Chapter Eight: Legacy of an Ancient
Cloud hadn't noticed the first time he'd come there, but Aeris's cottage smelled beautifully of flowers. The garden to the side of the home bloomed with colors of all sorts, just like the church. Cloud ventured to think that it had something to do with Aeris, since flowers weren't supposed to be able to grow in Midgar. Pollution kept them at bay.
It had been just two days ago that he'd been there, but it seemed like it had been a week ago. So much had happened in the last 48 hours that it hadn't quite sunk in yet. It really hadn't hit him that Wedge, Biggs, and Jessie were dead. Only Barret had been able to fully comprehend the severity, and the finality, of what had happened. It was most important for him to come to Aeris's house, because he knew that the person he wanted to see most in the world was Marlene.
As soon as he entered, Elmyra ran to Cloud in a state of worried nervousness.
"Cloud!" She called to him as she ran from across the kitchen. "Aeris said she was going after you, and then she never came back. She never does that. And then she ran in here a little while ago and said it was urgent, and she dropped off a little girl and left again."
"I'm sorry. I'm sure she would have come home before, but we ran into some problems." Cloud replied. Elmyra put her hand over her mouth.
"Sector 7…did that have anything to do with you? Oh goodness, Aeris seems to attract trouble from every direction."
"Yeah, Sector 7 was our fight. Unfortunately we lost it. The Shinra…captured Aeris." Cloud replied, hanging his head after the last word. Elmyra gasped.
"I knew they would get her eventually! They've been hunting her down her whole life."
Tifa and Barret had walked in behind Cloud. Elmyra had ignored the fact that they were there before, but now she looked at them in fear. Cloud decided to explain their intrusion.
"These are my friends. That's Tifa, the girl that Aeris and I were going after." He started. Tifa smiled and mouthed "hello."
"And that's Barret." Cloud continued. "The girl that Aeris dropped off is his daughter."
"Marlene!" Barret exclaimed. "She's here? Do you mind if I see her?"
"Of course not." Elmyra answered. "She's up the stairs in the second room to the right."
"Thank you very much." Barret replied, and then hurried upstairs.
Cloud looked at Elmyra when she turned to speak to Barret. There was something unusual about her. Her eyes were…different. Her hair was different. Her face was different. She simply looked nothing like Aeris.
"Elmyra, we're going to do everything that we can to get Aeris back. We won't let the Shinra keep her for long." Cloud began. "But, do you mind if I ask you a question before we go?"
"Sure, Cloud. You seem like a good man, and you took good care of Aeris before. I trust that you'll do your best to help her. She seems to have a connection with you." She replied.
"What is your real relation to Aeris?" He asked. "I know that you aren't her mother."
"You are very perceptive, young man." Elmyra replied. "No, you're right I'm not Aeris's mother. But I wonder if I should really tell you how I came to be her caretaker."
"Miss…Elmyra." Tifa started. "You can trust us. We're simple people just like you, and we trust Aeris and she trusts us. She helped Cloud save me, and for that I am in her debt. If there's anything you can tell us that would help us save her from the Shinra…" She broke off, feeling that she had said enough.
"You're right, child." Elmyra answered. "I have no reason not to trust you. Well in that case, I suppose I should tell you the whole story. You see, there is a reason why the Shinra have been after her for so long."
"She is different. Special. Isn't she?" Cloud asked.
"Yes, Cloud, she is. She has been for her entire life. It is her destiny. Both a blessing and a curse, I think. I guess I'll just start from the beginning, and if you don't understand anything I say you can ask me about it when I'm done."
Cloud and Tifa nodded. Elmyra cleared her throat and began to speak.
"I've been living here in the Midgar slums my entire life. About eighteen years ago, Midgar declared war on a far away place called Wutai. Did you fight in that war, Cloud?"
"I enlisted in Soldier a few years after Sephiroth invaded Wutai and won. My first assignments were to help with the continuing clean-up effort after the war." He answered.
"So then you have a personal experience with it. That's good. You may understand better what happened. You see, about a month after the war started my husband was drafted to go fight. We were both very young back then, and we didn't know what to do. I didn't think I'd be able to care for myself while he was gone, but he said he'd come right back for me. I made him promise that he'd be okay, and he did. And at that time, I thought things would be fine.
A year later he still hadn't returned. I was doing okay on my own. I got a job putting together weapons in a factory on the upper plate, and financially I was safe. But I was so lonely. Every night I prayed that he would come home and whisk me off just like when we got married. And every morning I would go to the Sector 7 train station and watch to see if any soldiers coming home knew anything about him. It was so interesting to see the people that would be there. People in love, people in fights. Long lost friends meeting again for the first time in years.
As the days passed, I would become more and more worried. I watched the news everyday, but the reporters always lied saying that we were winning victory over victory against Wutai and the war would be over in mere days. In reality the war would last for eight years. But I believed them, and it made me feel safe I guess. It was better than worrying all the time." She stopped to breath for a second and catch up with herself.
"Well, another few months passed and I finally received a letter from the Midgar army. It said that my husband was coming home on shore leave, and he'd be able to spend a week with me before being shipped back to the frontlines. I was so happy that he was coming home, even though I was a little disappointed that he wouldn't be able to stay for long. The next day I made sure to go the train station and wait extra long for him. I went to the train station early and stayed there late everyday for a week. Every person that walked off the train looked like him or someone he knew.
But it was never actually him. I'm sure something important must have come up. Maybe they never let him leave the frontlines. He was a good fighter, and maybe he was too important to let him leave. But for whatever reason, he never came home that week. I waited for a few more days the next week, but after awhile I felt that it was time to give up.
On the last day that I was going to wait, there was a woman lying on the steps to the courtyard in front of the train station. She looked like she was exhausted, and perhaps she had lost her husband in a battle. You saw that kind of thing a lot during the war. She appeared to be very weak, and it didn't look like she had it in her to get up and move. In her arms she was clutching a young toddler, who looked like she was about four years old.
When I approached the woman she could hardly talk. She told me her name was Ifalna, and that the girl was her daughter. She said that they had been running from the Shinra, and her journey had led her to Midgar. Her last words were for me to make sure her daughter stayed safe. And then she died there, in my lap right in front of my eyes. I never forgot the features of her tired and worried face, nor the promise that I made to her that day."
"Wow." Cloud said, speechless. "So you found Aeris and her real mother at the train station."
"Yes. From then on, I vowed to raise her as my own child. She was old enough already to tell me what her name was. I thought it was a beautiful name, and I began to say it a lot. I had never had a daughter, and it was wonderful to see this new young girl grow in my own home. She would tell me stories about her mother and her father. They were both scientists, and they had always lived in fear of the Shinra.
Being a simple woman, I never had any reason to hate the Shinra. I always wondered why they had treated Aeris so badly. She never forgave them, because she blamed them for the death of her mother. In some strange way, she blamed them for her father's death as well, although she could never remember how her father died.
As she grew a little older it became apparent to me that she was no ordinary child. When she was six she began reading, and from then on she loved it. She read all the time, but the only thing that interested her was ancient history. She read all she could about the ancient humans. But she would always tell me that the books were wrong, and of course I told her that she was wrong because she couldn't possibly know more than the people that wrote the books. But somehow, she never believed me. I always felt like there was something she knew that I didn't
As she got a little older she started to act even stranger. She would talk in her sleep about the fate of the planet. She would tell me that she could talk to the planet, and that she heard voices all the time. Sometimes she wished they would go away, but other times she told me they comforted her. There were times when I wanted to take her to a psychiatrist but I never did. She seemed to be happy in her own little world.
One day she woke up very sad. When I asked her why, she told me because someone very close to me had become one with the planet. When I asked her what she meant by that, she said that to a human, the person was dead. But to her he would live forever with the planet. I didn't know what she was talking about at first, but a week later I received another letter from the Midgar army. It said that my husband had died valiantly in battle.
I never asked her how she knew about it. And she never mentioned it again either. She would mention her strange powers every once in awhile as though they were commonplace, but I could always tell that she knew she was special. And she always kept a small white materia with her. She told me that it didn't do anything, but it was special to her because her mother had given it to her."
"She told me about that too. I thought it was strange." Cloud said.
"I never understood some of the things she said. That was one of them. I remember one day when she was eight years old, a man from Shinra came to my home. I believe his name was Tseng. He asked me if my daughter had ever exhibited any special powers. I was going to answer him, but Aeris screamed that she didn't have any powers and for him to go away. So I made him leave. He came back once, but he was always polite and he never pressed too hard.
After that, the Shinra never came for her again until now. They never used force before, which is why it confuses me. I don't know why they would outright capture her."
"There must be reason why they need her, and soon." Cloud answered. "I believe they may try to use her powers to their advantage. I remember one of the Turks saying that she was an Ancient. Did she ever mention anything like that to you?"
"Yes. When she told me that the books she read were wrong, she used to say that they contained nothing about the Ancients. When I asked her who they were, she said they were the true ancestors of the planet. She said that she was the last descendant of the Ancients. I used to wonder if that was where she got her powers from." Elmyra answered.
"Yes, that might be true. That would make sense." Cloud said, scratching his head in thought. "The only thing that's clear to me is that we have to save her from the Shinra as quickly as we can. They may hurt her if we don't"
"Yeah, Cloud's right. If the Shinra think they can use her for their own means, they will."" Tifa said.
"Well I hope there's something you can do, Cloud. I love Aeris as if she were my own daughter, and I don't want anything to happen to her." Elmyra replied. Just then, Barret descended down the stairs with Marlene in his arms.
"Was she okay?" Elmyra asked. "She slept like a baby as soon as Aeris brought her here."
"Yeah, she's doing great." Barret answered, smiling widely. "Thanks a lot for taking care of her."
"No problem. I was glad to be of help to all of you, after what you've done for Aeris. And what you're about to do." She replied.
"So Cloud." Barret began. "Are we gonna try to sneak into the Shinra Headquarters?"
"I'm sure that's where they're holding her. We'll have the best chances of finding her if that's where we look." Cloud answered.
"Why don't the four of you spend the night, and tomorrow morning you can try to make your way up to the upper plate." Elmyra suggested.
Tifa and Barret were going to agree, but Cloud shook his head.
"We have to get after Aeris as soon as possible. The longer we wait, the less our chances are of getting her back. We have to go now while the Shinra still think we're dead." He said.
"Well, you better be careful. I want you all to bring my daughter back safe and sound." Elmyra warned playfully, a smile replacing the concern on her face. She was confident that if anyone could save her daughter, it was the group of people in front of her.
"Listen, I hate to be a nuisance, but could you watch Marlene for a little longer?" Barret asked. "I definitely don't want to risk bringing her along."
"Yes, I certainly will Barret. I'm sure I'll enjoy the extra company around the house. Just promise me that you'll live to come back for her. She's going to need a father."
"I don't know if I can make any promises, but for her sake I'll try my best." Barret answered. "Well, if you guys are ready, I am." He continued, dropping so that Marlene could jump to the floor.
"Thanks very much for telling us about Aeris, Elmyra." Cloud said. "I think it will help us get her back."
"And it was a very interesting story." Tifa added.
"Anything to help." Elmyra replied. "Now go save my daughter like the heroes you are!"
Cloud nodded and smiled politely. Tifa did the same. Barret walked to her and shook her hand.
"Thanks a lot, ma'am." He said politely.
"You're very welcome." She said. "But watch it with that gun of yours." He chuckled, and so did everyone else. Cloud opened the door and went outside to smell the flowers once again, and the other two followed him to leave Elmyra alone once more.
Their trip had become more than just a small-scale war against the Shinra. Now Cloud was involved on a more personal level. The Shinra had hurt Aeris, and they had hurt Barret. They were responsible for the deaths of three people for whom he had great respect, and the deaths of two people he had never met but had been closer to Aeris in her infancy than anyone else. He would stop at nothing to get her back, and then he would make it his mission to kill the Shinra once and for all.
Perhaps Barret was in this to save the planet, and Tifa was too. Aeris seemed to agree with them. In a way, he did too. But to him, this was about more than just the safety of the planet. This was about people. The Shinra had committed unforgivable injustices against innocent people, and Cloud knew he couldn't let them get away with it. He was a powerful man, imbued with the power of Mako and all of the training that Soldier had given him. He wasn't going to end this until he saw the Shinra die. Their decision to capture Aeris would be their last.
Cloud hadn't noticed the first time he'd come there, but Aeris's cottage smelled beautifully of flowers. The garden to the side of the home bloomed with colors of all sorts, just like the church. Cloud ventured to think that it had something to do with Aeris, since flowers weren't supposed to be able to grow in Midgar. Pollution kept them at bay.
It had been just two days ago that he'd been there, but it seemed like it had been a week ago. So much had happened in the last 48 hours that it hadn't quite sunk in yet. It really hadn't hit him that Wedge, Biggs, and Jessie were dead. Only Barret had been able to fully comprehend the severity, and the finality, of what had happened. It was most important for him to come to Aeris's house, because he knew that the person he wanted to see most in the world was Marlene.
As soon as he entered, Elmyra ran to Cloud in a state of worried nervousness.
"Cloud!" She called to him as she ran from across the kitchen. "Aeris said she was going after you, and then she never came back. She never does that. And then she ran in here a little while ago and said it was urgent, and she dropped off a little girl and left again."
"I'm sorry. I'm sure she would have come home before, but we ran into some problems." Cloud replied. Elmyra put her hand over her mouth.
"Sector 7…did that have anything to do with you? Oh goodness, Aeris seems to attract trouble from every direction."
"Yeah, Sector 7 was our fight. Unfortunately we lost it. The Shinra…captured Aeris." Cloud replied, hanging his head after the last word. Elmyra gasped.
"I knew they would get her eventually! They've been hunting her down her whole life."
Tifa and Barret had walked in behind Cloud. Elmyra had ignored the fact that they were there before, but now she looked at them in fear. Cloud decided to explain their intrusion.
"These are my friends. That's Tifa, the girl that Aeris and I were going after." He started. Tifa smiled and mouthed "hello."
"And that's Barret." Cloud continued. "The girl that Aeris dropped off is his daughter."
"Marlene!" Barret exclaimed. "She's here? Do you mind if I see her?"
"Of course not." Elmyra answered. "She's up the stairs in the second room to the right."
"Thank you very much." Barret replied, and then hurried upstairs.
Cloud looked at Elmyra when she turned to speak to Barret. There was something unusual about her. Her eyes were…different. Her hair was different. Her face was different. She simply looked nothing like Aeris.
"Elmyra, we're going to do everything that we can to get Aeris back. We won't let the Shinra keep her for long." Cloud began. "But, do you mind if I ask you a question before we go?"
"Sure, Cloud. You seem like a good man, and you took good care of Aeris before. I trust that you'll do your best to help her. She seems to have a connection with you." She replied.
"What is your real relation to Aeris?" He asked. "I know that you aren't her mother."
"You are very perceptive, young man." Elmyra replied. "No, you're right I'm not Aeris's mother. But I wonder if I should really tell you how I came to be her caretaker."
"Miss…Elmyra." Tifa started. "You can trust us. We're simple people just like you, and we trust Aeris and she trusts us. She helped Cloud save me, and for that I am in her debt. If there's anything you can tell us that would help us save her from the Shinra…" She broke off, feeling that she had said enough.
"You're right, child." Elmyra answered. "I have no reason not to trust you. Well in that case, I suppose I should tell you the whole story. You see, there is a reason why the Shinra have been after her for so long."
"She is different. Special. Isn't she?" Cloud asked.
"Yes, Cloud, she is. She has been for her entire life. It is her destiny. Both a blessing and a curse, I think. I guess I'll just start from the beginning, and if you don't understand anything I say you can ask me about it when I'm done."
Cloud and Tifa nodded. Elmyra cleared her throat and began to speak.
"I've been living here in the Midgar slums my entire life. About eighteen years ago, Midgar declared war on a far away place called Wutai. Did you fight in that war, Cloud?"
"I enlisted in Soldier a few years after Sephiroth invaded Wutai and won. My first assignments were to help with the continuing clean-up effort after the war." He answered.
"So then you have a personal experience with it. That's good. You may understand better what happened. You see, about a month after the war started my husband was drafted to go fight. We were both very young back then, and we didn't know what to do. I didn't think I'd be able to care for myself while he was gone, but he said he'd come right back for me. I made him promise that he'd be okay, and he did. And at that time, I thought things would be fine.
A year later he still hadn't returned. I was doing okay on my own. I got a job putting together weapons in a factory on the upper plate, and financially I was safe. But I was so lonely. Every night I prayed that he would come home and whisk me off just like when we got married. And every morning I would go to the Sector 7 train station and watch to see if any soldiers coming home knew anything about him. It was so interesting to see the people that would be there. People in love, people in fights. Long lost friends meeting again for the first time in years.
As the days passed, I would become more and more worried. I watched the news everyday, but the reporters always lied saying that we were winning victory over victory against Wutai and the war would be over in mere days. In reality the war would last for eight years. But I believed them, and it made me feel safe I guess. It was better than worrying all the time." She stopped to breath for a second and catch up with herself.
"Well, another few months passed and I finally received a letter from the Midgar army. It said that my husband was coming home on shore leave, and he'd be able to spend a week with me before being shipped back to the frontlines. I was so happy that he was coming home, even though I was a little disappointed that he wouldn't be able to stay for long. The next day I made sure to go the train station and wait extra long for him. I went to the train station early and stayed there late everyday for a week. Every person that walked off the train looked like him or someone he knew.
But it was never actually him. I'm sure something important must have come up. Maybe they never let him leave the frontlines. He was a good fighter, and maybe he was too important to let him leave. But for whatever reason, he never came home that week. I waited for a few more days the next week, but after awhile I felt that it was time to give up.
On the last day that I was going to wait, there was a woman lying on the steps to the courtyard in front of the train station. She looked like she was exhausted, and perhaps she had lost her husband in a battle. You saw that kind of thing a lot during the war. She appeared to be very weak, and it didn't look like she had it in her to get up and move. In her arms she was clutching a young toddler, who looked like she was about four years old.
When I approached the woman she could hardly talk. She told me her name was Ifalna, and that the girl was her daughter. She said that they had been running from the Shinra, and her journey had led her to Midgar. Her last words were for me to make sure her daughter stayed safe. And then she died there, in my lap right in front of my eyes. I never forgot the features of her tired and worried face, nor the promise that I made to her that day."
"Wow." Cloud said, speechless. "So you found Aeris and her real mother at the train station."
"Yes. From then on, I vowed to raise her as my own child. She was old enough already to tell me what her name was. I thought it was a beautiful name, and I began to say it a lot. I had never had a daughter, and it was wonderful to see this new young girl grow in my own home. She would tell me stories about her mother and her father. They were both scientists, and they had always lived in fear of the Shinra.
Being a simple woman, I never had any reason to hate the Shinra. I always wondered why they had treated Aeris so badly. She never forgave them, because she blamed them for the death of her mother. In some strange way, she blamed them for her father's death as well, although she could never remember how her father died.
As she grew a little older it became apparent to me that she was no ordinary child. When she was six she began reading, and from then on she loved it. She read all the time, but the only thing that interested her was ancient history. She read all she could about the ancient humans. But she would always tell me that the books were wrong, and of course I told her that she was wrong because she couldn't possibly know more than the people that wrote the books. But somehow, she never believed me. I always felt like there was something she knew that I didn't
As she got a little older she started to act even stranger. She would talk in her sleep about the fate of the planet. She would tell me that she could talk to the planet, and that she heard voices all the time. Sometimes she wished they would go away, but other times she told me they comforted her. There were times when I wanted to take her to a psychiatrist but I never did. She seemed to be happy in her own little world.
One day she woke up very sad. When I asked her why, she told me because someone very close to me had become one with the planet. When I asked her what she meant by that, she said that to a human, the person was dead. But to her he would live forever with the planet. I didn't know what she was talking about at first, but a week later I received another letter from the Midgar army. It said that my husband had died valiantly in battle.
I never asked her how she knew about it. And she never mentioned it again either. She would mention her strange powers every once in awhile as though they were commonplace, but I could always tell that she knew she was special. And she always kept a small white materia with her. She told me that it didn't do anything, but it was special to her because her mother had given it to her."
"She told me about that too. I thought it was strange." Cloud said.
"I never understood some of the things she said. That was one of them. I remember one day when she was eight years old, a man from Shinra came to my home. I believe his name was Tseng. He asked me if my daughter had ever exhibited any special powers. I was going to answer him, but Aeris screamed that she didn't have any powers and for him to go away. So I made him leave. He came back once, but he was always polite and he never pressed too hard.
After that, the Shinra never came for her again until now. They never used force before, which is why it confuses me. I don't know why they would outright capture her."
"There must be reason why they need her, and soon." Cloud answered. "I believe they may try to use her powers to their advantage. I remember one of the Turks saying that she was an Ancient. Did she ever mention anything like that to you?"
"Yes. When she told me that the books she read were wrong, she used to say that they contained nothing about the Ancients. When I asked her who they were, she said they were the true ancestors of the planet. She said that she was the last descendant of the Ancients. I used to wonder if that was where she got her powers from." Elmyra answered.
"Yes, that might be true. That would make sense." Cloud said, scratching his head in thought. "The only thing that's clear to me is that we have to save her from the Shinra as quickly as we can. They may hurt her if we don't"
"Yeah, Cloud's right. If the Shinra think they can use her for their own means, they will."" Tifa said.
"Well I hope there's something you can do, Cloud. I love Aeris as if she were my own daughter, and I don't want anything to happen to her." Elmyra replied. Just then, Barret descended down the stairs with Marlene in his arms.
"Was she okay?" Elmyra asked. "She slept like a baby as soon as Aeris brought her here."
"Yeah, she's doing great." Barret answered, smiling widely. "Thanks a lot for taking care of her."
"No problem. I was glad to be of help to all of you, after what you've done for Aeris. And what you're about to do." She replied.
"So Cloud." Barret began. "Are we gonna try to sneak into the Shinra Headquarters?"
"I'm sure that's where they're holding her. We'll have the best chances of finding her if that's where we look." Cloud answered.
"Why don't the four of you spend the night, and tomorrow morning you can try to make your way up to the upper plate." Elmyra suggested.
Tifa and Barret were going to agree, but Cloud shook his head.
"We have to get after Aeris as soon as possible. The longer we wait, the less our chances are of getting her back. We have to go now while the Shinra still think we're dead." He said.
"Well, you better be careful. I want you all to bring my daughter back safe and sound." Elmyra warned playfully, a smile replacing the concern on her face. She was confident that if anyone could save her daughter, it was the group of people in front of her.
"Listen, I hate to be a nuisance, but could you watch Marlene for a little longer?" Barret asked. "I definitely don't want to risk bringing her along."
"Yes, I certainly will Barret. I'm sure I'll enjoy the extra company around the house. Just promise me that you'll live to come back for her. She's going to need a father."
"I don't know if I can make any promises, but for her sake I'll try my best." Barret answered. "Well, if you guys are ready, I am." He continued, dropping so that Marlene could jump to the floor.
"Thanks very much for telling us about Aeris, Elmyra." Cloud said. "I think it will help us get her back."
"And it was a very interesting story." Tifa added.
"Anything to help." Elmyra replied. "Now go save my daughter like the heroes you are!"
Cloud nodded and smiled politely. Tifa did the same. Barret walked to her and shook her hand.
"Thanks a lot, ma'am." He said politely.
"You're very welcome." She said. "But watch it with that gun of yours." He chuckled, and so did everyone else. Cloud opened the door and went outside to smell the flowers once again, and the other two followed him to leave Elmyra alone once more.
Their trip had become more than just a small-scale war against the Shinra. Now Cloud was involved on a more personal level. The Shinra had hurt Aeris, and they had hurt Barret. They were responsible for the deaths of three people for whom he had great respect, and the deaths of two people he had never met but had been closer to Aeris in her infancy than anyone else. He would stop at nothing to get her back, and then he would make it his mission to kill the Shinra once and for all.
Perhaps Barret was in this to save the planet, and Tifa was too. Aeris seemed to agree with them. In a way, he did too. But to him, this was about more than just the safety of the planet. This was about people. The Shinra had committed unforgivable injustices against innocent people, and Cloud knew he couldn't let them get away with it. He was a powerful man, imbued with the power of Mako and all of the training that Soldier had given him. He wasn't going to end this until he saw the Shinra die. Their decision to capture Aeris would be their last.