Some minutes earlier, Kieron couldn't sleep this night as he was laying on a roof looking at the sky feeling nervous not knowing why when he heard a door open and Aerith leaving the house she was staying.
She went in the direction of the Water Altar alone. Kieron jumped down from the roof and landed before following her since the feeling he had before didn't let him go.
He finds her beside the Altar on her knees praying while the Materia on her ribbon began to shine bright. Kieron walks over and touches her shoulder wanting to stop her by saying, "Aerith, you should be resting."
But Aerith didn't answer as she continued to murmur something that Kieron didn't understand when he opened one of her eyes seeing that she was in a trance.
'I should stay beside her until she is done,' thinks Kieron as he sat down beside her waiting for her to finish when he feels killing intent and a long sword coming for her.
Kieron catches the blade with his hand making blood run down his arm when he looks at who was behind the sword seeing Sephiroth with a smile on his face.
"Too bad that you followed her," says Sephiroth as he wanted to pull his sword back only to find it not bugging an inch from Kieron's hand.
"I think I went to easy on you from the beginning," says Kieron as Lightbringer appeared in his free hand.
Kieron then pulled the sword towards him making Sephiroth come towards him as Kieron was ready to pierce Sephiroth when Sephiroth turned into Zack and Kieron stopped his attack when the sword in Zack's hand pointed towards him and Zack turned back into Sephiroth and pierces a hole into Kieron's chest.
"What you can't attack one of your friends," says Sephiroth as his sword when fully through Kieron who began to smile.
He pressed his free hand against Sephiroth's head and blinded his vision before kicking him away separating Sephiroth from his sword when Sephiroth says, "You will never stop me."
"You got stronger than last time," says Kieron as Ea appears in his hand and continues, "Let's see how you deal with this."
He wanted to rush at Sephiroth when Sephiroth just jumped away while saying, "You might have stopped me from killing her but I got what I wanted to get.
Sephiroth take the Black Materia out as a black wing appeared behind him on the right side before disappearing and the sword in Kieron turned back into the sword Zack was using beforehand.
Kieron wanted to take the sword out of his chest when his parents appeared and Nesiara says, "Are you dumb. You could have died if you weren't a half-demon."
"On three," says John as he takes a nice grip of the sword while Nesiara's hands radiated green ready to heal her son right away.
"Three!" says John as he takes the sword out surprising Kieron who wasn't prepared when he screamed while Nesiara healed him right away while his bloodline was quite helpful.
"Next time send a clone to warn us," says Nesiara while healing Kieron.
"I rather die than enter that room. Who knows what you are doing maybe you are trying to make me an older brother at that moment and I don't need that picture in my head," says Kieron before he gets hit on his head by his father.
"We have other worries right now. We will talk about giving you a little sibling when we are done here," says John as he really wanted to have another son if possible.
"What is with Aerith?" asks Nesiara as Kieron sighs.
"She is in some sort of trance. I tried to wake her up but it didn't work so I sat beside her watching over her when Sephiroth took over Zack's body and tried to kill her," says Kieron as the wound was completely healed.
Nesiara stand up and walked towards Aerith as she was still in her trance when she sees the Holy Materia radiate brighter than always and says, "It must be the will of the Cetras calling her here to pray this late. The Holy Materia is radiating quite bright."
"We can watch over her until she finishes her prayer," says John as he sat down like Kieron before watching over Aerith with Nesiara and Kieron when they see ghosts kneel behind her.
"Are those?" asks Kieron seeing the ghosts.
"Cetras, they must have been dragged here by Aerith prayer," says Nesiara as more and more of them appeared kneeling behind Aerith until she was done.
Aerith opened her eyes as she found herself not in her room but the Water Altar. She was confused by it as John says, "You are finally up."
"Yeah, but how did I get here?" asks Aerith not remembering anything.
"You came here by yourself," says Kieron as Aerith turned towards him.
She saw the hole in the shirt of Kieron and was worried about what happened when she asks, "What happened?"
Kieron told her what happened making her worry even more when John sighs while Kieron says, "But Zack isn't the bad guy just because he is being controlled or Cloud had to be one as well, right?"
"Right," says John as he smiled at his son's logic.
"Then how about saving him as well. We can't let Sephiroth control Zack forever," says Kieron as John now sighs.
"It will take time and Zack will be discarded by Sephiroth once he reaches the Northern Crater. We will have to arrive there before he does in the end," says John as the three looked at John confused.
"You were so distrustful of Zack why do you want to save him now?" asks Aerith as John smiles at her.
"I was distrustful with him because he was a spy not because he was Zack. He just didn't know what he was do you think the Zack you know would do something like that," says John as Kieron and Aerith shake their head.
"That's why we can't discard him. We need to save him and once we defeat Sephiroth we will help him in keeping his mind to himself as I did before with Cloud," says John as Aerith had a smile on her face from hearing that.
"But first we should get some rest before-," says John as he rays of the sun began to shine on his face making him sigh again, "No sleep tonight it seems."
"Weren't we going to train them starting today?" asks Nesiara as John shakes his head.
"Yes, but it would be better to go to the Icicle Inn. From there we will train them for one day before continuing our travel to the Northern Crater," says John as he changed his mind about training them now.
"That sound familiar," says Aerith as she tried to remember something as she was holding her chin with her fingers.
"It's the place you were born," says Nesiara as she surprised Aerith as well as Kieron who didn't know that.
"It's also the place your father died. It might be hard to return since you might see his ghost," says Nesiara as Aerith suddenly hugged her.
"Now, I remembered it. Hojo found us and killed my father before taking me and my mother away," says Aerith as she was crying from remembering it, while Nesiara was caressing her back to calm her down.
"He is dead. He will never be able to do something to you or anyone else," says Nesiara as they waited for Aerith to calm down before returning to regroup with the others.
Aerith was holding Kieron's arm making it quite official with who she wanted to be while the others were looking for Zack when Cloud wanted to asks, "Did Zack-"
"Yes, but we will get him back and for that, we need to go to the Northern Crater," says John as Cloud felt bitter because he had to fight one of his friends.
"Don't worry we will get him back," says John as Cloud was surprised by what John said.
"Zack is an innocent party that is controlled after all. But we need to arrive at the Northern Crater before Sephiroth kills him," says John to everyone.
"Then our next destination will be Modeoheim before arriving at Icicle Inn," says Cloud as Aerith was quite to happy and sad at the same time to return to her birthplace.
"What about my Bronco?" asks Cid as John smiles and Justice appears making Cid sigh in relief knowing where his plane was.
"Alright first we eat breakfast and then we begin our travel once in Icicle Inn we will train for a day," says John making everyone look confused because they didn't see any logic for training only a day.
"Don't look so confused you will know what he wants to say when the time is ready," says Nesiara with a smile on her face as they all eat together feeling the missing piece of their group since Zack was quite talkative and joked around most of the time.
Then they traveled through the ruins of the Forgotten City as they arrived at a snowy landscape making Yuffie say, "Why is there so much snow here while the other side has a forest that seems to be in spring while we are in the middle of summer."
"That's the 'wonder' of this Continent. But we should continue," says John as he takes jackets out of nowhere and hands them to everyone that was feeling cold.
They continued on there way as they entered Modeoheim and Cloud remembered what happened here.
"Are we going to get him back?" asks Cloud as John was beside him.
"You came back from it. He should be able to return as well," says John as Cloud remembered that he was comatose in the book because of what happened in the Northern Crater.
A Snowstorm started on their way when Kieron and Nesiara began to radiate heat from their body making the snowstorm melt around them as they arrived at the Icicle Inn when Kieron smiles at Aerith and says, "Welcome home."
"Is this really my birthplace," says Aerith happy to see the place her father and mother lived before they were dragged away to Midgar.
Everyone was surprised when they heard the couple as they were happy for Aerith who returned to her roots when she was a little sad suddenly as John asks, "Do you see him?"
"Yes, and he seems quite proud of how I turned out," says Aerith as she wanted to cry when John pets her head.
"You have a boyfriend now so use his shoulder to cry since you are allowed to do so but let us enter the inn before you do so," says John as Aerith nods and they entered the Inn to rent rooms for themselves.
The Innkeeper looked at Aerith and seemed to recognize her mother as she counted the story of when she was still a kid that could barely walk making Aerith happy that people of this town still remembered her when John says, "Tomorrow we will train hard so be prepared."
"We will lose a day to catch up to Zack," says Cloud as John smiles.
"After that day we will be able to catch up to him and with that snowstorm, it will take Sephiroth longer to get there," says John as Nesiara agreed with John making everyone wonder what this wonder training will be.