Aeris is with them as they all enter Nibelheim.

It's clear, really, that they're nervous about going back here. They should be excited; this is their hometown. But they're nervous, inexplicably nervous, like they're ready to bolt.

She has a feeling that something's coming.

She watches them as they go through stores and houses. Cloud isn't remembered by anyone (but it's his hometown). It seems he's never been here (but it's his hometown). She watches him grow tighter, more and more miserable and hiding it more and more. She watches Tifa, too, holding her arms tightly as if hugging herself, as if afraid. This is no warm homecoming for Tifa, though she has a house, though they go and play the piano in her own bedroom. All she can think about is Cloud. Questions on her own face - and no wonder, Aeris thinks. No wonder. The two of them grew up together. Even if others remember Cloud, what does this mean for Tifa, that part of her memory is false?

She can see them both hanging on to what they believe, shielding themselves against the things other people believe. /I've never met you before/, people say, and Cloud's face closes, and Tifa hugs herself, because Cloud remembers this place, these people, and Tifa remembers Cloud and these people both, and who can be sure what is real?

Her heart aches to comfort them both. She can't favour one when both hurt so much, when both - need so much. Cloud has protected her when she needed it. Tifa has as well, in battle. She hadn't expected to find someone she could feel so strongly about, so warmly, in the basement of Don Corneo's. She hadn't expected the sympathy and understanding: Tifa's willingness to step aside for Aeris if she loved Cloud. Aeris had felt the same, then, a willingness to let them do as they will and with her blessing, because Cloud had proven he'd deserved it.

Now she knew that Tifa too deserved it. And none of them, Aeris decides, will ever have to step aside for the other. They're all real here, when together.

She reaches out and takes their hands as they approach the manor. She holds them as she's held hands with children while going between the market and her house: a warm grip, snug without being tight. Comforting.

Together, they go in.