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So Much Remains to Accomplish

Chapter 2: Completing Her Work

Notes:

Written for the prompt '“You did this for me?”'

Chapter Text

The Planet was in chaos. A destructive wave began in a lost city, hidden within the Sleeping Forest. The force moved North first, the near isolated resort town around Icicle Inn rendered silent, the Mako reactor ground into so much dust. Stories of terrified inhabitants fleeing South, trying to find warmth; others holed up in their houses and prayed for a miracle. None arrived; the town was now silent and near lost beneath the snow drifts.

The once unscalable Gaea Cliffs scaled without problem; beyond the walls at the stop of the world was a vast shallow depression; what might have been the footprint of a vast impact thousands of years prior. Here Mako bubbled up to the surface in vast streams, the wound slowly healing. A shame, but there was work to do. The force reached down into the crater’s centre. Other agents here, other constructs capable of doing whatever necessary. They slumbered for now, content to leave the work to that which preceded them.

A chunk of crystallised Lifestream was the goal; the current populace called it Materia. Translucent and tough, suspended on a lattice work of crystal. Inside lay the remains of a man long thought dead; a man who glimpsed many times of late all across the world. The force took the Materia; an egg, a cage, what did it matter? Materia was tough, but the will of the Planet worked through the force’s actions. The Materia cracked and splintered, the protective shell broken and the vulnerable cargo within destroyed.

Fire took care of the remains. The bulk of it was gone, but traces remained elsewhere. The enemy defeated but so much remained.

The force returned South. Bone Village’s power knocked offline and all communication with the camp lost. The undersea reactor at Junon torn from the seabed and hurled into the Upper City, the impact rendering the vast Sister Ray inoperative. No one froze when Junon lost power, but those in the city’s hospitals did not last long. Fort Condor decimated; the single Phoenix egg perched high atop destroyed as the force moved. Kalm lost power.

Midgar was not as swift in its destruction. A warning called to the city, an urge to leave before anything more. Some heeded this. Others did not. The force circled the city, one reactor after another destroyed, the Mako vents clogged with rubble. Sector by Sector, Midgar darkened. Shinra tried to flee; the new President and Hojo amongst those who successfully escaped before this symbol of the electric company fell.

The force pursued. Anywhere there was Mako, the force would visit, the force would destroy, the force would move on. Costa del Sol, the decimated North Corel. Gongaga and Cosmo Canyon escaped retribution, but fire razed Nibelheim once more, the Shinra mansion and its subterranean secrets reduced to ash. The town’s Mako reactor wrenched from the mountain-side and cast down into a crevasse. Rocket Town’s aspirations to recapture spaceflight came to naught with their loss of power.

Even Mideel was not spared. Mako power removed piece by piece from the Planet. And each time the force found them, those with Her taint, those who had heard Her song; all returned to the Lifestream. Rufus Shinra found. Hojo found. Neither suffered to live.

And perhaps it might now be over, the Planet calmer, the world saved. There were costs – the costs would be greater without the force’s intervention – but the world would now be safe. She retreated to a familiar locale; to Cosmo Canyon.

That was when Cloud found her.

Aeris had seen little of him after the North Crater. After she crushed Sephiroth with every ounce of fury the Planet had. Avalanche too slow and she so much swifter, so much deadlier. So much more efficient. Fulfilling what they wanted, only faster. The Planet needed saving; why delay? He should be happy. As much as Avalanche’s goal had become his own, he should be happier than this. A pained expression from him as he reached her perch at the top of the canyon.

“Aeris.” A flat tone. Curious.

“Cloud.” She could not help the smile, the pride. “I’ve done it all. I’ve made the world better for you.”

He blinked furiously. “You did this for me?”

She clambered to her feet and moved toward him, a nagging sense of something still not done at the back of her head. “Not just for you. For the Planet.” Not entirely true. If she had not met him, if she had not insisted on going to Sector Seven with him, how much of this could have happened? Cloud did not smile back. Odd. She was forgetting something. Something important.

“It’s-“ He stared at the ground. “A lot of people died without power.”

“I know. I didn’t want to-“ She shrugged. “But I had to do something. Had to stop the reactors.”

“But…” He trailed off, frowning. “Was there no other way?”

Every other way she could conceive of, every other plan Tifa and Barret debated, every other notion would take years at best and with each passing moment, the risk to the future of the Planet only increased. No. No other way. “No.”

He said nothing, mouth opening and closing on the verge of saying something, but not able to articulate anything. His upset would pass in time. She had accomplished everything Avalanche wanted. She had killed his nemesis. The scourge of Jenova destroyed; right down to the last cell. Wait. Not the last cell. “Aeris, I-“

His next word choked off as she gripped his throat. Her vision blurred and tears spilled from her cheeks. Somehow overlooked, this last task always shuffled to the back of her mind. And now there was no ignoring it. “I don’t want to Cloud, but I can’t not.” Her hands tightened, his eyes wide, fingers clawing at her arms. “Jenova still exists inside of you.” He tried to speak, her hands too tight. “I can free you from her. And you’ll come back. You’ll return free from her eventually. Then we can be together.” She smiled, tears still streaming.

“This is goodbye for now.” Aeris Gainsborough, living force of the Planet, channelled a fire spell through her hand. The resulting flame charred the last Jenova cells to ash, vaporising the host body, a would be SOLDIER of the name Cloud Strife, in the process. And at last, her work complete.