It was almost as though he knew what she planned to do, and realised how little he actually understood about the planet they were working to save.
They talked while the others slept, and she was saved, for a while at least, from thoughts of Lunar Harps and sleeping forests and the forgotten city that her blood was crying out for.
And then he had asked the hardest question of all, and all Aeris could do was try to do the Planet's voice justice.
"Even in the church I couldn't hear it very clearly, but it's not a case of just…listening-"
She stopped speaking as memories of the Shinra lab began crashing through her head – she certainly hadn't heardfelt the Planet there, but there had been…others that she sensed on the same level.
Hidden by walls and coded keypads, they called out to her because they knew she could hear them as no one else ever could. No longer human in the ways that mattered, they filled her with their existences. She couldn't shut them out any more than she could stop breathing, and the technicians had put her flinching and sobbing down to the tests they were performing.
Pain! Resentment-bitterness; humiliation. A darkpressuredsilenttomb of liquid; self-loathing and disgust…
It hadn't been much better when they left Midgar, turning away from the only home she had ever known to trudge across barren grey earth. She wondered that the others couldn't hear it, it was so intrusive.
Drawnoutsilentscream; a sense of violation/injury; unlawful taking and greed, and a slow understanding that something was intruding on the Lifestream, a calamity horrific in it's power-
Don't go there, love. The corruption isn't limited to the Planet.
Ifalna?…Mom?
Suddenly there were others, kind strangers introducing themselves in her head; encouragement and love, and an ominous warning.
Unknown darkdangerousfeartaint, we've never seen before- Protect yourself! You are the last of us, daughter, and so very precious…
He had sat patiently while she tried to explain it, and had even understood when she finally had to leave it at "Feelingthoughtpictures – like a mix of perceptions."
However, he never realised, as she knelt and hoped, and felt a blossoming, slicing cold in her stomach, that she prayed for him more than anyone else, because he had saved her from her thoughts and a terrible purpose, if only for a while.
Warmth, love, a welcoming; an enfolding of arms, smiles and regrets and hopes, and the comforting of an Ancient who had been desperately alone…
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Thank you for reading! Critique is always welcome.