FF7: Advent Children - Fade Out

[Gundam-Larry]

Hello, everyone! For those of you who don't know me, well, I don't blame you or expect you to. I'm a twenty-year-old from Philadelphia with an unhealthy Final Fantasy 7 obsession that has written a whopping total of three completed fanfictions before this one, two of which were about Cid, who still remains one of my favorite characters from just about anything. For those of you who do know me, I'm back! Kind of, anyway. Wanted to dust off the old writing fingers and see if I can still do this stuff, you know?

So yeah, I got so excited about all the commotion I saw here the other day that I went ahead and started writing this. Let me know how you like it and perhaps I will have to continue with it (I'm a little ways into chapter one, but you really can say "no G-L, this isn't very good" and I really will understand). Without further ado:

Fade Out
Gundam-Larry

Introduction

Cloud couldn't see the faces inside the Sierra, but he could feel the excitement that was going on within. A cool breeze passed quickly overhead, but it felt nice over the sweat and wounds that had accumulated over the course of the battle. Or battles? He was almost too tired to think. Bahamut had been the first to go down that day, along with a good portion of Edge's center city, and then Yazoo and Loz on the highway, and Kadaj had died in his arms...but Kadaj was Sephiroth? Or his brother? It didn't matter. “You're sure messed up, Cloud!” Tifa's jubilant voice echoed in his head. His lips creased slightly, and then gave way to a full smile as he looked up at his companions in the aircraft. He should have turned around, though, because...

BOOM.

Cloud woke up gasping for breath. Suddenly Tifa was at his side, holding him in her arms and whispering soothingly:

“Cloud! It's me, alright? You're okay...we're okay.”

It was a wonderful voice that made him want to calm down. He gathered his senses and looked around the room with alien wonder. This was his room, above the Seventh Heaven bar. He'd been living and working here since the geostigma began, partaking in Tifa's generous business that had come about as a result of it. This was all easy enough to remember, but there was something about his dream...

“What...what happened?”

“I was just bringing you breakfast...and...I'm sorry. I guess I was a bit loud.”

“No, don't worry about it. Bad dream.”

Normalcy was returning to his voice. A little sanity was a good thing. He looked over to his nightstand and saw a tray with a plate of eggs and bacon, doused in milk that was still slowly draining from a tipped-over glass. He'd probably scared the hell out of her when he woke up; made her jump, maybe. He mentally vowed to eat the food, anyway. Tifa worked too hard for her own good.

“Tifa?”

“Mmm?”

“After I defeated Kadaj's gang...”

“We were worried sick, Cloud. You seem to have a knack for worrying people, you know.”

Cloud blushed slightly but Tifa just winked and told him what had happened. He had been shot by Yazoo or Loz and went crazy going after both of them. There was an explosion. Wasn't much of him to look at when they picked him up. Spells and potions were doing nothing for him, so they cleaned him up and desperately took him to Aeris's church to pray. Kids showed up from all around, many of whom still had the geostigma. One of them suggested they place Cloud in the lifestream and Tifa had done so with some amount of resistance. Ten minutes later, Cloud's eyes were open and he was taking complete control of the situation, baptising the kids in the lifestream like some kind of clergyman. He had done this and then he had fallen asleep again, for nearly eighteen hours. Nobody could believe it.

Cloud had quietly started on his milky eggs by the time Tifa had finished up her story. Tifa looked up at him soberly and suddenly smiled outright and burst into giggling.

“Cloud, you're getting milk all over your face! Why didn't you just ask for another plate?”

She hugged him warmly and he forgot all about the explosion and his momentary attempt to rejoin the lifestream.

****

Cid dropped Yuffie off in Wutai by her own request. She said it was Godo's birthday. He asked what she had gotten the old man and she produced a red orb from under her sleeve.

“Is that...?”

“Bahamut!” Yuffie answered exuberantly and Cid's face jaw immediately dropped.

“How did you...why did...?”

Reeve and Barret began to laugh, and Yuffie just smiled as Cid's face became a picture of anger and confusion.

“You're a hell of a thief, Yuffie.”

“I know!”

And she was gone, leaving just Barret, Reeve, and himself. Vincent had stayed in Midgar, insisting on confronting some skeletons from his past. Tifa had been dropped off in Edge, of course, carrying an unconcious Cloud into the bar. Nanaki wanted to be dropped off in Gongaga, where they had supposedly found a new materia within the ruined reactor. Lastly, Reeve had deposited his good friend Cait Sith back in the Gold Saucer, along with some old memories.

“So...” Cid's voice broke out into the silence, “Edge, then?”

“Yeah...” Barret agreed, “Ought to go check on Cloud, prob'ly.”

“He's a tough bastard,” Reeve said, nodding, “I bet he's either working out or he's drunk by now.”

Cid fumbled in his pocket for a lighter, grasping a cigarette between his lips and grinned.

“Kid better not have started the fun without us.”

The crew conversed brightly throughout the entire trip, bringing up old memories and jokes. They did not revisit the center city, where the last remnants of spilled contents from Rufus's Jenova bottle were seeping down the street. They didn't see that there was a sewer drain less than a block from the site where Rufus had fired his gun wildly in mid-descent. And nobody, not even a one of the passers by on the elated streets of Edge that day, was aware that a great deal of the lifestream rain that had originated in Midgar was currently occupying Edge's sewers. But they would know tomorrow.

[*Nanaki rulez*]

Oooo! A new fic! And you're back!

Well, I really enjoyed this chapter but I thought that it all moved a bit too fast - sicne there was the happy bit and the foreshadowing bit I didn't feel that either of them were long enough or perhaps just didn't fade into each other properly.

That's just my opinion but I'm VERY excited to see a new fic on Advent Children. FFVII lives again!

[CaButler]

Hey, you made it out of the pit.

What took you so long?

[Gundam-Larry]

*Nanaki Rulez* - And you're here! Awesome! I always appreciate the crits, too. Lack of length seems to be my most frequent critique in my writing, and it's one I'm absolutely going to work with in the first chapter. Yes, to put that more explicitly, you've inspired me to go ahead with this thing, an action that has already put some crazy stuff in motion within the storyline. I will also make a valiant effort to include higher amounts of Nanaki than in any of my previous fics, which I remember not having much Nanaki at all. Many many thanks for reading!

CaButler - The problem with getting out of the snake pit was that I initially failed to realize that it was infested with rats. In theory, this would have provided the snakes with a non-human food source, but both sides were pretty hard on me all the same. How's Jersey? I'm about a bridge away from there these days, perhaps I will have to go see the beautiful shores.

Good to see both of you again. My current deadline for the first chapter is tommorow night, so I'd say you should expect it some time between Wednesday and New Years, if my history is any indication on these things. This is gonna be fic'in' excellent, people (stay tuned for more clever "fic" puns/G-L being brutally murdered over the internet).

[Gundam-Larry]

Alright, a short first chapter here but a first chapter nonetheless. If this seems contrary to what I said about working on length...well, yes, I suppose it is. I unfortunately got to the end of all of the events I wanted to express in this chapter before I got to the three page mark. The events themselves are a little lengthy though, so...well I'll see how you guys like it.

Chapter 1

Rufus ShinRa reveled in this new silence. For once in his entire presidency, Reno and Elena had absolutely nothing to say. Nobody did. The geostigma had simply vanished in the rain, disappearing into a wisp of smoke. This silence, this peaceful rain...it was wonderful and sweet. It was like power.

“Turks.” he called suddenly.

“Sir!” they called back, swiftly and precisely, a reaction ingrained into them from the start of their service.

Rufus rose majestically from the wheelchair he had been in since the Diamond WEAPON incident and gazed across the group. They still looked sharp. Strong. He licked his lips and thought his words over briefly before he spoke.

“Looks like Cloud and his buddies saved the day again. You might say I owe him one.”

The group nodded knowingly. They all respected Cloud's abilities in battle and had experienced some of their most exciting Turk moments in his presence.

“You'd be wrong.” Rufus continued and smiled dryly, “The old ShinRa empire would have had this problem under control in twenty-four hours.”

The group nodded again, with more enthusiasm. A grin was forming at the edge of Reno's lips.

“I don't have to tell you that the fall of Midgar was a big blow, money-wise. An estimated forty percent of citizens in Edge are without employment, half of which were former ShinRa employees. Children are out on the streets, with no public schools to go to. People will praise Cloud Strife until they realize that he can't solve their economic problems. They'll need another savior before long...”

“Sir!” Elena exploded in excitement, “You don't mean...”

Rufus raised one hand nonchalantly and Elena was cut off. When the president spoke again, he projected quick and resolute sentences. Battle orders.

“We're on the verge of a very prominent business oppurtunity and I don't intend to let it get away. The wreckage of the inner city will become a mako reactor, providing a number of Edge citizens with jobs. We can offer the power for much cheaper than the windmills and assorted bullshit they've got out there right now. From there we can bring back ShinRa automotive, ShinRa engineering, ShinRa security...we will dominate this entire city.”

“Mr President, if I may...” Tseng spoke up in a low and sober voice, politely allowing Rufus time to nod, “...Cloud and his friends would publicly discredit us the second they found out about this.”

“No, Tseng, they wouldn't.” Rufus responded curtly, “Because if they did, I would have to send four former Turks to join the unemployed masses.”

All expressions were wiped off of Tseng, Elena, and Rude's faces. Reno, on the other hand, was now grinning fully and his eyes sparkled with anticipation of the action to come.

“So, boss...what do we do?”

***

Jenova had no real thoughts, no emotions. It had felt nothing when it had been shot by former president Rufus, or consumed by a failed Sephiroth clone known as Kadaj. The underlying goal was the same in both scenarios: Jenova would find a host and do what was most neccesary to return to a dominant force. In the case of the consumption, Jenova had mutated its host into what he desired to be. This was an unfortunately ineffective battle strategy that resulted in defeat. A common side-effect of Jenova injection, as noted by professor Gast, is an internalized maternal voice that may or may not have resonated with the thoughts of the two-thousand year old Cetra that had been lost to time and science. Jenova's host had experienced this effect just before his death , an event that Gast would have found fascinating.

The bits of Jenova that had leaked out onto the streets of Edge had found much more promise. Life was literally raining down from the heavens, and the grotesque green fluid cells could only run with that life into Edge's sewage system, where it would gradually accumulate. Kadaj had already proven Jenova's capabilities in the lifestream, and indeed his mission directly involved transporting “mother” to the stream for purposes of ultimate domination. Ironically, his plan was a success only in the hours following his death.

Black water bubbled and frothed beneath the streets of the city that night, unseen by sanitation workers who had been called off work in light of the Bahamut incident. Indeed, Kadaj could not have planned this better.

***

Nanaki walked about Gongaga with a slight sense of wonder. He had not returned here since meteor struck...it had been too depressing. The Gongaga he was now looking at was something else entirely. Dozens of people swept by him, back and forth, briefly looking at directional signs that said things like “Gongaga Springs” and “Gongaga Nature Trail (WARNING: COLLECT A RIBBON FROM YOUR GUIDE FIRST)”. Nobody's conversation concerned the ruined reactor or the evils of the ShinRa corporation, but rather the amusingly irritable Ground Horn at the zoo or the excitement of being sung to by frogs in the forest. This was a town that had grown up and moved on.

There was no need to ask where the new materia was. Nanaki could hear the commotion coming from the reactor (down a path that a sign labeled “Mako TreasureZone!”) and walked across a trail that was amazingly devoid of the tanks and hostile flowers that he remembered fighting only two years ago at this spot. Awkwardly positioned halfway between the reactor and town was an overweight man in a plaid shirt seated behind a desk. His mustache twitched wildly he watched the fiery-tailed wildcat approach him.

“Whoa-ho! A lost pet! I bet someone is looking for you right now, you poor thing...I'm going to find something to tie you here with. Hold on, guy...”

Nanaki looked at the man quizzacally as he rifled through his strangely-positioned desk for a piece of rope or chain before speaking up.

“I'd much rather find my owners myself, if you please...”

The man, who was rummaging underneath the desk, shot up at the sound of the animal's voice. His head crashed into the bottom shelf with an explosive amount of noise. As he struggled to regain his senses, the red wildcat strolled by his desk and toward the reactor nonchalantly. The commotion was increasing.

“Calm down, calm down!” a peppy-sounding female guide was shouting, “The new materia is right here!”

The sound of a sheet being majestically drawn was followed by a much louder sound of gasps and “ahh”s from the crowd.

“As you can see, it's completely jet-black in coloration...”

Nanaki broke into a run toward the crowd.

“We haven't found anyone who can cast it yet, though. If we have any strong magic-users in the audience, maybe you can test your might...we've secured a 200-yard area in the woods...”

A deafening growl roared through the audience, eliminating all other noise.

“Where did the materia come from?” a strangely intelligent voice roared out as the crowd parted and turned to see the source of the noise.

“Th-the quarry...it came from Gongaga quarry.” the guide's voice answered nervously, trying to remain authoritative, “Who are you?”

People were now staring at Nanaki as he made his way through the middle of the crowd toward the guide. A few of the older Gongaga residents looked with some amount of recognition. The others were all confused or angry. Nanaki's voice unwittingly came out like ice.

“Where is the quarry located?”

“Sir, you're going to have to calm...what the hell are you?!”

It was a question that came about often enough due to his physical appearance and he accepted it. He barely heard it, though, as the question he had asked was still burning in his mind. He looked up at the guide to reinforce his position. She was a short blonde woman that looked a little like Elena of the Turks, without the rough kind of beauty. Her eyes were wide and her brain was clearly trying to make sense of the series of events that were unfolding. Nanaki did not have time for that.

“Where is Gongaga quarry?” he repeated, firmly.

“It's by the river.” came a gruff male voice from the crowd, “Now why don't you shut up and let the lady speak?”

Nanaki nodded slightly but did not turn toward the voice or make a rebuttal. His mind was elsewhere, thinking back to Sephiroth's defeat in the crater. The whole place had collapsed into the lifestream. They had flown out as quickly as possible, and with no time to spare. No time to look for the black materia. Given the tides and currents from the north, the materia could have indeed come all the way here. Nanaki's throat felt dry as he began to slowly speak once more, in a lower volume and a frighteningly reposeful tone.

“We need to get that materia out of here. Now.”

The crowd's mood was no longer confused at all, but simply upset. People started to speak out.

“Get lost!” the male voice came again.

“Leave us alone!”

“Get out of here!”

The last voice came from a man with a rifle, probably a former SOLDIER of some sort. The man had a very serious look on his face and was approaching Nanaki with the clear intent of removing him from the crowd.

“That materia summoned meteor!” Nanaki howled, but his voice was drowned out amongst the crowd.

Given no options, he began to slowly walk away, noticing as the crowd closed back up behind him. The display eventually went on as Nanaki continued walking outward into the forests, toward Cosmo Canyon.

[*Nanaki rulez*]

Awww I LOVE how Elena is such a bimbo.

The chapter, whilst short, I would agree is long enough. Nice one!

The only problem with this fic is the depth with which you understand the really complicated (for me at least) plot, I get a bit lost, and since I've just had half an hour of stupid fluid mechanics my brain's gone limp.

And yay! my Nanaki's going to have a prominent part! Yipee!

[Gundam-Larry]

Awesome! This is the response I really needed. I was wondering about reader comprehension levels the whole time I wrote, because, well...I've studied into FF7/ AC well more than a person should ever have to. I've played through the game six times, I've seen the movie six times more, and I've read a couple of 10-20 page essays on the significance of both (read: I'm a loser). After all of this, I really still don't understand much of anything, and that's a lot of the beauty I see in this series. I was kind of hoping that I wasn't the only one that has to struggle with the plot of these games, because after reading the essays, I've ascertained that some people don't.

That having been said, the narrative I'm going for is aimed at being just a little bit confusing. It's not unlike when you stepped foot in ShinRa mansion in the game and Sephiroth started talking to you about Jenova and a calamity from the skies and you're just sitting at your TV confused as hell until Vincent joins your party and you get very excited (if you are me). This is the feel that makes FF7 what it is, and my goal is to keep that feel as much as possible in this fic, although I do know that there will be no keeping up with the writers that created the game and movie. If I'm spinning some of your interpretations of the game or movie around on their head, don't worry, because there's a good chance I'm just wrong. If it bothers you how wrong I am, let me know and I'll look into it.

I'm going to give myself a good week or so to write the next chapter because of all of the big things going on, in the fic and in my life in general. In the meanwhile, I'd like to thank you for reading and commenting...and ask, if I may, how someone with your reading and writing skills got involved in mechanics. I'm not asking this in a condescending way, believe you me, because I'm an undergrad business major that still has half a mind to drop out, but I'm always interested in the ways people end up working out their lives.

[TacomaSquall]

G-L - it is fabulous to see you back!

As far as this story - it shows promise. From what I'm seeing thus far, the only that stood out to me that might need a little reflection/revision is how Nanaki reacts to the discovery of Meteor. I find it a little hard to believe that he would just walk away in disgust when the crowd doesn't listen to him at first. Of course, Nanaki is one of the least-explained characters in FFVII, so he could have a motive for doing so - but maybe the reader needs to see a little more of why he would leave for Cosmo Canyon instead of doing something more to stop the Black Materia falling into the wrong hands.

Did I say that it is fantastic to see you back?

[CaButler]

Ok, all this talk is requiring me to get back to work and finish up that short story I finished writing up and get it up here so that you can all whine and complain about it.

...

Yeah, I don't know what I'm saying anymore.

Good stuff, GL, but lets see what happens down the road.

[Gundam-Larry]

This is an awesome group of readers. I'm very happy about this. Futhermore, this is a group of readers that can all be abbreviated into two-letter forms, which is pretty convenient.

I'm going to go ahead and throw modesty aside and say right now that this fic has something that none of my previous fics had: ambition. This has gone from a simple "hey let's see if I can still write this stuff" venture into a full-blown quest to create an Advent Children fic worthy of reference (you know, amongst the three or four AC fics in existence ). I'm glad to have three awesome readers with as much experience as you all have sharing ideas with me on this, because I'm interested in putting it all to good use on this one.

TS - It is good to see that you're still here! This place has changed a good deal since my day and age, but with you, Mith, Parjay, SH, Jerico, Fury, and the wonderful people who are reading this fic around, I feel very much at home all the same. More than that, I feel inspired, and the inspiration is carrying this fic along quite well for me. It's, well...really cool, to put it inarticulately.

Regarding the crit, it is quite valuable to me because it's something I can work with in the next chapter in addition to editing chapter one in MS Word. I'm generally hesitant to hit the "edit" button on a post once somebody has given me criticism because then other people read the revised post and argue against the criticism I got, which was right when it was posted but then I fixed @_@. This sounds complicated, but I'm sure you know what I'm talking about, and it's why it's always cool to get crits that you can kind of swing into the future installments (although on some level I suppose that's true of them all). What I'm trying to say here is thanks for reading and helping.

CB - Get that fic up! I have a great deal of whining and complaining lined up already. And as for this one, there are indeed big things on down the road. I hope to do your interpretations of the FF7 saga some justice, if indeed I still remember them from the MoC days .

New chapter next Tuesday night! The people in charge of my academic life are trying to make this difficult for me, but I shall give it my all and hopefully overcome the difficulties of multi-page essays and powerpoint presentations. Onward!

[SoulSabre]

Woohoo, write more!!

I like your writing style; it's pretty solid. And reading this reminds me vaguely of Frank Verderosa, if you don't mind my saying... it's a bit nostalgic for me. Your characterizations are pretty good, too.

I don't have a mind for writing these kinds of really involved, action/adventure-y plots, so I'm always fascinated when someone else does. It seems that you do know what you're talking about and this one's not gonna disappoint. I'm intrigued with this story, so.... I'll be lookin' forward to Tuesday, then!

[Gundam-Larry]

Aww, this comment reminds me of exactly why I started posting here and improving my writing. My first fanfic was called Rebirth of a God and it was truly awful, but people kept replying and saying REALLY NICE things to me, along with some neccesary criticism, and it drove me to continue posting and reading fics for about three years. Well, that was badly phrased...my point is not that your reply is in any way concealing my faults in this fic, but rather that it has completely made my Friday night . Thanks so much.

As for the Verderosa comparison, I couldn't be more delighted. I read his series and Zahra's big piece (I Know What Lies Beneath the Snowfields) in their days of popularity and between the two of them I'd say they convinced me that writing fanfiction could be an honorable thing. When I talk about trying to make this fic "worthy of reference", I am indeed saying it with Verderosa and like authors in mind. So no, I don't mind you saying .

Now I am on to ride this wave of elation over this dreadful powerpoint beast and on into next week. I'll see you there.

[Gundam-Larry]

Alright! Chapter two! I meant for this one to be a bit longer, but I also meant to finish my project last night, and, well, things don't always go as planned. In speaking of which, here's the chapter:

Chapter 2

Riiiiing, riiiiiing

Robert Midvale was a twenty-six-year-old employee in the Edge Department of Public Services that hated his job almost as much as he hated himself. His apartment was a complete dive in the middle of the city, with a few bare essentials scattered across a small studio: a tub, a mattress, a sink, a little ShinRa brand microwave, a clock, a phone, and a closet with a small variety of clothes that were mostly reserved for work. The phone was ringing next to his ear, but that didn't matter much because the clock said that it was 6:00 AM and he could think of no good reason why someone would call him so early. Still, he opened his deep brown eyes wearily and scratched his fingers through his rough off-brown hair before closing his eyes again.

His parents had done everything in their power to get him to go to school, and he had done that for nearly a full year at Midgar vocational before dropping out with a 1.2 average. It just wasn't his thing, he told himself, and moved onto something he was cut out for. By the age of twenty-one, Robert was peddling various street drugs from Midgar's inner city all the way out to Junon. He bought the merchandise in underground hideouts or unlit alleys where most people would not go, and transported them to more convenient places for a hefty profit. It was a simple game of supply and demand, and Robert knew it well. The only thing the job lacked was security, but there were remedies for that.

“Stay alive.” a Midgar shopkeeper in a bus had once warned him, “Carry a weapon on you.”

His weapon of choice were his own fists, which he gradually accesorized more and more in the interest of keeping himself safe. It seemed like people were getting tougher every week, more willing to challenge him, trying to get the merch or the money without giving up their half. He battled and talked his way around into getting gloves, then brass knuckles, and then, his personal favorite, the agonies. The agonies were the last line of defense he ever bought or needed, and he loved them. They seemed at first to just be standard leather gloves with spikes attached at the knuckles, but wearing them was another experience entirely. Fighting with them was bliss.

Midvale spent two years buying, transporting, selling, and fighting. Danger was everywhere, from the inner city cokeheads to the frightening zolems that inhabited the mythril marsh. By the end of his first year in the business, Robert could take any of them on with some amount of ease. He was born warrior, but not much of a thinker, and should not have been surprised when he was found by the Midgar police while buying a kilo of cocaine from a man named Jeffrey Sparks. He had gotten to know Jeffrey very well, because they were placed together in one cell of the jail in an upper floor of the ShinRa building. There was a brief period of rivalry between the two over condemnation issues, but futility won over in a manner of weeks. There were enough enemies in the Midgar police force to worry about without civil war amongst the imprisoned.

Time went by very slowly in the joint. Lights on, breakfast, shower, bathroom break, cell, television, lunch, library, bathroom break, cell, dinner, cell, lights out. Or some variation of that. Every day. Conversations with Jeff, hostile or otherwise, were about the most excitement he got. His sentence was five years in the pen, but, much like the rest of Robert's life, it did not go as planned.

It was the middle of the night on a Saturday when Robert and Jeffrey were awakened by a very familiar sound. The doors were unlocked, but nobody had chained them up or pinned them down. They looked at each other for a short time before venturing out and witnessing all the hell that was breaking loose. Windows were shattered and machinery was on fire. People were running and screaming into their cell phones about something called WEAPON. Jeff had been the first to bring up what was on both of their minds: “Let's get the fuck out of here!” They had run like all hell, down thirty-something flights of stairs and straight out of Midgar. They hadn't stopped until they saw the corpse of Diamond WEAPON sprawled across the ground in front of them, at which point they promptly changed direction and darted toward Kalm.

The two had camped for three days outside of the small town, watching the meteor come down and waiting for the big apocalypse to take everyone out. It only seemed fitting that a world so messed-up would meet such a fate. The events that occurred when that meteor touched down on the city of Midgar went, ironically enough, not quite according to plan. Stuff had seeped right out of the earth to stop the damn thing, bringing people a message of hope that there was protection out there and that there was definitely something to live for.

As the phone began to ring again in Robert Midvale's apartment, he still failed to realize what the hell that something was.

“Who is this?”

Robert had almost unconsciously picked up the phone. A call at 6:00 AM was a mistake. Two calls was a crime.

“Uh! Hi Robert!”

Donald Palmer. Director of Edge sanitation. He had apparently been kind of a bigwig in the ShinRa building where Robert had been imprisoned, but was really more of a nobody now. He had a speech problem, a weight problem, and an apparent problem with calling people at normal hours of the day. The great thing about being a public service worker, Robert mused to himself, is that people like this are actually higher up on the chain than you and can make you do whatever they want.

“...morning, Mr. Palmer.”

“Robert, we have kind of a, uh, problem...I've gotten a couple of calls already regarding a sewage backup in line 42-A.”

The asshole actually wanted to put him to work. This was the same guy that was probably tripping over his feet yesterday to get his fat ass out of the city when all those kids and that huge monster showed up. All the public service positions were supposed to be suspended for the week. Midvale rubbed his temples, restrained himself from being rude, and shortened his response to one word.

“Yeah?”

“Well, uh, we need someone to get down there and at least fix the backup.”

“So you called me at six on this beautiful goddamn morning for what reason, Mr. Palmer?”

Whoops. He let himself slip. He did that sometimes. Palmer's voice came back as impatient and exasperated as he felt.

“Fix the backup or you're out of a job, Midvale.”

Click.

Bath, clothes, button shirt, brush teeth, microwave water, make coffee, leave. It was another routine that Robert was not particularly fond of, but had grown to be commonplace since he came to Edge. He could always smell the bacon and eggs cooking at the corner café, but only a select few could afford that kind of stuff every morning. He planned to try them on his birthday, if he made it that far without literally drowning in the fecal matter of the city's citizens. That was a smell he was much more used to than eggs and bacon.

The streets were empty, which was a bonus to Robert after this stupid glitch in his morning. He wasn't in the mood to deal with anyone, except maybe Donald Palmer. He could deal with Donald Palmer's fat gut first with a solid punch or two, then move on to the face...

Thoughts of causing Palmer pain floated in and out of his head as he walked down silence street, whistling a tuneless melody. He mumbled to himself about having the fat man come in and fix the backup himself as he pulled up the sewer cap and grabbed the flashlight taped up next to the ladder. He yawned loudly and turned the light on, shining it down into the darkness. He couldn't see much of anything. He continued whistling his strange series of notes as he pulled the sewer cap over his head and climbed down the ladder.

When his feet reached solid ground, Midvale turned around and shone his flashlight toward the duct.

“...the hell?”

He strafed around and looked back and forth across the surface of the sewage, which was well above the level it should have been, but the water level was not his concern. The beam of light was catching bubbles and boils emerging from pitch-black water. Somebody had dumped something in the sewer that never should have been dumped in. Sighing, Robert turned away from the duct and toward the dreaded “shit rake”, thinking of how much fun it was going to be to clear this damn thing by hand.

By 8:30 AM, the Edge sewage system was flowing properly again, although its contents were still a pitch black broth. Palmer called Robert Midvale's home phone three times between 9:00 AM and noon to ask about his completion, but got no response. So there was a message on Robert's machine at 12:30, filled with “uh!”s, playfully accusing the service worker of going out and getting drunk without checking in first. In truth, the four hours Midvale spent in line 42-A that morning were the most sobering moments of his life.

***

Cloud woke up to the sight of slowly turning fanblades. He didn't much like the spinning, not right now. He was lying on his back on a hardwood floor, which could only mean that he was either completely exhausted last night or someone had convinced him to drink. The ex-SOLDIER turned his head and saw Cid seated in the corner, propped up against a wall with his head down, snoring lightly. There's the culprit.

There was a noise, too. Kind of annoying. ”Chiiiiiirp. (pause) Chiiiiiirp.”

Sounds familiar, though. Cloud mused to himself, Like...oh yeah, the phone. How much have I had to drink?

The question answered itself as a dull pain roared though his head. He was up on his elbows now, but his body did not want him to get up. It would have to deal, though, because he still had that speech to give today. It wasn't until three, but there was no telling how long he had slept and what time it was now. Cid had a way of making the wrong decisions at times.

The phone stopped ringing, but Cloud could hear Tifa talking upstairs, her voice coming in quiet murmurs through the wall. They sounded quick and worried. Wincing in anticipation, Cloud launched himself to his feet and began his quest for the top of the stairs. Tifa was always worried about something. She probably hadn't imbibed a drop of alcohol last night. Lucky her.

The stairs creaked under Cloud's boots, a sound that didn't help his throbbing brain, but the going was easy enough. He had battle the most powerful man on the planet and won, not once but twice. It would not make much sense for him to be defeated by a flight of stairs. Daunted, yes, but defeated...

Cloud was at the top of the stairs when the phone was placed back in the receiver. Tifa rushed out of the office and looked him in the eyes through the thin and worried slits that were her own.

“Cloud, it's Red. He said the black materia's in Gongaga.”

Cloud's eyes bulged. All of the alcohol-induced haze left his brain at once, replaced by a million thoughts concerning how the black materia had arrived in Gongaga and how much it could do there in how short of a time. He had questions to ask, but when he opened his mouth, none of them came out. His voice instead came out firm and resolute, emitting the two words that were overwhelming his mind.

“Let's go.”

***

Nanaki had the whole canyon in a blitz. He had told an elder about the black materia when he got to the canyon at 7:00 PM. The news had spread like wildfire, and nobody had slept that night. Elders and shopkeepers alike ventured down to Gongaga one after another to plead a case about how dangerous the situation was. One after another, they came back shaking their heads and frowning. Calling Cloud about the problem had been a last-ditch effort, in hopes that maybe people would listen to a face they recognized. It was now 1:00 PM, well into day two of the madness, and the wildcat's eyes were combing the sky, looking for the cavalry.

He thought back to his actions the previous day, wondering once again if he'd done the right thing. He'd always been a pacifist by nature, up until AVALANCHE had found him. He had no will to start a fight with a group of innocent Gongaga residents...but there was now a question of if he had made the right choice in leaving. Every minute that passed added up to a new opportunity for some fool to bring down the entire planet. He could have gotten to the materia himself, putting teeth and claw to anyone in his path, and gotten it out of there. But those were not the actions of a hero, and moreover they were not actions that Nanaki could ever see himself going through with.

The Sierra had approached as soundlessly as ever, now descending from the skies above the rocky outskirts of town. Nanaki ran to greet the ship, with none of the good humor that generally accompanied such actions. They were coasting directly toward a ditch, with no apparent intention of leaving the ship. Sure enough, the side door opened and steps sprawled down while the ship was still in midair. Barret was shouting something from inside that Nanaki couldn't hear, but he knew well enough what the words had to be.

Get in, we're going to Gongaga!

Lord willing, Cloud would make it just in the nick of time again. That was, after all, what he did.

[*Nanaki rulez*]

Right, back I am, after a week of trying to try and work!

I'm feeling particularly nit picky this week, hope you enjoy -

The first section - I really loved the description of Robert and if you're similar to me you will have LOVED writing that chapter.

On the very first paragraph I feel you've given too much information in the first two sentences. I think it's just a matter of order but I would have liked the scene to be set up before zooming right in on Robert himself.

Secondly the tone of that section was great, except for the end of one of the paragraphs -

He had gotten to know Jeffrey very well, because they were placed together in one cell of a jail in the ShinRa building. They blamed each other for the whole incident for a while, but recieved beatings from the guards every time they fought. They eventually gave up on rivalry altogether.

which just goes a bit against the grain, perhaps the language just got a bit simple (like mine at this point ).

Second section - Ah, gotta love Cid...

Just one thing the word drinken appears in there somewhere, think it should be drunk or drunken.

Third section - What can I say? The 'cavalry' turning up reminds me of the bit in AC where everyone turns up to help out Cloud, I might have been punching the air or something equally embarassing, but it really was the best part!

[TacomaSquall]

Nice continuation, my friend!

Comments:

First paragraph - shouldn't it be "in the Edge public services department", instead of "under the Edge public services department"? For that matter, if the name of the department is Public Services, it should be treated the same way a proper name or title is treated.

The first paragraphs of the first section hover perilously close to being an infodump - you are giving us a lot of information all at once that doesn't necessarily further the plot, and only provides background for a character that seems to have been assimilated by the Menace from the Skies by the end of his scene.

Nice touch to have Palmer show up.

Thank you for giving some motivation for Nanaki's departure from Gongaga.

One thing I have always hated about the FFVII setting is the idea that the whole setting is some tiny distance that can be covered on foot in a day or two. Have you ever walked for an entire day? Progress of thirty or forty miles a day is doing pretty good on foot, trust me!

It is nice to see that you writing style has continued to evolve over the years, my friend, and I look forward to where this goes!