Chapter 4

Aeris closed her eyes tightly as she looked around the area. She could feel Zack quickly move from the house followed by his friend Dyne. When she finally reopened her eyes it was to disaster. Aeris could hear the people around her rushing passed them screaming. Zack was breathing hard running as fast as he could as he pushed passed the people around him. A deep roar rocked the land beneath them and Zack suddenly lost his footing dropping Aeris and flipping onto the ground. Aeris rolled across the ground for a second and stopped laying quietly against the dirt ground. The sharp pain in her forehead started to return and she painfully pushed herself up with her beaten arms. When she locked her elbows and pushed herself upright she saw the demon roaming over her and blocking the sun that formed around him, giving him a deep bloody red glow.

"Shit, Zack! Of all times you just had to fall!" Dyne hollered as he ran to her and scooped her up checking to see if she had broken anything. She turned her head and looked to Zack as he jumped to his feet quickly and turned to him grunting.

"This is no time to fight, Dyne!" he yelled back as he narrowed his eyes at him and then looked to Aeris. Quickly his face dropped into a horrified expression as he turned his gaze passed both of them.

"What? What's wrong with you, keep going!" Dyne yelled at him starting towards him to snap him out of his trance. Another deep roar shook the land and Aeris turned her head towards the weapon again and noticed it was now hovering over them, was beginning to grab everything it could see, and hurl it at everyone who was running from it.

"Dude! Go!" Dyne screamed again as he put Aeris to her feet and started to push Zack forward.

"That thing is just going to keep killing and killing…," Zack finally said as his face went firm.

"The hell with that! You aren't going back there to play hero damn it!" He told him as he punched him in the side of his arm and grabbed it starting to drag him back.

"Zack he's right…," Aeris told him as she turned to face them. They looked at her shocked that she was talking now and Zack sighed deeply.

"But you don't get how badly this thing has-,"

"I do…," She started, "I do know the pain this thing has created." She told him as she looked to the ground. The Weapon suddenly bent over and wrapped his enormous hand around a large oak tree and hurled it at them. Aeris could feel the rush of wind used to push the tree on and turned to see it coming towards her. Quickly she pushed her hands up in front of her and released a blast of white light from her fingertips making a giant circular shield. The oak's trunk struck her shield as it finally finished itself and pushed it hard into her knocking her to the ground. The tree rested firmly on the ground and Aeris laid in front of it breathing hard.

"Damn tree!" Zack yelled as he ran toward her and bent over. He started to put his arms under her to carry her but she pushed him away.

"I'm fine, if I'm not dead, I'm fine," She told him quickly as she pushed herself up and brushed the dirt from her knees.

"You two have to go with the others." She told them but they didn't seem to want to budge.

"Go! You have no choice unless you want to die!" She screamed looking quite serious.

"If I can't play the hero, neither can you," Zack finally said as he reached around her to carry her again.

"No I'm fine," She said firmly as she tired to fight him but it didn't seem like she would win.

"No you're not! You have blood spilling from you head like a fountain, that's not fine," He told her as he flipped her off her feet and start towards the plains with the other villagers followed closely by Dyne.

"Let me go! I'm fine!" Aeris screamed as she tried to push him away.

"Here." Dyne said as he ran along side him. He quickly pulled a handkerchief from his green pants pocket and pushed against her forehead. Zack pushed his hand away so he wouldn't trip over him, while leaving the cloth on her and Dyne started to run a steady pace again while Zack tried to keep his balance and keep the handkerchief over her bleeding head, trying to slow the blood.

"Stop over there!" Dyne called out to Zack pointing towards a tree breathless looking as if he was about to drop into the ground and give up. Zack did as Dyne begged and lowered Aeris to the ground letting her lay against it. Dyne collapsed completely out of breath next to her boots and Zack leaned against the bark of the tree picking up her shoulders and pulling her on his lap.

"I think I know you but I'm not sure," Aeris said to him as he took the cloth from her head and twisted it letting the warm blood drip onto the ground. Zack seemed to smile as he placed it back on her forehead and sighed deeply as he pressed it gently against her head to stop the blood.

"Well, I know who you are, but I don't think you'll want to know who I am," He told her and she could hear Dyne softly chuckling to himself.

"Oh… shut the hell… up," Dyne told him calmly and Zack glared back at him but then shook his head.

"Ignore him," Zack told her and she laid slightly looking up towards him.

"We'll rest here I guess since Dyne's too weak to keep going."

"HEY! I am… not!" He yelled and Aeris softly giggled at him and slowly began to drift into a silent deep sleep.