Aerith had been given a single day off after Cloud had died before she was assigned to her next SOLDIER. She still didn't know his name, hadn't bothered to ask on any of their missions so far. It didn't matter. Nothing did, not anymore.

She hadn't been able to take manual control of the satellite afterward. Seeing Cloud's lifeless body lying there would have shattered her beyond repair. Even so, there was no denying she was broken. Food had lost its taste, smell was a faint memory, and Tifa's hug had been faint—as if she wasn't in her body anymore but instead floating outside.

Routine was pretty much all that kept her running. Wake up. Eat breakfast. Stare at the wall. Eat lunch. Participate in a mission. Stare at the wall. Eat dinner. Sleep. She'd tried to read but hadn't been able to finish a page before she couldn't read the words through her tears. Tonight was no different as she numbly pulled the sheets to her chin and closed her eyes. At least when she slept she could forget.

Aerith woke sometime in the middle of the night to a voice coming from inside her room. Her heart leapt into her throat once the initial foggy haze of being woken cleared. Who was there? What did they want? How had they gotten in? She had no idea what the best course of action was in this scenario, but staying in bed didn't seem like a good idea.

". . . taking so long? Aerith . . . danger!"

The feminine voice was choppy and broken up, but sounded strangely familiar. Hearing her name caused her to pause in surprise.

"Geez, calm down . . . my best . . . really difficult to hack this. Hello? Aerith, can you hear this?"

The second voice also belonged to a woman and while it had started out distorted, after cutting out it came back with perfect clarity. Aerith realized they were somehow talking through the CommLink she'd left on her desk and hadn't actually broken into her room. Feeling slightly more relieved, she slowly got to her feet and moved over to sit in her chair, gingerly picking up the device and bringing it to her ear.

"Hello? Who is this?"

"Oh! Great! No time for introductions, I'm afraid. They're coming for you, you need to get out of there immediately."

Dozens of questions immediately jumped to mind, but the one she already knew the answer to was the only possibility of who the mysterious voice could be referring to—Shinra. "What should I do? How long do I have?"

"Just get moving. We've got an agent in the tower with you. She's going to do her best to help, but she's still several floors up. You need to go now."

"Can't you guide me? Hack into their cameras maybe?"

"I could, but we wouldn't be able to talk. You're going to have to leave this fancy piece of tech in your room, it's got a tracking chip in it so taking it with you is far too dangerous."

"Lovely. Assuming I make it out, what then? I just hide in the streets?"

"No, we've got some new members ready to get you to safety, they'll find you. Now go, we've taken too long already."

The connection cut out and Aerith threw the device back onto the desk before taking a quick glance around the room. For whatever reason, she trusted the voice. It helped that the first person had sounded so familiar and that they'd known her name, but deep down, Aerith had known something like this was coming. She wasn't sure if it was related to Cloud or her performance with the new SOLDIER, but ultimately it didn't matter.

She didn't own much, but it was all here. None of it was worth taking, except for maybe the books. She could always buy new ones though, and it wasn't worth the risk to carry anything extra. Escaping in her pajamas was out of the question, however, so she took a moment to quickly change into a simple, pink dress.

Making her way to the door, she slid it open and poked her head out. Silence greeted her, unsurprising given the fact the sun was still who knew how many hours from rising. The adrenaline coursing through her veins helped fight off any drowsiness as she moved into the hall, closing the door behind her silently. It felt good to be actually doing something, instead of sitting around like she had been ever since . . . Shaking her head to clear it, Aerith advanced on the balls of her feet, moving as quickly and silently as she could.

Pausing at the end of the hallway, she debated her two options—taking the stairs or the elevator. While the elevator was obviously the fastest option, it was also the most likely to be monitored, and once she was inside there would be no escape if something went wrong. On the other hand, the stairs would be much slower, but people rarely ever used them in the first place, not to mention she'd be able to use the nearest floor to duck back into the main building if she heard anyone coming.

Aerith turned to the right, pushing the door open and stepping out into the first flight of stairs. It was a long way down, but thankfully gravity would at least be on her side in this direction. She didn't even want to imagine what it would be like to climb to this level from the ground floor.

By the time she was ten flights down her legs were lightly aching. After twenty she was starting to breathe harder. Doing her best not to focus on it, Aerith pushed on, ignoring the growing pain in her legs. One small blessing was that there seemed to be absolutely no one around, although she thought she'd heard a brief commotion far above at one point.

Finally reaching the bottom without incident, she took a few precious minutes to catch her breath and do her best to calm her racing heart. These last few days of near-complete inactivity had taken a larger toll on her than she'd realized.

Once she felt ready, Aerith carefully pushed the door leading out into the upper floors of the lobby open, poking her head out to check if the coast was clear. It wasn't. A single guard stood at the top of the stairs leading down to the lower level—his back to her. There was always a chance he wasn't there for her, or that he wouldn't recognize her, but that was a risk she wasn't willing to take.

Glancing around for anything she could use as a weapon, her eyes landed on a folded metal chair propped against the wall. It didn't seem like a terribly good option, but nothing else really jumped out at her. Besides, she wasn't planning on fighting her way out, she just needed a way to get past him, then she could make a break for it. Once she was out of the tower hopefully she'd be safe, assuming she could find the people the voice had mentioned.

Aerith slipped through the door, making sure to close it noiselessly behind her before padding over to the chair. It was heavier than she'd expected, although not so much that she couldn't lift it. Trying to be as quiet as she possibly could, Aerith crept up behind the guard, lifting the chair up over her head. Right before she could swing it downward, she wobbled slightly, smacking the edge of the chair into the wall.

The guard spun around, but not faster than Aerith was able to bring her improvised weapon down on his head. There was a shockingly loud crash as the chair collided with the guard's metal helmet before he collapsed limply to the ground. Dropping the chair on top of him, she ran.

A shout from the opposite set of stairs let Aerith know she wasn't alone, but she kept her attention focused on the stairs ahead, racing down them at a speed that would likely end with her seriously injured if she happened to trip. Fortunately, her legs had recovered enough from the earlier stairs that she managed to make it to the ground floor in one piece.

"Halt!" a voice from behind called out.

She ignored it, shoving open one of the large doors and taking a deep, refreshing breath of the cool night air. The woman over the CommLink had said that some people would "find" her, but the plaza outside the tower was completely empty—unsurprising given the time of night, but not helpful in terms of escaping.

With no better idea, she began to run across the large open space. The guard who'd yelled for her to stop would likely be chasing after her so there was no other option than to keep moving. Hopefully whoever was supposed to be meeting her would still be able to find her.

Aerith felt incredibly exposed as she made her way across the plaza, but to her relief, she reached the other side without incident. Rounding the corner into one of the connecting streets, she collided with something hard, causing her to rebound and fall to the ground with a cry of surprise.

"Well, well, well, look who it is, our darling little Handler. It's a bit late for a stroll, isn't it, my dear?"

The voice sent a chill lancing down her spine. It belonged to the last person she wanted to see in a situation like this—Professor Hojo. Had this been a trap all along? He was standing behind the two armored men she'd run into, each of whom was carrying a rifle that was now pointed directly at her. She heard more footsteps rush up from behind and snuck a quick glance over her shoulder to see five more similarly geared guards closing off any chance of escape.

"I have to say, you've been quite the disappointment, especially after how high our hopes for you were initially. But then you had to go and convince a SOLDIER to try and escape. That certainly forced us to escalate our plans. You have no idea how difficult it was to provoke Wutai into launching such a large attack, on top of also having to prepare our own squad capable of taking out the ten highest-ranked SOLDIERs."

Aerith's fists clenched together as liquid rage filled her veins. "You killed them? Why? How does that make any sense?!"

Hojo's eyes widened, a look of complete surprise on his face. "Wait, you hadn't figured it out? I thought for sure you had when you mentioned how no SOLDIER has ever retired. Hmm, I suppose I gave you a bit too much credit then." His lips curled into a smug grin. "The war makes far too much gil to be allowed to end. Others have more base reasons for wanting money, but I need it to fuel my research.

"As for the SOLDIERs, how could we ever let them return to the public? Most are dangerous criminals, and the rest would talk about everything that was done to them, complain about all the generous comforts we offer them, and the public could never begin to understand the glory of what we do, not with their small, weak minds."

"You're sick. SOLDIERs aren't your playthings. They're human beings, just like you and me."

"Are they, though?" Hojo asked, stroking his chin thoughtfully. "After all the mako infusions they undergo I'm not sure whether I agree." A wicked smile spread across his lips. "I know, let's perform an experiment! Once I turn you into a SOLDIER, I'll breed you with another one and we can see how the child turns out. I'm quite curious to see what it might become, after all, now that we've culled the herd we need a new way to replenish its numbers."

Aerith shuddered in revulsion. "That will never happen."

"I'm afraid you don't really get any say in the matter, my dear. Take her."

The two guards in front of her stepped forward. She scrambled backward in a panic but immediately ran into the soldiers behind her. Two pairs of hands locked onto her arms like manacles, yanking her to her feet.

Aerith screamed.

"Get your filthy hands off her."

The words hit her like a lightning bolt. It was impossible. She knew that voice, but he . . . wasn't dead. Turning to look in the direction it had come from, a man who could only be Cloud stepped out of the shadows, a massive sword in his hands. At his side stood a similarly dressed man with black hair instead of blond, holding an equally large weapon.

If Hojo was as surprised as her then he did an excellent job of concealing it. "Oh? Two failed experiments have returned home? You should have been terminated, but perhaps there's some hope in repurposing you."

For their part, the guards all took several steps away from the two men, pointing their shaking weapons at them while the two who'd grabbed her shoved her into Hojo's arms.

"Release her!"

Hojo laughed, even as he began to drag her backward away from the two men. "You're not in any position to be making demands, not if you don't want your precious Handler to be hurt. Now, let's just—"

It happened in what seemed like the blink of an eye. One moment Cloud and Zack were standing fifteen feet away, the next, all of the guards were down on the ground screaming in pain.

"This is your last warning," Cloud said.

"I can still wring her neck!" Hojo snarled, spittle raining down on her. "Back off, or else—"

Aerith didn't wait for him to finish. She rammed her elbow backward, catching him right in the gut, and Hojo's grip on her relaxed as he gasped in agony. Pulling free, she ran for Cloud, passing Zack heading in the opposite direction.

"What do you think you're doing?!" Hojo screamed. "I made you. Put that weapon down! Obey your master's commands!"

"Silence him," Cloud said dismissively, his eyes never moving from Aerith.

There was a scream from Hojo but she ignored it. Cloud dropped his sword and moved towards her, his arms spreading as if he was going to hug her before he faltered and stopped short. Aerith didn't. She threw herself into his arms, hugging him tightly and burying her face into his chest.

"How?" She wanted to ask so much more, but the words escaped her.

"I'm sorry we couldn't let you know, we assumed Shinra was listening to everything. Zack and I finished our plans right before the mission was announced. Destroying our chips allowed us to fake our deaths, we just hadn't expected the next mission to end up being so close to dying for real. It killed me to not be able to tell you. Can you . . . forgive me?"

Cloud was here, in person, physical and real and wonderful. She could never hold it against him, not when she understood exactly why he'd done what he had. None of it mattered anymore. She looked up into his beautiful, blue eyes and nodded, tears of joy running down her face.

"You're alive."

His body shook against hers with laughter. "I'd hope so."

"Did you have to make it seem so real though? Couldn't you have given me some kind of clue?"

"Oh. I tried, I told you I'd always be there for you."

Aerith huffed. "We're going to have a long talk about this later, mister, but for now I just want you to hold me."

He smiled and she felt herself melt even more. His lips were so close. Was it too soon, too forward? They'd spent so much time talking already, but now that they were finally together she didn't know where exactly their relationship stood. Her heart was beating so strongly she feared Cloud would be able to hear it.

To her surprise, he leaned down and completed the kiss, pressing his lips to hers. Faintly, she could hear more people arriving around them, but Aerith's entire attention was riveted on Cloud and how perfect it felt to be kissing him, their bodies molding together as if they were a matching lock and key.

"I take it these two know each other then?" a gruff voice off to the side asked.

"Apparently better than I realized," Tifa replied, a note of amusement in her voice. "What in the Planet's name were the two of you talking about on missions?"

"Oh, I know for a fact they were up late chatting about all kinds of things," Zack chimed in.

Aerith's cheeks were on fire, but she was in Cloud's arms and still kissing him and it was wonderful so she didn't care. Much. Reluctantly, Aerith eventually pulled back, making sure to leave her hand resting on his arm—she needed that physical connection, the proof he was really there.

"Who are these people Cloud?"

He glanced around, his cheeks tinging a faint pink as he took in the people around them. "They're a group opposing Shinra. Zack and I ran into them when we made it to the city and started asking around. What really caught my attention was that they already knew your name before I brought up wanting to get you out."

Aerith frowned. "Wait, what? How?"

To her surprise, Tifa stepped forward, her hands fiddling nervously. "So . . . I'm actually an undercover agent," she said in a rush. "I've been spying on Shinra ever since I started working there. I'm sorry I wasn't able to let you know, there was never a good way to bring it up."

As far as Aerith was concerned, there was nothing to forgive. It was completely understandable that a secret like that wasn't easy to share. "Don't apologize, that's not exactly something you could have just told me over breakfast, after all. Who hacked my CommLink to warn me though? That wasn't your voice."

Tifa gestured toward a woman standing between two men who smiled and gave a small wave. "That's Jessie, our tech expert. As soon as I heard your name from a Shinra exec, I knew we had to get you out. Thankfully, Barret gave the go-ahead for the mission." She pointed out a large, well-muscled man standing off to the side.

"So, care to join us?" Barret asked. "Anyone Shinra wants dead is a friend in my book."

Aerith didn't have to think very long or hard about her answer. A chance to take action against the people who had harmed both her and Cloud, on top of countless other crimes? It was a way for them to make things right, to help change Midgar into the city it should be. And she could do it together with the man she loved. She smiled up at Cloud before looking back to Barret and nodding firmly. "Count me in!"

"Then welcome to AVALANCHE."

Fin

And there we go, I hope everyone enjoyed the ending! I know it's a bit of an open-end, but the focus of the story was always on Cloud and Aerith's relationship, and from here it can largely cut into canon sans Hojo and Sephiroth. I'm not sure how well I did working on writing conversations, but at the very least I had a ton of fun coming up with and writing out this scenario.

Thanks to everyone for reading along, I really appreciate it so, so much. I'd love to hear what you thought of the story, even if it's been years since this was posted.

As for what's next… I'm actually going to be taking an extended break from writing. It's been an insane year since I picked this hobby back up, and just over two hundred thousand words later I've burned myself out a bit, haha. I'll still be reading and commenting on Clerith fics and I'll probably post another Christmas one shot, but the next big story from me will be a long way out. Not just cause of the break, but also because it's likely going to be enormous and take forever to write.

P.S. Anyone catch the hidden pattern in the chapter titles?