Chapter Seven: Every New Beginning…
Cloud woke up to a horribly pungent odor all around him, and the horrifying sense that he had no idea where he was. He shook his head, and tried to clear his thoughts. It took him a few moments, but he quickly pieced together what had happened. The Don had said something about minding the smell of the sewers. He was pretty sure that nothing but the sewers could smell as bad as where he was now.
He rubbed his back, which was hurting again.
"I've been waking up from these little comas way to often lately." He thought to himself.
Around him there was a dimly lit corridor, made mostly of concrete. The floor was covered in a thin layer of water, which had a disgusting green tint to it. Behind him was a large grating that separated one part of the sewer from the next. In front of him, Tifa and Aeris's bodies lay still, both laying unconscious on their backs. Cloud walked up to Tifa's motionless body and gently shook her back to consciousness. Her eyes opened, and they darted arounf quickly as she tried to figure out where she was.
"Are you okay?" He asked softly.
"Yeah I'll be alright. Thanks Cloud." She replied, smiling. His face sparked the memories, and it came to her where they were. She put one hand behind her back and slowly lifted herself up.
"She didn't wake up yet?" Tifa asked, looking at Aeris. Cloud shrugged and walked over to the other body, placing his hand over her head.
"Aeris, are you okay? Wake up, Aeris." He said, gently brushing his fingers over her eyelids. Just as Tifa had done, Aeris's eyes opened and darted around quickly. She immediately realized where they were, however.
"So this is what a sewer smells like, huh?" She asked rhetorically. "Smells worse than the slums up there."
Cloud chuckled.
"Looks like the Don had the last laugh. I guess he installed that trap door in his room to dump unwanted company into the sewer, like us." He said. "And it's an easy way to get rid of unwanted trash." He added, pointing to a used condom that was lying on the floor near the grating.
"This place is really disgusting. Can we get out of here please?" Tifa asked, looking around nervously. She didn't like this place. It was not only horrible smelling, but it invoked claustrophobia as well.
"If we follow the sewer system for a little while, we should be able to find a manhole." Cloud answered. "Let's get moving. The sooner we get out of here, the sooner we can warn Barret about the pillar."
Tifa and Aeris both nodded, and together they headed down the corridor ahead of them. The grimy water on the floor sloshed around their feet and made it hard to walk, and the smell was quickly becoming very nauseating. The sewer system was composed of many interconnecting corridors with platforms on the sides to walk across when the system needed maintenance, and the lower area where the actual sewage flowed. As soon as they reached the first ladder that led to the maintenance platform, they were able to keep out of the grime for the rest of the way.
When they reached the end of the first corridor, Cloud noticed that there was a ladder leading upward. At the top of the ladder was what appeared to be a manhole cover.
"Looks like that's our ticket to the surface." He said, craning his neck to see all the way up the ladder.
"Do you have any idea where that manhole is gonna lead us?" Tifa asked. "For all we know it might lead somewhere that's nowhere near Sector 7."
"No, I think we should be pretty close. Don Corneo's mansion isn't far from Sector 7, and the sewer that we're in leads in the direction of Sector 7." Cloud replied.
"Well let's get going then!" Aeris said. "We don't have much time."
Cloud nodded, and then began to climb the ladder. Tifa and Aeris followed behind him. When he reached the top of the ladder, he tried to lift the manhole cover upward but it was jammed into the manhole. He pounded on it with the bottoms of his palms, trying to loosen it. It finally gave way, and he slid it out of the way to reveal the surface. He climbed out, and extended his hand to help Tifa and Aeris get out.
They were surrounded by junk and shrapnel. There was garbage on the ground everywhere. Stretching for a good 100 yards were old, broken trains. Trains of every type and make were strewn on the ground, some old and some new. Some even appeared as though with some work they might still actually run. Cloud recognized the strange place from the first time he was brought into the Sector 7 slums. They were in the Train Graveyard.
"It did lead to Sector 7!" Tifa said. "Come on! We have to hurry and warn Barret!"
The nearest train to the manhole had a ladder propped up on its side. Tifa ran to the ladder and used it to get to the top of the train. She ran to the end and hopped onto the train in front of it. The trains in the graveyard were packed tightly together, forming somewhat of a platform for her to make her way across the field. Seeing what she was doing, Cloud and Aeris followed.
The graveyard was very densely crowded with trains and train parts, and despite the fact that they had the advantage of jumping from train to train above the ground, it was still very hard to navigate. It took them awhile to get far enough through the graveyard that they could see the train station that they had used to get to Midgar. Once they saw that landmark, they knew they were getting close to the end of the graveyard.
It seemed to take forever before they finally reached the end of the graveyard. What seemed to be an endless field of trains and debris stopped abruptly in front of a flimsy fence. They climbed over the fence and entered familiar territory. They were now in the courtyard in front of the train station.
"Which way is the pillar?" Aeris asked.
"It's that way. And so is our headquarters." Tifa answered, pointing forward. "Come on. Follow me"
She ran forward in the direction of the 7th Heaven Bar, followed closely by Cloud and Aeris. The bar was about five minutes away from the train station, and she knew it wouldn't be long before they'd reach Barret and let him know of the impending danger. She just hoped he would be able to come up with a plan of some sort.
As they neared the Sector 7 Pillar, which was about halfway from the station to the bar, they began to hear loud noises and commotion.
"Do you guys hear gunfire?" Cloud asked, alarmed. "It sounds like it's coming from the pillar.
The three of them rounded a corner, and stopped in front of the cage surrounding the pillar. A crowd of people had formed around the cage, and they were all looking upward with looks of shock on their faces. Cloud looked upward, just as he had the first time he had come to Midgar. But this time what he saw was not a scene of serenity, but a scene of utter chaos. He could see people exchanging gunfire all along the maintenance stairway, and there was gunfire and explosions coming from the top platform right where the pillar met the upper plate.
"We're too late." Tifa sighed. "How are we going to stop them?"
"Are the others up there?" Cloud asked, to no one in particular. An older woman turned to him to answer his question.
"The Shinra…they just came out of nowhere." She began. "Barret and his friends went up there to stop them. Why don't you go give them a hand, son."
Cloud nodded, and then tilted his neck to get another good look at the pillar. He saw two people fighting hand to hand on the maintenance stairway not far above them, and one of them looked familiar. Suddenly, the familiar looking one was thrown from the stairway and he came plunging down to the ground. Cloud pushed everyone back, and the body of the man landed with a loud thump on the ground in front of them. Suddenly Cloud realized who it was. It was Wedge.
"Wedge! Are you alright?" Cloud asked. He already knew the answer, though. Wedge had taken a very long fall, and he'd landed on his back. Cloud was surprised to see that he was even conscious, as he opened his eyes to look right into Cloud's face. He tried to speak, but no words came out. Cloud tried to calm him, but he rolled over and coughed blood onto the ground beneath him.
"You're gonna be okay, Wedge." Cloud lied.
"No. No, it's…too late for me." Wedge managed to say. "Help Barret and the others."
"You did a good job, Wedge. I know that Barret appreciates what you've done for Avalanche." Cloud tried to comfort him.
"Cloud?" Wedge whispered, using all of the little energy he had left to speak. "Do you appreciate what I've done?"
"Of course I do, Wedge." Cloud answered, smiling. "I'll never forget what you've done."
"Th…thanks Cloud." Wedge said, in such a whisper that it was barely audible. He managed to smile, and then his eyes rolled limply into the back of his head. Cloud pressed his ear to Wedge's chest.
"Is he…gone?" Tifa asked, tears coming to her eyes. Cloud nodded.
"We have to get up there and help Barret. He can't hold out against the Shinra forever, especially without Wedge's help." Cloud said.
Tifa nodded, wiping a tear from her eye. She turned to Aeris.
"Aeris, if you keep going straight ahead you'll reach a bar called 7th Heaven. Inside there is a girl named Marlene. Can you make sure that she makes it to safety?" She asked.
"Of course, Tifa. Good luck to the both of you." She replied, and then ran off in the direction of the bar.
"Everyone else get out of the Sector 7 slums. If we can't stop the Shinra, then the upper plate is going to crush this entire sector." Tifa warned.
The crowd around the cage seemed to contemplate this for a second, and then it dispersed. Most of them headed for the train station. If they could get to the city above, then they'd be safe from any falling plates.
Cloud ran toward the swinging door in the cage surrounding the pillar and slammed into it with his shoulder. The door swung open, and he and Tifa entered the cage and ran onto the maintenance stairway. Above them they could hear the sound of gunshots grow ever closer.
Not far from where they had gotten onto the stairway they found two Shinra soldiers guarding the area. One quickly fell to Cloud's sword, and the other was met with a punch to the face by Tifa, who was wearing her precious new brass-knuckled fighting gloves. As they ascended the stairway farther upward, they encountered no Shinra soldiers, but they saw plenty of their bodies lying dead.
When they had made it about halfway up, they saw another familiar body lying hunched over the railing. Upon closer look, Cloud realized it was Biggs.
"Biggs!" He yelled.
"Oh, Cloud. I didn't think you'd make it in time. You have to go help Barret."
"What about you? Are you okay?" Tifa asked.
"I'm fine. Go on, help Barret." He answered. As he did so, his grip on the railing slipped and he fell to his knees. Instinctively, his hands dropped to brace himself, revealing the bullet wound that he had been covering with his left hand.
"You're wounded!" Tifa said, bending over to help him.
"Forget about me Tifa. I'm going to die no matter what, but if you go help Barret than perhaps the people living in Sector 7 don't have to also!"
Tifa turned to Cloud, and he nodded. She hated it, but there was nothing she could do. She smiled at Biggs, and he smiled back, slumping into a more comfortable position to die in. Cloud and Tifa continued their journey up the stairway, trying to put out of their minds that they had now lost two of their members. When they had almost reached the top of the pillar, it became three. There Jessie was lying, critically injured. Blood had soaked her shirt, and she was doing her best to stay conscious.
"Cloud! Tifa!" She called to them, coughing in between saying their names. "Thank God you two are here."
"Jessie!" Cloud replied. "Oh, not you too."
"Why, are the others injured too?" She asked.
"We already lost Wedge, and Biggs doesn't have much left in him." Tifa answered.
"Well, I'm not long for this world either. When we blew up those two reactors, innocent people died. Perhaps this is our punishment." She sighed.
"No, Jessie." Cloud replied. "This is just the Shinra oppressing those that oppose them."
"Go help Barret, Cloud. And you too, Tifa. There's nothing left for me."
"Goodbye, Jessie." Cloud said. Tifa nodded to her and smiled.
"It's been a pleasure working with you two." Jessie said, and then rolled over to try and stop her bleeding. Once again, Cloud and Tifa continued to make their way up the stairs. Not long after, they reached the top platform. Barret was fighting two Shinra soldiers, and as Cloud and Tifa approached them both soldiers dropped to the floor dead.
"Yo Cloud!" Barret called to him. "These motherfuckers are trying to blow up the pillar!"
"We know." Tifa replied.
"How are the others?" Barret asked. Cloud lowered his head, and so did Tifa.
"Ah fuck! They all dead?"
"Dead or injured." Cloud answered.
"Shit. Man, this morning everything was fine and now it's all gone straight to hell!" Barret cried. His cries of anger were drowned out by the sound of a helicopter, however. Above them, a chopper with the Shinra logo painted on the side hovered over the platform. Out of it dropped Reno of the Turks, the man that Cloud had escaped from with Tifa. In the center of the platform was a large computer console. Reno ran toward it.
"What the hell are you doing you scumbag?" Barret yelled to him. "Get the fuck away from there before I blow your goddamn head off!"
"Watch your language, mister! I'm not going to be talked to that way by a piece of slum filth." Reno replied, smirking.
"Aren't you the asshole that I had to escape from with Tifa?" Cloud asked.
"Yeah that would be me." Reno answered. "Minus the asshole part. My name is Reno."
"Yeah, so why the hell should we care? You gonna try to blow up this pillar? Cause if you are, you're gonna be in for a hell of a surprise." Cloud replied.
"Oh, on the contrary. You are the ones that are in for a surprise. You see, when I enter the code into this console, it will activate the self-destruct sequence. Once the sequence is started, there's no way to stop it."
"Not if I stop you first!" Cloud yelled, running toward him.
Reno quickly flipped a switch on the console and entered the code. A red light started to flash on the screen, indicating that the sequence had begun.
"That's all, folks. Game over." He said triumphantly.
"You son of a bitch!" Cloud cried, as he tackled Reno onto the floor. He punched him in the face, and then rolled over to avoid getting kicked. Reno wiped blood from his face, and staggered a bit. It gave Cloud just the chance he needed. He unsheathed his sword and swiped at his opponent. Reno managed to barely dodge the blow, but the end of the blade cut into his arm, leaving a gash. He grabbed his arm in pain.
"I've had enough of this!" He yelled. "You're all going to die anyway, so there's no sense in staying here any longer." He gestured to the helicopter hovering above him, and it swooped in with an extended rope ladder to pull him up to safety. Tseng peered out of the side of the chopper to observe the helpless group standing on the platform.
Barret ran to a spot where he had a clear shot at the helicopter and raised his gun-arm.
"You think you can get away that easily huh? Well let's see how you deal with this!" He yelled, firing on the helicopter.
"I wouldn't do that if I were you." Tseng warned. "You might hurt our passenger." He moved to the side to reveal Aeris sitting beside him, handcuffed to the seat.
"Aeris!" Cloud yelled. "Barret, stop shooting!"
"You know that girl?" Barret asked.
"Yeah, and so does Tifa. Don't shoot at her."
Barret reluctantly lowered his gun-arm.
"That's better." Tseng said. "I trust you'll all die quickly when the pillar explodes. I just hope your friends in the slums below are so fortunate."
Aeris struggled out from behind him and yelled to Tifa.
"Tifa! The girl is safe!"
Tseng turned around and slapped her in the face. Cloud and Tifa gasped. Barret growled in intense anger.
"Don't you ever lay a hand on her again!" Cloud yelled.
"What are you going to do about it?" Tseng questioned. "She's property of the Turks now. Good day to you now." As he said this, the helicopter turned around and flew out of the range of the Sector 7 plate. Above them, they could see that the explosion had started. Fire was billowing out of the top of the pillar, and pieces of it were raining down on them.
"We don't have much time! There has to be a way out of here!" Cloud said.
Barret looked at a construction hook that was hanging from the top pillar. It seemed like it was on a long enough rope to swing them into the Sector 6 boundary.
"Come on, let's use that rope over there!" He said. He ran toward it, and sat down on top of the hook. Shrugging, Cloud got on his shoulders. Tifa followed and got on top of Cloud's shoulders. Barret moved his legs back and forth a few times, and then finally pushed off with all of his might.
As they swung downward, behind them the pillar exploded into fragments that shattered everywhere. Without any support, the upper plate began to sag, and then it finally collapsed. The entire plate came crashing down, destroying everything in Sector 7. All of the houses and buildings were destroyed. All of the innocent people that couldn't get out in time were killed. Just in time, they swung safely over the boundary between Sector 6 and 7 and dropped harmlessly to the ground. They could see clearly as the shrapnel and the huge metal plate destroyed what Barret and Tifa had once called home.
From atop the city above the plate, commotion had overtaken every citizen. Assuming that yet another terrorist act had been committed, large groups of people immediately began assembling around the crater where Sector 7 had once existed. Police cars and ambulances surrounded the area, and chaos ensued as people began to realize that an entire one eighth of their city had been destroyed. And from high atop the Shinra Headquarters in the middle of the city, a lone figure stared at the chaos from the window in his office. As he watched all the commotion and havoc, he couldn't help but smile.
***
It was all gone. Everything. His home and his friends were all taken from him by the Shinra. He had hated the Shinra all his life, but nothing could have hurt him more than what they had done to him now. Barret stared in disbelief at the wreckage in front of him. He was standing next to Cloud and Tifa in the Sector 6 playground, and in front of him were the large doors that separated Sector 7 from Sector 6, or what was left of them anyway. They had been completely destroyed for the most part, and fiery embers were burning off of the wreckage.
"It's all gone!" Barret cried, tears streaming from his eyes. "They've taken everything from me!"
"Barret, there was nothing we could do to stop them." Tifa said, trying to comfort him.
"That doesn't make it any less wrong!" He shouted back. "Everyone's dead. Do you understand me, Tifa? Do you understand me Cloud?" He yelled, made delirious by the intense pain he felt inside. "They're all fucking dead! Wedge…Biggs…Jessie. They're all gone! And…and…Marlene! Oh God, Marlene is gone too!" He collapsed into a sobbing mess.
Tifa walked toward him to put her arm around him, but he pushed her away.
"Marlene!" He screamed. He pointed his gun-arm at the wreckage and started firing aimlessly at it. "What is it all for? What the hell is it all for?" He screamed as he shot at the wreckage. After about half a minute of shooting he collapsed to his knees again, sobbing uncontrollably.
"Barret." Tifa approached him. "I think…I think Marlene is okay."
"What?" Barret asked, lifting his head.
"When Aeris was in the helicopter she told me that the girl was okay. I had told her make sure that Marlene was safe, so I'm assuming she meant Marlene." She replied.
"Thank God for that." Barret said, wiping the tears from his eyes with his arm. "But that still doesn't bring back the others."
"Nothing will bring them back, Barret." Cloud said. "But that doesn't mean that they had to die in vain. We have to remember that they gave their lives to fight for the planet, and because they believed in you. They died for you, Barret."
"And we have to ask ourselves if our fight against the Shinra is worth the lives of three good people." Tifa added. "As much as I loved the three of them very much, I think it is."
Barret nodded.
"We always said from the beginning that we were willing to give up our lives for the cause. I would have done it just as quickly as they did." He said. "I just wish it didn't have to end this way."
"Barret, the Shinra have broken the camel's back with this one. We can't let them get away with this." Tifa replied. "If anything, this should make us want to fight them even harder."
Barret turned to Cloud, his eyes still red and swollen from crying.
"Are you with us for good now?" He asked. Cloud nodded.
"I have no intention of letting the Shinra get away with what they've done. I'm taking it personally now." He answered. "And I'm also beginning to think that you may be right about this whole planet thing. Especially since Aeris seems to believe in it. Speaking of which, what are we going to do about her being captured?"
"They probably took her to the headquarters. We'll never be able to get her out of there." Barret answered.
"No, I think we might be able to. I've heard stories of people sneaking in there. It's been done." Cloud replied. "We'll have to come up with a plan."
"Not to sound cold about this, but we've lost three members today." Tifa said. "That makes us a lot weaker. We need as much help as we can get, and Aeris has offered to give us that help. I think it's really important that we get her back as quickly as possible."
"Before we go rushing into something like that, I want to see Marlene. Tifa, do you know where she is?" Barret asked.
"I don't know. All I know is that Aeris said she was safe." She answered.
"I'm guessing she probably took her to her house." Cloud said.
"Do you know where her house is?" Barret asked.
"Yeah. Follow me." He answered, and began walking out of the playground area. Tifa and Barret followed. Barret was still shaken up by the turn of events that had just taken place. Seeing Marlene would relieve some of the pain that he was feeling, and he knew it.
Cloud was anxious to let Elmyra know that Aeris had been captured, since he had a feeling that she might know what to do about it. He wasn't going to sit back and let the Shinra hold onto her. As soon as he was done talking to Elmyra, he was going to make a plan to get into the Shinra Headquarters. It was going to be a tough job, but it had to be done. Cloud knew that saving Aeris would be worth the effort.
Cloud woke up to a horribly pungent odor all around him, and the horrifying sense that he had no idea where he was. He shook his head, and tried to clear his thoughts. It took him a few moments, but he quickly pieced together what had happened. The Don had said something about minding the smell of the sewers. He was pretty sure that nothing but the sewers could smell as bad as where he was now.
He rubbed his back, which was hurting again.
"I've been waking up from these little comas way to often lately." He thought to himself.
Around him there was a dimly lit corridor, made mostly of concrete. The floor was covered in a thin layer of water, which had a disgusting green tint to it. Behind him was a large grating that separated one part of the sewer from the next. In front of him, Tifa and Aeris's bodies lay still, both laying unconscious on their backs. Cloud walked up to Tifa's motionless body and gently shook her back to consciousness. Her eyes opened, and they darted arounf quickly as she tried to figure out where she was.
"Are you okay?" He asked softly.
"Yeah I'll be alright. Thanks Cloud." She replied, smiling. His face sparked the memories, and it came to her where they were. She put one hand behind her back and slowly lifted herself up.
"She didn't wake up yet?" Tifa asked, looking at Aeris. Cloud shrugged and walked over to the other body, placing his hand over her head.
"Aeris, are you okay? Wake up, Aeris." He said, gently brushing his fingers over her eyelids. Just as Tifa had done, Aeris's eyes opened and darted around quickly. She immediately realized where they were, however.
"So this is what a sewer smells like, huh?" She asked rhetorically. "Smells worse than the slums up there."
Cloud chuckled.
"Looks like the Don had the last laugh. I guess he installed that trap door in his room to dump unwanted company into the sewer, like us." He said. "And it's an easy way to get rid of unwanted trash." He added, pointing to a used condom that was lying on the floor near the grating.
"This place is really disgusting. Can we get out of here please?" Tifa asked, looking around nervously. She didn't like this place. It was not only horrible smelling, but it invoked claustrophobia as well.
"If we follow the sewer system for a little while, we should be able to find a manhole." Cloud answered. "Let's get moving. The sooner we get out of here, the sooner we can warn Barret about the pillar."
Tifa and Aeris both nodded, and together they headed down the corridor ahead of them. The grimy water on the floor sloshed around their feet and made it hard to walk, and the smell was quickly becoming very nauseating. The sewer system was composed of many interconnecting corridors with platforms on the sides to walk across when the system needed maintenance, and the lower area where the actual sewage flowed. As soon as they reached the first ladder that led to the maintenance platform, they were able to keep out of the grime for the rest of the way.
When they reached the end of the first corridor, Cloud noticed that there was a ladder leading upward. At the top of the ladder was what appeared to be a manhole cover.
"Looks like that's our ticket to the surface." He said, craning his neck to see all the way up the ladder.
"Do you have any idea where that manhole is gonna lead us?" Tifa asked. "For all we know it might lead somewhere that's nowhere near Sector 7."
"No, I think we should be pretty close. Don Corneo's mansion isn't far from Sector 7, and the sewer that we're in leads in the direction of Sector 7." Cloud replied.
"Well let's get going then!" Aeris said. "We don't have much time."
Cloud nodded, and then began to climb the ladder. Tifa and Aeris followed behind him. When he reached the top of the ladder, he tried to lift the manhole cover upward but it was jammed into the manhole. He pounded on it with the bottoms of his palms, trying to loosen it. It finally gave way, and he slid it out of the way to reveal the surface. He climbed out, and extended his hand to help Tifa and Aeris get out.
They were surrounded by junk and shrapnel. There was garbage on the ground everywhere. Stretching for a good 100 yards were old, broken trains. Trains of every type and make were strewn on the ground, some old and some new. Some even appeared as though with some work they might still actually run. Cloud recognized the strange place from the first time he was brought into the Sector 7 slums. They were in the Train Graveyard.
"It did lead to Sector 7!" Tifa said. "Come on! We have to hurry and warn Barret!"
The nearest train to the manhole had a ladder propped up on its side. Tifa ran to the ladder and used it to get to the top of the train. She ran to the end and hopped onto the train in front of it. The trains in the graveyard were packed tightly together, forming somewhat of a platform for her to make her way across the field. Seeing what she was doing, Cloud and Aeris followed.
The graveyard was very densely crowded with trains and train parts, and despite the fact that they had the advantage of jumping from train to train above the ground, it was still very hard to navigate. It took them awhile to get far enough through the graveyard that they could see the train station that they had used to get to Midgar. Once they saw that landmark, they knew they were getting close to the end of the graveyard.
It seemed to take forever before they finally reached the end of the graveyard. What seemed to be an endless field of trains and debris stopped abruptly in front of a flimsy fence. They climbed over the fence and entered familiar territory. They were now in the courtyard in front of the train station.
"Which way is the pillar?" Aeris asked.
"It's that way. And so is our headquarters." Tifa answered, pointing forward. "Come on. Follow me"
She ran forward in the direction of the 7th Heaven Bar, followed closely by Cloud and Aeris. The bar was about five minutes away from the train station, and she knew it wouldn't be long before they'd reach Barret and let him know of the impending danger. She just hoped he would be able to come up with a plan of some sort.
As they neared the Sector 7 Pillar, which was about halfway from the station to the bar, they began to hear loud noises and commotion.
"Do you guys hear gunfire?" Cloud asked, alarmed. "It sounds like it's coming from the pillar.
The three of them rounded a corner, and stopped in front of the cage surrounding the pillar. A crowd of people had formed around the cage, and they were all looking upward with looks of shock on their faces. Cloud looked upward, just as he had the first time he had come to Midgar. But this time what he saw was not a scene of serenity, but a scene of utter chaos. He could see people exchanging gunfire all along the maintenance stairway, and there was gunfire and explosions coming from the top platform right where the pillar met the upper plate.
"We're too late." Tifa sighed. "How are we going to stop them?"
"Are the others up there?" Cloud asked, to no one in particular. An older woman turned to him to answer his question.
"The Shinra…they just came out of nowhere." She began. "Barret and his friends went up there to stop them. Why don't you go give them a hand, son."
Cloud nodded, and then tilted his neck to get another good look at the pillar. He saw two people fighting hand to hand on the maintenance stairway not far above them, and one of them looked familiar. Suddenly, the familiar looking one was thrown from the stairway and he came plunging down to the ground. Cloud pushed everyone back, and the body of the man landed with a loud thump on the ground in front of them. Suddenly Cloud realized who it was. It was Wedge.
"Wedge! Are you alright?" Cloud asked. He already knew the answer, though. Wedge had taken a very long fall, and he'd landed on his back. Cloud was surprised to see that he was even conscious, as he opened his eyes to look right into Cloud's face. He tried to speak, but no words came out. Cloud tried to calm him, but he rolled over and coughed blood onto the ground beneath him.
"You're gonna be okay, Wedge." Cloud lied.
"No. No, it's…too late for me." Wedge managed to say. "Help Barret and the others."
"You did a good job, Wedge. I know that Barret appreciates what you've done for Avalanche." Cloud tried to comfort him.
"Cloud?" Wedge whispered, using all of the little energy he had left to speak. "Do you appreciate what I've done?"
"Of course I do, Wedge." Cloud answered, smiling. "I'll never forget what you've done."
"Th…thanks Cloud." Wedge said, in such a whisper that it was barely audible. He managed to smile, and then his eyes rolled limply into the back of his head. Cloud pressed his ear to Wedge's chest.
"Is he…gone?" Tifa asked, tears coming to her eyes. Cloud nodded.
"We have to get up there and help Barret. He can't hold out against the Shinra forever, especially without Wedge's help." Cloud said.
Tifa nodded, wiping a tear from her eye. She turned to Aeris.
"Aeris, if you keep going straight ahead you'll reach a bar called 7th Heaven. Inside there is a girl named Marlene. Can you make sure that she makes it to safety?" She asked.
"Of course, Tifa. Good luck to the both of you." She replied, and then ran off in the direction of the bar.
"Everyone else get out of the Sector 7 slums. If we can't stop the Shinra, then the upper plate is going to crush this entire sector." Tifa warned.
The crowd around the cage seemed to contemplate this for a second, and then it dispersed. Most of them headed for the train station. If they could get to the city above, then they'd be safe from any falling plates.
Cloud ran toward the swinging door in the cage surrounding the pillar and slammed into it with his shoulder. The door swung open, and he and Tifa entered the cage and ran onto the maintenance stairway. Above them they could hear the sound of gunshots grow ever closer.
Not far from where they had gotten onto the stairway they found two Shinra soldiers guarding the area. One quickly fell to Cloud's sword, and the other was met with a punch to the face by Tifa, who was wearing her precious new brass-knuckled fighting gloves. As they ascended the stairway farther upward, they encountered no Shinra soldiers, but they saw plenty of their bodies lying dead.
When they had made it about halfway up, they saw another familiar body lying hunched over the railing. Upon closer look, Cloud realized it was Biggs.
"Biggs!" He yelled.
"Oh, Cloud. I didn't think you'd make it in time. You have to go help Barret."
"What about you? Are you okay?" Tifa asked.
"I'm fine. Go on, help Barret." He answered. As he did so, his grip on the railing slipped and he fell to his knees. Instinctively, his hands dropped to brace himself, revealing the bullet wound that he had been covering with his left hand.
"You're wounded!" Tifa said, bending over to help him.
"Forget about me Tifa. I'm going to die no matter what, but if you go help Barret than perhaps the people living in Sector 7 don't have to also!"
Tifa turned to Cloud, and he nodded. She hated it, but there was nothing she could do. She smiled at Biggs, and he smiled back, slumping into a more comfortable position to die in. Cloud and Tifa continued their journey up the stairway, trying to put out of their minds that they had now lost two of their members. When they had almost reached the top of the pillar, it became three. There Jessie was lying, critically injured. Blood had soaked her shirt, and she was doing her best to stay conscious.
"Cloud! Tifa!" She called to them, coughing in between saying their names. "Thank God you two are here."
"Jessie!" Cloud replied. "Oh, not you too."
"Why, are the others injured too?" She asked.
"We already lost Wedge, and Biggs doesn't have much left in him." Tifa answered.
"Well, I'm not long for this world either. When we blew up those two reactors, innocent people died. Perhaps this is our punishment." She sighed.
"No, Jessie." Cloud replied. "This is just the Shinra oppressing those that oppose them."
"Go help Barret, Cloud. And you too, Tifa. There's nothing left for me."
"Goodbye, Jessie." Cloud said. Tifa nodded to her and smiled.
"It's been a pleasure working with you two." Jessie said, and then rolled over to try and stop her bleeding. Once again, Cloud and Tifa continued to make their way up the stairs. Not long after, they reached the top platform. Barret was fighting two Shinra soldiers, and as Cloud and Tifa approached them both soldiers dropped to the floor dead.
"Yo Cloud!" Barret called to him. "These motherfuckers are trying to blow up the pillar!"
"We know." Tifa replied.
"How are the others?" Barret asked. Cloud lowered his head, and so did Tifa.
"Ah fuck! They all dead?"
"Dead or injured." Cloud answered.
"Shit. Man, this morning everything was fine and now it's all gone straight to hell!" Barret cried. His cries of anger were drowned out by the sound of a helicopter, however. Above them, a chopper with the Shinra logo painted on the side hovered over the platform. Out of it dropped Reno of the Turks, the man that Cloud had escaped from with Tifa. In the center of the platform was a large computer console. Reno ran toward it.
"What the hell are you doing you scumbag?" Barret yelled to him. "Get the fuck away from there before I blow your goddamn head off!"
"Watch your language, mister! I'm not going to be talked to that way by a piece of slum filth." Reno replied, smirking.
"Aren't you the asshole that I had to escape from with Tifa?" Cloud asked.
"Yeah that would be me." Reno answered. "Minus the asshole part. My name is Reno."
"Yeah, so why the hell should we care? You gonna try to blow up this pillar? Cause if you are, you're gonna be in for a hell of a surprise." Cloud replied.
"Oh, on the contrary. You are the ones that are in for a surprise. You see, when I enter the code into this console, it will activate the self-destruct sequence. Once the sequence is started, there's no way to stop it."
"Not if I stop you first!" Cloud yelled, running toward him.
Reno quickly flipped a switch on the console and entered the code. A red light started to flash on the screen, indicating that the sequence had begun.
"That's all, folks. Game over." He said triumphantly.
"You son of a bitch!" Cloud cried, as he tackled Reno onto the floor. He punched him in the face, and then rolled over to avoid getting kicked. Reno wiped blood from his face, and staggered a bit. It gave Cloud just the chance he needed. He unsheathed his sword and swiped at his opponent. Reno managed to barely dodge the blow, but the end of the blade cut into his arm, leaving a gash. He grabbed his arm in pain.
"I've had enough of this!" He yelled. "You're all going to die anyway, so there's no sense in staying here any longer." He gestured to the helicopter hovering above him, and it swooped in with an extended rope ladder to pull him up to safety. Tseng peered out of the side of the chopper to observe the helpless group standing on the platform.
Barret ran to a spot where he had a clear shot at the helicopter and raised his gun-arm.
"You think you can get away that easily huh? Well let's see how you deal with this!" He yelled, firing on the helicopter.
"I wouldn't do that if I were you." Tseng warned. "You might hurt our passenger." He moved to the side to reveal Aeris sitting beside him, handcuffed to the seat.
"Aeris!" Cloud yelled. "Barret, stop shooting!"
"You know that girl?" Barret asked.
"Yeah, and so does Tifa. Don't shoot at her."
Barret reluctantly lowered his gun-arm.
"That's better." Tseng said. "I trust you'll all die quickly when the pillar explodes. I just hope your friends in the slums below are so fortunate."
Aeris struggled out from behind him and yelled to Tifa.
"Tifa! The girl is safe!"
Tseng turned around and slapped her in the face. Cloud and Tifa gasped. Barret growled in intense anger.
"Don't you ever lay a hand on her again!" Cloud yelled.
"What are you going to do about it?" Tseng questioned. "She's property of the Turks now. Good day to you now." As he said this, the helicopter turned around and flew out of the range of the Sector 7 plate. Above them, they could see that the explosion had started. Fire was billowing out of the top of the pillar, and pieces of it were raining down on them.
"We don't have much time! There has to be a way out of here!" Cloud said.
Barret looked at a construction hook that was hanging from the top pillar. It seemed like it was on a long enough rope to swing them into the Sector 6 boundary.
"Come on, let's use that rope over there!" He said. He ran toward it, and sat down on top of the hook. Shrugging, Cloud got on his shoulders. Tifa followed and got on top of Cloud's shoulders. Barret moved his legs back and forth a few times, and then finally pushed off with all of his might.
As they swung downward, behind them the pillar exploded into fragments that shattered everywhere. Without any support, the upper plate began to sag, and then it finally collapsed. The entire plate came crashing down, destroying everything in Sector 7. All of the houses and buildings were destroyed. All of the innocent people that couldn't get out in time were killed. Just in time, they swung safely over the boundary between Sector 6 and 7 and dropped harmlessly to the ground. They could see clearly as the shrapnel and the huge metal plate destroyed what Barret and Tifa had once called home.
From atop the city above the plate, commotion had overtaken every citizen. Assuming that yet another terrorist act had been committed, large groups of people immediately began assembling around the crater where Sector 7 had once existed. Police cars and ambulances surrounded the area, and chaos ensued as people began to realize that an entire one eighth of their city had been destroyed. And from high atop the Shinra Headquarters in the middle of the city, a lone figure stared at the chaos from the window in his office. As he watched all the commotion and havoc, he couldn't help but smile.
***
It was all gone. Everything. His home and his friends were all taken from him by the Shinra. He had hated the Shinra all his life, but nothing could have hurt him more than what they had done to him now. Barret stared in disbelief at the wreckage in front of him. He was standing next to Cloud and Tifa in the Sector 6 playground, and in front of him were the large doors that separated Sector 7 from Sector 6, or what was left of them anyway. They had been completely destroyed for the most part, and fiery embers were burning off of the wreckage.
"It's all gone!" Barret cried, tears streaming from his eyes. "They've taken everything from me!"
"Barret, there was nothing we could do to stop them." Tifa said, trying to comfort him.
"That doesn't make it any less wrong!" He shouted back. "Everyone's dead. Do you understand me, Tifa? Do you understand me Cloud?" He yelled, made delirious by the intense pain he felt inside. "They're all fucking dead! Wedge…Biggs…Jessie. They're all gone! And…and…Marlene! Oh God, Marlene is gone too!" He collapsed into a sobbing mess.
Tifa walked toward him to put her arm around him, but he pushed her away.
"Marlene!" He screamed. He pointed his gun-arm at the wreckage and started firing aimlessly at it. "What is it all for? What the hell is it all for?" He screamed as he shot at the wreckage. After about half a minute of shooting he collapsed to his knees again, sobbing uncontrollably.
"Barret." Tifa approached him. "I think…I think Marlene is okay."
"What?" Barret asked, lifting his head.
"When Aeris was in the helicopter she told me that the girl was okay. I had told her make sure that Marlene was safe, so I'm assuming she meant Marlene." She replied.
"Thank God for that." Barret said, wiping the tears from his eyes with his arm. "But that still doesn't bring back the others."
"Nothing will bring them back, Barret." Cloud said. "But that doesn't mean that they had to die in vain. We have to remember that they gave their lives to fight for the planet, and because they believed in you. They died for you, Barret."
"And we have to ask ourselves if our fight against the Shinra is worth the lives of three good people." Tifa added. "As much as I loved the three of them very much, I think it is."
Barret nodded.
"We always said from the beginning that we were willing to give up our lives for the cause. I would have done it just as quickly as they did." He said. "I just wish it didn't have to end this way."
"Barret, the Shinra have broken the camel's back with this one. We can't let them get away with this." Tifa replied. "If anything, this should make us want to fight them even harder."
Barret turned to Cloud, his eyes still red and swollen from crying.
"Are you with us for good now?" He asked. Cloud nodded.
"I have no intention of letting the Shinra get away with what they've done. I'm taking it personally now." He answered. "And I'm also beginning to think that you may be right about this whole planet thing. Especially since Aeris seems to believe in it. Speaking of which, what are we going to do about her being captured?"
"They probably took her to the headquarters. We'll never be able to get her out of there." Barret answered.
"No, I think we might be able to. I've heard stories of people sneaking in there. It's been done." Cloud replied. "We'll have to come up with a plan."
"Not to sound cold about this, but we've lost three members today." Tifa said. "That makes us a lot weaker. We need as much help as we can get, and Aeris has offered to give us that help. I think it's really important that we get her back as quickly as possible."
"Before we go rushing into something like that, I want to see Marlene. Tifa, do you know where she is?" Barret asked.
"I don't know. All I know is that Aeris said she was safe." She answered.
"I'm guessing she probably took her to her house." Cloud said.
"Do you know where her house is?" Barret asked.
"Yeah. Follow me." He answered, and began walking out of the playground area. Tifa and Barret followed. Barret was still shaken up by the turn of events that had just taken place. Seeing Marlene would relieve some of the pain that he was feeling, and he knew it.
Cloud was anxious to let Elmyra know that Aeris had been captured, since he had a feeling that she might know what to do about it. He wasn't going to sit back and let the Shinra hold onto her. As soon as he was done talking to Elmyra, he was going to make a plan to get into the Shinra Headquarters. It was going to be a tough job, but it had to be done. Cloud knew that saving Aeris would be worth the effort.