Rewind; Replay

Chapter 2: Maiden

From Chapter 1: Mentor…

"Aerith…" Please come. I really want to see you again.

He wasn't sure if he was hearing things when a gentle, but earnest voice seemed to weave into his thoughts. It was also calling out to him, or perhaps to Gaia in general, but he was quite sure he felt something that suggested that it was in relation to him too. He went to follow that voice, directing his own call towards it too. It felt like it would lead his call to Aerith, and to eventually bring her here.

…

"…Zack? Is it… is it really you?"

Aerith Gainsborough had been in her church, quietly tending to her flowers and adding a prayer or two, which mostly concerned a certain black-haired SOLDIER whom she had not seen for close to five years, into her daily habits. It was sometime then when she suddenly felt an inexorable and very, very insistent pull from the Lifestream on her mind. It almost reminded her of that particular SOLDIER who featured in her prayers. Gaia wasn't usually this insistent… if She were, then Aerith wouldn't even have had the chance to refuse an audience with the Planet.

Somewhat reluctantly, Aerith stopped her chores and seated herself down in the midst of all her flowers and slowly let her consciousness filter further into the Lifestream. She followed the pull of the Lifestream, which seemed like it was guiding her somewhere. It brought her deeper and deeper into the sea of never-ending green and she was suddenly afraid that her will might just be accidentally diluted if she went too far in.

But the guiding presence was also reassuring, and Aerith found that even as she went in deeper, far deeper than her self-preservation instincts told her to, she did not feel the overpowering presence of the Lifestream's collective consciousness bearing down on her even though she knew innately that it should and would happen.

It was as if some force was keeping it away from her, so she would still retain her individuality despite the large mass of memories swirling around her. It was the first time such a thing had occurred, and it inevitably piped her curiosity and she followed on without complaint.

Then suddenly before her, she saw a black-haired figure in extremely familiar attire. Well, two figures to be exact. But one of them had drawn all of her attention immediately. His hairstyle was uncannily like Zack's. Could it be him that the pull of the Lifestream was leading her to? She scarcely believed that she was seeing Zack again, but… why he was in the Lifestream?

"…Zack?" she tentatively called out, "Is it… is it really you?"

Upon hearing her voice, the Zack-like figure turned around to face her. Then before she could even begin to react, a wide grin formed on the man's face, momentarily dazzling her with the warmth and familiarity of the smile. He then sprinted towards her, scooped her up in his arms and gave her a warm, warm hug.

A hug that she wasn't ashamed to admit that she had missed. Sorely.

She had thought that she wouldn't see Zack again. It had been so long since she had last heard from him and her initial attempts at trying to find him via Lifestream had been rebuffed. Each and every time, she was guided away – gently but nonetheless it was a rebuff – by the strong currents of the Lifestream. She sensed that Gaia was trying to protect her, and it made her wonder what had happened to Zack such that it wasn't advisable for her to search for him.

"Aerith! Oh Gaia, Aerith!"

The simple act confirmed to Aerith that the man before her was indeed Zack Fair. It was also then when she noticed that something about Zack felt different. He didn't feel dead, as she should've expected, seeing as he was in the Lifestream and certainly had never been a Cetra. Instead, he felt so much more alive than she had ever known.

Alive in the way that there was so much of Gaia's energy inside of him! All of Gaia's living beings had some of that energy within them, but Zack was so full of it now – even more than his SOLDIER-enhanced level that she had become accustomed to – that it was as if he was Gaia itself!

But before she could say anything, Zack had let her go, and gently set her down. He was studying her with bright, cheerful blue-violet eyes, and despite him being at least four years older than when they had last seen each other, Aerith thought, with a fair bit of fondness, that Zack hadn't really lost any of his boyish personality and traits at all.

Then if it were even possible, Zack's grin grew even wider as he commented happily, "You're really wearing pink, Aerith! You remembered!"

"I'm not as forgetful as you are, Zack!" she retorted playfully, in reference to her wish list written for him. Then she heard an amused chuckle from the other man who was there with them. He looked vaguely familiar somehow… like she'd seen, or rather sensed, him before.

Seeing where the maiden's gaze was going to, Zack decided to do the introductions. As far as he knew, they had never seen each other face-to-face before. The clone certainly didn't count in Zack's book. It had Angeal's cells, sure, but it wasn't Angeal the man himself.

"Aerith, let me introduce you! This is Angeal Hewley, my mentor that I told you about. Angeal, this is Aerith Gainsborough, my girlfriend."

Angeal smiled slightly, and held out his hand to the lady. "It's a pleasure to meet the girl who's finally tamed the puppy. I must express my utter amazement at your ability to be able to stand being around him long enough to do that."

"Hey!" Zack protested indignantly, but he was ignored by both conversing parties. "You were the one who "introduced" me to her! By causing me to fall into the Sector 5 slums!"

Aerith giggled at both Angeal's and Zack's words even as she shook the proffered hand firmly. Following Angeal's lead, she deliberately ignored Zack and chose to speak only to the other man, "I must admit that he couldn't really take a hint when we first met, but I guess he's kinda grown onto me."

"Ah yes, he does that to people. Sometimes, I wonder how he and Tseng get along with each other well enough to get their missions done…"

"OI!" Zack protested once more, in a louder volume this time. "Quit talking about me like I'm not actually standing right here!"

When all it did was incite a round of laughter from Angeal and more giggling from Aerith, he sighed in defeat, his posture slouching. Fine, fine, they could laugh at his expense. What's a little "let's-talk-about-Zack-not-behind-his-back" going to do to the person in question himself, eh? Almost without knowing it, he pouted slightly and it caught Aerith's attention immediately. She was rarely able to resist Zack's kicked-puppy expression – it was just too adorable and stirred up all sorts of feminine instincts – and this was no exception.

"Awww, Zack!" she exclaimed, running over to her boyfriend to give him another hug. "Don't feel bad. Although… you do look cute pouting!" she added cheekily.

"Aerith!" Zack thought he could wave goodbye to his dignity permanently.

It was then that Angeal decided that he should come to Zack's aid, and stop the teasing for now, even though it was a form of entertainment that he had missed when he was in the Lifestream. Zack didn't actually have an unlimited amount of time to do what he would like to accomplish, and he would also need to explain things to Aerith.

"All right now kids, this isn't the time for fooling around. Zack, you wanted to meet Aerith to tell her some things, didn't you?"

Zack started slightly, as he was reminded of his original purpose of wanting to meet Aerith. Yes, Angeal was right; he didn't have the time to do catching up with Aerith even though he dearly wanted to. So he carefully shifted his arms so he was holding Aerith slightly away from him, and looked seriously into her emerald-green eyes.

"…You're probably wondering what I'm doing here, aren't you?"

"Yes… But I can tell that you're not dead too. What happened to you in the past four years, Zack?"

Zack's mood dipped a little as he thought about what he and Cloud had gone through in the years they spent being little more than lab rats for Hojo. But he owned Aerith the truth, having promised to return to visit her after the Nibelheim mission and yet, failing to show up for close to five years. Even now, he wasn't physically in Midgar with her, in her lovely, tranquil church. That said, he wasn't going into detail about what had happened in those labs. Some things just didn't need to be talked about in great length.

"The Nibelheim mission went… badly. Very badly," he began, a little unsure on how to go about doing this. "Sephiroth, he found out that he was born out of an experiment and… that didn't go over very well with him. He set Nibelheim ablaze and killed the villagers who confronted him. I tried to stop him, but I failed. It took Cloud to finally throw Sephiroth into the mako reactor's core.

But as I was injured and so was Cloud, neither of us stayed conscious for long after Sephiroth was gone. Apart from some hazy memories, the next thing I knew, Cloud and I had spent about four years being Hojo's lab rats. I had what I thought was a dream of Angeal and it shook me out of it enough to break out of the mako tubes and rescue Cloud. We've been on the run ever since."

Zack shivered slightly as he finished his abbreviated version of his tale. The horror that was Nibelheim was still vivid despite the passage of time and he didn't even try to think about his time in Hojo's labs if he could help it.

It wasn't that Hojo took particular interest in him, but it was the fact that he had some clearer memories of those times when he'd seen Hojo experimenting on Cloud. He was sure he hadn't even seen half of whatever sick things Hojo had done to his friend in the twisted name of science and research (not to mention satisfying the freak's own morbid curiosity), but what little he'd remembered and the fact that Cloud was still in a comatose state due to mako-poisoning (and possibly just to escape the trauma of Hojo's repeated experimentation); it was enough to make him want to kill the mad scientist if they ever crossed paths again.

"Oh, Zack!" Aerith gave her boyfriend a very tight hug again, sadness welling up in her as she thought about what Zack had gone through even though she knew that he hadn't given her the majority of the horrific details.

She understood why the Planet had kept her away from finding Zack. Gaia was probably trying to protect her, like a parent would, from witnessing the horrors that had happened to Zack and Cloud. Even so, she wished she had been able to push through Gaia's resistance. If she could've been there for Zack somehow, then perhaps he and Cloud wouldn't have had to spend so many years suffering under Hojo's "loving care". Perhaps they could've escape much, much earlier.

"It's all right now, babe," Zack hurried to assure her with a tight squeeze of his own. "Well, mostly. Cloud's still comatose, but if things go right this time, all the tragedies that have happened won't occur. Ever."

That sounded… strange. Not to mention a little foreboding. "What do you mean by that Zack?"

"Well… as strange as it seems, but Minerva – the Goddess of Gaia – sort of gave me Her role for a week to change events in the past to prevent dire events in the future from happening." He paused to let his girlfriend absorb that bit of information first, before adding, "So… that kind of means that I'm now the God of Gaia, for about a week."

He watched Aerith's face closely, trying to judge her feelings towards the matter. He could read surprise in her eyes, and then, after a short while, understanding began to show in her expression. Zack was almost positive that his girl already knew why he had wanted to meet with her. He could feel a certain sense of pride in Aerith's perceptiveness, but also a budding sense of sorrow. It would be really difficult to leave behind Aerith, but it was a decision that he would not change.

"Changing the events of the past… That means that certain events of the future won't happen again, and so we might not ever meet… Right?"

He nodded.

"What's going to happen? Did She say?"

Zack shook his head. "Not really. All I've been told was that there would be many more disastrous events happening, far worse than Nibelheim, and that Sephiroth would be the instigator."

Aerith knew that Zack was a very loyal friend, and she would not fault him for deciding to undertake his decision. In a way, Aerith was really proud of him. It made her wonder if she herself would have the courage to do such a thing – or something of similar magnitude – if she was presented with the choices laid down by Minerva. Undoubtedly, it pained her to have to part with Zack, possibly permanently, because it was altogether likely that they would not meet again in the new future. But she would support him wholeheartedly and, if she could, stay with him until the very, very last moment.

"Go do what you have to do, Zack. You have my fullest support."

"Thank you so much, Aerith. It really means a lot to me." He enveloped her in another hug. Gaia, he loved his girlfriend, he really did.

She hugged him back really tightly this time, wanting to indulge in Zack's warmth as much as she could. Out of the corners of her eyes, she saw Angeal turn away discreetly to give them some measure of privacy. She was thankful to Angeal for that, because despite her wholehearted resolve to support Zack, there was still a part of her that was sad to let Zack go. And that part of her made a few tears escape from her eyes.

Aerith tired to blink back her tears before letting go of Zack and smiling brightly at him. She did not want him to reconsider his actions because of her tears. "Shall we proceed to what you have to do?"

"Yeah, guess I should."

"Do you have a plan in mind, Zack?" Angeal asked, ever the meticulous one.

"Hmm… Kind of, I guess. I was thinking of travelling back into the past to see what happened then and see if there was any possible turning point that tipped things down its current path. Then I'll see what I can change about that part to prevent things from… turning shitty."

Angeal considered Zack's words carefully before replying, "Before you go back in time, it would be better for you to know more about the JENOVA Project S beforehand… and probably Project G too."

I am so, so sorry that I haven't updated in so long! Other than suffering a bit of writers' block despite having planned the story out, real life got the better of me. ^^" What finally spurred me to come back to this again was a review I got that gave me so much guilt.

I hope the end of this chapter isn't too abrupt or odd. I was having trouble deciding whether it was a good idea to end here even though my plan for this chapter pretty much ended there too. I guess I was too out of the swing for this fic and so I was worrying and spazzing about it a bit too much... ^^"

So, Aerith and Zack reunite! Yay! I always found Crisis Core particularly heartbreaking because Zack was so close to Midgar when the ShinRa army caught up with him and Cloud, and the fact that Aerith remembered to wear pink for Zack. *sniffs* Okay back to happier things. Aerith also got to meet Angeal! I always thought it would be awesome for Angeal and Aerith to meet (and tease Zack xD)! Although in canon, it could probably still occur... with all three parties really dead and in the Lifestream. ^^" Next chapter will deal with Zack finally travelling back to the past among other things.

I'm afraid I can't promise when the next chapter will come out, but it will be out! Hope you've enjoyed this so far!

carzla