Hey, I’m back! I bet this chapter took me ages to write (I don’t know; I’m writing this the day after I posted the first one) but it should be worth it. Because it isn’t just the introductory chapter I can do more with it and, well, write better. See, I’m trying to stay true to the style of the game and how it develops, but that’s intensely difficult to do in a literary form. I have so much respect for the game I can’t help but feel like no matter what I do I’m killing it. And it dies. Oh well, I try. You should be grateful. XP!

School starts tomorrow, which means I won’t have as much time to write. Damn! Oh well, it’s all I ever do anyway. Nyuk.

This is my first story in a while so I apologise if I’m a little rusty. I’ve finally broken out of a year long writer’s block! Huzzah!

EDIT: Okay, so I did take forever to update it. My bad. Unfortunately my train of thought went crashing at top speed into a wall of writer’s block. And I died. Hey, I warned you. I’ll try and write this instead of doing my assignments while I still have some holiday left. I have no life, and I’m proud of it.

(Chapter Two!)

It was difficult to see anything out of the train window, whether it was day or night didn’t matter either as Midgar was permanently dark, broken only by the dome of light-pollution hanging over the upper-world. Everything looked exactly the same from the railway and it all blended in together, creating a seamless collage of grey. It was sad to see. Her heart wasn’t completely petrified, despite her attempts to make it seem that way, which had grown less frequent in the days following their assault on the reactor, and this picture chiselled away at the hard outer-casing with a very large hammer.

She closed her eyes and turned her head away from the window next to her, unwilling to let the image affect her any longer. A small corner of her mind remembered when she was a young child growing up in Nibelheim, when there wasn’t a reactor yet in the mountains. It was a long time ago indeed, almost surpassing her capacity for memory, but it was there. The mountains were never warm, safe or kind but there used to be actual life in there, like flowers growing through the cracks in a sidewalk, and not of the monster kind. Then, one day, she had wandered off with her group of friends, giving their parents mild heart attacks, to explore the area. She turned back soon enough because all she saw were countless amounts of dead animals lying on the weak, lifeless dirt. It left her upset and shattered for days. This was only a few months after the Shinra moved in.

For sixteen long years she had forgotten that day. In her youngest years she knew too little to associate the reactor with this experience and it was only now, out of the blue, she could link the two together, which seemed plausible enough. She wondered if maybe LANDSLIDE did have the right idea all along. Her priorities were unlikely to shift anytime soon but still she felt a sense of fulfilment in working for such a profound cause, though she would never admit this.

WOOP! WOOP! WOOP!

Alarms went off and she jolted upwards, ready to draw her sword. The cabin flooded with red light and darkened to a level of pitch black in quick succession. She looked towards Cloud and Jessie, who appeared just as anxious as her, then ran to hit the button for the speakers to activate. Maybe that would shed some light on the urgent situation. “Type A security alert; unidentified passengers confirmed! A search of all cars will be conducted!” came a robotic, female voice over the intercom.

The leader smacked her forehead. “It’s us. It has to be.” Tifa knew that she was the one responsible for crafting their fake IDs so she must have been taking this personally, as a failure on her part. Maybe it was; who knew? Why hadn’t this happened before, though? “Shinra must have upgraded their checkpoints after our little stunt last week. Damn it; why didn’t I see this coming?”

Before she could verbally flog herself too much, the speakers went off again. “Unidentified passengers located in car number one! Preparing for lockdown.” they looked at each other for a second and rushed into the next carriage, pushing several helpless passengers out of their way, too desperate to be courteous…except for Cloud, who hastily apologised to everyone. “Car number one locked down; upgrading to level two warning.”

“Hurry up! They’re going to lock the doors on us! We need to get to the last car!” shouted Jessie, knocking down several of the passengers on her way with emphasis, but only the guys. Several of them jumped out of the way for her, so clearly they’d encountered her at least once before. A couple even crawled into foetal positions. If the situation had been less, well, life or death, the mercenary probably would have laughed. “Damn it; get out of the way, faggots!” Cloud coughed very noticeably. “Err, sorry; I didn’t mean it that way.”

They made it to the last carriage without much effort and jumped out in quick succession, knowing better than to waste any time hanging around. It was safest to exit through the end carriage because that way their chances of getting disembowelled by the wheels was significantly lessened, and thankfully not an issue when they did get out. They landed uncannily close together. I mean, really, with the speed the train was going, you’d think some distance would be made but no.

Tifa stood up and dusted herself off, making sure she still looked good. Neither of her companions had any trouble getting up either, which helped because she didn’t have to be nice to them then. “Well so much for your plan. Now what do we do?” she asked, folding her arms and standing semi-confrontationally. She should have guessed it wouldn’t work like that, with a repeat of their last mission. As her old mentor, Sephiroth once told her, ‘Lightning never strikes in the same place twice, and neither do we ever carry out identical or similar missions within a short time frame of each other because, not only will the enemy suspect it, but, if it was successful once, your luck will never last long enough for a repeat performance.’ It went something like that, and, of course, he was right.

Jessie had her head down and didn’t appear to have heard her comment. Either she was deep in thought or having a little angst-session, if not both simultaneously. So she really was taking it personally after all. Well, if she was blaming herself then it probably was her fault anyway so the mercenary had no sympathy for her. What they needed now was a way to fix their problem. Cloud clearly didn’t have one, as he was looking between the two of them for guidance, and she herself knew nothing of the area. That left only one source for leadership.

“Hey, quit looking at the tracks, Cyclops; they’re not going to fight Shinra for you. You’ve got the hat, now pull a rabbit out of it and guide us to victory oh great leader.” she said dryly, weighing up the pros and cons of ditching the two of them in favour of finding her own way out of here, in case this ended up taking a while. Frustrated indifference was setting in already; she wasn’t a pre-dawn morning person without her usual coffee to bring out her usual, so perky self.

From beneath the brim of her hat, her eyes became visible as she looked up, glaring at the newcomer, and for a moment it seemed as though their techno-whiz leader was going to tell her off, but instead she gave a short nod. “You’re right.” she turned her head in the opposite direction, her left, which was where the train had originally been taking them. “If we follow this tunnel, we might find our way into the stations for sector eight or sector seven. The others will already be there when we arrive.” she pulled the hat off her head for a moment and wiped her forehead. “Let’s go.”

It was quite dark in the sector eight tunnels, save for the faint lights lined up along the walls. They could only see each other when they stood directly underneath one of the beacons, or alternatively, within the approximate distance of one’s hand held not far from one’s face. So as to make sure they stayed together, they walked in a single file line while maintaining physical contact, Tifa had her hand on Cloud’s back and he held lightly onto Jessie’s shoulder. Frankly now was not the time to care how out-of-character or stupid this would be in their opinions under most other circumstances, so they didn’t.

Eventually they came to, “A dead end,” said the blonde, letting go of his leader’s shoulder seeing as the glowing, green security beams gave them more than enough light to see, “Come on; that’s just not fair.” he shook his head, sitting down in an irritated huff, resting his chin and one arm on his knee. “Can’t we just go through it?” he waved his other arm towards the beams before putting it on the ground.

“No; that’s a security check point. We’ll be surrounded and probably shot before we can say, ‘Aww shit!’ if we do that.” replied Jessie, scanning the walls for any sort of concealed security panels or something of the like which she could render useless before a train came. If she did find one, she would most likely end up electrocuting herself and not helping the situation much at all, though that would be kind of funny.

Something caught Tifa’s attention all of a sudden; a small square of light in the very corner of her vision. “Hey,” she pointed to the aforementioned luminescent quadrangle, which she logically assumed was a hole, for ventilation perhaps, “Do you think we could squeeze through that air vent?”

The other two eco-terrorists crouched down and examined it. “Definitely; thank god none of us are that big, huh?” said Cloud with a smirk, standing up and brushing his fingers through his hair as he stepped back. “But I think the real question is does it actually go anywhere?”

“Well,” the leader glanced between the security checkpoint and the hole a few times, “There’s only one way to find out.” and with that, she dove through headfirst, which was of course a morbidly stupid decision. The mercenary put her thumb and forefinger to the bridge of her nose, a vein beginning to throb in her forehead. Why did she even bother trying to help when they just ended up killing themselves? A voice echoed upwards through the vent, bringing relief to at least one of them. “Come on down guys! There’s a pool and everything! Some guys are passed out on the couch!”

The brunette raised an eyebrow at the attempted humour, her two aforementioned digits still on the bridge of her nose. Honestly, why did some people even bother trying? Did she have to do everything herself? “Man, that must be some air vent.” she said dryly, cracking her blonde counterpart into a near-fit of chuckles.

(One Planted Bomb Later)

They raced down the bridge, taking advantage of their thus far unbelievable luck and the utter absence of guards in the reactor before they ran out of it altogether. Jessie stopped abruptly at the intersection, causing the other two to plough into her comically and all three of them fell over each other in a heap. “Jesus, did someone cut your brake wires? Watch where you’re going!” she said, pushing the mercenary over with a shove as they all picked themselves up. “It’s that way!”

Just as they were about to head to the right, again bumping into one another, their escape route was cut off by a group of armed Shinra Soldiers. They turned around and found their only alternative way out was also blocked by guards. “We’re trapped.” Cloud whispered to no one in particular.

‘Damn it!’ Tifa thought to herself as the sound of loud, echoing footsteps came over the scene, drawing nearer. ‘Of course they knew we were coming; we set off the damn ID checkpoint. How stupid would they have to be to overlook it? Shit!’ a figure appeared through the shadowed reactor doorway they had raced out of moments ago, approaching them with a menacing intent. “President Shinra.”

“What’s the President doing here?” asked the leader with barely contained rage hiding beneath the powerful surface she presented. Her armoured fists clenched tightly around her daggers, and her eye darted between all three directions of the intersection, trying to formulate a course of action that didn’t result in them all dying. She couldn’t think of one.

The evil man laughed, keeping his distance from them but he stood close enough for his features to stand out. His blonde hair was slicked back, styled as perfectly as it looked on TV. His clothes were formal, probably from one of the top name designers, and flawless. He had a strong, commanding face but his body was what let him down; his life of business and luxury made him overweight, which in turn gave him a slightly useless appearance. “So,” he began, his voice strong from years of presentations, speeches and meetings, “You all must be that…what was it again?”

A wave of fury passed quickly over the red-headed woman’s features, but, to the shock of her companions, she held herself together. “LANDSLIDE, and you had better not forget that; it is always wise to know your enemies, at least as well as we know you.” she nudged the newcomer lightly, tapping her with her arm but refusing to break eye-contact with her nemesis.

“Nice to see you again, President.” she stepped forward with one hand clasped around the hilt of her sword. The major reason she said this was a means of throwing them all off guard by giving them the idea she knew a lot about the organisation they didn’t want her to know, but it was not a complete lie. She had met him twice before, years ago; once when she was in training as a SOLDIER and later when he congratulated her for a daring mission in Wutai.

He paused, the comment getting it’s desired effect in scaring him, but kept his cool. “…Nice to see you again?” they could see his eyes scanning her, sizing her up. “Ah, so you’re an Ex-SOLDIER who left us and teamed up with these,” he sniffed, indicating her two companions, “Hoodlums. Yes, I thought that was Mako I saw in your eyes.” he took on a conversational tone as he continued. “So then, what is your name?”

She blinked, weighing up the positives and negatives of identifying herself but deciding their records would reveal who she was soon enough either way. “Tifa.” the guards on one side started to back away slowly but kept their weapons up.

“Forgive me for forgetting who you are, but I can’t be expected to know everyone by name.” he chuckled, keeping his eyes on the three terrorists in case they tried to pull something, but they knew better. “Not everyone can be remembered like, say, Sephiroth.”

An exclamation mark shot up above the mercenary’s head. ‘Sephiroth!’ her eyes widened at just the mention of his name and her head dropped, looking at the grate beneath her feet.

“I hate to interrupt your little Shinra buddy-fest but personally I don’t give a damn about any of that right now! This place is going up with a hell of a bang any moment now!” Jessie said, folding her arms and nodding with a smirk. “I can’t say you don’t deserve it. Good luck trying to stop it.” she pointed towards the President and closed her fist tightly as she brought it down in front of her chest. Cloud shared a look of victory with her.

“You all celebrate too quickly,” he shook his head, “For, you see, you have underestimated one person here today; me.” the sound of a whirring helicopter overhead could be heard underneath his sentence. “Now, ironically, your own little fireworks display will be what kills you.” the helicopter came down and landed behind the President, still running. “If you don’t mind, I have a dinner waiting for me.”

“Dinner? Don’t give me that; I have a lot to say to you!” the red-head shouted after him, but it was too late; he was already flying away. “God damn it!” Jessie punched the bridge hard, rocking it severely, and stood back up, examining the two exits nervously. “That can’t be it. He’d never let us get away now.”

Whhhirrrrrr.

All three of them jumped back as a large robot, floating on a layer of air it seemed, though it was probably using magnets, appeared from the exit where the Shinra guards had disappeared into only moments ago. It charged towards them and stopped, then charged again. Tifa ran onto the path to the reactor while the other two were backed towards the remaining Shinra soldiers. The mercenary jumped back out behind the robot, essentially surrounding it. “I guess we’re meant to fight this thing.” she muttered, drawing her sword and getting into a strong stance.

“What choice do we have?” Cloud rushed at it, pounding it with his fists. The machine made a loud whirring noise and counter-attacked by bumping into him, knocking the martial artist over but he pushed himself back up energetically. “This is why I’m so against technology.”

The mercenary lunged at the robot, slashing with all of her might and leaving a diagonal dent in it’s steel casing. It turned around, still hovering freakishly, but instead of counter-attacking it set off a small but powerful explosion, violently shaking the bridge and sending the mercenary into the railing. She was okay though and stood back up without delay. “Physical attacks aren’t going to cut it so either bolt it’s ass or do something big!”

“I’m way ahead of you.” Jessie assured her, summoning a lightning bolt and seriously rocking the robot, but it was still functioning perfectly. “Damn!” it didn’t turn around this time; instead it fired at her using a rear gun. “I’ll give it points for originality, but again I say ‘damn’!”

Cloud leapt at it and again pounded it a few times, knowing his magic was fairly useless. It turned around slowly and charged but he got out of the way before it could hit him again. Knowing that monsters are always weaker from behind, Tifa decided to kick it into high gear. CROSS-SLASH! It certainly did something because blue electricity started shooting out of him and it seemed unable to turn around or move properly. “Bolt it now!” she shouted at her leader, and she did just that.

Wrrrrrng. Bzzezt. Zzztztap. “…Is it dead yet?” asked the blonde, backing away in case it was pulling out a special attack of some kind. Zatatzzbt. BOOM!

It exploded in a shower of hot metallic fragments and light, leaving a massive hole where Tifa was standing. She was blown at least two metres into the air and had no possible way of grabbing onto anything. “NO!” she heard them both scream before she fell. The last thing she remembered seeing as she plummeted to the ground was the sight of an explosion above her where the reactor was.

She closed her eyes, falling…

(Dun dun dunnn!)

Her ears were ringing. Was she awake yet? She didn’t know. All she could see was darkness in front of her eyes. It certainly wasn’t the first time she had plummeted to what should have been her death.

A whisper echoed into her mind, carrying through the void. “Are you alright there?” it sounded incredibly distant and distorted. She wondered if it was her imagination. Was something pushing her? “Hello?” a faint light came into her vision and slowly grew brighter. “Hello?”

She tensed as she regained consciousness, opening her eyes with some effort, though she couldn’t yet see properly. Where the hell was she anyway? She pushed herself up into a sitting position but immediately regretted it as the sudden movement seemed to turn her head into a washing machine. “Ugh!” naturally, her hand acted as a support column for her skull while she tried to pull herself together.

It wasn’t long before she noticed that she wasn’t alone. “Are you okay?” asked a deep but soft male voice. Slowly looking up, she saw a very darkly dressed man in a red cape. His hair was quite long, black, and, barring the colours, his outfit reminded her of someone wandering through the desert because his face was partially covered by his red cloak, though his features were still visible. Where was she? This didn’t look like any place she’d seen before. “You are in the train graveyard in Sector Seven’s slums. Imagine my surprise at seeing someone fall in through a hole in the roof of the train; I’m not used to visitors.”

“You live in a train graveyard?” she asked with a raised eyebrow, examining the inside of the carriage they were in. It had been done up a little bit, just enough to make it an inhabitable living space, but essentially it was still an abandoned train. Eh; it was better than most places in the slums of Midgar. He probably just didn’t like people much. “This must be your place. I’m sorry about crashing down like this.” as long as she hadn’t broken anything, of his or hers, she was okay.

He shook his head. “You needn’t apologise. To be honest, I’m relieved that you’re alive.” he wondered how she survived the fall, nevermind without injury; it had to have been all the way from the plate because there was nothing else above the graveyard, at least not in this remote corner of it. Her eyes had an eerie glow to them, trademark of a SOLDIER warrior, but they always wore their uniforms so he knew she must have quit or something. Even if she hadn’t, they rarely worked with the Turks and therefore he decided to trust her, in that she wasn’t trying to arrest him. “I suppose it was your strength and your sword that saved you.”

The man stood up and walked over to a fridge which he had wired into the train wall, probably running it off the power from it’s engine, rummaging around inside of it for something. Tifa leapt to her feet and stretched, simply to make sure all of her limbs were working well enough. He threw a bottle of water at her, and she caught it easily despite the lack of warning. “Thank you.” she unscrewed the cap as she sat down on one of the train’s seats. “I’m not usually one to comment, but you seem too civil and intelligent to be living in an abandoned train carriage.”

“I assume that was a complement.” the dark-clad stranger sounded like he was smirking, though she couldn’t see his face. He turned around and faced her, leaning against his make-shift kitchen with his arms crossed. “I do suppose that I am a recluse by nature and in different circumstances I doubt I would be any less isolated, but I live here primarily because I am in hiding, although it may just be karma. Regardless, I enjoy it here. I know it must appear odd-”

“No, it doesn’t. Believe me, I understand you living here a great deal more than I can understand why people insist on congregating into small areas together.” said the mercenary with a cynical expression. “It just isn’t typical.” it was obvious who the stranger was hiding from but it wasn’t her place or her personality to ask why, so she didn’t.

He nodded; this girl was alright. It was then that he realised he didn’t know her name yet. “Ah, where are my manners? I have forgotten to introduce myself. My name is Vincent, a train-inhabiting recluse.” he bowed, pulling his cape around him on one side and out at arms length on the other, very formally.

“I’m Tifa. I guess I do a little bit of everything,” she shrugged and took a quick drink from her bottle of water, “Or whatever my skills are needed for.” her mind had already begun to stray from the present. She needed to know what happened to her two, dare she think it, friends after the reactor exploded. There was only one way to find out, really. “Can you fight?” she asked rather suddenly, but tact was never her strong point.

Disregarding the apparent randomness of her question, he proceeded to answer her. “In the slums, who can’t fend for themselves?” her eyes glinted for a moment. She seemed to be thinking something of unestablished importance over. “Why do you ask?”

After a moment, she stood up, staring him in the eyes, her face hardened and serious to hide what was already bordering on desperation. “I need your help. Could you take me to Sector Three?” he raised an eyebrow, needing a little more information just in case she was a setup sent by the Shinra Corporation. “The people I work with are there; I need to find out if they’re still alive or not.”

She didn’t sound like she was lying; his experience in working for the Turks gave him good skills in interrogation so he knew when someone was being dishonest. “I’ll get you there as quickly as I can manage. I hope they are okay.” she nodded in thanks and followed him as he stepped out of the train.

(Meanwhile)

The sacrifices she made as a leader. “Get in there!” said an overly cocky guard, kicking her into the elevator, causing her to stumble backwards, fall over and hit her head on the wall. She glared at him silently. Ignoring her look of rage, he stepped in after her and pressed the button on the elevator, arrogantly smiling. “You should be glad you’re still alive, but I’m guessing you won’t be for long after you talk with the President.”

Without giving him the satisfaction of making her talk, she stood up. She couldn’t believe that it had come to this so quickly. It didn’t appear that her give ’em hell attitude and loveable antics were going to get her out of this one. Tifa had plummeted to her death, Cloud had most likely been shot, who knew what happened to Biggs and Wedge; maybe she deserved this. Everything was gone.

(Flashback)

“NO!” they both screamed as the mercenary fell before their very eyes. Jessie jumped forward, leaning over the hole in the bridge, her eye wide with frantic fear. She heard the spiky haired blonde screaming behind her, falling to his knees in anger. As though triggered by his rage, the reactor exploded in a massive fireball as he yelled. It wasn’t nearly as big as the last explosion so all they felt were immense tremors and a wave of heat.

It was so sudden. Just like that and she was gone. The red-head slowly stood up, pushing herself to her feet, shock still obvious on her face. She cast a glance behind her at her younger companion, who seemed torn between fury and despair. For her, there was just numbness. “We have to get out of here.” her words were uncharacteristically quiet, but he heard her. She helped him to his feet, knowing he was nearly overwhelmed and rightly so. “Come on.”

They started to run towards the exit with the bridge that was still in tact. The sound of guns cocking stopped them. The Shinra soldiers, who they had forgotten about, stepped out of the shadows again. They were still there and too numerous for them to deal with.

One thing that Jessie prided herself on was her reasoning and ability to do, if not the right thing, then the best thing. This ability of hers was still functioning properly. She stepped in front of Cloud and pulled out her daggers, holding them at her sides. After a few moments, she turned her head towards him, staring at him with determination. “Go; get out of here. I’ll take care of them.” a tear slid down her cheek as she said this, and he nodded solemnly.

Her features hardened, masking her emotions with an intimidating power and strength as she turned back to her enemies. “Good luck.” Cloud whispered. In a fluid movement, she grabbed something out of her pocket and threw it at the guards, causing a smoky explosion where they all stood. The blonde fled instantly, jumping at the hole in the bridge, managing to grab onto the other side and pull himself up. He took one final glance behind him to see his leader fighting valiantly against the soldiers and then ran.

She knew it was a kamikaze effort against them, but that was the idea. At least one of them might get out of this mission alive. It wasn’t long before she was overpowered, but she fought until she could fight no more.

Breathing heavily, the air stinging her parched throat with each gasping intake, she stood in a ready stance, prepared for the fight to continue. She struggled to support her own weight and one of her arms hung all but limp at her side, but it wasn’t her nature to back down. Despite her weakened state, the guards still feared her; she had taken down many, but more always came when one was killed. They must have been on orders to take her in alive or to stall for something bigger. Who knew?

“Alright, you’ve put up a valiant effort and we get the message; you don’t go down easily, but really now, you might want to stop wasting our time.” she heard a gruff voice say. She glanced around for the one who might have said this. A tall man dressed in black with a blue shirt underneath his long coat, wearing goggles on his head on top of his short, light-brown to blonde hair was leaning against the small bit of walling next to the exit, smoking. She hadn’t noticed him there before. She assumed it was him who spoke. “Are you going to come quietly?”

He was clearly a Turk, all of whom were famed for their dirty tactics and wicked ways; by far the worst of the Shinra. “Bite me.” she panted, raising her dagger in front of her face. He laughed, cackled almost, walking forward with a walking stick of some kind. She knew he was going to accept her challenge. “I guess you aren’t above kicking me while I’m down?”

“I’m a Turk; of course not.” he switched the grip on his cane and jabbed her with it, sending waves of electricity shooting through her body, quite effectively knocking her out. He turned his back on her and walked off, leaving her to the guards. “When she gets to HQ, tell ‘em Cid sent her.”

(End Flashback)

Now the President had summoned her, most likely to gloat before killing her. Well then, she would face her death with dignity and defiance. The elevator doors opened and the guard gave her a shove from behind, pushing her onto the sixty-ninth floor. Enough was enough.

She spun around in a snap, kicking the guard in the head and knocking him out with the heel of her boot. ‘Not so cocky now, are you?’ she smirked, another pair of guards taking over as her escorts and deciding to do so quietly. They probably didn’t like that guy either.

A short walk, a flight of stairs and she was in the President’s office. He sat behind a huge, raised panel of some kind, clearly compensating for something. He looked up slowly from whatever he was doing and smirked. “Ah, there you are; we meet again.” he stood up and strolled towards her, taking his time in getting around the desk. “If I remember correctly, the last time we met you said you had a lot to say to me. Well, here we are.”

Frankly, she was too angry to say anything to him. Any insults she could come up with were too good for him. He deserved nothing but death and suffering. He chuckled when all she did was glare and snarl silently. What had he done to her friends?

“Not very articulate now, are we?” he shook his head condescendingly and turned his back to her, using the available space to walk around a little. Judging by his weight problem he didn’t do this very often at all. “Well, you’ll have plenty of time to talk with me later. You see, I will not be killing you anytime soon. No, that would be far too quick and easy.” he laughed again, no doubt proud of himself. “Instead, your life will be taken away from you because you continue to live.”

She rolled her head back at the realisation that this was going to be a speech. Now she understood how Tifa must have felt when she went on. “Get on with it.” she said, her voice raspy and tired but still powerful.

He turned back to her, slightly taken a back and obviously angered by her interruption but this emotion he showed was quickly masked again. “You are sentenced to a life of imprisonment, which for now entails solitary confinement here in the Shinra--MY building. That way, you will have plenty of time to remember what it was you so desperately wanted to say to me.” he remarked cynically, and then waved a finger at her. “But don’t think that will be all; I have a lot lined up for you, in fact just about anything I can think of will become your future. That is my little secret, though.”

Great; death was something she could handle because it is momentary. She would die and that would be it. Life she had to experience, and he now had power over her life; the power to insert anything he wanted into it, to toy with or harm her. No, she did not fear death, but life she did. In spite of this, she smiled, most of her face concealed by the brim of her hat. Even then, it was not her way to go down without a fight.

Clearly unimpressed or perhaps aggravated to some extent by her continuing defiance, one of the guards hit her in the stomach with his nightstick. She ignored the blow as best she could, acting as though it hurt her a lot less than it did in her already weakened state. The guard, now insulted, knocked the hat off of her head. Now this she could not ignore.

She quickly kneed him in the stomach, hitting the other guard in the head with a roundhouse kick before he could intervene, then took out the first soldier with a spinning hook kick to the back of his neck. They were both down but more or less fine. Calmly walking over to her hat, she put her foot in the hole and skilfully flicked it back onto her head. She then faced the President again, glaring at him, almost daring him to say something. He didn’t accept the dare and stood still, as though he feared any movement would trigger her.

Unfortunately, she knew better than to even try attacking him; she was in his friggin’ building, handcuffed and unarmed. If she attacked him, all he would do was ensure the destruction of whatever remained of LANDSLIDE. If she played her cards right, however, they might manage to survive and make an escape. She went for the latter option. “Are we done here?” she asked him as the guards slowly pulled themselves to their feet, groaning.

(To Be Continued…)

My next chapter probably won’t take quite that long to be written, but then again I am back at school now so who can really say? I certainly can’t. Please review! I’m out.