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.
