This chapter is dedicated To DAsObiQuiet (AO3)/Anne Camp aka Obi-Quiet (FFN), their fic Advanced Release finally dragged me out of lockdown blues back to FF7
Here's a Christmas present/end of year gift to all of you, thank you for your patience, it has been... yeah, it's been rough in many ways. I hope you enjoy the chapter and feel free to let me know your theories and what you liked. My updates may come slow but I fully plan on finishing this.
Chapter 35: Lost
On the bridge of the Highwind, Aerith clasped her hands in silent prayer and peered anxiously at the writhing surface of the Northern Crater below. She prayed Cloud found Zack and somehow managed to escape before the quakes grew too severe.
As if to mock her hopes, the crystal structure at the center of the valley erupted. Cid swore viciously and wrenched the wheel to avoid a geyser of mako and materia shards. Even with his evasive maneuvers, they could hear the discordant sound of rubble striking the metal underbelly of the airship. His stream of expletives momentarily cut off in slack-jawed shock when five massive, armored figures rose from the remnants of the crystalline maze.
Blue-green mako wrapped around the figures, in ever increasing waves of power. A mostly red and mostly white pair were vaguely humanoid in form. The blue and green pair were bulky in shape while the black figure looked like some kind of dragon.
"What in Leviathan's name are they?" Yuffie shouted over the terrified cries of the crew.
As if she'd posed the question herself, the voice of the planet murmured in Aerith's mind, louder and clearer than she'd ever perceived it before. "Weapon…" Aerith repeated, her fingers tightening around each other.
She noticed Vincent's narrowed glance down at her and in a louder voice she announced, "They are the Weapons my mother told Doctor-my father about." She winced at her verbal stumble and continued. "She said the planet would awaken them in a time of great crisis."
Yuffie's pale complexion took on a greener hue as the implication set in. "Then meteor…" she trailed off in a moan.
"Hold on to your panties!" Cid bellowed, spinning the wheel sharply, "They're launchin'!" His desperate steering barely moved them from the path of the white Weapon. The turbulence of its departure tossed the ship like a leaf in the wind.
Vincent widened his stance and bent his knees, his only concession to the violent rocking of the ship. Yuffie and Aerith clung to his arms in the ensuing chaos. The briefest flicker of amusement shone in his crimson eyes when Cait Sith's mog rolled by. The unfortunate tuxedo cat sputtered indistinct curses from the top of the creature as he log-balanced to stay upright. Ears tucked and head drooping in exhausted resignation, Red XIII slid across the deck on his stomach behind him.
Curses once again flying from his mouth in a steady stream, Cid wrenched the airship upright and stable. No sooner were they level when a pair of Shinra choppers loomed in their view. The radio crackled to life and a man said, "Attention Highwind, you are operating stolen property-"
Cid flipped the radio off and drawled, "Damn right I am. Shinra stole her from me and I just stole her back!" To the remnants of their group he called, "Sorry folks, we'll have to come back. Those choppers are runnin' hot and we ain't got much in the way of weapons or defense. What we do have though, is speed." He grinned savagely and started flipping levers muttering something about not needing to go all out.
Uncurling her death-grip stiffened fingers from Vincent's arm and cape, Aerith dashed to the bridge's windshield. "Zack," she moaned brokenly, staring down at the cauldron of seething mako before it swung out of view with Cid's efforts to flee the Shinra choppers.
Kunsel gazed pensively out the northern windows of Junon's largest chapter of Golden Illusion and Black Velvet. To his left, the setting sun dyed the sky a vivid coral and the ocean a lurid crimson. The meeting table and eastern wall were coated with maps and loose reports.
A knock sounded on the door before it opened admitting two Shinra troopers. They pulled their helmets off revealing Wilkes' distinctive red curls and Cowley's black hair pulled into a low tail.
Wilkes braced his helmet against his hip and fluffed some life back into his curls while Cowley set his helmet on a map of Midgar and then folded his arms waiting for Kunsel to respond to their presence.
"Wilkes, Cowley," Kunsel acknowledged quietly without turning around. "What do you have to report?"
The two soldiers traded looks and then Cowley shrugged. "I've got the bad news so I'll go first," He stated in a low voice, tapping the top of his helmet twice before pressing on. "Elena says someone in upper management leaked the news about Meteor to the public."
All three involuntarily flicked their gazes to the discoloration in the sky, hanging above the setting sun. Cowley shuddered, tearing his gaze from the meteor and continued, "She suspects Heidegger is the source of the leak and that he's behind the blame landing on Cloud's group. Despite our best efforts, they're pushing for…" he trailed off, unwilling to continue.
"Execution," Kunsel finished for him. He sighed wearily and unconsciously flipped the PHS in his right hand a few times before murmuring, "We'll have to break them out." He stroked his chin with his free hand and then shivered. "I'll have to coordinate with the group on the Highwind and one of our deep members. If we can manipulate the timing and a few other elements, we can pull it off. Which leads to you Wilkes."
Wilkes shuffled nervously and then raised his chin declaring, "Lockhart is still in a medically induced coma in the upper levels of the base. They could wake her at any time, but Patricia in medical says they're using her condition to keep Wallace under control."
"Understandable," Kunsel mused quietly, "even without his weapon and materia Barret is an imposing man and Tifa's body is a weapon all on its own. As for the other matter?"
Wilkes flashed a toothy grin, "Ah, good news there. Sergeant Miller joined us after learning the real reason Fair and Strife went missing five years ago. He has access to the guard schedule around the prisoners and their personal effects."
"Perfect," Kunsel hummed. "When the time comes, have him schedule you two for the prisoner detail and arrange for Private Paul Avery to watch their belongings."
"Avery is one of ours?" Cowley asked, his hazel eyes widening.
"Oh he isn't," Kunsel replied easily while waving his hand. "He is, however, a horrible watchman so make sure Sgt. Miller covers his tracks when making the shift change." Kunsel huffed a short laugh and for a brief moment wrenched his gaze from the window to smirk back at the two men. "If you want an amusing reaction, ask Zack and Cloud about Avery and the squirrels. If he's in a good mood, Cloud might even tell you the story."
Wilkes perked up at the suggestion, "So you-you think they're okay?"
Kunsel forced back a wince with iron will, his body going unnaturally still. After a long pause he admitted, "...they're alive."
"Oh Gaia, that's good news," Cowley sighed with obvious relief.
"Thank you for telling us sir," Wilkes added, adjusting his helmet straps to pull it on as soon as he left the room. "I'll tell Sgt. Miller what you need, and when you have the projected timeline I'll pass that on as well." The pair saluted and left.
Kunsel lowered his hand from returning the salute and turned back to his vigil. He raised his PHS, the screen registering twenty unanswered calls to Cloud. "Alive, yes… but not okay," he muttered. Shaking his head, he selected another contact and dialed.
Wispy moonlight drifted through cracks in the rubble and refracted through shattered materia shards. The pale light and seeping mako illuminated a small hollow in the loose stones. Zack moaned and struggled to shift some rubble off his body. The left side of his face was tacky with fresh and dried blood mixed with pebbles and grit. He coughed and narrowed his eyes, peering down at the smaller man beside him. Pinned in the debris, only Cloud's head and half a shoulder emerged from the rising pool of mako. The blue of the blond's half-lidded eyes drowned in the poisonous green of the mako.
"Damn it Cloud," he hissed, struggling even more against the rocks pinning him down. The luminescent fluid splashed around Zack's waist but only a few small pieces shifted. Like a sliced artery, more mako gushed through the rocks and swirled higher with each passing breath. "Come on guys, we could really use some help here," Zack murmured, peering up at the sky he couldn't see.
The mako lapped against Cloud's chin, his belabored breaths adding minute ripples to the surging surface. "Come on Barret, Tifa, Red, anybody!" Zack cried, gritting his teeth in pain while he desperately struggled to reach Cloud. His outstretched fingers brushed the limp, bloodstained spikes of hair and then another gush of make flooded their prison.
The blond spasmed, his head flailing weakly when the mako invaded his nose and mouth. Bubbles rose painfully slow through the viscous fluid from his swiftly submerged face. And then they stopped. "Aerith," Zack sobbed and then hissed as the rising fluid seeped into a gash on his right shoulder. "Aerith! Come on planet, cut us a break!" Zack's nerves tingled and throbbed with the invasion of the raw mako into his bloodstream, he tilted his head back, the rising mako filling his ears and shouted one last time, "Aeri-"
"Aerith!"
"Aerith wake up!" a voice shouted in the young woman's ear, rousing her from the nightmare with a shuddering gasp. Beads of perspiration popped up on the young Cetra's skin as consciousness dimmed the horror of her dream. Her chest heaved and her knuckles whitened with the strain of her grip on the thin, olive bed sheets.
"Aerith?" Yuffie called again, slowly reaching out to rest her right hand on Aerith's left shoulder. "That must have been a bad nightmare."
"Yeah," Aerith agreed in a low voice, her fingers slowly unclenching. A small part of her worried that it wasn't just a dream. "Thank you for waking me up," she said instead, smiling weakly up at the young ninja.
Yuffie straightened, her hand sliding from Aerith's shoulder to scratch the back of her head. "Actually…." she admitted sheepishly, "Vincent sent me to get you. Cait Sith says he has some news."
The last news Cait Sith delivered was that Shinra had captured Barret and Tifa. There was no news about what happened to Zack and Cloud. Still trembling from her most recent nightmare after their disappearance, she followed the younger girl to the bridge.
Cid paced anxiously while he waited for Yuffie to return with Aerith. Much as he was overjoyed to have the Highwind back, the last two days spent hiding in the twisted crannies of Cosmo Canyon grated on his nerves. They needed time to shake off their pursuers and to rest after their frantic push to the Crater, but the absence of four party members was like a hemorrhaging wound to their morale.
Aerith burst into the bridge followed closely by Yuffie. "You have news?" she asked Cait Sith.
"Aye." The feline's ears drooped. "I wish I could say it was good news."
"That is most unfortunate," Red XIII rumbled, butting his head against Aerith's hip and subtly supporting her trembling body with his own.
"What is the news?" Vincent asked, startling a gasp from a young crewman who hadn't realized the crimson cloaked man was leaning against an instrument panel behind him.
"Heidegger, in his great wisdom," Cait Sith hissed sarcastically, "has decided to release information about Meteor."
"Stirrin' up a panic, no doubt," Cid growled around his unlit cigarette.
"That he has," Cait Sith agreed then shook his head. "Unfortunately, that isn't the worst of it. He placed the blame on us and the frightened masses demanded that 'something be done'." It didn't take much imagination to realize what that meant for Tifa and Barret.
After a moment of grim silence, Aerith shook herself and asked, "How much time do we have?"
"I'm short on details and nothing's been set in stone," Cait Sith said grimly, his playful accent falling away into a man's smooth tenor. "He's pushing hard for a public execution within the week."
"We've got to do something!" Yuffie squeaked dancing in place.
"We sure as hell gotta' do somethin'," Cid huffed at the young woman. "'Cept how? Pretty sure that fat oaf didn't limit his blame campaign to just Tifa and Barret."
Cait Sith slumped, nodding his head. "He's right I'm afraid," the feline sighed morosely, his accent slipping back into place. "Wanted posters with the most unflattering artist renditions of our group are scattered all through Junon."
"I've got a wanted poster?" Yuffie gasped, pulling her fists to her face.
"Aye lassie, we all do," Cait sighed.
A huge smile bloomed on her face and she crowed, "That's awesome! I gotta' get one for my dad when we rescue Tifa and Barret. He'll be so proud!"
Aerith gaped at the young woman and then shook her head sadly. "We all want to rescue them Yuffie, but…" she waved her hands helplessly at their diminished group, "Junon is a Shinra military base. Getting in, rescuing them and getting out is too big a job for just the six of us."
The heavy pulse of electronic beats and a powerful guitar riff split the dark silence. Yuffie yelped and nearly fell from her seat before she gaped at Vincent and asked, "You picked 'Ain't no one who can hit 'em better' as your ringtone?" The corners of her lips twitched with an ill-suppressed smirk. Scowling, Vincent dug in his pockets and pulled out Reno's phone, answering, "Who is this and how did you get this number?"
"I'm Kunsel, Cloud's cousin," a man's voice replied, "and I have the number because that was Reno's phone and I've called him before."
Vincent's scowl lightened slightly at the reasoning. He'd heard snatches of information about this 'Kunsel' from Cloud and Zack, they painted a picture of a man with greater than Turk levels of inside knowledge. "Very well, why have you contacted me or were you hoping to reach Reno?"
"No, I never dial a number I don't intend to reach," Kunsel brushed off calmly. "I'm calling to invite you and the rest of your group on the mission to rescue Tifa and Barret."
"You already have plans to rescue them?" Vincent asked smoothly, tilting his head back. Around him, the others perked up with increasing curiosity.
"Of course I do," Kunsel's voice sounded mildly amused, "I wouldn't have called if I didn't. The network of fandoms I oversee has quite the membership and reach. I anticipate we could rescue Tifa and Barret without you, but since you're already interested in rescuing them and have skills beneficial to the operation, I figured it would be impolite not to offer you the chance to join in."
"I am not adverse to a partnership and I imagine my companions feel the same," Vincent admitted noticing the rising hope on Aerith's face. "What do you have in mind?"
By the end of five days of planning, the party members who hadn't met Kunsel now realized why Cloud and Zack spoke of him in tones of exasperated awe. The former Turk wasn't the only one struggling to trust the man's assurances that the date and time were arranged as well as claiming they didn't need to worry about a distraction and means of escape.
A young man from Cosmo Canyon, trembling with undisguised hero worship and nerves boarded the ship the day after Kunsel's first call with a thick roll of maps and a bundle of meticulous instructions.
Even if Vincent hadn't approved of Kunsel's plan, the rest of the party was so eager to do anything they accepted his offer immediately.
As a former Turk, Vincent couldn't help but admire the man's strategy and ability to make use of each party member's strengths. Despite her tendency for enthusiastic conversation, Yuffie proved she could travel as silently and unnoticed as any top-rank ninja. Which proved beneficial since Vincent and Yuffie were tasked with infiltrating Junon and replacing the lethal gas canisters with an annoying but ultimately harmless aerosol.
Kunsel assured them Tifa and Barret wouldn't get to the point of actually being in danger of dying but only a fool relied on one precaution when lives were at stake.
The first stage of Kunsel's plan consisted of flying to the Eastern Continent, since Tifa and Barret were imprisoned in the Junon base. True to Kunsel's instructions, they found a secluded beach the perfect size to hide the Highwind just a few miles north of Junon. In the cabin, the group checked their gear and made last minute preparations for their roles in the rescue attempt.
"Alright," Cid huffed when he killed the engines after landing where Kunsel indicated in his notes. "I ain't sure how this yahoo is gonna pull everythin' he promised off, but I'm 'sposed to pick you up at the heliport when Junon's sirens go off."
He peered through the hazy gray light of the early afternoon sea mist and huffed, "If they're as loud as I remember, I'll hear 'em from here. Triggering those alarms will get the culprit in some hot water, but it's doable. I ain't sure how he'll get 'em to fire the Junon Canon like he claims but," he shrugged. "I ain't got any better plans."
"As much as I wish I could be of use," Red XIII rumbled, his head hung low. "I fear my features are too difficult to disguise. As Cloud's cousin suggested, I will remain here."
An awkward silence fell and a few of the crew members shot a curious glance at Cait Sith when he didn't echo the sentiment.
"While I'm happy you're joining Elena and I," Aerith admitted tugging gently on a curled lock of hair by her right ear, "I don't understand why Kunsel didn't make a similar request for you to stay here, Cait Sith."
The mechanical feline rubbed the back of his head sheepishly and admitted, "That is because he knew I wouldn't agree to it. I suppose it is time to fess up…"
"Another thing to confess to?" Yuffie asked accusingly, her whetstone chiming threateningly on her razor ring while she glared down at the cat.
"It's nothin' bad!" he scrambled to admit and waved his gloved hands nervously. "It's just… I actually have a day job ya know? So… in repayment for covering for me and all, I promised Tseng I'd keep an eye on ye when Cloud and Zack couldn't. It isn't that I think ye aren't capable lass, those were the terms of the deal Tseng gave me." He spread his hands apologetically.
Aerith blinked rapidly, her mind tracing back to her interactions with the mechanical feline. "Huh, I didn't even realize but now that I think about it, you came with me whenever they didn't..." She puffed her cheeks out and then shook her head ruefully. "Alright, if you think you can join us without giving us away, then you can come."
"Best be off then," Cait Sith chirped, "our ride should be here soon."
The sun hung low in the western sky when the infiltration party descended from the Highwind. A grizzled man in stained, olive coveralls leaned against the rust-pitted hood of a decommissioned army transport truck. He dropped the stub of his cigar in the sandy gravel, crushed it under his heel and pushed off the truck. "Afternoon folks," he greeted, scratching his white stubble with the blunt, oil-stained nails of his left hand. "'S a mighty shame things came ta' this, but some people'd rather follow the crowd than do a lil' studyin'."
He shook his head and waved to the cloth shrouded rear of the vehicle. "Anyway, hop aboard. I'll have ya' ta' Junon's upper city by nightfall, all accordin' ta' Kunsel's instructions." The man jerked his chin from Yuffie to the truck and added, "There's a tranquilizer and blanket for the young lady and bucket if that isn' enough."
She grimaced and thanked him before climbing aboard to help haul Cait Sith inside.
"You don't seem like the fan type," Vincent murmured as he studied the older man. "What do you get out of this?"
"Ah, I'm not," he admitted with a barking laugh, "at least not like that mob at the Gold Saucer a few weeks ago! Some of us know members of your group pers'nally. Some of us are jes' happy ta' be a cog in a much greater machine."
His laugh was rusty but genuine. He reached over to clap a hand on Vincent's shoulder then thought better of it and withdrew his hand, shaking his head. "Though if ya' could do me a favor, I'd 'preciate it if ya'd tell Barret that Rusty's still got his back."
"Do you really think we can do this?" Aerith asked Elena as the female Turk guided her and Cait Sith through the red-lit access tunnels of Junon's air base.
Elena's footsteps in the corridor's damp grit slowed and she peered back over her shoulder. "What do you mean?" she asked, raising one eyebrow.
"Do you think we'll be able to get Tifa and Barret's belongings and rescue them?" the Cetra woman rephrased. She skipped over a murky puddle and skirted around a pile of mold-blackened rubbish.
Elena turned her attention back to the front and shrugged. "Kunsel's plans have never failed to my knowledge… at least, as long no one intentionally screws up and even then he usually has back up plans. He seems to have an unnatural ability to know just the right pieces of information for everything to fall into place as he predicts. As long as we stick to our part of the plan things should be fine."
Aerith frowned at the phrasing, something niggling in her mind. Before she could grasp the idea, Elena waved them closer to the wall and hissed, "The way to the storage room is just through this door. Kunsel said that as long as we're quiet we won't have to worry about the guard but no sense taking chances."
Cait Sith and Aerith nodded and tensed, the feline's hand hovering over his Manipulate materia. Elena nodded in approval and slowly cracked open the door open on obviously freshly-oiled hinges. The blonde peered through the opening and her eyes widened, mouth dropping open in surprise.
After a breathless moment, she composed her expression and shook her head ruefully, "Like I said earlier, Kunsel and his plans."
Shaking her head again, she pulled the door open to reveal a much cleaner hallway. A Shinra guard slumped against the wall by a key-pad locked doorway. The guard's scuffed boots were untied, one pant-leg cuff untucked. His helmet hung precariously on his tipped-back head and a line of drool ran from his open mouth to run through patchy brown stubble, the fluid further staining his discolored yellow scarf. A metal flask dangled from his lax fingers and thunderous snores echoed down the hallway.
"Oh wow…" Aerith breathed in horrified awe. "I thought the military had strict rules about… appearances."
"They do," Elena huffed, catching the metal flask just as it finally slipped through the man's lax fingers and before it could hit the ground. She sniffed the opening and shook her head, setting it beside the comatose owner. "Corel moonshine. Kunsel sometimes goes for overkill," she huffed and keyed in the code for the door.
Almost on the opposite side of the facility, Vincent and Yuffie scrambled across the sea-mist slimed pipes and girders at the base of the Junon Canon's barrel. Metal canisters resembling diving air tanks clanked dully in the cloth bags strapped to their backs.
The damp ocean wind whipped their hair and clothing fitfully while they ascended. Reaching the section memorized from Kunsel's blueprints, Vincent wedged his claws in the seam of an access port, the shape barely visible under the poor lighting and ever-present mold. "Time?" Vincent asked.
Carefully shielding the light of her PHS against her body, Yuffie checked the time. "12:58 and counting," she whispered.
Vincent nodded, the metal scraping lightly against his claws when he tensed to rip the hatch open. "Give me a ten second countdown," he ordered quietly.
She nodded, eyes locked on the second counter as the time ticked towards one. The pair tensed at the clanking tread of a sentry on the catwalk above them. Beams of light from his flashlight shone through the grating in a checkered pattern as the footsteps drew nearer.
Under her breath, Yuffie whispered, "Ten, nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, one, zero!"
The instant she hit 'zero' several things happened at once. The sentry paused above them and Vincent ripped the metal door open. The shriek of tortured steel went unheard when Junon's full assembly of foghorns blasted at the same time. One of them a mere ten feet away.
If they'd been able to hear, Yuffie and Vincent would have heard the sentry shift to uncover his ears and mutter, "God I hate that." He moved on, unaware of the cringing pair below. He was long past by the time they recovered enough to shakily clamber inside the narrow access panel, Yuffie pulling the hatch closed behind them.
She turned back to find her companion crouched on the floor clutching the sides of his head, his face a rictus of agony. She wished their instructions prepared them for the deafening noise, but Kunsel merely said there would be "sufficient ambient noise to cover the sound of strained metal." Stroking her mastered Restore materia, she cast Cure 3 on herself and Vincent.
A rush of adrenaline surged through her body, the energy trying to fill an emptiness that didn't exist. Despite the slightly too-full feeling, the ringing in her ears vanished along with the budding migraine. Vincent audibly sighed, carefully untangling his hands from his hair. He blinked up at her with a strange expression of shock mingled with gratitude. "Excellent thinking, Yuffie. Thank you," he said and rose to a half crouch in the cramped space of the access shaft.
Yuffie looked up at the ceiling inches from the top of her own head and sighed, following Vincent deeper inside. A few scattered crimson emergency lights cut through the oppressive darkness of the twisting maze of pipes and wires. The deeper they traveled, the tighter the passage until they had to remove the makeshift backpacks and squeeze between a pair of uncomfortably warm pipes. A green trickle of mako from a small leak in one pipe glowed in an eerie contrast to the faint red lights a few yards away.
"Are we almost there?" Yuffie whispered all too aware of several well-traveled walkways they'd passed over and under. "If things get much smaller, I'm not sure I'll fit, much less someone tall like you," she continued. As if to punctuate her point, Vincent crouched beneath a pipe that crossed at chest level.
"We're almost there," Vincent huffed. He squeezed around a corner and paused in front of a narrow door set in the wall of the access passage. A heavy lock barred their entry.
Yuffie ducked around his hip to look at the obstruction. "Do you want me to pick it?" she asked, peering up at Vincent from the level of his stomach.
"If you're so proficient at picking locks, why didn't you pick the one outside?" Vincent asked, moving away from the door. Mentally reviewing the map and instructions Kunsel provided, Vincent felt around in the shadow of an electrical junction box and pulled a key from a hidden hook.
The heavy metallic clunk of a lock disengaging sounded just as he turned back to the door. Yuffie grinned over her shoulder at him and slipped her lock picks free. "It was too loud to hear the tumblers out there," she replied with a shrug. She pulled a small oil ampule from her kit to lubricate the hinges and froze. "Huh, it's already oiled. This Kunsel sure is on top of things," she remarked. The young woman stepped aside to re-pack her lock picks and oil.
Resisting the urge to shake his head, he slipped the key back into its hiding place. He eased the door open and felt around for the light switch. When he found it, he closed his eyes and flicked it on. Despite the preparations, he winced at the sudden light and Yuffie yowled a Wutain expletive. He cracked his eyes open as they adjusted and examined the room. The chamber sloped sharply on one side and a layer of condensation beaded on the coppery metal. Once her eyes adjusted, Yuffie noticed his appraisal of the wall and ran a finger through the droplets. "This is the outside wall isn't it?" she asked.
He nodded and turned towards the rest of the room. A strange array of compressors with pipes leading to the floor dominated the cramped room. Four crimson canisters identical in size to the ones they carried attached to the machine. Vincent nodded sharply and fitted a small gas mask to his face, Yuffie following his example.
While Kunsel said he trusted them to change the tanks out without triggering a leak, he also said it was unwise to take such a risk without proper precautions. One by one they switched the red canisters plastered with warning signs for the benevolent ones they carried.
Author notes: Congratulations to Anne Camp aka Obi-quiet for winning the song poll with her entry of "Ain't no one who can hit 'em better" listed as Dark Battle music. (laughs) I just realized she gets recognition both at the beginning and end of the chapter. Well done!