Lean On Me (FF7)

34

~Tifa's POV~

I yawn, bored an exhausted. All of us, besides Cait Sith, who should be coming today, are in the cockpit, trying to find a way to find the kids. Cloud hasn't let go of Yuffie's hand this whole time, blinking occasionally to try to make his awful headache go away. Apparently Reno and Rude were also taken. We have to idea if Elena is trapped there too, but we can't check, seeing as she works for the President. He'd see us and order to have us killed. Earlier this morning, we said goodbye to Dr. Frederick, the likable old man that treated us after the Highwind crashed.

"He kept looking at you," Vincent had said, frowning. Well duh, I was his patient, idiot.

Cid suddenly turns to the right and Yuffie grimaces, hanging onto Cloud's arm tightly. I hold onto the desk I'm by until he sets us straight again.

"What was that?!" Barret frowns.

"Sorry, I almost hit a mountain," he apologizes.

"Wow, great job, Mr. Cid," Barret scoffs before going back to whatever he was doing. I turn back to my open laptop and frown. How am I supposed to help track down four missing people?

"Need any help?" Vincent rolls his chair backwards over to me. This feels like an office. We have the fold up tables down like desks, random chairs around the ship put out along with the stash of laptops down stairs that survived. Vincent got the chair with wheels and he's been rolling around everywhere like a kid for the past half hour.

"I don't know," I sigh, putting my head in my hands. "How are you supposed to look for a missing person?"

"No idea. Just think about the past, I guess," he shrugs. "Last time, they shot me and shoved me in the Shinra mansion basement."

"But that was Hojo, and we killed him, remember?"

"And we also killed Sephiroth, the remnants, and Rufus. Your point is...?"

"I don't know," I groan, rubbing my temples. This is all giving me a headache. I'm overwhelmed with worry for Denzel, Marlene, even the two idiot Turks that have saved our lives on multiple occasions.

"We should just try the places they've used before. The planet isn't that big, you know," he raises his eyebrows.

"I know," I sigh, looking down out the window. I catch small glimpses of the Mythril Mine, the Midgar Zolam, the chocobo farm, Kalm, Midgar, the list goes on and on and on.

"So... They took Aeris to the Shinra building first, right?" he says, struggling to get the fact right since he wasn't there.

"Yeah, but they'd expect us to look there first,," I shake my head.

"So... what about you and Barret?"

"Junon," I frown. "Also suspected."

"Shinra Mansion?" He sighs, bored. Then his eyes widen and he sits up straight. "Hang on, I remember there being a cell or something down in the basement."

"What?" I say, suddenly interested.

"There was a passage to a jail cell behind one of the bookshelves down in the lab. I remember being taken there before I died, anyway. Or maybe it was a coma, I don't know," he shrugs. "Maybe they're there?"

"They'd have a lot of people guarding it," I frown.

"Find anything?" Yuffie leans over.

"Yeah, actually," Vincent nods.

"Just an idea," I add. "The Shinra Mansion basement. Vince says there's a cell down in the lab behind a bookshelf."

"But what about security?" Cloud frowns.