Chapter 7: Wire Of Hope
"Uhhhh...Owww..." When Zack's five senses started to return, he felt bruised, but at least he didn't feel like every part of his body was broken now, when he slowly opened his eyes, he found himself in the guest room of Aerith's house. He also saw the sleeping forms of Rene and Marlene nearby the bed that he had been on.
His ears perked up when he heard the door opened, he saw Taylor stepping in and turning to where Zack was.
"Oh hey, you're finally awake, that'll put Rene and Marlene's minds at ease, they were worried about you." Taylor greeted.
Zack tried to get up but still felt unable to do so. "I wouldn't do that yet. I'm not a doctor, but you had multiple broken bones from that attack, I used some cure magic to help mend the bones, Rene offered to help, but with all the energy he used up today, I felt it was better if he and Marlene got some rest. That little girl also went through a lot today." Taylor explained.
"That explains why I feel bruised all over, I wish I could say thanks but I guess I'll have to wait til Rene wakes up to translate for me." Zack spoke out loud but he knew Taylor couldn't understand him, it was really frustrating not being able to talk with people freely, it makes him miss being human, since he always had been a social person.
"Thankfully, the injuries weren't that serious. You'll be able to walk normal again within a few hours once the bruising fades. Here, something to help the healing process." Taylor brought out a potion from Rene's small side bag and poured it into a bowl for Zack to drink from. "Rene told me, I was allowed to use these if needed. I could use cure magic but I have studied back at Shinra that some people can grow a strong immunity to materia or magic itself, completely nullifying the effects. So I don't want to accidentally make you immune to 'cure' magic if I use it on you constantly." Taylor explained.
"No way...I didn't know stuff like that could happen. Immunity of all magic huh? That must make healing a pain in the ass." Zack joked lightly.
"By the way, Mrs Gainsborough is fine too, she's upset about Aerith being taken away, but that's to be expected. We also checked the news to find out what was going on in Sector 7...I'm afraid...we were too late to do anything. They succeeded in destroying the pillar, I feel so sorry for the people who were still in that sector when the pillar fell..."
"Damn it! I can't believe Shinra actually went through with that! That's going too far!"
"And guess what? Shinra are blaming it on Avalanche, claiming it was a terrorist attack. They had probably planned this from the beginning, damn it." Taylor punched the wall behind him, but not hard enough for it to leave a dent.
"Mmm, Taylor?" Rene stirred, sitting up and rubbing his eyes.
"Sorry Rene, did we wake you?"
"No, I couldn't get to sleep that well, not after hearing about what happened to Sector 7." Rene shook his head.
"I know. Oh, Zack's awake if you want to know." Taylor nodded in understanding.
"Really?" Rene seemed to have cheered up from hearing this and saw Zack who was awake now.
"Zack! You've finally came around! I'm so relieved!" Rene beamed.
"Hey kid, it'll take more than that to take out ol' Zack Fai-ow ow ow! Okay, maybe I'm not entirely better yet. Damn, Tseng sure has a nasty kick." Zack boasted proudly before it was betrayed by the still sore bruising on his body.
"At least you're alright. Is that a potion?" Rene smiled.
"Yeah, I took one from your bag a few moments ago, you don't mind?" Taylor answered.
"Not at all, after all, that's what they're for, right?" Rene placed his hands behind his head in a carefree manner.
Taylor placed the bowl near Zack, "I know this is probably humiliating for you, but it would be a little messy if I tried pouring the bottle in your mouth."
"I'll have to get used to it. Oh, Rene, can you thank Taylor for me?" Zack sighed, then asked Rene to thank Taylor before drinking the contents of the bowl with his canine tongue.
"Heh heh, Zack says thanks." Rene translated for Zack.
"Don't mention it. I'm going to go back and keep watch over Mrs Gainsborough, the least I can do for Miss Aerith. What do they want with her anyway?" Taylor wondered before leaving and going back downstairs.
"Mmmm..." Marlene was now starting to wake up.
"Oh hey, are you okay now?" Rene asked.
"Yeah." Marlene nodded as she sat up properly. She saw that the puppy was now awake and beamed brightly. "Zack! You're okay! That person was mean to pick on a little puppy. Did hurt you?"
"Awww, you're adorable, you know that." Zack smiled at the small girl.
"Zack told me that he's fine, so don't worry." Rene reassured her.
"That's good. I feel bad for the flower lady though, will she be okay? Daddy told me that Shinra do bad things to nice people. She must be really scared." Marlene turned the conversation to Aerith and Shinra.
"I bet she is. She wanted to look strong for us, but I can tell that she's terrified of them. We have to go and help her." Rene agreed.
"I couldn't have said it better myself, kid. But how do we get there? I doubt they are letting any trains down here since the collapse of Sector 7." Zack asked.
"I don't know, we'll have to think of something." Rene tried to think of an answer but couldn't think of one.
They could hear the door being opened from downstairs, Zack and Rene looked at each other and nodded in sync, despite the soreness of his body, the potion that he drank from the bowl helped to ease it greatly, he jumped down from the bed and hurried to the door.
"Marlene, stay up here okay? This might be your daddy." Rene turned to the small four-year old.
"Okay, please let Daddy know I'm okay." Marlene smiled and quickly nodded.
"Of course." Rene easily replied before following Zack back downstairs.
Once they arrived downstairs, they saw that it was indeed Cloud, Tifa, along with a burly dark-skinned man with a gun-arm grafted to his arm. Could this really be Marlene's father?
"Thank Gaia, at least Cloud and Tifa are still in one piece. Is that big guy with them Marlene's dad?"
"Yeah, I get the feeling he is." Rene nodded.
"I'm glad to see you guys are alright. You don't have to say anything...We already know what happened to Sector 7." Taylor told them.
"We couldn't do anything to stop them." Tifa looked depressed at the thought of all those innocents who died.
"No, you guys did everything you could to stop Shinra. I'm sure of that. We managed to warn a lot of people about the threat, so hopefully they took our warning seriously and left before it collapsed."
"But...they were some who didn't make it out in time." Tifa shook her head, when she thought about Biggs, Wedge and Jesse who died fighting Shinra.
"I'm sorry." Taylor apologised, it was never easy losing a friend or loved one. He knew that better than anyone.
"Don't apologise. I appreciate what you, Aerith and Rene did for the people in Sector 7 Slums, thank you." Tifa smiled sadly.
"Cloud...was it?" Elmyra spoke, gazing at Cloud with a sad expression on her face. "It's about Aerith, isn't it?"
"Sorry...The Shinra have her." Cloud apologised, answering to Elmyra's question instantly.
"I know. They took her from here."
"They were here?" Cloud repeated in surprise.
"Or rather just a Turk, his name was Tseng. He's known as the leader of the Turks. He played us right into his hands by taking Mrs Gainsborough hostage." Taylor explained.
"That's what Aerith wanted. She's always thinking about others before herself, I don't know where she gets that nature from." Elmyra added.
"Why is Shinra after Aerith?" Cloud asked.
"Oh yeah...Cloud doesn't know..." Zack recalled.
"Know what?" Rene questioned.
"Aerith is an Ancient, the sole survivor." Elmyra quietly answered.
"Huh?! She's a Cetra?! No way!" Rene jumped in shock at the news.
"...Who's the little kid?" The gun-armed man seemed to have noticed Rene now.
"That's Rene, Barret." Tifa answered simply.
'If only you knew you were one of them too.' Zack sighed hopelessly at Rene.
"But wait...What did did you say? Aren't you her mother?" Barret noted.
"...Not her real mother. Oh...it must have been fifteen years ago..." Elmyra started to explain the entire story behind how she came to find Aerith with her birth mother dying on the train station at Sector 7. How her husband was killed in the Wutian War and she had no child of her own, so she decided to raise Aerith as her own, as her real mother's last words to her was to take Aerith somewhere safe. She told them about how the two bonded, and how Aerith told her they escaped some kind of research laboratory, how she knew her mother returned to the planet and many other things.
"Returned to the planet?" Barret repeated.
"I didn't know what she meant. So I asked if it was a star in the sky, but she said it was the planet." Elmyra shook her head.
"I know about that." Rene nodded. "My grandfather told me about it. He told me that when a living being reaches the end of its life, the soul of that living being returns to the planet from whence it came, after being purified, that soul returns to the planet as a new life. The lifestream had followed this rule for millions of years." Rene explained.
"How...did you learn all that?" Elmyra blinked in surprise.
"Grandpa researched on Cetra and their history his entire life, everything he knew, he passed on to me."
"Yer old man must have been someone from Shinra, anyone who has that much information must work for someone like them." Barret suggested.
"That's not true! Grandpa hated Shinra, it would make no sense why he would be a part of them." Rene defended strongly.
"Where did you get an idea like that? I only knew the man for a year, but, he's not the kind who would work for Shinra, at least not willingly." Taylor frowned at Barret.
"Damn it, fools! I never said that he worked for them willingly. I meant he was probably forced into it. Maybe he was blackmailed or somethin', I dunno!" Barret growled.
"..." Rene stayed silent at that. That couldn't be true, could it?
"Please allow me to continue," Elmyra decided to try to get them back on to explaining Aerith's story.
"Please continue," Tifa nodded.
"A lot happened during our time together, but we were happy. Until one day..." Elmyra continued with her story. She explained how Tseng came here years ago, trying to take Aerith back to Shinra. That was the first time Elmyra heard about the Ancients but Aerith was strongly against it and even tried to lie that she wasn't an Ancient. Eventually Tseng gave up retrieving Aerith at that time, but he would try over and over using the Turks, but Aerith would always slip out of their reach.
"It's amazing how she's avoided Shinra all these years." Cloud was impressed with Aerith's ability to escape from the Turks time and time again.
"Shinra needed her, so I guess they wouldn't harm her." Elmyra added.
"But why now?" Tifa questioned.
"..." Taylor hesitated to say anything before speaking up. "Tseng got here before we did and had Mrs Gainsborough hostage."
"Aerith also brought a little girl here, her name was Marlene, I believe. On the way here, Tseng must have spotted her, I guess she couldn't get away fast enough. He came to this house and held me hostage until they arrived. She agreed to go with Shinra in exchange for both mine and the girl's safety." Elmyra continued.
"So you guys did find her." Cloud turned to Taylor and Rene.
"Of course, we weren't going to leave Sector 7 without her. Although you did hide her almost too well, Zack was able to use his nose to pick up her scent from below the bar." Taylor explained, glancing at Zack for a moment before turning back at Cloud.
"The one time that my canine abilities did come in handy." Zack rolled his eyes.
"..."
"You okay? You're unusually quiet." Zack noticed this and checked with Rene.
"Huh? Oh...yeah. I'm fine." Rene seemed to be lost in thought before he was brought back to his senses by Zack.
"Marlene! Aerith was caught because of Marlene?" Barret was shocked to hear this, he also felt guilty for it. After all, Marlene was his daughter and Aerith was Elmyra's daughter, if Marlene had been captured by Shinra, he would have barged into their HQ and demanded her back.
"I'm sorry...Marlene's my daughter. I'm...really...sorry." Barret bowed his head to Elmyra as he apologised for what had occurred.
"You're her father?! How in the world could you ever leave a child alone like that?! Especially if she was in Sector 7, I've heard what happened on the TV. What were you thinking?! That poor little girl would have died if Aerith and these two brave boys didn't go into Sector 7 to find her for you!" Elmyra erupted at him.
"...Please don't start with that. I think about it all the time. What would happen to Marlene, if I..." Barret trailed off before shaking his head and continuing his reasoning. "But you gotta understand somethin'...I don't got answer. I wanna be with Marlene...but I gotta fight. Cause if I don't, this planet's gonna die. So I'm gonna keep fightin'!" Barret proclaimed, but he then softened at his next choice of words. "But, I'm worried 'bout Marlene. I really just wanna be with her...always."
"Didn't you say that already?" Rene pointed out.
"See? I'm goin' in circles, now." Barret sighed.
"...I think I understand what you're saying. She's upstairs asleep. Why don't you go and see her?" Elmyra sighed loudly before smiling softly.
Barret didn't need to be told twice, he went over to where the stairs were before he turned to Rene. "Yo, sorry about what I said before, I didn't mean to make it sound like yer grandpa was evil or anythin'."
"I understand. I know you didn't mean it that way. Anyway, Marlene's awake now so you don't have worry about waking her." Rene told him.
"Thanks kid." Barret waved as he went upstairs.
"This is my fault, I was the one who got Aerith involved in this." Tifa blamed herself.
"Don't think that. Aerith doesn't think that way." Elmyra shook her head.
"I'm going to go outside a bit, okay? I won't go far." Rene told them as he headed outside.
"Alright," Taylor was uncertain but decided to trust Rene to not go far from the house.
Zack, however, thought differently and decided to trail behind him.
~0o0o0o0o0o0~
Zack found Rene near the house, surrounded by the yellow flowers blooming plant beds on the other side of the house. Zack managed to make his way over there (with much effort on the wood ladder that he had to climb) and approached Rene.
"Gil for your thoughts?" Zack sat down next to him and asked out of concern.
"Zack? Did you follow me? How did you manage to climb that wooden ladder?" Rene blinked in surprise.
"Ugh, don't ask. I swear I thought I was going to fall off." Zack sighed.
"Hee hee. Sorry, I wanted some time alone to think." Rene apologised before smiling sadly.
"Think? About what?" Zack perked his ears up at this.
"About Grandpa, I just relaized only now...I don't know that much about what he did before he came to live in the Slums. I knew he used to live somewhere else before Midgar, so...maybe he did work for Shinra for a time. If he did, I wonder what caused him to leave? Was he forced against his will to work for them? Or did he work for them willingly but refused to do anything that would go against his morals? I don't know anymore...I thought I knew my Grandpa...but now...do I really?" Rene explained all his worries and concerns to Zack.
"Well, I never met this guy, so I'm probably the wrong person to say this, but...y'know, from the way you built him up, I get the feeling he isn't anything like Hojo or Hollander, and trust me, that's a very good thing."
"Who are they?" Rene asked curiously.
"Two people who I hope you never meet. EVER." Zack gave out a small whine when he thought back to his memories about Hollander and especially Hojo. That sadistic monster who locked him and Cloud away for four painful years, testing on them like they were just some lab rats.
"They sound really bad. Are they still alive?" Rene pressed.
"Hollander's been dead for years, but Hojo's still about. That guy especially is insane."
"And...he works for Shinra right now, so he'll be the one in charge of taking care of Aerith, right?" He asked.
"Yeah, that's what scares me the most. Hojo is a sick man, and I dread the thought of what he plans to do with Aerith. That's why we have to get to Shinra HQ and bust her out there before he gets that chance."
Rene stood up and picked up Zack to hold him. "You're right. I shouldn't be sulking like this. Aerith saved us from that Turk by giving herself up. We should be saving her, not stand around doing nothing. I can think over this later, right?"
"That's the Rene I know. For some reason when you go quiet, it makes me uneasy, so I'm glad that you're talkative again."
"Heh heh, I'll take that as a compliment from the so-called 'Ex-Solider'." Rune teased lightly. "Zack...thanks for cheering me up. How is it your cheerful nature is so infectious?" Rene hugged Zack in a thankful gesture.
"Y'know, I get that from nearly everyone I meet. I guess I have awesome people skills." Zack joked.
An hour later, the group was now ready to rescue their friend, Aerith. All they needed now, was a plan. Elmyra had agreed to look after Marlene for Barret until he was ready to look after her properly.
"How do we get to Shinra building though? All the trains in the other Sector's will be unable to go anywhere now. And Sector 7's train station is gone." Taylor wondered.
"Let's go to the Wall Market for now, we'll figure something out." Tifa reassured.
They headed back to Wall Market or as most people called it the 'Black Market', to find a way up to Shinra HQ.
When they arrived at the Market in Sector 6, they looked everywhere for a way up, they eventually came to a small open area near where Don Corneo's manor was, there was a large wire that had apparently became a ladder to some children in the Sector 6 who climbed up. At least according to the small girl who was still waiting at the bottom.
"That's a long way up." Zack whistled.
"Excuse me, can we climb this?" Tifa bent down to ask the small girl.
"Yeah. It leads to the upper world." The girl nodded quickly.
"The upper world? She must mean the plate." Taylor noted.
"Awright, we'll climb this wire!" Barret declared.
"There's no way we can do this, do you know how far it goes up?" Cloud argued.
"Geez, Cloud, you're such an optimist." Zack sarcastically rolled his eyes.
"There IS a way. Look, what does that look like to you?" Barret fought back.
"Just a normal wire." Cloud crossed his arms.
"Oh yeah?" Barret challenged. "Well to me, it looks like a golden wire of hope."
Tifa nodded in agreement with Barret. "Barret's right, this is the only way to save Aerith."
"Okay, that was a bad analogy, but Barret, I understand how you feel." Cloud, after giving it more thought, agreed as well. "Let's go!" Cloud climbed up first, followed by Tifa then Barret.
"A wire of hope, huh? Sounds kind of cliche, but we'll climb it. If it means we can get to Shinra HQ from here, then I'll take the chance." Rene decided to climb it, he picked up Zack and started to climb up behind Barret, then followed by Taylor who was the last person to climb to make sure Rene didn't slip while climbing.
"We're coming, Aerith. We'll bust you out of there, just hold for a little while longer." Zack's mind was set, he was going to save her or die again trying to do so.
Okay, done finally! n.n
This chapter was difficult to do, but I managed to get it done in the end, but I will admit, this isn't one of my best chapters made so far, but hopefully the future chapters will be better. Next chapter is going to be the infiltration into Shinra Headquarters! How exciting eh? XD
Anyway, please read and review when possible. I appreciate all and any reviews I receive.
By the way, while browsing the internet one day, I came across an awesome JPOP song that fit this fan fic perfectly. It's called 'Dark Shame' by Grandrodeo. It's an opening song to an anime called 'Code-breaker'. It's such a kick ass song. XD
Anyways, until the next chapter, happy reading everyone. Moogle Empress out!
Moogle: Kupo!