A/N: I suck. I know. You guys totally came through with the support and feedback and then it took me forever to post it anyway! I had a hard time portraying this part within my comfort zone, and also in keeping it to a T rating, so there were some significant overhauls needed. As always, I owe the indefatigable Denebola Leo for helping me work through the tough parts and beefing up some others. I hope you all like the new update, and I appreciate every one of you for reading and supporting me!

Trigger warning: References to sexual abuse of a minor.

Finding a Way Out

Tifa's sleep was more restful than it had been since she had arrived in that awful place. For one thing, she'd decided to trust Jo and finished the potion. She wasn't dead, so that was a good sign. It wasn't a full cure, but at least it didn't hurt to breathe anymore. And on top of that, she had an ally. She had a plan. She had…hope.

She was awoken by a jarring pressure on the back of her neck. She tried to sit up, but her movement was restricted by the metal wand stuck in the back of her collar.

"What's going on? What are you doing?" she asked, trying unsuccessfully to look behind her.

"Shhh," the voice said. "We don't want to wake sleeping beauty."

Judging by the quality of the light leaking around the edges of the blinds, it was early in the morning. Jo was snuggled under her comforter, still sound asleep. Tifa put her hands on the floor to help her to her feet, careful for the still-tender wounds.

The person at her back pushed her forward. He marched her out into the hall and down the familiar hallway, with the ominous red lines blocking the doorways, the inconspicuous security cameras in every nook and cranny. But they didn't stop at the grand door this time. He continued pushing her down the hall that seemed to go on forever, until they reached a smaller, unobtrusive door.

A hand reached up next to her to grasp the doorknob, and Tifa's fighting spirit ached to attack, but it wasn't time. She was still too vulnerable to the collar. For Jo's sake, she needed to make sure this would be done right. She couldn't be reckless.

The doorknob turned, and the dank smell of mold greeted her before the darkness below. A light flickered on, revealing rough wooden stairs leading down into an unfinished basement with cement walls and floor. It was such a contrast to the rest of the posh, ritzy house that it felt like stepping into an alternate universe.

"What is this?" she asked.

"A basement, obviously," a familiar voice said, and then she was shoved forward again. She stumbled on the first stair, but managed to catch herself before tumbling all the way to the bottom. "Careful," he said, sounding amused. "You'd best keep up."

Tifa put her hand on the rail and made her way down the stairs, guided by the movement at the back of her neck. A blue line, similar to the red lines that restricted her movement, surrounded the stairs at the base. She eyed it suspiciously, but they passed over it without any kind of reaction.

The basement really just looked like a normal basement. It was disconcerting. There was a hot water heater in one corner, stacks of cardboard boxes, and some shelves for canned food storage. The only things that really convinced her that she was still in Ricky's house of horror was the blue lines on the floor and the fact that the hot water heater was big enough for an entire apartment building.

The totally nondescript door on her left certainly didn't set off any warning bells, at least until he opened it. The lights that illuminated the rest of the basement provided a wedge of visibility into the room, giving her a glimpse of a rough stone floor. Unfortunately, that was all she had time to see before a hard shove in the back sent her stumbling into the room. The door slammed shut behind her, leaving her in total darkness.

"Hey! Wait a minute!" she called. Her voice seemed to be absorbed by the walls, and there was no response from the man outside. Tifa stood and stumbled blindly in the direction of the door, holding her hands out in front of her. "Hey! Hello?"

Her hands finally found the cold metal. She pounded her fists against the door. "Hey! Don't leave me here!" Nothing. Even the echoes of her fists seemed to disappear into the black void.

And it really did feel like a void. The silence was oppressive. The darkness pressed against her from all sides. She held her hand up, inches in front of her face, and wiggled her fingers. Nothing. Absolutely nothing.

With a frustrated sigh, she reached out and used her fingers to explore the metal expanse. She found the edges of the door, bordered by rough cement. It wasn't seamless, so there was obviously something else behind it blocking the light and sound; some kind of insulation or similar muffling material.

She continued exploring the room with her fingers. It was the only thing she could do to keep her mind off of the disconcerting feeling of nothingness that surrounded her. Outside of the metal door, the walls were made of cement. Judging from the number of steps from one wall to the other, it was about eight by eight feet wide. The floor was slightly sloped, with the lowest point a drain in the middle.

She tried not to think about the crusty substance she felt around it.

Time crawled by, or maybe it flew. She really had no way of knowing. Was it night time yet? Or had not even an hour passed? She lay on her back on the cold, damp floor and stared up at what she assumed would be a ceiling, if she had any way to see it. There was nothing she could do to help with the dark, but at least she could do something about the penetrating silence.

Tifa sang. She started with current hits, the songs she heard a dozen times a day from the crackly old radio in the back of the bar. She didn't have a jaw-dropping, soul-shattering singing voice, but it had a nice, melodic flow that bumped against the corners of the muffled walls and made the room seem a little less endless.

Then she started thinking about the jukebox. It had delighted her at first; the idea of being able to choose what she wanted to hear was novel. But the machine's limited selection had soon been seared into her brain, to the point where she cringed every time she heard that little static buzz that meant that one of the patrons had chosen one of those overplayed tunes. But now, that familiarity brought her comfort. She sang those songs she knew by heart, her lilting voice accompanied by vivid memories of her past.

"You're doing it again," Tifa laughed as she walked behind him.

"What?" Cloud asked, looking up from the books he was balancing.

"You're dancing to that song," Tifa replied, pulling the towel from over her shoulder to wipe down his table.

"I don't dance," Cloud said flatly, picking up the books so she could wipe underneath them. The cloth left a wet streak on the beat-up wood.

"That's not what Aerith said," she teased.

Cloud scowled at the reminder. The performance he'd put on for Andrea Rhodea at the Honey Bee, and any alternate articles of clothing he may have been wearing, were things he would rather not discuss. Ever.

"Fine, I only dance when it's to save your life," he grumbled.

"You nod your head and tap your foot every time this song plays," Tifa insisted.

"Nope," Cloud insisted. The wet streak faded and he set the books down.

Tifa circled back behind him and slipped her arms around his shoulders. "Why are you so determined to deny it?" She leaned down and kissed him on the cheek. "I think it's cute."

He turned his head to look at her, their noses only inches apart. "Cute? Is that what you think of me?" His brow furrowed in irritation. He did not sound the least bit amused.

"Aww, Cloud, it's not—"

She saw the mischief flickering in his eyes a moment too late. He grabbed her wrist and twisted her arms around, pulling her down to his lap. The next thing she knew, she was staring at the ceiling. His arm was simultaneously supporting her head and holding her shoulders down.

"Wha – Cloud!"

"Am I still cute?"

The corners of Tifa's lips twitched. "Adorable."

Without a crack in his expression, he began tickling her bared belly with his free hand.

"Wrong word."

Tifa giggled and squirmed. "Cloud! Stop!"

"What am I?"

She laughed and struggled, helpless against the ingrained response. "Darling! Ahh! Cloud!"

"Try again." He moved his fingers to the other side, where it seemed impossibly more ticklish. She kicked wildly.

"P-p-precious!" She managed to spit out, nearly in hysterics. "Cloud, stop! Stop!"

"What am I?" he insisted.

"S-sexy!" Tifa said.

His fingers slowed, pressure lightening, until they were just lightly stroking her belly. "I can live with that," he said, leaning down to kiss her.

It wasn't really a synonym, but it was the word that came to her mind when his eyes darkened and he reminded her how much power he held in those sculpted arms. She could just have well have been held in place with a metal vice for all the chance she had of escaping his grasp. Then he had carried her up the stairs to show her just how not cute he was.

It seemed like ages since they had been so carefree. When did they get so caught up in life that they forgot how it felt to really live? When did they establish their own orbits that just happened to overlap?

He had told her once that the whole world made sense when he made her smile. It was such an un-Cloud-like statement that she had accused him of stealing it from a book. But he had simply shaken his head and said, "It's the only way I could think to describe the way it makes me feel," with the simplicity and self-conscious shifting that she associated with what she called "Real Cloud" thoughts. There were still glimpses of the composite personality that he had pieced together after Hojo had shattered him, of course. For better or worse, those were the pieces that had helped form the man Cloud had become. But there were still telltale signs of the shy boy from Nibelheim – that part of him that never got the chance to grow up.

Cloud…where are you right now? Are you with your new girlfriend? Does she understand you? Does she make you…happy?

Her eyes burned with angry tears, and she let them fall, trickling toward her ears in the dark. There was no one to see her here; no one to witness her weakness. Tifa was never one to point fingers at other people, and she accepted the part she had played in this. She had let him go, all but forced him to leave behind everyone he cared about. She had made Jenova his problem when it should have been their problem. If their situations had been reversed, would Cloud have sent her away to deal with it herself?

Never.

Cloud would have made it his personal mission to solve her problem. He would have sacrificed everything to save her. So why didn't she?

Once upon a time, she had traveled the world for him. She had sat by his side for months in Mideel, believing with her whole heart that he would wake up from his mako poisoning. She had given up everything to watch over him, because he was her everything. When did that change?

Was it because of the kids? Because of the bar, and the people of Edge that depended on her? Those things had given her a sense of purpose, a sense of identity. But when everything was stripped away, it always came back to Cloud. When she was alone with her thoughts, they always circled back to him. He was her constant. And she had pushed him away.

And now, banished from the people who supported him, he had found comfort in another woman's arms; a woman who was willing to go to great lengths to protect him. Maybe that was exactly what he needed. Maybe this was exactly what she deserved.

Shortly after eight o'clock in the morning, Cloud walked into the Computer Resource Center. Echo's back was to him, but he heard the door opening.

"You must be the luckiest man alive, Cloud Strife."

I highly doubt that.

Echo spun around in his chair. His smile dropped away. "Are you ok? You look…"

"Yeah. Just a little tired. What did you find?"

He was more than just a little tired. He had been up nearly all night, driving around, looking for Tifa, asking anyone he could find about her. He didn't even have a picture. It was aimless and stupid, but he couldn't just do nothing. But it was finally morning, and his plan to get into Nicky's was already in motion. He picked up a breakfast pizza along the way, but his stomach was churning and he'd only eaten a single piece.

"Oh. Well, he was using some pretty high level security protocols, but he left a back door wide open!" Echo chirped.

"You got in?" Cloud walked faster. "You can see the security videos?"

"Yeah," he said. "And let me tell you, those people were not exaggerating about his parties." He eyed the box in Cloud's hands. "Can I have some of that pizza?"

"Yeah," Cloud said, sliding it on the desk beside Echo. If he'd learned anything from Denzel, it was that almost any favor could be bought from a teenage boy with the right food.

"Ohhhh," Echo moaned as he picked up the first greasy slice. He bit off a huge chunk. "Mmmm. Oh gods, you are officially the best hero ever."

Cloud's jaw twitched, but he didn't take the bait. Echo had no way of knowing how much he hated that word. "Can I see the videos?"

"Oh. Sure. The ones I can access. There are some buried really deep that I can't get yet."

"I thought you got past the…fire door already," Cloud said, plopping down onto the rolling chair next to Echo.

"Yeah, I breached the firewall, but he has more protection on some of his files. I could access footage from the last party, but…there's more."

"More from the party?" Cloud asked.

"Yeah. Looks like a different camera." He pointed at one of the monitors with his pizza slice. "Check out the metadata. See, most of these you can figure out from the file names."

Cloud looked at the screen. "F1BR2 and then a bunch of numbers. What does that mean?"

"It's the camera for floor 1, bedroom 2. The numbers after it are the date and time when it was recorded."

"….oh."

"But I found some other video files on an external drive on a separate partition. Easy to quickly reformat, if you know what I mean."

Cloud just stared at him.

"Everything is under a folder called business logs. There are some documents and spreadsheet files and stuff on there, but there's also a folder of videos. They look exactly like the other footage files – same compression level and file size, and they're named "WR" plus date time stamp."

"WR? What does that stand for?" Cloud asked.

"I'm not sure, but we'll find out soon," he said with a mysterious grin. "Because, on top of everything else, they're encrypted. Whatever is on that film must be bad, because there's plenty of incriminating stuff on these other files, and he left those pretty open. Luckily, it was still using older technology, a low bit encryption, so it was easy enough to find the key just using brute force."

"So you…found the key…already?" Cloud asked, not at all sure what they were talking about.

"Yeah. Got the key, and it's just working through the decryption now." He pointed at one of the monitors, which showed a partially filled progress bar. That, at least, was easy enough to understand.

"Ok. Anything interesting on the party cams?"

"Oh, there's plenty of interesting stuff, but no little girl as far as I could see. Also, there's hours and hours and hours of footage to look through."

Cloud rubbed his eyes wearily. "I don't have time to watch all that. Can you narrow it down?"

"You want my advice? Wait for those files to finish decrypting and skip the rest of the party garbage. The good stuff has got to be on those."

Cloud looked over at the progress bar. It was three quarters of the way complete. "Ok, fine. In the meantime, I need you to tell me everything you can about how I can get myself one of those chips."

"Well, first you've gotta get rid of a lot of guards, Cloud. I don't know how you're gonna do that without raising suspicion."

"I have a feeling they're going to come down with a mysterious case of food poisoning."

Echo grinned. "You have a feeling?"

"It was in my horoscope this morning. Let's focus on the part where we make sure he hires me."

"Ah. Well that part, I actually can help with," Echo said. "In the database, there are records of all the employees and their generic role type. If one of those employees is looking for some extra cash, or has some free time for some reason, we mark them as available. When one of the Brothers needs some temporary muscle, for instance, they ask for a list of available employees in a guard-type role. Nicky's head of security actually does this routinely for his parties, so I'm pretty familiar with the kinds of qualifications he looks for. On paper, Jacob Mack is going to be the perfect candidate for this job."

"Sounds great," Cloud said. "So then what, he calls me for an interview?"

"Yeah, basically. If he decides to hire you for the job, he'll implant this little chip in your wrist."

"What, like a tracking chip?"

"Not exactly," Echo said. "Here, let me show you the schematics."

His fingers flew across the keyboard, filling the black screen with those senseless words. The blueprint they'd looked at the previous day reappeared, this time with several different colored lines and markings. "Here's an overlay with the layout of all the ventilation and electrical systems – those are the gray and green lines."

Cloud scanned over the print. "So the power box is probably here, in the basement," he said, tapping on the screen. "Can you see how big the vents are?"

"Probably, but it's irrelevant," Echo said, typing in several more commands. "Because of the security system." Red and blue lines appeared on the screen, overlapping the others.

Cloud scanned over the lines, drawing a three dimensional map in his mind. "Those blue lines...I think those must be the blue lights I saw coming up from the ground outside."

"You got it," Echo confirmed. "I found the security manuals last night. That called a negative charge fence. That means it will shock everyone except people who are protected against it. That's what the chip is for. It broadcasts a signal with a half meter radius, so it allows them to pass over those lines."

"How do they manage to have parties there?" Cloud asked. "Do they chip all their guests, too?"

"Oh, no. They use the guest path. It has negative fences too, but the guard that greets them at the door turns it off long enough for them to get through.

"What about inside the house?" Cloud asked. "There some of those blue lines there, too."

"Yeah, I think those are the no-go areas for the guests," Echo said. He traced his finger over several rooms on the screen. "These are the rooms I saw on the party videos. See, there aren't any blue lines in these rooms, but they block off certain hallways."

"So the guests are contained to only the parts of the house they're allowed to access," Cloud said. "Like keys."

"Exactly."

"So what about the red lines?" Cloud asked. "They go all the way down the halls and block off every door. All behind the blue lines, though."

"Um, right. Those are the positive charge fences. That means they won't shock you unless you have some broadcasting signal. Everyone else can walk right through them."

"Who has those chips?" Cloud asked. "They can't even move to another room."

"No idea," Echo said.

"Maybe...a little girl that he doesn't want to let leave?" Cloud mused.

Just then, another computer beeped. Echo turned around to look. "Woohoo! Decryption complete! You ready to see this super-secret security footage?"

Cloud looked at the list of files now displayed, all titled "WR" plus the timestamps. He looked at Echo's eager face.

"Echo…" Cloud hesitated. "I think you should let me watch this on my own. If it's what I think it is, it's not really appropriate—"

"Appropriate?" Echo laughed. "Seriously, do you remember the kinds of things you were watching when you were eighteen?"

'You remember the things you saw there, don't you, Love? Surely they were more disturbing than whatever this small-time sicko is doing at a party.'

"Cloud?" Echo was staring at him with a look that was quickly turning to concern. "Are you ok?"

Cloud forced himself to breathe again. "I…yeah. Look, I can't make you leave, but…you don't want to see this. I don't want to see it, but I have to know if she's there."

"Ok." Echo, who seemed to find the humor in anything, was finally coming to understand that this wasn't the lighthearted princess-in-a-tower rescue mission he was imagining. "Then we'll get through it together. And if one of us needs to look away, the other will make sure nothing gets missed."

Slowly, Cloud nodded, and Echo opened the file. Blocky text at the top of the screen, next to the date and timestamps, printed WET ROOM.

Finally done with the mountain of paperwork, Marlene moved impatiently toward the base of the large, split staircase. She was eager to see Lexi, and Ms. Joya was walking far too slowly for her liking. As they passed the sitting room near the base of the stairs, a doorway from within opened.

"Marlene!" A large shape flew at her, and before she could figure out what was happening, she was being swept up and spun around in Denzel's arms.

"Denzel!" Marlene hugged his neck tightly, feeling slightly dizzy when he finally set her back on her feet.

"When did you get here?" Denzel asked excitedly. "I didn't even know if you were coming! I thought Barret said no."

"He did, at first," Marlene giggled. "But I wore him down. You know."

"Oh yes," Denzel nodded seriously. "I do know. Your nagging could wear down a mountain."

Marlene laughed and shoved him playfully. He didn't budge. "Jeez, Denzel, you've gotten even bigger since the last time I saw you. What are they feeding you in this place?!"

Denzel grinned. "A lot of stuff."

"Obviously," Marlene retorted. Her brother seemed to have grown several more inches since the last time she'd been allowed to visit, and how was it possible that his shoulders were even broader than before? "Hey, I was just going to see Lexi. Wanna show me where her room is?"

"Sure!" Denzel said.

They took off up the stairs, disregarding Ms. Joya's feeble warning not to run in the house. They moved much faster, which helped considerably with Marlene's anxiety over Lexi. For the first time, she really took in the vastness of the mansion around her. She had only seen a few of the common rooms when they were allowed to visit, but the winding staircases branched off into separate wings, each of which had multiple floors.

"The girls' dorms are in this wing," Denzel said as he followed a route that he obviously knew by heart.

Marlene clucked her tongue as she watched him navigate the complicated turns. "You seem to know your way around the girls' wing pretty well, Denzel. You must've found a new girlfriend here."

Denzel stumbled on nothing at all. Marlene laughed. "Still tripping over your own feet, I see."

"Uh…yeah," he said, straightening up. He walked faster and rubbed the back of his neck, and Marlene wondered if he was even aware how many of Cloud's mannerisms he had picked up.

"I don't have a girlfriend," he said, as if the conversation had never been interrupted. "Things are still a little weird with Alicia, I guess."

"Alicia?" Marlene hurried to catch up to his longer strides. "I thought you were done with her."

"I am," Denzel said quickly. "It's just…complicated." He stopped abruptly in front of one of the doors. "This is it."

"Lexi's room?" Marlene asked brightly. At Denzel's nod, she tapped rapidly on the door.

"Come in," a voice said weakly.

Marlene opened the door and stuck her head through the opening. "Lexi!" she squealed. She hurried over to her friend's bed and gave her a hug, quickly burying her face in Lexi's shoulder to hide her shocked expression. Lexi looked awful. She seemed…dimmer, somehow. The tone of her skin was ash grey and her once shiny hair was dulled and limp, but it was more than that. Marlene couldn't quite put her finger on it.

Lexi was giving her a weak hug in return, asking a stream of questions.

"What are you doing here? When did you get here? Are you just visiting or can you stay? Will you—" Lexi's voice caught on the last word and she turned her head away to cough into her sleeve. The coughing fit seemed to last for a long time. Marlene rubbed her back comfortingly.

"I came here for you, Lexi," she said when the coughing subsided. "Denzel said you were sick. He thought I might be able to help."

Lexi grabbed a tissue to wipe at her streaming eyes. "Denzel?" She looked up to him and their eyes locked. Marlene's own eyes narrowed as she looked back and forth between them.

"Is…that ok?" Marlene finally asked.

Lexi tore her eyes away. "Yeah. Yeah, of course! I'm just really surprised he actually managed to get you in here. This place is locked up pretty tight."

Marlene snorted. "I wouldn't give him too much credit. Someone else must have pulled some strings." She glanced up at her brother, whose expression had sunk into a thoughtful scowl. "I'm just messing with you, Denzel."

His expression cleared. "What? No, I know. Anyway, are you going to fix her or what?"

"Marlene?" A new voice spoke from the doorway.

Marlene looked over to see Alicia standing there, looking as radiant as Lexi was dull.

"Hey Alicia," Marlene said shyly.

Alicia squealed and pulled her into a hug. Surprised, Marlene returned the gesture. She had only spent a few days with the most popular girl in school, and although Alicia was nice to her while she was there, Marlene had fully expected to be forgotten by the next time they met.

"When did you get here?" Alicia asked, pulling back.

"Just a little bit ago," Marlene said, her cheeks flushed pink. "I heard Lexi was sick."

"Oh," Alicia nodded knowingly. "Yeah, she's having a hard time. Are you going to use one of those materia stones like you did to me?"

"What?" Denzel asked, looking between the three girls.

Marlene glanced at the open door, then walked over to poke her head into the hallway, looking quickly from side to side before closing it. Then she reached down the front of her uniform shirt and began digging around in the padded bra she had worn for just this reason.

"Jeez, Mar!" Denzel looked away, clearly trying not to watch what his sister was doing.

"Settle down, Denzel. It's not like there's anything to see anyway," she said, finally withdrawing the small green stone.

Alicia laughed, and Marlene beamed.

"That Turk took away the mastered one, but I managed to sneak this one in," she said, kneeling next to Lexi's bed. "They said Ms. Joya would give it to me when I needed to use it, but…" She shook her head. "I'm not just gonna sit around waiting. This one will work. It will just take more time and energy because it's not as strong."

Denzel was standing near the head of Lexi's bed, making it rather difficult for Marlene to reach her. "Denzel, could you go be somewhere not in the way?" she asked pointedly, making shooing motions with her hand.

He looked down at Lexi. "Oh. Uh, sure." He went to sit on one of the other beds and Marlene moved into the space he had vacated.

"You ready?" Marlene asked, taking Lexi's other hand.

"So ready," Lexi said, smiling at her friend.

In some ways, the cold room was better than the restrictive circle in the bedroom. At least here, Tifa had some space to walk around and stretch her legs. At least here, no one was pretending she was anything but a prisoner. That was about as far as her optimism would reach, though.

The partially healed gouge from the spiked bat had reopened when she'd been tossed onto the rough stone floor. It had finally stopped bleeding again, but now the damp chill had set in and she couldn't seem to stop shaking. The shaking aggravated the tender bruises that covered her skin, and the ache seemed to have settled in her bones. On top of that, she was starting to get extremely thirsty, and it didn't appear that anyone was planning to bring her water or any kind of food.

She had no idea how much time had passed when the bright light suddenly lit up the room. Reflexively, she closed her eyes and threw her arm up in front of her face.

"Well, Tifa? How do you like your new accommodations?"

Still blocking the worst of it with her arm, Tifa blinked until her eyes adjusted to the light. When she lowered her arm, it was to see Ricky's ugly mug. Above the reach of her seeking fingers, there was some kind of screen built into the wall. Ricky was sitting smugly on his throne in the red velvet room, one leg crossed over the other, sipping a cup of coffee.

Tifa just glowered at him. Better than being close to you.

He tilted his head as he examined her. "Hm. I shouldn't have done that to your face. You're actually not bad to look at, and this—" he gestured to her face, "—is not pretty."

So sorry for the inconvenience.

He leaned forward and propped his forearms on his knees. "Do you know why I chose the collars, Tifa?" Still, she didn't respond, and still he didn't seem to care. "Because the electricity hurts for a moment…I mean, it hurts like a bitch," he laughed, "but it doesn't do any lasting damage. Once a lesson has been learned, why keep teaching it? I'm really not a bad person," he stressed, his eyes wide and sincere.

Tifa snorted.

"I treat my girls very well," he continued. "As long as they treat me well. I require respect, and in return, I'll give you anything your heart desires."

"Is this the same speech you gave to Alicia?" Tifa snapped, unable to keep her mouth shut any longer.

There was a gleam in his eye as he sat back, re-crossing his legs. "Alicia…enjoyed our partnership very much."

"Partnership?" Tifa said sharply. "You mean the partnership between you and her mother?"

"I believe that's generally called dating," Ricky said mildly.

"Bullshit," Tifa snapped. "You and her mother both used her when she was too young to fight back."

"Why would she want to fight back?" Ricky asked innocently. "Alicia was happy. She loved me."

"Love?" Tifa scoffed. "Is that why you had to pull her out of school and chain her to the bed?"

He took a sip of his coffee and set it back in the cup holder in his stupid red throne. "Children need to be disciplined when they disobey," he said nonchalantly.

"So she's a child when it's convenient to you?"

Ricky chuckled and shook his head. "Oh, Tifa. You don't understand yet, but you will. You still think I was hurting her. So you took her away. I get it. You thought you were doing the right thing." He sucked his teeth and made a teepee with his fingers. "But, I gotta tell you, I was pretty pissed at the time. When I took your little girl, I had no intention of making it nice for her."

Tifa felt a numbness spreading over her body, and she welcomed it. "Cloud would never let that happen," she growled.

"No," he mused, his face hardening. "No, I certainly didn't count on Fluffy showing up. He's a real prick, you know that?"

"He knows how to get his point across," Tifa said. "But he seems to have missed the mark with you. I'm sure he'd be happy to teach you again."

Reflexively, Ricky's hand went to the tiny scar on his neck. Then his eyes narrowed. "Oh, I doubt I'll be seeing him anytime soon. How is he enjoying prison, by the way? Shame how his court date keeps getting pushed back, isn't it?" He grinned, showing far too many teeth. "Bureaucracy is such a bitch."

Tifa lowered her head, hiding her surprise in the shadows of the room. Ricky's little friends hadn't told him that Cloud had been released? Apparently they weren't as loyal or as powerful as he believed.

She wanted so badly to wipe that smug look off his face. She knew telling Ricky that he hadn't done much more than ruin their night would do it. It was only now, when he thought he had both Cloud and Tifa locked up under his control, that he could strut and preen again. He might as well have us both. Cloud doesn't even know I'm here.

But that little nugget of information was a weapon, and the only one she had as long as he was out of reach of her fists. She needed to wait until it would have maximum impact.

Tifa measured her voice carefully. "I wouldn't know. I haven't talked to Cloud in months."

His grin widened. "You finally kicked that overblown meathead to the curb? While he's stuck in jail?" He fell back against the chair, laughing and clapping his hands together. "Brava, Tifa! I didn't think you had it in you, but damn! You have no idea how much you've just made my day. He deserves to lose everything, the way he took everything from me."

"Yes, you certainly look like you're struggling to get by," Tifa said dryly.

Ricky ignored her comment, sighing dreamily. "I always regretted that I never got to see the look on his face when he found out I was released and he was trapped like a rat. A fluffy rat," he mused, chuckling to himself.

Tifa thought it was awfully rich that the man who looked like a walking bear rug had the nerve to think of Cloud as fluffy.

"Maybe I'll have my friends back home send me some cam footage so I can see how he's settling in. I bet he's already some inmate's pretty girlfriend." His face lit up. "Or even better…maybe I'll send him something fun to watch on movie night. A little home video starring his ex…" He chuckled to himself. "He seems like the type that would lose his shit seeing something like that."

Ricky leaned toward the camera. "You know Tifa, I'm in a generous mood. You're pretty far in debt now, and I don't like people owing me. So I'll make a deal with you. You help me make that video…make it look good…and I'll wipe away your debt. You'll be back to zero. In no time at all, you can earn yourself a soft, fluffy bed to sleep in."

Tifa glowered at the image on the wall and curled her hands into fists. "I would rather spend the rest of my life in a cold, dark hole than touch your slimy ass."

Ricky let out a disappointed sigh. "I really was hoping you weren't as dumb as you look. Well, as you wish. Enjoy the rest of your time in the cold, dark hole."

"No, wait!" Tifa said, sitting forward, but the screen had already flicked off, returning her to darkness. The acoustics of the room sucked up her curse almost as soon as she opened her mouth.

Cloud pressed his fingers against his temples and closed his eyes. Just breathe. In and out. In and out.

"Cloud?" Echo asked cautiously. "Are you…ok?"

"No, I'm…" Cloud stood up and turned away from the computers. He felt like his chest was being crushed by a bear. He couldn't seem to stop his hands from shaking.

The little girl was there, all right. Cloud had seen a lot of horrible things in his lifetime, but the things he saw happening in that wet room struck him in a different way. He could never unsee the things they had done, and neither could Echo. He felt a renewed sense of guilt for letting the teenager watch it with him.

"Are you ok?" Cloud asked.

Echo chewed his lip and stared through the monitor. "I don't know," he said. "Maybe it will catch up to me later. Right now it just feels like a movie, like it's not really real."

Cloud nodded. "Maybe it's best if you keep thinking of it that way."

But Cloud couldn't help but think about Marlene, who had been that young not so long ago. It filled him up with dark anger, which was so much better than hurt. Anger was useful. He could do something about this. He could help her.

"So…is that the girl you're going to rescue?" Echo asked after a moment.

"I guess so."

"What do you need me to do?" Echo asked. Now that he knew what they were fighting for, he was full of determination. It was no longer just helping Cloud. It was officially a rescue mission, and he was on board.

"Just make sure I get hired for Nicky's crew. I'll take care of the rest."

Denzel sat tensely on the edge of the bed, watching Marlene with Lexi. She had closed her eyes, but so far they had both been silent.

Alicia sat down next to him. "Why isn't it working?" she whispered loudly.

"What?" Denzel looked at her, annoyed.

"I thought she was going to heal her," Alicia replied, still in her stage whisper.

Denzel didn't whisper, but he spoke quietly. "Not yet. Marlene can do this thing where she can…hear the Planet. Kinda."

Alicia stared at him with a little half smile, like he might be messing with her. "…And what is the planet saying?"

"I don't know," Denzel said irritably. "It tells her something about the insides of the person she's looking at and…helps her fix them."

Alicia watched the two girls in silence for another minute. "So why isn't she fixing her?"

Marlene turned around with an exasperated sigh. "Do you two mind? You're making it awfully hard to concentrate over here."

Lexi looked over at the two of them on the bed. Unnoticed by Denzel, Alicia had managed to inch towards him until she was uncomfortably close. He quickly stood up to put some distance between them.

"You don't usually take this long, Mar. What did you see?" Denzel asked.

Marlene chewed on her lip. "Nothing."

"Nothing?" Denzel asked incredulously. "She looks perfectly healthy inside?"

"Not exactly," Marlene said, looking frustrated. "She looks sick, but for no particular reason. It's like…" She trailed off, then shook her head. "I don't know."

All four of them were startled at the sudden loud knock. Alicia bounced up to answer the door, letting in a slightly annoyed Ms. Joya.

"Did you forget something?" she asked, holding up a large green stone.

Marlene smiled broadly. "We were just getting caught up while we were waiting for you." Denzel had no idea where she had put the smaller piece of materia, but it was tucked away somewhere again.

Ms. Joya seemed pacified as she handed the stone to Marlene and settled on the trunk at the foot of Lexi's bed. "Do your magic, Marlene."

Marlene nodded uncertainly and turned back to Lexi. "Ready?"

Lexi smiled and held her hands out to Marlene again. Almost instantly, a large swirl of green magic began flowing from Marlene's hands, encircling and suffusing Lexi's whole body. It was entrancing to watch. Her skin began to get lighter, then took on a more pinkish tone. Her hair slowly got brighter, as did her eyes and lips.

"Wow," Alicia whispered at his side.

The green glow reflected off Ms. Joya's glasses. "I forgot how amazing it is to see her do this," she said softly, her eyes tearing up slightly.

By the time Marlene cut off the thick green flow, Lexi was grinning from ear to ear. She threw her arms around her friend and squealed. "You did it, Mar! I feel a thousand times better!"

"Oh! Oh, you look wonderful, dear!" Ms. Joya cried, clasping her hands to her bosom. "Marlene, that's amazing! You truly have a gift."

Marlene was smiling, accepting their praise, but she seemed distracted still. Denzel watched her as she backed away and let Ms. Joya gush over Lexi.

"What's wrong, Marlene? She's fixed, isn't she?" Denzel asked her quietly.

Marlene shook her head. "I guess…"

"Well! It's almost dinner time now," Ms. Joya clapped jubilantly. "I suspect at least one of you has kitchen duty tonight…"

"Oh, can I?" Lexi asked brightly.

Ms. Joya hesitated. "You've been taken out of rotation, dear."

"I know, and I haven't helped out with anything in ages," Lexi said. "Can I? Please?"

"I'll help!" Marlene volunteered. "She can show me what to do."

Ms. Joya looked bewildered. "I suppose they can find something for you both to do."

Lexi grinned and grabbed Marlene's hand. "Come on!" she said, pulling her out the door.

Ms. Joya followed behind them, and Denzel found himself alone with Alicia. She squeezed his fingers and he pulled away. Since when were they holding hands?

"Alicia—"

"Just let them be happy, Denzel," she said.

"Yeah, I'm sure they're fine. They…" His head whipped back to Alicia as her meaning occurred to him. "Don't start that again, Alicia. They're best friends. That's all there is to it."

"Ok," Alicia said.

"I'm serious!" Denzel said. "I don't want to hear about that again."

"I said ok!" Alicia laughed, holding up her hands defensively. "I'm just glad they're covering my kitchen duty tonight, because we've got somewhere to be."

"We do?" Denzel asked suspiciously.

Alicia nodded and gestured for him to follow her out of the room. "Remedial martial arts."

It was the click of a closing door that brought her back from the numb sleep into which she had drifted. Tifa sat up, looking around out of habit, although she was as blind as ever.

"Hello?" Her voice was absorbed by the darkness.

A slight shuffle. Measured breaths in the dark. She wasn't alone.

"Is someone there?" She got to her feet and put up her fists.

Completely accustomed to the dead silence in the room, she heard every little shift in their clothing. They were making an effort to be silent, but she could hear their breath all around her. Unfortunately, she wasn't quick enough to identify the whoosh of the weapon through the air before it was buried in her stomach.

"Oof!" Tifa bent over at the waist, her arms wrapping instinctively around her middle. It was a nightmare, but one for which she was not unprepared.

"You must never assume you will have all five senses intact, Tifa. You should always be prepared for some kind of limitations, and learn to adapt."

It was one of her least favorite drills. As his star pupil, Tifa was often tested by sparring blindfolded or with earplugs. When she had proven herself consistently unbeatable by all the other students, she had gone toe-to-toe with the master himself. Although he had the same handicap as she – giving up either his sight or hearing – he was quick and almost completely silent, and she had never quite managed to best her teacher. But these opponents were not Master Zangan.

A snigger followed that first hit. Tifa gritted her teeth and stood up straight. Her fist flashed out in the direction of the sound and struck something hard. The hard thing clattered to the floor and the man cursed in the dark.

She had to get a handle on this quickly. She closed her useless eyes and listened. The unknown assailants weren't even bothering to be silent now. She could hear three people on three sides, plus the one fumbling on the floor for whatever had fallen.

Hands latched onto her arms from both sides, but someone was coming at her fast from the front. She jumped up and struck out with a dolphin kick, dropping her weight suddenly on the captors holding her arms. The assailant in front of her grunted and fell back when her foot made contact with his chin. The two at her sides, unprepared for her weight, were pulled down with her and lost their grip.

Taking advantage of their surprise, Tifa flipped back up to her feet. She spun around with a roundhouse kick, managing to hit three of her invisible opponents. The fourth was fumbling loudly with the equipment, and she buried her fist in his gut before he could get his bearings.

An invisible hand wrapped around her ankle, but Tifa was quick enough to shift her weight to her other foot before he pulled. He didn't seem to know what to do with the foot in his hand after that, so she snapped her lower leg forward, catching the soft surface of his face with the top of her foot. Hot blood warmed her foot before he rolled himself away, yelling and cursing.

Noisy boots pounded against the rock floor. Someone was charging her. She waited for them to get closer, blocking the strike of something hard and metallic with her forearm. At the last second, before the assailant could barrel into her, she twisted her body to the side. He brushed harmlessly past her and collided with one of his buddies. They crashed loudly to the floor together.

There seemed to be only one opponent left in play now, but it was the one with the metal baton, and Tifa had her hands full blocking and dodging it. Every block left another dark bruise on her arm, and Tifa desperately wished for some kind of armlet. She drove an uppercut into his chin and rolled out of the way, tucking herself into a corner.

Her attackers, four men by the sounds of it, were like graceless elephants, cursing and stomping around. The room was small, but if she could just keep one silent step ahead of them, she could catch her breath and then take them down, one-by-one.

She must have been louder than she thought. They were on her in an instant. She managed to dodge a noisy haymaker from one side, but failed to avoid that damned baton again.

She was only batting about 500, blocking or dodging many of their loudly telegraphed attacks, but taking almost as many hits herself. She had to switch to offense. She didn't have time to wait and listen now. She struck out with her fists, using the feel of the impact as her eyes. They were pressing in close, leaving no room to duck between them. Using the wall at her back, she kicked out with both feet, knocking over the thick slab of beef in the middle.

She used her momentum to keep moving forward, over his head. Her feet had almost reached the ground, the critical point to change her momentum, when a spiked weapon smashed into her left arm. Tifa was knocked to the side, striking the wall with her head.

She cried out that time, but managed to get her feet underneath her. She jumped up and struck out with her elbows, hitting something hard again.

Are they wearing armor? What is this?

They were coming from too many directions now. A fist struck her jaw. Some kind of narrow weapon smashed into her hip. A foot stomped on the side of her knee, attempting to bend it in ways knees are not meant to bend. She went down hard.

She lost track of what belonged to whom after that. Kicks were still flying at her, striking her back and shoulders and head. Tifa curled up in a ball, pulling her knees to her chest, protecting her head and her internal organs. Her only thought was survival. She knew now that she couldn't win this fight. She would have to settle for surviving.

Heavy boots pounded and stomped anyplace that was still exposed. She was picked up and thrown against the far wall, where she immediately curled into herself again.

Just survive. You can heal. You will fight again. Just stay alive.

She chanted that mantra in her head, over and over as she was pummeled; pushing away the pain, protecting as many of her vital organs as possible, focusing on her breathing the way she'd been taught.

"Enough." It was the first word any of them had spoken in several minutes, and Tifa gasped painfully. One last kick pierced her kidneys, followed by a smack that she heard but didn't feel. "I said enough. Leave her."

Shuffling footsteps moved away from her. The tiniest bit of light entered her cell, and then was gone again.

Tifa allowed her body to release, slack muscles quivering against the damp cold. As her breathing calmed, in the renewed quiet, she could actually hear the blood splattering against the stone floor, creeping darkly toward the drain.