~Prologue~ The End.
Like a warm knife through butter, Masamune severed Aerith's spine and slipped through her body, feeling like a slap of sharp pain through Aerith's entire being. The shocking distress only lasted a moment, though, as her senses weakened, and eventually numbed.
"Aerith.." The familiar voice of Cloud Strife broke as the blow seemed to cut through him as well. She looked up to him, eyelids already feeling heavy, but her gaze focused on the ground once more as her killer removed his prized weapon from the dying body. Her embodiment fell, but was caught by Cloud.
He held her in his lap, his grip tight on her skin, as if to hold the life inside of her. "This can't be real!" Cloud half yelled, his mako-blue eyes wide in turbulent shock. The former SOLDIER stared at the damage done to his fallen friend, analyzing each detail- from how Aerith's bangs frayed, to the tweak in her questioning eyebrows, to the tear in her nice pink dress that was now stained in crimson.
Sephiroth spoke to Cloud, and Cloud snapped a reply back, but Aerith couldn't understand their words; the voices of the Planet seemed overwhelmingly loud now. She tried to hush the voices as her breath lightened, the weight on her chest becoming too heavy to regulate normal functions. Aerith could feel the weight of her blood as it settled in her appendages, but also how weightless her midsection seemed. The pressure of everything, blood and gravity, assisted in sliding her heavy eyelids shut when the hazy figure of a woman kneeled before her.
"It's okay, my sweet daughter," the woman, Ifalna, said as she placed her hands around Aerith's, giving them warmth. Her voice seemed to be mixed with the Planet's, but much closer, much more clear. "You are safe now."
Like the drop of a marble into a silent lake, Aerith's final breath escaped her lips.
"There is someone who would like to see you, Aerith."