Zerith

Zerith is the het ship between Zack Fair and Aerith Gainsborough from the Final Fantasy fandom.

Canon
Both characters debuted in Final Fantasy VII. In the game, Aerith was a major character and a party member. Zack was a minor character and hidden within the game. His story has since been expanded on in sequels and prequels to FFVII.

Zack Fair was born in September, 1984, and grew up in a backwater town, Gongaga. At 14, he became endeared with SOLDIER, a program hosted by Shinra Electric Power Company. He travels to the city of Midgar to apply and is accepted as SOLDIER.

Aerith was born on February 7, 1985 in Icicle Inn. She was the daughter of Ifalna, the last of the Cetra, and Gast Faremis, head of the Shinra science department. However, 20 days later, Gast was killed by Proffesor Hojo and captured Ifalna and Aerith. Aerith grew up in the Shira headquarters, and the scientists paid no mind to her as they experimented on her mother. Eventually, Ifalna and Aerith escaped Shinra, but Iflana was mortally wounded. They were found by Elmyra Gainsborough, and Ifalna entrusted Aerith's life to her. Now living in Midgar, Aerith took a liking to a local Church when she was 14 and spent time growing flowers there.

Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII
In April 0001, while on a mission for Shinra, Zack falls off the upper plate of the city and crashes through the roof of the Sector 5 church, landing on Aerith's flower bed. Aerith awakens the dazed Zack, who asks Aerith if she had saved him, to which she responds "Not really." Nonetheless, Zack thanks her and offers a date as a reward; Aerith agrees to go on the date with Zack. They walk around the slums market where Zack buys a perfume and a pink ribbon for Aerith. After that, they go to the Sector 6 park where Aerith says that Zack's sky blue eyes was so pretty; making them stare at each other's eyes so close and almost kiss. But their date is interrupted as Zack gets a call to return to headquarters. Aerith asks if she would see him again and Zack assures her positively. She also hopes that Zack's friend (referred to Angeal), whom he talked about in his sleep when he crashed down, is okay. The two go on date periodically thereafter and become intimate with each other as lovers. Many people know their relationship, including: The Turks (who guards Aerith as the Last Cetra,) Kunsel (Zack's best friend), Angeal Hewley (Zack's mentor), some SOLDIERs whom he's bragging to that Aerith is the hottest person in Midgar, the members of his Fanclub, and surprisingly also Sephiroth. One day in autumn of the same year, Zack seeks comfort from Aerith after the death of Angeal, in which Aerith embraces him. Some times after, Zack changed his hair style as a sign that he grows from reckless to mature SOLDIER, as Angeal inspired him. He shows Aerith his new hair style but she laughed at it, teasing him.

Since their first meeting, Zack suggested to Aerith to sell flowers and promised her to build a flower wagon. But time goes on and she demands it right before he leaves for his next mission. Zack fulfills it but Aerith isn't satisfied with the wagon so she hands him a note of her 23 tiny wishes written on it. Zack reads the note that says, "I'd like to spend more time with you (EN)/I wanna be together with you more often (JP)". The couple sell flowers together later on at the playground in the Sector 6 slums and relish the happiness of being together despite the short time they have. Zack asks her to wear a pink dress for their next meeting when he comes back. But just few days after he departs to Nibelheim, the wheel of the wagon broke. Kunsel, checking on Aerith during Zack's absence, offers himself to fix it but she only wants Zack to do it. So Aerith continues to sell flowers with a basket On September 22, 0002, Zack arrives at Nibelheim with Sephiroth to investigate the town's Mako reactor. Patrolling the town, he's got a phone call from Aerith right under the water tower and happily hears her voice. But since he's busy, he tells her that he would call her later. As Aerith says he didn't have to do, Zack gets it and promises her to come visit after this mission. It's during this mission where Sephiroth learns of his origins and finally, on October 01, 0002, he massacres the entire town, setting it aflame. Zack fights Sephiroth but he is severely wounded. Later, he and Cloud Strife are found by Shinra scientists, who would experiment on them for the next four years.

Aerith is stuck waiting for Zack's return. Zack Fan Club visits her for condolence after the news about Sephiroth and Zack being Killed In Action but Aerith doesn't believe it, asking Zack to return and fix their flower wagon. Aerith then writes letters to Zack hopes of reaching him and delivers them through Tseng, one of The Turks who is close to both her and Zack. After writing 88 letters in four years without any reply, she loses hope of ever seeing Zack again. She writes the 89th letter as the final one and delivers it through a canine metal figure that is also Angeal Copy.

Suddenly, on December 19, 0006, Zack awakens and breaks out of his cell; he also busts Cloud out of his cell, but he is now in a Mako-induced coma. Now fugitives of the company they once served, Zack and Cloud spend months on the run with the hope of reaching Midgar since Zack wants to fulfill Aerith’s 23 Wishes. When he finishes his confrontation against Genesis Rhapsodos in Banora, he receives her 89th letter. He screams out to the sky in realization that four years have passed and the mention that it’s her final letter; now he's determined to return to her despite the risks. A few days later, Zack and Cloud finally reach the outskirts of Midgar, but they are surrounded by a battalion of Shinra troops. After hiding Cloud, Zack faces the troops alone in the fight for his freedom. He successfully fights off most of the army, but he is gunned down by the three soldiers left. His last thought is Aerith's face and her voice saying in their last phone call that she'll be waiting.

At the same moment, Aerith was tending her flowers in the church and due to her Cetra blood, she suddenly senses that Zack is dying. She prays for him but moments later, she looks to the sky, shocked, as if Planet telling her that his life is beyond saving. It also turns out despite her final letter, she’s dressed in pink for the promise of their next meeting.Ultimately, Zack takes his last breath after passing his Buster Sword onto Cloud. From the sky, his spirit asks Cloud to take care of Aerith if het met her but Cloud doesn't hear. This tragedy occurs in late September, 0007.

Final Fantasy VII
On December 9, 0007, Aerith meets Cloud as she is selling flowers in Sector 8. Cloud later falls into the church as Zack did, and Aerith asks Cloud to be her bodyguard with a date as payment, just as Zack did to her. She takes Cloud to the same playground she went to on her first date with Zack, where she then asks Cloud if he knew her first love because both were in the same rank in SOLDIER. Aerith still doesn't get closure of what happened with Zack nor been aware that his death is part of the reason behind Cloud's fake persona she could sense as Cetra.

Aerith leaves Midgar with Cloud and the others, set on a journey to pursue and stop Sephiroth. They pass across Gongaga and unintentionally meet Zack’s parents. The parents ask the group if they knew where Zack had been since the last news they heard about him is from the letter he sent to them 6-7 years ago, during the time that Aerith and Zack were dating. In the letter, Zack mentioned that he had a girlfriend, and both Aerith and Tifa are asked if they were his girlfriend. But neither of them replies to his parents as they burst out of the house, shocks. Outside the house, Aerith told Cloud that Zack is the name of her first love who had been missing for 5 years. Pretending that she’s not sad about it, she also said that Zack was a ladiesman and might’ve lived with someone else. Though, Cloud has no idea who Zack was.

In the Gold Saucer amusement park, as Aerith goes on a date with Cloud in the gondola, and she confesses that he reminds her of Zack and that is part of the reason why she felt strongly attracted to him at first. But she also learns that things are different and wants to meet the real Cloud, indicating that she's finally ready to let go of Zack and learn to love Cloud as himself, not as Zack-shadow.

Unfortunately, Aerith is killed by Sephiroth days later in the Forgotten City while trying to summon Holy. Her death occurs in late December 0007, just three months from Zack's death.

Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children
Two years after Zack and Aerith's deaths, Cloud is still struggling to cope with the losses of them. On top of that, he is also suffering from a terminal plague, Geostigma; making him distance himself from Tifa and their foster children. He spends his days in the Sector 5 church and keeps visiting Zack's grave. At this time, three remnants of Sephiroth, Kadaj, Loz, and Yazoo, are luring children from Edge, including Cloud's foster son, Denzel.During Cloud's journey to defeat the remnants, Aerith and Zack’s spirits occasionally appear through visions to aid him in fighting his enemies. After Cloud is narrowly killed by Loz and Yazoo, divine intervention from Aerith and Zack allows him to him survive. They send Cloud’s spirit back to the living world, joking that he’s too big to be adopted, meaning it isn’t his time to die yet. After waking up in the church surrounded by his family and friends, Cloud sees Aerith and Zack at the glowing entrance; they smile at him before they depart.

At some point the following year, yellow flowers are blooming on the spot where Zack died. The rusted Buster Sword, previously Zack’s grave marker, is polished and moved to the Sector 5 church, where it's surrounded by flowers, and serves as a monument to both Zack and Aerith.

Final Fantasy VII Remake
The story of this game follows the events of Final Fantasy VII that take place only in Midgar with some differences, especially with the existence of Arbiter of Fate. Major changes happens in the last chapter.

In Midgar expressway where the party confronts Sephiroth, Aerith gets a vision of Zack's final battle against the Shinra army. Sephiroth opens a portal, and invite the party to follow, Aerith refers to Zack’s line about freedom that entering the portal would change many things. As the party defeats Arbiter of Fate later on inside, Zack didn't die in his last stand and continues to drag Cloud headed to Midgar, implying that his fate has changed.

When the party reaches the outskirt of the city as they leave to pursue and stop Sephiroth, Aerith and Cloud walk past Zack, most likely from another timeline. Here, Aerith stops walking for a while under the rain and gazes at the cloudy sky; muttering that she hates it because it took the people she loves away.

As the party arrives at Kalm, Zack (in the other timeline) arrives at the church. He opens the door expecting to find Aerith, only to see that people have taken up shelter inside instead. He has no idea of what has happened and utters Aerith's name worryingly.

What will happen to Zack after that, and whether he can reunite with Aerith, is still unknown.

Trace of Two Pasts
During the voyage from Junon to Costa del Sol as the party infiltrate Shinra’s ship and disguise themselves as infantrymen, Aerith shares stories with Tifa about her past. She tells Tifa about times when she and her mom escaped from Shinra, continued with stories of her living with Elmyra Gainsborough in Sector 5 slum. When Aerith reaches the part of her having a first love and is about to tell Tifa, Cloud interrupts them. Aerith tells Tifa that she would tell her about the story of her first love next time.

Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII

 * Aerith takes interest in a pink ribbon in the market, so Zack buys her the ribbon then puts it on top of her braid.
 * On their first date, they stare at each other's eyes closely and almost kiss before Aerith backs off embarrassed.
 * Zack offers himself to help Aerith tending the flowers but she refuses, teasing him that the flowers only wants her to take care of them.
 * Aerith asks Zack to repeat his cool jump when he got up in the church at the first meeting, but now on the sand pool. They makes a bet if Zack could do, then they would go on date, but if he couldn't, then he must fulfill her wish. Zack failed at his first try and asks Aerith to give him one more chance.
 * Aerith embraces and comforts Zack who comes to her church in sadness because of his mentor's death.
 * Zack shows Aerith his new hairstyle but she laughed at it, teasing him.
 * Zack rushed to the slum church because he’s worried about Aerith and was attacked by Shinra’s mechanical weapons which should’ve been guarding the surroundings.
 * Aerith gives Zack her note of 23 Tiny Wishes and they stare at each other as love birds.
 * Aerith and Zack are selling flowers together.
 * Zack receives a phone call from Aerith under the water tower in Nibelheim, he promises to come visit her.
 * Zack reads Aerith's note of her 23 Wishes after break-free from mako tank.
 * Zack receives Aerith's final letter and feels desperate to come back.
 * His dying's last thought is full of memories of Aerith and ended up with her last voice when she called him in Nibelheim, "I'll be waiting."
 * Aerith senses Zack's dying moment and prays.

Final Fantasy VII: Remake

 * Aerith talks with Cloud about Zack in a sad expression.
 * Aerith senses Zack's last stand on highway.
 * Aerith walks past Zack in the ending, her expression is sad while Zack turns smiling.
 * Zack nervously tries to greet Aerith in the church only to be confused at seeing refugees from Sector 7, with Zack only being able to say her name.

Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children

 * Aerith and Zack joked about adopting Cloud.
 * Aerith and Zack walk to the light together.

Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII
"I have 23 tiny wishes, but you probably don't remember them all. So, I put them together into one: I'd like to spend more time with you."

- Aerith to Zack "We continued running the fan club after Zack's untimely death, but we have to disband due to financial reasons. We would like to share one last quote from a woman who had a close relationship with Zack: "My wagon broke, so I'm going to use a basket to sell the flowers. I hope you can join me when you're back from your tour." She must not have heard what happened—making her comments all the more poignant. Our thanks go out to all 109,348 members out there. May Zack always live within our hearts."

- Email from Zack Fan Club "Are you doing well? Where are you? It’s been four years. This will be the 89th letter I’ve written, but I don't know where to send it anymore. I hope that this final letter gets to you. Zack, the flowers are selling very well. It makes everyone happy. Thanks to you."

- Aerith's 89th letter to Zack

"Four years? What do you mean final?! Aerith, wait for me..."

- Zack scream out, after reading Aerith's final letter

Final Fantasy VII
"Dear Dad and Mom, How are you guys? Sorry for leaving town so suddenly. I just really wanted to become a SOLDIER. I bet you're worried now that I've told you... But now I'm fulfilling my lifelong dream, and I'll do my best in SOLDIER. P.S. I have a girlfriend."

- Zack's letter to his parents

Final Fantasy VII: Remake
"Do you know I used to sell flowers here? Weird, you were in the same rank as the first guy I ever loved."

- Aerith to Cloud about Zack, Chapter 9 "It's been a while, huh? Long time no see. How you've been? Listen.... (EN) / Sorry... (JP) I'm back! (EN) / I'm home! (JP)"

- Zack being nervous to meet Aerith again after 5 years

Development
The scenario writer of Final Fantasy VII, Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII (prequel), Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children (sequel), and Final Fantasy VII Remake Trilogy; Kazushige Nojima, revealed that before he joined in the middle of development of Final Fantasy VII, the concept of Aerith having first love was already set. There were a variation of explanation for who the person might be, one of which actually Cloud himself then Sephiroth, whose role was changed from Aerith's brother to become her first love whom she saw again in Cloud. "She is, in fact, a ‘late bloomer’ and hasn’t ever dated a man. There are some rather naive parts to her. Aerith had an unrequited love once. Because he always bought flowers from her, she soon found herself taking a liking to him. Aerith speaks about these many memories. Cloud tries comparing her memories with Sephiroth’s actions, and starts to feel certain that Aerith’s unrequited love is Sephiroth. On their journey when situations occur that look like Aerith will realize that Sephiroth was that man, Cloud tries to keep from spoiling her image of him, as he ends up hiding it or trying to follow up afterwards."

- FFVII Ultimania Omega, Early Material File Character Files (page 519-520)

Nojima said that he was curious about Aerith's first love and it became necessary to introduce a real SOLDIER in order to depict Cloud's true identity, thus, he created Zack. In Final Fantasy VII, he was in charge of the scene in the church when Aerith helped Cloud after he's fallen down then the part of Zack falling to church from above in Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII, how it was repeated when meeting Cloud, was decided from the very beginning. "Personally, it’s my greatest joy to be able to bring Aerith’s line “1 date” to Cloud in FF7, as originally Zack’s line," Nojima said. Other than "1 date" line, he wanted to entwine Aerith’s traits in FFVII to Zack as much as he can which are selling flowers, her pink ribbon, and her pink dress.

Character Designer, Tetsuya Nomura, who is also Creative Producer of Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII (2007) and Creative Director of Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII ~Reunion~ (2022) gave Aerith a new look with white dress and said that her color dress is matched up with Zack and Aerith's first meeting ("An angel?" "No, I'm Aerith.") and be happy about that. Despite the few on-screen moment between Zack & Aerith in the game, Nomura said that it's safe to say they spent a lot of time together since Zack met Aerith when his hairstyle was still in 2nd Class and that Zack goes to the church whenever something is up as if looking for healing. To him, since Crisis Core is brutal story, Zack and Aerith’s conversations are somewhat heart-warming, and offer a bit of respite so he hoped people will look forward to watching their scenes together. Nomura, along with the Director of Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII, Hajime Tabata, said that the beach scene between Zack and Cissnei was made to allude to a scene in Final Fantasy VII where Aerith says something about Zack having other girlfriend. But Nojima confirmed that he didn't intend to portray Zack waver between Aerith and Cissnei.

In the development, Nomura actually planned to have the canine Angeal Copy in the church carry all the 89 letters of Aerith to Zack, but then he thought it'd be too much work for a dog with dozens of letters since it was already deteriorating so Aerith only entrusted the last letter. The importance of the unsent letters is featured later in Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII ~Reunion~ Collector's Edition.

The developers revised Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children and replaced it with Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children Complete, released as Director Cut DVD in 2009. More Zack's scenes are added to portray Cloud's guilt of his death being equal to Aerith's death. Aerith's appearance showing her watching Cloud riding motorbike is also removed in credit roll and two new scenes that might imply Zack and Aerith's togetherness in death are added post-credit roll.

In 2014, Final Fantasy VII composer, Nobuo Uematsu, revealed that “Aerith’s Theme” is originally composed of “a poor girl waiting for someone who doesn’t come that every single day, she waits and waits” in mind. Perhaps, there was an early script in Final Fantasy VII of Aerith waiting for her first love at the train station given to Uematsu for him taking inspiration the song from; but it was replaced with her foster mother, Elmyra, waiting for her husband as final development since the track is still played there.

There are also some changes in Final Fantasy VII: Remake. Aerith's dialogue that mentions she and Zack weren't serious in original Final Fantasy VII is removed and replaced by her mentioning Zack's name despite in a deep breath and wanting to stare at Cloud's mako eyes that remind her of Zack's eyes. The changes are following how Zack and Aerith's first date is portrayed in Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII. In the ending, Aerith said "The sky, I hate it." (EN localization: "I miss it, the steel sky"). The phrase is similar to one of her lines in her farewell monologue in FF 30th Anniversary Exhibition with the full sentence is "I hate the sky because it carries away everyone I love" written by Nojima. Nomura explained that it refers to Zack and her mother, Ifalna, as people dear to her taken away by the sky (plausibly as a metaphor of people die and go to heaven). This matches Crisis Core ending, as Zack's spirit is showed being picked up to the sky by Angeal, his deceased mentor and this emphasized even more that Aerith sensed and knew that Zack had died since she was a Cetra. This made Aerith's statement in Final Fantasy VII where the party were in Gongaga Town, that Zack was probably leaving her for another girlfriend, is interpreted as her being denial of his death and pretending to remain always cheerful.

Fanon
Zerith is a popular ship in the Final Fantasy fandom. But the number of the fans was never big until the release of Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII (2007), the prequel game that shows their past relationship.

Zerith fans feel Zack and Aerith's personalities complement each other. Some are drawn to the tragedy of the ship and them being together in death. Both Zack and Aerith's deaths separately are considered to be among the saddest moments in the Final Fantasy franchise. Their tragic fate is contrasted with the perky energy of pair exhibits. The two are optimists in a world of cynics and are brutally murdered. Having similar sequence of tragedy, Zerith tragic love story is considered a foil of the infamous Romeo and Juliet's who consciously committed suicide.

Out of the ship's own fans, Zerith has supporters from the extremely popular Cloti fans who ship Zerith since it does not conflict with Cloti. Many Clerith fans rival the Zerith pairing because Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII was released 10 years after Final Fantasy VII, and it supposedly retcons what they imagine Zerith is like, as portrayed in "The Diary Entries" inserted in old guide book titled FFVII True Script Dissection The Complete (released in 1997) and in The Maiden Who Travel The Planet novella inserted in FFVII Ultimania Omega (released in 2005). Those two materials telling that Aerith met Zack when she's selling flowers, that they aren't intimate, and that she has no clue at all of his death, thus comes to love Cloud much more than Zack. The novella also portrays Zack acts like womanizer that Aerith is the best girl among the rest he has; makes her reject him. Those materials are not canon since both were written by Benny Matsuyama from Studio Benstuff who also writes several Diary Entries and novellas for other Final Fantasy franchises despite never being involved in the development team. Particularly in Benstuff official website, Matsuyama states that The Maiden Who Travel The Planet was his original interpretation. On the contrary, many Zerith fans could accept the idea of Aerith developing genuine feelings for Cloud during the time of her trying to move on from Zack's death as it's mentioned in the On The Way To A Smile novella (2009) by a line "Cloud is her friend--more than a friend, for she had loved." This novella is canon because it's written by Kazushige Nojima.

Both of them have appeared in the Kingdom Hearts series but never canonically encounter each other. However, some fans of the ship do have their KH counterparts meet one another, ship Zerith beside the KH version of Cloti or feature them in their KH/FF MMD fanwork, by using their KH, CCFFVII, or Dissidia Final Fantasy model renders for it, along with using the child renders of Sora, Riku, and Kairi to create child renders of Zack and Aerith.

On AO3, Zerith is the second most written ship for Zack and the third most written ship for Aerith. It is also the sixth most written ship in the Final Fantasy VII tag.

Zerith currently has 2468 fics on AO3.

Fandom
FAN FICTION
 * Zack/Aerith tag on FanFiction.net
 * Zack/Aerith (KH) tag on FanFiction.net
 * Zack/Aerith (KH) tag on FanFiction.net

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Trivia

 * Zerith is listed on Square Enix website as one of Great Final Fantasy Love Stories along with other canon couples which are Noctluna, Tiduna, and Squinoa.
 * Zack's Japanese voice actor, Suzumura Kenichi, is married to Aerith's Japanese voice actor, Sakamoto Maaya, on August 8. 2011. The two had dated since 2004 after voicing the last episode of Mobile Suit Gundam Seed Destiny as Shinn Asuka and Lunamaria (Shinnluna); which means they have been always voicing Zack and Aerith since FFVII Advent Children (2005) to FFVII Remake Trilogy (2020-...) as a real couple. In FFVII 15th Anniversary Stage Event (held around 2012), Cloud's Japanese voice actor, Takahiro Sakurai, teased Suzumura Kenichi that Zack and Aerith are eventually married, referencing Advent Children ending.
 * Zack and Aerith were mistranslated as "Zax" and "Aeris" in early material due to the direct romanization of their Japanese name in katakana "Zakkusu" and "Earisu".