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sanctum_cThis... took longer to get back to then it was supposed to. But here is a newly revised chapter 1 (with some changes on the escape from Shinra resulting from discussion with raaj and an expanded ending... which I'm not entirely sure if I should keep) and a finished chapter 2.
Fire had fascinated Aeris Gainsborough all her life; it was part of her, part of who she was and how she lived. Her obsession and maybe also a curse. Her earliest memories of it were uncomfortable reminders of her captivity within the Shinra labs, and the ever present menace that was Hojo. The man who watched, prodded and poked at her and her mother. She could vividly remember the first day she had truly understood what the fire inside her could do. It had been a routine blood test, one of Hojo's many lackeys clamping a hand firmly around her arm as he pushed the needle into her arm without grace or compassion. It hurt. It was no different to the pain from any previous test but this time something broke and she retaliated. She'd been meaning to kick or hit him with her other arm... but then an intriguing other possibility surfaced; something warm, seductive and easy. The knowledge seemed to bubble up out of the recesses of her mind. How to form the flame and make it appear... just there.
The lab assistant flailed backwards in a panic as the sleeve of his lab-coat exuded a thin wisp of smoke and a tiny flame came into being. He let go of Aeris and snapped his arm back, unsure and wary of what to do. She took a hesitant step back and stared at the flame, willing it to get bigger. The flame sputtered and flared up, the assistant crying out in fear. Too little though; the man's cries had attracted attention and fire blankets were rapidly applied to him, Aeris unceremoniously marched back to her cell. She couldn't control it - not yet. She tried to cause another flame to appear on the guard dragging her back to her mother, but nothing came. Had she really done it at all? She felt sure she had controlled the flame like that but suddenly how to do it escaped her. But she wanted to know, needed desperately to know how to call up the fire again.
Her mother swept her up into an embrace as soon as they were left alone. This was not unusual; her mother doted on her when they were allowed any time together, but there was something different today. She spoke in a voice little above a whisper of how proud she was, how Aeris had awoken to her own unique skill. And how she should try to hide it; the incident would attract Hojo's attention but unless he could coax another response out of her he would not press the issue. Her mother made her promise that no matter what Hojo did she would not summon fire where he could see it. Not understanding - not yet - Aeris promised. It didn't seem necessary to add that she could not at present remember how she had achieved that effect.
Hojo wasted little time. The next day Aeris found herself trapped in a glass tube, as the man who haunted her nightmares leered at her. He looked oddly different; his hair matted down with a thick substance she would later discover was flame retardant. He'd likewise coated his skin and changed from his typical lab coat into a different non-flammable outfit. The lab had been cleared of almost everything else; bare metal walls, ceiling, floor and a small plinth containing a glass beaker filled with a colourless fluid. Water maybe?
Hojo made his offer; set the beaker alight and she would not be tested in any way for the next week. The concept of a week was an almost vague term to the young Cetra. The Shinra building was perpetually cut off from the outside world, and all she knew was she had periods of waking and periods of sleep. But if a week was, as she suspected, seven periods awake, now that was a tempting prize. Her mother's words then echoed in her mind. She shook her head and stared back at the man defiantly. He smiled; a horrible sight, remarking that she could do it then. Aeris froze, angry at herself for so easily letting that revelation slip. He was toying with her she later understood; withdrawing the offer of a test free week in favour a new one: avoiding an immediate blood test. A nervous assistant with a needle and a dart-gun approached her. He was similarly clothed to Hojo and had coated himself with the same gunk.
Aeris backed away from the gun, her eyes fixed on the needle. Usually this was every few days, never this soon. Her mind reeled and there was that knowledge again. It was so simple, so easy. It would only make things worse though. Biting her lip she stepped back as the cylinder opened and did nothing. The assistant looked to Hojo with nervous eyes, his superior simply gesturing to continue. The assistant licked his lips, sweat beading on his brow. Unlike the previous day, this assistant was gentle, delicate, and utterly terrified of her. She watched his nervousness with a thrill of power. She was scaring him: their relationship had inverted. The needle pierced her arm with a sting but she still did nothing.
Hojo scowled as the assistant exited the tube and resealed it. He batted the proffered tube away, spilling warm red blood across the floor. Aeris hated the tests, but to waste that sample, to just injure her to obtain the sample and then simply discard it. Anger boiled in her. No! He was trying to make her react. She couldn't let him get to her. Hojo watched her carefully and then smiled. The sight chilled her. He grabbed the assistant and whispered something to him. The assistant looked shocked, but nodded his head. As he scurried away, Hojo approached and made a new offer. Set the beaker on fire, and he would stop all his experiments today. A cheap offer now in light of the original. But she still refused. She'd promised.
The lab door opened and she gasped. Two Shinra guards entered with her mother strung between them, frightened eyes taking in the bare lab and her daughter sealed in a glass tube. She glanced with fear at the grinning scientist who stared back at her; his gaze flicking between mother and daughter.
"Last chance," she could remember him saying; this directed at Aeris. Fearfully she looked at her mother who shook her head. Hojo sighed, muttering something about damaging a specimen. He told one of the guards to "Do it" and then stared at Aeris once more. All her attention was on her mother as the guard slammed his fist into her stomach. Aeris started, hands pressed against the glass, as her mother cried out in pain and slumped against the arms pinning her into place. "Again," the horrible man said and the guard repeated his action without a pause. "It would all stop if she would just set the beaker on fire," Hojo said with a smirk never taking his eyes from her. Fury mounted within her combining with that new knowledge; the range and intensity she would use. She could throw a flame onto that man's leg. That would stop him.
Agonisingly her mother lifted her head to stare at her and mouthed no, before Hojo made another command and the trooper slammed his fist into her mother's face. Shock, fear, terror, rage coursed through her, and now it was too late. Her mother moaned desperately "No", but Aeris' fingers had twitched and the flame flickered up the guard's trouser leg. He stumbled backwards in panic as Hojo simply grinned more, chuckling as the young girl screamed and erupted a new gout of flame onto the other trooper. He let her mother fall awkwardly to the floor as he panicked with his flaming uniform. Hojo raised his voice and shouted something she couldn't make out, and now his assistant entered with a fire extinguisher, rapidly dousing the two terrified guards.
Hojo ignored it all, ignored the soft moans of her injured mother on the floor just to step closer to her. "You can do it," he stated. And if she didn't want this to happen again she would follow orders next time; the guards wouldn't be vulnerable next time. Quivering with anger and guilt, Aeris could only stare at the floor as he appraised her, and then dismissed mother and daughter for the day. She cried that day, sobbing and apologising to her wincing mother as she tried to slump comfortably in their cell. Her mother cooed and stroked her hair, forgiving her everything. She'd never anticipated Hojo reacting that fast and that callously. Just do as he asked was her new suggestion. But nothing more. Never reveal how far her skill could extend.
She co-operated with Hojo after that, setting tiny fires at varying distances, while wired up so he could see how her body responded. He noted her substantially above average temperature, checked her brain waves from rest to pyrokinesis and back again. Her clothes were taken and replaced with new inflammable garments. Following a nightmare and a series of unexplained fires, the surrounding floor was stripped of all flammable material. Time passed; every day another test, another blood sample, another measure of what she was and what she could do. She saw no point in showing off to Hojo, but at the same time she felt constricted by holding herself back. She could do so much more with the fire she harboured deep inside, she wanted to let it loose, to enjoy its beauty and power. But she did not want to show that to Hojo.
The day she left Shinra and her mother died was different; both mother and daughter unusually in the lab together. Hojo demanded his regular test of her range and the intensity of the flame she could conjure before turning his attentions to her mother. The words had meant little to Aeris as a child, other then the nagging fear of how much they upset her mother. Years later when she understood the terms and callous estimation of her mother's body, his words were sickening. She was still fertile Hojo stated bluntly, she was young, she was attractive. Had she thought of expanding her family again? Her mother stared at the scientist with cold, harsh eyes stating he knew full well her husband was dead. He smiled at that, remarking that she could find a new partner and produce a new child, a new specimen for him. While this one, he gestured towards Aeris, was gifted with fire, the mother's skill seemed to be faded or evade easy detection. Who was to say that another child would exhibit the same skills. Her mother paled at the words stutteringly asking what he meant. He had a poker-face as he made a crude offer, her mother's head twisting away from him in shock. She muttered no, and then there was that awful grin on Hojo's face again. In that case he would select a different mate for her, an exotic and near extinction species. A different type of hybrid would be so very interesting.
Aeris would later find herself roused from slumber as her mother panickedly shook her awake. She whispered quickly and quietly asking Aeris to just this once demonstrate the full extent of her power. Her mother had always paid careful attention to the layout of the building, and at one stage even been dragged before President Shinra for his inspection. She knew there was nothing flammable on this floor, but Hojo had severely underestimated her daughter and not stopped to think three-dimensionally. Her mother asked and Aeris complied. She concentrated, calling flames into being in a wide arc five meters above her. Then ten. Fifteen. Twenty. By Twenty-five alarm bells began to sound through the building, strange pulsing sirens that bespoke fire. Her mother told her to be ready to move.
Each time Aeris concentrated and felt a flame flicker into life. Each time for a moment she felt she could glimpse the area around it. She began to concentrate on paper, carpets, curtains and in some cases, clothes. Fire spread in an arc over her head and still the alarms wailed. There were distant shouts and the feeling of movement. Finally the door to the cell was flung open. An ordinary guard, so very flammable, stood breathing hard and shouting they had to get out. Her mother gathered Aeris into her arms and walked calmly out. The building was in chaos. Employees forgot drills, stumbling with valuables and personal items. Her mother, Aeris and the trooper joined into the crush of people filing off of the main floors and into the emergency stairs that lead to outside.
They could not hope to blend in; the cuts, bruises and different clothing marked mother and daughter out from the crush very obviously. Nervous twitches now ran through her mother as they approached street level. She had little doubt that someone who truly understood what they were would be watching and waiting for their emergence. If not for the sudden fire and timing she had little doubt that Hojo would have used a show of force to prevent the fire from spreading.
They reached ground-level and her mother stared upwards in shock. It was so bright out here, and Aeris followed her gaze. Fear constricted her as she gazed at the dizzying heights above her. Where before there was always a metal ceiling, now there was nothing but a blue infinity. She clutched at her mother in fear as the older woman whispered angrily to herself, glancing around her quickly and fearfully. She pushed them both into the crowd, shuffling forward as quickly as possible, Aeris trying desperately to tear her eyes from the spectacle above. Worried and uncaring employees pulled back from the woman and child with the fading injuries; some slum-dweller who'd gotten up here? They ought to beef up security. There were shouts behind her as her mother kept pushing, following signs that lead her towards the station. Another shout and the horrifying sound of weapons being readied. Her mother pivoted smoothly on her heel, keeping her own body between them and Aeris. She held her hand out palm open towards the troops. Surrender? They lowered their weapons in expectation, and then she struck. Lightning arced from her palm to each of the troops, slamming them backward and frightening the rest. She threw another spark quickly after the first and then ran. The sector was in chaos, the upper floors of the Shinra building in flames, employees scattered over the streets, and this woman had summoned electricity from her own hand disabling her pursuers.
They ran, working almost entirely off instinct now. Her mother knew they were off the ground at least, realised what the blue sky above them meant in this city, and that if nothing else getting to ground level would be essential in escaping the city. That meant going down to the slums and that meant taking the train. She ran, not wasting time to see if the troops had recovered yet, backups called in or if she had somehow cleanly evaded them. This opportunity could not be wasted. They reached the station by chance but found no train waiting. Her mother's eyes flicked nervously around the platform, pulse racing before making a decision. She pulled Aeris into her arms and leapt down onto the tracks, running towards the tunnel entrance that yawned wide ahead of them.
Aeris' breathing slowed and she calmed as they entered the tunnel; a comforting surface now above her head. Her mother kept moving her forward, glancing back nervously at a distant shout. She pushed her daughter ahead of her as a shot rang out and stumbled for a second before continuing. She was breathing heavily and glancing around with anxious eyes, one hand pressed tightly to her side. Pursuit could not be far behind; she had to get them out of the main tunnel and easy detection. She hurried, ears straining for noise behind her as the metal around them reverberated with the rumble of distant trains.
Aeris spotted the hatch; a narrow cramped passage that lead down to another tunnel below. It would have to do. The sounds of distant trains grew louder as her mother ushered her down the ladder, before following her a moment later; just as a train rounded the bend, blasting them with air as it rocketed past and towards the station. The noise deafening in the echoing tunnels. Aeris saw her mother's face twist in agony for a moment and her mouth open as if in pain but any noise lost was lost in the onslaught. The train passed in the tunnel above them, and they began walking again though slower then before, her mother no longer capable of the frantic rush from before.
They walked for long hours in the cramped tunnels, clutching at walls as trains hurtled past them, feeling their way gingerly through darkened sections where the lights had failed. They were still free her mother whispered with a pained smile, Shinra must have lost track of them. The tunnels were like a maze, but her mother would always take the tunnels that sloped downwards and away from the Shinra building. Aeris gasped when the tunnels abruptly ended and they stepped again into the open air on the central hub of Midgar. The air was muggy and tinted with the faint odour of mako. There was an up above her; an up of astonishing size, but an up that was now visible unlike the place before. Her eyes were drawn to the gigantic metal plates locked in place high above; there was so much space here. She gazed out into the cave-like expanse of city-scape below the plate, comforted slightly by the new ceiling above her though fearful of the gaps she could see running along the gigantic triangular plates. She shivered, gazing down into the sprawl below, her mother instead looking far into the distance at the outer walls of the city. She leaned awkwardly against a support strut before pushing herself upright with visible effort. Mother and daughter slowly walked hand in hand down the heavy mesh that bordered the rails as trains hurtled past them, spiralling around the hub. Her mother's smile was becoming fixed as they descended and the mako stench of the slums was becoming unavoidable.
They followed the train-line. Mercifully the slum track system was left open to the air and there were no further tunnels to navigate. Her mother selected a route that lead directly towards the outer walls and freedom. They waited nervously for the sounds of trains and the clunking, mechanical switching system to quieten for a moment before they picked their way across it and into Sector Five. Her mother pushed Aeris up and onto the station before pulling herself up, the effort causing new pain to shoot through her. She was wincing but still able to walk with quick uneven steps which lasted until the steps down onto the street. Her legs had threatened to give out even before then, but now she awkwardly stumbled from the steps and dropped beside them. Clumsily she pushed herself up and into a seated position, breathing heavily.
Aeris reached out a nervous hand to her mother's again, watching her chest carefully as it rose and fell. Her eyes had closed now and she seemed to be resting. Nerves shook Aeris as she glanced around, huddling closer to her mother - her body felt cold, and Aeris snuggled in tighter to try and keep her warm. New sights and smells kept catching her eye, maddening curiosity pulling her attention away from her injured mother. The floor below them was stone, covered in cracks and gashes; a far cry from the smooth metal of the labs. The area was littered with discarded paper, empty bottles, and unidentifiable, seemingly organic remains. Distant rumbles sounded from the metal ceiling so far above her head, strange whistling noises accompanied air eddying around her. It was warm here. So much warmer then before. Why then was her mother so cold?
They needed to move she realised. They'd gotten away from that place and that man, but surely it could not last. She shook her mother, gingerly trying to coax her into waking. Her breathing continued uninterrupted, but she did not open her eyes. She tried talking to her gently, but nothing seemed to work. She cried a little then; worrying about those who must be coming for them, to take her back, take away this strange new world, these new sights, the new experiences. All to take more of her blood, to check once again how well she could control the flames.
A gentle voice sounded in her ears then, and she raised her head, blinking through bleary eyes at another woman - she rarely saw anyone like her mother - looking down at them both concerned. Her mother stirred then, one final wheezing effort as she gasped out what would be her last words; a heartfelt request for this soft-spoken stranger to take care of her daughter. The woman looked confused and worried, but nodded as her mother's body lost its grip on the world and relaxed down again forever, a faint smile still on her lips as her chest stilled. Aeris started at her mother's stillness, blinking up at the woman nervously. She smiled back sadly, holding out one hand. Aeris took it, and then pushed herself against the woman, seeking her warmth, grateful to feel her arms sliding around her. She felt... safe.
The new woman spoke, falteringly, checking she had heard correctly. She confirmed that her name was indeed Aeris and asked the young girl to come home with her; she'd promised her mother after all. Aeris didn't know what to think until she heard a horribly faint whispering from somewhere far away: that she should go with this woman, and she would look after her in her mother's stead. She nodded then at the stranger who introduced herself as Elmyra Gainsborough, and tears still trickling from her eyes Aeris held her hand tightly as they walked away from her mother and her past. Just as they were about to turn the corner and away from the station, she glanced back, realising that Shinra were still coming for them. She could not let them take what remained of her mother. With a new welling of tears she flicked her hand sending a tiny spark arcing through the air towards her mother's body. Magical fire consumed her mortal remains, every part of her consumed in moments, leaving nothing but ash behind. Her mother would be finally free. She walked on with Elmyra and to a new life away from Shinra.
Aeris sighted along the line of candles she had set up on the scorched and blackened wooden floorboards of the church. She concentrated briefly on the first one and ignited the wick. That was the easy part. Gently she flexed her fingers and the second candle's wick ignited while the first's extinguished. She sighed. Not quite how it was supposed to go. Her latest idea had been to bounce the flames along a run of candles, the flame flicking from one candle to the next. She'd had the idea for some time she realised after she'd seen the garish signs that flicked on and off in places like Wall Market; that flicker of one light bulb pulsing just out of sync with its neighbour to create the sensation of motion. She wanted to do the same kind of thing with the candles - but not quite the same. She could mimic the effect easily enough, but it looked, odd, noticeable and strange. It would, she suspected, look merely mechanical instead of truly impossible. The flicking fire was less obviously achievable and she hoped that someone would later ask her about tiny hairs strung between the candles and tiny charges to produce the first flame. And she would smile and nod and give that person the impression that they alone had figured out how she had done the trick - never realising that Aeris' equipment contained no such trickery.
She had so many props now. The clubs and staff she juggled with; flicking them through the air, and never entirely concerned if she caught the right end. She'd gotten so fast no one noticed when she did slip like that - and if anyone did, her lack of later injury dismissed the notion. She had her poi which she whirled to the delight of the crowd and her fans. She was known locally as The Fire Dancer after a later stage of her acts; opening with juggling before moving onto arcing shapes with the poi, breathing flames onto each prop as need be and eating them afterwards. All delightful and familiar to the crowds she could attract when performing. She walked on blisteringly hot coals with ease, but they'd seen others do that; though not usually while juggling as well. No, Aeris had earned her nick-name from the dancing; she drew the crowds in with the easy tricks, the ones they'd seen before. Maybe slightly more spectacular, maybe slightly more risky then any other performer was willing to try, but what really captured imaginations was her dancing. Stopping for only a moment to click the small tape-player on, she would then then move to the rhythm, combining all of her previous skills with new ones as she whipped flames all around her, onto her arms, and very occasionally to spectacular applause her hair, transforming her auburn hair into cascading waves of yellow fire after she'd teased her ribbon and its cargo from her braid. That always amazed the crowd, but the reaction was so spectacular she tried to resist doing it; too often and it would seem easy, mechanical, boring.
There was a second dance she could do though; one she'd only tried once in the privacy of her bedroom - and for only one person: Zack. Her boyfriend. Well, former boyfriend. It had been five years now since they had last spoken. She could still remember the day she met him; an above plate performance of whirling fire, and quiet applause. The open air above Midgar no longer held the same fear that had once nearly paralysed her as her mother engineered their escape from Shinra's clutches. It had not been an easy fear to overcome; she'd grown far too comforted by the metallic ceiling above her. But she heard of others who went up onto the plate - to work, to visit or just to explore. People younger and older had no fear of exposing themselves to the open air like that, and gradually Aeris felt that the same should be true for her too. But to give up a fear as deeply held was not easy, and she built gradually up to stepping out onto the upper plates. At first she sought out the gaps in the plate, stepping carefully forward until she aligned with the open space, always staying close to some structure she could cling to in case as she secretly feared, the ground would lose its grip on her and she would fall upwards and helpless into the blue. It had never happened, and she grew bolder about coming out from the cover of the plates and then thoroughly pleased with herself, finally took a train to the surface. She stared up at the sky then, her feet still solidly on the ground and tried to remember why she had been so afraid. As it stood now, the sky held a fascination, part of a larger, vaster world that it seemed so wrong to hide from.
The audience on the night she met Zack had not been as generous as on other occasions, but meeting him... Ah, that had been worth it. She'd initially recoiled as the SOLDIER approached, the mako eyes instantly giving away his nature and role within the Shinra company. She rapidly put the stave between them and ignited the tip. That distracted him; while few had quite the attachment to fire she did, no one would ignore flames just in front of their eyes. She'd asked carefully, suspiciously what he wanted, not quite trusting his word, not yet, as he praised her performance. He gushed. He'd never seen anything like it, and was curious how she was doing it. Professional secrets she'd retorted tightly. It could be him feeling her out, trying to see if she was the girl who had escaped all those years ago. Why bother though? Tseng knew full well who she was and indeed where she lived. Materia was the SOLDIER's first guess. She allowed herself more of a smile and denied it, turning her hands this way and that to show that she held no glowing orbs. The SOLDIER looked thoughtful and ran his eyes over her props as the crowd dispersed, while she kept a careful eye on her donations. There was always a chance this SOLDIER was one of a pair waiting to distract her before stealing away her slim earnings. His gaze eventually met back at her eyes again and she found herself staring into them. Maybe life was better with some mysteries he said after holding her gaze. Then he smiled. It was infectious and she found herself smiling back at him.
Everything sprang from there. He asked where she would be performing next, a question she couldn't entirely answer; so much decided by whim, the feel of a crowd and the buzz of the area. He looked slightly crestfallen, but promised to stop by if she performed up on the plates again. Here was good he said. Here she had a good chance of seeing him again, if she wanted to naturally. He dropped some gil in with the rest of the donations and with a smile and a wave he strolled away. It was only after he'd gone that she realised that the nerves and stress she regularly experienced near any Shinra personnel had been absent. There was something different about him. The next night she performed in the same spot, telling herself that the tips had been good and that she wasn't hoping to catch the eye of the black-haired SOLDIER again. She berated herself immediately; the tips had been poor. That SOLDIER was what drew her back to the same place. Sure enough he was there again. She learnt his name that night; Zack Fair. She demurred to let him know her own name and Zack never missing a beat praised her on her performance. She went back the next night. This time he asked her out on a date.
She'd grown used to him now, her guard still there but tempered by the enthusiastic and friendly SOLDIER. The date had been fun, Zack easy-going and simple to talk to. She was cagey on her past, where she lived and Zack didn't even blink. He steered smoothly past the conversation dead-ends and taboo subjects to ask questions about her performances, how she chose her music, where her props came from. He made little suggestions and critiqued her displays. Some ideas she took on board; never having had the chance to have a third person truly review her dances and she liked the ideas. Others she ignored, preferring to keep the deeply personal choices despite the comments, but agreed to another date without stopping to think. That next date was her first kiss and Zack was astonished by the warmth of her skin, drawing her closer into his arms as the upper plate temperature began to fall. More dates followed, the pair growing closer and gradually more intimate. Until she waited, craftily, carefully for her mother to be away on an errand and invited the purple-eyed boy back to her house.
She'd wanted to seduce him that day, go that bit further then they had before, but at the same time she wanted to make it as memorable as possible - hitting on the idea of using her flames in a slightly different way to before. She guided him into her house and pushed him back onto her bed, his eyes wide with anticipation and a little worry. She gestured at him to stay still as she used a different piece of music, something slower, sensual, possibly the soundtrack to some romantic show; she didn't care what it was, she just needed something to move to. She'd been to Wall Market and seen the woman flaunting themselves and using their bodies to entice, and she'd wanted to try the same - but just for him; the man she loved.
She'd teased and danced, fingers opening buttons and exposing with the bare flesh beneath, slowly removing her jacket, her dress... Then she'd brought the fire in; as she discarded her bra, before Zack had a chance to see beneath, she coiled a band of fire around her chest - his eyes widening at her daring. As her underwear dropped to the floor she coiled another band across her thighs and then teased the ribbon from her hair and ignited that too. Still she moved and danced, watching his delighted face as she continued to tease him, the flames on her body growing gradually smaller, exposing more and more skin. And then it all went so wrong. She'd always avoided playing with fire in the house; she had absolute control over it, but there was always that tiny, annoying risk that something would go wrong, that she'd catch something. Outside was better, and in the church was better still as no one - aside from Zack - could watch her there. The flames from her hair brushed against the curtains as she flicked her hair in response to a beat; she didn't notice, she was far too involved in this moment to be fully aware of her surroundings and Zack had fixed all his attention on her.
The first whiffs of smoke revealed what had happened and by then it was almost too late; the curtains were engulfed in flames, the ceiling scorched, Zack suddenly panicked at what had happened. She dropped her flames and began scrabbling for clothes, Zack asked worriedly if they had a fire extinguisher (yes, downstairs in the kitchen), and he ran to get it as she hurriedly dressed herself, trying to draw the flames back, but she was too distracted with the worry of the damage, the unmistakable smell of smoke now sweeping though the house, the mood-killer that she'd managed to achieve. Zack returned with the extinguisher and doused the curtains liberally. Zack mused, deciding they needed a way to cover this up. He pushed open the window them, and begun swiping at the ceiling with a cloth before concluding they needed paint.
That day was a bust. They opened all the windows in the house; Midgar air was not exactly fresh, but at least did not stink of burning. Zack went out on quick errands to buy air freshener, paint, new curtains and something she could claimed to have botched cooking; they might not be entirely able to hide the smokey smell, but they could at least provide an alternate explanation. A meat pie was left in the oven as the two of them kept a careful eye on it to ensure it would cook vastly longer then intended and provide the excuse they needed. Zack won himself a lot of points that day, never complaining, always helpful and eager to cover up this incident - while she felt grateful, but disappointed her planned moment couldn't happen. They could try again though and this time without any kind of fancy display.
To her dismay she would never seen Zack alive again; he shipped out on a mission the next day, promising to be back as soon as he could. That had been five years ago. She'd rationalised as she'd had to; he must have found someone else out there on his mission, maybe married her, settled down and had kids. Or was it even a her? Maybe he had found a him instead? She had no leads, no idea where he had lived before, or where his parents were. She wasn't even sure where he had lived within Midgar; she had not been eager to draw any more of Shinra's attention then she could. She smiled at that thought; because of course, dating a member of SOLDIER, their elite fighting force, that kept the company's attention away from her.
But then it wasn't as if they had no idea where she was or how she was coping; Tseng had been the initial proof, along with his dark-suited assistants - the Turks as she had eventually learned they were referred to. They watched, keeping an eye she supposed or keeping track. She'd noticed they tended to get twitchy if she ever had reason to go near the outer wall of the city; her warders were allowing her to rove all she wanted inside this larger prison, but to actually leave was another matter altogether. She rarely saw them on her trips to the upper plates however. It usually paid better then a slum audience - the people up there actually had spare money to give to the girl who danced with fire. But it wasn't as comfortable up there; there was a sense of judgement in the eyes of many that she tried so hard to ignore. The upper crust looking down their noses at her vulgar displays of whirling fire, appreciating neither the co-ordination required to spin and weave the fiery props as she did or the hours she had practised her dances. Some went further muttering personal slurs and estimations of her love life, a conclusion reached by no more information then seeing her step gracefully through arcing flames and weave to the music.
She had been on the upper plates just the previous night; the night of the explosion. It had caught her off-guard, as she stood outside Goblin's Bar, slowly drawing in a crowd with a few simpler gimmicky tricks, making sure she had their attention before beginning one of her more elaborate routines. The Sector Eight crowd always seemed appreciative of her performances - far more then some of the neighbouring residential plates, especially the vast tract of Shinra housing that consumed most of Sector Seven. Juggling had given way to the arcing flames of the poi, which had given way to her staff, whirling fire around her as she began her first dance. She wove her trickery and her natural gift with flames into her performance, augmenting her long practised routine with flourishes and images. She flared delicate roses of roses made entirely of flames from her staff as it twirled through the air and scattered flaming rose petals out above the crowd; the tiny flames vanishing well before they could connect with the crowd. She'd flicked the staff down behind her with a practised flick of her wrist, shooting the flames from ends up into the air in high arcs as she began her main dance. Today she decided to do the trick with her hair as she swept flames along her arms.
Then the explosion hit. She could barely process what happened as the ground was swept out from under her. There was that awful sense of horror in the pit of her stomach as her brain tried to put events together; could those last two flames have caused this? She landed awkwardly as people screamed around her and began running; the air filled with the whistling of falling debris. A secondary explosion sounded, flaring the sector momentarily with light. Aeris dragged her eyes up to see where it came from. The edge of the city, well out of range of her causally thrown fireballs. The reactor... the reactor was burning. Her guilt vanished as she confirmed that this was through no fault of her own, that something else had caused this incident. The stink of raw mako hit her like a wave, unusual above plate. The reactor wasn't just on fire, it was badly damaged and leaking the poisonous substance. The streets were crowded by panicky idiots, the air filled with cloying particles and falling debris. She had to get out of here. She needed to get home; to try and perform at this time was futile, dangerous. She rapidly gathered her props together, tucking them neatly into the wicker basket she carried and began walking quickly towards the station.
She caught the unmistakable glow of mako eyes out of the corner of her eye. Almost unwillingly she turned to stare at the man walking along the street towards her. SOLDIER... She should be afraid, but... What had just happened? She called out to him as he approached, blinking in surprise at the flames that still flickered across her props; she'd forgotten to fully extinguish them. She concentrated a moment and the flames vanished before they could damage the wicker. She asked him what had happened; the man oddly cagey, trying to hided his emotions. A bomb at the reactor he eventually said.
He'd advised her to try and get out of the Sector then and questions died on her lips as he darted away into the confused mass of people still panicked over the explosion. She stared after him a moment, cursing the lost opportunity to maybe find out Zack's fate. Maybe she'd see him again? Unlikely in a city of this size... unless she came up here again and waited as she had for Zack. She smiled to herself as she walked, realising she was seriously considering doing the same thing she had for Zack, waiting on this new SOLDIER to run into her again. No matter what had happened with Zack, she still cared for him and did want to know ultimately where he was now. Though that blonde SOLDIER had been pretty cute. She shook her head wondering at her thoughts, it had been so long since she'd entertained those kinds of thoughts about anyone. With a deep sigh she hurried towards the station and home.
It had been two days since then. She really had returned the next night to look for the SOLDIER from outside the damaged Goblin's Bar, in amongst all the debris. She gave only a small simplistic performance partly due to the lack of potential audience members, and so she could break off easily if she did see him again. It had admittedly been a long-shot but she wasn't prepared to give up that quickly. There was always tonight after all, and Sector Eight seemed to always have SOLDIERS or there fan-clubs hanging around. The sound of an explosion drew her attention upwards. Where there was explosions there was fire, and she could never help that strange need to glimpse the flames - however they were produced. Debris rained down onto the roof like the rain that so rarely fell into the sector, and then something heavy smashed through the roof. It crashing to the floor and shattered the floorboards, throwing a plume of splinters and dust up into the air. She started as the air cleared, seeing seemingly against the odds that same blond haired SOLDIER lying awkwardly on the destroyed floor. The delight in seeming him rapidly changed to melancholy, certain that he could not be alive after that fall; he must have dropped from the plate above. To her amazement he abruptly drew in a breath, murmuring something as his head turned to a more comfortable position. It was as if he was just sleeping. She smiled then; SOLDIERs were as tough as the rumours suggested. She crossed to his prostrate form to see if she could rouse him.
raaj and an expanded ending... which I'm not entirely sure if I should keep) and a finished chapter 2. Fire had fascinated Aeris Gainsborough all her life; it was part of her, part of who she was and how she lived. Her obsession and maybe also a curse. Her earliest memories of it were uncomfortable reminders of her captivity within the Shinra labs, and the ever present menace that was Hojo. The man who watched, prodded and poked at her and her mother. She could vividly remember the first day she had truly understood what the fire inside her could do. It had been a routine blood test, one of Hojo's many lackeys clamping a hand firmly around her arm as he pushed the needle into her arm without grace or compassion. It hurt. It was no different to the pain from any previous test but this time something broke and she retaliated. She'd been meaning to kick or hit him with her other arm... but then an intriguing other possibility surfaced; something warm, seductive and easy. The knowledge seemed to bubble up out of the recesses of her mind. How to form the flame and make it appear... just there.
The lab assistant flailed backwards in a panic as the sleeve of his lab-coat exuded a thin wisp of smoke and a tiny flame came into being. He let go of Aeris and snapped his arm back, unsure and wary of what to do. She took a hesitant step back and stared at the flame, willing it to get bigger. The flame sputtered and flared up, the assistant crying out in fear. Too little though; the man's cries had attracted attention and fire blankets were rapidly applied to him, Aeris unceremoniously marched back to her cell. She couldn't control it - not yet. She tried to cause another flame to appear on the guard dragging her back to her mother, but nothing came. Had she really done it at all? She felt sure she had controlled the flame like that but suddenly how to do it escaped her. But she wanted to know, needed desperately to know how to call up the fire again.
Her mother swept her up into an embrace as soon as they were left alone. This was not unusual; her mother doted on her when they were allowed any time together, but there was something different today. She spoke in a voice little above a whisper of how proud she was, how Aeris had awoken to her own unique skill. And how she should try to hide it; the incident would attract Hojo's attention but unless he could coax another response out of her he would not press the issue. Her mother made her promise that no matter what Hojo did she would not summon fire where he could see it. Not understanding - not yet - Aeris promised. It didn't seem necessary to add that she could not at present remember how she had achieved that effect.
Hojo wasted little time. The next day Aeris found herself trapped in a glass tube, as the man who haunted her nightmares leered at her. He looked oddly different; his hair matted down with a thick substance she would later discover was flame retardant. He'd likewise coated his skin and changed from his typical lab coat into a different non-flammable outfit. The lab had been cleared of almost everything else; bare metal walls, ceiling, floor and a small plinth containing a glass beaker filled with a colourless fluid. Water maybe?
Hojo made his offer; set the beaker alight and she would not be tested in any way for the next week. The concept of a week was an almost vague term to the young Cetra. The Shinra building was perpetually cut off from the outside world, and all she knew was she had periods of waking and periods of sleep. But if a week was, as she suspected, seven periods awake, now that was a tempting prize. Her mother's words then echoed in her mind. She shook her head and stared back at the man defiantly. He smiled; a horrible sight, remarking that she could do it then. Aeris froze, angry at herself for so easily letting that revelation slip. He was toying with her she later understood; withdrawing the offer of a test free week in favour a new one: avoiding an immediate blood test. A nervous assistant with a needle and a dart-gun approached her. He was similarly clothed to Hojo and had coated himself with the same gunk.
Aeris backed away from the gun, her eyes fixed on the needle. Usually this was every few days, never this soon. Her mind reeled and there was that knowledge again. It was so simple, so easy. It would only make things worse though. Biting her lip she stepped back as the cylinder opened and did nothing. The assistant looked to Hojo with nervous eyes, his superior simply gesturing to continue. The assistant licked his lips, sweat beading on his brow. Unlike the previous day, this assistant was gentle, delicate, and utterly terrified of her. She watched his nervousness with a thrill of power. She was scaring him: their relationship had inverted. The needle pierced her arm with a sting but she still did nothing.
Hojo scowled as the assistant exited the tube and resealed it. He batted the proffered tube away, spilling warm red blood across the floor. Aeris hated the tests, but to waste that sample, to just injure her to obtain the sample and then simply discard it. Anger boiled in her. No! He was trying to make her react. She couldn't let him get to her. Hojo watched her carefully and then smiled. The sight chilled her. He grabbed the assistant and whispered something to him. The assistant looked shocked, but nodded his head. As he scurried away, Hojo approached and made a new offer. Set the beaker on fire, and he would stop all his experiments today. A cheap offer now in light of the original. But she still refused. She'd promised.
The lab door opened and she gasped. Two Shinra guards entered with her mother strung between them, frightened eyes taking in the bare lab and her daughter sealed in a glass tube. She glanced with fear at the grinning scientist who stared back at her; his gaze flicking between mother and daughter.
"Last chance," she could remember him saying; this directed at Aeris. Fearfully she looked at her mother who shook her head. Hojo sighed, muttering something about damaging a specimen. He told one of the guards to "Do it" and then stared at Aeris once more. All her attention was on her mother as the guard slammed his fist into her stomach. Aeris started, hands pressed against the glass, as her mother cried out in pain and slumped against the arms pinning her into place. "Again," the horrible man said and the guard repeated his action without a pause. "It would all stop if she would just set the beaker on fire," Hojo said with a smirk never taking his eyes from her. Fury mounted within her combining with that new knowledge; the range and intensity she would use. She could throw a flame onto that man's leg. That would stop him.
Agonisingly her mother lifted her head to stare at her and mouthed no, before Hojo made another command and the trooper slammed his fist into her mother's face. Shock, fear, terror, rage coursed through her, and now it was too late. Her mother moaned desperately "No", but Aeris' fingers had twitched and the flame flickered up the guard's trouser leg. He stumbled backwards in panic as Hojo simply grinned more, chuckling as the young girl screamed and erupted a new gout of flame onto the other trooper. He let her mother fall awkwardly to the floor as he panicked with his flaming uniform. Hojo raised his voice and shouted something she couldn't make out, and now his assistant entered with a fire extinguisher, rapidly dousing the two terrified guards.
Hojo ignored it all, ignored the soft moans of her injured mother on the floor just to step closer to her. "You can do it," he stated. And if she didn't want this to happen again she would follow orders next time; the guards wouldn't be vulnerable next time. Quivering with anger and guilt, Aeris could only stare at the floor as he appraised her, and then dismissed mother and daughter for the day. She cried that day, sobbing and apologising to her wincing mother as she tried to slump comfortably in their cell. Her mother cooed and stroked her hair, forgiving her everything. She'd never anticipated Hojo reacting that fast and that callously. Just do as he asked was her new suggestion. But nothing more. Never reveal how far her skill could extend.
She co-operated with Hojo after that, setting tiny fires at varying distances, while wired up so he could see how her body responded. He noted her substantially above average temperature, checked her brain waves from rest to pyrokinesis and back again. Her clothes were taken and replaced with new inflammable garments. Following a nightmare and a series of unexplained fires, the surrounding floor was stripped of all flammable material. Time passed; every day another test, another blood sample, another measure of what she was and what she could do. She saw no point in showing off to Hojo, but at the same time she felt constricted by holding herself back. She could do so much more with the fire she harboured deep inside, she wanted to let it loose, to enjoy its beauty and power. But she did not want to show that to Hojo.
The day she left Shinra and her mother died was different; both mother and daughter unusually in the lab together. Hojo demanded his regular test of her range and the intensity of the flame she could conjure before turning his attentions to her mother. The words had meant little to Aeris as a child, other then the nagging fear of how much they upset her mother. Years later when she understood the terms and callous estimation of her mother's body, his words were sickening. She was still fertile Hojo stated bluntly, she was young, she was attractive. Had she thought of expanding her family again? Her mother stared at the scientist with cold, harsh eyes stating he knew full well her husband was dead. He smiled at that, remarking that she could find a new partner and produce a new child, a new specimen for him. While this one, he gestured towards Aeris, was gifted with fire, the mother's skill seemed to be faded or evade easy detection. Who was to say that another child would exhibit the same skills. Her mother paled at the words stutteringly asking what he meant. He had a poker-face as he made a crude offer, her mother's head twisting away from him in shock. She muttered no, and then there was that awful grin on Hojo's face again. In that case he would select a different mate for her, an exotic and near extinction species. A different type of hybrid would be so very interesting.
Aeris would later find herself roused from slumber as her mother panickedly shook her awake. She whispered quickly and quietly asking Aeris to just this once demonstrate the full extent of her power. Her mother had always paid careful attention to the layout of the building, and at one stage even been dragged before President Shinra for his inspection. She knew there was nothing flammable on this floor, but Hojo had severely underestimated her daughter and not stopped to think three-dimensionally. Her mother asked and Aeris complied. She concentrated, calling flames into being in a wide arc five meters above her. Then ten. Fifteen. Twenty. By Twenty-five alarm bells began to sound through the building, strange pulsing sirens that bespoke fire. Her mother told her to be ready to move.
Each time Aeris concentrated and felt a flame flicker into life. Each time for a moment she felt she could glimpse the area around it. She began to concentrate on paper, carpets, curtains and in some cases, clothes. Fire spread in an arc over her head and still the alarms wailed. There were distant shouts and the feeling of movement. Finally the door to the cell was flung open. An ordinary guard, so very flammable, stood breathing hard and shouting they had to get out. Her mother gathered Aeris into her arms and walked calmly out. The building was in chaos. Employees forgot drills, stumbling with valuables and personal items. Her mother, Aeris and the trooper joined into the crush of people filing off of the main floors and into the emergency stairs that lead to outside.
They could not hope to blend in; the cuts, bruises and different clothing marked mother and daughter out from the crush very obviously. Nervous twitches now ran through her mother as they approached street level. She had little doubt that someone who truly understood what they were would be watching and waiting for their emergence. If not for the sudden fire and timing she had little doubt that Hojo would have used a show of force to prevent the fire from spreading.
They reached ground-level and her mother stared upwards in shock. It was so bright out here, and Aeris followed her gaze. Fear constricted her as she gazed at the dizzying heights above her. Where before there was always a metal ceiling, now there was nothing but a blue infinity. She clutched at her mother in fear as the older woman whispered angrily to herself, glancing around her quickly and fearfully. She pushed them both into the crowd, shuffling forward as quickly as possible, Aeris trying desperately to tear her eyes from the spectacle above. Worried and uncaring employees pulled back from the woman and child with the fading injuries; some slum-dweller who'd gotten up here? They ought to beef up security. There were shouts behind her as her mother kept pushing, following signs that lead her towards the station. Another shout and the horrifying sound of weapons being readied. Her mother pivoted smoothly on her heel, keeping her own body between them and Aeris. She held her hand out palm open towards the troops. Surrender? They lowered their weapons in expectation, and then she struck. Lightning arced from her palm to each of the troops, slamming them backward and frightening the rest. She threw another spark quickly after the first and then ran. The sector was in chaos, the upper floors of the Shinra building in flames, employees scattered over the streets, and this woman had summoned electricity from her own hand disabling her pursuers.
They ran, working almost entirely off instinct now. Her mother knew they were off the ground at least, realised what the blue sky above them meant in this city, and that if nothing else getting to ground level would be essential in escaping the city. That meant going down to the slums and that meant taking the train. She ran, not wasting time to see if the troops had recovered yet, backups called in or if she had somehow cleanly evaded them. This opportunity could not be wasted. They reached the station by chance but found no train waiting. Her mother's eyes flicked nervously around the platform, pulse racing before making a decision. She pulled Aeris into her arms and leapt down onto the tracks, running towards the tunnel entrance that yawned wide ahead of them.
Aeris' breathing slowed and she calmed as they entered the tunnel; a comforting surface now above her head. Her mother kept moving her forward, glancing back nervously at a distant shout. She pushed her daughter ahead of her as a shot rang out and stumbled for a second before continuing. She was breathing heavily and glancing around with anxious eyes, one hand pressed tightly to her side. Pursuit could not be far behind; she had to get them out of the main tunnel and easy detection. She hurried, ears straining for noise behind her as the metal around them reverberated with the rumble of distant trains.
Aeris spotted the hatch; a narrow cramped passage that lead down to another tunnel below. It would have to do. The sounds of distant trains grew louder as her mother ushered her down the ladder, before following her a moment later; just as a train rounded the bend, blasting them with air as it rocketed past and towards the station. The noise deafening in the echoing tunnels. Aeris saw her mother's face twist in agony for a moment and her mouth open as if in pain but any noise lost was lost in the onslaught. The train passed in the tunnel above them, and they began walking again though slower then before, her mother no longer capable of the frantic rush from before.
They walked for long hours in the cramped tunnels, clutching at walls as trains hurtled past them, feeling their way gingerly through darkened sections where the lights had failed. They were still free her mother whispered with a pained smile, Shinra must have lost track of them. The tunnels were like a maze, but her mother would always take the tunnels that sloped downwards and away from the Shinra building. Aeris gasped when the tunnels abruptly ended and they stepped again into the open air on the central hub of Midgar. The air was muggy and tinted with the faint odour of mako. There was an up above her; an up of astonishing size, but an up that was now visible unlike the place before. Her eyes were drawn to the gigantic metal plates locked in place high above; there was so much space here. She gazed out into the cave-like expanse of city-scape below the plate, comforted slightly by the new ceiling above her though fearful of the gaps she could see running along the gigantic triangular plates. She shivered, gazing down into the sprawl below, her mother instead looking far into the distance at the outer walls of the city. She leaned awkwardly against a support strut before pushing herself upright with visible effort. Mother and daughter slowly walked hand in hand down the heavy mesh that bordered the rails as trains hurtled past them, spiralling around the hub. Her mother's smile was becoming fixed as they descended and the mako stench of the slums was becoming unavoidable.
They followed the train-line. Mercifully the slum track system was left open to the air and there were no further tunnels to navigate. Her mother selected a route that lead directly towards the outer walls and freedom. They waited nervously for the sounds of trains and the clunking, mechanical switching system to quieten for a moment before they picked their way across it and into Sector Five. Her mother pushed Aeris up and onto the station before pulling herself up, the effort causing new pain to shoot through her. She was wincing but still able to walk with quick uneven steps which lasted until the steps down onto the street. Her legs had threatened to give out even before then, but now she awkwardly stumbled from the steps and dropped beside them. Clumsily she pushed herself up and into a seated position, breathing heavily.
Aeris reached out a nervous hand to her mother's again, watching her chest carefully as it rose and fell. Her eyes had closed now and she seemed to be resting. Nerves shook Aeris as she glanced around, huddling closer to her mother - her body felt cold, and Aeris snuggled in tighter to try and keep her warm. New sights and smells kept catching her eye, maddening curiosity pulling her attention away from her injured mother. The floor below them was stone, covered in cracks and gashes; a far cry from the smooth metal of the labs. The area was littered with discarded paper, empty bottles, and unidentifiable, seemingly organic remains. Distant rumbles sounded from the metal ceiling so far above her head, strange whistling noises accompanied air eddying around her. It was warm here. So much warmer then before. Why then was her mother so cold?
They needed to move she realised. They'd gotten away from that place and that man, but surely it could not last. She shook her mother, gingerly trying to coax her into waking. Her breathing continued uninterrupted, but she did not open her eyes. She tried talking to her gently, but nothing seemed to work. She cried a little then; worrying about those who must be coming for them, to take her back, take away this strange new world, these new sights, the new experiences. All to take more of her blood, to check once again how well she could control the flames.
A gentle voice sounded in her ears then, and she raised her head, blinking through bleary eyes at another woman - she rarely saw anyone like her mother - looking down at them both concerned. Her mother stirred then, one final wheezing effort as she gasped out what would be her last words; a heartfelt request for this soft-spoken stranger to take care of her daughter. The woman looked confused and worried, but nodded as her mother's body lost its grip on the world and relaxed down again forever, a faint smile still on her lips as her chest stilled. Aeris started at her mother's stillness, blinking up at the woman nervously. She smiled back sadly, holding out one hand. Aeris took it, and then pushed herself against the woman, seeking her warmth, grateful to feel her arms sliding around her. She felt... safe.
The new woman spoke, falteringly, checking she had heard correctly. She confirmed that her name was indeed Aeris and asked the young girl to come home with her; she'd promised her mother after all. Aeris didn't know what to think until she heard a horribly faint whispering from somewhere far away: that she should go with this woman, and she would look after her in her mother's stead. She nodded then at the stranger who introduced herself as Elmyra Gainsborough, and tears still trickling from her eyes Aeris held her hand tightly as they walked away from her mother and her past. Just as they were about to turn the corner and away from the station, she glanced back, realising that Shinra were still coming for them. She could not let them take what remained of her mother. With a new welling of tears she flicked her hand sending a tiny spark arcing through the air towards her mother's body. Magical fire consumed her mortal remains, every part of her consumed in moments, leaving nothing but ash behind. Her mother would be finally free. She walked on with Elmyra and to a new life away from Shinra.
Aeris sighted along the line of candles she had set up on the scorched and blackened wooden floorboards of the church. She concentrated briefly on the first one and ignited the wick. That was the easy part. Gently she flexed her fingers and the second candle's wick ignited while the first's extinguished. She sighed. Not quite how it was supposed to go. Her latest idea had been to bounce the flames along a run of candles, the flame flicking from one candle to the next. She'd had the idea for some time she realised after she'd seen the garish signs that flicked on and off in places like Wall Market; that flicker of one light bulb pulsing just out of sync with its neighbour to create the sensation of motion. She wanted to do the same kind of thing with the candles - but not quite the same. She could mimic the effect easily enough, but it looked, odd, noticeable and strange. It would, she suspected, look merely mechanical instead of truly impossible. The flicking fire was less obviously achievable and she hoped that someone would later ask her about tiny hairs strung between the candles and tiny charges to produce the first flame. And she would smile and nod and give that person the impression that they alone had figured out how she had done the trick - never realising that Aeris' equipment contained no such trickery.
She had so many props now. The clubs and staff she juggled with; flicking them through the air, and never entirely concerned if she caught the right end. She'd gotten so fast no one noticed when she did slip like that - and if anyone did, her lack of later injury dismissed the notion. She had her poi which she whirled to the delight of the crowd and her fans. She was known locally as The Fire Dancer after a later stage of her acts; opening with juggling before moving onto arcing shapes with the poi, breathing flames onto each prop as need be and eating them afterwards. All delightful and familiar to the crowds she could attract when performing. She walked on blisteringly hot coals with ease, but they'd seen others do that; though not usually while juggling as well. No, Aeris had earned her nick-name from the dancing; she drew the crowds in with the easy tricks, the ones they'd seen before. Maybe slightly more spectacular, maybe slightly more risky then any other performer was willing to try, but what really captured imaginations was her dancing. Stopping for only a moment to click the small tape-player on, she would then then move to the rhythm, combining all of her previous skills with new ones as she whipped flames all around her, onto her arms, and very occasionally to spectacular applause her hair, transforming her auburn hair into cascading waves of yellow fire after she'd teased her ribbon and its cargo from her braid. That always amazed the crowd, but the reaction was so spectacular she tried to resist doing it; too often and it would seem easy, mechanical, boring.
There was a second dance she could do though; one she'd only tried once in the privacy of her bedroom - and for only one person: Zack. Her boyfriend. Well, former boyfriend. It had been five years now since they had last spoken. She could still remember the day she met him; an above plate performance of whirling fire, and quiet applause. The open air above Midgar no longer held the same fear that had once nearly paralysed her as her mother engineered their escape from Shinra's clutches. It had not been an easy fear to overcome; she'd grown far too comforted by the metallic ceiling above her. But she heard of others who went up onto the plate - to work, to visit or just to explore. People younger and older had no fear of exposing themselves to the open air like that, and gradually Aeris felt that the same should be true for her too. But to give up a fear as deeply held was not easy, and she built gradually up to stepping out onto the upper plates. At first she sought out the gaps in the plate, stepping carefully forward until she aligned with the open space, always staying close to some structure she could cling to in case as she secretly feared, the ground would lose its grip on her and she would fall upwards and helpless into the blue. It had never happened, and she grew bolder about coming out from the cover of the plates and then thoroughly pleased with herself, finally took a train to the surface. She stared up at the sky then, her feet still solidly on the ground and tried to remember why she had been so afraid. As it stood now, the sky held a fascination, part of a larger, vaster world that it seemed so wrong to hide from.
The audience on the night she met Zack had not been as generous as on other occasions, but meeting him... Ah, that had been worth it. She'd initially recoiled as the SOLDIER approached, the mako eyes instantly giving away his nature and role within the Shinra company. She rapidly put the stave between them and ignited the tip. That distracted him; while few had quite the attachment to fire she did, no one would ignore flames just in front of their eyes. She'd asked carefully, suspiciously what he wanted, not quite trusting his word, not yet, as he praised her performance. He gushed. He'd never seen anything like it, and was curious how she was doing it. Professional secrets she'd retorted tightly. It could be him feeling her out, trying to see if she was the girl who had escaped all those years ago. Why bother though? Tseng knew full well who she was and indeed where she lived. Materia was the SOLDIER's first guess. She allowed herself more of a smile and denied it, turning her hands this way and that to show that she held no glowing orbs. The SOLDIER looked thoughtful and ran his eyes over her props as the crowd dispersed, while she kept a careful eye on her donations. There was always a chance this SOLDIER was one of a pair waiting to distract her before stealing away her slim earnings. His gaze eventually met back at her eyes again and she found herself staring into them. Maybe life was better with some mysteries he said after holding her gaze. Then he smiled. It was infectious and she found herself smiling back at him.
Everything sprang from there. He asked where she would be performing next, a question she couldn't entirely answer; so much decided by whim, the feel of a crowd and the buzz of the area. He looked slightly crestfallen, but promised to stop by if she performed up on the plates again. Here was good he said. Here she had a good chance of seeing him again, if she wanted to naturally. He dropped some gil in with the rest of the donations and with a smile and a wave he strolled away. It was only after he'd gone that she realised that the nerves and stress she regularly experienced near any Shinra personnel had been absent. There was something different about him. The next night she performed in the same spot, telling herself that the tips had been good and that she wasn't hoping to catch the eye of the black-haired SOLDIER again. She berated herself immediately; the tips had been poor. That SOLDIER was what drew her back to the same place. Sure enough he was there again. She learnt his name that night; Zack Fair. She demurred to let him know her own name and Zack never missing a beat praised her on her performance. She went back the next night. This time he asked her out on a date.
She'd grown used to him now, her guard still there but tempered by the enthusiastic and friendly SOLDIER. The date had been fun, Zack easy-going and simple to talk to. She was cagey on her past, where she lived and Zack didn't even blink. He steered smoothly past the conversation dead-ends and taboo subjects to ask questions about her performances, how she chose her music, where her props came from. He made little suggestions and critiqued her displays. Some ideas she took on board; never having had the chance to have a third person truly review her dances and she liked the ideas. Others she ignored, preferring to keep the deeply personal choices despite the comments, but agreed to another date without stopping to think. That next date was her first kiss and Zack was astonished by the warmth of her skin, drawing her closer into his arms as the upper plate temperature began to fall. More dates followed, the pair growing closer and gradually more intimate. Until she waited, craftily, carefully for her mother to be away on an errand and invited the purple-eyed boy back to her house.
She'd wanted to seduce him that day, go that bit further then they had before, but at the same time she wanted to make it as memorable as possible - hitting on the idea of using her flames in a slightly different way to before. She guided him into her house and pushed him back onto her bed, his eyes wide with anticipation and a little worry. She gestured at him to stay still as she used a different piece of music, something slower, sensual, possibly the soundtrack to some romantic show; she didn't care what it was, she just needed something to move to. She'd been to Wall Market and seen the woman flaunting themselves and using their bodies to entice, and she'd wanted to try the same - but just for him; the man she loved.
She'd teased and danced, fingers opening buttons and exposing with the bare flesh beneath, slowly removing her jacket, her dress... Then she'd brought the fire in; as she discarded her bra, before Zack had a chance to see beneath, she coiled a band of fire around her chest - his eyes widening at her daring. As her underwear dropped to the floor she coiled another band across her thighs and then teased the ribbon from her hair and ignited that too. Still she moved and danced, watching his delighted face as she continued to tease him, the flames on her body growing gradually smaller, exposing more and more skin. And then it all went so wrong. She'd always avoided playing with fire in the house; she had absolute control over it, but there was always that tiny, annoying risk that something would go wrong, that she'd catch something. Outside was better, and in the church was better still as no one - aside from Zack - could watch her there. The flames from her hair brushed against the curtains as she flicked her hair in response to a beat; she didn't notice, she was far too involved in this moment to be fully aware of her surroundings and Zack had fixed all his attention on her.
The first whiffs of smoke revealed what had happened and by then it was almost too late; the curtains were engulfed in flames, the ceiling scorched, Zack suddenly panicked at what had happened. She dropped her flames and began scrabbling for clothes, Zack asked worriedly if they had a fire extinguisher (yes, downstairs in the kitchen), and he ran to get it as she hurriedly dressed herself, trying to draw the flames back, but she was too distracted with the worry of the damage, the unmistakable smell of smoke now sweeping though the house, the mood-killer that she'd managed to achieve. Zack returned with the extinguisher and doused the curtains liberally. Zack mused, deciding they needed a way to cover this up. He pushed open the window them, and begun swiping at the ceiling with a cloth before concluding they needed paint.
That day was a bust. They opened all the windows in the house; Midgar air was not exactly fresh, but at least did not stink of burning. Zack went out on quick errands to buy air freshener, paint, new curtains and something she could claimed to have botched cooking; they might not be entirely able to hide the smokey smell, but they could at least provide an alternate explanation. A meat pie was left in the oven as the two of them kept a careful eye on it to ensure it would cook vastly longer then intended and provide the excuse they needed. Zack won himself a lot of points that day, never complaining, always helpful and eager to cover up this incident - while she felt grateful, but disappointed her planned moment couldn't happen. They could try again though and this time without any kind of fancy display.
To her dismay she would never seen Zack alive again; he shipped out on a mission the next day, promising to be back as soon as he could. That had been five years ago. She'd rationalised as she'd had to; he must have found someone else out there on his mission, maybe married her, settled down and had kids. Or was it even a her? Maybe he had found a him instead? She had no leads, no idea where he had lived before, or where his parents were. She wasn't even sure where he had lived within Midgar; she had not been eager to draw any more of Shinra's attention then she could. She smiled at that thought; because of course, dating a member of SOLDIER, their elite fighting force, that kept the company's attention away from her.
But then it wasn't as if they had no idea where she was or how she was coping; Tseng had been the initial proof, along with his dark-suited assistants - the Turks as she had eventually learned they were referred to. They watched, keeping an eye she supposed or keeping track. She'd noticed they tended to get twitchy if she ever had reason to go near the outer wall of the city; her warders were allowing her to rove all she wanted inside this larger prison, but to actually leave was another matter altogether. She rarely saw them on her trips to the upper plates however. It usually paid better then a slum audience - the people up there actually had spare money to give to the girl who danced with fire. But it wasn't as comfortable up there; there was a sense of judgement in the eyes of many that she tried so hard to ignore. The upper crust looking down their noses at her vulgar displays of whirling fire, appreciating neither the co-ordination required to spin and weave the fiery props as she did or the hours she had practised her dances. Some went further muttering personal slurs and estimations of her love life, a conclusion reached by no more information then seeing her step gracefully through arcing flames and weave to the music.
She had been on the upper plates just the previous night; the night of the explosion. It had caught her off-guard, as she stood outside Goblin's Bar, slowly drawing in a crowd with a few simpler gimmicky tricks, making sure she had their attention before beginning one of her more elaborate routines. The Sector Eight crowd always seemed appreciative of her performances - far more then some of the neighbouring residential plates, especially the vast tract of Shinra housing that consumed most of Sector Seven. Juggling had given way to the arcing flames of the poi, which had given way to her staff, whirling fire around her as she began her first dance. She wove her trickery and her natural gift with flames into her performance, augmenting her long practised routine with flourishes and images. She flared delicate roses of roses made entirely of flames from her staff as it twirled through the air and scattered flaming rose petals out above the crowd; the tiny flames vanishing well before they could connect with the crowd. She'd flicked the staff down behind her with a practised flick of her wrist, shooting the flames from ends up into the air in high arcs as she began her main dance. Today she decided to do the trick with her hair as she swept flames along her arms.
Then the explosion hit. She could barely process what happened as the ground was swept out from under her. There was that awful sense of horror in the pit of her stomach as her brain tried to put events together; could those last two flames have caused this? She landed awkwardly as people screamed around her and began running; the air filled with the whistling of falling debris. A secondary explosion sounded, flaring the sector momentarily with light. Aeris dragged her eyes up to see where it came from. The edge of the city, well out of range of her causally thrown fireballs. The reactor... the reactor was burning. Her guilt vanished as she confirmed that this was through no fault of her own, that something else had caused this incident. The stink of raw mako hit her like a wave, unusual above plate. The reactor wasn't just on fire, it was badly damaged and leaking the poisonous substance. The streets were crowded by panicky idiots, the air filled with cloying particles and falling debris. She had to get out of here. She needed to get home; to try and perform at this time was futile, dangerous. She rapidly gathered her props together, tucking them neatly into the wicker basket she carried and began walking quickly towards the station.
She caught the unmistakable glow of mako eyes out of the corner of her eye. Almost unwillingly she turned to stare at the man walking along the street towards her. SOLDIER... She should be afraid, but... What had just happened? She called out to him as he approached, blinking in surprise at the flames that still flickered across her props; she'd forgotten to fully extinguish them. She concentrated a moment and the flames vanished before they could damage the wicker. She asked him what had happened; the man oddly cagey, trying to hided his emotions. A bomb at the reactor he eventually said.
He'd advised her to try and get out of the Sector then and questions died on her lips as he darted away into the confused mass of people still panicked over the explosion. She stared after him a moment, cursing the lost opportunity to maybe find out Zack's fate. Maybe she'd see him again? Unlikely in a city of this size... unless she came up here again and waited as she had for Zack. She smiled to herself as she walked, realising she was seriously considering doing the same thing she had for Zack, waiting on this new SOLDIER to run into her again. No matter what had happened with Zack, she still cared for him and did want to know ultimately where he was now. Though that blonde SOLDIER had been pretty cute. She shook her head wondering at her thoughts, it had been so long since she'd entertained those kinds of thoughts about anyone. With a deep sigh she hurried towards the station and home.
It had been two days since then. She really had returned the next night to look for the SOLDIER from outside the damaged Goblin's Bar, in amongst all the debris. She gave only a small simplistic performance partly due to the lack of potential audience members, and so she could break off easily if she did see him again. It had admittedly been a long-shot but she wasn't prepared to give up that quickly. There was always tonight after all, and Sector Eight seemed to always have SOLDIERS or there fan-clubs hanging around. The sound of an explosion drew her attention upwards. Where there was explosions there was fire, and she could never help that strange need to glimpse the flames - however they were produced. Debris rained down onto the roof like the rain that so rarely fell into the sector, and then something heavy smashed through the roof. It crashing to the floor and shattered the floorboards, throwing a plume of splinters and dust up into the air. She started as the air cleared, seeing seemingly against the odds that same blond haired SOLDIER lying awkwardly on the destroyed floor. The delight in seeming him rapidly changed to melancholy, certain that he could not be alive after that fall; he must have dropped from the plate above. To her amazement he abruptly drew in a breath, murmuring something as his head turned to a more comfortable position. It was as if he was just sleeping. She smiled then; SOLDIERs were as tough as the rumours suggested. She crossed to his prostrate form to see if she could rouse him.
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Date: 2013-05-09 21:11 (UTC)Ah glad you like that idea for the Turks - I think I'll go with that one. It is an intriguing note that I don't think I've seen much made of - with Ifalna's fate uncertain to particular members of Shinra/potentially all of them. Actually, I wonder if this does contribute to them leaving Aeris more alone - if her mother abandoned her like that she wouldn't seem as ultimately important to the President's plan, but he grew impatient with the search and requested they see if Aeris would work as a replacement...
I shall be thoroughly embarassed I mis-spelled "physics" and "psychics" but at least you knew what I meant.
And that's true - Ifalna's power should be detectable and maybe could be effective very short-range...
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Date: 2013-05-10 17:13 (UTC)I shall be thoroughly embarassed I mis-spelled "physics" and "psychics" but at least you knew what I meant.
...I had actually been a bit puzzled and wondering if you meant physics or psychics before deciding it must be "psychics" and referring to the spiritual connection with the Lifestream (which is detached due to...physics). LOL Hooray that the dual nature of Lifestream made our conversation work.
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Date: 2013-05-10 18:55 (UTC)Haha! That is pretty neat that the conversation still made sense with the spelling mistakes (and yeah does feed into that idea of Lifestream connection being weak with distance from the ground/mako rendering muddying the connection still further...
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Date: 2013-05-10 19:02 (UTC)I think I'd go more with mako rendering than purely distance, since there is also that scene of the group hearing the Planet on the airship. But yeah! The funny thing about Lifestream, haha.
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Date: 2013-05-11 12:27 (UTC)Hopefully Reeve has learned from Midgar and all future constructions will have better transport links - and that the WRO will eventually link the settlements with rail track or roads... (and now I'm suddenly curious about what would happen to Junon? It's not going to be anywhere near as ravaged as Midgar, but I wonder if people are still living in the city...)
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Date: 2013-05-13 02:39 (UTC)On the other hand lower Junon is probably torn between being glad the water isn't getting polluted more (...UNTIL WE GO TO OIL, thank you Barret, Cid) and being annoyed at Upper Junon citizens down on their luck being arrogant and figuring that in these lean times they can pick up the fishing profession that has been lower Junon's backbone for generations. Leading to sometimes amusing, mostly disgraceful attempts at it, but when the fish were already being thinned out by pollution a number of Upper Junon people who figure out what they're doing in the water could easily cause issues with overfishing.
...I want a Case of Junon. I don't care it's not a character, this actually seems kind of interesting to me. XD
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Date: 2013-05-13 20:40 (UTC)Heh - yeah, lower Junon is going to be much happier with cleaner water - until the oil (alternate energies quickly please you two!). I like the idea of Upper Junon trying fishing as well to the annoyance of both levels (and Upper Junon trying to fish with enormously long lines so they don't have to trek down beneath the plate (...having never been fishing I don't know if that's remotely plausible))...
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Date: 2013-05-13 21:10 (UTC)HAHA I fished as a kid and I'm enjoying that mental image of humongous lines. From my experience it seems...frustrating; lines can break due to struggling fish, and you can also have lines snag on something underneath the water. There is commercial fishing that has lines extend far, far under the water, but that's at the water's surface, going through only water, and with equipment tailored to the purpose. I'm a bit doubtful about any upper plate fisherman enjoying much success that way, especially without wasting a ton of line in the meantime.
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Date: 2013-05-14 20:27 (UTC)(and yeah CoD is troublesome still)
Heh - yeah fishing always sounded frustrating - plus I am squeamish about bait, so would be useless getting hooks prepared. And yeah there seemed a million ways to lose the expensive hooks and weights and everything else.
So... yeah I can see the Junon citizens not getting very far, but insisting it should work dammit! (meanwhile it becomes popular for the teenage Junion inhabitants to climb up below the plate and sever the lines...)
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Date: 2013-05-16 13:35 (UTC)lmfao. It is a weird spell.
To be honest I was squeamish about both bait and fumbling with sharp things (I was pretty young--from when I was 6 to 8) so my dad did the bait part. XD But yeah, I can see so many people down in lower Junon just eyeing the threads dangling down in front of them and contemplating their scissors, or giving a few quick yanks to give the people on top a false surprise.
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Date: 2013-05-16 19:12 (UTC)Ah - yeah I'd need someone to do the bait for me if I ever did go fishing... But yeah, though, I can see baiting upper Junon really being popular for the first few weeks... then gradually dying off.