She ran from the reactor, through fields of cotton bulbs and wildflowers, to where the land was no longer manicured and the trees didn't grow in rank. Only then did she stop to catch her breath as liquid sun lines beamed down around her. Huffing, she stepped, and grass grew under her footfalls.
"This won't make me love you, Prince!" she shouted to the canopy. Whoever she'd intended, someone else heard instead.
The sun faded to grey, to black, instant nightfall around her little patch of forest, and from behind the trees and shrubs flowed smoking billows of chaos. The purple umbra reached for her in snaking lines slowly ascending. And from their curtain stepped the silver demon in the black coat. His daikatana slipped through the chaos like parting waves of water, and flowers died where he stepped.
A slow advance, he strode a terror incarnate, with black veins snaking up his bony cheeks and dead, empty eyes. He raised his hand to her, and she fled.
Bolting through the woods she ran with the sound of her own heart beating in her ears, first like drums, then like canons. Thump, THUMP, CRASH. No matter where she turned the chaos was there, corralling her, tracing her like a shot deer. The billows swirled around her feet and she leapt from them, all the while a soft, dark voice calling in her heart.
"Ifah…"
Dart left, the chaos bloomed to block her. To the right she was headed off. There was no going back.
He came from behind, moving in on the kill. Poised with his sword, there was no escape, and she couldn't breathe.
Voices in the distance broke the spell.
"Aerith! AERITH!"
Her friends charged through the wood following Red, who was hot on her scent. When they pummeled through the bushes to see the dark monolith with his silver sword, they all fell back. Cloud caught his breath and threw his arms out wide.
"Hey asshole! Here I am!"
As Sephiroth's eyes narrowed to slits on Cloud's anima brand, a Fira bolt slammed him in the chest. The party jumped in line, falling seamlessly into Combat mode.
But today Sephiroth was not playing around. He held his arms out to summon dark energy, and the ground began a low rolling rumble that reverberated up everyone's limbs and spines. Barret's eyes flew wide.
"Oh snaps. Quake 3!"
"Are we still numbering attacks?" complained Tifa.
The earth beneath them exploded in violent spasms that ripped the ground in slabs, shaking and thundering in wracking waves. Aerith cast Float too late to save the party.
Tifa, Barret, Yulan, Red: Insta-KO. Cloud held on by a single hit point, delirious on the ground. The world appeared in blurry lines as he felt himself fading, but moreover, his limbs wouldn't move. Paralyze, he though, but he was wrong. A countdown in his weapons menu screen showed back from ten, and his stomach leapt into his throat.
Petrify.
Slow footfalls approached to finish the job. Sephiroth stood with his sword over Cloud to claim the kill, but Aerith darted in front of him. She locked eyes with Sephiroth, then ran. Bounding through the woods she glanced over her shoulder and saw chaos. He was following her.
But the trees gave way to an empty cliffside where she skidded to a stop, kicking pebbles over the sheer ledge down into a crevasse of rapids. The water was angry and smashed frustrated against the ledge, as if reaching for her.
A slithering hiss found her, calling in a low harmonic whisper.
"Ifah."
He appeared from the mist, a cold gleam in his black eyes that foretold of death, and at the same time, bid her embrace it. Again he held out his hand.
"Come to me, Goddess."
A deep breath, and she fell back off the cliff.
Her body slid into the rapids and disappeared under the foam. Sephiroth stood for a long time scanning the river's edge, seeing where she might surface. But no form came. He turned emotionless back to the forest, disappearing into the mist.
Aerith tumbled over and over under murky waters, occasionally flung to the surface for a desperate breath before being lurched back under. Too disoriented to cast any protective barriers, the water knew how to fight her. She fought for consciousness and air for too long to keep track of, until the water's temper quelled and the rapids seemed to settle.
Aerith awoke washed up on a bank far downstream in an abandoned industrial park. The forest had been clear-cut for miles and heavy machinery tracks were permanently slashed into the earth. The smell of burned chemicals made her gage awake.
She pulled herself dripping onto the bank and stood to see another massive reactor powered by water turbines downriver. Remembering Cloud's little napkin-map, she knew in her gut where she was and what was harbored here.
Jenova's Spine.
A calling beyond her brought her to the steel stairs of the reactor. The Mako run-off dumped into the river via sludged-up metal pipes, and the smell was of benzene and burned Styrofoam. Careful as a dove, she ascended the steps.
The doors to the reactor opened for her, tripped by a motion sensor but as if welcoming someone special. Flickering LED lights buzzed against the hum of gyrating generators while fans blew scattered romex piping against the walls in an iron tinging. She walked through all this as if royalty, aloof and unmoved.
The corridor brought her to the antechamber, massive and cylindrical, and silent as a cool breeze. She beheld the Fal'Cie, the monumental crystal suspended in sleep, revolving on a slow axis in rays of diamond light.
She approached with silent footfalls, emitting a low undulating light that gently stirred the crystal, as if respectfully rousing it. Unlike her clunky and aggressive friends, she knew these creatures well, and also knew what she must do.
The Crystal stirred and ceased its orbit. It sent a beam of light to scan the girl who now stood alone and lithe before it. Her staff was raised and stoic. The flower maiden asked for a fair fight.
The Fal'Cie obliged. Its mirrored surface undulated iridescence and broke apart, scattering into a wave of spectral glass that hovered like petals. The glass luminesced like ice, flowing into a space of mist before Aerith, and from that mist was formed the embodiment of a woman.
Naked with blue skin and a flowing mane of white hair, the ice nymph materialized before Aerith in a semi-transparent softness like snow. The Eidolon Shiva met her on the platform, and Aerith gripped her staff in both hands.
A Blizzara flare flew at her. She bat it away and dive-rolled forth. She attacked Shiva, slinging blow after blow as the nymph darted back. Her fingers became shards and sliced at Aerith, who backflipped onto her hands with her flowing mage's cloak fanning like wings. Recovering with staff overhead she blocked a huge downslice from Shiva, shards of glass shattering down onto her face and peppering her hair. Shiva sliced at Aerith again and again as she ducked and dodged, parrying and counter slashing. A huge jumping downslash from Aerith sent Shiva flying, but she was quick to return with a huge ice-rush that flung Aerith across the floor.
That stung. She healed herself but missed a turn. Shiva took the offensive, hurling ice blocks onto Aeirth's translucent Barrier she cast around herself. It was getting to that time to put this ice magic to rest, or she'd be out of MP soon. The nymph cast a fulminating Blizzaga that powder-coated the Barrier's dome in snow. The temperature inside dropped dangerously below zero. Aerith saw her breath in white billows and became dizzy.
Winter is a hard part of the annual cycle of life. It brings all to a hard reset, wiping away the dramatic foliage and spectacular displays of flora in a suffocating sea of blank erasure. The music of avian and insectoid choirs is replaced by white noise, a sullen silent lull of the frozen death of the sun. But the flowers don't die, they sleep under layers of cold frost, biding their time, idling patiently in the seasonal pause. In the earthly tombs of deep roots, roses shudder, daffodils stir, and tulips pulsate in anticipation of casting winter into the fold once again. The flowers know that no matter how hard the icy storms blow, they can never forever push back the spring.
Last ditch. Aerith made a fist, and the demantoid garnet engagement ring on her finger glowed, igniting a flame in her eyes. A transmutation circle formed around her feet, glowing a hegemonic red as she eyed Shiva. Palms held out, she cast a wall of hurling flames straight for the ice mistress, shattering her façade into thousands of pieces of glass once again.
The snowy mist of the Fal'Cie formed an eminent glowing orb that Aeirth pulled into herself. She absorbed the spirit of Shiva, and kept it as her Summon. But now her business was still not finished.
Jenova's Spine, suspended in a glass egg of ooze, mocked Aerith from its artificial womb. A Fira bolt shattered the suspension cables, dropping the pod into the Mako flow far below. It was done.
She entered the reactor alone. She left alone. The mantle of stars in the sky bid her well done. But now she needed to find the others. Where was Cloud? Was he even still alive?
She sensed his direction, and took off full sprint. If she could track that anima brand blind and deaf, who else had a head start on her?