Kamikaze Moogle

Chapter Eight

Thorn was feeling hard-done by at the moment. Very hard-done by. She had spent the majority of the morning blowing her nose so loudly that she could scarcely hear what anyone was saying to her. Moreover, she was sure that it annoyed everybody significantly, and furthering her bad rep, given the situation, was not what Thorn needed. Then around eleven Cloud started sending her shifty looks again over his coffee, which by this time he had consumed about a quart of. Furthermore, Vincent wasn't paying a whole lot of attention to anybody; in fact, he had the distant sort of look that any fangirl would likely link to Lucrecia. Anyway, the whole thing wound up making Vincent look even sexier than usual, and while Thorn's resolve not to hug him was holding strong, it was getting hard not to just…keep…staring… at him.

Why'd she have to turn out a rabid fangirl anyway? Thorn was completely resolved to blame it on Lily, who had been the one to introduce her to most fandoms she was obsessed with today. When Cloud finally said something to break the sleepy silence that somehow (don't ask her) had come over Seventh Heaven (maybe it was the fact that Yuffie was out shopping) Thorn had to appreciate the presence of something besides Vincent's steamy eyebrows to distract herself from the monotony with.

"We decided what to do next."

"Mmm?" Both Lily and Thorn, who had been sitting together, looked up intently, but it was Thorn who voiced the minimally articulated question. Lily just raised her eyebrows expectantly.

"We're going to visit an old friend," chimed in Tifa. Thorn looked from Tifa to Cloud to Lily. That confirmed that Lily had been thinking of the same person she had. Looking back at Cloud, Thorn nodded.

"Mkay. When're we goin'?"

"In about fifteen minutes," answered Cloud, walking out of the room once he had said this. Vincent didn't move or say anything. He merely tipped his chair back in a manner between bored and tense, waiting for everyone else to be ready to go. It was at this moment that the front door opened, revealing Yuffie, back from wherever it was she had gone off to.

"Hey Yuff," said Thorn in greeting. Interesting circumstances aside, she and the ninja had been getting on fairly well. Yuffie grinned and waved, then tugged on a lock of Vincent's hair as she walked inside the rest of the way.

"Ya look like an impatient two-year-old, Vin," she said, "what're you in a hurry for?"

"We're going—" Lily jabbing her elbow into Thorn's side made the younger girl cut off, then resume with a different thread of what's she'd been saying. "—somewhere, apparently." She shrugged, and Yuffie looked quizically at Tifa, who gave her a significant look. It took Yuffie a moment before it visibly dawned on her. The ninja's eyes widened slightly, and a slight "oh," escaped her lips.

"Well, I'm commin'," she said. "Gimme a sec." Yuffie bounded up the stairs. What followed was a silence in the room, but suddenly sounds started drifting down the stairs. A series of loud crashes echoed down, followed by Yuffie screeching obscenities that made Tifa sigh and mutter something about Marlene and Denzel, following what sounded like some sort of animal, then what sounded like a small explosion. A few minutes later Yuffie reappeared. Thorn was cracking up at the look on Lily's face, which resembled something like a cross between scared parent and traumatized teenager.

"I don't want to know," said Lily, voicing everyone's thoughts as Yuffie grinned and bounced on the soles of her feet, waiting for everyone else.

"All right, let's head out," Cloud said to the room at large, leaving the very pointed "anyway" in his tone unsaid. Vincent was on his feet and to the door before most of them had even gotten out of their chairs, which seemed to Thorn like it should have been more difficult, seeing as the cloaked man had been tipping his chair precariously far backwards, a habit that Thorn was more than guilty of on several counts, and she knew that one couldn't usually get up extremely quickly from that position.

Instead of going toward the door of Seventh Heaven, though, it seemed that they were supposed to be headed upstairs, which Lily proceeded to ask Tifa about.

"The Shera's docked on the roof," the bartender replied simply.

It was only when she started climbing the stairs that Thorn realized that Barret and Cid had kept their seats. Before Thorn could say anything to wonder about why the two men weren't coming with them, Cloud had turned and spoken.

"Cid, we need you to pilot the Shera. We have to get there fast." Cid shrugged, and rose from the table where he had been sitting brooding over his tea, walking over to join the group.

"How come Barret's not coming?"

"Most of us are a little sensitive about this friend we're seeing," answered Tifa in a low voice. "Barret too. I suppose it's a little too much for him. He's very sensitive under the surface." Well, that sort of made sense to Thorn. After all, unless she was very much mistaken, they were going to try and see Aerith (the would-be deity didn't seem to have problems making appearances...)

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Aerith's church looked much like it had in Advent Children, except for the fact that the large pool of Lifestream-ified Holy water had disappeared, leaving flourishing flowers in its wake. The roof that Cloud had smashed through all that time ago was still in disrepair, but it only served to allow more light to flow into the sacred building. The column that had been knocked over during Cloud's fight with Kadaj had been put back into place though (by Cloud, Thorn had no doubt), so the structure was likely to survive for quite a long time yet. Even the wooden pews scattered to the walls of the building by Tifa and Loz' fight were set straight once more. Sun filtered through the stained glass windows, throwing patches of color that changed in shade or hue when regular beams of light permeated them over the pale flowers growing out of the ground (either yellow or white in original color.) It was beautiful in a very light, pure sort of way, which didn't exactly appeal to Thorn's taste, but she could still appreciate it somewhat.

In the complete silence of the church, each of the group's footsteps became magnified, which made even Yuffie up the tact and step more lightly. When they came to the place where the wooden floor ended and the Cetra's flowers began, everyone stopped, perfectly still. Lily was looking around the church with interest, and when Thorn caught her eye, there was a distinct tone of uncertainty as to what they should do now in Thorn's gaze.

Cloud glanced around for a moment, then closed his eyes as if in prayer. Looking around at the other AVALANCHE members who had come along, Thorn noticed that while only Tifa and Nanaki had actually closed their eyes as well (Nanaki's head bowed regally) nobody was actually looking at Cloud, so Thorn decided to do as the Romans do and simply lowered her eyes, waiting for something to happen.

At first Thorn was somewhat afraid that Cloud would have to say something embarrassingly cheesy for her to appear to them, some dramatic plea for help or some such. Or worse, nothing would happen at all unless everyone in AVALANCHE did the hokey pokey or something because Aerith was feeling vindictive that day. However, all half-sarcastic thoughts on the subject faded from her mind as from each source of light the illumination cast on the church seemed to intensify, brightening their surroundings until Thorn had to squint to keep her eyes open. Finally, it abated to a soft, comforting white color, sort of obscuring almost everything but the flowers from view. Thorn could vaguely see the walls and pews of the church, but her focus was on the woman who had appeared before them, a little vague around the edges, but still definitely the Cetra bashed across fandom, the flower girl scorned to the edge of her existence: Aerith.