Aerith Gainsborough

General Information

 * Name: Aerith Gainsborough
 * Birthplace: Icicle Inn
 * Blood Type: O
 * Personality: Aerith is most likely the most optimistic person anyone could ever possibly meet. Despite the harsh events that occurred throughout her life, she's able to maintain a cheerful demeanor. It has also been noted that she is both incredibly empathetic and compassionate, focusing mostly towards her friends. She will put herself at risk if it means being able to save someone else, regardless of what the consequences of it might be. Because of her general kind and trusting nature, Aerith might be considered to be naïve. Aerith is known to act motherly toward others (which she is mistakenly called on various occasions). She tries her best to take care of her friends and make sure no harm comes to them. Due to having to elude Shinra throughout her life almost completely on her own, one might say she's self-reliant and clever. Often times, Aerith's sense of playfulness is made evident, mostly when around certain people who she has become especially close to.
 * Strengths: Aerith has a keen sense of empathy and can easily understand the thoughts of others as well as their emotions which allows her to connect with others on a higher level. Also, it should be noted that her abilities as a healer our outstanding. In addition, she can hear the words of the Planet, one of the primary abilities of a Cetra. Along with her abilities, Aerith is incredibly clever. She used a variety of tactics to prevent Shinra from capturing her.
 * Weaknesses: She can sometimes be a bit naïve because of her trusting nature. That generally is what leads her to trouble (meaning trusting people who have intentions to harm her). Also, because of her high level of empathy and selflessness, she is capable of doing anything to save a friend, regardless of any harm that may come to her. In terms of physical strength, she is severely lacking and therefore needs to be protected by others on various occasions. Dealing with being a Cetra was always difficult as it singled out Aerith among others.
 * Likes: Flowers, friendship, life, the sky
 * Dislikes: Shinra, greed, hate, pollution

Background
Aerith was born to Professor Gast Faremis and Ifalna. The two had fallen in love when Gast had been doing research about Jenova and the Cetra. When he met Ifalna, the two got to know each other and secretly fled to Icicle Inn. Sometime later, Aerith was born to the couple and for the moment, the family lived in peace.

However, the peace was soon disturbed only 20 days after the birth of Aerith. Professor Hojo, one of the professors who had worked with Gast, demanded that both Ifalna and Aerith should come to Shinra for his own experimental purposes,. Gast resisted and was inevitably shot and killed by Hojo's henchmen.

For seven long years, both Aerith and Ifalna were forced to live in a Shinra laboratory, being studied as nothing more than lab experiments. Luckily, Ifalna was able to escape with the seven year old Aerith but sadly, she was only able to make it up to a train station where she entrusted Aerith to a woman named Elmyra Gainsborough.

Some years later, Aerith was caring for the flowers within her church in the Sector 5 Slums when a Turk came crashing down from the sky. At the time, both AVALANCHE and Shina were after her. A friendship formed between Aerith and the Turk, and because of that newly formed relationship, the Turk betrayed Shinra in order to defend Aerith from being captured.

Shinra made multiple attempts to persuade Elmyra to allow Aerith to come back with them. She was called a "special child" with "special blood." They called her an Ancient. At the time, Aerith didn't want to be anything other than normal. She refused to go with them stating that there was nothing wrong or different with her.

Years passed and Aerith continued to live with her mother, Elmyra. She spent most of her time in her church, tending her flowers, when fate would have a man fall from the sky, right into her flowerbed. The man's name was Zack Fair, who was in SOLDIER, an elite fighting force for Shinra. Zack told her that in exchange for messing up her flowers, he would take her out on one date. The two became quick friends and a relationship bloomed. Aerith eventually became Zack's girlfriend as the two became romantically involved. However, when Zack left on a mission for four years, Aerith was left alone. They were last together when Aerith gave Zack a wish list that said:

"I have twenty-three tiny wishes, but you probably won't remember them all, so I put them all together into one…I like to spend more time with you."

Later on, she wrote many more letters to Zack; however, none of which reached him. She didn't realize that he had died while trying to return to her.

Aerith sold flowers that she grew in her church and around her home for 1 gil each in Sector 8. She briefly interacted with Cloud but didn't truly get to know him until he fell from the sky, through the ceiling of the church, right into her flowerbed. Before Aerith and Cloud decided to leave, Aerith asked Cloud if he would be her bodyguard. In exchange, she would give him one date (no doubt because of the blatant resemblance between him and Zack) which he agreed to. At the time, Reno came inside the church along with some Shinra henchmen, trying to get Aerith to come with him. Luckily, Cloud defended Aerith and they traveled to Elmyra's home. After a night spent there, Cloud went to Sector 7 through Sector 6 with Aerith. On the way, the two saw Tifa in a cart traveling into Wall Market and Don Corneo's mansion. To get in, they both bought dresses to save Tifa but at the cost of falling through a trap door straight into the sewers. Once the trio gets out of the mess, they find that Shinra is about to attempt to completely get rid of AVALANCE by dropping the Plate directly onto Sector 7.

In exchange for Marlene's safety, Aerith turns herself over to Shinra. To save her, Cloud and party sneak into Shinra's Headquarters. Once they do, they proceeded to escape and leave Midgar entirely.

Later, Aerith and the rest of the party went to the Temple of the Ancients to get the Black Materia. Once they retrieved it, Sephiroth controlled Cloud's mind and forced him to give it to him. In a dream, Aerith told Cloud that she's going to go through the Sleeping Forest to the City of the Ancients because she knows how to stop Sephiroth from summoning Metor, the Ultimate Destructive Magic.

She prayed for Holy, the Ultimate White Magic, on an altar in the Forgotten Capital. Ruefully, Sephiroth descended from the ceiling and impaled his Masamune straight through the chest of the beloved flower girl. Her tragic death, however, was not the end of the maiden.

Aerith continued to fight off the influence of Sephiroth and Meteor within the Lifestream. Along the way, she met people who had died but could not be absorbed by the Lifestream as they were left with a feeling of guilt and regret or for another specific reason. Some of these people included, Jessie, Biggs, Wedge, President Shinra, and Professor Hojo. Sometime while in the Lifestream, Aerith found Zack. Both were shocked to see the other dead and explained to each other how they died.

When Cloud finally defeated Sephiroth in the one-on-one battle, he didn't completely realize it but Aerith guides him back to his body. Since Sephiroth was defeated, Holy was able to be released and defend against Meteor. Unfortunately, because Meteor was so close to Midgar, Holy was acting inversely and began to harm the Planet instead of saving it. Aerith called on the minds of the people within the Lifestream to combine their energy to push Meteor away from the Planet so Holy would be able to destroy it. Now that Aerith had completed the task, she was finally able to merge together with the Lifestream in peace.

What she thought to be the end of the struggle to protect the Planet turned out to be something entirely different. After combining with the Lifestream, Aerith awoke in what she initially believed to be the Promised Land - however, something seemed a little off. Trees surrounded her and a deafening silence seemed to envelop the flower girl as she proceeded further into the forest in search of someone she might recognize. Finally, she stopped in her tracks and came across some house. Reluctantly, she decided to go in, uneasy as to what she might find.

Statistics

 * Speed: 7
 * Might: 3
 * Sanity: 6
 * Knowledge: 7

Rooming

 * Room Number: 15
 * Roommate: Yuffie Kisaragi

Inventory

 * Anita's Hairclips Found on December 10th, Late Night
 * It was returned to Lenalee.

Found Rooms

 * Hall of Mirrors Found on December 10th, Late Night

Canon Relationships

 * Cloud: Aerith was surprised to have found Cloud injured at the House. She however was not nearly as surprised to find out he was only fifteen! She however healed him and is slightly uneasy in regard to their relationship (or lack thereof) at the moment. The younger Cloud disappeared from the House. However, a 23-year old Cloud recently appeared.
 * Yuffie: Around the same time that Aerith was trapped within the house, Yuffie too arrived, shocked at Aerith once again being alive.
 * Reno: Reno was the first to explain the current situation to Aerith, including the issue with the differing time periods among those from the different worlds. Despite this however, Aerith continues to feel uncomfortable around him. After all, he's still a Turk.
 * Elena: When Elena had decided to bake chocolate chip cookies, Aerith was delighted to help. Aerith doesn't feel as threatened by Elena as she does by Reno.

Betrayed! Relationships

 * Rangiku: