"He'll hurt you," Cloud tells her.

"He won't." Aerith shakes her head. She's telling him, not herself. Really.

"He still won't even use his his name. He's too attached to whatever he left behind. Whoever."

"Well, he's not the only one, is he?" She spits out the words and waits just long enough to make sure they stung before she walks away. He doesn't call her back.

.x.

She already knows who wrote the letter, even if she doesn't know how.

"Is anything going to... Change?" She tries to choose her words, but none of them would be right anyway.

He takes another sip of coffee and says nothing, but his other hand is coiled around a worn sheet of paper.

.x.

Yuffie drops unceremoniously to the ground beside her and proclaims, "He's an ass."

"He's hurting."

"We're all hurting." Her throwing arm never recovered after the last invasion, but she's not talking about that. "One of those stupid pixies is missing, you don't see the other two scowling and biting everyone's heads off just for breathing."

Aerith does not respond.

"He's getting worse. Even you have to admit to that soon. You can't save everyone."

"No," she replies. "But I can try."

.x.

"I don't want you to go," he pleads, and all she said was she was going to find Cid.

"Sq... Leon?" Who is he today?

"Just... Stay close to me," he whispers.

He'll hurt you, Cloud's voice warns.

She toys with the idea of walking out.

.x.

"What happened?"

Yuffie is resentful she has to play leader, but someone has to keep them alive. Maybe she's the only one left with any hope.

"A witch." Sora is bleeding.

"Maleficent?"

"Stronger. I've never seen her before, never heard of her. I think..." Sora stops and looks away from Yuffie, gives Aerith an apologetic look and she feels her insides turn to concrete.

He holds out a keychain shaped like the head of a lion. "I dropped it and... I think she recognized it."

Aerith's knees weaken and Cloud is suddenly beside her. There is no "I told you so."

"He's gone," he tells them, and looks at Sora. "When did you get here?"

.x.

The show is beautiful, and terrifying, and no one else can bring themselves to watch.

She watches.

Below them they fight, and she is watching something deeper, something intimate. She watches because it is inappropriate, and because he does not deserve this privacy.

She has wings. Aerith supposes she knew that, but she did not expect them to be so big. She calls the earth, the wind, there is no element she does not command, and he is lightning fast and seems to know her every move. Have they done this before? And Aerith didn't even know he could cast.

.x.

"Thank you."

The witch is in the distance. She wishes on stars and thinks Aerith's flowers are the most beautiful she has ever seen, and shook her head in frustration at Cid's computers before just covering the whole square with a barrier that makes Aerith's individual shields look like toys.

"For what?"

"For not hating her." His eyes are softer, and he uses his real name. "I wouldn't have blamed you if you did."

He'll hurt you.

"I... Knew. One day."

He looks towards the clearing, where the witch plays with a dog. She is like a child, Aerith thinks. She feels old, and powerless.

"I wanted to," he finally replies. "I think you reminded me of her."

Her spells used to be strongest, after Merlin. Merlin is wary of the witch, and says her magic is from something far darker than his. That she could kill them all just as effortlessly as she keeps them safe and might not know the difference.

"I'm sorry."

He won't.

The witch approaches them, all smiles and laughter and it is infectious.

You can't save everyone. But she can try, right?

"Me too."