As the train chugged forward, descending into the slums of Midgar, an annoyed Barret Wallace pounded on the crate beside him. The bombing of Shinra's Reactor No. 1 had gone smoothly, but the mercenary he'd hired had failed to rendezvous with him and the others. This kid, a former SOLDIER First Class who went by the name "Cloud Strife", proved to be a damn good fighter during the mission, but displayed a cocky attitude. Spread out elsewhere in the boxcar were Biggs, Wedge, and Jessie, who also took part in the mission and were a bit more cooperative in doing so.
           Finally, Barret sighed. "Looks like Cloud ain't comin'. Let's head to the next car."
           The others nodded and followed Barret into the adjoining passenger car, which was nearly empty. From there, they spread out and kept to themselves. Barret took a seat on a long, upholstered bench, where he leaned his head back against the window and closed his eyes. He had finally started to calm down, but he wasn't tired. If anything, the bomb he and his compatriots set off tonight served to energize him. After so many months of planning, AVALANCHE had struck its first blow against the Shinra in the name of the Planet.
           He could never forget the first time he had heard of the Shinra Electric Power Company, nor the meeting held in his hometown of Corel to discuss the building of a mako reactor there. At the time, he had been all for it. Sure, Corel was a coal-mining town and had been so for generations, but mako energy was the wave of the future, and the Shinra promised them secure jobs and a better standard of living.
           Of course, that was all before the reactor explosion, for which the people of Corel were blamed. He had no idea who or what had really caused the explosion, but what he did know is that the Shinra went too far by destroying his town in response. That day, not only did he lose use of his left hand, but everyone important to him, save for the baby daughter of his close friends Dyne and Eleanor. He also lost his trust in the Shinra, and from that point on, decided that they would pay for what they did, though it took him four years before he could finally swing into action.
           He felt his weight slowly slide on the seat as the train came to a complete stop at the end of the line, in the Sector Seven slums. He followed his comrades as they left the train, glancing around the station and the adjacent Train Graveyard for suspicious characters. Up above him, the "rotting pizza" of the Upper Plate hung, a floating world of wealth and privilege, the polar opposite of the slum he was in now. Once the train whistle sounded and the doors closed, he called the others together, gave them a few words of encouragement, and then ordered them to meet up again at the hideout. Biggs, Wedge, and Jessie dutifully scattered, and Barret started toward their base of operations.
           As he walked, he scanned the area with his eyes. What few passers-by were around this time of night shrank away from his huge, muscular form, massive gun-arm grafted onto the place where his left hand once was, and he would occasionally give one of these people his best intimidating stare to match. Finally, he arrived at his destination, an otherwise plain-looking bar called Seventh Heaven. Beyond the saloon doors, there was a warm light coming from inside, and a couple of shadows shifting around. He pushed the doors open to find the bar empty save for Tifa, his adopted daughter Marlene, and a certain spiky-headed young man, perched up on a stool and nursing a drink.
           "What the hell're you doin' here?" Barret erupted at the man as Tifa nodded a hello and Marlene ran up to greet him. "You were supposed to meet us on the train!"
           Cloud set his glass down and whirled around to face Barret. His eyes gave off a soft green glow in the dimly-lit barroom. "I figured it'd be faster if I simply came straight here through other means. Besides, it's not safe for all of us to travel together."
           Barret gritted his teeth. Cloud was right, of course, but he wasn't about to let this smart-ass get the best of him. "How was I s'posed to know you'd be safe? For all I knew, you had run back to the Shinra and given us away."
           "Like I'd ever do that," Cloud spat. "But don't get me wrong; even though I don't like the Shinra, it's not like I care much for AVALANCHE, either. I'm in this for one reason."
           "You don't have to remind me," Barret groaned. He picked up Marlene and hoisted her on his shoulder. As he did so, he noticed that she had a flower in her hair. "Meeting's starting in a couple minutes. We're gonna plan the next bombing. You in?"
           "Sure, but not before you pay me for tonight's job."
           Grumbling under his breath, Barret went behind the bar and opened the cash register while Tifa looked on beside him. "This jackass is really an old friend of yours?"
           "Yeah. Please don't be too hard on him, Barret."
           "Ain't gonna be easy," he said, picking up a stack of gil notes and counting them out. "Hey Marlene, where'd you get the flower from?"
           "Cloud," the little girl quietly answered.
           Barret paused in his counting. "That so."
           "Yeah."
           "Bought it off some flower vendor on the Upper Plate before coming back down here," said Cloud.
           "No one asked you!" Barret barked. Turning his attention back to Marlene, he said, "Did you remember to thank him?"
           "Yeah."
           "That's my girl." He finished up what he was doing and then whirled around, slamming a stack of notes on the counter before Cloud. "Here you go, fifteen hundred gil."
           Cloud stared at the notes, then back up at Barret. "I thought we agreed on eighteen hundred."
           "You didn't meet us on the train like I ordered, so I gotta dock you for that."
           "Whatever." Cloud sighed, then scooped up the bills and shoved them in his trouser pocket. "I'll do the next job for an even three grand."
           "What the fuck?! Why you gotta be so goddamned expensive?"
           "And why are you cursing like that in front of your daughter?"
           "I don't tell you how to fight the Shinra, so you don't tell me how to raise Marlene."
           "That's a pretty lame defense."
           "How 'bout this: show me how to use materia after the meeting and I'll give you two, plus that materia we found today."
           Cloud shrugged. "Sure, works for me."
           Barret nodded, then headed for the pinball machine at the other end of the room. "Meeting's starting. Hurry up and get your spiky ass down here." He pressed a hidden switch which lowered the pinball machine, along with himself and a bit of surrounding floor, to AVALANCHE's basement headquarters, where Biggs, Wedge, and Jessie were waiting.

*****

           When Cloud nonchalantly strode in to Seventh Heaven that day, it had been seven years to the month since she had last seen him. She was shocked by his very presence, since he had been reported as dead six years prior, during the waning days of the Wutai War. At the time, the newspaper didn't give many details, only saying that he was a scout for the Shinra army and that his body was never recovered. Yet here he appeared right in front of her, dressed in the uniform of a SOLDIER First Class.
           She was startled at first, then overjoyed, and quietly listened as Cloud told her of his time in the war, his eventual promotion into the elite ranks of SOLDIER, and his quitting Shinra to become a freelance mercenary. They also talked of old times, growing up in Nibelheim and the promise they'd made at the town's well, where Cloud agreed to rescue her should she ever be in a bind. However, she was frightened that once their conversation came to an end, Cloud would again leave her life. Not wanting that to happen, she told Cloud about AVALANCHE and asked him to join them in their fight against Shinra. After a quick word with Barret, Cloud was hired.
           Now, the morning after AVALANCHE's first successful bombing, Tifa's companions all burst out of the bar, ready to take on their next target, Reactor No. 5. After making sure that Marlene would be all right by herself, she was the last to leave. Sure, she hadn't participated in the previous mission, but Barret figured that Shinra had tightened up security since then, and thus, AVALANCHE needed all the help they could get. She locked up the bar and went out into the street, which was when she noticed that Cloud had been stopped by a redheaded young man; she recognized the latter as her old friend Johnny.
           "…If you are who you say you are, then how come the papers told us you were dead?" Johnny asked.
           "Huh? What're you talking about?" Cloud replied.
           Johnny put his hands on his hips and tapped his foot rapidly. "It was in the Midgar Times back during the war, in that section they used to have that listed the soldiers who died the previous day, and your name was in it! A bunch of us from Nibelheim got together that evening in memory of you."
           "I'm touched, but there must've been a mistake. As you can see, I'm alive."
           "If you say so," Johnny shrugged, before turning around and leaving.
           "Is that true?" she asked as she approached Cloud. "Was it really a mistake?"
           Cloud looked over at her. "Oh, Tifa. Yeah, of course it's true! I'm right here, aren't I?"
           "Yeah."
           "Let's go. It's getting late and we don't wanna be yelled at."
           Tifa nodded, then followed Cloud to the train station.

           As expected, this second bombing mission didn't go very smoothly, but even after dealing with railroad security systems and several Shinra guards, Tifa could never have anticipated the ambush that awaited them during their escape. It seemed that Biggs, Jessie, and Wedge had managed to get away all right, but she was stuck with Cloud and Barret, fully armed MPs blocking the only escape routes, while none other than President Shinra approached them.
           "So, you must be that group that's been causing us all that trouble lately… What was your name, again?"
           "AVALANCHE!" Barret declared. "An' don't you forget it!"
           The President's eyes alighted on Cloud, who had taken a few steps toward him. "And you. I'd heard that one of our SOLDIERs had quit and joined AVALANCHE. What is your name, traitor?"
           "That's none of your damn business," Cloud replied, drawing his massive Buster Sword and pointing it at the President with just his right hand. As Tifa gasped at the sound of several guns being cocked, Cloud yelled over his shoulder, "If any of you Shinra scum make another move, your President here gets it."
           Everyone there was frozen into place. Tifa looked upon this scene, shocked at Cloud's boldness. This was definitely not the same Cloud she had known seven years ago. Finally, a chuckle from President Shinra broke the pensive silence.
           "You are a brave one, former SOLDIER, but also stupid. You're still several feet away; my troops would kill you and your friends before you could even reach me."
           Cloud didn't reply.
           "Hmph. I suppose your silence should come as no surprise. You're certainly not the forward thinker that Sephiroth was, so it seems I've nothing to fear from AVALANCHE."
           "Sephiroth?!" Cloud roared, the whirring of an overhead helicopter nearly drowning out the last syllable as it came between him and the President. The helicopter took off, and the President was gone.
           "Who does he take us for?" said Barret. "If anyone's a fool, it's that fool! C'mon, let's get out of here before the reactor blows!"
           Tifa nodded, but then froze once she saw that the guards were gone, and in their place was a giant hovering robot, rapidly approaching them. Before she could call attention to it, the robot pushed its way past Cloud and shot bullets at Barret and Tifa's feet, and the three dove into battle against this new enemy. Several hits and Bolt spells later, the robot exploded, taking a huge chunk of the catwalk with it. Fortunately, Barret and Tifa were on the side nearest to the door, but Cloud was not so lucky, hanging on to a bit of wire poking out from the damaged edge of the catwalk directly opposite from them. Well aware that their bomb was due to go off at any moment, Tifa and Barret tried to reach Cloud and pull him to safety, but failed. A huge fireball erupted from the doorway that led into the heart of the reactor, and Cloud fell from that incredible height, past the edge of the Upper Plate and into the dark slums.
           Doing her best not to cry, Tifa ran and fought her way out of the rest of the reactor with Barret, silently praying that somehow, Cloud had survived. They then sneaked onto a train and returned to Sector Seven, where they'd have to break the horrible news to their fellow AVALANCHE members.

*****

           Aeris entered her favorite place, a full watering can in one hand and her metal staff in the other, when all of a sudden, a man with spiky blond hair fell through the roof and into the flower patch that she tended. After overcoming her initial shock, she set down her watering can, then leaned over him and said, "Hello, hello?"
           The young man didn't stir.
           "Hello, hello?"
           His eyes slowly opened. "Huh?"
           "Oh good, you're awake! How're you feeling?"
           "Sore…" he groaned.
           "That's understandable. Nothing's broken?"
           "Don't think so. Where am I?"
           "An old abandoned church in the Sector Five slums. The roof and flowers broke your fall. You're lucky to have survived."
           He struggled to sit up, looking around at the yellow and white lilies as he did so. "Flowers, huh," he said. All of a sudden, he turned back to face her. "You were that flower seller in Sector Eight!"
           Aeris smiled. "That's right. Thanks for your business the other day." The young man shrugged, then gave her an odd look. "What is it?" she asked.
           "Um, what's your name?"
           "Aeris."
           "Aeris Gainsborough?"
           "Yes, but… how do you know that?"
           "I have something for you," he said, standing up. He dug around in his back pocket, and finally pulled out a white envelope, which he then handed to her. "It's from Zack."
           Eyes wide, she took the envelope and unfolded it. She stared at her own name written on the front in that familiar handwriting.
           "You're not gonna open it?" the man asked.
           She shook her head. "Maybe later. How do you know Zack? Were you in SOLDIER together?"
           "Huh? Oh, my uniform…" he said, staring down at his clothes. "Nope, never knew him in SOLDIER. I actually met him during my travels. He needed someone to deliver this letter, so he hired me to do it. He told me was that the recipient was Aeris Gainsborough, a flower girl in Midgar's Sector Five slums, and he showed me an old photo of you."
           "He… hired you?"
           "Yeah. You see, I'm not in SOLDIER anymore. Technically I'm a mercenary, but I do a little bit of everything. Sorry I couldn't get this to you right away; this is my first time in Midgar and I've kind of been caught up in some stuff ever since I arrived."
           "That's all right. Where did you meet him?"
           "Sorry, but I can't tell you. That was one of the terms he had me agree to."
           Aeris sighed wearily. "Typical."
           "If you don't mind my asking, what is this guy to you?"
           "He's my—" Aeris paused mid-sentence as she noticed someone standing at the entrance to the church. The mercenary turned around as this newcomer approached, stepping out of the shadows. It was Reno of the Turks. Thoughts of the cold, forbidding lab she had escaped from when she was little crossed Aeris' mind, and she shuddered. The last thing she wanted was to go back there.
           "Mr. Mercenary?" she whispered.
           "The name's Cloud."
           "All right, Cloud. Can I hire you?"
           "To do what?"
           "Take me home."
           "Why? What does that Turk want with you?"
           "It's a long story. Just get me out of here."
           "It'll cost you."
           "We can sort out your payment later. Please, Cloud…"
           Cloud nodded. "All right. You can count on me."

           Aeris and Cloud left the church via the back room, which had stairs leading up to the rafters and a hole in the roof. They jumped outside and across several rooftops before returning to the ground. After Aeris pointed out the way to her house, Cloud once again asked about Zack, obviously intending to pick up their conversation from before.
           "He's my boyfriend," Aeris said. "The last time I saw him was about five years ago."
           "Huh? Really?"
           "I get the occasional letter from him, like the one you gave me, but yes, I haven't seen him in all that time. I don't even know where he lives now."
           "And you're still going out with him." Cloud shook his head. "I don't know whether that's amazing, or just plain crazy."
           "Hmph," Aeris replied, but not without a faint smile. By this time, they had reached her house, a small oasis of color and light nestled in a corner of the otherwise dingy Midgar slums. "Well, looks like we're here."
           "Have you figured out how you're gonna pay me? Don't suppose you have much cash on you, especially if you only charge one gil for your flowers."
           Aeris actually set her prices based on who the customer was, but kept this little fact to herself. "You're right. I am a bit short on gil. Is there another way I could repay you?"
           "Maybe," he said, eyeing her up and down. "I like that materia you have tied up in your hair ribbon. Never seen one like it before."
           Knowing what was on this mercenary's mind, Aeris retorted, "Don't you even think about it! This is the only thing I have left from my mother. That is, my real mother…"
           Cloud bowed his head. "Oh, I'm sorry…"
           "It's all right. This materia doesn't work, anyway."
           "Do you even know what it does?"
           "Nope." Just then, a flash of inspiration hit her. "Wait, I know! Why don't you stay for dinner? You must be famished. I'm sure my mom won't mind."
           "Your adopted mom, I'm guessing."
           "Yes." Aeris took the front door handle. "So, how about it?"
           "All right. It was an easy enough job, so I guess a meal is fair payment."
           Relieved to hear this, Aeris smiled and opened the door.

*****

           "Good evening, gentlemen. Shall we get down to business?"
           "Yes. Number VI, do you have an update on the AVALANCHE situation?"
           "They have succeeded in bombing a second reactor, but now Shinra has learned what slum sector their hideout is in and plans to retaliate by dropping that sector's plate on top of them. Afterwards, they intend to lay blame on AVALANCHE themselves and send in rescue crews."
           "Sounds to me like they're growing desperate."
           "Agreed, Number IX. The Shinra Company has never dealt with a threat quite like this before, and they're finding it overwhelming."
           "But to drop an entire sector plate? To think that they'd go to such lengths to eliminate a single small group of people."
           "It is like the Shinra to do such a thing. Remember what happened in Corel?"
           "Indeed, it is a nefarious plot worthy of the Shinra, and we should have expected no less from them. Perhaps we should do something about it."
           "Do we want to risk being associated with AVALANCHE, though? Their methods are crude, and we have only the most basic knowledge regarding their motives."
           "I agree, but this is something we can't merely overlook. Too many lives are at stake, and the Shinra can't be allowed to get away with this deceitful act."
           "Besides, it's not like we're in the public eye."
           "Good point."
           "Is it decided then, gentlemen? Shall we get involved with this matter and see about thwarting the Shinra's plan?"
           "Yes."
           "Of course."
           "I don't see why not."
           "Very well. Let us begin our preparations."

---

Completed February 2009 | Copyright 2009, Reeve Kasahara.

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