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She strolls casually down the the pathways of Midgar smiling to young children as they pass her by. It is a city with no sky, its atmosphere shrouded by a large metal plate. The city itself is circular and broken up into many different sectors. At each sector near the edge of the city, reactors burn as they drain away the Mako, the spirit energy, from deep within the Planet. The sector themselves are not worth bragging about. People live close together like rats in a large metal junkyard. Yes, Midgar is that big junkyard that many of its inhabitants have few shame of calling home.
No one seemed to notice or care for that matter, who this beautiful woman was and where she came from. Her eyes pan from left to right, nothing much has changed really. A bit more dirt and grease in a few places, but nothing serious. When she came across a particular sight she knew she had finally returned home.
The garden she loved and missed so still beared beautiful flowers. She noticed very few victims of neglect, the majority were roses. Ah but perhaps that now she has returned to her home she can attend to her garden like she did before. Carefully she picks up a fresh rose and inhales its sweetness. The memories of her days spent here, so irreplaceable.
This woman, Aeris Gainsborough, was at the age of twenty-two the last time she walked among those of the living. It has been almost three years since she was in Midgar last, but she retained her youth. Known to only few, Aeris is the last of a race known as the Cetra, more commonly called the Ancients. They were the first to walk upon the land many thousands of years ago, their job was to ensure that the Earth, the Planet, would be safe and unharmed. They were gifted with many magical strengths to enable them to continue their mission. Until one day, Jenova, a purely evil being descended upon the Planet and swiftly began to attack the Earth itself. It took nearly all of the powers from the Ancients to stop Jenova, but in doing so their own lives slipped away. The danger was over, but it didn't stay that way indefinately.
"A....Aeris.....you.....you came......back....." a strangely familiar male voice spoke, causing her to jump at first.
She turns around and her twin set of green eyes sparkle and her smile increases its brightness.
"Cloud-san!! Oh I'm so glad to see you!" with that she runs to him and flings her arms around his waist, hugging him ever so tightly."It's been a long time, such a very long time indeed." she continues.
He can't help but to return both the smile and the embrace, "It sure has Aeris. So many things have happened since you......"
"Sssh....it's alright Cloud, I'm here now. That is all that matters right?"
He nods,"Hai."
Cloud Strife was twenty-one when he first met Aeris, who was selling flowers in Midgar. He was a mercenary back then, wanted money instead of caring about anything or anyone other than himself. At that time the unraveling of Cloud's long forgotten past began. He came across many lands and picked up a group of friends who would risk their lives to continue existing. They were from many different parts of the world and lived their own way of life before they met Cloud. In their own way they helped Cloud to find out who he was and for him to choose what path he would walk down on. He made the right decision back then.
The two spend some hours talking inside Aeris' house. They recapped on their lives up until the present, parts of it worth laughing about, others worth breaking down into tears over. In the end they were both content to have each other as company, but in their own minds something wasn't right. A memory, a secret, a promise, or something of that sort was holding them both back.
"So," said Aeris cheerfully after sipping her tea, "how has Tifa been? I hope I can meet her soon."
His tone saddens dramatically, "She's gone Aeris. Tifa's......." drops his eyes so that he's staring at the wooden floor.
Hearing news such as that makes Aeris' hands tremble, she watches the ripples that waver at the surface of her tea, "Gomen Cloud-san.....I.....I didn't know."
"No need to be sorry. She didn't pass away in sadness. I still remember the smile she gave me just before her eyes closed and......." he shuts his eyes, holding back tears. Aeris instinctively gets off of her chair, walks to the back of Cloud and hugs him again, feeling sympathetic over the loss of a friend.
"You said yourself that she died happy, " Aeris says, "I may not have known her as long as you have but I'm certain she wouldn't have wanted you to be this way. She probably wanted you to be happy and to live life to the fullest like she did."
"Yes, you're right." Cloud replies softly, "it was sudden though. All this time I never knew she carried an illness......if only I had known."
"That's enough Cloud. You need time to heal, we all do." smiles reassuringly at him.
"You can stay over here if you want. I have that extra room set aside for you like before."
"Thank you so much. I truely am grateful to you" He gets up off his seat and smiles. "Good night Aeris-chan"
"Oyasumi Cloud," she replies back."
Lying in her room, staring blankly at the ceiling, she can't help but to remember her past with Cloud. The date, the first time they met, everything. Even the most dreaded day of her life when Sephiroth took away her right to exist with one swift blow. The feeling of the metal running through her abdomen, the blank look on Cloud's face at the sight of her, and the platform upon which she prayed for Holy was the last thing she ever saw.
Her life ended too quickly and so much left undone. Maybe that is why she returned to the world of the living. Perhaps this was her second chance to live a grand life and to die without having any regrets what so ever. Cloud needs her, she realized, and she needed him. To fill each other's hearts with warmth and kindness and not with the same loneliness that they have endured for so many years. Secured with this knowledge freshly in her mind she yawns as she drifts off into her deep, peaceful sleep.
This is how it started.
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