PLEASE READ OR THIS WON'T MAKE SENSE!

Hello! First of all I am SO SORRY to all you VA fans, if you are looking at this. I haven't been on here in like a year and I am very sorry, I don't have any real excuse either apart from the fact I lost interest in VA =O.
This story is something VERY different and if you aren't already into Final Fantasy you need to get on the wagon, give this a shot. Go get FFVII from somewhere and play it! Watch Advent Children! DO SOMETHING! It is the BEST series ever!

To the FF fans, this is my first time writing anything other than VA, a novel. I just recently started replaying all my FF games and movies again and had to write about Cloud and Aeris/th. This is set and will be continuing from the end of AC, though it is somewhat altered.

IMPORTANT! Cloud could see Aerith but not speak or touch her throughout the movie. It may seem as though I have destroyed everything that was great about AC but it is for my story's sake!

I don't own anything! It is all Square Enix.

Thank you =) Please Review

Chapter 1

Cloud watched as Kadaj clung with one hand to the side of the decaying building in the destroyed ruins of Midgar, his grip slowly loosening. His other arm reaching after the sword he had just dropped, the black rectangular box snugly tucked under his arm. Cloud had fought with the Remnant all the way from Edge as it protected that damn box, its' contents what started the whole Geostigma mess, but it ended here. It had too.

Cloud's Geostigma was cured when the sacred water was called on in the old slum church, the last of the alien trances snuffed out of Cloud's body so they could no longer corrode him from the inside out. But he was only one of many injected, children were the ones who suffered.

Suddenly Kadaj's hanging arm flung out, releasing the black container at Cloud. As a reflex, Cloud swung his sword, slicing the box in one fluid moment. Before he could feel satisfaction at crushing Kadaj's last ditch attempt, Cloud's face contorted in horror. The box passed through the polluted air, the top slid off cleanly, releasing an oily green liquid.

Jenova cells.

They sprayed out forming ugly droplets in the air, almost as if they were quivering with life. Cloud couldn't drag his eyes away until Kadaj boosted himself off the ledge, capturing the box mid-air. Silver tendrils of hair whipped across his face as he fell, clutching the box to his chest with a crazed smile.

The evil cells leeched into Kadaj and fused with his being. He flung the box away dismissively, his jade eyes flickering with a cat-like sheen as they altered and deformed, becoming even more green if possible, a pale green all too familiar.

"My reunion," he finally spoke in a low voice. "That you're dying to watch."

Black swirls of bloated smoke began to spiral around Kadaj, absorbing into his body as he groaned in pain. The smoke infiltrated every open pore, his pale skin breathing in the alien cells.

Shaken out of his stunned state, Cloud dove after the Remnant, following him down through the cities' crumbled buildings.

Nearing a flat surface, Kadaj flipped around, landing lightly on a roof of a slightly less disintegrated building. Cloud chased Kadaj down, crashing into him and bringing down the Buster sword is a final blow, to only hit a barrier or bright green light.

Cloud let out a gasp as the barrier slowly dispersed to reveal a long and thin Katana, Kadaj's hair having grown impossibly long.

"Good to see you, Cloud." Sephiroth smirked, slashing his Katana brutally, flinging Cloud up onto a higher rooftop.

Just as Cloud regained his composure, Sephiroth glided slowly down onto an adjacent rooftop, his presence unnatural.

Cloud listened in disgust as Sephiroth taunted him about the planet, no human left in him and he twitched his hand above his head, the sky overhead surging with darkness until it consumed the entire city.

Cloud launched himself at Sephiroth, slashed wildly with the Buster sword, only to be evaded and countered each time. As Cloud brought his sword down again and again, he noticed how Sephiroth didn't make a sound; no grunts with the effort of battle, no pants with shortness of breath. His inhumanity pulsed off him like an electrical current, more alive than he ever would be.

Cloud began to tire with the struggle of combat, unable to block the one last slash heading his way before the famous SOLDIER took off up into the sky above the abandoned Shinra building.

"Go, Cloud!" Barret shouted, thrusting Cloud up after Sethiroth. One by one the party helped lift Cloud higher in Sephiroth's wake.

"No giving up!" Tifa commanded as she gave him the last helping hand.

The wind surged around Cloud, aiding his ascend until the scene burst with an almost violet light, similar, yet so different to the revealing of Sephiroth. Slowly a face, one Cloud had found hard to not look at despite its' beauty, appeared in front of him. Cloud was stunned as the deep emerald eyes smiled at him, the perfect lips parted, though nothing came out.

Aerith.

Cloud reached for her outstretched hand, as he had many times, since that fateful night in the Forgotten City. In hindsight he wished he had held her hand more while he had the chance, but now he never would. He would never hear her voice again, a voice so soft that if he didn't listen carefully enough, he would miss it. Never really see the wide green eyes that held all the innocence and kindness in the world, but he had to be the one who watched them being drained of life.

He watched her being drained of life.

His gloved hand was still reaching, holding onto a shred of hope that this time would be different.

But it wasn't.

His hand passed through Aerith's like it always did, her young eyes saddened as she faded to nothing. Cloud swallowed the thick lump in his throat and shook the unhappy event from his mind. The violet subsided and he met Sephiroth head on, quickly manoeuvring his sword to protect his body from the impending strike.

"Distracted?" Sephiroth mocked and ripped his sword along Cloud's arm anyway, pushing him with immense energy until he crashed into an old building.

Cloud grunted and clutched his arm as he stumbled to stand up, sticky crimson leaking between his fingers. Despite the danger Cloud could sense he was in, he couldn't get his eyes clear from the sight of Aeris's misery-ridden face. Her porcelain skin had looked even more transparent than usual. Did that mean he would never see her again? Even if it was in the half-state of his mind.

Cloud snapped back to the present and only just managed to block Sephiroth's next slash. Careless and unthinking, he went in for a strike, leaving himself wide open, though he didn't understand his mistake until he felt a searing pain pierce his chest.

Cloud dry-retched, clutching at the embedded sword centred in his chest, the pain was nearly unbearable, he felt himself slipping further away, the edges of his vision blurred.

"Is this the pain you felt before, Cloud?" Sethiroth slowly raised the Katana, lifting Cloud into the air as a choking sound gushed out of his mouth in a rush of blood, his feet hanging uselessly below. "Let me remind you, this time you won't forget."

Cloud felt his eyes watering, but not from the pain of a blade intruding his body. Sephiroth taunted him, knowing his weakness was the unchangable fate of his Flower Girl. No, not his. Even the mentioning that he thought she was his angered him. She had died, as if he had killed her himself.

No. Aerith was not his.

Sephiroth grew impatient, iritated that Cloud wasn't fighting back, and with a swing of his sword, he threw Cloud into the air, removing his sword from Cloud's gaping chest in the process. Sephiroth chased Cloud up into the sky, flicking his Katana hastily, impaling Cloud's weakening body countless times. Blood spurted through the air, stinging Cloud's eyes and obscuring his vision, though it was beginning to get hard for him to see anyway. His once blonde hair was tinged red and stuck together in clumps. With a sickening realisation Cloud understood that must have been the pain Aerith felt.

Suddenly he felt weak in comparison.

Aerith had died of the same fate, though she had a smile on her face because she knew she was saving the planet, her strength unwavering. Cloud hoped he could be half as strong.

Blood pooled around him as he crashed into another rooftop and he struggled to get his balance. He had to fight, for Aerith, for everything she sacrificed so others could live.

Cloud clenched his jaw and watched Sephiroth as he began to descent on Cloud. Quickly he powered up his Limit, capturing all his remaining strength and pouring it into his final attack, even if it killed him.

With a final burst of strength, Cloud shot into the air, meeting Sephiroth half way and slashed relentlessly at him, wounding him as he had wounded Cloud, and Aerith.

His actions were a blur of blue light, cutting across Sephiroth's stunned form from each side.

"Where did you get this strength?" Sephiroth spat, unable to block the strikes.

Cloud's slashes cut into him, but no blood flowed, only the smothering black smoke seeped through his skin.

"I'm not about to tell you!" Cloud shouted and delivered the final blow.

His Limit weapons stabbed into the rooftop below and Cloud glided back down with them and landed softly, ignoring the pain from his various wounds. He watched from below as the skies opened up to let the sacred waters wash over the city, Sephiroth's body disintegrated and unveiled Kadaj, falling onto the roof top as well. Kadaj attempted another attack, charging at Cloud unsteadily, the rain burning him as if it were acid and causing spirals of green gas sizzling off his skin.

Kadaj returned to the Lifestream before he could get two feet.

Cloud stood for a moment longer before he collapsed and was engulfed in white.

Floating. That's the sensation he felt in the stark area.

He tried to open his eyes, but they were squeezed shut. A warm presence surrounded him, the caress of a breeze as he called for his mother. He felt his hair being stroked, freed of the blood and grim. A light burning feeling over his body and he felt his wounds close up and heal over.

He felt her. Not his mother after all.

He desperately tried to open his eyes, reach out, anything. Anything to know she was with him again.

But just as sudden as he had inhabited the white space he was brought out of it, floating in a different way.

He opened his eyes groggily, as if he had been asleep for a decade. His eyes blinked slowly until the scene came into focus and he felt hands release him, freeing his body to float on the water. Gingerly he manoeuvred his legs until they were under him and he could stand in the hip-deep sacred pool. A quick examination showed his clothes intact, his skin as unwounded as before the nightmare began.

He was in her church. Where he felt at home.

He watched as if not really there as the children of Edge danced and laughed, the sacred water curing their Geostigma as they splashed around. Cloud glanced around and saw all his comrades, all healthy and well. He looked at them meaningfully, not a smile, but Cloud's equivalent.

He glanced over at the flower bed he had tended over the past two years in the Flower Girl's absence. Some of the children were playing there and he almost felt as though he should tell them to get away from it, to not damage the flowers, but knew Aerith would be happy that the children are enjoying the greatest treasure of her life. He began to look away, until he saw a flash of pink. He snapped his eyes back as fast as he could and was captivated by the sight.

The backdoor of the church was a blurring rectangle of light, but the figure slowly standing up from the edge of the flower bed was what caught his attention. The pink blur slowly turned and began walking out the door.

He forced his feet to move, afraid he would miss the opportunity but the water made for a sluggish resistance. He made his way across the water impatiently to the edge of the pool, absently watchful of the others so no one would notice him slip out and pursue a figment of his imagination. After a while he didn't have to worry, everyone was too overjoyed with the end of the battle to care.

He stepped out carefully and paced towards the retreating form.

"Aerith?" He whispered and reached out to her hand. He knew it was stupid, that she would just pass through him as always, but he couldn't help the need he felt to at least try.

Just before his hand made contact, she turned around to face him, smiling like she had always seemed to be, even in death. Her skin didn't look like it had during his battle, it looked more coloured, a pale creamy colour with a faint pink high-lighting her cheeks. Free strands of hair fell in brunette curls over her shoulders, the rest pulled back into a thick twist secured by a pink ribbon, just as he saw every time he closed his eyes.

And his hand griped solid, warm flesh.

Her breath caught in her throat, the first sign of any sound coming from her just as Cloud's grip tightened around her slim wrist. He snapped his eyes to her face, unbelieving.

This chapter was somewhat boring as you have probably all seen the scenes in AC, but it must be done. Filler and info chapters are important too! Hopefully you understand what I meant about altering the movie. You probably noticed I stole some dialogue too, and I will use the odd line here and there so just remember, I own nothing =D
Please review if I should continue. VA fans bear with me =D