Slight warning for mild hints of non-con (technically it is canon, Hojo considering breeding Aerith with Sephiroth or another SOLDIER).

Chapter 32. December 13 (PM continued), εуλ0007

The entry to the building, sinister in its emptiness. Disquieting. Where was everyone?

"Busy upstairs," Barret answered Cloud's unvoiced thought. "No reason to expect attack. It's the fucking Shinra building, after all. What, are people going to climb up the broken plate to get here." He laughed, the sound a booming echo in the lobby. "We can take the elevator right up."

Memory vaguely brushed Cloud, he trying to remember the last time he stepped through these doors. Since leaving for Nibelheim. One thing he knew for certain – he'd never come back after that fateful day… he glanced quickly at Tifa for a reminder.

He shook his head uncomfortably. Where he'd been since then… still a mystery. Nothing to worry about now. Focus on the mission instead. He steeled himself back to serenity.

"Where is she?" fretted Tifa. "How will we find her?"

"A research facility, I'm thinking," Cloud replied. "Somewhere near the top." He paused, voice lingering, almost ethereal, as he raised his head. "Yes… that's where you are…"

The pull – the call – stronger here. Aerith. He could lift a finger and point right to her, like a blazing light. But underneath it… a cold purple of fear intermingling, contrasting shades fighting for the loyalty of his mind.

So many nagging thoughts, with more rising up by the second. Numb for so long, suddenly he found himself with TOO many feelings, and he so unpracticed in experiencing any of them. Whatever previous experience he'd had with women, it really should have made him at least less – stupid. He reached back, trying to recall those early lessons of his young male mind, but reached a block – how had he garnered those experiences? He remembered, vaguely, that they'd happened, but not how he'd arrived there.

Nevermind. AERITH. His other responsibility, but wasn't it more than that which was wrecking his head right now? Again, he flashed back to the night before, this time to her odd warning, the word love hanging there, dangling like a carrot before him… and he found himself troubled even more as thoughts of Tifa crept in – somehow it didn't seem right thinking of one woman so close on the tail of the other.

"Elevator to the top then. Let's go!" insisted Barret. "No time to waste!"

Tifa glanced around them nervously. Barret, ready to barrel in once again, and her job to remind him, sometimes stealth was the better course of action. "Not the elevator, Barret," she argued. "The stairs. There must be an emergency stairwell. Much less chance of getting caught there." Behind her, Cloud shifted one foot to the other, giving a near-imperceptible nod, subtly agreeing.

Barret deflated, reluctantly. "You got a point, girl. Spikey, I'll defer to your judgment."

Cloud straightened, suddenly back in focus – how much of them had actually been with them just now? "Yeah… Tifa's right."

He'd been so strange since they had entered; even earlier, just as the building had come into sight. Cloud, a touch of dreaminess uncharacteristic of the man, contemplating something she couldn't ascertain. The mystery that was Cloud, and she couldn't help but think, somewhere in the building, there might be some answers.

Tifa thought for sure he was going to change his mind when they finally found the stairwell in question, and looked up to dizzying heights. "Oh, you have GOT to be shitting me!" he groaned to the staircases disappearing into blackness above.

Tifa couldn't help but feel much the same. Hundred s of meters climbing the plate, and now – she realized, staring in awe – they were planning to climb hundred of vertical meters more? Sourly, she wished there was a reasonable spot to use those grappling guns, but they were in far too close quarters. However, despite her reluctance, she still felt committed to this path, confident it was the safer choice.

She heard Cloud chiding Barret, but she had already started up the stairs full speed, thankful for her slender athleticism as Barret, even Cloud fell rapidly behind. Breezing up with a comfortable lead, she was trailed by their grumbling, stopping periodically to call back down and urge them to keep trudging upwards, even as they whined and bickered with each other.

Some things between those guys will never change, she thought, remembering back to after the Reactor One bombing – was that really only days ago? But now, she couldn't help but feel a wry tinge of affection, knowing there was camaraderie underneath the jest.

As they forged up and up, with no end in sight – only the numbers of the floors at the identical landings teasing them with their slow count – she finally DID start questioning her own decision. But as she tried a few of the exit doors, finding them all locked on this side, she realized there was no choice. Breathing hard, feeling her muscles burn and slow, she wondered how dangerous the other way really COULD have been.

Cloud seemed subtly distracted, in a way that might have gone unnoticed had she not become so practiced in observing him. She wondered if he himself was aware of the way his eyes twitched upward, an aberration in his otherwise-cool composure.

It made her wonder and worry what lay ahead. Finally, she reached the top, bending to stretch and catch her breath, waiting for the others, they following her lead gratefully, the signs of fatigue obvious. Slightly refreshed, she placed her handle of the door to the 59th floor, feeling a small burst of relief to find THIS one was unlocked – and as the door opened, she pulled up her courage to step through , ready for whatever lay on the other side.

He'd asked her to call him if she ever needed anything.

But he'd only just learned… she was in a place she couldn't call. A place he didn't want her to be for long. He didn't know exactly what Shinra wanted with Aerith, but he'd been able to hack some of what had been done with Ifalna, and he wanted Aerith no part of it.

That discovery, she here in the building itself, had been surprise enough – but even more so was how easily he had found out. It was as if the Turks weren't concealing her presence at all.

Nevertheless, that gave Kunsel an opportunity at long last to help her. For Zack's sake. For Zack's memory.

He was trying to find a way past Hojo's notorious security when the troopers came to him with an urgent message. Zack? was his first sudden, vain hope, the words of the two grunts tumbling over each other as they tried to tell him about a SOLDIER in the building. Zack, here to save Aerith? But as he pieced it together, his hopes were dashed again, as they described a man who most certainly wasn't his old friend.

But the name… Cloud. Cloud Strife. Certainly not anyone who had ever been in SOLDIER; he knew every name in the roster, both past and present. Still, the name tingled with familiarity.

He finally put it all together when the trooper mentioned having met this man in basic training – seven years before. CLOUD. That was the name of that young trooper buddy of Zack's wasn't it? The one Zack wanted to sponsor into SOLDIER? He'd never had a chance to meet the kid.

Then suddenly, he realized where else he'd heard that name.

He'd been on that mission with Zack.

He'd been one of the two infantrymen reported killed… his name, that of a simple grunt, not every worth a mention in the email.

But here he was, alive and well, and somehow presenting as a SOLDIER. It made him wonder further… what had happened in the last five years?! Kunsel was too disillusioned to believe in coincidence. First Aerith's capture leaked so easily? Now a friend of Zack's showing up out of nowhere? How did it all fit together?

Could Zack Fair be… alive?

Tifa pressed very near behind him as they crawled through the vents. He couldn't say he entirely minded. Besides the reassurance that she was near and safe, it wasn't entirely unpleasant.

Barret, left behind standing guard in a men's bathroom of all things – but Cloud was grateful for the opportunity for stealth.

Especially considering what they were overhearing from the meeting below.

A bare change in air pressure - one anyone without Cloud's heightened senses would be insensitive to – marked Tifa's miniscule stiffening, as they heard the board's casual dismissal of Sector Seven. Condemned, not to be rebuilt, the one man – director of city planning? – shot down when he showed the only ounce of conscience there seemed to be on the Shinra executive board. But he could practically taste both their stomachs dropping in tandem as that disgusting creature Hojo, with his penchant for treating humans as nothing but numbers and meat, tabulated their heartless plans for Aerith, projections of her capabilities and how they could best use and abuse them.

Breeding. That was the idea that left Tifa particularly sickened, even after Hojo's suggestions of psychological torture. Aerith, she cried silently, wishing she could somehow reach out to the other woman, feel her, send her some hope. She involuntarily glanced at Cloud. To be forced to bear a child of a man she didn't choose – children should be born of love. Aching, she thought of Marlene – he child through love if not blood. To have that stolen from you – it touched a deep part of her that even the wholesale destruction of the slum sector hadn't reached.

The board stood and departed, and as soon as they felt they could safely retreat, they crawled awkwardly in reverse, as quietly as they could, while still rushed by the need to follow Hojo.

The professor. He had Aerith. He was the key to it all.

That son of a bitch.

Tifa carefully dropped to the ground, Cloud right behind her. Her emotions, raw in her throat, threatened to get the better of her, making her grateful for Cloud, focused firmly on the mission ahead. His eyes met Barret's; a look exchanged, right to the point.

"So?" Barret asked.

"Hojo. Head of R&D. We follow him."

Barret nodded, and they were off.

Tseng knew.

He'd never been invited to the board meetings. He didn't need to be. Bugs he'd planted in all the offices and conference rooms – that it had never occurred to anyone might be there.

Still, sometimes the direct approach was called for, as he pressed himself against the pillar, immobile. A perfect position to eavesdrop on Hojo mumbling his twisted plans, wondering at the arrogance of the scientist, so sure no one would understand or challenge his goals.

He'd already been prepared to be sickened, but this was worse. What he'd wanted to spare that little girl and her mother when he helped them escape. Breeding her like livestock. He'd once offered her marriage, then watched over her and Zack together, protecting Aerith's secret after Zack disappeared at Nibelheim – vanishing into the clutches of this same twisted "scientist". All those risks he'd taken to give Aerith the chance to be her own woman – a MOTHER, even – on her own terms.

Too bad it hadn't worked that way. Tseng, the one responsible for killing her chance once again - his only consolation, the knowledge that Aerith understood as well – there were no other options. Her heritage doomed her.

Perhaps there was a light at the end of the metaphorical tunnel The rumors had already drifted to his ears – Sephiroth in the building. Tseng had his doubts, but what that could mean – he couldn't avoid the fear for Aerith, of her being raped by the SOLDIER, forcing himself and his genes on her.

But meanwhile, the building was left in some confusion with the fall of the plate, and the rumors would only make things more chaotic. As always, his mind was churning through the ways he could best turn the situation to his advantage. The irony did not escape him that, by bringing her in, he finally had a chance to grant her freedom, just a slender chance, but he was willing to take it. Turks operated on a razor's edge in the first place.

Reno and Rude had already been sent to retrieve the Vice President, the call arriving in a remarkably… timely… manner. Though his loyalty had long been tied to Rufus, he'd make sure that Aerith got out first. As Hojo turned into the stairwell, Tseng saw, following at a distance, exactly who he'd hoped and expected to see.

Cloud. The one man who might be able to get Aerith out. In the meantime, he'd do his best to make sure Cloud reached her.

He'd only gotten the reports from the other Turks, and a bare glimpse of the helicopter hovering at the doomed pillar; this was the first real chance he'd had to see Cloud Strife in the flesh. In the company of those two AVALNCHE terrorists; it seems they had all made it out. But as Tseng squinted for a closer look, he was… disturbed… by what he saw. A memory flashed, of a young, enthusiastic young man in Modeoheim, starstruck with possibilities but brave and determined. How different was the man before him now.

Cold. Arrogant. Every bit a SOLDIER, just like Sephiroth.

How could that genuine teenager have changed so much?

Tseng's strategy now was simple. Passivity. The Turks' priority was the VP; they wouldn't be there to ensure Aerith's captivity. Hojo was on his own there.

For the rest, he was betting on Cloud. The man who had killed Sephiroth…

…or so he had thought.

Cloud was afraid.

A different kind of afraid from that horrible movie, or vision, or whatever it was, seeing Tifa and Barret slain at the hands of Sephiroth. That had been the sheer terror at the thought of losing those he cared about.

The chilling sight of Tifa's beautiful face, Sephiroth behind her, just before he found her crumpled to the ground… would be haunting his nightmares.

This, felt like sheer cowardice, but he couldn't keep his body's automatic recoil from the scientist, shrinking back into the shadows and allowing Barret to barge forward. The big man was the one who confronted Hojo, bludgeoning him to move, to take them to where Aerith was held. Cloud lagged behind, poised and anxious, that pull stronger with every step.

Hojo. Cloud must've met the man somewhere before, but couldn't pull up any recollection of him. And he was sure he would have remembered that sense of something so thoroughly WRONG that emanated from the man – a near-inhuman feeling he couldn't quite explain. Even with the barrel of Barret's gun shoved against his back, he seemed nonplussed by the threat to his life, imperiously self-assured. Cloud didn't want Aerith alone with that… creature… any minute more than necessary.

The scientist bore Barret's aggression with nonchalance, but it took only a split second for the man to retaliate; a disgusting monstrosity released, a bare nuisance of a fight, but enough to leave a moment for the scientist to flee from their clutches. Following belatedly his escape path, the elevator had barely opened up before they were running down the gangway, bursting into the main room.

"AERITH!" Cloud called as they caught sight of her, and she leapt to her feet, pressing herself against the wall of the glass container that trapped her.

"You came for me!" she shouted, her voice clearly audible despite the barrier.

And from above, they turned to see Hojo in his high castle – arrogant, sinister, as he coldly watched the scene.

This time, Cloud gathered his courage, staring Hojo right in the eyes, challenging. Hojo returned the stare with the detached observance of an interesting specimen, as Cloud swallowed the bile that rose in his throat, the nausea of both fear and anger intermingling.

And then Hojo only laughed, a sound not of mirth but of scorn. Cloud's eyes narrowed, his grip on his sword clenching tighter.

Aerith watched Cloud across the room, fearful, as Hojo stared at him with scorn. She'd felt him coming nearer to her, gently caressed his soul as best she could, the sensation a comfort in her terrifying aloneness… But she'd seen as well, the flaws beneath his surface. Cloud, don't try, not yet… you're not ready. Fragile cracks that might break beyond repair, his mind so much more delicate than his body. The thin curtain of glass before her felt miles thick. "CLOUD!" she shouted, panicked, bringing him back to the present.

"Barret!" was all Cloud needed to say, and the other man nodded. "Stand back," Barret warned Aerith; she nodded, stepping away from the lock, right before Barret blasted the lock to shrapnel. Aerith gaped wide-eyed as the door sprung open before her.

Recovering quickly, she tore out of her cell, taking in her first view of the Papa Marlene had so affectionately described. "Thanks for saving Marlene!" was all he had time to toss over his shoulder, as a round of Shinra's super-troops poured in to attack. Quickly dispatched, Tifa broke free first to run to Aerith; the other woman warmly greeted her friend, relieved and grateful to see her once again.

Readying themselves to escape, they were interrupted by a strange red animal, suddenly tearing in front of them and stopping to give them a growl of menace.

The creature, tail trailing a tip of pure flame, shattered through the window where Hojo had so recently been seen, following to the exit route he had fled through in the confusion. The four of them paused, stunned.

Aerith stared for a moment after it passed; she'd felt the briefest flash of… affinity? Almost familiarity. A strange bond of sensation, not quite the same feeling as a Cetra, and yet… not quite not.

She thought she might know what it was, but there was no time to analyze it now; abruptly, she shook it off. "We have to go," she urged, following the feeling. Climbing stairs and turning into a long passage, they arrived to see Hojo disappearing into an elevator at the end, the red creature tearing full speed after him only to slam into closing elevator doors, missing the scientist by inches.

It turned back angrily, loping casually back to the group of humans. Barret raised his gun, threatening, but Aerith motioned him back, as she approached the creature with the surety of absolute safety.

She reached out to touch his mane, his head, craving whatever was to be found there; and suddenly, she KNEW – a different kind of power that could be uncovered, but not so terribly unlike her own. Guardians of the Planet, the answer whispered to her from across the Lifestream. She felt the answer from the other being's soul, and knew they understood each other.

She stepped back, the only one unsurprised as the creature, identifying himself only as Red XIII, began to speak.

Cloud was only half-paying attention. The Pull to Aerith had calmed, now that she was safely with them once again, but that other tug, colder, harsher, was prickling needles into his brain. Vision began to swim, and he found himself drifting off as if into a strange dreamworld, his body moving as if outside of his control, one step after another – a shuffling gait proceeding forward as another, distant part of him tried to fight back.

Blood coursed painfully like acid in his veins, heart minding in tandem with his brain. Echoed choices of hidden memories, disembodied from context and meaning – and suddenly he SAW –

Twin voices of frightened caring, calling his name in tandem as the world grew dark and he felt himself collapsing to the ground.

One word in the blackness –

Reunion.

His eyes opened slowly, reluctantly, to see the face of an angel.

Tifa, kneeling over him worry creasing her brow. Where was Aerith, he wondered, his last recollection their simultaneous cry of fear? Barret? Red XIII?

Dimly, steel walls hazed into being before him. "Finally," Tifa breathed, features relaxing somewhat. "You're awake…"

He shook his head slightly, hoping to clear the remaining fog, but the blank metal wall was before him still. "Where are we?" he finally asked, although the answer was already coming together before his eyes.

"The Shinra cells," Tifa told, him, the fear in her eyes mixed with worry for him. He forced himself to a sitting position, wanting to give her that least little but of reassurance that he was fine, to put at least one of her worries to rest. "We've only been here a few minutes." She saw the questions running across and through his expression. "You… just collapsed, and then Shinra's troops swarmed over us… without you, we didn't have a chance."

The cells. Strangely, Cloud wasn't especially concerned. We could have found ourselves in the lab, he realized, a flash of unaccountable terror gone as soon as it had shown its face. He looked Tifa straight on; hard enough to see Aerith trapped that way – what if they had all been ensconced in those lonely glass chambers? Come to think of it, why hadn't that happened? Since when had Shinra denied Hojo any of his pet projects?

But as he mentally mapped their location in the building from passing recollections and barely-noticed details, he realized the truth of it.

These weren't cells…there were specimen holding containers.

Tifa still started back at him, hopeful, expectant. He didn't want her to be a moment longer than they had to be.

Abruptly, he realized he was sitting on the only cot, while she knelt on the cold metal floor, nothing protecting her but the thin fabric of her stockings. He reached for her hand, tugging her gently, the other hand patting the cot next to him. Motioning her to sit as he stood, he slowly paced the perimeter of the cell, examining the door in particular.

"I'll get us out of here," he said, turning back to be rewarded by her eyes lighting up in relief. Truthfully, though, he had no idea HOW he was going to do that, devoid of his weapon. He looked down to Tifa's hands – she still had her leather gloves, though the materia had been removed.

He's be much less of a help that she at the moment. Hell, disarmed, he was probably the most useless of any of them…

Speaking of… "Where ARE the others?" Aerith. He was supposed to be protecting her…

"They shoved Barret and Red in the last cell of the row – " she motioned to the wall behind her – "before pushing the two of us in here together." She didn't mention the crude suggestions the troops had offered up with it. "I'm assuming Aerith is in the last one." Neither of them wanted to mention the alternative.

Moments ticked by, Tifa idly tapping her feet in boredom. Glancing around the room , he spied a small vent, just above his reach, but enough to let air – and sound – flow through. He tilted his head upwards. "Aerith," he called. "Are you there, Aerith?"

"Cloud?" her voice, faint but audible. "I knew you'd come for me…"

She could almost hear him smiling. "Hey, I'm supposed to be your bodyguard, right?"

It was so jovially unlike Cloud that Aerith giggle despite herself. "Besides, I still have to pay you back with a date, right?"

"A date?" Aerith heard a familiar female voice from the same direction as Cloud's.

"Tifa… you're there too?" she half-squeaked, Aerith was… mortified. It had been nothing but a silly bit of flirtatious curiosity – at best, a way to pas s the time, at worst a messy confusion she still didn't understand… she could feel her throwaway remained gaining weight with the presence of Tifa in the other room.

Could practically smell the hurt filling a woman she wanted to call her friend.

Silence reigned at first, until Barret's booming voice carried to her from two cells over. "Aerith, that you?" he called. "I can hear you just a little bit."

"I'm here!" Aerith called back, grateful for the interruption.

"Good to hear, girl," he chuckled. "I still owe you one for Marlene. But hey, while we're stuck here… I've wanted to ask you… so, uh, Red here has been telling me some about the Ancients. You're one, right? The last one, your mother said?"

In the middle cell, Cloud only stared confused, clueless as to how the exchanged had soured. Tifa awkwardly leapt on the change of subject, even as the thought nagged in the background. Was there… something… between him and Aerith? Was she just making a fool of herself with one-sided affection? "Yeah, I've wanted to ask too. What does Shinra want with you? Why were you in that tube?""

"What do they think you can do for them?" Cloud added.

Aerith thought back to her mother's voice, never fading through the years, quietly soothing her from the Lifestream. Find your own promised land. "We can sort of… speak with the Planet." Blood, yes, but something of life and love as well, refined to perfection among her tribe, perpetuated through her ancestors by virtue of their insularity… at least until her mother could find no other life herself. "It's hard to hear in Midgar, though – too much noise in the way." The church, the one place where she felt so much closer. "It tells me to find the Promised Land."

"Promised Land?" Tifa asked.

"A land filled with Mako," Barret answered for Aerith. "A fertile playground for Shinra's greed."

"And they think you can lead them to it?" Tifa reasoned. "But… can you?"

Aerith's laugh held an edge of bitterness. "Even if I could, I wouldn't," she told them. "But it's not that simple. It's something you find inside yourself. "

A long pause; Tifa heard the quiet of sadness. "I've been searching for it for years…" Aerith continued, more subdued. "But… I can't find my way. I'm trapped in a maze, and every step takes me further from the path…"

In her own lonely cell, Aerith found herself fighting sudden tears, those that were always there just below her cheerful surface. In a whisper too low to travel to the others, she told herself, follow the yellow flowers…

A sudden vision, a stargazer lily, its petals falling away and disappearing into the blackness – a symbol of all her heartbreak. She was disconnected, unmoored – was it all futile? Would she end up hollow and broken as well?

Tifa gently nudged Cloud away from the vent, pushing herself in."Aerith," she called, soothing. "Let's find a way out together."

Aerith found herself only tearing up further, touched by the woman's kindness after her faux pas. Offered not for the link that drove Cloud, but simply from Tifa's own heart, sourced from her own personal resonances and motivations. "Thank you, Tifa," she replied with utmost sincerity, and a silent blessing at the end. I hope you find your Promised Land too…

A cough, and Red's low, dignified voice, silent until now, traveled to her, trailed by just the slightest of echoes. "There does not seem to be much we can do about our situation at the moment," he intoned. "Might I suggest we get some sleep?"

Cloud stared at the door, eyes boring into it as if he could open it by will alone. But oddly, his eyes seemed focused on a point beyond; she wondered what it was that drew him, even more so after his strange breakdown in the lab.

No answers were forthcoming. Sighing, she leaned back, closing her eyes and willing herself to slumber.

Everything had been happening at once tonight. Rumors of a rogue SOLDIER in their midst, commotion in Hojo's labs, and now… Palmer claiming to have seen Sephiroth, of all people, back from the dead.

It couldn't be. Cissnei had been there when Cloud had killed him.

Cloud…

Her destination, as she scuttled carefully through the corridors, quick to stay out of sight.

He'd made it out, and more importantly, he'd kept his promise – Tifa had made it out too. And, foolhardy as the girl was, here she was, following him into the jaws of hell itself.

Every sound jerked her to full attention, Rekka braced and ready, but she made her way up to her goal thankfully without incident. Still, she couldn't be certain what she might find at the end.

So strange how Tifa and Aerith's paths had crossed – especially considering the hidden bond that joined them. The strange motley team had managed to retake Aerith, only to find themselves recaptured after Cloud somehow ended up out of commission. The Turks could have taken them all in, but technically, they were assigned to the Vice President – which also meant, that technically, Cissnei wasn't where she was at all. Her thoughts drifted, without subtracting from her focus on the task at hand. How had Rufus decided to come back at this precise moment? Tseng had posed the question; not even he had an answer, but it was not their place to question, nor was it for them to interfere with the troops that took Cloud's party in.

Instead, her job was to get them out.

She was already thinking her way past the guards, running through the possibilities in her head. But as she entered Hojo's creepy lab – a place she hated ,and rarely had to visit, with Hojo's obsession with secrecy – she had a nagging sensation of something terribly wrong.

She crept closer, hearing no sounds, not a creak or murmur; but it was only as she was nearly upon them that she realized, concealed at first but the red lights of the holding area –

The guards, dead, lying in a pool of blackened blood.

Delicately stepping around the corpses, too hardened for revulsion, instead her body tensed on heightened alert – she crouched and carefully peered around the corner – only to have her jaw drop in surprise.

Sephiroth.

It was true.

The nightmare returned, his towering flesh walking the walls of the building. He stood before the middle cell with a crazed smile scrawled across his features. He held up one gloved hand – and Cissnei heard a click, as the light changed to the green of unlock.

Slowly, his head turned towards her hiding spot.

Cissnei ran.