Love, Aerith

Chapter 8: Lost

The flowers… they bring hope. I will never give up on you.

"Cloud! Wait!" He called again and watched as the blond man turned to look for the person calling his name in between the people on the platform. When Cloud raised an eyebrow in curiosity Zack knew he had already seen him running towards him. Cloud stopped on his feet, his hand already lifted with the train ticket gripped in between his fingers. "I'm glad you haven't departed yet. I was afraid I wouldn't be here in time." Zack rested his hands on his knees and breathed in heavily to catch his breath.

"Zack I really don't have time for this if you came here to yell at me some more." Cloud sighed impatiently.

"Do you think I'd run this far to get you in time from leaving if I wanted to just yell at you?" Zack stoop up and thought about what he said for a moment while Cloud stared at him silently waiting for him to think it over. "Wait… I think I would do that."

"Goodbye Zack." Cloud gave one step forward to the train once again but Zack's firm hand clenched around his arm stopping the blond from proceeding.

"I came here…" Zack started saying but looked down and away from the man in front of him. "…to stop you from doing something this stupid."

"What?" Cloud's eyes widened, he didn't understand what the black-haired man was saying.

"I came here to stop you from going away and leave her behind." Zack continued and swallowed hard as he looked back up again and into the aquamarine eyes of his friend who was staring in disbelief back at him. "Aerith… needs you." Zack exhaled and closed his eyes for a brief second for the next thing he was going to say would be the hardest thing he would ever say in his life. "If she didn't want me when I came back… was because she loved you. Not me. I'm the past and you're her present now. Don't walk away from her future."

"Zack what are yo—"

"Just hear me out first." Zack raised his voice, his eyes watered slightly. "If I don't finish what I have to say I will regret this forever." He swallowed to even his voice.

Cloud nodded quietly, he would give him that chance, he had to.

"When you found me back then on the street I had my mind made up on one thing only and it was to win Aerith back. I couldn't afford loosing her and I didn't care about what you felt." Zack's eyes were fixed on Cloud's. "But then when I found you and you told me you were leaving, giving up just like that. It suddenly made me angry that you were giving up on the most amazing person I had ever met in my life just like that. But then it occurred to me, that if I felt that way you would be feeling much worse than me because it's just not possible to leave Aerith behind that easily."

Cloud looked down taking in every word he was saying. If Zack wanted to make him feel better, he wasn't getting there.

"So… it came to me that… not only you were letting Aerith stay with me, but you were also letting me be with her. You were leaving because you thought that if you left we would be happy. You were giving us a chance, another chance to finally get our happy ending." Zack continued. "But what about you?"

"I don't… really care about me." Cloud said simply as if it was obvious to him.

"Exactly. But I realized that I do." Zack let go of his arm, finally. "I know I've been acting really stupid since I showed up but as much as you think otherwise, I do care about you. Always have and no matter what happens, even this," Zack let out a small laugh. "always will, Cloud. I should be the one leaving, not you. I should have never come back."

"Zack… I didn't get a chance to tell you before… I'm sorry." Cloud said solemnly.

"You better be!" Zack exclaimed teasingly. "Stealing away my girl like that!"

"I swear I didn't know it just happe—"

"Relax man!" Zack interrupted him grinning. "I can't say I'm over it but I have to respect Aerith… and I know you can't tell your heart what to feel. You're with Aerith now, what we had is gone and I have to accept it." Even if it destroys me…Zack didn't say aloud, his heart was tightened inside his chest. He could be grinning and he could be talking to Cloud with a smile on his face but inside Zack was hurting. He came back hoping he could take back the life he had left here but it turned out people had moved on without him and it surprised him that he had thought otherwise. It was time for him to move on too. He would give Cloud the chance that was his to be happy.

"It's not that simple." Cloud said grimly then. His voice startled Zack who wondered what he meant. Suddenly, the train's siren echoed through the platform letting the passengers know it was about to take off. Cloud stood petrified looking at it starting to move and leaving him behind. "I left Aerith a letter before coming here telling her I was leaving. If she wanted me to stay, she could come here."

"You did that?" Zack asked in awe.

"Yes, and you don't look anything like Aerith so…" Cloud paused for a moment. "I take it she is probably looking for you."

"I don't believe it Cloud." Zack said, his eyes widening. "I don't think she would do that and even if she did, she would not let you leave without talking to you first."

"She didn't come here Zack. She let me go."

"No… something must have happened. Maybe she didn't get the letter. Can you imagine if that happened? How would you live with yourself, not knowing?"

Cloud thought about it for a minute, Zack could be right, if Aerith didn't read his letter he could be making the biggest mistake of his life, well, at least almost did since the train had left already and he was still there.

"We have to find her." Cloud's bright blue eyes flickered in the light. "But what if you're wrong? I can't stand…"

"Come on!" The black-haired man pulled him by the arm. "We'll never know if we just stand here." Deep inside Zack wished he was wrong and Aerith was really looking for him but he knew he couldn't bring his hopes up.


"Well, go on." Zack nodded reassuringly to Cloud. "Elmyra will freak out if she sees me on her doorstep. Everyone thought I was dead, I'm afraid the old lady will have a heart-attack."

"You're staying here?" Cloud asked turning back to look at him.

"Nah… I think I'll go. Kunsel will let me stay at his place for a while, until I figure things out." Zack smiled, his hands went into his pockets, his shoulders lifted.

"Don't you want to wait for her?" Cloud asked, his throat tightening into a knot.

"I already know what she'll say." Zack gave him a quick tiny smile before turning around to leave.

"Zack!" Cloud called, Zack stopped on his feet but didn't turn around, his eyes burned. He was leaving Aerith behind for her to be with his best friend, what more did he have to face? "Thank you." Cloud said, Zack nodded and walked away. Cloud's blue eyes followed his silhouette until he lost his friend in the distance.

The blond man sighed alone; he still had the bag of clothes in his hand. He slowly climbed the stairs to Aerith's house and hesitating for a moment, his fist lifted up in front of the door, he knocked twice. Seconds later Elmyra opened the door. Her face was flushed; her eyes were puffy and red from crying? Cloud wondered.

"Hi…" He said at first. "Is Aerith home?"

"I was hoping you knew where she was." Elmyra raised one hand to her forehead. "She left a couple of hours ago and hasn't come back. I tried calling her cell phone but she never answered."

"What?"

"I made her a nice dinner for her birthday. She left in a hurry after she read the letter you left, I thought she was going to meet you but she always calls me when she can't make it to dinner. I even thought you were going to take her some place else, I wouldn't have minded. I was worried that she didn't tell me anything, she looked sad when she came home earlier." Seeing Cloud there without Aerith, made Elmyra's hands start shaking, he noticed. "Where could she be?"

"Have you tried the church?" Cloud asked.

"I haven't left home yet, I've been waiting for her." Elmyra's voice cracked. "Do you think something happened to her?"

"Let's not think that." Cloud assured her. "I will go look for her, please stay here she might come back. Do you mind if I leave my bag here?" Elmyra nodded and took the bag from Cloud's hands.

"Did you have a fight or something?" She asked after a long sigh.

"No…" Cloud shook his head, starting to feel anxious. "The minute I find her, I'll tell her to call you." Elmyra nodded and gave him a small smile. "Don't worry."

Cloud left the house in a hurry and already dialling Zack's number in his cell phone hoping it could still work.


Aerith's eyes opened slowly when she felt the bright lights burning through her eyelids. Her head throbbed in pain when she tried lifting it to see where she was. When she sat up her arm felt a sudden pain and when she searched to see the source of the pain she noticed a small round red mark on her arm, someone had injected something into her and just the thought of what it could have been made her feel sick.

She sat on a sort of mattress with white sheets in a small glassed compartment and because of the transparent walls around her she could see several more of those small rooms next to hers, only those were empty. That's when something orange and big by the corner of her room caught her eye.

She slowly turned her head in the orange smudge's direction until her eyes focused on a huge creature sitting there with big black round eyes staring inquisitively at her. She breathed in to hold a scream from escaping her throat.

"Please don't hurt me." She begged quickly to the huge tiger. She stared at his paws, she was sure one single strike from one of those could knock her out in a second.

"Don't worry." The tiger spoke in a smooth but sad voice. Aerith's eyes widened in surprise. "I'm not going to." There was something in his eyes, the young woman noticed, they looked so tired and gloomy.

"Where are we?" Aerith asked ignoring the fact that she was talking to a tiger that could talk back to her. Of course she was scared but the eyes of that creature seemed so heart-breaking, she felt that wherever they were, they were on the same boat.

"In Shinra's lab." The tiger said. "I'm an experiment of Professor Hojo. They call me Red XIII."

"Oh…" Aerith looked down thoughtfully. "Then I guess that makes me an experiment too." The girl sat against the transparent wall at the back of the room and hugged her legs to her chest. She looked one more time at the small round mark on her arm. "I'm Aerith."

The girl dressed in pink rested her forehead on her knees feeling the warm tears running down her cheeks.

"Cloud…" She sobbed desperately. I wasn't there to stop him and now he's probably gone and I will never see him again. He thinks I didn't go there because I didn't love him. I didn't want to hurt you, any of you. Zack… I'm sorry.

"Hey…" She heard Red's voice call her softly; he sat in the most distant corner of the room from the girl so she wouldn't be afraid of him. "We'll get away from here. I'm sure you have people looking for you, it will only be a matter of time." But Red had lost track of time being in there, he couldn't tell for how long he had been kept in that laboratory, but he couldn't let Aerith lose her hope.

"No… I don't want them to come. I will only hurt them more. This is probably for the best." She said lifting her head and the tears streamed down her face.


Cloud entered the church panting, his chest was breathing heavily but he didn't feel tired, it would take much more than that to exhaust him. What he was feeling was panic. He looked around the quiet place eagerly, she wasn't there. He climbed the stairs to the church's roof and found it empty. Aerith wasn't there either which made him want to scream.

Standing in the middle of the empty church, Cloud thought about where he could go next. It seemed like the walls were closing in on him, circling and suffocating him. Where could she be? He had never felt this lost before, this hopeless. That's when someone's footsteps snapped him out of his thoughts and fears.

"She wasn't anywhere in the market too." Zack's voice echoed through the walls.

"Zack I don't know where to look anymore." Cloud ran a hand through his smooth blond hair, his voice desperate.

"What could have happened to her?" Zack asked straining his mind to think about something.

A sudden movement at the entrance of the church made the two men turn their attention at the tall figure standing there at the door. Tseng's eyes popped open as he looked at Zack, alive.

"Shocking, I know." Zack said before Tseng's opened mouth could say anything.

"What are you doing here?" Cloud asked, his voice was a threatening hiss. Cloud had never liked the Turks and seeing him there awakened that old flame he had burning inside him.

"I came here to get some peace of mind." Tseng looked around the calm church.

"Why? What did you do?" Zack asked promptly. "I mean… of all the despicable things you guys do, something really bad must have happened for you to come to a church."

"I didn't come here to just come to a church, I came here because this is her church." Tseng looked at the two men.

"What do you mean? What have you done to her?" Cloud exploded, he rushed towards the Turk and grabbed him furiously by his collar, shaking him with his fists.

"We took her." Tseng looked away from Cloud's threatening glare. The dark eyes of the Turk were full of sorrow.

"Where?" Cloud shook him again strongly.

"To the Shinra building." Tseng said motionless, his face was pale as bone and his features looked extremely weak as Cloud held him up by the neck. "Professor Hojo wanted to study her."

Cloud let go of him then beaten, his arms dropped alongside his body while his mouth dropped slightly open and his eyes flickered.

"What have you done…" Zack gritted his teeth, his hands curling up into two tight fists. Both Zack and Cloud knew what happened when Hojo found some new toys to play with in his experiments; they both had been two lab samples a long time ago until he got tired and disposed of them as if they were no longer interesting to him. They had been through hell in his hands. Zack thought about the fragile body of Aerith lost and alone inside some room waiting to be picked up and taken to some other room where they would do her all kinds of tests. His blood started boiling feverishly inside him.

"I'm sorry." Tseng looked down.

"Why?" Cloud asked, his head trying to find a reason why they could have taken her.

"You don't know?" Tseng asked in surprise. "She is a Cetra, the last one of them in the whole world."

Of course, it all made sense now, Cloud mused. Once, she and Cloud found a wounded bird struggling for his life on the ground outside Aerith's house. She picked it up and opened its wings to see the damage. When she took it home and cleaned the string of blood running down its feathers, it was only a couple of minutes before the bird was flying again.

When Cloud had been hurt in battle and came to her, she had taken care of him. He didn't notice before but now he did. Two days after she had helped him, there were no deep wounds in his body but only the marks of what seemed like long gone battle scars. Her hands were magical, they healed. The Cetras were known for their healing powers and ability to talk to the Planet. Her flowers…Cloud looked back at the blooming flower bed she took care of so passionately. Why didn't I see this before? Why didn't she tell me?

"I hope you realize what you've done." Cloud said and walked away out of the church bumping stoutly with his shoulder into Tseng's as he left.

"If anything happens to Aerith, you're a dead man. And tell that to your friends too. I will get them one by one." Zack said pointing one finger at the Turk.


Note: Hi! So I have a little explaining to do! When Cloud and Zack were talking about Aerith in the beginning of the chapter it may have sounded like they were referring to her as something they could have, like, "oh you can have her and I can't" without thinking of what Aerith really wanted. Well, there is a reason for that in the next chapters! So, you will find it out soon before you start getting the wrong idea! Another thing I wanted to say is that, as you might have noticed Cloud and Zack have been experiments of Hojo here, but I'm not following the exact aspects of the game so Zack wasn't really attacked by Shinra infantrymen, they didn't turn against Shinra, well, now they kind of did. Ok, with that said… thank you so much everyone reading and reviewing!! Thank you chibipinkbunny for all the help and Prexistence! *hugs* I always have to thank them especially because I talk to them a lot about this story and they help me improve my ideas and my writing! But I thank you all for reviewing!! Until the next chapter!! I really hope you liked this one.