Kids
by Riquisel Yutifae
Author's Note: Uhm... for those asking, Aerial is NOT Reno's daughter. His daughter here is Relena (no relation to Relena of Gundam Wing. It's just the combination of Reno and Elena's names). Aerial is the youngest child of Cloud and Aerith. For more information, check out http: ... it's where I got the info.
Eight
"Hold it right there, the two of you, where are you going?" the guard demanded from Vincent and Yuffie as they came up to the front main entrance. Yuffie peered inside the lobby and saw that the place was lit with candles. "No generator, huh? And I thought this place was worth more than a million bucks." She said rather airily.
"Actually we have generators, but for some reason we couldn't get them to work. Someone must've tampered with its power supply." The guard replied. "Anyway, do you have any valid I.D. that you can show me?" he continued.
Yuffie face-faulted. "Damn! I don't have any I.D…" she muttered. Vincent tried to recall what's inside his wallet: an expired ShinRa I.D. from when he was still a Turk and an expired driver's license that was only valid until 1970. "Pardon us, sir, but we don't have I.D.'s; however we would like to ask if you have seen three young people arrive here with an adult lady?" he asked.
The guard frowned. "What is your relationship with those people?" he asked rather defensively.
"Aha. They're still here." Vincent realized quietly before proceeding, "Are they still with President Rufus?" he asked, ignoring the question. The guard shook his head, "No they're not. They've been locked up in one of the rooms for causing trouble earlier." He explained.
"Trouble?" Vincent asked, his heart suddenly racing. Yuffie's eyes widened when she heard that. "What kind of trouble?" she asked.
"Telling lies to the President. Silly kids. They say they come from the future…" the guard laughed ridiculously. Vincent frowned at him, "What if I tell you that they are not liars?" he sneered. The guard stopped laughing and eyed Vincent with a frown on his face, "What do you know about those kids, anyway?" he interrogated.
"This one," Yuffie said, sprinkling some sleep dust over the guard's head. The guard sniffed it while the two backed away from him. In a moment, he fell to the ground, sleeping soundly.
"Nice move." Vincent said.
"Nyuk nyuk nyuk! I knew that would come in handy someday. C'mon, let's go find them!" Yuffie said, leading the way inside. "Wait, what about the receptionist?" Vincent asked.
"Don't be silly, I've been spying what's inside while you were talking to the guard. The receptionist is asleep and there are no other guards inside the lobby. Let's just put out the candles so that no one else can see us. You can see in the dark, right?" she asked as she stepped inside and began to blow out the flame of each candle in sight. Vincent helped her and in a matter of seconds, they were through. "Where do you think they are?" she asked. "Probably here on the first floor if they don't have a basement. I worked once with the Turks; we were never allowed to imprison anybody near the President's room. I'm sure they still follow that tradition." He responded before proceeding to the first hallway to his right. "Great. You go on ahead. I'll go back to Cloud and tell him that Tifa and the kids are imprisoned." She told him before rushing out of the Healin Lodge.
X-x-X-x-X
"Someone's coming!" Sora pointed out when he heard footsteps from outside and saw some light coming from a candle.
"Finally, some light." Riku muttered.
Samara looked up at the door and crawled towards it.
"Samara, could you put the lights back on now?" Kairi pleaded. The little girl did not answer.
"I can smell food…" Tifa began.
Riku and Sora sniffed the air. "Yeah… you're right…" Sora said. "Hey come to think of it, we haven't even eat for the whole day yet!" Riku pointed out.
"They're bringing us food?" Kairi asked happily.
"You see, Auntie Tifa? Uncle Rufus isn't that mean!" Sora said brightly. Tifa just made a face. She wasn't sure about this.
The door slowly opened and there was Rude and Reno with trays of food. "The President asked us to give these to you." Reno began.
"Interesting." Tifa said sarcastically.
They were so focused on the Turks and on the food while the Turks were focused on carefully putting the trays of food on the floor that they didn't notice Samara crawl out of the room and completely escaped.
"Sorry for the trouble. Although Rude and I really believe you guys, we can't go against our Boss." Reno apologized rather sheepishly.
Tifa just kept quiet.
"Aw, can't you just let us go?" Sora pleaded.
"Sorry, no can-do, kiddo." Reno replied, patting the boy's head before he and Rude stepped out of the room, closed the door and locked it again. "I really pity them. What if they get stuck here forever?" Reno told Rude as they walked away.
Rude just shrugged.
"I mean, the future will completely change!" Reno pointed out with an exasperated look on his face.
Rude was just quiet.
"Oh well, let's just go back to the Prez and tell him that we gave them food already." Reno muttered, realizing that Rude will just be dot-dot-dotty with him regarding that topic.
X-x-X-x-X
"Cloud!" Yuffie cried out his name in panic, making him jerk up in surprise and alert to whatever danger there is around them. He turned to the direction where he heard her call his name. "What is it?" he asked with a cautious look on his face.
Yuffie stopped before him and was panting heavily, "They're imprisoned in one of the rooms!" she announced.
"What?" Cloud demanded in disbelief. How could they be imprisoned? Did they do anything bad? Oh right, it's ShinRa we're talking about and Tifa is from AVALANCHE…
"He must've thought that the kids are lying!" Yuffie told him.
"Let's go," Cloud said, walking straight ahead. Yuffie turned around to look at him and blinked. "Cloud, you're going the wrong way! That's a…" she trailed off when she saw Cloud disappear… and heard him cry out. "…a cliff…" she ran down the hill to go to where Cloud had landed. She saw him struggling to get up from the bushes. "Good thing there are bushes there, otherwise you could've died! It's rather high from where we were standing, you know?" she told him while trying to stop herself from laughing. Cloud grunted and got up from the bushes, feeling for leaves on his hair and removing them in annoyance. "What caused this massive black-out anyway? It's so dark and I can't see a darn thing!" Cloud muttered impatiently.
Yuffie was looking up at the hill and her eyes were wide in mixed fear and curiosity as she saw a figure clad in white running down the hill. It was a little girl. "What is that?" she screeched in fear as she hid behind Cloud. Cloud looked around. "What?" he asked… and he saw it too. He didn't need any light. The white dress was very bright and can be seen easily. She also seemed to be holding a candle with a small flame. He blinked, not believing what he was seeing. "Is that… a ghost?" he asked.
"I don't know! I don't wanna look! It's scary!" Yuffie wailed, covering her eyes. Cloud frowned and decided to follow the little girl. "Where is she going?" he was wondering. It did not look like a ghost to him. "Cloud, where are you going?" Yuffie cried out, running after him. "Shh!" Cloud snapped at her as he continued to follow the little girl discreetly. Yuffie shivered. "Oh no… Cloud! Don't follow her! What if she turns around and she has a scary ugly face just like in a horror movie?" she wailed in fear.
"No, I think I can recognize her from the pictures that Sora showed us. Besides, this is not a horror movie!" Cloud told her as he sped up. The little girl was quite fast.
Yuffie rolled her eyes and just ran after Cloud, "But what about Tifa and the kids?" she asked.
"Vincent can take care of it. Besides, we have to know where this little girl is going and what she is going to do… and what she is doing here!" Cloud explained.
X-x-X-x-X
Samara continued to run amidst the darkness and the cool evening air. Besides, she's used to seeing in the dark so she could determine where she was going. She was looking for a body of water. She needed a body of water… like a lake or a river or even an ocean, even if she is afraid of the last one. She only had one thing in mind: confusion.
Her confusion was out of fear and mistrust on the current people around her… and what happened with her and Rufus. She was having a hard time handling it all in her mind, and Tifa doesn't seem to be showing any interest in comforting her. She felt so scared that she just wanted to go home, but how can she go home without the pendant? Knowing that Rufus would never give her the pendant even if she went there herself after she escaped from the room where she was imprisoned with the others, she just decided to look for a body of water. She needed help from someone from her own time to convince the people at the present time that she and her friends are telling the truth…
She stopped running and looked around her, trying to recognize the area. "Looks like Kalm to me…" she thought to herself before proceeding to a nearby forest. She knew there would be a lake there because in her own time, she once went rowing there with her father and brothers. She hoped that the lake existed even at the present where she was at the moment.
Meanwhile, Cloud and Yuffie were still following after her and they were worried about her because there were dangerous monsters in that forest… but when a few tried to attack her, they just dropped down to the ground, and when Cloud and Yuffie passed by them, they realized that the monsters were already dead.
"Oh my gawd! They're dead!" Yuffie said in a whisper before turning to Cloud, "How the hell did that happen?" she demanded. "Beats me…" Cloud replied with a dumbfounded look on his face before proceeding after Samara. Yuffie instantly rushed after him before another monster could sense them. They only stopped running when they reached a certain distance from Samara who was already standing before a big lake. She put down the candle on the ground, but the wind blew out the flame. She looked up at the skies with a hopeful look on her face, and soon enough, the clouds parted and the full moon revealed itself, shedding its light on the Planet.
Yuffie was in awe. "How does she do that?" she whispered. Cloud was speechless. "This must be what's special in this girl… that's why her future parents are very protective of her…" he pondered silently as he watched her kneel down to the ground near the water and touched the cold surface. "Please come here… please… please… please… please… please…I need you…" the little girl whispered softly.
"What is she doing?" Cloud wondered.
X-x-X-x-X
Aerith felt her heart skip a beat and she looked at Tifa, Rufus, Sephiroth, Yuffie and Cloud. "…She's calling me…" she said.
They were still in Theodore's room where the sleeping bodies of Riku, Sora and Kairi were resting. It was already late at night but they were still awake, waiting for anything good to happen.
Tifa turned to the TV that was still on static ever since Samara had entered through the screen. She was really very worried now. "Who will go?" Rufus asked stiffly as he remained standing by the window.
"I'll go. I think something bad is happening. They might need me." Sephiroth said with a proud smile on his face. "You gotta be kidding me. People back then hated you. Do you want them to freak out once they see you again?" Rufus replied.
"Look who's talking! You were still very mean and uncaring during that time where our kids ended up!" Sephiroth argued.
They all fell silent.
Aerith placed her hands on her hips as she marched up to Rufus, "Rufus!" she said exasperatingly.
Rufus wanted to shoot himself at that moment upon realizing what Aerith had just thought of. Tifa sulked. "Oh no…" she said.
"The only obstacle they could ever have in the time where they are right now would be you." Cloud told Rufus.
Rufus took a deep breath. "My bad." He muttered.
Tifa got up from her seat, although she still felt a bit dizzy because of her passing-out moments ago. "I can't stand this any longer. I have to go and see if my daughter is alright!" she said. "No, Tifa, you can't go there. You might confuse them!" Rufus told her.
"Something is happening there! Why else would Samara call on Aerith? I just know!" Tifa pointed out.
"I'll go. You guys stay here." Aerith decided. "What?" Cloud asked. She smiled sweetly at him, "Not to worry, Cloud. I'll be back soon."
Rufus was hesitant. "No, I think I would like to go there myself and… tell myself off." he said with an unsure look on his face. "Mwahaha. The past Rufus is stubborn just like the current one; you think they'll listen to each other?" Sephiroth pointed out while laughing gaily. "Alright, fine, I'll stay here but I won't be at peace. Aerith, I'm counting on you." Rufus told her.
Aerith was just standing still.
"How are you going to go there?" Sephiroth asked.
Aerith blinked and went over to the bathroom. "Somebody has to drown me." She told them as she walked over to the tub. "WHAT?" Cloud demanded as he went to her. "Drown you?" he demanded in disbelief as he watched Aerith open the faucet and plugged the drain. "It's the only way I can think of! I'm not as good as Samara you know?" she said.
"But what if you don't wake up again?" Sephiroth asked with a dumbfounded look on his face.
Cloud began to cry, dropping on his knees and hugging Aerith's legs. "NO! No, no, no, no, no! I can't lose you again!" he bawled. Aerith felt weak in the knees, "Oh Cloud, please stop that…" she said softly.
"Oh stop that bawling, Strife. You're gonna wake up the dead!" Rufus snapped at him.
"Oh. That's how we're gonna wake Aerith up later on. We'll make Cloud cry. So easy! Ohohoho!" Tifa said victoriously.
Cloud glared at her, "Baaaaah! I'm not going to let Aerith die!" he snarled as he let go of Aerith and crawled over to Tifa, attempting to push her backwards for offending his feelings, but he missed, and instead, it was Rufus whom he had pushed backwards. "Bloody hell!" Tifa cried out in shock as Rufus was knocked-out cold.
"Oops…" Cloud said sheepishly.
Aerith began to climb into the tub, sat down and swallowed hard. Sephiroth approached her. "Ready?" he asked stiffly. He doesn't really want to do the dirty job of drowning Aerith for fear of overdoing it and making Cloud hate him forever. "If I struggle to get up, don't let me. Just hold me down." She instructed him. Sephiroth nodded nervously, "Got it." He replied uneasily as he watched her submerge herself into the water. Once she was completely underwater, she opened her eyes and stared straight ahead. She could see Sephiroth and Cloud looking at her, but the latter seemed to be more worried. Sephiroth was checking at the time on his wristwatch.
Aerith could feel her lungs burning but she forced herself to remain submerged. She was running out of air. Cloud could sense that she was slowly losing her life… and he wanted to save her. He had an attempt to pull her up, but Sephiroth stopped him. "No." Sephiroth commanded.
Soon, Aerith had stopped breathing and her eyes gave off a blank stare. Cloud felt the blood drain from his face. It was the same feeling that he felt when he first saw her die several years before. "No…" he had managed to say before he slowly lifted her lifeless body out of the water. "Aerith?" he called out.
She did not answer. Her heart had stopped and her pulse wasn't beating anymore. Sephiroth backed away. "She'll be back, Cloud. She should." He wanted to say out loud, but he didn't. He didn't want to provoke any negative emotion from Cloud to himself. "Sephiroth, could you… carry Rufus back inside the bedroom…" Tifa said, interrupting his thoughts. Sephiroth turned around and saw the unconscious Rufus on the floor. "What happened to him?" he asked with a silly smile on his face. "Cloud pushed him." Tifa said with a worried look on her face…
X-x-X-x-X
Cloud and Yuffie watched in awe as a brown-haired woman emerged from the water of the lake. She was wearing a white ruffled blouse, a pink floral skirt (with a length just an inch below her knees), a pink blazer and a pair of white open-toe heeled shoes. "Oh dear… I thought I would drown there!" she spoke breathlessly as she went over to Samara and gave her a hug, "Are you alright? You look afraid," she told the little girl.
"I'm scared, Auntie Aerith! Daddy pushed me… and mommy doesn't care!" Samara began to cry again.
Auntie what?
Cloud couldn't believe his eyes nor his ears… and then he saw another figure clad in white approaching Samara and the woman named Aerith. Cloud's eyes widened further upon recognizing the man, although he looked a bit older. Yuffie's jaw dropped.
"What do you mean your daddy pushed you and your mommy doesn't care?" Rufus demanded from his daughter.
Samara turned her gaze to her father and let go of Aerith, running to him. "Daddy! It's you! It's really you! I'm so happy!" she said happily. Rufus embraced his daughter, patting her back gently and stroking her long hair. "Yes, yes, it's daddy. Tell me, did my younger version hurt you?" he asked her. Samara sniffed and wiped her tears away. "Yes. He pushed me and imprisoned me with mommy in this small room and…-sniff-… I'm scared, daddy!" she wailed.
Aerith shook her head in disbelief. "Goodness, Rufus. Look what your younger version did to your daughter!" she said, meaning to make him feel guilty.
"Well it isn't my fault right now that I was so skeptical and wouldn't believe in anything unless there is a logical explanation to it." Rufus told her.
"And what are you doing here anyway?" she asked.
"Your husband pushed me." He muttered.
Aerith giggled, "Oh I'm sure Cloud didn't mean it!" she said before looking around. "Where are we anyway?" she asked.
Rufus looked around. "I don't know but… it looks too murky around here." He muttered in disgust. "So you drowned?" he asked her. "Yes and I'm probably… dead… back where we come from." She explained.
"What? But how are you going to go back?" Rufus asked.
"Samara can revive me once we return. But to be able to return, we need her pendant," she turned to Samara. Samara withdrew from her father, and Rufus realized that she wasn't wearing the necklace anymore. She felt like shrinking when she realized that her father was staring horridly at her. "Your younger version took it in case you're curious, daddy." She stated flatly, bowing down her head.
Rufus opened his mouth to say something regarding the matter, but he was so speechless, nothing came out.
"I know, daddy, he was very mean!" Samara told him.
Rufus just nodded weakly, "Yes… yes… he was very… mean, indeed…" he said rather hesitantly. Aerith shook her head in dismay, "Shame on you Rufus!" she said, and she froze when they heard something rustling in the bushes.
Samara moved closer to her father, clinging to him as if seeking protection. Rufus held his daughter close to himself as he began to look around and brought out his shotgun.
"Stop, Cloud," Yuffie whispered to Cloud as she held him back within the bushes where they were hiding.
"Why?" Cloud asked.
"They have weapons. What if they kill us before we get the chance to explain?" she told him.
"I demand you, whoever you people are, to come out from your hiding place at this moment," Rufus called out rather airily and then pointed his shotgun at a certain direction where there are several bushes. "Now." He continued.
Cloud was the first one to stand up, and then Yuffie followed.
Aerith gasped. "Cloud!" she exclaimed.
Cloud could not help but gape at her. "…Is that you… Aerith?" he asked rather hesitantly.
Rufus put down his shotgun. "Oh. Just them." He said. Yuffie let out a sigh of relief as he did so. "Gee… I thought you'd shoot us… Rufus." She said.
"So you know." Rufus replied, flipping his hair.
"But how can you be here if you're at the Healin Lodge?" Yuffie asked.
Rufus raised his eyebrows at her, "Well the one you're talking about is sick and is still inside the Healin Lodge. I'm from the future, including this Aerith over here," he pointed at his female companion. Aerith and Cloud were stuck in a moment. Rufus rolled his eyes. "Aerith, that's the younger version of Cloud. Don't ever think of …" he began, but he was too late. Aerith was already running towards Cloud with a happy smile on her face and embraced him tightly. "Oh Cloud! It's me, Aerith!" she said happily.
Cloud was still in a state of shock and he couldn't move. Aerith looked at him and smiled sweetly at him and offered a handshake. "Aerith Strife from the future." She said. He did not answer. She proceeded: "We're gonna have two children in the future and we're gonna name them Sora and Aerial. Isn't that wonderful? Teehee!" she giggled excitedly.
"Alright, that's enough, Aerith. You're shocking him." Rufus told her with a commanding tone.
Yuffie was still staring up at him, and then at Aerith, then at Samara. Samara smiled shyly at her. Yuffie shuddered and looked away, looking up at Rufus again. "So, why did… you and Aerith come here?" she asked.
"Well actually it's only Aerith that's supposed to come here, but I ended up coming along too because her husband knocked me out cold in the bathroom floor of my son's bedroom." He replied with an annoyed look on his face. "So I've heard that… Rufus imprisoned Tifa with Sora, Kairi and Riku… and he currently has my daughter's pendant?" he continued, quite unsure what to call his younger self.
"Well… yeah. Vincent's in the Healin Lodge right now looking for the room where they put the kids with Tifa while I'm supposed to make Cloud help him, but then he got distracted because he saw this ghost… I mean, your daughter pass by and we ended up following her because she looked suspicious." Yuffie explained before cringing and covering her nose, turning back to Cloud, "Hey! While there's a lake nearby, could you clean your boots now?" she requested with a bratty tone. Cloud still couldn't move. Aerith was still talking to him about a lot of things in the future like: "Oh and guess what! You and Rufus will become best buddies along with Vincent, Zack and Sephiroth and then you're going to be the External Vice President of the ShinRa Electric Power Company. Guess what my job is!" she told him. "Uuh…" was all Cloud could say in awe. He was still stunned. "I'm Rufus's Public Relations Officer! Oh, and you know our son Sora is such a star, he snagged the lead role for Kingdom Hearts!" she proceeded. "…Uuuh….." he was still stunned. She giggled. "And our daughter is so talented; she can play the keyboard and the piano and she can sing too! She also plays the violin and guess what her weapon is!" she said.
"Uuh…" Cloud was still stunned. He was speechless, and he wanted to cry out of joy and excitement upon seeing Aerith again and hearing about his wonderful future together with her, but he could not express utmost joy at that moment.
"She uses the Muramasa. And once she had a little duel with Sephiroth and she almost beat him! Isn't that great! You trained her really well, Cloud!" Aerith said proudly.
"I… did? I mean… I will?" he finally responded.
"Cloud," Rufus caught his attention. Cloud instantly turned to him, and then to Samara. They were looking rather disgusted with him. "Please clean your boots." Yuffie requested.
Cloud looked down at his boots and remembered the Chocobo manure. "Oh." He said.
"Oh don't be silly, I don't see anything wrong with it!" Aerith said.
"Aerith, he stepped on Chocobo manure and it smells like horse and buffalo dung combined!" Rufus pointed out. Aerith sniffed the air. "I don't smell anything," she pointed out. Rufus rolled his eyes, "Oh. Right. You don't smell anything. You don't smell anything if Cloud is the one who stinks like bloody hell!" he pointed out before turning away, taking Samara with her, "Come on, let's get going to the Healin Lodge. We have to get your pendant back. You're mother is getting worried sick of you, she can lose her mind anytime." Rufus told her. "Okay, daddy," she said, skipping happily.
Yuffie follwed after them, mindlessly leaving Cloud and Aerith behind.
Cloud went to the lake to rid his boots of Chocobo manure. Aerith waited by a tree, watching him with a loving smile on her face.
"Is there anything on your mind that you still want to know, Cloud?" Aerith asked softly.
He stopped. "Why should I still ask? I'm sure I'm just going to be brainwashed again along with the others so that I can forget that Sora and the others will exist in the future." He replied. She chuckled lightly. "Typical Cloud. Stubborn as usual." She muttered softly before she approached him and sat down beside him on the lake's shore. Cloud looked at her with a miserable look on his face and she clearly saw the sorrow in his eyes. Her facial expression softened and she smiled kindly at him. "Things will be much better in the future for you, Cloud. Don't you ever think that you are alone. I have always been there for you." She leaned closer to him and gave him a kiss on the cheek. "Aerith will be back to meet you again. All you have to do is to have a little more faith in her." She told him.
Cloud could have cherished that moment forever, but it ended quickly when Samara interrupted them. "Auntie Aerith, Cloud, daddy says you should stop those honky-honkies and come along now because we're running out of time." She said.
Aerith laughed. "Tell your daddy that Cloud and I are not doing honky-honkies." She said as she got up and went to the little girl.
Cloud just looked at them with a contemplative stare before he got up. "Good as new…" he muttered, referring to his boots, and went to Aerith and Samara. "Let's go." He said, leading the way.
to be continued once I get more inspiration...