The sight of him like this hurts her heart, and she wonders, as she frantically works to free him if she looked the same when he found her in that cell aboard Piaget's ship. She ducks her head, resting it against the top of his while he hides his face against her chest, tears spilling down her cheeks.

"I'll always find you," she whispers against his hair before planting a firm kiss on the crown of his head. It isn't often that she's called upon to be the hero, but after this, it feels like if Balthier needed it, she could find a way to make anything happen.

"We got about ten minutes lovebirds," Zeda calls from a few yards away. "The last one's gonna go off soon and really surprise them."

Aerith throws the last of Balthier's tethers away, the space between them filling with soft green light as she presses her hands against his back, healing him as much as she can in as little time as possible. There's no way she'll be able to mend him fully, but he needs to be strong enough to flee to where the ships waiting.

"Can you walk?" She wants to ask if he can run, but, one thing at a time. "The Strahl's hidden about half a mile from here. We can't go back the way we came, but Zeda knows a shortcut."