Dream of the Phoenix

Temple of the Ancients/Sleeping Forest

Chapter 7: Temple of the Ancients/Sleeping Forest

.o.0.o.

Cid, Cloud, and Aerith had been walking for close to 2 hours when they came upon a clearing.

"We'll rest here," Cloud said as he put down the pack he was carrying.

"Good idea," Cid wheezed from where he had fallen to the ground, cigarette still in mouth. Aerith smile as the older man tried to catch his breath.

Looking around Aerith saw a patch of flowers. Smiling to herself she walked over to them. Kneeling in the middle, she was reminded of the good memories she had from her church in the Sector 5 slums. She gently picked a flower and brought it to her nose, its fragrance reminding her of the flowers that she used to grow.

This memory brought another to the surface, that of a handsome man falling through the ceiling of the church, only to be saved from certain death by her bed of flowers. She glanced up at Cloud and smiled.

Looking around the field her eye caught a sparkle of something metallic.

"Cloud!" she yelled as she slowly stood and approached the object in the distance. Cloud was at her side in a second, sword drawn, ready for anything.

"What is it?" he asked in a whisper.

Aerith only replied by pointing, Cloud turned to where she was pointing and was startled to see a body.

"Hey! It's Tseng!" Aerith said as realization dawned on her and she ran towards the fallen man.

"Tseng? Of the Turks?" Cloud asked as he ran, alert to a possible trap.

"Uh... I've been had. It's not the Promised Land... Sephiroth's searching for..." Tseng mumbled when Aerith reached him and rested his head in her lap.

"Sephiroth? He's inside?" Cloud asked as he stood and faced the Temple in the distance.

"Look... for yourself... Damn... Letting Aerith go was the start... of my... bad luck... The president... was wrong..." he mumbled incoherently.

"You're wrong. The Promised Land isn't like what you imagined. And, I'm not going to help. Either way, there was no way ShinRa could win." Aerith replied with a growl.

"...pretty harsh. Sounds like something... you'd say," Tseng commented before turning his gaze to Cloud. "The Keystone... Place it... on... the alter..."

Having said that, Tseng gave the Keystone to Cloud, passing into the realm of death a few moments later.

"You're crying?" Cloud asked Aerith as he held her against him.

"...Tseng's with our enemy, the Turks, but I've known him since we were little... There's not a lot of people I can say that about. In fact, there are probably only a handful of people in the world who really know me." She said as she sniffled.

"Am I one of those people?" he asked as he tilted her chin up.

"You know you are," she replied before wiping her eyes with her palm.

Cloud only smiled and kissed her.

"Come on, we need to get Cid and stop Sephiroth." He said as he gently led her back to Cid, who appeared to be sleeping.

"Cid," Cloud called. "CID!"

The older man awoke with a start, a stream of profanity hitting them full force.

"Calm down Cid, we need to go to the Temple and stop Sephiroth, let's get moving." Cloud said as he helped him to his feet.

.o.0.o.