Chapter 2: Many Meetings
Enzeru awoke with the sun in her eyes. The rain had stopped and disappeared into the night. She stretched and stood up beside the bed. "This is a nice place, I think I will stay awhile," Enzeru whispered to herself as she opened the curtains covering her window and peered outside.
There was a man walking out of the building and getting o a big black motor cycle. She figured he was the boyfriend of the woman running the bar after she heard Tifa call after him, "And call me when you get there Cloud." Without replying the man known as Cloud sped away on his bike.
Enzeru opened the door to her room and walked down the hall, in her socks. Enzeru walked over to the stairs as Tiffa was walking up them. "Sorry if I woke you up," Tiffa said with a smile. "I was already up. You wouldn't happen to need any help around here, would you?" Enzeru asked.
"As a matter of fact it would be nice to have a little extra help cleaning the rooms. I apologize if your rooms was dirty, I did not have time to clean it before you went to bed," Tiffa continued up the stairs, "The cleaning supplies are in that room over there," Tiffa pointed to a closet, "You don't have to do anything if you don't want to."
"Well, I have nothing else going on so I might as well do something." Enzeru walked over to the closet and opened the door. She grabbed a broom and a dusting cloth. "If only Shinra would spend more time developing robots to clean and not to fight this world would be a much better place." Tiffa smiled, "I agree completely. And if they had not built those reactors then maybe the planet would not be so wounded."
Tiffa paused a moment, "Is it true what they say about parts of the land dieing?" Enzeru nodded, "Yes, it is true. I have seen it." Tiffa shook her head, "Something needs to be done." Enzeru nodded, "I've been trying to help people as much as I can, but all that seems to happen is the land dies again as soon as I use my magic."
"Whoa, hold on a moment. You can use your magic on the land to heal it?" Tiffa asked. "I can cause rain in much needed areas to revive to soil. Sadly that only fixes the problem for a little while and it attracts too much unwanted attention."
Tiffa looked as if she was finally beginning to understand, "The gangs wish to use you to make a profit and try to buy out Shinra, don't they?" Enzeru nodded, "Most of them. Others are mostly just concerned about creating a comfortable life for themselves."
Enzeru walked over to her room and stopped in the doorway, "Remember the storm last night? That was me protecting myself. Don't worry about anything happening while I'm here, I can fight well enough." Tiffa smiled and nodded, "Thanks for clearing things up."
Enzeru took out her portable music player, put on her headphones, and set to work cleaning the room. It was not terribly messy, but it was still below her standards. As she cleaned she danced to the music.
Meanwhile downstairs two men in black suits had arrived. Tiffa was speaking to them while Enzeru continued to clean her room.
"Have any travelers been through here since last night?" A tall bald man with dark skin and sunglasses asked. "I get so many people in here I can hardly keep track any more," Tiffa replied as she wiped off the bar with a damp cloth.
"We're looking for a woman with hair the same color as mine and eyes the color of the sky. Have you seen a beauty like her wandering around lately?" A man with red hair and an unkempt appearance asked. "I can not recall any beautiful people coming in here."
"Do you mind if we have a look around?" The dark man asked. "As long as you stay out of my way while I'm trying to clean we won't have a problem. I will be cleaning rooms one and two, so I suggest you start with three," Tiffa replied. These two men had fought her before and had seen what she was like when she was angry. They decided it was best to not get in her way.
Enzeru continued cleaning her room and dancing to her music. Before she knew it she was singing along in perfect pitch. She was not singing very loudly because she was self conscious about her voice, but it was enough for the red headed man to hear her.
Enzeru had pulled the chair out from the writing desk and was dusting the wardrobe beside the window. She did not hear the door open behind her, but she heard it shut. She turned off her music player and took off her headphones. Enzeru slowly turned around.
"So this is where you were hiding, my lovely goddess. Rufus is looking forward to meeting you," the red headed man said with a smile. "And if I refuse?" Enzeru asked. "No one refuses a Shinra," He replied. "I was afraid of that," Enzeru said and prepared to fight.
She noticed the chair in the center of the room directly between her and the man. The door was right behind him. If only she could reach the door and warn the inn keeper. Enzeru took a run for the chair, jumped on the seat and pushed off the back of it. She then used the man's shoulders to flip over to the door. Someone started to open the door and she kicked it shut.
"Well, then, looks like we're stuck in here together," the man said with a smirk. "I'm never stuck," Enzeru said as she wedges a second chair under the door knob, "I just want things to remain fair."
"Fair, huh? Well, I guess it's fair I tell you my name since I already know yours. I'm Reno, the leader of the Turks. When you start working for Shinra we will be seeing a lot of each other." At this statement Enzeru sneered, "I will never work for him."
"What would be fair is if you gave her a choice," a man's voice spoke from a dark corner. "Who's there, are you one of them?" Enzeru asked, turning from the corner to Reno, trying to figure out which one she should defend against first.
"Relax, Enzeru, I'm not from Shinra. I work alone," the man came out of the shadow and walked between Enzeru and Reno. He faced Reno, "I know you don't want to fight me so I will let you leave."
"I'm not leaving without Enzeru. Rufus gave me orders and it's my job to follow them Vincent," Reno replied. Enzeru looked at the two men, "I would like to know why everyone is really after me. I know I have special powers but why is it so significant?"
"Enzeru," Vincent began, "You are a goddess. The planet gave birth to you so that you might revive it if it began to die. There should be two other goddesses that will help you. I know one of them went back to the life stream." Enzeru sighed, "But why me?"
"You can cause massive storms that can either destroy or create a landscape. Not to mention your stunning good looks," Reno said with a cheesy grin. "Flattery will not get you anywhere with me," Enzeru replied. "You might as well leave empty handed, she has decided not to go with you," Vincent's voice was so low it was almost a whisper.
Reno's cell phone rang, "One moment." He answered, "Hello? Oh, uh, boss, how are you? I'm working on it. Yeah, I found her, but there is a slight problem. Vincent found her at the same time. Yes sir. I will." Reno hung up the phone, "It looks like I'm not going anywhere until you change your mind."
"I'm not going to change my mind. I refuse to go anywhere near Shinra," Enzeru sat in the chair blocking the door. "I'm not going anywhere either," Vincent replied, "It is my duty to protect you now that I have found you. After all, I have a debt to repay to society."
"I really need to find a new place to live, somewhere where people will not bother me all the time and try to force me to do what they want and not bother asking me what I want to do," Enzeru said with a sigh.
"I know the perfect place," Vincent began, "It's in the apartments above the slums." Enzeru nodded in reply, "Perhaps you can show me where they are." Vincent nodded and looked over at Reno, "He will probably follow us." "Nothing we can do about it if he does."
"Hey, I'm standing right here, I can hear you," Reno waved his arms. Enzeru laughed, "Maybe having him around would not be so bad if he would stop trying to force me to work for Shinra." Reno sighed, "Fine I'll stop trying to force you… but I will continue to bother you about it."
Enzeru stood up from the chair and moved it out of the way. The three of them walked out of the room. "Are you alright?" Tiffa asked Enzeru. "I'm alright. Vincent knows of a safer place to stay so I'm going there." Tiffa looked at Reno, "And what about him?" "He is allowed to follow me if he does not try to force me to work for Shinra."
"You didn't," the tall man began but Reno interrupted. "Trust me, Rude; I know what I'm doing." "Well, you better be right. I don't want to have to give a bad report to the boss." Reno kept walking without replying to this, "Oh, and I'm going to barrow the helicopter, you can go on back to HQ and talk to Rufus yourself. And just so you know, Airith was the goddess of life."
Enzeru and Vincent left and Reno ran to catch up. "We can take the helicopter, it will be much faster and there will be less chance of people following us." Vincent nodded, "But if there is any sign of you turning to any known location of Shinra Corp I will take over the helicopter." Reno glared and then shrugged it off, "Fine by me."
The three of them got into the helicopter and took off for the condos above the slums.
Want to know what happens next? Keep checking back for chapter 3.