Categories > Games > Final Fantasy 7
Always, Aeris
4 ReviewsEight things she would have told him. (Cloud/Aeris)
Always, Aeris
(Things She Would Have Told Him)
1) Aeris didn't know she was dying until she felt it happening, but she wouldn't tell Cloud that part. She would just tell him that it wasn't his fault, and that it didn't hurt. The second part would be a lie.
2) The problem with being dead, Aeris realized, was that everything that had happened in her life was so unutterably clear that it felt like she could simply become part of those memories again. Every scene of her past, perfectly preserved, compelled her to break into tiny pieces so that a single molecule of her being could exist forever in each memory. The urge was almost irresistible, but she wouldn't allow herself to exist only in the past. She couldn't. Cloud would fail without her help.
If the past was an open door, the present was like a secret passageway, and she had to resist the pull of the Lifestream to go through it. If Cloud could still hear her, she would tell him that she only had the strength to stay whole because of him.
3) Memory: Sitting on the slide at the playground with Cloud. Aeris connected Cloud and Zack in her mind for the first time. If she had known everything then, she would have told Cloud that she wanted to love him for being Cloud -- not Zack. She doesn't know if she ever managed it, but she wouldn't tell Cloud that part.
4) Memory: Cloud in the Gondola with his head down, light from the fireworks exploding blue or red or yellow on his face, then fading away. She said: I want to meet you. What she meant to say was: I want you to meet yourself.
5) The pull of the Lifestream is always strong, but it got stronger when Sephiroth was destroyed. It is only her willpower that keeps her consciousness intact, but her willpower is breaking off, piece by piece, like a clod of soil in river. She will have to give in to it soon. She is tired of things she can see, but cannot touch.
But Cloud has not forgotten her, and his thoughts pull her to him. His pull is not stronger than that of the Lifestream, but she has no will to deny him. She screams at him, she writes messages in steam and glass, she flings her hand right through his skull -- but he only hears her when he dreams. Even then, he chooses not to listen.
If Aeris could, she would tell him to forget about her, so that she could rest.
6) In the end, she gives up on Cloud, but she wouldn't tell him that part. It's not Cloud's fault; He has lived so much that he has forgotten how to live in the first place, so he just goes around in circles until it seems like he's still alive.
Children are different. No one knows how to live as deftly as a child knows.
"Marlene," Aeris whispers to her in a dream. "When you wake up, there are some things I want you to tell Cloud."
7) One thing she never told Cloud, and doesn't regret not telling him as she dissolves into the Lifestream, is that she loves him. Instead, she told him (with Marlene's help) not to be such a dummy, to find a little happiness in life, and to say hi to Tifa for her.
8) "P.S. I'll still be here when it's time for you to join me. Maybe we can try again in another life -- if you promise to give Barret a hug once in a while. Always, Aeris."
(Things She Would Have Told Him)
1) Aeris didn't know she was dying until she felt it happening, but she wouldn't tell Cloud that part. She would just tell him that it wasn't his fault, and that it didn't hurt. The second part would be a lie.
2) The problem with being dead, Aeris realized, was that everything that had happened in her life was so unutterably clear that it felt like she could simply become part of those memories again. Every scene of her past, perfectly preserved, compelled her to break into tiny pieces so that a single molecule of her being could exist forever in each memory. The urge was almost irresistible, but she wouldn't allow herself to exist only in the past. She couldn't. Cloud would fail without her help.
If the past was an open door, the present was like a secret passageway, and she had to resist the pull of the Lifestream to go through it. If Cloud could still hear her, she would tell him that she only had the strength to stay whole because of him.
3) Memory: Sitting on the slide at the playground with Cloud. Aeris connected Cloud and Zack in her mind for the first time. If she had known everything then, she would have told Cloud that she wanted to love him for being Cloud -- not Zack. She doesn't know if she ever managed it, but she wouldn't tell Cloud that part.
4) Memory: Cloud in the Gondola with his head down, light from the fireworks exploding blue or red or yellow on his face, then fading away. She said: I want to meet you. What she meant to say was: I want you to meet yourself.
5) The pull of the Lifestream is always strong, but it got stronger when Sephiroth was destroyed. It is only her willpower that keeps her consciousness intact, but her willpower is breaking off, piece by piece, like a clod of soil in river. She will have to give in to it soon. She is tired of things she can see, but cannot touch.
But Cloud has not forgotten her, and his thoughts pull her to him. His pull is not stronger than that of the Lifestream, but she has no will to deny him. She screams at him, she writes messages in steam and glass, she flings her hand right through his skull -- but he only hears her when he dreams. Even then, he chooses not to listen.
If Aeris could, she would tell him to forget about her, so that she could rest.
6) In the end, she gives up on Cloud, but she wouldn't tell him that part. It's not Cloud's fault; He has lived so much that he has forgotten how to live in the first place, so he just goes around in circles until it seems like he's still alive.
Children are different. No one knows how to live as deftly as a child knows.
"Marlene," Aeris whispers to her in a dream. "When you wake up, there are some things I want you to tell Cloud."
7) One thing she never told Cloud, and doesn't regret not telling him as she dissolves into the Lifestream, is that she loves him. Instead, she told him (with Marlene's help) not to be such a dummy, to find a little happiness in life, and to say hi to Tifa for her.
8) "P.S. I'll still be here when it's time for you to join me. Maybe we can try again in another life -- if you promise to give Barret a hug once in a while. Always, Aeris."
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