Summary: Sephiroth returns to the planet (again) intent on destroying it. Aerith is given back her life in order to stop him. Meanwhile Cloud and the gang meet up with her. Cloud believes this is his second chance. Aerith, knowing she is will return to the Lifestream once Sephiroth is defeated, tries to stay away. But can she keep her secret and hide her feelings from Cloud while trying to save the world again?
Response to a challenge from Princess of the Knight #7
Disclaimer: Square owns everything except for one
character, everything else is theirs not mine. _;;
Malice
"As
the light fades... will a hero rise again? Or will darkness reign?"
-Unknown
Lifestream-
Black"Hatred..." "Fear..." "Sorrow..." "Chaos..." "Hatred,
fear, sorrow, chaos, hatred, fear, sorrow, chaos, hatred, hatred!!!" The madman muttered into the darkness, ensuring that his
essence be maintained within the Lifestream. Sephiroth... the
One-Winged Angel and harbinger of death had said so before, one and a
half year ago, "I will... never be a memory." He had
prevented himself from dissolution into the Lifestream once. He could
most certainly do so again. "So long as I have my hatred
for you Cloud, I will never disappear. After coming so close to
bringing an end to that sorry planet, I won't give up now. Never..." The One-Winged Angel had indeed come eerily close to bringing
about the planet's destruction but his sorry excuse for avatars had
failed to carry out his plans to the fullest, thus resulting in his
most recent defeat. And to make matters worst, that Cetra woman had
given the cure to his geostigma to the residents of Gaia. Meaning it
was now pointless to infect the children of the world above ground
since there was now a sanctuary in which they could be
healed. "Hatred, fear, sorrow, chaos, hatred, fear,
sorrow, chaos, hatred..." For now this was the only
thing he could do. Focus on his hatred to ensure his survival, until
the opportune moment arrived...
"You know, Aerith, you've probably heard this
hundreds of times before but your flowers are just lovely." "Hmm...? Well, with the amount of time I had spent
gardening in my life, I don't think I heard it hundreds of times,
Hikaru." "Well then start counting. Cuz' I'm gonna
tell you everyday from now on!" "Hahaha! Well I'll
tell you right now Hikaru Tenshi, you're lovely for saying such a
nice thing." Aerith commented in her melodic voice. She had to
admit she was fond of the company the would be child of 12-years
offered her. Hikaru had been one of the thousands of children
infected with geostigma, her case however had been much more serious
compared to most. While other children had a patch on their arms or
their legs Hikaru's had spread throughout her torso to her chest,
putting a great stain on her heart whenever she felt the effects of
the virus. As a result she died at the tender age of 12. She would
have been lost to the blackness of Sephiroth's hatred in the
Lifestream, had Aerith not reached her soul in time. It was the
purity of Aerith's soul that had saved the girl from fading and as a
result she to would be exempt from disappearing into the Lifestream
as well. Of course looking back Aerith was now grateful for making
that decision since the girl had made her current existence much more
interesting. It was a shame that she had died so young, she had so
much potential. Not only was the girl bright but she was also pretty.
She had long light brown hair, a slim, fit build and the most
stunning sky blue eyes one could ever see. Though those eyes were not
nearly as stunning to Aerith as the ones of a certain spikey haired
man she knew. "Oh stop Aerith..." Hikaru muttered
embarrassed, cheeks tinging pink, "we both know that you were a
real looker above ground..." "Wha...?!" Aerith
exclaimed flushing red. "She has a point, Aer, you were
something up there. We all know that you would have needed a steel
bat to beat the guys away." called a voice rather amusedly. "Ah Zack, you're back? Come for a visit? Oh wait, before
you answer that you should give Aerith a hand. She looks like she's
gonna die of a heart attack." Aerith did indeed look
rather unstable from the teasing. She was flushed from the tips of
her ears down to her cheeks and she swayed where she stood. Zack
immediately moved to steady the beet red flower girl and when she had
regained her balance, she smacked Zack's shoulder with playful
resentment. "You idiot! Don't go saying such
embarrassing things when I'm off guard!! And Hikaru I can't die of a
heart attack if I'm already dead!" "Yeah, yeah-
sorry. But you can't say it's not true." Zack pointed out
playfully. "AAAARGH!!" Aerith fumed still feeling
the heat in her cheeks.
"Alright we
get the message but anyways, Zack, what brings you here to Aerith's
rendition of the Lifestream?" Hikaru asked curiously. "Well..." Zack paused for a second, "I felt a
weird presence in the Lifestream." "Hatred, fear, sorrow,
chaos..." The madman murmured over and over again as he
tried to devise a plan as to how he was going to return to the
planet.
"Hatred, fear, sorrow, chaos..." "chaos..." "Chaos..." "CHAOS!!!" "WHO
DARES TO SHOUT MY NAME WITH SUCH VENOM AND MALICE!!!!!!!" a
voice thundered somewhere above. "AND WHO DARES TO BREAK
MY CONCENTRATION WITH SUCH BILE AND IRRITATION IN THEIR VOICE!!!!"
Sephiroth challenged, furious of the interruption to his chanting. Suddenly, Sephiroth felt a great evil pressure flood him.
Crushing his fury and replacing it with... excitement. Could it be?
The answer to his hell sent prayers? "AND JUST WHAT
GIVES YOU THE GALL TO TALK DOWN TO ME, ONE-WINGED ANGEL, WHEN I,
CHAOS- THE GOD OF DESTRUCTION, AM BOTHERED BY YOUR INCESSANT MANIACAL
RAMBLING!!!!!!!" Chaos boomed fiercely, appearing before the man
in his demonic form. Sephiroth quickly dropped to one knee
before the god and said, "Chaos- God of Destruction, forgive me
for calling you like this but I have a request..."
7th
Heaven Bar
It was another eventful gathering at the bar. Tifa had closed the doors to the public for a special private get together with the old AVALANCHE members and friends. With the fall of Deepground and the defeat of Omega a year ago behind them, the gang could finally breath a sigh of relief and lead their lives normally again. That is, now including the visits to the bar every other month just to make sure things were sound in Edge. An extra "safety measure" as Barret would put it now growing tired with all the surprise uprisings in the area (partly due to his aging process, though he would never admit it). The kids especially didn't mind this sudden change for now they never felt lonely. Marlene was glad to have her "daddy" around more often plus "big sis" Yuffie to show her some ninja tactics and Tifa to show her how to fight off a street thug. Meanwhile Denzel had more male role models to look up to than he could handle (Barret and Cid always butting heads rather graphically speaking as to how to train the boy to fight- with either a built-in gun arm or a pointed spear, while Vincent watched on indifferently. "Let the kid choose..." he'd mutter quietly, trying his best not to show his distaste for either fighting style, he thought regular handguns would be more suitable for the boy). And just where in this happy little bunch was "big bro" Spike at a gathering like this? Well after Cid and Barret had gotten into their training style spat again, the spikey haired man stealthily snuck outside to keep out of the line of fire (the last time those two had a little "lovers spat," not only had there been a few broken glasses but Cloud had to be hospitalized for a week taking a direct hit to the head- and it wasn't from a drinking glass but something much bigger). Anyway he didn't want to have to go through all the worry warting and hovering over his still form again so he thought it better to retreat to the safety of the outside world where though there were some shady characters still walking the streets, he felt comfortable there where he had peace a quiet.
Cloud looked up at the sky and seeing the millions of bright twinkling stars, let out a relaxed sigh. Finally he thought tiredly some peace he finished thinking allowing his eyes to wink shut.
"Hee, hee, hee, hee!!" the melodic voice of a woman squatting in the grass, with her back turned to him, giggled playfully.
"Ah not you too." he groaned defeated.
"What's wrong, Cloud? The happy family lifestyle getting to be too much for you?" the voice teased amusedly.
"I think
I'd be able to handle it better if you were here with me..." "Silly Cloud, did you forget again? I'm always with you
right here," "Aerith..."
"Right, right I'm sorry. I'm gonna go inside and go to bed now." Cloud yawned, walking past her then entering the bar. If it was really so late, then why hadn't someone checked up on him earlier? In any case, he was not about to listen to her lecture him for the umpteenth time about avoiding everyone again. He was not avoiding. Just what did a guy have to do around here just to get a little peace and quiet?
He walked up the stairs to his room, kicked off his boots, and laid down on the bed. He stared at the ceiling with sleep tugging at his senses but he could not force his eyes to shut as much as he wished he could.
"Another restless night..." he whispered into the darkness, trying hard to focus on sleep.
"Cloud, Cloud, Cloud..." the melodic voice of Aerith soothed in his head, "everything's alright now, so please go to sleep..."
And with that the blond, spikey haired man drifted to sleep.
Lifestream- White
Aerith sighed
quietly, getting up from her squatting position in the flowers to
stand. "Is everything alright now?" Hikaru
questioned with concern for her friend when she had sighed. "Yes"
Aerith said putting on one of her knowing smiles. "More
importantly now that you mention it Zack, I'm getting an uneasy
feeling from somewhere in the Lifestream too." she added, her
voice filling with worry. "It couldn't be because of
'that guy' again right?" Zack now asked feeling a bit worried
himself. A feeling that he rarely got often and when he did get he
did not like to have. "I don't know..." Aerith
responded, musing something in her head. Suddenly Hikaru let
out a gasp causing both Zack and Aerith to snap their heads in the
younger girl's direction. "Something really bad has just
happened..." Hikaru murmured in a doomstruck tone. Next
thing the two old friends knew, the girl was up on her feet running
through the flowery field toward a green glowing portal that had
opened up in the area. "I have to go!" the younger
girl called looking back to the two older friends, "The Goddess
calls me!" and with that the girl disappeared through the portal
that closed just as soon as she got through. The two friends
looked at each other wondered just what had happened when they felt
an eerie wind sweep the flowery field. A cold, dark, familiar evil
aura came with that wind. And then it hit them like a bolt of
lightning.
He's back.........
A/N: Whew! That was a pretty long chapter for me to write. At least it feels that way since I haven't written anything in a while. Hope you all liked it! So yeah, Chaos made an appearance in this chapter as a god of Gaia and he's going to be in the next chapter too along with another god character, the "Goddess" Hikaru spoke of, that some of you may be able to guess (ok, a lot of you should be able to guess who this goddess character is). The quote at the beginning of the chapter was from some Kingdom Hearts thing that I read so sorry if I didn't cite the speaker properly. Anyway, I have no idea if this fic is any good so some constructive criticism is currently welcomed for anyone out there who would like to point out any mistakes in continuity or have any suggestions on how to improve the story so please review! And thanks for reading.