CHAPTER THREE
A lighted cigarette flourished in the darkness of the sewers. Cloud Strife silently puffed away, while Jessie shone a flashlight over Wedge's head. The latter was installing another bomb to explode another hole in a sewer pipeline- and he was having some difficulty. Cloud watched him cuss his brains out over the process, and wondered just when Wedge would obtain a stroke from all his stress. He looked over at Biggs bandaging his shoulder, and went over to him. "Has he always been this way?" he asked him in a whisper.
Biggs secured his shoulder in a tight brace and turned his full attention to Cloud. "Before he joined AVALANCHE, no. However, he's always been a little on the edge." He thought about something for a second, then added in a low voice, "I think he killed someone for the first time, too."
Cloud nodded knowingly and replied nothing. Thinking about that made his cigarette lose its brilliant taste, so he dropped it into the sewage, a long trail of smoke seen faintly in the dim glimmer of the flashlight.
Barret was growing impatient. "The fuck's wrong up there?"
"He's got it, Barret. Just control yourself," Jessie snarled at him.
Wedge set the timer, and all five of them ran away from the device.
A flower girl, caught along with everybody in the confusion of the destruction, heard another blast go off near the Sector One train station and began to get afraid. Something was going on in this city, and she worried for her mother in Sector Five. She decided to board the train and make sure if her mother was alright.
Barret cleared his throat and said, "Well, we sure created a phenomenon today."
The others agreed and made light comments to themselves.
"Um," he continued, "let's head to the train and head on to Sector Seven. I think we all did a damn good job today, and I feel ShinRa will think twice about his motives from now on."
"Really?" Biggs said, condescendingly. "You don't think he is going to step up a notch in security, maybe even tortue some of our allies as to our whereabouts?"
"He can try all the hell he wants, but he'll never find us. Never. As long as I'm leading you slugs, AVALANCHE will succeed in its mission."
Cloud rolled his eyes and felt his badly burned right arm. He thought he saw a trace of bone along the elbow peeking out at him, and he almost reeled. The pain had been escalating since he received the Tail Laser blow. He winced as his fingers caressed the peeling skin. Jessie saw him and went up to him. She put her arms around his neck and kissed his cheek.
"I'm glad you made it. You were starting to worry me back there, I-" She saw his burnt skin and started to cry. "Cloud..." she lightly touched it, "..does it hurt badly?"
Her touch was not hurting his burn, and her soft caress was beginning to work on him. He cleared his throat and replied, "N-no. It's fine. The thing didn't get me too badly. Some of Tifa's medicine will help cure it.
She sighed. "Yes, good ol' Tifa's medicine will cure anything, won't it?" She looked into his eyes and smiled. "I'm glad you're here. Don't scare me again like that, okay."
Cloud said nothing as she kissed him again, this time very close to his lips. She left him there, and he scratched his head wonderingly. He saw Wedge look at him funny and then walk off, leaving him alone. He looked up once more at the burning reactor and wondered what his old commander-in-chief was thinking at this moment.
Suddenly, a soft voice broke his thoughts.
"Sir?"
He turned around and gasped. A beautiful woman stood before him, her arm cradling a big basket of yellow and orange flowers. She wore a pink dress with a red jacket unbottoned around it. The thing, though, that struck him the most was her hair. It was rich. It was a pure brown. It was incredibly long. Braid upon braid, it curled around her shoulder and ended in a pink ribbon with an odd crystal jewel in the center. Her skin was pale but beautiful, and her eyes a gorgeous green. He couldn't find a voice to reply.
She smiled, but then looked at his arm. "oh! Are you hurt? That burn looks terrible."
He glanced at his arm and quickly answered, "Oh, that's nothing. Just got caught a little by the blaze. It-it doesn't hurt that bad-"
"Uh-huh," she smiled a concerned smile, and reached into her flower basket.
He watched her pull out a green bottle and open it. "What's that?"
"Curaga."
"Cur-what?" Then he sighed in relief as she poured the liquid onto his burn. The pain died immediately, and the skin fused together forming a new, healthy golden color, the old, peeling skin falling to the street. "Holy shit."
She smiled up at him. "There you go."
"Thank you, miss-"
"Aeris. It's a pleasure to meet you, mister-"
"Cloud."
"Cloud. Strong name."
He smiled and noticed her flowers. "Mind if I take one?"
Her eyes sparkled. "Really? Thank you, there only one gil."
"One gil? Oh, Aeris, you deserve more than that." He got a few coins and deposited them into her hand. "Here, here's ten gil."
She smiled up at him and silently gave him the prettiest flower of the whole bunch. "You got a special girl at home?"
He thought of Tifa and nodded.
"She's lucky," she said and placed the gil in her basket. "Nice meeting with you, Mister Cloud." She smiled and left.
He had trouble walking to the nearby train.Heidegger squirmed uncomfortably in his chair as ShinRa came into the conference room. A vein on his forehead pulsed immensely, seeming to want to tear itself out of the president's skin. ShinRa had one hand in his pocket, clutching something.
Heidegger rose awkwardly to his feet and said in a low voice, "I'm ter-terribly so-sorry sir for this l-lost cause-"
ShinRa pulled out his pistol and shot the wall behind Heidegger, the bullet barely missing his face. "A lost cause? A lost cause! You would have been a lost cause if your head had been two inches to the right!" He cocked the semi-automatic back into the play and twirled it around. He walked casually over to the General, who was prespiring in his freshly-washed suit.
ShinRa smirked. "How's that shoulder of yours doing?"
"Healing, but-ah!"
The pistol butt crashed down on Heidegger's shoulder, and he slumped to the ground. ShinRa then brought the barrel over to press it lightly on the General's temple. "One more mistake, General, and you can kiss your ass goodbye."
He pocketed the gun, bent over, and spewed a long trail of spit on the General's face.
Tifa Lockheart ran to the entrance door of her bar Seventh Heaven to see the motley group of AVALANCHE walk up the wooden steps. Her eyes immediately settled on Cloud, who looked strangely healthy and uninjured. She was thankful for this, and she immediately ran up to him and hugged him. "oh, thank the stars you are okay."
Cloud could smell the usual scented perfume and smiled back into her lovely brown eyes.
She did the same and then addressed the whole group, "Come inside. You all look beat. The usual is fresh and ready for you, Biggs."
Biggs cheered and raced Wedge up the stairs. Barret leaned over to Tifa. "Marlene okay?"
"Sleeping like a baby at this hour. Even the blast didn't wake her up."
Barret smiled and quickly walked up the stairs.
Jessie looked from Cloud to Tifa and back again, and then silently ran up the stairs. Cloud thought he saw her wiping away a tear from her eye. Tifa didn't notice, so he didn't bother to say anything. Instead, he showed her the yellow flower. "Picked this up for you."
Her eyes glowed as she took and smelled the flower. "Oh, Cloud, you shouldn't have."
"No biggie. Just thought I'd come and surprise you."
She fluttered her eyelashes at him and took out a hairpin. As she was pinning the golden present in her hair, she mused to herself, "I wonder how my bar would look like if I decorated it with some floral decor. Hm. Would it be too girly?"
"No. On the contrary, it would add a lot of color to itself. The inside is way too dull-looking. I think some decor would spice things up a bit in here."
She smiled and took his hand. "You're going to stand here all night, or are you going to join little ol' me for a drink?"
He laughed, held her hand in his, and followed her up the stairs.
Wedge lay on the floor, where he had fallen out of his chair. He was badly drunk and could not remember his name. The day's events, which he thought had been tragic for him, were now forgotten. The day's destruction was lost in the chronicles of time. Nothing mattered to him as of the moment, except the wonderful dream he was having as a long dribble of booze snaked its way over his lips onto the floor.
Biggs remained in his chair in a dream-like slumber. He was satiated. Apart from Tifa's good food and beer, he had won an incredible amount of money from the hands of Wedge and Barret in a few games of poker- shall we say, about 15000 gil. The latter was so furious that he stormed out of the bar with no clear sign of a destination. Biggs now slept, dreaming of bilking more money from his drunk friend Wedge.
Cloud sipped his beer lightly- he preferred the taste of cigarettes to beer- and turned his attention to Tifa, cleaning the bar down for the night. Her usual uniform, a light green dress with Seventh Heaven embroidered in gold on the chest, was always too low-cut for her. He caught himself smiling as she bent over to pick up something, spilling her voluptous breasts halfway out the top.
He laid his beer down and asked, "Do you get a lot of cheap men in here?"
She looked at him, puzzled; but then he gestured to her dress, and she laughed, "Yeah, I get alot here. Tends to get annoying after awhile. I guess I was unlucky enough to be born this way."
He wanted to say something, but he thought better of it and instead said, "Time to hit the sack."
She looked at him with a loving expression that made his stomach flip-flop. "Sleep tight, Cloudy."
He laughed nervously and went up the stairs, scratching his head.
No sooner had he opened the door to his room, when the bedroom light snapped on, and Jessie sat up in his bed. His eyes widened, and he asked," Jessie, is something wrong? What're-"
"I came to be with you for the night. You can lock the door, and no one will ever know."
He noticed that she didn't appear to be wearing anything under the covers, and his heart became pounding. Jessie was a beautiful girl, but he didn't have nearly enough of those feelings as he did to someone else. She looked at him inquisitively, patiently awaiting his agreement to the situation.
"Jessie...I don't think we should do this."
Her lips quivered. "You're not still wrapped up on that Tifa, are you?" She studied him. "Are you?"
Getting no response, she continued, "You are, aren't you. Cloud, look at her and look at me. Sure I'm no glamorous supermodel like her or whatnot, but I've got qualities, you know. And..most of the time, I'm the one who joins you boys on these dangerous missions we do and actually risk my life a bit, while she just sits back here and paints her nails. Mine get gritty and dirty from hard work, while hers look salon-perfect from absolutely nothing required of her at all.
"And.. if it's looks you're searching for, let me tell you. I'm 100% real, Cloud." With that she draped down the covers, exposing her nakedness to him. He took a small step back in suprise as his eyes looked her over- she was not bad-looking at all. Her small but firm breasts bounced as she added angrily, "Those breasts on Tifa are fake, Cloud. Fake. Why would you want to hold silicone in your hands, when you could have something more ..decent?"
He gulped and ran his hands through his hair. He cleared his throat and said, "I..guess I don't have much choice here, do I?"
"Is that a bad thing?"
He looked at her and thought about that. "No. No, actually, that's...not a bad thing at all."
Sector Five.
The smallest of the reactors, yet the largest supplier of nuclear energy. Sector Five produced probably half the energy needed to power ShinRa Corp.; therefore, it was of great importance. ShinRa himself was making a personal appearance to the place; therefore, security was tight. There was now a guard on every crosswalk, and the security surveillance room could now only be entered with a special key card.
There was one other route of which AVALANCHE saw: the subway.
The problem with Sector Five was that the subway linked underneath the plant and then led exactly to the heart of the reactor. Just a simple climb up some shafts and a few crosswalks, and a bomb could easily be placed without security knowing.
There were many things different about Sector Five from Sector One. The most obvious was that Sector Five was built directly over the slums, which meant that an explosion if it was big enough could wipe out the slums below it. This was a risk Barret was willing to take. Another difference between the reactors was, of course, the size. It proved advantageous for Barret, because a large-scaled assault could not penetrate its depths too successfully; only a few sentries were able to walk the crosswalks- but they were elite sentries at that.
Tifa was joining this time, much to Jessie's surprise, and she was now decked out in a sports bra and black shorts- short shorts at that. She did not seem to see the looks Cloud and Jessie were giving to each other. She was, however, puzzled that Cloud had not made any complimentary comments on her appearance. Before they left, he had told her that they were on a serious mission and that it did not call for her type of wear.
She wasn't exactly pleased with that remark.
All six of them now stood in the heart of Sector Five, the sewers behind them, the core tower in front of them. They looked below them and saw the slums below. Wall Market was way on the outskirts of the slums, but Cloud figured if they triggered the blast wrong Wall Market would crumble as well. "Barret, you sure you worked out the physics right?"
"It ain't rocket science, prick. You just got to find the right depression to put it in."
Wedge was feeling alright, but he kept clutching his stomach as if to stop some vile creature from ripping his flesh open. Biggs was still fingering his money and smiling to himself. Tifa walked over to the railing and looked down to the slums. Behind them all, Jessie came over to Cloud's ear, nibbled on it, and said, "You were excellent last night." She then kissed his neck and left into the subway. Biggs and Wedge followed- their jobs were to plan an escape route and stop any intrusion from that direction.
Cloud scratched his head, and took out the package with the bomb inside it. "Let's blow this bitch up!"
They could see guards atop the crosswalks, guns brandished, faces stern, walking in trance-like motion. The three "terrorists" stayed on the unoccupied bottom crosswalk and reached the core tower's ladder. Cloud climbed up first, and took each step one at a time. The steps of these ladders were pure metal and clanged loudly as he stepped on them.
He heard a sound and looked up.
A guard stood gazing around the reactor, gun searching against his eye. Cloud ever so slightly pulled out his backup silenced pistol and looked up and down the crosswalk. No other guard was on the crosswalk. He pulled the trigger and the guard fell lifeless over the railing and down to the slums below.
"Oh, shit, that's gruesome," Tifa cried.
"Cloud, move it, there's someone coming down our 'walk!" Barret yelled.
Cloud bit his tongue as two guards came down their crosswalk. Tifa was not yet on the ladder, and Barret was only on the fifth step. He hurried on up, clanging loudly and praying that they wouldn't hear.
Apparantly one of them did hear, and he quickened his pace to the core tower.
Cloud made it to the top and started unwrapping the package. Barret was halfway up, and Tifa just got onto the ladder when the guard saw them. "Freeze!"
"Fuck you!" Barret yelled back and riddled the guard's body, sending the bloody corpse across the crosswalk.
The second guard fired an order in his walkie-talkie, but Barret silenced both of them and then quickly climbed up the ladder.
Cloud got the bomb out, but was startled by the noise of guard's feet on the crosswalks. A bullet pierced a pipe in the core tower and hot steam came out, almost burning his face. Another bullet hit his shoulder, and another skimmed his hand. He ducked behind the tower, with the bomb clutched in his bleeding hand.
Barret ducked behind the tower, as well, and provided covering fire for Cloud. His M60 rang loudly in the reactor's walls and brought down five guards before a bullet ricocheted off the railing and sliced his shoulder. He fell backwards and ducked behind the tower.
Tifa pulled out her pistol and remained on the ladder. Her hair was all in her face, and she was actually sweating- which surprised her. She saw Barret's skin shred from a bullet in the shoulder, and she winced. She didn't want to be here and see all this bloodshed. She saw Cloud over there sheilded behind Barret, working out the bomb. She had high hopes then- of what she could not know. She instead aimed her pistol and fired at the guard's heads. She saw them rip open, and she gasped at the sight and at the wonder of her accuracy.
Cloud set the timer and the green lights flashing 10:00 appeared on the glass. He then turned his attention to the scene on the crosswalk. About twenty guards were firing at them, under cover of the railings, seven of them were dead. He noticed Barret, who had now suffered ten minor, but bleeding wounds, and he saw Tifa who had been shot in the side and was barely holding on to the ladder. He knew he had to do something.
"Barret, I'm going in! While I do my thing, get Tifa and help her. Okay?"
"Wh-What're you going to do?"
"Something stupid that will work!"
"That sounds like a plan! Just don't get yerself killed. Got it?"
"Just get Tifa."
With that, the Buster Sword came out and he leapt out of cover from the tower. At that point, he lost track of time and sound. He could barely hear Tifa scream his name out in horror. He could even barely hear the bullets whizzing by him. The only thing he heard was the sound of his sword deflecting them as he ran down the crosswalk. A few nicked him and sprayed blood everywhere, but he ran despite them up to where all the guards were.
The guards, astonished of this new phenomenon, dropped their guns and took out their sabers. The first set weren't quick enough, though, and were chopped to bits. Heads sailing everywhere. The second set ran to him and battled him. He struck one high in the face and another immediately after in the groin. After a sickening extraction, he whirled around and made four slice marks in a guard's chest before the guard crumpled to the floor. Cloud then somersaulted in the air over the heads of two guards and then chopped them in half. The third set surprised him and actually got him in the back. He then turned and kicked his attacker over the edge.
A saber whirled around his head, almost hitting him. He deflectd the next blow, and then impaled the sword into the guard's belly. He sidestepped from another saber attack and lopped off the guard's head.
At this point, a loud voice boomed, "Cease! That is enough!"
Cloud knew the voice and turned to see President ShinRa standing before and totally taken aback. He then put on a sly expression and said," I knew you were the best pick for Captain. Almost rivaled Sephiroth."
"No one did." Cloud's sword now dripped bright red unrecognizable goo on the floor.
"You're right, he was one of a kind.
"I noticed back there that you're pretty good at dodging bullets. And, I'd like to add, pretty good at dismembering bodies. SOLDIER has turned you into a hardcore assassin. However, I am a bit puzzled as to why you quit and joined..." his hand waved impatiently to Barret and Tifa crouched by the tower "..this group. I've forgotten their names."
"Are you serious? We're about to destroy your second reactor. Surely you can't be that much of a dumbass not to know our own names."
"You know, you're exactly right. I have forgotten your name, to be precise. The face I can only recognize.
"But you see, exSOLDIER, your actions are merely trivial. Merely...irrelevant." He laughed, "I'd love to say that you are wasting your time. You see, ShinRa Corporations, it is just a tad bit above your reach. Above the reach of all you slime! You may have sneaked past me twice, but the third time is always the charm; and, after this shit blows the next mission will be your last, and I shall humbly prosecute the lot of you myself when that time comes."
He then stopped and thought of something. Whatever ran through his mind at that stage made him smile and he continued, "I see you are standing on the pinnacle of doom, Captain."
Cloud looked down and saw that the crosswalk he was standing on suspended itself directly above the crypt-like structures of the Sector Five Slums. His heart began to beat rapidly. From the core tower, he heard faintly Tifa yelling his name out.
ShinRa continued to smile, tilted his head to the side, and pulled out a grenade. Cloud jolted backwards as ShinRa threw the bomb on the crosswalk; and, on impact, the bomb blew a section of the crosswalk to smithereens. Fragments exploded onto Cloud's skin, sending his blood spraying everywhere. He turned to quickly cover his face from stray missles, but he was not quick enough to have his cheek rip open.
The floor below him went under, and he dropped into a weightless void. He felt nothing below or around him, except an intense heat enveloping him and whiplashes of metal striking his body.
As he fell, a sharp pain, sharper than anything he ever felt before, sliced into his right arm. He was actually able to grip the object that sliced his arm, and he noticed it was broken metal pole connected to what remained of the crosswalk. He could see a bloody hole in his skin, from where he had scraped the pole's texture.
A grenade fragment sliced his forehead as he looked up into President ShinRa's smiling face. The latter looked on and chuckled, "Happy landings, exSOLDIER!"
A mechanical voice in the high structures of the reactor crackled out that there was exactly two minutes left before total destruction. The remaining guards left the reactor, and a presidential helicopter appeared from the slums and took ShinRa away.
The end was in sight.
He looked over to the wide-eyed faces of his friends and nodded to Barret. Without saying another word, Barret Wallace picked up a screaming Tifa in his arms and went as quickly as he could down the ladder, swiftly hopped over a small platform, and then jump into the dark subway below.
The mechanical voice rang "thirty seconds" into his head as he silently watched them leave. He saw Tifa, helplessly bawling and screaming, and he realized that he should have done something with her when they had the chance. He cursed himself out as lay a few seconds in memory. His right arm was losing blood, and he wondered why he didn't just let go. It would hurt like hell having his arm rip off the metal hook, but he didn't give a damn anymore.
He hung there and waited.
The countdown ended then, and the bomb went off.
The core tower imploded, and then drastically emitted its millions upon millions of broken metal shards in all directions. This action created a massive shockwave that ripped huge holes in the surrounding structures and walls of the reactor. Electricity lines snapped, water pipes burst, fusillades exploded, and massive fires broke out.
Cloud saw it all and then let go of the hook.
His body writhed under the pressure of sliding off the bloody metal, and then it fell through the air. Weightless, he felt, totally weightless. Falling at astronomical speeds, he plunged into the heart of the slums, the burning reactor crumbling above him.