AERIS LEGACY
Chapter One: Enter Airis
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A girl in pink was praying somewhere.
Up from nowhere, a silver haired man descended,
heaving the slim blade of his sword through her.
Though wounded, the girl did not cry out.
The man with long silver hair raised his head
and smirked at another man, who had spiky blond hair. The silver haired
slid his blade out of the pink-clad girl. She collapsed in the arms of
the blond man.
As the girl died, her lips moved, but no words
came. I left two... she seemed to have said.
A silver haired girl sat up in bed. She'd been having this dream for
a week. It always ended like that. But two what?
A blonde woman in a dark blue uniform came into
the room. "Airis, it's time to get up." She seemed saddened.
"Yes, Mom." The girl, Airis said.
The uniformed woman left. Airis slowly got dressed,
in a pink tank top, black jacket, and black miniskirt with black boots
to match. She braided her hair and tied it with a pink ribbon.
In the kitchen, her mother had made breakfast. Airis
looked around her surroundings, taking care to include everything. Her
eyes fell on the third chair at the table. Her father... but not her real
father. Nor was the woman she called 'Mom' her real mother.
"Mom," Airis said tentatively, "After I leave, are
you sure, you'll be all right?"
"I'll be fine, Airis. There's no need to worry."
They ate in silence the rest of the while. Finally
Airis got up and cleared the table, leaving the dishes in the sink to soak
in the soapy water.
Supposed mother and daughter walked out of the small
flat. They walked down to the station, where they took the rail to the
Shinra Headquarters.
After flashing their IDs, they headed to one of
the upper floors on the elevator.
A man with reddish-brownish hair and a slightly
wrinkled suit was standing in front of the elevator when they got out,
absentmindedly chewing on a melting candy bar. He looked sheepish when
they stepped out, and hastily shoved the candy into one of his trouser
pockets. "Ah... Elena and Airis..."
"Reno." Elena acknowledged the man coolly.
Airis, on the other hand, went over and gave Reno
a hug, calling him "Uncle Reno."
The three walked down the hall, Airis in the middle,
to the Shinra meeting room.
In the meeting room, President Rufus, Scarlet, Heidegger,
Reeve, and Rude were gathered.
They looked up when the trio entered and sat down.
Rufus gave a short informal 'speech,' as did the
others. Finally it was over.
"May you have the best of luck." Rufus said. Airis
nodded.
As they prepared to leave, everyone patted her shoulder,
hugged her, or something similar, wishing her good luck on her journey.
Reno, Rude, and Elena, whom Airis called Mom, made
up the Turks, and they accompanied her to the weapon rooms to pick up her
weapon.
It was a sword, and quite a large one at that, being
almost as tall as Airis was. Rude and Reno had taught her how to use it.
They called it a 'Buster Sword' and it lived up to its name, busting almost
everything it went through.
Airis said her good-byes to Rude and Reno, then
she and Elena went by themselves to the train that would take them out
of Midgar.
Here at the station, Airis asked Elena a question
that had been lingering in her mind. "Mom... please, tell me, what happened
to Dad?"
Elena sighed, "Must you know?"
"Please? And yes, I have to know."
Elena sat down at the nearest bench. Airis sat next
to her. "It was a while ago... maybe a few years ago, the Turks were assigned
to capture a terrorist group called AVALANCHE. We chased them across three
continents. Finally, Tseng—you foster father—and I, went to the Temple
of the Ancients, which back then was still standing. I left him for a few
minutes to search another part of the Temple, and came back, but he was
gone. I decided to wait for him outside of the Temple.
From my line of sight, the Temple collapsed, and
AVALANCHE was standing at its entrance. I was absolutely sure they'd killed
him. But... there was this time at Icicle Inn up North, a few weeks later,
it was just me. I saw him there, the man who killed Tseng. He said, no,
it wasn't him, it was the General Sephiroth. I punched him out, saying
he was lying; Sephiroth was dead.
Now... I don't know... because after that happened,
President Rufus himself saw the General Sephiroth at the Northern Crater."
Elena stared at the ground. "And that also leads to why I didn't exactly
like your choice of weapon; the AVALANCHE man, he had that weapon."
"..." Airis looked at her sword. "What did they
look like? Sephiroth and the AVALANCHE man?"
"Sephiroth... I don't really know, but he was very
strong. I think he had long hair, maybe white or silver? I don't know about
the eyes or anything else. The one from AVALANCHE, on the other hand, his
name was Cloud. Cloud Strife. Blond spiky hair, blue eyes that glowed—he
had been exposed to Mako—, a purple uniform..." Elena trailed off.
Airis sensed Elena was crying, but Elena had her
face hidden. Airis sighed.
A whistle sounded. "The train's here." Elena said.
"You'd better go."
Airis walked toward the train. As she turned to
wave goodbye, Elena stood in front of her with slightly reddened eyes.
"In your bag, I put something in there. Good luck Airis; I'm really going
to miss you."
The silver-haired girl boarded the train. She looked
at Elena through the glass window and saw her crying.
The train whistle screamed and they were off.
Airis waved at Elena until she could no longer see
her.
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*Rufus is still alive.
