Deep in the city of Midgar…
Cloud Strife ran a hand through his blonde hair as he cradled his sword in his hands. He sat alone on the train that creaked and groaned as the light reflected brightly off Cloud's blade from the only working overhead in the carriage. He yawned loudly and the sound echoed through the dark empty surroundings. Having been placed as the tactical commander for Midgar was eating up a lot of the day. The people of Midgar were united as one now in a form of almost communism, neither riches nor social standard defined a person, they were judged on the depth of their character. The whole of sector 7 had been rebuilt on top of the fallen plate and was only accessible by train or access tunnels, the dingy ashen wastes above refurbished and made just about liveable once again. Cloud had had to make a hard decision on how power would be provided, as he was concerned about the welfare of the planet. Digging into the earth's crust they discovered that there was a huge build up of noxious gas that they had named Xyclos gas. This gas was a great source of power when harnessed correctly and after a month the people of Midgar working together had replaced the Mako reactors with Geo-thermal power plants. These plants gathered the Xyclos and running it through transformers converted it into a large amount of electricity. However there was a problem. It was found that if combined by even the smallest amount of Mako the gas erupted into a form of green lava that was white hot and melted flesh, bone and even steel with ease. Another thorn in his side was the Turks. They had not given up after they escaped Cloud in the underground railway tunnels under Midgar. They had completely taken over sectors 2 and 3 recruiting all civilians into the Turks. There were constant battles between the two groups, Cloud often leading the assaults himself. Unfortunately the Turk's main base was situated in the dank sewers and tunnels that led to the Shin-ra building. These tunnels were heavily guarded and assaults on them were impossible. Also inside the top levels of the Shin-ra building the Turk's scientists had created a large dispel radar that stopped all use of spells and summons. This radar made the tunnels leading to the building, with all their defence guns and troops, an impenetrable area. Now cloud spent a lot of time planning attacks and feeling down. Tifa's bar had been re-opened and it was a good place to drown his sorrows, finding out you're a phoney and then losing your life's love in the space of about a week isn't easy. Often he would gaze at the stars with Tifa as they had done so many times in their youth would feel that something or rather someone was missing. Tifa refrained from talking to him about Aeris and concentrated on trying to cheer him up, in fact the whole gang made an effort, even the dark and mysterious Vincent Valentine tried to help in his own way. Today he had taken Cloud to his favourite thinking spot where the two sat in silence for over an hour just contemplating their own thoughts. It had been a good experience for Cloud as the hour of peace was a nice break from explosions, gunfire and lugging his Ultima weapon around. He had realised that over the past two months he had not paid much attention to Tifa. His childhood friend has always been there for him since he lost Aeris and he never really took much notice. He felt very guilty and realised he had spent too much time in depression. It was just that Aeris had become very dear to him very quickly. He found it rather odd that although before he had only been in love with Tifa he suddenly forgot her and it was Aeris he was centred on. He decided there and then that he would have to repay his friend and try to get over Aeris. He knew it wouldn't be easy, but man was Tifa in for a surprise when she got home!
