AN: Huzzah!

Disclaimer: I doth not own ye olde "Fushigi Yuugi" nor Le "Final Fantasy VII" of yore .... thou shalt not sue me for I am horrendously poor....so if you did ...all you'd get would be the fleas on my cat ....ewww...

My Hands chapter 1

There always comes a time in your life when you want to set out, and discover things for your own. Discover life for your own, mainly to discover yourself along the journeys. And Aeris Strife, wanted nothing more than that, to discover herself. Of course, when you're 17, there's still tons of things to discover, but Aeris wasn't as normal as she would have liked to be. According to her, she was living a robbed exsistance.

Aeris was a clone. Made by a, in Aeris's opinion, very deranged scientist who was consumed with the idea of creating a perfect soldier. Aeris was grown in the lab, her growth rate sped up by hormones and jenova cells. They were attempting to make her into another perfect soldier like Sephiroth, only to have it backfire when it appeared that Aeris inherited the former Aeris's loathing for the Shinra Corporation and professor Hojo in particular.

And so, after the downfall of Shinra, Aeris stumbled upon Cloud. Or rather, Cloud found the 10 year old girl amoung the rubble of the fallen building. Explaining what she was, Cloud took her in, gave her his name, and took her to live with Tifa in the slums. To him, she was a sign of forgiveness from Aeris, a sign to move on and not blame himself.

Aeris, was much like the young woman they remembered her to be, but with deliberate mistakes. This Aeris seemed more serious and quiet, she only spoke when she really had to. She wasn't as quick to give her opinion as the other Aeris, but not out of timidity, but because she'd rather not converse with people, taking pleasure in silence.

It was these aspects that gave Cloud the suspicion that Aeris was not the only being in her, for sometimes, when Aeris was upset, there was a cold glare in her eye that reminded almosteveryone around her of Sephiroth.

Determined to have her warm up a bit, Cloud exposed her to everything a child should be exposed to - family, freindship, a warm home to come home to. It worked for the most part, but deep inside of Aeris grew a desire to set out on her own. True, that all the love that she had grown up with had softened her up, but the steady focus and determination inside of her would never diminish.

So whe n Aeris turned 17, she didn't beat around the bush, she wanted out, and she would findher own means to do so. For months, she prepared, trained, saved up to leave home and set out.

She had told Cloud, that she wanted to discover things for her own, but she hadn't mentioned that what she really wanted was to live a life of her own, not the shadow exsistance of a woman she never came to know yet seemed to have all her friends. She didn't want to be a 'spot -filler', she wanted her own place. Saying good-bye to her borrowed friends and family, Aeris set off to make a world of her own.

Except, when you're that young, you don't realize that just because you want something, doesn't mean it will happen just like that. A month after Aeris set out from Midgar, and nothing remotely interesting had happened. She hadn't even met anyone along the way that seemed 'travel - companion worthy'. They were all blithering idiots who preferred to stay home and hide under their beds; cowards.

Well, thinking on it, she couldn't blame them. There were some nasty things out there and even Aeris wouldn't have wanted to deal with, but seeing as she had insisted on setting out on her own in the first place, she couldn't complain.

Despite her seeming bitterness towards the former Aeris, she couldn't help her curiosity. The first place she headed was for Bone village, the only place where you could find the key to opening the Sleeping Forest, which was key to entering the path to the City of the Ancients. Aeris dearly wanted to see this city for herself, as it haunted her dreams most nights. She knew little of the previous Aeris, and Cloud and the others wouldn't say how she died. But Aeris had a feeling, it was just, she couldn't quite understand it. So off she went to the City of the Ancients, taking in everything around her, and especially, the center of the city, that is surrounded by water. Every night, Aeris dreamed of this place without knowing why.

She shuddered as she walked around there, and decided best for her to leave. Now she was the last Cetra, like the Aeris before her. Except, she knew close to nothing about what she was or what it meant.

Her next stop on her travels was Nibelheim, where Cloud and TIfa grew up. Also, Vincent had mentioned to her that beneath the Shinra Mansion, lay a vast library of Professor Gast, her 'grandfather', and that information on the cetra was written there.

So Aeris arrived in Nibelheim, and when the coast was clear, she snuck into the mansion, and into the second floor room on the right, just as Vincent had told her. She vaguely wondered if Vincent had really slept all those years in a coffin under the Shinra Mansion like Red XIII said he had...

'some things are better left alone Aeris,' she said to herself in a sing-song voice. She passed the supposed basement, and into the library of the late professor Gast.

In all truth, it was a creepy place, it was candlelit, though who lit the candles she didn't know. It was also filled with dust, and assorted spiders that Aeris wasn't very fond of.

This may be the place where she would find the information she sought, but she wanted to get out of there as soon as possible. She reckoned that it would be in her sanity's best interest to leave as soon as possible.

'I mean, look at what happened to the people who did hang out in here too long; Professor Gast was Killed, by the ever deranged Professor Hojo. Vincent spends half of his life pretending to be a vampire in the basement of an abandoned mansion, and Sephiroth reads the books in here, only to go beserk and try to destroy this entire city. Clearly, these books were not meant for daily reading.' she spoke out loud to no one in particular, but it chased away the silence and made her feel a bit more at ease.

Further in the hallway where Proffesor Gast's desk lay, came a bright flash of red light that almost seemed to burn, and scared Aeris out of her wits. But as soon as it came, it was gone, vanished with the cry of what sounded like a bird.

'sounded like a phoenix more like.' Aeris corrected herself, she eyes her pouch of pheonix downs warily.

She was about to turn on her heel and leave then and there, but damn that blasted curiosity of hers. It would be the death of her someday.

She creeped forward, ever so slowly, gripping her certa staff. It ranked higher than the Parasol and Princess staff put together, it made Aeris feel a bit stronger than she actually was. She was more a magic user than an attacker. Hence why she had to run through the mansion; most of the monsters inside there were immune to magic.

When she finally made it down the hallway, she found nothing. Nothing suspicous, or life threatening, not even anything out of place. The desk looked like it hadn't been touched for years- as it hadn't.

Aeris would have liked to dismiss it as her eyes playing tricks on her, but ...

'what if that's what the other people thought and then all of a sudden they got sucked into some trance and went mad? I mean, maybe professor gast didn't want people to read his books, maybe he cursed them? Could he have cursed them? Maybe he had Infalna curse them?'

All these thoughts were racing through her mind when a sudden flop caused her to spin around and swing at nothing in particular. Her breathing had quickened, her eyes darted around.

'That's it...I'm leaving. Nothing is worth this kind of paranoia..' Aeris bent down to pick up the book, and looked around to see where it fell from. There were no empty slots in the shelves. She began to grow nervous, what if this is what happened to Sephiroth? Was she going to go mad and start trying to take over the world?

'no...no... don't be stupid Aeris, just make room for the book, put it back in it's proper place and then be on your merry way.' Aeris liked the cool, calculating part of her mind at that moment, and decided that was the best course of action. 'The last thing I need is some vengeful spirit or somthing stalking me because I didn't put the book back in the right place...' she muttered as she flipped the book over to see what the title was, so as to put it in the proper place. The title was worn, and illegible.

'hmm maybe the inside will say the title.' she opened the book, and for some reason, it seemed very light to her.

More so than when she had just picked it up. She looked to the first page, looking for some sort of title, but instead found a drawing of a bird.

'a ...pheonix.' Aeris frowned and looked around the room again. This was too weird, it couldn't be coincidence. She hears a random bird, only to see nothing. A random books falls as if from nowhere only to have no title, no author, and a picture of a pheonix. 'i don't like this, i don't like it at all.' she declared and was about to close it when she

found some writing on the page opposite the picture of the pheonix.

She wrinkled her nose, and her eyebrows furrowed together, as she turned the page this way and that.

'What in the world is this language?! It doesn't make any sense!' she cried exasperated. 'I don't suppose it can translate itself and tell me the title?' she said in a dry tone of amusement.

The book seemed to take her very seriously though, for it did just that.

'you're kidding me.' Aeris's birght green eyes opened in amazement. The book, now in a neatly written English script said:

'"Thus, the girl of the legend opened the door of another world. This is the story of a girl who gathered the Seven Seishi of Suzaku. She obtained omnipotent power, and made every wish come true. The story itself is an incantation. Whoever finishes reading it will recieve this power. As soon as the page is turned, the story will become truth and being."'

"Truth and Being eh?' Aeris raised a delicate eyebrow. And curiosity winning yet again, Aeris turned the page defiantly, willing the book to come to life as it said it would.

A good wise saying for this moment would be, 'watch where you leap.'

The same blinding red light that Aeris thought she had imagined before enveloped her now. And the next thing she knew she was being pulled down, no, not down to the ground. Down into the book.

'You've got to be kidding me!!!' Aeris cried out, as she disappeared.

The book sat complaintively on the desk, it's pages lay open. Some wind rustled, but the pages didn't budge. It did however flip to the next page, where new freshly written words began to appear.

Aeris was very upset about this. She had landed on her pack, which wasn't exactly filled with blankets.

She woke up in a place that certainly wasn't that creepy library, but given the circumstances, she'd vote in favor of the library than this place.

At least she knew where the library was.

She had woken up in what appeared to be the middle of nowhere. Well, not nowhere, there seemed to be a city of some sort in the distance. That worked fine for her, she was a seasoned traveler, and had no problems staying the night in a town she didn't recognize. Better to be left stranded in some place where there could be monsters.

Standing herself up, and dusting off, Aeris straightened her pack, made ready her staff and begun the walk to the unknown city. She was obviously not anywhere near Nibleheim anymore, maybe she was close to the Golden Saucer. She had never been there, but she had heard that there were desert lands around that area.

Aeris got excited, maybe she'd get to take a nice break and relax at the Golden Saucer. Certainly sounded tempting. She re-arranged her materia as she walked, guessing what she would need for this kind of land-scape.

She had heard that things like Grimguards romaed that area, and while not entirely threatening for her level, she didn't want to be caugh off guard.

Nothing seemed to happen though. No random attacks, no sign of any threats. Aeris was amazed. She made it to the city without having one single attack on the way. What was this place? Now that she looked at it, it made her think of Wutai more than Mt. Correal. But ...it was older, and ..

'what in the world IS this place?'

She walked down the streets, looking for weapon shops, but all of them had old weapons that didn't even have materia slots! They didn't even have a Materia or items shop! Aeris couldn't believe her eyes, everywhere she looked, there were common people, with no signs of knowing anything about materia or let alone the cetra.

'i'm never taking Vincent's advice ever again.' she said ruefully to herself.

So much for an adventure, Aeris kicked the dust infront of her and pouted as she walked, she didn't even know where to go! 'This has got to be the worst day ever. Now I've gone insane and got sucked into a world where nothing is the way it's supposed to be.'

She sat herself down miserably on a crate behind a clothing shop. She heaved a sigh and began to fiddle with her necklace. It wasn't actually a necklace, it was a peice of string that she wrapped twice around her neck and tied into a bow in the front. She thought it was very cute. Probably something the old Aeris used to do by the way

Cloud reacted the first day she wore it. Maybe she should stop calling her 'the old Aeris' or 'former Aeris' it was so confusing. Would she be a sister to her? Maybe a mother because she was born from her ...kind of?

Aeris was so busy contemplating all of this that she didn't notice the young man walk right up to her and tap her on the shoulder.

'Excuse me miss, but you look lost, do you need some help?' He looked kind enough, decent attire, from what she could see around her. He wasn't wearing rags or anything. His brown hair was tied back into a thin pony tail, but this left a vast amount of thin bangs to frame his face. Not bad, Aeris noted silently.

'I can't say I'm not lost...' she began, 'but I seriously doubt you could help me.' she said throwing him a skeptical look.

He took this good naturedly and nodded, 'No, maybe not.' he glanced her up and down, taking in her attire. 'But maybe a few friends of mine could help?' he offered her his arm and smiled graciously.

Aeris didn't trust him, growing up in the slums can do that to you. But seeing as she was dreadfully bored, and it didn't seem as though she'd be going back to 'normal land' anytime soon...

'Sure. Why not. It's not like I got anything better to do.' Aeris shrugged and stood up to dust herself off. The man's smile faltered a bit. 'where are these friends of yours?' her tone said she didn't trust him, but he went on.

'They're a couple houses down from here, it's not that far. Follow me.'

He turned and Aeris followed, hoping that this at least would break the mundane routine of doing nothing in this strange place. They walked, and walked, and walked some more. Aeris seriously contemplated just stopping this walking and turning in some unknown direction. At least being lost would give her something to do...or at least some new things to look at.

'It's just around the corner, come on.'

Damn, too late. Aeris cursed herself for not having snuck off sooner. But as soon as she turned the corner, she forgot all about it. Her little friend had led her into a secluded alleyway, where at least 5 nasty looking thugs awaited them, well her.

'You brought us a strange one today.' a ruggish looking man with black hair spoke; he was missing several teeth.

'Her clothes alone will fetch a bundle.' another equally ugly one agreed.

Aeris had to roll her eyes, this was so cliche. She sighed and shook her head, "I don't know what you're thinking but my clothes stay on me." she didn't even bother with her staff. If there were no materia shops, there was no materia in this world. If there was no materia, then there was no magic. Meaning if they saw magic, it'd be enough to spook them away without actually having to fight them. Besides, she wasn't strong enough to fight them. Just a small earthquake oughta do it, I don't need my staff for that...

But before she could even concentrate on such a thing, something very interesting happened. Someone started to throw rocks at the thugs. and by throw I mean peg = ow.

An attempted rescue? Aeris turned to see who her would be hero was.

'Five big men, against one little girl? That's not very even is it? Why not even the odds!' he lept from his place on the roof top and taclked the men below with a neatly placed prosission of kicks and punches. His martial art form was very showy, but very effective. And taking a good look at him now, he was very handsome.

Messy hair that parted in every which direction, blue to top it off. Well dressed, lean...over all he seemed very dashing in Aeris's opinion. So she decided not to be rude for interrupting her chance to show off, and she even decided to over look the fact that he called her a little girl. Maybe she'd make him show her around as payment?

'Are you hurt?'

Aeris looked up out of her daze. He was tall too. 'No, no I'm perfectly fine thank you.'

'Well I'm not too concerned about the thanks as much as the payment.'

This caught Aeris's attention. 'payment?' she lifted a delicate eyebrow, 'you think this merits payment?'

The young man frowned. 'I just saved you!' he said a bit defensively.

'Ah, the young were so naive, ...Like I'm one to talk.' Aeris shook her finger at him; "I didn't ask for your help. You see, I was planning on handling things on my own when you showed up. Very careless mistake to make if you're looking to make money. Don't assume the girl needs help just because she's a girl. That's very insulting to a customer you know." she said this all matter-of-factly.

The young man looked disgruntled, "So you're saying I should have waited until they had you where they wanted you, and then called down asking 'hey! Do you need a hand?' "

'Look at what I'm wearing. Do I look like the type that sits home all day and makes food for the men of the house? Of course not! You don't even know what clothes these are! I take care of guys like that all the time.'

He looked very upset now. 'God I hate poor people.' he muttered and was about to turn and leave when Aeris stopped him.

'Well wait, there you go assuming again. You think I made all that up because I don't have money to pay you?'

By the look on his face, that was a yes.

'I said what you did, didn't merit payment because I could have done it. There is something however, that you could do for me, and we'll work out how much you'll get payed depending on how well you do it.'

He didn't seem to like this, 'I'll say the prices here, as i'm the one doing the services.'

'You're also the one looking around to save people so you can charge them.' she pointed out. 'see, now I know how desperate you are so I'll name the price. Ok?'

Again he didn't like it. She sighed. 'Alright, here's what we'll do, I'll empty my pockets, and if what I have interests you, then you can take it and I'll be glad to have your services.'

This he liked. So they sat down and Aeris began to take out all the extra items she had. Tents, regualr potions that weren't really necessary as she had serveral Hi-Potions, assorted phoenix downs and grenades and such. Everything, facinated the young man. Especially after she explained their purpose.

The final trade was 3 potions, a tent, a pheonix down, a short dagger and an antidote.

Aeris thought it wasn't bad at all, the boy thought he'd ripped her off, but his concience didn't seem to be working that day. Must've been a holiday.

He smiled and shook her hand, "Xong Gui-Siu."

"What did you just call me?" Aeris looked up from her now packed away things alarmed.

"No no no, that's my name."

Aeris eyed him warily. "How about that in English?"

"Some others call me Tamahome"

"That's something I can say." she nodded and took his hand. "I'm Aeris."

He raised an eyebrow, "and my name was strange?"

"No, you're name was impossible to say. You can say mine." she added.

"Alright, so what do you need done?" he said clapping his hands together in a business like fashion.

"I'm lost."

"Lost?"

"Well yeah, I mean...well look at me! Does it look like I'm from around here?!" she gesticulated wildly as she spoke, which Tamahome found amusing.

"Alright, so you're lost, any ideas of where you're supposed to go?"

"Well that's what I was thinking when these guys showed up, you see, I don't know where I am or how I got here. I don't suppose you could tell me what this place is called?"

"This is the kingdom of Konan." Tamahome answered.

"Kingdom eh? That means ...maybe I've gone back in time? No that doesn't make any sense." she bit her nail nervously and then looked back up to Tamahome. "I don't suppose you have a lot of pheonixes in this kingdom of yours do you?"

This question seemed to startle him a bit, and he looked at her for the first time as if she was from some other world.

"You're really not from around here are you?" he said in a strange voice, what was it? Big brother-ish? Sympathetic? Aeris couldn't place a finger on it. Not that she was too concerned with this detail at the moment.

"I'm glad you've caught on. Yes I'm not from here. So ...freakish red birds? Do you have any?"

"Why do you ask?" he placed his question very delicately.

Why? It's not like I'm some strange psychopath or anything. Not that saying this next part would put a good word in his book, more like it will make her sound crazy beyond all reason.

"Well," she thought of how to put it. "I was in a library when all of a sudden I saw a red light, and well I heard a pheonix. So I followed it and next thing I know I wind up in this crazy place where I don't know anyone or anything. So I'm thinking, if I find another one of those birds, I can go back home." this sounded very logical to her. (AN: it does to me too...nod of agreement)

This startled him a lot more.

"What? I'm not gonna steal them! I just want to go back home if that's not too much trouble! "

"No, no it's not that it's just ..."

There was a cry from the street, and suddenly this attracted Aeris much more than the prospect of going home.

"Tamahome! What is that? Is it a carnival???"

"Huh? oh no, that's just the Emperor, doing his weekly check of the city."

"You guys have an Emperor??? Wow." she breathed.

Tamahome smiled, she sounded like a little kid, but was she really...

"Is he nice?" she blurted out as the carridge came closer, she stood on her tippie toes trying to catch a glimpse, then gave up and began to jump up and down, her pack making assorted noises as she did.

"Well I don't know, I've never met him. He seems nice enough." He said complaintively, then sighed, "What i wouldn't give for just one ruby off his head dress. That alone would make me rich."

Aeris snorted, "Do you want to go steal it because I'm certainly not."

"No, you wouldn't be able to do it."

This sparked an interest. "What do you mean? Because I'm a girl?"

"Well aside from other things" he teased.

She wasn't teasing, she was serious. "I bet I could do it."

"Nah, don't be stupid. You see all those guards?" ..He looked around but Aeris was already sneaking through the crowds.

"AERIS! What are you doing!?!?!?" he screamed.

"Just see it as extra payment." she shrugged and weaved forward. Easier said than done though, she had barely made it to the front of the crowd when something else caught her attention. There was a small child that was about to be trample if it didn't get out of the way. Wasn't anyone seeing him?

Without another thought she ran forward and scooped up the child. What kind of a person would run over a child?! This infuriated Aeris, and when she was angry, she didn't have much sense.

"Does his majesty fancy himself ruler of a person's life as well?" she bellowed quite loudly enough for all around to hear.

"Your carridge, your grace, nearly ran over a child."

"How dare you speak to his majesty like that." A guard unsheathed his sword and began to move forward. Aeris put down the child and scooted him away.

"Aeris! What are you DOING?" Tamahome jerked her backward.

"They almost ran over that child!" she said angrilly.

"Look this isn't the time for this, we're going to get killed if we don't run." he grabbed hold of her arm and right before he pulled her away from the guards, the red light returned and enveloped Aeris.

She looked down at her hands, they were beginning to disappear. oh so now you decide to send me home? But wait.. where was the bird. Was it? No! WAIT! Is Tamahome a bird? I want to figure it out! I want to at least ask!

"Wait a second WILL YOU?!?!" she bellowed, and the red light vanished. Aeris blinked, Tamahome blinked, it was a blink fest.

"huh," Aeris said curiously. "Well that worked out nicely didn't it?" She said pleasantly to Tamahome.

"errr..."

He looked very nervous, and for good reason. They were utterly surrounded by guards now.

How quaint.

AN: And thus did end the craposity of my first chapter of my non-first story. I've written a bunch of things but I'm too much of a pansy to put them on I'ma see how this one works out with the crowd before I continue with other ...stuffs....

Review if you like, if you don't I don't give a rat's ass.... let's seee ...anything else? Nope...that about does it.

END. (unless ofcourse there are reviews and then the next chapter will magically appear...it'll go poof and everything )