Cloud was reeling as he followed Aerith down the stairs. His plan to avoid her had ended up backfiring spectacularly, although after what had happened, maybe that wasn't such a bad thing after all. To find out that, somehow, she didn't hate his guts and seemed to want to have him around was not at all what he'd been expecting. And it hadn't ended there.

He'd seen stars almost immediately after standing up, and then the next thing he knew, something warm and soft was wrapped in his arms as he'd reflexively tried to catch himself. It hadn't taken him more than half a second to realize what had happened and that he was accidentally hugging Aerith. His first reaction had been to pull away, but it had been so comfortable he hadn't wanted to. Thinking about it, he realized the last time he'd hugged anyone had been back in his teens, once again with Aerith.

After losing track of how long he'd held her for, Cloud had given Aerith one last squeeze before apologizing and stepping back. To his surprise, she'd almost seemed disappointed, and hadn't been upset with him at all. The whole thing had really helped to drive home the fact that he'd spent way too much time in his own head, convincing himself that she must hate him.

As they stepped back into the main room of the bar together, Aerith went directly over to Zack and placed her hand on his chest, earning a surprised look from the man. "I was right," she said, sounding pleased. "You've got the same stuff in your lungs that Cloud did. Both of you must have inhaled some of that gas." A moment later there was a faint green glow around her hand before it winked out and she stepped back.

Zack's eyes widened slightly as he took a deep breath. "Oh, wow. I thought I was just coming down with something minor, but that feels way better. Thanks!"

"Cloud! You're okay?" Tifa asked, hurrying over to join him with an incredibly worried expression.

He nodded. "Yeah, thanks to Aerith I'm feeling a lot better. Pretty tired, but nothing a good night of sleep won't fix."

"That's a relief to hear," she said, exhaling loudly and looking somewhat less stressed out. "You seemed like you were on the verge of death. I guess their magic really is as strong as people say it is. I'll need to thank Aerith properly."

Having mentioned his exhaustion, it seemed as if it immediately doubled, leaving Cloud wanting nothing more than to lay down and pass out—despite it still being a few hours until he'd normally call it a night. He forced himself to fight through it. From the involved conversation that Barret seemed to be having on the far side of the room with the other members of Avalanche, it seemed like plans were being made and he didn't want to miss out on any of that.

"Need a coffee?" Tifa asked, seeming to recognize the state he was in.

"Oh, uh, yeah, that sounds good," he replied. "Thanks."

"No problem, be back in a jiffy."

With Tifa gone, Cloud leaned back against the wall, thankful to get a moment to himself. It didn't last for long.

"The others told me you're the one who convinced them to rescue us, I wanted to thank you for that," a man Cloud didn't recognize said as he came to a halt a short distance away—also leaning against the wall. He was wearing red and black robes and the style was similar enough to what he remembered from visiting Aerith's village for him to assume the man was a Cetra.

Cloud blinked, pushing through the sleepy fog that was trying to pull him down. "You must be Vincent, right? Don't worry about it, I just did what was right."

"Odd words, for a Human. Don't get me wrong, I mean no offense, but most of your people couldn't care less about what might happen to an 'Ancient' like me."

"You're not wrong," Cloud said, amused. "Odd fits me pretty well. I'm not sure I ever really fit in. Once I met Aerith and learned more about the Cetra, well, it really helped to open my eyes."

Vincent looked surprised at the mention of Cetra. "I see you know more about us than I gave you credit for."

"That's the first thing Gast taught me, honestly. There's still a lot I don't know, though. I never thought I'd get the chance to learn more, but maybe that's not the case any longer."

"Oh?" Vincent cocked his head, looking puzzled for a moment before he appeared to make some kind of connection. "Ah, I see. You're in love with Ifalna's daughter."

The statement caught Cloud completely off guard, leaving him reeling. Was he in love with Aerith? He obviously considered her a good friend, she was an important figure in his life who'd been there for him more than anyone else other than his mother, and yes, he was certainly quite attracted to her. And, somehow, this man who'd only just met him had managed to put all the pieces together in a mere handful of minutes.

"Everything okay here?" Tifa asked, a steaming cup of coffee in her hand and a confused look on her face. "You look like your world got turned upside-down."

Cloud froze, then accepted the coffee and took a big sip, nearly scalding the roof of his mouth in the process. "It's fine. Everything is perfectly fine," he said, coughing.

"Alright, if you say so," she said, clearly not believing him but also seeming amused. "I'm just glad to see you acting more like yourself."

He wasn't entirely sure what that was supposed to mean, or how his acting flustered was normal, but what he did know was that he needed to get Vincent onto a different topic. Immediately. "Do you, by chance, have a recommendation for a good clothing shop? I'd like to get a present for a friend, but I know what I'm looking for isn't in Midgar." It wasn't quite as off-topic as he would have preferred, but it would have to do.

Thankfully, Vincent didn't seem to find the shift too unusual. "Well, without knowing your specifics I can't give you a definitive answer, but I happen to have a good friend who knows a thing or two about cloth. If you ever find yourself in the capital I could introduce you." For some reason, he seemed incredibly amused although Cloud couldn't tell why.

"You're shopping for clothes?" Tifa asked. "Alright, now I'm worried again."

From the smile on her face, he could tell she was kidding, but before Cloud could offer an explanation, there was a loud commotion from the entrance of the bar. Immediately assuming Shinra must have somehow found them, he reached for his sword, only to realize that it, of course, was not on his back in its usual place. Tifa seemed to have had the same thought as she was already halfway to the door with her fists raised before she came skidding to a halt.

"Myrna!" Barret half-shouted. "You're alright!" He threw open the door—sending it smacking into the wall which earned a glare from Tifa as he embraced his wife. Behind the couple, Cloud could see Biggs waiting outside for there to be enough room in the doorway to enter.

"You're acting like I wouldn't be. What in Gaia's name is going on here and why did you send this young man to drag me and Marlene out of bed in the middle of the night?" she demanded, not hesitating to glare at her husband. "He wouldn't even explain a thing, just said that it was urgent and you'd tell me once I got here. So, what is it?"

Barret pulled back, looking mildly embarrassed. "Come inside, we need to talk."

As the group entered the bar, Cloud caught a glimpse of Barret's daughter hiding behind her mother's skirts. He'd only seen the girl once or twice in passing before, but she'd always seemed incredibly shy. Given his own desire to hang out on the outskirts of large gatherings like this, he felt like he could understand where she was coming from.

By this point, everyone had gathered around so Barret began by addressing them all. "As you all are aware, and my wife is only just learning, our raid on Shinra tower was a remarkable, if extraordinarily lucky, success."

Myrna's—understandably—shocked reaction was written all over her face at the news.

"However, what we did has created some obvious complications. Shinra will not take what we did lightly. It's only a matter of time before they begin searching for us in order to retaliate and I don't know about you, but I'm not exactly looking forward to the Turks backed by a small army showing up here."

"You did what?!" Myrna exclaimed. "How could you lot be so recklessly foolish? You're supposed to be keeping my idiot of a husband out of crazy stunts like that!"

"Please don't be angry with your husband," Aerith said before Barret was able to respond. "They acted to save both myself and Vincent, so if you need someone to blame then it should be the two of us."

Myrna turned to face her, frowning slightly. "I assume that means they know you're both Cetra then? What are you even doing here? I didn't hear anything from the Council about anyone else being sent."

"Yes, well, this was rather short notice," Vincent said, stepping forward from Cloud's side where he'd been lingering near the back of the group. "Anyone we sent would have ended up traveling with us, so there was no point. On that note, Eola had new instructions for you that I was to deliver on her behalf, but given the unexpected turn our negotiations took, I have to imagine they're no longer valid."

"A member of the Council came here themself?"

Cloud wasn't entirely sure, but she almost seemed more surprised by this than the news of the attack on the tower.

"I share your incredulity. Trust me, if I had my say in the matter I wouldn't be here either." He glanced around and then hurried to add, "Not that I have anything against anyone here. I just . . . don't like to leave home, especially when it means leaving my wife behind."

"Well now that's something I can get behind," Barret said. "That's why I had Biggs go and get you, Myrna. We're leaving Midgar."

She spun back to face him. "You can't be serious. I have my mission for the Council and Shinra has no idea of who I really am. Not to mention that Marlene is about to start school and a whole slew of other reasons. We've had this conversation before, Barret. I'm in no danger here."

"No, it's not safe. Shinra got their hands on her," he said, gesturing to Aerith, "and they shoved her into a damn tank and gassed her. I refuse to allow that to happen to you or Marlene!"

Myrna's eyes widened and she looked over at Aerith who softly nodded her head—a sickened look on her face. Cloud's stomach immediately twisted. He never wanted to see her looking like that ever again.

"Don't let your work for the Council jeopardize your family," Vincent said. "While I don't know if I have the authority to cancel your mission on my own, I'll certainly explain the situation to Eola once I see her again."

Barret nodded thankfully at the other other man.

"Fine, fine, we'll go, but where exactly? Marlene can stay in a tent for a few nights, but I don't want her living like that for a prolonged time. Especially not when we're on the run from Shinra and there's a possibility of a fight breaking out."

"There's also the question of what our next move is," Jessie pointed out. "Just because we caused a huge stir doesn't mean we should bunker down and go silent. The people need to know we're still out there, still fighting against what Shinra is trying to do. Right guys?"

Biggs and Wedge both nodded.

"Took the words out of my mouth."

"Right!"

"I dunno," Tifa replied. "After what we just did, taking a bit of time to let things cool down sounds like the best course of action to me. It's not like taking even a week or two off will have that much of an impact, and if it keeps us safer I think it's worth it."

"Normally, I'd agree with Jessie, but given the situation, I'm actually with Tifa on this one," Barret said to Cloud's surprise. "Fuck Shinra, but my family comes first. Once they're safe then I'm all for putting the pressure back on."

"Language!" Myrna said sharply, glaring at her husband.

Looking mildly embarrassed, Barret leaned down and hoisted Marlene up onto his shoulder. "Awww, but my little angel knows not to use the naughty words daddy sometimes uses, doesn't she?"

For her part, Marlene seemed to completely ignore her father—her attention entirely fixed on Aerith. Raising her arm, she pointed directly at her. "She's just like me."

It took Cloud a moment to understand what she was talking about, before realizing that it must be how they were both half-bloods. He wasn't sure how Cetra were able to tell each other apart from Humans, but apparently, it must have allowed for recognizing something like that as well.

"I am," Aerith said, smiling warmly at the young girl. "My name is Aerith, what's yours?"

"Marlene."

Aerith looked over to Myrna in surprise. "You broke tradition? Not that I'm opposed to it at all, it's a lovely name."

Myrna snorted in amusement. "I wasn't planning to, but then when I explained the whole thing to Barret he wasn't having any of that 'silly Ancient nonsense' and that his daughter wasn't going to be categorized by her name. I agreed, and here we are today."

Cloud was slightly frustrated that he wasn't able to follow along with this conversation, although he noticed that from the way Zack was nodding his head, he somehow seemed to understand. Maybe he'd need to pull his friend aside later on and find out what was so special about their names.

"I'm . . . a little bit different though," Aerith continued. "You see, I also happen to be a Seer."

She'd used that word earlier when explaining to him how she was able to use magic, but from Myrna's wide-eyed, jaw-dropped, reaction and Vincent's sharp intake of breath, Cloud suddenly felt like he might not have grasped quite how special it was.

"A Seer?! In my lifetime?" Myrna took a step closer to Aerith, her hand reaching out as if to touch her before pulling back. "Are you absolutely sure? No, you must be. No one would make that claim lightly. How does this war end? What do we need to do to reach that future?"

Aerith gave no sign of being taken aback by the barrage of questions, although she did look slightly uncomfortable at the last ones. "I wish I had answers about the war, but I'm afraid I haven't had any visions since my mother passed away. It's when I discovered my powers and I'm still struggling to learn exactly how they work."

"You've seen visions though?" her father asked, sounding shaken.

"I have." She swallowed, turning to face him. "One of them was about Mom," she said in a whisper. "I thought it was just a nightmare at the time. Maybe if I'd known then I could have—"

"No," he said firmly, interrupting her. "That's not a productive line of thought. There's nothing anyone could have done, you know that."

There was a brief, stabbing pain in Cloud's chest at the words. A part of him still felt like his mother's death was his fault, despite everything Aerith had said to him back in their teens. He couldn't imagine what it must have been like for her to have had a vision of her mother's death before it happened—how that must weigh on her. More than anything, it made him want to do something to help her, like she had for him.

"Not to be rude, but we've gotten a bit off track," Jessie said. "We should really figure out what our plans are before anything else."

Tifa sighed. "We know you want to keep hitting Shinra, but what exactly do you even have in mind?"

There was a long pause before Zack ended up being the one to answer. "We could always hit that huge reactor they're still working on."

Everyone, even Jessie, turned to face him, all with varying expressions of shock and concern.

"Hold on, just hear me out," he continued before anyone could object. "I know it might sound a little crazy, but I was there not too long ago. The Cetra army is pressuring them hard. They're barely able to hold them off and it's taking their entire attention to do so. That means we should be able to slip in unnoticed and even if we set off any alarms, they won't be able to divert that many soldiers to deal with us. Plus it's far enough away from Midgar that Shinra is unlikely to suspect it would be our next target."

Cloud had to admit it sounded like a somewhat reasonable plan, at least on the surface. Attacking another reactor felt a bit ambitious, but if it was still under construction then maybe they wouldn't have to worry about another of those giant robots. Glancing around, the others seemed to mostly be on board, but Tifa shook her head.

"Hitting another reactor is far too dangerous. Don't forget how close things were last time, and now we're talking about hitting the one Shinra is focusing all of its attention on? No way."

"But this time you've got me," Zack said, hitting his chest with his fist. "And we'll have magic, too." He glanced over at Aerith. "Maybe?"

That was something Cloud wasn't a huge fan of, but he knew it wasn't his call to make.

Aerith hesitantly nodded. "I can certainly help with healing, and maybe assist with any machines, but I won't use my magic to hurt people. Not even Shinra. Sorry."

"Hey, having a medic is a huge deal on its own," Zack replied with a broad smile. "See, Tifa? We've got nothing to worry about."

"I still think it's a bad idea," Tifa said. "And I don't think we should be dragging Aerith into our issues, especially when it means putting her in harm's way. That's too much to ask."

"It's not a problem, really," Aerith said with a quick shake of her head. "In a sense, it's already my problem, and I'd like to help. It seems like force is the only thing Shinra is going to respond to. Maybe once they lose their prize reactor they'll be more willing to negotiate."

"Well, as someone who won't be participating, I believe you'd have to be insane to think that a group this size would stand any chance when the army hasn't made progress in months," Myrna said. "But no, I won't stop you," she hurried to finish as Barret opened his mouth.

"So we're all in agreement then?" Jessie asked, looking excited. "Next step is hitting the huge reactor?"

Tifa sighed loudly. "Look, it's getting late. We should call it a night and then tomorrow morning, once everyone is rested and has had a chance to really think it over, we can figure out what our next step is going to be. Okay?"

At the mention of rest, Cloud's earlier fatigue redoubled yet again, the coffee no longer enough to help him keep it down. He yawned.

"Looks like Spiky here needs his beauty rest, at the very least," Barret said with a grin. "I think taking some time to think about it makes a lot of sense. You mind if Myrna and Marlene use the room upstairs? I'll sleep behind the bar."

"Of course not, that's perfectly fine. Maybe Aerith can spend the night at my place?" Tifa asked, looking over at her. "That way we can get a chance to get to know each other a bit better, and I love to help you fix up your hair. Then your dad and Vincent can stay with Cloud. That should cover everyone."

"Sure, that sounds good to me," Aerith replied, smiling brightly over at the other woman.

Cloud hadn't been expecting a guest—much less two—but given the situation, it did make the most sense. He looked over at the two men and nodded, earning a dip of their head's in thanks as a response. With their plans tabled for the night, Barret and his family waved farewell as everyone else filed out of the bar. Jessie, Biggs, and Wedge departed for their respective homes, while Cloud and Tifa led their Cetra guests through the nighttime streets of Midgar until they reached Cloud's house. As he approached the front door, Cloud couldn't wait to get inside, take a shower, and then pass out after how long and stressful the day had been.

"Night, Cloud! Sleep well!" Aerith called out, sounding far too chipper for this time of night.

Blinking groggily he turned and waved goodbye as the two women turned and continued down the street in the direction of Tifa's house. Fumbling with his keys, Cloud opened the door and gestured for Vincent and Gast to follow him inside. It was somewhat surreal to think that Aerith was essentially joining Avalanche and would be fighting against Shinra with them. He wasn't entirely sure how he felt about that, but what he did know was that he was going to do everything in his power to make sure nothing happened to her.

A bit more of a quiet filler chapter this time around, especially after the recent craziness, and I certainly struggled to juggle this many people all crammed into one scene, heh. Aerith opens things up by healing Zack's lungs from the mako gas he'd inhaled. His case was far more minor than Cloud's because he didn't walk into the tank to pick up the ribbon scraps. In Cetra, the gas is "harmless" in the sense that it just neutralizes their magic, while in Humans it's basically just mako poisoning. In my headcanon for this, Cetra are immune to mako poison as we know it in canon.

Myrna also makes her long-awaited appearance and yes, as many of you have guessed, Marlene is here too. She has an immediate connection to Aerith thanks to them both being half-Cetra, which is also a nod to the Aerith & Marlene scene in Remake—I really liked the idea of a connection between them.

Other than that, the main theme is "what now?" There's a clear desire to get out of town until things quiet down a bit, and a tentative plan to make another reactor strike, but we'll have to see how things play out. It's been a while since we've had a mid-week update, but there will be one this week, from an older PoV we haven't heard from in a bit.

Next Chapter: Failure