Final Fantasy VII: Lifestream - Book 3: Pursuit

THREE

"What a mess..." I sighed.

Tseng didn't argue. We stood in the tunnel through the mountains, or what was left of it, and surveyed the damage. Ahead of us, the place had caved in, tons of rubble blocking the southern exit and burying the wreckage of the latest convoy bound for Fort Condor. We'd lost a lot of troops and supplies, but more importantly, the fastest route to get them south to the front in time for the battle.

I ran a hand through my short blond hair. "Tseng, what happened here last night? A whole convoy, totaled..."

"Avalanche," he mused. "It must've been them."

"But weren't they heading east?" I asked.

Tseng gazed at the collapsed tunnel. "At last report, yes. But not all of them, Elena. They seem to have split up."

"Jessie..." I growled.

"That seems likely," he agreed. "She made no secret of her plans to leave Midgar, and the timing fits. Jessica is almost certainly on her way to Fort Condor even as we speak. Very clever of her... slipping through our own shortcut and then collapsing it behind her to prevent us from moving more of our forces to the battle."

I frowned. "Do we still have enough to take the reactor?"

"I believe so, but it won't be easy," Tseng answered. "We've only got about two-thirds of what the general intended to deploy, mostly mechs and ground troops along with fifty or so of Professor Hojo's drakes and the Grandhorn. So we'll just have to make do."

"Can't we bring in any reinforcements?" I wondered.

He sighed and shook his head. "Not in time to do us any good. All the other overland routes south are much longer than this one. And on top of that, the battle is only a few days away."

"Damn..." I swore.

"But remember the rest of the plan, Elena," Tseng reminded me. "If all goes well, the forces we have will be all we need."

I hadn't forgotten. "Understood, sir."

To be honest, I wasn't all that sure at first about this whole retelling our story thing. But as I've listened to Cloud and the others share what happened back then, I've slowly come around to it. What they're doing, what we're doing, is important. We can't make a better future unless we learn from the past. That hasn't really been easy for me. I made a lot of mistakes, thinking I was doing the right thing.

In those days, I could never have imagined calling Cloud, Tifa, and the rest of Avalanche my friends. I was so convinced they were the bad guys and I was one of the good ones. The trouble is, I was wrong. It's so easy to fool yourself into believing whatever you want and tell yourself whatever you wanna hear. Breaking free of that self-deception is what's hard. For me, it took the planet nearly being destroyed because of what my allies and I had done to open my eyes.

But enough about that. As I stood there, my arms folded in front of me, and gazed at the wreckage and rubble, I couldn't help feeling angry about what had happened. About the forces we'd lost, the blow it would cause to our efforts to capture the fort, and our inability to do anything about it. But mostly, I was angry at Jessie, both for causing it all and for being in Avalanche, for putting me in the position of having to destroy someone who'd once been my friend. I didn't wanna do it, but I knew I would. I was a Turk, and it was my job.

Tseng took out his phone when it rang, and I listened as he talked. "Yes? What is it, Rude? I see... Very well. Bring the chopper around as soon as you can. We'll meet you there."

"What's going on?" I asked after he hung up.

"Sephiroth's been spotted," he answered, shivering.