Are you all right?
I think so...
You sure?
Yeah...
Back then? I got in loads of trouble back then...
Do you think you can get up?
"Hello? Hello!"
Yeah... maybe...
"Hello! Are you all right?"
Then... get up!
Golden yellow streams of light poured in from the stained glass windows of a small church in the slums. The roof was giving away, and even now there was a greater hole in the roof from something falling through moments before. Flowers grew throughout the church, most of them yellow and all very beautiful. Two figures were in the church, a young woman dressed in a pink dress, and a figure laying on the flower bed dressed in a black suit and white trench coat. The girl was seemingly quite nervous over him.
"Can you get up?," she asked.
Rufus shook his head, trying to sit up. He managed, and took a minute to look around his surroundings. Below him was a crushed flower bed and most likely what had broken his fall. His gaze fell to the one other figure in the church, a girl dressed in a pink dress and red jacket. Long folds of light brown hair was tied back in a pink bow, and she had large emerald eyes.
"I was wondering if you'd ever wake up," she said with a sigh of relief.
Rufus looked down at the flowers he had crushed in his fall. He rose to his feet, brushing petals off of his suit pants and his gaze lowered to the ground. These flowers must be hers, and he had crushed them.
"Are these yours?," he asked. "I'm really sorry..."
"No, no!," she said quickly. "It's all right. The flowers grow easily here because this is a scared place..." She paused, breathing in the sweet smell of flowers. "I love it here."
Rufus watched as she knelt down in the flower bed, cleaning out a few weeds and throwing them in a pile behind her. He ran a hand through his blonde hair, resting his hand on his neck. He slowly ventured a step toward the girl.
"We meet again," she said. "Do you remember?"
He remembered. She was the girl selling flowers in the streets the night before, when the reactor had blown up. He had bought one of her flowers. He remembered where the lone rose was now, in his apartment in Sector 8.
"Yeah," he replied. "You were selling flowers..."
Her face brightened, "Oh good! You do remember. Thank you for buying my flowers." She also got to her feet, turning to Rufus with a smile. "I don't think we've been introduced properly. My name is Aeris."
Aeris? Rufus turned slightly pale. That was the name of the Ancient the Angels and Turks had been searching for for years at a time. And here she stood, talking to Rufus like old friends. He had thoughts of capturing her then and there but he felt sick when he thought about it too much.
"Rufus," he told her, making sure not to mention his last name.
"Say Rufus," she began. "Do you have any Materia?"
He shrugged, "Sure. You can find Materia any where these days. For any purpose too."
Aeris smiled, nodding to him. Rufus wondered what powers an Ancient really had. He had been told of what an Ancient could do and that she was needed to guide them to the Promised Land. Personally, Rufus believed nothing of this Promised Land. The Promised Land was supposed to be the land of ultimate happiness and rich Mako energy everywhere.
"Mine useless," Aeris told him.
"What? Every Materia has a purpose. You just don't know how to use it."
"No, I do. It does have no purpose. I like keeping it with me because it was my mother's."
Aeris gazed skyward, a sad expression coming to her smiling face. Rufus could tell what was wrong, and he knew the feeling. His mother had died when he was only sixteen, a few years ago. He was twenty four now, and still not completely over with her death. Perhaps it was the fact his father had never cared when his mother died. He never saw once his father shed a tear because of her death. He was hollow, and Rufus had learned from him he might as well have no emotions either when people are only going to die.
His thoughts turned away from those thoughts when footsteps broke his concentration. Both he and Aeris turned toward the doorway to the church. Rufus again had an odd feeling in the pit of his stomach when he saw who it was. Reno of the Turks.
"Reno," he muttered.
Reno smirked. He looked at Rufus and then to the Ancient. This was perfect! He would tell President Shinra Rufus was betraying Shinra, and he might get that position he wanted in the Angels. Reno was normally a kind person, but he was also a very greedy person out for his own good. He slipped his nightstick free from the holster at his side, charging it up.
"Boy, Ruf," he began, knowing Rufus hated to be called 'Ruf.' "You're betraying Shinra, now aren't you? I think I'll have to take care of that."
"Don't fight here!," Aeris exclaimed.
She seized Rufus' hand, pulling him with her as she ran toward the back of the church. Rufus followed her quickly until they made it into the back of the church. The pillars were falling and the floors lining the walls were falling through back there, but he didn't think much of this as Reno ran after them. He began running toward the pillar, sliding under it to the other side of the floor. He motioned for Aeris to follow and to hurry.
As they neared the pillar and Rufus leapt over it, the three soldiers behind Reno began firing at them. Reno pointed to Aeris, yelling over the gunfire for them not to injure the Ancient. Aeris lost her balance from the gunfire, causing her to fall down the length of the pillar.
"Rufus!," she cried.
"Aeris! Hang on!," he yelled to her.
Knowing he had to hurry, he scurried up ladder and onto the catwalks at the top of the steeple. His eyes fell on four barrels positioned there, and he quickly ran to one and shoved it over. Below a soldier was approaching Aeris, and because of Rufus' training as an Angel the barrel fell right upon the soldier.
"Thank you, Rufus!," Aeris called to him.
She began running up the length of the ladders, gaining closer to Rufus as she ran on. A soldier followed her close behind, but Rufus quickly ran to the nearest barrel, shoving it over also. This one landed right on the soldier, and he fell down the ladder he was coming up. Rufus called for Aeris to get to the catwalks.
Soon she joined him on the long walkway, and followed as Rufus led her toward an open part of the roof. He helped her climb over the steep fallen pieces of wood, and out onto the roof of the church where they sat to rest. Rufus watched intently as Reno and his three battered and angered Shinra soldiers left the church.
"Wow," Aeris said, trying to catch her breath. "You're some fighter, Rufus! I would think you were in SOLDIER." With a simple shrug from Rufus she continued. "Have you ever been a bodyguard?"
"What do you mean?," he asked.
Aeris smiled, "All you have to do is take me home. I don't want to get into anymore confrontations with those men!"
Rufus wondered just how long she had been running from Shinra. Shinra elite soldiers and many other forces had always been able to catch these people they needed to hunt down, but for some reason, the Ancient always escaped. Rufus and many others had come to suspect someone was helping her escape from Shinra, and it wasn't a regular every day person. Whoever it was must be someone working at Shinra.
"Sure," he said. "I'll take you home."
"Great!," her smile grew.