"Yeah, a guy with a gun on his arm!" Some idiot was hassling one of Natalie's neighbors in Sector Seven.
Natalie heard trouble ahead in the words and the tone.
"I dunno what you're talking about." The person being questioned clammed up right away, nobody talks about other people's business in the slums. Not if they wanted to remain welcome in town.
"Hey!" Natalie shouted at the guys back.
"Got a problem, lady?" The guy twisted around in leather and chains. He looked like a goon and he moved like a goon. He also wasn't alone.
"I heard someone asking questions about other people's business." She told him while she sized up him and his three friends. 'Yeah, they're goons.'
"So what," the guy flexed, trying to look tough. It worked on the locals, the locals gave the five of them some space. He continued, "It was just a question."
The scared person being questioned was let go and took that moment to scramble out of danger.
One of the other goons spoke up. "Yeah sister, we're just asking questions."
"I'm not your sister." Natalie shot back, glaring. She was just tall enough to look them straight in the eye. She was armed as always, and had found some trouble.
The goons did the math, leering and glaring, thinking that four to one wasn't bad odds.
"Look lady," the ring leader continued. "we're just looking for someone and we'll be on our way. Seen a guy with a gun on his arm?" He walked into her personal space, walking easy but close enough to try and intimidate her.
She glared back, she had been closer to worse. The guy just had fists and not even in a Tifa sort of way. "I know people around here, help me out and maybe I'll get you on your way."
"Is that right? What sort of help?"
"Something to make it worth my time." She lied.
"Oh really. How much?"
"How much you got?" Natalie looked around. Nobody wanted to get involved, Natalie had the space as the neighborhood waited for these goons to leave.
"Huh, maybe we could negotiate."
"Maybe I know where this gun-guy is. You know somewhere we can talk?"
"I know just the place." He told her. He stalked off with one of his buddies next to him.
Natalie moseyed after them, the other two followed behind her. They thought they had her surrounded. They had only surrounded her with targets.
Following the goons down one of the roads, they hassled the people as they went on by. The punks shit-talked the town, comparing it to Wall Market, commenting on how Wall Market was better in every way.
Wall market was where the lawlessness of the slums had been taken over by a ring of Criminals. She had heard of the place, but had stayed away. She was too troubled for a night in the inn, didn't want to be near that much scum and pick-pockets. And if she had taken her skills into the Coliseum, it would have gotten her a reputation. Even before her little jaunt to the reactor, she did not want a reputation.
So Natalie followed the goons as they turned past her room and towards one of the alleys. Likely they wouldn't attack until she talked or they tried to beat it out of her. She just had to keep her wits up and not get dog piled. She walked right into their trap and prepared to smash it to bits.
She wanted to know why they were here. So she followed them off the street. Cutting under and overhang, the four of them followed behind. 'Stupid idiots.' They no longer had her surrounded. They just stood between her and the exit behind the box alley. Natalie had helped Tifa and Cloud clear out the monster pests in this area. So it was just Natalie and the four goons.
"So, where's he?" the leader asked her.
"Who wants to know?" She asked.
"Hey, I'm the one asking the questions here."
"Which one?" Natalie asked.
"Which what?"
"Who in Wall Market sent you here?" Natalie asked.
"You know, you're a terrible negotiator." He told her, pulling a knife.
She pulled out her sword, "You're not even worth the mana to make this quick."
Natalie launched herself forward as the other three drew their own weapons.
Two knives, two guns. Slashing them back to clear some space. She blew past the two in the front, going for the ones with guns first. She wound go from side to side, keep them moving. She didn't let them surround her, to avoid getting stabbed in the back. It took less than a minute, she didn't even need to use binding magic, like sleepel, to take them down. When they were rolling around on the ground in pain, she walked over to one and stepped on the guy's wrist.
"Who?" Natalie asked.
His hand let go of whatever he had tried to drink.
She pressed down with her boot. "Who do you work for?"
"Fuck you bitch."
She blasted a bolt of fire at one of the other guys that was still moving. He screamed for a while. Natalie ground the other guy's wrist into the dirt as the screams turned to whimpers then to nothing as he burned.
She pointed her sword at the guy's throat. "Which one in Wall Market sent you."
The other guy was silent and still as his clothes continued to smolder. The back alley was starting to smell like burning meat.
"Oh god," as the smell hit them.
"You're next unless you tell me who you work for." She could feel bones grinding. Being pressed into the dirt was the only keeping his wrist from being broken.
"Ok ok, we work for the Don."
'Corneo, that asshole.' He was the biggest crime boss in the area and owner of Wall Market.
The burning meat smell sickened her even as it reminded her of bacon.
"Why does he want to know about a guy with a gun arm?"
"Eeegh." He made some noises and clammed up.
Natalie started another fire spell so that he could see her hand burning with unreleased fire magic.
The smell hadn't gone away, but the whimpering had stopped. Something scratched under the rocks nearby. The smell was attracting more trouble.
"Talk."
"AVALANCHE, the boss wants to find AVALANCHE. He's paying anyone who knows good money. Let me go and it's yours!"
"AVALANCHE eh?" She lifted her boot off of his arm and canceled the fire spell. Stepping back she looked around, he was the only one of the four still moving.
"You know where AVALANCHE is?" He asked her, pushing himself to sitting up.
She looked down at him, still holding her sword. A headache started to hit her temples "Yeah, you're looking right at one." She stepped forward, crouching, so she could take her sword and stab it right into the middle of his chest. She did it all with one smooth motion. He made a funny sound as the breath was pushed out of him.
She stabbed her sword into the dirt beside her. "Fuck!" she had been so angry. She had murdered him. She hadn't felt so alive or clear headed while she had been fighting. She had been death walking to men that had deserved it. She had tortured and burned them alive for information. And she had killed the man too similarly to how Sephiroth had nearly killed her.
Earlier she had been acting more like Cloud, before he had started warming up to them. Now she was acting more like a killer. She was acting like Sephiroth.
There was a Doom rat, looking between the easy food lying around and the bigger creature in the alley still up and moving. The rat chittered as it looked between Natalie and the dead men.
Natalie ripped one of the vests off of a guy and wiped her sword off. Putting her weapon away, she stalked out of the back alley. Leaving the monsters to clean up the human garbage behind her.
The only way out was forward and through.
"Natalie, you look like hell." Biggs told her as she stalked into the 'office' of the neighborhood watch.
Biggs was playing a board game with Wedge, Natalie didn't care what.
"Did you get any sleep?" Wedge asked. "You look like hell."
She threw down the piece of leather she had cut out of the black leather vest.
"What's that?" Wedge asked picking it up.
"It was trouble," She told them. "Some goons were hassling locals, asking questions.
Wedge held up the vest and the stylized logo on the back.
"Yeah," Biggs said, "I heard that too."
"There were four of them," Natalie started, "asking around about a guy-"
"With a gun on his arm." Biggs finished.
"Barret." Wedge said.
"Oh," Natalie said, "It's so much worse than that."
"That's one of Corneo's goons." Biggs said, recognizing the logo emblazoned on the leather in Natalie's hand.
"There was actually four of them."
"Was?" Biggs asked.
"The rats are making a meal out of what's left."
"Urgh, Natalie," Biggs said, "Remind me never to piss you off."
"I don't like it when people try to hurt me or my friends."
"Uh," Wedge handed the vest back to Natalie. "You said it was worse?"
"They're looking for AVALANCHE." Natalie said. "They think that 'AVALANCHE is holed up somewhere in this town." She took up the piece of leather like it was garbage and flung it in the trash.
"I couldn't get anymore than that out of him. But Corneo has lots of money, he'll just pay to send more idiots to poke around."
"We should tell Tifa," Wedge volunteered. "She'll know what to do."
They found Tifa in Seventh Heaven. Finding things to do before opening the bar that night. She was clearly trying to get her mind off of losing Cloud.
After explaining the problem, Biggs and Wedge went off to see if they could find any more of Corneo's goons. Tifa knew that someone in Wall Market ran a Chocobo taxi service across the Slums.
Within a few hours they had a plan.
Tifa had already gotten a dress, by luck, Natalie did not. Tifa was going to be on a taxi that night to find answers. Natalie was torn between dealing with more goons, or getting in a cab with no dress and no promises that she could help Tifa try to be one of Corneo's brides in Tifa's plan.
The guy Tifa had made the arrangements with made it clear that Natalie wasn't the Don's type. Natalie went around Sector Seven slums, looking for trouble. She was death walking. Locals would recognized her as one of the Watch, but would take one look at her face and scurry away. Natalie looked for goons, for trouble. She looked for any monsters Cloud had missed in the alleys.
She found herself in front of Tifa's building, it was just down the dirt street from her own apartment. The adrenalin and anger was draining away. Leaving only pain and preoccupation. She barely felt anything after torturing those men, and it bothered her that it didn't bother her.
She thought she had left her past behind, that she wasn't like the other SOLDIERs. She didn't think she was degrading, but it felt like some part of her was eroding away, leaving behind the sort of person ShinRa had tried to mold her into all along.
On the second floor of Tifa's building, Marle was up there, helping a near-invalid, Marco back into his room. He was a former SOLDIER and Tifa's next-door neighbor.
Marco looked ancient, even though he was supposed to be in his thirties. Wandering around in black rags, when he wasn't laying around in his room. Where Tifa and Marle took turns keeping an eye out for him.
When Natalie looked up again, Marle wasn't holding Marco around the shoulder. She was holding Sephiroth.
He looked down at Natalie.
"You're not real." she told him.
"The Reunion is nothing to fear." Sephiroth told Natalie.
"What's wrong Natalie?" Marle's voice called down from the second floor, full of concern.
Natalie rubbed her stabbing temples, another headache was coming. She had been too long since she had had her lastest drink.
"Never mind Marle, I gotta go." Another reason for Natalie to avoid Marco. His status as a retired SOLDIER had been enough before. But now, she left Marle behind. To put 'Sephiroth' back in his room. To put Marco back in Marco's room, Natalie reminded herself.
'Now I'm seeing my dead girlfriend And my ex-boyfriend. Great.'
Natalie was alone in her room that afternoon, with a bottle of liquor. She wanted to run, she wanted to hide. She thought about Harold and Shelly in Icicle Inn, as long as they were there. They would give her shelter. She could hide from all of this. Keep the memory of their daughter alive, in return for a place to sleep.
But there would be no hiding from the crazy in her own brain. There was nowhere in the world she could run from something like that.
She could only run towards problems she could do something about.
Natalie hugged herself as she sat on her bed. Grieving her losses.
She picked up her harmonica to try and clear her head. She had been bashed, broken, mutated, scarred and traumatized. And that was before she had gotten to now. It could always get worse.
Barret wanted everyone to regroup after dinner at the bar soon. She had a couple more minutes before she had to leave.
She played to the empty room. After losing so much, she still had her music.
Natalie heard a scream as Barret came down the stairs and into the bar proper.
"What is it?" He had his gun arm out, ready to fire at whatever was attacking the bar.
Natalie cut herself off, she had been the one screaming. "I think I was having a nightmare. there's no one else here." Her hands shaking, she went over to the bar to get something to drink.
Whatever she had been dreaming was gone already. But she remembered panic, pain, and screaming.
"I'm scared, why was there screaming?" Marlene called from the door. "Make the scary monsters go away Daddy."
"It's OK honey, go back to bed."
"But daddy, it's early."
"Please baby, Daddy's gotta talk with Natalie about some grown-up things?" He was finally able to shoo Marlene back to bed.
He came back downstairs to look at Natalie "What is that?"
"Something hard," Natalie took some slow breaths to calm herself down.
The drink burned going down, taking the edge off of the adrenalin she had woken up to. She had gone to rest her eyes on the bar, lately she was always tired.
She rubbed the bandage on her cheek, a gift of Corneo's goons, and paced the bar a bit.
The sun wasn't yet set, she must have been napping at the table for an hour or more. As she walked she stretched, getting out the kinks and soreness that had formed falling asleep at the table. Tifa hadn't returned from getting ready for her plan yet.
Marlene was upstairs, the bar was closed early. Only Barret and Natalie were in the bar for the moment.
Natalie was rattled. She poured herself another cup before sitting at the bar.
Barret waited for Natalie to settle on her own bar stool, an empty stool between them, before he started up.
"I think we gotta talk."
"Yeah."
"This train we're on, a whole lotta more people could get hurt."
"Yeah."
"We need tah pull all the stops."
"Mmm, hmm."
"That means there ain't no holdin' back. No more surprises."
"I get it."
"So…"
"So," she cut herself off by drinking more of whatever she had poured from the bottle.
"Look," Barret turned to her and took off his sun glasses. "I'm not gonna pry into yer business. Yer dealin' with some important stuff. I get it. Family's family."
She leaned over her cup, her goggles were hanging around her neck. She didn't want to look him in the eye right then, "thanks."
"But, yah can't hold back on us. We need everyone to step up. A whole lotta people are depending on us."
"No holding back," she said.
"Good. Good." He turned back to face the bar. "I was hopin' I wouldn't have to drag it out."
"Hmm. We've known each other too long."
"Do yah wanna talk about it?"
"Honestly, I don't." She turned to Barret. "At the same time. I don't want to wreck the next plan, the next job, because I was holding back."
"We coulda used you on that first Reactor." He said.
Natalie sighed. "If anything, my heart is even more in this, than it was for the Reactor Five job."
"But you are gettin' on top of things. Gettin' back to yer oldself?"
She had no answer, the person that had walked into Sector Seven. It had been a mask. Her sarcasm and smiles had always been a cover to not upset other people with the storm she had brewing inside her. Jokes and smiles to hide the years of suffering she had left behind her. And that mask was eroding away.
Natalie had been hiding, on one level or another for so long, she barely knew who she was anymore. Natalie was only her latest alias. "Yeah." she lied, "I'm getting my focus back. No more distractions." 'Less distractions,' she thought.
"Ok, good." He had noticed she had shut down and fallen away from the Natalie Tifa and Barret thought they knew. How she had turned into death on two legs, going from fight to fight to fight.
They both danced around not mentioning that Natalie was an ex-SOLDIER. Barret knew, he also knew Natalie didn't like talking about it.
"I can do what I can do because of the life I've lived." Natalie reassured him. "And it's all wrapped up in this mess. When I have to have something to sink my teeth into, to confront. Otherwise that mess comes in and..." she trailed off. Her cup was empty now, what she had already swallowed wasn't enough. The buzz of the liquor was burning away almost as quickly as she could drink it.
Barret clunked his right arm onto the bar. The giant prosthetic-attached-machine gun. "I can understand that, Lee. When yer heart's going and adrenalin's pumpin'. It makes ya feel alive."
People gossiped in town about everything, rumor, or nothing. They might guess, but they did not pry directly into people's pasts. Barret hadn't talked about the how and the why of his gun arm. She figured if he wanted to talk about it, he would.
"Adrenalin doesn't last long though." she said.
"Yeah."
Barret reached for the bottle Natalie had opened and poured himself a cup. Placing the half empty bottle out of Natalie's reach. They sat in the silence, while the sun slowly fell to the horizon. Waiting for Tifa to return for the plan.
It would be sunset very soon, Tifa had to go to meet the carriage not long after.
Natalie had finagled one more cup out of the bottle she had co-opted. They had no other leads and the few other goons that had appeared that day didn't even know anything else. Lee was also the only one that had burned and tortured the goons alive. Even if no one else had seen, or smelled, what Natalie had done. She still thought about how cold she had been.
'Do they know what I'm turning into? What ShinRa tried to make of me?' She thought. She could see them see the change in her demeanor now. Riding her adrenalin rushes, and battle focus, into and out of danger. Lately she felt so empty without that rush, making it more tempting to look for more trouble. Or replace adrenalin with alcohol, even though neither lasted for long.
"Save some a' that for the rest of us." Barret took the bottle away again, Natalie didn't protest, clutching the last sip in her cup. Whatever it was burned going down. She knew the feeling would be gone sooner than she liked. Which would leave her wanting to find trouble, get more adrenalin.
"Keep an eye out an' be ready for more trouble." Barret told the others that had come to wait in the quiet. Ordering Biggs, Wedge and Jessie to go on patrol.
"What if we spot any trouble?" Biggs asked.
"Get back here an' we can all deal with whatever comes." Barret ordered.
"Got it." The other members of the watch left Barret, Natalie and Marlene alone in the bar.
Natalie still sat there, nursing the last of her drink.
Marlene was at the bar, finishing her supper.
They sat in silence again. There was nothing else to do for the moment. At least Natalie was waiting with friends, instead of alone.
The double doors at the front opened, Natalie could hear the click of the heels of the person entering, Tifa was ready to go.
"How do I look?" Tifa spun in a little circle in the middle of the bar. She had a thigh-length kimono on, her whole outfit looked to come from Wutai. Even Natalie could see that she had gone all out, make up hair, make-up, all of it.
Natalie turned to look, "Like you're ready to kick ass." Natalie could feel the flat tone of her voice.
"You look so pretty Tifa!" Marlene said.
"You're sure this is the only way?" Barret asked.
"The chocobo taxi is going to pick me up soon. And nobody else has the dress or the invitation to get in." Tifa told them. She put a bag of her normal clothes on the table beside her.
Natalie cracked her knuckles, she had let herself get too caught up in fighting the Don's goons earlier. She still had some scrapes on her face, she wasn't getting into the Don's mansion marked up like this, even if she did have a dress. There was only so much make up could hide until she had finished healing her injuries.
Jessie was over her injured leg, mostly. She wanted to stay in Sector Seven in case any more trouble appeared. Everyone else was too male to ever get an invitation to the Don's mansion.
"Alright, but you get outta there as soon as ya can." Barret told Tifa.
"That's the plan." Tifa told them all.
"Lee." Was all Barret said.
"What?" Natalie could not feel her last drink anymore. The emptiness was becoming more obvious again.
"Watch her back." Barret asked of Natalie.
"I can take care of myself." Tifa smiled, moving easily in her fancy shoes. Just as ready to fight in the fancy outfit, as in her regular wear.
"It's Wall Market." Was all Natalie said, as if that would explain everything.
"And?" Tifa said, "Have you been before?"
Natalie shook her head, she had avoided that den of vipers and trouble the entire time she had been in Midgar's slums. But she had ears. "It's full of trouble, and you're going in alone. To the Don's place. Full of who-knows-what."
"You think you can get an invitation too?" Tifa asked.
Natalie looked up, bandages stuck over her face's scratches. They would be fully healed soon thanks to her Materia. From within the tension of her binder, wrapped around her torso, she felt the most herself. The thought of a dress made her uncomfortable, vulnerable. "There might be other ways into the Don's place."
"Like what?" Tifa asked with curiosity.
"I'll know when we get there," Natalie said.
A large hand patted Natalie on the back, Barret. "Watch each other's backs. We got tha' home front." Barret reminded Natalie and Tifa.
"Hmm," Natalie grunted. She could cower in the darkness, where Jamie's voice could drive Natalie insane, while memories of Sephiroth haunted her. Or she could help Tifa.
She chose to follow Tifa to the edge of town. To where they would be picked up by the Chocobo Taxi.
Natalie and Tifa rode across the slums at night in silence. Tifa was deep in thought. Natalie was barely holding herself together.
Natalie was pulled out of her own wool gathering by the whispered conversation unwrapping before her.
"Tifa! Lee?"
Tifa moved to the back of the carriage, whispering "Cloud! You're alive. I thought we'd lost you!"
Natalie watched them whisper to each other. Her blank mask of a face cracking into a smile, glad to see the other ex-SOLDIER alive.
Cloud was standing on the back step of the carriage-taxi, whispering "What's going on?"
"Shhh!" Tifa asked Cloud to talk more quietly. Tifa and Natalie looked to the front of the carriage, to check if the driver had heard anything.
Natalie smoothed her face, trying to peer into the darkness behind Cloud, but the light inside the carriage was just enough that the outside of the carriage was swallowed in darkness. Cloud was alone.
"I'll explain everything later," Tifa told Cloud. "But now, we're on my way to see Don Corneo."
Natalie kept an eye on the darkness behind Cloud and their driver, keeping an eye out for trouble.
Tifa continued, "You should head back to Seventh Heaven, meet up with the gang."
"But-" Cloud tried.
"We'll be fine." Tifa reassured him. "You've seen how much ass I can kick."
Cloud relented. "I have."
Natalie spoke up, "She's not alone either."
"Watch out for each other." Cloud told both women, before dropping off the back of the carriage.
Natalie watched Cloud, standing under a street lamp. She gave him a quick nod, before the vehicle turned a corner.
Cloud hadn't noticed Natalie, he spent the whole time staring at Tifa. Before the turn broke their line of sight.
"Cloud's alive!" Tifa did a little shake and dance, from her seat. Before reality settled on her. "I don't know what we're going to find when we get to the mansion."
"Neither do I." Natalie admitted.
"Aren't you glad Cloud's okay?" Tifa asked. "I guess as an ex-S-" Tifa trailed off. She knew Natalie didn't like talking about that part of her past.
"Yeah." Natalie looked out the back of the carriage, seeing only the darkness, and the pools of light made by the Mako-powered street lamps.
She still couldn't believe that Cloud was okay. But he was.
A hand playfully punched Natalie's shoulder, breaking her train of thought.
"Come on, Cloud's okay. Isn't that good news?" Tifa said with a smile.
Natalie smirked, a smile that only covered half her face. "Yeah, a little."
"Things are going to turn out fine."
"Yeah." She looked at a smiling Tifa. Tifa's smile was infectious, spreading to Natalie.
Natalie's eyes still trailed to the dark road she felt her smile slide off her face. She had Tifa's back, but they really had no idea what they were being taken into.
"Is something wrong Lee?" Tifa asked the other woman.
"No," Natalie trailed off.
"You think Cloud can find his own way back to the bar?" Tifa asked.
"He's made it this far on his own." Natalie said.
"Yeah, you're right. We should be thinking of what we're going to do next."
By the speed of the carriage, it wasn't long before they arrived at their destination.
The man that was sponsoring Tifa was waiting for them.
Tifa had already been in contact with him. But this was the first time Natalie got to meet him.
A man in a leather vest and cowboy hat. Dark, beady, eyes peered from under the brim. He had something in his stable hand while he watched Tifa step out of the back of the carriage.
Natalie hopped down, her shoulder-bag slung over her coat. Natalie had packed for travel, same as the Reactor Five job. There was no telling how the rest of the night was going to go.
Tifa started talking to Sam, referring to him by name, while he looked over Tifa's shoulder as Natalie stepped out of the carriage.
"We have a deal, and this" He held out the envelope had was carrying, "is only for one." He enunciated.
Sam's eyes flickered up and down Natalie, sizing her up in a second.
Natalie knew he noticed the sword belted at her waist. At least she had been able to strip the bandages off her face by now. She was as clean as she had been before the troubles from earlier that day.
"I'm her bodyguard." Natalie stared back. She had to look up just a little bit as the man was taller than both women, his hat exaggerating the height difference further.
"That's not going to get you into the mansion. If that's your goal." He peered at Natalie from under his hat, feeling her out.
"I can escort her across the market and to the door, without any fuss."
"I'm right here you know." Tifa reminded them, while Natalie and Sam watched each other.
"See that there isn't any 'fuss' tonight," Sam warned.
"Hmph." Natalie grunted. She had no intention of raising hell at Corneo's mansion. Yet. "Let's get you settled Tifa." Natalie looked away from Sam first, just to get Tifa to where she needed to be.
"Thanks again." Tifa took the envelope gratefully.
"Don't thank me." Sam told her.
Natalie started walking away to their goal..
Tifa quickly caught up to Natalie as they went past the Chocobo taxi head quarters. And turned the last corner to enter Wall Market.