BOOK ONE: MIDGAR

TEN

This part of the Sector 6 slums was in ruins. It was an old highway, the concrete split apart by jagged cracks and broken in multiple places where it had sunk deep into the ground. All along the devastated road lay pieces of debris and abandoned construction equipment, including old wooden beams, rusted pipes, blackened shreds of wiring, and even a rusted yellow crane off to the left.

Someone had made a few crude sets of stairs out of wood planks to reach the higher portions of the road, and a dirty steel girder served as a makeshift ramp a little farther down the highway. I wondered briefly why Shinra hadn't ever bothered to fix this place but then realized that they cared so little for anyone other than themselves that they probably had decided it wasn't worth doing. That was pretty typical of Shinra, of course, if unfortunate.

Aerith was waiting for me a short distance ahead, her staff grasped lightly in her hands and a small smile on her face. "You didn't think I'd go off and leave you all alone, did you?"

"Nah. You're my bodyguard, remember?" I grinned.

"Yeah! So stay close to me, okay?"

I laughed. "Sure, as long as you stay near me. I'm your bodyguard, too, after all."

"Deal!" she agreed.

As Aerith fell in beside me, we set out together across the highway, walking carefully upon the broken ground as we went. Quiet lay across everything like a blanket. My eyes scanned the shadows, and I noticed that Aerith was wary as well, her eyes alert and her staff ready. She was a lot tougher than I'd originally thought back when I had first met her, very much like her flowers. Seemingly delicate, but in truth deceptively strong and incredibly resilient. And just as beautiful.

We were halfway down the road when several insect-like creatures suddenly scuttled toward us from the rubble. I drew my sword as they got close to us, and I noticed that Aerith was preparing to cast another spell, the Ice materia embedded into her staff glowing a bright green as she called on its power. The bug-like things were a little over three feet long, with tails lashing like whips and four spindly legs. A hard purple carapace encased their bodies, and their mouths were a ring of pointed teeth lined by the small yellow dots of their eyes. And they struck with blazing speed, scuttling toward us with barely a sound.

Two went for me, and two struck at Aerith. I spun, slashing Buster at the nearest of the monsters while Aerith froze another with a blast of cold before slamming it with a backhand swipe of her staff. I cut again at the creature I was attacking and scored another hit, slicing through its tough outer shell this time to slice deep into the soft insides that lay underneath, and it collapsed and lay still.

Another one struck at Aerith with its tail, but right before the blow landed, there was a brilliant flash of purple light from my wrist. I felt a jolt all through my body as though I'd been fired from a slingshot, and then instantly I was there, darting between Aerith and the monster and taking the hit for her, the tail slicing its way across my shoulder instead of hers and leaving a thin line of blood.

While Aerith enveloped the creature with more of her ice magic, I ignored the pain and swept my sword across the beast's hide in a series of quick cuts that left it a bleeding, sundered mess lying on the ground. Then I had to dive to one side as another of the creatures bit at me with its nasty teeth. Without even getting to my feet, I dove into myself and struck it with my lightning magic, frying it while Aerith took down the other one with her staff and a barrage of ice spells.

I was still trying to get up when I suddenly realized that the one I'd just shocked was still coming at me, and I brought Buster up in front of me, gripping it sideways like a shield to block as the monster attacked, smacking its tail against the flat of the blade again and again as it tried to reach me. But then it shuddered and sank abruptly to the ground as the top end of Aerith's staff crushed its head.

She smiled and helped me up. "See, I told you I'd look out for you!"

"Yeah, you did," I agreed. "Thanks."

Bowing her head, Aerith closed her eyes in concentration and held out her hands. Then a sphere of greenish-white energy appeared above her palms. After only a moment it faded away, but in its wake, a warm, gentle breeze swirled softy around us. I gazed at her in wonder as I my wounds were healed. Hers were as well, the few she had sustained, and soon the wind was gone, almost as though it had never been.

"What was that?" I asked.

She shrugged. "Just something I can do."

I doubted it was really that simple, but I hadn't expected her to tell me everything. It was magic of some kind, but not from materia. It had come from someplace else. I didn't know where, though. Not then. But I figured that whatever Aerith's abilities were, they had to be part of the reason why Shinra was after her.

In any event, I decided not to press her about it. She would tell me when she felt she was ready. If she was still with me, that was. We were almost to Sector 7 now, and our time together would be over soon. Far too soon, I thought. I didn't want it to end so fast, but I wasn't sure that I could risk taking her any further.

A few minutes later, we reached the end of the highway. Just past a rusted metal fence stood an old abandoned playground, and beyond it was the massive gate to Sector 7. It was closed for the moment, and the guards that normally stood watch near it were gone.

What could it mean? There wasn't a lot of traffic that went through there, but it still saw some use at times. Enough that usually there was always someone there to take care of maintenance and to collect all the tolls Shinra often charged. The company taxed just about everything it could in this town.

"The gate to Sector 7's in there," Aerith pointed.

"Thanks," I told her. "I guess this is goodbye. You gonna be alright getting home?"

She twirled around, assuming a pose of feigned helplessness as she replied in a melodramatic, damsel-in-distress voice with an expression of mock terror on her face. "Oh, no! Whatever will I do!?"

"You tell me," I laughed.

"Isn't that what you want me to say?" she giggled.

I shook my head. If there was one thing I had learned about Aerith during the short time we'd spent together, it was that she was far from helpless. And nothing at all like I had expected. Aerith definitely knew how to keep me on my toes, and I suspected she enjoyed it much more than she let on. I decided then that it couldn't hurt to let her come with me after all, at least for a little while. Tifa and the others would like her, and I was sure she would like them, too.

I grinned and shook my head. "Nah, I know better. You're way too smart for that."

"Thanks, Cloud!" she said.

"No problem. I guess you can come with me if you want."

Aerith nodded, then stepped a little closer, her staff held loosely in her hands as she looked at me, her eyes fixed on mine. "I could do that. But won't I be in your way?"

"What do you mean, in the way?" I asked.

"Nothing!" she said. I could tell that wasn't entirely true, but I let it pass as she went on. "Can we take a break for a minute?"

Without waiting for an answer, Aerith walked into the park, gazing at it in fond wonder. A swing set sat off to the left, and to the right was small tunnel in the shape of a cartoonish bear-like character. Children must have crawled happily through it back when they still played here. Ahead of us stood a large mound shaped like a similar goofy character, but with a short ladder leading up into its right ear and a slide issuing from its mouth. The slide ended in a square sandpit, and all around the playground were jumbled piles of broken red iron girders and heaps of discarded junk and scrap metal.

Aerith smiled, her eyes not quite dry. "I can't believe it's still here."

After gazing at the park for a moment, she dashed over behind the slide, climbed onto it, and sat down on top of the smooth, domed head of the white bearlike thing it came out of.

She waved at me, her green eyes sparkling in the dimness, and laid her mythril staff down next to her on her right side as she beckoned to me. "Cloud, over here!"

I climbed up and sat down next to her. "You used to play here?"

"When I was little," she nodded. "Mom used to bring me here a lot. It was full of kids back then."

"Sounds nice," I told her.

It had to have been, back when this place hadn't been such a wreck and the highway had still been in one piece. I smiled at the thought of Aerith as a little girl and wondered what it must have been like to grow up around here. It couldn't have been very easy, and I marveled at how she had turned out, at how strong and upbeat she was in this dark and dreary place. Aerith really was something special.

She glanced fondly at the playground and smiled. "Thank you. So, Cloud… what rank were you?"

I blinked. "Rank?"

"You know, in SOLDIER."

"Oh, I was…" I had to think for a moment or two, but then it came me. "First Class."

Why had it taken any extra thought to answer? I knew exactly who I was. Cloud Strife, former SOLDIER First Class and also a mercenary currently working for AVALANCHE. Tifa's childhood friend. That was me. I shook off the strange doubts that had suddenly bothered me and brought my thoughts back to the present, to Aerith.

Her gaze was distant now, seeing far beyond the playground. "Just the same as him…"

"The same as who?" I asked.

"My first boyfriend."

I glanced at her, curious without knowing quite why. "Were you… serious?"

She smiled a little. "No. But I liked him for a while."

I wasn't surprised that she had been involved with someone before, even if it had only been a casual relationship. Aerith was friendly, kind, and funny as hell. It wouldn't be hard at all for any guy to be taken with her. I liked her myself, and I'd have been lying if I had said that I wasn't attracted to her at all, but I was also content with our friendship just as it was. And Jess was in Sector 7 waiting for me. I felt my heart speed up a little at the thought of seeing her again.

"I probably knew him," I mused, thinking of what Aerith had said. "What was his name?"

She shook her head. "It doesn't matter. But what about your friend? The girl that you were telling me about before, back at my house. Does she… have a name?"

"Jessie," I answered.

"I like it," Aerith replied. "Tell me about her."

And so I did, telling her about how Jessie and I had first met when Tifa had brought me back from the train station to the bar to meet her and the others about a month ago and about how suspicious Jessie had been of me. I laughed a little at that, marveling at how far she and I had come in only a day or two. I told Aerith about how I had saved Jessie in Reactor 1, first by freeing her when she got stuck and then by catching her before she could fall into the fires below us.

I also spoke to Aerith about how Jessie and I had later driven up to the plate on that very same night to hide the second bomb, of how she had talked to me about her doubts and misgivings about what we were doing as well as her subsequent breakdown. It was little odd, admitting to Aerith that we had blown up those reactors, but I knew I could trust her without knowing how I knew. It was just part of that strange sense of having known her longer than I really had.

Aerith passed no judgment, and she didn't give me a disapproving frown or withdraw from me. She only listened, so quietly and patiently, with the sort of gentle reassurance and understanding that's difficult to find in most people anymore. It's one of the things that I liked the most about her. She seemed to sense my own doubts about the missions that I had undertaken, and I realized then that I felt the same as Jessie, that bombing the reactors might not have been the best way to fight Shinra. Aerith never said a word about it, but she hadn't had to, either. I saw it in her eyes clearly enough.

And I also saw that she didn't blame me, didn't think any less of me for what I had been part of. It meant a great deal to me, a lot more than she knew, and I was glad she still considered me a friend. She took my hand lightly in hers as I told her all about what I had helped Barret and the others to do and also of how Jessie and I had escaped from the two ambushes Shinra had set for us after hiding the bomb. I told her about everything else that had led to us entering Reactor 5 and how that had turned out, with the trap that Shinra had sprung and how I had ended up falling into her church.

The only thing I kept to myself was the last moment Jess and I had spent alone before I had entered Reactor 5, the kiss she'd given me and the ride I had promised her. I wanted to keep that between us for now. Aerith seemed to understand, though. She sensed, as she often seemed to have a way of doing, that I hadn't told her everything, but she didn't press me about it. She just gave my hand a gentle squeeze as I finished talking and smiled knowingly.

"Thank you," she said. "I'm looking forward to meeting her."

"She'll like you. They all will, come to think of it."

Aerith's eyes danced. "They better! After all, I brought you back to them safe and sound."

"Yeah, you did, didn't you?" I chuckled. Somehow, with her, it was a bit easier for me to lighten up like that. It felt more natural, somehow. "Thanks, by the way. For everything."

"It was my pleasure, Cloud. But…"

I glanced at her. "What is it?"

"We agreed that the price for being my bodyguard was a date," she said. "But I didn't know about Jessie when I suggested it. I guess I kind of put you in a difficult position. I'm sorry about that."

It was true that when Aerith had sprung that little surprise on me, I had felt like I'd had to accept so that I wouldn't hurt her feelings. We'd only been joking around, but I hadn't wanted to upset her. I still didn't. But I didn't want Jessie getting the wrong idea about us, either. The last thing I wanted was to hurt either of them. I liked both of these women, and despite the circumstances, I was glad I'd met them.

"Don't worry about it," I shrugged. "You couldn't have known."

"Thanks, Cloud. And we don't have to go out, if you don't want to. I don't want to get in the way."

Now it was my turn to give her hand a soft squeeze. "You're not in the way, Aerith. And I don't think there's anything wrong with a couple of friends hanging out together. So we can still make it work."

"I'd like that," she smiled.

A moment later, there was a loud rumbling behind us, and we both turned to look as the gate to Sector 7 slowly slid open. Through it rode a red chocobo-driven carriage, the driver steering the yellow-feathered bird with a set of thick leather reins. When he guided the cart onto the narrow dirt track that stretched its way past the playground and lead to Wall Market, my eyes widened and I shot to my feet along with Aerith, hardly able to believe what I was seeing.

Standing in the back of the carriage was Tifa.

She wore a short, tight-fitting sleeveless dark blue dress with a gold chain hanging around her waist, and a pair of matching blue high heels covered her feet. Tifa had also put on makeup, which I had never seen her do before, and her hair hung loose, free for once of the dolphin tail she normally wore it in. From her right shoulder hung a blue handbag. What was going on? Why was she dressed up like that and riding a cart over to Wall Market? Tifa wore a troubled expression upon her face, as though something were bothering her.

"Tifa!?" I called out, hardly able to believe it was really her.

At the sound of my voice, she looked up and saw me, and her eyes widened as her jaw dropped and her hands grabbed the rail. But before she could say anything, the carriage hurried on down the road, pulling her away, and she was gone. I stared after her, still stunned at what had just happened. It didn't make any sense.

Aerith followed my gaze, as puzzled about it as I was. "That girl in the carriage was Tifa?"

"Yeah," I answered. "I'm sure of it."

"Where was she going? She looked kind of odd…"

Before I could say anything, Aerith jumped off the mound and ran after Tifa and the carriage until she disappeared from sight around the corner. I sighed and shook my head as I followed her. Damn! What the hell was she thinking!? Coming with me to Sector 7 was one thing, but Wall Market was a whole other matter. I hadn't been in Midgar all that long, but even I had heard of the infamous reputation of the place. And now both Tifa and Aerith were in there.

I found Aerith only a moment later, waiting for me over by the gate to Wall Market. The carriage's tracks were clear enough, a pair of rough parallel lines in the dirt along with the unmistakable marks of chocobo prints, but the carriage itself was already long gone. A bright sign lit up in green neon arched its way over the gate, and the chocobo tracks led right into the heart of the town.

Aerith turned as I approached. "This place is scary in a lot of ways. Especially for a girl. So we've got to find Tifa fast."

"Count on it," I agreed completely.

The infamous Don Corneo ruled this part of the Sector 6 slums as if it was his own private kingdom, and many of the young women that were brought to his palace were never heard from again. Was he part of the reason Tifa had come to this place? I hoped not, but I couldn't rule it out. And that made me even more worried for her. What could have caused her to be desperate enough to come out here to see that vicious bastard? What did she want from him? There was only one way to find out. I just hoped we weren't too late.

With Aerith at my side, I headed into Wall Market.

"Awright!" I said, gazin' up at the pillar. "So far, so good."

We stood jus' outside the fence, lookin' at where the platform with the controls was a few hundred feet above us. I wasn't keen on climbin' all them stairs, but I had to get there before the Shinra did. They wasn't here yet, but I knew it wouldn't be much longer. We had to be ready for 'em now that we knew exactly what they was gonna do here. I hoped to hell I was wrong, but I knew deep in my gut that I wasn't. There was no low Shinra wouldn't sink to, not even this.

Biggs frowned. "So what's our next move, boss?"

"That's easy enough," I said. "You an' Wedge go start movin' people out, as many as you can as fast as you can. Try to see if you can get 'em to leave the area for a while. Don't go tellin' 'em what we know. Jus' say it's important an' it's not safe here."

"Got it. Anything else?"

I nodded. "Once you see them Shinra troops, hightail it back here. We gotta keep 'em off the pillar as long as possible."

"We're on it!" Wedge replied, an' Biggs nodded in agreement.

I looked at Jessie. "Jess, you're with me. We gotta get up top soon as we can an' secure the platform before them Shinra get there. Check the pillar controls an' see what you can do to lock 'em out."

"Right!" she said, her gaze set an' determined.

Damn, but I was so proud of 'em. They was scared, of course, but I didn't blame 'em. I was, too. It was a frightenin' situation we was in. But they was committed to doin' whatever had to be done, and there wasn't no hesitation in any of 'em. Jus' a firm resolve to do what they could to save everyone an' stop Shinra's horrific plan. I gazed at 'em one by one, my friends, my team, an' they each nodded back one after the other. In that moment, I think we was tighter than we'd ever been. I can still see 'em like that even now, whenever I close my eyes.

"Awright," I said. "Let's get to work!"

Turnin' to face the fence, I brought up my gun-arm and shot open the lock while Biggs an' Wedge hurried off to start helpin' people to get outta here fast as they could. They'd already gone ahead an' gotten their own families to safety before we ever got here. Biggs had sent his sister to a friend's place over in Sector 4 while Wedge had made sure his little brother an' his mom got out, too.

I ran up the stairs, almost takin' 'em two at a time as Jessie followed close behind me, that old machine gun of hers hangin' from one hip an' a pouch with some of her tools an' homemade explosives swingin' from the other. Biggs an' Wedge was armed, too, since we knew it was gonna come down to a fight sooner or later. I jus' hoped we'd all make it home tonight an' that it would still be there waitin' for us when this mess was all over. Shovin' those thoughts outta my mind, I hurried up the tower, hopin' we weren't too late.

We was about halfway there when I heard it. A sound that I'd been dreadin' ever since this all started an' had hoped would never show up. I shuddered, scannin' the horizon for the source of that sound. Jess did the same, an' she was the first to spot it, seizin' my arm and pointin' off toward the underside of the Sector 8 plate far in the distance. I felt my blood freeze in my veins as my stomach twisted itself into a knot when I saw what was comin' our way.

It was a Shinra attack chopper.

"Shit…" I breathed.

The helicopter was still far away, but it wouldn't be too long before it got here. An' I was willin' to bet that squads of Shinra troops were on the ground, comin' up fast behind it. This was it, then. Jessie was starin' at the chopper, her face pale, an' I put a hand on her shoulder, as much to reassure myself as her. She smiled an' nodded, an' we raced onward, fast as we could. There wasn't no backin' out now.

Shinra was comin' fast. Comin' for us.

Aerith and I followed the carriage tracks through the winding and glaringly bright streets of Wall Market, ignoring for the time being the wide collection of shops, restaurants, inns, and other much less savory establishments littering the place. The smell of mako was here too, as it was everywhere in the slums, but mixed in along with it were a host of other assorted odors, the scents of alcohol, food, and smoke, of various things being sold and bought, and of who knew what else.

After a few minutes, we found ourselves in front of the Honey Bee Inn, a house of ill repute in one of Wall Market's seedier districts. The tracks led here before doubling back the way they had come, but before continuing on the trail, I decided to ask around and get a few answers. Had Tifa gotten off here? And if so, why?

The Honey Bee Inn was a brightly lit, six-sided building decorated with numerous plastic hearts and gaudy, flashing signs. A small crowd, mostly of guys, clustered around outside the main entrance, where two finely-dressed men, one middle-aged in a gray suit and the other older with dark pants and a red vest, checked out the potential visitors. Since they seemed to be in charge here, I guessed they were as good a source of information as any and walked over to them.

"Welcome, welcome!" the older man greeted me. "Even unpopular dweebs like you may meet their destiny in here! Are you looking for a girlfriend, too?"

Ignoring the comment and Aerith's barely stifled laughter, I replied with a question of my own. "You know a girl named Tifa?"

"Hey, you're pretty fast!" he responded. "Tifa's our newest girl. But unfortunately, she's having an interview right now."

"An interview for what?" Aerith asked.

"Here at the Honey Bee Inn, it's customary for all the new girls to be taken to Don Corneo's mansion. He's a rather famous dilettante. But now he wants to settle down and is in the market for a bride."

A bride? Just what had Tifa gotten herself into? I wasn't sure, but at least I knew where to look for her. Aerith and I left the Honey Bee Inn and went back the way we'd come from, making our way north toward Corneo's estate. I saw some of his lackeys here and there in the crowds milling all through Wall Market with their distinctive green and yellow uniforms. Everyone else either avoided looking at them or hurried past them as quickly as they could to avoid drawing their attention. And the closer we got to Corneo's mansion, the more of his goons I saw.

It didn't take too long to find the place, and it stood out even more than the rest of the buildings around here. I'm definitely not much of a decorator, I'll be the first to admit it, but even I could see that the man's taste was atrocious. The walls were painted in a hideously bright yellow that was almost fluorescent, mixed in with red trim, and in front of the entrance was a collection of wooden stalls filled with assorted goods. A lone and very bored doorman stood guard nearby.

He perked right up, though, when he saw Aerith, looking at her in ways I didn't care for at all. An icy glare and a not-so-subtle turn to the side to show off Buster's blade got his attention, though, and he backed off almost immediately. Aerith simply sighed and rolled her eyes, and I wasn't sure whether she was going to laugh or frown at me. We started to approach the entrance to the mansion, but we had only walked a few steps before the doorman moved to block us.

"This is the estate of Don Corneo, the most powerful man in Wall Market," he told us, folding his arms in front of his chest and staring at us with suspicion. "Look, the Don's not into men, so don't let me catch you around here again."

Aerith quickly pulled me aside behind one of the stalls and I stood there, fuming in silence as the doorman sneered at me and returned to his post. I had to sit on a sudden and amazingly strong urge to see how far into his face I could put my fist, and only a stern glance from Aerith helped me to calm down. Tifa was in there somewhere, I was sure of it, but I couldn't get in there to look for her simply because I was a man. It was utterly ridiculous and completely infuriating.

"Hey," Aerith whispered. "This looks like the Don's mansion. I'll go check it out and let Tifa know that you're here."

My eyes widened. "No! You can't!"

"Why not?" she asked.

I stared at her. "Do you know… what kind of place this is?"

"Of course I do, Cloud," she said, raising an eyebrow. "I'm a flower girl, not a saint."

I didn't doubt that for a second. Aerith was a lot more worldly than she looked and was smart enough to survive here in the slums without losing who she was, either. But even so, I couldn't help worrying about what would happen if she went into Corneo's mansion alone. Maybe it was just me, but I knew what went on in places like this. It wasn't a safe place for Aerith any more than it was for Tifa, and if she wasn't careful, she could wind up in just as much trouble, if not more.

Aerith put her hands on her hips and raised her eyebrow. "So what am I supposed to do? You want to go in with me?"

"Well, what with me being a man and all, that'll make things pretty hard," I told her. "Besides, if I bust my way in there, it'll cause too much commotion. But I can't just let you go in alone, either."

Then I realized Aerith was laughing so hard that tears were leaking from her eyes, and it was all that she could do to keep it quiet. She was almost bent over with the force of it, and I wondered for just a moment if she had gone crazy. I didn't think I'd said anything amusing, so what was going on? Had I missed something?

I gave her a bewildered stare. "What's so funny, Aerith?"

"Cloud," she panted in between a few breathless giggles, "why don't you dress up like a girl? It's the only way."

"WHAT!?" My jaw dropped. Was she insane?

Before I could say anything else, Aerith went back to the doorman, a sly smile on her face as she got his attention. "Just wait. I've got a cute friend I want to bring."

"Aerith! I can't!" I protested when she came back.

She shook her head. "You are worried about Tifa, aren't you? Then come on, hurry!"

With a resigned sigh, I let Aerith lead me away from Don Corneo's mansion, more than a little dubious about her crazy plan but knowing I didn't have much choice but to go along with it. As much as I hated to admit it, she was right. It was the only way to get in, and I was worried about Tifa. So as uncomfortable as I was with the idea, I decided that I would go through with it for her sake. Tifa was in some kind of trouble in there, and I wasn't going to let her down.