Chapter 16: Pink

"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 Reno, and he worked for Shinra.

"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.

Reno raised an eyebrow. "Right. I don't know you. Some Soldier traitor, I'd guess, by that Mako edge in your eyes," he said, "But regardless of who you are, you'd better not get in my way." Reno took and aggressive step forward and the Soldiers behind him rested their hands on their guns. Cloud instinctively reached for his broadsword.

"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 Reno before following Aeris out of the room. Aeris may be a bit mysterious and air-headed, but I have no idea where I am so I'd better stick with her, he reasoned before following her into the back room.

"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 Reno and his Soldiers barged in before he could answer.

"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," Reno said calmly.

Aeris shook her head, following the gut feeling she had not to trust him. Reno's eyes hardened. "Miss Gainsborough. We strongly recommend that you come with us," he said firmly.

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. Reno made a slight gesture and the Soldiers leapt after her in pursuit. Aeris was faster than she looked, however, and managed to outrun the Soldiers. With a good running start she was able to clear the six foot gap through which she had fallen earlier. She finally caught up with Cloud and collapsed against him, gasping for breath. Cloud pushed her back onto her feet and indicated a hole in the roof as a way out. They made their way carefully across a maze of splintering rafters toward the hole. The hole was small, and they had to squeeze through one at a time. Cloud went first and had no trouble finding a foothold on the rough, uneven shingles. He pulled Aeris through after him.

"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, Elmira, was the only other person who knew about it. When she was little, Elmira had kept Aeris hidden from Shinra as best she could. Even though Aeris was twenty-two now, Elmira was still very protective of her, and afraid that she would end up with the same fate as her birth 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 Reno yelling at his troop of Soldiers. Houses and junk heaps were pushed up against one side of the church, gradually leading back down to the ground.

"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!"