Aerith Gainsborough

Materia/Abilities:  Aerith's Abilities/Limit Breaks

  HEAL MATERIA
Poisona - Removes poison (Bio) effects
Esuna - Removes all status effects
Resist - Improves a character’s resistance to status effects

RESTORE MATERIA
Cure - Restores a small amount of vitality to target
Cure2 - Restores a medium amount of vitality to target
Regen - Heals target over time
Cure3 - Restores a large amount of vitality to target

TRANSFORM MATERIA
Small - Turns the target 'small'
Toad - Turns the target into a toad
(Against NPC's and player characters with permission from RP'er only.)

LIGHTNING MATERIA
Bolt - Sends a small lightning bolt towards target
Bolt2 - Sends a medium lightning bolt towards target
Bolt3 - Fills the area with lightning (AOE)

SHIELD MATERIA
 Shield - voids all normal attacks and absorbs all elemental damage, though they can still be damaged by items and non-elemental special attacks

X-MAGIC
Effect - Enables two spells to be cast by bearer at once

ALL MATERIA
Effect - allows healing spells to be cast on all party members and it allows offensive spells to be cast on all enemies

PHOENIX MATERIA
Summon - causes fire-based damage to all enemies, will also revive and KO’d party members on the battle field

Aerith was born to Ifalna and Professor Gast Faremis in Icicle Inn on February 7th, 1985, making her half-human and half-Cetra. When she was barely twenty days old Professor Hojo tracked Gast down, killed him, and captured Ifalna and Aerith. The two became subject to numerous experiments at the hands of Hojo and Shinra as they researched the Cetra.

Seven years later, in 1992, Ifalna and Aerith escaped the Shinra Headquarters, but Ifalna was wounded and only made it as far as the train platform in the slums under Sector 7 before collapsing. Elmyra Gainsborough was there to wait for her husband's return from the Wutai War, and before passing, Ifalna asked her to keep Aerith safe and so Elmyra brought Aerith home with her.

For years Elmyra raised Aerith alone as her adopted daughter in the slums of Sector 5. Shinra relocated her, and Tseng of the Turks, who considered Aerith a friend, attempted to persuade her to join Shinra willingly instead of capturing her, but Aerith refused.

At the time, the Wutai War ate up most of Shinra's resources postponing the Neo Midgar project—the project Shinra primarily wanted Aerith for. As Aerith grew up she continued to hear the Planet and although she was reluctant to admit it, was aware of her Cetra heritage and tried hard to hide it.

Aerith spent time in the Sector 5 Church. Due to the Mako Reactors draining the life out of Midgar and the surrounding areas, little could grow around the metropolis. Regardless, Aerith cultivated a flower patch out of the dirt under the church's floorboards.

In 0000, a fifteen-year-old Aerith meets Zack Fair when he falls into the church from the Sector 5 Reactor. When he awakens, Zack mistakes being in heaven and Aerith as an angel, but she corrects him. Zack suggests a date, but Aerith brushes him off. She shows him around, and Zack buys Aerith her trademark pink hair ribbon. The two visit the Sector 6 park and Aerith tells Zack she fears SOLDIER members for being experiments who love to fight. Zack reveals being in SOLDIER, and she apologizes. Tseng calls Zack back to the Shinra Headquarters, but he promises to see Aerith again.

Aerith and Zack continue to speak frequently over his cellphone and see each other for the next two years. After Angeal's death, Zack visits Aerith who holds him as he cries. Angeal's will lingers in the form of a canine copy that settles at the church and defends Aerith from rogue Shinra security robots.

Zack suggests Aerith sell flowers to make money, as flowers are a luxury item in Midgar, and constructs flower carts for her. The two head out to the slums to open her business, but it does not go well. Aerith asks Zack for "a few tiny wishes," and Zack has her write them down for him. This is the last time the two would see each other, as later that day Zack is dispatched to Nibelheim with Sephiroth and never returns. In the upcoming years Aerith overcomes her fears and ventures above the plate to sell flowers, although she elects to using a basket rather than a cart.

In Episode 6 of Before Crisis -Final Fantasy VII- Aerith sells flowers to Rude when he goes on his date with Chelsea. In Episode 11, on August 9th, 0002, the player Turk meets Aerith leaving her house, surprised by the blooming flowers. Aerith tells the Turk she wishes to leave Midgar to see the world as she can hear the wind calling to her. AVALANCHE arrives searching for her, and the player Turk helps Aerith evade them.

Shears defeats the player Turk and Aerith is taken to the church to meet the leader of AVALANCHE, Elfé. Elfé tells Aerith AVALANCHE wants to bring down Shinra and protect the Promised Land, and it would be in her best interests to ally with them. Aerith hears an "old voice" emanating from Elfé, inadvertently leading to the discovery of the Turk spying on them from the rafters. After the Turk battles Shears and Fuhito, Elfé is stricken by a sudden weakness, and AVALANCHE retreats. Tseng arrives and the Turk allows Aerith to flee while they distract him.

When Zack escapes Shinra custody years later, the final Angeal copy who was left watching over Aerith when Zack left Midgar, seeks him out but soon dies, leaving behind a letter from Aerith as it fades. As Zack reads it, he discovers Aerith has been doing well selling flowers in Midgar, and during the four years he has been gone she has written Zack eighty-nine letters, though he never receives the rest of them. Tseng has the letters and sends the Turks to locate Zack before the Shinra army so they can save him and deliver the correspondence, but the Turks ultimately fail.

Aerith tends the flowers in the church while, outside Midgar, Zack is gunned down by Shinra forces. She looks up and clasps her hands. Although in Final Fantasy VII Aerith states she is unaware of Zack's fate, it can be speculated that the final scenes in Crisis Core -Final Fantasy VII- have retconned this to her sensing his demise.

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On December 9, 0007, at the beginning of Final Fantasy VII, Aeris meets Cloud as he flees from the bombing of the Sector 1 Reactor. Cloud has the option to warn her to get to safety, buy a flower from her, or blow her off. Later, after a failed attack on the Sector 5 Reactor, Cloud falls into the church and awakes on the flower bed.

Reno of the Turks comes to apprehend Aeris who asks Cloud to become her bodyguard, offering him a date as payment. Cloud helps Aeris escape and takes her home, and Aeris tells Cloud of her Materia heirloom that "does nothing." Cloud sneaks out early in the morning to return to Sector 7 alone, but Aeris confronts him and Cloud agrees to bring her along. Taking a break in the Sector 6 playground, the pair spots Tifa on a chocobo cart, and assumes Don Corneo has kidnapped her.

Through an idea of Aeris, she and a crossdressed Cloud infiltrate the Don's mansion to rescue Tifa, who reveals she did not need rescuing as she was trying to get information on Shinra from Corneo. Corneo divulges Shinra has learned the location of the base of operations of the eco-terrorist group AVALANCHE Tifa and Cloud are members of, and is planning to drop the plate covering the sector to destroy the entire area. The party's attempts to stop Shinra fail, and Aeris is captured by Tseng while taking Marlene, the daughter of Barret—the leader of this incarnation of AVALANCHE—to safety.

The only surviving members of AVALANCHE, Cloud, Tifa and Barret, attempt to rescue her from the Shinra Headquarters. Aeris has been brought to Professor Hojo's lab and during an executive meeting Hojo explains to the top echelons of Shinra he plans to breed her to produce a test subject with extraordinary longevity. As Hojo places Red XIII and Aeris in the same containment tank Red XIII feigns aggression toward her. AVALANCHE storms the lab and Red XIII and Aeris are released, Red XIII joining Cloud to defeat Hojo's experimental monsters while the other members of AVALANCHE safeguard her, but the group is captured by the Turks.

Instead of returning Aeris to Hojo's lab, she is imprisoned in the cells with the others. Her heritage is made known to them, and during their captivity Sephiroth manifests through Jenova's remains that were stored in Hojo's lab to attack Shinra, and the group is freed from their cells. They discover President Shinra murdered and Aeris leads the others out while Cloud and Tifa remain behind as Cloud confronts the new president of the company, Rufus Shinra.

They escape Midgar, and Aeris decides to accompany the others on their quest to hunt down Sephiroth as she wants to find out more about her heritage, having heard Sephiroth is seeking the Cetra's Promised Land. They keep running into the Turks, with Tseng ensuring she is alright upon their meeting in the Mythril Mine. They pass through Junon and stow away on a cargo ship. During the voyage Aeris tells Cloud she had glimpsed Shinra's Highwind back in Junon airport, and wishes she could fly on it one day.

In Costa del Sol they run into Professor Hojo who asks Aeris about her late mother. She retreats to the hotel and mulls over the possibility of being the last Cetra in the world. In Gold Saucer she attempts to cheer up the frustrated Barret by telling him they are going to play, causing him to run off alone. In Gongaga the party runs into Zack's parents who haven't heard of him for years and Aeris reveals she used to be his girlfriend. Following a visit to Cosmo Canyon and speaking with the village elders, she comes to terms with her powers and duties as the last Cetra, although the knowledge of her task makes her feel more alone. Back in Gold Saucer Aeris is a date option for Cloud, and if the two go out she talks how much Cloud resembles Zack, but also realizes he's different and expresses a desire to meet the "real him."

The party tracks Sephiroth to the Temple of the Ancients, and Aeris uses her Cetra powers to help decipher the temple's mysteries and find the inner chamber. Sephiroth reveals his plan to use the Black Materia to call Meteor, the ultimate Black Magic. The temple itself transforms into the Black Materia, but Sephiroth takes control of Cloud forcing him into relinquishing it. When Aeris attempts to stop Cloud, he attacks her and is knocked out by a party member. While he is unconscious Aeris contacts Cloud in a dream, and tells him that as the last Cetra only she can stop Sephiroth. When Cloud awakens, Tifa and Barret tell him Aeris is gone. Cloud follows the clues she had given him in the dream to the Forgotten Capital.

In a temple underneath the city the party finds Aeris praying on an altar. As Cloud approaches her Sephiroth attempts to take control of him to make him kill her, but Cloud resists. As Aeris finishes praying and lifts her head to see Cloud, Sephiroth—still using Jenova's body as a vessel transformed into his likeness—descends from the ceiling and impales her with the Masamune. Aeris collapses into Cloud's arms as her hair ribbon unravels, the White Materia that had been concealed in her hair bouncing off the altar into the water below.

Enraged, Cloud turns on Sephiroth, who detaches a part of Jenova's body to fight Cloud, transforming it into Jenova∙LIFE. After Jenova∙LIFE is dispatched the party pays their respects to Aeris and Cloud rests her body to the pool of water in the center of the city. Reeve, a Shinra executive sympathetic to their cause traveling with the party in the guise of Cait Sith, later brings the news of her death to Elmyra Gainsborough and consoles her.

Aeris was praying for Holy, the ultimate White Magic to defend against Meteor, called by the White Materia she had worn in her hair. The party later learns Aeris had succeeded in calling it prior to her demise, but Sephiroth is blocking its power. Cloud's party descends to the center of the Planet to defeat him, and after the battle Cloud has an out of body experience during which he faces off against Sephiroth's spirit alone. Vanquishing his nemesis, Cloud finds himself among the Lifestream with Aeris extending her hand to him. As Cloud tries to grasp it he returns to his body and saves Tifa as the cave begins to crumble. He tells her he can meet Aeris again in the Promised Land. Sephiroth's defeat releases Holy, but by this time the Meteor has fallen too close and Holy's energy is unfocused by its gravity. Within the Lifestream, Aeris's spirit commands it to emerge from the Planet and push Meteor back allowing Holy to fully focus its energy, and in January of 0008, Holy and the Lifestream destroy Meteor and save the Planet.

Aerith's role in the Lifestream fending off Meteor is expanded in the novella Hoshi wo Meguru Otome, which depicts Aerith in the Lifestream immediately after her death helping to fight Sephiroth's influence over it as well as meeting other dead characters from the game including Barret's childhood friend Dyne, fallen AVALANCHE members Biggs, Wedge and Jessie, President Shinra, Hojo and Zack, whom she is surprised to learn is dead. She helps Tifa and Cloud when they fall into the Lifestream and into Cloud's Subconscious and when Holy fails to defeat Meteor, Aerith commands the Lifestream to push it back and help Holy destroy it.

Aerith is also the central character in the On the Way to a Smile novella "Case of the Lifestream - White." As Sephiroth avoids dissolution and spreads Geostigma using the Lifestream tainted with his memories, Aerith tries to help heal the spirits of the dead and contain the damage being done to the Lifestream. Despite the help of the spirits of other Cetra, those infected with Geostigma die faster than Aerith can heal their spirits, so she resolves to try and contact Cloud and stop the infection on the Planet itself. Aerith considers creating avatars similar to Sephiroth, but decides against this as she would rather meet Cloud as he remembers her.

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Aerith's appearance in Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children is first hinted at when Cloud and Tifa collapse wounded on the flowers of the Sector 5 Church—they later awaken healed. Aerith appears to Cloud in a vision as he rides to the Forgotten Capital to save the children of Edge from Kadaj. Standing behind him she questions his reasons for coming, and Cloud says he wants to be forgiven. When Aerith asks "by who?" Cloud turns to see her and the vision ends.

When he loses his cellphone during his fight with Kadaj and his brothers, Aerith leaves a message on it as it descends into a pool of water, assuring Cloud she never blamed him for her death. During the battle against Bahamut SIN, Cloud is consumed in its attack, and amid the fireball sees a vision of Aerith, who takes his outstretched hand and transfers enough energy to him to cut through Bahamut's attack and destroy it.

In the battle's aftermath Cloud pursues Kadaj and his brothers on motorcycle, eventually confronting Kadaj in the Sector 5 Church. Kadaj attacks Cloud with a blast of energy, destroying the flowerbed. Water full of energy from the Lifestream erupts in a geyser from the hole, healing Cloud of his Geostigma and sending Kadaj fleeing. Cloud follows him, and during their battle Kadaj absorbs Jenova's cells he had obtained from Rufus earlier to become Sephiroth. Sephiroth covers Midgar in the corrupted Lifestream and as Marlene and Denzel watch it descend over the city, she senses Aerith's presence.

When Cloud defeats Sephiroth and he is transformed back into Kadaj, Aerith calls down healing rain over the city, curing most of the inhabitants of Geostigma. Hearing Aerith's voice and mistaking her as his mother, Kadaj dissolves into the Lifestream. His brothers attack Cloud and the three are consumed in an explosion.

Floating in a void Cloud senses Aerith's presence and also mistakes her as his mother. She and Zack joke about it and Zack informs him that his place isn't with them yet. Cloud awakens in the water of the Sector 5 Church, and the Moogle Girl tells him "she" said to wait there and he would be back. Cloud uses the water to heal Denzel, a boy suffering from Geostigma he and Tifa had adopted, and the remaining children and the group celebrates. As Cloud surveys his friends he spots Aerith speaking to children near the church entrance before walking to the light-filled doorway where Zack waits. Aerith turns and smiles assuring Cloud that "everything's alright." As she and Zack walk into the light, Cloud smiles as they fade. Later, as Cloud rides his motorcycle through the countryside, Aerith stands among the fields of flowers watching him whiz by.

In Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children Complete, as Tifa is about to get crushed by falling foundation during the battle against Bahamut SIN, an image of Aerith about to meet her death at the hands of Sephiroth is superimposed over Tifa in Cloud's right eye. During the new ending, phones around Edge ring, and Aerith's unheard voice tells the children who answer to go to her church to be healed, confirming what was implied in the original release (that it was Aerith who directed the children there). Aerith is no longer seen on the field in the ending in Advent Children Complete when Cloud rides his motorcycle during the credits.

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Aerith, still within the confines of the lifestream, is pulled from her slumber quite suddenly. Holding quite a sway over the planet as she does, and having such strong capabilities, it seemed that the void was going to use her to fill it up. Instead of her fading away to darkness in it though, Aerith was sent to Oephus.

Waking up in Estrolea River among the moogles and fairy folk, Aerith remembers nothing of what had passed in her life before coming to this new land. Her mind a blank slate, she is taken in by a moogle who sees the 'light in her soul' and goodwill towards everything, including nature. She stays with them, growing flowers and caring for the forest, until she decides to venture out beyond the trees with her magical friend, Tuppo, a 'warrior' among moogles that has made it his mission to watch over the clumsy brunette.

Taken From: Flowers booming in a church

Eventful. That was the word Aerith used to describe her stay so far in this new place. She'd fallen through the sky in a forest of mushrooms, and had met two new interesting people, Noel and Vivi. More recently she'd met Hope, a boy who had been in a slump since arriving in this place, much like she and the others had. Just with less altitude.

She learned that there were more like them, not belonging to this new land. Some seemed to not know where they were from, like her, and others did. After meeting new people and spending some time there though, crumbs were starting to come back to her, piece by piece.

Like Midgar; her home. Under the plate, in the slums is where she lived. There wasn't much sun, and there was a lot of smog, but there she grew flowers. She had them planted in front of her and her mother's home, and in a church. A church that she felt like was important to her, because there she met the owner of the voice to her memories.

She felt a name on the tip of her tongue, but none came out. So close, she could feel it. So close, and so important. So very dear to her, that a part of her was tearing itself up in shame that she had forgotten--misplaced--it.

Stepping out of the inn she'd been staying in the past few days, Aerith tilted her head back and made a visor with one hand to get a good look. "Looks like the rain clouds are taking a break." A small chuckle escaped her, and she started to walk.

Basket on her arm, and a twinkle to her eye, the young woman set out to start her day before the weather decided to turn for the worse. She wanted to get to a church she had found and take care of the flowers waiting for her there. The pastor seemed to be a pretty nice man, and was encouraging with her mission to make the flowers beautiful. He said it would draw more people in.

• Hope Estheim