Seventh Heaven

Aerith ran into the doors, gladly making it inside. Despite the urgency of the situation, she caught her breath as soon as the door swung shut behind her, panting and steadying herself. She looked around the bar.

There was a pinball machine in one corner, a few empty tables and chairs, a dartboard on the wall, and windows that looked out onto the chaos and fire outside. Aerith took a tentative step forwards. She caught a glimpse of her reflection on a blank TV behind the bar.

She was a mess. there was a smear of ash from the explosions outside along her cheek, her collarbone, her sides, one thigh... There was another distinct handprint in dust and grime over one breast, one she quickly smeared in an attempt to disguise her embarrassment, not to mention other spots of soil and muck from the long, long naked journey she'd been on. Her hair had partly fallen out of her ribbon, ass-length, though the neat ponytail that partly remained looked like a bit of a joke next to her bare body.

Aerith swallowed, looking around the bar for a couple of seconds before she remembered why she was there.

"Marlene?" Aerith called.

She heard sobbing. Tentatively, self-consciously, Aerith moved towards the bar. She moved behind it, looking down and side to side, before she spotted a stray foot poking out from under a surface.

"Marlene," Aerith said. She crouched. "Tifa sent me, okay? She wants to get you out of here."

Marlene was hiding behind her knees, sheltering from the shouts and bangs outside. She looked up, and her eyes went wide.

"You know Tifa?" Marlene said.

"Yeah," Aerith said encouragingly. "Do you want me to take you to her? She and your dad want you to be safe."

Marlene hesitated. There was an echo of sadness in her wide eyes, something she clearly wanted to say, but something else plainly distracted her.

"Why are you naked?" Marlene said. "Daddy says only bad kinds of girls run around naked. Are you a-"

"It's just a mistake!" Aerith stammered, not wanting the girl to finish that sentence. "Although..."

There was a boom from outside. Aerith jumped, jiggling a little, but the danger didn't stop her from looking around.

"Say, did Tifa happen to have an apron or change of clothes somewhere around here?" Aerith said, silently praying to the Planet that her ordeal was over.