Disclaimer : I do not own any of the characters in this story.

Author's Notes : Hmm, so since there are no stories of Cloud and Aerith's meeting in Tactics, I thought I'd take the honour in writing one up. :) Since there's no selection of Cloud and Aerith in the Tactics section, I put it here.If you didn't know; both Cloud and Aerith makes an appearance in Final Fantasy Tactics :D There's one scene when they meet up, and I described that in this story.
I think that their meeting in Tactics, is a great way to prove that Square's intended romantic interest for Cloud is Aerith. I mean, since Tactics was being produced before FFVII was released, the means of having Aerith's appearance with Cloud as a "fanservice" are negated. Meaning; that when this game was produced, there were no crazy CloTi fans or Clerith fans to satisfy. There was no reason to make a service to fans that didn't even exist yet.
Having that said, I think Square was merely following up on the true romance in FFVII; which is Cloud and Aerith:D

Anyways, the Aerith Cloud meets in Ivalice, isn't the same one in FFVII (obviously), she's just a girl that resembles the Aerith he knew, and is searching for. Um, any questions about this, feel free to ask me. Sorry, if I confused you. Well, sorry for this massive entry. I'll stop. Enjoy!

He heard her voice in his head; he felt her presence in the room. He knew she was here, he could feel it, he could feel it in his heart; there was no doubt about it.

--

He saw her kneeling down on the altar, locked in prayer. A stream of light managed to make its way through a small hole in the ceiling, shining down on her and making her seem like an angel. He smiled in his mind, relieved that she was safe and that he was able to meet up with her again.

Cloud began to walk, wanting to reach her. He began hopping on the pillars to make his way towards the altar. He motioned for the others to stay where they were; so they stood and watched as their leader slowly approached the praying Cetra.

As he hopped onto the altar, the Cetra had opened her eyes, revealing the pair of bright, emerald eyes he had fallen for. He slowly made his way towards her still figure and watched as a small, beautiful smile began to curve upon her lips.

Before he could draw a smile to her, a shadow had cast itself upon her figure. Before he could do anything, the tip of the masamune had already pierced through her heart and slide out the other side, stained with blood, her blood.

Everything seemed like it was in slow motion. Cloud stood in shock, the screams emitted from his party was drowned out by the pounding of his heart that ached with anger and pain. He felt his fingers tingle, his eyes had begun to burn and mouth had gone dry.

In those few moments, he watched as another pair of green eyes looked at him, they were glittering, but not of beauty. He saw the sly smile that played on the lips of the killer and felt his body shiver when the sounds of grating metal was produced as the sword was pulled out of the Cetra's body.

The soft, pure sound of something bouncing off the glass floor of the altar caused Cloud to break out of his shock and instantly run forward, catching Aerith before she could hit the floor. He cradled her in his arms, not believing the sight before him. His eyes burned even more from the hot tears that were now gathering in the shrunken eyes of the soldier.

He could feel his body trembling in despair, but before he could act, a sharp pain pierced his head and everything turned black.

A girl was walking around the streets of Zarghidas Trade City, she was holding a basket, and in the basket was a bouquet of brightly, coloured flowers. Her hair was chestnut brown and tied in a long braid. She wore a green and off-white peasants dress, and a green bandana was adorned on her head.

She spotted a young man walking around town and approached him, asking the same question she asked to the many costumers she tried to sell her flowers to.

"Would you like a flower?" The boy looked at her; she noticed his clothing which indicated his high status. He had blonde hair, neatly tied into a small ponytail at the back. The boy looked at her, questioning.

"What? Flowers?" She pushed the handle of the basket up her arm, and looked him right in the eye.

"What's wrong? You've never seen a flower before?" He took a step back, and blinked nervously. "O…of course." The flower girl took a small step forward, persuading him.

"Won't you buy it?" The boy straightened his posture, and slipped his hand in his pocket, pulling out a small pouch.

"Alright, I'll buy it." The flower girl widened her eyes, surprised that he would actually buy one, a smile soon replaced her bewildered expression as she grabbed a small, yellow lily and handed it to him in exchange for one gil.

"Really? Thank you!" She dropped the gil in her basket and looked back up to the boy, nodding. "In a place like this…Not a lot of people buy flowers around here." Her eyes begun to glaze with hope, as she rambled on to herself, forgetting that the boy was still there.

"When will my knight in shining armor come and take me away from here…?" She shook her head, and her eyes returned to normal. She shyly smiled at the boy, and apologized.

"Oh, I'm sorry… Excuse me for babbling. Thank you so much for buying a flower. Bye." She bowed in thanks and left, feeling happy for her successful sale.

Cloud found himself falling, he could feel the rush of wind, blow against him as he was falling down, head first. His eyes slowly slid open, seeing a rush of white and blue all around him. It was weird; every second that had gone by caused him to slowly forget everything that happened. Before he lost all his precious memories, he found his body turning upright and was now floating down.

When he felt something solid and stable underneath his boots, a flash of white appeared again causing him to shield his eyes with his arms. He could hear voices in the distance, and as the light faded away, he saw a passage.

Cloud walked forward, trying to remember what had happened but could only see the current in his foggy mind. He walked through the passage, and emerged from a puff of mist, seeing three men staring at him.

He blinked, staring at the men before him. "What happened? Last thing I remember, I was getting caught in the current."

He watched as one of the men turned around to face the other, the fairly old man began to speak, as if Cloud wasn't there.

"Hum, I've read about this before. It could be some forwarding device." Cloud averted his attention to the other man, who spoke, asking the same question he had in his mind.

"Forwarding device?" The old man answered.

"You know, to travel to other worlds, different space." Cloud arched his brow, what the hell is this guy talking about?

He slowly turned around to a boy; he had blonde hair, wore clothing that somewhat resembled royalty and had a small ponytail at the back of his head. He gaped at the boy who had started a small conversation with the old man.

"So, he came from another space?" "Maybe, look at his clothes. Quite unusual"

Cloud looked down to see his soldier uniform. He scratched the back of his head, what am I wearing? …Soldier… Is this…? Yeah. His mind was still foggy, but he managed to remember something.

He looked up at the three men who now brought their attention to him and finally spoke.

"My…name's Cloud. Yes…Cloud." The pony tailed boy spoke, but he wasn't paying attention to him.

"I'm Ramza." Ramza motioned towards the two men in front of him. "They're my friends—"

Cloud quickly interrupted, "I don't care about names." He looked away from the men and thought for awhile. "What I need is a battlefield… Yeah…that's it… I'm a member of SOLDIER."

SOLDIER, was all he could remember, everything about SOLDIER flashed before his eyes and now, all he was craving for was to fight. He heard one of the men scoff at him but didn't do anything.

A piercing sound rang through his head, he shut his eyes trying to overcome the sound but instead felt a familiar feeling occur in his heart.

"What's this? My fingers are tingling…My eyes…they're burning… Stop… Stop it…phiros…"

He saw something in his mind, it was foggy, but it triggered something inside of him. Holding his head, he rushed out the building, leaving Ramza and his friends.

I must go… must go to that place…

--

As he walked through the unfamiliar streets, he couldn't help but question himself. What is…that place? What was that sound? Who was --.

A girl came out of an alleyway and walked in front of him causing him to stop. He looked at the girl with a feeling of familiarity, and his heart skipped a beat when she spoke.

"Buy a flower? Only one gil."

He was speechless. Something about this girl triggered his memory, and he saw someone similar to her flash before his eyes.

"Something wrong? Do I resemble someone?"

Cloud shook his head, and looked away. "No… It's nothing." He knew he was lying, the flower girl did remind him of someone, but… who? He began to walk away, forgetting about the girl and trying to remember the other girl that had appeared in his head.

Meanwhile, the flower girl kept her eyes on the strange boy that had ignored her and glared at him. "What's wrong with him..?" She continued her search for people to sell her flowers to but came across a few men, one of them made her heart stop.

"W..what?" The man smiled slyly at her and rushed her, grabbing her by the neck.

"I've been looking for you, Aeris…Selling flowers for your mom? Good for you."

Cloud had stopped walking when he noticed the few men circling around the girl, seeing them in his peripheral vision. He wasn't far away but wasn't close either. He turned around in question when he heard the man address the flower girl. Aeris…? That name sounds familiar…

He could hear the girl whimper, but couldn't see what was going on, as one of the knaves were blocking his view.

Aeris gasped in pain and brought her hands up to grab the man's hand gripping around her neck. "Just ten more days…No, just a week, that's all I need… please…" The man was angered and tightened his grip around Aeris' neck, causing her to wince in pain.

"Don't mess with me! It's overdue! I'm gonna get my 30,000 gil one way or another…" Aeris noticed that the man was examining her body; she felt frightened and began to retaliate.

"Let go of me!" The man only laughed, and a mischievous twinkle sparkled in his eyes.

"Mmm, pretty good looking! Oughta try sellin' your body instead of flowers." He laughed harder as Aeris tried to get out of his grip and yelled in objection.

"Get your hand off her!"

The knave looked up, seeing a strangely clothed man push one of his lackeys aside, and walk towards him. The man stared at Cloud in disbelief.

"What did you say?" Cloud stopped and glared at him, Aeris winced, as the man had tightened his grip again, cutting off her oxygen.

"Didn't you hear me? Get your dirty hand off her!" Cloud was angry now, the way the knave spoke to the girl had set him off. He watched as the knave let go of Aeris and push her to the ground. The knave quickly approached Cloud, grabbing his shirt and spat at him.

"Who the hell are you? Dressed in funny clothes!" Cloud swiftly knocked the knave off of him and caused him to fall to the ground. He turned around to Aeris, and told her to run. She nodded and got up, running away from the knave and his gang but she stopped behind a building and watched as her 'savior' began to beat up the gang.

The knave stood up, and motioned his members to get ready. He almost laughed when he saw Cloud kneel down, gripping his head.

The ringing sound came back again, Cloud moaned as he knelt down to the ground and grabbed his head. What is this…?

"Cloud! Are you OK?" He looked up and saw Ramza, with the other men. He heard the knave scowl. "Oh shit! Wacko's got friends, let's go!" Cloud stood up, scowling in disgust as he watched the knave run away with his gang. He felt a hand on his shoulder, and turned around, seeing Ramza.

His attention was averted to someone else behind Ramza, he saw the flower girl appear from behind a building. Cloud ignored Ramza and shrugged his hand off his shoulder, before approaching the flower girl.

"Aeris… Right?" The flower girl looked up in surprise, hearing her name addressed by a soft voice. She relaxed when she saw her 'savior' and nodded.
"Yes, thank you for saving me."

Cloud smiled slightly and scratched the back of his head in nervousness. There's something about her… Why can't I remember?

Aeris stood there, feeling the awkwardness between them. She cleared her throat, and smoothed her dress out. "Well, I should be going… Goodbye…" As she turned around, a voice stopped her.

"Wait." She turned her head to look, seeing the man shove his hand in his pocket and grabb something shiny out. Fully turning her body, she smiled in excitement.

"I'd like to buy a flower…" Cloud shyly handed her the gil, and waited for her to take it. Aeris stared at him for awhile, still smiling and nodded, grabbing a white lily out and exchanged it for the gil. As she handed the flower over, their fingers touched for a split second and it sent a rush of feelings in Cloud's system.

He saw the similar girl to Aeris, in his mind again. This time he could see her eyes; bright and beautiful, it reminded him of an emerald stone. He felt his heart race when he saw those eyes flash in his mind.

Aeris dropped the gil in her basket and bowed. "Thank you!" She cocked her head to the side, and smiled slightly. "What's your name?"

Cloud came out of his reverie and stared at the girl, looking at her eyes. He silently sighed in disappointment, as the girl did not have bright, green eyes like the mystery girl in his mind. "My name is Cloud…"

Aeris straightened her head and smiled at the name. Cloud… She looked at him with her black eyes and bowed again. "Well, thank you Cloud… for buying a flower." Cloud found himself smiling; he waved back when Aeris had waved him goodbye and left.

Cloud walked back to Ramza, who had been waiting for him. His eyes were locked on the white lily he held in his hand, he couldn't help but feel a sense of happiness when he looked at the flower, but also a sense of sadness. He bit his lower lip and felt like he had lost something important. He bowed his head down to the flower and closed his eyes.

"I lost… a very important thing…"

Ramza looked at him, confused. 'Cloud…?

"Ever since.. I've been lost. …Who am I? What should I do? What is this pain…?" He brought his free hand up to his heart, feeling as if it had broken. He kept his head down, as Ramza spoke.

"Cloud… I think there's someone in your world waiting for you. We might be able to bring you back with the stone's power." Ramza flashed him with a reassuring smile when he looked up to him.

Cloud thought of what Ramza said, and again the ringing sound came back. He withstood the pain this time and closed his eyes, seeing emerald eyes staring at him. A soft voice was speaking to him. What…? Promised Land? Are you there…?

The voice didn't reply. The ringing had stopped and Cloud suddenly snapped his head up to look at Ramza, determination floating in his eyes.

"Let's go, Ramza. I can't be here…I must go… to the Promised Land."

I must go and find her… Find… Aerith…