AN: Normally I place these at the bottom because I think that's where they belong, but I wanted to apologize for the long delay between updates. I hate when I'm enjoying a story and it's weeks between updates and I will do my best to be less infrequent. For the few of you that know the reasons behind the delay, I know you understand. For the rest, just bear with me, ok? :) Thank you all for reading! You are very appreciated!

Splintered Dreams

Chapter Fourteen

"Raid on Shin-Ra Tower"

Security lamps spilled light across damp pavement, and glass and steel were illuminated to a glistening silver. High above mako vents, the Shin-Ra Tower stood with phosphorous green disbursements turning the clouds above emerald green, the smog forming a glowing halo around the building.

Zack's lips twisted with that thought. Death lived in that building. No matter the gloss or sheen of polished steel, or angelic imagery, the shadows of that place ran deep, he knew. He remembered all too well just how deep and dark the things in Shin-Ra could get.

But what he remembered most, beyond the secrets and lies was the betrayal. He had trusted Shin-Ra, believed in SOLDIER, believed in Angeal—believed in heroes. And he'd had those illusions torn from him, stripped out of him in a damp room with shiny blades and shallow screams.

He took a step back.

He almost jumped when he felt firm, steady warmth between his shoulder blades. He glanced down into concerned brown eyes on a pale face."We'll go in when you're ready," Tifa told him quietly.

Her silent understanding eased the heavy knot in his gut and he found himself—not for the first time—grateful for her presence.

"You oughtta know this building really well," From behind them, Barret's deep voice drew his attention and Zack turned slowly away from Tifa to face the larger man.

"Yeah. Every floor above the sixtieth has a particular—special—function and they are nearly impossible to gain access to; security is ridiculously tight. I'd wager that they have Aerith somewhere on those top levels."

"Couldn't be more specific, huh?" Barret cricked his neck.

"Sorry. Seemed to have lost my ability to see through walls."

Barret shot him a narrow look before he turned his attention on the front doors and the two guards stationed outside the glass. "Security looks pretty light right now. Let's hit it!"

"Wait a second!" Tifa pushed herself in front of him, placed a restraining hand on his shoulder. "You're not thinking of just barging in the front doors, are you?"

"I'm thinkin' of kickin' some Shin-Ra ass," he told her with his patented scowl. One that would have had most people cowering in the nearest corner, but had Tifa crossing her arms and pursing her lips.

"That's not going to work. We need to find another way—"

"Ain't gonna be no other way if we stand out here debating the issue. That girl is somewhere in there and the longer we stand out here doing nothin' the more likely she is to be hurt."

"I know that," Tifa cut in sharply, then sighed. "But if we get caught here..." She ran her hand through her dark hair, causing the ends to sway. "Zack, what should we do?"

"What're you askin' him for?" Barret groused, but turned to wait for Zack's answer anyway.

Beneath their expectant gazes, Zack rubbed the back of his neck. He really hated being caught between the two of them when they were having one of their face offs, but this was his decision, he knew. They'd followed him, and it was up to him to lead them safely.

He shifted his stance and gave the building another once over. "It's not like we have an appointment and I doubt they're going to roll out the welcome mat. We need to find a quiet way inside. There will be plenty of time to bust Shin-Ra heads together after we find Aerith," he added when it looked like Barret was going to protest.

Barret huffed a breath, rolled his eyes. "Whatever."

Tifa nodded, gave her comrade a gentle bump, and Zack saw sullen lips curve at the corner. It took a lot to dent those two, and despite both being worn and frayed with loss they remained solidly together. His own mouth curved at that.

"Okay, let's get inside." Shaking himself, he adjusted his sword, checked his boot laces. He'd never forget his third mission when a young, reckless recruit had ended up falling face-first on a land-mine after tripping on his laces. Satisfied that his knots were secure, he stood. "If we stay near the back of the parking garage the cameras can't make us out amongst the pillars. There's a set of stairs behind the building that aren't monitored."

"That don't make no sense. Shin-Ra ain't that stupid—"

"No, they aren't," Zack interjected, his voice tight. "But let's just say there are some things you don't want caught on tape, okay? Let's go."

When Barret opened his mouth to speak—probably to demand a more specific answer—it was Tifa's hand on his arm and a shake of her head that stopped him. He let out a long-suffering sigh and mumbled something akin to "punk ass" under his breath.

Tifa motioned for Zack to lead the way. Quietly the trio slipped into the shadows, with Zack on point. Of them all he was the most familiar with the building, the grounds—although slightly changed—and his enhanced night vision helped get them quickly to the stairwell.

His thoughts narrowed until they were focused on one thing: They had to get Aerith out. Get her safe, and keep her out of Shin-Ra's clutches. Zack knew only too well what lengths Shin-Ra would go to in order to achieve their goals, and he couldn't let that happen to Aerith. He wouldn't.

Silver hinges, hidden behind chipped brick and an empty dumpster, barely made a sound when Zack pulled open the heavy steel door they were attached to. He held it open and made a sweeping gesture with one arm. "After you."

Once inside, Zack heard Tifa let out a low whistle. He knew what she was looking at. The barely lit staircase seemed to go up and up forever. "That's a lot of stairs," she murmured as she craned her neck.

He nodded. "It's a tall building."

"If you two are done stating the obvious, we either need to start climbing or start knocking heads. I'm getting' antsy." As if to prove that point, Barret rubbed his gloved hand over his gun arm.

"Fine. Let's go." Tifa took the stairs two at a time.

Zack jogged after her, with Barret behind. Fifteen minutes later they were still climbing, although with considerably less vigor and they weren't yet half way to their destination by Zack's mental tally.

"Don't know...why we gotta...climb...all these damn...stairs..." Barret gripped the rail, pulled himself up another flight. He wiped beads of sweat from his brow and tossed Zack a grenade of a glare as he leaned back against the wall, panting. "Probably woulda...been less trouble...just to bust in..."

"We're looking for the more subtle approach." Zack paused beside him, prodded him.

Barret shook off the hand but plodded obligingly along. "Tifa, where you at?" Barret called out tiredly.

A moment later her pale face peered down at them from the floor above. From his vantage point Zack could see trails of sweat on her neck and strands of dark hair clinging to her ruddy cheeks. "Shhh... I'm right here."

"You doing okay?" Zack asked. She was pushing herself too hard, in his opinion, but he was reluctant to say anything. She was motivated and grief wasn't clinging to her like a second skin at the moment, and that was enough for him to hold his tongue.

"Doing okay," she nodded.

"How much farther?" Barret demanded.

She tilted her head up, hesitated before answering. "Just a bit more, I think."

"You've been sayin' that forever now!" Barret grumped. "This ain't one of those never-ending staircases is it?"

Zack rolled his eyes. "No."

"Right." Barret pushed himself up another flight. "Couldn't be that." Ten minutes later, he asked again, "Teef, we there yet?"

"Not yet."

"...Yet?"

"I said not yet!"

"Yo—"

"Look don't even ask." Her boot stomps halted and Zack could hear her rough, ragged breaths. It hastened him past Barret and up toward her.

"We're a way long, long way from being there, okay?" Zack informed Barret as he passed.

"Damn, man. I've had it. I'm going back."

"And take just as long going down as you did coming up?" Tifa called back down.

"Damn." Barret puffed out a breath, plopped onto the steps. "Marlene...baby...Daddy wanted to see you again...one last time..."

"Barret, knock it off."

"I ain't no machine, Teef. Well, except this here arm of mine. But dang, woman, whatchya expect of me? We can't all be SOLDIER boys!"

"Tifa's no boy," Zack reminded him with a grin over the rail.

"You, shut it."

Ignoring Barret's ranting, Zack approached Tifa. "You okay?" She was leaning against the wall, her head between her bent elbows.

"Yeah," she tilted her head, angled him a level look. "Just catching my breath."

He moved to her, laid his hand on her arm. "Don't overdo it. We've got a long way yet."

She glanced at his hand, where it rested on her skin, and gave him a long, studious look. After a moment she said, "You're not even winded, are you?"

He shrugged, surprised by how uncomfortable that simple question made him. "Not really."

She pressed her forehead to the cool cement, sighed. "They really build you guys up, huh?"

Zack wasn't sure he liked the speculative tone in her voice. From the time he'd met her she'd only ever looked at him as a man. Not always favorably, but he'd never seen disgust or fear in her eyes—like he'd seen in others—and she'd never looked at him like he was a monster. He hoped she never would, but she had to know by now that he wasn't normal. Never would be thanks to Shin-Ra, Hojo...and himself.

If he was honest, he had to take accountability for his situation. He'd volunteered for SOLDIER, after all. Had craved it... Strove for it. He had no one to blame for that blind ambition than himself. It was a bitter pill and he still hadn't managed to swallow it.

Thankfully, Barret's booming baritone interrupted his thoughts and Zack wasn't allowed to dwell in his past regrets. "What're you two jabbering about?"

Zack peered down at the other man over the rail. "Why don't you come up and find out."

"Why don't you kiss my black— "

"Barret!"

"Well, damn. He's all superhuman and expecting us normal people to keep up."

Tifa leaned over the rail beside Zack. "Don't be jealous, Barret."

"Jealous?" Barret's mouth flapped open and Zack's grin widened. "What the hell you mean jealous? I ain't jealous!"

"Hmmm....I don't know...." Tifa winked at Zack and he felt a familiar flare of warmth in his gut. She wasn't ever what he expected.

"I'm just as good as anything Shin-Ra's got!" Barret blustered.

Zack couldn't help himself. "Prove it."

In an instant Barret was up on his feet, thudding up the stairs with all the subtlety of a freight train and Zack took off, letting the other man chase him.

Fourteen flights later and a few more barbs tossed around and Zack held up his hand.

Winded, Tifa wiped her forearm across her brow. "Why are we stopping?"

"We're at fifty-nine."

She didn't question it, just nodded. "Okay. But you said Aerith was probably in the upper floors, above sixty."

"I know, but we can't get inside any further up. Even this stairwell requires a clearance card."

"So what do we do now?"

"We go inside, see if we can snatch a card, kidnap an employee, whatever we have to do."

"Now we're talkin'!" Barret's sweaty grin was wide. Eagerly, he adjusted his gun arm settings. "Heh, heh, heh. Time to whoop some Shin-Ra ass!"

"You're eagerness for peaceful negotiations is admirable," Zack drawled.

Barret gave him the finger.

Silent beside the two men, Tifa pulled on her gloves. She flexed her hands in the unfamiliar material and tightened the straps to her liking. "Whatever we have to." Her soft voice echoed Zack's words and when she offered him a soft smile it was gentle and full of compassion. "We'll find her."

Inside him, something tightened; coiled to the point of breaking. They were about to infiltrate Shin-Ra; literally going into the belly of the beast and their odds were not favorable. He swallowed against the tightness in his throat. Even as Barret shot him a glower that could melt steel, Zack cupped the side of Tifa's face, rubbed his thumb beside her ear. "Be careful, okay? This is the real thing. Be ready for anything."

"We will be," she assured him with that quiet conviction he'd come to rely on, then surprised him by closing her eyes and leaning—oh, so briefly—into his palm.

"No turnin' back," Barret stated. Tifa turned her head to face him and they held gazes.

"No," she agreed.

Zack pushed through the door, and the trio stepped out into the hall.

Tifa had expected to have to sneak, steal and perhaps even fight their way to the upper levels, but as it turned out, it had been surprisingly easy for Zack to procure a Keycard. It really shouldn't have surprised her, she thought as she flicked a sidelong glance in Zack's direction. All it had taken was a flash of dimple beside that easy smile and a bit of charm and suddenly the snippity secretary was giggling putty and handing over a Keycard to replace the one Zack had "lost".

From around the corner, where she and Barret waited, Tifa had to stifle a disgruntled groan at Barret's: "The boy has some skill," comment.

Keycard victoriously in-hand Zack had returned to them, but after five floors of searching they were still no closer to finding Aerith than they'd been when they'd started and now a Turk sighting had them ducking into the nearest hiding spot—which, as it turned out, was a particularly smelly bathroom stall.

"Y'know, I never wanna see another set of stairs, a pushy secretary or anymore Shin-Ra lackeys as long as I live."

Inside the cramped stall beside his, Tifa was inclined to agree with her AVALANCHE partner. "I second that," she whispered, squirming her way from beneath Zack's elbow. "Ow."

"Sorry," he mumbled. He tried his best to shift his position but the size of his sword made any position they were in uncomfortable.

From the next stall Tifa heard a heavy sigh was followed by, "And why the fuck are we hidin' in here anyway?"

"We don't need to mess with the Turks right now," Tifa told him. In fact, avoiding that particular group of individuals was high on her list. As much as she'd like to find a particular red-haired bastard in a suit and grind his spleen to dust, she knew that within these walls, their little rag-tag team stood no chance.

She moved again, trying to find an angle that didn't have her nose pressed either to the wall or Zack's chest. Heat colored her face as her backside once more brushed up against Zack's hip. As they stood now, she was practically flush against him and she hardly dared breathe because of it.

It was ridiculous, she knew, it wasn't as though it was intentional or flirtatious, but that didn't prevent the blush or the flutter in her chest. Thankfully Zack's attention was clearly elsewhere, she noticed. He had his head tilted and was peering up at the vent above the toilet for the third time.

"What is it?" she asked, voice hushed.

"You hear that?" Zack inched onto his toes.

Tifa inclined her head; listened. Voices. Faint, but definitely voices were filtering through the vent. "Yeah..." she lifted wide eyes to Zack. "I do."

Zack stepped up onto the seat of the toilet, peering into the vent through metal slats. "This thing is huge," he commented. He gave Tifa a speculative look over his shoulder.

"What?"

"I bet you could fit."

"Fit where?" Barret asked. "In the fuckin' vent?"

"Yeah." Zack hopped off the toilet. "If I remember correctly this ventilation system has a cross section directly over the main conference room."

"And you think the voices are coming from there?" Tifa asked him.

"It's a good possibility," Zack acknowledged.

"All right." She nodded, placed a boot on the porcelain and heard concern from across the divider.

"Teef?"

"Just a little recon. I'll be fine."

Zack popped the face off the vent, helped her up. His fingers lingered on her elbow and his eyes were once more the color of the sky at night. "Be careful."

She lowered her lashes, nodded. "I will."

As she climbed into the dark metal she heard Barret grumble, "She damn well better be," and she smiled.

She'd never had a fear of enclosed spaces, and she didn't have one now, but she had to admit that crawling through the dusty vents of Shin-Ra HQ was making her stomach churn. Her forearm grazed a raised piece of metal and she hissed a breath through her teeth. "Pay attention," she chided herself.

Focused, she followed the main chute and the increasingly louder voices until she found herself positioned above a large grate over a mahogany table, surrounded by a number of Shin-Ra suits. She recognized several of the people in the room from AVALANCHE intel.

There was President Shinra, looking plump and smug at the head of the table; Heidegger, the head of Shin-Ra Public Safety and Maintenance, as well as a dark haired man that looked familiar (although she couldn't place him). Also in the room was a fat, bald man that was unfamiliar to Tifa and an attractive blond woman who wore a bored expression.

Finished her mental role-call, Tifa crouched down, held her breath and listened.

"The damage estimates for Sector Seven have come in," the dark haired man was saying. "Between investments and factories on the plate above that region the total loss is about 10 billion gil. Rebuilding should run abo—"

"Rebuilding? We're not rebuilding," President Shinra cut in with a chuckle.

"But, sir—?"

"No, Reeve, we're leaving Sector Seven as is and continuing with plans for Neo Midgar."

"Neo Midgar? Then you believe the Ancients...?"

"Yes. The Promised Land will soon be ours." Shinra turned to the fat man. "Palmer, I want a 15% rate increase in all areas."

Palmer grinned. "Rate hike! Yes!"

"Reeve and Scarlet can split the difference," Shinra continued.

"Oh, man..." Palmer sat down, deflated.

"But, sir," Reeve continued, his voice earnest. "If you raise the rates, people will lose confidence—"

"Nonsense." Shinra grinned at Heidegger. "After all, Shin-Ra will be the ones that save the people from AVALANCHE."

Heidegger's laugh grated on Tifa's nerves, causing her hands to fist. "We will hunt down AVALANCHE for their bombing of Sector Seven and to finance that, we'll need money. Ignorant people will only be too happy to pay for it."

Tifa swore under her breath. Those miserable bastards!

Her attention was caught when the double-wide conference room doors swung open and a pale, gaunt looking man with greasy hair and wire rimmed glasses strode in. his white lab coat fluttered against gray pant legs.

President Shinra leaned back in his chair. "Ah, Hojo. How's the girl?"

Tifa's interest was piqued even further. Hojo? Where had she heard that name before? Like an elusive shadow in her peripheral, the answer eluded her, and she nearly swore again in frustration.

"As a specimen, she is inferior to her mother," Elusive Hojo answered. "I'm still in the process of comparing but the difference is a significant percentage."

"Uh-huh. And how long will this research take?"

"I couldn't narrow it down to an exact day, but I'd speculate answers could be confirmed within the next one hundred twenty years or so."

"That soon, huh?" The bored blond asked, studying her crimson nails. She looked idle, but Tifa sensed that was more an intended appearance than actuality.

Hojo adjusted his glasses as he turned from the table, a sneer on his face. "That's why I'm thinking of breeding her. Then we could create a specimen that could withstand our research for years to come."

"Will this hinder my plans for the Promised Land?" Shinra asked, leaning forward now, his palms on the dark wood of the conference table.

"We'll see. I need to plan."

"I see." The president sighed. "Well, then, I guess that concludes this meeting. Get back to me soon, Hojo."

The men around the table began to walk toward the door.

"Something stinks," the blond murmured and looked up.

In the grate, Tifa slid back into the shadows. A few minutes later and Zack was helping her down from the duct.

"Ok?" he asked, taking a moment to brush dirt from her shoulder.

"Yeah." She nodded, bent to dust her knees.

"Well?" Barret demanded. "What'd ya find out? Anything?"

"I think a man named Hojo has Aerith—"

"Hojo!" Zack grabbed her arms, his fingertips digging in. His eyes snapped with phosphorous green lines and his mouth slashed an angry line across his face. His reaction was unexpected and she flinched.

He seemed to realize and his grip loosened, his fingertips rubbing as though to soothe. "Sorry," he murmured, eyes softening.

She nodded, but stepped back warily, rubbing her arms. "Who is he?"

"Head of the Shin-Ra Science Department," Barret answered from the open stall door. His dark eyes flicked over Zack. "What's he to you, SODLIER-boy?"

Zack brushed past Barret, jerked the taps on the sink and splashed water on his face. He gripped the sink, took several deep breaths. When he raised his head, he stared into the mirror with unseeing eyes. "A nightmare." With that, Zack straightened and strode from the bathroom, the door swinging wildly behind him.

Tifa watched him go with a worried frown.

"That guy has some serious issues," Barret told her.

Shaking her head, Tifa shot her friend a dubious look. "And we don't?"

"Touche."

They left the bathroom.