NINE: "The Promised Land"
A wave of unfamiliarity washed over Cloud as he became aware of his existence. Not knowing whether he was encapsulated in a dreamscape or lost in a foreign land, nothing he took in was familiar, it was like he was using his eyes for the first time. When he finally found his bearings he discovered her was laying on his back, only now he was propped up against something odd, a very old and worn apple tree.
A calm blue sky, speckled with cloud cover looked down over him from above, a hint of pink floating in the distance on the endless green horizon that lay before him in every direction. The fields were alive with long swaying grass, small white flowers blossomed everywhere, and the sound of animals could be heard in the distance. He looked up at the tree, freshly grown apples were hanging there, each one flawless and impeccably perfect. He found a fallen one laying beside him on the ground that seemed to call out to him 'eat me!'. He picked it up in his hand and after a careful inspection of it's surface he threw caution to the wind, which was a perfect calm breeze, and took a bite out of it's ruby red skin. It was the best apple he had ever had.
He rose to his feet and searched around the base of the huge tree trunk and watched the grass in every direction. Wherever Cloud found himself he was there alone and very, very far away from anywhere he recognized. However this didn't seem to bother him, a feeling of immense happiness was all about him. In a strange buzz of glee he began to chuckle to himself lightly, before breaking into a mighty fit of laughter.
"This is some dream!" He exclaimed to the wind.
Sitting back down by the trunk of the tree he bit into the apple again. It was even better than before. Some time passed and Cloud dosed off by the tree. The weather was warm, a ideal mid-summer's day and even asleep it absorbed his mind. The perfection; could it be any better?
"Progress here could not be better." Reeve said with a satisfied grin. He looked over Midgar, from far above the city in the revamped Shinra headquarters which was currently being remodeled by an extensive team of workers. "At this rate, Midgar should be fully operational by the end of the year!"
"It's good to see that my money has not been squandered carelessly away." Dio chimed in as he appeared behind Reeve. As he approached the railing where the president stood, a team of workers busied themselves in the distance installing a new lighting track along the walls. "This will be quite the decadent palace; the perfect environment for the scheming of schemes!"
"Scheming?" Reeve questioned. "I'm trying to rebuild this city in a different light, not to try and rule over it with an iron grip."
"Right. If you can ever find a working fuel source, that is." Dio added.
"The fuel I've developed works fine. It's been tested."
"The Golden Saucer was a valuable test, I suppose; but do you really think you can produce enough to run Midgar?"
Reeve was adamant. "Even now, the Junon facility is running constantly. If everything goes according to schedule, by the time Midgar is ready to be activated again, my team should have been able to create enough fuel to run Midgar for at least two years."
"In the meantime, you can busy yourself making more, right?"
"Exactly."
Cloud was roused back consciousness by the crisp snap of an apple being bitten into. He opened his eyes and examined his surroundings, when no sound was heard again he closed his eyes gently; then he heard a slight laughing from the opposite side of the apple tree. Cloud sat up, but before he could move from where he sat, a voice spoke to him.
"This must be a very strange experience for you." The soft voice spoke, openly amused. "But you can't be sleeping on the job, You've got things to do still!!"
"Aeris... When did you get here?" Cloud asked. "Wherever here is."
"I've been here for awhile, watching over you." Aeris replied, the amusement in her voice undiminished. "I have been for a long time!"
"I know." Cloud said. "You've been in my dreams."
Aeris poked her head around the corner, her long curls bobbing around like springs. She crawled around the tree trunk until she sat beside Cloud where she planted herself neatly, leaning her head on his shoulder. "It was hard to do."
Cloud touched her hand, it was real. She grabbed a hold of his when she spoke. "I haven't just been in your dreams, you know, Cloud..."
Cloud looked into Aeris' eyes, they sparkled with a brilliant energy, something no person ever possessed. "I got it, you know. the flower." he spoke softly a great love coming through in his voice, like a dream come to life. He held nothing back for he knew this was the only chance he had. "How did you do it?"
"Dreams are hard enough... A real flower, took everything I had." She admitted, looking back into him. "I wanted you to know I was there for you."
"I can't believe it, I thought you were haunting me.... I tried to escape you."
"I know, that's why I did it, I needed to give you something to really remind you."
Cloud felt a little sad, remembering what Tifa had shown him. "The flower has wilted, you know."
"Everything dies, Cloud." Aeris said solemnly.
Cloud remembered where he was. "Everything dies..." He muttered to himself. "This is the Promised Land, isn't it?"
"Yes.... and no." she said.
"....And no?"
"This is the Promised Land, for my people.... the afterlife; the Lifestream. However to you... this is not exactly so. To you, Cloud this is your afterlife - your heaven."
"If that's true, then how can we be together?" Cloud asked her.
"Spirits can walk freely, but everyone sees it in their own way."
Cloud grinned a bit. "But you ate one of my apples!"
"It's.... complicated. The rules have been bent a little bit, you being here now." She smiled.
"Aeris...... I have to tell you something." Cloud unhooked her from his arm and stood up, waling away from the tree until he was illuminated by an intense light from the sky.
"Cloud...I...." Aeris raised her arm, hand out to him. A sight already beheld by Cloud once before in a passing dream.
Cloud turned and spoke. "Aeris... I'm sorry."
"You don't have to...." Aeris began, but Cloud raised a finger to his face before he continued.
"I'm sorry I couldn't save you..... and I'm sorry I didn't tell you this while I had the chance." He took a breath. "I loved you Aeris, I still do...."
She smiled. "I already knew, Cloud. I always knew; but the circumstances are different now."
"Yeah.... I'm afraid your right."
"It's nothing to hurt yourself over."
Cloud looked away from her his attention looking out over the green horizon.
Aeris rose to her feet, angelic in her fluent motions. "She's with you now." she said with a smile.
"Yeah... She couldn't let me go alone."
"No.... You don't understand, do you?"
Cloud was at peace, although cold to the touch. He slept on, his mind gone far away, yet still connected he could feel his hand in Tifa's grip. Tifa held it tightly in both hands, as she sat upon the altar of the Lazarus leaning over Cloud, waiting patiently for any sign of life to stir in him.
Cid was becoming agitated, the grandeur of the Lazarus complex had worn on him and that faint sense of claustrophobia was settling in. He paced back and forth behind Tifa who was solely fixated on Cloud, as if trying to take an X-ray of his body with her bare eyes. She wasn't talking, other than small sighs she released every once in awhile, and even they were becoming few and far between. Cid was on his third cigarette before something snapped inside of him.
"I need to take a piss." Cid announced out loud.
With that, Tifa snapped out of her trance-like stare. "...What?"
"Nothin' Listen, I'll be back in a while, I'm gonna go.... look around." Cid answered; thrusting his hands into his pockets as he walked out of the room.
Tifa shook her head a bit before turning her attention back to Cloud. "Um..... Lazarus?" She called out to the voice that had not been present for a while.
It seeped into the walls, a feeling saturation filling the room. "Yes?"
"How is Cloud doing?"
"The connected one has established a link in the other side." The voice stated before sinking out of the room.
Tifa sighed and squeezed his hand a little tighter. She was glad he had this chance. However somewhere not so deep inside of her, something was bubbling out of control. Feelings of deep longing reared themselves in her heart and that feeling raced through her blood.
"Cloud..." She spoke to his empty shell. There was no response, but at this point she didn't care. It eased her, in a sense. "Do you remember the first night we talked in Nibelheim, at the well? The night we made the promise." She smiled warmly, remembering that little child she barely knew. "You promised to come back and save me if I were in trouble. You stuck to your word. That time stuck with you, even when you didn't know who you really were..."
She pondered that for awhile. "It was that special to you.... I was that special."
"For a long time I thought you were lying. I didn't remember it and I couldn't trust you. I'm sorry for that - it was wrong. Maybe that's what kept me away in the beginning." She rubbed the back of his hand. "That and you were a jerk.... back then." She grinned wider. "But all this time has passed now, too long Cloud.... I can't stand it anymore. I say I know you better than you know yourself, but I can't read your feelings for me."
She leaned over him, looking into his face. "I need to know how you feel about me." She ran her finger along his cheek and up the curve of his jaw. "Do you love me?... Cloud? Do you feel the same way I do?" She closed her eyes gently. "A lot has happened since that night we met.... I didn't think much of you back then, but now Cloud, your all I ever think about..." She opened her hazel eyes, she moved in, slowly drawing towards his sleeping face, her lips only a fraction of a millimeter from his own, quivering as she bared her feelings. Tifa took a deep breath, almost tasting the soldier before her on the air before whispering something inaudibly to him.
Meanwhile back on the surface, a distraught Jenova contemplates her next course of action.
'The time has come, champion or not. The circle MUST be drawn and not even that one will prevent it from being fulfilled.' She thought. 'My infection has no effect on the new infestation; they have evolved further than I had hoped. I have slept too long.' She looked up, from her knees, she had her arms wrapped around them as she sat crouched in the burning walls of the golden saucer. 'There is more than one way to deal with them, after all.' She stood up as her mind raced. 'Destroying this many myself is unnecessary; If they cannot be put down with force, I shall poison their very core...' She took off from the ground and began her flight north.
Cloud became frank. "So you told me to come here, why?"
"I've been here for a long while now, and I've come to know a great many things about my people."
Cloud nodded.
Aeris continued. "I can see the world too. It's different, but I can see it. Everyone can here; Except you of course, that's a limitation of the Lazarus. I know about the Crisis from the Sky and I've talked a lot with mother and a lot of Cetra. They say the answer lays in the 'Sanctum of Knowledge'."
Cloud rolled his eyes. "The Library?"
Aeris chuckled innocently. "'Fraid so!"
"The Library that Yuffie found?" Cloud seemed a little embarrassed. "She found the key to saving the world, great. We aren't going to live this one down."
Aeris smiled. "Sometimes I'm glad I'm not around!"
Cloud was only slightly amused, a slight morbidity swam over his face as he looked at Aeris. "We all miss you, you know?" He said to her.
"I know, I'm sorry."
Cloud leaned against the apple tree as Aeris sat down and rested her head on her knees. "So.... what is the answer?" Cloud asked her. She began to tell a story. "The Cetra couldn't stop Jenova, in the end. Their existence came down to a split second decision, you see? Two choices. They chose the wrong one. I think that the thing they could have used to stop her could do the trick - It's a special kind of materia, like Holy or Meteor."
"What is it?" Cloud questioned.
"Lifestream." She said. "The Lifestream Materia."
"Is that possible? A materia with the power to control the source of it's own creation?"
Aeris looked up at Cloud. "It's not exactly what you think."
Cloud returned her glance. "Then what does it do?"
"The Lifestream materia isn't normal, like Holy it can only be activated when certain circumstances have been accomplished. It allows the user to combine their essence with a soul from within the Lifestream - together the force of life itself can be unleashed. At least that is how the elders of the Cetra put it."
"So what circumstances have to be met?"
Aeris looked back at her knees. "This is where it gets tricky. There are two things it needs first. A chosen soul from within the lifestream... and a soul from the carrier."
Cloud sat down beside her slowly. "That's why it was never used, isn't it?"
"Right."
Cloud sighed and thought. 'So this is it, isn't it? I use Lifestream.... and I die....' He asked her another question. "It takes my soul, what about the soul from the lifestream?"
"I guess it depends on the soul." She said. "No one really knows what happens. You combine souls and after that, both souls return to the Planet."
"What's it look like? The Materia?" Cloud asked.
"It doesn't fit into any other category you are familiar with... It's clear. There's no colour at all, in the beginning. It changes, depending on whoever's soul is inside." She said.
"Aeris.... I'm going to find it.... Are you....?"
"I'm willing to give this a shot, Cloud. I'll be your chosen soul." Aeris answered him before he even asked her.
Cloud felt something a little strange. A pulling sensation, like wind sucking him away. He knew his time was growing shorter.
"Heh, there's so many questions I wanted to ask you, but now I can't remember them!" He admitted.
She climbed to her feet, smiling. "Oh, Cloud."
He remembered one of them. "What happened to Sephiroth?"
She took a step back. "Sephiroth?"
"Is he here?"
"I don't know....." She replied.
"You don't know?" Cloud felt a wave of adrenaline flow through him. "What do you mean?"
"I mean, I don't feel his presence at all anymore. Not on the Planet or in the Lifestream - He just stopped existing. I've wondered about him for a long time. Perhaps there's an answer out there somewhere, but I don't have anything for you."
Cloud shrugged it off. "I'm sure it's not important anyway, Maybe it's a good thing he doesn't exist at all anymore."
"Maybe."
The anti-gravity feeling Cloud had began to feel became more intense. He knew his time was up.
"The Lazarus is calling me back."
"It's okay. This won't be the last time we meet; I'll be seeing you soon."
Cloud remembered about the materia. "Heh, yeah, I'll be seeing you. I'm sure everyone will be glad to get a chance to see you again."
"I hope so; Goodbye Cloud!" She hugged him tightly. He hugged her back, something he had wanted to do for a long time. The world began to phase out of existence around him like a hologram. Aeris was still in his arms, but she was ghostly now. She spoke: "It's time to let me go." Through a wide smile, the last thing Cloud saw before he lost himself.
A wave of unfamiliarity washed over Cloud as he became aware of his existence. Not knowing whether he was encapsulated in a dreamscape or lost in a foreign land, nothing he took in was familiar, it was like he was using his eyes for the first time. When he finally found his bearings he discovered her was laying on his back, only now he was propped up against something odd, a very old and worn apple tree.
A calm blue sky, speckled with cloud cover looked down over him from above, a hint of pink floating in the distance on the endless green horizon that lay before him in every direction. The fields were alive with long swaying grass, small white flowers blossomed everywhere, and the sound of animals could be heard in the distance. He looked up at the tree, freshly grown apples were hanging there, each one flawless and impeccably perfect. He found a fallen one laying beside him on the ground that seemed to call out to him 'eat me!'. He picked it up in his hand and after a careful inspection of it's surface he threw caution to the wind, which was a perfect calm breeze, and took a bite out of it's ruby red skin. It was the best apple he had ever had.
He rose to his feet and searched around the base of the huge tree trunk and watched the grass in every direction. Wherever Cloud found himself he was there alone and very, very far away from anywhere he recognized. However this didn't seem to bother him, a feeling of immense happiness was all about him. In a strange buzz of glee he began to chuckle to himself lightly, before breaking into a mighty fit of laughter.
"This is some dream!" He exclaimed to the wind.
Sitting back down by the trunk of the tree he bit into the apple again. It was even better than before. Some time passed and Cloud dosed off by the tree. The weather was warm, a ideal mid-summer's day and even asleep it absorbed his mind. The perfection; could it be any better?
"Progress here could not be better." Reeve said with a satisfied grin. He looked over Midgar, from far above the city in the revamped Shinra headquarters which was currently being remodeled by an extensive team of workers. "At this rate, Midgar should be fully operational by the end of the year!"
"It's good to see that my money has not been squandered carelessly away." Dio chimed in as he appeared behind Reeve. As he approached the railing where the president stood, a team of workers busied themselves in the distance installing a new lighting track along the walls. "This will be quite the decadent palace; the perfect environment for the scheming of schemes!"
"Scheming?" Reeve questioned. "I'm trying to rebuild this city in a different light, not to try and rule over it with an iron grip."
"Right. If you can ever find a working fuel source, that is." Dio added.
"The fuel I've developed works fine. It's been tested."
"The Golden Saucer was a valuable test, I suppose; but do you really think you can produce enough to run Midgar?"
Reeve was adamant. "Even now, the Junon facility is running constantly. If everything goes according to schedule, by the time Midgar is ready to be activated again, my team should have been able to create enough fuel to run Midgar for at least two years."
"In the meantime, you can busy yourself making more, right?"
"Exactly."
Cloud was roused back consciousness by the crisp snap of an apple being bitten into. He opened his eyes and examined his surroundings, when no sound was heard again he closed his eyes gently; then he heard a slight laughing from the opposite side of the apple tree. Cloud sat up, but before he could move from where he sat, a voice spoke to him.
"This must be a very strange experience for you." The soft voice spoke, openly amused. "But you can't be sleeping on the job, You've got things to do still!!"
"Aeris... When did you get here?" Cloud asked. "Wherever here is."
"I've been here for awhile, watching over you." Aeris replied, the amusement in her voice undiminished. "I have been for a long time!"
"I know." Cloud said. "You've been in my dreams."
Aeris poked her head around the corner, her long curls bobbing around like springs. She crawled around the tree trunk until she sat beside Cloud where she planted herself neatly, leaning her head on his shoulder. "It was hard to do."
Cloud touched her hand, it was real. She grabbed a hold of his when she spoke. "I haven't just been in your dreams, you know, Cloud..."
Cloud looked into Aeris' eyes, they sparkled with a brilliant energy, something no person ever possessed. "I got it, you know. the flower." he spoke softly a great love coming through in his voice, like a dream come to life. He held nothing back for he knew this was the only chance he had. "How did you do it?"
"Dreams are hard enough... A real flower, took everything I had." She admitted, looking back into him. "I wanted you to know I was there for you."
"I can't believe it, I thought you were haunting me.... I tried to escape you."
"I know, that's why I did it, I needed to give you something to really remind you."
Cloud felt a little sad, remembering what Tifa had shown him. "The flower has wilted, you know."
"Everything dies, Cloud." Aeris said solemnly.
Cloud remembered where he was. "Everything dies..." He muttered to himself. "This is the Promised Land, isn't it?"
"Yes.... and no." she said.
"....And no?"
"This is the Promised Land, for my people.... the afterlife; the Lifestream. However to you... this is not exactly so. To you, Cloud this is your afterlife - your heaven."
"If that's true, then how can we be together?" Cloud asked her.
"Spirits can walk freely, but everyone sees it in their own way."
Cloud grinned a bit. "But you ate one of my apples!"
"It's.... complicated. The rules have been bent a little bit, you being here now." She smiled.
"Aeris...... I have to tell you something." Cloud unhooked her from his arm and stood up, waling away from the tree until he was illuminated by an intense light from the sky.
"Cloud...I...." Aeris raised her arm, hand out to him. A sight already beheld by Cloud once before in a passing dream.
Cloud turned and spoke. "Aeris... I'm sorry."
"You don't have to...." Aeris began, but Cloud raised a finger to his face before he continued.
"I'm sorry I couldn't save you..... and I'm sorry I didn't tell you this while I had the chance." He took a breath. "I loved you Aeris, I still do...."
She smiled. "I already knew, Cloud. I always knew; but the circumstances are different now."
"Yeah.... I'm afraid your right."
"It's nothing to hurt yourself over."
Cloud looked away from her his attention looking out over the green horizon.
Aeris rose to her feet, angelic in her fluent motions. "She's with you now." she said with a smile.
"Yeah... She couldn't let me go alone."
"No.... You don't understand, do you?"
Cloud was at peace, although cold to the touch. He slept on, his mind gone far away, yet still connected he could feel his hand in Tifa's grip. Tifa held it tightly in both hands, as she sat upon the altar of the Lazarus leaning over Cloud, waiting patiently for any sign of life to stir in him.
Cid was becoming agitated, the grandeur of the Lazarus complex had worn on him and that faint sense of claustrophobia was settling in. He paced back and forth behind Tifa who was solely fixated on Cloud, as if trying to take an X-ray of his body with her bare eyes. She wasn't talking, other than small sighs she released every once in awhile, and even they were becoming few and far between. Cid was on his third cigarette before something snapped inside of him.
"I need to take a piss." Cid announced out loud.
With that, Tifa snapped out of her trance-like stare. "...What?"
"Nothin' Listen, I'll be back in a while, I'm gonna go.... look around." Cid answered; thrusting his hands into his pockets as he walked out of the room.
Tifa shook her head a bit before turning her attention back to Cloud. "Um..... Lazarus?" She called out to the voice that had not been present for a while.
It seeped into the walls, a feeling saturation filling the room. "Yes?"
"How is Cloud doing?"
"The connected one has established a link in the other side." The voice stated before sinking out of the room.
Tifa sighed and squeezed his hand a little tighter. She was glad he had this chance. However somewhere not so deep inside of her, something was bubbling out of control. Feelings of deep longing reared themselves in her heart and that feeling raced through her blood.
"Cloud..." She spoke to his empty shell. There was no response, but at this point she didn't care. It eased her, in a sense. "Do you remember the first night we talked in Nibelheim, at the well? The night we made the promise." She smiled warmly, remembering that little child she barely knew. "You promised to come back and save me if I were in trouble. You stuck to your word. That time stuck with you, even when you didn't know who you really were..."
She pondered that for awhile. "It was that special to you.... I was that special."
"For a long time I thought you were lying. I didn't remember it and I couldn't trust you. I'm sorry for that - it was wrong. Maybe that's what kept me away in the beginning." She rubbed the back of his hand. "That and you were a jerk.... back then." She grinned wider. "But all this time has passed now, too long Cloud.... I can't stand it anymore. I say I know you better than you know yourself, but I can't read your feelings for me."
She leaned over him, looking into his face. "I need to know how you feel about me." She ran her finger along his cheek and up the curve of his jaw. "Do you love me?... Cloud? Do you feel the same way I do?" She closed her eyes gently. "A lot has happened since that night we met.... I didn't think much of you back then, but now Cloud, your all I ever think about..." She opened her hazel eyes, she moved in, slowly drawing towards his sleeping face, her lips only a fraction of a millimeter from his own, quivering as she bared her feelings. Tifa took a deep breath, almost tasting the soldier before her on the air before whispering something inaudibly to him.
Meanwhile back on the surface, a distraught Jenova contemplates her next course of action.
'The time has come, champion or not. The circle MUST be drawn and not even that one will prevent it from being fulfilled.' She thought. 'My infection has no effect on the new infestation; they have evolved further than I had hoped. I have slept too long.' She looked up, from her knees, she had her arms wrapped around them as she sat crouched in the burning walls of the golden saucer. 'There is more than one way to deal with them, after all.' She stood up as her mind raced. 'Destroying this many myself is unnecessary; If they cannot be put down with force, I shall poison their very core...' She took off from the ground and began her flight north.
Cloud became frank. "So you told me to come here, why?"
"I've been here for a long while now, and I've come to know a great many things about my people."
Cloud nodded.
Aeris continued. "I can see the world too. It's different, but I can see it. Everyone can here; Except you of course, that's a limitation of the Lazarus. I know about the Crisis from the Sky and I've talked a lot with mother and a lot of Cetra. They say the answer lays in the 'Sanctum of Knowledge'."
Cloud rolled his eyes. "The Library?"
Aeris chuckled innocently. "'Fraid so!"
"The Library that Yuffie found?" Cloud seemed a little embarrassed. "She found the key to saving the world, great. We aren't going to live this one down."
Aeris smiled. "Sometimes I'm glad I'm not around!"
Cloud was only slightly amused, a slight morbidity swam over his face as he looked at Aeris. "We all miss you, you know?" He said to her.
"I know, I'm sorry."
Cloud leaned against the apple tree as Aeris sat down and rested her head on her knees. "So.... what is the answer?" Cloud asked her. She began to tell a story. "The Cetra couldn't stop Jenova, in the end. Their existence came down to a split second decision, you see? Two choices. They chose the wrong one. I think that the thing they could have used to stop her could do the trick - It's a special kind of materia, like Holy or Meteor."
"What is it?" Cloud questioned.
"Lifestream." She said. "The Lifestream Materia."
"Is that possible? A materia with the power to control the source of it's own creation?"
Aeris looked up at Cloud. "It's not exactly what you think."
Cloud returned her glance. "Then what does it do?"
"The Lifestream materia isn't normal, like Holy it can only be activated when certain circumstances have been accomplished. It allows the user to combine their essence with a soul from within the Lifestream - together the force of life itself can be unleashed. At least that is how the elders of the Cetra put it."
"So what circumstances have to be met?"
Aeris looked back at her knees. "This is where it gets tricky. There are two things it needs first. A chosen soul from within the lifestream... and a soul from the carrier."
Cloud sat down beside her slowly. "That's why it was never used, isn't it?"
"Right."
Cloud sighed and thought. 'So this is it, isn't it? I use Lifestream.... and I die....' He asked her another question. "It takes my soul, what about the soul from the lifestream?"
"I guess it depends on the soul." She said. "No one really knows what happens. You combine souls and after that, both souls return to the Planet."
"What's it look like? The Materia?" Cloud asked.
"It doesn't fit into any other category you are familiar with... It's clear. There's no colour at all, in the beginning. It changes, depending on whoever's soul is inside." She said.
"Aeris.... I'm going to find it.... Are you....?"
"I'm willing to give this a shot, Cloud. I'll be your chosen soul." Aeris answered him before he even asked her.
Cloud felt something a little strange. A pulling sensation, like wind sucking him away. He knew his time was growing shorter.
"Heh, there's so many questions I wanted to ask you, but now I can't remember them!" He admitted.
She climbed to her feet, smiling. "Oh, Cloud."
He remembered one of them. "What happened to Sephiroth?"
She took a step back. "Sephiroth?"
"Is he here?"
"I don't know....." She replied.
"You don't know?" Cloud felt a wave of adrenaline flow through him. "What do you mean?"
"I mean, I don't feel his presence at all anymore. Not on the Planet or in the Lifestream - He just stopped existing. I've wondered about him for a long time. Perhaps there's an answer out there somewhere, but I don't have anything for you."
Cloud shrugged it off. "I'm sure it's not important anyway, Maybe it's a good thing he doesn't exist at all anymore."
"Maybe."
The anti-gravity feeling Cloud had began to feel became more intense. He knew his time was up.
"The Lazarus is calling me back."
"It's okay. This won't be the last time we meet; I'll be seeing you soon."
Cloud remembered about the materia. "Heh, yeah, I'll be seeing you. I'm sure everyone will be glad to get a chance to see you again."
"I hope so; Goodbye Cloud!" She hugged him tightly. He hugged her back, something he had wanted to do for a long time. The world began to phase out of existence around him like a hologram. Aeris was still in his arms, but she was ghostly now. She spoke: "It's time to let me go." Through a wide smile, the last thing Cloud saw before he lost himself.