Eve stopped slowly backing away as a heavy barrel came crashing down from above, landing just in front of her, and rolling down the ramp, crushing the soldier. As soon as the barrel came to a halt on the wall, the second soldier was revealed to be creeping up to her again. The third, unbeknownst to Eve, was taking a different route, by awkwardly climbing up to a higher level, so that he could sneak up behind Eve.

'James, help me!' she cried again.

She looked up to James again, to see what he was doing. He was stalking the soldier from above, eyes on him like a hawk, seeing his position, choosing another barrel. A few seconds later, there was another loud thump as he pushed it, knocking the second soldier back down.

Eve turned around to continue getting away from Tom, and saw the final remaining soldier grinning at her. She screamed loudly, in shock and took a few hurried steps back.

' – James!' she cried.

He threw over the final barrel, which landed directly on the soldier's head. He fell down, unconscious as Eve sidestepped around him. She yelled up a thank you to James, and then followed the path he had taken, meeting up with him and walking carefully on the narrow wooden beams.

'Come on, this way,' he told her, with a nod of his head.

He took a slow walk to a small gap in the very roof of the church, glancing back occasionally to make sure that Eve was not about to fall down. He clambered through the little hole, and reached back to assist her. When they got out, she giggled to herself.

'Ha ha, they're looking for me yet again,' she said.

'What?' asked James, goggling. 'You mean this isn't the first time they've tried to come and get you?'

'No, it's not,' Eve replied.

'You do realise that they're the Turks, don't you?' he queried. Eve made a thoughtful noise in reply. 'They're an organisation in Shinra, who go around scouting for possible candidates for SOLDIER.'

'They do it that violently? Good Lord, I thought they were trying to kidnap somebody, not recruit them!'

'Yeah, well, they're also involved in a lot of dirty stuff on the side. Spyin', murder, the works. That might explain it.'

'They certainly appear to be the type,' she agreed.

'But, why are they after you?' asked James, confused. 'I'm guessin' there's an actual reason.'

'All I know is that I definitely don't want to get caught by those people!'

'Well then, let's get out of here.'

The small, shabby houses in the slums were all built close together, so it did not take much for the pair to jump from rooftop to rooftop. Eve tried to keep up with James, but he was going too fast and ended up leaving her a few houses behind. She shouted at him to slow down.

'Hold on! Wait a minute!' James stopped and waited for her to catch up with him. She stopped before him, hands on her knees and bent double, wheezing. 'Don't….leave…me.'

'Hmm, and I thought you were cut out to be in SOLDIER,' he remarked.

'Oh, you're horrible!' replied Eve jokingly, laughing. '….Were you ever in SOLDIER?'

'I…I used to be,' started James, surprised. 'But how did you guess?'

'…Nothing, it doesn't matter,' replied Eve, avoiding James' gaze.

'Nothing?'

'Right! Nothing! Come on, let's go bodyguard,' she said, rapidly changing the subject.

After walking for a bit more, they finally managed to make it off the rooftops and onto the road. Eve looked around and spotted a middle aged man heading over to them.

'Finally made it! My house is over there,' she announced, smiling at James and pointing. The smile faded. 'Quickly, before that man comes.'

James followed Eve to her house and stopped outside her door.

'Thanks for walking me home,' she said to him. 'So what are you going to do now?'

'I need to go somewhere, hopefully close to here.'

Eve just said 'oh' quietly and then opened the front door and held it open for James. There was another woman pacing around a small house, in the kitchen. She looked up as Eve and James entered.

'Hi Mum, I'm back. This is James, he's my bodyguard,' she said to the woman, pointing at the blonde next to her, who waved awkwardly.

The woman looked shocked.

'Bodyguard? Oh, don't tell me you were followed again!' she exclaimed.

'It's okay, nothing happened, because I had James looking after me.'

'Thank you James,' replied the woman, looking at him. She walked over, one hand outstretched. 'My name is Elmyra.'

'Nice to meet you.'

Elmyra turned her back and continued with what she was doing before Eve came back home. She turned to James.

'Where did you want to go?'

'Sector 7. Is it near here? I want to go to Seventh Heaven, Amy's bar,' he explained.

'Amy…that's a…girl, right?'

'….Yes,' stated James, giving Eve a strange look.

'A girlfriend?'

'Yeah, something like that.'

'That's….that's nice.' She tried to smile. 'Sector 7? Follow me, I'll show you the way, I think I know where it is.'

'What? No, no way, you've already been in danger once today. Why do you want to put yourself in even more danger?'

'It's no big deal, I'm used to danger,' Eve said simply.

'Used to it? Well, I dunno, getting help from a girl…?'

'And what can you mean by that? Cheeky so and so! And you seriously expect me just to stay here and let you go out on your own after hearing something like that? No chance!' Eve called to Elmyra. 'Mum, I'm going out again for a while; I'm going to take James to Sector 7!'

Elmyra appeared briefly.

'Oh, I don't know if that's such a good idea, Eve,' she started. She stopped, rolling her eyes. 'I give up already, there's no point in changing your mind. You never do once you've decided on something. But at least wait until tomorrow, because it's starting to get dark now.'

'I suppose.'

'Good. Can you go upstairs and get the bed sorted out please?'

Eve merely shrugged and disappeared up the steps, James following. She stopped outside two bedroom doors and pointed at one.

'You're in there. Let me think…to get to Sector 7, you need to go to Sector 6, which is a little bit dangerous. You'll want to get some rest tonight, in that case. Good night.'

Without another word, she turned back into her own bedroom and closed the door, James left out on the landing.

'Aww, man…' he muttered to himself. He went into his own room and started to drift off to sleep.

'You seem pretty tired.'

'What the -!' exclaimed James, taken by surprise.

'I haven't slept in a bed like this for a long time,' said the same mysterious voice that spoke to him before.

'Oh. Yeah….' James seemed to understand what the mysterious voice meant.

'Ever since that time…'

A younger version of James, lying on his bed, whilst his mother, a tall blonde woman who styled her hair in a spiked fashion, similar to James' bustled around. She watched him for a few seconds.

'My, my, how you've grown. I won't be at all surprised if you say that the girls leave you alone.'

'Not really, girls don't bother me.'

'I'm worried about you, y'know,' James' mother came closer to him. 'There are a number of temptations in the city, and I'd just feel a lot better if you settled down, got yourself a nice girlfriend.'

'I'm not interested,' replied James in an irritated tone.

'You should have…an older girlfriend, because an older girl can look after you. Make sure you're eating right, things like that,' his mother continued.

James sat up, rubbing his forehead.

'Damn, I must have fallen asleep,' he muttered to himself, clambering out of bed and sneaking out of the door. 'So…Eve said that Sector 7 is past Sector 6. I should be fine if I head over on my own.'

He took care to tread softly as he walked past Eve's room, keeping as far away from her door as possible, and then skulked down the stairs. Elmyra was still fast asleep; the downstairs level of the house was completely deserted.