~Yet Another Note from the Author~
I'm baaaaack! Here it is, finally, the sequel! (Be sure to have read The Flow of the Lifestream before you read this.) This one's longer and kinda, ah, more complicated. Don't worry, I won't suddenly decide to kill off Reno or someone. (If you're fans of Aeris or the Turks or both, you'll like this!) Okay, enjoy! If it's at all humanly possible…
~Lila
While, like a ghastly rapid river
Through the pale door
A hideous throng rush out forever
And laugh- but smile no more
-Edgar Allen Poe
Prologue
Reno looked up at the gray sky above him. It seemed to reflect his mood.
Shoving his hands into his pockets, he made his way though the packed streets of Sector 5. He hated Midgar. Just hated it. It was the place of so many memories, so many faces buried in the past.
Not to mention sins.
He held one of his hands up to his face. Who would guess this was the same hand that had ruined so many innocent people's lives.
He examined the hand carefully. It was white and clean, with absolutely no hint of what befouled it.
It was so obvious to him. This hand, he was sure, should be blood-red, soaked from the blood he had shed in the past.
He remembered it so vividly. Landing swiftly in front of Barret, Tifa and Cloud. Looking them in the eye. "You're too late. Once I press this button…"
He pressed it.
He had flung out one arm in a dramatic gesture of triumph. "That's all, folks! Mission accomplished!"
He wondered when he had turned into such a fool.
Over and over he ran the scene through his mind. It had hurt, yes. He had felt guilty, yes.
Afterward.
Why did it always have to hurt afterward?
During the actual moment of destroying the sector, he had felt no guilt, no pain. Just clear exhilaration. Afterward, when it had hurt, he had just repeated, "I don't care, I don't care, I don't care," until it stopped. Until he taught himself not to care.
It's way too much like getting drunk, he mused to himself. When you actually drink, it feels like you're on top of the world.
Then the hangover drives you crazy.
He had always been a coward. Instead of facing pain, he always ran away from it. If there was one thing he admired it was bravery.
I wonder when it was…he wondered. When I turned into such a vile bastard?
Why did he ask such a stupid question? He knew the answer. Knew it, but didn't admit it.
When he had lost her.
Heantha.
When his wife had died, he had taken to drinking heavily. But all it had done was make the pain worse. When that had failed, he had lost himself in his job. He started to enjoy murdering people as though they were the cause for his suffering.
It put him on a temporary high, at least. Enough to get away from the pain.
But later, like the hangovers, it had started hurting again. So he went for another high.
Killing was a lot like a drug, he guessed. It could make you high for a while. But then, like all drugs, it could wear you down, eat you alive from the inside.
When he looked back at himself, it scared him.
He wondered what Tseng would say if he could see him now.
Tseng, former leader of the Turks.
Reno had admired him. He would never admit it, of course, but he always tried his best to have that calm, collective attitude. Tseng had been cool to the end.
He could almost hear his voice.
Reno, he would say. I think the question is, where did you go from there?
The sudden question startled him. When did he start realizing what he was doing? What woke him up?
Instead of an answer, a picture filled his mind. Of a young woman, praying…
To be stabbed from behind by a man with a sword.
He was an experienced killer himself, and he knew in this case most victims would scream in rage or beg for mercy.
This woman had done neither. Instead, until the end she had kept her eyes closed, praying. At the last second, she had opened her green eyes, and smiled. Then she had died.
It was bravery like that that affected him. Something he was sure he never would have done.
And in that last moment of the killing, he had felt real emotion. Real sympathy for Cloud, real hatred and hatred for Sephiroth, and real sorrow for the girl, mixed with something else.
Respect. He felt nothing less than admiration for her and her sacrifice.
That was why he had accompanied Cloud and the others on a quest to return her to life. Rude and Elena had just assumed it was another one of his weird mood swings, but he had known what he was doing the whole time. Yes, he had betrayed them, (by completely forgetting about the bug Scarlet and Heidegger had planted on himself for spy information) but he had kept fighting. For her sake.
He looked up as rain dotted his face. Her. Aeris.
Sacrifices of the Heart
By Lila
Chapter 1
Aeris Gainsborough fell to her knees, one hand to her head. Not again, she thought desperately. Oh please, oh please, not again…
But of course it was happening again. Another terrible vision.
Scenes flashed before her eyes. People, some she knew, most she didn't, being murdered before her eyes. Violent, brutal deaths far and near, so real it almost made her sick. Carcasses drifting everywhere…
All caused by one man.
It was a man she knew she had never seen before in her life, yet he looked so familiar. He was tall, with chestnut-colored hair and…
…cold, cold sea-green eyes. Just looking at them made her shudder.
He was dressed in a black suit. His casual way of wearing it, with the jacket unbuttoned and the shirt untucked, also seemed familiar, but it was ridiculous. She did not know this man.
But he seemed to know her. He smiled, right at her, each time she received a vision. And this one she was labeling the worst. Never had the screams sounded so loud…
…especially the one from the Planet. That was the loudest of all, scaring her, paining it so much it-
"Aeris!"
Confused, she opened her eyes.
Cloud Strife was kneeling by her, a look of fierce concern on his face. His blue eyes were fixed on her own green ones.
She stared at him until she recognized him, then threw herself, trembling, into his arms. He looked surprised, but held her close to him until she calmed slightly.
"What happened?" he asked.
She blinked back tears. "Cloud, it was awful," she whispered. "It came again…"
"The dream?" he asked. Slowly she nodded. He knew he shouldn't ask this, but he had to know. "Aeris," he said gently. "What happens, exactly, in the dreams?"
She swallowed hard. "It's…it's people dying, Cloud. Not of natural causes. Of murders. And it all traces back to one man. The…man with cold eyes. He…he looks at me, Cloud, and he's laughing. Except his eyes are cold. And the Planet is screaming all the while and it hurts me so much…"
She closed her eyes again, as if reliving the horror. She felt Cloud watching her with a deeply troubled look on his face, then reopened them.
"I'll be all right," she assured him. "After a while. I just…I wish I knew what all this meant." She stood up, and gave him a tiny smile. "Would you like to come inside now?"
Aeris had collapsed in the garden in front of her home, while she was tending flowers. Cloud had obviously been on his way to see her when he had found her facedown in the dirt.
These attacks have been coming more and more frequently lately, she worried as she poured Cloud a cup of tea. She did not notice she missed the teacup almost completely. Cloud was so sweet to stick by her like this. But she really needed time alone to think.
So it wasn't long afterward Cloud left, after her dropping hints that she was tired and needed to go to bed.
But when she was alone in the house, she didn't head upstairs. Instead she sat down and thought.
What could all this mean? Why was she receiving visions when no one else was? She wondered if she was going insane. More than once she had panicked and called the others to see if they were all right.
She rubbed her head tiredly. That's the problem with being an Ancient, she thought with disgust. You never know what's real and what's a mental breakdown symptom.
Finally she decided to go for a walk. The walls were just way too close around her.
Five minutes later she was outside, walking briskly down the streets of Sector 6.
Perhaps out of childhood habit, perhaps because she simply wasn't paying attention, she found herself walking toward the playground she used to play at when she was a child, right outside the remains of Sector 7.
But when she got there, someone was already there.
A man stood with his back to her, facing the demolished sector. Aeris could tell he was filled with inexplicable sadness, even though he had his back to her. Without warning, he spoke.
"This used to be Sector 7."
She hesitated. Then, she replied, "I know."
"I come here and look at it every day, and wonder about the lives the people who lived here had. Their hopes, their dreams for the future. All crushed. All destroyed, just like that."
She swallowed. "Did you…lose someone when the Plate collapsed?"
He paused. "No-o." He sighed and shook his head. "More people should know this. AVALANCHE didn't destroy Sector 7." He turned to face her. "I did."
Aeris gasped in shock. Her hands flew up to her face. "Reno!"
He was as surprised as her but determined not to show it. Instead, he pasted on his usual sardonic smirk. "Aeris."
She paused. Reno was the last person she thought would pour out his heart to a complete stranger. She had always deemed him as an enemy. But then, Cloud had told her a lot about him when the Turks went along to revive her. He seemed to have changed a lot. "Hello…" she said cautiously.
His grin grew wider. "I suppose I've proved to you I'm not a heartless tyrant?"
Maybe he hadn't changed that much.
Quite suddenly, she found herself grinning back. "Not a chance."
"Ouch," he said. "I must warn you, though, you can't tell anyone about my dirty little secret. It would ruin my reputation."
"It's not a dirty secret!" she said indignantly. "It's a sweet thing to do."
He seemed to choke on the word. "Sweet? No. Reno the Turk is anything but sweet."
She couldn't help snorting. Reno glanced at her.
"You look kinda…" he said and couldn't think of a way to finish the sentence.
"Bad?" she supplied. She knew how she looked; hair in a disarray, probably dirt all down her front, circles under her eyes from lack of sleep.
Nightmares. She shuddered.
"Yeah, I guess." He shrugged. No one had ever called him sensitive. "Why?"
She found herself at a loss for words.
Then, it happened.
"Eghh!" She shrieked. She stumbled back and put a hand to her head.
"Woah! Aeris!" He leapt forward and tried to catch her but she slipped from his grasp and fell.
She lost consciousness before her head hit the ground.
* * * * * *
Reno looked around frantically. What do you do when someone faints?
Elevate their head. No, elevate their feet. Was that it?
Finally, at a loss, he took off his jacket and folded it under her head for a pillow. He leaned over her.
"Hello! Anybody home?! You okay?"
Had he said something wrong? He had never seen anyone simply faint like this.
He heard a rustle from nearby and looked up. A man, younger than himself, (No more than a kid, Reno thought) was standing there. He had chestnut brown hair and was wearing a rumpled black suit. Dark sunglasses shielded his eyes from view.
"You!" Reno shouted. "Go get help!"
The young man looked at him and smirked. Reno scowled.
"Do as I say, Punk!"
Still with that pain-in-the-ass smirk on his face, the man melted into the shadows. Reno knew he would not follow his request.
He was about to go get someone himself when he noticed something sticking out of Aeris' dress pocket. A PHS.
He was reaching to grab it when Aeris suddenly woke up. She screamed when she saw him so close and tried to hit him. He pulled back in surprise.
Aeris bolted up, gasping. Then she drew her knees up to her chest, put her face in her hands and cried.
Reno was at an even bigger loss than before. Strange as it may seem, he had never seen a girl cry. She looked to him the most vulnerable thing on earth.
Cautiously he touched her shoulder. "Are you-"
"GET AWAY FROM ME!" She screamed. "GET AWAY!" She drew back from him, shivering.
Now he was even more confused. "Um…it's just me. Reno."
She stared until recognition seemed to dawn. A look of shame crossed into her green eyes.
"I'm sorry…" She said quietly.
He shrugged. "What the hell was that? You seemed to think I was attacking you or something!"
"It's just…I thought you were someone else." Her voice was almost inaudible. "That man…" She shivered.
"Huh?"
"The dream…" She murmured. "It came again. That man, and…and…oh, God! Marlene! Barret!" She jumped up. "I have to-"
He folded his arms across his chest, scowling. "You're not going anywhere until I get some answers," he said, scowling. "What was that?"
"It…it's a dream I receive sometimes," she tried to explain hurriedly. "About murders…killing the Planet…and now Marlene! I have to get to her!"
"Ooooooo-kay." Obviously he hadn't understood a word she had said.
She looked at him again and shuddered. His eyes…they looked almost exactly the same as the man's. And seeing them as soon as she woke up, staring right into hers…
Suddenly she looked accusing. "What were you doing so close to me?"
To his immense displeasure, he blushed slightly. "Nothing," he answered.
"You sure?" she pressed. "I do know what kind of guy you are."
"I was just getting at your PHS!" he cried. "I swear!" Although he knew to say the idea hadn't crossed his mind would be lying.
She glared at him a moment, then stalked off. Reno stopped to grab his jacket off the ground, then hurried after her.
"What are you doing?" she sighed.
"Coming with you," he replied, looking shocked she had to ask. "Obviously you'll need a personal bodyguard."
She sniffed. "I seem to remember hiring a bodyguard to protect me from you."
"Oh yeah!" He remembered. "Cloud. What was the deal, one date? I'll settle for three."
She looked at him as though he had grown an extra head. "You're crazy," she muttered. Reno only grinned. He had been called that before.
Aeris took out her PHS, jiggled it, then shook her head. Her fall must have broken it.
She began to run. "It's more urgent," she muttered. "I have to get there!"
Suddenly Reno stopped and looked around. Aeris skidded to a halt and came back for him impatiently.
"Reno, you don't seem to understand how important-"
"Sh!" He placed a hand over her mouth. She wrenched it away.
"What?!"
He was listening intently, though Aeris had heard nothing. Then he heard it again: The sound of a gun being cocked.
"Shit!" he yelled, and dove on top of Aeris, knocking her down.
"What do you think you're- AHHHHHHH!" Her complaint broke off into a scream as bullets whizzed by overhead.
Reno grabbed his electro-mag rod, then pulled Aeris to her feet. She was looking thoroughly scared, and held tightly to his hand. Dispite the situation, Reno grinned.
"I think I'm jacking up the price to five dates," he murmured to her. Aeris instantly dropped his hand as though it was a poisonous snake.
"You disgust me," she said, her voice equally low. "Can we just get out of here?"
He rolled his eyes. "We're surrounded. Only way I'll get you out is if you agree to my price. Five dates."
She glared at him. "Why you-"
"Okay, fine, I'll settle for three," he said agreeably. "That's as low as I'm going."
Aeris glanced around suspiciously, gripping her rod tight in both hands. She knew she'd never make it our on her own. She turned her head away in contempt. "One."
"You got yourself a deal!" He grinned.
"And if you ever tell anyone I actually agreed to this," she added, "I'll-"
"RUN FOR IT!" He yelled, shoving her forward. He used his electro-mag rod to blow a hole through a wall of junk up ahead.
Instantly the bullets came again. One caught Reno a glancing blow on his shoulder, another snatched a lock of hair from Aeris' head. But they made it through into Sector 6.
Reno pulled his gun from his holster and glanced behind them to see if anyone was following them. (He loved his electro-mag rod, but it was mostly only good for close-range fighting.) But they were clear. Even so, they kept running until they were well away.
When they stopped to catch their breath, Reno grinned at her. "Interesting, how they waited for us to be done with our negotiations before they started firing. I think it's a message from the fates."
She stared at him a full minute before shaking her head. "You're weird."
"Why do you say that?"
"Someone just tried to kill us, and you say it's a message from the fates!" she cried. "I bet you hired those guys to scare me into agreeing with you!"
He looked shocked. "I would never! Although it's a good idea, I wouldn't be anywhere near so underhanded. Anyway, there's a good chance that if it wasn't for my brilliant intellect, we would both be dead. So rest assured, I did not hire those guys to kill us."
She shook her head again, then staggered back in pain. "Ugh…"
"Aeris?"
"It's…happening again…" she whispered through gritted teeth.
"What do I do?" he said tersely.
"Just wait…I'll be all right…"
She faded into blackness.
Chapter 2
Aeris swirled through dark tunnels. She wasn't moving, and yet she was. She seemed to be flying at breakneck speed through the dark.
There was light at the end of the tunnel, she could see. Yet it didn't move closer, or further away. It stayed exactly where it was.
"The light!" She screamed in the blackness. "Where is the light?!"
A low, chuckling voice answered her. "You want light? All right, I'll give you light."
With that, the whole tunnel was bathed in light. Aeris could see.
Bodies.
Bodies scattered everywhere.
She could discern her friends, Cloud, Tifa, all of them, lost in their midst. They were dead. All of them. Dead.
She fell to her knees, sobbing. "No!"
She heard a scuffle behind her. Jumping up, she turned to look.
The man with the cold eyes was there. He grinned at her. "Behold."
She whirled around to see Reno. He was kneeling on the floor, a dead woman in his arms. Even from this distance, Aeris could easily make out the dead woman's bright green eyes.
Reno glared at the man. "You…" He rushed forward. The man yanked out a gun and shot Reno, point-blank, in the chest.
Aeris screamed in horror. "You monster!"
The man with the cold eyes looked right at her. "There's more to come." With a sneer, he pulled a sobbing child into view.
"Marlene!" Aeris cried. "Let her go!"
He laughed. "Come and find her, then. Take the next ship from Junon Harbor."
She writhed, trying to drive his awful laugh from her ears, but she couldn't do it.
"Stop it!" She screamed.
He kept laughing.
"Stop it! Stop it!'
A hard slap brought her to her senses. With a jolt, she woke up.
Reno was there, looking scared she might freak out again, but he needn't have worried. She lay back down. Tears slid down her cheeks.
"Sorry I had to hit you," he said, looking uncomfortable. "You were screaming."
She said nothing for the longest time. At last she whispered, "Who's that woman?"
"What?" he said in confusion.
"The woman with the dark hair, and green eyes. Who is she?"
"What's it to you?" he said sharply.
"Nothing…" she answered softly. "I just wondered who she was."
He didn't ask how Aeris knew about her. Instead he said:
"Nobody. She's nobody. And don't ever mention her again." He stood up. "Have you recovered yet?"
The sarcastic edge to his voice startled her a little. "Um…I think so." She climbed to her feet.
"Where is it exactly we're going?" he asked curtly.
It took a moment to collect her scattered thoughts. "Something terrible is happening to Marlene," she said slowly. "Tifa's bar is closest. We can contact Barret there."
He nodded and followed her through the sector.
* * * * * *
Very soon afterward, Aeris burst through the door of Tifa's bar. "Tifa!"
She stopped.
Barret was sitting on a stool by the bar, his face in his hands. Tifa was talking sympathetically to him from behind the counter.
"We're too late," Aeris said softly to Reno. "It's happened."
"What's happened?"
"Marlene's gone."
Aeris stepped inside the restaurant, motioning for Reno to follow her. As the door slammed shut both Tifa and Barret looked up.
One look at Barret's face was all Aeris needed. She sat on the stool next to him and spoke quietly, in a voice thick with tears.
"Barret. It's Marlene, isn't it?"
Barret nodded once, then put his face in his hands again.
Tifa came out from behind the counter and walked up to Reno. Noting the blood on his shoulder, she said wryly, "What have you two been up to?"
"Just ran into each other on the street," he explained. "She had this weird…attack, then ran straight here. On the way we had a skirmish with some street punks."
Okay, that wasn't exactly what had happened, but Reno wasn't known for explaining things in detail.
"What happened here?" he asked.
Tifa glanced at Barret, then said, "Marlene's missing. Barret thinks she's been kidnapped."
"Why?"
"This." She produced a small slip of paper. On it were the words:
If you ever want to see your daughter again, ask the Cetra girl.
"'Cetra girl'?" he asked, glancing at Aeris. "What would she know about this?"
"I'm going to ask her now." Tifa walked over to Aeris and tapped her on the shoulder.
Aeris' eyes widened as she read the note. Then she placed it on the counter. In a surprisingly calm voice she said, "So. This is it."
"What?" Tifa asked.
"This is what the dreams meant. They were real." She looked up at Tifa with fear in her eyes. "We have to get her back! I don't know what this man's capable of." Actually she did know, she just didn't want to alarm Barret. "And, I think we need to have a little reunion."
"What?" Tifa repeated. "You mean…"
Aeris nodded, smiling slightly. "Yes. Think about it. They all care enough about Barret to help out."
"What?" Reno interrupted. He hated being left in the dark.
"AVALANCHE is going to reunite."
* * * * * *
The very next day, Cloud arrived at Junon Harbor. Everyone had agreed to meet here.
He had long since grown used to Aeris' unusual abilities as a Cetra, but these new visions of her's fascinated him. Imagine being able to see the future!
Although, Aeris didn't think they were so great. He recalled how scared she had been the other day.
"Cloud!"
Aeris waved to him from across the harbor. Tifa stood beside her, a bright smile on her face. "Hi, Cloud!'
Behind them loomed the huge form of Barret, who nodded curtly in greeting.
"It's all right, Barret," Cloud said sympathetically. "We'll get her back."
"Yeah," Barret nodded. "We can't give up."
"Hey!" Aeris pointed up to the sky.
A plane soared above them. It waggled one of its wings to them, as if waving, then headed to the nearby airport.
"Must be Cid," Tifa said, shading her eyes to follow it. "Looks like he found something to replace the Highwind."
"Hey, guys!" They turned around to see a young ninja trotting toward them. Over her shoulder she carried an empty sack.
"Hi, Yuffie," Aeris smiled. Then she frowned. "What's that sack for?"
"Oh, this?" Yuffie said airily. "It's just for any materia I might…find…on our trip."
"Yeah right, Kid."
Cid was walking toward them, with Nanaki close behind him. "More likely you're gonna pickpocket everyone on the $@%!&^# ship."
Yuffie didn't deny it. "Well, is that everyone? I wanna get going."
"What about Vincent?" Cid inquired.
Tifa shook her head. "Couldn't reach him on the PHS. Guess he finally went back to his coffin in Nibelheim or something."
"That's still not everyone."
Reno, Rude, and Elena walked up. Reno had his usual smirk on his face.
"What, you wanna come with us?" Aeris said, surprised. Reno winked at her.
"Just gotta see that bargain I made fall through."
She would have kicked him, but Barret interrupted.
"Well, if we're not gonna get no more surprises, we'd better get movin'. The ship's about to leave!" He jerked his head at the ship, which was close to departure.
As they hurriedly climbed aboard, Reno fell into step behind Aeris. "Betcha you're to see me, huh?"
"You didn't have to do this," she said.
"Oh, but I wanted to. Life's so boring, now that Shinra's done."
He sighed, and for a moment she thought she caught a glimpse of another man there, one who missed the former discipline and training he had as a Turk.
She asked, "Do you miss the days when the Turks had all the power?"
"Oh yeah," he said breezily. "Who wouldn't miss assassinating people for money? Plus the pay was better."
She shook her head, moving on ahead. He had a warped sense of humor.
Rude caught up to Reno, also shaking his head. "You're strange. You're really strange."
"What?"
"For one thing, you're a hypocrite. For another…she's way too classy for you! And if Cloud finds out he'll have your head on a platter."
"It's nothing serious," Reno shrugged. "It's just fun baiting her. And Tifa wasn't your type."
Rude stared at him a minute, then repeated, "You're really strange."
"Oh, really? And what would you do if you were alone with Tifa?"
"Now what you would," Rude scowled.
"Yeah, right."
Reno walked over to Cloud. "Hey, Spike. What time we getting there?"
Cloud glared at the name, but didn't comment. "Late tomorrow morning," he replied.
Reno turned back to Rude. "C'mon, let's go get a drink at the bar."
When they got to the bar, Cid, Barret, and Tifa were already there. Barret was depressed, staring down at his drink.
"Cheer up, Barret," Tifa said encouragingly. "Aeris seemed pretty optimistic about this whole thing. I'm sure Marlene's okay." The truth was, Aeris had seemed nervous ever since the ship left port, and had retired to her room, complaining of a headache.
"Yeah," Barret agreed glumly. "I swear, though, when I get ahold of whoever's got my Marlene-" He made a violent motion with his hands. "-I'll snap his neck like that!"
"Just don't get to carried away," Tifa warned. "Remember, we don't know what we're dealing with."
* * * * * *
Later that night, Cid was alone in the common room. Cigarette tight in his mouth, he leaned awkwardly over the pool table, holding the cue stick exactly like he always held his spear.
"C'mon, you friggin' ball," he murmured. "Nice an' easy…nice an' easy…"
He shot. The white ball completely missed what he was aiming for.
"^%@$! He exploded. "^%@$ the @#$%&^* ball! I hate this @#$%&^* game!"
Slamming the stick onto the table, he stomped over to the triangle and started reforming his balls. So what if he was missing a few? He wanted to start over, and he wasn't about to pay another ten gil to do it.
"Dumb-ass game," he murmured. "Who the hell thought of it anyway?"
He was interrupted by a tap on his shoulder. "What?!" He snarled furiously, turning around.
Before he could get a glimpse of whoever it was, he was slammed firmly on the head. Cid went down hard.
The chestnut-haired man stepped around Cid and started digging through his pockets.
"Let's see what he's got," he murmured, talking more to himself than the forty or so armed men standing behind him.
He found a pack of cigarettes, a bunch of gil, and a knife. All of which he pocketed. Lastly, he found a lighter.
"Hmmm…." He murmured, sea-green eyes glinting cruelly. He stood, and clicked the lighter a few times before it caught flame.
Grinning to himself, he threw the lighter onto a stack of magazines. They immediately started smoking.
"This whole place is wood," he said to his comrades. "It'll catch fire soon enough."
He stepped over Cid, kicking him aside.
"Thanks, old man."