- Chapter Two -

Aeris's eyes shot open, and she sucked in a deep breath of air, as if waking from a horrible dream. She looked about her, confused.

I'm supposed to be dead. What happened ?I felt Sephiroth's blade go through me, I felt Holy slip away from me. I'm supposed to be part of the lifestream now.

Aeris found herself alone in a small bedroom, the bedframe and other accoutrements fashioned from a pearly white substance almost crystalline in structure. She sat up and swung her legs over the side of the bed she had been laying on. She noticed her dress had a huge blood stain on the front and back of it, spilling towards one side. She briefly undid the buttons on her dress, and found the skin below unmarked.

Not even a scar, she wondered, but how can this be ?

Quickly she buttoned her dress again and stood up, heading for the door. Upon turning the ornate handle and stepping outside, Aeris stood agape.

She was still in the subterranean city of the Cetra, where she thought she had died, but there was lifestream everywhere. It was swirling all around. It was almost brighter than daylight. A small tendril reached out to her, and brushed her cheek.

You're awake. She heard it say, and somehow, she felt it smile, even though it didn't have a face.

"Y…Yes….I am. But how ?" her brows knitted with concern, "I died, didn't I ?"

The lifestream made a slow, sinuous spiral around her body.

Yes. Yes, you did die, but did you really think that the planet would let the last Cetra die so easily ? Who would we talk to, without the Cetra ?

"We ?" Aeris was curious.

To put it in your terms, "I". Perhaps "I" would make more sense, since it is only one voice the planet uses. But since the lifestream is a collection of all that ever is, was, and will be, "we" is a more accurate term, don't you think ?

"Yes, I suppose so," Aeris blushed slightly, she had always had empathic communication with the planet before, but never a conversation. Only few Cetra ever had, from what she could remember. What could she remember ?

She remembered praying for Holy, trying to explain the situation to the planet in the simple terms of emotions. She remembered tuning out the voices of her friends. And she remembered all too well the sickening feeling of cold steel entering her back and exiting her abdomen. Her concentration shattered, Aeris had tried to call out, but her lungs weren't working. Her eyes focused for a second on Cloud, standing before her with his sword out, hatred in his eyes for the person standing behind her. She knew in that moment that Cloud held such hatred for only one person: Sephiroth. She remembered the sharp, burning pain as her balance failed, and she slipped slowly off the tip of Sephiroth's blade. Pain became her world, then, and her vision slowly began to dim. The last thing she remembered was being gathered up in Cloud's arms, and thinking bitterly how wonderful that would be under different circumstances.

The lifestream smiled again.

Go find him, if you want.

Aeris was slightly embarrassed, having her feelings known to the planet. Yes, she did want to go find him, but would he want to be found ? Why should he still long for her ? In his mind she was dead, and had probably gone to Tifa for comfort and love. What had they shared ? One date during a time of great emotional upheaval. One date that never had any real romantic consequences. Yet she couldn't just forget about him, could she ?

I musn't hope for too much, Aeris thought, I shall look for him, but I will not expect to find him. If I do, then I will worry about that when the time comes.

An opening appeared in the green fog of the lifestream, a kind of tunnel leading to the base of the crystal staircase which spiralled towards the surface. Her heart suddenly grew heavy. She had only this one chance.

She turned back to face the part of the lifestream which had spoken to her.

"Thank you, I suppose, for, if nothing else, this opportunity."

She didn't know what she would do if she couldn't find Cloud. But she had to try.

And so, with pain in her heart, Aeris slowly put one foot in front of the other, and ascended the crystal stairway.

-.-

The cold breeze that swirled around Aeris as she stepped outside foreshadowed the coming autumn. This far north, even the summers weren't entirely warm.

Aeris walked around the edge of the small pond in front of the shell house, when a glint of light caught her eye. There was something there. It was difficult to make out, but Aeris definitely saw something tall and thin sticking out of the ground on the other side of the pond. Her eyes grew wide with amazement as she drew nearer. It was her staff.

Reaching out slowly, carefully, as if she half-expected it to jump out and bite her, Aeris plucked her staff out of the ground. The end that had been stuck in the ground was caked with dried mud, which she brushed off with a small, deft movement of her left hand.

She stood there holding it for a while, the familiar weight in her hands bringing back a flood of memories. The steel had only slightly tarnished due to the elements, and Aeris was already thinking of how much she would enjoy polishing it back to its original shine and luster. She smiled inwardly as she began the long walk to the archaeological dig site.

-.-

"Please tell me what's wrong, Cloud," Tifa pleaded for what must've been the hundredth time.

Cloud's head snapped up for where he had been sitting alone, lost in thought. He had stopped trying to deny to Tifa that anything was wrong. But she was the one person that he couldn't talk to. Unfortunately, she was also the most persistent. That being so, he just remained silent this time.

"We're all worried about you. We just want to know if you're all right."

"I'll be fine," Cloud said. I'm going to have to be, he thought.

Cloud got up and decided that they had dawdled and rested for long enough, and it was time to move on. He brushed past Tifa and confronted the rest of his friends who were gathered on the bridge.

"A couple days ago, Vincent brought up a good point: what do we do now?" Cloud began, "As I see it, we have to decide if we all want to stay together from now on, or if we each want to go our separate ways. We have collected enough gil to keep us each in modest comfort for the rest of our lives, either together or separate. I know there's some things I need to take care of, by myself, and I can only assume that you all have similar duties. However, we've been through a lot together, and I think it would be sad if we all lost this friendship. So now I ask all of you, what do you want to do ?"

There was a moment of silence as the band of friends thought over the rest of their lives.

Barret's basso voice resonated throughout the bridge.

"I think, after all the shit we been through, we should stick together."

"Yeah, I mean, we're like family now," Cait Sith chimed in.

Cloud looked around. Yes, like family now. He wasn't just looking at friends anymore. He was looking at family as they nodded their agreement.

"Then we should each get dropped off in our respective places, and Cid will go around a week later and pick us all up, and we'll all figure out where to go from there."

"Sure thing, boss," Cid said.

"Okay, then, let's move out!"

-.-

Aeris found her way to the bow of the ship, and stood there, letting the sea breeze fuel her thoughts. A kind of soulful depression came over her, as she assessed her resources and what she had to do.

She had nothing, really. Only the few gil in her pocket that she had after paying for her fare to Kalm, the clothes she was wearing, and her staff. But that was enough, wasn't it ? She had survived on less before. And now, thanks to Cloud, she was much better with her staff, and could always wander the countryside, defeating monsters for their gil. And if all else failed, she could always sell flowers. If she could find any…

All the talk she overheard on board was of the coming of Meteor, and how it had been averted. She smiled inwardly to herself. So they had done it. They had succeeded. Together, the had saved the planet, and in return, the planet had given her her life back. She felt a little guilty, since there were so many more that died because of Sephiroth. She also heard that Meteor had caused just enough damage to destroy Shinra permanently, so she didn't have to worry about the massive corporation always being after her.

All in all, despite her lack of financial support, she was rather well off. Almost as well off as before she died.

A few rowdy sailors interrupted her thoughts as they ambled around the front of the ship. One of them catcalled her and winked, even though she was turned away. She traveled under a pseudonym, who was supposedly on an "archaeological expedition into the forest," instead of the usual dig site. Of course, no one knew of the forest expedition, and was much intrigued by her stories of what they found.

Yet now, as the ship bounced along on top of the waves, she found herself eager to reach Kalm.