Final Fantasy VII: Lifestream - Book 2: Aftermath

INTERLUDE

After my friends and I had finished telling the first part of our story, recording it as the elders wrote it down, we took a break for a little while, scattering to different parts of the canyon village. Talking about all these things, the pain and loss we endured and the struggles we faced together, wasn't easy. It brought back memories, a lot of them, both good and bad. But I suppose that's the nature of this sort of thing.

The day the Sector 7 plate fell was the day Midgar stood still. No one who lived through it will ever forget it. So many people lost so much that day—friends, family, homes. The evacuations saved a lot of lives, but not all of them. There was just no way. Thousands of people still died. Shinra had enacted a terrible revenge for the attacks we had carried out against their mako reactors, and while they made those incidents worse to set us up and turn people against us, we had still made the choice to act, falling right into the trap they'd set for us.

What happened that day, and the events leading up to it, formed the foundation of the long journey we'd soon begin. It's not easy, knowing the part we played in causing all that pain and death. We weren't responsible for the plate collapse—Shinra did that and tried to frame us for it—but it was our actions that were the excuse they used to carry it out. It's a hard thing to live with, knowing what we did, but I think facing it and talking about it is the only way to really deal with it.

The people we call heroes are supposed to look out for everyone else, but who's there for them when they're the ones in need? My friends and I, all we had was each other, and that's still true even today. We've become an odd sort of family, but a family nevertheless. Over the past few years, we had slowly drifted apart, each of us wrapped up in our own lives, the days of our journey together gradually falling farther and farther behind us. It would have been easy to forget.

But I didn't want to. I couldn't afford to. If you forget the past, you'll just make the same mistakes over again, and I didn't want that. So I was glad when Nanaki called me last month and told me of his idea, his plan for us all to come back together again and lay down our story. He pitched it to us as a history project, to preserve the truth of our journey for those who'd come after us, and that's certainly a part of it.

But I've come to believe this project is also for us, to help us confront the dark things that had happened, that we played a part in so long ago, and to finally put them to rest. To stare unflinching at the uglier parts of ourselves and find a way to cleanse our hearts and minds of the lingering pain left by all that we'd been through and the losses we had suffered. To forgive ourselves for what we were and what we had done, and to renew our bonds with each other.

I know she would want that.

When we stopped for a while after finishing our story of the Sector 7 plate collapse and everything that had led to it, I wandered up to the top of the settlement, out in front of the observatory. From there, I could look out and see the entire canyon for miles, the desert wind warm and dry as it whispered past me. It's a peaceful place, and you should come see it for yourself sometime if you ever get the chance.

As I stood there, I let thoughts and memories of Midgar and all that happened there fill my mind. Meeting Jessie for the first time, our battles with the Vice gang, the reactor bombings, the friends I had made—Biggs, Wedge, Lena, and Barret. Tifa's bar, the original Seventh Heaven. Aerith, selling me the flower I later gave to Jessie. Our desperate battle to protect the pillar and save so many lives.

We failed. And in the aftermath of the disaster, we found a focus for our pain and anger, something to keep us moving forward. A rescue. Two of them, actually. The Turks had captured Aerith during the fight to save the pillar, and she was being held in the heart of the Shinra Building. But first, there was someone else we had to save. When we'd still been on the platform, Jessie had been torn away from me, falling into the flames and ruin of the Sector 7 slums when the plate had started to come down. And I had to go back for her. I had to find her.

I had refused to accept that she was dead despite having to leave her at the center of the plate collapse. We had defied fate together, she and I, cheating the death she'd been destined for in the pillar. And I wasn't going to allow fate to claw her back from me. But what my friends and I didn't know at first was that each rescue would become dependent on the other. To save one, we would have to save the other as well. And both would set us on the path to our long journey.

As I'm sure you've noticed by now, it's not just myself and those who went with me on the journey who've been telling this story. We've invited a few others as well, some of whom you haven't heard from yet. Although their role wasn't as expansive as ours, they still played an important part in what happened, so my friends and I agreed that their voices should be heard as well. They're our friends, too.

We still have a long way to go to tell the rest of our story, and even as I record this, I'm making my way back down to the Cosmo Candle to get started on the next part. But we had all agreed that before we moved on, we should pause first to reflect on what we had told of our tale so far. It's not been easy, but I believe it's worthwhile, both for you and for us. And I hope you'll feel the same way by the time this is over.

— Cloud Strife