THREE
"What a mess…" I sighed.
Tseng didn't argue. We stood in the tunnel through the mountains, or what was left of it, and surveyed the damage. Ahead of us, the place had caved in, tons of rubble blocking the southern exit and burying the wreckage of the latest convoy bound for Fort Condor. We'd lost a lot of troops and supplies, but more importantly, the fastest route to get them south to the front in time for the battle.
I ran a hand through my short blond hair. "Tseng, what happened here last night? A whole convoy, totaled…"
"Avalanche," he mused. "It must've been them."
"But weren't they heading east?" I asked.
Tseng gazed at the collapsed tunnel. "At last report, yes. But not all of them, Elena. They seem to have split up."
"Jessie…" I growled.
"That seems likely," he agreed. "She made no secret of her plans to leave Midgar, and the timing fits. Jessica is almost certainly on her way to Fort Condor even as we speak. Very clever of her… slipping through our own shortcut and then collapsing it behind her to prevent us from moving more of our forces to the battle."
I frowned. "Do we still have enough to take the reactor?"
"I believe so, but it won't be easy," Tseng answered. "We've only got about two-thirds of what the general intended to deploy, mostly mechs and ground troops along with fifty or so of Professor Hojo's drakes and the Grandhorn. So we'll just have to make do."
"Can't we bring in any reinforcements?" I wondered.
He sighed and shook his head. "Not in time to do us any good. All the other overland routes south are much longer than this one. And on top of that, the battle is only a few days away."
"Damn…" I swore.
"But remember the rest of the plan, Elena," Tseng reminded me. "If all goes well, the forces we have will be all we need."
I hadn't forgotten. "Understood, sir."
To be honest, I wasn't all that sure at first about this whole retelling our story thing. But as I've listened to Cloud and the others share what happened back then, I've slowly come around to it. What they're doing, what we're doing, is important. We can't make a better future unless we learn from the past. That hasn't really been easy for me. I made a lot of mistakes, thinking I was doing the right thing.
In those days, I could never have imagined calling Cloud, Tifa, and the rest of Avalanche my friends. I was so convinced they were the bad guys and I was one of the good ones. The trouble is, I was wrong. It's so easy to fool yourself into believing whatever you want and tell yourself whatever you wanna hear. Breaking free of that self-deception is what's hard. For me, it took the planet nearly being destroyed because of what my allies and I had done to open my eyes.
But enough about that. As I stood there, my arms folded in front of me, and gazed at the wreckage and rubble, I couldn't help feeling angry about what had happened. About the forces we'd lost, the blow it would cause to our efforts to capture the fort, and our inability to do anything about it. But mostly, I was angry at Jessie, both for causing it all and for being in Avalanche, for putting me in the position of having to destroy someone who'd once been my friend. I didn't wanna do it, but I knew I would. I was a Turk, and it was my job.
Tseng took out his phone when it rang, and I listened as he talked. "Yes? What is it, Rude? I see… Very well. Bring the chopper around as soon as you can. We'll meet you there."
"What's going on?" I asked after he hung up.
"Sephiroth's been spotted," he answered, shivering.
I stared at him. "What? Where?"
Tseng continued as we went back to the small truck we'd ridden in to get here. "South Argen. There have been several murders there, and a man in a black cloak has been seen in the area."
"So that's our next stop?" I wondered.
"Correct," he nodded. "We'll speak with the witnesses, confirm the sighting, and see if he's still in town. We'll also check the mines, though I doubt he'll have gone very far inside. He may even have left, in which case he'll no doubt head for Junon."
I clenched my fist. "We'll find him, sir."
Tseng gazed intently at me while the driver opened the door for us. "That we will, Elena. But don't underestimate him. In any case, we'll be in South Argen for a few days until we complete our investigation. And then, of course, we take Fort Condor."
"Understood," I said. "They'll never see us coming."
After getting inside the truck, we rode back up the tunnel until we got to the north exit. Rude was waiting for us outside, cool and quiet as ever behind those dark sunglasses he was always wearing. The chopper sat near the checkpoint, rotors spinning as he sat in the pilot's seat. At a nod from Tseng, we left the truck and got on board. Then the chopper rose up into the air, and we got underway.
Before we headed to South Argen, though, we flew down to check the collapsed southern end of the tunnel from the outside. It was early afternoon and a bright, warm day, especially for winter—it was always like that in Midgar and the badlands, no real seasons. We sped over the mountains, and soon the ruined exit finally came into view. Huge piles of rubble choked the road, and the checkpoint that had been there was gone, buried under tons of rock where the tunnel had caved in. It was a mess and would take months to clean up.
"Shit…" I murmured.
Tseng nodded. "Not a pretty sight, I'm afraid."
I had to agree. It was terrible. "Yeah… Tseng, shouldn't we go after Jessie and her little Avalanche group? They couldn't have gotten far. We could easily find them from up here, order troops to set up a blockade before they get outta the mountains, and box them in. They'll never be able to escape our trap! And then we can—"
"No," he decided. "You know our orders, Elena. Locating Sephiroth is our top priority. And don't forget about the rest of Avalanche, either. They may have slipped out of sight for the time being, but they'll show themselves sooner or later. So be ready."
"Yes, sir," I sighed.
Tseng continued as Rude banked the chopper east. "We'll deal with both Avalanche groups at Fort Condor. Don't worry. Retribution might be delayed, but it will not be forgotten."
I couldn't agree more. "We'll take them down hard."
As we flew off toward South Argen, Tseng gave me a slight smile. I blushed a little at the sight of it and felt my heart skip a beat. He was all I hoped to be as a Turk and exotically handsome as well. I doubted he'd ever be interested me, but I couldn't deny how I felt, either. So I just sat in the chopper, glad to be with him and determined to make Jessie and her Avalanche friends pay for what they'd done.
Drawing Buster, I crept forward into the mines, Aerith, Barret, and the others just behind me. About fifty feet or so into the tunnel, Barret pulled out one of the flashlights that we'd brought with us and switched it on as the light from outside fell away amidst the gathering gloom. As we walked, I noticed there was a faint green glow here and there along the walls. It was coming from some kind of luminescent moss growing from cracks in the rock. Aerith went over to take a closer look at one of them and lightly ran her fingers over it.
"How pretty…" she murmured.
"Makes it a little easier to see in here," Barret said as we got moving again. "Ain't always this way, though. In some places, it's as black as an elphadunk's ass, 'specially way down deep. 'Course, that's usually where the best ore deposits are, too. Go figure."
We made our way deeper into the passage, our steps echoing softly on the stone under our feet. The tunnel itself was smooth, not a natural cave, and a thick cable ran along the base of one side, probably for that communications network Bear had told us about. Tracks were set into the floor, a pair of iron rails, and a little further in, we found an empty mine cart lying on its side. Chunks of mythril ore lay nearby as well as a few scattered pieces of mining equipment, but no bodies. Looked like the monsters had dragged them all away.
After an hour or so of twists and turns, we came upon a large hole in the wall on our left, and a miner's helmet lay on the ground in front of us. Something must've burst through and caught whoever had been here by surprise. The tunnel continued onward, but we didn't move on yet. Instead, we gazed through the hole, Barret shining his flashlight so we could see what was on the other side.
A natural cave, with a forest of stalactites hanging from the ceiling and stalagmites rising from the floor, as it twisted and bent out of sight to the left. There was also more of that glowing moss. Cautiously, I led the others inside. Red stayed up front with me, his keen eyes able to see clearly in the dark. So could I, thanks to the mako in my body, but still not quite as well as him. He was a natural.
We followed the passageway around and down until it opened into a bigger chamber. The walls glittered with slender streaks of mythril all around us, threads from a larger deposit somewhere else. A high ledge ran along the left side with long tendrils of that glowing moss hanging down from it amidst the stalactites. The place was empty, or seemed to be, and there weren't any other exits besides the one that we had come in from. The only other thing we could see was a set of uneven natural stairs near a small subterranean pond.
"Doesn't look like anybody's home," Aerith said.
"I wouldn't be so certain of that," Red whispered. "Whatever made that hole we came through is still here."
I looked around. "Where?"
"I don't know," he growled. "But I can hear it."
"Looks like a dead end anyway," Barret muttered. "Best hurry back an' keep goin' down the main tunnel."
Aerith nodded. "Yeah, I don't think we—"
Suddenly, the wall behind her exploded as something round, hard, and dark smashed through it, spun through the air by a hulking figure that grabbed her with surprising speed in its other arm before she even knew what was going on. Aerith screamed, but as the rest of us started to rush over to her, another of the monsters followed the first, iron ball and chain in hand and spinning in a deadly arc.
"Aerith!" Tifa yelled.
I was already moving, Buster swinging at the thing holding Aerith. Just as Barret and Red moved to follow, three large creatures like giant purple crabs suddenly scuttled from the pond, claws snapping, and my friends were forced to deal with them instead. Tifa laid into the second shrieker with a flurry of punches and diving kicks, stabbing with those mythril claws of hers every chance she got while Buster clanged against the swinging ball of the one who'd ambushed Aerith. It reacted quickly, though, slamming its weapon at me again.
I spun to the left to keep from getting hit as the shrieker's iron ball struck the ground where I'd been standing, shattering the stone with a loud crack. Still caught in the monster's grip, Aerith yanked herself free with a yell, then torched it with a blast of magical fire. It staggered back as I pressed the attack, cutting at it again and again before unleashing a spell of my own. Lightning struck it, and out of the corner of my eye, I saw Barret and Red handling the nightclaws, bullets and spells ripping into them and punching through their shells.
Suddenly, a loud, piercing screech cut through air, and I staggered as I felt like my eardrums had been stabbed. Tifa cried out and covered her ears as the shrieker lived up to its name, but she let her guard down in the process. The other monster quickly whipped its ball and chain at her sideways, catching her in the stomach and sending flying backward onto the ground while Barret stumbled, his good hand flying over one ear as he dropped his flashlight and swore. Red howled, trying to block out the sound with his own, but it was too much.
I looked up just in time to see Aerith crumple and collapse, taking the full brunt of the blast. She'd still been close to the shrieker, right up next to it as she'd been about to unleash another burst of magic at point blank range—there wasn't a lot of room to maneuver in here. As Aerith fell, landing in a tangled heap at the base of one of the stalagmites, her staff slipped from her fingers and clattered onto the floor. The shrieker reached for her, probably to drag her away into the dark like it had that miner, but it never touched her. I saw to that.
Shrugging off the pain, I charged at the monster with a yell, slicing it again and again with a flurry of spinning slices followed by a focused thrust through its chest that pinned it to the wall. Tifa unloaded on the other one at the same time with a barrage of rising and falling punches followed by a forward somersault kick that sent the monster crashing into another section of the wall amidst a cloud of dust and broken rock while Barret and Red fought the nightclaws.
After quickly checking on Aerith, I joined them, cutting away with Buster. Just as we finished them off, several more suddenly burst outta the water, snapping at us with their claws. But then a flurry of glowing missiles slammed into them amidst a flash of yellow light as Tifa called upon the matra magic, and when the dust had settled, it was over. The monsters lay scattered and broken all around us.
"Everyone alright?" I asked.
"'Course I am, merc!" Barret snorted.
Tifa nodded. "Same. But what about Aerith? Is she—!?"
"She's fine," I told her, shouldering Buster. "I checked. That scream only knocked her out. She'll be alright."
She sighed in relief. "So glad to hear it. Red?"
When he didn't answer, I looked over at him. "You okay?"
Strangely, he didn't turn when I spoke, as if he hadn't heard me. So I went over and patted him lightly on the shoulder to get his attention. When he glanced at me, he seemed confused. What was going on here? Tifa met my gaze, as worried as I was, while Barret scratched his head. Then I remembered what Bear had told us.
"Cloud?" Tifa wondered. "What's wrong with him?"
I sighed. "He can't hear us, Tif. That scream must've deafened him, just like Bear said. Red's ears are a lot more sensitive than ours, and he didn't have any way to protect them."
Barret swore. "Damn! Ain't there anythin' we can do?"
"Hang on!" Tifa exclaimed, digging through her backpack. "I think I've got an idea. Glad I bought some of these."
"What is it?" I asked.
She took out a small vial filled with a clear, sparkling fluid, opened it, and held it up for a moment. "Echo mist. Aerith told me about them back in Kalm. They can cure temporary deafness and silence like what Red's got. Notice how he stopped casting spells?"
I had. "Yeah. Pretty hard to do it when you can't hear."
"Exactly," Tifa said. "Oh! Aerith! We've gotta see to her, too. Barret, there's some phoenix down in my pack. Grab a pinch and wake her up, would you? Cloud and I'll take care of Red."
Barret nodded and did as she'd instructed, taking a small pouch of the bright red feathers and hurrying over to Aerith. At the same time, I watched as Red, catching on to what we were doing, opened his mouth so Tifa could pour the echo mist inside. He swallowed it all as Tifa and I watched anxiously for any change.
At first, nothing happened. But then, a moment later, Red blinked, flinched, and shook his head, probably caught off guard by the sudden return of sound in his ears. As he relaxed, he licked his lips, getting the last of the echo mist before meeting our gaze.
"Red, can you hear us?" Tifa asked.
"Yes, thank you," he answered. "It was a little disorienting when the echo mist took effect—one moment all was silent, and the next, full of sound. It was a little disorienting, to say the least."
She smiled. "Thank goodness! You really had us worried."
"Sorry, Tifa," Red laughed.
"Oh, it's okay," she chuckled, hugging him.
Just then, we heard Aerith stirring behind us. "Ohh… didn't mean to fall asleep on the job. What happened?"
The three of us all went to her as the red sparkles from the phoenix down faded away around her. She was sitting with her back against one of the larger stalagmites as Barret hovered worriedly near her like a big mother chocobo. Aerith looked alright and smirked up at me as I knelt next to her, still a little anxious myself.
"That shrieker knocked you out when it screamed," I explained. "I didn't know it could do that. You okay?"
"A little woozy, but that's all," she admitted.
Barret gazed intently at her. "You sure? Anythin' ya need?"
Aerith giggled. "I'm fine, really. Still, I gotta admit it's kinda cute to see you so worried, Barret. I'm not used to being taken care of. Usually I'm the one looking after everyone else."
"Not this time," he said, patting her shoulder.
"We're here for you," Tifa added.
Aerith clasped her hand. "Thanks, Tifa."
"Can you stand?" I asked.
She straightened up a little. "In a minute, Cloud. I just need to rest for a bit, if you guys don't mind."
That wasn't a bad idea, but not near that pond where more of those nightclaws might be hiding. So I carefully picked Aerith up and carried her in my arms, one under her knees and the other around her waist as she let out a little gasp of surprise before settling her hands in her lap. I knew how stubborn she was—she could be as bad as Jessie—and that if given the chance, she'd insist she didn't need any help. But after the hit she'd taken from that shrieker, she didn't need to be pushing herself too hard yet. Besides, I was still her bodyguard.
"Don't have much choice in this, do I?" Aerith teased.
I shook my head. "No."
She laughed. "Guess I'll let you carry me, then. Just this one time. I don't wanna get coddled too much, you know."
"No danger of that," I replied.
"True, you're not really the type," she chuckled as I walked. "Except with Jessie, of course. Then it's different."
I couldn't really deny it. "I guess that's true…"
The others followed as we started to head back toward the way we had come in from. But when we were almost there, Red looked up and blinked his good eye, then bunched his muscles, ran toward the side of the ledge we'd seen earlier, and jumped. He grabbed onto the rock with his claws a second later and climbed up to the top. What was he doing? After a moment, I understood when I looked up the way he'd gone and saw a bright sparkle, as if the light was reflecting off something. When he came back, he had a purple orb in his mouth.
"What's that?" Tifa wondered.
"Materia," Red replied, dropping it in Aerith's hands. "Long Range, I believe. It lets the wielder reach enemies he or she normally couldn't. I noticed the glow and went to see what it was."
I nodded. "Good thinking."
"I'll just hold onto it for you, Cloud," Aerith smirked. "Since you've kinda got your hands full at the moment."
"Uh, sure…" I agreed.
That settled, we headed back down the passageway to the hole and out into the main tunnel. It was still empty, so I gently set Aerith down so she was sitting with her back against the wall. Then Tifa handed me one of the stronger healing potions, and I gave it to Aerith. She smiled, clearly amused by how we were all fretting over her, and drank it down in just a few swallows. Then she gave me the Long Range materia, and as I sat down next to her, I fit it into Buster's open slot. Tifa, Barret, and Red also had a seat, and we all rested for a bit.
Once Aerith felt well enough to move, we got underway again. The tunnel went on, and so did our journey. The deeper into the mines we went, the more side passages and shafts we ran into. Lights flickered in places here and there in areas where the miners had been working, but others were dead and dark, and for long stretches at a time we only had our flashlights and the faint glow of the moss to guide us. We often had to check the map Bear had given us, and Barret kept us on track as well with his experience at being underground.
As we traveled through the mines, we encountered more monsters. A few here and there at first, but more and more the further we went. I could see how the workers had been overwhelmed. By the time we had found a small enclosed room to camp in for the night at the end of our first day in here, we'd already fought a dozen packs of them. Nightclaws and crawlers mostly, but sometimes we'd run into more shriekers. And whenever we did, we all made damn sure to take them out fast to keep them from using that damaging scream again.
About halfway through our second day, the tunnel that we were in opened up into a vast chamber with a ceiling so high we couldn't see it. The way forward was a narrow ledge along the left side that overlooked a deep chasm that plunged outta sight into the depths. Tifa picked up a small rock and tossed it in, and it wasn't until several minutes later that we finally heard a faint echo as it landed.
"Hoo, boy…" Aerith shivered.
"Just stay close to me," I told her. "I won't let you fall."
She smirked. "Gonna hold you to that."
Nearby lay more discarded pieces of mining equipment. Rope, two dented helmets, a few picks, and other tools I didn't have a name for. It looked as if they'd been dropped in a hurry, probably when the miners had been attacked. And that communications cable still ran at the base of the wall, held firmly in place by metal brackets at regular intervals as it showed us the path to the trading post. It would still be hours before we got there, but we were making good time.
"What are those for?" Tifa asked, pointing at the tools.
"See them rusted pitons on the ground?" Barret explained. "Kinda like long metal rods. Miners use 'em to hold their ropes in place so they can hang down over the edge of the chasm an' get at the mythril. Gotta be some bigass veins of it down there, embedded in the rock along the sides. A goddamn fortune, I tell ya."
Red sniffed. "It seems rather dangerous."
Barret shrugged. "'Course it is. But mythril's worth a whole lotta gil to the right people, folks who can shape it into weapons, armor, an' lots of other stuff. The miners know that, an' they know the risks whenever they come in here. It's why they do it."
"Risking your life for profit?" Red wondered.
Barret shook his head. "It ain't jus' about that. The miners need the money to support their families. That's what it comes down to. Though it is true that some folks're willin' to put their lives on the line for cash. Jus' ask the merc here. Uh, no offense, Cloud."
"None taken," I said, brushing it off.
"I guess that does make sense," Tifa admitted.
Barret nodded. "It's dangerous, but these people usually don't have much of a choice if they wanna survive."
Aerith looked at him. "You've done this before?"
"Stuff like it, yeah," he said. "We was after coal, not mythril, but we got the same goals, take on the same risks."
"I understand," she smiled.
With Red in the lead, we started across, making our way cautiously along the ledge. I couldn't really help looking down, and neither could Aerith. She looked up again in a hurry and immediately took my hand, her grip almost painfully tight. I kept my gaze forward and tried not to think too much about the long drop on our right. A few small bats flew past us at one point, but that was all, and we made it safely to the other side without a problem only a few minutes later.
The exit led to another tunnel, and we went on, following it further into the mines. We spent the next few hours traveling through the long and winding maze, fighting groups of monsters every so often, until at last we came to a point where the creatures were just about everywhere and came at us every few minutes. We were getting close, and soon we had fought our way to the trading post.
It was a large chamber that had been carefully finished, with bright lights that stood here and there amidst a collection of tents and shacks that had been overturned and torn apart by the monsters. And there in the middle of it all was a wide clearing. As we crept closer to it, we saw the communications relay at the heart of it, a tall boxlike machine at its center with buttons, dials, and a lever on one side. The thick cable we'd seen connected to it, and another led out from it toward the other side of the chamber and the southern half of the mines.
The relay was off at the moment but looked more or less intact, so I didn't think we'd have any problem getting it back on. Once we'd dealt with the archdragon, that was. It hovered near the relay on two pairs of large, leathery wings that flapped rapidly and kept it aloft. Its arms and legs were small compared to the rest of its body, but its claws and teeth were sharp as razors. It had horns on its head and surveyed its lair with beady red eyes above its pointed green snout. And it wasn't alone. Two crawlers and two nightclaws lurked around it.
Bodies were scattered around the clearing, dead miners the dragon and the other monsters had been feeding on. Barret's lip curled back in a snarl, and I knew I wouldn't be able to hold him back for long. While the archdragon was big, about twenty feet from snout to tail, it was still better than facing one of its larger cousins, which could easily be three or four times that size and twice as deadly. The archdragon swooped at another crawler that had slithered into the arena, belched out a stream of fire, and ate the monster's burnt carcass.
"Well, there goes my appetite," Aerith quipped.
