Surprise! I'm giving you guys a new chapter after only a week's wait. =) It's just as a little "thank you" for those of you who have been patient enough to wait for my updates and stick with the story. So thanks, everyone! Enjoy, and keep reviewing; it really helps me have the motivation to write.

Disclaimer: I don't own anything. Again.

Chapter 16: Escape?

Days went by. Days of absolutely nothing. Nothing except mako injections and passing out for Tifa. Each morning she would eat breakfast and then get an injection. Then, if she was lucky, she would wake up about an hour before dinner and then have another meal. And then another shot. And then she was out until morning.

With the weakness the mako created in her, she couldn't do anything. Not really, anyway. She did do one thing in secret when she was awake, and that was writing. There was still paper and pen in the desk of her old bedroom, and so she wrote about a paragraph each sitting before she went to lie down. Not because she was too tired to write, but because she was planning her escape. And to escape, she would need all the strength she could muster.

It was dinner time on the third day when she first came up with the idea to pretend to have the starting symptoms of mako-poisoning. Because of her "sickness", Kadaj didn't give her a shot that night. He said something about wanting to see if things would get worse or not. And if they didn't, then they would continue the process at the same pace.

Now, Tifa knew by the fourth evening that she couldn't get away with missing any more mako shots. Yazoo promised that she would get her next one in the morning. Tifa knew one thing for certain about these men: they didn't make commitments they didn't intend to keep.

Around 1:00 AM, Tifa climbed out of her bed. First, she went to her desk, where she had left the note she had been working on for the past four days. She put it in a safe place—a place that only one or two people would know to look. And then she slipped on her black shoes and moved to the window, taking extra care to open it quietly.

True, she was on the second floor of the building. But she had survived much larger falls before. If she could catch herself quickly and quietly, then she was pretty much home free. At least, she hoped that would be the case. She had no clue if Kadaj or somebody else would be awake keeping an eye out for suspicious behavior.

But at this point, it didn't matter. Tifa had to escape. It was either that or death. Her body couldn't handle more mako—it just couldn't. Each time she had it, it felt like her body was absolutely burning. It wasn't a burn like anything she had ever felt before. It literally felt like it was eating at her flesh. The pain was unbearable, and that was why she passed out each time they gave her an injection.

A soft grunt left Tifa's lips as she finished prying the window open. The cool night air greeted her. It sent a chill through her body, both in excitement and chilliness. Freedom at last!

She climbed out and slowly slid herself down the angled roof before silently jumping down, making a smooth landing on the ground outside the house. She looked around in case anyone was watching her. Nope—nobody in sight. She couldn't help but let a smile appear on her lips. Yes! Yes! I'm home free!

A door near the edge of the small town creaked open, making her feel a sudden sense of dread. That was her exit path! She silently ran up the hill and towards the mansion, moving past it and into the one region she knew best: The mountains. She ran the first few steps on the mountain path but then slowed to a jog, her footsteps too loud otherwise.

Tifa turned around as she cautiously moved forward, but there was nothing behind her. Only a few streetlights on in the town, and that were what dimly lit her path now. She had to admit, she did not like taking this path at night. Even if she knew it like the back of her hand, it was still a dangerous route.

She moved through the shadows and made it across the winding path to the first mountain without any incidents. True freedom!

"You think we'd let you get away that easily, Miss Lockhart?"

Tifa whirled around at the voice, her hands instinctively turning into fists. Her heart dropped when, in the faint moonlight, she recognized the figure staring her down from about five feet back. Kadaj.

"Well, one can always hope," Tifa responded, trying to hide her shock and anxiety. I gotta find a way out of this…she thought desperately. She doubt she could take Kadaj on in a fight—after all, Cloud had a hard time defeating him at one point. And Tifa was much weaker due to the experiments they had performed on her the past few days.

She left her hands by her side and took a few steps back, aware that she was only a few feet away from making a sharp turn into a cave. Maybe, somehow, she could lose Kadaj in there.

Two hands on her upper arms made her forget that plan, though. "Where do you think you're going?" Loz whispered in her ear, his voice practically laughing. Tifa moved out of his grasp quickly and spun around, giving him a roundhouse kick to the face. If the situation wasn't so serious, she would have laughed at Loz's facial expression.

"Stupid!" Loz cried, lifting a hand to his face. "You really think there's a point to running? You can't get away! You're weak…spent. Worthless!"

"Says you!" Tifa spat, lifting a fist. She went to strike Loz, but he stepped back and avoided the blow without a problem. It wasn't like Tifa to miss such an easy hit, but in a sense, Loz was correct. She was pretty spent from the mako. "Stand and fight me!"

"Why?" Loz retorted.

"Because I want my freedom!" Tifa cried out, running the two steps between her and Loz. She punched him in the gut with a mighty fist and then kicked his legs out from underneath him, forcing him to the ground. She leapt over him before he could recover, the woman hoping that Kadaj was in too much shock to try and attack her. "You won't keep me here anymore! You won't use me for your own purposes!"

"But we will," Yazoo said, stepping out of the shadows in front of Tifa. She stopped and stood still, surprised but not shocked.

"Yazoo; what a surprise," she said sarcastically, rolling her eyes. Of course all the brothers would show up to stop her. It had been ridiculous to assume anything differently.

"I thought it would be," he responded apathetically. "Now, will you come back willingly or are you going to put up a fight?"

"What do you think?" she shouted, her voice echoing through the mountainous region. "Of course I'm going to fight! What do I have to lose?"

"You honestly think you can defeat all three of us?" Kadaj asked, his question forcing Tifa to turn around. When she didn't answer right away, the silver-haired man continued speaking. "Why can't you just accept your destiny? It wasn't that hard when you went to save the world from Sephiroth. What's stopping you now?"

"You don't define my destiny. That's my job," Tifa said, taking a few steps toward him. "Do what you may to me, but I refuse to believe that my fate is to bring Sephiroth back into the world. I can't do it. I won't do it!"

Loz took a step forward, having recovered from Tifa's little "attack" only a few seconds after she had completed it. He set a hand on her shoulder, the girl facing away from him when he performed the action. "You don't have a choice," he stated softly.

"Yes, I do!"

The sound of footsteps on the mountain made all four of them fall silent. They all turned to face the source of the noise, Tifa turning last. To her shock and joy, a man rounded the corner and came out of the mountain cave entrance she had been trying to get to. It looked like a hiker to her. Honestly, she didn't care as long as he could assist her somehow.

"Everything alright here?" he asked innocently. He looked from the three men and then to Tifa, who was shaking her head faintly. Familiarity struck him, making his eyes widen. "Hey…You're Tifa Lockhart!"

Tifa sucked in a breath and took a step toward the stranger, in awe. How did he know who she was? She doubt it was through the bar; most people there just knew her by her first name. But how else could he know her?

"There's a ton of people looking for you," he continued taking a step forward as well. "What's the guy's name….Strife. Cloud Strife, he's the one leading things. And a crew of other people." The climber paused, then looking from Tifa to the other three men within eight feet of each other. Obviously, as he looked over all of them, he realized that they were holding her there. "And they're…"

Yazoo suddenly lifted his gun and pulled the trigger, shooting the man through the heart before he could utter the words. Tifa screamed in surprise and took a step back, Kadaj taking advantage of the moment and grabbing her shoulders. The poor hiker fell off the side of the mountain and into the dark abyss, never to be seen again.

Tifa whirled around and brought up a hand, slapping Kadaj across the face. "You…MONSTERS!" she cried in outrage. She was just about to deliver another blow when two strong hands pulled her back and spun around before she was forced face-down on the ground.

"Hey Yazoo, look at this!" Loz laughed, bending down over his catch. He held her wrists being her back and her ankles in two hands, keeping her from moving at all. "Just like a pig!" If he had some rope, he would really hogtie her. But not now—it would be too hard to carry her back in a curled up position like that.

Tifa squirmed in his grasp, hearing the three brothers laughing in her ear. She eventually stopped struggling as tears of frustration fell. There was no escaping this.