Awakened Dreams...

Rollin' to Chapter 5
Oh, btw, I've had a shift of my hours at work, and since I'm taking a sabbatical from school, I've got plenty of time to get on here and type up new chapters, so expect new one's everyday, or the day after or so.

Golden: It's good that my humor wasn't futile, lol, and yes...Quagmire pwns all...:-D I'm loving the fact that you're enjoying my series. Here's a cookie *hands over cookie* it's chocolate chip, with yaoi sprinkles.

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Chapter 5
Rising Souls

Eron woke gently, his eyes fluttered in the sunlight that hung over the bed. He groaned turning away from it, his headache was long gone, but still he managed to convince himself that sunlight was some how evil this early. His mind still groggy as he made to turn onto his back until he realized there was a body in the way. His memory jolted back into him. He snorted and rolled off the opposite side of the bed, and turned back towards the still sleeping body of Cid. He was amazed at the fact that he still was attracted to him, not only that but it felt so familiar to him, and he couldn't explain it...at all.

"Never thought I'd meet someone who slept harder and longer than I do," he muttered to himself as he pulled on what resembled clothes, he made a note to get some new clothes and fast, these loose fitting cotton clothes were not doing it for him. He glanced back towards body, he never stirred and Eron could swear he was unconscious except he could hear the snoring. He shook himself slightly at the rise he was feeling again and turned and walked from the room. No one paid much attention to him as he strode out and down the halls. Only until he was out of the building did someone notice that he was a patient that wasn't supposed to leave, but he didn't care much for that kind of place, get in, get healed, ShinRa could pay for it later.

He strode along the derelict streets of Midgar, or at least what remained of it. He noticed that it was in the upheaval of being rebuilt, but from what he heard, it had suffered through a lot in the past few years, so it was only logical that it would look half-dead...probably should think of it as half-alive, no doubt Aeris would have thought of it that way...he swore he heard a giggle.

He made it to a market place, several shops lined up in a row on each side. He noticed several clothing shops, but his eyes were drawn to several of them only. With Gil in his pocket he smiled and headed to for the shops, he needed new clothes, now.

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The Neo ShinRa building expaned around Tifa as she glanced around, she knew Cloud was there somewhere, but with him not answering his PHS nor anyone else being able to find him, she wondered if she'd even find him.

"Looking for something?" A voice popped up behind her, she turned around and smiled as Reeve walked up behind her.

"Yes I was looking for Cloud, he's been kind of odd ever since we talked to Eron at the hospital and I've been kind of worried about him."

Reeve nodded, "Well from what you've told me, he probably feels responsible for the release of the creatures."

Tifa cocked her head to the side in wonder, "What do you mean?"

"Well, if Eron's theory is correct, and from what we've learned so far, he's very much so, then inadvertantly Cloud is responsible for the beasts release."

Tifa bristled, "Reeve! How could you say something like that?"

Reeve held up a calming hand, "Now Tifa calm down, and hear me out. From the studies we had performed, and the notes that we could collect, both from Gast and Hojo, we've seen that a lot of what Eron suspects is true. From what I can tell his intuitive sensings of Jenova mixed with what is obviously a high intellect, he's figured a lot of these things out. Jenova's cells have a highly complex linking system biologically built into them. No matter where the cells are located, the others are always linked, even if say the body is seperated, or the cells themselves are in anothers body, like Sephiroth. Even though Jenova was initially far from Sephiroth, she was still able to communicate with him because of the cells within his own body. Essentially it's a giant organism. It's also been shown that once dormant or presumed dead Jenova cells are instantly reactivated, or resurrected by the presence of living cells. So in bringing living cells, even those contained in anothers body around cells that are either dead or in a hibernative sleep, the cells that were "dead" are sent through with a surge of life. So basically when either Sephiroth or Cloud, or both were near the presence of these new beasts, the Jenova cells in their body which were active, sent a chain reaction through the hibernating beasts, allowing them to grow in strength and eventually be able to break free of their prison. Now I am not blaming Cloud, I am not a man to blame someone for being responsible for something they did not mean to do. Cloud had no pre-existing knowledge of the beasts, so I cannot blame him for something that the foreign cells within his body did."

Tifa sighed as she glanced around for a moment, "So Eron was right?"

Reeve nodded, "Yes it seems he was. I'm very intrigued that he knew these things without the aid of what we did, actually he interests me in general. From what I hear, other than his intelligence, he's also a skilled fighter?"

Tifa rolled her eyes, "To say the least, he rivals Cloud in his ability, not to mention his use of magic makes you look childish."

It was Reeve's turn to cock his head, "Really? Well that's got to be the Ancient blood in him, I'm having another team look into both tribes of the Cetra at the moment, the information that they can obtain will be back to me within no time, I'll have that to you as well. By the way, how's the head on his shoulder, and his heart as well?"

Tifa snorted, "Physically or metaphorically?"

Reeve raised an eyebrow, "Well I would assume both his head and heart are physically ok since he is alive and basically well."

Tifa's brow furrowed, "Right...Well from what little I can tell he's a little bit of everybody, and then himself as well."

"How so?"

"Well he seems to like the vulgar language, and has obscene amounts of determination like Cid, he can quiet and introspective like Vincent, he thinks through CERTAIN things like Nanaki, he loves battle like Yuffie, he seems to be driven to help people but yet afraid to admit it like Cloud. Then throw in his own humor, his will, his weird hot-cold thing, and then other things that I'm sure I'll find and you've got Eron." Tifa said with a shrug.

"I've never heard someone manage to describe me in such a short, and somewhat lessening sentence."

Tifa whirled around to another voice behind her, her mouth dropped at the sight in front of her. Eron stood in mostly black leather, the long cloak he wore fell down to his ankles and rose up to a stiff raised collar that came up to the bottom of his head. He wore the knuckle gloves of leather that usually frequented Tifa's arms. Unusually he wore a sleeveless shirt, only a thin but widened hole covered mesh came down to his elbows, revealing the well tanned skin beneath it. His body was decked in leather as well, but streaks of crisscrossing red leather covered the vest. Incidentally even though he wore a vest it remained open but bore no shirt underneath it, once again revealing bronzed skin that was cut but yet toned beneath him The pants were a typical leather pants, definitely not tight but still not the loose cotton he had worn. He'd gotten a haircut as well, it no longer hung the long almost limp spikes it had been, but were shorter than before and just hung barely over his forehead. She hadn't noticed the odd red tints he had in his hair naturally that seemed to match the odd metal bar and ruby red stud in his ear. She gaped at him for a moment.

Eron raised his brow a look of "wtf" on his face, "Yes?" he asked slowly.

"Eron you...look...hot..."

Eron let a violent tremor through his head, as if trying to clear his vision of an hallucination, a vaguely amused smile on his lips as he licked his lips and turned to Reeve, "Anyways...have you made any progress on the subject of Jenova?"

Reeve restrained himself from rolling with laughter at the amazed look on Tifa's face and Eron's blatant ignoring of the remark, he nodded with a chuckle, "Yes it seems that the theories you informed Tifa of were all correct as far as we can tell. There are of course more complex ways of putting it, actually our scientists are having far too much fun with the information they've found..."

Eron shrugged, "Men of science. Well at all costs, I think what also needs to be done is a deeper delving into the ties that the Ancients have within the history of these things as well. I can sense something stirring, if my sister were here she'd know, she could always here thes-oh Tifa! For the love of Gaia stop gawking!"

Tifa shook herself and straightened out her face, "Right, sorry, anyways I sent out a few texts to the different group members, but only a few replies. They should be coming here soon."

Eron's eyebrows raised, "Who's coming?"

Almost as if in answer he felt something collided with great force into the back of him, and then attach itself to him with ferocious strength will screaming shrilly. Eron's first thought was that it was the beast having made it to Midgar without anyone having known it, and then he saw the large eyes and grin peering down at him, it was worse, Yuffie.

"HI ERON! I missed you, damn you look good, you get a new 'do? Sweet clothes, you is lookin' fine!" She giggled as she bounced around on top of him with repeated calls of joy. Eron was forced to bounce around with her as her arms tightened around his neck with her excitement, "Yuffie, I am overjoyed to see you approve, but oxygen...*gasp*....is necessary for me to live!" he managed to gasp out.

"Oh!" She hopped down, grinning sheepishly, "Sorry!"

Eron shot her a look as he rubbed his throat, "Right...ah Nanaki, you've made it as well?"

The large tiger-wolf creature sauntered up to them, a smiled tugging at the corners of his mouth, "Yes, I was told about this before I made the finishing arrangements on my trip to Cosmo Canyon."

"Cosmo Canyon? Ah I haven't been there....well in years actually, but I do miss that place," he thought pensievely for a moment.

Nanaki raised an eyebrow and opened his mouth but was cut off by a new voice, "Well hell, didn' know I slept in this damn late!"

Both Eron and Tifa snorted causing both Cid and Eron to turn and stare at Tifa. Tifa's eyes darted between the two of them before putting on an innocent face, she shrugged, "What? He always sleeps in, he said it like we'd be suprised."

Cid shrugged but Eron still had an eyebrow raised at her before turning to Cid, "Well it's nice of you to join us."

Cid opened his mouth to say something when Reeve interjected before he could speak, "So Cid, I heard you made quite a ruckus with Eron at the hospital last night?"

Cid began to splutter, "Wha-what?"

Reeve's eyes narrowed, "Yes and if you're going to start an argument with someone do so not within the confines of a hospital please, it is a place of rest and recupperation, that goes for you Eron as well. You both made quite a scene with whatever issues you had last night."

Tifa maintained a straight face, "Well hopefully they managed to find a way to kiss and make up."

Eron sniffed as Cid turned slightly pink, though no one noticed, "Anyways," Eron began turning back towards Reeve, "Since we're all here to do research, I'd like to ask permission to access whatever records remains of Dr. Gasts and Hojo's records."

Reeve raised an eyebrow but then nodded, "Yes, that's quite alright. The rest of us can find our information within the confines of the old ShinRa's archives. Although I think it more prudent if Nanaki researched at Cosmo Canyon, I'm sure they have their own information that may be helpful."

Yuffie suddenly jumped up, "Yeah, I'm goin' with him!"

Nananki nodded as he walked off, "Yes, I'll make my way to Cosmo Canyon now, Yuffie are you coming?"

With that he and Yuffie were off, leaving the other three to stand in front of the building.

"Alright, let's get started," Reeve said walking into the main doors, Tifa following close behind leaving Eron and Cid. Cid coughed making Eron turn in his direction. Eron raised an eyebrow as both of them considered saying something, but Eron turned and walked back towards the building.

"Let's go Captain Highwind, we've got a world to save and not a whole lot of time to do so."

Cid snorted as the doors closed behind Eron, "Ch'yea...whatever you say." He wouldn't say it outloud, but he wouldn't believe after what he saw last night, that all the fire in Eron could turn to ice so quickly.

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Alright so who's wanting the fuzzy cuteness, big emotional upheaval to happen?
Fighting? Love? Angst?
What am I going to do with those two though?
*shrugs* Guess we'll see
Anyways leave a review for the love of Gaia and all in it. Sheesh it's not that friggin' hard.