Chapter 3

I had not seen any sign of a grocery or supply store anywhere around, but, figuring I might as well exhaust all possibilities before tearing off into the great unknown, I walked into the Item Store adjacent to the Materia Shop. There seemed little difference between this store and the one I had just been in, except for the fact that a woman was standing behind the counter of this place of business.
"How may I help you?" she asked in a cheery voice.
I cleared my throat, "I'm looking for supplies."
Oh," she replied, "then you've come to the right place. We have Potions, Phoenix Downs, Antidotes, and Tents."
Hmmm…I could actually remember these names, and what's more, I could actually remember what they did. I decided that with my Mastered Cure Materia I wouldn't need Potions or Phoenix Downs, but Tents would probably be a necessity, and a couple of Antidotes wouldn't hurt…I just wished that they'd had some Ethers, or better yet some Turbo Ethers in stock.
"I'll take three Tents and five Antidotes," I replied.
"Excellent," said the woman, "would you like me to bag them?"
"Sure," I replied and watched her put the merchandise in a leather backpack.
"You do know that the bag costs extra?" she said as she handed me the backpack.
"It's fine, now…what do I owe you?"
She seemed to do some mental math, then she typed something in on the small and horribly outdated computer she had.
"2000 gil," was her reply.
She didn't seem to be in a very talkative mood, so after paying her I left, said goodbye to Sector 5, and started walking on down the path pointed out to me by the man in the Materia Store.
The hike was not too difficult all in all. It was very much the same as my journey to the church, filthy, dirty, and mostly covered with garbage. One really had to start wondering whether Midgar even had a waste management program…or sewers for that matter. But there was little I could do about it, little I though that anyone could do about it, so I just walked on and ignored the mountains of waste to either side as best I could. However, it was not long before I came up to a bit of an obstacle, a six foot wide concrete wall reaching up into space so far above me that it might have gone all the way up to the upper plate for all I knew…but I doubted it. In any case it was too high and slick for me to climb, and I certainly wasn't going to be blasting my way through it any time soon, not with the risk of the entire wall falling down on me. Luckily my problem was solved for me because as I walked along the base I found a single opening that had been drilled into the wall. Figuring that this was probably as good as it was going to get, I slipped on through into Sector 6.
Sector 6, or what I could see of it, appeared to be little more than a very large construction site. Perhaps they were fixing damage caused by the Sector 7 collapse, I didn't know. With no other place to go I started on through, unsure of myself or the strange monster-like shadows slitting in and out among the work equipment and debris.
The entire journey was itself turning out to uneventful, and I was just becoming relaxed when I heard a loud screech from behind me. It was a sound that might have only been replicated by a cat using a chalkboard for a clawing post. It was a sound to make your back arch and face contort in pain. I whirled around just in time to knock the snake-like creature back onto the ground. It was, as I've said, snake-like, but it had four skinny legs like an insect, each foot tipped with a very sharp looking claw. The monster's huge mouth was round, taking up nearly the entire head portion of its body. The inside of this mouth was literally covered in thousands of tiny sharp teeth. It was perhaps the single most disgusting thing I'd ever seen before…this little monster.
It screeched again and leapt at me a second time. This time I was prepared, and unslinging Reaper, turned the upstart little beast into two pieces. The two halves were still wriggling on the floor, making gurgling noises when I left. I turned around for a moment to see the dying monster's friends come out to finish the work I had started, but they would not approach me.
I found an old paper sack and used that to wipe off my blade before returning it to my sheath. By then I had drawn near the exit, and walked out to find myself in an old, partially destroyed playground.
It was an unsettling sight, seeing this place where children once played and laughed, destroyed and ripped apart. 'But by what?' I had to ask myself, it looked as if an explosion had gone off near here. If an explosion had gone off near here then perhaps that meant I was near Sector 7, or what was left of Sector 7.
Indeed, I was not far from the truth because just up the road, past some overturned ruins of smoldering homes, I found a great gate marked 'Sector 7'. Unfortunately, like I'd been told, the entire entrance was completely blocked up by debris, making entrance impossible. However, I had to try or how else was I going to get out of this place? The concrete wall that the gate was built into looked to be just as tall as the one in front of Sector 6, meaning that climbing up was not an option. Without anything else to do, I began searching for some way through the steel cork. I spent the entire day there, rummaging through the trash and garbage, trying to find some way through…but in vain.
I didn't think all that much while I worked, but when I did it was mainly about what I was going to do if I ever got inside Sector 7. The train station was obviously destroyed, but if I could find the tracks somehow, I thought, perhaps I could follow them up to the upper world? It seemed like a long shot to me, but at the time it was the best that I could come up with.
Finally, however, I was too exhausted to go on, and laid down on a flat slab of metal which had pushed its way partially out of the mess. As I rested there, my attention began to focus on a single rodent crawling around in the wreckage, searching for food probably. It didn't seem to notice me, and went on with its search without a single care. 'If I was that small,' I thought to myself, 'I could probably find a way through this (indicated the debris).' It was meant to be a joke, but at that moment the rat must have realized it was being watched because it immediately sat up on its hind legs and sniffed the air, its ears twitching about for the tiniest sound. Not wanting my new found friend to run off on me I sat as perfectly still as I could, trying not to even breathe.
However, it wasn't enough; it must have caught my sent because it dashed off up the pile to near the very top, where it simply disappeared.
This obviously pricked my curiosity, and so I climbed further up to investigate. I could find no trace of the rat, the creature had just seemingly disappeared, however, on closer inspection I did locate a single tiny hole that was just big enough for a rodent to fit through. I peered through the opening to see if it was nothing more than a small cave or enclave for the rat to hide, but there was nothing there except darkness. That meant that the hole must continue on. I backed down the wall of trash a bit to get a better look at the location of the hole. There was a metal plate wedged over the hole that looked like it could be moved. 'Perhaps if I get that out of the way I'll be able to see where the tunnel goes…and how large it is,' I thought to myself.
However, this is was much easier said than done, as when I said 'wedged', I really meant wedged. It took me the better part of an hour of pulling, pushing, heaving, and huffing until finally…finally the plate jerked from its prison, a few smaller pieces of broken machinery fell down the slope of trash. I tossed the metal plate away and moved in closer to investigate. To my great delight I found that not only was the hole man-sized, but that it seemed to continue roughly straight up. If the plate lights hadn't started to dim at that moment I probably would have rushed up the tunnel without another thought, but with night setting in I though I'd better find someplace to stay.
It looked as though everyone had moved out of the area, probably because of the Sector 7 collapse, and I really didn't want to spend a second night out on the street…not when I had around 500,000 gil I could spend on lodgings.
As I sat up on the pile of debris, looking out over the skeleton that had once been a playground, I noticed some lights and noise coming from the direction off to my left. There was a road which led off in that direction, but since my focus had been on getting into Sector 7, I'd ignored it. My only choices being to sleep on the cold ground or to investigate the mysterious lights, I shouldered my backpack and sword and chose to investigate.
The journey was one made in near darkness, the shadows of garbage mountains the only thing keeping me on the main path. However, the walk was not a long one, and before I knew it I had turned a corner to find myself faced with a wild and brightly lit town.
A large neon sign greeted me and proclaimed the towns name to be 'Wall Market'. I remembered the Materia Shop owner talking about this place. I also gathered from its name that this was some sort of large consortium for businesses, the 'Wall' in the name obviously came from the fact that it was literally wedged up in the narrow triangle between the concrete wall separating Sector 6 from Sector 7, the wall separating Sector 6 from Sector 5, and the base of the central pillar. From where I was I could literally look up and see the massive central pillar in all its monolithic glory. I could also see the train tracks running around its cylindrical sides, unfortunately I did not notice any way to get up to the tracks from here, and at night such a venture would have meant almost certain suicide, so I decided to get a good nights sleep before exploring more in the morning. Luck, it would see, was with me for the moment because the first building I came upon was an inn.
The person at the counter seemed nice enough, a middle aged woman with a tired, but not unpleasant voice. She was a little suspicious of my sword at first, but once I told her I was only looking for a room she seemed to relax.
"The room's 10 gil a night," she said, "if you want dinner be in the dinning room in 20 minutes." She handed me a key with a number on it, and then walked out of the front office and back down a hall. It was only after she left that I realized I had no idea where the dinning room was. 'Whatever,' I thought to myself, I could find it later. In the mean time I needed to drop my stuff off in my room, not a difficult task really. My room was on the second floor of the inn, but did not have a window. It was for the better I figured, since that blocked out some of the noise from the street. And noise there was indeed. There were boom-boxes with the bass on full, the 'music' was literally shaking the walls. It wasn't just one type of music either, I was a cacophony of chaos…rap, techno, punk, rock…all were crashing against the walls of the inn like some intangible besieging army. There was laughter too, and not nice laughter either, although this was mostly drowned out by the music.
I put my bag in a corner and tested out my bed. It was comfortable enough, better anyway than my old lumpy mat. There was a single dresser, but I had no clothes except those on my back. This got me to thinking, the clothes that I was wearing were old rags, half eaten by moths. I was in one giant market with money to spare, why shouldn't I get at least one pair of decent clothes. One pair sounded right, it would be easy to travel with anyway, and it would probably be more comfortable than the clothes I had.
So, with this short-term goal in mind, I walked back out onto the street to do of all things…shop. The music was a lot louder out here than it had been in the hotel, and it made no sign of softening as the night wore on. Although the plate lights had turned themselves off, the glow from the uncountable neon signs and flashing strobe lights made it feel like the middle of day in a world surrounded by shadow.
It did not take me long to find a clothes shop. It was run by an elderly man and his daughter. There were a surprising number of clothes lined and stacked on hangers and shelves along the walls, most of them women's clothing. In the back there was what appeared to be a changing room. I walked up to the counter, the old man looking at me a little strangely.
"I'd like a pair of clothes," I said.
"Hmmm…one of them hu?" he said, squinting his eyes, "you know I'm not one to judge, but a tough looking guy like you…?"
I was a little confused, "what are you talking about?"
"Women's clothes," he replied.
"What?" I said, getting more confused by the second.
"Women's clothes," he said again, "don't you want women's clothes?"
"No!" I practically shouted, horrified and extremely worried all at the same time. 'What kind of place is this?' I had to wonder. "Why would I want women's clothes?" I asked.
"Nevermind, nevermind," the man said quickly, his hands gesturing wildly to try and make his point, "its just that some of the men around here are into…that, umm…sort of….thing, if you get my meaning."
"No," I said again, "I want men's clothes, that's it…you do sell men's clothes here don't you?"
"Actually sir," replied the man, "we normally don't, but it just so happens that the last order form was misread and the shipping company sent us some men's clothing. Normally I'd have sent it back, but with the train service out I can't. If you're interested I can sell the clothes to you…all they're doing is taking up space."
"Fine then," I said, "let's see them."
I was in luck, not only were the clothes for men, but they were Good men's clothes…at least, one of the voices was telling me that they were good clothes while another was talking about how I'd simply draw attention to myself. Another was whining about the color, another thought that they'd help intimidate people, a couple were telling me that the look was *so* cliché, while another was, for some reason, singing an advertisement jingle that I could remember from my childhood.
"Let me try it on," I asked.
"Sure," replied the man.
I took the clothes and walked into the dressing room, which was really not a whole lot more than a one time bathroom stall with a curtain draped over the open end.
A couple of minutes later I was examining myself in the full body mirror that had been nailed onto one of the walls. I could see that I'd regained some body mass since I'd woken up, but I was still maintaining that 'lean' quality. My hair had started to grow again as had my beard, I ran my hands through it trying to decide whether to shave it off or not. However, my face was still gaunt and hard-lined, and I expected it always would be. Surprisingly enough, not a whole lot of people had seemed to notice my eyes. Then I moved on to a critique of my clothes.
I could only speculate on where the outfit had supposed to go, but I was thinking that it was probably headed to a store like Goths R' Us or Black is Back Wholesalers…or something like that.
In any case I had to admit that I liked the black trenchcoat. The black, buttoned, fold-over shirt, black gloves, black pants, and black leather and metal studded belt seemed a little much, but they were comfortable and seemed to be made of excellent material. They even came with black, leather, steel-toed boots. Most of the voices agreed that I looked good, the more sensible one thought that the material was durable, and the last one was still singing that blasted jingle. Having made up my mind I took the gil from the pocket of my old clothes and put it in one of the inside pockets of my trenchcoat.
I walked out to find the old man dutifully waiting.
"How do you like it?" asked the man, "it seemed a little dark to me but…hey! you don't look half bad."
"Thanks," I said, "what do I owe you?"
He walked over to the cash register and typed in a few things, mumbling to himself under his breath.
"4,000 gil," he said, "and it comes with a free spiked collar if you're interested."
I paid the man, but had to pass on the collar, I figured that you could carry a look only so far….
I returned to my bedroom just in time to remember dinner. There did not seem to be anyone else staying at the inn that night, so there was no one to ask as to where the dinning room might be. So, with options limited as they usually were I walked downstairs and down the hall where the hotel owner had gone. I found a door there and could smell something cooking from beyond. I walked in to find myself, not in a dinning room per say, but more of a kitchen with a table set up in it. The hotel owner was working over the stove, an apron tied around her waist.
"Ah good," she said, finally noticing me, "I'm glad you came for dinner. There's no one else staying here tonight so you'll be eating with me and my son, if that's all right with you."
"That would be fine," I confirmed.
Her eyes squinted up a bit, "you look a bit different," she said, a little unsure of herself.
"It's the new clothes," I replied, "do you like them?" It was an odd question to ask a stranger, but she seemed like a nice older woman altogether, a little overstressed perhaps…but still a nice woman.
"They're nice," she said, "a bit…."
"Dark?" I supplied.
She nodded, "That's the word."
"My old clothes were falling apart," I said, "and this was all they had."
"You went to the clothes shop huh?" the woman replied.
I nodded.
"It has some great clothes I'll admit," she said, "but some of their customers…well, they're a bit strange you might say…especially the men."
"They have issues," I said, "the old man wanted to know what kind of women's clothes I wanted."
The woman nodded, "it's sad to see how the area has deteriorated in just the past few years. I can remember when I was a girl…long before the war; you could actually grow plants around here. I can even remember a small park that was right next to my house. That was in Sector 3 mind you, but…oh I must be boring you."
"No," I replied, sitting down at the table, "not at all."
"Dinners ready anyway," she said, seeming to appreciate my willingness to listen to her stories. "And here comes my son…right on schedule."
He was younger than me; probably in his late teens or early twenties at the most. He had dark brown hair cut short in the latest style with a black spiked bracelet on either wrist and a light blue shirt with jeans.
"Hi," he greeted me, and then walked up to his mom.
"Hi mom," he said and gave her a hug; I didn't know how he did it without impaling her on the spikes on his wrists. He then came and sat down at the table in the chair across from me. I greeted him and then we turned our attention to dinner. It was made up of grilled chicken and rice, both were delicious and I washed it all down with a glass of water. No one talked very much, in fact the silence was almost solemn, like the family had something to be sad about. Since I was a guest I didn't think it very polite to interrupt, and so the entire meal continued uneventfully.
When I was finally finished I pushed the plate away with a sigh.
"Thank you for dinner Ms…"
"Mrs. Herron," she said. "My husband may be dead, but I still like being called Mrs."
Her son seemed a little uncomfortable with the conversation because he quickly excused himself and left. I quickly followed suit with a 'thanks again, but I need to get some sleep' kind of excuse.
I was glad that I'd left the ceiling light on in my room while I was gone, or else I'd have had to walk into a room of total darkness, and one of the voices, the one that I tended to listen to the most, thought that walking into a dark room was a really bad thing.
However, everything appeared to be just as I had left it, and so I got ready for bed. The mattress was nice and soft, and I was really tired, so I was asleep in moments…

Flames encircled me, shadow flames that sucked in the darkness, fed off it like a sponge. Flickering, glowing, smoldering, growing, the world about me burned and above it all was the laughter. Laughter, laughter, laughter…like a broken record made of a drunken jester it went on and on and on. Words like 'JENOVA', 'Nibelheim', 'Hojo', and 'Ancient' poured into my conscious and out again, leaving the feeling that the void was once again inside me. And one word more than the others, ringing above the rest, was 'Sephiroth'. And the laughter turned to screams, horrible, terrified screams, the kind of screams that make you want to cry out in pure terror at the realization that there is something out there that can make someone…or something scream that way. Then the screaming was real…

It took me a moment to come to my senses, for a second I though that I was still trapped in my dream, or that I had returned to the eternal void. Both thoughts scared me, but I quickly realized that I was back in my room, and that I had simply turned out the light before going to bed.
I stumbled over to the light switch and flipped it. I had to cover my face because the sudden glare hurt my eyes. It was then that I realized that the screams were indeed real, that they were coming from down the hall. I quickly strapped on Reaper and headed towards…of all places, the screams.
Mrs. Herron was standing in the doorway to one of the rooms I had though empty, but she was only crying, not screaming. It was still coming, as if my nightmare was mocking me, daring me to escape its madness.
I pushed past the crying woman into a room very much like mine, except that it had a window. Mrs. Herron's son was lying in one corner, knocked out from a heavy blow to the head. On the other side of the room was the bed, which had a young woman no older than the woman's son scrunched up against the bedposts, clutching a small baby in her arms. I decided that she had probably been the screamer; her eyes were also red with crying. And the reason for the screaming I could assume was the two very bad looking men standing in front of her. One of them was quite short and skinny as a rail; he wore round glasses which flashed evilly in the lamplight. He did not have a single strand of hair on his head. The second man was the exact opposite. He was around 7'5 ft. and had a full beard and a large mat of blond hair. His body was built like a tank, and I am pretty sure that he could have crushed a horse's skull with one hand.
"Well well, what is this?" asked the small man. "An intruder I see," his voice was higher than I though was physically possible. If it wasn't for an aura of danger that seemed to surround this tiny man I might have even called him womanish.
"Well," he continued, "this IS an inn, so I will allow you to walk out of here right now with your skin. Otherwise Jimmy here will be forced to remove you peacefully…and I mean piece by piece by piece…get it?"
This certainly was an interesting situation. A weeping woman and her knocked out son on one side, and a beautiful girl with her baby on the other side surrounded by men whose purpose for being here I probably didn't want to know. In the end I'm not sure if there's a man on the planet who could walk out on a woman and her child when they are in obvious danger, and in the end my guardian instincts won out.
"I don't think the lady likes you," I said, "perhaps you should leave…*now*."
"Tsk tsk," replied the little man shaking his head, "I'd hoped you'd be smarter than this." He snapped his fingers, "Jimmy, show this gentleman the way out…the window."
I went for my sword, but for a man of his size Jimmy was surprisingly fast and nearly smashed my face in with the first punch. I ducked in the nick of time, and avoided another swing and came out in front of Jimmy and planted my knee between his legs. It might be a cheap move…I know, but given the choice of loosing a little pride and getting one's arms and legs ripped off…most people go with the damaged pride.
Jimmy grunted a little bit and backed away. It was then that I realized he was mute! Strange, physical deformities were rare, but then I noticed the mass of scar tissue over his throat that was mostly covered by his beard.
However, at that time I could not afford to feel sorry for him, and only rejoiced in the fact that he couldn't use any magic.
Yet, I just didn't feel right about taking advantage of him like this, first the cheap shot to the groin; now I learn that he can't use magic…I just couldn't bring myself to pull out my sword.
The muffled moaning had stopped and I watched as Jimmy came back at me, this time clutching a very large knife that looked quite small when it was clutched in his massive fist. I guess that he had learned to take every advantage he could, one being his size, the other being the fact that he had no sense of honor when it came to fighting.
The first strike was poorly aimed, and not really meant to do anything but put me on my guard. The one problem was that I could remember this class. In the fog of the vision that I now only partially remembered I could recall this training session where I'd scored in the top of my class. "Close-Combat Training' they'd called it. And this was a big problem for Jimmy, and his arm.
I was able to deftly avoid the next two attacks with little trouble, truth be told he would have been better off sticking to fist fighting. The next jab I was ready for. I moved to the left, and as his huge right arm came sailing past I grabbed the thick wrist with my right hand, and slammed my left hand into his overextended elbow. There was a sickening 'pop', and I used the giant's own momentum and broken arm to flip him over onto his back. My sword came out this time, but it didn't matter, he was unconscious.
Now I turned my attention towards the skinny little man who had the girl around the neck with one arm, his other was busy holding a gun to her head.
"Who do you think you are?!" he was practically in hysterics (obviously Jimmy didn't often loose). "You think you can mess with Kotch and get away with it? No way man! You're gonna get wasted for this…oh yah."
"Just put the gun down," I said. The girl had stopped crying, but the look of utter terror on her face was far far worse. She was clutching her baby like a shipwreck victim clings to the floating plank. I knew I had to get the man to put the gun down, and yet I couldn't tear myself away from those eyes. 'She's helpless and she knows it,' I thought to myself. 'She's scared, but all she knows is that she's in pain…that her baby's in danger…that her baby is scared. She's like I was in the void,' I thought, getting angrier and angrier as I stared into those deep green eyes.
The man was shouting something, and I brought myself back to reality to hear what it was he wanted.
"Listen," he said, "I think we're both reasonable men, so here's the deal. You let me get out of here and the girl doesn't come to any harm…how is that hmmm?"
I smiled that nasty smile I seemed to be so good at, wearing all black probably only enhanced the effect.
"That sounds good alright," I replied, the little man smiled in a victorious way. "However," I stopped him as he began to move toward the door, "I think I have a better one."
He looked at me quizzically, but stopped.
I could remember guys like this, they were always bullies. I could remember bullies alright. They liked to act tough, but get 'em in a bad situation and they broke down. They never cared about anyone but themselves…and survival was their main goal.
"How about you let the girl go and then leave, or I kill you."
He laughed; it was an incredibly annoying fox laugh, more like a bark than a laugh.
"How about I just kill the girl then?" he asked.
"If you do," I pointed out, "you will die, but not immediately. I will make sure that you suffer more than you ever thought possible. I will make you beg me to kill you. I will turn you into a weeping, groveling, sniveling, cockroach of a man before I kill you…you think you can handle that?"
He licked his lips nervously.
"Alright…" he said, "I'll let the girl go…and you'll let me go."
"Correct," I said, "sound reasonable enough to you?"
"Alright…here she comes." He pushed the girl and her baby onto the ground before opening fire on me with the hand gun. I was too fast though, and while a quick Barrier deflected his bullets, my wrist flicked out and sent my sword flying.
He wasn't prepared for it and the blade knocked the gun out of his hand, as well as several fingers. He went down on the floor almost immediately, clutching his hand in pain and trying to stop the blood flow.
As I approached, his eyes grew wide with horror. I picked him up by the scruff of his collar and held him up over the floor.
"What…what are you going to do?" he asked.
"You upheld your part of the bargain," I said, motioning towards the girl and her baby which were being helped up by Mrs. Herron. "Therefore," I continued, "I will uphold mine."
The man's eyes opened in surprise and hope, "You mean…you mean you're going to let me go."
"Yes," I said, "I said that I'd let you out if you freed the girl and out you shall go…I just never specified the door."
As we approached the window the little man let out a moan.
"I believe," I said, "that you tried to have me thrown out of this not too long ago."
"Listen sir," the man said, "it was all a mistake you see…just a mistake. We never meant to hurt the girl, honest."
"And why should I believe the word of scum like you!" I shouted, "Why!" I continued, "You are getting a lot better than you deserve, at least you have a chance of surviving a fall from a second story window."
With that I opened the glass window pane and flung the stinking bundle of garbage out into the night, a faint scream following him all the way down to the ground. I peered out the window. The man was laying still, his neck twisted in a very strange angle; I knew that he had not survived.
At that moment his partner, the giant Jimmy woke up. For some reason I felt a twisted sort of compassion for this man, and decided to let him leave if he opted to do so. One look at me, the open window, his missing partner, and the dismembered fingers lying on the ground and he opted to leave…as quickly as humanly possible.
"Oh thank you sir! Thank you!" Mrs. Herron was crying, "you saved my little girl…thank you!"
"Please," I said, "This can wait till morning…right now I need some sleep."