Destroyed
~
Chapter 21: Falling into You
~
~
"One day I'm gonna be there too,
Where the sun is shining and the water's blue.."
OPM~
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
"Nothing's working!" cried the ninja in desperation as tears poured down her cheeks, staining the pale skin through the dirt and scratches, making her suddenly seem so young and so vulnerable as her nerveless fingers tumbled through her materia with panic.
The light of the chamber remained the same lurid green blaze, the light flickering over the ruined walls and illuminating the choking clouds of dust that hung in the air from use of potent magic. It spilt highlights over the sickening pool of blood that was half gathered under where Leon was cradling Aeris close with his head buried into her hair.
Her skin was cold, much colder than he could have thought skin to be. Not unlike when Rinoa had been in a coma. No, very un-alike.
This time, Aeris wasn't sleeping. She was dying.
Her breath was a faint stir on his sweaty cheek, her eyelids fluttering as they lay almost shut and her hands slack over his shoulders, one splayed over her middle, trying to hold together the dreadful sword wound. Leon knew why Cloud had done what he had done, knew it had to happen this way for there to be an end. Force the bad magic out of one into another, the premise had worked well in his own world, but the after effects he had forgotten in his haste.
"Stir, Aeris," he mumbled numbly.
But the girl kept breathing raggedly with little signs of life, his own leather clad hands slippery as he held onto her so tightly that he wondered if even death could take her away from him.
"Aeris.."
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
She ran down the metal corridor with a small squeal of glee. She was no older than four and dressed in a pretty enough dress of blue which hung to her knees, tied at the back with a ribbon and her naturally long hair was also pulled back from her face. She wore patent leather shoes that click clacked as she ran, the white overapron flaring behind her.
She found what she was looking for, a hiding place.
It was just under a table where a small girl like herself would have no trouble hiding, and giggling to herself she squeezed down into it, drawing her knees up to her chest even as the door opened.
Standing in the doorway was a tall young man with the look of Wutai about him, short cropped black hair and pale skin, the man could have been no older than nineteen, still fresh and young enough to play with a girl who was left alone for hours on end to boredom inbetween the sickening experiments.
"Hmm," came his soft and soothing voice, "I wonder.. could the little mouse have escaped into here..?"
The girl lifted her hand and covered her mouth against more giggles.
She loved playing hide and seek, she was very good at hiding and her natural talents as a Cetra made it pretty easy to home in on wherever anyone else would try and hide.
Sounds of movement were made and she knew Tseng was looking round the large office, hearing the clang of filing cabinet drawers and then a silence as he tried to discern whether the small girl could squeeze through the back gap and hide. Then a metal drawer shut and his amused voice lilted out yet again.
"Oh ho.. not the filing cabinet this time.. maybe she's behind.. here!"
The ripping sound of old curtains being drawn back and then a laugh from Tseng made an involuntary giggle escape the young girl. He was so silly, looking for her there.
"Ahh.. well maybe, she is.. under... here!"
The wastepaper lining was pulled out.
"I guess not," he said, and then stopped as the soft *shhlick* of the automatic door openeing foretold the arrival of some Shinra employee. Tseng stopped playing with the basket and straightened up. Curious, the young girl poked her face round the lowest leg part of the table and stared up at the man who walked in.
It was Hojo, a tall and thin ascetic man in a white labcoat and always wearing a sneer on his greasy face. His very presence made the young girl shiver and his voice was like sandstone rubbing against sandpaper, gritting and harsh on the ears like he had spent too many years face down in a whiskey barrel.
"Tseng, just what are you doing?!"
"I was er.. tidying my office.. up."
"I don't care, that was a rhetorical question. Now, where is the Cetra brat?"
"I.."
"You don't know," the sneer curled Hojo's lips, "well you'd better start knowing or better yet, find her and bring her to me. It's time to start a new test and to do that it is almost impossible to do if the child isn't there, do you understand!"
"I.."
"Tseng!"
The young man lowered his dark and blazing eyes with something close to anger, "Yes, sir."
Another head popped about the doorway and blinking blue eyes stared up at Hojo, then across at the table cove where the young girl hid and a hand waved. She waved back then made a small shushing motion, as the tone of the room lowered. The scientist looked about one last time, then stepped out as the young boy stepped in and looked up at Tseng.
"What did *he* want?"
Tseng shook his head, "I.. you can come out now."
Biting her lip, the young girl slowly crawled from her hiding place and got to her feet with tears in her eyes and whispered in frightened tones for one so young, "You're no gonna let him take me!?"
The red headed boy ran over, he easily seven or eight and pulled the girl into an impulsive hug. Rufus Shinra, a lonely little boy as he was growing up. His mother dead and his father always too busy for him, he had found entertainment for a brief time by playing with the Cetra girl who would one day decide the destiny of his very planet.
In the future, he would die.
"Doncha worry none, Tseng won-"
"Rufus.. I have to."
"You said you wouldn't let him!" the young girl sobbed, as she burst suddenly into tears, "it hurts, it really hurts! I hate him! I hate you!"
"Aeris," Tseng said softly, but the girl ran from the room and directly into the hands of an older turk who tucked her immediately up into his arms. Screaming, she tried getting away but his hold was final, and as the lights flickered unevenly he began taking her back to the science lab as her yells echoed down the hall with something bordering on panic..
Fear.
~*~
"I'm home!"
The door swung open and the teenage girl stepped in. Lovely at sixteen, she wore her hair up in a sweeping braid which fell down between her shoulder blades, a delightful green dress and a pair of sturdy boots. Taking off her grey parker, she slung it over one of the coat hooks and waited for her mother to come out of the kitchen where she could smell dinner cooking.
Placing her empty basket down on the table top, she mused softly about how she had swapped formal education for a quick source of money, Elmyra's pension from her husband wasn't enough to support them both. But, this way she got to spend more time with her flowers and less time around the smog filled upper plate and the people who annoyed her on a day to day basis with their selfish ways.
At sixteen, the flower girl was still filled with the rebellious nature of the pubescent.
"Mom?"
Her mother finally came out of the kitchen and tutted at her daughter, who quickly pulled the basket off the table and tablemats, placing it with a guilty smile by the door and shoe rack, "sorry."
The answering smile was much the same, careworn but happy. "It's alright. How was your day?"
"I made 35 gil today, roses were in demand with the new showing of Loveless. All men wanted to buy their lady fair a red red rose," she put up a dramatic hand and then smiled, "did Zack call round?"
"He did, he said he'll drop by after he's gotten on of his vambraces evened out."
She nodded, and took a seat at the table, "what's for dinner? It smells delightful."
"Chicken and pea soup with spiced bread. I made enough for Zack, lord knows that boy can eat."
As the flower girl opened her mouth to say something, there was a knock at the door and all eyes turned towards it. "Zack?" she guessed as Elmyra made her slow way across to it and unbolted it.
It was not Zack. It was a tall man with the look of lands far away in him and his blazing dark eyes, dressed in a formal navy blue suit. His eyes passed dismissively over Elmyra then moved over to where the flower girl sat frozen at the table with a thousand memories flashing through her head, of hide and seek and laughter filled afternoons and a deep, bitter resentment.
But..
"Aeris, it's good to see you again. May I come in, Ms Gainsborough?" he adressed Elmyra last, and the woman nodded, letting in the tall turk.
Tseng's hair had grown and was left to hang to just above his broad shoulders, his skin was a little more wrinkled about the eyes and mouth but the youthful flair had not left his dark eyes, nor the snap from his tone no matter how soothing he tried to make it, "Thank you."
"Tea? Coffee?" offered Elmyra, narrowing her eyes at the Turk.
Both remembered him from his last visit some six years back. He had been none too polite but Aeris knew the hidden pain in his eyes, why he had always let her stay one jump ahead of the Turks.. why..
"No thank you, I'm only here for a check in on Aeris."
"Business?" sniffed the mother.
"Personal," the Turk replied softly, his eyes on the flower girl who stared right back. Her small hands were folded ontop of the table. Tseng took a few steps forward and bent down to whisper something in her ear, then with the faintest of touches from his hand, he straightened and went.
Staring at the empty doorway and the oddness of such things, the flower girl looked down at her hands.
What he had told her, what she had told no other soul, was..
~ Be strong. They hunt you again, and I cannot hold back the wolves forever.. ~
Be strong.
Taking it to heart, she relaxed after an hour, and even managed a playfight with Zack when he came bustling in with a small present for her, all wrapped up in a long shape and her name engraved with love on the handle. Her weapon.
Hope.
~*~
Her eyes looked out over the wild landscape.
The pitted mountains and falling canyons, the strange light of evening filtered down past rocks and crevices towards the ground where it flitted and shone like burnished fire. Her hands came up to touch the necklace she wore about her slim throat, her green eyes softly focused and her brown hair blowing about her face. Shivering she drew her red coat closer to herself, and wordlessly stayed silent.
So much had happened to get hr here.
Run away from Shinra and Midgar and traversed half the world. Met people she grew close to, people she feared and people who would ultimately change her life forever.
What was she doing here, really?
Who's quest was this anyway..
Saving the planet was a good enough cause, yes.
But was it really what she was doing?
Confused by her own strange thinking she looked down and was half surprised to see Red sitting by her side, he too staring out over the canyon and the calls of desert birds at night, the flickering stars and the whispering reeds. His muzzle was lifted slightly and his single golden eye blazed against the fury of his red fur which had earnt him his nickname with the group.
"You look for an answer too hard," he said wisely.
"I.. I guess."
"Stop looking, sometimes when we do that the answer turns up all on it's own, you know."
"Maybe, that would be nice."
"I mean it, Aeris. And I'm sorry, for scaring you the way I did when we first met."
The girl..no the woman looked down at Red with slight confusion and he looked back up at her. There was an understanding, between two races that had stood the test of time against the invasive and destructive humans and both were now shrinking down to nothing. There was a glimmer of understanding.
Red smiled, and turned, his fiery tail flickering then was swallowed up into the night as he padded off. A stiff breeze rifled past her hair, and confused she looked back out over the dusky prairie.. then she too turned and made her way into the shadows.
Confusion.
~*~
The voices were... beautiful...
They sang and carressed her, lovingly feeling every curve of her fragile body as she hung suspended against the backdrop of her own emotions, then soft over play of fading green light down the cheekbones of her face and over her shoulders and towards her fingers clasped by her breastbone. The voices, so many of them, piled over and under each other with the same desperation and need to talk to her, to get her to talk back. Singing, they held on hard, and she lifted her face as a breeze ran past her shoulder.
She wasn't sure when she had started crying.
A girl no more, a person who now forged ahead against destiny and chose to make a path for everyone else in this life.
When it had all started, she had been so young and so lost.
All the time she had spent with these, her deepest friends.. had made her much more. Gone was the fragile girl, replaced with qualities she had learnt to love and endeavour to keep close to her heart.
Bright strength and confidence, the confidence of knowing what you did was right and believing in that whole heartedly. She had mastered this skill, from Cloud. From watching how, even if he did put a foot wrong, he would get up and carry on no matter how awful things got,. He believed and that was what kept his world turning.
Anger. Something she had never truly coped well with as it always stood stark against her gentle orientated nature, but when she did get angry it was so rare that it left her shaking and weeping. But, seeing Tifa live day in and day out with her own anger and hate, her own griefs and sorrows had given the flower girl a deeper understanding of what it meant to be angry, what it meant to live with anger.
Determination. Also can be called stubborness. This she learnt from Barrett, the walking mountain of muscle, with his ebony skin and brilliantly white smile, he always had a kind word of encouragement or support for her. He was also one of the struts that buffered up Tifa when she was feeling particularly hollow, and she saw his unspoken promise to her, and to the planet. It was that determination which she took and made her own that had helped her here.
Patience. A naturally patient person by nature, she also learned how to temper patience with wisdom, a trick gained from studying Red. Another survivor of a race long gone, a warrior and philosopher, it was perhaps the long talks she had with him as they traversed far and wide that gave her time to think, to reason out the why of her existance, and also the faith that she could do.. what she was doing now.
Kindness. Foul mouthed and spitting his curses in every direction but which, Cid had joined late, into the fellowship of sorts, but what she had seen was a kind heart under all the gruff exterior, a kindness he extended to everyone if they were in need or trouble, no matter the personal cost. Kindness she loved.
Sorrow, the feeling of coldness and desperation and above all, loneliness. Vincent Valentine, a man with a shadowy past and half remembered events, the man who had loved Sephiroth's birth mother and been punished for that love, broken hearted. He still carried on though, and watching him made her more aware of mortality but above that, aware of the strength grief can come in.
Power. Power to corrupt, to raze in destruction, or to heal and save. Power wielded in many forms but the one she grew accustomed to was the power of authority and law, upheld in the images of Reeve and Cait Sith, of how he lent his power to being underhand but also, she sensed, in trying to do what was ultimately right, even if it didn't seem so at the time.
And last, but not least, Truth. The knowledge of the truth is a powerful weapon and seen ever more clearly through the eyes of the young. Yuffie, tormented by the wars of Wutai's past and the disgrace of her hometown's fall from favour with the DaChao gods they worshipped. The truth of needing to rebuild, the truth and ugliness of the world, as well as the beauties it could inspire. This clear eyed view, she now emerged with and felt the tears running down her cheeks.
"Cloud, NO!"
It was now or never as the voices swelled in song and violence, the spell completely with single bound of energy as she opened her eyes with her beatific smile and looked upon the face she would see last of all, the spiked blond hair and the lost, little boy eyes.. so wide and so blue. It was like falling into the sky, she felt like she could keep falling forever and she made to part her lips, beginning a single sentence..
"I saved us.. I di-"
Then came the sword, then came the pain, then came the blood.
Slicing down and cutting her up, bleeding her dry and ravaging her perfect slim form. Leaning forward in shock and bracing her arms on the floor, her eyes crinkled up in pain at the edges. There was the faint scent of salt in the air, the sight of Cloud's military boots and someone laughing.
Even as her sight faded she felt sick with the pain of the sword being pulled loose, and her strength failing she grasped Clod's arm and looked up tearfully into his wide blue eyes, trying to say something. Something trickled from the corner of her mouth, and she never got to shut her eyes.
Darkness swallowed her.. and then came the sunshine..
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Leon looked down, tears pouring from his eyes as Yuffie continued to weave magic.
The ancient's eyes were still half open, as she exhaled.. and didn't breathe in again...
~
Chapter 21: Falling into You
~
~
"One day I'm gonna be there too,
Where the sun is shining and the water's blue.."
OPM~
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
"Nothing's working!" cried the ninja in desperation as tears poured down her cheeks, staining the pale skin through the dirt and scratches, making her suddenly seem so young and so vulnerable as her nerveless fingers tumbled through her materia with panic.
The light of the chamber remained the same lurid green blaze, the light flickering over the ruined walls and illuminating the choking clouds of dust that hung in the air from use of potent magic. It spilt highlights over the sickening pool of blood that was half gathered under where Leon was cradling Aeris close with his head buried into her hair.
Her skin was cold, much colder than he could have thought skin to be. Not unlike when Rinoa had been in a coma. No, very un-alike.
This time, Aeris wasn't sleeping. She was dying.
Her breath was a faint stir on his sweaty cheek, her eyelids fluttering as they lay almost shut and her hands slack over his shoulders, one splayed over her middle, trying to hold together the dreadful sword wound. Leon knew why Cloud had done what he had done, knew it had to happen this way for there to be an end. Force the bad magic out of one into another, the premise had worked well in his own world, but the after effects he had forgotten in his haste.
"Stir, Aeris," he mumbled numbly.
But the girl kept breathing raggedly with little signs of life, his own leather clad hands slippery as he held onto her so tightly that he wondered if even death could take her away from him.
"Aeris.."
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
She ran down the metal corridor with a small squeal of glee. She was no older than four and dressed in a pretty enough dress of blue which hung to her knees, tied at the back with a ribbon and her naturally long hair was also pulled back from her face. She wore patent leather shoes that click clacked as she ran, the white overapron flaring behind her.
She found what she was looking for, a hiding place.
It was just under a table where a small girl like herself would have no trouble hiding, and giggling to herself she squeezed down into it, drawing her knees up to her chest even as the door opened.
Standing in the doorway was a tall young man with the look of Wutai about him, short cropped black hair and pale skin, the man could have been no older than nineteen, still fresh and young enough to play with a girl who was left alone for hours on end to boredom inbetween the sickening experiments.
"Hmm," came his soft and soothing voice, "I wonder.. could the little mouse have escaped into here..?"
The girl lifted her hand and covered her mouth against more giggles.
She loved playing hide and seek, she was very good at hiding and her natural talents as a Cetra made it pretty easy to home in on wherever anyone else would try and hide.
Sounds of movement were made and she knew Tseng was looking round the large office, hearing the clang of filing cabinet drawers and then a silence as he tried to discern whether the small girl could squeeze through the back gap and hide. Then a metal drawer shut and his amused voice lilted out yet again.
"Oh ho.. not the filing cabinet this time.. maybe she's behind.. here!"
The ripping sound of old curtains being drawn back and then a laugh from Tseng made an involuntary giggle escape the young girl. He was so silly, looking for her there.
"Ahh.. well maybe, she is.. under... here!"
The wastepaper lining was pulled out.
"I guess not," he said, and then stopped as the soft *shhlick* of the automatic door openeing foretold the arrival of some Shinra employee. Tseng stopped playing with the basket and straightened up. Curious, the young girl poked her face round the lowest leg part of the table and stared up at the man who walked in.
It was Hojo, a tall and thin ascetic man in a white labcoat and always wearing a sneer on his greasy face. His very presence made the young girl shiver and his voice was like sandstone rubbing against sandpaper, gritting and harsh on the ears like he had spent too many years face down in a whiskey barrel.
"Tseng, just what are you doing?!"
"I was er.. tidying my office.. up."
"I don't care, that was a rhetorical question. Now, where is the Cetra brat?"
"I.."
"You don't know," the sneer curled Hojo's lips, "well you'd better start knowing or better yet, find her and bring her to me. It's time to start a new test and to do that it is almost impossible to do if the child isn't there, do you understand!"
"I.."
"Tseng!"
The young man lowered his dark and blazing eyes with something close to anger, "Yes, sir."
Another head popped about the doorway and blinking blue eyes stared up at Hojo, then across at the table cove where the young girl hid and a hand waved. She waved back then made a small shushing motion, as the tone of the room lowered. The scientist looked about one last time, then stepped out as the young boy stepped in and looked up at Tseng.
"What did *he* want?"
Tseng shook his head, "I.. you can come out now."
Biting her lip, the young girl slowly crawled from her hiding place and got to her feet with tears in her eyes and whispered in frightened tones for one so young, "You're no gonna let him take me!?"
The red headed boy ran over, he easily seven or eight and pulled the girl into an impulsive hug. Rufus Shinra, a lonely little boy as he was growing up. His mother dead and his father always too busy for him, he had found entertainment for a brief time by playing with the Cetra girl who would one day decide the destiny of his very planet.
In the future, he would die.
"Doncha worry none, Tseng won-"
"Rufus.. I have to."
"You said you wouldn't let him!" the young girl sobbed, as she burst suddenly into tears, "it hurts, it really hurts! I hate him! I hate you!"
"Aeris," Tseng said softly, but the girl ran from the room and directly into the hands of an older turk who tucked her immediately up into his arms. Screaming, she tried getting away but his hold was final, and as the lights flickered unevenly he began taking her back to the science lab as her yells echoed down the hall with something bordering on panic..
Fear.
~*~
"I'm home!"
The door swung open and the teenage girl stepped in. Lovely at sixteen, she wore her hair up in a sweeping braid which fell down between her shoulder blades, a delightful green dress and a pair of sturdy boots. Taking off her grey parker, she slung it over one of the coat hooks and waited for her mother to come out of the kitchen where she could smell dinner cooking.
Placing her empty basket down on the table top, she mused softly about how she had swapped formal education for a quick source of money, Elmyra's pension from her husband wasn't enough to support them both. But, this way she got to spend more time with her flowers and less time around the smog filled upper plate and the people who annoyed her on a day to day basis with their selfish ways.
At sixteen, the flower girl was still filled with the rebellious nature of the pubescent.
"Mom?"
Her mother finally came out of the kitchen and tutted at her daughter, who quickly pulled the basket off the table and tablemats, placing it with a guilty smile by the door and shoe rack, "sorry."
The answering smile was much the same, careworn but happy. "It's alright. How was your day?"
"I made 35 gil today, roses were in demand with the new showing of Loveless. All men wanted to buy their lady fair a red red rose," she put up a dramatic hand and then smiled, "did Zack call round?"
"He did, he said he'll drop by after he's gotten on of his vambraces evened out."
She nodded, and took a seat at the table, "what's for dinner? It smells delightful."
"Chicken and pea soup with spiced bread. I made enough for Zack, lord knows that boy can eat."
As the flower girl opened her mouth to say something, there was a knock at the door and all eyes turned towards it. "Zack?" she guessed as Elmyra made her slow way across to it and unbolted it.
It was not Zack. It was a tall man with the look of lands far away in him and his blazing dark eyes, dressed in a formal navy blue suit. His eyes passed dismissively over Elmyra then moved over to where the flower girl sat frozen at the table with a thousand memories flashing through her head, of hide and seek and laughter filled afternoons and a deep, bitter resentment.
But..
"Aeris, it's good to see you again. May I come in, Ms Gainsborough?" he adressed Elmyra last, and the woman nodded, letting in the tall turk.
Tseng's hair had grown and was left to hang to just above his broad shoulders, his skin was a little more wrinkled about the eyes and mouth but the youthful flair had not left his dark eyes, nor the snap from his tone no matter how soothing he tried to make it, "Thank you."
"Tea? Coffee?" offered Elmyra, narrowing her eyes at the Turk.
Both remembered him from his last visit some six years back. He had been none too polite but Aeris knew the hidden pain in his eyes, why he had always let her stay one jump ahead of the Turks.. why..
"No thank you, I'm only here for a check in on Aeris."
"Business?" sniffed the mother.
"Personal," the Turk replied softly, his eyes on the flower girl who stared right back. Her small hands were folded ontop of the table. Tseng took a few steps forward and bent down to whisper something in her ear, then with the faintest of touches from his hand, he straightened and went.
Staring at the empty doorway and the oddness of such things, the flower girl looked down at her hands.
What he had told her, what she had told no other soul, was..
~ Be strong. They hunt you again, and I cannot hold back the wolves forever.. ~
Be strong.
Taking it to heart, she relaxed after an hour, and even managed a playfight with Zack when he came bustling in with a small present for her, all wrapped up in a long shape and her name engraved with love on the handle. Her weapon.
Hope.
~*~
Her eyes looked out over the wild landscape.
The pitted mountains and falling canyons, the strange light of evening filtered down past rocks and crevices towards the ground where it flitted and shone like burnished fire. Her hands came up to touch the necklace she wore about her slim throat, her green eyes softly focused and her brown hair blowing about her face. Shivering she drew her red coat closer to herself, and wordlessly stayed silent.
So much had happened to get hr here.
Run away from Shinra and Midgar and traversed half the world. Met people she grew close to, people she feared and people who would ultimately change her life forever.
What was she doing here, really?
Who's quest was this anyway..
Saving the planet was a good enough cause, yes.
But was it really what she was doing?
Confused by her own strange thinking she looked down and was half surprised to see Red sitting by her side, he too staring out over the canyon and the calls of desert birds at night, the flickering stars and the whispering reeds. His muzzle was lifted slightly and his single golden eye blazed against the fury of his red fur which had earnt him his nickname with the group.
"You look for an answer too hard," he said wisely.
"I.. I guess."
"Stop looking, sometimes when we do that the answer turns up all on it's own, you know."
"Maybe, that would be nice."
"I mean it, Aeris. And I'm sorry, for scaring you the way I did when we first met."
The girl..no the woman looked down at Red with slight confusion and he looked back up at her. There was an understanding, between two races that had stood the test of time against the invasive and destructive humans and both were now shrinking down to nothing. There was a glimmer of understanding.
Red smiled, and turned, his fiery tail flickering then was swallowed up into the night as he padded off. A stiff breeze rifled past her hair, and confused she looked back out over the dusky prairie.. then she too turned and made her way into the shadows.
Confusion.
~*~
The voices were... beautiful...
They sang and carressed her, lovingly feeling every curve of her fragile body as she hung suspended against the backdrop of her own emotions, then soft over play of fading green light down the cheekbones of her face and over her shoulders and towards her fingers clasped by her breastbone. The voices, so many of them, piled over and under each other with the same desperation and need to talk to her, to get her to talk back. Singing, they held on hard, and she lifted her face as a breeze ran past her shoulder.
She wasn't sure when she had started crying.
A girl no more, a person who now forged ahead against destiny and chose to make a path for everyone else in this life.
When it had all started, she had been so young and so lost.
All the time she had spent with these, her deepest friends.. had made her much more. Gone was the fragile girl, replaced with qualities she had learnt to love and endeavour to keep close to her heart.
Bright strength and confidence, the confidence of knowing what you did was right and believing in that whole heartedly. She had mastered this skill, from Cloud. From watching how, even if he did put a foot wrong, he would get up and carry on no matter how awful things got,. He believed and that was what kept his world turning.
Anger. Something she had never truly coped well with as it always stood stark against her gentle orientated nature, but when she did get angry it was so rare that it left her shaking and weeping. But, seeing Tifa live day in and day out with her own anger and hate, her own griefs and sorrows had given the flower girl a deeper understanding of what it meant to be angry, what it meant to live with anger.
Determination. Also can be called stubborness. This she learnt from Barrett, the walking mountain of muscle, with his ebony skin and brilliantly white smile, he always had a kind word of encouragement or support for her. He was also one of the struts that buffered up Tifa when she was feeling particularly hollow, and she saw his unspoken promise to her, and to the planet. It was that determination which she took and made her own that had helped her here.
Patience. A naturally patient person by nature, she also learned how to temper patience with wisdom, a trick gained from studying Red. Another survivor of a race long gone, a warrior and philosopher, it was perhaps the long talks she had with him as they traversed far and wide that gave her time to think, to reason out the why of her existance, and also the faith that she could do.. what she was doing now.
Kindness. Foul mouthed and spitting his curses in every direction but which, Cid had joined late, into the fellowship of sorts, but what she had seen was a kind heart under all the gruff exterior, a kindness he extended to everyone if they were in need or trouble, no matter the personal cost. Kindness she loved.
Sorrow, the feeling of coldness and desperation and above all, loneliness. Vincent Valentine, a man with a shadowy past and half remembered events, the man who had loved Sephiroth's birth mother and been punished for that love, broken hearted. He still carried on though, and watching him made her more aware of mortality but above that, aware of the strength grief can come in.
Power. Power to corrupt, to raze in destruction, or to heal and save. Power wielded in many forms but the one she grew accustomed to was the power of authority and law, upheld in the images of Reeve and Cait Sith, of how he lent his power to being underhand but also, she sensed, in trying to do what was ultimately right, even if it didn't seem so at the time.
And last, but not least, Truth. The knowledge of the truth is a powerful weapon and seen ever more clearly through the eyes of the young. Yuffie, tormented by the wars of Wutai's past and the disgrace of her hometown's fall from favour with the DaChao gods they worshipped. The truth of needing to rebuild, the truth and ugliness of the world, as well as the beauties it could inspire. This clear eyed view, she now emerged with and felt the tears running down her cheeks.
"Cloud, NO!"
It was now or never as the voices swelled in song and violence, the spell completely with single bound of energy as she opened her eyes with her beatific smile and looked upon the face she would see last of all, the spiked blond hair and the lost, little boy eyes.. so wide and so blue. It was like falling into the sky, she felt like she could keep falling forever and she made to part her lips, beginning a single sentence..
"I saved us.. I di-"
Then came the sword, then came the pain, then came the blood.
Slicing down and cutting her up, bleeding her dry and ravaging her perfect slim form. Leaning forward in shock and bracing her arms on the floor, her eyes crinkled up in pain at the edges. There was the faint scent of salt in the air, the sight of Cloud's military boots and someone laughing.
Even as her sight faded she felt sick with the pain of the sword being pulled loose, and her strength failing she grasped Clod's arm and looked up tearfully into his wide blue eyes, trying to say something. Something trickled from the corner of her mouth, and she never got to shut her eyes.
Darkness swallowed her.. and then came the sunshine..
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Leon looked down, tears pouring from his eyes as Yuffie continued to weave magic.
The ancient's eyes were still half open, as she exhaled.. and didn't breathe in again...