Final Fantasy VII: Lifestream - Book 3: Pursuit

EIGHT

Butterflies swirled lazily inside my stomach as I walked with Biggs around the fort, and my eyes kept going back to him. He looked a little more stubbly than usual, but that was probably because like the rest of us, he'd been on the road for a while. But I thought it actually added to his manly charm a little, made him look more rugged and attractive. It surprised me that I could finally admit to myself that I liked him a lot, that maybe—just maybe—I was even beginning to fall for him. It made my heart skip a beat to even think it.

Maybe it was just seeing him again after the time we'd spent apart that was making me feel like this, but either way, it was nice. And Biggs was a really good tour guide, too. Much like when was cleaning, he was very thorough and detailed, taking me to see every part of the fortress, from the courtyard where we'd reunited to the main and mess halls on the first floor along with the barracks in the back and the offices on the second level. The officers' quarters were also there.

Biggs told me about the revolt as well. Originally, there had been a half dozen officers stationed here altogether, but nearly all of them had been killed in the battle over control of the fortress. Only Edwyn, who had been a junior lieutenant and fourth in the chain of command, had survived. He was a good man, and although he led his men with a firm hand, he genuinely cared about them and wasn't afraid to get his hands dirty. When we had left the courtyard, he'd been helping to unload the supplies Drake had brought from South Argen.

Edwyn had promoted a few of his men not long after the fight, and they were the ones using most of the officers' quarters now along with him and his father. Only one of the rooms had been vacant, and at the end of Jessie's first day here, Edwyn had offered to let her use it instead of sleeping in the barracks. She'd refused at first, wanting to be with the others rather than by herself, but Biggs and Lena had convinced her to take it. The main barracks weren't that far from there anyway, as Biggs had shown me. Just downstairs and in the back.

He told me there were more underground in the caves, but he and the others were staying in the keep, and I figured that was where all the rest of us would be, too. Well, except for Cloud. I didn't have any doubt that Jessie would invite him to join her in her room upstairs during our stay, and I smiled to myself at the thought. She sure wasn't gonna mind then that she'd decided to accept Edwyn's offer.

After showing me the quartermaster's shop—it was upstairs above the main hall opposite Samuel's office—Biggs led me back down to the first floor, where we followed a short hallway off to the left and came to another, smaller room at the end of it. Two men stood guard here, one on either side of a wide set of stone stairs that curved downward and to the right into the caves. We followed them, our steps echoing loudly on the rock as we headed underground.

Biggs pointed at the soft yellow lights that had been mounted here and there along the walls. "No need for you to worry about getting lost down here in the dark, Tif. These people have been using the caves for extra storage space and shelter for years now."

"How far do they go?" I asked.

"For miles and miles underneath the fortress, the ravine, and even the reactor. Even without the lights, there's always a glow—you can see it better in some places than others. It's the mako, I think. This place is rich in it, from what Edwyn tells me."

I nodded. "That'd be why the reactor's here. It's kinda like the caves back on Mt. Nibel, only not spooky at all."

"Feels warm," he said. "Full of life, you know?

It did, and it was almost comforting in a way. "Yeah, it does. Makes sense why the condor would come here."

Biggs gazed up at the ceiling. "Right... but there's more."