CHAPTER TWO: Whim Of Fate part two

Days passed since her encounter with the mysterious stranger, but she had not forgotton how close she had come to death. Fate, however, seemed to have more in store for the simple flower girl; she was destined to meet a stranger of a different nature.

One evening while tending to her flowers she was startled by the sound of cracking and splitting wood from above. Alarmed she turned around only to find that a young, blonde haired man had fallen through the church's old decaying roof. Fortunately he had fallen safely onto her precious flower bed. He laid unmoving, face planted in the soil with particles of dust swirling about in the air where he had fallen.

"Are you alright?" she shouted rushing to his aid.

Bending down and touching his shoulder lightly she could hear a small groan escape the fallen man. Rising from the ground he began to whipe himself clean of the dirt and wood that had latched itself onto him. He appeared to have sustained no visible injuries, or at least nothing serious.

"I'm fine," he grunted brushing off his shoulders.

Peering up at the boys bizzare hairstyle, she couldn't help but notice its odd resemblence chocobo.

"That's good," she giggled," I'm Aeris Gainsborough, a flower girl from the slums."

"Cloud Strife, man for hire," he introduced himself with a warm smilem,his glowing sapphire eyes instantly caughting her off gaurd.

"You were in soldier?" she added.

"I used to be," he said looking away briefly. "How did you know that?" Cloud asked curiously raising an eyebrow.

Her expression turned solemn. "Your eyes," whispered kneeling down to nurse her crushed flowers. "You have the eyes of someone who's been exposed to Mako," she finished softly.

He looked at her temporarily before lowering himself to help her, "How did you get flowers to grow in Midgar?" he asked changing the subject."I thought the only plant life in this city was weeds."

"I think its because this is a holy place," she replied gazing dreamily around the vacant church. She smiled, "A little faith can go a long way."

"I'm sorry for crushing them," he apologized his head lowering slightly.

"It's okay, really! I'm much happier that you're not hurt, besides their pretty resilient."

Feeling an unexpected attraction to the golden haired ex-SOLDIER was beginning to make her feel light-headed and bubbly. It made her think of Zack, they seemed so much alike...

For the first time in days she had forgotten about her previous confrontation with the silver haired stranger. She felt no sense of danger and no need to look over her shoulder; safe. She decided that she would try to stay as close to Cloud as possible.

"I have an idea!" she announced cheerfully. "You did say you were a man for hire, right?"

Cloud nodded in response..

"I've had people whom have been chasing me ever since I was a little girl, and well..." she looked at him hopefully, "I'd like to hire you as my personal body gaurd, and as payment I'll agree to go on one date with you," she ended holding up a finger as emphasizes.

"I'd never turn down an opprotunity to protect a pretty girl, so it's a deal," he grinned.

Aeris could feel her cheeks go hot as she and Cloud shook hands, sealing their contract, but they were suddenly intterupted by some much unwanted company.

Standing casually in the door way of the building was a Turk accompanied by two Shinra soldiers, both aiming rifles at the unsuspecting pair. Cloud almost instinctively stood in front Aeris, sheilding her from the aggresors . He unsheathed the large buster sword that had been strapped to his back and took the defensive stance.

"What do you want?" he demanded.

The Turk grinned and signaled for the soldiers on either side of him to lower their weapons.

"Hand over the girl or we'll take her by force."

Aeris stepped from behind Cloud to better see the assaliants. Her eyes widened in recognition of the dark haired Turk before her.

"Tseng?"

His dark eyes flickered to hers, "It's been awhile Aeris."

Cloud looked at Aeris, "You know this guy?"

She gave a halfhearted laugh, "Tseng and I go way back." She whispered eyeing the Turk," I guess you could say we were even friends once."

"But those days have passed," Tseng retorted," I'm sorry, but I will carry out my orders by any means possible." Removing his pistol from his coat he aimed it at the couple. " I will not repeat myself," he threatened, the soldiers on either side of him readying their rifles.

"You're going to regret making that decision," Cloud smiled just before lunging forward. Instantaneously he was under fire from both the soldiers. Dodging the bullets he barreted into the first soldier slamming him against a support beam, also knocking him unconcious.He turned to face the next victim, the soldier hesitated but it was already too late. Blocking the barrage of bullets with his sword Cloud took no extra time in making quick work of the final soldier. He was however, careful not to kill; not even he would leave such a impure stain on the grounds of a church. Feeling a sudden imense pain in his lower leg Cloud looked down to find a bullet had embedded itself deep within. A growing patch of crimson began to stain the dark fabric of his pants.

He turned around swiftly, finding Tseng with the barrell of his gun still smoking from the shot. Cloud glanced back at Aeris who had taken cover behind one of the overturned pews, her eyes wide with horror. Finding new strength in her he lunged at Tseng in a final effort to cripple the Turk, but to no avail. Pain lanced up his leg and he stumbled, now leaning on the massive sword for support. He struggled desperately to remain standing but was met by the warm metal of the freshly fired pistol against his forehead.

"Pathetic," Tseng hissed releasing slight pressure on the trigger.

"Stop!" Aeris cried rising up from the make shift sheild, her face wet with tears. The Turk looked up at her and smiled. "Let him go!" she demanded taking a step toward him.

"You're in no position to compromise, Aeris."

She paused shortly deep in thought...

"Spare him and I will follow you willingly to Shinra Headquaters," she said cautiously, "There you can do what you will with me, but don't harm Cloud, he was only trying to protect me. I can't stand to see anymore blood spilt."

He pondered over her words for a moment before lowering his weapong, but never taking his eyes off Cloud. Before the indjured bodygaurd could react Tseng removed a tazer from one of hid belt clips and pressed it to Cloud's neck putting him out cold.

Aeris rushing pass Tseng kneeled beside the fallen warrior. She brushed her fingertips lightly down the side of his cheek and over his smooth brow. Bending down she whispered softly into his ear, "Thank you for every thing. I hope to see you again soon."

Sweeping her dress off she stood to face Tseng. He bound her hands quickly and laid a hand on her shoulder almost reassuringly. Pulling a small cellular phone from his inner coat pocket he dialed a series of numbers.

"I've retrieved the Ancient, send reinforcements to take us HQ," he ended simply sliding the phone back into his pocket. Then he proceeded to lead her out of the deserted church. Her head hung low, Aeris could only peer grimly at the ground wondering what was to be come of her.

When Cloud Strife awoke a few hours later he found the place to be desolate. No sign of bodies, blood or any struggle, it was almost as if the fight he recalled never took place.

Aeris...

His eyes widened in complete understanding of the situation, Aeris had sacrificed herself for his sake. He had failed his position as her body gaurd, in fact she had saved him.

Using his sword as support he limped out of the church fighting desperately against the pain throbbing in his leg. He would recovr in a few hours with the help of healing materia.

He stopped briefly only to look up at the large sky scraper visible through the hole in the church roof which he had created. The fading light reflecting a bright gold on the windows of the Shinra building which towered over the city.

"I'll come for you, Aeris. I refuse to let them use and discard you like all the others," tightly gripping the handle of his sword," Besides what kind of person would I be if I didn't repay the favor," he completed with a smirk.

With one last look and new conviction he set out at a steady pace for Seventh Heaven Bar.

A/N: So sry that took so long guys. Neither one of us wanted to write it so we did it kinda of 50/50 and it ended up needing a ton of revising. It turned out better than I expected. The next couple chapters are gonna be a little tough but I hope you stick around bc this fic will be awesome I PROMISE. Chapter 3 is underway so hopefully it will be posted sometime later this week or early next.

Love you all

Drew Chan

-so whats to become of our beloved Aeris?

AND WHERE THE HELL IS MY SEPHY??!?!!