Haha. Looks like I had more time on my hands than expected. Finished this chapter before the summer hit! Just a quick explanation on what may happen through the entire story. So most of the narrative of the original game would go as planned, though I would be adding some changes and some extra scenes here and there so it would make sense, considering that there are two characters that weren't in the original story.
Don't worry Zerith shippers, Zack and Aerith will be reunited...just not in this chapter...or maybe the next one...(heh heh, not trying to be mean or anything...)Oh and as for Cloud's memories, well, I'm thinking of maybe having his memory restored when he meets Zack. (I mean Zack knows the truth about what really happened and all...so it would make more sense if Zack just told Cloud what really happened that night of the Nibelheim fire.)
Now just some quick facts about my OC, Chorale. First and foremost, she is a mixed race character. Half-Asian, half-Caucasian. (Don't ask why. She was inspired by a friend of mine whose family tree is made up of all sorts of races.) Second of all, she does indeed have a deep relation with ShinRa, so she would seem familiar to anyone who works there. Be it Zack, the Turks, the Board of Directors, some long-time working employees...etc.
Anyways, that should tie up about everything. Now without further ado, lets begin the chapter. Disclaimer: I don't own anything here except for my parts of the story and my OC. Everything else belongs to Square Enix.
Disc 1 (Midgar): New Member
The members of Avalanche look at her with blank faces.
"That's all?" Cloud asked.
"Shush! Have you got no respect at all?" Barret sternly scolded. Chorale laughed a bit and shook her head.
"No, it's alright. Really. You see, I don't exactly know my last name," she explained in a carefree voice, smiling.
But the smile on her face just stayed there, like superglue.
Tifa, full of concern, went over to her side and gently took Allie out of her arms.
"It's ok, I'll take her up to one of the empty rooms. We can all continue to talk down here."
Tifa carried Allie up the shallow stairs of the bar towards the guest rooms. Cloud turned to Chorale, who was still stuck in that smile, and gestured for her to sit down at the nearby round table.
"Well, I'm sorry about before," Cloud began.
"Oh no! It's really alright. This whole thing is my fault. Really. I'm sorry to have to get you guys involved," Chorale stuttered.
Barret took a seat in front of her.
"Why? What do you mean exactly? 'It's your fault?' What happened to you?" He asked.
Chorale took a shallow breath and looked down at her hands.
"To be honest. I don't know that either. My mind...it's like a book full of empty pages. No...more like that the words are all written in invisible ink. But the thing is, I seem to be able to remember these tiny little details in my life just fine. But they don't make any sense to me at all, not unless I can remember the actual important memories."
"This is a severe case of amnesia," Jessie suddenly said.
"Do you have memory at all of maybe what happened to you before you lost your memories? Perhaps, you were seriously injured or maybe hypnotized..."
"Or maybe experimented on."
Tifa interrupted as she appeared from the stairs and walked over to the table. Cloud suddenly had a very serious expression on his face.
"If you were experimented on. I pray that it wasn't one by that crazy gray-haired scientist," he mumbled.
Tifa shudders at the mention of that scientist.
"Please don't remind me of that guy. I still remember catching a glimpse of him once in a news article. He freaked me out."
Barret looked dumbfounded.
"Who? Who the hell are two talking about?" He asked.
"Professor Hojo, of ShinRa's science department," Cloud explained.
As soon as she heard the names, "Hojo" and "ShinRa," Chorale's eyes widened and her mouth gaped. Images began flying past her eyes as the world around her suddenly dissolves away and replaced by a deep green, glowing substance.
Chorale feels that she is still in reality and calmly tells herself that this is not real. A voice enters her head.
"Oh my, my. Looks like you've found your way to a good group of people. You see, already, your memory is returning to you," the female voice said in a sarcastic, yet calm tone.
Chorale stays absolutely still, knowing that this whole dilemma is inside her head.
Speaking with her mind, she asks, "What do you mean? Is everything going as to planned? Will I find the rest of my memories? And um, who are you exactly?"
The voice laughs. It was an eerie-sounding laugh, makes the mysterious speaker seem much more terrifying.
"Who I am is not important. However, I can't really say that there's a plan to this. Actually, there is no plan at all! My dear, you need to stop overthinking and just go with the flow. Think of this as a second chance in your life..." The voice begins to fade away.
Chorale panicked.
"No wait! Come back! Please! At least tell me why the name "ShinRa" sounds so familiar to me! Does it have anything to do with me?"
The world suddenly turns back to normal again as Chorale sees the members of Avalanche, all staring at her in concern. Tifa is front of her, waving a hand in front of her face.
"Hello? Chorale are you alright?" She asked.
Chorale blinked a few times and then nodded her head.
"Yeah I'm ok now," she assured.
Barret sighed in relief.
"Well that's good. You just suddenly stopped moving right there, we didn't know what to do. Luckily it was only for a few seconds."
He took a long swig of beer from his mug.
"Tell me about ShinRa," Chorale suddenly said.
Barret spat out his drink and the whole atmosphere in the bar suddenly dropped twenty degrees. Barret was the first to react.
"Excuse me, but what?"
Chorale repeated her previous question with much more force.
"Tell me about ShinRa. Please."
She was no longer smiling, but looked dead on serious. Barret shook his head.
"I'm sorry. But you can't convince me that you've never heard of that company, or of any of their murderous, deceitful deeds before! I mean, it's just not possible! It's not right!" He shouted.
Tifa immediately stood up to calm him down.
"Barret! She was just asking."
Chorale, unaffected by the sudden outburst from Barret, continues to speak.
"ShinRa. So I'm assuming they aren't exactly well liked?" She asked innocently, but curiously.
Tifa nodded.
"I don't like Barret's outbursts, but I have to agree with what he feels about ShinRa. That company is evil. They will trick people, take advantage of them and of the Planet. Everyday, their reactors suck mako energy out from the ground. If this continues, our Planet will die one day!"
"Mako reactors? Like the one that just exploded up in the city above us?" Chorale asked, getting a bit excited that this is going somewhere.
Biggs joins in the conversation, "That's right. We did that to put a stop to their harmful acts. And we won't stop until we've taken them down! That's what Avalanche is about!"
Chorale thought deeply and attempted to make some reach for any more memories, but failed.
"I see. So in a way. If Avalanche were to stop ShinRa, the Planet would be around for much longer?" She asked.
Cloud sighed.
"There's no proof to that. But it definitely improves its chances of survival. Anyways, that's basically what's going on right now. And probably the most important thing you need to know for right now. ShinRa is hated by nearly the entire world population and we're going to try to stop them," he said.
Tifa and Barret gaped at Cloud.
He looked at them, confused, "What? I told you guys, I'm staying here. I ain't going anywhere."
Chorale suddenly stood up, smiling brightly.
"Well then. Me neither. I'm going to need the Planet to stay around for longer in order to find my memories. So I'm trusting you guys to tell me the truth, is the Planet really dying? Is ShinRa really that evil? Well if it's true, then count me in on the fight!"
The members of Avalanche looked in shock at their newest candidate. Chorale cocked her head to the side.
"What? Besides, I need to repay you guys somehow for letting me and Allie stay here. And so far, ShinRa is the only anchor I have to finding the rest of me. So I'm joining you guys!" She reasoned.
Tifa still looked concerned.
"But it's dangerous to fight against ShinRa! Your whole life is on the line! What about your daughter? What would happen to her if something were to happen to you?"
Chorale's smile lowered a bit. She thought hard about what to do.
"I'm doing this for her. She deserves a mother who knows about life. Who can pass on her knowledge to her. Who can tell her who her father is...all of it can be solved if I go out and look for answers."
Chorale's words were final. Barret smiled down at her and held out a hand.
"Well then, welcome to the party."
Biggs, Wedge, and Jessie all cheered as Chorale shook hands with Barret. Cloud stood up from the table and went over to the elevator that led down to the base.
"Well. Better get some rest now. 'Cause we're going out bright and early tomorrow to bomb another one of those reactors."
The next morning, Cloud was the last to wake up and eat breakfast. As soon as he came up though, Barret walked up to him and handed him a sack of gil.
"Here. This is the one you earned from yesterday. Sorry if it's isn't enough for your tastes, but...I kind of need the rest of the it for Marlene's schoolin'," he explained.
Cloud took the sack of gil and carefully put it away in his pocket, sighing.
"Well, better than nothing I guess. How much is it for this mission?" He asked.
Barret's jaw dropped, "Now hold on a minute. Since you're an actual member of our team now, you ain't getting paid no more."
Cloud rolled his eyes.
"Still. I think I should get a little something at least."
The ex-SOLDIER shrugs and turns around to walk away. The front doors to the bar suddenly flew open and in rushed Chorale, flushed and carrying a large bag of items. She nearly bumped right into Cloud.
"Hey, watch out! Sorry, Cloud. I see that you're finally up. Guess we can leave now on the mission."
She set the bag down on the ground. Tifa walked up the bag and opened it with Chorale, exposing a large number of weaponry and pieces of armor.
"I think I got everything on the list. You think it's good?" Chorale asked to Tifa.
The bartender nodded.
"It's great. Alright everyone! Stock up! Then we'll be going!" She ordered.
All the members of Avalanche took the weapon of their choice and exchanged some materia to one another.
Barret timidly looked at the cure materia he was given. Cloud caught his expression, but didn't say anything. Barret however, sighed and turned to Cloud.
"Hey um, Cloud. Could you help me with something?" He asked, a bit embarrassed.
Cloud looked to Barret with a serious expression.
"Fine, what do you want?"
"I don't how to use materia!" Barret cried.
Chorale's eyes widened.
"Really? Even I know how to use it. And I'm the one with memory loss! Heh heh...sorry, that wasn't funny, I'm sorry."
With that, she went digging through the leftovers of the weapons and pulled out a black double sword sheath.
Cloud sighed and took out his thunder materia to show to Barret.
"Alright now look. Materia is said to be made from condensed mako energy, and within it, contains power of supernatural abilities. You can cast all kinds of spells with this item and fuse it with your weapon. However, using materia isn't the best for your health as it requires a high level of concentration to make it actually work.
If you overuse on the materia, you're physical abilities will weaken, so you will want to be wise when using it. Oh and I forgot to mention, there will many different combinations of materia we can try once we start getting more. So spend all of your gil on just weapons ok?" Cloud explained to Barret.
But the man was even more dumbfounded than before.
He blinked twice at Cloud in confusion, "What? What the hell kind of tutorial was that? Y'know what? Here Cloud, you have the materia!"
Barret practically threw all of his materia at the blonde ex-SOLDIER.
Out of nowhere, Allie appears down the stairs, looking all innocent and adorable.
"Mama? Where are you?" She asked.
Chorale immediately rushed over to her daughter and gave her a little swoop across the air.
"Don't worry sweetie. Mama's right here. Mama's going to out for awhile so just stay here with Marlene over there ok?" Chorale soothed.
Allie nodded fiercely and smiled.
"Ok. But you'll be back right? I'll be a good girl," she said.
Chorale put her down on the little table near the bar where Marlene is, and rubs her blonde head.
"Oh I will be, don't you worry. Now, just have fun with Marlene 'kay?"
Chorale reassured as she walked up the stairs to the guest room where she stayed last night. Tifa smiled at the sweet moment between mother and daughter.
"Sigh. Seeing them like that, almost makes me want to have kids one day too."
She said as she put on her new fighting gloves and adjusted them to comfort.
Cloud laughed nervously, "I don't know. It's kind of pressuring, and a bit nerve-racking. I mean, what if you don't do a good job? Being a parent and all. I don't want kids looking at me and thinking, 'You suck. You're not fair.'"
Barret grunted in annoyance.
"Well, at least Marlene ain't like that to me!" He cried proudly.
Tifa shook her head, "But still...to be a single parent at that young of an age. I can't even think about how she feels. It's already bad enough that she has to look out for herself and her child, but to have her memory lost? That's even worse."
Barret shrugged, "Really? If you ask me, I think that the worst thing that happened to her was that dead-beat father of her little girl left her to care for the two of them. I mean, there's supposed to be a commitment, especially when it comes to raising a child."
"I heard that."
Chorale appeared behind them, wearing the black sheath containing two long katanas on her back.
"I'm fine you guys. I can't really remember anything that has to do with me, Allie, or her biological father. That's why I'm going with you. So please, just concentrate on your lives will ya? If you do that, it'll make my new life experiences right now, a whole lot better," Chorale said.
Cloud nodded.
"Fine, ok. Then lets go."
Zack walked across the slums of Sector 6, hoping to find his way into Sector 5, where he hopes a certain young flower girl would be waiting for him.
"Hang on Aeris. I'm coming. Just wait for me," he said to himself.
All around him was stalls and pieces of trash thrown down from the plate, but Zack didn't mind. In fact, it made he feel all nostalgic again. Just like when he used to visit her all the time back then.
Crossing from Sector 6 into Sector 5, Zack's excitement began to grow into worry.
Worried that something might have happened to Aeris over the course of the four long years.
Worried that Aeris might have lost her feelings for him.
Worried that she left him for someone else. Well if she did, he wouldn't blame her, he'd just be very upset over it.
Zack immediately hit himself in the forehead.
"Dude. What are you so scared about? This is it. The moment I've been waiting for. Maybe I should bring her some flowers when I go in? No idiot! She has a whole garden of them for god sake! I should just enter and be all, 'I'm back.' Yes! That's it! She doesn't like things too fancy, but that's not too plain either!"
Zack cockily grinned to himself and walked confidently to the front entrance of the church door. It was bigger than he thought it was.
Memories of entering and leaving this place when he was building the flower cart for Aeris returned to his head. Now those were good times.
Can they continue to have more good times together like that? Even though he is a wanted fugitive from ShinRa?
He'd be putting her into a lot of danger, just being with her. But then again, Aeris is already under heavy surveillance by the ShinRa Turks. Tseng seems to be constantly watching her from a distant.
From what Zack knows, Aeris is apparently the last living beings of the great Ancient race.
But that was made her even more special and beautiful to him. And now, he was about to see what the beauty of the slums had become over the course of the four years.
Opening the double doors of the church, Zack put on his very best smile and opened his eyes...to see that Aeris wasn't there.
Instead, a middle aged and ragged-looking man sat up from lying on the church bleachers and turned to Zack. The man spoke with a raspy voice due to being on drugs.
"Hey! Who the hell ya think you are?" He shouted.
A very confused Zack tilted his head. As if seeing the whole situation from a different angle might cause that cranky high man in the bleachers to turn into that innocent flower girl.
But it didn't work.
"Aeris Gainsborough?" Zack asked very nervously.
"Hell no! If you're talkin' about that chick who dresses in pink all the damn time and grows flowers. Then she ain't here! She's probably up on the plate doing her flower selling business!"
"Up on the plate?"
She actually went up to see the sky...
Zack thought wonderfully. Then he frowned.
Wait no! I promised her that I'd be beside her when she went! She probably thinks I'm an asshole!
Turning around, Zack prepared to leave the church.
"Thanks man! I'll be leaving now!"
"Hey! You know the last train going up is about leave in like 2 minutes. So good luck getting to Sector 7 on time, dumbass boyfriend!"
The man shouted, then he laughed and went back to lying down against the bleachers again.
Zack immediately began sprinting across the streets of Sector 5, ignoring anything or any people in his way. He needed to get to that train.
Cloud, Tifa, Barret, and Chorale boarded the last cart of the last train going up to the plate. As soon as they entered and the train started to move, Barret barked orders at them.
"Alright clear this car! Right now, lets go!"
The other three members spaced out around the aisle. Most of the passengers that were originally in this cart moved onto the next one in front of them except for one very professional-looking guy who stayed behind.
He sighed as he sat down on the seats of the train and looked to his watch.
"Hooligans. And this is why I hate the last train..." he mumbled.
However, his mumbling did not go unnoticed by Barret, who immediately came up to him, all tall and intimidating.
"Huh? Now what did you say? Train's got empty all of sudden. Why's that?" The leader of Avalanche asked.
The business man looked very nervous.
"It's because of people like you...that the rest of us are scared," he explained, though barely audible.
Barret raised a brow.
"Oh? Then maybe this'll give you a real scare."
He suddenly slammed his left fist down hard on the seat right next to the business man, who became very startled.
"Yikes! But it isn't just you guys. Haven't you heard? On the news? There's been an explosion at one of the mako reactors, ShinRa is afraid it might be an act of rebellion. Only loyal employees like me would go to work on a day like today."
Barret scrunched his face, "So, you work for ShinRa? Why, I oughta..."
"Barret!" Tifa cried before he could strike at the extremely frightened business man.
Barret immediately backed away, grunting, before walking away to the front of the cart.
Tifa sighed in relief before running up to Cloud who was standing next the map of the Midgar railway system.
Cloud asked Tifa something about the security checkpoints.
"Oh right. You see, at a certain point in the railway, there will be scan where the identifications of every passenger are to be checked and linked back to the large database of people ShinRa owns. They had just refined their system so we won't be able to use our fake id's anymore. So in about a few minutes, we're jumping off this train alright?" Tifa explained.
Chorale walked up to the business man cautiously. He looked up at her only slightly, but kept his stare.
"You work for ShinRa? Do you know a lot about the company?" She asked him.
Barret immediately came between them, putting a protective arm before Chorale.
"You stay away from that man, got it? All people in ShinRa are scum, no exceptions," he ordered.
"But..." Chorale began but never finished.
The red emergency lights came on and the sound of the alarm rung throughout the train.
"What's going on?" Tifa cried.
Barret rushed forward with Chorale close behind him.
"Shit! Someone blew their cover in the security check zone!" He yelled.
Cloud looked confused, "But how? Isn't that checkpoint supposed to be a bit further down?"
Barret shook his head as he opened the door leading into the cart in front of them. He gestured for them to get a move on.
"Who cares about all that right now? We need to get off this train! Now come on!" He shouted as he ran into the next cart.
Cloud followed close behind him, sighing over the failure of the start of the mission. Tifa turned to Chorale before taking off.
"Stay close behind us," she ordered.
"Don't worry, I will," Chorale replied as she took off with Tifa across the next cart.
"Security breach. There is an unidentified passenger on this train. Carts will be prepared for lockdown," the female voice over the announcements said.
Barret led the way down the aisle of the current train cart they are in. Cloud, Tifa, and Chorale ran behind him, pushing across people and suitcases as they ran to the next train cart.
Running alongside them, were a bunch of other suspicious-looking people who are probably afraid that the unidentified passenger may be them. As they left the last train cart, it was immediately locked down.
The Avalanche team luckily made it out together and ended up in the front of the train. Barret checked around the outside area of the train to see if it's safe to jump out now.
"Alright, it's all clear. Come on people! We need to get off now!"
He ordered, pushing them to the edge of the train's railings. Chorale looked a bit unsure.
"Uh...you certain that this is safe?" She asked.
Cloud shrugged, "Don't ask me. Just trust our leader here."
Tifa smiled at the both of them, "Just watch me ok guys? Here I go!"
With that, Tifa gracefully jumped off the train and onto the ground next to the railway.
Chorale, suddenly feeling a surge of power rush through her built up some speed before jumping off the train.
"Wheeee!" She cried at the top of her lungs.
Cloud turned around to Barret before jumping.
"Are you sure you want me to go before you?" He asked.
Barret nodded.
"A true leader stays until the end."
Liking the answer, Cloud gave him a faint smile and jumped off the speeding train.
Only a few seconds later, Barret also jumped off the train and that was it. The Avalanche team finished the first part of their mission, which was getting to the plate.
Now it's time for the second part of the mission, which is the actual bombing of the reactor.
Zack rubbed his head while standing up from where he was knocked over by a bunch of weird-looking people who ran past him in a panic.
One of the guys in the group accidentally struck him in the head as he was pushing people out of his way.
"What's the big idea?" Zack said to himself as he held onto the pole to clear his head.
He remembered when the emergency lights came on and the train carts were locked one by one, forcing several security guards to come through and check the ID of every single passenger on the train.
Zack luckily, had steered clear of questioning due to the fact the security guards were new, and probably didn't know his status as a wanted fugitive by ShinRa.
Laughing to himself, Zack suddenly finds himself remembering when the random guy suddenly struck him in the head as he was running by in a panic.
"Why do I always end up picturing that blonde spiky head of his? Was it really blonde? Or was it that colour under the red light? Gaia Cloud, looks like you've officially became a permanent knob in my brain. I'd die if that dude who just ran past me was you!"
What do you guys think? Was this chapter too long? Please don't be afraid to post any reviews. I'd be happy to read them. Comment on how long I should make my chapters, what I could improve on, things like that. Thanks for reading! Next chapter would be out around...you know what? I'm not even gonna try to estimate!
