Chapter Five: Surreal


He pushed through the crowds that were loitering around the stores to see what they were selling inside. The men who accompanied Sephiroth, now each bearing two or so bags with various items inside, followed at a slight distance to allow the boy some space, but made sure he never left their sight. They knew just how important that boy was to the Doctor, and if something happened to him, they would certainly pay for it. No, not death, but something worse than death; something that would be almost as demoralizing as what he did to the mother of that silver-haired youth...

Sephiroth happened upon the right store at last, his eyes reading the hand-painted window that read "Grocery and General Supply." All he needed now were the few produce items left on the list (carrots, lettuce, and tomato were among them). He shoved his way into the store (his entourage waited outside) and located the items, took them to the register, paid for them, and made his way out by pushing through people once more.

The crowd had grown considerably, he had noticed, but paid little attention to it. He pushed his way further and began to look for the two who accompanied him, but there were too many people around for him to find them. He tried getting out of the crowd, but he found it was like a river current -- where they went, he went. Of course, he could have plowed through the lot of them, but he didn't want to injure anyone. Assuming that the two men knew where he was, he allowed the crowd to take him wherever they led to.

-|/\/\/\/\|-

Quite some time later, the crowd had finally thinned out enough to allow him free movement, but still he could not find the two men. He also began to realize that he had no clue where he was!! Back in the retail area, stores looked about the same shade of light tan. But this place...this place looked kind of run down. Everywhere was the brown of wood, the burgandy of rusted metal, the dim shine of corrugated tin...

He turned around and started to go back the way he came from, but he slowly came to the conclusion that, well, he didn't know which direction he had come from. He was truely, truely lost.

Sephiroth began to ask people which way would lead him back to town, but he never did catch the name of the town he had left. Every time he would mention the Shin-Ra building, people would either ignore him, assuming he was of upper class, or run away at the word. Appearantly people didn't look too highly upon the Shin-Ra company in this town, and Sephiroth wondered why.

He soon found his way into yet another area of town, and was again quite lost. He gave up on finding his way back on his own, and instead continued asking people which way would lead him to the building. He kept receiving the same cold shoulder.

Anxiety turned to dispair. He knew that the Doctor would wonder why he was missing, and probably assume the worst: desertion. He would think Sephiroth had ran away from Shin-Ra, from the experiments and suffering he endured. Then he thought, yes, maybe he should run away. This was his chance at freedom! Although Hojo had promised freedom, he would make him work for it, and that meant the prospect of even more painful experiments. But like this, he was already safely away from Shin-Ra and no one could possibly know where he went.

But then, what would happen if he were found again? That would be more painful than any "rewarded" experiment working towards promised freedom.

He sat upon a large wooden crate and just stared into the distance. He was stuck. There was no way he could find his way back, and also nowhere to run to. They would find him eventually. They had to. He may as well sit and wait for them instead of running, then tell them all that happened.

"Excuse me..."

hmm?

"I was just wondering..."

Sephiroth turned to his left and found a young girl, perhaps age twelve or thirteen, smiling at him.

"...Well...you look so sad. I have something that may cheer you up!" She reached into her basket and pulled out a yellow flower. She handed it to him. "These are special flowers from a church nearby. Flowers will only grow in that church."

He turned the flower around in his right hand. Sephiroth smiled slightly. "Thank..you."

The girl smiled even more brightly than before. "You're welcome. Hey..you don't look like you're from around here. You wear a suit like Those Men. You're not one of Those Men, are you?"

Sephiroth blinked in confusion. "What do you mean, Those Men?" He looked around expecting to see the two whom were supposed to be with him, but saw no one of the sort.

"Those Men who keep trying to take me with them," she replied quietly. "They scare me."

Sephiroth shook his head. "I'm not trying to take you away, if that's what you mean." Sephiroth thought, Is that why people hate Shin-Ra? Are they kidnappers? "I'm actually kind of...lost."

The girl sighed in relief. "Well, this is no place for someone to sleep! You can probably stay at my house until morning if you like. I was on my way home from work anyways."

"Isn't it still early?" he asked the girl.

"No. Don't let the light fool you. There's no sunlight in the slums; it's all artificial." She sighed. "I wonder what it's like to be in real sunlight all day."

Sephiroth shrugged. "It's just like this, but warmer...Do you know how to get to the Shin-Ra building from here? There's sunlight--"

"I have to work all day to sell these flowers in town, but today I hardly sold any at all," she changed the subject, and held up the basket with many flowers neatly stacked inside. "If you're lost, maybe you could find your way home tomorrow when I go back into town! I know the back way so it won't be as crowded...is that how you got lost, in that crowd?"

He nodded.

"Okay. So I'll lead you back there tomorrow. In the meantime, let's go to my house. My mom loves it when we have visitors! We hardly get anyone to stop by anymore, not since Those Men started dropping by. People think we'll bring bad luck to them because Those Men are always looking for me..." The girl stopped. "OH!! Goodness!! I forgot to tell you my name!!" She blushed in embarassment. "I'm Aeris."

-|/\/\/\/\|-

Sephiroth savored the last few bites of his meal as much as he did the first. This was his first exposure to something other than the comissioned food at Shin-Ra, and these included the groceries purchased by him that day. He felt a slight bit bad about giving the groceries he bought in town to the girl and her mother, but he knew they would have been less fresh for Hojo if he hadn't, and would have gone to waste because they would have been "unsuitable." He would just buy more the following day on his way to the Shin-Ra building.

"Thank you again for the vegetables," Aeris' mother said kindly. "It's not often that we get fresh foods in the Slums."

Sephiroth frowned. "The Slums?"

"Yes. That's what they call places like this, all because we don't have the money to live on top of the plate with the rest of 'em. I guess they had to find a way to give new meaning to the term 'high society'..."

At this, Sephiroth smiled uncertainly, hoping she meant the remark as a joke. Aeris began to clear the dishes as her mother refilled his water glass. When she was done pouring the water, she gestured toward an area by the door. "I was wondering...what kind of sword is that? I've never seen one that size in all my years."

"It's Masamune," Sephiroth replied. "That's the only one of its kind. It was custom-made for when I go to..." he trailed off, recalling the general opinion of Shin-Ra, and possibly they felt the same about Soldier, "...strange places. It's not too smart to walk around in foreign areas unarmed." He grew warm inside at his bold half-lie. Nice cover.

"Or to get lost in a 'foreign area', right?" the mother asked with a teasing smile on her face. A sharp chuckle was heard from the girl clearing dishes in the kitchen.

"Um...sure..." he fidgeted a bit in his chair.

"Now, I'm off to bed. Aeris leaves early in the morning to tend the flowers in the church, so when you wake up, you can meet her there. Aeris, does he know how to find the church?"

"Yeah, mom!" she called from the kitchen. "I showed him on the way home!"

She nodded satisfactorily, then went upstairs to prepare a bed for their guest.

-|/\/\/\/\|-

Sephiroth sat quietly in the chair and thought a while. He was still quite nervous about what may happen to him when he went back to Hojo. Then, another thought entered his mind: did he endanger this Aeris girl by staying in her home? If Shin-Ra was already after her, would they find her when they found him? Rather, WHY was Shin-Ra AFTER this girl? It was hard to imagine such a gentle being causing harm to a powerful force such as the Shin-Ra, so why could they possibly...

Aeris finished cleaning up in the kitchen and returned to the table, taking the seat to the left of Sephiroth. "Go ahead," she nodded slowly. "Ask whatever you like. It's not normal for someone to sit here this long without saying a single word, so you must have been really thinking hard. What would you like to know?"

Sephiroth shook his head, his silver hair swaying a bit. "You don't have to tell me if you don't want to, okay?"

"Tell you what?"

"Why Shin-Ra is after you."

Aeris nodded again, but with more sadness than before in her movements. "They've been after me ever since I was born. Even before that, they were after my mom. I was too young to really remember such a horrible thing, but I know my dad died protecting us while my mom and I ran away. They also killed my mom."

Sephiroth thought out loud while pointing toward the roof of the house, "But, isn't she your..."

"No, she took me in after she found my mom and I at the Station. She's taken care of me since then, treating me like her own daughter. She is my mom, even if she didn't give birth to me."

Sephiroth nodded in understanding. "But...why were they after her?"

"Well..." Aeris closed her eyes for a moment, then opened them, staring deep into Sephiroth's eyes. She tilted her head to the right slightly, "My mother was what they called an Ancient. They wanted her because there were very few of them left in this world. Ancients are supposed to take people to the 'Promised Land'."

Sephiroth thought to himself, Promised Land...Hojo says that I'm special...that I'M the one who's supposed to lead...

"Those Men say I'm also an Ancient, but I don't know why. They say those voices I hear are what make me an Ancient." Aeris paused briefly, then burst into a brief fit of laughter. "Ha...you must think I'm crazy, right? Heh heh...For saying I hear voices, right?"

"No," Sephiroth replied. She's like me...but why did I go through all that pain, all those treatments? She's the same as me, she's never felt that needle, that liquid fire, and SHE'S supposed to lead everyone to the Promised Land..?! He shook the thoughts out of his head. "I..I know people who hear voices, too. They thought I was the weird one because I couldn't hear the voices."

Aeris' face brightened. "So..so there's more people out there like me?" She stood up and turned around once full-circle, then bent forward a bit to look him in the eyes again. "Where are they?! Can I meet them???!!!" She grinned as wide as her face would allow.

Sephiroth shook his head, "Sorry, I don't think you could...but...can I tell you something?"

Aeris' smile faded almost to a frown, but she replied, "Sure."

"They...I was also told I have to find the 'Promised Land'. Do you know where it is?"

Aeris shook her head and stepped away from him. "You...you're a liar!! They're saying that you lie, that you're not like me! You're NOTHING like me!!"

"But, they said--!!"

"I don't care what they SAID, they're SAYING you're not like me!!" Aeris insisted, barely below a yell.

Sephiroth went cold. Those voices...those are the voices the others could hear. They're the ones telling her that.

Aeris straightened up, standing quite stiffly. "If you lied about yourself, you must have lied about the others. So that's why Those Men are still after me...I must be the last Ancient." She placed her arms around her torso and walked upstairs. She paused halfway up and looked at Sephiroth once more. "I'm telling mom that we're leaving now, and to wait up until I come back home. If you lied about being an Ancient, you could have lied about not being one of Them. If you stay here...I won't get any sleep. Pack up your things, and I'll be down in a minute."

Sephiroth retreived his Masamune as directed, and placed the flower she had given him inside his jacket, tucked into his belt. He reached for the remainder of his money in his coat pocket, still considerably large, looked it over, and removed a few bills from the bunch. He placed the bills inside the girl's empty basket (its earlier contents now residing inside a blue vase upon the dining table), and returned the rest to his jacket pocket. Sword in hand, he listened as Aeris scurried back downstairs. She bore a simple wooden staff in one hand and a round, greenish sphere in the other.

"Let's be on our way," she said as she walked towards the door, then opened it for them both.

Sephiroth stepped outside, and looked around before clearing the doorway for the girl. He saw nothing. It was what he could hear that awakened his senses.

"I think I can find my way," he told the girl.

She started to protest, but he placed a hand on her mouth to silence her. "Go back upstairs, Aeris, and stay there. It looks like I wasn't the only one whom you led home today."



Disclaimer: I don't own anyone from Final Fantasy Seven (although this game ownz me! C.C meep!). If I did, I would be filthy rich and not have to worry about being sued by god-like companies such as Squaresoft.