Through Rose-Colored Glass (5/?)
Title: Through Rose-Colored Glass
Part: 5/?
Rating: PG-13 (subject to change in future)
Pairings: Aeris/Sephiroth, Aeris/Zack
Summary: Aeris contemplates her connection to the planet...
The gardens that Aerith tended kept her busy enough. She loved the smell of the earth and the way the little seeds she planted struggled to grow in the polluted soil of Midgar. The earth was infected, slowly dying and nothing grew in Midgar. The air in Midgar was dirty and many of the Slums residents suffered from respiration problems. People in the slums couldn't afford the filtered air the rich enjoyed above the Plate.
Aeris did her part. Or at least tried too. She would work for hours in her gardens, pulling weeds and watering her plants. She'd pick the best flowers and sell them on the streets. For the lecherous men, those who eyed her with evil intent, she would flirt with them and charge a ridiculous amount for her flowers. But those rare, few men - the good ones who were trying to make a decent living - she hadn't the heart to charge them at all but settled on one gil.
Hell, she tried to brightened Midgar but how could she alone make this place, this metallic prison, more bearable? Her smiles weren't enough. Her generosity wasn't enough. The disease of Shinra had infected much more than just the Planet, but the hearts of people. She was constantly surrounded by despair and hopelessness.
Men and women alike sought to escape in Sector Six. Pick your poison on Wall Street: the bottle, the needle, or in between a pair of willing legs. That was the kind of place Midgar had become...
Aeris sighed, laying in her little flowerbed of the abandoned church. The Planet was much more clearer when she was inside the church, when her body could touch purified soil and smell the sweetness of fresh grass. She had just watered her flowers and could feel the wetness of the blades in between her toes. Aeris, was without doubt, a child of the Earth.
The last one... the only one...
Her existence was a lonely one. Was the silver-haired man dressed in black as lonely as she? The thought flashed through her mind and she found the ache in her heart increase tenfold. The Planet hummed happily in her head, the voices of her ancestors spoke a language she couldn't understand but she could sense the urgency mixed with comfort. She could sense the indecision.
That was the problem, Aeris concluded, with being only half-Cetra. While full-blooded Cetra were able to understand the Planet, Aeris could not. It spoke to her in words that most times made no sense but she was highly in tuned to the Planet's emotions, if that made sense. But Aeris had no one to share this with, no one to help her understand.
Did the SOLDIER, the one whose eyes mirrored hers, have someone to help him? Did he ever the feel the frustration of not being understood? Of course not, she thought. Someone as great as him - he would have to be great in order to be in SOLDIER - would not have such weak feelings; he would not wallow around in self-pity. Not like her. She was weak; so damn weak. If only she was strong like the people who joined SOLDIER, she could change things. She could break down the metal prison and destroy the glass cages that kept the world living in misery.
War and money; it was like an endless waltz. Revolution. Revolt, And then finally, repression. Each organization that rose to fight against Shinra, the more casaulities increased. The cycle never stopped and the more the people fought; the more Mako Shinra sucked out of the planet. It was a slow death that began with the hearts of men and women across the Planet. Abnormalities, things that did not belong to the Planet, had started appearing. Their presence sickened Aeris.
God, she hated Shinra.
They only brought death and decay to the world; they were the instigators of this amoral society that had risen from the ashes of their greed. The more that Shinra desired, the more people died. And the more lonely voices that pleaded to her. She couldn't help the dead but rather listen to their stories. People often thought her strange with the way she would sit for hours, staring out into the empty space. But Aeris was listening to the dead, sharing in their knowledge. She hated being different because she unnerved people, even her own mother. But she was the last Cetra and the burden of her duties weighed heavily on her.
Was there anyone who's loneliness rivaled her own? Was there anyone who's pain was great as hers?
And one word was carried across the wind... just one.
Sephiroth.
But the eyes she found herself staring into were not the color of emerald fire but rather the warm brown of autumn leaves.