CHAPTER 8:

THE CETRA, THE WITCH, AND THE ANGEL

"I'm surprised that you don't want to go playing with the other kids, Delphi," Elmyra said. "It's good for kids to play and socialise with others their age."

Delphi shook her head, before removing her sunglasses, revealing the eyes with their reptilian pupils. "Maybe, but…I've often been alone. And it's better that way."

Elmyra seemed confused, but Aerith picked up on it quickly. She leaned down to peer at the young witch. "Because you look different, right?"

Delphi nodded miserably. "And because I am different. Because of my parents, my birth parents, and what they did to me, and to others."

Elmyra sighed, shaking her head at missing what Aerith had picked up on. Harry had left for an odd job Mirielle had asked him to do, dealing with an unusual Fiend infestation near the Sector 5 Slums. Delphi was being babysat by Elmyra and Aerith, the latter not having anything to do herself with her flowers. And truth be told, she liked spending time with Delphi, once she got over the strange eyes and, of course, having the likes of Sephiroth bound to her. In fact, the reason Aerith liked spending time with her was the same reason she knew what troubled Delphi, why she wouldn't spend time with other kids.

Delphi was like her, set apart from other children because she was different.

For Aerith, it had been her tendency to blurt out things the Planet told her, and that she was considered lucky to be adopted by Elmyra, who had a pretty luxurious house for the slums. For Delphi, aside from the eyes, it was her intelligence. Her birth parents were already intelligent, and they put her through rituals that enhanced it. Delphi couldn't be considered a genius, but for a girl of about eight years old, she seemed closer to someone in her late teens in terms of intelligence at times. And she was too perceptive and too cynical than a girl her age had any right to be.

Aerith smiled solemnly, sitting down next to Delphi. "In some ways, I know how you feel. As a Cetra, I'm already set apart from the rest of humanity. The fact that I spent my early childhood in a lab didn't help my social skills too much." She chuckled uneasily. "And I lost my parents at a young age myself. My father was gunned down by troopers working with Hojo, and my mother, weakened by experiments and gunshot wounds of her own, died in front of me. While death for a Cetra holds less fear than it does for others, given that we return to the Planet from whence we came…it doesn't stop the fear, or the sorrow. After all, the person we once knew has gone, dissolved into the Lifestream. But…even after that, it took a long time for me to get friends."

"You don't look like me, like I'm a freak," Delphi said. "I…I know Daddy loves me, more than my birth father or mother would have. And we had people that cared for me. But…the only friend I had about my age was Teddy. Everyone else was scared of my eyes, of my birth parents. But you don't look like a freak."

"No, but as a Cetra, I could hear the voice of the Planet. At times, I would learn things I would just blurt out," Aerith said quietly. "I still played games with the kids, but…more than once, they played games of hide and seek…and left me hiding, left me alone."

"I remember those times well," Elmyra said with a sigh. "And when I confronted the parents, they just said 'kids will be kids', as if that excused such casual cruelty. Which only goes to show, people can be cruel, no matter what their age. Adults shouldn't have the excuse of being kids. I gave Aerith as happy a childhood as I could, even if at times I made a few mistakes. But other people are other matters entirely. Mirielle always kept an eye out for Aerith, and Biggs became friends with Aerith too. Mirielle's granddaughter, Kyrie, is like a little sister to her, even if that brat can be more trouble than she's worth. But…many fear or ignore her, and Shinra covets her. Especially Hojo."

"I won't lie to you and say it will get better," Aerith said. "I got better, found friends about my age, but I saw a few other outcast kids sink into despair, or else go elsewhere. A few joined the criminal gangs, for revenge, for a place to belong, or maybe for the money. Some joined Shinra, and I wouldn't be surprised if a few joined AVALANCHE. But you have people who care for you, Delphi."

"I know. But…we're away from most of them," Delphi said. "Aunty Luna, Aunty Hermione, the Weasleys…they don't know what happened to us, and I don't know if we can ever tell them what happened, let alone if we can go back. I don't want to go back to Britain, but…I miss them."

Aerith nodded, giving the silver-haired girl a gentle smile. "It hurts, doesn't it? The pain will never go away completely, but it will recede, in time. That may not be much comfort, and I can't take their place, nor can Mom, but…I hope we can make you happy, along with Harry."

After a moment's silence, Delphi looked to the door. Aerith thought for a moment that Harry might be returning, but she simply asked, "Did Zack make you happy?"

"Yeah. And sad. And annoyed. Those we care about make us feel all kinds of emotions," the Cetra said quietly.

Elmyra harrumphed. "What you and Zack had was teenaged infatuation, Aerith. Don't misunderstand me, after what we learned what happened from Sephiroth, the likelihood he ran off with some other girl is lessened. He's probably banged up in some Shinra prison, or one of Hojo's laboratories. And as much as I don't like him, he doesn't deserve that by a long shot."

Aerith glared at her adoptive mother. It was an old argument, but it was one of the ones that often caused troubles between them. Elmyra never liked Zack, and while Aerith understood the 'protective parent' part of it, intellectually at least, she never understood why Elmyra had such a grudge. True, Zack was a member of SOLDIER, but Elmyra had been courteous to the Turks whenever they dropped by, and they did stuff as bad, if not worse, for Shinra.

Turning back to Delphi, Aerith said, "Even if it was teenaged infatuation, the fact remains that Zack and I were great friends. And his absence hurts. And unlike my birth mother, I know he's still alive. Why did you ask about him, Delphi?"

"I was curious," Delphi said, looking to the door again. "Sephiroth spoke of him. For all that he considered Genesis and Angeal his friends, he felt Zack was a more loyal friend to the end, and Sephiroth repaid that friendship by turning on him. He didn't kill Zack, but he feels like he severed your bond, or at least strained it. At least that's what he said."

"True, but the Sephiroth bound to you at least feels guilty about it," Aerith said. "So he claims, anyway, but honestly, Sephiroth being split in two with a 'good' part and a 'bad' part, for want of better terms, is not the strangest thing I have ever heard." She looked to the ceiling. "It is said that in Cosmo Canyon, there are a race of mountain lion-like beings who nonetheless are as intelligent as any human. That in Wutai, their most elite warriors can transform themselves into powerful monsters, and in the Northern Crater, there exists a beguiling woman of ice and snow who entices lost travellers to their doom. That there's a legendary Chocobo breed that can run across the oceans and up mountains. And on a distant island, there allegedly exists the last remnants of the Knights of the Round. What's more, I hear things from the Planet, and I…see glimpses of possible futures at times. So…honestly, I've seen and heard about stranger things than a man with a soul split in two."

"Particularly that Doctor Who series Harry showed us on his media player," Elmyra chuckled. "Still…maybe we should pester Tseng into letting us travel to the Gold Saucer. It wasn't built at the time Aerith was younger, or I would have pestered Tseng into taking her there years ago."

"The Gold Saucer?" Delphi asked.

"A theme park," Aerith said.

"Oh! Like Disneyworld or Universal Studios!" Delphi said with a smile. "Dad took me to those places, as well as to Blackpool Pleasure Beach and other places."

"It's a fair trip, though," Elmyra mused. "Gold Saucer is on the Western Continent. You'd have to take a ship from Junon and then make your way from Costa del Sol to Gold Saucer, and I heard that that part of the world is pretty rough. A good airship or plane could get there, but I don't think there's any airstrip near the Gold Saucer. I did hear they do helicopter ferrying from Costa del Sol."

"Still, I wonder if Shinra would even let me go that far afield," Aerith muttered disconsolately. "Tseng might consider it, but I doubt the President or Hojo would. Going to Kalm was tricky enough." She sighed. "I'm very much a caged bird. And I doubt they'll be opening that cage up any time soon…"

Delphi had decided to take a nap soon afterwards, citing tiredness. Aerith, wanting some relatively fresh air after the heavy discussion, had left to tend to her garden. But as she did so, she heard a by-now familiar voice say, "Cages are insidious things, especially when it is gilded, or you are blind to the bars."

Aerith sighed quietly, before looking at the silver-haired apparition. "Sephiroth…what do you want?"

"In general, or at this very moment?" the former SOLDIER asked. "If it were possible, I would love nothing more than to travel back in time, and prevent so much of this from happening. I would stab Hojo in the back long before he could murder your father. I considered Professor Gast Faremis more of a father than that twisted parody of a human being. And then I would drag President Shinra to a Mako pool and hold his head under the surface until he drowned, or suffered from an irreversible case of Mako Poisoning, whatever happened first."

Aerith, despite herself, chuckled at the macabre imagery. "And the others?"

"Would suffer greatly for the most part, but it is Hojo and President Shinra who have roused my ire in particular. Though I have to admit, Reeve Tuesti, despite him having created the Mako Reactors Shinra currently use, is a decent man, one of the few left in Shinra's higher strata," Sephiroth said, sitting down on the grass between the flowers, and looking around solemnly. "This feels so alien to me. From my first memory, I was surrounded by glass, metal, and plastic. Or maybe it feels so alien to me because I am part-alien, a child of Jenova. What of you?"

Aerith frowned, pondering the question. "I admit, it did take me a little time to get used to life outside of the laboratory. But this doesn't feel alien to me now. If anything, it's comforting, normal, or as normal as this garden can be. Of course, it may be psychological more than anything. You were trained to be a member of SOLDIER from an early age. You never had a choice to be anything else, did you?"

"No. Neither did my friends, Genesis and Angeal. True, they grew up elsewhere, but…they would have been conscripted into SOLDIER one way or another if they didn't join up. It's only now, having experienced Delphi's life through her eyes, that I realise how truly abnormal and abhorrent my childhood was. In fact, I envy her, for she was saved, first by my blade, and then by Harry's compassion. But I was not saved by anyone. Then again, did I truly save anyone in my own turn, despite being lauded as a hero? Genesis fell into darkness, Angeal and Lazard are dead. I'd list Hollander with them, but his death is no great loss. He was a fool who felt overshadowed by Hojo, and thus tried to make himself Hojo's superior in every way, including madness. And he failed miserably, bringing others down with him. And when I went to Nibelheim…I can blame Jenova and Genesis' manipulations all I like, but I rampaged because I was too weak to handle the truth, too weak to remain the hero I thought I was."

"And yet, here you are, moping in my flower garden," Aerith said, showing him a mock pout. "Brood like that, and it'll make the flowers wither."

After a moment, Sephiroth chuckled. A sad thing rather than a truly mirthful thing, but a chuckle all the same. "My apologies," he said. "Do not misunderstand me. My being bound to Delphi is my second chance. I may be leashed to her, but I still feel freer than I ever did at Shinra, in SOLDIER. I refuse to be a monster ever again, unless it's a monster fighting for a righteous cause." He then hummed a snatch of an unfamiliar lilting tune to Aerith, before he sang quietly, "There are no strings on me."

"Pardon?"

"A song from a Disney animated film, an animated version of a fairytale from Earth called Pinocchio, about a puppet brought to life, striving to become a real boy. Disney is a rapacious corporation, true, but it's not quite as bad as Shinra." He looked to the plate hanging in the sky. "In any case, I hope we can all find what we seek. A happy life if nothing else. I pursued the wrong kind of happiness before, or rather, I pursued part of it in the wrong places, in the wrong way. I wonder, had I tried harder, could I have saved Genesis or Angeal from themselves? Unfortunately, it does not do to dwell on what could have been. Harry is somewhat like that, burdened by the guilt of the deaths of friends and loved ones. In the end, while one should never forget or dismiss the past, one should never let it chain you. Instead, one should let it guide you. At least, that's what I believe. Genesis was more of the philosopher amongst us, even if he was fixated on LOVELESS."

"There are worst things to be fixated on," Aerith commented.

"Stamp cartoons?" Sephiroth asked wryly.

"No, Stamp's all right when you strip away the Shinra propaganda. But some of the things I've seen online…"

"Ah, yes, indeed. I actually had a fanclub, the Silver Elite." Sephiroth shuddered. "Genesis had his own, Red Leather, with an entire subgroup, Study Group, dedicated to analysing LOVELESS and his own love of it. And Angeal had Keepers of Honour. I have no idea how the Silver Elite got the information they did. Still, one advantage of being a nigh-intangible spectre is cutting down on hair care expenses."

"…Sorry, what?"

"The Silver Elite believed that I used an entire bottle of shampoo and conditioner every time I washed my hair. Something of an exaggeration, but it wasn't too much of one."

Aerith stared at Sephiroth, smiling wryly to himself, before she laughed, despite herself. "And didn't you think to trim it?"

"My hair was iconic by then, and besides, it was one thing I could control in my life. Sad, isn't it? One of the few things in my life that I could say I had control over was my hairstyle. I thought my mother would have long lustrous locks like I had." His expression fell. "As it turned out, I was right. When I saw Jenova in a tank within the Nibelheim Mako Reactor, she took the form of a pale beautiful woman with long hair, but with other monstrous features. Perhaps she modelled herself on the Cetra she consumed. Or maybe she truly had a beautiful form to hide her monstrosity until it was too late for her victims. Or maybe she changed her form within the tank to present an image like I thought my mother would be after I arrived in Nibelheim. I don't know."

"…Hmm. To think that the great General Sephiroth had such demanding personal routines," Aerith said lightly, trying to bring the subject away from Jenova and Sephiroth's rampage.

Thankfully, he either took it as such, or understood what she was trying to do, given that he chuckled. "The hidden trials of being a 'hero'," he said. He stood, before turning to face her, a sad smile on his face. "Aerith…thank you. For talking with me, and being you. You and I…we lead cursed existences because of our heritage. Jenova taints everything she touches by her very existence, and Shinra covets the powers of a Cetra, along with so much else in this world. And yet, you find more joy in your life than I ever did, I believe. I envy that simple joy, of love and family, something I did not experience. And yet, speaking with you…I doubt you would wish to name me as friend, given what I have done. But you have done more for me than so many others have in my life…or perhaps only now am I willing to listen. I'll take my leave for now. I do not wish to take too much of Delphi's magical energy to fuel even this illusion."

As he disappeared into motes of light, Aerith found herself disquieted. True, she thought. I can't forgive you or absolve you for what you did to Nibelheim. But…you can still atone through your own acts, Sephiroth. I can't speak for myself, but to redeem yourself, you need to desire and work towards it. And you've made a start. You recognise it. But will it happen?

Aerith didn't know. But if nothing else, the coming weeks would be interesting. Whether it was in the cursed sense, she didn't know yet.

But before long, she would learn of the fate of one she had loved, and thus spark off an adventure for herself, and others…

CHAPTER 8 ANNOTATIONS:

So, some nice talks between Delphi, Aerith, and Sephiroth.

This chapter was originally going to be about finding a dead Zack and a Mako-poisoned Cloud, but it felt like too much, too soon. I didn't want to put in any Harry/Aerith fluff until Zack died, so what else to do? A rewrite of that chapter will be in the next chapter.

Aerith and Sephiroth's talk was partly inspired by their sibling relationship in Us & Them by Madcap Minstrel, a pair of fics about Sephiroth being adopted into the Gainsborough family. Both are somewhat alien to human society, even if Aerith is better at fitting into human society.

I also wanted to comment on the claim in Crisis Core that Sephiroth uses an entire bottle of shampoo and conditioner each time he washes his hair. That sounds ludicrous. But I also wanted to comment on why a decorated SOLDIER and someone who knows that long hair could be a liability in battle would wear his hair long. That it was something he could control in his life, one of the few things he could, seems utterly plausible to me.

Review-answering time! Dragon Man 180: Sorry, but I have no plans to spare Roche. The guy's annoying as hell and cringy as fuck, with his nicest moment being during the Junon stages in Rebirth. Plus, he has a mullet. There's only three people in the world that I know of who can pull off a mullet well, and two of them are fictional. If you're curious, I'm talking about Richard Dean Anderson as Macguyver, as well as Solid Snake from the Metal Gear series, and Kirei Kotomine from the Nasuverse.

L: I'm not sure how effective the Patronus would be against certain beings, but it's not implausible. As for Delphi and Sephiroth's relationship, she can't compel him at all. By the same token, he cannot control her body, simply drain magical energy to create a physical form temporarily. That being said, I have plans to give this Sephiroth a form of his own. I'm not sure the Eligor counts as a variant of a Dementor, though…

Temsen: As much as I love Hagrid as a character, he's also immensely frustrating in other regards too. He's, bluntly, dumb as hell when it comes to anything other than his magical creatures, has no sense of safety for others, no sense of discretion, no common sense, is blindly loyal to Dumbledore, and rather blinkered and prejudiced towards the Slytherins (and is rather demeaning towards the Hufflepuffs too). It was partly that that informed me having Hagrid be on bad terms with Harry. In addition, Hagrid was expelled thanks to Voldemort's actions, and I see Dumbledore telling him as such. Between that and Voldemort's actions in life, I see Hagrid breaking off ties with Harry in a fit of pique. If Hagrid had to choose between loyalty to Dumbledore, even posthumous, and friendship with Harry, I reckon he'd choose his loyalty every time, and for all Dumbledore preaching forgiveness, I think Hagrid's grudge against Voldemort would hold sway here. I'm not saying Hagrid would want to see Delphi dead or anything, but he'd rather see her sent to an orphanage or something.

No numbered annotations this time.