A/N: Whelp, I haven't written in a long while, so I'm quite rusty. Decided to start by writing this as I work on getting back into the groove of things.

Summary: AVALANCHE finds the extra leg it needs to take down ShinRa Inc. when Cloud is brought to them. A story about a small resistance group fighting against the power of oppression and the relationships that forms in their small family.

Prologue: A Cloud of Thoughts

Normally things are quiet around here. We do a lot of planning, strategizing, theorizing, but when you get right down to it, we never really accomplish much. Not that we expect to get things done quickly as that would just be a surefire way of getting ourselves killed. We want to go up against ShinRa Inc. An entire nation had failed to stand up against them in a war and we're just a small resistance group: AVALANCHE. We have to play our cards right.

Barret is a good leader – not great. He doesn't immediately jump the gun and run in guns blazing. As a man who seems to be mostly brawl over brains, he's smart enough to know that we need a solid plan on an attack against ShinRa. Problem with Barret is that he isn't a strategist nor is he a critical thinker. He has ideas but doesn't know the best course of action to take; especially with a ragtag team such as us.

Biggs I've known the longest. We grew up in the same sector. We weren't friends back then but I was a friend with his younger sister. Biggs was here to make sure his sister didn't have to be – so that the people and her would have a better future that didn't involve the oppressive thumb of ShinRa. What he lacks in physical strength he makes up for in espionage. He isn't a Turk by any stretch of the imagination but he can give a classic undercover spy a run for their money. We have quite a number of disguises he has created over time. He also has connections inside the company that have proven vital when we need information.

Wedge is Biggs' tagalong. They were best friends growing up and the two were always inseparable. Biggs likes to claim that he's Wedge's lifelong wingman and is there to help the portly man with courage in hopes of finding that lucky lady. I always find it amusing to hear this because I've never even seen Biggs successfully 'woo' a lady much less have a relationship with one. He tried catching my attention once and I ended up smacking him. He is as charming as an obnoxious brother you love to hate. Wedge doesn't mind though. The man is a coward at heart but he's probably the gentlest soul I've ever come to known. He isn't great at anything really and doesn't add much to our group outside of being an extra hand.

Tifa Lockhart came to the group a few months ago after bumping into Barret. Apparently the two had bonded over their mutual sufferings over ShinRa. I don't know the exact details of their meeting but it has something to do with Barret running in to help what he thought was a damsel in distress from a bunch of thugs. but by the time he managed to bellow out an order for them to leave her alone, Tifa had already laid the three men out on their asses. She's an excellent martial artist – I've never seen anyone fight better than her, and I've since been getting some lessons from her. I'm still sore from our last lesson and it was two days ago. The only thing that's harder than her punches are the drinks she makes. She's since become the bartender at our HQ the Seventh Heaven. There isn't a lot of people who have the Gil to spend on drinks but every bit helps when you're living in the Slums.

Marlene is Barret's little girl. Not biological daughter but you wouldn't know that by the unconditional love and admiration he has for the little girl. She's barely passed five years old and picking up things from Tifa at the bar. I don't know if there was ever a kid before her that knows how to mix a Midgar Fire like she can. I'm not sure we are giving her the education that she should be having with our lot but Barret doesn't exactly have a whole lot of gil for her schooling. Tifa and I have taken to teaching her some things when the Gil is too dried up to get a teacher to hold a lesson. I focus on the math and sciences while Tifa takes care of the literature and history.

My skills are in engineering and hacking. It's great if you want to try and get information out of the ShinRa inc. database; however, doing that also takes the large risk of being traced and caught. The security system at the company is topnotch and we don't' exactly have the best equipment to work off of. Most of my skills have been spent on perfecting bomb making and keeping Barret's gun-arm in operation.

We're a small group and since we have nothing immediately in the works on how to stand up against ShinRa, it's generally quiet. There's a routine down where I'm locked away down below the bar tinkering around with machines or on my computer while Tifa is upstairs running the bar. Biggs and Wedge go do…actually I don't even know what they do. If they aren't in the bar drinking they're out of the sector doing something I'm not sure I want to know about. Barret is generally below with me. He looks over files on each sector of the city while his temple looks to continue to grow until his head might burst because, like I mentioned previously, he's not too great with the whole strategizing thing.

It's usually quiet.

Just when I think it's going to be another normal evening I start hearing Barret above.

"Wha' the hell, Tifa? Who the hell is this?"

And thus, having something different occur that breaks our routine, I find myself moving up to the second level while there's a quick commotion. The first thing my eyes catch sight of is Barret's intimidating form as he flails is arms wildly as he not so subtly tries to tell Tifa that whoever she brought can't stay.

He's dirty – more so than the normal person living in the slums. I heard there had been a rainstorm outside of the city yesterday and this guy looked like he had rolled around in the mud. Obviously we don't get rain in the slums with the plate above us blocking out the world. Upon closer inspection he also appeared to be covered in blood which lead me to believe he had been mugged; except…he was dragging the largest sword I've ever seen someone carry. He was being half carried by Tifa, with his other arm tossed over her shoulders. His eyes had a far off look and had a glow to them that would make most people in our group flee.

I felt the familiar chill when his eyes shifted and focused slightly in my direction. The unmistakable glow in his eyes representing his status as a member of SOLDIER. A military group we try our best to avoid.

"Barret, please" Tifa started as I found myself walking to the small group. Her gaze shifted toward the swordsman's face, eyes softening in a way that made me think she was familiar with him, "He's not well."

"Then he can go die in the streets. Look at him. Bastard looks like he's covered in shit and blood. Probably some psycho serial killer."

"His name is Cloud. He's a friend of mine. Barret, he's from my town."

Barret's jaw tightened and I could swear I heard his teeth grind as he starred at the sorry looking man. I studied his hair for a moment. I think he's blonde but it was hard to tell with how much filth he was covered in. I licked my lips in anticipation before I finally spoke up. "He's SOLDIER."

"What?!" And thus Barret started to rave once more.

Our resident bartender nodded her head, "He…left my hometown when we were kids to join SOLDIER. I haven't seen him since."

"He's ShinRa!?" He was already arming his gun-arm.

"Was, Barret. He was in ShinRa. He's not anymore."

"Once ShinRa, always ShinRa."

"Jessie used to work for ShinRa." Oh yeah, did I forget to mention the fact that I used to be one of the many engineers that worked for Scarlet in Weapons Development? That's why I'm good at what I do.

"She's not SOLDIER!"

"Neither is he, anymore."

"I'm sorry," I interjected. I was already fighting a headache from staring at my computer screen for the last seven hours and Barret's bellowing was not helping. "What is the plan here? What did you want to do with him?"

"I want to help him."

"And then what?"

"He could help us." At that I lifted my eyebrow and my gaze shifted away from her face down to the large sword in his grasp. He hadn't said anything yet and I'm starting to think he can't speak. "What's wrong with him?"

"I…I'm not sure. I found him at the train station. He was lucid one minute. He recognized me. But one our way back he just seemed to collapse. I think he's sick. "

"Well I don't wanna catch whatever this jackass has, and don't want Marlene catching nothing either."

All I could do for the moment was brush a hand through my hair thoughtfully. A moment later I stepped forward and rested the back of my hand against the blonde's forehead and immediately felt the frown form on my lips. "He's burning up." I took a slow breath before shaking my head. "He can take my bed for tonight. I'm not using it." Tifa immediately looked thankful and reached out with one of her hands to squeeze mine.

"Shit. Fine. One damn night. But make sure he don't snoop or nothing and keep talk about what we're doing here out of it. Don't trust him."

"Alright." Tifa answered and she looked to struggle for a moment before she glanced back to me.

I realized then that she was asking for assistance and I felt myself biting my lip with half a mind to ignore the look to go back to work. I rid such thoughts with a shake of my head before I stepped to the blonde's other side and grabbed his other arm. "…We should take the sword away from him."

"He won't seem to let go of it. I tried."

True to her word, I can't find a way to really persuade him to let go of the sword either so I was left to heft his arm around my shoulders sword and all. My heart pounded in my chest at just the sight of the blade and the ex-SOLDIER groaned once we started moving him away from the entrance. His arm felt pretty solid – if not…damp. He was wet and I didn't want to guess whether it was from being caught in the rain over twenty-four hours ago or what he dragged himself through in the slums. Based on the smell I was inclined to say the latter – but I wasn't going to think about it since it was his wet arm rested on my shoulders and slowly soaking through my clothes.

Tifa gave her words of encouragement to Cloud as we half drag him until we got him to my bed. We had to all but drop him onto it because he was heavy and placing him down delicately just wasn't going to happen. Tifa had the decency to pull his boots off and before tucking his legs onto the bed. I'd say I was thankful for that but…his clothes were filthy and I felt my nose wrinkle at the thought as I made a mental note to get new sheets and possible trade mattresses with Biggs before I slept there again.

"Could…you get me water and a washcloth? I don't want to leave his side."

"Okay." Hmm, that made me wonder if there was more to it than just a childhood friend, but it wasn't the time or place to really ask her. Once I procured said water and washcloth I stood back as Tifa took the time to wipe at the blonde's face clean. She stripped off his shoulder armor and dropped it on the floor beside the bed. He seemed to have passed out at this time and the death grip he had on the sword loosened enough for her to take it away and lean it against the wall. When she started to tug at his clothes I turned my gaze and felt a rush of embarrassment. "Did you need anything else?"

"Could you grab the first aid kit? With all this blood I don't really know what to expect."

I can't blame her. Between all the caked mud and blood it was impossible to tell where he might be injured. By the time I returned with the first aid kit, she had his chest bare and was already wiping him clean. I hovered over her shoulder for a moment and felt my gaze zero in on an old scare on the left side of his chest. It looked like he'd been stabbed at some point – very close to his heart for that matter. He must have been lucky not to have died from it. The moment that observation was over I felt my gaze begin to wander across the rest of him – felt the familiar burn of a blush and immediately turned around.

"Here." I said quickly as I placed the first aid kit next to the brunette. Thank Gaia she hadn't noticed my face because I would hate for her to think I was standing there ogling her half dead friend. Since it didn't look like she needed anything, I quickly left to gather myself as well as bury myself back into work.

And that's how I met Cloud. Little did I know at the time that he would be the key to finally giving AVALANCHE the push it needed to take action. I also didn't realize how absolutely infatuated I would become with him because quite frankly, I try to avoid those feelings. I become such a ditzy mess.

Ugh… So ended Day One.