CHAPTER 2

"Man... You REALLY need to go on a diet."

Zack had said this to his near-comatose companion, Cloud Strife. Zack had to haul his friend's immobile body all the way from Kalm, which, while it was not a very far walk, did take a good deal of stamina to make it without resting.

Carrying a friend notwithstanding, of course.

The rolling fog had covered the two young men's journey into Midgar. Soon they had found the gates to Sector 7... which oddly enough were open. It looked as though one of the doors had gotten stuck on something and partially collapsed.

One would have to go through a gate to get into the slums of Midgar, for the entirety of the slums was surrounded by a large, opaque force-field.

Granted, no one would want to go into the slums, but from there it would be easy to find one's way up into the upper city of Midgar. So logically, Shinra decided to erect a force-field to keep people out, instead of, you know, guarding the way up into the city.

Zack smiled as he slipped through the doors, thankful that the Shinra had not placed any security outside of the slum gates. Zack stole a moment to take in his surroundings: The slums seemed mostly comprised of make-shift buildings, and large piles of junk which seemed to double as homes... whether these were homes for people or homes for any sort of unspeakable creatures, Zack could not guess. About fifty meters above him, Zack saw "the plate", or rather, its underbelly. It was composed of pipes, pumps, hydraulics, gears... and a few other things he couldn't make out. Most of the components seemed to have taken on rust and looked woefully under-kept.

There were few actual "buildings" down in the slums, and none of them seemed to extend past three or four stories in height. Still, Zack looked on in awe. While he had been in Midgar before, he spent most of his time there up on the plate in the SOLDIER barracks, and the only time he went beneath was to go into Sector 5 where his girlfriend had lived. And that was after his training had been completed and he was accepted into SOLDIER. His training had taken place in Junon, the same as Cloud's. Of course, Cloud had never made it into SOLDIER. In any scenario, Zack had simply not spent a whole lot of time in Midgar, so the sights which surrounded him now were all new to him.

A noise caught Zack's attention. He spun his head to the left, where a large... creature seemed to be studying him from on top of a large mound of debris. It was purple, and its entire front was composed of a mouth with long, sharp teeth. It seemed to have six spider-like legs, and a short tail which waved behind it.

The creature seemed to have determined that Zack would make a nice meal, and lunged at him. Zack, in one quick, fluid motion (and while still holding Cloud), unsheathed his Buster Sword and swung at the creature. His aim wasn't perfect, but the creature was still dead and in two pieces by the time Zack finished his swing. He took a moment to wipe the blood off of his weapon before re-sheathing it, and continued without missing a beat.

Zack continued on, until he came to a clearing of sorts. In front of him was a relatively nice-looking red building, about two and a half stories high. A block of stores, made mostly of sheet metal and assorted materials, stood to his right. Off to his left was a small house, then a large building made mostly of wood with a flashing a neon sign: "7th Heaven". Just past that was a small trailer home, and some more debris. Zack also noticed several people -mostly men- looking at him, then turning to themselves, then looking back at him. One of the group's members nodded and made a mad dash for the bar.

The young SOLIDER... or rather, Ex-SOLDIER, he supposed, stood there, almost sure something was up. He carefully rested Cloud against a wall, then stood up, looking at the group... "Okay..." he said out loud to the group, "What is it?"

A few of them came over. They were dressed mostly in black clothing, though nothing else stood apart. One of them, a slightly shorter man with tan skin, dared to speak. "Well," the man replied, paused, then continued, "it's pretty obvious that you're a SOLDIER. It's a rare sight down here in the slums..." He looked at Cloud, then looked back up at Zack. "And then you got an injured buddy over there," he paused again for effect, "and well, I'll be blunt, there's gotta' be a better way to get him treatment than draggin' him through the slums. And of course, if you gotta' worry about HIM..." The man slipped his hand into his pocket and pulled out a knife, "That would make you easier pickin's, Shinra dog!"

With that the man swung. Zack stepped back and caught the man's hand, and pushed him back away.

"Look, I don't wanna fight..." But Zack's reasonable request was denied. The small crowd rushed forward. Zack took out his weapon and swung almost madly. However, instead of hitting with the sharp end, Zack twirled the weapon so that the dull end or the flat-part of the blade would smack into his opponents. He managed to dodge and block all the blows that came his way. None of these men seemed to of been trained in combat, and were no match for the SOLDIER, even in numbers.

Thanks to Zack's swordsmanship, none of the men got critically injured, but eventually they got bumped, bruised, and scraped enough to take them out of the fight. A few had gotten knocked unconscious. Zack shook his head...

Just as a few people strode out of the bar. They looked like trouble.

A few of them were dressed in variations of combat fatigues, and wore red headbands. One of them was the man who ran inside the bar before. He had bright red hair, a quite ugly face, and wore a torn leather jacket. They all followed a man with... a GUN grafted to his LEFT arm.

This man was tall, white, and had short, matted-down dark-blue hair. He was muscular, but still seemed kind of lean. The only other noticeable feature was the gold pendant around his neck. He wore a dark sleeveless jacket and black cargo pants. The white "wife-beater" seemed one size too small as well.

"There he is, Dyne..." The red-headed man said, pointing at Zack. "Oh, shit," he mumbled in surprise, looking at the fallen group around him, "He took out everyone already?!"

"Relax, they're not dead..." Zack stated cautiously, raising his hands, "I only aimed to subdue them..."

The "leader" of the first group stood up... "So that means... you don't wanna kill us?" He said slowly. But before Zack could respond, he shot right back up at the SOLDIER, "Then that means we have the advantage! ATTA..."

BLAM!

The man fell, as a small bullet had pierced his leg. He hit the ground with a grunt, then looked back at Dyne with sad, confused eyes. "..w-why?" he begged.

"It's better than him chopping your head off," Dyne replied coldly. He turned to the others. "Biggs, Wedge, Jesse, Johnny. Pick these people up, get them some bandages and ice. I'll deal with their insubordination later." The three men and one woman nodded, and did as they were told.

Dyne turned back to the SOLDIER...

"What are you doing here?" Dyne asked plainly.

"The name's Zack. Shinra gave me and Cloud here the shit-treatment, so now I'm here in Midgar to be a mercenary!" Zack replied with a smile and a nod.

"A mercenary?" Dyne quizzed skeptically, raising an eyebrow. "That sounds... childish, if you ask me."

"Whaddya mean?"

"The Shinra are responsible for your plight, yes?"

Zack nodded.

"And they're also responsible for your... messed up friend over there?"

Zack blinked, and nodded again.

"So... don't you think that a more...worthwhile application of your skills is in order? A focus, a direction?"

Zack tilted his head. "Uh, you lost me at 'think'," he replied shyly.

Dyne sighed. "I'm asking if you wouldn't rather have revenge!" he said while raising his voice.

"Okay, me and a comatose buddy against the Shinra empire... right," Zack shot back.

Dyne simply smiled.

"You... your buddy -when he comes around-..." Dyne started, walking up to Zack and putting his hand on his shoulder, "... and the rest of Sector Seven." Dyne smiled and waved out his gun-arm slowly. Zack then saw them... men, dozens of them. Clad in black, doing push-ups. Another dozen or so came jogging by in a military-like formation. They all seemed to have come out recently... Zack hadn't noticed them before. More men came out from hiding places and started drilling, as well. A truck rolled in from the east, honking its horn, which prompted even more men to come out and unload several boxes that were in its cab. Zack realized he had just waltzed right into some kind of... militia training camp! Zack's eyes went wide, and he looked at Dyne...

"Welcome to AVALANCHE," Dyne declared with a grin.

***

Green. Green light and fluid, life and knowledge and power and emptiness and loss of self. Is this what surrounds you, or is this what your surround? Is there a you?

"That was unexpected," came a voice from the silence.

"What has happened?" asked a second.

A third voice came: "Saving the SOLDIER has sent a temporal ripple throughout space-time -present-future AND past."

"Reality is conforming and shaping on it's own, temporal difference is 35%. Unexpected consequence bordering on 90..." explained a fourth.

"This is your fault!" the second accused the first.

"The damage is done. We will only observe, that was the agreement." The first replied.

"You know something..." a fifth voice came and said.

"I know nothing you do not know. We are the Lifestream, all knowledge is shared, all is one. To accuse me is to accuse yourself... the lack of "self" notwithstanding."

Then silence. Silent agreement.

Private thoughts shared instantly by all there ever was and all there ever will be... green fluid mixing and moving, lending itself to new life and becoming stronger with each death, light and knowledge mixed with darkness and nothing all in one...

And one terrible secret.