Whoa, I'm like a chapter makin' machineeeeee

Here's 8, flipping back to Aerith and Iori's story.

More pirates, sword fighting, rum...and pixie dust?

Anywho, I love my reviewers3 Seriously, you guys are rocking my world right now, thank you so so so so very much. I love you T^T haha.

One thing I'd like to mention, Reno gets a bit OOC. The way he speaks of Shinra and whatnot makes him sound not to happy with his employer, which we all know, he's like Shinra's favorite and loyal lapdog.

Not totally OOC, just a wee bit.

And, haha, I can't believe you dolls are shipping Iori and Aerith. I'm sorry....but.... don't get too attached....Seriously.... I have too much Clerith imbedded.

But, alas, I'm planning on somesort of fanservice, but it won't be of full service. Catch my drift. (And, no, it's not going to be a citrus moment, guh, not my style _).

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Outside the prison area of The Interceptor, The group retrieved all there belongings and ran out the cells. The Turks took out the brightly colored pirates, Rude knocking his out with his bare hands while the other suffered electric shock by Reno's electromagnetic rod.

"Heh," Reno chuckled, "Coast is clear."

The group then charged up a stairwell and made it up to the door where Iori had blown off the door with his violet flames. They waited and began to come up with a strategy to retake the ship and get rid of one set of pirates.

"Outside is Hook and his gang," Jack said, peering through the space where once a door hung without giving himself or the rest of the group away.

Iori looked out too, trying to formulate some plan in his head. "I say we charge out and toss Hook and the rest over board."

Reno laughed, almost too loud. "Okay, we go out there, and were done for. Remember, they overpowered us, Red." Iori huffed in annoyance.

Iori, Reno and Jack began squabbling over leadership roles and what the rest of the group should be doing. In the mean time, Aerith began feeling a particular presence around her. Soon, popping from the back of her head, a yellow glow appeared and hovered over her face. Rude too, stared at this phenomenon, pushing his glasses down a bit to get a better look. Aerith glared for a moment, adjusting to the bright glowing light to see a tiny figure inside of it. She then turned her head to Rude.

"Is this a…"

"…fairy?" he asked back, finishing her sentence.

The tiny fairy responded to their question by circling around Aerith and Rude and then flying to the blown out door. Jack noticed the circling fairy and tried swatting it away.

"Stupid fireflies," he said after hitting the glowing figure.

The fairy went flying and Aerith ran after it. She dove forward and caught the creature in her hands, creating a protective shell around it.

"Watch it Jack, it's not a bug!" Aerith protested, opening her hand to check to see if the fairy was all right.

"The hell is that thing?" Reno asked, wrinkling his nose in disgust.

Rude shuffled his feet and responded, "A fairy…maybe."

Reno burst out laughing loudly again. "A fairy?! Oh Rude, you kill me, yo!"

"Not before I do!" and old voice came out of nowhere.

"Captain Hook!" Iori exclaimed.

"Wah-hah-hah! You think you can escape me?" The captain question sadistically.

"Not without me and Tink's help!" a young boy yelled from the inside of the ship behind the group.

Aerith jumped seeing the boy come right up to her and opening up her hands to see the little fairy himself.

"Aw, Tinkerbelle, are you okay?" the boy said to the fairy. The creature flew up an circled around him as he giggled loudly.

"P-Peter Pan!" Hook yelled out in a terrified voice. "Blast you, boy!"

The boy stuck out his tongue. "Hehe, the one and only!" Then he turned to Aerith and said, "Oh, thanks for taking care of Tink."

Aerith smiled and nodded while the fairy flew around her head and then kissed her nose. She giggled and then let out a small sneeze after getting some remnants of gold fairy dust in her nose.

"Not to break up the moment, lassy, but there is a battle to be fought here," Jack added, clearly explaining the phrase 'grin and bare it.'

Aerith nodded and looked back to Peter Pan, but he was already out on deck, clashing swords with Captain Hook. The other men of the group each got out their weapons and charged out the door to assist the boy in the battle against the other pirates. She watched behind the opening with Tinkerbelle as Reno and Rude fought back to back, Iori flailing his body as he hurled fireballs at his enemies, and surprisingly, Jack picked up a sword and skillfully battled in formal swordsmanship.

Unfortunately, Captain Hook caught Peter in a corner, his silver hook at the boy's throat. The old pirate grinned, flashing rows of long teeth.

"Aye, boy, have you any last words?" Hook said with a sadistic tone. Peter shivered and took a long gulp of air.

Aerith saw this and immediately ran towards the boy. "Peter! No!" she exclaimed, Tinkerbelle closely following her. The fairy grabbed the captain's silver hook and tried forcing it off Peter, but was smacked and flown away. Aerith coming from behind tried grabbing Hook's arm and pulling it away from Peter, but just the same as the fairy, the old pirate threw her down into a canon, knocking her head and causing her to go unconscious.

Peter was infuriated and found the strength to push Hook off of him and shoot up into the air, hovering above the pirate. "How dare you hurt my friends! You'll pay, Hook!" The boy flew and grabbed his daggered and swooped down to fight off hook.

From the corner of his eye, Jack saw Aerith lying motionless on the deck and yelled out to the other fighters, "The lass is down! Get the old dog!" Everyone's heads turned from their remaining opponents to the cannons and the battle between Captain Hook and Peter.

Rude ran to Aerith and picked her up from the deck and ran her to a safer spot. Iori and Reno ran for Hook, who was now fighting off three opponents at once. Reno stopped at looked up to Peter blocking off a slash from a sword the old pirate acquired.

"Yo, kid!" Reno shouted up to Peter. "How'd you get up there?!"

After kicking Hook in a face and sending straight into Iori's fiery grasp, he shouted back, "Just a bit a fairy dust will do the trick. Oh! And a single happy thought!" And, right on cue, Tinkerbelle swirled around Reno, sprinkling gold dust all around him. Peter smiled and yelled, "Now your happy thought!"

Reno sniggered at Hook and said, "Yo, I got it! It's kicking this pirate's old ass!" Once Reno spoke, his lanky body lifted off the ground, though not as graceful as Peter.

The boy swooped in front of Reno and laughed, "See, it's easy! Now whatcha plannin' on doing up here?!"

Reno snorted and laughed. "Throw Hook into the waters and electrocute the bastard!"

Peter's eyed widened as he threw his hands over his ears. "My virgin ears!" Reno gave him an odd look, but then the boy released his hands off his head and stuck out his tongue in a joking matter. "Just kidding!"

Reno found this surprisingly funny and said to Peter. "Yo, kid, I think I kinda like you."

Peter just wrinkled his nose and replied, "Sorry, I've already got Wendy back in Neverland." Reno choked for a moment until Peter swooped away and flew down to the battling Hook and Iori.

"Give me a hand down here!" Iori shouted as the boy flew to him.

"No, give me his!" Peter shouted back, reaching out to the fighters.

"Huh?" Iori gave the boy a puzzled look.

Not before long, Peter flew down and grabbed the old pirate by his silvery hook and lifted him off the ground. Hook tried to snatch Peter's hands away, but he couldn't reach him well enough.

"Boy, you're getting fat Hook!" Peter joked, flying the captain over the waters away from the boat. "Ready to take a swim, old buddy?"

Hook squirmed, trying to now hold onto Peter for dear life. "Please! Don't let me go! I beg you!" Peter just shook his head.

"Begging won't be enough! Not after hurting Tink and Aerith! Say goodbye, you old dog!" Peter shouted, letting go of the captain's hook.

The old pirate fell, screaming in fear as he plummeted into the water, trying to stay afloat. Soon, Reno hovered over him, learning quickly how to control his flying. Hovering over Hook's body that was splashing to keep above water, the red headed Turk tapped his electro rod on his shoulder.

"Ever known why it's dangerous to stand in the rain during a storm?" Reno toyed, watching Hook struggle to swim. The Turk chuckled for a moment. Then his face got serious and shouted, "Because of this!"

Reno quickly sent a bolt of electricity into Hook, singeing all of the hair's on his head and his body soon became immobile. The old pirate sank into the deep blue waters and soon to be the final resting place of Captain James Hook.

Once Reno got back on board the ship, the group huddled around Aerith, who began to regain her consciousness. She shifted her eyes slowly around to see Peter, Jack, Iori, Reno and Rude all hovering over her in a circles of distinct faces. Even Tinkerbelle popped through a gap in the ring and landed on Aerith's stomach.

"Hook's gone," Peter smiled reaching his hand out to Aerith. She took hold of it and slid herself up onto her backside.

"You all right, lass?" Jack asked after she sat up. She just nodded and pushed her hair away from her face.

"What happened to Captain Hook?" she asked, looking at each of the guys individually.

Reno snickered and replied, "Let's just say he's not very good at swimming." Rude, too, let out a tiny grin. Aerith's eyes lowered in disappointment. There's no changing a Turk.

Iori forced himself to stand up straight and looked out into the sea. "I think it's best we get going. We best send everyone off in the rescue boats and take it for ourselves."

Jack let out a toothy grin, his gold tooth glimmering. "Aye, so ye be sayin' we commandeer this ship?" Iori just let a smile escape his face. Jack jump and swung his dreads around and began shouting out orders. "Well then, mates, hoist the anchor, free the sails! Rid the corpses off my ship! Get me a bottle of rum below deck!" His voice trailed off as he headed towards to ships wheel to gain control of the boat. Iori and Rude, Peter, and Tinkerbelle went off to help fix up the ship, leaving Reno and Aerith alone near the door with the blown out hole.

"So," she began, lifting her green eyes up to Reno's dusty blues. "You killed him, didn't you?"

Reno shook his head. "I'm not about to let you lecture me about murder."

Aerith let out a small cry, "But you don't even seem to care! It's like, second nature for you!"

Reno paused for a moment. He wanted to yell so badly but he just waited to regain his cool. "You know, Gainsborough, I told you this before, you're not completely innocent here."

Aerith shook her head. "Killing so many people back home! Without a thought or care! Those were my friends down there!"

Finally, Reno snapped. "Your friends?! YOUR FRIENDS?! How dare you! You didn't think after blowing up those reactors you didn't kill my friends?! Ha, yeah! Hard to believe right? Well guess what, not everyone from Shinra were psychopathic murderers! Nooo, no! Goddamnit, some of them were innocent people who just so happen to work for Shinra to support themselves and their families. AND YOU KILLED THEM! Don't tell me I killed your slum friends when some of them were scumbag drug addicts and rapists! No ones safe, no matter where we're from!"

Reno finished yelling at her and panting heavily. Everyone heard but said nothing. Not even Iori, who so happened to be constantly coming to her aide. Not even he could justify the situation. They just continued working and acting as though nothing happened. Aerith quivered, a tear rolling down her bright pink cheeks.

Reno straightened out his disheveled self and peered down to her. "I'm not going to try to make Shinra into something it's not. We clearly screwed up." His voice was calmer than before, trying to get back to his cool. He squatted himself down to Aerith's line of sight and looked hard at her face. It was quiet for a second until he finally spoke up. "You would, by now, say back ' But, it was for the good of the planet', right? Well, killing in the name of is still killing, yo. No matter who you are."

Those were his last words before he joined Rude in hanging and tying the masts to get the ship set assail. Aerith just held her knees and cried into them softly, once in a while letting out a small sniff escape. No matter which way she looked at it, she caused even innocent Shinra employee's hardships. She was lost in her thoughts trying to figure out other ways to explain to herself why everything had to happen the way they did.

A few hours later, in the twilight of the night sky, Aerith and the boys sat in the captain's quarters. Tinkerbelle had cast a heavily load of fairy dust onto The Interceptor, coated the boat in golden residue that let the ship sail into the cosmos, slowly passing the millions of stars littering the night sky.

Peter and Tinkerbelle soon left the ship to venture back to Neverland cheerfully waving goodbye and assuring Aerith that one day he would see her again. Then he waved back to the men and claimed 'That was the most fun game he had ever played and would love to play again sometime.' The group just looked at each other in bewilderment as the boy and his fairy drifted out into the night sky, heading towards the second brightest star to the left and disappeared.

Now, Aerith found herself amongst dirty, smelly, drunken, stupid, cocksure men. They all passed around a bottle of age rum, every group member, including the reclusive Rude, took a shot at the bottle. Reno and Jack were also taking apart in rolling tobacco and taking hits off each other's cigarette, Iori soon joining suite the drunker he got. Aerith sat alone in her thick wooden throne of a dinner chair and watched annoyingly as the men turned back into boys.

"…And then the tramp slapped me, right on me face, right here, aye!" Jack roared out in laughter, "Then I said, I said tuh her, 'sorreh, love, but I this itch on me back… Which somehow, s-somehow located on me sea beast, aye!" Iori burst out into a thunderous cackle while Reno couldn't seem to pick his head up from the table, creating a pool of tears from laughing.

"J-Jack! P-Please…hahaha, s-stop! You'll make m-me s-sick!, Bawhahaha," Reno yelled, holding his stomach from the painful laughing. Rude just sat smiling in a drunken stupor.

Aerith had enough of them and walked out of the room. She wandered down a hallway, leading into the smaller cabins that her and Iori has reserved earlier before the pirates jumped on desk.

Minutes later, Jack looked around the captain's quarters and asked with a heavy slur, "Now,w-wait uh second. Lasseh? Aye?" The other men slowly alerted themselves and attempted to look around the room for Aerith.

"Yo, J-Jack," Reno stuttered out, "Ish she gone?"

Iori looked at Reno and mumbled, "You shud guh find 'er, Red muh friend…Pfft hahaha." Iori was too inebriated to walk even five steps from his seat.

Reno swayed while standing up and saluted at the table. "Sirsh, I'm gunna find thah lasshy! Aye aye!" The rest of the table saluted the red headed Turk, Iori still uncontrollably laughing at his own joke a few seconds earlier. Reno put out his cigarette on the thick wooden dinner table and marched out of the cabin hold, swaggering the whole way.

Outside he felt his way around the ship, already completely lost. Not that he really could remember why he felt the captain's cabin in the first places he meandered the corridors until the ship swayed a little, causing the loose footed Turk to fall all over the place and crash into a door, bursting it open.

Aerith would've screamed seeing a figure bursting through the door, but she had enough sense to realize she and the men were the only people left on the boat and knew just as well that it had to be one of the drunken fools. But disappointment hit hard seeing it was Reno.

"What do you want, now?" Aerith asked bored, crossing her arms and rolling her eyes.

Reno grabbed onto the door handle to pick himself back up and waddled over to Aerith and plopped himself next to her on the bed. He gave her a goofy smile and threw himself on his back to the bed. Aerith just sighed heavily in irritation.

"Ohh, Aerith-th… Jusht relaxuh," his slurring continued.

"Unless you have something important to say, then just go," she snapped, turning her head away from him.

Reno closed his eyes and tried pushing himself back up into a seating position. He rested his body on the wood paneling alongside the bed then looked at Aerith.

"I'm gunna try to shay thish as besht as I can…" he began, trying to fix his cottonmouth issues. Aerith still turned her back to him. "Aerith, do ya know why all of uh shudden I like Tifa?"

Aerith quickly turned her head to Reno and glared at him wide eyed. Why is he bringing this up now? Still, he stuck her curiosity, so she decided to give him some attention.

Reno was playing around with his mouth until he managed to speak up properly. "Tifa wash in love wif Cloud." He winced at the sound of his own voice. He tried to annunciate better. "But, you died. Sho, Cloud died too. Then he left our world. He left her brokuhn. Pieces." Much better Reno.

Aerith mouthed quietly, "Broken?"

Reno nodded a heavy nod. "All alone, tuh look after a coupla kidsh." Damnit, screwed up again. "Since she had the only bar in town, I went thar—Th-there." He rubbed his eyes then down across his face. "She shoon started talking to me. Out of nowhere. I sh-thought it was really we-ird. B-but, she was lonely. One night, she began telling me everysh-thing." Aerith still listened intentivly. She was more or less waiting for the part were Tifa punches Reno out of the bar. He continued speaking, a bit clearer than when he came into the room with. "She shed all the sh-same things I told you. Remember?" His eyes were wide and somehow, innocent. Like, he really thought she would've forgotten his lecture earlier.

"Yes, Reno, I remember," Aerith said slowly. Reno nodded and smiled, as if the whole situation had blown over.

"Well, she told me, told me she hate that that stupid guy left. She was broken in sho-so many pleyshes…P-places. So, we talked more. About how each of ush-us felt w-when we fought for the other sh-side." Reno then pointed to himself and began explaining the night more with his eyes still wide, looking for Aerith's understanding. "I told her that I know Shinra was bad. B-but, the Turks. I love them. I ain't afraid to say it. I love my Turks. Rude, he's so beautiful. I love him, yo, I do." Aerith nearly burst into giggles before she saw how over emotional Reno was becoming. He continued, "I told her I love my Turks and she killed my friends. So, I killed her friends. Not because i-in spite. N-no! Because it was my job. My Turk job. She cried, yo."

Aerith was astonished. Tifa had such a hard shell; was she sure to believe the drunken Reno that her beautiful, strong willed friend cried in front of him? Then, removed from her own thoughts, she saw Reno curled up into a ball.

"Aerith, you can't tell Rude, okay?" Aerith looked at him confused, but Reno continued. "You can't tell him, yo, no way."

"Tell him what?" she asked back, her patience with the Turk getting thin.

Reno choked for a second, his blue eyes looking heavy. "I cried too. I loved my Turks." Aerith looked at the now tear stained Reno who just looked at her with a drunken sadness.

At the door, Rude appeared, who had seemed to be listening to the whole thing. He entered in walking to Reno, who just sat staring the floor with tear filled eyes. Rude just nodded at Aerith, then grabbing his friend to carry him out the door. Just before he turned his head, she caught a glimpse into Rude's eyes under his shades, a pair of red, puffy orbs that were focused on his partner. Aerith realized, yes, even Turk's cry for their lost ones.

Rude took Reno to the captain's quarters, where Iori was sound asleep in a large sofa chair, sprawled out and snoring. He seemed completely uncivilized as a drunk. Aerith followed the Turk until she saw the blown out door to the outer deck. She walked through it and then stood outside to watch the golden ship pass the countless number of stars. Then, she looked up surprised to she Captain Jack steering the ship.

She climbed up the ladder to the upper deck and walked towards the pirate. "Are you sure you can steer this right now?" she asked, watching him with ease navigate the ship.

"Aye, lass, it takes more than some poison to stop me," he said, flashing a sideways grin. He then looked ahead and pointed to a large object floating in the space. "Aye, look at that, eh?"

Aerith turned to see the approaching planet. "What place is that?"

Jack answered, "It be… A bizarre world…
"Agrabah? I heard that's where this ship will land," Aerith said back.

Jack shook his head, "Nah. This ship is running on a new course. Turks and I be travelin' tuh a world called 'Atlantis'. However, we not be needin' yah any longer, so we'll drop you off here."

Aerith gritted her teeth. "We were supposed to go to Agrabah!" Jack sighed.

"Lassy, you're only mad because you think something would happen, but you are just choosing, at random, a place to start. Well, now you have a new one, savvy?" Jack spat, shaking his dreads.

Aerith huffed. "Fine, I'm off to bed." Without another word, she stomped away from the pirate while he grinned watching her from behind.

The following morning, the tiny crew woke up to find The Interceptor hovering next to a strange world covered in uniquely cut bushes with red and white heart flags sticking out from it.

Iori and Aerith gathered their belongings and stood outside the ship with Reno, Rude and Jack. It was an awkward silence. None of them had really become friends, well, at least not to Aerith. Iori shook hands with the Turks and pirates and said his goodbyes.

"Well, can't really say it's been real…But you get the idea," Reno said, scratching the back of his head, suffering from a minor hangover, though the rest of the men seemed to handle the morning after fine.

Iori let out a small laugh. "Yeah, I know what you mean."

Aerith began to turn her back when she felt a tight grip on her shoulder. She turned to find a pair of dusty blue eyes staring into hers. Reno loosen his grasp, letting his hand fall back to his side. "Look, Gainsborough, if you ever get back in town hit me up, yo."

Aerith glared. "What about kidnapping and taking me back to Shinra?"

Reno let out a relaxed grin and said, "Looks like it's back to hunting sea monsters then, 'ey Rude."

Aerith couldn't help but just smile. The Turk was changing after all. "Just don't mention anything to Tifa, okay? I don't want her to worry."

Reno was still beaming. "Secrets safe with me."

Aerith then did something she never thought possible. It was simple yet a something remarkable. She wrapped her arms around the red heads neck in a small embrace and pecked the side of his cheek. In turn, she did the same for Rude.

"Aye, now where's my kiss, love?" Jack called out as she turned her back.

Aerith jumped in surprise. "Oh, sorry Captain!"

"Just Jack, love," he said back letting the girl fall into his arms. Giving him just the right amount of time, Jack slid his hand down over her backside and gave it a small squeeze. Aerith sprang away and slapped the pirate in the face.

"Why you!—"

"I guess no kiss then," Jack responded, disappointed.

Aerith's eyes glared at him in fury and said firmly, "No kiss."

Iori just smiled. "Ready?"

Aerith nodded and wave back to the three men back on the ship. She linked arms with Iori and soon jumped off the side of the boat and floated down into the mysterious world below them.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------