"En Requiem Pas"
Jenova says he's a puppet, without emotions or feelings. He says She's wrong, because nothing has ever hurt like this. Nibelheim hurt. Tifa hurt, both then and now, but the now-hurt is different. Aeris hurts like being kicked in the stomach, with all the air stolen from his lungs.
Aeris hurts like a gaping hole in his chest.
He trudges along behind Tifa, who's crying quietly, trying to muffle her sobs with her hand. He looks down at his own hands, and notices he's holding Aeris' ribbon. It came loose when He stabbed her, the ribbon and something else fell. He frowns for a moment, wondering if the something else was important.
Ahead of him, Tifa stumbles on a rock and nearly falls. She stops walking and covers her face, shoulders shaking. He crosses the space between them, then hesitates, standing close enough to touch. He cautiously puts one arm around her shoulders and half-hugs her. She turns towards him and buries her face in his shoulder, throwing her arms around his neck. Red, who'd continued walking, finally stops and looks back. He holds up a hand, signaling to Red to wait a minute. After a few moments, he steps back from Tifa and looks at her face.
"You gonna be okay getting back?" he asks, although he doesn't really know where they're getting back to. The house in this city, Midgar, Nibelheim, eight days ago--
She nods and coughs into her hand, then drags her glove across her eyes. There was some blood left on the cloth, and it leaves a red streak under her eye. He can't tell if it's Aeris' or Jenova's, and he feels sick. He brings his hand up to her face and wipes the blood off. Tifa blinks at him, then shakes her head and turns away, continuing down the path. He falls in step behind her, watching to make sure she doesn't fall.
Red beats them to the house and curls up in the corner, staring into the shadows. He wonders if Red can cry.
He wonders why he hasn't.
Tifa climbs up the ladder to the bedroom, and he can picture her curled up on the bed, trying not to cry again. Part of him says he should go up there too, try to comfort her. And he will, later. But he needs to be alone with his hurt right now.
"I'll be back," he says to Red, who glances in his direction and nods once. He turns and walks back out the door, into the moonlit night. He's still holding her ribbon. At some point, he wrapped it around his hand-- probably while they were walking. He doesn't really remember most of the walk back. A cool breeze hits him, and he realizes he's freezing cold. His clothes are still wet from the pool. The ribbon is dry, though.
He can't figure out why he's so fixated on it.
'Maybe it's because it's all you have left of her,' one of his voices says softly, sadly. He looks down from the moon to the seashell path with a sigh. A pink ribbon is all that remains to represent twenty-two years of life, of gardening and laughing and crying and loving. There's something wrong with that, but he can't explain why. He slowly unwraps the ribbon from his hand, studying it. He should take it back to Midgar, for Elmyra. He should keep it for himself.
Cloud kneels beside a tall, silvery-pink coral plant, one he thinks Aeris would have liked. He carefully ties the ribbon around one of the branches, making the City itself a testament to her life. He still thinks it's too small, but it's the best he can do.
Slowly, he stands and walks back towards the house.