Cloud woke surrounded by a swirling green. Blinking dazedly, he got to his feet, as much as one could get to their feet when there didn't seem to be a floor, and looked around. It all seemed to be misty shades of green, and for a moment he started to panic. He had just been entering a lab with Vincent, right? What if they had taken him again? Was he immersed in mako? This couldn't happen - if he was here there was no one to stop the future from happening, no one to spare Zack, Reno, and Aerith. Marlene, Denzel, and so many others would once again become orphans.
When he got to this thought in particular Cloud froze. Marlene, she lost her mother before Nibelheim, yes? If only he could remember... Corel. The Corel coal mines. Barret, that's right, how could he forget, Barret said something about Shinra building a reactor? Then they blew up the town. But when was it? He had to stop it. He had to stop all of it. Every single thing-
But Nibelheim was already gone. How could he be expected to save everyone when he couldn't even prevent the burning of his hometown? Everything was different, but he couldn't figure out what he had changed...
"Do you remember yet, Cloud?"
He spun around, or maybe the greeness spun around him, he couldn't quite tell, and suddenly Aerith was before him, her lilting voice still echoing in his ears.
At his lack of an answer the Ancient frowned before gesturing into the green, causing a lighter spark to engulf his vision for a moment. She was obviously trying to get him to remember something, but that wasn't important. Aerith was here, and it was his Aerith. Or was it?
"You're not real, are you?" he asked with a sigh, suddenly feeling very tired and why was he even here anyway?
The Aerith look alike shook her head, and Cloud realized that she was exactly how he remembered her. Normally that would be fine, but 250 years takes a toll on the memory. He looked at her harder and started to notice the lack of detail in her clothes, the color of her hair, and even her face was vague. Her nose was a normal nose, and no one has a normal nose. Not even an Ancient.
"Do you know why that is?" the Aerith asked with a smile. "It's because your idea of a nose, or any general object really, is a compilation of every nose you've ever seen, just as this image is a combination of every Aerith you remember. "Do you know why you're here?"
Cloud inclined his head, waiting to hear more but at the same time fearing the result. It seemed he would find out why he had appeared in the past, but he couldn't think of any positive reason for it to happen, not if he was being talked to by the planet.
"You're here because you don't have all of your memories."
One of Cloud's eyebrows arched in response. Not having enough memories did not seem to be his current problem. He certainly had more than the first go around, and that turned out semi decently. Sure, Zack died horribly after five years of torture and Aerith didn't live near long enough, but from the planet's perspective two lives, and even all those who died in the aftermath, shouldn't be enough to warrant time travel.
The Aerith huffed and turned aside, pacing a little before turning towards him again and explaining. "You didn't get 'sent back' after two hundred years, you made the choice after two thousand. The world was falling apart because of the virus's constant interference, and the planet offered the two who had been alive at the virus's introduction, Chaos's vessel and yourself, the chance to fix things."
"Choice?" Cloud asked skeptically, "how much of a choice was it, really?"
The Aerith shrugged. "The Planet was falling apart, so it was either contribute to its salvation or die in space. If you had refused we would have listened. We don't need you specifically. Yours isn't the first timeline, it's just the first that has given us this option."
The time traveler's eyes narrowed. The more the not-Aerith was talking, the more he didn't know what was happening. "Be clear and concise. I believe Vincent is waiting for me."
"You know nothing," the Aerith replied with a chuckle, seeming less like the real Aerith every moment. "The amount of time you perceive you spend here has no correlation to the time you are unconscious. No one is waiting, so be still and listen.
"When puddles of Lifestream started appearing on the surface of your decaying world we grabbed your consciousness, as we have again now, and offered the choice. You, unlike the one we offered the same choice, timelines ago, accepted. We were glad of this, as we thrive with the length of the world, and starting the Planet again saps nearly all of our energy. You were to immerse yourself in Lifestream, and from there we would open a hole from you to your past self. Through that hole your memories would be transferred as all organic material on your person disintegrated, leaving your memories free to travel and your processed possessions floating to slowly corrode. However, we were unable to close the gap we had created and your possessions started coming through as well.
"In theory this process should have worked perfectly, but the contact of a virus tainted human to your past self as the memories were flooding through the hole prevented many of them from being absorbed into your being, leaving them scattered. You may encounter a few of them, but it is unlikely you will regain even a portion of your lost experience. Do you understand?"
Cloud nodded hesitantly, wary of the not-Aerith gesturing angrily as it spoke. "What am I here for then, to kill Sephiroth?"
"~No~" the Aerith roared, its voice leaking power. "Destroying a tainted being would likely activate the virus, and even if it remains dormant the virus tainted being will mix with the Lifestream, leaving us in a similar position as before. You must ensure all tainted beings do not come into contact with the body currently hosting the virus, and if possible remove the taint so there is no chance for it to join with the Lifestream. This is most important for the one who first activated the virus."
"So... you want me to save Sephiroth?"
The Aerith gnashed its teeth in frustration. "If only your mind wasn't limited by the barriers of human comprehension. No, the virus-spawn will only contaminate the Lifestream if its form is immersed. You did that last time, sending not only the virus-spawn but part of the virus's vessel itself into us. It is your duty to fix this."
If Cloud was standing he would have needed to sit down. Everything that had happened, everyone that had died, that was all his fault?
No. He had done this already, he didn't need to spend any more time being sorry for something he had near nothing to do with. The way Sephiroth had been acting he was just as likely to have jumped into the reactor himself if no one had been there, and there was no way he was going to allow the Planet to blame its destruction on him.
"Regardless whether or not you believe yourself to be at fault," the Aerith continued, and Cloud wished that his thoughts could be private, "the activator is the one you are looking for, the spark."
Supposing that I even agree to do our bidding, Cloud thought resentfully, but still tried to decode what the Planet was saying. "I don't get it," he said after some time had passed. "If not Sephiroth, than who?"
The Aerith shifted, its throat struggling to form the words it needed. "We do not have names as you do, we can not-. We take the concept the name makes you think of from your head, yet without you thinking of it we can not force the picture into your mind. The last time we tried we had to reset the timeline. He is the flint, the agitator, the contrast of us. He speaks of a deity and reads from a book."
Speaks of a deity and reads from a book? Cloud wondered. That could be anyone. Literally anyone. Nearly everyone considers there to be some sort of god, and most of the population is literate, hmm. The flint, again with fire references, the agitator, that reminds me or Reno, but I'm near positive he doesn't have any Jenova cells. The contrast of us? Probably refers to him, and it is a him, apparently, being tainted with Jenova and refined mako.
Wait. Contrast is a rather specific word to use. It could just as easily have been opposite or even different, or it could have just said virus tainted again. That means it wasn't just trying to talk about Jenova. Contrast... like black on white? Contrasting colors? If so, the Lifestream is green, so the contrast of green is red. That means...
"~Yes~!" The Aerith crowed, almost before he could finish his thought. "He is the one. Do not let him activate. Remove the cells from his body and he will not ignite the others. Do the same with any others tainted and the threat will be extinguished."
The Aerith started to fade and Cloud panicked. "No, don't go yet! How am I supposed to do any of this? Why should me and Vincent be able to do anything when all of Shinra's scientists couldn't? Don't you dare try and put this all on my shoulders again, I'm done with 'saving the world.' Give me one reason why I shouldn't just walk away from Shinra and live out my life in peace."
The Aerith jolted back into place, a snarl on its face. "Everyone you care about and yourself will be destroyed when the virus the planet, this time far ahead of when you played a role in the shaping of events."
Cloud hardened his jaw, eyes stony. "As far as I'm concerned, everyone I care about already has died. And, according to you, we'll just live again when you reset the timeline."
The Aerith froze, its eyes flickering from point to point. "They are not the ones you lost, that is correct, but you have started to become attached to them again and would not be able sit back and watch them die."
Cloud laughed grimly, and if the exchange was happening in a corporeal environment his hands would have been clenched at his sides. "What, like sat by and watched Zack die? And Aerith? And every single person I have met since then? Try me. I dare you."
"... We can not reset the timeline."
His tension and determination left him in a rush, flowing out and away. Cloud sighed and looked up. "Tell me you're joking," the man asked. "Just tell me it's not true and I'll consider doing what you want."
"It is true," the Aerith answered, "that is what the virus does. It inhibits our capabilities to prevent us from recreating ourself without it. Our only chance of ensuring our continued existence is to make it so that it never infected us in the first place. This is that chance."
"Fine," Cloud responded after pausing to let the silence soak in. "Fine. I'll do it. I'll do it, but only because not helping would mean existence itself ending. Now bring me back to Vincent."
The Aerith nodded as it faded into the swirling green. "As you wish..."
Cloud blinked open his eyes, moaning and raising a hand to block the harsh sunlight. "Wha-?" he started to ask before the ground jolted, slamming his head back onto the hard wood floor. "Vincent?" he called.
"Hello Cloud. It is Cloud, yes?" a polite voice asked as a red face came into view. That certainly wasn't Vincent.
Dreams of the Morrow, Chapter 20: The Lifestream. Updated February 25, 2014. 2,013 words.
Explanations and a plot. Aren't you so glad there's a plot?