Final Fantasy 7: The Enemy Within

by ilMaestroAmadio

Gaia is threatened by a catastrophe and Yuffie Kissaragi joins the WRO again under the command of Reeve Tuesti, who pairs her up with a unique fellow. Things will turn out to be drammatically different than they seem as the duo races to save Gaia. And themselves! (first fanfiction ever;M for violence/steam; post FF:DC;) (REVIEWS APPRECIATED);

15. Shera (III)

KALM (underground)

1.

"You got lost!"

"I did not get lost!" Ryan protested "I was just trying to get us to sneak around the pumping station. They probably had set an ambush there!"

"If the WRO is not going to kill us" Shane commented, after letting out a powerful sneeze "Sure the cold or these king-sized rats will!"

After their escape from the broadcasting building, the trio had made their way inside the town's sewage system, a thick network of tunnels that ran under Kalm and that, according to the original plan, should have granted them a safe passage to the outside of town.

Ryan had managed to snatch a diagram of the medley of conduits after a quick raid at the city planning office. Down there the air was becoming heavier and heavier as they descended, the walls rife with moss and moisture as they walked through passages left unkempt by years of neglect.

The echo of their steps was the only constant noise, sometimes accompanied by the ticks of the drops of water falling from leaking pipes or the squeaking sound of critters emerging from their nooks to behold these unexpected visitors

"I've got the impression that we've already been here…" Char commented

"That cannot be!" Shane shook his head "Did you see the mark on the wall?"

Ryan had thought that marking the cornerstones of the passages already visited would have helped them. Apparently unbeknownst to the rest of the party, though, the surfaces of the walls were not dry enough to leave a lasting mark on the bricks. Ryan hoped that his mates were oblivious to this detail, as he frantically tried to plot a course on the diagram he was holding before himself

"Then if you haven't" Shane continued "that means that we are somewhere new. Right Ryan?"

"You got that" Ryan distractedly replied, as he scoped the space in front of him with the beam of his torchlight

"Do you think we are going to make it?" Char asked, with a hint of worry

"Of course" Shane frowned upon Char's doubtfulness "We merely stumbled upon that patrol. I bet they were just a bomb disposal team combing that sector…"

Some metres back and minutes before, the party had a brief encounter with a WRO squad who happened to stand on their way. Although armed enough to try to throw the gauntlet and try to force their way through, the group had opted to take a diversion to avoid being spotted at all. That diversion had the undesired effect of making them straying even further from the original path. The ensuing fire-fight was made even more dramatic by the hammering barks of the rifles as they thundered in the secluded spaces of the conduits, echoing all the way to the surface.

As Shane tried to reassure Char, Ryan pointed his flashlight upward. The vault of the conduit abruptly finished there. He took point, distancing themselves from his companions, trying to scout the road ahead. The space before him opened further and further

"Anyway, I'm going to be deaf if I even cock my rifle, let alone…" Shane interrupted himself as he and Char finally closed the gap with Ryan. They all stared upward.

They had come to a wide room, metres and metres high and wide. The centre was occupied by a giant column that ran from the bed up to the invisible ceiling and sat on a block at the centre of the floor, all surrounded by staircases and catwalks

"Where are we now?" Char asked

Ryan took a quick look at the map "This is one of the main shafts of the aqueduct" he said "were all secondary pipes and conduit stem from"

"That means that we can go probably anywhere from here…" Shane guessed

"I think you are right" Ryan agreed "Just let me find the shortest path to…"

They were forced to point their heads upwards again. A sinister noise came from the upper floors of the room.

Boots were treading the catwalk and combat gear was clicking as WRO soldiers were slowly but inevitably descending all around the column, swarming through the staircases. The environment was far from pitch black but it was dim, nonetheless. The shadows were pierced by the laser sights of the rifles of the soldiers. As they began to came closer, their thunderous yet quite voices, made of orders and warnings became audible and discernible

"Fuck!" Char bit his tongue "They have intercepted us!"

The group quickly ran in an indentation in the wall

"C'mon Ryan!" Shane pressed him "We have to get away from here! Fast!"

"They are going to cut us off from the surface!" Char warned them "I bet some of the are on our tail as well!"

"Shut up" Ryan waived them "I'm trying to think!" he said, as he returned to the map. Apparently, there was a passage that could lead to a collector conduit that finally opened up in the outskirts, where WRO presence was minimal. The only catch was that the passage was across the room, and the WRO soldiers were coming down fast

"All right then!" he exclaimed, keeping his voice low "The tunnel over there!" he pointed

"Are you sure is that one?" Shane cautiously asked

"Are you sure this is the time to ask such questions?" Char countered

"Whatever…" Shane gave up

"Be quiet!" Ryan cut them short "Now, if you move fast and light, those bastards up there might not even notice us. At three, all right?"

"I'm ready" Shane nodded

"I'm ready too" Char nodded back

"Ok, then. One… two… three!"

They all made a dash through the room towards the designated opening on the wall. The blue flashlights of the rifles were casting globes of eerie blue light on the floor.

As they reached the half-point, Ryan felt something with his foot, something that interrupted his sprint and nearly made him stumble. The metallic and echoing sound that stuff made immediately chimed throughout the entire chamber.

Apparently, he had just happened to kick a spent lantern on the floor, left there by some absent-minded city worker.

He swore. Just as the same time as multiple rays of light centred on his party

"Contact!" a soldier from a catwalk shouted

A hundred rifles, or seemingly so, clicked altogether

"Don't move!" someone cried "You are under arrest!"

"On your knees!"

"Do it! Do it now!"

Orders where repeated mercilessly. At some point, the soldiers expected Ryan and his company to comply.

Instead, he exchanged a look with his mates and again, he ran for cover.

The rifles shouted, spraying the floor with bullets, chipping clay and sand from the walls.

As Char had somehow managed to produce his pistol and shoots round in the soldiers' general direction, Ryan led the group into the tunnel. The wrong one.

2.

"So, Lieutenant, tell me exactly what is happening here…" Evan asked, to an alarmed and hectic WRO officer who was already busy enough trying to manage his own subordinates. The sudden arrival of the new elements, dispatched directly by the headquarters in Edge had only made his day even more messed up.

They were standing metres apart from the place in town where the Shera had just touched the ground. The vessel had been given vectors to a city square downtown, as it approached Kalm. The plaza had been cordoned and secured and a temporary headquarters had been installed. Security was tight, and it was even tighter around a corner of the square which, apparently, hosted a maintenance access to the city sewers

"There's nothing much to say, Sir" the lieutenant answered, as he frantically looked around him, making sure everyone was keeping proper guard at their assigned position "Our units have sealed all major accesses and escape routes of the sewage system. If they are down there, they won't get out from there!"

"If they won't get out of there" Lieutenant Farron, standing next to Evan, asked him, pointing her finger downward "why haven't your men closed down on them yet? What are you waiting for?"

"It's not our fault" the WRO officer in charge of the operations waived his hands "We've been explicitly asked to wait for your intervention. Any initiative on our side will be punished. And I've already have a hot situation on my hand right now"

"I see" Evan nodded, sympathetically "It's a matter of jurisdiction"

"Apparently" the WRO officer replied "And I'm quite glad it's your jurisdiction now. Frankly speaking…"

"If something bad makes its way to the surface, lieutenant" Farron warned him "you'll have to deal with it. Our jurisdiction is limited to anything beneath the soil"

"Whatever…" the lieutenant puffed, as he rush to an aide.

Evan and Sarah Farron exchanged a puzzled look, marvelling at the lieutenant's attitude. Behind them the SISF. company was gearing up, ready to get into action. Unbeknownst to the majority of the people and soldiers gazing upon these men and woman clad in their menacing black and grey battle dresses and sporting the latest equipment of the WRO inventory, Yuffie and Cade were amongst them. Their faces were concealed by the helmets and the balaclava

"Hey" Yuffie asked Cade, as she tried to squeeze her hand under her helmet to scratch an itch "Please tell me you're sweating too!" the ninja begged

"I am, indeed!" Cade nodded "I can't wait to go down in the sewers and enjoy a bit of cool, stale sewage air"

"I'm fine with everything about that" Yuffie shook her head "As long as I'll be able to cool down"

"You will cool down real soon" Cade told her "Lieutenant Farron is tough as nails, it seems. She is nowhere like me so behave" he warned her

"I'll do my best, Sir" she nodded, pretending to be assertive "Provided I'll be free of bad influences"

Cade silenced a laughter as he shook his head. Yuffie's eyebrows arched as she smiled under the balaclava. Then her voice grew concerned

"How are you?"

"How am I?" Cade replied "I'm fine. I'm chuffed. I'm going to plunge into a shithole dressed like a cyborg" he triumphantly said, holding up his rifle "There's people who would kill to be here in my place!"

"Hey, I'm serious!" Yuffie pressed him, her voice firmer but as concerned as before.

Cade must had sensed the urgency in the ninja's voice. He paused a bit. Then he spoke, looking down at himself "It could be better" he confessed "but at least I'm… we're doing something!"

"Try not to over-do it" Yuffie advised him, resting her hand over his shoulder "I'm here, if you need help!" she said, looking Cade right in his eyes.

They stood there for a while. As long as they felt it was allowed to them. Then Cade broke the silence "You surely don't lack in motherly spirit" he observed

Yuffie shrugged "I guess I've learnt from someone along the way"

They smiled at each other, then Cade turned towards the rest of the company. Twenty people in all. According to Lieutenant Farron fifteen of them would have actually descended, with five more elements being kept in stand by for any eventuality.

Lieutenant Sarah Farron herself walked back towards them as Evan made his way back inside the Shera

"Where's Evan going?" Cade asked himself, out loud

"Major Kallstrom will be on the Shera to act as our upper echelon. Don't worry, he will be in touch with us all the time. Also because the situation is fluid, so we obviously need to be constantly updated" she explained, luring all the attention to her as the team turned to listen to its commanding officer. Cade made two steps back to fall in line with the others. Something told him that this time he'd better keep the instinct of taking command for himself

"Pay attention everyone!" Lieutenant Farron exclaimed as the squad neatly took place before her. Standing next to him, Yuffie could not resist the temptation of throwing a worried glance at Cade, whose eyes were now steady on Farron. It was almost as if she feared that the red-haired lieutenant, who despite her young age looked like a Valkyrie in her battledress, could get all of his attention and steal him from her. She was definitely her kind of guy, she thought with despair

'Hold your Chocobos, girl' a voice shouted inside her 'What on Gaia are you thinking about?'

She slightly shook her head as to sweep away that odd feeling. Could it be true? Could she be jealous of Cade?

"So, apparently" Farron began "The local WRO detachment guesses that a resistance movement has burrowed in the city sewers. Our objective is to infiltrate the sewers and arrest them. The upper departments of the WRO are keen on interrogating them to dig deeper into the events which took place today so they kindly asked us not to silence them before some henchman does it…"

"Arrest them? Are you sure, Sir?" Perkins asked

"Is that a problem for you, Perkins?" Farron asked "Or maybe were you craving for some blood today?"

"I'm sorry, Sir" Perkins apologized "I spoke incautiously"

"Don't worry" Farron replied with a grin "I'm used to that"

Cade could hear Corporal Biggs giggling behind him

"Our plan is simple. We descend down in that mess of dirty water and mice as big as cats and we'll try to apprehend whoever is down there. Of course" she interrupted herself, walking among the ranks of her fellow servicemembers as she lowered her voice, not to be heard by bystanders "we have other things in mind, as I trust everyone of you is aware…"

"Yes, Sir" everyone replied

"Good, then if you're ready" she continued "we'll begin in less than a minute"

The company made a line as it followed lieutenant Farron down to the building next to the opening which housed the access to the sewers. Judging from the markings on the walls, it had to be an intercept shaft, a vertical conduit that reached down the sewage system and that was often used by city workers to reach points of the conduit network where assistance was required

"There are already WRO squads in the most sensible points of the network. They are currently guarding gambits and exits but they will be ready to intervene if you need assistance…" a WRO officer explained Farron as she approached the locale

"I appreciate you concern, Sir, but I usually work alone" Farron cut him short, as she opened the door of the shack

"Well, then" the WRO officer shrugged, before opening the door, revealing the interior of the room "It's all yours. I'll be in touch via your reporting officer on the vessel" he said, walking away the SISF squad as it prepared to rappel down the conduit

The lid over the manhole had already been removed. The conduit stood there, black and smelling like rot

"That thing looks like a portal to another dimension" corporal Kewell commented "So much for the 'sewers'" he added

"But maybe the sewers are actually another dimension, for real!" Biggs echoed. The interior of the room were saturated by the stench emanating from the hole

"This surely will be fun… Cade commented, pinching his nose through the balaclava

"Why hasn't anyone brought gas masks?" Yuffie echoed him

Farron made a disgusted grimace as she peeked over the hole "You know, Captain Tuesti" she said, finally "I heard and read wonders about you. They say a mission is never boring if you are involved"

Cade made a surprise look "Oh, well. If that's what they say, I must admit I'm flattened"

"And" Farron continued, turning her attention to Yuffie "I haven't heard much about you, Mrs. Kissaragi, but as far as I know, you saved the world a couple of times"

"This is pretty much true" the ninja joyfully nodded, without an inch of modesty

"All right, then" Farron finally said, donning her helmet and fastening the bridles around her uniform "Let's see if this mission is going to be as fun as this place is nauseating" she concluded, proceeding to lower herself inside the hole.

Fifteen special forces member were climbing downstairs on a narrow and slippery ladder. A persistent hum could be heard in the background as gusts of wind, surprisingly enough, were blowing down there too.

Sarah Farron had already had her share of bizarre and dangerous adventures and mission on her back. She was the commanding officer of a platoon when the WRO had launched its final assault against the Midgar Fortress, ending the Deepground conflict. When the upper decks of the WRO had released the news that Director Tuesti intended to form a special operations division, she immediately volunteered.

She had been used to discipline and hardship since the age of fourteen, when she had been unofficially admitted to work in the mines of her native Corel as a member of the rescue team, her slender figure being a plus for operation where she had to infiltrate tight and narrow spaces.

She had taken her admission in the SISF division for granted, and so it was. It had finally gave her the chance to immerse herself in a challenging and proving environment.

If she really did love challenges, the situation she was currently in was something she would have loved: it was not just about the sewers and acting contrary to official orders without anyone else knowing, apart from her fellow comrades who were following her down the slippery steps of the passage. It was about a sword lingering upon Gaia and the rush to save Director Tuesti, without really knowing who could be trusted or not or where to go next and without knowing which move to take next

It was like going on an obstacle course blindfolded

"Whops!" a cry from above forced her to focus back on the here and now, as speckles of mud freefell through the passage and slightly touched her helmet "Damn these boots!" Perkins protested, as he regained his grip on the steps

"It's not the boots, Perkins" Corporal Biggs made him notice "It's just you not minding your steps"

"And who sees his feet in here?" Perkins replied "It's pitch black!"

"Perkins!" Farron shouted, making sure her voice could reach the sergeant "Mind your step and please do not fall down. You would bring everyone with you!"

"Yes, Sir!" Perkins lazily replied, as the group resumed climbing down

"I have a question for you two" Farron asked Cade and Yuffie

"Right now?" the ninja questioned her, as she was negotiating the ladder herself

"Maybe later" Sarah thought "But I still have to ask it"

"Whatever…" Cade uttered

"Excuse me, Mr. Tuesti!" a voice chirped again from above

"Who is it this time?" Farron shook her head

"It's Sergeant Perkins" Biggs explained "He has something to tell you!"

"Well, then go on" Cade invited him

"Hem…" Perkins cleared his throat "I beg you pardon if I've doubted you before on the ship, Sir" the sergeant told him "It was very impolite of myself"

"Is that so?" Cade wondered "Well, no apologies needed. It would have been hard for me as well to believe it!"

"Who did write the speech for you, Perkins?" Farron asked

"I could guess…" Kewell laughed

At some point during the descent, Farron felt no steps under her left feet. She swung her leg,. then she quickly looked below her and she could finally tell that they had reached the main conduit. She leapt down, landing on a small pool of water inside a wide conduct. She extracted a glow stick from her pocket and cracked it, illuminating the immediate surroundings with a greenish light

"Everybody, pay attention!" she instructed to the rest of the party above her "The ladder is over!"

One by one, all the members of the team jumped down and formed a huddle around lieutenant Farron. When the last of them finally reached the floor, Farron spoke in her transmitter

"Major, we are inside the sewers" she communicated "I'll activate my beacon" she said as she pressed a button on a device on her vest

"You come in clear and loud" Evan replied from the other side of the wire "And I have your beacon as well"

"Good. Perkins, Kewell, turn on yours!" she told them

"Now" Evan said in the receiver "I have the position of the other WRO squads and the last known positions of the so-called enemy. They are running in circles apparently, shifting from one floor to the other one"

"And they have not been intercepted yet?" Sarah marvelled

"Not every WRO soldier is as powerful as you are" he commented "Split into three squads, as planned, and proceed to the points I'll broadcast on your PHSs. All right?"

"Fine. Orders received" she replied "Are the communications secured?"

"Don't worry" Evan assured her "Nobody will tap in into our channels. Our sly plan will go on unnoticed. Oh, and can you pass me Cade, by the way?"

"All right" Farron nodded, as she took off her receiver from her ear, passing it to Cade "Take it. Evan wants to talk to you"

Cade took the receiver and plugged it into the ear

"Cade, do you read me?" Evan asked

"I do" he replied

"Good. Listen, breaking the code of the data stream is taking more time than expected, but there something more in it. We have one or two reason to suspect that the ones that blew up the WRO garrison and sent the message are the same person or people"

"Have they been identified yet?"

"No, not yet. They were carrying false IDs with them and the uniforms they wore were stolen, so the QR codes on their vests have led to a false path. Anyway, if there's someone hiding in the sewers, it's them"

"Can we make contact, at least? Prevent them from firing at us?" Cade asked

"I'm afraid I can't"

"Damn, you're useless, Evan" Cade protested

"Well, fuck you too Cade" Evan laughed "Anyway, they are just a couple of them. Even if they are well armed they can be easily cornered"

"That's it, Evan" Cade commented "I hate cornering amateurs. They turn into crazy shards when they realize they have their back on the wall"

"Try to practice a bit of diplomacy, then" Evan instructed him "Give me back Sarah, would you?"

Cade tossed the receiver back at Sarah

"Anything else worth knowing?" she asked

"Avoid WRO squads" Evan warned her "We are better off without them meddling into our affairs. I can eavesdrop on their conversation and have them in your earpiece if you like"

"That would be nice. And you bet I'll take care of the latter stuff as well" Sarah assured him

"Then you are all good to go" Evan concluded "Report if you make contact. And be careful! Shera out!"

The conduit became eerily silent again, until Sarah spoke again

"All right, let's split from here" she said, as the PHS of every squad member lit up as they received the layout of the pipe network "Perkins, take Biggs, Juniper and Cassermann with you. I'll go with Yuffie, Cade and Kewell. Travis, take the rest under your lead. Try to focus in finding a safe path out of here rather than searching for those guys we're after. We might need to take them out with us without anyone noticing"

"Consider it done, Sir" the guy named Travis said

"Good. See you soon everybody!" Sarah waived

"What do we do if we find them? I mean the any of the guys…" Perkins asked

"Let them talk to me" Cade quickly rushed to answer to him "If there's someone they want to talk to, that'll be me…"

"What makes you so sure about that?" Farron asked him

"Call it intuition" Cade replied "Why contacting a random WRO vessel among the hundreds and hundreds of airships? It would make better sense if they knew who was on the Shera…" he explained

Sarah and the others paused for a few seconds to consider Cade's hypothesis

"Makes sense enough to me" Sarah decided "If you stumble upon them tell them that Cade Tuesti is here!"

Everyone nodded as the squad leaders took their team members with them and all disappeared heading in different directions.

3.

Sarah, Cade, Yuffie and Kewell were carefully measuring each step as they advanced through the maze of conduits, casting light on each shady corner and cautiously peeking around every corner to avoid being caught by WRO patrols or being involuntarily ambushed by the fugitives they were after.

Although the authorities of Kalm up on the surface had given them the assurance that it was a matter a quantity over quality, the situation itself was critical, from their perspective. Attention had to be paid at every moment. One false step and their cover could blow up, thus exposing the true nature of their mission.

Yuffie was scoping the surroundings through the aim of her rifle. She had had to abandon her faithful shuriken on the ship, as she had given in to the objection that such equipment was too showy and someone might have recognized her thanks to her very trademark weapon. She had gladly left her beloved weapon behind, for the sake of the mission, only to realize that it took her very little time to familiarize with the XA90 WRO rifle, a bulky yet lightweight assault weapon. It was a cool toy, after all. She wished only she did not have to use it against people who only happened to be on the wrong side just because of something beyond their control.

In her heart she harboured the hope that everyone there shared her fear.

Speaking of which, Cade was there beside her as well. She could feel his tension from here, without even having to take a deeper look at him. He had been silent for a whole ten minutes, something unprecedented. Probably the ghosts of the past mission were still haunting him and he had to deal with that kind of stuff as well.

Finally, as they reached a crossroad, they halted. Sarah consulted her PHS to work out their position and determine which route had to be taken next

"Perkins" she exclaimed in her radio "Report in!"

"Perkins here" a voice replied "No contact whatsoever. We are proceeding to the lower floor"

"Good, proceed then!" Sarah continued "Travis, what's your status?"

"Travis, coming in!" Travis answered "We are sorting through every marked path leading away from this dungeon. But the WRO is guarding nine passages out of ten…"

"Where are you now?"

"We're proceeding at the lower floor too" Travis informed her

"Same as above" Sarah told him back "Keep searching. Good luck!"

"Anything new, Sir?" Kewell tentatively asked

"Apparently no" Sarah replied "Let's see if Evan has something on his side" she said while she meddled with her transmitter.

At the same time, Cade was carefully scoping the walls around him, trying to find traces of the passage of someone or something. To him, this whole affaire was akin to trail a prey in a forest. He knew that anyone walking through that maze was eventually bound to leave tell tale sings of their passage, in the form of spent equipment, scratches on the walls or misplaced objects. He was approached by Yuffie as his mind was beginning to wander again

"Are you all right?" she instinctively asked

"How about you?" Cade replied in a unexpectedly bitter manner, upsetting himself too in the process

"Slow down" Yuffie harked, just as offended "Next time I'll bear in mind that it's a capital offence worrying about you!"

Cade tried not to pay much attention to the ninja's remark. In a corner, Kewell was keeping guard against incoming and undesired visitors.

Cade briefly replayed his reaction to Yuffie's question in his mind. As every frame past by, he realized his mistake more and more. He quickly closed the gap between him and the now lonely ninja, who was guarding the corner opposite Kewell. He made for the corner next to her, keeping at a reasonable distance while Sarah chatted via radio with Evan

"I'm sorry" he whispered to her, trying to avoid to make excessive noise

"It's all right" she replied almost nonchalantly

Cade shook his head "I'm really sorry" he pressed on

"And I told you I'm really all right" Yuffie lively replied. Then she shifted next to him, kneeling under his rifle, under his puzzled look

"Are you nervous, aren't you?" she finally asked

Cade did not see anything useful in showing off bravado so he resolved to be honest this time

"I am" he replied, with a sigh

"Do you want to talk about it?" she offered

"Right here?" Cade questioned her

"Why not?" Yuffie smiled "Maybe it helps"

"I don't know" Cade explained "I have a kind of funny feeling about this"

Yuffie turned her head upwards "What do you mean?"

"I don't know" Cade simply replied, as he stared down the muzzle of his gun "I feel like an unexpected turn of events is about to happen" Yuffie cheered

"Good" Sarah's voice brought them all back with their feet on the ground "Apparently Evan and Ruding have hacked the sewers' control system. No unregistered passages have been detected outside the network from the moment we've entered. We are still in time to reach them before the WRO does"

"Provided the WRO leaves us an open path" Kewell objected

"Leave the incumbency of the way out to Travis" Farron told him "Come on! We have to descend to one more floor below. There's a path ahead leading to a staircase. We'll use that…" she indicated

As the party progressed to the staircase, Sarah resumed talking

"About the question I wanted to ask you before…" she said

"All right" Cade nodded, without missing his cue "Let's hear!" he invited her

"Kewell" Sarah told the fourth man "You won't be listening from now on, all right?"

"Of course not, Sir!" Kewell replied, pretending to focus on something else rather than the conversation about to take place

"Sounds like something terribly serious" Yuffie considered

"Well, it's not really that serious but, since we will be working together, I need to know a couple of things so…"

"Don't make us beg you, lieutenant" Cade intervened, as he somehow felt where Sarah was going for "We might get jumped on any second now"

"All right then. Is it there, by any chance, anything between you, Sir, and Warrant Officer Kissaragi?"

They were both dumbfounded by that question, although to a lesser extent when it came to Cade, who had put the likely of being asked such a question into account. Yuffie immediately retreated behind a convenient defensive line "What makes you think that we are… you know, partners?" she calmly enquired

"I don't know" Sarah countered "There's something between you two that suggests me that you are close acquaintances. Perhaps more than close…"

"You mean all that stuff regarding the non-verbal communication and not making eye contact when this and when that?" Cade asked, helping Kewell to open the door behind which the passage to the lower level stood

"I'm already managing a relationship in my unit" Sarah explained "And believe me, it requires the kind of leadership skills not taught at the Officer Examination Course. I'm not sure if that's your case as well but I need to be sure. Or, at least, as sure as I can be"

Surprisingly, Yuffie and Cade found themselves blushing while they stared at each other. Of course they could not see their cheeks turning red as their eyes met, as they idled in front of the staircase but they felt the warmth of an unknown and strange feeling inside them. Neither of them had the bravery to ponder one second more over that sensation

"Well" Yuffie broke the silence, as she began to walk down the staircase "he saved my life one, if that may help you, Sir!" she said, almost giggling, much to Cade's delight

"But, conversely, the first time we met was not really the usual date" Cade replied, as Yuffie sighed upon that remembrance. It seemed to her that years had past since the frantic chase down the dirty roads of Wutai, ending up in front of her father. Actually, just a week had passed. She was beginning to lose the sense of time

"Well, it couldn't be worse than mine. I remember that one time with my ex-girlfriend…"

"Kewell, no one is interested in your love misadventures!" Sarah reprimanded him "And as far as you are concerned, Yuffie, feel free to call me Sarah!" she grinned towards the ninja

"I'll try" Yuffie nodded "But what about the other romance in the team?" she curiously asked

"Do you really want to know?"

"Why not?" Cade distractedly intervened. Yuffie gave him a baffled look. He must have been very bored to engage his attention to such a trivial issue

"If you insist… one is Perkins" Sarah began "The other one, you could never imagine…"

"Corporal Biggs?" Yuffie slyly guessed

Sarah turned her head, amused

"Lucky guess" she commented with a lopsided smile

"Who would have thought about those two lovebirds?" Cade wondered, as they reached the lower level. The gusts they had heard throughout the upper floor were absent there. Coupled with a dimmer atmosphere, the result was that the second lower level resembled more a cave than a section of the sewer system

"Lights are permanently out" Kewell pointed out, as he flipped a switch down and up, without producing any visible consequence

"Switch to your night-scopes" Sarah instructed them, as they all lowered the night goggles before their eyes. The environment around them sank in a greenish, hazy light through the lenses of the night vision device. The darkness finally began revealing its secrets such as alcoves, shafts, wells and tubing. They currently found themselves on a giant platform, from where a plethora of staircases led to further platforms down below or concrete floors. Pipes of different gauge ran from the floor to the ceiling. The only sound was the omnipresent ticking of the drops of sludgy water

"Good, now let's not trip over some rusted stuff, or every citizen of Kalm will complain about the sewers being too noisy" Cade spurred the party as he momentarily took command

"Are we set about that matter?" Yuffie asked Sarah

"Which one?"

"The no-affairs-while-on-duty stuff and so on…"

"Oh, that one" Sarah remembered "You're good to go. You don't seem to pose a threat to the well being of my leadership and the integrity of the quad. For now!"

"Glad to hear that!"

"Never say never…" Kewell murmured

No replies came, as apparently nobody heard that remark.

Everyone took a corner of that room and proceeded to perlustrate the paths stemming from every point. Cade marvelled as how Yuffie could be so cold-blooded in such an environment.

'I'd never thought I could think that I might enjoy some time alone with her…' a dreamy voice floated inside his brain

It would be nice, after all that happened

"That's strange…" Kewell thoughtfully commented, cutting short the train of thoughts and every voice inside Cade's head. The operative was shifting from one staircase to the other one, scoping the bottom of the room with the aiming device of his rifle

"What is strange?" Yuffie asked

"No WRO units in sight so far. And it's not that we snuck past them…"

"That's right" Sarah realized "According to the PHS we should have encountered at least a pair of them by now…"

"They have been reshuffled, maybe" Kewell guessed

The party reached what it appeared to be the middle of the room. There stood a ventilation shaft. They regrouped around it

"I'll try to contact Evan and see what he can see about it…"

Lieutenant Farron did not even have the time to press the PTT button that a sudden and powerful shockwave jolted every wall, making them all almost jump from the floor. Indeed they had to fight to regain their balance as the dust lifted by the explosion fell on their shoulder and the echo of the thunderous boom still resonated throughout the conduits

"Are you all right?" Sarah shouted "What happened?" she asked

"A gas leak?" Kewell guessed, alarmingly

"Very likely" Yuffie echoed him

As the echo of the deflagration subsided, a choir of voices lifted from the ventilation shaft around which they stood

"Something has definitely happened" Cade commented as he peeked down the black hole

"Evan, come in please! We need a sit-rep!" Sarah shouted in her radio

"Lieutenant Farron, are you all right?" Evan replied form the other side

"What happened? Can you tell us?" Sarah asked again. The explosion must have had a secondary effect on her hearing because the red-haired lieutenant was virtually screaming in the microphone

"Are you all right? I can't hear you very well. And beside, all the frequencies are buzzing right now!" Evan spoke again

"We're fine!" Sarah quickly took a look around her to evaluate the conditions of her fellow party members "As long as you care to tell us what happened"

"Several WRO squads were converging on the alleged location of the escapees!" Evan explained "But apparently, the mouse ate the cat"

"You mean an ambush?"

"Quite rightly so" Evan nodded (although nobody could see him) "There's a massive fire-fight down there. Guess we have found them!"

"Evan" Cade shouted in the transmitter, tearing it from Sarah's ear "Tell us the shortest path to reach them!"

"You want to go down there in the midst of a battle?" Yuffie nervously asked him, as Kewell was staring eyes wide open, in awe at Cade's determination

"You heard Evan? They have minutes left to play the last stand, or even less!" he shouted "Evan, the quickest route. Be quick!"

"You're sitting on top of it…" Evan told him

"You mean…" Cade uttered, as he lowered his eyes upon the shaft

"There's a ventilation shaft right there where you are" Evan explained, as Cade invited everyone to crawl inside the well by pointing his index finger downward "It should bring you right over the three guys holding the WRO squads at large…"

"Three guys? Are you sure it's just three of them?" Cade asked, incredulously

"It sounds like there's an entire army down there!" Yuffie pointed out, as the sound of the rifles cracking in the canals below them began to rise to the point of being clearly audible

"Take that passage and make contact with those guys down there!" Evan ordered them "Let's see what's happening there!"

"Roger, Evan" Sarah replied, as she was given her transmitter back. She immediately shifted the frequency in order to communicate with the other team leaders "Everyone else, have you heard? Perkins, mark my position and rejoin!"

"Roger, lieutenant!" Perkins heeded the call

"Travis" Sarah resumed "Have you found an exit?"

"Affirmative, but you won't like it!" Travis replied

"I don't care" the lieutenant pressed "As long as it takes us out of here fast, I'll like it…"

"An old drainage conduit, just below where the contact is taking place. Talking about good luck… Oh, shit!" Travis' transmission was interrupted by a muffled shriek in the distance and a gunfire that fiercely erupted almost instantly

"Travis! What's happening?"

"A fucking WRO patrol appeared behind us and began firing!" Travis explained, quickly panting as he dictated orders to his squad "De Santa is wounded!"

"Damn it!" Evan intervened "Did they figure out what we were up to already?"

"Not likely" Cade guessed, secretly in apprehension for the fate of the wounded SISF operator "They were probably just a bit too edgy. The WRO kids I mean. Tell them to get out of there, fast!" he advised

"Look Travis" Sarah spoke on the radio "Grab De Santa and all the others and get away from there! Get out of here first!"

"I'll send De Santa on the surface with Brunner and Phillips. Me and Hayward will secure the passage!" Travis resolutely replied

"Whatever!" Sarah gave in "Don't make me beg to go retrieve your corpse!" she caustically joked, ending her transmission. She frowned upon catching a glimpse of the look her squad members were throwing her

"Hey, I gave him the chance to go all the way out safely" she justified herself "It's not my fault if we have contrasting view on how to behave under certain circumstances…"

"Whatever" Cade shook his head "How about going down?" he proposed, as he stepped on the edge of the well

"I was just about to say that…" Sarah lazily trailed him

One floor below, hell had break loose when Shane had had the great idea of hurling a grenade at the feet of the platoon leader of a WRO team who had spotted them. The WRO soldiers had run for cover but the grenade had gone off next to a steam collector, tearing the steam tank apart and amplifying the effect of the explosion thousand-fold.

Chunks of bricks still glued together by cement mortar had fallen from the vault and pieces of tubes had flown all around. That ruckus had allowed Ryan and his party to take refuge under a wall on an elevated section of that floor but soon WRO forces were regaining momentum, closing in and firing on them mercilessly. Apparently, their party had been cornered, their backs on the wall

"Why are they shooting so desperately at us?" Char protested "Can't they see it's just the three of them?" he shouted, as bullets ricocheted all around them

"They can't see it, it's obvious!" Ryan observed

"Or maybe they just want to kill us altogether…" Char objected, terrified

"Now what are we going to do?" Shane asked, as Ryan leapt over the wall to shoot a salvo with his rifle, forcing a detachment of WRO soldiers to scatter and find cover

"Give me your last grenades!" he told Shane

"What are you going to do?" Shane asked

"There's an old pipe down there" he pointed towards an opening behind them, next to a bundle of steel panels and conduits that made up a bulky machinery "It goes all the way to the river running next to Kalm. Take it. I'll cover you!"

"Are you insane?" Char cried, as he shot blindly over the wall "You won't last a minute here!"

"Enough for you to get out of here" he assured them, lending them the hard drive "And bring this to a safe place!"

Char took the device into his own hands "What do you mean with 'a safe place'?"

"I…" Ryan was about to tell his friend to use his imagination, that every place was fine until the WRO did not put its eyes upon it for a couple of days. He was also about to add that he did not care what would happen to himself as long as his two friends would have made it outside the sewers safe and in one piece, and able to physically give the content of the disk to the people mentioned in the same message that his sister had sent him along with the device. As long as they lived, they had a chance to look for them and probably even find them. Chances where that the broadcasting had failed and the only chance to rely the message was a in-hand delivery.

As long as he was concerned, then, he had already done all he could do and had given in all his potential to accomplish the mission. He just hoped that it was enough not to let her beloved sister down.

Unfortunately, he could not speak a word further.

A red, blinking light flew past them, overshot them and landed over the machinery behind them, right under an opening on the roof, a passage they had not noticed before.

The explosion caught them unprepared as the concussion grenade went off, creating a temporary void that cut their breath enough to push them on the brink of unconsciousness. The first bang was later followed by a bright flash of light and a powerful shockwave that nearly tore apart every square inch of steel and concrete and bricks around them.

They were all violently pressed against the walls, breathless and motionless, their hearing sense blacking out and blinded.

They couldn't notice that a fourth figure had been caught by the explosion as it was descending from the hole over them.

Sarah had immediately taken point again as the squad prepared to climb down again through the narrow passage. As they closed the distance with the lower floor, the cracks and the shots were aggressively echoing throughout the tight spaces

"Looks like we are getting close!" Yuffie announced

"Sure we are" Sarah replied "Once we step down, try to find out were these three kids are and form a perimeter around them. If you see and WRO member getting too close, shoot over his head. This should scare him enough not to meddle with us…"

"So that's our plan" Cade commented "We act like we are part of this so-called resistance too…"

"Simple but effective" Sarah boasted "I'll leave the delicate task of convincing them to come with us to you, Mr. Tuesti"

"I'm a diplomat through to through" Cade nodded "I just hope we don't get recognized by our uniforms afterwards"

"Our vests got dirty enough to be mistaken for the ones of the Department of Public Works" Kewell intervened, raising his voice in order to be heard over the ever louder sound of the fire-fight

"Besides" Sarah added "The WRO fodders will be probably too busy trying to run for cover once we start shooting that our uniforms will be the last of their concern"

She stopped, as she could feel the last step of the ladder "Ok, looks like we are finally here" she said. The rifles were cracking loud and clear, and the muzzle flashes were illuminating the space below distinctly. Every now and then orders could be heard over the gunshots, and brief, sparse burst could be perceived, closer than the rest

"I'm going down" Sarah announced "Follow suit and follow me. Fire like you have to open your way through but do not hit anyone. At least try not to…" she ordered, as she jumped below.

Then the explosion took place. A deafening blast crawled up through the passage along with a cloud of thick dust. The walls and the ladder shook violently as a piercing whistle carved their eardrums, nearly making the three of them still holding the steps to lose the hold and fall down.

When the effect of the explosion faded away, Cade did not lose time and jumped down from the ladder without even reaching the last step first. He was greeted by the sight of three bodies strewn against a wall, all of them pressing their hands against their ears. The third had a black device on his lap. On his left the body of lieutenant Sarah Farron was stuck against a railing, with blood coming from a gush on his head.

As Kewell and Yuffie touched ground behind them, he decided to pick up his rifle and rush to the balcony. Below, two rows of WRO soldiers were closing in avoiding the muddy pit at the centre of the conduit. He put his rifle over the balcony and fired all the way until the clip was empty.

The WRO infantry had gained a window for assaulting the position held by Ryan and his teammates. After the grenade had been hurled and following the ensuing explosion, they had come out from their cover and advanced to a steady pace. Cade's reaction was unexpected.

Bullets purposefully flew over their heads or hit just before their feet. Everyone rushed to the nearest hiding available while pipes were pierced and concrete and bricks were pierced by an avalanche of bullets

"Fuck!" a soldier shouted "I thought that grenade had put them out of action for good!"

"They had reinforcements behind them!" a colleague told him

"No way! How could they reach them? All passages from here are sealed…"

Around them a cloud of hot steam coming from a riddled tube prevented them from having a clear visual of the elevated section. Beside, it forced them to stick to their hiding places even more since venturing through these jets of steam meant having the skin and the soft tissues melt down because of the extremely hot temperature.

As Cade felt the clip of his rifle reaching the last bullet, another muzzle started firing right next to him. Yuffie had taken position on the balcony too and was keeping the WRO servicemembers at bay with short but accurate salvos

"You sure were born with a gun on your hand and a ninja star on the other…" Cade commented smiling, as he readied his rifle to fire again

"Do you think so?" Yuffie smiled back, without losing a beat "Kewell is checking Sarah and the kids" she added

"I'll go and have a look then…" he said, reaching for his belt and handing the stun grenades to Yuffie, placing them next to her "Use them , in case someone peeks out and decides to make a run for us"

"I'll do!" the ninja nodded, resuming firing towards the alcoves where WRO soldiers were hiding. Cade meanwhile crawled towards Kewell, who was wrapping Sarah's head into a white gauze

"How is she?" he asked

"She banged her head pretty badly" Kewell explained "She's out for now"

"Can you wake her up? I need her alive and responsive…" Cade pressed him

"I'll try" Kewell shrugged

"Do your best or we'll get stuck here" Cade told him "How about the others?" he added, pointing to the three battered kids lined up against the wall

"They are fine, apparently" Kewell showed him "A bit shell-shocked but fine, for the most of it. Oh, by the way, I think you'd like to have this!" he said, handling the transmitter to Cade. He blew on it, as if to magically fix it and applied it inside the earlobe

"Evan, can you read me?" he spoke

"Cade! What happened? Why isn't Sarah on the device?" Evan apprehensively asked from the other side

"We have finally met up with the fugitives. But we have stumbled upon some sort of ambush" he reported "Sarah is alive and fine, but she's knock out"

"What about the three boys?"

"They are in front of me. Alive and well, apparently. What do you want me to do with them?"

"Ask them a couple of question. If our guess is right, they should be in possession of the physical data they had tried to broadcast earlier"

"And then?" Cade kept asking

"And then what?"

"We can't just leave them here!" Cade protested. He threw a concerned look over the three guys. Apart from the one in the middle, who was staring absent-mindedly at the tip of his boots, arms around his torso, the other two were staring at Cade with a mixture of curiosity and apprehension. And trembling.

"Don't even think of bringing them up on the Shera with us" Evan sternly countered "We are already running on borrowed time and I'm busy as hell trying to keep WRO personnel out my way. Take them someplace safe but I need you to get back here with the disk or whatever it is as soon as possible. And unnoticed, better off!"

Cade sighed. His reaction was not left unnoticed as Evan continued "Listen Cade. I know it's not something you would do, but we can't play the good Samaritan forever. Your uncle is locked up, the world is about to be annihilated and we're literally between a rock and a hard place. Make up something if you wish, but I can't guarantee you that much if you stray from the schedule"

"All right then" Cade nodded, after a brief pause "I'll invent something. And I won't make you waste time. I'll catch you later" he concluded

He crawled in front of them, examining the three boys. They looked very young, yet he felt a vague sense of admiration and respect for three youngsters who had had the guts to burst into a WRO building, commandeer it and dive into the sewers in order to lose their pursuers, albeit getting themselves lost in the process. And all of that in order to broadcast to the Shera a bundle of information probably contained in the hard disk the guy on the right was holding in his hands. Bringing it to Evan surely would have made the whole bunch of renegade WRO operatives save valuable time.

'It's like looking at a reflection of myself' Cade pondered, as he conjured a proper way to interrogate them. It was time to ask some questions and shed some light on what had happened so far

"Ok" he started, painting the biggest and most reassuring smile he could on his face, as Yuffie's rifle kept spitting bullets in the background. He scratched his forearms as the wounds under the vest and the dressings began itching again "I suppose you three guys have a boss amidst your party. Who is it?"

The three of them stared at him, with the face of somebody who is not yet sure whether to trust someone or not

"I'm sorry" Cade shook his head "I've been too straightforward maybe" he apologized. He allowed himself a brief hiatus in the conversation, then he resumed

"In case you did not notice, we're on the same boat, guys" he explained "We might have the WRO patch on our uniform but our vests are darker and somehow cooler. We're from the ship you tried to broadcast a message to. Our commanding officer nearly died in order to get us to reach you" he said, pointing to Sarah, still unconscious with Kewell tending to her wounds "And we have two more squads opening up a path out of here. So what do you think? Are you willing to follow us?"

Nobody replied. Meanwhile Yuffie swore as she inserted another clip in the rifle. Cade threw her a couple from his personal reserve, which landed next to her feet

"Thanks, Cade!" the ninja exclaimed

"You're welcome!" he replied, proceeding to remove his helmet and the balaclava "All right. Maybe concealing my own identity is not something that really eases tensions. Cade Tuesti, major of the WRO, currently indicted for conspiracy and murder of the General of the General Staff Arian Clawbourne. Transparency first!"

"You're Cade Tuesti?" the guy in the middle finally woke up from his state of trance, eyes wide open

"Do we already know each other?" Cade asked, amazed by the enthusiastic feedback

"No, we don't" the boy replied "We… have a common acquaintance" he tentatively said

"Whatever" Cade dismissed him "Who leads the pack here, guys?"

The boy on the right and the one on the left promptly pointed towards the guy in the middle

"As I thought" Cade said "I told you my name. The least you can do is tell me yours"

"Char Rousa"

"Shane McCreary"

"And you?" Cade's eyes ended up on the boy in the middle

"Ryan" he simply said

"Ryan what?" Cade pressed him

"Ryan" he simply said again, lowering his eyes, seemingly avoiding eye contact with Cade "That's enough"

"Playing the shady guy, uh? It could work, I guess" Cade commented, as he turned to Char, then "Is that what I think it is?"

Char launched an interrogative gaze to his mates, as if to ask for an advice or maybe permission to give away the device

"Come on Char!" Shane told him "Give him the disk. What else can we do?"

"All right then" Char extended his arm, handing the black hard drive over to Cade, who noticed the string of numbers written over it

"What's that string of numbers?" he asked

"I don't know" Ryan shrugged "My sis… the one who gave it to us told us to broadcast the data to that network address"

"Evan are you with us?" Cade asked in his transmitter

"I am" Evan replied "What do you need?"

Cade read out the sequence of numbers written on the case of the disk

"It's the network address of the Shera's mainframe" the voice of Ruding had traded places with Evan's "Where did you find it?"

"On the case of a hard disk containing, I surmise, the original data being broadcasted by the station" Cade explained "I've got them with me right now"

"Seriously?" Evan's voice appeared again "You'd better bring it here now. The cracking process is taking an increasingly higher amount of time"

"Consider it done, then!"

"Done what?" Shane asked

"Listen, we are running out of time" Cade explained "I need to get that disk and bring it on the Shera, our airship"

"What about us?" Char asked, worriedly

"Don't worry" Kewell appeared behind Cade "I'll check up your conditions and we will take you out of here" he said, as he proceeded to probe on Shane

"I'm alright, man!" the boy protested "Just take me out of here!"

"What about you two?" Kewell questioned the other boys

"We're fine, I guess" Char replied for both himself and Ryan

"Cool, more time saved. Would you care giving me that?" again Cade pointed towards the hard disk. As Char extended his arm towards Cade's reach, Shane momentarily erupted

"Wait, Char! Ryan, are we sure we are doing the right thing?"

Ryan rolled his eyes "She trusted him, at least that's what she told me!"

"Yeah, I know" Shane conceded him "But you sister is dead now, and probably has been killed by people wearing the same stuff they are wearing…"

"Shane, shut the fuck up!" Char violently interrupted him "I'm giving it in, at least they won't be chasing us no more…"

"Well, do whatever you want" Shane bitterly concluded "I'm sick of this all" he spat, swinging his hand over a pool of dirty water next to him "I just want to get the hell out of here!" he concluded

"Yeah, me too" Ryan followed, as he carefully and slowly stood up, reaching for Cade "Please!" he begged, holding Cade's arm "Take us out of here. We'll be all right on our own out there…"

"I hope so" Cade murmured "Because I can't take you with me. We are pulling something pretty dangerous …"

From the hole they had just came down, a figure leapt down, followed by another one, and two more. Cade swiftly aimed the rifle at them but he lowered the gun almost instantly as he recognized Perkins, Biggs and their squad mates along with them

"Cavalry has arrived!" Biggs shouted

"Fancy some help?" Perkins asked, grinning "I reckon you must be pretty busy down here"

"Of course we are, and I could use some help" he gestured towards Yuffie "Go give Yuffie a hand fend off the WRO soldiers there below. She's firing from the balcony. Try not to kill anyone, though. They're just cannon fodder…"

"Coming through" Perkins announced, as he crawled next to Yuffie, beginning to fire as soon as he reached the wall. Biggs halted as she recognized Sarah, who by now had partially regained consciousness

"Lieutenant!" Biggs shouted "What happened?"

"A concussion grenade hit her pretty badly" Kewell explained "But she will be back on her feet in a matter of seconds"

"All right then" Cade, stood up, bolstered by the fact that apparently he had been just invested with the responsibility of leading the pack out of the sewage "Let's move out. Guys, up on your legs and double time out of this shithole" he enthusiastically spurred the troop

"Cade, wait a second!" Evan tapped in into the radio

"Speak up, Evan!" Cade replied

"You need to stir up things a little bit more down there" Evan told him "Otherwise the WRO up here will think that something is wrong!"

"What does it mean?"

"It means that you need a valid excuse to retreat from the operations' theatre and to justify the fact that a special force team has been unable to locate and apprehend a band of amateurish wanna-be terrorists"

"Say no more!" Cade interrupted him "I've got a solution popping up in my mind right now. What's the status down there? I mean, up there?"

"Everyone is frantic" Evan reported "They heard about the shootout and they are all thinking that a whole army of insurgents is hiding down there!"

"Ok, so we clearly need a diversion…" Cade thought

"Of course you do" Evan replied "Hayward is rolling thumbs waiting for you at the conduit down there. You'd better move or he will start shooting rats out of boredom!" he joked

"I heard you!" Hayward got in line "And no, I'm perfectly cool. De Santa and Brunner are already out there. They will try to look less striking and proceed to the outskirts of the town where we will pick them up"

"Will you be able to take off without interferences?" Cade asked

"Leave the bureaucracy to me" Evan reassured him "You just concentrate on causing the biggest problem you can down there…" he concluded, as he cut the communication down

"Did something new happen?" Yuffie asked him, as she had given up her place to Perkins' team

"We are getting out of here. and with a bang too!"

"That sounds interesting!" she commented, with an entertained smile "I was nearly falling asleep spraying bullets down there"

"Well, now thing are going to be rockier" Cade told her "Take the three of them and lead them to the exit at the lower level. It's still safe down there, so don't worry about a thing!"

"I can look after myself!" she grumped "Don't you just remember that?"

"Hey, I'm just whishing things to be easy for you" he winked, as Yuffie laughed back "Take Kewell and our ever-awake Sarah with you!"

"Easy on her!" she reprimanded him "She got shook up by a grenade!"

"Well, so let's give her a medal. A giant, shiny, golden medal. And next time she steps on a landmine we'll promote her to general!"

Yuffie laughed again "I'd better go then" she pointed towards Kewell, who was laboriously holding Sarah up and was launching a fierce look towards them, as to end up their chatter and make them notice he was alone with three guys who wished nothing but escaping and a commanding officer who thought she was still in the midst of sleeping soundly. Yuffie quickly leaped, grabbing Sarah by the free arm and pressing Ryan's gang to help her. He turned and stared at the giant machinery that stood there at the centre of the elevated section where they had found Ryan and his mates, next to a small porthole where Yuffie and the others disappeared.

He walked around it for a few seconds then he finally made up his mind: apparently the machinery was nothing but a giant pump designed to provide flooding water for the canal that stemmed from there. A multitude of red pipes ran from it, as Cade could see by removing a panel from a side and throwing it aside. He quickly searched for the switch, until he found a giant lever, all painted in yellow and black where the rust had not yet eaten the steel. Hoping that the pump would start after years and years of apparent inactivity, he pulled it downward using his whole body as a deadweight, as his forearm began aching again.

The pump started with a roar, as plumes of steam erupted from the vents. The giant shaft was rotating inside the steely container, shaking the whole block from its basement. Cade marvelled at the giant hardware as he vigorously scratched his arms thorough the thick vest.

"Perkins" Cade shouted over the thundering noise filling the room "Give me a couple of grenades!" he ordered

Perkins momentarily turned away from the balcony and rolled a couple of High Yield Explosion grenades to Cade

"Serve yourself" he told him "Are them for what I think they are?" he asked

"Indeed!" Cade nodded "Thanks, by the way. The yellow ones, right the kind I needed!" he observed as he proceeded to throw them inside the shaft compartment through a hatch on the side of the box. The grenades fell down the rotating pole, clanking against the steel they encountered while descending to the bottom of the well

"Evan wants some big fireworks before we leave!" he explained the rest of the SISF that had stayed behind to cover the escape of the rest of the team "I've hurled your grenades in the shaft. Let's run away!" he shouted, as he leant from the balcony himself and started shooting randomly below him. One of his stray bullets hit a WRO soldier on the thigh, making him collapse to the ground

"Sorry about that, pal!" he silently apologize, since he did not score that shot purposefully at all

"I just hope they did not recognize us" Biggs noted "Otherwise…"

A loud explosion interrupted her, shaking the whole canal from the bottom to the top. The shrieking cry of gears being dislodged from their pegs echoed through the corridors as the section of the shaft not concealed by the container started moving up and down beside spinning, and tilting more and more at every turn, nearly consuming the rim of the upper opening of the containment vessel.

"There it goes!" Cade shouted "You'd better go while you can or soon everything will collapse on us!"

As he spoke, pieces of walls started falling from the vault as the shaft, unbridled, was pounding the walls, dancing to the rhythm of the friction of metallic surfaces one against each other. The whole sewer was about to crumble like a sand castle. WRO soldiers started running away from the canal below and proceed to the quickest route to the surface. Steel panels started to bail from their frames along with salvos of rivets as jets of steam began erupting from bent pipes around the machinery. The pressure inside the box was rising enormously as the warped conduits were trapping hot columns of vaporized air into sections filling up quickly

As Perkins closed the queue of SISF personnel disappearing though the hatch next to the metal container about to blow, Cade leant from the balcony observing the scene of WRO soldiers escaping a dreadful fate. He meant to warn them of the impending disaster but apparently it was not needed. Everyone had reached for a safe spot far away already.

It was his turn now.

He quickly ran towards the hatch and dived in it, as lights went out above him and sparks flew all around as electric wires began overloading and got severed by flying shards or chunks of bricks falling upon them.

A quake ripped the canal apart as the shaft finally tore apart and the steam collected erupted outside its containments, causing a powerful explosion which demolished the entire upper section.

Cade slid down the ladder seconds after the passage collapsed over him.

4.

The trip back to the surface was mostly uneventful. The small, tight and dark passage they had found on their scheme was nearly claustrophobic so nobody really talked for fear of consuming the already squeezed amount of air in the conduit.

Cade himself had to bend over in order to fit into the short tunnel, and had to abstain from wearing the helmet as the clearance was so low that his scalp was grazed by the roof.

The silence, sparsely interrupted and adorned by the steps of the line of SISF personnel plus Ryan, Char and Shane, let him think about the outcome of the operation: it was surely better than the last one. They had rescued a group of kids who, posing as WRO soldiers, had sent a pirate broadcast to the Shera, whose nature was yet to be identified; then they had retrieved the disk containing the data themselves; last but not the least, they had escaped the sewers of the city of Kalm, while caught in a crossfire. That surely added up to his resume.

His excitement was swept away and promptly replaced with anxiety, as his thought immediately veered upon his uncle Reeve, still locked inside somewhere not yet clear. And the calamity pending like a sword tied to a feeble string upon Gaia. There was so much to do, so much unknown and so little time. Exhaustion nearly got a grip on him, but then Hayward, the soldier leading the line exclaimed

"Light ahead! At last…"

"Watch out!" Sarah warned him. She had regained consciousness. Not as promptly as Kewell had estimated but she was finally upright and lively "We might get a surprise party any second now!"

"Evan told us to be cool" Yuffie countered

"Do you know where Mr. Cool ended up?" Perkins asked her

"Never mind!" Yuffie replied with a sigh, realizing that the hunky sergeant was probably quite right. Yuffie and Cade let the guard down once, just once. And she remembered too well how it ended. Easy to judge afterwards, though

They surfaced again. Apparently they had been underground far longer than they thought because it was dusk already. The conduit popped up in a meadow somewhere far from downtown, on a small shore on the bank of the river running along the north-eastern suburbs of Kalm. The city light began appearing against the orange sky in the distance. Closer, huddle of houses were scattered here and there, with paddocks and fields of hay and corn amidst them. A gentle breeze was blowing and the grasslands reminisced a green and yellowy sea. After spending so many hours in a dim, obscure and stenchy sewage, that vision before their eyes was nothing but pure heaven

"What now?" Yuffie asked

"We wait for the Shera, that's what" Cade answered, sitting cross-legged "I hope you have a place to stay, you three!"

"We'll make it on foot to our houses" Shane nodded "They are not far from here…"

"Thanks for everything, Mr…?" Char tentatively offered his gratitude, faltering upon being unable to recall Cade's name

"That's Cade for you" Cade shook his head, springing up from the ground "Look after yourself. And don't poke your nose around too much. They still don't have sketched out your faces but be careful nonetheless"

"We will!" Char nodded

"And don't forget to give back those uniforms" Perkins joked "If you really want one of them you'd better join the WRO"

"You surely have some potential" Biggs smiled "I'd think about it, if I were you!"

"But we are in the WRO" Shane pointed out "I mean, we already are!"

Kewell whistled. Cade made a complacent smile.

"And you exposed yourselves so much for all this?" Yuffie asked, agape "There must be something really important in here…" she said, pointing at the pouch were Cade was holding the hard drive. He patted that very pocket, as if to be sure the disk was still there

"Do you happen to know what's in there, by chance?" Sarah mumbled, opening her mouth for the first time in a while since she regained consciousness

"Not really" Char shook his head

"I'm afraid we don't" Shane echoed. Ryan kept looking down at himself, instead

"And you did all this without even knowing what kind of stuff you were broadcasting?" Cade asked them incredulously "You must be very bold… or stupid" he dared

"I just did what she told me to do, all right?" Ryan shouted, breaking his long lasting silence. He abruptly stood up as well then, walking away and putting some distance between himself and all the others. Everyone followed him with a questioning gaze

"He needs some lessons about handling pressure, though…" Perkins observed with a grin. Biggs immediately poked him in the ribs, in a reprimanding manner

"You need to excuse him" Char explained "Ryan has gone through a bit of harsh stuff lately…"

"Like what?" Yuffie enquired

"Well…" Shane hesitated "One day…" but as he began, Cade resolutely walked past him, reaching for Ryan who had reached the bank of the river and was throwing pebbles in the water. Yuffie followed him with her eyes

"Why don't you begin by simply telling us where did you get a hold of that device, for a start?" Cade heard Sarah questioning the two boys in the distance as he reached the river himself. There stood Ryan, who was absorbed into letting stones bounce over the water before they sank into the muddy water of the river

"Hey!" Cade waived at him

"You got the disk, you saved us and you're going to save the world" Ryan bitterly told him, without turning or letting go of his focus on the trajectory of the stony bullets he was pelting before him "You got what you came for. Now leave us… I mean, leave me alone!"

"Is it because of your sister, isn't it?" Cade asked him, stepping beside Ryan, inches from the waterline

"Even if, what would you care?" Ryan replied, swinging his arm to hurl the next stone in the water

"You're not the kind of guy who would join the WRO on his own accord, trust me! I've seen tons of people queuing up to enlist themselves" Cade taunted him "and you fall in the category of people doing it for the sake of someone else. Am I right?" he concluded

Ryan kept concentrated on the flight of the stone he had just flung

"If it wasn't for your sister, you would not be in that grey uniform. Am I right?" Cade kept asking, trying to probe Ryan's comfort zone. At

last Ryan turned towards him, after the last attempt at bouncing the stone over the surface of the river failed miserably

"And if it wasn't for you she'd be still alive!" he shouted, fiercely standing towards him. Cade hoped they stood reasonably far from the rest of the group, as Ryan's cry echoed throughout the meadow "You showboat yourself, you show off and you play the handsome leading man but to me you'll always be the one that let my sister die in that Godforsaken place!" he kept on harking, keeping his stare right into his Cade's eyes

"I don't even know why she trusted you so much" the boy kept going on, on the verge of bursting into tears "She even said she… Ah, damn it I can't believe this…" he shook his head, waiving his arms and prancing away, kicking frustration away, hissing and growling. He eventually calmed down.

Cade breathed in, as a painful memory came knocking on his mind's door. One of the many he had. The most recent. He reached for a wallet he had kept with him in the SISF tactical vest. He produced a yellowy, sticky and worn out passport-sized picture portraying a man and a woman, smiling and leaning against each other. The man on the left was Cade, while the lady was a blonde girl who could be seen wearing a white blouse and who had her long, sleek, blonde hair wrapped up in a ponytail.

Kayla.

He briefly stared at the picture.

A couple of feet higher, Yuffie had witnessed the confrontation. She could not see the picture herself but she had quickly put the pieces of the jigsaw together.

So did Cade. Only to him it was clearly something not really that easy. Emotionally, that was.

"You are Ryan Walker" he murmured, eyes glued to the picture "You are Kayla's brother…"

"I am" Ryan replied, panting from the physically demanding session of frustration venting he had endured just seconds before

"So that's how things went" Cade guessed, trying to prevent his heart from falling into the obscure abyss that opened under his feet every time Kayla came to his mind "Kayla had somehow managed to make you have this disk and told you to broadcast these information to the Shera" he paused "Because she knew I would be there if a storm would have hit. Or at least the people she trusted more…"

"There a short clip in the disc" Ryan explained "She wrote it in a note I got along with the package containing the hard drive, along with the instruction. Don't tell me how did she managed to send it to the Kalm post office because I don't know jack shit about it. It was in a postal box and the guys at the post office told me there was something lying there for me"

Cade stood silent, as the breeze gently messed up with his hair

"The world is strange, huh?" Ryan asked, almost laughing "Kayla gets killed or dies, whatever, in what they label as 'unknown circumstances' and then she magically writes me asking me to take what she called 'vital information' to the one who was supposed to protect her…"

"Why do you think I was supposed to protect her?" Cade interrupted him, feeling a nerve being touched

"Come one" Ryan scoffed "We would call them every now and then and my mom would be all worried about her being safe and all and she kept repeating was 'Don't worry, I've got somebody watching me', 'Don't worry, I've got my saviour angel beside me', while laughing and smiling and all… And then one day two WRO soldiers come up to our house and they tell us that Kayla has died, and the ones responsible for their deaths are the same that led the coup against the General Staff" he paused, irate, to catch breath. Then he resumed talking again "But no, Kayla then tells me that she trusts you, no matter if the nephew of Director Tuesti is on a most wanted list without even a picture and…" he stopped, bringing his hands to his head, just like as if he had been prayed by a malignant headache

"Tell me what I should think of it, if you're the one with all the answers" Ryan continued, as he sat on a rock, cutting himself some slack after the monologue. Cade got closer to him and patted him on the shoulder

"I'm sorry about what happened to your sister" Cade told him "And I'm sorry if I did not do enough to save her!"

It was not just that, Cade realized. Kayla had accepted the fact that she was going to die in such an unapologetic way that seemed completely off with the circumstances. The thing that hurt him the most was the fact that he had acted so dense towards her.

Cade had lost so many beloved people in his life that putting a barrier between him and Kayla was a way to shelter himself for the fear of losing her as well.

What did he got in return? Kayla was dead, eventually. And maybe with the regret of not being able to have her love for him returned.

Ryan started sobbing. Cade knelt beside him, wrapping his arm around Ryan' shoulder "I miss her too. I can't think of someone who doesn't miss her… and I've treated her very unfairly" he said

Ryan covered his face with his hands "Sorry if I overreacted" he confessed, finally "But I was just feeling… odd!" he concluded

"Don't worry. Nothing to apologize for" Cade assured him "It happens form time to time to the boldest of the warrior. We have to release some pressure sometime, otherwise it kills us"

Ryan snorted, wiping away the tears from his eyes "I did it just for her" he told Cade "If it wasn't for her I wouldn't have joined the WRO myself, in the first place. And if that thing did not pop up at the post office, I would be probably at home on leave by now…"

"I know, I know" Cade nodded, smiling "She was truly someone inspiring"

Ryan finally raised his head "I can't believe she's not here anymore"

"Look" Cade looked Ryan straight into his eyes "I know it hurts. I know that sometimes you can't think of anyone else beside her. And I bet my left hand you torture yourself thinking that you could have probably done something to save her. I know it because I'm going through this as well. I cried like… I've never cried before in my life when Kayla died in my arms in that place, up north"

"I cried because I realized just there that she was the special girl she had been all along her life. That's why life sucks sometimes. We realize things only when it's too late. Sometimes we are too pride for our own sake. Kayla loved me, she confessed it to me right there, on that ugly ass place where everything was grey and dull. She confessed it to me while she was bleeding to death after having emptied an entire clip at a platoon of rogue WRO soldiers. And I was not even aware she could handle a gun"

"I was so self absorbed in my own past that I had forgot about the present. I forgot that among the multitude of people that respected, hated, feared and loved me there was someone who had a place in her heart for me. The worst thing is that I felt the same way but I purposefully decided to ignore that. Because I was selfish as fuck and I was not willing to go through that kind of ordeal once again. And that thing probably made your sister suffer"

"She said she would have looked after me, just before passing away. I sincerely hope she will look after a better person than the one that did not reciprocate her love. I have plenty of time to do that. Life goes on. You either live long enough and become the better man you wish you'd become, or at least you die trying…"

Shivers ran down Yuffie's spine as she crawled behind a bush. Her impression was that Cade was actually having a talk to himself rather than to Ryan

"I did not die today" Ryan considered "Guess this gives me some more time to try…" he smiled

Cade laughed "Well, I like your optimism. Surely you have time" he told him "If we'll do things properly, in a couple of days this will be over…" he pondered

"What can I do, for now?" Ryan urgently asked him, as the sun was setting under the horizon in the distance. The first star were beginning to appear in the sky at the other end of the sunset. Cade suddenly hissed as another burst of pain rose from his arms, forcing him to bend forward and grab his limbs

"Hey, what's happening to you?" Ryan apprehensively asked, standing up

"Nothing" Cade replied, breathing in to cope with the pain "Just an improperly dressed wound opening up again I guess" Unfortunately it wasn't just that: his head was gently swaying as he felt sweat running down his head from his scalp. Suddenly he felt like someone was setting him on fire

"You don't look very good" Ryan murmured

"Listen" Cade told him, coping with the uneasiness at the best of his possibilities "We'd better join the others as soon as we can. Our airship will land and pick us up any second now!"

Upon hearing these words, Yuffie ran towards the other SISF personnel, lightly treading the grass

"All right then" Ryan agreed, as he helped a funny looking Cade to stand up "About my last question, what can I…?"

"Nothing" Cade cut him short

"But…" Ryan protested

"Look, there will be a time when you will make your sister proud by simply signing your name on an officer commission form, but it won't be today, nor tomorrow" he explained "Please, this is going to be big and I don't want someone like you to be involved"

Ryan threw him a disappointed look

"Look after your town, your friends and your loved ones" Ryan explained him, with a sympathetic voice "It's hard enough protecting the people you are most fond of. I had to and I failed" he lowered his eyes "See it like a chance to be better than me, ok?"

Ryan shook his head "I think I can understand a bit clearly why Kayla liked you…" he mused, as they climbed the sand-wall and began their walk towards the rest of the team

"I never really figured it out myself…" Cade smiled, fighting with the urge of puking right there on the spot. He was feeling sicker and sicker as seconds past

"Do you mind if I ask you… one more thing?" Ryan told him

"Go on"

Ryan cleared his throat "They never told us where her… body is"

"Say no more!" Cade assured him.

His body was then shaken by a shiver or relief as, next to the people they had left alone and who were waiving at them, the towering profile of the Shera appeared.