"Good afternoon, gentlemen. Shall we discuss the latest developments in Midgar?"
           "It seems that AVALANCHE was able to get to the pillar in a timely fashion. Even so, one of the Turks managed to activate the self-destruct mechanism."
           "And our decoy did its job?"
           "Yes. Shinra is currently hard-pressed for evidence in their investigation."
           "So that's that, then."
           "No, we can't rest on our laurels just yet. I'm worried about AVALANCHE. If another situation such as this arises, we shouldn't hesitate to lend them a hand."
           "Does this mean we side with them?"
           "Though strong and skilled on their own, they could still use allies in the right places."
           "That reminds me: an apparent associate of theirs was captured by the head of the Turks this morning and taken to Shinra headquarters. Coincidentally, this person is the Cetra the Company has long pursued."
           "Will AVALANCHE attempt to rescue her?"
           "I don't know for certain."
           "Number XIII is in the area. Given the right conditions, he may be able to retrieve additional information for us."
           "And, again, what of AVALANCHE?"
           "Gentlemen, I'm not sure you would agree to what I am about to propose…"
           "That plan?"
           "Yes. The time is ripe."
           "Perhaps it is, but considering what would be involved, we should discuss this further."
           "Agreed. Where do we start?"

*****

           Tifa felt terrible once she set foot in that house and saw Aeris' mother sitting at the table in the center of the room, head buried against her folded arms, while Marlene ran up to her father. It was a charming little house, as pretty on the inside as its surrounding gardens were outside, unlike anything she had ever seen in Midgar. However, a gloomy air permeated the place, one which seemed to have been noticed by everyone present. Elmyra raised her head, and Cloud introduced Tifa and Barret, telling her that they were members of AVALANCHE.
           "Thank you so much for taking care of Marlene," Barret said to Elmyra. "I heard about what happened from Tifa here."
           "Why would you leave your daughter alone like that?" Elmyra asked. "As her guardian, it was a terribly irresponsible thing for you to do."
           "I know, but… I got other priorities too. I love my little girl, but I also gotta fight the Shinra. And because of what Aeris did for Marlene, I swear that I'll save her."
           Tifa smiled and nodded. "I'll help rescue her too. What about you, Cloud?"
           "Sure, I can lend a hand—for the right price, of course," Cloud replied.
           Tifa glared at him.
           "Okay, okay, I was just kidding. You can count on my assistance, but there's one thing I want to know first. Elmyra, why have the Turks been after Aeris? Neither you nor her said anything about it while I was here yesterday."
           "It's a long story," Elmyra replied.
           "That's all right," said Tifa. "Any chance we could hear it? Whatever information you have could be useful to us."
           Elmyra nodded and began her tale. She told them of how, during the Wutai War, she regularly went to the train station in hopes of greeting her returning husband, who had been granted leave from Shinra's military. These trips were fruitless, and she eventually suspected that his leave may have been canceled without warning, but even so, she continued going there every day. During one such outing, she came across a dying woman, who asked Elmyra to take her young daughter, Aeris, into her care. Elmyra also told them of how much Aeris used to talk of the strangest things, such as how she had escaped from a laboratory and wasn't lonely as her mother had "returned to the Planet". One time, Aeris asked her foster mother not to cry, saying someone close to her had died, and that his spirit had returned to the Planet before he could rejoin her; a few days later, Elmyra received a letter saying that her husband had been killed in battle.
           Tifa listened on, fascinated; it was a sad, strange tale. "But what does all of this have to do with Shinra?" she asked.
           "One day," Elmyra replied, "a man who introduced himself as Tseng of the Shinra Turks paid us a visit and asked Aeris to come with him. He said that Aeris was an 'Ancient' and could lead us all to the 'Promised Land', a place of supreme happiness. Aeris said that she wasn't an Ancient, but I knew about her strange powers. I denied any awareness of them and kindly asked Tseng to leave, but that didn't stop him and the other Turks from pursuing her ever since."
           "Incredible how she was able to evade capture for so long," Cloud mused. "I guess they didn't want to use force, considering why they needed her."
           Elmyra nodded. "I've thought so as well."
           Barret rubbed his chin. "So the Shinra wants Aeris to lead them to some 'Promised Land'? Whatever they want with it, it ain't good."
           "I agree," Tifa replied. "Elmyra, do you know where Aeris was taken?"
           "Tseng said something about bringing her back to headquarters."
           "That means she's in the Shinra Building," said Cloud. "We're gonna need one hell of a plan in order to infiltrate that place."
           "Yeah?" Barret queried. "Does it got tight security?"
           "The tightest, from what I've heard. Let's head back to Sector Seven and talk to the others about what we should do."
           "All right." Barret turned back to Elmyra. "I'm real sorry about this, but can you please take care of Marlene a little while longer?"
           Elmyra nodded. "It wouldn't be a problem."
           "Thanks. I really appreciate it. And don't worry, we'll bring Aeris back safe and sound."
           Tifa, Barret, and Cloud said goodbye to Elmyra and left the house.

*****

           Tseng said nary a word as he ushered Aeris into the elevator. She glared at him, his expression flat as he keyed in their destination. This was the first time she had ever been inside of the Shinra Building, but the cold, sleek atmosphere of the place was not unlike that of the research facility she and her mother had escaped from so many years ago. Tseng, for his part, seemed to fit into this environment quite naturally; his dark navy suit was crisp, his hair straight and neat, his already pale skin almost white under the harsh fluorescent lights.
           "Happy now?" she snipped once the doors had closed. They were the only people inside of the elevator.
           "About what?" he asked.
           "You've finally caught me. This is what you wanted, right?"
           "This is what the Company wants. What I want…"
           "Go on."
           Tseng sighed. "What I want is irrelevant. I was tasked with recapturing you, and therefore I carried out that task."
           "All in a day's work, huh."
           "You could say so, but don't get the wrong idea about me. I take pride in my job, in being a Turk, but there's more to me than that."
           Aeris wasn't sure what to make of these words. She looked at Tseng's face again, only noticing now that there were slight bags under his eyes, which looked a little bloodshot. These small cracks in his typically cool façade were rather telling.
           "Where are you taking me?"
           "You'll see once we get there."
           "I bet it's another laboratory. Am I right?"
           Tseng frowned. "Enough with the questions. Be a good prisoner and remain silent. The sooner I get this job over with, the better."
           "Long week? Just want to go home and unwind?"
           "As if you have any idea of what my week's been like. We're almost there, so just do as I say until I leave you with Hojo. Or do you want me to bind your mouth in addition to your wrists?"
           Aeris shifted her handcuffed hands behind her back and leaned against the curved glass wall of the elevator. Considering how long Tseng had been chasing her on the Shinra's behalf, Aeris thought he would be in a better mood than this—gloating, even. Still, she would've preferred that to his current state of irritation, which only made her dread her return to Hojo's clutches all the more.

           The 67th Floor, with its plain white and steel walls, was a bit less elegant than the lobby, but shared its impersonal air. Tseng slipped his arm behind Aeris' back and gave her a small shove toward the hallway before them. Though her feet were reluctant to move, she sighed and left the elevator, with the Turk alongside her.
           Tseng guided her through a long corridor, and then to a dimly-lit hallway lined with metal doors. Standing in this hall were Hojo, an older man in a red suit, and a large, orange four-legged beast who was confined in a muzzle and chains, which were handled by two people in white coats.
           "Mr. President, Professor Hojo," Tseng said, "I have brought the Ancient, as requested."
           Both Hojo and the suited man—President Shinra—looked over at Tseng and Aeris. Hojo grinned. "Ah, very good. Let me take care of this specimen here and I'll be right with you."
           President Shinra now wore a slight smile of his own. "Excellent work, Tseng. I'll make sure that you get a nice bonus at the end of the month for this."
           "Thank you, sir."
           "And as for you, Ancient, I see you've grown quite a bit since you were last in our, ah, custody. I hope we can count on your cooperation for our future projects."
           Aeris said nothing. In the meantime, the beast, who seemed to be resisting his handlers, shot a glance at Aeris. She was struck by the fierce look in his one good eye; where the other would've been was a massive scar instead. Hojo looked upon this scene, frowned, then raised one arm. The glow of a green materia shone for a moment beneath his right sleeve; a faint purple mist rose up around the beast, and it quickly fell asleep.
           "Get it into the cell and remove its restraints," he ordered his assistants. "If we're lucky, it will still be asleep by the time we're ready to carry out the experiment."
           The assistants nodded and did as they were told, while Hojo unlocked a cell on the opposite side of the corridor. "Tseng, finish up here."
           "Yes sir," Tseng replied, accepting a keycard from Hojo as the latter walked past him. President Shinra followed, and added, "When you're done, I want to see you in my office."
           Tseng acknowledged this with another "Yes sir" and escorted Aeris inside the cell. He had her turn around, then removed the handcuffs. Aeris stretched her sore shoulders and rubbed her wrists.
           "While you're here, don't try anything funny," said Tseng. "President Shinra sees you as an invaluable asset for the Company, so rest assured that you won't be harmed."
           "Got any idea what sorts of experiments they'll be putting me through this time?"
           "No, but please believe me when I say that no harm will come to you," Tseng replied, his voice taking on a slightly different tone than before. "You have my personal guarantee."
           Aeris, still glaring at him, nodded and sat down on the metal bunk. Tseng left the cell, locking the door behind him.

*****

           Jessie didn't know if this was going to be AVALANCHE's last meeting in Seventh Heaven's basement, but she was fairly certain it would be one of the last. Considering the recent events at the Sector Seven Pillar, Barret agreed with her concerns and said that they should move to a new hideout as soon as possible. However, there was one mission he insisted they carry out beforehand: rescuing Aeris from the Shinra Building.
           None of them had ever been inside the place before—not even Cloud the ex-SOLDIER—and Midgar's MPs were bound to be on high alert. They needed to be able to save Aeris while attracting as little attention as possible.
           "Hey, remember when we had to bail from that train on our way to Reactor No. 5? I bet there's a passage in those tunnels that'll take us to Sector Zero," Cloud suggested, referring to the central hub where Shinra's headquarters was located.
           Barret turned to Jessie, who had Midgar's rail system practically memorized by now. "How about it? Think Cloud's on to something?"
           "Yeah, but if we go by train again, we must leave from a different sector. Now that Shinra knows roughly where we are, the Sector Seven station by the Train Graveyard is locked down." She brought up a diagram on her computer monitor. "While you guys were in Sector Five, Biggs and I scouted out some possible new hideout locations in the slums of Sectors Eight, One, and Two. I remember seeing a freight terminal in Sector Two that should be easy enough to sneak into."
           "What's the security like?"
           "Mostly Guard Hounds and MPs, plus a few robots. Nothing we can't handle. As for the trains themselves, security checks are generally less frequent than they are on the passenger lines, but they're also completely random. We should bail from the train as soon as we're in the main tunnel."
           "All right, sounds good so far. Now here's what I'm thinkin': we go in two groups, at two different times. The first group will scout out the area around the Shinra Building, then the second group will call to make sure we're good to go right after they come up. The Shinra Building's pretty big, so we'll stay in our groups to search the place."
           "Isn't that thing seventy stories tall?" Biggs groaned. "It's gonna take forever to case that joint."
           "The top ten floors are special ones which are only accessible to Shinra's bigwigs," Barret replied. "Seeing as how valuable Aeris is to the Shinra, there's a good chance she's somewhere up there."
           "But I've heard you need keycards to get on those floors," said Wedge. "How're we gonna get ahold of those?"
           Jessie winked at him. "Don't worry, I'm on it. I'll do some poking around online and see if I can have a hack ready by tomorrow morning."
           "It's gonna be our toughest mission yet," said Barret, "but if anybody can pull it off, it's us. Now let's head on up to the bar for a toast."
           "What are we toasting?" Cloud said. "We haven't even started our mission."
           Barret replied, "Our luck. Even with this whole rescuin' Aeris business, you gotta admit it's been pretty damn good. Just hope that it holds up."

           "So far, so good," said Wedge to Jessie after Biggs had placed a quick call to Barret. They were on the Upper Plate in Sector Five, and indeed, things had been going well thus far. The previous night, Jessie had managed to get ahold of information that enabled her to make special keycards that would take them as high up as the 65th floor of the Shinra Building, and a few hours ago, her group had managed to hitch a ride on a train and escape into the tunnels without a problem. Now, Barret, Tifa, and Cloud were on their way, and it was time for Biggs, Wedge, and Jessie to begin infiltrating Shinra's headquarters.
           "Don't jinx us," Biggs replied as he turned toward the Shinra Building. "If we screw this one up, AVALANCHE is finished."
           Jessie nodded. "Hope you guys aren't too nervous. We have to be more alert than ever."
           "Nah, I'm not nervous. Apprehensive, maybe, but not nervous."
           "Aren't they the same thing?" Wedge asked.
           "Whatever." By this time, they were in a large concrete courtyard. An abstract statue stood off to one side, while the Shinra name and logo shone above a glass and steel entranceway. "Well, here we are. How're we gonna get inside?"
           Wedge looked to his left. "There might be some sort of back entrance over there," he said, nudging his chin toward what looked like a dark, narrow alley.
           "All right, let's give that a shot."

           The alley led to a plain metal door, which was unlocked, and beyond that was what looked like an endless flight of stairs. All three AVALANCHE members audibly groaned at the daunting sight, but it was too late to turn back now. Seeing that the boys were reluctant to take the initiative, Jessie sighed, took a swig of water from a bottle in one of her pockets, and began marching up the stairs. She could hear them follow not long after.
           "Let's not push ourselves too much," she said over her shoulder. "We don't want to wear ourselves out before finding Aeris."
           "Right," said Biggs.
           They continued their climb with the occasional gripe, but eventually made it to the exit and found themselves on the 59th floor. They quickly dispatched the handful of guards that were on duty, and afterwards, Biggs addressed the others. "Barret wanted us to scope out floors 60 through 62, then meet him on the 65th for a progress report. They shouldn't be too far behind us by now, so hopefully we won't have to wait long."
           "All right, then," Jessie replied, whipping out one of the two keycards she had fabricated the night before. "Let's get to work."

           Having found nothing interesting on the 59th Floor, they moved on to the 60th—which housed little else aside from a neglected security room and golden busts of Shinra's executives—then the 61st. This floor housed an employee lounge, but although the apparently clueless people there were surprisingly approachable, not to mention easy to listen in on, the three AVALANCHE members weren't able to gather many clues about Aeris' whereabouts.
           The 62nd floor was much quieter, and a quick inspection of some of the rooms revealed that it served as a corporate library. Jessie stared at the volumes of books, intrigued by the wealth of information Shinra had amassed, but knew that this archive wouldn't help her complete their mission. As she left the Peace Preservation wing with Biggs and Wedge, she happened to see a young man standing at attention down the hall. He was in a sailor's outfit, but returned her stare with what seemed more like curiosity than suspicion. She decided to approach him, but was soon halted by Biggs' hand on her shoulder.
           "You sure you want to talk to that guy? He's not like those dopes on the 61st floor—that's a Shinra naval uniform he's wearing."
           "I know, but you'd think that if he had it in for us, he would've called security by now."
           "True. All right, let's see what he knows."
           Jessie, with Biggs and Wedge right behind her, came before the young man and asked what he was doing here.
           "This is Mayor Domino's office," the man said, thumbing over at the door he was standing next to. "I'm the Deputy Mayor, Hart."
           "Midgar has a Mayor?" Wedge asked.
           Hart displayed the kind of smile that typically concealed something. "You must be new here. Would you like to meet him?"
           Biggs, Wedge, and Jessie didn't say anything.
           "It's okay. He won't bite." Hart opened the door and peered inside. "Mr. Mayor? Some guests here to see you."
           "Is that so?" said an old man's voice from within the office. "Well, show them in."
           Jessie kept alert as she walked inside with the others, her pistol weighing heavily against her thigh, and her fingers ready to grasp it as soon as danger presented itself. She stared at the man behind the desk.
           "You're the Mayor of Midgar?" Jessie asked.
           "In title only. Shinra controls this city, but as for me, I'm just a glorified librarian," Mayor Domino replied. "And you must be those, ah, rebels."
           "Maybe," said Biggs, crossing his arms. "What's it to you?"
           "A little bird told me that J35-01 wanted to come here with their friends," whispered the Mayor, with a wink and a small smile on his face. "I see now that the advice I gave came in handy."
           Upon hearing him name-drop one of her hacker aliases, that's when it clicked in Jessie's mind; no wonder she was able to get her hands on the keycard data so easily. "Then you're the one who's been helping us out? With the pillar warning and now the keycard?"
           Domino looked confused. "Well, I might have had something to do with your keycard, but otherwise, I don't know what you're talking about."
           Suddenly, Wedge asked, "Can I see your business card?"
           "Certainly, so long as you deny you got it from me."
           Mayor Domino handed Wedge a card; the latter examined it as Biggs and Jessie looked on. It was a plain, ordinary Shinra business card. Perhaps the Mayor was telling the truth, and wasn't their secret Sector Seven pillar tipster. That being the case, then who was?
           "We should get going, guys," said Biggs. Wedge and Jessie nodded.
           "Thank you, Mr. Mayor," Jessie said as she turned to leave. "I don't know why you've decided to help us, but we really appreciate it."
           The Mayor chuckled. "It was nothing. Just my little way of getting back at the Shinra!"

           "Well that was unexpected," said Wedge as they made their way toward the elevators. "Who knew that there were people working for Shinra who're on our side?"
           Jessie nodded. "He didn't seem to have anything to do with the pillar incident, though."
           "We can worry about that later," said Biggs. "Right now, our main priority is to find Aeris and get out of here."
           "Let's just hope Barret and the others made more progress than we did." An elevator arrived and they got on board. Jessie swiped the keycard in a special reader on the elevator's control panel and pressed the button for the 65th floor. Soon, this phase of their mission would be over, and the tough part—finding a way to access the highest-level floors—would begin.
           The elevator rose, but soon stopped on the 63rd floor. A sickening feeling welled up in Jessie's stomach when she saw who was waiting there. The two Turks standing opposite them seemed just as startled as she was.
           "…Oh," said the tall bald one.
           "What serendipitous timing," said the one with black hair, whom she assumed must be Tseng, as he walked inside the lift. "Let's go, Rude. Looks like we'll have to make a quick detour to the President's office."
           Dammit, Jessie thought. Barret, Tifa, Cloud… it's all up to you now.

---

Completed April 2009 | Copyright 2009, Reeve Kasahara.

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