Someone called Natalie's name, just as she got to the stairs up to her apartment. She turned to see who with her hand on her sword.
It was just Wedge. Cloud was behind him, looking bored and distant.
Wedge asked, "Oh good. I just wanted to check that you got home OK. You good?"
"I will be. Once I get some sleep."
"Oh," He looked crestfallen as she chose going to bed over more conversation. Wedge looked like he wanted to take the time to cheer Natalie up.
"Giving Cloud the grand tour?" She asked him, failing at being cheerful.
"Yeah, then I'm going to introduce him to the gang!" Wedge meant his cats. "Wanna come with?"
Whatever expression was on Natalie's face, Wedge could tell it was no.
Wedge's cats still didn't like her. Even after a couple of years of trying.
Wedge's face fell again. "I'll let you get your sleep."
"Thanks." She took the stairs to her door, listening as the two of them left.
"I'm worried about Natalie." Wedge told Cloud.
"What's her problem?" Cloud asked Wedge as they walked away.
"She hasn't been the same since her brother died."
"In my line of work, people die every day."
They were distant enough that she didn't hear all of what Wedge said, what she did hear included 'war', 'family' and 'brothers.'
Cloud looked back and saw her watching the two of them from the space in front of her door. He asked Wedge something she couldn't make out.
Natalie broke off the eye contact and went back inside, before Wedge noticed her watching. 'He's such a cold fish. But there had been smiles earlier.' She was thinking of Cloud.
Jambing the doorknob with a chair, as usual. Natalie took her time washing off all the dirt and grime from her trip. She scrubbed hard, imagining that she was removing the rind she had gotten from living in the slums so long. More like she was washing off the remains of her road trip to and from Banora. Her hair was down to her neck and a greasy mess under her white headband. She added scrubbing her clothes to the list the next day.
She just wanted to feel clean, before trying to sleep away the remainder of the night.
'In my line of work, people die everyday.'
Cloud was right, she hated the dying and the killing, but he was right.
Natalie had another nightmare of Sephiroth that night. It butted against another memory she had had of him. The nightmare was some twisted and scary version of something that had definitely not happened that way. Calling her 'Marin' with that voice she had tried to forget.
She woke up in her bed in her tiny cement room in Sector Seven. She remembered the dream.
Where she had been laying on a coat draped over a piece of steel. Remembering a day in the VR room. Where she had hung out on a simulated piece of steel. But what had just happened in the nightmare was not a thing of VR. And her memory of what had actually happened that day, fought against what had happened in her nightmare.
Natalie stared up at her ceiling in a cold sweat. The bed was soaked. She reached for her sword, to give her something to squeeze. Since Cloud had arrived, Natalie had been sleeping with her Materia arm guard on her left arm, her sword next to the bed. She couldn't fall asleep unless she felt she could defend herself.
There was nothing in the room to strike, so she put the weapon back where she left it. Her weapons and Materia were useless while she slept.
'Why do I even have this?' she twisted the Materia strapped to her left arm, it hadn't protected her from the nightmares.
Whenever she woke up like this, she thought of running away. She could leave, run faraway. Back to her adopted parents in the North Pole. And the name she had borrowed while she was there. Somewhere Natalie could ignore these problems. Leave Cloud to help Barret and the others. They didn't need her.
Natalie had tried everything, but the nightmares would roll in and ruin her sleep. Or leave her to wake up as if she had just come from a fight.
She was full of adrenalin, her heart racing. As she had every time before, she took time to calm herself down and still her shaking hands. Scrubbing herself down, hard, in the shower. She went back to bed to try it again. The fatigue of post-adrenalin settled on her while she showered and tried to distract her mind.
Snatches of songs floated across her mind, but she was too rattled to stick to any one for the peace of mind they usually gave.
Natalie dried herself off after the cold shower and tried to make up for lost sleep.
Some time later a noise woke her up. She was on her feet, sword out, left hand on fire. Someone was pounding on her door. Wedge's voice was calling through the door. "Lee! Natalie! Wake-up!"
"Yeah!" She yelled, kicking the chair out of the way and whipping the door open. "Who found us?" she asked him. Ready to throw magic at something.
Wedge had his gun in hand, looking afraid. "It's not a 'who' it's a 'what'." He pointed towards Seventh Heaven.
From the top of the stairs to Natalie's room. Her and Wedge could look over the top of Sector Seven, and the things that streamed through the air, circling around the bar.
Shadowy-hooded wraiths were flying through the air. Natalie could see a flock of them moving around, as more appeared in the air.
"Aw hell no." She slammed the door on Wedge. She didn't have the presence of mind to confront her inner demons again.
Wedge started pounding no her door. Asking her for help with 'those things' yelling through the door.
Natalie stared at the floor as her mind worked. Those things were part of her imagination. Haunting her as much as Jamie had for years. Hallucinations cooked up by her own mind.
But as yelled asked for her to open the door again. Natalie put it together.
Wedge could see them too.
She turned around and opened her door again.
"What the hell Lee?" Wedge asked her.
"That!" She pointed at the wraiths flying towards Seventh Heaven and swirling around it. "You can see that?"
"That's what I've been trying to tell you! Barret needs our help."
Natalie twisted her coat on. "You can see them?" she still didn't believe it.
"Yeah. Wait. You've seen them before?" Wedge got confirmation from the expression on Natalie's face. "How do we handle something like that?"
"Fuck, I don't know." she gestured for him to go back down the stairs. "Get the others and we'll figure something out." She flicked a fire spell at one flying by. It dispersed, but there were always more.
"Oh no..." Wedge looked even more worried now.
Natalie was concerned now. What she had thought was a hallucination. Was now something Wedge could see too. It re-framed every interaction she had had with the things up to now. But she would have to pick that apart later.
"The fuck is your deal?" She asked one as Wedge ran off to get more help. Natalie ran to the bar and slashed at any that came close enough. The things could travel through physical objects like ghosts. They could also block her from passing through them, becoming physically real at the most inconvenient times. Wedge was stuck behind a wall of them in front of her building. She was going to need more magic.
"New plan, Wedge."
"Yeah?"
"Take my six, shoot high, and I'm going to cut our way to the bar."
"Got it!"
Natalie had to fight for any progress down the street. After everything she had done and seen. Been all over the world on SOLDIER missions. Fought various monsters. As the other leaned on her for knowing one monster from another. But she had never figured out the deal of these things. Mistaking them for a hallucination. Or Wedge was going crazy too, and Barret.
She doubted that was true as she dispersed another wraith with her sword. She glared as she cut them down. She hated them. They had stopped her from changing anything, no matter how hard she tried.
"Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. FUCK!"
"What's wrong Lee?" He asked her.
"I feel surrounded by fucking ghosts where-ever I go. But this is fucking ridiculous."
A machine gun was firing nearby.
"I can hear Barret! We're almost there." Wedge reassured her.
Natalie had finally cleared enough of a path that they could get to the clearing in front of the bar. More of those wraiths swirled in the air above them or beside them. All that blocked their way now was a wall of them between her and Barret.
"Barret!" She shouted though the wall. Starting to cut her way to him.
"Please tell me you gotta answer for these things in that brain of yours."
"No such luck boss!" She shouted at him. "Just attack! them"
"Fuuuuck!" Barret cursed as he shot another stream of bullets at the wraiths above him.
"Wedge," Natalie shouted at him over the winds the wraiths made.
"Yeah? The way back is clear," Natalie yelled at Wedge, "wake up the others!"
"Yeah!" He ran off and Natalie cut her way to Barret.
Jessie was beside him and they proceeded to try to make a dint in the wraiths numbers.
"Don'tcha got some spell you trick ya can pull out? Make 'em all disappear!"
"There's too many of them. I'll tap out if I tried to burn all of these away." she kept swinging with her sword. She could swing it until her arms would fall off too. But the cost of each swing was much less than casting a spell instead. She could go far longer with her sword. There had always been too many of them for her to take them all out alone. They had always left when they wanted to, not when Natalie had wanted them to.
"Where's Tifa and Cloud?" she asked Barret.
"I sent Tifa to wake him when this started. They should be back by now."
"Fuck!" Natalie yelled.
Natalie just kept swinging until Tifa and Cloud arrived.
"Where the hell have you been?" Barret shouted to the two of them.
The wraiths moved in. Natalie found herself pulled off the steps away from the others. Tifa had her own wraiths pulling her away from Cloud.
"Tifa!" Cloud yelled.
Tifa looked battered, it was all Natalie could do to just keep the wraiths back.
Barret and Jessie yelled after Natalie.
"I got this, help Tifa!" Natalie yelled as she struggled with clearing away wraiths.
Some of the wraiths had broken from the swarm. They stood out and picked targets.
It gave Natalie something to focus on, so she blasted them with spells and mixed it with swordplay. There was no sign that she was even hurting the swarm, but the same few persisted after her. So she focused with her problems as Cloud cut his way to Tifa.
Once Cloud engaged with the wraiths on Tifa. Natalie cracked off a Cura spell for Tifa. She was going to need to nap later, to refresh her for the night's mission. But now there were three of them in fighting condition in front of the bar, instead of two.
Natalie, Cloud and Tifa finally got the wraiths to back off to just swarming the bar and the clearing in front of the building.
Jessie cried out and rolled down the stairs, the wraiths began to batter her after knocking her gun out of her hand.
Another swirl of wraiths divided Natalie's group from the steps and they could hear Jessie scream in pain.
Natalie went to start cutting her way forward when the wraiths began to break off. After a few heartbeats, they were gone. Whatever reason they had come for, they were no longer needed. The wind died down and the field cleared itself.
Tifa ran to Jessie while Cloud put his sword away and went to them.
Natalie had her back to the bar, sword out. She backed up towards the group. She searched for more trouble while they tended to their wounds.
Jessie couldn't walk and a crowd of onlookers had started to gather, asking what was going on.
Barret scared them off as Natalie put her sword back at her waist. Her and Cloud watched the crowd disperse.
Barret fretted about new things crawling out of the scrap. Natalie and Cloud were both thinking it over.
While Natalie kept looking for more trouble, she could hear Cloud talking to Jessie about her leg.
"You sure yah got nothing?" Barret asked Natalie. "What about the last time you saw those things?"
"I don't know what they are, Barret." 'I never did, and I still don't.'
"Well, shit!"
Cloud picked Jessie up, carrying her into the bar, followed behind by everyone else.
Natalie leaned against the other pinball machine, the one not attached to the secret entrance to the hideout. She felt like a mirror of Cloud, hands across his chest and over there. While Barret talked to the group.
Jessie was in no shape to walk and Wedge needed more time after the fight in the Annex the night before. Natalie had done what she could. But the scars across her chest and stomach were a testament to healing magic only doing so much
Jessie was going to need time and magic to fix her leg.
Natalie had been gutted by a Valron years ago, and she had needed a week to recover. Without magic it could have been months if it hadn't killed her.
They were two people down even as Biggs was already clearing a path into the reactor.
Barret went to explain the deal to Cloud. Cloud demanded a raise. Barret took that as a yes and the next mission was on, just like that.
To save Wedge's pride, Barret asked him to stay for Jessie and Marlene's sake.
Natalie was thinking about the wraiths. Other people could see them, touched them, been slowed down or hurt by those things. Natalie had assumed that it had all been in her own head. Hearing Jamie's voice still meant she had a loose grip on reality. She had assumed that Cloud was imagining them as well. But in hindsight that made little sense.
"You good?" Barret asked Natalie.
Natalie looked up, realizing that Barret was asking her. "Yeah."
"Good, let's get this show on the road!"
Barret paid Cloud and they all blew out of the Bar. With Tifa close behind. They went to make final preparations before the meet up.
Natalie only waved at Wedge and Jessie, giving Cloud a nod. She waved at Tifa, leaving Tifa to hang around outside the bar.
Natalie went to her room.
She picked up her coat and check the pockets. Making sure that whatever she took to Reactor Five was it. Once her supplies were squared away, extra Materia, knives, food and so on. She touched the necklace under her shirt. The one that had her two rings on it, hers and Jamie's. Her music notebook and dog-eared copy of Loveless. She had her harmonica in her pocket. The two ocarinas were just one now, when one had shattered last year.
The man who had made them was long dead, he wouldn't be making any more. This last clay, pendant, ocarina she had was it. She wrapped the clay instrument up double to protect it and put it in her small messenger bag. The bundle of white and black feathers was the last thing, in the bottom pocket, even after all these years she had kept those feathers. Everything else in this room could be replaced or was not worth the effort to carry it to Reactor Five. Posters, shelves, and all the rest of the decor she had accumulated in her two years in Sector Seven.
'Just in case things get complicated.' She told herself. But there was a finality in stuffing her most treasured possessions in her pockets.
She didn't plan on running, but she always had an exit strategy. And if she had to run out of Reactor Five, from ShinRa. She would not be returning to this room.
Giving one last adjustment to her red headband and goggles, she went straight to the train station to meet everyone else. There was no need to stop by the store for more medicine, potions or ethers. She always had extras of both.
Cloud was cool as always waiting for the first train. Barret was hard nosed and on the job. Tifa Looked like she could calm down more since the wraiths. Natalie let out a breath and they all watched as security got off the train on patrol.
"Be cool." Barret reminded them
They got on the train to Sector Four in silence. Their car was nearly empty.
Another announcement came over the PA. About additional security levels and train delays.
Barret gave a brief pre-talk. "We're doing this for Wedge and Jessie."
Natalie made a noise of acknowledgment, Cloud and Tifa did similar and they all strung out along the car, not sticking together in one group. Cloud and Tifa stayed in that car while Barret and Natalie moved to the next and sat at opposite ends of their car.
Minutes later, Cloud entered the car and went straight to Barret.
A suit with a ShinRa lapel pin talked to Barret like they had met before.
Natalie left them to diffuse the situation. She moved back to join Tifa in the other car. Tifa definitely had the jitters.
"Tifa?"
"Yeah?"
"Take a breath."
"Cloud actually said the same thing before we left." Tifa had a half smile at that.
"That's because it's good advice." Natalie started, taking a slow and deep breath herself.
After a few moments of helping Tifa calm down. Tifa asked her a question.
"How do you keep so calm?"
Natalie took another breath, looking for somewhere to start. "I'm not calm. I'm nervous, scared, and terrified."
"You don't look it."
Natalie shook her head, "Everyone gets scared. You can only deal with fear by confronting it. I learned to run at my problems." Natalie took another breath, still coaching Tifa. "You can only be brave when you're afraid."
"You make it sound so easy."
"Because I practice. You have to face your fears. And you might not like to hear this, but you get used to it."
"You look like you could use some more practice yourself, Natalie."
"I do. It's been a long week and we just left the station. But."
"But what?"
Natalie remembered the North Pole. Icicle Inn. Sking. "I could use a vacation. I know some people far from here. They let me into their home."
"Friends of yours? When was the last time you saw them?"
"Years ago. I-" she cut off what she had been about to say. She didn't want to mention going back to Icicle Inn after the last time she was in Nibelheim. "I went back there just after the war ended. It seemed like a good time for a vacation."
"Where do they live? You've never mentioned."
"Don't." Was the only answer Natalie would give.
"I'm sorry, I shouldn't've ask."
Natalie shook her head. "No on, it's not you. How about this. If after this, tonight, tomorrow, whatever. After all of this, if we ever pass by where they live. I'll introduce you."
"Are they far from Midgar?"
Natalie gave her a blank look.
"Sorry, it's just. I've been in Midgar so long. I don't think I'll ever leave."
Natalie watched the tunnel pass by out the window. "Yeah."
When Cloud re-entered their car. Tifa and Natalie had settled on seats at either end of the car, keeping to themselves. When Cloud was halfway to Tifa, an emergency ID scan crossed the car.
While Tifa was still looking around, Natalie was up. This was it, the mission was starting in earnest. Cloud kept walking to Tifa, in a few steps their IDs had been bounced and the threat level was increased, according to the PA system.
Barret threw open the door between them and called them over to the front of the train.
Drones busted into the windows, separating Cloud from everyone else.
Natalie took down one drone as Barret and Tifa evacuated the civilians. The car was empty in no time at all. They moved up a car, more attack drones came in through the windows.
Tifa had to argue the suit into getting on the next car while Natalie and Cloud cut down the drones. As soon as Tifa shut the door on the last civilian, she turned on the drones as well.
For all her butterflies, Tifa fought as fiercely as anyone else with hands and feet. They had this, they just had to outrun the lock down of the train.
The drones didn't stop and the PA announced that it had contained four unauthorized IDs on the train.
"Screw this," Cloud said, taking the lead. "the station will be crawling with security. We gotta jump."
They slowed down the train as much as they could. Barret shot the locked door open, Tifa hit the emergency brake.
"Barret, I'm going to soften your landing." Natalie told him as he psyched himself up to jump. She snapped off a gravity spell to draw him to the wall of the tunnel. Rather than impact directly onto the tracks. He was out of sight by the time Natalie stuck to the wall under the power of her magic. Landing on the wall like it had been the ground. Cloud told her to jump and he would help Tifa. So Natalie watched the train go on as she unstuck herself from the wall. Barret would be free by now by virtue of her distance from her own spell.
She could hear Barret was already engaged with something far down the tunnel. Cloud and Tifa were together, so Natalie went after Barret to back him up. She found him on the other side of a barricade that split the tunnel in two.
"Barret!" Natalie called after the man.
"In here! Where are the others?"
"Coming!"
"Looks like there's stairs over there."
"I can heal you through the bars," Natalie waved her spell-casting hand. "I don't want to separate again before they get here."
"Suit yerself!" He shouted. Clearly grateful for the support.
"Natalie!" Tifa's voice called. She must have come running.
"We're over here!" Natalie called back, crossing the tracks to the stairs.
"But Barret's over there!"
"Tifa! There's some stairs that look like they can get to me." Barret called to Tifa through the bars.
"On it!" Cloud was following Natalie to the stairs.
Barret kept cussing out the drones and shooting as the three of them went after Barret.
It was up the stairs, down a gang plank over the tracks and down more stairs. The drones were done as soon as they four of them could gang up on the machines.
Barret found a service map nearby so they could re group and keep going.
Further down the tunnel, Barret told Cloud about their way of using Stamp graffiti to mark their path. Occasionally they found a stray drone, fighting it didn't even slow them down. When they found the first stairs further up and in, the gangplank system took them away from the drones and into a nest of monsters.
They were bigger and meaner than the ones in the slums because they had gone untended for so long, feeding off Mako while they nested. Up over, down and through, section by section. Closer and closer to the Reactor.
A few ShinRa pyros were actually burning away nesting material. Their flamethrowers made them a bigger threat, but four against two did not leave them a threat for long. Up over and through the four of them went.
They made their way to another rail line, which took them to the next section. Barret called out ShinRa for co-opting the dog for a propaganda mascot. Stamp was advertising some product of ShinRa.
"ShinRa will take and take and take and use everything for their own ends. So let's take it back." Natalie told him.
"Poor old Stamp." Tifa mused.
Barret started mumbling to himself and cussed ShinRa out some more. Natalie could tell that Barret was walled up in another mood.
"Then knock that wall down Tifa." Cloud said.
"Ahead!" Natalie called.
"Trouble?" Cloud asked.
"Only if we don't open that gate quickly enough." she called back.
They slid up along a storage container and after taking out the added security. Cloud took point and they dispatched all the guards in the area. After finding an alternate route to the locked gate. Barret updated Cloud on the plan that Biggs had put together for this alternate route.
Natalie didn't jump in. she had that feeling again, like she couldn't tell the difference between joking and being serious. She only listened to the two of them argue instead of add her own jokes.
It was different than with Angeal, Genesis and Sephiroth. With those SOLDIERs, they had been playing their games with each other for years when Natalie had come along. Right here, right now, Natalie was watching the rules of a game form between Cloud and Barret.
Over down and through, they kept an eye out for more graffiti of Stamp the dog. They were getting close to the passage that would get them to Biggs.
The area was supposed to be abandoned, it wasn't.
Natalie spotted a giant combat bot in the corner. It was old and powered down. She watched for movement as Cloud pointed out an image of Stamp.
"That light." Natalie started, pulling out her sword.
Tifa was walking towards the robot, whose eyes were now shining with a backlight.
Cloud and Natalie moved to get Tifa back.
The thing came to life as Natalie stood between Tifa and a now standing crab-legged machine.
Natalie zipped around the thing, shooting lightning into the internals while they all shot at the wheels.
Cloud was on top of tactical advice for the others. Which amounted to lightning magic and going for the weak spots.
Natalie saved her bigger spells and her summons for later. They weren't even in the Reactor yet. And this giant blue antique was in their way.
After what felt like an eternity of fighting. Natalie, Cloud, Barret and Tifa stood over the ruined combat bot. This time it did not spring to life, it may not ever again.
Natalie said nothing and spat in the failing machine's direction as they re grouped and took the secret passage. She fell into the rear, ready for anything.
They found a service elevator down to the gangplanks under the plate. They finally seemed on the last leg to the reactor. Natalie didn't believe night would be done until they walked out of a disabled Reactor Five.
"How far to Biggs?" Natalie asked Barret.
He explained the route to her and Cloud. The reactor's pillar in the distance didn't seem to be getting any closer.
Natalie went ahead of Barret as he fretted over the heights. Natalie hated the heights as well. She put a brave face on while they figured to power down the sun lamps to re-route the power to open the gate to the next section.
"You've been quiet." Barret told Natalie.
She was trying to figure out of he was being friendly or suspicious. "I don't like surprises."
"Get used to it." Cloud reprimanded her.
'I can't tell if he's being really snappy or sarcastically supportive. For fuck's sake I'm years older than him.' "That doesn't mean I have to like it." She walked off to stop herself from throwing a sour look at him. She didn't think Cloud deserved her anger in that moment. She was the one getting distracted while they were all on the job.
"Whatever it is, don't let it distract you!" Cloud called at her back.
She froze midstep. She wanted to turn on her heel and give her a piece of her mind. Continuing forward to the next section, she kept her burdens to herself.
Barret had Tifa aside, "Can you try talking to Natalie?"
"I already tried."
Natalie kept walking forward. 'Fuck you ShinRa, fuck you imaginary Jamie, Fuck you Hojo. And fuck you missing memories.' She would take the black outs again, if it meant remembering where she had come from.
The monsters in the next section gave Natalie a break from her thoughts. She could cut and burn her way forward. Focus on moving and swinging and spell casting. It was a breather until they got to the next part of the catwalk.
"Natalie!" Barret
She stopped, holding her sword over another mutated monster. "What?"
"It's dead." Barret told her.
Natalie wiped her sword and sheathed it. She was a weapon. She had been trained to kill. Now that she was fulfilling that purpose, she had gone on long past the point of the monster's death.
Natalie turned to the others, goggles on her forehead.
Tifa took a step back, looking scared. "Natalie..."
Natalie found all three looking at her, Barret was grimacing.
She found Cloud's eyes, his face was a hard mask. Cloud looked how Natalie felt, focused and sharpened for proceeding forward.
Natalie was death for anything that got in their way, she turned away from the others, pointing that feeling away from them. Echoing something Cloud had said earlier, "Let's go." she was a weapon, she turned that weapon away from her friends.
As they approached a walkway in front of giant fans, Barret started up with Natalie. "If I didn't know any better, I'd say that someone's rubbing off on yah." He told Natalie.
"Hmm," she grunted, "More like I'm falling back into old habits."
"What sorta old habits?" He sounded concerned. In the middle of the job was a bad time for this.
"Keeping us alive habits." She kept to herself how the calm between fights reminded her of something she hated. Being a SOLDIER. Yet she thrived in the middle of a fight.
He patted her on the shoulder. "Keep those habits comin' Lee. We need them now."
"Hmm."
Cloud yelled at them from ahead, "Let's go."
Then they approached the wall and a giant fan section.
A discarded summon Materia was in the refuse that had been blown through the fan system. As Cloud figured it out what it was. Natalie found herself staring at it. She had that feeling of Deja vu again, that this wasn't right. She looked around, in case some monster was coming for them.
"What, do you want it?" Cloud asked. Holding up the Choco/mog summon Materia.
"No," Natalie looked away. "I got plenty. Finders keepers."
Barret pulled her aside while they looked for the way to the next section. "Remember what you said?"
"That I'm game for this."
"It's too late to back out now." Barret reminded her. Their lives depended on everyone having their head in the game. They depended on Natalie too.
"There ain't no getting off of this train." She told him.
"Hmm. Yeah."
Tifa called out that she had found the way.
"Only way from here is forward." Natalie told Barret, before jogging over to what Tifa had found. Barret was unconvinced, but they didn't have the time to have it all out right now.
They took the last gang plank conveyor towards the next section. There was always another section.
"Cameras? Why didn't you say something sooner?" Tifa asked Cloud as Natalie could hear the conversation.
After Barret and Cloud consoled her about it. Natalie added. "And people gotta ask me why I over dress for the weather."
"It makes you stand out." Cloud criticized Natalie.
"It makes me look like everyone in this city with something to hide. But by the time they get close enough to see what's underneath. I'm gone."
"Got something to hide?" Cloud questioned Natalie.
"Doesn't everyone?" she touched her neck scarf. It was red today. There was no hiding in a crowd around there.
"Are you going to be OK?" Tifa asked Natalie.
"I will be," Natalie pointed up the ladder and began to climb.
They rounded the corner to a doorway into the next step.
With Cloud on point, he went for whatever was hiding around the blind corner.
Going still before his sword made contact with it.
They had found Biggs. Cloud found him first.
Cloud put up his sword, he had reacted in time to keep from harming the other man.
Biggs told them he'd been hiding there since topside went nuts after "some terrorists jumped off the train."
Biggs showed them the way to the Reactor. Barret told him about Wedge and Jessie staying behind. Biggs went off to secure their exit route and gave them the grappling guns they would need once they disabled the Reactor. And one by one they crawled into the tunnel for the final leg.
'I believe it's final when we place the bomb.'