Final Fantasy 7

Emerald Princess of Vernea

Chapter Four


The next car was quiet and almost empty, with just a couple of strangely dressed punks at the far end, a man in a posh suit holding onto the rails looking sick, and a few layabouts with no real place to go, almost seeming to be making their home in the train itself. It was quiet, until the speaker on the wall crackled into life, and a computerised voice spoke out to them.

"Last train out of Sector Eight station. Last stop is Sector 7, Train Graveyard. Expected Time of Arrival is 12:23am, Midgar Standard Time."

At that point the door at the far end of the car opened and in came AVALANCHE. Jessie, Biggs and Wedge all stormed into the centre of the car and looked around, their fists clenched and ready for a challenge. Upon their entry the two punks jumped in fright and quickly charged out of the car. Barret then entered the car and quite confidently and arrogantly sat himself down on one of the seats, his arms spread out across the top to mark his territory. Shakily the man in the suit released the rail he was clinging to, and turned away.

"This is why I hate the last train," he mumbled quietly to himself. "Hoo- boy." He then walked out of the car, in the hope of a less threatening place to sit.

Only the layabouts and unnecessary people remained in the car, and seemed to ignore the group as they made themselves comfortable in the car. One particular man was reading a paper to avoid looking at the group, and as he read he suddenly turned to his companion next to him and showed him the recently printed article.

"See the headlines in the Shinra Times?" he asked. "The terrorists that bombed the Number One Reactor are based somewhere in the slums. Blowing up a Reactor... They sure put some thought into this one. They must have a real calculating leader." Barret looked up upon hearing that, although he tried to look nonchalant. "I wonder what they'll do next..."

Just then the man looked up and spotted Cloud standing next to him, who had also been listening to the conversation. He gave Cloud a curious look, and Cloud quickly turned his head away to avoid his gaze. He quickly walked down the aisle, where Barret suddenly reached out and grabbed Cloud's arm, pulling him harshly close to him and whispered sharply down his ear.

"Stop acting like a damn kid!" he ordered Cloud roughly. "Si'down and shu'up!"

Just as roughly Cloud wrenched his arm free out of Barret's strong grasp and continued down the aisle to where Biggs, Wedge and Jessie were standing casually. Barret glared at Cloud for a few more seconds before turning away, his face glaring angrily at the people around him.

"It seems as though this train hasn't switched to security mode yet," Biggs said suddenly, and Cloud turned to him. Biggs was leaning against the wall, glancing out of the window and watching the tunnel zip past them like a blur. He turned to Cloud. "I'm sure that will change by tomorrow." He smiled knowingly, when all of a sudden he yawned loudly. "That sure took its toll on me... I'm gonna sleep till we get back to the station."

With that Biggs crossed his arms and leaned heavily against the wall, closing his eyes and relaxing for the rest of the journey. Cloud turned to the other side of the train, where Wedge and Jessie were stood. Wedge was holding onto the rail nervously, while Jessie was staring blankly at a computer screen in front of her. As though sensing that Cloud was watching, Wedge suddenly turned around to face him.

"Someday, AVALANCHE is gonna be famous – and me, too!" he said excitedly. "Cloud, don't you think I've got a bright future ahead of me?"

"What do you have in mind?" Cloud asked. Truthfully he didn't care what plans Wedge had for the future, for they were no doubt meaningless and probably wouldn't amount to anything. Still, Wedge seemed excited, and it seemed only fair to hear him out.

Wedge smiled happily. "All my life I've felt like nothing but a sidekick. But after joining AVALANCHE and trying to save the Planet, I feel like I can do lots of things." He then turned away, and Jessie turned to him.

"Hey, Cloud, you want to look at this with me?" she asked. "It's a map of the Midgar Rail System. Let's look at it together. I'll explain it to you. I like this kind of stuff. Bombs and monitors... you know, flashy stuff."

Cloud walked up next to her, and Jessie showed him the blank computer screen. As he stood beside her she reached out and pushed one of the buttons below the screen.

"Okay, it's about to start," she said.

As she spoke the screen came to life, and a 3D graphic image of Midgar appeared. It showed the whole circular shape of the city, as well as its top plates and underground cities.

"This is a complete model of the city of Midgar," Jessie explained, sounding like an auditor giving a speech to a group of tourists. "It's about a 1/10,000 scale. The top plate is about 50 metres above ground. A main support structure holds the plates up in the centre and there are other support structures built in each section."

She suddenly leaned in close to Cloud and whispered quietly into his ear.

"The No. 1 reactor we blew up was in the Northern section. Then there's No. 2, No. 3, all the way up to the No. 8 reactor. The eight reactors provide Midgar with electricity. Each town used to have a name, but no one in Midgar remembers them. Instead of names, we refer to them by numbered sectors. That's the kind of place this is." She sighed and turned to the screen. "Phew, this is next, look."

The screen in front of them flashed as a new image appeared on the screen. The screen appeared to zoom in on a particular part of the city map – in particular the sectors that the train was currently travelling through. A number of white dots began to appear on the map, following a strict route from one sector to the other.

"This is the route the train is on," Jessie continued, indicating the white dots. "The route spirals about the main support structure, we should be coming around the centre area, right now. At each checkpoint an ID sensor device is set up. It can check the identities and backgrounds of each and every passenger on the train by linking it up to the control data bank at Shinra Headquarters."

She leaned in once more to whisper to Cloud.

"Anyone could tell that we look suspicious, so we're using fake ID's." Her speech was cut short as a bright red light suddenly flashed throughout the car, followed by a faint beeping noise. Cloud jumped and looked up as the red light swept over everything and everyone in the car, but he could see that he was the only one reacting to it. Jessie laughed at his reaction, and put a hand on his shoulder.

"Speak of the devil..." she commented. "That light means we're in the ID security check area. 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 paused for a moment, thinking hard, until she clicked her fingers. "I know, next time I'll give you one I made myself."

"Looking forward to it," said Cloud.

"Okay, then I'll put a little extra effort in, and make it with a BANG!" Jessie said excitedly, seeming to get fired up at the prospect of making Cloud a fake ID. "We're almost there. After talking with you, I really want to do it. I think you've lit my fuse!"

She turned away back to the computer, still looking eager and excited. Cloud just shook his head and turned away from her, thinking she was extremely strange. He walked back to the main aisle, where Barret had turned to look out of the train window, and was looking up.

"Look, you can see the surface now," he said solemnly. "This city don't have no day or night. If that plate weren't there, we could see the sky."

Cloud walked over to where Barret was sat and leaned over to look out of the window. Looking through he could see the various beams that criss- crossed above them. Beyond that there was a dark sky of dark grey-black metal, which was the surface of Midgar. On top of that plate would be the upper parts of the city, where the richer people of Midgar bought actual houses above the plate, where they could see the sky. They had started off above that black plate, but now the train had taken them well beneath it into the deeper and murkier depths of the city. The plate really did look like a kind of black sky, and without the clock inside the train, it would be impossible to guess whether it was day or night above.

"A floating city..." Cloud whispered quietly. "Pretty unsettling scenery."

"Huh?" Barret asked, looking at Cloud in surprise. "Never expect to hear that out of someone like you. You jes' full of surprises." He stood up and walked towards his comrades. "The upper world... a city on a plate... It's cause of that &%# 'pizza' that people are suffering. And the city below is full of polluted air. And on top of that, the reactor keeps drainin' up all the energy!"

Cloud pushed himself away from the window and looked at Barret. "Then why doesn't everyone move onto the plate?" he asked.

Barret shrugged. "Dunno," he admitted. "Probably cause they ain't got no money. Or maybe... cause they love their land, no matter how polluted it gets."

"I know," Cloud agreed, looking down. "No one lives in the slums because they want to. It's like this train, it can't run anywhere except where its rails take it."

With that Cloud turned once more to the window and looked out at the dark plate that blotted out the sky. Barret was right about the pollution – the lower cities of Midgar were very polluted, and there was no fresh air from above. There was only the murkiness that came from the workings of the cities above, and the people below the plate were struggling to find jobs to keep themselves fed and clothes. Cloud couldn't help but pity them, and that was Barret's only justification for doing what he did.

The train continued to rail on along its tracks because, as Cloud had said, it was the only route it could take. It wasn't much longer to Sector 7 where they would be getting off – the train spiralled fairly quickly around the main support structure of the city before spinning off towards the Sector 7 slums.

Eventually the train pulled slowly into the station and its doors opened, letting all its passengers off. The two punks and the suit-dressed man got off first and headed off away from the station towards their homes, which were most likely self-built. The AVALANCHE members climbed off the train last, of course, and continued to try and look natural as they got off, looking around constantly. Barret and Cloud were the last to get off, and Barret looked around at them angrily.

"Yo! Get over here, all'ya!" he ordered sharply.

All at once the three AVALANCHE members jumped to attention and swiftly dashed over towards Barret. Clearly no one liked to get on Barret's bad side, and did exactly as they were told when they were told to. As they all gathered around him, Barret folded his arms.

"This mission was a success, but don't get lazy now," he warned his comrades sternly. "The hard part's still to come. Don't y'all be scared of that explosion... Cause the next one's gonna be bigger than that!"

With that he ran off a little down the train platform, before stopping and turning back to his companions.

"Meet back at the hideout. Move out!"

In an instant the AVALANCHE group split. Jessie, Biggs and Wedge all parted from each other and began to make their way separately down the platform towards the slums, carrying out the same tactic that they did at the reactor. They were indeed a very cautious group, and with good reason. They had just blown up a reactor, and it was now imperative that they seemed natural, and so not to be suspected of anything underhanded. Cloud, unlike the others, simply walked back towards the slums.

The Sector 7 slums were indeed in a very bad condition. The ground was thick with dirt that had been pressed down into a form of ground, and the houses built in the sector had indeed been made by hand – built out of various scraps of metal that had been collected over time. The air was very dry and coarse, and Cloud could taste the pollution in his mouth.

Not that the people of the sector could notice it anymore. The people that were wandering around in the sector hardly noticed the murky smell anymore – they had lived in it for so long they had gotten used to it. Even the kids that played about on the street ran about without noticing the dryness of the air. Most likely these kids had never seen the above plate, and probably they never would.

Up ahead the AVALANCHE members had gathered together outside a building at the far end of the sector. Like everything else in the slums it was a handmade building, with a sign that was surprisingly made out of lighting tubes, and spelled out the words 'Tifa's 7th Heaven' on the front.

At that moment Barret was running up the steps of the building, and he pushed open the saloon-like doors as he ran inside. Moments later there was the sound of gunfire, and a series of people fled from the building in a fright. Barret burst out moments later, ranting and raving angrily about them being in his territory. Some of the punks shouted abuse back at Barret, but when Barret raised his gun-arm once more they immediately fled as fast as they could. Barret then walked down the steps of the bar and stood at the bottom like a guard.

As Cloud slowly approached the bar, the saloon doors opened once again as a young woman walked out and quickly began to usher Biggs, Wedge and Jessie inside. She was fairly young, perhaps a year younger than Cloud was, with long brown hair and dressed in a smart T-shirt and a short black skirt – almost quite delicate looking. She looked up as Cloud approached and gave him a brief smile, before she hurried into the bar after the three AVALANCHE members.

"Heh, heh," Barret sniggered suddenly as Cloud stopped next to him. "You wanna meet your little baby?"

Cloud snapped his head round to look at Barret. "'Little baby'?" he repeated sternly.

Barret grinned slyly. "Hey, don't act like you don't know what I mean. I'm telling you..." He stopped suddenly and looked around. All the punks had scattered for now, and the area around the bar was empty. "Okay, go on ahead," he ordered.

Cloud did as he was told and walked up to the bar, pushing back the saloon doors and going inside.

Inside the other three members of AVALANCHE were already relaxing – sitting at a table with drinks in their hand as they recovered from their strenuous job. Jessie and Biggs were talking amongst themselves as they drank, while Wedge was downing his drink thirstily, whilst at the same time eating food that had been left over by the previous customers.

"Papa!" a little voice shouted suddenly.

Cloud jumped in surprise as a little girl in a pink dress suddenly ran towards him, her arms spread wide in joy. As the girl spotted Cloud she suddenly skidded to a stop, and her face went bright red. Very quickly she turned around and ran off into a nearby corner, hiding her face as she began to sob sorrowfully into her dress. The woman Cloud had seen outside, her name was Tifa – the owner of the bar – quickly ran out from behind the bar and went to comfort the girl.

"Marlene, aren't you going to say anything to Cloud?" she asked the young girl softly.

The woman then stood up and walked confidently over to Cloud. The young girl called Marlene walked with her, hiding behind her and clutching at her skirt as she waved nervously to Cloud, her face still red and wet with tears.

"Welcome home, Cloud," Tifa said pleasantly to Cloud. "Looks like everything went well. Did you fight with Barret?"

"Not this time," Cloud told her plainly.

"Hmm..." Tifa muttered thoughtfully, thinking hard. "You've grown up. When you were little you used to get into fights at the drop of a hat."

Cloud scratched the back of his head anxiously. Tifa seemed to think for a few moments more, before she suddenly spotted the two flowers that Cloud had clutched in his hand, which he was still holding after he bought them from the lady in Sector 8.

"Flowers?" Tifa asked in amazement. "How nice. You almost never see them here in the slums. But... A flower for me? Oh, Cloud, you shouldn't have!"

Cloud stared for a moment in bewilderment. He had almost forgotten about the flowers he'd bought. He hadn't intentionally bought them for Tifa, but he had nothing else to do with them. As he looked down he also saw that Marlene had her eye on the flowers as well, intrigued by the pretty colours the petals held. Cloud took one of the flowers and passed it to Tifa, who took it gladly.

"Thank you, Cloud," she said honestly. "It smells wonderful." She turned towards the rest of the bar. "Maybe I should fill the store with flowers."

Beside her, Marlene was looking a little unhappy about Tifa receiving the flower. While Tifa was turned Cloud knelt down beside the young girl and held out the other flower. Marlene stared at it for a moment, before her face lit up until it beamed like a light bulb. She took the flower from Cloud, and quickly ran back to Tifa, hiding nervously once more behind her.

After that Cloud turned and headed to the door to find Barret and talk about his pay so he could get out of there. As he reached the door there came a loud thundering sound from outside. The saloon doors suddenly burst open, giving Cloud just barely enough time to jump back onto a nearby table out of the way as Barret stormed into the bar and looked around.

"Papa!" Marlene cried, running out from behind Tifa and towards Barret. "Welcome home!"

"Yeah!" Barret said. His face softened just a little as he saw the young girl happily run to him. He knelt down and picked her up in his arms, placing her carefully on his shoulder. Then he spotted the flower. "Huh? Where'd you get that flower?"

"Cloud gave it to me."

The softened look on Barret's face disappeared a little. "Oh... Did you thank him?"

"......" Marlene muttered silently, her face going red with embarrassment. She twisted herself round on Barret's shoulder to look at Cloud. "Thank you, Cloud. We'll take care of you."

"Are you all right, Barret?" Tifa asked Barret, changing the conversation.

"Great!" Barret replied with enthusiasm. Then he turned to the others. "Get in here, fools, we're startin' the meeting!"

With that Barret, with Marlene still on his shoulder, walked over to an old pinball machine at the far end of the bar. He pulled down the lever and the pinball machine suddenly began to move down through the floor to a secret room that was built underneath the bar, carrying Barret with it. One by one Jessie, Biggs and Wedge got up and followed him, jumping down through the hole to the hidden room. As they reached the bottom the pinball machine began to rise up again, and Cloud finally slipped off the table he'd been sat on.

"Sit down," Tifa said to Cloud, once again behind the bar. Cloud did as he was told and sat down in one of the stools in front of the bar. Tifa came over and leaned over the tabletop to Cloud. "How about... something to drink?"

"Give me something hard," Cloud said.

"Just a minute. I'll make one for you."

Tifa stood up and went to the other end of the bar, beginning to mix a drink that was one of her specialties. When she mixed the drink she shook it vigorously, before putting it on the table and sliding it down to Cloud, who caught it easily.

"You know, I'm relieved you made it back safely," Tifa said as she walked back to Cloud.

Cloud sipped his drink and looked at Tifa in puzzlement. "What's with you all of a sudden? That wasn't even a tough job."

"I guess not. You were in SOLDIER," Tifa admitted, as Cloud sipped his drink again. She looked up. "Make sure you get your pay from Barret."

Cloud quickly downed his drink and put the glass on the table. "Don't worry," he assured her. "Once I get that money, I'm outta here."

The look on Tifa's face seemed to sadden a little as he said that, but Cloud didn't notice and got up out of his chair.

"Cloud. Are you feeling alright?" Tifa asked suddenly.

Cloud turned to Tifa, cocking his head in his confusion. "...yeah... Why?"

"No reason," Tifa said. "You just look a little tired I guess. You'd better go down below."

Cloud nodded and went to the pinball machine. He pulled down the lever and went down towards the secret hideout of the rebel group AVALANCHE.