Chapter Nine

Chapter Nine

Interlude

Bahamut leaned on the side of the mountain that loomed over his head, letting the overwhelming silence of the night dull out the sound of the waterfall that continuously flowed nearby. He looked up at the children of the night, admiring the way that they shone with such determination tonight.

Which could mean a good thing or a bad thing.

As he had half-expected, he was still blocked from the Planet, even at this place that touched the Lifestream so well. The force that was guarding the Planet's consciousness had all but killed him, almost drowning his mind in evil and pulling him under. It had taken sheer will and determination to drag himself out of the grip of the other mind, and now he didn't dare to try again lest he fall victim. Last time he had barely escaped with his life, and he wasn't ready to go through that suffocating ordeal again.

"Excuse me? Mr. Bahamut?" Aeris slipped up next to him, moving quietly and unnoticed by her target because he was so deep in thought.

Bahamut started and automatically drew his hood back over his head to hide his ears. After several encounters with humans, he took pains to keep his sharply pointed ears covered except when he knew that he was alone. And since Vincent had already known who he was, it hadn't really mattered if the man had seen his ears or not.

But with Aeris…it might be better if she didn't know exactly who I was.

"Yes?" Bahamut answered casually, as if he hadn't put his hood back up.

Aeris remained standing, placing her arms behind her back and leaning down to look at Bahamut. "Is there something wrong, Mr. Bahamut? Why'd you cover your head all of a sudden?"

Children of my heart. She's too naive…what was the Planet thinking, placing her spirit back into the living when she possibly wouldn't be ready emotionally for battle?

And then, as he met her Lifestream-green eyes, Bahamut thought again—

She's a child. She's still a child.

"Mr. Bahamut?"

Bahamut shook his head slowly, regaining control of his consciousness. "Just call me Bahamut, Aeris," he told her, flashing a quick grin that could be seen even from the depths of his hood. "I'm fine. Did you want anything?"

Aeris shrugged. "Well…I just had a question, Mr.—I mean, Bahamut."

"If it is within my knowledge, then I will answer it. Although it is beyond me why you would ask a stranger this and not your father…"

Aeris shook her head vehemently. "You're not a stranger, Bahamut! I don't know why, but…I feel like I've known you for years. For even longer then I've been alive, even. And…I sort of thought that…you would have the answer to my question, rather than my father." She hesitated, tilting her head shyly to one side, her movement still reminding Bahamut of a child.

Bahamut simply patted the grass next to him, indicating for Aeris to sit. "Speak your mind, Aeris. I'll listen, even if I can't answer."

Aeris cautiously lowered herself to the ground, spreading her dress' skirt underneath her legs. "Well…I was wondering…if you knew why the Planet wouldn't speak to me anymore." Bahamut stiffened slightly at the question, a movement so quick and subtle that Aeris didn't notice it. "I mean…ever since before I could remember, the Planet would talk to me. I…I used to think I was going crazy when I heard that voice in my head, but then…the voice would go away until I was ready to listen. Most of the time, the voice was soothing…sort of like my dad's, when he was trying to get me to calm down after I…skinned a knee, for example. But other times…it was all jumbled together. So garbled and frantic that I couldn't understand a single word what it was saying. Very rarely, maybe about once or twice since I started speaking with it, it was angry." She frowned, her brow furrowing in remembrance. "When the voice—the Planet—was angry, it scared me. It kept talking about something that didn't belong, and that I had to do something, but it never told me what. And then…it just sort of…died away until it wouldn't speak anymore, for maybe a month or so.

"And then…it got harder and harder to hear the Planet and understand what it was saying. Even though I tried to hear it and tell it that I couldn't understand it, it didn't respond. Eventually, it…just…stopped. I knew it was still there, I just couldn't hear it. It was sort of like trying to reach for something that's just beyond a glass wall. You can see that it's there, but you can't touch it. No matter how hard you want it."

Bahamut let out a hiss of air, closing his eyes. That's like what happened to us. We could talk with the Planet, and then it got quieter and quieter until we couldn't hear it anymore. And then we had our suspicious.

"At first, I thought the Planet was just angry again," Aeris continued, unaware of Bahamut's sudden silence. "When it didn't come back for longer than ever before, I asked dad what was wrong. He…he looked angry, and then sad for a moment. I'm not sure how to describe it—it was no emotion that I had ever seen on his face. He finally told me not to worry and that the Planet was probably just trying to deal with something at the moment. But…I didn't believe him. Eventually, even that little murmur that told me it was still there disappeared. Before it just…vanished, I got a feeling of fear and anger…more anger than fear, though. After that, no matter how hard I tried, I couldn't talk with the Planet anymore."

"And what made you think that I could tell you?" Bahamut asked gently. "How could I have the answer? I'm only a man."

"No. No, you're not." Aeris turned her head to look at him just as he did as well, surprised at her answer.

"What makes you say that?"

Aeris tapped the upper portion of her temples. "It's in your eyes."

"And what do you mean, 'in your eyes'?" Bahamut asked, reaching up to touch the side of his face near the corner of his right eye. "I don't—"

"Bahamut, your eyes are…they aren't normal. They're like dad's, except for your pupils." She reached out and pointed at his eyes. "Have you ever looked at them closely? They're slit. Like an animal's."

Bahamut shrugged, drawing back. "And that's enough reason for you to say that I'm the one with an answer to an impossible question?"

"There's more," Aeris cut in. "Besides the fact that I feel like I know you already and your slit pupils, there's a strange look in your eyes. They're like…you've seen everything that can be possible and you know everything that there is to know." She regarded him with a quiet look. "They're the eyes of someone the Planet told me to watch for before it disappeared. Eyes that know everything…but are the eyes of no true human…"

"The Planet told you this?" He was beginning to feel decidedly unsettled.

"A week before it began fading away."

Why, oh why did you not tell me anything before you succumbed to that alien? Bahamut thought, half-pleadingly and half-despairingly. He dropped his hand back into his lap and sighed. "All right. I can't guarantee that I will tell you everything, but I will tell you all that you need to know."

Aeris nodded gratefully, eyes glowing with happiness. "Thank you, Bahamut."

"What would you like to know first? Why the Planet doesn't speak to you anymore…or why you could hear it in the first place?"

"What? Hearing the Planet isn't…normal for humans?" Aeris frowned in confusion. "But…I thought…I mean, dad can hear it sometimes, too."

Vincent can…? "Vincent isn't like you, Aeris," he finally said. "Maybe he can hear the Planet, but if he can, it's only because of the levels of Lifestream that intensify over here, perhaps acting as somewhat of a magnifying glass for him and the Planet's voice. But his 'ability' to hear the Planet isn't natural, like yours. Aeris…you aren't exactly a human. You," he continued, cutting off Aeris' look of surprise, "are the reincarnation of a very brave, honored woman who died a little less than five years ago. That woman's name was Aeris Gainsborough. Your father knew her, and fought by her side along with others before she was murdered by their mortal enemy—a particular madman bent on destroying everything on this Planet, up to and including the Planet itself. The reason why Aeris Gainsborough was killed and what she was is more important at the moment, however. This woman was the last surviving member of an old, old race that had mostly died out centuries ago.

"They named themselves the Cetra, but were more commonly known among the humans as the Ancients. Much older than the humans themselves, you could perhaps call the Cetra humanoids. Unlike humans, the Cetra were linked closely with the Planet, which gave them the ability to hear and communicate with it. They were wanderers, too, moving from one place to another constantly in a nomadic style.

"There came people who didn't like the Cetra and the way they moved about all the time. These were the humans." Bahamut closed his eyes. "The Cetra and the humans grew into two feuding species, at each other's throats most of the time. Eventually, the humans began to overpower the more submissive Cetra, and drove them back into the far reaches of the Planet were humans were not inhabiting yet." He opened his eyes again, staring up at the stars. "And then, the Cetra made a mistake that finished their success as a specie."

Aeris glanced up at well and started in surprise when she saw Bahamut's eyes. They were glowing faintly with…grief? A touch of sadness thoroughly mixed with pity gleamed within the crimson orbs as well. "What…what happened?"

"They accepted someone into their midst. Someone whom they thought was one of their own, but in reality, was far from that. A female not from this Planet, who traveled here with the sole purpose of destroying. She was an alien and carried within her a disease that was all the more deadly towards the Cetra rather than the humans themselves. Unaware until it was too late, the Cetra, greatly weakened from the virus, barely managed to seal the alien away within the Planet.

"But the disease had taken its toll on the Cetra. They scattered about the Planet, dying one by one until there was one left. Her name was Ifalna, and she made it all the way to the North where she met and married a man named Gast. Gast was no ordinary human, however. He was a scientist for Shinra, and had recently retired due to a…mishap. Together, they had a baby girl and were content until they were attacked by Soldiers, the Shinra dogs of war. This group was led by Professor Hojo. Gast was killed in the raid and Ifalna and her baby were abducted to the Shinra Headquarters, where they were examined by Hojo himself. It was only through a great feat of bravery and strength did Ifalna manage to escape, taking her child with her.

"The escapade took a lot more energy than expected out of the already weakened Ifalna. She collapsed on the stairs of the Sector Five train platform in Midgar, where she was discovered by a lonely woman whose husband was away at war. Ifalna asked that woman to take care of her child, Aeris, before she died, making Aeris the last Cetra on the Planet. Aeris grew up in the Sector Five slums until she met Cloud Strife. From then on, she was whisked away and carried into the center of a disaster that involved her death and the near termination of the Planet."

"And…that's who I was?" Aeris asked softly.

Bahamut nodded. "I will tell you more in due time. But…for now, I believe that that is enough."

Aeris fell silent for a few minutes before rising, turning to Bahamut to ask one more question.

"Then is my father…really my father?"

Bahamut looked up at her, his crimson eyes veiled by his hood. With a sad smile, he leaned back onto the ground and stared directly up at the stars.

"The revealing of your question is not my choice, Aeris," he replied quietly. "You will have to ask your father yourself."

Aeris turned and left, a troubled look in the depths of her Lifestream eyes. As Bahamut listened to her footsteps die away until the perpetual roar of the waterfall swallowed them in its wake, he sighed and closed his eyes to welcome the oblivion of sleep.

Forgive me, Vincent.