Interlope

"You shouldn't be here..." said the gentle, soothing, somewhat ethereal voice of a woman, prompting Andrew to open his eyes, finding a ceiling full of rafters overhead, stained glass windows lining stone walls, wooden pews, and a bed of white flowers surrounding him. More importantly, a fairly breathtaking young woman with emerald green eyes and brown hair was staring down at him, her delicate and anxious-looking face framed by segmented bangs.

Adopting a smile, Andrew remarked, "To be fair, I didn't choose to lie here willfully..."

Shaking her head, the young woman affirmed, "That's not what I meant. I was referring to this world. You shouldn't be here."

Blinking in surprise, Andrew rose to a seated position, asking, "You know I'm from another world? Did the planet give me away...?"

"Well, that's one reason..." replied the young woman, scratching her cheek with an awkward smile adorning her face. As for her attire, her modest but well-balanced figure was garbed in a shin-length pink dress, a red bolero jacket, multiple bracelets, belted leather boots, a strung necklace with a flower fastener, a large pink ribbon tying her hair into a braided ponytail, and a metal rod sheathed in a holster on her lower back.

"Is it my tail...?" asked Andrew, raising the tip of his tail and wiggling it in front of the woman's, Aerith's, face.

"That's another," affirmed Aerith, nodding several times before rising to her full 163cm height and explaining, "The main reason is that I don't 'remember' you. Yet, despite not belonging here, you don't appear to be followed by those strange shadows..."

Raising his brows and tilting his head, Andrew asked, "What do you mean you don't 'remember' me? How could you if we've never met...?"

"I'm honestly not sure how to explain it..." said Aerith, extending her hand to help Andrew to his feet. It wasn't necessary, but he happily accepted her assistance, surprising her somewhat as his standing height was nearly a full head taller than hers.

Recovering from her temporary stupor, Aerith surprised Andrew by using her hands to give her cheeks a firm smack. Then, with a curious gleam in her subtly glowing eyes, she stared up at him with a smile and asked, "So, what brings you to this world?"

"Would you believe me if I said I came for you...?" asked Andrew, causing Aerith's brows to rise and eyes to widen as she could tell he wasn't being facetious.

"Well, that, and to get stronger..." appended Andrew, directing his gaze to the ceiling, noting the lack of a hole. He didn't know when in the timeline he had been placed, but the lack of a hole confirmed it was before Cloud and the members of Avalanche assailed the Sector 5 Mako Reactor.

Lowering his gaze to meet Aerith's, Andrew regained his smile and added, "Anyways, mind becoming my friend? It comes with quite a few benefits, the most notable being the ability to communicate across vast distances, move between worlds, and teleport during emergencies."

"Um...okay...?" responded Aerith, her eyes widening a second time as a transparent blue window appeared before her.

Reading the notification, Aerith muttered, "Andrew Ashford Alexandros..." before reaching out and pressing the box that said 'Yes' to her becoming his friend.

"Oh, sorry about that," said Andrew, awkwardly scratching his head as he had forgotten to introduce himself.

"It's alright," assured Aerith, adopting a faint, narrow-eyed smile as she asked, "Now what will you do? You said you came here for me and to get stronger. What, exactly, did you have in mind...?"

"Well, that depends on you," replied Andrew, explaining, "While I am more than prepared to risk my life and lend a hand to the people of the worlds I traverse, I try to avoid overstepping my bounds by supporting key figures instead of simply doing as I please. I have some useful information and a few ideas about addressing and resolving certain matters, but my actions ultimately depend on what you and a handful of others decide."

"Then, if I left the decision to you, what would you suggest we do?" asked Aerith, putting Andrew on the spot.

"Before that, let me ask you something," said Andrew, adopting a serious expression as he asked, "Has Avalanche already launched their attack on the Sector 1 Reactor...?"

Shaking her head, Aerith replied, "No, but there have been rumors floating around for some time."

"Then, if the decision is being left to me, I say we travel to the Sector 7 slums, meet the members of Avalanche, and convince them not to target the Mako Reactors," suggested Andrew, adding, "There are innumerable ways to deal with Shinra without inconveniencing the lives of hundreds of thousands of people. More importantly, if they persist along their current course, many innocent people will die..."

"Okay!" exclaimed Aerith, throwing her right hand into the air and striking a pose as she vocalized, "To Sector 7 we go~!"

Raising his brows, Andrew asked, "Are you sure? Don't we need to stop by your home first...?"

"But what if Avalanche decides to conduct their raid tonight? It will be too late to act then," countered Aerith, walking backward and smiling with her hands behind her back.

"You're...not wrong..." conceded Andrew. Rather, as linking worlds usually placed him near or at the start of canon events, there was a 'very' good chance that Avalanche would be conducting their raid that night. He just found Aerith's willingness to trust and go along with him rather...peculiar. She technically did the same with Cloud, the main character of FFVII, but that was due to a number of over and underlying circumstances...

"Well, come on, then~!" chimed Aerith, turning around and rushing out of the large, dilapidated church they were in. Andrew felt she was a little too excited, but instead of overthinking things, he darted after her, stepping outside to find they were in a district populated by rust-covered buildings that looked like they had been abandoned for decades. There were large rocky outcrops, but the thing that really caught his eye was the megalithic structure that could be seen overhead and along the periphery.

'Damn...and I thought the Gardens of Final Fantasy 8 were massive...' thought Andrew, genuinely awed by the sight of Midgar's topside plate from below. Part of it was missing and clearly under construction, but at least a few hundred meters separated his position on the ground and the bottom of the colossal plate, one of eight that comprised the impressive yet borderline dystopic city.

"Are there no cities like this in the world you come from...?" asked Aerith, noticing the awe in Andrew's expression.

Shaking his head, Andrew replied, "There's a place called Lindblum that is similar in scale, but it's a walled city with unobstructed skies. I can't even begin to imagine how much time, effort, and raw materials it would take to construct a city like this. Though, as impressive as it is, it has some major design flaws. Constructing the topside plates hundreds of meters above the ground is just asking for a disaster to occur. The maintenance costs to prevent them from falling into disrepair, rusting over, and collapsing must be astronomical..."

"Yeah...when the Sector 6 plate collapsed a few years back, many people shared similar concerns," revealed Aerith, raising her gaze to the missing plate overhead. Her wistful smile made Andrew curious to know what she was thinking, but before he could ask, a short, rotund, and surprisingly familiar creature covered in crimson skin came rushing over, attempting to blindside her with the spines on its back.

Causing Aerith to startle slightly, Andrew appeared next to her in what seemed like an instant, leaving a vibrant, bluish-white trail in his wake as he grabbed the monster's head with his vice-like grip, asking, "There are Hedghog Pies in this world...?"

Seeing the reptilian creature in Andrew's hand, Aerith breathed a sigh of relief before nodding in affirmation, explaining, "When the Sector 6 plate fell, monsters from outside came pouring in. Most of the larger monsters were quickly tracked and subjugated, but despite a concerted effort to get rid of them, smaller monsters like this have gained a foothold in the slums. Since this area is largely abandoned, we can expect to encounter a few on our way to the station."

Punctuating her statement, Aerith pulled out the metal rod holstered on her back, pressing a button that caused its ends to shoot out, forming a metal staff with a glowing yellow sphere embedded in one of two grooves on its handle.

Holding her staff like a baseball player gripping the center of their bat, Aerith promptly smacked the Hedgehog Pie out of Andrew's hand, a tiny explosion of frigid energy bursting from the staff and freezing part of the monster's body before it slammed into the side of a dilapidated building, dispersing into motes of green light.

"Don't worry," said Aerith, winking playfully as she added, "I'll be sure to keep you safe."

"How reliable..." mused Andrew, his gaze briefly lingering on the yellow sphere in Aerith's staff, clearly a Materia. Two more could be seen in her bevy of bracelets, one a luminous green and the other an amethyst purple hue. Andrew just hadn't noticed them before since they were smaller than the average marble and didn't start glowing until after Aerith engaged the Hedgehog Pie. Once it disappeared, the light emanating from their depths faded, indicating they were no longer active.

"Whatcha looking at...?" asked Aerith, leaning forward, turning her head sideways, and staring up at Andrew from below.

"Your Materia," replied Andrew, smiling wryly as his actions could have been misconstrued as him staring at Aerith's chest. He had snuck a peek earlier, noting that she wasn't wearing a bra, but since her chest was fairly modest, there wasn't much to look at.

"Oh, these things?" asked Aerith, pressing a button next to the Materia embedded in her staff, causing it to pop out like a spring capsule, its size mysteriously increasing until it was roughly the same as a tennis ball.

"Here, want to take a look?" asked Aerith, casually proferring forth the yellow Materia with a smile. Most people kept their Materia out of the hands of others, as they were fairly precious, but Aerith didn't seem to mind at all, observing Andrew with interest as he accepted the glowing sphere and inspected it.

Seeing the description through his Equipment Menu, Andrew asked, "The Prayer Materia...?"

"That's right," replied Aerith, narrowing her emerald green eyes slightly as she stood straighter and explained, "It allows the user to heal themselves and people they recognize as allies within a ten-meter radius. But, unless you possess a certain constitution, it's difficult to use."

Surprising both himself and Aerith, Andrew equipped the Prayer Materia into the accessory slot of his right wrist, causing the luminescent sphere to embed itself into his arm.

Maintaining a relaxed poker face, Andrew remarked, "Pretty cool," before ejecting the Materia from his wrist and returning it to the visibly stunned Aerith. Integrating a Materia into one's body wasn't unheard of, but it was typically limited to Cetra like herself and high-ranking SOLDIERs that had undergone 'Mako Exposure Therapy' to become supersoldiers.

Though she had many questions, Aerith blinked back to awareness when she noticed Andrew was staring at her with an amused smile.

"Ahem...!" coughed Aerith, her face red as she returned the Prayer Materia to her staff and said, "We should hurry to the station before the final train arrives and departs. Not many people come to this sector of the slums, so if we miss the last train, there won't be another until tomorrow morning."

Without waiting for Andrew to respond, Aerith began half-jogging along a dirt path between dilapidated buildings, staff at the ready. Andrew found her embarrassment rather amusing, but instead of teasing her, as he was prone to doing, he simply chased after her, keeping his eyes focused and ears peeled for any monsters that might appear...

...

..

.