So hello there everyone, nice to meet you! This is my first fic here. No real explanation for it, just that I was trying to come up with a fanart and instead got a little spark for a story. I wrote it to start warming up my writing muscles again, haha. If you enjoy, that's nice, drop a comment or something, I don't really mind. :)

Worth Waiting For

"I'll be going now. I'll come back when it's all over." Aerith had made a promise. It was all she could do, for there was no time for explanations or goodbyes. Sephiroth had the black materia. He'd be summoning meteor any minute. They couldn't let that happen, and she alone knew the secret to stopping it.

How she would've loved to sit her comrades down and tell them everything she knew, tell them exactly what had to be done and how to do it! But there wasn't time for that. Aerith knew. Aerith had the power. She had to act, simple as that. There was no time to waste, trying to organize everyone and set out in an orderly fashion. But there would be time later, after she completed her task. Enough time to tell them all how sorry she was for running off alone in the middle of the night. Enough time to tell them that she did what needed to be done, and that it would all be over soon. Enough time to remind them all again of how much she loved and cared for each one of them. But not now.

Please, I'm begging you, please help us.

Aerith pleaded with the Planet, overcome with emotions at the thought of her friends. She knelt in the altar at the City of the Ancients. A beautiful, but haunting place, which she both loved as a kind of second home though she had never been there, and feared, as a chilling, fragile relic from a distant and mysterious past. She held her hands together gingerly, and bent her head over them, eyes closed, as she prayed more desperately than she ever had before.

We need your help...I need your help. Please, for everyone.

Memories flooded Aerith's mind as she knelt, hardly moving, continuing to speak with the Planet, attempting to call forth Holy. For them. For her dear friends. She loved them, and if she succeeded, all of their efforts will have been worth it. She thought of her earliest moments with them. How they slowly grew in size to a group of mismatched raggamuffins, all with their own unique contribution to their previous endeavors, all with something wonderful to offer, all with their own story to tell.

Aerith's thoughts wandered to Barret, and what a wonderful father he was. Despite his harsh exterior and brash viewpoint of the world his first priority was always Marlene, and her well-being. She thought of Tifa. Tifa, her best friend in the world, who stood by her no matter what. She easily related to Tifa better than anyone else; their friendship was special, and Aerith would cherish it forever. She thought of Cloud. Of how he always hid himself and his feelings. She thought of how much he grew up and learned to care for herself and the others they travelled with. And how she had come to admire him and how he protected her.

She was suddenly brought back to the day a man fell through the roof of the church as she tended the flowers. After she had hovered over him, calling out and wondering if he could possibly be alive, he had woken up. She never forgot the relief she felt when his eyes finally flew open and he walked it off far too easily in her opinion. She remembered vividly the discussion that followed. She had scolded him for trying to step on the flowers. And he had asked her out on a date for 'saving' him. She remembered the time they spent together, and how happy she was. She remembered his departure, and the lonely years that followed. She remembered Zack, and how disturbingly Cloud had resembled him in the beginning.

It wasn't painful to think about him anymore. He had returned to the Planet long ago, and Aerith was sure that if he'd survived, he'd have done all in his power to come back to her. She felt her heart swell as she imagined what they could have been if he had lived, and a smile tugged at the corners of her mouth. This was for him too.

She imagined hearing hurried footsteps nearby, but did not check to confirm it for she still had to concentrate. Her head was pounding with the force of the voices she heard, most of them egging her on to finish the job, others offering words of encouragement. But she couldn't make out exactly what they said, there were far too many of them. And just as she thought she must burst with emotion as the thoughts of her loved ones overwhelmed her, the voices quieted, and the sounds returned to what they normally were, whispers that Aerith could always hear, all hours of the day. Had she done it?

"Cloud!"

"The hell you think you're doing?"

She was taken aback by the loud voices she heard. Not the disembodied breaths on the air around her, but the substantial sounds that could only come from the living. Feeling it was safe to look up for the first time in what felt like hours, Aerith tilted her head to it's normal position, and was met with a pleasant surprise. Standing mere feet in front of her was, in fact, Cloud, his face full of anxiety and his chest rising and falling quickly, as if he'd run a long way or had just been woken from a particularly nasty dream. And to his side, Aerith could see Barret and Tifa trailing far behind him, and past them, she could just barely make out the blurred shapes and colors of their other comrades.

Cloud had come for her. Tifa, Barret, and the others had all come for her. Once again she was overcome with the feeling of being criminally lucky for the wonderful friends she had. The sight of these beautiful people before her rendered her speechless, and found that all she could do was smile at the man before her, whom she felt so fortunate to know.

"ah...!" Aerith's sudden cry of pain was cut off only because she was physically unable to make anymore noise. She was terribly confused for a moment. Why did it feel as though her diaphragm had been run clean through, cutting off her breathing process, keeping her from voicing the abrupt agony? She saw Cloud's face turn impossibly pale, almost greenish, as he stared, clearly horrorstrck, at a point just below her breasts. She glanced downward painfully and felt sickened by the sight. She had been run clean through by a very long, very thin, and very familiar blade that could only belong to Sephiroth.

Her pain mounted as she felt the metal slide out of her body, it's owner taking his sweet time, clearly intent upon making her suffer as much as possible. When it finally released her, she could feel her blood, hot and sticky, staining her clothes, threatening to travel upwards and eventually escape through her mouth. She felt her tears run down her face despite her efforts of trying to hold them back. She felt one final pang of pure anguish as she drew in rattling breaths, and a numbness spreading through her entire body.

No longer able to supprt her own weight, Aerith slumped, falling forward fast. She was expecting more pain when the floor beneath her grew closer and she knew she much hit it soon, but was mildly surprised when it did not come. Instead, she felt strong, warm arms stopping her, holding her up in an awkward position. The arms gently turned her over on her back, trying to make her more comfortable. She heard voices. So many voices.

"Aerith! Aerith! No!"

"Aerith, hold on!"

"Aerith!"

She didn't want to move, for she feared succumbing to more pain. Her arms lay useless at her sides, and her legs crumpled in front of her. Her vision was becoming hazy, foggy, more and more unclear as she looked up at Cloud, struggling to keep his eyes in sight. Remembering from long ago, the eyes she had come to love...the color of the sky.

She closed her own eyes, finding the effort to keep them open to be too much for her. She stopped trying to take in laborous breaths. The arms holding her noticed this and protested, gently shaking her as if to will her to breathe, will her to live. The voices were quieter now. Soon she could only hear Cloud's voice, much more frightened sounding now that Aerith lay so still in his arms. He began to whisper, to plead with her desperately, like a child begging for its mother.

"Aerith! Please don't go!"

"Aerith, please...Aerith!"

I'm sorry Cloud...everyone.

"Aerith."

She did not open her eyes. She did not want to see Cloud's face anymore, as she imagined how scared and sad it must look. She hardly noticed that she was not in pain anymore.

"Aerith."

His voice was so gentle, so warm, so loving. It made her think of Zack, and how he used to talk to her. And she didn't notice that her face was no longer tear streaked, and her dress no longer bloodstained.

"Aerith."

At last, Aerith answered the call and opened her eyes; she was schocked. More shocked than when she had seen Cloud and the others coming to retrieve her so long ago. More shocked than when she felt the blade of the masamune run her through. More shocked, possibly, than she had ever been in her life. And it was in his arms that she lay where she had fallen, and the pair was surrounded by a vast expanse of flowers. She studied his face hungrily, feeling as though she could stare at him forever. She drank in every feature, admired every curve of his face, and appreciated each strand of jet black hair. Finally, the green eyes met the blue, the grass met the sky, able to exist as one at last.

"Zack." She whispered, his name sounding so natural on her lips even though she hadn't spoken it in so long. Aerith reached up to touch his face, and it was exactly as she remembered it, yet impossibly more perfect in ways she simply couldn't describe. And unlike Cloud's, his was gazing down at her with warmth, and complacence, not fear or anxiety. He wore a soft smile. "It's been a while." She understated the fact.

"I'm sorry," Zack brought a hand to her face and stroked her cheek, still supporting her easily in his other arm. "I kept you waiting didn't I?" He asked kindly.

Aerith smiled up at him, leaning her face into his palm, "It's alright," she said. "You're more than worth the wait."

His smile broadened at her words, and she beamed at the sight of it. Everything was going to be alright. Her friends were going to be okay. They would laugh and love and live in the new world they created. And she had helped them, hadn't she? She had done all she could and more. She was not sad that she was dead, and she understood that death is not truly the end, but a new beginning. Aerith wrapped her arms around Zack's neck and felt an unfamiliar sensation of the purest, most perfect joy running through her every vein.