This is part of a concept I have that I hope to develop into a full story at some point. It's being uploaded as is at the suggestion of Madcap Minstrel. Enjoy!
Aerith knelt with her hands clasped before her, concentrating on the mysterious White Materia she'd gotten from her mother. It was the key, the means to save the planet from the destruction Sephiroth had promised. But it could only be activated by a Cetra, which meant it fell to her to summon it. That had meant leaving the group, taking a long and dangerous trek north to the Forgotten capital and sitting here for hours in prayer, beseeching the Planet to unleash its most powerful defense.
As she knelt, she was more or less lost in her own world, barely conscious of what was happening around her, but she began to be aware of voices nearby. Someone was here. There was a spike of emotions, the sounds of yelling, and Aerith finally manage to emerge from her meditation and opened her eyes.
There was Cloud, he was here! She smiled at him, so glad he'd come for her.
Suddenly she felt a bolt of pain and found herself falling forward over the tip of Sephiroth's enormous sword…
Aerith's eyes flew open as she raised herself up off the bed, one hand slipping under her night shirt and resting on her stomach. Unmarred, as always. She sighed and flopped back down on her back. That dream again. She lay back, staring up at the ceiling for a minute before throwing the covers off and getting up. It was no use; she could never get back to sleep after these dreams.
She trudged down the stairs, trying to be quiet. It was still dark out and she didn't want to wake her mother or the kids. In the kitchen, she put a pot of water on to boil and get some tea ready. Once she had the steaming glass in hand, she sat down and stared out the window.
In her mind's eye, she saw how events in the Forgotten City had actually played out…
She looked up to see Cloud there, eyes wide and looking as though he had just exerted himself. She smiled at him, so happy to see him after her abrupt departure but also, she could feel it. Holy. The great magic of protection. She had done it!
Then she heard something. Or perhaps it was more perceived. She sensed danger approach from above and knew what it was. Sephiroth. He had come for her. And in that instant, she knew she was about to die.
Just then, a dark form moved in from the side, knocking her aside roughly. Shaking her head to clear it, she looked up and gasped in horror to see Barrett there, Sephiroth's sword running clear through him. The AVALANCHE fighter looked at her and smiled "Take care of Marlene for me," then back up at his killer. "I'll see you in hell!"
Aerith sighed. That had been the start of the darkest days of their journey. From there they'd seemingly gone from one disaster to another. And what they'd lost along the way…
Reaching the Northern Crater had been a nightmare, the physical exertion on top of the emotional punch of discovering her parents' home and what had happened there. Then, when the Planet had released WEAPON, Cloud had fallen into a crevasse; they'd thought they'd lost him as well.
Afterwards, she and Tifa had been captured by Shinra. Aerith herself was still considered Shinra property, so they hadn't harmed her, but Tifa was to be executed. They had strapped her to a chair inside a chamber they intended to fill with poisonous gas. Aerith had begged, pleaded and even threatened herself with bodily harm if they continued, but Rufus had simply ordered her locked in a conference room somewhere until it was over. Cait Sith, seemingly trying to mend bridges, had let her out and together they had tried to release her, but it required clearances they didn't have and so they'd been forced to go find them. In the meantime, Tifa managed to escape on her own and make her way outside onto the enormous Sister Ray. There she'd gotten into a fight with Scarlett until the Highwind came and lowered a rope to try and reach her, but when Aerith had tried to pull her aboard, she hadn't been strong enough. Eventually, her grip had failed and Tifa had plummeted to her death. That was the one that haunted her the most; looking into Tifa's eyes, even as the other girl had realized her fate was inevitable. Tifa's last words had been, "Thanks for coming back for me."
The bad news had been mixed with good as Cloud had been recovered but was in a comatose state. Eventually, Aerith had had to enter the Lifestream with him and help him piece his memories back together, learning in the process incidentally what had happened to Zack all those years ago. She had done her best, but she had had the impression that the reconstruction was incomplete, that there were holes there that she couldn't fill, and she had the feeling Tifa would have been able to do it more fully.
And then there had been Cloud's reaction when he'd learned what had happened to Tifa.
By that point, it had become clear Holy wasn't working as intended, so while Aerith attempted to figure out why and correct it, the others, save Vincent and Red, serving as her bodyguards, had gone to confront Sephiroth, culminating in a one-on-one battle that had cost Cloud his life. Eventually, Aerith had been forced to summon the Lifestream itself in a last-ditch effort to protect the world against Meteor. The effort had been exhausting, leaving her wiped out for over a day. Only after she awoke did she learn what had happened.
She had done it; she had saved the world. But in the process, she had lost her closest friends, and as the rest of the party began to go their separate ways, she had been left alone. Alone to face the aftermath. Alone once again.
"Dreams again?" Well, not quite alone. She still had Mom, she thought, managing a small smile as Elmyra came down. She nodded wordlessly. Elmyra looked concerned; ever since that adventure, she'd been different, haunted. Aerith was no stranger to loss, but she'd never lost so many in such a short period of time. That SOLDIER Cloud, his friend Tifa, the large and boisterous Barrett, even Tseng, although it had later turned out he had survived, it still left a deep mark on her daughter.
Now, two years later, she had Barrett's daughter to take care of and another child, Denzel, that she'd taken in. On top of that, the boy had been stricken with some strange new sickness was spreading through the city. Some skin-eating ailment that attacked the body's defenses, weakening its victims until they died.
"How many are we expecting today?" she asked.
"I think about thirty requests so far. Probably more by the time we actually get going," Elmyra told her.
Soon after she'd taken in Denzel, she'd managed to heal him of his ailment. Of course, once she'd learned to do that, she couldn't turn away anyone who asked for help of it. It didn't take long for rumors of a woman in the slums who could heal Geostigma, as they'd come to call it, to spread and victims began coming to her in ever growing numbers.
At first it had been a handful, some she'd encountered along the way, others who had sought her out, but before long they began arriving in small groups, then by the dozens. Aerith, unable to leave them to their suffering had taken it upon herself to heal them all, but it was draining and one time she had literally worn herself out and collapsed from exhaustion.
After that, Elmyra has intervened. Knowing Aerith was going to try to heal them anyway, she had instead put some guidelines in place. Now there was an absolute limit of forty people healed in a day. Any more than that and Aerith risked exhausting herself again. Also, people had to come by appointment, which made enforcing the limit easier. In addition, Elmyra insisted that they pay for the healing, or at least provide some sort of compensation. Aerith had balked at that, but Elmyra had pointed out that this had grown to the point that it was taking nearly all their time now, Aerith doing the healing and Elmyra managing the flow of patients, to the point that they needed some form of income to take care of themselves and the children. The reminder of her obligations to Marlene and Denzel had silenced any further protest.
Aerith finished her tea and let out a breath. "Alright, let me get showered and changed and we'll get started."
Elmyra nodded as Aerith got up and went upstairs. She finished her own tea then went to peek out the window. Already people were starting to line up, most with appointments, but there were always a few who hung around hoping she would just let them in. She sighed; much as she might sympathize with them, she couldn't make any exceptions without making the entire appointment system meaningless.
At the same time, she knew her daughter. Aerith was as stubborn as they came, she would just power through as many as she could If given the chance.
The day proceeded more or less uneventfully, until the very end that was. As usual, Aerith had had a maxed-out schedule, and once she had healed the final person of the day, it fell to Elmyra to shoo away the rest until tomorrow.
There was usually some resistance, but today it was more pronounced than usual. Geostigma was relentless and it spared none, old or young. The children in particular were heart wrenching to see, many of them orphans with no one to look after them and no way to pay for healing, Elmyra usually settled for shores around the house in those cases. For parents, it was a nightmare, many would come begging Aerith to heal their children, sometimes outright demanding it.
There were a group of such tonight, each insisting that Aerith come out and remove this affliction from their children. Elymra was confronting three mothers this time, each with at least afflicted child.
"You can't just leave us!" one of them shouted.
"Our children are dying!" another declared.
"Yes, I know," Elmyra assured them.
"Then let us in!"
"I'm sorry. I have openings for tomorrow, but we're done for tonight."
"How can you be so cold-hearted?"
Inside the house, Aerith leaned against the wall just inside the door, listening to the escalating argument. She could hear the fear in the women's voices, the panic, the desperation. She closed her eyes listening to the shouting match, and feeling her own inadequacy weighing down on her. She wasn't healing enough, but Mom was right, if she pushed herself she'd wind up passed out on the ground again. But there had to be something she could do. Some way she could help more people without wiping herself out. She had been exerting herself since this crisis began, putting everything she had…
Aerith opened her eyes. She felt something, a dormant power she hadn't felt since…she came home.
She stepped outside and marched up to the arguing women.
Elmyra looked surprised as she approached. "Aerith, what are you doing?"
Aerith looked at them with a hard gaze. "If you want to save your children, come with me." She began walking off, then paused. "And Mom? Get as many of our appointments for tomorrow there as well. And anyone else you can find who needs healing"
Elmyra gaped at her. "What?"
"Just do it please."
Elmyra was about to protest, but something in Aerith's eyes stopped her. "A-all right."
Aerith nodded and strode off.
An hour later, a crowd of about eighty people stood in an open area where the Sector 7 train station ued to be. Many of them had geostigma to various degrees, others were simply there for support. Elmyra looked over them, wondering just what her daughter was planning. And why on earth was she going along with it?
Finally, Aerith stepped up onto a concrete pillar that had fallen over. She gazed down at the crowd, like she was about to give a speech, but instead she closed her eyes and clasped her hands before her. The people looked at each other uncertainly, shuffling about as they tried to figure out what was going on.
Then there was a rumble of thunder. Looking up, Elmyra saw no clouds, but a light rain began to fall regardless. Others looked up in puzzlement as well, wondering what was going on.
Suddenly, there was an excited shout. "Everyone, look! Look!" One man was holding his arm out, which had been covered in the stigma's oozing blotches, but they were now rapidly vanishing. Before their astonished gazes, it vanished completely. The was a flurry of arms and legs being held out accompanied by gasps of surprise and cries of delight. Tears of joy soon began to flow as the newly healed ran hands over renewed skin, embraced loved ones or jumped up and down in excitement.
Elmyra looked to her daughter, who had climbed down and was walking slowly towards her.
As Aerith drew near, she gave a tired smile. "I did it."
Elmyra gave a short laugh and drew her into an embrace. "Yes, you did," she murmured. "What was that?"
"It's called Great Gospel. I haven't done it in years, not since I got back home." She looked back at the crowd, most of whom were still marveling at what had happened. "Let's get out of here before they notice me."
Elmyra nodded and put her arm around her daughter to help her home.
"I think," Aerith said, "That I'm going to take tomorrow off."
Elmyra chuckled. "Well, Lord knows you've earned it."
It would be several more minutes before the crowd realized they were gone, by which point they were well on the way home.
As usual, review and let me know what you think.