Chapter 10: The City of the Cetra
As the sun climbed over the mountains and lit the sky its light fell upon an already awake Cloud who was hurriedly eating breakfast. Cloud was extremely excited about today. He was going to have the only two people he had ever loved back with him. He could hardly wait and had already spent half the night pouring over his old book and had determined the location of the lost city using clues and data from the book. Once Cid arrived Cloud was confident he could not only get them to the city but also to the machine that was to bring Tifa and Aeris back to life.
Cloud heard a loud knock on his door and dashed over to the door and flung it open to find a surprised Cid standing in the doorway.
"Are you ready to go Cloud?" asked Cid.
Cloud replied"Of course I am Cid! Let's get this party started!" They both ran over to the Highwind and before you could say gone, they were gone.
Cloud led them to a large island in the center of the northern ocean. It was covered in snow and surrounded by huge icebergs.
"No wonder no one comes here." remarked Yuffie while staring at the huge icebergs.
"Yeah, any ship that tried to sail through there would be cut to shreds." added Jason.
"Well that's what an airship is for," said Cid with a huge grin.
They landed on a level patch of snow and were quickly outside. With Cloud leading the way they trudged through the snow for what seemed like forever before arriving at a huge stone wall.
"This is where we put the keys." said Cloud as he brushed the snow off of 5 small holes in the wall. When the last key slid into place the gigantic wall opened to reveal a large ruined city.
They slowly advanced into the city with Cloud leading the way. As the party was walking Cloud warned,
"Be careful where you step, this place is filled with booby traps."
After about 2-3 hours of walking they came to a large building which, surprisingly, still had its roof in one piece. They opened the massive doors and stepped inside.
Inside the building it was quite warm. As the party loosened their jackets, scarves, hats, ECT they looked around the vast building. Cloud's eyes settled on the large machine standing in the center of the room. It was a rather large machine with many tubes and wires connected to it and running everywhere. Cloud approached it and after a quick reference to his book pushed a few buttons and pulled a few levers and the machine hummed to life.
"I can't believe it still works! This is great!" exclaimed Cloud startling the others who were still in awe of the huge building.
Everyone approached the machine and gathered around Cloud as he scanned his book on what to do next. He issued some instructions to Cid, Yuffie and Jason who quickly took up their positions as Cloud walked over the chair where the user sat and quickly sat down and hooked himself up.
"This is it, the moment of truth. Will it work? If it works I will get to see Aeris and Tifa again."said Cloud with hope on his face and in his voice.
"Alright everyone NOW!" yelled Cloud to Cid, Yuffie and Jason who each threw their respective levers or pushed their respective switch.
The machine hummed, first slowly and quietly and gradually got louder and louder as a white light began to form on the two beds where Tifa and Aeris were to appear. The light and humming intensified until it was almost unbearable. The light was so bright it temporarily blinded everyone until at last it began to fade and as it faded, vision was restored and Cloud focused on the two beds to see two bodies lying on the beds.
He got up and ran over to find that the two bodies were in fact Aeris and Tifa. They were both lying on their backs with their eyes closed but they were both breathing to Clouds great relief and joy.
"Everyone, it worked! They are both alive and breathing well." said Cloud as he called everyone over.
"Congrats Cloud! I had my doubts as to whether or not it would work but it did great job!" said Jason.
"I agree, great job Cloud" said Cid.
They all proceeded to congratulate Cloud on a job well done.
At that moment Aeris slowly sat up and opened her eyes to find Cloud and the gang standing around her. She looked over and saw Tifa on a bed only a few feet away.
"What happened? Where am I? What the heck is going on?" asked Aeris looking back at Cloud.
Cloud happily answered "Welcome back to the land of the living, its been a while." said Cloud with a grin. "We used this machine to bring you both back to life." he added.
"It feels good to be flesh and blood again. Thank you so much Cloud." said a happy Aeris as she stood up and gave Cloud a huge hug.
As she pulled away Tifa slowly sat up and looked around at everyone gathered around her.
"What is going on Cloud?" asked Tifa.
"We just brought you and Aeris back to life using this machine here." replied Cloud as he knelt down and helped Tifa to her feet. "How do you both feel?" asked Cloud.
"I've never felt better." said Aeris.
"I feel like a million bucks." replied Tifa.
"That's good to hear." said Cloud.
Cloud gave Tifa and Aeris some warm clothes and some winter gear and when they were ready headed back to the Highwind. On the way home Cloud filled them both in on what had been happening the last few years. When he was done he asked Tifa and Aeris to come to his room. On the way over Tifa sensed that Cloud had more feelings for Aeris than for her so she knew what was coming up.
Upon arriving at the house in Costa del Sol Cloud asked to be alone with Tifa and Aeris for a bit. After everyone had left he led the girls up to his room in the huge house.
He spoke "After long and careful thought I have come to realize that the one I love most is you Aeris. It took a lot of soul searching and thought to come to this decision. I hope that I haven't hurt you Tifa. If I have I wish to apologize and hope we can still be friends." said Cloud turning from Aeris to Tifa.
Tifa with tears in her eyes said "It's ok Cloud I understand. It took me a lot of thought while I was in the lifestream with Aeris to come to realize that you loved her more. I accept your decision and will move on with my life now that it has been granted to me once again." With that she turned and walked quickly from the room with a small smile on her face.