You're Always Waiting Here At The Station

It was a place of dark metal sky and bright dirty lights. There were a few places under the plates where sunlight could reach the ground, but not here so close to the core pillar. At this station, there wasn't a priority to keep things that clean. But enough people came through that locals did what they could. Elmyra for one often brought a broom to sweep the stairs and platform. She would sit there and wait if she had the time, so it was nice to have a clean place to be.

After the second train had come and gone, she heard footsteps and laughter. "Elmyra!" a young girl called out, hurrying towards her with her brown ponytail bobbing behind her. A woman with blond hair was walking behind her; they looked much like each other, even in the way their dresses were made.

"Hello Aeris, and Ifalna," Elmyra said, waving to them. "Are you sure you should be out this far?" The woman had been badly wounded a month ago; she hadn't gone far outside the house in all that time. Coming out to the station was a far walk in comparison, plus they wouldn't know this area.

"It's fine, I'm feeling well," Ifalna said, although she kept to an easy pace as opposed to her daughter running around to look at things. "The doctor was a little strange but she did good work."

"I know she is, but there's not many options around here," she said.

"She's better than the last doctor I saw," she said. Ifalna then came to sit on the steps beside her. "Are you waiting to see if your husband comes back?"

Elmyra nodded. It was something she worried over often, but she'd spoken to Iflana many times in the evenings after Aeris had gone to bed. "Shinra's keeping his unit away so long, but I hear that the Wutai front has been a tough one. While he isn't the best fighter and can do silly things when he needs to be serious, I know he does well under a good commander. I just want him to come back home safe."

You saved my life, but I wasn't sure what I could do for you in exchange.

The war dragged on and on when it was supposed to be a short simple affair. The papers kept saying that the soldiers would come home soon. But every day, Elmyra went to check on at least one train. Some days, she waited several hours to check on several trains. Other soldiers came home, but her husband was still away. Other women who came to the station got to welcome their loved ones back home. She had yet to do so.

Ifalna was good to talk with about that. Her husband wouldn't be coming home either. For one thing, her last home had been far to the north. For another thing, her husband was murdered. "I had to look after him a lot since he easily lost track of time when working," Ifalna said while they were sitting on the station steps that day. "Wouldn't notice he needed to do laundry until there were no clean clothes left."

Putting her hands to her mouth, Elmyra chuckled. "I think a lot of men are that way."

"That may be," Ifalna said with a smile. "But he was kind and sincere, taking me away from Shinra when things started getting suspicious." She ran her hand through her dyed hair. "I wasn't sure if this was enough, but I suppose as long as the Turks don't find us, it could keep them from getting reports of me."

"Trying to leave would draw a lot of attention," Elmyra said. "Although if we keep an eye out, there may be a time to leave the city without notice. I'm not sure where you could go after that, though."

"We can find a place to go, I'm sure," Ifalna said. "As long as I have Aeris with me, any place can become home. Even this place where the voice of the planet is weak."

I had fun talking to you even early on; it made life lighter.

As Elmyra had inherited her house and small patch of land from her parents, she was secure where she was with part of her husband's pay and money from small jobs. But having two other residents, one being a child, made things more iffy. Thankfully, Ifalna had managed to get a job on Wall Market helping at a tailor's shop. "A lot of the styles around here are easy to work on," she said while they were sitting on the stairs of the train station that day.

"But you'd have to work on more risque styles than you're used to, right?" Elmyra asked. "I mean, it doesn't seem like you. That place doesn't even seem like somewhere you'd be."

Ifalna laughed at that, her blue eyes twinkling with amusement. "I guess not. Sure, I wouldn't wear some of those fashions. But if other people want to, it's their decision." She pulled her knees back and looked up. "Although, I would like to convince some of them not to. Your body is the house of your soul. If the body suffers, the soul will suffer as well. One should respect their body and take care of it, not treating it like a thing to be lusted over."

"For some of them, this is the only life they know," Elmyra said. "I barely remember when this place was a town, without any of Shinra's construction looming overhead."

"Shinra looms over most of the world," she agreed. "Sometimes I think of teaching the ways of my people to others again. The proper ways; there's a lot of misinformation based on assumptions out there. But it does no good to teach the reluctant who will ignore your words from the start."

Elmyra put a hand to her chest. "Sorry, I didn't mean to be a downer. Though, I would be interested in learning from you. Maybe not good at grasping it all, but I'll try." After all, Ifalna managed to keep so positive and bright in spite of the bad situation she was in. It would be nice to be that way.

And the offer made her smile. "It's about how you live your life, how you view the world. The first steps are simple and the rest build upon those. As long as you're willing to listen and think, it might not be as hard as it seems."

You were one reason I was able to stay positive.

While Shinra had provided a school in the slums for children to attend, it wasn't a very good one. It was off in Sector 3, so Aeris would have to take the train and walk along rough streets littered with junk to reach it. And once she would have gotten there, she'd have to deal with disinterested, jaded, or stressed teachers who couldn't control the more troublesome students. Instead, she and a few other kids in Sector 6 gathered in the home of a couple who offered school lessons for a reasonable fee.

Elmyra usually checked on the station while Aeris was off at school, making sure to get home by the time she'd be done playing with her schoolmates. While she had gotten home early today, she'd come back to the station. Aeris had come back early from her lessons, with a strange message. Could she be telling the truth? She didn't want to believe it.

"I thought you'd be here," Ifalna called over before Elmyra realized she was even there. She seemed more serious than usual.

Although she turned quickly, her housemate was there clasping her arm once they faced each other. "What are you doing here? You should be at work."

"I would have come sooner, but the boss insisted I finish the patch job I was on before leaving," she said. "There was a feeling that Aeris would say something, and you'd need someone with you."

Elmyra bowed her head, her throat tightening up. "I-it's true, then? She told me not to cry, that my husband had returned to the planet."

"Yes, it's true," Ifalna said with a warm sympathy. She even hugged her. "His soul rejoined the soul of the planet; he'll be at peace. For those of us still walking the world, we'll support each other. How will you do?"

It was a strange thing, but she knew this kind of pain and loss. "I don't know," Elmyra managed to say through her tears.

We lived through similar pains and I started to feel something more for you. But it wasn't the right time.

"You're always waiting here at the station," Ifalna said as she came to the stairs beside her, as usual.

"I'm sorry, I know it's useless," Elmyra said, moving her broom so she had a place nearby to sit. "I've waited over three years. Guess it's a habit now."

As she sat down, Ifalna patted her shoulder. "Take all the time you need to figure things out. Although, didn't you say you'd been married over three years?"

She nodded, a sigh escaping her. "Right. You've been living with me for six months now and that's longer than I spent with my husband after we married. And we got married not long after we started dating. We were kind of crazy in love."

"It sounds nice, but worrisome," she said.

"Maybe I should have given it more thought, but it felt right at the time." Trying to find a way to explain it, Elmyra looked over at a board where advertisements and job offers from Shinra used to be posted. It was mostly obscene graffiti and handwritten notices now. "You ever see one of those movies about a war hero who comes home at the end and gets an excited welcome home from his wife? I used to really love that kind of romance. It seemed so wonderful, a joyful reunion of a faithful pair. When I waited here, I would tell myself that that joy would be sweeter with the longer separation even as I wished every time that the next train would be his. I suppose when he proposed to me, I wanted to live that kind of dramatic moment even though we had to take a quick marriage in court rather than a typical wedding."

"I thought I'd get a happily ever after too upon escaping Shinra the first time," Ifalna said. "But here we are, left behind to continue on."

"I was a fool, wasn't I?" she asked, although she was thinking it was true. "To get married in hopes of one special moment in the future, hardly thinking of what would go between, or even after. He didn't even write me much so I'm left to wonder, was he even who I thought he was? I don't know if I knew him well; it may have turned bad if he did return. Maybe I'm not even sad over losing him, but sad over losing my silly romantic dream. I don't even know how I feel."

Ifalna leaned back for a moment, looking upwards again. Then she looked back and took her hand. "How about we step away from this place for now? Your mind is clouded; I may be able to help you find a way to knowing clarity. It will take time but you won't be alone."

"Shouldn't you be finding a way to escape with Aeris?" Elmyra asked, although she squeezed her hand to thank her for the offer. "The longer you stay, the more likely the Turks will find you."

Tugging her into standing up so they could walk away, Ifalna shrugged. "They would find us anywhere we go as Shinra's reach extends around the world. Besides, I wouldn't be alive if you hadn't stopped to help me, while others walked by so I wouldn't be their problem. I will stay with you when you need help." She even laughed a little. "Besides, what's life without a few risks taken? Aeris seems happy here living with you."

"I am glad for you both living with me," she said, making herself smile, at least a bit. "I just hope none of us regret this risk as well."

I won't ever regret being with you.

Aeris was an energetic girl, full of smiles. Today, she was hopping intently up the station stairs, then leaping off the edge of the platform as far as she could before coming back to hop up the stairs again. Elmyra swept the platform and sidewalk as usual while Ifalna was trying to adapt the graffiti into something more artistic. After all, few others cared how this place looked.

"The Promised Land isn't a place," Ifalna said, marking over an obscene symbol with a pretty swirl of color.

"But it is somewhere you go?" Elmyra asked, trying to keep up with the lesson.

She nodded. "Yes, it is the last stage of the journey of life, where the Cetra will find peace. It's when we merge with the lifestream."

"But the lifestream continually respins that energy into new life. So technically, wouldn't your journey never end?"

"Technically," she agreed. "But the last moments that you are you, before you no longer are, that is a time of utter peace when there will be nothing to cause you pain."

Continuing in her game, Aeris piped in with, "So everybody will reach the Promised Land one day! It's silly of them to try getting there before the end."

"They hear tales of those who reach the Promised Land and come to their greatest potential for one last act," Ifalna said. "Which can happen if you have spent your life training the power of your soul. One who has reached enlightenment can be capable of anything then, even influencing the soul of the planet itself. However, greedy ones want to go directly to having all that power without having enlightenment. That will bring disaster upon themselves and those around them."

"Could they get to that point even if they aren't Cetra?" Elmyra asked.

"If they stop being greedy, sure," Aeris said.

"Right, anyone can achieve that level of enlightenment with enough dedication," Ifalna agreed, patting her daughter on the back as she ran by. "The Cetra are a people, but I don't think we're all that special. We do encourage our children early to keep hearing the planet's voice instead of unwittingly teaching them to ignore it. If I could teach another child of the right age, he or she would still be able to hear the planet no matter what their heritage is."

"That seems like something you'd want more people to be capable of," Elmyra said. And it would make life a lot better. For one thing, these two were able to make plants grow and flowers bloom even down here in dirty smoggy lower Midgar.

Aeris detoured in her route to come over and circle around her. "Yeah! You could hear it too, I know it!"

"I don't know about that," Elmyra said, a little embarrassed. She wasn't anyone special.

"As long as you keep thinking that, you won't," Iflana said, a gleam in her eye and a smile on her face. "But I agree, I'm sure you could too. It will take time and you have to open your mind to the possibility. And your soul would sparkle even more than you do now."

"Ifalna, you're exaggerating now," she said, though it made her smile.

No, I'm not exaggerating. You are beautiful to me.

The train whistled as it pulled into the station. Elmyra was getting out of the habit of looking over when it did so. After all, it had been two years since he had passed away. She used to wonder to herself late into the night, alone in her room, what would her life be like if he had come back and they had to get along as a married couple finally? She was getting out of that habit too. What did it matter what could have been? She had a good life now, with someone who had a soul of moonlight, mysterious, strange, and beautiful all at once.

But she had to watch where she was cleaning as a few passengers came out and happened to see Ifalna step down as well. "Oh, funny time to run into you here," Elmyra said, smiling at her.

She laughed; her hair was back to brown now, falling in long wavy curls. "But I thought you'd be here. Do you need some help?"

"No, I'm just about done," she said. Wanting to pass the time while people came and went, she pointed over to the ground in front of the bulletin board. "I think you've finally dazzled the gangs enough that they've stopped leaving their marks here."

While she pretended to frown, Ifalna's eyes showed a gladness for that. "Really? And I was looking forward to covering the whole platform."

Elmyra laughed. "You still could, if you really wanted. It's not like the company cares."

"I wouldn't even have to stick to blending in their designs either," she said, all too seriously for the matter. "So I could make whatever I wanted along the rest of it. That'll be fun!"

After a bit of lighthearted banter about what other designs could be painted onto the long concrete slab, the train whistled before pulling out again. The other people had gone too, leaving just them and a stray dog that was snuffling about a trash can. "So what have you been up to?" Elmyra asked. Iflana usually walked to and from Wall Market for her job, even though it took her through some monster-infested roads.

She put a finger to her lips and came closer. "A bit of trouble to prevent a lot of trouble. I've managed to throw off the Turks a few times, but they were getting closer to pinning down our location. With some help from various other friends I've made, I wrote up a false report about Aeris and I trying to leave Midgar and ending up killed in the process. And the report specifically states that there was no possibility of retrieving any remains. But I had to go into a Shinra office in order to give it all the marks to make it seem official."

"That sounds really dangerous," she said, worried about her. "Are you sure you got out cleanly?"

She nodded. "For now. I do have to return at least one more time to make sure it all went through right, but I studied this move carefully. We shouldn't be bothered by them anymore as long as we stick mostly to lower Midgar."

"Or if we do leave entirely," Elmyra said, having thought of that herself. "It'd be really nice if Aeris didn't have to grow up in this place."

"True," she said, but oddly she seemed worried in agreeing. "It would be nice… and fate is not absolute. However, I listen to the lifestream and it tells me of the current flow of time. Certain people pull stronger than others and are leading the future into a dangerous time." Ifalna patted her hair. "You know the materia on Aeris' ribbon?"

"That white one? Yes, and I'm glad that materia doesn't break easily or she would have done that by now."

"That one won't shatter," she said, smiling for a bit but going serious again. "It's special and can have a powerful impact. From what the planet dreams of the future being like, it's growing more and more likely that it will be needed years from now. I could use it, but perhaps Aeris is the one meant to use it. Though I wish that were not so."

"What does that have to do with not leaving Midgar?" Elmyra asked, taking her hand.

"She needs to be here to meet with someone," Ifalna said. "I can't see it all too clearly, so I'm not sure who it is. Fate is not absolute and things can still change. Maybe the nightmare won't even come to pass. But to do the most good, we should be here in lower Midgar."

"Well I don't mind much where we are as long as we're together," she said.

Taking her other hand and pulling her closer, she smiled. "Of course, anywhere can be home. And I could paint the whole platform, make this place a little less dreary."

Elmyra laughed; this train station could be a place of happiness instead of sadness. "I can't wait to see that. Oh, but, there was something I wanted to ask you."

"What?" she asked, back in a playful mood.

"What do you think about giving Aeris the bedroom you share to her alone, and share my bedroom instead?" Their home had three potential bedrooms, but one could be left as a guest room. Or even turned into a sewing room if Ifalna didn't want to have to walk out to Wall Market every day. Aeris was a growing girl, and Elmyra wanted to have more time to spend with Ifalna in any way they could make it happen.

"So we don't have to fib to her that we're having a grown-up sleepover those nights?" she asked, making them both laugh. "I think that would be wonderful. Could we redecorate the rooms then? A fresh look for a fresh life is just the thing you need sometimes."

It was just what they needed.