a/n: I'm sorry it took so long for me to update…I'm not going to give you guys any excuses, but please accept my apology. I'm not sure if this is going to be a good chapter for you guys, but I'm keeping my fingers crossed. Thank you.

Disclaimer: I do not own Final Fantasy.

Chapter 9 – Protect and Save

In this blind justice,

I can be that man who saves the day…

10:16 am

Cloud climbed up the last ledge and paused for a moment, closing his eyes, feeling the sweat dripping from his brow down to his nose. He was tired, and he suddenly wished he weren't here…but as the vision of Sephiroth's self-satisfied smirk floated in front of his still-closed eyes, that feeling was immediately replaced by one he knew only too well: insuppressible loathing.

"Cloud." It was Tifa's voice.

He opened his eyes and turned to face her. "What is it?"

"Look." she said, pointing to a spot behind him, making him turn to see what it was.

In the middle of the large, eerily lit room in front of him was Lucrecia. She was standing there with her eyes closed, and she had an aura of pure evil around her.

As they watched, she slowly opened her eyes and smiled when she saw them. "You're here. I assume you're here to see my son?"

"We are." Cloud answered calmly.

"I gathered as much." she said, daintily opening her arms as if welcoming them, giving them a glimpse of something shiny hanging from the silver chain around her neck. It was a piece of black stone, and it looked familiar…it was…it had to be…the black materia! "Unfortunately, I cannot let you see him."

Then she muttered a spell. "Quake 3." With that, everything around them began to shake violently, making them fall into each other while dodging the gigantic pieces of rock that fell from the cavern's roof.

"Lucrecia! Stop it! Why are you doing this!" Vincent shouted, frustrated because he couldn't keep his balance long enough to aim his gun, much less fire a shot.

"Why? You must know; he is my son." she replied, laughing.

"You're insane! Sephiroth intends to destroy everything; including you!" Tifa said, desperately trying to think of a way to stop her from making everything shake.

"Nonsense! My child would never harm me!" she said, changing tactics and muttering a spell under her breath. "Ultima!"

Beams of pale green light engulfed Tifa's body, making her stagger backward in extreme pain.

"Stop it!" Cloud yelled, running to his girlfriend's side and pulling her now unconscious body into his arms.

Lucrecia smiled cruelly. "Serves her right for trying to get me to doubt my son."

"Now!"

She turned in time to see Vincent aim and fire his gun. "You think you can harm me?" she asked, raising a hand and deflecting the bullet with a force field.

Vincent gritted his teeth in frustration. "How do you defeat someone you can't even hit!"

"Omnislash!" Cloud shouted as he jumped up, ready to hit her with the full force of his strongest attack.

Lucrecia merely smiled at this. "Sephiroth was right. You people are weak." As she said this, she raised a hand and blocked the attack with another force field.

Yuffie, Nanaki, Barret, and Cid attacked her from four sides as Reeve tried to distract Lucrecia, but it was, like all of their previous attempts, in vain.

"What are we going to do? We can't even hit her!" Barret said.

"I don't know!" Yuffie answered.

"This is quite a dilemma…" Nanaki said.

"Let's just keep attacking her, that way we might be able to wear her down!" Cid suggested.

So they attacked…and attacked…and attacked…but nothing worked. All of them were injured, and Tifa, who had suffered the most damage because of Lucrecia's 'ultima' spell, was only now regaining consciousness.

"Let me handle her. You guys go on ahead." Vincent announced suddenly.

"What? We're in this thing together; we can't just leave you!" Cloud said.

"This is something I must do on my own. Please, just go."

"No! You can't fight her alone, Vincent." Reeve said.

"Yeah, you might get killed!" Yuffie added.

"I won't. Trust me." he replied.

Tifa grabbed his arm, and he turned to face her. "What are you planning to do?" she asked.

"Whatever I can." he replied.

"Vincent…are you sure?" she asked as she stood up.

He nodded.

"Be careful, alright? You have a lot to live for," Tifa whispered, tilting her head in Yuffie's direction.

"…I know."

She turned around. "Guys…I think we should leave this one to Vincent." she said, watching as Lucrecia's latest attack threw Cid and Barret into the wall.

"Why?" Reeve asked.

"Because…it's something he has to do." Tifa answered.

Cloud stood up. "…Vincent, what exactly are you planning on doing?"

When Vincent didn't answer, Cloud opened his mouth to ask again, but Tifa stopped him. "He knows what he's doing." she said.

"What…we can't just leave him, Tifa."

She shook her head at him. "This is personal for him. We shouldn't interfere."

Cloud relented. "Alright." He turned to Vincent who glanced at him. "Be careful, man, alright?"

Vincent nodded.

"Ok guys, it's time to face Sephiroth himself; he shouldn't be too far from here."

The others simply nodded their heads in agreement, putting their faith in Cloud's judgment.

As the others started to move away, Yuffie stayed behind and put her hand on Vincent's shoulder, making him turn to look at her. "What is it, Yuffie?"

"Let me fight beside you." she said quietly.

He shook his head at her. "I can't let you do that. Like I said before, this is something I must do on my own."

She started to say something else, but she was cut off when Vincent grabbed her and jumped away with her to avoid getting hit by a fire spell. "I have to do this. Please, Yuffie, you need to go!" he said when they landed and he pushed her away.

"But how are you going to beat her? she asked him silently. "…How?" That was when she realized what he intended to do.

"…No…it can't be…he wouldn't…Vincent…" As she thought this, a loud, blood-curdling scream echoed through the cavern, and Vincent's body started to change. He was transforming into Chaos.

Cloud and the others had just crossed yet another chasm on their way to confront Sephiroth when they heard the scream. It sounded human at first, and then it changed to a deep, inhuman roar which was all too familiar.

"Chaos…" Tifa whispered.

"…Did you know?" Cloud asked.

"He said he might…I suppose…we just have to trust him."

"You think he'll be ok?"

"I hope so. Yuffie stayed with him."

"Worried about your little friends, are you, Cloud?" a malice-filled voice asked.

Cloud looked around and found, not surprisingly, another image of his nemesis looking disdainfully down on them. "What do you want?"

Sephiroth responded with a smirk. "Can't I just come and greet my favorite puppet?"

Cloud's temper immediately flared, and he started to charge at Sephiroth, but Barret held him back. "Calm down, man. He's just bating you; you're playing right into his hands!"

Cloud pulled himself free from the bigger man's grasp and consoled himself by shooting a death glare in the image's direction. "You're going to die."

This got a slow, mocking laugh out of Sephiroth. "Don't be foolish. You are nothing, just a puppet created by a stupid man whose ambitions were too high…you don't stand a chance."

"I destroyed you twice before. I can do so again."

The reminder earned him a look of extreme displeasure from the silver-haired image. "You're going to regret that remark."

It was Cloud's turn to smirk. "Actually, no. I don't believe I will."

The image smiled again as an animal-like roar turned into a pained human scream. "You'd better go see to your friends. You don't want them to end up like that Ancient, now, do you?" Then the image just vanished.

Vincent collapsed in a heap after Lucrecia's latest and most brutal assault…and a very worried Yuffie rushed to his side. "Vincent!" She lifted his head and laid it on her lap, crying all the while.

Lucrecia let out a laugh; it was a cold, eerie kind of laugh, and it rang with the finality of her victory. "You people really are no match for us," she said, her mocking gaze fixed on Yuffie.

The younger girl didn't say anything at first, but when she did, her voice was filled with such venomous certainty it made Lucrecia shiver slightly. "You will die. If it's not by my hand, then it will surely be by his." she said, her gaze never leaving the face of the man she cared so much about.

"Come then. Show me what you got."

The young ninja carefully transferred Vincent's head from her lap to the floor and stood up. Fierce determination and anger glowed in her eyes as she stared at her opponent. "Let's get this over with."

Cloud and the others rushed back to where they'd left Yuffie and Vincent earlier and what they saw both horrified and surprised them. Vincent was lying on the floor, unconscious and bleeding from cuts all over his body. And Yuffie was fighting against Lucrecia…and she was holding her own. The way she was fighting, it was like she was possessed…she seemed more determined at this moment than she had ever been before.

Yuffie never even realized they were there. All she could think about was defeating Lucrecia…to make her pay for hurting Vincent, for hurting the others…hurting her. She muttered a spell. "Ice."

Lucrecia countered with a fire spell.

"Damn. She's good." Yuffie thought, irritated. "What can I do? There has to be some way to beat her…"

"Giving up yet?" Lucrecia taunted.

"No." she replied. "I'm just sick of looking at your stupid face."

"How dare you…! Impulse shock!"

Taken by surprise, Yuffie couldn't dodge this attack in time…so it hit her full force, making her fly across the room, landing with a dull thud and writhing in pain.

Lucrecia immediately lunged at the helpless young ninja and prepared to finish her. The others were staring helplessly, their feet carrying them toward their friend but it seemed all was lost…they were simply too far away…Lucrecia's victory seemed complete…

Yuffie closed her eyes. There was nothing she could do now. Her body was just too weak…

Lucrecia smiled evilly as she closed her eyes. A blade of ice appeared in her hand and she raised it, poised to strike. "Die."

After she had brought the blade down, she felt it sink into soft flesh and hot human blood spill onto her fingers, she opened her eyes and smiled, expecting to see the blade in Yuffie's body, her blood on her fingers, but it was not to be…because the blood which was now dripping through those same fingers and onto the floor was Vincent's. The sight of it made the real Lucrecia surface.

Her eyes widened and she staggered backward, remorse showing in her expression. "Vincent…why?"

"I can't let you kill her…anyone…please, Lucrecia, there has to be some humanity left in you if you feel guilty about stabbing me." he said, his own blood spreading into a pool around him.

"No. I don't care! I'm not sorry!" she screamed hysterically.

"Lucrecia…the Lucrecia I knew…she's in you somewhere It's not too late!I know it!"

Lucrecia covered her ears, shaking her head back and forth, over and over. "No!" "No…she isn't here! I am Sephiroth's mother…they're trying to kill him…I can't let them…"

"Your son is beyond help. He will destroy all humanity if he succeeds." a voice said in her head.

"But you will survive…and rule by his side…immortal," another said. An all too familiar voice. Jenova's voice.

"No, you won't. Jenova, not Lucrecia, will rule by Sephiroth's side. Your soul will be bound to Jenova's evil forever," the first voice said.

"It's the gift of immortality…would you dare refuse it? You are bound to me; that will never change. My cells dwell in you." the second informed her.

"Stop it! Stop it…please…" Lucrecia stared at her hands. They were stained with blood. Vincent's blood. Memories…long suppressed memories kept repeating themselves in her head. Vincent's smile, his kindness, the desperation she'd heard in his voice when he'd tried to stop her from experimenting on her own child…and he'd done those things despite the fact that she'd chosen her love for science over him. She had chosen Hojo over him…even though she'd loved him…

She touched her face. It was wet with tears…it surprised her. She had not cried in a long, long time. "Vincent…I'm sorry."

"Don't…apologize. All that matters now is I kept my promise. I saved you."

"I must not exist any longer. Jenova is still inside me…I will succumb to her power again soon…Be happy, Vincent. Good bye."

As she uttered those words, her body was engulfed in a very dark light. She had cast a spell on herself; one that would kill her. She had cast her most powerful spell, one borne of the black materia. Meteor.

Vincent reached out to her, pleading. "No…please, you mustn't…"

Lucrecia smiled sadly. "I have to…in order to save humanity…to save you as you've saved me I will always love you, Vincent." A loud explosion followed, and Lucrecia was lost forever.

Tears clouded his vision. She loved him?

"Vincent!"

He turned at hearing his name. It was Yuffie. An uninjured one. "Yuffie…your injuries…"

"She healed me. Just like she did you," she said.

He looked down on where the injury was supposed to be, but it was not there. The pain was gone as well. "She saved me…"

"She saved all of us," Tifa said, kneeling down beside him.

Cloud nodded in agreement. "She protected us from meteor."

Yuffie agreed. "I guess…she wasn't so bad after all."

Vincent silently disagreed. "She was never bad…"

a/n: It's my birthday today! I've been kind of depressed lately but I'm ok now…I updated, didn't I? That's a start, right? RnR please, thank you! BYEE!