Meanwhile, Cloud and Aeris both hastily walked along a path in the church, and jumped across a small hole to a ladder, with Aeris still supporting and helping Cloud walk along as quickly as possible, due to his injuries, trying to put as much time and distance between them and Reno as they possibly could under the circumstances.
They managed to climb up the ladder, then came to a path and walked along it until they came to a fairly big hole in the middle of the path that had to be jumped across to reach the other side of the path.
Cloud looked around the church, trying to find a way to escape the church, doubting that he and Aeris would make the jump if she had to support him across, so he knew he would have to try and do it by himself, despite his current injuries, and winced slightly as his body ached painfully with bruises, and then he spoke up to Aeris after observing the area.
"Looks like there's a fairly big hole in the roof up there, caused by my fall. If we climb up the ladder on the other side of this path, then we can go across the roof's support structure, and then we can probably get out through the hole in the roof, but we've got to hurry as quickly as possible," said Cloud. Aeris nodded in agreement, seeing that it was their only way out of the church to safety.
Suddenly, there was a loud bang heard across the church as Reno forcefully broke down the door with his Nightstick, and he smashed the door into pieces with ease, and he smashed the wooden beam that had held it back into chunks, with barely any effort at all. As he observed the area he had just went into, he spotted Cloud and Aeris standing on a floor above.
"There they are, over there, above us! Now get over here, after them!" shouted Reno, urgently. Reno and the three Shinra soldiers were now at the path just directly below Cloud and Aeris, looking menacingly up at them. At once, the Shinra soldiers all aimed their guns right in the direction of Cloud and Aeris, and Aeris gasped in fear.
"(Oh no, they've found us already. I don't think we'll be able to make it out of here in time before they catch us, with the pace we'll be travelling at compared to them. I wish I'd been better prepared for this again, and now it's not just me that's in danger, it's Cloud too, and it'll be all my fault if anything happens to him because of this…)" thought Aeris, very worried and fearful as well, despite herself.
"Cloud, look down below us! They're right over there, and they could attack us at any moment's notice," said Aeris, clearly both worried and anxious, unable to keep the desperation and fear out of her tone of voice. Cloud nodded, as he glanced down at Reno and the soldiers below.
"I know they'll attack us at any moment, Aeris, and the results of it are likely to be very gruesome indeed. It looks like they're not going to let us go that easily, without one hell of a nasty struggle," said Cloud, grimly, knowing full well that they were definitely in a very bad situation.
"What should we do against them now, Cloud? Is there anything we can do to escape them without getting serious harm?" asked Aeris, hopelessly, reluctantly suspecting that there was nothing they really could do to escape. Cloud turned to face her, looking both serious and determined.
"Well even if there isn't much of a chance or a way of escape, we can't just let stand still and let them catch us without doing nothing, now can we? Then that means there's only one thing left to do, and we've gotta do it as best we can, no matter what the odds," replied Cloud, refusing to dwell on the hopelessness of their situation.
Despite being injured, bruised and battered from the earlier fight with Reno, Cloud suddenly ran forwards as best he could, and leaped forwards over the hole just as he reached the edge of the path before it.
Cloud just barely made it over, and fell to the floor on the other side when landing, wincing with pain as the impact caused agony to flare through his already injured body, but he ignored it and stumbled back onto his feet, and he turned to face Aeris, who still stood on the other side of the hole.
"Aeris, come on, there's no time to waste! Come this way, it's the only chance we've got of getting out of here and escaping, now jump!" shouted Cloud. Aeris nodded, and she moved towards the hole, but then she hesitated, looking clearly uneasy and doubtful.
"Alright, I'll try and hold them off while you get over here and escape! Just come on!" shouted Cloud, urgently, inwardly raging at her to hurry up and jump, but keeping himself from doing so out loud.
"Right, Cloud, I'm coming! Just try and make sure that they don't get through here in time to catch us," said Aeris, urgently, as she prepared to jump. Cloud knew he had to obey, he was supposed to be her bodyguard, after all.
"Aeris, just don't worry about anything else, and hurry it up!" shouted Cloud, urgently, getting rather impatient, as Reno sneered at them, watching them both from below.
Aeris nodded at Cloud, and she was just about to jump over the hole in the path, when suddenly; the Shinra soldiers all raised their guns and aimed them right at Aeris at a sudden signal from Reno. Aeris froze at once, her eyes wide with fear and Cloud cursed mentally to himself.
"Ah crap, what the hell are you lot all doing, don't just stand there like morons! The girl is trying to get away, so don't something about it! Attack! Attack! Attack!" ordered Reno, with a sharp, demanding and loud tone to his voice, so that the Shinra soldiers all obeyed at once.
The three soldiers all suddenly fired their machine guns, completely blasting away the part of the floor that Aeris was directly standing on, and as a result of this, Aeris fell to the bottom floor below and hit the ground hard, and lay motionless for a moment on the floor.
"AERIS!!" shouted Cloud, clearly worried and horrified, as he quickly looked over the edge of the floor he stood on, staring at Aeris in concern and anxiety, before she stirred on the floor, and got slowly back on her feet, looking shaky for a moment, before she seemed to recover from it. Having been silent with horror for a moment, Reno relaxed and sniggered as soon as he saw Aeris get back up.
"Think that we nearly killed her just then, eh? Well, she shouldn't have tried to run away then! They shouldn't have put up a fight in the first place, I say! Bet you learned your lesson, little girl," said Reno, sniggering. Aeris ignored him, and instead glanced upwards.
"Don't worry, I'm alright! Just try and do something to hold them off from me, while I can get my way back up there!" shouted Aeris, looking up at Cloud, who nodded quickly in response. Reno seemed slightly surprised that Aeris was still alive and seemingly unhurt, but he was also relived too.
His orders had strictly been to bring her back alive at all costs, after all, and the consequences of ignoring this fact would be very severe. Ironically enough, just as Reno thought about this fact, one of the Shinra soldiers suddenly fired his bullets straight at Aeris, which all very narrowly avoided her head as she screamed and ducked to the floor, and the bullets whizzed right past her ear.
"(What the hell does this guy think he's doing, has he already forgotten my orders to capture her alive without any serious harm done to her, and here he is tried to shoot her up full of bullets. Well, no time to stop him by orders, so I'll just have to prove my point more effectively,)" thought Reno, as he readied his Nightstick.
Reno frowned dangerously, and suddenly charged up his Nightstick with high voltage power, the Nightstick flowing with sparks of electricity, as he swung his arm back and whacked the Shinra soldier hard with it, and at once the electricity took its effect on the soldier, shocking with many volts, immediately beginning to rapidly fry him from the inside. The gun stopped firing and dropped out of the soldier's hands at once.
The Shinra soldier screamed in such agony that Aeris shut her eyes and covered her ears frantically, and even Cloud looked away in disgust, as the electric shock fully affected the soldier, frying him alive as his insides bubbled and boiled, blood running from his mouth and flesh.
Reno snarled in disgust, and discharged the Nightstick, stopping its contact. The Shinra soldier fell lifeless to the ground, the dead body burned black and smoking, completely fried and bloody. All the other Shinra soldiers looked on in fear, each of them stepping back from the corpse with very white and pale faces. Reno spoke up coldly, also making sure he wasn't looking at the result of the scene he had caused.
"Now let that be a lesson to all of you from now on, if any of you dares to ignore or disobey my orders, or doesn't bother to pay attention to them. So listen up, because I'm not going to say this again. I want the girl caught ALIVE and unharmed, or there's going to be severe trouble, understand? Now go and get her! Capture her at once!" ordered Reno, sharply.
Completely terrified and scared witless by what they had just witnessed, the three remaining Shinra soldiers all nodded and scurried clumsily after Aeris, all of them frantically obeying their orders at once, not wanting to share the same fate as their unfortunate comrade.
The Shinra soldiers had all split up to catch her, each blocking out any places she could go to get to the floor above that Cloud was still on. One of the soldiers found his way to Aeris, and he was ready to attack, as he charged towards her, and Aeris looked fearfully up at Cloud.
"Cloud, help me, please!" shouted Aeris, frantically. Cloud cursed to himself, knowing that he couldn't get there in time to save her from being captured, and especially not in the injured state that he was currently in. He could see no other way of helping, and knew hope was lost.
"Damn it, there's nothing I can do to help…! Hey, wait a moment…what's that…?" wondered Cloud, suddenly spotting some barrels on top of the roof's structure, though he had no idea why they would be there in the first place, but the important thing was they were still there. An idea had suddenly just occurred to Cloud, as he knew he had just figured out a way to help deal with the soldiers.
"Aeris, try and hold on just a minute, I've got an idea!" shouted Cloud, urgently.
"Oh, alright then, fine," replied Aeris, with a shrug, feeling uneasy but she trusted Cloud nevertheless, and tried evading the soldier as she waited for Cloud to act.
Cloud quickly climbed up a ladder to the roof's structure as best he could, ignoring the rush of pain that flared through his body, and he stumbled over to the barrels, almost falling off the edge of the roof structure to the bottom floor of the church below, but he regained his footing just in time.
Grabbing one of the barrels, he lifted it over his head, and waited for the right moment to strike as he carefully aimed and threw at barrel at the soldier once he'd stopped, hoping to hit the soldier, but pain flared through him at that moment just as he flew it, which put his aim off. The barrel went flying past and almost struck Aeris, as she screamed and dived out of the way, the barrel striking the wall behind her, and shattering into separate wooden planks.
"(Oh Cloud, just what on earth are you doing there? No it's my fault…I should have known he might struggle in his current condition, he'll just have to recover from it a little in time. I hoped that I would never have to do this sort of thing, but it looks like I have no other choice…)" thought Aeris.
The soldier had then looked up at Cloud and aimed his gun right at him, ready to fire, knowing full well that Cloud could be killed without any consequences or other such importance. But Aeris could fend for herself as well.
She had a long, very solid wooden quarterstaff as her weapon, which was quite strongly made, but it was also light at the same time. Although she was physically weak, her magical powers were amazing, and there was hardly anyone who could better them.
Aeris felt very reluctant and guilty at the very thought of killing others, even if they were Shinra soldiers and other such people who ruined people's lives, and she'd therefore never done it before.
But as she saw that the Shinra soldier was just about to kill Cloud, who wouldn't be able to avoid it in time, Aeris quickly sprang into action at once, her quarterstaff now held tightly in her hands.
Just as the soldier was about to shoot Cloud with his finger preparing to pull the trigger, Aeris quickly raised her quarterstaff and swung it down with all her might at the soldier, who was distracted from her at that moment, catching him completely off guard, and the staff whacked him hard from behind, straight in back of the skull, and there was a hideous snapping sound from that point of impact. The Shinra soldier fell dead to the floor at once, the skull crushed and snapped.
Terrified and alerted by this, the other two soldiers started shooting cautiously at Aeris in warning, but she was quicker than they had anticipated, and she soon found cover from the bullets behind a pole as the bullets slammed around it. Aeris quickly ran out onto a nearby stairwell, but found one of the soldiers standing in front of her, ready to fire.
"(She actually saved my life just then, I'd really been caught off guard by that soldier, but she managed to help out just in time. So it looks like she can take care of herself after all, but I've still got to help her now at once,)" thought Cloud.
Cloud quickly went to the next barrel while the soldier was distracted from him, lifted it quietly, and aimed carefully this time, determined not to miss, and then without any problems, he threw the barrel as hard as he could, directly at the back of the soldier's head.
The soldier didn't see the barrel in time as it fell and slammed into the back of his head with such surprisingly hard force, killing and decapitating the soldier instantly, just as he was pulling the trigger, and the bloody headless corpse fell to the ground, spraying blood on the floor. Quickly looking away from the scene, Aeris looked up at Cloud, and smiled brightly at him for saving her life.
"Thanks, Cloud!" said Aeris, gratefully, and she quickly ran up the stairs to the floor where the hole had been, but the last guard suddenly leaped out in front of her, aiming his gun straight at her, and Aeris froze fearfully.
Acting at once, Cloud quickly picked up another nearby barrel and threw it right at the soldier, but the soldier saw it coming and dodged it easily, and also kept his aim on Aeris at the same time, so that she couldn't give him the slip in the process. Cloud cursed to himself as he saw that Aeris couldn't defend herself this time, and there was only one barrel left in use, which he might have had to save for Reno.
"Freeze at once! Kneel down onto the floor, and place your weapon in front of you on the ground, and then lay still with you hands stretched out," ordered the soldier, strictly, his gun aimed threateningly in warning.
Having no other choice but to do so, Aeris reluctantly obeyed, while the guard walked towards her, and had pulled out tight metal chains from his uniform to restrain her. Alarmed, Cloud quickly tried to rush over to them, but soon stopped as he strongly suspected that he wouldn't make it in time to save Aeris, and could only hope she had a plan. Aeris was knelt down on the ground, her staff lay before her, her eyes closed, but she was actually waiting for the right moment to strike.
"You, girl, are hereby under arrest by the order of Shinra Incorporated and the Turks, for resisting arrest numerous times, and for constantly failing to co-operate with the law of Shinra," said the soldier.
Just as the guard was about to place the chains on her, Aeris' eyes suddenly flew open and she suddenly slapped his palm away in a flash, knocking the gun right out of his hands as the guard spun away sideways from the impact, as Aeris had planned out. Wasting no time, she grabbed her quarterstaff from the floor, and leaped back onto her feet, swinging her staff directly at the soldier.
The last thing the soldier had felt was her staff slam heavily into his chest, sending him flying backwards. The guard fell down the stairs heavily, before falling off the edge and landing with a loud thud on the ground, breaking and twisting his neck, killing him instantly as a result.
With no other remaining resistance in the path before her, Aeris quickly ran back along the paths and ladders until she walked up to Cloud on the structure of the roof, and she saw that Cloud was both surprised and enormously relieved that she had escaped safely, and she also noticed that he was already starting to recover from his earlier fight.
"(Thank goodness for that, we're just nearby the hole in the roof with the resistance of the soldiers dealt with as well, we might just escape here safely after all. But I'm still worried though…Reno is still here, and I don't think he's going to give up his mission that easily…I might have to resort to extreme measures to stop him…)" thought Aeris, anxiously.
After waiting for Aeris to come, Cloud quickly went over to the next (and last) barrel, and after picking it up and aiming carefully, he threw it straight down at Reno, and it was right on target, but Reno quickly split the barrel into pieces and bits of wood with a fast smash from his Nightstick, with no effort at all, and he sneered up at them, unfazed by the attempted attack, as he still stood on the bottom floor.
"Hey, is that all the resistance you've got to offer against me, soldier boy? Well, I say that you really suck! Now come down here, and fight me like a man, instead of hiding up there like the cowardly little rats you are!" shouted Reno.
Cloud felt a maddening desire to make his way back down to the bottom floor to where Reno was, just so he could fight him as Reno so rudely requested, to slash him to death with his sword and show him once and for all that he was not to be played around with.
But instead, he reluctantly ignored his own sense of anger and ignored Reno, and he turned to face Aeris, keeping himself calm, deciding to just get them both out safely.
"(I'll just have to deal with that Turk later, next time we meet, he's not going to find it as easy as he did earlier, I'll teach him to watch his back. He'll pay for being so cocky then, but for now, I'd better get out of here with Aeris, before he tries to come up here after us,)" thought Cloud, as he spoke up.
"Aeris, come on, we've got to get going. We have to go this way across the structure towards the hole of the roof, then we jump through it and we're out of here safely," said Cloud, confidently, and Aeris nodded in understanding. They both ran to the other end of the roof structure.
"Cloud, we'll be able to get out of here through the hole in the roof. Jump off that broken wooden beam over there above the roof's structure, and we should be able to make out it through the roof without falling to the church floor instead. So, let's just hurry before Reno does something to stop us," said Aeris, urgently, still looking nervous about the situation they were in. Cloud nodded in agreement.
Using the wooden beam for extra height and support, they both quickly leaped out of the hole in the roof (which Cloud made when he fell), as they jumped off the wooden beam through the hole onto the church roof. Both of them quickly got back up and stood on the roof, knowing that they weren't quite out of the woods just yet.
"I don't think that Reno is just going to give up and leave now just because we've got on the roof. I'm sure he'll try to stop us somehow, and he could still come after us and attack," said Aeris, anxiously, and Cloud nodded grimly.
"I was thinking the same thing. He's going to try and come after us, so we better get going across the rooftops, and then found our way back down to the path towards the Slums of Sector 5. Hopefully, we can escape him there," said Cloud, in deep thought, thinking through their options thoroughly, until Aeris suddenly gasped in horror, and pointed downwards to the ground below the roof.
"Cloud, he's already down there just outside the front door, and I think he's seen us up here! He's trying to aim his weapon right at us!" said Aeris, urgently, and looking down the side of the church roof, Cloud did indeed see Reno staring up at them, his Nightstick right aimed in their direction, as he shouted out to them.
"This is the last chance for the both of ya! Either come down here now, or I'll blast the roof to bits with my Nightstick, and make you come down here myself! Well, what's it to be then? And don't try anything funny, I haven't got all day to mess around with you people, so make your decision now, but either way, you're coming down to get captured!" shouted Reno, as he prepared to charge up his Nightstick.
"Damn it, it's too late! He's got us right where he wants us! I don't think we have any other choice now, but to do as he says…" said Cloud, darkly, feeling a horrid sense of defeat and lost hope, believing that this time, they really were done for, and Cloud dreaded to think what would happen if he were in complete custody of Shinra after the things he had done against them for AVALANCHE. Aeris slowly spoke up.
"No, I think that there's still a way we can escape and avoid capture. I've got a plan to make Reno leave. I hoped that I wouldn't have to resort to this, but it looks like I don't have any other choice now…" said Aeris, solemnly.
"What are you talking about…?" asked Cloud, sharply, staring at Aeris, but she didn't answer, and instead closed her eyes, and clasped her hands together with her staff held tightly between them. She then suddenly began to pray to herself in that same strange language that Cloud had no understanding or knowledge of.
"Last chance for you both, now give yourselves up, or I'll be forced to fire at you both, and trust me it won't be pretty when I do," said Reno, grinning as he charged up his Nightstick, the tip of it suddenly beginning to glow and forming into a small red meteor of energy like it had earlier against Cloud, and Reno aimed it at the two of them on the roof, prepared to fire his Turk Light at any moment's notice.
"Aeris, come on, just what are you doing!? This isn't any time to just sit back and pray!" said Cloud, incredulously, but Aeris simply took no notice and continued. Suddenly, Cloud noticed that the Materia slotted into her quarterstaff began to glow brightly, brighter than he had even seen one glow, and he stared in dumbfounded astonishment.
"Alright, time's up! You've had your last chance, so just brace yourselves for impact as I bring the roof down!" shouted Reno, as he prepared to press the button on his Nightstick to fire the small red meteor of energy right at the roof, to destroy it and bring Cloud and Aeris crashing down.
Aeris' eyes suddenly shot open, and she quickly raised her arms to the air with her quarterstaff held tightly between them, and swung them back down.
There was a flash of light, and mysterious purple energy seemed to surround the startled Reno, before there was another flash of light, and the purple energy quickly vanished, but Reno was standing completely still, and somehow his Nightstick had been discharged.
"What the hell…!? I can't move! Why the hell can't I move, what the heck did you just do!?" screamed Reno, furiously, as he glared up at Aeris, but he seemed incapable of moving.
"Call it another mysterious gift of mine. That technique I just used is one of many strange things I can do. Why exactly I can do these things, I don't know, but it just seems natural for me to have these abilities. This particular one is a sealing spell, it'll stop you from moving for a while, but it's not permanent. So I intend to make you leave before it wears off," said Aeris, as her Materia suddenly glowed brighter than ever.
Cloud only watched and gaped in startled disbelief as green light burst from the roof at Aeris' feet, and then suddenly a huge wall of fire surrounded the whole church like a huge circular barrier. A ball of fire flew from the flames and struck Reno, sending him flying backwards into some scrap metal and planks nearby in the street.
Apparently able to move again, Reno got back up from the pile of junk he'd been sent flying into, and for once he looked livid and enraged as he glared up at Cloud and Aeris, who were still both protected by the barrier of flames that Aeris had mysteriously summoned up.
Reno immediately charged up his Nightstick again, the tip of it quickly glowing and forming into a small red meteor of energy again, before Reno quickly pressed a button on the Nightstick and fired it.
The small meteor headed straight for where Cloud and Aeris were behind the flames, but the meteor was quickly burned into nothing as soon as it had struck the flames, which had become hotter and had intensified. Reno stared and gaped at what was happening, but with it came a sudden rush of complete understanding and newfound knowledge.
"(So this is why Shinra are so keen on capturing her. I'd been wondering what the use of her was, since she looked so helpless and weak, but now I understand. If she can do so many things just like that…if she has such potential in the use of Materia and casting Magic, then maybe she can lead Shinra to the Promised Land after all. She certainly does seem to have a way with the Planet…)" thought Reno, as Aeris spoke up.
"Now I'm giving you a choice. As you've just witnessed, there's no way of attacking us with the flames around, and I can make them stay there for a while. And I can also make them attack anything in sight too, namely you. I could fry you to death, but I'm not that sort of person, so instead I'll give you a choice. Either give up and leave this place now, and go back to where you came with your life still intact or I'll have no choice but to attack. It's your choice, but do not believe that you can succeed," said Aeris, as Reno snarled up at her.
"You may have won this time, you damn Cetra, but just wait, the Turks will capture you eventually no matter what you try to pull off against them! It's only a matter of time before we get you, special abilities or not! And as for you, soldier boy, I'll look forward to the next time we meet, so I can finish our little fight once and for all!" yelled Reno, before he turned his back on them and ran off from the church, not looking back.
As soon as Reno had gone out of sight, the flames quickly vanished into nothing, and Aeris collapsed to the church roof in extreme exhaustion, and was unable to stop her body from sliding across the roof towards the edge.
Cloud let out a cry of dismay, and immediately sprang into action, tightly grabbing Aeris hand just as she slid over the roof edge, leaving her exhausted and dangling in mid air. Cloud gritted his teeth as he pulled her back onto the roof with all his might, and he let go of her as Aeris stood back on the roof, gasping for breath, before she carefully sat down.
"Thanks Cloud, after summoning that wall of fire from one of my Materia, I really felt physically and mentally drained from performing its use. I tried to keep it up as long as possible so it would hold Reno off until he left, but I don't think I could have kept up for much longer…" said Aeris, clearly very relieved, though she was still gasping for breath.
"But I thought you said to Reno that you could make them stay up as long as you liked, and I thought you said you could just deal with Reno if you wanted to," said Cloud, confused.
"I was just bluffing back there to make him leave here, that's all. It's a good thing that I sounded convincing, and it's lucky that he left as soon as he did, I wouldn't have been able to hold him off much longer, then we would be at his mercy," explained Aeris, as she still gasped for breath, looking very drained and tired. But Cloud still stared at her in complete amazement, though.
"But just how on earth did you pull off that wall of flames and that sealing spell too? You were certainly right when you said earlier that you knew how to use Materia better than anyone, but I've still never seen anything like this before, except with…" began Cloud, but he stopped, feeling suddenly fearful as he remembered what those flames had reminded him off, and remembered the cold laugh that had came with them…
"Cloud, what is it? What's wrong?" asked Aeris, in concern, as she noticed he had gone suddenly quiet and grave, his face going white. Cloud quickly snapped out of his thoughts, refusing to dwell on that moment again, and spoke up quickly.
"Nothing, it's just nothing. So anyway, just how can you do those things…?" asked Cloud, curiously. Aeris hesitated, clearly doubtful and unsure of what to say.
"I'm not entirely sure of how I can do these things, it's something I've always wanted to know every since I realised that I could do them. I just find it simple to perform the use of those actions, even if I don't completely understand them. I do know why I can basically perform such abilities though, but I'd rather not reveal that right now, Cloud. You might find out eventually anyway," said Aeris, and Cloud just shrugged, seeing that he wasn't going to get any answer from her.
"Alright, I'll drop it for now. At the moment though, it looks like you could use some rest, so we'll stay here for the moment, and then get going when you're ready," said Cloud. Aeris nodded gratefully, and the two of them sat still on the church roof for a moment, wondering what was to come next.