Author's Note: So, after completing FF7 Rebirth and looking through various fanfics to fill the gap (plus a bunch of Max Dood's streams, because his enthusiasm for FF7 is infectious), one throughline I've noticed is that a lot of people seem to consider Aerith to be more rambunctious in Rebirth than in Remake.

I do agree, but I also didn't mind this 'change': it seemed fairly clear from what was presented in the story that a lot of the future/out-of-context knowledge that she possessed in Remake had been taken away from her in Rebirth, and so the "main party Aerith" (as to be contrasted with the "omni-Aerith" or "Aerith Prime" that seems to still exist and have meta knowledge/agency akin to what Sephiroth has shown in Remake and Rebirth) ended up compensating for that deficiency in some manner.

However, a lot of commenters I've seen have taken issue with this, almost to the point of considering her a different character altogether. (This is also impacted by the extent to which some character interactions are kept outside of the player's knowledge due to being stuck to Cloud's perspective most of the time; the exact context of what Tifa and Aerith talk about is mostly kept off-screen, so the full details of their conversations have been denied to the player...so far.)

So here's my attempt at a defense of Aerith as presented in FF7 Rebirth. (This is also my first FF7 fanfic ever, for what it's worth.)

(Also, as someone with a definite preference for Cloud x Tifa who nonetheless stays out of the Eternal Shipping War, I would like to think my bias is sufficiently mitigated.)

xxxx

"And you...you're wrong. Everything about you is wrong."

/Chapter 1: Kalm/

Aerith Gainsborough had patiently listened to the retelling of the Nibelheim Incident, from the few highs to the many lows; from Cloud's initial optimism at working alongside Sephiroth the Hero, to his dread and horror from watching Sephiroth's descent into murderous madness.

However, she had noticed Tifa's reactions during Cloud's story: numerous instances where she would twitch; speak hesitantly; look furtively at Cloud, as though he were a stranger, before hiding her eyes just as quickly.

(A brief memory came to mind, from when their party had been dropped off outside of Kalm by Chocobo Bill; as the rain began to fall, and Cloud asked if she was going to be okay, she could only say "Should be, but...weird...my stomach's in knots." It was a distinctly unsettling sensation that had lingered since leaving Midgar...or, more particularly, the Midgar-That-Was-Yet-Wasn't, surrounded by Whispers and a Sephiroth that seemed to be an unreal apparition and yet real with an intensely unnerving physicality. It was why she could not truly speak of him as being 'alive', so much as...'around'.)

Cloud spoke with enough confidence that Aerith didn't even think to question his story, because Tifa certainly didn't contradict him at any point during his retelling.

However, it was only after turning in for the night that Tifa unveiled that things...hadn't quite happened as described.

(She spoke with uncharacteristic hesitance, when Tifa asked about Cloud's whereabouts over the past five years; she could only confess potential knowledge — whether it was due to her nature as a Cetra, or something else entirely — that had been taken from her, or erased, by the Whispers.)

"This is gonna sound crazy, but...as far as I know, Cloud was never in Nibelheim five years ago."

It was certainly one heck of a way to start off; all tiredness abandoned Aerith as Tifa provided her perspective on Nibelheim...and through that, an old scar shaped like Zack Fair reopened in her heart. As far as Tifa recalled, Zack had been there with Sephiroth as the other SOLDIER...and Cloud hadn't even made an appearance. (Yet Cloud had gotten so many of the larger details right in his story that it made the things he had gotten wrong all the more confusing. Why did Cloud think he had been there in Zack's place? The potential answers were so imposing that the thought of broaching them outright was...terrifying.)

And it had been through their conversation that context had finally been given to that last phone call, so long ago. "I still remember it all," Aerith said with a fond expression, as she began to recite familiar words. "Hell-llooo?" She modulated her voice, mimicking Zack's tone as she remembered it. "Aerith?" Back and forth she went, mimicking a conversation that in retrospect had been far too short. "I finally got through. Yeah...uh, listen...now's not the best time. I'll call you later. No, no, you don't have to. Okay, I'll come visit. I'll be here." She paused. "...I'll see you, I promise." With a hoarse breath, Aerith smiled bitterly at Tifa. "And...I never heard his voice again. I don't think he told me where his mission outside Midgar was supposed to be...but the timing fits." Fiddling with hands in her lap, she added, "I wrote him a lot of letters. Eighty-nine, to be precise, over four years...and he never responded. And I never heard anything from Shinra, the Turks, or anyone about what happened to him." The old news reports about Sephiroth being killed in action hadn't even mentioned Zack, as though he had been little more than a footnote, if that. "I guess...you wouldn't know anything about what happened to him?" When Tifa shook her head, Aerith wondered why she had bothered. "...I think it's the 'not knowing', which gets me..." If he had returned to the Planet (if he had died, a part of her corrected), she would have known, right?

Yet...it felt like Zack still lingered, in some mysterious way. That Aerith lacked any definitive knowledge as to his fate, one way or another, was maddening on a level she preferred not to voice.

"...tell me about Zack," said Tifa, pulling Aerith out of her morose ruminations. "Even though he wasn't around Nibelheim for that long, he seemed like...a genuinely nice guy."

To call Zack a nice guy was an oversimplification, yet it also sold him far too short.

(Which only made the aspects of Zack that she could see within Cloud all the more curious.)

And so Aerith gladly talked about Zack Fair: her first love, and so much more.

As such, when Tifa left a little bit later to have a private heart-to-heart with Cloud, Aerith waited with bated breath in her bed, wondering what the outcome would be.

Tifa returned with a dour expression, almost on the verge of tears. Without saying another word, she promptly returned to her bed with a forlorn sigh.

"...do you want to talk about it?" whispered Aerith.

"...maybe later," murmured Tifa, turning over to signal that she wouldn't be talking anymore that night.

Clearly, something had gone wrong.

...how can I fix it?

xxxx

"We can do this. We can. We can change it—make it right!"

/Chapter 2: Kalm/

The morning hours between waking up and fleeing the town from Shinra would be a cherished memory, in retrospect.

Kalm had a vibrant energy, similar to the slums of the Sector 5 Undercity. Despite the disparity in wealth, and an open sky whose sheer endlessness mocked the steel sky of Midgar's upper plates, the sounds of people living their lives struck a similar chord to what she had enjoyed about life in Midgar. She moved out and about with a sense of wonder, eventually coming to a stop on the raised walkway in front of Maghnata Books: it provided her with a good view of the primary courtyard in the middle of town, where people moved and congregated about the mako tank as though it were their beacon. (And it was, in a way: if there was something that would naturally attract a lot of people, why wouldn't it be a giant bundle of processed Lifestream energy? That it kept the noxious fumes and unpleasant byproducts contained meant the townsfolk had all of the positives with none of the drawbacks...or so it seemed. Her thoughts on Shinra tended to vary, shifting from the people that made it up to their actions on a whole. It was...complicated.)

It also allowed her to see Cloud when he finally poked his spiky head of blond hair out of the inn. Operation 'Chase the Stormy Clouds Away'...start! And what better place to do that than from the tallest point in town that was open to the public?

Aerith did not move, waiting patiently; as was typical for Cloud, he would inevitably end up wandering the town in an aloof manner, nonetheless keeping his eyes open for potential work as a merc. (Even if his definition of 'merc work' had been expanded a little under her enlightened nudging.) Before long, he ascended the stairs towards the bookstore. "Aha, finally decided to get up?"

"Yeah. So whatcha been doin'?"

With an impish expression, she answered, "Why, waiting for you, of course." Cloud's characteristic confusion prompted her to continue. "Got business with the bookstore? If so, I won't keep you. But if you're free afterwards...wanna climb the clock tower together?"

"...if I have to," Cloud said, with a put-upon tone that was contradicted by the slight smile on his face.

A memory of Tifa's distraught expression came to mind. "You got a real way with words," she said, trying not to sound too pointed. "You're lucky I speak your language, mister." With a more relaxed smile, she said, "Since it was my idea, I'll go get the tickets. I'll meet you in front of the tower, okay?" Without another word, she moved aside to let Cloud enter Maghnata Books, moving along towards the upper levels of Kalm with a skip to her step that was simultaneously forced yet genuine. A little date will help set things straight!

(Life with the Gainsborough name came with both pros and cons; even as she had grown older, her lingering connection — tested though it was — with the Gainsboroughs prevented anyone in the Sector 5 slums from daring to approach her with any intimate intentions. That she and her home had been under the aegis of the Turks was also a rumor which drove away potential friends. As such, when Zack Fair dropped into the church she grew her flowers in, his words elicited some measure of disbelief and alarm. "I have to repay you somehow...a ha!" Turning around with a confident grin, with his pointer finger extended, he said, "Hey, how about one date?" Zack spoke as though an outing with him was worth all the gil in the world. From most, it would have come off as a cheesy one-liner without much substance...and yet, it would turn out to be worth far more than either of them expected. As such, a date from that point forward wouldn't—couldn't—be something limited to romance: it was a doorway to new beginnings, a promise of new possibilities, and a vow to deepen bonds: all things which she had been starved for.)

With tickets purchased, she patiently waited once more for Cloud to approach. (And that was the way of things, wasn't it? The men with the most importance in her life all seemed to just...come to her, for good or ill.) Once he approached, she gleefully took his hand and pulled him inside, darting up the stairs so that he would follow. The grand expanse of the hills and mountains unfolded: a painting by a master on a canvas beyond her ken.

Even the sight of Midgar — the Mako Reactors, squat and dumpy from a distance; the imposing Headquarters of Shinra, towering even over the distant peaks — was mollifying: for all that some would consider it an eyesore, how could she look at the place she called 'home' and think of it with anything but fondness? "Funny, isn't it? How small it looks."

"It is far away," Cloud blithely responded, speaking with his typical bluntness.

Naturally, this gave her the chance to segue. "So...did something happen between you and Tifa?" When Cloud looked at her with slight confusion, she added, "Don't look so shocked. We're roommates, you know." (And even that sent a delightful thrill up her spine, because for so long, it had just been her and Elmyra. To have someone as wonderful as Tifa around was a blessing she couldn't even begin to describe; as such, to see her and Cloud so at odds with each other hurt.)

"She say something?"

"Not about you two, no." Which was technically accurate: Tifa had shut down her inquiries before it could even get that far.

(That morning, she had quietly pulled Tifa down for breakfast in the hotel lobby. With tiny sandwiches and hot tea to fill their bellies, she plied Tifa about what had happened on the roof. "...I'm still not sure what to make of it all," she murmured, sipping at the tea with a tired sigh. "He confuses me, and I wish he didn't. I don't even know how or why he knows what he knows. I just...need to think about it, some more. Please?")

"...still, I can tell." Turning towards Midgar, she said, "I would've given anything to have a friend when I was growing up." Turning towards him with a knowing smile, she offered both advice and a plea in one package. "Don't take her for granted."

Then the roar of Gelnikas and helicopters interrupted their date with Shinra's typical lack of tact. Rude, she thought with a mental huff.

At least their escape had a dose of adventure to it: sliding down a pole in the clock tower, following the mysterious innkeeper Broden through the back alleys of Kalm, creeping along a maintenance walkway that snaked along a mako pipe and the upper stories of Kalm's buildings; it brought back memories of the two making their way over dilapidated ruins from the roof of the Sector 5 church. Cloud, for all he tried to put on a hardass persona, had shown enticing glimpses underneath it all...and, just like then, she was determined to make them more than glimpses.

Thus, when she and Cloud before entered the air-raid shelter in the basement underneath Broden's inn — where Tifa, Barret, and Nanaki (oops, sorry, Red XIII; he was still too shy to use his real name with the group) — Barret's impulsive demand to know where they had been prompted an impulsive answer. "On a date!" she exclaimed, grabbing at Cloud's left arm. "Kind of."

Tifa's confused "Wha-?" and Cloud's panicked "Uh..." elicited a curious expression from Aerith, who inwardly felt like she had just inadvertently set off a landmine. Did I say something wrong?

Any introspection was swiftly crushed by Barret taking charge. "Well, that was the last one! Least till things calm down." He turned away, leaving the three to look at each other in a steadily escalating rush of awkwardness, where Aerith, Tifa, and Cloud couldn't muster the courage to say a word. It was to Barret's credit that he swept such uncertain emotions away. "Got that!?" At this, the trio could only nod.

So...the results of the operation, mused Aerith to herself as she advanced down the tunnel of the shelter. The storm is...not quite averted? (A part of her cursed the Whispers, even as she acknowledged the futility of doing so; she couldn't help but feel as though she had just made an 'oopsie' that she would have easily sidestepped back in Midgar.) I'll have to try again later...and maybe make sure that Tifa's involved, if she's up to it?

Then they stepped out into the open grasslands beyond Kalm, and her sense of marvel and astonishment overwhelmed everything else.

(Still, she managed to stay true to her pseudo-vow to get Tifa involved: at the outskirts of the swamp, she formed a tag team with Tifa to convince Cloud to rent a chocobo; in like manner, she joined Tifa in their mutual teasing of Cloud when the similarities of his hair with Piko's just could not be ignored.)

(The impulse to shout "Yay~" with unabashed glee whenever she and Tifa engaged in a double high-five was hard to squelch.)

xxxx

THE UNKNOWN JOURNEY WILL CONTINUE...

xxxx

Author's Note: I was going to try and write this all in one go, but then it started growing way bigger. (I mean, I even sprinkled in a reference to "Trace of Two Pasts"!)

Overall, I never got any sense that Aerith's actions with regards to Cloud and Tifa were motivated by spite or mean-spiritedness, which goes a long way to making her rambunctiousness in Rebirth tolerable; I hope to convey that same sense to you all.

I think I'll keep to two in-game Chapters per update, so that way this'll end on seven episodes. (Because symbolism!)

See you next time!