Standard Disclaimer: I do not own Final Fantasy, Green Lantern, or any of their related characters and concepts. This is a work of fan fiction.

"Courage To Change The Things You Can"

Chapter 36: "Nightmare"

Upon arriving at Gongaga, we hustled Cloud to the town's sole physician. He was a tall, thin, elderly man who brimmed over with an energy that belied his years. Hustling back and forth across his small office he ushered us in and directed Barrett to place Cloud on a small narrow bed. Bending low over his patient, the doctor examined Cloud closely. "What happened to him?" He asked.

"That's hard to describe." Tifa answered. "He's been having some… issues… whenever an enemy of ours is around. This time it got worse than normal."

The doctor considered this. "Strange. I've never heard of such a thing. Well, he's not really in a coma exactly, this is something different… See how he's shaking and mumbling under his breath? I suspect this poor fellow is struggling against himself within. He'll wake up when he reaches some kind of resolution, though whether that resolution will be permanent or temporary, who can say?"

"And you say you've never seen the likes of this?" Red asked. The doctor startled back, but shook his head no.

Vincent asked "Can we stay, at least for the night?"

"Of course." The Doctor said. "I've got plenty of beds here, as you can see, and I'm unlikely to need them in a town so small, truthfully they're leftovers from the reactor explosion crisis." He walked to the door and added "There's nothing I can actually do for the boy, so other than checking in on him every hour or so I'll give you all your privacy."

Once the doctor was gone, Barrett, Vincent, Cid, Yuffie, and Red all stared at Tifa. "We need to discuss this." Vincent said. "Something is going on with Cloud."

"I know, but I don't know what it is!" Tifa exclaimed.

Seeing that everyone else was about to pile Tifa full of questions about Cloud, Aeris said, quietly, "Excuse me?" Everyone looked at her. "I understand why you have questions about Cloud." She said. "So do I… But, I think that's secondary. What matters is the Black Materia. Now that Sephiroth has it, he can summon Meteor. Stopping that has to take priority over figuring out what's wrong with Cloud."

"She's got a point lads and lasses." Cait said.

Yuffie peered out a window, up at the sky. "Yeah, but… Since he's got it, why hasn't he used it yet? I mean we're still alive, and I don't see any big giant meteor up in the sky…"

"The meteor could coming in on the other side of the planet." Cid said.

Shaking her head, Yuffie said to him "You are horribly negative, you know that?"

"Actually no, Meteor hasn't been summoned yet." Aeris said. "As the temple shrank down, the Cetra spirits within told me everything. I have one bad piece of news and two good."

"Let's get the bad out of the way first." I said, "Then maybe the good will cheer us back up."

"Okay, the bad news is, Sephiroth is able to use the Black Materia, and if he does the meteor is calls on will be every bit a destructive as he expects it to be. Gaia itself will die if it reaches the planet's surface. The first piece of good news is, and this answers your question Yuff, he hasn't cast the spell yet because he can't. Meteor takes so much energy that even someone like Sephiroth can only cast it from certain locations where the lifestream is exceptionally concentrated and powerful."

"Okay, that's good then." Barrett said. "But doesn't it just buy us a little time?"

Red nodded. "Correct. There are several such locations Sephiroth could choose between, too many for us to be certain of intercepting him before he arrives."

"Luckily, we don't have to." Aeris said. "That's the other piece of good news. I now know what this is for." She held out the White Materia. "It contains a spell called Holy. If I cast it, it will counter Meteor and protect the planet."

"Incredible." Red said.

Playing along, I said "You see? We told you it had to be good for more than a family heirloom didn't we? So, how long will it take for you to cast the spell?"

"Yeah! Get castin' already!" Yuffie exclaimed.

Grinning, Aeris said "I can't Yuff. Not here. It's like with Meteor, Holy takes too much power to summon just anywhere. Once Cloud's awake, I'll guide us all to a place the Cetra told me about, an old city called Knowlespole. It's built on top of the planet's largest lifestream nexus, so Holy will work from there…"

OOOOOOO

Cloud awoke several hours later, to the great surprise of the doctor who had expected him to be out for days. Tifa and Barrett tried to reason with him, tried to get answers out of him, but to no avail: Cloud wasn't talking. He barely even acknowledged that anything had happened. Aeris and I filled him in on the plan to go north and summon Holy, and he was in immediate agreement.

We stayed in Gongaga just long enough to purchase some warmer clothing for the northern climate and then we were off, travelling around the eastern end of Midgar's continent, within sight of the city, and curving to the north when we reached shallow waters that continued in that direction. As Midgar was vanishing below the horizon behind us, I heard a droning sound and looked up to see a large Shinra helicopter fly overhead, also going north and rapidly outpacing our seaplane. Tseng and Elena, on Ganthet's mission, though of course I only learned of this much later.

At the Bone Village excavation site, we were met by a number of workers who tried to slow us down. "Hold on now! You all don't wanna go that way!" They insisted. "That's the sleeping forest up there! It's enchanted, confuses the progress of anyone who goes in without a special harp!"

"We'll be okay." Aeris told them. "I'm Cetra. The forest will open itself for me, and those in my company as well." The men still wanted to stop us, but were intimidated by Barrett's gun and Cloud's sword. We pressed onward through the forest for about five miles before pressing through a final bramble of vines and branches and catching sight of the ancient city.

"Marvelous…" Red whispered. Everyone else was in awe as well.

Aeris looked up at the night sky. "Let's hurry. In order to do this, I'll need to go down below the city, and the path closes during the day…"

OOOOOOO

As we reached the entrance to the underground and started down the long, long crystal stairs I thought to Aeris "How are we handling this?"

"I'll ask everyone to wait for me at the base of the stairs. You wait a few minutes, then excuse yourself for, I don't know, something… get creative. Once you're out of sight, find a good place to move from and be ready."

"I guess that's the only option." I agreed.

When we reached the bottom, Aeris pointed to where she was going to be, the raised altar over the waters, and asked us all to wait. "You're gonna do it right now?" Yuffie asked.

Aeris nodded. "I think it's best. We don't know where Sephiroth is, and I'm unclear on whether Holy has to be cast before Meteor or not. There's no reason to wait, although…" She glance over to me. "Christian, come with me a moment…" I followed Aeris about halfway to the altar, just out of hearing range. "Please stop beating yourself up over it coming to this." She said.

"How can I not?" I answered. "Aeris, I've had a year to find a better way. A year! And yet, here we still are…"

"Maybe you didn't find a better way because there isn't one."

"That's a nice thought, but…"

"But nothing!" Aeris stomped her foot down. "Sephiroth was going to get the Black Materia one way or another. So I was going to have to come here for Holy, one way or another… What matters isn't what's happened so far, it's what happens next. I know… Christian, listen to me here… I know that you are going to save me."

"You can't know that…"

Aeris interrupted, and I now understand was about to tell me about her encounter with Ganthet. "Yes I can know… Ganthet told me…" She stopped. Looked upwards suddenly. "He's here. Sephiroth. Go, get ready."

"But wait, what about Ganthet…?"

"No time now. Just remember hurt isn't dead."

"What?"

"I love you." She turned and rushed to the altar.

Feeling lower than I had ever felt before, I returned to the others, and waited for a few tense minutes before saying "I'll be right back."

"Aeris said to wait here." Tifa argued.

"I'm sure she'd make an exception for the call of nature… Unless you rather I just make a mess right here…"

"Oh gross!" Yuffie exclaimed. "Go!"

Travelling around beneath the crystal stairs, I found a path that led half-way to the opposite side of the area. A number of great marble columns stood here, and some of them were broken, allowing me to climb to an excellent vantage point on the highest one. I silently drew my sword, and activated the materia for Haste, Barrier, and Shell. Then I waited, looking down on both Aeris and the rest of our team.

After a time, Cloud began to move. I was too far away to hear what was being said, but it was clear that a tremendous argument was underway. Tifa and Vincent tried to restrain Cloud as he drew his sword and stood over Aeris, but he threw them off and held the blade high. Even from so far away, the struggle he was experiencing was apparent. Then he cast the blade aside and fell to his knees.

I looked up, and saw Sephiroth descending. His blade was at the ready, and I knew I would have to time this perfectly. Half a second before he reached my level, I jumped. Collided with the madman, who startled, looked at me with the first surprise I'd seen in his eyes. "What in hell!?" he demanded. "Fool, I cannot be stopped!" Down, down we fell towards where Aeris still knelt. I struggled, I pushed, I gave all that I had to give, but Sephiroth's trajectory could not be altered.

A though occurred to me, that I didn't need to change his trajectory, just the precise aim of the blade. Releasing Sephiroth, I grabbed the sharp sword in both hands. The edges cut through my skin but the Barrier spell lessened the damage and I tried to blank out the pain as a pushed hard against it. Sephiroth realized what I was doing and began to push back, but the mechanics of the situation gave me much better leverage than he had. Of course most of that was countered by his greater strength, but I managed half an inch of deflection. Then a full inch, two. I was throwing off his aim, but not by enough.

I shouted down for Aeris to move, and she began to do so, but it was too late. As we crashed to the ground, the blade went through her. Sephiroth roared in triumph and I fell to my knees, gathering Aeris up in my arms as Cloud and the others confronted the villain. I'm quite certain that Sephiroth must have gone through his entire monologue from the game, but I heard nothing. In fact, as I held onto Aeris, unaware that I had lessened her wound, convinced that I had failed and she was dead, I felt less and less, nothing but a coldness that pervaded my entire body, and then a blackness, and then nothing at all.

As Ganthet had informed Aeris, and later Tseng, whatever force was working against Ganthet's plans was making it's move. I was torn away from Gaia, back to my own world, through time apparently as well, since I awoke on the evening of the same day that Ganthet had first contacted me, a year before in my experience. Whoever or whatever was to blame for this also messed with my memories it seems, as I remembered nothing of these events for a very long time…

But, for now, I will finish this part of the tale with one more chapter, showing what I learned happened after my departure through the eyes of Yuffie, Tseng, and Aeris. Stay tuned for it next week!