Chapter Ten:

Wasteland

Through the starless void I searched for her, calling her name. I was getting frantic when I received no response. I began to scream her name, pleading for her to answer back. Finally, she did.

"I'm here, Raven," Aeris said.

I asked her, "Where's Slade going?"

"Where it all began," she replied. "Head to the northern continent…"

"The North Pole?"

"If that's what you call it," Aeris said. "Where the crater is… where Jenova was found…"

Aeris drifted off.

"Raven?" she suddenly asked.

I asked, "Yes?"

"I think you should come here as fast as possible."

"Huh? Why? What's wrong?"

"Just do it!"

Shit.

I came back to reality surrounded by my friends.

"We have to get back to the tower," I said quickly. "And fast."

"What? What's going on?" asked Cyborg.

"No time to explain, we have to get moving!"

Beast Boy tapped me on the shoulder and said, "Raven, I don't know if you remember this but… we're fucking miles from Jump City! How the hell are we supposed to get back there? We have no transportation, Slade is out there somewhere with the black materia about to summon God-knows-what, and the president of the United States just died in front of us!"

I pulled my hood up over my head, saying, "Fine, I'll go myself. As for the rest of you: find out where the crater is that Jenova was found in. Aeris says it's at the North Pole but she doesn't exactly know where. Get there as fast as you can."

"Wait a minute, what about you?" asked Robin. "What's back at Titans Tower that's so important?"

I shook my head, "No time to explain Robin. Please… just find Slade. That's all I'm asking."

Robin nodded, silently agreeing. Starfire approached and hugged me tightly.

"Be safe," she said.

Surprised at the sudden motion of affection, I said back, "You too."

With that, I allowed my energy to consume me and turned into a raven of pure darkness. I flew away as hard as I could as the rest of the team planned their next move.

I burst through the doors of the tower. Time had suddenly become a nagging reminder to speed things up. I raced upstairs to my room, hoping that I wasn't too late. I prepared my meditation circle with my mystical powders and scents. I hovered in the middle, Masamune across my lap, and began to meditate, focusing on the church that I met Aeris in. I began to chant, "Azarath Metrion Zinthos." Energy began to surround me as the doorway to her dimension was opened. I felt myself being sucked in. I grasped my sword and flew forward. Around me, time and space passed by like I was on a rollercoaster ride twisted enough to make Beast Boy vomit. Ahead was the portal; I could see the flowers blooming in the church.

I landed hard: my knees caved in and I fell on all fours. I looked around the old, abandoned church. Light poured in from the giant hole in the ceiling of the sanctuary. Something didn't sit right.

I called her name: "Aeris!"

I heard some scurrying from one of the pews behind me.

"Is it safe?" she asked, poking her head out into the aisle.

I ran over to her, asking, "What are you doing? What happened?"

I helped Aeris to her feet. She brushed herself off.

"He was looking for me," she said. "Well, one of his cronies, at least…"

"Who, Slade? Was it Sephiroth? Cloud?"

She shook her head, "No… it was another; never seen him before. Half of his face was burned severely. He scared me… burst through the front doors. Luckily, I knew this area better than he did, so I ran. He's probably still out searching the districts for me. I guess Slade isn't taking any chances."

I had to ask the unnecessary question, "How do you know he belonged to Slade?"

"He had a Masamune like you. That and he had Slade's insignia on him. He was laughing a lot… called finding me a game."

"So what is it that you need me to do?" I asked.

"We have to get to the Shin-ra building. Slade's about to summon the WEAPONS and that's really bad. If we get to the top of the Shin-ra tower in time, we can stall him."

"But how?"

"He's keeping the black materias there, hoping that you and your friends don't reach it. He intends to summon Meteor here – when it hits this planet, it will form a swell of energy. He could use that to be one with the planet… then he'd be unstoppable. On your planet, however, there is nothing to hold it back. When Meteor hits your world, it'll probably send it back into another ice age, or worse!"

"Couldn't they use a rocket or something to knock it apart?" I asked.

Aeris shook her head, "I have no idea. It's not your ordinary chunk of rock floating out there in space. It's held together by dark magic, so even if they did blow it to bits, it would more than likely pull itself back together."

"You said 'be one with the planet:' what're you talking about?"

"Remember the Lifestream? When the Planet is opened up, Lifestream spills out like water from a shattered glass. Slade can harness that energy and then be apart of the planet himself. As long as the planet is alive, he would stay alive. At least, that's what the theory is – it's never been tested and I don't want it to be. Now, we have to get to the surface fast!"

I tilted my head, "Wait… above the surface?"

Aeris shook her head, "No time to explain. I have some friends waiting."

She grabbed my hand and we ran out of the church.

The area outside of the church was a dump. Trash, scrap metal, and all sorts of interesting materials littered the place, stacked high as the eye could see. Aeris pointed up at the sky: I looked up to see a giant plate suspended by a single pillar over the area.

"Where the hell are we?" I asked in astonishment.

"Midgar," Aeris answered. "Sector 5 slums. This used to be a whole collection of towns, but nobody remembers them anymore. So instead, they refer to these as sectors. The plate circles around the entire perimeter of the city. In the center of the city is the Shin-ra building; in between the border of each sector is a Mako reactor. Slade's already launched a massive campaign against any resistance groups: his machines and soldiers take to the streets, searching out anyone who opposes."

I looked at her, and asked, "Your friends… are they part of the resistance, too?"

She nodded, "Yes. They're called AVALANCHE. Quickly: we must hurry."

We ran through the degraded living conditions. People looked up from their shop tables, flats, and aimless wanderings as we scurried by towards a towering stone wall. A gaping hole in the bottom allowed entry to another ravaged area: what used to be a road was now a small valley. We climbed up and over manmade trestles and fallen steel beams. Aeris and I made our way further until we were in a small playground. Ahead a large entryway lead into another sector of slums.

"Welcome to Sector 7," Aeris said as we passed through the gate.

The gigantic pillar was now in front of us. It stretched for miles up to the plate.

"We've got to keep moving," she said.

We ran deeper into the sector. We dead-ended at a small collection of shabby buildings and a tavern called "7th Heaven." Outside, a collective group I presumed to be AVALANCHE stood. Their leader – a towering, massively muscled black man with a flattop, beard, and a gattling-gun for his right arm – was gathering together the team.

"Yo!" he yelled to Aeris. "Is that her?"

"Uh-huh," Aeris replied. "This is Raven."

"There ain't no time for introductions," he barked. "We gotta get our asses moving!"

I turned to Aeris and asked, "What's the plan?"

She started to point out the faces associated with the names, "You, Barrett, Tifa, and I are going to go to the upper plate. The rest of AVALANCHE is going to protect the slums below, hopefully try to get some of the population out of here while they still can. I don't think Slade is going to appreciate us just waltzing in and taking his ace in the hole."

Tifa approached to make a quick introduction. She looked like a street fighter: her iron-clad gloves had dried blood on them, but her face told otherwise. Her brown eyes were welcoming and warm; her flowing dark brown hair shined from the street lamps above.

"Hi there," Tifa said warmly. "It's nice to meet you, Raven."

I shyly shook her hand. She smiled at me.

"COME ON, Y'ALL!" Barrett bellowed.

"Let's go," I said.

We made our way to the local train station. An old, choked-down locomotive blew its whistle, waiting for the passengers to make themselves stationary. The guard looked the other way as we boarded the passenger car. When we got seated, Barrett roamed up and down the car, anxiously waiting to initiate our mission.

Aeris explained the mission to me, saying, "We're going to stop in Sector 8, behind the tower. Reports say that Slade has his robotic guards and clones patrolling the streets every second. However, we've been keeping them occupied in Sector 8: there's so much terrorist activity there that there's not enough sentries to keep up. We're hoping that they won't see us slip in."

Tifa popped her knuckles, and said, "I can't wait to give that smooth-talking bastard a good swift kick to the nuts before I break his fucking neck."

"Sounds like you two have met before," I said.

She nodded, "Years ago… when I was about your age, Sephiroth came to Nibelheim. There was a problem at the local Mako reactor. I was elected the guide to lead them through the winding paths of the mountains up to Mount Nibel. When we got there, I was forced to wait outside… with Cloud. There was a disturbance inside; Sephiroth was thrown from the reactor. Cloud turned just in time to see Slade knock the hell out of him. I could see through that bronze mask of his the pure evil… He looked at me and without uttering a word, sliced me with his Masamune. I fell off the platform leading up to the reactor and hit the ground hard. I remember vaguely… Sephiroth trying to overpower him; but Slade did something to him, mesmerized him. Sephiroth became submissive; so did Cloud. I passed out so I don't know what happened after that…"

"I could probably imagine," I said.

The train started to move.

"All right, listen up!" called Barrett. "This train's gonna stop in about twenty minutes at the station in Sector 8. Last I checked there're some heavy fireworks going on there now, so stay together, and try not to get shot! When we get to the Shin-ra building, we're going to have to play it by ear from there! Any questions?"

"I have one," I spoke up. "Assuming we do manage to make it to the top and retrieve the black materia, what the hell are we going to do with it? And who's to say that Slade isn't going to jump dimensions and go get it again?"

"Then it's going to have to end here," Barrett replied. "We'll just have to hope and pray he ain't willing to spend awhile searching. I have to admit, it did seem a little silly at first hearin' that this fool could hop between worlds. But lately from what I've seen, I'm willing to believe anything now."

I began to drum my fingers on my sword. Perhaps Slade had already attempted to allocate other black materias in other worlds and failed. Maybe they didn't exist in the other planes… or he just couldn't get to them.

Or maybe he had betted on me not getting to him.

The train rumbled on.

Time passed.

We all remained quiet.

The top of the plate came into view as the train ascended the slope. The city was a major step up from what it was down below: the housing developments, commercial buildings – a regular utopia, if that's what you call it. Ahead in distance, smoke billowed from gutted buildings and overturned vehicles. Flares from the barrels of guns could be seen every few seconds; there was also an awful lot of magic casting.

Barrett turned to us, "Ready?"

We all nodded.

Aeris reached up to the overhead railing. She yanked off a long piece of pipe about an inch and a half in diameter and about six feet long.

"My weapon of choice," she said, catching me eyeing her strangely.

Barrett motioned forward, "Let's go!"

He kicked down the door of the passenger car. The train was starting to slow for the wild firefights ahead. The walking tank leapt off first, followed by Tifa, Aeris, and then me. We began to circle around the intense fighting between Slade and Shin-ra forces and the scattered resistance. Explosions rocked throughout the sector; the warfare was getting more intense by the second.

As we made our way through some of the back roads, we were ambushed by a dozen of Slade's sentries. I brought the Masamune up as Barrett yelled, "AVALANCHE, ATTACK!"

We commenced the battle. I striked swift and fast while using my power to generate a small shield to deflect the bullets that rained on me. I sliced the neck open of one of the armored soldiers, blood squirting from his wound like a fountain. He gurgled and fell over as I quickly moved to the next. Aeris twirled her makeshift staff quickly and began to crack skulls and crotches. Tifa punched, kicked, leapt and slammed those who opposed her. Barrett shot with precision, taking cover behind whatever debris he could allocate. More kept coming out of the woodwork. Barrett motioned for us to continue.

He yelled, "Go on ahead! Tifa and I'll take care of these pussies!"

Aeris grabbed my hand and we ran hard. The bottom of the Shin-ra building began to come into view from afar. We were running through the street, dodging gunfire and mortar blasts as Slade's forces pressed onward past us.

"This way," Aeris said, pointing towards an abandoned industrial section. We passed through overhead catwalks and leaking pipes through the shadows. The gentle whirring of propellers filled the air as the artillery gunners searched for trespassers. One started to head our way. Aeris twirled her staff and called out, "Bolt!"

A giant arc of lightning connected from ground to sky under the floating robot gunner. The unit short-circuited, broke down and exploded. She continued to lead me onward.

"I heard you had a friend who was turned to stone," Aeris whispered as we ducked in and out of the darkness, edging closer and closer to the Shin-ra building.

She was talking about Terra. I replied, "Well, I wouldn't call her a 'friend,' but… she was close to somebody in my team. We've been trying to find a way to reverse the affect of her powers."

"I have something for her that will help," Aeris said. "After this is over, I'll give it to you. I'm sure your friends will greatly appreciate it."

"I know one in particular."

We got up next to the towering Shin-ra building. It was a massive skyscraper; windows surrounded the entire front of the structure. We stayed close to the wall and began to make our way down to one of the side entrances.

"Here's the fire escape," Aeris said, gently opening the door.

No alarms sounded.

I held my breath as I crossed the threshold.

Slade was waiting.