Title- Duty
Chapter 3
Author- malu (malu_45@hotmail.com)
Series- Final Fantasy 7
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Disclaimers- see chapter 1
Author's notes- Same as chapter one. Since italics don't work on e-mails what's in italics I had to put thoughts in parenthesis (thoughts), but please if you put it on your page put thoughts in italics and delete the parenthesis. I forgot to mention Seph's age, he's 19.
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Everything was dark and quiet. The earth had stopped moving. Aeris opened her eyes slowly. The darkness made visibility almost impossible, the only light being a small crevice on the ceiling. (It's a cave, the Weapon's beam must have caused a cave-in.) She looked around searching for Sephiroth. (Where's Sephiroth? Did he fall into the cave too?) She got up, dusted her clothes off and looked around. She stood in a corridor, and the ceiling was very high, but she only had a 5 feet visibility. (I must've fallen at least 15 feet.). She looked for her equipment and started to look around for an exit. She heard something coming from behind. She followed the sound. It turned out to be Sephiroth digging his way out from under a pile of earth and rubble. She helped him out, much to his annoyance. He checked himself for any injury, but found none.
"I could've gotten out by myself, you know?" Sephiroth didn't want anyone helping him. He didn't need help from anyone.
Aeris just gave him a small grin, "No one said you couldn't. I'm just being polite, sir."
Sephiroth choose to ignore her response. He looked around. "A cave…"
Aeris looked around some more, "Um, sir, this seems to be part of the Gaea Cliff's cave system. The system consists of caves below the Great Glacier, the Gaea Cliffs and the Crater. If we explore this cave we might find a way out."
It was very hard to see in the dark. Sephiroth was already reviewing his options. Sephiroth took out his PHS and tried it out, but there was interference and there was nothing but static. Nothing, they'll never figure out where we are. Might as well go look for an exit. "The PHS doesn't work, we'll have to look for an exit."
Aeris nodded, "Yes, sir!"
"Call me Sephiroth."
"In that case it's only fair that you call me Aeris too."
They both started walking, Sephiroth leading silently, but there was no light, which made it difficult to explore the cave. Aeris used a flashlight that she on her item bag. They walked for a few hours, but still nothing. They stopped after a while.
Aeris was just sitting there, bored out of her mind. "What'll we do now?"
"We've been walking for a long time, this cave doesn't seem to have an exit."
"We could be walking in circles or walking through the same path all day."
"We'll stay here to rest a while."
They set up a small fire using a few pieces of wood they found on the cave floor. Aeris looked at the cave walls. Aeris was tired of the silence. She couldn't stand it anymore. "Anyway, since were here, we might as well get something out of this. We can get to know each other better. I know you have questions you want to ask me, go ahead."
Sephiroth just looked at her. Great, she wants to talk…But she's right, there are some things I want to ask her about. Might as well, we'll be here a while. "Why did you join SOLDIER? You don't, I mean…"
"You mean I don't look like the fighting type. Right?"
Sephiroth's face was red with embarrassment. Great, no only am I babbling, but I 'm blushing too. This has never happened before. What do I say?
Aeris just smiled, "I'm not insulted by it. It's true, I don't look like a normal SOLDIER. I didn't mean to put you on the spot. The reasons why I joined SOLDIER are difficult to explain. I never gave it much thought. I just felt I had to, for my own survival. When people see me they automatically think I'm weak, or rather helpless. I joined SOLDIER because that way I could learn the skills needed to survive in a world like this. Besides the way I look gives me an advantage, it gives me the element of surprise." Great, I'm telling him a little too much. Why can't I just shut up? "How many years have you been in SOLDIER?"
"I've always been in Shinra, Inc., but I joined SOLDIER when I was 15."
"Oh, I joined SOLDIER a year ago."
"It took you one year to get to 1st class. Impressive."
"I trained hard and passed the tests. How long did it take you?"
"I joined the 1st class immediately after joining SOLDIER. I took the 1st class exam and passed it."
Aeris just looked at him. (He passed it on his first day; he's really strong. Is that even possible? Then again, he is Sephiroth. It's foolish to underestimate him.)
After that there was an awkward silence. Neither of them knew what to say. It was getting dark and Aeris was starting to get sleepy. Even Sephiroth was tired. Aeris looked at her watch. "It's almost 1:00A.M. I think I've got a blanket in my pack. We could manage for the night."
Sephiroth just looked at Aeris' pack; it was the size of a gym bag. He grinned. "A blanket, a flashlight, food, items, you don't pack light, do you?"
Aeris just grinned back. "A girl has to be prepared for any kind of emergency. Besides, aren't you glad I don't pack light?"
"Point taken. Well, your right, we should rest for the night."
"It is getting late."
Sephiroth nodded, "I'll take the first watch."
Aeris smiled at him, "Thanks." She took her blanket and laid back against a wall. She wrapped the blanket around herself. And started to drift into sleep. (He's so nice… and cute too. Ah! What am I thinking?! Maybe I'm just sleep deprived.) Her thought drifted as she fell asleep.
Sephiroth stood alone, watching the dying campfire. After a while he stole a glance at Aeris. Suddenly a loud growl echoed throughout the cave. Well, so much for rest. Aeris woke up with a start. She saw Sephiroth ready his sword and she prepared for battle. They walked silently, as not to be noticed. The growls continued. They followed the sounds and got to a huge chamber. One of the walls of the chamber was made of ice. There was something entrapped in the ice, but they couldn't tell what it was. In the middle of the chamber stood a contraption of some kind. Still there was no sign of any monster. Sephiroth stood in front of the artifact. "This is unlike anything I've ever seen. It looks like it hasn't been used in a while."
Aeris looked at the artifact. (It's a control panel of some kind. It's of Ancient origin. I wonder what does it do?) "It looks like a panel or something like that."
Sephiroth just looked at the panel; it had some sort of ancient writing. Then he saw a gem in the middle of the panel. He hesitantly touched it, but nothing happened. Aeris walked closer to him. As she approached the panel, the gem began to glow. When Aeris touched the gem it gave off a strong green glow and small gems on the chamber's walls lit up too, lighting up the whole chamber. In front of them stood the wall of ice, but now what was entrapped in the ice was visible. Aeris looked at it, she couldn't believe it. "How can it be entrapped in ice? It's the same monster that attacked us. It is just not possible."
Suddenly the ground started shaking again and the gems' glow intensified. An eerie green glow surrounded Aeris and she was taken off the ground and floated in mid-air. The ice wall started cracking and the Weapon's eyes opened. The Weapon broke free of the ice and started growling. Sephiroth readied his sword. Aeris closed her eyes and started chanting a prayer, but Sephiroth couldn't make out the words. The glow around Aeris' body intensified and a sphere of light appeared in front of her outstretched arms. The sphere of light intensified and Aeris threw it toward Weapon. The light completely surrounded it and seemed to dissolve Weapon until there was nothing. The glow faded and Aeris floated back down.
Sephiroth just stood there, dumbstruck. Aeris looked at him warily. Sephiroth put away the Masamune. "What was that?"
Aeris had to think fast. "That was my limit break."
Sephiroth just looked at her. (That's unlike any limit break I've ever seen. Besides she didn't get any damage, how could she activate her limit break?) The earth started moving and the ceiling began to give in. Sephiroth quickly cast a strong Barrier spell on Aeris and himself. After a few minutes the entire ceiling had fallen on them. The Barrier completely shielded them from the debris. They climbed out of the cave and looked around. It was still dark. They were in the crater.
They decided to walk back to camp, which took the rest of the night. When they got there they found Luna in front of Sephiroth's tent, obviously waiting for Aeris. It was already dawn and everyone was walking out of their tents and saw Sephiroth and Aeris arriving. They looked horrible, hair messed up and clothes dirty. Zack just looked at them, "What happened to you two?"
Sephiroth glared at him, "Mission accomplished. We'll move out to Icicle Village and wait for further instructions." Everyone wanted to ask what happened, but Sephiroth's glare indicated any questions would definitely not be welcomed.
After a while they arrived. Luna followed Aeris while Sephiroth walked in the front. Kids were playing in the snow. Some were skiing, skating in a small ice skating rink and some were throwing snowballs. One snowball hit Zack squarely on the face. Zack looked for the culprit, two boys and a girl were playing with snowballs, but stopped dead in their tracks when they saw Zack getting hit by one. Zack looked like he was about to kill them. Everyone in the unit knew he was joking, he wouldn't really get mad about something as trifle as that, but the children didn't know. They backed up until they were against a wall. They looked at all the SOLDIERs until they looked at Aeris. After a few seconds their faces lit up with recognition and they ran to Aeris and held on to her for dear life. "Aeris! You're back!" Aeris almost fell. When Zack turned back toward them they hid behind Aeris, terrified. Aeris just looked at the children grinning, "Zack, leave them alone." Zack just shrugged his shoulders, "Sorry to scare you kids, I don't bite!" They didn't trust him until Aeris reassured them that Zack wouldn't hurt them.
A man and a woman approached the group, they were in their twenties. The man had short black hair and brown eyes, while the woman had long brown hair and brown eyes. The woman was the first one to speak up. "Aeris! Is that you? It's been a while." The woman hugged Aeris and she hugged back. Aeris remembered that she hadn't introduced them to Sephiroth and the rest of the unit. "Oh, I forgot to introduce you all. Everyone, these are two very good friends of mine: William and Liz. Liz, William, this is Lieutenant Sephiroth and his men, I was transferred to his unit." Pleasantries were exchanged. Liz and William were the owners of the Inn and were more than happy to let them stay at the Inn for free. They even invited them for dinner.
The next day everyone had the day off, except Sephiroth who had to write a report to HQ. He didn't know where to start; the battle with the giant monster defied the very laws of logic. He couldn't explain how the creature could attack something like a helicopter without leaving any traces of his whereabouts and then be found frozen in a solid block of ice. For that matter he couldn't explain how Aeris could destroy it with only one attack, he had never seen an attack like that before. He decided to take a break and look around town, there was one place he really wanted to visit, Professor Gast's house. He was told it was abandoned, so he entered the house. He looked around, everything was out of place and the dust had accumulated through the years. There was a portrait of Gast with a woman and a baby. The woman in the picture had long brown hair and green eyes. Sephiroth looked at the portrait. (I didn't know that Professor Gast had married. The woman on the picture looks familiar, maybe I saw her when I was younger.) He looked around the room, there were very little furniture, but a lot of different machines were around the room. He sat on a desk that was besides the bookshelves. There was only one thing on the desktop, a photograph of the little baby on the portrait. There was something written on the bottom of the photo. Sephiroth could barely make out the words: "Aeris, 3 months old". He quickly turned to the family portrait. (That's where I thought I saw that woman, the woman in the portrait is almost identical to Aeris. This is getting more interesting.) Sephiroth got up, took Aeris' photo and returned to the inn to finish his report.
Aeris was in her room worrying about the report. If he writes the whole truth, she'll end up in a certain scientist's lab.
The next morning a helicopter came to pick them up. They arrived in Midgar by noon. Aeris was in her little office, skimming through some paperwork. Someone knocked on the door. Aeris told the person outside to come in. Sephiroth opened the door and gave Aeris a folder. "This is the report I'm going to turn in to Heidegger."
Aeris opened the folder and started reading it. (Monster was a high level monster…blah blah…Monster was found in a cave and destroyed…I'm saved, but why did he buy my story? Even I couldn't believe it.) As she closed the folder and gave it to Sephiroth, Reno burst into the office without even knocking.
Aeris didn't like that. "Reno, how many times have I told you to knock on my door before you barge in?!"
Reno just smirked and took out a folder from his coat, "Oh, but I bring news. I've got an assignment you two will just love." The last statement was said with a tinge of sarcasm.
Aeris felt a headache coming on. (Somehow I don't think I agree with him.)
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Author's notes- I promise next chapter will be better, I really didn't like how this one turned out. Not to worry the intros are difficult, but the rest is easier. I've taken a long time to finish it, but it was deleted when I was almost done with it, so I had to start again.