Chapter 55: Chapter 72 – Hope

“Here, have something to drink,” Tifa put two glasses in front of Cloud and Aerith, sitting in the common room with them.

“Butterbeer?” Cloud judged from the color, but Tifa only chuckled.

“Butterbeer.”

Cloud took a sip of it, raising his eyebrows, “That’s Burbon….”

“Is it,” Tifa mischievously blinked, an expression he would expect from Aerith.

“Why Burbon?”

“Didn’t find anything else at such short notice, picked the first one. You don’t like it?”

“I like vanilla…so….” Cloud looked over to Aerith, who had said anything, and quietly drank. He drank without saying anything, waiting for her to speak.

“Why don’t you want to do it, Cloud?”

“Many reasons.”

“Name one.”

“Those cells aren’t kind. It’s not like you can plant them in anyone’s body, and they won’t run out of control. They’d kill him the moment they get the first chance.”

“I am not stupid, Cloud,” Aerith puffed up her cheeks, “I know they’d do that. But I have a plan!”

“What might that be?”

“We drain energy from the cells to the point they are nothing but empty shells!! With only one person’s memory in them.”

Cloud’s ear twitched, but he soon shook his head, “That wouldn’t work. The cells would be hungry; they would draw on the life force of the person inside them until they reached a balanced point. Leave it at the balanced point, and they will affect the person, and they would become a lifeless shell, seeking reunion with the main body. Me.”

“Right, they would….” Aerith took a sip, staring into it, “Cloud…ever thought of asking the person…or their loved ones. Would you see them…muddled, insane, disabled for their whole life. Or a few good years? Which one do you think they’d choose?”

Cloud didn’t say anything, and Aerith put down the glass she was holding. She placed her head on his thigh, closing her eyes, “What you’d call a price…they’d call hope. It’s up to them to decide if they wish for it or not?”

“Why are you so adamant about it?” Cloud patted her head, wondering.

“You’d think it had something to do with my past, but actually…that’s not true at all.”

“Really?”

“Probably,” Aerith placed her palms on her flat stomach, closing her eyes, “Ever since I was born…I was inside the Shinra building. I never really saw the outside world; those walls without windows; were all I saw. My mother was an Ancient, the last pure-blooded Ancient. I am a half-blood.”

“I know that part—”

Tifa pulled on Cloud’s ear, giving him a look that said be quiet, and Aerith chuckled, continuing.

“My mother…we were given every luxury, but no freedom to go outside. Being the last Ancient, she was precious…she was their way to the Promised Land, something Shinra wished to find at all cost. But then…I turned seven.”

Cloud glanced towards Tifa, asking his eyes if he could speak, and nodded.

“What happened?”

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“I started having these dreams, these visions…of places…people…and drew them. On the floor, on walls, on papers, everywhere that I could find. I thought that drawing them would stop these dreams. The drawing that everyone could see.”

“They saw it…and Hojo… was delighted that my mother had a successor. He started experimenting on her, taking her blood and driving her to the point that she had to live from syringe to syringe, her medicine. Still, she was a wonderful mother.”

Aerith opened her eyes, looking into Cloud’s, and pressed her lips into a smile, “Don’t make a face…if you make such a sad face…I’ll cry.”

Cloud brushed his finger against his nose, looking away from her, “Not sad….”

Aerith turned to her side, burying her face in his stomach before she lay on her back, “I can’t talk like that…too much of you.”

Cloud tapped his finger on her forehead, caressing her cheek.

Aerith put his palm against her cheek, taking in his warmth, “I didn’t understand back then…I was a child. I thought mother wanted to go out too, but she knew her end was coming. And she was worried about what would become of me…and so we escaped. Fuzz helped us…I think he had feelings for my mother…and put us in a box.”

Aerith raised her palm, and an illusion appeared in front of her of a train and boxes with dangerous goods written on them. She chuckled, “I still remember laughing with my mother over the fact that we were dangerous goods.”

“Pretty sure that’s accurate.”

Aerith giggled, “You flatter me…Cloud.”

Though soon, that giggle disappeared, and they could see inside the box and them crawling, waiting, “I forgot what her voice sounds like…we…we stayed in that box, and we reached the location, and then we were supposed to wait, but she decided to take me elsewhere and not wait for Fuzz.”

“He didn’t know…did he? That she was going to die?” Tifa spoke up, realizing what was happening in Aerith’s mother’s mind.

“Yeah….”

Tifa watched Cloud’s you spoke look and ignored it, focusing on Aerith.

“We went up the fence…mother never crossed a fence too. She had been planning for a long time and asked others about it. If it wasn’t for Hojo, then everyone liked mother and would talk to her. A Shinra trooper nearly caught her, but a man came, and he pushed the trooper away. I thought he’d help us…but he didn’t like the Shinra, like many other people in the slums.”

“Mother heard of the church, one that was empty now, and we were moving towards it…but then…she reached her last legs and sat down near a bench. I…? I started panicking, wondering what I should do…I couldn’t do anything.”

Aerith closed her eyes, breathing in, “I ran…and ran…, and I remembered what mother used to say. People will ask if you are alright…but truly good people would act and help out. So I shouted, searching for a doctor…for someone perfect…one that would act.”

“Did you…find one?”

“I was too late…she had run out of medicine…and her spirit left her body, but I did find someone…the woman took me in on my mother’s request…the one that gave me the Gainsborough name. Elmyra.”

“There were other challenges, but then…everyone has those, that’s life.”

The three of them silently sat/lay there until Cloud spoke and broke the silence, “Was there a point to this story?”

Tifa covered her face, and Aerith burst out in a chuckle, “Two points.”

“Really?”

“Yeah,” Aerith sat beside him, leaning on his, resting her head on his shoulder.

She raised her hand, showing one finger, “Point number one. Somewhere in that story is the reason why I am adamant about this. I don’t know why…yet, but I am sure. It has something to do with my mother. If you could figure it out, then do tell me.”

“The other point?”

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