Off the Edge of Despair

Off the Edge of Despair

Jenna Stiles

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Chapter 1: Starting the Journey

Tifa jumped off the speeding train closely and landed on her hands and knees. A large brown hand pulled her up to her feet. She smiled up at her enormous black friend, then seeing his gun-arm she shuddered the way she had every time she saw it.

"C'mon, Tifa, no time to stand around. We got a mission to do," he told her quickly as Biggs and Wedge jumped of the train as well as Jessie who easily landed on her feet.

As they ran towards the entrance of the reactor, Tifa looked ahead of her at Barret. While he seemed so confident and tough, there was something oddly mysterious about him. Tifa quickly shook that thought out of her head as two ShinRa fighters ran towards them.

"Get ready, you guys!" Tifa warned the others as she adjusted her gloves.

With a couple of strong attacks from the three of them, Jessie, Barret and Tifa easily defeated the attackers and arrived at place to put the bomb with Biggs and Wedge waiting right behind them.

"You do it, Jessie. You're the best at that kinda stuff. Hurry up," the big man instructed as the young woman confidently stepped towards the bomb.

"I'll set it for ten minutes. Yes, ten minutes should be perfect as long as we don't waste any time…"

Jessie pushed a bunch of buttons while the rest of them watched her stupidly, impressed by the fast movements of her fingers pushing so many buttons that it seemed like all at once. She pushed one more button then looked up at the others and grinned happily.

"All done, we've got- Over there!! Here comes a monster and by the looks of it, it won't be an easy fight!"

Tifa turned to the direction Jessie pointed to and wasn't prepared when the robot-scorpion reached one of it's long metallic arm and swiftly knocked her to the ground.

Barret saw the injured girl and fired at the machine, doing enough damage to distract it from the girl but not enough to defeat it. Tifa quickly got to her feet and with the anger rising up in her, prepared herself and ran towards the enemy. Thinking of her friends, she kicked the scorpion and caused it to fall to the ground for a bit before Jessie raised her arms and cast a bolt of lightning and the machine.

With a electrifying cry, the enemy fell to the ground and never got up. For a split second, all eyes were on Jessie who started running towards the door screaming to hurry up.

As the group called AVALANCHE ran through the entrance gates, they fell face-forward as the reactor behind them exploded sending an enormous blow to all of them. As they got up, Tifa looked back at the burning building that was soon to be no more and sighed sadly. She remembered the others and put on a fake smile,

"Well, I guess that means that there's only seven more to go before the Planet's safe again!" She turned then looked back and added, "Meet you guys back at the base!"

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As Tifa reached Sector 7, she saw Barret shooing off some customers in front of her 7th Heaven, the only place in Midgar where she could actually get comfortable.

She smiled as she approached her friend, "Hey Barret! You're scaring off the customers! Let's get inside so we can get some rest, c'mon."

Following her, Barret mumbled something about "that's the whole point". Tifa keep smiling as she entered her bar and saw the other three members of AVALANCHE sitting around the table. Biggs was so drunk that Jessie had to keep him from jumping on Wedge for stealing the rest of his beer while Wedge drank the beer in his hand. Jessie finally gave up as Biggs managed to jump on Wedge and steal a sip of his beer.

"Biggs! Don't even think about it! Your beer is right THERE!! Wedge, STOP teasing Biggs!! Come on you guys! We've got work to do!! That's it! Take his coke if you want, see if I care! You guys are sooooo immature! I'm going to bed!!" After saying that, Jessie stormed downstairs and that was the last anyone talked to her all night.

"If you weren't so fuckin' drunk, Biggs, and if Jessie wasn't so god damn mad, we'd have our meeting. I'm goin' to see Marlene!" And he too left to go downstairs where his little girl was in bed.

Tifa walked over to the little elevator, turned and mumbled a "good-night" before going downstairs to get some rest as well.

"Hmpf!! Wha gaw into dem?" Biggs inquired politely as he took just a just a "little" sip of his beer.

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Whenever I'm in trouble, my hero will come and save me. Promise me.

All right, I promise…

Tifa woke up quickly at the memory and looked around her. Everyone was asleep without a troubled thought. Barret's arms were wrapped around his daughter as they slept soundly. The frown on Jessie's face had been replaced by a slight grin while Biggs and Wedge were nowhere to be seen.

She quietly got to her feet and started going upstairs when she heard a loud sound without words. The brunette turned quickly towards the sound. Her eyes scanned the room looking first at Jessie who was still peaceful, then Marlene whose face was nuzzled in her Barret's chest. She then realized what the sound was and almost laughed hard enough to wake everyone up.

'I should have known, Barret always snores in his sleep,' Tifa thought with a slight smile, completely forgetting her dream.

When she realized that the elevator might wake everyone up, she started climbing the huge cable. And though her hands were burning, she refused to use the elevator, thinking of how mad Barret would be if she woke him up.

By the time she reached the top, her hands were stinging and her knees were red from all the climbing. As she crept over to the fridge, she saw Biggs asleep with his head on the table and Wedge laying on his back with a thick stream of drool coming from his mouth forming a large puddle on the wooden floor.

Tifa put her slender hand on the refrigerator handle and pulled the door open. She stumbled back from the light coming from the fridge and blinked before reaching for the water.

After Tifa had gotten her glass of water, she headed towards the door, stepping over her slightly large friend on the way. Opening the door, she noticed the stars above her in the night's sky.

Painful memories flooded into her as she gazed up at the familiar stars. She walked over to the stairs and sat down. Her arms found their way around her bent legs and her headed tilted upwards at the sky.

This time a face came to her mind. A boy. His blond sticking up all over the place while a few strands in the front caressed his pale face. His blue eyes intense with a slightly troubled look on them.

But she didn't want to remember. No, remembering was difficult and it hurt too much.

Tifa quickly got to her feet and walked slowly inside and back to her sleeping place.

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Tifa woke up the next morning crouched in a little ball with her blankets wrapped around just like a little kid. As she lifted her head, she saw that everyone was already upstairs. Slowly getting to her feet, she stretched and heard laughing above her.

'Looks like today's going to be a good day after all. Seems that everyone's in a good mood this morning,' Tifa thought as she advanced toward the elevator, feeling a lot better than she had when she woke up.

"Morning, sunshine, we've got a meeting downstairs before you open the bar. Breakfast?" she was greeted by Biggs as soon as she reached the top.

Biggs was never affected by hangovers and seemed to be happy most of the time, even when he was supposed to be having a hangover. Wedge on the other hand rarely over drank and didn't bother hiding the fact that he was suffering. Every once and a while he'd put his hands to his ears and shout how much his head hurt and wonder why everyone wouldn't shut up.

"No thanks, I'm not very hungry right now," she answered Biggs, then she added, "Guess we'd better get started with the meeting now, right Barret?"

Barret was sitting with Jessie planning the next bombing mission with Marlene standing over him asking about this and that and Barret was more than delighted to answer. When hearing his name, he looked up and said,

"What? Oh, yeah. I was just thinkin' that. Everyone, down below."

Everyone got up and walked towards the elevator, though everyone had a different way off going it. Tifa went straight back downstairs sleepily while rubbing her eyes, while Biggs, who was right behind her, casually strolled over to the elevator while whistling a merry tune. And that really annoyed Wedge who was right behind Biggs. With his hands over his ears, he marched over to the elevator. Jessie looked around her at the things in the bar as she quickly walked over to the elevator, trying not to get to far behind the others. And Barret danced over to the elevator with Marlene sitting on his shoulders, laughing.

He really was a different man when he was with his daughter. The usually loud man was gentle and carefree with the little girl and loved to tell her things, while never answering in the same happy way to anyone else who asked him anything. Except maybe Tifa. Though they had not known each other very long, Tifa and Barret had grown very close during their journey.

When everyone was downstairs and settled, Barret stood up and started talking.

"Okay, everyone, we did fine on that mission but you wusses will have to get in shape for our next mission if we want to get outta there without getting' hurt. We're doin' alright for now but if we're gonna save the world we're gonna have to find some help. There's no way I'm gonna let us get our asses kicked tryin' to save the planet jus because we didn't get any help."

He paused and looked around at everyone daring them to disagree with him. Then a smirk suddenly appeared on his face,

"But we did show them who's the better man," he said as he pointed to his chest, "Anyways, our next mission will be almost the same as this one, 'cept we'll have to do it faster than before, I almost got burnt to a crisps 'cause of you clowns. So we get the next train to the reactor and act as casual as possible. Get your stuff an' we're outta here!" he shouted the last line with a smile on his face.

"What about me, papa? What am I going to do while you and Tifa are gone?" Marlene was the first of anyone else besides Barret to talk.

When he remembered her, he looked down and said very seriously, "Hmmm… I hate to leave ya all alone while I'm gone but I'm gonna hafta since I don't trust anyone 'round here. Marlene, you're gonna hafta be very brave while Daddy's gone. Be a good girl."

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Author's notes: So, is it alright? I'm kinda nervous and all because I'm hoping people will like it and that it won't be a big flop. The story's starting to show it's plot and I love writing Biggs. I didn't think that it explored Jessie, Biggs and Wedge's character enough in the game, so I'm writing them. I really liked writing it, though. I guess I don't seem like much of a writer, huh? Blabbering on like I do sometimes. I sometimes make no sense at all… So, chapter 2 will be little while but I'm hoping to have it up by Halloween, but it's gonna take time with school and all. But I'm hoping. Till later! Any comments, email me or sign my GB, I don't really hate them anymore.