"Tseng! You rascal! I just can't believe it was you that made those guys kidnap me!" Aerith was furious and stood up.
"Hey, Aerith, calm down! You are my friend, aren't you? I´m your friend." Tseng's tone was cool, as if he was unaware of the girl's temper.
"Friend, heh? What was it, so? Tseng, you know I don't want anything to do with you Shinra guys, but this time you went too far!" The girl seated again, but she was still very angry.
"Why? Just because I asked the new guys to bring you here for a talk?" Tseng seemed confused.
"Bring me here? You know I would have talked to you if you had come to me. Why did you need to have those scoundrels bringing me here the way they did?"
"Sorry, Aerith, I'm not understanding you. What do you mean?"
"First off, take out these sunglasses. It gets on my nerves to see you wearing them in a dark room like this one."
"Alright..." Tseng took out the sunglasses. "But now tell me, what do you mean?"
"What do I mean? Do you think it was needed to drag me by force through the streets?"
"What?" Tseng was incredulous.
"Do you think it was needed to point a gun against my head and threaten to blow my brains out?"
"What? Do you mean the guys pointed a gun at you?"
"Twice." The girl crossed her arms. She had a very serious gaze in her face.
"I just can't believe that! These guys are crazy!" Tseng slapped his own thighs. He was indignant. "Oh, Aerith, is it true?"
"Of course it is. You can ask all the thirty passersby who had seen it. Luckily they all chickened out when your assistant fired the gun to the air, otherwise I could have been shot right there in a gunfight."
"I just can't believe that! There new guys are morons! I knew I should have asked Reno, Rude, Elena or do it myself!"
"Have you realized why I am mad at you? Then they threw me in the car like a bag and locked me in the backseat. You don't know how much I cried, in despair. It was the worst moment of my life..." Aerith hesitated, remembering the experiments Hojo has made on her. "Well, not the worst, but it came close."
"Oh, Aerith, forgive me by their lack of manners... I didn't know that..." He was clearly embarrassed.
"Well... what do you want from me, anyway?"
"Aerith... Aerith Gainsborough... I've always loved your name..." Tseng didn't know how to start.
"Cut the crap, Tseng! Spill it out!" Aerith's tone was threatening.
"Oh well... Aerith...I've brought you here to talk of very important matters."
"Say it."
"I'd like to ask you... if you wouldn't like to... to..."
"To?"
"Join us."
"Oh, no! No no no no no! Not again!" The girl turned her face, avoiding eye contact, while nodding and motioning with her hand for him to stop. "Tseng! How many times will I have to tell you that I don't want to join Shinra now and I'll never what to join it?"
"But... Aerith... please, listen to me once..."
"What is it? Do you think I have what it takes to be a SOLDIER? Or a Turk?"
"No, Aerith, it is not that..." Tseng was in a defensive position.
"It is because I'm an Ancient, isn't it? Because I'm the last of the Ancients. That is why you want me to join you, isn't it?"
"No..."
"Please, Tseng, don't lie straight faced to me!"
"Sorry, Aerith... you know, we really want you..."
"To take me to that mad doctor? In order to have him kill me, as he killed my mother? No, thanks, I think I'll pass this one." Aerith's sarcastic tone made Tseng shiver in his chair.
"But..."
"Ah, do you think I'll take pleasure in being mercilessly experimented on, tortured, till I die?"
"Of course not!" Tseng shouted the words as if they were clogged in his throat. "Please, Aerith, I'll never let something like that to happen to you."
"So why do you need me?"
"I think you could help us with our business. You know, our company always needs new energy reserves in order to bring people the best the technology can provide them, improving their lives."
"Except for the slums."
"Oh, please, Aerith, don't make it more difficult than it is."
"Ha, is it me who makes the things difficult? Your damned company has installed these plates, so we can't even see the sky. The air is terrible, dry and dusty. Have you ever felt your lungs burning during the driest days? Of course not, your offices are always so clean, neat, decorated with the best furniture and apparel, with fresh and clean air from your air conditioning systems. Meanwhile, we are condemned to live amongst piles of garbage, dust, heat, darkness, mold; living in wrecked trains, abandoned trailers and poor wooden cottages. Is this the way you are improving our lives? I'm impressed."
"Oh, Aertih... we intend to change that... that is why we need more energy..."
"Now that you are exhausting Midgar, you want to exhaust other places. Can't you see the soil is completely deserted around the city? Have you seen many flowers around? Grass? Trees? Come on, Tseng, your company is killing the world."
"But, Aerith, if you join us, we will pay you good wages. You will be able to take your mother with you and live in a comfortable apartment in Midgar."
"And what about all the thousands of poor guys who will not receive good wages, who will keep on living in the slums, breathing that harmful air, amongst piles of garbage, not even being able to see the sun? I'm not an egoist! I care more for their fates than to my own fate. If I die, I die, I don't care, my spirit will carry on. I'd easily sacrifice myself if that would help them."
"But Aerith, you can help us to improve their lives if you join us..."
"You know it is not true. You know that your company doesn't care about their fate. You know that Shinra Electric Company would rather see them dead than to help them. You are so wealthy; you could take some of your billions to help people there. But no, you want to seal them in the underground, so they will not pollute your dreamy city."
"Aerith..."
"Shinra was always a deception to me: Hojo, you Turks harassing me, Zack..."
"Oh, don't say that about Zack."
"Why not? He abandoned me. Luckily I've never surrendered to his bold advances..."
"No, Aerith, that is not fair with him."
"Oh, now the blame is on me. I'm not fair enough to Zack Fair. He is fair... to keep me waiting here, without bothering to answer one of my letters."
Tseng swallowed hard. "What will I do now? I'm with his letters. I can't send them to him..."
"If you know something, please, tell me." The mood of the girl changed. She was now sad and anxious. "It took me... a long time... to get over him... and I think... I... still... love him... if that feeling can... be called love..."
"Aerith..."
"Please!" Her eyes were wet.
"Aerith..." Tseng closed his eyes. "How can I tell her that? No, I can't, I just can't tell her." He opened his eyes, but he was very uneasy to have to come out with an excuse. "He... is just... Well... I can't tell you... it is classified information... but he hadn't abandoned you..."
"Ah, Tseng, please... you are... fooling with me. Tell me what... you know... please! Did he... get another... girl? That... Turk... Cissnei?"
"It is not that."
"So why do you keep protecting him? I mean, I've waited for him all this time. I've never had any man..."
"Aerith..."
"Look, I'm almost 22 and I've never had any intimacy with any man, just waiting for him. I know you will consider me odd for not having had any intimacy at such age..."
"I don't want to listen about your..."
"You know, this feeling corrodes me from inside. I may be mad, but I stayed true for him and how does he pay me back? I've never kissed any man, just waiting for him to be the one..."
"Stop! I don't want to listen about your intimacy!" Tseng had one of his rare emotional bursts.
"Uh? Sorry, Tseng, it is just... It is still hard..." Aerith suddenly changed from angry to subdued.
"Well, Aerith, I don't wan't to spend your time anymore. I see you will not join us. But I have something serious to tell you."
"What is that?" Aerith wiped out the tears from her eyes.
"You know... the same way Shinra is interested on you, there are some other people who would love to get the possession of the last Ancient."
"Why?"
"You know why, Aerith. You have powers no one has. Many people would want to have your powers in their hands. Some of them are evil."
"Damn! It sounds like I'm an object, not a woman..."
"I know that is not a nice thing to hear, Aerith, but you must trust us. Even if you will not join Shinra, I'll keep on protecting you from these other groups. There is one certain group, which is very dangerous. They are anti-Shinra, anti-civilization. They would blow up the whole Midgar, killing everybody, for nothing. I suspect they are after you. They have hacked into our computers and stole lots of info about the Ancients and the perspective of exploring the Mako energy from the hypothetic Promised Land."
"No... not that... as if my life was not hard enough... there are more crazy people after me…"
"Oh, Aerith, please... take care... take much care... we will be trying to protect you, but, please, take care. Never let those guys put their hands on you. We have fought many fierce battles against them. They are terrorists, murderers. If they catch you, they will abuse you, torture you, kill you. I'm not asking you to support Shinra. I'm just advising you against them. After all, we are still friends, aren't we?"
"I really don't know, Tseng. I really don't know. I don't know why I still trust you, but, well, I'll take care. Thanks."
"Whew! That makes me feel relieved."
"May I go now?"
"Well... Aerith... If you wait some minutes, I can give you a ride back home..."
"That is not necessary."
"Oh, it is. It is already too late. Streets become more and more dangerous as the time passes."
"Not in the slums. For them, it doesn't matter if it is day or night. There is no sun..."
"Even so, I'll not be in peace if I'm not certain that you have arrived home in safety."
"Well... I know I shouldn't, but I think I'll accept your ride."
"Thanks, Aerith, thanks."
Tseng stood up and silently motioned Aerith to stand up too. She complied with his request and walked to the door, where she stood waiting for him. He was searching for something in his desk, buried under piles of paper which rested on the desk. "Damn! Where are those stupid things when we most need them? Look at all this garbage over my desk!" He picked up a paper. "Tseng, you were chosen among our thousands of customers to receive a special offer for you cell phone plan..." He tore the paper and threw it over his shoulder, shaking his head. Then, he picked up another paper. "Come and visit the new Don Corneo nightclub! Bring this coupon and pay half price for one of our special services."
Aerith was laughing noiselessly, covering her mouth. She noticed that Tseng has returned the last paper to the desk. "Hey, Tseng, do you intend to take advantage of the nightclub offer?"
"Of course not!" He was serious. "Why are you asking me that?"
"It is because..." Aerith couldn't hold the laughter. "Because you threw away the cell phone offer and kept the nightclub coupon." She was pointing the place where he had returned the paper and laughing.
"What?" Tseng seemed shocked with the girl's observation. "No, no..." He was desperately trying to find the paper again. Aerith couldn't stop laughing of the man's embarrassment with her joke. "No, I don't want anything to do with those filthy places." He found the coupon and desperately tore it in many small fragments. His cheeks were crimson red for blushing.
"Oh, Tseng, you didn't need to ruin your tomorrow's plans because of me." Aerith laughed while talking.
"Tomorrow's plans? What plans? Aerith, I despise nightclubs! I never intended to visit that one." His tone was serious and betrayed that he was upset for being the target of the joke.
"I don't have anything against you going having fun over there. It is not because I'm still pure that I don't understand your men's desires..."
"Stop it, Aerith! You are getting on my nerves! How can you be so silly..." Tseng was now irritated.
"Ah, Tseng, can't you take a joke?" Aerith was making a lovely face, pretending to be sad.
"Ah... sorry. I can't understand how you can laugh of life in your situation."
"Well..." Aerith adopted a more serious tone. "Tseng, if I laugh or I cry, that will not change who I am, where I am or which will be my destiny. But it may change how I feel. My life will never be easy, but it can be a bit easier if I am more positive about it, if I try to cheer up a bit. It will never be a fairy tale, but at least I can have some fun, laugh a bit in the rare peaceful times among the recurring tragedies and worries. If I hadn't joked with you, what would have changed? Nothing but my own mood, my own state of mind."
"I think you have a point... well, it is getting late and I still need to deal with some business today. I'm ready. Let's go, Aerith."
He walked to the door, opened it and asked for the girl to follow him. The girl noticed that there was a light coming from a room in the middle of the corridor. She was surprised by that, as she had not noticed there were other rooms in the corridor when she was coming to Tseng's office. Tseng stopped by the open door and entered the room, motioning Aerith to wait outside. Inside, the two men were silently watching TV, each one holding a beer can in their hands.
"I'll be taking Aerith home. Can you please give me the car keys?"
"Huh? Yeah." The dark-haired man searched for the key in his pocket. "Here it goes." He extended his arm towards Tseng, without taking his eyes from the TV.
"You two, wait for me to return. We have something mostly serious to discuss when I return."
Tseng turned his back to the men and was about to leave the room, when the blond man remembered about the Aerith's belongings on the car trunk. "Hey, Tseng! Her things are in the trunk."
"Thanks."
Tseng left the room with the key in his hand. He escorted Aerith to the elevator in silence. The blond man stood up and started peeking at the corridor. The dark-haired man was confused by his partner reaction.
"What the hell are you doing?"
"Me? Just taking a look…"
"Taking a look at what? Are you chickening out?"
"No, no, we are already screwed."
"So, what? Ah, I know, you are taking a look at the girl, aren't you?"
"Oh, no..." His voice betrayed embarrassment.
"Come on, of course you are! Look at you, all embarrassed. You are in love with her, aren't you?"
"I'm not..."
"Come on!" The dark-haired man joined the blond man by the door. "Your eyes are following the shaking of her hips. By the way, what a nice..."
"Shhhh! They will listen to us!"
"Admit it, you are in love with her." The dark-haired man returned to the couch. "Well, now that you know where you can find her, you can have her one of these days..."
"What are you talking about?" The blond man was becoming irritated with his partner.
"You can have her one of these days. If we receive the money from our mission today, you may have a party tomorrow, if you want. Maybe I do that too."
"What?" The blond man turned to his partner, clearly irritated.
"Come on, man, do you think she stays in the streets at night selling just flowers? Nobody buys flowers from a flower lady. The guys are there to buy something else..."
"Don't talk of her that way! She is not what you are saying she is! I'm sure, she is innocent, pure..."
"Pure?" The dark-haired man spilled the beer he was drinking and started laughing. "The girl is a hottie and she is on her twenties. Do you really think she is innocent and pure? Oh, man, you live in the dreamland!"
"I don't know why you hate her."
"I don't hate her, but why do you think our boss will personally take her home? Be sure it will take him a couple of hours. And I thought he was not much into girls..."
"Shut up! Don't ever talk of her that way again!"
"Alright, lovebird, sorry if I offended you and your princess." The dark-haired man's tone was sarcastic.
Tseng and Aerith were on the elevator, in silence. When the door opened on the garage, Aerith, still uneasy with the creepy appearance of the place, complained to Tseng.
"Why are you in such a place? I've always though Shinra meant luxurious offices."
"Aerith, no kidding, the situation is really serious. We have to hide here in this building to not attract the attention of the foes we are battling."
"Hmm… looks like it is really dangerous. My first thought was that it was one of the secret laboratories of that damned doctor Hojo."
"Oh, no, he'd never accept anything that was not state-of-art technology."
"I hope I'll never meet that creep again. He performed terrible experiments on me and mom... he killed her..." Aerith stared down, feeling sad again.
"Sorry to hear that, Aerith. I've never liked that man."
"Well, let's go, I don't want to waste more from your time." The girl was trying to not be overcome by the sad feelings again.
"Alright... Well, let's see..." Tseng opened the car trunk. "Looks like these things are yours..."
Aerith came closer to him and looked at the things in the car trunk. She was surprised to see her belongings inside the trunk, as she already considered them gone for good.
.
"Wow! These are really my things... I've never thought..."
"Well, take them."
Aerith was smiling again. Tseng was touched by the fact that someone could become happy for retrieving things that valued less than 50 gil. He stayed thinking for some time about the contrast between his life and the life of the poor girl from the slums. He was never satisfied with all the things he had. He had money, a comfortable home, a successful career, power, recognition among his peers. On the other hand, Aerith had much less than him, but she was always cheerful, upbeat and friendly. She lived in the slums, had an humiliating job, no luck in her life, suffered constant harassment, had endured terrifying experiences during her childhood and still could laugh about silly things and be really content to retrieve a wooden bucket, a pair of scissors and some ribbons.
"Hey, Tseng, is it true that you are hiding in such a place like that because you fear the attack from your opponents?"
"It is true, Aerith. They are really dangerous. We had to triple the security around the Shinra main offices, fearing a terrorist attack."
"So why do you have those big Shinra stickers in your car?"
"Oh..."
"That is a very foolish thing to do. One of the guys who kidnapped me had told me they were fake, to make people think they were from Shinra. That would make sense if true, but it makes no sense to hold secretive operations in a place like this one and go out in a car with such a big stickers. It is as if you had big targets painted in your car."
"Now that you say it, you are right. I'll order them removed as soon as possible. See, you are very smart, Aerith. You should really join Shinra..."
"No, thanks, Tseng, I'm too good for you all. I think I should charge for my job as a consultant for Shinra in safety strategy." She stuck her tongue out of her mouth, playfully.
"Oh, Aerith, you amaze me..."
Both Tseng and Aerith got into the car. Tseng started it and drove around the streets, in silence. Aerith was also in silence, holding her wooden bucket as if it was something really valuable. The streets were now mostly empty and only a few cars would be seen traveling through them. It was really dangerous to walk alone, mainly for a girl. After some minutes like that, Aerith broke the silence.
"Tseng... please... don't punish those guys..."
"Which guys?"
"The ones who had kidnapped me."
"Oh, those crooks? The really deserve a lesson. I'll deal with them as soon as I return to the office."
"No, Tseng, please! Let it be."
"Why? Didn't they treat you badly? Didn't they threaten to kill you? That is simply unacceptable." Tseng was surprised.
"Yes, they did, but... to punish them is to seek vengeance. No, I don't need that. It will not bring anything good for me. You may tell them they were wrong, but I see no need in punishing them."
"Are you sure?"
"Yes, I am, Tseng. Nothing really bad had happened; let's leave it as it is. There is no need to do something that will not bring any good to anyone."
"Well, Aerith, if you think it is the right thing to do, so be it."
The rest of the trip went uneventfully. The girl remained in silence, thinking about the emotions provided by the eventful night. Despite of all the traumatic events, particularly having a gun pointed to her head, she was somewhat calm. Aerith had developed a system on her brain to not hold hard feelings after facing dangerous situations which didn't have a significant result, otherwise she would not be able to endure the endless stream of tragic, dangerous and frightening events in her life. Tseng was in silence, with lots of things on his mind. He had to consider options for the fierce war Shinra was having against the dangerous foes. He also had to think what to do to the Turks who had performed very badly the task they were assigned to, almost killing the priceless last Ancient. He had to plan a way to protect that priceless Ancient, who was so valuable to Shinra.
Besides all that, he couldn't stop thinking about the girl who amazed him. "I really can't say what is in this girl's mind, but she constantly amazes me with her wisdom. Poor girl, she didn't deserve that traumatic experience, as she doesn't deserve to lead such a sad life. I hope I can help her someway. I must find a way to send her letters to Zack. I can feel that she still loves him. Zack is a good guy, he will know how to make her happy, how to treat her accordingly. Besides that, I know Zack will find a way to convince her to help us to find the Promised Land. Anyway, she is a nice girl who deserves some happiness. I wonder if all her wisdom comes from the knowledge inherited from the Ancients, but I hope it is not that. I really want to believe it is just she that is so amazing naturally, so we can dream with a world filled with Aeriths."