Disclaimer: Final Fantasy VII and its characters are copywrite Square-Enix.

This is the first of two versions of the "Calling" and "Reminiscence" sequences that I particularly like. This goes with the philosophy that although Aerith could communicate with Cloud during AC, this was only because she was connected to the Planet and can only act if there is a need for protection. In this version, Cloud cannot call on her whenever he wishes to. So this is my interpretation of what Cloud does when he goes to the flower field during Calling following this version.


Calling -- Remembrance

Cloud drove.

On the back of his bike were Barret's presents for Marlene and Denzel, his last deliveries, and Yuffie's "temporarily closed" sign. They did not weigh him down any more than any other deliveries ever did. He knew Tifa and the kids would be glad for a chance to see Barret and the rest again.

Cloud would too. He hadn't seen them since they'd parted ways after fighting Sephiroth for the final time. He missed them, though their frequent phone calls halfway made up for the lack of their presence. It would be good to see them again.

Flower fields rose on either side of him. In the afternoon sun, their yellow color was warm and welcoming. Flowers of any sort always made him think of her, but this particular field seemed very close to her. When he came here, it was as though she was with him again.

He put his bike in park. His feet touched ground and he stood, absorbing the warmth of the sun. He inhaled deeply, enjoying the scent of the flowers. He walked away from the road, leaving his bike by the side. The flowers whispered around his feet as he moved past them. Once he was further into the field, he lay down, surrounded by the flowers. The sky above him was filled with white clouds dotted with pockets of blue.

It was quiet. His eyes slid shut, his lips turning up in a slight smile.

He always seemed nearer to her when he was like this. Close to the earth and the sky, where she was. Close to the planet she had given her life and all of her strength to protect. The city was frequently busy and he often had so many deliveries that there was no time to return to her church. The church wasn't the same anymore, anyway. The fight against Kadaj had seen to that. Aerith's healing water had replaced the flowers she had tended for so long. The preserved memory was now of that battle, not of the battle of two and a half years prior.

But it was flowers that made him think of her as herself and not as the guardian of the planet. It was to flowers that he returned when he needed to feel her personal presence. That was why he had lived in her church for that short period of time in the first place. He'd wanted to be near her on a personal level. Her sacrifice and his role in it had been too much for him to bear. But her church had been a reminder of the time he'd actually spent at her side, being pushed by her and laughing with her and talking to her and listening to her and protecting her.

Now her church was a reminder of the second battle and of her great bond with the planet. He couldn't connect with the guardian; she was a being beyond him, though one he would protect at all costs. But the girl he could connect with, and had connected with.

So it was to the flowers he returned, time and again, as he was now. If he closed his eyes, he felt she was near him, in the wind, in the sun on his face, in the earth at his back, in the flowers that pressed against him. Like this he would lie for hours, sometimes remembering and sometimes just existing. But if he listened very carefully, he could hear her laugh in the wind and maybe a shadow would pass over his eyes like her hand when she sent him back to his friends after he was injured in the last battle.

She had healed his illness and absolved him of any guilt for her death. He was living this new, more content life because of her. He was living it for her, and for Zack who had lost his to protect Cloud's. They were the reasons he could go on taking care of the people who relied on him. He carried on for them and held them close to his heart. In that way, both of them were always with him.

Every once in a while, though, he would need more than the mere knowledge that she watched over him and that because of her bond with the planet she knew what he was doing no matter what. At times like those, coming to this field enabled him to pretend, just for a little while, that she was right next to him again, that they were traveling together again and had nothing but future and defeating Sephiroth ahead of them. In this way, he could go on.

The scent of the flowers began to lull him to sleep, and his thoughts drifted. For a moment, he thought he heard her voice say his name.

Then the phone rang.