Having left the area of Aeris' house behind, Cloud silently walked through and past the Slums of Sector 5, constantly wondering about a lot of various things, like Aeris, AVALANCHE, and the threat of Shinra Incorporated.
He still felt thoroughly uneasy about bringing Aeris along with him, feeling that it would be seriously endangering her life if she did indeed come. He tried to insist to himself that she would be alright if he kept an eye on her, but he still couldn't help but feel some sort of strange dread.
And he wondered how the rest of AVALANCHE, especially Tifa, would react if he returned, since they had all thought that he had fallen to his death no more than a day ago at the Mako Reactor N05.
He also had no idea if Aeris would even be welcomed into AVALANCHE in the first place; after all, at first glance she only seemed like a flower girl and a common citizen, so they would certainly question what use she would be to them.
Cloud knew now though that there was far more to her than that. And then there was the fact that Shinra now knew his exact appearance and identity, so he was certainly going to have trouble with them, regardless of whether he stayed in AVALANCHE or not.
And if that was the case of the matter, then being in AVALANCHE offered more protection from Shinra Incorporated; than from being outside the rebel group, so Cloud knew he may as well join up with them again for his own sake. Despite that, he still fully intended on receiving more of his payments for the missions that AVALANCHE would carry out.
Cloud continued to walk along the road in the area of Sector 5, just outside the Slums themselves, and he soon found Aeris further up the path, waiting for him along the road by an archway, just like Elmyra had said she would, although he was still uneasy and doubtful about Aeris coming with him, not wanting to put her at serious risk. But before Cloud could say anything, Aeris quickly spoke up first, sensing his obvious doubt, and tried to convince him otherwise.
"Hey there, Cloud. Fancy meeting you here. You're sure up awfully bright and early, earlier than we'd agreed, so I think that means you had some sort of motive to just leave me behind, right? Did you really think that I would just let you go on alone, that I wouldn't suspect you might try something like this?" asked Aeris, grinning.
"Aeris, just how could I bring myself to ask you to come along with me back to AVALANCHE'S base, when I knew that it would be far too dangerous for you of all people to get involved in something like this?" asked Cloud. Aeris faked a yawn, and gave Cloud a look that plainly told him there was no way he was going to change her mind.
"Are you finally done with all this talk of the risks of getting involved yet? I'm wondering how many more times I'll have to endure it for. Cloud, I know perfectly well what I'm getting myself into here, and I'm still going, so just please drop the concern, however much I appreciate it. Anyway, let's just get going now. Like I told you yesterday, you have to go through the Slums of Sector 6 in order to get to Sector 7, and into Tifa's 7th heaven bar. I'll take you over to there now, so come on. But we'd better be careful along this path," said Aeris.
"You know something Aeris, your mother was absolutely right…you really can be far too stubborn once you've made up your mind," muttered Cloud, darkly, with a frown. Aeris choose to ignore this statement, and she simply walked on past the archway, and after a sigh of defeat and annoyance, Cloud followed her along the path up ahead.
They walked through the archway in path of the road, and they then came to a ruined, cracked and abandoned road. Cloud could see why the journey to Sector 6 was dangerous, if people used this road.
There were large cracks in the ground as if a big earthquake had went through it, and several sorts of jink lay littered all over the place, all of this making the journey through this road difficult.
Beggars could never be choosers though, and if this was the quickest way to Sector 7, then he would take it, so Cloud merely walked along the strange road without comment, as Aeris quietly followed him as well.
They made their way along it as best they could, and after overcoming the cracks and the obstacles in the road, they left it behind, and came to a small playground along the path. Looking ahead in the distance, Cloud saw with satisfaction that the gate to Sector 7 was just beyond it the playground.
Suddenly, before they could move forwards another step, the bizarre and sickening sight of seven big worm-like creatures greeted Cloud and Aeris, with sharp prongs protruding from the centre of their heads, and razor sharp claws poking out from their sides, and several sharp teeth from their face, though they had no eyes, nor a nose, nor ears either.
Sensing that these monstrous things, whatever they were, wanted some early breakfast, Cloud at once readied his large sword from its sheath behind his back and held his gigantic blade tightly in his hands, while Aeris quickly got out her long but tough quarterstaff, and held it firmly in her hands.
Before the monsters come and could attack them, Cloud quickly sprang into action and ran forwards, charging at one of the creatures, and he swung his sword right at it, splitting the creature open in two at a straight angle that went right through its body with the blade, killing the creature instantly, as the thing's corpse fell to the ground in two pieces, covered with green gooey stuff that appeared to be the thing's blood.
Aeris, meanwhile, leapt forwards with surprising grace in her long pink dress, and as she neared the monsters, she swung and rammed her solid wooden staff, with all her might, sending it straight into the skull of one of the creatures, and the thing's bizarre head smashed and caved in like a sponge, killing it instantly.
Cloud quickly leapt backwards as one of the creatures tried to bite him across the arm with its sharp teeth, and successfully dodged it in time, but was then forced to duck as the thing aimed a swipe at him with its claws, but missed again.
Then Cloud immediately caught the creature by surprise when he unexpectedly charged and head-butted it hard to the ground, after which Cloud proceeded to slash his sword into its wriggling body, and slice it relentlessly into dozens of pieces, killing it instantly.
But it was Aeris who completed the fight, and in dramatic style, when she mysteriously caused her quarterstaff to float in midair, her hands now no longer touching it at all, and one of the Materia equipped on her now floating staff suddenly flared to life at once, glowing brightly.
Bewildered and dumbfounded with astonishment at what he was seeing, Cloud simply gaped and watched as green light suddenly burst from the ground beneath Aeris' feet, as several hot flames appeared out of nowhere and directly struck the four remaining creatures, and set them all on fire at once, the flames endlessly searing the very flesh of the shrieking creatures, and the flames still burned on, quickly reducing the monsters to mere ashes in a few moments.
Cloud just stood still on the spot, absolutely flabbergasted, while Aeris reached out and took her floating staff, holding it tightly in her hands again. She certainly did have an exceptional amount of potential in Magic and Materia.
"(Man, Aeris never fails to amaze me. Now she's burned four creatures to death at the same time, and with powerful magic. How is she able to do all this?)" wondered Cloud.
Cloud had, of course, already guessed that from the way she skilfully used her staff despite her rather weak strength, Aeris possessed some strange, astonishing powers, but even after seeing her unique magic abilities, never did he expect that she would be able to make things levitate too. Just how was that even possible? Just what else could she do that he still didn't know about?
So far, he knew that Aeris was able to make flowers in a city with no sunlight or rain, was able to fully heal Cloud on the brink of his death, was able to wield a long, solid wooden staff skilfully in battle even though she was physically weak, was able to grow magnificent gardens in the city of darkness and nightmares, able to use master and use Materia amazingly well with great force, was able to seal people's movements, and was now able to make her staff levitate in mid-air.
The more time he spent with her, the more Cloud realised that there was definitely something very strange and special about Aeris somehow, something that made her very different to everyone else.
And he realised at once that it must have something to do with the real reason why Shinra Incorporated were after her so urgently, but he could not imagine what the exact reason for it all was. Maybe there was something important she could do for them, and he simply might not know yet what it was…
Aeris Gainsborough was the nicest, most generous and most gentle person that Cloud had ever met. Cloud liked her a lot, but there was definitely something unusual about her. Why did Aeris have these amazing, unique powers, and just what were Shinra's real intentions for her?
Lost in his own thoughts for a long moment, Cloud found himself wondering more and more about Aeris for the next few minutes as he and Aeris continued silently along the path of the road, nearing the playground and the front gate of the Sector 7 Slums behind it.
Meanwhile, back at the Sector 7 Slums in Tifa's Seventh Heaven bar, the rest of the AVALANCHE anti-Shinra terrorist rebel group were by themselves and sitting down on stools in the bar, having all got back safely from the Mako Reactor N05, after it had successfully been destroyed. But since they got back, the mood in the bar was never one of celebration, it was one of mournful anxiety, as far as Tifa was concerned.
Tifa Lockhart paced back and forth nervously behind the bar counter, worrying frantically about Cloud ever since she had since him fall from the bridge. She had gotten no sleep the other night at all, as she had been far too worried and fearful about Cloud to get all that much rest.
The rest of the AVALANCHE group gradually became more and more agitated themselves, as they watched Tifa ceaselessly pacing behind the counter, completely worried about Cloud, fearing what might have happened to him. After another long moment of silence, Barret and the others finally couldn't take it the mood in the bar anymore.
"Alright, that's it, I've had enough of this! I'm leaving to go find out where Cloud fell down, once and for all, to found out what really happened to him!" shouted Biggs, and he started to storm out of the bar, but Wedge and Jessie, who were now blocking the entrance, quickly stopped him, shaking their heads, clearly indicating that they weren't letting him go anywhere at the moment. Biggs gave up trying to leave, and he turned to face Tifa, looked irritated.
"Damn it, Tifa! Would you please just stand still and stop worrying so much about Cloud already, the guy can take care of himself! After all, he's an Ex-SOLDIER, remember? Trust me, he'll come back here with nothing hurt, except maybe his pride," said Biggs, firmly.
Tifa nodded slowly at Biggs, but she was still very worried, despite his words. Tifa had been worried and jittery every since she had witnessed Cloud falling off that Reactor bridge, and she always wondered ever since then if he was okay or even alive, and hoping so desperately that he was alright, longing to see him again, insisting to herself that he must have found some way to survive.
"(Cloud's still alive, he just has to be. He can't die, not before I ever had the chance to know why he seemed to be so different from how he was back in Nibelheim, and just how does he remember things he shouldn't know about? It's all my fault this has happened, I was the one who got Cloud involved in all of this. Cloud's got to be alive, he wouldn't die so easily, he'll be back here any moment for all we know,)" thought Tifa, trying to stay optimistic, refusing to give up hope and believe that Cloud really was gone for good.
Just then, the front doors of the bar suddenly swung wide open with a loud creak of noise, and Tifa spun around to stare in the direction of the front doors, a sudden rush of hope and excitement coursing through her.
But after seeing who had just arrived, she was gravely disappointed and her face fell, as a stranger entered the bar; a black man wearing black sunglasses and a pink and yellow shirt with blue jeans walked though the door, and sat on the empty available stool next to Barret, in front of Tifa, leering at her in a way she certainly didn't like.
The man's name was Kotch, and he didn't seem to have realised that he had just stepped into a bar full of dangerous wanted terrorists who were each already in a tense enough mood as it was.
Sensing the sudden deathly quiet silence that occupied the whole bar at his arrival, Kotch looked around at Tifa, Barret, Biggs, Wedge and Jessie, not noticing their rather surprised and very irritated stares, and not hearing the sound of knuckles cracking as they each clenched their fists.
Thinking nothing more of it, Kotch just shrugged carelessly to himself, and turned back to face Tifa, still leering at her in that perverted way, and ignoring the others, who were all glaring hard at him.
"Hey ya all, what's happening? Okay beautiful, go get those damn sweet legs of yours moving already, and get me a drink," said Kotch, rather rudely, and Tifa glared daggers at him, not making any move to do what he said.
Kotch laughed nastily, but Barret Wallace was certainly not amused, not at the sudden interruption this man has caused, nor at his sudden arrival despite the fact the bar was supposed to be closed at the moment, nor at Kotch's rude attitude towards them.
Barret turned in his stool to face Kotch, and gave him a very angry and nasty look, that clearly meant he was prepared to tear the guy to shreds at any moment's notice. Kotch noticed this look, stopped laughing at once, and let out a choked, terrified yelp, as he fully recognized Barret now.
"(Holy shit, that guy's an exact match for the description of the leader of AVALANCHE that President Shinra described in the latest news reports. This must be the guy…which means these others must be them too…and this place must be…oh shit, I'm dead meat here…)" thought Kotch, in sudden terror, and now he knew that he'd found AVALANCHE in Sector 7 as the Don of the Slums had ordered him to, but he hadn't seriously expected to find them, and now that he had, he had no idea whether or not he was going to make it back alive to Wall Market to tell the Don about it in the first place.
Barret stood up at once, standing as tall, as muscular and as imposing as ever, as he grabbed and picked up Kotch by his shirt collar, lifting him up so high and effortlessly that his feet were no longer touching the floor, and were left dangling in mid-air, and then Barret carried Kotch to the door, who was helplessly cowering in the big black man's grasp, unable to free himself, and completely overwhelmed by terror.
"Hey asshole, you listen to me, 'cause I'm only gonna say this once! You've got exactly fifteen seconds to tell me just what the bloody hell your damn problem is, pal!" roared Barret, angrily, burning with murderous rage, spit flying from his mouth onto Kotch's face.
Kotch was cowering and squirming in fear in Barret's strong grip, until Barret cursed violently and threw him hard with a loud thud to the floor, and Kotch let out a cry of pain, and sat whimpering on the floor, as Barret glared down at him, his gun-arm aimed at his head.
"…D-Don Corneo, m-man…" stammered Kotch, clearly shaking wildly all over. He was clearly absolutely terrified and fearful of Barret, and continued to explain in a frantic and desperate tone of voice, not daring to get up.
"Don Corneo's up to nothing, he's just looking out for a bride, that's all I know, I swear! And if you take that gorgeous girl behind the bar counter to him, you'll make a fortune! After all, to make a living around here, you've got to take what comes your way, right?" said Kotch, nervously, terrified and shaking on the floor.
Barret took a short step backwards from him, and frowned in thought for a moment, holding his chin in his one remaining hand, and it seemed like he was considering what Kotch was saying. Kotch let out a sigh of relief.
But just then, suddenly catching Kotch completely off guard, Barret reached down in a flash and tightly picked up Kotch from the floor, and then he effortlessly threw straight him out of the front doors of the bar, sending Kotch flying into the doors with a loud thud, and as they burst open, he was sent tumbling hard down the front stairs, and he crumpled to a halt at the bottom of them, whimpering in clear pain, as he lay sprawled and bleeding on the ground.
"(Damn cocky shit's gonna regret he ever dared to step into this bar, and treat us like nothing. And there's no way he's gonna think about Tifa like that,)" thought Barret, enraged.
Barret stormed out of the front doors of the bar, glaring down at Kotch who screamed in terror at the sight of the murderous looking big black man, and at once tried to scramble up to his feet and flee far away.
But Barret wasn't finished with him yet, as he snarled down at him, and then aimed his gun-arm right at Kotch just as he got to his feet, and then Barret relentlessly opened fire on the ground right around Kotch at once.
Kotch managed to run and get away only just in time to avoid being shot repeatedly to death, and he ran away as fast as he could, screaming in overwhelming fear and terror, back to the Sector 6 Slums.
Don's orders or not, there was certainly no way he would ever go back to the Slums of Sector 7 again, now that he knew Barret and AVALANCHE was residing there. Barret merely glared after the panicked Kotch, not bothering to waste his time by going after him. Kotch was completely worthless to him as far he was concerned.
"And don't you ever dare come back here, ya pathetic, lousy roach! If I see you step one foot in this Sector ever again, I'll fill your whole damn guts up with bullets, and blast them all to bits!" roared Barret, with such intense rage and seriousness that the people in the area who overheard this flinched in fear, and moved away from the source of noise at once.
Without another look back at where Kotch had run off to, Barret stormed irritably through the front doors and back into the bar, as the rest of the AVALANCHE group were staring and gaping at him in amazement, almost all of them wide eyed in disbelief.
"(Whoa, I really forget sometimes how bad Barret's temper can be, I always thought it was suicide to get him annoyed, and it looks like I was right…well almost,)" thought Biggs.
Tifa, however, alone looked unsurprised by what had just happened moments ago, instead she was silent in deep thought about what Kotch had said about Don Corneo.
"(Didn't that man say Corneo was up to nothing? But we never even asked him about the Don, so why would he say that? Maybe it's because Corneo IS up to something, and it must be to do with us…)" thought Tifa, as Barret shouted out to the others angrily.
"What the hell are all you lot gawping at!? You all look like a bunch of damn stupid morons, now just get a grip, ya fools!" shouted Barret. Wedge then walked up to Barret, and spoke up to him nervously.
"Barret, you were listening to what that guy was saying back there, right? Well then, don't you remember Don Corneo at all? He's one of Shinra Incorporated's top businessmen, and has plenty of useful resources and subordinates in Wall Market, which he pretty much takes total charge of. He gets all his funding from Shinra in exchange for doing other services for them, such as assassinations, spying, and mostly giving Shinra crucial information about various things that they would want to know about," explained Wedge.
Barret's eyes widened in surprise at Wedge's explanation, and he cursed furiously to himself, realising that he had just missed out on a great opportunity to get some good secretive information about Shinra, and what they might be up to that concerned AVALANCHE. Barret swiftly looked outside the bar, but Kotch was already long gone by now. Jessie sighed and shook her head.
"That's definitely not good, Barret. It's way too late to find out anything now. The guy's probably gone back to Don Corneo, and he's going to tell him about the beating you gave him. He's not coming back here again, and you could have forced him to give you far more useful information about Shinra, and their latest plans," said Jessie.
"The little jerk had it coming to him from the moment he stepped in here and treated us like nothing…" muttered Barret, angrily, thoroughly annoyed with himself, furious that he could have been so stupid to make such a big mistake.
"(I could just hack into Shinra's Internet to find out more data about them, but then again, the Don and his men might know something that's not on the web…something that Shinra really don't want anyone else to know about…)" thought Jessie, not liking the sound of that.
Having been silent for a while, with her mind fully made up about the subject, and knowing what she had to do, Tifa came out from behind the counter, and she stepped into the middle of the group, as she turned to face Barret. Everyone focused their attention towards her, as she began to speak.
"That guy back there said something that made me think that the Don might be planning something to do with us, that Shinra might also be involved in. He's gone off now, and we can't catch up to him before he gets back to Wall Market, but maybe there is still a chance for us to find out what Corneo is really up to. It will be dangerous though, and we shouldn't travel together as a group, it'll look too suspicious, so only one of us should go. Since it's my idea, I'll go there myself. You guys should all stay here, but if I plant a hidden radio device on me, then you should be able to hear what's going on from over here, on a radio," said Tifa.
Having been listening intently to this, the rest of the group thought carefully about this plan, until Barret finally nodded, his mind made up.
"Well, I'd prefer it if you just left the leech alone, Tifa, I don't like the idea of you of all people going to a place like Wall Market with the sort of people that hang around there, even if you can take care of yourself. But if Shinra and the Don really are up to something, then I guess we ain't got no choice but to find out what it is, for our sake. So this plan sounds good enough to me. What exactly have you got in mind, anyway?" asked Barret, curiously, accepting the idea. For the first time since they had come back to Sector 7, a wide grin spread across Tifa's face, as she looked mischievous.
"Just wait and see what I've got in mind…" said Tifa, as she pulled a lever on the pinball machine elevator, and used it to go downstairs to the secret floor, and the others waited in the bar, each of them exchanging curious looks.
"What's she up to then, anyway? As far as I know, the only way she'll be able to find out more information from the Don would be to sneak into his mansion, and that place is always heavily guarded by his cronies," said Biggs, thoughtfully, and Wedge nodded in agreement.
"Yeah, that's true, but there's an easy way to get in there, at least for girls. Like that strange man said, the Don's looking for a bride, so he gets three girls to enter his mansion so he can choose between them, and then, uh well…anyway, that might be what Tifa's planning to do," said Wedge.
"Well, I certainly wouldn't ever want to sneak into the Don's mansion, regardless of any intentions. I never want to get involved with a fat ugly man like Don Corneo in that way, and his cronies are just as dirty and sleazy as he is too. That place is every sane pretty girl's nightmare. Tifa's really got guts to carry out this plan, I've got to admit that," said Jessie, clearly quite impressed by that.
"Of course she has, she's always been a tough one, you lot should all know that perfectly well!" said Barret, incredulously, but just then, the pinball machine elevator came back up to the bar, and Tifa stood on it, wearing a sparking blue dress that seemed to highlight her every appealing feature. The others stared at her for a moment, and Tifa grinned.
"Okay guys, I'm ready and waiting to go. Let's just get this plan underway," said Tifa, confidently, and the others all got to work with sorting out the plan at once, as radio devices were then planted on her, and were carefully hidden.
Meanwhile, just outside the area of the Sector 7 Slums at that moment, Cloud and Aeris had both just arrived at the large playground just outside it, and not too far ahead, just within their sight, was the massive Sector 7 gate, towering about twenty-five feet high, and was even wider in width. Aeris smirked triumphantly, and turned to face Cloud.
"The entrance to the Sector 7 Slums is in there, through that gate. Just step through the gate, and you'll be there in no time," said Aeris, pointing to the large gate. Cloud nodded, satisfied that their way to Sector 7 was right after all.
"Thanks a lot, Aeris. Well then…is this is goodbye now, or not? It's your own choice to make, Aeris, and I think it's time to decide about it now, once and for all…then there's no turning back. Are you going to go home, back to Sector 5, and not get involved…or do you want to join me, and go to AVALANCHE, to stand up against Shinra?" asked Cloud.
After coming to realise more and more that there were hidden depths to her talents, Cloud knew that Aeris would definitely be a great help to AVALANCHE, if they could only be willing to let her join, and he was sure that only Barret would complain about it. He waited intently for her answer, as Aeris thought a lot more about it.
"(Cloud's right, there's no turning back on this decision, once I've made it. If I go back home, Shinra will still come after me anyway and I'll won't have Cloud to help me, but if I go with him to AVALANCHE, then I'll face more trouble with Shinra, but I'll have better protection from them. I should go with Cloud to AVALANCHE…but I don't want them to blow up cities and kill so many people anymore. I have to convince them to stop that somehow as well…)" thought Aeris, as she finally spoke up.
"Oh no, Cloud! Whatever am I do here, how will I ever be safe? Isn't that what you want me to say, Cloud, so that I'll go back home? Well sorry to disappoint you, but I want to come along too. But if I do, wouldn't I just be in your way?" asked Aeris, curiously, with some concern.
"What do you mean that you'd just be in the way? You won't be, trust me. Besides, I've been doing some thinking, and I guess I wouldn't mind too much if you decided to join. Just come along, and I'll introduce you to the rest of the group, and they'll be impressed by your superb, unique magic abilities, and by your generosity, just like I am," said Cloud, with a careless shrug. Aeris smiled though, and blushed a little.
"Thanks a lot for understanding about it, Cloud. But I think I need to stop and get some rest, after all that walking to get here, so can we please just take a break first, before we go in?" asked Aeris, sounding a little tired.
Without even waiting for a response, Aeris walked over to a nearby slide, and Cloud shrugged and followed her without any comment. Aeris leaned against a rusty chain fence nearby and gazed around happily with fond remembrance at the small, now abandoned playground that stood before the gates to the Slums of Sector 7.
The small swing-set was rusted almost completely solid and creaked noisily in the slight breeze that drifted from the cracks in between the Plates far above. The slides, shaped like giant cuddly hamsters, hung their long tongues out to let the kids out that once crawled up through the other side. Charming, Cloud thought with a smirk, as Aeris stared at the slide.
"Wow, I can't believe it's all still here after all these years, I really thought for sure that Shinra would have it all taken down someday, and built something in place of it for their own purposes instead. I used to come and play here a lot when I was a little girl, but this place is old and dusty now, so nobody comes here anymore," explained Aeris. With a soft sigh, Aeris then moved towards the slide, and climbed its stairs, and then she sat on the very top of it, and waved over to Cloud.
"Cloud, over here. Come on up here," said Aeris, patting the space next to her on the top of the slide. Cloud merely shrugged, climbing up the stairs of the slide, and he sat right next to Aeris on the top of it. Aeris looked right at him.
"(I'm not sure I want to talk about this…but I guess I've got to discuss it sometime, sooner or later, and it may as well be now, so I won't have to face the pain of it later,)" thought Aeris, as she slowly spoke up.
"Oh yeah, that reminds me, I don't think you've mentioned this to me yet. What rank were you when you were with them, Cloud?" asked Aeris, curiously, looking into his eyes.
"What rank…with who…?" said Cloud, rather confused and bewildered about what she meant for a moment, staring blankly at her. Aeris sighed in exasperation.
"You know…what rank in SOLDIER," said Aeris. Cloud's blank look vanished, as he understood her question at once, and thought back on it.
"(What was my rank again? Wait…why can't I remember it, I should be able to know…no, I think I know what it was now, I faintly know it…)" thought Cloud, as he answered.
"Oh, back when I was with them, I was a First-Class SOLDIER," replied Cloud, shortly, though he became a little perplexed when Aeris sighed in a sad, thoughtful way for some reason, and she seemed to be thinking to herself intently about something.
"That's sure a funny coincidence…that's exactly the same rank as he had too…" said Aeris, thoughtfully, more to herself than to Cloud, looking suddenly sorrowful.
"The same rank as who, Aeris?" asked Cloud, curiously, although he suddenly remembered what Elmyra had said to him yesterday, and his eyes widened as he suspected he knew what Aeris was talking about.
"The same rank as…my lost boyfriend…" replied Aeris, with a soft depressed sigh, and proving Cloud right.
Still though, it troubled Cloud to see the normally cheerful flower girl in such a miserable mood, despite all she'd been through with Shinra. Elmyra must have been right about the heartbreak Aeris had suffered after all.
Cloud remembered what Elmyra had told him before, the other day, about how Aeris had a boyfriend from SOLDIER, and how he had just disappeared without a trace five years ago on a mission, leaving Aeris heartbroken. Cloud hesitated a moment, before asking Aeris about her relationship with this mysterious First-Class SOLDIER
"Were the two of you actually…serious in any way?" asked Cloud, quietly, feeling so full of concern and worry for her that he surprised and annoyed himself, to be caring so much about a girl that he had only met no more than two days ago.
After all, in recent times he had been only cold, indifferent and uncaring towards everyone he knew, except perhaps for Tifa. Aeris hesitated for a moment, looking clearly troubled, before finally answering Cloud's question, as she slowly shook her head in response.
"No…looking back on it, you couldn't really say that we were too serious about it, I guess. But I really liked him a lot for a long while, so back then, I thought that we really were serious. One day though, he went away on a mission five years ago, which he told me nothing about, and he never came back to Midgar at all. He was always a real ladies man, so it wouldn't surprise me if he just found someone else," replied Aeris.
Cloud seriously doubted this fact, though. He strongly suspected that her boyfriend could well have been killed in that mission, whatever it was, but he didn't dare tell Aeris about it, in case it would seriously upset her.
"What was his full name, Aeris? I probably might have known him. After all, there aren't many people who make First Class in SOLDIER, so I think I'm bound to have known him at some point. You can tell me his name, and I'll can tell you if he's around or not," suggested Cloud. But to his surprise, Aeris shook her head in response.
"It doesn't really matter to me anymore about what he's doing now, Cloud. That was ages ago, he's long gone from my life now," said Aeris, but looking sad all the same.
Cloud put an arm around her shoulder to comfort her as he sat right next to her on the slide. Aeris looked at him and smiled, moving closer, as they leaned against each other. They then both found themselves staring intently into each other's eyes, as their heads both slowly moved towards each other, their eyes closing, and their lips drawing ever closer…
Suddenly, there was a loud noise from behind them, and Cloud and Aeris both jumped and quickly drew away from each other on the top of the slide, embarrassed by what had almost happened. Feeling quite awkward and completely furious with himself for behaving like he did a moment ago, Cloud quickly looked behind him to see what had made the noise.
The large gates of the Sector 7 Slums had just opened up, and Cloud watched curiously as a carriage came through the gates, pulled along by a Chocobo (a tall yellow flightless bird standing at twelve feet tall, with a long neck, clear blue eyes, orange beak and a friendly if cautious nature, and was capable of running at very fast speeds on its tall orange legs, making it by far the fastest creature on the whole Planet).
At the back of the carriage though, was a beautiful girl wearing a stunning blue dress, whom strangely looked very familiar to Cloud, as he then focused his full attention onto the girl, puzzled by her identity for a moment. The girl looked back at him, and her eyes suddenly widened with shock and also with what seemed like tremendous relief and delight.
Cloud and the girl stared at each other for only an instant before the carriage went off, but Cloud at once recognized her beautiful brown eyes and black hair, and immediately realised who it was with immense shock, at once jumping up from the slide in a flash.
"Huh, what the hell's going on here!? Hey, you back there, can you hear me or not!? Tifa, where the heck are you going!?" shouted Cloud, loudly, hoping that she could hear him from the carriage, but no answer came.
The carriage had now already left their sight, and went further down along the road. Aeris got up from the slide, staring after the road where the carriage had gone.
"That girl in the carriage was Tifa? Where was she going off to then? She was dressed kind of strange for someone working in a terrorist rebel group, and she sure seemed a little anxious too," said Aeris.
"I have no idea where she's heading to, or why she would be going somewhere. It might be AVALANCHE'S latest plan against Shinra, but it doesn't seem like their other ones, so that might not be it either. But I'm going to find out where's she going to, and the reason she has, regardless of what it might be," said Cloud.
"You're right, Cloud, we've got to find out. I don't like the look of where that carriage was heading though, it seemed to be going in the direction of Wall Market, and that's the most dangerous place for girls around. Come on Cloud, let's follow her now before she gets too far ahead of us," said Aeris, and without another word, her mind fully made up, she then leaped off the slide, and quickly ran down along the path that the carriage had travelled down. Cloud stared after her in alarm, taken aback by her sudden pursuit of the carriage, and tried to yell after her.
"Wait, Aeris, stop! I'll go to find Tifa alone! I'll go after her myself, just stay here, it's too dangerous!" shouted Cloud, loudly, with clear urgency.
But Aeris took no notice of Cloud at all, whether she heard him or not, and she kept running determinedly along the path of the road towards Wall Market without stopping. Cloud sighed heavily and leaping off the slide, he quickly followed her, and soon caught up with her, since he was much faster.
Deciding not to argue about the situation, Cloud and Aeris said nothing, and they both quickly ran along the road until they came to the Slums of Sector 6 (the Sector 6 Slums were also called and known as Wall Market).
The infamous and highly business-like Wall Market of the Sector 6 Slums was supposed to be the only place in lower Midgar where anything you wanted to find was possible to get, and the only place in lower Midgar where everything that you wanted to buy was available.
Judging from all of the salesman selling everything from deadly looking machine guns and bazookas to all sorts of other used material; Cloud guessed that all of the many rumours about this place might be true after all. After looking around urgently once they had entered Wall Market, Aeris turned to face Cloud, with a very anxious look on her face.