Chapter 5

Man, I'm only noticing after breaking the story down how much ALIEN really is just the Shinra with a different name, and how unoriginal most of the start to this is. Character-wise, anyhow. It gets much more original later on, thankfully, but bear with the similarities at this point, they do decrease later on. Stratadrake, you were technically not the first to review this story, as it had been up on fictionpress and I had 2 reviews there. Both made AIM contact with me and have given me feedback there(their choice, I'm not on AIM all that often…), Nonetheless I appreciate your reviews somewhat more. Many thanks. To clear up your questions, yeah, Midgar becomes Midgcar, generally because I used to think that is how it was spelt in the game, since then I've noticed otherwise but I kind of prefer Midgcar… *shrugs*. I noticed those paragraphs ending with commas…purely a mistake on my part. I don't believe it happens too often from here onwards.

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Danny Whise had never been good at getting up in the mornings. In fact, it was probably his least favourite part of the day. He slowly opened his eyes, squinting as the sunlight beamed proudly through Aeris's window right into his face. He grunted and turned his body over. Jim too was still asleep. Danny mumbled and closed his eyes, only to feel a hand on his shoulder.

"You're awake!" It was Aeris.

"Yeah… not for long…" Danny mumbled with a yawn and kept his eyes shut.

"Hey, now, come on. It's already ten past eight, you know. You should be up by now. Breakfast will be ready in…" Before Aeris could finish her sentence Danny had jumped up. If there was one thing that would get him up in the mornings, it was the mention of food. His eyes were suddenly wide, with a grin on his face.

"Breakfast? What's on the menu?"

Aeris laughed a little, stepping back. "You're just like Jerad. I'm cooking some bacon and eggs, which I hope suits your taste."

Danny nodded quickly, grinning even more than before. "Sounds great!" He sniffed the air and detected the odour of the nearly-cooked bacon. "Smells delicious…"

Aeris made her way to her door, turning back. "You wash up and be down in twenty minutes, okay? It'll all be ready."

"You bet!" Danny nodded, his smile as wide as it could be. Aeris giggled and left the room. Danny grabbed one side of the mattress and tossed it over, sending Jim face first onto the floor.

"Agh!" Jim cried, shocked by the sudden movement and rude awakening from his sleep.

"Come on, man! We have twenty minutes before breakfast!" Danny told him excitedly.

Jim got onto his hands and knees, pushing the mattress off him. "There are better ways to wake me up, you know!" He yelled, rubbing his head. "Dumping me on the floor is just plain stupid!"

"Yet, so effective." Danny gave a smile and scanned the room. There was a door next to Aeris's bed. He made his way over to the door and pushed it open, revealing a small bathroom, which consisted of a shower and sink.

"I shall be out in a few minutes." Danny entered the bathroom, closing the door and locking it.

"Bastard…" Jim grumbled, brushing himself off and sighing. He too hated waking up in the morning… especially like that. He shielded his eyes from the glare of the sun, turning to a small table in the corner of the room. Closer observation revealed a small notepad, a vase with a few prime-condition roses in and an old picture in a frame. The picture had a young woman, similar looking to Aeris, holding a baby in her arms and smiling as a young girl held onto her leg, grinning shyly at the camera. Jim assumed that since Aeris seemingly had no children, this was a picture of the mother she had briefly mentioned earlier. The photo looked rather old, and it seemed to fit that the younger girl would be Aeris and the baby Jerad, as Aeris looked older than Jerad. The shower had started, lost in his thoughts Jim had consciously not noticed. He shook his head and gave a slight chuckle, food could certainly get Danny up in the morning. Danny's lust for food was unnatural and had been what he had spent most of his wages on at home. That and the rent in the house they had shared. It was a small house but it was all they really needed. Jim actually quite liked his room, it was smaller than Danny's but he felt quite at home there. Danny had taken to the house straight away, just glad to be away from the hell he had left behind. Jim glanced at the notepad, it contain a few scribbled notes… food items, seemingly a shopping list. Jim had a slight urge to look further through the notepad but decided it would be improper to go through Aeris's personal items. He sat down on the mattress and stared off, lost in his thoughts until he heard the bathroom door open. Danny came out, drying his hair with a towel.

"Your turn. Hurry up, I'm not going to wait up." He said.

"Yeah, yeah." Jim replied, still sounding a little annoyed and walking into the bathroom.

 "He sure is grumpy this morning." Danny shrugged and felt his mouth begin to water as the smell of the food reached his noise once more. He had a huge urge to go downstairs, but he felt being closer to the food, which wasn't ready yet, would be worse. He checked around the room. The walls were a cream colour, which brightened up the room even more as the sun shone onto them. The room was almost an extension of the church's atmosphere, loving and kind, but with a sense of excitement and optimism that the walls of the church just refused to portray. He glanced over at a small desk in the corner. It was lacking a chair to sit on, which struck Danny as a little odd. He wandered over and checked the surface, there was a notepad with a few notes on it, a vase with some finely-conditioned roses. There was also a framed picture, three people, a mother and two children, one a baby. Danny shrugged and made his way back over to the mattress, sitting down and fidgeting, desperately wanting something to nourish himself with, but knowing he had to wait at least another few minutes. Jim exited the bathroom, drying his hair and yawning.

"Damn, it's early. Twenty past eight! Why the hell are we up so early? I could have done with a few more hours, since we were out so damn long last night."

"Calm down there, Jimbo. Listen, it's better that we're up earlier. Gives us a chance to eat earlier, and other than that we can get more information out of Aeris and if anything comes up…" Danny's sentence was abruptly cut off by a scream from downstairs, it was Aeris.

"Let's go." Danny drew his sword, Jim dropped the towel, grabbed his sword from the side of the mattress and followed Danny as he rushed out of the room and down the stairs. As they reached the bottom of the stairs they saw the immediate problem. Jerad was standing in front of Aeris, protecting her from three men and a woman with machine guns aimed directly at Jerad.

"Leave this place!" Jerad yelled. "It's a holy sanctuary! You can't use violence here!"

The blue-suited man in front, with long black hair, chuckled. "Oh please. Holy sanctuary? Nobody cares about that anymore. Face it, kid, religion ran its course and is dead. Now, you shall tell me what I need to know."

"Go to hell!" Aeris growled, peering out from behind Jerad's shoulder, shaking a little.

"Now, now." The black-haired man aimed his gun up at Jerad. "That kind of talk won't get us anywhere."

"We have nothing to say to your kind…" Jerad spat at the feet of the black-haired man.

"Our kind? Oh, but you don't even know us. My name is Tseng… and my friends behind me make up what ALIEN have named the Turks."

"I'm Reno, but Aeris, you already knew that." The man with long, red-ish hair tied back in a ponytail said nonchalantly.

Aeris scowled, but remained silent.

"I wasn't aware the two of you had a history." Tseng looked back at Reno briefly.

"It isn't much of a history. She's very uptight." Reno smiled at Aeris, waving.

"Still bitter about that, are we?" Aeris shook her head. "I told you, I didn't realise how much of a jerk you were at the start, but it became painfully obvious pretty soon afterwards!"

"I hate to interrupt, Aeris! But if this guy is your ex-boyfriend can you please tell him to drop the gun!" Jerad growled, looking at Aeris out of the corner of his eyes, not daring to completely turn away from the Turks, even for a second.

"Reno!" Aeris stepped out from behind Jerad slowly, glaring at Reno. "Get rid of those guns right now!"

"Sorry." Reno shrugged, keeping his gun aimed. "Tseng gives the orders around here."

Jim turned to Danny, looking confused. "After what Jerad did last night… why doesn't he just attack them?"

"He must be afraid they'll hurt Aeris." Danny replied quietly.

Tseng nodded, grinning confidently. "I'm the boss. If you want us to drop the guns, you have to ask me. But, don't waste your breath, because I'd refuse anyway." Tseng aimed his gun at one of the church windows and began firing. The stained glass immediately shattered, the sunlight streamed in through the now open window and gleamed onto the flowers, making them stand out even more than before, their beauty seemed to radiate further.

"No! Stop it!" Aeris cried, shocked.

"You can't do this! What do you want?" Jerad sounded quite desperate as well. The church they had both worked so hard to keep safe and unharmed was suddenly being destroyed before their eyes.

"First, to finish our introduction. Please, continue." Tseng waved his hand at the three Turks behind him.

"My name is Rude." A bald headed man with black sunglasses on said, a gruff tone to his voice. "Third member of the Turks."

"And I am Elena, the newest member of the Turks." The woman had blond hair down to her shoulders, with the same sunglasses as Rude across her eyes.

"Nice." Tseng nodded. "Now, are there any more people who need to be introduced?"

"Why would there be? You know we live here alone, Reno, tell him!" Aeris said hurriedly.

"Hm, well, the nights I spent here do testify that." Reno nodded.

"Nights?" Jerad said, an undertone of anger in his voice.

"Just shut up, Reno! That's none of their business!" Aeris gulped, not looking at Jerad.

"Nights?" Jerad repeated, the anger surfacing.

"Jerad! We can talk about this after… they leave!"

"Nights! Why didn't I know about this?" Jerad had now turned his head to Aeris, seemingly forgetting his previous anxieties towards the Turks.

Tseng fired another shot, right past Jerad's head. The bullet ricocheted into the wall outside the entrance to the stairs.

"Gah!" Danny stepped further back into the shadows. "That was a bit too close…"

"Should we go out and confront those guys? It isn't fair that Aeris and Jerad get hassled like this because of us." Jim whispered, peering back round the corner of the entrance.

"We don't know what the Turks want from them yet, they haven't said they're here for us. Let's just keep quiet until we know for sure, then we'll make ourselves known…" Danny replied just as quietly, also peering out into the church. Jerad had stopped dead, staring at Tseng. Aeris now looked extremely frightened, she had begun shaking again.

"Reno's nights here were not any time recently, and that makes the whole argument irrelevant." A smile played on Tseng's face as he aimed the gun firmly at Jerad's head. "Therefore, let me ask again, for the final time, is there anyone else who needs to be introduced?"

"We live here alone." Jerad said, once again stepping casually in front of Aeris. "I don't know what you're expecting to find here, but you'll be disappointed."

The Turks exchanged glances, no expressions other than condescending grins were on their faces. A sense of superiority had already been established and the Turks were getting into their roles easily. Tseng hummed for a few seconds, considering Jerad's words.

"Well, we know two terrorists, or rebels, whichever label you think suits better, are on the loose within this sector or the next, and we have reason to believe they are here. A large structure like this and such… comforting people would certainly be rather inviting to them. I assume you won't mind if we send a few of our men to search?" Tseng posed the question, expecting only one answer.

"Okay…" Jerad nodded slowly. Aeris looked up at him quickly, trying not to show her shock.

"Rude, call them in." Tseng lowered his gun, but Reno and Elena kept theirs pointed. Rude briefly exited the building via the double doors and returned swiftly with a half a dozen guards, all dressed in a hooded uniform, so that the faces of these soldiers were unidentifiable. They held similar guns to the Turks, but they were smaller and looked somewhat simpler.

"Jim! Shit! Look!" Danny whispered urgently.

"I know… six guards… damn…"

"No!" Danny shook his head. "The bacon is burning! Oh man! I hate it burnt…"

Jim sighed. "The bacon burning is the least of our worries right now. Should we introduce ourselves to these Turks?"

"No… they'll send those six guards round here. I have an idea." Danny tugged Jim's arm. "Come on." They retreated back up the stairs silently, careful not to make any noise.

"You have no right…" Aeris sighed, turning her head down. The guards ran past her, straight towards the stairs. They slowly approached the entrance, peering round and aiming their guns into the darkness. After a few seconds they shuffled into the entrance and ran up the stairs in search of the rebels.

"No right…" Aeris repeated sadly, glancing with a sigh at the shattered window. Little bits of the glass had fallen into the still fountain beneath the window, adding a sinister touch to the object which before had been merely gloomy. Aeris turned to look at Reno, he was smiling back at her. He gave a wink, but kept his gun pointed. Her stomach churned and she fought back the tears, fearing for the lives of the rebels, and wondering how it could get any worse.