Chapter One: Bombing Mission
There wasn't any getting off this train they were on.
It was moving too fast to get off, and calling a stop would draw attention which would see most of them imprisoned. Cloud looked from polishing his cleaver like Buster-Sword and saw Barret Wallace. The man was checking the machine-gun he had in place of a hand.
Jessie Rasberry was double-checking her equipment, especially the explosives. She was wearing a steel breastplate that failed to hide her curves and a headband.
Biggs and Wedge were doing the same.
Cloud looked up out of the train and saw the boughs of the great tree sliding past them. The train system was one of the technological marvels the ancients had allowed. Likely because when you build a city this large, you needed mass transit. Even if the city was made of living wood. It had been carefully grown so those on top of it would dwell in the sun. And those below would be even deeper in the dark.
Finishing his final efforts, Cloud sheathed his Buster Sword.
And then he looked out as they pulled into a station with almost no one on it. Those who were here were armed with weaponry, spears that could launch volleys of energy. Cloud had used them in his days in the Guardian Corps.
Now he was going to kill the people wielding them.
The doors opened, and they moved out. A bright-looking young woman, probably a tour guide, stepped forward. "Hello sir, welcome to the First Tree of Life in the city of Midgar. May I be your guide to the center of the Planet's worship on Gaia.
Barret Wallace raised a machine gun with a flat expression.
"Oh, shi-" began the ancient.
And then her blood splattered all over the wooden walls beyond, splintering them. The guards raised their spears, but Jessie and Biggs drew out machine-guns. Two of them fell in an instant before a third was shot by a pistol from wedge. More came around, and Cloud leaped at them.
Drawing out his sword, he remembered Nibelheim.
Then he killed.
He cut clean through a spear and slashed through the heart of one. Another he parried and smashed the skull of. One more was beheaded, and a third had his legs cut out from under him. The rest began to flee for cover, only for Barret and Jessie to mow them down as they went.
Then there was silence amid the corpses. Cloud looked up above to their target, the First Sacred Tree. One of eight surrounding the main tree.
"And you said that taking the place of a nature lovers tour group would never work," said Jessie, reloading her gun. "We heading in or what?"
"Keep your eyes peeled," said Barret. "Cloud, you and I are taking point. Biggs, you bring up the read. No witnesses, no survivors."
Cloud had heard those words before, been the victim of them. But those days were long past. Even so, this kind of carnage made him sick. Of course, all of these people would die anyway when they blew up the tree. And this was for a good cause.
But he was beginning to feel like Tifa had not given him proper context.
Together the group walked into the natural hallways. Barret and Biggs mowed down a number of gardeners who tended to the tree. All very precise and effective. Everyone in this group had lost too much to the Ancient to care about massacring their minions. Eventually, they reached a number of roots sealing things down.
Jessie immediately set to work setting up explosives. Everyone else stood clear.
"So who is this guy anyway?" asked Biggs, looking at Cloud.
"He used to be part of the Guardian Force. But he quit, and now he works with us," said Wedge, in the kind of friendly tone a murderous terrorist had no right to.
"What's your name anyway?" asked Biggs.
That was right; he'd been introduced to Barret, not them. "Cloud."
"Oh really?" said Wedge. "My name is-"
"I don't care about your names," said Cloud, wishing the man would focus on the task. Or at least lose some weight. He looked to Jessie. "Are you getting the gate open or what?"
"This is a complex explosive device. It's designed to burn through Mako Infused wood," said Jessie. "If I don't take my time with this, it'll burn through all of us." She seemed annoyed by the question. Then she finished and stood up. "Done. Step back."
They all did step back, Jessie pressed a button, and there was a shower of sparks. The roots were burned away, and they went in. Not that it was the last door they'd had to burn through. Another was of traditional computer lock, and Biggs had codes to it.
Eventually, they got into the tree itself. A woman in white ran forward, having very elfen features. "Stop! What are you doing?! Why are you desecrating this sacred place!"
Barret shot her through the head without a word. Cloud watched her corpse fall lifeless to the ground. He thought that everyone here had been people. Each one had hopes, dreams and goals, desires. All of them had extended beyond one terrorist massacre by a rag-tag group of misfits. None of them would ever be fulfilled.
They were all being devoured by the Lifestream now. Soon everything they were would cease to be anything but a memory.
"That's why," said Barret.
"That was pretty brutal, Barret," said Wedge. "Are you sure you had to shoot her?"
"She'd seen our faces," said Barret, moving forward. "Cloud, Jessie, you're with me. Wedge, Biggs, get our escape route open."
Cloud looked to the other door, then to where Barret was walking. It was a passage leading deep into the tree, and all three of them walked. As they did, the ground seemed to twist in spirals, and yet gravity shifted as well. Soon they were walking on the ceiling and then back on what had been the ground.
It was very surreal.
And in the far distance, Cloud saw the light emanating from a green crystal. It was beautiful, emanating a kind of peaceful warmth that was almost an assault.
"See down there, Cloud," said Barret. "Down there are the energies of the Lifestream. The Ancients say that we all become one with the Lifestream after we die.
"Way I see it, I'm not getting eaten by that thing. So we'll send those fucking ancients straight to their precious Lifestream."
"So what?" asked Cloud. "What does it matter?"
"The planets' gonna devour us if we don't take it out first, Strife," said Barret.
"I live on this planet," noted Cloud, liking this less and less by the moment. "I just want to get this job done before the tree men and soldiers come."
Coming to the crystal, Cloud remembered a Mako Spring. He and Tifa had seen it while navigating the Nibel Mountains. It had many pieces of materia glittering in natural growth. Though none of them were usable just yet. Natural Materia growth took decades, as opposed to more modern refinements.
It was... beautiful, after a fashion.
It became much less beautiful when you remembered it may have been made from souls—the souls of those who succumbed to the planet. Materia was drawn from the Lifestream, after all. So, you could argue it was made of souls.
One day, Cloud die. His essence would be devoured by the Lifestream, his memories and personality... all of it would fade. And he would be no more than a memory.
"I'm setting the bomb to ten minutes," said Jessie.
"Ten is more than enough," said Barret.
"It's done; let's go," said Jessie. "Wedge should have the escape hatch done by now."
They activated the bomb, and the numbers began to tick down. Fleeing upwards up the roots, they got back into the location. Sure enough, the door was open, and all of them fled. Jessie tripped and fell, and the others did not see. But Cloud kneeled and helped her up.
Then they ran.
Sprinting away, they rushed over a walkway of wood, looking down over the roots of the tree system far below. No one challenged them, but then there was a roar. Cloud saw an explosion rip through the tree above. In a last, desperate run, they leaped through a door and ducked for cover.
There was a terrible roar.
And Cloud knew that the destruction of the First Tree could be seen for miles around.
Darkness fell, and he saw something collapse over the door. For a time, they all lay in utter darkness, and Cloud wondered if the others had been devoured. Once, a long time ago, he'd seen the Lifestream, been near it, felt it tearing at him.
Never again.
"Jessie," whispered Cloud.
Jessie coughed. "The bomb must have gone off early. Anyone else there?"
"I am," said Barret's voice. "Biggs, Wedge?"
"Here," said a Biggs.
"Here," said Wedge.
Barret laughed just slightly. "That means everything went perfect, at least as far as blowing the tree went. Get out your flashlights, everyone."
Several lights went out. Cloud remembered Wedge had insisted they all take one and turned it on. Looking around, he saw there was a door leading out into the street. But rubble had fallen in front of it.
"Biggs, your flashlight?" said Jessie.
"Mine is broken. Got smashed when we leaped through, I guess," said Biggs.
"Fine, fine, stick near me," said Jessie moving up.
"Okay..." said Barret. "We're trapped in here for now. Only a matter of time before the Ancients come looking for what happened. No way are we gonna bluff our way out of prison. Jessie, you got the spare explosives?"
"Yeah, I always bring extra," said Jessie, drawing them out and setting them on the rubble.
"Won't that fry us?" asked Wedge.
"No, no, not at all," said Jessie. "See, the explosion was only as big as it was because the bomb set off a chain reaction in the Mako. If I use it here, it'll be way smaller."
"Well, I can hear voices out that way," said Barret. "Blow the way open there."
"Right, sure," said Jessie. "Everyone, step back."
A moment later, there was a bang, and a hole opened up in the wall, leading into the welcome air of daylight. Moving out, they heard the sounds of chaos and clamor from the streets. Was this what the people of Nibelheim had sounded like when the Guardian Force fell on them? Probably not; it had taken less than a minute for the place to be reduced to a flaming wreck.
Cloud had been right behind the one who did it.
"I wish we could have seen it," said Jessie, turning to admire the wilted and broken tree. The once green leaves were wilted, the bark was blackened.
"What?" said Cloud.
"You know, the explosion," said Jessie. "Those trees are blessed directly by the Planet, so the Planet has put a lot of itself into them. By blowing up one of the trees, we were hurting that thing. I was looking forward to the explosion."
"What does it matter how we kill the Lifestream?" asked Biggs, sheathing his gun. "If it's dead, it's dead."
"Okay, we're out," said Barret. "Everyone split up, and we'll meet up back in 7th Heaven."
"Right," said Wedge.
And they broke apart.
Cloud made his way through the streets. He was watching Ancients and their human inferiors looking up in horror. Obviously, they had been taken completely off guard. A number of cars had crashed in confusion. Many windows were broken near the living wood, and the sound of fire engines could be heard.
"What happened?" said a person.
"Why would anyone want to destroy one of the Sacred Trees!" said another.
"We can regrow it, can't we?" asked another.
"The Lifestream is capable of anything, I'm sure of it," said a girl.
Cloud was genuinely surprised at the reaction.
They really didn't get it, did they? They thought they were a virtuous, wise race looking after the Planet. Why wasn't humanity grateful? The idea that they were the villains of the piece had never even entered their minds.
Then again, Cloud was no hero.
So perhaps they were both just villains of a different sort in the end. Two sets of murderous sociopaths on opposite sides. It's just that both had deluded themselves that they were the heroes.
Shinra and the Ancients deserved each other. And Cloud was as much of a butcher as either of them.
In a broken, shattered courtyard, Cloud saw spray paint on a wall. "Do not believe the Ancients lies. The Planet will devour us all.
"I wonder who spray painted that? Wedge seems like he might do it, or maybe Biggs.
"It doesn't matter."
Cloud was going to feel very silly if he died today and found there was a benevolent, loving God. How would he even account for this massacre? Who had he helped? And what real damage had he done to Lifestream? And for that matter, how did he really know the Lifestream devoured people? Granted, that was the darker interpretation of the Ancients beliefs in the afterlife. But how did the Ancients really know what the afterlife was?
Maybe they got it wrong. Humans had accepted the cosmic horror angle because they hated Cetra. They'd had every reason to want them dead. The propaganda about a devouring Lifeforce just gave them an excuse to demonize them. Perhaps it was also less scary than the way the Ancients interpreted things.
But really, how did the scientific community know any better?
The scientific 'experts' had lied to the populace nonstop for years. Sometimes for propaganda, other times to suit corporate agenda. And while some of them no doubt told the truth, you had to wait a decade after a given discovery to know who they were. By that time, they might have become corrupted by corporate interest.
With so many lies, Cloud was beginning to think the best solution was to believe in nothing. To trust no one, to accept only what you could verify for yourself, and to put your faith in nothing. Especially not promises to childhood friends you hadn't seen in... how many years was it? Cloud couldn't even remember; he'd thought it had been five years. But Tifa had mentioned it being seven once or twice by accident.
That settled it.
Childhood promise to Tifa or no, after he got back, Cloud was leaving for somewhere far away. What was being done here was just mindless terrorism. It wasn't going to help anyone, and it was going to get a lot of people killed. They didn't even know that killing these trees would actually hurt the Lifeforce any. It was just a theory the higher-ups had thrown around to motivate the troops. They might not even believe it themselves.
And then, as he passed beyond the courtyard, he halted. Turning around, he saw a familiar figure. She was clad in red armor and held a staff in hand, and her brown hair was long. It fell around her shoulders and behind her with guardsmen.
"Good to see you, Cloud," said Aerith.
The Buster Sword came out of Cloud's hand in an instant. "Aerith."
The destroying of Nibelheim had shown her face. Then Cloud could finish his business early by ending her. Then he'd leave for parts unknown.