Chapter 8: Clash on the Pillar

I stepped through the large metal doors, ignoring the exclamations of surprise from the two guards. I had 30 minutes to find Barret and warn him of his impending need to defend the Sector Seven pillar. I glared at one of the guards, when he ordered me to stop and continued on. Ah, target located, 7th Heaven. I quickened my pace; every second I stood around, Shinra was approaching. I all but kicked the doors of the bar open, glaring at all the shocked patrons.

"Closing time!" I hissed; red eyes narrowed.

At a sound of protest, I pulled out my gunblade and fired it at the ceiling, repeatedly. I have a feeling that the effect was ruined when a load of crap fell on me. Just my luck. I still convinced a majority of the patrons that it was indeed closing time, but a couple continued to just sit there, giving me a look. Looks like I'll have to do this the fun way.

I advanced towards the pair, who stood up and readied themselves for a fight. I sheathed my blade; I don't want to kill them, after all. One of them charged towards me, trying to do some kind of fancy kick. I just grabbed his foot and twisted, earning a squeal of pain, before I threw him into one of the tables. The table collapsed under his weight, leaving a battered drunk, with a twisted ankle, lying in the debris of a destroyed table. I smirked and threw a punch at the other, who just stared, gob-smacked. He staggered back before falling over.

"Very good, Spike. Now, if you don't mind not wrecking the rest of the pub." A familiar voice said.

I turned and spotted Barret skulking around in the corner. I shot a smirk at him as he straightened himself.

"How're you alive?" He asked, walking towards the pinball machine.

"Hell if I know… Does barely count as an answer? To get here I have gone falling off the plate, pulled around by my tail, beaten up by a house and chased by a flood of scorpions. I'm barely alive now, and I have a life or death message for AVALANCHE." I snapped, the events of the past few hours coming back to me in a rush. I decided not to tell the Mr T wannabe about my trip towards the light.

"Sounds like fun." He smirked, eyebrow quirked. "Life or death 'ay?

"Yes, life or death. Shinra know we're here and are going to attack. We have little time to prepare."

Barret looked at me sharply.

"How does that damn Shinra know where we are?" He demanded, accusation clear in his voice.

I held out my hands in a non-threatening gesture, trying to pacify him.

"No idea. Why don't you ask them?" He continued to glare at me, a fire burning within his eyes. "Look, if I was responsible, do you honestly believe I'd tell you that they know, so that you know that they know?"

Barret looked dizzy for a minute, guess that sentence was said a little too fast for him, but then he stormed over to the pinball machine and started banging on it, hard. The machine lowered, without the big burly man, and raised itself with the three stooges. Biggs took one look at me and screamed.

"IT'S A GHOST!"

I raised and eyebrow ridge as Biggs leapt into Wedge's arms in a similar fashion to Scooby and Shaggy; except Wedge dropped his friend to the floor in an undignified heap with an odd sound that was like a cross between a 'meep' and an 'ack'. Jessie just gave me a penetrating look, before grinning.

"You survived. I heard rumors but didn't believe them." She said.

"Stories of my death were greatly exaggerated. Who did you hear these rumors from?"

Ok, this is a small bit of curiosity, since in all RPGs, rumors about you have a tendency to get to every town/city in the game seconds after you perform the deed.

"A little girl in the street was telling me a rumor she heard, and then a friend came in from sector 5 a while ago."

Jade? Couldn't be, could it? I shrugged mentally and stepped back.

"Shinra is coming. They know we're based in Sector 7."

The 3 stooges gave mixed reactions. Jessie suddenly looked worried, Biggs swore loudly (I don't think I've ever heard that one before) and Wedge just paled slightly. Barret thumped his gun-arm on the bar, which made us all jump and snap to attention, sorta.

"Listen up foo's. If the Shinra is comin', we need to prepare a defence!" Wow, he sounds like a military general. "Wedge, set up a place where that sniper rifle of yer's is gonna do some good. Possibly the top o' the pillar. Jessie, you an' Biggs are to defend base. Spike… you're with me."

Oh joy, I'm paired off with Mr T. I wonder what our job is.

"We're going to defend the pillar. Shinra has no regard for human life so their most likely target is the top of the pillar."

There you go, I'm standing around on top of a great big pillar, where I'm going to fight tooth and nail for the safety of a whole eight of the city.

'And how do we fight any helicopters? I hate to break it to you, but you hardly have the greatest of anti-aircraft weaponry.'

Erm... Yeah, good point actually. "How do we take out any aircraft? I doubt they'll just march up single file, despite how great a strategy it is." Great for us at least.

"How in the hell is that an effective strategy, foo?" Can you guess who asked that?

"Well, you file up the men in single file, in order of least important to most important, where they charge at the enemy screaming loudly, causing fear and confusion. The most important man analyses the situation from the back, and if the situation is going badly, he can order a retreat."

Wedge frowned softly. "How will he know the situation is going badly?"

"When he's the last one left, he'll know that everything is going badly and issue the retreat."

'That has got to be the lousiest plan I've ever heard.'

Thank you for your input Spike. I never said I'd willingly take part in it.

'Thank the Great Lizard, seeing as I want to live long enough to see my children born.'

The Great Lizard? Lizards have a religious entity they worship? Strange... And who says you'll be able to bear children? Near as either of us knows, you'll never find a mate...wife...whatever the term is for you.

'Masagla.'

Masagla? Interesting word. Masagla. Kinda rolls off the tongue. But back to the issue at hand, Barret is giving me odd looks. Looking at the others, I see that they are too. I shrug, giving them a 'who, me?' kind of look. I know that the strategy mentioned wasn't all that great, but hey, it is a good strategy for the enemy, is it not? All the enemy troopers lined up, just waiting for a certain shot to take 'em all down in one.

"Anyway. Shinra helicopters are weak ass things that'll be destroyed if you shoot at them repeatedly." Barret said, swinging that gun-arm of his around.

'That's it? That's his plan? 'Shoot it repeatedly until it goes boom'? I could think up a better plan in my sleep.'

I voiced those opinions to Barret who growled at me, muttering something about young punks not respecting the plans of the experienced. I have to wonder, just what is his experience from? Toy helicopters?

"Anyway. Shouldn't we be moving to our positions?" Jessie interrupted. "Standing here talking about our plans isn't going to stop Shinra from attacking. This isn't a video game (Oh if only you knew how false that was) they aren't going to kindly wait for us to finish planning before the start attacking."

Barret and I looked properly abashed, and Spike had the cheek at snigger at me 'getting told' by someone I barely even know. Jessie just stormed out of the place, readying her weapon. Barret and I walked out of the bar, strolling almost casually. Once outside, I stared up at the pillar we were going to have to defend. Holy heck... the game does not do its size justice. And we were going to have to climb that thing to defend Sector 7? I'll be lucky not to faint from exhaustion. Biggs pushed past me, assault rifle slung over his shoulder and walked towards the weapon shop. I raised an eyebrow ridge, and looked towards Barret, wondering why he wasn't moving to defend the pillar as well.

Barret either didn't notice me or just ignored me and moving calmly towards the gate in the fence that surrounded the pillar. I followed, and was about to point out that it was pad-locked, when Barret lifted his gun arm and fired a single burst, shredding the pad-lock to buggery. He then proceeded to kick open the gate and started to move up the stairs. I moved aside, giving Wedge room to move past and start going up the steps as well. I hesitated, not liking the idea of going up there. I'm afraid of falling. That was how Wedge died wasn't it? Falling of the pillar? I'd rather not share that fate, thank you very much.

'Scared?'

Oh yeah. The morons I've killed so far weren't prepared. This time, we are fighting against a lean, mean, fighting machine. Chances are, they aren't sending the moans in, but the next level up... groans, maybe?

'We can take 'em. If we can't, we may as well just say good-bye to our old lives.'

Point taken. I'm still nervous. Taking a deep breath, I made my first step up the stairs.

'One small step for mankind, one slow, fearful trudge for a human/lizard hybrid.'

Shut up. You aren't helping.

After a second of blissful silence...

'Would you like me to take control of your body? At least I don't seem to be afraid of heights.'

Again... Shut. Up. I can do this. I know I can.

I take several steps up the stairs, before my concentration is shattered by the sound of a gunshot. Spinning around, I spot a small group of Shinra troops moving towards me. Spike's reflexes coming into play, I slide Talon from its sheath quickly, and fired repeatedly at the soldiers. After about half of them fell, Biggs leapt out of an upper floor window of the weapon shot, firing full auto upon the poor sods. Not a one of them survived. Well, that was easy. If its like this the whole time, I see no reason why we won't survive and even manage to prevent the pizza slice from tumbling on top of us.

I stiffen as I feel a breeze blowing on me. Normally, this wouldn't bother me, but since when did a breeze get stronger and stronger, all the while creating a sound similar to that of, oh, a helicopter? Slowly, I turn around. There, flying behind me, was a Shinra soldier, and strapped to his uniform, was a trio of helicopter rotors.

The soldier smirked at me, flashing his yellow, rotten teeth. He swung a rotor attached to his right arm at me, and I hastily ducked down to avoid it. The rotor cut through the railing, like a hot knife through butter, or, in other words, effortlessly. He swung the rotor at me again, this time I blocked it with my gunblade. Well, that was reassuring, the rotors failed to slice through my weapon. Always a good sign. The Shinra soldier seemed to disagree, and swung a leg at my torso. I leapt back, releasing my hold on his rotor, which, might I add, he had been pushing against me with all his strength. The sudden lack of resistance sent him flying off to the side, giving me a clear shot his back. He shuddered once, when Talon sliced through his spine, then fell silent and fell, dead. Well, slightly more difficult then normal, but still no problem.

This time, instead of moving slowly up the stairs, I ran. Needed to be with a partner for the best effect in a battle. About halfway up, I encountered Barret firing like a madman at a small group of the heli-troopers. Deciding to aid him, I fired a few rounds at the soldiers, but their rotors seemed to make a pretty good shield, and they were using them to deflect all incoming bullets. Why can't life ever be easy? Would it be really be to much to ask that we manage to kill them all before they can get close enough to be a threat?

'Seems so.'

Yes, life just loves giving us poor saps a kick up the ass, and we can do nothing about it, it would seem. Once they were close enough, I attempted to skewer one of the closest heli-troops. He parried my thrust and attempted to slice me in two with his other rotor. I don't think Barret appreciated being ignored, because when the poor sod tried to kill me, he left himself open, and Barret capitalized on that opened and fired a long burst a point blank range into the soldier's face. I don't think there was anything left to call a head in the end.

The rest of them backed up slightly, and then one of them gave a gurgled cry of pain and dropped out of the sky. All present, me and Barret included, stared down, confused. When yet another one dropped dead, I was starting to wonder what was going on, at the 3rd, the heli-troopers started to scatter, nervous. Barret grinned, calling up the stairs.

"Good work, Wedge."

So it was Wedge. Wow, he's a good shot, and he must have a silencer or something, because I didn't hear a thing. Barret turned to me, serious.

"I'm going to the very top, with Wedge. You stay around the middle section of the pillar, and take out any foot troops that get past Biggs and Jesse, and as many of those annoying flies as you can." He ordered me.

I nodded, and watched as Barret ran up the stairs. Well, there went my plan to team up against any Shinra we come across. Shrugging, I made to move down a level, but bumped against a wall of flesh. Stepping back, I found a strange man with long brown hair and cold, steel eyes glaring at me.

"Who the hell are you?" I snapped.

'Look at his clothes.'

I took one look, and paled. Blue suit. A Turk, and not one I'm familiar with. I swung my gunblade at him, but he blocked the slash with a rod, similar to a certain red-head's weapon, before swinging his weapon around and hitting me on the leg.

"My name is unimportant. What is important is that you die." He muttered, before swinging his rod at me again.

I rolled out of the way of his attack and kicked him in the face, sending him staggering back slightly. I pulled myself to my feet and glared at the strange Turk.

"Ok, Unimportant. So that's the way you wanna play? Well, two can play at that game." I hissed, softly.

Unimportant's eyes widened slightly, probably weirded out by the hiss in my voice. I picked up Talon from where I had dropped it after being hit in the leg and stood, ready. The Turk readied himself, putting his rod in a defensive position. We stood, staring at each other, like in those old westerns, waiting for the other to move. Being the impatient git that I am, I didn't wait long, and charged, allowing Spike to do his usual part of keeping my subconscious reflexes top notch.

I swung Talon at the Turk, who blocked the blows repeatedly, his eyes scanning me for any weaknesses. I wasn't about to allow him to find any, and increased the speed of my attacks, rather then focus any strength into them. He was good though, I'll give him that. So far, I have been unable to get a single attack through his defences. He grit his teeth, trying to block every attack I threw at him, and succeeding at it, too. I switched tactics on him though, and, using both hands, put all my strength into an overhead cleave. He blocked it, holding it at bay, struggling to do so, but that was my intention. With all his attention focused on our grid-locked weapons, he never saw my foot coming until after I had kicked him in the face. The man staggered backwards, but managed to regain his composure in time to block my next slash.

The Turk now realized how little was getting done, being on the defensive, and charged at me. I'll admit, I was taken by surprise, and obviously, so was Spike. The idiot rammed into me, and we both went flying over the railing and plummeted to the ground below. I landed on something soft, fortunately enough. The Turk was not so lucky, landing on the hard ground, and having my land on him. He kicked me off, and jumped to his feet, looking very pissed off. He pulled a hip-flask from his jacket pocket and took a large gulp.

"Drinking on the job?" I smirked.

He shook his head, and I watched as the cut on his face my kick had made healed itself right back up. Ok, he has a potion, or a hi-potion. I don't care which, the point is, he just healed himself. Groaning, I pulled out a potion of my own and gulped it down quickly, not willing to give him a chance to attack me unawares. Once I tossed the empty flask away, he charged at me again, swinging his baton at me. I jumped back and deflected the blow, before countering. He slid to the side, avoiding the blow, and stabbed out at me, rod sparking, I sidestepped the attack and fired a couple of rounds at him, which he avoided and countered by firing several small beams of light at me, which I ducked.

I watched as we participated in a lethal dance. Yes, a dance, both fighters were using whatever speed and agility they had in order to actually try and hit the other, while at the same time, using those exact same attributes to avoid each other. Both were moving with grace, and no attack went near them, I doubt Jethro even noticed any of this, he was so intent on beating this new enemy. Not even their weapons came anywhere near touching each other.

Of course, all things come to an end, and after the man in the blue suit caused Jethro to jam his weapon into the ground, he twisted around so that he was behind us, most likely to finish us off. I doubt he was expecting the tail whipping him in the face, sending him stumbling back.

Thanks.

'No problem.'

I turned around, spotting the Turk rubbing a nasty looking welt that had formed on his cheek.

"Not having much luck today, are you?" I asked him, cheekily.

He growled, before looking a his watch. He then did the typical Turk thing to do, and turned and made a break for it. Yeah, you run, ya little coward. I could have you any time of the day, and still ask for seconds. I turned around and almost walked right into Jesse, who was staring at me.

"What? I have something on my face?" I asked.

Jesse shook her head slowly, before taking a deep breath.

"You do realize you just fought off a Turk, don't you?"

"Er, yes. Unless the Turks don't wear blue suits anymore, and he just happened to be wearing an old uniform."

She shook her head again.

"But you just fought off a Shinra Elite. The Turks are meant o be better then Even SOLDIER, bested only by Sephiroth and his 2IC." Biggs claimed, slapping me on the back.

"I have a feeling that he was a rookie." I murmured.

I have a feeling that he was, since I'd have expected a veteran Turk to be quite a bit harder. I mean, in the game, the first fight with Reno required all 3 party members to be involved. Or, I got lucky. I personally prefer the idea that it was a rookie I beat the snot out of

'You got lucky, and it was a rookie at the same time.'

Jeez. Such support from my faithful companion, who happens to reside in my mind. I'm schizophrenic, with voices in my mind like this. I only hope that when we get summon materia, they don't decide to talk to us, I'd go mad.

'You are mad. And getting off topic.'

Thanks. You're a real pal.

Anyway, I looked up, and spotted a helicopter hovering around, and a distant sound of Barret's gun-arm. Well, at least he's alright. I turn back to face the two AVALANCHE members and jump in surprise at Cloud's ugly mug.

"What's this I hear about Turks?" He asked me.

"I just chased off a Turk, whose name is Unimportant." I informed him.

He raised an eyebrow, examining me.

"Right. It was probably a rookie, and you got lucky.

'Told you.'

"Oh, shut up."

That goes for you too, wise-ass.

"It was still an impressive fight, Cloud." Biggs interrupted. "After the Turk threw them both off the pillar, their fight just went to a whole new level. It was like a dance, neither could hit the other, no matter how hard they tried. Both were so... so... agile."

"Biggs, as much as I appreciate the praise, don't we have more important things to worry about? Such as... oh, I don't know... preventing the plate from crushing us like bugs?"

"Good point..." He squeaked.

I looked up at the top of the pillar again, making a special note to gloat to Barret about how crap his 'shoot any helicopters in sight to buggery' plan was. I then looked at Biggs and Jesse again.

"I have a bad feeling about this. You two get out of the Sector. If anything happens, at least one of you has to survive for AVALANCHE to continue. I'll tell Wedge to retreat as well."

"Spike!" Tifa spoke up, from her spot next to Aeris.

"No, Tifa, think about it. I just fought of a single Turk, who was most likely a rookie, and yes, chances were, I got lucky. Now, if I just fought off the rookie... where are the veterans?" I hissed.

She went silent at that, possibly mulling over what I had said. Cloud nodded, barely noticeably.

"He has a point. They wouldn't send a lone rookie without at least one of the experienced members being close by to give them a hand. And the veterans, as Spike said a while back, surpass SOLDIER, beaten only by Sephiroth, before he died." Cloud pointed out. "I may be confident in my abilities, but even I have to admit that even working together against a lone veteran, we still may not survive."

"Which is why it would be a good idea for you two to get away. If you survive, then you can just rebuild AVANCHE, but if we all go down, then who will there be left in the fight against Shinra."

Biggs hesitated for a second before nodding.

"Right. Hopefully I'll see you again someday." Biggs said, holding out his hand, which I grasped firmly. "Try not to die."

"You too." I replied.

Both he and Jesse said their final farewells to Cloud and Tifa before retreating. I watched them go, before focusing my attention upwards again. My eyes widened and I jumped back, avoiding Wedge's body. I rolled him onto his back and took a look at him. I might not be an expert, but I could tell that he was too badly injured for any of our potions to take affect. Cloud moved over to the fallen AVALANCHE member.

"Wedge, are you alright?"

Wedge chuckled weakly, looking at the ex-SOLDIER turned mercenary.

"...Cloud... you remembered my name..." It was obviously taking a lot of energy for Wedge to speak, and blood started to dribble from his mouth. "Barret's up top. ...Help him... an'... Cloud... Sorry, I wasn't any help."

Wedge's eyes rolled back into his head, and when I checked him for a pulse, there was none. I shook my head, guiltily. I should have been able to save him, instead, I got dragged into a fight with Unimportant, and that cost Wedge his life. I looked up. Cloud was glaring up at the Shinra helicopter that was buzzing around at the top of the pillar.

"I'm going up." He declared, resting his hand on the hilt of his Buster Sword.

Tifa turned to Aeris; worry clear as daylight in her eyes.

"Aeris, do me a favor. I have a bar called the '7th Heaven' in this neighborhood. There's a little girl named Marlene there..."

Aeris interrupted Tifa with a reassuring smile. "Don't worry. I'll put her somewhere safe."

Tifa sighed in relief before turning to face the local population. "It's dangerous here! Everyone get away from the pillar, quickly! Everyone get out of Sector 7!"

I felt someone tap me on the shoulder and turned to face Cloud. He handed me a Materia orb.

"Restore Materia. You can never have enough people in a battle with healing capabilities." He explained when I accepted it.

I nodded gratefully, and pushed it into an empty Materia slot on Talon.

Once everybody was prepared, we stepped though the gate and started our long climb to the top. Any and all resistance was cut down immediately. When we reached the top, Barret was firing at the helicopter that was buzzing around. He spotted us and waved us over to him.

"Tifa! Cloud! Spike! You came! Be careful, they're attacking from the helicopter."

"What happened to 'if you shoot 'em enough, they explode'?" I asked, and received a foul look from Barret in return.

"Look out! Here it comes!" Tifa warned us, and the chopper came, firing machine guns at us.

We all ducked for cover, and watched as a man in a blue suit leapt out, and landed on his feet. The red-headed man ran to a computer terminal and started typing furiously into the keypad. Being the closest one to him, I charged at him, Talon raised high. He finished just before I got to him and spun around, kicking me in the face. Notice how all these non-weapon attacks wind up hitting everyone in the face? This is getting annoying.

"You're too late, yo." He smirked, looking at us all in turn. "Once I push this button..." Without even looking, he smacked his palm again the big red button. Why is it always a big red button? Wouldn't it be disguised more as a small blue button? "That's all, folks! Mission accomplished, yo."

"And what's to stop us from killing you and then disarming the bomb?" I asked.

Reno looked at me properly for the first time and grinned.

"Ah, you're the one that attacked Cel. That speaks wonders for your skills, yo. He may be a rookie, but he is skilled."

"Yea, and there are more of us this time around, so we'll easily be able to beat you." I replied.

"Cocky. Bring it on, yo."

Cloud and I rushed him at the same time, swinging our blades. Reno dodged our joint-attack and did a flip over Cloud, hitting him with his rod. The blond swordsman staggered back, before bringing his massive sword towards Reno again, who blocked with his rod and head-butted him. I fired several rounds at Reno, who staggered back, but didn't appear any worse then before. Maybe he has a barrier up or something. Shrugging, I ducked under Reno's rod and punched him in the chest a couple of times before he leapt back and shot something out of his rod at me. I found myself locked inside a small, see-through pyramid, and watched as Tifa unleashed a small combo in Reno before retreated out of range of his physical attacks. Barret yelled some profanities and released a big-shot at Reno, who staggered back, injured.

"Hey, let me out of here!" I yelled, and Cloud, upon noticing my dilemma, slashed at the pyramid.

Free from the confinement of the pyramid, and ready to kick some ass, I charged at Reno and managed to slash his arm. He let out a strangled cry of pain before jamming his rod into my stomach and releasing a torment of electricity. The power surged through my body, sparks flying off me, before I flew back. I landed painfully against the railing, and the small of my back groaned in protest at the harsh treatment it was going through. I forced myself to stand up, and looked up. My eyes widened at the sight of a smirking Reno charging at me. I moved to defend myself, but after the electricity had surged through my body, my movement was sluggish. Reno's rod connected with my chin in an uppercut that threw me over the railing.

I didn't fall though; I grabbed the railing on the level below me. My arm really protested, but I was alive. I pulled myself to safety and glared upwards. I heard a snigger and then saw Reno falling off the pillar himself, yelling.

"Live and let live, yo!"

I looked down, but saw no trace of the red-head. I quickly ran up to the top level again and found Tifa taping random buttons on the terminal.

"I don't know how to stop this! Cloud, you try it." She shouted.

Cloud rushed over to the terminal and took a look before concluding.: "It's not a normal time bomb."

Shaking my head, I scooped up Talon and sheathed it. I turned my head to the side and watched as a helicopter raised itself. Riding it was another guy in a blue suit. Tseng.

"That's right. You'll have the hard time disarming that one. It'll blow the second some stupid jerk touches it." He gloated.

Tifa looked shaken, as she tried to reason with the Turk, who shook his head.

"Ha ha ha… …Only a Shinra Executive can set up or disarm the Emergency Plate Release System."

Barret swore loudly, pointing his gun-arm at Tseng. "Shut yer hole!"

"I wouldn't do that if I were you." Tseng warned Barret, before he could open fire. "I wouldn't try that…… You just might make me injure our special guest."

Barret looked confused before he spotted Aeris slumped over on the seat next to Tseng.

"Aeris!" Tifa called out.

"Oh, you know each other? How nice you could see each other one last time. You should thank me."

"What are you going to do with Aeris!" Cloud yelled out, anger in his voice.

"I haven't decided. Our orders were to find and catch the last remaining Ancient. It's taken us a long time, but now I can finally report this to the President."

Aeris looked up at Tifa and smiled reassuringly. "Tifa, don't worry, she's alright."

Tseng frowned, slapping the Ancient.

"Aeris!" Tifa called.

"Tseng, you son of a bitch! You let her go!" I shouted at the Turk, who jumped slightly before looking at me, eyebrows raised.

"So... you're the lizard-man that happens to be the current gossip of the year. Hojo would love to get his hands on you, but I'm afraid that our primary concern is the Ancient."

"Look, just hurry and get out!" Aeris shouted.

Tseng just laughed at that. "Well, it should be starting right about now. Think you can escape in time?"

The helicopter rose up some and flew away from Sector 7. I watched as a support strut exploded, in an impressive display of fire and lights. All around us, everything started to collapse. Barret looked at a length of wire that had come lose from the ceiling above.

"Hey, we can use this wire to get out!" He yelled out.

We all moved over to him. Thinking quickly, Barret tucked Tifa under one arm, while motioning for Cloud and me to get on his shoulders. We both climbed up his back and took a shoulder each, both of us making certain to hold on tight.

Barret leapt off the pillar, swinging on the wire in the same way Tarzan does. I watched as the scenery passed by in a blur, the sounds all around were deafening. I looked forwards and watched as the heavy metal door I'd entered from came ever closer. Barret let go of the wire as it reached its limit and we all went flying. The last thing I remember from this chapter of my life is the world going black.