Chapter 26: Miles to Go
Summary: They've finally left Midgar, and Aerith is finding it hard. Also, Zack hears from an old friend.
Kunsel stared down at his PHS. He scrolled through all the unanswered messages he'd sent wondering if this one would get a different response.
Why wasn't Zack replying?
He knew Zack was getting his messages. He knew it, because a little eye appeared after a message had been seen. He also knew that it wasn't just him Zack wasn't responding to. Luxiere hadn't received a response to any of the texts he'd sent either, but then Luxiere was a bit of an asshole.
Luxiere had reported Kass to Heidegger because Kass had mentioned Lod and Manecki's disappearance after the clusterfuck in Mideel. They'd been injured, sure, but not enough to kill them. They should've been back on duty within the week, and they hadn't been.
Silently, Kunsel had agreed. That the two Seconds hadn't been seen since was as alarming as a Turk at a union rally, but it was also known that you didn't ask. Not since Lazard ….
And Kass hadn't asked. He'd made a comment outside the training room. Just him, Kunsel, a couple other SOLDIERs Kunsel would trust with his life. And Luxiere.
That afternoon Kass had been summoned up to the 69th floor. It was the last anyone had seen of him. The system said he'd had been reassigned to Fort Tamblin, but there'd been no flights out that day – or the three following days – and Kunsel suspected that Kass had ended up on the science floors – and not as security.
Would the same thing happen to him if he tried to quit?
He had nearly fifteen years in Shinra security forces – five as a grunt and nine in SOLDIER. If he'd been a regular infantryman, he'd qualify for a pension in a year. A shit pension, but still.
SOLDIERs didn't have a pension plan – not through Shinra anyway – but Kunsel had been putting money away, every paycheque. He had enough money now he could probably buy a small business in Costa del Sol, or maybe the South Islands.
Would Shinra let him do it, though?
He knew some SOLDIER Thirds had left the service, damaged beyond their mako level's ability to repair, but nothing higher. Oh, everyone was told a Second or a First had retired, but he'd never found any proof. No records of marriages, or kids, starting a business or buying a place. Nothing. And he'd been looking since he'd figured out what had happened in Nibelheim.
He knew what Shinra had allowed to happen to Zack – their red-hot poster SOLDIER. Marketing had been pumping Fair up since Genesis & Angeal's desertion. Happy, bouncy, friendly – great for making Shinra look like the good guys, and yet they'd essentially given him to Hojo.
Kunsel forced his jaw to open, to relax. He had a constant headache because of all the things he knew but couldn't speak of.
If the Turks didn't know how much he knew about … everything, Kunsel calculated his odds of getting out of Shinra alive (and still human) at one in five. If he was lucky.
Now that the president was dead and Shinra was literally falling apart around them, the odds were one in ten. Still not great.
They'd be better if he could join Zack as a semi-famous monster hunter – someone in the public eye – but to do that he needed Zack to talk to him.
Maybe… Maybe this news was big enough.
Subject: Hojo Retired?
From: Kunsel
Heard you'd been to SOLDIER stores and cleaned them out. Good for you. Wish I'd been there to say hello, but the move to Junon is keeping all of us busy.
There's been no announcement, and in fact they're trying to keep it very quiet, but it looks like Hojo's left the company. Rumours are he's retired and moving to Costa del Sol.
I can't imagine him on a beach. Can you?
.o0|0o.
"Do you think Hojo actually left Shinra?" Aerith asked anxiously after Zack showed them the message.
They were three hours out of Midgar, sitting on the train to Junon. They didn't have a private car, but most of the other passengers had taken one look at their group and decided to sit elsewhere. Genesis blamed that on Zack's purple-and-orange flame shirt. Aerith thought it was more likely how loud they all were as they watched the run rise over the Midgar wastes.
(Aerith hadn't joined them in looking out the windows. Instead, she had sat on the aisle with Zack between her and the too big, too bright, sky outside the train. And she was never telling Tseng.)
They'd divided into mostly Avalanche in one seating area. (Mostly, because Marlene had insisted on sitting next to Red. Where Marlene went, Barret went, and the rest of Avalanche followed Barret.
Marlene was giving Red a massage (that looked more like petting). (Aerith figured if Red didn't like it, he'd let the child know. Marlene had told him all about how she did the same thing for her daddy because Barret liked weapons that were big and mean-looking, like him, but they made his muscles hurt, so she'd rub his muscles until he felt all better.
Barret, bright red under his dark skin, hadn't denied a single thing his daughter said. It was very sweet.
Aerith shared a seating area with Zack, Cloud and Genesis, and she'd thought that it was going to be Avalanche vs Shinra all the way to Junon. Then Tifa had kicked Genesis from the window seat when he said he planned to spend the trip reading a "new" version of Loveless.
Aerith didn't know if he was actually reading it or reliving memories, but she did know that three hours later, only Marlene was still looking out the window with the same enthusiasm.
Everyone else, even Biggs who'd never been outside Midgar before and had matched Marlene in enthusiasm, was now looking at Zack who told them the news of Hojo's "retirement".
"Why would Hojo retire?" Genesis asked, lowering his precious book. "Shinra gave him everything he ever wanted."
"Who's Hojo?" Marlene asked.
"A very bad man," Red rumbled.
"Evil-bad, or just rude?" Marlene asked. "Because some people think Daddy's a bad man 'cause he swears a lot, but really, that's just rude."
While Barret blushed as red as the Honeybee Inn's carpet, Red assured the girl that Hojo was, indeed, "evil bad."
"Fucking right, he's evil," Zack muttered as Marlene went back to looking out the window. Zack stared down at the screen of his PHS as if he could pull an answer out of it by force of will alone.
She rubbed her shoulder against his arm to give him some silent support. The rest waited, each as patient as they could manage. Very in Cloud's case, hardly at all in Barret's. (Genesis was elaborately indifferent.)
"If Hojo left," Zack finally said. "It's only because he has other plans."
Genesis hummed agreement and went back to reading Loveless. Tifa's Avalanche friends just exchanged nervous looks. They'd never dealt with Hojo, but they were smart enough to realize that anyone who had two SOLDIERs worried was some one to be afraid of.
"At least you won't run into him in Junon," she offered as solace.
A dark look passed over Zack's face before he gave a rueful smile. "There is that."
That brief expression scared her.
Aerith knew Zack's time as Hojo's prisoner hadn't been … It had been torture disguised as science, and sadism cloaked as curiosity. He'd told her some of it. She'd guessed more from the whimpers as he dreamed.
Aerith's memories of Hojo were weird – a child's memories disjointed after a dozen years.
She always pictured Hojo as a huge, looming presence, but Zack said he just was Cloud's height – average. She didn't really remember his face, but she could still hear his voice. It was tempting to say it oozed, because evil things ooze, but it hadn't. Mostly, she remembered it as impatient and grating.
Then there was Hojo's smell. A mix of lab chemicals and too long without a proper bath. Some of the less fortunate residents of Sector 5 smelled similar enough it had given Zack a couple panicked flashbacks. It wasn't until Zack's reaction that she had remembered Hojo's smell. How had she forgotten the acidic sourness of it?
She just had.
"Gonna message back?" Cloud voice broke into Aerith's grim memories.
"Should I?" he asked.
"Allies within enemy territory are always an advantage," Genesis pointed out while turning a page with great deliberation. "And if I remember rightly, Kunsel always knew more than he should."
"Shinra isn't technically an enemy," Zack pointed out.
Genesis waved an elegant hand. "Unfriendly territory then."
"Will helping us put him in danger?" Aerith asked.
Zack hummed. "Probably."
"Make it official," Tifa suggested. "Have him approach Tseng directly."
"What?" Zack huffed." Tifa raised an eyebrow as if daring him to argue. Zack laughed out loud. "He's half Turk already. Why not go the final distance?"
Aerith frowned. "Turks are experiments in waiting, you said."
Zack's laugh turned sour. "As a SOLDIER, he's that already."
"He could at least confirm some of what Tseng feeds us," Genesis said, still covering his interest with fake nonchalance. "I, for one, would feel somewhat reassured if the head Turk wasn't our only source of information on what Shinra is up to."
"We could use him, you mean. Like Shinra used us." Zack still sounded bitter.
"Why would you trust him?" Barret asked. "He suddenly starts sending you messages–"
"He never stopped." Zack interrupted. "For five years. More at the beginning, but every few months I'd get something. As if he knew my death was a lie." Zack was staring at the carriage ceiling now. It probably wasn't any more helpful than his PHS screen had been at helping him dispel the fear of learning yet another friend had betrayed him.
Aerith turned to her boyfriend – her miraculously alive and returned boyfriend. "Do you miss him?"
"I miss a lot of things." It wasn't an answer.
Aerith wasn't going to let him dodge this one. She put her hand over his too-big heart. "Do you miss your friend, SOLDIER Second Class Kunsel?"
Zack's eyes, now more blue than violet, looked at her. She looked back at him unflinching, unwavering.
His lips twisted. "Yeah, I do."
"Then you should talk to him," she said. "See if you can become friends once again."
It took another long pause before Zack finally sighed in resignation. "'kay." He stood and then stepped out of their small area into the middle aisle. "Don't make any dumb decisions without me."
Aerith kicked Genesis before he could say anything, but she hadn't expected Red.
"Is that not your speciality?"
Zack paused, hands on hips, to stare at their group. "You know. This might turn out to be one of those decisions, and you all approved it. Just remember that." He waved a finger at them.
He was also frowning ferociously at all of them, but Aerith could see his posture had lightened, like being insulted made things better. He walked out of the train car with a slight bounce, already lifting his PHS to his ear.
"I ain't endorsed nothin'," Barret muttered.
"Anybody want to play some poker?" Biggs asked a little too brightly. Nobody seemed interested and soon most of them were back to looking out the window – apparently, they were getting close to the Mithril Mountains. (Cloud had his eyes closed, and Genesis was back to turning pages in his copy of Loveless.)
Aerith wished she'd brought something to do, something to distract her. Instead, Red's comment echoed inside her mind. Waiting the extra days and taking the train had been Zack's idea, and nobody had liked the idea except her.
Well, it had been Tseng's idea first, but Zack had agreed for all of them.
Because of her.
Barret had shouted at him for a straight fifteen minutes. Genesis had objected to travelling in Coach for another five. Biggs and Jessie had mentioned the risks of "being where Shinra expected". Tifa had objected to the possible loss of privacy involved in taking the train. Cloud had raised an eyebrow.
And Aerith had swallowed her guilt and let Zack take all the blame.
"I'd forgotten how beautiful the world was outside of Midgar," Jessie said. She was practically in Bigg's lap so she could be closer to the window. Just looking at her made Aerith's spine tighten with nerves. She had to swallow down her fear.
It was just so big.
Tifa turned and waved at the seat across from her – a window seat. "Sure you don't want to come see?"
She asked Aerith that every half hour or so. As she had every previous time, Aerith shook her head and smiled. "I'm fine where I am." If her smile was thin and forced, Tifa didn't seem to notice.
When she looked over, Cloud was watching her. His eyes' slight glow wasn't noticeable in the brightness of the morning sun, but since their fight through Deepground, Aerith could sense the warped power in him.
She could sense all the team, of course, since she was now aware of most living things, but Cloud was tainted with mako - the Lifestream, compressed and altered for human use. It thrummed in his veins. Same with Tifa and even more so with Genesis. They both had the same tense feel – coiled power in reserve.
Zack, however….
If she wasn't careful, Zack vibrated. Strong enough to make her teeth hurt.
There was mako in him, of course – a lot of it, but there was also more. The power he kept contained was thicker, stronger – oilier. It could lift him up, but it could also weigh him down, change him. Maybe into something like the monster they had faced in Shinra Tower.
She wasn't going to let that happen.
Her resolve felt like lightning, running from her heart to to her fingertips and out into the world. Her hands clenched, and Cloud's too-bright eyes saw it all.
"Do you think we did the right thing following Tseng's advice?" she asked. It was the first thing that came to mind.
Not that discussing the decision after the fact would change it, but she didn't want to talk about the important things.
Cloud, unsurprisingly, shrugged. It was Genesis who answered her. "He might not have been lying."
"He said the road was closed for unscheduled maintenance," Tifa said, rolling her eyes.
"Ah, the notoriously bland 'unscheduled maintenance'." Genesis smiled in true enjoyment. "Bureaucratic cover speech for 'something went horribly wrong'."
Cloud snorted.
"So… A landslide?" she asked.
"Could be," Cloud said with a shrug. "Or monsters."
"Or Shinra shifting their troops around," Tifa said.
Genesis lifted a finger. "That would be scheduled maintenance."
"Not if they're setting up an ambush for us," she replied.
Barret twisted in his seat to look back at them, nearly hitting Genesis in the process. "Think they're sendin' troops to Fort Condor? I hear things are heatin' up down there."
Genesis pushed Barret's arm back with a sharp 'tsk'. He rolled out of his seat to sprawl into Zack's empty spot next to her.
Cloud had also tipped a little to avoid getting an arm to the head. "Troop movement is a guess," he pointed out.
"Or it could've been – as Ms Rasberry mentioned repeatedly – a ruse to allow them to plant bugs in our vehicles, so they'd know exactly where we are and where we're going." Genesis said with a quirk of an eyebrow.
"Yeah, that. That makes sense!" Barret growled. Genesis' smirk deepened. Barret growled. "They're probably installing tracking devices all over our vehicles even as we speak,"
Genesis almost purred as he waited for Barret to explode – which he did.
It involved the huge man standing in the aisle, waving his arms, and lecturing them all on Shinra's evilness and untrustworthiness, and a bunch of other things they already knew. Tifa, Biggs and Jessie all watched him, nodding along. Marlene and Red watched the passing scenery and maintained their own, much quieter, conversation.
Aerith leaned right a little. "You are an incorrigible tease," she said softly to the redhead.
"What can I say? 'She guides us to bliss, her gift everlasting'."
"Being an asshole is your gift?" Cloud said just as softly.
"Absolutely!" Genesis smiled happily. "A small pleasure retained from when I was a bitter villain." He tipped his head. "However, to prove I'm still on the side of good, I've cut down on my Loveless quotes?"
That actually made Cloud smile. Just a small one. It was lovely.
Marlene saw something that needed her father's input, and that finally pulled Barret out of his lecture on privacy and personal rights. Everyone who'd been listening to him (the Avalanche people) looked out the window with Marlene and made noises of wonder. Cloud glanced out, but only briefly. He'd probably seen it before on one of his deliveries.
Aerith didn't look out the window. She sat upright, carefully not looking to the side.
Beside her, Genesis sprawled over the rest of the bench seat like a cat. Or an actor aware that they had an audience.
He looked at her, eyes half-closed – then blinked. Suddenly, he shifted so he was less posing, and more sitting. "You needn't worry about your Zack," he said softly, still looking at her, smiling softly.
"I'm not worried," but she lifted her chin as she said it and knew it gave away too much.
His smile turned a little sad. "He is the most noble person I know – that I have ever known, in fact. Unlike the rest of us, he did not abandon his faith in humanity."
Aerith knew it was true, but that wasn't her fear. Marco, tattooed with a number, hadn't chosen to give up his humanity either. It had been forced from him.
Cloud nudged her foot. When she looked at him, he didn't say anything, just nodded reassuringly.
Beside her, she could feel Genesis' eyeroll as he let himself return to his sprawl. "Eloquent as always, Strife."
"Understood it though."
Genesis made an unimpressed sound. Cloud gave her a wink.
She heard the passage door open. Cloud looked up and remained relaxed, so she turned to watch Zack approach. He was frowning, but he didn't look unhappy. He looked puzzled.
"Well?" she asked.
Zack nodded slowly. "It was… It was good." He sounded surprised. "I mean, we didn't talk about anything specific–" Meaning, he hadn't asked if Kunsel knew about Nibelheim. "But it was good." He looked at Genesis. "I didn't ask him to spy for us."
Genesis gave a casual wave. "He'll do it anyway now that he knows you'll talk to him." The red-headed SOLDIER slipped back to the other side, letting Zack take back his old seat next to her. He stepped over their feet to sit between her and the window. Protecting her from the wide blue sky she wasn't quite ready to face.
"Did you find out anything useful?" Barret asked, leaning over to glare at them.
Zack shook his head. He laid his arm over her shoulders, pulling himself closer to her. His chin poked at the top of her head. "Just…. Shinra's not in a good place," he said. "Worse that it was even five years ago."
Genesis snorted.
"Over half the SOLDIERs who were left after your desertion – the ones I served with – they're gone," Zack said. "Kunsel and I became Seconds together with twenty-four other guys. There's only four left."
Genesis sat forward eyes suddenly flinty. "That shouldn't be possible."
Above her, Zack hummed agreement.
"Experiments in waiting?" Cloud asked. He too was looking at Zack with narrowed eyes.
Zack nodded once, digging his chin into her skull. "He's scared he's next on the list."
"Scared less now that Hojo's gone?"
Aerith felt Zack's chest expand as he pulled in a breath. He held it – one count, two. "I don't think so, but maybe for different reasons."
Across from them, both Cloud and Genesis sat back. They gave each other the same look of concern, quick and away. They didn't ask any more questions though, and she could feel Zack gradually relax, breath by breath. (She didn't mean to match his rhythm, but she did. Or maybe he matched hers.)
In the end it didn't matter. There was nothing they could do for Zack's friend, not right now. Right now, Aerith was going to enjoy sitting next to her boyfriend. She was going to enjoy his warmth, and the fact that she could feel his heart beating.
The steady clack-clack-clack of the train on the tracks added its rhythm to his heartbeat. The gentle sway rocked them deeper into each other. She was safe, finally safe, in his arms.
Her blinks got longer… heavier… and stopped.
.o0|0o.
"Zack."
It was Cloud's voice, low – demanding awareness.
Zack's arm was heavy around her. She hadn't noticed just how heavy until he jerked and it momentarily lifted from her shoulders.
"Head's up."
That got Zack moving in little jerks. "Maaaaan," he whined quietly. He leaned his cheek against her hair.
Aerith dragged her eyes open and peeked around. It was much later in the morning. The sun outside the windows was high in the sky but hidden behind clouds. Genesis had moved to the seating area behind them, lounging across the whole bench. Red was laying next to Cloud, as sprawled out as Genesis. Tifa had joined the rest of her Avalanche friends and was playing Go Fish (if Marlene's demand for Queens was an indication).
"Zack, can we talk?" Aerith recognized that voice.
"Heya Cissnei."
Reluctantly, Aerith pulled herself out of sleep to say her own hello to the small Turk. It came out funny because she yawned in the middle.
Either to mock her or Cissnei, Aerith's greeting was followed by a warble from Genesis. Then Jessie, Barret, Biggs and even Marlene who'd never met Cissnei before all said their own hellos.
Each time one finished saying it, Cissnei opened her mouth to speak. Then another team member would chime in and she'd close it again. Finally, Tifa and Cloud's greetings overran each other's. Red just yawned, showing his (very sharp) teeth.
Beside her, Aerith could feel Zack's ribs vibrating as he tried to hold in a laugh.
"Zack," Cissnei repeated, voice filled with forced patience.
"Cissnei." Now Zack was just teasing. Aerith jabbed him with her elbow.
"How can we help you, Cissnei?" she asked.
Cissnei looked at all of them, each looking at her with wide-eyed eagerness or narrow-eyed suspicion. It was obvious – at least it was obvious to Aerith – that Cissnei gave up on whatever she'd originally planned to say. She ruffled her shoulders. (it wasn't big enough to be a shake.) "Rufus has requested to meet with you while you are in Junon."
"And why would he want that?" Genesis asked, draping himself over Zack's shoulder.
"Yeah," Zack added. "We're already working for him." He lifted his arm from around her shoulders. Aerith didn't know whether to mourn the loss of contact or enjoy feeling about ten kilos lighter. (She decided to do both.)
"And we already been paid," Barret added.
"He thought maybe you'd like to see the parade."
They all waited for Cissnei to continue.
She didn't.
Zack finally snorted, "Rufus Shinra wants us on the grandstand."
"That's what I was told."
"Why." Zack's question was echoed by Genesis and Barret. Jessie just said "yeah, right," under her breath barely loud enough to be heard.
"I wasn't told his reasons."
Genesis propped his head up on an elegant hand. "I'll tell you a possible reason," he said, voice light but dismissive. "If we save the world from Sephiroth then we're the heroes, not Shinra. Rufus needs to show the world that he holds our leashes."
Most of the Avalanche people joined Red in growling.
Aerith could feel Zack filling his lungs, getting ready to dismiss the request. Cissnei lifted her chin. "In return, he will allow you full access to Junon base and the reactor."
"We need to get down there in case Sephiroth shows up."
"You don't know that the reactor will be his target."
Zack lifted one shoulder in a shrug. "You don't know it's not, but it would destabilize Junon the same way he destabilized Midgar."
Cissnei's jaw tightened. "The reactor is a restricted area," she pointed out. "Tightly guarded."
Zack snorted. "So was Deepground and he got into that."
Cissnei looked at Zack. Zack looked back unbudging. Finally, the Turk's shoulders dropped. "It's a small request, Zack."
"Nothing to do with Shinra is ever small, Cissnei. You know that," he replied. "There are always strings and conditions."
"And fine print," Cloud added.
Zack gave a bitter laugh. "And the fucking fine print."
Cissnei shifted her weight, and her thumb rubbed the back of her hand. Just once, just small movements, but enough to show that she was uncomfortable. Maybe even regretful.
Aerith could feel Zack beside her. His body was like steel. Across from her, Cloud's expression wasn't any softer. Nobody's was, but Cissnei was just standing there. Waiting.
Aerith sighed.
"Let us discuss it, Cissnei," she said, forcing herself to smile brightly. "We'll talk about it and let you know our decision later."
Cissnei straightened. "Thank you, Aerith." She gave Aerith a small bow. "Hopefully, I will see you shortly."
Aerith gave the Turk a bright smile and didn't hope for anything of the sort. She watched Cissnei until the door slid shut behind her. When she turned back to the team, everyone was looking at her.
"What?"
"I bet you suck at poker," Jessie said.
"I've never played."
That had Biggs leaning closer. "You don't know how to play poker?"
Aerith shrugged uncomfortably. "I know the rules." In theory. "I've just never played."
"Oh man!" He actually bounced. "We need to have a game."
"Poker is only exciting if the stakes are high," Genesis sniffed.
"Or silly," Jessie said taking a turn leaning over a seat back. "Most exciting game I ever played was for jujubes."
"Camp chores," Cloud said. "Get someone else to clean the mud off your boots." Zack nodded, but Genesis just sniffed. (Aerith figured someone else had always polished his boots.)
So, rather than discussing Rufus Shinra's bizarre invitation, most of them ended up squeezed around the fold down table in one section playing a poker variant from Corel (so not even poker), and betting things like hair braids and chocolate bars – and yes, camp chores for when they were away from any towns.
Cloud was great at it. His face never changed, and even Jessie and Biggs' card counting skills (because that was something you could do, apparently) weren't enough to always know if he was bluffing.
Tifa glared at Cloud's two pairs and threw down her hand in disgust. "How?!"
Cloud shrugged. "Always liked maths." This smile was more sharklike than sweet.
Genesis was a horrible player – even worse than Aerith apparently, because he just didn't care. He'd bid up a hand and then fold on a whim. It made those taking the game seriously very angry with him.
Zack was actually pretty good at controlling his expression. However, he didn't look happy when she mentioned it. "Survival skill," he said. She didn't ask for details.
He and Barret might've been decent players if they hadn't been playing with Cloud and Biggs and Jessie. But they were, and so their pile of candy and chores and knick-knacks went down steadily.
As predicted, Aerith was awful at the game, but even if she'd been great, she'd decided winning wasn't actually the point.
For the first time since they'd boarded the train, members of Barret's team and Zack's were together. Biggs was next to Zack; Genesis sat next to Jessie. Barret was beside Cloud and hardly swearing at him at all. It was a horrible, ridiculous game, but finally they were becoming a team.
Yes, they'd separate again in Junon, but it was important for them all to have this memory. Remembering this would remind them that they were all on the same side, all aimed at the same goal even if they were apart.
She ruthlessly stomped on the part of herself that wanted to be going to Cosmo Canyon to speak to Red's grandfather, and not going after something that might be the most fearsome warrior the planet had ever seen or maybe it would become another horrific monster hybrid no one had seen before.
They'd been lucky at the tower. No one had died, but it could've happened. She could've lost Zack again, or Cloud with his dry sarcasm and endless competence.
Now there were more people for her to worry about losing: Genesis with his fake indifference, Tifa with her angry enthusiasm.
What if Tseng was right and she wasn't good enough to be out here, facing danger?
She already knew she wasn't ready, not really. But…her fear that she would do something wrong – mistime a cast, look in the wrong direction, or freeze in the middle of a fight was overpowered by her fear of not being there when she was needed.
She could definitely heal Zack and Cloud and the rest. She could maybe keep them alive.
The train entered the tunnel through the Mithril Mountains, cutting off the sky and turning the world small again.
There was still light from the lamps between the windows and from small lights in the floor, but Marlene squealed and launched herself at her father. Barret tossed his hand on the table (exposing a large number of aces) and caught his daughter.
"You scared, Marlene?"
She shook her head while pulling herself in closer. "How long is it going to be dark?"
"Nearly an hour, sweetheart–"
An hour?
"–but it's not this dark the whole way."
Oh. That was better."
"Okay, Daddy."
Aerith really should've paid more attention when they'd discussed this.
"Maybe we should nap a little?" Barret suggested, voice coaxing.
Marlene gave him an unimpressed look. The faint green of the mako lights added a shine to her eyes. "Can I have ice cream first?"
"We don't got no ice cream."
"They probably sell it in the dining car," Genesis said, and Aerith knew it was all over for Barret.
It was all over for her, too, because just thinking about food had her stomach making noises.
"What else do they sell in the dining car?" Zack asked.
"You should know," Tifa said. "Shinra sent you all over the world."
Both Genesis and Zack laughed. "They didn't send SOLDIER by train," Genesis sniffed.
"Regular army went by train," Cloud said. "Dining car food's like bar food. But smaller. And more expensive."
Nobody waited for Cloud to finish. Biggs packed away his cards. Jessie picked up their bags. Even Red was standing up and stretching. "I would enjoy some ice cream," he said.
Cloud snorted. "The stuff you get on a train might not qualify," but he was also standing up and digging out his sword from where he'd stashed it under the seats.
Aerith smiled at him. "I guess we'll find out."
.o0|0o.
Cloud hadn't been wrong about the quality, size, or cost of the food offered in the diner car. There were thin sandwiches, stale cakes, and tiny bags of potato chips at prices that could (according to Cloud) pay for a week of Deza's special greens. Shinra was obviously taking advantage of having a captive market. (Well, when didn't they?)
But they had money now, so they paid for the food, and enjoyed it despite how awful it was.
By the time they emerged from the Mithral Tunnel (the first of three, apparently), Aerith was ready to see the sun and the sky. She was ready to look out the window and look at the scenery (so different from Midgar).
She was ready to look at her teammates and believe that she wouldn't fail them.
End note. Remake makes a pretty big deal of Aerith when she steps out from under Midgar's plate. Understandable, as it's a huge change for her. I thought I'd do the same.