Zack's Final Mission
Chapter 9: The Journey Starts
They travelled face to face leaning against the sides of the baby blue truck. The sun was up and burning and if it wasn't for the wind caused by the vehicle's movement Aerith had the feeling she would have already melted. Their blue and green eyes exchanged glances from time to time as they had been travelling silently for what seemed like the longest three hours of their lives. It wasn't like Zack to be quiet for a long time which caused Aerith to wonder what was going through his mind and why the suspicious glances he was giving her.
It was then Zack suddenly realized there was a rectangular shape standing out on his left pocket. He reached for it and took out the black box Cissnei had given him right before they left Midgar.
"What is that?" Aerith almost yelled above the sound of the loud engine roaring and against the wind.
"Tseng wanted to give me this!" Zack yelled back at the curious flower girl. He started tearing the tape holding the box closed apart until he was able to open its transparent lid revealing inside it an amount of different types of envelopes which contained pieces of white paper neatly folded in four inside each one of the envelopes.
Zack randomly picked one up and after unfolding it he read it with his eyes. His expression turned soft and Aerith noticed a smile forming on his lips as he read its content. That's when she started recognizing the familiar stationery he was holding between his hands and the hand-writing she could faintly notice from the other side of the paper.
"Wait…" She whispered to herself before talking loudly back to Zack. "Is that what I think it is?"
"These are all the letters you sent me when I was gone!" Zack looked up at her wide-eyed in a grin full of contentment. Aerith's cheeks immediately turned into a soft red blush remembering some of the things she had written to him a long time ago. "This one says my absence is almost unbearable."
"What?! No it doesn't! Let me see that!" Aerith stretched her arm to catch the letter Zack confidently let her take. She scanned it carefully for a brief minute in between the bounces of the vehicle. "Yes, it does…" Aerith sighed defeated.
"Hey… Why was it almost unbearable and not totally unbearable?" Zack asked still grinning at the embarrassed girl before him.
"I think I didn't want to seem too needy!" Aerith looked down recollecting from the times she had spent without him and the effort she had to make to live through another day. "But I did miss you a lot." She said in a lower voice while he held his head down looking for another letter to pick from the box. She was relieved he didn't hear that last part.
"I wished I could have gotten all of these!" He started unfolding another one. "This one says the flowers are selling a lot better and you're thanking me for giving you the idea for it. It also says here that you're worried I haven't replied back and you're unable to call me because the sign is always interrupted." Zack read it seriously now, he felt sorry for her, sorry that he hadn't been able to respond to her and still she continued trying to reach him. You don't get this kind of devotion from any person, not that easily. I'm lucky she felt that way towards me, of all the people, she chose me and it really makes me wonder why... I must be very special. Zack held a dreamful expression on his face while thinking. Aerith lifted one eyebrow looking at him, wondering once again what he could possibly be thinking about.
"That reminds me!" Zack snapped back to reality pointing one finger at her. "What was that deal with Tseng? That 'for old time's sake' deal?"
"Oh…" That took Aerith by surprise. Had he been thinking about that all the while and for a way to ask me about it? Aerith debated in her head. "That was very subtle Zack…" How can I explain it to him? "Before we met, you and I, I used to talk to Tseng a lot."
"How did you meet him?" Zack interestedly asked.
"We met for the same reasons he was there the other day." Aerith looked down sadly. "He was already working for the Turks and they maintained a continuous watch on me. They were there everyday making sure I didn't run away just waiting for the day they could catch me and take information from me."
"About what?!" Zack felt revolted by the actions of those people, until he remembered his sister was one of them and he felt like getting one paper bag to breathe inside it. Just thinking about her sister's job made him start to hyperventilate.
"The Promised Land, of course." Aerith continued. "Since the beginning of Shinra they have been interested in knowing where it is and how they can get to it."
"And what is the Promised Land?" Zack asked.
"That's the place where all the Ancients go when we die." Aerith told him. "We don't know how to reach it from the Planet; we just know we will reach it when we die. That's why so many Ancients were sacrificed before me. That's why they were constantly watching me; they were trying to see if I did something that might help them get there."
"Aerith…" Zack looked intently at her.
"Tseng was there back then." Aerith interrupted him shaking her head. "But he didn't consider me as a 'subject'. He saw me as a normal teenage girl just trying to fit in with the others. He used to meet me in the sand park and we would talk all day!"
Zack's stomach contorted with a feeling of resentment towards that time. If he had met her sooner, he would make sure she didn't have to go through that angst.
"But what I felt for him was no more than a good friendship. He was like a big brother to me." Aerith smiled kindly.
"Then why did he want to take you away?" Zack asked bewildered.
"I sometimes had the idea he didn't see me as a little sister…"
"Oh… OOO!" Zack exclaimed unbelievingly. "Because of me! That explains the creepy attitude he had, he didn't want you to leave! Oh gross Tseng! He's much older than you…"
"It's alright…" Aerith comforted him. "Don't' be so hard on him."
"I won't." Zack solemnly stated. "But just because I know he doesn't stand a chance against me."
"Oh really?" Aerith smiled intrigued. "And how can you be so sure about it?"
"Because of this…" Zack looked down to read another one of Aerith's letters. "I will be waiting for you here no matter what. This feeling I have towards you cannot ever be erased." He quoted.
"That was probably me desperate to hear from you, I couldn't tell if you were receiving any of my letters. There had to be one that would make you say something!" Aerith replied lying to herself.
"Huh-huh!" Zack smirked at her.
Unexpectedly the loud engine came to a full stop and the silence overwhelmed them although their ears were ringing.
"This is as far as I go!" The man inside the cabin yelled breaking the soothing silence. "Through there there's a chocobo farm." The man pointed southeast in the direction of some abandoned rocky grey mines. "They will be able to give you food, shelter and transportation there."
Zack gave the man some gil as a mean of thanking him for the lift and the grateful man drove away to his destination, leaving them in the middle of a deserted grassy vast field in the direction of some uninviting mines where the chocobo farm stood beyond them.
"Looks like-" Aerith shouted but realized she was talking way too loud not used to the quietness yet. She cleared her throat and noticed it hurt a little bit from all the yelling talk they had. "Looks like that's the only way to go." She repeated lower and not trusting the abandoned mines at all.
"Don't worry." Zack made sure he had his new sword with him. "It will be easy to cross those mines. Oh! And don't think you'll get away that easily with the letters. I'm reading every single one of them as soon as we get the chance."
"As long as you don't laugh about what I have written." Aerith sighed.
"Why would I do that?" Zack blinked. "I don't want to be missing a thing of what you have been through for the last five years. I want to know everything."
Aerith froze looking up at him and he lifted his hand to softly stroke her cheek.
"We don't need to rush things between us. We have all the time in the world now, I'm not going anywhere without you." He smiled down at her. "Come on." He took her hand in his and pulled her behind him towards the caves.
The brunette looked at their locked hands thinking that Zack kept surprising her as they spent more time together.
Aerith had seen Zack fight before. But nothing like the way he was doing it now. There were monsters inside the caves as she suspected there would be but they seemed no match for Zack. She couldn't believe her eyes as he slashed their skin apart with no extra effort. She held her staff tightly between her hands prepared to fight along side with Zack but she just stood there puzzled while he did all the work.
"Not bad." Zack paused for one moment to take a good look at his new silver blade before striking again. "Not bad at all."
There was dark blood spatter all around her and even if one of the monsters got a little bit too near from her before she had time to blink it was already slashed in two. When it was over Zack would pick up her hand and run ahead through the cleared path until some more beasts reappeared and the killing started again. It amazed her but at the same time she didn't know if she should feel scared. It's Zack… No reason to be afraid… right? She kept saying to herself.
Finally they could see the sunlight coming through a round door at the end of a rocky corridor leading them to the exit. Aerith could breathe again knowing they would soon be out of that deadly suffocating place.
But once they reached the outside of the mines there was something waiting for them there they could never have expected. Stuck vertically in a tall tree's trunk by the head, the body of an enormous white snake stood curled up around the wooden trunk. It had long thin marks of blade cuts through its scaled skin which was dripping red blood to the ground around it. Its black huge eyes were opened lifelessly staring ahead.
"This is sick." Aerith gasped covering her mouth at the shocking vision of the snake. The air smelled like blood and rot.
"There is only one person I know that could have done this…" Zack stared distortedly at the dead snake in front of them.
"Sephiroth?" Aerith asked looking away from the carcass.
"How do you know Sephiroth?" Zack looked back at her astonished.
"Everyone knows… or used to know who Sephiroth was, Zack." Aerith answered. "It was the first name that came to my mind."
"But I've seen Cloud dispose of him…" Zack said thoughtfully.
"Oh? Do you know Cloud?" Now was time for Aerith to be curious.
"And how do you know Cloud?"
"Are we talking about the same Cloud?"
"I don't know… are we?" Zack asked confused.
"Let's see… The Cloud I know has the same eye colour as you do, same clothes and spiky hair only his is blond." Aerith described.
"It IS the same Cloud!" Zack exclaimed taking one step back in awe. "Where did you meet him?"
"In Midgar!" Aerith answered excitedly. "He fell from the roof of the church onto the flower bed."
"What?!" Zack was more and more confused. "Him too? You have to fix that roof you know!"
"Can we continue this conversation some where else?" Aerith asked at last glancing back at the snake. "That is making my stomach sick."
"Oh right!" Zack grabbed her hand once again and took her out of there into the green fields where they could see in the distance the yellow-painted barn of the chocobo farm. On the outside the sun was already setting in the horizon leaving in the sky a mixture of orange and purple, they had to hurry up to get to the farm.
Who knew what could be out there at night?
There was a feeling of emptiness inside Cloud's heart as he looked up at the sky already starting to fill with bright stars breaking through the purple colour. Under the cargo ship he was travelling on, the water crashed quietly hitting the moving ship. It was peaceful outside and yet everything seemed like a tornado inside of him. Even Barrett and Tifa dressed in Shinra sailor's uniforms couldn't distract his mind from having nightmares. He didn't want to go to sleep again; afraid the dreams would return to haunt him.
Note:Hi everyone! I can't thank you enough for the reviews you sent me! Thank you so much! I hope I don't let you down as I post! I owe a big, huge THANK YOU to my friend Prexistence for giving me the idea to use the snake part and for helping me out on things!
I hope I'm not totally killing Final Fantasy as I write!
