'Hello, hello!'

James opened his eyes and looked up to see a young woman standing over him. He surmised that she was obviously the female voice talking, but did not see anybody else. Who the hell was the other person talking to me? He asked himself. He examined this new girl critically.

She looked very young, as though she was in her early twenties. Her hair was waist length, and a light brown in colour. Two strands stuck out slightly and then fell down, concealing her cheeks. She brushed her hair out of her way, and reached back to feel the pale green jewel which was fastening her hair into a pony tail. She wore a strappy dress that was a light and pale pink in colour, with a darker pink jacket over the top. The jacket had short sleeves, and reached to just under her ribcage. At her wrists were thick, chunky silver bracelets. Her feet were covered by light brown boots. James vaguely recognised her.

'You okay?' she asked.

'I…I think so,' James replied.

'You came crashing through the roof. This is a church in the Sector 5 slums, you see,' she explained. 'You gave me quite a fright!'

'I came crashing through?'

'The roof and the flower bed you landed on must have broken your fall. You're very lucky!'

James looked around at what he was laying on. He saw the crumpled flowers surrounding him.

'Flower bed…..this is yours? I'm sorry.'

'It's okay,' the girl replies. 'The flowers here are pretty resilient, as this is a sacred place. They say that you can't grow things like grass and flowers in Midgar, but for some reason, they have no problem blooming here. I love it here.'

Her voice took on a slightly misty tone as she stared at the church. She shook her head and went back to nursing the remaining plants as James came over to her.

'So, we meet again,' she stated simply. 'Don't you remember me?'

James nodded.

'You do?' she sounded pleased by this.

James nodded again.

'Yeah, I remember you. You were the town drunk.'

He had meant for that to come out as a joke, but the girl seemed somewhat unimpressed. She gave him a cold look.

'Oh, how rude! I'll forgive you, since you bought a flower from me,' she beamed at him. 'Do you have any materia?'

James showed her the wrist of his right glove, so that she could see the glowing green ball.

'Some,' he told her. 'But nowadays, you can find materia anywhere. Just even lying around on the ground.'

'Mine's special,' said the flower girl, with a slightly reproachful look. 'It's good for absolutely nothing.'

'Good for nothing?...You probably don't really know how to use it,' suggested James.

'No, I do,' replied the girl. 'But, it just doesn't seem to do anything. It makes me feel safe, because it used to be my mother's. Say, I feel like talking. Do you? I mean, after all, here we are meeting again.'

'Yeah, fine. I don't mind,' said James.

'Okay, wait here a minute.'

With that, the flower girl turned away from James whilst she finished looking after the rest of the flowers in the church. James watched her as she worked, and made his way over to her again. She cast him a dismissive 'I'll only be a minute' before moving on again.

'Oh!' exclaimed the flower girl. 'We don't even know each other's names, do we? My name is Eve, and, obviously…I'm the flower girl.'

'James,' the ex-SOLDIER introduced himself, 'and me…I do a bit of everything.'

'Ahh…a jack of all trades.' Eve giggled.

'Yeah, I do whatever's neede-….why are you laughing?' he shot suspiciously at her. 'What's so funny?'

'Sorry,' apologised Eve, 'I just…'

Her voice trailed off as she saw a figure moving outside the church door. She faced James again, a look of badly concealed panic on her face. She reached down and picked up a staff that was lying on the ground.

'Say,' she brightly began, 'have you ever been a bodyguard? I mean, you said that you do everything…'

'Yeah…'

'Well, in that case, get me out of here!' she hissed at him in a low voice. 'Please. Take me home.'

'Alright, but it'll cost you,' retorted James. Eve thought for a minute.

'How about if I go out with you once?' she suggested.

James was now paying more attention to somebody else who had just come through the door and was walking between the pews. There were several other uniformed men behind them, dressed brightly in bright blue and black.

The only one that was not wearing that uniform seemed to be wearing one of a different sort. He had dark hair, perhaps red, perhaps brown. It was fairly long, and needed to be scraped back into a ponytail. His clothes were a mess. His white shirt was untucked, and the top two buttons were undone. He had a royal blue blazer over the top of his wrinkled shirt which were the same colour as his trousers. His shoes were black.

'I don't know who you are but…..' he faltered. 'You don't know me…?'

There was a blinding flash of white light in James' head, which lasted for less than a split second.

'I know you…'

'Oh yeah, I know you.' James' voice had turned to disgusted. 'That uniform…'

The badly dressed man shot James a strange look.

'Hey sis, this one's a little weird.'

'Shut up!' James shot at him. 'You Shinra spy!'

'Tom,' called one of the Shinra soldiers. 'Shall we take him out for you?'

Tom gave James a thoughtful look.

'Hmmm…I'm not sure. I haven't decided yet.'

'Don't you dare fight here!' exclaimed Eve, glaring at Tom. 'You'll ruin the flowers! Go somewhere else, the exit is back there.'

She cast a hand behind her. She and James made their way to the next area of the church, leaving Tom with the three Shinra soldiers. Tom was still looking thoughtfully at where James had exited with Eve.

'Those eyes…they were….Mako eyes.' Tom shook his head and turned back to the Shinra soldiers. 'Alright you lot, back to work.'

He took a step forwards, and then stopped abruptly. He turned back to the trio.

'And…don't step on the flowers,' he added as an after thought. The soldiers stared at his feet.

'Hey Tom, you just stepped on 'em!'

'They're all ruined!'

'You're gonna catch holy hell!'

Tom rolled his eyes sarcastically to himself and moved quickly away.

James and Eve were in the back of the church. There were a number of ramps and ledges which led to the top, just underneath the roof, where there were sturdy wooden beams, with several barrels stood at certain points.

The pair proceeded to a higher level of the church when Tom and the three Shinra soldiers came after them.

'There! They're over there! Don't let them get away!' ordered Tom, pointing up at them both.

'What are we going to do?' asked Eve, gaping at James.

'Well, do you want them to catch us?' he asked. Eve shook her head. 'Then all we can do is get the hell out of here!'

James jumped over a small gap to the next platform, Eve lingering behind.

'Come on Eve, this way!'

She merely looked at him as though he was mad. Her gaze fell down to ground level where Tom and the Shinra soldiers were watching, coming closer.

'Alright, alright, I'll hold them off!' called James to her.

'Right!' replied Eve, 'please, just make sure that they don't get through!'

'I won't.'

'She's getting away! The Ancient is getting away!' screamed Tom, pointing at Eve and yelling furiously at the soldiers. 'Attack! Attack!'

They raised their rifles and shot madly at her, coming close to hitting her with the bullets. She screamed loudly and slid back down to a lower level, further away from James and closer to Tom, the Turk.

'Eve!' called James, leaning as close to the edge of the platform he was on as possible.

'Do you think we killed her?' asked Tom, looking at Eve's form on the level above. 'Oh well. As far as I'm concerned, they shouldn't have put up a fight!'

'James, help me!' called Eve, getting back to her feet.

He looked up and saw the barrels on the beams. He got an idea, and ran up to the higher level, over to the barrels.

The flower girl turned to the soldier who was creeping up on her left, closer and closer.

'Eaygh!'

James was looking at the position of Eve and the soldier, and selected a barrel…