Story: G. art engineering
Thanks to Catalina for editing the english translation!
06/26/05, version 3.1.1

Chapter 1

The last nights had been short for Tseng. It was not his mission that kept him up past the dawn, but his memories… He chased after daydreams until they started haunting him in the small hours of the night.

He felt stranded. Not only because he joined his subordinates swallowing down their frustration in this misty Junon pub. No, it was as if the sea had spit him out on the shore, let him run aground after long years of weightless floating. He couldn't even find the strength to get up and walk on. Somebody had left him behind…

But he couldn't admit it, not to himself nor to anybody else. He just had had this certain mission to fulfill, and he made the mistake of turning it into his personal concern. Aerith had let him down. Tseng decided that it wasn't her fault. He just couldn't expect her to cooperate with the monstrous Shinra Corporation, she who was born as a child of nature. He should have known but he had refused to see the truth because his heart suffered from despair, love, and hope. In hindsight, he had proven to be a total idiot. He had dreamed like a child, but since he wasn't a child anymore, he now had to pay the price.

He gulped down his entire drink in one single swallow, making Reno watch him with excitement.

Elena sat at the opposite end of the bar. She had joined the Turks to replace Reno while he recovered from his broken ribs after the Sector Seven pillar fight. However, his injuries didn't prevent him from joining his friends having fun in Junon at night. Elena was a poor thing, Tseng thought to himself. He had read her CV, learning that she had already passed through numerous Shinra departments but quickly had been "transferred" to another department for the reason of lacking team spirit, aggressive behaviour or simply stupidity. Finally she had ended up with the Turks. Tseng sighed inwardly. That was their image. This was the place where everybody goes who is not made for a normal life.

Normal life… Tseng didn't seem to be made for it, either; otherwise he wouldn't be here. He took a glance at the pub. The air was blinded with cigarette smoke, and the ventilator to his left chopped the light into same-size portions, flickering over the bar like small phantoms. The juke box played softly, and the heat pipes in the corners made coughing sounds. It was calm, almost cosy in here. And it had been far cosier if it were Aerith sitting at the bar and not Elena. He looked at her again. She had a pretty face but mostly it was pinched in this typical Elena style. Tseng couldn't concentrate on her. The vision of Aerith took her place, the vision of the last Ancient, the vision of the girl's - no, the young woman's - innocent but cheeky smile. It always had fascinated him, this smile. Aerith was intelligent, combative, cunning, experienced and owned a sort of imperturbability that enabled her to cope with every kind of difficulty and made Tseng believe that she was something special indeed: a sacred soul in a cursed world.

But Aerith wasn't here. Just forget her, you fool, try to forget her, he harshly reminded himself. She had decided against him, and he should've known from the start. He was a Turk, a gangster, the puppet of a company reaching for world domination and world destruction at the same time. Destruction of the world Aerith was deeply bound up with. Just how could he have been this blind?

Elena would be the far better choice for him. She ended up with the Turks, too. She was cursed, too. She probably would understand him and he would find himself in her… Well, he knew that Elena had developed some kind of crush on him.

But still he wasn't able to look at her for more than five seconds. Not only because he feared it could make her feel uncomfortable. It was simply the fact that he would be forced to give away the last hope. Elena's presence, her dark blue Turk suit made it all too clear: There was no way to escape the life he was born into. There had never been any way to win Aerith's love in the first place…

Tseng was torn out of his melancholic trance when Reno slipped down from his seat and staggered over to the restrooms. His suggestive singing was again a revelation to Tseng. Reno lived in the present time, one hundred percent. He had no dreams for the future nor did he waste any thought on the past. His life was exclusively built around his job, alcohol, sex, sleep, hangover, job. And concerning sex: Reno never had any problem to pick up a female to join his intoxicating nocturnal missions. There were many adventurous female night owls out there as well as bored bartenders and sometimes a street whore in the slums of Midgar and above, and they all knew Reno as the attractive but unpredictable lady killer. And they also knew that Reno never fooled himself and destroyed any illusions from the females' side of a long-term relationship. He was the perfect one night stand.

Tseng had once pondered if he should envy or emulate Reno. Reno's style to cope with the Turk life seemed to work, and Tseng had never heard him complaining. But maybe he just drowned his doubts in the masses of alcohol he inhaled at every available opportunity. Finally Reno had taken Tseng with him on one of his tours to introduce him to the pleasures of nightlife. Tseng assumed that Reno had good instincts for his superior's problems, and Tseng didn't really like this idea. Well, Reno made him spend the night with one of his old friends, and this girl - the most gorgeous and delicate creature he'd ever seen - really was a tough one. After this exalting experience he and Reno found themselves on the bridge above the railroad line going down into the slums, drinking themselves silly with the last remaining cans of whatever-it-was. The next morning, Tseng couldn't remember anything except a deep depression. Just why did Heaven and Hell have to be so close to each other? Why did everybody who dared to expect something from life have to pay such a cruel price? In the beginning, Tseng had despised Reno for his lifestyle, but now he envied him at least for his ability to repress the future. He finally didn't make the illustrious "Reno" grade, and because of that, he had given up trying and just returned to his dreams. But these dreams would turn out to be far more insidious and cruel than he'd ever expected them to be.

Since then, he had gone through hell and back several times, and as usual he was left behind, alone with his pain. The pain and the visions of Aerith…

They disappeared immediately when he heared Reno behind him.

"The breshiden's shafe 'gause we're here…" Then a sound as if Reno had run into something - or somebody. A short silence followed. "You sure know how to spoil my holidays, suckers!" he suddenly started to rant. "See what you've done! We still have a bone to pick with that!"

Tseng whirled around just in time to see Reno opening his shirt and presenting his bandaged ribcage to Cloud.

Cloud.

And behind him Aerith.

Reno staggered back to the bar, ignoring the gathered AVALANCHE mob crowding into the pub. "But not today", he added. He was off duty. Anyway, it would have been highly unlikely for AVALANCHE to start a fight inside a pub since there was no more reason to do so. The Turks didn't have any instructions to eliminate AVALANCHE, not even to kidnap Aerith anymore.

Tseng felt a sharp pain in his chest just as if an old wound would call itself back to memory. He had let Aerith go just to find her at the side of this mental wreck with the giant buster sword. Spontaneous anger rose up in him and if he and Aerith would've been alone he would have given her a reprimanding clip on the ears just as he had done in the helicopter some days ago. Cloud might indeed remind her of good ol' Zack, Aerith's ex-boyfriend, but Cloud wasn't Zack. He didn't possess the same careless happiness like the young farmer boy from Gongaga. But Aerith didn't seem to care or even understand. If she would have entered the pub with Zack on her side, Tseng might have understood it - grudgingly, of course. But Cloud… Cloud was a horrendous-looking imitation of the missing SOLDIER First Class with those lively and joyful Mako eyes. Just why did Aerith cling to this shadow of a man?

For a moment, Tseng was blinded by revelation. Aerith has never gotten over the fact that Zack disappeared. She clings to everything that keeps his memory alive… Tseng felt another sharp pain in his chest. For quite a while, he had cherished the illusion that he might've been able to replace Zack, to be considered a worthy relationship for her. Of course he had been jealous of Zack. But now when he noticed just how much Zack had meant to her, Tseng felt his own relevance disappear into nothing. Maybe, for all those years, Aerith had seen him as some kind of father figure or older brother, but nothing more.

His hand clenched around the empty glass, and he tried to calm himself down out of fear the force of his grip would shatter the glass. His emotions back under control, Tseng turned around on his stool to face the newcomers.

"So we meet again", Rude stated with his emotionless voice.

"What are you doing here?" Cloud's face was cold and unfriendly - or better he tried to appear cold and unfriendly. Tseng assumed that Cloud must've been emotionally numb, for whatever reason.

Next to Tseng, Rude and Reno exchanged looks. "It's hard to explain what Turks do." He grinned slightly. This was one of the rare moments when some emotions dare to peek around the rims of his dark shades.

Cloud was caught off-guard by Rude's condescending tone. "Kidnapping, right?", he said, pointing his spiky head in Aerith's direction who tried to keep her eyes from staring at Tseng. Tseng couldn't see what she was thinking, and he didn't even want to know. So he tried to avoid meeting her eyes as well.

"To put it negatively, you could say that. But that's not all there is to it, not anymore…" Rude searched for words. He wasn't the talkative kind, and now he ran out of words.

Elena took the chance to make a contribution to the conversation and sat straight up on her barstool. "It's okay, Rude! I know you don't like speeches, so don't force it!" She really believed that Rude was in need of help. Tseng noticed Reno and Rude gritting their teeth.

"Then, Elena, explain", Rude said. Just let her make fun of herself... Suddenly Tseng pitied her.

"I'm the newest member of the Turks, Elena! Thanks to what you did to Reno, we're short of people. Although, because of that…", she faltered for a moment, "I got promoted to the Turks." A short smile. "In any case, our job is to find out where Sephiroth is headed." Filled with deep pride she glanced over to her colleagues, not noticing that Reno seriously tried not to laugh out loud. She took a breath to continue. "And try everything to get into your way! - Wait a minute, it's the other way round! You're the ones that get in our way!"

Tseng wasn't looking at her, but Aerith. "Elena, you talk too much."

He sensed her shrinking back like a frightened animal. "Oh… sorry, Tseng…"

"No need to tell them about our orders." With a reflex, he waved his subordinates. "Now go", he said to Elena and Rude, "And don't forget to fill your report", especially addressing Elena who hopped from her barstool with new vigor to iron out her faux pas.

"Oh, right!" Her nose up to the ceiling, she marched up to the AVALANCHE members crowding the exit. Rude followed in behind. "Rude and I will go after Sephiroth who had been seen at the harbor yesterday!"

Why did she say this?, Tseng mused, sighing inwardly. Probably to boost her image in the eyes of the enemy… The Turks weren't the only ones going after Sephiroth. "Elena. You don't seem to understand…" Her stupidity was just downright spectacular. And again he felt a deep pity in reprimanding her. But what should he do?

"Oh… I'm… I'm sorry…!" She was really sorry. Poor Elena.

"Go. Don't let Sephiroth get away."

Rude and Elena gave a short salute. "Yes, sir!" Rude then plowed through the lines of AVALANCHE towards the exit with Elena following in his wake. The lines closed behind them, leaving Tseng and Reno alone with AVALANCHE. The bartender just ignored the scene, concentrating on her job. Reno appeared unconcerned and casual, but his eyes were everywhere.

Tseng eyes were fixed on Aerith. "Aerith. Long time no see." Tseng was shocked to hear his own voice sounding cool and distant. It didn't reveal the slightest glimpse of his inner conflict. Long years with the Turks seemed to pay off… "Seems you escaped Shinra for a while. Now since Sephiroth has returned."

There it was again, this absolutely gorgeous ironic but innocent smile on her face. "So what are you talking about? Shall I be grateful to Sephiroth or what?" Aerith knew how to hide her feelings, too. Therefore, a lot of people thought her to be a naïve and happy girl, but Tseng knew better.

"No… But we won't see each other that often, so take care." It might have sounded a bit too honest. Too obvious. He felt the pain in his chest increasing. Old wounds started to bleed again. A bad sign…

"Sounds funny when it comes from you."

For Tseng it wasn't funny at all. It was the bitter irony of his fate. "Well then, stay out of Shinra's sight", he replied and turned around on his barstool as if the whole thing was finished. And also stay out of my sight… He resisted the urge to lift the drink and empty it in one gulp like Reno loved to do, because the glass was already empty. Reno immediately gave a sign to the bartender to fill up Tseng's glass.

AVALANCHE must have left the pub because Reno turned back to the bar, bringing his attention back to his drink and flirting silently with the bartender. He didn't comment on the meeting with AVALANCHE, especially with Aerith. Tseng deeply appreciated it. Reno already knew too much about his superior's weak point: the girl from the ancient race. Tseng wondered if Reno was aware of the danger that weakness could bring.

In the following days, Tseng did everything to be chief of the Turks and nothing else. If he wouldn't be able to kill his feelings for Aerith, the feelings for Aerith would kill him instead - one day, in whatever way. And therefore, he avoided direct contact with AVALANCHE as much as possible.

For a while, he even believed it would work.

Chapter 2

The coolness of the temple was soothing after the jungle's dampness which was still sticking to his bones. Tseng's eyes wandered over the wall of the long hall, trying to find a sense behind the murals, but drawings as well as hieroglyphes remained silent. He was no archaeologist. He would leave it to somebody else to see the meaning behind the artistic code. His job was to find the temple and everything in the surrounding area.

Nevertheless, this job was indeed of Tseng's liking because he was of the intellectual kind. His hand touched the murals as if it would try to catch the artist's personality and style in the slight irregularities of the lines. And indeed, the closer he came, the clearer he discerned the ways of the brush that once had run over the wall, and finally he could make out the man - no, the Cetra - holding it.

And immediately he pulled his hand away. The drawings were determined but of innocent purity. As if Aerith had left the marks of a creative outburst…

The walls, no, the whole temple breathed the spirit of the Ancients, the people Aerith belonged to. With every breath he took, Aerith's presence became stronger until he even thought he smelled her perfume, an enchanting blend of flowers and femininity…

He decided that it had been a mistake to come here personally. He should have sent Reno, Rude and Elena instead and stayed in the helicopter, but he had taken the lead just like a researcher, trying to unveil the secrets of the past with the eagerness of an adventurous boy who wants to see things with his own eyes.

Don't fool yourself! The temple and its secrets were of major importance, and therefore he had to take responsibility of the mission because he was the leader of the Turks. His subordinates Reno, Rude and Elena were people for the rough jobs, but examining an ancient temple required a certain ability for abstract thinking.

But despite his ability to think artistically, he wasn't able to remove himself from the unseen presence of the Ancients. His thoughts had been engaged with them for far too many years, and far too long he had flirted with the dreams of a better future. In the few days that had passed, he had tried to get away from this drug, but his mind was already too poisoned to resist any upcoming temptation.

For the first time he was glad to hear the clip-clop of Elena's shoes on the stone floor. She stepped next to him, emulating his actions by watching the murals and thinking about what they might mean.

"Tseng, what's all this? Can we find the Promised Land with it?"

"I wonder", he replied matter-of-factly. He tried not to think of the Promised Land. "Anyway, we have to report to the president."

"Be careful, Tseng."

"Yeah…" Her voice sounded to utterly worried that Tseng almost felt touched. Here they were together, two outcasts, alone with themselves and their fate that was assigned up to them. Somehow, the sadness of the moment was almost enchanting. "Hey Elena. What about dinner after this job's over?" The words came easily just as if the darkness hovering over his mind had dissolved. Past and future had become irrelevant. There was only the here and now.

But Tseng's sudden revelation was slightly shrouded by Elena's confused reaction. "Th… thank you very much", she stuttered and stepped back, an embarrassed smile on her bright red face. "If I may be excused…" She turned on her heel and hurriedly clip-clopped towards the exit.

Tseng had reason to be disappointed, but he didn't waste any thought on the reasons why Elena had reacted the way she did. He was a Turk, she was a Turk, too, and even if she was scared by his straight-forward offer she would accept the fact that Tseng was the boss and gave orders to everyone.

His eyes returned to the murals. Some minutes ago, they had started to talk to him, but now they had become silent again. "Now... Is this the Promised Land? No, it can't be…" And even if it would be the Promised Land, I wouldn't recognize it because I'm not supposed to enter it, he thought for himself. He felt a deep relief over the fact that he wasn't worried anymore. Seems that I have finally reached the illustrious "Reno" grade… Everything boiled down to the present time. His senses were here, his attention was focused on the hall.

And so it came that he was severely shocked by the sound he heard directly behind him, just as he would have been if Reno had pointed the tip of his electric nightstick into his lower back. Creaking leather, about two meters away…

He whirled around and reached into his shoulder holster to get his gun, but when he saw the great Sephiroth kneeling in front of him he knew instantly that it would be in vain. "Sephiroth!", he gasped, shrinking back and staring upon the elite soldier's silvery head, emulating a samurai bowing in front of his master. But the problem was that Sephiroth had no master. He was his own master, and he did what his own will instructed him to do. And that could mean that Tseng would never be able to take Elena out for a dinner, for example…

Harshly he pushed these thoughts aside and tried to concentrate on the situation. If I'm going to die, then I'm going to die as a Turk and not as a tragic romantic.

Sephiroth straightened up to his full height of about two meters. The leather of his outfit creaked as if trying desperately to keep this psychopath's energy under control. A smile curled his lips, the utter opposite to the threatening aura radiating from him. And perhaps it was exactly this contradition that made Sephiroth appear like the distortion of a heavenly angel of death. Tseng's heartbeat stopped for a second.

"So you have opened the door. Well done."

Tseng tried everything to get his fear under control. Sephiroth did him a favour by shifting the issue to the temple itself. Tseng took a deep breath and headpointed to the murals. "This… place… What is it?" His voice trembled, but this wasn't of any relevance anymore. Sephiroth already knew that he was dying of fear…

Now Sephiroth looked up, too, let his eyes scan the wideness of the hall and its murals telling a story from ancient times. "This place? A lost treasure house of knowledge, the wisdom of the Ancients..." Sephiroth raised his head and inhaled the cool air of the hall. Pleasured, even downright voluptuous. "I am becoming one with the Planet." The words sounded matter-of-fact, not like the hallucinations of a madman.

"One… with the Planet?" Tseng wavered between fear of death and confusion. His mind grinded like a frozen gear unit. Far at the horizon he sensed a horrible realization rising like the dawn, but still it was too far away to be named.

"You stupid fools! You've never even thought about it!! All the spirit energy of the Planet… all its wisdom… knowledge… I will meld with it all. I will become one with it - it will become one with me."

"… You can do that?" Tseng still wasn't able to think clearly. He felt like a fool, paralyzed by the presence of an unearthly being. But perhaps dying would be easier in this numbed state of mind…

Sephiroth ignored the trembling little human and concentrated solely on his transfiguration, the upcoming mystical wedding between the Planet and the Son of Promise. He raised his sword, the long sweeping and deadly Masamune blade bathing in the torchlight. Tseng thought he could hear its singing, ringing through his nerves, thrilling him like the breath of an angel whose sound was about to ascend into the heights or depths of the indescribable. "The way…" Sephiroth's eyes wandered over the walls and finally rested on Tseng, "…lies here."

He saw the ceiling fleeing into the darkness. And after what seemed to be an eternity in which he was severed from all forces and thoughts, Tseng crashed against the end of time and space. His vision blurred, and dizziness pulled him up into the nothingness looming above him. Then, after another eternity, he felt a throbbing pain on his chest. He had to claw at the cold stone behind him, and it was now when he realized that he was actually lying on the floor. The feeling of dampness on his chest brought him to the idea that Sephiroth must've slained him with his sword.

Sephiroth…

A shadow fell on Tseng's face, and finally he looked up into a blissed and smiling face, surrounded by a shiny nimbus. Silvery locks reached down as if they wanted to grab him.

"Death awaits all of you", Sephiroth's voice proclaimed. A hand gloved in black leather followed the locks of silver hair and grabbed Tseng's wrist, pulling him up. The pain that now rushed through Tseng's body pushed him to the brink of unconsciousness, but not far enough to separate him from Sephiroth's words. "But do not fear. For it is through death that a new spirit energy is born. Soon you will live…" Tseng felt himself pulled across the stone floor while his eyes were blinded by a fierce light, "…as a part of me!"

When Tseng woke up again he found himself inside the small room at the top of the pyramid. The door to the inside of the temple was in this room: The polished stone plate beneath him. And the coldness radiating from this stone plate brought Tseng back to reality. He could hear the birds singing outside as well as countless insects, squealing monkeys and the voices of all the other hunters and their prey. Sephiroth stood next to him, holding something in front of Tseng's face.

The keystone. The stone he received yesterday... or two days ago? The stone he had received from Cait who had stolen it from Cloud & Co.

"Since you know how to open the door I want you to give it back to them," Sephiroth explained.

The keystone… Tseng reached up, but his fingers hardly found the strength to close around it. It wasn't just the wound on his chest through which his life energy was leaking out. A much bigger flow of energy burst through the gap that had opened in his soul - when he realized that he had been completely wrong about Sephiroth! The gap had opened for the first time when AVALANCHE had freed Aerith from the Shinra headquarters. Rufus' decision to make Sephiroth the new leader to the Promised Land had been able to close the gap again for a while. But now Sephiroth had backstabbed him…

I never should've let Aerith go…!

Aerith would return to him, probably in the next few hours. The stone in his hand was shouting it out. He would stay up here to await her arrival.

Should he be afraid of it? This question made no sense. He would die anyway. And with his death he would retire from all Turk duties and that would allow him to resume whatever dreams he had. Let them come over you, let them torture your dying mind… Perhaps he would have been through with it all when Aerith would finally show up. He wanted to face her with the dignity of a Turk who had renounced all dreams…

***

Dreams are insidious demons that grab their victims at the weakest point and entangle them step by step, almost unnoticed, with a close web of passions. When this web is finally discovered because it chokes the victim inside, it is already too late. The only thing left to do is to await the end, being incapable to move or to fight free. In the end the spider will come and suck the blood out of its living prey…

Chapter 3

When he was around 17 or 18 years old, Tseng was an energetic young man with a promising future - and then he had ruined his future by killing a man. He had to choose between death cell and a Turk career, and the desire to live had been too strong to face the gas chamber. Veld, boss of the Turks at that time, had taken care of him, introducing him into the life of the blue suits.

The first thing Veld taught him was to recognize his strengths and weaknesses. Tseng soon found out that he wasn't made for open fight. He was too sensitive and intellectual and lacked the instincts that were needed to sense an opponent's attack. And even if he had been sentenced to death because of murder, Tseng couldn't really imagine himself killing somebody on purpose. Therefore, Veld decided to strengthen Tseng's intellectual abilities. He soon turned out to be a receptive student of legal issues, matters of bureaucracy, research, reporting, planning of a mission - and leading a team. Veld realized that he was training a potential successor.

And concerning further weaknesses: Tseng remembered an occasion in which Veld reprimanded him for wasting too much thought on the contents of his missions. "You just have to know what your mission is about and what you're supposed to do. It's not up to you to think whether or not it makes sense." Veld didn't explain. Yet Tseng could clearly imagine what would happen if he wouldn't take Veld's advice seriously…

Since that time, Tseng used to keep a proper inner distance towards his missions. He made it, and therefore he believed that he had managed his weakness. But this belief finally made him fall…

Fifteen years ago Veld sent him out to get back this fugitive little girl from the Ancient people. Tseng asked no questions. It wasn't up to him to know why this girl was on the run. The only thing he knew was that she lived with a certain Elmyra Gainsborough after her real mother had died. And - of course - that she belonged to the Ancients. Veld told him some details about the Ancients and also which role the girl was supposed to play for Shinra, and this was enough to do his job. Tseng kept this information in his head, far away from his heart.

Cloaked in professional Turk coolness, Tseng knocked on Elmyra's door. Elmyra opened. She was a woman of middle age, and her face made no effort to reveal the fact that she was a widow. Aerith, seven years old at that time, rushed through the house and immediately hid when she sensed that Elmyra was getting nervous about their visit. Already at that time, the blue suits were of low repute. But Elmyra didn't dare to slam the door shut in front of Tseng's nose. Probably not because Tseng had an unusually sympathetic face for a Turk, but because it wasn't wise to start a fight with Shinra. The Wutainese people just had paid for its stubbornness with a bloody war…

"What do you want?", she asked, trying to sound somewhat polite.

"I want to talk to little Aerith", he explained, scanning the house for the girl. Aerith had hid, and it took quite a while for Elmyra to accept Tseng's request and even longer for Aerith to even look at him. Tseng attributed her restraint to sharp instincts or bad experience. In any case, he considered it wise to be nice to the little one. Aerith appeared like a frail flower, innocent, pure, but of special strength - as he would find out soon. He kneeled in front of her. "Aerith. You're a very special child. You're of special blood. Your real mother was an Ancient. The Ancients will lead us to a land of supreme happiness." He looked up to Elmyra just to see what he had expected: Undisguised distrust. Tseng ignored it; he was used to it. It wasn't up to him to think about sense and nonsense of his missions. He got up again. "Aerith will be able to bring happiness to all people in the slums. That is why Shinra needs her cooperation", he added. He knew that this was probably a lie, but it wasn't his business.

"He's wrong! I'm not an Ancient! I'm not!", the girl suddenly exclaimed.

Tseng almost smiled. The girl's really clever, he thought for himself. A perfect example of a slum kid. "But Aerith… Surely you hear voices when you're all alone?" he asked and started to realize that he was talking to an equal. Aerith radiated a self-confidence and determination worthy competing with a Turk's.

"No, I don't!" She ran up the stairs and hid in one of the upper rooms.

Since then, Tseng knew that Aerith was indeed a special child.

And because he had learned not to waste too much thought on the contents of his missions, he refrained from doing more research on the Ancients than necessary. He already knew the most important legends, he knew the details Veld had told him, and that was enough.

But this rudimentary knowledge merged with the picture of little strong Aerith and became a seed, falling into a ground that was far more fertile than Tseng had expected it to be. Perhaps Veld had overlooked this weakness in Tseng, or he had expected his enthusiasm for his job to be strong enough to manage this weakness.

In any case, Tseng started to mourn over his missed chances. He hadn't even been 20 years old when the hand of fate led him into the ranks of the Turks. An ill-considered fight had cost a Shinra officer's life, and Tseng hadn't had the luck to escape. And because he was too cowardish to die, he now carried as a pardoned person the stigma of the Turks, a shady Shinra organisation, acting behind the scenes, with blood on their hands, fraud and lies on their lips. Tseng knew this profession involved several dark secrets of Shinra. And it was these dark secrets that made him a life-long slave of the company… Shinra enabled the Turks to do their job, but that was all. The company provided accommodation and uniforms, but the payment just amounted to a pocket money, enough to afford food and alcohol, but not enough to build up an individual existence. A Turk wasn't suppose to have his or her own life. Shinra was a Turk's single purpose in life.

Tseng had given into this fate because he knew that anything else was foolish. He had finally become what he was now, and that wouldn't change until his dying day.

If sodium combines with chloride, salt comes into being… Tseng had learned that at school. Two elements combine to form something different with totally different properties.

Tseng knew the legends of the Promised Land promising supreme happiness.

Tseng knew that Shinra was in search of the Promised Land to build the Neo-Midgar city there.

Tseng knew that Shinra believed Aerith knew the way to the Promised Land.

All these elements merged in Tseng's head and gave birth to the illusion that Shinra would change as soon as it found the Promised Land, and that Tseng's life would change in that process, too. Perhaps there was a chance for a new beginning.

The salt that emerged from this combination trickled down into Tseng's heart and awakened the thirst.

The thirst for future.

To quench this thirst, Tseng started to dream…

And from this dream-soaked soil emerged hope born from Aerith being a potential messiah of the Promised Land. Over the years, this hope grew and became stronger. But it wasn't a tree spending cool shade in the heat of the day, no, it turned out to be a hedge of thorns surrounding him, imprisoning him. But he hadn't realized it at the beginning - or he just didn't want to realize it.

Veld hadn't realized it, either. Neither did the president of Shinra when Tseng tried to explain that it wouldn't be wise to put little Aerith under pressure. She would rather die than talk, and he pleaded for the opportunity to build up a bond of trust. The president shook his head, knowing that nobody could be stupid enough to trust Shinra. But Tseng remained persistent, offering to take care of it personally. He would make Aerith cooperate voluntarily some day.

Perhaps it was the war with Wutai that made the president put the Neo-Midgar program on the back burner. He had to strengthen his power first before he could follow after his great vision. Because of that, he allowed Tseng to do as he wanted.

During the following years, Tseng visited Elmyra and Aerith on a regular basis and took care of their needs. Elmyra still didn't trust him, but since she knew that Tseng wouldn't harm Aerith she finally gave in to his offer to support them. Tseng enabled Aerith to attend a school, took care that Elmyra's widow's pension was paid in time and so on. He wanted Aerith to trust him.

During the first year, the president of Shinra had granted the support for Elmyra and Aerith Gainsborough, but when he realized that there were no results at the end of the year, he froze the support. But Tseng kept going, paying the costs out of his own pockets. Veld didn't think much of it, but since he had no better idea he let Tseng have his way. This turned out to be a mistake in the long run. Veld should have stopped him, realizing the danger before it would have been too late, but he hadn't done it.

Therefore, Tseng gave more and more away from himself - just to meld more and more with Aerith's life. Although she maintained a proper distance from him, she became easier to get along with. Maybe she considered him a good buddy, or maybe just a nice idiot who thought he could buy her.

However, Tseng really believed he would be able to crack the hard nut named Aerith Gainsborough some day.

Tseng received the first severe setback when Aerith was 15 years old. Over the years, Tseng had saved money to afford two tickets for the Gold Saucer, and now, on a lovely summer evening, he approached her.

"I won this at a raffle. I thought you'd like to have some fun."

Aerith looked at them and smiled her wonderful cheeky Aerith smile when realizing that Tseng actually had two tickets in his hand. "You mean, WE'd like to have some fun", she corrected.

Tseng clenched his teeth. Of course he did waste some thoughts on how they could spend the evening at the Gold Saucer together, and surely Aerith was aware of his attraction towards her…

He was about to answer when a Shinra Truck came to halt in front of them with screeching wheels. The driver's door was opened, and down looked a young man. Zack. SOLDIER First Class. Almost as good as Sephiroth. Young, handsome, and…

"Time for some driving lessons", Zack said with a grin.

Aerith gave Tseng a last smile and then climbed up onto the driver's seat. "I didn't know that Shinra raffles off Gold Saucer tickets. But as you can see, I'm busy. I hope you'll find somebody else to have fun with. Sorry, Tseng."

Maybe she was really sorry, but at that moment Tseng only felt a burning jealousy, felt deeply humiliated and refused. Aerith slammed the door shut, floored the gas pedal, and the truck roared down the street. Tseng's hair whirled with the wind, and finally he also let the tickets whirl with the wind…

At least now Tseng should've been on high alert. He was jealous of Zack, and that meant that he had lost his heart to Aerith. Aerith, who just was supposed to be a mission with a content that wasn't any of his business.

But the thorny hedge already had grown too high for him to struggle free of it. The thorns dug deep into his flesh and made his Turk life almost unbearingly painful. And the pain forced him to remain motionless and keep watching the hedge grow even higher. He had passed the point of no return long ago. The only thing he could do was to ignore this fact.

Chapter 4

Tseng began dying when he met Aerith for the first time, but it finally became visible in the incidents that happened a few days ago.

AVALANCHE had blown up one of the Mako reactors in Midgar because they believed the reactors would suck up the planet's life energy and thus make it die.

Following that, the president of Shinra had decided that the time had come to resume the Neo-Midgar program. He sent for Tseng who had become leader of the Turks in the meantime. The president told him that he was at the end of his tether. Tseng should finally bring this little ancient flirt here, promising him that they would make her talk at last. Scarlett, head of the weapons development department, made fun of Tseng and his endless and useless efforts to win her confidence; one of a thousand little gibes from this drug-addicted weapons fetishist.

But it went against Tseng's grain to do Aerith any kind of harm or allow anyone else to harm her. Despite her strength she was still so sensitive. Zack had been missing for five years, and Tseng remembered Aerith battling her doubts for several months. She had tried to convince herself that Zack must've been a hopeless lady-killer and that he just had let her down. But Tseng knew better. Zack had been missing since the disastrous fire in Nibelheim, along with Sephiroth. Sephiroth was considered to be dead, but nobody talked about Zack, probably because he wasn't nearly as famous as Sephiroth. Maybe Zack was dead, too, but that was just speculation. Tseng had never informed Aerith about these things, probably because he didn't want to hurt her more than necessary, or perhaps he kept the hope that he might take Zack's place in her heart one day.

Cherishing this hope he now invited Aerith for dinner; a last attempt to try to win her heart before he ceased all attempts completely. She agreed, and so Tseng's hope grew. He took her to a wonderful exotic restaurant, telling himself that Aerith would love the atmosphere. And indeed, she seemed to enjoy it, but not without commenting on the whole thing.

"Um, Tseng, you're alright, aren't you? This dinner will cost you a one week's salary. Or did you win this at a raffle, too?"

Tseng sighed. It wouldn't be easy… "You know, there has never been any raffle, Aerith… I thought it would've been impolite to tell you how much it cost me. But now… I never told you, but I want you to know that you mean a lot to me… and because of that… Don't let us talk about money…"

Tseng knew that Reno was watching them from somewere behind the flower arrangements, and he hoped that he didn't act too much like a fool. If he wouldn't be able to win Aerith now, he never would. And still he refused to think about the consequences.

He touched her hand and was shocked by the tenderness of her skin, but he was even more shocked when she pulled her hand back.

She was tense. "Tseng… I've never doubted my worth." His foreboding evolved to certainty when she got up from her chair. "For Shinra, that is!"

For a moment, Tseng's heartbeat stopped short, and he fell out of time, the thorny hedge holding his disbelieving heart in a painful grip. Then he jumped up and ran after her.

"Aerith! Wait!!" He caught up to her outside the door, grabbed her upper arm and pulled her around. "Why can't you believe that you also mean a lot to ME?!"

Aerith freed herself and was shocked by his sudden outburst of emotion, but then she glared at him. "I mean a lot to you all because of the Promised Land!" She wanted to run away.

In Tseng's head, a fuse blewed. He clutched her shoulders and rammed her brutally against the pillar next to the door. "AERITH!!!" His anger suddenly turned into an urgency of what Tseng had never imagined that he was capable of. His eyes burned into hers. For a short moment, Aerith seemed helpless, vulnerably, open… "The Promised Land isn't just a job for Shinra's sake! It has become my personal dream! Can't you imagine that I long for a better life…" His hand ran tenderly, pleadingly over her cheeks, expressing his despair, "…with you?"

Tseng didn't know how much of his pain was visible in his face, but it was too much. He could catch a last glance of what might have been compassion lighting up in her features, but then she fought herself free from his embrace. She was vigorous and probably frightened.

"Tseng… You don't seem to understand…"

He thought her voice would break, but then she ran down the street.

He just had broken the rules. He was supposed to be the cool and professional Turk, and she was supposed to hide from the Turks. This was the name of the game, and this was the game Aerith was willing to play. For anything else he received the red card.

While she vanished into the mists under the street lights Tseng heard Reno appearing next to him. He smoked a cigarette.

"Shall I go catch her?"

Tseng would've given a lot if he just could forget and leave everything behind. He even wished that Reno would pull his gun to execute him right here. Wasn't his weakness a danger for the company? But then he remembered that Reno had certain methods if it came to kidnap somebody.

Reno seemed to sense that Tseng wasn't that happy about his offer and appeasingly raised his hands. "Hey, I won't harm her. Promise. And I won't step on the flowers." Reno dropped the cigarette end and stamped it out. Tseng knew that Reno would take revenge in Tseng's place, revenge for this infamita, red card or no. And somehow he had nothing to object.

Tseng spent the rest of the night and also the next day in some kind of inner weightlessness, a kind of numbness as if his soul didn't dare to return into his body after experiencing such a shock. It was on this day when his superior Heidegger approached him for the next mission, and Tseng reacted automatically, relying on years of Turk experience.

AVALANCHE had blown up Mako reactor No. 5, and the president had come up with the idea of releasing the Sector Seven plate off its hinges. This would mean nothing less than crushing the slum underneath like a cockroach hit by a telephone book. Shortly before, Heidegger had set the mafia boss of the slums, Don Corneo, onto AVALANCHE, ordering him to find out where they were hiding. Well, it had been the unlucky Sector Seven which was carrying this virus.

Tseng's mission was to prepare and install the explosive charge which would break open the plate release system. Heidegger had told him the control code and thus turned him into an angel of death for a lot of people. But as usual, Tseng didn't waste any thought on the particulars of his mission. The only thing that was important to him was that Reno would find and catch Aerith. It would've been pretty embarrassing if Aerith would be in Sector Seven when the plate came crashing down…

He programmed the timer of the portable control unit to seven minutes. Seven minutes reprieve for Sector Seven. He closed the top. At the same time, he heard the door of his office open. Reno was leaning casually against the doorframe.

"Um, Tseng…"

"She escaped?" It was more of a statement than of a question, actually.

Reno seemed a bit embarrassed when admitting that he had failed. "Well, kinda. She had this big sword guy bodyguarding her. Said his name's Cloud, being with SOLDIER. Never seen him before. He looked like good ol' Zack, also had these Mako eyes. Strange thing, that is."

So Zack's spirit has returned… There was nothing he could do about it. "Well, then…" He turned to Reno, pointing to the control unit. "I'll take care of her by myself. Go and install the bomb at the pillar. I'll pick you up with the helicopter."

Reno took one of the explosive charge units, juggling it. "Sure thing, boss. Good sport!"

Tseng walked down the plain hallway, loading his gun. A part of him was glad that his soul was still numb. That would enable him to finally do his job…

He waited near Elmyra's house, hidden in the shadows of junk that hemmed the paths of the slum like foamy waves at Junon's polluted beach. Somebody had seen Aerith leaving Sector Seven with a little girl and that meant that she would come here, sooner or later. And indeed, the little girl, probably 4 years old, ran up in front and was amazed by the sight of the house. Elmyra's house was a little paradise in the midst of the slums.

"Wow? Is this where you're living?"

Tseng took two steps, leaving the shadows, and grabbed the girl. She was no weight and fragile, but she defended herself vigorously.

"AERITH! HELP!!"

"Marlene!"

Tseng ignored the nasty struggling little girl in his arm and faced Aerith. She was shocked and furious, but this time Tseng felt some sort of satisfaction when seeing her like this. She had confronted Shinra, and now it was time to pay the price.

"Tseng, you rotten…", she spat, lacking the proper words to continue. Was she disappointed with him, or even horrified by his professional coldness? She should've known that he was a Turk…

"I don't want to hurt this little girl…", he started, finally losing patience with the girl, pulling his gun and calming down the protest, "… so you'd better come with me."

Behind him the door of the house opened, and then he heard Elmyra's voice. "Aerith! Are you alright? Let her go, you Shinra lowlife!"

Elmyra had never trusted him, and this was okay. Nobody should trust the Turks. Those who did were fools.

"I'd really like to do that", he said, looking at Aerith.

Finally she did what was wise to do: she gave in.

The helicopter rose up from the dusty ground from which the slum huts grew like mushrooms. Then it disappeared into the vast space between Upper and Lower Midgar. Aerith sat on the co-pilot's seat and stared down to the earth from where she once had emerged. But now, Tseng brought her to the palaces of the Shinra Corporation which had settled its gigantic city on large pillars between Heaven and Earth. The plates of the Upper City loomed menacingly over the abyss and formed a sky made from steel and concrete, hidden behind a veil of mist and waste gas.

Aerith still remained silent, but Tseng sensed her inner conflict. He wasn't interested in looking at her and even less interested in listening to words she might say from the depths from her heart. He concentrated on the rotor noise, hoping that it would overwhelm anything she might say. But the sound of her voice easily lifted itself over the noise.

"Am I so dangerous that you had to kidnap a little girl?"

Tseng would have preferred the good old Aerith sound, the coolness which enabled her to cope with any kind of obscenity in the Midgar moloch. But now he heard the wailing of a unnerved little girl.

"I often thought you were the most honorable man at Shinra", she suddenly added, almost too silent to be heard, but loud enough to send a burning cold shiver down Tseng's spine. "But I was wrong. You're just a Turk." The disappointment trickling from these words was sickening, even more than the (justified) reproach itself.

A few minutes later, the helicopter reached the pillar next to Sector Seven and approached the high steel construction carrying the control unit of the Plate Release System on its top. Tseng could make out Reno's figure clinging on the railing and heaved to his direction. The three AVALANCHE members were still fighting against remaining Shinra soldiers.

When the helicopter was close enough, Reno jumped into its cargo room, slipping and bumping painfully against the bench.

"Ouch! &@#%!!

"Are you alright, Reno?" Tseng asked with a short glance to Reno, who was dragging himself to the front seats.

"No! These AVALANCHE suckers put up some fight!"

"Serves you right, Reno!" Aerith threw in and grinned gloatingly. She must've regained her old coolness.

"Hey, I'm not in the mood for an argument, so watch out, sister!", Reno hissed back.

"Shut up! Reno, get on the controls and stay level with the platform!" Tseng was no friend of hot debates, and even less now, and absolutely not at all between Reno and Aerith. He swapped positions with Reno, and then he released Aerith's seatbelt, pulling her out of her seat, into the cargo room. "You're coming with me."

"What for??" she exclaimed, stumbling in behind, so surprised that she even lost her cheeky grin. He couldn't make up for the rule break. The only thing he could do now was redefine the rules. And he knew that these rules would be hard. But wasn't life hard anyway?

Even before AVALANCHE noticed the helicopter, Tseng had gotten an overall view of the situation. Spikyheaded Cloud and this huge nigger fought against the last remaining soldiers while this young chick with the impressive and hardly hidden boobs hacked the control unit. Trying to be a hacker, hm? Tseng could hardly hear her faint cry for help which immediately made Cloud come running and trying, too. But even Cloud's hacking abilities failed. If he even had any abilities… Tseng smiled grimly.

"This is not an ordinary time bomb" Cloud finally declared.

"That's right!" Tseng shouted over the rotor noise and laughed. He felt Aerith stiffening behind him while he held her upper arm in a tight grip. He was hiding her behind him in the shadows like a trump card in the sleeve. "You'll have a hard time disarming that one. It'll blow the second some stupid jerk touches it!"

It was just downright good to see this superwoman almost kneeling in front of him. "Please stop it!" she cried. This martial artist woman finally reacted like a little girl as well. Helpless and panicking. Tseng's grip on Aerith's upper arm got stronger, and he could hear a faint moan.

His laughter came from the depths of his heart. "Only a Shinra executive can set up and disarm the Emergency Plate Release System!" And this was Heidegger, not him. Of course he didn't mention that Heidegger had told him the control code…

This spiteful remark got the nigger's goat. He raised his gun arm. "SHUT YER HOLE!!!" he roared and shot a swarm of bullets into Tseng's direction.

Tseng had seen it coming and quickly retreated from the cargo room's door, squeezing Aerith against the seats. "I wouldn't try that!" he shouted back. Now the time had come to use his trump… It wasn't that often that Tseng was allowed to enjoy the wonderful feeling of ultimate power. Aerith slid bonelessly across the floor of the cargo room when he pulled her to the front with ice-cold determination. Not even the terrorist with the gun-arm would dare to shoot at her. Tseng was intoxicated by the power he now possessed and made him find satifaction for all those humiliations he had to suffer because of Aerith. Aerith, this fragile little creature… "You just might make me injure our special guest!" He was serious about it. He really would had loved to hurt Aerith.

Superwoman was shocked to see her. "Aerith!!"

Tseng grinned. "Oh, you know each other? How nice that you can see each other for one last time. You ought to be grateful."

Now Cloud finally reacted after he had stood around pretty uselessly. In an attempt of worry and anger he did a step forward. "What are you going to do with her??"

Tseng was holding all the cards. AVALANCHE was helpless like a fish washed ashore, and Aerith was at his mercy. "I haven't decided yet," he explained, following the burning path of lust flaring up inside of him. "Our orders were to find the last remaining Ancient", he added, his eyes fixed upon Aerith's naked legs and her cleavage. "It has taken us a long time, but finally I can report this to the president." One hour sooner or later wouldn't matter in this case…

"Tifa, don't worry! She's alright!" Aerith suddenly shouted downwards, totally ignoring Tseng's menacing monologue.

Tseng exploded. He released her upper arm, but only to slap her in the face with such power that she was lucky not to fall out of the helicopter. He was so blinded with anger that didn't even heard Tifa's outcry.

But Aerith didn't intend to give in this time. "Hurry and get out!!" she shouted to AVALANCHE.

And with Aerith being so resistant Tseng's desire faded away. He wasn't able to grab a hold on her or even break her. She wasn't willing to accept the new rules. Tseng suddenly felt a sickening emptiness inside of him but he tried to suppress it. Instead, he raised his thumb and laughed again, but this time he didn't feel like laughing at all. "It should start right now! Think you can escape in time?"

Reno reacted and changed course. Tseng left AVALANCHE behind; they would escape or die, that was none of his business. Aerith sat on the floor, her cheek burning, but her eyes reflected her strength while she looked up to him; her gaze was even a bit reproachful. She was used to danger, she once had explained, and this seemed to be nothing new to her. She was able to cope with any kind of adversity… The emptiness in Tseng's heart gave way to shame and weakness. She was still an equal, today as well as in the past. And that meant that he again didn't know what to do with her. At the beginning, he had tried to win her confidence, had tried to buy her, one day ago he had revealed his true feelings, and today he had even done what he detested: doing her harm. But nothing had helped. And now he was helpless…

The first thing he did was pull her up and onto the bench. "Sit down and buckle up," he snapped, tired and edgy. Now he just wanted to get rid of Aerith. He would bring her to the president and then retreat, hiding in his cave like a wounded animal. He just wanted to finish this damn mission that had cost him so much. He wanted to forget Aerith, wanted to forget the Promised Land, forget Neo-Midgar. He wanted to leave everything behind.

Aerith was a good girl and remained silent on her backseat. At least she had some sort of delicacy…

The flight went on smoothly. After their arrival at the Shinra headquarter, Aerith followed him across the helipad to the elevator which would bring her up to the president's office.

The numbers above the elevator door counted down their final seconds of being together. Tseng was nervous. Would she remain silent in the end, or not?

69...

68...

"Tseng... I'm afraid of meeting professor Hojo."

She sounded as if she was really scared, but her openness revealed that she had forgiven his former rule break. His heart was filled with sadness. They would part without hatred, and this would make it even more painful.

"He won't harm you as you are most important to the mission."

67...

"My mother was probably even more important to it, and he killed her!" she explained, on the brink of tears. "I was just a little girl back then, but I know she died because of this madman's experiments!"

Now Tseng started to hate and despise himself. Not because he just couldn't get Aerith out of his mind and heart but because he wasn't able to help her. He was just a puppet, Shinra's useful idiot, inferior, subdued, taken advantage of. He wasn't even able to keep his most cherished thing away from Shinra: Aerith.

The hatred was accompanied by fear. He worried about Aerith's well-being.

"I… didn't know that," he finally muttered.

66...

"You don't know a lot of things, Tseng..."

The elevator door opened with a soft chime.

The glass elevator carried them away from the earth. Beneath them, Midgar was illuminated by the blueish green shine of the Mako reactors. The city stuck to the earth like a large circle-shaped parasite, sucking the life energy out of the planet and pulsating like a glow-worm taking flight.

The higher they were carried, the lower Tseng sank down, as if invisible hands grabbed after his soul, not allowing him to escape towards heaven. He had tried twice to get free from the thorny hedges, but they merely dug deeper into his already bleeding flesh.

His throes of death weren't over yet. He suddenly reached out for hope again. A desperate longing started rushing through his veins like adrenaline trying to ease the pain. The president would make Aerith talk. They would find the Promised Land, Shinra would build Neo-Midgar there, and maybe, during this process, something would also change for him to the better. Aerith wouldn't be part of his life then, but that was something he just had to accept.

Now, everything relied on Aerith and her willingness to reveal her knowledge. He hoped that they wouldn't inflict unnecessary pain on her. And at the same time he hoped that the adrenaline in his veins would remain. Aerith might've still been able to stand pain, but he was too worn-out to stand it anymore.

They arrived on level 69, left the elevator and ascended the stairs leading to level 70, the president's office, a large hall with almost no furniture. The president's "desk" sat like the bridge of a battleship in the upper half of the hall. The captain of the Shinra Corporation, President Shinra, used to reside behind the bridge, but now he had left his bridge to talk to professor Hojo.

Tseng and Aerith approached them. The vastness of the hall was designed to intimidate people like Tseng and Aerith, and in this moment Tseng felt even closer to her. They would intimidate her, too…

Tseng scanned Hojo's figure. Hojo was the hunchbacked bespectacled resident evil scientist, not serving science anymore but his own crazy ideas. Tseng's worry about Aerith's well-being increased even more the closer they came. He watched Aerith closely from the corner of his eye and noticed that she had her fear under control. She wasn't easily intimidated, but Tseng wasn't happy at all about that fact. He had tried to break her resistance, and had failed. Hojo or whoever would try, too, and maybe they would be successful - just because Aerith didn't mean anything to them, except for her knowledge. Tseng just hoped that Aerith was wise enough to give in if necessary. Even if he wasn't able to keep her he just didn't want her to be harmed.

The president watched Aerith, too, rubbing his hands with a smile. "The last survivor of the Cetra, the ancient race. Now she's ours." Hojo scanned Aerith with a mixture of curiousity and energy. Tseng just didn't want to know what he was raring to go for… "And soon the Promised Land will be ours, too", the president added.

Aerith responded with her usual self-confident coolness. It wasn't much, but she still smiled her enchanting Aerith smile. "Shinra will never get to the Promised Land. So I won't be such a great help to you."

Aerith… She was strong. But for the sake of his future she would have to become weak. Tseng didn't know how to feel.

Hojo was unimpressed, though. "Don't think so lowly of yourself. You'll surely be of help. At least for my research."

This Hojo guy was a slob. Tseng grabbed Aerith's shoulder to pull her back from this green-skinned madman with the bulging forehead. Maybe it was just a reflex or an act of desperation. Or even a last proof of his solidarity. Over the years, he had become some kind of father figure for her, and if their ways had to part now he wanted her to remember him like this. "If you're going to harm her, old man, she won't be of any help at all!"

Hojo wasn't different from all the other Shinra bootlickers: He glared down to the Turk leader with unhidden contempt. "Believe me, I'm perfectly able to decide for myself what best serves our purposes."

The president joined in the game of kicking-the-Turk-into-the-dust: "Tseng, I think your job's done now. You may leave. Thank you."

Tseng was used to being treated like a dog. A man could cope with that. Tseng was flexible like bamboo. Even this time, he would leave without complaining or giving in to hatred or even self-hatred. This was simply too exhausting. But now, every step away from Aerith would lead him into emptiness, into a condition of total helplessness. His one and only hope for future was now lying in the hands of President Shinra and this madman, and thinking about this almost made him crazy. His throes of death weren't still over yet. With losing Aerith he would lose a major part of himself. Even if she would find the Promised Land he wasn't sure if all the Mako fountains and other gifts of blissfulness would be able to revive his will to live. But the adrenaline of craving didn't allow him to face those doubts.

Aerith hadn't remained for long inside the Shinra headquarters. When Tseng learned about her escape with the help of AVALANCHE and the president's death at Sephiroth's hands, Tseng's heartbeat died. Aerith's disappearance took with it the adrenaline which had formerly soothed his pain. It was the president's son who saved him from hell: Rufus had decided that Sephiroth would now be the new leader to the Promised Land. Believing Palmer's words, Sephiroth wasn't willing to let the Promised Land fall into human hands. Well, Sephiroth was just human, too. They would be able to get rid of him after he found the Promised Land.

This was a solution Tseng could accept.

And because of this he was able to swallow the last meeting with Aerith in the Junon Pub. Aerith was now just the keeper of his heart, but she no longer held any power over his existence.

His chances of survival had increased.

If only Sephiroth hadn't struck him two deadly wounds…

Chapter 5

Tseng returned to the present, lying on the floor of the Temple of the Ancients. Despite the heat from outside, the coldness of the stone plate underneath him made him shiver, mainly due to blood loss. The wound on his chest was too big to close again, and he felt his life leaking out of him. It wouldn't be long until he fell unconscious and finally died - if not his subordinates would come and bring him to the next hospital as quick as possible.

But even if he survived the cut on his chest he would die from a deeper wound: Sephiroth had fooled him. He wasn't after the Promised Land; he was searching for a way to turn himself into some kind of god. He wasn't the Son of Promise, leading the way to eternal bliss, but the Son of Perdition devastating the earth. Tseng was among the dying left behind by the wayside. His blood trickling down to the earth would make Sephiroth even stronger.

The real adrenaline in his blood might have been able to soothe the physical pain on his chest for now, but not the pain in his soul. It would rebel one last time before fading away, even before the heat of his body would die…

Time had already left him behind, too. He didn't know how long he had been up here when he heard voices from outside. AVALANCHE fought its way up the flanks of the pyramid. Some moments later, their silhouettes filled the entrance. Cloud and Aerith, the rest of the gang behind them. Tseng had problems keeping his eyes open. Then Aerith spotted him.

"Oh my god, it's Tseng!" Tseng could hardly hear her voice. She was shocked about his change, just like she had been when he had kidnapped her. Welcome, little girl…

"Tseng? From the Turks?!" Cloud thought it appropriate to sound alarmed although Tseng was no more threat at all.

"I've… been had," Tseng moaned. Now as he spoke it out loud, he felt the remains of helpless anger and disappointment. "It's not the Promised Land… Sephiroth is searching for…"

The name of Sephiroth seemed to be the only thing capable of bringing Cloud to life. "Sephiroth? He's inside?!"

Tseng tried to lift the hand holding the keystone. The stone had become unbelievably heavy in the meantime. "Look… for yourself." He coughed, feeling the blood running from his lips. "Damn…" His hand with the keystone dropped back down to the ground. Cloud approached him to get it, still on the watch for no reason. Tseng ignored Cloud and watched Aerith who looked at him, filled with horror and pain. She couldn't believe what she saw. "Letting Aerith go was the start… of my bad luck," Tseng summed up mechanically what he had realized over the past hour. "The president was wrong…"

Now Aerith stepped closer, hesitatingly, still refusing to believe. He could see tears glittering in her eyes. Even once, in front of the restaurant, she hadn't shown her feelings that openly. Damn, he meant more to her than she had ever admitted. "No. You were wrong. The Promised Land isn't like what you imagined." Her voice was about to break, and she quickly turned away. Tseng last beacon of hope already had died a long time ago. "And, I'm not going to help!" she added and forced her voice to remain strong. "Either way, with me or Sephiroth, there is no way for Shinra to succeed…" Now her voice finally broke, and with a hardly hidden sob she vanished behind a pillar.

For Tseng, any kind of help would've come too late anyway. Another cough fought its way up his lungs. "Pretty harsh… Sounds like something… you'd say." His voice broke, too. Every breath, every word caused an almost unbearable pain. The adrenaline was of no use anymore… He forced himself to keep his eyes open and looked up to Cloud. "The keystone… Place it on the altar…"

Cloud seemed to be skeptical. For Tseng the time had come to leave the stone plate in front ot the altar. He really had no intentions to be sucked into the labyrinth for a second time. He fought his way down the plate and sank down at a pillar. The pain and the effort almost made him fall unconscious.

Cloud's attention was focused on Aerith. Hesitantingly, he approached her from behind, not really knowing what to do. "You're crying?"

Tseng wanted to close his eyes to leave them both alone with themselves, but Aerith's voice didn't allow it.

"Tseng's with our enemies," she sobbed, "but I've know him since I was a child. There aren't many people I can say that about…" Her tears might have been the last comforting thing Tseng would experience in his life, but at the same time, it was the bitterest thing. "In fact, there are probably only a handful of people in the world who really know me."

Tseng finally understood. He was part of her heart like she was part of his heart. If he would die, this part in her would die, too. Realizing this made him sad. He should've stuck to the rules. He should've remained the cool professional Turk, not wasting any thought on the contents of his missions. It should had never come so far that Aerith was sheading tears for him...

They had met, but they had inflicted more pain than joy on each other. And now Tseng realized that Aerith shared a lot more with him. Aerith had also lost a lot of cherished things in her life, just like him. She had grown up without a father in a madman's laboratory, she had lost her mother when she had been seven years old and the man she loved when she was seventeen, and now she was about to lose him… Tseng was overcome by the thought that there wasn't much left to sustain Aerith's strength to live. Cloud might look like Zack, but Tseng didn't believe him capable of keeping her. She would fade away like a flower on a vast and waterless plain.

The planet was dying, somebody had said once. And with the planet Aerith would die, too. Aerith, the last survivor of the Ancients, her fate deeply intertwined with the planet's fate.

Realizing this, Tseng watched Cloud, Aerith and the others enter the temple, leaving him behind.