Hidden Identity (Book Two)-Complete

Year Five, Day Forty-Two Part 3

Tifa POV

Sam comes running into the inn, not even breaking sweat or breathing hard. She nods to us. "ShinRa's here, and it looks like we're going to have to resort to stealing it. Aerith and Cloud are waiting for us by the plane."

We head outside and catch sight of an argument going on between Rufus and some old guy in a blue flight jacket,

"What!? You got my hopes up for nothing!?" the old guy yells. "What did you come here for, then!?"

"I have come to borrow your plane, the Tiny Bronco," Rufus tells him. I exchange a look with Sam. We need that to get the plane first. "We've been chasing after Sephiroth, but apparently we were going in the wrong direction this entire time. Now, we know where he's headed, but we need to cross the ocean. In which case, we need your plane."

"Fuck you! You took my airship, then the rocket, and now you want my plane, too!? Was taking space from me not enough!? Now you want to take the sky from me!?"

"Oh, my. You seem to have forgotten that ShinRa is the reason you can fly in the first place."

"What!?"

Sam taps my shoulder and mouths, 'we need to get moving'. I nod and motion for the others to follow. We sneak around the outskirts of the town until we get behind the Captain's house near the fenced-in plane. There, we see Cloud and Aerith hiding in some bushes on the other side. 

"Cloud!" Sam whispers, trying to catch his attention. He looks around for a bit before finally spotting us.

He comes over to the fence. "If you head along the fence, there's a hole you all can get through. Be careful, some of the edges are sharp."

"Okay. Thanks. See you in a minute."

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Cloud POV

Once we're all inside, I sneak up to the plane. Before I can do anything, though, I hear the back door open and close. The fat guy, Palmer, comes out and walks up to the plane. I can see his polished dress shoes and pudgy legs which are nearly breaking the seams of his brown slacks.

"Hey, hey, good thing I remembered to take the key!" I hear him say. He's going to take the plane!

I nod to the others, and we hurry around to the other side and surround him. "We'll be taking this plane, thank you very much."

"Hey, hey, I've seen you before!" he declares loudly. "You were at the ShinRa building the day the former President was killed!"

He pulls out a fancy gun from under his suit jacket and fires at me. I manage to block it with my sword. At the same time, Sam kicks the gun from his hand and points one of her blades at his throat. Her hood has come off, and her hair is blowing in the breeze like a silvery curtain by an open window. She's so beautiful and dangerous.

"Ah! Y-you! You're Hojo's last creation!" Palmer exclaims, staring at her in fear.

"I'm not Hojo's anything, you witless worm," she says in a slow, dangerously calm voice, Mako eyes flashing with anger. "Hand over the plane's key, now, if you want to leave with your head still attacked to your fat neck."

He looks around frantically for any way of escape or rescue before, albeit reluctantly, handing over the keys to the big red plane. I take them from him. "Thank you. Sam, will you do the honors?"

With a single swift hit to his neck, Palmer crumples to the ground. Barret drags him over to the house as I unlock the plane. "Do any of us actually know how to fly a plane?"

I shoot him a look. "Hello, ex-SOLDIER here, in case you've forgotten. Piloting planes, helicopters, and airships was part of our training."

"Oh right."

I climb up into the pilot's seat. To my surprise, Vincent takes the co-pilot spot. He looks at me blankly. "Ex-Turk, remember?"

"Yeah. Right," I mumble. I look back. "Everyone inside?"

"Yeah, I'm closing the door," Tifa answers.

"WAIT!!"

I look out the window and see Cid running towards us. Uh-oh, not good! "Get the door closed, so we can take off! Hurry!"

"WAIT!! I'M COMING WITH YOU, ASSHOLES!!"

"Ugh, are you serious!?"

"What do we do, Cloud?" Tifa asks, shouting over the roar of the engines.

"Let him on!" I yell back. It's better than us stealing it. This means we have his permission.

 Cid jumps into the plane and Tifa slams the door shut. I guide the plane up into the air, flinching when I hear the sound of the wheels hitting the top of the fence. Oops.

"What do you think you're doing!? Do you even know how to fly a plane, dumbass!?" Cid yells at me.

"Not my fault there wasn't enough room in your back yard to take off, idiot!" I shout back, turning the plane to face the north.

"Where the hell are we going, anyways!?"

"You jumped in the plane without even knowing where we were going!?"

"Course! I'm not gonna allow anyone to fly off with my plane on their own!"

"We're going north! You can have the plane back as soon as were across the ocean! I don't think ShinRa would've been that nice!"

"Who are you people anyways!? Why is there a wolf-dog-thing in my plane!?"

"Please calm down, Captain Cid. We're just the people trying to save the planet," I hear Aerith try to explain calmly. "We're going after a man named Sephiroth who's planning on destroying the planet."

"We're gonna bring down ShinRa, too," Barret adds gruffly.

"I don't care about all that saving the planet nonsense, but I'm all for taking down those ShinRa bastards," Cid says. "Sign me up."

"Not like you can turn back now," I mumble.

"Say, you said you're after a 'Sephiroth' fellow?"

"Yeah."

"Rufus said something about Sephiroth and a 'Temple of the Ancients'."

"Temple of the Ancients?" Aerith asks.

"Yeah. Don't know where that is, though. That brat of a President just kept rambling on about going in the wrong direction before."

I sigh. "Sephiroth said he was going north. So, this Temple must be in the north, too. But we need more information."

"Dios," Barret says suddenly.

"What?"

"The owner of the Gold Saucer, Dios. He collects a lot of rare and ancient artifacts. Maybe he's heard of this 'Temple of the Ancients'."

"The Gold Saucer it is," I say, turning the plane around to head back south. "Let's hope things go better there this time than they did last time."