"Wait a minute. Are you saying Shinra is behind the missing people?" Tifa couldn't believe what she was hearing. While she had no particular love for the company, this was an incredible claim.

Biggs nodded firmly. "That's what the old man told us, yeah."

"Watch who you're callin' old," the man in question snapped from where he was leaning against the side of her house.

Tifa was only vaguely familiar with him, having seen him around the neighborhood occasionally, but they'd never spoken before today. She wasn't sure how he'd met Biggs and Wedge, or why he was here with them. "And they took Jessie? You're sure?"

"I mean, we didn't see it happen, but her parents said she never came home last night," Wedge said, fidgeting in place. "They're super worried, Tifa."

Everyone knew that Jessie loved to mess with people, but her family was always an exception. Even if this had been a prank aimed at the two boys, she never would have let it go far enough to impact her parents. "Okay, I'll take your word on it, but why come to me? And how is Mr. Wallace involved?"

"Now you're makin' me feel old. Enough with the mister, just call me Barret."

"We found where we think they're keeping everyone," Biggs explained. "It's a large warehouse, on the outskirts of the city close to the old junkyard we played in as kids. Problem is, there were too many guards for the three of us to handle so we were hoping to get some help."

"We thought the old Fang members would be in!" Wedge said in a rush. "Uh, except for Sephiroth, of course."

When Tifa thought of someone kidnapping her friend . . . well, it made her want to punch them. Hard. So this wasn't a difficult decision for her to make. "Alright, I'm in."

"Nice! Just Zack and Cloud now," Wedge said, exchanging a high five with Biggs.

Tifa frowned slightly. "About that. Zack is still out of the city working as a guard at the new reactor so he's out of the question. Cloud . . . Cloud isn't in a great place these days. I don't think we should get him involved."

"Oh, come on, Tifa. This is Cloud we're talking about. As soon as he hears we want to attack a Shinra facility, he'll be on board faster than a chocobo can finish off a bushel of gyshal greens," Biggs said. "Let's go." He turned and began walking down the street, the two others moving with him. With no other option, Tifa hurried to join them after closing and locking the door behind her.

"Once this is all over we're going to have to throw a huge party for all the new Avalanche members," Wedge said, looking between her and Barret.

"Avalanche? The hell is that?" Barret asked, frowning as he wiped the sweat from the late afternoon heat off his forehead.

It had been so long since Tifa had thought of the gangs that she'd forgotten Avalanche hadn't broken up like the others. Or, at least the Fangs. The Turks weren't exactly a gang anymore, but they were certainly still fully intact and doing whatever Rufus instructed.

"The name of our group," Biggs said proudly, thumping his chest. "Shinra is going to regret getting on our bad side."

Barret grunted in response. "Guess it's not the worst name, and I'm definitely down for figuring out what Shinra is up to. The soldiers back at my place refused to talk so I'm still not sure what we're going to find inside that warehouse."

"You're holding Shinra soldiers captive?" Tifa asked in disbelief. Maybe this hadn't been such a good idea after all. Was Barret some kind of terrorist? "What are you planning on doing with them?"

"Probably going to have to let 'em go eventually," he muttered, not sounding pleased with the idea. "Somehow I get the feeling that if our roles were reversed they wouldn't hesitate to kill or torture us, but there's no way we're going to sink to their level."

Before she could dig any deeper into what had happened, they rounded the corner, and Cloud's house came into view. As they drew closer, Tifa had to do a double take—for some reason, the window shades that were always sealed shut had been opened. It was a simple change, one that probably didn't stand out to anyone else, but it was the first time since Cloud had moved back in that she'd seen it like this. Was this somehow related to that stranger her mother had mentioned the other day?

"Yo, Cloud! Open up!" Wedge called out, knocking heavily on the front door.

Tifa winced, bracing herself for the inevitable shout back to leave him alone, except nothing happened. Wedge knocked again, then tried the handle only to find it locked. That also stood out as unusual to Tifa. For whatever reason, Cloud always left the door unlocked while he was home. The obvious conclusion was clearly that he'd gone out for some reason, but that was so unexpected it was difficult to believe.

"Any idea where he might be?" Biggs asked, glancing over at her.

"Not in the slightest," she said, shaking her head. "I fully expected him to be here."

Wedge knocked a third time before turning around to lean against the door. "Think Shinra got him too?"

"Cloud?" Biggs laughed. "There's no way. He'd send them packing in a heartbeat."

Tifa understood where Biggs was coming from, but he wasn't familiar with how much Cloud had changed over the years. As far as she knew, Cloud hadn't held a sword in years, and he likely wouldn't be very much of a match for Shinra soldiers as a result. That said, it also seemed unlikely he would have been taken since that would imply his attackers would have been the ones to open the shades and lock the door.

"He must have gone out," she said, desperately hoping that's what had happened. It would be an extremely promising sign that he was getting better if so, and if there really was going to be a fight tonight, she still felt it would be best for Cloud to not get involved until he'd had a chance to get more training in.

"We can't afford to wait on an unknown," Barret declared, not looking pleased. "If this guy isn't around then we'll have to go without him. Who else can we try?"

The three teens shared a look before Tifa shrugged. "I can't think of anyone else who'd be willing to take on Shinra."

"Same," Biggs and Wedge both added in.

"Four isn't a whole lot more than three, but I suppose it's better than nothing," Barret said. "Not like we can afford to wait much longer either, considering we have no idea what the hell Shinra is doing with those people."

"Jessie will fight too, once we rescue her," Biggs pointed out.

Barret eyed him skeptically. "Maybe. It's best not to count on unknowns. She might not be in any shape to fight."

Tifa didn't want to think about what that would mean for her friend, but she understood where Barret was coming from. "It's going to be fine. We can break in, save Jessie and as many others as we can, and then get out as soon as things start to look bad."

"Right, well, let's break for now and get prepared," Barret said, punching one of his hands into the other. "We'll meet up near the entrance to the junkyard right after sunset, alright?"

"Got it."

"Right."

"Roger that."

The four of them split up, each going their own way. Tifa cast one last glance over to Cloud's house as she made her way back home. While it would have been reassuring to have him join them, she tried to take encouragement from the fact he was leaving the house now. That was one less thing for her to worry about, hopefully, and right now she needed to be focused on Jessie. Glancing up at the sky, she picked up her pace. The sun wasn't going to be up for much longer and she wanted to be fully prepared for whatever was going to go down tonight.

The near-full moon bathed the junkyard in a soft glow, giving the place a more haunted look than Tifa was used to. She did her best to ignore the shiver that went down her spine—spooky places like this were not at all her strong suit. The good news was that they at least wouldn't have to pass through it to reach the warehouse, but she wished Wedge would show up already so they could get away from here.

"It's been half an hour," Barret grumbled from where he was leaning against the chain fence. "I'm pretty sure your friend abandoned us."

"Wedge wouldn't do that!" Biggs snapped, pacing back and forth restlessly. "He'll be here, we just need to give him a bit more time."

Barret shrugged. "Just sayin'. Not even sure I can blame him given what we're doing."

"I'm telling you, he's not—"

Biggs cut off as the sound of someone running toward them filled the cold night air. Tifa tensed slightly, her gloved hands curling into twin fists as she turned to face the direction the noise was coming from. A moment later a person came into view and she breathed a sigh of relief as she recognized Wedge.

"See, I told you," Biggs said before walking over to meet Wedge. "Dude, what the hell happened?"

"Sorry," Wedge gasped, bending over as he struggled to catch his breath. "My parents wouldn't let me leave till I finished all my chores and the cats kept getting in my way."

Tifa bit her lip to hold a laugh in while Biggs sighed loudly and Barret shook his head.

"Now that Wedge earned his allowance let's get this mission started," Barret declared, beckoning for them to join him.

"Hey, not cool man! I went as fast as I could."

Tifa walked over with Biggs and Wedge close behind. "So, what's the plan?" she asked.

"Nice and simple. We break in through the side entrance. That should get us directly into the main holding area of the building. I have to imagine that's where they're keeping everyone."

"How do you know the building layout so well?" Biggs asked, looking at Barret in surprise.

"Cause I went and checked out an abandoned one on the other side of the city after we split up," he explained. "Anyways, once we're in we split into two groups. Biggs and Wedge will focus on rescuing captives and subduing any guards who try to interfere, while Tifa and I will focus on finding your friend. Once we've got her, then we save as many others as we can before Shinra is able to pin us down. Got it?"

Neither Biggs nor Wedge looked overly pleased with their roles, but Tifa felt like it was a solid plan. The two of them were more experienced fighting together than either she or Barret would be so the groups felt ideal. As for who got to save Jessie, well, at the end of the day all that mattered was they got her out. "Works for me," she said, bouncing from foot to foot. Now that it was nearly time, Tifa could feel the adrenaline starting to course through her.

"Fine, but you better get her out," Biggs grumbled.

Barret nodded firmly. "Don't worry, lover boy. We've got it under control."

To Tifa's surprise, Biggs flushed a deep red before he spun to turn his back to them, muttering something she couldn't make out. She and Jessie hadn't talked about boys in quite a while, but as far as Tifa knew, the two of them hadn't been dating. It was entirely possible that had changed recently, or else Biggs just had a crush on her. In any case, that was a matter for later, although she made a mental note to check in with Jessie for the details.

"Good. Let's roll." Barret pushed off the fence, heading in the direction of the warehouse without looking back to see if they were following.

Tifa hurried after him, Biggs and Wedge right on her heels. They moved in silence, only the faint scuff of their boots on the road filling the night air. Once the warehouse came into view, Barret held his hand up, gesturing for them to stop. The four of them waited, watching, for several minutes. For some reason, there didn't seem to be any guards posted outside, although Tifa imagined that might have drawn more attention if there were.

Dropping his hand, Barret continued on, this time moving slower and staying lower to the ground. Tifa followed behind, wincing slightly each time one of the boys accidentally kicked a rock or slid their shoe on the ground. Despite the minor noise, they reached the side of the building without raising an alarm.

Barret cautiously tried the large, sliding door, but unsurprisingly it hardly budged—clearly locked. He looked at each of them and they nodded in turn before he fully stood up and braced himself. Even though she was ready for it, the loud slam as he threw his shoulder into the door caught Tifa off guard, making her jump slightly and look around in concern. No one came running, and with one more crushing impact, the door gave way with a horrible screech. The four of them rushed through the gap and Tifa barely managed to stop in time before running into Barret as he came to a sudden halt on the other side.

"What the . . ."

Tifa fully understood his shock as she took in the interior of the warehouse. Barret had been right, the kidnapped people were being held here, but what none of them had expected was how many people there were. The warehouse had been sectioned off into several caged-off areas, each packed with several dozen prisoners. While most of them were adults, Tifa was horrified to see a few children mixed in as well. Most surprisingly, not a single Shinra soldier was in sight.

Shaking off her shock, she ran over to the nearest cell, keeping an eye out in case any guards showed up to investigate the noise. "We're here to help, is no one guarding you?"

An older woman, around her mother's age she guessed, slowly approached from the other side of the bars. "The guards just took another group into the back rooms, but they'll be back soon. Please, you have to get us out of here before they return!"

The panic in her voice was contagious, and it took all of Tifa's self-control to not allow it to take over. She quickly scanned the cage to find the entrance, but nothing resembling a door stood out. "How does this open?"

The woman pointed to where the bars met the wall and Tifa saw an electronic card reader she'd overlooked. "Each of the guards has a card on them, scanning it causes the bars on one side to drop into the ground," she explained.

Considering how sturdy the cages were, there was no way they'd be able to break the prisoners out—meaning their luck in avoiding the guards had all been for nothing. "Have you seen a girl around my age by chance? Similar height, but she's a brunette and her hair would be up in a ponytail." With how many people there were, it was a long shot, but maybe there was a chance.

The woman looked thoughtful for a moment before nodding slightly. "That description does sound a bit familiar, I think there might have been someone like that in the group the guards just took."

A spike of fear shot through Tifa. "To the back rooms, you said? What are they doing there?"

"No one knows," the woman said, her face going pale. "Only that no one ever comes back."

"Barret!" Tifa yelled, the man in question hurrying over with a puzzled look. "We need to go, now! Jessie is in danger."

Thankfully, he didn't ask any questions and only nodded once. "Right. Biggs, Wedge, you two stay here and keep an eye out for any new soldiers. Give us a shout if anything goes down."

Tifa was already racing for the back of the room before he finished, shoving her way through the unlocked door and coming to a skidding halt on the other side as she took in the room on the other side.

"What in the fuck is all this?" Barret asked from behind her, his voice an equal mix of awe and horror.

She fully understood his reaction. The room had been heavily modified with massive glass tanks filled with a strange green liquid lining the walls. Most of the tanks were empty, but a few of them had small orbs of various colors floating inside them. Whatever the fluid inside was, it was glowing softly, causing the entire room to be bathed in green. Tifa had never seen anything like it and she couldn't tell what its purpose was or why it was hidden away back here.

"Let me go!" a voice from the far end screamed, sending Tifa back into motion when she recognized it as Jessie's. Rounding the corner of one of the far tanks, she saw a horrific sight—a Shinra soldier had dragged Jessie up a ramp that had been positioned next to one of the containers and was trying to push her into it. Two more soldiers stood at the bottom, one with another prisoner, but the other was standing on his own. She tried not to imagine what that meant.

"Damnit, stop struggling!" the soldier with Jessie shouted. "You're going in one way or another."

"Need some help?" the lone soldier called out, laughing. "Can't believe you're not even able to handle a teenage girl. Let me show you how it's—"

Whatever he'd been about to say was abruptly cut off as Tifa's fist connected with the side of his head. He dropped to the ground with a shout, cradling his head in both hands. Tifa had hoped to completely knock him out, but didn't waste time with a follow-up strike—Barret would hopefully be able to deal with him and Jessie still needed help.

"The hell?!" shouted the soldier holding the other prisoner. "We're under attack!"

Tifa ignored him as she charged up the ramp, her eyes focused on the man still trying to shove Jessie into the tank. It wasn't at all clear what would happen if he succeeded, and Tifa didn't want to find out. Before she was able to reach them, he spun around to face her, giving up on Jessie and reaching for a knife at his waist. The sight of the weapon suddenly made it clear just how real this was. That wasn't a training weapon, and if he managed to stab her with it then things would go downhill fast.

If he'd expected Jessie to stop fighting back then he was proven immediately wrong as she dropped into a crouch and swept her leg out, catching him at knee height and causing him to stagger. Tifa used the opening to lunge forward, slamming her fist directly into his stomach. The guard's eyes bulged out as the air in his lungs escaped with a loud wheeze. Not taking any chances, Tifa followed up with a kick of her own, sending him toppling off the side of the ramp and crashing to the ground below.

Before she was able to check on how Barret was doing, Jessie ran and threw her arms around Tifa, hugging her tightly. "Thank you," she whispered, shaking slightly. "I thought I was going to die."

"We'd never let that happen," Tifa said reassuringly, rubbing a hand up and down her friend's back and ignoring how close they'd come to exactly that.

"Who's that with you?" Jessie asked, pulling away slightly and looking over Tifa's shoulder. "And how did you manage to find me?"

"That's Barret. Shinra apparently tried to kidnap him and his wife around the same time they got you. Biggs and Wedge asked him for help and, well, the rest is history."

The man in question was breathing heavily Tifa noticed, but he'd managed to subdue both of the remaining guards and was rifling through their pockets, presumably looking for one of the keycards. She and Jessie made their way down the ramp to join him with Tifa keeping a close eye on her friend to make sure she really was alright.

"Gotcha!" Barret announced right as they reached him, holding up a card triumphantly. "You two doin' okay?"

Tifa nodded. "I think so. What happened to the other captive?"

"Hmm? Oh, him? He bolted as soon as the guard let him go to attack me. He's probably halfway home by now." Barret turned his attention over to Jessie. "Any idea what the hell Shinra was trying to do with you?"

She visibly shivered, shaking her head. "I don't, just that they were trying to force us into whatever those tanks are. The woman before me was thrashing and screaming, but then the moment her head went under the surface she went completely still. It was horrible."

Tifa swallowed. She wished they'd arrived earlier, but was thankful they'd at least been able to prevent Jessie from meeting the same horrible fate.

"Um, guys? We've got a situation here!" Wedge called out in alarm from the main room.

The three of them were instantly in motion, racing in the direction of his voice. As soon as they passed through the doorway and back into the holding room, Tifa instantly recognized what the issue was: standing in the shattered remains of the door they'd broken to gain entrance stood three figures dressed entirely in black—Turks.

Barret held the keycard he'd found out to Jessie, not taking his eyes off the Turks. "Take this and get as many people out as you can. We'll hold them off."

"Right."

Tifa was still worried that Jessie wasn't in any shape to be helping with the rescue, but given the latest development, she was forced to admit this was probably the best plan. Even outnumbering them, this was going to be vastly more challenging than dealing with unprepared Shinra soldiers.

"Oh no," Reno drawled in a strangely exaggerated way. "They're rescuing the prisoners. Whatever are we supposed to do?"

"That's certainly not good," Rude said, also sounding off. "We should stop them from doing that."

Elena glanced between the two of them, a baffled look on her face. "Wait, what? I thought Rufus specifically said we were shutting this whole thing down. Tseng was super clear as well, he said that the boss didn't support—Oh . . ." She trailed off as the other two Turks sighed loudly.

"Still, I wasn't expecting Avalanche and an old Fang to be the ones making all the fuss," Reno said with a smirk, extending his baton with a flick of his wrist. "We've got a bit of time to play around, don't we?"

Rude tightened one of his gloves. "Think we just might."

"We're fighting? I thought . . ." Elena groaned. "I knew I should have stayed behind."

"C'mon, it'll be fun," Reno said with a wink. "You can take the two boys, I'll go with the old man, and Rude can finally get together with Tifa, if you know what—" He cut off with a cough as Rude heavily elbowed him in the stomach.

Tifa wasn't sure what to make of any part of what had just happened but didn't have time to think about it as Rude advanced on her. Shifting her weight onto the balls of her feet, she readied herself for whatever his opening attack would be. It had been years since she'd last faced off against him, but Tifa had done a lot of training in that time and wasn't worried about being able to keep up.

Off to the side, she heard Barret yell "Who you callin' old, punk?!" followed by a yelp from Reno, and couldn't keep the smile off her face. "Sounds like your partner might be in a bit over his head," Tifa said with a smirk. "Sure you don't need to go help him?"

"Reno is a big boy, he can handle himself. You should be worrying more about yourself."

"Why?" she asked, raising one eyebrow. "All you've been doing so far is staring."

For some reason, Rude's cheeks flushed, but before she could consider why, he stepped forward and threw the first punch. Smoothly shifting to the side, she darted in and landed three quick hits to his side. Rude hardly seemed to notice, his foot lashing out and sending her jumping away. Glancing backward, Tifa saw that Jessie had two of the cages already open and was working on the third as panicked people began rushing past the fighting and out the hole they'd made in the wall. If they could just hold off the Turks for a bit longer then they stood a good chance of getting most everyone out.

"Bold move to look away in the middle of a fight," Rude said, but as Tifa returned her attention to him it didn't seem like he'd tried to take advantage of it.

Deciding not to respond, she spun and launched a kick of her own, aiming directly for the center of his chest. Rude threw up both of his arms to block and grunted as he absorbed the impact. Not giving him a chance to recover she pivoted and kicked with her other foot, this time at his knees. Unable to block it in time, he tried to move out of the way, but not before she managed to connect with the side of his leg. Even so, the blow seemed to hardly phase him.

"You're a solid fighter Tifa, always have been. I could put in a good word for you if you want."

She snorted. "What, and work for a company that kidnaps innocent people and then throws them into poison tanks? Thanks for the offer, but I think I'll pass."

A shadow passed across Rude's face at her words. "Listen, Shinra is a big organization. Just because one portion does something, doesn't mean the rest agrees or even knows about it."

"Except you did know, or else you wouldn't even be here. Or do you expect me to believe you're here out of the goodness of your heart to help? Last I checked, you work for the assholes that kidnapped my friend and tried to kill her."

"I—Look, it's . . . complicated. Orders are orders, and like it or not, sometimes I have to do bad things."

Tifa rolled her eyes. "Seriously? That's your excuse? You were ordered to do it so that automatically means it's okay? You make me sick."

"That's not—" Rude looked ready to grind his teeth, which stood out as being highly unusual. She was used to him being so emotionless that this was a shocking change of pace. "Go," he said firmly, stepping to the side. "That's all the prisoners free. Get out of here before any more of Hojo's soldiers show up."

Blinking in surprise, she spared another quick glance and saw that he was telling the truth, Jessie had finished with the cages and all of the prisoners had fled. "You're letting us go? Just like that?"

He nodded once, even going so far as to put his hands behind his back.

Frowning, Tifa cautiously walked past him, prepared for Rude to try and catch her off guard with some kind of underhanded attack. Except nothing happened. Checking in on the others, she saw that Barret seemed to have completely overpowered Reno while Jessie had joined Biggs and Wedge in the fight with Elena. While she'd been holding the two boys off surprisingly well, the three-to-one odds were proving too much for her to handle.

"Guys, let's go!" Tifa shouted. "We've done what we came here for."

The Turks didn't show any indication of being upset—minus Reno who looked like he might have a nasty black eye come the next day—as the members of Avalanche broke off and joined up with her. As they ran out of the building and into the cool night air, she found herself strangely conflicted from her conversation with Rude. What Shinra was doing was undeniably evil, but every indication she'd gotten from him seemed to hint that the Turks also weren't on board with it. Maybe what he'd been saying hadn't been complete bullshit. She hoped for the sake of Midgar's future that it wasn't.

Wooo, Avalanche! We get a pretty action-packed chapter as the group gathers together to save Jessie. This is just a taste of what's to come, as the action will continue to pick up once we reach the adult years. Cloud ends up not joining the Avalanche crew since he's off visiting Aerith, but everyone else we're used to has banded together as an anti-Shinra organization. A lot of you seemed to pick up on what Hojo's plans were, but here we finally get confirmation that he is indeed creating Materia out of a combination of mako and ... well, people. This is obviously not canon and is unique to this universe, but it felt like a fairly natural thought process for him to have with the recognition that his mako spheres were similar but missing *life*.

Speaking of the adult years, though, they're rapidly approaching, likely faster than you expect. We've got one more mid-week update and then next week will be the final chapter with everyone as teens meaning another very exciting chapter is on the horizon. I hope everyone is still enjoying the story and looking forward to it!

Next Chapter: Heir