Corkscrew Tunnel-Section C...

"When the time comes, remember: we just gotta follow the nose," Barret explained as they traveled down the tracks.

This puzzled not only Lailah but Cloud as well. He asked, "What?"

"Stamp's nose," Tifa clarified.

"We look for graffiti, then head in whichever direction its nose points. But pay attention to railway signals too. You see blue lights, you're going the right way," the brute added.

After their conversation ended, Lailah changes into her pup form and ran ahead of the group. She hopped onto the median and spotted more slug-rays ahead. When one of the machines spotted her, she was thoroughly surprised when it didn't attack. It just scanned her before floating in the opposite direction. She wondered if being in her pup form made her come across as non-threatening.

She waited patiently for Cloud, Tifa, and Barret to destroy the enemies before continuing down the tracks. She noticed the signal located between the tracks was blue. She tilted her head to the side, her ears flopping at her movement.

"Follow the blue lights and we'll reach the reactor," Barret told Cloud and Lailah.

The pup took the lead to check if there were more enemies ahead. While she was focused on the track ahead, she could hear Barret's deep voice echo through the tunnel.

"Biggs is way ahead of us. Jessie was gonna back him up, so it wouldn't surprise me if he needs our help. So let's not keep him waiting," the brute said.

"Right," Tifa spoke up.

Not far ahead did they encounter another group of enemies. Cloud, Tifa, and Barret dealt with the slug-rays and the elite grenadier before they could move on.

Lailah jumped onto Tifa's shoulder as they reached the end of Section C. There, they found a stairwell leading up. Among the many things spray painted on the wall was a beagle wearing an army helmet.

"There's one." Barret took the lead up the stairwell and stopped on the landing where the dog was painted. Tifa was behind him with Lailah still perched on her shoulder. Cloud picked up the rear and followed his companion.

Barret gestured to the art once Cloud joined them. "In nose we trust."

"Good thing our colleagues put up all that Stamp graffiti. Without it, we'd be lost for sure," Tifa said.

Continuing on, they headed up the stairwell. They arrived in Section D. As they descended from the catwalk, Tifa saw something in the distance. "What's that?"

"Nothing good," Barret replied.

Tifa walked a little further down the catwalk to get a better look. She gasped when she saw what was on the wall. "Guys...I think it might be a nest!"

"All kinds of creepy-crawlies make themselves at home in the plate, then get messed up even more by the mako."

"Mako did this?" she asked.

"No. Not mako. Shinra." Barret saw the judgemental glance he received from the ex-SOLDIER. "What?"

"That black-and-white world of yours," Cloud answered.

"Ya like it, huh?" The brute sarcastically asked. "You know there's room for one more."

"I'll think about it."

Lailah hopped off Tifa's shoulder and landed on the railing. She gazed at the large nest before her attention was drawn to a moving figure below. She walked a little further down the railing to see it was a grashtrike. She was about to slide down the railing of the next stairwell when someone grabbed her.

"Don't even think about it," Cloud scolded the pup.

Her tail wagged as she stretched her front paws out towards his face, but she couldn't reach him. He sighed while Tifa giggled at the pup's actions.

Cloud put her down and she trotted down the steps. He, Tifa, and Barret followed her. Unfortunately, they couldn't avoid the large insect. Nevertheless, the three disposed of the grashtrike while Lailah went to check the path ahead. She saw the way up the next staircase was blocked by webs. She thought about burning them but dismissed the idea as Cloud came over.

"I've got this," the blonde said. He ripped off the webs and tossed them aside. The way was now clear.

The group proceeded through the area until they arrived at the bottom floor of Section E. They took down the queen grashtrike and located another spray-painted Stamp.

"There's good ol' Stamp. Check his nose," Barret said.

Tifa analyzed the beagle. "This isn't bad, y'know..."

"Yeah, they really captured the essence of corporate propaganda."

Crossing the catwalk, they found two security officers burning the nests. They made their way down the stairs and couldn't avoid them. They took out the officers and proceeded to head to the nearest map to figure out their current location.

"There's an old rail yard not far from here. What we're looking for's somewhere inside," Barret stated.

"And that is...?" Cloud began.

"A secret passageway."

Lailah, still in her pup form, glanced down the tracks in the direction they would be heading. She then jumped down the stairwell when the others were ready to go.

Corkscrew Tunnel-Section E...

When the tunnel split, the group traveled down the left path-the same direction Stamp's nose was pointing.

"You really don't like Stamp, do you, Barret?" Tifa asked.

"It's not that I hate him. I hate the fact Shinra took a loyal animal like that and co-opted it for their own self-serving agenda," the brute answered.

"Poor old Stamp." Tifa felt a sudden weight on her shoulder to see Lailah had hopped up on her. "Maybe we should make Lailah a mascot."

"Of what?" Cloud asked.

"Avalanche. Our cause is to save the planet. That also means saving her. I think she'd be perfect. What about you, Barret?"

The burly man looked over at the wolf pup. "I'll think 'bout it."

A few minutes later, they arrived at the Rail Yard.

"Hey! Hold up! This way." Barret led them a little ways ahead, taking cover behind a cargo container.

Tifa peered out from their hiding spot. "Security is a lot tighter than I thought it would be."

"If they wanna stand between us and the rail yard, that's their choice."

Lailah jumped off Tifa's shoulder and made her way to the top of the cargo container. She spotted the flametroopers blocking their path. She didn't move from her spot as Cloud, Tifa, and Barret faced off against the enemies. Her golden eyes widen when two sentry launchers emerged from the floor. She was tempted to join them when she saw the sentry launchers fire missiles at them.

Alas, she didn't have to intervene. Barret destroyed the sentry launchers the same time Cloud and Tifa took down the last flametrooper. She leapt off the cargo container and trotted over to the others.

Barret checked the gate, realizing it would be impossible to open. "No getting through that gate. Let's take the stairs."

Following behind Cloud, Lailah scampered through the door to the next room when the blonde opened it. She noticed how the corridor was bathed in crimson lights.

"We should be reaching that secret passage real soon. I knew plan E wouldn't fail us. Shoulda called it "plan excellent"! Whatcha think, Mister Ex-SOLDIER?" Barret inquired.

Cloud replied with his own question. "Biggs made the plan, right?"

"I provided some input."

"Hope not too much."

The man glared at the ex-SOLDIER. "What's that s'posed to mean?"

Cloud didn't respond. Instead, he led the others into the break room where they were attacked by security officers.

Lailah, who still refrained from fighting, jumped out of the way when one of the tables flew in her direction. She hid under one of the toppled-over tables until the fight was over. She looked around to see the room looked as if a hurricane blew through. Only a couple of tables remained untouched and in place. She looked up at the closest person to her which was Barret.

He looked down at her with a raised brow. "You judgin' me?"

She shook her head and wandered over to Cloud and Tifa. She followed them through the next door. They left the break room and climbed down a ladder. The pup landed on top of Cloud's head when she jumped from the top of the ladder. She pawed at his spiky blonde locks, tail wagging back and forth.

Cloud didn't react and simply allowed Lailah to rest on his head while he looked around the area for the next spray-painted image of Stamp. The area seemed to be where cargo containers were stowed. Among the containers also lay a deactivated machine.

Dismissing the machine, Cloud walked over to the rear of the room to see the Stamp graffitied onto the side of a cargo container. "This it?" He looked over to see Tifa approaching the machine. He saw its eyes flicker and shouted, "Get back!"

"What the-?!" Tifa gasped in horror as the machine got to its feet and fired its guns at Barret.

The brute quickly dodged the rapid fire and took cover behind a cargo container. "That all you got?!"

Once the machine deactivated its gun, Cloud, Tifa, Lailah, and Barret regrouped. The pup hopped off the blonde's head and transformed, knowing her companions would be needing her help with the tough battle ahead.

Cloud drew his sword. "Someone's mad."

Barret aimed his prosthetic gun arm at the machine. "Take your best shot, asshole!"

The crab warden charged forward.

The four dodged the machine and started to attack.

While dealing some damage to its legs, Cloud noticed the rust and slow movements. "Huh. Looks like an old model."

Barret assaulted the machine with bullets. "So it's an antique."

"Don't underestimate it. It's slow, but it hits hard."

The brute then aimed his gatling gun at the main body. He was shocked to see his bullets did no damage. "The hell-?! Tough bastard."

"What do we do?" Tifa asked.

"Aim for its legs. Bring it down," Cloud said.

Lailah charged her chakrams with lightning, the marks along her face turning yellow. She targeted the rear legs with Barret while Tifa and Cloud dealt with the front two legs.

Not too far into the fight, Lailah sensed the crab warden's gaze lock on to her. Her eyes widen when she realized it was solely targeting her.

"Time for some defense, Lailah!" Tifa shouted.

The snowy-haired girl put some distance between her and the machine. She erected a barrier around her when it fired missiles at her. The barrier absorbed all of its attacks while the others continued to strike its legs. By the time the barrier shattered, the crab warden had turned its attention back to the others.

Deeper into the battle, Cloud and Tifa had been targeted by the machine just like Lailah had. Luckily, everybody was able to stay on their feet without the need for too much healing.

One by one, they crippled the legs of the crab warden and sent it to its belly. A red generator emerged from its body.

"Hey, see that?" Tifa asked.

"That's its heart-a mako generator," Cloud said.

Barret aimed his prosthetic arm at the generator. "I'm guessin' we aim for that!"

After attacking the generator, the crab warden recovered and situated the generator back inside its metallic body. It skidded across the floor, its once blue eyes now turning yellow. From behind a stack of storage containers emerged more enemies.

"What are those?" Tifa asked.

"More drones," Cloud said.

Lailah lowered her chakrams as the slug-rays approached. She looked to see Barret and Tifa focusing their attacks on the drones while Cloud kept his attention on the larger machine. Knowing lightning would be the quickest way to deal with the drones and the crab warden, she focused her magic on a much larger scale. Tossing her chakrams, multiple lighting strikes struck the enemies. With the powerful spell, the drones exploded and the crab warden's two back legs were crippled.

As she caught her curved blades, Lailah joined Cloud in crippling the front two legs. With their combined strength, they brought the machine down to its belly a second time. The mako generator reappeared and everyone attacked it, siphoning more health from the enemy.

Eventually, the crab warden skidded backward and its yellow eyes flickered out.

Barret lowered his gatling gun. "That it?!"

The four thought they had finished off the machine but were surprised when its eyes turned back on and were now a menacing crimson.

"Now what?" Tifa wondered.

"Could be a system error," Cloud said.

"Thing's probably busted!" Barret shouted.

Lailah wondered what she could do to end this battle. She stared at the crab warden when she suddenly heard Zephyrus' voice. She was pulled from her thoughts when Cloud pulled her away from the tracks and behind a cargo container. She wondered what she had missed while being distracted by her own mind.

"It can electrify the tracks," Cloud told her. "Be careful."

Lailah remained behind the cargo container when Cloud dashed out to attack the crab warden. She recalled what Zephyrus told her and climbed on top of the container. Taking one of her chakrams, she tossed it and grabbed the machine's attention.

"The hell you doin'?!" Barret shouted as the robot charged at the girl.

Taking a deep breath, Lailah transformed into a bird. Her entire body turned green as she flew at the machine at a blinding speed, creating sharp blades of wind that sliced at its metallic body. Her attack sliced off its legs and destroyed the generator, silencing it permanently.

Landing on the tracks, the bird landed and she reverted to being human. She stood before the corpse of the machine and sighed in exhaustion.

"And stay down!" Barret shouted at the lifeless crab warden.

Feeling a hand on her shoulder, she looked over at Cloud. "Let's go," he told her.

The snowy-haired girl nodded.

"All right, this way." Barret guided everyone over to the stack of cargo containers along the back wall where Stamp was grafittied. "The passage is beyond these shipping containers. Let's slip through 'em."

One by one, the group entered the narrow passageway.

"Talk about a tight squeeze..." Barret grunted as he crammed himself between the cargo containers.

"You okay?" Tifa asked, who was following behind him.

"Yeah..."

Once reaching the other side, Tifa asked, "So, you bump into any giant robots like that in Reactor 1?"

"Yeah, except the bastard looked like a scorpion! Speaking of which...what would you say that last one looked like?" Barret asked as he slid down the ladder.

"Huh? Uh... Well..." Tifa tried to think while she made her way down the ladder.

"Looks dead now," Cloud commented as he and Lailah slid down the ladder.

The four walked down the service tunnel until they came across an elevator.

"Lo and behold," Barret said. "All aboard."

They stepped onto the elevator. Cloud pressed the button when he saw everyone was onboard.

As the elevator carried them down, Barret stepped forward towards Cloud. "Just so you know...it's not gonna get any easier."

Lailah, who was standing beside Tifa, gazed at the brute's back. Her eyes then drifted over to Cloud.

"When did it ever?" the ex-SOLDIER retorted.

Arriving at the bottom, they stepped off the elevator. Barret ran towards the railing and looked across the area. "Through here and straight on to Reactor 5."

"You make it sound so simple..." Tifa muttered.

The brute grinned. "Only 'cause it is. That there's the reactor support pillar."

Cloud glanced down at where he was pointing. "So what's the plan?"

Barret turned to him. "After plan E comes F, G, and then H!"

"Thought E was the last."

"This here is Section F," Tifa explained.

"We cut through Section G and head for H," Barret added.

"A cargo platform in H will get us closer to the reactor. Biggs should be somewhere over there." She looked down at the slums below to see the familiar colors of the setting sun cast over the buildings. "Looks like the sun's going down on Midgar..."

"Right. Double time! We got a date with a reactor."

After crossing a portion of the catwalk that was missing, they arrived at the gate that would lead them to Section G. When Cloud tried to open the door, nothing happened. The gate would need power.

Not far from the gate, they found the control room. Cloud interacted with the computer but received an error message in response whenever he tried to open the gate.

"Error. Insufficient power."

"Of course," Cloud sighed in frustration.

Tifa glanced at the wall behind her to see a poster with instructions. "Hey guys, look at this. Instructions for dealing with a power shortage."

Cloud took a closer look at the poster. "Kill the lights, and we free up power for the gate and other stuff."

Tifa also read through the instructions. ""Sun lamps"... You think these are the plate suns? The closest thing we have to the real thing."

"Gotta put out a sun just to open a gate, huh?" Barret asked.

"But if we go through with it, the grounders in Sector 4 will suffer..."

"Now or later-sun's going out for good once we blow the reactor."

"That's true."

"Let's go," Cloud said.

Lailah simply followed the others back to the gate. Fortunately, the sun lamp was directly across. Cloud volunteered to turn off the sun lamp. When he was successful, they heard an automated voice from the power panel beside the gate.

"Emergency power supply confirmed. Disengaging locking mechanisms."

Barret grinned. "Okay! That's that."

Tifa smiled up at the blonde. "Great job, Cloud!"

The ex-SOLDIER regrouped with them and pressed the button to open the gate. As it gradually opened to reveal the horror of webs and nests covering Section G, Lailah heard a strange noise. Her head snapped to the left, eyes searching the area. She felt goosebumps slowly forming along her arms and legs when she could distinguish the noise as a roar. However, never had she heard such a threatening roar before.

"Hey."

Lailah heard Cloud's voice and turned her head back to the front. She saw the concerned expression on his face. Over his shoulder, she also caught a glimpse of a worried Tifa and a confused Barret.

"This place is crawling with insects. You should hang back and leave the fighting to us," he said.

Between the battle with the specters and the crab warden, she had exhausted her mana. She would need to keep from fighting for a little while to regain her strength. However, she felt guilty for being useless. She looked away, her remorse showing on her face.

Before Cloud could say anything, Tifa intervened. "Hey, it's okay." She took the girl's hand in hers. "You've already done so much for us. Taking down those specters, destroying that robot... You don't have to feel guilty about any of this. Leave any enemies to us, okay?"

Lailah did feel a little better. She managed a small smile and nodded.

Tifa smiled back. "Good. Let's get going."

Proceeding through Section G, they took note of the deactivated sentry rays and other security measures. It made their way through the section safer and easier.

While wandering around the lower level of Sector G, Lailah caught a glimpse of something in the distance. Across a portion of the catwalk that was missing was some blue materia. She saw the path was dangerous and wondered if the reward was worth it. Although she personally didn't use materia, Tifa, Cloud, or Barret could use it.

"It really is tempting," Cloud said as he came to stand next to her. "Think it's worth it?"

She nodded and stepped forward. Being the lightest, she figured the remaining parts of the catwalk would support her weight. She wasn't even halfway across when she heard the metal below her feet creak. She felt her heart jump in her chest as the metal panels fell from underneath her. A plummeting sensation was felt in her gut but not for long.

Cloud grabbed her arm and pulled her back to safety before she could fall out of reach. Her body collided with his well-toned chest as his other arm hooked around her waist, holding her against him.

Tifa ran over and checked on her. "You okay?"

Lailah nodded and stepped away from Cloud when he released her.

"Hah," Barret dryly laughed. "Going for that materia, weren't you?"

Tifa looked across the way at the blue materia. "So close, and yet so far. This path's no good now."

Hearing an unknown voice in her head, Lailah kept her gaze focused on the platform across the way. She wasn't sure who was talking to her, but she felt the same warmth she did whenever Zephyrus spoke to her. She needed to know why the voice wanted her to jump the gap.

Backing up to get a jumping start, she transformed into a wolf and jumped the gap.

"L-Lailah?!" Tifa shouted in shock and horror.

The wolf made a clean landing on the platform with the materia. She reverted and picked up the materia just as the voice spoke to her again. She looked around but found no one. Turning to face the others, she held up the materia.

"Guess that's one way to cross," Cloud commented.

Barret grinned. "Looks like someone was impatient."

"Actually, this might be a good thing. It might be the safest place for Lailah to wait for us." She then addressed the snowy-haired girl. "Will you be okay by yourself for a little bit, Lailah?"

Said girl nodded.

"Then let's make this quick."

Lailah watched her companions head back up the stairs. When they were out of sight, she walked around the platform and noticed the webs and nests covering the area. Figuring it would be safer if they were gone, she used a little bit of fire magic to burn them. When the area was cleared, she sat on a small metal container and patiently waited for the others.

She wasn't sure how much time had passed when she heard the roar from earlier. Hopping off the container, she walked over to the railing in the direction the sound was coming from. She glanced around, only to be startled by another roar.

Suddenly, a dragon with white scales and blue markings flew upward and landed on the platform. She turned around and came face to face with the beast. She admired the multicolored spines down its lower back and the multicolored spades on its tails. It was Boreas, the ancestral beast of ice. She could hear his voice in her head.

"The last of the Twelve..."

This puzzled Lailah. Never had she heard of the Twelve the beast spoke of. She wished she could talk and ask all the questions she had.

Boreas lowered his head, his voice echoing inside her head again.

"The time is not right for you to receive my blessing."

Her eyes widened in surprise. She wanted to know why, but the dragon flew off. She watched him vanish before her attention was drawn to the blocked-off pathway. On the other side, she saw Cloud and the others. The ex-SOLDIER was using the console to control the section of the catwalk that could bridge the two platforms.

When the catwalk connected with the platforms, the gate opens and she crosses to the other side. She gave the materia to Cloud.

As he accepted it, he asked, "Was that another ancestral beast?"

Lailah nodded and pulled out her notebook to tell them who the beast was.

'Boreas is the ancestral beast of ice and the symbol of the Glacies Tribe. It seems this won't be the last time I see him.'

She then added more.

'How did everything go on your end?'

"We've turned off the three sun lamps and diverted the power to the cargo platform. We're ready to head to the reactor," Tifa replied.

She wrote down her reply.

'Then let's not waste any more time.'

Barret grinned. "Okay! Let's head on back to the H-01 sign."