Ryoko: Aeris, PLEASE can I do this chapter?
Aeris: Why?
Ryoko: Please?
Aeris: All right.
Ryoko: Thank you!
Disclaimer: I don't own Final Fantasy 7 or the chars and locations used. I only own Elora, Silent Moon, and Pink14.
Author's Note: This chapter is dedicated to Mercuryknight who helped me come up with some of the ideas for this chap. Thanks!
A Memory Never Erased
Dream Sequence
A young girl wakes up to darkness. She attempts to move, but is unable to and looks up. She feels something heavy on most of her body and again tries to move. This causes something else to stir. The girl looks up frightened, until she sees something gold and relaxes.
"How are you doing?" The girl asks softly.
"Badly. How about you?"
"Various injuries and some bruises."
The girl looks up at the dragon and tilts her head.
"Dragy. Can you get us out of here?"
The dragon nods and scratches at the roof of their rocky prisonment. The girl covers her head and waits. When sunlight streams down into the darkness she lifts her head up as the dragon lifts her up and out of the hole it made.
"Dragy? Aren't you coming?" She asks, turning back to look at him.
"No. I'm too weak." A weak voice answers her.
"Dragy? Dragy!" The girl cries and kneels down beside the hole as she hears a heavy thud.
The sunlight streams down on the red dragon and the girl can see it's broken wings and it's numerous injuries.
"Dragy!"
"Go on without me, Elora. I've only caused you grief since you meet me."
"No! You made up for that! We're friends now!"
The girl notices the dragon smile slightly before the look vanishes and the dragon goes limp. The girl crises his name again, tears streaming down her cheeks. The dragon vanishes slowly and the girl curls up into a ball, crying hard. A white crystal in her hair glows softly and the girl falls asleep.
End Dream Sequence
Dream Sequence
A girl looks around her in the darkness. She sees nothing until she hears a giggle and turns around. She still sees nothing and runs off towards the voice, running over dead leaves and bones of various animals. After a while the giggle vanishes and the girl stops, looking confused.
"Follow me, Elora." The wind seems to whisper to the five year old.
The girl turns and runs off, knowing her way around expertly. She enters a building, goes down some stairs and enters this vast looking room. She runs down some more stairs and stops at some pillars. She looks across the gap and sees a young girl sitting on her knees on a pedestal. The girl jumps across the pillars and steps up onto the pedestal. She gets down beside the other girl and takes her hands within her own.
"Aeris. What are you praying about?" The girl asks.
The other girl opens emerald green eyes and smiles.
"For everyone on this planet to stay safe, especially the little ones. Like you." She responds, ruffling the other girl's hair.
She giggles and smiles happily.
"Do you think it will come true?"
The older girl nods.
"I know it will. Come on, Elora. Let's take you back."
"But Aeris, I want to pray with you!"
The 13-year-old Aeris smiles slightly and closes her eyes. Elora's eyes turn a bright gold as she smiles happily. She closes her eyes and Aeris opens one eye to look at her. The five year old had no worries in her life and Aeris planned to keep it that way. She closes her eye again and both girl kneel and pray for 10 minutes. After the time is up, Aeris takes her hands out of Elora's, causing the girl to open her eyes. Aeris smiles and reaches back to her braid. She messes with the ribbon and finally brings her hand out in front of her and opens it.
"Oh wow! What is that?!"
"It's called a materia. And I want you to have it."
Elora takes the white crystal from Aeris' hand and turns it over in her own hands. The crystal catches the light coming from the ceiling and glows.
"Pretty. But why do you want me to have it?"
"I feel you're destined to have it."
Elora smiles, then reaches back and messes with the ribbon in her own hair. She finally gets the crystal to stay, then throws her arms around Aeris' neck, hugging her. Aeris hugs back and the two walk off.
End Dream Sequence
Elora doesn't wake up until night has fallen. When she does, she instantly notices she's in an unfamiliar embrace. Strong and very protective, yet feminine also. She opens her eyes and looks up from under the hood of her cloak. She sees Tifa holding her. The older girl hasn't noticed she's awake yet, but Elora gets the distinct feeling she should. So she reaches out with a hand and pokes Tifa. The girl jumps and drops her, but Elora had figured that would happen and maneuvers so she lands on her feet. She stands up and smiles.
"Don't do that!"
"Need to be listening so you'll know when I'm awake."
Tifa smiles and Elora returns it, reaching up and pulling back her hood. She looks around and cringes inwardly, seeing Cloud. He however isn't glaring at her like he usually is. Elora looks around and waves to each one of the group individually, though she hugs Yuffie, Tifa, and Red13. At the end, she turns to Cloud with her head bowed.
"Cloud." She starts.
"Don't. I know what you're going to say, so don't. Because it's my fault."
The entire group, including Elora, looks shocked. Cloud admitting when he was wrong? That was a first.
"No. It was mine. I should have understood your feelings instead of running off."
"You had your reasons, beside I shouldn't have accused you. Let's drop it and start over."
Elora smiles happily and nods. Cloud smiles slightly and Elora looks even more happier, now that she's got him to smile, if only a little bit. The crystal in her bracelet glows softly in response and Elora looks around.
"Anybody seen Silent or Pink yet?"
Everybody shakes his or her head no and Elora looks depressed. A few hours pass and the group keeps traveling, Elora near the back with Cait Sith and Red13. As they walk, Red's ears perk and he looks up.
"Hold on. I hear something."
Elora listens closely and tilts her head. After a few minutes, two arguing voices can be heard. Elora smiles brightly and runs towards the voices.
"Silent! Pink!"
Five minutes pass and Elora comes back, with a panther and wolf in tow. All three look really happy and are chatting amongst themselves. Tifa smiles slightly, happy to see Elora with her friends again. The group continues on and the three chat, getting Red, Yuffie, and Tifa into it. They finally reach this huge room and everyone looks around. Nothing seems out of the ordinary, but Elora feels uneasy. Silent and Pink get close to her, growling. Nothing happens for a long time and everything seems fine, until Tifa gives a cry of surprise as Cloud goes flying. A fight soon starts between this hideous creature and the group. Elora gets ordered to stay back by Cloud and she listens, staying close to the wall. The battle isn't going that well. Almost everyone is down and the creature is advancing on Elora. Silent and Pink try to stop it, but they too go down. A red orb in Elora's staff glows brightly and she gets engulfed in it. She tries again to call the Phoenix and succeeds, but something goes wrong. As Elora puts her power into doing the summon, she suddenly feels cold. The orb's glow turns black but the summon still happen. The Phoenix appears and destroys the monster, and revives everyone who's unconscious. But it stays instead of disappearing again. Elora walks over to it slowly and notices its orange color has turned black, giving it a dark fire color of black and red. The bird turns to look at her and she recoils back, hating the look in its eyes. It screeches loudly and vanishes. Right after it does, a black beam of light comes from the ceiling and engulfs Elora in it. She gets lifted up and floats on her back. Nothing seems to happen for a while, but when Elora starts to think nothing is going to happen she suddenly lets out a piercing scream as she feels like her entire body is being ripped apart, slowly and very painfully. The pain then goes to her chest and she feels like she can't breathe. She gasps loudly as she struggles to draw a breath, but doesn't succeed and begins to feel light headed. She weakly opens her eyes as a new shout of concern reaches her and she sees the two people she abandoned further down in the caves. A small smile crosses her lips as she sees them alive, but then she screams again. The white crystal glows softly, but is rapidly put out by the black light and Elora screams even louder, feeling like her heart is being ripped out, and then crushed. Then she feels like she can't breathe again and finally goes limp, unable to draw a decent breath to get enough oxygen into her. Her crystal strengthens in glow, but is again put out by the light. She remembers and knows nothing of what happened, but in her dreams she is seen and told.
Dream Sequence
"You are a very lucky girl Elora." A soft female voice says.
"Huh?"
A woman dressed in white appears in front of her and smiles.
"You are very lucky."
"Why?"
"You have so many people who care about you. Otherwise you'd be dead right now."
"What do you mean?"
The woman gestures and a window appears. Elora looks through it and finds it's showing the scene in the cave, right from when she went unconscious. The black light suddenly goes even darker and bloody marks start appearing all over Elora's body. Then a spear is seen hovering over Elora. It moves closer to her, but right before it pierces her heart, it gets stopped. But Elora still feels its heat and puts a hand over her heart as she watches.
"What stopped it from killing me?" She asks softly.
"The one who cares more about you then anyone else."
Elora watches, confused. The window shows a lone figure standing only feet from the swirling blackness. Elora gasps as she recognizes the figure. It's Kriel! Kriel faced the darkness knowing who was in there only because his heart told him. An aura surrounded him at the moment seeing the spear fall towards her. A bright light flashed all around it tinged with red. An orb of white and red swirls hovers in front of Kriel, as he is floating off the ground. The light gets brighter and blocks any view of him. The light disappears and reveals an Angel like being. The wings out stretched about 20 feet in span and dual flaming scimitars appear at his sides. His wing gives off a low glow of white and his chest shows an orb of materia that is red with white swirls in it. His skin is of the high elven race, being fair and pale. His hand reaches within the darkness parting the black area and grabs the spear inches from her chest.
"You will not hurt my love," He says as he throws the spear back up.
Elora's eyes turn red as she watches all of this.
"What kind of materia does he have?" She asks the woman beside her.
"Its called Eden and it reacts strongly when Meteor and Holy are around."
Elora looks down at her bracelet and then back up at the window as the light vanishes and Kriel holds Elora close in his arms, crying.
"I can't go back. Not yet." Elora says quietly.
She stands up and runs off. The woman follows closely behind and finally grabs onto her, stopping her.
"What's wrong Elora?"
"I want to see Aeris again."
"All's you had to do was ask." A familiar voice says.
Elora turns around as Aeris appears. Elora's eyes light up and turn gold as she runs over to the older girl and hugs her. Aeris smiles and returns it.
"What was so important that you had to see me while your boyfriend is worried about you?"
Elora blushes and glares up at Aeris in mock angrier.
"He's not my boyfriend. And I want to know the real reason you gave me Holy."
"I told you. I think you're destined to have it."
"There's more to it. There has to be."
Aeris looks over at the woman who does nothing to help her. Aeris smiles and gets down on her knees beside Elora.
"Want to know the real reason? It's because I thought you could bring out the real powers of Holy. You were only four when I gave it to you, but I knew that you were special and look at you now. Friends with a bunch of mercenaries that are together for different reasons, and a wolf and a panther who wouldn't go near you until you proved yourself to them."
Elora blushes slightly again and Aeris takes her hand. She moves her hand up so Elora can see the Holy materia. Elora tilts her head slightly.
"Protect this, like you would protect your friends."
Elora smiles and nods. Aeris smiles also and stands up.
"Now go back to your friends. I'll see you again."
Aeris and the woman vanish. Elora looks at the crystal and smiles as it glows. She closes her eyes and vanishes from her dreams. She slowly opens her eyes five minutes later and notices Kriel still holding her close and crying. She smiles slightly and brings her arm up. She wipes away a few of his tears and he looks at her in surprise.
"I'm alive. No need to worry anymore." She says softly.
She hasn't completely recovered from that pillar and is breathing a little hard still. Kriel hugs her tightly and Elora smiles slightly.
"You were so pale when I freed you, I thought that."
"I know, but I'm alive. Now let me get some rest."
He smiles and stands up, picking Elora up as he does so. The young girl ends up falling asleep, resting her head on his chest, listening to his heart beat.
Disclaimer: I don't own Final Fantasy 7 or the chars and locations used. I only own Elora, Silent Moon, and Pink14.
Author's Note: This chapter is dedicated to Mercuryknight who helped me come up with some of the ideas for this chap. Thanks!
A Memory Never Erased
Dream Sequence
A young girl wakes up to darkness. She attempts to move, but is unable to and looks up. She feels something heavy on most of her body and again tries to move. This causes something else to stir. The girl looks up frightened, until she sees something gold and relaxes.
"How are you doing?" The girl asks softly.
"Badly. How about you?"
"Various injuries and some bruises."
The girl looks up at the dragon and tilts her head.
"Dragy. Can you get us out of here?"
The dragon nods and scratches at the roof of their rocky prisonment. The girl covers her head and waits. When sunlight streams down into the darkness she lifts her head up as the dragon lifts her up and out of the hole it made.
"Dragy? Aren't you coming?" She asks, turning back to look at him.
"No. I'm too weak." A weak voice answers her.
"Dragy? Dragy!" The girl cries and kneels down beside the hole as she hears a heavy thud.
The sunlight streams down on the red dragon and the girl can see it's broken wings and it's numerous injuries.
"Dragy!"
"Go on without me, Elora. I've only caused you grief since you meet me."
"No! You made up for that! We're friends now!"
The girl notices the dragon smile slightly before the look vanishes and the dragon goes limp. The girl crises his name again, tears streaming down her cheeks. The dragon vanishes slowly and the girl curls up into a ball, crying hard. A white crystal in her hair glows softly and the girl falls asleep.
End Dream Sequence
Dream Sequence
A girl looks around her in the darkness. She sees nothing until she hears a giggle and turns around. She still sees nothing and runs off towards the voice, running over dead leaves and bones of various animals. After a while the giggle vanishes and the girl stops, looking confused.
"Follow me, Elora." The wind seems to whisper to the five year old.
The girl turns and runs off, knowing her way around expertly. She enters a building, goes down some stairs and enters this vast looking room. She runs down some more stairs and stops at some pillars. She looks across the gap and sees a young girl sitting on her knees on a pedestal. The girl jumps across the pillars and steps up onto the pedestal. She gets down beside the other girl and takes her hands within her own.
"Aeris. What are you praying about?" The girl asks.
The other girl opens emerald green eyes and smiles.
"For everyone on this planet to stay safe, especially the little ones. Like you." She responds, ruffling the other girl's hair.
She giggles and smiles happily.
"Do you think it will come true?"
The older girl nods.
"I know it will. Come on, Elora. Let's take you back."
"But Aeris, I want to pray with you!"
The 13-year-old Aeris smiles slightly and closes her eyes. Elora's eyes turn a bright gold as she smiles happily. She closes her eyes and Aeris opens one eye to look at her. The five year old had no worries in her life and Aeris planned to keep it that way. She closes her eye again and both girl kneel and pray for 10 minutes. After the time is up, Aeris takes her hands out of Elora's, causing the girl to open her eyes. Aeris smiles and reaches back to her braid. She messes with the ribbon and finally brings her hand out in front of her and opens it.
"Oh wow! What is that?!"
"It's called a materia. And I want you to have it."
Elora takes the white crystal from Aeris' hand and turns it over in her own hands. The crystal catches the light coming from the ceiling and glows.
"Pretty. But why do you want me to have it?"
"I feel you're destined to have it."
Elora smiles, then reaches back and messes with the ribbon in her own hair. She finally gets the crystal to stay, then throws her arms around Aeris' neck, hugging her. Aeris hugs back and the two walk off.
End Dream Sequence
Elora doesn't wake up until night has fallen. When she does, she instantly notices she's in an unfamiliar embrace. Strong and very protective, yet feminine also. She opens her eyes and looks up from under the hood of her cloak. She sees Tifa holding her. The older girl hasn't noticed she's awake yet, but Elora gets the distinct feeling she should. So she reaches out with a hand and pokes Tifa. The girl jumps and drops her, but Elora had figured that would happen and maneuvers so she lands on her feet. She stands up and smiles.
"Don't do that!"
"Need to be listening so you'll know when I'm awake."
Tifa smiles and Elora returns it, reaching up and pulling back her hood. She looks around and cringes inwardly, seeing Cloud. He however isn't glaring at her like he usually is. Elora looks around and waves to each one of the group individually, though she hugs Yuffie, Tifa, and Red13. At the end, she turns to Cloud with her head bowed.
"Cloud." She starts.
"Don't. I know what you're going to say, so don't. Because it's my fault."
The entire group, including Elora, looks shocked. Cloud admitting when he was wrong? That was a first.
"No. It was mine. I should have understood your feelings instead of running off."
"You had your reasons, beside I shouldn't have accused you. Let's drop it and start over."
Elora smiles happily and nods. Cloud smiles slightly and Elora looks even more happier, now that she's got him to smile, if only a little bit. The crystal in her bracelet glows softly in response and Elora looks around.
"Anybody seen Silent or Pink yet?"
Everybody shakes his or her head no and Elora looks depressed. A few hours pass and the group keeps traveling, Elora near the back with Cait Sith and Red13. As they walk, Red's ears perk and he looks up.
"Hold on. I hear something."
Elora listens closely and tilts her head. After a few minutes, two arguing voices can be heard. Elora smiles brightly and runs towards the voices.
"Silent! Pink!"
Five minutes pass and Elora comes back, with a panther and wolf in tow. All three look really happy and are chatting amongst themselves. Tifa smiles slightly, happy to see Elora with her friends again. The group continues on and the three chat, getting Red, Yuffie, and Tifa into it. They finally reach this huge room and everyone looks around. Nothing seems out of the ordinary, but Elora feels uneasy. Silent and Pink get close to her, growling. Nothing happens for a long time and everything seems fine, until Tifa gives a cry of surprise as Cloud goes flying. A fight soon starts between this hideous creature and the group. Elora gets ordered to stay back by Cloud and she listens, staying close to the wall. The battle isn't going that well. Almost everyone is down and the creature is advancing on Elora. Silent and Pink try to stop it, but they too go down. A red orb in Elora's staff glows brightly and she gets engulfed in it. She tries again to call the Phoenix and succeeds, but something goes wrong. As Elora puts her power into doing the summon, she suddenly feels cold. The orb's glow turns black but the summon still happen. The Phoenix appears and destroys the monster, and revives everyone who's unconscious. But it stays instead of disappearing again. Elora walks over to it slowly and notices its orange color has turned black, giving it a dark fire color of black and red. The bird turns to look at her and she recoils back, hating the look in its eyes. It screeches loudly and vanishes. Right after it does, a black beam of light comes from the ceiling and engulfs Elora in it. She gets lifted up and floats on her back. Nothing seems to happen for a while, but when Elora starts to think nothing is going to happen she suddenly lets out a piercing scream as she feels like her entire body is being ripped apart, slowly and very painfully. The pain then goes to her chest and she feels like she can't breathe. She gasps loudly as she struggles to draw a breath, but doesn't succeed and begins to feel light headed. She weakly opens her eyes as a new shout of concern reaches her and she sees the two people she abandoned further down in the caves. A small smile crosses her lips as she sees them alive, but then she screams again. The white crystal glows softly, but is rapidly put out by the black light and Elora screams even louder, feeling like her heart is being ripped out, and then crushed. Then she feels like she can't breathe again and finally goes limp, unable to draw a decent breath to get enough oxygen into her. Her crystal strengthens in glow, but is again put out by the light. She remembers and knows nothing of what happened, but in her dreams she is seen and told.
Dream Sequence
"You are a very lucky girl Elora." A soft female voice says.
"Huh?"
A woman dressed in white appears in front of her and smiles.
"You are very lucky."
"Why?"
"You have so many people who care about you. Otherwise you'd be dead right now."
"What do you mean?"
The woman gestures and a window appears. Elora looks through it and finds it's showing the scene in the cave, right from when she went unconscious. The black light suddenly goes even darker and bloody marks start appearing all over Elora's body. Then a spear is seen hovering over Elora. It moves closer to her, but right before it pierces her heart, it gets stopped. But Elora still feels its heat and puts a hand over her heart as she watches.
"What stopped it from killing me?" She asks softly.
"The one who cares more about you then anyone else."
Elora watches, confused. The window shows a lone figure standing only feet from the swirling blackness. Elora gasps as she recognizes the figure. It's Kriel! Kriel faced the darkness knowing who was in there only because his heart told him. An aura surrounded him at the moment seeing the spear fall towards her. A bright light flashed all around it tinged with red. An orb of white and red swirls hovers in front of Kriel, as he is floating off the ground. The light gets brighter and blocks any view of him. The light disappears and reveals an Angel like being. The wings out stretched about 20 feet in span and dual flaming scimitars appear at his sides. His wing gives off a low glow of white and his chest shows an orb of materia that is red with white swirls in it. His skin is of the high elven race, being fair and pale. His hand reaches within the darkness parting the black area and grabs the spear inches from her chest.
"You will not hurt my love," He says as he throws the spear back up.
Elora's eyes turn red as she watches all of this.
"What kind of materia does he have?" She asks the woman beside her.
"Its called Eden and it reacts strongly when Meteor and Holy are around."
Elora looks down at her bracelet and then back up at the window as the light vanishes and Kriel holds Elora close in his arms, crying.
"I can't go back. Not yet." Elora says quietly.
She stands up and runs off. The woman follows closely behind and finally grabs onto her, stopping her.
"What's wrong Elora?"
"I want to see Aeris again."
"All's you had to do was ask." A familiar voice says.
Elora turns around as Aeris appears. Elora's eyes light up and turn gold as she runs over to the older girl and hugs her. Aeris smiles and returns it.
"What was so important that you had to see me while your boyfriend is worried about you?"
Elora blushes and glares up at Aeris in mock angrier.
"He's not my boyfriend. And I want to know the real reason you gave me Holy."
"I told you. I think you're destined to have it."
"There's more to it. There has to be."
Aeris looks over at the woman who does nothing to help her. Aeris smiles and gets down on her knees beside Elora.
"Want to know the real reason? It's because I thought you could bring out the real powers of Holy. You were only four when I gave it to you, but I knew that you were special and look at you now. Friends with a bunch of mercenaries that are together for different reasons, and a wolf and a panther who wouldn't go near you until you proved yourself to them."
Elora blushes slightly again and Aeris takes her hand. She moves her hand up so Elora can see the Holy materia. Elora tilts her head slightly.
"Protect this, like you would protect your friends."
Elora smiles and nods. Aeris smiles also and stands up.
"Now go back to your friends. I'll see you again."
Aeris and the woman vanish. Elora looks at the crystal and smiles as it glows. She closes her eyes and vanishes from her dreams. She slowly opens her eyes five minutes later and notices Kriel still holding her close and crying. She smiles slightly and brings her arm up. She wipes away a few of his tears and he looks at her in surprise.
"I'm alive. No need to worry anymore." She says softly.
She hasn't completely recovered from that pillar and is breathing a little hard still. Kriel hugs her tightly and Elora smiles slightly.
"You were so pale when I freed you, I thought that."
"I know, but I'm alive. Now let me get some rest."
He smiles and stands up, picking Elora up as he does so. The young girl ends up falling asleep, resting her head on his chest, listening to his heart beat.