:: Chapter Two :: Mission
The train pulled briskly into the Sector Seven Station, a large, bland, rusty construction of worn-out metal, stamped and signed in the fashion of most Shinra property. Cloud sighed as he entered the train with his fellow conspirators. He had wasted precious time explaining to Barret the ground principles of materia, and Barret could hardly be described as the sharpest tool in the box.
Materia was also the produce of the Planet, made from Mako energy -and a source of magic power. Materia endowed its wearer with such magic - the power of the elements, of curative or defensive ability, and most powerfully, of the summon. The summon was an ancient spirit endowed with the power of the gods - they were the purest essence of the life force of the Planet and as such, they were painfully rare, existing on the borderline between reality and legend. Explaining this sort of thing had largely fallen on ignorant ears where Barret was concerned. Tifa was a little more open when it came to Cloud's patient tutorials on the way to the station. She at least managed to get something out of the lesson.
The train jolted into motion and subsequently jarred the train of Cloud's thoughts back to their previous track. Outside the window, the rushing city looked dark. It seemed funny - their world, a world of magic, so black. Night, day, climate: none of them existed in Midgar, because of the plate above. Underneath the plate lived the slum people. On the top lived the Shinra, the elite. Cloud had never seen the top, but he knew what it was like outside.
Barret had been watching him suspiciously like some great and omnipresent eagle, and he hadn't been making a secret of it.
"Pretty picture out there, ain't it?"
Cloud kept his eyes on the jumbling, rushing mass of grey and black and metal.
"It's depressing. I hate it."
Barret's stare was incredulous, Cloud could feel it.
"Didn't expect to hear that from a SOLDIER-dude like you. Usually them Shinra butt-lickers buy into all that 'Midgar is paradise' crap." He paused and looked outside as well."Yeah, even shit would get depressed lookin' at that. Up there, they got clean air to breathe, a sky to look at, while we're down here, underneath this screwed up, good-fer-nuthin', rottin'pizza."
Cloud looked back down at his boss, confused. The answer seemed so absurdly simple to him.
"So why doesn't everyone just climb up on to the top of the plate?"
"Why?" Barret's face had the expression of someone talking to some very small child. "'Cos maybe they ain't got the money, the power, the resources. Or maybe...they don't want to leave the land they love, no matter how polluted it gets. People got to live, need to live. It's like this train - it don't stop movin' 'till the end of the line."
Cloud grunted in reply. In a way, he understood.
"So," Barret continued with a brash, business-like tone, "AVALANCHE are trying to make the land no one wants to leave into sumthin' more bearable to live in. That's why we're blowin' up the Mako Reactors. We don't want Mako drained outta the earth no more."
"Touching." Cloud replied, reverting back to his indifference. He didn't want to get too chummy with Barret. "And don't think your lovey-dovey world-peace act will haul me into your stupid raids anymore," he added, almost as an afterthought, "Because I'm leaving you guys as soon as this mission's done."
"If you get out alive." Barret told him archly, irritated. "Any one o' those Shinra lackeys could have your hide at any time - y' only get one chance at a gig like this."
Cloud shrugged.
"Shi-t!" Barret exclaimed, with a mixture of incredulity and annoyance. "What you so calm for?! You bustin' up my rhythm!"
Cloud was tempted to tell him he should beat to a different rhythm but decided against it, for some reason. He shrugged again instead, and looked at Tifa sitting opposite. There was something solid and dependable about her somehow, because she knew him and he knew her; they were childhood friends, they had shared most of their lives together. He could hide nothing from Tifa. He tried to remember back, to the five of them: him, Tifa, Biggs, Wedge and Jessie. He found it difficult to. He'd hated Nibelheim. He'd been doped with too much Mako in SOLDIER to remember it.
The train shuttled on. Soon they would be arriving at the ID Checkpoint Zone, signaled by the alarm and the infrared lights that beamed through your body,checking out your ID cards.
Barret had been right. Life was like this train, running towards its inevitable end. And along the waythere were identity checkpoints too, tests of mettle and character. You could never get away from them.
"Hey Cloud, look at this."
It was Tifa calling him from the train monitor at the end of the carriage. She must have walked over there when he was busy thinking. Rising slowly, he got up to talk to her. She turned as he approached, smiling.
"It's got the train route here," she told him, pointing at the monitor screen, with it's impressive computerised scale drawing of Midgar adorning it. "Shall I explain it to you?"
"No thanks." Cloud replied carelessly. "I know it already. Jessie showed it to me yesterday on the way to Sector One."
Before Tifa could reply, an alarm signaled in the carriage, causing its occupants to jolt in shock.
"We've entered the ID checkpoint zone." Tifa whispered to Cloud. "The noise always gives me a fright."
Anything Cloud could have said was interrupted by the sound of a tinny female voice passing through the train's intercom.
"WARNING, WARNING, UNIDENTIFIED PASSENGERS DETECTED IN THE FIFTH CARRIAGE, ALL SHINRA PERSONNEL TO RETURN TO GUARD POINT IMMEDIATELY. I REPEAT, WARNING...WARNING..."
"God DAMMIT!!" Barret's voice rung like a foghorn over the fuzzy speech on the intercom and the ear-splitting alarm. "What the hell's goin' on? I thought the ID cards were all safe."
Jessie hurried to the door of the carriage, a pale shade spreading over her alarmed face. "I'm so sorry, it was all my fault!" She turned to open the door. "Right now we have to run to the end of the train to avoid detection. I'll explain later."
Cursing under his breath, Barret shoved open the door and signalled to the others.
"Let's get outta here!"
They hastily began to push and shove to the other end of the train, knocking over a few confused and bewildered passengers on the way. Finally, to Cloud's relief, they all managed to get safely to their destination at the end of the last compartment. Barret barked out his orders quickly.
"Right, Biggs, Wedge, Jessie, you stay here and get to the Reactor before us. I'm counting on you to sort out the security." He turned to Cloud and Tifa. "You two are gonna jump with me!"
"Jump?" Cloud repeated thickly.
"How else we gonna escape, Mr. Smart Ass?!" he yelled, losing patience. "By doin' a vanishing act or somethin'?"
So saying he threw open the train door,letting in a whirling mass of air that threatened to sweep the whole party off their feet.
"Kinda scary..." Tifa stated, pressing herself close to Cloud. Barret set his jaw.
"Then why'd you come?!" he roared.
Cloud noted the touch of colour that flushed Tifa's cheeks for a single split second.
"Because I..."
"Hey!" interrupted Biggs. "No time for chattin'! You three gotta jump!!"
Cloud hesitated. It wasn't that he was afraid, it was just that he really didn't think it wise to jump from moving trains anyway. Barret was getting annoyed.
"Lissen, you two jus' jump and I'll follow right behind. That enough encouragement for a coupla babies like you?"
Tifa, who'd been staring outside the open door at the wild blur of the tunnel they were travelling in, suddenly intervened.
"I've decided," she stated firmly ."I'm gonna jump."
She walked to the edge and made as if to leap forward. Cloud stepped forward, reached out for her and caught her by the waist.
"Tifa, don't!!"
But he'd been a second too late, because Tifa had already leaped into the fuzz of blackness. Shocked, Cloud found himself dragged out with her.
The rush of streaming air that greeted them as the train roared past seemed to throw them into a temporary limbo. It was one of those intensely frightening moments when time seemed to slow down. Both of them clutched onto each other, quite unable to brace themselves for the landing impact. The air pressure was just too great, and they ended up rolling a little way down the tunnel instead of landing on their feet.
Keeping low until the train had hurtled past, Cloud cursed under his breath.
"That bastard Barret," he grumbled, as the last of the carriages disappeared out of sight down the corner of the tunnel. "Should've taken my mercenary skills somewhere else..."
He picked himself and held a hand out to Tifa, who looked half dazed from the fall.
"You okay?" he asked, helping her to her feet.
"Just about." She seemed out of breath, and there were scratches on her knees and elbows.
"Are you sure? You're cut. I don't want you to break any bones."
"If I had broken any bones I wouldn't be up and walking, silly!" Tifa laughed, though she seemed pleased at his attention. "Still, it was pretty scary. Thought we were gonna die!"
She brushed herself down and they began to run toward the end of the tunnel.
"There might be Shinra soldiers down here you know," she commented. Cloud turned to her in surprise.
"Are you sure they won't give you any trouble, Tifa?"
She shook her head.
"Nah. Besides, I have my fists to fight with. I'm the best fist fighter in Midgar City!"
Cloud didn't doubt it.
Barret was fuming by the time Tifa and Cloud arrived.
"What the helluv you two been doin' back there? We've got a job to do, there's no time to be goin' round chattin' each other up." He pointed to what had been bugging him. A wall of security sensors was blocking their path ."This is our problem. How the hell are we supposed to get through these blasted things without those pigs at Shinra Headquarters findin' out?"
A maddening silence followed.
"Well?!" Barret inquired, raising an eyebrow in Cloud's direction. Cloud made no answer. It wasn't fair for Barret to be picking on him all the time and he didn't particularly care for his dilemma either.
"There's a ventilation shaft," Cloud suggested, pointing at the tiny chute to their left.
"What?!!" Barret was incensed. "You're expecting me to fit into that tiny lil' thing?!"
"Barret," Tifa cut in reassuringly, "there's no other way of getting to the Reactor, except through the shaft."
Barret knew he had lost, and was unwilling to admit it.
"Yeah, yeah, okay then. But don't be surprised if I throw up on any of you. These things give me the creeps."
Tifa signalled for Cloud to get in before Barret could attempt anymore moaning and groaning. Willingly, he climbed in, Tifa following behind and then a doubtful Barret covering their rear.
The chute leads straight to the Sector Five Reactor. It was a complex structure of heavy machinery, wires and generators.
"You'd better not mess this up." Barret warned, hastily emerging from the pipe. He looked a little shaken. "But then, you shouldn't have any trouble finishing this off after yesterday's whole shebang." He paused. "Come on, let's move. Biggs, Wedge and Jessie are makin' sure the coast is clear. Should be a breeze."
It was not long before they encountered the other three. Wedge greeted them with a grin on his face.
"Wow, you made it!"
Jessie looked a little sheepish as they approached.
"I'm sorry about back there Barret. It was all my fault." She turned to Cloud. "It was your ID card, Cloud. I tried so hard to make it the best, but I failed. I guess I tried a little too hard."
Cloud felt a little embarrassed, especially with Tifa next to him. "It's okay," he assured her, turning his face from Tifa. Jessie seemed to look a little relieved. She gave Cloud a grateful smile.
Biggs seemed slightly more optimistic. After decoding the sequence for the reactor door, he turned cheerfully to Cloud and the others.
"Well, you're all on your own now." He slapped Cloud on the back. "Make sure you blow that reactor. And don't forget the way out either."
"Good luck!" Wedge and Jessie added, and left the rest of the job up to their comrades.
Getting to the actual reactor was a lot trickier than anything that had come before. There were plenty of Shinra guards and their robotic cronies on the look out. They proved less of a threat than Cloud had first thought. With Barret and Tifa together with him, he found that it was easier to finish off enemies than when just by himself with his sword. Barret seemed to thrive on the battlefield, showing off with his big gun. Cloud resented his boss' stupidity and virtually ignored all his orders as they approached the reactor.
"This is it!" Barret exclaimed as they were faced with the gigantic edifice. "Won't be this lookin' so bloodyhigh an' mightyin the next ten minutes or so."
Cloud stared up at the reactor and it reminded him of something he had not remembered in years. There had once been a place like this in his past. There had been Tifa, right in the spot he was looking at now, and she had been kneeling beside the dead body of her father. Cloud could recall hearing her cries in his ears as he had watched on.
"Sephiroth did this to you, didn't he papa!"
The words had risen uncontrollably in volume and pain.
"Sephiroth, SOLDIER...Mako Reactors...Shinra...everything!! For what they've done to you papa, I hate them all!!"
Cloud had stood there, watched Tifa's pain and felt his own. I will kill you Sephiroth, had been his bitter resolution. I will kill you.
"God, get a grip on yourself man!"
The contempt in Barret's voice awoke Cloud from the disturbing emotions of his sudden flashback. There was something wrong, he knew it as he realised where he was, but he didn't know what. He had to ask Tifa. He had to know whether she remembered that memory too.
"Tifa..." he began breathlessly, unsure of how to say the words. She met his eyes innocently.
"What's the matter Cloud?"
There was a short pause. Cloud realised that he didn't even know what the words he wanted to say were. Barret stopped him from finding out.
"Look, there's no time for this kinda stuff," he intervened. "Just get on with settin' the bomb."
Cloud felt foolish. Why had he suddenly phased out anyway? "Yeah, you're right," he muttered and knelt down to set the bomb to the reactor. His fingers shook as he did so. What did it all mean? Tifa? Sephiroth...?
He stood up.
"It's all ready. We'd better get out of here."
"Ten minutes and counting!" Barret proclaimed unnecessarily. "Let's move out!"
They needed no further incentive. Headed by Barret, the team set off back the way they'd come from. It seemed unusually uneventful as they neared the entrance.
"I wonder where all the Shinra personnel are," Tifa thought out loud, lagging behind the others as they ran.
"Probably killed 'em all," Barret laughed but he had no longer strung off the sentence when a group of Shinra soldiers advanced from a side turning to block their way.
"Geez, why'd I have to speak so soon?" Barret muttered, then he barked out his next instructions. "Turn around! Find another exit!"
Unfortunately, Barret had spoken too soon for a second time. Double the amount of Shinra soldiers appeared to barricade their way once again.
"Dammit, we're surrounded!" yelled Barret. "Bloody Shinra vermin, come an' fight us like men!"
A staid, distinctive voice from ahead caused Barret to eat his words. A large, balding man in a grey suit was approaching them from the sidelines.
"Shinra 'vermin', eh? That's rich coming from you. If I'm not mistaken, it is you who are the vermin."
"President Shinra!" cried Barret, Cloud and Tifa in unison.
"Quite," replied the distinguished man dryly. "And may I ask who you worthless people are?"
"Barret Wallace, leader of AVALANCHE, and don't you forget it!" Barret yelled impudently. Tifa flinched as she replied.
"Tifa Lockheart of AVALANCHE."
Cloud could sense that Tifa was afraid. He felt furious with President Shinra. He felt furious with everyone, but most of all with himself.
"Cloud Strife," he replied through gritted teeth, "ex-member of SOLDIER, rank, first class."
"Oh." the President's face was devoid of recognition. "Forgive me for not knowing everyone from SOLDIER's name. I wouldn't be likely too...unless they became another Sephiroth."
The mention of Sephiroth's name stirred Cloud, which was odd, because he hardly ever thought about Sephiroth anymore. Sephiroth, his childhood idol - there was something in that name, Sephiroth - it meant something....
"Sephiroth!" he breathed.
"Hmmm," the President mused. "We've had reports on his whereabouts. But then...that wouldn't concern you now, would it."
"Do you know where he is, President?!" Cloud persisted, desperately, not knowing why.
The question went largely unnoticed, mainly because of Barret's loud voice breaking in.
"None o' that crap! We've planted a bomb in this here reactor and any minute now it's gonna blow this place sky-high!"
"Is that so?" President Shinra remained unperturbed. "Isn't it too bad that it's going to take scum like you down with it."
"Scum?!" Barret was in a frenzy of anger. "You're the scum!"
The President remained as unperturbed as ever.
"I must say it was very pleasant to make your acquaintances. Forgive me for the little 'token' I've left of my friendship."
A whirring noise was heard from not far off. Cloud realised that it was coming closer. He moved back quickly, just in time to avoid the charging collision of a hulking robotic machine. In unison with the moment, a helicopter came hovering over to pick up its distinguished passenger. The President smiled smugly.
"It's called an air-buster." He was referring to the tank-like robot. "State of the art Shinra machinery. I wouldn't worry, it should have you finished off by the time the bomb blows."
He boarded the helicopter with an air of indifference. "Now, if you don't mind, I have a very important dinner to attend to. Enjoy your last few minutes together."
"You bastard...!!" Barret began to threaten, obviously planning on taking out the President in one way or another. Cloud called after him too. He needed an answer to his question.
"Hey, President Shinra, wait...!!"
The air-buster began to advance toward Barret and Tifa, seeming almost to sense Barret's angry threats.
"Cloud, help!" yelled Tifa, dwarfed by the monumental size of the thing.
"God, this is not my day," Barret muttered. "We're gonna haveta get rid of this thing before the bomb explodes!"
Cloud quickly stuffed a materia orb into his sword.
"I'll take it out with some lightning magic!" he yelled to the others. "Hopefully it should short-circuit it. In the meantime, hit it with your physical attacks!"
Barret obliged by aiming his gun at the air-buster and firing a few rounds.
"Bloody thing, this isn't working! Cloud, get a move on!"
Cloud was ready. Summoning the power of the materia, he managed to send a bolt of lightning speeding toward the machine. It didn't miss.
"I've done it, I've paralysed it!" he called.
"But only the front!!" Tifa screamed back. "God, he's turning his rear guns on us!"
The bullets from the robot's rear gun shot out toward Tifa and Barret like arrows from a quiver. Dodging them miraculously, Tifa rushed forward to connect with her fists. The robot seemed unaffected by the attack.
"Cloud, do something!" she hollered with what little energy she had left. Obliging, Cloud leaped up with all the strength he could muster and cleaved his sword into the metal monster. It immediately began to malfunction.
"Cloud, you've really done it now!" Barret warned. "It's gonna blow!"
But the caution came too late. With a seething hiss and then an almighty crash, the machine exploded, blowing away the floor from under Cloud's feet. In the madness of the moment, he somehow managed to grab on to a piece of hanging metal as he fell.
"Cloud!!" Tifa's voice gave him a reason to keep on holding on. He looked up at her.
"Tifa! Are you and Barret okay?!"
"Cloud, how can you say that?!" she called back, distressed. "It's you we've got to worry about!"
Cloud closed his eyes momentarily. He had to be strong, for her if for nothing else.
"I'm all right Tifa. I'm not letting go!"
He thought he saw tears in her eyes.
"Cloud, you can't die. There's so much I need to tell you!"
"Yeah, me too," he answered quietly, half to himself.
Barret's face appeared over the edge of the broken floor. "Hey, no time for that! We've gotta get you to safety!"
"No chance," Cloud breathed. His muscles ached from the strain of holding on. "Bye Barret. Bye...Tifa..."
"Whaddya mean 'Bye'?!" Barret exclaimed, a little too optimistically. "You're not gonna die!"
"Okay then. Later, Barret."
The meagre piece of metal was no match for Cloud's weight. He could feel that it was about to give way any moment now. He looked back at Tifa, one last time. The metal snapped.
"CLOUD!!"
Even Tifa's hopeless, pleading screams could not rouse Cloud from the overpowering blackness that enveloped his mind as he hurtled down toward the Sector Five slums.
Next: Cloud meets the mysterious flower-girl who'll change his life forever...