Mwahahaha...two chapters revised in one day. I do say it's looking better and better by the minute ;P
NOTE: I do not own Final Fantasy VII, but I do own Aerith Strife and the black werewolf in this chapter.
AERITH...THE REINCARNATION OF AERIS?
PART IV
DON'T CRY WOLF, WHO HOWLS ALONE
At the bridge of the airship, Cloud looks at the sky with a look of concern in his face. Not only he was worried about Aerith currently being in the hands of the ShinRa, he was also worried about her lycan curse might take effect tonight. If the transformation happens, there might be a possibility that the ShinRa might kill her. Cloud hopes that they could reach ShinRa HQ before Aerith transforms. Tifa watches him stare at the sky, noticing his concern as she walks over to him. "It's getting dark," She said, with a hint of concern in her voice.
"Yeah, I think a full moon is out tonight," said Cloud.
"And that's what I'm afraid of." Tifa responded as she looks at the sky. She too is concerned about Aerith's lycan curse taking effect tonight. All of a sudden, a man, who seems to be the pilot of the airship, walks into the bridge, smoking his cigarette. He notices Tifa and Cloud staring at the sky then walks over to them as he listened to their conversation. "What?" He interrupted. "Scared of the boogeyman?" He laughs a bit then inhales the cigarette and blows out smoke. Cloud looks at Cid and answers, "No, Cid...In case you've forgotten, Aerith has the lycan curse."
Cid suddenly drops his jaw by surprise and his cigarette falls to the ground. He yells, "What!? Why in -bleep- did you keep a lycan!?"
Cloud responds, "I didn't want to leave her there and die...besides all those years, I have prevented the transformation from taking place. I didn't let her go out at night at all...not even after sunset. I keep the windows closed at night as well." Cloud looks back at the sky as Cid picks up his cigarette. He grumbles about how it's a bad idea to keep people who are have a lycan curse and walks over to steer the airship, getting it out of autopilot. Barrett watches with his back against a wall and speaks to Cloud in wonder, "So, Spikey, she hasn't transformed yet?"
"No, she hasn't...but I'm afraid that tonight might be her first," he responded as he shakes his head.
Tifa looks at Cloud, her eyes filled with concern as she speaks, "I don't think the ShinRa know that she's a lycan."
Cid just listens to the conversation as he smoke his cigarette, feeling confused, but doesn't want to show it to everybody. Barret goes into deep thought as Cid turns his attention to Tifa. "That's not good," He said. "What else is new?" Just when Tifa was about to answer, Cloud responds, "Her body is overly exposed to mako...and with her lycan curse taking effect, I'm worried that she might not control herself." He continues to look at now moonlit sky, remembering that Aerith's overexposure to mako has gotten worse since the incident 3 years ago.
Cid gives a slight frown, "You mean she now has mako poisoning? Geez man, what in -bleep- were you thinking when she was let out of the hospital 3 years ago? You know that she needed more treatment, otherwise she wouldn't have gotten worse." He grumbles as he takes another smoke from his cigarette. He remembers having to help Cloud take Aerith to a hospital at a nearby town 3 years ago since there weren't any good medical facilities in Midgar. Cloud looks at Cid as he heard his questions. Exactly what was he thinking that day when Aerith was let out of the hospital? Did he just wanted for her to come home? Or was he more worried about the lycan curse taking effect if she ended up having to stay for more days? As far he knew, he feels regret for being more worried about the curse than her mako poisoning. Cid looks back at Cloud, "You know...you sure make a good father for being so concerned about her like that."
Cloud suddenly snaps out of his thoughts when he heard Cid's comment about him being a good father then sighs, "I'm not much of a good father to her. I found her 10 years ago...and she was just a small child with no one around to look up to. I'm still wondering why anyone would chain a child like that and leave her there defenseless...and alone. Speaking of which, I haven't gotten any luck from finding out who her parents are...and I've been worried about her curse taking effect all this time, I haven't realized that her overexposure to mako was taking its toll on her."
The airship was then filled with silence, except for the sound of the airship running. After a short while, Tifa was in deep thought about the recent events. The thought of losing Aerith was something she nor Cloud didn't want to happen. Tifa knew that something happened to Aerith, Cloud would be even more devastated than he was before. Suddenly she snaps out of her thoughts as she remembers something Aerith told her then looks at Cloud and speaks, "Earlier before the Turks came, Aerith told me that she encountered a man with silver hair while she was in the forest."
Cloud turns his attention to Tifa, his eyes widen slightly as he responds, "You mean she...met him?"
"I was surprised myself...I almost thought she encountered Sephiroth himself, but she told me that the man she encountered had red eyes."
"Red eyes? Hmm...What was his name?"
"She didn't say...though she said something about there was something about him that seemed familiar to her."
Cloud begins to wonder about who this silver-haired man might be. He doesn't remember seeing someone like that before, but his mind was filled with questions that really needed to be answered. As he was about to go into deep thought, Cid snaps him out of his thoughts. "So how was your search for that werewolf?" Cloud perks up and looks at Cid as he shakes his head. "Not so good. I never saw it again ever since I found Aerith...but I remember how it looked like. It was big with black fur and bloody red eyes." He said then all of a sudden, something clicks in his mind. "I wonder..."
Meanwhile at ShinRa Headquarters, Aerith was sitting on a chair in Rufus's office as Hojo examines her. She was still trembling in fear when Rufus and the Turk brought her to the building, wondering why they did, but she knew that there wasn't much she could do on trying to resist. She hopes that Cloud and Tifa would come to take her home soon. Hojo then speaks as he adjusts his glasses, "You sure do resemble Aeris. Very interesting..." Aerith becomes confused as she looks at the whacked scientist. "What do you want from me?" She asked softly, wondering why everyone keeps saying that she resembled Aeris. She remembers Cloud telling her about Aeris and how she meant to him. Before she could get any more questions in her mind, Hojo responds to her with a slight grin, "You are a very unique person, my dear. I just need you so I can figure out if my guesses are correct." Tears start to form in Aerith's eyes as Reno walks into the office, along with Rufus. Reno notices the tears in Aerith's eyes then looks at Hojo and speaks, "Awww, man. Whycha make her cry for?"
Hojo looks at the red-haired Turk as he places his hands behind his back and responds, "I didn't do it, thank you very much."
"Man...You're so rude...like Rude!" Reno gives a sigh then turns his attention to Rufus. "Hey, where's Tseng?"
Rufus walks over to his chair and sits down on it. "He and Elena are currently on vacation." He responded. Reno's jaw drops when he heard this and flails his arms as he yells out, "No fair! How come I don't get to go on vacation!? This stinks!" He pouts as he seems to get the feeling that Rufus has always considered Tseng the favored Turk. He wonders how Tseng does it to get vacations like that from Rufus. He gives a sigh as he walks over toward a window that was covered with a curtain then he glances over at Aerith, who had tears falling from her cheeks. He never seen anyone as frightened as she was towards him and everyone else in the building. He watches Hojo walk over to Rufus and speaks with him about his research. Reno gives a shrug as he taps his rod on his shoulder.
Aerith, noticing that everyone else in the room was too occupied with something else, tries to get up from the chair and tries to leave the room. As soon as she takes her first step, she turns her attention toward a window, that's not covered. She slowly walks over towards it then jumps a bit when Reno called out to her, "Don't even think about escaping, kay?" He continues to tap his rod on his shoulder, but keeps his eye on her. Aerith gives a slight nod as she bites her bottom lip and looks through the window, noticing the full moon. Reno shake his head a bit then turns his attention to Hojo. "Hey, Hojo. Why do we need her?"
Hojo looks at Reno and responds, "She is a unique person. Maybe we could learn something more from her."
Reno's eye twitches as he listens to Hojo and thinks to himself, Why did I bother asking? There was silence for a short moment, then all of a sudden, they could hear the sound of howling then Reno removes the curtains and opens the window. He peeks his head out and looks to the right then to the left, wondering where the howling was coming from. Hojo then palms his forehead and yells, "Reno! You idiot!" He shakes his head.
Reno pulls his head back in and glances at Hojo. "What?" He asked, raising an eyebrow. "I was trying to see what was that howling noise."
"That's the sound of a werewolf howling, you moron. You would've let one in here by opening that window."
"Well excuuuuuse me for trying to find the source," Reno grumbles then looks at the sky. "Hey, nice full moon." They could hear another howling noise, but this time it sounded nearby. "Whoa! That sounded close!" Reno yelled out in surprise as he looks over to Rufus, waiting for his orders as Rude comes into the office and glances over to Aerith, noticing that she was now laying on the floor, curling up as she hugs her legs. She was feeling pain, but her eyes seems to be in a trance like state as they give off a strange greenish glow. Rude then looks to Rufus, "Sir...I think we have a problem with the girl."
Rufus looks to Aerith and turns his glance over to Reno. "Reno, you and Rude will look after the girl while Hojo and I find where the howling is coming from." Rufus demanded as he pulls out his gun and starts to search around the office. Reno thinks to himself as he walks over to Rude, How come I'm always with Rude? He's so rude. Just about Reno was about say something, they heard yet another noise, but this time it's a growling noise and its loud. Reno quickly grips his rod tightly and looks near that window he looked through earlier and finds a lycan standing on the window sill, growling deeply. The same lycan that bit Aerith 10 years ago. Reno's eyes widen in shock and yells out as he points at the lycan, "G-Guys! There's that werewolf I told ya about! Ya know, the one that looks like Rude!"
Hojo and Rufus run over to Reno and look to where he was pointing. Hojo spots the lycan with the look of amazement on his face and says, "Oh my, there really is a lycan in here!" He gives a slight grin as he examines the creature. So you've finally shown yourself after years of hiding yourself. He thought to himself as Rufus aims his gun at the black lycan. "Let's kill it before it causes damage in here!" Rufus demanded.
