The Somebody "Magic is believing in yourself. If you can do that, you can make anything happen" – Joseph Wolfgang von Goethe ---------------------------------------------------------------------- She watched the world move past her with a sense of awe. The world, despite the inherent ugliness she saw entrenched all around herself, was truly beautiful. The wind was vibrant with whispers of far away places and hidden in some of the shyest smiles were hope and love, dreams and wishes. She drew a deep breath into herself and moved the basket of flowers around in her delicate hands, looking for the perfect handhold where she could hold it away from her body without suffering any ill effects on her arms. The street itself, where she chose to sell her flowers today was calm and peaceful, cut off from the roar of everything else. Aerith was only 22 years old, but already painfully aware of how quickly life moved, how quickly everything moved all around her without stopping to take a breath, to take the kind of notice she'd always wanted and in some ways, always feared. She wore her neatest pink dress and the red jacket, capturing the lurid glow of the mako tanks stuck in between each building that sufficed as their energy source. The sudden swirl of patterns caught her eye and she brushed back her heavy bangs and wispy curls to look towards the tank. Inside stars of green glowed and rotated, dancing together as they arched achingly towards the endless black sky. They waltzed and tangoed in step with one another and the smile creasing her glossy pink lipped mouth was infected with good humour. Even trapped from the world, the mako knew what it was to live, what it was to be alive and happy. A sudden noise from outside jolted her back to reality with an unpleasant jerk. Clasping a hand to the woven necklace about her neck, looped twice with a lazy bow to mirror the pink ribbon caught in her golden brown hair, Aerith moved to the entrance of the alleyway and paused on the brink of stepping into the bustling street. A wind blew cold and hard past her, singing a dirge she had never heard the world cry out before and timidly she turned her head so she could see the massive sprawl that was the ShinRa corporation headquarters. It grew there, an ugly boil on the face of it's deformed city. She swallowed against the bitter lump of fear frozen into her throat. Bowing her head before anyone could pause and ask her if she was well, Aerith moved into the crowd, green eyes fixed on the floor and only watching where she placed her feet, looking for shadows of people so she wouldn't bump into them. She was desperate to move away from that watchful gaze, the threatening guardian and the faceless horror she had felt all her life. Looming there... waiting for her... She walked for minutes, perhaps half an hour without realising her actual heading and soon bumped off someone as they came running from the corner street in a hurry. It was then she realised that a massive explosion still raged in the distance, tweaking on her senses. Someone offered her a hand and without thinking, she avoided it, getting to her own feet with a slight sense of disgruntlement. Then she looked towards where the sounds of fire and explosions still rang out. "...what happened?" she said thoughtlessly. "Nothing... hey...listen... you, er, don't see many flowers around here." Aerith looked back at the hesitant tone of voice and was surprised by the bluest eyes she'd ever seen. Shocked to her soul by the sudden wave of knowing that hit her in the pit of her stomach, she grasped for the stem of a pale pink lily and lifted it shyly, "Oh...these?" The young man was steadily growing a blush as heavy as she'd ever seen one, so to save him and herself perhaps from that intense look he was giving her, she stumbled on, "Do you like them?" When he nodded she made the decision there and then to lower the price drastically – she couldn't have said why she did such a thing, only that those eyes were so very blue and they made something inside her tremble with recognition, "They're only a gil...?" He fumbled briefly, hands clumsy in what looked to be thick gauntlets and then eventually handed over a single gil coin. In turn she pressed the flower into his hands and watched his face, eyes wide as his, "Thank you... here you are." He kept looking at her, waiting as if to say something and hurriedly Aerith turned away, carrying on walking from the young man as quickly as her legs could carry her. She turned the corner and ducked into an alleyway, dropping her basket quickly and pressing her hands to her middle. He reminded me of Zack. But at the same time, nothing like him at all. What is this strange feeling? Hours later, when she had finally sold enough flowers to have money to get by one for a few days, she gathered up her wares and settled onto the journey home. A quick ride via the trains and to the station where she greeted the station attendant the same way as she did every time, with a smile and a thoughtful comment and well wishing for his family. She took the long route back by the houses and alleys, avoiding the open area until she came to her home, hidden away in a small slum village and protected by the burly materia dealers. Here she was home, where her garden grew wild and alive with many, many flowers. Here where her mother was and the comfort of the soft soil. Aerith pushed the door open and put the basket down by the front door, slipping her shoes off with only the minimal amount of fuss over straps and the like. Knocking the dirt from the soles of the shoes, she came to stand by the table. "Mom?" she called out. There was no answer. Elmyra must be in the village, she decided. So thinking, she moved to the sink and the small cooker and began to set about the usual domestic chores of cooking. But I can't get that young man out of my head, like he's going to change my life... what a life it has been, that is... ---------------------------------------------------------------------- My full name is Aerith Gainsborough. I'm 22 years old. I live here in the slums with my mother Elmyra. I've known since I was young that she isn't my real mother. My real mother died and Elmyra took me in as an act of kindness, probably because she had no children of her own. I don't remember much of my first mother, only that she was kind and gentle and she did whatever she could to keep me safe. Elmyra's last name is Gainsborough, which I took as my own and cast aside the second name I had never known. I grew up here in relative security, but the dreams still lingered... Ever since I could recall, my childhood was spent in the first few years in the clutches of the ShinRa corporation. Hojo, their head scientist, was looking for a way to reach the Promised Land; a place, which he told the President, would reap him great riches. So it was that he captured my mother and myself, when I was little more than a baby, to perform experiments upon and try to discover the secrets of the Planet. It was a lonely time of my life. I knew my mother suffered terribly from the tests... so I made friends with the President's son, Rufus. He was an energetic and lonely little boy, many hours we'd spend together playing hide and seek in amongst the offices set in the ShinRa towers. Rufus had a Turk assigned to him specifically, a man named Tseng with a dot between his brows. He seemed to be only about sixteen or so, very young but capable I'm assured. At first, I think he resented being the babysitter to Rufus and myself on our escapades. But as time went on, he came to realise we were unique and intelligent individuals worthy of some measure of respect. However, Hojo was not to be put off for long...and my childhood play away from needles and other horrors came to an end. I can't recall the full agonies of it. The days were like weeks. He injected me, he sucked blood out for testing, he subjected me to dry runs and exercise tests, he tested my powers, my intellect and my reasoning. The experiments were the worst and at night, I'd lie in cold sweats of pure terror, waiting for the next needle, the next drug, the next test... It was hardly a life at all. The one day, Tseng must have sympathised greatly with my mother's condition and my own, because we escaped. I don't remember the full reason why or how, but we did it, flying into the face of freedom and the forever beyond. There was dark and light, then dark, flashing overhead. Then when I woke up, she lay dying and Elmyra was holding me. And I cried for the first in years. Under Elmyra's care, I attended school and was the brightest student there. My powers, inherited from my mother, gave me a distinct edge in discerning personalities and intentions, so I was able to rise to some measure of popularity. As I grew older, my interest in botany grew – when I was older, I decided, I would be a botanist and discover thousands of new flowers, I'd give gardens back to those in the slums. Unfortunately, my other powers were never so nice as the ability to make flowers grow and open the hearts of those around me. The voice of the planet was strong to my ears, like a shout when I stepped in certain places. The spirits of the dead came to visit me, when they could, and so it was I learned that Elmyra's husband had died in the war on Wutai. She cried, of course, but there was no way I could help ease that grief without it seeming weird coming from a mere child. After all, I wanted her to feel at ease with me, not be afraid of my powers. Later, my talent to heal and use material shone through incredibly strong and so it was I became the local healer too, at even a tender age, helping those I did not know and those I did with all their illnesses. Despite this, the nightmares never left me and I kept smiling through the fear. I don't know when it was that Tseng came back to me, but he knew me on sight despite the years and I knew him. "They're looking for you again," he said softly, wearily. And my world crashed down about me like a house of cards, tumbling from hearts to spades and clubs and diamonds...I was unsure of what to do, but Elmyra insisted Tseng leave after I refused to go with him. Years pass again... I met a young man called Zack. It was a childish first love, blooming over instant friendship. Whilst my mother didn't approve so strongly of him, I needed that someone solid there that wasn't going to try and ruin my life, that wasn't waiting until I was settled then pulling the rug out from under me. We dated casually for a year or so... then he was called away on duty. I was sad, of course, but life went on. Without Zack there, the Turk's search intensified and I found myself running scared from building to building, scraping a living and fearful of when they might finally see me. When they would know where I'd been hiding from them, for all these years... so I retreated more and more to common ground, the church which I'd discovered early in my youth. The local kids who loved me as an older sister had nicknamed it ‘Aerith's Church' and so it was there, where my flowers grew the most beautiful, I stayed... ...and waited for the nightmares to end... ---------------------------------------------------------------------- She walked along in the faint light of dusk, stretching her legs a little carefully and brushing hair from her eyes as she took the less known route to her ramshackle church where she happily spent her days. Aerith slipped in through the doors and sighed, closing them behind her as best she could. Then, footsteps light on the floorboards, she made her way across to her flowerbed only to pause in surprise at the figure sprawled gracelessly in the a heap atop them, shards and beams of wood fallen down around it. Hand flying to her mouth, she hurried over quickly and began to move the wooden timbers away so she might see what lay underneath and what state it was in. As she pulled the shoulder over carefully in case of injury, Aerith took another silent breath as the face of the man who had bought her one gil flower looked up serenely at her. Eyes travelling down, she could see the vicious knock to his head and the several bruises and weeping cuts he'd sustained. So she reached out and murmured, placing her hand to his brow. A wind grew about her, refreshing in it's intensity and growing – the flowers unbending and stems healing, his blood cleansing itself and drawing back into cuts that healed over and the bump to his head going down as redness leached away. Once done, Aerith moved her hand away and smiled in worry. He hadn't stirred and she hoped he hadn't crashed down only to sustain horrible head injuries that she couldn't heal. "Hello?" she tried quietly. Nothing, he lay simply inert before her. She poked at his rib side, then tickled gently; in a knee jerk-esque reaction he twisted to try escaping that tickle. "Oh, it moved!" she laughed softly. "Hello, hello?" The man stirred with a groan and she tried again, "Hello, hello!" Suddenly with a shake of his head he sat up with his blue eyes open and staring right at her. She almost squawked and sat back on her own flowers in surprise, "Are you okay?" Aerith stammered, getting a hold of herself as she took in the look of the man, "This is a church in the sector 5 slums... it suddenly fell in, you really gave me a scare!" He was taller than she was, she knew, but not as tall as some men she'd seen, with a lankiness to him that made him appear taller than he was. His face was smooth and marked by a strange uncertainty, with a mouth that hardly seemed to know how to smile and melancholic blue eyes that shone. His hair was a dampened gold, pushed from the previous style he'd worn it in by the fall and dusted with sawdust and dirt. His clothes were... strikingly familiar to her. A blue high necked jumper with a shoulder guard, gauntlets, thick belt, jodhpur like trousers that ruffled with how baggy they lay on him and military issue boots. His weapon, what looked to be an ungainly broadsword lay feet from him. He answered slowly, "I came crashing down?" Aerith nodded, drawing back a little, "The roof and the flower bed must have broken your fall. You're lucky," she smiled warmly. The strange blush suffused the man's cheeks again and he leapt to his feet, "Flower bed... Is this yours? Sorry about that..." She restrained the urge to laugh at his expression, a bizarre mixture between apologetic, sweet and little boy lost. Standing too, she dusted down her pink dress and wrinkled her nose in yet another warm smile for him, trying to set him at his ease. Aerith quickly gestured at the flowers, "That's all right. The flowers here are pretty resilient because this is a sacred place," she wanted to touch the soil again, know the beat of the planet was living in her fingers when she did so... "They say you can't grow grass and flowers in Midgar. But the flowers seem to have no trouble blooming here. I love it here." She turned briefly to study her flowers and their shining faces, filled with love, filled with the Planet's love for her and for a moment she was almost dizzy. Then... "...so...we meet again..." she turned her shy look onto him, "Don't you remember me? You do?" "Yeah, I remember," he tilted his head and for a brief moment his expression softened, "You were selling flowers." "Oh, I'm so happy, thanks for buying my flowers..." she tailed off and studied him and then broke in as she fixed hair from wafting into her eyes, his gaze intent on her again despite the flush in both their cheeks, "Say, do you have any materia?" "Yes, some," his hand dipped into the arm band he wore and flashed a green orb and a blue at her, bright with the light of the world. She knew which they were just from the vague sense of them, lightning and a support materia – ‘all'. "Nowadays you can find materia anywhere." "But mine is special," she sighed, "it's good for absolutely nothing." "Good for nothing? You probably just don't know how to use it right..." Aerith jumped in quickly, she could see the lecture starting on his lips! "No, I do! It just doesn't do anything... I feel safe having it. It was my mother's... say, I feel like talking, do you feel up to it? After all, here we are meeting again, right?" "I don't mind," he said, watching her and she blushed, tucking hair away once again. "Well, I won't be a minute, I just have to check on my flowers." She began to tend to them, fussing over the stems and the petals, checking them for bruising and the like until she realised he was stood over her, watching with a slight smile on his face. Aerith looked up and then coughed, standing with a smile in return for him, "Just a little longer. Oh... now that you mention it, we don't even know each others names, do we? I'm Aerith, the flower girl. Nice to meet you." "The name's Cloud. And me? I do a bit of everything." "Oh," she laughed softly, "A jack of all trades?" "Yeah, I do whatever's needed..." he paused and blinked his bluest eyes at her, "What's so funny, what are you laughing at?" Aerith covered her mouth, "Nothing...I just..." then paused and looked to the doorway, where there was a shadow. Instinctively, she took a step backwards to where her slender fighting staff lay. "Cloud... have you ever been a bodyguard?" "..." "You –do- do everything, right?" "That's right..." his brows crinkled in puzzlement but she really didn't have time to try and explain this. The turk was watching her and with a lead feeling she knew they'd found her when she was distracted, off guard. She turned her green eyes to his with a pleading expression, "Then take me out of here, take me home." "Okay...I'll do it, but it'll cost you." Cost me? But I don't have any money....oh no... "Uh well then, lets see, how about if I go out on a date with you once?" His expression clouded further with confusion, then he finally caught sight of the Turk and went to talk to him. Not taking this chance at face value, Aerith grabbed the staff and pushed her way through the flowers, to the back door which she opened with a somewhat mighty (for her) shove. She bit her lip and looked back just as the Turk was drawing his weapon and cried out, "Don't fight here, you'll ruin the flowers! The exit is back there..." she pointed through the doorway and with Cloud moving towards her quickly, she fled through it... ---------------------------------------------------------------------- The fight itself had taken less than half an hour, not including the time it took her to show Cloud the exit. She'd taken him back with her to her home and there he'd spent the night, trying to shake off the injuries he'd received. As he lay sleeping, she went into the garden and brushed her hands through the flowers, trying to get a rational hold on everything that was happening around her. But the winds of madness, the winds of change blew cold around her, howling with infinite need and infinite displeasure, howling endlessly and chilling her to her soul, telling her that soon she'll be gone far away and that her story, her only fairy tale would come true. And yet she still felt as though something were missing from her life. She heard him trying to sneak out the next morning. Unfortunately for the mercenary, she, like many gardeners, swore by the early to rise rule and she also knew the slums like the back of her hand. As he charged aimlessly towards the sector 6 intersection, she tugged her boots on, grabbed her staff and materia and rushed through the back alleyways to stand before it, minutes ticking by as she waited for him to show up. He turned the corner then drew back with a gasp of surprise at seeing her standing there, drawing designs in the dirt with her staff tip. "Aerith," he said softly, his eyes softening. "You're up bright and early," she chirped and smiled brightly. "How... could I ask you to go along when I knew it'd be dangerous." She studied him, a serious young man at times, frightened and aloof and hiding something inside this shell he wore to the outside world. Intrigued, she knew her destiny lay at his side, or perhaps his destiny at her side. Either way, she had to go, so she sniffed and folded her arms with the high handed way she kept for unruly sick patients. "Are you done? You have to go through sector 6 to reach sector 7. Come on." He sighed and just followed without argument. She knew she was being horribly stubborn and forceful about this, and true, the road to the sector six was dangerous, but he fought like a demon and her own brand of skills ensured their materia they stockpiled together was used to it's fullest, each spell carving down her nerves and lighting up her mind so brilliant, so alive. Soon they came to the chain link fence and she stood there with him, looking at the small playground that was looking as if it had seen far better days. The dirt looked even dirtier than the soil back in the 5th slum and she sighed softly. "The gate to sector 7 is in there." He looked across at her and she fought the blush that rose, straining to keep her cheeks pale and tint free, "Thanks. I guess... this is goodbye? You gonna be alright going home?" "Oh no, whatever will I do... isn't that what you want me to say?" she looked at him, but saw only the vague confusion in his blue eyes. Aerith shook her head and walked past him into the play area, tilting her head backwards as she studied the slide, "Can we take a break?" She didn't wait for a reply, running quickly to the slide so her pink skirts flared up about her slender legs and then laughed softly, "I can't believe its still here." And so saying, moved to the back of it where she climbed up and sat with legs drawn close, looking over the play area. "Cloud," she laughed and waved, "Over here." He watched her and then came over, climbing up the equipment to sit next to her with a sigh, a small graze jutting on his smooth cheek, her eyes drawn to it with a vague tug of sadness inside her. "So," she said softly, "...what rank were you?" "Rank?" "In Soldier." "Oh, I was..." his expression became fearfully blank, eyes distant. Aerith watched him, then lowered her brows slightly. The sudden vacancy frightened her but at the same time she also realised that it was because of what he was hiding. She schooled her own facial motions to contemplative stillness. "First Class." Impossible. There is something wrong here. "Just the same as him," she ventured cautiously. "As who?" "My first boyfriend." "You were...serious?" His interest was suddenly sharper, overtones of green eyed jealousy seething suddenly, strong enough to confuse her. "N-no...but I liked him for a while." "I probably knew him, what was his name?" ...You probably did... "It doesn't really matter." There was a noise and she looked up from her boots towards the sector gate which was opening. A Chocobo drawn carriage danced its way out of the maw gracefully, the gates shutting behind it. On the back of the jutting carriage balcony a lone figure stood with firm resolution patterned on strong features. Aerith drew a faint breath, another blow hitting her heavily across the stomach. What was this new feeling? "Huh... Tifa?" Cloud stood up. It took moments for her to realise it was the girl that Cloud had mentioned, the lonely martial artist that was his childhood friend, and she stood up too, trying to remain calm. "The girl in the cart was Tifa? Where was she going? She looked kind of odd..." Without waiting, she jumped down from the slide and began running towards the Wall Market gates and the den of all inequity. Behind her she could hear Cloud shouting he'd do it himself, but something stronger than that tugged her on, something greater and she knew she had to chase it. She knew she had to be the one to chase after it, no matter how far it would take her... ---------------------------------------------------------------------- They say a friend can last a lifetime. They say friends bring with them the greatest magic of all. I saw magic on that day as well as great fear. But I couldn't involve them in that... because no one deserves to be bound by my horrible fate of fear... so I swore, for these new friends, I'd protect and help as best I could. Because I could feel the magic, mom; I could feel the magic...
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