Part II
Welcome To My Handbasket
Chapter X
Legends
"Mind telling me why I found you bleeding to death in the doorway?" - Aeris
John felt a swelling of awe and sorrow as he gazed down upon the abandoned city below him. The aquatic architecture was beautiful in its alien complexity - giant conch shell houses and red coral structures interspersed with newer - though still old - store facades. Even the roads were fascinating segmented plates, as if someone had skinned a giant sea worm and laid out its covering. John crouched and felt the hard surface. Smooth. Much too old to hold any impressions of the builders. He stood up. Scanned the horizon. The wind picked up, sighing through the huge broken shells. It sounded like the crying of lost children.
"It's beautiful."
Had it not been for his melancholy, John would have been startled. Instead, he simply turned and nodded at Aeris' approach.
"You feel it too?" she asked.
John said nothing. Just let the tears run down his face.
"I have to do it."
"I don't want - " he shuddered, "I saw you die, Aeris. I saw your friends. I saw it shatter them."
Aeris smiled sadly. "I don't want to leave this beautiful Planet either. And in a way I will always be here."
John swept his hand across the lost city. "Can you feel them?"
Aeris nodded. "The Planet's voice is strong here."
"I don't hear the Planet, but the city. It's crying. Crying out for its lost Cetra. The forgotten lives. The lost dreams."
This time Aeris stood silent.
"Tell me. If you could jump back in time and save them, would you?"
Aeris turned away. John knew the answer. He also felt her resolve tighten. He might as well persuade a train to hop off its tracks and shinny up the nearest tree. The muted sunlight, filtering through the high clouds, caught the clear crystal in her hair ribbon, making it seem to chime with an inner light.
He stepped toward her, slipping his hand through her elbow. "You do what you have to do," he said softly. "I'm not saying I'll like it, but . . . "
She turned back to him. "You won't try to stop me?"
John shook his head. He looked away, then forced himself to look back.
Aeris smiled through moist eyes. "The answer, by the way, is yes."
"Wow. I should have asked you to marry me."
"You're terrible." She punched his arm. "I mean, what you said. I would go back. Try to save them."
"Oh man. My time machine is in the shop."
"Silly."
Looking down at the city below, they both grew solemn. It would make a unique place for a honeymoon. Too bad it would be so short. Unless, unless . . .
"Come on," Aeris said. "Walk me down."
"You had the boy. Why didn't you keep him?"
"I had what I needed. Not what I wanted, but what I needed. I can always track down the specimen again."
"I need him." Nestor leaned over, eyes boring into Hojo's forehead. "Where is he?"
"Hold this, will you?"
Nestor was so surprised that he did what he was told. That greasy geek had shrugged off his mental attack as if it had never happened. And there he was flipping switches and twisting dials on his new toy.
Two dozen wires led to the specimen, now suspended in a glowing bath of green liquid. Hojo checked the connections, dipped a finger in the liquid and adjusted a dial.
"There. Hee-hee, warm enough. Now, I'll take that headset. Thank you. Now, to imprint the brain wave patterns of a scientific mind."
"I need to know where the boy is now!"
Hojo moved back to the main machine, sliding two red levers toward the top. "Follow Avalanche. He always seems to show up with them."
"And the Cetra girl was with them?"
"Last I saw. Hee-hee, ready to go. Will you stay and witness this shining moment of science?"
"You would be better off animating a blow-up doll filled with lime Jello. At least you could eat the mess when it explodes."
Hojo concentrated on his work, which meant his mind entered Hojo mode. Mutter, mutter. "Avalanche." Mutter, mutter. "Temple of the Ancients." Mutter, mutter. "Ifalna. Last known Ancient." Mutter, mutter. "Icicle Inn."
Nestor was about to leave, but decided to see how the experiment turned out after all. It would be humorous if Hojo blew his lower lip off.
"Here we go, hee-hee, a new day dawns in science!" Hojo twisted a dial. Grabbing the two raised levers, he thrust them toward the floor. The green liquid surrounding the dead woman glowed brightly, giving the room a radioactive look. Blue sparks crackled along the liquid's surface. Hojo jiggled with glee as he fine tuned his instrument board.
"Great minds, great minds," Hojo giggled. "Now for the crowning moment."
He plugged his headset into his console, flipping a switch that lit up a green display.
"Let the data transfer begin."
He twisted a dial and punched a button. Immediately he leapt back, clutching at his head and screaming. Circuits began to overload, shorting out with the sharp smell of burnt rubber. In the tank, the body arched, slopping green rivulets over the glass sides. Hojo flailed for the two red levers. His feet flew out and he crashed to the floor, pulling a spaghetti feast of wires with him. With one final snap, the room went dark. The only sound was the popping of acrid bubbles from the body tank.
"I must say, I'm impressed," Nestor said, stepping over to Hojo's fallen form. A bubble formed in the scientist's open mouth. "The problem with data transfer," Nestor continued, "is you must designate direction of flow. You know, garbage in, garbage out?"
Chuckling and shaking his head, Nestor walked from the room.
They had bunked in a restored shell house on the eastern side of the lost city. Strange finding a ready made, do-it-yourself bed and breakfast in a ruin like this, but soon they discovered the house had been a center of operations for a scientific expedition, led by professor Gast of Shinra, Inc. According to some notes, Gast was trying to decipher the Ancients' language, and was looking for clues to the city's abandonment.
Both had risen early. Both had tried to sneak out, and had met at the entrance. Both had smiled, caught - though in the brief contest of wills it was John who slunk back into the shell house for more sleep.
Except he couldn't sleep. That horrible scene kept replaying in his head. He wanted to race out and carry her away, far from this place, but for one thing, he had given his word, and for another, she could beat him to a pulp. He had noticed that new stick she carried. Princess Guard, she had called it. Ceremonial weapon of the Cetra high priests, and considering she was the last known Cetra, that made her the high priestess. In any case, the few monsters they had met on the path she had dispatched with all haste.
John sat near the house's entrance, head in his hands. What had seemed so noble, giving in to Aeris (as if he had a choice), now made his heart feel hollow. He figured he had a day or two left with her at most. The bloody scene was rushing toward him like a runaway train.
His eyes fell upon a large glowing stone on the floor. What a curious place to put a light. A bit powerful for a night light too. He sank to his knees to peer more closely. The stone seemed to hum silently with stored energy. It was neither warm nor cool to the touch, but it sent such a rush of static through his brain he knocked his head against the far wall. The blow helped clear his head, though.
"Ugh." So that was the way of it? Well, maybe Aeris could walk all over him and he'd smile and take it, but no way was this stupid rock going to give him lip.
He crept back, approaching the stone as he would a cobra. The stone did not strike him. Slowly he extended his hand, keeping his mind shielded, a hot pan holder on the brain. He felt his skin tingle as his hand settled onto the glowing rock. Like a hot air balloon settling in a meadow, he let his mind drift to the surface. Easy, easy. The energy pushed against his defenses: swirling colors, green, red, blue, silver. A flash of light - almost painful, but he held. Voices, thousands of voices talking at once, but muted. Nothing he hadn't experienced before when he'd run out of medication. Voices, so much information. If only his mind could work fast enough to unscramble the threads.
"John?" The voice was clear and loud. Almost friendly.
"Yes? Do I know you?"
"Aeris has told me about you."
Indeed. What to say to that? It did occur to John he was talking to a rock, not terribly unusual for him, but still, had he taken his meds today?
"Who are you?"
"I am Ifalna. Aeris' mother." An image of a slender woman with long brown hair, wearing a bright red dress with a blue ruffle around the middle, floated into his mind. He couldn't remember talking to a rock this attractive before.
"What has Aeris said about me?"
Ifalna drifted closer, becoming more focused, and three dimensional. John caught a whiff of rose scented perfume. She smiled.
"She says you are kind-hearted and impulsive, but you have good intentions."
Ah. Now for the mallet. It may be a mallet wrapped in red, rose-scented velvet, but he knew it was a mallet all the same.
"Unfortunately, my good intentions are usually only that."
"You are hard on yourself."
"Takes my mind off other things." The vision, unbidden, flashed once more. The wicked point of that sword. Aeris' body, sickeningly limp; her green eyes forever glazed. The white orb, jostled loose from her hair ribbon, bouncing across the stone floor with a cling, cling, cling, only to drop into the deep waters beyond.
"Why!" John said. "Why does it have to happen this way? Don't tell me this is the only way to save the Planet!"
Ifalna was silent, her expression sad. "I'm sorry. Aeris will summon Holy. It's the only way."
"But Sephiroth - "
"The Cetra were born from the Planet, and are its protectors. It is said the Cetra will unlock the Planet, and then the Cetra will return to the Promised Land. Aeris is the last of our kind, so - "
"Don't give me that. What kind of Planet would devour its own protectors? Don't tell me Aeris has to die because of some silly fairy tale. She isn't the last of her kind because of any divine destiny. She's the last of her kind because your parents didn't have the sense to have twelve children. Oh no - " John let his mouth outrun his brain too late to stop the train of thought from hurtling over the cliff. "Ifalna, I'm so sorry. Oh God, oh God . . . "
John felt the vision fly toward him like an incoming asteroid. Instead of hiding or running, he dropped his defenses and let it slam him full force.
Flash. Four young children ran across a sunny meadow, chasing butterflies.
Flash. An attractive, middle-aged woman, wearing a gold, red and green smock, stood in a doorway, beaming, a new baby in her arms.
Flash. A young girl with green eyes wrestled with younger twins on the floor while a toddler, sucking on a wooden chocobo, clapped his hands.
Flash. A large outing in a park, perhaps a community picnic. Snow capped mountains rose in the distance. The family was there, along with dozens of other people of all ages. One little girl, who now resembled Ifalna, wandered off to look for pretty rocks in a stream, becoming lost in the woods.
Flash. A dozen armed Shinra soldiers mingled at the edge of the park. Also with them was a handful of blue-suited Turks. (None whom John recognized, though.) A helicopter buzzed overhead; peering out was the face of a young President Shinra, already overweight.
Flash. The girl in the stream hid beneath a log because she was afraid of thunder. With all the screams she heard, she assumed the others were afraid of it too.
The young Ifalna was spared seeing the carnage, but John was not. He saw it all. Many of the villagers were gunned down in flight. They were the lucky ones.
Flash. Ifalna, clutching a crushed bouquet of wildflowers, lay crying on top of a freshly covered trench. Three others like it were gouged across the park. Icy rain poured down. The girl finally pressed her flowers into the palm of an exposed hand.
It took a minute for John to realize the screams he heard were not his.
He opened his eyes, and would have screamed after all if his throat hadn't hurt so much. Instead he gazed blankly up at Aeris, who had now stopped screaming and was gaping down at the blood-spattered floor.
"Er," John said as his stomach again tried to turn itself inside out.
"What, what happened to you!"
His insides felt as if they were tearing apart. Something wet trickled down his cheek. Blood and vomitus splotched his shirt.
"Let me help you up." She pulled him to her shoulder and moved him to a bench.
John leaned on a wooden pole, willing his stomach to settle. He vaguely followed Aeris' words.
"Just stay still. Only a minute more."
Aeris released her staff, which danced between them. She went to her knees, lowering her head until it nearly touched the floor. Bright lights sparkled around the two of them, coalescing into a flashy glow on each of them. John felt his pain drain away and his energy renew while he watched Aeris' staff return to her hands. A buzz below the surface reminded him of his newly stored power. His stained shirt looked so out of place he could only stare at it.
"Now. Mind telling me why I found you bleeding to death in the doorway?"
John coughed. "I was that bad?"
Aeris looked at him. "I'm listening."
"I'm afraid, I made yet another enemy. A stupid slip of the tongue on my part. I didn't get anything I didn't deserve."
"My mother told me you were in distress. What on the Planet happened?"
"Murphy's other law. Whatever stupid thing I can say, I'll say it." He started to stand, but his head swam.
"You're still weak from blood loss. You need bed rest. Come on. You'll feel better in the evening."
John did not argue as she led him to the sleeping chamber. He pulled off his shirt and climbed in, mentioning she might want to burn it. Otherwise Hojo might try to lick the Jenova cells off it.
"He will do no such thing. You just rest, and I'll take care of everything. I'll see you when you're feeling better."
Something in her tone suggested this might not be true. Indeed, as she had run off from her companions, she would think nothing of doing the same to him.
"Your, mother, told you about me?"
"Yes. She was concerned you were hurt. Don't worry. She didn't tell me you wear long johns. Ancient Cetra joke."
John chuckled. "I think I'll leave the planet chatting to you."
He lay in the silence after Aeris left him, not brooding this time, just thinking. Aeris' movements in the lower chamber soothed him, almost lulling him off to sleep. A smile formed on his lips as he dozed, because a plan began to seep into his mind. Finally, in one of those rare moments in his life, he knew what he had to do.