Chapter 6

"Well, here it goes."

Cloud was on the new airship that Cid had built, the Sierra. He had called Cid and asked him to take him to Midgar to where the kids had been taken by their 'masters.' Cid had picked up a few people along the way; namely Yuffie and Barret. The Avalanche founder had found an oil field near Corel, and was depending on Tifa to take care of Marlene while he worked. The lovable chain-smoker had yet to pick up Red XIII and Cait Sith. Why those two were working in Cosmo Canyon together he had no idea.

At the moment Cloud was alone in one of the three bedrooms that were located on the left wing of the Sierra. Though he hated to admit it, the geostigma attack and fight earlier had completely worn him out. There was still three hours until they reached Midgar, and Vincent had promised him that he'd pass on what he knew about the upcoming threat to the others. He figured he might as well get some shut-eye to refresh him. And perhaps he could try and tackle another problem too.

Vincent had told him he dreamt bad dreams of Aeris because he thought about her death too much. That maybe, if he thought good things about her, he'd dream good dreams too. Cloud wanted to try taking this one step further. Could he actually talk to her if he tried?

He sat cross-legged on the bed in the room (nailed down of course) leaning his head against the wooden backboard. He imagined Aeris, every feature that he could remember, which was everything. He imagined the different poses and gestures she would do; the way she would move, talk, laugh… or get angry…

"What about us…… what are WE supposed to do? What about my pain? My fingers are tingling. My mouth is dry. My eyes are burning!"

"Stop it Cloud," he whispered to himself. "The good things…"

He found himself living every moment with her, flicking through image after image like a photo album. He soon felt like he was being sucked through a portal, and then he just dropped, for want of a better word, into memory. He was standing in a clothes shop, looking at two people. One, which unfortunately was him, trying on a dress, and the other was her.

"How…do you put this on?"

Aeris' head poked through the curtain.

"Whoa! What are you doing!"

Cloud laughed at himself. He remembered how he looked at that moment; panicked and embarrassed that a girl he barely knew was seeing him half-naked.

Cloud's eyes narrowed in confusion as his surroundings blacked out but soon came back into focus. He was in the same place but he realised it was a different time. He had gotten the wig and had changed. Everyone was staring at him. But he looked quite good actually. No wonder Don Corneo mistook him for a girl…

"Walk more nicely like…" Aeris walked around a bit, putting one foot in front of the other. "…this Miss Cloud," she said slyly.

"What do you mean 'nicely'?" Cloud asked, dropping his hands in exasperation and shaking his head before complying with her request and walking 'nicely' over to her.

"Oh you're so cute Miss Cloud," she laughed. "Aaah I want one," she said, turning to the shopkeeper. "Do you have one that'll look good on me too?"

"How's this?" the daughter of the shopkeeper asked, showing her a dress.

"How about that one?" The shopkeeper pointed out a different dress.

"Father what are you…"

Cloud knew where this was going. She would pick out the slinky red dress. Cloud had never admitted it but he thought she was the most beautiful thing he'd ever seen in his life the moment she stepped out of the changing room with that dress on. What he'd wanted to do when he saw her like that…

"I'm going to change," Aeris said. She walked to the curtain and paused before turning back to look at them one at a time, staring at Cloud last and longest.

Cloud noted something he'd never seen before; the slight blush that came to her cheeks as she looked at his 'woman self.'

"……No peeking!"

Cloud didn't get the time to see her once again in that beautiful number because he felt himself fall through the floor of the shop and landed on… a giant moogle?

He looked at the other two sitting figures.

"Oh, this time…" he murmured to himself. Probably the longest time that they had ever spent alone together. It was the closest he'd ever really been with her, besides the date…

"What rank were you?" she asked. Cloud looked at her in momentary confusion.

"Rank?"

"You know, in SOLDIER."

"Oh, I was… First Class." Aeris bowed her head at the mention of his rank.

"Just the same as him."

Cloud bowed his own head. Not the same. He had taken Zack's life from him and merged it with his own fragmented memories. He had never gotten to First Class. He had never gotten into SOLDIER for that matter. All Aeris had seen was his "Zack" persona.

"Don't beat yourself up about it. You didn't know."

Cloud's head snapped back upwards to seeing the two figures still conversing quietly. He didn't remember her ever saying that. Was he so messed up in the head then that he forgot his own memories of her?

He looked at her again, just wondering if she ever saw him, and not her former boyfriend. Was her own attraction just based on that old spark she'd felt for that man, his friend?

He was suddenly catapulted back to Elmyra's house, where the two of them were talking in the kitchen.

"Is Tifa…..a girl?" she said, crossing her arms behind her back.

Cloud nodded. "Yeah."

Aeris leant forward, a trait Cloud had always noticed about her. She always did it to see under his blonde bangs into his eyes.

"A girl….friend?" she asked timidly.

"Girlfriend?" Cloud echoed. He shook his head madly. "No way!"

"Hee hee hee…." Aeris laughed, raising her hands to her face to cover her mouth. Cloud smiled at the way her hair bobbed up and down with each laugh. "You don't have to get THAT upset…"

"Well, that's…nice," she said, taking a step towards Cloud.

Cloud remembered that step. It was something so small, hardly what you would call noticeable, yet it had meant everything to him.

"And to me…"

The blonde warrior looked around. That voice again.

The scenery once again changed. He was in a room with a hard black floor and grey walls. The door was electronic, with a long red light across the top. It didn't take long to figure out that this was a cell the Shinra building. He saw a red and pink clad woman sit up on her bed and look at the side wall.

"Cloud, are you there?" she asked.

Cloud sat down and leant his back against the wall, watching the scene unfold in front of his eyes like he'd played it before in his head hundreds of times before.

"Aeris! You safe?" He heard his muffled voice coming from the other cell.

"Yeah, I'm alright." she replied reassuringly. She threw her legs over the side of the bed, swinging them back and forth subconsciously. She looked at the wall opposite her, exactly where Cloud was sitting. It looked like she was staring straight at him. A face lit up with a secret smile.

"I knew that Cloud would come for me."

"Hey, I'm your bodyguard, right?" he replied.

Aeris hopped off the bed and walked to the door.

"The deal was for one date, right?" she whisper-laughed.

"…….oh, I get it," a female voice came from the room. Aeris shook her head and reeled back in surprise.

Cloud sniggered. He had known she was surprised but he'd never expected such a reaction out of her. He stopped suddenly, realising something.

"…? Tifa!" she exclaimed. "Tifa, you're there too!"

Cloud was in the other room. If this was his memory, than he should have been looking at Tifa right now.

"EXCUSE me."

The blonde warrior stood up, for something had clicked in his brain.

"I get it now," he said. "These aren't my memories, they're yours."

It was with those words that white light erupted from the ground, so bright that Cloud had to cover his eyes. It originated at the corners of the room and travelled inward, quickly enveloping him. The next thing he knew he was in a field of flowers, as far as the eye could see until it met with the blinding white sky above him. It felt like the same flower-bed from the dream he had several nights ago, but he knew it wasn't. Even so, the budding blooms were just as beautiful, bursting with fantastic colours. It took Cloud's mako eyes several seconds to take in everything he'd seen, before the corner of his eye caught a brief image; brown with a flash of pink…

Cloud gasped slightly. He couldn't utter a single word. This wasn't a memory. Had he really fallen asleep? His head started to spin around and darkness was clouding the corner of his eyes, threatening to return him to unconsciousness until he felt a gentle hand close on his left arm. The place where his wound, where his ribbon was. Cloud was jolted back to reality.

"You came," the light, soft, bubbly voice spoke. The voice that was all too familiar to him; that had been haunting him for the past two years. "Though you're about to break, right?" She paused for a second, as if thinking of something extremely complex.

"Question!" she piped up. "Why have you come?"

Cloud was dumbfounded. This was really her; not Jenova, not bad dreams. His Aeris. After all this time, he was finally talking to her.

"I think," he said, "I want to be forgiven." He nodded. "Yeah, I want to be forgiven."

Her next words were laughed, as if she found his statement rather amusing.

"By whom?"

Cloud looked behind. Instead of her smiling face though he saw a metal wall. He sat up slowly and rested his head once more against the backboard. He felt good; better than he had in a long time really. For the first time in months he hadn't woken up drenched in sweat with his heart pounding in his chest. For the first time, he wasn't scared or haunted. The tips of his fingers were trembling with the excitement of what he'd just experienced, and even though he knew that Aeris was dead, he had been speaking with her. She was safe, she was happy. That alone was all Cloud needed to know to make him content.

Perhaps he could live for her after all.

He laughed. The rippling sound was unfamiliar to the room, and he supposed, to himself. He hadn't laughed in the longest time. Now, he was clutching his sides in pain, trying to stop. He rolled on the bed, giggling insanely into the duvet cover which only created a more humorous muffled sound, which in turn made him laugh even harder.

The door burst open. Cid, a very sick looking Yuffie, Barret and Vincent ran into the room.

"Cloud!" Barret yelled. He rushed up to the blonde man and shook his shoulders forcefully. "Cloud, man, are you okay?"

"Is he crying?" Yuffie asked anxiously.

"He looks to be in serious pain," Cid replied, joining Barret at Cloud's side. "We gotta stop him convulsing!"

"He's fine," Vincent said, turning and walking out.

"How can you act like this?" Yuffie screamed after him, stamping her foot in frustration. "Can't you see-" She stopped, looking over at Cloud. Barret and Cid had turned him over.

"He's in so much pain he's hysterical!" she exclaimed. She slotted a cure materia into her armlet and casted cure.

"Yuffie, he's alright," Barret said. Cloud was still laughing like a madman, though he was taking deep breaths to try and compose himself.

"What happened Cloud?" Cid asked.

"I-" he snorted, trying to stop desperately. "I…don't know."

"Arrgh!" the ninja grunted in annoyance. "Don't worry me like that!" She stormed from the room, muttering something along the lines of "chocobo-haired freak" and about wasting a good cure spell. The three watched her exit in silence, well, close to silence. Cloud was shoving his fist in his mouth and shaking in silent mirth.

"You sure you okay?" Barret asked him. Cloud nodded and waited a few seconds before finally feeling his laughter subside.

"Yeah."

"Not the funniest time to laugh you know. Vincent told us about the kids."

"I know, I know," he said. "I'm sorry."

"It's alright Cloud," Cid replied. "I just don't think I've ever heard you laugh. Well, except maybe in the Temple of the Ancients, but you had gone completely wacko then. Shit, things must really be bad." The blonde warrior shrugged.

"And here I thought things were starting to look up."

"How can you say that when the kids-"

"Hello boys!" a cheery voice sounded from outside the door. Cloud winced. Barret put his head in his hands. Cid lit up a cigarette. Cait Sith strode in, on Nanaki?

"What?" the cat asked. "Aren't you guys happy to see me?"

"New mog?" Barret asked. Red XIII glared.

"Don't even start," he warned.

"Seriously though Reeve, what happened to it?"

"Hyperactive kids at the Gold Saucer," he replied. "And while I have this thing, I'm Cait Sith!"

"Reeve…"

"Cait Sith," he protested. Barret rolled his eyes.

"Fine."

Cid took a long puff of his cigarette. "So why tame the wild beast?" Red XIII growled menacingly.

"I'm helping the ol' guy sort out some things in the Canyon. Until that's done, free piggyback rides!"

"Humans," muttered Red. "It's good to see you again Cloud," he said turning to him. The blonde nodded in his direction.

"What predicament have Avalanche got themselves into now?" Cait asked, waving his arms in the air for emphasis.

"If you want the full story, talk to Vincent," Barret said flatly.

"Come on Cait," Red said, turning from the crowded room.

"But, but I don't want the explanation from that vampire," Cait replied, gripping the beast's fur. "Turn back, turn back!"

And here Cloud thought he was going to get a few hours peace and quiet. So much for that. He should have learned from his travels two years ago that 'quiet' and 'Avalanche' didn't belong in the same sentence.

He hiccupped. Barret and Cid sighed.

Authors' Note: Hi everyone, thanks for reading! I personally am happy with this chapter, so I hope you all liked it too! Reviews always welcomed!

L.C

Inguz: Wow, thanks for, well, everything! I feel so chuffed to get all those lovely encouraging reviews from you so thanks! And you're Irish too! High fives Nice to know there are ff nuts in my country too!

: Thank you, here's your update!