III. You are eternity and you are the mirror.

In one of the many high-end fashion shops that crowded the top of the Plate, a slum girl stared at herself in the floor-length mirror. She felt as out of place as a weed in a rose patch. She at least wished that she hadn't worn her heavy, worn gardening boots up here.

Aeris tugged nervously on the bodice of her dress. "Are you sure this looks okay, Zack?" She did a small turn, craning her head to see the dress dip in the back. The dress was a dark forest green, satin, with a plunging sweetheart neckline and two thin straps that crisscrossed in the back; it clung to her tightly on top, but flared out at the waist and ended at her knees in soft waves. The whole thing was trimmed in expensive Corel gold thread. This, she concluded, was a far cry from any of the dresses she owned.

"Aeris, you look amazing," Zack said. "You would make a paper bag look amazing." Aeris turned and frowned at him.

"What?! So this looks like a paper bag on me?" She sniffed. He held up his hands nervously.

"No! Nonono! I meant that you're gorgeous, you've got curves to spare and—" He backpedaled. "It looks like a 1,750 gil dress, just like it should!"

Aeris giggled, her frown melting away. "Zack, I was only teasing. It's just..." She looked back at her reflection. She still saw just a flower girl from the slums. "This dress is so expensive, and it's not me. You know?"

"Hmmm..." Zack tapped his chin. "It does seem like it's missing something." He stretched and went over to stand behind her. With a flourish, he drew something out of his pocket and clasped it around her neck.

"Oh!" Aeris breathed. "It's lovely." Dangling down from a thin, chain-link gold necklace was a small, stylized heart pendant. She caught Zack's eyes in the mirror, gracing him with a big, genuine smile.

"Zack, you shouldn't have."

"But aren't you glad I did?"

Aeris laughed, a bright, bell-like sound that had been absent as of late. "Yes, I am. Thank you!" The locket gleamed like a star beneath the artificial lights.

"And you know, it goes so well with that dress, you may as well get that, too," Zack said. Her eyes widened.

"B-but it's so expensive!" She blurted out. The attendant looked at her, then looked away.

Aeris lowered her voice. "Zack, don't waste your pay on something like this…" The SOLDIER reached over and ruffled her hair playfully.

"Then what should I waste it on, hmm? My parents are taken care of and there isn't anything in particular I need this month, so…" He waved over the attendant. "Ring this up, please!"

"Zack!" Aeris stomped her foot. "I won't let you!" She stuck her tongue out at him while trying to smooth down her hair.

"You look cute when you're angry, you know that?" He touched her face, smiling lightly.

"Zack…" She melted a bit under the warm gaze of his lavender eyes. Errant thoughts sprang up in her head, how many people would attend the wedding ceremony, what their children would look like. Just as quickly she dashed them, remembering the dreams.

She looked up at her boyfriend a bit mournfully, wondering if it wouldn't be more merciful to end things with him now and march off to her strange death alone.

I can't; I'm selfish in this one way, Planet, haven't I earned it?

As it often did in the face of her pain, the Planet remained silent. Aeris looked at Zack and tried to burn into her mind the way he was at this exact moment, gaze warm and violet, hair falling carelessly into his eyes, genuine smile gracing his lips.

I'll carry your memory with me always.

Aeris cleared her throat and busied herself by digging through one of the pockets on her thin jacket, lying crumpled on the floor.

She straightened, hands behind her back. "Well, because I had a feeling you were going to do something like this…I got you something too."

Zack pretended to swoon. "Oh, my stars and garters!"

She stuck her tongue out at him playfully. "Don't make a scene, Fair! It's only a little thing, anyway."

Into his hand dropped a little charm on a red string, the type that people often tied around the antenna of their PHS. He dangled it closer. It was a photo of him and Aeris making silly faces—one out of a series that they'd taken in a five-gil photobooth in Sector 6—sandwiched into a bit of heart-shaped plastic. On the other side, instead of just allowing the photo's blank back to show, she'd put in a few dried flower petals, white and yellow. It was thoughtful, cute, and very, very Aeris.

"Only a little thing? It's great," he grinned, making a big show of attaching it to his PHS then and there. "Better than anything else you could have gotten me."

Zack kissed her forehead tenderly, then wrapped her into a hug. She returned it, her heart light. A sudden movement in the dressmaker's window drew her eyes. Looking over his shoulder at her own reflection, Aeris watched mutely as two wings formed from her back, then caught fire and dissolved to ash, knowing that she was the only one seeing such things.

Now even when I'm awake, I'm dreaming. Am I fated to move between worlds until I don't know what's real anymore?

She closed her eyes and tried hard to let Zack's embrace overpower the memory of a blade against her back, the earthy scent of him banish the acrid smell of burning grass and feathers. The material of her dress grew cold.