Chapter 13
Tifa came out of hiding once Rufus and his men had left the cargo hold and the ship had gotten underway. He'd passed by close, so close to her hiding place... She recognized him by his appearances on TV recently, but it was the first time she had seen him with her own eyes. That white suit he wore, as though his hands were clean... how arrogant of him.
Red elected to stay in the hold, out of sight, but Tifa met up with Jessie and together they headed up on deck to look for the others.
"Oh, good, you both made it."
It was Aeris, standing just outside the hold, and Tifa could see her smile of relief even if the rest of her face was hidden. Tifa scanned the deck, but though she saw a few soldiers and crew, none of them were easily recognizable.
"Where's Barret?" she asked.
"He's making the rounds," Aeris said, "checking out the ship."
"And checking out where Rufus is?" Jessie asked.
"Probably."
"What about Yuffie?"
"Oh, she's..." Aeris gestured to the side of the ship where a slight figure in uniform was heaving her breakfast into the ocean.
Jessie grimaced sympathetically. "Poor kid."
"I feel a little sick myself," Aeris admitted, "but not that bad."
"I wish we had something to help her feel better," Tifa said. "Red said she really came through for you all."
Aeris nodded. "We didn't have any trouble making it to the harbor, and then she distracted the soldiers handling the cargo so we could get on board without them noticing. And now that we're here, nobody seems to question whether we're supposed to be."
"They probably assume it's extra security, with the President on board," Jessie reasoned.
"We should find Barret," Tifa decided. "I want to make sure he doesn't do anything rash."
Jessie nodded her agreement, and Aeris came with them as they searched farther up the ship. They found Barret crouched outside the deckhouse, staring through the window with his jaw clenched and his arms shaking.
Inside, President Rufus Shinra stood discussing something with a man Tifa recognized as Heidegger, their words muted by the glass. Both of them were right there...
"We could kill 'im right here," Barret said. He must have noticed them approach, though he hadn't torn his eyes away from the window. "Rufus, and that damn Heidegger... Because of him..."
His voice was low in his throat, almost a growl. Rufus started to turn in their direction, and Tifa pulled down hard on Barret's arm. "Get down...!"
They ducked out of sight beneath the window, and held their breath. A minute passed, and no commotion.
"...we could, though," said Jessie.
"What?" said Aeris.
"I've been thinking about it," Jessie went on. "Shinra's only recovered this well because Rufus was ready to step in and assume his father's role. But he doesn't have any snotty kids yet. We kill Rufus, and the rest of the execs are gonna be left to fight over who's in charge. No matter who wins, the others are never gonna be loyal. It's not a crippling blow, but it would be a big one."
A risk, or an opportunity, Tifa thought. She'd noticed soldiers posted at the door, guarding Rufus and Heidegger. "Okay, but what's our exit strategy?" she asked. "I mean, maybe we could get close enough to do it here, but then what? We're in the middle of the ocean on a ship crawling with Shinra soldiers."
"Are you really considering this?" Aeris cut in. "Killing someone in cold blood?"
Barret glanced at her. "What're you talkin' about, cold blood? The Shinra're the ones drenched in it, and he's right at the top."
"He's far from innocent, Aeris," Tifa said.
"...I know. This just doesn't feel right to me."
"Well, you don't gotta be involved," said Barret.
It was difficult to read Aeris's expression, beneath that helmet. She'd voiced her doubts from the very beginning about AVALANCHE's methods, but since she'd joined them, they hadn't really run into a scenario like this. It was murder they were talking about... but what other kind of justice could there be for someone like Rufus? Who was going to put him on trial for the things he'd done? Who was going to sign the execution order?
At last Aeris nodded slightly. "Okay," she said.
"Anyway," said Jessie, "this ocean crossing takes a few days. Tifa's right, we should take our time and figure out a good plan. And... probably not talk about it anymore right outside this window."
Barret nodded, some of the tension leaving his shoulders with their consensus to take action. "Right. An' we probably don't wanna be seen hangin' around as a group too often either. Let's split up for now an' we'll meet back later to figure it out."
They went their separate ways for the rest of the day, crossing paths now and again but mostly trying to look like they knew what they were doing. No one directed Tifa to do anything, so she supposed she was doing a convincing job. She was a little worried when one of the crew approached Yuffie and talked to her for a while, but it turned out he just wanted to give her something to settle her stomach. She still didn't eat much at the mess that evening, but at least she seemed more able to move about the ship.
The crew quarters were unfortunately but unsurprisingly a shared space. Only Rufus and Heidegger were getting private rooms on this trip, she suspected. Maybe some of the officers.
But she couldn't go the entire voyage without sleep, so Tifa found an empty bunk and waited until those around her had drifted off to remove her helmet. She threw the blanket over her head and slept fitfully.
In the morning, she checked in on each of her friends, one at a time. She thought she would have heard some kind of commotion otherwise, but they had each passed the night undiscovered. Even Red had remained out of sight of the soldiers assigned to guard the cargo hold and the adjacent engine room, though Tifa felt bad for him that he couldn't move around much, and she promised to bring him something to eat later.
She located Aeris last, pretending to keep lookout atop a raised platform. She gave a practiced salute as Tifa joined her.
"I think I've seen everyone but Red this morning," Aeris said. "Do you know if he's okay?"
"They haven't found him," Tifa confirmed.
Aeris nodded. "It's weird, being in these uniforms," she went on. "They all treat us like we're part of the team."
"Yeah. It kinda makes my skin crawl."
"Really? I've been thinking some of them don't seem so bad."
Tifa gave her a look, or tried to; she wasn't sure how much of it translated through the helmet. "They're Shinra soldiers, Aeris."
"I know, but we all know Shinra lies to them. I think a lot of them honestly believe they're protecting people."
Tifa shook her head. "Maybe they believe that when they first sign up, but they can't stay that naive forever, with the missions they get put on. You think the men we fought at the pillar believed they were protecting anybody? They know what Shinra is."
"Not all of them," Aeris insisted. "It can't be all of them. Zack wasn't like that at all. And your childhood friend went off to join SOLDIER, didn't he? Do you think he was a bad person?"
"No. But things were different during the war. There were enemy soldiers to fight, and if you quit back then, you were a deserter. It's not like that these days."
"...I don't know."
"Why do you want to defend them so badly?" Tifa asked her.
"There are just so many people with Shinra. Maybe it's too depressing to think that they're all bad. After all, if they are, then how could you ever defeat them? Even if you got rid of Rufus and all the higher-ups, there would still be all these awful people in the world..."
Tifa had to admit that she'd never thought about it that way. Taking down Shinra had always seemed like such a faraway goal, and these soldiers were just faceless extensions of the corporation. But if they did put an end to Shinra, if these men were one day going to put their uniforms aside...
"...maybe you're right," she conceded, because it was too depressing to think so many of them might still be enemies. "Some of them do seem pretty clueless."
Aeris smiled at her. "One of them tried to ask me out," she said.
Tifa wasn't sure what to make of that. "Really?"
"Mmhm. But, I told him I was already seeing someone."
Tifa hesitated, and leaned on the railing of the lookout post. "Maybe in Costa del Sol," she ventured. It was a resort town, so it had to be the sort of place people went on dates, right?
"A beach date?" Aeris proposed.
"Yeah. That sounds nice."
"Good! I'll look forward to it."
Tifa wondered if she still would when they arrived. If they succeeded in their plan to take out Rufus--no, to kill Rufus. Best not to euphemize it. Aeris had mentioned it casually just a few minutes ago, but even if she thought she'd come to terms with the idea of it, she might feel differently when it actually happened.
But surely Aeris had known from the start that Tifa was the sort of person who would make this choice. Her guilt over the collateral damage from the reactor explosion was one thing. Targeting the leader of Shinra himself? She could stomach that.
Tifa met up with Barret and Jessie later, near the bow of the ship. They checked around to make sure no one was watching them, but tried to maintain a casual air, as though they were just chewing the fat.
"Awright," said Barret, "how we gonna do this?"
"However it happens," said Jessie, "they're going to start searching the ship for the culprit, so the closer we are to Costa del Sol, the better. We could even do it as we disembark..."
"I don't know if I like that idea," said Tifa. "If we do it at port, we'll bring suspicion down on the locals, too."
Barret caught her eye and nodded in agreement. "Yeah. Let's not give 'em any excuses."
"All right," said Jessie. "When the town's in sight then."
"Now," said Barret, "I saw a couple o' crates down there marked explosive. Think there's anything in there we can use, Jess?"
"I thought about that, but even getting the crates open to take a look is going to make a lot of noise, and then they'd know someone'd been poking around. Besides, we probably don't want to do too much damage to the ship while we're on it."
"What about the explosives we already have?" Tifa proposed. "Yuffie's got more flashbangs. We get ourselves on the duty roster for the last day, guarding outside the deckhouse. Throw one in, act quick while everyone's stunned. I know it's risky--it doesn't give us any time to get out again, but the uniforms give us some anonymity, and it won't be suspicious for us to be in the thick of it if that's our post."
"Not a lotta time, but it only takes one good shot," said Barret, patting the stump of his arm.
"You can't use your gun arm, Barret," said Jessie. "If we really want it to be anonymous, it'll have to be a Shinra issue rifle, like everyone's got."
"Fair enough. I can fire one o' those just as easy."
Tifa looked to him and nodded. He wanted to take the shot; she'd cover him. "All right. Jessie, you want to talk to Yuffie? I doubt she'll have a problem contributing to this plan, but she seems to like you best."
"Yeah, I'm on it."
"And you an' me can see about updatin' that duty roster," said Barret.
"Right," Tifa said.
She was hoping that the apparent lack of coordination between the different units on board would continue to work to their advantage. She'd noticed a distinction between the soldiers who formed Rufus's security detail, and the soldiers who regularly worked aboard the cargo ship. Each group seemed to assume that the extra five soldiers on board belonged to the other. Of course, that meant that the security detail might realize they didn't belong on guard duty, but with a little luck, that wouldn't happen until it was too late.
They had the time, so they took it, observing the movements of the soldiers and checking back with each other to refine the plan. They learned who was in charge of the duty roster and when and where he prepared it. The day before they were due to arrive in Costa del Sol, Tifa snuck into his office and carefully changed the names, matching his handwriting as closely as she could. Hopefully neither he nor anyone else on the list would notice.
Tifa was on her way to her post that morning when she noticed Aeris standing stock still outside the entrance to the cargo hold.
"You all right?" Tifa asked her, glancing around. There were people around, but not that close.
"He's here," Aeris said.
Sephiroth? Tifa thought, her heart thudding in her chest. Stay calm, don't jump to conclusions. "He who?"
"Professor Hojo. He's the head of the science department. How have we not seen him before now...?"
Had he been the one arguing with Tseng, back in the Shinra building? "He didn't look like someone who got out much," Tifa said.
Aeris didn't reply. Her mouth fell into a frown, and she strode for the cargo hold.
Tifa hurried to catch her arm. "What are you doing?"
"I just want to see what he's up to," Aeris said, and Tifa didn't quite believe her. "Besides, Red's down there. We can't let him get caught."
"...all right. But I'm going with you."
As they descended the stairs into the hold, Tifa could see a scrawny man in a lab coat inspecting one of the larger crates. It was the same man from the Shinra building.
"Well, it seems that you were wrong," he said without looking at them.
"Excuse me?" said Aeris.
Hojo looked up, adjusting his glasses. "Oh... You're different ones, aren't you? No matter. One of your colleagues had some story about something moving down here. He was worried one of my specimens had escaped. But as you see, they're all safe and sound."
Tifa's mouth twisted in distaste. He was transporting living things in there? Monsters? Animals? ...people?
Whatever the case, he had no idea Red was down here, and that was all they needed to know. "Right," she said. "Well, if everything's in order here, you can go on back to the deckhouse."
"Oh? I told Rufus I wouldn't have any updates until we reach land." He tapped the crate, as though that had something to do with it. "Though I suppose that's soon, isn't it? How exciting."
"What sort of updates?" Aeris asked, and Tifa glanced at her uneasily. They needed to end this interaction, before he recognized her.
"That isn't for someone like you to concern yourself with," Hojo said, and he waved a hand at them dismissively. "Don't you have someplace to be? Go on."
Before Tifa could stop her, Aeris had pulled her helmet off.
"No," she said. "I'm right where I want to be."
Tifa could hardly blame her. She'd thought about having this sort of confrontation with Rufus and Heidegger often enough throughout the voyage, but they were always under guard. But here was Hojo, alone with them in the cargo hold, a frail old man.
He looked puzzled, rather than frightened, as though he couldn't remember where he'd seen Aeris before.
Red slunk out from behind the crate, growling, "I wouldn't try shouting for help if I were you."
"Oh," said Hojo. "I know you. You're the Ancient."
"It's Aeris! The least you could do is remember my name."
He adjusted his glasses again, frowning. "What is it that you want then? Do you intend to kill me? I don't think it's advisable."
"And why not?" Aeris demanded. "My mother died because of you, you know. So why shouldn't I?" She was trembling, and Tifa didn't think actually doing it was any more than a fleeting consideration for her.
But if they didn't kill him, then what were they going to do with him? Tifa glanced around. He hadn't alerted anyone to their presence yet. Maybe they could gag him and leave him tied up with the cargo.
"You shouldn't kill me," Hojo said, "because I'm the only one who truly understands what's going on."
Aeris frowned. "What do you mean?"
Hojo opened his mouth to answer, but only a weak cry emerged. Blood gurgled from his lips; a sword protruded from his chest, and pushed farther, and farther out.
Sephiroth hadn't been there moments ago, but he stood there now. Red shied away, backing up towards Aeris and Tifa as Sephiroth pulled his sword back out of Hojo's chest and dumped his body on the floor of the cargo hold.
He looked up at Aeris.
"Haven't you always wanted to do that?" he asked.
Aeris clapped a hand over her mouth, gagging at the sight. Tifa tore her helmet off and took Aeris by the shoulders, turning her away from it. "Aeris, go get the others."
"But--"
"Go. Hurry."
Aeris nodded and raced up the steps. Tifa turned back to Sephiroth and raised her fists. Red glanced up at her, but he didn't leave her side.
Sephiroth looked amused as he met her gaze. "Tifa, do you really think you're going to stop me here?"
"It's as good a place as any," she said, trying to marshal her courage. She had to believe they could do it, which meant they could do it here. She could avenge Nibelheim.
She looked at that sword, held so casually at his side. She had to neutralize it, find a way inside his reach. Let him make the first move.
"If you want to fight that badly, I'll oblige you," said Sephiroth. He raised his sword and charged forward.
Only to fly past over her head. Tifa whirled around to track his passage, and saw her friends coming down from above. They ducked as Sephiroth flew on past them and out of sight.
"Tifa!" Red shouted, and she spun back around.
An enormous creature now stood over Hojo's dead body. Grey-skinned and vaguely humanoid, its head hunched forward over its chest on a long neck. Thick tentacles protruded where arms and legs should have been, and too many of them. Stiff, wing-like appendages arched behind its back.
"The fuck is that!?" Barret exclaimed.
"Doesn't matter!" said Jessie. "I don't think its friendly!"
Tifa heard them running down the steps to join her as the creature whipped its tentacles forward. A blast of energy shot out from their ends, raking over the party. Tifa felt a searing pain, and she fell back. Barret and Jessie shouted behind her, but when she rolled onto her hands and knees to look up, she saw Aeris and Yuffie, farther back, still on their feet.
"You didn't warn me about this!" Yuffie exclaimed, but to her credit, she didn't run. Instead she pulled something out of her pack and hurled it at the monster. Tifa braced herself for another flashbang, but this was something else, something that exploded in flames around the thing's lower tentacles.
Tifa took the opportunity to push onto her feet, and she charged at the creature as the flames died down. She grabbed hold of the nearest tentacle and wrenched it as hard as she could--but she couldn't tell if this thing even had bones. Red leapt in with her, sinking his teeth deep into the thing's torso. It threw them both off, and then she heard gunfire.
Barret had gotten his gun arm reattached. Jessie was back on her feet, too, and she leveled her rifle at the monster's head. Tifa could have sworn she hit it right between the eyes, but it didn't stop moving.
A thick green smoke poured out of its mouth, and upon reaching the floor, it rolled forward like a fog. Barret kept firing, but the smog didn't stop. Red began to hack as it enveloped him, and Tifa heard him collapse inside of it.
"Red!" Tifa pulled the cowl of her uniform up over her nose and mouth and darted towards him. She got her other arm under his chest and dragged him out of the spreading fumes. The others were backing up the steps away from it, but then fire erupted again beneath the creature. It caught the gas, burning most of it away. Tifa glanced up and nodded her thanks to Aeris.
The strange, bladed weapon Yuffie carried flashed through the air, slicing into one of the creature's tentacles before it returned to Yuffie's hand. Tifa saw an opportunity.
"You okay?" she asked Red. He was still wheezing a bit, but he nodded, and she left him. Tifa ran for the monster, grabbed hold of the half-severed tentacle, and she felt the flesh giving. It tore free and she flung it to the ground. It was a sickening sensation, and the monster didn't seem to bleed so much as ooze.
"Gross!" Yuffie shouted, and Tifa thought she might have vomited.
The creature's remaining tentacles writhed, and Tifa ducked as another barrage of energy blasts flew out of them. They seemed to go everywhere this time, and Tifa felt the heat of one graze her shoulder. Aeris and Jessie cried out, and Barret grunted.
"I've got it, I've got it," Yuffie was muttering to herself. Aeris, Jessie, and Barret were all moving, but slowly.
Tifa looked to Red, who nodded, and they charged the monster together. He sank his teeth again into its body, but this time he braced himself to restrict its movement. Tifa vaulted up one of the tentacles to reach the head and delivered as hard a blow as she could. There was a wet snap, not like bone but like tendons, and its head jerked to the side.
The thing sort of staggered, tearing out of Red's grip. Its lower tentacles stretched out and found new purchase. It righted itself.
"Seriously!?" Barret said.
"Tifa, Red, get clear!" shouted Jessie. Tifa saw the grenade in her hand and complied, running with Red back behind some of the crates. An explosion followed seconds after they reached cover, and Tifa watched several tentacles go flying, their ichor splattering the cargo hold.
She lifted her head, and the thing was still moving. It only had a few tentacles remaining, but it dragged itself across the floor, its head lopsided on its ooze-darkened torso.
Barret fired another spray of bullets into its body, and it slowed. Fire enveloped it as Aeris cast the spell again, and the stench was awful, but as the flames cleared, the monster finally stilled.
Everyone stood watching, holding their breath. Barret shot it again.
"Is it dead?" Jessie asked.
Tifa emerged from behind the crates, approached cautiously, and kicked it in the head. They all flinched, but it only flopped lifelessly onto its side.
"Ugh," said Yuffie, turning away. "What was that thing?"
"I feel I've seen it somewhere before," said Red, padding carefully closer.
"You're right," said Jessie. "It does look sort of familiar."
"Shit!" Barret exclaimed. "It's that damn headless spook from the Shinra building!"
He was right, Tifa realized--sort of. There were a lot of similarities, but... "Barret, this thing has a head."
"Fuck, I don't know, maybe they got more than one of 'em."
Tifa glanced around the room. "None of these crates have been opened," she said, "so where did it come from?"
"It simply appeared when Sephiroth charged you," said Red. "In the place where he'd been standing."
"I don't like this," said Aeris. "I feel sick."
"You an' me both," said Yuffie.
Tifa glanced up at them, and then past them up the stairs. They had made a hell of a lot of noise at this point. "Why hasn't anyone come to investigate?" she wondered.
"Maybe they did, but they opened the door, saw the huge monster, and thought better of it," Jessie suggested, and it was true, they probably wouldn't have noticed if anyone had checked on them.
Static jumped out of the intercom, followed by a shaky voice. "All workers, prepare for docking. We'll be arriving in Costa del Sol in five minutes."
"He sounded like something spooked him," Aeris observed.
"Well, whether they know what happened down here or not, I think we'd better hide again until we get the chance to get off," Tifa reasoned, and the others nodded. They all gave the monster a wide berth as they dispersed among the cargo.
"Man, so much for gettin' Rufus," Barret muttered. Tifa had almost forgotten; it was a plan that seemed safe in comparison to the fight they'd just been through.
"Hey, do you remember what that thing was called?" Jessie asked. "Back at the Shinra building. It had a label."
"Jenova," said Tifa. "I think it was Jenova."