Penance

©®™ Lt. Commander Richie

((Disclaimer:I think I almost killed myself writing that last chapter. Between reading KadajOC fiction and watching Advent Children a couple dozen times, I think I may actually be becoming a Witness of Jenova. "Special Summon: Witnesses of Jenova! ... I need some Witnesses of Jenova!" "Special Summon: Leviathan!" PWNAGE ENSUES.))

Yo! It was my birthday on Monday.

Chapter 20

A mystical humming filled the air, the musical notes undulating back and forth as the person they belonged to simply stood there. Her hands were clasped in front of her body, large golden bangles clicking together rhythmically as she swayed back and forth. Aerith surveyed the Promised Land with a friendly eye, smiling widely at the variety of flowers that stood out from the monotony of pink and white and yellow. All of the different flowers grouped together, a small rosebush growing very low to the ground spreading around many of them. All the roses were red on the bush, and in a sudden movement Aerith knelt in the flowers around her and reached forward to two of the flowers that were growing very close together. The God of Death Day Lily was surrounded by thorny vines that had not been there the last time anyone had visited the Promised Land from the living world, the large and waxy leaves of the low rosebush protecting the ground around the lily. Out of all the roses on the bush, the one growing closest to the lily was stark white and slowly growing its way around the volatile stem of the larger flower. Aerith smiled, using one hand to gently push the two flowers closer together.

"That's hardly fair." A gruff voice said, accentuated by the crunching of SOLDIER grade combat boots through the flowers. The Cetra smiled and stood, turning to embrace the woman behind her. Her neck was wrapped in a Third Class' blue scarf, but her shoulders were covered with metal pauldrons and her sleeveless black sweater had two blue lines down the sides. She wore a pair of simple fighting gloves and had a standard sword strapped to her back, her long black Junonese braid falling over the sheathed blade and nearly reaching her hips. Her eyes were a shocking blue that glowed brightly through the messy bangs that obscured the large scar over the bridge of her nose, down both sides of her face and diagonally across her forehead. A simple square necklace was barely visible under her scarf, a silver design inset with a Mako crystal raised on a blue background.

"It's cute, though." The two stepped back from each other, laughing lightly.

"And since when has cute not really been your thing?" The woman was taller than Aerith by a few inches, and with a loving smile she she smoothed the girl's bangs back with one hand like a mother to her child. The bangs bounced back to their original place, loosing none of their volume.

"Cute is always my thing, Ariana."Aerith smiled widely, golden bangles clinking lightly at her wrists. "How have you been?"

"I'm free-floating energy, kid. I shouldn't be here. At least, not right now." Ariana Leirbach looked around, turning and seeing only expanses of white framed by flowers. "Where's Zack gotten off to? I swear, that man had the worst timing in all of Junon and Midgar. Could manage to come on time to instill fear in the cadets, but couldn't make a lunch meeting to save his life. Failed at bureaucracy because of it, too." She held one gloved hand behind her head, smiling widely. Aerith's smile faltered, and she looked down at the flowers at her feet. Ariana paused, noticing this. "What? Was it something I said?"

"I don't know where he is." The Ancient sighed, and without another word Ariana pulled the younger girl into a tight hug. "I've tried everywhere, but there's nothing on the planet from the Lifestream except Materia. He's not out there, so I don't know where he is."

"It's alright. He's out there somewhere, people don't just disappear from the Lifestream. You'll find him." The older woman nodded to herself, biting her lower lip in worry. "Do you need me to look anywhere?"

"Gaia. I need you to look on Gaia. If he's there, he'll be somewhere near Nibelheim. He has to be. That's where everyone else is- the whole group. Can you do it?" Aerith asked hopefully, and with a large smile Ariana stepped back and saluted sharply.

"Yokai, General Gainsborough, I'll get right on it!" She grinned and faded away, leaving only the blankness of the Promised Land's sky in her wake. The Cetra turned to her motley collection of different flowers, and with gentle pink-tipped fingers she tipped a spike-edged yellow tulip over onto a blood-red carnation. The simple movement brought a smile to her face, and she straightened back up and gazed about herself in a single sweeping motion. There was nothing out of the ordinary, but that was the problem. There were no human-shaped impressions of crushed flowers in the field, no swords stuck halfway to their hilts in the ground. Without Zack, the Promised Land seemed barren and dry despite its fertility.

"Where did you go?" Aerith mused aloud, stepping carefully around her small patch of friends and walking out into the never-ending wasteland of fertile grass and flowers.

"He's missing." Reeve stared down at the spot he had left Cait Sith to his own devices, cursing his own lack of sound judgment on the matter of leaving the little stuffed AI alone.

Did someone take him? Cloud's voice was static on the other end of the PHS connection; the rain clouds were nearly black over the ShinRa Mansion.

"If someone tried, he would run to me. It's more than likely that he ran off. Do me a favor; tomorrow, as soon as the rain stops up there come down and help me look for him, would you? It's getting too wet to try and get up the hill with all the groceries. Barret and I will stay in Nibelheim tonight." With one hand holding three plastic bags of groceries and the other holding his PHS to his ear, Reeve attempted to both fend off the rain and make his way into the small Inn in Nibelheim. Barret followed close behind, three bulging bags full of supplies under each arm.

Alright. It's getting late, and my signal's going out. I'll contact you in the morning. Cloud's PHS cut out, leaving nothing but static as the WRO's leader attempted to make his way through the rain. He stowed his PHS in his pocket, water invading his boots and sloshing through his socks as he was submerged ankle-deep in a clogged street drain. With a few more steps he was inside the Inn, holding the door open for Barret as he thundered inside.

Where are you? Silently Ariana walked around the equally noiseless campground, passing through each of the tents in turn. She went through the largest first, smiling down at the hodgepodge of limbs and red fur that was thrown together in the very center. Cloud clung tightly to Tifa, who was perfectly content with her head resting on Red XIII's stomach and his two back paws draped over her stomach. She passed through them without a word, heading back out into the cold and rainy weather.

I always seem to bring this stuff with me. She sighed and looked to the overcast and dark sky, and surprisingly a gust of mist was swallowed into the darkness. On to the smallest tent at the end of the line; she peered through the canvas, expecting to see her daughter. But Mira wasn't nestled amongst the blankets and opened sleeping bags, instead a boy and a girl were trying their hardest to stay in the very corners of their sides of the tent and failing rather miserably. Both had a hand clutching an arm of a ragged stuffed brown bear with button eyes, the little girl shivering as the boy rolled over and pulled more of his blanket away from her. With narrowed eyes the Major reached down and slowly drug another of the blankets over the little girl, her hands becoming tangible for scarcely a moment as she aided her. With a content nod she moved on, walking through the tent to the one at the very end, a rough canvas one with still slightly-opened flaps. She was about to walk in, when something else caught her attention. Ariana turned, cocking her head to one side as she tried to figure out what she was seeing. It looked like a man covered in a tarp, his feet soaking cold and the spear holding the end of the tarp up off the ground sagging to the left. With slowly more-audible crunching through the inch-deep layer of hail on the ground, the former FemSOLDIER took the spear and thrusted it further into the ground and re-hooked the tarp to it. The tent regained its shape, and with a smile she knelt down in the pseudo-snow and pushed the blond pilot's feet back inside his sleeping bag. She gave them a motherly pat, and returned to her task at hand. Her strength sapped, she returned to an ethereal form and walked noiselessly into the last tent.

There you are. Ariana smiled, her intangible hand caressing the side of her daughter's cheek as she knelt down on the floor of the large tent. Mira sniffed and tried to turn into the hand, but she fell right through it. Ariana bit her lip and fought back tears, gathering what was left of her strength to turn completely tangible once more and gather her daughter up into a tight hug. Mira squirmed in her sleep, her pocket upending and its contents falling out with a gentle clink and an echoing chime.

"Mumma, you're squeezing me." She muttered, grabbing a handful of her mother's just barely tangible sweater. Suddenly, the cold steel of a gun barrel was digging into Ariana's temple, the fangs of the canine heads on the three barrels nearly piercing the flesh.

"Put her down." A deep voice growled, his arm steady as he threatened the tent-invader.

"Amazing. Considering my former profession, I should have heard you wake up." The ex-FemSOLDIER looked up from the face of her daughter, smiling sadly. "But you're the Turk, aren't you."

"Former. Put her down, now." Vincent growled, the claw he had wrapped around Yuffie's shoulders tightening ever-so-slightly and making the Kunoichi twitch in her sleep.

"But-" Ariana protested, only to have one of Cerberus' hammers drawn back.

"If she wakes up, ma'am, I can assure you that she will be worse than if you had never come." Vincent sighed, gently deactivating the hammer of the triple-barreled gun. "She's happy here, with the people she has now."

"I haven't seen her since she was four years old, Mr. Valentine. Just let me hold her." Ariana said, looking down at the girl in her arms. Mira smiled and pulled herself to the long-lost comfort of her mother's side, the woman clutching her tightly. One of Mira's feet tapped her grayish-black orb of Materia, the sphere rolling over and showing the skull projected inside. With lightning-fast movements, she reached out and collected both of the trinkets and dropped them into her daughter's pocket, her fingers lingering longer over the Summon the Dead Materia than the Heal Bell.

"She's just turned seven..." Ariana whispered, slowly and mournfully setting Mira down in her sleeping bag as she felt her strength failing. As she began to disappear, trying to hold on as long as she could, she looked up at Vincent. "Take good care of her, alright? I don't want to come back, it would be too painful." The ex-FemSOLDIER paused, adverting her eyes from the crimson cloak buckled around the gunman's shoulders. "And I'm sorry. So very, very sorry." With her final words, she flickered out of view. Mira squirmed in her sleep, grasping for the warmth that had been at her side for such a short period of time.

"Mumma..." She muttered, her hands grasping for something to hold. With a light smile, Vincent leaned forward and pulled Mira in between himself and Yuffie, laying down and pulling them both to him. Mira settled, Yuffie wrapping one of her arms around the seven-year-old's waist.

"Apology accepted." Vincent murmured softly, closing his eyes.

Slight discrepancy in canon: Fixed! Maybe I should stop writing until I beat FFVII, so I can stop making a fool of myself.