Lost in the Shadows

Chapter 34 - Broken Souls

Disclaimer: I do not own FF7, its characters, settings, etc. These words, however, are mine.

Musical Muse - Jon Schmidt: Waterfall & Gackt: Rain

The dial tone was too much to listen to this time. Letting her PHS fall into Sephiroth's hands, Aerith let out a cry of frustration and anger.

"Figures." Sephiroth muttered from behind her. He wrapped his arms around her waist and held her to him protectively, eyeing the PHS. The question of why Cid and Yuffie weren't answering their phones ran through both their minds, but they kept it to themselves all the same. Aerith sighed and leaned her head back so she could look into his face. She smiled even though she felt completely helpless and in despair.

"What figures?"

"That this would happen." He ended his statement with a taunting kiss along her neck.

"Stop that!"

"Why?" He grinned.

"Well--" Aerith began, but paused. The flames were dying down a bit now, thanks to Cloud and Reno, but that wasn't what caught her attention, not what she was staring at the flames so intently for. "Do you hear that?" She whispered to Sephiroth and he just barely picked her words up. They stood ever so still and tried to hear -- once again and for the first time -- for whatever Aerith had, or thought, she had heard.

It took a moment before Sephiroth was striding away from her and into the flames. Quickly.

"Sephiroth!" Aerith called out a little too late. She huffed anxiously and watched for him to return. She wasn't very worried, she knew he could handle a little heat.

She suddenly noticed Tifa and frowned. Still walking aimlessly, she was just staring into the night sky lit brilliantly with shimmering stars. That was one thing you could associate with Tifa, she thought. Stars. They were a part of her childhood, her eyes, her life. And water.

How random.

She fidgeted. Okay, maybe she was worried.

But she shouldn't have been.

Sephiroth walked out with the grace of an angel, like there were no flames behind him at all. One thing was different though, the one thing distracting her from the utmost ethereal picture of Sephiroth walking towards her.

He was carrying something in his arms.

Someone.

Aerith let out a yelp of surprise and ran over to Sephiroth. "Sephiroth, oh my dear Gaia." She held her arms out and he passed her the child, ready to get the poor thing out of his arms. She gasped and tears came to her eyes, but they luckily didn't spill over. The child was still breathing, thankfully. She blinked a few times and started to look him over. There were burns on the side of his face and along his right arm, but he'd been lucky. He was barely scathed, for all that could have happened. He was wearing dark clothing that hung loosely on his body and he had short brown hair. She couldn't place how old he might've looked and decided to stop worrying about his age and worry about his condition.

"He's a lucky one." Cait said, waddling over to them, Red in tow.

"Oh my god, Aerith, is he alright?"

"Of course not." She snapped. Tifa and Sephiroth looked a bit shocked -- more Tifa, though -- as she turned right around and went back to work without saying another word. Aerith felt guilt gnaw at her as she healed the boy laying in front of her. She was just so tired and all of a sudden she had the urge to hit something. It was unlike her, but she justified it by telling herself an entire town had just gone up in smoke, probably because she and the others were there.

And why weren't Cid and Yuffie answering the phone?

In that second that all those thoughts ran through her head she gasped and jumped away from the boy.

She fell into a sculpted body and she felt Sephiroth's hands on her arms. "Aerith?" His concern would have been heartwarming, but in her sudden state of panic it hardly registered with her. His voice went in one ear and out the other as she managed to gasp something.

"I can't... See!" She put her hands on the side of her head as a huge wave of pain exploded through her. She moaned and her knees buckled underneath her. Sephiroth gently lowered her to the ground as she doubled over in unimaginable pain. Her entire body was shaking with uncontrollable spasms and she could hear nothing.

It was like her body was shutting down.

"What's happening to her!?" Tifa nearly screamed, rushing over to Sephiroth. Vincent was at her heels.

"I don't know." He muttered, placing his hands over her on the sides of her head. Panic laced through him and the thought of losing her ran through his head over and over, but he remained calm on the outside. A warmth coursed through him and into her as he uttered the incantation for a powerful cure spell. All the tension left her body then as she surrendered to the taunting darkness of sleep and she crumpled forward. Sephiroth wound an arm around her chest and held her upright. Her head lolled back to rest on his shoulder and Tifa felt tears forming in her eyes.

There was absolutely no colour in the flower girl's face.

It reminded her too greatly of Aerith's death and Tifa had to leave, unable to look at her any longer. Sephiroth watched Cloud, who was done with the flames, take her arm and lead her over to the now unattended boy. Cloud's eyes flashed back to Aerith, worry greatly consuming him, but he merely gave Sephiroth a sympathetic glance before he tended to Tifa.

Tifa thoughts were buzzing in her head as she literally fell to the ground beside the boy. She took his face in her hands and started to heal him, trying to ignore Cloud's soothing voice, trying to block out everything that had happened all in the one night.

She focused on the boy.

"Come on now, wake up sweetie..." She murmured. After a few minutes of no response and healing that rendered his skin flawless, she sat back, shoulders drooped and face set in an almost permanent expression of grief.

She jumped when the boy sucked in a huge breath and sat up with incredible speed. "Fire!" He screamed and his face crumbled as tears streamed down his face. He threw himself at Tifa, wrapping his arms around her and sobbing into her chest. She recovered quickly from her surprise and wrapped her own arms around him, whispering the same words to him over and over again. She didn't know if she was really trying to soothe the frightened child or herself.

"It's alright, it's alright, it's all over..."

He coughed a couple times and looked up at her, disoriented. "Who are you?" His voice cracked and his eyes started to close from exhaustion.

"My name's Tifa..." She smiled, trying to reassure him. "You're safe now."

"I'm..." He all but breathed the word before he fell into her and quieted.

She heard a whisper of a name before he'd fallen asleep.

Denzel.

Vincent stood idly beside Sephiroth, wondering what to do with himself. He felt torn -- he had an obligation here, to his friends. And yet, Yuffie was off somewhere and nobody could get a hold of her. Had something happened to her? Had something happened to Cid? Shera? The baby?

For the first time in a long time, he felt that first sprout of worry plant itself in his stomach.

'Host,' the demons inside of him rumbled. 'You've done it again.'

'Nothing good can come of this!' Death Gigas taunted, throwing images into his mind of Lucrecia, crying out for her son, Hojo standing over him with a needle full of Mako and who knows what else. Painful memories, that would have hurt him any other time had his mind not been filled with the thought of what could have happened to the young ninja and the chain-smoking pilot.

'Silence, heathen!' Vincent roared in his mind. It was in vain though. He knew there was almost nothing that could shut the demons up for long.

'So what do you think happened to her?'

'Death?'

'Torture?'

The demons laughed cruelly and in unison they cheered in his head.

It was then Vincent noticed Chaos had remained silent throughout the entire ordeal. He managed to back the demons into a corner of his mind, secluded and away from his thoughts, and he called out to the missing entity. 'Chaos?'

A slight rumble.

'Why do you stay silent, demon?'

A feral roar.

Vincent was bewildered. What could have Chaos in such a state? He, generally, was the one leading the pack in their daily jeers at him and his past. He shook his head clear and, ignoring them all best as he could as they filtered back into the front of his mind, dialed a number on the PHS while walking silently away from the despairing Sephiroth.

He listened to the constant ringing numbly.

Yuffie watched her phone ring and ring and ring. The sound seemed so foreign at that moment, after she'd cried a billion tears. Her head was swimming with muffled noises and she could feel a headache coming on. It had also gotten steadily darker -- but she felt no real need to get up and so she merely sat there, in a trance-like state, letting the cold wind beat at her mercilessly.

'Now, what did any of that do for you? Crying like that? For what, you big baby?'

She felt guilt wash over her and more tears pricked her eyes.

'I just left Cid there.' She squeezed her eyes shut and let out more tired sobs. 'I didn't even go and see his kid... Is it a boy or a girl?' Her heart clenched painfully and she swung a fist down into the ground, letting out a scream. She fell backwards onto the ground and just lay there.

She looked up at the sky, feeling the days hardships wear further down on her. Her eyes searched the sky for what seemed like forever and more tears spilled over when she couldn't find or feel what she usually could when looking up at the darkening sky filled with sparkling stars.

'Mama, have I dishonored you?'

Something tore into her then.

Literally.

She screamed as the teeth of an unseen and unheard fiend bit her, tearing her flesh apart ruthlessly. Blood started to run down her side as she ripped herself free. The momentum she gained from the spin and the weakness of her body caused her to tumble and she fell to the ground in a heap.

'God, that hurts...' She thought and turned in such a way that she could inspect the damage, all the while keeping the yellow eyes of the fiend in her sight. It's eyes were glowing, taunting, got you.

She had no cure materia on her. A single potion.

Panic rushed through her, mixed with adrenaline.

'A potion isn't going to help me!' She screamed at herself frantically. 'Uh oh... This is bad...'

She stood, shakily, and the fiend jumped forward a bit. She faltered, one, two steps back and her vision blurred a bit. She was losing a lot of blood fast and when she felt a searing pain jolt through her quickly she knew she was poisoned as well.

"Gawd, you stupid thing!" She yelled at it. Her Conformer was on the ground somewhere, but she couldn't see it...

Then, a second pair of eyes appeared, right beside her. She muffled a scream and ducked when it jumped at her. It missed her, but just barely. She wasn't too happy with that fact.

Another misfortune: the second fiend was glowing.

"A Mako fiend!?" Yuffie asked, not really a question. "Crap!"

"Hey, no swearing!" A voice called from behind her. "That's my job!"

Yuffie, distracted, turned her head to look in his direction. Snapping back into reality, she quickly turned back around, prepared for an attack, but what met her confused her greatly.

There wasn't a fiend in sight. She blinked once, twice, before she turned to face Cid. She bit the inside of her cheek as the movement caused a flood of pain to course through the side of her body. "Why'd you run off kid? You didn't even stay to see the fucki--" He stopped short rather abruptly and Yuffie guessed he somehow saw her wound. The blood had soaked the entire right side of her shirt and it was beginning to roll slowly down her shorts and legs, some oozing onto the ground.

"Fuck! What'd you do to yourself now, kid!?" Cid cursed, running the rest of the way towards her. He leaned down to look as best he could, for whatever reason Yuffie didn't know, before he asked her if she could lift her arm. She nodded slowly, stumbling as her vision blurred again and the weakness in her body became appallingly real to her. "Wow, stay standin'!" Cid said and she could hear the concern in his voice. When she'd lifted her arm, he slowly pulled up her shirt, exposing the side of her body and swore once more before letting it fall back.

"Do you have a cure on you?" He asked.

She shook her head no. "Just a potion. Cid--"

"Fuckin' god damn. I have nothing!"

"Cid!" Yuffie's voice turned serious and she tried to lock gazes with him. "There was... There was a fiend..." She said, gasping for breath. She didn't know if she was just imagining it so and her body was responding or if it were actually happening, but she was becoming short of breath. "A fiend and a..."

"Fuckin' shit."

"A Mako fiend, Cid... There's a fiend here... Somewhere... Shera... The baby..."

Those were her last words before she fell into darkness.

"What do you think happened to her...?" Elena asked, sitting in a circle with Reno, Red and Cait. They'd stayed off to the side, Reno joining the three after he'd helped in putting out the flames. When asked if there were any survivors, which they all knew the answer to anyway, and he shook his head, they had fallen into a grievous silence.

Her thoughts drifted to Rude... And pain flashed through her head, her heart beating rapidly. She forced tears down -- there'd been enough spilled today -- and sat moodily beside her friends.

"I don't know... I hope she's okay..." Cait replied sullenly, his ears drooping sadly.

"Aerith is a fighter... She'll be fine." Reno said in an attempt to soothe Elena's doubts and worries. She merely glanced his way tiredly.

'Grandfather,' Red thought, laying his head on his paws. 'Let us be safe. Let this danger pass swiftly.'

Reno pulled Elena over to rest against his side and she fell asleep almost instantly. They fell into a comfortable silence, letting the remaining smell of smoke and the ashes that fell on their head motivate them to find whoever caused such destruction. Find them and destroy them, once and for all.

Tifa had sat in the same spot for the last hour, watching everyone else mill about uselessly, unsure of what to do without Cid and Yuffie. The boy, Denzel, was sleeping soundly in her arms, worn out, and as the darkness began to gather around them, Cloud had wrapped his arms around her, holding her close to his warm body and they started talking about anything and everything.

"What do you want to do when this is all over, Cloud?" Tifa asked. She'd been wondering what would happen to them after everything and especially now that their home had been burned to ashes. Cloud seemed to think about it before he laid his chin on her shoulder and, right by her ear, began to talk.

"Well... We obviously need a new house." His words held some humour and she had to smile as well. "And... We'll need to do something about this kid."

"Maybe he could stay with us?" She asked suddenly. It struck her as odd how much she actually did want to keep him with them, now that she'd thought of it. He seemed like such a sweet boy -- his parents or whomever he'd had while living in Costa Del Sol, gone. Without a family.

'Maybe it's because you can relate.' She thought.

A silence hung between them for a bit and Tifa wondered if she'd gone a little too far too fast.

"I don't see why not." He finally answered and Tifa's heart soared.

"Cloud, what would I do without you?" She asked, snuggling herself further into his embrace. "I love you." She whispered almost immediately after.

"I love you too, Teef." He said, kissing her jaw tenderly. He couldn't help but feel protective of her right now. So much had happened and she'd just acted so different after it all. But now, his Tifa was shining through and he started to relax. "Go to sleep. I'll be here, alright?"

"I don't want to sleep..." She sighed softly.

He smirked. "What a fight that was..."

She whacked his arm playfully and smirked, opening her eyes and turning her head around to look at him. "You're such a tease."

"Yeah, I know I am."

She giggled and the movement woke Denzel. He lifted his face up slowly, after fully waking himself and looked into the ruby red eyes of Tifa. She smiled at him lovingly and he smiled back, unsure of himself. Then he saw the man sitting behind her. His glowing blue eyes looked cold -- a first impression. Looking closer, he saw the same tender emotion in Tifa's eyes and he felt... Safe.

He hadn't felt safe in a long time.

Aerith drifted in that feeling of floaty warmth. She didn't want to open her eyes and she didn't want to feel anything. She could hear someone calling her name though, desperately, pleading for her to let them know she was okay.

In the midst of it all, she tried. She tried to let them know, she tried to say something, but she couldn't.

And when she heard the voice utter softly that they loved her, she fell back into the warmth and wrapped herself up in it, content with the words she'd just been given.

Vincent lost control when Cid, who had finally picked up his PHS, told him how he'd found Yuffie. Pain, worry, grief, all coursed through him in a single second and he felt Chaos take over. Ruthlessly, he shed his skin and clothing and jumped into the sky with a feral and predetorial roar. He flapped his wings and gave Cloud a single glance to let him know he was fine and would be back before he flew off into the night sky.

Yuffie could hear and feel someone working above and around her. Her skin felt tight on her body and she struggled to breathe.

"Yuffie? Yuffie sweetheart, are you alright?"

Shera.

Relief poured through Yuffie and she forced her eyes open. She recoiled from the blinding light that was above her face and lay her eyes over her arm, trying to get her eyes to adjust. She sat up quickly then and Shera tried to force her back down but it was to no avail. "Where's Cid!?" She choked out, her voice sounding raspy. Her throat felt like sandpaper.

Shera lay a soothing arm around her shoulders. "He's gone outside for a while--"

"Where!? Shera, there's a fiend out there!" She started to panic and Shera had to take a few minutes to calm her down. "Where am I?" She asked after she'd let herself breathe normally. Her thoughts were still fixated on Cid.

"Cid knows there's a fiend, he's just gone to warn the town and call the others to let them know everything went fine coming here and that he was going to pick them up a little later on." She paused and let it sink in before continuing. "As for where you are, you're in the guest room."

Yuffie coughed a couple times and her side exploded with pain. She cried out.

"Shhh, shhh..." Shera said, rubbing her arm. "I know it hurts. I can't do anything to help you until Cid is back though, we have no cure materia."

Yuffie screamed internally. Have I been out for a few minutes? What on earth is going on!?

"You've only been out for about five or ten minutes." Shera said, answering her unspoken question. Her features brightened then, a smile flitting across her face. "Would you like to see the baby?"

Yuffie felt the urge to finally lay her eyes on a source of her pain and she almost said yes, but stopped herself. No. No, she didn't want to see the baby. Not until Cid was with her. She would wait. Just a little longer. She buried her head in her knees then, shaking her head and ignoring the pain that flared. She looked up just in time to see Shera composing herself. She cursed herself and promised to take a whack at her stupid self when she was able to move. "No, no! Shera, I didn't mean that! I just... I want to see the baby while Cid's here too..."

She needn't have said anything else as understanding became visible in the older woman's eyes. They talked then. Just... talked. Yuffie was content to do just that. It had been a while since she'd talked to any woman like that -- Aerith, Tifa or otherwise.

Eventually, Cid's cursing and stomping self walked through the front door. Yuffie perked up a bit, wanting to see him. Wanting to see the baby.

When he made his way upstairs and into the guest room, Yuffie could see he was happy to see her awake. Relief surged through his face and whatever tension had been in his body fell away. "Fuck, brat, you're awake." He surprised her then when he crossed the room towards her and pulled her into a hug. Not crushing, for he didn't want to bother her injury, but not exactly a gentle hug either. She merely hugged him back, and she felt tears form at the corners of her eyes as comfort flowed through her.

Shera smiled warmly all the while. She left the room a little bit before he finally let her go, to get the baby Yuffie figured. Only then did Yuffie's nerves become fretfully obvious.

The first thing she heard was the small sucking sounds of the baby's lips moving against each other. The first thing she saw was the tiny hand that was reaching up in attempt grab hold of something of Shera's. The love radiating off of Shera was amazing. Cid looked at the two of them lovingly and at any other time, Yuffie would have felt out of place.

She didn't even need to see the baby to know she would love him or her as a brother or sister.

When Shera sat down beside her and let Yuffie take the baby, Yuffie finally felt at peace.

How could she have been so afraid of this? This tiny little girl?

"Hey, you..." She whispered, tugging the soft blanket that surrounded the infant down from around her perfectly round and chubby face. "I sure hope you don't turn out to be a chain-smoker... You'll be a ninja, right? Yeah..." She cooed and she could feel the warm stares of Cid and Shera on her.

Cid chuckled a bit at Yuffie's soft-spoken words and he ruffled her hair. Shera leaned into Yuffie and laid her head against the side of Yuffie's, looking down at her beautiful baby.

In that moment, Yuffie finally felt like she belonged somewhere.

She finally felt like she had a family and she would've never chosen any other group of people.

Sephiroth honestly didn't know what to do anymore.

He'd long ago stopped talking to her, to himself, trying to calm himself down. He was glad when everyone had left him alone. He hadn't wanted to lose it in front of all of them. He was not weak.

He snorted to himself at the thought. Now was hardly the time to start thinking about being weak. There was an entire battle left to go!

Damn this Planet for setting him and Aerith on it's surface!

Immediately, he regretted thinking it. He'd learned a lot since coming back here, and he'd gained a lot. Trust from most of Avalanche, Aerith's unbelievable faith in him and in their relationship. He'd begun to build something of a normal life for himself and he would be forever grateful to the Planet, his mother, Gast and Ifalna and most especially Aerith for this chance.

I love you.

He'd uttered those words to Aerith's still and cold form not too long ago. He wondered if he would have the courage to say anything to her when she woke up. He'd said them more for her to hold onto, regardless of whether she heard him or not.

Why she wasn't regaining colour or consciousness was beyond him.

He didn't want to lose her. Before now, it probably wouldn't have mattered.

Now... It did.

How he'd changed.

Dark thoughts entered his head then. Thoughts unprecedented, ones like the thoughts he'd had so long ago when he'd set out to destroy this Planet and it's inhabitants...

If she dies...

At least I'll have a reason to destroy whoever these people are...

His fists curled slowly.

His eyes glowed with malice.

They'll wish they'd never even left their safe haven...

And so quickly, his head was filled with the images of him killing the woman laying in his arms, motionless. His blade, slicing through her skin, her back, her abdomen. The life shuddering out of her as she held in the cry he'd so long to vest from her broken body...

He felt repulsed and wanted to get his hands off of the innocent woman he was now clutching. That moment though, Aerith sat up abruptly her eyes flying open. A shrill scream erupted from her throat and she stood with a haste Sephiroth had never seen her move with. He was up in an instant and restraining her as she tried to run.

"Aerith, calm down, calm down..." He spoke quietly, but with force. Her squirming eventually stilled and her breathing became somewhat normal.

"Where's Vincent? Yuffie? Cid?" Aerith asked, hurriedly, spinning around in his arms to face him. Her head was still throbbing painfully, but she ignored it -- at least she could see now.

"Vincent flew off to find Yuffie..."

"Chaos?" She asked, fearing his answer would be yes.

He nodded. She closed her eyes.

"Are Yuffie and Cid alright?"

"Yes, Cloud called them after Vincent left..."

Aerith looked around her suddenly. "Where's that boy?" She asked. "Is he alright?"

He motioned his head towards her left and she saw Cloud and Tifa, laying together looking absolutely adorable, with the boy laying on Tifa's chest, sound asleep. She smiled and a warm and fuzzy feeling crawled inside of her. "They're so adorable..."

"Aerith." His one word brought her out of her reverie and she looked up at him sorrowfully. "Are you alright?"

She looked deep into his eyes, searching for something. "I'm fine, Sephiroth. How are you?"

God, it was like she could read his thoughts, like she knew things nobody else did. He steeled himself against whatever she was looking for and answered, rather curtly, "I'm fine."

She looked down quickly, regaining herself, before she looked back up at him with a smile plastered on her face.

"That's good." She said, before she leaned down and picked up her PHS that she spotted laying on the ground by her feet. She dialed Yuffie's number and listened to the dial tone. Someone answered, but it wasn't Yuffie. Nonetheless, when she heard Shera's happy and bubbly voice she smiled in relief. "Hello?"

"Shera? How are you? Congratulations!"

"Oh, Aerith dear. I'm fine and thank you! You must come and visit sometime soon." She gushed. "I want you all to see the baby!"

"Girl or boy?" Aerith asked, a grin spreading across her face.

"Girl!"

"Oh god, I'm so happy for you!"

"Thank you dear."

"Listen, Shera, I'm really sorry to cut this short... But I need to talk to Cid or Yuffie." Aerith said, sad she had to end this perfectly normal conversation in her perfectly abnormal life.

"Oh, it's alright, they're dying to talk to you anyway." She said. "I'll see you later?"

"You'll see me later. All of us."

"Alright. Take care, all of you!"

"You too, Shera."

She waited while shuffling took place on the other end of the phone. Eventually, Cid's voice was booming in her ear.

"Cid?" She asked, trying to get his attention, feeling herself slip further away from everyone. The ground beneath her shook and everyone around her jumped up, shocked, yelling, confused. An earthquake? some asked. Aerith barely moved an inch, as if she had been expecting it to happen. She did have to steady herself though when a particularly large quake ripped through he earth beneath her feet. "Cid, get here as fast as you can with Vincent and Yuffie okay?"

She hung up before he or herself could clearly hear the trembling in her voice.

She looked one last time at Sephiroth who was watching her curiously, unaffected by the movement around them.

They stared at each other in an ethereal silence, neither blinking an eye. The entire moment was something Aerith would hold onto for the rest of her life. Their bond had been cemented. In the end, she mouthed the words, 'I'm sorry'.

And then she ran.

And she danced.