Absolute
Error
Chapter
Four
As Aeris
sat in her cold, hostile prison cell, she thought about what had gone on in
the past few days. She had been When Sephiroth
told her the sotory of Nibelheim, she had hung onto every word he said, genuinely
admiring him. There was
a knock on the door, and Reno stepped in. "Hi... How're you doin'?"
he said, sounding concerned. She She slid
her arms around his neck and kissed him back. When they pulled apart, Aeris
was the first to notice Hojo. As Sephiroth
paced the room, "What do you mean, Biggs is gone?"
working at the bar in the Seventh Heaven, as usual, when Sephiroth had stumbled
in, badly injured. He had explained
later that he had been caught up in a rebel terrorist attack, Aeris hadn't questioned
him further. She had fallen for him
immediately, and used her healing powers to tend to his wounds. Barret had immediately
panicked as he walked in,
noticing Sephiroth's mako eyes and recognising him as a SOLDIER, he had snatched
Aeris away and almost shot
Sephiroth where he sat. Aeris had to explain everything to him several times
before he finally lowered his gunarm
and let Aeris continue seeing to Sephiroth's injuries. Then, as Aeris's feelings
for Sephiroth grew, Barret's hatred
of him grew also, forcing Aeris to choose between her friend and the man she
loved.
Of course, she had read about it in the papers when it had happened, but she
had been fifteen then, and had
understood little about her heritage and cared even less about 'some poxy little
town on the Second Continent'
as she had put it at the time. Besides, the papers had lied. They had said that
a terrorist attack on the Mako
Reactor had spread to the town, setting it all on fire and killing the Great
Cloud Strife and his group, apart from
one SOLDIER, 1st class, The Traitor Sephiroth, who had turned tail and deserted
them. Lies, all lies; Shin-Ra was
full of lies. 'That's why Sephiroth left,' she thought 'he's not like all the
rest of them... he doesn't lie. Especially not
to me...' she buried her face in her hands. They had confessed their feelings
for each other, and the next day he had
been killed. Killed by Shin-Ra, the people who were currently holding her captive.
She briefly wondered whether
or not to kill herself, but decided against it, at least for the time being.
She had heard him scream out her name over
the noise of the explosion, before she had been dragged away from the helicopter
window by Tseng. And then Reno
had kissed her... he said he would protect her. Did he mean that? Could she
trust him? He was a Turk, after all... she
was confused and scared. She didn't know which way to turn...
just looked at him for a while before replying "...m'fine." she lowered
her head again and wrapped her arms around
herself, cold without her jacket. She felt a hand on her arn, and looked up
to find that Reno was kneeling in front
of her again, his normally expressionless eyes filled with concern.
"Tell me about it." he said, quietly. "About what?" she
asked, confused. "What's bugging you?"
"Isn't it obvious?" she replied "I'm in a prison cell, freezing
cold and waiting to be experimented on by a mad,
perverted professor, and the man I love was killed today because Sector Seven
fell on his head." she was in
tears by the time she had finished. Reno looked disturbed "Woah, 'man you
love'? Who would that be?"
"Sephiroth" she sniffed.
"What, you mean that tall guy, long, silver hair, got a thing about black
leather and really really dangerous
looking, really really long swords?" Reno asked "Yes,"
she sobbed. "Oh, man... geez, I'm sorry... I didn't
know... oh shit, I'm so sorry!" inwardly, he cursed himself. Why was he
being so apologetic? He'd never felt
this way for a woman before, what was wrong with him? Why was he acting so out
of character? Could it be...
could it really be, that after all those years, (and all those women), he had
finally fallen in love? Before he really
knew what was going on, he had his arms around Aeris and was kissing her. She
made no attempt to pull away,
but nor, he noticed, did she return the kiss. As Reno expressed his new-found
feelings for aeris, and Aeris wondered
whether to try and forget about Sephiroth as best she could, neither noticed
Hojo creep slowly in, a grin appearing on
his face as he watched the scene
before him, grin growing wider as Aeris decided that, although no-one could
ever replace
Sephiroth in her heart, Reno was, at the moment, kissing her, and he was a very
attractive man...
her eyes widened in alarm, Reno followed her startled gaze, turning around and
gasping when he saw Hojo standing in
the doorway. The professor walked forward, smirking "My, my. What an interesting
little incident that was! Ancient,
I thought you loved the disobedient silver-haired brat?"
"How do you know that?!" Aeris cried, shocked. Hojo motioned with
his hand and Biggs stepped forward into the cell.
"I find it all very amusing really, " he sneered "All the time
Barret's doubting Sephiroth, when Sephiroth's the genuine
deal and I'm the one betraying you all." he turned to Aeris "Hojo
was incredibly interested in your relationship with
Sephiroth, for the short duration of it, anyway." Hojo motioned for him
to go, and he left. "So, what did happen to
Sephiroth, anyway? Or are you having a brief affair with this Turk before
Sephiroth comes to join you as a lab rat?"
"If you must know," sobbed Aeris, "He's dead. He was killed
in the explosion." Hojo's eyes widened, so she had not
seen him escape, then? He decided to torment her a little longer and with hold
from her the fact that Sephiroth was
indeed very much alive, and in facy, was on his way to rescue her at this very
moment. Little did he know, however,
that he was walking directly into a trap, and that, contrary to saving Aeris,
Sephiroth himself would be imprisoned
also, the rest of the rebels executed, and the two would remain in Hojo's lab
for the rest of their lives, and, indeed,
after their deaths as well...
"Such a pity," he muttered as he shuffled out of the cell "such...
a... pity..." the door slammed shut and the key
turned in the lock "Hey!" cried Reno, "HEY! They locked me in
here! What the hell?! They locked me in!" Reno
turned to Aeris "They locked me in... with you..." he stepped towards
her, holding out his hand, she stood up and
took it, allowing him to pull her closer and press his mouth against hers. They
stood there in the small, cold, hostile
prison cell as the light faded, the sun set, and night descended over the polluted
city.
"Exactly what I said" retorted Barret "Biggs is gone. He is no
longer here, HE IS GONE."
"Wherever he is, we can't let that delay our mission to rescue Aeris. We've
waited half the night already, we must go
now! If Hojo does anything to hurt her, I swear I'll kill the bastard!"
"Well, maybe we should wait, let him hurt her and then have you kill him,
save us all a lot of trouble." Barret
commented dryly, then pretended he had said nothing as Sephiroth turned on him,
viciously "That's EVIL!" he spat
"Just suggesting that Hojo should hurt her!" he stormed from
the church in fury, and Barret hurried after him.
"Sephiroth! Sephiroth!" he caught up with the furious man and laid
a hand on his shoulder "Look, Seph. I didn't mean
that, and you know I didn't." Sephiroth brushed Barret's hand away and
frowned "You shouldn't say things like that if
you don't mean them!"
"Aw, c'mon! It was a joke!" protested Barret, trying to justify himself.
Sephiroth whipped round, eyes glowing
dangerously as he hissed "It.. was not... a joke... to me!"
"Heh..." Barret, despite his size and strength, found himself intimidated
by the younger man "...where's your sense
of humour, man...?"
"My sense of humour is irellevant when you make sick jokes about the woman
I love." Sephiroth snapped "Get what's
left of AVALANCHE together and let's go. I can't wait any longer."
Barret scurried back into the church and emerged a few minutes later with Jessie
and Wedge. The four remaining
members of AVALANCHE were on their way to rescue Aeris...