"Hello? Hello? Are you alright?" a
faint voice reached Cloud's ears, gently bringing him back to consciousness. He
slowly and painfully opened his eyes to see a petite girl dressed all in pink
standing over him.
"Uggh… who are you?" Cloud grunted.
"Shhh, don't worry about me. Just
worry about yourself for now," answered the pink girl.
Cloud groaned and lay back down,
trying to drown out the throbbing in his head. His vision became clearer and he
took in his surroundings. He was in a large wooden building with a row of
benches on each side and an altar across from the door. A church. He realized
he was lying on a soft bed of soil, and that he was surrounded by crushed
flowers.
"Do these flowers belong to you?" he
asked the pink girl, noticing how scrupulously she was tending to them.
"Yes. I grow them. Plants won't
bloom anywhere in the slums, but they seem to like this church because it's a
sacred place," she explained.
Cloud studied the pink girl. After a
few moments he recognized her as the girl who had approached him after the
Sector 8 reactor blew up. And he still had the strangest feeling that he knew
her from somewhere before then, too.
"Oh sorry. I crushed a bunch of your
flowers," he apologized.
She shrugged and smiled. "Don't
worry about it. The flowers are very resilient. They'll grow back quickly." She
knelt beside him and gave him a long look.
"Say, don't I know you from
somewhere? You look awfully familiar," she said.
Cloud couldn't piece enough of the memory
together to fully recognize her, so he answered, "No, I don't think so."
"Oh," she answered, looking slightly
disappointed for a moment. Soon she brightened again and asked him, "So do you
feel like talking?"
Cloud sat up and shifted around
nervously. He found the pink girl's wide, green eyed gaze traveling over him
and became uneasy for some reason. "I don't really have anything to talk
about…" he said to her.
Once again, a decidedly disappointed look
crossed her face and she went back to tending the flowers. They say there in
awkward silence for a few minutes before the pink girl said, "You know, we
should at least know each other's names. My name is Aeris Gainsborough."
"Cloud Strife," he replied simply, rising
shakily to his feet.
Aeris giggled and fluttered impossibly
long brown eyelashes at him. She clasped her hands behind her back and leaned
forward slightly as she spoke to him, hoping to look very sweet and coquettish…
or something. Cloud really wasn't sure what she was trying to do.
"So, Cloud. What do you do for a living?"
she asked.
He shrugged again. "I've done a lot of
different things."
She was about to press him further when
the door of church opened and a tall red-haired man with a white, scar-covered
face breezed in. He was clad in a navy blue suit and black glasses hid his
expression from view. Twenty Soldiers followed him. Cloud narrowed his eyes at
the blue-suited man. He too looked familiar. Cloud shook his head as a memory
appeared there. The man's name was
"Oh, it's you," Cloud said, trying to
sound casual, though he was quite curious as to what a Turk was doing in a slum
church.
"Wait! You can't fight in here! It'll
ruin the flowers!" Aeris squealed before turning and bolting into the back room
of the church. Cloud exchanged a final hard look with
"So Cloud," she began again once they
were out of sight of the Soldiers, "Have you ever been a body guard?"
"Well, no actually," he confessed.
"But you were in Soldier, right? You
seemed to know who those Shinra people were," Aeris pressed him.
"Yeah, I was in Soldier."
"Then you know about fighting! How would
you like to be my body guard? Take me home?" she inquired innocently.
Cloud regarded her with slight suspicion.
"I don't work for free, you know. It'll cost you," he answered.
"Ohhh is that how it is!" Aeris giggled,
"Well in that case, I'll go out with you once if you agree to be my body
guard!" Aeris felt very pleased with herself for making such a bold move; after
all, it wasn't every day that nice-looking young men came crashing through your
roof top.
Cloud raised an eyebrow at her
incredulously, but
"You know what? Let's just get out of
here. Shinra people are never up to any good. Come on!" he said.
"Umm, the only way out is the front
door!" she squeaked.
"Can you get on the roof from inside?"
Cloud asked.
"I don't know, I've never been up there!"
"I bet there's a way. Let's go!"
Cloud took off up the stairs, running
toward the roof. Like everything else in the slums, this church was on the
verge of completely falling apart. Parts of the stairway had collapsed and old
roof beams lay across them, creating rather treacherous footing. Aeris tried to
keep up with him, but fell behind when he leapt over a six foot gap in the
wooden walkway near the roof.
"I can't jump that far!" Aeris exclaimed.
"Just jump! They're catching up!" Cloud
urged.
Aeris attempted the jump but fell
miserably short. Luckily for her she landed a short way down on a fallen beam and
slid most of the way back down to the floor. Cloud cursed under his breath.
This escape was going to be a lot harder than he thought.
Aeris screamed as she came to a rather
rough landing on the wooden floor. She rose shakily to her feet and began to dust
herself off. As she did so, she noticed the score of Soldiers that was rapidly
closing in on her.
"Just come with us, Aeris. You are the
last Ancient. You're very important,"
Aeris shook her head, following the gut
feeling she had not to trust him.
Aeris gasped loudly and looked
imploringly up at Cloud, who was practically on the roof by now.
"Just run, Aeris!" he called down to her.
Aeris took off at surprising speed, darting back up the stairs.
"Whew! That should keep them away for a
little while," he said to her.
"That was weird. Usually they're not so
insistent and threatening," Aeris replied.
Cloud looked at her curiously. "You mean
this isn't the first time they've come after you? What do they want with you?"
he asked.
"They stop by the church a lot, actually.
But usually it's a nice man named Tseng. He always admires my flowers and
doesn't try to make me do anything. But that guy was mean!" Aeris pouted.
"So why are they following you around?"
Cloud inquired again.
She shrugged. "I'm really not sure,
actually. I don't even know who they are. All I know is that they're from
Shinra, so I don't trust them."
"They're Turks, Shinra special
operatives. They look for new recruits for Soldier. And they do all sorts of
dirty work on the side," Cloud explained.
"Maybe they think I have what it takes to
be in Soldier!" Aeris exclaimed. Cloud almost burst out laughing, but managed
to hide it with a sudden fit of coughing.
Aeris knew why Shinra was after her. They
had been seeking her since the day she was born. She kept the reasons to
herself, however, unsure of whom she could trust. Her adoptive mother,
Cloud looked at his surroundings from the
vantage point of the roof. He saw the Turks leave the building through the
front door, and could vaguely hear the sounds of
"Come on Aeris, let's get down from
here," said Cloud, carefully standing on the rickety shingles.
"Okay! Tell you what. Let's go to my
house! It's pretty safe there," Aeris exclaimed.
"Where is your house? And where are we?" inquired Cloud, making his way to
the other side of the roof. Aeris stumbled along behind him.
"Sector 6 for both questions," she
replied, "so my house isn't far from here."
Cloud nodded and began leaping from
across the tops of roofs and trash piles, which were as tall as many of the
houses. After a several minutes he heard a cry from behind him. "Hey! Wait up!"
It was Aeris. Obediently, Cloud stopped and waited for her. She caught up and
gave him a disapproving look.
"Some bodyguard you are! Leaving me
behind like that!" she pouted, arms crossed, panting for breath.
"Hey, I thought you had what it takes to
be in Soldier," Cloud shot back.
Aeris glared at him a moment longer
before tossing her long auburn braid over her shoulder and declaring,
"Whatever. Let's just keep going."
Cloud slowed his pace to match Aeris's,
and as result it took quite sometime to make it back to the ground. Aeris
dusted herself off and grabbed Cloud's hand. "Come on! My house is this way!"
she exclaimed.
"Be careful, Aeris! There are all sorts
of creatures and criminals that live around here," Cloud cautioned her.
"It's all right. I've lived in these
slums my whole life so I'm used to danger," Aeris replied confidently.
Cloud looked at her doubtfully. "Well in
any case, just take this, so at least you might stand a small chance of defending
yourself if we get attacked, which is likely," he said handing her a Fire
materia.
Aeris's eyes went wide. "Materia! This
actually does something?"
"Yeah. It's Fire materia. Just hold it in
your hand and concentr-"
"I know how to use materia," Aeris
interrupted.
Cloud raised a golden eyebrow
skeptically. "Where'd you learn?"
"My mom taught me, before she died. Sorry
I made it sound like I was ignorant of materia earlier. It's just that my
materia doesn't do anything," Aeris
replied.
"I'm sure it does something," reassured Cloud, "You just don't know how to use it."
"I
do know how to use it," Aeris responded defensively, "And mine is just
useless. But I keep it because my mom gave it to me. It makes me feel safe
somehow."
"Can I see it?" Cloud inquired.
Aeris untied the decorative pink ribbon
from the top of her braid and handed it to him. Attached to the ribbon was a
near-translucent, milky white materia. As Cloud turned it over in his hand, it
sparkled and seemed to make everything around it brighter.
"I'm sure we'll figure out what it does
eventually. Now let's get going," Cloud said, handing Aeris her ribbon.
They continued cautiously through the
slums, Aeris slightly ahead, leading the way. Cloud gripped his broadsword, his
eyes darting around for signs of movement. Despite his alertness, Aeris saw
something he didn't and screamed loudly. Cloud jumped at the shrill sound, but
quickly saw what had gotten such a reaction from her. Three creatures stood
staring at them, alarmed by Aeris's scream. They were squat and ugly, though
distinctly humanoid. Oily-looking, mottled greed skin covered their thin
reptilian frames. Three pairs of dull yellow eyes examined them while three
forked tongues flicked out to taste the air. Each was carry a shield and a spear.
"Aeris! Shhh!" Cloud whispered, hoping
that if they stood still and silent the lizard men wouldn't notice them. But it
was too late. One of the lizard men pointed its spear at them, and all three
charged forward. Aeris screamed again and jumped behind Cloud. Cloud lifted his
broadsword to parry the first spear thrust. The spear was poorly made and broke
in half on impact. Cloud swung the sword around and sliced through the lizard
man's midsection. It collapsed to the ground, leaking runny greenish blood.
Meanwhile, the other two lizard men had moved to each side of Cloud and were
simultaneously charging at him.
"Aeris! Use your materia!" he called
urgently, reeling as felt a spear point rake a long deep scratch across his
side. Even so, Cloud managed to slice the leg off one of the others. His
movement was greatly slowed by his wound, however, and Cloud turned to see the
final lizard man thrusting its spear at his throat. As he twisted out of the
way, Cloud heard Aeris's soft voice: "Fire."
He looked to see Aeris standing with her
eyes closed and arms extended, jets of flame leaping from each of her palms.
They collided solidly with the lizard man, knocking it backwards away from
Cloud. It made a horrible gurgling screech as its body was consumed by the
fire.
Aeris dusted herself off and helped Cloud
to his feet. "You've been hurt," she said gravely.
"It's not that serious. Besides, we're
almost to your house now, right?" Cloud replied. He had his hand pressed over
the cut, but blood was beginning to seep between his fingers anyways.
"Not too much farther. But don't try to
rush; you should take it slow with an injury like that," Aeris said.
"I just want to apologize again for
doubting your ability to use materia. That was a pretty impressive Fire spell,"
Cloud said.
Aeris's cheeks turned the same shed of
red as the jacket she wore and she giggled. "Thanks! See? I'm good for
something!"
