Fateful Encounters

Chapter 2: Fateful Encounters is the second chapter in Final Fantasy VII Remake. The chapter comprises the events after the destruction of Mako Reactor 1, as Cloud Strife escapes with Avalanche to Sector 8. Along the way, Cloud meets Aerith Gainsborough, a flower girl from the slums, while on his way to the train station to return to Sector 7.
Completing the chapter will unlock the bronze trophy, Fateful Encounters.
==Story==
Escaping from Mako Reactor 1 after the explosion, the group finds themselves in an underground passage. Avalanche has suffered no casualties, but the explosions continue and Barret asks Jessie if she overdid the bomb. Jessie thinks the bomb triggered a reaction with the mako. Barret hopes the city is still in one piece and Biggs hopes it helps the planet as another explosion goes off. Jessie tells the group to get going, as Wedge knows the exit that leads to Sector 8. They find the door locked, so Jessie blows it up.
Outside an announcement by the Shinra Emergency Operations Center tells the citizens a certain group has destroyed Mako Reactor 1 and warns of fires and hazardous areas, issuing a disaster warning in Sectors 1 and 8. Jessie, Biggs and Wedge can't believe the destruction that they caused, but Cloud says what is done is done. Barret agrees and says sacrifices are sometimes inevitable if they want to save the planet. Barret declares to support the group no matter what. Avalanche begins to head to the train station in Sector 8 to catch the last train to go home. Cloud asks Barret for his money, but Barret says he will pay him after they regroup at the base.
Jessie gives Cloud a healing materia for saving her back at the reactor and teaches him how to equip it. If Cloud selected the 20-minute timer for the bomb, Jessie will also give him a bottle of ether and two hi-potions. 
On the way to the station, Cloud finds Jessie again, who warns him that some areas will collapse and tells him to be careful. As he advances he witnesses explosions, survivors and doctors as some falling rubble prevents him from backtracking. Once Cloud almost reaches the station, the highway collapses and blocks the way.
Cloud sees some windows ablaze and remembers a long-haired man wielding a very long sword surrounded by the fire at Cloud's home town of Nibelheim. After coming to his senses, he turns around and sees the man amid a blaze. Cloud hallucinates the burning Nibelheim as the man begins to walk away. Cloud follows him into an blazing alleyway and tells him that the vision is not real since the man is dead because Cloud had killed him.
The man, whose name is Sephiroth, tells Cloud that it was indeed their crowning moment together. He tells Cloud that the planet is dying and asks if he would like to see it suffer. Cloud flashes back to Nibelheim burning and how he called for his mom. Sephiroth describes her last moments, and how he killed her, adding that she begged him to spare Cloud's life. He tells Cloud to do him a favor and run away to live. Cloud attacks Sephiroth, who disappears alongside the fires, while telling him to hang on to the hatred. Cloud thinks that the atmospheric mako is making him hallucinate and continues to find an alternative route to the station.
On Loveless Street of Sector 8 Cloud sees Shinra soldiers and their dogs looking for Avalanche. He finds a flower peddler acting strange as Sephiroth appears next to her, telling Cloud he is too weak to save anyone, including himself. The flower peddler asks if Cloud is okay as Sephiroth disappears. Cloud claims to be fine and the flower peddler offers him a flower for scaring something away. Cloud wonders what it is, with the flower peddler brushing it off, and continues to try and give him a flower. If Cloud answers how much, she will judge him and says it is on the house. If Cloud rejects the flower, she asks if he has ever seen a real flower before and thinks a flower will make his girlfriend's day better. Cloud then asks how much for the flower, with the peddler saying it is on the house. Cloud is willing to pay two gil for it, with the flower peddler rejecting it. He will make it five gil, with the flower peddler thinking he is trying to get rid of her. She then tells him the plan would not work.
The flower peddler tells Cloud that lovers used to give this type of flower when united and Cloud receives it. Cloud explains he is involved in "dangerous things", and she should keep her distance. The flower peddler tells Cloud that everything will be fine, but Cloud points out a reactor just blew up. The flower peddler begins to act strange, drops the flower basket and hangs on to Cloud, who suddenly sees black ghosts hover around them. Cloud ineffectively tries to attack them, attracting the attention of Shinra soldiers who try to arrest him. The flower peddler agrees that Cloud is dangerous and runs away with the ghosts chasing after her. The Shinra soldiers tell Cloud to drop his sword, but Cloud attacks them and escapes.
A Shinra helicopter finds Cloud at the fountain plaza where the troops begin to set up blockades so he won't get away again. Cloud fights the troops and their dogs as he arrives at a citizen area. He becomes surrounded on a bridge above the train tracks and has to fight off a group of Shinra soldiers led by The Huntsman. After defeating him, more Shinra troops appear. One of the troops recognizes something about Cloud, but Cloud can't hear him. He slashes a soldier and jumps onto the roof of a passing train to escape as the Shinra troops fire at him.
Inside the train, the Avalanche members wonder where is Cloud. They hear a knock, with Barret telling Biggs to get ready as they open the door. Cloud jumps in, surprising everyone. Barret expresses that he was worried, but then brushes him off. Cloud explains he was distracting the Shinra security away from the station, with Biggs saying they can't argue with the results. Cloud asks them about the ghosts with Barret thinking it was a hallucination. Cloud tells them to forget what he said.
They get through the crowded train to the other end where a Shinra middle manager and other Shinra workers wonder who would cause such an explosion. Barret says it was a message to the planet and scares them off. Jessie shows Cloud a map of Midgar and explains about the ID scans in the tunnel. Barret tells Cloud that the people below the plates struggle to survive, calling the topside a pizza in the sky. As Shinra sucks up the mako, soil turns to dust, the air fills with smog and all flowers die. Cloud tells him to leave and to not look back, with Barret saying that not everyone has a choice but to survive under the plates. Cloud compares such people to the train that they're riding on: they can only go one way.
==Quests==
*Use the Escape Route
*Reach the Sector 8 Station
*Follow Him
*Taking a Detour
*Evade Pursuers
*Flight through the City
*Climb to the Roof
*Break the Blockade
*Last Train
The majority of quests up until "Evade Pursuers" are largely cinematic quests in which Cloud travels through the city to complete objectives. "Evade Pursuers" features combat as Cloud fights through several Shinra soldiers on the way to the end, and then finally, "Last Train" involves no combat and is mostly a series of cutscenes.
Category:Chapters in Final Fantasy VII Remake