Game Information | FFVII Character Compendium
Aeris Gainsborough

From the Manual:

Job: Flower Merchant
Age: 22
Weapon: Rod
Height: 5'3"
Birthdate: February 7
Birthplace: Unknown
Blood Type: O

Young, beautiful, and somewhat mysterious, Aeris met Cloud while selling flowers on the streets of Midgar. She decided to join him soon after. Her unusual abilities allow her to heal the party, but she seems more interested in the deepening love triangle betwenn herself, Cloud and Tifa.

From the Game:

Aeris was born in Icicle Inn to Professor Gast, a former Shinra employee and Jenova Project scientist, and Ifalna, a Cetra. Unfortunately, tragedy struck only a few days after her birth, when Hojo burst in on the family with some Shinra troops; Gast was presumably killed, while Ifalna and Aeris were taken away to a laboratory. The pair escaped five years later, but only made it as far as a train station in the Midgar Slums before Ifalna collapsed. As she lay dying, Ifalna asked a woman named Elmyra, who was at the train station waiting for her husband to return from fighting in Wutai, to look after Aeris. The childless Elmyra did so, taking Aeris back to her home in the Sector 5 slums.

Elmyra found Aeris to be a strange child, with odd powers, but they enjoyed their time together. Her husband's leave kept getting delayed, and one day, Aeris told her not to be sad, since someone close to her has returned to the Planet. A few days later, Elmyra received a letter saying that her husband had died in battle. One day, when Aeris was ten years old, Tseng of the Turks came to Elmyra's house with the intent of bringing the young girl back with him to Shinra's laboratories. This was when Elmyra learned that Aeris was a Cetra, or "Ancient", and that her special powers were due to this lineage.

When she was a teenager, Aeris met a SOLDIER First Class named Zack and began dating him. The relationship was never serious, though she did like him. Ever since his disappearance during his mission in Nibelheim, she has wondered what happened to him. As such, she later becomes intrigued by Cloud, who shares an uncanny resemblance to her old boyfriend.

During all of this, Aeris continued to be pursued by the Shinra, who wished to conduct experiments on her. Her primary pursuers were the Turks, one of which—Tseng—had a crush on her. She is finally captured again during AVALANCHE's botched mission to save the Sector 7 Pillar from being destroyed, but is later rescued by Cloud and his friends. From there, Aeris joined the party in earnest.

Aeris met her end when, after the party's trip to the Temple of the Ancients, she disappeared. A dream of Cloud's indicated that she went to the City of the Ancients, and it is there the party heads next, where they found Aeris kneeling at an altar. Tragically, Sephiroth swiftly descended and killed Aeris with his Masamune, while the small materia she wore in her hair dropped down into the water below. Later, it is revealed that this was the White Materia, which Aeris had received from her mother and had long believed to be useless; somehow, Aeris learned that it could summon Holy, and was doing so shortly before her death, in her own attempt to stop Sephiroth and avert disaster.

Compilation Appearances:

Aeris can be seen in her old dress in Advent Children, and sports some variety in her wardrobe in Before Crisis and Crisis Core. Although she is the only one of the original party members who doesn't appear in Dirge of Cerberus, Aeris does have a starring role in the FFVII Ultimania's original short story "Maiden Who Travels the Planet".