Cloud had lost all traces of coherent thought. He was moving without realizing it, towards Sephiroth who stumbled weakly, coughing and gasping, to the shore. He took the body from Sephiroth and ever so gently carried it the last few feet to dry land. As he fell to his knees, he cradled the body - Aeris - close to his chest and let his eyes travel her form in wonder.
Aeris ...He could hear Sephiroth behind him, collapsing onto the ground and heaving, his lungs rejecting the water they had absorbed. He had no regard for anything but the miracle he held; the treasure his heart thought never to see again. "Aeris," he whispered, waiting for the eyelids to flicker; waiting for those expressive emerald orbs to see him, to know him. They didn't, and he shook her gently. "Aeris ..." Still nothing. He was confused, she was here; she was alive ...
He realized then, that the skin beneath his tender touch felt strange. It was cold, and solid, and upon closer inspection it gleamed faintly. He traced a finger down the side of her cheek, trying to ignore the icy certainty in the pit of his stomach. The more he stared, the more certain he was. He touched a hand to her hair, trailing on the ground. It too was hard, and the individual strands had been fused together to form one long mass. Now he could make out the faint glitters in her skin, around her eyes. It felt as if she were hardening further in his very arms, becoming heavier and more rigid."No," Cloud whispered, unbelievingly and with despair.
For some unexplainable reason, her body was crystallizing.He laid her down then, horrified. Even as he watched, her skin became more and more iridescent, like the surface of a stone, or gem. Her pale skin became smooth like marble with threads of some undefineable silver substance. The effect travelled throughout her body, even turning the clothes she wore, the ones she had been wearing when Cloud had laid her to rest within the pool, hard as rock. Streaks of blue, moving pieces of electricity began to play over her arms, her face. He took a step backwards, shaking his head. Why wasn't she alive? Why wasn't she laughing in his arms, as she was meant to be? What was happening to her?
"Cloud ..." Sephiroth said hoarsely, standing now, and staring at Aeris in bewilderment.Cloud tore his eyes from the scene before him and whirled on the silver haired man. "You!" He spat. "How did you find her? Why did you take her?"
"I - I didn't know what it was ... the water wouldn't let me go, Cloud. It was dragging me down, but then there was a light and I touched something. And the moment I grabbed it - her - the water released me."
Anguish, rage, and confusion were warring with each other on Cloud's face. He gave a sound that was half laugh and half sob, and turned again to stare at what had once been a woman. "Aeris," He said in a choked voice, and knelt before her.Aeris. Sephiroth gazed at the features, hardened and shimmering, and felt his own pain wash through him. This was the woman Cloud loved; it was obvious in every move the other man made, in the way he spoke her name.
And this was the woman he himself had slain.He also knelt by the body, across from Cloud. The hardening was slower now, almost complete, and she lay before them a statue, a crystallized parody of what had once been a living, breathing, human. Cloud had lowered his head, whether to hide his sorrow or embrace it Sephiroth did not know. His gaze was drawn to the play of silver and blue that streaked across the marble like face and the slender arms. Unthinking, compelled by something unnamed, he slowly reached out and touched her cheek. The reaction was instantaneous. The jagged bolts of blue and silver ceased their wanderings and climbed up his arm, eliciting a harsh cry at the biting pain. He attempted to fall back but found himself firmly held. A glow had began where his hand had touched her once flesh, the same blinding white light that had surrounded him in the pool. It grew until it surrounded him, and the pain, acute like the pain of Jenova in his mind, grew with it. He was aware of Cloud yelling, leaping for him, but everything moved in slow, liquid movements. The blue and silver lines had crawled over his shoulder and were now at his neck. He made one more desperate attempt to wrench free of whatever held him before he was swallowed by the light.
Silence fell, so profound it hurt his ears.He was surrounded by white, but the pain was gone, as were the bolts of electricity that had climbed his body. He could not move, was not aware of having a body, was only aware of the corporeal existence of this place and this time. It was, he realized with some trepidation, almost like his dream.
-SEPHIROTH-He knew that sound, knew that voice. It's haunting tone made him weak with guilt and regret. This was hell, and this was eternity, and he had returned -
Something appeared in front of him.It was the girl, the one he had pulled from the depths of the pool. Here she was, kneeling with her head down in prayer.
Here was Sephiroth, the girl impaled on his blade.Here was Cloud, face torn in despair.
Here was Jenova, taunting and twisted.Image after image assailed him, rapid and fierce. And with them came the memory of feeling; of the emotion he had felt as he fell down, down, his sword out before him, satisfied and intent at skewering the one before him. The jubilation and comfort Jenova's words had given him. The utter disdain for the Planet, and all those who inhabited it. The frenzied fear as Cloud had struck him again and again and again in the crater. The panicked realization that he could die, and would, die.
He remembered it all.-SEPHIROTH-
The images stopped, but he was still reeling from their impact. The voice drew his attention before him, and there stood the girl. Aeris.-SEPHIROTH-
It was her voice, her words that haunted him night after night. She was his punishment, her tormented cry assailing his sanity.-LISTEN-
And he did.