What Lies Beneath
Chapter 16
What Lies Beneath
Cloud stared at the church doors from a good distance. Last time he was here the doors to the church were locked. He knew Aerith was inside. The only question was why? He knew now, as the final victor he would be able to ask Aerith all the questions he should have asked from the beginning.
Taking a deep breath, Cloud revved the engine of the bike and zoomed off at the church. When he was nearing the door he popped the front wheel up so when he collided into the door, the front wheel sprung the locked doors open with such force that the doors slammed into the walls and cracked. Cloud on his bike zoomed down the aisle and skidded to an abrupt halt right before he crashed into the flowers and into the woman who was standing in the patch.
Cloud looked in front of him to see the woman he came to know in such a short while but still very much a mystery. The golden light from the sun rained down on her, giving her a heavenly glow. She turned around to face Cloud, her face showed complete surprise that he was here.
"Aerith," Cloud breathed out as the engine to his bike shut off.
Her emerald eyes looked at him with curiosity. She then gave him that smile he was used to seeing on her face. That smile that he now knew she used to hide behind.
"What are you doing here Cloud?" she asked innocently.
"I'm here to protect you." he answered.
Aerith laughed and turned around, the pink dress she was wearing flowed with her turn. She placed her hands behind her back, lacing her fingers together as she peered up into the hole above the flower patch where the sun rays came from.
"You don't have to protect me anymore," she said. "I have Zack now. You can go and be with Ti-"
"I know the truth," Cloud cut her off.
Aerith turned her head, looking puzzled. Cloud got off his bike and pulled out his sword, not Zack's sword, his. Aerith looked at the weapon and back at Cloud.
"I am the victor," he stated firmly. "I promised I would protect you but I need to know the truth. Why did you bring Zack and Tifa back when you know they are dead?"
Aerith's smile faded and the look of sadness spread across her face, the same one he caught glimpses of before. The look of a deep painful secret.
"I gave you what you wanted Cloud," Aerith whispered. "I gave you what you wanted for protecting me. For those who participate in the game and the one who is the final victor gets their one wish fulfilled. You wanted to be reunited with Tifa and to be free from fighting. I gave you that, isn't that what you wanted?"
Cloud swallowed hard. The brunette looked confusingly at him.
"I... was already the victor," Cloud said to himself. "But you had me lose to Zack because... Aerith... no. I never wanted that. I didn't protect you because I had to so I could be with Tifa. I said I would protect you because I wanted to."
Cloud moved toward her standing directly in front of her. She looked up at him and he looked down at her.
"I was running away from my past." he admitted to her. "I knew deep inside Tifa was dead but I could never admit it to myself but what I said to you was true. I will protect you but you have to be honest with me. Why are you doing all this? Why do you need me to protect you?"
Aerith back away from Cloud, staring down at the flowers. She folded her hands together and brought them to her lips. Memories, her memories raced through her head in flashes causing her eyes to brim with tears. Suddenly, the green wisps began to surround them. Cloud looked around as the swirling green began to engulf him.
"Aerith!" he yelled in fear. He met her eyes, eyes full of such sadness that he felt his heart clench tighter than he ever felt.
"What's going on?" he panicked.
"Cloud," she said, her voice hardly audible. "I'm going to tell you everything."
When the last words escaped her lips Cloud lost sight of her as he had to shield his eyes from the mass of glowing light surrounding him. When he opened his eyes he began to panic again because he was standing high in the air over a dark but brightly lit city.
"What the...? Where am I?"
"This is Midgar." Aerith explained.
Cloud looked behind him expecting to see Aerith but she was neither there or anywhere visible. He could hear her as though she was.
"Aerith where are you?"
She ignored him. Not to be rude by any means but because where she was did not matter. Cloud noticed his view of the city was shifting but he could not tell if it was he that was moving or if it was the city itself. Midgar seemed so different back then than it did now.
"I lived in Midgar nearly my entire life. I cannot remember the time before I lived here but this is where my mother brought me before she died."
In a flash of light, the view shifted to a train station where a little girl with brown hair was walking alone, looking lost and frightened. Cloud recognized her as a younger Aerith, however the scene shifted and Aerith was now much older, perhaps a teenager by the looks of it.
"I lived happily as one could because despite how alone I felt that day as a little girl on the streets I realized I was never truly alone. It was here in Midgar I discovered that I was not a normal girl. I was different. I was... am a Cetra."
"Cetra?"
The scene changed to Aerith in the church, the one she was always in, planting flowers.
"Cetra are people of the planet. We are able to communicate with the spirits of the planet and we also have special gifts that the Cetra believed were given to us by the Goddess because she favored us, loved us more than any other race."
The teenaged Aerith stood in the midst of the green swirls that had once engulfed both his dead girlfriend and Zack. She was smiling and looking around the swirls as if there were people there and she was talking to them.
"I could open the door to the promised land." she said. "Release the power of the life stream."
Cloud was about to ask her what that was but as if on cue she explained before he even asked.
"The promise land is where the people of this planet go when they die. However, if a living person were to cross over to the promise land they would be able to harness unimaginable power."
Cloud put two and two together. "Enough to permanently heal themselves from disease... enough to bring someone back to life."
Aerith confirmed this with a simple "yes."
Cloud walked across the church, watching the teenaged girl interact with the life stream, the dead.
"I was happy here in Midgar. I worked hard but kept my gifts a secret from the world. I planted flowers in the old Midgar church to sell the people of the city. I was happy... until the day I met him."
The scene of Aerith planting the flowers suddenly shifted to her amongst a crowd of people and in the center was a man who looked unearthly. Long silver hair, lean muscles and eyes a piercing jade made up a man that Cloud himself could easily feel intimidated by. As Cloud watched this man in a crowd of cheering people, he noticed Aerith was the only one who was not happy.
"Sephiroth," she said his name in a trembling voice. "He was strong, brave, fast, and brilliant. The people of Midgar admired him as a hero."
Sephiroth walked toward Cloud and went through him. He turned to watch him approach Aerith as all the people around them disappeared, only leaving Aerith and Sephiroth in a room, an apartment perhaps, alone.
"But I feared him."
SMACK!
Cloud's eyes widened as he saw Aerith land on the floor with such force. Blood came out of her lower lip. Instinctively, Cloud ran to her side and attempted to cradle the fallen girl in his arms but when he reached to touch her, his hand went through her. Cloud pulled his hand away and realized that this was Aerith's memories.
"I thought Sephiroth was a Cetra like me. I believed him to be a kind and good person at first. He also believed himself a Cetra and he told me he too could hear the planet speaking to him. I believed him but soon I realized he did not hear the whispers of the planet but he what he heard was his own selfish desires and lust for power. He desired my power. Sephiroth walked on the brink of insanity, lusting for power that I alone had."
"But it was too late to get away. I was trapped. The pain I suffered and endured was unbearable. No one would believe me. Sephiroth was the hero and I was the wretched slum girl."
Cloud watched as the scene shifted to Aerith sitting in her flower bed sobbing. He could see bruises on her arms that she was desperately trying to cover with her hands.
"With no one to believe me I was trapped. I could in no way give Sephiroth what he wanted. I wanted... I wanted to die... until one day."
"Hello?"
"An Angel?"
Aerith laughed, "No, I'm Aerith."
Aerith stood bent over a man who was lying in her flowerbed. He looked as though he had fallen asleep there. Cloud knew instantly that man was a Zack.
"Zack had fallen through the ceiling of my church. I was at first unsure of him but little by little I began to trust Zack."
The scenery around them changed to Aerith and Zack talking together and ever so often it would shift to them doing something, planting flowers together, sitting in a pew and talking, eating food, or taking a walk through the streets. However one scene particularly caught Cloud's eye. A scene that Cloud and also shared with Aerith.
Aerith and Zack sitting in the park together on top of the off cat looking structure. It was night and the two were watching the stars. Their hands were laced together tightly.
"Thank you for bringing me here," Aerith said. "I was so afraid to see the sky. I'm so use to Midgar where you can barely even see anything but the tall buildings."
"You should come with me to my home town. It's a small place but really peaceful. Midgar just seems so loud. Out there in Gogonga you see every star in the sky."
Zack continued to ramble on about his hometown. Aerith listened intently. Cloud could see even from his position on the ground that she wanted to go. She wanted to run away from this place and be free.
"I'm scared," Aerith admitted.
Zack puffed out his chest and gave her the most reassuring smile he could muster.
"Don't worry; I'll protect you!"
The two continued to chat but the image of the two was slowly fading away, their voices becoming fainter. Cloud found himself in darkness when he noticed the younger Aerith walking toward him. She walked past him without a glance and toward a door that was directly in front of her. As she turned the handle the door flung open and a hand dragged her into a room.
Fear enveloped Cloud as he heard the sound of things crashing loudly. He ran to the door and through it. His eyes scanned the area and he found Aerith being held up against a wall by Sephiroth. His forearm was on her throat and his other hand was threatening to rip out her beautiful brown locks.
"Where have you been!" he snapped.
"I lost track of the time," Aerith replied in a small voice.
The answers was not to Sephiroth's liking. Cloud watched as he flung the girl to the ground and repeatedly hit her until she was in fetal position and sobbing. The very sight of it made Cloud's stomach turn. He was disgusted and sick but above all angry. However what happened next Cloud could not imagine ever happening to Aerith.
Sephiroth rolled her onto her back and tore at her clothing. Aerith whimpered for him to cease his torment on her but the silver-haired man ignored her. He pushed her legs apart and Cloud knew what Sephiroth planned on doing.
Cloud rushed forward and attempted to grab Sephiroth and rip him off the girl but his hands went through him, just like before. He tried repeatedly in a futile effort to stop this scene from playing but he could not. It already happened. This was Aerith's memory.
Cloud stared in horror. The scene played out as he expected and he still felt sick, disgusted, and there was nothing he could do. He wanted to kill Sephiroth, rip him apart with his bare hands. He wanted to hold the sobbing girl in his arms and shelter her from ever being hurt again. Tears ran down Cloud's face, mirroring the younger Aerith's face. When the deed was over, Sephiroth loomed over the young woman and brought his face to hers.
"Look at me," he ordered.
Aerith opened her red eyes to look at him.
"You belong to me," he spat.
The image of Aerith on the ground remained as tears flowed out of her eyes. The broken girl remained there until she shifted back into fetal position and she was now in her flower patch in the church seconds later Cloud heard a soft gasp and footsteps crashing along the wooden floor. Turning around he saw Zack running down the aisle toward Aerith. At her side, he gathered the battered and bruised girl in his arms and cradled her to him.
"Aerith! Aerith!"
"Zack had help me for hours. He helped bandage my wounds but the scars Sephiroth left me had taken a toll on me. I had become so frightened that my fear of him influenced Zack. Zack wanted to fight Sephiroth to make him pay for what he had done to me."
Cloud could hear Zack's rage. He watched as the man violently punched a one of the church pillars, leaving a dent in it.
"But I begged him not to."
The younger Aerith grabbed onto Zack's arm. She clutched onto him and began crying again as she begged him to forget confronting Sephiroth.
"Instead I begged him to take me away from Midgar. We would go to his hometown and Sephiroth would never find us. We would live peacefully."
"Are you sure that's what you want?" Zack asked.
Aerith nodded, "We'll meet back here tonight, okay?"
Zack did not respond, instead he gathered the girl into his arms and held her closely. Aerith wrapped her arms around him.
Cloud knew that whatever happened next was not going to end happily. Aerith was still trapped in Midgar and Zack was dead. When the scene changed again Cloud saw Zack walking toward the church. He followed him, walking behind him. He noticed the large sword strapped to his back as he walked. Mentally, Cloud was trying to prepare what was to come. As soon as Zack opened the door he saw the same thing Zack did and felt the same emotions he did.
"Aerith!" he yelled.
Aerith was on her knees, battered and bruised. Sephiroth had a hand around her throat but she was too weak to even attempt to try and pry off his hand. Rage filled Zack and Cloud. Cloud ran down the length of the church to Aerith but he knew he could not help her. Zack unsheathed his sword as he stood in the entryway.
"Let her go!" Zack ordered.
Sephiroth dropped her and Aerith slumped to the ground. Cloud looked at her and back up at Sephiroth. He noticed a long sword sheathed at his side but he was not holding it. It was as if he was not going to even pull it out. Then he saw it, hidden behind the man's back.
"You should have stayed out of this," Sephiroth said in a threatening voice.
Before Zack could even react, Sephiroth removed his hand from behind his back and the item that he had hidden there. Then with four consecutive shots, four bullets ripped through Zack Fair. One went through his right shoulder, another his right arm, one in his stomach, and the last in his left thigh. Blood gushed out from his wounds and Zack collapsed to one knee using his sword to keep him from collapsing completely. He screamed in pain that surged through him like fire.
Sephiroth laughed aiming the gun at the young man's head. Cloud heard Aerith moan and looked down to see her getting up. She saw Sephiroth carefully aiming the gun at Zack and with every ounce of her strength she screamed out to him, her voice hoarse.
Somehow, Zack deflected the fifth shot and barreled down toward Sephiroth. Sephiroth abandoned the gun and unsheathed his sword, a blade so long that it must have taken tremendous skill to wield. The blades crashed and Cloud watched the two men fight. The teenaged Aerith watched, panting and trying to get up from the ground. She wanted to scream for Zack to stop as the blood flowed from his wounds. The battle raged and Zack, despite his injuries gave Sephiroth a challenge. He even managed to deal a strong blow to the silver-haired man. However, it only seemed to make Sephiroth mad. His attacks becoming much quicker after that Zack found himself on the run, so much that the battle took itself high into the rafters.
Cloud watched, blood splattering all over the ground of the church, covering the white and yellow flowers in the patch with streaks of red. Zack was heaving, his body weakening with every passing second. Sephiroth smirked and lunged at Zack but this time the raven-haired man could not counter or block the attack. The blade pierced into his chest and for a second all was quiet as Zack hung in the air, supported by the blade and Sephiroth's own strength.
Zack gasped for air. Then Sephiroth tilted his sword down and Zack slid off the blade and crashed on top of the pews, splintering them. Aerith who had watched the entire fight gasped out in horror. Her green eyes wide as saucers and her hands trembling as she brought them to her head. Zack turned to look at her, blood pouring out of his mouth.
"I'm... s-s-orry," Zack choked out, "I-I... coul...n't pro-pro-protect... you... Aer-"
Suddenly the light in his eyes died. His body became limp and the rise and fall of chest stopped. The teenage Aerith opened her mouth and but no voice came out. She was shaking her head slowly before it became faster. Then in a burst of emotion and tears Aerith finally screamed.
"ZACK!"
He was dead. Aerith cried hard. She slumped forward, digging her hands into the dirt to try and hold onto something as her world was shattering around her. Cloud watched the girl but it was Sephiroth's presence that stopped him from focusing on the girl. He watched as the man walked toward her laughing horribly at her misfortune. Cloud felt a wave of fear for Aerith because without Zack who was going to protect her?
"You should have given me what I asked for." Sephiroth said. "Now look what you did. You are the cause of all this. His death is your fault"
Cloud looked down at Aerith, seeing her hands clench tightly, becoming white. Her breathing came out in short ragid breaths, her chest heaving. When Sephiroth was a few feet away he held out his sword, preparing to punish the girl. Cloud could not take it anymore. He stood in front of Aerith and yelled out for this to stop. He knew he could not but he could not bare to see Aerith in such pain anymore. Sephiroth was nothing but a monster and he would kill her.
Then the sound of a gunshot rang throughout the church. Cloud's eyes widened as he saw Sephiroth jerk forward. A bullet hit him straight in the chest. Cloud turned around and saw Aerith in a way he never saw before, angry. Her eyes were glaring daggers but tears were staining her puffy red face. The wretched looking girl was aiming the gun Sephiroth used to shoot Zack. Another gun shot echoed as the bullet whizzed through Cloud. He turned back to see Sephiroth being hit with the bullet.
Sephiroth looked at her in disbelief. He had underestimated Aerith. He never planned on her to attempt to attack him. Another bullet shot out and another until the entire clip was empty and Aerith was pulling the trigger. She wanted to rain bullets in him by the sound of the continuous clicking of the empty gun. Sephiroth was now drenched in his own blood. His eyes became narrow slits as he held out his sword in an attempt to kill Aerith. He lunged at her and Aerith screamed, shut her eyes and prepared for her own death. Instead, Sephiroth stumbled and dropped his blade and began to choke on his own blood. Aerith and him looked at one another.
With his last ounce of strength Sephiroth whispered out, "I will not become a memory."
He was dead. Sephiroth was dead. Cloud let out a breath that he did not even know that he was holding.
"In my own rage... I killed Sephiroth," Aerith said, finally speaking again. Obvious as it was, it still shocked Cloud.
Suddenly, the younger Aerith began screaming. Cloud looked at her, clutching Zack's body to her, his blood covering her hands, her clothing. The young girl let him go and began pulling at her hair as she began to lose her grip on reality. She stumbled away from him and bumped into Sephiroth's body. She began to scream even more as a fresh set of tears rolled down her face before stumbled back into her flower patch, the flowers all covered in streaks of blood.
Then, as if possessed, Aerith began ripping out the flowers. She pulled the flowers out one by one, throwing them to the side. She continued to scream and cry as she continued her task. When she was done unearthing the flowers she began to dig in the dirt patch with her hands.
Cloud watched and he brought one of his hands up to his mouth. He and Aerith were one in the same. Tragedy struck them hard and unrelenting. He saw her in him. Losing all sense on reality and unable to gain some semblance of control. The scene dissolved as the disheveled Aerith continued to dig as rain began to pour over her. Her sobbing echoed long after her image disappeared.
Cloud closed his eyes and after a moment he opened them, finding himself back in the church. He breathed and felt Aerith behind him.
"I buried the bodies of both Zack and Sephiroth." she said.
Cloud looked down at the flowers. It was not hard to figure out where she buried them. Now it made sense though. Why she was always here. She had told him why before but back then he did not understand. "I need to go take care of the flowers. They'll die without me. I worry so much about them." She did not want anyone to discover what had happened.
"But why these games?" Cloud asked.
"Cloud..." Aerith said softly.
Cloud looked over his shoulder at her and finally turned around. Aerith had her back to him but when she felt Cloud close to her, she turned to face him. The smile on her face was long gone and the look of all the sadness in the world was in her eyes.
"After I had buried the bodies," she continued, "I still could not erase the past. I could not run away. The blood on my hands would not wash away. So, I created the games. Those who wanted my powers, those who were suffering from their own pasts and their uncertain futures found themselves in Midgar."
Cloud looked around and one by one men and woman, young and old appeared before him. They were not real but projections as well. The first ones to appear were nameless to Cloud as he never met them but Aerith must have. Each one of them had a similar experience as Cloud. They stood in the church and accepted to the terms of the game and from the ground a weapon came up ready for their claim.
He watched as all of the ones from the past who for some reason or another vanished from the games disappeared until he noticed the appearance of Vincent Valentine pulling out his gun and the gold claw from the ground. Not too long after Cid Highwind appeared, pulling a spear and right after was Barret Wallace fixating the gun to his arm. A man he had no idea exactly who he was appeared, dressed in a red leather coat and with light brown hair pulled a sword from the ground. After him was Rufus Shinra who seemed much healthier than now followed by Yuffie and then Kadaj. Finally, the last person was a ghostly image of Cloud himself. However, unlike everyone else before him he pulled out Zack's sword from the ground. A weapon that was not his own but a weapon given to Cloud by Aerith.
"I would give them any wish they wanted. I would open the doors the promise land as long as they would protect me."
Cloud looked at her with confusion written all over his face. "Protect you from what?"
Suddenly, a black feather floated down in front of Cloud. He brought his hand up and caught it. He looked over at Aerith whose face was now full of complete dread. Several more petals fluttered down and Cloud looked up through the hole in the church.
"She needs someone to hide behind," said a voice, "because she can't handle the guilt."
Cloud's eyes widened as he stared at the descending figure of a one winged angel with feathers as black as coal. Cloud let out a soft gasp as he stared at Sephiroth.
X, X, X,
Author Note- Unedited version. I hope you all enjoy. One more chapter and than an epilogue to go.