A Pain That Won't Leave
By Soul Hunter
Part Three
The surroundings had become nothing but a blank space, totally devoid of life and color. As if seeing anything, Cloud held on desperately to the doorknob that in his eyes were really not there. He looked back, expecting to see a hallway that was rendered nil in his beleaguered mind. Nothing else existed, no one left present...
Except for the one before him he had thought gone.
Shaking his head anew, the perplexed warrior had to struggle to regain his normal perception. In the midst of the emptiness, he heard a voice, echoing seemly far and deep. Finally closing his eyes, Cloud desperately reached out to regain his grasp of reality. He must have been just dreaming, after all.
"Cloud..." the voice reverberated once more.
Then he realized that this is by no means a dream, as Cloud opened his eyes to the vision of a woman standing before him. Her eyes, drenched with tears, projected a joy that seemed to know no bounds. He gazed at Tifa, meeting her eyes with his which appeared to be lost more than anything else.
He then felt her arms around him.
"I can't believe it...! Cloud, she came back to us..."
Jolted by her utterance, the embattled Cloud braved a gaze beyond Tifa's proximity. There, sitting on top of the bed, was the woman whose loss had left a deep scar in his heart. There, his unbelieving eyes once again beheld her.
And Aeris could do nothing but bow her head. But only for a moment, as she gained hold of a resolve in her heart that led her gaze up once more, meeting his. She then smiled.
"Hello, Cloud."
The sweetest smile ever to grace his deprived gaze, together with a resonance replete with gladness, and yet spiked with anxiety owing to the unexpected doubt she saw in his questioning eyes. Cloud still remembers that heart-melting smile, that disarming face, and the voice that stilled his wild heart. He remembers everything about Aeris...
"Cloud, can you hear me? It's Aeris! She's returned for us..."
... He just can't... or doesn't want to believe that she's here with him once more.
"I... I..." He stammered, not knowing what to say while subjected under this indescribable experience. Tifa subsequently released her hold and looked him straight in the eye.
"I know how you must be feeling. I couldn't believe it at first either. I mean... I was also there when it happened, remember?"
He stared back at Tifa, as if measuring the degree of sense coming out of her mouth... and saw nothing but pure joy in her face.
"But... that's really not important now, is it? All I know is she's back. I don't know how it became possible... but I'm just so happy right now I really don't care anymore..."
His mind in complete shambles, Cloud tried to fight the urge to tell her off for reasons that he is really unsure of. The storm raging in his chest almost brought him to a hostile demeanor that would have meant dejection for the two women before him. Cloud has never felt confusion this great, and yet the jubilation in Tifa's visage empowered him to fend off the initial shock, at least for a few more moments.
Carefully leading Tifa out of his way, Cloud mustered all his courage in stepping forward, where Aeris waited on the edge of the bed. The longing look in her eyes almost burned him, as he was so sure that was the same look she gave him just before disappearing into the enchanted woods one year ago.
"Aeris..." his mouth finally muttered her name, to which the last surviving Ancient responded with a gleaming streak in her beautiful eyes.
"How... How are you?" Aeris echoed, uncertain of the answer he might give. Seeming numberless moments elapsed between the two... moments that crept in a gradual progression of limited eternity.
Suddenly, the angst in his heart prevailed anew. Aeris was abruptly shaken hard when Cloud snapped at her with pure indignation.
"No! This isn't real! This isn't happening!" The suddenly hostile Cloud bellowed before furiously walking out of he room. Equally startled by his behavior, Tifa spent a few seconds to regain her composure before turning once more to Aeris.
"I... I'm sorry, Aeris. But you have to understand..."
"I do... don't worry, Tifa. I myself don't know how this all happened... and I can imagine just how hard it must be for you to believe that I'm here once more after what Sephiroth did..."
"Stop that, Aeris. I don't care about that anymore, and I'm sure your mother will feel the same way once she sees you. Cloud just needs some time to get used to this since... well... Let's just say we all reacted in different ways to your... Oh... oh my..."
"My... death...?"
"Ohmigosh... I'm sorry, Aeris." Tifa repentantly returned. "I didn't mean to..."
"Like I said, don't worry about me. We can try to find the answers some other time. For now.... I just wanna see my mother."
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Continuing his surveillance, the man with the menacing weapon of gunpowder and bullets cautiously examined the entrance to the hidden city found below his perch. It appeared to be undisturbed, at least not for the recent past, he surmised. Nothing he'd seen so far can truly be adjudged as out of the ordinary, and he's now beginning to consider the futility of his efforts.
Just then, a faint and almost inaudible sound interrupted his concentration. Vigilant eyes combined with razor-sharp senses to begin another survey of the pristine terrain, adamantly seeking to zero in on the cause of that subtle disturbance.
He drew out his rifle and aimed it at the door from where he had entered a few minutes earlier. He shot out a hostile warning, meant to lure the hidden intruder out of its concealment. Hearing soft footsteps emanating from beyond the door, the man of mystery promptly used his thumb to pull back the diminutive hammer to its ominous ready position, and then held his breath to patiently wait for the intruder to reveal itself.
A slight wonderment engulfed him after his trained ears detected more than one set of footsteps. And from the resonance coming from a surface of loose gravel and sand, the man astutely discerned not those noises being made of solidly landing soles...
... But those of the stealthy whispers of four paws.
Smiling to himself, the man relented from his guard and holstered his gun, subsequently voicing out a warm greeting to welcome the arrival of his copper-hued comrade with the luminescent tail.
----------
He can't have possibly doubted her. Cloud's mind wandered back to that instant a few minutes earlier, of that repulsive moment when he suddenly found himself unleashing a hostile front against her. Silently, the former Avalanche fighter lashed at himself for his unnatural behavior. What could have gotten into him?
Isn't this the moment that he had been wishing to happen? Wasn't he the one desiring to set his eyes one more time on this woman? This gentle lady whose heart of gold poignantly touched his once-dulled feelings?
What was he thinking?
Once again, Cloud tried to push himself forward to get a better view of what's happening inside the house. He saw Marlene, her wondering eyes transfixed at the profusely weeping Elmyra who can't seem to pry her arms from the girl she had loved as her own from the moment she saw her alone by the train station in lower Midgar. From that considerable distance, Cloud can easily discern the immense joy overflowing from the middle-aged woman's strained eyes. And he can see Aeris returning the fervor, projecting the yearning she must have felt in the midst of being away from the woman she called mother.
His thoughts then wandered off to a tributary. Aeris had been dead. She had already fused with the Lifestream, and had become one with the Planet. In a state that can be called pure bliss, is there really enough room for the resting life forces to even remember the most important people in their past lives?
Thus, another question came back to Cloud. Has Aeris truly reached the final destination? Has she really been immersed in spirit with the Lifestream's endless flow? Then if so, what is she doing here?
Can this person be the real Aeris, the one he had regarded so highly once upon a time?
The return of the shadow on his psyche was abrupt, but not unexpected. Once again, the indignation began to get the better of him.
The dead cannot return to life. It's just not possible. Even Sephiroth himself, with all the powers he wielded, wasn't able to accomplish this impossible feat, as far as he knows. If she is indeed a fraud, who is this person posing as Aeris?
And who is the merciless miscreant currently making a mockery of her memories?
Walking back into the barn where he met Mimi's interrogating look, Cloud strutted beyond the area he usually surveys every morning. There's a mound of hay standing in solitude in the farthest corner of the stable. Pausing briefly to examine the soundness of his impending action, Cloud nevertheless ceded to his tormented conviction. Reaching deep into the haystack, he subsequently pulled out his arms once more. His hands now clutched the hard hand guard of the gleaming Ultima Weapon.
"Aeris" he muttered under his breath. "Whoever's desecrating your memory will pay dearly for this."
End of Part Three