I was drifting, drifting within the pain, drifting for what seemed like an eternity. There was no escape, only darkness and suffering. I was trapped within a prison for my soul and there was no way out. So I sunk deeper and deeper, and the farther I went the more the pain increased until it was a constant heavy throbbing so great that it felt as if my skull were being torn asunder and my spirit was being crushed beneath a mountain. Yet I struggled on, I would not give up, I could not give up because I never knew when SHE might appear. Whether a delusion of my own mind or an angel I did not know although I leaned more toward the latter. She was the balm of my soul, every time she appeared within the currents of my madness the darkness was banished and I felt like I could rise out of the suffering like it had all been a dream. However, I never could and she never stayed. The instant she was gone I fell back into the pain and shadows, but I always had a renewed strength, I knew that I could go on. For how long I was like this I cannot say, only that it was too long. Then one day everything changed.
The throbbing was growing and I was beginning to once again feel that pull, that summon that came after she had been gone too long. It was as if it wanted me to exit the pain, to give in to the suffering so that it, whatever it was, could envelope me. Usually the visions came at about this time, but not now. She did not come this time to pull me from the brink of death, and I began to slip. There would be no more fighting; everything and everyone, including her had abandoned me, everything except for the summons and the pain. I think I may have been crying then, but I could not tell. I waited one last moment to wait, to hope that through some miracle she might appear before me in her red dress with her basket of flowers to save me from myself. My efforts were in vain and with one last cry of rage, one last mocking shout at the system that had done this to me, I died. At least, I thought I did.
I watched as the darkness began to melt away into something more pure, a void of bliss. I was free, finally free from the torture! In the distance a light began to glow and to grow in brightness and intensity. The light was my call, it was from where the summons came and I had to go to it. As I took one step a mist formed about my foot and began to rise. It took the form of a head, a face, the face of someone that I knew very well. The girl, it was she! I would have recognized that face anywhere, but what was she doing here? "What are you doing here flower girl?" I asked in a puzzled voice. She laughed, "My name is Aeris, but you can call me flower girl if you like. And if you must know why I'm here Zack, it's because I'm dead," she replied as a look of sadness spread across her face. "No! No!" I shouted, "that can't be, you can't be dead!" She looked down and I could see that she was crying, "it's true, and I still have so much to do, so many people were counting on me, you were not the least either, but now I've failed them." I could not stand here and listen to this so I spoke up, "Listen Aeris, I'll do anything you want, anything to help! All you have to do is ask." She sniffed and smiled, "I know how much you've been through Zack, and I appreciate the thought but we're both dead. I've been able to contact my friends on the outside through visions of myself, but soon I'll be absorbed into the lifestream and then who will point them in the right direction?" she began to cry again. "If I made it out could you contact me?" I asked. She didn't even look up, " I suppose so, but how do you plan on getting out, I'm a Centra and even we can't escape death." I stared hard at her and set my jaw, "you saved me countless times, if it hadn't been for you I'd have died long ago. I owe you my life a dozen times over and if there is a way out I'll find it, if I can help your friends I will, and if there's a way to save you I will do it, no matter what the cost."
She smiled again but her face was wet with tears, "thank you Zack, and here take this, take it as a gift from me." She reached into her basket, pulled out a single flower and handed it to me. I cupped the beautiful flower in my hands and stared at it. I could remember the pain, suffering, the darkness, and the suffocating shadows, but this was no longer my life. I looked at Aeris the flower girl and felt the rage boil within me at the injustice done to her. She was perhaps the most caring person I had ever known, although I really couldn't remember much from my past. I had to try and save her, and for that goal I was willing to risk everything. I grew more and more angry as a single tear rolled down my face and fell onto the flower. Instantly it began to burn with a light of its own as if it had caught on fire. It burned my hands but I clenched it tight and refused to let go. I looked at Aeris as my body began to shake. It felt as if every molecule in my body was being torn apart. Just as everything exploded into color, I saw her wave to me, smiling and laughing with joy.
I can't really be sure how long I was unconscious, but I finally woke to find myself lying in a medium sized tunnel. There were shelves along the wall with miscellaneous items stacked on them. I was lying on a thin mat and a broken TV was fizzing and flickering behind me. I took off the dirty moth eaten cap I was wearing and scratched my shaved head. It felt strange because I seemed to remember having much longer hair. I stood up, my head just barely touching the ceiling. I walked out and found myself in the dirtiest, most detestable place I remembered ever having been before. The houses were broken down or already piles of garbage. Children played with dogs in the dusty streets as the young adults loitered around. Everything was dirty, grimy, and ready to be thrown in the dump. I looked up and was surprised to see that the sky was covered by a giant metal plate that seemed to stretch forever over the horizon.
As I was taking in my surroundings another mist began to form in front of me. Just like last time Aeris appeared before me, but this time it was only her head. The rest of her body was lost within the smoke. "I am so happy that you made it Zack!" she said with a beaming smile on her face. "How did I do that? I thought you said that I was dead," I asked her. "I truly don't know, indeed you should not have been able to come back. Somehow you were able to overcome the sickness that was killing you in time to save yourself," she replied. "Well, what do I do now, I can't remember much so you'll need to help me," I said. She frowned, "Unfortunately I don't have the time to do that, but you do need to regain at least some of the memories from your past if you are to help me. I would head to Shinra HQ, they should have some information on your past." The name sounded familiar to me, "wait, what is Shinra, how do I get there?...Aeris!" It was too late because the vision was already abating and she was beginning to fade, "I don't have much time, I'll try to reach you once you've regained your memories. Don't forget that I'll be watching you no matter what." At this she disappeared and I was left alone in slum once more.
I had to sit down. My head was pounding and my vision was blurred. I sat there on the side of the road clutching my head when someone approached me. "Hey man are you alright?" I looked up to see a young boy standing next to me. "I'll be fine," I replied, "but perhaps you could help me out with a little information." "Sure, I'll do what I can," he said, "What do you want to know?" I stood up and looked down at him, "I know this might sound strange but I want you to tell me where I am." He looked confused, "well sir, you're in the Sector 5 slums." "No," I said, "what is this whole place," I waved my arm around, "what is the name of this city." He laughed, "Why this is Midgar, everyone knows that." I frowned, "Can you tell me where and how to get to Shinra HQ?" I asked him. "I can tell you it's on the top plate. I only saw it once; it was the biggest building I ever saw. But you can't get to it anymore, not from here anyway." "What do you mean?" I asked the kid. "Jeez, you really are out of whack. You didn't hear about AVALANCHE blowing up Sector 7?" Now I was really confused, "No, but please explain it to me." The kid sighed, "Well, AVALANCHE was a sort of paramilitary team that was fighting Shinra. A while ago a bomb destroyed the Main Pillar in Sector 7 and the Plate collapsed on the entire Sector. The Shinra blamed it on AVALANCHE, but my dad says that they were the ones that actually did it. Anyway it doesn't matter cause the train station was in Sector 7 and until the tracks are re-routed we're all stuck down here." I growled in frustration and punched a piece of scrap metal leaning against the wall. "There has to be a way, can't you think of anything?" I asked. "Listen sir I've told you everything I know, if you want to look for yourself you can go down that way through Sector 6 where you'll come to the door to Sector 7. I'll tell you right now that it's completely blocked by debris, but if you really want to go you should get some materia and a weapon." Before I could ask any more questions the boy had run off to play with some of his friends.
Somewhere in the back of my mind I remembered something about materia. A memory that seemed to be calling me back to the tube. As I re-entered the place I started to move like I wasn't the one in control anymore. I threw off the mat and scanned the metal floor before seeing a small patch of metal that looked out of place. I pried it open with my fingernails and reached in. My hand came out clutching a wooden box with the name Zack carved on top. I opened it and found several different colored orbs within. This was materia, apparently my materia from before I got sick. I picked them up and put them in my pocket. I needed some way to appraise my materia so that I would know what I was working with.
I walked around the slum until I found a shop with a flashing neon sign saying 'Materia'. I walked inside and stood in front of the front desk. "Excuse me I asked the woman standing in front of me, I would like to speak with the store owner." She laughed, "Well you've found him, now what can I do for you sir." I was embarrassed and smiled sheepishly, "Sorry, but I found some materia that I had lost and I need to get it appraised. I don't have any money, but I was hoping that you could help." "Sure, no problem, lets see 'em," she said. I emptied them onto the desk and watched as she ran a scanner over them and looked at a little hand-held screen. She whistled, "You sure you don't want to sell sir, you could get a really good price for these." "What do you mean, what do I have there?" I asked. "You have a mastered Contain, Gravity, Barrier, Cure, and All materia. You must be some kind of expert to use materia that powerful. Tell you what, around here you're going to need money and since you have so many valuable materia I'll buy that All for 1.5 million gil. Sound like a fare trade to you?" I was pretty confused by now, "Well..." "Ok sir, I can see that you're a hard negotiator so I'll offer 1.6 million, but that's my final offer!" I couldn't see any reason why not so I sold the materia and walked out of the store a very rich man.
I still needed a weapon and I could see a beaten down trailer off the side with a sign on top advertising the sale of weapons. I walked into the dump and found the fat store owner sitting amid the debris. It looked like a bomb had gone off inside the trailer. "O a customer!" he said as he sat up and wiped the crumbs of his shirt. "How can I help you sir, are you looking for a weapon or armor?" I looked around the store and replied absentmindedly, "I need a weapon." "Well then you've come to the right place, I've got lots of grenades, got in a new shipment yesterday." I frowned at him, "I need something better than a pathetic grenade, surely you have something else." He shifted uncomfortably in his seat, "We may have something, but I don't know..." The anger rose up and I reached out to grab him by his neck. My fingers dug into the soft fat and with one tug I lifted him off his chair across the desk and out onto the floor. I stood there holding him off the ground by his neck as he choked and gurgled. "Lets try this again, do you or do you not have something better than a few grenades? Trust me that it will be worth your wild." I took out several thousand gil with my free hand and waved them in front of his face. He licked his lips and rasped out an ok as his face began to turn blue. I set him back on the floor. He fell to one knee and began to gasp for breath.
When he had recovered he got up and walked behind his desk I could see his hand slid under the counter. I readied myself for some sort of betrayal, but he was only pressing a hidden button. Instantly the wall off to the left slid away and revealed a hidden chamber. He walked over and took out a long saber-like sword. "This is a new Shinra weapon called the Reaper. It was invented a few months ago but it's too expensive to be mass- produced. I don't think we really need to go into how I got my hands on one so how about we talk about a price." I nodded, "First I want to know why I'm paying for this sword, what makes it so special?" The owner looked offended, "Why sir! This a top of the line weapon, it's made out of pure titanium-nerak alloy. The blade is sharpened using high-tech laser beams, its sharp enough to cut through 4-inch thick steel like a hot knife through butter. It'll never get dull, that's a guarantee, and it comes equipped with 9 linked materia slots." I frowned, "I suppose it'll work." With that I dropped 50,000 gil down on the table and picked up the sword. It was a good weapon and had excellent balance. "By the way, I'll also take a few grenades, just in case," I dropped another thousand gil on the table as I strapped the grenades onto my belt. As I was walking out I heard the store owner behind me calling for me. "O and I almost forgot sir, it comes with a free sheath," the man threw me a black leather sheath which I strapped around my back before walking out of the store.
I turned around and took one last look at the slum. I really couldn't appreciate at that time just how lucky I was, but I would later thank every person that helped me there. With that I began to walk down the passageway that the boy had shown me. I didn't know how, but somehow I was going to find a way to help Aeris and her friends, whoever they were.
The throbbing was growing and I was beginning to once again feel that pull, that summon that came after she had been gone too long. It was as if it wanted me to exit the pain, to give in to the suffering so that it, whatever it was, could envelope me. Usually the visions came at about this time, but not now. She did not come this time to pull me from the brink of death, and I began to slip. There would be no more fighting; everything and everyone, including her had abandoned me, everything except for the summons and the pain. I think I may have been crying then, but I could not tell. I waited one last moment to wait, to hope that through some miracle she might appear before me in her red dress with her basket of flowers to save me from myself. My efforts were in vain and with one last cry of rage, one last mocking shout at the system that had done this to me, I died. At least, I thought I did.
I watched as the darkness began to melt away into something more pure, a void of bliss. I was free, finally free from the torture! In the distance a light began to glow and to grow in brightness and intensity. The light was my call, it was from where the summons came and I had to go to it. As I took one step a mist formed about my foot and began to rise. It took the form of a head, a face, the face of someone that I knew very well. The girl, it was she! I would have recognized that face anywhere, but what was she doing here? "What are you doing here flower girl?" I asked in a puzzled voice. She laughed, "My name is Aeris, but you can call me flower girl if you like. And if you must know why I'm here Zack, it's because I'm dead," she replied as a look of sadness spread across her face. "No! No!" I shouted, "that can't be, you can't be dead!" She looked down and I could see that she was crying, "it's true, and I still have so much to do, so many people were counting on me, you were not the least either, but now I've failed them." I could not stand here and listen to this so I spoke up, "Listen Aeris, I'll do anything you want, anything to help! All you have to do is ask." She sniffed and smiled, "I know how much you've been through Zack, and I appreciate the thought but we're both dead. I've been able to contact my friends on the outside through visions of myself, but soon I'll be absorbed into the lifestream and then who will point them in the right direction?" she began to cry again. "If I made it out could you contact me?" I asked. She didn't even look up, " I suppose so, but how do you plan on getting out, I'm a Centra and even we can't escape death." I stared hard at her and set my jaw, "you saved me countless times, if it hadn't been for you I'd have died long ago. I owe you my life a dozen times over and if there is a way out I'll find it, if I can help your friends I will, and if there's a way to save you I will do it, no matter what the cost."
She smiled again but her face was wet with tears, "thank you Zack, and here take this, take it as a gift from me." She reached into her basket, pulled out a single flower and handed it to me. I cupped the beautiful flower in my hands and stared at it. I could remember the pain, suffering, the darkness, and the suffocating shadows, but this was no longer my life. I looked at Aeris the flower girl and felt the rage boil within me at the injustice done to her. She was perhaps the most caring person I had ever known, although I really couldn't remember much from my past. I had to try and save her, and for that goal I was willing to risk everything. I grew more and more angry as a single tear rolled down my face and fell onto the flower. Instantly it began to burn with a light of its own as if it had caught on fire. It burned my hands but I clenched it tight and refused to let go. I looked at Aeris as my body began to shake. It felt as if every molecule in my body was being torn apart. Just as everything exploded into color, I saw her wave to me, smiling and laughing with joy.
I can't really be sure how long I was unconscious, but I finally woke to find myself lying in a medium sized tunnel. There were shelves along the wall with miscellaneous items stacked on them. I was lying on a thin mat and a broken TV was fizzing and flickering behind me. I took off the dirty moth eaten cap I was wearing and scratched my shaved head. It felt strange because I seemed to remember having much longer hair. I stood up, my head just barely touching the ceiling. I walked out and found myself in the dirtiest, most detestable place I remembered ever having been before. The houses were broken down or already piles of garbage. Children played with dogs in the dusty streets as the young adults loitered around. Everything was dirty, grimy, and ready to be thrown in the dump. I looked up and was surprised to see that the sky was covered by a giant metal plate that seemed to stretch forever over the horizon.
As I was taking in my surroundings another mist began to form in front of me. Just like last time Aeris appeared before me, but this time it was only her head. The rest of her body was lost within the smoke. "I am so happy that you made it Zack!" she said with a beaming smile on her face. "How did I do that? I thought you said that I was dead," I asked her. "I truly don't know, indeed you should not have been able to come back. Somehow you were able to overcome the sickness that was killing you in time to save yourself," she replied. "Well, what do I do now, I can't remember much so you'll need to help me," I said. She frowned, "Unfortunately I don't have the time to do that, but you do need to regain at least some of the memories from your past if you are to help me. I would head to Shinra HQ, they should have some information on your past." The name sounded familiar to me, "wait, what is Shinra, how do I get there?...Aeris!" It was too late because the vision was already abating and she was beginning to fade, "I don't have much time, I'll try to reach you once you've regained your memories. Don't forget that I'll be watching you no matter what." At this she disappeared and I was left alone in slum once more.
I had to sit down. My head was pounding and my vision was blurred. I sat there on the side of the road clutching my head when someone approached me. "Hey man are you alright?" I looked up to see a young boy standing next to me. "I'll be fine," I replied, "but perhaps you could help me out with a little information." "Sure, I'll do what I can," he said, "What do you want to know?" I stood up and looked down at him, "I know this might sound strange but I want you to tell me where I am." He looked confused, "well sir, you're in the Sector 5 slums." "No," I said, "what is this whole place," I waved my arm around, "what is the name of this city." He laughed, "Why this is Midgar, everyone knows that." I frowned, "Can you tell me where and how to get to Shinra HQ?" I asked him. "I can tell you it's on the top plate. I only saw it once; it was the biggest building I ever saw. But you can't get to it anymore, not from here anyway." "What do you mean?" I asked the kid. "Jeez, you really are out of whack. You didn't hear about AVALANCHE blowing up Sector 7?" Now I was really confused, "No, but please explain it to me." The kid sighed, "Well, AVALANCHE was a sort of paramilitary team that was fighting Shinra. A while ago a bomb destroyed the Main Pillar in Sector 7 and the Plate collapsed on the entire Sector. The Shinra blamed it on AVALANCHE, but my dad says that they were the ones that actually did it. Anyway it doesn't matter cause the train station was in Sector 7 and until the tracks are re-routed we're all stuck down here." I growled in frustration and punched a piece of scrap metal leaning against the wall. "There has to be a way, can't you think of anything?" I asked. "Listen sir I've told you everything I know, if you want to look for yourself you can go down that way through Sector 6 where you'll come to the door to Sector 7. I'll tell you right now that it's completely blocked by debris, but if you really want to go you should get some materia and a weapon." Before I could ask any more questions the boy had run off to play with some of his friends.
Somewhere in the back of my mind I remembered something about materia. A memory that seemed to be calling me back to the tube. As I re-entered the place I started to move like I wasn't the one in control anymore. I threw off the mat and scanned the metal floor before seeing a small patch of metal that looked out of place. I pried it open with my fingernails and reached in. My hand came out clutching a wooden box with the name Zack carved on top. I opened it and found several different colored orbs within. This was materia, apparently my materia from before I got sick. I picked them up and put them in my pocket. I needed some way to appraise my materia so that I would know what I was working with.
I walked around the slum until I found a shop with a flashing neon sign saying 'Materia'. I walked inside and stood in front of the front desk. "Excuse me I asked the woman standing in front of me, I would like to speak with the store owner." She laughed, "Well you've found him, now what can I do for you sir." I was embarrassed and smiled sheepishly, "Sorry, but I found some materia that I had lost and I need to get it appraised. I don't have any money, but I was hoping that you could help." "Sure, no problem, lets see 'em," she said. I emptied them onto the desk and watched as she ran a scanner over them and looked at a little hand-held screen. She whistled, "You sure you don't want to sell sir, you could get a really good price for these." "What do you mean, what do I have there?" I asked. "You have a mastered Contain, Gravity, Barrier, Cure, and All materia. You must be some kind of expert to use materia that powerful. Tell you what, around here you're going to need money and since you have so many valuable materia I'll buy that All for 1.5 million gil. Sound like a fare trade to you?" I was pretty confused by now, "Well..." "Ok sir, I can see that you're a hard negotiator so I'll offer 1.6 million, but that's my final offer!" I couldn't see any reason why not so I sold the materia and walked out of the store a very rich man.
I still needed a weapon and I could see a beaten down trailer off the side with a sign on top advertising the sale of weapons. I walked into the dump and found the fat store owner sitting amid the debris. It looked like a bomb had gone off inside the trailer. "O a customer!" he said as he sat up and wiped the crumbs of his shirt. "How can I help you sir, are you looking for a weapon or armor?" I looked around the store and replied absentmindedly, "I need a weapon." "Well then you've come to the right place, I've got lots of grenades, got in a new shipment yesterday." I frowned at him, "I need something better than a pathetic grenade, surely you have something else." He shifted uncomfortably in his seat, "We may have something, but I don't know..." The anger rose up and I reached out to grab him by his neck. My fingers dug into the soft fat and with one tug I lifted him off his chair across the desk and out onto the floor. I stood there holding him off the ground by his neck as he choked and gurgled. "Lets try this again, do you or do you not have something better than a few grenades? Trust me that it will be worth your wild." I took out several thousand gil with my free hand and waved them in front of his face. He licked his lips and rasped out an ok as his face began to turn blue. I set him back on the floor. He fell to one knee and began to gasp for breath.
When he had recovered he got up and walked behind his desk I could see his hand slid under the counter. I readied myself for some sort of betrayal, but he was only pressing a hidden button. Instantly the wall off to the left slid away and revealed a hidden chamber. He walked over and took out a long saber-like sword. "This is a new Shinra weapon called the Reaper. It was invented a few months ago but it's too expensive to be mass- produced. I don't think we really need to go into how I got my hands on one so how about we talk about a price." I nodded, "First I want to know why I'm paying for this sword, what makes it so special?" The owner looked offended, "Why sir! This a top of the line weapon, it's made out of pure titanium-nerak alloy. The blade is sharpened using high-tech laser beams, its sharp enough to cut through 4-inch thick steel like a hot knife through butter. It'll never get dull, that's a guarantee, and it comes equipped with 9 linked materia slots." I frowned, "I suppose it'll work." With that I dropped 50,000 gil down on the table and picked up the sword. It was a good weapon and had excellent balance. "By the way, I'll also take a few grenades, just in case," I dropped another thousand gil on the table as I strapped the grenades onto my belt. As I was walking out I heard the store owner behind me calling for me. "O and I almost forgot sir, it comes with a free sheath," the man threw me a black leather sheath which I strapped around my back before walking out of the store.
I turned around and took one last look at the slum. I really couldn't appreciate at that time just how lucky I was, but I would later thank every person that helped me there. With that I began to walk down the passageway that the boy had shown me. I didn't know how, but somehow I was going to find a way to help Aeris and her friends, whoever they were.