DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT OWN FINAL FANTASY VII OR ITS CHARACTERS!

Apologies, for my lateness, but I had a huge writer's block last week regarding this story.

Chapter 10: Sector 7 is Gone

We made it to Sector 7; it was still standing when we got there. We got to the pillars, and there was a lot of fire gun going on top of the pillars. Suddenly, someone have fallen from all the way up there… it was Wedge.

"Wedge, are you alright?" Cloud said, with a worried look in his eyes.

"Cloud…you…remember my… name… ha..ha… Barret… is up there….g-go…help him" he went unconscious.

"Aeris! Take care of Wedge." Cloud began to say.

"Cloud, I'll go look for Marlene. I'm gonna take her out of this place!" I said to Cloud knowing if it was Shinra's plan to take Sector 7 out, this place would become a very dangerous place to be. "I'll take her away from Sector 7!" I took off without knowing if Cloud agreed.

I started for the Seventh Heaven bar, and when I got in I saw Marlene, hiding behind the bar. "Marlene, is me, Cynthia!" and she immediately got out of hiding.

"Miss Cynthia! The bad guys are attacking the pillars!" she said with a worried look on her face.

"I know, but Cloud, Tifa and Barret are going to stop them. In the mean time, we got to get out of here!" she nodded and we took off hand in hand.

As I was exiting Sector 7, I heard Aeris voice calling me from behind and I turned.

"Cynthia! Where are you taking the little girl?" Aeris asked.

"I don't know… maybe Sector 5… is far away from Sector 7." I said impatiently.

"Is quite dangerous, Tifa asked me to help you… let's go to my house, is safe there."

We both were heading now towards Sector 6 and we encountered a couple of monsters, we both took care of them. Suddenly in Sector 5's entrance was a marine blue suited man with long black hair. He looked… dangerous. I told Marlene to hide behind me. "Turks…" I said out loud.

"Tseng… please let us through." Aeris said with her calm voice.

"I will, but you must come with us if you don't want your friends injured." He said with a negotiation tone.

Aeris was about to agree, but I cut her off "That's not going to happen!" I gave Marlene to Aeris and pulled my knife out.

"Cynthia, don't… he's too strong for you."

I whispered to Aeris, she nodded and gave me what I asked for. This must've been something crazy to do, but it was the only way to get him out of the entrance.

I walked towards him, knife in hand… I smiled and he frowned his eyebrows, I immediately threw a grenade at him. He moved out of the way, when it blew, Aeris, Marlene and I made a run for it.

…

We were almost at Aeris house while being chase by two blue uniformed soldiers and Tseng himself. My heart was pounding fast; something bad was going to happen. We reached the house and we gave Aeris' mom a scared. The soldiers were knocking the door and they were planning to tear it down.

"What are we going to do?" I asked Aeris.

"I should go with them… all they want is me." She said looking at me with a sweet smile, then changed her gaze towards her mother and lastly to little Marlene. My heart was pounding even faster now and I was getting scared.

As soon as I saw Aeris moved forward, I blocked her way. "No. You stay here, I'll stop them." I said.

"Cynthia, they'll kill you. You don't stand a chance against Tseng." She put her hand on my shoulder, but I shook it off.

"I'm going to stop them; they're not going to get you… because I think… I think is the right thing to do… and they're also lying! I don't trust them!" Just like that I opened the door and faced two Shinra's soldiers and Tseng.

"Move aside. All we want is Aeris, we promise to leave the rest of you alone." Tseng said while Shinra's soldier aimed their gun at me.

"You're not taking her! You're the one who should leave!" I took out my knife.

Tseng told the soldiers to put down their weapons, and he gave me an amused smile.

"What is your name girl?"

"Is Cynthia… "He was up to something.

"Well, Cynthia… I'll make you an offer… if you can defeat me… I promise to leave Aeris and the rest of you alone… however, if you were to lose, Aeris will come with us. Do you accept my terms?" he said to me.

"Can I have your word on that?"

"Of course, I am true to my word."

I nodded… all I needed to do was to kick this guy butt… I faced… some robots, a few monsters… a huge sew monster… all with the help of Cloud and the others. I took my position, and Tseng just remained motionless. I'll wound his leg and the rest should be easy. I immediately lunged at him, but he easily counterattacks knocking me to the floor. I dropped my knife and I stood up. I upper-cut him, trying to imitate Tifa's movements, but he dodged, grabbed my arm and hit it causing me a great deal of pain. I honestly thought I heard bones cracked. He then grabbed me by the hair and kicked me right in the center of my stomach, and I then lost my breath as I felt backwards. I stood up and did the most intelligent thing: I ran forward at him with the intention of knocking him down to the floor and begin a bunch of reckless punches at his face, but he only bent down and kicked my running legs causing me to fall down and hit my face. I heard laughter. The soldiers were mocking me… Tseng was just toying with me. I hated this… I was useless. I stood up unable to accept defeat, he walked towards me and crossed punched at me. I was down on the floor again. This time, Tseng lifted me by grabbing my hair and continuously kept punching my stomach until I began to bleed from my mouth.

"Stop! Can't you see she had enough!" I heard Aeris voice. "I'm coming, just leave everyone else alone!" Tseng threw me abruptly at ground.

"Did you actually believe you took a chance against a Turk?"

I was trying to breath, since I couldn't speak, I just moved my head in negation. I was trying to get up, and I was kicked by one of the soldiers. The pain I felt was excruciating… I started to felt dizzy. Everything was spinning and I saw Aeris being taken away by Tseng.

"N-n-no…" I stood up with God knows what strength. Tseng turned to look. "I'm not done yet… Aeris, you… can't!" I was crying now. Tseng approached me and I tried to punch him, but he only blocked it. He stared at me, he was now annoyed. He then slapped me; I felt. The last thing I remember before everything turning black was a kicked on my face.

…

I was in the dark, and I was trying to run away from the darkness. I was crying, and I was lost. I had nowhere to go, still I kept running.

"Stop running…" I immediately turned to look from behind me… No one was there. "Face it, you can't run from what you're afraid… or else it'll keep hunting you."

"Whose there?" I screamed.

"Come find me and you'll know." I was afraid… the voice was calling me from within the darkness. I took one step closer…

"Don't embrace it either… or you'll lose yourself in it."

"You want me to fight it?" There was complete silence "Hey! Tell me how do I get out of here? Who are you?" I was beginning to cry, I dropped to my knees and sat down. "I don't want to be alone…" I said quietly.

There was laughter coming from a child. When I opened my eyes… I saw Barret and Marlene hugging one another.

"Daddy! You're hurting me with your jaw!" Marlene said while giggling.

I began to move and my whole ache in pain. Barret and Marlene saw me moved and went towards me.

"Miss Cynthia, Are yu' al'rigth?" Marlene sat on the bed with me.

"Ugh, yeah… of course! I'm… excellent!" I forced a smile and tried not to mourn in pain.

"Are you sure? You look horrible… you even have a purple eye." I tried to sit down, but Barret pushed me back. "Don't be reckless! You need to rest… Aeris mother told me what happened to you. And uh'" he started scratching the back of his head "Thanks, for getting Marlene out… you, uh' kept her safe."

I smiled. Then I suddenly remembered… "Aeris!" I sat up again "Barret, they took Aeris! And it was my entire fault, I let them take her! We got to do something… " I started to get out of the bed.

"Woah, Woah, Woah! Take it easy, I know what happened, we'll going to save her, but you have to stay here and recover… you're only lucky to be alive after facing that Turk!"

"But!"

"No buts! Now get back into that bed and rest!"

"No, I'm okay!" I lied… my whole body was in pain.

"Tell you what… if you can recover in the next hour, you can come… we'll need all the help." He said thinking… "I'll be back to check on you." He went out of the room just after kissing his little girl.

"Miss Cynthia, you were really brave!" Marlene said.

"Thank you, Marlene." I said smiling at her.

I lay back on the bed and I saw something shine on my right arm. I jumped at the sight, then I realized it was the material Aeris had gave me. I had to go with Barret and the others. She was my friend now, and I needed to help her. I got up from bed, and I suddenly felt dizzy again. I shook it off, and turned to Marlene.

"Hey Marlene we'll see each other later. I'm feeling better now, so it's time to rescue Aeris… and pay back." I smiled at her and spotted my knife on top of the night table near the bed. I took it and headed myself down stair. Just in time too, they were about to leave: Cloud, Tifa and Barret.

"I'm coming too!" I yelled at them.

"Cynthia, you should stay." Cloud told me "Is too dangerous for you and you need to recover."

"I'm already recovered, and I've faced enough dangers! Aeris… she was taken away… I have to go too… Please." I said to Cloud.

"Cynthia… " Cloud sighed. "Fine, but don't get in the way!"

"Right!" I said joining in with them.

We said good-bye to Aeris' mom and left Marlene with her. I wasn't going to lose next time I face Tseng… I didn't know how exactly… I just wanted to believe it.

…

I played the game recently, to get inspiration. I realized that Tifa's bar is named Seventh Heaven, not Seven Heaven. I'll fix those when I can. Well, thank you for reading my story, next chapter Sephiroth makes an appearance and I'll go a little bit faster into the end of the story now. Thanks for those who added my story and please if you liked it, REVIEW!