Disclaimer: I do not own Final Fantasy VII or any of its characters.
(Author's Note: This will be the last new chapter for several weeks, as I will be on holiday without long periods of access to a computer. Thank you for reading, and JetNoir and Enlightenment of the Truth, thank you very much for your reviews.)
Whistling in the Dark
Jessie studied Tifa carefully, trying to distance herself from what she had just heard. While Tifa's voice was steady and her words were calm, the rigid way in which she stood and the slight shaking of her hands suggested that she was about to either attempt to severely injure someone or collapse in tears - but Jessie knew that Tifa had too much self-control to allow herself to break down in front of them. Trying to speak as casually as she could, Jessie asked, "Do you think that there's any chance that he survived?" It seemed that Jessie's voice had betrayed her emotions despite her best efforts: Biggs looked at her sympathetically – Biggs, who barely knew what the word 'compassion' meant – and Wedge put an arm around her shoulders in an attempt to comfort her.
"It's possible," Tifa replied softly. "Even when Cloud was a child, he was tough, and after joining SOLDIER – well, you saw for yourself at the reactor yesterday. If anyone can survive that fall, Cloud can." This wasn't quite the unconditional affirmation that Jessie had been hoping for, but it was something to hold onto.
"Whatever happened to Cloud, we can't do anything by worrying about it. Let's go downstairs and hear what Barrett has to say." Jessie was aware that Biggs was, in his practical and detached way, trying to calm her, but Biggs's rather unique form of support was not helpful in situations like this. She had to admit that he was right, but at that moment she wasn't capable of being entirely logical and emotionally detached from the situation.
"Alright, then." Jessie was surprised to find that her own voice had become steady so quickly. "I'd like to see the news, anyway." She walked to the elevator, followed first by Wedge and then by Tifa, who had grabbed Marlene on her way. Biggs almost always climbed down, just to show Barrett that he wasn't the only tough one in AVALANCHE. That contest was almost as old as – although considerably more one-sided than - Biggs and Wedge's game of one-upmanship in AVALANCHE's missions, and that contest had started the day after the two of them met.
Barrett was once again attempting to transport the hideout's punching bag into another dimension. Biggs had once asked Barrett why someone who fought with a gun needed to be able to fight in hand-to-hand combat. Barrett had proceeded to demonstrate the advantages on him, and Biggs had never challenged his right to use of the punching bag whenever he wanted since. He usually settled for sitting at the table, looking at Barrett resentfully. The amount of power play that could go on in a group of AVALANCHE's size amazed Jessie.
Upon the entrance of Jessie and the others into the hideout, Barrett paused to look at them. Jessie had hardly ever seen him so angry, and Barrett was in a more or less constant state of anger. After four years of being around him, Jessie knew when it was better – both for the harmony of the group and for her health – to stay out of Barrett's way. He'd calm down enough to talk in a manner which wouldn't cause permanent damage to their ears in a few minutes.
In the meantime, Jessie turned on the television, knowing that nothing but the bombing would be talked about for hours – days, perhaps. The channel didn't matter – the concept of 'independent news services' had ended around the same time as the Wutai-Midgar War. Television had been Shinra propaganda for the past fifteen years. It wasn't difficult for Jessie to guess what would be said, but seeing the havoc caused by the bombing would distract her, at any rate. Biggs, Wedge and Tifa were now seated at the table, talking quietly and giving the television cursory glances from time to time. Marlene was sitting on Tifa's lap, watching her father in awe.
"… President Shinra has promised that all forces available will be directed towards finding and destroying these terrorists…" The reporter didn't look old enough to be out of school. He probably didn't remember a time when Shinra hadn't been in power. It was a strange thought, that in a few years the first generation born and raised under the dictatorship of Shinra would be running the world. AVALANCHE's prospects seemed rather grim when that happened – at the moment, most people were willing to, if not aid them, at least not reveal their existence to the government. The same couldn't be expected of people who had grown up hearing the words of Shinra everywhere they went.
"… the President himself was at the reactor today, but was unable to stop the terrorists for fear of forcing soldiers to remain in the reactor…"
Jessie heard Barrett's snort over the drone of the reporter's voice. "Tryin' to save the soldiers? The president don't care 'bout nobody but the president. An' people believe this..." He resumed his impassioned attack on the punching bag.
Biggs was smiling in a rather unsettling way, probably related to the footage of the explosion now being shown. "It's amazing how explosive Mako is. You'd think someone would realise that it might not be safe to use it as a power source. How many reactors have blown up in the last five years?"
"Not counting the ones we've bombed? Two. Gongaga and North Corel." Jessie had always thought of Wedge as a sensible man, but anyone who brought up the North Corel reactor when Barrett was in a bad mood couldn't be entirely sane.
Biggs sighed noisily. "I knew that, Wedge."
"Well, it isn't my fault if you don't want the answer to questions –" Wedge was interrupted by Barrett, who had decided to give the punching bag some rest, bringing his fist down on the table. It didn't fall apart, but after four years of belonging to AVALANCHE it was definitely looking less sturdy than when it was purchased. Wedge edged his chair away from Barrett slightly.
"Stop arguin'! We've gotta decide what to do next." Barrett sounded irritated, but evidently the punching bag had done its work in calming him – irritation was a vast improvement over homicidal anger. He picked up Marlene and seated himself at the table. Wedge relaxed somewhat, but he still appeared to be preparing to run at any moment.
"You see, when we were getting back from the reactor –" Tifa's explanation was interrupted by Wedge.
"How did you get back, anyway?"
"We headed towards the Shinra building. There are a lot of entrances to train tunnels which are no longer in use near it. Now, can I get on with the story? As I was saying, we came across a man who was a member of Shinra -" It was Biggs's turn to interrupt.
"How can you tell? There isn't a uniform for the higher-ups."
"He'd dropped his ID card. He was just turning around to pick it up, actually, when Barrett shoved his gun arm in the man's face." Barrett grinned at this and began to polish the weapon. "Anyway, the man told us that he worked for Don Corneo, and that the Shinra were planning something big in the next few days to finish off AVALANCHE. He didn't seem to know much about it, so I said told Barrett that I should go to Corneo's mansion to see what I can find out."
"An' I said no. It's too dangerous, Tifa. The place will be crawlin' with guards – how are you gonna get in?" Barrett looked as though he had a fairly good idea of how Tifa would get in, and wasn't happy with it in the slightest. Neither was Jessie, for that matter. She'd grown up not far from Wall Street, and for years the entire city had known what the Don got up to in his rather copious amounts of spare time. It appeared that very few people in Shinra actually worked.
"Have you heard about the Don's efforts to find a wife?" Tifa asked. Jessie had been hoping that she was mistaken about Tifa's plan. Sometimes being right could be very upsetting.
"Is there anyone in Midgar who hasn't? Hey, I just thought of something..." Biggs's sentence trailed off.
"Well, Biggs, better make a note in your diary, so in future you can look back on this momentous triumph of your brain." Wedge's comment went unnoticed by Biggs, who was still contemplating.
"If the Don has being doing his wife-finding exercises since I arrived in Midgar four years ago, at the earliest... Jessie, do you know how long he's been looking?"
"Five years, perhaps? I heard about it not long before I joined AVALANCHE, actually, but I wasn't exactly the first person to find out. But this three women a day thing is a fairly recent development, he used to be much more restrained. It couldn't be more than about six months ago that it started."
"Alright, three women a night, thirty days a month, for six months..." Wedge began to move towards the elevator during Biggs's mental calculation, clearly struggling to refrain from telling them he'd have time to get a drink before any major development. No one was watching him, so he was forced to let another insult to Biggs go unnoticed.
"That's five hundred and forty women! There can't be many more than that in Midgar." Biggs sounded surprised by this, to Jessie's amazement.
"Think about it, Biggs. Do you know how rich the Don is? There aren't many women in the slums who wouldn't do anything for the chance of marrying a man with that kind of money." Jessie liked to think that she still retained some idealism in her fight against Shinra, but growing up in the Midgar slums had produced realism in her attitude to the rest of life – life had a nasty tendency of doing that to all the slums' inhabitants.
"Well, that means that I shouldn't have too much trouble getting in – not much competition." Tifa managed to sound pleased about this. "And before you say anything, Barrett, I am going. There's no other way of finding out what the Shinra will do next."
Barrett grumbled, but realised that he'd lost and that further argument would be futile. "Well, I'm comin' too; to make sure nothin' goes wrong." He didn't appear to believe that this tactic would work – his tone was resigned – but Jessie knew that he would feel guilty if he didn't try to give Tifa whatever help she would allow him to.
"No, you're not. There's no way that you can get into the mansion, and I can defend myself getting there." Tifa looked as though she would rather enjoy the chance to demonstrate this, but Barrett knew when he had lost an argument.
"What will you do if he doesn't choose you?" Wedge questioned. This possibility had not occurred to Jessie – she'd been too concerned about what would happen after Tifa was chosen.
"I've thought about that, and if it happens I suppose I'll just have to fight my way to the Don. A few guards won't be too difficult to handle, and I doubt that they'll be expecting anything much to happen after the Don's made his choice." Tifa sounded as though she'd been rehearsing this plan mentally for a considerable time – the words seemed to come without her thinking about them.
Barrett nodded reluctantly. "Jus' be careful. I don't trust Corneo."
"Barrett... what are we going to do about Cloud?" asked Jessie. She knew Barrett didn't care for mercenaries in general and that Cloud had done nothing to endear himself to Barrett, but surely he wouldn't let someone as strong as Cloud disappear without even trying to look for him.
"If he's alive, he'll be findin' his own way back by now. Unless he's gonna desert us." Barrett appeared to believe that this was a distinct possibility – he had a firm belief that no one could ever really want to leave SOLDIER. They had almost as much power as anyone Shinra politician short of the President, and the type of people who made it to the top of the Shinra army weren't the type who relinquished power happily.
"Shouldn't someone go to Sector 5 anyway, just to look for him? That's where he would have landed, and we could walk there easily." Jessie knew Barrett wouldn't want to have AVALANCHE spilt up more than it had to be, but they didn't have any missions planned for days – it couldn't possibly hurt.
"I'm sorry, Jessie, but it's not safe. It's too late to be goin' anywhere today, and if Tifa's gonna be in Sector 6 tomorrow, we've gotta stay at the hideout. If he ain't back in two days, then you can look." Barrett said wearily.
"Alright, then. So, what have we got in the way of missions coming up?" Biggs could always be replied upon to bring the conversation back to fighting Shinra – the tireless determination with which they dedicated themselves to bringing down the government was one of the few characteristics he and Barrett shared.
"Well, most of 'em depended on havin' Cloud around. We'll have to change the plans a bit, but I think we've got a chance at hittin' the Shinra headquarters in a few weeks." Barrett had been planning this attack for a long time, but he hadn't thought that they would be able to pull it off without another strong fighter. Apparently he'd grown tired of waiting. "If we can jus' get some more bombs, we can set 'em off at the front entrance, then sneak around the back. What do you think, Jessie?"
"It'll be difficult, but far from impossible. Grenades are easy to get – they aren't exactly the bombs we've been using the reactors, but they'll function just as well as a distraction, not to mention being cheaper. The main problems will be getting to the building without being noticed, and the possibility that Shinra will realise that it's a distraction and send troops to every entrance." Jessie was on familiar ground here, refining the sometimes unrealistic plans of the rest of AVALANCHE – in some ways, she was the most practical member of the group.
"Well, we can use the train tunnels Tifa was talking about earlier. There's probably an entrance to one near the train graveyard – I'm pretty sure that someone told me that the original Sector 7 station was on the other side of the graveyard to the present one, and it would have to connect with other tunnels at some point." Wedge's knowledge of the geography of Midgar was astounding, considering he'd only been there four years – he taught Jessie something new on a regular basis, and she'd lived in Midgar all her life.
"We can check that in a few days. Now, what should we do about making sure the guards fall for the distraction?" Life felt as though it was finally returning to normal for Jessie – or at least what passed for normal in AVALANCHE. She was where she belonged in their fight – being, along with Wedge, the brains behind the destruction – and although Cloud wasn't there, she knew that she would see him again soon.