A sword struck.
A woman fell.
A man in a black coat smiled.
Aeris woke up. The dream had been so much cleared this time. There was no question about it this time. Someone was going to die. She knew it and worse, she couldn't do a thing about it. The flower girl flipped over and buried her face deep in the sleeping bag as she began to cry. "It's not fair," she sobbed. "It's not. Why does anybody have to die? I don't want Tifa to die. I don't want to die. It's not fair. I don't want to die. Why do we have to do this? Why us? Why can't I change things? Why does it have to be this way? Why?" Aeris cried into her soft bag asking question that she knew no answers to until she could no longer even form the words.
She wished she was back home in Midgar where she could just go back into the old church. It was the only place she was able to hear her mother's spirit. Here she was alone. Sure Cloud was with her and she loved him more than she thought she could ever make him see…but he couldn't comfort her. He wouldn't be able to reassure her. At best, he'd try, maybe, but he just wasn't good at it. Aeris lifted her head from the folds and looked around. Cloud wasn't inside the tent which she was immeasurably grateful for. She didn't know what she would have done if he had caught sight of her crying like that.
Aeris wiped away her tears and the snot coming from her nose then fished her clothing out of the bag. She held the her clothes up and looked at the dirty pink dress and red jacket. It was still covered in mud. No surprise there, but now it was starting to stink as well. She zipped the bag back up and dressed herself again in the outfit that had accidentally been borrowed from Tifa. For a brief moment she wondered exactly how Tifa would look in hers. The thought should have made her giggle. She wanted to. She tired harder to think of Tifa in dressed in pink with ribbons in her hair. She never brought herself above a forced chuckle. Nevertheless, it felt good all the same.
As soon as she was ready, she unzipped the tent and stepped into the mourning air. She yawned and stretched as the looked around. It was slightly disappointing that she had missed the sun rise but the sky was still illuminated with a slightly pinkish tint telling her that it hadn't been long since it had. The air was still fresh and slightly cool. A little ways away, she could see the makings of a fire that Cloud had started.
As she approached, she saw Cloud kicking some dust around with his boot. "Cloud?" She wanted to know what he was doing, but was afraid to ask.
Cloud hurriedly kicked the dust a few more times before he quit and walked towards her. He glanced back over his shoulder once at the spot he had been standing and an obvious false smiled crossed his face. "Everything's good." He smiled at her. Aeris chose not to pursue the subject further. It was obvious things weren't. It was just as obvious that if Cloud didn't want to say something, he wouldn't. It was one of the things that most infuriated this friends. "Well I got something to eat fixed up." He gestured to a fish that was cooking over the fire.
"Sure. That sounds good." Aeris smiled back at him. She hadn't had many opportunities to eat fish before. They weren't exactly in abundance in the sector she was from and when they were available, they were out of her mother's price range. As they ate the meal, Aeris decided that she really didn't care for the taste. At least it was something different. While she finished her breakfast, Cloud went to take down the tent they had slept in. For a moment after she had finished eating, Aeris thought about helping Cloud out taking the tent down, but curiosity got the better of her. She quickly went over to where Cloud had been kicking up dust and looked. Something had been written in the ground, more than likely by someone just dragging their foot through the dirt to make the words. Cloud had effectively destroyed most of what had been written there. The only words she could make out were "will" and "forgotten". Aeris paused for a moment studding the lines in the dirt hoping that she could uncover more of the message but nothing else was legible.
"You all ready?" Cloud called back to her. Aeris leapt up and quickly turned around hoping Cloud didn't notice what she had been trying to do.
"Alright," she smiled daintily and rushed back over to join him. They climbed back on the chocobo he had and once again began to ride.
………………………………......
He watched Strife and the unknown girl ride away. He had been watching them since morning. Somehow, the girl seemed slightly familiar. Perhaps not some one he personally knew but he had seen her somewhere before. In a crowd or something. The memory wouldn't come. Midgar, he thought but that still didn't tell him anything. One of his sister's friends perhaps? He couldn't think. It really didn't matter though. Who ever she was, he really didn't care. Strife was the main target for now and maybe if Cloud was still alive, then maybe Zack was too. He turned down the road and started walking the same direction he had saw Strife and the girl head down. There was no way he was going to catch up with them anytime soon. He wasn't that delusional to think he could, but at least he was headed in the right direction.
……………………………….
Vincent slowly raised his head from the cold hard floor. He tried his hardest to lift himself from the ground but his metal arm wouldn't move. With his still human appendage he pushed himself to his knees. "Nice to see you could join us," Cid said bitterly, "I thought you were just going to lie there all day." Vincent looked around. The walls, floor, and ceiling, were all made of a cold dark colored stone while reinforced glass and titanium bars supported them. There was no question in his mind.
"Prison" he said quietly to himself.
"Wow, he figured it out! Give the man a cigar!" Cid coldly mocked excitement. "I'd give you one but …I ain't got not fucking cigars! … or cigarettes for that matter!"
"Ease up on da' man." Barret said. Vincent looked around the cell and saw Barret sitting up on a bench in the corner. Vincent stood up completely, grimacing in pain. There was no telling how many bullet holes graced his body but the bleeding had already stopped and he knew that it wouldn't be fatal. Not to him.
Walking was difficult with the heavy metal weight pulling him down and he staggered slightly as he moved. Barret noticed this and sighed. He tapped his fingers against the gunarm attached to his wrist signifying that whatever had been done to Vincent had been done to him as well. Vincent sat down next to the man. They didn't speak. There were no words that needed to be said. They all knew they had all walked into the trap like amateurs.
"This sucks shit," Cid slammed his fist against the glass. He quickly pulled it back from the harsh blow and tried to make it look like it didn't hurt like hell from the impact. He wasn't fooling anybody. Still, neither Vincent nor Barret thought it wise to say anything.
"Oh yeah. Foods over there." Cid pointing before taking his hand back and rubbing it to try to easy the pain.
"Poisonous?" Vincent arched his eyebrow. He didn't care to take any chances while he was here.
"I ain't dead yet, if that's what yer askin'."
……………….
The chocobo carried them down the dusty road. Aeris had tried several times to strike up a conversation with Cloud but he didn't seem to be interested. Finally she got tired of trying, at least for now. Later when they had something else to talk about she'd try again. She let her mind drift away. "That's a nice tune," Cloud said startling Aeris back to alertness. She hadn't even realized that she had been humming out loud. It was rather embarrassing. It seemed like this whole trip, she'd done nothing but embarrassed herself time and time again.
"Oh." Aeris said simply as she tried to think of exactly how much she should tell him. "My mom taught it to me. My real mom. She used to sing it to me when I was little. It's one of the few things I can remember of her before she…." Aeris's voice trailed off. It wasn't that she didn't want to think about it, she just didn't want to say it out loud.
"You remember it?" Cloud asked without taking his eyes away from the road.
"Every last little bit." Aeris said thinking back to how her mother would sing it to her.
"Sing it." Cloud said softly. "Please." Aeris was quiet for a few moments. Was he trying to embarrass her on purpose? That was her first reaction. Her second was that the request was actually rather sweet. It was embarrassing but sweet. The young flower girl started to sing.
"Beyond this road, running on far and long must surely be something we can believe in
If, like a traveler in the wind you went on, aiming for the northern skies
The hot emotions that have begun to disappear
Glitter and wave once more within my heart I don't want to cry, you see
So I don't give in to my weak self
Huge wings Unseen only by eyes
Held by undecorated hearts
Spread your hands; while singing
Be embraced by eternal time
And connect with life
Beyond this road, running on far and long must surely be something we can believe in"
Cloud was silent.
"What's wrong? Didn't you like it? You aren't saying anything." Aeris questioned him.
"Nah. That was great. Really." Cloud said trying to downplay his reaction as much as possible. It was beautiful. Cloud was glad they were both riding on the chocobo, she couldn't see his face.
………………………………...
The sun crossed the sky and began to set again as the tired SOLDIER and flower girl rode into North Corel. Cloud helped Aeris down from the ride and turned the chocobo loose. They could catch another one when it was time to leave. There was something about North Corel that reminded Aeris of her home in Midgar. She couldn't quite place it. The only thing that came to mind was the desolation but there had to be more to it than that. She looked around as they continued. Always so much too see. So many people trying their hardest to live.
"I guess we'll wait here." Cloud said when they reached the lift stop to the Golden Saucer. Cloud took a seat on the bench without bother to offer one to Aeris and looked around. "It's a dump isn't it?"
"How can you say that Cloud. This place isn't perfect and it may be run down, but these people live here. You shouldn't talk bad about were people live. How would you like it if they talked about your hometown like that?" Aeris realized it sounded like a lecture but she was quite perturbed by his harsh words about the town. He didn't say anything back, which she took to be a good side. Maybe he was ashamed at what he had done.
Not good enough. The phrase echoed through Cloud's mind. He wasn't good enough. Never good enough. He whispered the words to himself. "Not good enough."
"Excuse me? What's not god enough?" Aeris asked picking on the phrase. She sat down net to him as close as she could on the hard bench.
"I was thinking back to my hometown. …I was … never mind. You don't want to hear it."
"Maybe some other time then," Aeris suggested hopefully.
"Maybe." Cloud said. 'But I doubt it.' he wanted to add.
They sat there in silence waiting as the sky began to get darker.
"I wonder what the problem is." Aeris finally said in hopes of getting some kind of conversation started.
Cloud didn't answer. They sat there for a while longer before Cloud finally did speak. "It's late. I don't know what he problem is but let's just get rooms at the inn and worry about it tomorrow." Aeris led the way as she remembered the town slightly better than Cloud did. They rented separate rooms for the night. Aeris also used this as an opportunity to wash her own outfit and finally get out of Tifa's clothes.
………………………
It was night time already. Tseng's day had been nothing but one job right after another. Heidegger was extremely bust trying to deal with both the return of Sephiroth and AVALANCHE in addition to his normal duties. That left the Turks almost completely under Tseng's controls. A good portion of his day had been spent in the hospital having his wounds treated and two of his fingers reattached. The rest of the day had been spent trying to sort out some of the problems Reno had caused the previous day while off duty.
Still, it was nice to be back in Midgar. Tseng hated Junon. It stank like fish and even the air felt wrong. Flying back to Midgar with the prisoners wouldn't have been his choice, but flying back definitely was. He had even postponed his medical treatments. He had taped the fingers Vincent had shot back in place on his hand and had used a cure materia to hold off the irreversible damage. He learned that trick back in the Wu-tai War.
Now the head of the Turks had finally found enough down time to check back and see what he could learn form last night's prisoners.
Tseng shifted through the supplies he had taken from the terrorists. He was quite impressed by the armaments that the man called Vincent carried. Perhaps this man was truly The Butcher as he claimed.
He picked up a Shortbarrel 43 he had gotten from the man and aimed it. It had been modified slightly. The grip had been replaced with hard leather. A eighth on an inch had been taken of the barrel and the butt stock had been hollowed out but reinforced with a titanium polymer. Tseng tossed it back and forth between his hands a few times. The balance on it was amazing. He unloaded the weapon and squeezed lightly against the trigger. Tseng smiled to himself and started to put the weapon to the side to later claim it as his own.
The PHS he took from one of them rang before he had set the weapon down. He picked up and disguised his voice as the gruff pilot, answered the PHS "Yeah? What is it?"
"Hey. It's me Yuffie. I meant to call earlier, the other day but kinda got distracted. I don't have much time to talk right now 'cause I gotta help Tifa with her stupid bath. Just wanted you to know that we've found out were that Ancient key thing is. Cloud and Aeris went to the Golden saucer to get it. No time to talk. Bye, Cid." The line went dead.
Tseng smiled.
Next Chapter: Walkin' in the Park
