To say that Aerith was overwhelmed would be putting it mildly. The last few hours had been complete insanity, ever since their visit with the President had gone horrifically wrong. Everything had happened so quickly, and once Vincent had gone down, the only thought running through her mind had been that she had to save him. Once she'd woken up in the glass prison, she'd immediately questioned that decision.
Hojo had made it painfully clear exactly what her future had in store for her and then things had only gone from bad to worse when he'd dragged out her father to explain what would happen if she didn't cooperate. As wonderful as it was to finally get the chance to see him again after five years, Aerith couldn't help but despair. She didn't blame Zack for what had happened, but she also knew there was nothing he'd be able to do on his own to help her.
So when he'd shown up with Cloud of all people, her jaw had nearly hit the floor.
While she'd recognized her childhood friend immediately, the changes he'd undergone since the last time she'd seen him were dramatic. Gone was the undernourished boy from her memories, replaced instead by a fit, clearly well-fed man. She would have been lying if she said her heart hadn't skipped a beat when his eyes had briefly met hers.
For his part, Cloud had been strangely distant, averting his gaze once they'd managed to get her out from that horrible container and seeming all too happy to leave her with Zack. She didn't want to overthink it, but it had hurt. Aerith knew Cloud wasn't one for outward displays of emotions, but after everything she'd been through, was wanting maybe just a tiny hug really so much to ask for? Or even a smile. She would have settled for a smile.
In any case, the craziness hadn't ended there, unfortunately. She and Zack had managed to make it out of the lab and down to the ground floor without issue, only to find themselves stepping into a miniature battlefield raging in the lobby. Five people she'd never seen before were fighting a small army of Shinra soldiers, but what had really drawn her attention was that they were protecting a pale, but very much alive Vincent.
Zack had rushed over to join the fighting, while Aerith had moved to Vincent's side to check on him. Thanks to Hojo's "mako gas" as he'd called it, her magic had still been frustratingly out of reach—preventing her from helping with the fight or from providing Vincent any additional healing. Waiting there doing nothing had made her feel horribly useless, but thankfully it hadn't gone on for too long before a black-haired woman had run back to join them and say that a path out had been cleared. From there, it had been a mad dash through the streets of the city until they'd managed to lose the last remaining soldiers.
Now, Aerith was seated at a bar, trying to remember if it was Biggs or Wedge to her left, while the members of Avalanche—as they were apparently known—barraged her and Vincent with question after question. She was doing her best to answer, but the continued absence of Cloud and her father was making it hard for her to focus.
"So this Council of yours wants to play nice with Shinra? Just end the war and let them have their damn way? How is that supposed to solve anything?"
"Calm down, Barret," the black-haired woman—Tifa—said, giving the man a stern look.
"The Council wants to end this war, yes. That doesn't mean we plan to let Shinra do whatever it wants," Vincent said. He seemed to be doing well—especially for having been impaled—but Aerith was still worried. Apparently, Hojo had used a Healing Materia to patch him back up and Aerith had a sinking feeling she knew where he'd gotten it from.
"Well, based on what they did to the two of you, it doesn't seem like Shinra has any interest in peace," Wedge—no, wait, that was Biggs—said. "What's your plan of action now?"
Vincent frowned, looking uncomfortable. "While I very much appreciate your timely assistance in rescuing us, Council matters are not something to be discussed so . . . freely. I am also only a single member, and can't speak for what the others would think."
He stopped to take a deep breath, wincing in pain, and Aerith shifted uncomfortably in her seat. She wanted to use her magic to inspect him and make sure that he was alright, but Vincent was still unaware she could do that. Since he was a member of the Council, Aerith was still hesitant to reveal that secret to him. It also meant she wasn't able to help with all the injuries the members of Avalanche had sustained during the attack, although they appeared to be doing well enough.
"What I will say," he continued, "is that after my . . . less than pleasant interaction with Shinra, I will make sure the rest of the Council knows exactly what happened to us. I don't expect them to take it well."
"Good," Barret said, looking maybe slightly less angry than before—Aerith wasn't entirely sure since that seemed to be his normal state of being. "Shinra is a nest of vipers, the only fuckin' thing you can expect them to do is bite you."
"Enough about Shinra," the woman next to Biggs said, rolling her eyes—Aerith was pretty sure her name was Jessie. "What I want to hear from Aerith is all about how she met Cloud!"
Aerith blinked, caught off guard by the sudden shift in topic. Cloud must have told them that they'd met, but how much she didn't know. Before she could begin to think of where to even start, the door to the bar opened and her father stepped inside. Behind him, she could faintly make out the shape of Cloud in the darkness, but he seemed to be lingering outside for some reason.
Her father's eyes immediately settled on her and he quickly moved towards her, opening his arms wide. Aerith was up and off her seat and rushing into his hug an instant later, tears leaking from the corners of her eyes as she embraced him tightly.
"My little girl is all grown up," he said, sounding all choked up. "I can see so much of your mother in you. Is she well?"
A knife twisted in her gut. He didn't know. "Dad . . . Mom, she—she didn't make it." She tightened her grip on him, tears flowing freely down her cheeks now.
"What? No, no that can't be right," he said, shaking his head in denial. "She was just going to delay the soldiers and buy everyone time to escape. A mage of her strength wouldn't . . . wouldn't . . ."
Aerith didn't know what to say. She'd had five years to process the horrible events of that day and it still hurt just as badly.
"Bro, what's going on?" an unknown male voice asked from the side. "Those don't seem like happy tears."
"Give 'em some space," Zack replied, softly. "That's her dad, they haven't seen each other since the war started."
She appreciated the gesture, but it was also a reminder that they were making something of a scene in front of a bunch of strangers. Her father seemed to have realized the same thing as he squeezed her briefly before stepping away—rubbing his reddened eyes with his arm.
"We'll talk more later," he said quietly, looking more beaten down than she could ever remember seeing him in her life.
Aerith nodded and wiped her own tears away before glancing around the room, noticing how everyone was trying to act like they hadn't just been staring. She wanted nothing more than to have a normal, relaxed conversation with someone—anything to take her mind off of the past. Cloud wasn't anywhere in sight—what was going on with him—and she didn't know anyone else well enough so that left Zack.
"Thanks for getting the three of us out of there," she said, walking over to join him. "I wasn't sure I was ever going to see the sun again."
She'd hoped he would crack a joke in reply, but instead, Zack frowned slightly, looking far more serious than she was used to. "It's the least I could do. I feel like I'm partially to blame for what happened. Bringing you directly to the President instead of finding a neutral location was just . . . stupid."
"None of this was your fault," Aerith said firmly. "You trusted someone and they betrayed that trust. That's on them, not you."
He smiled slightly, although it looked far more pained than happy. "Thanks. This last day has been really eye-opening on who to trust and who not to."
"On that note, how did you convince all these people to get us out?" she asked. "Why would they do something so dangerous for complete strangers?"
"Oh, Avalanche and I go way back, although I wasn't the one who managed to convince them. You'll have to thank Cloud for that, the guy was losing his mind when he heard what had happened." Zack paused to cough before looking around the room, his brow wrinkled. "Speaking of, where is he?"
"You looking for Cloud?" Jessie asked, having just walked over to join them. "He was talking with Tifa a moment ago to see if she needed any errands run. Was kinda strange, honestly. Errands? At this hour? Obviously, she said no, but did mention she could use some more glasses so he went into the back room to get some."
Was Cloud avoiding her? Why? If he was the one responsible for the rescue as Zack had indicated, it especially didn't make any sense. Determined to find out exactly what was going on, she took a step in the direction of the room Jessie had indicated. Before she could go any farther, a loud, smashing clatter came from behind the door, causing everyone to spin around to see what had happened. Tifa rushed over, throwing the door open and—to Aerith's horror—revealing the source of the disturbance as Cloud. He had collapsed onto the ground and was surrounded by the shattered glasses he'd been carrying, his skin a horrifically pale color.
"Someone go get a doctor!" Tifa screamed.
Aerith was already halfway across the room. "Wait, I can heal him."
"What?!" Both Vincent and her father echoed each other, staring at her in utter shock.
Well, so much for keeping that a secret any longer. She didn't mind her dad knowing, of course, but Vincent was another matter. Aerith still wasn't entirely sure what to make of the man, or how much she could trust him. "I can heal him," she repeated, quickly walking over to Cloud's side and dropping to a crouch so she could place her hand on his head.
His skin was burning. Now that she was closer, it was easy to see the sweat dampening his face. Reaching out with her magic, Aerith scanned his body from head to toe to try and figure out what was wrong. He had minor gunshot wounds on his right shoulder and his left arm, but neither of them seemed remotely serious enough to cause him to collapse like this. There was also something strange with his lungs, almost as if they were somehow trying to repel her magic. That was a concern, and nothing she'd ever seen before, but rather than investigate further, she decided to finish checking him over just to make sure everything else was okay.
She nearly screamed as her magic passed over his leg.
The wound was small, but so, so wrong. A pulsing kernel of something that almost felt similar to her own magic had burrowed its way inside of him with a network of tendrils creeping outward. Whatever was wrong with his lungs, this was without a doubt the primary cause for his collapse.
"Is she really a doctor? She's just looking at him."
"Shut up, dude, she's probably using magic."
Standing up, she ignored the chatter and looked over at Tifa. "Is there a room somewhere close where we can lay him down? If not then the bar counter would work."
Tifa blinked, then nodded. "There's a room upstairs with a bed in it. No one is using it at the moment, it's mostly just if I stay late and don't feel like going back home." She turned to look back over her shoulder. "Biggs, Wedge, help get Cloud upstairs."
"That sounds perfect," she replied. "I can get him there myself though, and it's probably best no one else touches him before I can figure out what exactly is going on."
Tifa looked confused and then inhaled sharply as Cloud gently lifted off the floor, cushioned in a hand of wind magic similar to what she'd used with Zack. As she carried him into the main room, she was painfully aware of everyone's stares—especially those of Vincent and her father.
"We have a lot to talk about," she said to her dad as she passed him, "but it will need to wait until I've taken care of this."
He nodded weakly, but she couldn't miss the look of pride in his eyes.
"Never seen Myrna do anything like that before," Barret muttered as Tifa led Aerith to a different door on the other side of the bar.
Aerith didn't recognize the name, but based on its structure it was Cetran. Of course, so was Tifa's, but Aerith could tell she was a Human from how weak the flow of the Lifestream running through her was. If they had some type of connection to another Cetra—here in Midgar—that would certainly be intriguing, but for now, she needed to focus on saving Cloud's life.
Following Tifa up the stairs on the other side of the door, they reached a small landing with three doors. Tifa went to the closest one and held it open as Aerith moved Cloud through, careful to avoid hitting his head on the doorframe. She lay him down on the bed inside, then grabbed a chair that was placed against the wall and dragged it over so she could sit at his side.
"He's going to be okay . . . right?" Tifa asked, her voice trembling slightly. "You can heal him? I've never seen Cloud this sick before. What happened to him?"
"I don't know," Aerith admitted. "I won't lie to you, this is far beyond anything I've ever seen before, but I promise you that he's going to make it."
"Right. Of course he will." Tifa took a deep breath, then squeezed Aerith's shoulder. "Thank you. I'll keep the others downstairs so they don't distract you. Give me a shout if there's anything you need."
Nodding her thanks, Aerith returned her attention to Cloud. First things first, she wanted to take a closer look at his leg. With precise, delicate control, she used a razor-sharp blade of wind to slice through the leg of his pants, cutting it open from his knee down to his ankle. To her surprise, the wound looked shockingly normal from a non-magical perspective—seeming like nothing more than a large cut. Meanwhile, with her magically enchanted vision, she could see the tendrils of darkness slowly growing longer.
"Alright, it's time for you to knock that off," she muttered, breathing in deeply before blasting the core of the injury with her strongest healing spell.
Cloud groaned, his leg twitching slightly. Not letting up, Aerith continued to bombard it with healing spell after healing spell. The reaction between the two forces was utterly bizarre. Her magic seemed to initially have little effect, sliding off the infection like trying to mix water with oil, before eventually merging into it at which point it would gradually fade away.
Aerith had no idea how long it took, but by the time she finally managed to completely remove all of the offending . . . whatever it was . . . she felt like a herd of chocobos had run over her. Multiple times. There was still more to do before she felt comfortable taking a break, though, so Aerith pressed on. With the mystery infection eliminated, she placed her hand on his leg over the cut and carefully sealed the wound shut with one final heal. The bullet wounds were next, small, easy-to-heal injuries that didn't require physical contact. With that, all that was left were his lungs.
Once again, whatever was wrong with them seemed to resist her magic, leading Aerith to believe it was a similar, but less severe case of whatever had happened to his leg. Thankfully, it was also much easier to heal as a result, due to all the practice she'd had by this point. As the last of the sickness in his lungs faded away, Cloud took a long, deep breath.
And his eyes flickered open.
He froze immediately as if he were a mouse and she a hawk. "Aerith."
Her right eye arched in amusement. "Cloud."
"What's going on? Where are we? The last thing I remember is going into the back room to grab Tifa some glasses . . ."
"I brought you upstairs after you collapsed. Nearly died, as far as I could tell. What in Gaia's name happened to your leg?"
He blinked, then glanced down at his leg before shifting it on the bed. "Oh. Hey, that feels so much better."
"Seriously, Cloud," she said, placing her hand on his arm. "I've never seen an injury that awful before. What caused it?"
"It was some kind of mutated bloodhound. Shinra must have been performing experiments on it because I've never seen one move that quickly before. It only managed to scratch me with a claw, but I guess if that's what made me collapse then it must have been a more serious wound than I thought." He paused, looking thoughtful for a moment, then snapped his head over to look at her. "Wait . . . did you heal me? How?"
Aerith raised her hand and lightly sprayed his face with a sprinkling of water. "With magic, silly."
His reaction was everything she'd hoped for.
"How did you just—Wait, what?! But I thought—You said . . . Without Materia?"
"Do you see any Materia?" she asked, holding up her hands. "Turns out I'm a Seer. That's how I was able to see what happened to you that night you returned to Midgar." Maybe this was something she should have been sharing with her father first, but telling Cloud felt right.
"Aerith, that's amazing! Your mom must be so proud of you."
Somehow, it hurt even more the second time. Maybe because she knew that he was right, that her mother would have been so happy for her. She managed to hold back the tears this time, but by the sudden shift in Cloud's expression, he'd clearly been able to tell something was wrong.
"Aerith? What is it?" He pushed up off the bed and reached out towards her, only to freeze as she unconsciously flinched away.
She knew it wasn't his fault, but a tiny part of herself that she'd hated for the last five years still blamed him. It was horrible and wrong, but if he hadn't shown up in the village that day then her mother would still be alive. Unable to deal with the ugly thoughts about someone who meant so much to her, Aerith had buried them away, doing her best to never think of Cloud so they wouldn't resurface, but now they bubbled back up, forcing her to acknowledge them.
"My mom . . . she died in the attack."
It was as if she'd slapped him. Cloud jerked backward, the light in his eyes winking out.
"Thank you for healing me. You don't have to force yourself to stay here any longer," he said, his voice sounding completely dead as he turned away to look at the wall.
"What? No, Cloud, I—"
"Aerith. I killed your mom," he half-shouted, his head whipping back around to look at her—an almost wild look on his face. "I thought I was responsible for the destruction of your village which was bad enough, but this . . . this is unforgivable."
"No," she snapped, surprising herself. "I refuse to just sit by and let you take the blame for what happened that day. It wasn't your fault, Cloud. Shinra used you. They knew you'd react exactly the way you did and took advantage of what a good person you are. They're the ones to blame, not you." She was breathing heavily as she finished, and Aerith realized she wasn't just talking to him but also to herself.
"But I was still an idiot. You'd already told me that they couldn't find the village. Instead of trusting you, I led them directly to it."
She reached out and caught his hands with her own, tightening her grip when he tried to slip free. "Do I wish you'd thought of that at the time? Yes, of course I do. But you were overwhelmed with concern for me and that . . . that meant a lot to me as well." Aerith could feel her cheeks heating. "You meant a lot to me. Honestly, you still do."
His expression seemed to be softening, but he still looked doubtful. "Really? You don't have to force yourself to be around me if you don't want to. I'd understand, after everything that happened."
"So you don't want me around?" she asked, pouting slightly.
"I—That's not—What I want isn't what's important here."
"Then you do want to be around me," she said, smiling as his face flushed.
"I'd forgotten how much you like to tease me," Cloud said with a heavy sigh.
"Aww, don't be like that, you love it."
He laughed, the shadow finally lifting from his face. "I do." A split second later his eyes went wide as he realized what he'd admitted to. "Um . . . I mean, here!" Cloud reached into his pocket and she was shocked to see him pull out the tattered remains of her ribbon. "I'm not sure if you'd still want this, but I grabbed it just in case." His eyes flicked up to the top of her head. "Why . . . why did he do it?"
Aerith grimaced, the memory of the scissors slicing through her hair still far too fresh. She still needed to find a pair of her own and a helping hand to repair the damage at some point. "Hojo said it was to make sure I knew that he owned me—that animals needed to know who their master was."
"I'm going to kill him," Cloud growled, scaring her slightly with his intensity.
"Cloud, no. Hojo deserves any punishment coming his way, but killing him is too extreme. More violence won't solve anything." Especially after what she'd been through so recently it was hard to say, but it was what she believed. "Thank you, for grabbing the ribbon, but could you hold onto it for me for now? It means a lot to me as a present from my mother, but I need some time to put what happened behind me. Keep it safe, okay?" She gently pushed his hand away, closing his fingers around the ribbon. "But enough about Shinra, I want to hear about what you've been up to and all about Avalanche. How did you meet them?"
He blinked in surprise before shifting on the bed into more of a seated position with his back against the wall. "Oh. Well, technically, I've known Biggs, Wedge, and Jessie ever since we were kids and Avalanche was the name of their gang. Some point before the war started Barret and Tifa ended up joining them and it turned into more of an organization, I guess. Since their goal was to make Shinra's life hell, I figured I'd fit right in. As for what we've been up to . . . It's mostly been small stuff, up until a few days ago when we finally managed to cripple a reactor."
She was surprised to hear they were going after the reactors, especially considering not even the main army had managed to bring one down. "What made you target the reactors? That seems like a pretty large target for such a small group."
"Ah, that's because of Barret's wife. She figured out that the mako energy the reactors provide was also responsible for people getting sick and dying. Since they're also killing off the environment, they seemed like an obvious target."
"Barret's wife?"
"Oh, yeah, Myrna," he said with a nod. "Turns out she's also a Cetra. She'd been living in Midgar as a spy for a few years before she met him. I'm sure you'll meet her soon enough."
A Cetra spy in Midgar? It was shocking to hear, but maybe that explained the presence she'd felt back when she'd visited the city to see Cloud in her teens.
"I think that's pretty much everything. What about you? What have you been doing since the war started?"
"Mostly figuring out how to use magic," she said with a laugh. "I've kept it a secret from most people. Seoda and everyone downstairs are the only ones who know at this point."
Clouds brow furrowed. "Wait, Seoda? Wasn't she that bully?"
She laughed softly. "I'm surprised you remember her. A lot happened over the years, but we're actually good friends now." It reminded Aerith that she'd been gone for quite a while now, long enough that Seoda was probably sick with worry. She'd need to look into a way of getting in contact with her, although she imagined it was going to be tricky given her current circumstances. And then there was the Council and the failed peace talks. While it would have been easy enough to leave that to Vincent, she felt invested after everything that had happened.
Aerith sighed. "Well, as nice as it would be to stay up here longer, we should probably head back downstairs. I'm sure everyone else is worried about you."
She might have imagined it, but it almost seemed like a flicker of disappointment flashed across Cloud's face. "Yeah, you're right, I guess we should."
Reaching out, she offered him a hand to help him up from the bed which he accepted. As he swung his legs off the bed and moved to stand, he stumbled slightly, his weight shifting forward and sending him crashing into her arms. Unprepared as she was, Aerith barely managed to keep them both upright. His own arms wrapped around her—in reflex she assumed—and just like that, they were somehow hugging.
Aerith didn't mind it in the least, and Cloud apparently didn't seem to either as they stood there in complete silence while the minutes ticked by. Despite his momentary weakness, he felt solid against her—a warm, comforting presence she felt she could rely on to be there for her when she needed it.
Eventually, his arms squeezed her slightly before he pulled back, an embarrassed look on his face. "Sorry about that, got a little lightheaded as I stood."
She shook her head. "Mnm, don't worry, it was nice."
Looking somewhat flustered, Cloud moved to the door and held it open for her, following close behind as they descended the stairs to rejoin everyone waiting downstairs.
Hehe. It's been quite a while since these two have had a scene together, so I hope everyone enjoyed this one! This should also answer most of the questions about what happened with the rest of the rescue mission that we didn't get to see, and yes all you Vincent fans, you can breathe easy, he made it out in one piece. There's also been a lot of questions about what Myrna is up to, but things have been so packed and focused there wasn't a chance for her to pop in. That changes now that Aerith is in the picture and she'll also be showing up next chapter with a certain someone else who's been occupying a lot of her time...
Back to this chapter though, while the rescue seemed to mostly go well, Cloud's injury turns out to be incredibly life-threatening as he nearly dies after doing his best to ignore it. Oops. Fortunately, Aerith is here to prevent that. In doing so, she reveals her magical powers to everyone, but there was only so long that was going to remain a secret. Vincent and her father are understandably shocked given that this should be impossible.
We also revisit Ifalna's death (sorry) since both Gast and Cloud were unaware of what happened. This is partially why Cloud did better over the teen-to-adult time skip because he thought he was only responsible for the village. Aerith is quickly able to nip his negative spiral in the bud, while also confronting her own negative thoughts.
With our main pair finally reunited, the next few chapters are going to begin to set the stage before we enter the final section of this story. I hope you're looking forward to it!
Next Chapter: Plans