The Path Ahead

FIVE

Late that same night, long after she and Edywn had returned to his quarters and made passionate love almost as soon as they'd closed and locked the door behind them, Aerith lay in bed awake, her hair spread out in a chestnut fan around her face on the pillow as Edwyn slept next to her. She hadn't told him of her decision to stay with him, not yet, but she would in the morning. Her life was her own, and despite what was happening, she couldn't keep defining it by what her predecessors had done, as if she was a character acting out a script.

And yet... doubt nagged at her.

Aerith tried to go to sleep, but she couldn't. She tossed and turned, her mind refusing to slow down and let her rest. Eventually, she sat up and got out of bed, moving slowly and quietly to avoid waking Edwyn. After putting her clothes back on and fastening her pink ribbon in her hair with her special materia tucked inside, she kissed him tenderly on the forehead and left, needing to go outside and think for a while. And she thought she knew just the place to do that.

She went to one of her flower gardens, a larger one she'd planted in an open space in the middle of the courtyard, and knelt down amongst the blossoms. Despite the mako reactor looming high overhead behind her on a hill above the fortress, the marigolds and lavender sage hadn't had any problem growing here. They were tough desert flowers, able to live and thrive even in dry and arid environments.

Aerith felt most at peace in her gardens, both those here as well as the ones she'd grown back in Midgar. She missed the old church in the slums where she'd spent so much time, but she knew it would be taken care of during her absence. Mother had told her the city wasn't safe for her anymore, and she had been right. Aerith needed her advice now as well, but she knew it wouldn't come. Mother's spirit was at rest, part of the planet again and with Father. Their love would always be with her, but she would still have find her own answers.

"What do I do...?" Aerith murmured, her eyes closed. "I know the path ahead... but I... I think... I could love him. Do I have to walk the same road as before? Can I... can I go a different way? Do I really have to go through that pain again? Do I have to die?"

A cold, familiar voice whispered to her in the night. "The choice is yours, Aerith. We have an appointment, you and I."

She opened her eyes and looked up to see him standing before her. A black leather cloak with matching gloves and boots. Long silver hair. Pale, icy green eyes, their pupils slitted like a cat's. And a sharp, slender katana of stainless steel that sent a familiar chill through her heart and an old, remembered pain through her chest.

"You..." Aerith breathed.

Sephiroth laughed coldly as he circled around her, his movements not disturbing the flowers at all. "Stay here, if that's your wish. It seems you've found a reason. He's a very fortunate man. Have you told him of us, Aerith? How tightly bound we are together?"

She glared at him. "Leave him out of this! I won't let you hurt him! This is between you and me, Sephiroth."

"My, my, you do care for him, don't you?" he sneered.

"Yes," Aerith snapped, her voice laced with steel as she stood up. "I do. And I won't let you use him to keep me from what I have to do. My staying here doesn't mean I can't stop you."

Sephiroth pointed his katana at her. "By all means, try if you wish. But this is still your fate. As it always has been. No matter where you go or where you are, I will find you. One way or another."

"I'll be ready," she swore.

"We'll see..." he smiled darkly. Then he slowly lowered his weapon. "But perhaps... I no longer need to try."