Disclaimer: I do not own Final Fantasy VII or any of its characters.
The Calm
Wedge looked quizzically at Biggs. After delivering his pronunciation of agreement with Wedge, he'd started staring out of the train window determinedly, as though it were a very delicate task which required his full attention. Why was he doing this? Why couldn't he be happy that the mission was successful – as he had been two minutes ago? Wedge decided not to try to talk to Biggs. He'd spent hours dealing with him on this mission; he wasn't going to get concerned about this sudden moodiness.
Wedge turned to Jessie, as though trying to stop himself from thinking about Biggs. "What do you think happened to Barrett and the others?" he asked, trying to strike a balance between letting Biggs hear him and letting the rest of the train in on the conversation. This, apparently, had been the wrong question to ask. Jessie was silent for a long moment, and when she finally spoke, did so almost too softly for Wedge to hear.
"I don't know. They may just have escaped attention from the guards, but even so, how would they be able to get back to the hideout? They don't have their old IDs with them, so they can't take a train, and as for walking back – well, it's just possible, if they manage to find a way to the slums very quickly. But there aren't many paths between here and Sector 7 which aren't heavily patrolled." The despair in Jessie's voice amazed Wedge: after all, they'd been in worse situations than this before, and Jessie was always – not quite optimistic, but she had never been so openly distressed by the thought of their allies being in a situation like Barrett, Cloud and Tifa were in now.
Whatever the reason, Wedge sensed that his interference wouldn't be appreciated by Jessie. She was a fairly solitary person, she preferred to work through her problems by herself – and if Jessie wanted Wedge's advice, he knew she'd ask for it. In the faces of his allies' behaviour, Wedge felt oddly uncomfortable. He could calm down Biggs when he was in the grip of one of his fits of anger (or, as Wedge called them, 'temper tantrums'), he could comfort Jessie when she was feeling guilty about the group's actions, on occasion he even tried to help Tifa in keeping Barrett composed – or at least not homicidal – when members of Shinra were around. In the last few years Wedge had, without realizing it, become AVALANCHE's unofficial counsellor. But he was never sure how to help when people didn't want to talk.
Wedge leant back in his seat, surreptitiously watching the other passengers. They didn't appear to have noticed anything suspicious about the AVALANCHERs behaviour, but all the same, he was glad they were getting off the train soon. Anybody who had left Sector 5 since the bombing would be under scrutiny by the Shinra within the next few hours, and to stay on this train much longer would be extremely dangerous. The train was almost at the level of the slums – it had been gradually descending throughout the trip – and they were slowing to a halt at the Sector 2 station.
Biggs looked towards the few people boarding the train, one of whom was a Shinra guard. He leant towards Wedge and whispered, "They've started the checks already." Wedge nodded, not daring to make any noise. He looked out the window at the depressing landscape of the slums, hoping to avoid notice. The guard looked around the carriage for several seconds and then moved towards the back of the train. He was obviously expecting the terrorists to be hiding somewhere, if they were on the train at all.
Wedge kept his gaze fixed on the slums as the train began to move again. Sector 2 was hardly distinguishable from Sector 7 – the crumbling structures that passed for houses in this place were slightly different, of course, but there were still the piles of junk which no one bothered to sort through, the potholes in the middle of the streets, the look of hopelessness on the faces of the people there. He'd thought that Junon had been ruined when the Shinra moved in – that was why he'd joined AVALANCHE in the first place – but the slums of Midgar made Lower Junon look like Costa del Sol. Although Junon had probably degenerated since he was last there, the best part of two years ago. It had gotten too difficult to leave Midgar for him after that – the background checks were too rigorous for him not to look highly suspicious. He had been officially unemployed for the last four years, and he knew he didn't look it.
Wedge watched Shinra guard march through the train out of the corner of his eye, demanding to see the IDs of passengers. He knew that the soldier wasn't interested in catching the terrorists – he probably honestly couldn't have cared less what happened to Shinra, as long as he had a job. Wedge could understand his apparent avoidance of himself, Jessie and Biggs – they looked dangerous, and the soldier didn't seem to be in a hurry to commit suicide for Shinra. Wedge had long ago realized the reason that they'd lived as long as they had was the complete lack of work ethic among Shinra employees.
Trying to keep an eye on the guard without staring and to whisper without looking suspicious – a difficult feat of co-ordination at the best of times – Jessie muttered to Wedge, "We're getting near Sector 8. I think we should get off now, so we don't give out clues to the location of the hideout."
"Good idea, Jessie. Let's spilt up when we get off the train and meet – near the Sector 7 Plate Support?" Jessie and Biggs both nodded in response. Most of Sector 7 had seen them meeting there, so there wasn't much point trying to be secretive about their movements beyond that point.
"Well, the train's slowing down; I'll stand at this carriages' door now. You two can go to different carriages and get out in a minute." Standing up as casually as he could, Wedge strode towards the exit, mentally planning his route back to the bar. Jessie and Biggs spilt up a few seconds later, Jessie moving to the front of the train and Biggs to the back. As the train came to a halt, the guard looked at him momentarily, as though he was considering stopping Wedge but then thought better of it.
Wedge opened the door slowly, grateful for being able to wait until the train stopped this time. He walked almost automatically, still deep in thought. If the layout of Sector 8 was similar to that of Sector 7, he should walk west from the station until he reached a crossroads between the station and the residential area. From there, he only had to go south until he wandered into the Plate Support. The difficulty would be getting past the Shinra soldiers guarding the road between the two sectors. Luckily, the ones sent down here were usually the dregs of Shinra's army – some of the least professional people he'd ever met. Wedge still had the stun grenade Barrett had given him a few weeks ago, and now seemed to be a good time to use it.
He knelt down behind one of the piles of useless rubbish that the slums seemed to grow in place of plants. Grasping the grenade in his right hand, he listened to the soldiers chattering. Wedge didn't really want to kill them, just distract them for a few minutes. If he threw in the direction of the Plate Support, they would hopefully run right past him…
Wedge pulled out the safety pin and threw the grenade towards the tower as hard as he could. In theory, he knew that he was supposed to wait for a few seconds when he was throwing it somewhere so close, but he couldn't stand to hold something which would blow up so soon any longer than was absolutely necessary. The soldiers had evidently noticed some movement – they'd stopped talking, and Wedge thought he could hear their footsteps as they moved closer. Then…
Wedge thought for a moment that he had been blinded by the flash, but after a moment passed realized that partial deafening due to the blast was more likely. Either way, he didn't have time to think, he had to get past the roadblock while the soldiers were still disoriented. He crawled forwards and to the left, staying next to the rubbish pile the whole time. Despite– hopefully temporary – effect that the explosion had had on his ears, he could still dimly hear the confused shouts of the soldiers. Rising to his feet, he began to sprint along the road, unnoticed by the soldiers, and ran forwards until his feet refused to carry him any longer. This wasn't quite to the Plate Support, but it was well within the boundaries of Sector 7. Falling to his knees, he wondered what had happened to Biggs and Jessie, whether they'd found a safer route or just decided to stay on the train until it reached the Sector 7 station.
A few moments later, Wedge stood wearily and began to walk forwards again. He could see the fence around the Plate Support in the distance, and knew that he'd survived another day with AVALANCHE. At this rate, he wasn't sure how many he'd more last for, but today at least was over. Now he could see Jessie and Biggs coming around the tower to meet him, and he tried to move more quickly, but to no avail. Wedge was exhausted – he simply had no talent for sneaking around reactors and distracting soldiers.
Jessie reached him first, and put an arm around his shoulders to steady him. "It's alright, Jessie, I'm not that tired." This wasn't strictly true, and Wedge knew it, but there was a limit to how weak he was prepared to seem around the others. "Come on, we've nearly made it."
The three AVALANCHERs walked back to the hideout in near silence, not even attempting to hide any more. There was no need: all of Midgar knew about the bombing, and the streets of the slums hadn't been as chaotic before in the four years Wedge had lived there. No one would notice them. The bar was crowded, as always – nothing short of their own deaths would keep some of the inhabitants of Sector 7 away from the place. Biggs looked tempted to scare everyone out in an imitation of Barrett last night – Wedge had known that giving Biggs a gun was a bad idea – but he seemed to think better of it when he saw Marlene behind the counter. He always tried to moderate his behaviour around her, although Wedge thought that with Barrett for a father Marlene's chance of having a childhood without seeing violence was well into negative numbers by now.
Wedge smiled at Marlene and walked up to the counter. "Are you alright serving everyone?" He knew that he'd never get her to stop, since her father had asked her to, but he still felt guilty having her serve when adults were around. Marlene nodded – she still didn't like speaking to anyone besides Barrett and Tifa much. Wedge looked around the bar and decided that she'd manage – the customers were all regulars who knew Marlene, and they also knew that Barrett would find out if they tried to leave without paying. It wasn't safe to go down to the hideout proper with all the customers around, but he knew that Barrett and the others would show up and get them out soon enough.
Wedge sat down at a table in the corner of the room, gesturing for Biggs and Jessie to join him. He lent in to begin discussing what they should do if the other AVALANCHERs didn't arrive soon, when he was interrupted by the door being swung open violently. Barrett stormed in, closely followed by Tifa. The customers took one look at Barrett's face and fled the bar as quickly as they could. Without a word to any of them, Barrett smashed the button which operated the makeshift elevator to the hideout, all but destroying it in the process.
"What's wrong with Barrett? And where's Cloud?" Jessie asked Tifa, who looked miserable. Evidently something had gone horribly wrong during the bombing.
"Well, the Shinra President showed up at the reactor –" Tifa's explanation was interrupted by Biggs.
"Did you kill him?" Biggs's enthusiasm seemed to be back to the level it had been at during their escape.
"No, because he sent a robot to attack us – not to mention the entire squad of soldiers that were blocking the exits. Besides, Barrett wanted to talk to him first." Wedge wasn't sure that he wanted to know what Barrett had said. "We defeated the robot, but the President was long gone by then. That's one reason why Barrett is angry. And the other reason also answers your second question, Jessie: when the robot exploded, it took out a large section of the walkway. Cloud was standing on that particular part – he held on for a little while, but he fell in the end. And from the Plate to the slums is a long way to fall."