Light from Darkness
The Final Fantasy VII Chronicles

Chapter 4- "The Night Train"

In the Third Class passenger compartment of a certain high-speed rail vehicle, the yellow-toned lights of the passing tunnel and red neon lights in the ceiling faintly illuminating the darkness, a mechanical voice was heard booming emotionlessly over the interior loudspeaker.
"Last train out of Sector 8 Station. Last stop is Sector 7, Train Graveyard. Expected time of arrival is 12:13 AM, Midgar Standard Time."
Suddenly, the members of AVALANCHE had burst open the back door, one by one entering into the (beforehand) scarcely occupied compartment.
A nearby teenage couple, having been busied in conversation, drew their attentions to the sources of the interruption.. particularly taking note of the man with a machine gun for a right hand, who had just flopped down onto a seat, seemingly making himself quite at home. They cast a quick, knowing glance to each other, and without a word, they quickly ran for the exit.
As the rest of the gathering walked through the rundown car, taking note of their surroundings, a man in a dark brown business suit had also made for the path to the next car, muttering in a low tone as he headed out. "This is why I hate the last train.. Hoo-boy.."
Biggs went to the end of the car, content to lean against an unutilized metal pillar, while Jessie and Wedge excitedly moved over to a computer at the other side, their respective attentions examining the worn out device enthusedly.
Cloud was the last to head down the path, while he glanced around quietly, and eventually down to a ragged-clothed man lain upon a bench to the left.
The person's distanced appearance had stirred, albeit briefly, as he squinted his eyes open to narrowly glance up at Cloud, before he muttered in a half-asleep tone. "Huh..? This is my house, so make yourselves at home.." The visitor suitably dealt with, the man looked back down, and contently fell back to sleep.
Cloud quirked a brow at the.. unusual proclamation, before he moved on, next glancing to a man reading a newspaper, who casually looked up at Cloud in response, addressing him in a notably similar tone. "Hey.. You see the headlines in the Shinra Times?," he commented, with a downward nod made in the direction of the bold-texted cover story in question. "The terrorists that bombed the No. 1 Reactor are based somewhere in the slums..Blowing up a Reactor.. They sure put some thought into this one. They must have a real calcuating leader.. I wonder what they'll do next?"
Cloud shrugged in a genuinely unknowing way, before he looked to the nearby Barret, who returned the gaze angrily. "Stop actin' like a damn kid! Si' down, and shu'up!"
Cloud took half of the advice, at least, by heading away, and over to where Biggs had opted to rest at the front of the car.
Biggs turned in his direction, while giving a slight nod of acknowledgement. "It seems this train hasn't switched to Security Mode yet. I'm sure after what we just did, they'll change that tomorrow." His tone lowered considerably as he looked back down, eyes falling closed of their own accord.
"Yawn.. That sure took it's toll on me.. I'm gonna sleep till we get to the station." Cloud nodded, leaving Biggs to do just that, and finally reached the last pair of persons in the vehicle, and the source of their apparent excessive interest.
Wedge spun around nearly immediately following Cloud's approach, talking to the mercenary in his usual excited, overly-cheerful tone. "Someday AVALANCHE's gonna be famous.. and me, too! Hey, Cloud.. Don't ya think I got a bright future ahead of me?"
Cloud looked over the excessively weighted other man, wisely opting to bite back a cruel response, and just nodded slightly. "What did you have in mind?"
"All my life, I felt like nothin' but a sidekick. But after joinin' AVALANCHE and tryin' to save the Planet.. I feel like I can do lots of things!"
Cloud nodded again. "Best of luck."
Wedge smiled, his will renewed greatly, turning his attentions back to a window that gave a lengthed view over the shadowed city of Midgar.
Meanwhile, Jessie was busying herself by typing away at a small control console attached at the front of the train, as Cloud casually walked over to stand behind her, an inquisitive glance cast over her shoulder. Jessie spun around to notice Cloud, and smiled upon this recognition.
"Hey, Cloud! You want to look at this with me? It's a map of the Midgar Rail System.. Let's look at it together, and I'll explain it to you," she had said, smile persisted as she returned her attentions to the flickering visage of the monitor before her.
"I like this kinda stuff.. Bombs and monitors.. You know. Flashy stuff."
Cloud nodded, as he went next to her to get a better look at the screen.
"Okay, keep watching... It's about to start."
Suddenly, the featureless screen had vividly lit up, in the action of displaying a green, full-screen diagram of Midgar, which had been primarily composed of computerized lines.
"This's a complete model of the city of Midgar. It's about a 1/10000 scale," Jessie mentioned informatively, as she gestured an uprisen gloved hand to the display before them, continuing.
"The top plate of Midgar is about 50 meters above ground. A main support structure holds the plate up in the center, and there are other support structures built in each section." As she continued in her explanation, a pattern of flashing dots trailed throughout the diagram, seeming to convey all the facets of her lecture in visual terms.
Jessie paused and looked to Cloud, her voice lowered to a conspiritorial whisper. "The Number 1 Reactor we blew up was in the northern section. Then there's Number 2, Number 3, all the way up to the Number 8 Reactor. The eight Reactors provide Midgar with power and electricity."
She then returned her gaze to the screen, in the midst of releasing a light sigh.
"Each town used to have a name, but no one in Midgar remembers them. Instead of names, we refer to them as numbered sectors.. That's the kind of place this is.."
Jessie briefly glanced to Cloud, ensuring his attention was still focused on the screen, before she quickly spun back to the monitor's again-altered display. "Phew.. This is next. Look!"
The computerized scale model of Midgar suddenly zoomed outward, as a yellow dot appeared at one point, small white dots lighting up soon after, which trailed a long path around the center tower of Midgar.
"This is the route this train is on. It spirals around the main support structure, as you can see.. We should be passing around the center area, right now. At each checkpoint, an ID sensor device is set up. It can check the identities and backgrounds of each and every person on the train by linking it up to the central data bank at Shinra Headquarters."
Jessie turned back to Cloud, her tone again lowered to a cautious whisper.
"Anyone can tell we look suspicious, so we have fake ID's.." Jessie was soon cut off by the well-timed chiming of a siren, and a series of accompanied, flashing red lights.
"Well speak of the Devil.. That light means we're in the ID Security Check area."
She had soon began to whisper yet again.
"When the lights go off, you never know what kind of creeps'll come out. Anyhow.. We're almost back now. That's a relief.." She trailed off momentarily, before her face lit up with a thoughtful expression. "Oh, and I'm working on a new explosive! Would you like to see it?"
Cloud gave a slight nod to the affirmative, which incited Jessie to smile brightly.
"Great! I'll put some extra work into it, and give it a real BANG! We're almost at Sector 7 now. After talking with you, I really want to make this bomb!"
Wedge muttered under his breath, his stare still fixated through the smeared window.
"Can't even see the sky.."
Biggs began to chuckle in his sleep, meanwhile, as he dreamily spoke in between light fits of snoring. "Zzz...hee hee.. don't be so damn cocky, Barret.. zzz.."
Barret ignoreed the comment, looking over his own shoulder, and out a window behind his seated posture. "Look.. You can see the surface of the Upper Plate now.. This city don't have no night or day. If that thing weren't there.. We could see the sky."
Cloud walked over to the gathering's leader, as he soon leaned forward for a glimpse of his own. "A floating city.. Pretty unsettling scenery."
Barret stood a moment following the comment's releasal, and walked around to stand behind Cloud, holding his hand to his chin, as he rubbed at it thoughtfully.
"Huh? Never expect to hear that outta someone like you.. You jes' full of surprises."
The tallest of the group walked to the end of the car, to where Biggs, Jessie, and Wedge were gathered, and he raised a sole unaltered arm to point upward, as if the ceiling of the train wasn't there. "The upper world.. a city on a plate.. It's cuz of that fu-.. " Barret had cursed in this instant, though the uprisen roar of a nearby train's well-timed passing cut this off.
".. pizza that people underneath it are sufferin'! And the city below is full of polluted air.. On top'a that, the reactor keeps drainin' up all the energy.. "
Cloud coughed purposefully with an *ahem*, which interrupted Barret familiar rant.. familiar to the seasoned members of AVALANCHE, especially.
"Then why doesn't everyone move onto the plate?," he wonderingly inquired.
Barret walked around, pausing in brief thought before he responded.
"Dunno. Probably 'cuz they ain't got no money. Or maybe.."
He slammed his fists together to accentuate the point that followed.
"Cuz they love their land, no matter how polluted it gets."
Cloud gave a soft sigh, looking back to the window, as he relcutantly nodded in agreement.
"I know.. no one lives in the slums because they want to.
"It's like this train.. It can't run anywhere except where it's rails take it."

*********

From a dimly lit home somewhere in the slums of Midgar, a young child had looked out from her gloomy window, at the loud roar of the passing mechanical train, which had noisily zoomed around the outside Midgar Central Support Structure. The nameless girl sighed to herself, holding a small cloth doll, that had clearly been sewn of scant ragged material, closer.. protectively, and fearfully.