Manifestation
Chapter Six
Tifa sat back up on her knees, staring open-mouthed at the woman claiming to be the founder of the Cetra. Her mind raced, trying to take everything in at once. "B-but that's just not possible. The Cetra race was founded many centuries ago," she halfway babbled, before letting shock from what had just happened flow through her veins and make her feel numb. She stood up the rest of the way, dusting off her dirty knees.
Vincent slid his gun back into its holster slowly. This woman seemed like no threat to him, after all. "Explain?" he asked.
Celeyne smiled, and then closed her eyes. The wooden staff she held in her hands flickered, then vanished. Tifa watched her somewhat warily, still feeling unsteady.
Suddenly, Red XIII, Yuffie, and Reeve dashed into the clearing. "What in the world was that flash-"Red XIII started to ask, then stopped in mid- sentence, staring at the mysterious woman. He recalled Bugenhagen showing him a book about the Cetra race during his studies. While looking through its pages, he had seen a drawing of a beautiful young woman. His grandfather had informed him that she had been the very first to grace the Cetra name.
This woman was identical in every way to the picture he remembered from his childhood.
"Let me explain myself," Celeyne began. Her voice was low and rich in tone. She walked over to a nearby rock jutting up from the soil and slowly sat back on it, spreading her dress around her legs as she did so. Yuffie looked completely lost.
"Who the heck is this woman?" she yelled loudly. Celeyne looked over at her with a scolding glance.
"If you'd care to listen, I can tell you," she replied. Yuffie shut her mouth and plopped down on the ground to do as Celeyne said.
"This parasite you are looking into has been around for many ages. It is a disease that Jenova released when Meteor first crashed into the Planet. I was the founder of this earth, a soul that had cultivated this rich soil with my spiritual powers, formed a mate, and then spread my children around the world. You know, of course, that the Cetra were nomads. They would migrate in, settle the Planet...then move on, searching for their Promised Land."
"I was just about to do just that. My children and I had cultivated this land, and were in eternal search of our Promised Land. Then Meteor fell, and destroyed our hopes and dreams."
"Jenova killed many Cetra, and transformed many more into monsters. They then attacked their own people...it was a terrible time. The parasite you're looking into is none other than the very one which transformed souls into twisted creatures."
"I, along with a group of survivors, managed to destroy Jenova. But I lost my life in the process, using Holy. My body decomposed and returned to the Lifestream, but using my spiritual powers, I was able to keep a watch over the Earth. I watched as my children dwindled in number, as other humans began to take control of the Planet. But the world remained peaceful enough. Until Meteor almost fell again."
"As you know, the last surviving Cetra, Aeris Gainsborough, was able to use Holy to destroy Meteor once more. But what you're most likely not aware of, is the fact that before Meteor exploded, it tried one last try for attack. It shot out microscopic cells containing the parasite into the air, which would have fallen on Midgar, if not for the immediate explosion right afterwards. The blast from Meteor exploding sent the cells spiraling north, right into the Ancient Forest."
"No one ventures into the forest, so no humans were contaminated with the parasite. However, tiny creatures of the forest were, such as mice and rats. On the outside, a being infected looks completely normal – until they try to infect you. Then mucous-like liquid containing the virus cells ooze from their finger-tips, and they sink their nails into an area of your body, sending the parasite into your bloodstream."
Tifa shuddered, recalling what Aeris had tried to do to her. She wrapped her arms around herself, keeping her eyes trained on the ground as she listened to Celeyne continue her long story.
"The parasite was slowly spread around the forest, until it came to the City itself. And the only thing to contaminate here laid in this very lake...the corpse of your friend, the last Cetra, Aeris."
"It infected her, and manifested itself into her consciousness. So it's not truly Aeris that attacked you," she turned to Tifa and said with a smile. "The true spirit of Aeris lives on in the Lifestream, in her own Promised Land. But the virus is controlling her body, and using it to do its will."
"I saw this from my resting place, and knew it had to be stopped. If not, the virus will slowly contaminate this entire Planet, and life as we know it will cease to exist...so I used my powers to return to this world." Celeyne suddenly stopped, and smiled sadly. "You see, I'm not truly alive...this is just my spirit taking the form of my body." She paused, closing her eyes and taking a deep breath. Her story, for now, seemed to be over.
Their adventure, however, was just beginning...
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Later that night, the group huddled inside the very same house where they had slept the night Aeris had died. Everyone seemed almost afraid to even touch Celeyne, as though her magical powers would kill them, and so she laid on one of the beds alone, her eyes closed and seemingly asleep.
Tifa stared down at her tightly-clasped hands. "It makes sense now..." she muttered to herself. All of her friends had tried to comfort her after they were told what had happened, but to no avail. She seemed to be suffering from extreme shock.
Vincent sat up against the wall, and Tifa thought that he was sleeping. She didn't notice him crack an eye open and take in her pitiful form, shaking on the top of the frail bed. "What makes sense now?" he asked, curious, and also feeling a little bit sorry for the woman.
Tifa gasped at the sudden intrusion, turning to face him. She locked her knees together once more and shut her eyes, trying to make her body stop shaking. She couldn't. She may as well tell him....
"Well, the reason why I moved to Nibelheim is because Cloud and I broke up...we were living together in his Costa del Sol house, and I thought we were happy. In fact, things were going so well between us that I even hoped that an engagement was coming up...but then he woke up one morning, ranting and raving about Aeris. He claimed that he needed to go find her, because she was lonely and she missed him, stuff like that. It didn't make any sense. At first I just thought he was drunk, but he remained this way for almost four days...and every time I would try to reason with him, he would nearly bite my head off for it. He was acting so weird."
"Then one morning, I woke up, and he was gone. He had left a note for me explaining that he had gone back to see Aeris, and that he had never truly loved me...and it broke my heart. I loved him so much. I think I've loved him ever since I found him crumpled up, defenseless, by the Sector 7 Train Station in Midgar..."
'I hung around for a couple more days, soaking my sorrows in cheap beer, hoping that he might return. But he didn't, just like I knew he would. That's when I decided that the best thing to do was to just start over again. That's why I moved to Nibelheim and started up the Inn."
She turned to Vincent, her eyes suddenly urgent, and he was taken aback by her abrupt change of character. "Don't you understand?" she asked in a harsh whisper. "Cloud went to the City of the Ancients....to here, because he was missing her. When he got here, Aeris infected him with the virus...and he went back to Costa del Sol, where you and Red XIII found him, and he tried to infect you....so you killed him," she finished with a tiny whimper.
"My dream came true..." she muttered to herself, before then flopping back onto the bed, spent by her story. "Thanks for listening to me, Vincent." She rolled onto her side to look at him and gave him a tiny smile. "You're good at just sitting there and listening to people, aren't you? You never try to interrupt or anything..." She began to softly mumble to herself as her eyes drooped shut, and then Vincent found himself staring at a sleeping Tifa.
He allowed himself a small grin as her kind words found their way inside his normally dormant heart, before he too fell asleep once more.
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Author's Note: Thanks for reading. =) Next chapter is coming soon!