-: Heart Less Love :-

These days, which like yourself,
Seem empty and effaced
Have avid roots that delve
To work deep in the waste.

-James Merrill

Chapter Fourteen: Lost

Tifa heard the scream, head whipping around quickly from where she was trying to douse the fire that burned without any apparent end on the engine of the airship. There had been a lucky escape by the crew, the rest of the ship was unharmed by fire, and only the engines were going up in smoke. But the scream that pierced the air as keen as any arrow from tautened bow string; Tifa knew that voice and the desperation streaking through it.

"Aerith!" she cried, dropping the bucket. "Aerith, I'm coming!"

"What?" Cloud said beside her, face sooty from trying to keep his face clear of the flames, "Tifa?!"

"Keep at it, I'll be back!" she cried, and sped off towards the mansion. Tifa had always been fleet footed, something which served her well now, running over the distance between the ship and the town as if it were no trouble at all, pushing aside people without any care for their well being.

The scream had been filled with pain. One thought dominated Tifa's mind, cuddling up with fear as it did so; that Aerith could be dying, or worse, dead. That she had failed her. That she had failed herself yet again.

She didn't so much as bother with knocking when she made it to the mansion, nor slow her step, merely throwing her shoulder recklessly against the door. It splintered at the jamb and gave way under her momentum, so she crashed to the floor and rolled away and to her feet, ankle grazing a stand with an expensive vase on it. Whipping her head around, she started up the right side staircase to where they had been forced to take Aerith and Yuffie, when it turned out that the ships san was busy with several cases of food poisoning. Vincent had said that the rooms here were clean enough for them to stay in and any infection would be neutralised by Aerith's skilled use with magic.

Her eyes grazed over several scrape marks on the wall, the door stood ajar and the hint of a boot toe tip peeked enticingly through the slice of that open door. Drawing a shaking breath, she pushed the door open to look down at the crumpled body of Aerith, and the empty bed.

"Aerith! Aerith, I'm here, Aerith are you awake? It's me, Tifa... please, please don't be..." She swallowed what she was going to say when the green eyes fluttered open; it was for the best if she didn't explode in a huge mess of fear over the prone Ancient. "Oh thank god, Aerith, what happened?!"

"Yuffie, Yuffie is gone... she's gone... Yuffie... I failed..."

"Huh?!" Tifa looked around, one hand absently stroking the golden-brown curls. Yuffie's Conformer was indeed gone, as was the travelling cloak that the Wutai ninja usually always wore. Frowning, a furrow appearing between her fine brows, she looked down at Aerith, "Is this something you haven't been telling us?"

"I... I didn't tell you..."

"Why?"

"Because it would shame her... because you would all fear her..." Aerith's eyes slid closed, she swallowed hard even as she tried to sit upright into Tifa's arms, then thought better of it and lay back down, "and because there really wasn't anything anyone could do, it was Yuffie's battle, not ours."

"Where is she? Will you explain this at all, in detail, to everyone?"

"Yuffie left, she's probably looking for... ...I will explain it. I think I have some broken ribs, I can't seem to move right... internal bleeding too, it hurts to sit upright... I need a cure materia."

"Okay well," Tifa checked Aerith's bangle, coming up with offensive materia; Fire, Ice, a couple of summons, one of which was that Titan materia. It still brought a faint smile to her face, and a soft blush. Tifa then checked her own slots for the materia, finding nothing equipped there. "...I don't have it."

"Yuffie had it equipped... and they don't sell curative materia here... I need to sleep..."

"What? No!" Tifa shook Aerith's shoulder gently, but the Ancient had already passed out, eyes closed again and hands limp on the floor. On the corner of her lips was a touch of bloody foam, probably from trying to sit up. If there was no materia here to help her, then the only likely place they could get someone to use a restorative materia would be... "Cosmo Canyon. Don't worry Aerith, we'll get this sorted, we'll... I'm sorry..."

Tifa reached down for her PHS and clicked the button. Vincent picked up, his gravelly voice saying just a single word: "Tifa."

"I need a new litter rigged, once we have the fire fixed, we're gonna have to go to Cosmo Canyon."

"That might be tricky. The fire has destroyed the Sierra's engines."

"Damn... then we're going to have to do it the old way. I know a few people have trucks in this town. I'll see if I can borrow one to get us there."

"Tifa there is something you should be made aware of. Several crew members reported seeing a caped, small figure entering the ship but vanishing when approached closely."

"I'm seeing a pattern here..."

"Pattern?"

"It's not important right now, what is is that we make it to Cosmo Canyon, all of us, in one piece. I'll radio ahead and let Red know that we're coming. Aerith got attacked by Yuffie."

"Yuffie attacked Aerith? That's strange; she practically worships your Cetra."

"Aerith mentioned something about it, but I have this feeling that when she explains what is going on, no one will really like the answers she's going to give us. How much longer until the fire can be controlled?"

"The fires are almost out, we're throwing sand on the embers to bunk them down and let the metal cool off."

"Alright. How's Cid?"

"You want to keep sleeping?"

"That good, huh? Alright, I'll give you a call when we're ready to go." She clicked the call off, and then thumbed into the pad a new number, and with a slight sigh, pressed it to her ear. Her other hand stroked fingertips covered in hard cracked leather down the gentle curve of her lovers face, sleeping so peacefully.

"Hello, what is the problem?"

Tifa almost laughed, this must be what near insanity felt like, "Red, you are –not- going to believe the kind of day we're having..."

It took them almost half a day to get everyone ready to be moved. The truck that Tifa had borrowed from an elderly couple that she remembered from her youth, a kind old gentleman sold it with gentle eyes and an understanding smile, served to carry the injured and sick across the rough terrain, packed in amongst straw to try and smooth out as many bumps as possible. The rest went on foot, leaving Vincent and Cid behind to look after the airship and to make some checks on the equipment, hunting for the traces of sabotage and what exactly had happened. Tifa had never before felt so glad to leave the darkness of ShinRa mansion behind her.

In comparison, the bright warmth and bustle of Cosmo Canyon was a welcome one, one that she had subconsciously yearned for. In the townspeople she found willing, eager hands to help and a kind of reverence from the elders of the canyon for the delicate flower who lay wilted in the straw, face ashen and breathing shallow. When they took the litter to a room in the inn, away from the noise and close to the hot springs of the Canyon (the waters of which had always been rumoured to hold gently restorative powers), Tifa made sure that she was close behind, worrying at how the room was, if Aerith was comfortable, did they need her for anything?

The doctor who had been called in was a woman in her middle years, with a lined face but bright, joy filled eyes of soft brown and hair that may have once been blonde but was thoroughly streaked with silver. That came as a bit of a shock for Tifa, this woman had been an apprenticed doctor many years back when her mother had been coming to the end of her sickness. She must have been close to finishing what they called a 'residency' to attain her full doctorate. As a child, she had been distant to most of the doctors who could seemingly find no help for her sick mother. But this doctor, Kinsky, had been one of the few who had taken the child Tifa aside and explained quietly the details without being too overt about them. She had not lied to her. She had not said once that everything would be alright. For that, Tifa had been grateful, somewhat.

"Dr Kinsky," she said softly, rewarded with that kind smile, a faint sense of relief pervading her fear-stricken mind as she saw it, "You're still working here."

"Ah, Tifa Lockhart wasn't it? Look how you've grown, and what a beautiful woman you've grown into! But of course I am still here, where else am I to continue studying medicine?"

"Continue, but, you qualified?"

"Yes, yes," Dr Kinsky chuckled softly, waving a hand. She still wore a white overcoat, a high necked shirt in a brilliant shade (today was a kind of pink-red) and jeans that looked as though they had suffered better days. She even still had that pair of tattered sneakers on. "But education never stops, and the more research I can do into restorative medicine, the better for everyone. Where else to study, than Cosmo Canyon? Of course, I heard that our patient is the last Cetra, maybe when she is well enough, I can convince her to give me just ten minutes and explain about how the healing processes with natural talents work." She sighed, and then jumped, "Oh, how rude of me, I forgot. I managed to set a slow heal against her ribs, it won't be as good as her magic of course, from what she told me, she can barely draw breath to summon the magic. But it'll be about enough to set it right so she can get the air in her lungs to use a spell or three."

"A slow heal?" Tifa repeated.

"Yes, I'm experimenting you know." Dr Kinsky rubbed a hand into her blonde-grey hair, the shock shorn to her jaw and a little displaced and wild already, before the hand ruffled it further. "I'm using two types of materia in conjunction with each other; a cure materia and a time materia. There have been some combinations that never worked too well, of course, but you can find uses for almost anything I guess. Such as a sporting injury, I'd use one heal and one fire materia, not only healing the injury, but the heat added into it soothes the muscles, you see?"

"That's amazing," Tifa said, genuinely meaning it, "And if Aerith wakes up, I'm sure she'd want to talk to you about it. She loves healing, she really does."

"You really have grown up though, hadn't realised how quickly time passed."

"Everyone gets older," she chuckled, putting her hands behind her, an eye on Aerith's door. "I never did say thank you for not telling me a bunch of crap when I was a kid. You might not realise it, it meant a lot to me, that an adult could see me as not just a kid."

"I've never understood why adults try and keep stuff from children, more intelligent than we always give them credit for being."

"After you went, it was a matter of weeks before mom passed away."

"I'm sorry."

"I'm... not." Tifa looked at her, "If there's one thing that being with Aerith has taught me, if there's one aspect of the Cetra lifestyle I have picked up on, it's that everything passes, one way or another. I was sad, sure, that mom died, but I was a kid. Looking back, she was sick and in pain, and in passing, she not only rejoined the lifestream but also all the memories of her loved ones. When I pass, my mother and father will be waiting there for me, I'm sure of it."

"That's the best way to look at it. I wonder, you know..."

"Wonder what?"

"Once, humans and Cetra were one race, the Cetra. In time we split into those two tribes. I wonder, with the way the planet is going, will we converge back into one race eventually."

Tifa smiled, "Maybe."

Just as she was going to ask something else, a vibrating buzz in her pocket made her pause and look down at the PHS. Groaning, she switched the message out, then looked up apologetically at the doctor. Kinsky just shook her head, "It's alright, really. I'll keep a watch on Aerith whilst you're gone."

"Okay, let me know if anything changes?"

"I will, I promise. I hear that Cloud Strife is with you?"

"Yeah," Tifa paused in turning to go.

"Wish him the best from me. He won't remember me; I performed a small treatment on him, about three or so years ago."

"Zack passed through here with Cloud?"

"Zack?" Kinsky's eyes softened, recalling, and then crinkled in deep amusement, "Black haired young man, cheeky as they come?"

"That's him."

"Yes, he passed through here with Cloud, I remembered him from when your mother was ill. Cloud was dreadfully sick, it took all my ability to find a serum that when applied, might help him regain consciousness, but before I could hand it over, they were gone. I always wondered what happened to them."

"...Cloud's better now, much better..." Tifa looked away, and left quickly through the door.

Dr Kinsky shuffled on her feet, blinking, and then sighed, "So Zack died too. What a tale of woe ShinRa weaved for everyone." And then she turned back to her patient who lay sleeping deeply.

The candle was still bright.

She sat by it, knees drawn under her chin, entranced by the wispy and moving flames. She had once sat here, looking at the fire, at the girl across the flames and that wistful tilt to her lips as always. No, correction, she had sat here and watched the fire in the green eyes, reflected back to the world, hiding those mysterious thoughts. It was here, that Aerith had discovered time was slipping away from her; it was in the Canyon the Planet spoke stronger than ever, that the tears were destined to start from.

Tifa blew at the ends of her hair, feeling chilled despite the candle's flame. It was more a bonfire than a candle, but she couldn't help but use the local name for it. It was here that Tifa had, unsuccessfully, attempted to cajole the secrets of the Cosmo Candle drink from the local bar owner. It had been worth a shot.

The glass sat next to her, filled with the strangely layered alcoholic drink, almost untouched and the curls of what looked to be dried chilli peppers floating aimlessly, bobbing in the ripples of liquor.

"Hey, Teef, thinking?"

She blinked her large dark eyes, looking up at Cloud who was stood across the fire from her, in loose cargo pants and a white shirt. He looked strange without the armour he always seemed to carry around. She smiled a touch; his unwitting pose was still an echo of Zack. Coming from behind Cloud, however, was the low slung form of Red, the fiery glow of his tail whipping about in the inky blank that the candle failed to illuminate.

"Red," she said, real pleasure touching her voice, "It's been a while!"

"Tifa, still a wild rose I see. Cloud, you seem more like your self, if the term can ever be applied." The lion-creature slunk closer and then sat. "How is Aerith?"

"Stable, sleeping the healing off. Dr Kinsky is a very talented woman." Tifa picked up her glass as Cloud sat down by the fire. "Fire's such a funny thing, it makes you remem- what are you laughing at!?"

Cloud chuckled, cupping a hand over his mouth. "Tifa, it's like déjà vu. You said those exact words almost a lifetime ago!"

"I did?"

"Yep!"

"Oh dear, you know you're getting old when you start repeating yourself." She smiled into her drink. "But, instead of remembering bad times, I'm out here, thinking of our original journey together, those good times."

"Good times, hmph."

Red's tongue lolled out in an approximation of a feline grin, "Cloud's just upset because all he remembers is you beating ten colours of mud from him after he got a scratch on Aerith."

"I am not!" Cloud's brilliant flush gave the game away however.

"It was quite a beating too."

"I remember when he started crying..."

The Soldier interjected wildly, "I did not cry!"

"Was that before or after he was screaming for mercy?"

"Before I think."

"If you two are quite done?!" They looked at Cloud, Tifa unable to help the vague remorseful little bubble of laughter, "You just enjoy picking on me. And I wonder why I eat so much chocolate... comfort food."

"No, you're just a pig, Cloud Strife."

"We've had this conversation before too... want me to check you over for grey hairs?"

Tifa laughed, and after sipping her drink, looked at Red, feeling the warm cheer of companionship and a good drink. "So, tomorrow, Aerith's gonna tell us what's up with this crazy world, for a second time."

"I could add something to that, it seems like the weather has gone a little bit crazy in some parts of the world." Red flicked his tail irritably, "though why the patterns have been thrown out, is impossible to say."

"Weather, huh?" Tifa looked at Cloud, who shrugged, hands to the air. "Like what?"

"Tornadoes in Junon, a drought in Mideel, rain in Costa del Sol..."

"So, not-typical weather then, great, as if there weren't enough problems."

"Where are Cid and Vincent?"

Tifa grimaced, "After the ship blew up and once we got Cid back to speaking a civilised language, they decided to pick over the wreckage and discover how the sabotage had been done. There's no doubt it was Yuffie, the eye witness accounts all point to it being her. The kind of mobility, the raw speed, the shadow and cloak... I just wish we had some idea of why she did it. It's not like any of us had anything with her, like an issue. Yuffie's part of the family. We've watched her grow from a snotty and awful teenager, into a young woman worthy of praise." She shook her head, "But I would dearly love to crack her a few times across the face for hurting Aerith."

"Violence solves nothing, Tifa."

Cloud snorted, "You clearly haven't been chased across Cosmo Canyon by her before then, have you?"

There was a long silence then, as they all retreated into their thoughts, staring at the bonfire and the hungry flames. Tifa swirled the alcohol in the glass, watching the pretty merging patterns.

Finally, she said, "I am glad I got to return here again."

Mother would have liked the peace of this place... mother...

This is the last letter I will write to you...

She lifted her hand before she opened her eyes, the fingers moving to press along the ridges of bones that made mountains of ribs, the soft flesh that covered them, the wince of a bruise that was brushed up against. There was a hollow rush of air as she breathed in deeply, then and only then, she looked up at the ceiling, the patchwork tiles laid haphazardly on the stone hewn surface. She was in a comfortable bed that still smelled faintly of straw and the dark of night blew fresh from outside the open window of the sparsely furnished little room she was in. The cold and clinical way it had been decorated in suggested louder than words that she was in a sickroom of a kind, her boots neatly placed by a chair, where her clothes were washed and folded, close to a suitcase, a small travel one, of her other clothes and minor belongings.

Aerith sat up gingerly in bed, one hand still cradling her side. A thousand memories crashed and whirled in her head, each one painful in clarity, each one tender and a simple part of her soul that vied for the first spot to fall into place. What had she been dreaming of?

Her eyes trickled to the white and blue patterned covers that were hitched up around her knees, her golden-brown hair loose around her and the heavy bangs covering her green gaze. Zack, she had been dreaming of him, she had been dreaming of the time before she had been totally caught up into this world.

Naively, she had thought that the day she had met Cloud Strife it had all begun. That was wrong, she knew that. It had happened before she was even born; she had been brought into this world with her path already laid out for her. Aerith Gainsborough could never have been normal.

It made her kind of sad to think of that. Cloud, Tifa... the ones she loved had had that chance to escape from this tricky woven web. But simply because of who her parents were, she had never had the chance to get away from it all.

"What are we all doing here," she whispered, clenching her teeth as her mind felt around the edges of the strange materia spell cuddling up to her injury. Plucking it aside deftly, she drew breath, and then exhaled slowly. The wind came to her call, the simplest of healing for her body. The water inside her stirred and her blood moving sluggishly, then a bit faster, to the area she was wounded at. Together, body and magic wove together, the bruise vanishing and the bone knitting with almost miraculous speed. Only when she was satisfied did she stop exhaling and remove her hand, looking at the fingertips, then the lined palm. "What am I doing here? I should be at home, with Tifa, I shouldn't be doing this all over again."

Tifa, she had promised to tell them all what had happened. Tifa, with those large worried and dark eyes. Tifa, holding her in strong arms, carrying her to the truck and laying her amongst the fragrant straw. Tifa, her silent rock in this unknown storm that raged around them, Tifa...

She watched her as she fell. She watched only her. There would be darkness, but the last thing she would see, would be the most beautiful and perfect thing Aerith had ever cradled close in her life... there would be... darkness...

For her. She would brave the darkness for Tifa. Always and only for her... because she could be a hero too...

"Not quite the heroism I had planned," she sighed, slipping from the bed to get dressed, cold air giving her bare flesh bumps. The clothes smelled of forest streams and daylight dreams. It made her smile a little that she thought on these things with such fancy.

She was almost dressed when there was a knock at the door. Pushing her loose hair back from her face, she opened it to see Cloud standing there, PHS in hand. "Cloud," she said in some surprise.

"Ah, you're up, how's the side?"

"Better, thank you. How are the others?"

"They're doing well; the doctor they have working here is really talented. If you're wondering where Tifa is, she's on the other handset to Barrett. I got a call from Reeve and as Tifa's trying to juggle all the calls at once, decided to see if you're up and ready for some food."

Aerith blinked, "Food, well I-" as her stomach betrayed her with a growl, "...I guess I could manage to eat something."

"Down, tummy," Cloud growled back, and then he smiled a touch, "You know, I never got to discuss some things with you. I'd like to talk about them whilst we get you fed before you explain what happened."

"I guess..." she slipped into the corridor next to the blond, then together they started walking through the warren of small homes towards the inn and restaurant where the smells of delicious food came floating from.

"Zack..." Cloud said finally.

She turned a fearful face to him; she hadn't expected this, not yet. She had hoped he would wait until she was ready; there were most of her memories of him back where they belonged. "Cloud, I..."

He shook his head, tears sitting on the verge of falling, "He was my best friend. He saved my life, countless times. I owed him, a lot. I know, you and him were..." his cheeks reddened, "close."

"I loved him," she said simply, surprising even herself.

That was right; she did love him still, in her way. Her first love, the painful memories of growing, expanding into the woman she would be. The memories of his bright blue eyes like the daylight sky she had longed to reach up to, the brilliance of his smile and the way, everything seemed right when he was around. The first person who had understood that she was an Ancient, and never took advantage of her for it, the first person who had shown her that Soldier wasn't all bad, that the world wasn't out to destroy the last shards of a person who ran from it...

"I have 23 small wishes..."

She smiled a little sadly, even as Cloud went on; "The letters to him never got there, Tseng saved them all, he told me that they were locked in a box for when Zack was free and able to come back to Midgar. One letter made it through though, your last letter to him."

Aerith studied him from the side. "I knew he wasn't dead, not then."

"I know, I was no use at the time. He took me across country; he protected me when I couldn't even move. He died, on the cliff, overlooking Midgar."

"So that's why you always go there, the sword..."

"The sword was Zack's, he told me he got it from his mentor, and passed it to me. He said, it was his dreams, his honour and pride. That, if you wanted to be a hero, you had to have these things. Sometimes, even be willing to give them up." Cloud gritted his teeth, "I admired him so much. After he died, after telling me I was his living legacy, proof of his existence, the mako in me caused me to get myself and his memory confused. When you saw me, you remember what you said?"

"Yeah, I do."

"What rank were you?"

"Rank?"

"You know, in Soldier?"

"Oh I was... Soldier, First Class."

"Just the same as him..."

"The same as who?"

"My first boyfriend..."

"The way you look, the way you acted..." Aerith closed her eyes.

"I know, you said as much yourself, on the ride at the Gold Saucer."

"...first off, it bothered me how you looked exactly alike. Two completely different people, but look exactly the same... the way you walk, gesture... I think I must have seen him again, in you. But you're different... things... are different..."

Aerith's eyes prickled with the tears she wanted to stop but couldn't. "I think... I knew then, that you had known Zack. It was pretty obvious, especially after what his parents had said. But you weren't him, and no matter how much I miss him, he won't come back. Why now, after all this time, do I miss him so much?"

"Everything happened really fast," Cloud said, "Zack died and a couple of months later, you and the rest of us, we were off into the wide world. You fell in love again, there wasn't time to grieve."

"...I saw him, in the Lifestream. He was there, with me. I miss him even now, how can I explain it without it sounding terrible!?"

"You don't have to. Tifa understands, in her own way. But don't shove aside the person you love, because you miss someone. Don't shut her out; she wants to understand as much as you do."

"...I can't believe it," she laughed.

Cloud lifted his eyebrows, "huh?"

"Me, getting advice from you! Who'd have thought it?"

"...you're all horrible," he sniffed, they were by the restaurant now, and even his stomach was growling. "Wow, that food smells great, I'm going to have one of everything!"

"You'll get fat," Aerith warned.

"More of me to love?" he grinned at her, picking up a menu for them to look over.

No, he's not Zack, neither is Tifa. But I can see echoes of your influence around me, about me. I miss you, but, hopefully, it'll be a long time before we meet again, Zack...

Fed, watered and dressed soberly – there was even enough time for Cid and Vincent to show up, looking weary and ragged and be seen to by the willing attendants of the Canyon – enough time before her own clock had struck the last second before she was there, at the guttering bonfire candle, flame fingers touching the purple sky that was fading into tired morning. They seated about it, faces worn and eyes hooded by shadows, but alert, every single one of them. On the PHS handsets, Reeve and Barrett listened in intently, as she folded her hands and stood up.

"Not too long ago, I sat here and wondered if I was really alone in this world," Aerith said softly, her green eyes glowing. "And here we are again, just before the discovery of something that could change everything we understood about this world."

"We looked over the wreckage," Cid spat, he looked in a terrible mood. A cigarette hung unlit from fingertips, half crushed. "It's pretty obvious that it was sabotage. It was done in a way to cause maximum damage to the ship but place as few lives as possible in danger. We're lucky it was at rest and no one was messing around down the engine bay way."

"Yuffie was last seen sprinting away from Nibelheim," Cloud added.

"If it was Yuffie, then I can offer no explanation as to why she would do something like that. If anything else, the urge to travel and see the world was strongest still in her, not only for her spirit but her youth." Vincent brushed black bangs of hair out of his eyes, focusing on the pilot. Cid just grunted an agreement, and they all fell momentarily silent.

This was the moment that she had been dreading.

She drew a shaking breath, clenching hands briefly and then tried to speak; but her voice was weak and died before even escaping the hurdles her lips presented, battling through the tightness in her throat. They all looked at her and she sat back down, feeling suddenly as if she was on the spot.

"Aerith," Reeve crackled over the PHS. "It's okay, take your time."

"No," she murmured, "I've been hiding it for long enough. And, well, we all know what happened the last time I kept things to myself!"

Despite her light hearted tone, the black humoured joke clanged harshly in the air, and she twirled restless fingers into the material of her skirt. Tifa almost moved towards her, dark eyes filled with worry, but a fractional tilt of her head made the fighter stop.

"Let me start from the beginning... so I don't leave anything out," Aerith looked at the fire, she knew 'he' was watching, as he had done from the start, "So you can correct me, if I mess up."

No one else saw him of course, puzzled questions floating in their eyes. But she heard his voice clear enough in reply; "As it pleases you, Honoured Daughter."

"Okay... over two thousand years ago, the calamity from the skies-"

"Jenova, we know," Cid snapped.

"Cid, shush," Red murmured, "She is telling the story of the future to unfold. It would be wise to hold your comments for now. Continue, Aerith."

She collected herself again, so painfully slow in the doing and took a deep breath, "...th...the calamity from the skies, Jenova. What records we have of her only exist after she wreaked havoc among not only the Cetra but the humans, who were by then already distant relations of Cetra, their magic long since bred out. But before that, Jenova was free of the materia's influence, she was free to love and live. She loved a Cetra man. One day, a chunk of a comet, the burning heart of destruction fell from the sky, filled with an incredible amount of sub-psychic radiation. It was harmless to the genetic makeup of the residents of this planet, but to Jenova who had crash landed from outer space; it was lethal in that it filled her mind with irrational psychosis. Jenova went mad... the faces of loves, of friends and family... nothing could get through to her, she went mad and tried to destroy the world. The stories are partially right, the Cetra did defeat her, but Jenova, aware of the black materia's effects, went to that defeat willingly."

"I still don't see what this has to do with everything; we knew the vague details anyway." Barrett's voice was slightly irritated, but that was normal. "And Yuffie?"

"Please, patience," her hands trembled. "ShinRa spent years conducting experiments with Mako radiation on humans, and on infusing humans with Jenova cells. But... what ShinRa didn't know, was Jenova had loved a man deeply, and borne him children."

"Children?!" Cid cracked out.

"Yes, children. Natural inheritors of both Cetra and Jenova strains. It's been over two thousand years, there are countless, negligible branches of those scions. But, every so often, the strains find themselves drawn together, without knowing it. The call of familiarity. Zack on some smaller level, miniscule, was part Jenova, probably why he was drawn to the Soldier lifestyle. Yuffie... is significantly more Jenova than anyone I have come into contact with, and also Cetra." Her eyes looked at the burning fire, wanting to pretend she wasn't saying this. "I saw her, when we first came together, use healing magic so expertly. Yuffie was... I didn't know how to explain what I felt... someone else using the Cetra magic without materia, was I not as alone as I'd dreaded so much? I have my suspicions, but I think Yuffie's mother was on one level or another, Cetra, be it part or whole. But her father's blood carried the Jenova strains too."

"You... you can't be serious..." Tifa shook her head, "W-We'd have known!"

"You did though, when you went into the corridor, when Yuffie ran after materia so much... it should have been more obvious to us all."

"Why didn't the Jenova strain become active when we originally had the black materia?"

"I think... it has to do with puberty." She blushed a little, how silly of her, and look up from the fire. "Think about it, Yuffie was already practising Cetra magic and she was already drawn to hunting out materia. Minor manifestations of both bloodlines. But, if a child ran around with the kind of power that Sephiroth had, or Jenova, then there would be a lot of damage done unless the mind was mature enough to control those forces. It's probably a failsafe built into the Jenova strain. Sephiroth, Zack, Cloud... even Genesis and Angeal, everyone who came into contact with Jenova was over a particular age. Cloud wasn't experimented on until he had passed the age of sixteen, which was when Yuffie started to follow us around. By the time the cells in Yuffie were waking up to the other genetic heritage, she was already away from the influence of the black materia. Only, there's someone else out there, older than Yuffie certainly, and hunting out the materia. It's probably a nobody, someone who was born with too much Jenova in their body, and they found it, found the materia and has moved it. The psychic vibrations of it reverberate in the world, waking similar feelings in Yuffie. She only managed to resist it so long because of her Cetra blood."

Aerith narrowed her eyes shrewdly, "I should have actually figured it out sooner, when you gave us the phone call after Yuffie was attacked. If they had really been meant for me, they could have come to where I was staying with Tifa in Edge. But they didn't, they specifically targeted Yuffie, because of her Cetra blood. The monsters in the hallway never forced their way inside to me, but seemed content to stay outside where Yuffie was fighting. I wonder if Yuffie knows that the other Jenova active in the world is trying to kill her, or rather, the Cetra part of her off."

"...so...why did she...?" Vincent paused, unaccustomed to voicing concern, then he looked away into the night, "...why..."

"I think that whilst Jenova is prevalent in her awareness right now, the fact that she tried to minimise the damage to people shows that there is still Yuffie hidden inside her. She ran away to keep her damage to us to that same minimum, she knows she's uncontrollable. True, the lure of the black materia is another factor, but those facts stand also." Aerith rubbed at her side.

"Then why did she attack you?" Tifa flared. "Why!? If I get my hands on her..."

"Because I am Cetra too, and the real threat to the Jenova mentality. If I can break the hold of the alien awareness, then Yuffie is back to being our Yuffie again, not a crazed danger to all she meets."

"Then, the logical place to start finding Yuffie, would be in finding the black materia." All eyes moved the red furred creature, crouched by the fire, following his movements as he shuffled a little closer to the phs that held the voice of Reeve. "Have you had any reports of where it might be?"

"Actually, we've been trying to extrapolate where it might be, as with the last time we know that the Materia required a lot of spiritual energy to use."

"Spirit energy like the lifestream, but the Northern Crater has been blocked in," Cloud rubbed his chin.

"Mideel." Tifa snapped her fingers.

Cid barked, standing up quickly, "I'll be damned, Mideel is a good place to start if any!"

"Exactly," the brunette fighter grinned, "Remember the crater made there? It's perfect."

"If not there, then I might know of one other place she would go."

All eyes riveted back to Aerith, who looked calmly back at them. She rested her hands in the folds of her skirt and smiled softly. "It's obvious... isn't it?"

"...there..." Vincent replied, "You're right."

"Huh, where?" the blond soldier tilted his head, "I'm about two jumps behind you two, where?!"

"Midgar," Aerith said softly. "Where it all begins and ends, of course."

Midgar, where the whirling tide of destruction has laid waste to the landscape. The Meteor falling, the dead reactors pooling useless mako energy, the deepground soldiers, the old experimental hangars and the dark sound of nothing, echoing across the devastated landscape. The broken pillars of metal, twisted ungracefully in ropey coils from the ground to overcast sky, the shambles of houses and sometimes a clean picked skeleton that grins haphazardly from under new growths of flowers and grasses. Old and useless aeroplanes that will never fly again, cars left to rot away over the course of a thousand years or more, roads that lead to nowhere but ruin. All this, the death, nothingness, carefully cupped in hands of towering rock, bleak, bleached and forgotten.

This is Midgar, where I once lived, city of a million memories and several heartbreaks and aches.

This is Midgar, where Tifa made her home, where Cloud lost himself, where Barrett fought for the world, where Reeve fought for the people... this is Midgar, where I was saved and damned, where I met Zack and loved those wild blue eyes, where I learned the sky was free and one day, I could be too...

This is Midgar; I never wished to go back there.

But it always begins and ends... on familiar terms...

Maybe we'll be lucky; maybe she'll have chosen Mideel... let me be lucky...

...please...