Sector 7

Aerith hopped along. Keeping to the narrow passageways, she was able to escape the sewers with only a handful of close calls, not encountering anything much larger than a rat. When she reached the ladder, it took several attempts to hop from rung to rung.

She emerged in the train graveyard. She stopped to catch her breath when there, her frog-body's lungs smaller than she was used to, before resuming her long journey. It took longer to get around on such small legs, but she was driven.

She wanted to be sure Cloud and Tifa had made it out. And for that matter, once she made it back to civilization, she'd be able to pick up a dress.

Aerith didn't want to stay in the train graveyard for any longer than she had to. She'd heard all the stories, and even glimpsed a few ghosts on her journey. They paid no attention to her when she seemed just to be an animal.

As a frog, she slipped under the trains, navigating between the wheels, very little getting in her way. Eventually she came out the far side, sighing. That whole place had felt pointless, like it was just getting in her way for the sake of it. Still, she hopped on. It wasn't far until she finally made it to Sector 7.

It was as good a place as any to start, she decided. It was unlikely Cloud and Tifa would have stayed in the Don's mansion for so long. If they were going to go anywhere, surely it would be back to their home? At least she could see if they were back.

Aerith hopped under the fence. She kept to the edges of the crowd, seeing a sudden flurry of activity, people bumping shoulders and running past one another, yelling and jostling. There was even gunfire high overhead. Something clearly was going on.

Suddenly Aerith spotted some familiar yellow spiky hair in the crowd. She took a leap nearer, then stopped as an unaware slum-dweller rushed past and nearly trod on her. There were downsides to being this small.

She braced herself, and started hopping again, feeling a renewed burst of energy. She hopped over a boot, slipped between a pair of legs, and crashed head-first into the base of Cloud's sword.

Tifa was beside him. Both turned, looking down at the disturbance.

And then Aerith felt magic swell up around her. Her eyes widened; at the worst possible time, the spell the sahagin had cast wore of, blue smoke emanating from her.

She coughed. When the smoke cleared, gone were the scales, the beady eyes, the long tongue, and instead a naked flower girl once more stood there, face to face with Cloud. Aerith squealed at once, and both Cloud and Tifa did a double take as Aerith barely had time to cover her jiggling breasts as the smoke dissipated.

"Aerith?!" Cloud said.

"Er. Hi."