BOOK ONE: MIDGAR

FOUR

"Cloud! I thought I'd find you out here."

That was Jess. Her voice came from behind me as she joined me on the deck outside the Seventh Heaven. I was leaning forward against the railing, my arms draped over it as I watched the bustle of activity going on in the slums. It was early evening now, or at least it would have been if there had been sky over us instead of that frowning plate. I hated not being able to see the clouds and the stars circling overhead and feel the wind blowing on my face.

I glanced over at Jessie as she came to stand next to me. "What's on your mind?"

"Barret wants us to sneak up to the plate tonight, you and me," she said. "We're going to deliver the package to the inside of Sector 4. We'll pick it up there tomorrow."

I knew exactly what she she talking about, of course. The bomb for our mission tomorrow. But standing out here where just anyone could hear us, we couldn't call it that. I thought then about what that old man on the train had said about how Shinra knew AVALANCHE was down here somewhere. What else did they know? I saw my unease mirrored in Jessie's face. She must have heard him as well. We looked out at the slums together in uneasy silence for a moment, wondering if someone out there was keeping tabs on us without us realizing it.

Finally, I broke the silence. "When do we leave?"

"As soon as you're ready."

I nodded. "Then we'd better mosey. How are we getting up there?"

"Mosey?" She laughed and motioned for me to follow her. I did so, allowing her mirth to dispel some of the tension I'd felt, and we walked down the stairs to the dirty ground and then headed to the back of the Seventh Heaven. As we drew closer, I grinned in spite of myself as I saw what was there waiting for us. An old Hardy Daytona motorcycle stood up against the wall, rusted in spots here and there but still in relatively good shape nevertheless.

I ran a gloved hand lightly over the leather seat and nodded. "Very nice, Jess. Where'd you get it?"

"Been working on it off and on for the past six months, scavenging the junk piles for parts wherever I could find them and fixing the ones that were broken. She's all gassed up and ready."

"Then let's get goin'," I said, sliding onto the bike.

I gunned the engine to life as Jessie got on behind me, slipping her arms around my waist and looking out over my shoulder. It was a more distracting sensation than I'd expected, but not the least bit unpleasant. We drove out from behind the bar and through the slums, passing the fenced-in compound that held the pillar, and rode on toward the train station. There was an old service road which wasn't much more than a narrow strip of concrete running alongside the tracks. I hit the gas, and we sped onto it and into the winding tunnel leading up to the plate.

The breeze from our acceleration whipped past us as we made our way higher, and before long we were driving into Sector 4. Jessie patted me on the shoulder and pointed ahead of us, and I slowed down as we neared our destination. I brought the Hardy to a stop alongside a small hatch set into the wall with a short iron ladder leading up to it. Killing the engine, I got off the motorcycle as Jess did the same, a battered old gray backpack hanging from her shoulders.

"This way," she pointed to the hatch.

I climbed up first with Jessie following close behind me. The hatch led into a narrow service duct that went straight ahead for a few dozen feet before hitting a dead end with a second ladder set into the floor. It was a close fit, to be sure, but not so bad that we couldn't get through. We made our way down and followed the next duct until it opened up onto a series of connected platforms bordered with high metal railings. About twenty feet in front of us, a much taller ladder than the previous ones rose up almost out of sight into another open hatch while a short set of stairs off to the right led up to another set of platforms.

Jessie indicated the ladder ahead of us, and together we climbed up it until we reached the hatch. It led to another duct which opened into a small room from which a second duct went off to the left. We went to a corner of the room, where Jess slid her backpack from her shoulders and unzipped it. Inside was the bomb, made in the same fashion as the first one that I'd set. She took it out and gently set it onto the floor, then proceeded to pry one of the panels off of the wall with a metal spanner that she pulled from her belt. There was a dense thicket of pipes, wires, and metal beams inside. Picking up the bomb, Jessie nestled it carefully within its hiding spot amidst a cluster of thick cables, then replaced the panel on the wall and put the spanner away.

She sighed. "All set."

"You okay?" I asked.

At first she didn't answer, and I wondered if she had heard me. But then she spoke, so softly that I almost couldn't hear her. "It's just… you remember when I told you how happy I was with my bomb? And how it turned out to be much bigger than I'd expected? Well, since then, I… I've heard that… a lot of people died because of it. And it's… it's all my fault. I knew that… that people might get hurt, but I… I never thought anyone would really die. At least… that's what I kept telling myself. But maybe I… maybe I knew it all along and… and I just didn't want to see it. Maybe I didn't want to admit it… even to myself."

"What happened?"

"I… I miscalculated," she said, her chest starting to hitch. "I still… I still don't know where or how. But it's the only way I can see that it… could have happened. And yet… here I am… helping to set off another bomb. Causing even more destruction and… and maybe… death. I… I adjusted this one so that… so that its output will be lower than the first one, but it… it'll still cause a lot of damage. Barret says that it… that it's necessary to save the planet, but… I just… I don't know anymore. If he asks me to make another one after this, I… I don't think that I can. It's hard enough… living with myself now as it is…"

So that was why Jess had been so quiet ever since we'd gotten here, only saying where we had to go and hardly anything else. I was starting to understand now. It had probably been on her mind the closer we got to this place, and hiding the bomb here had brought it to the forefront of her attention. She sat there in the dimness, looking away as her eyes glistened with unshed tears and she fought to stay calm and composed. It was a battle I could tell she was losing.

A moment later, the dam finally broke, and before I knew it, Jessie was leaning against me, her head resting upon my shoulder as she let it all out. I just sat there, not knowing what else to do or how I had ended up in this position. Tentatively, I wrapped an arm around her, still not sure how I had wound up having her so close to me but not wanting to be insensitive, either. So I held her there for a while as she clung tightly to me and wept.

Eventually, the torrent subsided, but she didn't let go quite yet, and neither did I. We didn't even move at first. We just sat there together in the dimness of that small room for the longest time, neither of us really saying anything. The quiet was enough, and I found myself reluctant to break it. I don't know how long we were there, just sitting together and listening to nothing but silence and the whisper of our own breathing, but it seemed like an eternity.

Jessie looked up at me, her face streaked with wetness and her eyes red. "Am I… am I a bad person, Cloud?"

"If you're even asking that question, then the answer's no."

"But how can you be sure?" she asked, sniffling. "Because of me, so many people…"

I shook my head and put my hand on her shoulder. "A bad person wouldn't care, Jessie. You do. It's that simple, really. You wouldn't be so broken up about it otherwise."

"Cloud," she held me tighter. "Thank you…"

After a few minutes, Jessie let go, but she didn't move away. Instead she sat next me, her back against the wall just as mine was. She reached across the floor with her foot and drew her backpack to her, then took out a pair of those protein bars she liked. She handed me one and kept the other one for herself.

As we ate, she also took out a bottle of water and we passed it back and forth, sharing it between us. I'd had some dinner at the bar earlier, but that had to have been at least a couple hours ago, and I didn't mind the snack that Jessie had brought with her. I didn't mind her company, either. I found I was actually starting to like it.

"Cloud," Jessie asked. "All that stuff you said to Barret earlier today down in the basement, about not caring about us or anything… I don't think you really meant it, did you?"

"Why do you say that?"

Jess took my hand in hers as she looked up at me. Her fingers were small, almost delicate, and I realized, much to my surprise, that I liked holding them. It felt good, the soft sensation of her hand in mine, even through the leather gloves we both wore. Then a flutter swept through my stomach as I wondered what it would be like without them, to have our hands slide together with nothing in between. My heart beat a little faster at the thought.

Jess went on. "If you really didn't care, you wouldn't have saved me back in Reactor 1. Three times, no less. And you wouldn't have tried to comfort me earlier. It's that simple, really."

I couldn't help smiling at Jessie a little as she echoed my own words to her from not all that long ago. "You could be right. But that's a secret between you and me. Got it?"

She laughed. "Got it. Some date, huh?"

"Date?" I blinked.

She blushed a deep red and turned away. "Oh, um, it… it's nothing, really! Just forget I mentioned it."

I nodded as I got to my feet, helping Jess up as I did so. She smiled her thanks as we headed back through the duct to the high ladder and climbed down. So far, we had gotten through here without alerting any of Shinra's security forces. But no sooner had Jess and I stepped off the bottom of the ladder and back onto the central platform than a trio of dark red Combatant-class roboguards suddenly emerged from around the corner to our right along with a rolling automated rocket launcher packing nine smart missiles.

I drew my sword as Jessie pulled out an old machine gun she'd kept slung at her right hip. A belt pouch hung from her other side, and from it she took out one of her black disc-shaped grenades and sent it rolling along the floor toward the droids. They ignored it, instead opening fire at us with a blazing flurry of blue bolts. I ducked under that deadly hail as Jessie dove to the side, firing her gun at the mechs as she did so and scoring a few hits.

The grenade exploded barely a second or two later, blowing one of the Combatants apart and scorching another one. I raced in before the smoke cleared, spun low, and sliced at the two remaining droids. One of them staggered backwards, a deep, smoking gouge torn into its side, while the other dodged out of the way and swiped at me with one of its clawed arms. These mechs were tougher, faster, and smarter than their cousins from Reactor 1, it seemed. Still, I didn't think we'd have all that much trouble with them.

I blocked its claws with my sword, slamming the mech's arm out to the side as I swept Buster back across to meet it, then hit the droid with a swift series of slashes from first one side and then the other, back and forth, driving it backwards across the platform until it clanged against the railing right behind it. It fired another barrage of blue energy bolts at me, but I had already anticipated its counterattack, and I ducked low into a spinning backhand slash that cut right through its waist. It stood there motionless for a moment, then its top half tumbled over the edge while its legs collapsed to the floor.

"Cloud!"

I whirled around as soon as I heard Jessie's panicked voice. She was desperately fighting that last Combatant, firing round after round into it, but it still lurched toward her, claws extended. At the same time, the rocket launcher fired two of its missiles at me. I dodged out of the way just as they flew past me to smash into the wall nearby in a thunderous explosion that sent a shockwave of vibrations throughout the floor and nearly deafened me for a moment.

But before the launcher could fire another salvo, I concentrated on my materia, diving into myself as quickly as I dared and striking it with a crackling bolt of lightning that ignited all the remaining missiles and caused the rocket launcher to explode into a spectacular orange fireball that sent spinning shards of metal flying in all directions.

There wasn't any time to celebrate, though, as that third mech was still closing on Jess. She gripped her machine gun in both hands, firing at the thing's face and chest, and while she did that, I lifted Buster over my head and threw it at the mech with all my strength. The sword flew end over end through the air until it smashed into the mech's back and pinned it against the wall next to Jessie, where it twitched and sparked for a minute before finally shutting down.

I walked over and pulled Buster from the wall. "You alright, Jess?"

"Yeah, thanks to you," she smiled, lowering her gun and hanging it from her belt again. Her brown eyes danced. "You're starting to make a habit out of saving my life."

"Only because you seem to like trouble," I grinned.

Jessie and I laughed together, and our gazes lingered on each other for a moment after our voices trailed off into a comfortable silence. At first, I didn't know what to say, and she didn't seem to, either. Then Jess slid a hand through her hair and tried not to blush again, but she didn't have much success. "Well, um, I… I guess we better go."

We made our way back through the labyrinth of ducts and ladders until we emerged once again inside the train tunnel where we'd left the motorcycle. It was still there where we'd left it, and we were just getting back on when a voice suddenly cut through the stillness like a hammer through glass as the tunnel filled with the sounds of motors revving to life all around us.

"Halt! Stop right there!"

Jess drew her gun. "Shinra soldiers!"

Hitting the gas, I nodded and reached for my sword, gripping it in one hand while driving down the tunnel with the other. We sped away, several of Shinra's motorcycle-mounted troops close behind us. Where had they come from? I didn't have time to wonder about it, though, as two of the soldiers closed in from either side, each brandishing a rifle. I swept Buster out to my right while Jessie fired to the left, and a second later, both solders flew from their bikes and crashed to the ground with pained shouts as their riderless vehicles collapsed.

I swerved to the right as gunfire suddenly erupted from behind us, then dodged back to the left when more flew at us from the other side. I could hear Jessie shooting back at them, and a scream followed by a thud and a crunching of metal told me she'd gotten another of them. A glance behind me showed almost half a dozen solders still chasing after us, and I had to keep swerving the motorcycle back and forth to avoid the blasts from their rifles.

Suddenly, there was a series of empty clicks from Jessie's gun as she ran out of ammo, and then I felt her clinging tightly to me as we raced onward. Two more soldiers rode up on either side of us, and I slashed first to the right and then to the left before they could fire, and they fell away, their bikes crashing to the ground. Another soldier wasn't able to swerve aside in time and drove headlong into the wreckage, the impact sending him flying away with a startled shout.

There was a jerk as another of the troops rammed into us from the left side. Jessie let out a startled gasp at the impact, and I slashed at the soldier as he pulled his motorcycle away, but he ducked under Buster's broad blade and slammed his bike into us again, jolting us and driving us against the wall of the tunnel. Sparks flew on our right as the Hardy scraped along the metal beams with an earsplitting squeal as the sharp report of bullets sounding from not too far behind us reminded us that the rest of our pursuers were closing in on us.

I gripped the handlebars tighter, narrowed my eyes, and jerked the Hardy back against the bike pressing us up against the wall. It fell away at once, and as the soldier fought to catch it and ram us again, I lashed out with Buster. Not at the man driving it, but instead at his bike where the front wheel joined up with the body. My sword sliced right through the metal frame, neatly severing the wheel in one clean stroke, and as it tumbled away, what was left of the motorcycle flew into a forward spin and took the hapless soldier with it before crashing back to the ground in a broken heap.

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Jessie pull out yet another of her black discs and throw it at the rest of our pursuers as they caught up to us. I pushed the Hardy even faster as the tunnel behind us suddenly lit up in a blaze of orange flames and dark smoke. A wave of heat washed over us as we shot clear of the explosion only an instant before it would have overtaken us, Jessie's arms squeezing about my waist as she buried her head against my back and shoulder.

We raced home, worry growing in my mind with every mile.

The bar was bustling with the evening crowd as I worked behind the bar, Marlene hovering at my side. She liked helping out with things back here even though she was too small to do very much. Sometimes I would lift her up so she could reach a glass or plate for me.

But even her cheerful presence couldn't take my mind away from the worry that chewed at it like a hungry rodent. It was half past eight, and Cloud and Jessie should have been back long before now. A glance across the room at Barret showed me the same thing was on his mind. Where were they?

Before I could wonder very much about it, though, Johnny started clamoring for another drink. He had already had a few and was getting close to his limit. I'd have to send him home again before long, and he'd probably make a fuss like he often did.

At least until Barret showed him out. Johnny practically lived here, and I knew exactly why. I'll admit, I was flattered by his interest in me, it was a little sweet in a way, but I'd made it very clear to him more than once that I wasn't interested. He just sat at his usual spot at the bar day after day in that black leather jacket, his eyes always finding me sooner or later and coming back whenever they drifted away.

I was just pouring him his drink when a sound suddenly filled the air outside, a sound I'd been waiting and hoping to hear for hours now. The loud and unmistakable revving of a motorcycle powering through the slums. My heart leaped even as Johnny scowled and turned his red-haired head toward the door. He didn't really like Cloud all that much, probably thought he was some sort of rival for my affections. Not that Cloud had shown any interest like that in me ever since he'd first come back into my life not too long ago. I wished he would, though. I wished it with everything that I was.

A moment later, Cloud pushed open the saloon doors and stepped inside, his face dark as Jessie followed behind him. Both of them had a number of cuts and scratches on them, and that could only have meant one thing. They'd seen a fight, or more than one, and my worries grew tenfold as I hurried to see them. Barret joined us and so did Biggs and Wedge, who'd been busy helping me out like they usually did when the nighttime crowds inevitably found their way in.

"Barret," Cloud said in a low voice. "We need to talk."

He nodded, seeing just as well as I did the trouble on Cloud's face. "Awright. Jus' gimme a sec to clear out the crowd."

While Barret, Biggs, and Wedge got everyone moving toward the doors, I headed back to the bar, took a damp cloth, peroxide, and a few potions that I had Marlene get for me from one of the bottom drawers, and motioned for Cloud and Jess to sit at one of the empty tables. Then I went to work on their wounds and gave them each a potion to drink. Fortunately, they didn't have any serious injuries, so it didn't take long to get them patched up. By the time I was finished, the customers were all gone and the six of us were finally alone. And suddenly I was afraid of what Cloud would tell us.

"What is it, Cloud?" I asked. "What happened?"

"We hid the bomb just as we planned, Tif. But on the way back, we were ambushed. Twice. First by a patrol of roboguards inside the plate, then by a squad of Shinra soldiers on the way back here."

Barret frowned. "The hell? How'd they know you was there?"

"I'm not sure. But we didn't run into a thing until after we'd hidden the bomb. If they were there for as long as I think they were, they could have attacked us at any time. But they waited until then."

"You think they know what we're gonna do?" Biggs asked.

A cold shiver of dread ran down my spine at the thought of it. How could Shinra possibly know? They couldn't. Could they? We had taken every precaution we could think of to keep our activities a secret. And even if they did know, why would they let us keep doing it? Why would they have let Cloud and Jessie hide the bomb instead of trying to stop them? It didn't make sense. I wished I understood what it meant, but at the same time, I didn't want to know.

Cloud nodded. "It's definitely possible. Which leaves us with only one question. Do we still go ahead with tomorrow's mission? Or do we call it off and wait to see what happens next?"

We all looked at Barret. It would be his decision whether we went ahead or not. I didn't know yet what it would be, but suddenly I hoped that he would put it off, at least for a few days. If Cloud was right, then it was too dangerous to go forward with it right now. But as I watched Barret mull things over in his mind, his muscled arms folded across his chest, I knew at that moment without a doubt what he would say. And I was suddenly afraid for all of us.

"We keep goin'," he looked at us each in turn. "No stoppin' now. We ride this train 'til the end."

None of us could have possibly known of the terrible impact those words would ultimately have on us all, or of the irrevocable course that they would soon set us on. Barret still regrets it, even today, and I hope through this retelling of our story, of the things we did and the terrible crisis we all faced together, that he might finally find some measure of peace about it. He's carried the weight of this and of what later came of it, the dark things that it led to, for so long now, trying so hard to make right what went so wrong. I just hope that, after all this time and all the struggles we've endured, he can finally let it go.

I hope I can, too.

I woke up the next morning to find someone shaking my shoulder. After rubbing my eyes and stretching my arms for a moment, I looked up and saw Jessie sitting in a chair next to the cot I'd slept in down here in the basement. I had come down here and crashed not very long after coming back with her from our trip to the plate last night. I still didn't really understand why Barret intended to go ahead with the mission in spite of the possibility that Shinra knew what we were up to.

He was so utterly determined to take out one reactor after another and strike at Shinra, but then what? What was his plan after we'd blown them all up and left Midgar without any power? Did he even have one? I wasn't so sure. There had to have been something more to his reasons for fighting Shinra than just saving the planet, but whatever they might have been, I didn't know.

I couldn't help feeling that Barret's strong hatred for Shinra might have led him into making a mistake last night. I knew that Tifa shared my concerns, I could see it in her eyes, but there wasn't really much we could do about it now except ride it out and hope for the best. We both knew Barret wasn't going to change his mind.

"Hey," Jess said, gently shaking my shoulder again and bringing me out of my thoughts. "You awake now?"

"Yeah. Thanks, Jess."

She smiled at me, her eyes twinkling with unvoiced laughter, as she stood up. "It's about time, sleepyhead! Everyone else is up and all set to go already! You know, for someone who was in SOLDIER, you sure do like to sleep in."

"Maybe I do," I smirked, sitting up and grabbing my shirt.

Jessie always seemed to know exactly what to say and when to help lighten my mood, and I found I liked that about her. Funny how just a day or so ago, she'd been practically a stranger to me. I hadn't said very much to her, Biggs, or Wedge since Tifa had brought me here from the train station a month or so ago until yesterday. I had pretty much kept to myself for most of that time while taking on a few odd jobs here and there around town.

Now that I had started getting to know Jessie and the others a little, though, I found that Tifa was right, as she usually was. They're weren't all that bad. And Jess… I was starting to like having her around. It just caught me by surprise since I hadn't intended to have very much to do with her or the others. But as I mentioned earlier, things don't always happen the way you expect. And also, when you spend time alone with someone, it can change your perspective about him or her, especially if you're facing danger together, as Jess and I did the previous night. I felt a little closer to her now, and I found that I liked that, just as I liked the sensation of her hand resting on my shoulder.

Jessie blushed as red as the headband she wore and gave me a slim plastic card with my picture on it. "Um… h-here's your ID, Cloud. I-I'll just… I'll just let you, um… get dressed now…"

Stumbling a little, Jessie headed to the elevator with a sheepish grin on her face as she disappeared upstairs. When she was gone, I finished getting dressed and slid my sword into the leather harness on my back. Buster was big, to be sure, but not nearly as heavy as you'd think, and it hung comfortably in its usual place where I could reach over and pull it out at a moment's notice. Once I was ready, I rode the elevator upstairs, thinking about today's mission and hoping that I was wrong about how much Shinra seemed to know about us.

Tifa smiled as I walked over to her. "Good morning, Cloud! We're just about ready to go. Did you sleep well?"

"Barret's snoring kept me up. He's a regular buzzsaw."

"Oh, I bet he is," she chuckled. "You should probably keep it down, though. He might hear you, and Barret's always edgy before a mission. Speaking of which, I'll be coming with you this time."

Barret waved me over. "Hey, Cloud! There's somethin' I wanna ask ya. An' don't be laughin' now. I, uh… I don't know how to use materia. You can keep that one you found, jus' show me how it works."

"You've never used it?" I raised an eyebrow. "It's not that hard."

"Nope, not once. That new gun I pulled off that big ol' scorpion we trashed back in Reactor 1 has a couple of them weird holes in it for 'em, but I ain't tried it yet."

So I went ahead and explained it to him, telling him about how the different slots worked and what all of the various kinds of materia did. There are five different types. There are also a few unique ones as well, but we'll get to that later on. Magic and summons let you call upon the planet's power to damage your enemies or protect your allies, while the other types of materia act in a more supportive way and enhance your other skills and spells. And a lot of them can also be combined to make even stronger, more useful effects. There are tons of crazy possibilities out there, trust me.

I stepped back when I was finished. "Got it now?"

"Shit! The hell it ain't that hard! I didn't get a damn word of it! You handle the materia, Cloud!"

That was fine with me. I took back the materia orb I'd shown him, the one I'd discovered back in Reactor 1. It was Restore, and its healing magic would definitely be useful in the many battles that were ahead of us. The glowing emerald sphere pulsed softly as I tossed it over to Tifa. She caught it and fitted it into one of the slots crafted into the backs of her fingerless red leather fighting gloves.

Although it was much too big at first, the glowing orb soon shrank until it fit perfectly within the small depression. That's another thing to remember about materia. Their size changes depending on where you put them and how much growth they've got. The more action they see, the more they grow and the more powerful they become.

Barret continued. "Our next mission is takin' out Mako Reactor 5. I'll fill you in on the train. But before we all head on over to the station, Jessie's got some info for us 'bout our target."

"I hacked into the Shinra database to get those blueprints you saw downstairs yesterday," Jess replied, coming over to join us. She handed Barret and Tifa their ID's as she continued. "You won't be getting inside through the front this time. Instead you'll enter the reactor through the interior of the Sector 4 plate. That way, you'll have less chance of being spotted by Shinra guards, security mechs, or SOLDIER troops. There's also a locked door you'll come to on your way out, and a control room off to the side. Back in Reactor 1, Biggs and I had the codes to open the doors, but it'll be different here."

"How so?" Tifa asked.

Jess held up a digital tablet with a detailed schematic of the reactor displayed on the screen. "Since you'll be coming at the doors from the inside this time, you're going to have to use the emergency override in the control room to open them. But there's a trick to it. There are three access panels on the main computer console. I gave Barret the security code to activate them, but once they're on, they all have to be hit at the same time for the doors to open."

Barret glanced at Tifa and I. "You two got that?"

"Hit them all at once," I repeated, and Tifa nodded her agreement. "No problem."

Satisfied, Barret turned as Marlene ran over to him and jumped up into his arms. He hugged her tightly for a moment, then put her down again and walked outside, Biggs and Jessie following close behind him, while she rejoined Wedge behind the bar. He was busy wiping it down with a clean rag and getting glasses ready for the customers that would be coming in soon, but he stopped for a minute and tossed me a small paper bag. "Hey, Cloud! Catch!"

I did so, knowing even before I pulled it open what was inside. The smell of Tifa's cooking was unmistakable. I figured she must have made me something while I was still sleeping, knowing I wouldn't have time to sit down to eat once I woke up. The aromas of eggs, sausage, onions, and melted cheese teased my nose along with biscuits and a few spices I couldn't quite name. Reaching inside the bag, I took a few bites of the sandwich and then put it back, saving the rest for the walk to the train. It was, just as I had expected, incredibly good. Tifa's still the best damn cook you'll ever find.

I nodded to Wedge. "Thanks. You're not coming?"

"I'll meet up with you guys later. Can't leave little Marlene here all by herself, you know. I'll have Johnny's mom come over and watch her when I leave. She's done it for us before."

"Got it. See you later, then."

"Yep!" he said. "You're great, Cloud, you know that? Don't you ever get nervous? Or are you like, totally immune to fear? Is that something you learn in SOLDIER?"

I shrugged. "You're always afraid, Wedge. It's part of the job."

"I'm a big guy, but I've always felt like I was nothin' but a coward at heart because I get scared so easily sometimes. But thanks, Cloud. That makes me feel a little better."

It's true, of course. Fear is always gonna be with you in a fight. The trick is to keep on going and not let it slow you down. Wedge seemed a little more relaxed now, at least, and hopefully he'd keep that in mind. Despite what I'd said to Barret in the basement yesterday, I found I did care. I still didn't get the deal about saving the planet and all that, but I didn't want anything to happen to these guys, either. Especially Jessie, I realized. I liked her, but was that all? Or was there more to it than that? I blinked and shook off that last thought in a hurry, not too sure about what that meant just yet.

Tifa glanced over at Marlene. "You and Wedge watch the bar while we're gone."

"Alright! Good luck!" she answered. "Take care!"

We found Barret outside a couple minutes later, walking back from the nearby materia shop and putting a shimmering green orb that he'd just bought into his new assault gun. He waved at us and motioned for Biggs and Jess to go on ahead, and they hurried off through the slums toward the train station, Jessie looking back at me for a moment as she did so and flashing me a smile. I nodded to her, giving her a small grin of my own, then turned back to Barret.

"Figured I'd try out some Fire materia," he growled. "I hope it don't blow up in my face."

Tifa laughed. "You'll be fine, Barret. Let's go!"

As we neared the outer border of the settlement, I paused for just a moment to look over my shoulder back the way we'd come. The slums were bustling with activity this morning, and not far away, the Seventh Heaven stood open for business. An odd premonition struck me then, and I suddenly felt as if I would never see this place again. I didn't have any idea why, only that my instincts told me that somehow, I wouldn't be coming back.

"Everything alright, Cloud?" Tifa asked.

"Yeah, Tif. Come on, let's go. We don't want to miss the train."