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The Flowers of the New Gods
By Faronon Star Wolf
For there is no
God found stronger than death; and death is a sleep
"Hymn to
Proserpine", by Algernon Charles Swinburne
It wasn't until they had arrived in Mideel that he recalled what Red had said--the crew found her unnerving--when he saw some looking at her, and then away--some in disgust, others with fright. And the ones who had no expression, who merely glanced over and then back to their tasks--they were pulled aside.
And after that, those neutral expressions had some tinge of fear or hatred in them.
He watched with narrowed eyes as a man was cornered by another, and the short, intense conversation--
The man shook his head, seeming to deny what he was being told, but--
But Vincent could see doubt in the man's face.
He clenched his teeth and turned to face forward, trying to ignore the glances--and the whispers.
Mideel had grown more unstable in the years since the large earthquake that the WEAPON had triggered--but the people there had stubbornly stayed with their homes. Mako eyes were still seen often, but no longer was it the identifying mark of a SOLDIER--that was a group that had fallen with Shinra.
Now it was the mark of someone who had lived in Mideel.
Mideel was now the main source of Materia--with how much exposed Lifestream there was, it would be strange if it wasn't.
Vincent glanced at Yuffie, but she was merely leaning against Aeris' shoulder, paying no attention to the storefronts, and the softly glowing spheres within.
Red led the way along the path that skirted the exposed
Lifestream--and the area that had been the town, once. Now, the buildings ringed
that large expanse--and had to be moved further back after every quake.
The small hospital was still in the same general area, but it wasn't the same building anymore--the original had grown too old to be used any longer. Instead, the new building was on the side of the hill. Vincent steadily avoided looking out of the window--he knew that his memory was long, and...unique, but there were still some memories too close to the surface--the race to escape from the crater, in front of the rising Lifestream--they weren't something he wanted to remember.
Instead, he focused on the sight before him--Aeris, kneeling between two beds, holding the hands of two figures--
Cloud, and Tifa.
He eyed the tattoo on Cloud's cheek--a red IX, just below his eye--and remembered the event that was a mirror to what was happening. He could still hear Tifa, begging and pleading with Cloud to wake up--to talk to her.
Only now Tifa was laying beside Cloud--both of them with eyes half open, blinking slowly, and not responding to anything Aeris did.
A movement near the window caused him to glance over, and he almost forgot everything else. Yuffie had stood--was standing!--and she was leaning against the wall. And as he watched, she took another step, and reached the window--where she stood and looked out over the Lifestream.
Aeris turned to look when Vincent called her name, and her face broke into a wide smile. "She's coming back," she murmured, "she's coming to terms..."
Red's ears perked forward. "What do you mean?"
"We--humans--aren't supposed to know how death feels. We shouldn't know how it feels to die--we can't deal with that knowledge." She paused and looked back to Cloud and Tifa. "But if Yuffie is coming out of it, if she can handle knowing she's already lived and died once before, then Cloud and Tifa..."
Vincent glanced over at Red, who shook his head. He turned to look at Aeris' back.
She didn't know.
She didn't know how Cloud and Tifa had died--murdered on their second anniversary.
Vincent cleared his throat. "Shall I see about arranging to take them with us?"
Aeris nodded--absently, it seemed--and reached out to run her fingers down the side of Cloud's face, hesitating above the tattoo on his cheek, and then did the same to Tifa--
"If you don't mind," Red replied, trying to guide Yuffie back to the chair she had been sitting in.
She didn't seem to want to leave the window.
Vincent shook his head, and turned to leave.
"Well, yes, you can take them with you, but do you really want to? Those two... they have all the symptoms of advanced mako poisoning. I've never seen someone recover from a case that bad..." The doctor, a short and frail-looking man, trailed off as Vincent stared at him. Vincent was remembering Cloud laying in the bed, in the same state--
"I have," he replied shortly, and the doctor opened his mouth before he seemed to consider who he was talking to. "We know who they are, and we aren't prepared to leave without our friends."
The doctor slumped and removed his glasses, rubbing his eyes. "Then--they are?" He flushed when Vincent raised an eyebrow, and continued, stammering. "I l-looked up cases of mako poisoning when we found them, and the w-worst case recorded was Cloud Strife--and it is him, right? Him and Tifa Lockheart?"
Vincent considered how he could reply. He could confirm their identities, but that could--would--cause problems. He couldn't believe that this was just a random occurrence--not with the others reappearing--and not with those tattoos. However, denying it could also cause problems.
He met the doctor's eyes, and stared. "What is your conclusion?"
The doctor sighed and looked down at his desk. "I suspected, but--" he shook his head. "I'll arrange for stretchers to take them to the airship."
Vincent thanked the man and stood to leave. Before he left the room, though, the doctor spoke.
"Sir--" he paused, biting his lip. "Why are they returning?"
Vincent stared at him. "...we will find out," he replied
finally, and closed the door behind him.
It didn't take long after Vincent returned to Cloud and Tifa's room for a nurse to arrive with stretchers. Aeris opened the door as wide as it would go and held it as he rolled one in. Vincent could see another waiting in the hallway.
The nurse calmly pulled the sheets off of Cloud and slid his hands under his shoulders. He looked up, and asked Aeris--the closest--to support Cloud's legs.
After the stretcher with Cloud on it was out in the hallway, the nurse brought in the other and prepared to move Tifa.
Aeris wasn't the one who helped him move her.
Because when he pulled back the covers--
Aeris covered her mouth and looked away.
Tifa's arms, once strong and toned and ending in deadly weapons--
One arm still looked like he remembered.
The other terminated just below her elbow.
While it ended well--mostly--Vincent thought that perhaps it would have been better for Yuffie if it hadn't happened at all.
The nurse had been sent back to his work, and Aeris and Vincent each took a stretcher. She had been ahead of him on the path, pushing the stretcher with Tifa on it, and he followed with Cloud's. Red and Yuffie brought up the rear, Red keeping Yuffie from drifting too much to either side of the path.
There was no problem with keeping her moving, though--Yuffie seemed content to follow whoever was in front of her.
They had almost reached the airship when, as Aeris put it later, the Planet shifted in its sleep.
The earthquake wasn't a large one, as far as those go--it certainly didn't compare to the one that had dropped Cloud and Tifa into the Lifestream a hundred years ago--and the people of Mideel simply paused until it passed, and then continued about their business.
Vincent became aware of three things as the ground stilled.
The first was Red's cry of alarm.
The second was a splash.
The third, a choked off sob.
He spun, to find Yuffie up to her waist in the Lifestream.
Her eyes met his--no longer blank grey--filled with emotion--
She started to scream.
After he pulled her out, Yuffie buried her face in his shirt and wept.
He waited until her shoulders stopped shaking, and then said her name. She shivered.
"I couldn't breathe," she mumbled into his chest. "I couldn't breathe."
"What do you mean?" Vincent did know what she meant, though. She had died of illness, he remembered--died in her sleep--her son had said that her lungs had filled with fluid.
Yuffie sniffed. "I woke with--with a pillow over my head. Someone was holding it--I couldn't--" Her voice cracked, and she pushed away, staring up at him. Her tone grew shrill as she continued. "I couldn't get them off--I couldn't breathe!"
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