"Aerith?"
The pain in her chest keeps her from lifting her head up.
"It's time dear."
"Time for what?"
"We need you to return to the planet." The voice echoes across the water. She can't see anyone, but she feels the presence… it vibrates through her bones, rushes through her veins like it's part of her, like it comes from her.
"Why?"
"Because she's dying."
"And she needs me?" The question burns at her heart.
"As the Cetra that you are… her only hope lies in you."
"Why me?"
"Because you were the last. Your soul is still connected with the living." There is a pause. "Will you help?"
"Yes." Of course she will, it's written in her blood.
"Then we are going to send you back."
"How?"
"With the menace gone, we can."
"Where am I going?"
"He's already there."
"Who?"
"We are proud of you."
"Who are you?"
…
"Hey, who are you?"
Aerith wakes up worried the next morning. Worried and exhausted, when she should be glowing with love. But the expectation for the new day had prevented her from having a deep sleep, her mind was racing with thoughts about their mission and Cloud… he hadn't been joking when he told her he'd stay up all night with her.
They made love for the first time that night.
So, despite all of her uneasiness, the morning has a sweet taste that day. He had given himself to her, all of him.
She lifts up on an elbow, wraps the sheets around her naked body, and looks over at him sleeping peacefully next to her. The golden late-morning light casts on his beautiful pale skin and the refraction of its luster mesmerizes her.
She traces his skin with her fingertips, gently grazes over the gleaming moonstone-colored patterns of the scars on his chest. Each one of them portraying his painful past. Their battles, his suffering, what they've been through to get there, to that moment. It tugs at her heart, twisting it. She kisses his skin softly, with tears curbing at her closed eyelashes, if she could she'd take all of his pain away.
He moves a hand to the back of her head and when she lifts her eyes, shining green-blue that has just seen light regards her warmly.
He smiles at her… just a small curve of his lips is enough to make her heart skip a beat. Impulsed by her heart drumming against his chest, he rolls over to get on top of her.
Chestnut locks of hair swirl around her pillow and set around her face in cotton-smooth curls. "Sleep well?" She asks between a gentle chuckle that turns into a bite at her lower lip as he nestles over her body and kisses her neck slowly.
"Didn't sleep much but the little I did… I dreamt of flowers. Of you." He kisses her shoulder. "I know… it's going to be alright." His words soothe the clench around her heart. He lifts his head to look at her. After a long moment of contemplating her cheeks shining a warm pink, he leans down, hovers his lips around her lips until they finally meet again, soft and longingly, as if their dreams had painfully set them apart for too long.
If she could… if she only could… she'd spend the rest of her life there, under him, feeling his weight over her and kissing him.
But something is calling her, chills flurry up her skin, invade her bones and lodge inside her chest. The planet. It cries sorrowfully and pressingly, it needs her to act.
"We need to go." She breathes against his lips, moved by the vital desperation settling over her. He nods and pulls back reluctantly. "We need to go save the planet one more time."
"Then we'll have the rest of our lives." He tries. It's neither a question nor an affirmation. Just his heart trying to get a sort of confirmation that they will have more time, the rest of their time together.
When she doesn't answer or corroborate what he'd said, he doubts they will ever get some slack at a life of their own.
When they reach Seventh Heaven, Elmyra and Tseng are already amongst their friends. Elmyra is there to pick up Marlene who is staying with her while they travel. And Tseng…
"Why is the pilot setting up the airship?" The Turk asks when the bodyguard and his florist stop close. "Going on a trip?"
"None of your business." Cloud is the first one to reply.
"It's okay." Aerith squeezes Cloud's hand, it's hard to break contact with him. "We're off to find something we need."
"Care to elaborate?" Tseng asks, an eyebrow lifting questioningly.
"It's related to saving the planet." She says in a cheeky smile, rocks on her feet a bit.
The teasing makes Tseng shake his head, rub at his temple. "You know you can trust us."
"Deep wounds are hard to heal." Cloud says, his eyes scanning the Turk intensively.
"Need a hand?" Tseng asks. Him too, had trouble trusting the ex-soldier, after she had died over his watch. He doesn't say it, for Aerith's sake, but the will to is powered by their attitude.
"We don't need Turks to ride along." Barret's voice thunders across the street. "They're bad luck in an airship." He hangs a small bag on his shoulder, tightens his grip around it.
"Plus, someone should stay here and keep the peace, in the eventuality of something like what happened in the church happens again here." Vincent remarks, remembering their reports about the disturbance that had occurred the previous day.
"Fine." Tseng compromises. "Just… be careful." He looks one last time at Aerith. She nods him a smile and after he slightly nods back at her, he disappears into the streets.
"I don't like this… not one bit." Elmyra reaches for Aerith, her hand holding Marlene's. "Why does all of this look awfully familiar?" The older woman's voice trembles. Her furrowed brow protuberant on her face.
"It's going to be okay mom." Aerith smiles reassuringly. "We're just getting something of mine back, my materia."
"The one you used before?" Elmyra's eyes open wide. "For meteor?" Aerith watches as her breathing shortens and panic takes over.
"Hey, it's okay." Aerith places her hands on Elmyra's shoulders. "It has nothing to do with last time. You can rest assured."
Elmyra isn't convinced. Her eyes flicker to Cloud a little further behind Aerith.
"Don't take your eyes off her." She approaches the blond. "Please."
"I won't." Cloud nods.
Elmyra places a motherly hand on his shoulder, squeezes lightly and sighs turning away from him to walk back to Marlene.
The little girl pulls on Aerith's hand. The Cetra bends down to her eye level.
"I'll be waiting for the trees to blossom again." Marlene tells her. Immediately Aerith's heart fills with warmth at her words. She smiles at the girl and softly kisses her cheek.
"When we get back, will you help me fix the flowers in the church?" Aerith asks her sweetly.
"In Midgar?"
Aerith nods.
"Yes!" Marlene jumps excitedly.
"Okay, Cid is saying everything's ready!" They hear Barret's call. Aerith straightens up, waves a goodbye at Marlene and Elmyra and taking Cloud's hand, they join their friends to head outside Edge where they could already see the huge airship in the bright distance, hovering down towards the ground to pick them up.
"Welcome aboard the new Highwind! This is your captain speakin'." They hear Cid's voice over the intercom, above the sounds of their footsteps thumping against the metal floor as they enter the airship. "Come meet me at the bridge and I can take those of you who are riding with us for the first time on a little tour."
"We don't have time for that! For the love of Shiva…" The airship has barely lifted off the ground and already Yuffie gags at her mouth with arms wrapped around the rail of the stairs. The stuffy smell of oil mixed with fuel and lubricants of running engines turns her stomach around. "If anyone needs me, I'll be at the deck, catching some fresh air. Why did I say yes to this?" She walks away sliding her body - that seemed to be wobbling - along the walls of the narrow passageway, across the compartment they were climbing, and that will lead her outside.
The rest of them meet Cid at the bridge as instructed. The inside of the room shudders and vibrates with humming machinery. Every electrical panel has valves and switches alight, every screen buzzes with images of the ground and around the horizon and there are miles of cables and pipes snaking across the floor and walls.
The atmosphere isn't as tainted as the rest of the airship, mostly due to the air-conditioning units displayed at the back wall, cleaning the air, making it circle.
But what Aerith marvels about are the huge lead-glass windows at the front of the airship. She walks slowly towards the sky, her vision is filled with misty clouds fluttering slowly above them. Her mouth slightly opens in awe, her eyes round in amazement. She turns back to find Cloud, with eyes gleaming, welling up with happy tears.
Cloud watches her radiant smile, contagiously making him smile in return. She turns back at the sky, her hands gripping around the protective rail, she leans in and opens her eyes wide. It's everything she has ever imagined, maybe more. Her stomach flutters, her chest over flows with a tight emotion she can't name.
"I know right?" Cid meets the Cetra at the rail, grins proudly. "The first time I stepped in one of these I was but a nine year old. I hated it, scared the shit out of me and I cried my eyeballs out the whole trip." He half laughs, half snorts, then coughs. "Then I couldn't stop dreaming about it until I made my living out of it." He lights up the cigarette he had been chewing on between his lips. "Maybe I can teach ya how to fly it, ya know, when it's all over."
"Really?" Aerith turns to face the pilot. "I'd love that!" She laughs.
Her excitement sparks a certain warmth in his chest. A yearning towards having someone to pass his knowledge to, someone to continue what he had started and he is suddenly overwhelmed with thoughts about his wife and the short time he spends with her. "Yeah… Maybe we should leave the tour for next time." Cid tells her. "We should get this over with first. We'll have plenty of time to explore the ship."
She nods once. "I agree. Thank you Cid." She says. "For everything."
"Don't mention it girl." He returns. "I like this planet. Would love to see it back to what it was."
"I don't mean just this…" Aerith takes his hand between hers. "I mean everything, everything." She nods again, thankful.
Cid shakes his head, rubs the back of his neck nervously with the hand holding his cigarette. "Well… everything everything has been my pleasure." He winks. "Now, let's get goin' shall we?" He clears his throat and squeezes her hand before letting it drop softly. "Time is of the essence."
Cid grunts something she doesn't make out to his crew and they immediately turn their attention at the panels in front of them.
"Make sure you hold on to something as we take off!" Cid warns before getting back to his task. "She has a bit of an attitude at the start."
Tifa and Barret take the seats near the sliding doors, Vincent leans against a wall and Red lays down at one corner of the bridge, shielded by its heavy walls and clawing at the punched metal structure of the floor.
Cloud settles beside Aerith, gripping at the rail she is holding.
"Ready?" He asks, she nods. "You can hold on to me if you want." He says in her ear as the ungodly sound of the propellers starts roaring as they spin into gear outside.
She leans closer, wraps an arm around his waist while her other hand keeps gripping at the rail. Her stomach flips and turns in expectation. And just as they wait, the airship bounces into motion. Nails dig into his shirt to keep her from slumping forward. And the airship moves onward, cutting through the hollowed air between earth and heaven, faster and faster until they feel its speed flickering into a bumpy motion that soon becomes an even steer.
At their feet the ground blurs into one long crimson and brown and pastel patchwork of cracked earth that becomes vaster the higher they go.
She gets a glimpse of the ruins of Midgar extending in the distance around the massive dark scar meteor had left on the face of the planet, she sees the cemetery of wreckage and stone before the airship dives into the first layer of clouds, tucking themselves beneath a woolen haze of white that lifts open when they resurface, giving rise to the bluest golden light horizon her eyes have ever seen.
The sunlight pours inside the bridge, basking the room in its golden glow and brightening every glint of metal and copper that fills the walls and panels of the airship.
Something about the astonished look in her eyes, how they sparkle a vivid bright green against the golden light of the sky… and Cloud can't keep himself from looking at her, relishing on the raw innocent emotion running through her that seems to make her skin glow.
"I'm sorry…" he says at last, he finally averts his gaze, blue eyes that don't want to falter brighten against the blue of the wide sky. She turns her attention at him. Her smile fades a little. "I promised you I'd take you, the first time."
"You're here now." She cups his chin with her fingers, turns his face towards her. "We're here now… And if I told you this is the happiest I've ever been, would you believe me?"
He stares a moment, her beautiful face seems to illuminate under the golden sunlight. Rose lips as smooth as rose petals smiling so softly. Eyes so green as if she's holding in them, all the life of the planet. He can only nod as his heart tumbles inside his chest.
"You're giving me so much more I could ever have asked for." She says, and places a gentle hand on his cheek. Green eyes tinge a darker shade. "Cloud…" she swallows. She doesn't have to say it for him to understand what her calling means.
He's been through that before, lived it in a dream long gone when the same expression of her eyes meant for him not to fall in love with her because she knew his love wasn't fair for her to take, because she knew she would soon be leaving him.
Not again. Not this again.
"Don't." He says, wincing, he doesn't know what to do with the pain engulfing, settling around his heart, it tightens his breath away. "I can't… I can't hear it."
"I told you when you found me…" already her eyes are pricking with tears. "I don't know how much longer I'll have." She blinks, and the tears cascade down her cheeks, along with the shatters of his heart.
His hand wraps around her wrist, desperately. "What if the planet wants you to stay?"
"That may be a possibility." She opens her eyelids. The immensity of the green in her eyes makes him loose his focus. "But if it is, I don't know. I know I should keep my hopes up…" but everyday she fears that she might disappear. And she doesn't say it aloud because she can't take the hurt effusing across his face.
He wants to look away and hide behind his frustration… but he can't. Not when every second of the ticking clock counts. So he turns back to face her, his hand pulls her into his embrace. Tightly. He holds her trembling body against him as if she is his life support-system, as if they're fighting against time and space in an unfair battle that fate will always win.
"Why would you leave?" She hears him ask, his yearning voice quiet against the roaring engines around them.
"I don't know…" she replies, her fingers curl around the back of his shirt and she buries herself against him. She doesn't know, she can't explain it. "But I'll do everything I can, to stay. I don't want to leave."
He remains still, simply holding her.
"Okay?" She pulls back, tries to give him the best warm smile she can. He brushes one lock of hair away from her eyes. He's not certain to what he can say, so he nods hesitantly. For now, they must concentrate on healing the planet.
For now… they must forget about this.
The ride isn't a long one. The Forgotten Capital isn't far up north of Edge. All it takes is flying across a small extension of the sea between the two continents and its surrounding forest of dead trees soon comes into view. Cid needs to land the Highwind on an open plain, so they will have to walk a considerate distance towards the City.
Yuffie kisses the ground once they set their feet onto stable earth. Cid agrees to wait for them inside the airship because the crew doesn't know how to fight in case some trouble comes up.
Packed with some food and water, the group of seven begin their walk towards the place Aerith had summoned Holy for the first time, a little over a year ago.
The once life-pulsing Sleeping Forest is nothing but dead roots and fallen naked trees of a painful moldy-gray color. It looks haunted, waning and sorrowful. Aerith picks one brown dry leaf from one of the frost-coated branches of a dead trunk and sighs in desolated defeat when it crumbles into dust between her fingers.
The memory comes into view inside her mind as she closes her eyes for a moment. The trees lashed and twined against each other like great tunnels of green fingers intertwining into corridors of life, letting small beams of sunlight carrying tiny specs of dust dapple freely from above.
Their leaves rustled into whispering melodies with birds chirping and animals jumping, the wind whistled around living trunks covered in breathing moss. Green ivy sprinkled in dusk dew carpeted the floor along her path. Everything was moving, everything was alive.
She opens her eyes.
Now…
Now it feels like she's in another planet. The green is gone, swept away by the decay. Only death whispers amongst the sprawling limbs of the trees welcoming them inside, curling over them, their twigs picking at their clothes as if they are asking them for help. She tastes blood in her tongue, as a sickening feeling slowly creeps inside her stomach.
When many would turn back at the sight of the shuddering forest, Aerith grips her hands tightly around her staff, and doesn't waste another second before going further into the depths of the rotting forest.
Notes:
Had this chapter ready to go :)
Writing about the Highwind sure was a challenge to me.
Questions or thoughts? Feel free to let me know!
Thank you for reading!
AnriMia: as always thank you so much :D our queen still has a lot to go through but yes there will be light at the end of the tunnel! :) thank you!!!