The Warrior

Chapter 8

At long last...

The soft feather's touch of fine hairs drew over her cheek with perfect accuracy. Her skin twitched, eyes scrunched in disturbed sleep. Another languid sweep and Tifa's eyes shot open, sputtering as cat hair clung to her mouth.

She angled her head away from the offending appendage, inadvertently allowing free access to the sensitive skin of her neck. Tifa sucked in sharply, swallowing a giggle, and trapped the free-wheeling tail, lest it unravel her into a heap of trembling laughter. With a sigh she lifted her head.

"I'm sorry," She said and gently rubbed behind his ears, "but I just don't think it's working out between us."

His head twisted around at her with a half-lidded expression of extreme pleasure. The world was his oyster and it did as he bid. Or so he thought.

Tifa pulled herself to a sitting position, doing her best not to disturb her companion, but all in vain. He sprung to his feet abruptly, two bugged eyes staring around drunkenly. She rifled for her clothes on the floor obliviously and stood up with a magnificent stretch.

Another scintillating day of clearing out the abandoned railway awaited her. Oh joy. She still didn't understand why the place had deteriorated so or why nothing had been built in its place.

Tifa made a quick pass through the shower, brushed her teeth and hair, and re-emerged into her living quarters. Meanwhile, the cat was curled contentedly on her pillow. She frowned slightly when she came to stand before the bed, hands on her hips.

"You can't stay in here." She told him. "There's no cat box."

An ear twitched and an eye rolled vaguely in her direction.

Tifa shook her head lightly and snatched her helmet off the floor. She took an apple from the fridge and stuffed it in her pocket before heading resolutely for the door. The doors had not even open completely before a streak of black launched past her into the hall, bounding away at high speeds.

"Hey!" She cried, but he had disappeared around the corner. Tifa groaned inwardly and gave chase. She rounded the same corner and bumped into an unsuspecting SOLDIER.

Blurting a hasty apology, Tifa dashed after the darting blop of fur. She saw the elevator doors up ahead and knew she'd never make it, but that didn't stop her from trying.

Tifa came to a disgruntled halt as she watched the elevator doors close on the smug feline rubbing up against the legs of the SOLDIER going up. Her shoulders sagged as they went out of sight and she leaned against the wall, deflated. There was a cat running rampant through Shin-Ra HQ and it was all her fault.

What if it discovered Sephiroth's mice?!

She punched the call button and waited. By the time another elevator had shown up, she wasn't the only person waiting. There were two other SOLDIERS standing with her, both of which were making suspicious glances at her when they thought she wasn't paying attention.

Her brow furrowed as they filed into the elevator. She couldn't help but notice that the other two stayed well to the other side from her. It was starting to make her nervous.

The elevator thrummed into motion and Tifa cast a furtive glance to her left. She caught one of the SOLDIERs jerking his head away. She huffed and crossed her arms. What now?

When they came to a stop and the doors opened, the two SOLDIERs were only too happy to vacate her proximity. Tifa stepped out after them, watching distractedly as they hastened away towards the cafeteria. She bit her lip and surveyed the hall for a darting feline.

There was no sign of him, not that she expected any. She couldn't be sure he'd even gotten off on this floor. Generally at this hour of the morning the only place a SOLDIER was headed was for food though, so it made more sense to look here.

It was five minutes past 6 when Tifa reached the cafeteria and poked her nose inside. She took a cursory glance of the room and upon realizing that she'd never find anything as small as a cat among that chaos, she left. If he wanted to get in a fix, that was his prerogative. He wasn't her responsibility.

She was just walking along when a door burst open from her left. Then something struck her on the side of the head before she could turn. Her knees buckled and hands groped menacingly at her uniform, dragging her away. A hushed exchange of words was going on above her, but her mind was too fuzzy to make them out. There were bright lights above as they threw her to the floor, jarring her.

A boot slammed into her stomach and pain lanced through her ribs, knocking the wind out of her. Someone wrenched her up by the collar and landed a blow to her mouth. Her tongue tasted copper as she fell to the ground with a groan.

For several long seconds nothing happened. Tifa blinked dazedly and dared to look up at her attackers. She grimaced; of all the places, they had thrown her into the latrine. Why didn't that surprise her?

There were three of them, none that she recognized. The leader was a 2nd class SOLDIER and his buddies were 3rds. He took a step towards her with an oafish grin and proceeded to unzip his pants.

Tifa jerked away, only to find her back pressed up against a white tiled wall. She froze, glancing between the three with a mixture of disbelief and horror. Someone started laughing and a nerve twitched in her hand.

"What? I thought you liked to catch, eh?" The leader sneered. "Take off the helm."

That provided some illumination on the situation, however disturbing, but Tifa was too busy trying to focus to dwell on it. The 3rds moved slowly, one going for her arms, the other her helmet. She reacted quickly, snapped the first one's arm at the elbow and slammed the second's head into the wall.

Both were writhing on the floor at her feet as she stood to face the leader.

It was the most unflattering pose she had ever seen, that excuse for a man standing there in limp-jawed terror as he fumbled with his trousers. If Tifa hadn't been so enraged and terrified she might have laughed. She took one look at his ashen face and decked him in the face. He hit the floor with a satisfying thump.

Tifa hastened from the bathroom, thoroughly shaken as she wiped the blood from her chin. She needed to get out of here. Now.

It never ceased to amaze her that two elevators managed to both be in use 80% of the time she needed one. She should've done away with it altogether and taken the stairs, but 45 flights was a lot of stairs. Fortunately for her, the wait was not long this time around.

The elevator doors opened. Tifa started to take a step, stopped, and jumped back with a startled, "Oh!"

Maybe not so fortunately after all...

Angeal stood opposite her, his arms encumbered by the lead weight of a disgustingly pleased cat as he gently stroked its silken fur. The cat's tail flicked back and forth as he peered up at her with the same smug grin he had worn when she last saw him. Her eyes cast at the floor to avoid her superior officer.

It was a second before he recognized her. "Ah, hello Fry." He said. "We seem to have acquired a pet…you…uh, wouldn't happen to know where he came from?"

A strangled moan crawled up her throat and lodged there as she tried to force it back down. Her eyes shut briefly and she released a breath through her nose, "I think he may have followed me from the abandoned railway, sir. I've been trying to catch him all morning."

It was strange that the one person who should ask her not to address him as sir was the one person she felt awkward not addressing as sir. How did that happen?

His brow furrowed as he gazed down thoughtfully at their topic of conversation, "I see. Well," He set the cat down gently, "He'll have to be given a name if he is so adamant to stay." He rubbed a finger across his upper lip as he considered the animal, "Soldier…that would be fitting, wouldn't it?"

Tifa looked back at him in surprise. Was he serious? She gazed from man to cat and back to man in consternation. "You…you're going to let him stay?"

"Let him?" Angeal chuckled. "I could no sooner stop the sun from rising. My mother had cats when I was young – pleasant, but utterly indifferent to the wants of humans."

"Oh." She looked down as the feline brushed up against her legs. A soft, nearly imperceptible sound of vibration met her ears and she tilted her head to the side. The cat looked back with what might be construed as a sultry eye before his head butted against her shin.

Soldier, huh?

Soldier suddenly went still, eyes fixating down the hall. Urgent voices drifted from around the corner. They appeared a few seconds later, two SOLDIERs helping a third whose arm was bent at an opposite angle of what it should have been. Blood trickled from the crooked and swollen nose of one.

Tifa inhaled sharply, whirled around, and dove past Angeal into the elevator. She frantically pushed at the 1st floor button as she looked up at the approaching trio and then to her superior officer. His brow furrowed darkly as he finally looked at her – really looked at her, for the first time.

"Fry—" Angeal began to say and his eyes bore into the visor of her helm intently. They traveled downwards, pausing on the bruised and swollen lip.

She shook her head emphatically as he went out of sight. When the elevator began its decent, Tifa sagged against the wall and slid her hands beneath the visor of her helm to rub her eyes. How much was it to ask to be left alone? The world seemed predominantly full of people who would rather irritate than let be.

A pert meow resonated from below and she looked down with a sigh.

Soldier peered up at her through bright, expectant eyes. He sat on his haunches, his tail flicking side to side behind him. A low rumble of a purr emanated from his throat.

Tifa gazed back hopelessly, "What?" She asked. "I don't have anything for you. This was your idea, not mine."

He circled her, his tail dragging ever so slightly against her trousers as he leaned in. Then he gave a firm push with his head. Another meow and he sat down next to her.

She allowed herself a small smile and playfully batted his tail.

Sometimes life's small pleasures were the only things that kept the world sane.

Tifa and Soldier parted ways on the bottom floor and she continued on to the station to hitch a ride on the train, back to the abandoned railway station. Today she would investigate the sewers and see what she could find there because there certainly wasn't anything noteworthy above the ground. And the heart of the resistance was below so it only followed that their route would pass through the sewers.

Clouds boiled in the sky with angry splotches of black on the walk there. There was a crack of thunder in the distance, hurled closer by a whaling wind. Tifa watched those clouds warily as she marched down the empty street. She wondered if Shin-Ra provided rain gear to its SOLDIERs because her uniform definitely wasn't water proof.

There was a flicker of movement out of the corner of her eyes and she stopped, glancing ahead of her. He was clad in his usual black, his sword sheathed at his waist. A long mane of silver hair whipped dramatically in the breeze as he stood with his back to her.

She bit down on her tongue and started to take a cautious step back the other way when his voice brought her up short, "You are late."

Tifa straightened edgily, shoulders square, "I beg your pardon, sir, I was not aware we were meeting."

"We were not." Sephiroth clarified and turned around. The soft intensity of his eyes sent a shiver up her spine. "I am here on my own business, but as we are to be in the general vicinity of one another, it would be prudent to work together."

Her spirits deflated with a quiet little spasm. "But—" What business, she wanted to know.

He was already walking away, assuming her obedience without at second thought. Oh did that ruffle her feathers! How dare he treat her this way!

Tifa ran after him, nostrils flared, and fell into stride beside him. He fired a sideways glance that appeared distinctly annoyed. He probably wasn't used to flunkies walking next to him as opposed to behind.

"I'm going into the sewers today." She announced. "So unless you're planning on mucking around in dirty places, I'm afraid we're parting ways."

With that she stormed off ahead to where she'd spotted the manhole the previous day. It was exactly where she remembered it, to her relief. Sephiroth was still following her as it were, though she couldn't fathom why, but at least she wouldn't be making a complete fool of herself.

Tifa squatted beside the solid steel cover and drew her fingers across the weather worn surface. There were three evenly spaced holes around the rim for a crowbar that she didn't have. She rolled back on her heels, nabbing her lip between her teeth pensively.

After a moment's contemplation, she spread her feet, bending her knees, and reached forward with her fingers to take hold of two of the three holes. Her brown knitted in concentration as her body slowly unfurled, muscles flexing hard under her skin. A strangled sound squeezed between her clenched teeth as ever so slowly the lid inched upwards.

Sweat beaded along her for head. Tifa gasped for breath as she adjusted her throbbing fingers to grip the bottom lip of the steel cover. Her eyes clenched shut and she pushed with all her strength.

With a resonating clang and an exclamation of triumph, the manhole cover clattered to the cobblestones and Tifa stood bent with her aching hands braced against her knees, wheezing. She ran her hand beneath her helm, clearing the sweat before it dripped into her eyes. From behind her approached the deceptively light footfall of her nemesis, until he was next to her and admiring her handiwork.

His brow darted upwards in genuine surprise and he looked at her expectantly, "Shall we?"

Tifa dropped to the ground and dangled her legs into the impenetrable black hole. She found purchase on the ladder rung with her boot and carefully lowered herself into the hole before starting her descent. Once she was fairly engulfed in the darkness, Sephiroth followed.

The air wafting up from below smelled dank and rotten. Not surprising she supposed, considering what it came from. She inhaled deeply and let out a long, dejected sigh.

Sacrifices had to be made, right? At least she wasn't going alone.

Because being alone with her father's murderer was so much better. Tifa gritted her teeth angrily and moved a little faster.

Ten feet down and the walls of the hole were no longer dry and innocuous. Her boot settled and abruptly shot out from under her. She yelped in surprise as her fingers tightened reflexively on the slippery bar to hold her weight so her boots could find solid footing again.

Above her Sephiroth had stopped, waiting for her to gather herself.

A breath or two later, Tifa slowly reached down for the next wrung where a thin layer of cool slime met her hesitant hand. She grimaced, biting back an exclamation, and willed herself to hold firm. If there was a route to the resistance's hideout through here, it wouldn't do to announce herself.

The bottom finally greeted her boot and she eagerly released the ladder, stepping back. She took a cautious sniff of her hands and wrinkled her nose in distaste before wiping them on her pant legs. It would be a miracle if she got the smell out of the leather in her gloves.

She lifted her visor and peered into the darkness, because it was too dark for him to see her and she couldn't see with it down. There was a trickle on her right and a wall on her left. Aside from that, she couldn't see anything.

Sephiroth dropped to the floor with a muted thud. He straightened, shifting his shoulders, and produced a flashlight. The beam flashed across her eyes, blinding her, and she covered her face with her hands, slamming the visor back down.

If he'd noticed anything amiss, he didn't say so.

The tunnel they were in spanned beyond in the deepening dark in front of them. She glanced around, taking stock of the area so that she might recognize it when she came back, though she probably wouldn't. Then she walked after him.

A pile of rat bones materialized at the edge of Sephiroths light. He stepped over it, avoiding the patches of green-brown slime that oozed across the stone floor, and she slowly made her way after him. Little sounds curled against her skin; a drip-drip somewhere, the scurrying of tiny feet over there, a clang in the distance.

Her mouth felt dry and the silence oddly disconcerting, "So just what business brings you down here?" She finally asked.

Sephiroth shined his light down several converging tunnels, his face drawn and weary. "I am not certain yet." He murmured.

Tifa puzzled that for a moment, to no avail, and decided to leave it at that. Cryptic comments really weren't her forte.

Another step and Tifa felt a hand suddenly firm against her stomach, shoving her back. She looked up, saw a pair of pale white eyes in the shadows ahead of them, and heard the feral scream as Sephiroth deftly removed its head. She was so engrossed in the act that she didn't notice the presence creeping behind her until it made an ungodly gurgling sound.

A strangled noise emerged from her throat as she whirled around. Her fist made solid contact with the creature's head, knocking it back, which gave her the space to finish it off with a well-aimed roundhouse kick. Its neck gave a snap and it collapsed.

She breathed in sharply as she squinted down at the body, hands trembling. "What is it?"

Sephiroth stepped beside her and, using the tip of the masamune's blade, prodded the prone form. Judging from the decaying state of its flesh and the milky eyes, it was a dead ringer for your standard movie zombie. Only, this wasn't a film set and that wasn't makeup.

Tifa made a face and took an unconscious step towards the man beside her. "That's disgusting."

"Quite." He agreed flatly.

Her brow furrowed, "What's a thing like that doing down here anyway?"

Sephiroth seemed to be contemplating that very thing and did not immediately answer. After a moment he turned away. "Hojo." He muttered.

Tifa stared after him, her face creased with worry.

A short while later they were attacked by a mutant rat. Its claws and teeth were covered in a glowing residue that looked distinctly unhealthy. Most likely it was a poison, the refuse of Hojo's lab maybe. Sephiroth took one look at her and stepped back, allowing her to break its neck with a swift downward kick.

There was an awkward pause and then Sephiroth cleared his throat, "Well done." He said and continued on.

Tifa felt a traitorous blush crawling up her neck.

Between the poisonous rats, zombies, and the maze of converging tunnels, they probably spent a solid four hours down there. She was lost – he was not. There were too many twists and turns for her to follow – except for the walls of concrete that acted as bracers, there was no separation between the sectors. Tunnels passed through them so that one could roam freely from one sector to the other without hindrance.

Roam freely and become instantly lost…

It would be perfect for getting around in the above sectors; a route from the slums that didn't require a train. If the resistance had that within their grasp, their access to Midgar was limitless, and with an extensive knowledge of the sewers, no one could navigate them better. Although how anyone could master this place Tifa couldn't fathom. Apparently Sephiroth had a tremendous sense of direction.

Shin-Ra had in its disposal enough people to scour the entirety of the sewers if need be. They would find Avalanche eventually if given the opportunity, but finding evidence that was concrete enough to launch a widespread search of that magnitude was practically impossible. And they probably just didn't want to.

Tifa stopped to take a rest and took a seat on the driest surface she could find, which happened to be a pile of old sandbags. They were old and riddle with holes, but it was better than sitting on the stone.

She sighed, drawing her legs up to sit cross-legged, and stared blankly into the darkness. Sephiroth had not gone another five steps before noticing she did not follow. He stopped and turned around expectantly, the light shining in her face.

"My feet hurt." She said and left it at that.

He said nothing, but walked slowly back towards her and leaned his back against the barest section of wall he could find.

It was going on 3 p.m. according to her phone. Chaka had left her a message.

Hey, what's up? Enjoying your first 'assignment'? I know, it sucks, but we all have to start somewhere.

Something really freaky is going on up here. Can't divulge too many details here though. Let's just say I'm freezing my damn ass off –I don't do winter.

Kick some ass for me,

Chaka

Tifa smiled faintly as she shut her phone. He would fill her in later. She sat back and lifted her head. Sephiroth had moved and was standing at the edge of the stone path, looking down at the water.

Curiosity piqued, Tifa got up and went to look too. "What is it?" She asked.

He examined the water flow astutely, "It is rising, look." He pointed to the far side with the light, "The water is almost above the edge."

Of course, she thought. It had been threatening rain on the walk over. Evidently it was no longer merely threatening.

How high did the water level rise? She watched the flow curiously, until it occurred to her that the water could rise as high as it wanted to, so far as there was more being added to it. If the rain didn't stop, it would flood.

…and they would be in it.

Tifa cast a furtive glance towards the man on her left. Surely he knew what to do? "How far are we from the nearest maintenance hole?"

Sephiroth scowled pensively and the skin around his eyes suddenly tightened in alarm, "Not close enough."

That's when it came, the sound of thunder, and then Sephiroth was shouting for her to run. The words of protest died on her lips as she watched him sprint away and then her legs were moving of their own accord. She skimmed across the slick stone path as she rounded corner, lost traction, and went reeling off towards the water, only to slam into a zombie.

She bounced off with a grunt and the corpse fell into the water instead.

The roar throbbed in her skull even louder now, chasing them down.

It was the flow of water as it filled the passage. Her pace quickened with her heart – the amount of water it would take descending from above to make that kind of sound would flood this place in a matter of minutes, seconds even.

Tifa scrambled frantically after the inhuman man who was rapidly outdistancing her. She wasn't going to make it. It was careening down the tunnel behind her and would swallow her in seconds.

Sephiroth suddenly ducked through a dimly lit doorway on the right out of sight. Her heart rose for just an instant, but it was so far off for her still! She gritted her teeth as she slipped and slammed into the wall, pushing off with an anxious gasp.

There was water splashing under foot now, but the glowing light was closer. She didn't dare look behind her. It was bad and that's all she needed to know.

It happened in seconds. Sephiroth was reaching out a hand to her when the flood hit. It crashed over her head with painful force and she took in a mouthful of foul tasting water. Then there was an iron grip around her wrist, holding her against the ripping current.

Tifa grappled Sephiroth's wrist as she struggled to the surface and gasped for air. She looked towards him, saw the hard definition in his shoulders and neck, and knew that he couldn't hold for much longer. He was trying to pull her towards him when their eyes met under torchlight and she realized that something was terribly wrong.

The rushing water became mute and the air was still. He stared at her in startled confusion, for her helmet was gone and dark hair clung to the soft angles of her face and the gentle contours of her neck. But her eyes – they were haunting and familiar, and distinctly female to the man across from her.

In the fit of panic that followed she did the only thing she could think to do. She ducked her head under and wrenched sharply from the hand that held her. It was all it took; she was spiraling free almost instantly.

The world rapidly whirled away from her.

Tifa knew not up from down as she was hurled down the passage. The water was frigid and the walls of the trench ruthless. She flailed her limbs, trying to maintain some semblance of control over her trajectory, but it was useless.

Her stomach became so painfully taught with fear she thought she might burst. It was chaos inside and out, but through that came the bitter realization that she was going to die and that she actually regretted letting go. Because somewhere in the back of her mind a little voice was speaking, "He was going to save you."

And despite everything, in the deep of her soul she cried, "I wish he had."

It was several numb moments later that a very subtle but substantial change brought Tifa's mind reeling back to focus. The current was slowing down. She floated back to the surface on the easing stream and hungrily swallowed fresh air.

There she saw the light flickering off the passage ceiling just downstream. With her hope renewed, Tifa threw herself into the current and made for the side. She could see a landing up ahead and a stairwell that was mostly submerged in water, but it was shallow.

Her hands caught the edge of the stone and used it as a pivot point to swing her legs around and brace them in the opening to the stairwell. She came to a tenuous stop and awkwardly shoved the rest of her body into the undisturbed pool so that she could get her feet under her. Then she climbed out, her boots sloshing through the thin inches of flood water that covered the outside path, and stopped to lean against the wall.

Then the smell hit her. She vomited for a full minute, until there was nothing left in her stomach to get rid of.

A sour, oily substance coated her mouth. She coughed and spat until her throat was raw, and still the taste lingered. When the nausea had dissipated, Tifa straightened to examine her surroundings.

There were two torches burning on either side of a doorway at the bottom of a short staircase. Taking a closer look at it, Tifa determined that it was probably another one of the transition corridors that passed from one sector into another, although it looked different from the other one's she'd seen, and there certainly hadn't been any torches in the previous ones.

But there had been one where she'd last seen Sephiroth, before being swept away.

She stopped in the doorway and considered taking one of the torches, but decided against it. There was a wooden door at the top of the stairs. It wasn't locked so she stepped through into the passage beyond. Another torch was burning just down the way.

Tifa headed towards it cautiously, eyes and ears on alert. If there were lit torches, that meant there were people somewhere here. People that she strongly suspected were part of the terrorist group known as AVALANCHE.

The wall to her left suddenly moved and Tifa jumped back, startled. It started out as just a twitch really, and then it was a slow, grinding motion inward and to the side. She barely had time to move let alone think and it was already too late when 'Hide!' finally got through her brain.

A man stood across from her.

Silence descended upon the passage. They stared at one another in stunned silence at first, sizing each other up. That was all it took and their eyes widened simultaneously. Their voices blended together to shatter the moment of hesitation,

"Johnny?"

"TIfa?"

Tifa made a hysterical sort of half laughing sound. Johnny flashed a lopsided, albeit confused, grin. The silence returned in full force.

Here she was drenched in Midgar's refuse water (it was a wonder he even recognized her at all) and sporting a Shin-Ra second class SOLDIER uniform sans helm. And here was Johnny, someone Tifa swore up and down was dead after the Nibelheim massacre, evidently in the hire of AVALANCHE. Awkward was one way of putting it.

Johnny was the first to recover. His nose wrinkled, "What on earth happened to you?" He asked and his brow furrowed in confusion at her attire, "and why are you wearing that?"

Tifa expulsed a gust of air and frowned, "It's a long story." She hedged, "but I swear this is not what it looks like."

"Of course not!" He insisted firmly. "I know you'd never willingly serve those murdering bastards, not besides which, I've never seen a woman SOLDIER."

"And there isn't one, as far as they know. Or did…"Her voice trailed off despondently. What was she going to do now?

"Listen," Johnny started to say and made a cursory check of the passage. He averted his attention back to her, one hand slipping easily around her waist to rest lightly on the small of her back as the other removed the torch from the outside wall, "Come inside, we can talk easier that way and won't risk being seen."

Tifa nodded hesitantly as she was lead into the tunnel. The door shut behind them with a soft groan and they were in the dark, but for the crackling flame that illuminated a few feet of floor in front of them.

"This way." He said and took her by the hand.

It was not like the other passages she had been in. The walls were roughly hewn, as if it had been carved out with pickaxes and explosives. Broken stone littered the floor too. Tifa got the impression that this hadn't been there for that long – a year or two at the most maybe.

The passage eventually widened out into a corner, which was illuminated again by torchlight. Giant slabs of steel were positioned on either side of the mouth of the adjoining passage. Narrow slits had been cut out of the steel at shoulder height, slaughter holes for maintain a defense.

This was a siege point. There were crates and other various storage devices positioned towards the back of the space. A group of people could hold this tunnel for hours with enough ammunition and she guessed what the crates were for.

"Quite the set up you have here." She commented lightly.

Johnny grinned back at her, "You haven't seen anything yet. Come on."

They entered the adjoining corridor and continued on. It spanned for a solid fifty yards before widening into another siege point. This one was bigger than the last and the slabs of steel heaver, wider. There were more crates and boxes, probably containing weapons of some kind. A fridge was in the left corner and a deck of dirty cards sat on a wooden table in the center of the room with three chairs stationed around it.

What caught her attention was what lay beyond that however. There was a crude metal gate about shoulder height and spanning between the walls of the stone on either side. Beyond it was a massive piece of steel tubing, twenty feet in diameter, descending below.

When she walked up to the gate and peered across, she could see more of the plate foundations. It was both impressive and frightening. To think that this was all that kept the plates from crashing down on the slums. They might have been thick, but all it would take was a bomb to obliterate it.

Tifa shivered.

There was a makeshift elevator on a pulley system suspended at the edge where the passage ended and there was nothing but air. That would be how they were making the transition from the slums into the upper city sewers. If they were as smart and well-informed as she was beginning to think they were, they would have more than one of these too.

Johnny went to the refrigerator and pulled out a beer. He glanced over his shoulder at her. "Want one?"

She was on the verge of declining when she recalled what had recently been in her mouth. "Yes, please," was her immediate answer. He tossed her a can, which she opened and proceeded to chug down with a vengeance.

Johnny shook his head with a snort of amusement, "That is gonna be hard to wash out." He said ant took a seat at the table.

Tifa savored the watery beer as it cooled down her throat, drawing away the awful aftertaste of sewage water. Never had a cheap beer ever tasted so mercifully delicious. She sighed and set the empty can down, casting a hesitant look at her old friend.

"Take a seat." He encouraged with a half smile.

"Are you sure?" She asked dubiously. "I won't pretend that I'm not the most disgusting thing the cat dragged in."

He waved her off dismissively, "You get used to the smell." He said.

Tifa smirked dryly, but pulled out a chair and sank into it in quiet relief. She was so tired.

"So," Johnny leaned back and took a swig of his beer. "What's the story?"

Thirty minutes later and he was leaning forward at the edge of his seat, and peculiar gleam in his eyes. Then he was removing the single sideband radio from his waist belt, switched it on, and set it on the table. He sat back and took another long drag from the can.

She had told him almost everything, most importantly about her intentions to work on the inside for AVALANCHE if they would accept her.

"I think," He began, "That you will be the next coming of the Cetra when the big guy hears about this."

Tifa laughed nervously, "I don't know about that. My access to the building is still very limited, but I'm willing to do whatever I can."

A distorted voice came through the radio and Johnny picked it up.

"Yo," He said.

"…did ya… …passage?"

"Yeah, yeah." He answered, tipping his beer back for another swig and swallowing it fast. "It's floodin' pretty nasty out there."

"…close…door…?"

"It's sealed off. I don't think the water level will ever get that high anyway." He shrugged.

The response was too garbled for Tifa to pick up. Apparently it was the end of the conversation though because Johnny voiced a gruff goodbye and signed off. His expression turned calculating as he considered her.

"I'll go down and talk to him once my shift is through, arrange for a meeting." Johnny explained. "Can you make it back tomorrow?"

Tifa chewed her lip pensively before giving a nod, "I think so, yes."

"Awesome." Johnny stood up from his chair and gave her a quirky grin, "Don't you worry – I'll vouch for you. He'll listen."

Tifa smiled sincerely, "Thank you, Johnny. I don't know how I would've done this without you."

"Hey, no problem." He answered and his eyes brimmed with that same old adoration they always had. "Anything for you, Tifa."

Something akin to guilt twisted in her gut, but she couldn't afford to let that get in her way. This was her best chance of getting in contact with AVALANCHE'S leader in a peaceful manner with as little suspicion involved. She couldn't say no.

"Well," She said and got to her feet, "I better get back before they send someone to come look for me."

"Good luck getting out." He said, "I wouldn't bet on the sewers being clear yet. If the rain ever stops it should drop down pretty quick, but…"

"It's low enough that I can walk along the outside." Tifa replied. "Not that it matters – I'm already thoroughly disgusting anyway."

Johnny laughed, "Take it easy girl." He said and his expression turned serious, "You're walking a dangerous rope there."

"I know." She answered quietly, and then she was on her way.

Tifa had re-emerged into the main tunnel where she had surfaced earlier when Sephiroth rounded the downstream corner onto the landing where she stood. They both came to a sudden halt upon spotting the other. Her heart shuddered in her chest and she back-stepped, ready to bolt.

"Wait!" His voice arrested her sharply.

She couldn't breathe.

Sephiroth held up what appeared to be her lost helm, "You'll need this." He said.

Author's Notes: It's been a while...but at least I did finally finish another chapter! I had to do a major overhaul on this one because I hated the original. The next one needs some work too, but it shouldn't be long before I get it out. I've got a month before I start my summer work...okay not quite a month. I've almost got my private helicopter license, so THAT will be out of the way. And since I've passed my ground school test, I don't have to take up so much time studying for it, which means I should be able to write more. I haven't written in months, literally. It's depressing.

Johnny...anyone remember him? He was from Nibelheim originally, was floating around the Midgar slums in the game if I'm not mistaken. So technically he's a canon character and he's serving me a valuable purpose, haha.

Happy reading and review writing,

Faerlyte