Author's Note: I hope you enjoy this chapter, and please review. :)

I still don't own Kingdom Hearts, Final Fantasy, etc.

This world... It wasn't a dream... It couldn't be a memory...

"Cloud!"

Tifa...

"What's happening?" her voice was laced with fright and anguish.

Tifa... Wait... This was...

"Papa... he's..." the translucent, vaporous light surrounding the girl highlighted the tears that slid solemnly across her face.

Another voice swiftly succeeded Tifa's.

"Cloud... Are you truly this selfish?" it was the darkness, his tone laughing.

It could be noticed that Tifa's body was shaking perceptibly, now, tears draining from her features as she eyed with intense malice the last speaker.

Strands of the unnamed silver decay consuming Nibelheim rose up as though snakes pulling back in preparation to strike.

Tifa charged blindly at the embodiment of darkness, from whose great sword seeped the liquid death. The man simply watched, with a hint of amusement in his bitter stare. As Tifa drew near enough to him, he raised his blade, its length exposed. As Sephiroth prepared to strike the girl, something happened that he had failed to anticipate.

Tifa's body, though unharmed and untouched by the decadence around her, dissolved, leaving only her heart. It was at first scarlet by hue, yet faded into a pale gold in a small time. The darkness attempted to impale it as he watched its metamorphosis, an unexpected apprehension overcoming him. The heart proved invulnerable to all destruction offered it, however, and passed through Sephiroth's weapon. At last, it flowed into the man's chest. He grasped the point where it had sunken within his flesh, as though he had been gravely wounded. It gradually brought him to his knees, gasping for breath. A curtain of light began to stretch across his silhouette, and as the radiance besieged him, he vanished. Only the silver threads lingered to serve as morbid reminders of his having existed.

All I did... was stand here... watching... You can't rely on me... I can't... I couldn't... protect you...

"Everything I did... I did of my choosing."

Then... Did you know what would happen?

"Of course."

Then... why?

"Because... you needed a light."

My light... is gone.

"No... but if you believe that, it will stay hidden."

Tifa... The same thing... It's going to happen again.

"You're sorry you didn't stop Sephiroth before, right...? You're sorry... you couldn't protect Nibelheim?"

...Yeah.

"No... You're sorry... you didn't try."

What good am I? Some scrawny kid who can't even work up the courage to...

There was a faint, echoing giggle from Tifa.

"Work up the courage to... what?"

To... nothing.

"Don't bother... I can read your heart. If you really tried, you could probably read mine, too..."

Why?

"Because... I'm like Sephiroth, now."

What do you mean?

"You still... don't get it."

How do you expect me to?

More loving laughter.

"You were always like that..."

Cloud was watching, unable to move, as crevices scarred the earth. The land cracked apart in slow-motion, and the village sunk into the abyss. He knew what was to come. The essence of death that had been eating away at this world had completed its task, and now changed path. Cloud supposed he had been saved for last, at Sephiroth's will, so that he might first endure watching his home fall apart around him. He felt as though he were numb and empty, unable to feel anything more in this dreamlike reality. He looked pensively to the ground, and found himself to be standing on a small chunk of land that hovered threateningly above a void of blackness.

The silver decay seeped through the stagnant air in a way that was both nauseating and beautiful, at last reaching the boy who unresponsively observed it. The threads contorted themselves around his body, as if to strangle or suffocate him. They pressed closer and closer to his flesh, beginning to break through the skin like a rope that was tied too tightly. Had he not been so thoroughly deadened at this point, Cloud might have screamed for the burning pain it caused both emotionally and physically. He felt as though his heart would collapse... Everything faded, becoming one with the darkness that rested below the platform on which he stood. He would join it, as well... He must... It was inevitable... He no longer felt sorrow as he came to this realization, nor did he feel anything else. He conceded to the pain and felt it leave as he entered the pure void...

As the decadence pierced him completely, he felt a strange warmth...