Hey guys, how's it goin? I'm doin fine, thanks for asking. Here's chapter 9, and it's really full of action. Now I'm not just posting this on a random date. I'm posting this now so that you can expect chapter ten within two weeks. You see, that chapter is pretty romantic, and since Valentine's Day is coming up…

Well, you get the idea. Here's chapter nine.

Oh, and comments would be super terrific. Seriously people, post stuff!

Disclaimer: I wish I owned this, but I don't. Only the story, not the characters or anything belonging to FFVII or Flyleaf.

Chapter 9: Breakdown

"Cid, what's going on?" Cloud questioned, approaching the pilot. Truth be told, he was a bit angry. He had just been about to tell Tifa something important, but then, of course, Cid had to interrupt it with an urgent call over the speakers. He hoped it was worth the trouble of leaving Tifa hanging.

"Look down."

The swordsman wandered to the front of the airship and looked out the front window. "Wow," he breathed. A big, red x was painted on the ground. Apparently this was where they were supposed to land. "...this is the right continent, right?" he asked. The ride had been pretty quick, perhaps this was all a mistake.

"What?! ^&#! of course this is the !*#&*& right continent!" Cid steamed, screaming out more obscenities. Cloud wisely backed away from the steaming pilot and over to the rest of his friends, who had been trickling into the room while he had been speaking to Cid.

"We're about to land," he informed them. "Is everyone prepared? We don't know what's down there." A few of them instinctively touched their weapons, but the most movement came from Tifa, who was casually putting on her leather gloves. He felt his heart break; he didn't want her to have to fight.

At that very moment, Tifa's phone rang. Everyone stiffened as she answered it.

"Hello?" Pause. "What? No--" Another pause; apparently she was interrupted. All the AVALANCHE members stared at her, trying to read her facial expression. Cloud noticed that she looked a bit frightened. She released a breath slowly before speaking again. "Vincent, Yuffie, myself and Cloud." The conversation ended as abruptly as it started as she pulled the phone away from her ear.

"Tifa?" Yuffie asked, breaking through the heavy air.

"Only four of us can go on from this point," she said. "I chose the four of us--" she nodded to Vincent, Yuffie and Cloud, "—because we all have different strengths to off the group. Vincent and Yuffie are great at observing details; Cloud is strong; and I wasn't about to be left behind."

"Any idea what's going to happen?" Barret asked, sounding extremely nervous at the fact he was being left behind.

Tifa shook her head. "No. But we have twenty minutes to land and get to a specified location in the woods."

Reeve nodded formally. "Then let's get down to business. Cid, let's land this airship."

"The pawns play their parts well," Kadaj said to his brothers, a smile appearing on his face. Indeed, the game was playing out just as they had hoped it would. And although this next stage would determine a lot, things were looking alright.

"This is a lot of fun," Loz said excitedly, jumping out of his seat. The metal chair crumpled to the ground when he accidentally hit it. His smile faded as he grumpily muttered his next sentence. "But why can't we come up with a better hide-out?"

"In due time, Loz," Yazoo said, entering the barren room through a doorway. He had just been in checking on Marlene, who was handcuffed to a bed but otherwise just fine. Heck, they even had the television on for her. Some prisoner she was....Ah, but now he was getting off subject. "We don't want to reveal our cards this early in the game."

"Even so," Kadaj agreed, "It is best we get to work. Brothers, it is time for you to get to your posts. Good luck."

Loz and Yazoo both nodded formally before leaving the room, weapons fully loaded and minds set for battle.

Fun indeed.

"Stay alert," Cloud told his companions. They were only ten minutes into the woods and yet nothing eventful had happened. With each minute that passed by, he got more and more anxious. Something big was coming. He could feel it in the tense air.

Tifa nodded from behind him, feeling the exact same emotions he was. She felt so jumpy that if a squirrel jumped out of a tree, she would punch it. The thought almost made her laugh. Although it was impossible to have that reaction here, her muscles did become less tense. She was worrying too much. If this was anything like the last mission, they would probably just get information or something here. There was no threat...

A rustling noise came from ahead, making Yuffie gasp. Cloud pushed both girls behind him and Vincent covered the rear. After a few moments, nothing happened.

Cloud, using as few words as possible, motioned that he and Vincent would go ahead of the girls to see what the noise was.

Tifa and Yuffie stood alone in an open patch of woods.

Tifa's nerves were strangely calm. She knew that if anything came at them, both of them were prepared to take out the threat. But she already had the mindset that nobody was coming for them.

Yuffie, on the other hand, was nervous enough for the both of them. She wasn't afraid for the boys up ahead; both of them had saved the world before. No, she was afraid for her and Tifa. An eerie sense of impending doom hung over her head, keeping her on her toes.

Standing back to back, both girls jumped at the same time when they saw something. Or two somebodies.

Approaching in front of Tifa was Loz. And coming in on Yuffie's side was Yazoo. Yuffie clutched her weapon tightly and Tifa raised her fists.

But this wasn't the end of the surprises. Loz became a blur in Tifa's site before two more of him suddenly appeared at his sides. And then another two. And again they appeared, only stopping once there were eight of them. Eight Loz's were present as well.

"!&#* eight Yazoo's," Yuffie muttered. "What's going on with you?"

"Eight Loz's," Tifa mumbled in response, her eyes staying on all of the men. The clones and the real thing were still walking towards her, encircling the girls along with his brother. "You ready for this?"

"The White Rose of Wutai is always ready," Yuffie tried to say optimistically, but the crack in her voice made it clear she had her doubts.

"Then let's go!" the bar maiden shouted, charging forward and kicking one Loz over the head. More moved in to encircle her, throwing punches along the way. Tifa, however, was so fired up that they didn't even touch her. With one powerful spin move, she dispelled all of them. But they didn't stay down. One tackled her, several more taking that as a chance to do the same.

Over on her side, Yuffie was having her own trouble. Her weapon was meant for distance fighting, not close range combat. She was thankful she could dispel Yazoo's bullets, but that was about all she could do. That and hope that they would go back and make an impact to any opponent, because obviously she couldn't.

Tifa growled and squirmed underneath the men, finally turning onto her back and kicking them off of her. She gasped for air and forced herself up, fists raised in either defense or attack. "Fight like a real man, Loz," she challenged. "Dispel these stupid clones and let's do this for real."

One of the men chuckled, stepping forward. "You're not in a position to say anything." She was about to charge at him, but he raised a sword and pointed the tip at her throat. While she was stunned at the change in weaponry, he chuckled. "Oh? You like my new toy? Your boyfriend ruined my last one so now I've come up with something a bit more...traditional. What do you think of it?"

Tifa smirked. "It's terrific."

"Really?"

"Yup," she confirmed. "Because now I can do this!" She moved over to the side and kicked his hand, releasing the sword from his grip. While it was rising up in the sky, she jumped up and grabbed a hold of it.

"Haha!" Loz laughed. "You can't use that thing; you're too used to fighting with your fists!"

Tifa smirked yet again as she landed on the ground. "Why don't you test me?"

"Hmph," he grunted, raising his fists. "This should be fun." The man let out a battle cry and attacked.

Yuffie let out a battle cry as she leapt up into a tree, finally having the right vantage point to attack. She cast a dark spell over her side of the battlefield before throwing her weapon, striking most of the men who threatened her. A victory laugh escaped her lips, but her success wasn't complete. From behind, a loneYazoo hit her over the head with the butt of his gun. She gasped and fell out of the tree, landing on the ground with a loud thud.

Tifa stopped battling with the Loz's when she saw what happened. "Yuffie!" she screamed. The girl didn't move off the ground. Tifa gritted her teeth and quickly disposed of the men around her with some fancy sword work. Three down, ten million to go. She jumped back and set her feet against the trunk of a tree before launching herself across the arena, slashing through almost every one of the men who were present. Landing right next to Yuffie, she fought off a few more of the villains to give the ninja more time to rise to her feet.

Eventually, Yuffie did rise to her feet. But that was just when Tifa was finally hit down. The bar owner slid into Yuffie, knocking them both down.

Yazoo (or a clone of Yazoo) walked forward and looked down at both the girls. "This has been very fun indeed," he stated, a smile appearing on his lips. "It's a shame though...I was expecting more from the ninja."

Yuffie growled and attempted to rise to her feet, only to be pushed back down by one of the clones.

"Anyway," he continued as his brother's clones started to file in and mix with his. "I hope you've had a long, fulfilling life, because this is the end of it all." He pointed the gun at Yuffie. "And you get the honor of dying first."

A gunshot rang out throughout the area, and surprisingly, neither of the girls was hit. Two of the clones fell to the ground, neither getting back up.

A familiar battle cry filled the area as a blond swordsman entered the scene, swinging his obnoxiously huge sword at a group. Tifa defensively brought up an arm to cover her eyes, instinct taking over. Beside her, she felt Yuffie grab onto her free arm tightly. She didn't protest.

Soon enough, the noises of battle disappeared. Tifa shyly opened her eyes and saw Cloud standing in her line of vision, staring down at Loz, who laid on the ground without movement. Unknown to her, Vincent was over on Yuffie's side, just then putting his gun back in his holster.

Cloud turned around and faced Tifa, the frantic look in his eyes making her heart skip a beat. "You okay?"

She nodded wordlessly. Yuffie finally released her arm.

"What happened?" Yuffie asked, her voice sounding a bit shaken. "You guys didn't want to come back until the fight was nearly over?" she rephrased, her voice sounding a bit more optimistic and playful.

Cloud shook his head. "We were wandering for a minute, then we inspected the area and saw that the noise from earlier was only a squirrel. Vincent and I wondered if we should go ahead and find out what the meeting point was. But Vincent thought he heard sounds of a conflict behind us, so we came back as fast as we could."

"B-but--"

"Yuffie," Tifa reminded her, "We were only fighting for a few minutes. I know it felt like an eternity, but they came back as soon as they could."

The younger girl fell silent.

"Anyway," she continued, "What're we going to do? Obviously our time is up."

"You have completed your mission," a voice said from somewhere in the woods. Vincent and Cloud both fingered their weapons and spun toward the source of the voice.

"Well done," Loz said, walking out of the woods along with his brother. Neither of them appeared wounded. "The purpose of this was to test your strength. To see if you were fit to perform more missions."

"Where is Marlene?" Cloud growled, gripping his sword tightly in his hand.

"Don't lose your temper just yet," Yazoo said coolly. "Attack us and you'll lose her. Go home and wait till we contact you for your next assignment."

"Now listen, you..." Yuffie steamed.

"Don't," Tifa said firmly. Everyone turned to her in surprise. "We'll do as you say." To everyone's surprise, she rose to her feet. All eyes may have been on her, but her eyes were glued to Loz. "But I swear, if one hair on her head is out of place, you'll pay. I swear it."

Loz had the nerve to smile, making Tifa's blood boil over. "As you wish, beautiful."

Yuffie grabbed onto Tifa's arm just in time as the bar tender instinctively moved forward. Tifa's angry eyes turned to the ninja, but her expression softened when she realized why her friend had taken action. She was positive that her eyes had shown murderous intention. She turned forward again to look at them.

They were gone.

Tifa took in a shaky breath and shut her eyes, trying to regain her composure. So many emotions were bubbling up inside her...anger, sorrow, fear; it was all too overwhelming. She couldn't be strong anymore—she needed to break down. But not here. The charade would have to last a little longer.

"...girls alright?" Vincent was asking while Tifa wasn't paying attention.

Yuffie nodded faintly. "Yes," she replied softly.

"Tifa?" Cloud inquired gently.

She opened her eyes. "Fine."

"Your arm is bleeding," he stated quietly. There was a certain amount of tenseness in his voice. Tifa looked down and saw that he was correct.

"It's not that bad," she said aloud, shrugging it off.

"Teef..."

"Let's just go home, okay?" she suddenly pleaded, tears reappearing in her eyes.

Cloud nodded quickly. "Yeah. Let's go home."