The Warrior

Chapter 5

Tifa and Chaka rounded the corner, and witnessed the horror of both sets of elevator doors as they began to close.

"Wait!" Resonated down the hall with terrified urgency as the two of them sprinted for all their worth. Then they were skidding across the slick tile flooring and slamming bodily into the now closed doors with two muffled thumps. They proceeded to pound futilely against them before sagging their shoulders in defeat.

"Son of a bitch." Chaka groused and leaned back, cradling his head. "We're in for it now."

"What do you mean?" Tifa asked worriedly.

He planted his hands against the wall and proceeded to bang his head against it. "Man, someone's got to be overseeing the morning workout, and Angeal definitely isn't down there right now – that leaves only one other option."

The unspoken name hung heavily in the air between them. Sephiroth…

Son of a bitch…and Tifa wasn't prone to harsh swearing, which is perhaps why she refrained from voicing those sentiments out loud.

"But I thought you said Sephiroth wasn't such a bad guy?" She intoned.

Chaka grimaced, "That's the thing though, he's got a way of making you feel like you deserve it when you're punished – I can't explain, you'll see."

One set of doors finally slid open and they ran inside, despite knowing that their efforts were in vain. It had taken the whole of their allotted five minutes just for it to get back. Needless to say the mood was decidedly grim on the trip down.

But they ran all the way to the gymnasium anyway and burst into the room, dragging far more attention to themselves than Tifa would've liked. As Chaka had surmised, Sephiroth was at the head of the procession, and to Tifa's utter astonishment and consternation, naked from the waist up. She halted so hard in her tracks it was a wonder she hadn't pulled something, or at least torn a hole in the matting.

On second thought, she had torn a hole in it. Oh I so did not do that…

Everyone stared at her, though they were the least of her worries. He was staring too. She flushed red. Chaka grabbed her by the arm and shook her loose so that they could take their place among the group and maybe no one noticed the embarrassing damage she'd done to the mat.

Sephiroth gave an apathetic nod to the both of them, "Meet me afterwards." He said, and resumed the exercise they had been performing before the interruption.

It proved to be the longest three hours of her life, not least of which because she was having trouble not examining the remarkable musculature of the man up front. She was both embarrassed and ashamed, and toiling hopelessly with the pushups that still brutalized her. To make matters worse, he was making the rounds through the room when he came to her in the middle of her worst work out.

…At which point she did her standardized collapse in exhaustion. She thought for the briefest of milliseconds, of attempting to bury her face in her hands, but knowing that it was him and the thought of his condescension infuriated her so, she forced herself up instead. He never said a word, and she resumed the grueling task before he could find reason to, even though she supposed he already had reason enough to make an example of her in front of the entire army.

He simply chose not to.

Tifa felt like a feather adrift on the wind with no control whatsoever of the proceedings. An irrational fear was gradually building, suffocating her brain as the hours passed, until she had worked herself into a full blown panic. She wasn't going to live to see the light of tomorrow, not that she'd seen much light since she came here, but she would really like to see it again.

If by some miracle she did survive, she really needed to get out of this building for a breath of fresh air.

At the end of three hours she was still miraculously alive. It was the ensuing two that threatened to put her into an early grave. She and Chaka had waited behind as the other SOLDIERs filed out, and Sephiroth had for all appearances ignored them until the gym was entirely empty.

Then he approached them, an anonymous file in hand, and gave them each a stern glance, "Three minutes late." He declared not unkindly, "I will not ask why – it doesn't matter. You know better than to cut it that close."

Tifa found herself shuffling her feet and skulking further behind her collar. Did he have to say it that way? He sounded like a disappointed parent. She was beginning to understand what Chaka meant.

"Sorry, sir." Chaka inclined his head, shamefaced.

Sephiroth looked at Tifa with a vague sort of curiosity. "Have you nothing to say?"

"I…" She fumbled for a reply that wasn't immediately forthcoming and kept her eyes carefully averted. He was still shirtless and it was rather distracting. "I apologize, sir, for my tardiness."

"Better to be on time." He suggested calmly. "Therefore, I shall bestow upon the both of you the dubious honor of taking these," He indicated the files in his hand, "To Hojo's lab on the 74th floor – I have enclosed a clearance card which you can leave at his desk when finished."

Tifa stared in obvious bewilderment as she accepted the proffered file. She did not see the subtle stiffening of her companion's back, nor did she notice the distinct paling of his otherwise dark complexion. After all, this wasn't so bad as punishments went. She had been expecting another hour of grueling workouts.

"And," But Sephiroth had not finished, "when you've completed that, assuming you escape with your sanity intact, you can spend the rest of the day cleaning my office and updating schedules on the computer."

Chaka bit back a grimace.

Tifa was still trying to get her head around the fact that Sephiroth, the emotionless one, had just made a joke. There was even the slightest of smirks on his face – the first real expression she'd seen from him, and it was almost…appealing.

A jolt went up her spine that had her damn near pulling her collar up around her eyebrows. Damn it, she really wanted to kill him now. How dare he treat her decently! As if he were almost normal and certainly not the raving lunatic she knew him to be.

But the evidence wasn't there, as if it had been completely erased from all but her memory.

"You are dismissed." He announced at last.

Tifa was only too eager to remove herself from his presence. Only Chaka noticed the General's particular interest in her as they were turning to leave. His eyes lingered after her for no apparent reason of his consciousness, but something deeply rooted within himself.

Sephiroth sighed as the two SOLDIERs went out of sight, but not out of mind. He ran a hand through his hair, massaging his scalp as he did. It was all so strange to him.

Something about that SOLDIER…he hadn't told his friend, for he felt it more acutely than he was willing to admit that something was indeed out of place. Or rather, in place, and yet he didn't know why. It was like a tickling in the back of his mind, a whisper, but no matter how he tried he couldn't hear it.

It was baffling. He was rarely baffled by anything, mostly because there were few things that interested him long enough to reach that point. That he was interested in this was a result of the baffling nature – he didn't know why, it just was.

And he strongly suspected the boy was batting for the other team. He wasn't sure how he felt about that, except that as a straight man, it was substantially uncomfortable – especially when the aforementioned boy of questionable sexual orientation was quite clearly giving him the eye.

Sephiroth frowned at that thought, wondering darkly if somewhere therein was a subliminal message that he should be taking heed of.

Tifa thought Chaka seemed a little jumpy, and not just because he leapt a foot in the air when she said his name. He was visibly twitching as they walked down the hall. Naturally, her curiosity was piqued, along with a healthy sense of self-preservation.

If it was that bad, she wanted to know what to expect.

"I thought our punishment would be worse." She began conversationally.

Chaka gave a dry bark of laughter, "Think about it for a moment, and then try to picture something so frightening that even Sephiroth, the greatest warrior of all time, would sooner delegate the duty to someone else than risk himself in the confines of Hojo's lab."

Tifa frowned, "Or, maybe he just doesn't want to do it himself, and we conveniently presented ourselves."

"That would be why we're cleaning his desk." Chaka supplied.

"That's not so bad, is it?" She quarried brightly.

"You haven't seen his desk," was the grim response.

They went several paces before Chaka spoke again and there was no humor in his voice, "It might sound like a joke, but it's not unheard of for SOLDIERs to occasionally go in there and never come back."

Tifa felt an uncomfortable squirm in her stomach. No, it didn't surprise her entirely. She had been in the Nibelheim reactor – had seen the abominations of science encased within and had been horrified at the inhumanity.

Had it been Hojo's work? She had not made the connection before, but now that she had, the effects were sobering. Her skin crawled.

"Hey," Chaka said, concerned, "Don't worry about it, alright? Only 3rd class no-names ever disappear. He wouldn't risk swiping a high ranked SOLDIER – Angeal would have his ass on a string if he did."

"And Sephiroth?" She wondered. "What would he do?"

Chaka gazed ahead of them thoughtfully, "You know, I don't really know. I get the feeling…shit, I probably shouldn't say this but," He hesitated, "I get the feeling that Sephiroth fears Hojo a little – I know it sounds weird, but…there's something bad there, real bad."

Tifa recalled something that Sephiroth had said years ago – something that had had no significant meaning to her then. Now that she knew Hojo's name, she understood. The General had most certainly not liked the man in the least bit.

It suddenly put things into a whole different perspective – a chain of events inlaid with varying degrees of monstrosity leading up to the inevitable fall of a great hero. He had been created from a monster and by one; it only followed that he would become one.

It was all so wrong.

And did no one care about the poor souls who weren't good enough to shine and inevitably never came out of the lab? Did Sephiroth send them down there?

"It's the guards that get it the worst." Chaka went on to explain. "Getting guard duty on Hojo's floor is basically a death sentence, but someone has to do it, so…I don't think Angeal or Sephiroth are even responsible for appointing guard duty there – someone else does it."

Tifa clenched her hands in righteous anger. Her voice quivered with rage when she spoke, "But how can they allow this? They are responsible for SOLDIERs." She demanded. "It's despicable."

"Oh hell, I shouldn't even be telling you this crap." He muttered off handedly. "They'll have my ass if they were to find out."

So this is how it was. Corruption rules, the good are cowed by the evil, and the horrors are permitted to continue. Shin-Ra was a vicious unending cycle.

Chaka didn't speak again for the remainder of their march to the gallows. They approached the elevator with a growing sense of dread and rode it in subdued silence. It only went as high as the 70th floor. Then they had to use the stairs, which were safeguarded by double security-locked doors requiring the highest level security clearance.

Tifa was somewhat surprised that Sephiroth would even trust them with such a task, but then Chaka was a veteran SOLDIER. He was obviously trusted with serious matters. She was simply there to suffer it with him.

"Well, here we are." Chaka announced as they stepped out onto the 74th floor.

It was dead quiet. No cleaning robots, no personnel. Even the air felt diminished in the place, as if it too feared to dwell here.

She found herself unconsciously walking on tip toe. They crept down the hall, their hushed breathing magnified by the intense silence. Another security-locked door awaited them at the end. There was also a hall leading off to the right.

"Cell holdings." Chaka whispered.

Tifa shivered. She didn't want to think at the implications of Hojo's lab being on the same floor.

They paused before the final barrier between them and the horrors within, imagined or otherwise. Chaka glanced her way, as if affirming that she was ready, and ran the card through. The light turned green and the door slid open with a cheerful ding.

The vast room beyond was filled with all manner of devices, from the scientific to the macabre. There were cages, storage pods large enough to contain people – though she didn't dare check if they did – and various other things that only left questions in her mind, and some that she just assumed not know.

It was also deserted.

"I guess he's not here." She murmured tensely.

Chaka's eyes roved slowly around the room, each step slow and deliberate, as if something might jump out at any moment. There was a series of board walks above them, but the lights were dark and there was no apparent movement. There was something in the middle of the room…

Tifa gasped, "What's that?"

Chaka whirled around so fast he tripped on the step he was climbing and his arms flailed out in a comical attempt to maintain balance. He teetered for a long second before regaining his balance, expelled a lung full of air, and promptly shot her a withering glance, "Don't do that!"

She couldn't help the shaky giggle that burbled up her throat. "Sorry."

He rolled his shoulders, muttering to himself as he stalked across the room, "Damn place gives me the heebie jeebies."

Tifa's attention had averted back to what had caused the minor mishap in the first place. There was a cylindrical prison in the center of the room containing a large canine-like animal. She'd never seen anything like it before. Its fur was fiery orange in color and it was adorned with anklets, like jewelry. She edged towards it curiously.

"Don't look, don't touch." Chaka advised. "You probably don't want to know."

Her eyes lingered on the creature as it lay there, almost pathetically. It must have felt her watching it for it lifted its head, a thick main rippling along the back of his neck, and looked at her. She felt her heart leap into her throat.

There was something distinctly intelligent in that unwavering stare. It seemed to size her up. Then, in recognizing what she was, turned away disdainfully.

Shame burned in her face. What on earth did Hojo want the poor thing for?

"Come on, Fry." Chaka hollered.

Tifa turned reluctantly. He jerked a hand for her to follow him and she complied, casting one last glance behind her. Chaka was waiting at a door in the back when she caught up.

"This leads to Hojo's personal quarters." He said.

"Oh," Tifa eyed the door as if it might sprout tentacles, "Do you think we should knock first?"

He shrugged and lifted his hand to the door, rapping three times. It didn't sprout tentacles after all.

No one answered either.

"Guess we just go inside." He mumbled.

They looked at one another. They chuckled nervously.

"So, uh, you gonna hit it?" Chaka asked.

"Oh," Tifa blinked in surprise. "Um…sure." She reached a tentative hand towards the button and pressed it slowly.

The door slid open into an extensive dimly lit area, dominated by long white tables, bubbling test tubes, miscellaneous substances stored in vials, microscopes, and other tools of science. The walls were lined with locked cupboards. At the far back there was a desk, and on it was a computer, as well as various loose papers, some of which had fallen to the floor.

Chaka entered the room first, Tifa next. She followed closely, her eyes roaming every inch of every corner and probing every shadow. This was obsession personified.

It was also, she realized suddenly, precisely what she was looking for. Something containing confidential information – she'd bet her life that Hojo was storing records of his experiments on the computer at his desk. Records that might lead her to Cloud's current whereabouts or at least…what had happened to him, if he was dead.

There had been a man in a lab coat when Cloud and Zack were retrieved from the reactor that night. She had seen him when Zangan carried her away. The dots were beginning to connect.

Her mind reverted back to the present where Chaka was now setting the folders on the desk. She stepped up beside him to examine the computer screensaver, brooding. Little green lines darted happily across the black background, which was sickeningly ironic when she thought about it. Then the screen would clear and the process repeated itself. Their direction was entirely random and never the same each time around.

"That's it." Chaka said, breaking her concentration, and set the security card on top of the folder. "Let's get the hell out of here."

Tifa made to follow, but stopped when her gaze trailed over the key card. She felt her heart rate quicken and her palms sweat as she looked from the desk to Chaka, her mind working in overdrive. He'd turned his back to her and was heading for the door.

Her hand moved automatically, against every alarm bell ringing in her brain. She grabbed for the key card, fumbling with trembling fingers, and stuffed it into her pocket. Her heart was hammering in her chest as they departed Hojo's personal quarters, hoping fervently that she hadn't made a terrible mistake.

She did not breathe easy until they were back in the elevator. None of the doors had been locked on the way out – something else that was nice to know. She would file the information away with the rest.

"Whew, glad that's over with." Chaka made a show of wiping sweat from his brow with a silly grin. "And with our sanity still intact."

Tifa forced a smile, "We scared the wits out of each other more than anything."

He laughed. It came easy now after what had felt like a near death experience. "Yeah, that was kind of embarrassing. Some SOLDIERs we make."

"Yeah." She murmured. "Now we have to clean Sephiroth's office."

"I think I'm ready for some paper work." Chaka joked.

It was all relative.

Sephiroth's office was on the 67th floor. Normally they wouldn't have had access without the key card, but as they were taking the elevator from the upper floor, they required no clearance. Unbeknownst to Tifa, that floor was also home to the Turks.

They passed no one in the halls however. When they arrived at Sephiroth's door it promptly opened. Both of them gave a start. Tifa's lips set in a scowl at the man towering above her.

Why did that keep happening?

Sephiroth was, at that very moment, wondering the same thing. He quickly brushed over that little incongruity however. "You appear to have survived." He commented. "Good."

Tifa swore she saw a flicker of something that she dared say was amusement.

Chaka grunted unintelligibly.

The General swept aside and bade they enter with a flourish of his hand. The door zoomed shut behind them. He retreated back to what Tifa could only assume was the rumored 'desk', though whether that was what resided beneath the wildly out of control paper farm was up for debate.

Tifa was gawking at it. The sheer magnitude of it was mind-boggling. How could a company that was so obviously tech-oriented use this much paper? Her eyes traveled the full length in awe, from week old newspapers to…

Gods above, is that a mouse?!

Her jaw dropped. "Um," she was waving her hand towards the oblivious creature poking through the mountain of papers, the words having trouble finding their way out, "Sir?"

Sephiroth raised an inquisitive brow, "Yes?"

"There's a mouse on your desk."

"Hmmm," The General frowned slightly as he spotted the freeloading rodent and gently extracted him. "I'm at a loss as to how they get up there." He murmured pensively, stroking the mouse's back with his index finger, and released it into a hole in the corner of his office. Then he straightened, "Don't mind them."

Tifa was now ascending to a state of incredulity well beyond what she had previously assumed were inconceivable heights.

"As for this," Sephiroth indicated the table with a disinterested sweep of his arm, "I would tell you to throw it away, but my superiors would be immensely displeased if I did. You will have to organize all of it, find out where they go, and transport them accordingly."

Tifa balked, "But sir," she protested, "that will take days." He was punishing her for last night – that must be it.

"That it will." Sephiroth agreed and gave her a severe glance, "which is why I would suggest that, in the future, you not be late to the morning exercises."

Chaka elbowed her in the ribs before she made another ill advised outburst. He gave Sephiroth a little salute. "Sure thing, sir."

"There is one last thing," The General said and pressed a manila folder into Chaka's hands, "This is the scheduling for this week's log updates. You will have to start this first as it is due at the end of the day. Just go into the computer – there should be no security walls enabled."

"Ok." Chaka answered. "That it?"

Sephiroth nodded.

…And so ensued many days of mind-numbing tedium interspersed with really bad jokes and bouts of hysteria, the latter being in part due to the former. Oh, and mice – lots of mice. By the third day, Chaka was reduced to sabotaging Sephiroth's computer desktop with three buxom ladies wearing very little and waving fluffy pink bunnies.

It was decided, after much strenuous debate (begging, to be more precise) on Tifa's part, that the fluffy pink bunnies were out. She was not about to take another chance with being sent to Hojo's lab, or worse. The babes, Chaka insisted, would stay.

"Do you realize how much vacation time the guy gets?" her erstwhile companion had asked in defense of his scheme.

Tifa shook her head.

"Zero."

That surprised her. "How can they do that?"

Chaka shrugged. "It's Shin-Ra. That's how." He answered and took a spin in the office chair that looked and felt like new. He'd earlier put money down that Sephiroth had never actually sat in the chair as it was too far beneath him, which she had scoffed lightly at.

Tifa, not being a gambling person herself, but feeling the strain of three days spent running errands and sorting papers, took up the bet anyway.

"Come to think of it," Chaka continued thoughtfully, "He hasn't been given leave in at least five years. They don't send him on assignment as much now days either – nothing to do I guess, though with all these terrorist groups on the rise that's bound to change."

A tingling erupted at the base of Tifa's neck, spreading across her skull in a cool trickle. Five years ago was the Nibelheim incident – it couldn't be mere coincidence. They weren't letting him out so frequently because they knew he was unpredictable and dangerous.

But what bothered her the most was the reminder that the world wasn't stable anymore. It hadn't been for a while. Every day things became more heated between the civilians of Midgar and their overseer. It was only a matter of time before things exploded…and she would be right in the middle.

She stared blankly down at the stack of papers she held. She didn't know what they were about or what they were for, and she didn't really care. This was her last errand of the day, to take them up to Director Lazard's desk. Sephiroth had provided another key card the day before, having known that she would be making several rounds on the upper floors.

If nothing else, it had proved to be a very useful tour of the restricted areas that she would not normally have access to. She had a comfortable understanding of which hall lead where and how to get from point A to point B without getting lost, and most importantly, caught. The latter was trickier, but she was infinitely better off now than she had been three days ago.

"I'm taking this upstairs." Tifa announced and pivoted towards the door.

"Alright, I'm finished here." Chaka answered and stood. "Meet you at the mess hall in thirty?"

"Okay." She nodded.

Naturally, she was just stepping out into the hall when the General appeared around the corner. She stopped, debated ignoring him and walking on by, and decided against it.

"Sir," Tifa addressed him loudly from down the hall. She didn't wonder at the sheer silliness of holding a conversation at this distance. "You've sat in your office chair, haven't you?"

Yes, it's true – she'd just said that. Chaka's personality was starting to rub off on her.

Sephiroth actually stopped and appeared to do a double take. "Excuse me?"

Tifa steeled herself, "Chaka maintains that you have never actually sat in the chair in your office." She went on to explain, "So, have you?"

His brow wrinkled comically, and then he frowned, as if he couldn't quite recall the answer. A light flickered in his eyes and he looked back at her calmly then, "I believe I have. Once."

"Once?" She repeated incredulously. She made a face, shrugged, and yelled back into the office, "You owe me 50 gil, Chaka!"

The General was giving her as strange look as she marched past him. It made her giddy, though she didn't quite know why. At least, it did until she reminded herself that she loathed him quite deeply.

There was no use stewing over it. Her final task still awaited completion.

Lazard…she knew that name from somewhere, aside from all the spamming he did on the e-mail. That was it! He was director of all SOLDIER operations. That explained the spamming.

Tifa flipped idly through the file in her hands. It contained mostly SOLDIER reports, but buried underneath it and tucked inside the back flap was a thin piece of paper. She slid the sheet out and examined the exquisite scrawl with interest.

Five 3rd class missing this month. I will kill him if this does not cease.

Her pace slowed almost to a crawl as she read the note over again, the words sinking like a lead weight in the pit of her stomach. Her eyes softened unexpectedly. She tucked it safely back into its place of hiding and resumed walking.

Director Lazard's office was a floor above Sephiroth's. She had never met him before, nor did she expect to now. Not surprisingly, his office was empty when she arrived. He delegated to 1st class only, which transferred orders to 2nd and 3rd respectively.

Tifa looked around for a minute before setting the folder down on his desk. There was an unsettling feeling in the room. It wasn't sinister, but it left a hollow, empty feeling inside her. She was glad to put it behind her when she stepped back out into the hall.

By the time she reached the foyer of the cafeteria, the building was in an uproar. There were SOLDIER's running past her, pulling her to and fro as she tried to make her way through. Everyone was standing or leaving, and the cafeteria was full of raised, frantic voices.

Tifa glanced around, bewildered and alarmed. She strained her ears, picking up disjointed bits of urgent conversation. Gradually it came together into something coherent.

"…south reactor…number 4."

"Blew it sky high…"

"…resistance…sending rescue parites…"

"…casualties in the dozens…"

"Do they know…have they been caught?"

"Avalanche…they're saying…"

"Weren't they…wiped out...Sephiroth…"

"…revived…new members…"

"Yo, Fry!"

Tifa twisted around to face Chaka as he darted and wove through the tangled room. He had a sudden intensity about him that put her on edge. Then he was grabbing her by the arm and thrusting her into the crowd in front of him.

"We gotta go." He said from right behind her as they pushed down the hall, "The helicopter is waiting out front."

A sudden inkling of terror tingled in Tifa's extremities as she found herself diving into the elevator (rather, being shoved). Chaka was restless on his toes as they descended the floors and the air sizzled with his pent up energy. He was tearing down the stairs and across the first floor lobby before the doors had fully opened.

Tifa wandered after him in a dreamlike state. Her legs were moving, but she didn't know how, and her mind was a haze of confusion. There were others around her, a flurry of blue movement that she couldn't focus on for it never stood still.

A loud, thundering noise pervaded her senses. There was a rhythm to it, like a rapidly rotating blade.

Then she was climbing into a helicopter, pushed into a seat, and they were lifting into the air. It was a peculiar sensation at first, but not unpleasant. Tifa watched the ground that was not more than ten feet below them in fascination. The chopper banked to the left smoothly, the nose tilted down and they set off into the night.

She had never been in a chopper before and realized quite randomly that she wouldn't mind doing it again, but under less urgent circumstances. This was flying in a whole different dimension. For a while she forgot the purpose of her being there at all and simply enjoyed the journey.

The smell of burning metal reached her nose before the glowing remains of the reactor even came into sight. The chopper lifted up over a rise of buildings into Sector 4 where charred edges of gnarled metal stuck up from a gaping hole in the foundations of the plate. Pale green slime coated the shattered steel piping that transected the ruined reactor and the crumbled remains of several buildings that had been caught by the edge of the explosion.

Looking at it from so high, it seemed to cover a mile radius. As she squinted closer, she could see movement there as well. Some of it was hurried and spry, while others were faint and sluggish.

As the chopper swept in for the landing, Tifa saw that the bodies of movement were civilians writhing on the ground. Many of them were coated in the same glowing ooze that she had seen glazing the explosion site. Some of them did not move at all.

"Gods above…" She whispered and her throat tightened. "The mako poisoning…it's killing them."

Chaka sat across from her, his mouth set in a grim line. He jumped to the ground as soon as they'd landed and was immediately intercepted by Angeal as he ran across the rock strewn courtyard. Tifa looked around, unsure, and eventually jumped down herself to join them, making sure to duck below the rotor blades.

It was chaos everywhere she looked. Medics were scouring the broken buildings for wounded, SOLDIER's were going every which way, and orders were being shouted at random intervals from no direction that she could pinpoint. In the distance, people were screaming in pain.

Angeal and Chaka seemed to be the only two people standing still amongst the tumult.

She edged towards them and kept quiet as she listened in on the conversation.

"They're flanking us on the right," Angeal was saying and his expression was abnormally grave, "and it appears that we have severely underestimated their numbers because they're pushing us back. I'm sending the two of you in to hold the rear guard until Sephiroth can back you up."

"What about you?" Tifa asked, arriving late into the conversation.

Angeal pivoted sharply, "I am needed at the front." He stated and was gone almost instantly.

"Where…?" The word had scarcely left her mouth before Chaka was racing off in the other direction and she was forced to run just to keep up.

Author's Notes: We have chapter 5! Things are starting to heat up a little bit now.

Happy New Year everyone! Please leave some feedback, thanks.

Faerlyte