Chapter 31: Next Dance, Please

Summary: Poor Kryffin. :(

Elmyra looked down at the basket of flowers. She'd picked the ones she thought looked ripe, but she was no Aerith. The basket was still mostly full, and it was already noon.

Of course, Aerith used to go up on the plate where the people had money to spend on frivolities like flowers. The people at the Sector 5 train station mostly weren't those kind of people. Of the few she'd sold, Elmyra was pretty sure at least half of them were heading to Wall Market to meet someone who wasn't their spouse.

They'd still paid the gil, so…

She missed Aerith.

"What are those?"

The voice was young, and the person asking was small, but looking in over-bright, orange eyes, Elmyra wondered if that Strife boy had rescued another SOLDIER from the wastes. She'd never heard of a woman in SOLDIER. Maybe this child was the first? But she was so young!

"They're flowers," Elmyra answered. "You've never seen flowers before?"

The girl frowned. The glow in her eyes brightened. Her hands clenched. She seemed truly upset. Where had she been that she couldn't answer a simple question?

Elmyra smiled. "It's okay. Most people in Midgar don't know what they are."

"No," the girl said, still frowning. "I do…? Fields, open to the sky? Not here."

"Oh!" Elmyra said. "Are you originally from the plains?" It could explain the eyes, but (she conceded) not likely. "Are you lost?"

The girl – she looked barely into puberty – looked up at her. Her eyes were filled with confusion, fear, determination, frustration…. "I am trying to leave, but this place is bigger than I was aware of, and so many roads go nowhere. I am not defective!" The last was said with defiant fear.

Definitely Shinra training children to be soldiers, Elmyra decided. And worse, experimenting on them judging by the mako glow in the eyes. For shame!

"They did it deliberately," she said to the girl. "Makes it hard for people to organize any kind of protest or resistance. Or invade, though that's less likely."

"Oh." The girl's eyes flicked back and forth the way some people's did when they were searching through things they'd memorized. "Oh, yes. I see."

"Are you hungry?" Elmyra asked abruptly. The poor child looked very thin, and she now had a lot of experience in SOLDIER metabolisms thanks to Aerith inviting Zack and Cloud to dinner. "I was about to go home anyway and have lunch."

"You don't know me."

"I know you're lost, and Alexander knows, if it were my child wandering around lost, I'd like someone to be kind to her."

"You have offspring?" the girl looked truly surprised.

"Yes," she answered smiling fondly. "She's a handful. Turning me grey by haring off on an adventure with her friends."

The child tilted her head in confusion. "She was… vampiric?"

Elmyra laughed. The child just stood there confused. "No, no. Lordy. She's worse," she finally managed. "She's adventurous." The smile fell away. "To be honest, I'd be grateful for the company. I miss her and the house seems too big with her gone."

"I cannot replace her," the child responded with calm gravity, and Elmyra felt her teeth clack against each other. What the hells was Shinra doing to children?

"I don't expect you to," she said when her jaw was loose enough. "But maybe you can help me in the gardens. They're a bit much for one person." Elmyra started walking back to Sector 5 proper. As she'd hoped, the girl followed her.

"Are they filled with flowers?"

"Oodles of flowers."

.o0|0o.

Aerith was kind of regretting having bought the Striking Staff from the item shop. This one had a stave called Fairy Tale. It wasn't as good as the Striking Staff, but it was prettier.

She stood staring at it, wondering if she could justify the money and the weight and the hassle of another weapon that she (quite honestly) probably wouldn't use all that much. She had the money (which was still weird) but likely all she'd do with it was toss it in the back of the truck. Which meant they had the space for it, but really what would be the point?

It was very pretty…

"Are you going to buy that?" Genesis sounded like he was only mildly interested in her answer. He probably wasn't interested, but Aerith had noticed that Genesis preferred being where Cissnei wasn't, and Cissnei was currently fairly close to Tifa and Cloud.

Still, she'd been asked a question, so the least she could do was answer. If only she knew the answer….

She hummed indecisively instead, slowly twirling the highly decorated stave so that the (probably fake) gems twinkled in the store's light.

"Is it the money?" he asked. "It is a little overpriced, but not criminally so, if that's your concern. "

"It wasn't." Aerith sighed. "I never had enough gil to just buy whatever I wanted whenever I wanted. It's an odd adjustment for my brain to make."

It was Genesis's turn to hum neutrally, and Aerith remembered that he'd come from wealth. Richest family in the village straight to one of Shinra's elite. (And then to crazy-dying person to prisoner-science experiment, which was probably the opposite of privilege so maybe he did understand.)

She held the stave out to him. "I guess I can never have too many weapons, right?"

An elegantly disdainful sniff. "Whoever said that was trying to sell you something." He took it from her hand and put it back in the barrel. "You may wish to own the pretty ones, but you will only use the ones that fit you."

"You don't think pretty fits me?" She filled her voice with hurt and opened her eyes as wide as possible.

He looked at her and smiled. "Fishing for compliments is my job, Miss Aerith. And you hardly need accessories to add to your attractiveness."

He said it quite sincerely. It made her blush. She was used to Zack paying her those kind of compliments, and she knew Cloud liked the way she looked, but this was Genesis Rhapsodos, who'd been on magazine covers.

"I thought SOLDIERs had lots of weapons," she said in a deliberate change of topic. They walked away from the barrel of weapons.

"Some did," he admitted gracefully. "Sephiroth had versions of every sword type he'd mastered – which was all of them. They hung on his walls and were diligently dusted once a week by the Shinra housekeeping staff."

He stopped and picked up a metal snowflake looking thing. "Interesting; this is a Wutaian weapon." He flipped it over to examine it more closely. "Ah!" He tipped it towards her, pointing out the trademark. "Made by Shinra. Nothing like capitalizing on the culture of your defeated enemies."

Genesis would and could discuss the evilness of Shinra for hours, (he and Londa had proved that at dinner last night) so Aerith gave a little hop to pull his attention away from the shelf. "Did you have lots of swords?"

He laughed and placed the small, deadly-looking disc on its stack. "Hardly. I had one I used constantly and one for back up in case my favourite was damaged," he said. "We found – Angeal, Sephiroth and I – that switching weapons in the field led to small hesitations in combat. 'Was this the blade that could do that? Or was that the other one, back at base?' " He shrugged. "Once I found Crimson Rapier, I knew that would be my weapon, so I learned it – more intimately than I ever knew a lover." His eyelids lowered and he smirked. When Aerith poked him, his smile opened up again. "Sephiroth had Masamune made for him. Hard to find weapons suitable for someone of his height."

"Angeal had Zack's Buster, right?" she said. "It was his sword first."

Genesis turned away. He very obviously picked up and looked at something on the shelf that he cared nothing about. Aerith regretted asking, but before she could change the subject (again) Genesis answered.

"It was Angeal's sword," he confirmed. "But he never used it. Gillian, his mother –" He said it the way other people cursed "– often told him how his father had slaved away to earn the gil for the metal, and how they'd had a cleric sing orisons while it was being forged – prayers for strength, durability, fidelity… Essentially every noble sentiment that Shinra doesn't deserve. Then Mr Hewley died trying to pay off the cost of it and it became too precious to risk." He put down the whatever-it-was and led her further into the shop.

Aerith had known some of that story because Zack had often talked of his mentor when they'd first met, and up until the older SOLDIER's death. She hadn't known Angeal Hewley's father had died because of the sword.

"I'm glad Zack is using it." Genesis cleared his throat quietly. "That the ideals it was supposed to represent are being brought to life, as it were."

"You called him the most honourable man you've known," Aerith said gently.

But they'd wandered too close to the rest of their group. Genesis's response was a neutral hum before he swept up to the others. "Have you decided on anything, Ms Lockhart? Cloud?" He didn't bother asking Cissnei, who stood, gloved hands folded neatly in front of her, mutely watching the door.

Tifa turned to them frowning. She pointed at a leather… cuff? Gauntlet? Aerith wasn't sure. It was leather and could probably cover her whole calf. "This has eight materia slots. Eight!" Tifa said accusingly. "How would you even use eight materia slots?"

Genesis muttered something about getting used to the drain – which Cloud pointed out was something only SOLDIERs could do, and then the argument was on.

Aerith stopped listening. She was currently wearing fourteen materia – two more than in Midgar.

And she barely felt them.

She had. When they'd all loaded up in Deepground. The pull of the materia they'd found and equipped had given her a permanent band of tension that had squeezed her heart and her head. It hadn't let up even once through their whole adventure.

Until she'd touched the Red materia Cloud had taken from Marco.

Since then, wielding materia had been easy – no pain, no stress. She felt like she could add a couple more and still be okay. From what they were saying – and even the Turk was chiming in – just being able to wield that many let alone use them all, wasn't normal.

And the voice of the planet – or what she'd thought of as the planet when she'd worked among her flowers – that had also become clearer.

It wasn't words or anything like that, but the impressions Aerith got seemed like actual things now, instead of her wishful thinking.

The planet (or maybe it was the Lifestream? Were they different or the same?) The presence her mother had spoken of knew she was in Junon, and it approved or something. Without knowing how, Aerith knew that coming here had been the correct move.

She hadn't told anyone, but she kind of thought she should. Especially when they started arguing about targets and where they should go next. Zack said Fort Condor because it also had very strong materia and the planet seemed to approve of that idea too.

Infection!

She lifted a hand to her head, because that impression (message?) had hurt. She decided she was done with shopping and looking at things that she could afford but didn't really want. She wanted her boyfriend.

"Where's Zack?"

Cloud looked at her, saw her rubbing her forehead, and frowned. He stepped away from the counter. "He was making a call."

"Who does he know that he could be calling?" Genesis asked. It was (mostly) genuine curiosity. "That aren't here, I mean."

"Lots," Cloud answered simply and Aerith beamed at him. It was true: Zack introduced himself to people all the time. He talked to them. He asked them questions. He was interested, so they talked back, and they remembered him. Her badass, monster-killing, ex-SOLDIER boyfriend was a people person!

It was great!

But he wasn't here right now, when she wanted him to be, so…

"I'm going to go find him," she said, stepping towards the doors.

"I'll come," Cloud said instantly. "Nothing here I want anyway." He said it casually, but his look said he knew she was feeling uneasy.

"Same," Genesis agreed lightly. His casual was actually true.

Tifa nodded. "We can always come back." She, too, was watching Aerith as if she was going to point to danger. The fighter was even tightening her battle gloves. Cissnei, as their Turk escort, followed a step or two behind.

Calamity!

She winced as the planet's "message" flooded her. She couldn't stop the little grunt of pain.

"Let's go," Cloud said. "Now."

There were arms around her back, steadying her, helping her move in the direction of Zack.

"I'll scout ahead," she heard Tifa say.

"Why are you treating her headache like a battle alarm?" Cissnei asked.

"Go with Tifa," Cloud said to Genesis instead of answering the question.

"Nonsense," Genesis said. "Take her weapons."

The next thing Aerith felt, she was being swooped up into Genesis's arms and then they were moving.

"Oh!" She opened her eyes. They weren't actually walking that fast, but it was fast enough that she had to fling her arms around Genesis's neck for stability. "I can walk." She did feel better now that they were going towards Zack.

"You somehow think Zack's in danger," the ex-SOLDIER said calmly. "And your friends are taking it seriously. You survived Deepground together, so I'd be a fool to dismiss it."

"Smarter than you let on," Cloud said from beside them.

"Always the safer option when living inside Shinra. 'Seeds of the soul's corruption fester in both hovel and grand hall,' after all." Aerith didn't need to open her eyes to see Genesis's mocking smirk.

Genesis stopped abruptly. His "By the Goddess!" was followed by Cloud's soft "Shit" and the sound of a large sword being unhitched from a magnetic harness.

"Sephiroth." Cissnei barely breathed the name, but everyone heard it.

"I hope you are capable of standing, lovely Aerith, because I believe it's time for a fight." He didn't wait for her to agree but was already letting her feet slide down to the flooring.

She turned, expecting yet still surprised, to see Sephiroth in the cramped dead-end corridor. His dark figure seemed to eat the light, so that even Zack's horribly bright pink shirt looked washed out and grey.

The so-called Demon of Wutai was twisting Zack's left wrist in one hand and squeezing Zack's throat with the other.

"Let 'im go!" Tifa said. She raised arm and leg and brought both down forcefully. It made the metal plate flooring echo a little. Aerith felt the crackle of the fighter's gathered power.

Genesis was more diplomatic. "It is good to see you, old friend." He stepped closer – within range of Sephiroth's famous sword, Aerith thought, though she couldn't see it anywhere on him.

Unfortunately (or fortunately?) the silver-haired swordsman ignored everyone except Zack.

"Give it to me."

"Fuck off!" Zack's voice was thick. His free hand scrabbled at the leather-coated fingers slowly strangling him. His face was red. He was gasping for air.

Cloud's sturdy blade cut right through Sephiroth's left arm.

So many things happened right after that:

1. Sephiroth screeched like a trypapolis in the collapsed expressway, rather than a warrior famous for his baritone voice.

2. Tifa kicked Sephiroth in the back of the knee and he let go of Zack's wrist as he (also surprisingly) lost his footing.

3. Genesis shouted "No!" and reached out his hand (to either Zack or Sephiroth, Aerith wasn't sure).

4. Zack pulled Sephiroth's fingers and forearm off his throat. (There was no blood from either the body part or the body); and

5. The narrow, ugly, metal corridor… changed.

It was like what had happened in the president's office but slower.

Elements of the real were altered and heightened, so that the space they now occupied seemed more like a step next-door rather than a mystical otherworld. But it was a mystical otherworld, because Junon's Oceanview, Section Whatever didn't have 20 metre ceilings, and the corridors weren't endlessly wide with the occasional wall thrown up as either obstacles or cover (hopefully good for both).

The light was all wrong as well. It lacked the chemical green that Shinra's mako lights emitted, but it was still bright. Though most of the light currently came from the figure writhing and twisting in the middle of the space.

"That's not Sephiroth," Genesis muttered beside her.

It still looked like Sephiroth – kinda. The famous silver hair whirled around in a wind that wasn't affecting anyone else. Then his body twisted in ways bodies couldn't, and the light around him gained definite edges.

"Nobody thought it was," Tifa growled. The fighter was already powered up enough that Aerith could see the small sparks coming off her gloves. It reminded Aerith that this was going to be a battle – a big one.

"Then what it is?" Cissnei asked.

"Dangerous," Cloud said.

Nervously, Aerith gripped the weapon Cloud had handed her. Thankfully it was her Mithril Rod with all the slotted materia and not the new one she'd just bought and hadn't had a chance to set up.

She'd paired Magnify with Barrier, so that was an easy first choice cast. It was a bit of a stretch to do everyone but scarily, not that much of one. She could feel the energy inside her fueling the crystal, giving it the power to do what it was meant to. A small, internal "thanks" to the materia, and she opened her eyes in time to see the silver-blue shields forming around everyone.

Cissnei looked at her. "Nice cast."

Whatever suspicions the Turk wanted to convey with that statement, Aerith ignored. "Thanks! I've been practicing!"

Beside her, Genesis pulled out the fancy blade he'd picked up from SOLDIER stores (and that she knew Cloud envied). Then he ran his hand along it and fire erupted along its length.

"Oh wow!"

He smirked at her. "An old trick, but still effective." He turned back to look at Sephiroth. "Why didn't he call in Masamune?"

Aerith didn't care why the legendary SOLDIER hadn't called in his equally legendary 2-metre sword. Instead, she repeated what they'd already figured out. "Because it's not really Sephiroth." Zack was on the other side of him (it?) so that's where Aerith wanted to be.

Genesis only hummed before moving forward to strike. It should have landed. He was fast enough, close enough – Sephiroth was a still falling lump right in front of them – but the blade bounced off the bubble. Like Barrier, but to the eleventy-millionth degree.

"Don't remember this from the other one," Cloud muttered. He was also casting pre-buffs. Aerith felt the moment his Haste fell on her. She'd already been moving towards Zack, but the extra speed meant she got there even faster.

He was only halfway to his knees, but at least he was moving. She could hear him dragging in breaths. She could also see that he was holding his left wrist carefully away from his body. She called on her Prayer materia. Thankfully, it was close enough to being in combat for her to use, and fear had given her the power to do it.

Zack cast a healing spell on himself and beat her to it.

She knelt down to help him up. "You okay?"

He looked okay: no dark red blood staining his almost-neon pink shirt; normal colour back in his face; no bruising around his neck or wrist; no broken ribs that she could feel, and he felt good….

She was feeling him up.

She looked up at his face and he was grinning softly down at her. He lifted her hand up to his mouth and kissed it. "Thanks. I feel better." His grin changed. "Positively perky, in fact."

She could hear the whooshing and shrieking that accompanied this clone's transformation. However, she couldn't pay much attention to it when Zack was looking so good.

Zack's grin went back to simple happiness, and he swooped down for a kiss. "I think he's nearly finished transforming." No time for flirting, he meant.

"Was it…?"

His smile dropped away. "Yeah. Kryffin. He changed when he saw that red materia." He lifted his left hand, the one Sephiroth had been squeezing. In it was the dull red, misshapen lump, that had scared her so much when she'd touched it in Midgar.

She didn't touch it now. She wasn't even tempted. "Maybe put it away?"

A quick smile. "Good idea." Another quick kiss. "Let's kick some clone butt!" His voice should've echoed in this overly large other space. Instead, it was oddly flat. As if the vastness had taken most of the sound away.

A quick look around confirmed the glow around Sephiroth – the clone – had died down. His new form (its new form?) settled with surprising lightness, onto the metal flooring.

Poor Mr Conway, Aerith thought.

The clone monster in Shinra Tower had been all height and tentacles and darkness. Its bones had been visible in so many places along its torso it had reminded Aerith of some of the mythological personifications of Death.

This one was nearly as tall as the first, but it was thicker. (Maybe because Mr Conway had been healthier than poor old Marco.) This one was pale and smooth where the first one had been dark. It was also nearly featureless except for its shoulders. They looked to be plates of ridged bone nearly as wide as it was tall. There were tentacles sprouting out from them. (Or course, there was.) And was that a tail or just a longer tentacle? Was there a difference?

One thing it didn't seem to have, was a head. Aerith was sure the first one had had a head….

It turned toward her and Zack, and she saw its front. It did have a head. Kinda. An almost-human face on an eyestalk-like thing, down where a person's chest would be. It was all very eww.

As soon as it turned in their direction (swiveling its head on its long neck stalk), Zack sprinted away from her, shouting extravagantly. His pink shirt did glow in the space's weird lighting. It certainly caught the creature's attention.

Understanding his concern, Aerith danced further away from them both. She wasn't a SOLDIER. Her only armour was the belly guard Cloud insisted they wear. She wasn't fast or strong, and she didn't know how to swing a sword. But she could use magic. She could keep them all alive, and that she could do from the back.

She kept a mental countdown of how long her Barrier would last. (It was still good.) She had time to cast something else, and she was really regretting not including more offensive materia. Or even more debuffs.

One thing she could do, was find out its weaknesses.

Neither Cloud nor Zack had brought along their Assess, but she'd brought hers, and she'd equipped it this morning (despite Zack wanting her to add another HP Up). To Zack (and Cloud) assessing the monsters they'd encountered had mostly been a favour for Cagley, but Aerith had appreciated knowing something about what was trying to kill them.

She used it now and the information appeared in the front of her like a display screen. The first thing she noticed was that it was indeed not Sephiroth – not even a hyphenated Sephiroth. Instead, it had Jenova in its name. The creature her father had misidentified as an Ancient. The creature that Professor Hojo and Dr Hollander had based their SOLDIER experiments on. The creature whose cells had been injected into all SOLDIERs.

What had that done to Zack?

She forced that worry from her brain – time enough for that later – and focused on the information they could use now.

"It will use Stop, just like the one in Shinra Tower," she called out. She heard four voices acknowledge her. "It's immune to gravity-based attacks, but its back side is weaker, so it'll take more damage there."

"Hah!" Zack shouted. "Cloud! Tifa! You flank. Cissnei, provide them ranged support. Genesis and I will keep it busy in the front. Divide and conquer, yeah!"

It wasn't her favourite tactic, but it made sense. Very few monsters could see all around them, let alone attack from every side (some robot things excepted). This Jenova creature was no different. Zack could take a lot of damage. Genesis could probably absorb as much since he'd also been a First Class. That left Cloud and Tifa, both very strong fighters, to attack monsters where they usually had less amour, fewer weapons, and paid less attention.

Aerith quickly scanned through rest of the information before it faded, but the only other thing she thought useful was, "It uses laser weapons. And poison gas."

She heard Zack groan. He wasn't a fan of gas since he had to attack from up close.

There was still a bit of time left on her barriers, so she used her Subversion materia in case it had also buffed itself during its transformation.

It had.

Aerith's debuff stripped it of Shield and Haste. It wasn't much. She really wished she'd equipped better materia. Fewer HP boosts (Sorry, Zack) and more damage dealers.

Aerith saw the shimmer of her barrier glow when a tentacle bashed Genesis. It wasn't very bright anymore, which meant it was wearing off. Seemed a little early, but maybe it was a result of this weird other-space that the Jenova-thing had brought them to.

She recast Barrier on everyone (Yay, All materia!) and she watched as Zack dodged a laser attack by jumping impossibly high in the air and coming down like one of Cloud's Comets. The tall monster shrieked and flailed with its tentacles as his swing damaged it.

Aerith couldn't see the damage, but she hoped her debuffs had helped make his hit more effective. Just a little maybe.

There wasn't much else she could do now, except use her weapon's built-in attack, so she could build up to her more powerful spells. Each throw of power from Mithril Rod flew to the target doing some damage. Each throw built up pressure inside of her until she was ready for more.

Her Arcane Flower, first, so that everything she cast happened twice. Then, again, more of her Mithril Rod attacks. Two little streams of power instead of one. Ping-ping, instead of just ping.

Still, the using the staff created a pattern of movement – enough that Aerith made a little dance of it. Swing, twirl, cast and swing. The Arcane Flower helped with its double-cast, but honestly, she wasn't a very good hitter. (At least not compared to Tifa and Zack – and now Genesis).

However, she'd learned a new trick yesterday against the sea mosquito thing. She was hoping it hadn't been a fluke.

Yesterday, she'd held her rod's attack, afraid to hit Zack, and the power had grown and compressed inside her. It had actually gotten kind of uncomfortable. When he'd finally gotten out of the way, and she'd released her attack, it had flown from her weapon and landed under the creature as a visible ball of power! And then it had exploded. How cool was that!

She wanted to do that again, so she stopped dancing and held the Mithril Rod in front of her, keeping its attack power inside her, letting it build, and build, and build until it almost hurt and then….

It worked!

And because of her flower it had worked twice!

She could see the bright white rune-filled circles spinning under the Jenova thing making it twist and shriek as if they hurt. And then her balls of power exploded, and the creature flailed even more extravagantly, and Aerith gave a little hop of triumph.

She wasn't completely useless in a fight!

"New trick, Aerith?" Zack called, stopping his attack to give her a proud grin when she confirmed it.

"Tail's going up!" Cloud shouted from the back, so Aerith looked for it. It looked like just another tentacle except the tip was glowing bright blue, which (she thought) was probably the start of a one of its laser attacks.

It was.

A blindingly bright beam of blue light burst from it. (1 point for alliteration!) The beam separated into four, and they each moved across the ground independently, seeking Genesis and Zack.

Smoke rose from the metal as they moved, leaving the metal (was it really metal?) white hot.

One of the beams came her way, so Aerith hopped and twirled away from it still caught up in her casting pattern. She hid behind one of the thick metal walls that had been recreated in this place and waited. She knew when the laser hit it because the metal popped and hissed as it heated up.

Aerith held a hand up a couple inches from the wall. She could just – just – feel the heat on this side. The metal wall would last two, maybe three, more hits before it melted or exploded. Good enough!

She hadn't heard any cries of pain, so when she popped out from behind her protective wall, she continued throwing magic from Mithril Rod. With every cast she made, Aerith felt her well of power filling – that bubble again. Nearly time to do something else!

It was weird, because she could tell her mana was getting low, yet she was feeling powerful. But she needed mana to use that power.

The creature opened its mouth and shot out a beam of yellow energy. It targeted Genesis (who jumped up in the air to avoid it) then Zack (who rolled out of the way), then Genesis again. Then it shot two laser beams – one from each of its shoulders. (They were where shoulders should be, so that's what Aerith was going to call them.)

Those beams focused in on Zack who jumped and dodged and almost avoided being hit. But he was hit, and even from back here, Aerith heard his grunt of pain.

Genesis cast Heal before she could activate Prayer. That was nice of him. Especially as he had to jump over a tentacle swing right after. It could've hit him.

Although now she was looking, Aerith saw that its tentacles were essentially useless. Too short or too slow, they were easily avoided by everyone. It was only the thing's magic attacks that were doing any damage. If Aerith could take its magic away, then they'd all be more likely to survive.

She didn't have anything to cast Silence with, so the other best way to get rid of something's magic was to drain its mana. (Kind of like she was doing to herself.)

The solution popped into her head. It was simple: it had mana and she needed mana, so she would drain its mana and take it for herself.

No idea if it would work, but it was worth a try, right?

She stilled for a moment. Closed her eyes and focused on what she wanted to happen, how the spell should work. It was like an MP Absorb materia, but bigger and under her control. She just needed to find the creature's bubble of mana…. Mana was like the Lifestream, and she always knew where that was….

There!

In the end, it was actually kind of simple. Aerith used the compressed power from all her casting and just pulled the mana to her in a stream, letting it fill her. It felt odd – burblely – but it was definitely mana so she could use it to cast.

She opened her eyes, smiling triumphantly, only to see the Jenova creature twirling up in the air and in her direction. She didn't need Zack's shout of "She's moving!" to run away.

She wasn't quite fast enough, though, and the creature's landing rattled the metal flooring so that she nearly stumbled. And while she was trying to regain her balance, she heard (felt?) the whoosh of a tentacle coming at her full speed.

Before she could decide what to do (and just slightly before it hit) Genesis wrapped himself around her and turned them so his back would take the impact.

They went flying – or probably tumbling, since they rolled a couple times.

When they stopped moving, Genesis pushed himself up, caging her between his arms. His eyes were SOLDIER bright, but orange-brown, not blue. "Are you injured, Aerith?"

She took a moment to assess her body… then smiled. "Nope. Thanks!"

He stood and offered her a hand. " 'The hero acts to save the stranger, the one he saves is himself'."

"Loveless?" she asked.

He smiled sheepishly. "Act I."

"Aerith! Are you okay?" That was Cissnei, running past to reposition herself, but still taking a moment to check. The Turk carried a much larger version of the Wutaian weapon Genesis had played with in the weapons shop.

Aerith waved. "I'm fine!"

It was enough of a distraction for the thing to cast another spell. Stop, if the way Cloud and Tifa froze was any indication.

"Pixie tits!" she muttered. Genesis looked at her. "I didn't equip Cleanse." She shooed him away, and then Cissnei who seemed to want to hover. "Go on!" she said. "Fastest way to be safe is to kill it."

Cissnei stared at her a moment, head tipped in thought, before nodding once and running around to the back of the creature.

Aerith took a moment to shake out her skirt and to assess the battle. It seemed to be going well, she thought, for the most part.

There were patches of purple-black ick seeping from it, and it looked more hurt than anybody on their team, so that was good. Better than the fight in the president's office, at least, even though there'd been more of them fighting.

That monster had also started out as Sephiroth before changing to something else. Maybe it was both Sephiroth and Jenova combined?

"Hah!" she shouted. "I'll show you what I can do!" She put down her Arcane Flower and built up her strongest normal attack, only releasing when she felt she was going to burst from the stored power.

The rune-filled balls were just big enough to edge out of the Jenova (or Sephiroth) creature before exploding.

Again, it shrieked, but this time Aerith almost heard the words. Something about 'waking up' and 'time' and finishing things. Maybe one of the others who were closer heard it more clearly. Maybe it would give them a clue about what (Sephova?) was planning to do with the huge materia if it got its hands on it.

Well, tentacles. Both clone monsters they'd encountered had had lots of tentacles but no hands.

The creature (Jeniroth?) opened its mouth. Aerith paused her casting so she could concentrate on whatever it said, but it wasn't words that it spewed. Instead, a green cloud came out of its mouth. The thick fog dropped to the ground around Zack as if shot by a laser. It surrounded him, thick enough that Aerith could barely see the pink of his overshirt. Then the fog flashed, lights popping and sparkling, and Aerith didn't think that was a good thing.

When the cloud cleared, Zack was bent over, wheezing, trying to pull air into infected lungs.

Why hadn't she equipped Cleanse! She knew Zack hated being gassed!

She had Prayer, though. It would keep Zack alive until they could pour some antidote into him.

And yes, she had Revive materia and Cloud had Phoenix Downs, but honestly, Aerith was not in favour of letting it get that far. She didn't want to have to see what any of them looked like dead. Especially not Zack.

"I'll take care of that," Tifa said. She stomped her foot, which was the fighter's way of focussing. Gold sparkles surrounded Zack, not green, but he immediately straightened so Aerith figured it was a kind of Esuna.

"You need healing, Zack?" she called as she ran to a place near a different piece of wall away from the monster they were fighting.

She wasn't sure her voice would carry far enough in this weird place, but Zack shook his head. He took another breath. "Nah," he finally said. "I'm good." He jumped over a swinging tentacle.

Aerith cast Prayer anyway. She liked seeing the gold sparkles settle around everyone.

Beyond Zack, behind the Jeniroth-thing, she could see Cloud and Genesis teaming up for some very impressive hits. (If the angry shrieks were a good indication. Cloud had cast Stop on it (hah!) so the two were using all kinds of fancy up close moves. Well, mostly they were just hacking away at it, but it was all damage. Genesis even managed to cut a tentacle off, which was kind of gross, but he'd flamed his sword again so at least it didn't spew blood (or whatever was in the creature) all over the place.

She couldn't see Cissnei, but she saw the starred disc thing moving through the air as if thrown, so maybe that was how it was used.

On this side, Tifa and Zack had settled into a rhythm of hit-slash-dodge. Neither one of them had offensive materia, except that most of their materia boosted how much damage they could do, like, all the time, so Aerith supposed that was a type of offensive.

Aerith did what she could to help: give her teammates protection, remove Jeniroth's buffs, and cast as many damage dealing spells as she could manage (making sure to cast her new mana draining ability as much as possible).

As they hurt it, and more and more injuries appeared on its pale, smooth skin, Aerith thought it was getting physically smaller and its attacks weaker.

As if to argue with her, the thing's tail came up and four deep blue beams shot out of it in quick succession. One came down between Tifa and Zack. The fighter rolled out of the way and came up kicking. Zack jumped and swung at the creature's head while he was up there. However, this time it was smarter. This time it also aimed for the people carving up its backside.

She heard – or maybe felt – Cloud's cry of pain. She couldn't see him though, and she didn't (quite) have enough power to cast Prayer.

Why hadn't she equipped a Heal materia? It used regular mana and not the weird energy that built up inside during battle.

Like Genesis had said, she needed to stop picking pretty things and start choosing useful ones, instead.

Just because she liked the golden sparkles it cast…

She did, however, have potions on her.

Getting them to Cloud would mean running past Jeniroth, out in the open. Right where neither Zack nor her instincts wanted her to be…

She ran towards her friend.

A blue beam, the last one, cut across the ground in front of her. It made the metal glow white from the heat.

Aerith had to hop back to avoid getting burned. Well, more burned. She'd been holding her stave in front of her, and now her forearms hurt – like, a lot! And her toes were maybe a little warmer than they should be.

She hoped that she hadn't ruined her boots!

Aerith dropped a hand to her skirt, thinking she'd lift it up to check, but halfway down her forearm flared.

Ow! That was more than simple hurt. She was actually injured!

With that realization her other arm started to pulse with pain. She could feel it from her elbow to her fingertips, throbbing spikes. She had trouble holding onto Mithril Rod, and her concentration was shot.

She'd been hurt before, but not like this.

The tingle of a cast Cure enveloped her, cooling the burn, blunting the spikes. She could breathe again.

Aerith looked up. Zack gave her a worried look. "Genesis took care of Cloud. You okay?" She nodded mutely.

It took moment (and a long bottom-to-top look) before he gave her a cheeky salute, trusting her to know her own body. Then he was moving again, big buster sword lifted over one shoulder. When he swung it came down on the ground and waves of force moved towards Jeniroth, making it hiss.

Zack wasn't the only one with power moves, though. Even over everything going on – and the flatness of sound in this out-of-place void – Aerith heard Genesis's satisfied, "Finally!"

By now she recognized the signs of someone about to perform one of their signature moves, but where Zack and Cloud's (and Tifa's) moves centered around the weapons they used in battle, Genesis actually sheathed his sword. He spread out his arms. His coat flared. Then suddenly the air in front of him turned dark – three balls, void of light except for green electricity arcing over their surface, formed in front of him.

It reminded Aerith of the magic the last copy had used, and it made her very uncomfortable to be even this close, but before her skin could crawl much higher, Genesis swooped his hands and the balls shot towards the Jeniroth creature impacting on its torso and kind of dissolving it.

Again with the 'eww!'

But it was effective, because the creature jumped again, moving away from all of them.

It was no longer pale and smooth but had taken on a green and purple tinge. Its shoulders had shrunk down to barely wider than its body and it was down to three tentacles.

And its tail.

Which came up as the team approached and fired out four more beams of nasty blue energy.

Aerith beat it to it though: she cast the toughest Barrier she could. She saw her ward absorb the hit Genesis took – not all of it, but enough that he stayed on his feet. He healed himself and drew his sword at the same time in a show of efficiency (or maybe too much practice). It left Aerith free to cast from Mithril Rod. Small hits that built up her energy for another mana drain.

Above Tifa's head, the space darkened and clouds appeared out of nowhere. Lightning flew from one side of the clouds to the other. Thunder rumbled ominously.

Aerith was just starting to worry that Jeniroth was doing something new, when the first four legs of a pale, six-legged horse emerged from the darkness accompanied by more lightning and thunder. She'd forgotten that Tifa had an Odin summon.

The avatar was huge compared to the fighter, and big even next to the Jenova monster. The glowing spear he held seemed oversized, but Odin's avatar held it easily. His horse, Sleipnir, reared and actual steam came from its nostrils!

When Sleipnir's hooves crashed down – several feet above the ground – more thunder boomed through the weird space. Unlike every other sound here, it wasn't flattened or dimmed. Aerith's skirt rippled, and her ears rang from the force of it.

Then Odin threw his spear.

It embedded itself in Jeniroth's chest, close to where Genesis's dark energy balls had hit. The spear sat there, crackling, while the monster writhed.

Odin made a pulling motion, and the spear exploded backwards, returning to his hand. It took parts of the creature's chest with it. And then he disappeared.

A piece of Jeniroth had landed only a couple feet away from Aerith, and unlike the tentacle Genesis had cut off, this bit oozed a purple-black goo. Then the whole thing melted into ichor. The thick liquid slid across the metal flooring, following some invisible unevenness.

Aerith backed away.

It was what Shinra had infused Genesis's cells with. What they had injected into Zack and had poured onto Cloud. Jenova might not have been evil once upon a time long ago, but evil had been done to her and with her, and bad things happened around her.

Genesis used his Fire materia on it and the ichor burned to dust. He did it again to the next puddle. And the next.

"Seriously!" He flipped the hair out of his eyes. "Did none of you equip Fire? Considering we were expecting to fight monsters that seems like a serious oversight!"

"I brought Ice," Aerith said still backing away. "It usually works really well on monsters."

Zack bounced up, hopping over the oozing trails. "We should be returning back to Junon," he said. "The monster's dead. Why aren't we going back?"

He said it loud enough that the other three heard him from their places around the body. His voice was no longer flattened or absorbed by the space, so maybe that was a good sign.

"Has to dissolve completely?" Cloud yelled back.

And it was dissolving.

Jeniroth's lower body had lost most of its structure. It wasn't liquid (thank the gods, or they'd be overrun). Instead, it looked like a really thick jelly. Unable to hold up those ultra-wide shoulders, the top half had folded over backwards. Oddly, the boney bits were going, but the useless tentacles were still waving about.

"Is it still alive?" Aerith asked. She couldn't see its head.

Cissnei stopped, frowned, and then threw her star. It flashed through the air, flying behind the creature's shoulders where Aerith couldn't see, before looping back to the small Turk.

The tentacles twitched and stopped moving, flopping to the ground or into the jelly-like remains.

There was pressure, suddenly, in Aerith's head and in her lungs. She opened her mouth and swallowed as if that would somehow ease the pressure. The centre of the body started to glow.

"Cover your eyes!" Genesis shouted.

Tifa looked like she would refuse out of spite. Cissnei looked like she'd refuse because to do so would deprive Tseng of all the facts. Aerith, not having anything to prove, ducked her head down and brought her arms up.

The light going out was two or three times brighter than it had been going in. She opened her eyes and still couldn't see.

Also, her ears hurt until she swallowed aggressively a couple times.

"Everyone okay?" Zack asked. He had an arm around her, and it turned out, she'd put an arm around him, and they were kind of leaning against each other.

"I don't remember that from last time," Tifa said. She'd put one hand up on the crude metal walls of Oceanview, Section Whatever, and was pressing the fingers of the other one against her eyelids. Aerith wondered if that helped. She had

"Went black, not white," Cloud said. He was blinking, but free standing. Genesis had already shifted to kneel beside the shopkeeper's returned form, and Cissnei was standing still and tense, eyes wide and wary.

Aerith gave Zack a nudge. Now that they were out of combat, her Prayer materia would be useless again. She really did need to swap it out for a regular healing materia. Or, she could have one in addition to Prayer – and all her other materia. She could do it, and it wouldn't even be a strain.

"Anybody else feel like they had a little more oomph in their swings, there at the end?" Zack asked.

Both Tifa and Cloud raised their hands.

"Awesome! Me too!" Zack was grinning as he cast Cura on Cloud then Tifa. He bounced. "Yeah. Could do that a few more times."

"Then maybe you should cast it over here," Genesis said sharply.

Zack jumped in that direction; "Right, right." Aerith followed him. She put her hand on his shoulder, as he kneeled across from Genesis. She saw the sparkle of a Curaga, but felt the power dissipate into the air instead of sinking into the old SOLDIER.

"Zaaack," he breathed.

Zack tried to shush him, tell him to keep quiet, help was on the way.

Kryffin weakly shook his head. "Voices in me. Heard them clear." He wheezed in a breath. "Wake up, they said. Time to leave." He lifted his free hand and grabbed Zack's wrist.

"Reunion," Kryffin breathed, and Zack froze. And stayed frozen.

Aerith squeezed his shoulder. "Zack." Both of them had their eyes open, staring at nothing.

That wasn't good.

She gave him a shake.

Genesis knocked their hands apart.

Zack came back to himself with a gulp of breath and a shudder. Aerith ran fingers over his hair, petting him, soothing him. Letting him know he wasn't alone. He buried his face against her belly and held on.

On the ground Kryffin's eyes closed. "It's quiet now. Finally." He blinked once. When he blinked again, his eyelids stayed down.

Aerith could feel Zack trembling. He'd had to kill another friend, she thought. Of course he was upset. Then he stood, grabbed Cissnei by the neck, lifted her in the air, and shook her. "You knew!"

That's when Aerith realized that he was angry – very, very angry.

AN. First off, thank you all for your wonderful patience. I rewrote this chapter a couple times in an attempt to get Aerith's thoughts and reactions right. I don't usually write fight scenes from the POV of a support character, so it was... challenging. (BTW, "support" here means "gives buffs and healing and stays in the back", not that Aerith isn't an important character in FFVII.)

Next, Shelke would've been around 16 here, but we know from Dirge of Cerberus that Deepground effed up her natural aging. Elmyra's completely justified in thinking she's maybe 12. Elmyra's a softie (not that Zack would believe that, but a "daughter's dangerous boyfriend" gets a lot different treatment than a lost child.

Finally, if I ever mention a clone's number, I'm either taking it from one of the games or I've made it up. I haven't read any of the other official novels or comics or anything. I know of those stories, but I don't know them, so I'm going to ignore most of their content.