FORTY-THREE

Mt. Nibel was just as cold and ugly as I remembered. Cloud, Jessie, Yuffie, and I had made our way up the trail in the morning after Barret and the others had headed back south in the buggy. I had changed out of my skirt and into some long pants and had put on a light jacket, too. The others had also dressed more warmly with it being chillier here in the mountains. It was also late winter, although spring wasn't so far off, and I was startled to realize how long we'd been traveling. Nearly three months already since we'd left Midgar after the plate had fallen. But so much had happened that it felt longer than that.

Before long, we came to the bridge, pausing for a moment to look across the wide, rocky gorge. Cloud and I exchanged a knowing glance, both of us thinking about the last time we'd been here. After motioning for the rest of us to wait, he stepped carefully out onto the bridge. I was holding my breath, expecting it to come apart again like it had all those years ago, but it didn't. As Cloud made it about halfway across without incident and motioned for us to follow, I finally relaxed a bit, although I couldn't help feeling nervous as I crossed the bridge.

"Looks like Shinra reinforced this thing when they rebuilt it," I said as we slowly made our way across. "See the ropes, Cloud? They're a lot sturdier than I remember. And the wood isn't rotting."

He nodded. "Yeah, Tifa. About time."

Yuffie peered over the side. "That's a long way down…"

"And a long fall," Cloud added.

I shivered. "I remember…"

Yuffie gulped as she followed us. "Just, uh… don't swing this thing too much, okay? My stomach's nervous enough as it is."

"We won't," I promised.

"It'll be okay, Yuffie," Jessie assured her.

Soon we reached the other side, and I led the way, all the paths and trails familiar to me from my days as a guide. In the winding caves, we encountered a young green dragon that had made the place its lair, and a flicker of recognition passed across Cloud's face when he saw it. Was this the same kind of monster he'd seen Sephiroth kill so effortlessly all those years ago? It had to be. It was thirty feet long, with huge, leathery wings, a long neck, and sharp claws. With a loud roar and a blast of fire from its mouth, the dragon charged right at us.

We scattered, surrounding it on all sides, weapons ready. As Cloud slashed at the dragon head on with Buster and Force Stealer and Jessie sliced from behind at its long, lashing tail, I dodged a swipe of its claws and leaped onto its back in a forward somersault, then pounded on its spine again and again while Yuffie circled around it and cut at its wings with her shuriken. The dragon snarled in pain but didn't go down yet. I kept up the assault, driving the mythril claws of my gloves as deep into its body as I could and doing my best not to fall off.

The dragon was strong, though, beating its wings and snapping its teeth, and a sudden whip of its tail caught Jessie across the chest before she could get out of the way. She flew backward into the cave wall with a startled shout and collapsed. Cloud roared, redoubling his attacks as I did the same while Yuffie barely dodged another blast of flame as she imbued her shuriken with ice ninjitsu magic and swiped at the dragon again and again. Then, just as it nearly sliced her open with its claws, a sudden, deafening series of gunshots drove it back.

My eyes widened. "Vincent!"

"Seems I was needed," he said, darting around the massive dragon as he kept firing his triple-barreled shotgun.

"You can say that again…" Jessie winced as she stood up.

Yuffie grinned. "Thanks for the backup, Vince!"

"Focus," he ordered. "We'll talk later."

"You okay, Jessie?" I called from atop the dragon.

She smirked as she quickly relit her blaze talons. "Never better! It'll take a lot more than a big lizard to keep me down!"

"That's the spirit, Firebrand!" I laughed.

"Interesting name," Vincent remarked between shots as he quickly reloaded his gun. "Show me how you got it."

Jessie struck the dragon with a flurry of slashes. "Love to!"

When she moved back, holstered her weapons, and took one of her new mega raspberries out of her belt pouch, I knew what was coming. I raced up the dragon's spine and hit it in the back of the neck with one of my true strike punches, then backflipped off amidst a burst of bright red energy and the satisfying snap of bone. As I landed lightly on both feet, Cloud ducked under the monster's last desperate bite and cut into its chest with a spinning backhand stab of Buster then followed that up with a quick focused thrust from Force Stealer.

"Now, Jessie!" he shouted, leaping away to a safe distance.

She threw the raspberry. "Special delivery!"

The explosion shook the whole cave and tore the dragon apart. As Yuffie and I crouched down low with our hands over our heads, Cloud dropped his swords, threw his arms tightly around Jessie, and spun her away from the blast, shielding her from the inferno and the falling rock as best he could. Vincent simply ducked and waited it out, as impassive as ever and an island of calm amidst the chaos.

Once the dust had settled, he stood up. "Impressive."

Jessie gently dislodged herself from Cloud, brushed herself off, and flashed him a grin. "I do make great cocktails, don't I?"

"So it would seem," he agreed.

"Oh, we so rock!" Yuffie cheered, hands on her hips. "Jessie, do you realize what we just did? We slew a dragon! A dragon!"

Jessie gave her a high five. "Hell yeah!"

Yuffie's eyes danced. "Dragonslayer Yuffie! I like the sound of that! Wait 'till the others find out! Sephiroth is so dead!"

"He won't know what hit him!" I agreed.

Although I knew Sephiroth was a lot stronger than a dragon, it still felt good to have taken it down. I was a little excited about it myself. A dragon was no pushover, after all. It hadn't been an easy battle, but we'd won in the end, and that gave me hope. For the first time, I felt like we had a real chance of defeating our true enemy.

Cloud gave Jessie a faint smirk as he retrieved his weapons. "Looks like you were right about that bomb shrapnel."

She pumped her fist. "Told ya! What a blast, huh?"

"You're not kidding," I nodded.

"Thought you were going south with Aerith and the others," Cloud said, turning to Vincent. "Not that I'm complaining."

He holstered his gun. "I changed my mind."

"I'm glad you did," I smiled. "We could really use your help."

Vincent nodded. "That's why I'm here. The rest are on their way to meet the merchant north of Gongaga. They should get there in another day or two, three at the most. As for me, I followed you."

Cloud shouldered his swords. "Know anything about what's ahead? Tifa and I grew up together in Nibelheim, but we've never traveled past Mt. Nibel, so we don't really know what's up there."

"A little," Vincent said. "There are towns in the northern lowlands, the largest of which is built around a Shinra research facility. Made for the Space Exploration division, I believe."

"Could be worth checking out," Jessie suggested.

Vincent went on. "There's an airport there as well. Mostly for when Shinra used to deliver supplies for the facility, but there might be a few private planes, too. A faster way for us to travel."

"Good idea," Cloud agreed. "Assuming we can find a pilot."

"We'll just have to look around when we get there," Jessie said. "But in the meantime, we should probably mosey."

Yuffie groaned as she held her stomach. "Oh, man. Airplanes… as if that old cargo ship wasn't bad enough. I hope whoever we find won't make the ride too rough. Damn motion sickness…"

I patted her arm. "It'll be alright, Yuffie. Don't worry."

"Let's go," Cloud said.

He and I led the way deeper into the caves, with Jessie right behind us and Yuffie in the middle. Vincent brought up the rear, his wary eyes watching the gloom all around us. I knew nothing would get past him, so I concentrated on picking our path, and soon we saw daylight ahead of us and for me and Cloud, an all too familiar path. The reactor stood silently at its end along the sheer side of the slope, and I shivered from more than just the chill in the icy mountain air.

"It doesn't look that different…" Cloud murmured.

I felt the same way. "You're right, Cloud. It hasn't changed."

He looked at me. "Ready?"

"No," I shook my head and sighed. "But I'll go anyway."

Cloud nodded. "Same. And we're not alone."

Jessie smiled encouragingly at us. "We're all with you, guys. I know this'll be hard, but you can do it. Time to get our answers."

"Right," I agreed, taking her shoulder.

Then Vincent suddenly looked past the reactor to the ridge on the far side and drew his gun. "We're being watched."

"You sure?" Cloud asked, his hand on Buster's hilt.

"Wait, what?" Yuffie's eyes were wide.

Here in the shadow of the mako reactor and the gray, overcast sky, pockets of gloom were everywhere. And amidst the dark, twisted slate rock of the mountainside and the pipes and outbuildings were all kinds of hiding places. But I couldn't see or hear anything out of the ordinary no matter how hard I tried. I didn't doubt Vincent's senses, but even so, it didn't look like there was anyone else up here.

"Vincent, I don't—" I began.

Then Jessie, gazing in the same direction, lifted her hand. "I hear it too. Just barely. It's very faint, but it's definitely there."

Cloud nodded. "So do I."

"How?" Yuffie blinked. "I don't hear anything."

"SOLDIER enhancements," he answered quietly. "The mako. Same for Jessie. It makes our senses stronger."

Vincent's gaze was locked on the ridge. "The experiments Hojo did on me, his alterations, had the same effect. Someone's out there, Cloud. In the shadows, most likely. That's where I'd be."

"Vincent, you and Yuffie check it out," Cloud decided. "Jessie, Tifa, let's head into the reactor and see what we can find."

"Oh, joy…" Yuffie grimaced.

Cloud went on. "We'll meet back here in twenty minutes. Don't go far, guys. Just secure the area and wait for us."

She readied her shuriken and nodded. "Will do, Cloud."

"Be careful," I added.

Then, while she and Vincent crept silently along the ridge, I went with Cloud and Jessie up a short flight of stairs and into the reactor. As soon as we made our way through the main control room and reached mako storage, we stopped. This room was etched darkly into my mind with its stone walls, hanging chains, and thick pipes, and my eyes went immediately to the platform on the far side of the round metal bridge. The place where my father had died. His body was long gone, and even though I'd known it would be, my heart still ached.

"No…" I murmured. "Dad…"

I was moving before I even realized it, crossing the bridge to kneel on the platform in the same place as I had five years ago. I reached out a trembling hand and lightly touched the metal floor where my father's body had lain. I missed him and still do, and for a moment, I couldn't move as the grief came back in a sudden rush.

"I never even got to say goodbye…" I sighed, sniffling.

Jessie knelt next to me as Cloud gently laid a hand on my shoulder. Neither of them spoke at first but allowed me a moment to remember. And I did. What had happened here was clear in my mind even though all that had come afterward was still a blur.

"Ready?" Jessie asked quietly after a few minutes.

I nodded and slowly stood up. "Yeah. Thanks, guys. I appreciate it. When this is all over, do you think we could put together some kind of memorial for him and everyone else we lost that day?"

Cloud didn't hesitate. "Definitely. They won't be forgotten."

"I'll help, too," Jessie promised.

"We can include something for your mom, too, if you want, Jessie," I added. "I know she didn't live here, but Shinra still took her from you back then just like they took our families from us."

She smiled sadly. "I'd like that, Tifa. Thank you…"

"You're welcome," I hugged Jessie for a moment, comforting her as she did the same for me. Then I turned to Cloud. "The terrible things I said here that day, Cloud… about hating SOLDIER and all… I'm sorry. I know it was your dream to be one… I just…"

"No, don't apologize, Tifa," he assured me. "You had every right to be angry. Maybe if I'd stayed with Sephiroth in the basement that night and given him someone he could talk to about what he was reading, he might not have gone mad and killed everyone."

Jessie shook her head. "What he did isn't your fault, Cloud. Taking on a burden you shouldn't only hurts you in the end. Trust me, I know. I've been there. It just eats away at you, bit by bit."

He nodded. "The reactors…"

"Exactly," she said. "Corel, too. I blamed myself for both, and even though I know they weren't my fault, I'm still trying to accept that and move on. Because there are more important things I've gotta do, and I can't let myself be crippled by guilt any longer."

"You've grown," Cloud noted, a hint of pride in his voice.

Jessie smiled. "Thanks. Hasn't been easy, but it's definitely worth it. Ever since Corel and what happened there between me and Barret, I've felt better about myself than I have in a long time."

I took her shoulder. "I'm glad, Jessie. We'd better keep moving and see what we can find in here, though. The sooner we finish looking for clues, the sooner we can leave this horrible place."

"My thoughts exactly," she agreed.

Cloud led us through the doorway amidst the hum of machinery. The reactor was still active even now after what had happened all those years ago. I wasn't really surprised, though. We hurried through a short connecting hall that led to the inner chamber, but about halfway there, I noticed a door on our left and called to the others. It was plain, metal, and had a small sign that read "Security Office" on a thin brass plaque. I wondered uneasily what we might find inside.

"It's unlocked," I murmured as I opened the door.

Jessie nodded. "Let's check it out."

Cloud's troubled gaze lingered on the chamber that was just visible at the far end of the hall. "You two have a look. I'll go on ahead and see if there's anything in the room with those pods."

"We'll meet you there," I agreed.

The security office was small, with a bank of computers, monitors, and a single swiveling chair in front of them. Jessie slid right into it and got started, her fingers flying over the keyboard. Soon she brought the system online, and when the login screen came up, she took her tablet out of her belt pouch and tapped in a few commands.

I watched patiently as she worked. "Can you get us in, Jessie?"

She smirked without looking up. "You betcha! Might have to brute force it, but Shinra passcodes aren't really too hard to crack. At least for me. I still know my way around their systems."

"Never doubted you," I smiled, patting her shoulder.

Sure enough, the decryption program Jessie was running came up with the code after only a few minutes, and she quickly logged into the mainframe and began looking around, making her way through all the file folders one by one. But they were empty.

"Looks like someone cleared everything out," she grimaced.

"I'm not surprised," I said, leaning in to take a closer look. "Shinra wouldn't leave any evidence behind after what happened that day. But still, why didn't they just wipe the whole system?"

Jessie stared pensively at the screen. "I'm guessing they didn't have much time. The core system files are still there, but that's about all. But there might be a way… If I can find some file fragments they missed, I I might be able use them to recover something."

"You can do that?" I wondered.

"Mmm-hmm," she answered, bringing up another program on her tablet and working on the computer at the same time. "If Shinra was in as much of a hurry as I think they were, then they might not have been able to get rid of everything completely. Deleted files can be recovered sometimes, at least partially. Now let's see…"

The other security monitors were dark, and for a minute or two, all I could hear was our breathing and the faint hum of machinery outside coming from the bowels of the reactor. Like the ones back in Midgar, it was almost completely automated, though that didn't mean conditions were good. The acrid smell of mako hung in the air even in here. But it was at least less than it was in the main chamber.

Jessie frowned in concentration. "Look at this, Tifa."

"I see it, Jessie," I replied, my hand resting on the back of her chair. Her recovery program had turned up a list of deleted files. "Looks like you were right. Any idea what they could be?"

"Video files, judging by the size and data signature," she answered. "Now let's see what Shinra was trying to hide…"

Almost as soon as she opened the first one, though, I couldn't help gasping in dismay. The footage was terribly garbled, making it virtually impossible to make out what was going on or even what section of the reactor it had been recorded in. It was all just static and garbled blocks of color. Jessie tried the next one, and the next, then the one after that, all down the line, but they were all badly damaged.

"Damn…" I swore. "Did Shinra do this?"

Jessie nodded. "I think so. They weren't taking any chances. Well, it was worth a shot. Some of the audio looks intact, though. Let me try to enhance it a bit, see if we can pick any of it up."

I waited patiently as she brought up another program on her tablet and used it to clean up the audio on one of the files. It didn't take long, and after a few minutes, she opened the modified file. The video itself was still a mess, but now we could hear two voices talking, crackling in and out amidst all the static on the screen. Both were men, and when I heard the first, I shivered, recognizing it once.

"Close… valve," Sephiroth ordered. Then, a moment later. "Why… damaged? Valves… to keep… happening. It… sense. I… now, Hojo. But not… this… put you… level as… Gast."

Then, another voice. "What… it?"

Jessie looked at me. "That's not Cloud…"

"Keep listening," I told her. "It sounds familiar."

She nodded and we strained to hear more. Sephiroth and the other voice's owner had a discussion about materia and how it was formed. I almost knew that guy. I just needed to hear a little more. It hung on the edge of my mental grasp, just out of reach. As the conversation became more intense, Jessie and I listened more closely.

"Sephiroth?" the guy asked. "…okay?"

But Sephiroth didn't seem to be paying attention to him. His voice sounded pained, troubled. "No… was I…?"

Then we heard a sword striking hard against metal again and again while the other guy, clearly worried, tried to get his attention. "Were… what? Sephiroth… to me. What's… matter?"

"Zack…" I gasped, recognizing his voice at last.

"It is him," Jessie murmured. "I only saw him that one time back in the Shinra Building, but I'm sure you're right."

I sighed. "Cloud was never there…"

Jessie and I had suspected as much, but to have proof of it there in front of us just made it more real. As I thought about what we'd found, I wondered more and more about Cloud and what had really happened to him and how he knew all these things he shouldn't have. As much as I wished otherwise, he hadn't been there that day.

"But he thinks he was," Jessie reminded me. "And that complicates things. Let's not tell him what we know yet, Tifa. We haven't so far, and for now, at least, I think it should stay that way."

I felt the same way. "Right. Can you save these files?"

Jessie nodded. "Yeah. Might have better luck restoring some of the video if we can get it onto a newer system with more expansive tools to work with. Kunsel put a lot of stuff on this tablet for me, but it can only do so much. Maybe Dio's got a mainframe I could use…"

"The Gold Saucer is pretty state-of-the-art," I agreed. "I'm sure he'd be willing to help us, Jessie. And Aerith and the others'll probably have the keystone by then, too. Things are coming together."

Once Jessie had saved the files and put her tablet away, we left and hurried up the hall to the room with the pods. A chill raced its way up my spine as my gaze fell on the stairs, where Sephiroth had slashed me. How had I survived? I still didn't know. My memories of that dark day and what had happened were almost as hazy as Cloud's.

He was standing in front of the door at the top, the one with a sign that read "Jenova" arcing above it, when we entered the room. But even with as hard as he pushed and pulled trying to get it open, it remained shut. Shinra had probably sealed it after the incident.

"Any luck?" Jessie asked.

Cloud shook his head, finally giving up. "No. Thought I might find something in there, but I haven't been able to get in. Jenova was kept in there before Shinra moved her to Midgar after Sephiroth burned down Nibelheim and disappeared. What about you?"

I answered before Jessie could say anything. "Same here. There was a computer in there, but Shinra had cleaned it out pretty thoroughly so there wasn't really much left for us to find."

It was partly true, but not entirely. I didn't want him to know what we'd found, not yet, and although Jessie likely had some things she kept to herself much as I did, I doubted she'd ever overtly lied to him before. That was something I wanted to spare her from, if I could. I just hoped he wouldn't catch on like he had in Gongaga. Fortunately, it didn't look like it as he reluctantly let go of the heavy door.

"Then let's head out," Cloud decided.

"Hopefully Vincent and Yuffie were able to find out who we heard earlier and what they're after," Jessie said as we made our way out of the reactor. "I didn't think anyone was here but us."

The idea that we'd been watched made me uneasy, and I wondered who could've possibly known we were here other than our friends. But they were dozens of miles away by now, and if it had been Sephiroth or Shinra, they'd have shown themselves already.

There was someone else out there.


Yuffie and I crept silently around the old, abandoned reactor to the ridge on the other side, passing underneath the long, thick mako pipes that stretched from the top of the facility down into the ground nearby. Shadows were everywhere amidst the dull gray rock, corners and clefts where one could hide and observe without being seen in return. As we made our way forward, I could still hear the faint sound of someone's whispered breath. It was just on the edge of perception, so faint I could barely make it out. No wonder Yuffie hadn't.

I paused as the sound faded for a moment before reappearing only seconds later further up the ridge. But there had been no indication of any movement, no soft footfalls on rock to indicate how its owner had gotten there. The sound had disappeared from one place and emerged again farther away as if the one who'd made it had simply jumped from one shadow to another like a wraith. And for a moment, the gloom up there grew darker, thicker, and deeper than before.

"Am I seeing things?" Yuffie blinked.

I shook my head. "No. It's real."

She shivered. "Uh, are we really going up there?"

"Yes," I decided.

With Cerberus in hand, I led her cautiously forward. The darkness faded as we drew closer, and the sound with it, only to reappear further up the winding, narrow path around the corner, and I had the distinct feeling that we were being guided somewhere, for some reason. When we turned the corner, we saw what looked like a dead end ahead of us. A wall of solid rock that offered no way forward.

But then, that faint and all but imperceptible murmur of breath—a woman's, by my guess—went silent again almost as soon as we'd begun to close in on it. When I heard it again a moment later, I realized it was coming from somewhere on the other side of the wall. And at the same time, the gloom of the ridge grew lighter again, enough for Yuffie and I to get a better look at the wall tucked beneath the summit of Mt. Nibel and the gray, overcast sky. Several of the reactor's mako pipes went into it, but there seemed to be no clear way through.

Suddenly, Yuffie pointed. "Vince, there! A seam! Looks like Shinra thought they'd be clever and make a secret door."

"I see it," I nodded.

A narrow outline was barely visible in the rock wall. The door had been made to look exactly like its surroundings, and I knew that if our unseen observer hadn't led us right to it, we'd never have found it. With a slight push, it swung open, and we crept inside.

The rough stone chamber was large, with multiple levels and pipes big enough for us to slide down, and smelled strongly of mako. Several ladders also connected the different makeshift platforms of the massive power generator the pipes were connected to. We'd emerged at the top, and at the very bottom, light shone from outside as a path sloped down to the north. Perhaps the way off this mountain.

But it wasn't unguarded. A monstrous creature roamed the bottom level, huge and deadly. Six powerful legs ending into large, sharp claws. A dark, bluish carapace, two spiked tails, burning red eyes, and a long, pointed nose like a needle. The creature was almost twenty feet across, and the ground trembled with every step it took.

"What's that?" Yuffie whispered.

"Materia guardian," I explained quietly. "A mutation caused by the mako. I remember Hojo mentioning it long ago. Think of it as a sort of guard dog for the reactor. Twisted and vicious."

She shuddered. "So we've gotta fight it to get outta here."

I tightened my grip on Cerberus. "Exactly."

"We should get the others first, though," Yuffie suggested. "I, uh… I really don't wanna take that thing on by myself."

"Agreed," I said. "Let's—"

Just then, my gaze fell upon a patch of shadow nearby. There were more than a few in here, as dimly lit as it was. For an instant, I thought I saw someone. A faint, possibly feminine form, darker than the gloom that surrounded it. The all but undetectable whisper of breath I'd been hearing came now from there. A figure hooded and cloaked, yet unlike the Sephiroth clones Cloud and the others had encountered. She stared silently back at me, her eyes hidden in the dark.

"Vince?" Yuffie asked. "What is it?"

"I'm not sure," I answered, glancing at her. "I thought I saw—"

She blinked. "Huh? Saw what?"

When I looked back into the gloom again, however, the shape was gone. And so was the sound. Whoever or whatever might've been there had left, its task seemingly accomplished. I still don't know if it was real or just my imagination. My gaze lingered on the area for a moment as I tried to understand what I'd seen and heard but without success. In any case, phantom or imagination, I'd found what looked to be the way off Mt. Nibel and down into the plains. Yuffie was waiting for an answer to her question, but I was uncertain how to respond.

"Nothing," I said at last. "Just shadows…"