A/N: Well, I'm typing this up the day after I finished The Line. Because I don't know whom it'll star yet, I'm just writing sort of an introductory chapter about the whole Aeris thing.
The Angle
Chapter One: Acceptance and Assurance
Maverick looked up as the door to the elevator opened. His eyes widened and his mouth dropped open as he saw Melody walk into the room with Aeris.
"Yo, Mav, I don't think Tifa will like you gawking at Aeris like that," Melody said with a smile. This snapped him out of his daze of unbelief.
"You didn't!" Maverick exclaimed. "Valeria's gonna be pissed off at me."
"Yes I did. Don't worry about Valeria. She doesn't exactly know all about my new powers cause she'sa full-blood Cetra, so she could be tricked."
"What do you mean?" Maverick raised an eyebrow.
"Unfortunately, with me being inexperienced and all, I could only teleport or transport one thing at a time. If I teleported down there and went up the elevator with her, you probably would have fainted by now. If I went down there like I did, but teleported us both out of there, you would have been suspicious, not to mention I would have had to teleport Aeris first and I don't want her being all lost and stuff and wander."
"So you're gonna pretend what?"
"We're gonna pretend that I teleported myself in, elevator out so you could be the first I see with a reaction." She turned towards Aeris. "So, do you wanna see Tifa and Yuffie first, or Cloud?"
"I'll see the girls first," Aeris said with a smile. Melody led her about halfway to their room when Valeria and Adrienne intercepted them.
"Oh, Aeris, this is my big sis Valeria and my sister's boss and friend, Adrienne. This is Aeris." Valeria looked at Melody suspiciously.
"Nice to meet you two," Aeris said with a smile.
"Did you...?" Valeria asked hesitantly.
"Think of her as a solidified spirit," Melody said with a grin.
"And I assume Cloud was your doing too, right?"
"Maybe..." Melody grinned childishly.
"How did I know this was going to happen?" Adrienne asked. "I told you I should stay until later!"
"You would have let her go near him anyway, so it wouldn't have made any difference!" Valeria shot back, smiling playfully. Her smile faded as she turned back to Aeris. "Oh, don't get us wrong, Aeris, it's not that you're unwanted. It's that lately with all this unbelievably strong magic, it's not hard for Melody to burn out."
"Especially with the magic she used with you, Miss Solidified Spirit," Adrienne added. "Anyway, we should get back to Cloud. You never know what will happen in one's sleep."
"Don't worry, he'll be here for awhile." Melody flashed the two doctors a smile as she led Aeris to the room. She knocked, which was open by a laughing Tifa. Melody tried hard not to laugh as she saw Tifa's face change from a joyful face to a surprised face.
"What happened, Tifa?" Yuffie asked. She walked up to the door and opened it wider. "Oh my gawd! Aeris!"
"Now, now, girlies, let us in!" Melody said with a smile.
Tifa's eyes welled up with tears as she gave Aeris a long hug. Yuffie's eyes were suspiciously shiny as she watched the scene in front of her.
"Awww..." Melody commented. Tifa broke the hug and looked at Melody.
"Valeria and Adrienne just came in saying that Cloud woke up." Tifa paused. "Was it because of you, Melody?"
"Maybe..." Melody said with the facial expression that she was thinking whether or not she remembered healing Cloud. "Oh yeah...I remember!"
"Listen, Melody," Yuffie said hesitantly. The way she said it, Tifa knew she was gonna say something about going to Junon. "We need to go to Junon, so..."
"Ooh! I wanna go too!" Melody exclaimed, her eyes getting big.
Tifa laughed and exclaimed comically, "Oh no! She's in toddler mode!"
"Oh no! What will Tifa mommy do?" Melody asked comically.
"Hmm, what should I do?" Tifa put on a comical face of deep thought. Then her face brightened. "I know! I'm gonna spoil Melody-child and take her! Auntie Aeris and Auntie Yuffie are gonna go too!"
"YAY! Thank you, Tifa mommy!" Melody gave Tifa a side hug. "Wow, Tifa mommy, you're really short..."
"Oh my gawd..." Yuffie choked out, suffocating from laughter. Aeris was smiling at the duo's display of mommy-child.
"How often do you two play Mommy-Child?" Aeris asked.
"Every time Melody's eyes get all huge like that," Tifa replied.
"Trust me, it's easier to sneak out of here than you think. I don't know if Valeria will let me leave," Melody stated.
"But, let's wait to leave until Cloud gets better," Yuffie said.
"Oh, he probably is already. I could feel him getting much better."
"What do you mean?" Aeris asked Melody curiously.
"Well, ya see, every time a Lemii heals someone, they become mentally connected or something like that. He's my first charge, and a fast healing one at that."
"Oh, so you're gonna take care of him when he's sick?" Yuffie asked. All three girls looked at her. "I don't mean like marry him or anything like that, I mean kinda protect him and...you know what I mean!" Melody giggled.
"Well, after we check him out we could go see Trontus. He was, like, my best pal in school. We grew up together."
"Melody, would you consider yourself a tomboy?" Yuffie asked suddenly. "It seems like you're closer to mostly guys, ya know?"
"I was one, but obviously I became more feminine as the years passed by. You're right, though, most of my friends, especially the closer ones, are guys."
Melody led them through the halls and to the clinic. "Hey sis, hey Adrienne."
"Melody, just out of curiosity, are you up to something?" Valeria asked.
"Uh..." Melody put her finger to her chin for awhile and then looked at her sister. "Not at the current moment. If you ask me in about three hours, I'll probably have something. Why?"
"Because, you're always up to something. I should have known before the Cloud thing."
"Well, if it makes you feel better, he just needs a few more hours and he'll be all new."
"It's one of those new powers, right?"
"Exactly." At that moment, Melody felt something furry touch her leg and the short-haired mass of fur purred. "Olive!" She bent and picked up the cat.
"She would be mine, Princess," a voice said. Andain was standing in the doorway.
"Don't call me that!" Melody snapped. She continued sweetly. "No offense."
"None taken."
"You know, I never understood the whole 'Princess' thing," Adrienne said.
"I was the only girl in a group of five. What do you expect?" Melody asked.
"Oh, yeah, that makes sense," Valeria replied, Adrienne nodding in agreement.
"Remember that time we forced her to wear a skirt?" Adrienne asked, seemingly about to laugh.
"Oh yeah!" Valeria recalled before laughing.
"Oh no!" Melody exclaimed at the same time with a grimace.
"What happened?" Tifa asked.
"Well, we basically tricked her into agreeing to wear this mini skirt. To this day she still hates dresses," Adrienne said almost sadly.
"Dresses are evil!" Melody retorted. "Especially skirts!"
"I personally think it's funny that she hates skirts, but she doesn't seem to mind short shorts," Andain put in. Valeria laughed.
"You know, Melody, shorts could be worse," Adrienne started.
"How?" Melody asked.
"Well, there're those, what do they call them Valeria?"
"I believe they're called 'cootchie-cutters,'" Valeria supplied. Melody, Tifa, and Yuffie burst out laughing. Even Aeris had to smile.
"Such foul language!" Andain comically exclaimed, with a smile on his face.
"Seriously, aren't those worse?" Adrienne asked.
"Well, they certainly are nasty," Valeria replied.
"And then there are those that show half of the girl's butt cheeks..."
"Disgusting."
"Oh yeah, those are nasty," Melody commented. "That's why I never wear them. But if you could just get the right angle with mini skirts..."
"Or actually, in our case, wrong angle..."
"But if you need to seduce, then clothes like that work," Tifa put in.
"True. That's half of the human's work world: sexy women. You show a voluptuous woman in, say, a restaurant window and that place becomes filled with men," Melody replied. "I think there's a whole chain of restaurants like that."
"Melody, you of all females should know that all men are perverts. Even the ones that don't show it have something that would seriously make their day," Andain put in. Melody laughed.
"You know, you're right." Melody walked over to Andain and tweaked his nose playfully. "That's exactly why you noticed that I even wear short shorts, right?"
"Ooh, Andain looks," Valeria said teasingly. Before Andain could answer, Leon walked in behind him.
"What's going on?" he asked.
"Oh, we're just making fun of the male race, that's all," Valeria answered as if it were something she did on a regular basis.
"Now you listen, all you girls against one guy is too much. He'll never win, and we all know that." The girls burst out laughing. "I'm serious. Especially if Valeria and Melody are involved."
"Fine! Andain, I need to talk to you alone real quick," Melody grabbed his wrist as she walked by.
"Ooh, Melody aggressive," came Adrienne's teasing voice behind her. Melody turned her head around and winked. She released his wrist and turned towards him in the empty hallway.
"Listen, Andain, I need to ask you a huge favor," Melody started.
"Anything for the Princess," he replied.
"I know that this isn't the right place for me, at least not right now."
"So you're going to run away again?"
"Actually, being in the Council and all, I wanted to know if you could pull a couple of strings to get me to go without having to sneak me out like you did the last time."
"I might...if I went with you. The reason I say this is because Maximus trusts me...a lot, more than some of the other Council members, in fact." Andain's voice dropped down to a low whisper as he leaned towards Melody. "Orion and Uma are getting a little shady. He doesn't trust them to go anywhere, but he doesn't trust them to protect this place either. Lena may not seem like it sometimes, but she is very devoted to us here. Don't let her attitude get to your head. She lost everything, EVERYTHING, in the war. She's simply extremely depressed, and frustrated, and angry, and she doesn't know how to let the tension go even after all these years. The reason she's one of Uma's closest friends is because she senses something ill about her. It's all just an act."
"Oh my god...are you serious?" Melody asked in a low voice.
"Serious as a heart attack." Andain straightened. "I'll go ask, and I'll get back to you, Princess." Andain started to walk away.
"I said not to call me that!" Andain lifted his index finger, and Melody knew he was smirking.
"Anyway!" Melody exclaimed as she entered the lab. "Let's go see Cloud. He's feeling much better."
"Just because we know you could sense his force doesn't mean that it doesn't creep us out," Valeria said. Melody grinned at her as she walked into the room he was held in.
"How ya doing, buddy?" she asked brightly.
"Much better, thank you," he replied. He sat up effortlessly.
"Wait until you try to walk. You'll get tired easily." Melody gently pushed him down to a lying down position. "But as far as your injuries go, they're almost healed. You just need to work out to get back to your previous condition, but don't just jump to fights."
Cloud smiled wryly. "You're a lot like Tifa."
"A lot of people think we're twins or sisters or something like that. Why do you say that though?"
"Because, she always worried about me and getting into fights too."
"Yeah, she's a good friend like that. Listen, pal, we're going to Junon, so you won't be seeing us in a few weeks, alright?"
"Okay...Aeris!" Cloud was looking at the door.
"Oh...did I forget to mention that I resurrected her?" Melody said offhandedly.
"Hello, Cloud. How are you doing?"
"I had a bad fall, but I don't remember anything after that except..."
"Except what?" Melody asked.
"I thought I saw my dad, but it must have been the delirium since I saw my mother and my would have been older sister."
"Would have been?" Tifa asked.
"She died a few months before I was born."
"How sad..." Yuffie said, shaking her head.
"Hmm...it sounds like a strange bout of delirium you had. But don't worry, Valeria and Adrienne are good. They're the best of the best."
Melody heard a beeping noise from her communiqué. She was relaxing in her room (specifically her bath) after talking to the girls and seeing Cloud. She opened the communiqué and smirked when she saw who it was.
"You have priceless timing, White Knight," Melody used her old nickname for him.
"Are you in the bath?" Andain asked hesitantly.
"Don't worry, I won't accidentally let you see my breasts or anything like that. So what's up?"
"Maximus agreed, but it's going to kind of be like a doctor's 'on call' thing. When he calls me on my communiqué, I need to be ready to teleport back here."
"Awesome. The human world is actually pretty fun."
"I heard it was worldly."
"Yeah, but it's still fun. You know that whole seven deadly sin thing? I've probably done all of them except for gluttony. I don't indulge in foodstuff."
"Oh lord, if it got the Princess, it'll get her White Knight."
"The White Knight is stronger, we all know that."
"No, the Princess is stronger."
"Knight."
"Princess."
"Knight."
"Princess, and that's final!"
Melody giggled. "Fine, White Knight. I'm stronger, at least mentally. You're physically stronger though."
"Yeah, so?"
"So we cut it in half! Get packed, and I wanna fly there."
"Doesn't Yuffie get motion sickness?"
"You're right... I could give her a simple downer potion. I'll make it after I get out of this relaxing bath."
"Sounds nice. I don't do baths."
"You should try it. It's so relaxing."
"I am going to get ready for our trip tomorrow, so call me in the morning."
"Alright. Good night."
"Sweet dreams." Melody closed her communiqué slowly. Was she doing the right thing?
A/N: AAHH! This took way longer than I wanted it to! If you're a first time reader, you should read the predecessor, The Line, first. Otherwise you'll get confused with all the original characters of mine. Should this story star the Turks more, or this group of girls and one guy? Please answer in your review, otherwise I'll get writer's block and not put in another chapter until December and none of us want that...