Disclaimer: I dun own anything that belongs to Square… ie; characters, settings, etc…
A/N: Oh my friggin' god! I took me FOREVER to actually write this. And what's really sad is that I'm not too pleased with it. I'm rushing right now to post it… I never want to see it again! ARGH!
I started this weeks upon weeks ago… but didn't get around to an actual point until lately. I was gonna have a few more chapters before this one came, but too late now! AHAHAHA!
Thank you reviewers! Haha. Yeah… HAPPY READING!
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Wicked Savior
Chapter 3: Voice of a New Perspective
Days had passed uneventfully and Aeris felt sanity slipping though her fingers. The Planet had gone quiet as usual, but occasionally gave out a long, laborious whine that echoed continuously through the chambers of the Cetra's head. It filled the silence of the cold, crisp air and Aeris swore if anything else were around, it would hear it too.
The scenery had changed little since Aeris had experienced her last nightmare. The snow was thick and solid, most of it hardened to a slick, icy trap. There had been little snowfall, but the evening winds were relentless and drove the lighter layers of snow horizontally over the barren landscape. East had never seemed farther to reach, as it stretched on forever with little more than a protruding mound of snow or dying trees here and there.
It was evident that the Planet was suffering some serious side effects of its near-death experience. Naturally the snow wouldn't have fallen so heavily this far south on the continent, despite it being within the midst of winter. But the climate wasn't the only unstable elements. The Planet was deeply shaken and it spared no mercy when letting Aeris hear all about it. It constantly complained about its unbalance and sudden vulnerability. Sometimes is would resolve itself, other times it would expect Aeris, even within her current situation, to fix the problem for it. The Cetra girl assumed this was indeed the duty of herself as being an Ancient and protector of the Planet, but for all sakes, there was only one of her!
This stirred Aeris's curiosity more so now than ever, thankfully distracting her from the turmoil she had endured and traversed through. Was she the last Cetra? The thought still seemed so improbable. Surely a race couldn't be wiped out with no forewarning or even a struggle of the Planet itself. At least there was no argument that she had heard of. If only her mother, her true mother, had been here. Even now the thought of those neglected, silent moments her mother and her shared when she was an infant twisted her stomach in regret. So many questions spun in her head with so many imaginable answers. Even contact with the Planet was of no use, its replies being too vague upon such a subject.
The Planet had seemed especially concerned over Lifestream matters. The flow had been manipulated so drastically that the original course had yet to have been stabilized for the Lifestream's return to under the planet. New paths and outlets had made their way in between various crevices of the earth and rock far below the surface. The main body of flow had altered and swung to the east, setting a new face and direction for the Lifestream to follow. Nobody of pure human lineage could see or even detect the difference, but Aeris felt it as if her whole course of blood had reversed itself.
The wind blew violently out of nowhere, and like an erupting sneeze, it stopped almost as soon as it had started. Aeris shielded her eyes and numb face, almost wishing she could feel the pain. It had been so long since she had felt any body part in full function or cooperation with her desires.
The Planet sang from outside Aeris's mind, caught in the sudden gust. It flew from the Cetra and a sudden panic stole the air from her lungs as the voices hummed away in the tangle of flourishing snow and wind. Her head only had to be absent of the Planet's moans for a fraction of a moment before Aeris was off in a flash, tearing after the thieving wind. It stole the voices, her guidance, and she'd be as good as dead if she was going to loose her purpose for being here just because she was a bit cold and lazy.
The girl ran faster than she had ever known she could. The adrenaline throbbed in her veins, pumping her legs to extents they had never before possessed. Her feet skipped over the snow like a gauntlet of missiles, directing her to a target that she could only instinctually guess its whereabouts. The shredded brown boots she wore came flying off her heated heels without her notice or care, gliding into the swirled wind of her wake. She heard the whistling protests of the once-still atmosphere around her as she broke its calm slumber. It filtered throughout her head only for a moment before it as well became too slow to keep up with her frightening speed.
Her dress fluttered and whipped as Aeris dove, trampled, and jumped after the escaping wind. She no longer heard the Planet's delighted hum, but its presence still lingered on the edge of her consciousness. Her feet continued their onslaught upon the ground below them in a desperate struggle to at least keep the sensation of the Planet with the Cetra. She closed her eyes in agony as her lungs filled and released at too steep a pace and her heart pushed through the spaces between her ribs.
She let out one last bitter cry when she was knocked full-force from another gust behind her. Her body stiffened in fright, then total relief as she heard the Planet strangled within this wind as well. But it left just as the first one had, taking the Planet's joy-filled singing along with it. However, Aeris stayed put, for she felt her eyes deceiving her. The snow still lay gaping behind her, but a mountain of twisted monuments soared overhead and before her: Shell Village, the forgotten city.
Aeris was immediately hit by a wave of terror. She had hoped to never see this dreaded place in her life, or even afterlife, ever again. Though she couldn't feel it, she knew her knees had buckled and given out because she was suddenly aware of her legs and dress becoming drenched in the slushy snow she was half sitting in. The city towered before her like an ominous threat, daring her to even acknowledge it presence. It was here that she had come so close to finishing her purpose; it was here that that dream was brutally stolen away from her.
Aeris's own voices and conscious shrieked at her to turn back and run until she forgot about this place, the memories, and even herself. Her hands trembled and she pressed blue fingers to her slightly gaping mouth. She felt tear brimming her eyes, but the weather and her own resolution restrained them from falling. It wasn't as though she didn't know this is where she would eventually end up and this is where the Planet had knowingly led her. But Aeris had been deceiving herself the whole way here, blinding her thoughts to what was inevitably to come. The arrival was unexpected and shook the Cetra's soul with the very fear she had forced herself not to accept when her fate had been sealed not so long ago.
The wind rustled Aeris's matted brown hair. It came in soft breezes and the Planet was accompanying it. The childish glee had left its tone, replaced by the nurturing coos of a bird preparing its chick for first flight.
"Get up," it whispered, pushing her from behind with stale air. "Go, go. It awaits…"
Aeris did not hear the words as she stared blankly at the scene of remorse before her. The wind and wet snow chilled her exposed feet and she curled them below her as she rose from the ground. Her emerald eyes tore themselves from the city's foreboding entrance to the dress and light fur pelt wrapped around her small shoulders. Droplets of snow had melted to water as the city generated its own mysterious heat and breathed it onto the bordering land in which Aeris now stood. A path etched its way into the gaping maw of knotted shells, each one a titan in proportion from days of prehistoric goliaths.
The Planet's voice whistled down the canals of the framing monuments before coming back to Aeris with the next gust. It continued its calls of encouragement, more eager than it should have ever been to be within this area of the world. Aeris tentatively followed the voices with such a shaking breath that her chest grew painful from the tightness and heaving. It wasn't supposed to be like this. She wasn't supposed to be frightened. She was supposed to be firm and resolute with her decision and goals to obtain the Planet's approval and the safety of her friends. What difference could she possibly make if she couldn't even face up to the ground she was walking on? What opposition could she propose if she couldn't even grasp her own voice back? If the Planet was being so careless, surely her feet would be guided with absolute precision and clarity, despite the fact that this had been the exact same situation the previous time.
As Aeris stepped within reach of the rough walls, the city exhaled its lukewarm breath onto her in dire welcoming. She shivered when the heat penetrated her icy flesh and she reveled in momentary relief. Her lungs could breath easier and drank the moist oxygen like a heavenly gift. The air was tinged with minerals and ancient salts, bathing itself within vacant domes once dependent upon the ocean's depths. The city sat beached, manipulated, lived in by the Planet's people, and now forgotten just as was the continent it was abandoned on.
The interior rang with familiarity and it seemed only yesterday that Aeris had so carelessly walked this path before. Luminescent lights radiated from deep corners in the spiraling tunnels formed by the shells themselves, their origin enigmatically out of sight. The light was cast just enough to see the hardening walkway that the Cetra's bare feet strode. Wet soil littered the ground and stuck to her heels. Every so often a creature would scurry or debris would clatter to the stone ground somewhere in the distance. It echoed hauntingly and clear in the hollow corridors.
The Planet had come back finally and was fully in Aeris's possession. The voices turned low and inhuman, pulsing and groaning like an off key cello. It caused the glow of the dead city to fluctuate in desperate revival. The flickering brightness hummed in response to the Planet's calls and Aeris's presence. Their cool greens and blues became stronger with each hesitant step the Cetra took. Whenever she passed a source of light, it glimmered for a matter of seconds before dying out completely and reappearing some feet ahead of her again.
Aeris hesitated and rubbed her palms to her shoulders, though she wasn't cold anymore. Her green eyes shifted and jumped like a rabbit that can only sense danger's presence. She looked behind her and even though knowing the entrance was not far back, there was only thick darkness that left her questioning every decision to come here. The ground before her became brighter the longer she paused, small glowing particles beginning to seep up from the cracks in the ancient tiling. Bits of star-lit dust flew into the air as she turned and continued her way.
The dank hallways became cooler the deeper they drove into the city. Aeris was thankful for the release from such humidity, but the fresh air was cold and as dead as the city itself. She could easily smell the minerals floating throughout the air and it wasn't long before she was able to scent the water too. It wasn't the smell of rainwater and dirt, or the saltiness of the sea, but the oppressing fragrance of something steeper altogether. It was the water of the earth, the water from the deepest, purest pools under the surface of the planet.
Aeris shivered involuntarily, the smell of the holy liquid being too harsh a memory to bear. The glowing lights quivered with the girl, but spread wider as her fear grew. The Planet, too, raised its own voice in reassurance, chiming from outside her body and down the pathways.
The ceiling was high and dripped ancient stones and shells into compiled stalactites that nearly touched the floor. Similarly, stalagmites shot from the ground, beginning to form the familiar, spiral columns that lined several of the rooms Aeris had passed through. As the air became fresher, more and more evidence of water showed throughout the caverns. In one of the larger rooms Aeris had traversed through, five pools were naturally carved into the bone-like walls, a stream constantly moving water from one pond to another then out through a small hole in the wall. Water fell freely from the ceiling and splattered onto the tiling below. The floor was hard and shaped by centuries of this movement of water.
The dirt stole itself away from Aeris's blackened feet and down a thin river in which she now stood. The corridor was large and domed, the walls pushing outward and into small holes and crevices. The Planet sang a new song and Aeris felt unnerved by the voices in it she did not recognize. She found it odd that within thousands of voices and thousands more of tones, she could so easily pick up on the ones she was not usually in the company of. They were soft and sounded almost female, though the Cetra was almost certain they were actually male. They hummed separately and as individuals, making it obvious that they sought Aeris's attention over the others. Even the florescent lights throbbed to their tune, heightening themselves until the room was fully illuminated in dull greens, blues, and some yellows.
Then it was gone.
Aeris was left in the coldness and dark, swallowed by the gaping maw of loneliness she so feared. She mewed slightly out of surprise, but was granted no response. Silence filled the room and Aeris felt panic rise in her throat in the form of bile. She crumpled to the ground and was sick in the blackness. When her chest stopped heaving and the dry coughs calmed, she sat back and stared wide-eyed into the darkness where a single light flickered weakly.
The dripping water sounded too loudly in Aeris's ears and she stumbled over herself in a rush to leave the room and grip onto that single glowing light that teased her from so far away. She tried not to listen as the bareness of her feet slapped against the wet stone and rang all too clearly in the deafening silence.
The Cetra soon enough found herself in yet another room, this one fortunately not as quiet as the other one. A single orb of light danced on the other end of the stretch of stone. The unrecognizable voices chanted distantly by the light, beckoning to her while being all at once utterly soothing. Aeris melted into the room, unmindful of the deep pools she sloshed through to get to the fluttering light.
Her mind began to register itself and reason with the sudden hysteria it just went through. Indeed there was a phobia waiting under the Planet's voices, ever patient until the day she was left alone. It scared her senseless to just imagine being submerged in that smothering silence again. She was taking too easily to these new voices for comfort and that scared her too. They sounded of the Planet, they spoke like the Planet, but she was suspiciously aware of something that separated them from the voices still lost to her. But she had been and still was too edgy to question the offering of solace right now.
Aeris reached the other end of the pool and tried to control her shaking hands by ringing out the bottom of her tattered dress. Her breath hitched several times before she final let some of the tears she had been holding back fall free. Only three fell as she sat herself under the light, her eyes staring distantly into the next doorway. The voices above her came down and rested behind her, whispering untold secrets into her unhearing ears. Aeris knew it was no use trying to understand the exact meaning of the Cetra language, but rather just let it flow through her and let the translation come through internal intellect. These voices, however, found no meaning in her. She absently turned her attention to them and found nothing recognizable in their words at all. It was gibberish, though Aeris found herself denying it if it meant having them continue their calming tone.
The emerald light above Aeris hovered impatiently back and forth. Its glow pulsated and swung closer and closer to the doorway, which was farther and farther from Aeris. She stood lethargically and reluctantly followed the light into the next room, first making sure the mysterious voices trailed along. When she could sense their presence behind her, her step became slightly easier.
That was all shattered when she reached the next room.
Every moment of Aeris's life came tumbling back at her like a brick wall. She stood dumbfounded in the very cavern her body was laid to rest by Cloud's arms, though she had no idea of these events that had taken place posterior to her death. But the foreboding conscious she hardly paid mind to was compensating through her instincts to flee, cry, or just give up now.
The towering walls loomed direly at the peak of spinal columns within the very interior of a prehistoric shell itself. The foundation bore into the stiff soil and moss along with other various growths synthesized the rock of the earth and the smooth, pale shell walls into one. Arched passageways lined the back of the room, smothered light barely leaking in from another area Aeris was too raw at soul to bring herself to recall. In the center of the room the ground dipped and formed a small lake of placid, unmoving water. The glass-like surface glinted off several lighted orbs that fluttered dangerously close to the water, teasing the untainted substance with slight wisps of wind that rippled the liquid's perfection.
The cavern was lit only by the escaping blue phosphorescence from the rooms further down other halls and the few glowing dust particles that eventually dwindled away to nothing. Aeris stood in solid stillness, afraid to break her own trance as well as that of the natural phenomenon before her. But some part of it didn't seem natural. If she had not walked here, if she had not disturbed this sacred place, no lighted path would be needed, no disturbance within the pools would have occurred, and the mysterious voices of unknown Ancients would not have risen from their sleep. Something unnatural, or all too natural, was pulling Aeris to this place, this one spot.
The cavern dimmed drastically when the last of the orbs extinguished itself on the shore of the lake. Only the dull glow from the archways illuminated the large pool and little beyond. However, Aeris felt no fear this time, for the familiar voices of the Planet sang to her from across the way. She could distantly detect the other voices, but they whispered in hushed tones to the rocks or the earth. Whichever it was Aeris knew that her attention was meant to be focused only on the song she could understand.
The Planet called and the Cetra was stung deeply by its sense of desperation and pain. The beckoning stifled her soul and being, tearing her apart for reasons she had yet to fathom. Her eyes brimmed with tears of both confusion and sympathy for a physical being that she could neither touch nor see, but only listen to.
It took Aeris a moment to gather herself and move her feet forward. The archaic stone tiles were broken and merged with soft sand that welcomed the flesh of the Cetra's feet in an unusually warm embrace. It was deep and smooth and proved about as difficult to walk through as the snow Aeris was accustomed to. She let it filter through her toes as she listened intently to the voices, which hovered somewhere at the center of the lake.
Aeris was becoming hesitant as some untouchable memory deep in her mind was being plucked irritably. She paused and glanced behind her, startled to see her footprints so clear in the sand, a florescent glow shimmering weakly in the grains that had been stepped upon.
"Ahhhh… look. Witness our pain; witness your agony…" The Planet moaned formidably, suddenly upset at Aeris's cautious falter.
The girl swallowed hard to keep down another forming lump in her throat. She took a last shaking breath before stepping to the edge of the holy lake. Her wide eyes curiously roamed the water's unbroken surface, amazed by its clarity and crystal texture. She felt she could walk across the water as if it were made of glass. Not long ago these waters had been shattered from their peacefulness; her body being the waking ripple.
The back of Aeris's mind screamed for her to run, but she was drawn deeper by the Planet's soothing chants and a glow at the bottom of the lake.
She squinted, leaning forward to see more clearly through the light's fogginess cast into the marine pool. There! A movement in the far depths of the water. Aeris gasped in disbelief. There, moving like a tunneling river through the very heart of this holy city, was the Lifestream.
The brilliant greens flashed in a flowing harmony, moving the stream onward and back in the earth itself. Its direction was backward, flowing against the planet's pull of gravity. Something still required the attention of the stream, so the underground river had torn itself from course by cause of a summoning. Perhaps it was still the effects of Holy. But meteor had hit weeks ago… the earth should be making some effort to arrange and coordinate itself. But something still upset the stream; still summoned its presence.
Aeris watched in mounting worry as the Lifestream throbbed with an aura that pushed the holy water around it away. She felt the Planet moaning somewhere above her, it voices vibrating in her chest. What was the Lifestream doing here? Why was it so close to the surface? Was this the result of meteor? Would it ever go back to normal?
Aeris felt herself questioning the Planet, confusion flooding her demeanor and intentions to find whatever it was she was here to obtain. Was this it? Okay, so something was disturbing the Lifestream. So what was she suppose to do about it? It wasn't like she could solve the problem with a snap of her fingers as she had tried to do so many times before in her real life. She reached out timidly and grazed the water's surface, surprised by its freezing temperature. How odd. All the other pools Aeris had struggled through had been room temperature, if not warm.
"This land is dying," the Planet spoke mournfully. The Cetra girl could have guessed that herself by judging this place since the last time she had been here.
"What do you want me to do about it?" Aeris breathed into the cool air.
"There is unbalance in this earth, in this planet. The Lifestream seeks to protect against that which damages the planet, but there is confusion." The Planet trailed off and the hushed male voices from before could be felt upon Aeris's neck. She felt the hairs on her nape rise on end.
"Meteor destroys in more than one way…" they groaned simultaneously.
"I don't understand." Aeris sat back on her heels and covered her face with her hands.
"The Lifestream is confused and you, child, must show it the way. You will find help, but it is you who must expurgate," the Planet spoke and drowned the other voices. "Feel the strength left of what is holy in this land."
Aeris put her hand out into the water again, drawing it back swiftly from the intense cold. What was happening?
The Lifestream seeks to protect against that which damages the planet, but there is confusion.
Aeris's eyes widened slightly when the pieces began to put themselves together. She looked again to the churning stream traveling hurriedly through the lake. The Lifestream was drawing the heat and energy from the very source it channeled through. The land here was dying because the Lifestream was currently coursing itself through it. It was unknowingly destroying the very earth.
The Lifestream was destroying itself.
"Oh gods," Aeris felt she would be sick again. The Planet surrounded her in its warm presence.
"You will be not alone. There is hope…"
Aeris's thoughts automatically turned to Cloud and the others. Perhaps the Planet was right. If she could just find them in enough time, surly they could work together to find some solution. The Cetra began to feel relieved. She would head back to Midgar, determined to find Cloud and solve this dilemma once and for all. She had been looking forward to seeing him again at least once in her second life. Aeris stood to leave.
As if reading her thoughts, the Planet shot her several waves of negative energy and reluctantly stopped her with a stern "No."
Aeris felt herself stiffen. If not him then what?
"You need not travel anymore to find hope. It is here," the Planet said and directed her attention to a far off shore in a shadowed corner of the cavern. Aeris's breath quickened as she noticed a form that she had paid no heed to before. Curiously enough, she approached the crumpled figure without regard of who or what it was. Not five steps away, Aeris finally recognized the form and felt herself about to faint.
There, in a strewn heap of sand and blood, was the source of her own demise and the very threat to the Planet itself. There, unconscious and closer to death than one should ever be, was Jenova's son and the summoner of Meteor. Here, at Aeris's feet, was Sephiroth.
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A/N: So there you have it folks. Hope it was okay! Leave me any comments or suggestions… whatever! Just leave something!
