Chapter Seven

'One may tolerate a world of demons for the sake of an angel.'

'You two are meeting my girlfriend,' Zack announced in the training room one day. Cloud, who was ducked behind a boulder in the virtual forest, looked up with sudden interest; Sephiroth made no remark, being knee-deep in the digital enemies the computers had summoned up for him to practise on.

'You're bringing Aerith up to Shinra?' Cloud said, thinking of how much the Turks would love for Hojo's precious Ancient to be brought straight to their door.

'Nah,' Zack waved one hand dismissively at Cloud and took a chunk out of an elfadunk with his sword in the other. 'She doesn't like coming up here. We're meeting her under the plate.'

'Zack, I do not have time to be introduced to the bizarre women you date,' Sephiroth grunted at last, skewering a holographic zolokalter halfway across the training room with Masamume. He got almost identical looks of fury from his spiky-headed colleagues.

'Aerith is not bizarre,' Zack said. 'Just because I dated that one psychic woman does not mean all of my girlfriends are bizarre.'

'That woman was not psychic,' Sephiroth said. 'She told me that I was a squid in another life.'

'No, she told you your mother was a squid in another life. And how would you know what you were in another life? You're not psychic.'

Sephiroth groaned and Cloud tried very hard not to make any connections between psychic squids and Jenova. He concentrated, instead, upon the rage of Sephiroth insulting Aerith before he even knew her. So far, he'd managed to keep his temper in check with everyone when they mentioned things they knew nothing about, but it was nearly September now, and in his head he had a clock ticking down the hours he had left to make the changes he needed to.

One month. He had spent almost two years in the past and had one month left, and all that he had changed was having more than one conversation with Sephiroth before he burned Nibelheim to the ground, giving him severe sunburn and the occasional migraine when Zack dragged him out drinking – whether Sephiroth came with them or not.

'How did you even convince that woman to speak to you? She was the most anti-Shinra citizen I have ever met. The Turks investigated her for terrorism, and you met her in your SOLDIER uniform.'

'Hey, she had some valid points. That one reactor nearly blew up once.'

'That "one reactor" had not been properly maintained for several years. There is nothing wrong with our reactors.'

Before the argument could descend into hair-pulling – and before either of the SOLDIERs could get angry enough to be distracted from the holographic monsters so they came after Cloud – he said,

'So, when are we meeting her?'

'The psychic? Never, she left town—'

'Aerith. When are we meeting Aerith?'

'Oh.' Monsters dealt with, the programme shut itself off. Zack flipped the Buster Sword in his hand and clipped it onto his back. 'Tomorrow afternoon.'


'People are staring. I hate going out with you,' Zack said to Sephiroth, who had again refused to remove his signature black leather coat or leave his sword behind.

'People stare at you, too,' Sephiroth said, 'since you burned that bar down in Sector Three.'

'Sector Four. I burned a school down in Sector Three.'

It was true that everyone was staring at them. Unlike the people in Costa del Sol, the people of Midgar did not flee from Sephiroth, but they parted like a wave in his presence. Unlike Zack, Cloud was quite happy to trail along behind Sephiroth. He was still fairly small and weak in his teenage body – work outs and mako showers or not.

'Where is this church you're taking us to?' Sephiroth said. 'Did you commit arson there, too?'

'Nah, I never set anything on fire in Sector Five,' Zack said. 'Although there was that one time I was streaking…'

Zack regaled them with the tales of all of his felonies across Midgar for the entirety of the train ride below the plate and to Sector Five. The closer they got to the church, and Aerith, the quieter he became on the topic. He suddenly seemed much more interested in the very innocent movie he'd gone to see the previous day.

He didn't knock on the door, but burst in grinning.

'Hey Aerith!'

She was stooped over her flowers, but stood as he bounded along the aisle and grabbed her in a bear hug. She squeaked as he spun her around in his arms and dropped her back in the flower patch.

'Hi Zack,' she said, giggling. She stood on tiptoe to look over his shoulder at Sephiroth and Cloud, who were edging into the church together. 'You brought friends.'

She stepped out from behind the sizeable shield that was Zack's body and smiled at the newcomers. Sephiroth nodded politely in her direction, showing no indication that he still thought she might be as mad as any of Zack's previous girlfriends. When she turned the smile on Cloud he felt his knees buckle a little.

He didn't know why he hadn't thought of it before. He'd always known that Aerith was still alive here; Zack talked about her quite a lot. He had not been prepared, however, to actually see her alive again. He had barely known Zack and Sephiroth the last time; Aerith was his friend, and she had died because of him.

And there she was, beaming at him with pink cheeks and flowers pinned to her dress.

'Hi,' he managed, around a dry mouth.

She skipped up the aisle and bounced to a stop in front of the two of them. She clasped her hands behind her back and stared up at Sephiroth like she was looking at an art piece.

'You're General Sephiroth?'

'SOLDIER, First Class. Not General.' He glanced down at Cloud. 'Why does everyone always think that?'

'So you're the same level as Zack?' she said. The corners of Sephiroth's mouth twitched.

'Well… a little better that Zack,' he said. Aerith laughed and, across the church, Zack squawked in protest.

'And you're Cloud,' she said, turning on him with the same level of scrutiny.

'Y-yes,' he said, unsettled at how closely she was looking at him. She seemed to find him at least as fascinating as the famous war hero standing next to him. 'Uh, Shinra MP Infantryman.'

'Not a general either?' Aerith said with mock disappointment. Cloud shrugged bashfully.

'Not even a SOLDIER.'

Aerith pouted, and patted him on the shoulder.

'Don't worry,' she said, and leaned in to whisper conspiratorially, 'I'm not a SOLDIER either.'

As she leaned back, Zack came up behind her and slung his arms over her shoulders. She cried out in surprise, and then laughed at herself when she realised who had grabbed her. The couple smiled at each other and Cloud felt a thud of pain in his chest.

You may only change one life.

The rule came to Cloud's mind unbidden. It was the one that he had paid the least attention to thus far, mainly because he didn't understand how it would work. Everything that he did affected somebody else somehow, and everything he did differently meant that he'd changed their life to some small extent. He'd befriended Sephiroth and Zack, and now he had met Aerith before their time, basically changing all of their lives – and yet he hadn't been returned to the present and hadn't been punished. He couldn't even find a way to get in contact with the Lifestream again to ask. He'd considered that he needed to do something more drastic to have really changed a life, but then how much alteration was enough to be considered a 'change'?

The puzzle did nothing more than give him headaches, so he gave up on it. Now, though, he had an idea.

'Are those real flowers?' Sephiroth asked. 'I didn't think they grew in Midgar.'

'Oh! Yes,' Aerith said. She fearlessly grabbed Sephiroth's hand and pulled him towards the flower patch. He followed only out of astonishment, it seemed, that anyone in the world would be brave enough to hold his hand. Cloud had never seen such an expression on Sephiroth's face as Aerith started a lengthy lecture about her precious plants.

Cloud kept watching her, and kept thinking.

What if 'change' a life meant save a life? What if he was having so much trouble changing Sephiroth's life because to do so would also mean saving the lives of Zack, Aerith and so many other people?

But he could change Aerith's life. She never killed anyone; her living wouldn't change hundreds of people. It would only change her.

Cloud had been concentrating so hard on Sephiroth and Zack, whose deaths were so close, he hadn't thought that he might have been sent back to save someone whose death wouldn't be for several years yet.

'Zack's making me a cart so I can start selling my flowers around Midgar,' Aerith was saying. 'It'll be nice to see more flowers in the city.'

'But wouldn't you like to go somewhere the flowers grow properly?' Cloud said suddenly. The keeling Aerith and Sephiroth looked up in synchronisation, and Zack leaned back in the pew he'd taken a seat on to give him his attention.

'The flowers grow here,' Aerith said, pointing at the bright white blossoms around her ankles.

'No but—' Cloud fumbled as Zack laughed at him, '—where the flowers grow everywhere, not just in one church.'

Aerith shook her head. Her hair bounced around her forehead.

'Most people in Midgar don't even know what real flowers look like,' Aerith said. 'People in the countryside have all the flowers they'll ever need. I'd rather have them here, where they're appreciated.'

'It must be hard to grow them here,' Cloud said. Aerith's smile didn't falter.

'I like a challenge.'

'Flowers would grow anywhere Aerith asked them to, just because she asked,' Zack said.

'That was cheesy,' Aerith said, but she was smiling at the flattery.

She went back to talking about her plants with Sephiroth, who seemed oddly interested in horticulture. He had even set Masamune aside to help her pull weeds out of the dirt. Cloud considered getting him a bonsai tree. Maybe it would help him to relax; he seemed quite at peace pruning the flowers, despite all the complaints he'd had coming down here.

The idea of Sephiroth telling Jenova to shut up and let him look after his bonsai tree in Nibelheim almost made Cloud laugh.

He took a seat in the broken pews with Zack.

'Have you ever been out of Midgar?' he asked Aerith, knowing full well what her answer would be. She'd told him years ago.

'No,' she said.

'You should; you'd like it.'

'Dude,' Zack said suddenly, 'do not listen to any of Cloud's travel ideas. Last time we took his advice, Seph came home looking like a lobster.'

Sephiroth stiffened at the memory, but said nothing.

'I don't think I would like to travel,' Aerith said. 'Everything seems scarier out there… it feels like something bad would happen if I left Midgar.'

Cloud was temporarily unable to breathe, because the ghost of a hand had grabbed his windpipe and wouldn't let go. He swallowed, but it didn't loosen.

'Bad things happen to people inside of Midgar, too,' Sephiroth pointed out.

Aerith shrugged.

'I know,' she said. 'Oh, don't pluck that one, I like the petals.'

'What's up with you and leaving Midgar today?' Zack asked, giving Cloud a friendly shove. 'Aren't we good enough for you?'

With a great force of will, Cloud managed to clear his airways enough to speak.

'Yeah, I'm going to leave Shinra and run away to the country.'

His sarcastic tone felt weak to him, but Zack and Aerith laughed nonetheless.

'Dude, I'll come with you,' Zack said. Sephiroth snorted.

'You could never leave Shinra, Zack. What would you do?' He took his attention momentarily away from his gardening, sat back on his haunches and stared at his fellow. 'The ability to swing a sword the size of an ironing board is not generally sought after outside of SOLDIER.'

'What'd we do if we left Shinra?' Zack looked astounded. 'Anything! Everything! Hell, between the four of us, we could literally open up a business doing everything.'

'Sounds like a plan,' Aerith said. 'So we leave Midgar, open a business doing everything… and then live happily ever after?'

'Yep.' Zack sat back and folded his arms behind his head.

'We've got a mission in Mideel next week,' Sephiroth said. Zack glanced up.

'Ooh, hot springs!' he said. He dashed a fist at the air. 'Curses, it seems our business plans will have to wait another week.'

'We're up north of Icicle Inn two weeks after that,' Sephiroth noted.

'Snowboarding…' Zack said, with longing.

'So, no leaving for another month at least, then,' Aerith said. 'What a shame. Midgar's just going to have to keep putting up with us.'

Dramatic, orchestral music suddenly echoed around the white stone walls. Sephiroth jumped, rummaged in his pockets for a moment and drew out his ringing PHS. Zack stared in disbelief as he flipped it open.

'That's your ringtone?' he said. 'Seriously?'

Sephiroth gave him a look that very clearly expressed murderous intent, and then quickly turned his attention back to his phone.

'It's Sephiroth. Yes.' He sighed. 'I see. Under the plate, I won't be in the office for… give me twenty minutes. Yes.'

He didn't say goodbye; just flicked the phone closed and pocketed it.

'Those "business plans" will have to be postponed for more than a month,' he said. 'That was Director Lazard; he's just booked us another holiday for the beginning of October.'

Zack hopped up and stretched.

'Where to?'

'Nibelheim.'

If Cloud had thought that seeing Aerith again had hurt, he could not describe how the name of his hometown felt. He'd been shot in the stomach, he must have been: a sniper had hit him and there was a hole in his stomach the size of a fist. But when he looked down, there was no blood. His fingers were numb.

'In October?'

'He's put us in for the 25th September, but we'll probably be there a week or so. So yes, in October.'

'Oh, that's okay then,' said Zack, who was completely, happily oblivious to exactly how not-okay this was going to be. Cloud was going to be sick. He tried to point himself away from Aerith's flowers. 'I'm free that week.'

'You're free every week,' said Sephiroth.

'Not on the 20th, I'm not,' Zack said brightly. 'Neither are you, actually.'

Sephiroth glared with the force of a thousand angry suns.

'Please tell me that the words "radio competition" and "won a holiday" are not waltzing in the direction of this conversation,' he said. Zack tried to look apologetic, and Sephiroth sighed. 'Tell me it's not Costa del Sol.'

'The Gold Saucer,' Zack said. Sephiroth looked surprised.

'Oh,' he said, and then repeated Zack's earlier sentiment: 'that's all right then.'


[AN: For anyone not familiar with my writing (probably most people since I haven't written much on here besides The Answer), it's become a sort of joke among my friends that I always have an enormous time skip somewhere in my stories. This would be that skip. XD]