But what if she planned it for other motives? What if that pure heart and playful soul we've all come to love were something far less pure and noble, something far darker?

Then we realize that she has quickly passed over her concern for Cloud, and jumped right in to small talk. He just fell from the plate above and crashed through the roof, and she isn't even all that concerned, not even a panicked reaction. Just a simple "Oh, the flowers must have cushioned you. They're resilient," bit we're all familiar with.

No sooner does he enter than she asks you to be her bodyguard. Fair and normal, save for the price. One date. A date, in exchange for a little work. Immediately, one can start to question her innocence and motive. More so once she reveals she's escaped the Turks before, that she's used to it. So what was different now? Why did she need Cloud's help? After all, she had, as her mother confirmed to us, been evading the TURKS with some skill her whole life in Midgar.

Assume for a moment that everything you know about Aeris is completely false.

Jenova would not let Cloud just get away once she had an opportunity like the one with Reno, and so it would be nothing for her to offer a date to Cloud, anything to stay close to him.

She didn't even have the heart to suggest letting her mother know what was happening, or that she was leaving. She simply left, under the guise of learning more about the Cetra.

Jenova, at this point, would have two major reasons to stick with the party. The first would be to weaken it, which Aeris arguably does.

The second would be to stay close to Cloud, and tear his mind further and further apart.

Cloud and Aeris both knew in Wall Market that Cloud could've burst into Don Corneo's place and saved Tifa, as well as cornered the Don and gotten the information needed. It wouldn't have been any trouble for someone with Cloud's power, but Jenova had her first opportunity to torment Cloud.

Aeris now has two of AVALANCHE's most prominent members under her thumb.

If she had gone back up, she would have only served to distract Cloud and possibly have him killed by Rufus.

After witnessing everything transpiring between them for the whole game, it's unlikely anything yet needed saying that she couldn't have said earlier or later.

Let's move on to Junon. By now, anyone paying attention with the above in mind can see that something is up with our flower girl. As soon as you reach the ship and speak to her, she'll ask Cloud to take her on the Highwind someday. Odds are, if you're a nice and friendly person, you selected to take her on it. This will come back to haunt Cloud later in the game when he remembers the promise. It could be seen as an early drive at his sanity that ultimately dug deeper after her death later in the game.

What about the Temple of the Ancients scenario? You go in, there is Tseng. Tseng is hurt. Aeris, amazingly, is a healer with the only truly useful healing limits in the game. She is upset at Tseng's misfortune so she...does nothing, and you move on. Sure, he winds up living, but she likely didn't know this. So she just left him for dead.

Then the Ancients themselves...a lost race of people, now mere spirits, who have supposedly lost the ability to speak with the passing of time. So Aeris claims. Could it be that they were simply talking in an ancient language, and that she, overwhelmed by Jenova and unable to understand, simply failed to translate? She does have Cetra blood in her, but it's not overwhelmingly strong. Jenova would have had to use some excuse for failing to communicate. We do know that Ancients can talk after time has passed.

Then the infamous scenes that preclude the end. Sephiroth takes control of Cloud outside the hole where the temple once was, and uses him to launch an assault on Aeris. But did he? Or did Aeris do it herself?

The next thing we see is the dream sequence, where Aeris clues Cloud in on her whereabouts, and Sephiroth clues him in on her impending doom....If you recall meeting Sephiroth later in the Northern Crater, he has no knowledge of Cloud whatsoever, he doesn't even seem to recognize him in the least. The only logical conclusion is that Aeris, Jenova, planted the whole dream in Cloud's head.

Of course, none of them notice that there is no blood on Sephiroth's sword. Some say this was for ratings, but I say not. Blood is clearly visible on the defeated Sephiroth at the end, as well as smeared all over the Shinra Building after breaking out of jail. This is not an issue. Nor is it the sword's natural tendency to avoid blood. Pay attention in Advent Children when Sephiroth stabs Cloud. Cloud pulls the sword out and, lo and behold, there's blood on the end. This all suggests that Aeris ultimately lost any humanity she had during the trip, becoming consumed entirely by Jenova after it was awakened in her by Cloud, and so she is unlikely to have any human blood left to shed.

Of course, someone is bound to ask about the white materia, and holy, and all that. Who, if not Aeris, could've possibly activated it? Bugenhagen and the image at the Ancient Capital suggest that it was, indeed, activated. But we only know vague hints about how Holy was used before. The glowing green materia could've simply been an act of light shining on the white surface through the water, with the slight coloration of the water giving it the glow.

If Holy were truly activated, what took it so long to spring in to action after Sephiroth was defeated and it's bonds removed? Why did it only serve to urge Meteor onward when it should've been helping the planet? This itself was not Holy, and was likely called on itself by the party in their desperate hour of need. Without the full activated power of the white materia and the planet, it would be weak. Then the Life Stream, the planet's own force, interfered to save the day.

It's also possible this white force was the released spirits of Sephiroth

and/or Jenova/Aeris, taking their chance to destroy the planet while letting everyone else think it was Holy

This would be a perfect way to explain how Jenova entered the life stream and corrupted the lives of so many with the geostigma. With the Lifestream floating over the land and cities, she could've dispersed and simply drifted down into unassuming lives.

First is Aeris' vision to Cloud. Her timing is the first thing noticeably odd. She appears just when Cloud doesn't need her to, right before he would be fighting Kadaj and the others. While he is on a motorcycle zooming through a forest, no less. She has him distracted, while the others, listening to their mother, take aim and fire. Cloud barely registers this in time to avoid being targeted. Why does it seem Aeris always has something to say to Cloud at times when it would get him killed? This seems to be a pattern with her.

Second, the identity of 'Mother.' We know from the very start that Kadaj, Loz, and Yazoo are searching for their mother, and we get a very strong hint that the identity is Jenova, even before being told explicitly so. As they can hear her in their heads, even if they can't find her, it can safely be deduced that they know what her voice would sound like. So how on Earth could Kadaj have mistaken Aeris for Jenova at the end?

Can it be a mere coincidence that, after everything is said and done, Jenova sounds identical to Aeris?

So why help Cloud at all in Advent Children? Simplest reasoning is...she didn't. Her healing waters seemed to injure Kadaj slightly, but only forced him away, and she removed Cloud's geostigma. How does this help Jenova and Sephiroth? Without the geostigma, Cloud would be able to best Kadaj in combat (He was outmatched himself before this), and thus force Kadaj to consume Jenova's cells, completing the revival of Sephiroth.

Something must also be said for the healing rain that pours over Midgar, washing away the geostigma of the infected there. Why would Jenova just give in and dissolve herself so readily?

A further mystery is why both Zack and Aeris are separate from the Lifestream. Both had returned to it some time ago, and had no reason to still be kicking around. The answer is simple: Jenova. For Zack, this is easily explained. He was in SOLDIER, so he would have been infused with Jenova cells.