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Reunion and Eruption

Chapter 13: Sins and Ghosts of the Past

Summary:

Tifa, Aerith, and Jessie climb out of the collapsed lab and must deal with the spirits still haunting this place. Tifa must decide how to deal with Aerith's flirting.

Notes:

(See the end of the chapter for notes.)

Chapter Text

Tifa clutches at her two companions. Her friends. She feels terrible about telling Aerith they weren’t friends. After today, what else could they be but closer, more intimate? How to bridge that gap? You don’t trust a stranger with your life the way they continue to do.

The crashes and roars go on forever, and darkness slowly consumes them. Each time something bangs against the roof of their pitiful safety, she’s sure this is the one that will break through, or crush down under the tons of falling debris, trapping them, consigning them to a slow death in the bowels of Midgar, no one ever knowing what became of them.

Until, slowly, the roars die off. The tumbling crashes become skitters of stone. They wait even then, fingers and arms sore from the death grips they’ve had on each other for probably only minutes. It felt like hours.

“Are we dead?” Jessie asks in the stillness and silence. 

Aerith coughs dust away. She releases her grip on the others. The sudden flashlight beam banishes the darkness, and they all squint against it, eyes adjusting. “Guess not,” Aerith says. “I have a sense about these things.”

Tifa laughs, short and unexpected. The outside rumbles ominously at the sound, and she shuts up while they wait for silence again. “Sorry,” she says. 

“I don’t get it,” Jessie says, glancing curiously between the two of them.

“Inside joke, I suppose,” Tifa answers.

Jessie’s glance between the two women begins to grow suspicious, and Tifa clears her throat.

She asks, “Can we climb out of here, do you think?”

Between the three of them, Jessie is the smallest, and she shuffles forward away from their little group, investigating the hole they came from. “Can I have the flashlight, Carbuncle?”

Aerith hands it over, and before they lose the light, she smiles at Tifa. A secret smile only for her. Thankfully the cockpit is bathed in darkness before Tifa’s face turns red. She can feel it, though. Hot. How does one not feel something when a woman like Aerith focuses those lips on you? 

“Any luck, Jessie?” she whispers. 

Jessie scoots forward, light bouncing off debris. “There’s a bit of a tunnel here. I can… probably squeeze through, see if it’s safe to come out. Uh. I’m not normally one for this, but if it seems like I’m about to be buried under debris, I demand you grab my ass and pull me to safety.”

Aerith chuckles. “Probably easier to just grab your legs.”

“Well, grab something . I’m not about to live through two cave-ins only to be crushed to paste because I’ll report you to HR.”

Tifa gently tugs on Jessie’s boot. “Hey, before you go.”

Jessie backs out of the small tunnel, and Tifa grabs her into a hug, squeezing tightly. “I knew you weren’t dead, without Aerith telling me. You’re too stubborn.”

“It was a close thing after I practically tripped over the beast,” Jessie says, sniffling back sudden tears. “You have no idea how my gut dropped when I saw you running towards what was about to be barbecue.”

“Like when I thought you were being eaten by a creature and I wasn’t going to get there on time. It was a good plan and we messed it up.”

Jessie pushes back from Tifa, tears in her eyes. “Hey, it’s still dead. You literally kicked its own horn into its skull. Who does that?”

“Donna Lockhart does that,” Aerith says. “The kind of boss you like to have leading you.”

“Damn right,” Jessie says, and Tifa can’t fight the blush now. “We’ve got our own kickboxing master, who needs some boy with a sword?” She seems to realize immediately what she’s said, as she stutters an apology. “Oh, uh, sorry, Tifa--”

“It’s okay,” Tifa says. It is, as strange as that sounds. “Really. Just look for an exit. We’ll be right here.” Jessie nods and turns away, back to the tunnel, and begins to crawl her way to safety. 

There’s that emotional kick in the chest when someone brings up her childhood friend, the boy who made a promise he couldn’t keep, but it just proves one thing she’s known since she was a child: everyone lets you down, eventually. Trusting someone else to protect you, to save the world… that isn’t who Tifa is, not anymore.

And yet, she thinks of Aerith. A woman who clearly likes her and isn’t afraid to be herself, nor speak her mind. A woman who has saved her life several times in the very short time they’ve known each other. And above all, a woman who respects her, helps her achieve more. A woman like that is dangerous. She knows Tifa’s secrets, her weaknesses. A woman who knows that, like Madame M, can take advantage. Can slit a throat as easily as part a kimono to get what she wants.

So what does Aerith want? What secrets does this woman hide? And how long until one of them gets Tifa killed?

No, this woman is a distraction from her goal. She will make Shinra pay for Nibelheim, for Cloud, for Sector 7, for the whole damned planet. Anything else is secondary.

While Jessie works her way forward, they are in darkness again. Aerith clears her throat, and Tifa turns to the woman despite not being able to see her anymore.

Aerith says, “This has been a weird day, huh?”

Tifa smiles, but forces it back to neutral. Doesn’t matter that Aerith can’t see it right now. Tifa says, “I’ve had worse.” Don Corneo made sure of that. So did Sephiroth, for that matter.

“But have you had weirder?”

Tifa shrugs before remembering that they can’t see each other. “Maybe not. You?”

“When you can hear the planet, every day tends to be pretty strange.”

“Do you really? Hear the planet?”

Aerith says, “I don’t know if that’s the right way to say it, as it’s not words. It’s not a sound.”

“Just a sense?”

Aerith says, “A feeling that it tries to communicate.”

“You talk like this is just a weird quirk people have, like ‘hey I’m double-jointed, how wild is that?’ only it’s chatting with the Lifestream.”

“It’s who I am. I’ve always been able to hear it. Just because no one else can, that doesn’t make it seem like I’m the weird one to me.”

Tifa can’t understand that outlook. “If you’re the only one, that makes you the weird one. By definition.”

“But it’s just me. It’s strange to you, but it’s very natural. Everyone should speak to the planet sometimes. Just because you can’t hear it, doesn’t mean it isn’t listening.”

“I’m not interested in all this spiritual nonsense. The Lifestream holds the planet together. Shinra is sucking it dry, using it up. We stop that, the planet is safe. Simple as that.”

“Nothing is as simple as we want it to be, Donna Lockhart.” Tifa doesn’t know how to respond to this, and Jessie saves her from having to.

She whispers from maybe ten feet away, her flashlight beam bouncing down into the tunnel, “Hey, I found a way out. It’s a--” She hesitates, sounding almost like she’s struggling. “It’s a tight fit, though. Your, uh, well, you might have some trouble.”

Tifa chuckles. One more way in which her chest gets her into trouble. “We’ll just have to try anyway. Carbuncle, you go ahead. No sense getting you trapped in here with me if I can’t make it out.”

Aerith shuffles, bumps into Tifa. She says, “Ow, sorry. But so you know, there are worse ways to die than being trapped with you, Donna Lockhart.”

The insolent woman! Tifa swallows the response gagging in her throat. “Just go already. I’ll be right behind you.”

Aerith goes, and Tifa follows behind. Bare hints of flashlight make it past Aerith’s body, and Tifa shuffles before having to flatten herself to the ground as best she can. Aerith vanishes upwards, and the flashlight blinds Tifa for a moment before she blinks away the sudden strength of the beam. She inches slowly forward, her back against uneven and sharp metal, poking and prodding her as she drags herself.

“How’s it going in there, Tifa?” Jessie asks.

“Peachy,” she hisses. “Next time I try to hide in a cave-in, just go ahead and--hrng.” She clears a particularly sharp spoke of something that tore into her top and into the tender flesh of her back a little. Not much. Death by a thousand cuts for them all today. “I’m good. It’s easier now.”

She reaches the flashlight beam dangling into the hole, and realizes she can’t move any farther because it narrows again. So she does her best to spin in place, putting her chest up and flexing her arms towards the hole. “A little help?”

Hands reach in and grasp her arms, which she locks her own hands onto. 

They pull. Nothing moves for an uncomfortable moment as she is well and truly pressed in tight. She says, “Wait,” and takes a deep breath, letting the compression against her chest just hurt until she feels the metal around her flex ever so slightly. She expels her breath out, collapsing her chest as much as possible, and says with her last breath, “Okay, now.”

They pull again, and she slips free with minimal damage. The sight that greets her as she sucks in a great lungful of air would steals her breath all over again..

“It’s… Sector 7.” 

“I didn’t want to say anything,” Jessie says, putting a comforting hand on Tifa’s shoulder. “Sorry.”

All around them, the debris is eerily familiar. The ceiling has caved in completely once again, and only a pile of rubble and buildings connects them to the surface. The school. The front of Jessie’s flat. A great big portion of the “7th HEAVEN” sign lays partially buried in the distance, one of the intact lights from the ceiling flickering on it.

Tifa stares at it all. She can’t do anything else. They stand atop a heap of Shinra’s sins, past and present. And though it angers her, fills her with the rage she felt the night she became Donna Lockhart, she also feels the regret again. That she was unable to stop it. That she was powerless when it mattered. Jessie sits atop the heap, knees huddled up to her chest. Aerith stands by, unsure what to do or say. There are bodies buried within all this rubble, too.

Tifa says it for them all. “I was worried we were under home.”

“Huh?” Aerith says. Jessie wipes tears from her face, glances up at Tifa’s stone cold voice.

The earlier memory that nagged at her comes back sharply. “You remember the rumors, the stories the drunks would tell or the kids would scare each other with?” she asks Jessie.

Jessie nods, standing up. She sniffles a bit, but holds it back. “Yeah. That there was a secret Shinra base underground. That’s where the mutants came from. The Mako monsters.”

Tifa nods back. “Looks like the rumors weren’t so false. It wasn’t bad enough that they forced people into the slums under the plate. Wasn’t bad enough they polluted us down here and paid us nothing. Forced us to fight for scraps. No, they also made it harder by experimenting on creatures under our noses. And if they got loose into the slums, well it’s just the slums, who cares?”

“Tifa…” Aerith says, but Tifa glares at her, and Aerith swallows nervously. “Donna Lockhart.”

“This is what we’re fighting. This is why we’re going to destroy them from within.”

“For the planet,” Aerith says.

“For the planet, and everything that lives on it.”

Jessie says, “Hell yeah. They didn’t just kill everyone in the slums, either. All the people on top of the plate, too, those that thought they were safe… my folks…” Tifa puts a hand on Jessie’s shoulder. “I’m okay. I’m with you, Donna Lockhart.”

“I know you are.” She turns to Aerith. “And you, Carbuncle? Can you follow my lead?”

Aerith doesn’t answer at first. She’s looking beyond them both. Then she says, “If you’ll help me fix the rest of what’s down here, I’ll join you.”

Tifa says, “We’ll put to rest some of their past sins today, and worry about their present sins tomorrow.”

Jessie and Aerith nod. This is the rebellion. This is their Eruption.

*****

They stand outside Lab X in the corridor, which has been mercifully spared the destruction caused by the beast and the collapse of the ceiling. What they’ll find in Labs Y and Z is anybody’s guess, though. Now that they’re back in the corridor, the spirits float lazily about once more. Tifa really doesn’t like them, and if one tries to touch her, she really will punch it.

Jessie works at the keycard reader of Lab Y, little sparks flying. “At least you’re not likely to set off a security alert, right?” Aerith jokes.

“Are you kidding? The fact that this still has power means all bets are off. No idea what we’re finding inside these labs. Maybe supplies. Maybe weapons. Dust or drones, more monsters? Who knows?”

“Pretty sure it’s not just dust,” Tifa says.

Aerith crosses her arms over her chest, the staff held in the crook of her arm. “Right. We keep saying that they left in a hurry, but not fast enough not to leave some stuff behind.”

Jessie bites her lower lip as she says, “Annnnnd got it!” The red light on the reader beeps over to yellow briefly, and then back to red before turning green. The door unseals and opens up, sliding into the wall next to it. “Fancy,” Jessie says, standing up.

“Okay, serious time,” Tifa says. “Jessie, take point. I’ll follow. Carbuncle, if it’s safe, I’ll wave you in.”

“Yes, sir, Donna Lockhart,” Aerith says. There’s still some cheekiness to how she says it, but Tifa chooses to ignore it. She’s falling in line. 

Jessie holds the pistol and glances inside the door before darting in. Tifa follows with a last glance at Aerith, who now holds her staff at the ready.

The room is small, and doesn’t appear to have been used as a proper lab even when it was last in use. There’s more storage crates here; Shinra uniforms, lab coats, surplus lab supplies like beakers and microscopes. Nothing useful in the moment. Nothing that speaks to what they were doing down here. Jessie, however, finds something unusual in one of the crates. She lifts out a curious device, some kind of control apparatus that conforms to a hand and wrist, and holds it up for Tifa. 

“What’s this look like to you?”

“Some kind of controller for a video game?”

“Maybe, but uh… can I have your bangle? The one with the materia on it.”

“Why?” Tifa asks, holding the gaudy gold thing protectively. It might be a piece of the former Don, but the fire protection has saved her twice today.

“Do you trust me?”

“Every time you ask that, something inevitably explodes,” Tifa complains, but she uncouples the bangle and hands it over. 

“If I do this right, something will definitely catch fire.”

Aerith removes her silver bangle and hands it over to Tifa. “You know how to use materia now, might as well have one on you.”

Tifa thanks her as she slips on the bangle with the lightning materia inside it. It’s warm from Aerith’s wrist, and tingles from the lightning. This isn’t a gift, she scolds herself. This is simply returning what’s already hers. After all, this silver bangle was also the former Don’s.

They step out of the room, and Jessie begins working on Lab Z’s door now. After a minute or so, it also beeps and unlocks, and they follow the same procedure as before. 

Inside the room, it’s much smaller than Lab X. Or rather, the walkable space is smaller. This resembles much more a lab room Tifa was expecting. A large computer sits against one wall, as big as the wall, with broken screens. Desks with scattered papers and a microscope. All of it faces a frosted glass window with some kind of glowing lights behind it. A door with another keycard reader sits next to the window, granting access to whatever this is.

It seems safe enough in this small chamber, so Tifa waves Aerith inside. A wispy white spirit follows her in, sort of flitting about her body like a ribbon in the wind.

“I think I made a friend,” Aerith says, holding her hand up, while the spirit snakes up the arm to her hand, where it forms into something almost recognizably human before drifting back into wispy whiteness.

“That’s so creepy,” Jessie says, watching it with guarded fear. 

Tifa feels the same, but she shrugs it away while she grabs the assorted papers from the desk in front of the window. Most of them make no sense, talking about iterations and incubation periods, but only referencing subjects as “SUBJECT A” or “SUBJECT B” and so on. Tifa glances through the window, which she realizes isn’t frosted glass, but dust. With her arm, she wipes a large swath of dust away and peers inside.

She nearly falls backwards. Rows and rows of clear tanks, filled with malformed bodies. Human, animal, some unrecognizable as anything at all. All float within an aqua fluid that appears to be Mako. One up close to the window has been broken open, and the creature inside lays dead over the broken glass, as if it fought to free itself, but couldn’t survive all the same.

Something glows inside the pool of Mako in that broken container. Something red.

“I think we found the source of the spirits,” Tifa says. “It’s pretty rough in there, though.” She is utterly appalled at this display of wanton recklessness in experimentation. If this is legal under any government, that government deserves to be abolished. Simple as that. It takes everything she has not to vomit from sheer disgust and horror, but she holds it in.

Jessie and Aerith peek through the window now, and both gasp. Aerith covers her mouth and runs from the room. Tifa’s first instinct is to follow her, comfort her, and she fights that. The matter at hand is right here.

“Do you think any of them are alive?” Tifa asks, internally berating herself for ignoring Aerith’s pain.

“I mean, how could they be?” Jessie says. “They’ve been down here for years.”

“Yes, but the big monster was also down here for years, and I didn’t see any evidence of recent feeding.”

“Good point. I dunno, boss. I really don’t. You want me to blow it all up?”

“I think so. But we should go get a closer look first.” And if that gives her a moment to talk to Aerith, so what? “Tell you what, see if you can get that door open and I’ll check on our planet-talker.”

“Take it easy on her, huh?” Jessie says.

Tifa’s shoulders tense up at that. “I have been nothing but cordial.”

“You’ve been like a cold fish, Tifa. Are you gonna tell me you haven’t noticed she likes you?”

She has, in fact, but she shakes her head. “I have a criminal organization to run, and a government to overthrow. Romance is not high on my list.” Especially after Cloud was taken from her after those emotions were rekindled. After Don Corneo made her feel so helpless. After Madame M tried to take advantage of her desires. No, romance is a luxury. Intimacy is a crutch.

Jessie scoffs, though, as she sets to working on the card reader. “Hey, this is me. How many nights did we sit up gossiping about the locals and how none of them were good enough for us?”

“That night we did it in front of Wedge was maybe a bit much,” Tifa admits.

“Poor Wedge. We didn’t get a chance to talk about it, but he like, defended my honor to Cloud the night before the Sector 5 raid. It was kind of a backhanded way of doing it, but I heard him say it all, and it was cute in its way.”

Tifa smiles. “Wedge is too good for us, if we’re being honest.”

“You know it.” She starts to concentrate on the card reader in earnest, then turns back to Tifa with a quick glance. “Look, all I’m saying is Aerith isn’t like me. I flirt with all the boys. She flirts with you . Just… if you don’t want to hurt her, maybe let her down gently?”

“You’re too good a friend, Jessie the Strawberry.”

“Hey, it’s just Strawberry!” Jessie teases. 

Tifa pats her shoulder and leaves the room, finding Aerith outside a little ways down the hall, leaning against the wall, doubled over. There’s a splatter at her feet.

“You okay?” Tifa asks as she gets close.

“I’m fine. I just… You can’t feel it, can you?”

“Is this another planet thing?”

Aerith shakes her head, holding her stomach protectively. “They’re so angry. Like sick with it.”

“The… mutants?”

“The spirits. Tifa, they died in agony, in isolation. The scientists and soldiers died in terror. They all died not understanding what was happening to them, or why. It’s overwhelming.”

“If they’re so angry, why aren’t they… attacking? Is that a thing they can do?”

Aerith looks up. “They’re not mad at us. If we start doing something, they may turn on us, though.”

“Great. Jessie wants to blow the place up. Going to imagine this qualifies as ‘doing something’. Will that fix this?” Aerith considers, shaking as if cold. Tifa almost reaches out to her, to pull her into a hug, and stops herself. She’s a friend and maybe something more, but there’s no time for distractions. 

Aerith says, “It might. Did she find another grenade or something we can use?”

“No, but she’s resourceful. It looks like Mako in the tanks. We can use that, can’t we?”

“What’s the word for it? Makes fire move faster.”

“I’m sure Jessie knows,” Tifa says.

“Well, it’s not that, I don’t think. Mako isn’t gas.”

“Look, I just punch things. If you tell me it can’t work, we’ll ask Jessie.”

“You do more than that, and you know it.” Aerith smiles sadly and Tifa feels bad all over again. But Jessie’s right. Treat her gently. It’s not fair to Aerith otherwise.

Tifa smiles, crossing her arms and leaning next to Aerith on the wall. “Do you ever stop flirting?”

“When I’m told to. Are you asking me to stop?” There’s hope in Aerith’s green eyes. A hope that Tifa doesn’t think she can fulfill.

“It’s hard to concentrate on what I need to do when you’re casting those big eyes at me. Like that,” she says when Aerith’s eyes widen.

“Are you not into girls?”

“I hate that question. I’ve had flings before.” She thinks of that embarrassing moment with Madame M that almost saw her dead. That attraction wasn’t nothing. “Just never met someone quite like you. But that’s not the point.”

“What, you don’t like my personality ?” Aerith mocks.

“I hate your personality! You’re crazy, and frustrating, and you say the opposite of what anyone else would ever say, and somehow you’re never wrong.”

Aerith smiles. “That doesn’t sound like a bad thing.”

Tifa huffs in annoyance. “Look, I’m not about to lie to your face. I’m not going to kiss you after some sweeping, romantic gesture, or accidentally admit my feelings for you in a moment of weakness. I don’t have time for that, and you don’t deserve being held in suspense.”

“Taking off the kid gloves. I get it.” But her eyes are hurt. The lines of her face are more than that. Aerith is more like Jessie in one regard than she probably thinks: she loves with her whole heart, only Aerith hurts with it all, too. 

“I’m sorry. I really am. Maybe if things were different…”

“No, none of the platitudes. You want to be the boss, be the boss. I’m a happy soldier in the Lockhart army.”

Tifa’s heart aches to hear the dismissal. What are they doing? Why won’t Aerith just be… less endearing? Tifa says, “We’re happy to have you. For the fight.”

“Sure, a girl who talks to the planet and can shoot lightning, what’s not to like?” She stalks past Tifa and into Lab Z again. Tifa follows, feeling like a wretch for the entire conversation.

Inside Lab Z, Jessie has the door open and is tinkering away at that strange apparatus, with Tifa’s gold bangle next to it. Parts are being removed from the bangle, and the materia sits idle on the desk next to it.

“Sure you’re okay with that?” Tifa asks.

Jessie looks up from her work, grinning. “I’m insulted you’d even ask that.”

“Is this the best time to work on it?” Aerith asks.

“Oh, please, you two were out there playing mooneyes at each other for so long, I had time to tinker. Give me another few minutes and I think I’ll have something brand new for you to play with.”

“Will it still protect me from fire when you’re done? Because that’s a feature, not a bug,” Tifa asks. 

Jessie frowns now. “Not… sure. I guess we’ll find out!” She goes back to working on it, while Tifa follows Aerith to the open doorway next to the window.

She stares inside the room, and jumps a little when Tifa asks, “You still good?”

“Sorry,” Aerith says. “Yeah, I think we should just burn it all down, if we can.” 

Jessie says from behind them both, “Mako’s a poor accelerant, but it will burn.”

“That’s the word,” Aerith says. “Well, good. If we break them all open, we can burn them all up, right?”

“Before we go destroying it all, let’s at least search the room first.” Tifa thinks of that soft red glow from the first container.

“Nothing’s in there but death.”

“Let’s look, all the same. We have to break the containers anyway, we can do that after we make sure there’s no files or anything.”

Aerith nods. They walk into the large chamber, and Tifa doesn’t wait any longer. She approaches the broken container with the dead creature, and pokes at it carefully. It’s fairly desiccated, but no reason to take chances. Aerith scoffs but doesn’t interrupt. What’s left of its skin is mottled gray, its skull malformed. This might once have been a human, but it died as something else. No wonder this place is haunted and the spirits angry.

Jessie taps on the glass urgently and hops up from where she’s tinkering. Her head pops around the door and she says, “It’s Mako. You can touch it, but don’t let it linger.”

Tifa nods. “Should we find suits?”

Jessie frowns and shakes her head no. “They don’t really do anything. Just be quick and you won’t be exposed long enough to matter.”

That changes the conversation a bit. Tifa knows a little about Jessie’s father, how he got sick from Mako poisoning despite wearing protective gear. A lifetime of exposure kills, mutates. A couple of minutes should be fine, though, right?

“Noted,” Tifa says. “We’ll be careful.”

“You better.” Jessie goes back to tinkering, but Tifa can see one eye watching them as she works. They don’t deserve Jessie.

“A little help, Carbuncle?” Tifa asks. “Two means less exposure to each of us.”

Aerith comes forward and helps lift the body from the shards of glass, grimacing the whole time. From disgust or frustration with Tifa? Hard to say. The body is old enough that it doesn’t smell anymore, and she can only smell that heady, noxious odor of Mako permeating everything. The corpse slips free and they gently set it aside. Aerith’s throat does an ungainly lurch, but she holds it in. 

Inside the tank, in a pool of Mako, is the red materia. It glows like the Carbuncle once did. More living materia. They’ll make good use of it. Some glass floats from where they just removed the body and more broke off into it. Tifa grabs a shard of glass from the ground, uses it to scoop and clear the area directly above the materia. As soon as it’s clear, Tifa darts her hand into the murky Mako and pulls the orb of materia out. The Mako tingles on the skin and seems almost to cling to the materia as it breaks the surface. Tifa immediately sets it down to reduce contact with pure Mako.

Her hand drips with the aqua liquid, and she flicks it back and forth to get the majority of it off her, spackling the tank and the ground with droplets. “Any bandages or spare cloth in your bag?” she asks Aerith.

Aerith digs but comes up empty. “We’ve been using them a bit. But wait.” She reaches down and snaps up a shard of glass, then slices through the bottom of her dress. “I’m made of slightly used bandages,” she says cheerfully, ripping free a large swatch that reveals the bottoms of her calves before handing it over. “I’ll make another cut for the materia.”

“Don’t bother. This will work.” She regrets that a little bit, but smiles. “Thanks.” Tifa rubs her hand over the cloth, careful not to spread it around. It’s not quite like water or oil, but it lingers on the skin and doesn’t rub off easily. “I’m definitely ready for a shower when this is over,” Tifa says.

“Two showers and a hot bath. I bet we smell just great .”

Now doesn’t that just sound nice. She knows the mansion has a hot tub, and her face warms a bit thinking about it.

Tifa turns and drops the Mako-soaked cloth onto the red materia, then picks it up and  rubs it clean before tossing the cloth away. The red materia is large, bigger than the others they’ve handled so far, and she wonders if maybe sitting in Mako all this time has messed it up, or caused it to swell or something.

But it’s theirs now. “How’d it work before? Breathe into it and let it breathe into me?” 

Aerith nods. “I can help again.”

“I’ll try it alone first. If something’s wrong with it, no reason for us both to get hurt.”

Aerith opens her mouth to protest, probably, but Tifa ignores her. She shuts her eyes, cupping the materia, trying to remember that feeling of a friendly wave.

Only this one isn't friendly. It’s pissed . Instead of that kindly little gesture she expects, this one slams against her being. It demands attention, release. Tifa gasps and nearly drops it, but Aerith reaches out and snatches it. Right before Tifa loses it, she feels its name deep inside her. Hades

Tifa tries to catch her breath while Aerith holds the materia. She says, “You were right. Nothing but death in here.”

“This is the source,” Aerith whispers. “It’s what I was feeling before.”

“The ghosts are… what come from it?”

Aerith’s head shakes and tears stand in her eyes. “I think they’re tied to it. They’re angry and this thing is furious. They’re scared and this thing is terrifying. Hades. Death. They’re trapped by a false deity.”

“Well. Shit.” What else is there to say to something like that? “What do we do?”

“I--I’m not sure,” Aerith says, voice breaking. 

“Well, I sure can’t offer any advice. This is your arena.”

Jessie’s head pops back into the doorframe. “Hey, you two should come see this.”

Tifa scowls. “Jessie, I love you, but this isn’t the time for tinkering.”

Jessie grins, though. “Please, I finished that five minutes ago. Here.” She tosses a pair of knuckledusters cobbled together from Tifa’s bangle and that gloved apparatus. “You can play with it in a minute. I’ve been trying to access the computer in here.”

“You managed to power it on?” Tifa asks. They leave the room with the tanks and rejoin Jessie in the small lab. Aerith still holds the red materia, as if she’s afraid to let it go. It seems even bigger in her hands, and she clutches it protectively against her stomach.

Jessie nods, pointing at the little tablet on her gauntlet. “Lucky this thing didn’t get busted in either of the collapses I lived through today.” The gauntlet has been wired to the large computer on the wall, and its tiny display shows folders, but it’s all so small on the tablet that Tifa can’t make out the names of anything.

“You just happened to have a cable to interface with this tech from… what, twenty years ago?”

“Maybe thirty. And of course. What kind of expert would I be if I didn’t have a dozen connectors in my pack?” Tifa smiles, impressed always with Jessie. Aerith pays only a little bit of attention to the proceedings. Her focus is mostly on the Hades materia.

Jessie continues, “Okay, so I know it’s hard to read for my display. I’m copying it all, but in the meantime, I can access something. There’s folders and files that start with an R, an H, an M, a B, an S.”

“Let’s just do the alphabet,” Tifa says. Jessie accesses the file marked “B” and it’s a report on something called the Behemoth, Type-0. The graphic associated with it proves it is the creature they fought in the other lab. “Type 0? Is that like… a prototype?”

“Could be.” Jessie shrugs. “Says here it was slated to be decommissioned because it was too volatile.” She snorts. “Understatement of the year.”

Aerith says, “You don’t decommission an animal. Shinra is cruel.”

Tifa agrees. “Well, at any rate, it seems like it’s obvious it didn’t feel like being decommissioned. Now I feel bad we had to kill it.”

“I wouldn’t feel that bad,” Jessie says, skimming the file more, eyes squinting to read the tiny text. “It says it was also unbelievably vindictive for a creature, holding grudges against even the nicest of its captors.”

“Just because they turned it into a monster doesn’t mean we can’t pity it,” Aerith says.

“Move on to the next file,” Tifa says. She doesn’t want to think about pity right now. Shinra deserves none.

Jessie opens the next file, and this one displays a dossier of a young man with slicked back hair in a ponytail and thick glasses. A small goatee frames his smug smile. Tifa immediately dislikes his demeanor.

Jessie says, “This is for a young scientist named Hojo.”

Tifa and Jessie both catch Aerith’s sharp intake of breath, a barely-concealed gasp. Tifa says, “You’ve heard of him?”

Aerith nods, still cradling the Hades materia. “He’s… not a nice man.”

“What did he do?” Jessie asks.

Aerith shakes her head, though, grimacing. 

Tifa’s arms cross in front of her as she turns to Aerith. “We’re not going to see your name in here, are we?”

Aerith sticks her tongue out at that. “I’m not that old.”

Fair enough, Tifa thinks. She also didn’t say she wouldn’t show up for the obvious reasons, like “I’m not a research subject.” A woman who speaks to the planet, and has heard of a Shinra scientist from decades ago. Trouble any way you slice it.

“What’s it say about him?” Tifa asks Jessie.

Jessie finishes skimming and says, “Looks like it was a performance review of sorts. Cold, calculating, interested only in the science. Excitement because he’d go far in the new program.”

“New program?”

“Doesn’t say.”

“Next file, then.”

The “M” file looks like an overview of various Mako experiments being performed down here. Mostly just statistics, nothing that makes sense. “I’d call this proof of Shinra doing bad things if I could make sense of it,” Tifa says.

“I’ll copy it all regardless,” Jessie says, moving on to the “R” files.

These all point to fuel experiments for a rocket program Tifa only vaguely remembers back when going into space was a thing Shinra cared about.

“Damn, no wonder that fuel was so explosive,” Jessie says. “I blew up a monster with rocket fuel. New first for me!”

“You’ll have to brag to Biggs and Wedge about it when we get out of here,” Tifa teases. “What’s next?”

“Hm, the last one that isn’t corrupted beyond repair is ‘S’ and it--oh wow. It’s the prototype for the SOLDIER program.” Jessie and Tifa share significant glances. This might be incredibly useful, given that they’ve known Zack and Cloud, and Jessie had a run-in with this Roche guy. 

Tifa asks, “Does it say what they did to them?”

Jessie reads more, and her eyes go wide. She nods towards the window with the tanks of mutated creatures beyond it. “You’re looking at it. Mako baths to infuse them with strength. These were the first round, which were not just bathed in it, but put into a kind of cryogenic sleep while their whole bodies were suffused with it.”

Despicable. What a legacy for people like Zack and Cloud, who just wanted to be strong, to protect the weak and live honorable lives. “Most of this file is busted, but there’s a footnote that talks about a new infusion technique. Using something called JENOVA. Doesn’t say what that is, though.”

Aerith says, “I don’t want to hear about this anymore.”

“Heard of that, too?” Tifa asks.

Aerith shakes her head no, though. “It just… it makes me feel like someone walked over my grave.”

Jessie sighs, then frantically presses buttons on the side of her tablet. The screen flickers and fades. “Well, damn. I copied what I could, but I think this gave up the ghost, maybe pun intended. We’re not going to get much more from these files, but I’ll see what I can recover from what I copied later.”

“You’re the best, Jessie.” If they can recover that bit about the SOLDIER program, that might be a great leak to destabilize their control, if the public trust in them can be chipped away at. Tifa leaves her to work on the old computer, and turns back to Aerith. “You’re pale. That thing affecting you?”

Aerith smiles shakily. “It’s not that. Well, I don’t think so. I hate it, though.”

Tifa shrugs. “So what is it?”

Aerith’s head shakes dismissively, but her eyes are resolute. “I have an idea. You’re probably not going to like it.”

“It couldn’t be something easy like just tell it to chill out and let all the ghosts go, huh?”

Aerith’s weak smile fades. “That’s kind of what I have in mind. Only I don’t think it’s going to listen. And then we’ll have to force it.”

Tifa takes a moment to process. “So… so you’re telling me to punch Hades.”

“Maybe?”

Tifa wants to laugh, but that would sour the mood. Time to be serious, because Aerith obviously cares about this. Tifa does, too, she realizes. What if something similar was going on in Nibelheim? If her father, her mother, everyone, was trapped in some kind of death loop, unable to return to the planet? It’s only right to fix this if they can.

“Can we make a promise before we try this?” Tifa asks.

“Depends what it is.”

“If we live through this, we lay some cards on the table.” Aerith’s mouth opens in what looks like protest, but Tifa cuts her off, “I’m not saying we do a tell-all. But we’re both holding things back, and that’s not good for what we’re doing. You share, I share. Deal?” Tifa holds her hand out, and Aerith frees a hand to shake it, still holding the large red materia with the other protectively against her stomach.

“Good. So what’s the plan, then?” Aerith talks her through it, and Tifa can’t believe they’re going to try this nonsense, but she nods. Time to parlay with madness and death.

*****

“So tell me about this thing you’ve made me,” Tifa says, pulling this strange glove on. It seems like a pair of knuckledusters, but half the gold bangle with one materia slot each is on each fist. Tifa isn’t sure the punching part should be made of gold. 

They’re setting up in Lab Z, the only place with enough room to maneuver. Everything is wrecked in X, Y is too crowded, so they just have to hope they don’t interfere with the tanks next door while they do this.

Jessie says, running a hand through her short ponytail and scratching her head nervously, “Well, I honestly don’t know. The blue materia supports the green, right? I kind of inverted the wiring and ran the connections up to the metal frame. In theory it will augment offense instead of defense.”

“Why did you make this gold part the hitting part, though? It’s going to be soft and bend, won’t it?”

Jessie grins. “Oh, please. Do you think Don Corneo could afford solid gold jewelry? Check it out.” She shows Tifa the small space where she cut into the gold to test it. “Pretty sure it’s just steel underneath. Gold-plated, which means you get to leave behind a little something when you punch.”

“It’s pretty comfortable for something you made in ten minutes.”

Jessie gives a thumbs up with her happy expression. “Donna Lockhart deserves the best.”

“She always has it with you around.”

Jessie beams at that. “Oh, and I’m almost 99% certain it won’t like… melt your hand.”

Tifa shakes her head. “Maybe lead with that before I put them on next time?”

“Hey, nothing is 100% sure.” Tifa glances at Aerith and catches herself thinking that someone just might be. She shrugs that away and finishes tightening the knuckles around her fists. She isn’t sure if the materia will function as a pair separated like this, but when she draws her hands up into a defensive stance and clenches her fists, the blue and green glows intensify. They’re not melding into that nice teal color anymore, but she thinks maybe they’re still working together somehow. Her hands and feet feel warmer. Not hot, but like they’re next to an open flame on a cold day.

“I’m ready,” Aerith announces. She has seated herself seiza with her hands holding the red materia out in front of her. She looks like a stone altar given life.

“That’s my cue to back out,” Jessie says. “Pretty sure you can’t shoot ghosts and I have no idea how materia works.”

“It seems pretty safe along the path we took to get here. Want to scout it out to make sure it’s still okay?” Tifa asks. 

“We just got each other back and now you’re sending me out alone?” Jessie asks. It’s half teasing, but Tifa can see the worry in her eyes.

“I have faith in you, Strawberry.”

Jessie grins. “Hey, if you’re lucky, the talking thing will work.”

“Because diplomacy has worked so well, historically,” Tifa deadpans. 

Jessie snorts, but backs out of the room. “Good luck!” She goes down the corridor a ways, and Tifa waves a last time before turning back to Aerith.

“So should I help with the first part?” Tifa asks, standing in front of Aerith.

Aerith nods. “I’d like that. Doing this alone is scarier than I thought.”

Tifa sits on her knees, too, boots stuck out at an angle she can quickly vault up onto if she needs to. She reaches her newly-adorned hands out, and shares the weight of this materia. It is so similar to the time they dealt with the Carbuncle materia that shivers run down Tifa’s spine. It’s a good memory, and this is probably going to be a bad one.

Aerith takes a deep breath and exhales, eyes closed. “Okay. Think happy thoughts. Peaceful thoughts.”

“Easier said than done, but okay.” Tifa closes her eyes, too, and tries to remember the last time she was actually happy. Not just complacent, or relieved. But actually happy. And the first moment that pops into her mind is seeing Cloud in Midgar. Reclaiming some semblance of her past, an old friend. The moment that she thought it might all be okay after all. 

The red materia warbles in their shared grip. Vibrates angrily. The memory in Tifa’s mind sours. Why would that moment make her happy, when Cloud failed her? When he wasn’t there in Nibelheim when she needed him. When he wasn’t there in Don Corneo’s mansion. No, that isn’t a happy memory. It’s a memory born of pain and frustration.

Aerith says, “Tifa, I don’t know what you’re doing, but you’re making it worse.” Tifa’s eyes spring open, back to the present. Back to the desperate spirits they’re trying to help. 

Only it’s too late. It’s feeding off her frustration. The orb swells and contracts, and spindly, skeletal fingers reach out, covering their own hands. Cold as the grave, sharp as death. In her mind she feels Hades questing, seeking. Embrace corruption , it says. Welcome death.

“No,” Tifa says, springing back onto her heels, lifting from her seated position. She rips her fingers free of Aerith’s, tearing the skin against the skeletal claws, and only hopes the promise in her eyes is enough for Aerith to know she isn’t being abandoned. Aerith nods, her green eyes resolute.

The gnarled, skeletal hands force their way out of the red materia, closing over Aerith’s tighter now. It is summoning itself into this world, feeding off Tifa’s negative energy.

“I don’t know what you did, but it didn’t like it!” Aerith yells. Her hands are trapped, and she seems locked into position. A grim visage of death swirls up and out, and suddenly standing before them is a reaper out of legend. Hades. It stands over Aerith, noxious green fumes pouring from its jawless mouth.

The wispy white spirits swarm now, wailing their discontent. At first Tifa thinks they’re attacking, but they seem like they’re trying to escape and are slowly being drawn inward towards Hades. Into the soulless black depths of its hollow sockets. It reaps now that it’s free. Aerith screams and coughs at the noxious fumes, and Tifa has to act. She has to do something right now .

So she spins into a roundhouse kick directly at the skull bearing down on Aerith. Her leg passes right through and Tifa loses her balance for a moment. She tries again with a flying knee into its back, sailing right through it and landing awkwardly next to Aerith. The spirits swirl and cry. Aerith sobs as the skeletal fingers dig into her hands, and crimson drips down to pool on her dress.

Tifa throws a single punch as near the red materia as she dares, hoping that she can hit this thing where it clutches at Aerith. But her fists pass through harmlessly, chilled to the bone.

And that’s when she realizes the warmth is gone from her arms and legs. She stands to her full height once more, draws herself into a defensive position, and clenches her fists. The difference is immediate. Warmth surges back into her fists, into her legs. She rears back one quick punch, ready to rebalance when she passes through Hades, but one skeletal hand shoots up from where it clutches Aerith, grabs her fist, and squeezes.

Its haunting eye sockets lock onto her now, and it throws her backwards. Embrace corruption . Welcome death.

Tifa crashes through the glass partition and into one of the full tanks, which also shatters from the force of her body. Her world dissolves in a deluge of glass shards, Mako, and the tortured remains of a SOLDIER lab experiment. She swallows Mako as she drops to the ground, glass crunching under her, slicing her arms and legs with shallow cuts. The sickly sweet stench of Mako and decayed creature overtakes her. On hands and knees, she vomits up the aqua liquid, tearing her throat as glass comes up with it. She spits Mako and blood as she stands up, her shoulder and back aching where they crashed through two different pieces of glass.

The spirits swarm around Tifa, urging her back into the fight. The reaper swats at more spirits on the other side of the partition, rending them into shreds that wail and get sucked into its gaping maw. No, Tifa thinks. We can’t let it do this.

She runs and vaults through the broken glass window, slides over the desk and plants her feet at the edge, letting her forward momentum carry her upright while her knees scream at the pressure. She leaps off the edge of the desk towards the skeletal spirit and kicks out at the hooded skeleton’s chest. For the briefest moment, Tifa sees a halo of fire around her boot before it connects, setting the phantom robe ablaze, cracking the bones beneath. Tifa grins, clenching her fists once more, feeling the power of fire course through her limbs. 

Thank you, Jessie.

She’ll worry about all this Mako in a minute, when they’re still alive to worry about being poisoned.

She swings again, this time for the skull, but Hades swirls away into nothingness and Tifa’s fist meets only air. “What the hell, did I kill it?” she calls out.

Only the spirits swirling around them all continue to wail, and one is shredded before her eyes. The faintest hint of skeletal fingers vanish as the ghostly spirit is sucked away into nothing.

“Turning invisible is cheating!” she yells, swinging out wildly at the places she sees the claws ripping the spirits apart. Each time she hits nothing and grows more frustrated.

Sudden, sharp pain slashes her back. Blood trickles and she drops to a knee next to Aerith. Aerith cries out, “Tifa!” while she still holds the materia. She begins to let go of it, to reach for Tifa, but Tifa grimaces and grabs for Aerith’s hands, holding her in place.

“I’m fine,” she hisses. “What do we do?”

Aerith shakes her head, terror in her eyes. “It’s taking everything I have to keep it contained.”

“This is not contained, Carbuncle!”

“You don’t want to see it truly free. I think--I think if you let despair in, it can kill you.” Aerith’s eyes find Tifa’s, and Tifa has a hard time looking away despite their desperate situation. “Think of something worth living for, Tifa, and then live for it .” Live for it. Can she possibly do that? Her entire world is anger and vengeance.

Tifa struggles to her feet. Her back hurts, but she’s okay. It seems superficial, but she’s so tired. Something to live for, she thinks. Something worth living for. Tifa throws her body backwards, narrowly dodging a raking claw to her face that comes out of nowhere and vanishes back into nothing.

Aerith holds the materia, concentrating on it. “What are you doing?” Tifa calls.

Aerith doesn’t answer, but her lips move frantically, repeating a phrase. “Go in peace, return to the earth, release your anger.” Almost like a recited prayer. And though she doesn’t appear to actually be doing anything, a soft white glow suffuses itself around Aerith, centered on her head and radiating outwards. Maybe Tifa’s just about to pass out from blood loss, but it’s one of the prettiest things she’s ever seen.

Only the white glow reveals something else: a pale, bony hand, fingers outstretched like claws, hovering over Aerith’s back like a spearpoint. Hades appears more fully as the white glow spreads, and the hand rears back before darting forward.

Tifa panics. She’s not close enough to stop it, and that’s a killing blow. Every nerve, every shred of Tifa’s being, screams out to do something, to stop this from happening. She can’t lose anyone else. Especially not this one. 

Her body responds with sudden intuitive understanding. She slams the gold-plated steel knuckles together, and a fireball sparks to life from the concussion. In the split-second it forms, Tifa spins, backhanding the little ball of flame, which scorches across the room. Aerith’s eyes go wide as the fire streaks over her head, snapping one of the bones off of Hades’ hand and forcing the grim specter away.

Something to live for. Something worth living for. Some one . Tifa and Aerith stare at each other for a brief moment before nodding. This is the moment. Tifa becomes a spinning wheel of flame around Aerith. Everywhere Hades appears, Tifa is right there moments later to deflect a blow or rain punches down upon it. One flying knee sends her perilously close to the edge of the white light, and she ducks instinctively. Noxious fumes pour over the spot she just was, and she rolls away, back to Aerith’s side.

Tifa is a furious tornado, protecting Aerith and whittling down the reaper bit by bit. Protect her while she keeps the being at bay, weak enough to defeat. Each kick, each punch, frees the essence of spirits. Sets the tattered cloak aflame. Hades cries out pain and anguish. They’re doing it. They’re fighting for each other and all the spirits at risk. Tifa has in mind to finish the fight with one final blow, and she waits for her moment. 

There. Hades appears, a wreath of fire and frustration at the doorway out to the corridor. It flies in, skeletal claws swinging. Tifa rushes in, one massive flaming punch straight at the thing’s chest, and it dances away. Her punch is a feint, though, and Tifa drops down, sliding on her knees in the direction the reaper fell away. And with one crushing uppercut, she knocks the thing away, out the door. It leaves the white glow of Aerith’s radiance, but something has changed. It is still visible. 

It laughs. A horrible, piercing neigh erupts as Hades reaches out to nothing, and grips the swiftly appearing reins of a shadowy warhorse dragging a chariot. Hades rides straight at Jessie, who has just come back around the bend and stares with wild confusion at this apparition riding down upon her.

“Jessie!” Tifa yells, but what can she do? What can they do?

“Tifa!” From behind her, Aerith drops the materia and rushes to Tifa’s side. She taps the side of the silver bangle and the lightning materia pops out into her hands.

Tifa fumbles a bit trying to make sure Aerith has it, but Aerith grabs Tifa’s hand so they both clutch the materia between them. She holds her other hand out towards the charging Hades, and gestures for Tifa to do the same.

Together, then. Their screaming voices, their wordless cries, release a corona of lightning out into the corridor. The jagged, electric blue chases the reaper down, envelops it and its steed in crackling lightning. Amid shrieks and rage, it burns away inches before a horrified, cowering Jessie. Wisps of white splash over her instead, and the spirits happily swirl and dance around her before vanishing into the ether. Going back to the planet.

The red materia goes dull and shrinks back down. 

For a moment Tifa’s entire world is breathless worry: for Jessie, for Aerith, for everyone who has ever been hurt. Then it all comes crashing down upon her, and she drops to one knee, Aerith beside her. Both are heaving breaths, as if they’ve forgotten what air is. 

“That was crazy,” Tifa finally manages, falling back and resting her weary limbs. She spits more blood, coughs on it a bit. Aerith lets herself fall, half on top of Tifa, head resting on Tifa’s stomach, both too weak to do anything about it in the moment.

“I’ve never cast magic cooperatively before,” Aerith says between breaths. “I wasn’t sure it would work.”

“Hell of a time to try it.”

“Holy cow, are you both alive!?” Jessie yells, running up to them from the corridor. “Why did a reaper on a horse come tearing down the hallway? What in the HELL happened?”

They can’t answer. It’s all too absurd. All that matters is--“We did it,” Aerith says.

Tifa says, “I punched Death.”

And that settles it. They all collapse into laughter for a minute, relief and exhaustion overwhelming the trio of women. They did it. One less evil perpetrated by Shinra. One less worry.

The real work can now begin.

*****

Leslie closes the door to the entertaining room, and knocks on Donna Lockhart’s office doors. He’s been antsy ever since he returned to the surface, stalling for time. Finally when he receives word of the Donna’s return, he enters her office to find the three women in a state of total dishevelment and disgust. They are covered in sewer water, blood, mud, dirt, and somehow stinking of Mako and death. He is in shock that they’re alive in this state.

Yet they are. Donna Lockhart went into the depths on a whisper and a prayer, and came back with her friends. Donna Lockhart, Jessie Raspberry, and Aerith Gainsborough. Who are these women to defy all the odds and survive? He is as impressed by them as he is fearful.

But that doesn’t matter in the moment. When Tifa sees his worried expression, she straightens and calls for water and a change of clothing. Kotch retreats into her personal chambers to do as she says. 

“What’s going on, Leslie?” she asks. Her voice is scratchy, warbling. It gives her a dangerous edge just to hear her speak.

He says, “Shinra sent soldiers to arrest the Don. Once they realized he was gone, they sent… a delegate, instead. Someone to talk turkey with the new boss and keep the arrangements going. I’ve been stalling.” Tifa’s eyes go hard and she glances at her companions. They all nod, faces hard and eyes resolute.

Tifa says, “This is the mission. Give me ten minutes and send them in. See if there’s a Bee or Bear willing to entertain until I can get cleaned up. Volunteer only.”

“On it, boss. I’m glad you’re back.” He salutes and closes the door on her, takes a deep breath, and reenters the entertaining room. The chubby, balding man sits impatiently drinking from the bottle of wine Leslie left him. “Director Palmer, the Donna has returned and will see you shortly. In the meantime, I’ll have one of our Honeybee recruits bring you another drink.”

Director Palmer, the deadest of weight in Shinra, is a frequent flyer at the Honeybee Inn. He smiles broadly, wiping his mouth and belching slightly. “Why, yes, I think that would be quite lovely. How long, do you think? I’m a very busy man, you know.”

“Just another ten minutes, Director. You’ll be quite pleased with things, I guarantee it.”

Palmer chuckles and waves Leslie away. Donna Lockhart has her work cut out with this guy. The real test of her leadership is about to begin.

Notes:

The Underground Lab arc has come to an end! As you can see, it's time for Donna Lockhart to step up and be the Donna of Wall Market, by dealing directly with Shinra.

I can't promise a quick turnaround on the next set of chapters, but I can confidently say it won't be six months between updates like it was last time. Donna Lockhart and Aerith the Carbuncle will continue their adventure soon!