Chương 105: Chapter 130 & 131 - Saviour
"Thinking about your dangerous boyfriend?"
"Hm? Nah, not really," Tifa muttered, standing in the Quidditch stands, watching them practice with a smile, "Sorry."
"Why are you apologizing, weirdo," Angelina tapped her head, sitting beside her, tired, covered in sweat.
"You might have had a chance of winning this, but with Natasha gunning for getting the trophy seven years in a row? That might not be possible. So…I am apologizing," Tifa sighed, "I would like to see you win this game, but then there's Natasha…."
"Huh, you are between a rock and a hard place here," Angelina muttered, "That's fine…I wonder if this is how Tonks felt."
"Tonks? Nymphadora Tonks?"
"Yeah. When…Cloud entered the team his first year. Rather…his first game and everyone knew in their hearts of hearts…he's unbeatable," Angelina closed her eyes, "I still remember that moment as if it was yesterday. In my hardest times, I thought…I want to be like. That was uplifting, something that pushed me in dire times…especially this year. But now that I think about Tonks…who was the Captain of Ravenclaw…she must have felt what I am feeling."
Angelia raised her palm, spreading her fingers straight, looking at the ground, "Against those unbeatable odds. I want to win!"
She grinned, "Never thought I'd have that opportunity. I am delighted that Natasha took admission this year rather than waiting for one. I get to have that, and I will beat her."
Angelina slapped her cheeks with both hands, standing up, "I am going back to practice again!"
Tifa parted her lips, watching her leave, and closed them. There was something she wanted to tell her, but then she decided against it.
"You aren't going to tell her?"
Tifa shook her head at Hermione, sitting in front of her, reading a book on Ministry. It was about the jobs in the Ministry (if Tifa had to guess), "Tell her that Slytherin already won their match against them, and with Natasha in the team, there is little chance that they would lose to Hufflepuff, and so the chances of Gryffindor winning the cup…."
"Are zero?" Hermione muttered.
"Yeah," Tifa pressed her lips, "It's nice…seeing her so excited."
Hermione hesitated, trying to focus on her book. She was here because Ron and Harry were practicing, and she couldn't help but ask, "So where is he?"
"Who?"
"Your dangerous boyfriend," Hermione sulkily pressed the word and got a chuckle out of Tifa.
"I don't know…probably doing dangerous boyfriend stuff?"
(At that moment, in Riverdale.)
"It says 400 grams of sugar…what is that? 4 spoons?" Cloud read the recipe, tilting his head when a little hand put two cups in front of him, making him blink, "What?"
Yelena rested her hand on her waist, standing on a chair as she helped him cook a cake, "Try again."
"What is that? Two cups? Nah, isn't that too much," Cloud took the spoon, about to put it in, when a squeal made him and her look over at the crying woman, "Winky stop crying. I am only cooking."
Winky cried ever louder, "Sir! Please, Sir! Let Winky cook!"
"Later. Let me cook this…where was I? Four spoons."
"Four cups!" Yelena reminded him, and he gave her a look, making her deflate, "Fine, three?"
"Really?"
"Ok! Two, really two!"
"Fine, two cups. You really shouldn't be eating this."
"Big sis gets to go and study in a wizard's school…and I…I…."
"Fine. You'll get cake," Cloud gave in, putting in a cup full of sugar, much to Yelena's joy, who grinned, seeing the dune of sugar, "More! Put more!"
"Yeah, yeah."
(Back to Hogwarts)
"Huh…probably, but if Cloud's dangerous…then Aerith would be?" Hermione muttered aloud.
"Mm," Tifa tilted her head, "Mysterious? Half the time, I have no idea what she is doing or where she is. I don't know where she is now. I haven't seen her since morning."
Forbidden Forest,
"Er, Aerith…we shouldn't, we shouldn't go over there," Hagrid begged, wanting to stop her, but she hopped on her feet, walking over the branches, grinning.
"Oh, Haggy, calm down; it'd be fine," Aerith raised her eyebrows, wandering around the Forest, mainly going towards a settlement. Though they weren't even hundreds of meters near that settlement when they heard the rustling bushes and the sounds of hoops, and soon realized a group of Centaurs surrounded them.
Hagrid appeared in front of Aerith, "Sorry, we wandered over 'ere; we shouldn't have! We'll leave, Magorian."
Magorian, the leader of this Centaur Colony, stopped in front of Hagrid, bowing his head, "Welcome, to our humble colony, Severer of Fate. Savior of Worlds."
"Savior…?" Aerith tilted her head and abruptly raised it, her eyes fixed at the evening sky, and she narrowed them, "Does that mean the Stars say…that Harry will lose to Voldemort?"
"Eii," Hagrid shuddered, but the Centaurs didn't have any such reaction; they nodded, presenting that as the fact, "The stars do say that, but with you, who can bend the Fate itself at his side…we believe he will win the war against Dark One."
[Color me impressed. They figured out that you are the one who denies Fate and changes it. I have been telling Cloud that I have no powers of my own, and I can only use powers that you three possess, albeit at 1 million percent, but he still hasn't figured it out. He thought it was the stones or me.]
Aerith narrowed her eyes, "Mm…you see, my time at Hogwarts is coming to an end, and I was thinking about my career path."
"Have you decided?"
"Yes."
"We only live amongst ourselves…I find it hard to understand how we might be of help to you?"
Aerith chuckled, looking at them, intrigued, "Well, I have a perfect idea about how you can help me. I want you to do is…help me spread a message."
Although Hagrid didn't understand why Aerith wanted such a message to be passed on to other races, he helped her nonetheless. It was always when no one was looking, and sometimes he had to leave a day or two early, and she'd apparate (Though he never understood how she apparated to Hogwarts). From the time he had gone to talk to Giants, Veena's, Goblins, and she said she already talked to the House Elves, and now she wanted to talk to Dragons?
"Are you raising an army?"
"Huh? Nah," Aerith rolled her eyes, brightly grinning, "Why would you think that? Do I look like someone who'd raise an army?"
Hagrid looked at her, scratching his head, "No…I guess no."
"Tsk," Aerith clicked her tongue, pouting, "Cloud would have said yes for sure!"
She made her way back to Hogwarts, to her room, and soon others came, asking her the same questions about where she was. At first, she used to be nervous, but now, she could lie without batting an eye. It wasn't lying as much as it was repeating the same line she always did.
"I was right here."
"Right," Tifa nodded, obviously not believing her, and she didn't try to convince. She made her way over to Tifa's bed, lying down while she changed her clothes.
"How was your day?"
"What is it that you want?" Tifa stood behind a partition, "Did you do something?"
"No!" Aerith puffed her cheeks, "I was… thinking how boring this month has been. Other than Harry seeing Professor Snape's memories…nothing interesting has happened."
"That's not interesting," Tifa chuckled, "What do you want? See Fred and George release fireworks all over Hogwarts?"
"That was a good idea. I would have liked it, leaving Hogwarts with a bang," Aerith grinned, resting her head on the pillow, gazing at the roof. She closed her eyes when the bed sunk a little, and when she opened them, Tifa was beside her.
"Are you scared?"
"Why?"
"Because soon…our days at Hogwarts would come to an end…and maybe…with the end of Voldemort, we could go back? Echo's Creator will fulfill his promise?"
"You think," Aerith pressed her lips, and Tifa sighed, pulling the pillow that Aerith had her head on, burying her face in it, "I guess it's a good thing we'll have to stay a while longer…the kids will grow up."
"Yeah."
"How long do you think we'd have to stay?"
"Two to three decades? Could be four," Aerith muttered.
"That long? We'd be old by then," Tifa sat up, then plopped down, "Oh, yeah, and then we'd be kids again…so that doesn't matter, does it?"
"Now you get it," Aerith turned over, peacefully resting on the bed, "We aren't going anywhere any time soon, but what I can tell you is things are going to be peaceful…well, technically, there would be havoc, then things will be peaceful…I think."
"You saw the future?"
"I asked the Centaurs," Aerith covered her mouth, yawning, "Till now Wizards have been able to…govern themselves, but if Voldy won, then the other side would have to interfere. With organizations like SHIELD, Red Room…and Alien Tech...this might become the final war that this planet sees. That's what the stars say."
Tifa supported her face on her palm, lying on her side, chuckling, "I doubt we are going to let the stars do whatever they wish."
"No, we aren't," Aerith closed her eyes, "We will…sleep and ignore the stars."
"Ok," Tifa muttered, stroking her head, whispering, "I won't ask…so don't do anything dangerous."
"Yes, Mom," Aerith giggled, slowly falling asleep. One of those times, her sleep was different from normal sleep. She felt like she was in a river, swept away, and swirling, waiting for something. It wasn't the first time she had had this dream, there was a place she was meant to go to, but the door hadn't opened, not yet. It was one of the most annoying dreams she had, one where all she could do was wait, so she tried to sleep inside the dream.
She was close; the dream was being swept away, and when she thought she'd finally get some sleep, she was wide away, pulling in, and she realized she was on a boat, her hair being swept by the wind. She tucked them to hold them in place, looking at the massive entity whose fin was bigger than the whole (middle-sized) boat.
"It's SIN!"
"Why here!"
"What does it want!"
"It's SIN Spawns!"
"Don't worry!! I'll take care of them!"
Aerith turned over, seeing a young man with blonde hair, blue eyes, and slightly tanned skin hold a great one-handed sword and slash down at the creatures that the thing in the water threw. While she didn't know what she was watching, she had an idea why she was here and where she was.
Not because she figured it out, but because someone asked and answered that question, "Where is this place?"
"Where do you think?"
'Cloud…Sephiroth?' Aerith raised her eyes, looking up at the top of the boat, muddled at what she was watching.
"Jenova's memories? I have been reading up on Space and Time, and I asked Shelke to teach me what she knows, and I figured…the only way this is possible is if…we are still connected to the Space-Time Continuum of our Universe."
"Are you worried? The other me would come across?"
"No. I can't be sure that you haven't already," Cloud looked over to Sin, and Aerith hid. However, she wondered for a moment why she did that.
"What is that?"
"Sin."
"Sin?"
"That is what the people of this planet named it, but it was a weapon," Sephiroth narrowed his eyes, "I have been watching them for a thousand years; I saw how it came to be, I saw its journey, and now…I look forward to its end."
"Why?"
"Why," Sephiroth raised his head, smiling, pointing at the sky, and Aerith raised her head, seeing a meteor falling through the sky. It wasn't large, tiny even, and her heart quivered.
"Because Jenova is about to land on this planet. Thousand years after it destroyed ours."
"Huh…so thousand years before our time?" Cloud felt sick in his stomach, "Then these memories…are in the past?"
"Right, the moment I entered them was when Jenova had come across the Omega Weapon."
"What shape did it take?"
"Surprisingly," Sephiroth raised her chin, gesturing towards the young man with the sword, "That guy."
Cloud ran his eyes around, "This place…I know it's a memory, but that guy…he feels like one of my illusions."
"You won't be wrong," Sephiroth watched Sin with a wondrous look, "Don't you wonder, Cloud?"
"About Sin? No."
"No. A creature like that, born from the Dreams of People, much like Omega."
"What are you searching for?"
"Beginning of Jenova. In one of these Universes…there must be one…one, where I can find how Jenova came into being."
"Why?"
"You'll understand when you see how Sin came into being."
Cloud looked over, tired of his riddles, but Sephiroth had already disappeared. He sighed, walking to the side, looking over the railing, "How did you even get in here?"
Aerith blinked, turning to look at him, sticking out her tongue, "How long did you know I was here?"
Cloud watched her, and she defiantly looked back, only to see him sigh and point in the distance. Aerith followed his hand, looking in the direction his finger was pointing and found a swirling hurricane of green energy in the sky.
"Oh, oops," Aerith raised her hand above her head, wanting him to take it, even though the distance between them was enormous. A force surrounded her, raising her in the air, and she landed beside him, "So…you never told me about this."
"Yeah, nothing to tell," Cloud swiped his hand, and the memory started going back tens, hundreds, thousand years, and it stopped when Sin's memory became the man at the center of it. He stopped it, standing in the middle of the temple, "Space and Time opened a link of Jenova's memories to its memories in another Universes."
"Jenova's possibilities…that sounds like a scary idea," Aerith hugged his head, tracing the pillar of the temple, "That's beautiful craftsmanship."
"Over here," Cloud pulled her hand, and it was like they stepped through a veil, onto a barren land, with a good view of the cosmos, and Aerith gasped, "Edge of Creation!"
"You know of it?"
"Huh, that explains the change in your Keyblades," Aerith muttered to herself, "Edge of Creation…Cloud. It holds the power to grant wishes, create new timelines, and open new possibilities. Did you wish for something when you were here?"
"I don't if you could call it wishing…but I did abandon the Keyblades. Not really used to their range. It was better with fists since I sparred with Tifa than with Keyblades."
"Oh," Aerith raised her eyebrows, looking at the cosmos in the distance when Cloud walked in front of her, raising his chin, "Aerith."
Aerith tilted her head, gently smiling, "You are more mesmerizing than the cosmos."
"Won't work," Cloud looked into her eyes with the soft look he always had, "Does that mean I hold power to make any wish I want coming true?"
"Noooo," Aerith laughingly shook her head, "There is no way this is real…if it were, then…well, you would have known. Otherwise, any wish you made would have come real. You wish you were a girl, and you'd be a girl."
"Why would I wish that I was a girl," Cloud exasperatedly looked away, and she got her to laugh.
"Just an example," She grinned, "Anyway, where was I? Right, this is likely a projection. Also, our connection to our world is back, an anchor that will guide us. Without it, we'd be lost. I must have one in me, much like Tifa would."
"There is something different about this one…isn't it?"
"Yeah…it has…Space and Time," Aerith stepped closer to him, resting her palm on his chest, looking at her feet, when a realization dawned on her, "Cloud—"
Hogwarts,
"Aerith! Aerith!"
Aerith snapped out of the daze, realizing she was sitting on the bed; her face was covered in tears. The world around her was blank, and she couldn't see anything for a while, or maybe she could, and the bright light fogged her mind.
When she did, she saw Tifa's face, worried, desperate, "Aerith, what happened! Did you dream? Did something happen?!"
"I don't know…I don't…it was…incredibly sad, Tifa! I feel like my heart is breaking!"
"Ok, ok, shhh, it's ok," Tifa hugged her head, trying to calm her down as Aerith broke into sobs.
"Cloud…Cloud…I need to…I need to see him!" Aerith hastily pulled away, wiping her tears, searching for the Sling Ring, and Tifa held her should, "Ok. We'll see him, ok?"
"Is everything ok," Angelina woke up, rubbing her eyes, but she blinked, and they had disappeared. She lay down in the bed, staring at Aerith's bed, empty, "Dream?"
Riverdale,
Cloud sat up, looking at the space in front of his bed, waiting, and a moment later, Aerith and Tifa appeared in front of him.
She looked at him, and a sense of relief washed over her before she rushed into his arms, burying her face in his shoulder, wailing, "Cloud! Cloud! Cloud!!!"
Cloud placed his palm on her head, hugging her, kissing her head, "Aerith. I am here."
Aerith latched onto him, sobbing, unwilling to let go, and he slowly put her on the bed, between him and Yelena. He caressed her head, soothing her, waiting for her to fall asleep. Even though her face was covered in tears, she was asleep, which he was sure of.
He lay down on his back, finally turning his eyes towards Tifa, who rested her head on his shoulder, putting his arm around her, closing her eyes. She opened them shortly, "You never asked what happened?"
"Hm? Oh, I thought she had a dream," Cloud muttered, "The war with Voldemort is about to start…so she must have seen someone die. Otherwise…I don't believe anything can make Aerith cry."
Tifa sighed in relief, "Yeah…that must be it."
'Right?'
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