Chapter 38
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"No." It couldn't be real. And those words certainly were not coming out of his mouth. "No." Reeve had been the last to stand and the first to see… He had been the first to make it to where Patrick was lying.
The flashes of cure spells passed over a still form. No response.
"Wake up, dammit!" He blinked furiously. "Stop being so stubborn—"
"Reeve."
Cloud's hand was gripping his arm, but he barely registered it.
"Reeve, stop. I tried a Full-Life before you even made it over here. I—" His voice cracked as he saw his pain mirrored in the eyes of his longtime adversary and ally. "I think you need to pull it together, though. For Zuri."
For Aeris was helping the smaller girl stand. Supporting her shaky legs as the two of them made their way over. Azura's wings had disappeared; she'd exhausted herself long ago. Glints of the glyphs still shimmered below the surface of her skin, like magical scar tissue.
"Pat?" She knelt down, brushing crusts of dried blood from his face.
Cloud was about to go sit beside her, when he felt a hand grip his own arm. Aeris had made her way between him and her father. "Let's give her some time. I'm sure the Highwind will be here before too long."
The two men, shell-shocked, allowed her to lead them away, back to the shoreline. Shards of materia crystal, red, green, and blue sparkled in the light. The sun was breaking through what was left of the storm clouds.
"Do you know…something, Rissy?" Cloud implored.
"Just that…I'd want…time…if…" She swallowed, brushing a falling tear from her cheek. She choked. "I should have seen something. We were there to help him and…"
"We did. It's just…sometimes it takes…sacrifice." He wrapped an arm around her. "I know it hurts, but—"
"He never had a chance, never had a choice." Aeris's voice became determined. "There's got to be…something, somewhere."
"I have only once in my life come across a way to defeat death that was not utterly horrible," Reeve said quietly. "And we used it. Used it up entirely. On your mother."
She nodded. She knew the stories; she just didn't want to believe the conclusions. After all, if her parents had known everything there was on the Planet, everything that was to be, none of this would have happened in the first place, right?
An increasing whir overhead indicated that the Highwind was on a return trajectory back towards them.
"What are we going to tell Mom?" Aeris whispered.
"That Patrick is free. That we all are," Cloud whispered back, as she buried her face in his shoulder.
"I knew you could do it." Her voice sounded so small, it was pathetic. She took a deep, albeit shuddering, breath. "You were always too strong for your own good." That was better; it was no good sounding so weak next to him. But then the tears started to land on his face, his peaceful face…
This just wouldn't do at all.
"I'm sorry I wasn't as strong as you. I'm sorry I didn't seal the portal fast enough…didn't fight enough to…" Her voice failed her entirely then, and Azura buried her head on Patrick's still-warm chest, crying steadily.
She hadn't been aware of the others leaving them alone until she heard Reeve's words carry over on the wind.
"Only once…a way to defeat death…used it up entirely…"
She sat up, suddenly. It had never occurred to her to try. White and black materia were two sides of a mysterious coin, part of old family and Planet legends. (Why even bother, Zuri, you're not even a millionth-part Ancient…)
"But Pat is," she whispered.
(It took you weeks to figure out how to teleport.)
"If I do this…I don't need to figure out anything else again." Azura knew that she had to at least try. She reached down for Patrick's hand.
"There's still Ancient blood in you, I hope, after that mess," she whispered. In her head, she tried to picture the old story. It was like a fairy tale, after all. Patrick's mother had been dead. Killed with her own sword, filled with all the materia…
(Renew…Spirit…Holy…Mercy…Hope…Faith…)
Green tendrils of light wrapped around the two of them, caressing their skin with warmth. But Patrick did not stir…and Azura was beginning to lose her grip on her magic. "Come back," she begged. But…
There had been something dark in that spell that had brought back Raieyana. The crack of force and destruction to tear through to that space beyond and bring her back.
"Please forgive me," she whispered, as she sank down into darkness.
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(Her parents were accusing Pat of being dangerous…Benjamin was threatening to kill…Patrick was holding a sword in his hand and advancing on Ryald…a meteor was hurtling through space on direct course for the Planet…
A strange man, tying her mother to the holy mountain…Cloud ripping Pat's mother's nightgown…a girl about her age, with ice blue eyes, praying in a cavern…a man in a lab coat stealing a baby…someone shooting her father in a basement…Patrick was burning down Wutai…)
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A loud scream broke free from Azura as the entire plain was obscured in a crack of bright light.
Three things happened simultaneously for Reeve: the airship ladder dropped down in front of him, he turned towards Azura's blood-curdling scream, and he was temporarily blinded by the brightest flash he'd ever experienced.
"Wh-what?" was all he could manage as he tried to blink away the spots burned into his retinas.
Raieyana managed to maneuver down the rope ladder and began running towards Azura, who had collapsed on top of Patrick's body in a heap.
Aeris had her head cocked to the side, as if listening to a voice only she could hear. "She heard you, Dad. What you said about bringing people back."
"But there is no more black or white materia…" Reeve's voice trailed off as his vision cleared.
"She doesn't need materia, not really. It just helps," Cloud murmured.
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Raieyana stilled before the forms of her son and his friend. She could see movement, which meant that someone had to be breathing. Kneeling, she reached out to Azura and gently lifted her up.
The girl stirred, confused for a moment before recognition gleamed in her eyes. "I'm sorry," she whispered. "I just had to try…"
"Try what? Now's not the time to worry about cleaning up a single cut, no matter how messy. You're exhausted—I think your limit spirit tried to break back out of you again."
"Cleaning up a cut?" Azura struggled against Raieyana's firm grasp. "You don't understand, Pat's—" Her eyes fell on Patrick's body. His still face, slack fingers just beyond the sabre that had fallen out of them, his chest—rising and falling. Patrick was breathing.
"He'll be fine, you'll see." She could tell that Raieyana was making an effort to calm down what seemed like obvious hysteria.
"He was dead," she said, numb. "And I…" She looked up.
"You need some rest. There will be time to think about it later."
"But—" The world grew hazy around her, and the last thing that registered in Azura's mind was Raieyana's hand pressed against a green orb in her armband. (Sleep spell…)
The room was quiet, unnaturally so, without Aeris's typical chatter. Instead, she sat silently at Patrick's bedside. Wearing a faded pink shirt and jeans, golden hair pulled back into a braid, she was a divine vision to Cloud.
"I thought I'd find you here."
She glanced up, meeting his eyes. "He hasn't moved in two days, yet I'm afraid if someone isn't here every waking moment… We'll finally wake up from this delusion."
"I take it you aren't getting any helpful sight in the matter?" He sat down next to her, a familiar companion to her vigil.
Aeris paused a moment, eyes darting up to contemplate the sunset through Patrick's window. "I always was…blessed with good intuition," she replied, "but somehow I get the feeling that my magic information overload is over. Whether it's because Jenova is gone or the Planet's stopped screaming, I've no idea."
"I suppose," he began cautiously, "the way to ground ourselves that it's not a delusion is…to be realistic."
"He's not even stirred."
"So, the worst case scenario is Zuri nearly killed herself and couldn't quite manage the entirety of the magic."
"And we'd never know if it's was because it was too much for her, she couldn't quite grasp the spell itself, or…" Aeris was silent for a moment. "Will we ever know how much of our power came from Jenova, how much came from the Planet, and how much was just our own?"
"If we accomplished what we were supposed to, what we were prophesized to do, I'd say the latter two options are one and the same, Riss."
She nodded. "But we'll probably find ourselves aging naturally after all this, I'd say."
"Unfortunately for us old farts," Cloud quipped, earning a playful slap.
The conversation hit another lull, and the two sat watching Patrick's comatose form. His chest rose and fell, but the rest lay motionless.
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"What are you going to do, Cloud?"
"What am I—"
"After this?" Aeris turned back to face him.
He leaned back, eyes searching the ceiling as if it contained his answer. "I don't expect anything from you, Riss, and I've got to get back—"
"—to your chocobos?" She interrupted, incredulous.
"They're domestic, they can only fend for themselves for so long, you know." He shot her a wry grin. "After they're done up for a little longer, maybe then I'll have to reach a decision."
She nodded. "My mother wanted to know if I'd take over her training classes. She and Dad need to get away for awhile, and I get it. And I'm sure Patrick…" A swallow. "If he gets—when he gets better, he'd help. He's always been good at that sort of thing. I guess he was made for it." She fidgeted nervously. "But, I was thinking, the best of training can't make up for a lifetime of experience, so if…you don't mind living with someone more civilized than a chocobo—"
Cloud wrapped an arm around her shoulders. "I don't know if that's such a good idea. I'm so used to merely warking to communicate and—"
"It's Undor-Hai, Cloud, it's not like we're really civilized or anything!" She bit her lip. "Besides, it'd solve your other problem."
"What other problem?"
"They've been short chocobos for the past few years. You seem to have an abundance that training classes might leave you less time for…"
"Why are you so persistent? It's maddening."
Aeris leaned forward, kissing him softly. "Because you need somebody persistent." A smile.
"Perhaps." He found himself smiling back. "We…we'll discuss it more thoroughly. Before we get Patrick's hopes up too high." He nodded at the form on the bed.
"It wouldn't be nice to disappoint him now, would it?" She whispered.
"Come on."
Her hand felt warm in Cloud's, as she let him lead her towards the door. As they left, they found themselves face-to-face with her father.
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"Any change?" asked Reeve.
She shook her head.
"I'd like to sit with him, if I may." It'd taken two days to work up the nerve to ask something he shouldn't need permission for, but…
"Why would you ask, Dad? Of course." Aeris laid an encouraging hand on his shoulder.
"I've no right. And I doubt my face is one he'd want to see when he wakes up."
"You might find yourself surprised," she whispered, before laying her hand in the crook of Cloud's elbow and allowing him to lead her away.
Leaving Reeve alone in the doorway. A few steps forward, and he was alone with Patrick. He sank slowly into one of the chairs, eyes never leaving the boy's face. "Why not me, instead? There's no one less deserving of another shot…no one more worthless than me."
But there was, of course, no response.