By: General Quistis
Disclaimer: I neither own Final Fantasy 7 nor the characters. Duh. I don't own anything…but the story plot…
Author's Note: I'm so sorry if there's this OOC tendency for this fic… I have to transform their personalities… like Cloud turning evil whatsoever… -.-' Please forgive meh… ;_;
And by the way, if you want to see some fanart or drawings regarding this fic and all my other fics, just go to my site: …thank you very much. Oh, and please don't forget to read & review this one. =)
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Chapter Seventeen
Aerith had awoken to the sound of someone knocking on the door. She tried to move, but realized that she couldn't because of a pair of arms embracing her naked body. She blushed a little but she just remained still until the sleeping figure beside her decided to open his own eyes.
"Kyah… President Rufus! President Rufus!" Scarlet called out from outside the door.
Cloud smiled at Aerith and gave her a kiss on her forehead. "Good morning, Aerith. How was your sleep last night?" he asked.
She smiled gently at him. "It was alright, Cl…Rufus…" she said, her heart skipping when she realized that she almost slipped.
It was a good thing that Cloud didn't catch her little booboo because of the loud knocking from the door. "Stupid Scarlet…" he muttered glumly before he sat up, grabbing his robe and wearing it before getting off the bed and walked grumpily to the door with a nasty look on his face. He opened the door slightly, not wishing Scarlet to see that Aerith had slept with him last night. "What do you want, Scarlet?" Cloud demanded.
"Kyah…we just received some news from Junon… you were there the other day?" Scarlet asked.
Cloud frowned. "What the bloody hell are you talking about? Of course, I wasn't there! I was here the whole day!" he reasoned.
"Kyah… and your prisoner just escaped!" she continued.
Cloud froze. "WHAT?!" he demanded angrily.
"Well then, it turns out that he had to disguise himself as you… so that he could escape… and I'm afraid Reeve, Elena and Reno were with him when he did so!" she explained.
Cloud clenched his fists but did not say anything more except for a soft mutter, "Search for those three including Cloud Strife and Tifa Lockheart! I want their heads by tomorrow afternoon!" and he shut the door.
Aerith could feel her heart beating fast as she remained on the bed, her eyes wide in sudden panic. She crouched, wrapping the blanket around her body as she shuddered.
"I can't believe those idiots from Junon were fooled by that Cloud Strife!" Cloud said aloud before going back to the bed and laid down beside Aerith again.
"Rufus?" Aerith asked.
"Yeah?" Cloud responded.
Aerith hesitated for a while but she spoke up with a trembling tone, "Y…your real name is Cloud, right?"
Cloud froze, not really knowing how to answer.
Aerith turned to face him with a gentle look on her face. "I don't care if you are not really Rufus ShinRa… I love you as you are, Cloud…and I promise to stay by your side forever…I'll never leave you," she told him gently as she moved closer and embraced him.
Cloud thought for a while, feeling a little overwhelmed by what Aerith had told him. He just smiled slightly as he returned her embrace. "I'll never leave you too, Aerith…" he told her gently as he closed his eyes, not wanting to let go of that wonderful feeling that she had made him feel.
***
"I don't think that you guys should return in ShinRa right now," Vincent pointed out to Reeve, Reno and Elena.
Reeve stared at him for a while, "Why?" he asked.
"It's in the newspapers," Barret handed him the newspaper with the headline, "Prisoner escapes Junon with the help of ShinRa executive and 2 turks".
Reeve raised an eyebrow as he read the whole story. "Great! Our names our here…" he muttered glumly.
"Oh man!" Reno plopped down on the couch beside Cid Highwind.
"That @#$%^%$# Cloud Strife's really a pain in the ass!" Cid snapped as he crossed his arms.
"You said it, man…" Reno muttered glumly as he made a face.
"You think they'll find us here?" Reeve asked, turning to Barret.
"We're not sure… they want to kill you guys… plus AVALANCHE, actually… so we're like a group of flies killed in one blow once they find us here. But we can't hide forever… we need to fight back those foo's if we wanna live!" Barret said with a determined look on his face.
"But… but… how are we going to convince everyone that Cloud Strife is the one in ShinRa and that the real Rufus ShinRa is here with us? Cloud's turned into some kind of power-hungry dork… like Rufus's father…" Elena said with a look of disgust on her face.
"And he got Aerith too…" Yuffie said with a sad look on her face.
They stopped discussing when they heard some heavy footsteps coming down the stairs.
All eyes turned to Rufus ShinRa who just arrived from the second floor. "Good morning, President Rufus," Reeve greeted with a smile on his face.
Rufus nodded his head in greeting. "So, what's all those stuff that I overheard from you guys about that spiky-headed dork?" he asked with a frown on his face as he snatched the newspaper from Reeve's grasp.
"Eh… it's all in the news, Rufus," Barret explained.
Rufus began to read, and after he read the whole article, he had this really angry look on his face. "Damn that…" he stopped himself from cussing further and just handed the paper to Reeve. "Somebody's gotta stop that impostor…" he muttered impatiently.
"We are going to stop him, Rufus," Barret reassured.
"We have less than 42 hours to do so…" Reeve said.
"But what about Aerith? She's with Cloud… we can't harm her," Red XIII asked.
"And what are we going to do with Cloud?" Reno added.
Rufus thought for a while. "The stubborn ass should die," he wanted to say out loud, but he just kept quiet and shrugged. "We'll know when we get there. Nobody messes with the real Rufus ShinRa…" he thought silently.
***
"Kyah… we're all in this big trouble now… how are we supposed to get out of this mess!?" Scarlet wailed as she continued to walk down the hallway to the elevator with Tseng and Heidegger.
"We should've just let Hojo kill that Cloud… and then let Rufus claim his rightful position." Heidegger muttered glumly.
Tseng was flipping through the papers on the clipboard that he was holding. "I've already sent Rude to Sector 7…" he said.
"Gyah… and I've sent all the Soldiers all over the place… man, this is like Martial Law or something! Cloud's really worse than we've expected him to be!" Heidegger reasoned before they boarded the elevator going to the 70th floor.
"And we're supposed to kill Rufus?!" Scarlet exclaimed in panic.
"Gyah… as much as I'd hate to admit it in front of Cloud because he'll just slice my head off, I don't want to be the one to interrogate Rufus, Tifa, Reeve, Reno and Elena… plus AVALANCHE." Heidegger said miserably before they finally reached the 70th floor.
"As if you have a choice…" Tseng said.
"I have choices… either lose my head too or interrogate them." Heidegger replied as they stepped out of the elevator and headed for the President's Office.
The moment they got inside, they froze when they saw Aerith Gainsborough standing by the window, looking outside. Cloud was nowhere to be found.
Aerith turned to them with a weak smile on her face. "Good afternoon," she greeted with a soft tone.
Tseng, Heidegger and Scarlet all exchanged confused glances with one another before turning back to Aerith with weak smiles. Tseng stood up straight, "Good afternoon, Miss Gainsborough… may I ask you where President Rufus is?" he asked.
Aerith stared at him for a few seconds before replying, "He went downstairs to check on Professor Hojo…"
Silence.
Aerith looked down with a hesitant look on her face.
Heidegger, Scarlet and Tseng, upon noticing her sudden uneasiness, exchanged confused glances with one another again, as if urging each other to speak up. Scarlet was the one with enough guts to say to Aerith, "We…we want to tell you something, Miss Gainsborough…"
Aerith looked up at her with sad eyes. "Is it about… about Rufus?" she asked.
"Unfortunately, yes… but please, don't think of it as something that will ruin your relationship with him because as you must've known, we only want the best for President Rufus…" Tseng began with a hesitant tone.
"He's Cloud. I know it," she told him.
The three executives were silent.
Aerith smiled gently. "I just talked to him about it and…" her smile faded away. She suddenly felt nervous.
"And what?" Scarlet urged with a worried look on her face.
Aerith looked at them with a nervous expression in her green eyes, "It's fine with him… but what he told me just before he went downstairs… is that… he'll be getting rid of all of you…" she stammered.
"GYAH! What do you mean?!" Heidegger demanded.
"Please, please… calm down… I'm also trying to think of something to stop him. I've met Tifa already and I've also heard about the real Rufus… but Cloud's out of control… I just need help to calm him down or… maybe reverse the effects of what Hojo had injected into his bloodstream… I don't want any lives lost here so please… help me do something for Cloud…" Aerith pleaded, running to them and holding Heidegger's hands and squeezing them gently.
Heidegger, Scarlet and Tseng all stared at Aerith unbelievably. "She must be an angel to help us with this situation…" Scarlet thought silently as she smiled gently. "Kyah… we will help you, Miss Gainsborough," she declared.
Tseng nodded and flipped the papers on the clipboard. "I'll tell Rude to come back here," he said before leaving the room.