"How the hell do you know that name?" Cloud demanded. He'd crossed the room before even realizing what he was doing, his hands digging into Zack's shirt. It was impossible. Aerith? Here? And in the hands of Shinra?!

Zack blinked several times, clearly confused. "Wait . . . you know who she is?"

"Of course I do!" Cloud shouted, wanting nothing more than to shake answers out of Zack. "You let Shinra take her? Do you have any idea what they'll do to her?!"

"What? No! I thought they'd have a hard time getting the President to stop the war, sure, but I never imagined he'd attack them, especially not when we were there to talk about peace. There wasn't anything I could do!"

Hojo had Aerith. Hojo had Aerith! Cloud couldn't stop shaking, couldn't stop thinking of what that meant, what might be happening right now while they were just standing around wasting time. "I'm going," he said, throwing Zack to the side and heading directly for the door.

"Cloud, wait!" Tifa called. "You can't just charge off on your own!"

He wanted to do exactly that, but a small, rational part of his brain that was still functioning recognized she was right. "I'm going to help her," he said, spinning back around to face them. "This isn't up for debate. Are you going to help me or not?"

"I'm in," Zack replied instantly. "That's why I came to find you in the first place. Just curious how it is you know her."

"It's a long story. Tifa? Barret?"

They shared a brief look.

"This is fuckin' insane," Barret growled. "Fine, I'll go get Jessie and the boys then. We're going to need all the help we can get if we're seriously doing this." He stomped past Cloud, muttering under his breath, but all Cloud cared about was that he was in.

"Come sit while we wait on them," Tifa said, patting a barstool. "Brooding by the door isn't going to solve anything and I want to hear how you both ended up meeting an Ancient. Besides, it's been ages since the three of us had a chance to talk."

Cloud ground his teeth. They didn't have time for this. Reluctantly, he walked over and sat down, praying that Barret wouldn't take long.

Walking back around behind the bar, Tifa grabbed two glasses. "It's not exactly how I pictured it, but we've finally got the Fangs back together. Well, mostly. What can I get you?"

"I'm good," he replied, looking back over his shoulder at the door. How long would Barret be? Maybe he should have gone with him.

"Oh come on, have something at least."

"Water."

With a loud sigh, she filled a glass and plonked it down in front of him. Some of it splashed over the brim and onto the counter, but she wiped it away with a cloth in the blink of an eye.

"Well, I'll have the house special, if you're offering," Zack declared, dropping down onto the stool beside Cloud.

"Don't get the special," Cloud warned before taking a sip of his water.

"Hey, there's nothing wrong with the special!" Tifa exclaimed, already pouring various liquids into a container.

As he watched her mix the drink, Cloud had to admit that it was pretty impressive. She'd only started bartending a few months back—saying that it would help to reinforce their cover if someone actually ran the bar—and she'd picked it up like a natural. With a few more flourishes and shakes, she finished by pouring the completed drink out into two glasses.

Zack gasped next to him. "Wow . . . that's uh, really green, isn't it? Are drinks . . . supposed to be that color?"

"I warned you," Cloud said with a smirk.

"Here, just try it," she said confidently, holding out one of the glasses to Zack.

He hesitantly reached out, shot Cloud a worried look, and tentatively took a tiny sip. His eyes widened dramatically. "Wow, this is amazing, Tifa!"

"Right?" She took a sip of her own before closing her eyes and sighing softly. "Maybe I need to do something about the color since it seems to scare people off, but I think it helps make it more unique."

"You should keep it, that way people like him will leave more for us," Zack said, gesturing to Cloud before he took a second, longer taste.

Cloud snorted. "I prefer water even to normal-looking drinks, you're welcome to them."

Tifa set her glass down and glanced between them. "So. Who wants to tell me about Aerith?"

Zack opened his mouth, then paused and looked over at Cloud.

It felt weird to talk about her. Not that he'd ever intended to keep her a secret, but after they hadn't believed him about crossing the Barrier as a kid there'd never really been a reason to bring her up. Not that he'd even been talking with Zack for most of that time.

"She's . . . the first Cetra I ever met, back when I first crossed over. We were the same age and became something like friends."

"What's that word you keep using?" Tifa asked. "Cetra?"

"It's what they call themselves," he explained. "We call them Ancients, but they're not very fond of it."

Zack winced. "I'll keep that in mind for the future. That probably explains the looks Vincent was always giving me. Although I think he just doesn't really like anyone, as far as I could tell."

"Back to Aerith," Tifa said. "You said 'something like friends,' but your reaction to Zack's news was pretty strong."

"Wait, Cloud's got a girlfriend!?"

He could feel his cheeks burning and took a deep gulp of his water to try and buy some time to come up with a response. From the look in both of their eyes, they clearly weren't going to let this go. "It's not like that. Besides, after what happened five years ago she'll hate me now."

Tifa arched an eyebrow. "And yet you still want to rush to her rescue at the drop of a hat."

"I owe it to her."

"Oh! Maybe you were the one she was talking about," Zack said, snapping his fingers.

Cloud felt his stomach flop. "She talked about me?"

"No, it was more like she specifically didn't want to talk about you."

It shouldn't have hurt as much as it did, but at least he'd been prepared for it. How could she not hate him? Downing the last of his water in a gulp, he jumped to his feet. "Barret is taking too long, I'm going to go find him."

As if summoned, the doors to the bar swung open and the four missing members of Avalanche filed in.

"Hey, Zack really is back!" Wedge shouted, walking over and giving him a high five.

"Wedge, it's good to see you again! How's it going, Biggs? Looking good, Jessie!"

"You bet I am," she said, laughing. "Not looking too shabby yourself. Staying with your parents this time or want to crash at my place?" she asked with a wink.

Cloud didn't have time for their flirting. "Can we just come up with a plan already? We've wasted too much time as it is."

"So what exactly is going on?" Biggs asked. "Barret said something about Shinra capturing Cloud's girl? I wasn't aware you even had a girl."

"She's not—"

"Someone who managed to penetrate this stone-cold exterior and piss off Shinra? Now that's a woman I want to meet," Jessie chimed in.

"It's not like that!" Cloud shouted, struggling not to get upset since he knew they were all just teasing him. Didn't they understand how serious this was? "Please. You know what Hojo is like. He's been wanting to get his hands on someone like Aerith for a very long time and now he finally has. We have to get her out of there!"

"Hard to argue with that," Barret grumbled. "Even if I still think this is a suicide mission."

"I think I can get us back into the tower," Zack said. "They still trust me, but I can't imagine they won't get suspicious before long. We'll need to be prepared to fight our way out at the very least."

"Sneak in, get the girl, get out. We can totally pull this off," Biggs said.

Zack shook his head. "It's not just her, we need to get Vincent out as well."

"One person or two, it's basically the same at that point," Barret said with a shrug. "What I want to know is if we can count on them to help us get back out."

"Aerith isn't a fighter." Cloud looked over at Zack. "I've never met Vincent so I'm not sure about him."

"Vincent had a gun on him. Not something I've ever seen any other Anc—I mean Cetra carrying. And then he's got magic, obviously, although I never really saw him use it much. He might be able to help?"

"We shouldn't count on either of them," Tifa said, coming out from behind the bar to join the rest of them. "Even if they are capable, we have no idea what condition they're going to be in. We need to be able to get in and out on our own."

"Do we know where they're being held?" Jessie asked.

Zack sighed, running a hand through his hair. "Not exactly, no. Hojo's labs are all on the upper floors and they'll almost certainly be up there, but it's a lot of area to search."

Barret grunted. "So we'll have to split up. Great. Three groups make the most sense. Cloud and Zack, me and Tifa, and then the three of you. Objections?"

Cloud wasn't overly thrilled to be grouped together with Zack, but if it got things moving then he wasn't going to complain. No one else seemed to mind the groups and he was glad they were finally ready to take action.

"If something goes wrong, don't do anything stupid," Barret continued. "Let's plan to regroup here at the bar assuming everything goes smoothly."

"How are you going to get us in?" Tifa asked Zack as they began filing out of the bar and into the street.

"Recruits. It'll get us through the doors and let me escort you without picking up any extra Shinra troops."

Tifa looked thoughtful, then nodded. "Sounds like it should work out fine, as long as we can avoid any Turks. They'll recognize us on sight and then we'll have a problem."

Silence briefly settled over the group as they made their way through the streets until Jessie walked up next to Cloud and nudged him with her elbow. "What's Aerith look like, so we know who to look for."

He glanced away. "Dunno," he mumbled. "Haven't seen her in years. Zack should know."

"Oh, she's beautiful. Long brown hair with a cute ribbon in it, and eyes like a forest. You'll know her when you see her, especially since there won't be anyone else even remotely similar there. Vincent, on the other hand, is . . . uh . . . well, a dude. In black and red robes."

Jessie laughed loudly. "Got it. Beautiful woman and a dude. Never change, Zack, never change."

He grinned back at her.

Cloud wasn't sure how to feel about the description. On one hand, he agreed with everything Zack had said, and yet on the other, a part of him was . . . angry. Angry that he didn't know what Aerith looked like as an adult. Angry at himself for ruining what they'd had between them. And angry at Zack for apparently having spent an extended amount of time with her.

By the time they reached the tower, Cloud was struggling to hold himself back. Aerith was up there somewhere, in the hands of the worst people in the world. He knew it wasn't entirely Zack's fault, but still, it was hard not to blame him. How could he have just taken her directly to Hojo like that?

Zack signaled for everyone to come to a halt as they neared the front doors. "Getting in will probably be the hardest part so let me do all the talking, okay? This place is locked up tighter than you can imagine, but I had a chat with the guards earlier and they should remember me."

It was a challenge for Cloud to not think of the last time he'd visited the tower and what had happened as Zack led them up to the entrance. He was all too familiar with the tower's security. As Zack had said, there were two soldiers standing guard, and while they initially moved to bar the way, as soon as they saw the black-haired man leading them they seemed to hesitate.

"Hey guys, it's me again. Look, instead of doing this whole song and dance again how about . . ." Zack trailed off as the guards stepped out of the way, looking disinterested. "So . . . does that mean we're good to go in?"

One of the two men nodded. "For your services to Shinra, you've been granted free access to the tower. That applies to anyone with you as well."

"Oh. I guess we'll just go inside then," Zack said, slowly walking up to the doors. The guards made no motion to stop him, and soon they were all standing inside the building in a loose group.

"Locked up super tight, huh?" Biggs snickered, nudging Wedge who also laughed.

"Look, I didn't know that—"

"Enough messing around," Barret interrupted, his attention focused on the stairs leading upward to the main landing. "How are we getting up to the lab?"

"The stairs," Zack answered quickly. "When I was here earlier, Reno said that no one ever uses them so we should be able to completely avoid detection."

Wedge swallowed nervously. "Uhh, are you sure about that, bro? It doesn't seem like they really care about us as long as we're with you and that sounds like a long climb."

Tifa shook her head. "No, the stairs sound like a good idea. Remember, even if normal guards won't stop us, any Turk will recognize us on sight and then we'll have a lot of awkward questions to answer."

"Tough it up, big guy," Jessie said, playfully punching his back. "This will be a good workout for all of us. Besides, I bet it won't be that bad."

"This is the worst thing we've ever done!" Wedge moaned, somewhere off in the distance.

Cloud had lost track of everything—where people were in relation to him, what floor he'd most recently passed, and why any of them had thought this was a remotely good idea. The burning in his legs consumed his world. His eyes were fixed on the next stair, his entire focus on lifting one foot after the other as the endless climb continued. Aerith was somewhere up ahead. That was the only thought going through his head, keeping him in motion.

"You're almost there, guys," Tifa called down, sounding far too chipper given the situation. "Keep it up!"

Putting on a final burst of energy, Cloud pushed up the final flight of stairs and collapsed on the landing where both Jessie and Tifa were waiting. While both of them at least looked winded, it was absolutely unfair how okay they seemed in comparison. He wasn't even in anything close to bad shape, and yet they'd somehow destroyed him. It was a clear sign there was still more he could do—ways for him to push beyond his limits.

Zack was the next person to come into view before too long, with Biggs closely trailing right behind him. From there, it was a sizable wait—filled mostly with the sounds of heavy breathing—until at last both Barret and Wedge appeared. Cloud couldn't tell who was supporting whom as they staggered up the final steps and dropped to the ground, gasping for breath.

"Never . . . again," Barret panted.

Cloud refrained from pointing out that they'd have to leave the tower once they were done, and that would be after they'd kicked the hornet's nest—meaning they'd most likely have to use the stairs to escape as well. Even if it would be slightly easier going down than up, there was no way around the ridiculous number of steps.

"Okay, well, hopefully, that was the hardest part of this operation," Zack said, his breathing having mostly returned to normal by this point. "Even if I have permission to be in the tower, I doubt it extends to these upper floors so if we get spotted it'll almost certainly lead to a confrontation."

Biggs grinned. "So what you're saying is that this is where the fun begins."

"Exactly. We should go in swinging, subdue anyone you see, and try to prevent them from raising the alarm for as long as possible."

"So is this where we split up?" Tifa asked.

"Not quite yet, this floor isn't the one we need," Zack said. "Hojo's lab takes up the entire floor above this one."

Cloud groaned loudly along with everyone else.

"Don't worry, there's an escalator to get us up there," he said quickly.

As a group, they followed Zack out of the stairwell and into the room on the other side of the door. It appeared to be a smaller version of the lobby down on the ground floor, serving as the connecting point to the upper levels. As a result, there were a decent number of people walking around, although, thankfully, they seemed to mostly ignore Cloud and the others. He hoped that most of the attention they were getting was because they'd come from the stairs and not for any other reason.

True to Zack's word, there was indeed an escalator which was a welcome relief after the ordeal they'd just been through. The entire ride up to the next floor they continued to get strange looks from people on the opposite escalator heading down. To be fair, everyone else was wearing suits or lab coats so the group did stick out quite a bit. Fortunately, no one seemed worried enough to actually do anything, and they reached the next floor without issue.

This floor was noticeably different from the last one. Most people seemed to be skipping it entirely and moving on to the one above, with only a few people in lab coats stopping. Large letters on the walls announcing "Classified Research" and "Authorized Personnel Only" seemed to indicate they were in the right spot. Now all that was left was to find Aerith.

"Cloud and I will take the entrance dead ahead here, Tifa and Barret can take the one over on the right wall and then the others to the left. Sound good?" Zack asked.

Everyone nodded and made their way in their respective directions—Cloud close at Zack's side. Now that they were finally here, his blood was pounding in his ears. Get in, find Aerith, get out. It would be simple. Zack swung the door open and the two of them stepped through.

An alarm immediately went off.

"Unauthorized intruders in the research facility. Termination program engaged. All employees should follow protocol 4a.51-b, failure to do so may result in loss of life. Unauthorized intruders in the . . ."

"Termination protocol?" Cloud asked as they ground to a halt. The room they were in was mostly nondescript with desks covered in various lab equipment. Only a handful of people were working there and they were all staring at the two of them with wide eyes. A half second later they were all on their feet, racing out of the room through a side door.

"Eh, it can't be too bad, right? There's a bunch of civilians working here, they're not going to risk hurting their own people."

Cloud blinked. "You . . . don't understand Shinra at all, do you? Let's get moving before this gets any more complicated."

Picking a door on the other side of the room at random he swung it open and immediately jumped backward as a snarling, toothy mouth snapped shut right where he'd been standing.

"Wait, is that a monster?!" Zack exclaimed, smoothly drawing his sword from his back. "Inside the tower? You have to be kidding me."

"It certainly doesn't appear to be friendly," Cloud said, also drawing his blade and falling into a crouch.

The monster looked something like a bloodhound, except for the fact it had two tails. And its teeth were twice as long as they should have been. And its eyes were rolling madly in its sockets. But otherwise, perfectly normal.

It snarled, then jumped directly at Cloud, its speed nearly catching him off guard. He barely managed to block the attack with the flat of his blade, knocking one of the monster's long teeth loose and causing it to snarl in pain. Instead of pulling back like he'd expected it to, it continued to press forward, its small body revealing a shocking amount of strength. Cloud was so focused on its mouth that he didn't see the claw coming until it dug deeply into his leg. Before he could come up with a way to counterattack, the monster shrieked and then went limp as it collapsed onto him, revealing Zack standing on the other side with dark black blood on the blade of his sword.

"Thanks. Little help here?" Cloud groaned.

Zack rolled the monster off of him and offered a hand, hauling Cloud to his feet. There was a slight, burning pain in his leg where the claw had managed to cut through his clothes, but the wound looked manageable enough and didn't appear to be bleeding much.

"Still think Shinra cares about the scientists?" he asked.

Zack frowned. "I guess things are worse than I imagined. We should get moving before any more of those things come, I don't like the idea of having to deal with multiple of them at once."

Nodding, Cloud followed him into the room the monster had come from. This one was similar to the last, although it had fewer desks and several empty tanks lining the walls. Anyone who had been working here was already gone, and, thankfully, there didn't appear to be any more of the strange bloodhounds waiting for them.

"So . . . I've been thinking about it a lot recently, and I was wondering if you'd forgive me for how I reacted when the Fangs broke up," Zack said out of nowhere.

Seriously? Were they going to have this conversation now of all times? "I don't think this is the time to—"

"There they are! Surrender or we will use lethal force!" a voice shouted from behind them—proving Cloud's point, albeit in a less-than-desirable way.

Surrendering was obviously out of the question. Cloud didn't even bother to respond, instead shifting his grip on his sword to use it as a shield as he had back at the reactor before charging the two guards. It didn't take them long to open fire, but once again the overly large blade did an exceptional job of protecting him. Once he was close enough, it was easy enough to take them down with a few precise swings. Quiet returned to the room, although from the faint gunfire in the distance, it sounded like the other groups had run into trouble as well.

"That's a pretty sweet trick," Zack said as Cloud rejoined him. "Maybe I should get myself a sword like that."

"Pfft, as if you could handle something like this."

"I totally could. Well, after some training. It is stupidly big."

"Hey, it's not stupid!"

Zack laughed. "Where did you even find something like that?"

"At the local smith's. Got it for free, too."

"Shut up."

"It's true," Cloud said, grinning back and only then realizing how good it felt to be trading banter with Zack again. Maybe he did forgive him. After all, it had been a long time ago and the whole thing was stupid anyway.

The two of them continued into the lab, passing through empty room after empty room. While it was nice to not have to keep dealing with resistance, it was more frustrating that they didn't seem to be getting any closer to finding Aerith. Was she not here? It didn't help that the more they searched the more his leg kept complaining at him, but he used the pain to push on. Cloud's worries evaporated when they pushed open a door and were immediately forced to slam it shut as multiple guns began firing.

"Don't let them reach the Ancient!"

So Aerith was here! He wanted to charge through the door immediately, but the Shinra soldiers were too prepared for something that reckless to work.

"I can already tell you want to just charge in," Zack said, glancing over at the door. "But we might be better off trying to find another route with how fortified they are."

Cloud shook his head. "No, for all we know there's only one way into the room they're keeping her in. We can't waste any more time, not when she's right there."

"What's the plan then? There are a lot more of them than last time, is your little trick even going to work with that many?"

"It will," he said with far more confidence than he felt. It had to.

"I'll be right behind you then," Zack said, lightly punching Cloud's back. "Ready when you are."

Lifting his sword in front of him, Cloud took a deep breath and slammed it into the door—sending it flying off its hinges into the room. Immediately after, gunfire rang out and he felt the bullets cracking into his blade. Not hesitating, he charged onward, trying to keep as much of his body behind the sword as possible. Even so, he winced as a bullet clipped the top of his shoulder.

"Release the hound!"

Well . . . shit. That was probably the last thing he wanted to be hearing right now. "Zack!"

"On it!"

Out of the corner of his eye, Cloud saw a soldier sliding open the bars to a cage in the wall. A split second later there was a flash of motion and then the man was down on the ground screaming as the mutated bloodhound he'd released turned and attacked him. It was a small relief to know they didn't have the monsters fully under control, but that didn't stop him from feeling sorry for the poor man.

Returning his attention to the people shooting at him, he put on a burst of speed as the gunfire slowed somewhat—indicating they were likely reloading. As a result, he did end up taking a minor hit to his left arm, but his suspicion proved to be correct and it allowed him to swiftly cut down two of the guards who were still shooting. The others—realizing they wouldn't have enough time to finish reloading—dropped their guns and drew their swords. Exactly as Cloud had hoped they would.

This was his fight now.

Spinning, he swung his sword in a wide arc, forcing them to spread out around him. Normally, being surrounded would have worked against him, but before they had a chance to coordinate he was already attacking them one at a time. They were probably decent fighters, all things considered, but they were no match for him. In a few short minutes, he'd subdued all of them except for the final three who'd run away once they realized the battle was lost.

He turned to go help Zack but found his friend had already taken care of the monster and was leaning against the wall, breathing heavily. "Did it get you anywhere?" he asked, wincing as the ache in his leg from his run-in with the hound from earlier flared up again.

Zack shook his head as he sheathed his sword. "Nope, I'm good. Just need to catch my breath."

With that concern out of the way, Cloud raced through the door that the soldiers had been guarding . . .

And there she was, standing inside a glass chamber that dominated the center of the room.

He recognized her instantly, despite the five-year gap that separated their last meeting. How could he not? She was wearing a light pink dress that looked to have seen much better times, although the hair ribbon Zack had mentioned that he was so used to seeing on her appeared to be missing. What could have happened to it? Except then he saw the pink fabric, on the ground at her feet, cut into several haphazard pieces alongside mangled chunks of her hair. Someone had cut it out.

A fire ignited inside Cloud, a burning rage directed at the man he knew was responsible. Hojo. He would make him pay.

Aerith's eyes went wide as she saw him and Cloud could only imagine what she was thinking. He'd known from the start she wouldn't be happy to see him, but that wasn't important right now. All that mattered was getting her out to safety.

"How can I get you out of there?" he shouted, walking up to the glass and placing his hand against it. The surface was cool to the touch and as far as he could tell, completely door-less.

Aerith only shook her head in response, raising her hands to cover her ears and giving him a small shrug.

Not being able to communicate was certainly going to complicate things, especially considering this level of technology wasn't exactly his strong suit. If Jessie had been here he was sure she'd be able to come up with a way to get it open, but his only idea was to try smashing it with his sword. That seemed far too likely to accidentally hurt Aerith though, leaving him struggling to come up with a better solution.

"Ah, good, we found her," Zack said from the doorway before walking over to join him. "How's it going, Aerith? Your rescue party has arrived!"

"She can't hear us," Cloud explained, noticing that Aerith was looking between the two of them in shock with her mouth hanging partially open. "Any ideas on how we get her out of this thing?"

"Smash it."

"Without hurting her."

"Ah, good point. Hmm. Smash it gently?"

Cloud groaned, rubbing his forehead with one hand—he was getting a headache now. "There has to be some way to open this up, they obviously didn't build it around her."

Thankfully, Aerith seemed to have grasped what they were struggling with because she walked over to the far side from where they were standing and beckoned them over. Once they'd circled around to the opposite side of the container, she pointed to a panel on the nearby wall that had a large red lock symbol glowing on it.

"She's right, we smash this!" Zack said cheerfully, lifting up his sword.

"Wait!" Cloud shouted, grabbing his arm. "What if breaking it locks her in there permanently? There has to be something less destructive we can try first."

Zack frowned. "Well, knowing Hojo, I can't imagine he'd let whatever controls this out of his sight. So we either have to track him down, wait for him to show up, or we just try this. She's stuck in there regardless so I don't think we can make the situation any worse."

Cloud didn't like any of those options but was forced to admit that the last one did seem like their best bet. "Fine, do it. Worst case we'll have her move to the far side and try breaking it open if this doesn't work."

Without hesitation, Zack raised his sword and plunged it into the panel, sending a flurry of sparks into the air. There was a loud, electrical groan as all the lights in the room dimmed for a moment before returning to normal. Just as Cloud was about to despair that it hadn't worked, a hissing noise that quickly grew in volume filled the room. Turning, he saw that a section of the glass had begun dropping into the floor, venting some kind of gas that had apparently been filling the chamber. Doing his best not to be worried about what it could be, he took a hesitant step forward before grinding to a halt. Aerith would be okay. She had to be.

Zack rushed passed him, shooting him a surprised look in the process, but Cloud remained standing where he was. This was for the best. "Aerith! You okay?" Zack asked. "We're here to get you out."

She took the hand he offered and stepped over the last bit of glass still sticking up from the floor before taking a deep breath. "Well, this is quite a pleasant surprise. I wasn't expecting to see you again, much less the two of you together."

Her voice was like a punch to the gut. It wasn't that Cloud had forgotten what it sounded like despite how long it had been, but rather the realization of how much he had missed it. The soft lilt, the gentleness, the amused undertone. It was all so . . . Aerith.

An electrical panel on the far wall crackled, snapping Cloud out of his daze. "Come on, it's still not safe here. We need to get going."

"Wait, they have my dad captive still. I'm not leaving without him," Aerith said, a determined look on her face.

Her dad was here? How? As much as he wanted to get Aerith to safety, Cloud knew she wouldn't budge on this. "Right. Change in plans. Zack, you get Aerith out, I'll go find her father."

"I can help too," she said, holding up her hand for some reason before frowning. "Or not. How did that gas cut me off? I can still feel it, it's just . . . out of reach somehow."

Cloud had no idea what she was talking about and tried not to worry about it. They'd need to see a doctor about that gas once they were out, though, first thing. "Go. I'll be right behind you once I find him."

Giving him one last look, Zack nodded and gently pulled Aerith toward the door they'd entered from. She didn't seem overly pleased with the plan but followed after him. Before she disappeared from view she turned to look back at Cloud, but he averted his gaze. When he looked back, they were both gone.

Taking a deep breath, he tried to clear his thoughts. Aerith was safe with Zack, that was what mattered most. Now he just had to figure out where Hojo was holding her dad. Considering she'd only been in the tower for a few hours at most, it seemed likely that he was somewhere nearby if Aerith had seen him. With no better ideas, Cloud decided to continue checking rooms one by one. Before beginning his search, he hesitated for a moment, then walked into the chamber and scooped the ribbon pieces off the ground before tucking them into his pocket.

The adjacent rooms were all more of the same, deserted and filled with lab equipment. As his search continued to not make any progress, Cloud's frustration only grew. Was he going to let her down again? Just as he was starting to lose hope, the sound of clanging metal down a hallway caught his attention.

Cautiously approaching—well aware it was quite likely a trap—he stopped on the other side of the door someone was banging on. "Who's there?"

The slamming stopped, followed by a brief pause before a familiar voice spoke up. "Tell Hojo I'll cooperate. Just don't hurt my daughter. Please."

Breathing a sigh of relief, Cloud raised his sword. "I'm not with Shinra. Get away from the door." He waited a moment and then rammed it through the side of the door, using it as a lever to pop it open. On the far side of the room, staring at him in shock from where he was seated on a bed, Cloud found the man he'd been looking for.

"What? You? This is the second time you've saved me now. Why?"

"Because Aerith would be devastated to lose you," Cloud said, stating the obvious.

Gast sighed, shaking his head slightly. "I suppose Ifalna was right, she usually is."

Unsure what to make of that, Cloud offered the man his hand and pulled him to his feet. "Come on, we need to get out of here before more reinforcements arrive. Aerith is waiting for you."

Not waiting for a reply, he led the way out, glad to hear Gast close behind him.

"Aerith is safe? Hojo didn't do anything to her? Where is she?"

"She seemed fine," Cloud replied, doing his best not to think about the ribbon in his pocket. "Hojo had her in some kind of gas tank, but it didn't seem overly dangerous. As for where she is, well, hopefully out of this tower by now. I'll bring you to where we were planning to meet up."

The rest of the trip out of the lab went quickly and smoothly which was a welcome relief. They managed to avoid two separate groups of soldiers by ducking into rooms and waiting for them to pass before finally making it back to the escalators. Unlike before, this floor and the one below it were completely deserted, making for a stark contrast compared to the number of people on the way in. Keeping his guard up, Cloud led the way down the escalator and made a beeline for the elevators. There was no way Gast would make it down the stairs and they needed to get out while they could.

It didn't take long for one to arrive and Cloud followed in behind Gast, punching the button for the bottom floor. Now that the rush of the rescue was beginning to fade, a wave of exhaustion hit him. Coughing slightly, he took some deep breaths, steadying himself against the wall of the elevator—trying to keep as much weight off his injured leg as he could. With the adrenaline no longer coursing through his body, the pain of the wound ramped up considerably, but Cloud did his best to ignore it. He'd deal with it later, at the bar.

Just as quickly as they'd begun to move downward, the elevator came to a halt and the doors swung back open. A bored-looking man in a suit stepped inside—ignoring Cloud and Gast—and reached for the control panel.

"What do you think you're doing?" Cloud snapped, grabbing his arm.

"Um. Picking my floor?"

"No, we're going straight to the lobby."

The man blinked. "But . . . I have a meeting I need to get to on floor seven."

"Well, you're going to be a little late, deal with it." Cloud punched the button to close the doors as the man gaped at him.

"Who do you think you are?" the man demanded, raising his voice. "I am a middle manager! You have no right to take over this elevator!"

"I'm the one with the sword," Cloud growled back, raising his hand to lift it slightly off his back. "So if you want to stop this elevator then try and make me."

Even though he wouldn't actually do anything to hurt an innocent, his threat seemed to have the desired impact as the man went as white as a sheet and backed as far into the corner of the elevator as he could go, muttering something about a barbarian. The rest of the trip down passed in silence, without any more stops along the way. As soon as the doors opened, the Shinra employee ran out, screaming for help.

Oddly enough, there didn't seem to be anyone around to react as the lobby was not only completely empty but also looked like a bomb had gone off with how much damage there was. Not questioning their good luck, Cloud cleared a path through the rubble with Gast staying close behind him. Once they were outside the tower, it was a simple enough matter to reach the streets and head for the bar. The trip passed in a blur for Cloud, and before he realized it, they were standing outside Seventh Heaven.

As they reached the top of the steps, he could faintly hear Aerith's voice coming from the other side of the door. Taking a deep breath, he braced himself and pushed open the doors, planning to fade away into the background so she'd be able to focus on her father and not have to deal with him.

It was for the best this way.

First things first, technically Seventh Heaven's special is supposed to be the Cosmo Canyon, but since no one knows that location in this universe I went with the Lifestream (not that Tifa knows that name either, but it's more aligned with the story). We get a little mini-reunion between the Fangs here before the mission kicks off to get everyone a chance to catch up (and for Cloud to jump to some assumptions). Avalanche eventually shows up and some massive Cloud teasing commences because how could I not?

While the stairs only got a brief mention in the last chapter, this time, they get to shine front and center in all of their deserved glory, hahaha. The rescue mission kicks into full gear as they immediately set off an alarm, and from there, Cloud and Zack carve their way from room to room looking for Aerith and even managing to repair their friendship along the way—nothing a good bonding fight can't fix! Aerith is unsurprisingly shocked to see the only two Humans she really knows well working together and after a bit of a debate on how to get her out of her glass cell, Cloud and Zack settle on the thing they're best at—breaking things. With Aerith free, Cloud panics a bit and hangs back, allowing Zack to ultimately escort her out while he goes to look for good 'ol Gast. Once he finds Dad, it's a fairly easy trip back to the bar with a small guest appearance on the way down the tower, hehe.

I imagine most people were expecting much more of a Clerith reunion this chapter, but don't worry, next week has got you covered!

Next Chapter: Reunion