"I've explained this many times before," Aerith's mother said, sounding exhausted. "Anyone who wants to is free to leave the village. Those who wish to stay are welcome to. You have my assurance that we're safe here, the Humans aren't able to find us."

In the seven years since the Barrier had fallen, surprisingly little had changed. What had changed had done so dramatically, however, which Aerith imagined was to be expected when two worlds collided and suddenly there was a massive city in the middle of the forest that hadn't originally been there. To make matters even worse, the surrounding trees had started dying almost immediately. Her father had stopped all of his existing research and switched to focusing entirely on trying to figure out what was happening and how it could be stopped. So far he'd come up with nothing more than theories.

"Just because they haven't been able to yet doesn't mean they can't," a woman in the back called out. "Besides, how much longer until the forest is dead and gone and we're stuck in a barren wasteland of death?"

Aerith shifted slightly before leaning back against the wall of the house behind her. The monthly village gathering had been underway for slightly more than an hour at this point and already the same overly exaggerated questions were popping up. She knew everyone was worried—rightfully so—but asking questions that had been answered a million times before only wasted everyone's time.

"As I've stated many times before, that's not how the magic works. The village can only be found by someone who's been here before and knows where it is. It is completely impossible for anyone to randomly stumble upon it." Ifalna took a deep breath, her face falling slightly. "I share your concerns about the forest and we are doing everything we can to ensure nothing will happen to Farstar. The marginally good news is that the rate of decay seems to have slowed down after the initial burst and there's been no indication that the village will be in danger anytime in the near future."

"What about Duskbell?" a man standing next to the woman from earlier asked. "I heard the Humans built a structure nearby and now their forest is dying too."

Aerith perked up slightly at the news, she hadn't heard anything about that. Duskbell was another of the villages closest to where the Human's city had shown up, although they were slightly farther away than Farstar was.

"I've only heard rumors so I can't speak with any certainty about what's going on there. I promise you I'll get in touch with Duskbell's Elder by next week and learn more to share with you. Is there anything else?"

There was a small commotion as another man pushed his way to the front of the gathering. "Is there any word from the Council on when we'll be going to war with the Humans to make them face the consequences of their actions? Or are we supposed to continue to simply sit idly by and just watch as they continue to destroy everything we hold dear?"

Her mother looked as surprised as Aerith felt. It was the first time someone had brought up going to war during one of these meetings, and by the grumbled agreements from some of the other people around him, the man wasn't alone.

"I certainly can't speak for the Council on such an extreme matter, but I haven't heard anything like that, no. I will say that war is a last resort. There are still plenty of other options to explore first."

Shaking his head angrily, the man stalked away, several others breaking off from the crowd to join him.

"I think we'll end it here," her mother declared, clapping her hands together twice. "Thank you for your questions and please feel free to drop by my house if you have any more concerns."

The rest of the remaining villagers began milling around, various conversations starting up among those who weren't leaving. Aerith ignored them, skirting around the edge of the town center to join her mother on the other side.

"War? Really? Are people seriously that eager to start shedding blood?" she asked as they made their way down the path that would take them back home.

"They're just scared," her mother said with a sigh. "They see the Humans cutting down trees unchecked and slaughtering wildlife—not to mention the spread of the desert—and wonder why they're allowed to get away with it."

"I share their frustrations, but that doesn't make me want to go to war!"

Ifalna chuckled, glancing over at Aerith with a small smile. "Yes, well, I do wish more people could be as rational as you. The world would be a better place, and my head would certainly ache far less."

Reaching their house, Aerith hurried forward to hold open the door for her mother, following inside behind her.

"I, for one, could use a snack," Ifalna declared, walking towards the kitchen. "Care to join me?"

Before Aerith could respond, the door to Gast's study swung open and her father emerged from inside. "Did I overhear something about a snack?"

"Sounds like we'll both be joining you," Aerith said in amusement. "Need any help?"

"No, no, I can handle this just fine on my own. You two go sit down and I'll join you in a moment."

Aerith was tempted to ignore her and help anyway but ultimately decided against it. Instead, she walked over to the sofa and dropped down onto one end of it, sighing loudly.

"If you sound that tired then I can only imagine the gathering was even worse for your mother. Anything I should know about?" her father asked as he settled down into a chair opposite her.

"Not really, no," she said, shaking her head. "It was mostly the same as it always is these days, people worried that the Humans are going to come charging out of the forest even though no one has seen one anywhere near the village in all these years."

"We're lucky Ifalna is such a powerful mage, there's not many who could conceal an entire village like this. I can somewhat understand how others are struggling to grasp how magic that powerful works, especially considering I can't use it myself."

Aerith refrained from pointing out that even though she couldn't use magic either, that didn't mean she didn't trust her mother when she said they were safe. "Yes, but even if that wasn't the case then wouldn't the Archmage have just taken care of it as she did with Duskbell?"

"Quite possibly, yes. I don't know if she'd be able to handle two villages all on her own, although it wouldn't surprise me."

"Oh, that reminds me, someone at the meeting mentioned that Duskbell's forest is starting to die now that the Humans finished their building."

Gast noticeably perked up, leaning forward in his chair. "Really? Fascinating, that would seem to prove my theory that the reactors are indeed the source of the blight. I had my suspicions given they were the largest change to Midgar since I left, but it's nice to get some potential evidence to back that up. I'll need to confirm that rumor myself."

"What rumor?" Ifalna asked, walking into the room with a plate of cookies in one hand and a teapot in the other.

Jumping to her feet, Aerith hurried over to the cabinet where they stored the teacups and grabbed three of them, earning a smile from her mother as she set them down on the coffee table before returning to her place on the sofa.

"Apparently, the desertification has started to spread into the areas around Duskbell?" Her father leaned forward to grab a cookie, looking over at her mother.

"Ah, news of that spread far faster than I expected, I only learned of it this morning myself," Ifalna said, pouring tea into each of the three cups before taking one and sipping at it. Leaning back into her chair, she sighed in bliss, closing her eyes. "I'll have to make a trip over there sometime later this week, I imagine you'll want to come as well?"

Gast nodded. "Yes, I'll need to see the rate it's spreading at and if we can truly say that the reactor is the origin. Based on that, it may be time for a closer inspection of the ones inside Midgar itself."

Aerith jerked forward, looking at her father in surprise. He was considering a visit to the Human's city? She had been asking her mother if she could do exactly that ever since the Barrier had fallen, but the answer had always been a firm and steady no, that it wasn't safe and they couldn't risk it. But if her father was going to go, then maybe it wouldn't be out of the question for her to tag along with him.

"Please tell me you're joking," Ifalna said, cracking her eyes open and looking over at her husband. "It's been a long time since you left, but surely you'd still be recognized. How are you planning on explaining where you've been?"

"I . . . hadn't really thought of that. It seems unlikely I'd run into someone like Hojo, but you're right, if I did it would lead to some very awkward questions." He sighed. "Very well, I suppose I'll just have to make do with the Duskbell reactor then."

"What if I tagged along with him?" Aerith asked. "Then we could each look out for the other."

"Absolutely not!" both of her parents exclaimed together, turning to face her.

"Why not?" she demanded. "I'm seventeen years old now, a young woman according to you. Why can't I make choices like this on my own?"

"Because it isn't safe!" her mother exclaimed, her father nodding fervently in agreement. "I don't want either of you anywhere near that city. We know for a fact the leader of the Humans has no love for us, the last thing I want is him capturing one of our people, much less someone from our family!"

Aerith had heard the argument before, but this time she decided to press harder. "I agree it's possible they could recognize Dad, but how would I stick out? It's not like the Humans have any way of telling us apart from them like we can." It was how she and her mother had been able to tell Cloud was a Human on sight—his nearly complete lack of connection to the Lifestream.

"Even if that's true, I don't want to risk it, not now. It's too dangerous. We need to wait on the Council to make a decision and establish contact with them before anything else."

Sinking back into the sofa, Aerith sighed in exasperation. As if that was going to happen anytime soon. Given the Council hadn't been able to come to a consensus on what to do over the last seven years, the idea of them figuring it out any time soon seemed highly unlikely.

"I know you want to see Cloud again," her mother continued, setting down her teacup. "But a lot can change in seven years. We simply don't know if he'd try to turn you in or hold you hostage."

"Cloud wouldn't do that," Aerith immediately said, frowning. Even if he had been training to fight Cetra, she trusted him not to do something that horrible.

"I still don't think you should have so much faith in someone who stole from us," Gast added once he finished chewing the last of his cookie.

Aerith didn't want to have this part of the conversation all over again so she hopped to her feet. "Fine. Since I'm not free to go where I want, I'm going to do some gardening. Or is that too dangerous now as well?" She knew she was being slightly unreasonable and that her parents only had her best interest at heart, but it was just so frustrating. It felt like she was going to be trapped like a prisoner in this village for the rest of her life when all she wanted to do was go out and see the world.

"Of course you can," her mother said soothingly. "I'd join you, but with this Duskbell business, I don't think I'll have the time. Let's talk about this more at dinner, okay? I can try reaching out to the Council and urge them to come to a decision. Gaia knows it's been long enough."

Nodding in agreement, Aerith finished the last of her tea and grabbed one final cookie before making her way to the front door and heading outside. While she appreciated the effort her mom was making, she didn't expect it to result in any significant action. Even a village Elder could only do so much when it came to the Council. She still felt like visiting the Human's city wasn't that big of a deal, and certainly not something that should need permission. In fact . . .

She came to a halt, licking the last of the crumbs from her fingers. Why couldn't she go? It wasn't like anyone would notice she was gone and not out gardening in the woods. As long as she was back home before it got too late her parents would be none the wiser. Just the idea of it seemed wrong, lying to her parents essentially, but before she could think about it too much, Aerith found herself walking into the forest—not in the direction of her recent gardening project.

Distances had gotten . . . weird since the Barrier dropped. Based on Cloud's description from his visits, Farstar should have been no more than a brief twenty-minute walk from the Human city. Instead, it was just over an hour's trip from what she'd overheard some scouts saying. Despite that, she had plenty of time to get there, visit with Cloud for a while, and still make it home in time for dinner. Setting a brisk pace, Aerith passed through the trees, the thought of seeing Cloud again after all this time pushing her onward.

Heaving a sigh of relief, Aerith wiped the sweat from her forehead as she passed through the gates of the massive city. The journey hadn't been all that bad until the trees had started dying. It had been a heartbreaking sight—the greenery getting slowly browner the farther she went as if the very life were being sucked out of them. The wasteland surrounding the city had almost been better, despite its oppressive heat, if only because everything there was already dead.

She'd know the situation was bad, but seeing it in person had allowed Aerith to better understand the concerns raised at the meeting earlier today—the thought of this desolation reaching Farstar was horrifying. Once the city had come into view it had been a relief knowing she only had a bit farther to go. As she'd gotten closer, Aerith had been surprised at how accurately the city had been portrayed in her dream. With how long ago it had been she wasn't entirely sure, but it seemed like an almost perfect match.

Dismissing that coincidence as either déjà vu or simply a faulty old memory, she eagerly made her way through the streets, excited to see how the city compared to Farstar. The outer edges of it, close to where she'd entered through one of the gates, were mostly quiet with very few other people who all ignored her completely. As she pushed onward, deeper into the city, that changed quickly. One moment she was walking through a mostly deserted street, the next she found herself at an intersection where the connecting road was packed with what looked like some type of street market.

Children were running around, screaming and laughing, as adults haggled for goods at a massive variety of stalls. The sight was astonishing—Aerith had never seen so many people all crammed into one place before. And this was only a single market in the entire city! From what her mother had told her of the Cetra capital it was supposed to be quite large as well, but she wondered how it compared to this. The size did present a large problem though, one she hadn't considered until right now. How in Gaia's name was she supposed to find Cloud?

Without a better idea, she decided to start asking around, after all, perhaps someone would recognize a description of him and be able to point her in the right direction. The first person she asked—a man selling a variety of wooden sculptures—ignored her as soon as he realized she wasn't there to buy anything. Not letting it get her down, Aerith moved to the next stall where a woman was selling a small number of dubious-looking fruits.

"Excuse me, I'm looking for a friend and was hoping you might be able to point me in the right direction. He's about my age and has blue eyes and spiky blond hair, kind of like a chocobo. If you could help me find him I'd really appreciate it."

For some reason, a sorrowful look passed across the woman's face. "Oh, I'm sorry dear, is he one of the ones who's gone missing lately? Things were so good only a few years ago and now the food supplies are already dwindling and if that wasn't enough, people are just vanishing off the street. Shinra needs to do something about it already, I say. Enough is enough."

"Oh. No, he's not missing, I don't think," Aerith said, taken aback by the response.

"Well, that's good to hear. Sorry, I'm afraid I don't recognize the description. I hope you manage to find him!"

Thanking the woman for her time, Aerith continued making her way through the crowd, asking anyone who didn't seem to be too busy. Everyone had a similar response, initially assuming he'd disappeared before saying that the description of Cloud didn't ring any bells. From what she could gather, people had started vanishing off the streets a few days ago, and while there hadn't initially been a lot of concern, that had changed as more and more people started to go missing. The common consensus was that the Ancients were to blame, but Aerith knew better than to argue even though she was positive that couldn't be true.

Just when she was about to give up hope of ever finding Cloud, a woman with long, ebony hair and dark eyes—roughly the same age as Aerith's mother—stepped up next to her. "I'm sorry, I couldn't help but overhear the description you gave that man just now. Are you looking for Cloud for some reason?"

Aerith immediately perked up, nodding her head vigorously. "I am! Does that mean you know where I could find him?"

"I do, but . . ." The woman hesitated, looking Aerith over. "Can I ask why you want to see him but don't know where he lives? It's just a little unusual is all."

"Oh." Aerith scrambled to come up with an explanation, settling on a close variation to the truth. "We met as kids years ago and had fun playing together, but then something happened and I never got the chance to see him again. I thought I'd try and find him after all this time to make sure he was doing alright."

The woman's face fell, her earlier suspicion replaced entirely with sorrow for some reason. "That must have been before . . . Of course, come with me, it's on my way back home anyway. It'll do him good to see another familiar face."

A nagging worry settled in Aerith's gut at the reaction, but she ignored it for now, thankful to have finally found someone who could help. The woman set a brisk pace through the market, waving to a few people as she went but never stopping to talk. As she followed along behind her, Aerith's attention was forcefully dragged away when she felt the unmistakable presence of another Cetra pass by her. Whirling around, she scanned the crowd for who it might be, but the feeling was already fading away—whoever it was must have been in quite a hurry.

"Everything okay?"

"Yes, sorry. Just thought I saw someone I knew," Aerith said, turning back around and following after the black-haired woman once more. There were other Cetra in the city? How? Why? The questions tumbled around inside her head, but she forced herself to put them aside for later.

Once the press of the market loosened up, they were able to move more quickly through the streets despite these being much busier than the ones Aerith had seen after first entering the city. It seemed like, for whatever reason, people preferred to live closer to the center than to the walls. It was another large difference from her village, where the houses on the outskirts were considered to be nicer locations. Although, considering the desolate wasteland directly outside instead of the comfort of a forest, it did make some sense.

Before too much longer, the woman came to a halt at an intersection, pointing at a house a short way down the road on the right. "That's where Cloud lives. I'd stop by with you to say hello, but I imagine the two of you will have plenty to catch up on and I really should be getting home with this food before it spoils" she said, hefting the bags she was carrying.

"Thank you so much! I wish there was something I could do to repay you for all your help . . ."

"Don't worry about that, dear. If you can help boost Cloud's mood at all then that's payment enough for me."

Aerith waved farewell as the woman moved off, only realizing once she was out of sight that she'd never gotten her name. She didn't linger on the thought for long, too excited to finally see Cloud again after all these years. Hurrying over to his house, she knocked firmly on the door, twice. "Hello?" she called out, unsure if he'd even be able to hear her. "Hello in there!"

"Go away, Tifa. I told you I want to be alone," a muffled voice shouted back.

Tifa? Who was Tifa? That had been Cloud's voice though—even if he'd misidentified her—so she was clearly at the right place. Giving the doorknob a try, she found it unlocked. Cloud had sounded upset, but she wasn't Tifa so surely he'd be excited to see her, right?

Pushing the door open, Aerith was surprised to find it pitch black inside. If she hadn't already heard his voice, she would have thought he wasn't home. Was he trying to sleep? In the middle of the day? She reached out to find the Materia to turn the lights on before realizing that of course there wouldn't be one. Instead, her fingers found a little switch on the wall in a similar position, and, after flicking it and waiting for several seconds, the lights fluttered a few times before settling into a dull glow.

A moment later she heard footsteps coming from one of the neighboring rooms before a familiar—but older—face appeared. "Damnit, Tifa, I thought I said—" Cloud froze, staring at her with wide eyes. "Wait . . . what? Aerith?! Is that you?"

"Surprise," she said, giving him a smile and a small wave. Now that she could see him, Cloud looked . . . bad. There were bags under his eyes, his hair was a disorganized disaster, and somehow he seemed almost frailer than when she'd first met him all those years ago. "Have you been getting enough to eat?" she asked in concern, taking a step closer.

"I—What? You sound just like . . ." He glanced down at himself, blinking. "Is it really that bad?"

"Yup, it's pretty bad, mister. I know you don't like green things, but it looks like you haven't even been eating much of anything with how malnourished you are."

"I'm eating," he mumbled, looking away down at the floor. There was an awkward moment of brief silence before his head snapped back over to her, a confused look on his face. "What are you even doing here? Isn't it dangerous, given you're a . . . you-know-what?"

Aerith pretended to pout. "Is that all you have to say after how long it's been?"

"No! I mean, I just . . ." He finally smiled, ever so slightly as he ran a hand through his hair. "It's good to see you again, Aerith. I never expected to, not after what I did . . ."

"You mean after you stole from us?" she asked, trying to make it clear from her tone that she wasn't actually upset. The sinking feeling from earlier returned as she looked around the room. It was painfully obvious Cloud was living here alone and that realization gave a whole new meaning to why the woman who'd helped her had seemed so sad. She hoped she was wrong but didn't know how to even ask the question that was now lodged in her throat.

Cloud nodded slowly, once again not looking at her. "Yeah. And for lying to you after everything you did for me. To make things worse, none of it ended up even mattering . . ."

"Cloud . . ." Aerith walked over to him, gently placing her hand on his arm. He slightly flinched back but didn't pull away from her. "What happened?"

His face fell before he swallowed. "I made it back to the Barrier easily enough," he began slowly. "It didn't want to let the Materia through, but I managed to force it, although I thought I'd broken it in the process. Then, shortly after I made it back inside the city, it was stolen from me—"

"By a man wearing a white coat and circular glasses," she whispered, her heart racing. Her dream had been real?! How was that even remotely possible? Given that Cloud's story perfectly matched with what she'd seen it had to have been, but . . . Aerith had never heard of anyone having dreams that came true.

Cloud was looking at her in shock. "How could you possibly know about Hojo?"

The name was strangely familiar for some reason and it took her a moment before she remembered that it was the person her father had mentioned who might recognize him. "I—I'm not sure. Somehow I dreamed of everything that happened to you. I tried to warn you, but I could only watch as that silver-haired boy signaled the ambush."

"Sephiroth! So he was there, I knew it!"

"What . . . what happened after that?" Aerith asked, her voice so faint she thought he might not hear her.

Cloud seemed to shrink in on himself, his fists clenching at his sides. "Without the Materia I had no way to heal my mom. She—" He cut off, his throat bobbing. "She died," he whispered.

Aerith's heart shattered. Before she was even aware of what she was doing, she'd stepped closer and thrown her arms around Cloud, hugging him tightly. He briefly struggled against her before going limp, his body shaking as a sob escaped his lips. Holding him tighter, Aerith ran one of her hands over his back, not saying anything as his sorrow flowed out of him.

Eventually, he pulled himself free, sinking down into one of the chairs around the table in the middle of the room. "I'm so pathetic," he muttered, his voice bitter.

Shaking her head in disagreement, Aerith took the seat opposite him. She wanted to reach out and hold his hands across the table, but she'd already been so forward with the hug and didn't want to make him any more uncomfortable. "That's not true. You lost someone incredibly important to you, missing them doesn't make you pathetic at all. You've been all alone, ever since then?" It would certainly explain why he looked so worn down.

"No. I lived at a friend's house most of the time. I only just recently moved back since I didn't want to keep being a burden on them."

Aerith couldn't imagine that anyone who'd willingly taken him in after he'd lost his mother would have considered him a burden, but she didn't think it was her place to say that. Instead, her attention was captured by a surprisingly familiar sight as the trickle of light filtering in through the curtains over the window revealed a potted plant. "Ah! You still have the plant I gave you! The poor thing is in the same pot though. You should get it a bigger one so it has more room to grow."

"Oh, great, so I fucked this up too. Just like I do with everything I touch."

She frowned. "Cloud, that's not true, and this isn't even a big deal. I can tell from here that it's doing fine, it just doesn't have enough room to get any bigger." She took a deep breath, trying to figure out what she wanted to say. This wasn't the Cloud she knew, and Aerith wanted to do whatever she could to help. "Look, I know you're really sad and I can't even begin to imagine what you've gone through, but you can't keep beating yourself up over what happened in the past. What do you think your mom would say if she saw you like this?"

Cloud opened his mouth, a spark of something flickering to life in his eyes, before he slowly closed it again, his brow furrowed in thought. "But I let her die, Aerith."

"You didn't let her die," she said firmly. "You did everything you possibly could to try and help her and then some evil people stopped you. That's their fault, not yours."

He seemed to think about this for a moment before looking around the room. "Mom would be upset if she were here, wouldn't she?"

"I can't speak for her, but if it were my mother then yeah. She'd tell me I needed to take better care of myself. That she'd want me to be happy, even if she wasn't around anymore." Just the thought of losing her mother was enough to make Aerith's eyes water.

Cloud exhaled loudly before firmly nodding once. "You're right. I'll try to do better. Thanks, Aerith."

"Glad to help," she said with a smile. She knew it wouldn't be easy, but deep down, Cloud was strong. He could get through this, he'd just needed a gentle shove in the right direction to get him started.

"Wait . . . why are you here?" he asked. "It's not safe."

Aerith laughed, shaking her head in amusement. "Now you sound exactly like my mother. I made it here without issue, didn't I? You're the only person in this entire city who knows who I am. And I'm here because I wanted to see you. You never came to visit," she finished, feeling her cheeks warm slightly.

"I expected you to slap me if you ever saw me again," he said, one corner of his mouth lifting upward. "Sorry again about stealing the Materia, and for lying to you. It really isn't safe though. If Hojo gets his hands on you . . ."

The memory of the man from her dream was enough to send a shiver through Aerith, even though she knew nothing about him. "Why would he care about me?"

"I'm honestly not entirely sure," Cloud said, looking slightly embarrassed. "All I know is that Shinra put out a five hundred thousand Gil reward for anyone who brings them an Ancient. Sorry, Cetra."

"I imagine that's a lot of money?"

He nodded. "Enough that if people learned about you they wouldn't hesitate to turn you in."

Walking over to the window, Aerith pulled the curtain out of the way so she could gauge what time it was. Based on where the sun was, she probably did need to consider leaving soon if she didn't want her parents to start wondering where she was and possibly go looking for her. "I feel like we've only just started catching up, but I guess I should be getting back soon. Not because I think you have a point though. I still don't think I'm in any danger here."

A look of relief flashed across Cloud's face.

"But only if you promise to come and visit me."

Cloud blinked, before slowly nodding. "Oh. Uh, yeah, sure. Deal."

Aerith moved closer, looking him firmly in the eye. "Promise."

"Okay, okay I promise," he said, a faint smile spreading across his lips.

"Good. I suppose you can throw me out now."

"What?! I'm not—I would never! I just—"

She burst into laughter, tears filling her eyes as he looked at her sheepishly. Wiping them away, she struggled to even out her breathing so she could talk again. "I'm just teasing you, silly. I could use some directions on how to get back outside the city, I have no idea how to get there."

"Oh, I can help with that, it's not too far." He led her to the door, holding it open for her before following behind. "Head down this street," he said, pointing to the left. "Once it ends you take a right and that should lead you directly to the closest gate where I used to cross over. I'm guessing that's the one you entered from."

Making a mental note of the directions, Aerith turned back to face him. "Got it, thanks. Don't forget what we talked about, okay? When you come to visit me I expect to see you looking a lot better."

"I'll try," he said, that almost but not quite a smile making another brief appearance.

That was all she could ask for, and pushing the point any further seemed like it could do more harm than good. "Alrighty, well I guess this is bye for now then. It was good to see you again, Cloud."

He nodded. "Same. Thanks for coming to visit, despite the danger. You gave me a lot to think about. Actually . . . are you gonna be okay getting back?"

Aerith giggled, slightly tilting her head to the side. "And if I said I wasn't?"

"Then I'll walk you. To the city gates, at least. To make sure nothing happens."

She smiled. "That's sweet of you, but really, I'm fine. You worry too much, mister." Even if it would be nice to spend a bit more time with him. Reluctantly, she started down the road, turning and giving him a wave after only a few steps. Cloud waved back but didn't go inside, continuing to watch her. Touched that he was so worried for her, she resumed walking.

Each step made her a little sadder, but she focused on the positives of her visit. She'd gotten to see Cloud again, had done her best to help him, and had gotten him to promise to come and visit her. All in all, it had been an exceptionally successful trip, even if it would have been nice to spend a bit more time together.

"—Hojo."

Aerith heard the now all too familiar name coming from the intersection ahead of her and barely managed to duck behind a nearby house as two men stepped into view. They were both dressed in black—which seemed like a questionable decision given the heat—although the similarities ended there. One of them had spiky, red hair that stuck out like a sore thumb, while the other was either bald or had shaved his head and was wearing shades.

"I seriously can't believe that wacko's mad science project is actually producing results," the redhead said. "There's no way President Shinra would back this otherwise."

"Watch it. You shouldn't be saying things like that out loud."

"Please. We're in the outskirts, there's literally no one else out here."

"Just . . . try and exercise some restraint. For once in your life. Please. I can't even imagine what would happen if people learned the truth."

"Are you saying that you support this shit? Kidnapping people?"

"Of course not! The boss doesn't either. But orders are orders. The whys and wherefores are . . ."

The rest of whatever Baldy was saying was lost as they moved out of earshot. Aerith waited for a few minutes more before slowly leaving her hiding place, not entirely sure what she'd just overheard. It sounded like the disappearances everyone had been talking about were being carried out at the orders of this Shinra person. She could have sworn that was the name people had expected to help them, but maybe she'd misheard.

For a moment, Aerith debated going back to Cloud and telling him what she'd learned but ended up deciding against it. He had enough on his plate to worry about as it was, not to mention the fact she still didn't really have any idea what was going on. Once he came to visit her, then she could bring it up. Decision made, she quickly hurried through the remaining streets and out the gate, wincing as the sight of the barren wasteland around the city met her eyes. Sighing, she took one look back in the direction of Cloud's house before starting the long trek back home.

Clerith! It's not a whole lot, I know, but hopefully, what it lacks in quantity it makes up for in quality. Aerith gives Cloud the hug he's been so desperately needing, as well as some helpful concern and advice. Cloud's obviously not just going to suddenly be fine, but he's going to start improving at least. There's also more info dropped now that we've finally gotten some Cetra perspective on things. The villages are being protected in the same way Aerith's hideout was, just on a much larger scale (which also means it has the same vulnerability). And while we know the reactors are the source of the problems, the Cetra haven't been able to definitively prove that, although with the new one finishing up outside Duskbell, that's presumably going to change. On top of that, people are disappearing in Midgar...

Next Chapter: Secret