Lost in the Shadows
Chapter 20 - Fields of Hope
Disclaimer: I do not own FF7 and its characters, settings or the like. These words, however, are mine.
Aerith drummed her fingers against the table lightly, watching them intently. She wasn't really watching them -- she was much more interested in the thoughts running through her head. Avalanche was seated around her, talking about what to do next,but she just couldn't focus.They had so much time, it seemed, but really, anything could happen. What if that creepy man, Toyori, came looking for them? Were there more like him? Where had he come from, anyway?
She felt frustrated, helpless even, at the fact that she had no answers to her questions. Nobody did. Not even the Planet.
Dear friend... please...what is going on? Why won't you speak to me anymore...?
Silence.
Aerith shook her head. Useless. Everything she did seemed useless. All she did was get caught by their enemies, get wounded in battle... She grimaced at the last thought; she had been so horrified at the fact that she'd had such a huge gash in her side, bleeding heavily. How had she passed it off so quickly? She'd nearly been killed because of her carelessness!
And Sephiroth. What a burden she must be!
She immediately felt depressed; what did they really think of her? She knew that they always kept an eye on her during battle, though secretively. It was nice and all, but she could defend herself. Couldn't she?
My god... Am I really so weak?
A hand squeezed hers and her head snapped up. Yuffie was looking at her with concern; not something you would usually see on the hyperactive ninja's face.
"You okay?" Yuffie whispered.
Aerith blinked. She'd been caught. She cast her eyes downward. "I'm alright." She looked up at Yuffie, forcing a smile onto her face. "I was just thinking."
Yuffie nodded and turned her head around to listen in on the plan again.
What is wrong with me! Why am I acting like this.
I should be happy.
Right?
So why aren't I...?
Aerith's feelings were so conflicted -- she was confused, angry, depressed almost. She could have searched forever and never out why. Maybe it was the whole 'coming back from the dead' thing. Or the crisis -- that could send anyone into her state. Right?
She wasn't doing a very good job of convincing herself.
Avalanche suddenly stood up and she was beyond grateful; she needed to get out of this room, into the fresh air. She quickly left the room before anyone else and made her way to the Sierra's deck.
Red had been watching Aerith the whole time they had the meeting; something seemed to be bothering her, but he hadn't the slightest idea as to what it might be. He watched as Yuffie whispered something to Aerith and wondered why she was smiling. She had tears in her eyes.
Red frowned. What could be wrong?
He'd only just recently awoken, finding himself in good shape, completely cured. Tifa and Vincent had filled him in on everything that had happened. He was still appalled at what he had done, or tried to do but his friends waved it away dismissively saying it was over and done with; they knew he had meant them no harm.
He knew it was Aerith who had saved him from whatever it was that had taken him over and he would've liked nothing better then thank her and repay her back. He only wished he knew what was wrong so he could help her in any way he could.
Aerith's eyes were closed and she simply leaned on the railing, enjoying the feel of the breeze on her face, birds cries. She felt so in tune with the Planet when she was here; outside, fresh air, the sun! Everything was so beautiful, peaceful, quiet.
Movement from behind her made her turn around. Sephiroth stood there, looking out at the sky behind her.
"Hey." Aerith smiled weakly before turning around again. She heard Sephiroth walk up behind her, eventually finding his way to standing beside her. They stood there for a few minutes in deafening silence. Aerith began to wonder why he'd come.
"You didn't hear anything during that meeting, did you?" Sephiroth asked.
Aerith smiled and felt tears pricking her eyes. "No."
Why am I crying?
Sephiroth snorted. Aerith looked at him in surprise before giggling a little bit.
"What?"
"Nothing. I've never heard the great general snort before; how uncharacteristic of you." Aerith smiled.
Sephiroth spared her a fleeting glance. Was she crying? Sephiroth became wary almost immediately. Had he upset her? Someone else?
"Could you tell me what's going on." Aerith asked quietly. "Sorry."
Sephiroth shook his head. "Why?"
"I should have been paying attention; besides, I've done this to you on more then one occasion."
Sephiroth filled her in. They were going to be splitting into three groups that were undecided as of now; they needed to find Elena, warn the towns and search for clues and files having anything to do with Mako infusion. There had to be a clue.
"Are we going to search through Hojo's files? I wouldn't be surprised if he had something to do with this." Aerith asked nonchalantly.
Sephiroth considered this. Nobody had even mentioned looking through Hojo's files, let alone any in the Shinra building.
"Nobody mentioned it."
"Hm... I think we should you know." Aerith turned around and clapped her hands together, grinning. "That crazy old scientist must have known something -- he was into Mako infusion and whatnot right?"
Sephiroth opened his mouth to speak but was cut off.
"Alright you $$& $&$! Get down to the &$& meeting room now!" Cid yelled through the PA system.
Aerith caught Sephiroth's eyes watching her.
"Well... Let's go I guess." Aerith began to walk when Sephiroth took hold of her arm and pulled her back to face him.
"Are you alright?"
Aerith panicked internally.
Wha...? I didn't even--!
"Um... Why would you say that?" Aerith said sweetly, cocking her head to the side.
Sephiroth looked at her doubtfully before shaking his head. "Nothing." Sephiroth looked off to the side. "Let's go."
With that, he walked away from her, emotionless mask in place.Aerith stared after him. Had she made him upset? She shook her head and ran after him. She would deal with it later.
Sephiroth didn't see why it should bother him so much.
He knew something was wrong; he could tell through the way she spoke, acted, through her eyes.
Did she not trust him?
Why should she...?
Cloud stood impatiently at the front of the group trying to get them all to be quiet. Cid and Yuffie were fighting (as usual) about the Sierra, Barret was cursing to himself for some unknown reason, the Turks were, amazingly, quiet and everyone else seemed to be rampaging around everywhere. He watched Sephiroth walk in alone; he'd gone to see Aerith, hadn't he?
Aerith walked in a few minutes later and the room went dead silent. Everyone took their seat and looked to Cloud expectantly. "Well..." Cloud began. Sweatdrop moment.
"Let's make this quick then." Cloud said and was about to continue when Sephiroth spoke. "I believe we have a change of plans."
Everyone turned their attention to him but he still looked at Cloud, not seeming to care that everyone was watching him.
"Aerith brought up an interesting point." Sephiroth said. "Hojo's files and the files in the Shinra library."
"Sephiroth," Nanaki began."Midgar, including the Shinra building, was completely destroyed." Red said, swishing his tail. "I don't believe that any files would still be there."
Sephiroth quickly glanced at Red before looking at Cloud again. "I believe it would be worth it to check it out, regardless. I believe that Hojo is smarter then you think."
Cloud gave him a confused look.
"He may have known that, one day, the Shinra building would have collapsed. I certainly don't put it past him. He may have had duplicated notes stored away in another area or his whole lab may simply still be intact. He spent a lot of time on his notes, his tests and he hardly ever left the lab."
Cloud mulled it over in his mind for a moment. "Alright." Cloud said, nodding. "We'll split up into three groups; one will head for Midgar to check for Hojo's files and then will head to the Shinra mansion to do the same. Tifa, Reno, Cait and I will do that." Cloud looked for affirmation and all of them nodded.
"Red, Barret, Aerith and Vincent -- I want you going back to that Mako Pool. Search for clues. Anything that could help lead us to the whereabouts of Elena. Be on your guard." Cloud said pointedly, looking directly at Aerith.
Sephiroth seemed to fall into a darker mood.
Cloud caught theway Sephiroth seemed to draw back."Vincent will be there; he's one of the strongest out of all of us."
Sephiroth nodded and Cloud continued.
"Sephiroth, Yuffie, Cid, Rude; travel to towns and make sure that you warn them and set them up with precautions. Cid, give every town a PHS so they can contact us should anything happen."
Aerith spoke up.
"I would really appreciate it if Sephiroth's group looked for the Keshigeku." At some blank looks she quickly added, "the plant used to heal Red. If we need more of it, we can't waste time searching for it after the fact." Aerith paused for a moment. "Reno, Rude."
Reno and Rude looked over at her, letting her know they were listening.
"Elena is alright. We have some time, but she is, for now, unharmed." Aerith gave them a warm smile and the two of them looked visibly relieved.
"Alright." Cloud spoke when everyone had looked back his way. "Let's get going."
The first to be dropped off was Cloud's group. They left with the promise of keeping in touch and checking in every so often.
Much to Sephiroth's obvious dislike, Aerith was dropped off wth her three companions next. Everyone knew that Sephiroth was worried but he did a good job of hiding the way he felt.
Once it was just Sephiroth, Yuffie, Cid and Rude left, Cid spoke up.
"Alright you $& $$&. Where the $&$ are we going next?"
"Cid!" Yuffie yelled. "Stop SWEARING you chain smoker!"
Cid gave her a dismissive look before turning to the other two, pushing her out of the conversation. "Hey!"
She stomped around until she was standing in front of Cid. "You can't just leave me out!"
"Yuffie..." Rude warned. Yuffie immediately shut up and dragged her way over to Sephiroth where she stood beside him and sulked.
"I think we should head for the larger towns first. The fiends would generally gather where the larger amount of people are." Sephiroth suggested.
Cid nodded. "Where to then? Junon."
"Wutai!" Yuffie said, jumping up.
"Alright. Hang on tight, #$&#! Brat, don't you &$ dare puke on my $$ airship! You #$#& got that?"
Tifa stumbled over a rock literally hidden in the ground. What a mess. Tifa took in all of her surroundings.
When the Weapon had destroyed the Shinra building, bits and pieces of it went everywhere. Debris had covered both Wall Market and the slums of Midgar, encasing the whole upper area in a fog of dust and particles. Metal shards were everywhere Tifa walked-- this was some sort of death trap!
All the people who were here...
She couldn't even imagine what the people who'd lived here thought. She could just see the little children running around happily -- as happily as they could be, of course -- the few animals there were sauntering around and the tons of people who had to work outside. The pain they must've felt. It was bad enough they had had to live down here, but to think of those poor people, having everything, small as it was, ripped away from them.
Shinra.
Anger filled her being at the mere thought of it. Reeve had wanted to rebuild the company not too long ago, but in the end they decided against it. Avalanche would be there for as long as they could and nobody wanted to live in Midgar anyway. The last thing they needed to do was spark panic amongst everyone with the mention of a new Shinra.
They reached the entrance of the building, what was left of it anyway. There was enough room to get inside the building and you could see that the floors above were somewhat intact -- maybe Sephiroth was right.
"Now." Cloud said, grabbing their attention. "I want you all to be careful; any sign of a collapse, make a run for it. Stick close." Everyone nodded and they began to walk inside.
The walls were covered in mud and rats were skittering around their feet as they moved inside. Tifa grimaced at the claw marks on the walls. What was in here? Who was to say this whole building hadn't been inhabitted by fiends?
The air inside the building was stale the further they walked. Disrupted dust fell from the roof at the movement they made.
"Man. This place is one hell of a dump." Reno said, swinging his nightstick. Tifa still wondered how the stick never managed to electrocute him.
"I'll say!" Cait said. Tifa noticed he'd been awfully quiet for the past while. "We'll show you the way!"
Tifa smiled.
"Cait... We've been here before." Cloud said, looking at the walls as they passed.
"True, true... You don't know ever little thing about this building do you?"
Cloud shook his head.
"Professor Hojo had tons of secret labs in here." Reno said, looking to the side at Cloud. "You've seen one of them, right?"
"Yes but we were caught. We never really went much further." Tifa said, feeling oddly left out.
"Well babe, he's got plenty more. I had to go to his most 'top-secret' lab once for some half assed treatment." Reno wrinkled his nose in disgust while saying it.
"Oh." Tifa said, watching the walls as Cloud had done earlier. "These look like they could cave in at any second."
"They probably could." Cloud said. "This building is completely unstable."
Tifa nodded.
They walked on in silence for a while. The walk was beyond boring as the scenery never changed. How could someone haveworked here?
"Gah!" Cait yelled, jumping back from his spot on the wall. All heads turned toward him.
"What?"
"A rat."
"Are you serious, dude?" Reno asked.
Cait glared best he could before walking further ahead of them.
A few more minutes passed until a faint trembling was felt. The walls seemed to shiver and the dust fell a little heavier then before. Tifa stopped in her tracks and tensed.
"Hey, did you feel that?" Tifa asked.
"Feel what?" Cait responded.
"It felt like..." Tifa began but stopped. She was probably just imagining things. "It's nothing. Let's keep going."
The next tremor was felt by all four andcaused them tostand still. The tremor came again, thought much more forcefully. The ceiling seemed to crack and a few concrete bits fell. "Move!" Cloud yelled just as the whole ceiling came crashing down on top of them.
"Reno!" Cloud yelled, pushing Tifa to Reno in one direction before jumping back out of harms way. Reno grabbed Tifa's wrist and ran forward. Tifa crashed into Reno and stood there until the shaking ended.
"Cloud?" Tifa called timidly. What had caused that?
"Tif! You alright? Reno?" A muffled reply came from the other side of the huge concrete rocks barring the path. Tifa sighed in relief.
"We're okay!" She called back.
"Yep. All thanks to me." Reno grinned. "Shouldn't you thank me, sweet?"
A swift kick in the gut was all it took to shut him up.
"Cloud. What are you closer to?" Tifa asked. "Library or lab?"
"Cait says were closer to the library." Cloud said.
"Okay. You go to the library and I will go with... Reno... to Hojo's lab." She looked back to see Reno coming up beside her.
"Damn woman, that's one hell of a kick, yo." Reno gasped.
Tifa smirked. "Let's go."
They walked their separate ways in hopes of finding some kind of clue.
"This is sooooo boring!" Yuffie whined, trying to fall in step with Sephiroth. A little part of her was worried; how would the whole of Wutai react when they saw Sephiroth?
After Cid had droppedSephiroth and Yuffieoff near Wutai --Cid and Rude had headed off to another town --PHS in hand and precautions in mind, they had begun walking. Cid and Rude had headed off to another town.Yuffie had only then realized that Sephiroth was the man who had fought and won in the war with Wutai so long ago.
But then, when they'd first been in Kalm, why hadn't anyone freaked out when they'd seen him?
"Hey Seph." Yuffie said. "Won't people kinda... react er... violently maybe? when they see you?"
"I'm not sure." Was his short reply.
Yuffie frowned. Not a big talker, huh? She'd show him!
"Well, you know, in Kalm and all... Nobody even seemed to see you."
Sephiroth thought for a moment. Yes, that was right. Why hadn't anyone recognized him?
"Maybe they think you're a cosplayer or something... Damn good one though! Too bad they don't know you're the real thing."
"Cosplayer?" Sephiroth eyed her skeptically.
"Yea, totally. After you died and all, lot's of people started so cosplay as you. Aerith too." Yuffie said. "Only few people for Aerith though; nobody really knew her. She was always quiet back then."
"Back then?"
Yuffie jumped internally. He was talking! Amazing!
"She's different now, you know? Really different actually. She never used to break down and stuff. She was always happy and trying to cheer us all up." Yuffie went quiet. "Is something wrong with her? I mean! Did something happen to her in the lifestream or something?"
Sephiroth honestly couldn't say. "I'm unsure. She does act weird from time to time but... I doubt it has much to do with the lifestream, maybe just the fact that she was dead for a while." Sephiroth came to realize just how that sounded. Being dead. "I don't know."
Yuffie didn't press the conversation any further -- she figured he was worried about Aerith too.
"Welp!" Yuffie screeched. "There it is!" She pointed to the vast pagoda in the distance, a small town sitting in front of it. They made their way toward it without saying another word.
I hope this goes alright...