3 levels deep transitions between external swfs

I am having difficulty making the buttons of the 3rd level load the final set of external swfs and keep doing the smooth transitions they are supposed to, with midframes and outros. Somehow I am messing up the paths.
I have several buttons in each level and they all work fine except the very last level.

Below are a characteristic string of button AS for each level:

Main timeline:

on (release) {
if (_level0.currMovie == undefined) {
_level0.currMovie = “firm”;
menu.loadMovie(“firm.swf”);
} else if (_level0.currMovie != “firm”) {
if (menu._currentframe >= menu.midframe) {
_level0.currMovie = “firm”;
menu.play();
}
}
}

inside firm.swf:

on (release) {
if (_root.menu.currMovie == undefined) {
_root.menu.currMovie = “assoc”;
firmwin.loadMovie(“assoc.swf”);
} else if (_root.menu.currMovie != “assoc”) {
if (firmwin._currentframe >= firmwin.midframe) {
_root.menu.currMovie = “assoc”;
_root.menu.firmwin.play();
}
}
}

Inside assoc.swf:

on (release) {
if (_level0.menu.firmwin.currMovie == undefined) {
_level0.menu.firmwin.currMovie = “assope”;
_root.assoc.loadMovie(“assope.swf”);
} else if (_level0.menu.firmwin.currMovie != “assope”) {
if (_root.assow._currentframe >= root.assow.midframe) {
_level0.menu.firmwin.currMovie = “assope”;
_level0.menu.firmwin.assow.play();
}
}
}

All buttons inside assoc.swf are not working. I played around with the paths, but obviously I am missing something very simple and very ellusive about pathing. If I change the path in firm.swf so that _root is _lever0, then THOSE buttons stop working.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

:nat: