TWELVE

Roche and I circled each other around the underground chamber, holding our swords ready. The mako fountain's red glow reminded me of his bike and our fight on the Midgar expressway. He was into thrills, stunts, and speed, and it was almost strange to see him on foot. I didn't doubt he could fight that way, though. He held his sword as easily and as expertly as any trained SOLDIER would.

"It's been a long time since I fought a duel out of the saddle," Roche said, his voice getting more intense as we moved. "But for all the miles on the clock… I'm just as fast as I ever was!"

Then he rushed toward me, closing the distance between us in half a second. I whipped Buster up to block just in time, and sparks flew off the blades as they struck. Roche kept moving, and as he went past me, I spun around to face him, still holding Buster out in front of me like a shield. If he tried that again, I'd be ready to counter and punish him for it. He grinned eagerly and did a short little hop, then set himself into a ready stance again as we faced each other.

"Finally, our long-awaited dance begins!" Roche laughed. Then he tossed me a potion. "Here's to a fair fight, my friend!"

I caught it easily and downed it. "Thanks."

Then he sped at me again, and this time when I blocked his attack, I shoved him back and answered with a string of spinning slashes that he was only partly able to deflect. The clanging of our swords filled the room as we fought, and we repeated the cycle a few times as we circled the mako fountain. He'd charge at me and then I'd block and counter. It was just a warmup, and we both knew it.

As if to prove it, Roche launched himself at me, fast as the wind as he swung his sword in a string of three powerful slashes, each stronger than the last. I deflected the first two but took a minor slice on the arm from the third, taking it so I could get into position to counter him. As he went past, I responded with a triple slash of my own, Buster leaving trails of purple energy after each blow, and returned the favor, catching him across the arm underneath his left shoulder.

Then he used his sword to throw an arc of pale green energy at me, and I felt a rush of wind as I spun quickly to the right to avoid it before answering with a backhand slice that grazed his side. We kept fighting, our swords slamming against each other again and again, and we each scored a few minor hits on the other. The battle raged across the room, and in between slashes, we traded spells from our materia. Blasts of ice and lightning flew through the air, biting into us.

"I told you we were gonna push it past the redline!" Roche taunted. "No holding back now, my friend. Give it your all!"

With a little smirk, I did just that, running in and hitting him with three consecutive slashes that traced a rune of amber energy in the air for a moment before dissipating. As he staggered backwards, I finished with a hard kick to his chest. Roche groaned but recovered fast, hurling another blast of ice magic before jumping into the air and sweeping his sword at me. I blocked it just in time, and for a moment we stood there staring each other down before breaking away.

Then Roche came at me again in another of his charging strikes, as fast as the wind, but I was faster. Deflecting his attack, I countered with several of my own followed by a focused thrust that drove him back for a moment. Roche grunted, then spun away, slashing low as he did. His long hair flew out behind him as he moved, and I found myself on the defensive again, jumping over the blow, then quickly reversing my grip on Buster to spin it hilt up and point downward at an angle to intercept Roche's next attack with a loud clang.

After we'd traded several more blows around the room, our swords clashing together again and again, Roche stepped back and used his to a fire narrow beam of flame at me, laughing as he did. I dove aside as it struck the wall behind me where I'd been, blowing rocks and dust into the air as I rolled to my feet. Roche greeted me with his sword, slashing hard at me, but I blocked it and kept moving.

The fight went on, but I didn't falter. I ducked and dodged, cut and sliced as Roche did the same. He was good—he had to be to have made it into SOLDIER—but I was better. I waited patiently for an opening as we fought, knowing I'd find one sooner or later. And before long, I did. When I drove him back and he set himself to charge at me again, I saw my chance and knew what I had to do.

I braced myself, holding my sword in front of me as if I was gonna block him again, same as before. But when Roche darted toward me in a blinding rush this time, I spun to the left at the last second and struck him from behind with a backhand slash, sending him staggering to his knees. When he straightened up and turned around just a second later, I was already there, quickly knocking his sword outta his hands with a fast upward strike, and it clattered to the floor.

"Satisfied?" I asked, pointing Buster at Roche's chest.

He chuckled softly. "With such fleeting pleasure? Hardly. There are higher heights to which you and I can still soar…"

Knowing that the fight was over, I lowered my sword and let Roche pick up his. Then he started to walk away, back into the tunnels. About halfway there, though, he stopped, looked over his shoulder at me, and gave me a little salute with his sword. Then he left, laughing softly, and I stood there until I couldn't hear him anymore.

I was just starting to hurry onward to the reactor when I heard the sound of footsteps in the caves behind me, the ones that led back to the fortress, the courtyard, and the back of the hill. But I could tell it wasn't Roche—they were too light. So who could it be? Quietly, I crept across the chamber with the mako fountain and slipped into the tunnels with Buster held ready in my hands. As the footsteps got closer, I hid behind a tall stalagmite and braced myself. Then, when they were right around the corner, I spun out from my cover, sword poised to attack. But who I saw in front of me wasn't who I'd expected.

I stared, frozen. "Tifa!"

"Cloud! It's me!" she answered, her fists raised.

I relaxed at once, lowering Buster. "Right, sorry. What's going on? I thought you were fighting the Grandhorn."

Tifa dropped her arms. "I was. It's history now."

"Good. You came to help?" I guessed.

"To get it," she corrected me, shaking her head. "There's not much time, Cloud. It's Lena… she's hurt. Bad."

My eyes widened at the news. "Shit… how bad?"

"Bad enough," Tifa sighed.

Then I understood. "You're looking for Aerith. She'll be outside the reactor by now with the others. Let's go!"

But before we could get very far, we heard more footsteps—booted ones—coming from the tunnels leading to the back of the hill. Tifa and I looked at each other, then readied ourselves to fight when we saw the mass of dark blue uniforms and white shoulder guards heading toward us in the gloom. Another squad of SOLDIERs.

"Damn," Tifa swore. "More of 'em?"

I nodded. "Second wave. Looks like Shinra's still at it."

She clenched her fists. "Their mistake."

The SOLDIERs were still distant, just on the edge of sight, but they were getting closer and would see us soon. But then, Roche reappeared in between us and them, cackling like a lunatic, and swept his sword in a tight horizontal arc, throwing a wave of pale green energy toward the ceiling above the incoming SOLDIERs. It exploded on impact, burying them all in a deafening shower of rock before they even knew what was going on. Instinctively, I grabbed Tifa and whirled around to shield her from the cave-in as she shrieked in surprise.

We stayed that way for a minute until it was over and the dust had finally settled. Then we slowly let go of each other and looked at where the SOLDIERs had been. The caves leading to the back of the hill were choked with rubble and completely blocked.

Roche laughed as he lowered his sword. "A parting gift, my friend. We really must do this again someday. But until then, try not to die. I'll see you out on the road again someday."

After he disappeared into another tunnel, I stared at the debris for a minute. "Not bad. Back door's closed."

"Works for me," Tifa agreed. "Now let's go!"

"C'mon, Baldy! You can do better than that!" I taunted.

Rude swung another big punch at me, but I easily skipped aside as Red shocked him with some lightning magic. We were fighting on top of the hill outside the reactor while Jessie and Aerith fought Elena a bit closer to the edge overlooking the fort. It was still dark outside, but the sky was starting to lighten up a little in the east. Guess that meant we'd been fighting Shinra all night, then. Well, time flies when you're having fun, I suppose. Although that drake ride sure hadn't been. My stomach was still a little pissed at me about that.

Anyway, I gave Rude a little chin music with a short, sharp kick to his side before he could recover. He grunted but went after Red instead of me, throwing a few quick jabs at him. Red took the blows but stayed on his feet—er, paws—and whipped his tail around in return, catching Rude across the face with the flaming tip and giving him a good sting. I added to it with some fire ninjitsu, throwing my shuriken at him and following up with blazing shots of magical energy that drove him back. Yeah, us ninjas are pretty cool like that.

Rude hit back by slamming his fist hard into the ground, making it shake all around us for a moment and nearly knocking me off my feet. Red managed to get into the air at the last second, but I was just a little too slow. He tried to pounce, but Rude caught him by the forepaws and spun him around in circles before tossing him right at me, knocking us both down as I shouted in surprise. He and I shook it off and got back up fast, though, rushing back into the fight.

As Rude went after Red with a haymaker, my shuriken flew back to me like a boomerang and I caught it easily. Then I struck at Rude from the other side, slicing at him with a bunch of quick blows. He didn't try to hit me back but avoided me, instead launching punches and kicks at Red when he could. What was this guy's deal? What was the difference between me and Red? I didn't get it at first.

Then, when Rude tried to put me to sleep with some kinda powder instead of attacking me and slammed into Red with a running tackle, I suddenly understood. He didn't like hurting girls! Awfully nice of him, but it did leave him wide open for me to bring him some pain now that I knew about it—and just how to exploit it.

"Red!" I called. "Lemme handle things up close! Looks like Baldy's squeamish when it comes to the ladies."

He nodded. "Good idea. Keep him off balance!"

I grinned. "Gotcha! Let's go!"

While Red fell back and circled Rude at a distance, throwing more lightning spells at him as he did, I got up in his face and pounded him with a flurry of kicks and shuriken slashes. He kept trying to avoid me, but I just used my brumal form to dart back and forth around him and keep the pressure on, disappearing and reappearing with puffs of light gray smoke. When he tried to grab me to knock me out, I elbowed him in the ribs, slipped away from him, and put a little distance between us. Then I had a great and awesome idea.

I motioned to Red. "Move in! Time for a double whammy!"

"Understood," he agreed.

We circled Rude for a moment, keeping him right in between us as he eyed us warily with his fists up. And then, just as he started to make his move, Red and I both rushed in, hitting him from opposite sides at the same time—me with a high spinning kick to his face and Red with his claws. Rude didn't have a chance. He fell like a rock, groaning at the impact, but as we backed away, he stood up again, though he had some nice bruises on his face. And I'd broken his shades, too. He tossed them onto the ground, then pulled out another pair.

"Just how many of those've you got, anyway?" I asked.

He put them on. "Enough."

Figured, but I was getting pretty tired of him. Time to put Rude in his place. I rushed in again and attacked him up close like before while Red tossed a few more lightning spells as we avoided Rude's attacks the best we could. Easier for me than for Red, but we both managed. Then, once we were both in position, I whistled. As Red rushed around from behind him, I ran forward. Then, as soon as Red passed in front of me, I jumped, bounced off his back into a forward flip, and slammed Rude with both feet in a double kick to the chest.

He grunted and flew backwards on the ground as I landed nimbly on my feet. As Red padded over to join me, Rude slowly picked himself up. He didn't stand up this time, though. Instead, he just crouched and caught his breath. We had so kicked his ass and he knew it. I held out a fist to Red, and he bumped it with his forepaw.

"Yeah!" I cheered. "We rock!"

Red nodded. "That we do, but while we have won this fight, Yuffie, the one for Fort Condor is not yet over."

I sighed. "I know. But we are gonna win it."

"For certain," he agreed.

While Aerith hung back and tossed the occasional tempest or cold spell, me and Elena went at it up close. Although I didn't fight as much with my fists anymore as I did with my weapons, I hadn't forgotten the lessons Tifa had taught me. Elena was no slouch, though. She fought as well as I remembered from that night in Wall Market. We traded blows as our fists and feet moved in a blur. I didn't use any of my suit's tricks, though. I wanted to beat her without them.

Elena rushed at me with a right cross followed by a left hook, but I saw them coming—she was a good fighter but too aggressive, no doubt thanks to being so pissed at me—and blocked them easily. Then I gave her a few quick jabs in return. Elena growled and staggered but kept at me, this time with a backward thrust kick that just barely got through, and her foot slammed hard into my stomach.

"Not so good now, are you, Jessie?" Elena taunted.

My suit had softened the blow, but it still hurt a bit. I beckoned to her. "Just getting warmed up! Had to let ya get one in."

She sneered. "There's a lot more where that came from!"

"Bring it!" I smirked.

Elena launched herself at me, as infuriated as I'd hoped, and when she tried to lay into me with a flurry of punches, I spun to the left, then drove my own foot into her back. She stumbled forward but recovered fast, turning around just in time to block the right hook I threw at her. But when she tried to grab me for a throw, Aerith forced her back with a burst of ice magic. And while Elena was still reeling from that, I took her by the shoulders and drove my knee into her gut. She groaned and backed off for a moment, glaring at Aerith.

"Do you have to be such a pain?" Elena demanded.

Aerith grinned. "Sorry, but I gotta!"

Elena brandished her fist. "I'm gonna wipe that smile off your face, bitch. Nobody trash talks the Turks!"

"Oh, that would be us," I snickered. "We do it all time."

"Not for long!" she growled.

Just as I'd hoped, Elena took the bait and went after me instead, her fists flying. She was too easy to provoke, and I was ready for her. As she threw her punches at me, I blocked and fell back a little, letting her get in closer and think she had the advantage. Then, when she tried to hit me in the face with a left cross, I ducked down low underneath the arc of her swing and swept her feet out from under her. And Aerith topped it off with some of her earth magic, knocking Elena down again with a little earthquake when she tried to get up.

"Having a little trouble there, are ya?" I taunted.

Elena narrowed her eyes. "That's it! If you guys wanna cheat, then so will I! See if you can dodge this!"

Slapping a glowing green materia orb into a slot on the back of her right glove, she fired a blast of magical lightning at me. It slammed me in the chest and knocked me onto my back—spells like that always hit, no matter what you do. I shook it off, though, and as I stood back up, I felt the stinging pain sizzling underneath my skin fade a little as Aerith refreshed me with one of her healing winds.

Elena snarled, her fist charged with electrical energy from the blue Elemental materia linked to her Lightning orb, and swung it at me. But this time, I was able to avoid it. I caught her arm, spun to the right, and threw her to the ground. She sprang back to her feet only seconds later, though, drove me back with a short kick, and hurled another lightning bolt at me. But just before it would've struck, it suddenly slammed into a pink flower-shaped shield that suddenly appeared in the air between us with a quick twirl of Aerith's staff.

"Denied!" she laughed. "But thanks for playing!"

"What!?" Elena sputtered.

I lifted my finger and winked. "Psych!"

With an angry roar, she launched herself at us, throwing kicks and punches in a rush. We avoided or blocked what we could and shrugged off what we couldn't as we both pummeled her in return—Aerith with her spells and staff and me with my fists and feet. We spun and swung, pounding Elena from both sides at once. She fired more lightning, but Aerith's flower shield deflected it again. The fight raged back and forth in front of the reactor, with all of us constantly on the move as we spun and ducked and dodged while trading blows.

Aerith was right there with me, expertly spinning her staff around as she let loose with her spells and even sliced at Elena with the blades on the end, punctuating her blows with blasts of magic. Elena swore, as furious as I'd hoped, and swung wildly at us. Her anger and frustration telegraphed her moves—she was a rookie, alright.

When she tried to deck me with a haymaker, I dropped right down under it with my legs stretched out to either side as I did the splits, and slugged her in the stomach. As soon as she doubled over, I finished her off with a rising uppercut that sent her flying flat onto her back. And as she lay there, Aerith quickly whipped her staff around and pointed the bladed end at her, its sharp tip just above her throat.

"It's over," she said.

As I joined her, I saw that Yuffie and Red had nicely kicked Rude's ass as well. They were standing over him as he crouched and held onto his chest, and his face was pretty scratched and beat up. When she saw him, Elena sighed. But she still glared defiantly up at us, way too proud to admit that she'd just been trounced.

"You really think you've won?" she snarled.

"Not yet, but we will," I told her, my hands on my hips. "We've shut down your backup from SOLDIER. And your snipers, too. Now you've got no way to kill the condors. They're safe."

Elena sneered. "Are they?"

I frowned, not liking her sudden confidence, as I shared a worried glance with Aerith and the others. Then we heard choppers and turned to see two of them flying toward the reactor from a distance behind the hill. Coming from that direction, the anti-aircraft cannons couldn't hit them. I wondered why we hadn't known earlier that they were were on their way, but then I understood. The noise from all the fighting going on both up here and down in the courtyard and the ravine had blocked out the sounds of the approaching choppers.

"What are we gonna do, Jessie?" Yuffie wondered.

I shook my head. "I don't know."

As Rude and Elena stood up, I saw one of the choppers was full of SOLDIERs, all of them Third Class and ready to jump out and fight. It also had a minigun set up on one side. The second chopper circled but didn't land yet, probably waiting until the first had shot up the condors and offloaded the SOLDIERs. We were still watching as they got closer when we suddenly heard footsteps coming up fast behind us. But when I whirled around with the others and saw who it was, I sighed in relief, glad that it wasn't another Shinra trick.

"Cloud! Tifa!" I called.

He nodded as they hurried over. "Jessie! We've got problems."

I pointed at the choppers. "Yeah, two big ones."

"Shit…" Tifa breathed. "This we don't need. Not now."

"What's wrong?" Aerith asked.

Tifa hurried over to her. "We took out the Grandhorn, but… Lena's really hurt, Aerith. That damn thing, it… it broke her."

"She's dying, isn't she?" Aerith murmured.

The pain in Tifa's eyes was answer enough. I gasped, almost as if I'd been hit in the face, and so did Yuffie. Red looked away with a sigh and glared darkly at Rude and Elena. Cloud's gaze was on the choppers, but I knew he was worried about Lena, too.

Tifa swallowed. "Yeah. She is."

"Not today," Aerith promised, taking her shoulder.

"Right," Tifa smiled.

Yuffie hefted her shuriken and eyed the choppers. "I am not gonna lose another friend! We've gotta take these guys out fast."

"Agreed," Red added.

"Looks like they're going for the condors first," Cloud said.

I looked at him. "Can we stop them?"

He shook his head. "Too far away, even for spells."

"Damn!" I swore.

"That's right, Jessie!" Elena taunted. "You can't save those birds. Or yourselves. Our troops are gonna—huh?"

Aerith pointed. "Look!"

We all watched, even the Turks, as the first chopper swung around and one of the SOLDIERs started to open fire at the giant condor with the minigun. The bird hadn't budged once during the entire attack, but now it stirred, no doubt because both it and its eggs were being shot at and put in danger by Shinra. And it was pissed.

Moving amazingly fast for such a huge thing, the condor let loose a deafening cry and rose up into the air, flapping its wings as it flew right at the chopper. Then, in less than a second, the condor grabbed it with its big clawed feet, snapped the rotor off with its beak, and tore it apart. Then it threw the two halves into the side of another nearby hill, where they exploded in a haze of fire and smoke.

"Holy shit! Did you see that?" Yuffie exclaimed.

"But, but—!" Elena sputtered.

I just wagged my finger at her and winked. "Never mess with a big mama! 'Cause she'll get you every time!"

As we kept watching, the other chopper backed well away from the condor and started to descend. Now that the condor had taken care of the threat to itself and its eggs, it settled back down onto its nest again. I kept my eyes on the chopper, though, and as it descended lower, I felt that old familiar fury twisting in my gut. But I kept it under control. I'd learned the hard and painful way what happened when I didn't. I knew who was coming, even if I couldn't see him yet.

The chopper landed off to one side of the reactor where the top of the hill was a bit wider, and the breeze from the rotors ruffled our hair and clothes and tossed up dirt from the rocky ground. A moment later, the door on the side slid open, and there he was. Heidegger. My father. I hadn't seen him in person in four years, but he hadn't changed. Just as much of an asshole as I remembered with those cold, beady eyes above that thick, bushy black beard of his and the way he was always looking down on everyone as if we were all just bugs.

The scar Cloud had given him in the Shinra Building twisted like a snake down from the side of his forehead to his right cheek. Tseng was there, too. He stood outside the chopper and clasped his hands calmly behind his back. Would he fight? I'd never seen him do it, but he was a Turk, so I was sure he could if he wanted to.

Heidegger looked at Rude and Elena. "Get inside! Seems we'll have to do this ourselves. Incompetent fools…"

"Y-Yes, sir," Elena stammered.

As she and Rude hurried over and climbed into the chopper, Tseng and my father walked slowly toward us. Cloud's eyes narrowed, and he moved protectively a few steps closer to me, his hand on Buster's hilt. I let mine drift down to my weapons, but I didn't draw them just yet. We exchanged a knowing glance and nodded.

Cloud looked at Aerith and the others. "All of you, go! Take care of Lena and help Barret and Biggs. Shinra's bound to make a final push to clear us out now that their back door's closed and the condors are safe. So they'll be pouring in through the gate."

"We'll handle Tseng and my father," I added.

"Right," Tifa nodded.

Then she and the others left, hurrying back into the caves to make their way back down to the courtyard as fast as they could. When they were gone, Cloud and I turned to face Tseng and Heidegger. My father had his sword today—I'd only ever seen it on the wall in his study back in his estate in the few times I'd been in there. It was a slim katana with a black and gold hilt and a slightly curved blade, and he had it belted at the hip of his dark green military uniform.

"I should've guessed that you'd be in the middle of all this, girl," he growled. "You've been nothing but trouble."

"Always glad to be a pain in your ass," I retorted.

My father snorted. "Hmph! So… how did you survive?"

"Wouldn't you like to know?" I taunted.

"No matter," he said. "That's a mistake that will soon be remedied. I should've done this myself ages ago."

I narrowed my eyes. "You tried to kill me with bombs, you tried to kill me with guns, you even dropped a whole city on me! And you still couldn't kill me. That's not changing today."

"You're not gonna hurt her ever again," Cloud swore.

"Ah, the former SOLDIER," Heidegger sneered. "Or not. Hojo told me about your little delusion, Strife."

Cloud frowned. "Shut up! I was in SOLDIER!"

"Were you?" he chuckled.

As Cloud was about to reply, he suddenly winced and grabbed the side of his head. He hadn't had one of these attacks in a while, not that I knew of, anyway, and I worried for him. I was also pissed at my father for setting it off. As I lightly touched Cloud's shoulder, he straightened up, shook off his sudden headache, then nodded to me to let me know he was alright. I did the same and let go.

Then I glared at my father, totally furious. "Back off, asshole! Leave him alone! This is between you and me!"

"It's alright," Cloud said. "I'll be glad to help you kick his ass."

I shook my head. "No, Cloud. He's mine."

Cloud gazed at me, saw the anger burning like fire in my eyes, and understood. "You're right, Jessie. I'll take Tseng."

"Thanks," I told him.

He nodded, then moved away as Tseng followed. In the meantime, my father and I still stood there, neither of us making a move just yet. I was more than ready to fight, and as I stared him down, I knew he was, too. This had been coming for years, and we both knew it. He laughed that hideous horse laugh of his and grinned wickedly as he finally drew his katana and swept it expertly through the air.

"Ready to die?" he snickered.

"Not even close," I spat. "What do you want, old man?"

He pointed at me with his katana. "Just you."

I whipped out my blaze talons, smirked, and did a little bow. "Well, here I am! Jessie the Avenger is back."

"And the blade is waiting," Heidegger taunted.

He and I circled each other, there on the hilltop outside the reactor, neither of us looking away as we held our weapons and got ready for a fight that was long overdue. Cloud and Tseng fought nearby, and down in the courtyard and on the wall, the battle against Shinra raged on. We couldn't hold out for much longer, but if I could beat my father—and I knew without a doubt that I would—I could make him call off his men and end this nightmare. It was our only chance.

With that in mind, I struck.