Aeris was walking for less than a minute when she ran into Cloud, who had been lurking around the area. She hurriedly wiped her face with her sleeve. Cloud stopped her. "Aeris, where're you going?"

Aeris wondered about what to say. She couldn't say "Tifa kicked me out cuz you kissed me, stupid!" Instead she answered with the first thing that came to her mind. "Marlene and I have a sleepover."

Cloud looked at her like she was crazy. Aeris saw that the excuse was a very lame one – it now must be like two in the morning. However, she could not go to Cloud's house. That would just make things worse.

She stuck to her words. "Yes, it's true. And Tifa's mad at me because I forgot about it until it was almost too late. I'm gonna go anyway, and I'm going to apologize to Marlene."

Cloud almost smirked, but kept a straight face. "Go back to the house, Aeris, and why don't you talk to he tomorrow? It's way too dark and it's to dangerous to wander around now."

Aeris found herself half-smirking, but stopped herself. "Yes… but Marlene just called me to come over."

Cloud looked dumbfounded. Was she serious? "What?"

"Yes, Cloud," Aeris said, pleased with her lie and smiling despite her best efforts. "Will you please let me pass?"

"I'll just walk you to Barret's then," Cloud said, still looking unconvinced.

Aeris swallowed, just hoping that Marlene will go along with it, and that Barret won't explode on her face when she wakes him up.

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Rufus couldn't sleep.

He tossed and turned, trying to keep his thoughts straight, but it seemed like a futile effort as her name rolled down his tongue.

It was her at the reactor. She is alive. But she is with the Avalanche, the group that opposes Shinra to the furthest extremes – so much that they had the guts to blow up their power source.

Why had she joined such a group?

Was it a revenge toward him? To turn against Shinra and himself, the heir of the empire? It if was, it was working. The notion clawed at his heart, tearing it apart.

Even if he found her now… would she just be one of the spiteful Avalanche members? Will she never return to him?

It was most likely to be so, and hard feelings must be building up since he had nearly killed them in the reactor.

He reminisced back to the reactor, trying to put together her last images.

Beautiful… just liked he remembered. Her emerald eyes shining while tears stained her peach-colored skin. But her face was buried inside another man's chest, his hands were stroking her golden-brown hair. Her narrow waist was wrapped in the arms of his. Just as she was in the clutches of Avalanche when he himself was a Shinra.

She had less than ten minutes to live, and she spent most of it embracing the blond man, crying into HIS shirt. The thought clogged his chest.

All of these "facts" were finally stabbing at his determination to find her. A fear of rejection seeped through his heart. He had taken it as guaranteed that Aeris and himself would be happily reunited, once he found her.

It seemed so unlikely now. He felt as if he was chasing an illusion of Aeris, not herself. If only she could know…

He sighed.

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Barret had been very cranky when Cloud and Aeris knocked and rang the doorbell. However, Marlene had been thrilled to see her. Without saying another word in fear of spoiling the whole masquerade, Aeris closed the door without saying anything to the bewilderment of Cloud and irritation of Barret.

Aeris tried to smile, although the incident just minutes before surfaced on her mind. Barret looked confused.

"What the hell is going on?? Why aren't you at Tifa's?"

At that, Aeris' voice cracked and a teardrop rolled down her cheek. Marlene, surprised, grabbed the woman's hand and pulled her down to her eye level.

"Aeris, what's wrong? Are you ok?" Barret now looked extremely distressed, not knowing what to do.

Aeris couldn't answer Barret's question without revealing the secret Tifa had shared with her. And she was sure that Tifa didn't want it broadcasted that she had slapped her.

So she just kissed Marlene's forehead. "Barret… do you think I can stay here until tomorrow at least? I can't go back to Tifa." "And don't call her," Aeris added.

Barret was willing to do anything to make this girl stop crying. It was making him very uncomfortable. "Sure, yeah, do whatever you want."

Aeris smiled and took Marlene's hand. Marlene looked back at her father. Aeris laughed softly and followed her into her room.

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Tifa sat on her couch in utter darkness. Silence enveloped the whole house. Tifa closed her eyes.

What she had done was a huge mistake on her part.

So what if she kissed Cloud? Well, sure, it makes her very mad. However it was no reason to kick her out of her house. Where would she go?

Tifa couldn't suppress a self-satisfied snicker that shook her whole body. She realized that she might be in shock.

She closed her eyes, thinking it would be better if she slept through this turmoil of her mind. She would be able to mend and analyze things in the morning, won't she?

She knew that she was lying to herself and opened her eyes again, preparing for a long sleepless night.

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The usual members of the board were sitting in the meeting desk with President Shinra. However one person was missing. Rufus.

The President's eyes had a strange chill in them. He was discussing the recent "bombing" of the Avalanche in the reactors. He hadn't told them that Rufus was supposed to destroy them. Therefore, all the other executives had the impression that the Avalanche was successful.

President Shinra knew that Rufus would not cooperate with the elimination of Avalanche. Sure, he could get another person working on it. However, now that he knew that the Avalanche was aiming at destroying reactors, he could not afford them to give them another trial.

One small rebel could lead to a universal revolution, he knew, especially with the conditions of the miserable slums these days. The first rebel against Shinra. They had to be the last ones in order to prevent any other rebels. Also, the reactors were the blood of Shinra. No method to protect them was too costly.

"In order to exterminate Avalanche…" he spoke with a bitter tongue, as if he was talking about cockroaches. "We must take drastic measures. I'm sure everyone is aware how one rebel action can lead to a massive defiance against Shinra."

"The whereabouts of Avalanche is unclear, and will take too much time to go through the whole Sector 7. They already destroyed one of our reactors. With no specific timeline as to how to catch them, the damage could be astronomical."

He looked at the model of Midgar on his desk, a perfect crystalline sculpture. It was a very accurate piece, except that it actually scintillated with an aura that made it seem beautiful, which Midgar was not.

He slowly unscrewed the top of the Sector 7. Inside there was a support that held the ceiling in place.

"No measure is too costly to insure Shinra's future," he repeated his own thought. He took the little support beam out. "That is why… I believe this is necessary." He dropped the plate.

Sector 7 shattered.



Author's Note: Ahh… I just realized that dialogue is not my strength. I tried to make them lifelike, so if they seem a little forced, bare with me, k? ^^

And sorry if nothing happened in this chapter. However you'll notice Rufus' doubts on finding Aeris. (I like that part ^^) Will he just give up on the search? Mwahaha, I'm evil. ^_

Well, I promise that the next time I update, something BIG will happen. Keep checking! R+R!!!