Start Date: September 24, 2023

Windwillow

The bold portions are flashbacks.

Final Fantasy VII, Another Calamity: The Andromeda War

Chapter Three: The Second Day

Scene One

The day after her experience with Yuffie in the onsen, Hana was taken on a full tour of Wutai by Godo and Yuffie. They explored several different types of businesses, from weapons shops to items shops and then to clothing shops. Hana was introduced to the construction of Wutai's famous katana swords, which were hand-crafted one by one in the same fashion as they'd done for generations, right down to folding the steel to create the katana's razor-sharp edge and flat blade. Hana had asked to examine one of the swords and was given the permission to do so, so when she held the mighty weapon in her hands she was awestruck.

"I've never seen anything this well made!" Hana gasped.

She lifted up the sword and withdrew it from its scabbard, felt the weight of the blade and yet the gentle touches of the weapon that made it light and easy to wield. The sword belonged to a young samurai in training who had requisitioned the blade, and it would be named as soon as it was handed over to its new master, as was done for a swordsman's personal weapon.

"You should see Pa's sword! That's spectacular!" boasted Yuffie.

Thinking back she hadn't seen him wield it since she was a young child, though he always kept it in his home above his fireplace as a dutiful son would do for his family's treasured sword. He'd never told her its name, actually, saying only that the katana was of the highest quality and was peerless in its artisanship, and alluded to it belonging to an exceptional individual when it was first forged.

They also visited several clothing stores, where Hana tried on the native kimonos that the people of Wutai wore on special occasions, the ones made from silk. Hana found that she looked particularly stunning in black and red, with pictures of the dragon god Leviathan hand-painted onto the fabric. She wanted to take it home with her but realized that she had no money to pay for it. Yuffie offered her credit, then attempted to swindle her into paying top price for it, but Godo scolded her and put an end to her scheme with no uncertain terms. She did kick him in the shin for spoiling her fun, though.

More than just stores the young lady was given a tour of a number of civilian homes as well. She watched as mothers stitched baskets for their young and created sandals and sashes for the menfolk, and her final visit was to the rural home of the priest Zhu Long, who had long been the Kisaragi Clan's personal physician. He was a withered old thing with a Fu Man Chu mustache and he wore green and red robes, complete with half-broken spectacles that he'd had since before the Wutai War. Zhu Long explained the many herbal medicines and precious elixirs that Wutai produced were created from a number of sources, from foraged plants to extracts of sap from trees that only grew in Wutai. In particular he introduced her to Dēngpào, a psychedelic drug that their medicine men used to convene with their ancestors.

"Why don't you demonstrate, Ms. Kisaragi?" asked Zhu Long.

"Oh, hell no! Not a chance, no way, nuh-uh!" Yuffie cursed fiercely, her limbs flailing wildly.

"Come now, Yuffie! You used to love using it!" Godo goaded with a deep belly laugh.

"The last time I tried it you were laughing your ass off, old man!" snarled Yuffie. She angrily grit her teeth and folded her arms over her chest with a huff. "You were just so damned tickled that I hallucinated that I was an elephant riding a Ferris Wheel! Bastard! I know you were recording the whole thing on video, too!" she roared. She turned to Hana and, finding mystery in her eyes, Yuffie angrily produced her middle finger and puffed out her chest. "And get that 'I want to see what happens when she's loopy' look off your face, you little punk!" Yuffie hissed.

"How about if I try it?" asked Hana.

Although Godo and Yuffie were both taken aback they had no argument, so Zhu Long mixed up a concoction of the Dēngpào for Hana to drink. It was a thick, silvery liquid that smelled and looked foul, but Hana found that the taste was actually quite sweet. She downed the whole potion in a single go and leaned back in her chair with a contented sigh. It really was an otherworldly experience, and as she saw shooting stars and as colors danced, she slowly began to succumb to its magic. The feeling was ethereal, as if she had begun to drift into a sea of illusion and wonder that she'd never dared dream to believe existed. It also mucked her up something fierce.

"It's a chorus line of angels! And they're singing to me in a strange language!" swooned Hana.

"Spit it out! Spit it out!" Yuffie roared as she grabbed Hana by the shoulders and attempted to smack some sense into her. She'd known from the start that this was a bad idea! Just remembering the last trip she went on gave her chills, and Yuffie continued to ask herself why she'd ever let the girl drink that abominable serum on her watch. "Come back to the land of the living! Gawd!" she shrieked.

"Ooh... pretty..." Hana crooned, her eyes beginning to gloss over. The sensations had become truly intoxicating, the feelings she experienced carrying her away on the back of a flying dragon to parts unknown. "The girl in pink is so pretty..." she said woozily.

Yuffie immediately grabbed Hana by both shoulders and shook her with enough force that she nearly sobered up. When Hana stared into Yuffie's eyes she saw the usual mania, but this time it was even more crazed, something she'd never seen from her hostess. As the colors continued to pulse through her vision, she vaguely saw Yuffie's eyes fill with tears. She'd never seen her so serious before.

"Her eyes! Her hair! Describe them! Please!" Yuffie begged. But it was too late. The light enveloped Hana completely and she fell face first to the floor. "Oh, holy God!" shrieked Yuffie as she patted her hand on Hana's flushed cheek. She was too far gone, totally unconscious. Yuffie fell to her knees, tears in her eyes, as her mind wandered to planes she never dreamed she would reach. Was it even possible...?

Scene Two

The waking world had never been so distant a place. As she dove deeper and deeper into the light, which blinded her eyes and almost seared her skin, Hana slowly found herself brush up against something soft. Slowly her senses returned to her and she opened her eyes, and felt the soft scent of flowers fill her nose. She steadily dragged herself to her seat and stared around at the room she'd found herself in. It looked like a small building, with church pews and flowers strewn all across the floor, and as she stared up to the ceiling Hana saw a single pin prick of light shine down from above.

"Am... I dreaming?" asked Hana groggily.

She quickly realized that she wasn't alone and whirled around to find a lone figure step out from a large gash of white light, a woman dressed in pink with green eyes like hers and long, brown hair. Hana slowly lifted herself to her feet, stumbled, and only barely caught herself before she fell. The more she stared at her visitor, the warmer she felt. It was a soothing warmth, coming from deep inside her chest.

"Did... you call me here?" she muttered weakly.

Aerith continued to approach without speaking, though she slowly came to a stop in front of Hana and smiled. As Hana felt the darkness begin to take her she held her face in her hand and began to fade before she felt herself be lifted up into Aerith's arms. She stared up at her visitor's beautiful green eyes and saw wisdom, wisdom and kindness beyond the years of those stunning green spheres. Even before her death Aerith had been quite intelligent. Now that she had access to the entire Lifestream and every soul remaining inside it that knowledge had multiplied a hundredfold.

"You'll find out soon... But don't be afraid," Aerith said soothingly. She ran her fingers through Hana's hair and caressed her face, her own visage shining like a shooting star as she began to fade away. "Being different isn't a sin... Try not to overthink things and just live your life to the fullest... I should know how it feels!" she said with a naughty wink, just as the light took over entirely and Hana dove into the white emptiness again with all her being.

Inside a realm void of all darkness and coated in light Hana vaguely saw a strange creature approaching her from a distant gate of light, humanoid in appearance yet clearly inhuman. The creature stood slightly less than a foot taller than she was, and seemed to be composed almost entirely of light. She was able to make out clear feminine features, with shimmering green eyes that stared back at her as if they were slashing at her with a dagger. The eyes were piercing, haunting, with answers that she hotly desired clearly hidden behind them. It was bluish green in color and the creature's long white hair stretched down to past its shoulder blades. Whatever it was, however bizarre it seemed, it felt... familiar.

"Who... are you?" muttered Hana weakly. The creature only stared at her harder, and Hana's patience began to wane. "Who are you?!" she repeated. Receiving no response, she balled her fists, tightened her lips and reached out for the creature to grab its shoulder. "Who the hell are you?!" Hana roared. When she grabbed hold of the being's shoulder it slowly reached out to her with its right hand, and ever so gently its fingers brushed the center of her forehead before darkness took her again.

Scene Three

"What the hell are you?!" Hana shrieked. Her body jolted forward and as her eyes slowly opened she saw Godo, Yuffie, and Zhu Long staring down at her. She was laying in a small reed bed, and as she tried to read the faces of her hosts it seemed to become cloudier still. "What the... what happened?!" she choked.

"Do you feel alright, child?" asked Zhu Long.

"Y-Yes... I guess..." muttered Hana. She put a hand to her face and held it there tightly. The images seemed seared into her brain now, both Aerith and the mysterious creature that had touched her. "I just remember some woman holding me..." she groaned.

"This woman... Did she have green eyes, green like grass?" Yuffie asked shakily. Hana slowly nodded. The weight struck Yuffie all at once and she sunk to her knees, put her face in her hands, and choked out a nasty word. She remained on the floor for a few moments, then slowly dragged herself back up and laid a hand on Hana's shoulder. Hana could see tears forming in Yuffie's eyes, soon dropping down like rain onto her face. "She must have a message..." she muttered. She soon fell to her knees again and put her face in her hands. "Something big's up... right?!" Yuffie croaked.

"Yuffie? What are you talking about?" asked Hana weakly.

They'd met together just a short time after the Deepground incident, inside Cloud's apartment. Just the three of them were there - Cloud, Tifa, and Yuffie - and they'd been discussing a number of things, dreams that they'd had and visions that they'd seen. Or perhaps they'd just hallucinated them? Seeing her again brought smiles and tears both to their faces, and yet the look on her face was... it was strange, distressing.

"When I beat Sephiroth, I saw Aerith reach out to me. And when I grabbed her hand Tifa appeared..." muttered Cloud, putting a hand to his face. He still remembered the day of Meteorfall well, as if the scene had been burned into his retinas. There was no doubt: it had been her hand. Cloud reclined back in his chair and took a deep chug of his drink, felt the alcohol slosh down his throat, and slapped it back down onto the table quickly. "I'll never forget what I felt that day..." he murmured.

"Does... that mean something I don't get?" asked Yuffie dumbly.

"Yeah..." Tifa said plainly. She stretched out her limbs before laying a hand to her face. "'Cause when I reached out to Cloud... I was reaching for her hand..." she muttered. In that single moment, before she'd seen Cloud, Tifa could have sworn she saw someone else reaching out at her from down below the Mako storms, someone she knew well and prayed to God that she would meet again once their fingers danced.

"Does... that mean something I don't get?" Yuffie repeated.

She hung her head and groaned. Of course it meant something, but what? She still remembered that moment at the City of the Ancients when she'd been taken from them, felt her teeth grind and her tears fall like rain. There had to be something that she was trying to tell them then... when she smiled for that one final time, she had to have some reason why she was smiling...

"I... I think Aerith hasn't joined the Lifestream yet," Cloud whispered. "She's holding herself back for... some reason..." he muttered. He tried desperately to search for an answer yet found nothing. She'd appeared to both himself and Tifa, she'd surely guided the Lifestream to the surface... but beyond that, what, in God's name?

"This... has something to do with the Lifestream and Meteor... 'Cause there's only one reason why the Lifestream would come help us back then..." Yuffie murmured. She again grit her teeth and muttered a curse, because she had no answers. She had no answers. But the only thing she knew for certain was that the Lifestream hadn't just randomly taken pity on them all. No, she already knew, but what she didn't know was how or why. "What the hell is going on?" she snarled.

"Does this mean she's still restless? That she couldn't rejoin the Lifestream and be at peace?" wondered Tifa.

"She's what?! What the hell's holding her back?! She saved our sorry hides and she deserves to rest in peace, God dammit!" croaked Yuffie.

"When I think back to the dream I had she said she'd never be far from us... I think she meant that she intended to stay outside of the Lifestream from the start," Cloud said softly. When he'd seen her smile at the City of the Ancients, just before Sephiroth murdered her, her smile was a triumphant one. She knew all along that she would die, and she did it anyway, for them. "She's become the messenger of the Lifestream, I think..." he murmured. A smile crossed his face and he flashed a grin to his friends. "Our guardian angel!" he said with a chuckle.

"What the devil are you talking about, girl?" asked Godo incredulously.

"Shut it! I don't have time for you!" Yuffie snarled as she stumbled to her feet. Godo was stunned, not because she'd cursed him out but because she was crying. Yuffie wiped the tears from her face and turned towards the door. "I have a phone call to make..." she said shakily, before she hurried out of the room by slamming the door behind her. Outside of the house she fumbled with her cellphone and tried desperately to dial Tifa's number, but she kept typing in the wrong digits. "Work, you piece of..." she growled, her butter fingers only adding to her troubles. This was so not the time to be clumsy.

"What just happened?" muttered Hana.

"If my hunch is correct... Then we ought to give the girl some time alone to talk to them..." Godo sighed.

"'Them?' Who is 'them?'" Hana wondered incredulously.

"It isn't my place to say, but you might find out the answers soon..." muttered Godo. He put a hand to his face and sighed, knowing that the person his daughter was calling knew much more than he did about what had just happened. "I advise you not to talk to anyone else about this, even Nanaki..." he said softly.

"What? Why?" prodded Hana.

"Time and medicine can't heal every wound," said Zhu Long ominously.

"Y-You mean that was-" croaked Hana, the realization finally striking her. If she'd really seen Aerith, for what reason? And for that matter, how? She'd never met her or even seen her face. If that was the case... then... "What the hell was the other thing?!" she gasped.

"Other thing? Describe it," said Godo.

"It was tall and made of light... and it was female... with deep green eyes like mine and long white hair..." Hana murmured. No answers came when she called for them. It clearly wasn't human, but it seemed oddly familiar, like she'd seen it before as if in a dream, but she couldn't recall any dream where she'd seen that. "What on earth was that thing?" she gasped, holding her face in her hands.

"I have no answers, I'm afraid," sighed Godo sadly. "I can't even offer a hypothesis."

Of course he didn't know. Who would, or even could, except Aerith? She'd seen someone she'd never met, then she'd seen something she'd never seen, but it seemed like she'd seen it before. Nothing made sense. Nothing came, and maybe there wasn't anything there to draw from. Maybe it was just a strange hallucination? Slowly Hana's fingers reached up to her forehead where the being had touched her, and when she laid a finger to that point she could still feel the same warmth that she had when she was talking to Aerith. It tingled.

"What happened...?" murmured Hana.

Scene Four

It had been a surreal experience. That night Hana barely got any sleep, having tossed and turned wildly in her bed desperately clawing at an answer for her question: what happened? The next morning as she gathered her things and prepared to head out to the Shera for her next visit, Hana watched as Yuffie stood outside of the airship with her head in both hands, panicked. Whatever was bothering her was truly wracking her brain.

"Um... Can I ask a question about something? But it isn't about Aerith," Hana asked Yuffie, who startled but nodded. "I saw something made out of light when I talked to... her... and I've been wondering if it's my guardian angel?" she wondered. She sighed and laid a finger to her forehead. "If Aerith is your guardian angel, did I see mine? Maybe Aerith was trying to tell me something about my guardian angel?" murmured Hana. After a few moments of thought she jumped and bowed her head to Yuffie. "Oh... I didn't mean-" she stammered.

"You have nothing to apologize for, and don't worry," Yuffie said with a smile. Still, she was worrying. Whatever had happened the previous day, whatever Hana had seen, had to mean something. Tifa had agreed, as had the others when she dialed them one by one. But even then, it wasn't like they could pry into Hana's mind when she didn't even know anything herself. "But... I don't think you should talk to anyone about this, like Cid and the others..." she muttered.

"Your father said the same thing! Do you know something I don't? If it's something I deserve to know, I want to know! Now!" Hana insisted. Hearing that ominous crap from Godo was one thing. If even Yuffie was keeping her in the dark, it pissed her off. "What are you not telling me?" she asked pointedly. Yuffie clearly was uncomfortable, and began to fidget madly. It wasn't like she could just tell the girl that she thought Aerith was trying to tell them something when even they couldn't tell.

"Hana! Get ready to go!" called Cid.

Cid's words startled Hana, and she abruptly turned to see him beckoning her in towards the airship. If there wasn't an answer she was going to get from Yuffie, then there was only one thing to do. She turned back to Yuffie with a disgruntled glare and snapped her fingers, causing the young ninja to fall to the ground with her arms and legs bound tight, then hurried towards the Shera for the next phase of her journey, leaving Yuffie to writhe in agony as she fell to the ground flopping about like a dying carp.

"You little bitch! I am so getting you back for this!" roared Yuffie as she struggled against the materia's magic. Slowly the paralysis began to wear off and she slowly dragged herself to her feet, dusted off her legs, and stared at the Shera as it began to lift off. She grabbed her head in both hands and let out a horrific screech before falling to her seat with a sharp grunt. "I hope the other guys figure it out..." she groaned. "'Cause I wanna know what Aerith said to her..."

Scene Five

Yuffie's call to Cid came as a surprise to the captain, having not kept in contact with her since the war with Deepground. They all had their own lives now, but while some of them had spoken with one another in some regularity there were others like Vincent that had retreated into near total seclusion. Cid was busy running the WRO's Air Division of their military, of course. He also helped regulate civilian travel and other more mundane tasks, the things people do when they aren't at war. Once he was informed about Hana, however, he immediately piloted the Shera to Wutai and docked at the edge of the village. Hana may have seen the cargo hold, but he hadn't shown her the bridge.

"Un... real..." Hana gasped.

The sight of the bridge of the Shera was breathtaking. Sure there were the chairs, the pilot's seat and the co-pilot's, but the bridge had so much more. There were strange consoles and devices, and a version of the Synaptic Net Dive had been installed there as well for Shelke to use when she wanted to access it quickly if she had to. Shelke had installed a small headset on the bridge for quick coordination during battle if it came. Hopefully that day would never come, of course, but there was no telling what kind of dangers the world might throw at the World Regenesis Organization.

"What the heck is that thing?!" croaked Hana as she pointed at the Synaptic Net Dive machine.

"You use the Worldwide Network every day, right? That's what lets certain people connect their minds to it directly," explained Cid. He snatched up a cigarette, put it between his lips, and lit it. "The Worldwide Network has been expanded a lot in the last few years... But before it was public Shinra owned it, and this was one of the machines they used to access it. We only have one operative that can use it, though..." he sighed. He hadn't had any contact with Shelke since the Deepground conflict, and even then he hadn't had much of a relationship with her in the first place.

"You mean... That thing... That thing lets you go inside the Worldwide Network?! Like, directly in your mind?!" Hana choked. As she looked at it the more she coveted it, but Hana knew that the kind of technology she was dreaming of was so classified that she'd get her ass handed to her if she even thought to touch it. "Where are we going next, Mr. Highwind?" she asked excitedly.

"Mister? I ain't old enough for you to call me mister, little miss!" Cid growled.

With a dissatisfied grunt he plopped down in the captain's seat and buckled his seat belt with a huff. He hadn't agreed to babysit the girl this much, but Yuffie's call shook him enough that he wanted to keep a close eye on Hana, closer than he ever thought he'd want to. If the girl could contact Aerith, in any capacity, she certainly wasn't just a normal human. She was too young to be an Ancient, and also too young to be Aerith's reincarnation. So, what the hell was she?

"Um... Cid, then?" asked Hana.

"You're heading for Barret next," Cid said as he started up the controls to lift off.

He didn't expect it to be a particularly eventful visit, but he knew that Yuffie had for sure called everyone, and he expected Barret to use his little pea brain to poke out some data from the young girl. He wasn't smart enough to do it subtlely, either, unfortunately. That was why he'd forwarded a call to Elmyra as soon as he knew where Hana would be going next, so that hopefully she could cut the idiot off at the pass before he said something that all of them might regret.

"Barret... Barret Wallace, right?" asked Hana excitedly. "He used to be the leader of AVALANCHE, right? The original, founding leader, before Cloud Strife took over... am I right? What does he even do these days?" she wondered.

"Grassroots stuff. He starts rallies and plants gardens, and does all the little groundwork stuff that you'd never expect someone like him to work on," explained Cid. "On top of that he helps work out on the oil foundries and the coal power plants, because he's got so much muscle. He lives in Kalm with his daughter Marlene - she's nine - and... a friend's mother," he said quickly, unwilling to tell Hana that Elmyra was Aerith's adoptive mother. It would be too complicated to involve her with that.

"So he's like an activist... and an environmentalist?" wondered Hana.

"Never would have thought a big brute like him would be organizing crap and planting flowers, but that's what he does when he isn't with Marlene," said Cid plainly.

He knew that any chance Barret had to spend time with his daughter, however, took precedence over any kind of work he might have to deal with. She'd just started fourth grade, and was starting to learn all about math and science for the first time. More than that, she had a head start in her school's program to bring awareness to the Lifestream. In fact, if she wanted to she could have taught the course.

Barret told her not to mention her, but... Who knows what a nine-year-old is thinking and whether she can keep a secret. Ain't nobody's business but ours who she was. The girl was one of the few people who were up close and personal with Aerith... She's a precious little memento of our friend, and she wears the same pink ribbon that we all do. I hope those two can get along without Barret mucking everything up... the stupid bastard.