Two Souls Over Cosmo

The conversation went on for an hour, and both Aeris and Red covered as many topics as their minds would let them. Aeris brought herself to laughter a few times, while Red generally maintained his stolid demeanor. They exchanged knowledge about Cosmo Canyon, about the Ancients, and what little they knew about Sephiroth. Eventually, their thoughts and words drifted back to the time they spent in Midgar locked away at the hands of Hojo.

"If you don't mind my asking," Red proposed, "what exactly did Hojo want with you?"

She sighed. "I'm not exactly sure myself. I know that he wanted to use me to learn all about the Ancients. I think he wanted to find a way to get to the Promised Land by studying me. He knew that I couldn't survive all of the tests he wanted to put me through, so he was hoping to use my DNA and clone a stronger version of me."

"Would he have been able to find the Promised Land that way?"

"I doubt it," she replied, shaking her head. "I don't claim to know much about the Promised Land myself, but I don't think it's actually a place. Not a place that you can just walk or fly to, that is. It's kind of something that's on a higher plane of existence."

"It's amazing," Red said sadly. "Hojo would have killed for something that he did not even know he could obtain."

"It is a terrible thing. What did he want you for?"

"I really have no idea," Red conceded. "I think it was more for his amusement. I'm the last living creature of my kind, and once I'm gone there will be no one left to take my place. But hearing how he wanted to create a stronger person to survive his battery of tests, I can see where I come in. I have a higher constitution and I age very slowly, so maybe that's what he wanted me for."

Aeris nodded. "I remember your grandfather saying something to that effect. You're really 48 years old, but with your longevity it's supposedly like being 17 in our age, right?"

"Something like that. Age is something of a number in my eyes, however, and I don't think that has any bearing on anything."

"You are incredibly wise and mature for your age," Aeris told him. "I don't think I had that much lucidity when I was seventeen."

Red fell silent for a moment, casting his head down. "Sometimes it's a burden. I know things that I probably shouldn't know, and I remember things in a light that I sometimes would rather not."

"Such as?"

"The whole Hojo incident, for one. If I could, I would block it out and play if off as a simple abduction and study. The pieces are kind of falling together now, talking to you."

"I understand. I still don't see how he planned on accomplishing it, however. He had both of our DNAs, but I can't see exactly what he'd do to mix them together successfully. I didn't think we had that kind of technology."

"We don't, really," Red conceded. He brought himself to his feet and stretched again, feeling his joints and muscles loosen. The floors of the canyon buildings were made of soft, earthen clay, but for some reason tonight felt different. He felt achy and old. "I suppose I can make sense of most of it, now. Lucidity, like I said, is sometimes a burden."

Aeris cocked her head slightly while looking at him, a look of mild confusion splaying across her face. "I don't get it. At least, I'm not making sense of it. What are you talking about?"

"Think about it," he said plainly. "He wanted a stronger you, combining our DNAs for greater result. He did not know exactly how he planned to splice them together, and I was practically there for his own amusement. If Cloud and the others had not shown up at the time I was brought into your glass tube, I think things may have gone a little differently." He looked over to Aeris, who still had the same look of confusion on her face. Shaking his head, he made a noise in his throat that signified something similar to slight annoyance. "Do you really not understand?"

She shook her head vigorously, sitting up in the bed. "I have no idea."

Red paused for a moment, trying to find the best way to eloquate to her exactly what he knew. The knowledge he possessed was not a pleasant thing, nor was it something that he wanted to be aware of at the time. This news would be a shock to her, he was sure of that, and he did not want to put her through unnecessary stress. Part of him began to wish that he had never brought it up.

"Hojo wanted to mate us," he finally said, eliciting a gasp from Aeris. "He brought me into your glass tube with the prospect of mating us together, hoping that the DNA would mingle and create a new you for him to experiment on." Sighing forcefully, he began to make his way to the door. "I thought you knew."

Aeris got up and shook her head again. "Red, I had no idea. I mean...that wouldn't work, would it? Cross-species mating doesn't work that way, does it?"

"I sincerely doubt it. Otherwise, we would have a lot of cross-breeds running around this planet from failed experiments." When he reached the door, he nudged it open with his muzzle. "That is also why I did most of what I did when I was in Hojo's possession. I knew what he wanted with you, with me, and with us, and even though I didn't know you, I did not want you to be put through that."

Just as he was about to pass through the door, Aeris put her hand on the body of the door and kept it from opening further. Red looked up at her to see her smiling down at him.

"Red, I understand why you did what you did," she told him, "but why would you do that for someone you didn't know?"

"Because, it just did not seem right," Red replied. "The two of us mating in a glass tube while Hojo and a bunch of his cronies looked on in their perverted sense of science? You seemed like such a sweet and innocent young girl, and to have Hojo force some fierce-looking bestial creature on you in that manner is unthinkable. I don't know if I could have dealt with myself after that had something like that happened."

"You're so sweet, Red," Aeris said, giggling softly. "And I thank you wholeheartedly for trying to protect me. If you want the truth, however..."

His ears perked up, and he turns his eyes back up to her. "The truth?"

"Knowing what I knew back then, I may have been quite adverse to it in that manner, but if I knew then what I know now, I don't think it would have been so bad." She wasn't sure if she was blushing, but in the dark of night, she was sure he could not tell. "I feel that you and I connect, you know? You know so much and you have such a sense of responsibility and maturity that I only wish more humans had; you're nothing like a simple, bestial creature. You're so much more than that. For what it's worth, if it had happened, I don't think it would be the worst thing in the world."

Red turned from her and lowered his head, poking only his nose out of the closed gap between the door and the frame. "I suppose, in your own words, if I also possessed the knowledge then that I do now, I would have been more willing to engage, but not in that setting or maybe even at all. There is something about it that just seems too unnatural. Besides, our DNAs just aren't compatible. It would not have worked anyway." He tried to push himself further out the door, but Aeris held it enough to keep him from leaving.

"Red..."

He sighed and pulled himself back from the small space in the door. "Yes?"

"There's something I want to know."

"What?"

She took a deep breath and pulled her hand back from the door. It swung freely open, and she half expected Red to continue padding his way out the door. When he stayed put, she said, "Do you really mean that?"

Red paused in silence for a moment. "Yes, I do."

With her voice shaking, she continued. "Red, in my life, I've experienced what I thought was love once, and that was with Zack. After he disappeared, I kind of lost a rational capacity for what I thought love was. Zack and I were never serious, and we certainly never experienced 'mating' in the time we were together. But the more I think about it, the more I feel that love is nothing but a deep connection between two like-minded people, something that you can't shake no matter what you do."

More silence from Red. "Where is this going, Aeris?"

Aeris. That was the first time that she could remember him calling her by her name. "Red, you and I aren't that different. You and I share a deep, meaningful connection. We're both the last of our kind, we're both fighting for a reason, and we both felt the pain of captivity under Hojo's hand. I guess I'm saying that...things happen for a reason, you know?" Her tongue stumbled over every word that poured out of her mouth, and she found it harder with each passing second to form a cogent sentence. "Because I don't." Feeling light-headed all of a sudden, she had to brace herself against the wall. "Red, I just can't --"

"Aeris."

That was the first time that she had ever heard his voice possess a quality other than strong, silent reverence. His words were still low and powerful, but for the first time that she could remember, she heard his voice crack. It took her by surprise, so much so that she was unaware of the expression on her face as she gazed into his fiery eyes.

They match the color of his mane.

"Aeris, you may not know where this is going, but I think I do." Casting a gaze behind him, he left the safety of the doorframe and plodded slowly into the room. "Are you saying that you possess those kinds of feelings for me?"

"I'm confused, Red. I'm all alone." When she looked down, she saw him looking up at her. She could swear she saw his eyes soften right in her presence. "I don't know how to quantify what I'm feeling, because this is all new to me. I won't get to experience this in my life, and I don't think I have what it takes to anyway." On the verge of tears, she fought to choke them back. "I'm alone, Red."

He slowly shook his head, his eyes narrowing into slits. "No, not alone. You're never alone. Out there, you're with Cloud, Tifa, and all the others. You've got Barrett to watch your back, and Cait Sith is something of comic relief. Yuffie’s a strange girl, but from what I can tell she’s generally a good person. And I‘m…” He paused in his words, knowing that he could not finish that sentence.

“Red…” Without much thought, she dropped to her knees and threw her arms around him, her eyes welling up with tears but her soul telling her to fight being overcome with sobbing. Though surprised at first, Red did not pull away. Instead, he forces his muzzle under her chin and pushed her head up to meet his gaze.

“Aeris.” The way he said her name, like the other times in this same conversation, sent chills down her spine. “Do you possess these feelings for me?” She opened her mouth to speak, but he quickly cut her off. “Because I think I possess them for you.”