BOOK ONE: MIDGAR

EIGHT

While Aerith waited a short distance behind me, I approached the man in the blue suit, retrieving Buster from where it lay on the floor as I did. I was glad I hadn't lost it in the fall from Reactor 5. I must have dropped it when I landed here, and it hadn't even occurred to me until now to even think about it. Meeting Aerith once again had completely captured my attention and had driven almost everything else from my mind. But we had company, and unpleasant at that, so I focused on the task at hand and put any and all thoughts of Jessie, Tifa, Barret, and the others aside for the time being.

"I don't know you are, but…" I said. Did I know this guy? At first I wasn't sure, but then after shaking off a few mental cobwebs, I realized that I did. "Oh, yeah… I do know you. That uniform…"

One of the soldiers laughed and snickered at Aerith. "Hey, sis, this one's a little weird."

My hand flew to Buster's hilt. "Shut up! Shinra dog!"

"Reno! Want him taken out?"

The soldier raised his rifle as I tightened my grip on Buster, but the red-haired man named Reno didn't respond right away. He just looked at us, his gaze darting back and forth between myself and Aerith. What was he waiting for? The other soldiers glanced at each other nervously but didn't say anything. I was prepared for a fight if that was what I had to do get Aerith out of here, but Reno seemed a bit less certain, at least for the moment.

He shrugged. "I haven't decided yet."

"Don't fight here!" Aerith ordered, and I realized she was talking to both of us. "You'll ruin the flowers!"

Taking her cue, I hurried after her as she raced toward the back of the church carrying a slender mythril staff in her hands. She motioned to a small doorway off to the left, and I followed her through it to what must have once been the bell tower. But now it was just a ruin, with the rusting carcass of an ancient test rocket lying nose downward from the broken roof all the way to the floor. A few sets of wooden stairs wound their way to the very top of the room, with several wooden ledges set at different heights set along the walls. Light shone through stained glass windows in here, too.

Not wasting a minute, we started climbing up the stairs. I took the lead while Aerith followed a few steps behind me. When we had nearly reached the top, we stopped for a moment to look ahead of us at a large gap in the ledge where the rocket had crashed through. It must've been at least ten or twelve feet across, and just past the far end, a ladder rose up to a set of thick wooden beams suspended from the ceiling and the gaping hole through which the old rocket had once entered a long time ago. Maybe we could get out that way.

But then Reno and his thugs raced into the room. He pointed up at us. "There they are! Over there!"

"Cloud, they're coming!" Aerith exclaimed, stepping closer to me.

I glanced down at our pursuers as they brought up their their guns. "I know. Looks like they aren't going to let us go."

"What should we do?" she asked.

"Well, we can't let them catch us, can we?" I said. "There's only one thing left to do."

Backing up a few steps, I ran and jumped over the gap, then turned and motioned for Aerith to follow me. She swallowed and approached the edge, peered over it for a moment, then backed up again in a hurry and shook her head. "I don't think I can make it…"

"Alright," I told her. "I'll hold them off."

Aerith held her slender staff tighter and nodded. "Right. Make sure they don't get through!"

I was just getting ready to jump back across the gap and make my way back down to where Reno and his goons were standing when they suddenly opened fire at us. The ledge beneath Aerith's feet cracked and fell apart, and she went tumbling down the side of the old rocket with a startled shriek. Aerith landed on the floor, flat on her stomach, and for a moment she just lay there, panting for breath. Then she stood up and brushed herself off. Aerith was about to hurry back upstairs to where I was when Reno shouted at his thugs. "The Ancient is getting away! Get her, you idiots! Get her!"

"Cloud, help!" Aerith called as the soldiers raced after her.

Damn! What was I supposed to do? Reno's cronies were closing in on her and fast, and they'd reach her long before I did. There had to be a way to rescue her, but how? Suddenly, something in the rafters above me caught my eye, and a small grin slowly spread across my face as an idea sprang to mind. I raced up the ladder and stepped carefully across the thick wooden beams until I stood alongside one of the four barrels I had seen just a moment ago.

When the first of the soldiers was right where I wanted him to be, I pushed the barrel over. It fell squarely on top of him, knocking him out cold as Aerith ran up the stairs and flashed me a grateful smile. I raced over to the next barrel, and when another of the troops got too close to her, I sent it plummeting down on him, flattening him where he stood. Only one more left. Hurrying over to the third barrel, I waited until the last of Reno's soldiers finally caught up to Aerith before letting it loose. It smashed right into him and sent him sprawling back down the stairs in a tangled, untidy heap.

I hurried back down the ladder to meet Aerith, and this time when she returned to the gap in the ledge, she took a breath, gathered up her courage, and jumped across. When she landed upon the other side, she stumbled as her foot struck the edge and lost her balance, but I caught her before she could fall down again. Aerith threw her arms around me to steady herself, and for just a moment, time seemed almost to stop. I held her there, suddenly realizing just how close she was to me, and for a moment, I forgot about our predicament. Aerith's green eyes held me fast, and I wasn't actually sure if I wanted them to let me go.

"Thanks, Cloud…" Aerith breathed.

I nodded and let go of her as we headed up the ladder and into the rafters. From there, we jumped out through the hole in the roof and sat there for a moment to catch our breath.

Far beneath us, Reno glared up in our direction before sighing and returning his annoyed gaze to his comatose troops. They wouldn't stay out much longer, but I doubted they'd give us any more trouble, either. Aerith and I would be gone long before that was even an issue, anyway. Shinra wasn't going to get their hands on her as long as I was around. I was her bodyguard, after all.

She laughed as she watched them. "They're looking for me again."

"You mean it's not the first time they've been after you?" I glanced at her. Somehow, I wasn't surprised.

She shook her head. "No. They've come for me before."

"They're the Turks," I said. When she glanced at me in puzzlement, I went ahead and explained it to her. "The Turks are from Shinra. They scout for possible candidates for SOLDIER."

"This violently? I thought they were kidnapping someone."

I shrugged. "They're also involved in a lot of dirty stuff on the side. Spying, murder… you know."

"They look like it," she agreed.

Shinra's infamous dirty trick squad, the Turks were the company's most feared and deadly enforcers. Although they were relatively few in number, they had considerable power in the city and answered only to Shinra's top executives. They were utterly ruthless, coldly professional, and didn't hesitate to threaten or kill anyone who got in their way. That they were after Aerith, a simple flower girl from the slums, didn't make any sense. And why had Reno called her an Ancient?

"But why are they after you?" I prodded her gently. "There must be a reason, right?"

She laughed, shaking her head. "No, not really. I think they believe I have what it takes to be in SOLDIER!"

Once again, I was certain she knew a lot more than she was saying, but I wasn't going to press her about it, either. I knew she would tell me when she was ready if she wanted to. So I just grinned instead. "Maybe you do. You want to join?"

"I don't know. But I don't want to get caught by those people!"

"Then let's go!" I replied, standing up as best I could on the sloping roof of the church.

Reaching down, I took Aerith by the hand and helped her get back to her feet, and then we leaped off the roof and over to one of the junk piles scattered along the dirt path winding through the slums. Leaving Aerith's old church behind, we jumped carefully from one mountain of discarded trash to another as we made our way steadily through Sector 5 toward her house. I had the feeling that I was going to have my work cut out for me as her bodyguard. My mind filled with more questions than answers, I led Aerith further into the slums.

"Are you outta your goddamn mind!?"

I stood there in the bar, wishing I could have told him I wasn't, that this plan I'd thought up wasn't completely crazy. But that wouldn't have been true. I wasn't going to let him stop me, though. We had to know why Don Corneo had been looking for us and who had ordered him to do it, and we weren't going to find that out by just sitting here.

"I'm going, Barret," I told him. "I have to find out what's going on."

He frowned. "I get that, Tifa, but the man's a maggot, an' he's damn dangerous, too. You'd be better to jus' leave him alone an' look for some other way to find out what he's up to."

I narrowed my eyes as I put my hands on my hips. "I'm dangerous too, remember? I'll make him talk."

"Yeah, I suppose you could. But what about Cloud? You was all set to go lookin' for him earlier."

I had been so determined to find him, but that was before that sick bastard Scotch had shown up asking questions about us. I knew Cloud better than anyone, and while he could certainly come off as aloof and uncaring at times, beneath that cool facade of his was a good man who would do anything to protect those around him no matter what. And if there was something sinister being planned for us, to hurt us or maybe the people around us, I knew Cloud would want me to find out what it was and stop it if I could before running off to look for him.

"Cloud will find a way to get back to us," I told Barret. "You said so yourself, remember?"

He nodded. "Yeah. You sure you know what you're doin'?"

I had finished most of my preparations, and the carriage would be here in a few hours to pick me up. It would be dark then, and that was when places like Wall Market were most active. So that was when I had decided to sneak into the Don's place and find out what was going on. I just hoped that I could find a way out afterward. My plan, I admit, was a little sketchy about that part. But it was all I had. A small sliver of fear worked its way through me, but I forced it down.

"I hope so, Barret," I murmured, shivering. "I hope so."

I slowed down when I heard Aerith panting behind me and trying to keep up with the brisk pace I was setting. We had traveled far from her church by now, but I wanted to put as much distance between us and Reno as possible. He and his thugs had probably left, but I wasn't going to take any chances. My eyes roamed across every corner and shadow as we made our way steadily from one junk heap to another, but nothing showed itself. I didn't relax, though. I wouldn't until I had seen Aerith safely home.

"Wait!" she called. "Wait, I said! Slow… down… Don't leave me…"

Coming to a stop, I paused and looked back as she slowly jumped from one pile of scrap to the next until finally she stood next to me, panting as she caught her breath. As for me, I wasn't even winded, but then again, I'd had military training. Maybe I could go a little slower, I supposed, but I still couldn't resist teasing her.

"Funny…" I said. "I thought you were cut out to be in SOLDIER."

She smirked and shook her head. "Oh! You're terrible!"

We laughed together then for a moment, and it felt good to do it. More than that, it felt right, and so did she, although I hadn't a clue as to why. But we seemed to just click somehow, like we had known each other a lot longer than we had. It baffled me, but I didn't mind. As our laughter faded away, our eyes met, and I found I couldn't look away from her warm, emerald gaze. I didn't want to, either. Just as when I had caught her in the church, they seemed to hold me.

"Hey, Cloud…" Aerith asked. "Were you… ever in SOLDIER?"

I nodded. "I used to be. How did you guess?"

"Your eyes. They have a strange glow…"

"That's what marks those who've been infused with mako," I told her. That glow had become such a part of me that I barely even gave it any thought anymore. "It's part of being in SOLDIER. But how did you know about that?"

She shrugged. "Oh, nothing…"

"Nothing?" I raised an eyebrow. Somehow I couldn't quite bring myself to believe it.

"Right, nothing!" Aerith insisted. "Come on, let's go! Bodyguard!"

She hurried away again before I could say anything else, jumping to another pile of discarded junk, and I followed after her. Before long, we found a way back down to the ground. Glancing in both directions along the muddy path for a minute, Aerith took a moment to get her bearings, and then she motioned for me to follow her down the narrow strip of dirt that passed for a road here. "My house is this way. Hurry before they find us."

We ran further into the slums until we came to a small cluster of shacks and shanties amidst the piles of junk and debris that constantly fell down from the plate. A few shops and some homes were scattered around the area, and nearby was an immense pipe lying on its side. It was actually large enough for a person to walk inside, and a small sign in barely legible handwriting was posted next to it. I stepped closer as Aerith examined the sign.

"This guy are sick…" she read. "Wait a minute… that's not right."

I nodded. "No kidding. Any idea what happened?"

"I heard a man passed out nearby yesterday. I guess someone must have helped him get here."

We went inside the pipe, and just as the sign had indicated, a man was inside. He sat on the edge of a fraying old mat in what must have been his home. It was a simple place, with only a few scattered items that were his meager belongings, but here in the slums, it was as much a home as anyone could hope for. While on the plate, the people there lived in luxury and had everything they needed, either not knowing or not caring about the conditions down here.

The man looked healthy enough, but the expression upon his face was far away, distant, and his eyes were wide and glassy, looking past us at something only he could see. Incoherent murmurs were all that he said, over and over. What could have caused this? What was wrong with him? It baffled me. He was practically catatonic.

"This is the one," Aerith whispered. "Won't you help him?

I shook my head, utterly mystified. What did she expect me to do? "Listen, I'm no doctor. I'm sorry, Aerith."

"It's alright. I just wish we could help…"

I knew how she felt, and I would have liked to have been able to do something for him, too. But I couldn't, and I knew that neither could she. As I looked at him again, I noticed something about his eyes that I had missed before. They were glowing, the same as mine. Had he been in SOLDIER? I didn't see any other way to explain it. But how had he ended up like this? I sighed, turned to leave, but then Aerith touched my arm and I looked back at her.

"What is it?" I asked.

She showed me the back of his left hand. "He has a tattoo. Do you see it? I think it's the number 2."

I bent closer, nodding when I saw it. A small numeral had been imprinted onto his skin in black in a stark, almost sterile type. It was, as Aerith had said, the number 2. But what did it mean? I supposed that the man himself might have had it done, but I found I couldn't accept that explanation so easily. I wasn't entirely sure why, only that my instincts told me there was more to it and that he most likely hadn't gotten that mark voluntarily. It was a mystery, but one we couldn't do anything about. So we finally left, and I followed Aerith as she made her way through the little slum village.

Passing between two mounds of discarded bits of scrap metal and junk, we left the settlement behind and came to what could only have been Aerith's house. And a house it definitely was, the first one I had seen down here. It was a small, two-story structure with a red shingled roof and clean stone walls. A brown picket fence surrounded the small yard, and a large garden filled with dozens of yellow flowers lay just past the house on a pair of round platforms. Light shone down upon us from gaps in the plate here and there, giving the whole place a warm, welcoming feel.

"You like it?" Aerith asked as we walked up to the front door.

I nodded. "Yeah. Looks like you've been busy."

She laughed. "You mean the flowers? I suppose I have, haven't I? I grow them over in the church, then I bring some back here and replant them. They seem to like it here."

Inside, the house was small but very cozy. A six-sided family room dominated the first floor, and to the right was an alcove with a modest kitchen. A set of wooden stairs led up to the second floor, and a round table covered in a white cloth sat in the middle of the room on a six-sided rug. Pots of flowers sat on the table and on various shelves along the wall, and the patterned carpet on the floor showed bright patterns of red and orange petals.

"I'm home, Mom," Aerith said, leaning her staff against the wall.

From the kitchen emerged a middle-aged woman in a dark green dress and a white apron. Her brown hair was pulled back in a bun, and her deep blue eyes gazed worriedly at us as she approached. She didn't actually look much like Aerith, but I didn't worry about it much. She could have just taken after her father easily enough, I guessed. It didn't seem very important at the time, so I decided it didn't matter and put it out of my mind.

"Hello, Aerith," the woman said, embracing her before letting go and glancing at me. "Who is this?"

Aerith grinned like she was showing me off. And maybe she was, at that. "This is Cloud. My bodyguard."

"Bodyguard? You were followed again?"

The woman shook her head hopelessly as a weary sigh escaped her lips. Apparently this wasn't the first time Aerith had come home like this. Once again, I found myself wondering why Shinra and the Turks were so interested in her. And I also wondered how she had managed to elude them for so long. If they wanted her so badly that they had chased after her multiple times, why hadn't they taken her by now? It didn't make any sense. I was certain the two women had the answers to many of my questions, but since Aerith was home safe now and my job was over, I decided not to worry about it.

Her mother continued while looking her over. "Are you alright? You're not hurt, are you!?"

"I'm fine, Mom," Aerith assured her. "I had Cloud with me."

The woman smiled at me. "Thank you, Cloud. I'm Elmyra, Aerith's mother. It's nice to meet you."

"You too," I nodded. "And you're welcome."

Elmyra turned and went upstairs, leaving me alone with Aerith again. Now that my task of protecting her was finished, I was free to leave and head back to Sector 7 to find the others. Tifa was probably worried sick by now, and Jessie likely wasn't any better off. I could only hope they'd had the good sense to not come looking for me. Shinra almost certainly knew that we had escaped from Reactor 5 by now, and the best thing for the others to do would be to stay out of sight for the time being, at least until things calmed down a bit and Shinra wasn't watching us so closely.

But looking at Aerith, I found myself strangely reluctant to leave her, and not just because of Shinra's interest in her. I had enjoyed the time we had spent together, and I realized I would miss her. She was so full of life and energy, so vibrant and alive. Nothing seemed to get her down or dampen her spirits, unlike so many other people I had seen in this dreary city, and I found that very refreshing. And she had a rather quirky sense of humor. But I knew I had to go, and I didn't want to drag this out any more than I had to. I hated long goodbyes. I still do, come to think of it.

Aerith looked at me. "So what are you going to do now?"

"Is Sector 7 far from here?" I asked. "I need to go to Tifa's bar."

"Is Tifa… a girl?" she wondered. What was she getting at? When I nodded, she went on. "A girl… friend?"

Girlfriend? Why did that matter? Tifa was a close friend and very important to me, but we weren't involved like that. I hadn't given it any thought since we had run into each other at the train station about a month ago. It had never even occurred to me to wonder how she felt about me, if she wanted more than just the friendship we shared. She had never said anything, so I had figured she was as content with the way things were between us as I was. I wasn't opposed to the idea—I'd had something of a crush on her as a kid, after all—but I just hadn't considered it. I wondered now if she had.

I shook my head. "No, we're just friends!"

"You don't have to get that upset," Aerith laughed, stepping closer to me, her eyes fixed on mine. "So… there's no special someone over there waiting for you?"

I was about to tell her no, but then I suddenly thought of Jessie and wondered if that was really true. We weren't actually involved, but I found that I did like her, maybe more than I wanted to admit. When had that happened? She had a spunk and liveliness to her of her own that wasn't so different from Aerith. And I knew that Jessie liked me, too. That kiss she had given me inside the plate had eliminated any doubt about that. Although a part of me felt drawn to Aerith and I enjoyed her company, I realized I wanted to see Jessie again, too. But what was I supposed to say to Aerith?

"Well, there is… sort of…" I admitted.

She smiled, but I could sense the disappointment behind it. "Oh, how nice. But… if it's not Tifa, then who is it?"

"A friend of ours. But we're not together, really. Not yet, anyway…" I trailed off, not entirely sure how to explain it, to myself as well as to her. It was still a little hard for me to take in.

Aerith seemed to sense my difficulty, however, and this time her smile held only gentleness. "You like her, though, don't you? I think I understand. You want to tell her how you feel about her."

She was right, although I hadn't made up my mind about it until just then. But I realized I did want to spend more time with Jessie if I could. It was why I had asked her out, of course, though I hadn't really understood it at the time. But now that I did think about it, I knew it was what I wanted. And I was sure it was what Jessie wanted, too. I figured I'd stick around for a while, doing more missions for Barret to earn more money and help keep him and the others in one piece in their fight with Shinra, so Jessie and I would have plenty of time to get to know each other and see where things went between us. Or so I had thought. But… once again, I was wrong. So much more than I… than I could have possibly known.

I nodded in answer to Aerith's question. "If I can. Not sure I know how, though. It… caught me by surprise, you see…"

"I can tell," Aerith chuckled, her eyes dancing. "But it's alright. Just be yourself, Cloud. That's all that matters. So, let's see… Sector 7? I'll show you the way."

"You gotta be kidding," I argued. "Why do you want to put yourself in danger again?"

She shrugged. "I'm used to it."

"Used to it?" I asked. I didn't doubt it after having escaped with her from the Turks, but I didn't want to risk her safety, either. "Well, I don't know. Getting help from a girl…"

Her hands flew to her hips as her eyes narrowed. "A girl!? What do you mean by that!?"

"Well, uh…"

"You expect me to just sit by quietly and stay here after hearing you say something like that?" she demanded. When Elmyra came back downstairs, Aerith turned to her. "Mom! I'm taking Cloud to Sector 7. I'll be back in a while."

Well, that little gambit of mine had just backfired spectacularly. Now Aerith was even more determined to go with me than she was before. What the hell had I been thinking? I had hoped that she would listen to me and just stay here, but that didn't seem even remotely likely now. I could tell that she wasn't going to change her mind, so I decided not to argue with her about it.

Apparently, Elmyra saw the same thing I did because she sighed in resignation and nodded reluctantly. "But dear… I give up. You never listen once you've made up your mind. But if you must go, why don't you go tomorrow? It's getting late now.."

"Yeah, you're right, Mom," Aerith agreed. Just a little too easily, I thought.

"Good, then, that's settled. Aerith, please go make the bed. I'll go get dinner started while you're doing that."

Aerith flashed me a rather smug smile and went upstairs. I guessed that she was used to getting her own way, and I wondered if she would try to stay with me all the way to Sector 7. I knew she'd have to come back here sooner or later, though, so I supposed it didn't matter. But I would try to get her to go home before we got that far.

When Aerith was gone, Elmyra turned to me. "That glow in your eyes… you're from SOLDIER, right?"

"Yeah," I said. "Well, I used to be…"

She nodded, unsurprised and a little hesitant. "I really don't know how to say this, but… could you please leave here tonight, without telling Aerith? SOLDIER… the last thing Aerith needs is to get hurt again. Once was enough."

"What do you mean?" I wondered.

"It's nothing you need to worry about," she said. "You seem nice enough, but… she's been through so much."

I thought I understood. "I like her, and I'm not about to hurt her. And I'll do what you've asked. It'll help me too, you know. I don't want her in danger again because of me."

"Thank you, Cloud. I appreciate it."

While she set about getting dinner ready, I wandered around the living room, wondering how Jessie and the others were doing and how I was going to sneak out tonight without Aerith knowing about it. In the end, I decided to wait until she was asleep to do that. It would be the best time, and with luck I would be back at the bar before she even knew I was gone. She would be upset, but at least she would be safe. And that was all that mattered.

About an hour or so later, I followed Aerith upstairs to get some rest before heading out later. There were two bedrooms, and a shelf with more flowers sat the end of the short hall. After reaching the first bedroom, Aerith stopped for just a moment and looked back at me. "You'll need to go through Sector 6 to get to Sector 7. Sector 6 is a little dangerous, so you'd better get some rest tonight. Then we'll leave first thing in the morning."

I started to enter the second bedroom but paused as she smiled knowingly at me. "Cloud… goodnight."

"Oh, man…" I murmured as she went into her room.

Was she onto me? She hadn't seemed very tired, and I wondered if she had figured out what I was planning to do. I wouldn't have been the least bit surprised. Aerith, I was starting to learn, wasn't some doey-eyed innocent who didn't know anything about the real world. She was smart, strong, and very perceptive. She'd had to be to survive down here among the pickpockets and odd monsters that were always wandering around the slums. If she knew I was going to sneak out, that would make it a bit harder than I'd originally thought. No doubt she'd be listening for me.

After entering the second bedroom, I leaned my sword against the wall and laid down on the bed. It was little more than sheets, a plain hand-knitted blanket, and a mattress, but it was soft and comfortable nonetheless. It felt good, and it was a lot better than that cot in Barret's basement. As I laid there, my hands clasped behind my head, my mind wandered, thinking of Aerith and Jessie and Tifa, of how I had come to be separated from the others, and of that strange voice I'd heard in my mind lately. So much had happened, and it was a little hard to unwind. But before I knew it, I was asleep.

It was the last bit of peaceful rest I would have for some time.