The first day Aeris ran from Tseng, she only made it as far as the Sector Five market. It seemed far enough; a cautious look back along the narrow path leading to mom's house did not reveal the Turk in pursuit. Tseng was still there and waiting for to come back. Unless he could fly up to the upper plate somehow. An amusing image but impossible. What now? She kept an eye on the path as she roamed amongst the stalls and shops. Her stomach gurgled - Tseng's timing could not have been much worse; his knock on the door came minutes before lunch. Aeris folded her arms across her chest and tried to ignore the hollow sensation.
Time passed. Still no sign of Tseng. Aeris huffed and glared in the approximate direction of the Turk. It was halfway tempting to go back, kick him in the shins and have lunch with mom. But he might start talking about- Aeris hurried into the next shop - whatever it was. There were books inside. Lots and lots of books. All second hand and in varying stages of disrepair and crammed onto shelves. The titles meant little to her, the spines dull red or faded blue with titles in gold. The paper-backs were more interesting to look at with their cracked spines. Aeris pulled a few from the shelves; so many of them seemed to be couples embracing. Usually the man - or men, if present - wasn't wearing anything above the waist. Weird.
Aeris moved on. Larger books further in. Heavier, thicker; fewer cracked spines. Cookbooks - a few like the volumes on the shelf in mom's kitchen. Black spines with gold lettering promising complete histories of the world. She steered well clear of those. And stopped. The next book on the shelf was a patterned green spine with a single world. 'Flowers'.
Mother had talked about them before; back when they had been in Hojo's clutches. When they were finally alone together at the end of a day she would talk about flowers and how the Planet nourished them. And the colours; mother talked about such a vast array of them compared to the limited palette Aeris saw each day. Fewer greys and reds; more greens, yellows and blues. But so harsh in Midgar; every colour was intense in a searing way. At least the lights down here were something other than intense white or red. The ground was concrete but different from the cold floors of the labs.
Aeris pulled the book from the shelf and let it fall open. Colour. More and varied shades of colour than she might have ever expected to see in the world. Page after page of flowers, each picture accompanied by the name and some detail about it. Most of the text was too much for her; she recognised the odd word and made an educated guess at the longer and more complex ones, but it was the images that held her attention. Difficult to say how long she stood staring at one page after another until the owner finally grumbled and asked if she had any intention of buying the book. Aeris shook her head, shoved it onto the shelf and hurried from the store. No money and no way to afford the entrancing, enchanting tome.
Her head buzzed with a touch of embarrassment at the man's words and those thousands of images of the flowers, their petals- She was at her front door before she realised. Aeris froze, ready to run, heart thundering as the door opened. No. Not now. Not now she had seen what was outside of the city. All those colours, all those living things. She could still run-
"Aeris?" Mom's voice. She could not move - not yet - she stared past mom, checking to see if the Turk was still here. No one else ventured out of the house and already mom's arms were around her. "Are you okay?"
"Yes," Aeris said, still dazed, still unable to quite trust the seemingly empty house. "Is- Is Tseng still here?"
"He's gone - for now." Mom's body tensed a little against her. Relief then, though the threat of the 'for now' was hard to ignore. Mom let go and sat back on her haunches. "Where did you go - if you don't mind me asking?"
"The market." Aeris blinked. "The book store. Mom, I found this amazing book with lots of flower pictures in it."
"We both do like flowers," Mom said, a smile developing on her lips.
"I wanted to see more, but the man - he asked if I was going to buy it, but I couldn't so I came back." Aeris gave the house one last suspicious glance before glancing back along the path.
Mom hummed. "Well, how about tomorrow you show me? For now, I think we should make a start on dinner."
To her delight mom bought Aeris the book the next morning as they went to buy groceries. Mom seemed perfectly fine - well almost. She seemed distracted; all the more reason for Aeris to keep an eye out for black-suited threats in the surrounding area. None that she could see; they were safe enough for now. She could have taken more care on the way home, but the book was too distracting. Too distracting to even wait until they got home. Aeris found the place she stopped the previous day and resumed flicking forward, the book awkward to keep open as she walked beside mom.
No Turks swooped upon them that day and Aeris was able to settle at the kitchen table and pour over the book, shouting out questions to mom in the kitchen as she worked through it. As the day slid into afternoon, Mom fetched another book - an atlas she called it. With each flower Aeris reached, Mom would flip through the Atlas and point to the part of the world where it originated. Aeris stared at each portion of the Planet, looking from the the circle on the map denoting Midgar to the tip of mom's finger. They worked through the whole book, page by page. Soon Aeris felt she knew every flower and every place on the Planet they grew.
Logically now she could go see them for herself. As beautiful as the pictures were, they seemed limited to having them in front of her. There was no scent, no way to touch the delictate petals and stems; just descriptions relying on other unfamiliar descriptions. Flipping through the book and the atlas, it became clear that Kalm was the nearest area where she might find flowers to see in person. And judging from the atlas, Kalm was almost next to Midgar. She could walk - it wasn't that far. She tried the next day; mom had to work leaving Aeris to her own devices. Perfect. Aeris could be there and back before mom got back. She might even be able to surprise her with flowers.
Distances were deceptive. Getting even close to the outer edge of Midgar took far longer than expected. Her feet and legs were aching as she pushed forward, determined to get to Kalm before contemplating rest. So close and then- A black suit up ahead. Not Tseng, but clearly one of his group. Turks. The woman was leaning against the gate chatting with a guard standing at stiff attention beside her. The woman had not seen her - or did not seem to yet. Aeris bit her lip. She could go forward; the woman might not be looking for her. Risky though. Could she run fast enough? Aeris peered past them, trying to catch sight of something to hide behind out beyond the walls. Nothing she could see. Another day then?
Too much like defeat, but circumstances forced her to turn and start trudging home. It would not be so bad if she had at least gotten closer - if she had been at least able to see the flowers out there. The tall building on her right had not merited attention before; the steps outside looked dry and for the most part free of detritus. She could rest here for a moment. A relief to being able to sit down - if only for a moment. Aeris gazed around at the massed piles of junk lining the road running from the outer edge and towards the centre of the city. The centre. The huge hub of Midgar towered high above her and connected to the metal sky above. She would be able to see from the upper plate - though that again cost money to get to. The other towers, one in each sector would have worked too, but a high metal fence topped with spiked wire bounded the nearest.
Aeris sighed and leant back. And stopped. The building behind her was tall. Not as high as the hub, not as high as the columns, but higher than mom's house by a wide margin. Tired feet and legs forgotten, Aeris pushed at the door. It opened with a groan, revealing a huge, almost empty room. Row after row of wooden seats stood facing away from her. The glass in the windows was all different colours and made from tiny pieces bordered by thick black lines. What was this? Something to puzzle later. For now she had to get higher. Above her a huge wooden beam spanned the length of the church, and above that was a hole - she could see all the way up to the plate. Now if only she could get there. Aeris stared upwards, skirting around a jagged hole in the floorboards.
The backroom lead to a series of disintegrating staircases allowing her higher and higher into the building. She did not even look down as she clambered up onto the main beam. Not far now. Not far. Through the hole and then she slithered over the tiles onto the very top of the roof. She had made it- Aeris's heart sank. She could see over the wall, but all that was visible outside the city even from here was a featureless grey ground. No. Not quite. On the very limit of her vision was a thin line of green; there was something beyond the grey. She still needed to get out of the city. A new goal then.
Aeris made her way back down the roof and froze. Someone was in the church. "No, she did not get past me. I lost her." The Turk. She was pacing back and forth below her. "Right. I'm not just going to let her waltz through the gate. I kept watch. She came close and then headed back towards the centre." Another pause. "Of course. And now I'm here. I thought she went in the church here, but nothing." Another pause. Was she talking about her? "Look how much longer do I have to keep this up? The guards are on high alert - no one is getting out today." Longer pause. "She could be anywhere. Have you looked at this rat's nest of a sector? She's tiny - she can go pretty much where she'd want. We could spent a week tearing this place-" Abrupt pause. "That's more like it. Send the chopper, I'm coming back up."
The woman took one last look around the church, snorted and stalked back out, slamming the door behind her. Aeris waited a moment, another moment, and a third to be sure. The Turk was gone. She shuffled back onto the beam and started making her way back to the stairs. This might be a good place to hide in future. It was fun being up this high too. Aeris glanced over the edge and froze. Below her, right in the centre of the floor was the same jagged hole she had skirted around on the way in. She had been too distracted with the possibility of seeing over the wall to give it a second glance before. There was grass growing in the hole. Grass. The thin, shrivelled stuff on Mom's lawn did not compare to the thick verdant green here.
Aeris hurried down to the hole. Grass was growing in Midgar. An idea then; if the grass could grow here, then so could flowers. Mom ought to have some spare seeds from her attempts and it might be possible they could get some others? If it was difficult to get out of the city and the flowers out there, she could get their seeds brought to her. It would not be the same, but for now she could grow her own flowers right here in the city