This story is, of course, based on and inspired by Final Fantasy VII created and owned by Square-Enix.

In case anyone was wondering, I'm using Aeris instead of Aerith for two reasons. 1) That's how her name appeared in the original game and 2) I like the way the s sounds better than the th.

The first two chapters focus more on Ifalna than Aeris because at this point she is a baby and can't do very much. The following chapters will center more on Aeris as the title implies.

The Life of Aeris Gainsborough

Chapter 1: A special gift

The bitter cold wind from the great glacier blew against the walls of Prof. Gast's little sanctuary at Icicle Inn. The professor sat quietly in his chair fighting sleep. He'd been up most of the night with the baby. She hadn't slept well at all with her mother gone. Ifalna had left that morning, she said she was getting a present for the baby and it would be a good chance for the two of them to bond. She had been right, even though this tiny person made him sleep deprived, he loved her dearly.

As he gazed at his beautiful daughter lying still under her blanket, he felt a pang of distress. Deep, in the back of his mind he knew that she would be discovered and he feared what that meant. Ifalna had said that their daughter was special, she was a gift of the planet. He had asked her what she meant, but she only smiled in return. It peaked his curiosity as a scientist, but as a father he convinced himself it only meant she was a cetra. If she had meant more than that, it was better that he didn't know.

The baby stirred and cooed as she started to wake again. "oh no, no, no, no. Shhhh. Honey." He picked her up and rocked her gently feeling very tired. He danced around, patted her back and shushed her softly. "Oh please, Aeris, daddy is so tired." Aeris pulled back and stiffened her arms. She was so strong! She looked at him with her bright, glowing green eyes and gave him her first smile. He felt his heart melt and he wished that she could smile like that forever. Aeris touched his face with her tiny hands, stuck out her tounge at him and giggled. Her hands started to glow and suddenly Gast felt better than he had in years, as if he had been infused with life. The glow faded and Aeris, seeming now very content, snuggled into his chest and fell asleep.

He set her back down in her crib and started pacing the room. What the hell was that? He thought to himself. How could an infant, even a cetra, heal someone? What had Ifalna meant? He looked down at Aeris, his eyebrows furrowed together in a deep frown. "What are you?" He whispered to himself.

"I told you" Gast turned to see Ifalna standing in the doorway. "she's special."

"I can see that." He had to keep himself from hurling questions at her. He said instead "She smiled and laughed."

"Ohhhh!" Ifalna rushed over and peered at her little daughter. "She is so sweet."

"What did you get for her?" She gave him that sly smile of hers and held out a small pale green materia the size of a marble. He leaned closer to examine it. "What...? I've never seen anything like that before. What does it do?"

"Let's hope you never have to find out." She placed it in a velvet pouch and laid it next to Aeris. She looked at Gast again and her smile faded a little. "You're looking well." She leaned her head to the side. "I'm sure you have many questions and I do want to answer them, but..."

"I know. Aeris' safety means more to me than anything. Both of you do."

"It's not that so much as...I don't know how to really say it. You deserve some explaination." She walked about the room with her hands to her mouth thinking of how to tell him. She was surprised by how much she loved and trusted him. "Remember what I told you about the planet? It's watching Jenova and everything closely? How the Cetra weren't able to heal the planet themselves? The Cetra are born of the planet, it called us. It provided a way to protect and heal itself. Something...something evil has emerged in recent years. I'm not entirely sure what it is, it's so hard to really understand exactly...It's like something old...ancient, is coming to life in a new form. The planet is protecting itself again. It's given us a gift."

Gast paced around the room again trying to make sense of it. "You said that the Cetra themselves don't have special powers, they used the planets own energy. But Aeris...she..." he looked again in the crib and watched Aeris' little chest rise and fall as she breathed. "The planet's gift." He felt tired again. His mind drained all his energy as it raced to place all the pieces together. He slumped down in his chair and then he felt soft hands run through his hair and stroke his neck. Ifalna knelt down and kissed his forehead.

"You should sleep. I'll get up with her if she wakes." Gast just nodded and kissed her back as he rose and headed for bed. He fell asleep almost as soon as his head hit the pillow.

Ifalna gently carressed her baby's cheek. "Yes my dear," she whispered tenderly, "I'm afraid it falls on you. You and I are now the last of the Cetra." Her eyes began to water and she sniffed feeling a little lump form in her throat. "You need to be strong my love. You'll have to be stronger than the rest of us. But don't worry, you'll never be alone. I promise." She kissed her soft little cheek and settled down into the chair and eventually fell asleep as the planet sang it's age old lullaby to her, comforting her and reminding her that she was never alone either.

Chapter 2: Taken Away

A week later, the soldiers came. Aeris was only twenty days old and Gast had set up his video recorder again to document Aeris. He was fully intent on putting her whole life on tape; Ifalna, however, told him he should not dote on her so much or she would not be strong. She was, afterall, different from other children. She had many hardships ahead of her.

Gast told her that he wouldn't let anything happen to either of them. They shared a kiss and a loud knock came at the door interupting their private moment. As Gast went to the door to send the intruders away, soldiers burst in and overtook them. Professor Hojo entered the room and took Aeris and her mother into custody and Gast died trying to protect them. Aeris shrieked both at hearing the gun fire and feeling her father slip away and return to the planet.

Hojo found the recordings of Gast's interviews with Ifalna and took them for himself. After he was finished plundering Prof. Gast's research, he left the building feeling very pleased with himself and ordered the soldiers to escort his precious specimens out of Icicle Inn.

They would be transported to Midgar where, Hojo told Ifalna, he'd cunduct expirements on them. He went out of his way to let her know exactly what she should expect. He was an insane, slithery man with an incredibly annoying laugh and he laughed often. Ifalna guessed he was trying to frighten her by telling her about his expirements, instead it only iritated her. She hummed to Aeris to soothe her and drown out Hojo's shrill voice.

All she could think about was protecting her baby, whatever that meant.

"It's a shame the infant is only half ancient." Ifalna glanced up at Hojo as his words caught her attention. He didn't seem to notice as he was musing to himself. "I'll have to conduct some studies on her closely, but judging from her mixed genetics, she obviously won't be as strong as the mother."

Ifalna, feeling a degree of relief, hugged Aeris closer to her. Hojo could never find out about Aeris' abilities or she would be condemed to the same fate as her mother, or even worse. Ifalna shuddered to think about it and decided at that moment she would have to work with Aeris constantly so that she would never be discovered. If an ancient was what he wanted, than that's what he would get, but it would never be her sweet baby. It saddened her, though, that Aeris would not have the freedom to explore her talents. Someday. Ifalna told herself. someday she will be free. She will just have to hold on until then. "Be strong my dear." She whispered softly, feeling it would be something she would have to tell her often.

Hojo led them away from Icicle Inn to the transport SUV he had riden in on. A man in a suit stepped out and looked Ifalna over. He touched his ear and mumbled something then turned to Hojo. "We'll ride south and meet with the helicopter." He said, "We'll need to lay over in Costa Del Sol to refuel before we head to Midgar." He jumped back into the SUV without waiting for a response. Hojo may be in charge, but he in no way was respected.

They loaded up and left Aeris' first home. She had quieted down now, but was looking around at everyone with interest, studying them. Her big green eyes peered at the man in the suit and settled on him. He gazed back at her and smiled despite himself.

"Beautiful eyes." He told Ifalna taking off his sunglasses.

"You work for Hojo?" Ifalna asked with a tinge of venom in her voice.

"Subordinate to him for now." He replied, a look of disdain crossing his face when she mentioned Hojo's name. "I'm a Turk, I work for Shinra Inc. I was assigned to Hojo to..."

"Kidnap me and my baby?" She interupted feeling her anger rise. She told herself to be calm, she needed a way to escape and he did not seem to be a terrible person. Maybe, just maybe, he could help her.

"Locate and escort you to Midgar." He calmly corrected then added. "Prof. Gast was an unfortunate casualty I'm afraid." He seemed to be genuinely sorry and Ifalna supposed that was his way of saying it. She studied him closely, trying to gage his personality. He was neat and clean, his brown hair was cut short so he would not have to fuss with it and his face was closely shaven. He was a professional and wanted that to show in his appearance. At first glance he seemed cold, but his eyes betrayed him. They were kind, brown eyes that reflected what he felt.

"What is your name?"

"Asalie." He put his sunglasses back on, taking on a cold persona once more. Sensing their conversation was over, Ifalna settled back and began humming again to try and put Aeris to sleep.

The rest of their journey was quiet, nothing more was said to her and she felt no need to speak. Aeris slept most of the time and only woke when they landed in Costa del Sol. Ifalna was allowed to roam around town, followed closely by at least one soldier and Asalie giving her very little privacy. Still, she savored the sunshine and shared as much of it with Aeris as she could.

Once the helicopter was refueled, they wasted no time getting underway. Hojo was becoming impatient to get to his laboratory and kept barking orders to hurry things along. Soon they were in the air again and on their way to Midgar. It wasn't long before Ifalna saw the scarred land surrounding the city and her heart began to ache. She felt Gaia's pain here, constant like a wound that wasn't allowed to heal. Aeris felt it too and started to fuss and squirm.

Once they reached the city, they went directly to the helipad on the Shinra building to land. Hojo led them inside to meet the president. He was a stocky man with blond hair and blue eyes and charismatic. Their meeting was short, he extended a welcome to Ifalna even going so far as to call her a guest. Hojo ordered Asalie to take her down to his laboraty then continued his conversation with President Shinra.

Asalie did not look pleased. He grumbled to himself as he led Ifalna to the elevator. When the elevator doors opened to the lab, they stepped out to meet a tall young man with shocking silver hair and Ifalna shuddered at the sight of him. Asalie looked surprised. "Sephiroth!" He exclaimed. "What are you doing here?"

"I'm getting my first assignment." He replied coolly. "Hojo wanted me to tell him when I finished my training."

"Already? I can't believe it."

"That's what my instructor said." Sephiroth looked at Ifalna, seeing her for the first time. "Is this the ancient?" Asalie nodded. "I didn't expect a baby. I suppose Hojo knew, though. Professor Gast?" Asalie paused glancing sideways at Ifalna, then shook his head, almost sadly.

"He...resisted."

"I see." Sephiroth turned to leave. "You'll tell Hojo I was here won't you." He stated more than requested, but Asalie just nodded. As Sephiroth was passing them, he stopped, placed his hand on Ifalna's shoulder and looked into her eyes. "I'm sorry." She was too shocked to respond, she hadn't expected that from anyone, least of all this person. All she could do was nod.

After he stepped into the elevator he turned around and looked at Aeris who was staring intently at him and their eyes locked. For a moment, they were motionless as if something unseen was passing between them. Then Sephiroth broke his gaze and smirked as the elevator doors closed. Ifalna felt a chill run the course of her body. A strange welcome to her new home.