Final Fantasy VII: The Battle for the Planet

BOOK 1

The Church in the Slums

_____There was nothing but darkness. He couldn't move. He couldn't feel. He wasn't every sure where he was. Was he dead? Was this the end? No, he could sense someone near him.
_____"...You all right?" asked a female voice. It was a pleasant voice, softer and more soothing than anything he had ever heard before. "Can you hear me?" it asked.
_____"Yeah..." Cloud replied. He wasn't sure how he had managed to talk if he couldn't even see.
_____"Can you get up?" she asked.
_____"I'll give it a try..." he said.
_____"Take it slow now," the voice reassured him. "Little by little."
_____"...I know." Cloud said. "Hey, who are you?"

_____His vision gradually restored, and a girl came into focus. She had long brown hair, tied back into a ponytail. She wore a pink dress down to her ankles and a small red jacket. Bangles were around her wrists and she had large boots on her feet. He recognized the girl from somewhere, but he couldn't remember where.
He painfully sat up and looked around. He was in an old church, between the altar and the pews. He seemed to be laying on a large flower bed.
_____"You okay?" the girl asked. "This is a church in the Sector 5 slums. You suddenly fell on top of me, you really gave me quite a scare." She looked up to a large hole in the roof. "The roof and the flower bed must have broken your fall. You're lucky."
_____"Flower bed..." Cloud wondered as he jumped to his feet and brushed his clothes clean. "Is this yours? Sorry about that..."
_____"That's all right. The flowers here are quite resilient because this is a sacred place." she said. "They say you can't grow grass and flowers in Midgar. But for some reason, the flowers have no trouble blooming here. I love it here."
_____She knelt down and began to tidy up the flowers.
_____"So... we meet again." she said. "Don't you remember me?"
_____Cloud racked his brains. Now he knew that they had met before, but where? Then it hit him: she was the flower girl he had met after the first explosion!
_____"Yeah, I remember you." he said. "You were selling flowers."
_____"Oh, I'm so happy!" she beamed. "Thanks for buying my flowers."
_____She looked back down at her flowers, not moving a muscle.
_____"Say..." she finally said. "Do you have any materia?"
_____"Yes, some." Cloud replied. "Nowadays you can find materia anywhere."
_____"But mine is special." she said. "It's good for absolutely nothing."
_____"You probably just don't know how to use it." Cloud said.
_____"No, I do." the girl insisted. "It just doesn't do anything. I feel safe just having it. It was my mother's..."
_____She looked up towards the sky again. Cloud watched her neck strain. She was certainly beautiful.
_____"Oh!" she suddenly gasped and looked back down again. Her eyes met Cloud's and she smiled shyly. "We don't know each other's names, do we?"
_____Cloud shook his head, waiting eagerly for the flower girl to introduce herself.
_____"I'm Aeris. Nice to meet you." she grinned, showing a mouthful of perfectly clean teeth.
_____"The name's Cloud." Cloud said. "Me? I do a little bit of everything."
_____"Oh, a jack of all trades." Aeris said.
_____"Yeah, I do whatever's needed." Cloud said, trying hard not to use the degrading word 'mercenary'. He noticed that Aeris had begun to giggle to herself. "What's so funny?" he asked.

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_____"Sorry... I just..." she started, then suddenly turned her head to the large door. It was open slightly, enough for someone to walk through, and someone had. He was shorter than Cloud but seemed quite menacing nevertheless. He was wearing a very dark blue tuxedo with a scruffy white shirt underneath, hanging out of his trousers. His hair was fiery red and scruffily spiked. In one hand was a thin metal rod, about two feet long. Cloud wasn't sure what that rod was, but he was sure it was for cruel purposes.
_____"Say Cloud, have you ever been a bodyguard?" Aeris asked, only to receive a confused look. "You DO do everything right?"
_____Cloud brushed his hand through his hair.
_____"Yeah, that's right." he said.
_____"Then get me out of here." she insisted in a worried tone. "Take me home."
_____"OK, I'll do it." Cloud agreed. "But it'll cost you."
_____"Well then, let's see..." Aeris said thoughtfully, looking up as she thought of something. "How about if I go out with you once?"
_____Cloud nodded and turned to face the intruder who had got a lot closer than he was comfortable with.
_____"I don't know who you are but..." he began.
_____"You don't know me?" the man asked.

_____"Oh yeah, I know you." he corrected himself. "That uniform."
_____Without a sound or signal, three Shinra guards marched into the church, their machine guns at the ready.
_____"You Shinra spy!" Cloud yelled at the man.
_____"Reno!" cried one of the foot soldiers. "Want him taken out?"
_____"I haven't decided yet." Reno replied, not taking his eyes away from Cloud. The two men stared at each other, waiting for the other to make a move, waiting for an excuse to tear the other to pieces.
_____"Don't fight here!" Aeris begged. "You'll ruin the flowers!"
_____She stepped forward and grabbed Cloud by the arm, pulling him to the back of the church and through a small door way to the left of the altar. Reno walked forward, stepping on the flower bed as he did so.
_____"They were... Mako eyes." he said gently.

_____The back room was a complete wreck, which wasn't surprising. Sector 5 was a very dangerous area of Midgar, and was also one of the only sectors with a gate which led to the outside world, a potential entry point for monsters and gang members. A large Shinra rocket had fallen - nose first - through the celing, smashing through two of the flimsy wooden floors. It seemed as though Cloud wasn't the only thing that had fallen in to the church, although the rocket looked older than he was.

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_____Cloud and Aeris scrambled across the rocket and up a long wooden staircase. They ran around the edge of the room and reached a broken piece of the walkway. There was a long drop below. Cloud jumped across the gap, but Aeris shook her head. She wasn't brave enough to do it.
_____"All right," Cloud said. "I'll hold them off."
_____"The Ancient is getting away!" Reno yelled from below. "Attack! Attack! Attack!"
_____The Shinra guards opened fire and bullets chewed up the wood around Aeris' feet. She gasped and fell down as the floor gave way, landing on the rocket and rolling down to the bottom of the room.
_____"Cloud! Help!" she cried as she hit the dirt. One of the guards holstered his gun and bounded through the air, landing effortlessly next to Aeris and drawing his gun again. Cloud had to think of a way to save Aeris and fast. He looked around, then spotted a few barrels perched on the rafters above him. He climbed a flimsy ladder and pushed the barrel over the edge. It fell for a second or two, then rolled down the rocket and landed heavily on the Shinra guard's head, knocking him out cold.
_____Aeris climbed back up the rocket and began to run up the stairs, when another guard jumped and grabbed her ankle. She shook him off, and another barrel came tumbling down on to him. She ran for the gap in the walkway when the final guard ambushed her from above. This was her chance to show Cloud that she wasn't as useless as he thought she was. She drew a small rod from her dress and pressed a button. With a click, it extended to about five feet and she swung it through the air, striking the guard across the face. He spun round and collapsed on the floor.
_____Aeris summoned up her courage and jumped across the gap, joining Cloud on the rafters. They climbed out of the hole in the roof together, but Reno was nowhere to be seen.

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