Retrieval of a Secret Gift
The Forgotten City of the Ancients. As Cloud rode his motorcycle through the forest of white withered trees, he reflected on the time he fought Kadaj and his gang to take Denzel, Marlene, and the children who had geostigma like he did back home. He snapped back to reality when he arrived at the house in the shape of a large conch shell and the pond that was once the site where he laid the late Aerith to rest. He got off his motorcycle upon arrival, and heard a voice in his head:
Finally, you came. Take the stairs down to the forgotten city and meet me there.Cloud went inside the conch shell house, and found the stairs in place of the hologram of a fish among the anemone. He went down to the Forgotten City, and hopped between pillars to reach the altar. It was familiar to him; it was the very place he found Aerith praying for Holy and when Sephiroth came down and stabbed her to death as she finished her prayer. He looked around to find the source of the voice, but found no one...
...Or at least that was what he thought. Aerith suddenly appeared in front of him.
"Aerith...? Is it you?" Cloud asked.
She did not reply, but approached the bewildered self-proclaimed SOLDIER. She led him down from the altar and pointed at the water below.
"What could be down there?" asked Cloud. He looked down at the water, and noticed a dimmed green glow. Then he looked at Aerith, who suddenly transformed.
"Aerith, what's-!" Cloud began, but he was surprised to see a little levitating cat-like creature in place of "Aerith": it was the Mythical Pokémon Mew. He saw it dive down into the water to retrieve the source of the dimmed green glow. Mew then resurfaced with the object that emitted the emerald light: the White Materia.
"The White Materia..." Cloud said, looking at it. "Aerith once had it. Long ago, it glowed brightly, a sign that her voice reached the planet so Holy would arrive to stop Meteor." He closed his eyes, remembering the fateful day when he was in Cid's revamped Highwind airship, seeing Meteor nearly destroying much of the city of Midgar with Holy and eventually the Lifestream arriving to destroy it. Cloud turned to Mew, taking the White Materia from it. "Listen, I don't know where you came from or why you led me here, but thank you. I will cherish this White Materia always."
Mew nodded, and used its psychic power to teleport itself and Cloud outside the conch shell house. It flew away to parts unknown as he waved to it. Cloud stowed the White Materia in his pocket and rode his motorcycle, leaving the Forgotten City of the Ancients.
Aerith, I still have a future, he thought, but with your White Materia, my memories of you will always be my source of strength and the reassurance that I'm never alone.
