"Mom?"

"What is it, dear?" her mother asked, pausing from where she was cleaning up the lingering remnants of breakfast.

Aerith had been wanting to ask about her dream ever since she'd visited Cloud but hadn't been able to find a good way to bring it up. Since an entire day had passed and she'd been unable to come up with anything, now seemed as good a time as any. "Have you ever heard anything about someone having dreams except then what they dreamed about actually happens?"

"Where's this coming from?" Ifalna asked, looking at her with an intrigued expression.

"Oh, I just . . . heard someone talking about it and wondered if it was actually real. I didn't think anything like that was possible." It was a harmless white lie, but even so, it still made her uncomfortable.

Her mother made a soft humming noise before responding. "Interesting. Not many people know about Seers."

Aerith sat up straight, her entire attention now focused on her mom at the unexpected answer. "Seers? Then it's a real thing?"

Ifalna nodded. "Indeed, although it's exceptionally uncommon, which is why they're not at all well known. I can't remember exactly when the last known Seer was alive, but it was at least several centuries ago."

"Is it something anyone can learn then?" Aerith asked, doing her best to contain her excitement.

"Unfortunately not," her mother said, shaking her head. "Seers are born, and one of their other signature traits is their remarkable connection to the Planet. Without exception, every Seer has been the most powerful mage of their era."

Aerith's hopes came crashing back down to reality at the words. A powerful mage. Something she would never be. Forcing a smile onto her face, she pressed on, not wanting her mother to worry. "They sound incredible, why aren't they more talked about?"

"They most certainly are incredible, and that's a good question. I'm honestly not entirely sure, but I have to imagine it has to do with how rare they are. It's not like they're a secret or anything, it's just not something people discuss since it's more common to live your entire life without one being born."

"How would one compare to the Archmage?"

Her mother's brow crinkled in thought. "Hmmm, that's a tricky question since there's no real way to know without one to be able to compare against. I have to imagine they would be at least twice as powerful though."

Twice as powerful as the strongest living Cetra. It was remarkable to think of—impossible to imagine—and only served to further emphasize how ridiculous of a fantasy it had been. That's all it was in the end—nothing more than a wishful thought. She'd been worried about Cloud and his mom and had happened to have a dream that ended up loosely relating to what he'd experienced. As for how accurate her vision of the city had turned out to be, that was easily explained by the inherent fuzziness of dreams and the many years between the events, making her think it was closer than it likely had been. It was nothing more than a simple coincidence.

"Is everything okay?" her mother asked softly, her voice laced with concern.

"Yup!" Aerith replied quickly, nodding and keeping her smile in place. "I was just . . . wondering what to do today. Maybe I'll get around to finally renovating the old hideout and making it into a special place again."

"Actually, on that note, I signed you up to participate in a scouting mission today."

Aerith blinked in surprise. "A scouting mission?"

Her mother nodded, taking a seat across from her at the table now that she'd finished cleaning up. "The council has recommended that all young adults should get some form of practice on the off chance we do end up at war with the Humans." Ifalna wrinkled her nose, making it clear what her thoughts on the matter were. "The other options were weapon training or mage craft, so your father and I thought this would be the best fit for you."

Aerith wasn't upset her parents had made the selection for her. Given the three options, she would have picked the same one. Learning to fight with a weapon wasn't something she was remotely interested in, and practicing spells? For someone like her, that was clearly out of the question.

"So how does this work? I can't imagine I'm supposed to just head out into the woods on my own."

"Certainly not," her mother said with an amused look. "Elidar and Rilesa are both overseeing the activity since they have the most experience in the matter. They're each taking a pair of students. You'll be with Elidar."

"Oh? Do you know who will be with us?" She would have very much preferred to be alone, although one of the nicer changes over the past years had been a complete stop to all of the bullying. Aerith wasn't entirely sure why it had happened but appreciated it nonetheless.

"I don't, but you'll find out soon enough. They should be waiting for you at the big oak near the eastern entrance."

Sliding her chair out, Aerith got to her feet before tucking it back under the table. "Guess I should get going then. I can help with lunch if I'm back in time."

Her mother smiled. "That would be great, but don't press yourself. And thanks for taking this in stride. I'm sure you'd rather be doing something else."

Aerith shrugged it off with a shake of her head. "I really don't mind. If anything, I'm interested to see what it'll be like."

"Well, I hope you'll have a good time. Say hello to Elidar for me."

"Will do!"

Aerith made her way outside, taking a deep breath of the fresh morning air as the door closed behind her. It was a beautiful day—warm but not too hot—without a cloud in the sky. While there were plenty of other things she could have come up with to do, the idea of learning more about scouting was exciting in its own way. Especially if it meant she'd have a reason to leave the village and maybe be able to visit Cloud again in the future.

For now, she hurried to the location her mother had mentioned, unsure when she was supposed to be there and if she was already late. As the large tree came into view, Aerith could see the familiar form of Elidar standing beneath it, but when she saw who was with him her steps faltered for a moment.

It was Seoda.

Her relationship with the other girl had changed considerably, ever since that horrible day at the hideout. Seoda had completely distanced herself, going out of her way to stay as far from Aerith as it seemed she possibly could. That had been the start of the decline in bullying since Seoda had almost always been the one initiating it. Of course, it had still continued without her, but even that had died out before long.

That certainly didn't mean Aerith had been welcomed with open arms by the others. Since she was already so used to it, and found it more comfortable anyway, she continued to spend most of her time alone. As a result, she rarely got invited to hang out with the main group, but if she chose to join them sometimes then no one ever complained about it. This would be the first time she and Seoda had been in close proximity to each other ever since the accident and Aerith found herself nervous to see how things would go.

"Morning, Elidar. I hope I'm not too late, I only just found out about this from my mother. She says hi, by the way."

"Not late, no. Now that you're here, let's begin."

It had been a few years since Aerith had last interacted with Elidar and she'd forgotten how terse he could be. He was one of the few villagers who didn't live in the village proper, preferring to spend most of his time out in the forest with the trees he loved so much. Together with his wife Rilesa, he was responsible for the limited hunting that provided the village with meat in addition to keeping the more dangerous wild animals and any monsters away.

Elidar turned and began making his way deeper into the surrounding forest, leaving Aerith and Seoda to hurry after him. Aerith was immediately impressed with how smoothly he passed between the trees. All Cetra were at home in the forest and could move through it with ease, but Elidar somehow made them look like toddlers. He left no trace of his passage as he went, and Aerith began to worry that if they happened to lose sight of him for even a moment they might not be able to find him again. With the amount of time she spent out in the woods Aerith had wondered how much he'd be able to teach her, but now she immediately realized how large the gap between them was.

"Heya," she said to Seoda once the two of them had settled into a steady rhythm as they followed behind the hunter. Aerith's curiosity towards Seoda's distancing had been building for years, and now seemed like the perfect opportunity to try and learn more.

"Hey."

It wasn't much at all, but at least she'd gotten a response out of her and it was better than being ignored. "Any idea what we're supposed to be doing here?"

"Nope. I guess we just follow him and keep an eye out."

"For what?" Aerith asked in amusement. As far as she knew, no humans had been seen anywhere near this close to the village, and at this point, they were still making a tight circle around it.

Seoda shrugged next to her. "No clue. I kind of expected this to be the most reasonable of the three training options, but now I'm starting to second guess that."

"I'm surprised, I would have expected you to work with the mages." It was an effort to keep the bitterness out of her voice, but Aerith felt like she'd managed to—hopefully.

Seoda's foot nearly snagged on a root, almost sending her crashing to the ground before she managed to catch herself. "No. I'm . . . not really interested in learning about offensive magic."

Aerith found the answer to be surprising, but it didn't seem like Seoda wanted to talk about it so she refrained from pressing. It was hard for her to understand why someone wouldn't want to learn more about magic, but at the same time, she could see how learning about spells to hurt others wasn't the most appealing.

They continued on in silence for several minutes, slowly getting farther and farther from the village as they continued to move outward in an ever-expanding spiral. Eventually, Aerith couldn't take it anymore and asked the question that had been bubbling up inside her.

"Why have you been avoiding me?"

Once again, Seoda's steps faltered briefly before she regained her balance. "I'm not avoiding you." The words came out incredibly quickly, and Seoda was looking everywhere except at her.

"This is the first time we've spoken in seven years. Any time you saw me you all but turned and ran. Do I really disgust you that much?" Given how their conversation so far had gone, Aerith didn't think that was the case, but she couldn't come up with any other explanation for the other girl's behavior.

"You don't disgust me," Seoda said quickly before hesitating, a long moment of quiet spreading between them. Just as Aerith was about to ask a follow-up question, the other girl continued. "I just . . . Why did you save me?"

The question was so quiet Aerith had barely heard it. "What do you mean?"

"Why did you save me from the fire? I was horrible to you and then I went and destroyed your special place. You could have left me there to die—had every reason to—and yet you didn't. Why?"

Aerith blinked. That wasn't at all what she'd been expecting. "Yes, you treated me horribly as a kid, but that doesn't mean I wanted you to die. I never would have been able to live with myself if I'd just left you in that cave."

Seoda mumbled something unintelligible in response.

"Sorry, what was that?"

"Thank you for saving my life," she whispered. "I know it probably doesn't mean much at this point, but I'm sorry for the way I treated you."

It was Aerith's turn to nearly trip over her own feet. If someone had told her that Seoda would one day apologize for all of her bullying, Aerith would have smiled and nodded along while not believing them for a second. Which was maybe a little unfair of her, but the other girl had tormented her relentlessly for years on end. She wasn't entirely sure how to respond.

"Oh. Well, thanks, I guess . . . Apology accepted?"

"Less talk, more paying attention to your surroundings," Elidar said, interrupting their conversation and preventing Seoda from replying. "A good scout makes as little noise as possible so you don't give away your position."

"Oh, it's a little late for that," a smug voice said as a tall man with long silver hair stepped out from behind a tree in front of them, causing the three of them to come to an abrupt halt.

Aerith froze in shock. She knew she'd never seen him before, except that she had. He was the one who'd signaled the other men after Cloud had entered the city in her dream. It was impossible, and yet the hair was too distinctive for it to be anyone else.

Elidar immediately moved to stand between them and the stranger, one hand dropping to the dagger at his waist. "Who are you? What is a Human doing wandering around out here?"

From how shaken he sounded, Aerith could hear the unspoken question. "How did you manage to sneak up on us?" It wasn't terribly surprising she or Seoda hadn't noticed the man first, but for Elidar to have also missed him was extremely alarming.

"Interesting. You can tell simply from looking at me? Is that part of your magic or do you just know every Ancient on sight?"

"Leave. Now. You're not welcome here."

The Human shook his head, a half smile spreading over his lips. "I'll leave, but the three of you are coming with me. My father would very much like to . . . talk with you."

"We're not going anywhere with you," Elidar said firmly, drawing his dagger.

"That's quite unfortunate, but I'm afraid you don't have a choice in the matter." The boy drew his own weapon, a sword, and stepped forward without hesitation. He had a determined look in his eyes that radiated confidence.

"Girls," Elidar said without looking back at them. "Run. Now. I'll hold him off, just get somewhere safe."

"But—"

"Go!" he shouted, cutting Seoda off.

Together, Aerith and Seoda bolted—the faint hint of fear in his voice enough to prevent any arguments. The sound of metal on metal rang out behind them, causing both of them to run even faster. Realizing they were closer to her old hideout than to the village, Aerith was about to let Seoda know they could hide there when the other girl abruptly broke off in the direction leading back home. Aerith hesitated for a moment, wondering if she should follow after her. Deciding it was safer to instead go to the hideout, she wished Seoda luck and turned in the opposite direction.

Even though she understood what Elidar was doing by staying behind so that the strange man wouldn't be able to follow them and bypass the protective spells, Aerith couldn't help but worry about him. Despite being a skilled hunter fully capable of defending himself, there was just something about the way the Human had held himself—a certainty that even outnumbered he was more than a match for the three of them.

Maybe their numbers didn't mean all that much given Aerith couldn't fight and Seoda's magic seemed unreliable at best, but there was also no way for him to know that. And yet, even so, knowing they had access to magic, he hadn't seemed even remotely hesitant about taking them all on. As she continued to run as fast as she could towards the hideout, Aerith hoped it was foolish, youthful bravado and nothing more.

By the time the familiar clearing and the cave came into view, Aerith was breathing heavily. She felt safe, at least, knowing that if the Human had somehow chased after her then Elidar would have shouted or found some way to warn her. Ever since Seoda had followed her to the hideout all those years ago, Aerith's mother had made sure to inform the villagers of the vulnerabilities of the defensive spell around the village and how caution needed to be taken now that it was possible for Humans to wander nearby.

Even if she was safe here, though, she wouldn't be able to stay forever and the idea of heading back to the village on her own while the silver-haired man was potentially lurking nearby sent a chill down her spine. Deciding that her best hope was to trust that Seoda had safely made it back and would let her mother know what had happened, Aerith crossed the clearing and stopped at the entrance to the cave.

It had been several years since the last time she'd been here, and back then she'd only stopped in passing out of nostalgia. Her father had cleared out the charred remains of what the fire had left behind, but nothing else had been done to bring the cave back to what it used to be. The next step was to scrub the thin layer of ash off the walls and ceiling, although she wasn't about to do that right now.

Walking inside, Aerith settled down in the middle to wait. While it would have been nice to at least lean against the wall, she didn't want to stain her dress. The question now was how long it would take until someone—presumably her mother—showed up to escort her back to the village. Given the distance, Seoda probably hadn't made it back quite yet, so Aerith imagined she might be here for an hour at most. With nothing to do to help pass the time, it was looking like a painfully long wait.

As if on queue, a branch outside snapped.

Aerith immediately tensed up, her heart which had only just calmed down from her earlier flight abruptly racing once again. Another heavy step followed, loud and rough enough that it was clearly not made by a Cetra. In retrospect, maybe coming into the cave and trapping herself hadn't been the smartest decision, but how had he managed to find her?

Quickly looking around the interior for anything she could use to defend herself with, Aerith's eyes settled on a rock about the size of her fist near the very back of the cave. It wasn't much, but it was likely the best she was going to get. Rushing over, she picked it up, her arm shaking slightly, before walking back toward the entrance. She couldn't imagine something like this would be enough to knock him out, but, hopefully, it might catch him off guard and at least give her somewhat of a chance to get away.

The footsteps slowly drew closer, each one winding her tighter and tighter like a spring. A shadow filled the entrance before a figure ducked in, his blond hair catching the sunlight. Blond, not silver. Aerith barely managed to divert her throw, the rock clattering into the wall next to his head and sending him jumping backward.

"Cloud?!" she exclaimed in shock, hardly believing her eyes. What was he doing here?

"Aerith? Is that you? And . . . did you just throw a rock at me?"

Her cheeks were on fire and the only saving grace was that he likely couldn't see her well enough to notice. "Sorry. I wasn't sure who it was and got scared. At least I missed, right?" She stepped closer, getting a better look at him, and frowned at what she saw. Cloud looked incredibly worn down, but more alarming was the massive welt on the side of his head, as if something had hit him there incredibly hard.

"What happened to you?" she asked, rushing closer to get a better look.

"Oh, this?" Cloud reached up and lightly touched the side of his head, grimacing as he did so. "I uh . . . got into an argument with an old acquaintance."

Aerith arched an eyebrow, recognizing that while he wasn't lying to her, there was clearly more to the story. Deciding not to press him for the time being, she winced as she examined the wound. It looked exceptionally painful. "I have to admit, when you made the promise to come and visit me I didn't expect it to be this soon or quite like . . . this," she said, gesturing to his injury.

Cloud gave a wry laugh, his eyes not meeting hers. "If I'm being honest, I didn't expect to run into you, I was sort of just focused on coming here."

"Wait, so all you care about is my hideout and not me?" Aerith demanded, feigning indignation.

"What? No! I mean . . . I just meant that I didn't know where to go and then I remembered about this place . . ." He trailed off, not realizing she was teasing him since he still wasn't looking at her.

Aerith knew she shouldn't enjoy it to the extent she did, but it was just too much fun to see him get all flustered, especially when he was normally so collected. "I'm just kidding, Cloud," she said, reaching out and resting her hand on his shoulder. "Why here though? You only visited that one time."

"I'm not sure. I guess it's the last place I have left with any real good memories."

The answer caught her off guard, both because of the emotion in his words and also because she hadn't realized how much their time together here as kids had meant to him. It filled her with happiness to know he also treasured those memories as much as she did.

"Well, you're always welcome here. Sorry if it's a bit of a dump now, I've been meaning to clean it up for a while now and haven't gotten around to it."

"Yeah, what happened?" he asked, looking around. "Some kind of fire?"

"Something like that." It was her turn to be evasive, although she felt like the details didn't really matter anymore—especially not after Seoda's shocking apology from earlier. "I wish I had a Healing Materia on me, or at least one that could freeze some of the water outside so you could ice that wound."

"I'm sure it looks worse than it actually is," Cloud said, shrugging one shoulder before immediately scrunching his eyes closed at the motion. "On that note . . ." He hesitated, glancing over at her and then quickly looking away when she met his eyes. "I never asked when we were kids, but can only some Cetra use magic? I know your mom can, but I only ever saw you using Materia."

"Oh." Aerith liked to think she'd mostly come to terms with not being able to use magic, but it was still a bit painful to have to explain. "You remember how I told you I wasn't a full Cetra?"

Cloud nodded.

"Well, you're not entirely wrong in that some Cetra are more skilled than others at spell craft, but they can all use it to some degree. Half-bloods like me can't use magic at all though." She realized it was the first time she'd ever had to explain this since everyone around her had always known.

"Oh. Well, that sucks."

"Yup."

"That's why they bully you," Cloud said. "Because you can't do what they can."

"Bullied. But yes, that's why."

"Still dumb."

Aerith laughed. "It was. I'm glad it stopped. Can I ask a question now?"

Cloud hesitated for a moment before nodding. "Sure."

"How did you get so hurt?"

A shadow passed across his face before he responded. "I did something stupid. I thought I'd try to confront Hojo for what he did to my mom, but I never even made it to him. His guards stopped me and showed me just how pathetic I am."

"Oh, Cloud." She wanted to give him a hug but settled for squeezing his arm reassuringly. "You're not pathetic. Hojo will have to pay for his crimes eventually, but attacking or, Gaia forbid, killing him isn't the solution. That just makes you more like him."

He didn't look terribly pleased, but Cloud grudgingly nodded his head. "I know you're right. It's just . . . so hard. I'm going to train. Not to attack Hojo," he said quickly in response to the look she gave him. "Just to get stronger. So I can protect what's important to me."

Aerith tucked a stray strand of hair back behind her ear. She was tempted to ask what, or who was important to him, but she couldn't bring herself to. What even was their relationship at this point? Were they friends? In the grand scheme of things, they'd hardly been able to spend much time together at all—something Aerith very much wanted to change. Cloud at least seemed to have valued their time together, given his presence here, but she also didn't want to jump to any conclusions. And then there was also what her mother had said, about how it was dangerous to let herself get too close to him.

"Sorry, I intruded on whatever it was you were doing, didn't I?" Cloud asked, pulling her out of her thoughts.

"No, no, not at all!" she rushed to explain. "I only got here right before you did and that was just so I could hide."

"You're hiding? From who, that one girl? I thought you said the bullying had stopped." Cloud's brow had dropped down, a troubled look on his face.

"What? Oh, no, not Seoda. You're not going to believe this, but it was actually another Human. Taller than you, with long silver hair."

As soon as the description left her lips, the change in Cloud was immediate. He spun around toward the forest, his body tensing up. "Sephiroth is here? We need to get you away immediately. I'll do my best to hold him off, but there's only so much I can do against him."

Aerith blinked, surprised—and somewhat touched—at how suddenly he'd become deadly serious. "We're safe here, Cloud. My mother's spell still prevents anyone from finding this place unless they already know it exists." She vaguely remembered the name from when she'd visited him and they'd talked about her dream but didn't understand why Cloud's reaction had been so extreme. "Who is Sephiroth?"

"Hojo's son," Cloud explained, his head snapping back and forth as he continued to scan the forest. "He's the best swordsman I know and does whatever his father asks. If he's all the way out here then he must be trying to capture an Anci—a Cetra."

That was alarming to hear, and only heightened Aerith's worry for Elidar's safety, but hearing Hojo's name yet again reminded her of something she needed to tell Cloud. "When I was leaving your city I overheard two people talking about Hojo and how someone named Shinra was helping him with his experiments. I don't have any proof, but I think they might be behind the disappearances people are talking about."

Cloud exhaled in disgust, shaking his head but still continuing to watch the trees. "That doesn't surprise me in the least. No one is as bad as Hojo, but the President is the closest."

"What should—" Aerith cut off as a loud rustling noise came from the edge of the clearing. That was impossible, how could he have possibly found them? Even Elidar didn't know about this place so he wouldn't have been able to lead the way for Sephiroth. Before either she or Cloud could do anything, a figure burst out into the clearing and Aerith heaved a sigh of relief as she recognized her mother.

Except Ifalna didn't seem at all pleased to see Cloud. "Get away from my daughter!" she yelled, raising her fist and pointing it directly at him, whirling blades of wind spinning up around it.

"Mom, no!" Aerith screamed, throwing herself forward to stand in front of Cloud. "It's not him," she explained, guessing that Seoda had only mentioned a Human and hadn't described what he looked like.

Frowning, her mother lowered her arm. "What is he doing here then? Seoda said the three of you were attacked by a Human and she lost track of you in the woods."

"We were, but not by Cloud. Elidar stayed behind to hold him off so that we could escape. He . . . didn't make it back to the village?"

"No, not yet. Rilesa is already leading a search party to find him. Regardless, it's time for Cloud to leave, we're going back home." She finished with a distinct finality, her tone making it clear that there was no room for argument.

Aerith didn't care. "Cloud can come with us if he wants to, he's not part of the problem!"

Her mother's eyes widened in surprise before her lips stiffened into a frown. "Aerith. A Human attacked Cetra. It doesn't matter if Cloud wasn't involved or not, everything just changed."

"I should head home anyway," Cloud said in a rush before Aerith could respond. "It's getting late and I don't want to be in the way."

"Cloud! You don't have to," she said, spinning to face him.

He smiled weakly back at her. "It's fine, really. You should go home with your mom, you'll be safe there."

Reluctantly, Aerith slowly nodded. "Fine, but promise you'll come to visit again, okay?" she asked, reaching out and squeezing his hand.

Cloud seemed to jump slightly, his ears going red before he pulled his hand free. "I promise," he called out, already running toward the edge of the clearing. "It was good to see you again!"

Aerith was frustrated their time together had once again been so short, but thankful it had happened at all. Walking over to her mother, she gave her a hug. "Thanks for coming to get me," Aerith whispered into her robes. A wave of exhaustion swept over her now that the excitement of seeing Cloud again was wearing off.

"Of course. Everything is alright? You're not hurt?"

"I'm fine, but now I'm worried about Elidar."

"I am too, but he's strong. We should get back, he might already be there and your father is also sick with worry." Pulling out of the hug, she turned and began walking in the direction of the village. "I want to hear about everything that happened, even the smallest details. I'm afraid I'm going to have to bring this to the Council."

Matching her steps, Aerith began to explain everything that had happened since the scouting mission had started. The entire time, she couldn't get her mother's words of how everything had changed out of her head. She prayed that wasn't true.


I imagine there are a lot of surprises in this chapter. We open up with some Cetra lore, learning about legendary figures from the past who had prophetic dreams and were the most powerful mages of their time. Interesting... Then we move on to a scouting mission, with a new OC and an old one as Seoda re-enters the story. She's changed probably more than anyone else over the seven-year gap, going so far as to even apologize to Aerith for what happened when they were kids. And then Sephi decides to join the party as well, although very much as an uninvited guest. Elidar's fate remains unknown for now, but he valiantly holds the Human off to buy Aerith and Seoda time to escape.

As if all of that wasn't enough, after getting the crap kicked out of him, Cloud doesn't go back home but instead goes to, in his own words, the last place he has left with any good memories, resulting in a surprise Clerith scene! Of everything in here, I imagine this is probably the least expected part. They get a chance to catch up even though it's only been a day since they last saw each other and share some info. Ifalna closes us out with a bit of a misunderstanding in assuming that Cloud was the attacker (poor guy), but even with that cleared up, she recognizes that with what Sephiroth has done, things between the Humans and Cetra are going to inevitably change now...


Next Chapter: Avalanche