Promises of Loyalty

Wow, I am so sorry it took this long. I’ve seriously had it written for months and just never got to a good stopping point for this chapter. I was going to even continue further, but figured if I waited any longer I’d lose the few of you left reading, lol.

And yes, the release of Crisis Core had everything to do with the revival of my work. I bought a PSP strictly for that game, such is my love.

Chapter 10 - Saucers and Spies
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Tifa had somehow managed to pry herself out of Zack's grip the next morning and make her exodus from the building, a task made much easier with her newly acquired Exit materia. With the escape ability now at her command, she could slip easily in and out of the building without the guards noticing her. She couldn't quite figure out how it worked - one moment she was standing in Zack's room and the next she was back in the alleyway she had first approached the night prior. Not wanting to take the time to contemplate the mysteries of the magic of the solidified mako, she jogged quickly back to Seventh Heaven and hopped right in the shower, making it seem as if she had just woken up and began her morning routine as usual.

After freshening up, she made her way downstairs to start breakfast for herself and the others. Marlene wandered downstairs at the first scents of Tifa's home cooking made their way to the upper bedrooms. Tifa smiled warmly at the young girl and started preparing a bowl of cereal for her as the sounds of the rest of the AVALANCHE crew waking could be heard upstairs. As Tifa sat at the kitchen table slicing a banana into Marlene's cereal and humming to herself, Barret entered and grinned down at her, "You jes' about as excited as I am 'fore a mission. I think I'm rubbin' off on ya too much," he quipped, ruffling Tifa's damp hair in the process.

She swatted his hand away, "Oh quit it, Barret. I'm just eager to try my hand at this again and do a good job this time..." Her voice trailed off and smile fell, the same happening to her leader's face as they both remembered what happened during the last mission.

"Tifa, y'still didn't tell me what-"

"Nothing, Barret. I was captured, I was released," she snapped. "I didn't tell them anything, they don't know who I was with, and I wasn't hurt." Marlene looked up at the thick atmosphere now hanging around the breakfast table with a questioning look in her eyes. Tifa smiled at her, "It's nothing, Marlene. Eat your cereal and go finish packing to go to Grandma Jane's house, okay?" The small girl nodded and shoveled another spoonful of sugar-coated goodness into her mouth. Barret took this as a cue to drop the situation and grab a muffin before making his exodus back to the meeting room to go over their last minute plans.

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Static crackled through the earpiece, but Tifa's voice came through clear, "Detonation I-2 in place. Clear from perimeter. Secured and waiting, over."

"Detonation I-3 in place. Clear from perimeter. Secured and waiting. LET'S BLOW THIS SUCKER, WOO!....over."

"Biggs! Don't yell, you'll blow my eardrums! Detonation I-4 in place. Clear from perimeter. Secured and waiting, over."

"Oh shut up you two. Detonation I-1 in place. Clear from perimeter. Secured and waiting, over."

"Detonation I-0 active and armed, Y'all better be clear and secured, because we're blowing this thing! Take this, ShinRa @#*&^%!" With that, Barret hit the trigger on the main control panel and four simultaneous explosions rocked the mountainside, jarring a large chunk of the rock from its face and sending it into a free fall toward the construction below. Workers screamed and ran for cover as the giant boulder descended upon their job site, crushing hundreds of thousands of dollars and countless months' worth of work.

Luckily, Tifa had the foresight to switch her earpiece off as the blast rang through the area, protecting her from the amplification that the four other microphones would have surely picked up. When she switched it back on, she was still greeted with a deafening roar of celebration as the other members of AVALANCHE cried out in joy for another reactor successfully destroyed.

"Get yer asses back down here so we can get the hell back to Midgar and really celebrate!" Barret yelled as Tifa and the others unclipped from their security latches that had tethered them firmly to the mountainside. As she repelled down to the ground, she couldn't help but feel a bit saddened that there may have been some workers trapped in the deadly rock slide she had just helped create. These men weren't true ShinRa employees, but mere contract workers hired to complete construction on various ShinRa projects. As she approached their meeting point, Jesse had already beaten her to it and was sitting on a rock grinning in triumph. She looked up at Tifa's worried face and immediately pulled her down next to her,

"Tif, what's wrong? We did it! Another one bites the dust! That's AVALANCHE 3, ShinRa 0 since I've been on the team!"

Tifa shook her head, "Jesse, you ever wonder how many innocent people we've killed when we pull these things off?"

Biggs dropped down behind the two women and put an arm around each of their shoulders, "Innocent my ass, they work for ShinRa, they're just as bad as the company itself!"

Wedge stumbled down the mountain and came to a halt at the foot of the rock Tifa and Jesse sat on, "Yeah, they know what their employer does. It's not like anyone doesn't know ShinRa's killing the planet."

"But, I mean, ShinRa doesn't always employ their own workers to do stuff like this, especially reactor construction. It'd cost too much to keep a construction crew just for these sorts of things. All those innocent contractors hired to do that job were killed...casualties of a war they had nothing to do with."

Barret walked up to the group with the detonation panel hanging off one shoulder, "Independent contractors know the risks and who they're workin' fer' before they take a job. They could'a jes' walked away instead of helpin' out ShinRa. Greedy bastards knew they was working for a planet-killing, money-suckin', no-good @*$#&^ company...they did it for the money, and this is what they get."

Tifa sighed, knowing there'd be no remorse for anything ShinRa-related from this group, and let it go. They finished unhooking their climbing gear and packing it back up before making a quick getaway in their truck, heading back to the safe house to regroup, send the equipment off, and head back to Midgar.

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It was on her way through Sector 6 to pick Marlene up from her babysitter that Tifa had her first, and certainly not last, encounter with a member of the Turks. She was walking through the playground, which was bereft of any life due to the late hour, except for a lone, red-headed man sitting on a swing. Un-phased by his presence, she merely walked through as if he didn't exist, until a metal baton shot out in front of her path, coming to rest against her stomach.

"Hey babe, where's a pretty lady like you going at a time like this?"

Her fists clenched at her sides and she went to sidestep around the barricade, but her new companion had other plans. Before she could reply with a snappy comeback, he stood and dashed at her, using his momentum to knock her back against the spherical cat-faced playground slide and pin her against it, caging her in with his arms. She didn't have time to react or even question his motives, Tifa sprang into action, countering him with a knee up to his stomach.

Reno doubled over, coughing and trying to catch the breath she had just knocked from his lungs, and Tifa jumped up to land on top of the slide. "What do you want with me?"

Still holding his middle, he looked up her, a little pissed but still with a cocky grin on his face, "I've noticed you've taken a certain interest in a buddy of mine lately. Bosses don't like it, said they don't need a hussy like you distracting Fair. So I'm here to deliver that message, yo."

Tifa wondered idly if he knew that he was seriously pushing her buttons with the 'hussy' comment or if it was just his dumb luck choosing to use the very occupation that kept getting Zack into trouble with her as well. She jumped back down and approached the fiery-haired man, grabbing the lapels of his black jacket and yanking his face so their noses were mere inches apart, "I am NOT a hussy. I am a proper woman, TRYING to have a normal relationship, and it's jackasses like you and your damn company that keep getting in the way with that!" She pulled back for a second before sending a mean right hook into his smirking face, snapping his nose to the side with a sickening crunch.

Reno staggered back, landing on the ground as his hands flew up to cover his now bloodied face. "Yer gobba pay fer dat..." he muttered, the blood flowing down his chin. He stood and wiped one hand on his pants while the other grabbed his neglected weapon from the ground, flipping the switch on and giving the EMR back its namesake power.

She eyed the electrically charged metallic baton in his hand and knew immediately that she was going to be at a disadvantage. She was made for close-range combat, but now that her opponent had a 2-foot advantage, complete with an elemental boost, she was going to be hard-pressed to attack without putting any of her body in danger of severe electrocution. Knowing her legs were her best bet at that time, she swept down and turned on her left foot, trying to pivot her right leg out and catch his ankles, but Reno reacted quickly, jumping up and landing on the swing he had previously vacated. He swung there for a moment, looking like a playing child, until he lunged at her again, swinging the EMR down toward her shoulder. Tifa rolled to the side and stood, moving forward to bring a heel drop down to the middle of his back when he brought the rod upright and caught her boot in mid-air, effectively halting her assault. Luckily the rubber sole of her footwear insulated her leg against any electrocution, giving Tifa a slightly larger chance at preventing unwanted shock, but not by much.

He shook her foot loose from his weapon and went for her other ankle, but she danced back switching from foot to foot until she was a good distance away from him to assess her situation. She couldn't get in close, and she didn't have any weapons, unless... The bracelet on her arm glinted in the moonlight, the 5 green and one yellow marble shining with their ethereal light. Remembering Zack's lessons, she ran her thumb over one of the green materia and concentrated for a moment before flicking her wrist out toward her opponent. A small burst of flame shot out from her arm, catching Reno off guard and scorching his suit, the sleeve of his jacket catching on fire. He ripped the charred article off and flung it into the distance.

"Whoa there with the party tricks, yo! No one told me you could use materia! Fair's got a real interest in protecting you if he's giving away military secrets like they're jewelry. Although after a fuck like that, I'd give you one hell of a present, myself." He watched as the look of shock crossed Tifa's face and couldn't help but laugh. "You can't expect a company like ShinRa to not have cameras in every room of its headquarters, can you? Yeah I watched you the other night in the gym...and I'll be watching it many times more. That tape's gonna come in handy next time I'm alone on business with no one but Rude, if ya catch my drift, yo."

Anger coursed through her veins, clouding her judgment, and she flicked the next green materia on her bracelet, flashing her hand out toward the vulgar man standing before her. Without thought of what she was doing, she cast a Bolt spell directly at the electricity user, who braced against it with his EMR, effectively charging it up.

"Thanks for the little power boost, babe!" he shouted, lunging at her and catching the side of her forearm with the tip of the charged baton. The electricity shot through her left arm, rendering it numb and the force of the blow sent her reeling back a few feet. As Tifa skidded to a halt against a jungle gym, she held her now paralyzed left arm and gritted her teeth at him.

"You perverted bastard, are all the ShinRa men such voyeuristic assholes?!"

Reno chuckled, de-charging the EMR back to its neutral state and licking the metal rod with a sick sort of sexual display. "Wouldn't you like to find out?" he chided, wiggling his eyebrows suggestively.

She brought her right arm down and nudged her left fingertips against the third green materia to activate it. Cold air swirled around the bracelet for a second before she pointed her hand out and shot a bolt of freezing cold air at Reno's left leg, encasing it in ice up to his knee.

"FUCK! That's cold!" he screamed, beating his baton against the chunks of ice now rooting his leg in place. Tifa almost laughed as he chipped away at the solid block as if his weapon were an ice pick. Reno looked up at the amusement in her expression and scowled, "So you like to play games, eh? Let's see how you like being stuck in place, too." Suddenly, the world around Tifa took on a golden hue as three translucent panels closed up around her body in a sort of energy pyramid. A light touch with the fingertips of her good arm resulted in a tingling shock not much different from static electricity, but the panels were solid. She ran her open palm along them, pushing and finding complete resistance, as if he had built a glass cage around her body.

Finally deciding that he was going nowhere at that rate, Reno sucked it up and cast a small fire spell to his ice-encrusted leg, melting it to freedom and charring off one of his pant legs as well. He sighed dejectedly, "Well, thanks to all the fire going off around here, that's another suit I'm gonna have to replace." He looked up to see Tifa, banging away at her new prison and shouting muffled curses at him through the wall.

"Now that you're stuck there, time we had that little chat the bosses sent me for," he sat back down on his swing. "The company knows who you are, who you're with, and who you work for. They know where your bar is, they know who's there with you, they know what you're up to, and they don't like any of it of course. I was sent here to deliver an ultimatum that you are to stop all contact with Fair, that's all. And they said I was to make sure you got that message by 'any means necessary'...considering all I did was paralyze your arm and put you in a pyramid for a while, you got off lucky, babe, there's a lot worse I could do to you." He winked again for effect but she turned an indifferent glare to him in reply. "Anyway, they're not too concerned about your little terrorist group, they'll take care of you in due time. Stop blowing up reactors and maybe they'll just ignore you all together. But this business of shaking up with a SOLDIER, that's getting a little too close for comfort. They're worried about the usual, getting distracted, slipping you information, all that bullshit. He's gonna be one of Lazard's top boys, and nothing is supposed to interfere with that...including hot chicks like you. Now, Turks on the other hand, we don't like following rules, so if you're lookin' for another good lay, I'm all yours, babe."

His offer was met with silence and he shrugged, having already known he wasn't getting any tonight from his target. Picking up his EMR and collapsing it back to its travel state, he slipped the weapon in his belt and approached Tifa. He tapped the pyramid twice to get her attention, blew her a kiss, and sauntered off into the streets surrounding the playground. Anger boiled inside the imprisoned woman and she sent her right fist flying into the golden wall before her. With minimal effort, the pyramid wall shattered, the energy glinting and flickering in shards before disappearing at her feet. She stood there dumbstruck for a moment before screaming out in anger for having been fooled by such a weak illusion. Upon release from Reno's trick, she also noticed she had regained the use of her left arm, leaving only a creepy tingling sensation behind. Livid at her humiliation, she stalked off toward the residential district to pick Marlene up.

Zack was going to hear an earful when they went on their date the next evening.

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True to his word, Zack had procured them VIP passes to the Golden Saucer. Getting there, of course, was the biggest issue, and not for the first time in the history of their relationship, Tifa wished she could've just had him pick her up at her place like normal people. Instead, she was on the early train bound for an airfield outside of Junon which apparently held the ShinRa personal aircraft.

Upon exit from the train platform, she quickly located a familiar face among the various military vehicles parked at the perimeter of the station. Zack waved at her from a jeep and beckoned her over, grabbing her bag and tossing it in the back once she approached. A tight red shirt outlined his muscular form, paired with black baggy pants that looked as if he had slept in them. He leaned over and gave her a quick peck on the cheek before turning the engine over and speeding off toward the air strip.

"I come all this way for a romantic date and all I get is a kiss on the cheek?" she teased.

Zack laughed, "Hey, your fault. I had to tell them you're my sister and I'm taking you to Gongaga to visit our sick mother...I don't want the boys thinking I'm into incest, y'know."

She smirked, "Well, I suppose I should be grateful for that...at least this time you didn't pass me off as a hooker."

The jeep stopped next to a small two-seater propeller plane which was being prepped for takeoff by a few mechanics. Zack waved to them and took Tifa by the wrist, ushering her over to the ladder and motioning for her to climb up. Once seated in the tiny cockpit, Zack followed her up, stashing their bags in the small cargo hold and then buckling himself in to start his pre-flight preparations.

"So, you can do carpentry work, gain access to restricted corporate HQ buildings, and pilot small aircraft...is there ANYTHING you can't do?" Tifa questioned as they taxied down the runway before taking off into the air.

"Hmm, I can't play a musical instrument to save my life...other than that, I'm pretty much covered," he snickered, adjusting a dial on the console.

"Smartass," she scolded, "just for that you're going to prove you CAN do everything and win me a prize at the Wonder Square."

"Deal," he smirked, "and after that, we're getting a private car on the gondola and you're not allowed to object to anything that happens while inside."

Tifa blushed, knowing full well what he was alluding to and wondered if he really did have a fetish for having sex in public places.

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The small plane touched down on a derelict stretch of desert outside of Corel. A shabby airplane hangar was the only sign of human influence for miles, and luckily there was a fueled jeep waiting inside for the couple. Zack pulled the plane up to the bay doors and shut it down, opening the hatch and tossing their bags to the ground before lowering himself down the ladder. Tifa followed suit, hopping down into his arms but pulling away quickly when she saw another ShinRa guard approach the plane.

"Zack you jackass, you owe me for this shit," he grumbled, tossing him a pair of keys.

"Yeah yeah, I'm aware." Zack muttered, picking up their bags. "Thanks Walt, I know coming all the way out here is a pain in the ass. You'll get a check when I get back to Midgar, ok?"

Walt grumbled and shuffled over to the plane to bring it into the hangar. "How long ya gonna be? I wanna have her ready for you to go so I don't have to hang out in this shithole too long."

Zack shrugged, "Eh, tomorrow evening? Yeah, that sounds good. Don't wanna keep sis here away from her work too long." He ruffled Tifa's hair in a brotherly gesture.

Walt just grunted and rolled his eyes as the pair hopped into the jeep and took off, leaving him to tend to the plane.

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The ropeway tram shuddered to a halt outside the impressive entrance of the Golden Saucer. Zack and Tifa stepped out and after swiping their passes, were admitted into the neon paradise for the next 24 hours. They immediately headed for Ghost Square, which was the location of the only lodging in the park. After being greeted rather creepily by the hanging front desk attendant, they were escorted to a private suite that overlooked the chocobo tracks. Tifa had her nose pressed to the glass, watching the race taking place below, when Zack crept up behind her and slipped his arms around her waist, pressing his lips to her collarbone.

"There'll be enough time for that later," she scolded, wriggling out of his grasp. Tifa grabbed her suitcase and flopped it open on the bed, pulling out a track jacket and sweatpants to change in to. Zack eyed her curiously as she changed.

"And just what are we up to now then?" he questioned.

"Battle Square. I thought we'd have a little fun, maybe a bet...handicaps? We've already determined that with weapons and materia, you've got me beat, but hand-to-hand I've got you. So...my expertise against yours in an arena that can cripple us both evenly. I'd say that's a pretty good way to see who's better, ne?"

He shrugged and followed her out of the room, never one to pass up a shot at a good fight, and even better a chance to put a fun wager on their little competition. Apparently she had a passion for trying to beat him in competitions, and more often than not, the stakes at hand were quite pleasurable for both the winner and loser.

A quick trip through the tubular transport system found Tifa standing at the upper platform of the Battle Square, peering over the railing to the stage below. A lone walkway passed over a moat of murky-looking water and the whole area was illuminated with harsh neon lighting. She set her training bag down on the edge and unzipped her jacket, leaving her in a tank top and sweatpants, her newly acquired materia bracelet dangling from one wrist. She unlatched the gate and stepped forward onto the platform.

Holstering his newly rented sword onto his back, Zack stepped onto the bridge, cracking his knuckles as he entered the Battle Arena platform. Eying her form with a hint of mischief, Zack flashed her a grin as he unsheathed his weapon, letting the tip of the blade touch the ground as he leaned against it. A flash of green from the hilt was seen momentarily as the platform began to tremble, giving her a wink as the steel walkway shattered below her.

The makeshift bridge crumbled beneath their feet and Tifa jumped to the main arena to avoid falling. "You always have to make things hard for us to leave, don't you?" she muttered, landing on the stage and bouncing around a bit to get a fair distance away. "So we gonna just go all out, or are we gonna set some rules? Maybe a little wager? This IS the Battle Square..."

"Wager? What did you have in mind?" He stalked around the ring, swinging his sword in circles with one hand. He was eying up the arena, picking up the nuances of their battlegrounds, noticing the shards of tile that were formerly connecting their platform to the main walkway. Finally, his gaze turned back to his voluptuous opponent, "Gonna pay for dinner on the next date?"

She smirked at him as she gathered her hair back up into a high ponytail, "Hmm, I guess I can decide that later," she muttered half-heartedly. Suddenly the arm with the materia bracelet fell down from her hair and pointed out at him, firing out a small bolt of lightning in his direction. "When I win, that is!"

Zack jumped back quickly and the bolt of lightning struck right where his foot had been a moment ago, singed remains of the tile there proving it. Gritting his teeth as his feet slid towards the edge of the platform, he skidded to a halt before snatching up a broken piece of tile and hurling it at her. He rushed forward, raising his sword above his head, "You win? Ha!"

Her other arm snapped up and swatted away the flying tile, sending it into the moat with a small splash. She rushed at him with her shoulder out, fully intending to knock him off the edge, but Zack threw himself to the side and slammed his sword into the ground as he let it go, making sure he triggered the Quake materia. Using only Quake 1, the ground merely shook slightly, a few rocks erupting from the ground to distract her while he cast Haste on himself. His body suddenly seemed to take on a reddish tinge, almost as if he were smoldering, and he rushed past her from the left side, grabbing her leg, and spinning her around before smashing her into a wall.

As his opponent's body went flying from his grasp, Zack ripped his sword from where it was embedded in the platform. While his back was turned, Tifa had spring-boarded off the wall to land back on the platform, narrowly avoiding tumbling into the murky water below. Not wanting to be at a disadvantage, she thumbed the Time materia on her bracelet and cast Haste on herself as well, matching his new boost in speed. She dashed forward, slamming his right shoulder hard with her fist in an attempt to dislodge his weapon from his grasp and give her a bit more of an advantage. However, Zack was already in control of his increased speed and easily dodged down and to the side, her fist catching empty air next to his head.

His momentum sent him tipping back and he kicked his legs up from the ground, slamming his foot out into her knee. Tifa buckled, biting down on her lip to keep from crying out in pain as she toppled face first down onto Zack's chest. He hit the ground first, his palms coming up to cup her breasts as she fell into his hands. There was a pause as he grinned up at her, "That's how you cop a feel SOLDIER-style."

Before Tida could react, her body was lifted into the air by a miniature tornado and she was hurled off into the arena. Zack watched her twirling mid-air and suddenly realized she had regained her momentum and was heading heel-first for his sword arm. Without time to react, her foot slammed into his right wrist, sending his sword skidding across the platform. "You can feel me up AFTER the match," she yelled, smirking as he winced in pain from the injured wrist. Landing ungracefully half on her bad knee, she crouched down where she was to see how her attack had effected his battle tactics.

Zack winced in pain as he placed both palms on the arena floor and cast aero again to lift himself to a stance. The moment his boots hit solid ground he dashed toward his sword, casting quake toward the ground before him. A column of rock jutted out of the ground and Zack easily hopped up the face, jumping into the air to catch his sword from where it had been tossed mid-air. He twisted back, activating his "Braver" limit and falling into a decent toward Tifa, who watched from below. As she peered up, all she could see was the silhouette of her opponent against the harsh halogen arena lights. The sword was heading straight for her and her only thought was escape. As if on command, one of the marbles on her bracelet shone with a green light and she flickered from sight.

The sword slammed into the arena floor once more, creating yet another fissure in the tile. Zack stood and left a hand on the hilt to look at where she had disappeared to, only to find Tifa perched atop the very rock he had just summoned up from the ground. "Are you trying to sever my leg?" she screamed down at him, obviously angry that he was being so brutal, "This is a spar, not a deathmatch!" She flicked another marble on her bracelet, causing ice shards to rain down toward where he was standing. A small ice spell was no match for the barrier he activated and the shards bounced off harmlessly, ricocheting back up toward their caster.

"Sorry, forgot I'm not fighting someone as skilled as a SOLDIER," he chuckled. Zack crouched and launched himself up as well, surpassing the shards with his increased speed as he hopped up the rocky ledges. He nearly made it to the top to strike at her when the haste wore off, causing his sword to fall short and nick the ledge just below her feet before he slammed into the side of the pillar.

With ice shards now heading toward her, Tifa whirled around and hopped down to the other side of the rock pillar, landing ungracefully at the bottom. With her opponent now dangling on the other side of the pillar and trying to right himself, she took the lull in the battle as a time to try and fix her handicap. Activating the cure materia, she placed her palm on her knee and rubbed slowly, letting the warm energy seep into her body and repair the injured muscles and work out the pain. Meanwhile, Zack placed a foot on the wall and pushed off, flipping his body up and over, dislodging his sword with him as he landed a few feet from where Tifa was crouched. She looked up to catch his smug grin but before he could spout off a taunt, she activated her exit materia and flickered from view.

Tifa reappeared on the opposite side of the rock wall and lept up to the very top, cocking her arm back and delivering a punch to the tip. The top sheared off into a large chunk headed straight toward where her opponent stood casting Haste on himself yet again. He looked up in time to see the falling boulder and jumped onto the wall, running vertically up its face as he unsheathed his sword again. The tip stabbed into the projectile, lodging it onto the blade, and allowed him to swing it back up behind his head and then down, shaking it free and sending it crashing down toward the floor where she stood.

As he let out a manical laugh, Tifa stood back up and shot her arm out toward the falling rock, a bolt of lightning flying from her bracelet and shattering it into dust. She brought her arms to cross her face, protecting her eyes but allowing minor cuts and scrapes to her forearms in the process.

“Damnit Zack, stop being so strong!” she screamed over the din of the explosion. SOLDIER enhancements must have been powerful stuff, she mused, considering he had managed to halt the trajectory of a massive boulder and reverse its direction. She knew his sword was a major source of his power, both as a lone weapon and due to the materia glittering in its hilt. In yet another attempt to disarm him, she hopped over chunks of shattered rock and cast Haste on herself as well to boost her speed enough to scale the wall.

Noticing that she was advancing up his tower, Zack dove off the top and free fell for a moment before casing Quake, sending another chunk of the arena floor jutting up into the air. His boots connected with the top and he shot up into the air with it, passing Tifa mid-run up the opposite wall. “Hey baby, want a ride?” he chuckled.

She pushed off the wall she was on and started spring-boarding up from wall to wall as he chided her from above. Her last push off the face of the wall sent her soaring straight for him, tackling at chest level and knocking them both off the platforms. As they fell, she gripped his shoulders and brought her knee up into his stomach. Zack’s breath left his lungs as he choked for a moment and then shoved her off. He gripped his stomach and brought his hands together, activating a red materia in the process. Behind him, a giant tidal wave appeared from nowhere, carrying a massive sea snake in its waters. The wave slammed down onto the arena, shattering all the boulders and washing them off the platform and into the empty moat around it.

Tifa was crushed down with the force of the wave, her breath leaving in a gasp on impact and replaced with a mouthful of water as the arena began to resemble a giant pool. She struggled to keep from being tossed around too much as the waters raged around her, throwing rocks into her sides as she choked out what she had swallowed. Luckily the arena had sufficient drainage thanks to the moat surrounding the platform and with the flow stopped, Tifa was left crouched on her hands and knees, soaked and gasping for air in the middle. “That....that was....overkill...”

Zack hopped down with a small splash and chuckled, crouching down to lend her a hand up, “I thought you could use a shower after that intense battle.”

She smacked his hand away and let herself collapse on the floor, her tired limbs no longer able to hold her up. Tifa rolled over and stared at him, still trying to catch her breath from nearly being drowned. “I'm not moving until you heal me, you bastard. I think we need a no materia rule from now on.”

“Why,” he asked, tilting his head to the side in mock confusion, “surely not just because you can't use it properly?” She glared and opened her mouth to protest until he placed his glowing hand gently on her chest, sending a strong surge of healing energy into the center of her body. The warm mako swept into her muscles and up toward the surface of her skin, closing the surface wounds and healing the bruises and fatigue underneath. Her face relaxed as the pain subsided and Zack smiled, knowing he hadn’t caused any more damage than he could easily repair. The smile turned into a smirk as his hand wandered, sliding over her damp breast, thumb brushing against a nipple in the process. Tifa had to bite back a small moan as he continued to heal her in unison with copping a feel. His hand slipped around to her back and lifted her up from the floor, the other coming under her knees to lift her up from the arena floor.

“Lets say you and I go back to the room, take a short nap, and we take that gondola ride you promised?”
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To be continued in Chapter 11 – Saucers and Spies: Part Deux

Bonus points to anyone who can spot the Clerks reference.