Chapter 41
The window in Aeris and Tifa's room faced the rear of the inn, but from the others' room across the hall, they could see down the street to the village entrance, only partly obscured by one of the houses. A couple Shinra soldiers were hanging around by a snowcat, talking to others out of sight.
"This doesn't have to be a bad thing," said Zack, and Aeris looked at him quizzically. "What, you don't wanna keep up your streak of vehicle theft?"
"Would make it a lot easier gettin' north," Barret remarked.
"You know how to drive those things?" Tifa asked.
Zack exchanged glances with Cloud and nodded. "Sure. I mean, it's been a while, but we went over it in training."
"All right," said Tifa. "I'm for it if we can, but we need to get a better idea of how many of them there are. And we need to get Jessie."
"I can get Jessie," Yuffie said confidently. "There's just the three guys downstairs? We'll go right past 'em."
"Is there a back way out of here?" Aeris wondered, but Tifa shook her head.
"If there is, it's that door behind the front desk. There's no sneaking out that way."
"Our window it is then," Aeris decided.
Barret chuckled. "Sneakin' out a window, huh? Makes me feel like a kid."
"You sneak out a lot of windows in your youth, Barret?" Tifa asked.
"Never told you 'bout way back then, have I?"
"Another time, definitely," said Tifa. "I know Jessie'll want to hear it."
"Yeah," Barret agreed, though his grin faded a little.
Yuffie split off from them in the hall with a promise to meet them around back, and the rest of them crowded into the small bedroom. The window protested, ice creaking in its joints, but Tifa forced it open, and they threw a rope down the side. Aeris was one of the last ones down, after they'd secured the rope to the bedpost, and she gave the abandoned breakfast tray a longing look before she went. Couldn't the Shinra have waited another hour?
Her boots dropped into the snowdrift below, and she took Tifa's arm as she waded out of it. The others had piled their gear amidst the trees that backed the inn, and leaving it behind they crept around to the side of the building.
Houses still obstructed their view of the village entrance, but Aeris's gaze lifted to a huge shape in the air above them. An airship. It could have been there the night before; they never would have seen it in the dark.
Jessie and Yuffie joined them from around the front of the inn, having walked out of it in plain sight--but Jessie was wearing a different coat, in the style favored by the locals, and couldn't have looked less conspicuous. They ducked back behind the inn.
"No problems?" Tifa asked them.
Yuffie shook her head. "Piece of cake. Got a better look at the Shinra, too--I only saw half a dozen soldiers on the ground, but Elena's with 'em. And I don't know about that thing," she added, nodding skyward.
"That's Shinra's prized airship," said Zack, "the Highwind. It was down for maintenance when I passed through Junon; guess they got it up and running again."
"Are they taking that to the Northern Crater to fight Sephiroth?" Nanaki wondered.
Zack shook his head. "I doubt it. I'm sure there's a complement of soldiers on board, but that's a cushy ride, for the big brass. Maybe even Rufus. No, I'd bet the main force is coming by land, like our friends with the snowcats."
"These guys are probably here to scout the route ahead," Cloud added, "before the rest of the troops get here."
"Yeah," Zack agreed. "If Shinra's got half a brain, they're bringing SOLDIER in to deal with this. These guys are nothing but cannon fodder if they run into Sephiroth."
"So Shinra's main force isn't here yet," Tifa concluded thoughtfully.
"If they were, I'd almost say let 'em go ahead," said Barret. "'least they could wear 'im down for us."
"This whole situation is their fault," Jessie put in.
Tifa glanced at Aeris and shook her head. "We can't afford to wait for them. Besides, Shinra keeps underestimating Sephiroth. They should've known they'd run into him at the Temple, and they weren't prepared. We have to deal with this ourselves."
"So what's the plan for stealing their snowcats?" Aeris asked.
"A distraction," said Vincent.
"Yeah," Jessie agreed with a nod. "We can handle these small fry, but we need to pull Elena away so she doesn't call down reinforcements until we're already gone."
"If she heard from her guys that AVALANCHE might be here, she'd wanna check it out..." Barret reasoned.
"Good idea, but I don't think it can be you, Barret. We don't want her to be sure, we want her to go and confirm it before she calls in back-up."
"What about me?" Aeris suggested. "Even if she thinks it's for sure, they'll want to handle that a little more delicately."
"I don't know..." said Tifa.
"I think she might be right, Tifa," said Jessie. "Nabbing Aeris for her boss would be a real feather in Elena's cap. I think she'd wanna do that personally. But, unlike most of you... Aeris's isn't so obvious the soldiers are gonna think to grab her on their own."
"I should be gone by the time they report it back to her anyway," Aeris reasoned.
"All right," Tifa relented.
They passed her the room keys to return, and Aeris dusted the snow off of herself and walked as nonchalantly as she could around the side of the inn, towards the entrance. It was like being back in Midgar, she told herself. She'd walked past plenty of soldiers living there, and they'd been none the wiser.
Inside, the three soldiers still stood in the lobby, two hanging back while the third argued with the innkeeper. He seemed to be having some trouble with the idea that there weren't any rooms available, and was trying to convince the poor innkeeper to turn people out.
"Excuse me," said Aeris, approaching the counter. She pulled her hood down, because these men hadn't proven the most observant so far, and she figured her materia would catch their attention if nothing else. "I might be able to help with that. We'd like to check out."
"Oh?" said the innkeeper, looking relieved. "I didn't see you all come down."
"You seemed pretty busy," Aeris said, as though he just hadn't noticed their large party passing through. She set the keys down atop the counter. "How much is it to settle up?"
As she worked out the bill with the innkeeper, she could feel the soldier beside her studying her.
"What are you doing this far north?" he asked her as she turned away from the counter.
"Oh, me and my friends came to snowboard, but they went and closed the slopes on us," Aeris said, recalling something she'd overheard in the pub last night. "I guess you're not on vacation though. That's a shame."
The soldier faltered, as though he hadn't expected her to be so pleasant with him. "Where are your friends?"
"They wanted to pick up some souvenirs before we left." There had to be somewhere to shop in this town, right? "I'm on my way to meet them now. If that's all right with you?"
"Sure..." he said slowly.
Aeris started to turn away, but then she clapped her hands together and turned to the innkeeper. "Oh! I'm sorry, I just remembered I left something upstairs. Can I borrow the key a moment? I'll bring it right back."
She climbed the stairs to her room, locked the door behind her, dragged the nightstand in front of it for good measure, and then climbed right back out the window. She rejoined her friends behind the inn.
"I'm pretty sure I piqued their curiosity," said Aeris. "We'll see if it works."
A minute passed, and then they saw one of the soldiers exit the inn and make his way towards the group at the entrance, passing out of sight. Soon enough, Elena was hurrying towards the inn with a few men in tow.
"All right," said Tifa. "Hopefully searching the inn keeps her busy a minute."
They collected the gear and left their hiding place, though they stayed out of sight behind houses as long as they could. As they reached the last of their cover, Vincent started to raise his gun, but Tifa put a hand on it to stop him.
"I don't think we need to kill any of them," she said.
Aeris stepped forward. "What if I just..." She concentrated, and a blast of wind swept three of the soldiers off of their feet into the snow, and the fourth stumbled back into one of the snowcats.
The others charged in, and they almost took the soldiers out before they had the chance to fire, but one of them got off a wild shot before Cloud could knock him out. They glanced towards the inn, but didn't wait.
"Let's go," said Tifa, and they piled into the two vehicles, Zack and Cloud driving. Elena burst out of the inn just as they passed it, and Aeris waved to her out the window while Yuffie stuck her tongue out.
"Suckers!" Yuffie cried.
The soldiers with Elena fired a few shots after them, but they quickly lost line of sight.
"Man, I love stealing from the Shinra," Yuffie added as she settled down, but then her grin faded. "Woah, Nanaki, are you bleeding?"
"It's only a graze," he said. "I didn't want to spoil the moment; I enjoy outwitting the Shinra, too."
"Well, let's see that graze," said Aeris. If it wasn't bad, it wouldn't be any effort to heal.
Sitting in the front with Zack, Tifa glanced back at them. "Everybody okay otherwise? It kinda feels like when we left Midgar."
"We're okay," said Yuffie.
"And I don't think there's anyone following this time," Aeris added.
"Don't think they've got anything to follow us with," said Zack.
Aeris looked behind them again as Icicle Inn fell out of sight. A life that had never been... It had been her parents' home, the place where they had found happiness together, but it wasn't hers. Her home was... elsewhere.
A clear, wide path led through the forest north of the village, and though the snow was deep, it wasn't any obstacle. The trees thinned quickly, giving way to an open, gentle slope. They were again in a world of vast white and quiet.
Aeris shifted her gaze from the window to Tifa in the seat in front of her. Their time together that morning had been cut short, and she doubted they'd be able to snatch more than moments of privacy together, before they reached the Northern Crater.
But what a night it had been. It wasn't just the sex either, but the smallest change in Tifa that had allowed it to happen. It was like she had shed a burden of her own, back in the City. Or maybe, found some kind of answer. But she hadn't said anything about it, and Aeris thought it was a change still in progress.
Afterwards. After they stopped Sephiroth, there would be so much more time for everything. Her life had grown so full. She wanted the time to explore all of it.
Eventually they came to a fork in the path, one sloping down more steeply than the other, and Tifa and Zack got out to try to determine exactly where they were on their map. Jessie joined them from the other snowcat, and Cloud got out, too, but only to walk to the top of the slope.
Aeris threw a glance at Tifa and smiled to herself. Well, she thought. There'd be no one to drag her away this time.
She climbed out into the snow, briefly regretting it as the wind hit her, but she pulled her hood up close and made her way over to Cloud.
There was nothing but snow-covered mountains in every direction, from the peaks rising behind them to the slopes falling away before them, vanishing into a white haze that obscured any view of the inevitable valley below. It was impressive, and intimidating.
"This is some view," said Aeris.
Cloud nodded.
"You know, I'd never even seen a mountain until a month ago. Now I've seen so many."
"I never liked the ones back home, but these aren't so bad. Just cold."
"The Nibel Mountains were pretty strange-looking," said Aeris, though she suspected he had other reasons not to like them.
Cloud glanced over at Tifa and the others, and then caught Aeris's eye. "Maybe you'd know," he said. "I don't think they've realized... I got the date from Jessie. It's almost five years to the day, since Nibelheim."
"You're not sure if they'd want to know?" Aeris ventured.
"Yeah. I mean, would you call that poetic justice, or more like a bad omen?"
Aeris thought for a moment. "Knowing them... Probably the former. I think they'd see it as a second chance, to bring an end to things the way they couldn't five years ago."
Cloud nodded.
"How do you see it?"
"I'm... not sure. Maybe both. That whole day was such a nightmare, and I feel like I'm walking right back into it. I almost wonder... If we just waited, you think Holy would kill Sephiroth?"
"...maybe," she said. "But, even if I can't tell exactly when Holy's going to come, I know we're moving faster. We'll get there first."
"Well, I guess that's fine with me. I'm scared, but... I don't want to go out without facing him again. I... need to prove that my will is stronger than his. That I'm not just some number. I'm me."
Aeris looked at him, remembering that day in Gongaga. He'd come so far since then, little by little regaining his faith in himself. Zack had helped so much with that, his faith in Cloud never wavering.
"I think you will," she said. "I think you'll do just fine."
"...thanks, Aeris."
She smiled. "Plus you'll have Zack with you the whole time, right?"
Cloud glanced at her, catching onto her tone, but he didn't remark on it.
"You know," she went on, "I shouldn't have come out and asked you like that before, but... if you do like Zack, isn't this the time to tell him?"
His face was already red from the cold, but he quickly broke her gaze, and it was a minute before he said anything. "He's my best friend. If I make things weird with him before the fight, then... That's no good either."
"Hmm..." It was kind of a tricky situation, wasn't it? It was obvious Zack cared about him a lot, but in what way, Aeris couldn't really say for sure. And would you really want to go into a fight like this on the heels of a rejection? "What if I found out for you?"
"You can't--" Cloud began in alarm.
"I won't say you're into him," Aeris assured him. "I'll just point out what a cute butt you have."
Cloud looked at her, brow furrowed, trying hard to figure out whether or not she was joking.
"Trust me. I'll be discreet."
He drew a long breath, let it out, and shook his head. "I can't believe I'm saying this, but... okay."
"You'll thank me later," Aeris insisted. "He's a good kisser."
Cloud's mouth worked, but before he could find his voice, Tifa was calling them over. She and Zack went over the route with Cloud, who kept his attention very studiously on the map until they split up to return to their respective vehicles.
"What were you two talking about?" Tifa wondered as she settled back into her seat.
"Oh, you know," said Aeris. "I was left unsupervised, no oceans to throw me into this time."
Yuffie squinted at her. "I don't get it."
"I don't think they're going to explain," said Nanaki with a glance at Zack. Aeris had forgotten he'd been there for that.
"Uh, so are we good to go?" Zack wondered, as lost as Yuffie.
"Yeah," said Tifa. "She's just teasing me." As Zack turned his attention to driving, she threw Aeris a wry look.
Aeris shrugged in response. What was the harm? Being together through all of this had done her and Tifa a world of good, after all.
They found their way out of the mountains in the mid-afternoon, but the terrain in the valley below proved hazardous for the snowcats. After a thick sheet of ice cracked beneath them, nearly plunging the heavy vehicle into freezing water, they decided it was safer to abandon them.
They pressed on northwards on foot, and it was unbelievably cold. Aeris could scarcely think of anything else. When the ground was level enough, the group walked huddled together, trying to share body heat, but it was never enough. Aeris was seriously starting to worry that they all might freeze to death when Vincent said something from ahead.
"What?" she called.
"There's a cabin!" he repeated, louder this time.
Aeris squinted ahead through the snow blowing into her face. She couldn't make out any sort of building, but she did see something. Like a tall pole in the distance. Maybe it was a chimney.
When they reached the cabin, Tifa pounded on the door, but Aeris couldn't imagine anyone living in so desolate a place. Surely it had been abandoned long ago, as the area had grown steadily colder.
But a man answered the door, and hurriedly beckoned them inside. "Come in, come in! Please, warm yourselves!"
They all crowded in eagerly, and he shut the door behind them. It was a chimney, and a fire was going in the hearth beneath. As welcome a sight as that was, her body was so frozen that the first sensations of warmth creeping back into it weren't pleasant ones. But she knew it was better than numbness, and on the other side of it she felt the stiffness melting from her limbs and her fingers. The snow melted from her boots, and she could feel her toes wiggling inside of them.
"Sorry for bursting in like this," Tifa finally said to their host.
He was an older man, Aeris noticed now, grey-haired but nothing frail about him. "Not at all," he said. "It's why I'm out here, for my fellow travellers. Though I must say I'm surprised to see so many of you all at once! It's not so often people come to challenge the cliffs."
"Well, we're sort of on a mission," Tifa explained.
"Sounds rather serious..." he said. "Oh, I nearly forgot. My name is Holzoff."
He offered his hand, and Tifa pulled her glove off before taking it. "Tifa," she said, and she went on to introduce the rest of their group.
"You really surprised me," Aeris said, stepping up beside Tifa. "I thought this cabin must be abandoned. You really live all the way out here?"
Holzoff nodded. "A long time ago, I lost a dear friend of mine to those cliffs. I made up my mind to do what I could to make sure they didn't claim anyone else. If you're determined to go, I'll help you prepare. But you'd better stay the night here, and get your rest."
"Oh, absolutely," said Aeris. The thought of going back out again before morning hadn't crossed her mind.
"Thank you," Tifa added. "I'm not sure what we would've done if we hadn't found this place."
"Well, make yourselves at home," said Holzoff. "Might be a little cramped for all... nine of you, but--"
"We're pretty used to that by now," said Jessie.
Holzoff showed them into the next room, a largely empty space with a loft, its floors piled with warm furs. They unloaded their gear and made quick work of deciding who would be sleeping where. Tifa returned to the other room first to make dinner on Holzoff's stove, and since it was warmer in there, the others started to follow.
Aeris caught Zack with a hand on his arm before he passed through the doorway, and he stepped back, letting Nanaki go on through ahead and leaving the two of them alone.
"How are you holding up?" she asked him, making her way back over to take a seat on the steps up to the loft.
"Me? I'm all right." Zack took a seat beside her, quirking an eyebrow. "Why, did Cloud say something?"
Aeris shook her head. "I'm not allowed to check in on you?"
"Guess we haven't really talked one-on-one since... Is that what this is about? You wanted to know how we're handling the whole Holy situation?"
"That's part of it," she said. "I really am sorry that I couldn't tell you sooner. It didn't even occur to me at first, that there might be any risk for you. Not until we talked to Lucrecia."
Zack shook his head. "Look, I don't blame you. Sephiroth's gonna try to summon Meteor any day now. If he did that, and you didn't summon Holy, I'd be dead anyway. At least this way I've got some kind of chance, right?"
"I think it's a good one," Aeris insisted.
"Based on my incredible luck lately?"
"Sure. You survived Nibelheim. You survived Hojo. We found each other again. You think that's unlucky?"
"Well..." said Zack, eyeing her skeptically.
"Oh, come on. We make good friends, don't we?"
"Yeah," Zack relented, shrugging his shoulders. "I guess part of it's just that I miss how uncomplicated things were back then."
"Uncomplicated for you maybe," she said.
"How was it--? Oh. I guess you were hiding from Shinra... and dating a guy from SOLDIER. Man, no wonder your mom hated me."
"You're just realizing that now?"
"Well, I didn't know you were any kind of fugitive back then."
"And if you had?" Aeris wondered.
Zack looked at her askance. "Come on, you think I would've turned you in?"
"No, of course not. But... I did used to wonder how you might react, if I told you. I wasn't sure... you'd take it all that seriously."
"I can be serious," he said.
"I know that. But I was young then, and scared."
"Not so much these days," said Zack. "You've... gotten really open."
"Mm." Aeris stretched her legs out in front of her. She'd shared so much more of herself in the past few weeks than she ever had when they were dating, but, it had been an important relationship to her. Maybe because for the first time, she'd thought about sharing it. She'd just never had the chance then, and things were different between them now.
"It almost feels like you're the one keeping things to yourself now," she remarked. "But then, you're always talking to Cloud. So at least he must know what's going on in your head."
"You think I'm keeping secrets from you?"
"Not exactly. Just, as open as I am with you all, there are some things only Tifa knows. I think it's like that."
Zack scratched his head awkwardly. "I don't think we've got quite the same relationship as you two."
Aeris looked at him meaningfully. "Have you ever thought about it?"
"Me and Cloud?"
"Sure. You're already good friends, and he's cute, right?"
"I mean..." Zack glanced through the doorway into the other room, but Cloud was out of sight somewhere. "You're not wrong," he admitted.
"Maybe you could ask him out," Aeris suggested.
"Ask him out where?"
"Well, I know from experience that Costa del Sol's lovely for a first date, but I bet anywhere would be nice after saving the world."
Zack laughed softly, dropping his gaze to the floor. "You're really something, you know that?"
Aeris wasn't sure if that was a compliment or an accusation. Was this cruel, somehow, coming from her?
Well, he'd have to get over it sometime.
"I just think it would be nice if you had something to look forward to," she said.
"You mean, you don't want me to miss out in case this's it for me."
"No. Exactly the opposite. I don't think this is it for you, so why not start thinking about the future? It's coming up fast, after all."
"You know......" Zack leaned forward on his knees, looking thoughtful. "It did cross my mind once or twice, when I met 'im. You and me had only gone on a few dates and yeah, he's cute. But he had this big crush on-- uh..."
"Tifa," Aeris finished. "I know. I'm pretty sure he's over it."
Zack glanced at her. "He tell you that?"
"You can be real dense sometimes, you know that? Just think about it."
In the other room, Aeris saw Cloud step up to the stove, ostensibly to ask Tifa something, but he glanced their way; he knew what this conversation was about. Aeris winked at him; she thought it was going well.
Zack looked over, too, and Cloud quickly returned his attention to Tifa as she answered him.
"...I'm a real idiot," Zack decided.
"You still have plenty of time," said Aeris. "And I mean... Imagine all the awkward double dates we could have."
Zack snorted. "There's the ulterior motive. You're really looking forward to that, aren't you?"
"You know I am."
They rejoined the others not long before Tifa finished up dinner. Cloud was shy with any attention he paid Zack, and this time Zack took note. He met Aeris's gaze across the room and quirked an eyebrow, probably putting together what she'd been talking to Cloud about earlier. She just smiled in response.
"You seem pleased with yourself," Tifa observed quietly.
"I think it's going to work out," said Aeris. "You want good things for them, don't you?"
"...of course I do," Tifa admitted, her tone softening. "I guess... I needed some pushing, too."
Aeris bumped shoulders with her, smiling. And when Zack and Cloud slipped away into the next room while everyone else was still eating, she pretended not to notice, though she couldn't help catching Jessie's meaningful glance.
They really would have to do something about Jessie next. Maybe Wedge's brother was cute.
Morning came, and Aeris knew the lighthearted distractions were largely behind her. Everything Holzoff had told them about scaling Gaea's Cliffs was intimidating, to say the least. And on the other side lay the Planet's wound, the place where Jenova had landed, where it maybe waited for them in a truer form than they'd yet seen.
The Planet was quiet, but some apprehension rippled through its calm. The Black Materia hadn't been used, yet, but it worried for her, and the battle that lay ahead. When her ancestors had faced Jenova, so many of them had died.
Aeris took Tifa's hand, finding strength in it as always. Neither Sephiroth nor Jenova would take this from her. They wouldn't take a damn thing.