Final Fantasy VII: Emerald Dusk

Part I: Dawn

Chapter IV: Spark

I awoke in a daze. My eyes would not focus and everything was a blur. I opened my mouth to speak but nothing came out. I still had the taste of blood in my mouth; it was an overpowering and disgusting taste. I wanted something to drink, something to drown out the taste. I tried to spit it out of my mouth but my mouth was dry. I began to search in front of me for a cup of water. I tried to call out for water but nothing escaped me, I was good as dead.

I must have kept on passing in and out of consciousness. Every now and then I would feel groggy and taste blood, but then it would leave. I just kept reliving the moment over and over, every time I went over it in my head I could I felt the sharp pain in my side. When I didn't relive the ordeal in my head, I was living in the painful and grotesque aftermath of it. Every moment I was in pain, not even in my dreams could I find refuge from it. I wished death would take me so I wouldn't have to stand the pain a second longer. Again I felt weak and disgusting. Death was the last thing I could afford to do right now. There was much to be done, Frankie and his friends would pay. Vengeance would be mine.

I woke up one morning and the taste of blood was gone. The constant pain in my side had dispersed. I could breathe without pain, and I could swallow without passing out from the overwhelming taste of blood.

I could hear familiar voices chattering about, oblivious to the fact that I had awaken. It was fine though; I was very tired and could do with a good rest. So I rested my head knowing that when I awoke I could get back to business.

I was out of the hospital after about two weeks. My sister Ester had come home from her job. She was a chocobo trainer and racer and one of the finest in the business. She had apparently arrived a few days after I was shot. I was happy that she came home. It had been nearly two years since she had left to pursue her dreams.

After Ester, Dad and I had a chance to catch up and have me tell the story of my 'heroic rescue'. Since my injury was sustained while I was on the job I was fully covered by the Shin-Ra Company and was given 5 full months off with pay.

I didn't have a lot to do around the house though. Without work my life was kind of empty. So I spent most of my time training, the whole time promising myself I would get vengeance.

Most of my thoughts were spent on the man who had shot me and how I could find him. I wanted to make him pay for the hell he put me through. I wanted vengeance of every kind. I wanted to make all of those people pay. Sometimes it was all I could think about. I would be out running and all I could think about was holding Joey in my hands and strangling the life out of him.

I spent what time I didn't spend watching TV and training I was usually out with Ester and her Chocobos. She told me all about how she had met a guy out in Costa Del Sol who had told her everything he knew about Chocobos, a man who claimed to be a student of the Chocobo Sage. Ester, in turn taught me everything she had learned. It was a thing we had always done since we were young. No matter what it was, whenever we were taught how to do something we would show each other the first chance we had. Most of what I knew I had learned from Ester.

After about a month of me on the mend I started to feel more like my old self. I wasn't a gloomy man just wandering through the town day to day. I actually made myself useful to the townsfolk. I would help out with whatever I could. I helped Steve out at his guitar shop; he taught me some of the finer points to playing a guitar in exchange for me helping him.

I helped out where I could, but the whole time my thoughts often came back to Joey and that bullet he put in me. It drove me mad knowing that he was out there still. Doing the odd job here and there wasn't enough to fill my mind, I needed something else.

That's when Cid came to me with a proposal. "Al," he said. "I got the greatest idea. I'm gonna quit my job at the construction site so's that you an' me can fix up the Tiny Bronco, get 'er flyin' again." I didn't take much convincing. I was going crazy having nothing to do all day, and fixing the Bronco would take a while to do, months if I was lucky.

Cid didn't waste any time. The next day he came home as an unemployed teenager who wanted to rebuild an airplane. Lucky for us I was on paid leave, so I got all the cash we needed to get parts for the Bronco, plus whatever money Cid had saved up.

We started right away with the engine: the most frustrating and most beautiful part of any vehicle. This particular engine was a gas engine, and we wasted no time in upgrading the engine to use Mako energy.

Life had never been better since Shin-Ra discovered how to refine and harness Mako energy. It was a constant and readily available source of energy, and it made life sweet. If we could rig up the engine of the Tiny Bronco to harness the Mako energy like the Reactors in Midgar do then the Bronco would fly even faster and be more efficient than ever before.

We spent two and a half weeks perfecting the engine design. It was easy for us to get the materials we needed through our connections through the Shin-Ra Company Construction Branch. I tried not to think about Joey or the bullet wound, but every now and then I would get a sharp pain in my chest and would remember how much I wanted revenge. Sometimes it was all I thought about, and it distracted me from work. I just couldn't seem to get the thought out of my head.

Cid and I worked away on the engine. The final pieces were being put into place. Cid was busy working away installing the Mako injector so we could get the energy into the engine and start her up. As Cid tightened the injector into place his elbow came up and caught me in the lip. I could taste the small amount of blood that had begun to pool in my mouth. It reminded me of when I was in the hospital bed and all I could taste was blood, and it made me feel woozy, and I felt like I might throw up.

I spat the blood out in a rush then grabbed the nearest bottle of water and began to rinse my mouth clean of the taste. "Shit Al, you a'right?" Cid bellowed from behind me as I spat out more blood water. "Ya, don't worry about it. Let's finish this."

From that point on I let Cid do the majority of the work, all I could think about was Joey. The taste of blood was left stained in my mouth, and every second I tasted that blood I was reminded of my hellish time in the hospital. Every moment reminded me of that blinding pain, and that fumbling weakness. But we finished the engine all in all. She was ready to get started.

We set the engine up in a spot where we all could see it. Dad had come out, Ester was there, even the ten year old boy Alexander had come from the other side of town to witness one of the first Mako fueled airplane engines come to life. We had all assembled and were now ready for the big moment. Cid flipped the top on the control switch. He took his time, sucking every last moment he could out of us. But Cids own excitement took over and he pushed the button…but nothing happened. Cid started tapping the button furiously, but nothing happened.

"God damn it! Lousy good for nothing sack of shit!" Cid started letting all sorts of profanities spew from his mouth. It hadn't been until about a year ago that he started behaving this way in public, and I had a feeling we'd be seeing a lot more of it.

Ester had put her hands over Alexanders ears as the boy sat there bewildered by what his little ears had just heard. "Calm down spaz, lets take a look and see what we did wrong." We immediately started to examine the engine, taking in the smallest of details to make our investigation thorough. Then I saw it. It was right there, staring me in the face. The spark plug was missing. Cautiously and swiftly I crept my hand into my pocket and inconspicuously inserted the spark plug to its rightful place.

"Well uh, I couldn't find anything wrong with it." I lied through my teeth to them, but if Cid knew I had left out the spark plus I would have never heard the end of it. "God Damn it! What did I do wrong? Why does the world hate me and want to destroy my dreams? You want a piece of me world? You God-Damn-dream-crushing-no-good-piece –of- shit!"

Yet again Ester had thrown her hands over Alexanders ears as he once again stood awestruck by what he had just heard. I had to once again calm him down. "Now maybe there's just something wrong with the control, let me see it." He handed me the remote, I turned my back to everyone and pretend like I was doing something clever. I opened the remote and looked at the design Cid chose, a pretty standard device, nothing fancy that couldn't be rigged up in an hour.

I turned back to Cid and pressed the button and the engine lit up and began to work. We listened to the roar of the mighty beast; Cid jumped for joy and screamed more profanities to the skies. Alexander was this time too entranced by the Mako engine to listen to Cid. Everyone stood amazed at what they had just witnessed, and why wouldn't they? We had just seen a pivotal point in the development in Mako energy, Cid and I had done something that no one had done before and built a Mako airplane engine. Yet all I could think to myself was how I could forget about the spark plug, for anything worth doing to get going, it needs to have the spark to start it off.