Going Home
Going
Home
Aeris held her staff in hand as she stepped into the sleeping forest. She walked brazenly through the green haze. Her mind dwelt upon her mother at home in Midgar. She remembered all the days when she had come home to a warm house full of sweet smells and of ignorant safety. That was a time before she had to grow up, before she had to take upon this horrible duty. That was home to her back then, the safe place, away from the Turks, away from the Shinra and away from the secret in her own sacred heart.
You can never go home again.
Because the word home changed. It was relative. As she grew she had come to understand that the home was no longer a place but a person. There were the times when she had settled down beside one of her teammates at an inn and that was home as surely as the little house in Midgar was home. Now as she walked through the forest to the Forgotten Capital she had to understand that this was home too. For those who had no homes, everywhere was home.
Sephiroth.
Her mind dwelt upon him. He had come to her the day before he left for Nibelheim and they had said those parting words never knowing that it would be the last time they would meet for five years. Never knowing that it would be the last time for this lifetime. And in this lifetime she would never find another home. What she would give to be free of this duty. What she would give to be free of this insanity. But childhood had passed and all there was, was the road up ahead. A spiral into destiny she didn’t choose.
Cloud.
She knew that she had used the boy. He had taken her this far and in this final battle, he would be her champion. It was a war between her and Jenova, the Holy and Meteor, truth and illusion. Cloud and Sephiroth, both twice deceived pawns that would never understand the purpose they had come to serve.
Love.
Yes she felt love still, for the life she had lead, for the mother she had known, for the parents she had never met. She felt love as well for her Sephiroth who had died as a man in the basement of the Nibelheim mansion and lived now only as a storm of silver rain. Yet love still, she felt for this dying world which had ruthlessly killed all those she loved.
Loneliness.
To be the only one to know the truth of this horrible play. To be unable to share her burden. All those who had known were dead. The Ancients were gone. She knew it still and that was why she must die. One should not be allowed to live with this burden of knowing.
You can never go home again.