Chapter Fifty-Nine:
"I have one last idea." Aeva said, some time later. Caia was not doing well. Her vitals were steadily declining and she'd even flatlined for a few minutes. Thankfully Aeva had been able to start her heart again, but Cloud's heart had been pounding double time since. Tifa helped Aeva with whatever she needed, but silent tears stained her cheeks.
Barret kept getting up and pacing out of the room, Cloud would hear him punch something in the gym, then he'd be back again. Cid had stuck his head in a few minutes ago, took one look at the scene and gave Cloud a look full of sympathy that made him want to shout, "She's not dead yet!"
But she might as well be. Aeva had tried everything she could, but how do you heal an injured soul?
Now Cloud met her gaze, but he didn't like what he saw there. Or the tone of voice she'd used. It was a desperate idea, he could tell. And desperate ideas had big consequences.
"What?"
She gave a small glance at the tiny body suspended behind her. "Maybe, if we pulled Elio out early, and put him with her, it would help her pull through." She didn't sound like she liked the idea. At all. But was sharing it just so they'd know all their options.
"Let's do it!" Barret demanded. "Anything."
"Cloud?" Tifa's voice was soft, but steady. He looked at the tank. Elio had two hours left in the dilution process, it was probably enough but…
Memories he usually kept buried. The nausea. The dizziness. The fatigue. Limbs heavy. Head pounding.
And the pain. It hadn't lasted long, but the withdrawals had been…brutal.
The thought of a world without his sister…he squeezed his eyes shut. They burned. She'd done so much to survive and this selfish asshole had done her in. He should have killed Niro the second he cast that summon.
"Cloud? If it will save Caia?" Barret said. He loved Caia almost as much as they did.
It might, but the withdrawals. He'd barely survived. A baby…
Suddenly he turned, punching the wall. The fiberglass gave way under his hand and he rested his head against it. Tifa's tears were a little louder now. She knew what he was going to say. He didn't want to say it.
"The withdrawals." His voice cracked. "A baby would never survive. He needs to finish the cycle." A gentle hand on his arm, he turned and pulled Tifa into a hug, burying his face in her neck.
"You sure?" Barret's voice was unnaturally quiet.
"Caia wouldn't thank us if we sacrificed Elio's life to save hers." He barely got the words out.
A long, horrible silence. Caia's ragged breathing the only sound. Then,
"I can wake her. So you can say good-bye. She doesn't have long."
He pulled away, but kept in contact with Tifa. Knowing she was close made the pain bearable. He nodded to Aeva, and she began to cast a spell. He was crouching by Caia's bedside before her eyes had opened.
"Elio?" She whispered when she saw Cloud. He shifted so she could see her baby behind him. Still in mako. Still safe.
"Safe." He told his sister.
"How long?"
"Two hours."
He saw the resignation on her face, the last little bit of hope that she'd hold her baby slipping away.
"No. You can make it. Just hold on a little longer." He told her. He might have been crushing the bones in her hand. He didn't care.
Her small smile was reassuring. She was always the strong one. Niro was a fool for believing her weak. Here she was dying, never to hold her son again, and she had the audacity to be strong for him.
"Take good care of him."
He was shaking his head before she'd even finished speaking. "No. No, Caia. There's no way we can raise two genetically-enhanced children. You raise him. Live for him."
That small smile again, though her eyes sought the infant form behind him before drifting to Tifa. "Three, you mean."
Cloud's hands shook and he gripped her even tighter. She didn't protest, squeezing back with what strength she had left.
"Dammit. You see everything don't you? Yes, three. We'll have our hands full. You raise Elio. It's decided." Was that his voice cracking?
"Tell him I loved him so, so much."
Tifa sank to her knees beside him and kissed Caia's forehead. "We'll tell him." How could she accept this so easily? He looked at his wife and saw her heart breaking. Again. So much loss. And they had to endure one more. Would they even survive?
Caia cupped his cheek and wiped a tear away. He hadn't realized he was crying. She murmured something, but it was too quiet for even his hearing. He leaned close, but she lost consciousness.
She would never wake up.
"General."
The voice would have startled him if he'd had a body, but he was just a soul adrift in the Lifestream. Awaiting… Awaiting what? To become one with the Planet. Except he'd been fighting it since he'd arrived desperate to return to Caia. He opened what would have been his eyes and saw endless white. Was he still in the LIfestream? It felt the same. But he stood, or at least, the shape his soul assumed stood in that endless plane, and turned towards the voice he would know anywhere.
She wasn't far from him. Looking as she had in life, but more. She was a power here. And for the first time, he realized she had let him kill her. He could not have killed this being if they hadn't allowed it.
"Ms. Gainsborough." Faremis, technically. Did she even know? Or remember the boy trapped in the same hell? He'd been so envious that she'd still had a mother. And it hadn't taken Hojo long to see the desire he had to know the strange girl. Hojo had moved them, and he'd never seen her again.
Until…
Now Aerith laughed, the sound bright and uninhibited. No wonder Zack had been drawn to her. He had also once been bright and uninhibited.
"I think we're a little past that, don't you?" She chided, putting her hands on her hips.
He cocked his head. She was…not what he was expecting.
"If we're past that, we're also past "general"," he said. Could she, possibly, not hate him?
A brilliant smile. "Yes. We are. Hello, Sephiroth."
He inclined his head. "Aerith."
"Walk with me." She demanded, and they began a leisurely pace.
"Where?" Where was there to go?
"Oh, just around. I have important things to tell you, but first; Sora. How is he? What's he like? I know I should have merged with the Planet by now, but sometimes I can get glimpses of him, you know? It makes it hard to want to move on."
He understood. And was thankful he could give her this, when he'd taken so much. "He's just like his father." It was the greatest compliment he could bestow to Aerith's child.
Her delight pulsed off her and brushed up against him. Interesting. "You loved him too, didn't you?"
"I might have one day called him a friend."
"I suppose that's something. Now—" She stepped away from him and scowled. "I can't tell you what I need if you keep nursing all this guilt. Send it away. I've always known what killed me, and who didn't."
He was so taken aback, his jaw dropped. She crossed her arms and continued to scowl. He didn't know what to say. Caia would have known what to say.
"I took your future from you." He said finally. Years. Hopes. Dreams. A child she'd never see grow.
"Jenova took both our futures. Place the guilt where it belongs."
"You sound like Caia."
"Smart woman, your bond mate. You should listen to her."
Bond mate. That was important. "Bond mate?"
A nod. "It's called a soul bond. Usually it takes decades for two lovers to achieve it, if ever. So much trust must be there for a soul to bind itself to another. You two took a shortcut, as it were."
Soul bond. It fit. Caia and him…something had happened and shifted their relationship. That night in his workshop, the wood of the worktable smooth under their hands, and his wildcat had dropped the final barrier around her heart.
"You know exactly when it was complete, don't you?" Aerith asked gently. He met her gaze and nodded as a horrible thought began to take shape.
"What happens to a bonded soul when one soul dies?"
The approving look in her eyes told him he'd asked the right question. "Caia is dying. And Aeva can't heal her."
"Her soul has been ripped in half." No. Caia needed to live. She deserved to be happy after everything she'd been through. "I have to go back." He'd been begging whoever would listen since he got here, was Aerith the answer?
"I can help with that, but only you can save Caia."
"I don't suppose you know how to do that?"
And, as a matter of fact, she did.