I'm sorry, I'm sorry! That chapter was already almost six pages long already… If I had continued, it might have ended up being ten pages. . I'm sorry it was a cliffy… I cant believe that I'm updating so fast.. I really have nothing to do… TT

Thanks again to those who have reviewed!

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Raye wasn't fully ready for the jump, but in the confusion of the lights, the siren, and the screaming, she felt someone grab her hand and pull her out of the train. As her body left the inside of the train, she felt a panic as the concrete floors of Midgar came closer. Cloud didn't land on his feet with poise as she'd thought, but he did a forward roll to make up for it. Raye landed none too gracefully on her shoulder.

"Aaah…" she moaned in pain.

"You're useless, you know that?" he said to her as he stood up. Once again, she angered quickly.

"Well, you're the one who dragged me out of the train without warning!" she yelled at him, while holding onto her bleeding shoulder.

"Do you have any restore materia?" he asked.

"If I did, don't you think that I would use it?" she growled from the floor.

He shrugged and noticed Tifa calling them over by a manhole.

"Come on," he said, grabbing her arm and pulling her along again.

"Would you let go of me?" she said as she wrenched her elbow from his grasp.

He let go as they reached Tifa, he let go.

"Listen, Barrett said that we have to go underground to get to the reactor. There he is!" Tifa said when she noticed that the large man was coming toward them.

"Awright, everyone ready?" he shouted. "Let's go."

While Cloud and Barrett went down the hole, Tifa gave Raye a small potion for her injury.

"That's not going to heal you fully, but it should stop the pain," Tifa said, rushing a little. "Now let's go. We have to do this quickly."

Raye was utterly stunned as she went down the ladder with Tifa. She was from a small kingdom that not many people have heard of, and Midgar was amazing to see. What stunned her now was that Midgar was extensively concrete and metal, even the underground. She didn't have any idea where she was going, but the other three members obviously did.

Raye followed Tifa closely as they went through a large maze of tunnels, vents, and ladders. She did her best not to get lost. While walking, she noticed Biggs, Wedge, and Jessie in different places throughout. After a long time, they came to a bridge over everything that had just come through, and at the end of it, was a large machine-like structure. She stared in awe, and walked forward towards it.

"This is a reactor? It's so large and elaborate…"

Tifa nodded and said, "Yeah. We're going to blow it up now."

"Go set the bomb, Cloud," Barrett ordered.

He nodded and walked towards the Sector Five reactor, holding the bomb Jessie had made in his hand. After taking a few steps, he stopped and fell to one knee. He dropped the bomb and held his head as though he had suddenly gotten a splitting headache. Raye, who was closest to him, kneeled beside him and tried to help. She put a hand on his back and talked to him.

"Cloud? Cloud, are you okay?"

He shook his head to clear his mind.

"Damn, man. Get a hold of yourself," Barrett muttered sternly.

"You alright?" Tifa asked him with a worried look on her face.

"…Tifa," he mumbled.

"Mm?"

"No…forget…Come one, lets hurry," he yelled as he pushed Raye's hand off and stood up. He walked over and set the bomb on the reactor, as if nothing had happened.

"It's done. Let's go, Raye," Tifa said while tugging on her hand. "We have to leave before it goes off."

"Y-yeah…" Raye replied, and walked with her. They hurried to another floor again, and Raye went back to trying not to get lost.

They opened heavy metal doors to a room where there was some king of rectangular control panel in the center.

"Jessie said that to move on we need to press the panels at the same time. Cloud moved to one side of it, and Barrett and Tifa moved to the other. Raye waited off to the side for the group to finish up and tell her that their mission was complete. After a few tries, they managed to synchronize and press the panels together. As they did, the other doors opened to another room with a bridge-like structure that formed a 'T'.

They hadn't slowed down since the bomb was set, so they ran to the other end. As they reached the intersection, Shinra soldiers cornered them.

"Oh, no," Raye whispered.

"A trap…" Cloud growled in anger.

From the part of the intersection that jutted out to their left, a man in a burgundy suit walked out. He looked middle-aged or older, and he was starting to go bald.

"President Shinra?" Barrett exclaimed in surprise.

"Why's the President here?" Tifa said, also extremely surprised.

Raye, remembering that her presence in Midgar wasn't supposed to be known, hid behind Barrett.

"Hmm, so you al must be that… What was it..?" He trailed off thoughtfully.

"AVALANCHE! And don't ya forget it!" Barrett screamed at the man who was half the size he was. "And you're President Shinra, huh?"

Cloud walked forward toward the president, looking grave.

"Long time no see, President."

"Long time no see?" the president repeated in confusion. "Oh… you. You're the one who quit SOLIDER and joined AVALANCHE. I knew you'd been exposed to Mako from the look in your eyes. Tell me, traitor… What was you name?"

"Cloud," he snapped.

"Forgive me for asking, but I can't be expected to remember everyone's name. Unless you become another Sephiroth…" he trailed off. "Yes, Sephiroth. He was brilliant… Perhaps too brilliant…"

"Sephiroth…?" Cloud repeated, wondering about the President's lack of completing full sentences.

Barrett, who was getting angry by having to stay silent, exploded, "Don't give about none of that! This place is going up with a big BANG soon! Serves ya all right!"

"And such a waste of good fireworks to get rid of vermin like you," President Shinra said dreamily.

"VEMIN!" Barrett screamed and thrashed blindly in anger, causing Raye to step away so she wouldn't get hurt. "That's all you can say…VERMIN! Y'all Shinra are the vermin, killing the Planet! And that makes you king VERMIN! So shu'up, jackass!"

"…You're beginning to bore me. And I'm a very busy man, so if you'll excuse me. I have a dinner I must attend," he said without being fazed by Barrett's yelling.

"Dinner!" Barrett continued screaming. "Don't give me that!" I ain't even started wit' you yet!"

"But I've arranged a playmate for you all," he said as his lips curved into a strange smile.

This is when Raye began to notice a metallic whirring and clanking noise.

"What's that noise?" Tifa whispered.

"The Hell's this!" Barrett yelled.

From the room where they came from, a giant robot lunged out at them, separating Tifa and Barrett from Cloud and Raye.

"Meet 'Airbuster', a techno-soldier. Our Weapon Development Department created him. I'm sure the data he'll extract from your dead bodies will be of great use in future experiments," he said, without hiding his glee. A helicopter appeared from below, and President Shinra got inside.

"Wait, President!" Cloud yelled after the escaping helicopter.

"Yo, Cloud! We've gotta do somethin about this robot!" Barrett yelled from the opposite side of the Airbuster.

It began attacking them, and they knew that they had no other choice but to defeat the monster.

"Raye! Can you even fight?" Cloud yelled over the noise.

"I have some magic," she yelled back.

Barrett began to shoot at it with his gun-arm. Tifa put on fighting gloves and punched it repeatedly. From the sheath on his back, Cloud detached his Buster Sword and attacked the robot. After each of their attacks, it countered with small missiles, or its gun.

Okay, my turn is coming up. I have to do this… I have to pull my own weight…

She put her hands in front of her chest and bowed her head. She lifted her arms toward the high, cracked ceiling, and then thrust them towards the robot, casting Fire3.

"Good job, Raye!" she heard Tifa yell.

I guess I'm not totally useless… she thought with a smile, while somehow enjoying herself. I like this better than sitting at home, listening to Joel drabble on about something.

After her attack, she completely forgot about the robot's counter attacks. It turned towards her and lifted its gun. She was shot a few times, and the robot turned towards Tifa, who had just attacked him. She went down on one knee, seeing some blood on the concrete.

"Are you serious? You're already down to the yellow in your HP?" Cloud yelled at her, not sounding happy at all. He threw her a potion.

"Thanks!"

Within a few minutes, the robot had stopped moving and landed over on its side with a loud clunk.

"I- I did it," Raye said in slight disbelief. She grinned widely as she felt herself receive the experience points, and even wider as she leveled up.

"I did it!" she yelled jumping into the air.

"Stop jumping! We've gotta get-" Cloud started, but he couldn't finish because there was a large explosion coming from the place where the robot was. Before she realized what had happened she was falling, and a hand grabbed hers. She opened her eyes and looked up. Cloud was holding her hand and hanging onto a thick metal bar coming from the broken bridge. There was a giant gap where the robot had exploded, and Barrett and Tifa stared down at them from where they were before the robot had detonated.

"The reactor's gonna blow! We have to go, Tifa!" Barret said loudly.

"Cant you do something?" she begged.

"Not a damn thing…."

"Cloud! Please don't die! You can't die!"

Cloud couldn't answer, from the strain of supporting himself and Raye.

"Are you going to be awright?" Barrett yelled.

"…..She's heavy," he managed to say.

"Hey!" Raye yelled furiously.

He ignored her, "You worry about yourselves!"

"Sorry bout all this…" Barrett replied.

"Stop talking like this is the end!"

"Awright, later," Barrett said.

The reactor exploded and the entire room shook. Cloud couldn't hold on and his grip slipped. Raye's heart sunk as she felt the uncomfortable falling feeling and watched Barrett and Tifa's faces disappear into the smoke and fire.

"Cloud!" she screamed desperately, but she couldn't see him or anything else.

"Mmmm…" she felt a pain in her back, but she couldn't move.

"Oh, it moved!" she heard a female voice say. The voice wasn't clear or close to her. She opened her eyes a little and looked to her side. She saw spiky blond hair close to her face, and beyond that, a pretty girl with curly brown hair and bright green eyes. She wore a pink dress and a tiny red jacket. Her hair was tied back with a pink ribbon. Cloud shifted, and she spoke to him, "Hello? Are you okay?"

I can't move Raye thought very unhappily.

Cloud sat up and shook his head.

"Are you okay?" The girl repeated. "This is a church in the Sector Five slums. The roof suddenly fell on top of me, I got really scared…"

"…I came crashing down?" he said while sounding dazed.

She nodded and smiled, "The roof and the flower bed broke your fall. You're lucky."

"Flower bed… Is this yours?" he mumbled as he got up. "Sorry about that."

She too got up and Raye had a terrific view of their shoes. She closed her eyes and willed her body to move.

"That's all right. The flowers here are quite resilient because this is a sacred place," she smiled and looked down at the white flowers. "They saw you can't grow grass and flowers in Midgar. But for some reason, the flowers have no trouble blooming here. I love it."

Cloud shrugged, not knowing what to say. The girl bent down and worked on the flowers.

"So we meet again."

"…," Cloud stayed silent.

"…Don't you remember me?" she asked with a smile.

"I never saw you before…," he finally said.

"I guess you don't remember," she said with a lot of disappointment. "That's okay. You were walking in a daze. Say, do you have any materia?"

"Yes, some."

STOP MAKING SMALL TALK AND HELP ME! Raye wanted to scream.

"Mine is special. It's good for nothing," she laughed.

"Good for nothing? You probably don't know how to use it."

"No, I do… It just doesn't do anything. I feel safe just having it. It was my mother's…Say, I feel like talking. Do you feel up to it?"

You've talked enough… Please help the girl who is still collapsed on the floor.

"Got nothing to talk about."

Finger…finger… Come on, move!

Raye opened her eyes once more and twitched her fingers.

"Oh! We don't know each other's names, do we? I'm Aeris, the flower girl. It's nice to meet you."

Yeah, move your hand…

Now, your arm…

Raye shifted, and carefully sat up. She held her hand to her chest, trying to get the feeling back.

"Oh, you're awake too?" Aeris smiled at her.

Yeah, I'm awake. Thanks a lot… she thought bitterly.

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Yeah, I don't like Aeris. I thought she was annoying in the beginning of the game. :P please read and review! Constructive criticism appreciated!