Church (Final Fantasy VII)

The Church is a location featured in Sector 5 of Midgar in Final Fantasy VII. It is a church that is frequented by Aerith, and is where she had been tending to a flowerbed of yellow flowers.

Final Fantasy VII
In Final Fantasy VII, the Church first appears when Cloud falls through the church's roof after battling the Air Buster. He falls onto a flowerbed and becomes temporarily unconscious. Cloud later wakes up to see Aeris. She tells Cloud that the roof of the church and the flowerbed that the landed on broke his fall. Cloud apologizes to Aeris for falling on to her flower bed, but she says that the flowers are resilient because the Church is a sacred place. The flower bed alone is unique because plants and flowers have trouble growing in Midgar because of how industrialized the city is. Shortly after, Aeris asks Cloud if he remembers her, to which he can reply with either "You were selling flowers" and "You're the slum drunk," with the former being the accurate response. After briefly asking Cloud if he has Materia, Aeris proceeds to check on her flowers. When Aeris is done, she notes how she and Cloud do not known each other's names. Aeris begins by telling her name to Cloud. During this, the player can input a name for Aeris from a menu screen (with "Aeris" being the default name).

Once a name has been selected, Aeris asks Cloud if he can be her bodyguard and take her home. During this, a mysterious man walks into the church and watches from behind. When Cloud says that being a bodyguard would cost Aeris, she replies with an offer to go out with him once. The church is then shown from an overhead view. A few MPs walk into the building behind the mysterious man, revealed to be Reno. An MP asks Reno if he plans on taking out Cloud, but Reno has not decided. Aeris insists that they do not fight as this would ruin her flowers. She and Cloud continue into an open exit to the north. Reno and the MPs follow behind them.

The small entrance that Cloud and Aeris went into takes them to a room with a broken wooden floor and three staircases. Aeris joins Cloud as a party member, and they proceed to jump over the broken floor to reach the middle staircase. When Cloud and Aeris go up the first staircase, they are spotted by Reno. Cloud jumps over another large opening in the floor, and tells Aeris to follow him. She declines, so Cloud decides that he will hold them off. Aeris is shot by the MPs, and slides down a large structure and to the lowest floor. Aeris survives the attack, but is then confronted by Reno and the MPs. Each time Aeris encounters an MP, an in-game menu pops up giving three options, and each determines a different course of action:


 * "Hold on a minute!" - The player can move around Cloud once more. Cloud can walk up the uppermost staircase and walk on some rafters, which has four barrels on it. Aeris requires Cloud's help on three different occasions. Aeris can skip fighting an MP if Cloud knocks it unconscious by pushing down the upper-left barrel, then the upper-right barrel, and lastly the bottom-right barrel at the three respective MPs. If Cloud waits too long or pushes down a wrong barrel, Aeris is forced to fight an MP.
 * "Fight!" - This causes Aeris to have to fight either a Guard Hound or an MP
 * "RUN!" - This causes Aeris to flee from the MP

A few seconds after the first MP is knocked out, Aeris is confronted by another one at the bottom staircase. She then encounters a third MP while making her way up the second staircase. When it has been defeated, Aeris ultimately decides to jump over a large gap by herself, goes up the third staircase, and follows Cloud on the rafters. The two of them then jump out of a large opening in the Church's roof. In the following scene, Cloud and Aeris sit on the roof of the church, where Aeris admits that it is not the first time that she has been pursued by Shinra. The two of them then escape from the area.

Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children
In Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children, the Church plays a significant role in curing people who have been infected by the Geostigma disease. Even after Aerith's death, the flowers within the Church continue to bloom because of the Lifestream flowing beneath it. There are a few occasions where Cloud visits the Church.

In one scene, Tifa engages a fight against Loz in the Church when she and Marlene went there to pick up several Materia from a hidden chest. Later on, while Cloud is battling Kadaj, Aerith's Limit Break, Great Gospel, is activated, curing Cloud of his Geostigma.

In the epilogue, Cloud uses the water from a pool within the Church to cure Denzel of his Geostigma, and then several other afflicted children jump into the pool to cure themselves as well. Cloud looks up and sees Aerith crouching by some other children. As Aerith stands and walks to the doorway, she turns back assuring Cloud that he is okay, and then steps into a white light with Zack. Cloud smiles and states in agreement that he is no longer alone.