Happy Sunday! Stuff abound, and let's get into it. I've been dealing with post holiday illnesses, and it hasn't been fun. I managed to get this chapter edited to my satisfaction, between bouts of being unpleasantly sick. It isn't perfect, and I may go back later to revise it, but it will carry for now.

Comments!
Mr. Haziq: This Ranma has encountered Saffron. I'm waiting for the right point to elaborate on that.
doraemax: Yeah, Ryoga with the Shi Shi Hokodan is terrifying. Ranma's pride gets in the way of that technique most days, so it's a less effective combat tool for him specifically. That said, I'm of the opinion that Ranma could use it effectively to dispel emotions getting in the way of his pride or confidence, which is a strong source for many of his other abilities.
Anon: I'm deliberately drawing more from the manga than the anime, partly to avoid a lot of the inconsistencies the anime introduced, and partly because the anime story ended way before the manga's story conclusion. I don't specifically recall if the Shi Shi Hokodan is canonically 'color depends on user'. However, for my purposes, chi techniques that draw on emotion are colored based on the emotion, not the user.

Chapter Seventeen

Rise Again

[ ν ] - εγλ 0007, December 12

It was nearly sundown by the time the four of them had arrived at Wall Market. There was, unsurprisingly, a great deal of commotion, as in addition to the normal ebb and flow of the marketplace, there was also an influx of the few people who had managed to flee Sector 7 before the plate collapsed. While Ranma recognized a few faces, he knew he had to focus, and tugged his hat low over his eyes as they passed quietly through the crowds.

As they approached the north end of Wall Market, they noticed several Shinra troopers congregated around the entrance of the Corneo mansion. All four immediately ducked into the next side street. Peeking out from behind the weaponry store, Tifa noticed that while the troopers were all armed, they appeared to currently be off alert and were just standing about, talking to each other. "Looks like they figured out he talked," Tifa mused. "Wonder what they'll do to him."

"He wasn't there," Ranma said quietly. When the others looked at him inquiringly, he gestured to his eyes. "I can read lips, a bit. The guy on the left is talking about how the little shit ran for it right before the plate dropped, left the city out of the Sector 6 Gate, and they don't know where he is now."

Tifa facepalmed, and the others groaned. "So what are they doing there?" Tifa asked.

"Mopping up his lackeys, raiding his vault for gil, and trying to find some data they think he had." Tifa giggled at the last bit. "...what?"

Tifa pointed to the Bolt materia on her wrist. "When we were there last night, I fried his drive before I came to find you," she answered. "They're not gonna find anything that way."

Ranma smirked, and the four of them continued down the side street, out of sight. Ten seconds later, Elena and Tseng stepped out of the mansion's front doors.

"Shouldn't we go after him, sir?" Elena asked as they strode down the main stairs.

Tseng shook his head gently, a few bandage wraps visible over his neck and shoulder under the suit jacket. "Despite the apparent loss of the data, Corneo is, at this point, a negligible factor in his plans. Without the data linking AVALANCHE to Rufus, he has no further leverage to use against us, or Rufus." He took a clipboard from an approaching trooper and and glanced over it. "No, make sure all of his assets are frozen first." He returned the clipboard and the trooper ran off. "The President will be holding a meeting this evening, and they will decide then what actions to take regarding the Ancient girl. And Rufus is making his travel plans as we speak. AVALANCHE is out of the way, the Saotome brat with them, and with that, Rufus' return should proceed smoothly."

"Unless something else happens," Elena muttered, running one gloved hand through her short hair. "Sir, is there anything else you need for now?"

"Nothing," he answered. "Dismissed, Elena."

Elena stood to attention and gave a salute, before walking away.

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Graffiti and other markings covered a section of the wall close to the pillar. Several children played around the piles of junk and assorted scrap. In the middle of it, against the wall, was a long coiled wire, looking as though it was waiting to be connected somewhere. Cloud looked up the cable into the distance above.

One of the children walked up to them, a girl with bright red hair, noticing Cloud looking up at the wire. "Some of the other kids climbed up there. Too scary for Mewt though," she said, pointing at the smallest boy, a mousy brown-haired kid ducked down near the wall.

"Do you know where it goes?" Cloud asked, crouching down to the girl's height.

"Marche says it came from above the Plate," the girl answered. "I guess it goes up there somewhere."

"Thanks," Cloud smiled, and stood up, running one hand through his hair. He turned to the others. "I honestly don't know if we can do this from here."

Barret turned to Cloud. "Mister Big Shot Ex-SOLDIER here, declaring defeat at the bottom of the mountain," he mocked. "I say we can do this. We ain't got time to wander around down here."

"Do you have any idea how far up it actually goes?"

"It's not coiled up here on the ground, so it goes higher than we are now," Barret countered. "We can figure out more as we go, but we gotta start here."

Cloud shook his head doubtfully, but relented. "Fine, let's go."

Ranma started up the wire, followed by Cloud, Barret, and Tifa. The wall stopped about twenty meters up, where several kids were currently perched. As the four of them passed, the kids cheered them on, Tifa getting a few extra cheers for some reason. The wire did not go all the way to the top, but the top end was coiled firmly around a much thicker cable hanging down from above.

The tangle of loose construction parts, wires, cables, and for some reason a broken airplane propeller, led slowly but steadily higher. The climb took over an hour, and passed mostly in silence, aside from periodic groans of exhaustion. "Even SOLDIER boot camp wasn't this tough," Cloud commented at one point.

"Oh, yeah, I'm sure they did a good job training y'all to march forward with a gun in your hand and shoot or die while the bigwigs stuffed more money into their pockets," Barret replied, dripping with sarcasm.

"Enough, the both of you," Tifa called down to them. "We got a tough jump coming up, and I don't see any way around it."

The platform they now stood on was stable enough. Which was good, because the leap to the next platform was, indeed, a significant distance, with nothing but empty air between them. "Barret," Ranma said quietly, "this one is gonna be the hardest for you, I think. We can give it a shot, or we can turn back and find another way up through these cables."

Barret inched forward to the edge of the drop, peering down below. The ground below was distant enough that perspective began to fail, the mind rationalizing the tiny figures moving below as ants rather than people, since the alternative was to accept that you were more than ninety meters up. He briefly glanced back the way they had come, before shaking his head vehemently. "Nah, we'll cross here," he said with a tone of finality.

"Cloud, I think you should go first," Ranma indicated the gap, "so you can grab Barret if something happens."

Cloud nodded, and the others made room on the platform. He took a few steps back, set his legs, and took a running leap across to the next platform, clearing the distance easily. He skidded slightly as he decelerated, twisting his body and grasping at the railing to keep from flying over the opposite edge. "I'm good," he called back across.

Ranma nodded, and looked back to Barret, who was already positioning himself for his run-up. "Sure you want to give this a go?" he warned.

"Heh, no problem," Barret answered. "Anything you kids can do…" and with that, he sprinted forward, legs charging as he moved. He reached the edge, and leaped almost flawlessly, performing a textbook long jump. His landing was less than dignified, as competition long-jumps tend to land in soft sand, rather than on unyielding metal grates hanging in the air. But it was a landing. Barret returned to his feet slowly, rubbing his backside, and grinned across the gap. "I can do it too!"

Ranma returned the smile, then turned to face Tifa. "Ladies first?" he asked.

"If that's the case, shouldn't you go first?" she jibed, but got herself prepared. She made the leap fairly easily, and collided with Cloud as she tried to slow down, nearly knocking them both to the platform.

Ranma stepped up to the edge, and crouched down. "Gonna be okay over there?" Tifa shouted. Ranma focused for a moment, and leaped upwards with a mighty push, slightly denting the metal where he had stood. His arc carried him forward perfectly to land on the railing of the platform occupied by the others. "What," Tifa said flatly.

"Saotome-school specializes in mid-air combat," he explained. "So we learn how to jump pretty well." With that he hopped off the railing and continued on the climb.

"Fuckin' show-off," Barret called after him, but followed anyway, grinning slightly.

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"Goddess, are we finally there?" Tifa panted, as they vaulted the last barrier.

They stood in the recesses of darkness just outside the Sector 6 plate workzone. Before them lay an empty stretch of pavement, followed by the entrance to Shinra Tower. Even to Ranma's eyes, used to the skyscrapers and office buildings all over Tokyo, this structure seemed massive. Occupying what appeared to be almost enough ground estate to cover Sector 7 again, it was a monument to nothing other than itself, a colossal steel and glass spire of no imagination or grace. It seemed to deform the landscape around it, the unimaginable weight of so much material and the effort it must have taken to build.

"Perfect metaphor for Shinra itself," Barret grumbled. "Big-ass building on top of this giant fucking metal pizza, the whole company and everything it built, standing on top of the backs of everyone living underneath it."

Tifa nodded, frowning. "What's the plan?"

"Guns blazin', I say," Barret said simply, raising his arm and loading a fresh belt of ammunition into the chamber.

"Risky," Ranma said, peering into the distance separating them from the entrance. "Place like this'll be crawling with security. We go in and make a ruckus in the lobby, they can just send all their troopers and SOLDIER after us and box us in… or wait until we get into the elevator and override it, cut the cables, and drop us from wherever they like. Even make us a neat little coffin if they do that."

Cloud stared at him, more than a little shocked at the blase description of the situation. "So, front door's out, then."

"Only if we can't come up with a better idea..." Ranma cupped his chin in thought. "Dunno about you all, but I want Aerith safe before we really start goin' to town on them."

Tifa glanced at Cloud. "Cloud, you used to be a SOLDIER, right?" She turned to face him, gesturing at the building with one arm. "Haven't you been here before?"

"Been years, but yeah."

"Any back doors? Fire escape? I don't think we can pose as window washers for something this big."

Cloud tugged at his chin for a moment, then nodded. "I remember a stairwell over in the alley there," he said, pointing. "It's part of the emergency escape system. They were gonna use it for part of our basic training, but part of it had fallen in and it was being rebuilt back then." He shuddered involuntarily. "It's a looooong way up."

Tifa nodded, punching one hand into her other palm. "Let's go, then," she said brightly.

Cloud chuckled. "I'll be amazed if you can keep up that enthusiasm."

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Floor 10

"I'm pretty surprised this isn't more heavily guarded," Ranma said as they climbed the stairs. "And by that, I mean 'guarded', apparently."

"Used to be," Cloud answered, a few steps behind him, beads of perspiration starting to form on his brow. "They stopped after the Wutai war ended a few years back. After all, who'd attack Shinra these days?"

"Us."

"Yeah, us. Who else, though? Anyone else who wanted to do it would have to send an army to get this far. What army is gonna pile into the fire escape?"

Ranma considered the point. "Still careless of them," he replied.

"I'm sure they'll be more than willing to hear your criticisms of their security after we rescue Aerith, and burn this place to the ground."

Floor 20

"What floor is this, anyway?" Barret asked.

"Uhhh... twenty two, I think," Ranma answered. "Don't ask me to keep count, though."

"Man, fuck Shinra and their stupid ass stairs."

"No argument from me. Keep climbing though."

There was a sound from below that could only be described as 'yeeek'. This was immediately followed by a series of quiet mumbles and an exchange of hissed accusations.

Barret paused, glancing down the stairwell as the footsteps resumed below. "Tifa?" he called down to the previous landing.

"Yeah, I'm okay," she replied in a frustrated tone. "Just… not letting any of you get behind me again."

"Not a race, Tifa."

"I know, but I just…" she trailed off.

"She thinks I was looking up her skirt," Cloud explained as he came up behind the others.

"Were ya?"

"No, and even if I was, we're kinda busy right now to be doing anything like that."

"Just shut up and keep climbing!" Tifa shouted from below. Everyone got a move on.

Floor 30

"How long do these stairs go on?" Barret groaned miserably.

"Fifty nine floors," Cloud panted, starting to feel the climb himself.

"Quit whining, you two," Tifa growled as she caught up. "I'm not getting in front of you two again, no more free shows."

Barret looked up, seeing Ranma already two flights ahead in the spiralling stairwell. "How the hell does he do that?"

"What?"

"We're sitting here… about to fall over, an' he isn't even… breathin' hard!"

"Why don't you ask him?" Tifa offered, pushing Barret to his feet. Cloud and Barret started moving again.

"Cuz if the answer is somethin' like 'inner peace', I'd shoot 'im, and I can't afford to shoot 'im right now."

Floor 39

Ranma stopped and crouched down as Barret and Cloud darted past, picking up a bluish-green bottle sitting on the landing. "Hey," he called to the others.

"What?" Tifa breathed, the sound echoing up from the previous landing. "Need help?"

"Maybe," he admitted, holding up the long-necked bottle. "Isn't this one of those… whaddya call them… Elixir?"

Tifa rounded the landing and looked at the bottle he was holding up. "I… holy crap, it is."

"Aerith told me about some of the healing tonics Shinra made," he explained. "I still don't understand how something like that works, but I remember her saying this is one of the more expensive ones."

"Yeah, it is. Where was it?"

"On the floor here," he answered, pointing at the stairwell landing.

Tifa looked like she was about to explode. "Thing costs like a month's wages below the plate, someone just leaves it here? On the ground? In an abandoned stairwell? What the hell?"

"Ours now," he said, moving his arms in a familiar pattern, the bottle disappearing.

Tifa grinned. "You are so showing me how to do that."

Floor 48

"I spy, with my little eye, something beginning with S…"

"Don't you fucking dare, Barret!"

Floor 56

"Think we're pretty close now," Cloud said offhandedly.

"What makes ya think that?"

"Two reasons… One is that I think I can see the ceiling.

"That could just be heaven coming down to greet us before our deaths. What's the other reason?

"Ranma stopped moving," he answered, pointing to the flash of red cloth at the top of the stairwell, the dark-haired boy peeking down from overhead.

Floor 59

Ranma had been waiting for about a minute by the time the others caught him up. "Take a minute, catch your breath," he said quietly. "It's gonna get ugly when we go out there."

Cloud nodded, leaning against the wall. "Troopers?"

"Think so," he replied. "There's ten that I can see in the standard riot gear like what we saw on the plate last night. Four more are wearing heavy looking red armor, head-to-toe."

Cloud gestured to Ranma, and he stood aside. Cloud opened the door a crack, peering out at the guards, counting off in his head. After a moment, he closed the door again. "Sixteen troopers, six more in red armor. I think the red ones are something out of the Weapons division," he explained. "Machines, basically. The rest of them should just be run-of-the-mill, but yeah, the guard is pretty heavy here."

"We'll need to make sure none of them can raise an alarm," Tifa whispered. "If they put the upper floors on alert, our job gets a lot harder. Ranma, any ideas?"

Ranma shook his head. "I could get past the human guards, but I don't think I can stealth my way past a machine. We'll have to charge them and make sure we take them out fast and quiet."

"Really think we can pull it off?"

"We haven't got another choice. Aerith needs our help now." Ranma shrugged off his burnt leather jacket, leaving it on the floor, before turning to the others. "Everyone ready?"

In the dimly lit stairwell, all of them nodded in unison. "For Sector 7," Tifa whispered, tugging the straps on her gloves.

"For AVALANCHE," Barret added, pulling free the safety on his gun-arm.

"For Aerith," Cloud confirmed, drawing his blade.

Ranma nodded, and yanked the door open. All four of them piled into the 59th floor lobby, and a moment later, battle ensued.

A/N: Incoming mook horror show.

Honestly, I don't know why Shinra didn't just lock the elevator with you inside it and drop it from the 20th floor, but I guess that's just me being ruthlessly practical.

The kids at the bottom of the plate are intended to be references to Final Fantasy Tactics Advance. Marche is the default name for the player character in FFTA. Mewt is nominally the antagonist. Likewise, the girl with red hair is referring to Ritz. Decided to throw it in here.

I read the climb section out loud to a number of my friends in person before publishing this. Floor 48 consistently made all of them crack up, so I kept it in. Some others got cut or reshuffled. Hidden Weapons Style makes a brief reappearance here as well.

As an update to the future schedule, there will be no update the weekend of Feb. 2. I will be out of town for most of the weekend, will not have access to my computer, and while I will have my phone, I do not trust detailed document editing to a cellphone interface. Coupled with the fact that my writing this past week has been less than satisfactory due to a severe sinus issue that sidelined me in bed for two days, and the end result is I am trying to get back to my usual standards so that I can keep giving you all a story worth reading. On that note... I will probably have a nice little surprise for you all come the end of February.

Hope you like it! Comments and feedback welcome!