Vincent and the others seemed to have lost Jenova in the network of tunnels leading out from Lucrecia’s cave. Yuffie and
Vincent were near the head of the group. Suddenly, Yuffie paused.

“Where’s Salkas?”

Just then, Salkas appeared from behind them. He was walking normally again, it looked like the poison had been healed.

“Feeling better?”

“Yeah…” he said, tossing her an empty antidote bottle.

“Good, then let’s keep going.”

As they continued on, no one noticed the spilt medicine running through the crack of the ground behind them.

                    _______________________________________________________

Reeve woke up in one of the stables. In the stable across from him, he saw Tifa. It looked like she was still sleeping.

“Tifa,” he called.

She began to stir, so Reeve picked up a rock that was nearby and threw it at her. It hit the bars of the chocobo stable she was
in. The clang reverberated through the entire area.

She awoke, along with several others. Reeve craned his neck to see who the others were. In the ‘cell’ next to him was Cloud.
Cloud was still asleep and what appeared to be a large welt was on the back of his head.

Across from Cloud was Cait Sith. Reeve wanted to communicate with him privately, but without his equipment, that was
impossible. In the two other pins had to be Chole and Billy, the chocobo dealer’s two children.

Anger crept through Reeve. It would have been enough if Tseng had only made him watch the demise of William Hunter. To
put the children through it was inhuman. Tseng’s reply to this was, ‘Their lives do not matter to me. I only need this to make an
example to you. You will help me.’ He had commanded.

Reeve had felt a chill at those words. It was almost as if Tseng didn’t even know what he was doing. All of this was just a
means to an end for him.

“We’ve gotta get out of here,” he whispered to Tifa. She nodded her head.

Just then, Tseng burst into the room. He began nonchalantly walking down the center of his makeshift ‘prison.’ He cast a
cautious eye at the two conspirators.

“Already planning your escape?” he didn’t seem to mind, he almost seemed…amused? “That’s to be expected… However,
think before you try anything rash. There is only one way out of this…” he looked around, “jail,” he decided.

With that, Tseng walked out of the barn, silently laughing to himself.

                    _______________________________________________________

That morning, Elena and Rude left Wutai, leaving Reno behind. Elena looked at her ever-silent companion.

“Did you know about this?”

Rude was silent.

“Damnit Rude!”

“Yes! Yes I knew about this. I mean I knew he was from Wutai, just not that he was…”

Elena nodded her head, neither of them had suspected that. She hesitated before asking the next question, “Where are you
from?”

Rude removed his glasses she could see he was thinking hard about something, “You know I don’t like to talk about that,” he
finally said.

“Ok then, I’ll tell you about my past, since we probably won’t see each other again…”

Rude kept quiet and he seemed to stare ahead, transfixed with whatever was in front of him.

“Ok, I was born in Rocket Town, lived there most of my life until one day Cid Highwind approached me and asked if I would
like a job.”

Rude looked surprised at this, but then remembered that before Highwind had become a member of Avalanche, he’d been the
Shinra’s top pilot. “So why did he approach you?”

Elena shrugged, “I don’t know. Maybe he saw that I could beat the hell out of any boy in town,” she sighed, “that was also the
day that, that…”

Rude stared at her. He knew what she was about to say would change his view of her forever, but he listened still.

“I said that I didn’t think I would join the Shinra, my parents were getting old and they needed someone to take care of them.
After that, I went home and saw my parents for the last time… They were both on the couch, slumped against each other in a
sick embrace. They were both, they were…” she turned to Rude, both eyes filled with tears, “Both them were dead! I don’t
understand it! I never even got to say goodbye! Why did they have to…”

She collapsed into the arms of Rude and they stood there for a while, unmoving.

                    _______________________________________________________

Reno was all alone in the dark pit. His head hurt a bit. What the hell was going on? He didn’t really think it was actually a pit,
but still, it was pitch black. Reno sat silently for a while, his anger rising. Finally, he couldn’t take it anymore and stood.

“Let me out goddamnit! What the hell are you keeping me here for!”

He kept shouting for a good ten minutes longer. By the time he was finished, his throat was ragged. He croaked a thought to
himself.

“This is… Godo’s doing,” he said, still unable to call the man his father.

He sat in the darkened pit/room and waited, as he had been doing for quite some time.

                    _______________________________________________________

“Gee, boss, you were right! The chocobo stables were a good place to set up a trap!” the red haired young man said to Tseng,
“I just don’t understand why you had to kill that guy…”

“Do not question that which you know nothing about,” Tseng answered. He saw the reaction in the boys eyes. He didn’t
understand…none of them understood.

Tseng sighed, he would offer an explanation, this time, “After seeing what I did to Mr. Hunter, Cloud and the others will be
given the,” he thoughtfully considered the next word, “proper incentive to help me on my plans.”

“To locate your spaceship?”

Tseng winced, “No…after I evacuated, the Eldridge self-destructed, I saw it with my own eyes. We were given no choice. The
captain had to evacuate. It was all because of that damn specimen, Deus. We never thought that it would become aware of
what we were doing to it, or that it would strike back.”

“Wait a minute,” the boy interrupted, “If a spaceship of that size exploded, would I have seen it.”

“Not unless you were born ten thousand years ago,” he told the boy, “If we can gain access to the Shinra’s old plans, plans for
an interplanetary travel device, I would be able to travel to the planet in which I saw the pod escape. I would also be able to
see…her.”

“Tseng, what are you talking about?”

“Leave me. Go check on our guests.”

“Yes sir.”

The red hair boy turned and left the house where they had set up residence.

"Miang," Tseng sighed.

                    _______________________________________________________

Yuffie, Vincent, and Salkas continued wondering around the caves until they finally came to an opening. They looked out of the
hole and saw the starry sky, and the lights of Corel not far away.

Yuffie was the first to speak, “Should we pay a visit to Barret?”

Perhaps,” Vincent answered, “at any rate, we do need a place to rest for the night, and we should tell him of the latest
happenings.

As they started toward the old mining town, they didn’t even see the giant praying mantis as it descended upon them.

It lashed out with one of its talons, knocking all three to the ground. It was about to eviscerate Yuffie, when a wind swept
across the valley and immediately all of them got to their feet, feeling refreshed. No one questioned this occurrence, for they
were in the heat of battle.

The praying mantis shot what seemed to be knives out of it’s abdomen and cut Yuffie and Vincent deeply. Yuffie used a cure
materia to heal them both. The Outsider boomed in Salkas’ hands tearing through the beast. The mantis roared a scream of
pain and rage, then scooped up Salkas in it’s claws and attempted to consume him.

Salkas writhed in the grasp of the giant insect. He felt himself losing consciousness when a swath of bullets tore through the air
and the mantis loosened its grip a little. Salkas saw his chance, focusing, he again summoned the power of fire. The mantis
shrieked, dropped Salkas, then flew off, attempting to fan the flames off itself.

Salkas rose, brushing himself off, he turned and saw a large black man with a gun arm standing there. The barrel of his huge gun
smoking. They caught eyes for a moment, then the man looked at the others.

“Well I’ll be damned! Vincent and Yuffie! What are you doing around these parts?”

Yuffie spoke, “Well, we were just in the area and decided to—“

Vincent cut her off, “Barret,” he started, “Jenova has returned.”

Barret stood there for a second, “Damn! I guess I’ll try to get a hold of Cloud and the others after all!”

“Have you tried to call him?”

“Yeah, can’t get through though. That damn kid musta turned it off or sumthin, but now we can’t wait. We hafta get to Kalm as
soon as possible.”

“So we take the boat from Costa del Sol to Junon?”

“Nah, sumthin’s been wrong with that damn ocean ever since we killed that pesky Emerald Weapon.”

Vincent thought, “So why don’t you call Cid?”

Barret’s eyes lit up, “Yeah! I’ll just call ol’ Cid and tell him ta bring the Highwind over!” he pulled out his PHS and dialed a
number, seconds later it was answered.

“Yeah, Cid! Wassup buddy, this is Barret! Hey, listen we need the Highwind…”

There was silence for a while, then Barret answered, “What?! It’s broke! When can it be fixed? … … uh-huh … … yeah,
well, thanks Cid, talk to ya in a couple a days. Bye.”

With that Barret hung up, “Cid won’t have the repairs on the Highwind done for a few days. He’ll come over here then.”

Vincent nodded. “I just hope that it isn’t too late by then.”

Yuffie interrupted, “C’mon, it’s freezing out here! Let’s go back to Corel.”

“Yeah, you guys can have some beds at the inn, we’ll catch up after I’m done with my meeting. Y’know Corel’s formed a
committee now…”

Vincent appeared indifferent, “At least it has SOME form of government now…”

“Huh? Well, c’mon, les go!”

The four began to walk to Corel, and the inn that followed.

"I thought we had to get to Kalm as soon as possible," Salkas muttered.

To Chapter 6