Chapter 4: Aeris

You alright? Can you hear me?

. . . Yeah . . . .

Back then . . . I only had skinned knees.

What do you mean by "back then"? I've got more than skinned knees now . . . back hurts like hell.

What about now? Can you get up?

Hey, I asked you a question. What do you mean, "back then"?

Don't worry about me. Can you stand up?

Maybe. If you'd answer the fucking question I'd consider it.

Just worry about yourself for now, okay?

The hell? What are you . . . .


" . . . talking about?" Painful white light strobed down into his eyes as Cloud tried to open them.

"Are you okay?" came a voice, drifting down through the clear air.A beautiful, melodic voice, soft and velvety.

No, he was not okay. Aches and sore muscles stretched across his body, as if he had been taking a nap on the freeway during rush hour. He started to try to move his body, taking an internal catalogue of what was broken and what wasn't. Thankfully, it seemed his Mako regeneration was working; he hurt like hell, but his body was miraculously intact.

"Maybe," he answered dryly, trying to sit up. Slender, delicate fingers looped under Cloud's left shoulder and helped raise him up to a sitting position, his head swimming as he moved into a new position. The white light began to dim as his eyes adjusted, and he looked up at the woman who was helping him.

Cloud blinked, momentarily thinking he was dead; no normal human woman would be this beautiful. It took his mind a second to catch up and place the delicate features and bright green eyes he was staring at, but he quickly enough recognized the flower vendor he had helped the previous night.

"What happened?" he managed to say. "Where am I?"

"A church in the Sector Five slums," she explained, and Cloud nodded. "You came crashing down through the roof. I think you broke a beam or two coming down. The rooftop must have broken your fall, and the flowers cushioned against the impact. But I'm still amazed you lived through that."

"Flowers?" Cloud asked, and he then realized that he was in fact laying in a wide bed of vibrant multi-colored flowers. He glanced around the room, and saw that he was indeed in a church, an old, run down wooden building with a dozen old wooden pews, golden-white light streaming through huge windows and filtering through stained glass. He looked down at the flowers again, and noted how healthy and think they were. Weird; flowers didn't grow in Midgar. Nothing grew in Midgar.

"Sorry about the mess," Cloud offered, stretching out his injured muscles as the flower girl stood up and walked around in front of him, smiling. She shook her head, as if to wave off his apology.

"Don't worry," she replied. "The flowers here are very resilient because this church is a sacred place. The altar would have sat where the flowers are growing right now." She looked around the room, her brown hair bouncing as she did so. Cloud noted how it seemed to reflect the sunlight, shimmering in the vibrant air.

"They say you can't grow flowers and grass in Midgar, but I guess this proves them wrong," she said with a smile, kneeling down in the flower patch and checking her plants. "For some reason, flowers have no trouble growing here." Cloud nodded, and glanced down at his materia bracer. Focusing, he called up the energies of his restorative materia, and green light played over him, and some of the pain ebbed away.

Pain is just weakness leaving the body, he recited the old SOLDIER mantra as he shakily stood up.

"Hey, do you remember me? From yesterday?" she asked suddenly, and Cloud nodded.

"Yeah, you were selling flowers up on the plate," the mercenary replied. "You really need to know how to defend yourself, by the way."

"That's not very nice," she responded, planting her hands on her slender hips and pouting. "I can take care of myself. But thanks for the help yesterday, anyway."

"No problem," Cloud replied, waving her thanks away.

"I just didn't have my weapon or materia on me," she explained, shrugging. "Didn't think I would need it up on the plate."

"You have materia?" Cloud asked, and she nodded. She held up the bracelet on her left wrist, which glowed with several small pinpricks of light.

"I also have another one, but it doesn't do anything," she added with a slight chuckle.

"You probably just don't know how to use it," Cloud suggested. There were odd materia that worked differently from normal magic materia, after all, but he had never seen or handled any.

"No, it's not that," she explained, and reached up to the pink ribbon that secured her braid in place. There, Cloud saw a very pale light hidden among the pink fabric. "I know how to use most materia. But this one is special; it belonged to my mother. It doesn't do anything, but I feel safe just having it." She paused, and cocked her head to the side, a surprised expression appearing on her face.

"Say, I don't know your name, do I?" She extended a hand to Cloud. "Aeris Gainsborough." He shook her delicate fingers with his own think, gloved hand.

"Cloud Strife," he replied. She nodded, smiling again, and looked him over once more.

"I'm guessing that giant sword on your back isn't just for show, right?" she asked, and he nodded. "What are you? Mercenary?"

"You could say that," Cloud replied with a shrug. "I do a little bit of everything; fighting, scouting, protection, whatever. I am . . . or rather, I was, on a job when I came crashing through your rooftop."

"A jack of all trades?" Aeris asked, and her expression shifted to one of curiosity. "Hm. You know, now that you mention it . . . ."

"What?" Cloud asked. He managed a slight grin as he guessed what Aeris was wanting. "You have a job for me?"

"Maybe," she replied. "A big, tough guy like you could help me out. I'm in the market for a bodyguard."

"Pretty girl like you, down here in the slums, I can understand that," Cloud remarked, and Aeris managed a light, pleasant laugh.

"Are you trying to sweep me off my feet?" she joked, and Cloud smirked.

"No, just making a statement," he replied. "But it'll cost you. I'm not free, you know."

"Hmmm . . . ." she mused, scratching her delicate chin, considering what she could use to compensate him for his services. Her face lit up, and she smiled again.

"How about a date?" she asked, and Cloud actually managed a chuckle. After a second, he realized that she may be serious about it, and he thought for a moment.

"Interesting method of payment," he remarked. He then nodded. "Sure, why not?" Aeris' smile grew wider.

"Thank you!" she answered.

The tall double-doors at the entrance of the church suddenly opened, and both mercenary and flower girl turned toward the sound, in time to see a pair of figures walk into the hushed stillness of the church. Cloud narrowed his eyes as he recognized the uniforms the two men wore.

Both men wore a uniform consisting of a blue suit jacket and pants, with black shoes and a white button-up shirt underneath. However, their approaches to their respective uniforms varied. The one on the left wore his suit jacket open and his white shirt untucked, and moved with a remarkable slackness and laziness in his slender body. Blood red hair topped his thin face, brushed back into rough spikes and a long, thin ponytail running down his back. A pair of goggles sat upon his head, resting just above his eyes and holding back his hair. Cloud recognized the model of goggles instantly; while they looked ordinary enough, they were actually a very sophisticated design that could project data onto the lenses, and included small but powerful night vision and thermal lenses, almost invisible. It was a design restricted to Shinra special forces.

The slender man's companion, however, seemed far more serious and in control. His head was shaved bald, revealing his skin, several shades darker than his comrade's. A slight, closely trimmed goatee and mustache marked his face, and a pair of black sunglasses shaded his eyes . . . black sunglasses that featured the same nearly invisible thermal and night vision lenses along the frame. His suit was neat and impeccable, jacket closed, shirt tucked in. He walked with a powerful presence, his steps fluid and controlled, clearly a master of martial arts.

Their uniforms, their stances, and the half-dozen blue-armored Shinra soldiers walking behind the pair told Cloud all he needed to know, and, barely cognizant of the fact, he had stepped forward, interposing himself between Aeris and the intruders. His right hand rose and grasped his sword, ready to draw it from its sheath at the slightest threatening motion from the pair of suited men.

"Hm." The sound echoed across the room as the red-haired man regarded the mercenary, and he glanced to his partner, all the while keeping Cloud visible in the corner of his eyes. "Rude, what do you think?"

"The eyes, man," replied the bald man, in a quiet, but powerful tone. "That's the guy, alright."

"Thought he was supposed to be killed when the reactor blew," the red-haired man muttered, and then shrugged. "But, whatever."

Cloud narrowed his eyes. He didn't know these men, but those uniforms . . . something about them . . . .

I know them.

He did. That was right; those uniforms, the blue suits and trousers - they belonged to Shinra's elite branch of assassins and spies, the Turks. And these two men had come in here, clearly looking for him, it seemed.

"Shinra," Cloud said, tightening the grip on his sword. The two Turks glanced at each other again.

"Reno, want to take him out? He's not part of the objective," Rude asked, and the red-head shrugged again.

"The boss said he's dead, killed when the reactor blew. We'll just correct a bureaucratic oversight while we pick up our girl." Reno reached into his open coat and pulled out a short, foot-long metal rod. He casually flicked it, and it extended another two feet, the tip sparking with electrical charge. Cloud narrowed his eyes at the weapon. The device, called a shock-rod, was one of the Turks' signature weapons, a versatile piece of nasty technology. Reno met Cloud's gaze, and he chuckled.

"Of course, we could conveniently forget we ever saw you," he explained. "We're not here to tangle with some ex-SOLDIER mercenary. We're her for her." He pointed over Cloud's shoulder, at Aeris. "Tell you what. You walk out of here, right now, and forget you ever saw us, and we'll forget we ever saw you. Official word will be that everyone died when the reactor blew. Of course, that's not the truth, but it doesn't matter when Shinra controls the media. The people don't need to know that it was a complete failure."

"The others escaped?" Cloud asked, and Rude shrugged.

"Not like it matters," he explained. "AVALANCHE is just a petty annoyance, really. Shinra's just using you guys as a media focus to build up popular support."

"And you guys are completely fine with telling me this," Cloud muttered, and Reno chuckled.

"Like Rude said, you guys don't matter." He gestured with his rod. "Now, step aside, or we'll have to make you matter."

Cloud glanced back and forth between the two Shinra spies, and then back toward Aeris. She still stood behind him, but as he watched, she took a step back toward one of the boxes at the edge of the flower patch, and grabbed a rod off of it, much like Reno's, though longer and more narrow. She looked to Cloud, concern and a bit of fear tracing across her features. He sent her a reassuring smile, and turned back toward the Turks.

"Sorry, assholes, looks like I'll have to pass." He hooked a thumb over his shoulder at Aeris. "I'm her bodyguard, so you want her, you'll have to get through me."

Reno sighed, and Rude calmly popped his knuckles.

"If that's the case," Reno said, shaking his head. "Looks like we'll have some proof AVALANCHE was wiped out after all."

"Not in here!" Aeris suddenly whispered, and Cloud glanced back at her. "The flowers will be ruined!" Cloud blinked in disbelief, but from her tone, she was dead serious; she must really like these flowers. Fine then.

Cloud's bracer suddenly flared, and a bolt of lightning shot toward the Turks. Reacting instantly, the pair of Shinra spies split apart, diving aside. The bolt of electricity lanced between them and threw one of the Shinra soldiers behind them off his feet, sending him slamming into his comrades behind him. The Turks were up in an instant, but even as they rose, Cloud and Aeris were retreating, fleeing out a door in the back of the room toward the rear of the church.

"Well, shit," Reno muttered, and he glanced at Rude. Without waiting another second, the two Turks bolted after the fleeing pair, and most of the Shinra troops followed, a pair pausing to assist their fallen comrade.


Cloud and Aeris rushed into the rear chamber of the church, and he came to a halt as he saw what the back end of the structure looked like.

"Since when has a giant intercontinental ballistic missile been sticking out of the ground?" he asked, and Aeris shrugged.

Apparently, somewhere along the line, an ICBM had crashed through the roof of the church, and had blown out the second and first floors. A massive hole was visible in the ceiling above, and most of the second level of the church had been destroyed, leaving only a narrow walkway directly overhead, connected to a staircase jutting out on an intact portion of the first floor, just beyond the two story high missile. The missile itself leaned against the wall directly ahead of their position, the rocket end pointing toward the roof above and the pointed end dug into the ground. Cloud had no clue as to how or why the missile was there; all he knew was that it had destroyed most of this part of the church. Aside from the narrow walkway they stood on, the stairs, and another narrow walkway that reached from the top of the stairs toward the attic up above, the rest of the floors had been annihilated.

The way behind them featured a pair of pursuing Turks and a squad of Shinra soldiers, and they only had one way forward, so Cloud took it. He grabbed onto Aeris' hand and ran toward the stairway. In a single deft motion, he had scooped Aeris up into his arms and leapt across the gap, landing solidly on the dangling staircase.

A pulsating whine filled the chamber, and Cloud staggered forward, searing pain shooting up his back. He spun, drawing his sword off his back, and saw Reno standing at the entrance to the chamber, smoke rising from the tip of his rod, and readying for another shot. Rude pushed past his partner, and Reno let fly again, firing a bolt of energy from his weapon. Cloud hopped back a step and spun aside, and the beam crashed into the staircase beneath him, sending wood chunks flying everywhere.

"Aeris, run!" Cloud shouted, and she started up the steps. He quickly followed her, even as Rude leapt across the gap between the stairs and the lower pathway. Cloud channeled a shard of ice from his materia and gestured toward Rude from the top of the stairs. The ice lanced down at the Turk, who snapped up his left leg in an arcing kick that shattered the shard, frozen fragments scattering across the room.

Ki focus, just like Tifa. Shit.

Regarding Rude with a newfound respect, Cloud brandished his heavy blade. Rude advanced up the steps toward Cloud, and then stopped suddenly. Cloud blinked, and then ducked as he saw Reno let fly with another energy bolt as more Shinra soldiers leapt across the gap between the stairs and the pathway. Cloud looked up quickly to check on Aeris, and saw that she was climbing the stairs leading up to the attic.

"No time to play with you guys," Cloud muttered, and he raised his sword with both hands, then chopped down hard. The blade smashed into the staircase and sent cracks running through the wood. Rude leapt up over the collapsing staircase as it splintered and broke apart, and toward Cloud, leading with a wide kick. Cloud snapped up his left hand, Rude's foot bouncing off his bracer, and the Turk landed beside the mercenary, leading with a vicious right cross that smacked Cloud hard across the chin and spun him around. Cloud rotated with the impact, whirling about and slashing across with his blade. Rude dropped low, and the sword slammed into the wall, shattering wood and sending splinters flying past the pair.

Far below, the Shinra soldiers toppled into the basement of the church amid the storm of falling wood from the collapsing staircase. Reno looked down at them, and then to his partner, and sighed, before raising his rod again. He tapped the side of his goggles with his left hand absently, activating the earphone both he and Rude carried.

"Get back, Rude. Let me plug him, and then you can finish him." Rude grunted in reply.

Aeris, meanwhile, watched the drama unfold below, and was uncertain what to do. She could handle herself in a fight, but these Turks were far better than her in close quarters combat, and she couldn't get a good shot at Rude with the materia she was carrying, and didn't want to risk trading fire with Reno. She looked around the attic, trying to find something she could use, and then her eyes fell on one of several old barrels that had been left up in the attic years previously. One of them was sitting next to a broken gap in the attic floor that was directly over Reno's position.

Perfect.

Below, Rude hopped back a step as Cloud extracted his sword with a flex of his muscles, further cracking the wooden walls of the church. The mercenary readied his sword, and Reno lined him up in his sights.

Then eighty pounds of large wooden barrel smashed into the Turk, shattering on contact with his head and knocking him off his feet. Rude and Cloud glanced at the sound of the impact, and then back to each other. Cloud rushed ahead with an overhead cleave, and Rude skittered to the side as the sword shattered part of the wooden walkway. Cloud whirled, his sword chopping in a wide horizontal arc, and Rude had to duck beneath the blow, and then shot up in a rising kick that rocked Cloud's chin and launched him back hard against the wall. Cloud sent a one-handed slash out before him to drive Rude back and kicked off the wall, charging headlong at the Turk Rude met the charge with two rapid jabs and an uppercut, and then spun around into a powerful roundhouse kick at Cloud's head as he fell back from the blow. The mercenary leaned back as the strike fell, and Rude's foot missed him by a hairsbreadth.

A half-second later, Cloud barreled forward and rammed Rude head-on with his shoulder, all of his Mako-enhanced strength lifting the Turk up and tossing him off the walkway, to plummet into the pit below and smash into an unlucky Shinra soldier as the man stood up.

Reno was still recovering from the barrel to the head, and with Rude and the remaining Shinra soldiers momentarily incapacitated, Cloud hurried up to the attic, to find a waiting Aeris.

"Let's get out of here before they recover," he advised her, and she nodded. She led him toward the hole he had shattered in the roof of the church when he had come crashing down, and they quickly climbed out of the building and into the (relatively) open air of the slums. Not stopping, Cloud ran to the edge of the building's rooftop, and spotted a trash mound, one of dozens of the artificial hills stretching across Sector Five's slums, and the pair dropped off the roof and onto the mound.

"We'll stay on these until we get out of sight of the church," Cloud told her, and she nodded. The pair hurried across the tops of the trash mounds, with Cloud scooping up Aeris and leaping from one mound to the next. After a few moments, they had passed out of sight of the worn-down church and were safe from the prying eyes of the searching Turks. They paused atop one of the garbage mounds, formed of broken concrete structures and metal parts, and Cloud found a stable spot where they could sit down and rest for a moment. Aeris settled down, panting slightly at the exertion of having moved so much and so far over such a short time.

"You okay?" Cloud asked, and she nodded, putting her hands on her knees - and incidentally giving Cloud an unintentional glimpse down her dress. He glanced away before she'd realized, and thought to quickly redirect her attention.

"Why were the Turks after you?" he asked, and she looked up at him, straightening.

"Is that what they're called?' she asked.

"Shinra secret special forces," Cloud explained. "They handle dirty work, such as spying, black bag ops, assassination, kidnapping, and so on." He glanced back to her. "But why would they be after you?"

"No idea," Aeris replied immediately, and Cloud could tell instantly from her tone that she was lying. Still, he found it hard to press the point when looking at her innocent smile, so he dropped the matter.

"So," she added as he looked out over the fields of refuse. "You knew who those guys were. I guess that means you're in SOLDIER?" He looked back toward her, surprise etching across his features.

"That's a little too good for a guess," he remarked.

"Well, your eyes do glow, too," she added with a chuckle. "Hard to miss that. It's a pretty clear sign that you've been infused with Mako, so I caught on a soon as you opened them. That's part of why I figured you would be a good bodyguard." Cloud nodded, but then a thought occurred to him.

"How did you know that glowing eyes marked members of SOLDIER?" After all, in combat most members of SOLDIER wore shielded helmets that covered their eyes, and usually wore contacts over their eyes when out of uniform to cover up and hide their presence. Not very many people knew how to spot members of SOLDIER.

"Oh, nothing," she quickly answered, and looked away for a moment, but the smile never left her face. Cloud raised an eyebrow at her denial.

"Nothing?" he asked.

"Nothing!" she replied, looking back to him and nodding. The mercenary considered arguing with her, but her face simply denied any more pressing questions, so he relented. He watched her look out over the slum, and then point toward on of the shanty towns, about a quarter of a mile away.

"My house is over that way," she remarked, pointing toward a sizable town that was located close to the wall connecting Sectors Five and Six. The structures, even from this distance, looked a little bit better off than those normally seen in Midgar's slums, but when considering the homes, it was like comparing completely rotten fruit to not-quite-completely rotten fruit.

"We should be safe now," Cloud replied with a nod. He edged toward the end of the mound, and reached over toward Aeris, beckoning her. She stepped over, and he scooped her up in his arms and jumped off the edge of the mound. His boots hit the gray-brown, cracked dirt with a dull thud, and he let her down quickly.

"So, which way?" he asked her as she stood, and looked around, gathering her bearings. She nodded in a particular direction.

"This way." She turned and lead the way through the slum hills, and Cloud followed behind her, though trying his best not to get distracted by her imminently watchable backside, and failing miserably.


Several hours had passed between the destruction of the Mako reactor and Cloud's subsequent plunge into the depths of Sector Five's slums, and the wearied members of AVALANCHE had finally stumbled back into Sector Seven's slums. Tifa, still in a daze about what had happened to Cloud after the missile strike, was gently guided into the safe haven of the Seventh Heaven, and she sat down numbly at the bar. Barret glanced to the rest of his team, who were hard hit by the news of Cloud's fall, but were not taking it as badly as Tifa. He nodded to them, and the trio of rebels quietly dispersed, Biggs and Wedge heading back outside while Jessie descended into the underground bunker.

"Tifa, you need t' pull yourself together," he muttered, putting a meaty hand on her shoulder. "We still got work to do, and its gonna be ten times as hard with you mopin' around like this." She slowly looked up to him, and watched him reach across and cock back the action on his gun-arm. "And don't worry. We'll make th' fuckin' Shinra jackasses pay."

She slowly nodded, but still seemed numbed and dazed by what had happened. Barret was about to say something more comforting, when the door leading into the bar eased open, and Wedge poked his head inside.

"Yo, Barret," he called. "Eyes on."

Both Tifa and Barret were jolted by the two words, a code-phrase signifying that they were being watched. They glanced to each other with sudden worry, Tifa's shock gone, and then back to Wedge.

"Biggs is keeping an eye on the spotter," Wedge continued quietly. "South side of the town, watching us like a hawk."

"What's he look like?' Barret growled.

"Street punk, form the looks of it," Wedge replied. "No way he's Shinra; looks too dirty and too stupid, even for one of their goons."

Barret and Tifa glanced at one another again, and with a quick nod, they moved toward the doors, the needs of the moment outweighing the loss of Cloud. The two rebels exited the front of the building and looked around. They spotted Biggs as he leaned against a shanty house, and followed his eyes across the filth of the slums, to spot the filth of a spy lurking in the shadows of one of the homes on the edge of town.

Barret looked to Biggs and slapped his gun-arm into a palm, and Biggs nodded at the signal, quietly detaching from the wall and circling around the house he was leaning against. Wedge nodded, as if he had been given and order by Barret, and the burly rebel leader walked down the front of the bar's steps. He looked around the slums, and nodded as he saw what he needed.

"Tifa, get some whiskey and rum," he grunted. She looked at him, confused, and Barret grinned sadistically. "Highest proof we got. We need a fire, hot as it gets." He glanced at the trashcan he had spotted, and moved off toward it.

The spy was as stupid as he was obvious, and never heard Biggs sneak up on him, which made it easy for the rebel to club him in the back of the head with his rifle. Wedge arrived in time to help his partner drag the unconscious street punk, clad in the dirty clothes of most low-level street trash gangs. They hauled the unconscious thug toward the edge of town, where Barret was waiting, as he and Tifa poured a couple bottles of high-proof liquor into the metal can, already full of wood, paper, and other flammable trash. Once the trash can fire was ready, Barret slapped the unconscious thug across the face, slowly rousing him into consciousness.

"Mornin' asshole," Barret grunted, and hauled the punk up to his feet. "Biggs, match."

Biggs lit a match on the side of the can, and Barret turned the thug to face the can as the rebel dropped the match inside. The trash can erupted into a bright yellow flash of flame, the heat immediately washing over the goon's face. The man's confused expression instantly shifted to one of fear as Barret hauled him closer to the can.

"Who the fuck sent you to spy on us?" Barret demanded, fleshy hand holding the back of the thug's shirt while his gun-arm pushed his head toward the flames. The man's immediate, stammering response of absolute terror was exactly what Barret wanted to hear.

"Who the fuck sent you to spy on us?" Barret roared again, even loader, and pressed the man's face toward the fire. He gasped as the flames licked his skin, singing his hair, and he gagged as he tried to breath so close to the intense, oxygen-hungry flames. He managed to say something, and Barret hauled him back, snarling.

"Corneo!" the thug answered. "I was sent by . . . Don Corneo in Sector Six!"

"Corneo?" Tifa asked, and Biggs nodded grimly.

"One of the biggest crime bosses in the slums," he replied. "Runs everything from petty theft and pick-pocketing to human smuggling and prostitution. Biggest slime in the city, even worse than Shinra."

"Why's this fat fuck Corneo sendin' you to spy on us?" Barret added, and the man shook his head.

"He just told me to keep an eye on the guy with the gun-arm, and tell me where he was!" answered the thug. "Nothing more, I swear!"

Barret glared at the hapless thug for a moment, reading his expression, and finally nodded.

"Yeah, that's it," he replied. "This piece of shit don't know any more. Guess this's goodbye."

With that, Barret turned and thrust the thug's head all the way into the trash can fire. The man's body spasmed and flailed, and at first the rebels could hear his screams, but as his face was burnt and he suffocated even as the flames cooked his windpipe and lungs, he went silent. Within a few moments, the scum went still, and Barret upended him, dropping his corpse completely into the fire. The acrid stench of burning human skin stung their nostrils, and the members of AVALANCHE glanced back and forth to one another, before silently leaving the fire to take care of the spy's remains.

"Hate havin' to do that shit," Barret muttered under his breath. "Even if its a worthless fuck like that . . . ."


The only real difference between Aeris' shanty town and the one that AVALANCHE used for their base was that most of the structures were cobbled together from scrap metal, not simply any refuse available, and it was significantly larger, perhaps housing a few hundred people. The majority of the citizenry were just as rough and dirty and poor as the rest of Midgar's slum populace, though they seemed to do a much better job of keeping their town clean; it almost smelled passable in the village.

With the pretenses of society, naturally, came the dangers of civilization, and Cloud noted several unsavory figures, more dangerous-seeming than typical slum denizens, but while a couple of them send dirty looks Cloud's way - and more base ones Aeris' - none of them troubled the pair as they threaded their way through the town, past a somewhat lively marketplace, which even featured what looked like a weapons shop built out of an old trailer. Neon lights suffused the shanty town, especially around the small market, and a large overhead television screen - built and maintained by Shinra, naturally - was bolted to the wall overlooking the town, displaying corporate-filtered news for the masses.

Neither Aeris nor Cloud slowed to observe any of these elements more closely; they pushed past and through the town, toward the far end of the slum. They passed between two cobbled homes, and then stepped into something that made Cloud blink and wonder what strange drug he was under the influence of.

There was a gap in the plates above; the sunlight streaming down confirmed this, and the entire area beyond was marked with bright yellow sunlight. Reflected that sunlight were vibrant, healthy flowers, a field of them roughly a hundred or so feet wide, marked with thick green grasses and bushes, as well as footpaths running between the flowers and plants, and the entire area was fenced in, sitting beyond a house that was constructed of solid wood and ceramic shingles, looking like any normal average home. A small pool of water - clean, clear water - was visible behind the house, and an irrigation system had been set up to allow the water to flow among the plants; Cloud spotted machinery that was used to divert the water from Midgar's plumbing systems.

"Surprising, isn't it?' Aeris commented as Cloud looked over the flower field. He nodded, looking back to her.

"How do you manage to grow flowers in Midgar?" he asked. He knew that she had said that the church was sacred, but Aeris' home was a fair distance away from that place.

"No idea," she replied. "But for ever since I've lived here, I've had no trouble growing them in the soil. Maybe I just have a special touch." She waved him toward the door. "Come on in."

The interior of Aeris' house was something that surprised Cloud, who had grown accustomed to the squalor and spartan conditions common in the slums. The well-maintained interior of the large home reeked of the same hominess of many of the shanty houses, but it wasn't cobbled together from pieces of refuse and scrap metal, instead constructed of wood and plaster and brick, and all the normal materials that homes in this age should have been built out of. The interior of the home features wallpaper, something Cloud hadn't seen in what felt like years, and the carpet beneath his boots made the mercenary pause and kick them at the door, to minimize the stain he would bring into this house. He quietly looked himself over, and frowned at how dirty he was compared to the clean interior of this house. While it wasn't particularly opulent or exquisitely appointed, the home was certainly a cut above what one normally saw in Midgar's slums, and it seemed almost like a mansion compared to the normal homes in the area.

"Surprising, isn't it?" Aeris asked, and Cloud nodded, grunting a neutral reply. He looked about the house's interior, and stopped as he caught movement coming out of the kitchen. His initial response was to reach for his weapon, but he relaxed when he saw the figure walking into the main living room was, in fact, a middle-aged brown-haired woman, and not a Turk or Shinra soldier. He quickly surmised that she was Aeris' mother.

"Aeris?" she called, smiling warmly as she saw her daughter. "You're back early . . . ." She trailed off as she saw Cloud, standing in the doorway, hand on his weapon and looking like he'd just fought to one end of hell and back.

"Mom, this is Cloud," Aeris quickly said, and he nodded to her mother. "He's my bodyguard for today."

"Bodyguard?" Aeris' mother echoed, concern stretching across her features. "You didn't get hurt, did you? Were you chased again?"

"Nothing I couldn't handle," Cloud replied evenly, lowering his arm from his weapon. The woman nodded, and gestured for him to enter the room.

"Well, I can't not thank you for protecting my daughter," she answered with a smile. "My name is Elmyra. Elmyra Gainsborough."

"Cloud Strife," the mercenary answered, closing the door behind him. A sudden buzzing came from the kitchen, and Elmyra looked over her shoulder, and sighed.

"That's dinner," she muttered. "Excuse me." She hurried back into the kitchen, and Aeris glanced to Cloud.

"What are you going to do now?" she asked him, a curious tone in her voice. He shrugged, and considered his options. He would have to reunite with Tifa and Barret now that Aeris was safe, but they were all the way in Sector Seven, and he was still in Sector Five.

"I need to head for Sector Seven," he said after a moment. "I have some friends I need to meet back up with."

"Really?" she asked, sitting don at the table. "Who?" Cloud paused, considering the prudence of mentioning anything regarding AVALANCHE to her. While she wasn't a friend of Shinra's, for whatever reason, he got the distinct vibe that she might not like the idea of him associating with a band of rebels who were, no matter how they cloaked it, a group of vicious, violent, and destructive terrorists.

"People you really don't want to know about," he finished, and that, if anything else, increased her curiosity.

"Oh, really?' she asked, leaning forward. "Are you sure?"

"Very sure," Cloud finished. "They're in Sector Seven, so I need to head over that way."

"The route won't be too safe," she mused, thinking. "You'll have to cut through Sector Six, and the ruins of the old highway project in that area. Its overrun with monsters right now, and with AVALANCHE doing so much damage up above, Shinra's going to have the gates between slums locked down. You might need me to guide you."

"What?" Cloud answered, staring at her. "You? Sorry," he shook his head "I'm not going to put you in danger just to show me the way through some ruins."

"I'm used to danger," she replied with a sneaky, almost roguish smile. "Like I said, I can handle myself just fine, and I know this area a lot better than you do. I make the trip to Wall Market in Sector Six all the time. You won't find a much better guide."

Cloud blinked, and something flashed through his head, remembering something similar a long time ago, another expedition into a rough area with a guide just as confident as Aeris. He closed his eyes and looked away, banishing the memories of what had happened. The past was the past.

"I'll manage," he grunted. Aeris frowned and gave him an indignant snort.

"Like I'll let you just brush me off that easily," she answered. She stood up and looked to the kitchen. "Mom! I'm taking Cloud to Sector Seven! I'll be back later!"

Elmyra hurried back out of the kitchen, wiping her hands, even before Aeris had finished speaking, clearly distressed by what her daughter had just suggested.

"But, Aeris," she began to say, and then looked at her daughter's expression. After a moment, she sighed, shaking her head. "Oh, like I'll change your min once its been made up," she muttered. "Still, you can't go now; Shinra won't permit transit between gates, and the night hours are far too dangerous for you to be moving through the ruins. You should at least wait until morning." Aeris seemed about to argue, but the logic of her mother's words sunk in and she nodded.

"Yeah, you're right," she said, relenting. "I guess that means that you'll have to spend the night, Cloud."

"I don't want to intrude," he began to say, but Elmyra shook her head adamantly.

"We have an extra bedroom," she told him. "And I want to repay you for protecting my daughter like you did. I insist."

Cloud glanced between the two women, and then shrugged, before nodding.

"Might as well, especially after the day I've had," he replied tiredly.


Night had fallen over Midgar, a jet-black cloak of polluted, neon-lit clouds and a dome of pure shadow descending over the heavens. However, nighttime did little to stop Shinra's constant hustle and bustle, and the interior of the vast Shinra Tower, the central headquarters of the entire Shinra corporate empire, was abuzz with busy workers.

The uppermost level of the seventy-one stories of the Shinra Tower was dedicated exclusively to Alexander Louis Shinra's vast office. The titanic desk that the corporate leader sat behind dominate done end of the room, and the rest was largely open space and ornate marble pillars, with a vast plate glass window behind the President's desk that allowed him a panoramic view of the sprawling metropolis of Midgar. No other building even approached the Shinra Tower's height, and President Shinra did his best to ensure that didn't change.

Today, the large office featured only a few inhabitants, among them Shinra himself. He sat behind the desk, looking over the reports from the dock city of Junon, which served as the largest port on the Midgar continent, and was Shinra's second largest base of operations. His son, Rufus Shinra, was administrating that city at the moment, and had written this report personally. After finishing the report, Shinra looked up at the quintet of men in the room with him.

On the right stood the blue-suited forms of the trio of Turk agents present: Tachibana Tseng, head of the Turk Special Operations Agency, along with his two principal agents, the red-haired and lackadaisical Reno D'Angelo, and the silent, collected bald form of Rudolph King. The Turks were all well at ease, for they already knew the plan they had been assigned. Reno and Rude, in particular, were cool and collected, despite the fact that they had returned no more than a few hours ago from another failed attempt to capture an extremely high value target.

The fourth man was the portly figure of Ernst Heidegger, resplendent in his green uniform, and was actually smiling beneath his thick beard. The fifth man, however, was not happy at all.

He wore a dark blue business suit, not unlike the Turks' uniform, but much more civilian in design. His black hair was long, but pulled back into a ponytail behind his head as best as it could be. A short, immaculately trimmed black goatee and mustache ringed the lips and chin of his slender face.

ReeveTuetsi was the head of Shinra's Urban Development division, the element that oversaw all aspects of the administration and expansion of Shinra cities, towns, and holdings, and had, many decades ago, supplanted the mayoral offices of Midgar, Junon, and other cities. As it was Reeve's job to observe, oversee, and promote the well-fare and well-being of Shinra cities and its citizens, he was one of the few true "honest" men in Shinra, not actively involved with suppression of those who wouldn't be dominated by Shinra or utilizing Mako technology to drain life force from the planet itself.

"Mr. President, you can't be serious," he protested, but knew, deep down, that he didn't have much hope to dissuade the President from this insane plot of his. It was relatively easy for him to be ignored, being one of the weakest of Shinra's division heads

"Reeve, I understand you reservations," Shinra replied. "But I also understand the danger that AVALANCHE poses to us, even if the citizenry doesn't. They survived the helicopter ambush, and according to Reno and Rude's report, the SOLDIER working with them was able to affect the rescue of the Ancient. Their continued survival is unacceptable."

"There must be easier ways than destroying entire sectors!" Reeve said, shaking his head, his voice desperate. "This can't happen!"

"It already has," Shinra replied coldly. He glanced to Tseng and his agents, brushing Reeve off. The division head wanted to protest, but he found it hard to go up against Shinra, especially when he had just so easily ignored him. Shinra, and everyone else in the room, knew this as well: Reeve was a pushover.

"Status of Sector Seven's plate?" Shinra asked.

"It will take some time to finish preparations," Tseng replied. "It would be very easy if we could just execute it, but as you've requested, we have to cover our tracks and avoid any Shinra involvement."

"Corneo knows what we need him to know, correct?"

"Yes, sir," Tseng answered. "Once AVALANCHE decides that they have to deal with him, they will learn the truth about our plans. Once that happens, they will rush to the site in an instant, and we will spring the trap."

"Heidegger, you have the Turks' assistance ready for when AVALANCHE attempts to stop the operation?"

"Yes sir," Heidegger answered. "I have two companies of infantry, as well as a platoon of airborne strike troops and a squadron of transport helicopters on standby. Once AVALANCHE takes the bait, we'll take them."

"This is insane!" Reeve burst in, stepping forward. "You people are talking about wiping out an entire sector! Think of how many people will be killed, and how much damage will occur to our economy!" If he couldn't hurt them in their consciences, Reeve resolved, he'd hit them where it hurt: the pocketbook.

"Sector Seven is irrelevant," Shinra answered coldly. "Midgar is irrelevant. Tseng, you have the location of the Ancient. The time has come to stop trying to coerce or convince her to join us. Locate her, capture her. Do whatever it takes, and use whatever force is necessary. I want that girl, and I want her one week ago. Understand?"

"Yes sir," Tseng replied with a sharp salute.

"Reno and Rude will handle the operation," Shinra continued. "Heidegger will provide military support. Give the Turks whatever they need to finish their mission, but keep in mind that Shinra must seem to be attempting to stop the rebels, not the other way around."

'Understood, Mr. President!" Heidegger replied.

"But-" Reeve began to say.

"Reeve, you look tired. Take the rest of the day off. Tomorrow too. You should prepare a report detailing the losses we will suffer when Sector seven is destroyed, and how much it may cost to rebuild."

Reeve stood stock still for a moment, and finally nodded.

"Yes, Mr. President. I will."

"Good. This time tomorrow, I expect that AVALANCHE will become nothing more than a statistic, lumped among those in Sector Seven who did not bother to report their presence. That is all. Dismissed."


-
You guys may note that I'm taking the liberty of assigning names to characters who may be known by only first or last names. Generally, these reflect names I'd imagine they'd actually have. Reno strikes me as simply having a cool-sounding last name like "D'Angelo". Rude seems to have that simple, basic name thing going on, and "King" at least to me, fits him well. "Tachibana" fits Tseng's apparently Asian name theme, though "Tseng" is more Chinese while 'Tachibana' is clearly Japanese. This is something of a poke at the generic Asian culture usually encountered in RPG's. (also, props to Solid Shark for informing me of Reeve's official last name)

Also, I know her name is supposed to be "Aerith." I also don't care. I know her as "Aeris." Therefore, she is "Aeris." Not "Aerith." Live with it.