Project S.

Written by: Jessica Davis

When I had finally reached the outskirts, I climbed the wall and jumped down. I was at the edge of the slums. Heading back to the city was strange. The placed seem to change, and for the worse. Inside was the same piled up heap of trash, but I didn't know what sector I was in. I came across a broken down church. And decided to head inside. This place seemed to make me feel more welcome than midgar had ever made me feel. A flowerbed lye at the end of the long lines of broken benches, and there seemed to be light shining in from the torn in roof.

I stopped where I was as I saw someone. It was a girl, and she was wearing a pink dress, with a pink bow holding up her brunette hair. She was tending to the flowers, and humming a soothing melody. She stopped however, when I broke the silence by stepping on a squeaky board in the floor. I watched her turn around and face me.

"Oh, hello." She said gathering to her feet and scrambling over to me, "would you like to buy a flower? It's only 1 gil." she held out a yellow flower, and I looked at it strangely.

"Um…ok" I pulled out the 1 gil and handed it to her. She in turn handed me the flower and smiled. "So what are you doing in a place like this?" I asked.

"Tending to the flowers. I always do. This seems to be one of the only spots that they'll grow in midgar." She then returned to her spot among the flowers and started to hum the tune again. I decided that It might be better just to leave her be, so I headed out the door. On my way down the dirt road, I jumped into the trash heap as a man with red hair, and a couple of soldiers passed me.

"Are they still after me?" I thought watching them. But they were heading to the church! It was still a while away, but there was no other place that they would be going. I made my way back, watching them carefully, and making sure that they didn't spot me. When they finally made it there, the red-haired man stood in the doorway of the church as if watching her. And when he, and the soldiers, made their way inside, I crept on the roof and peaked at what was going on in the top of the doorway. What I saw shocked me.

Inside was not only the girl, the red-haired man, and the soldier, but the blonde soldier as well!! What was he doing here? I nearly fell at the site of him. He was standing next to the girl, but I didn't understand how he had gotten there. He wasn't with the red-haired man, and he certainly wasn't there when I was there. Besides, what was a member of soldier doing there anyways?

The blonde and the girl made there way away from the red-haired man and the soldiers, and they followed into another room. I finally fell and landed on the ground heavily. Shaking myself off, I made my way inside, hearing the loud bang of gun shots. I ran to the door that they had entered, and peaked inside watching the action.

The red-haired man was standing not too far from the entrance while the soldiers were chasing the girl, who apparently fell. The blonde was above and pushing barrels down, knocking the soldiers out, while the girl made her way up to him. They had retreated onto the roof, and the soldiers couldn't follow. So they began to head back in my direction. I couldn't let them catch me, so I dove under one of the broken down benches.

"Sorry Reno, We tried." said one of the soldiers to the red-haired man. Actually, it was Reno, one of the top Turks. He flicked his red hair, then signaled the men to leave.

"We'll get her." he said before making his way out.

I took a deep breath, then pulled my way free from the splintered wood. I then checked out the door, and watched as Reno and the soldiers turned the corner of the heap of trash. I then made my way to the nearest town and knew where I was. I was in Sector 5. I remembered because this was where the man that escaped the shinra building lived…in a pipe. I passed the pipe, and sighed a small relief. I may have known where I was, but I was nowhere near where I wanted to be.

I restocked on potions then headed out of town and towards wall market. I knew that I was pretty close to there, so maybe I could just take the train back to Sector 7. The walk there was no piece of cake, I jumped onto fallen pillars and passed broken down buildings. But out of the shadows, a thief had jumped at me, pulling a knife to my throat. I grabbed him and threw him off. He was pretty weak.

He laughed at me and reached into his pocket, pulling out a grenade. I wasn't going to give him the opportunity. I felt the power of the materia that I held, shine in my possession, and the thief went up in a blaze. He wasn't going down without a fight, however, and threw the grenade at me right after meeting his fate in my fire. The grenade made a hit, but luckily, I didn't receive a direct blow. The impact flew me off of my feet and into an old construction vehicle. I lye there for a moment, collecting my thoughts, but was jolted back to reality when a spider crawled down my arm. I swatted it off quickly and sprang from the vehicle, then stormed off to the market.

When I got there, it was about as much of a busy place as it had always been. But I ignored everyone and made my way straight to the station. Fifteen minutes after I arrived, the squealing of the train pulled in, and made a stop right in front of me, and a couple of other people. The train was quiet inside, and the same types of people rode it, as always. When the we came to a stop, I was the first out, and sprinted to the tavern. Inside, Tifa was extremely upset, and Barret was trying his best to comfort her, which was a major surprise. Though she swatted him off like an annoying fly.

"What's wrong Tifa?" I asked. The second I did, her head sprang up and she gave me a look as if I wasn't real. Barret gave me the same look. The elevator pinball machine brought Biggs and Jessy up, who also froze at the site of me.

"What? You guys act like I was gone forever! It's only been four days!" I said.

"…Akemi?…I thought…b-but…how?" Tifa stuttered. Jessy dropped the stack of papers that were in her arms and continued to stare at me.

"You were gone for…five years!" came Biggs' voice.

The sentence shot me like a pullet. I fell to the floor, staring at the floorboards, "five…years?" was all that I could say. Tifa rushed over to me and wrapped her arms around me with tears in here eyes.

"I thought you were dead!" she whined.

"but…how? It's only been four days!" I stammered looking up at her.

"No…Akemi…you've been gone for five years…" said Biggs, still confused. "You've been missing ever since Shinra took you away that one night."

"'that night'…THE MATERIA!" I pulled myself free from Tifa's death grip and ran to Biggs, "The materia! What happened to it??"

"materia? OH! That black materia!" he put his head down as if he had done something wrong.

"…Biggs? Did Shinra get it?"

"no" was his simple answer.

"then where is it?" I was a bit happy that shinra hadn't gotten it, but Biggs' tone made me worry.

"I…gave it to…a friend…he's annoying, and was leaving town."

"leaving town? Lenny?"

"…yeah…he has it. I heard he was going to Rocket Town."

"I should get it! Lenny doesn't know what he has!"

"NO, why? You've been gone for FIVE years, and you want to leave again? What happened to you? What did they do to you?" he grabbed my arm. I pulled it away.

"I…don't know really. It only feels like four days have passed. But it's been five year?" I froze and smiled at him, "…You're trying to play me, aren't you?" I figured it was nothing more than another one of his stupid jokes. My next thought was of him starting to crack up yelling, 'I can't believe you almost fell for it!' but it wasn't. His face went grim. I looked into his eyes, and the eyes of the others, and knew that this was real.

"It's true." Jessy had now spoke.

"…five?" I took a step back from Biggs and stared at my hands. "..I…I don't know what's happening to me. But I shouldn't stay here." I gave them all a last look then headed towards the door.

But I was stopped with a sudden, "WAIT!" from Biggs. When I turned to him, he was holding my white box. "I still have your coat."

Looking at the box I gently took it and set it onto the table, then pulled the coat out of its folded position. It looked like Biggs had never taken it out, because the creases were more solid. Then I slipped it over my arms and let the back of it droop down and hit my ankles like the time when I had first tried it on. When the coat was comfortably fit over me, I looked at the others, "Thanks guys. I'll come back. Don't worry." after those words, I left.

Stepping down the steps of the tavern I began to feel cold again. It rushed through my body, and a nearby streetlamp burst with ice. It was frozen in pieces on the ground. Tifa and Barret rushed out because of the sound of the shattering glass. I looked up at them, Barret had his gun-arm at ready. I guess he had thought that I was being attacked or something. But lowered it when he saw no one at the same time, my arm had warmed up again. So I ignored them and continued. When I reached the second streetlamp, I stopped and turned to Tifa.

"I saw him!" I shouted. She merely gave me a look like she had no idea as to what I was talking about. "The soldier…the one you were waiting for. I know who he is." I was saddened by my own words, because it meant that I had to give up my hopes for that blonde man.

"Cloud? You saw Cloud? Where?" she ran down the steps and towards me with hope in her eyes.

When she came to a halt in front of me, I smiled down at her, "He was in sector 5, with a flower girl. I believe it was him."

"Cloud's alive? When did you see him? How long ago?"

"It was a little while before I got here. I believe he's near the place where the Don mansion is. You might want to look there for answers."

"The Don mansion? But isn't that man a perv?"

"I don't know. I haven't been there for a long time, maybe they've changed it by now, but like I said, I don't know." With my last words, I gave her one last hug, then headed back to the station, where I would make my leave. My final destination…Rocket town.