Another week, another chapter! I admit, I wasn't prepared for the deluge of comments regarding the destruction of Sector 7. Like I said, the fic will follow the main plot to a point, and for me, it didn't make sense to alter or stop the pillar drop sequence. Moreover, because the system is almost entirely remote-controlled, once Shinra made the decision to drop the plate on them, there wasn't a lot that AVALANCHE could do to stop it. Ranma's still getting his feet in this fight (the one against Shinra) on a specific point; nobody he's fought in his world fights for stakes this high. He's strong, but he comes from a world where one of the most common problems he personally has had to deal with is how many people want to date/marry him (or her, or Akane). At no prior point has the fate of an entire city rested on his decision-making or his ability to fight.

Also, as a reminder, this is going to be following FF7's main plot to a point. There will be changes, but some of them are going to be subtle, and some of the threads for those changes have already been placed, and as a consequence, some 'fixed points in history' are going to remain. Others won't. I honestly hope that the quality of my writing can at least serve in the meantime.

All right, enough for now, let's move on with the story.

Chapter Sixteen

Down

[ ν ] - εγλ 0007, December 12

Cloud and Tifa stood slowly, looking up at the unparalleled destruction. Ranma sat in the dirt, sobbing inarticulately in great heaving breaths, her adrenaline spent. Barret howled in rage and unloaded an entire belt of ammunition into the wreckage. As the spent shells tumbled to the ground behind him, he stepped forward and punched the scraps blocking his path.

"Biggs!" he screamed, slamming the barrels of his gun-arm against the glowing iron. "Wedge!" Another bare fisted smash against a shared of concrete, cutting his knuckles. "Jessie!" He raised the gun-arm and struck downwards, the stock slamming into the same piece of red-hot iron so hard it visibly dented. "Everyone…" he fell to his knees, faces and names of the inhabitants of Sector 7 passing through his mind. "Goddamnit! Damnit, Shinra! Damn all of you! The hell was it all for?" Lost in despair and anger, he resumed beating both arms against the rubble.

Tifa ran up to Barret, pulling at his good arm. "Stop it!" she cried, her own tears welling up. "Barret, stop… please…"

Barret knelt down on all fours and wept.

Tifa leaned over and rested her head on his shoulder, her tears flowing as well.

Ranma grasped her knees and curled into a ball, giving herself over to the despair and sorrow she felt, the dam bursting as she began to cry in earnest.

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"Marlene…"

It had been nearly a half hour. It had taken a long time for their immediate grief to play out. Tifa started suddenly, remembering Aerith's words atop the pillar.

"Barret…" Tifa said slowly, barely daring to hope herself. She remembered Aerith's words at the top of the pillar, words she had risked her life to make sure Tifa had heard. "Marlene is… I think… Marlene is safe…"

It took a long moment for Barret's mind to process this. "Huh? She's… what? What do ya mean?"

"Right before… Before the fight, I asked her to get Marlene and take her out of Sector 7... in case we couldn't..." she inhaled sharply, trying to collect herself, centering her emotions. "When they took Aerith, she called out to us… 'don't worry, she's safe'. She had to be talking about Marlene."

Barret stood up, his expression almost glowing for a moment. "R-really?" he stammered weakly, turning to face Tifa.

Tifa nodded, a soft smile gracing her face. Ranma rolled over and sat up. "But… the others…"

Barret's face froze, his anger returning, but not fully extinguishing his joy. "Biggs… Wedge… Jessie… they…"

"All three of them were on the pillar when it came down," Cloud said quietly, looking away.

"An' you think I don't know that?" Barret turned to face the rubble. "But they… we… all of us, we fought Shinra together. I don't wanna think of them as just dead!"

"And all the others in Sector 7…" Ranma curled her legs close and wrapped her arms around her knees again, burying her head in her arms.

"This is all so screwed up!" Barret stood up sharply, gesturing with his arms as he spoke. "They destroyed an entire town of ordinary people, just to get to us! They killed so many… to make sure… they destroyed AVALANCHE."

Tifa's eyes followed him. "Are you saying…" she trailed off, voice choked with emotion, "...are you saying it's our fault? Because AVALANCHE was here? Innocent people lost their lives because of us?"

Barret whirled on those words, fire in his eyes. "No! Tifa, that ain't it! Hell no!" He strode forward, gripped her shoulder firmly with his good hand and pointed with his gun at the central pillar. "It ain't us! It's Shinra! Never been nobody but goddamn Shinra! They're standing up there in their goddamn tower, destroyin' the whole planet and killin' anyone who tries to stand up to them. And all just to build up even more power and line their own damn pockets with gil!"

Barret turned and faced up at the pillar, the peak of Shinra Tower just visible over the still-incomplete plate of Sector 6. "If we don't get rid of 'em," he continued, "they're gonna kill this planet and everyone on it! Our fight ain't ever gonna be over, 'til we get rid of all of them!"

"...I don't know anymore," Tifa muttered, crestfallen, hands folded together.

"Whaddya mean, ya don't know?" Barret demanded, turning to face her again. "You don't believe me?"

Tifa shook her head. "It's not that. I'm not sure about… me... anymore," she unclasped her hands and held one fist to her chest. "About my feelings."

Barret turned to look at Ranma, still sitting dejected in the dirt. "An' what about you?" he said. "Or you?" he turned to Cloud, pointing with one finger, staring the mercenary down.

Ranma stood up, and turned away without saying a word. She started walking away from the wreckage of Sector 7. As she passed Cloud, she stopped for a moment, turned her head slightly, and said something audible only to him, and continued walking. Cloud's gaze followed her, before briefly turning to face Barret and Tifa. His gaze dropped, and he turned to follow Ranma.

"...the hell?" Barret watched the two of them go. "Where they think they goin'?"

Tifa rolled back the conversation in her head. "Oh! Aerith!"

Barret shook his head. "Damn, almost forgot about her. But why the hell they goin' that way?"

"Ranma might be the only one who knows where she took Marlene," Tifa said. "I asked Aerith to take herself somewhere safe. They've spent the last two weeks together. If anyone would know where that would be, it'd be Ranma."

"Damn! Right, Marlene!" Barret rubbed his forehead, trying to straighten his thoughts, then shook his head and started running after them. He stopped after a few steps and looked over his shoulder at the ruins one more time. "Tifa… There ain't no gettin' offa this train now. Not after this." And turned forward again, jogging after Ranma and Cloud. Tifa glanced back at the remains of Sector 7, and realized how right he was. Offering a last prayer to those who fell, she started running after the others.

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Ninety seconds ago…

Ranma stood up, and turned away without saying a word. She started walking away from the wreckage of Sector 7. As she passed Cloud, she stopped for a moment. "I need to tell Aerith's mother what happened," she said in a flat monotone, and continued walking.

Cloud nodded, then realized that meant walking back through one of the rougher parts of the slums alone. He glanced over his shoulder at Ranma, then turned back to look at Barret and Tifa. Realizing she was in good hands for the moment, Cloud turned away and jogged after Ranma.

"Don't hafta follow me, you know," Ranma muttered.

"Yeah, I kinda do," Cloud replied. "I dragged you both into this mess. It's my responsibility to make it right."

"Ha, don't kid yourself," Ranma countered, digging her hands into her coat pockets. "Aerith has been tied up in this for a decade or more. I got on the Turks' radar on day two of being here. The only thing you showin' up did was bring it to a head sooner, rather than later." She glanced downward. "Thanks, though. Gonna need help getting her back. An' turnin' Shinra into a pretzel."

Cloud nodded. "Won't be easy. Won't even be easy getting up to the plate." He glanced backward, seeing Barret jogging to catch up, Tifa not far behind. "Looks like we'll have help, though."

"Cloud! Ranma!" Tifa called out as they approached.

Ranma stopped walking, and turned back to face the two. "Please," Barret implored, facing Ranma and looking her dead in the eyes. "Take me to Marlene!"

Tifa stood in front of Cloud. "You two are going to help Aerith, aren't you?" she asked.

"Yeah," Cloud responded, his gaze dropping to one side, "but before that, there's something I want to know… about the Ancients... " he trailed off, raising a hand to his forehead, swaying as if about to fall over. "...Sephiroth…?" he whispered, uneasy.

"Are you all right?" Tifa demanded, grabbing him by the arms to steady him, as Ranma and Barret both looked on in concern.

After a moment of uncertainty, Cloud stood back up. "I'll be fine," he answered. "Let's go."

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"...flowers?" Barret wondered aloud, glancing about. "Didn't know anythin' like that could grow down here."

Ranma nodded. "She grows 'em, she sells 'em." And I think I'm about to find out how. She stepped forward, quietly opened the front door, and stepped inside. "Elmyra?" she called out softly.

Elmyra was sitting on the stairwell, illuminated by candlelight, head tilted against the stairwell banister. "Ranma." Her tone was gentle, motherly, and welcoming. "Come here, dear, you look awful." Ranma nodded, but did not approach. Instead she shuffled to the side, leaving the door open. Cloud stepped inside first, followed by Tifa and Barret. Elmyra looked them over, noticing that no more were coming, as Barret politely closed the door behind him. Her gaze softened. "Cloud, wasn't it?" she asked, and as she turned the light from the candles reflected off of the tracks of her tears on her cheeks. She took a moment and dabbed her face clear with her apron. "It's about Aerith, isn't it?"

Cloud's head hung forward, unable to meet Elmyra's eyes. "I'm sorry," he answered. "Shinra took her."

"I know." She stood up and moved to the kitchen, turning on the dim lights in the dining room. "They took her from here. It was… it's what she wanted."

Ranma removed her shoes, and sat down at the table. "Elmyra… I think I need to know. Why is Shinra after Aerith?" The others circled around the table, taking seats and trying to look as if they somehow belonged. Except for Cloud, who remained standing, leaning against the wall with his arms crossed over his chest.

Elmyra pulled her apron off and hung it up in its familiar spot on the rack near the kitchen. She set a pot of water to boil in the kitchen, then sat down in the chair closest to the kitchen walkway. "Aerith… she's an Ancient," she answered after a moment of quiet. "She says she's the last survivor."

Nearly everyone started at that. A chorus of 'what' in various tones came out of the visitors. "But you're her mother," Ranma blurted out, confused. "So you'd hafta be an Ancient too, right? Why ain't they after you?"

Elmyra shook her head. "I'm not her real mother. Goddess, it was fifteen years ago now…" she began, her eyes glassy with recollection. "Back during the war, my husband, Henri, was sent off to the front. Some 'distant, far away land' he called it. It was Wutai, of course, but he had a way with melodrama. One day, I'd gotten a letter saying that he was coming home on leave, so I started going to the train station every day, hoping to see him."

She sighed, the memories difficult for her. "He never came back. I always wondered if something happened to him, or if it was just that his leave was cancelled and the next letter never arrived saying so. I still went to the station every day, for over a month. One day, though, someone else was there. Two someones, in fact… a woman and her daughter, on the station platform. The woman was wounded, badly, bleeding out… even if I'd known then what to do, she was on death's door. She looked at me, the way any mother looks when their child is in trouble, and asked me to take her daughter, Aerith, somewhere safe. And then… she died. Right there on the platform in front of us.

"It was the kind of thing that happened a lot during the war," she explained, wiping away a fresh set of tears. "Henri never did come back. I had no children of my own. I was lonely, and I knew what happened to little girls left alone in the slums. So I took her home with me, and I raised her. Aerith and I grew close very quickly… I guess she understood that I was standing in for her mother. And she talked about everything back then. She'd told me that she and her mother, Ifalna-" Ranma sat bolt upright at the name, but said nothing, "-had escaped from some kind of research lab somewhere. And that her mother had already returned to the planet, so she wasn't lonely anymore…"

Tifa looked astonished at that. "Do you know what she meant by that? 'Returned to the planet,' I mean."

Elmyra shook her head, then noticed the water had reached boiling. She stood up and started a cup of tea for herself. "I didn't know then… I'm still not sure now, either. I asked her if she meant a star in the sky, but she said no, that it was this planet, Gaia… she was an odd child, mysterious in so many things, but always polite and well-behaved, so I thought it was just her way of being herself. One day, I remember she came down the stairs and just blurted out to me 'please don't cry.' I didn't have the foggiest idea what would cause her to say something like that. I asked her if something had happened to her, but she just shook her head at me."

Elmyra shifted in the chair, leaning back slightly, her gaze moving to the ceiling. "Aerith told me that someone dear to me had just died. That his spirit had been trying to come to see me, but he had returned to the planet. I didn't believe her at first… why would I, it was just a thing that children said or did as they played their little games. But two days later, I got a letter… saying that Henri had been killed in the line of duty. And…" She shook her head, taking a deep breath to recenter herself. "Things went on like normal… for a long time after that. Until Shinra showed up at our doorstep."

The mood around the table darkened considerably. "Shinra…" Barret growled angrily, rising from the table. "Everything they got, and they wanna take a girl from her family…"

Elmyra nodded, and waited for Barret to calm down enough to return to his chair. "Tseng knocked on our door that first time, it was about five years ago. Crisp suit, tie, gloves, the whole image looked about two shades up from 'con-man trying to sell Zolom oil'. He asked me to return Aerith to them, and said that her real mother was an Ancient. Of course I heard him say it, I was standing right there. I never forgot it, but I didn't say anything about it either. Tseng said that the Ancients would lead everyone in the slums and the rest of the world to a land of happiness." She turned and reared slightly as if to spit but, possibly remembering her company, decided not to do so. "It was the same song-and-dance they fed young boys to get them to enlist in SOLDIER, just with different words. 'Chosen One', Ancient, save everyone from disappointment, so on and so on. She did her best to hide it. And I did my best to pretend I didn't notice it. But… even if she isn't really my daughter, I'm definitely her mother." She took a sip from her tea. "Even if we hadn't lived for fifteen years in this tiny little house, there are some things that no child can hide from their mother. I knew she had powers… something. But she kept that to herself, and I let her, because I didn't want her to think that she needed to hide it from me."

"Waitwaitwait," Ranma hastily interrupted, waving her hands. "Tseng knew where Aerith lived the whole time? For five years? Why wait until now to take her? It's not like they hadn't tried over the last two weeks enough times."

"Because," Elmyra began, taking another sip of her tea, "for whatever reason, up until now, Tseng wanted Aerith to volunteer to go back to being a lab rat. At least... that's what I think he wanted. Honestly, I don't know. I guess something changed, since they kept trying to take her the last few weeks. And tonight, when Aerith came back here carrying a little girl, Tseng was waiting here for her. He and his little band of murderers grabbed me, tied me up, and used me as bait. Aerith, goddess bless her strength, actually outsmarted them. I don't know exactly what she did, I was on the floor and the table was in the way, but she told Tseng that if she let me up, and let the girl alone, she'd leave with them willingly."

Cloud nodded at that. "Must be Marlene," he commented.

"Marlene!" Barret leaped to his feet, the chair clattering to the floor behind him. "Aerith was caught because of Marlene?" He remembered himself and where he was, and righted the chair with an embarrassed look on his face. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry, Marlene's my daughter… I'm so sorry this happened…" he began stammering as he shuffled carefully past Tifa around to Elmyra.

Elmyra, in turn, stood up sharply and swatted Barret a scolding blow across the back of the head. There was almost no force behind it, but Barret bowed his head, suitably chastised. "How could you do that to your own daughter? How could you leave her alone in a place like this?"

"Please don't start in with that," Barret pleaded, his eyes misted over. "I think about it all the time… can't not think about it. What would happen to Marlene if I… if… " He glanced down, and slammed his eyes shut against his tears. "But you gotta understand somethin'. I don't got an answer for any o' that. I wanna be with Marlene. I wanna be the father she needs, I wanna sit there and watch her grow up and all that. But I gotta fight. Cuz if I don't, the planet's gonna die. There won't be anywhere for her to grow up in! And even then, I still worry about Marlene… I just wanna be there for her and…"

Barret looked up, suddenly aware of the silence around him. Tifa's understanding smile, Ranma trying vainly to hide her own tears. Even Cloud, standing silently against the wall, nodded his comprehension. Elmyra looked up at him, a soft smile dawning on her own face. "Guess I'm jus' goin' in circles now…" he trailed off, rubbing the back of his head in embarrassed silence.

Elmyra smiled again, and pulled Barret into a long, welcoming embrace. "I think I understand what you're saying, dear," she whispered. "Marlene is upstairs, asleep. Why don't you go and see her?"

Barret withdrew from the hug, smiled, turned to shuffle past Tifa in the opposite direction, turned back to Elmyra, bowed awkwardly, and finally began moving up the stairwell. The silence was broken by Barret's footsteps on the squeaky stairs, followed by the opening of a door. Several moments later, there was a gleeful squeal of "Daddy!" from upstairs, and even Cloud's jaded demeanor could not withstand something that wholesome, smiling in earnest despite himself.

Ranma carefully scooted herself out of her chair, and practically ran the four steps between herself and Elmyra, embracing her as her own tears began to fall again. "I'm so sorry, Elmyra," she whimpered. "I couldn't keep her safe…"

"Oh, hush, Ranma," Elmyra said, but wrapped her arms around the girl regardless. "Aerith did what she did by her own decision. I daresay she was more courageous tonight than she might have been if you two had never met. This is not. Your. Fault," she admonished gently, stressing each word even as she pulled the loose fabric of her dress up to wipe away Ranma's tears.

Tifa leaned on one arm, fatigue clearly beginning to take a toll. "We'll get her back," she said confidently, trying to hide her exhaustion. "We're going to put a stop to it."

Elmyra didn't miss the signs from Tifa or Ranma. "How long has it been since any of you slept?" she demanded. "Or ate?"

Tifa looked up at the clock above the kitchen entry, noting that it read as nearly four in the morning. Having opened up the bar the previous day, then gone to Wall Market to help shop outfits for Ranma, then everything after that... "Uh…" she smiled sheepishly. "That clock can't be right…"

That told Elmyra all she needed to hear. She stood up, the full force of her matronly will standing with her. "All three of you, right now. Go into the village and meet up with Liam over at the inn. Give him my name, he'll put you up for the night- the morning- whatever, Minerva grant me strength, it's far too late for this shit. Barret and Marlene can stay here the night, I wouldn't dream of separating them. Come back when you've had some rest, and you can figure out what you're doing from there."

All three nodded, and obediently marched out the house and down the road. And for one short, blessed night, nothing more happened.

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The morning went by. Ranma, Tifa, and Cloud slept almost until noon, being well past exhausted. As they woke, they bathed (reverting Ranma to his male form, much to innkeeper Liam's confusion) and headed over to the Gainsborough household; Ranma took a brief detour to obtain a piece of simple body armor that he fitted beneath his trademark red tunic, as well as a basic iron bracer and a Fire, Ice, and Lightning materia set in case they became needed. Marlene, surprising nobody who knew anything at all about four year old children, was already awake. Barret was as well, though at the moment he did not look it. Sitting upright in one of the dining room chairs, arms limp by his side, head tilted back and slack-jawed. However, after taking a look at Marlene, playing at being some kind of ferocious animal, it was obvious that despite the toll the last day and a half had taken on them all, Barret's current state of exhaustion was feigned, at least in part.

Elmyra had foregone tea, opting instead to brew a pot of strong coffee, and was finishing up in the kitchen with two platters of basic but hearty breakfast. "You three are just in time," she said, sliding the first platter heaped to bursting with hash browned potatoes, "to save poor Barret here from the terrible predations of a baby Moomba." She pushed the second platter into place, loaded with eggs and sausage. "In the meantime, you'd better eat. There is no way on Gaia that any of you are going to try to rescue my daughter on an empty stomach."

None of the team needed further prompting. Barret picked up Marlene and held her in his lap as they ate. "Thank 'ou, 'Myra!" Marlene said cheerfully. And aside from the occasional praises for the food, the rest of the meal followed in peace.

Following the meal, Barret took Elmyra aside and asked her to watch over Marlene for a while. He also gave her a sizable portion of the gil they'd managed to scrape together to ensure that they'd both be well taken care of in case he was unable to return.

"So…" Cloud began. "We have to get up there. Who's got ideas?"

"Can't do the trains again," Tifa noted, remembering the disastrous Sector 5 run. "Even if it wasn't running the risk of getting caught by their ID checkpoints, Sector 7 and Sector 4 are the only ones that run surface-to-plate trains. They'll be sure to have security watching the Sector 4 station."

"Could we climb up?" Ranma suggested. When he saw the faces of the others looking at him incredulously, he thought about the question for a moment. "Yeah, I know you can't normally, kinda the point of the plate. But the… drop…" he tested the word as he spoke, deciding it worked for now, "probably jarred things loose. We could try climbing up from Wall Market, the plate's been under construction there for years, right? If there's nothing there we can start from, we can try climbing up from the…" he swallowed, as the words continued to stick in his throat, "...from where Sector 7 used to be."

Tifa glanced between Cloud and Barret, and even as they considered the idea, it was clear they did not understand Ranma's distress. "Ranma, are you going to be okay?"

"Do I have a choice?" he grumbled, eyes turned away.

"Yes. You do." Tifa's words hit him hard. He winced and covered his face with both hands.

"Hey, what's with you, anyway?" Cloud asked bluntly, sipping at his coffee. Tifa smacked him in the back of the head, causing some of the coffee to spill out and scald his hand. "Ow! What was that for?"

Tifa groaned and shook her head. "You insensitive idiot," she muttered. Shifting to a more neutral tone, "Ranma… last night, when Wedge…" the too-fresh pain causing her to knot up as well, "when Wedge fell from the pillar. Was that your first time, seeing someone die?"

There was utter silence at the table at those words. Cloud and Barret both turned to face Ranma, whose hands had dropped to his lap and squeezed uselessly into fists, arms stiff as his body shuddered quietly. "…yes…" he whispered, but the sound carried, heavy with his despair. He stood up, pushed his chair in, and walked outside.

"Oh," Cloud muttered, realizing his mistake. "Tifa, I didn't-"

"Not now, Cloud." Tifa got up to look out the window, watching as Ranma went through a kata. "Climbing sounds good to me, if we find a way up. If either of you have other ideas, talk about them." She stepped outside and watched in silence as Ranma performed his practice routine.

Even emotionally distressed as he was, Tifa realized that she was in the presence of a consummate martial artist. Every motion, every step, every blow was practiced and economical, without wasted movement or flashy posturing. She could almost see the strikes landing against the invisible attackers. "How do you do it, Ranma?" she called out as he finished a first set, moving into a second kata. "How do you keep that level of focus on your kata, with everything else that's going on?"

Ranma huffed in disappointment. "This is the only thing keepin' me sane right now," he answered quietly, continuing through his motions, a swift forward snap-kick shifting him into another stance. "I wasn't much good at anything else, but I was always good at this. I never wanted to be a scholar, or a scientist, or a rock star, or Premier of Japan, or whatever else kids say they wanna be when they grow up. I always knew this was my path. Leaves a few blind spots, though." And he threw a punch at the empty air, meeting nothing.

"Why, though? From what little you've said, this world you come from is… peaceful, by our standards anyway. You don't have monsters in your world, you barely have wild animals, the entire country is tamed and according to you, the biggest danger your capital city seems to hold is an insane, overbearing high school principal. You can travel anywhere in the world at almost any time. Why would anyone in your world ever need to learn to fight at all?"

Ranma stood there, looking at her, at her bewilderment and her misunderstanding, at a fellow martial artist who had not had the option to learn for the sake of the art or for self improvement, but out of necessity, for survival. In that moment, he understood the vast yawning gulf between his world and theirs. "We've got our own kinds of monsters," he answered quietly. After a moment of contemplation, he shook his head. "Assholes that dress up like normal, respectable humans, and take advantage of anything and anyone they can. That's not why I do it, though. You're right… side by side, my world is heaven compared to this. There are people who fight to upend that peace, and more who fight to keep it. There are people who fight for glory or fame, for love, for… whatever. People fight. It's what people do. For me, it's… self improvement. Finding myself in the art. Learning more about myself. Becoming better." He let out a sigh. "Right now, though, I don't feel 'better.' But I know how to fix that."

"Go and kick Shinra's ass?" Tifa offered, taking a step forward.

Ranma smirked. "That'll be the long-term solution, but I need to do something else right now." He took a deep breath, and tugged on nearly every memory of the last twelve hours. Wedge, Biggs, and Jessie, dead or dying on the tower. Reno's face at the tower platform as he activated the destruct sequence. Tseng, holding Aerith hostage and smacking her in the face with the butt of the pistol. The sound of thousands of people screaming in terror as the plate collapsed. He held each of those memories, gripped tightly in his psyche, as his body dropped into a horse stance. His arms moved into position, fingers clawed, wrists together, locked in front of him like the jaws of a lion. Elmyra sitting alone in the darkness without her daughter.

He pushed his hands forward. "Shishi Hōkōdan!" he howled into the empty air. A ball of bright red energy pushed outward from his hands, flying into the distant sky. Tifa's gaze followed the blast as it flew away, beyond the vanishing point in mere seconds.

"What…" Tifa uttered, before words failed her.

Ranma stood up, and smiled gently, even the faint emotion feeling genuine, warming. "That was the Shishi Hōkōdan, a technique developed by miners in my world. It does two things: Clears away the rubble and wreckage of a cave-in, and burns away the despair and fear that a trapped miner would feel. It's fueled by anger and despair. Using the ability consumes those emotions. They can come back later, but the point is you're not feeling them now. Which means you can focus on survival and escape. I learned it from Ryoga a couple months back. Kami knows where he was when he learned it."

"You… wait… you can use Lifestream energy?"

Ranma nodded. "My world calls it chi, but I had a similar talk with Aerith while I was teachin' her some basics. They're the same thing, far as I can tell."

"And you've been doing this for how long?"

Ranma considered the question. "Well, I'm seventeen. I've been training actively since I was like two, but I only really got into it when I was about four or five. I knew about chi techniques when I was ten, but I didn't learn my first one until I was thirteen, I think…"

Tifa blinked, her mind struggling to wrap itself around the significance of those statements as Ranma prattled on. Ranma was by no means a master of the art, and he'd be the first to say so, his own pride be damned. But Zangan had been training for decades before trying to take her on as a student. Ranma wasn't even twenty, and had already taken on Aerith as a pupil in addition to everything else he was doing. A cornucopia of martial arts knowledge in front of her, someone who she was realizing as he continued rolling off information might know dozens, possibly hundreds of different styles from another world entirely. Not even Zangan could claim that much knowledge.

"Ranma?" she interrupted him. "I… don't know how to ask this, so I'll just say it. If it's not too much trouble, I want you to help me become better at martial arts."

Ranma paused. Turned. Faced Tifa. Saw her absolutely serious expression. And sighed, his head dropping down a bit. "Kami, not another one..." he muttered to himself. He lifted his head again. "You want to learn from me, fine. After we rescue Aerith, then, I'll start showing you some stuff." Tifa nodded, and both began moving back toward the house. "I have one condition, though," he said after a moment.

"Huh?" Tifa turned back to face him. "What's that?"

"I know what I'm about ta say is going to sound insane, probably a little rude, and is going to be even stranger out of context like this, but no matter what else happens…" Ranma took a deep breath. "Please do not attempt to become my fiance, under any circumstances."

Tifa felt something shift in her world as he said that. She felt light-headed, almost giddy. She felt a small wellspring of something inside her that, after last night, she hadn't thought she'd experience again for a long time. She laughed. And kept laughing, for a long time after that.

A/N: This is the longest chapter to date. This chapter is specifically written to let the characters grieve, deal with their emotions, and plan out their actions to come. A lot of the dialogue is inspired by the actual game text here, because I felt that the words and the emotions from those scenes were important, and the gravitas deserved its moment. I did my best to clarify some of the more confusing parts of the original plot here, like why Tseng knew where Aerith was for five years but never did anything about it then.

Cloud is still, unfortunately, at the "unthinking idiot" phase of his character development. He's a merc, jaded and believes his emotions are untouchable. Also, he's been in a lot of fights, many of them to the death, way before getting to this point, and doesn't yet fully grasp Ranma's world as being without the pervasiveness of fight-or-perish living. Hence his pretty stupid line prompting Ranma to step outside.

Within my mind, at the point that the game occurs, there are not a great deal of dedicated martial artists left in the world. A fist-fighter can theoretically manage against a swordsman, even if he is at a disadvantage. A fist-fighter can't do a lot against guns over a sufficient distance. Zangan (Tifa's mentor during her childhood) is probably considered to be a relic, a dying breed. Talented, but not what one would call practical in the current era. The same is true in Ranma's world, but since there is a much greater relative level of peace within civilization, martial arts are still viable for other things.

Ranma's techniques...

Shishi Hōkōdan: Lion's Roaring Blast. As described above, the technique was developed by miners. It is directly powered by anger and despair, and as a result becomes more powerful based on the level of despair the user is currently experiencing; in exchange, it then consumes those emotions, leaving the user mostly at a neutral or positive emotional state. Unlike the Moko Takabisha, it doesn't 'detonate', it just pushes (because exploding a cave-in would probably lead to another cave-in). It's an effective therapeutic tool, in that respect. In combat, it's actually mostly useless unless you're certain that you can take your opponent out with one blast, or just have a hell of a lot of despair to take a second shot with.

Hope you like it! Comments and feedback welcome!