Chapter 37: Aeris
The mechanical lock door fell down, leaving three people at the gates of the mind. Smiling, grinning, and with wild faces on, Cid, Barret, and Yuffie stormed the brain of the Burmecian hand. The area was filled with many creatures: EON Spawn, Chimera Spawn, Nano-Spiders, and several worker type monsters. Firing off round after round, Barret decimated the front line in a surprise attack. Yuffie and Cid rushed in, stabbing and jabbing with the Venus Gospel and Conformer. Barret took the rear, firing his machine gun arm, but the creatures kept coming. Screaming and shouting, roaring and wailing, the opposing sides clashed. EON spawn kept filling up the room from entrances such as the soul extraction factory, anti-body facility, main EON transport, and several others. The brain, whatever it was, was nowhere to be in sight. The room was hideous, repulsive, and utterly disgusting. Fortunately, the hideous, repulsive, and utterly disgusting soldiers of EON were there to keep their minds off it. The three had gotten this far; why not go all the way.
And then it showed itself, an elk skull hanging from the ceiling by massive wires and cable, with insane glowing green eyes. This was the brain, the Burmecian unit. A long whale cry came from its missing mandible. All the creatures stopped. All the EON creatures anyway. Barret continued fighting, Cid continued slashing, and Yuffie continued hacking.
Just then, A Chimera Spawn burst into the room. So heavy and powerful it was, that they crushed the EON Spawn underneath them with one step. Cid, Yuffie, and Barret stopped the hacking for a glimpse at it. The EON spawn and other disciples retreated into the side chambers, cackling like maniacs. The Chimera Spawn picked up the still wriggling form of the crushed Spawn with one of its hand-feet and threw it into the computers. It let out a digital bellow from its chest. Cid, Yuffie, and Barret were now back to back in a ring of enemies.
[Message from Judgment: Surrender or die, foreign creatures.] A voice mail sounded from the Chimera Spawn. Finally the message that it was to deliver reached the ears of the recipients. The two heads on the Chimera Spawn's shoulders screeched.
"Run." Cid whispered.
The three broke from each other in a flash of confusing zigzags into the doorway to their right, behind the elk skull.
The room was large and empty, made from cold blue stone. Several pillars lined an elevated walkway around the sides. Synthetic light fell from the ceiling, illuminating the room in a blue glow. Large iron doors covered the entrance. AVALANCHE immediately closed the door and bared it, hoping for time.
"Did you see the size of that thing!? What are we going to do?" Yuffie wheezed as she leaned on the iron door.
"It must have been ten feet high, at least." Barret said.
"Yea, it looks like Judgment found us and our plan. We gotta think of something." Cid muttered. He glanced around the room, searching for something to use. Several yards of chain hung from the grated ceiling, several empty drums lied around the room, and cobwebs claimed the corners.
Cid, being the engineer he is, tried to think of something. His dynamite reserves were running low, and he wanted to save them for the threat on his world. He gazed at the chains for several minutes, then at the drums, then back at the chains. Then it hit him.
The Iron door shook with the Chimera Spawns attempt to get in. "Damnit! We need something!" Barret shouted.
"I got a ^&*(in idea. Barret, let me see your gun arm." Cid commanded.
"What?! Why the hell would you want it?!"
"Just give me the %^&*in arm!"
Barret unlatched his gun arm and tossed it to Cid. Cid emptied the bullets onto the floor and pressed the firing mechanism. The gun turned round and round like a motor.
"Damn!" Cid said happily. "Yuffie, give me about twenty small shurikens."
Not wanting to face an argument, Yuffie threw a small bag at Cid, who caught it.
"What the hell are you doing? Who do you think you are?" Barret yelled.
"Call me %^&*in McGuyver." Cid smiled. He then ran over to an elevated surface and pulled the chains down from the ceiling. Attaching one end to Barret's motorized gun arm, he then stacked several drums horizontally on top of each other, wrapping them with chains. Placing the shurikens on the sides of the drums, Cid placed his Venus Gospel on the side of the drum to use as a handle bar. He then tested it out. It was like a wall of spikes moving at a hundred miles an hour. The drums turned quickly, making a razor out of their sides. It had taken twenty minutes to complete.
"Woah." Yuffie sputtered.
"…Hot Damn…" Barret was also awe inspired.
"Hold onto your drawers and don't piss in em." Cid placed a cigarette in his mouth. "We run the son of a bitch over with this thing, kill the skull, and get the hell out of here. Any objections?"
Barret and Yuffie didn't make a sound.
"Alright. Barret, get your bullets in Yuffie's sack. Let's ride!"
** *
Aeris gently placed her hand on Clouds shoulder, smiling. The ex-SOLDIER stood there, trying to smile, but his tears kept flowing. The spirit of Aeris Gainsborough embraced Cloud, and Cloud tried to hug her, but his arms went through. Oh the things Cloud had wanted to say to her but never could! How he wanted to hold her and talk to her, laugh with her, cry with her. But Cloud had never got to do any of those things with her. He had wished he would get a second chance. And here it was.
"Shhhh. Don't speak, there is no need to. I've been watching you, Cloud Strife. I know what you want to say."
"Oh Aeris! Why?! Why'd you have to die?! You left me alone for all those years!" Cloud sobbed.
"Hush." Aeris whispered, smiling. "You haven't been alone, Cloud. You have had friends and loved ones around you ever since I passed on. I joined the planet. I had to. And you had to stay and play your own part in life. You love Tifa, and you love your friends and planet."
"Oh isn't this wonderful!" Sephiroth smirked. "The Cetra woman returns! And here I thought I killed you for good. Hahahahahaha! Oh isn't life grand? Or should I say after life, hmmm?"
"Sephiroth… You know that you play no part in EONs plans. You are not, was not, and will not be a god of any planet. Why are causing such trouble for nothing?" Aeris said as she let Cloud go.
"Bah. I AM the rightful heir to the planet. It was fate that the EON creature would bring me back. You cannot keep a king from his lands!"
"If you feel that way, I must stop you. There is still time to stop this madness Sephiroth! You can enter the lifestream once again!"
"What? Oh you must be jesting! I will never enter that forsaken stream again! I am permanent, eternal!"
"Then I must end your existence…"
"Hahahahahahahaha! Oh this is rich! You, a flower girl, can defeat me? I shall end you once and for all!"
"AERIS NO!" Cloud screamed.
Sephiroth pulled out his ethereal masamune and got into position.
Aeris stood her ground and closed her eyes. That beautiful song once again poured from her heart and into the green battlefield. Sephiroth charged.
"Now I shall end your pathetic life!" Sephiroth screamed, but was caught on something. He suddenly stopped, as if he swallowed something he shouldn't have. He placed a black glove to his neck, feeling a lump.
Suddenly, it burst into a green light, shaped like a root. Lifestream. From the cold earth, life stream began to flow upwards, forming around Sephiroth like a tree trunk.
"YOU CAN'T DO THIS! I AM A GOD! ETERNAL! PERMENANT!" Sephiroth roared, but his tomb of warm, green energy enclosed on him. The green roots intertwined as they reached upwards, forming a lifestream tree that rose into the darkness. But as the tree rose, it lighted the way. Branches formed, sprouting emerald green leaves from the twigs. The tree rose for a thousand feet and stopped glowing. From Sephiroths energy, Aeris had entombed him inside a life tree. A tree of mana.
The green and dark disappeared, leaving Cloud and the spirit of Aeris on the plains of Burmecia and at the foot of the Burmecian hand.
Memoria's body lay limp by Clouds boot, who stood gazing at his surroundings. The new tree, which rivaled the height of the former Cleyra tree, stopped the rains from falling and created a rainbow. But even with the new tree's gift of beauty, the Burmecian Hand still loomed, ominous and hideous.
"Ungh." Aeris fell to her knees, clutching her bosom.
"Aeris!" Cloud shouted as he ran across the new grass to her side.
"Cloud…" She smiled, tears in her eyes. "Oh how you've changed since you were my bodyguard."
"What's wrong Aeris? What hurts?! Tell me!"
"I am a spirit Cloud. Spirits can't exist on the material plane." She coughed. "Even as a spirit I'm not cut out for SOLDIER, huh?" She weakly laughed.
Cloud started to sob. He wasn't going to lose her twice, not if he could help it. "Aeris!"
"Cloud, I don't belong here anyway. I did what I wanted to do in Memoria's body. Sephiroth can plague you no longer. You can fight Zodiak Life now."
"I don't care! I don't give a damn who Zodiak Life is or about EON anymore! I just want you to stay!"
"You must fight him. Think of Cid, Vincent, Reeve, Yuffie, Nanaki, Barret, and Tifa. They want to live…" Aeris coughed. "And you should to. Cid will one day have kids. Give them a chance to live."
"Oh Aeris. I …"
Aeris smiled, her green eyes beaming. "I know what you're thinking Cloud. I will always live in your memories and in your heart, but you must move on. You love Tifa. Live, for her. Good bye… Cloud…"
Aeris' spirit fell unconscious. Cloud instantly came to his knees and took her in his arms. In the warm green grass, under the emerald leaves and the colors of a rainbow, Aeris went back to the planet, her spirit faded. Cloud mourned for her death.
** *
"We're home Red!" Tifa said.
"I don't believe it! It actually worked!" Red XIII mumbled.
Tifa and Red XIII had been through the bowels of the Burmecian hand for some time, but after a battle with a strange beast called Culax, they had found a passage through one of Culax's crystals and emerged home. They stood on an empty plateau, near fort Condor, looking over the continent. It was not a pretty site. Like a giant protozoan, Midgar EON had covered hundreds of miles with it's giant fleshy body. The land was dead, the sky was red. The final stage was set.