V

CHAPTER V

WALL MARKET

'You seem pretty tired…'

"I haven't slept in a bed like this in a long time."

'Ever since then…'

"I can't believe how much you've grown in just two years," Claudia grinned, brushing the spiky locks of hair from his face.

"Mum, stop it," he moaned, rolling over on the sofa.

His body sank into thick blue cushions, reminding him of the comfort it had given him as a child. Everything about the house triggered a memory in his mind; whether it was the familiar smells of the furniture fabric, or the echo of the wooden floors around the stone walls with each step taken. There came a hiss from the next room as the stew gradually began to bubble in the boiling pot. With this, his mother stood and, taking one last look at him, she disappeared into the kitchen.

"The girls must never leave you alone," she called over the clattering of pans.

"Not really," he replied nonchalantly, kicking his boots to the floor.

"Cloud, I'm worried about you," she sighed, emerging again from her cooking. He glanced up to see her expression had grown serious, a hint of genuine concern seeping into her tone.

"I'm alright."

"There are a lot of temptations in the city," Claudia said, biting her lip. "I'd feel a lot better if you just settled down and had a nice girlfriend."

"Mum, I'm only sixteen."

"You should have an older girlfriend….one that'll take care of you. I think that would be the perfect type for you."

"Look, I'm not interested…"

"Are you eating right?" she asked.

"Yeah, the Company takes care of me."

"Is that so?" she frowned, thoughtfully. "You can't cook, right? I've been worried sick about how you were doing."

"Really, I'm fine," he insisted.

"Cloud…?"

"Yes?"

"Don't ever forget that I'll always be your mother…"

Cloud sat up in a cold sweat, breathing heavily. His heart was pounding, the dull thumping breaking the silence of the bedroom. Memories of his mother had come few and far between since he had regained consciousness a few weeks before, and seeing her face in his dreams did little to ease the numbing loss. Groggily, he picked up the small bedside clock, his eyes struggling to focus on the red digits.

6:53...I must've fallen asleep.

Outside the window, the derelict village remained under a blanket of flickering orange lamplight, as the winter sky was hidden by the Plate. He pulled the yellow duvet to the side, and climbed out of bed. With a great yawn, he yanked on his zipped boots, using one of the guestroom's old cardboard boxes as support in an effort to minimise sound.

Carefully opening the door, he peered cautiously out into the hallway. The faint sound of snoring drifted from the room between him and the stairs, but nothing stirred. Taking his time to remain as noiseless as possible, he crept along the hall, the creaking floorboards threatening to jeopardise his escape with every step. At last he reached the staircase and, gripping the banister, made his descent to the living room.

"You're up bright and early," chirped Aerith from her place at the dining table, looking up from her cooling mug of coffee. Cloud froze in his tracks; the sound of her voice had come as a surprise. "Were you about to leave without me, I wonder?"

"Aerith, how could I ask you to come with me when I knew it would be dangerous?" said Cloud, making no effort to hide his intentions.

"That isn't your decision," she replied bluntly, scowling playfully at him.

"But, your mum…"

"I said I'd show you the way to Sector7, okay?" she interrupted, her tone one of finality. "You kept your part of the deal by bringing me here, so I want to keep mine. Are you ready to go?"

"I suppose…"

"Then, what are we waiting for?" she grinned brightly, rising from the table as he trotted down the remaining steps. "Let's get going."

Aerith led him from the village, taking the road east of the marketplace that Elmyra had described the previous evening. They travelled along a discrete pathway, winding amongst the mountains of abandoned rock and machinery. The cliffs of junk closed in around them, growing high above the trail on both sides, blocking out the morning. Only the remote image of the Wall directly before them was visible, stationed proudly as the partition between the sectors at a height of almost fifty feet, allowing them to concentrate on their destination.

Cloud was frustrated at Aerith's insistence on guiding him; he had not wished for her company. His task had simply been to return the flower girl to her home and, now that it had been accomplished, he had been set on making the journey to Seventh Heaven alone, and as quickly as possible. Worse still, he was beginning to feel more vulnerable without the Buster Sword than he thought he may have, and craved its retrieval before encountering anything from Shinra's Weapons Development Department. Combating one of the armoured Bullheads or hovering Moth Slashers alone would be effortless for someone of his abilities, but with Aerith around, anything could happen.

With the road gradually widening and the curtains of waste on either side becoming less dense, they passed another small flea market. Although the hour was still early, there was a lively commotion of bodies about the ragged stalls. Only a handful of stands were present, selling anything from majestically-coloured potions and outdated tools to grilled levrikon meat and sizzling Wutai-style noodles. Several similar bazaars existed around the Slums, and experience taught him that these were the best places to purchase black market Materia should the need arise. Spotting Aerith wandering absently towards the marketplace, Cloud took her arm, nodding towards the Wall with his unambiguous determination to continue on.

Within an hour of leaving Aerith's house, the pair had arrived at the end of the road, and at the makeshift entrance to Sector6, a low hollow forming a passage to the region beyond. The wiry corridor appeared to have been cut inexpertly and without consent, the cracked stone rough and uneven throughout. Anti-Shinra graffiti stained the walls, the colourful messages of hatred and prophesised vengeance melting into the rock and steel, some of which was even written in the kanji style of the Wusheng.

Ducking their heads, Cloud and Aerith slipped through the tunnel to a high ledge overlooking a deserted building site. The decaying frame of an iron structure stood tall at its centre, the crumbling beams of a planned five storey tower erect against their will. A few construction vehicles lined the perimeter of the area, stripped of their parts and left to rot over time. Beyond the decrepit plain, dark silhouettes of collapsed buildings that seemed to have once belonged to an industrial sector took shape amidst a thin residue of dirt and ash.

"What happened here?" Cloud asked apprehensively as he absorbed the sight of the desolate landscape, its vast boundaries void of any visible inhabitants. This place is a ghost town…

"What do you mean?" frowned Aerith.

"The district, it…" he muttered, "it looks like it's been destroyed… much worse than anywhere else in the Slums."

"The outer-regions of the Sector6 Slums have always been in a terrible state," Aerith answered with a shrug, "but what you see is only really because of what happened two months ago."

"Huh?"

"You don't know?" she gasped. "Were you not in the city?"

"I'm not sure," Cloud said quickly, unwilling to share his loss of memory with her. "What happened?"

"The newspapers reported that Midgar had been hit by a freak storm," replied Aerith, glancing questioningly at him. "Didn't you even hear about it?"

"I don't think so."

"It was horrible," she recalled, staring off into the distance. "There were flashes of light…everything was shaking…it felt like the whole world would end. I don't care what the Shinra said; I'm positive I heard the roar of something that couldn't possibly have been a hurricane. It was alive…an unnatural being…I'm sure of it. After the disturbance, I saw soft particles of matter drift down through holes in the Plate and, a few days later, I found Sector6 like this.

"Whatever it was had created enough energy to tear what remained of this area apart. I suppose it's lucky only an abandoned part of the Slums was affected. Can you imagine what would have happened if some of the Plate had been damaged?"

"What about that?" he asked, pointing at the broken stretch of tarmac that lay a short way from the border of the junkyard. It appeared to be the sole ruins of a highway through the olden Midgar, venturing north towards the gateway to Sector7. "It looks like we can still use it."

"That's where we're headed," she nodded quietly, reading Cloud's gaze. She seemed crestfallen, as if reluctant for him to go any further.

"Then, c'mon," bade Cloud without heed of her brief shift in mood, hastily finding his way down the rocky slope as he made his descent into the dusty site.

Wandering beneath a large yellow crane, its rigid arm extended over the yard, they joined the wide road. The grainy remnants of the painted white lines that divided the lanes could still be seen on the asphalt, trailing the freeway as it cut through the barren sector. The road itself had long since been in use, entire sections of the terrain bulging from their path as if they had been the victim of an enormous earthquake. There came a great glow of brilliant colours from the foot of the Central Complex a few miles from their position; a town bustling with life, illuminating most of the surrounding wasteland.

For a place he had believed to be unoccupied, the region was surprisingly teeming with suspicious movement from within the mounds of rubble that grew from the roadside. Boundfats bounced and grashtrikes scuttled in droves back into the bowels of the rusting machines and old abandoned shacks, considerably more wary of the travellers than the monsters of Sector5. Aerith explained that it was not uncommon for some of the men of the town to go on extermination hunts to rid the sector of such rodents, tired of the ineffectiveness of the Shinra security robots to eradicate them. As the two continued, strange sounds often filtered from the garbage a short way from their path, the eager thieves scouring through the Plate's discarded trash for anything to sell at the marketplace.

By noon, they had come to the large gateway on the Sector7 Wall, the dim lanterns above the enormous grey doors casting eerie shadows around them. The gate was closed, and the guard shed at its base appeared vacant. Rattling the chained padlock of the small reinforced hut, Cloud swore; he would be unable to operate the controls manually. What the hell am I gonna do now? It's pretty odd that there's nobody here. Is there no other way to get to Sector7?

Turning, he saw Aerith pushing herself back and forth on a swing in the neglected playground at the edge of the road. His shoulders slumped, racking his brain for a solution, he trudged towards her. She didn't look up as he approached, staring dreamily at the plump moogle-shaped slide across the compact yard. Its plastic shell had worn in colour, the small ears and puffy face of the mythical creature now a pallid brown, its tongue rolling out from a gaping mouth to a sandpit a few feet in front of it to form the chute itself.

"This is Green Park, my second favourite place in all the Slums," Aerith said weakly, reflectively. "It was always filled with the happiness of children. This is where I sold my first flower."

"Hmm…" Cloud grunted without interest.

"I can't believe it's still here after all this time. Maybe I should have brought that parasol…" she murmured to herself, a fleeting half-smile of saddened memories flickering on her lips as she brought the swing to a stop, getting to her feet. Not taking her eyes from the moogle, she strolled around the sandpit and climbed on the railings of its steps, pulling herself up onto its bulbous head. Carefully manoeuvring her dainty legs beneath her pink frock, she sat above one of the creature's beady eyes, patting the plastic dome with her palm. "Cloud, over here."

"Do I have to?"

"Yes, you have to," she demanded jokingly, her melancholy demeanour turning to laughter as she watched him grudgingly clamber onto the shell with slight awkwardness. Dropping into a seated position beside her, he glanced back at the stationary gateway and sighed.

"I'll just have to wait until someone comes through from the other side," he concluded with temporary defeat.

"Then, I guess this is goodbye."

"Thanks for showing me the way," said Cloud.

"No problem," she smiled warmly. "A deal's a deal, right? And anyway, I didn't really have a choice; you bought a flower from me."

"Huh?"

"You see, I like men who buy flowers from me," she explained. "I've been selling them from my cart for a long time now. I don't even do it for the money. It brings me so much joy to give them to strangers and see Midgar be brightened up a little, but they're not exactly in demand. I guess the people in this city just don't have the time to enjoy flowers anymore. Or maybe I charge too much?"

"I only paid one gil."

"Well, I had a good feeling about you," she snickered. "Some guys just want to hit on me. I make them pay a bit extra. Ten gil, twenty gil…y'know, whatever a girl can get away with. I once got some slimy Shinra Executive to give me five-hundred gil for a single flower. What a creep."

"Do you always sell them on the Plate?"

"Plate…Slums…wherever I can give them a good home. There's the annual tree light spectacle at West Park in Sector8 next week so maybe I'll sell some there. I should really get back to the church and get them ready."

"You gonna be alright going home by yourself?"

"Give me a break," Aerith snorted. "I can look after myself. What about you?"

"I was in SOLDIER, remember?"

"Oh, yeah. So what rank were you?"

"Rank?"

"Y'know, what class?"

"Oh, I was…"

'First Class.'

"…First Class."

"Just the same as him," Aerith pursed her lips, her voice faltering.

"The same as who?"

"My first boyfriend."

"Were the two of you…serious?"

"Not really. But, I liked him for a while."

"There's not many people who make it to First Class," said Cloud. "I probably knew him. What was his name?"

"It was…no, it doesn't matter," sniffed Aerith, resting her chin on her knees. "He disappeared over five years ago without saying goodbye. I haven't heard from him since…"

Her words trailed off, the last few spoken as no more than a whisper. She began to rock her body gently, cradling herself for comfort. Unable to find the means to console her, Cloud gazed up at the damaged underside of the Plate. To the south, the burning green and red lights of the Sector6 Pillar continued to blink, the broad stone column unflinching beneath the great weight of the upper-city. He could make out a series of thin electricity cables connecting the top of the tower's skeleton structure to the Walls that bound the sector on either side, each one penetrating them at different locations.

Time passed beyond consciousness, and Cloud suddenly found himself dragged from his thoughts by an unbearable grinding of cogs. He spun sharply, watching the gates as they shook and began to part. As he prepared to leap from the rotund moogle, Aerith clasped his arm, her firm grip holding him down. Confused, he glanced round at her questioningly, but was met by nothing other than her pleading eyes. Again their pale green sparkle sent a waver of familiarity through him, stronger now than it had been when they first met on the Plate, but he immediately cast the unwanted feelings aside.

"Aerith, what are you doing?" he shouted over the deafening rumble, tugging at her to let go.

"I…I don't know…"

"I have to go now! This may be the only chance I get."

She nodded despairingly, and reluctantly loosened her grasp on his arm. Quickly thanking her once more for her help, he sprang to the ground, and sprinted for the widening gateway. As he approached, he saw a strange outline materialise in the darkness of the Sector7 Slums. Pausing until the shape had negotiated its way through the channel successfully before making his break, he gaped in shock as its bulky form came into view, the orange light of the lanterns washing casually over it.

As he stumbled backwards, trying desperately to make sense of the sight, the chocobo strode elegantly through the high doorway, the magnificent red carriage it drew rolling smoothly behind. The tall golden bird shrieked as its master's whip cracked its back, its powerful legs quickening in pace. The elderly moustached man driving the coach flashed his whip a second time, and the chocobo began to gallop towards the highway. As the wagon passed, Cloud had enough time to see the young woman at its rear, her dark hair falling across her shimmering purple dress.

"Tifa?" he yelled.

Tifa's head shot up, gasping as she saw him. The internal machinery of the Wall groaned behind him, and the gate slowly began to close. Tifa called to him, her words lost over the sound. Unable to communicate, Cloud was caught in two minds, his opportunity of returning to Sector7 slipping away with each moment. He watched the carriage turn north, frozen to the spot as it vanished beyond the raised segments of hazardous road, and scolded his indecisiveness as the doors finally clanked shut behind him.

"Cloud, what happened?" shouted Aerith anxiously, rushing from the slide.

"That girl…I know her…" he stammered.

"The girl in the coach is your friend?"

"Yes…but something's not right."

"She's being taken to Wall Market," panted Aerith. "That place is scary for a girl…in a lot of ways."

"What do you mean?"

"Wall Market is the most glamorous place in the Slums…but it's heavily connected to the underworld. Its bars are filled with thieves and criminals, and the town is rife with murder and prostitution…"

"That doesn't sound like Tifa at all," muttered Cloud, his brows furrowing. "I've got a bad feeling about this."

"We'd better find her fast," agreed Aerith, starting towards the highway.

"We?"

"You didn't think I'd let you go on alone, did you?"

"Aerith…"

"C'mon," she called over her shoulder, "hurry up."

The lone entrance to Wall Market buzzed as the duo grew closer, the letters of the word 'South' lighting up in sequence on the electronic sign above the path. Cautiously, they slowed beneath the flicker of luminous green, observing the main street as it made its way towards the grand mansion at the heart of the town. The inhabitants of the road wandered aimlessly hither and thither; some struggled to find their balance under the influence of severe alcohol abuse, while others strolled arrogantly through the crowds escorted by underdressed women.

Of all the locations Cloud had been since finding himself back in Midgar, Wall Market was by far the most exuberant. Situated where the Central Complex and the Sector5 Wall merged, the stone border of the town formed a barricade against unwelcome intruders. It had taken little less than twenty minutes to reach the edge of Wall Market, following the twisting highway to the origins of the sphere of radiance and blare of club music. Although running as fast as Aerith's legs would allow, they had fallen behind the mysterious chocobo and carriage, surrendering the valuable time of their rescue operation to what had become a search mission.

"Stay close to me," Cloud instructed as they ventured inside the town's boundaries, marching a few steps in front of her.

The large buildings that lined the main street had been assembled using the same makeshift materials and scrap metal that every other within the city's Slums had, but the introduction of row upon row of burning yellow bulbs along their exteriors had transformed them into an exclusive range of bars and shops. Glowing neon signs and billboards flashed all around, blinding them as they veered through the hordes of rowdy youths.

Men whistled at Aerith as they passed, some grabbing her hand in an attempt to prise her away from Cloud. She pulled herself tight to him as they walked, alert to the threat of sexual predators at every turn. The farther through the district they wandered, ever-nearing the central estate, the more bizarre the names of the buildings became. Cloud read them one by one, trying in vain to find any indication as to where Tifa may be; 'Joel's Potions', 'Mukki's Kitchen', and 'Big Bro's Gym' some of the most noticeable.

Growing frustrated, he looked around as someone tapped his shoulder. Surprised to see a child in such an inappropriate environment, he did not react as the boy stuffed a paper flyer into his hand. Frowning, he began absently along the street again, skimming over the pharmacy coupon, and stormed straight into an older man. Murmuring his apology, Cloud glanced up as the man brushed past him, his eyes widening.

"Aerith…" he hissed, spinning her around to face him.

"What?" she asked, her expression growing fearful. "What is it?"

"That man, the one with the moustache…he was the one driving the carriage."

"Are you sure?" she said, biting her lip. "What are we going to do?"

"I'm gonna follow him," Cloud replied purposefully. "Maybe he'll lead us to Tifa."

They began after the man, slipping stealthily through the crowds on the path, making sure to remain an inconspicuous distance behind him. Within less than a minute, the man had turned onto a side street, rejecting the offers of the prostitutes that stood petting themselves teasingly on the corner. Cloud grimaced as the women called to him with the same flattering lines moments later, the sores on their faces as unattractive as the revealing clothes they wore. The two trailed the man a short way along the road, cautiously spying on him as he disappeared into an alley between the weapon store and a pawn brokers.

Peering carefully down the lane, Cloud saw the man climb the steps to a low doorway at the far side of the passage, nodding to the long-haired bouncer at the entrance. They scurried down the alleyway after him, edging their way around the trash cans against the walls of the buildings, and emerged in a small secluded close. Two female mannequins, draped in costumes of black and yellow stripes, hovered on either side of a single doorway. They were the only exception to the grimy surroundings in an area that appeared deliberately bare and without advertisement of its seedy contents. Striding forward, Cloud was stopped abruptly as the bouncer stepped in front of him, his powerful arms folded across his chest.

"An' where d'ya think you're goin'?" he sneered, blowing cigarette smoke into Cloud's face.

"I need to speak to that man," growled Cloud.

"The Honey Bee Inn is a private club. Only members can go in. We gotta keep ourselves respectable, see."

"I'm looking for a friend…a girl named Tifa…"

"Tifa?" snorted the doorman. "You're pretty fast; Tifa's our newest girl. Just arrived from Sector7 all bouncy and fresh-faced. I hear she's the cute barmaid at that Seventh Heaven. Might be good for some servicin', if ya know what I mean."

"Is she here?" Cloud asked, his fists clenched with fury. "I have to speak with her."

"Not so fast, kiddo. She's havin' her interview right now."

"Her interview?" Aerith gulped.

"Here at the Honey Bee Inn, it's customary for all the new girls to be taken to Don Corneo's mansion."

"Don Corneo?" repeated Cloud.

"You don't know who the Don is?" spluttered the man in mocked amazement. "What's wrong wit' you? Everyone from 'round these parts knows Don Corneo. He's the famous businessman."

"Well, then I guess I'm not from around these parts."

"He's the one responsible for the construction of Wall Market. Without him, all our lives would be meaningless. He usually lives at the mansion in the middle of town, but sometimes likes to go to Wutai to dabble in some foreign action. Catch my drift? Rumour has it he wants to settle down, an' is lookin' for a bride. Though, not that it's any of your business…"

"Aerith, c'mon," Cloud commanded, irritably turning from the chuckling bouncer, and marching back down the alley.

"Hey, where are you going?" she called after him, darting to keep up.

"We need to get to Tifa," he answered in a low voice. "And I'm sure we'll find her with this guy, Corneo."

"Cloud, you really don't know who he is?" she gulped. "Don Corneo is a gangster. One of the biggest mob bosses in the city."

"I don't care who he is…"

Struggling to match his near-jogging pace, Aerith followed the determined Cloud back to the main street. Unlike many old districts of the Slums, Wall Market spread out in a grid formation, making navigation significantly simpler. Due north, against the looming backdrop of the Central Complex, the distinct, curving multi-gabled roof of Don Corneo's home could be seen with its majestic Imperial Wutai style. With a clear view of the mansion, they were able to make their way to the wrought-iron gates of the grounds with ease, the reverberating boom of disco music fading as they approached. Through the steel railings, they could see the mafia establishment rise like a regal palace above the derelict buildings of Wall Market. Its stone exterior was pale in colour, a direct contrast to the grey filth of the Slums, and was spectacularly illuminated by beams of golden light that shone from lamps at the base of the structure, adding an extra dimension to the brilliant vermilion of the roof.

At the end of the ornate cobbled pathway that led from the gate, there stood the main entrance to the estate, not far from which rested the carriage that had borne Tifa. The excited squeals of the chocobo could be heard from the small stable at the side of the mansion as it fed on greens, the animal evidently being rewarded for completing its task for the day. After a few minutes of Cloud scouring for any structural weakness to the barrier, one of the security guards wandering the grounds took notice of them, adjusting his red waistcoat as he made his way towards the gate.

"What d'you want?" he snarled, his gruff voice unwelcoming as he glared at Cloud, flexing his muscular tattooed arms.

"We're looking for a girl named Tifa," answered Aerith, unfazed by his rude approach. An expression of curiosity took form on the man's dark face as he tilted his head in puzzlement, his spiked yellow mohican drooping to one side.

"So?"

"We heard she's here," added Cloud. "I need to speak to her."

"Look, it's a nice story," he scoffed derisively, "but the Don ain't really into men. Your friend here, she's a looker. She can come in any time she wants to hang with old Kotch. But you…don't let me catch you 'round here again."

"Who do you think…" snapped Cloud.

"Can you give us a moment?" Aerith reacted with a forced laugh, covering Cloud's mouth with her hand, and hastily pulling him aside.

"Aerith, what're you doing?" he spat with rage.

"You wait here," she whispered. "I'll go take a look inside and tell Tifa what's happening."

"No, you can't!"

"Why not?"

"You do know what kind of place this is, don't you?" hissed Cloud.

"Then, what are we supposed to do? You want to go in with me?"

"You heard what that guy said, didn't you? If I bust in there, it'll cause too much commotion."

"I have an idea," she winked, turning from him, and walking seductively back to where Kotch stood.

"Aerith, wait…"

"You stay right here," she purred lustfully, running her tongue across her lips, stroking the man's pierced chin with her fingertips. "I've got a gorgeous friend I want to bring."

"A friend, huh?" Kotch repeated, his eyes widening in anticipation. "Sounds pretty good to me…an' I'm sure it'll make the Don very happy indeed. We've seen many girls come here, so I hope your friend will be something extra special."

"Trust me," Aerith grinned, slowly drawing her hand from the guard's hopeful face. "She'll definitely be something special…"

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