Chapter 31: Renounced Truths
Aeris opened her eyes gently looking around her slowly to see what she had missed.
As she laid conscience and silent, she began to pick up details in her mind about everything and knew it. all to be extremely familiar.
Her eyes lit up almost instantly and she pushed herself from the hard wooden floor below her.
The book selves, the nearby mirror, the candles in the corners, nearly burned to their bottoms, it was all so much that shot back into her memories quickly.
"No." she whispered to herself, looking stunned at everything around her.
"This. this can't be right. I mean. I was here already. That strange man who said he was Zack was here. This. cannot be.. I went through that portal and-." Suddenly, she stopped and tears began to form in her eyes as a astonishing thought rolled through her mind.
"Did it not work? Am I still in this world." She asked herself hurtfully, as she glanced down at the floor.
Aeris drew her hands up to her face sliding them back to push gently the hanging down pieces of hair back behind her ears while leaving her hands cuffed over them. She rested her elbows softly on the tips of her knees as she pulled them up to her chest in agony.
"Aeris?" came a soft voice from in front of her, but she refused to move from her position.
"Aeris, please look at me." he pleaded as he calmly brushed his hand against her pale cheek and slipped it under her chin. He nudged it upwards so her head raised itself so she was now eye level with him.
"What's wrong?"
She quickly ripped her glance away to the side as he asked the deathly question.
"Please tell me, I only want to help you." He explained as he raised his hand again to her soft face and tried to pull her gaze back to him. Aeris refused to gaze up upon Zack at that moment, she was to confused and hurt to do such a thing.
"Ae-,"
"NO!" She screamed as she yanked herself away from his grasp.
"Have I done something wrong?" Zack asked concerningly, placing his hands back at his sides knowing she'd only pull away again. She remained silent, to afraid to answer him or even look at him, believing he would look as strange as before with his bright blue eyes and aged facial features.
"Aeris. it's me, Zack. Before you drifted off you welcomed me back with opened arms, as I did you, why are you suddenly against me?" he asked gently as he tried to lower his head and twist it to one side to meet eyes with her.
"Please." he begged as he turned her head to him again.
As she turned to him, he watched the glistening within her eyes from the fresh tears about to fall from the corner of her eyes. Aeris focused her eyes onto his, and almost instantly lunged into his arms, kissing him fiercely after she noticed his eyes were the deep warm chocolate brown she knew and loved.
Her tears rolled down her cheeks in happiness, and in shame for not realizing that it was he to begin with.
"I love you." he whispered as they broke away for a moment, which only caused Aeris to fiercely push back and deliver another kiss long fully.
Finally after several minutes, Zack finally broke away from Aeris's warmth and let her collapse into his arms, tired and cold still from the crystal ice that she was frozen in for those few minutes in the field.
"How did you get here?" Aeris asked gently as she pushed her head softly into his chest.
"I walked." He answered.
"No, no. how did you get back from the lifestream?"
"Well. actually, I don't know."
"What do you mean?" Aeris asked him confusingly as she lifted her head from his chest to meet eyes with him.
"Well. I just fell into the stream and when I woke up, I was floating in a lake near like these kind of ancient buildings surrounded by a bunch of trees. It was really creepy. I was this guy who was pretty much exactly like me, except for his face and hair, and well. he was holding you."
"Holding me? But I never touched the guy until I first woke up myself after falling into the lifestream."
"No, no. he wasn't holding you like he was hugging you. he had you laid out across his arms. Your hands were folded in prayer over your stomach and you looked as if you were sleeping but." Zack stopped, clutching his eyes tightly shut as if he was trying to hold something back and his grip around her tightened as well as if he was trying to hold on forever, not wanting to release her ever.
"But, what.?" She asked as she lowered herself against his chest again to comfort him.
"But. you were. dead. he carried you to the center of the lake, I swam out of the lake when he started to wade into the waters, but he set you down on the lake's surface and you sank below after he let you go. The man looked as if he was going to burst into tears like I did when he let you sink into the lake towards the bottom."
Aeris didn't say a word to Zack about how Cloud had once told her that she had died before as well, thinking it would surely upset him more then he already was now.
"But, I'm right here, and I'll never leave you again." She whispered to him as she held him tighter to her.
"Well, after that all happened, and they left I went into the lake to get you. I followed your body as it sank, trying to reach it but the closer I got, the darker it became. When I finally reached you. it was as if the water completely exploded or something because I was shot out of the lake into mid-air. When I fell back down, I was in another lifestream and saw you running and chased after you." Zack explained briefly as he continued to grasp her long fully.
"Similar things happened to me too. I missed you so much. I wanted to give up and just die and then I remembered about how the lifestream was like a doo-, AHH!" Aeris was quickly interrupted by a sharp painful shock that seemed to tab her in the center of her stomach.
Her grip on Zack instantly became tighter around his neck, her fingernails digging deep into his soft skin around his throat.
"Wha- What is it?" Zack asked desperately as Aeris quickly released Zack and clutched her stomach tightly in deep pain.
"S-Something's, Something inside me is like. stabbing me!" she told him as she cried out in pain again, bending her waist over, her head nearly touching the floor.
Zack slipped his arms under her own and tilted her so she would roll over and lay gently on her back as she groaned.
"It's going to be alright, calm down, it'll be ok." Zack told her, trying hard to reassure her.
"It hurts so much." Aeris cried as she pulled her knees up and clutched them tighter around her stomach, rocking slightly back and forth to ease her suffering.
Zack quickly reached over and grabbed the blanket at his side and balled it up to form a decent enough pillow. Zack gently slipped his hands beneath her neck and swiftly scooted the pillow under her delicate braids as he laid her back down upon it.
He then reached into his pocket and removed a small green orb that swirled inside with a hint of white softly. Raising it to her stomach, he tendering dropped it onto it, and placed his hands over top of it soothingly so it wouldn't fall off.
"Zack, I feel like I'm going to puke or something." She cried as he placed his hands over hers and the orb.
"It'll be alright soon, don't worry." He calmly told her as he gently closed his eyes and focused his energy within his palms into the orb.
Slowly, the orb seemed to begin to illuminate a gentle cool glow that started to begin to as it seemed, break into tiny shards that spread around her stomach and began to sink into her flesh.
Aeris seemed to scream in a worse pain as they passed through her but Zack remained still, his own body beginning to glow a pale sky blue as wind started to push around him.
"Freezing rings. here my call, and cover the heat over with your breeze! Ice!" Zack called out and his palms seemed to explode into her stomach.
Zack was flung back into the nearby wall, and he skidded until he finally touched the bottom with the tip of his knees breathlessly. A bright light illuminated the room, blinding out any sign of Aeris.
Zack quickly regained his footing but raised his gloved black hands to his eyes to block out the bright light. Slowly, he approached her, beginning to see a faint outline of her slender body laying softly against the ground.
"Zack." she whispered as he dropped to his knees and started towards her despite the blinding light.
"I'm coming, don't worry." He assured her as he quickly closed his eyes and dropped his hands to the ground and started to crawl towards her.
She gently lifted her left hand out to him, as she clutched her eyes tightly shut against the blinding bluish like.
He quickly reached out and gripped her tender hand, clutching it gently, knowing she was very weak still. The light soon began to quickly die down and Zack no longer had to squint to make out Aeris's motionless body. Soon, the rays disappeared, leaving Aeris almost looking as if she was lifeless. Her hand fell limp within his own as he held and moved in closer to her, laying his hand gently across her forehead to check for a temperature.
Softly, he slipped himself next to her waist, looking down upon her face gently as she laid their still. Slowly, he slid his hand down towards her own and grasped it lovingly as he brought it to his lips and kissed the back of it.
"Don't worry, the pain will die down soon."
"But why has it gotten worse?"
"Because ice needs to pierce through you to cool down your blood, that's all."
Aeris kept her eyes closed gently as she softly clutched his hand and tried to raise her other to him, but seemed to be much to weak.
She nervously released several soft deep breaths as she tried to relax herself.
Zack gently released her hand from his own and placed it over her stomach, pulling her other hand over as well and clasping it over her other in prayer like he had seen her be placed in that way one time.
Slowly, he lowered himself down to her side, and kissed her forehead tenderly as he lifted her bangs from her face.
"Zack?"
"Yes?"
"Umm.can I sit up now? I'm feeling much better."
"Oh, umm.sure." He told her quickly as he slipped his hands beneath her waist and lifted her softly from the concrete floor so she sat up now.
Aeris slowly opened her eyes as she tried to refocus herself and then turned to him swiftly.
She chuckled at his startled expression and he couldn't help but to smile himself at her as she lowered her head in embarrassment.
"I'm.sorry." She choked out to him as she tried to stable herself.
"It's alright." He told her softly, and a playful idea popped into his mind and he quickly lunged at Aeris. He wrapped his arms swiftly around her waist and flipped her backwards so she was lying on her back while on him as well.
Zack dug his fingers in her sides and began to tickle her fiercely.
"Ah! Stop!!" she begged as she started to laugh hard.
"But why?" he asked her, knowing she couldn't really answer him back, or hardly breathe for that matter.
"No.! S-Stop!" she pleaded again, trying hard to catch her breath.
"You never answered my question, though." He played as he rolled her over so she was facing the floor now.
"I-I-I." She stuttered trying to answer him but she could hardly get enough breath in herself, as she needed just to live.
"I what?" he played again as he increased his tickling.
"I-I can't breathe!" she cried as she clutched her eyes shut and tried desperately to grab his hands.
"Is that so?" he joked as he flipped her back over so she was facing the ceiling again.
"Please! S-S-Stop!" she cried again hoping he would listen this time, but he only made it worse.
"But why? You didn't give me a good enough answer!" he teased and finally she caught his hands with her own and took in a deep breath as she tried to relax herself.
Aeris clutched his hands tightly and then released them in trust that he wouldn't start up again. Instead of attacking her again, Zack unrolled his hands so they lay smoothly on her hips and gently slipped them around her stomach, hugging her softly.
She pushed herself so she had her head over his heart and turned it so it lay gently on his chest and she could see him clearly.
"You ok?" Zack ask her softly as he turned his head slightly to the right to meet eyes with her.
"Mmmm hmmm." she responded gently.
Zack wanted to lie there for almost pretty much forever but he knew that was impossible because of where they were at.
Slowly, he forced himself up, but refused to release Aeris from his grasp as he moved himself.
"Come on.we have a long ways to go before we ever see Cid again, so we might as well start, you know?" he tried to explain to her softly enough.
"Mmm. alright." she groaned as she turned herself sideways so she was stretched across his lap but left her head on his chest, as she closed her eyes.
"Come on," he told her regretfully as he slipped his hands from her waist and placed them gently on the floor to push himself to his feet.
When he released her, Aeris moved herself from Zack's lap and pushed herself up as well so she stood with him now.
As he brushed off the last specks of dust from his body, he gently slipped his right arm back around her waist.
"Well, I think the closest town to us, is Midgar.. It's not exactly the best town from what I've heard from a lot of people too unfortunately, you see.." He explained dreadfully.
"It's alright," she told him, hope rising in her voice, "At least we'll see Cid again." She whispered sounding very assuring to him.
"Well. better start going then, right?"
"Yeah. lets go meet them.."
Aeris opened her eyes gently looking around her slowly to see what she had missed.
As she laid conscience and silent, she began to pick up details in her mind about everything and knew it. all to be extremely familiar.
Her eyes lit up almost instantly and she pushed herself from the hard wooden floor below her.
The book selves, the nearby mirror, the candles in the corners, nearly burned to their bottoms, it was all so much that shot back into her memories quickly.
"No." she whispered to herself, looking stunned at everything around her.
"This. this can't be right. I mean. I was here already. That strange man who said he was Zack was here. This. cannot be.. I went through that portal and-." Suddenly, she stopped and tears began to form in her eyes as a astonishing thought rolled through her mind.
"Did it not work? Am I still in this world." She asked herself hurtfully, as she glanced down at the floor.
Aeris drew her hands up to her face sliding them back to push gently the hanging down pieces of hair back behind her ears while leaving her hands cuffed over them. She rested her elbows softly on the tips of her knees as she pulled them up to her chest in agony.
"Aeris?" came a soft voice from in front of her, but she refused to move from her position.
"Aeris, please look at me." he pleaded as he calmly brushed his hand against her pale cheek and slipped it under her chin. He nudged it upwards so her head raised itself so she was now eye level with him.
"What's wrong?"
She quickly ripped her glance away to the side as he asked the deathly question.
"Please tell me, I only want to help you." He explained as he raised his hand again to her soft face and tried to pull her gaze back to him. Aeris refused to gaze up upon Zack at that moment, she was to confused and hurt to do such a thing.
"Ae-,"
"NO!" She screamed as she yanked herself away from his grasp.
"Have I done something wrong?" Zack asked concerningly, placing his hands back at his sides knowing she'd only pull away again. She remained silent, to afraid to answer him or even look at him, believing he would look as strange as before with his bright blue eyes and aged facial features.
"Aeris. it's me, Zack. Before you drifted off you welcomed me back with opened arms, as I did you, why are you suddenly against me?" he asked gently as he tried to lower his head and twist it to one side to meet eyes with her.
"Please." he begged as he turned her head to him again.
As she turned to him, he watched the glistening within her eyes from the fresh tears about to fall from the corner of her eyes. Aeris focused her eyes onto his, and almost instantly lunged into his arms, kissing him fiercely after she noticed his eyes were the deep warm chocolate brown she knew and loved.
Her tears rolled down her cheeks in happiness, and in shame for not realizing that it was he to begin with.
"I love you." he whispered as they broke away for a moment, which only caused Aeris to fiercely push back and deliver another kiss long fully.
Finally after several minutes, Zack finally broke away from Aeris's warmth and let her collapse into his arms, tired and cold still from the crystal ice that she was frozen in for those few minutes in the field.
"How did you get here?" Aeris asked gently as she pushed her head softly into his chest.
"I walked." He answered.
"No, no. how did you get back from the lifestream?"
"Well. actually, I don't know."
"What do you mean?" Aeris asked him confusingly as she lifted her head from his chest to meet eyes with him.
"Well. I just fell into the stream and when I woke up, I was floating in a lake near like these kind of ancient buildings surrounded by a bunch of trees. It was really creepy. I was this guy who was pretty much exactly like me, except for his face and hair, and well. he was holding you."
"Holding me? But I never touched the guy until I first woke up myself after falling into the lifestream."
"No, no. he wasn't holding you like he was hugging you. he had you laid out across his arms. Your hands were folded in prayer over your stomach and you looked as if you were sleeping but." Zack stopped, clutching his eyes tightly shut as if he was trying to hold something back and his grip around her tightened as well as if he was trying to hold on forever, not wanting to release her ever.
"But, what.?" She asked as she lowered herself against his chest again to comfort him.
"But. you were. dead. he carried you to the center of the lake, I swam out of the lake when he started to wade into the waters, but he set you down on the lake's surface and you sank below after he let you go. The man looked as if he was going to burst into tears like I did when he let you sink into the lake towards the bottom."
Aeris didn't say a word to Zack about how Cloud had once told her that she had died before as well, thinking it would surely upset him more then he already was now.
"But, I'm right here, and I'll never leave you again." She whispered to him as she held him tighter to her.
"Well, after that all happened, and they left I went into the lake to get you. I followed your body as it sank, trying to reach it but the closer I got, the darker it became. When I finally reached you. it was as if the water completely exploded or something because I was shot out of the lake into mid-air. When I fell back down, I was in another lifestream and saw you running and chased after you." Zack explained briefly as he continued to grasp her long fully.
"Similar things happened to me too. I missed you so much. I wanted to give up and just die and then I remembered about how the lifestream was like a doo-, AHH!" Aeris was quickly interrupted by a sharp painful shock that seemed to tab her in the center of her stomach.
Her grip on Zack instantly became tighter around his neck, her fingernails digging deep into his soft skin around his throat.
"Wha- What is it?" Zack asked desperately as Aeris quickly released Zack and clutched her stomach tightly in deep pain.
"S-Something's, Something inside me is like. stabbing me!" she told him as she cried out in pain again, bending her waist over, her head nearly touching the floor.
Zack slipped his arms under her own and tilted her so she would roll over and lay gently on her back as she groaned.
"It's going to be alright, calm down, it'll be ok." Zack told her, trying hard to reassure her.
"It hurts so much." Aeris cried as she pulled her knees up and clutched them tighter around her stomach, rocking slightly back and forth to ease her suffering.
Zack quickly reached over and grabbed the blanket at his side and balled it up to form a decent enough pillow. Zack gently slipped his hands beneath her neck and swiftly scooted the pillow under her delicate braids as he laid her back down upon it.
He then reached into his pocket and removed a small green orb that swirled inside with a hint of white softly. Raising it to her stomach, he tendering dropped it onto it, and placed his hands over top of it soothingly so it wouldn't fall off.
"Zack, I feel like I'm going to puke or something." She cried as he placed his hands over hers and the orb.
"It'll be alright soon, don't worry." He calmly told her as he gently closed his eyes and focused his energy within his palms into the orb.
Slowly, the orb seemed to begin to illuminate a gentle cool glow that started to begin to as it seemed, break into tiny shards that spread around her stomach and began to sink into her flesh.
Aeris seemed to scream in a worse pain as they passed through her but Zack remained still, his own body beginning to glow a pale sky blue as wind started to push around him.
"Freezing rings. here my call, and cover the heat over with your breeze! Ice!" Zack called out and his palms seemed to explode into her stomach.
Zack was flung back into the nearby wall, and he skidded until he finally touched the bottom with the tip of his knees breathlessly. A bright light illuminated the room, blinding out any sign of Aeris.
Zack quickly regained his footing but raised his gloved black hands to his eyes to block out the bright light. Slowly, he approached her, beginning to see a faint outline of her slender body laying softly against the ground.
"Zack." she whispered as he dropped to his knees and started towards her despite the blinding light.
"I'm coming, don't worry." He assured her as he quickly closed his eyes and dropped his hands to the ground and started to crawl towards her.
She gently lifted her left hand out to him, as she clutched her eyes tightly shut against the blinding bluish like.
He quickly reached out and gripped her tender hand, clutching it gently, knowing she was very weak still. The light soon began to quickly die down and Zack no longer had to squint to make out Aeris's motionless body. Soon, the rays disappeared, leaving Aeris almost looking as if she was lifeless. Her hand fell limp within his own as he held and moved in closer to her, laying his hand gently across her forehead to check for a temperature.
Softly, he slipped himself next to her waist, looking down upon her face gently as she laid their still. Slowly, he slid his hand down towards her own and grasped it lovingly as he brought it to his lips and kissed the back of it.
"Don't worry, the pain will die down soon."
"But why has it gotten worse?"
"Because ice needs to pierce through you to cool down your blood, that's all."
Aeris kept her eyes closed gently as she softly clutched his hand and tried to raise her other to him, but seemed to be much to weak.
She nervously released several soft deep breaths as she tried to relax herself.
Zack gently released her hand from his own and placed it over her stomach, pulling her other hand over as well and clasping it over her other in prayer like he had seen her be placed in that way one time.
Slowly, he lowered himself down to her side, and kissed her forehead tenderly as he lifted her bangs from her face.
"Zack?"
"Yes?"
"Umm.can I sit up now? I'm feeling much better."
"Oh, umm.sure." He told her quickly as he slipped his hands beneath her waist and lifted her softly from the concrete floor so she sat up now.
Aeris slowly opened her eyes as she tried to refocus herself and then turned to him swiftly.
She chuckled at his startled expression and he couldn't help but to smile himself at her as she lowered her head in embarrassment.
"I'm.sorry." She choked out to him as she tried to stable herself.
"It's alright." He told her softly, and a playful idea popped into his mind and he quickly lunged at Aeris. He wrapped his arms swiftly around her waist and flipped her backwards so she was lying on her back while on him as well.
Zack dug his fingers in her sides and began to tickle her fiercely.
"Ah! Stop!!" she begged as she started to laugh hard.
"But why?" he asked her, knowing she couldn't really answer him back, or hardly breathe for that matter.
"No.! S-Stop!" she pleaded again, trying hard to catch her breath.
"You never answered my question, though." He played as he rolled her over so she was facing the floor now.
"I-I-I." She stuttered trying to answer him but she could hardly get enough breath in herself, as she needed just to live.
"I what?" he played again as he increased his tickling.
"I-I can't breathe!" she cried as she clutched her eyes shut and tried desperately to grab his hands.
"Is that so?" he joked as he flipped her back over so she was facing the ceiling again.
"Please! S-S-Stop!" she cried again hoping he would listen this time, but he only made it worse.
"But why? You didn't give me a good enough answer!" he teased and finally she caught his hands with her own and took in a deep breath as she tried to relax herself.
Aeris clutched his hands tightly and then released them in trust that he wouldn't start up again. Instead of attacking her again, Zack unrolled his hands so they lay smoothly on her hips and gently slipped them around her stomach, hugging her softly.
She pushed herself so she had her head over his heart and turned it so it lay gently on his chest and she could see him clearly.
"You ok?" Zack ask her softly as he turned his head slightly to the right to meet eyes with her.
"Mmmm hmmm." she responded gently.
Zack wanted to lie there for almost pretty much forever but he knew that was impossible because of where they were at.
Slowly, he forced himself up, but refused to release Aeris from his grasp as he moved himself.
"Come on.we have a long ways to go before we ever see Cid again, so we might as well start, you know?" he tried to explain to her softly enough.
"Mmm. alright." she groaned as she turned herself sideways so she was stretched across his lap but left her head on his chest, as she closed her eyes.
"Come on," he told her regretfully as he slipped his hands from her waist and placed them gently on the floor to push himself to his feet.
When he released her, Aeris moved herself from Zack's lap and pushed herself up as well so she stood with him now.
As he brushed off the last specks of dust from his body, he gently slipped his right arm back around her waist.
"Well, I think the closest town to us, is Midgar.. It's not exactly the best town from what I've heard from a lot of people too unfortunately, you see.." He explained dreadfully.
"It's alright," she told him, hope rising in her voice, "At least we'll see Cid again." She whispered sounding very assuring to him.
"Well. better start going then, right?"
"Yeah. lets go meet them.."