The three of them were outside the Honeybee Inn in no time.
Natalie was barely able to wipe away the look on her face, of trepidation, as she gazed up at the building.
"Something wrong Lee?" Aerith asked, as energetic as ever.
"Mmm, let's just see what this is about." Natalie wasn't the sort of person that was interested in a place like the Honey Bee Inn. She felt trepidation for even being this close to the privacy and vulnerability required of the customers inside. Natalie was fine to let the place be, but she had no interest of patronizing the place. And was even less interested after her history of losing all the people she could let herself be vulnerable around.
Cloud caught up to the two of them, "Why are we here?"
Aerith announced to Cloud, "To see the Honey Bee Inn's Andrea Rhodea." Aerith pronounced it Anne-drey-Ah. "And convince him to give you his stamp of approval. You said you didn't want me going alone, right? Well, with Andrea's help, you can join me." Aerith was studying something about Cloud, "It'll be fun. And honestly I think you'll look pretty cute in a dress."
"What?" Cloud said, "what about Lee?"
Aerith shook her head, "It's pretty rare for Andrea to take a personal interest in someone. And that person is you Cloud." She gestured for Cloud to enter the Inn's curtained entrance. "At least that's what Madam M said. Trust me, this is going to work out great!"
Cloud was once again speechless. "Uh-"
"Come on!" Aerith urged. "Don't you wanna save Tifa?"
"Good plan," Natalie told her, "Let's-"
"Wait!" Cloud insisted.
"No can do Cloud," Aerith told him. "This is our plan, and you'll learn to love it."
Natalie didn't help or hinder, Aerith or Cloud, merely staying out of the way and following them inside. But she was relieved that a plan for the third letter of approval had been settled, with or without Natalie's help. 'What about my plan?'
Natalie still had to find an exit for her approach on the mansion, with the help of Mirelle's advice.
Aerith bowled over Cloud with more words. "So, this is how I think we should approach him. Madam M said that Andrea was a man that would give anyone a fair chance to win him over. So I say we march right up to him, explain the situation, and see where that gets us. Sound good?"
Cloud shook his head, looking for a way out. "And what about you Lee?"
Natalie shrugged, "You're the one who got Andrea's attention." She pointed to the curtain. "Let's get this show on the road?"
Cloud sighed, stuck between the two of them.
Aerith's smile widened as Cloud parted the curtain and went inside.
Her smile slipped away as Cloud got ahead of them, "There are only three letters of approval. And Four of us counting Tifa…"
Natalie patted Aerith on the shoulder, nearly freezing when she realized that Aerith had no shoulders to her dress. Natalie was reassuring Aerith's bare shoulder, "Uh, don't worry about me, Aerith. I have a plan."
"Yeah?"
"Cloud is getting ahead of us, let's go inside." Natalie deflected and went after Cloud.
The noises of Wall Market outside muffled quickly as the heavy curtained closed behind Natalie, then reopened as she held the curtain open for Aerith.
It was a quiet kind of noise in the foyer of the Inn. With layers of perfumes and cologne's hitting Natalie's nostrils. Which was probably better than the alternative.
The lighting was lose and soft, with elaborate and expensive decorations. Down to the hand-carved doors, leading deeper into the building.
This was an Inn, after all, so the person Cloud was talking to could be described as a concierge. He was certainly dressed the part. In a honey-colored suit that belonged in a ritzy hotel. From his perfect hair down to his expensive shoes.
The concierge replied to something Natalie had missed. "You must be Mr. Cloud. He's waiting for you."
"Mr. Cloud?" Cloud asked of the concierge.
The man behind the large front desk continued, "I've been instructed to send you through without delay sir. Please." He pointed to the biggest doors int he foyer. "Make your way to the stage in the back."
"What stage?" Cloud asked.
The man remained prim and polite and did not condescend to the question. "The one in the back, sir. Straight through those doors and down the hall."
Cloud gestured Aerith and Natalie to follow, the concierge interrupted.
"The guests of Mr. Cloud are to enter the stage area another way."
Cloud looked back to Aerith and Natalie.
Natalie shrugged while Aerith urged Cloud to go on without them.
Once the fancy double doors closed behind Cloud. The concierge told Aerith and Natalie where they were to go. Another door and a means of getting to the stage for the audience of the next show.
As Aerith and Natalie made their way down to the front stage, while Cloud went back stage. One of the staff, a man in a suit that was honey and bee-stripe-themed got their attention. He looked to be somewhere in his twenties, in a glamorous top hat and bee-striped tails.
"Excuse me, but are one of you Lee? Or Natalie?"
"Hmm?" Aerith made a noise.
"What's this about?" Natalie softened her voice because this stranger probably didn't deserve her anger at using the nick name reserved for her friends. "Just Natalie."
"Madam M wishes to speak with you." He looked at Aerith with a warm smile when she stepped forward. "Just Natalie. This way."
"I'll catch up." Natalie reached for Aerith's hand.
Aerith grabbed Natalie in both of hers. "Don't be too long."
Natalie shook her head, "I won't." As she followed the 'honey-boy' to where Madam M was waiting.
In one of the private rooms off of that hall, Madam M was quickly fanning herself, looking impatient.
"Took you long enough Lee."
Natalie licked her lips, not happy with the people that called her that, or 'sis' today. Like they knew her better than they should, only her friends called her "Lee.' But she picked her battles. "I'm here, Aerith is ready. Cloud is, wherever in the building getting ready. What did you need me for Madam M?"
Madam M snapped her silk fan shut and pointed it at Natalie, the honey-boy had left the two of them alone in the room. "Are you still determined to go off on your fool's errand?"
Natalie felt her lips go thin, "I'm almost out of options. And last time I checked there are only three people going in the front door wearing a dress."
Madam M sighed, "It's a shame you'll have to miss the show tonight" Madam M quirked a single eyebrow. "But if you don't leave now, you'll miss your chance to dance on the roof."
Natalie licked her lips, "Aerith- And Cloud-"
"They're not the ones you should be worried about. Are you chicken-ing out of your idea to steal across a certain roof tonight?"
"No, I just. What did you need me here for? Right now."
Madam M sighed, "I am surrounded by fools." She opened her fan and started fanning herself again. "While your friends are getting ready. Now is your chance to go ahead, and time your own entrance right. While everyone is looking at the front door."
Natalie wanted to sigh, it seemed obvious now, she hadn't been thinking of the timing. "But Aerith-"
"I'll let your friends know. Lord knows I've already done a lot for the girl. Now go." She made a sweeping motion with her fan. "Before you lose your chance."
Natalie heard the fan snap again as she reached for the doorknob. Turning, Madam M responded before Natalie could ask.
"One more thing, 'Lee.' "
"Yeah?"
"Don't get caught."
Marin, 'No, it's Natalie now,' she reminded herself. 'Natalie. I'm just Natalie now.'
Natalie looked up at the perimeter wall. The flat wall, made of large stones. She couldn't slip her smallest knife between the seams of the wall that bordered this out-of-the-way lane off the road to the mansion.
Somewhere over it, in the dark, was a way to the roof in the back of the building. The main tower was light up like a Christmas tree. But there was blotting in the lights under the plate, and one of those artificial sun's were out of view. There was more building behind that. And in there somewhere was one of the window's Mirelle had advised Natalie, not Marin, to check.
"There you are. Where's Cloud? Or Aerith?" Johnny's voice floated out from Wall Market.
This far to the wall between the Sectors, Wall market was a glow behind the abandoned construction in the area. No music, no people, on this road from wall Market to no way out of the sector.
"How did you find me?" She asked Johnny.
"Let's just say a little bird told me to find you out here, sister."
Natalie glowered at the way he referred to her.
Johnny melted under her stare, "I'm sorry. It was Madam M, she was going to hurt me if I didn't hurry." Johnny shrank into himself, "Don't tell her I got lost trying to find this spot."
Natalie felt a flare of sympathy. Just because she wasn't scared by Madam M, didn't mean that other people were not.
"It's all right Johnny. But Can you call me Lee and not 'sister' please?"
"Sure si- I mean Lee." He looked around the lane between Wall Market and this sector's wall. While scratching his red hair he asked, "What did you need me here for?"
Natalie surveyed the chain link fencing, the steel containers, the dust. The disturbed dust. The dust that had been wiped away in a track, to hide someone's tracks. Making it even more obvious that someone had been there recently.
"I need a boost Johnny."
"What like a pick me up? 'You got this!'"
Natalie smirked and shook her head. "No." She hopped up the nearby pile of abandoned steel beams. Picking her way easily up a pile that even Johnny could follow. "A boost over the last bit up there."
She pointed to a break in the fencing. It revealed a point in a seamless concrete wall. It was too tall for Natalie to hop up to. "Give me a boost with your hands."
There was no one else there but the two of them.
Johnny stared from the bottom of the half-build scaffolding. "You must be joking. You're not planning what I think you're planning, are you?"
"Shhh!" Natalie grabbed Johnny's arm and dragged him close to the concrete wall. "No, yes. Maybe. But be quiet. I don't need all of Wall Market to hear us."
"You're not the Guardian Angel of the Slums are you?" Johnny looked up at the darkness above this bit of wall. But he had lowered his voice.
"Oh my god Johnny, no. But I think I met her tonight."
"Really? What's she look like? Did she really rob the Don?"
Natalie shook her head, "Never mind that. Just give me a boost." She wove her fingers together, showing Johnny what she wanted from him.
She was more than stronger than Johnny. Natalie was stronger than just about anyone but other SOLDIERs, former or otherwise. But Johnny showed that he worked out enough to hold up Natalie's foot in his hands. He had to struggle with her weight. But Johnny's muscles weren't just for show. Even if she'd never seen him fight with them.
After a few second of wrestling with the wall, and Johnny held up her foot. He grunted as he pulled up and up, giving Natalie the last inches she needed to feel her fingers hold onto the top of the wall.
"On three, I need one last push from you." She mumbled to Johnny.
"What? You want more?"
"One…"
"I'm not."
"Two…"
"Hold on." Johnny grunted and barely held up her foot.
Natalie felt her hands tighten on the edge of the wall as she said "Three!"
Johnny gave one last lift with his hands, giving Natalie a sudden rise of several inches. She scrambled with the edge of the wall, getting enough height to put her elbow over the concrete. With her foot out of Johnny's hands, she kicked and scraped against the wall. Pulling and wrestling against her own weight to get over the lip.
With one deep breath, she was over. Sitting on the edge of the cold stone. Looking at the lit and unlit roof tops and shingles that was the pagoda. The first step was done, while she sat in near darkness between flood lights. They were shining on the ground below, not where she was sitting and not where Johnny was standing.
"Lee?" He loudly stage whispered. "Are you okay?"
"I'm fine, thanks Johnny. You might want to stay away from here. Don't let anyone see you." 'I don't want the Don's men to think you helped me,' she considered.
She had rope, but with no trees or grappling hook, she hadn't had any other means of getting over the edge of this wall.
"I'll be okay," Johnny kept whispering loudly. "I'll go find the others…"
"Just keep out of trouble tonight." Natalie whispered down at him.
Johnny said one more thing while Natalie rustled to squatting on the edge of the wall, while readjusting her sword forward again, so it would not stick out behind her and tangle with her legs.
"Just go Johnny," Was the last thing she said to the man. Before she rose into a crouch, and moved through the darkness to the narrowest gap between the Pagoda's shingles and this concrete wall.
Studying the rooftops from up here, it was reminiscent of her Wutai escape. Though this time there was no Genesis to drift from above, or his clones nipping at her heels. There would also be no Angeal to aid her escape at the last second either. For that matter, Gina was long gone.
Shaking off the feelings that tangle of memories opened, she switched from her problems of yesterday. To the problem right in front of her.
Natalie counted the Pagoda tiers from the darkness and picked her path. Remembering what Mirelle had told her. The woman, Natalie guessed, got up to trouble as the Angel when no one was looking.
'You helped the Leaf House.' Natalie thought. 'If you are the Guardian Angel. Your secret is safe with me.'
Natalie listened to the gap that someone else had made in this window tonight. Listening to the room inside. She heard nothing, and got a puff of something sweet-smelling, which was gone before she could tell what kind of perfume it was.
Slowly prying the shutters open more, the window casement inside glowed in the night. The window was tiny in the elaborate wooden casement. But this looked like the right one Mirelle had told her about. The light inside the room was clear through the glass. Shining from a room clearly used for storage of some kind. Most importantly there was no movement in the room.
The sheer amount of wood gave Natalie a large area to push on, without risking the glass. Between that and her pry bar she quickly found her way inside.
When the shutters gave a loud creak as she lowered it mostly back into place. She froze, but there was no other sound in the room. The whole building was quiet. No one came running. There was just one door into this room. And the double doors were a heavy sort of wood, there wouldn't be much noise transferring to the other side.
'Like taking candy from a baby.' Natalie thought. Though that meant if anyone was coming for this room, she wouldn't hear it until that person was nearly on top of her.
'It's too bad this wasn't one of the vaults of his treasures.' She thought. At least Natalie was inside the mansion now.
It was eerily quiet in this room, no sounds of people or music came from anywhere. And the door here was dead silent on the other side, or really was that thick.
She took the time to look around this room, really look. The white plaster was turning gray-ish yellow and cracked in many places. The opulence outside was contrasted by the piles of furniture. This room looked like the place things were set and forget. Piles of paper in the corners, posters glued to the walls, over and beside graffiti. Not at all what she was expecting after seeing the rich reds and golds outside.
Some things were covered with dark dust cloths, some weren't. A stand mirror leaned against a screen, cracked in the corner. The room was abandoned and junky. The floor didn't creak under her boots, but it did look in need of a sweeping and being refinished. The whole thing looked like an abandoned version of the opulence that the outside of the mansion showed on the outside.
This was no a hoard of treasures, it was where furniture and boxes that were put to forget about. After replacing the window casement, shoving it back into place. Mostly back into place without a rubber mallet. Natalie poked around behind one of the standing screens seeing if they were covering something or nothing.
When a loud shift of wood came from the other side of the door to this room.
Natalie moved the rest of the way behind the screen, ducking down she made ready to draw her sword or cast Sleepel on the whole room, with a blue magnify Materia paired to the green binding one. It could put a whole room of goons to sleep at once. On the off-chance Natalie was caught, she would have more time to get out of trouble.
While she hid behind the screen, the second door opened. The screen blocked her view of whoever entered the room. But she held off on casting for the moment. Casting a spell would reveal her location to whoever was about to enter this dead-end room.
Soft shoes, compared to Natalie's combat boots, clicked on the wood, clothes swished more than she expected for the goons in this place.
Whoever they were did not speak, and only made a soft. "Uh?" when the double doors slammed shut behind them, something clicked as well as if there was a lock engaging.
Natalie fought the urge to look around the screen, staying hidden for now.
The room filled with the scent of that same perfume, sweet.
Natalie was crouched near the floor and had to put a hand out, to stop from stumbling into a pile. It was not perfume, it was a sickly sweet smell that filled Natalie with horror. Before she spoke someone else in the room spoke up.
"What's that weird, sweet smell?" Aerith's voice. "And why do I feel so dizzy?"
Natalie let go of her sword's hilt, she had to hold herself up with both hands now. Gas like that was heavy and rose out from gaps in the floor, all over the floor.
Natalie opened her mouth to speak, making the mistake of breathing in to speak. Her head spun as she shuffled from a crouch to a kneeling position. It was all she could do to stay awake.
"Gas!" Cloud's voice sounded like it was from far away.
Natalie opened and closed her mouth like a fish gasping for air. Her eyes had already shut. She yawned as as a distant Cloud urged Aerith on. "Come on!"
Natalie heard someone wrestle with the door handles. The clicking of the metal, back and forth lulled her to pitch forward. The things behind the screen rose up to her face, turning to black before she heard anything more.
Natalie opened one eye, her face was pressed into the floorboards, she had fallen forward from her kneeling position. Her head still spun, but now it also ached with a raging headache.
She was still on the floor behind the screen. Hearing nothing around her, she whispered "Cloud? Aerith?" Natalie put her hands over he mouth, afraid that the wrong person had heard her break the silence.
No one followed up her words.
Natalie slowly rose to her feet, the dizziness was passing, but a headache raged on.
Looking around the room, for the other two people, or anyone. There was only silence.
Something had shifted near her though. From behind the screen, the bookcase against the wall had shifted much closer to Natalie's hiding place.
It revealed a stone corridor, and stairs that went down, into a hidden basement.
A voice, over some speakers, echoed from the stone hallway. "Listen up!"
Natalie couldn't make out every word. "Woozy…Audition" there was too much echo from down below. "Begin!" "…Stairs…Hustle!"
Natalie crouched back from behind the screen. Not knowing if a goon, or someone else, was coming from the wooden or hidden doorway.
More of those heeled shoes echoed from the stone stairs below. Someone was coming.
Natalie heard voices float from below and not over the speakers.
"You think Lee's all right? Who knows how long we've been down here." Aerith's voice didn't enough that Natalie could make out the words.
"How do you know Lee?" Tifa's voice.
Someone in a black and blue dress came out from the hidden basement. With braids woven into her hair. "Where-ever Lee is, she's going to have to handle thing herself." No, in his hair, as that was Cloud's voice coming out of the woman in the black and blue dress.
Natalie hissed from behind the screen, "I'm right here."
Cloud nearly stumbled back into Aerith, at the sound of Natalie's whisper.
"Lee!" Tifa said, lowering her voice to a whisper.
Cloud said nothing, but blushed and crossed his mesh-covered sleeves across his dark blue corset.
Natalie could only smile awkwardly, almost a grimace, at the sight. Embarrassed that he was embarrassed.
Aerith spoke up, "You found a way in!"
"Shh!" Natalie hissed at Aerith. "No one knows I'm here." She kept to herself that she had just missed Cloud and Aerith. And that the goons had missed Natalie, while she had slept on the gas. Her head still pounded. There was no time to explain.
"Ladies!" A voice came over the speaker, "What's the hold up! The Clock is ticking!"
Natalie waved them on, "you guys have somewhere to be."
Cloud's face remained red under his make up, "Not another word," He whispered to her as he went towards the double doors.
Tifa waved and followed after him.
"Stay safe and be careful," Aerith whispered as she went to catch up with the other two people, all; in one dress or another.
"Always," Natalie mouthed, though Aerith was out of sight, towards the door that was now out of Natalie's sight.
The doors closed behind Aerith, leaving Natalie alone in the room.
Natalie waited for the room to go dead silent, then counted to fifty. The door hadn't locked shut at the close this time, so she drew her sword and tested the door. Anything on the other side that wasn't Cloud, or Tifa, or Aerith was going to get cut. Anything more than one person was going to be enchanted to sleep.
The other side of the door was an empty hall, elaborate and new, unlike the storage room. With another set of double doors at the end. They were also shut. The hall was empty of people.
Listening at the other doors, Natalie heard nothing on the other side, the wood was too thick.
Crouching down, with her sword in hand, she counted to fifty again, this time slowly. Before she started opening one of the doors, inch by inch.
As soon as any light was visible though them, she stopped to look.
There was the sound of someone talking far beneath her, more of that red wood in a decorative rail on this floor. There was at least one other floor beneath Natalie, based on where she had entered. On top of the hidden basement beneath that.
She went to move the door a little more when there was movement.
She stopped, tightening the grip on her sword, as another door on her floor opened, more of those double doors. One of the announcers from the coliseum exited that room, his mohawk hair clear above his puffy vest, all visible through the crack in the door.
He didn't bother checking his corners or even looking around. He only closed the heavy wooden door behind him, and walked along that floor away from Natalie. And the door she was creeping behind.
'Fool.' She thought of the man. 'No wonder the Angel could rob this place. All someone needs is some rope, a pry bar and a good pair of boots.'
There was movement on the stairs, the man on the stairs was stepping aside for someone coming up. Natalie quickly closed the door in front of her. Before she saw them or they saw her.
Stepping back from the door, she started another count to fifty. She barely made it to twelve when the door rings on the other side of her doors rattled.
Natalie took one more step back and raised her sword. Whoever was in the doorway was going to get a face full of blade.
The door opened again, revealing someone lugging a large cloth-wrapped bundle and carrying a heavy metal object.
Natalie brought her sword down, her mind clicking with the object in the man's other hand. It was Cloud's sword.
She brought her sword back up, the blade several inches from the man's face. It was then that she registered the face. The man at the front door to this Mansion, Lesley.
When Natalie had seen Cloud in a dress minutes ago, he hadn't had his sword.
"What are you doing with his sword?" she brought her sword back, for a strike or to put it away. While she waited for Lesley's answer.
"I'd ask you how you got in here, but that doesn't matter anymore." He stepped further into the hall, and further away from the men conversing downstairs.
So far Lesley hadn't raised the alarm, his expressionless yellow eyes watched Natalie and her sword though.
"No it doesn't matter. But Cloud's sword?"
Lesley held the buster sword in his hand, barely, "Would you believe me if I told you Andrea Rhodea gave me this to give back to your friend?"
Natalie frowned, but how would he know? Cloud had to have changed into the dress before coming to Corneo's. That meant his sword hadn't been in the building until now. And Lesley was carrying it.
Natalie brought her sword down slowly and reversed her grip, so the blade stuck out behind her. She still held it out of it's sheath. "As long as you don't raise the alarm, let's get Cloud his weapon back."
"First, we need to help your other friends." Lesley held the heavy wooden door open for Natalie.
"You first, you're the man with the weapons and the answers, lead the way."
"Hmm." Lesley shrugged and left he hallway. If he tried anything Natalie would see it, and had her sword out, able to react to anything quickly.
Natalie hugged the wall, staying back from the red rail and out of sight of anyone below. She followed Lesley to the next door on the wall. The one puffy-vest had left.
Lesley opened the door and went into another hallway, with muffled noises coming from the other side of another set of wooden doors.
Not liking what she was hearing, Natalie rushed forward and threw open a door one-handed, her sword held by her other hand.
Another dilapidated room was on the other side of this door.
Aerith and Tifa were high-fiving over the four men that lay knocked out nearby. Natalie had missed the party.
"Lee!" Aerith called to Natalie.
Tifa squared off, ready to punch something in her short kimono. "Look out, behind you!"
Natalie stuck to the side, sliding her sword into it's sheath for now. Giving room for Lesley to enter, where he put the bundle and Cloud's sword on the hall. Facing off to Tifa, he told them all "Andrea filled me in on the situation." He held up the things in his arms. "I come bearing gifts, your gear."
From Natalie's position, she could see the sidearm Lesley kept under his jacket, while he bent over to place the bag and sword on the floor.
Tifa put her fists down, her and Aerith sighed. They had been ready to face off against the man in their dresses, with no weapons. Not that they would have done well against a pistol at close range. Though Natalie was with them now.
But if Lesley hadn't meant well, things would have gone a bit differently already.
Aerith and Tifa sighed with relief.
Lesley ended with, "I'll do what I can to clean this up. Just finish the job."
Aerith perked up as Lesley left the three women alone in the room. "Thank you!"
Natalie cast a binding spell, Sleepel magic specifically, on the four men in the room for good measure. Undisturbed they would not be up and about for a while.
That gave Aerith and Tifa all the room they needed to abandon their dresses for their every-day wear.
While Natalie probed one man with a boot, he snored while Natalie kept her back to the other two women.
"What a relief." Tifa said, as she pulled on her armored fighting gloves.
"You doing okay Lee?" Aerith asked Natalie's back.
"I'm fine." She stared down at the man that had probably been expecting a different night after the audition. Natalie wanted to stick her sword in his head, same as the goons she had faced off with in Sector Seven. She left her sword in it's sheath for now.
"Let's go help Cloud." Tifa said, brightly heading towards the door.
Aerith paused next to Natalie, they both looked down at the snoring man.
Natalie didn't look up at the other woman, "I can't wait to get out of here." Without looking up at Aerith, Tifa or Lesley, she followed Tifa to the hallway. Very soon the four of them would be out of this building, one way or another.