ShinRa and the Ancient "Your friend is someone who knows all about you, and still likes you." -- Elbert Hubbard ---------------------------------------------------------------------- She hated this room. Even since her memories had become dulled with passing time, she knew it was still as cold and astringently clean as it had been in the days of her youth, caught by the traps of the cold iron tables and the stainless steel implements, winking with the strip lighting that flickered, flickered fitfully when an electrical storm passed the city and interfered with the wiring. The masks were discarded by the lab coats, lined up like dead soldiers along the wall on the pegs that hooked and tented them. The grate floor was hollow to slip trays that would soak up any spilt blood from operations conducted by the orchestra leader, the madman of the opera that was her life in flashbacks, here in the rising tower of ShinRa headquarters. She turned her head from staring avidly at the lift to freedom, the metal doors that opened softly had instead caught her attention. A figure, stooped and pathetic in the way it shambled forward, a glare of light skimming over the moon glasses and revealing the cold, calculating dark eyes underneath; beady in their study of her. As if every hair on her body had suddenly attempted to stand on end, en chorus, Aerith buttoned her lips over a muted cry and squeezed her eyes shut. She'd seen the new tray of needles and drugs brought in, curled protectively in the latex gloved hands of the scientist. When she did risk a peek, she focused on the plain ceiling and the strip lighting, the blacked out one-way window and the camera for security logged towards the back of the room. "Ah good, good," the scientist muttered, in his monotone, entirely unexciting voice, "You're awake, I feared I'd have to wake you up and I know you don't appreciate that." His sinuous laughter made her teeth jump and chatter; she'd always loathed hearing that little giggle, like some private injoke was just too rude, too dirty and too good to share with anyone else. As he drew closer to her, she purposefully stared into his eyes, ignoring herself entirely. She knew she was a mess of scratches and holes from the first round of eager tests done hours before – her clothes confiscated for the purposes of this experiment. He leaned closer and she tried shrinking back against the hard, unrelenting slab she was tied to, "You really have grown, haven't you." "Aging happens to everyone." "Not true," he crowed, "Not true, not true!" he chanted that mantra with glee, "I found a way to arrest the aging process. Sadly the results were less than desirable in the nature of development and end result, but the process itself is solid except for the unpredictable end. Of course, lacking true ancient cells, true Cetra blood I was unable to fully confirm my findings. You know, apart from helping them to find that Promised Land you people so covet, you can aid all my research." She looked away, lank brown hair dropping down by her eyes. "Have you started to hear the Planet properly yet?" "..." Aerith willed her voice to dust, willed no words to be formed and instead with soaking tears christening her dirty cheeks, stared without feeling across the laboratory. "And Materia? Can you handle their magical properties with ease?" I won't say a word, then he won't take away anything of me. "I hear you grew flowers, are you a Botanist now? Or is that just a side effect of your Cetra heritage?" My flowers are beautiful – dirty them not with your voice. "...you're being difficult again." The scientist sighed and there was a clink of needle against small medicine bottle, a gurgle of liquid. Aerith stared hard at the one way glass, knowing without having to be told she was going to be injected with truth serum, to try and loosen her tongue so he could collect the answers he so desired from her soulless, mindless speaking. "I regret to do this, really. Your co-operation would be far more gratifying." "...you're such a liar, with two faces," she murmured sadly as the needle dug into the catheter. The odd icy sensation slowly started seeping in from the back of her hand. "Perhaps, but I am brilliant at my work, and you are my work." Hojo gathered up his bottles and needles, adding in a casual after tone, "It'll take a few hours for it work fully, I'll come back then." "..." she closed her gritty eyes and barely heard him leave. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- ShinRa Inc is a company which has become very much like a disjointed family for me. The black sheep that no one speaks of. I was born a Cetra, an Ancient, gifted with a talent to speak to the Planet, heal and nurture, give and give endlessly of myself in order that other things may flourish, may be. However, my lineage has become inseparably tangled with that of ShinRa. My mother never told me how she'd come to be captured by these people, but I never had time to ask, so busy weeping at her horrible wounds and the shaking terror that gripped my formative years. But others here, apart from those which would ruin my childhood, came to be dear to me. A strange thing for me to say I suppose, but they are dear to me, I love them all unselfishly in their own rights, for who they are. Is that wrong of me? Tseng and Rufus are perhaps those that my childhood links itself to. Tseng, even after I left the clutches of ShinRa at his kind help, I knew the compassion inside him for me. But wept that such a kindness must be barbarised by the only line of work he had to take to free him from the Slums. I remember once, when I was a teenaged girl, begging him to leave Midgar and try a new life somewhere else, where the nightmares of his job wouldn't take a toll on him. You know what he said? "This is the best I can do for myself. If my hands are to be stained with blood, so be it. Just don't stain yourself trying to help me... here, some gil for that rose." A hundred gil. A hastily spoken conversation and the tears I'd weep for him. I know he hit me coming here, but I know he didn't want to. He wanted to stay strong because from above, Heideggar was watching him capture him through a security video loop – I could hear the crackle of orders on the personal communicator he wore at his necktie. Rufus had been a young child then, perhaps a year older than I am, but not much more. He had freckles that were so pale they hardly seemed to exist, his reddish blond hair and grin that always lacked a tooth or more. I saw him recently, the isolation of his childhood has made him grow up cool, stern and distant. I wanted to call out as the parade passed the streets of sector three. But I didn't, because he would recognise me, and I would have been captured. So much for that childhood friend. But I can't blame him; to be stuck between who you are the reality of how things are, it is something I sympathise greatly with. So I don't blame Rufus ShinRa. I fell in love, when I was no more than sixteen, a childish first love between me and a young Soldier, rising through the ranks of ShinRa to be a top notch warrior. He was bright eyed and dark haired, with an endearing grin and a heartfelt way of speaking that made me feel like I could do anything, be anyone. He never once told the ShinRa about me, and I never once let on that I was afraid. Zack, I wish I'd told you how frightened I was. How I was scared that one day, work would come between you and me and I'd be back here, where I am now. Instead I prolonged the inevitable and enjoyed a silly fluffy romance that led to me missing you for different reasons, as you fought some distant mission... and never came home. A year after Zack was gone, more Turks joined the search for me. Reno, a loud mouthed braggart on the surface, but acutely aware of the hard work needed to do anything. He might always talk before he thought the implications through, shoot his mouth off constantly and always end up making more trouble than he solved, but Reno hid his heart of gold deep and called me his ‘Kitten'. He insinuated I had a talent for tangling lives up like a ball of yarn, so easily. Rude, cool and collected, hiding his warm eyes behind sunglasses. Whilst he never spoke all that much, he stood loyally by Reno's decisions and always cared for how I was doing, bringing me medicine when I was sick or buying flowers to help me. How bizarre, you might say and you'd be right. To me, ShinRa occupied a large chunk of my thoughts and I, theirs. Whilst they didn't capture me, when they were off duty, they cared for me as best as I could. Because in –their- eyes, I was ShinRa too. ...my strange family. Now I'm here again, strapped down, tested on, drugged and abused and bombarded with questions. The table is cold and my skin shivering. I can hear my teeth chattering, only a simple thin sheet laid over my nakedness, protecting me from the air, but a shallow protection it is. My hair is a ruin of tangles and my cheeks dirty with the salt of half shed tears. I don't know what to feel, staring at the one way glass. All I know is, I never wanted to come back here. I am sad and hurt... ...but perhaps, it's just one of those things? ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Something was pressed into her hand and she cracked her tired eyes open to peer at the pink ribbon, the knot half undone from when it was in her golden brown hair, keeping it away from her face, the useless materia hidden in the fold of the knot. "Stop dropping stuff, Kitten," a soft voice said, and she looked up at the face of Reno, the scar like tattoos wrinkled with his smile. He was slightly bent over, she recalled seeing him run down the pillar, hurt and clutching his side. "Reno," she said quietly, "are you hurt?" "The docs patched me up, I just got handed some time off though." He straightened with a wince, hand pressing to his side, "I hate taking holiday time." "It'll be good for you." "Ah, maybe." "..." she took a breath, "Thank you, for not hurting them too much." "... yeah well, only cause I like ya, Kitten. I gotta go. Sorry about all this." "It's just one of those things, I'm sorry too" Aerith said softly as Reno stared at her, then miserably slunk off towards the door, hands in pockets. She tightened her fingers over the ribbon and materia, as if holding it there would somehow make it all better. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- The dust hammered up from under their feet and she covered her mouth to stop the cough she knew was coming. This floor of the building looked as though it hadn't seen a cleaner in well over six months. Bizarre to her mind, as so many people walked past outside that they had to keep dodging in and out of the rooms that littered the walkway towards the toilets, where according to the schematics they'd sneaked a look at in the library, there'd be a ventilation shaft leading to an overhead grille above the room where all the high to do's had just wandered into. To be honest, her greatest concern was Barrett and how he was going to actually fit his large frame into the ventilation shaft. But she didn't give voice to these worries for one really good, solid reason. He was a lot bigger and stronger than she was and she harboured no real desire to become ‘Pretzel Woman!' So she quietly ducked into the toilets after Cloud, noting it had to be in the men's toilets and without hesitation, ducked into a cubicle before the man who happen to be using a urinal saw her. She heard the zipper go and an awkward silence as he quickly washed his hands and then the slam-slam of the door behind his retreat. She covered her mouth against an intrusive giggle, amused at his sudden exit. Her mirth however, was short-lived as the door to the cubicle was opened and Cloud stared down at her. Guiltily she removed her hand at his cool, composed expression. She found herself growing sullen under that gaze, moving aside to let him past so he could hitch the vent open by balancing precariously on the toilet seat edge. Half of her willed him to put his foot right in the damned thing. Of course I'm sulky, I hate how he always has to go around, proclaiming he's the leader, he's the best, blah blah... when really, he's no better than the rest of us. He has fewer clues, probably. What are you doing this for, Cloud? What does she mean to you? She looked down, hooding her dark eyes with a wrench of self pity. Would you go running into fire for me too? Or is it more because ... she's special to you? Well, she's... she... Her thoughts grew jumbled too quickly for her liking and the fighter gave an impatient shake of her head, strands of dark hair clouding about her with her impatience to be off, to be asserting herself in the rescue and sweeping in there, dragging Aerith from the jaws of doom and hopefully, in the process, making Cloud realise she was capable, she was worthy of -his- recognition instead of being on the sideline, clutching at a strand of hair and feeling lost. She hated feeling lost. A grunt made Tifa jerk erect from her slump induced by thinking, and she reached up to the vent with a stretch of her legs in a short jump, dragging herself in with little effort. Cloud was already sliding along the metal space towards the grate and she followed him, trying to ignore the curses of the bulky Barrett behind her. She had this peculiar image of the vent bulging wherever he happened to rest, so strong it was that she was forced to bite her lip in case she giggled too loudly. Again, Cloud offered her a curious, cold look and she pointed to the meeting in progress. They listened. The suits, as Barrett had labelled them, were a disparate group. She knew the President by his face and figure of course, as head of the ShinRa Inc that ran and owned everything in and about Midgar city. The others she was only vaguely familiar with and then only by reputation. The fat, bushy bearded one had to be Heidegger, head of Public Maintenence and Order. He was a bully who ordered about the grunts and Turks at best. His territory overlapped into that of Scarlet, the blonde witch in the red dress that seemed to be missing too much material for Tifa's liking in strategic places - she governed the Weapons Development division. Sat close by was an obese, balding man in a cheap brown suit. That had to be 'Fat Man' Palmer, as he was nicknamed, head of Space Development and Exploration. The youngish man with the narrow beard and dark olive skin looked out of place and uncomfortable, but Tifa knew that it was Reeve, the newly appointed manager of Urban Development. The crouched over the table like it was made of gold and listening, she wrinkled her nose. "We have the damage estimates for Sector 7. Considering those factories we already set up and all the investments, the damage is estimated cost to rebuild Sector 7 is..." Reeve started but was cut into. "We're not rebuilding." The young manager stared down the table at the President and even from her vantage point, Tifa knew his eyes shone with shock and betrayal, "...w-what?" "We're leaving sector 7 as it is, and restarting the Neo-Midgar plan." Neo-Midgar? She mused, What kind of plan is that? "Then...the..." "The Promised Land will soon be ours. I want you to raise the mako rates 15 percentin every area." She almost coughed. 15 percentwas overkill, really. The people in the slums would have no chance to make the kind of money needed to even heat their homes or cook their food. Beside her, she could hear Barrett fighting his urge to run down there and lay bloody waste to them all. "Rate hike, Rate ike - tra la la la! And please include our space program in the budget!" "..." The president turned cool, greedy eyes from Palmer back to Scarlet and Reeve, "You two will divide the extra income." "Oh man," Palmer whined sadly. "Sir, if you raise the rates, the people will lose confidence..." "It'll be alright, the ignorant citizens won't lose confidence. They'll trust ShinRa Inc even more..." "Hahaha!" Heidegger boomed in, his voice deep and commanding, perhaps a touch too loud, "After all, we're the ones who saved Sector 7 from Avalanche!" Tifa tensed and looked across at Barrett who had blazing, furious eyes. "That dirty fu..." She reached over and curled her hand about his, trying to reassure him that she felt the same way. Some of the tension drained away from his muscles and she smiled weakly. She did understand though, to pin the blame on someone else was totally inexcusable, though, should she have expected any better from this company at all? Her dark eyes cut across to Cloud and were unsurprised to see a complete lack of reaction from him; his blue eyes were riveted on the meeting below. "Hojo," Tifa turned down at the sound of the President's voice, hunting for the man he addressed. Slowly he came into view, a thin and ascetic looking man with a pinched and sour face, highlighted by full moon spectacles and lank, greasy hair, "How is the girl?" "As a specimen, she is inferior to her mother. I'm still in the process of comparing her to her mother, but for now, the difference is 18 percent." "How long will the research take?" "Probably 120 years," the scientist shrugged, a shrug without meaning, "It's probably impossible to complete in our life time. Or, in the lifetime of the specimen too, for that matter. That's why we're thinking of breeding her, and then we could create one that could withstand our research for a long time." "What about the Promised Land? It won't hinder our plans?" "That's what I need to plan, the mother is strong," he began to laugh, a sniggering kind of laugh where his shoulders bunched, "but has her weaknesses." "That concludes our meeting," the President said. As he did, it was as if a magical spell were broken. One by one, they all began to file out with the rustle of papers and severe lack of definitive comradeship. Tifa watched them with burning eyes, even as the red clothed witch stopped and looked about with a mutter about something stinking. She didn't care. She knew they had been mouthing off about Aerith. She knew it in her heart. She wanted to leap down and start tearing the building up, looking for the girl ShinRa had stolen from a life she'd cultivated carefully from fragments of a past. She wanted to shove her fist so far down Hojo's throat that she could wiggle her fingers out of his backside. "There were talking about Aerith, right?" "I dunno..." Barrett's voice floated to her and together, they began shinnying out of the confined space into the toilet where they could stand about. She was involved in adjusting her short skirt, her mind focused sharper than ever now she'd been provided with a target for her wrath. "Probably," she said softly. "No, definitely." "Then, let's follow 'em." Cloud nodded. He went to the door and she followed, like someone drawn along by string attached to her throat. If she'd wanted to spend a lifetime sneaking after people, she would have gone to Wutai and trained as a Shinobi. Sighing to herself, she didn't even bother trying to sneak down the corridor, rolling her eyes upwards as Cloud strafed around a corner. Tifa wondered if he was humming some theme song in his head, pretending this was all some game of 'catch the scientist.' However, she did stop by his shoulder when he gestured and together they peered around the corner at where the door was left open after Hojo. "They did mention the doors sticking, remember?" she offered helpfully. "Seems too convenient to me," the gruff terrorist muttered and Cloud shook his head. "Don't look a gift horse in the mouth." "Cloud," she warned, or well, tried to warn, to her personal credit, "Don't go jumping in he...hey!" Before she could finish, he was off and round the corner to the door. He held it open and without a choice as someone was coming, hurried along to it with Barrett, then two of them jumping inside just as the door snapped shut behind them. Tifa pressed a hand to her chest, feeling her heart thudding restlessly away to itself. Several interesting word choices haunted her lips and she wondered if it was illegal to kick him down the stairs. "Cloud Strife," she said angrily. "We're in, aren't we?" "That's not the point... we could have been caught, it could have been a trap, you didn't even pause to check for wires or lasers!" "Oh well," he shrugged. "...I... I..." she gobbled down her furious words, turning instead to the stairs and stomping up them, after Barrett. The taller, bulkier man looked behind him and said thoughtfully, "I remembered him now, that's Hojo, head of the Science department here at ShinRa." "Hojo...so that's what he looks like. I haven't ever seen him before," Cloud said, moving past them and into the corridor, this time for Tifa's benefit she was sure, scanning for traps and cameras. "He looks kind of weedy, greasy." But if you were in Soldier, and treated with Mako like Soldiers are... you should know him at least. Tifa shook her head, those jumbled thought whirling and revolving as they walked the steel corridors quietly, taking in the rooms and the strange layout. The signs on the walls were faded and the paint a little chipped here and there, but still intelligible when read. She drew her hands along the side of an office, and then paused once they entered what looked to be the underbelly of the main laboratory, a kind of holding place for large specimen jars and strange crates that some jangled and jumped as if alive. Noises and odd guttural sounds floated about, and once she jumped at the loud scream echoing from nowhere. She didn't like this place at all, she decided on a whim, clutching at her skirt and yanking on it as a cool breeze drifted by her legs. Her eyes roved the specimen cells, one of them actually occupied by something, so she went close to the glass. Inside, a red furred creature lay, breathing heavily as if asleep. His tail looked as if it glowed, like firelight, wafting to and fro with undulating motions that drew her wine dark eyes in each heavy and lazy arc. She smiled and pressed her cheek to the glass. "Hello, my name is Tifa," she said softly. It gave no response, only a huff in the pause that briefly interrupted the deep breathing, then it continued. She could see scars decorating the body of the magnificent beast, each looking cruel and horrible to her eyes, as well as several tattoos that she had no clue to the origin or meaning of. It looked peaceful, sleeping softly and far away in dreams of somewhere better than this stinking lab where despair seemed to reign. "Precious specimen," she murmured, remembering what Hojo had giggled as they trailed him, "...are they going to use you for an experiment?" The very thought froze her heart. The same kind of experiments they want to subject Aerith to. I have to hurry and get her away from here! Behind her there was a crash and alarmed; she turned to see Cloud on the floor, his eyes staring at the tank in abject horror or perhaps terror, shining with some hidden, half forgotten truth. Disturbed she crossed the distance and reached down, "Cloud?" "Did you...did you see it? J-jenova..." ...Jenova... "Cloud, be strong," she said, tightening her grip on his arm. A little pain would render reality back to whatever his twisted fiction was. "...okay?" "Did you see it?" he repeated, and then winced. Barrett muttered about seeing what, then hauled himself to the tank with the tiny window where Cloud had pressed his curious vision, then he too stumbled back with a vile curse tainting his lips, "Shit - where's it's fucking head! The whole things stupid... lets keep going..." Tifa knew he was frightened by the way he turned his back and grasped his dogtags in a shaking hand. The bite of reality. The edges of pain. Helping Cloud to his feet then began to work their way through the crates. Once she had to stop because she'd dropped her sense materia and it had rolled under a close by grating. A couple of times the creatures Hojo kept for the experiments had crept out of their ill fitting cells and attacked them. By the time they reached the elevator to the primary Lab, her fists were slick with the blood of the fallen and her heart pounded erratically against her rib cage. She thumbed the up button, feeling the plastic slip under slick fingers and closed her dark eyes. Light and dark flashed in equal proportions until it slowed, giving that odd jolting feeling in the pit of her stomach. As a group they waded into the lab, knocking aside two assistants and jamming that lift incase one of them tried to use it. By a central specimen chamber, Hojo turned with a look of surprise, touching his glasses so the light shone off their surface blinding. But she had no eyes for him, only the huddled figure in the specimen chamber who was curled over slightly, knees to their chest. The flash of pink and brown hair that looked faintly tangled gave her away as being Aerith, the lively green eyes fixed on some distant point. "Aerith!" she cried out. "Oh, so that's her name." Hojo adjusted his glasses and then peered at the group. "What do you want?" "We're taking Aerith back." The scientist sneered and folded his arms, "Outsiders. There are so many frivolous things in this world." He didn't even flicker an eyelid when Barrett pointed his gun arm, something Tifa gave him credit for mentally; he was either a complete lunatic or totally collected and together. "Are you going to kill me? I don't think you should. The equipment here is really very delicate, without me, who would operate it? Hmm?" "Damn..." Barrett lowered the arm whilst Cloud took another vague step closer. "That's right," Hojo said smugly, "I recommend you think things through logically before coming to any rash conclusions. Now, bring in the specimen!" "Sir" called out a technician and there was a whirring sound. Tifa looked to the chamber which had begun to gather a pale light and winced, covering her eyes. Inside, the same lion like beast from down in the underbelly had been placed in the same chamber as Aerith and was this time awake, growling and looking furious. Furious and dangerous. Dangerous. Tifa's brain slowly kicked into gear, much slower than Aerith's did. Inside the chamber she got quickly to her feet and ran to the other side and hammered on the unbreakable glass, shouting even if it came out quiet on Tifa's side; "Help!" "What do you think you're doing?" Cloud shouted at Hojo, cheeks tinted red with his own temper. "Lending a helping hand. Both species are endangered and on the brink of extinction! If I don't help, then these animals will disappear." "H-how..." Tifa glared at him and took steps to the chamber side, "How terrible, Aerith isn't an animal! She's a human being." So saying, she hammered away on the other side of the glass to Aerith, trying to convey comfort to the distressed Ancient, who smiled waveringly back. "You're gonna pay..." "Barrett, can't you do anything?" "Alright, step back," he hoisted his gun arm and suddenly Cloud was there, hauling her back from Aerith. She gestured for the girl to hurry away and she did, covering her face and bending over a little as Barrett fired off a barrage of bullets at the door and lock. The ping sound of their casings sounded loud and hollow to Tifa's ears and she ducked in case one hit the chamber wrong and ricocheted towards her. "Stop," Hojo shrieked in dismay. The glass door gave a funny cracking heave and he hurried to it, "W-wha... oh... my p-poor specimens!" Suddenly the door lurched open and in a flurry of red fur and fiery tail, the beast leapt free of captivity and sat himself down atop the frightened and bewildered scientist who could only manage a gibber of fear. Seeing her chance, Tifa made to fetch Aerith but Cloud was several steps ahead of her, running into the chamber, playing the god damned hero again. She looked away, trying to not appear sulky. Tifa, 0. Sideline, 2. Cloud pushed Aerith out and she was however, gratified somewhat, to see that she was the first the Ancient came to, wrapping arms about her in a hug designed to crack ribs. But Tifa noticed the worried expression on Cloud's face, "Cloud?" "The elevator is moving... There's something coming up here." "I'll help you out, I can sense it's rather strong," the beast suddenly said. It took all Tifa had not to stare and she was pretty sure she was failing as she stammered, "I-It talked?" "I'll talk as much as you want later, Miss," it said politely. "Tifa, take Aerith somewhere safe! Get out, we'll follow soon!" "Alright," she said softly, grasping Aerith by the hand. Together, or more like she pulled the flower girl with her, they ran to the stairs down and hurried down them. Her heart fluttered and sang, feeling the cool grip of the girl in her hand and she smiled warmly for the first time in what felt like forever. Soon they'd clattered all the way down to the 66th floor and stood there, breathing together as Tifa quickly checked her over for wounds or injuries. "Did they hurt you?" she asked softly with concern. "...Apart from the tests?" Aerith joked. It was wonderful to hear her joking again and Tifa smiled, straightening up from her fussing only to have her hands caught by Aerith's smaller ones with an exclamation. "What?" the fighter said. "Your hands, the blood!" "It's not mine." "Oh... I was... well..." Tifa laughed nervously and jerked her hands back, blushing. "Yeah, well, things got a bit hairy for a while." "I can't believe you came all this way to rescue me." Tifa risked a glance back, cheeks burning; the eyes of the Ancient were brimming with joy and burning with life, so hot that Tifa wondered if she'd burn too if she got too close to Aerith. "I'm so happy you did. I'm sorry I caused so much trouble." "You know what they say, the prettier the girl, the more trouble she'll be." Aerith laughed, covering her mouth, "Then I hate to think what trouble you'd cause, Tifa." There it was again, catching her off guard. She felt like her face must be bright red by now, so turned her back with a gruff cough and rubbed her chest, trying to order those jumbled thoughts. Did she even know the kinds of things she was saying? She wasn't even sure how she felt or more to the point, what it was she felt, starting to grow and glow brightly inside her, passionate feelings like great wings unfolding inside, wings that promised forever. "Aerith," she said softly, her heart threatening to beat right out of her chest "I..." "Ladies," said a cool voice and she turned with a disparate look ready for the owner. Tseng merely raised a brow back at her. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- "One date..." "Excuse me!" it was the somewhat ruffled and upset voice of Tifa. Aerith covered her mouth and winced. "Tifa, you're there too?" she tried tentatively. "Yeah..." They were all being held in cells. Not much to them really, a fold away bed and toilets that were really little more than sliding bedpans. The cell was uniformly grey and steel, with the same sliding doors that they'd seen throughout the building. Tifa and Cloud were together then, she assumed, which was good as they were both friends. She was being held alone, so she could only assume the creature they'd nicknamed Red and Barrett were being held in another. Luck had it, she was in the cell next to Tifa and Cloud. Aerith threaded her hands across her stomach, vaguely eyeing the faint bruise of where the catheter had been implanted into her vein. "You know Aerith, I have a question," it was the lilting voice of Tifa and she pressed eagerly against the wall, glad of conversation. "What?" she prompted. "...does... does the Promised Land really exist?" They had been taken before the President she gathered, informed of his nefarious plot, about the Promised Land and his stupid ideal that it was a haven for Mako. She looked down, knowing that all her new friends knew the truth about her now, that she was an outcast without any real root or home apart from ShinRa to call her own. "I don't know," she confessed. "You don't know?" "All I know is..." her eyes grew soft and unfocused as they always did when thinking back on the words her mother had told her before all these strange events had even been placed into motion, back when she was been just another test subject, "The Cetra were born from the Planet, speak to the Planet and unlock the Planet. And then... the Cetra will return to the Promised Land. A land that promises supreme happiness." "W-what does that mean?" Tifa's voice sounded scared, she supposed her voice did sound a little distant and dreamy. "More than words, I don't know..." "Speak with the Planet," Cloud mused and she smiled, finally hearing him join their conversation. Tifa added, almost on top of him, "Just, what does the Planet say?" "It's full of people and noisy. That's why I can't make out what they're saying..." It's probably because I'm a half breed... "You hear it now?" "No. I... I only heard it in the Church, in the slums. Mother said that Midgar was no longer safe..." She clenched her hands together, "That is, my real mother. Someday... I'll get out of Midgar, speak with the Planet and find my own Promised Land. That's what Mom said...I thought I would stop hearing her voice as I grew up... but..." Tears filled her eyes and she sat back down on her small shelf like bed. They'd gone quiet in the other cell and she welcomed the peace as she brushed those tears away. She hadn't heard the Planet for quite some time now... she missed both of her mothers in a strange sense. Lying down, she closed her eyes and let sleep with the dreams she had grown used to, take her away... ---------------------------------------------------------------------- There was always water. She was swimming through it to the shore where no one else waited for her. Her strokes were even and her pull good against the current and undertow and soon she broke the bank, clambering out as naked as the day she was born. She lifted her green eyes and on the hill she could see a city, made of chunky crystal and half formed scallop shells, digging at the ground and rising the sky in graceful spires no eye could hope to follow, filled with the tinkle of music and long distant voices. But standing in her way was the woman, her silhouette dark and her eyes darker and sadder than anything she'd known before. In a voice snatched away by a wind that did not blow in her dream, the woman said, "Go back." "I must go on." "Go back... or you will die." She hesitated but then without answering, walked past her and towards the city. Behind her, the woman crumpled to the floor and wept her heart out, broken and cold. For a moment she wavered and then... ...water... ...she was in the water and sinking. Going down so slowly, like an angel falling, like a feather gliding, to crystal depths where the world moved slowly. She lifted her arms and felt her hair rise around her like a fractured halo, a forgotten prayer, the beloved psalm replayed in the mind and heart. She lifted hands to the light above and below, reaching out and sinking, or perhaps flying. Then it was dark. She lay there, not breathing nor needing to, simply watching with distant green eyes in the water. Her heart was heavy with the cries of another heart broken cruelly, broken swiftly. "...I must," she mouthed silently to the water and closed her eyes. ...there was always water. She was swimming through it to the shore where no one else waited for her...
Back to Love Not Often Index - Back to Final Fantasy 7 Shoujo-Ai Fanfiction