Chapter 11
They decided to take turns babysitting Elena. Tifa was quick to volunteer once her uniform had dried enough not to draw attention; Jessie was still recovering, and Yuffie was struggling to keep her breakfast down. Jessie had, of course, described for them the look on Elena's face as she listened in on Rufus, but none of them trusted it. A flash of anger might have swung her to their side for now, but it wasn't reliable.
Tifa wasn't sure what to make of Elena being assigned to guard Aeris either. Was there something fishy about it, or did they just not understand the internal politics of the Turks? It seemed too lucky to take at face value, though they had yet to actually get a chance to talk to Aeris. Elena might have been assigned guard duty, but this was a cargo ship, not a military vessel, and it didn't have a designated brig. People were coming and going through that hallway all the time, and only the Turks were permitted to bring her meals.
They didn't expect to be able to effect a rescue on board. They were surrounded by Shinra with nowhere to go, which was probably why Elena had wanted them here. But if they could get in to see Aeris, they could let her know a plan was in the works, and gauge how able and willing she was to work with them.
They didn't really know anything about her. Jessie said she'd been brazen, sniping back at the Turk who tried to interrogate her. Not some timid damsel.
Tseng came to relieve Elena as night fell, something Yuffie was relieved to learn when they returned to the cargo hold; it was a lot less suspicious for infantry to be on guard with Elena than maintenance, and she would've been up next. Instead, they all stayed in the cargo hold, and Barret took next watch, dismissing Elena's affront at the idea of him watching her sleep.
Tifa wasn't quite ready to sleep, though. She found Jessie amid the crates, trying to wrangle a pack into something pillow-like.
"How are you feeling?" she asked.
Jessie looked up, giving her a shrug and a light grin. "I'm okay. Just a little tired still."
"I'm glad it turned out Yuffie had a Restore materia," Tifa said.
"...yeah, I'm not so sure she does."
"What do you mean?"
Jessie sat back and lifted her wrist to take a look at it. "Whatever she did, it didn't seem like she was using materia."
Tifa shook her head and sat down on the floor opposite her. "I don't understand. She healed you."
"There used to be these rumors during the war," Jessie said thoughtfully, "about how Wutai's soldiers used these ancient techniques to give themselves powers. It was a way to put them down, like they learned from monsters or something, so I always thought it was nonsense. But..."
"You think there was something to it?"
"Maybe."
Tifa didn't know about strange magic, but it would definitely explain some things if Yuffie was from Wutai. She'd have plenty of reasons to hate Shinra, if that were the case. That was one thing that would make sense.
"I guess there are a lot of things like that I never really thought about," she admitted.
"You mean like talking dogs?" Jessie wondered.
"And the Ancients," Tifa added. "I wonder... what's supposed to be different about them."
Jessie looked at her for a long moment before venturing, "They always said Sephiroth was really powerful. Not just a great swordsman, but his magic, too."
Tifa dropped her gaze. Before she realized it, her fingers were curling into the fabric of her stolen uniform over her scar.
"Sorry," said Jessie. "You don't have to talk about it."
"I just... I never thought I'd have to deal with him again. I was so relieved, when the papers said he was dead. Angry, because of how everyone talked about him, but relieved, too."
"I guess he was a terror, more than a hero. Soldiers kill, after all. Good soldiers do it a lot."
Tifa shook her head slowly. "He wasn't... I mean, he was cold, and he made me uneasy. But he was at least professional, at first."
"At first?"
She took a deep breath and tried to relax her hand. She knew she couldn't go on keeping it to herself, not if he was back. And this was just Jessie, not a room full of expectant faces. "It was five years ago," she said. "Shinra sent him to our village to investigate problems with the reactor. It was... the first one, you know. In Nibelheim."
Jessie was quiet, listening.
"So it was just business, at first," Tifa went on. "They hired me as a guide to take them up the mountain. We lost a man on the way, but it wasn't his fault. The bridge just went out, but he didn't let any of the monsters touch us. But then, after he'd been inside the reactor..."
"He didn't like what he saw?" Jessie guessed.
Tifa shook her head. "I don't know what he saw. All I know is he spent the next week holed up in the old Shinra mansion, and when he finally came out, he... set fire to the village."
"...it was bad, huh."
She closed her eyes, and the memory of the village in flames was there waiting for her. She quickly opened them again and stared at the floor in front of her. Just a dull grey metal. The salt smell of the ocean in the air, clinging to her skin, the ship rolling almost imperceptibly beneath them, reminding her of the water all around.
"Everything was on fire," she said. It was distant from here, in every way it could be, or so she told herself. "He was killing people who made it outside. He killed my father at the reactor." She swallowed, her fingers fisted back in her shirt. "I tried to stop him. I know it was stupid, but I just couldn't..."
"But you made it out," said Jessie.
"I don't know how. I woke up in a hospital in Midgar. It was months later, and the news said Sephiroth was dead."
"That's a lot. That's a lot to deal with."
"So I don't know what it means if he's an Ancient, or if Aeris is an Ancient." She finally looked back up at Jessie. "Can it explain that? Can anything?"
"I don't know," Jessie admitted. "Shinra does awful things, and they're just as human as we are. Some people you just can't understand."
"Yeah..."
"I'm glad you told me," Jessie said, leaning forward to reach across the distance between them and take her hand. She gave it a squeeze. "Now you don't have to be the only one who knows. Okay?"
Tifa uncurled her fingers from her shirt and reached out to take Jessie's hand in both of hers. "I'm so glad you're back with us," she said. "I... We've lost so many people. But not you."
Jessie gave her a rueful smile, heavy with understanding, and then she scooted herself across the floor to sit beside Tifa instead. "C'mere," she said, putting her other arm around Tifa's shoulders. "I'm really glad... you guys came for me. I was starting to worry it was just wishful thinking, believing any of you were alive."
Tifa leaned into her. "Yeah..." It had been something to hold onto, but she hadn't been sure Jessie was alive to be rescued until she'd seen the name on that computer screen.
"Hey, do you think Yuffie can manage to watch Elena at least an hour tomorrow?"
"Probably. Why?"
"Well, I've never really seen the ocean before. Seems like it should probably be, I don't know, admired or something."
Tifa shifted enough to give her a wry look. "You had all my shift today to do that."
"Yeah, but I was by myself," said Jessie. "I need someone to share all my profound thoughts with as I gaze into the depths."
Tifa couldn't help a laugh at that. "Okay," she said. "I guess I can lend an ear."
"Thanks."
They curled up close to one another for the night, as they sometimes had in the basement of Seventh Heaven when Barret had fallen asleep with Marlene in the tiny upstairs apartment. But they were a long way from Midgar, and Tifa wasn't sure she'd really processed that. Beneath them was the vastness of the ocean.
It wasn't her first time seeing it, but it had always been a distant thing to her. Glimpsed first as something far away from the peaks of Mt. Nibel, and again from the cliffs above Kalm. Even in Junon, standing on the shore as the waves came in, swimming the very waters, all it had been to her was a path to her goal. Ever since leaving Midgar, there'd been too much weighing her down to admire anything.
Was it only since then? There hadn't been much to admire in Sector 7, but now her heart ached at the knowledge that she'd never be able to return to it. Routines she'd come to by necessity, faces she'd at first resented for not being more familiar, all of it had come together to form a thing she hadn't wanted to acknowledge as home, still clinging to the loss of her first.
Maybe it was the same feeling that kept her from thinking too hard about their travels. Where they were at any given moment was all the place she had in the world. If she wasn't here with Jessie, then she was nowhere, and that wasn't what she wanted. She resisted any notion of admiring the places she passed through, knowing she was, in all of them, a nomad, with no place of her own to return to.
Suddenly she really did want to hear all of Jessie's profound thoughts. How she could come from the same loss and sit here in a Shinra uniform thinking about admiring the ocean. She wanted to know.
It was afternoon on the second day of their crossing when the hallway was suddenly empty, and Tifa slipped inside the cell.
Not that it was designed to be a cell. Maybe an officer's quarters, compact but comfortable.
Tifa wasn't sure what she expected an Ancient to look like, but the woman sitting on the bed didn't resemble Sephiroth at all. She was petite, with soft brown hair that curled where it escaped its long braid, and eyes that were green but without the unnatural glow that Sephiroth's had had. There was a spark in them as she looked up at Tifa, and the set of her face suggested she was readying a retort to whatever Tifa might say.
Tifa made a quick scan of the room for cameras and then removed her helmet. "I'm not sure we have much time, but I'm not Shinra."
Aeris blinked, but she looked skeptical. "Sure you're not," she said.
"My name is Tifa. I'm with AVALANCHE."
"Isn't Tseng right outside?" Aeris leaned back on her hands, looking her over. "Though this has got to be someone else's idea. He'd know that sending in the hot soldier to pretend she's here to rescue me wouldn't work."
Tifa felt her face heating. "Uh. It's Elena outside, and I'm really not with Shinra."
"Elena? The rookie?"
Tifa nodded. "She's... not really cut out for the Turks, maybe. She's helping us for now."
"Uh-huh... Is she supposed to be the reason you know about me?"
"Do you remember Jessie?" Tifa tried. Maybe this would have gone better if there'd been an opening during Jessie's shift. They hadn't seen each other face-to-face, but Aeris might have recognized her voice. "The woman in the cell block with you back in Midgar. She said you talked a little."
Aeris's expression sobered at that. "They were going to execute her," she said. The words were half-question, half-accusation.
"We got to her first," said Tifa.
Aeris just looked at her, mouth twisted in a frown. Tifa could guess what she was thinking. Maybe this was just part of the ruse. Jessie could be dead already, and Tifa had been instructed to pretend otherwise, pretend they were friends. There was nothing Aeris would know about Jessie that Shinra wouldn't know, too, after all, with the entirety of their brief encounter under Shinra surveillance.
"Look," Tifa went on, "I don't expect you to trust me right away. I don't even know if you'd want to be involved with us; maybe you just want to go home. And that's fine. But I don't think you want to be here."
"You don't want anything from me?" Aeris asked, still doubtful.
"I'm not going to say we couldn't use your help," Tifa admitted. "If you really are an Ancient... There's a lot we don't understand about what Shinra's after, and...... Sephiroth." Would that name ever get easier to say? "But it's your choice."
"So you'll mount a rescue of a total stranger and then, if it's what I want, you'll just let me go?"
"If it's what you want," Tifa affirmed. "It'd at least piss off Shinra, wouldn't it?"
She must have read Aeris right on that count, because at last she smiled, sitting up. "Yeah," she said, "I think they'd be a little upset."
Tifa smiled back. "We're still working on a plan, and I don't know if we'll be able to get in to talk to you again, but be ready. Okay?"
"Okay. Tifa." Aeris held out her hand, and Tifa shifted her helmet into her other hand so she could give it a firm shake, holding on just a second longer as a promise. They were going to get her out.
Then she settled the helmet back on her head and rapped on the door. Elena knocked back, sounding the all clear, and she stepped back out into the hallway. Not even a minute later, another crewman walked past.
"All good?" asked Elena.
"She's got her doubts, but at least we gave her some warning."
"What exactly is the plan anyway?" When Tifa just gave her a look, Elena glared back. "Come on. I'm kind of integral to it, aren't I?"
"Not here," said Tifa. "We'll talk about it later."
And that night, crouched together in their hiding place amidst the cargo, they did. The ship would get into Costa del Sol the following afternoon, and they figured Aeris's transfer through the docks would be the ideal time to break her away. With Elena assigned to her security detail, it wouldn't be immediately obvious anything was wrong. The tough part was not having anywhere familiar to run to.
Tifa didn't like the idea of aborting the plan, but they left it as an option. They could take another crack at it as long as they stayed free.
She worried through the next day, glad when her shift watching Elena ended so she could walk off some of her nervous energy pretending to patrol the ship. She tried to look out at the ocean sometimes, tried to think about what it meant, but more often she found herself sizing up the real soldiers she passed, trying to count them, wondering how many more waited at the docks. Elena had said there wasn't much of a military base at Costa del Sol, and Yuffie had confirmed it.
But surely they'd come out in force to meet Rufus Shinra, wanting to impress their new leader.
She stopped outside the bridge just once, counting paces from its door to the railing. She thought about throwing him overboard, letting the vast ocean swallow him, but she knew that wasn't how it would happen. The crew would rally to his rescue, she'd be caught in seconds. Neither Rufus nor his underlings would think twice about why it had happened.
She couldn't wait to get out of the uniform.
An alarm blared out of nowhere, making her jump and look around as though someone could have read her thoughts. The soldiers and sailors in sight seemed as startled as she was.
"Emergency alert!" came an urgent voice through loudspeakers. "Reports of a suspicious character found!"
As orders were issued to search the ship, Tifa ran for the entrance to the cargo hold. She nearly collided with Wedge, who must have been on one of his rare excursions above deck, and Jessie joined them moments later.
"So it's not any of us," Wedge observed first.
"Barret?" Tifa wondered.
"I don't think they'd describe Red as a 'suspicious character,'" Jessie agreed. "Could be Yuffie, though."
"Will you go check on her?" Tifa asked. "We'll go find Barret and Red." She looked to Wedge, who nodded agreement.
"Okay," said Jessie. "But if it's not any of us-- This might be a good distraction."
"Noted."
Jessie ran off, and Tifa and Wedge started down the ramp into the cargo hold. A scream echoed from somewhere in the depths, and a knot tightened in her stomach, but Tifa pushed herself on with Wedge just behind.
Not far from the bottom of the ramp, a blue-uniformed soldier lay on the floor, blood pooling beneath him. Beneath the blaring of the alarm, she could just make out his labored breathing. Tifa stood frozen. There was nothing she could do to help, but she didn't know if she wanted to help, and some part of her was terrified of drawing the attention of whoever had done it.
"...I think the scream came from that way," Wedge said, and when she forced herself to follow his gesture, she realized it was the opposite direction from their hiding place. "Let's see if they're in our spot."
They stepped carefully past the fallen soldier and wound their way through the crates until--
"Barret!" Wedge exclaimed.
Crouched with Red amid their gear, Barret lifted a finger to his lips. He'd reattached his gun-arm, and Red's hackles were raised.
"Quiet," he said. "Don't wanna get that thing's attention."
"'Thing'?" Wedge repeated.
"Some kinda monster. Don't know if I got words to fuckin' describe it."
"Like a... sea monster?"
Barret shook his head and nodded to Red. "Tell 'em."
"It smelled familiar," the beast rumbled uneasily. "I remember the scent from Hojo's lab that night. I think this is a Shinra creation; perhaps it broke loose from the cargo."
"You think... they were transporting it?" Tifa wondered. Everyone knew Mako caused mutations in animals that turned them into monstrous versions of themselves, but she couldn't fathom why Shinra would box those up and cart them across the ocean. Even if they were studying them, weren't all the facilities for that back in Midgar or Junon?
"Best guess," said Barret. "Otherwise I don't know how the hell it got on board. Sure don't look like no sea monster, I can tell you that."
Tifa shook her head. "We should get out of here. The way up's clear for now. Jessie's checking on the others."
"Shouldn't we... help?" Wedge asked hesitantly.
"Wedge, I gotta tell ya: I don't think we're equipped for that. 'sides, this is somethin' Shinra brought on themselves. Let them deal with it."
"I agree with the sentiment," said Red, "but we are unfortunately trapped on the same ship with them. If it escapes the cargo hold, there are only so many places we can run."
"It seems like it went back into the next section," said Wedge. "Maybe we could barricade it in there?"
"And tell anyone else to stay out," added Tifa, because even if they were Shinra, it was the grunts who'd be sent to deal with it. They at least deserved a warning. "They might not listen, but it's the best we can do."
"Yeah, all right," Barret agreed. "Bunch o' poor stupid bastards, ain't their fault some higher-ups decided to bring a monster in a box."
They gathered their gear and headed out. Tifa couldn't hear anything beyond the alarm until she put her ear to the door into the next compartment. "It sounds like it's moving farther aft."
"...towards the engine room?" Barret wondered.
"Um, that seems bad," said Wedge.
"We've nearly reached Costa del Sol by now, haven't we?" said Red.
"Not sure it's close enough to swim," Barret said skeptically.
"The ship has lifeboats, though," Tifa said, stepping back from the door and casting about for the nearest crate she thought they'd be able to move. Barret and Wedge joined her, and they shoved as much as they could in front of the door.
"No idea if that'll hold it," Barret admitted, "but it's somethin'."
Tifa swallowed, wondering what the hell he'd seen that had him so certain it was out of their league.
They ran back up the ramp, colliding on the way with a knot of Shinra soldiers. They passed on their warning and pressed on, leaving the men standing in uncertainty halfway down.
The others were waiting not far from the entrance out onto deck--and not just Jessie, Yuffie, and Elena, but Aeris stood in their midst. She'd thrown Elena's suit jacket across her shoulders to make her a little less conspicuous, but anyone taking a second glance amid the commotion would have to notice she didn't belong.
Of course, they had Red with them now, and he definitely didn't belong.
"I figured maybe we'd just go for it," said Jessie.
"Might have to," Barret agreed.
"What the hell is going on down there?" Elena demanded.
"Some kinda nightmare monster's rampagin' through the hold," said Barret. "We got it barricaded--maybe. Not sure this ship's got much longer."
His eyes were tracking a group of crewmen running past shouting something about finding another way into the engine room.
Wedge went to the railing and leaned far over, peering ahead of them. "I can see the port. It's really close now."
Tifa joined him. Wedge was right; if it weren't for the crisis, they probably would have been hearing announcements to prepare for docking. Glancing in the other direction, she could see one of those lifeboats suspended over the side of the ship, but she shook her head. "By the time we bail, we'd be there anyway."
"Uhh, are we gonna crash?" Yuffie asked.
"No," said Jessie. "Can you feel it? We're slowing down."
"I'm trying not to feel it," Yuffie said miserably.
"Okay," Barret said decisively, and they all turned to him. "Aeris? Introductions're gonna have to wait. Soon as we reach port, we gotta be ready to book it. We're catchin' looks, an' it won't be long before somebody with authority catches wind an' lets 'em know what's a priority."
"I'm ready," said Aeris. Her voice was steady, but she was tense with the same nervous energy as the rest of them.
As they drew even closer, they could make out the waiting gangway down to the docks. They shifted along the side of the ship, trying to gauge where it would connect. Whatever was going on below, the ship pulled to a stop without colliding with the dock, leaving a gap of several feet between the hull and the gangway.
"There! Stop!" someone shouted from behind them.
Tifa didn't look back, but ran with the others. Red leapt across first, followed by Elena, who spun and held out an arm. "Hurry!"
Aeris took a deep breath and leapt. One of her feet missed the gangway, but Elena caught her and steadied her. They ran on, and Tifa hurried after. Gunfire sounded behind her as Barret covered their retreat, but a minute later she heard the heavy thud of his boots landing on the gangway, bringing up the rear.
Elena was racing across the docks as though she knew exactly where she was headed, and Tifa grit her teeth, not trusting it, but Red was outpacing her. If she was planning something, he'd delay her.
A short set of steps brought them to a helipad. There were three choppers waiting, plus a few startled soldiers who froze in confusion as Elena barked, "Out of the way!"
Their eyes snapped to Tifa, coming up behind the weird dog, not-quite-recognizable Turk, and obvious civilian. Tifa, at least, looked like one of them, and so did the others coming up behind her.
"We... need use of one of these birds," said Tifa, though she threw Elena a glance. Did they need to kidnap a pilot here?
"I can fly a helicopter," Elena said, as though it should've been obvious. "You. Are these fueled up?"
"Y-yes, ma'am!" answered the soldier she'd addressed. "We were told to expect Vice-- I mean, President Rufus..."
"Change of plans," said Elena. "There's a problem on board they need help locking down. We've been ordered to get this asset"--she nodded to Aeris--"to a safe location in the meantime."
They might have been convinced by that, if their pursuers from the ship hadn't caught up with them then.
"Stop them! Imposters!"
The soldiers on the helipad raised their rifles, but Barret was faster. He shot one of them in the shoulder, and the other two ran to take cover, one firing off a wild shot that hit nothing.
"Get a move on!" Barret yelled.
Elena started for the nearest helicopter, but she threw a hand out at the other two. "Shoot the fuel tanks!" she called to Barret.
No one argued. Tifa urged Aeris ahead of her into the helicopter. Elena was already in the pilot's seat, flicking switches to spin up the engine. The blades overhead began to turn. Red settled into the rear, while Jessie swung herself into the copilot seat.
"I hate this," Yuffie grumbled as she pulled herself inside, and Tifa spared her a sympathetic look. From one kind of motion sickness to another.
Barret and Wedge held off their pursuers until Elena shouted at them to get in. Barret stood in the open doorway, gripping a handhold and keeping up a barrage of bullets as the helicopter lifted off. They gained altitude slowly at first, but once they were high enough to clear the nearby tower, Elena banked them away.
Tifa got one last glimpse of the cargo ship docked below them, tiny figures scattered across its deck. Barret's gun-arm went silent as Costa del Sol fell away behind them, but the chop of the rotors was loud overhead, and she couldn't tell if the alarm was still blaring. Just before the ship fell completely out of sight, she thought she saw a figure in black step smoothly onto the gangway.
She swallowed hard. Just her imagination, right? She glanced around the interior of the helicopter, but no one else seemed to have noticed.
"I guess you do know how to fly!" Jessie shouted over the noise.
"I told you!" Elena retorted. "Now where the hell are we going?"
Wedge looked up at Barret. "Should we... You kind of know this area, right?"
Barret nodded, a grim set to his jaw as he turned his attention to Elena. "Head west," he said. "Towards the Corel Reactor. Know there's an old landin' pad up that way."
Elena glanced at him, but she just nodded. "Corel Reactor," she repeated. "Got it." And they banked away westward.