"Everything is Dust in the Wind"
Kansas
As Cloud entered the ancient cavern, he could feel something changing within him, the raw energy of the Lifestream pulsed here. Her spirit was here too, he could always feel when she was near. Aerith... she was here trying to restrain the Lifestream, trying to keep it from the Dark Man's control. He felt stronger with her near, he was ready to face the Dark Man. As he entered the outer control room, he could see the Dark Man placing Tifa inside the first of two chambers as he laughed maniacally. The annoying laughter reminded Cloud briefly of a few dead Shinra executives. Irix turned to face Cloud, his wrist blades extended and his shield held close to his armored body.
Cloud didn't waste any time, he sprinted forward and used his Omnislash technique on the Dark Man. This time, with the damage Cid and Rude had done to the armor joints, Irix couldn't move fast enough to divert the blows away from sensitive areas. Slash. Cloud's sword whipped through the air and cut deep into a shoulder joint, starting a trickle of blood. Crash. His massive sword slammed against the shield, nearly knocking it away. Smash. A blow landed so hard it dented the Dark Man's chest plate. In a last desperate attempt to stop the onslaught, Irix brought his shield again.. only to have Cloud cut right through it. The Dark Man dropped the now useless remnant of the shield and brought a second pair of wrist blades to bear, cutting Cloud's shoulder deeply.
Cloud didn't even feel it; he pressed forward and slashed again, cutting through the damaged chest plate and scraping against flesh. Blood dripped from the long red gash cut into the armor plate, and the plate peeled off, exposing raw flesh for the first time. The Dark Man howled in pain and somersaulted back over a control panel, quickly tapping a control and starting the process in motion.
"Too late. Your warrior will become one of my creatures now. I've designed something very special for her flesh." But Cloud wasn't listening to the Dark Man's words, he vaulted over the control panel and used his Braver technique, angling his sword down with incredible power, smashing it directly into the dark man's helmet. Behind the combatants, a screen flashed, showing a very strong waveform in the Lifestream blocking the machine's flow from reaching Tifa. Alarms sounded everywhere as the machine began to build up energy too quickly.
Irix felt the computer in his helmet shutdown and fail, and he tore the damaged helmet off his head and tossed it aside. The stream of thoughts and energy into his mind shutdown and he was alone again, but his hate and anger were still with him. He was once again the outcast, fearful child fleeing from the ancient capital in the hopes of one day returning to control them, defeat them and rule the Lifestream. The blond haired warrior who had done it all to him angled down for a final blow.. only to be met by cold wrist blades. Behind him the machine neared critical mass, energy angling from the mako reactor into the raw lifestream from whence it came. Only a little longer, and the Little Cetra would lose its battle, the Dark Man thought, as he desperately parried another blow from the warrior.
Irix brought the blades around in a swift move, angling towards Cloud and twisting through the air, one of the few moves that still remained to him in his weakened form, trying to bluff the warrior into thinking he was unaffected by the loss of the helmet. Cloud threw all his weight into a counter-attack, breaking through the wrist blades, snapping them in two and drawing another thin line of blood across the Dark Man's chest. Irix's armored fist lashed out and impacted against Cloud's face in reply, but as Cloud fell backward across the room, propelled by the force of the blow, he knew his enemy was close to defeat. Something had happened to the Dark Man and his strength had left him. In one last gambit to survive long enough for the machine to activate, the Dark Man produced a bomb from somewhere in his remaining armor blades. With a final defiant scream at Cloud, he threw it across the room and dived underneath a control panel.
The explosion was deafening, and even the control panel Irix had dived under offered little protection from the blast. He felt shrapnel from the console enter his chest, and the trickle of blood falling from the wound. As he stood weakly he realized the wound was mortal, and he didn't have long to live. But at least the warrior had been knocked unconscious; or perhaps he had been killed, Irix didn't have the time to check. My death doesn't matter though, he thought as he shoved the blast door open and entered the core, when the woman's body is torn apart by the Core and remade by the Lifestream, I will live again. He stumbled, slipping on his own blood, but continuing to crawl toward the device. As he watched a monitor, he saw the waveform of the last Cetra trying to stop his machine, but he knew that the spirit's efforts were in vain, she had no power compared to his glorious machine. He finally made it to the second chamber, where his life essence, the image of his body, would be remade by the Lifestream, controlled by his ancient machine. He closed his eyes and waited for the moment to come, wondering what the sensation would feel like.
Instead he felt two powerful arms grab him and toss him into the other chamber. His eyes opened to find the warrior with the sunglasses standing over him, livid with rage, screaming the woman's name.
"Tifa.. Tifa... wake up!" Rude screamed shaking her intensely, his eyes alive with worry and pain. Slowly she stirred as consciousness returned and Rude breathed easier. The Dark Man will pay for this, he thought as he stood over the control panel. He couldn't read the strange language on the screen, but by throwing Irix into the receiving chamber, Rude knew that the man would get his due. Instead of transferring the Dark Man's essence into a new body, the machine would now transfer something else into him and remake his form accordingly. Rude didn't know who or what would possess the Dark Man, but he didn't really care so long as the Dark Man was destroyed in the process. The computer, devoid of any input or any creature in the first chamber, locked on to the strongest signal nearby and began its work.
Rude dragged a barely conscious Tifa away from the chamber and sealed Irix inside. Irix wanted to scream, but his lungs wouldn't work right. Rude smiled sadistically at him as the chamber activated. Irix could feel himself being lifted from his body, swirling around the glass cylinder with dizzying speed. The last thing the Dark Man saw was the waveform of the last Cetra flashing on the status monitor and Rude's smiling face hovering over the control panel. One final thought remained to him, and it struck him with a sense of completeness that he knew he could never explain. It was as if the words formed in the blackness of oblivion, and he heard them in a dark, distant corner of his soul. Empires rise and fall like chaff in the summer breeze. Men are the wheat, born to the reaper, born to be sown. Only the planet beneath them all is forever. Silence.
Green energy surged into the chamber with the Dark Man locked inside. The entire cylinder was tinged with bright green as the Lifestream obeyed the machine's command and tore apart, then began to rebuild the body inside. For a moment energy of another color, a deep crimson red appeared to flow viciously around the cylinder, trying to fight the Lifestream's energy, trying to survive. But the crimson was overwhelmed by the green energy, and it dissipated rapidly. The entire chamber flashed with bright light, and Rude turned his head away to protect his eyes. Even through the sunglasses, the energy was far too bright to stare at.
As the light finally subsided and sparks flew from the console, shorting out much of the jury-rigged equipment, Rude saw the form of a woman lying within the chamber. There was no clothing, just an adult female curled up into a ball as if she were still a fetus in the womb. Pieces of armor from the Dark Man were scattered about the chamber in tiny, half-melted droplets, ravaged by the immense energies of the machine and the Lifestream. The figure twitched, then began to stand up. Rude turned away as he recognized the woman's face, suddenly realizing what he had done. He removed his suit jacket and held it out as the chamber opened.
"I'm sorry, I didn't look. Really. Here, take this." Rude said, handing her the jacket while still turned away from her.
The woman covered herself quickly with the jacket, unsure of the truth of Rude's statement, holding it close to her body. Thankfully the coat was much longer on her, and it covered her modestly. She stopped for a moment and moved her fingers as if inspecting them for the very first time. Soft laughter came as she realized what had just transpired, and she smiled, overwhelmed with happiness...
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Cloud awoke slowly, his entire body aching. As consciousness returned to him he realized that the Dark Man had won. By now he would be creating all sorts of new monsters in his machine, monsters that would bring darkness across the planet and enslave the Lifestream to the whims of a madman. He would still fight anyway. He tried to sit up, but something was wrong, his right arm wasn't working like it should be. Pain lanced through him, and he realized that it must be broken. It didn't matter... he would fight anyway.
He saw Aerith's face lean over him, and he knew that this must be the end. She had come to him one last time... Her hand touched his cheek, and he nuzzled it gently, a tear falling from his face. She felt so real this time, so soft; with his good arm, he felt her hand, pulled it close to him and kissed it gently.
"My Angel... I love you." He whispered softly. She leaned in close, and her lips pressed against his, sealing a kiss that seemed to go on forever. It's so cruel, he thought... she feels so real this time. Then he noticed that her outfit had changed. She wasn't wearing the long pink dress and red jacket that he had become so used to seeing. It looked like she was wearing a Turk uniform that was much too large for her... without the pants. It seemed so strange to be worrying over clothing at a time like this, but the question burned in his mind anyway.
"Why are you wearing.. that?" Cloud asked, puzzled.
"Oh, Rude gave it to me. I wouldn't want to run around this crowd without any clothes on. Really though, I come back and that's all you can ask me?" Aerith replied mockingly, with a flirtatious smile on her face.
That's when Cloud suddenly noticed Rude behind her... without his jacket. And Rude was looking straight at Aerith, he could see her! Suddenly Cloud's broken arm meant nothing to him. The battle with the Dark Man was forgotten, and his entire world narrowed to the woman standing in front of him. All the pain from his injuries was forgotten and his eyes widened in shock.
"Aerith... you're..." Cloud couldn't even find the words, his throat tightened up in shock.. He tried to get up, but Aerith gently held him down, her loving eyes staring into his soul.
"I'm here, and I'm not leaving you... not ever." She said lovingly, "but first we've got to get you fixed up." Cloud was still in shock as she borrowed a restore materia from Rude. Cloud could feel his injuries healing rapidly with the effects of the curative magic. Then it was over, the pain was gone, his arm worked again... and she was in his arms at last. He held her as if he would never let go, his tears mingling with his joy as Aerith's soul filled with a completeness she had never known before. No one could say a word as they kissed. Neither of them were aware of the others, watching silently, awed by the lovers' embrace.
As the others looked on, Vincent adjusted his cloak, covering more of his face. A single tear fell unbidden from his eye as he watched Cloud reunite with his love. Vincent closed his eyes and thought of Lucrecia... then his crimson cloak whipped about behind him. His whisper followed behind him, too faint for anyone to hear... "Never let go of her... you've found your love at last. It is a beautiful thing." Then he was gone, leaving Cloud and his beautiful flower girl to their reunion, disappearing into the shadows that were his home.
Fini.