She opened her eyes to see that everyone else's attention was focused on whoever it that had called out.
A young man burst out from behind a pile of boxes, summersaulting through the air and landing behind where Aerith and Genesis were standing.
"Let her go!" Aerith heard him snarl.
She turned around, twisting out of Genesis' grip on her waist, to see a young man, about a year or two older than her, with spiky, black hair and glowing eyes that flashed with anger. Tightly in his hand, he held a standard issued ShinRa sword and he wore the uniform of a First-Class.
Genesis snarled at the boy, a ball of fire slowly appearing in the palm of his hand, temporarily releasing Aerith. She quickly ran behind the boy, her eyes wide with fear.
The young man flashed her a reassuring grin, and threw his arm out to protect her.
"ShinRa scum…" Genesis hissed, pulling his hand back and releasing the fireball towards the boy. Aerith jumped to the side with a squeak, deciding it was probably safer to stay out of the way.
The SOLDIER quickly rolled out of harm's way and jumped back up to his feet, his jaw clenched in determination.
"Nice to see you again, Genesis." The younger man smirked.
"Zack," Genesis spat, already summoning another fireball.
"We can outnumber him, yo!" Reno cried, scrambling to his feet. "He's only a pesky, weak little runt anyway, yo! He doesn't look like he's been a First long!"
"A piece of cake," Sephiroth smirked and his brothers cackled.
Cloud remained emotionless, his face a mask of stone. Tifa fidgeted in her seat and whispered something into Cloud's ear, who nodded slightly.
Genesis grinned.
"Yes, you're all alone this time, your mentor can't save you now."
Zack raised an eyebrow.
"Who said I was alone?"
As if on cue, several of ShinRa's Turks appeared from the shadows, their pistols each pointing towards Genesis, followed by a few Infantrymen, their rifles loaded. A couple SOLDIER operatives also emerged from the shadows, their swords held tightly in their hands.
Aerith had never been so happy to see people from ShinRa before in her life, despite how much she disliked the company itself.
She watched as Reno paled.
"I don't wanna fight Turks, yo!"
"Is this a patrol duty or something?" Kadaj snorted, unimpressed.
"They should prove to be no problem for us," Sephiroth grinned. "They're all a bunch of Seconds and Thirds, they stand no change against the three of us."
"But they have a larger group than we do," Cloud pointed out. "And not only do they have short range weapons, but long ranged as well. Turks have deadly accuracy and there is no way, even people of our caliber, could block both their bullets and the SOLDIER's swords."
"Stop trying to sound so smart, yo!" Reno growled, making Cloud shrug.
Genesis growled again, realizing that Cloud was right.
He turned to his team and reluctantly ordered them to retreat.
With a cold glance Zack's direction, Genesis jumped onto his bike and peeled away from the scene, the Turk's bullets rattling off his bike along with Reno's, Sephiroth's, his brother's and then lastly, Cloud's.
Zack looked at the group of Infantryman, Turks and SOLDIER and scratched the back of his head.
"Well, that turned out better than I hoped. I figured they'd stay and fight…guess not."
Zack then seemed to remember Aerith was there and quickly ran to her.
"Are you all right?"
Aerith nodded and threw her arms around him.
"Thank you so much for saving me! I don't know what I would have done if you hadn't come out when you did!" She couldn't help but sob into his chest, the truth of what almost happened suddenly registering in her brain.
Zack awkwardly patted her back and when she pulled away from him with a mumbled apology, all he did was smile and wave away her thanks and her gratitude.
"I always help out a lady in distress." He winked.
Aerith smiled up at him and wiped away her tears quickly.
"How did you find me?"
Zack shrugged, suddenly looking sheepish. He shoved his hands in his pockets after returning his sword to it's place on his back.
"We were sent to deal with a large garrison of monsters that were roaming the area - experiments that managed to escape the labs. They would have been too much for just the Infantryman to handle alone, so ShinRa ordered me and," Zack gestured to the other SOLDIER members and the Turks. "The guys to handle it. We picked up the Infantryman on the way and - oh!" He suddenly said, grinning stupidly. He nervously scratched the back of his head. "I'm rambling again. Sorry about that. Anyway, we managed to find most of the monsters. We were on our way back to the ShinRa building to rest up for the night before continuing our search, we ran into Angeal. He told me you were on your way home and asked me to make sure you got there safely."
Aerith took in his story and smiled wider. She pulled him into another hug.
"Thank you so much!" She cried, her voice muffled in his sweater. "I'm so glad you came!"
Zack laughed.
"Like I said, don't mention it. I'm just glad I got here in time."
Aerith nodded, quickly pulling away from him, a blush rising to her cheeks when she realized she had held the hug just a little longer than necessary.
"M-me too! I'll have to thank Angeal next to time I see him, too."
"Yup!" Zack cried with a grin, placing his hands on his hips and walking foreword a couple steps. "Who knew Angeal being so over-protective would turn out to be something more than just useless words?" Zack shrugged, making Aerith giggle.
"Maybe," She told him, trying to keep her face serious even though a smile tugged at her lips. "You should listen to him more, Mr. SOLDIER." She jabbed him in the chest with a grin.
Zack clutched a hand to his chest, pretending to be hurt.
"What a way to thank a guy who just saved your life!" He pouted, winking to let her know he was joking, and causing Aerith to laugh again.
She clasped her hands behind her back with an innocent little smile and circled him, pretending to observe him closely.
Now that she got the chance to really look at him, she realized how handsome he was.
The light from one of the torches at the side of the road lit up his face perfectly, making his blue eyes shine brightly and giving his tanned skin a flawless appearance except for the small X-shaped scar across one of his cheeks. His black, spiky hair gave him a boyish charm and she had to admit he was kinda cute.
Suddenly Zack laughed, making her stop circling him.
"Am I?" He grinned, causing her to blush violently.
Did I…say that out loud?
She mentally kicked herself for admitting that. She had never had a crush on anyone before, let alone seen many boys her own age, but she hardly even knew Zack! She had heard countless stories from Angeal and he seemed to be kind enough from their little time together, but…
Zack beamed at her before turning around to address the group of warriors behind him.
"You guys head back to the ShinRa building. I'll walk this pretty lady home."
Aerith blinked.
Wait did he just say…?
"No, Aerith, you're just imagining things…" She muttered under her breath.
Unfortunatley, she had forgotten that SOLDIER had enhanced hearing and nearly jumped out of her skin when Zack asked: "Imagining what?"
"N-nothing!" She squeaked.
Zack chuckled.
"Sure. Now, let's get you home safely. I'm sure your parents are worried."