Final Fantasy VII Story-line

Disclaimer:  This section contains MAJOR spoilers.  If you have not beaten the game, do not continue!

The terriost group, AVALANCE is leading an assault on Mako Reactor Number 1.  They are planning to make it a very grand display of fireworks.  Barret Wallace has recruited and hired a former member of SOLDIER, Cloud Strife, to help in this endeavor.  The two go to the main gauge of the reactor, set the explosives, then turn to leave.  They are attacked by a Giant Scorpion.  After smashing it into so much scrap metal, the two have 10 minutes to get out of the reactor before it blows up like a fireworks display on New Years.  As Barret and Cloud exit, they see that a fellow AVALANCHE member, Jessie, has gotten her foot stuck in the metal wiring.  They stop and help her, then get out of the reactor.  The explosion shakes the entire first Sector of Midgar, but AVALANCE escapes unscathed.  They split up and head for the train.  On the way out to the train, Cloud bumps into a girl selling flowers.  He comments that one doesn't "see many flowers around here."  Cloud can buy one from her, they're only a Gil...After that,Cloud gets trapped by some of the local cops, but dispatches them easily enough.  He jumps onto the top of the train as it passes underneath his position. 
The rest of AVALANCHE is sitting in a cargo car, wondering what happened to Cloud.  Is he okay?  Then, Cloud makes a dramatic entrance, which ticks off Barret.  The group then jumps up to the passenger car, and waits to get back to their Sector 7 HQ. 
Once back at HQs, Barret warns them not to get too sure of themselves.  There is still work to be done in order to save the Planet.  Barret then goes down to the secret room, the others follow him.  It is time to take a meeting.  Cloud doesn't follow immeadiately.  He spends a few minutes talking to Tifa, the owner of Tifa's Seventh Heaven, aka, AVALANCE HQ.
Cloud goes down to talk about his pay.  He and Barret wind up getting into an argument.  Cloud decides this is SO NOT WORTH IT, and makes to leave.  He ascends back up to the bar, and starts to leave.  Tifa then calls him on an old childhood promise.
When Cloud was getting ready to leave Nibelheim and go to Midgar, Tifa asked him to meet her at the well.  Once there, Cloud confided in her that he was going to Midgar to join the ranks of SOLDIER and become like Sephiroth.  Tifa says that all the boys are leaving.  She then asks if Cloud will be in the newspapers if he does well.  He says that he will try!  Tifa then asks him to make her a promise.  If he goes to Midgar and gets his wish: Joins SOLDIER, she wants him to come and rescue her if she is ever in trouble.  He promises.
Barret enters the scene, he tells Cloud to go on, run back to the Shinra.  Barret tosses Cloud his pay.  Cloud laughs and says that for a little more, he will join in on the next mission.  (Guess that Tifa hit a nerve!)
The next morning, Barret outlines the mission.  This time, the raid is on the Sector 5 reactor.  The plan is the same, plant a bomb, then run.  Tifa is accompanying you for this quest.  The whole group jumps on a train, and heads out.
New ID scans have been enabled due to the attack of the previous day.  The scanners catch Cloud, Tifa, and Barret, who have to jump off the train and head through the tunnels to get to the reactor.  They get there, set the explosives, and leave.  But, as they get to the bridge of the reactor, President Shinra arrives.  It seems that he was anticipating this attack, and has set a trap for the AVALANCHE members.  He leaves them with a new toy to fight.  After dispatching the Air Buster, President Shinra leaves.  The party fights it, but at the end, the explosion it causes knocks Cloud off the bridge.  Cloud is hanging on for dear life!  Tifa and Barret cannot help him.  The reactor blows, and Cloud drops down to the ground, far, far below.
Cloud wakes up in a church in the Sector 5 slums.  The voice inside of him tells him some odd things, but Cloud shakes it off.  A familiar face is there to greet him!  It's the flower girl from the previous day.  Her name is Aeris.  Later, the Turks show up.  They want Aeris for some reason.  She and Cloud escape them, and make it back to her house.
Once there, Aeris recounts the events to her mother, Elmyra.  Cloud wants to head on back to Sector 7.  Aeris insists on accompanying him.  She is persistent about it.  Finally, he gives in.  She tells her mother, who then asks her to wait until the morning to take Cloud home.  Aeris acquieses, and goes upstairs to prepare Cloud's room.  Once Aeris is gone, Elmyra asks Cloud to leave tonight, without telling Aeris.  Something about SOLDIER, and that Aeris doesn't need to be hurt like that again...Cloud agrees, and then goes up to go to sleep.  He dreams about the last time he was home, his mother.  He awakens, and sneaks out.  He gets as far as the entrance to Sector 6, and lo and behold, who is there waiting for him but Aeris.  She tells him that she is going to Sector 7 with him, whether he likes it or not!  The two venture onward, and reach an old play-ground.  Aeris and Cloud take a break for a moment, and she asks him about his past.  Was he in SOLDIER?  What rank?  As the two talk, the gates to Sector 7 open up and a Chocobo cart with Tifa on the back appears.  It is headed toward Wall-Market.  What could Tifa possibly want in that seedy area?  Cloud and Aeris decide to find out.  They head toward Wall-Market.  Once there, they find out that Tifa has gone to Don Corneo's mansion.  Curiousity overwhelming them, the two decide to get in.  The only way to do that is to get Cloud to dress up as a woman, seeing as how the Don has a strict policy of NO MEN.
Cloud and Aeris scout around all of Wall-Market gathering items to make Cloud look like a woman.  Once this is accomplished, the two get into the Don's mansion.  They find Tifa.  Apparently, Tifa and Barret got a hold of a guy with some info on the Shinra, and the Don's name popped up.  Tifa, Aeris, and Cloud decide to work together to get the story from the horse's mouth.  One of the Don's servants comes in, and the three "ladies" go for their interview with the Don.  The Don chooses one of them to spend the night.  The other two enter, and the interrogation begins!  After Corneo tells them everything he knows, which is that the Shinra are planning on dropping the Plate on top of Sector 7 in order to get rid of AVALANCHE, and then plan to blame it on the terriosts.  The Don throws a switch that drops the three into the sewers.  They have to fight Don's pet, Aps.  After the battle, the trio escapes the sewers, navigates the train graveyard, and heads for the Sector 7 Pillar.
Barret is at the top, fighting to keep the Shinra from getting to the Pillar.  Tifa asks Aeris to go to her bar and get Marlene.  Aeris does this.  Tifa and Cloud climb the Pillar.  Biggs, Wedge, and Jessie are all defeated.  Only Barret remains.  Reno of the Turks shows up, and sets the bomb. Tseng is also there, and he has Aeris.  Aeris calls out "Don't worry, she's safe."  Then, Cloud tries to disarm it, after a brief fight with Reno.  The Pillar begins to explode, and the trio grab on to a wire and swing out like Tarzan.  Sector 7 is demolished, and anyone there is dead.  The trio has landed in the same playground that Aeris and Cloud saw Tifa from.  They talk for a while, then head for Aeris's house.  Once there, Elmyra, who is taking care of Marlene, tells them what happened.  The Turks got Aeris, so she traded her freedom for the little girl's safety.  Aeris is now at the Shinra building.  The party decides to go and rescue her.  They must climb through the ruins of Sector 7 in order to get there.  After the long, ardorous climb, the trio finds themselves before the Shinra building.  The choice is their's: break in, or sneak in.  Whichever they choose, they must get to floor 59.

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