Midgar Continued...

[gotitmemorised]

Continued from here.

Axel didn't think that the self-given mission was going too badly, all things considered. Nobody in Midgar suspected a thing, that much was clear, not even Aerith. He listened to her, the apprehension and questioning near-disbelief in her voice and actions clear. Despite his desperation to get her and them out of there, he found it to be a fairly understandable response to such a suggestion. It wasn't exactly an easy story to believe. He had to wonder what he would have done or said in her position. Laughed, probably.

As for her question... that was a little more difficult to answer. He glanced at Saix, a disturbingly disguised Saix, at that, and scratched the back of his head.

"Not a lot," he sighed. Way to sound convincing, idiot. "Whatever they're going to do, they intend on blowing all of the reactors. When one went, it destroyed the residential area in the immediate vicinity, right?"

Of course, that wasn't the worst of it. Not this time.

"If they blow all of them ... the support pillars don't stand a chance and neither does anything below the plate."

Comments

[hearstheplanet]

Aerith looked aghast, covering her mouth with her hand for a moment before pulling it away to ask, "Who would do such a thing?" After a tiny moment she added the further, horrified question, "And why? All these people," she trailed off, feeling just a little sick.

Midgar was big, heavily populated city. The thought that someone would come along and just decide to snuff all of those lives out, as though they meant nothing, turned her stomach.

[innatelunacy]

Outside the church, Saix turned to Axel, the expression on his, still feminine, face being one of extreme grumpiness. "We're wasting time we should be using to get as far away from here as possible."

It was worse because he was sure that Axel was well aware of this fact, and still Axel was indulging the girl at personal risk.

Then there was what she'd said to him, which resonated uncomfortably up the proverbial rod up his backside and only served to make him grumpier.

[hearstheplanet]

When Axel arrived back the church was... busy with worry. Most of the people they'd accumulated were families, people who knew Aerith, and kids who knew her especially. Now they clustered, and the sound of worried mutter permeated the air.

Aerith stood at the edge of the flowers, hands clasped as though she was praying, but she stopped when Axel returned and dropped her hands to her sides.

"Is this everyone that would come?" She asked, leaving the flowers and approaching him. She'd explained things as best she could to people as they'd arrived. It hadn't been easy, and the numbers seemed so few compared to how many would die.

But she kept a lid on her own anxiety, and smiled at the children as they watched her. She didn't want them to be scared.

[innatelunacy]

Saix walked through the door, looking serious, which wasn't particularly informative on account of it being Saix. He cast Aerith, and the assembled ragtag slum dwellers they'd managed to convince, a brief glance as he walked directly up to Axel.

"We have a problem," he said, quietly. "The exits are under guard, and they are not the average guard." His breathing was a little fast, as if he'd hurried but not quite run.

[hearstheplanet]

Aerith smiled, brightly. "Thank you," she told them both, before she turned and headed towards the flowers. The small crowd gathered as if drawn by a magnet. Aerith was the one they knew, her name was probably why most of them were there.

She put her hands together and started to pray.