Again, FF7 doesn't belong to me.
I thank any of you who have returned to read on. Very much thank you. Expect much runnings and some fun in this new chapter.
- - -
Fantasy
Chapter Two:…Hello, Gaea!
A cool, refreshing smell filled Filia's nostrils and called her back up from the depths of her dreamless sleep. She opened her eyes and met a beautiful white flower, several white flowers actually, and sighed in relief that she was still alive.
It must have been a dream. A really hot, very realistic, terrifying dream. Filia's relief seized up in her chest as she considered something: What the heck were flowers doing in her bed? Looking up, she saw light leaking through a large hole in the ceiling high above her, raising question number two: What the heck happened to my ceiling?
The sound of soft breathing beside her caught her attention; she turned her head to see where that sound was originating from, to find her eyes meeting the sleeping face of a man. A remarkably attractive young man that struck a familiar chord in her mind.
Giving a high squeak, Filia sat up and scooted away from the stranger, scattering flower petals with every movement—movement that continued until she hit the tattered end of a rotten wooden plank. Sitting as far from her strange companion as possible, the dark-haired girl froze when her heartbeat slowed to the point that she could take in his appearance.
He wore a dark purple outfit with black boots, his left shoulder was covered by a metal shoulder guard, and he wore black glove; Filia could see bandages running up his wrist. However, what made the breath in her throat catch was the young man's face; his smooth, perfect skin and sunshine-blond hair that stood in spikes.
The young man was Cloud Strife, hero of Final Fantasy 7.
As Filia sat in complete shock, trying to figure out why he of all people would be there, someone stepped into the room; the footstep issued a loud creak from the rotting wooden planks serving as the floor, and the girl's head snapped back to see the intruder.
"Ah, you're awake!" A voice like roses and soft wind chimes said as Filia turned, her brown eyes widening and her mouth falling open with a high-pitched strangled noise.
The woman she saw was a couple years older than herself, with long, chestnut-brown hair up in a ponytail that progressed down into a braid. Her eyes were a beautiful shade of green, a shade that made Filia's chest seize with the certainty that it couldn't possibly exist. She wore a pink dress with a scarlet overshirt and gloves and boots made of the same brown leather.
Aerith Gainsborough, the flower girl from the slums, stood before her.
"I'm glad you're okay," she smiled. "I was really surprised when you and your friend fell through the ceiling! You were lucky, though, that the ceiling and flowers broke your fall."
Filia sat there, trying to talk, trying to respond in some way, but she found herself merely opening and closing her mouth without emitting any sound at all. Was she dreaming?
Her thoughts were cut off when a soft groan sounded from the partially forgotten Cloud and he sat up, holding a gloved hand to his spikey blond head. "Ow…"
"Well, you both look okay," Aerith smiled, making Cloud look at her. "Hello, there!" she beamed at the slightly younger man.
"Uh, hi…" Cloud's eyes drifted from Aerith to his surroundings and then finally to Filia, who had not moved an inch since the pink-clad flower girl had stepped in. "You!" he called in surprise. Filia yelped and pulled both of her hands up to her shoulder in a universal—or perhaps just anime-induced—gesture of surprise. "I saw you before, when we fell."
The young woman thought back and did recall someone holding her as she fell; someone with blond hair. "Uh…yeah, that was me," she replied. "Thanks…for…saving me."
Cloud sighed and fell back to the ground, scattering multiple flower petals. "Well, at least I'm alive," he said, more to himself than either of the girls. "I suppose I should be grateful."
"Um, excuse me…?" Cloud sat bolt upright as he and Filia both looked to Aerith. The flower girl stood smiling good-naturedly. "I'm sorry, I don't mean to sound rude, but could you two step out of there and up on the wood floor?"
Both Cloud and Filia started, eyes growing wide as they realized just what kind of damage they had inflicted on these poor little flowers, and apologized as they climbed out of the hole and set foot on the wood floorboards.
"The flowers broke your fall," Aerith said, smile still firmly in place, "but I think they're going to suffer for it later." She sighed as she knelt down near the edge of the flowerbed and looked her plants over.
"I'm kinda surprised," Cloud said. Aerith raised her eyebrows and gave a monosyllabic sound of inquiry, but did not turn from her flowers. "To see flowers growing here in Midgar is surprising, I mean."
The flower girl looked up at the blond Ex-SOLDIER and smiled. "It's not easy, but the rewards are worth the hard work." Aerith stood up and brushed the dust, dirt and rotten splinters off the front of her rosy dress. "By the way, what are your names?"
"Oh, right! I'm Cloud," he replied. "Cloud Strife."
"Cloud Strife…" Aerith tasted his name with a smile and looked at Filia. "And you? What is your name?"
"Ah…I, uh…" She struggled, wondering what she should do, but in the end decided to give in. "I'm Filia Haww, but a lot of people call me Fil."
Cloud folded his arms in front of his chest and regarded her with arched eyebrows and slightly narrowed sapphire eyes. "Okay then, Fil, mind telling me what you were doing up there?"
Filia stopped. "Uh…" The truth was she wasn't sure herself. What had happened? She could remember up to where she and Felis had been eating lunch, but then…there was nothing. Complete blackness until Cloud saved her during the fall.
"Excuse me," Aerith said softly and they turned to her. "I think I remember you," she pointed to Cloud. "In Sector 5? I'm pretty sure that you bought a flower from me."
The blond seemed to think about it a while before his glowing blue eyes lit up in realization. "Oh, yeah! You were that flower girl!"
"Right!" Aerith nodded, happy to be recognized for reasons only she—and a certain girl that had played the game through thrice so far—knew. A silence settled over the three of them for a long second; Cloud and Aerith continued staring at each other, the flower girl obviously bringing up flickers of memory on the young man's part, and Filia lost in thought. Aerith broke the moment by looking between the ex-SOLDIER and the girl. "Are you two friends?"
The two turned to each other with the same disbelief evident in their eyes, eyes that couldn't be more different in color and shape, but now held the same confused emotions. Filia shook her head. "Ah…no, not really."
"We don't even know each other," Cloud replied, folding his arms in front of his chest. "Although, I would like to ask you why you were up in the…" He trailed off as he looked over at Aerith.
The flower girl blinked. "What?"
Filia recalled suddenly all the times she had played Final Fantasy 7 and Cloud did his best to avoid talking about Avalanche business around Aerith. She sighed with relief at the chance to avoid the subject. Whatever was happening, it had to all be a dream. After all, stuff like this never happened while she was awake. Besides, she had had some pretty strange dreams before, hadn't she? And this wasn't the first time they involved characters from her favorite game—she once dreamed she was stuck in Bone Village for a week and Sephiroth had given her some nifty body armor.
This, however, was much weirder.
"I'm really sorry, Cloud, Aerith, but I have to get going."
The Ex-SOLDIER's azure eyes narrowed slightly at the younger girl's words, then turned to look back over his shoulder at the flower girl. "Your name is Aerith?"
The woman nodded slowly, her own emerald eyes drifting from Filia to Cloud, then back to the girl. "Aerith Gainsborough. But…how did you know?" She asked. Filia stiffened involuntarily.
"D-Didn't you mention it earlier?" She asked with a weak smile.
"No, I'm pretty sure I didn't," Aerith said, shaking her head.
Crud! Filia struggled to come up with something—anything—to explain this, but came up with a big fat zero. "Listen, I'm really sorry, and I don't mean to sound ungrateful, but I really have to be leaving now," she chuckled. "I don't even know what I'm doing here, really. This is all really confusing to me, so if you'll excuse me, I'll leave now."
Filia made her way around the flowerbed, careful not to step on the flowers; she had done enough damage to them already, in her humble opinion. What the heck was all this about? What was going on? She had to have eaten something that didn't agree with her to have such a crazy dream; and she had to be dreaming. If not, then what else could be happening? Was it possible that she was actually in a video game? She had no idea how to solve any of these questions when she didn't even know how this had happened.
The only conclusion she had was that she was dreaming.
Filia's thoughts were abruptly cut off, however, when she ran into something firm and very warm. She pulled back and to see that the thing she had run into was, in fact, somebody's torso. The figure was clad in a white, button-up shirt—the first few buttons undone—and a black coat. The young woman's eyes slowly moved up to the person's face, her heart rate increasing steadily when she met a pair of soft, faintly-glowing blue eyes. On his brow sat a pair of black ray-bans, framed by scarlet red hair.
It was Reno. As in, the Turk, Reno. The cute one.
Filia quickly jumped back with a start, scrambling backward until she was closer to Cloud, who was stepping in front of Aerith. Waking up next to Cloud was enough of to cause a heart attack, but to walk into the red-haired Turk almost caused a repeat of near-heart failure. Even though he had smelled really nice.
"Well, this is certainly an…interesting party," Reno said, straightening his sunglasses when they threatened to fall over his eyes. "Sorry to burst your balloon, but the party's over." The other three men with him aimed their guns at Filia, Cloud and the quivering Aerith.
Aerith… Filia's brown eyes shot to the older woman in shock, then back at Reno and his men. Okay! She thought, clenching her fists tightly. If this is a dream, I can do what I want. Right?
She dashed over to Aerith, grabbed her arm and pulled her towards the back of the church. "Come on, Cloud! Hoof it!"
Cloud jerked as he watched after them. "Whu-What?"
"Hurry up!"
The ex-SOLDIER looked back over at Reno for a split second, obviously debating whether to choose fight or flight, before running after the two girls.
Reno sighed heavily and scratched his scarlet head with intense aggravation. "Fine," he muttered crankily. "If that's how you want it, fine." The Turk stepped down into the flowerbed and his men gasped in horror.
"You know you're gonna get forsaken for that!" Filia called back at him, realizing a moment too late that she had stolen a line from one of the soldiers accompanying the redheaded Turk.
Reno raised an eyebrow. Whoever the hell that dark-haired guy is, he thought, he's weird. The Turk continued walking across the patch of flowers, words of surprise and protest bursting from the other men until he made it to the other side. He started to walk into the back room, but stopped and looked back. "Don't step on the flowers."
Filia couldn't help but smile at her remark back at the Turk. She had always loved that group of weirdos, almost more than Cloud and his gang, but she also felt incredibly delighted to be able to go up against one, even if it was just a dream. Whenever she woke up, she had to remember all of this so she could tell Felis about it; she would love it.
"Hey, Fil!" Cloud called. "What are we running for?"
"Those guys are after Aerith!" She replied. "We gotta get her outta here before they catch her!" They came to where the fallen beams of the church formed a way up to the roof and Felis stopped to catch her breath as she looked it all over. "Looks sturdy enough…"
Cloud caught up to them. "Why do they want Aerith?"
The flower girl hesitated in answering. "I…well, I'm…"
"Run now, talk later!" Filia called, dashing for the beams. "Come on! D'you wanna end cut up into wafer-thin sections?"
Aerith and Cloud exchanged a quick glance, both equally confused, then dashed after her as she gained some distance ahead of them. The ex-SOLDIER helped the flower girl to climb the beams, steadily losing distance behind the dark-haired Filia.
Filia had climbed up to the point that she didn't dare keep going without the others, and thus stopped her frantic ascent. When she stopped, something dark caught her eye, and she turned to find that she had stopped beside a familiar black bag. "My purse!" She exclaimed, taking the bag and pulling it onto her shoulder before checking back on Cloud and Aerith. Deciding they were close enough, she continued climbing.
Just as she took a step out to reach another beam, a shot cut through the air directly in front of her, making a sharp sound as the bullet rushed past. Filia froze, looking back down to see Reno's men take aim—one gun on each of them.
"Frell!" she mock-swore. Turning to look down at the spiky-haired amnesiac and the emerald-eyed flower girl, she hollered as loud as she could, "Cloud, hurry up!"
The ex-SOLDIER hurried his continued assistance of Aerith, but the slight burst of speed wasn't enough to keep the two soldiers aiming at him and the woman from taking careful aim and firing expertly—several times. Aerith started at the sound of bullets slicing past, twisting her ankle on a rickety beam, and fell to the beam below. She bit back a cry of pain as she bent over the rotting wood and the men dashed up to take her.
"Aerith!" Both Cloud and Filia looked around frantically; both came up with the same plan of action. The ex-SOLDIER and Gamer-girl quickly began shoving barrels and smaller chunks of wood over the edge at the Shinra flunkies, both hoping they would hit their marks. Somehow.
Two of the men made it to Aerith, but she had caught her breath by then, biting back the pain in her back, and drew her pike. She began to fight them off to the best of her ability, but it was their own clumsy dodging that caused them both to trip over each other and fall over the side.
"You go, girl!" Filia cheered; Aerith smiled back, giving her the peace sign as Cloud leapt down to join her.
"Are you alright?"
The girl beamed. "Yeah, I'm okay," she said easily, turning her pike around her wrist before catching it again and leaning it against her shoulder. "I can take care of myself."
Cloud smirked. "I can see that," he chuckled.
"Guys! Look out!" Filia exclaimed. The two looked up at her just in time for a bullet to graze Cloud's arm. The ex-SOLDIER pushed Aerith behind him as he glared at the third Shinra gunman.
"Surrender at once!" the man commanded.
Filia looked around and her face lit up when she found Cloud's Buster Sword stabbed into the beam. Dashing over to it, she grabbed the hilt and struggled to pry it out; she finally felt it jerk partially out of the wood and she kicked it hard, sending it falling down to land right between Cloud and the gunman.
The two men looked from the sword to each other and Cloud grinned darkly as he dashed up, easily pulled his weapon out of the wood and stood ready to face his opponent. The Shinra gunman's confidence seemed to falter slightly, but he charged forward nonetheless. Cloud stepped out of the way and kicked the man over the edge, never having to use the weapon so recently returned to him.
"All right!" Filia hopped up and down gleefully. "You rock, Cloud!"
The ex-SOLDIER grinned up at her and he and Aerith continued the trek up the fallen beams.
This is so awesome! Filia thought. She started when she saw the three fallen gunmen clambering back up to catch up with Cloud and Aerith, and started to dash over to another barrel to her left. The beam suddenly gave out and she started to fall, fear instantly flooding her when the ground vanished beneath her feet. Filia fell past Cloud and Aerith who instantly halted in their escape as they reached out to grab her; missing her by a few mere inches.
Filia considered herself lucky—she fell onto the two gunmen, breaking her fall. Upon ricocheting off of them, she hit the beam and felt her knee scrape open. She had experienced pain in dreams before, so it came as no huge surprise, but as she sat up, she found blood staining her jeans and her insides went numb as all sound around her faded away. This couldn't be happening—it just couldn't. She reached out and gingerly touched the scrape in her pants, wincing as the contact sent a flash of pain through her knee. Drawing back the two outstretched fingers, she found them crimson with blood.
Filia was in pain. And bleeding. Blood never appeared in her dreams, though, not even in her nightmares. Something was wrong… This wasn't a dream. This was real.
She was suddenly pulled out of her thoughts when slender fingers dug into the collar of her white shirt, Reno's strong hand yanking her up to her feet. "You lousy punk!" The Turk raised his fist to punch who he thought to be a boy, but he stopped suddenly when he saw Filia shut her eyes tightly, tears forming in the corners of her eyes as she breathed in and out heavily. Reno also noticed the slight softness of his prisoner's chest and instantly froze. "A girl…?!"
Filia, eyes snapping open as she recognized the opportunity just given to her, leaned forward slightly and bit down hard on the hand holding her shirt. Reno instantly released her with an outcry of pain and she hurried back up the beams, limping slightly. She did her best to ignore the intense pain in her leg until she caught up with Cloud and Aerith; the ex-SOLDIER strapped Buster onto his back and slung Filia's arm over his shoulder, helping her make it up to the massive hole in the ceiling.
The three clambered out onto the roof and made their way across the line of houses and buildings—a road Filia had traveled before, when all this had been nothing more than pixels and light—until they came to a place where they could slide down to the ground.
Cloud carefully sat Filia on the ground and she leaned back against the wall of a building, holding her injured leg as she hissed with pain.
"Are you alright?" Cloud asked, flexing his shoulder experimentally, making sure he was not badly wounded himself. The girl didn't answer for a long moment. "Filia?"
Filia looked down as she shook her head. She was confused; nothing could explain why she was in Midgar now, or how she came to be there. This place didn't even exist past the world of fantasy! There was no way this was possible…
Aerith saw the bloodstain on Filia's jeans and took on a look of worry as she knelt down beside the younger girl. She leaned forward, gently brushing the tears from her cheeks. "Does it hurt?"
"Huh?" The young woman met her senior's green gaze, confused for a moment, and then looked at her injury. "Oh, that," she murmured. "Yeah, it does."
"Let me see." Filia slowly pulled up her pant leg to reveal the large scrape on her knee, from which blood had trailed down her leg and stained her sock. Aerith put her hands over the wound and a faint white glow emanated from her hands, flowing onto the scrape. Filia and Cloud watched in astonishment as the injury faded away. "There," the flower girl said cheerfully. "You should be alright now."
"Wow…that's amazing!" Filia gaped. She had forgotten that Aerith was such a good healer—that was why she had kept the young woman in her party to begin with, wasn't it? Because she could heal the others when their attacks didn't work and they got themselves almost killed. How could she have forgotten such a basic element of her character?
Well, she told herself, I never thought I'd see those powers firsthand.
"Is this why those guys are after you?" Cloud inquired.
Aerith started. "W-Well, sort of," the flower girl replied. "They come by my house a lot and I see them following me sometimes." She blinked, eyes widening slightly. "Oh, right!" Aerith looked between Cloud and Filia and bowed her head. "Thank you both for saving me."
The ex-SOLDIER smiled. "I didn't do much—it was mostly Fil—but you're welcome anyway."
"Yeah…" Filia nodded, forcing a smile as she pulled her pant leg back down. "Thank you, too."
Cloud mused quietly, "By the way, Fil…" The dark-haired girl looked back up at Cloud as he spoke. "How'd you know those guys were after Aerith?"
"Ah! That's…well…" Filia froze and struggled to come up with an excuse of some kind. "It's because I, uh…I've actually been here a little while and I passed by Aerith a while ago and I…saw those guys stalking her the other day. I decided to keep an eye on her until they left and…"
"Is that also how you knew my name?" The flower girl asked.
"Uh, yeah!" She nodded. "I asked some kids about you and they told me your name." Cloud and Aerith seemed to buy into Filia's tale, neither of them showing even a hint of disbelief, and she sighed in relief. She really didn't like lying, and lying to two of the people she had always wanted to meet in person—in spite of the fact that she had always known it was impossible—was even worse.
"Speaking of stalkers, we should probably get going," the ex-SOLDIER said as Filia stood up and dusted her jeans off. "Those guys might catch up to us if we don't get going soon."
Aerith turned to look over her shoulder toward the church. "I still don't quite understand who those guys are," she said quietly. "The ones who keep coming after me."
"From the uniform," Cloud said, "I'd say the redhead was a Turk."
The Ancient blinked. "Turk?" Filia bit her bottom lip to keep herself from cutting off Cloud's explanation with her own, knowing that if she spoke any more they would get suspicious of her all over again. The last thing she needed was to lose the trust of two people that might very well be her only hope to understand what was going on here.
"The Turks are an organization that's sort of like an offshoot from Shinra; they scout for candidates for SOLDIER," he explained.
Aerith nodded thoughtfully, giving a quiet, "Hmm."
Cloud leaned in slightly. "They also do some pretty nasty stuff on the side—murder, kidnapping, you know."
The flower girl nodded. "Yeah, I though he looked like the type."
Filia stifled a scoff, her worry abating slightly at the matter-of-fact tone in the Ancient's voice. The way she talked, like she understood everything, was probably a bit unnerving to some people, but Filia absolutely loved it.
Cloud cocked his head to one side, glowing sapphire eyes narrowing. "So, why are they after you?"
Aerith grinned wickedly. "Maybe they think I have what it takes to be in SOLDIER!" Filia smiled sympathetically as Cloud shot her a glance past the brunette and shook her head.
No, she said silently, this woman isn't meant for war. Her eyes went dark and she cast them down, brow furrowing. But this war, the one we're just touching the beginnings of, was meant specifically for her. She looked back up at Cloud. And you, too, though you don't know it yet…
Cloud narrowed his glowing eyes in confusion at the dark-haired girl's sad look, but wasn't able to muse on his befuddlement for long before the flower girl interjected.
"Hey, why don't you both come to my house?" Aerith suggested with a bright smile. "There's not a lot of room, but I'm sure my mother won't mind if it's only for a little while."
Cloud seemed to contemplate on the matter a little while before shrugging. "Sounds like a plan to me," he said and looked at Filia. "You coming, Fil?"
The young woman hesitated. She was incredibly tired and desperately wanted to sleep, but if she followed Cloud to Aerith's house, things might take another turn for the worst. Filia thought about what might happen if she stayed with Cloud, going on his quest for Sephiroth and 'winning the game' like she had done many times before. What would change if one more person—who happened to know exactly how thing were supposed to go—were added to the party?
Everything seemed to be going according to what she could remember about the game thus far, she just seemed to have missed most of the opening to the game. If she kept things on track, kept her mouth shut, and stuck with Cloud, maybe she might be able to find a way home.
If there was such a thing.
"Alright, I'm game," she replied, mentally smacking herself for unintentionally making such a ridiculous pun.
"Great!" Aerith smiled. "Follow me."
The three walked through the slums, Filia in awe at how different everything looked from ground-level. She had always seen this place from above, where it was easy enough to tell where they were going, but now she had to mentally rearrange the map in her head to accommodate for the change in perspective. Was it a left here, or a right? Which sector was this, anyway? Why was everything so much bigger—the walkways more spacious, the lights brighter, the air heavier—than it had been in the game?
Well, she had always thought the world of Final Fantasy 7 was bigger than Squaresoft let on, but they couldn't very well fit an entire planet into a one-hundred-plus hour game, so that was a given. It made sense that the real thing was more…detailed.
The problem was, there wasn't supposed to a 'real thing' in the first place—Final Fantasy 7, like all its predecessors and all its successors, was a game. A wonderful earth-shattering, life-changing game, but a game nonetheless.
Not anymore, she murmured silently.
"So, Cloud," Aerith said amiably, "what did you do before you came here?" She turned her emerald eyes on the young man, who flushed slightly and thought for a long moment. "It's pretty obvious you haven't been here for very long, judging by the way you keep looking around at everything like it's all going to be gone tomorrow," she explained with a grin. "So what did you do before you came here?"
Filia listened intently—this wasn't right, they weren't supposed to have this conversation until later, in the park. On top of that stupid penguin slide that nobody ever played on anymore.
"Were you, by any chance, in SOLDIER?"
Cloud started and gaped, dumbfounded, at the slightly older woman. "H-How did you know?" he stammered. Filia felt like hitting him and telling him the truth, but kept carefully true to her word that she would keep her mouth shut. No more plot points revealed out of order, she swore.
"Your eyes," Aerith replied. "They're just the same as…" she trailed off, averting her eyes with a sigh, "…as his eyes were."
"Who?" Cloud inquired callously, not realizing what thin ice he tread on. One word out of place, a monosyllabic term uttered at the wrong time, and the numberless Clone could have a mental breakdown. Then what would happen? Filia didn't even want to think about how things would turn out if Cloud went insane before his proper time.
She chuckled ruefully. Proper time…like they have such a thing for insanity.
Aerith's lips curved in a melancholy smile. "My first boyfriend," she replied, never lifting her eyes. Zack, Filia thought, letting out a mental sigh of relief that the flower girl hadn't said it aloud. If she had… The dark-haired girl shuddered.
Cloud went quiet, uncertain of how to reply, and both girls noticed a slight blush surface on his cheeks. Aerith stifled a giggle and Filia scoffed quietly. If only Cloud knew what he was getting himself into with that little reaction. If only anyone knew what was going to happen here.
That was the problem, though; one person did know what was going to happen, and she wasn't supposed to be here in the first place. There wasn't even supposed to be a here at all. The reminder of that made her narrow her brown eyes and feel a knot in her throat.
They soon arrived at the lovely little house—though it, too, was bigger in person—that was Aerith's home and Filia couldn't help but gape alongside Cloud at the beautiful flowers growing around the house.
"Incredible!" The ex-SOLDIER exclaimed, sapphire eyes wide. "And I thought the flowers at the church were amazing!"
Aerith smiled sheepishly at the indirect praise. "The flowers only grow in places with good soil and sunlight, so I can only grow them in a few places."
"It's not real sunlight though…" Filia whispered, making Cloud and Aerith look at her. "The sun doesn't shine on Midgar. It can't."
Cloud and Aerith looked at each other and then back at Filia, but before either of them could ask what brought on the girl's melancholy mood, the front door of the house opened. A middle-aged woman with light brown hair stepped out, casting her confused hazel eyes hurriedly on Filia, brushing her gaze past Cloud, but heaved a sigh of relief at the sight of Aerith.
"Oh, thank goodness!" The woman dashed out and took the flower girl into a warm embrace. "I was so worried! Those Shinra fiends came by again and I was so worried that they'd caught you."
"They almost did," Aerith replied, pulling away slightly to smile up at her mother. "But I was lucky to have these two with me." She looked back at Cloud and Filia, who nodded. Mrs. Gainsborough looked at the two strangers and Filia saw a look of shock cross her face when her gaze fell upon Cloud.
"Mother, I would like you to meet Mister Cloud Strife, and ex-SOLDIER, and Miss Filia Haww," Aerith smiled, never noticing the slightly scared look on her mother's face. "I offered to let them stay the night in return for their help."
Mrs. Gainsborough shook out of her thoughts and smiled. "Welcome to our home," she bowed and Cloud and Filia did also. "Please, come inside."
Filia followed after Cloud and stepped into the cozy little kitchen of the house and inhaled the smell of baking bread. The smell suddenly made her stomach growl and she chuckled sheepishly at the looks of the other three people in the room.
"Sorry…" she said. "I'm just really tired and hungry. Can I just go to bed, if that's okay?"
Mrs. Gainsborough insisted that Filia eat something and handed her a dinner roll with some butter on it before having Aerith lead the young girl and Cloud upstairs.
"This is the guest room…" the flower girl smiled as she opened the door and turned on the light. "It's not very big, but it does have a bed. Cloud, you can stay there." Cloud nodded his thanks and Aerith led Filia to the room directly beside the guest room. It was filled with little stuffed animals and pink curtains.
"This is my room," Aerith announced proudly, plopping herself down on the bed. "You can sleep in here. If you want, you can have my bed—"
"That's okay," Filia shook her head. "I'll take the floor."
Aerith nodded slowly, then stood up and looked Filia in the eyes. "Is everything alright, Filia?" She asked. "You don't look so good."
"I'm…just really worn out," she replied quietly. "I really miss my mom, and my little sister and brother, I guess. I haven't been here very long, but…" Filia trailed off as she started crying. I'm worried that I may never see them again.
Without warning, Aerith wrapped both arms around the crying girl and held her gently. "It's all right," she whispered. "Everything's going to be okay, Filia. You'll see. Everything's going to be just fine."
After a little while, Filia stopped crying and Aerith released her from her embrace. "Thank you, Aerith…" she sniffed. "Sorry. I just…"
"It's okay," the woman smiled. "I'll go and get you some blankets."
"Thanks. I'll just go back downstairs, I need some water."
The two left the room and separated in the hall. Filia went downstairs and found Cloud talking to Mrs. Gainsborough, so she stopped halfway down.
"I think it would be best, Mister Cloud, if you left early tomorrow morning," the woman said. "Aerith has been very lonely since…for a while now. I just don't want to see her heart broken a second time."
Cloud seemed to hesitate a moment, but soon sighed. "Right. I shouldn't stay here anyway, I have a…job I have to take care of."
"Thank you…"
Filia decided that was the moment to continue down the stairs and startled Cloud and Mrs. Gainsborough. "Cloud, I…" she paused, gathering her thoughts. "I'd like to go with you. I have something I need to do, too, if that's alright."
The spiky blond-haired young man seemed trapped somehow and he debated on whether or not to take her with him. "Well, I dunno, Fil…"
"I already know about Avalanche, so don't worry about secrecy," the young woman said, making Cloud go rigid.
"A-Are you a…member?" He asked warily.
Filia shrugged. "Sort of, but not exactly."
Cloud sighed heavily, though he seemed slightly relieved at not having to tread lightly anymore. "All right, all right. But be up bright and early tomorrow, or I'm leaving without you."
"Thanks, Cloud."
- - -
It's moving…
It has begun turning.
It will all end soon…
…once you do.
Filia snapped awake and found herself staring up at a pink ceiling. She slowly looked over at the sleeping young woman in the bed beside her and sighed at the gentle face of Aerith Gainsborough.
She looked back up at the ceiling and desperately wanted to fall back asleep and forget that she was nowhere near her real home or family. Heck, she wasn't even anywhere her own planet. But instead of letting herself be carried away by sleep's oblivion she sat up, folded the blankets and set them in the corner of the room, and grabbed her shoes and purse as she carefully stepped out of the room.
Filia quietly closed the door and looked up just as Cloud finished carefully closing his own door and looked up as well. The two waved silently to each other and carefully walked down the stairs to the front door. Filia took the time to pull on her boots and she silently left the comforting house with Cloud.
It was different outside at night, Filia realized. Not so much the lighting—it was always dark under the Plate—but the aura of the place. As they walked along, Cloud leading the way, Filia took in the scents and sounds of nighttime Midgar. The air seemed cleaner at night, no worse than the smog of San Diego. Perhaps it was because most people were asleep and so they weren't using any polluting machines, or perhaps it was simply because there were fewer people walking around and kicking up dust, but Filia took a deep breath and sighed in relief.
This might not be so bad after all. She knew what to do, what to avoid, who to fight…if she found a way home at the end of it all, then she wouldn't be any worse for wear, would she? And what better way to find a way back than to follow the game's main plotline?
"You okay, Fil?" Cloud inquired from his place a couple steps ahead.
She smiled and nodded. "Yeah, I'm fine. I've just been thinking a lot, and I think I made the right decision coming with you." Her smile wavered slightly. "I mean, it's not like there's anywhere else I could go…"
Filia and Cloud turned a corner as the blond began to reply, but the ex-SOLDIER nearly jumped out of his skin when he found Aerith standing in the entranceway to Sector 7, smiling like the sun. The dark-haired girl slapped herself in the head for having forgotten Aerith's strange appearance from all of her time playing FF7. She really should have restarted her game more recently…
"You guys left without me," Aerith smiled. "That was more than a little mean, don't you think?"
"Uh…uh, well…" Cloud stood at a complete loss for words.
"Oh, well," the flower girl shrugged and turned a full 180 degrees so that her back was to them. "You're lucky I'm not the type of person who holds a grudge."
Filia sighed, but was actually happy to see the older woman again.
"Uh, hi…Aerith," Cloud finally managed to say. "Sorry we left so early, but…I really had to get back to Sector 7, back with Tifa and Barrett."
Aerith started. "Oh. Is Tifa…your girlfriend?"
Filia prayed that Cloud would say no, for fear all her shounen-ai fantasies would be shattered.
Cloud jumped and shook his head and waved his hands. "No! No WAY!" He said. "It's nothing like that!"
The flower girl laughed. "No need to get defensive."
Filia sighed with relief, content that her images of Cloud and Sephiroth's love would not fall prey to the terrors of Miss Lockheart.
The three walked into Sector 7 and came to a run down playground. Filia took this opportunity to relax and she went and sat down on a swing, leaving Cloud and Aerith to sit on the slide.
The girl wondered what Cloud and Aerith were going to talk about, considering they had already been through the allusion to Zack and mention of Cloud's glowing eyes, but didn't really care. They could talk about whatever the heck they wanted, so long as it didn't interfere with the proper story any more than her arrival already had.
Which, of course, meant that she probably should have been paying better attention to what they were saying. Premature mention of Sephiroth or Zack could throw everything into complete pandemonium.
She turned around to see what the two of them were doing, but wasn't even able to open her mouth to speak before the doors of Sector 7 boomed opened and Cloud jumped up. Filia and Aerith slowly rose to their feet as a carriage came out and then turned to leave, heading down the road on their right to the Wall Market.
As it turned, they all caught sight of a young woman in a blue dress with dark brown hair sitting in the back. Filia stifled a groan, Aerith had no clue what was going on, and Cloud's eyes widened considerably.
The young man started. "Tifa?!"