Cloud x Tifa - Time After Time (Final Fantasy VII)

Chapter 2 - Now

[ ν ] - εγλ - 2007 | November 31st

Above the plate, the rain fell with a traumatizing force, lightning opening up the sky above Midgar with searing blasts of purple and white. But here below the steel, the slums were blunted from the harsh weather that greeted those who had the fortune of living Topside. Instead, beneath the plate, the precipitation was blown in by the force of the gusts of the wind, or where it slid past the gaps and cracks in the plate above.

Tifa pulled her hoodie tighter over her head, her long hair pulled to one side and laying over her shoulder, feeling droplets of water hit her from above, splattering in fat beads against the top of her head. She looked up to see the twinkling lights embedded in the ceiling of the plate above, the sunlamps dimmed to give the slums the appearance of a natural night sky. But all she could see was the creaking steel, the rainwater slotting through the clefts in the metalwork above.

It was late November, and the chill in the air of the slums clung to her skin through her thin layers of clothing, raising the hairs on her arms and turning her skin to gooseflesh. The addition of the acid rain that had to pass through the smoggy, filthy atmosphere beneath the plate left the air even more acrid and bright than usual, and Tifa shifted the messenger bag she was carrying further up over her shoulder as she wrinkled her nose against the smell, making her way towards the train back to Sector7.

It was late - after nine, and so the crowds relying on the trains had slowed and thinned out, mercifully giving Tifa room to breathe and to actually find a seat on one of the filmy, sticky benches inside the train. The lights above filtered and flashed a multitude of colors as the train jerked, and the robotic voice of the train's automation system began announcing upcoming stops and ID security checkpoints. Tifa sighed, exhaustion lacing through her throat as she lowered her hoodie from her head and settled the messenger bag securely in her lap, protecting the contents inside.

Tifa was on her way back from meeting with a slumlord supplier in Sector4 who apparently was the only individual in the city to have the chemicals Jessie needed for the cocktail of explosives she was developing for the mission AVALANCHE was planning in just a few days' time. It was going to be their biggest strike against Shinra yet, and Tifa recalled how Barret had thundered a speech about the conglomerate's impending downfall as they deliberated over their next moves in the basement of the bar that she owned and operated, his good fist in the air as the others in their motley crew of eco-warriors held up their beers. Barret - who led their small, excised AVALANCHE cell, consisting of her friends Jessie, Biggs, and Wedge - was ready to take the group's extremist activities to the next level by blowing up a mako reactor. That night, Jessie had another commitment and had asked Tifa if she would make the pickup of the materials for her in Sector4.

Tifa had sighed inwardly at the request, but had not refused it. She was nervous about the escalation in AVALANCHE's antagonism against Shinra. Before Barret's plan for the reactor, they had mainly acted out their aggression by spreading anti-Shira propaganda, or by robbing Shinra weapons and materia stockpiles from compounds above the plate. Some of their recent activities had grown more violent, causing rifts with other AVALANCHE cells and its main headquarters, who had largely begun to pull their centralized funding from their coffers and began to distance themselves from their activities, putting further financial strain on their entire outfit. Yet Barret was relentless, and his dogged pursuit of vengeance by any means necessary against Shinra could not be quelled. Tifa was uncomfortable with how radical and violent their operation had grown, and the upcoming reactor mission had her nerves on a knife's edge.

These thoughts rolled through the back of her mind as the train stretched along the tracks, snaking its way through Midgar's Undercity Sectors. The overhead lights flickered before the red lasers of the ID Scan system blitzed past her, and Tifa held her breath for a brief second, knowing that Jessie's fake ID would hold up, but still feeling a stab of anxiety and doubt nonetheless. When the scan had passed without incident, she expelled her breath and settled her hands on top of the dangerous parcel in her lap, pulling at her leather fighting gloves, knowing there was a fair chance she might run into monsters on her way back to the slums from the train station.