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Spiraling Universe	By : butabara Category: Final Fantasy VII > General Views: 1125 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I do not own Final Fantasy VII, nor any of the characters from it. I do not make any money from the writing of this story.

Chapter List
- 7
- 8
A.N. OMG. I am SO, SO SORRY for not updating in so long! I wanted to finish another of my stories before coming back to this one... And its done now! So, thank God, this story now has my full attention! Updates will probably be once a month (sometimes two or three chapters, if I'm on a roll :D )
I have to admit, a lot of the plans I had for this story were lost when my old computer crashed... so while I have a general idea of where I want to go with this... most of it is going to be a write-as-I-go sort of thing. If there is anything that you'd like to see, just leave it in a review, or PM me, and we'll see what I can work out.
For LilMissMe101: Thank you for the reviews! I wanted so badly to message you and let you know what was going on with this story... but you weren't signed in when you reviewed, so I couldn't! But I'm back! And I dedicate this chapter to you! Thank you!
Chapter 8
A loud knock woke Axys from a peaceful sleep, and it took a moment to remember what was going on, and how she had been able to sleep in the first place.
She rose slowly, her muscles screaming in protest at the movement as she quickly threw her black leather suit back on and made her way down the staircase to answer the door before the visitors woke anyone else.
"Hello, Vincent." She greeted the man standing in the doorway. He nodded to her and ushered Yuffie inside.
"Good morning. Here, why don't you sit down. I'll help carry the bags." Axys offered. Yuffie yawned and nodded her agreement.
When Axys stepped outside, she found a Shadowfox and a large buggy being unloaded. Cloud, Cid, Barrett, Reeve, and Denzel were unpacking, while Marlene and Tifa were wrestling a very tired Kagirinai out of the buggy.
"Morning." Axys said, waving to the women.
"Morning." Tifa echoed, though all emphasis was gone. Obviously, Tifa was still upset about what her friends were sent to do.
"Axys Stonehawk." Came a monotone voice from her left. Axys turned to find a petite woman staring at her.
"Yes?"
"I am Shelke Rui. Vincent Valentine told me that you could use my expertise. I am well versed in the sciences of the Lifestream, and my knowlege of Jenova cells is vast." The small auburn haired woman said.
"Well, that will be most helpful. Thank you, although I don't know what you will be able to find. We have our own sources inside the Lifestream, and they have both searched far into the planet's consciousness, looking for another way to defeat Jenova. They were unsuccessful."
"There is always another way."
Axys sighed and nodded. "I hope you can find it, then."
"Axys?"
Said woman whirled around at the sound of her husband's voice. "Yazoo! Good morning." She gestured to the woman beside her. "This is Shelke Rui, the woman that Vincent told us about."
"Pleasure." Yazoo said, unable to shake the feeling that he had met this woman before. He had seen her in the Lifestream, of course... but he had a nagging feeling that it was more than that. "Do I know you?"
"We are aquainted. I was among Professor Hojo's earlier experiments. If I am correct-and I know that I am-you were his first subject from Modeoheim."
Yazoo paled and nodded. "I thought I only knew you from watching you in the Lifestream. I'm sorry."
Shelke shook her head. "Understood. That is also something I would like to speak with you about: Existence within the Lifestream."
"Of course." Axys nodded. "For now, why don't we just go inside and get settled in. I think Kadaj said something about going into the basement and clearing out the monsters, so that we can get into the lab and look through the files."
Shelke nodded, and allowed Axys and Yazoo to lead her inside the mansion.
"Hey, Axys, want to come downstairs with us?" Kadaj asked. "I'm sure you could use the exercise."
"What about Zurui?" Axys asked, looking towards the staircase and her son's room.
"He's still sleeping, though with all the people and the noise, he won't be for long. I'll watch out for him." Cloud said.
Axys suddenly felt very stupid. Of course they would care for Zurui. They had for the past ten years, after all.
"You're right. Of course." Axys said, timid.
Cloud could see what she was thinking about, and offered a tired smile. "Its okay, Axys. You just got him back. You're bound to worry. Don't ever think that you're taking advantage of us, either. We are all happy to watch out for Zurui."
Axys smiled and nodded. "Thank you, Cloud. Want to come with us, Yazoo?"
"Sure. I could use the exercise, too."
!#$%^&*()
"Ugh. I forgot how creepy it is down here." Axys said with a shudder.
"Well, I took out most of the Sahagin when I was here eight years ago... but that's eight years for the beasts' population to florish again." Vincent said. "What you need to watch out for is the Yin-Yang. We've defeated it before, but it just keeps coming back, and its very hard to defeat."
"What does it look like?" Loz asked.
"It has two heads, and arms that are very long-not in proportion with the rest of its body."
"You mean like that?" Loz pointed ahead of them to the large, white, two headed creature.
"Oh, shit!" Axys hissed.
"Yeah. That's him." Vincent said, drawing the Cerberus from its holster. "He's pretty slow, but if he hits you even once, its going to hurt."
"Fantastic." Yazoo drawled, taking the extra pistol Vincent offered.
!#$%^&*()
"Damn that thing was a bitch!" Axys panted as the Yin-Yang finally gave up the battle and limped away.
"Yes, but for now, we should be alright. It won't bother us for a while, now that it knows we're stronger than it is. The children shouldn't come down here, though, nor should anyone that cannot fight. At least not without one of us with them." Yazoo said.
"The children shouldn't come down here anyway. They don't need to be exposed to this. They don't even need to know why we're here." Kadaj said. Axys flinched at his slip.
Vincent saw her despairing look, and placed a hand on her shoulder. "Don't worry about it. We'll find a way. And if we don't... well... We'll do what we have to do. To me, keeping Kagirinai safe is more than worth my own life. And I know that Cloud feels the same way about not only Zurui, but the rest of our friends, as well."
"Well, I haven't seen any traces of other monsters, should we go upstairs and get everyone else?" Loz said.
"Yeah. I think we're okay." Vincent nodded.
When Axys reached the top of the spiral staircase, she was nearly tackled to the floor by a sobbing ten year old boy.
"Mommy! I was afraid you left again!" He cried into her stomach.
"Oh, baby. I didn't leave. See? I'm here. Its okay." Axys said, trying to fight the sting of tears at the thought that in only a few months, she'd be doing just that... as well as taking the only father figure that Zurui had ever known.
"I was so scared!" The little boy sobbed. "I thought that I dreamed it... I thought you and Daddy never really came back... I was so scared!" He wailed the last part.
"I'm sorry, Zurui. I didn't mean to scare you." Axys thanked Yazoo when he pulled the boy up and hugged him close, trying to distract him from his fear.
"Have you had breakfast yet?" He asked.
"No... I didn't want to eat until I was sure you were still here." Zurui said, sniffling.
"Well, we're here. Why don't we go to the kitchen and help unpack the rest of the food, and then your mother can fix your breakfast. She's a very good cook, you know." Yazoo smiled.
"Okay!" The little boy's mood brightened instantly. "Let's go, Mommy!"
Axys smiled. "Alright. Race you there!" And with that she took off at an much slower pace than normal. It was obviously an intentional thing, meant to let Zurui beat her.
"You cheater!" Came her laughter filled voice. "No sliding down the banister! Cheat!"
"That's my boy." Yazoo chuckled.
!#$%^&*()
"Okay, now slowly add the dumbapple... that's it. Now we just hit this button and let the mixer do the work. After that, we'll pour the batter in the pan and voila! Dumbapple-buttermilk pancakes!" Axys said to Zurui and Kagirinai.
The kids sat anxiously at the kitchen table, watching Axys flip the pancakes with hungry eyes. Soon, most of the group had gathered in the kitchen, unable to resist the spicy cinnamon and apple smell wafting from the room.
"I haven't smelled these in ages!" Yuffie said with a happy sigh. "Tifa makes them too, but its not the same."
"Where is Tifa?" Axys asked, looking around and only then noticing that her once-best-friend was not in the room.
"She's... still dealing with things." Cloud answered. At Axys's crestfallen look, he continued. "I don't think she's angry at you guys. I think that its the situation that she's the most upset about. Give her time. She'll come around."
"I hope so." Was Axys's forlorn reply. She shook the negative thoughts from her head. "Well, breakfast is ready. Let's eat!"
There was a chorus of approving sounds as the group dug in to their breakfast, each having dearly missed these special dumbapple pancakes.
"These pancakes are exceptionally delicious." Shelke said in her dull voice.
"Thank you." Axys said, unsure about how to really take the girl. She seemed to be very intelligent, and obviously wanted to fit in, but had no idea how to do it. "If you like, I can show you how to make them?"
Shelke nodded, giving a small, almost sincere smile. At least one of the women was willing to try to accept her. "That would be acceptable."
Soon enough, the children finished eating. After being given permission-so long as they didn't stray from inside the Manor grounds-to play outside.
"Zurui, why don't you try the garden out back? It's probably a little over-run, but there's plenty of room to play." Cloud said, looking to Axys for confirmation.
"That's a wonderful idea." Axys agreed.
As soon as the kids were outside, Cloud said what was on his mind. "So where do we start?"
Axys folded her fingers together and rested her elbows on the table. "Anything Hojo has on Jenova would be a good place. I'd say, see if we can find his earlier notes. Something about the process of infusion. The notes on you and Vincent should still be in the basement, as he considered both of you 'failed experiments'- no offense."
"None taken." Vincent said, nodding. "That makes sense. Maybe if we can find information on how the Jenova cells attach themselves in our bodies, we can find out how to detach them."
"First things first." Reno cut in. "We didn't run into many monsters down there, but that doesn't mean they're not there. I think that we should bring all of the books and notes up here. That way, we don't risk running into a beastie."
"That's a good idea, Reno!" Axys said.
"I volunteer to watch the kids!" Yuffie said with a smile. "Not like I can do the stairs right now, anyway."
"You aren't going down there, even if you could handle the stairs." Vincent said sharply.
"Yeah yeah." Yuffie said with a roll of her eyes.
"Well lets do it." Loz said. "The sooner we get it over with, the sooner we can start looking."
The group nodded and stood, heading for the basement to start digging up old graves.
!#$%^&*()
Axys silently cursed to herself as she tried to balance the large stacks of books she was carrying. It had seemed like a good idea at the time, to carry as much as she could so that she didn't have to go up and down the stairs so much... but now, as she stood at the bottom of the staircase, ascending seemed a daunting task.
"Do you require assistance?" Came Shelke's dull voice from the other side of the massive pile of books. Axys struggled to peer around them to look at the girl who was returning from carrying her own box.
"Oh, yes. Please. That would be great!" She sighed.
Shelke nodded and began carefully removing books from the stack, quickly and efficiently evening out the work.
"Thank you." Axys said with a smile. She decided then that while she was here, she would do everything she could to help Shelke integrate herself into the very tight circle of friends. However, before she could do that, there were some things that needed clearing up.
"They like you, you know." Axys said from behind Shelke as the two ascended the stairs.
"What?" Shelke asked.
"Tifa and Cloud, and the others. They really do like you... its just that they're not sure if you like them."
Shelke grimaced, ever so slightly. "Why do you say this?"
Axys sighed. "Its just that its so obvious that you try very hard to fit in... and they try to accept you... but its like the signals keep getting crossed. Like they're not sure how to make you comfortable... and you're not sure exactly how to fit in. Even after all these years, socialization is foreign to you. Other than with Vincent, of course. And that's mostly because of Lucrecia's memories, right?"
Shelke thought for a moment, setting her stack of books down next to Axys's. "I... that makes the most sense. Have you seen all of this from the Lifestream?"
Axys smiled. I don't think so, girlie. We can talk about the Lifestream for now, but this isn't the end of the conversation. "Yes. Though I must admit, most of what we watched was Zurui, and the others. Even after Deepground. I don't want to hurt your feelings... but Yazoo and I were more concerned with watching out for our son."
"What is it like?"
"Free. Warm. Safe. Like coming home. I missed my friends, and my son... but the energy from the Lifestream comforts us. Time means nothing. Pain, hunger, saddness and violence don't even exist. I remembered it, but its like I forgot what it felt like."
Shelke nodded and continued with her line of questioning. If she could keep Axys talking about this, maybe she'd forget their original conversation and move on to something much less... exposing. It wasn't that she didn't appreciate it... and maybe her reluctance to open up to others was a major part of the wall between herself and her allies... but... how does one learn to trust when all they have been exposed to is betrayal and hate?
"What did it feel like to die? Was it painful?" She had heard that Yazoo had been taken over by Jenova and killed Axys himself, but she didn't know how, or what happened.
Axys flinched. Then a thought struck her and she let an almost-hidden smirk grace her features. "Okay. I'll make you a deal. If you let me help you, let me teach you how to be with others, then I'll tell you everything you want to know about life, death, and the Lifestream. I also have a message from someone dear to you."
Shelke listened to Axys's proposal, hesitant to give in, and yet truly wanting answers. When Axys stated that she had a message, Shelke felt as though the breath had been knocked out of her.
"From Shalua?" She whispered, her voice almost hoarse.
Well, there was a little bit of emotion in that whisper, and that's a start.
"Yes." Axys said with a kind smile.
"What... what is it?"
"She wants you to stop being afraid. She wants you to know that she's watching out for you, and that she loves you. She wants you to know that she'll be waiting for the time when the two of you are reunited."
Shelke swallowed heavily and nodded, wishing at that moment that she could just cry.
"Do you accept my offer?" Axys said, tearing her from her thoughts.
With a wary glance, hesitance clear in her eyes, she nodded.
Axys smiled fully, then. "Alright. First things first. How I died."
- 7
- 8
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Spiraling Universe