BOOK ONE: MIDGAR

TWO

"That should keep the planet going… at least a little longer."

That was Biggs, leanin' back against the wall in this little tunnel we was in. Mako Reactor 1 was dust, an' we'd made it outta the compound and into this cramped underground cubbyhole filled up with a buncha frayed wires an' broken slabs of concrete. A few pipes ran all along the length of the tunnel on the ceilin' an' the walls, drippin' mako and who knew what else, and the only light came from the sparks jumpin' outta some of the wires an' the flashlight Wedge was holdin'.

He nodded. "Yeah…"

Although our mission tonight had been a success, I felt uneasy jus' the same. Had to be this way, right? Shinra wasn't leavin' us any choice. At least that's what I kept tellin' myself back then. Didn't wanna think about what it might cost us, you know? I hate second-guessin' myself, an' at the time I didn't have no doubts about what we was doin' an' why. Not yet, anyway. That would come later.

Anyway, Jessie was workin' on another bomb to blast open the end of the tunnel so we could get outta here. We damn near lost her today, an' we would've too, if it hadn't been for Cloud. I'm sure that she knew it jus' as well as I did. I still didn't trust the kid, but maybe there was a bit more to him than I'd originally thought. He stood nearby, his hands folded across his chest an' that big-ass sword hangin' down his back as we waited for Jess to finish up.

Jus' seconds later, she stood up an' brushed herself off. "Done. Now stand back!"

We all backed away an' took cover as the far end of the tunnel blew outward in a huge blast of fire an' smoke. When it was clear, we all ran outside, Jessie still limpin' a little but doin' better than she was before. Them potions are really good for keepin' you on your feet an' patchin' up some hurts like what she'd got. Looked like the one Cloud had given her back in the reactor was finally startin' to kick in. She'd still hafta go easy on that leg for a while, though.

Wedge came last, pattin' at his backside where it was burnin' a little 'til them flames finally went out. He an' his family had come to Midgar from a small town near Kalm when he was jus' about eight or so, lured there no doubt by Shinra's fake promises of a better life. His dad an' his two older brothers had worked as maintenance techs in Mako Reactor 3, an' Wedge had joined 'em when he'd gotten old enough. The pay was a joke, even with the four of 'em workin' together, and they was barely able onto their home in the upper city.

When a bunch of them Shinra security 'bots in the reactor went all haywire a few years back an' killed a bunch of workers, Wedge's dad an' two older brothers had been among those that was lost. He'd been sick at home at the time, an' Shinra didn't give him or the rest of his family any sorta compensation or apology.

With only Wedge able to work, he an' his mom an' younger brother hadn't been able keep their home an' had wound up on the street jus' a few weeks later. Bein' the oldest boy, Wedge had taken what was left of his family down to the slums to find a new life down there, an' that was where I met him soon after. He was a quiet kid, but he hated Shinra for what they'd done, so he was eager to sign on with us.

Twisted bits of metal an' debris littered the small courtyard we was in, an' a set of stairs on our right led up to the street while the entryway of the tunnel still burned.

A narrow ladder on the far side also ran up to the street, an' on the wall right next to the stairs was that goddamn Shinra logo, a dark red diamond on an even darker red square with the name in the middle an' both of 'em outlined in white. Jus' the sight of that goddamn thing was enough to make my blood boil.

Everyone gathered around me, an' I looked at each of 'em in turn. They was a fine team, an' they'd done some good work today. Even that smart-ass kid from SOLDIER, I had to admit.

"Alright, let's head out. Rendezvous at Sector 8 Station. Split up an' get on the train."

The others nodded and sped off in different directions. Well, most of 'em, anyway. Cloud never even budged. He fixed those weird glowin' blue eyes on me an' frowned. "Hey, wait a minute!"

I jus' brushed him aside an' headed up the stairs. "If it's about yer money, save it 'til we get back!"

After watching Barret leave, I jogged up the stairs and into an alley. The train station wasn't too far away, just a few streets over, but I didn't want to attract any unwanted attention. Shinra soldiers would surely be converging on the wreckage of the reactor by now, and they would find anyone running away from it suspicious, so I made myself walk slowly instead. The alley soon opened up onto a wide avenue where crowds of people were bustling about in a panic and the bright orange glow from the smoldering ruins of the reactor could easily be seen. On my right, a theater stood with a large banner advertising that old play, LOVELESS, and near it and the Goblin's Bar lay several wrecked cars that had been hurled onto the sidewalk like child's toys in the explosion.

I was about to keep going when one of the passersby ran into a girl in an ankle-length pink dress and a short-sleeved red jacket, knocking her off her feet and causing her to drop the basket of flowers she'd been carrying. The stranger ran off without a word while the girl sighed and picked up her basket. Without knowing exactly why, I went over to her, took her by the hand, and helped her up. Her rich brown hair was tied with a pair of bright pink ribbons and fastened into a long, thick braid that hung down almost to her knees, and sturdy leather boots covered her feet. She looked at me with eyes like emeralds and smiled.

"Thanks," she said. "What happened here?"

I could have told her, I suppose, but I didn't want to put her in any danger. The last thing she needed was to have Shinra soldiers after her just because she'd happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time, but I didn't want to upset her, either. And there was something vaguely familiar about her, although back then, I couldn't have said what it was. But the oddest sense of déjà vu nearly overwhelmed me for no reason I could even begin to understand. I knew her, somehow, but I had never seen her before today, I was sure of it. Her eyes widened for a moment at the sight of the sword strapped to my back, but then she blinked and looked away so quickly I wondered if I hadn't just imagined it.

"It's nothing," I told her. Then I remembered her basket. "You don't usually see flowers here…"

"Oh, these?" her face lit right up, which was exactly what I'd been hoping for. From her earnest smile, I figured she didn't get many sales. "Do you like them? They're only a gil! Would you like to buy one?"

I handed her a coin. "Sure, I'll take one."

She took the gil, slipped it into her own pocket, and then plucked a yellow flower from out of the old wicker basket hanging from her arm. She held it out to me and smiled again. "Here, this is for you!"

I tucked the flower into my belt. "Thanks. See you around."

"You too. Maybe we'll run into each other again!"

"Anything's possible," I replied, walking away. But I didn't think we would. Midgar was an absolutely huge city, much too big for my liking, and I wasn't planning on being in it that much longer. I preferred open skies under the countryside. Still, I found that I wouldn't have minded seeing that girl again before I left this hellhole for good. She seemed so different from everything and everyone else around her, so bright and full of life. But it had just been a chance encounter, that was all. I didn't think it would happen again.

As it turned out later, I couldn't have been more wrong.

Crossing over to the next street and underneath a wide arch with a clock mounted at its summit, I hurried on through an enclosed square where a splashing fountain stood nearby. The ground was laid out in a black and white checkered pattern, and at the far end stood a sparking electrical generator beneath a set of towering billboards. On the lowest one was scrawled a message in badly written graffiti. I stopped for just a moment to take a look.

Don't be fooled by Shinra!
Mako energy won't last forever!
Mako is the lifeblood of the planet!
And someday it'll be gone!
Protectors of the planet: AVALANCHE

I wondered for a moment which of Barret's friends had written this little missive, then I decided it didn't matter. I doubted they would have that much of an impact, anyway. What could one small group with less than half a dozen people possibly hope to do against Shinra's powerful army and their virtually endless wealth? Barret was deluding himself if he thought he could bring them down. I couldn't understand why Tifa went along with it. What did she see in them? I knew she hated Shinra, but I didn't think it was a fight they could win.

Heading onward, I left the square and found myself in yet another alley. An intersection wasn't too far ahead, a cobbled street going off in either direction to my left and my right while the alley itself continued straight onward. On either side, a pair of tall apartment buildings rose up into the gloom, lights shining in the windows. I was heading toward the street when I heard boots on the concrete behind me. I turned and saw a pair of Shinra troopers, rifles at the ready.

"Hey, you there!" one of them shouted. "Halt!"

What a pain. I don't have time for this!

I spun back around and sped into the intersection, dodging bullets as they opened fire. Then, more troopers came at me from my right, so I made a left and started down the cobbled street only to run into even more soldiers. I reached over my shoulder and grabbed Buster's hilt as they closed in around me in a circle. Looked like it was gonna turn into a fight after all.

But then a very welcome sound reached my ears, and I grinned as I let go of my sword and backed up a few steps. The section of the street I was standing on overlooked a set of railroad tracks that ran out of a tunnel just beneath my feet. As the roar of the oncoming train's engine grew louder and the soldiers drew closer, I turned around and smirked at them over my shoulder. "Sorry, but I don't have time to mess around with you guys."

"Enough backtalk! Grab him!"

But before they could even make a move, I jumped just as the train shot out of the tunnel exit like a bullet fired from a gun. I landed in a crouch on the train's roof and shot a jaunty little wave at the soldiers as I quickly rode away from them. They started shooting at me again, but by then, I was already out of range. As the train sped onward, billowing plumes of black engine smoke swept over me. I coughed, put an arm in front of my face, and set out to find a way inside.

We was all together in the train, the four of us sittin' around in one of them cargo cars that had wooden crates full of different stuff waitin' to be delivered to different places all 'round the city. The passenger cars was ahead of us, but I wasn't ready to go jus' yet. Cloud was still missin' and as much as I didn't like it, I'd decided to give him a little more time to get his scrawny ass in here before we moved on. What the goddamn hell was keepin' him, anyway?

Wedge was sittin' nearby with his back to one of them crates while Biggs stood with his arms folded in front of him next to the side door used for movin' cargo in an' outta the train. Jess was off by herself over in the back of the train car leanin' against the wall and tryin' not to put too much weight on her bad ankle.

"Looks like Cloud didn't make it," Wedge said.

Biggs looked up. "Think he was caught?"

I snorted. "No way! He ain't lettin' nothin' get between him an' his goddamn money!"

"Cloud..." Jessie sighed an' looked down.

Damn. She was probably thinkin' about him, an' I s'pose I couldn't blame her. He'd saved her life, after all. I guess I shouldn't have gone an' dissed him like that. I was jus' mad he was so late, an' when I'm pissed like that I tend to say shit I don't mean. Don't make it right, of course. I drummed the fingers of my good hand on the top of a nearby crate an' tried to find somethin' to say to her to apologize, but Biggs cut in again before I could get a word out.

"You think he'll keep fighting for us?"

"How the hell would I know?" I scowled at him even though I was wonderin' the same thing myself. "Do I look like a mind reader to you? If y'all weren't such screw-ups, I wouldn't need that jackass!"

They all flinched this time, an' I jus' wanted to smack myself. It was true they didn't have a whole lot of experience, but they tried hard jus' the same. I guess I shouldn't have been quite so rough on 'em. They put themselves in danger for the cause, after all, and they knew what was at stake. They was good kids, and what was happenin' wasn't their fault. I was jus' about to say somethin' to 'em along those lines when suddenly there was a bang on the side door. And then another.

I went over to stand opposite Biggs an' grabbed onto the door with my good hand while he drew one of his guns an' the others backed up. He nodded, an' I threw open the door an' whipped up my gun-arm just as a dark-clad figure flew through the openin' with a quick somersault and landed inside. Soon as I saw that big-ass sword, I dropped my arm right away as Biggs relaxed an' the others crowded in around us to get a look at the newcomer.

"Cloud!" they all cheered.

He shrugged an' ran a hand through that spiky blond hair of his. "I guess I'm a little late."

"You damn right you're late!" I fumed. "Come waltzin' right in here makin' a big scene!"

"It's nothing special. Just what I always do."

Why'd he have to be so damn flippant? An' what fool reason did he have for bein' so goddamn late? He was really pissin' me off now, and I didn't care what the hell the others thought. I'd been waitin' to tell him off for a while now, an' I didn't give a shit if Tifa gave me any flack for it later. "You goddamn jerk! Havin' everyone worried like that. You don't give a damn 'bout no one but yourself!"

He raised an eyebrow. "You were worried about me?"

"WHAT? That's comin' outta your share, hotshot!" I glanced at the others. "C'mon, people! We're movin' out! Follow me!"

With that, I stormed off into the next car, grumblin' all the while.

After Barret left, I looked at the others. They were all staring at me, relief etched into their faces. What had they been so worried about? I'd been in SOLDIER, after all. I could take care of myself. I'd gotten away from the guards and onto the train, hadn't I? Wedge tugged on his light yellow shirt and grinned before he turned and followed Barret into the next car. "Hey, Cloud! You were great back there!"

"Cloud!" Biggs laughed, holstering his gun and slapping me on the back. "We'll do even better next time!"

He left as well, and then I was alone with Jessie. She closed the side door, muffling the rumbling of the train and the wind blowing outside, then turned back to me, smiling shyly. But then her eyes widened, and she barely stifled a laugh as she looked at me. What was so funny? Had I missed something here? Jessie must have seen my confusion, though, because she answered my unspoken question just a moment later. "Oh, Cloud! Your face… it's all dirty!"

I'd forgotten about all the soot and smoke I'd had to crawl through to get in here. I looked at my arms and saw that they were also covered in the stuff. Jessie took a damp rag out of her pocket and went to work on them, scrubbing them off until the black was all but gone. Then she started on my face, dabbing it across my skin and getting all the grime and dirt off of it. When she was finished, she didn't move away just yet. Instead, she paused and gazed at me for a moment.

"I… I just wanted to say thank you… for saving my life…"

Before I could say or do anything, Jessie leaned in and brushed her lips against my cheek. Then she was gone, heading to the next car after the others. I blinked, trying to take it all in and not entirely sure at first what had just happened, then I reached up and touched the spot on my face where she had kissed me. Did she… really just do that? With more of an effort than I had expected, I shook off those thoughts and headed through the doorway.

They were all scattered throughout the next car, which was empty aside from us and two other passengers. One of them, smelling of beer and a few other, less savory things, glanced up at me from where he lay sprawled across several seats to my left and held a dented metal flask in his hand. "Oh, this is my house, so make yourselves at home."

"You see the headlines they've got here in the Shinra Times?" said another man sitting on the other side, indicating the newspaper he was reading as I was walking by. "The terrorists that bombed Mako Reactor 1 are based somewhere in the slums. Blowing up a reactor! They really planned this one out. I wonder what they'll do next?"

At that, I exchanged a concerned glance with Barret, who sat about halfway down on the same side, but didn't answer the old man's spoken thought. So, Shinra knew to look in the slums for us even if they didn't know yet who they were looking for. I saw my own unease reflected in Barret's grim countenance. The slums stretched out beneath the entire city, but Shinra had plenty of ways of tracking down information. And there was no shortage of people down there that were heartless enough or desperate enough to sell out some of their neighbors to Shinra for a bit of quick cash.

There wasn't anything we could really do about it for now, though, so I put the matter aside and hoped I was worrying over nothing. Why was I even worrying about Barret and his bunch at all, come to think of it? My plan was to get my money and then get out of here. I didn't need to have Shinra breathing down my neck, and I wasn't sure how much longer I could stand to be in this city. I couldn't even remember why I'd come here in the first place.

I walked to the far end of the car, where Biggs was reclining against the wall, his arms folded in front of him and his dark eyes drooping so heavily they looked as though they would slam shut at any minute. He glanced up at me as I approached. "Looks like the train hasn't switched to security mode yet. I'm sure that'll change by tomorrow."

"You think we'll be heading out again so soon?" I asked.

"That's up to the boss. Man, I'm beat. I'm gonna sleep 'til we get to the station."

With that, he closed his eyes and was dozing in less than a minute. I turned around to find Jessie standing by a monitor on the other wall, staring at it in rapt fascination as she faced away from me. But with her cheeks turning the color of ripe apples, she knew I was there. I thought about what had happened between us in the other car and wasn't sure at first what to say to her.

But then Jessie looked at me and smiled, although her voice wasn't quite steady when she spoke. "H-Hey, Cloud! You want to look at this with me? It's a map of the Midgar Rail System. I-It'll be fun watching it together! I'll explain it to you, too."

I nodded. "Sure. Sounds interesting."

"I like this kinda thing. Bombs, monitors… you know, flashy stuff."

I moved over to look at the screen with her and tried not to think about how close she was. It was more distracting than I cared to admit. Bringing my attention back to the screen, I saw a bright green diagram of the city upon a black background as Jessie began narrating. "This is a wireframe model of the city of Midgar. It's at around a 1/10,000 scale, and the top plate sits at about 170 feet above the ground. A huge pillar supports the top plate in the center, and there are smaller ones for each sector. These smaller pillars are also known as mechanized towers, and there are eight in all, one in every sector."

She glanced around and then lowered her voice to a whisper. "We destroyed Mako Reactor 1 up in the northern section. Then there's 2, 3, all the way up to Mako Reactor 8. The eight reactors provide Midgar with electricity. Each sector used to have a name, but no one in Midgar remembers them. Now we just use numbers instead. That's the kind of place this is."

"Next is this," she continued, speaking up again. "Take a look!"

A curving line of white dots blinked into life along the interior of the diagram as it zoomed in. Jessie continued, tracing her finger along it as she did so. "The train we're riding on follows this route displayed here. The route spirals all the way around the central pillar. We should be almost halfway home right about now. Every checkpoint along the route has an ID sensor device. It checks every passenger's identification and background. Then it verifies all that data with the main computer inside Shinra Headquarters."

She leaned over and whispered in my ear, the soft feel of her breath making my skin tingle with warmth. "We definitely look suspicious, so we're using fake ID's."

No kidding, I thought. Barret and his bunch did kind of stand out a little. I just hoped it wouldn't get them into trouble. Suddenly the lights in the train flashed red, blinking intermittently as a shrill beeping filled the air. Jessie and I looked up, but she didn't seem too worried about it. "Speak of the devil… That red light means we're passing through an ID security checkpoint. When the lights go off, you never know what kind of creeps'll come out."

After just a moment, the beeping stopped and the lights went back to normal. I looked around and noticed that Biggs was still out, having slept through the whole thing. He snored and mumbled something in his sleep. "Don't act so damn big, Barret…"

Jessie laughed at him, and to my surprise, I found myself joining in along with her. In the middle of it, our eyes met, and I realized that her soft brown irises weren't at all unattractive. Rather the opposite, in fact. Our laughter died off then, just sort of fading away, and for a moment, neither of us spoke. We just gazed at each other until Jessie blinked and finally managed to find her voice again. "Well, um… e-enough about that. We're almost back now."

"Thanks for the show," I told her.

"Not a problem! Hey, Cloud! How about I whip up a special ID for you? What do you think?"

I nodded. "Looking forward to it."

"Great!" she grinned, practically dancing as she clapped her gloved hands together. "I'll give it everything I've got and make it with a bang! I'm all fired up now, Cloud! I… I think you've really lit my fuse!"

Her eyes lingered on me for a moment, then she blushed again and turned away. I guess she'd said more than she meant to, or meant more than she'd said. She was certainly pretty enough, with her long ponytail of reddish-brown hair, freckled cheeks, and a pair of nice legs beneath her olive green shorts. I didn't really know what to do about it, though, so I decided to put it out of my mind for now. Wedge was nearby, busy adjusting his belt as his eyes brimmed with excitement. "AVALANCHE is gonna be famous… and me, too! Do ya think I've got a bright future ahead of me, Cloud?"

I shrugged. "What do you have in mind?"

"All my life, I felt like I was nothin' but a sidekick," he replied. "But now, after joinin' up with AVALANCHE and tryin' to save the planet, I think I can really make a difference."

We'll see about that, kid. I moved on, heading toward the middle of the car where Barret sat with his arms stretched out. Outside, the light had grown just a little brighter, though it was still as sullen and gloomy as always. I didn't think it would ever change.

The only sound at the moment was the faint rumbling of the train coasting along the tracks as it wound its way steadily down toward the slums and left the upper city behind.

Barret glanced over his shoulder, his voice oddly quiet. "Look, you can see the surface now. This city, it don't have no day or night. If only that damn plate weren't there, we could see the sky."

"A floating city…" I murmured, leaning in next to him to gaze out the window. "Pretty unsettling scenery."

"Huh? Didn't expect to hear that outta someone like you. You jus' full of surprises." He stood up and continued. "The upper world, a city on a plate… it's 'cause of that goddamn thing that the people beneath it are sufferin'. An' the slums down there are full of pollution."

"On top'a that," he said, walking up and down the train car to look us one at a time, "the reactors keep drainin' all the life away. Because of them, the land around here's almost totally barren. An' they ain't doin' a goddamn thing to clean the air anymore."

"Then why doesn't everyone move onto the plate?"

He turned to me and shrugged. "Dunno. Probably 'cause they ain't got no money. Or maybe… 'cause they love their land, no matter how polluted it gets."

"I know…" I nodded, still looking out the window. "No one lives in the slums because they want to. It's like this train. It can't run anywhere except where its rails take it."

It was about twenty minutes later when the train finally pulled up to the station near the Sector 7 slums with a loud hiss of steam and the squealing of the brakes. We got off one after another, stepping out onto a platform lit by a solitary streetlamp where a lone attendant stood and helped the other passengers disembark.

Across the way, several dark and dead trains stretched out across a maze of broken and crisscrossing tracks that went on into the distance and formed what was known as the Train Graveyard. An appropriate enough name, to be sure, especially with all those stories and rumors of ghosts and such that supposedly haunted the place. Not that I believed any of them, mind you. At least, not yet.

"Hey, c'mon over here, all'ya!" Barret called out to us, and after we all gathered around him, he went on. "This mission was a success, but don't be gettin' careless now. The hard part's still to come. This was just the first reactor. We're really gonna wake 'em up when we hit the next one! Meet back at the hideout! Move out!"

We did so, heading off down the muddy path toward the slums. As we passed through a clearing surrounded by mounds of junk, I slowed down for a moment. Behind a large fenced-in area off to my right rose one of the massive support pillars that Jessie had told me about earlier. I walked over to get a closer look, noticing as I did so the presence of a dark-haired young man gazing at the pillar so intently he didn't realize I was there until I stood right next to him.

"Hey! What the hell do you think you're doing? Just get out! Geez!" He jumped almost a foot in the air as soon as he saw me, then grinned sheepishly. "Oh, wait… you came to see it, too?"

I nodded. "Yeah. Pretty big, isn't it?"

"Sure is! I heard there was a bombing up above. Makes you think, you know? If this pillar were to ever come down, everyone in the slums would be dust! Well, there's no point in worrying about that, is there? It might sound a little funny, but this place is kinda special to me. This is my place, but you can come here, too. See ya!"

He ran away as I continued to gaze up at the pillar for a moment. A winding stairway rose up alongside it about a hundred feet in the air to a small circular platform that was probably used for maintenance. The pillar itself was connected to a huge square column of stone that went all the way up to the underside of the plate, which spread out above me as far overhead as I could see and just as Barret had pointed out earlier, completely blocked out any hint of the sky. I shivered as the thought of all that weight above me suddenly filled my mind. And then there was something else, a deep sense of dread and unease I couldn't explain or ignore. All I knew then was that looking up at the pillar made the hairs on the back of my neck stand up.

"Yo, Cloud!" Barret's voice scattered my thoughts like leaves in the wind. "Over here, now!"

With a final uneasy glance at the pillar, I turned away and followed Barret to the slums.