Final Chapter

Tifa and Cloud arrived at the train station late. They had overslept. Tifa was considerably miffed Barret didn't have the decency to wake them. He was team leader, after all. Tifa hoped Barret still wasn't sore about her abandoning the mission last minute so as to let Cloud take her place. Even if he was sore, that's no excuse to act like a petulant child, today being such an important day for AVALANCHE: the day they blew up Mako Reactor No. 1. This merry band of freedom-fighters-slash-eco-terrorists, having operated in the shadows for so many years—playing cat and mouse, as it were—were now taking the fight directly to Shinra. This brazen attack on a Mako Reactor was their grandest gesture yet. It was, they hoped, the opening volley in a bigger war, one that would herald the downfall of Shinra. Such was their ambitious plan. Such was their delusion.

Jessie waited impatiently on the train platform, in front of the train that was still boarding passengers. She spotted Tifa among the crowd and waved in her direction.

"What took you so long?" Jessie asked, her voice sounding both anxious and annoyed. "Everybody's already onboard."

"Sorry," Tifa apologized. "It was a long night."

Jessie shrugged. "Okay, whatever. Just so long as you made it." She then handed Tifa a plastic card. "Here, your ID."

"But I'm not going," Tifa replied.

Jessie's face twisted in shock. "Say what?" she blurred, her eyes practically bulging out her skull. "We've been planning this job for months, and now—"

"Didn't Barret tell you?" Tifa said, cutting her frantic friend short.

"Tell me what?"

Tifa sighed in frustration. Not only did Barret not have the decency to wake them, he also didn't do the responsible thing of informing the party Cloud was going in her stead. Tifa enlightened Jessie.

"This is such short notice," Jessie said, immensely concerned.

"He's an extraordinary fighter," Tifa said proudly, "intuitive in any given situation. He's also a former member of SOLDIER, and trained for this sort of thing."

"SOLDIER?" Jessie said, her eyes widening in shock. "But aren't they the enemy?"

"He's an ex-SOLDIER," Tifa said, putting an emphasis on ex. "We can trust him."

Jessie gave another shrug. "Okay, whatever." She requisitioned Tifa's ID card and presented it to Cloud. "C'mon, let's board," she told the newest member of AVALANCHE. "The train's departing any minute now."

Cloud motioned for the train, but Tifa held him back, tugging on his forearm. "Here," she said, taking out two palm-sized green orbs from her satchel, and handing them to Cloud. "They're Materia. Ice and Lightening," she explained. "I trust your magic skills will come in hand in a tight spot. One can't rely on brute strength all the time, right?"

"Thanks," Cloud said. "I appreciate it."

"I wanted to get a Cure Materia, too, but I was short on Gil."

"It's okay," Cloud said with a cocksure grin, "I doubt I would have needed it."

And then he boarded the train. Tifa remained on the platform and watched with a heavy heart as the train pulled out of the station. She stayed there until the train was no longer in sight. Once it was gone, Tifa exhaled a longing sigh. Cloud had come back to her, and this was reason enough to get hopeful about many things. Tifa couldn't stop smiling. For the first time in a long time, she was happy. Completely and utterly happy.

Aboard the train, Jessie led Cloud through a tide of commuters.

"Excuse me," Jessie said, elbowing her way past the throng of people. She explained to Cloud along the way that the rest of the party had taken up positions in the cargo compartment. Cloud merely nodded, half-paying attention.

After moving from car to car, they reached the sliding door that led to the cargo compartment. It had a large sign posted front and center. The sign read: Authorized Personnel Only! The door was ajar. Jessie pushed it open ever so gently, as if she was afraid of waking whoever might lie on the other side. It was blindingly dark on the opposite end of the threshold. Jessie felt her way through the darkness, maneuvering past the crates that were scattered about.

"The train should be entering the security checkpoint any second," Jessie told Cloud.

Just then Cloud heard a rustling sound emanate from behind him. He reached for the Broad Sword on his back, but didn't draw it after recognizing Barret, who had emerged from out of nowhere.

"You two are making too much ga'damn noise!" Barret yawped in that gruff voice of his.

Cloud found Barret's statement ironic considering he was making the most noise out of all of them. It's conceivable that commuters as far back as two cars heard him.

"Where are the others?" Jessie asked Barret.

"The upper deck," Barret responded.

And then Jessie and Cloud followed him up a ladder.

Upon reaching the upper deck, a buzzard sounded and red lights started flashing. They were now passing through the checkpoint.

"These ID cards of yours better work," Barret said in a threatening tone.

"Trust me," Jessie replied with utmost confidence.

The red lights faded a of couple seconds later. All was normal again.

Jessie grinned with due satisfaction. "See, told ya," she bragged. "Nothing to it. Safe and sound."

Biggs and Wedge lurched from out of hiding.

"That was close," Wedge sighed fretfully.

"Good going," Biggs told Jessie. "We made it this far thanks to your ingenious hacking skills."

"Hey, have I ever let you guys down?" Jessie smirked.

"Okay, okay," Barret rudely chimed in. "This ain't a ga'damn circle jerk! We still got a mission to accomplish! C'mon, follow me!"

And with that the party followed him up another ladder. This one led outside, to the top of the train. The blustery wind and gray smoke spurting out the engine's smokestack made for a precarious situation. The party lay prone, hanging for dear life, as the train jostled like a bucking bronco.

"This is so dangerous!" Jessie yelled to Cloud over the roar of the airstream and chugging of the train. "I love it!"

Wind and smoke struck Cloud's face as the train sped down the tracks at full speed. His vision began to blur on account of the water pooling in his eyes.

"What's the point of this," Cloud yelled to Jessie, "riding atop the train like this?"

"All passengers are ordered off the train once it reaches the last stop," Jessie explained very loudly. "Mako Reactor No. 1, our intended target, is much farther up than that. We're riding this bad boy all the way to the refueling depot. The Mako Reactor isn't too far from there."

After an hour or so, the train arrived at its final public destination, and, as expected, every passenger was removed from every car. After a half-hour of sitting idle, the train picked up speed and was off again.

It wasn't long before they reached the refueling depot. The train came to a rolling stop before a brick wall. Steam ejected from the smokestack one last time, and all was silent for a beat.

Two Shinra soldiers dressed in spiffy crimson trench coats guarded the platform. Biggs, eager to engage, was first to strike. He jumped in front of the rightmost soldier, body slamming him to the ground in an instant. The leftmost soldier attempted to aid his companion, but was quickly subdued by Jessie, who jumped down and gave him a swift roundhouse kick to the jaw. Both soldiers were knocked unconscious. Wedge, ever the cautious individual, used the ladder to dismount the train, forgoing the flashiness of Biggs and Jessie.

Barret leapt to the ground, followed immediately by Cloud, who performed a midair flip, just to showoff.

Barret turned to Cloud, and said, "C'mon, newcomer! Follow me!"

Barret then ran to join Biggs, Wedge, and Jessie, who were already exiting the train platform. Just as Cloud was getting a running start, two Shinra troopers burst through a gate, cutting him off from the others.

"There!" one of the Shinra troopers yelled. "There's the intruder!"

The Shinra troopers rushed Cloud, or at least, they tried to. In a most casual manner, one that could also be construed as flippant, Cloud reached for his Buster Sword, and with two effortless swings, made short work of his advancing enemies. He saw no need to kill such unworthy opponents, so he wounded them, slicing their assault rifles in half in the process. The Shinra troopers writhed on the floor, in pain. Cloud continued onward, for his mission had only just started.

What began as a rebellion against an evil corporation became much more. And what erupted went beyond imagination.

To Be Continued In FINAL FANTASY VII

Afterword: Thank you for reading. I hope you enjoyed my little story. First and foremost, I'd like to give a special shoutout to the folks who sent me encouraging messages, and were cool enough to favorite my story and put it on their alerts. You guys (and gals) gave me the motivation to see this project through. I'd call you all out by name, but I don't want to embarrass anyone. Besides, you know who are, and ya'll kick major ass, son! I'd also like to give a shoutout to , especially the Final Fantasy VII community. You guys are a dedicated lot, and it's heartening to see that this game is still relevant after almost fourteen years (shit, I suddenly feel so old). Me and FFVII go way back. I remember the media hoopla in 1997 when the game was released, and how upstart Sony positioned it as a game that was impossible to achieve on Nintendo's N64. There was this two page ad in magazines (yeah, magazines, remember those?) saying it would take, like, 64,000 cartridges to hold FFVII, which was on a revolutionary new format known as CD. (Anyone remember when the game's soundtrack came on the game disk?) I chose the PlayStation over the N64 just for this game, so talk about a killer app. Man, I got so hyped whenever I saw those overly dramatic and misleading (misleading because they never showed in-game footage, just the CGI cut scenes) FFVII commercials on TV, which ran, like, two or three times within a single episode of The Simpsons. I even remember the epic narration: "Beyond the edge of reality lies a story of ultimate conquest! A story of war and friendship! A story of a love that can never be! And a hatred that always was! Play-Sta-tion!" Hells yeah! Gets me all warm and fuzzy just thinking about it. FFVII holds for me great sentimental value (me and my eventual girlfriend bonded over FVII, trading tips and gameplay strategies and save files, so I owe this game a debt of gratitude for aiding me in popping my cherry). Like a lot of kids back then, FFVII was my first RPG, and it proved to be a gateway, because I became an RPG fanatic shortly thereafter. Even got me into the whole sword and sorcery genre, and videogame music (the Chrono Cross soundtrack is the best damn soundtrack in all of history—videogame or film—and that's not an opinion, dear reader, that's a fact). There was a dearth of RPGs back then. When FFVII came out, the only other RPGs the PlayStation had were Wild Arms, Legend of Legaia and Beyond the Beyond. These were the games I had to make due before Final Fantasy VIII came around, though Star Ocean 2, Parasite Eve, and Xenogears kept me plenty business within that two-year gap. Xenogears especially—took me over 80 hours to beat that damn game! Half the time they don't tell you where to go next so you end up wondering the world map or that damn ship for hours on end—and no, I will not use a walkthrough! That cheapens the experience! But now I'm just rambling. Anyway, this is me saying goodbye, my fellow fanfictioneers. I suppose overtime this story of mine will disappear into obscurity, to be replaced by newer and fancier fanfiction. But that's okay. I'm glad to have made your acquaintance for this fleeting moment, and really, isn't life just a series of fleeting moments? So, in the immortal words of Stan Lee (I know, random)—Excelsior!