Chapter 28: The Reward's Price of Death
Steadily, Aeris made her way passed several different fields, each longer and deeper then the last.
She refused to believe she was lost and kept pursuing her instincts to keep going. At one point she dropped to her knees and cried for a moment fearing that she had lost her will to go on but Zack's words kept her going through the strange land.
Minutes later she collapsed again against a broken down true at the edge of some dense woods, breathing heavily from her own beaten exhaustion.
Aeris felt starved, weak, and frighten from the thought of running into a beast at any upcoming wrong turn. She felt deeply that she would surely perish if confronted by it.
Quickly, she brushed her arms back and flattened her palms against the ground to push herself up. She forced her feet to move, wanting to think that Zack was just over the next plain.
She stumbled a bit, limp from her lack of breath still as she moved but Aeris still refused to give up, though she was longing for company.
Hours passed and there was still no sign of anyone or anything and she began to think she had been going in circles the whole time now, until the soft faint noise of running water came to her mind.
Swiftly, she shot her gaze in the direction of the sound and her eyes lit up brightly in a glimpse of hope.
With all her strength she pushed off from the flat terrain and started to run towards the liquid, her eyes gleaming happily as she began to make her way up the nearby hill to reach it.
Suddenly, she stopped only a few feet from the top..
Faint voices could be heard above her from two men, she was sure of it but she was to frighten to move an inch further to confirm herself.
"Hey? Did you hear bout the Ancient?"
"Well, who wouldn't? Scarlet and that fat ass Heiddegar put it all over the news! But what I don't get it, is how she's here. I mean, who rises from the dead?"
"But Scarlet said they can do that."
"Well then where are the others?! If they could really do that, I don't think she'd be the last one! I say, she never died at all. They probably captured her and hid her until she broke free and made a run for it."
"Still, that's a hell of a reward for her capture, I say we keep an eye out."
"Well, I ain't. I mean come on! Hojo's dead and his wife is long gone too. What are they gonna do with her if their top scientists are dead?"
"Have fat ass there rape her?"
They both chuckled at the one's remark but it sent a fearful chill down Aeris's spine. She couldn't recognize their voices and she didn't dare raise herself so they could see her, so they stayed silent and listened.
"Well whatever the reason, if I see her I'm not gonna capture her."
Those words brought great relief to her and she finally found the courage to stand and see who they were.
As she lifted herself her gaze met the two tall men, both dressed like they had been hunting in blue jeans as well as dark green sweaters.
Her eyes caught site of their large rifles that lay at their feet. One turned other and then quickly back to his friend as she started to make her way towards the river.
Aeris hoped that, the one wasn't the one who wanted her but felt safe knowing there was at least one that didn't want to take her at the same time.
The one that had looked at her began whispering to the other fierce fully as he eyed her with a large grin spread across his deeply tanned face.
He brushed away his jet-black hair from his eyes and nearly struck the other as he lowered it back to his side.
Suddenly, the other man through back his right arm to push him away and shook his head as he leaned over and gathered his things.
"But it's 100,000 gil!! Don't you think your wife will be proud if you came home with that kinda money!?" He hollered leaning down to face the other.
"My wife would be proud if I left her alone.."
"Well I'm not going to just let that kinda money go!" the young screamed as he reached back behind him and quickly scooped his rifle into his muscular hand from the ground and began to approach her.
"Remember, she has to be alive!" The one yelled playfully and Aeris ignored them still knowing they couldn't get her to go anywhere now without hurting her. Since money was all the man really cared about then she knew he would lose it all so she knew, she'd be fine.
Aeris, carelessly dipped her delicate hands into the cool soft liquid of the stream, cupping her hands as she lifted them back out. Gently, she lifted the water to her lips and took a sip from them, still weary from her walk to there.
A silent click of the rifle behind her sounded but she didn't jolt or even attempt to move from her spot.
"Alright, up!" he commanded her.
Aeris nearly giggled at his foolish command but held it in and acted as though she didn't hear him what so ever.
"Hey! Are you deaf or something?! Get up!" He commanded again, anger rising in his voice now.
"Bitch! Get up or I'm gonna get a lot more out of you then just money!" The man warned her but she still refused to move.
With his anger almost to the extreme now he through his arm forward and grabbed the back of her neck tightly as he yanked her to her feet.
"Now, I'm pissed! I'm just going to work my anger out on your body when we get back to my place then!" he shouted now and Aeris noticed his partner quickly turning to his threat to her.
"Dude! Are you nuts?! Why the hell are you gonna rape her?!" he demanded to know as he stood up himself now.
"It ain't rape if she likes it!" the other called back, a smirk spreading across his face.
"I won't!" Aeris screamed as she reached up and grabbed her arm and then tugged it out of his grip.
The young muscular man then swiftly reacted by pulling his other arm up and catching her neck with it as he through his gun into his now freed hand. He tugged her back and pressed her against him painfully while stretching his other arm out while he let the gun drop to the ground and curled it back towards her.
Aeris couldn't move from her spot now. Her head was tilted back over his shoulder and the other arm was now being wrapped around her waist gently but tightly, sliding up and down her sides.
"Nope, you ain't gonna go no where." He whispered to her softly while slightly chuckling at her struggling.
She failed to see the humor while in her state and couldn't break free as best she could when she started to struggle from his grasp. The man beside her seemed to give no more argument to the fate the other had already set for her as well.
He gripped her left arm tightly and pulled it behind her back in order to put her in so much pain that she would do as they told her.
"Now, let's go.." He told her as he began to push her down passed his friend towards his own home she guessed.
"HEY!" a familiar voice called out and came from behind her.
"Let her go!" he screamed again. The man holding Aeris turned towards the voice and Aeris moved her gaze as best she could in her position to see that it was Cloud charging towards them with a thick like sword at his side ready to strike at any moment.
"I saw her first! I'm getting the money!" he screamed fierce fully.
"You're not getting anything but a nice cut across your neck if you don't hand her over." Cloud quickly informed him as he began to stop no more then three feet in front of her.
The young man quickly through Aeris hard onto the ground while he quickly scooped his gun back into his freed hand and charged it up.
Swiftly, he pointed it up at her as she began to lift herself up as if in warning to her to try and escape and then shot it up towards Cloud's head.
"The Shinra said to bring her back alive but I won't hesitate to blast her brains out to get rid of you!" he warned.
Suddenly a shot rang out near them. Aeris through her head down in protection as if the shot was from the one man. Hurried footsteps softly patted against the ground on the noise began to die down.
Slowly, she raised her eyes to level them at the man and noticed his own eyes were brightly lit in disbelief.
She stared confused on what was going on and then the young man reached down towards his stomach brushing off what seemed to be fresh blood onto his fingertips.
He gently rubbed his fingers together slowly and then his eyes began roll back into his head as his body started to tilt towards her.
The man smashed into the ground, landing with a sickening thud against the streambed.
Aeris turned her focus then to Cloud for an answer to what had just happened but his face seemed to show that he was just as puzzled as her.
"W.What happened?" she asked him hoping that his expression was just a cover for the real truth.
Cloud seemed to ignore her question as he dropped his sword at his side and looked onward towards the man's lifeless body.
"And another one bites the dust.." Came a crud deep yet familiar voice.
Both Cloud and Aeris turned towards it and saw a young man draped in a red cloak with flowing back hair. Though his left arm seemed to have been replaced with a golden metal arm, his right hand was outstretched, a jet- black revolver clutched inside it with smoke lightly bellowing out from it's used barrel.
"Nothing beats my Death Penalty." He explained as he brought it to his lips and blew the gray smoke from the tip of it.
Cloud then turned to Aeris as he placed his blade behind his head and clasped it to his back and then started towards her.
Aeris cringed at him looking for a place to go but found nowhere to escape to. He gently outstretched his hand down to her to help her, and she hesitantly grabbed it and he quickly lifted her own to grip it.
"Are you all right?" he asked softly as he pulled her to her feet.
"Y- yes." She answered, still locked in fear of him.
"Why did you run off like that? It's the first time we've seen you in so long and you left us."
"I know you?"
"Aeris, what happened to you? We all knew you, and you knew us. It broke our hearts when Sephiroth took you away from us." Cloud began to explain.
"Took me away? To where?"
"Aeris. he killed you in the forgotten City, don't you remember?" he asked her, his voice tone low and sounding slightly hurt as he lifted his hands to her shoulders.
"The only thing as far back as I can remember is when I first met Zack in some town. but ultimate weapon came and destroyed it."
"But we destroyed the Ultimate Weapon. It wasn't even around when Zack was alive."
"But it was there! Zack was there too, he's not dead!"
"Aeris. I was there they day he died, he risked his life to bring me to Midgar but was shot to death by Shinra SOLDIERS. They spared me, only because they thought I would die of Mako poisoning from the reactor in Niblehiem. he's gone."
"No, no, no! You don't understand! Go find Hojo or. or Lucrecia and Cid! Even Shera will tell you he's alive!" Aeris cried desperately.
"Hojo is gone too, we killed him when he went mad in the Shinra Headquarters when he was trying to give his son, Sephiroth, all the power of the place."
"Lucrecia is lost as well, because Hojo had taken her child she died as well leaving me with this gun and an ultimate power." The man in red told her hurtfully.
"Come on, everyone will be worried sick if we don't go back to them soon." Cloud encouraged them to try and get Aeris to follow.
Suddenly, something seemed to click into Aeris's mind and she shot her head up at Cloud, grabbing his neck furiously.
"Where is the LifeStream?!" She screamed.
His eyes lit up brightly in surprise at her attack that moment and tried to shake her off but she kept a tight firm grip.
"Where is it!?" She demanded to know again.
"Aeris what's wrong with you?!"
"It's a doorway for me to go back to Zack! Where is the LifeStream?!"
"It may be a doorway but only to hell Aeris! It's suicide to go into one!"
"Well I've been into one three times and it's a doorway for me! I don't care about the risks, I just want to go back! Now tell me where is it?!"
"Aeris." The young man started as he lifted his arms up gently and pointed towards the west side of him.
"There's one, over there." He finally finished and Aeris quickly released Cloud and took off in the direction he was pointing.
"Why'd you tell her where it is, Vincent?!"
"Don't worry. she'll never find it." he started as he turned and started back towards Costa Del Sol but Cloud turned to follow Aeris off into the distance.
Steadily, Aeris made her way passed several different fields, each longer and deeper then the last.
She refused to believe she was lost and kept pursuing her instincts to keep going. At one point she dropped to her knees and cried for a moment fearing that she had lost her will to go on but Zack's words kept her going through the strange land.
Minutes later she collapsed again against a broken down true at the edge of some dense woods, breathing heavily from her own beaten exhaustion.
Aeris felt starved, weak, and frighten from the thought of running into a beast at any upcoming wrong turn. She felt deeply that she would surely perish if confronted by it.
Quickly, she brushed her arms back and flattened her palms against the ground to push herself up. She forced her feet to move, wanting to think that Zack was just over the next plain.
She stumbled a bit, limp from her lack of breath still as she moved but Aeris still refused to give up, though she was longing for company.
Hours passed and there was still no sign of anyone or anything and she began to think she had been going in circles the whole time now, until the soft faint noise of running water came to her mind.
Swiftly, she shot her gaze in the direction of the sound and her eyes lit up brightly in a glimpse of hope.
With all her strength she pushed off from the flat terrain and started to run towards the liquid, her eyes gleaming happily as she began to make her way up the nearby hill to reach it.
Suddenly, she stopped only a few feet from the top..
Faint voices could be heard above her from two men, she was sure of it but she was to frighten to move an inch further to confirm herself.
"Hey? Did you hear bout the Ancient?"
"Well, who wouldn't? Scarlet and that fat ass Heiddegar put it all over the news! But what I don't get it, is how she's here. I mean, who rises from the dead?"
"But Scarlet said they can do that."
"Well then where are the others?! If they could really do that, I don't think she'd be the last one! I say, she never died at all. They probably captured her and hid her until she broke free and made a run for it."
"Still, that's a hell of a reward for her capture, I say we keep an eye out."
"Well, I ain't. I mean come on! Hojo's dead and his wife is long gone too. What are they gonna do with her if their top scientists are dead?"
"Have fat ass there rape her?"
They both chuckled at the one's remark but it sent a fearful chill down Aeris's spine. She couldn't recognize their voices and she didn't dare raise herself so they could see her, so they stayed silent and listened.
"Well whatever the reason, if I see her I'm not gonna capture her."
Those words brought great relief to her and she finally found the courage to stand and see who they were.
As she lifted herself her gaze met the two tall men, both dressed like they had been hunting in blue jeans as well as dark green sweaters.
Her eyes caught site of their large rifles that lay at their feet. One turned other and then quickly back to his friend as she started to make her way towards the river.
Aeris hoped that, the one wasn't the one who wanted her but felt safe knowing there was at least one that didn't want to take her at the same time.
The one that had looked at her began whispering to the other fierce fully as he eyed her with a large grin spread across his deeply tanned face.
He brushed away his jet-black hair from his eyes and nearly struck the other as he lowered it back to his side.
Suddenly, the other man through back his right arm to push him away and shook his head as he leaned over and gathered his things.
"But it's 100,000 gil!! Don't you think your wife will be proud if you came home with that kinda money!?" He hollered leaning down to face the other.
"My wife would be proud if I left her alone.."
"Well I'm not going to just let that kinda money go!" the young screamed as he reached back behind him and quickly scooped his rifle into his muscular hand from the ground and began to approach her.
"Remember, she has to be alive!" The one yelled playfully and Aeris ignored them still knowing they couldn't get her to go anywhere now without hurting her. Since money was all the man really cared about then she knew he would lose it all so she knew, she'd be fine.
Aeris, carelessly dipped her delicate hands into the cool soft liquid of the stream, cupping her hands as she lifted them back out. Gently, she lifted the water to her lips and took a sip from them, still weary from her walk to there.
A silent click of the rifle behind her sounded but she didn't jolt or even attempt to move from her spot.
"Alright, up!" he commanded her.
Aeris nearly giggled at his foolish command but held it in and acted as though she didn't hear him what so ever.
"Hey! Are you deaf or something?! Get up!" He commanded again, anger rising in his voice now.
"Bitch! Get up or I'm gonna get a lot more out of you then just money!" The man warned her but she still refused to move.
With his anger almost to the extreme now he through his arm forward and grabbed the back of her neck tightly as he yanked her to her feet.
"Now, I'm pissed! I'm just going to work my anger out on your body when we get back to my place then!" he shouted now and Aeris noticed his partner quickly turning to his threat to her.
"Dude! Are you nuts?! Why the hell are you gonna rape her?!" he demanded to know as he stood up himself now.
"It ain't rape if she likes it!" the other called back, a smirk spreading across his face.
"I won't!" Aeris screamed as she reached up and grabbed her arm and then tugged it out of his grip.
The young muscular man then swiftly reacted by pulling his other arm up and catching her neck with it as he through his gun into his now freed hand. He tugged her back and pressed her against him painfully while stretching his other arm out while he let the gun drop to the ground and curled it back towards her.
Aeris couldn't move from her spot now. Her head was tilted back over his shoulder and the other arm was now being wrapped around her waist gently but tightly, sliding up and down her sides.
"Nope, you ain't gonna go no where." He whispered to her softly while slightly chuckling at her struggling.
She failed to see the humor while in her state and couldn't break free as best she could when she started to struggle from his grasp. The man beside her seemed to give no more argument to the fate the other had already set for her as well.
He gripped her left arm tightly and pulled it behind her back in order to put her in so much pain that she would do as they told her.
"Now, let's go.." He told her as he began to push her down passed his friend towards his own home she guessed.
"HEY!" a familiar voice called out and came from behind her.
"Let her go!" he screamed again. The man holding Aeris turned towards the voice and Aeris moved her gaze as best she could in her position to see that it was Cloud charging towards them with a thick like sword at his side ready to strike at any moment.
"I saw her first! I'm getting the money!" he screamed fierce fully.
"You're not getting anything but a nice cut across your neck if you don't hand her over." Cloud quickly informed him as he began to stop no more then three feet in front of her.
The young man quickly through Aeris hard onto the ground while he quickly scooped his gun back into his freed hand and charged it up.
Swiftly, he pointed it up at her as she began to lift herself up as if in warning to her to try and escape and then shot it up towards Cloud's head.
"The Shinra said to bring her back alive but I won't hesitate to blast her brains out to get rid of you!" he warned.
Suddenly a shot rang out near them. Aeris through her head down in protection as if the shot was from the one man. Hurried footsteps softly patted against the ground on the noise began to die down.
Slowly, she raised her eyes to level them at the man and noticed his own eyes were brightly lit in disbelief.
She stared confused on what was going on and then the young man reached down towards his stomach brushing off what seemed to be fresh blood onto his fingertips.
He gently rubbed his fingers together slowly and then his eyes began roll back into his head as his body started to tilt towards her.
The man smashed into the ground, landing with a sickening thud against the streambed.
Aeris turned her focus then to Cloud for an answer to what had just happened but his face seemed to show that he was just as puzzled as her.
"W.What happened?" she asked him hoping that his expression was just a cover for the real truth.
Cloud seemed to ignore her question as he dropped his sword at his side and looked onward towards the man's lifeless body.
"And another one bites the dust.." Came a crud deep yet familiar voice.
Both Cloud and Aeris turned towards it and saw a young man draped in a red cloak with flowing back hair. Though his left arm seemed to have been replaced with a golden metal arm, his right hand was outstretched, a jet- black revolver clutched inside it with smoke lightly bellowing out from it's used barrel.
"Nothing beats my Death Penalty." He explained as he brought it to his lips and blew the gray smoke from the tip of it.
Cloud then turned to Aeris as he placed his blade behind his head and clasped it to his back and then started towards her.
Aeris cringed at him looking for a place to go but found nowhere to escape to. He gently outstretched his hand down to her to help her, and she hesitantly grabbed it and he quickly lifted her own to grip it.
"Are you all right?" he asked softly as he pulled her to her feet.
"Y- yes." She answered, still locked in fear of him.
"Why did you run off like that? It's the first time we've seen you in so long and you left us."
"I know you?"
"Aeris, what happened to you? We all knew you, and you knew us. It broke our hearts when Sephiroth took you away from us." Cloud began to explain.
"Took me away? To where?"
"Aeris. he killed you in the forgotten City, don't you remember?" he asked her, his voice tone low and sounding slightly hurt as he lifted his hands to her shoulders.
"The only thing as far back as I can remember is when I first met Zack in some town. but ultimate weapon came and destroyed it."
"But we destroyed the Ultimate Weapon. It wasn't even around when Zack was alive."
"But it was there! Zack was there too, he's not dead!"
"Aeris. I was there they day he died, he risked his life to bring me to Midgar but was shot to death by Shinra SOLDIERS. They spared me, only because they thought I would die of Mako poisoning from the reactor in Niblehiem. he's gone."
"No, no, no! You don't understand! Go find Hojo or. or Lucrecia and Cid! Even Shera will tell you he's alive!" Aeris cried desperately.
"Hojo is gone too, we killed him when he went mad in the Shinra Headquarters when he was trying to give his son, Sephiroth, all the power of the place."
"Lucrecia is lost as well, because Hojo had taken her child she died as well leaving me with this gun and an ultimate power." The man in red told her hurtfully.
"Come on, everyone will be worried sick if we don't go back to them soon." Cloud encouraged them to try and get Aeris to follow.
Suddenly, something seemed to click into Aeris's mind and she shot her head up at Cloud, grabbing his neck furiously.
"Where is the LifeStream?!" She screamed.
His eyes lit up brightly in surprise at her attack that moment and tried to shake her off but she kept a tight firm grip.
"Where is it!?" She demanded to know again.
"Aeris what's wrong with you?!"
"It's a doorway for me to go back to Zack! Where is the LifeStream?!"
"It may be a doorway but only to hell Aeris! It's suicide to go into one!"
"Well I've been into one three times and it's a doorway for me! I don't care about the risks, I just want to go back! Now tell me where is it?!"
"Aeris." The young man started as he lifted his arms up gently and pointed towards the west side of him.
"There's one, over there." He finally finished and Aeris quickly released Cloud and took off in the direction he was pointing.
"Why'd you tell her where it is, Vincent?!"
"Don't worry. she'll never find it." he started as he turned and started back towards Costa Del Sol but Cloud turned to follow Aeris off into the distance.