FINAL FANTASY VII: Destiny's Call

Chapter 7 written by Noble....

Resurrection

The City of Ancients, the remains of a lost civilization known as the Cetra. It's inhabitants long forgotten as things are in time. She sits there feeling the closure of the water beside her, the suns rays eminating through the foliage of oversized thorned trees and twigs, touching the water showing it's grace and purity....just like her.

Even though the planet hadn't completely changed since it's rebirth, she knew it had begun. She always knew about little things like that, because she was connected to it. The planet was always a part of her life ever since birth...it was always there as she slept soundly as a child, the voices comforting her over and over, allowing the girl to rest peacefully. It grew even stronger with age as she progressed into a sweet but very attractive young women.....the words and ancient languages spoken to her beginning to make more sense with each passing day, feeding off the knowledge that was given to her freely by the planets will to warn the young women of grave things to come, things that had already happened and one very dark and fearful premonition that she would never forget or run away from....her duty as a Cetra to protect mother earth....her death....The voices were with her on the day she died....

Just as it was foretold and how she remembered it so clearly, it all happened so quickly that she could hardly grasp onto what she was feeling at the pit of her stomach at that time....sharp pain.....sadness....forgiveness....and then her body going cold and numb as her eyes slowly began to close and everything went black....

Now she was living again and waiting for when they would return to her. She thought about her death now and then as she listened to the voices wearily, sometimes drifting off to the back of her mind thinking about things that interested her more....she didn't want to know what the future held, not that she was sick of being a Cetra, it's just that the planet would speak of her death again and when she would eventually have to once more make the next big sacrifice on her part to summon Holy....why couldn't anyone else do it? Because only the Ancients could use the powerful but yet rare white magic of Holy, her mind concluded sarcastically knowing that she already knew the answer to an already dumb question since she was the last Cetra.

Thinking back to her last moments of life and Death she mused and overlooked every detail of the fateful end that came to her...and not once did she cry, nor did she feel sick of what she saw and felt as Sephiroth's blade, the mamasume entered through her back, painfully but quickly gutting her stomach and through her soft flesh.... scrapping the tarnished and fashioned age old shrine that she knelt on, praying to the planet desperately waiting and searching for the light of Holy to shine on her. She bowed her head as the events passed her by quickly and placed a hand to where the gaping wound was.....it was gone, only a small scar remained......The young women sighed nervously as her hand on her stomach began to shake again, it happened twice before when she thought about it over and over again...knowing that you already died once wasn't actually comforting her much and disturbed her gradually even though the tears wouldn't show her pain, inside it troubled her and she wanted to forget everything that happened. She died without even screaming a single word, an audible moan, anything to show her pain...all she could do was just feel her stomach being gutted painfully as her eyes went wide with shock and her whole world crumbled around her as her vision went black and her heart stopped beating as did her body go cold...

Not once did she blame Sephiroth for what he did, not even once....He was just doing what any man without a loving family would have done, he was taking his revenge on a world full of hate and despair. Of course the great Sephiroth wasn't actually himself, he was under the influence of Jenova the Calamity from skies...her cursed and evil alien blood had always been a part of Sephiroth since birth..ever since Hojo had injected the cells of Jenova into him when he was but a small pile of flesh within the womb of a woman called Lucrecia who indeed was the true mother...but Sephiroth never knew that Lucrecia existed...he never even knew her name or saw her face, not even once....

In the girl's eyes she knew Sephiroth wasn't evil, he actually was a good man deep down. He was just a former general of the Shinra army, forced to live his life taking orders from his superiors and throwing himself into pitched battle against all those that would oppose the company he formerly worked for....lashing out and attacking their enemies, giving back to them all the pain and anger he suffered silently and alone in a world where he was born into with no father or mother to love or care for him, having a childhood with no friends and been constantly separated from them because he was different from all those who seemed normal....He grew up unloved and unwanted, only being trained by those who wanted him to be nothing more than a perfect soldier, a killing machine....

The young women couldn't put all the blame on Sephiroth, he was innocent. But the man known as Hojo was to blame for what had happened to the general...everything that had transpired over the past 30 years had all been the mad scientist's fault....to Sephiroth, to everyone she ever knew, loved or lost....all because of his twisted interest in the alien Jenova....

And now because of unfinished business on the mortal plane of existence, she was brought back...the planet to which her soul had been connected to after all these years of hardship had brought her back....She couldn't abandon it, it was her destiny to protect mother earth through life and death, both of which the girl had experienced in a short span of time in her life....and knowing both experiences she was ready to face whatever new problem had arisen that had scared the planet so much to return the young woman to life....

She began to hum a tune that she became very fond of some months ago, while mindlessly tending and caring for the newly grown yellow tulips in her hands, praying for them to grow equally as beautiful as the bed of flowers in her favourite place of Midgar...the old church where she spent most of her time listening to the voices and saying prayers. How she loved the different kinds of flowers, they were so fragile and beautiful....it's innocence seeping through it's colours and blooming even more.

They would be here soon, she thought. Her friends would return to her again as always, like good friends do and then she would have to explain everything, her rebirth and then even darker secrets she kept hidden from her closest of friends. So she just sits there, watching and waiting for the moment of destiny to come.....

"Why is SHE here with you?!" barked an angry Yuffie.

"This is none of your concern....."

"The hell it is, did visiting your lady friend unscrew that brain in that head of yours? She's the enemy!" barked Yuffie once more her hatred apparent to all.

"Yuffie does have a point Vincent".

"H-hey don't I get say in this.....?"

"Write it down bimbo and wait in line!"

".....ENOUGH!" shouted Vincent his voice sounding sharp and demanding respect, making them jump to attention, especially the ninja.

Vincent just bowed his head and closed his eyes, standing tall focusing on his composure and letting his anger die down he re-opened his weary eyes looking about the room coldly with his icy glare and continued...."Elena is in my company because she was badly wounded by a monster from the Gelnika Plane. If it was not for Elena's discovery of the abomination, countless lives would have been lost. Furthermore if the crewmen onboard the Shinra Sub did indeed die, we all would have taken responsibility".

Before Yuffie stood a chance to return with a quick comeback Barret pipped in with a sombre but confused look, "What ya gettin' at Vince?"

"....When we all first discovered the remains of the Gelnika plane in our search for weaponary that would aid us in Sephiroth's defeat, we stumbled onto the creatures of the unknown that dwelled within it also. As you all know some of the creatures did indeed show forms of intelligence, even though it was predatory".

"So?" said Yuffie bluntly.

"......Because no-one stayed behind on the sub to secure it, one of those aberrations did indeed store itself on the submarine and because of our carelessness we did not think to check" retorted Vincent with his answer, his crimson glare focused on Yuffie sending chills down her spine, scaring her.

Mustering back her courage she glared defiantly back in Vincent's direction, "Well duh! that doesn't change a thing!"

"....Indeed it does Yuffie. Have you forgotten that the Turks were employed by the Shinra of Old and now no longer exists because of us? The new Shinra is under the leadership of Reeve, commonly known to us as Cait Sith..and has employed them as his personal bodyguards and protectors of the new company...until Midgar is fully rebuilt".

"Who cares?! Shinra old or new I still don't trust them or her! She's-"

"HEY! I heard that Yuffie!" quipped the over sized moogle jumping up and down angrily looking at her.

"....Furthermore, Vincent continued making sure his point was clear he bowed his head until it was as close to Yuffie's face as possible.....have you forgotten Yuffie that I myself am a Turk or was formerly part of that organisation....would you still have trusted me as part of the team if I still was in the employ of Shinra?" he whispered to her letting a slight smirk grace his lips at her reaction.

The ninja just blushed crimson at his remark and at his stone chizzled glare and that smirk which made her blush even more as his handsome features were becoming more revealing as she gazed at him up close at nose point, "I-you...."

"All of you, SHUT UP! You can continue the argument later, in 5 minutes were landing near Bone Village so conserve your strength and get your asses ready!" shouted the pilot returning to the helm of his ship.

After that everything and everyone went silent. The only thing making the slightest sound was the humming of the Highwinds engine running smoothly and the warking of their prized gold Chocobo in the cargo hold eating it's daily greens. Seconds later Yuffie regained her composure and turned to the female Turk once more, her glare on the blonde haired woman matching that of Vincent's or at least in her best effort. Yuffie then just growled angrily and stormed off the deck, whispering audible shoutings of mild cursings that she heard from her heated arguments with Barret and Cid. Needless to say their foul mouthed language had rubbed off on the tomboy that was Yuffie and it became apparent that the materia hunter was growing up slightly...in the wrong way a women should so to speak.

Vincent breathed a heavy sigh and placed his good hand on his fore head and began to rub it tiredly, relieved that the inevitable discussion had ended rather pleasantly. Fatigue growing more on the dark features of the man as he strained to keep his eyes open. Vincent was tired but also was silently fighting against his own inner turmoil as a thrust of agony erupted within the pit of his stomach and chest....agony turned to pain and then pain that gave way to his tiredness turned to searing white hot burning as he fought for control over something that not even he was sure what was been waged within the cage of his soul.

At first he thought logically that it was his own most powerful transformation, the demon Chaos who earlier that day was freed from the darkest recesses of the cold place where Vincent had imprisoned the monster for sometime, and believed that Chaos was hungering for more death and violence...trying to claw and scrape it's way out of the man's body, but the searing white hot pain that Vincent was experiencing never felt like this whenever the demon craved and clawed upwards desiring the light and death and as such this new burning was wreaking havoc on his youthful but burdened body and soul.

The demon called Chaos, was Lucreica's final gift to Vincent before the final battle against the Shinra and Sephiroth and was the only one of his transformations that fought against Vincent's vice like grip to hold onto his humanity. Over the span of 30 years of a death-like imprisonment, Vincent was able to control the dark callings within himself and to supress the monsters that ravaged against his body and mind and thusly bonded with them, as in arranging a deal with the monsters to hold onto his humanity. Even when he was freed from the coffin the monsters were infact silent as always, as they were apart of him and because it was what the darkened man saw himself as in his nightmares, no longer a human being...an outcast in a world full of humans...a monster with no heart or emotions....but ever since he accepted this gift from Lucrecia things had changed drastically. Accepting a fourth power within himself was too much strain upon his body, the protective barriers that the cold man erected around himself to control the dark powers were slowly but surely beginning to peel away under the darker and blacker soul of Chaos...since his 3 other transformations were actually a part of his body and were not separate entities he had no problems continuing on his mission of vengeance against Hojo. But by excepting the demon Chaos within his own body was indeed far from brave but ultimately foolish.

By merging his body and soul with it cost him dearly as Chaos was a separate soul.... a soul darker than Vincent's own but none the less far more dangerous and evil. Having 2 souls housed within the same body was doing the unthinkable and unnatural as this process was never done before. The reaction caused by it ultimately had the 2 souls battling for dominion over the body they shared, one wanting to remain human and to grasp onto what humanity he had left, the other more darker soul wanting freedom that he craved for centuries, wanting a release from a place of eternal darkness to wage war on anyone and anything with its dark desires for death and blood.

Unfortunately things had taken a turn for the worst as Vincent's battle against Chaos ended abruptly as he entered within the very core of the Planet, of the lifestream as the demon sensed much dark and evil power that nearly rivalled his own. His selfish but evil desires and the unruly hunger for destruction was more intense and powerful that Vincent had ever felt before. His grip on his humanity was crushed and Chaos broke free....Never once harming the beings Chaos vaguely remembered as Vincent's allies, in silent knowing that they would surely destroy him even though Vincent was a prisoner within...and as such the demon reluctantly joined them in their quest, the first time in a millennia that Chaos had accepted others as allies.

And now after the battle was over and Holy was released, Chaos returned to the dark corner within Vincent's body in fear of being destroyed by that very same white light that basked and bathed the planet in it's healing and holy light. Ever since then Chaos remained stationary and huddled up with the man known as Vincent until he was safe and sure Holy had passed, never knowing how much time had gone by, until he was called forth strangely for the first time willingly by Vincent to battle the monster in the Submarines cargo hold.

But what about now? Was Chaos doing something different to taunt and push Vincent further to new depths of pain and suffering within him just to gain freedom? How could it be?.....the demon never caused this much pain before....it sent mental aguish upon his body unlike any other sensation that Vincent felt before, his past inner battles felt like pin pricks on his pale skin compared to this...this burning feeling....

Elena sensing the dilemma raging within Vincent or something else that made a shiver trail coldly down her spine reacted to her partner's heavy breathing and unsteady shaking. Seeing the man who she thought was chizzled like rock and was colder and harder than anything she had seen before, was kneeling down on one knee shaking as if it was colder than the frozen wastelands of Gaia's cliff and hotter than molten lava with the sweat that drenched the handsome features of his face, accompanied by small gasps and moans trying to keep his mouth from shouting out his pain in clenched teeth and with eyes that were closed so tight you couldn't open them with knife.

"Are you alright?" Elena asked kneeling down beside him, with a worried look upon her face.

Finding his voice again, Vincent replied, "......I'm fine. There's.....nothing to worry about".

An obvious lie if she ever heard one, she was so close to him she could see all the pain written on his face and she knew he would keep it to himself and act strong and cold like he always did, like all Turks old or new. Even if Vincent didn't look sick before she could always tell if something was wrong with him or others she knew of. Women like herself could always tell if something was wrong or if someone was lying, it was like a sixth sense that only women knew of. Even though Elena was a Turk and known for being a ruthless killer, she too like any other person was human and had emotions, feelings and problems of her own. She would always listen to her womanly instincts if such a problem arose and one of them was in pain and right infront of her. Maybe because women were more compassionate and caring then men, that she could always tell if something was being hidden from her?

Turning around Elena quickly glanced about the helm of the Highwind, analysing with eyes of an expert, seeing that they were all rather busy or not noticing the pain of one their own, she decided quickly if the others saw Vincent in pain then they would come to his aid and that would greatly dishonour his pride and wanting to be kept alone. Deciding further without Vincent's consent, she formed a course of action and hastily grabbed Vincent's good arm and dragged him away from the deck of the Highwind and ran up the stairs of the airships higher levels taking him outside to be greeted by the unsteady wind rushing past them with great speed as the airship continued onwards towards its chosen destination.

Moments later after being in the open air briefly, Vincent collapsed on the side of the doorway and began to gasp in loud moans, grunting in clenched teeth once more...the movements of his body showing the discomfort he felt as his muscles and body began to contract in a convulsive fit.

"I KNEW something was wrong with you. Why can't you admit that just once?"

Vincent said nothing, he remained silent and gritted his teeth harder, not once daring to glance at the features of the woman standing beside him, not wanting to show her his pain, and the dark man's pain was severe. His whole body felt like it was on fire...but the cold flames that mentally scolded and washed over him were unlike any other torture his body had endured before. He felt like every inch of him was being burned on the inside...and wanted so much to scream pleadingly for it to stop...But Vincent had been through worse and would fight it to the bitter end, even if he died trying.

As he tried to push away the burning sensations that mentally inflicted and wreaked further havoc upon his troubled body and mind, the strong willed need to fight against it slowly crumbled against the onslaught and his determination turned to worry and fear as Vincent let go of the struggle and the fire washed over him again and again.

"W-why is this happening to me?" he thought shakingly.

Thoughts came and went in his mind as he tried to block the mental pain once more but failed again as the fires that burned within raged further upwards. Grasping onto what he could assume to be possible answers to the never ending torture, only 2 idea's came to his mind and already had assumed one of them to be the result of Chaos trying to break free. But already knowing from past struggles and mental battles against his own darker side he knew that Chaos had never stooped this low when desiring freedom, it was always much more straining on his body and never inflicted his mind once. But this new pain inflicted both his body and mind 3 times worse then before...So he was left with his second and last possible answer? Lucrecia....Did his lost love Lucreica try to poison him with their parting and lingering kiss purposely in seeking revenge for her son's demise at his hands?

Vincent dismissed that thought instantly, he knew Lucrecia better than that and would not dishonour her memory or passing into the lifestream.....and yet somehow Lucreica and Chaos were both linked with the same answer, since Lucreica left the Chaos entity for Vincent some weeks ago...so if both were part of the answer to the burning pain upon his body and soul then why wasn't it making any sense?

Vincent's trivial thoughts were actually quite close to the answer, and his assumptions probably could have answered all that he desired to know if he was actually right. But being close to the answer doesn't exactly say your completely right...more so a half truth.

True Vincent's first assumption to Chaos attempting to break free was the closest answer and by far the most logical, but in reality the demon Chaos wasn't trying to break free....but rather to fight for survival. As the black hearted demon was waging a small war between itself and another being that is unknown to Chaos in the darkest recesses of Vincent's soul.

The Void, a place where all souls and beings of power would remain imprisoned until called forth into the world of man. Such a place as this is infinitely pitch black, darker than any night sky and by far a black surrounding to equal the sight of the blackest and most evil heart. Within every glimpse or grasp of sight all anyone could possibly see is blackness, nothing but black everywhere....no light, no surroundings, no pavements, no animals......nothing but infinite black surrounding everything and all those who would live in the void. In such a darkened world, a space between space and then in-between reality, time would have no meaning here....time would easily flow by such a place and no one would be none the wiser to how much time the being or person would have remained in this hellish prison. A 100 years could pass and the prisoner of the void would never age..not even once as the creative affects of the void hold time in a standstill.

In such a dark and eerie place the atmosphere never seems to be hot or cold or anything, it just seems to be. But living in such a place, it becomes hard to concentrate on anything in particular, thoughts don't really gel or flow in any order and the weight or mass of the person or being remaining there never seems to have any body weight or feeling to it...it just seems to be....such a mysterious place....a private hell to all who are imprisoned there.

Within the depths of darkness we find the floating form of Chaos, known to few as the harbinger of death and destruction facing an opponent of an unknown origin. The demon doesn't know where he came from or how he got here, but all Chaos knew or could think of is that this intruder should die. It didn't take long before the winged harbinger of death realized that even by using every attack and powerful ability under his command were all in vain, for nothing that Chaos used could hurt it. This new being of power was unstoppable and was not even scratched by the deadliest attack that Chaos inflicted upon him.

As he approached the demon with eyes glowing red, giving out this icy death glare as it reached out for the winged monster and for the first time in countless millennia, fear was Chaos' only comfort and companion as the Angel of Death wrapped it's hand around the monsters neck and pulled him close to administer it's just punishment....

Deep within the mind of Vincent erupted a scream of agony and pain unlike any other that he had heard before as the shriek continued to haunt his mind and grow even louder......

Desperation began to flood into her mind, fear rising in her heart and soul as Vincent's condition began to worsen. The tears welling up in her eyes, threatening to burst out as she continued to worry and cry silently within herself. Elena then did what any normal girl would have done, when in love. She gently grabbed Vincent's head and pulled him close with her arms placing his sweating and shaking head on the bosom of her chest and then began to cradle him softly lulling him to be calm and at ease as she whispered soft words of comfort to him while caressing his face with soft hands, the touch of her fingers to his face barely noticeable as they touched him like soft feathers being blown in the wind.

To her disbelief, the female Turk's idea seemed to be working. She could feel his body slowly going from tense to limp rather quickly as he rested in her arms. His breathing also began to lessen as the moans and gasps of pain ended and were replaced by a more steady flow, like the pounding that she felt by touching his chest, his heart beat and normal intake of air seemed to run in time with each other.

"The fever must have subsided", she thought relieved.

5 minutes had passed and neither one spoke a word. Vincent remained in Elena's arms with his head pressed softly against her chest, feeling her hands softly brushing and caressing the long strands of his velvety soft black hair. He was grateful for this woman's quick thinking and kindness although he would not admit this by voicing his gratitude, his silence was all that she needed to know that she had done the right thing by invading his personal space and sharing for the first time in a long while his pain. Normally in his moments of agony Vincent would not allow anyone near him, his pain was his own burden and problem and wanted to handle it alone, like he always did...even in the most extreme times of unbelievable agony, and the feeling of his bones and flesh stretching he would not let a soul near him, innocent or otherwise.....

But this new pain, this burning mental anguish was something far different than his past experiences and Vincent could do nothing to stop it, let alone push away the woman who held him so softly in her protective grasp.

Elena on the other hand was both relieved and happy at the same time. Her heart had stopped beating like a jack hammer and was now calming down as her hands held onto the face of her partner, feeling the soft features that she thought at first would feel like rock but were infact just soft pale skin. Elena smiled idly as she continued to stroke and touch his face and long dark hair, whispering small words of comfort still as he just sat there in silence not moving or acknowledging her presence. Elena understood his pain and wanting to be left alone, she too knew what it was like to shut herself off from others when she didn't want to talk about it, she used to prefer it that way until she opened up more and understood there were others willing to listen and were deeply concerned about her safety and well being. But the man in her grasp didn't want to open up, he didn't want to share his personal torment with others because that's the way he always wanted it....and Elena would understand.

Asking one man who lived half of his life living the same way with no emotional changes or making any moves to get close to others, or to share his feelings and his pain with those he could trust was like asking for the impossible...

Vincent was a cold and emotionless man, who rarely spoke with any feeling at all. Always speaking in a cryptic way that seemed like the old tongue of language, or more rather past tense, his voice would always remain the same, quiet but sharp as to what he would say would always be noted and useful. For Vincent it was always the other way around for him...actions spoke louder than words, as if what he did would give a more powerful response then just a few words....being moulded into a killing machine, to take orders and to act them out without questioning was what he did. But the dark man's actions never came out in such physical meaning, using his body was just secondary when it came to battles....even though every fluid movement he made was quick, accurate and deadly...it was never as sharp as his ability to use and effectively bring out the full potential of every gun made....making him the perfect killing machine....emotionless...devoid of guilt.....taking orders no matter the consequence....never missing his target.....Vincent was known to be the best back in his days as a Turk, his name was legend to all who wanted to follow in his steps...even on his last mission where he 'mysteriously' went missing and failed to report to Shinra headquarters....people old or new either admired the cold man or feared him.

And now Vincent was back amongst the living still the same as he always had been cold, emotionless and more mysterious than ever....Perhaps maybe one day Vincent would understand Elena's personal feelings and maybe let her in further, accepting her to be something more than just a fighting partner....to being something much closer and with more understanding and feeling, of love. But at least Vincent had let her in this far without pushing her away, maybe somewhere deep down he did care?

Two minutes later the Highwind began its descent from the skies above and Elena knew that this romantic interlude of some sort was over. They had arrived at Bone Village.

Half an hour passed since their descent, the members of AVALANCHE continued to make their way to the City of Ancients while dealing with the remaining threat of the monster population effortlessly, neither team member not even breaking the slightest sweat....their strength and powers by far greater than before. After easily dealing with such annoyances with ease the members of AVALANCHE now walked slower upon gazing at the destination their leader had brought them too.

With a single wave of his hand, the group came to a halt. Seconds later Cloud walked a few paces ahead and turned to face them, he sighed deeply and built up the words that had been building on the tip of his tongue for sometime now. Now comes the hard part, he thought.

"As you all know, I brought us all here for one reason and one reason only. Your probably asking yourselves why I brought you here. I for one know what you all feel about this place".

"Yeah, this is where Aeris..." Barret said quietly, his throat becoming sore unable to say the words his mind screamed.

"I know Barret, we all do. But I want to ask you all something, Back on the Highwind I asked all and each of you; What are we all fighting for? Each of us have our reasons, personal or not. But whatever those reasons are, we all fought for something else and yet we all remained together and fought not just for all of humanity and for the planet itself but for just one person...who in whatever way touched us all and brought us closer....like the family we are now....I'm just proud of that fact and of each of you. To this day I always thought I was fighting for the planet and for my own personal memories, to identify who I am. But only part of that is true, as I'm sure that it's the same for the rest of us..."

"Yeah, I know what ya gettin' at!"

"We all fought for Aeris, the only one of us who made the ulitmate sacrifice in giving up her life so that we could stop Sephiroth. Her death was tragic to us all but her final gift to us never went unnoticed, she knew the risks of protecting our planet and she knew what had to be done to insure it's safety. I fully understand now why Aeris did such a thing and why she had to do it alone....In a way it was her destiny to summon Holy and to face Sephiroth, not because it was fated that she would die by his hands, but that's because the way she wanted it to be....

It was Aeris' destiny to call the planet, to summon Holy...but I also felt that she knew that she had to sacrifice her life in order to talk to the Lifestream more directly, to warn the planet of the summoning of Meteor and in doing so Holy came to our aid, as only an Ancient, a Cetra's pure hearted prayer could unlock and come to us in our time of need".

"Cloud that was beautiful" cried Tifa.

"Yeah man you even got me!"

"Hang on, may I finish? My final question is this: what if our effort's weren't in vain? What if the Planet saw the pain in each of us and how much we tried to help?"

".....Meaning?" question Vincent curiously.

"Meaning because of what we did for every living thing on this world, the planet gave us something back in return, something that we all fought for and something that can never be replaced as it always remained in our memories and in our hearts...and I think that answer lies ahead".

Finishing his speech and by letting a wide smile grace the features of their leader, he turned around facing the direction of his chosen destination letting the smile grow even wider and then flashed his hand back to his comrades once more shouting, "Move out!"

Without hesistation Cloud ran as fast as his legs would take him, knowing full well as he approached ever closer that he was right and that the Lifestream had given back to them what they all needed the most as the calling within his soul grew even louder.

The team followed without question as their leader disappeared at high speed up the pathway, each member was unsure of what to expect, but as they continued to follow Cloud they knew they could trust in him to lead them to what was so important. And they were right to believe in him as each and everyone of them stood beside him, a look of astonishment and disbelief plastered on each of their faces, as the impossible seemingly became reality. The last surviving Ancient was sitting silently in a bed of yellow tulips, smiling at them with her green eyes glowing with such warmth and affection, for Aeris Gainborough was very much alive and well.

Author's note: AVALANCHE is finally reunited now and forever and they way it should be too. But then again how and why is Aeris back among the living? Don't hold your breath people because there's a lengthy explanation in chapter 8 in where Aeris explains it all. Plus the greatest threat to humanity finally emerges or does it? Stick around and don't forget to leave a review or if your feeling extremely generous send an email with your questions comments (and praise XD) to: Noblekaleomnislash1@hotmail.com

Signed Noble....