot metal burns into his skin. He gets beneath one of the support pillars.

That blast…! The Weapon devastated half of Junon in one blow! And it's getting closer.

Turn off that damn underwater Reactor, he wants to tell someone. If this thing truly is from the Planet, then it's attracted to this place because of all Shinra's damn meddling! He grunts in frustration and limps along the barrel of the cannon. There must be a ladder down somewhere.

A blaze of red catches his eye. A woman stands behind him where the support beam meets the tier, a rifle in one hand and high heels in the other.

"Scarlet!?"

She keeps the heels curled in her fingers and aims the rifle at him. Her toenails are painted white.

"What luck, me running into you like this," she says, peering down the sights. "When I spotted you here on the cannon… Well, I couldn't pass up the opportunity to kill you myself."

She fires, but a support beam destabilizes as portions of the lower tier collapse, and she is thrown off balance. The bullets clip into Barret's arm instead of his chest, shooting pain and spouting blood. He takes cover behind a tangle of equipment. Scarlet laughs.

"Oh, come to think of it... Now I remember you!" she says once she finds her footing. "From that dingy backwater mining town. What was it called again?"

He clamps teeth together and presses one palm against the bullet holes in his bicep and forearm. Blood leaks through his fingers. The gun-arm is a useless mass of coiled metal and warped mechanisms. Another rumble courses through the cannon. The base of the barrel is getting hot.

In the sky, he sees an airship. It's large, circling. Must be the Highwind. He can only hope Tifa is aboard.

The Mako cannon completes its charging sequence. A rush of energy tingles across Barret's spine as the reaction ignites. A furious beam of Mako-power shoots clear across the water, directly at the Weapon. Scarlet freezes. Barret watches her eyes light up and her smile widen.

"Immaculate…" she breathes out.

Sweat covers Barret's face. His arm is soaked and numb. Just keep breathing, he tells himself. Think of Marlene.

The monster in the waters stops moving. The Mako beam severed its head clean off. With a thunderous splash, the Weapon falls. A tidal wave rolls towards Junon. Scarlet is laughing, in high applause. She walks right past Barret towards the end of the cannon's barrel.

"The technological prowess of humanity will always triumph," she declares, reaching arms to the sky.

Barret sees the Highwind coming around. Scarlet is enamored with the creature's destruction, reveling in it. He doesn't have any weapon except this twisted hunk of his arm. He edges towards her. The Weapon is convulsing, shooting water as it flounders. Chrome blood oozes silky into the ocean. The first of the tidal waves are smashing the tiers, drowning anyone caught below the cannon line.

Scarlet is oblivious to Barret's approach. When at last she turns, he's already close, standing, dripping blood, the ball of metal at the end of his gun-arm swinging.

He smacks her right in the face, crunching bone and cartilage against metal and peeling skin off flesh. The strike sends her flying. She slides to the ledge, grasping the rifle, but Barret kicks it away.

The ocean churns violent beneath them. Scarlet clings on, her heels forgotten and falling into the waves below.

"Corel," he says through clenched teeth. "The town's name was Corel."

Scarlet flinches. "Well, I can't be expected to remember everything."

Her face is a mess of gore and exposed bone. She spits blood, crimson red, down the front of her blazer. The blonde hair is matted and mashed. One eye is destroyed. She grins, somehow.

"Me," Barret says. "My face. I expect you to remember that."

Vengeance pollutes him. He wants to shove her puny fingers off the edge. She deserves to plunge into icy death, just like Dyne had. She struggles. Her fingernails scrape the smooth copper. Barret watches as her anguish transforms into panic. She's sliding. Slipping.

"You imbecile," she says. The wind whips her hair free. "You really think my death will change anything? Shinra still wins. We always win."

He doesn't reply. He's experiencing elation and doesn't want to disturb that. The Mako cannon is powering down. The hot stench is all around them.

Scarlet slips.

Her body tumbles to the waters. Barret waits until the splotch of red is swallowed by the sea. Then he waits some more. She does not surface. He regards the effectiveness of his melee weapon. It does seem quite useful, though he wouldn't permanently replace his gun.

Scarlet's death does not make him feel better, but it doesn't make him feel worse.

The Highwind lowers into view, engines fanning heat. The starboard door opens.

"Grab my hand!" Tifa yells. Her long dark hair curls in the wind.

Junon is in shambles. The lower tier is gone. He can't believe Cait Sith actually helped them. The Highwind pulls away once Barret is aboard, leaving the smoldering remains of Junon on the horizon.

At last, Barret breathes out. Tifa brings him to the cabin where Yuffie, Nanaki, and Cid await. The airship has minimal staff, all ex-Shinra who have since expunged the logo from their uniforms.

"Tell me what happened," Barret says, easing down while he receives medical attention from a crewman. Without materia, the wounds must be sterilized and sewn shut. He takes a swig of elixir, to numb the pain.

Cid gives him the rundown. After the escape from the north crater, Shinra offered Cid a position in the reinvigorated space program. In light of the impending meteor strike, rocketry is once more relevant. Cid could not refuse, but when he learned that Tifa and Barret were scheduled for execution, he said fuck it and decided to steal back the Highwind.

"The crew are loyal to me, not Shinra," he explains. "We all built this ship from the ground up, and none of them were pleased when I was initially scrapped as captain."

Reeve sought him out. The two devised an escape plan.

"To be clear, I didn't know Director Reeve was that smarmy Cait Sith," Cid says, lighting up a cigarette.

Nanaki was also held prisoner in Junon. He was the first Reeve sprung because the transport flights to Midgar, one of which Nanaki was supposed to be on, were canceled. It was easy enough to switch Nanaki's transit records onto the Highwind. The science division at Midgar wasn't expecting his arrival anytime soon since all focus was on the Weapon.

"And I," Yuffie interrupts, "was never detained by Shinra."

After stowing away on the Highwind, she evaded capture by posing as a news reporter. She connected with Cid, and Reeve thereafter, inside Junon.

"And Vincent?" Tifa asks, looking around.

There are only five of them. Cid shrugs. "Not sure. Reeve didn't know either."

The rest fall silent. There is another absence no one is acknowledging. Cloud's presence haunts her.

"I...think I need to lay down," Tifa says.

They've done something vile to him, taken away his will and turned him into their puppet. It sickens her. She can feel him screaming, or maybe that's her own echo.

"Yeah," Barret agrees. "We can figure out what the hell's going on after a few hour's rest. I can't hardly think straight."

Cid instructs the crew to take the Highwind somewhere desolate, maybe north around those old excavation sites, where they can park and lay low, stay off the radar as long as possible and take watch in shifts while everyone recovers. And hope a Weapon doesn't strike.

"There's more than one?" Tifa asks.

"There's at least two others. That we know of," Cid responds.

Tifa is too exhausted to process this. Her stomach is a knot. She excuses herself and finds a bunk in the cabins below deck. She lays in the dark, feeling the sway of the airship, but her mind is in Junon. She's seeing him across the chasm in the upper tier, hunting her.

Barret enters. "Hey, Tif."

He sits at the edge of her bunk. She's facing the wall, arms wrapped around her sides.

"We'll find him," Barret says. "I know we will."

That's what I'm afraid of, she wants to say. Because it is fear underpinning it all, but she can't admit it aloud.

Barret rests his hand on her calf. "We won't give up hope. Never have before, won't start now."

It should be encouraging, but she finds it difficult to feel much. Barret leaves, and she withdraws, hoping to sleep. Yet every time she shuts her eyes, all she sees is him, disappearing into a mist. Just outside her reach.