Final Fantasy 7

Emerald Princess of Vernea

Chapter Six


It was the gentle buzzing of the TV screen down in AVALANCHE's secret hideout that woke Cloud the next morning. As Cloud opened his eyes and slowly sat up, his back ached from the uncomfortable sleep he had had after sleeping on the floor. Barret may have agreed to let him take part in the next mission, but that didn't mean that Cloud was going to get first class treatment.

It looked as though the other AVALANCHE members were already away, for the room was empty and stripped of anything that would incriminate them if the room were discovered. All of Jessie's technological bits and bobs had been hidden away, and the room looked as though it were simply a storage room converted into a living room. The first thing Cloud did as he got up was to head over to the pinball machine lift and head up to the main part of the bar.

Tifa and Barret were waiting for him there. Tifa was busy doing some cleaning in the bar while Barret tapped his foot impatiently, cursing silently to himself that he had let Cloud stay in the same building as him. Marlene was also hard at work, doing some more cleaning behind the bar itself. As Cloud stepped off the lift Tifa stopped working and smiled – a smile filled with the joy and life of a new day.

"Good morning! Cloud!" she greeted, sounding surprisingly cheerful. "Did you sleep well?"

Cloud pulled a face and made a sideward glance at Barret. "Barret's snoring kept me up..." he complained.

Tifa immediately put a finger to her mouth to silence him, and whispered to him sharply. "Keep it down, they'll hear you. Barret's always edgy before an operation." She then lightened her expression and smiled once more. "I'm going this time."

Cloud tilted his head and looked at Tifa, awaiting an explanation. Tifa had never been on an AVALANCHE mission, even though she was a member of AVALANCHE herself. However the girl didn't give an explanation and instead turned to Barret, who by now was becoming even more impatient than he was before.

"Our target's the Sector 5 Reactor," Barret explained to them both as they looked at him awaiting the mission details. "Head for the station first. I'll fill you in on the train." He suddenly stopped and looked at Cloud. "Yo! Cloud! Before the next mission, I got somethin' I wanna ask you! I, uh...... I don't really know how to use Materia! I'll give you that Materia you found. Just teach me how to use it."

Cloud sighed heavily and folded his arms. "You wouldn't understand," he answered simply.

Barret's eyes immediately flared in anger. "So this is what makes all them guys in SOLDIER so great, huh!?" he demanded. "Okay. I'll ask Jessie again later. But you're in charge of the Materia!"

He pulled the small green ball of Materia they had found at the Sector 1 Reactor and threw it to Cloud, who caught it easily and looked into its shimmering green surface. He couldn't tell for sure, but from the shimmer inside of the ball it looked like a form of curative Materia. He looked at it for a second longer before passing it to Tifa, whom he felt would make better use of it. Tifa took the ball and placed it into a Materia slot on the armlets of her fighting gloves. As the ball became locked in the slot it glowed a little, its power spreading through Tifa's gloves. When she was done, Tifa turned to Marlene.

"Marlene, you watch the store while we're gone!" she told the young girl.

Marlene looked up from the stool she was stood on to clean the counter. "Alright!!" she said as her father, Tifa and Cloud headed out of the bar. "Good luck."

The slums looked exactly the same as they did at midnight, and it would have been impossible to tell that it was morning without any clocks to tell the time. The usual crowd were out and about, hanging around near the exit of the slums to watch as Barret and his team headed out towards the train station. Some of the younger kids giggled as Cloud and Tifa walked past, for they had been spying on their conversation during the night.

Biggs, Wedge and Jessie were waiting for the three on the station platform to keep the train from leaving. As they saw their leader approach they jumped up and hurried into the train, followed closely by Barret, Tifa and Cloud.

As the last of the passengers piled onto the train, the station guard looked around to make sure that there were no last minute passengers. When he was confident that the coast was clear, he raised his arm and blew his whistle hard.

Inside the train Jessie, Biggs and Wedge were all piled into a single train car, sitting comfortably amongst the rest of the passengers in the car. Not surprisingly it was the same group of people who had been on the train home during the night – the homeless guy, the man reading the newspaper, and the man in the red suit (who was still holding onto the rails and looking sick).

"Yo!" came Barret's angry voice.

All at once the three members of AVALANCHE jumped up out of their seats and turned sharply to Barret as he walked into the car, with Tifa and Cloud behind him. Barret's face was fuming as he saw his three comrades grouped together in a single car, which looked much more suspicious.

"Looks like this ain't no private car!!" Barret observed. "So split up!!"

Jessie, Biggs and Wedge did as they were told and immediately split up, heading through the doors to the adjoining cars where they would split up and not be spotted together as a group. As they left the man in the suit let go of the rails and sighed heavily.

"...hoodlums again," he mumbled to himself. "God, don't I just have all the luck..."

As he walked away from the rails and sat himself firmly down in one of the train seats, Barret ran up past him towards the door and looked out, trying to see who had just spoken.

"You say sumthin'?" he growled angrily, looking around at the next car. He got no reply, so he raised his voice a little. "I said, 'you say sumthin'!?" Again there was no answer. Realising this Barret turned and walked back to the seats. He stopped directly beside the suited man and grabbed hold of the rail, looking down at him. "Yo, look at that!! It got empty alluva sudden. What's goin' on?"

Slowly the suited man looked up at Barret, and sweat began to pour down his face. "DAMN!!" he cursed loudly, realising he had been caught. His voice began to stammer nervously. "I...it's empty because of... g, guys like you..."

It was the wrong thing to say. Barret snarled angrily and hit the man hard on the head with his fist. The man shrunk back in his seat in fear, but did not move out of the way.

"Y, Y, YIPES!!" he said. "You... you've seen the news, right? AVALANCHE says there'll be more bombings. Only devoted employees like me would go to Midgar on a day like today."

That was enough for Barret. Upon hearing those words he immediately stepped back and raised his gun, aiming at the man and preparing to fire if provoked.

"You workin' for Shinra?" he demanded.

The Shinra Manager's body quivered in absolute terror. He quickly ducked his head down and curled himself into a ball, his arms above his head to protect himself. Loud sobs began to echo from his curled up form, filled with fear and anxiety.

"I won't give in to violence..." he sobbed pitifully. "And I'm not giving you my seat either!"

Barret raised his fist once more as he prepared to hit the manager again, but Tifa ran up to him quickly and grabbed his arm.

"Barret!" she shouted at him.

Barret looked at Tifa, before lowering his arm and turning to the Shinra Manager.

"&$#%!! You lucky $#$!" he cursed, and stormed off to the other end of the car where Cloud was standing. Tifa sighed heavily before following him and leaving the weeping manager.

"So, what are we gonna do now?" Cloud asked now that the drama was over with.

"Shit!" Barret said in frustration, waving his arms around. "The hell you so calm about? You bustin' up my rhythm..."

At that moment a loud whistle could be heard, and the car suddenly shook from side to side.

"Seems like they just finished connecting the cars," Tifa observed. "We're finally leaving."

As she spoke the train shook again as it choked into life and began to move slowly across the brown and rusty rails, beginning its long and tiresome journey around the city of Midgar. The train moved slowly at first before it began to pick up some speed, until it was moving fairly rapidly away from Sector 7 and into the rest of Midgar.

"So what's our next target?" Cloud asked once more, getting back to the subject of the mission.

"Hah! Listen to Mr. Serious-about-his-work!" Barret taunted mockingly, and Tifa rolled her eyes. Seeing the unimpressed looks both she and Cloud were giving him, Barret crossed his arms. "Awright... I'll tell ya! Jessie's probably already told you, but there's a security checkpoint at the top plate. It's an ID scan system checkin' all the trains."

"Which Shinra is very proud of," Tifa added.

Barret nodded. "We can't use our fake ID's anymore..." He stopped as the speaker above them crackled into life, and the computerised voice spoke blankly to them.

"Good Morning, and welcome to Midgar Lines. Arrival time at Sector 4 station will be 11:45."

"That means we've only got three more minutes until the ID Check point," Tifa told Barret, who nodded in agreement. He turned to the two of them and clenched his one good fist.

"Alright," he said confidently. "In three minutes, we're jumpin' off this train. Got it!?"

And with that, Barret walked briskly away from Tifa and Cloud and sat himself down firmly on the couch near to the Shinra Manager, who began to shiver once more as the large AVALANCHE leader sat extremely close to him. Luckily Barret had his mind on other things and simply ignored the Manager, keeping himself focused on the mission ahead.

Tifa, on the other hand, had walked past Barret and had stopped at the other end of the car, right beside the railway map computer that Jessie had shown to Cloud just yesterday. Tifa turned to Cloud and waved excitedly to grab his attention.

"Cloud, come over here!" she called cheerfully. "Let's look at the Railway Map Monitor."

Sighing, Cloud walked slowly over to Tifa and stood a few good inches behind her, looking over the young woman's shoulder at the screen, not looking particularly interested. Tifa noticed this, and as she turned she had a huge smile on her face as she giggled at him.

"Hmm, it looks like you've seen this already..." she observed, once her giggling had subsided. "It's all right. Come a little closer."

She giggled again as Cloud shrugged dismissively. Then he took a single step closer to Tifa, and continued to watch the computer screen as the Railway Map came up. It was almost exactly the same as the one Jessie had shown him, although it was slightly different now they were moving away from Sector 7 and towards Sector 4 – their new destination. Neither of the two said anything as they watched the map roll by. Cloud was still puzzled by Tifa's sudden decision to come along on this particular mission, and she still hadn't explained why she had changed her mind.

He didn't get the chance to ask her however, for at that very moment a red light suddenly flashed within the car they were in, followed by the beeping of the signal that meant the ID Check was in progress. Tifa looked up in surprise.

"That's odd," she said, bewildered. "The ID Check Point was supposed to be further down."

Moments later the beeping of the signal stopped. Just a second later the alarm went off – a loud, whirring siren that pierced the ears of the people in the car and made them jump in surprise. Barret leaped out of his chair and looked up as the speaker crackled once more, and the computerised voice spoke with a harsh and serious tone.

"Type A Security Alert! Unidentified passengers confirmed... A search of all cars will be executed! Repeat!! Type A Security Alert! Unidentified passengers confirmed... A search of all cars will be executed!"

"What's happening?" asked Tifa. Barret ran up to her.

"What's goin' on!!" he demanded, just as confused as she was.

The door to the car opened as Jessie ran in, her face pale with fear as she realised that somehow they had been caught out as unidentified passengers on the train.

"We're in trouble," she told them, stating the obvious. "I'll explain later. Hurry! Get to the next car!"

"%#%" Barret cursed. He shook his fist angrily, while Cloud folded his arms in thought. "Someone blew it..."

"Unidentified passengers located in Car #1. Preparing for Lock Down."

Barret turned to his colleagues. "Let's go! Keep it up!" he ordered.

Jessie turned and ran out of the door, followed closely by Barret, Tifa and Cloud. Just as they passed through into the next car the door slid shut automatically, and a loud click signalled the door being locked and sealed behind them.

"Car #1 Locked Down. Upgrading to Level 2 Warning."

Barret looked around the next car. The other inhabitants of the car were all sitting fearfully in their seats, wishing that the alarms would go off and their journey return to normal. Jessie was stood further down the car with Biggs and Wedge, who were also looking around fearfully for any sign of guards that could come looking for them.

"Hurry!" Biggs urged them.

"They're gonna lock the door, sir!" Wedge said. He and Biggs both turned and ran through the door into the third car, just as the speaker spoke up once again over the sound of the raging alarm.

"Unidentified passengers located in Car #2. Preparing for Lock Down."

"Just run!" Jessie advised Barret and the others, before she followed the lead of Biggs and Wedge and ran down towards the next car. Barret, Cloud and Tifa were not close behind, for they did not want to get locked in the car and be caught by the Shinra.

Again they only made it out of the car just in time. Cloud was only halfway through the door before it began to close on him, and he had to move quickly before getting trapped in the door.

"Car #2 Locked Down. Upgrading to Warning Level 3."

As the door slammed shut and locked itself, the alarm fell silent, and the lights in the car returned to normal. It looked as though they had outrun the train security, and Barret seemed extremely pleased about it.

"Awright! We clear?" he asked Jessie.

Unfortunately, Jessie shook her head. "Not yet," she confirmed. "They're starting another check. If we're caught, we're done for. But, don't worry. If we move up the train, car by car, we should get past it!"

She then turned and ran down towards the end of the car, to where a man had stopped in front of the door leading into the fourth car. Furiously Jessie lashed out, punching the man extremely hard in his stomach. The man crumpled and fell instantly at the force of her punch and quickly crawled out of the way of the door, leaving Jessie to run through to the next car. The moment she disappeared the alarms and lights went off again, and once again everyone in the car jumped back in fright.

"Unidentified passengers: Moving to Front of Train. Currently tracking location."

Barret signalled to Tifa and Cloud, and ran on towards the next car. Tifa and Cloud followed close behind, running as fast as they could towards the last car. From now on they didn't stop as they moved on, and just continued to run past the terrified passengers before they could be caught.

"Car #3 Locked Down. Upgrading to Warning Level 4." They continued to run on, regardless of the warnings and into the last car. "Car #4 Locked Down. Upgrading to maximum security alert!!"

Now in the very last car of the train, Barret stopped and looked around desperately in search of Jessie and the other AVALANCHE members. He found them fairly quickly, but they had disguised themselves to avoid looking suspicious. Wedge was near the entrance, dressed in a dungarees and T- shirt. Biggs was close by, wearing a smart tuxedo suit and hat, with a fake moustache under his nose to hide the rest of his face. Jessie was standing near the front of the train by the car exit, clad in a full red Shinra guard uniform, which she had probably swiped from a guard who had tried to stop her. Barret ran down towards her, and turned back to the others.

"All right!! We made it! Yo!! This way!!" he called out to Cloud and Tifa.

As Cloud and Tifa darted down towards him, Jessie turned to the large door that led out of the car and opened it with a lever. As the door opened a gust of cold air blew into the train, and the sound of the train travelling on the rail tracks became louder. Now with both the alarm and the train sounds to deal with, Barret had to shout really loud in order to be heard.

"Let's go!!" he yelled. "We're gonna dive outta here!!"

Tifa glanced out of the door, before she turned to Cloud with an almost excited smile on her face.

"...Scary... huh."

"Too late to be saying that now," Cloud told her. He tilted his head to the side. "Why'd you come along anyway?"

Tifa turned away from Cloud, and gave him a sideways glance. "Because..." was her only answer.

"Hey you two!" Barret roared angrily at the two, who looked at him blankly. "There ain't no time for that!"

Hearing his words Tifa ran to the door of the car and looked out. The wind was blowing her dark hair all around her face, and all she could see was a blur as the rails passed her by – they were moving so fast. Finally she nodded her head.

"Yeah!! I've made up my mind!" she said, sounding as confident as she could be. "Watch closely. I'm gonna jump!!"

Cloud and Barret watched as Tifa took a step back and then jumped forward out of the door of the train. She disappeared the second she jumped out, lost in the blurry mess that was outside of the car. Cloud then ran to the door, and turned to Barret.

"You don't care if I go first?" he asked.

Barret glared at him. "A leader always stays till the end. Don't worry 'bout me, just go!" Cloud nodded and turned to the door, preparing to jump. "Yo!" Barret shouted suddenly, and Cloud glanced back. Barret narrowed his eyes. "Don't go gettin' your spiky-ass hurt! It's only the beginnin' of the mission!"

Cloud shrugged and turned back to the door. Like Tifa he took a step back and then dived forward out of the door of the car into the rails beyond. Once he was gone Barret stood up and turned to the car entrance, to where Biggs, Wedge and Jessie had all gathered to see him off.

"Later!" he said to them. "You take care of the rest!"

Then he turned and jumped out of the car as well, leaving Biggs, Wedge and Jessie alone in the train.