It
was snowing heavily. Everybody was at home in Icicle Inn because it was too
cold outside. Aeris was at home too. But she wasn't alone. She was with
Sephiroth.
Yes,
Sephiroth. The one that murdered her and killed Cloud. But after that
avalanche, Aeris helped Sephiroth to walk back to home. She had no idea why she
did it. She just put her life at stake. Sephiroth would wake up any moment and
probably will kill her. But deep down in her heart, she sensed that he
wouldn't.
"Aeris…"
Sephiroth
moaned again. This was the seventh time since she brought him home. Sephiroth
was still half-conscious. He could only manage to walk all the way home with
the help of Aeris. His bleeding stopped shortly after they were at home. Aeris
opened his shirt and treated his wound. His wounds are real bad. Most of them
were slashes and cuts. In just a while, she finished bandaging him. She put a
T-shirt on him to kept him away from cold.
Suddenly
Sephiroth held Aeris's hand tightly.
"Aeris…I
love you…"
Aeris
was really shocked when she heard these words. She never expect to hear these
words coming out from her murderer. She quickly jerk off her hand and stepped
backwards.
In just a moment, Sephiroth opened his eyes.
He looked around and saw Aeris.
"Where
am I?" Sephiroth asked.
Aeris
kept quiet. She didn't know what to say.
"Aeris,
I can explain what happened…" Sephiroth said.
"No!
I don't want to hear anything! You killed Cloud! You took away something that
is most important to me!" Aeris shouted while covering her ears and closing her
eyes.
"Aeris,
listen…can't you tell who I am?" Sephiroth asked.
Aeris
opened her eyes and take a good look at Sephiroth. Those eyes… They were
different than what she saw in Sephiroth before. It looked so much like…
"Aeris…"
This
time the calling of her name struck Aeris. Sephiroth will never call her Aeris.
He used to call her the ancient or the cetra. And the way he called her name is
so soft, so soothing…so much like…
Aeris
finally understand. She walked towards Sephiroth. She walked so close him until
their faces were only inches away. Then she spoke.
"Cloud?"
Sephiroth
nodded.
It
was a man with spiky hair holding a huge sword standing in front of the door.
Everybody there couldn't believe his or her eyes. Cloud was dead but now he was
standing right in front of their eyes.
"Cloud?"
Tifa asked.
Cloud
didn't reply. He just nodded.
"Cloud!"
Tifa
jumped up from her chair and rushed towards Cloud. She hugged him tightly and
tears of joy came streaming down her cheek and soaked Cloud's shoulder.
"Cloud…I
really missed you Cloud…I can't believe it's true…" Tifa said while sobbing.
Cloud
just stood still there. He didn't even spoke a word. He just stood there being
hugged by Tifa.
"Cloud!
It was so nice to see you again! I can't believe this is happening! Red, see? I
told you that these cards are really good at predicting the future!" Cait Sith
said.
Red
XIII just smiled back. But this time his smile was much more cheerful. Even Red
XIII missed Cloud.
"I
will wake up the others to tell them the good news." Red XIII said while
walking towards their bedrooms.
"Make
it quick. Tell them to pack up their gear too. We are leaving for Icicle Inn in
an hour." Cloud finally spoke.
Red
XIII didn't understand why he wanted them to leave for Icicle at a time like
this. For goodness sake, it was 3 in the morning and he could have waited till
morning.
"Cloud…may
I ask you why…"
"Just
go. You don't need to know." Cloud replied emotionlessly.
Red
XIII was shocked when he heard these words. Since when Cloud started being so cold
to his friends? Nevermind…Red XIII thought. Cloud will surely have an
explanation for this. He will just have to wait. Without much hesitation, Red
XIII went to tell the others.
"Cloud,
I have something to say…" Tifa said.
"Wait
till tomorrow." Cloud replied coldly and pushed Tifa slowly away from him. He
then walked towards the living room.
"Why
should we go to Icicle Inn in such a rush? Is Aeris in trouble?" Tifa asked.
"No.
I have an old score to settle." Cloud replied.
"Ah!
Here we are at last! Junon!"
Reno
said with relieve when he saw the huge building that once armed the mako cannon
when he walked out of the transport ship.
"Reno!
Come here and help me with the Chocobos! They suddenly went wild!" Elena
shouted from behind.
"Just
wait a second. Let me admire this beautiful piece of Shinra artwork…" Reno
replied while staring at the building.
"Come
here Now!!!" Elena shouted again.
"Okay,
Okay…I didn't know chocobos doesn't like boat rides…"
After
the incident where they encountered the giant worm in the desert, they mount
their chocobos and got out of the desert in a short time. After that, they got
to Costa de Sol and took a ride on a transport ship to Junon.
"Whoa!
Take it easily! Choco, you don't want to drop that piece of carg…Whoa!"
The
Chocobo went wild and drop the piece of cargo onto the floor. Luckily Rude got
to catch it in time.
"Thanks
Rude. You just saved a junk that cost one year of our salary in Shinra." Reno
thanked Rude.
Rude
just nodded. He than lift the cargo and carry it on his shoulder.
"I
am going to send this to the cargo bay." Rude said and walked towards the cargo
bay.
"Well,
that's gonna take some time. What are we gonna do now?" Elena asked.
"We
could just wait here or we could take a stroll around Junon." Reno answered.
"Okay,
let's take a walk." Elena said.
In
a short while, the two ex-turks are walking down the streets of Junon. Junon
had changed so much since the Shinra days. It had become the largest dock where
it used to be a military base last time. They were walking down a row of shops
when they saw a man running like a wild dog coming towards them.
"Help!
Help! They are killing me! Help!" the man shouted.
Behind
the man there was three men wearing white uniforms. They caught the man and
stripped him with a strip jacket.
"What
wrong with this man?" asked Reno.
"This
guy is a lunatic. He gone mad two days ago while working in the mortuary. He
kept on saying that there are two walking corpses among us and caused a lot of
havoc." One the men in uniform answered.
"Walking
corpses? Did anybody else saw it?" Reno said.
"You
are into this too? Oh man! You need a mental checkup." The man in white uniform
replied and brought the man to the hospital.
"You
interested in this, Reno?" Elena asked.
"A
little." Reno replied.
"You
are just as loony as that man." Elena said.
"How
dare you…" before Reno could finish a boy knocked into him.
"Watch
where you are going, kid!" Reno scolded.
"Sorry
sir. It won't happened again." The boy apologized went back to his friends.
Reno
observed the playing children. They were playing with sticks and looks like a
sword fight.
"What's
wrong, Reno?" Elena asked.
"Look
at the way they hold their sticks. It looked real familiar. As far as I know,
only one person holds his sword like that." Reno answered.
"Yea!
Crosslash!" the kid shouted.
This
word caught Reno's full attention. Reno ran towards the boy and interrogated
him.
"Where
did you learn about that?" Reno asked the boy.
"It
was this real cool guy that held a big sword with spiky I saw the night before
yesterday." The kid answered.
"And
he was chasing another cool guy with long silver hair with a long sword. It is
that time the spiky hair guy shouted crosslash and slashed that slashed him."
The kid continued.
"Reno
was stunned when he heard this. Cloud is in Junon and Sephiroth was still……
"May
I play with my friends now?" the kid asked.
"You
may go." Reno answered and walked back towards Elena.
"What's
wrong?" Elena asked.
"We
are about to meet two old enemies in a couple of days."