They walked over to the third office and entered. Cloud quickly went over to the desk and started to rummage through it as the others kept an eye out for any visitors. With a grunt of satisfaction Cloud stood up, the plans in his hands. They quickly strode back along the catwalk and down the stair. He was sure that something would happen before they got out of the room, but they made it without incident. Cloud wasn't about to say so out loud, and they still had a long way to go, but in spite of that he was thinking that maybe for just this once their little mission would go off without a hitch.
Red was trying his hardest to keep track of the way back, but it was difficult. There seemed to be no pattern to Yuffie's meandering. She appeared to turn right or left as the mood took her. They reached another intersection and Yuffie turned left.
"I think we're going in the wrong direction," Red said.
Yuffie did not respond, but just kept walking.
"Maybe we should just let her go on by herself," Cait suggested.
"No," Red replied. "We better stay with her. I just wish she wasn't so stubborn."
They entered another room that appeared to have no other exit. Red and Cait waited by the door while Yuffie wandered around. Maybe now they would turn around, Red thought, but his thinking was premature.
Yuffie was at the far end of the room looking at a large piece of machinery.
"It's looks like there's a door behind here," she said. "Give me a hand with this."
Red walked over, followed by Cait. He could see the partial outline of a door behind the machine. Red looked around. There was a trail of scrape marks on the floor leading from the wall on their left over to the machine.
"Well, what are you waiting for?" Yuffie questioned impatiently. "Help me move this."
"Can't we just go back," Cait finally asked. "This seems like an awful lot of work just to get lost."
"Nobody is stopping you from going back," Yuffie replied sharply. "But you sure aren't going to help the others that way."
"It looks like somebody dragged this machine over here from the far wall," Red observed. "Why would they do that?"
"How should I know," Yuffie replied. "And I don't really care. Now, are you going to give me a hand or not?"
The three of them together moved the machinery with little difficulty, even though Red had a feeling that this was an extremely bad idea. He could only think that the machinery had been put there so that no one could get in or out of the door behind it.
Once the machinery was out of the way they saw a solid barred metal door. Yuffie walked up and lifted off the bar.
"I really don't think we should go in there," Red tried again, even though he knew it was hopeless.
It was.
Yuffie opened the door and walked in. The others waited a moment and followed. There was a large room inside. Yuffie stood a few steps in. She turned around and looked at them.
"See," she said, "there's nothing to be afraid of. Now C'mon, you scardycats, lets go find the..."
She stopped as she saw the look on their faces. Their eyes were wide, and they were looking up. She turned and saw...
Knees?
She looked up.
Then she looked up higher.
"Oh boy," she said softly.
Cloud led them back as fast as he dared. With each step he expected something to leap out of the shadows at them, but they made it back to the coolant room undisturbed.
"Looks like the place might be deserted after all," Barret finally said.
"We're not out of here yet," Tifa said quickly, even though she had been thinking the same thing.
They walked along the catwalk above the pool until they reached the point where it had collapsed.
"Where are the others?" Tifa asked with some concern.
"I don't know," Cloud replied. He had expected them to be waiting here. "I hope they haven't gotten themselves in some kind of trouble."
No one spoke for a moment as they look across at the other end of the catwalk. They all knew the only way across was into the pool.
"Well, we won't find out by standing here," Barret said finally and launched himself off the catwalk. He hit the water with a tremendous splash and headed for the platform.
Cloud looked at Tifa, who was looking down at the water. It was a good fifteen foot drop.
"Barret's right," he said. He grabbed hold of her.
"No, wait, I'm..." she began, but then they were plunging downward. They hit the water and it was cold! She came up sputtering.
"I wasn't ready!" she cried, but he was already swimming for the platform. She followed and Cloud and Barret hauled her up.
"Now where the hell did they go?" Cloud muttered, walking out into the hall. He looked both ways as the others came out behind him. He was just about to complain about the fact that they hadn't stayed put when they heard sounds down the hallway to the left.
Cloud felt relief when he saw Yuffie come around the corner, with Red and Cait not far behind.
"Good, you're back, " Yuffie said, rushing right past them. "C'mon, lets get out of here. We don't have all day, you know."
They looked at her for a moment, then turned as Red and Cait came up.
"You have the plans?" Red questioned.
"Yes," Cloud responded. "What's going on?"
A deep growl echoed down the hallway from the direction they had just come.
"I'm afraid something followed us home," Red said.
Cloud had his sword out in an instant. A moment later he saw a huge clawed hand at the end of the hallway. It was attached to a gorilla like beast that growled again as soon as it saw them.
Cloud took a step forward.
"It's big, but it doesn't seem to be very fast," Red suggested from behind him. "Perhaps it might be wise to retreat."
Cloud did not respond but stopped his advance.
"Red's right, Cloud," Tifa said. "We've got the plans, let's just get out of here."
He glanced at them, then turned to look at the beast. It was still a good twenty feet away. He took a step backwards, then turned and they ran down the hall after the others.
"Yuffie, the next time we need directions somewhere, remind me not to ask you, " Barret said with a smile.
"Very funny," she answered sharply. "I'm sure if it had been you leading the group we'd still be lost down there."
"You may be right," Barret answered, refusing to be baited. "But I gotta take my hat off to you. I don't think anyone else could have led us straight to what was probably the only monster left alive down in that maze."
Yuffie gave him a dark look, but said nothing more.
"Well, no harm done," Cloud said philosophically. "I just hope that the next time I tell you to wait you'll do just that."
"Yes sir, General Cloud," Yuffie muttered with a quick salute.
They had been walking down the road to the dockyards, and now they stopped as they once more stood in front of the gates. A guard came over to them, different from the last one. They showed him their clearance from the Mayor and the guards swung open the gates.
"That's more like it," Barret said with satisfaction.
They walked out onto the docks. The sub was tied up at the second dock. The area was completely deserted.
"Cloud, do you think you still remember how to run this thing?" Cait asked as they walked aboard.
"We'll find out soon enough," he replied. He pulled on the main hatch and it opened with a grating sound.
"Doesn't sound good," Barret remarked. "You know, it looks like this thing hasn't been used since the last time we used it. Must of been some interesting research they were conducting."
"Yeah, I'm sure," Cloud muttered.
They entered the sub and Cloud had to agree with Barret's assessment. The place looked completely unused. There were even cobwebs covering some of the instrument panels. A minor nuisance, but a short time later he discovered a real problem. The engines wouldn't start.
He related that information to the others, and then he and Red went back to the engine room to take a look around.
Barret sat down unhappily in the helmsman's seat.
"I'll bet that lousy excuse for a Mayor knew the sub wasn't working all the time," he said angrily. "I think we should go back there and kick his ass."
"Satisfying as that may be," Tifa replied, "it's not going to get us a working submarine. But let's not jump to conclusions. Maybe it's something simple and Cloud and Red can fix it."
"Even if they can," Barret answered, "I'd still like to kick his ass."
It was quite a while before Cloud and Red returned, and when they did they did not have good news.
"I'm afraid it's beyond our expertise to fix it," Red said. "We just don't know that much about submarine engines."
"So what do we do now?" Yuffie asked. It seemed they had come an awful long way to get stuck.
"We need someone to help us," Red replied. "Someone who knows about engines."
They all looked at each other for a moment.
"Cid," Cloud, Barret and Yuffie all said at once.