A/N: This is what Mei was thinking about while waiting for Tseng in chapter 30 (33 by FFN's numbering). I called this an 'interlude' and didn't include it literally in the main story because with timing things, this really didn't fit (it would have happened around the time Eden was in Gongaga with Balto back in Catalyst Array), and it became too long to have as a flashback in a chapter—it's practically a chapter by itself. This is actually fairly important data, and there are a couple notes at the end, the latter actually important. It also leads in to something which will happen in a couple chapters.

Interlude—Mei's Adventure

Mei had felt stifled since they'd gotten to the city about a week ago. Why were the Briggs men—and even Amal—so determined to keep the three children so close to them, and to the warehouse? She felt a little guilty about disappearing on them as she made her way across the rooftops in the direction of the nearest pillar holding the device above their heads up. If what they'd seen from outside the city was true, that 'plate' had another city on top of it, and she was curious, she wanted to explore this new place!

She reached up to her shoulder to pat Xiao Mei and make sure she was safe—then halted as pain crossed her eyes at not touching her 'sister'. She remembered. Xiao Mei wasn't brought through the portal with them. Mei had never been very lonely because of Xiao Mei, but now, she was alone, the only Xingese person in their group with no one she'd been close to before then. Well, of them all, she was closest to Amal and Alphonse, but she would never be as close to anyone as she'd been to Xiao Mei.

Shaking that off, she kept moving across rooftops and junk heaps until she got to the pillar. There were actually several 'pillars' around Midgar—the city would have collapsed under its own weight if they didn't have so many. She wasn't going to go near the core pillar, since it was better-guarded than the others and there were security checkpoints up and down the sides of it. There were the eight pillars in the middle-ish of each of the eight segments of the 'plate' above, and those took the majority of the weight. Then, there were the eight pillars at the outer edges of the city, each supporting the edges of two segments, as well as a strange building that spewed green smoke.

Once close to the pillar nearest the warehouse, she paused to scan the surroundings, and quickly found guards around the fence at the base of the pillar, but none on the stair leading to the top of it.

Too easy!

With one mighty leap from her perch, she reached a pile of loose debris, which she quickly knocked down with a clatter as she hopped to the next pile and ducked behind it, moving around it to the far side of the commotion the guards were making as they moved to check the noise. They were all still where she'd knocked the debris down by the time she was back around the side she needed to be on to reach the pillar, so quickly bolted to the fence, climbed it, dropped to the ground on the far side, and ran for the stairs. She knew she didn't have long, so circled the pillar only to the far side of where they would be coming back from, then used some rope and a hook (1) from her bag to climb straight up.

By the time the guards were returning to their positions on that side of the pillar, she'd scaled three rungs of the stair, retrieved her rope and hook, and waited about half an hour for them to settle in again. After that time, she softly walked up the steps, making sure to check the guards' positions and make sure they weren't looking up at the pillar as she rounded that side. It didn't take that long to reach the top, which actually had something like a monitoring station built against it, but no one was there. Since she was in the clear, she turned her gaze to the bottom of the 'plate'.

It wasn't well-made, full of holes, pipes, beams, and open space which probably led into some sort of maintenance or sewer system. It was exactly what she needed to go further up, so she pulled out the rope and hook again, throwing the hook up to catch on one of the beams near her. She had to try twice to get it to catch, but it didn't take her long to get up onto the beam once it had, and after retrieving the rope and hook, Mei was able to get her balance on the beam and walk across it to the network of other beams and pipes she could climb.

She almost asked if Xiao Mei was up to the challenge of the climb before remembering with another pang of sorrow that the panda wasn't there anymore.

A small sigh left her lips as she realized she really would have to adapt to that quickly or she would make a serious mistake. It was likely Xiao Mei was still alive, and she thought someone would probably take care of her or take her back to Xing, but she probably wasn't going to see her again any time soon now that they were stuck in this unfamiliar city obviously far from Amestris. In the meantime, she had things she could do for fun, and one of those was getting up to the city above, and she'd be able to tell Xiao Mei all about it when she got home. (2)

That focus brought her back to reality and she started climbing. Some of the pipes were slick or slimy, but most of them were dry and dirty with a gray-green dust. They weren't hard to climb, and she could fit through many very narrow spaces until she came to a network of beams which led to an obvious walkway made of grate-like metal sheets. No one was on the walkway, so she dropped softly onto it and followed it to a hatch, which in turn led to a small room with a normal door to one side, a heavy, locking door to the other, and a ladder against the wall to her left. The far door, by the smell coming from the other side, led to the sewers, and it sounded like cars were going by above her, so she went to the ladder.

It was quick work to climb it, and pushing the lid of the manhole to the side—it was heavy, though—revealed her to be in an alley not far from a main street. Climbing out through the space she'd cleared—she'd moved the manhole lid halfway off the manhole—she approached the street curiously, seeing many people walking by who were fairly well-dressed, and a lot of cars on the road. Even in Amestris, she had only ever seen so many cars in Central, so she thought this city was a major capital. What shocked and dazzled her were the brightly glowing, vivid lights everywhere she looked.

With a grin, she dusted herself off, then joined the throng of people walking by, looking around curiously as she walked through the streets, picking out landmarks to find her way back as she went. Travel between Xing and Amestris had taught her to always find landmarks, just in case, and the bright lights actually made that really easy. How were they making those lights in those kinds of colors, though?

That was a thought for another day, especially as she felt a hand on her shoulder. She gave a little 'eep' and turned to look at—a medium brown haired woman who was in her twenties, and a man with slightly paler hair who was of a similar age. (3) They both smiled at her, gazes faintly amused, as the woman held out something cold in a rather large paper cup and with a spoon in it to her.

"Here, have a treat, Sweetheart," the woman said, still smiling.

"Oh...Are you sure?" Mei asked the woman in surprise.

"Of course," she agreed, chuckling a bit.

"...Uh..." the girl blinked, at first not sure she should. But then, it suddenly just felt like it was okay, so she smiled and gently took the cup as she said, "Thank you!" The woman stood straight as Mei tested it, and grinned as the girl 'mmmm'ed', then said, "It's really good!" Mei could taste something very sweet with a hint of vanilla, something which reminded her of chocolate cookies, and some sort of cream, all wrapped up in the icy-cold treat.

"Come sit down and talk with us a bit, please?" the woman requested, and the man with her gave a nod as he motioned to an outdoor table nearby. Since Mei had wandered into an area of small food shops and cafes with outdoor seating, she agreed, and the three sat down there while Mei ate the treat.

It was the man who asked, "How long have you been in Midgar, Miss Wutain?"

Wutain? She blinked, then gave a little shrug and said, "Only about a week? I think it's about that now." Everyone had different names for the same race—even others of similar background tended to use different names depending on their homeland, so she figured 'Wutain' was what these people called Xingese people.

"A week? And your parents let you wander around alone in a city you could get lost in so easily?" the man asked, his and the woman's gazes becoming worried.

Mei made a small face and replied, "They didn't really 'let' me, I wanted to explore, so I snuck out. I've been remembering the places at the corners I've turned so I can find my way back."

The two traded startled looks, then chuckled. "How are you liking Midgar so far, then, Sweetheart?" the woman asked.

Why did she keep calling her that?

"It's interesting. And different," Mei said honestly. "I never saw a—practically a floating city before I came here. There's lots to see, and so much really bright light that there wasn't back home. I like it, but I'm lonely without my friends and all the rest of my family."

"Moving always takes time to adapt to," the woman said kindly. "Someone obviously taught you the language very well before you left Wutai, so your family had probably been planning to come here for a few years, am I right?"

"When I first started taking lessons, not really. They wanted me to know so I'd be able to get along no matter where I was or who I met," the girl replied, remembering her lessons with Xiao Mei fondly. "But things changed and we sort of..." She drifted off, not sure how to finish what she was saying.

The woman reached over to pat her head, gaze understanding. "You'll need to start dressing like someone from Shinra soon, otherwise some very bad people may try to kidnap you, even if you're here with Shinra's approval and support."

"Why would they kidnap me?" she blinked in surprise.

The man and woman traded looks again, then the man said, "There's a slave market in Shinra lands, and the people who are usually taken as slaves are Wutains due to your 'exotic' looks. The problem is worse in the Slums, but it's still a danger to Wutains living on the Plate."

"...Oh..." Mei blinked, staring in shock and realization. Now she knew what the Briggs men and the other adults had been so worried about—the slave trade. It had existed in Xing and Amestris as well, but it had never threatened her directly.

"Be careful from now on, okay, Sweetheart?" the woman cautioned her.

"I will. Thank you," the girl answered.

They talked for awhile longer, then Mei headed away to explore more—she may not have another chance, after all—and soon found most areas of the upper city were just like what she'd already seen. She also paid more attention to her surroundings and realized she was being followed, a fact she didn't like after the friendly couple's warning. It didn't take her long to figure she should pull a disappearing act and turned down an alley, then quickly running down it until she came to another one crossing it, where she turned again, then soon came out onto a street. From the street, she found another alley and repeated the process again twice more.

Then, when she turned into the last alley which would take her to the next street, she suddenly stopped to stare at what she was seeing.

To one side of her, on the wall of the building, was a large array like the Amestrian alchemy ones. If she was reading some of the key elements correctly, it would create heat, fire and burning—a lot of it, hot enough to cremate almost anything. She was suddenly thankful alchemy and alkahestry didn't work in Midgar. Its lowest point was about an inch above the ground, and its highest was just about where she'd be able to reach if she stretched her hand above her head—it was arranged for someone about her height to look at or use.

Closing her eyes, she let her senses open, looking for other people nearby. She found one maybe ten feet from where she stood, and opening her eyes to look in that direction showed a pile of three crates just past a door in the building wall. Quietly, she moved to the crates and looked around them—to see a boy with brown-blond hair and blue eyes sitting on the ground against the wall. He looked to be about ten and was obviously upset so badly he was trembling, even as he stared absently and helplessly into space. In one of his hands, there was a piece of white chalk, and his fingers were covered in chalk dust.

She crouched in front of him, and his gaze met hers. Mei could see pain and fear there, so she asked, "What's wrong?"

He slowly shook his head, then whispered, "It won't stop."

"What won't?" the girl blinked in surprise.

"Those images I keep seeing...They just—come into my mind, and I don't know what they are, but they won't leave me alone, and more and more of them keep coming, and—what do I do?" The last part, he wailed, then broke down crying, pulling his knees up to wrap his arms around them as he wept.

Mei reached out to rub his shoulder comfortingly as she waited for him to calm down—he wouldn't even be able to hear her if she tried to talk to him right then—just waiting patiently until he had stopped crying. When he wiped his eyes, she said, "I've seen those arrays before." His gaze moved up to her in shock, so she said, "That thing on the wall over there, right? That's what you keep seeing in your mind?" She pointed in the direction she'd come, and he gave a nod. "I know what they are."

"You do?" he asked hopefully.

"Yes. Those are 'alchemy arrays'. My people use alkahestry, not alchemy, but I know some about alchemy, if you want to hear it?" she offered.

"I do, please! What am I seeing?" he asked hopefully.

Moving to sit beside him against the wall, Mei said, "Those are scientific and mathematical—rules to make certain things happen. They don't work in Midgar because there's no energy for them to use, but everything they do can be written out in mathematical and scientific equations. Like, the one you put on the wall there would create fire so strong it would cremate the wall you drew it on, along with anything in front of it in its range." His eyes widened in horror, so she quickly went on, "There are lots of types of them, like for healing, fixing poisons or illness, or growing things, too."

"That sounds like Materia spells!" the boy stared in shock. "How do they work?"

"The lines are the equations, like for what it is and how strong it is, and the markings beside them are the rules, like to decide its shape and how long it'll work for," Mei answered, while wondering what 'Materia spells' were. "Why do you draw them on walls instead of a sheet of paper?"

He blinked, then frowned in puzzlement for a moment before saying, "Because they come to me upright like that, not down on a piece of paper."

"So every time they come to you, find a piece of paper and start drawing them there. And keep drawing it until it leaves you alone—you'll probably remember them very well by then," she smiled. "Do what you need to do so you don't end up like this again. I'll come by sometimes to tell you what each of the arrays you drew mean, too."

"Really?" he asked hopefully.

"Of course," she agreed. "We just need a place and a time to meet."

"There's a small park just down there, and there are picnic tables we can sit at until winter comes, if that's okay," the ten-year-old boy offered. "Classes end at four at my school, so I couldn't come before then."

"It sounds great," Mei agreed with a smile. "I can work with that. I'm Mei Chang, by the way."

"Evan Townshend (4)," the boy replied with a small smile. "Let's go over there now. I don't have paper with me, but anything you can answer, I'd like."

"Sure," Mei agreed, pushing herself up and offering him a hand up. They made their way to the park, then sat and talked for some time before Mei decided she should make her way home.

Notes:

In case anyone missed it, this actually means Genesis thought all the arrays were Al's doing and he stopped looking for anyone else—like Evan. FoW and SH both had Evan doing exactly the same thing until he was found by Genesis in FoW and by Mei in SH. Mei found him before Genesis did, so for the last 2-3 weeks Genesis was looking, no arrays were appearing in Sector 6 on the Upper Plate. Mei's path goes something like this: she left from Sector 2, climbed the Sector 2 pillar, traveled into Sector 3 near the core in the scaffolding and pipes, and came up in Sector 3. She then mostly stayed not too far from the core to cross 4 and 5 into 6, meeting the couple near the border between 4 and 5 and losing her pursuers just over the border into 6.

(1) I'm not calling this a grappling hook because it's not one, even if Mei is using it that way. It's literally just a random rope she found tied to a random hook she found, and they are both blatantly obvious, which proper grappling equipment isn't.

(2) This is obviously before she met Ed, so she's still operating on the assumption that they'll all be able to go home eventually.

(3) This couple would be Denzel's parents, who left baby Denzel with a babysitter so they could go out on a romantic date, and found Mei on the way. As a young couple with a child of their own, they would naturally be worried about a child wandering around alone.

(4) Evan Townshend exists in the Compilation of FFVII, in the light novels called "Lateral Biography Turks: The Kids Are Alright". He's about 18-19 in those novels, which happen leading up to Advent Children, and is noted to be, like Lazard, one of President Shinra's illegitimate children—another of Rufus' half-brothers. At this point in time, though, he's only 10, and no one but Evan's mother knows he's at all related to the President, so no one is looking for a link. Maybe some readers remember the note about the cat called Blackie? This is Blackie's owner.