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sanctum_cAnd now the time slows down a fair bit, since this turned into more of a novelisation then originally intended (so a good chunk of this will be very familiar given I'm not derailing canon very much just yet. Fair number of changed details though). I've made some changes to the first two chapters, but decided not to post those at the moment as they were just going to make these posts increasingly huge (though I think I could get away with it character-limit wise); but Aeris now longer burns Ifalna's body at the end of chapter 1 and there is a sequence in chapter 2 of how she was inspired to be a fire dancer due to another performer she saw years previously.
"Hello?" She called out to the SOLDIER laying awkwardly on the shattered floorboards. "Hello?"
His eyelids fluttered for a moment and then opened, revealing his brilliant blue eyes and that tell-tale ring of green around his pupil. His face contorted with pain and with a wince he sat up. Aeris straightened from her crouch beside him. "Are you okay?"
His gaze flicked around the room taking in the scorched floorboards and damaged interior of the church. "Where... am I?" He sounded groggy and slightly confused. She chose her words carefully and spoke slowly.
"A church in the Sector Five slums. It looks like you fell from the upper plate."
"I... fell?"
She nodded and with a glance upward said, "The roof must have broken your fall. You're lucky."
"Lucky..." he murmured, before sinking briefly onto his back. With a sudden spring he launched himself upright onto his feet and turned to her. "Sorry about the roof."
She smiled then and shook her head. "It's not really mine. I'm just using it."
He nodded vaguely, reappraising the interior.
"So... We meet again. And right after another reactor explosion." Aeris folded her arms and looked at him with interest. "You do remember me, don't you?"
The man's eyes lost focus for a moment, a hand involuntarily snaking to the bridge of his nose. She was about to continue when his eyes widened slightly and he turned back to her. "I remember... You were in Sector Eight. You were... performing?"
"That's right." She smiled at him. "Though I was wearing my other dress." She waved her hand from the faded pink sundress to the shimmering material carefully folded in her basket. She faced him again. "I'm Aeris, the fire dancer. Pleased to meet you again."
"...Cloud," he responded, his eyes locking with hers. "I do a little bit of everything."
"A jack of all trades, huh?"
He nodded, a movement attracting his attention. Aeris followed his gaze and couldn't stop the short intake of breath. The red-haired Turk leant laconically just inside the door appraising the situation. Or at least that was the impression he intended to give. Aeris however spotted the subtle indications of panic he wasn't quite hiding. She could see from here he was wearing his standard uniform; just a plain black suit. His hair was styled too, and bore no traces of any non-flammable coating. He did not seem quite aware of what he was in for coming to invite her back to Shinra. Tseng had more then once bid a hasty retreat from her mother's house with his trouser legs rapidly consumed by fire, before only venturing to see her fully protected. Had the company finally gotten fed up with his inability to deliver her and so had sent in another? No matter. A singular Turk she could deal with.
Cloud was striding forward to meet him when she caught sight of something else through the doors. An entire platoon was lined up on the street, readying rifles. Whether tranquilisers or live ammunition she couldn't see, nor was she eager to find out. These troops seemed more prepared then the fool-hardy Turk. They looked like they were wearing the flame retardent clothing the guards had been wearing long ago when she was last confined in the Shinra building. Not good.
"Cloud," she called out. "Have you ever been a bodyguard? You do do everything right?" He paused and nodded quickly over his shoulder. "Then help me get out of here. Get me home."
"It'll cost you." So very much the mercenary.
"How about if I go out with you once?"
His step faltered for a moment, and his composure slipped revealing a thrilled teenage sensibility before he recovered, and nodded again. "Agreed."
The Turk had been watching them with interest, but now called over his shoulder and a first wave of troops strode into the church.
"Reno, want us to take out the SOLDIER too?" A commanding officer spoke to the Turk in a low tone, but it carried easily in the silence of the church.
"He's a SOLDIER?" hissed Reno with a grimace, his eyes finally leaving Aeris and appraising the man standing with her. "Can you?" he asked.
The officer looked worried. "Possibly. The dosage was set for the Ancient. If we hit him with enough he should go down. Just doesn't seem to be one of ours."
She watched the Turk's eyes appraise Cloud for a moment a before realising there could easily be reinforcements creeping around to the sides. She snatched up her staff and called out. "Cloud, this way!"
He turned and she saw a trooper raise his gun. She flicked her hand. A wide band of fire flared up bisecting the church, the flames tall and almost reaching to the rafters. "What?" gasped Cloud, stalling.
"No time, for that. Come on!" She pulled at his arm as she heard the officer barking orders. It was a surprise, nothing more. They'd been prepared to face the Ancient like this. Not waiting for the troops to work up the nerve to actually walk through the flames she ran with Cloud close on her heels through and into the back room of the church. She lead the way up the staircase and up into the rafters. Booted feet hurried after them as she flicked new plumes of fire into the doorway.
"At some point, you're going to have to show me how you're doing that." Cloud looked impressed.
"Maybe on our date. If you're lucky," she replied, thankful he didn't seem to have picked up on, or seen fit to comment on the references to her status as an Ancient.
The troops below had gotten over their earlier nerves and were more willing to charge the flames. With a muttered apology, the fire dancer flicked a flame onto the dry wooden stairs that lead up to the rafters. Now they had to keep going forward.
"Really hope you haven't trapped us up here." Cloud was holding his sword in one hand as he followed her across the beams. They crossed from the back room into the main church as the troops began hurrying back on the floor below, calling for water. Reno looked up at them with a curse. Any words died on his lips as Aeris flicked a fireball towards him. He barely scrambled out of the way as the door he had been leaning against was consumed in flames. Hasty calls for a retreat were shouted as the fires continued to burn. The troops were disorganised, desperately pulling open the church doors to be away from the flames.
Aeris paused for a moment and concentrated. She drew the fire back from the back room, noting that she had not damaged the wood as much as she had feared and the fire had been largely magical and superficial. She concentrated a new burst of flames towards the front of the chuch as she extinguished the others. Best to give the impression of a burning building rather then outright destroying it. She'd always liked the quiet sancturary to practice her dances and her acts. Pausing only to place her finger against her lips and look meaningfully at Cloud she crept out of the hole he had made in the church roof.
Her feet slipped slightly as she crawled up the slated roof and perched on the top. Cloud joined her after a moment, and with a quick peek to see if Shinra were still in church, she extinguished the flames beside the doors. They sat on the roof, listening with quiet amusement at the feet running on the floorboards below them as an increasingly frantic Reno ordered repeated searches of the church, some troops venturing up into the rafters, but none willing to traverse the beams to check the couple had used them as an escape route; and even then it seemed that much more likely that they would have evaded capture along the rooftops and be long gone.
Aeris smiled slightly at the only partly incorrect assumptions as Reno spoke in urgent and aggressive tones into his PHS, before recalling the troops and directing them towards the station. He took one last look at the church, uttered a muted curse and then followed them.
"The Turks are part of Shinra," Cloud mused as they watched the man wander out of sight. "They scout for prospective SOLDIER candidates... amongst other things."
Aeris barely paused, not willing to diviluge just how familiar she was with the group. Cloud had seemingly not caught the additional and unconventional armour the troops had been outfitted with. "Are they always that violent? That seemed more like an armed response."
Cloud shrugged. "They do do other stuff on the side. The unofficial work that Shinra really doesn't want associated with it's name. Spy-work, possibly murder..." He trailed off and looked expectantly at her. "Usually they don't have that much backup though."
"That 'Reno' certainly looked capable on his own."
"But... Why are they after you? From what they said, they certainly weren't there to apprehend me."
"Maybe they think I the aptitude to make it into SOLDIER!" A bad lie, and a smirk touched Cloud's lips as she said it. She was about to protest when he spoke again.
"Maybe. Would you want to join? Your skill with fire would make you an attractive prospect."
Was he flirting with her? She dismissed the notion, trying to draw this slightly awkward conversaion to a close. "Not sure... At least I don't want to be caught by that lot."
"Well then. I still have to get you home, don't I?" He walked back along the church roof and leapt down onto an adjacent structure and Aeris quickly followed behind him. He moved rapidly, much more rapidly then her, springing quickly and tirelessly between structures and roofs, keeping them up and away from the ground. Eventually she had to call out.
"Wait!" He turned then, eyes appraising her as she clambered more awkwardly over the piles of junk and debris to his perch. "Slow down a litte. A bodyguard shouldn't leave his client behind!"
"And I thought you were cut out to be in SOLDIER?" His head tilted slightly to watch her reaction, and another smile touched his lips. She grimaced and scowled at him, provoking an unexpected laugh. It was infectious and she found herself laughing with him.
"Cloud? Were you in SOLDIER?" He must have been. The eyes, that uniform... But better to be sure.
"I used to be. What gave it away?"
"The eyes." It always came back to the eyes. That faint green glow that he shared with Zack.
"Ah. Yeah, a bit hard to hide those. It's a side-effect of mako infusion. Guess it really is public knowledge these days..."
"Y-yeah." She stuttered slightly, suddenly reluctant to ask about Zack or admit that he was the sole reason she knew anything of SOLDIER.
"Something wrong?" He frowned concerned.
"Nothing!" She responded too quickly and needed to cover. "Let's keep moving." He nodded, and with more careful glances back they continued on, eventually finding a convenient slope formed from a nearly intact roof, laying in amongst the other debris that formed the channel like streets of Sector Five.
"I think you might want to lead on now." The SOLDIER surveyed the Sector carefully. "I've never been down this way before..."
She nodded, and then carefully guided him through the long twisting paths to the communal hub of the Sector. A sight arrested Cloud as they walked; a doddering figure hidden under a thick black cloak. Aeris was amazed that he could stand to be that warmly clothed in the muggy heat of the sector. Cloud approached him cautiously, but curiously. His hand never strayed to the massive sword that hung from the harness across his back. He certainly did not perceive this figure as any kind of threat. The swordsman crouched beside the figure, eyes fixed on the cloaked figure's head. Aeris walked cautiously up between the pair, and heard faint harsh whispering, and guttural moans. She caught a glimpse of his hand just as he rolled away and into the pipe he had been lying beside. Inscribed in black ink was a tattoo of the number two.
"He's ill..."
Cloud shook his head. "There's nothing we can do for him. I'm not good with healing... Are you?"
His words were harsh but she knew he was right. There was suffering all around her, and she was ill-equipped to help any of them. "No," she admitted. "No, I'm not." With a final glance at the hunched figure just visible inside the pipe she lead Cloud away and towards the edge of the Sector. Hidden away behind two apartment blocks was an unexpectedly large open space. The buildings at their back formed one side of a cavern here below the plates. Cloud's eyes widened as he took in the huge space. Actual grass carpeted the three islands that jutted out from the fast flowing river that was open to the air. Unusually for Midgar the city had been constructed around a natural outcrop, water cascading down rocks, welling up from deep within the ground.
Unlike the rest of Midgar, this place felt open to the air. The sun shone brilliantly through the plate-gap; and he could see the blue sky in between the metal edges. The garden was sparse and plain, but it felt like a sight he hadn't seen in years. He simply gazed in awe as Aeris smirked and stepped around him, heading for the small cottage that backed onto a series of pipes that jutted up above the house and snaked away towards the centre of the sector. Cloud shook himself out of his reverie as she crept up behind him.
"Do you like my home?"
"Y-yes..." he trailed off, his gaze not straying from the grass. She smiled, it was afterall an unusual sight in the city. She glanced back towards the house.
"My mom's not home yet. We can go inside to rest for a bit, unless you'd like to rest out here? Or are you wanting to be paid now?"
"Maybe... maybe rest for a bit," the swordsman murmured, feet already propelling him forward. He moved rapidly towards the ray of sun that shone down into the garden and one of the trees. He stood, basking in the sunlight for a moment, his eyes tightly closed before he sank back and leant against the tree. Aeris followed him watching him curiously.
"Cloud?"
"Mmm?" came the vague response.
"You're tired aren't you?"
"N-no. I just need a minute. I need to get going. I need to..." He trailed off, his eyes closed and his breathing steadying. She crouched beside him and watched for a moment. The sun's warmth was a little uncomfortable for her, but she perservered and carefully sat, almost touching Cloud's shoulder against the tree. She gazed at the man. He looked tired, and the ease with which he'd fallen asleep... She couldn't disturb him. After a moment of watching him, she decided to practice. She retrieved a selection of candles from the house, and with some careful glances to ensure he was still asleep, she set a line of them up in the same way as the church. Now to pick up where she left off.
Her mother returned hours later as the sun shifted away from the gap in the upper plates. Her practice was almost there, and she'd taken care to not damage the garden or wake the sleeping mercenary. She smiled and waved as her mother appeared down the path from the outer areas of Sector Five. Her mother waved back, frowning at the man she was now shaking awake
"I thought you were going to be back later today," Elmyra responded walking over to the seated pair, eyes widening slightly as she caught sight of Cloud's faintly glowing eyes. Both Aeris and Cloud rose to their feet.
"This is Cloud; my bodyguard."
"Bodyguard? Oh! Were you followed again?"
"I was fine. Cloud was here to look after me."
The SOLDIER looked embarassed and nodded hastily towards Elmyra. "Pleased to meet you Ma'am."
"Elmyra, please. Thank you for taking care of her, Cloud. But if you'll just excuse me for a moment, I need to start the dinner."
Aeris watched Elmyra walk to the house, her adopted mother catching her eye and raising an eyebrow almost imperceptibly. She couldn't help but smile at that, but quickly turned it to a frown and shooed her mother away. Cloud was staring around the area again, apparently missing the whole exchange.
"So, Cloud; what are you going to do now?"
"Is Sector Seven far from here? I need to get back to Tifa's bar."
"Is Tifa a girl?"
She was surprised at herself. She'd known the man a handful of hours now, and she was already worried he had someone else?
"Y-yeah." He looked confused.
"A girlfriend?" She asked, all innocence.
"What? No! I mean... No..."
She was curious now. He was single, but... interested in someone? But not taken. That much was clear.
"I think I can show you to Sector Seven... Though that might cost you something else this time..."
"Why would you want to put yourself in danger again by taking me all the way over there?"
"I'm used to it. I've lived here all my life."
"Used to it? Not sure about getting help from a girl..."
That tore it. She might have asked for help back at the church, but she was no damsel in distress. "'Not sure about getting help from a girl'?! Just what do you mean by that?"
He jumped then, looking shocked by the outburst. She decided to press her advantage. "You expect me to just sit here all meek and mild after hearing you say that?" She stalked into the house, Cloud trailing behind her. "Mom? I'm going to take Cloud to Sector Seven. I'll be back later."
There was some shuffling from kitchen and Elmyra walked into the living room. She opened her mouth to retort and then decided against it. "Never mind," she murmured. "You've already made up your mind haven't you?"
Aeris nodded.
"Can it at least wait until tomorrow? It'll be the middle of the night before you get back here if you set off now."
Aeris' gaze flicked to the windows. She was right, and there was that unspoken reminder of the dangers of going through Sector Six entailed. More tangles with Don Corneo's cronies. The gangster lord of Wall Market in Sector Six had taken a liking to her after he had heard tales, and presumably seen recordings of one of her routines. She's been approached a few years ago by some of his thugs to interview for him. She'd refused and left them in a confused muddle as she ignited their trousers.
They soon learned the Shinra tricks of wearing protective clothing before bothering her, but they soon found fire was not the only trick in her arsenal. And it didn't necessarily have to be used on their clothing. She'd turned down multiple, increasingly generous offers from the gangsters. The common thread was that she had to turn herself over to the Don, sell her soul for exclusivity and dance solely for him and at his behest. The restrictions sounded suffocating, irrespective of the darker rumours that floated around the slums about the man. While she was confident she could deal with the thugs, it would still be more pleasant during the day-light hours.
"Yeah, yeah you're right."
"We can put Cloud up for the night though."
The man shifted uncomfortably. "Don't worry about me, I'll find my own way back, or to a hotel or something..."
"But you've never been to this Sector before have you Cloud? You've got a good chance of getting pretty lost. Plus I bet you're hungry aren't you?" Aeris looked at him expectantly.
"Starving." He admitted with a faint smile, and Aeris realised he couldn't have eaten anything since the previous evening. He hadn't complained once all day.
"Then you can stay for dinner too." Elmyra wandered back into the kitchen anc called over her shoulder. "Aeris? Can you make up the spare bed for our guest?"
The fire dancer smiled and ran up the stairs, raiding the cupboards to get out the spare sheets, and quickly made up the bed in the spare room before darting downstairs again. Something had changed slightly in Cloud's demeanour in the few minutes she'd been away, and she regarded her mother with a faint suspicion. Cloud was still smiling, but reserved and slightly distant.
She had little time to pry into what had been said as dinner was soon ready and the three of them had a pleasant meal together; they talked briefly about Cloud's childhood. It was a subject he seemed reluctant to dwell on for very long and he quickly turned the conversation to Aeris' own younger years. She told carefully edited versions of her life outside of Shinra, finding herself slipping into stories of how she had come to be a Fire Dancer. Afterwards Elmyra swiftly retired, catching Cloud's eye for a moment before ascending the stairs. The curiosity was near maddening, but she was reluctant to pry.
Cloud unexpectedly asked her to demonstrate her routine; he was conscious he had interrupted at least one performance and one practice, and he had no idea how her act ran. She was surprised at the request, but obliged, pulling him up from his chair and into the garden. She decided to do without her usual dress, and concious of the green grass around her, was more careful then the norm as she ran through a routine. Just a normal one, a typical night's work when her heart wasn't quite in the performance, and more then anything she just wanted to get home and sleep.
But Cloud's eyes were enraptured, and she found herself embellishing the routine with flourishes, performing some more of the complex and fanciful moves. She was hitting her groove and it became easier. He gasped at the fire-breathing, more natural and graceful then any performance he had seen yet. His eyes trailed through space as he followed the poi in it's arcs and showers of sparks she concentrated intently on to ensure they would not set the garden alight.
And before she was entirely aware of her actions, she found herself slipping into a dance. Her tape-player was back at the church, or possibly taken by the Turks; ditto her best dress. She made do though. The sector's night life was coming alive around them; and while never as busy, garish or notorious as Sector Six, the pulse of a club could be heard in the distance and she found herself swaying and moving to its racing beat.
Cloud's eyes never left her, and she couldn't refrain from the final flourish for this man, this SOLDIER with the beautiful eyes. She unwound her ribbon, drew the tiny white sphere out from within her braided hair and then ignited her hair. His eyes widened in surprise and a second of panic, before he settled, grasping that this was just part of the performance. She pivotted and turned with a flourish, flaming hair whipping around her only to extinguish a moment later as the song ended for just a moment.
She brushed her hair back over her shoulders in one movement, smiling and bowing towards her audience. He sat in a daze for a moment before bringing his hands together in applause. He was flustered, trying to come up with some words of praise, and she simply smiled, pleased that she had amazed him so. The sector around them darkened as she wound her hair back up into its braid once more.
She lead him back into the house, both keeping their voices low, reasonably sure that Elmyra had gone to bed. "You need to go through Sector Six to get to Sector Seven," she explained to him as they paused at the bottom of the stairs. He simply nodded in response. "Sector Six is dangerous so you'd better get some sleep tonight. Cloud..."
The question caught in her throat. The evening had been so much fun, that to bring up Zack now felt uncomfortable. She shook her head at his quizzical gaze and instead lead him up the stairs. She pointed out the bathroom and the spare room. They dithered for a moment, both unsure of the situation and how to act, before Aeris broke the stalemate and wished him goodnight.
She flopped onto her bed with a sigh, but also a smile, wondering if she would get any sleep that night.
"Hello?" She called out to the SOLDIER laying awkwardly on the shattered floorboards. "Hello?"
His eyelids fluttered for a moment and then opened, revealing his brilliant blue eyes and that tell-tale ring of green around his pupil. His face contorted with pain and with a wince he sat up. Aeris straightened from her crouch beside him. "Are you okay?"
His gaze flicked around the room taking in the scorched floorboards and damaged interior of the church. "Where... am I?" He sounded groggy and slightly confused. She chose her words carefully and spoke slowly.
"A church in the Sector Five slums. It looks like you fell from the upper plate."
"I... fell?"
She nodded and with a glance upward said, "The roof must have broken your fall. You're lucky."
"Lucky..." he murmured, before sinking briefly onto his back. With a sudden spring he launched himself upright onto his feet and turned to her. "Sorry about the roof."
She smiled then and shook her head. "It's not really mine. I'm just using it."
He nodded vaguely, reappraising the interior.
"So... We meet again. And right after another reactor explosion." Aeris folded her arms and looked at him with interest. "You do remember me, don't you?"
The man's eyes lost focus for a moment, a hand involuntarily snaking to the bridge of his nose. She was about to continue when his eyes widened slightly and he turned back to her. "I remember... You were in Sector Eight. You were... performing?"
"That's right." She smiled at him. "Though I was wearing my other dress." She waved her hand from the faded pink sundress to the shimmering material carefully folded in her basket. She faced him again. "I'm Aeris, the fire dancer. Pleased to meet you again."
"...Cloud," he responded, his eyes locking with hers. "I do a little bit of everything."
"A jack of all trades, huh?"
He nodded, a movement attracting his attention. Aeris followed his gaze and couldn't stop the short intake of breath. The red-haired Turk leant laconically just inside the door appraising the situation. Or at least that was the impression he intended to give. Aeris however spotted the subtle indications of panic he wasn't quite hiding. She could see from here he was wearing his standard uniform; just a plain black suit. His hair was styled too, and bore no traces of any non-flammable coating. He did not seem quite aware of what he was in for coming to invite her back to Shinra. Tseng had more then once bid a hasty retreat from her mother's house with his trouser legs rapidly consumed by fire, before only venturing to see her fully protected. Had the company finally gotten fed up with his inability to deliver her and so had sent in another? No matter. A singular Turk she could deal with.
Cloud was striding forward to meet him when she caught sight of something else through the doors. An entire platoon was lined up on the street, readying rifles. Whether tranquilisers or live ammunition she couldn't see, nor was she eager to find out. These troops seemed more prepared then the fool-hardy Turk. They looked like they were wearing the flame retardent clothing the guards had been wearing long ago when she was last confined in the Shinra building. Not good.
"Cloud," she called out. "Have you ever been a bodyguard? You do do everything right?" He paused and nodded quickly over his shoulder. "Then help me get out of here. Get me home."
"It'll cost you." So very much the mercenary.
"How about if I go out with you once?"
His step faltered for a moment, and his composure slipped revealing a thrilled teenage sensibility before he recovered, and nodded again. "Agreed."
The Turk had been watching them with interest, but now called over his shoulder and a first wave of troops strode into the church.
"Reno, want us to take out the SOLDIER too?" A commanding officer spoke to the Turk in a low tone, but it carried easily in the silence of the church.
"He's a SOLDIER?" hissed Reno with a grimace, his eyes finally leaving Aeris and appraising the man standing with her. "Can you?" he asked.
The officer looked worried. "Possibly. The dosage was set for the Ancient. If we hit him with enough he should go down. Just doesn't seem to be one of ours."
She watched the Turk's eyes appraise Cloud for a moment a before realising there could easily be reinforcements creeping around to the sides. She snatched up her staff and called out. "Cloud, this way!"
He turned and she saw a trooper raise his gun. She flicked her hand. A wide band of fire flared up bisecting the church, the flames tall and almost reaching to the rafters. "What?" gasped Cloud, stalling.
"No time, for that. Come on!" She pulled at his arm as she heard the officer barking orders. It was a surprise, nothing more. They'd been prepared to face the Ancient like this. Not waiting for the troops to work up the nerve to actually walk through the flames she ran with Cloud close on her heels through and into the back room of the church. She lead the way up the staircase and up into the rafters. Booted feet hurried after them as she flicked new plumes of fire into the doorway.
"At some point, you're going to have to show me how you're doing that." Cloud looked impressed.
"Maybe on our date. If you're lucky," she replied, thankful he didn't seem to have picked up on, or seen fit to comment on the references to her status as an Ancient.
The troops below had gotten over their earlier nerves and were more willing to charge the flames. With a muttered apology, the fire dancer flicked a flame onto the dry wooden stairs that lead up to the rafters. Now they had to keep going forward.
"Really hope you haven't trapped us up here." Cloud was holding his sword in one hand as he followed her across the beams. They crossed from the back room into the main church as the troops began hurrying back on the floor below, calling for water. Reno looked up at them with a curse. Any words died on his lips as Aeris flicked a fireball towards him. He barely scrambled out of the way as the door he had been leaning against was consumed in flames. Hasty calls for a retreat were shouted as the fires continued to burn. The troops were disorganised, desperately pulling open the church doors to be away from the flames.
Aeris paused for a moment and concentrated. She drew the fire back from the back room, noting that she had not damaged the wood as much as she had feared and the fire had been largely magical and superficial. She concentrated a new burst of flames towards the front of the chuch as she extinguished the others. Best to give the impression of a burning building rather then outright destroying it. She'd always liked the quiet sancturary to practice her dances and her acts. Pausing only to place her finger against her lips and look meaningfully at Cloud she crept out of the hole he had made in the church roof.
Her feet slipped slightly as she crawled up the slated roof and perched on the top. Cloud joined her after a moment, and with a quick peek to see if Shinra were still in church, she extinguished the flames beside the doors. They sat on the roof, listening with quiet amusement at the feet running on the floorboards below them as an increasingly frantic Reno ordered repeated searches of the church, some troops venturing up into the rafters, but none willing to traverse the beams to check the couple had used them as an escape route; and even then it seemed that much more likely that they would have evaded capture along the rooftops and be long gone.
Aeris smiled slightly at the only partly incorrect assumptions as Reno spoke in urgent and aggressive tones into his PHS, before recalling the troops and directing them towards the station. He took one last look at the church, uttered a muted curse and then followed them.
"The Turks are part of Shinra," Cloud mused as they watched the man wander out of sight. "They scout for prospective SOLDIER candidates... amongst other things."
Aeris barely paused, not willing to diviluge just how familiar she was with the group. Cloud had seemingly not caught the additional and unconventional armour the troops had been outfitted with. "Are they always that violent? That seemed more like an armed response."
Cloud shrugged. "They do do other stuff on the side. The unofficial work that Shinra really doesn't want associated with it's name. Spy-work, possibly murder..." He trailed off and looked expectantly at her. "Usually they don't have that much backup though."
"That 'Reno' certainly looked capable on his own."
"But... Why are they after you? From what they said, they certainly weren't there to apprehend me."
"Maybe they think I the aptitude to make it into SOLDIER!" A bad lie, and a smirk touched Cloud's lips as she said it. She was about to protest when he spoke again.
"Maybe. Would you want to join? Your skill with fire would make you an attractive prospect."
Was he flirting with her? She dismissed the notion, trying to draw this slightly awkward conversaion to a close. "Not sure... At least I don't want to be caught by that lot."
"Well then. I still have to get you home, don't I?" He walked back along the church roof and leapt down onto an adjacent structure and Aeris quickly followed behind him. He moved rapidly, much more rapidly then her, springing quickly and tirelessly between structures and roofs, keeping them up and away from the ground. Eventually she had to call out.
"Wait!" He turned then, eyes appraising her as she clambered more awkwardly over the piles of junk and debris to his perch. "Slow down a litte. A bodyguard shouldn't leave his client behind!"
"And I thought you were cut out to be in SOLDIER?" His head tilted slightly to watch her reaction, and another smile touched his lips. She grimaced and scowled at him, provoking an unexpected laugh. It was infectious and she found herself laughing with him.
"Cloud? Were you in SOLDIER?" He must have been. The eyes, that uniform... But better to be sure.
"I used to be. What gave it away?"
"The eyes." It always came back to the eyes. That faint green glow that he shared with Zack.
"Ah. Yeah, a bit hard to hide those. It's a side-effect of mako infusion. Guess it really is public knowledge these days..."
"Y-yeah." She stuttered slightly, suddenly reluctant to ask about Zack or admit that he was the sole reason she knew anything of SOLDIER.
"Something wrong?" He frowned concerned.
"Nothing!" She responded too quickly and needed to cover. "Let's keep moving." He nodded, and with more careful glances back they continued on, eventually finding a convenient slope formed from a nearly intact roof, laying in amongst the other debris that formed the channel like streets of Sector Five.
"I think you might want to lead on now." The SOLDIER surveyed the Sector carefully. "I've never been down this way before..."
She nodded, and then carefully guided him through the long twisting paths to the communal hub of the Sector. A sight arrested Cloud as they walked; a doddering figure hidden under a thick black cloak. Aeris was amazed that he could stand to be that warmly clothed in the muggy heat of the sector. Cloud approached him cautiously, but curiously. His hand never strayed to the massive sword that hung from the harness across his back. He certainly did not perceive this figure as any kind of threat. The swordsman crouched beside the figure, eyes fixed on the cloaked figure's head. Aeris walked cautiously up between the pair, and heard faint harsh whispering, and guttural moans. She caught a glimpse of his hand just as he rolled away and into the pipe he had been lying beside. Inscribed in black ink was a tattoo of the number two.
"He's ill..."
Cloud shook his head. "There's nothing we can do for him. I'm not good with healing... Are you?"
His words were harsh but she knew he was right. There was suffering all around her, and she was ill-equipped to help any of them. "No," she admitted. "No, I'm not." With a final glance at the hunched figure just visible inside the pipe she lead Cloud away and towards the edge of the Sector. Hidden away behind two apartment blocks was an unexpectedly large open space. The buildings at their back formed one side of a cavern here below the plates. Cloud's eyes widened as he took in the huge space. Actual grass carpeted the three islands that jutted out from the fast flowing river that was open to the air. Unusually for Midgar the city had been constructed around a natural outcrop, water cascading down rocks, welling up from deep within the ground.
Unlike the rest of Midgar, this place felt open to the air. The sun shone brilliantly through the plate-gap; and he could see the blue sky in between the metal edges. The garden was sparse and plain, but it felt like a sight he hadn't seen in years. He simply gazed in awe as Aeris smirked and stepped around him, heading for the small cottage that backed onto a series of pipes that jutted up above the house and snaked away towards the centre of the sector. Cloud shook himself out of his reverie as she crept up behind him.
"Do you like my home?"
"Y-yes..." he trailed off, his gaze not straying from the grass. She smiled, it was afterall an unusual sight in the city. She glanced back towards the house.
"My mom's not home yet. We can go inside to rest for a bit, unless you'd like to rest out here? Or are you wanting to be paid now?"
"Maybe... maybe rest for a bit," the swordsman murmured, feet already propelling him forward. He moved rapidly towards the ray of sun that shone down into the garden and one of the trees. He stood, basking in the sunlight for a moment, his eyes tightly closed before he sank back and leant against the tree. Aeris followed him watching him curiously.
"Cloud?"
"Mmm?" came the vague response.
"You're tired aren't you?"
"N-no. I just need a minute. I need to get going. I need to..." He trailed off, his eyes closed and his breathing steadying. She crouched beside him and watched for a moment. The sun's warmth was a little uncomfortable for her, but she perservered and carefully sat, almost touching Cloud's shoulder against the tree. She gazed at the man. He looked tired, and the ease with which he'd fallen asleep... She couldn't disturb him. After a moment of watching him, she decided to practice. She retrieved a selection of candles from the house, and with some careful glances to ensure he was still asleep, she set a line of them up in the same way as the church. Now to pick up where she left off.
Her mother returned hours later as the sun shifted away from the gap in the upper plates. Her practice was almost there, and she'd taken care to not damage the garden or wake the sleeping mercenary. She smiled and waved as her mother appeared down the path from the outer areas of Sector Five. Her mother waved back, frowning at the man she was now shaking awake
"I thought you were going to be back later today," Elmyra responded walking over to the seated pair, eyes widening slightly as she caught sight of Cloud's faintly glowing eyes. Both Aeris and Cloud rose to their feet.
"This is Cloud; my bodyguard."
"Bodyguard? Oh! Were you followed again?"
"I was fine. Cloud was here to look after me."
The SOLDIER looked embarassed and nodded hastily towards Elmyra. "Pleased to meet you Ma'am."
"Elmyra, please. Thank you for taking care of her, Cloud. But if you'll just excuse me for a moment, I need to start the dinner."
Aeris watched Elmyra walk to the house, her adopted mother catching her eye and raising an eyebrow almost imperceptibly. She couldn't help but smile at that, but quickly turned it to a frown and shooed her mother away. Cloud was staring around the area again, apparently missing the whole exchange.
"So, Cloud; what are you going to do now?"
"Is Sector Seven far from here? I need to get back to Tifa's bar."
"Is Tifa a girl?"
She was surprised at herself. She'd known the man a handful of hours now, and she was already worried he had someone else?
"Y-yeah." He looked confused.
"A girlfriend?" She asked, all innocence.
"What? No! I mean... No..."
She was curious now. He was single, but... interested in someone? But not taken. That much was clear.
"I think I can show you to Sector Seven... Though that might cost you something else this time..."
"Why would you want to put yourself in danger again by taking me all the way over there?"
"I'm used to it. I've lived here all my life."
"Used to it? Not sure about getting help from a girl..."
That tore it. She might have asked for help back at the church, but she was no damsel in distress. "'Not sure about getting help from a girl'?! Just what do you mean by that?"
He jumped then, looking shocked by the outburst. She decided to press her advantage. "You expect me to just sit here all meek and mild after hearing you say that?" She stalked into the house, Cloud trailing behind her. "Mom? I'm going to take Cloud to Sector Seven. I'll be back later."
There was some shuffling from kitchen and Elmyra walked into the living room. She opened her mouth to retort and then decided against it. "Never mind," she murmured. "You've already made up your mind haven't you?"
Aeris nodded.
"Can it at least wait until tomorrow? It'll be the middle of the night before you get back here if you set off now."
Aeris' gaze flicked to the windows. She was right, and there was that unspoken reminder of the dangers of going through Sector Six entailed. More tangles with Don Corneo's cronies. The gangster lord of Wall Market in Sector Six had taken a liking to her after he had heard tales, and presumably seen recordings of one of her routines. She's been approached a few years ago by some of his thugs to interview for him. She'd refused and left them in a confused muddle as she ignited their trousers.
They soon learned the Shinra tricks of wearing protective clothing before bothering her, but they soon found fire was not the only trick in her arsenal. And it didn't necessarily have to be used on their clothing. She'd turned down multiple, increasingly generous offers from the gangsters. The common thread was that she had to turn herself over to the Don, sell her soul for exclusivity and dance solely for him and at his behest. The restrictions sounded suffocating, irrespective of the darker rumours that floated around the slums about the man. While she was confident she could deal with the thugs, it would still be more pleasant during the day-light hours.
"Yeah, yeah you're right."
"We can put Cloud up for the night though."
The man shifted uncomfortably. "Don't worry about me, I'll find my own way back, or to a hotel or something..."
"But you've never been to this Sector before have you Cloud? You've got a good chance of getting pretty lost. Plus I bet you're hungry aren't you?" Aeris looked at him expectantly.
"Starving." He admitted with a faint smile, and Aeris realised he couldn't have eaten anything since the previous evening. He hadn't complained once all day.
"Then you can stay for dinner too." Elmyra wandered back into the kitchen anc called over her shoulder. "Aeris? Can you make up the spare bed for our guest?"
The fire dancer smiled and ran up the stairs, raiding the cupboards to get out the spare sheets, and quickly made up the bed in the spare room before darting downstairs again. Something had changed slightly in Cloud's demeanour in the few minutes she'd been away, and she regarded her mother with a faint suspicion. Cloud was still smiling, but reserved and slightly distant.
She had little time to pry into what had been said as dinner was soon ready and the three of them had a pleasant meal together; they talked briefly about Cloud's childhood. It was a subject he seemed reluctant to dwell on for very long and he quickly turned the conversation to Aeris' own younger years. She told carefully edited versions of her life outside of Shinra, finding herself slipping into stories of how she had come to be a Fire Dancer. Afterwards Elmyra swiftly retired, catching Cloud's eye for a moment before ascending the stairs. The curiosity was near maddening, but she was reluctant to pry.
Cloud unexpectedly asked her to demonstrate her routine; he was conscious he had interrupted at least one performance and one practice, and he had no idea how her act ran. She was surprised at the request, but obliged, pulling him up from his chair and into the garden. She decided to do without her usual dress, and concious of the green grass around her, was more careful then the norm as she ran through a routine. Just a normal one, a typical night's work when her heart wasn't quite in the performance, and more then anything she just wanted to get home and sleep.
But Cloud's eyes were enraptured, and she found herself embellishing the routine with flourishes, performing some more of the complex and fanciful moves. She was hitting her groove and it became easier. He gasped at the fire-breathing, more natural and graceful then any performance he had seen yet. His eyes trailed through space as he followed the poi in it's arcs and showers of sparks she concentrated intently on to ensure they would not set the garden alight.
And before she was entirely aware of her actions, she found herself slipping into a dance. Her tape-player was back at the church, or possibly taken by the Turks; ditto her best dress. She made do though. The sector's night life was coming alive around them; and while never as busy, garish or notorious as Sector Six, the pulse of a club could be heard in the distance and she found herself swaying and moving to its racing beat.
Cloud's eyes never left her, and she couldn't refrain from the final flourish for this man, this SOLDIER with the beautiful eyes. She unwound her ribbon, drew the tiny white sphere out from within her braided hair and then ignited her hair. His eyes widened in surprise and a second of panic, before he settled, grasping that this was just part of the performance. She pivotted and turned with a flourish, flaming hair whipping around her only to extinguish a moment later as the song ended for just a moment.
She brushed her hair back over her shoulders in one movement, smiling and bowing towards her audience. He sat in a daze for a moment before bringing his hands together in applause. He was flustered, trying to come up with some words of praise, and she simply smiled, pleased that she had amazed him so. The sector around them darkened as she wound her hair back up into its braid once more.
She lead him back into the house, both keeping their voices low, reasonably sure that Elmyra had gone to bed. "You need to go through Sector Six to get to Sector Seven," she explained to him as they paused at the bottom of the stairs. He simply nodded in response. "Sector Six is dangerous so you'd better get some sleep tonight. Cloud..."
The question caught in her throat. The evening had been so much fun, that to bring up Zack now felt uncomfortable. She shook her head at his quizzical gaze and instead lead him up the stairs. She pointed out the bathroom and the spare room. They dithered for a moment, both unsure of the situation and how to act, before Aeris broke the stalemate and wished him goodnight.
She flopped onto her bed with a sigh, but also a smile, wondering if she would get any sleep that night.
