A/N: Thanks for all the feedback folks! You lot just make my day :)

Disclaimer: I own nothing.

Chapter 37

Aerith didn't know what was happening. Everything had suddenly changed and now it was wrong.

She'd been helping Hawke, Genesis, and Zack from inside the Fade. The older mage might have told her not to leave Midgar, but she didn't say anything about dreaming. Being a Cetra was definitely useful, now that she knew how to make the most of it.

It was a good thing too, if not for her timely intervention Zack probably would have bled to death. Aerith tried not to dwell on it, but she'd felt the Veil fluttering when he'd been stabbed and sudden panic had struck her. She'd cast the strongest healing spell she could in such an agitated state. It was hard to tell from the Fade but she was pretty sure it had worked. She might not have been that experienced at this Fade shaping business but it was amazing how quickly she was picking it up.

She didn't know what had happened after that though. The Fade had jerked suddenly and then everything changed. Now it was quiet.

The planet had been whispering and muttering in agitation for so long, it had grown to nearly deafening. But here it was different. The rush of the Fade seemed calmer, almost muted. She sighed quietly. A little peace was nice from time to time.

There was a vague presence on the air though and it sent a shiver up her spine.

She found herself in a pretty little wood, unsure of how she got there. Sunlight streamed down between the leaves and endless wild flowers sprung up around the trunks. A sweet cool breeze sighed past.

It was beauty like she'd never seen and it felt so wrong. Aerith knew intrinsically how the Fade ought to feel, how the life stream would softly swirl through her mind in little whirlpools, fluid eddies pooling in her hands ready to be shaped. This part of the Fade however carried the scent of something else. Someone had already shaped it.

She turned slowly, looking at the endless trees and wondering how to escape. This was wrong, tainted somehow, despite how pretty it was and she didn't like it.

She stuck out her hand and sent out a single shock wave. Her magic swept through her surroundings, a single pulse that seemed to shake the world around her. Now everything looked just a little more wrong, like the dimensions were ever so slightly off or the shadows weren't where they should have been.

She slammed her staff into the ground, sending out a much bigger shock wave. The fabric of the fade seemed to bend under the pressure for a moment before righting itself. In the wake of her spell the woods melted away. Like weak illusions her surroundings fell apart.

What was left had Aerith clutching her staff.

The soft colours of nature were all gone. Sticky black webbing was the only thing remaining. She was in a tunnel made of the crawling black substance, the webbing everywhere, both overhead and underfoot and leading in every direction.

"Clever little Cetra." A soft voice said behind her.

She spun around immediately, holding her staff defensively.

There was no one there. For a moment she was confused, she knew she hadn't imagined it. Then the twitching webbing convulsed in a spot before her. She leapt back with a cry. The black substance reached up, a fluid tentacle made of a thousand tiny fibres rising from the floor. It grew until it towered over her. Then it slowly shifted, taking the shape of a woman, long fluttering strands of webbing swaying behind her like hair. Empty eyes fixed on the young Cetra.

"Jenova." Aerith whispered, taking another step back. All the tragic tales of the Cetra's fall before the Archdemon sprung to life in her mind. The whispered warnings the planet had given her suddenly made a lot more sense.

"You don't need to be afraid." The creature made of darkness said, walking in a slow circle around her, floating through the ichor that covered the ground. "I'm not here to hurt you; I'm here to set you free." Its voice was hollow and reeked of magic. Aerith felt paralysed.

"Free from what?" she asked, timid curiosity getting the better of her.

"From the chains you were born with." It said, sounding so very sympathetic. "You didn't ask to be shackled to the cries of a planet."

Vague indignation filled Aerith and she crossed her arms.

"I'm not shackled."

"Oh?" The creature said, turning a pinning gaze on her. "You live in constant hiding, fearing the day the normal people discover you. You are all alone, trembling under the weight of an entire planet." It stopped in front of her, its voice turning wistful. "I know how hard that life is. Can you really say you aren't tired of it?"

Aerith took a deep breath and then another step back. She felt hedged in and the words were too tempting. Hawke had warned her about this, about demons offering the world. She knew she needed to resist, but she hadn't expected it to be so hard. There was no comforting surge from the planet, just her own mind and Jenova's echoing words.

"This is who I am." She said, taking deep breaths and forcing herself to remember why she was here. Jenova was the enemy. "It doesn't matter if I'm tired."

"Not so." It replied, edging closer. "I can set you free. I can make you normal."

"You can?" She asked before she could stop herself.

"I will make you just like everybody else." It stretched out a hand.

"No!" Aerith cried, leaping back and brandishing her staff. "Get away from me!"

"My offer was an honest one." It replied, pulling back its hand and looking almost wounded at her reaction.

"I don't want to be normal." She said vehemently. It wasn't until she heard the words aloud that she realised it was actually true. She held onto that. "I love being like this, it might be hard… but it's so beautiful. And there's nothing wrong with being one of a kind. Hawke taught me that much."

"You are the last, Cetra. You will always be alone." Its voice turned foreboding and it stalked closer again. "Will you really throw away your only chance to change that?"

"I'm not alone." She said weakly. She had friends, people who understood. They were enough. They had to be enough. And besides, it wasn't about her. "I can help people." Her voice became stronger, powered by her conviction. "I can heal things, I can do so much, and I'm only just starting! I wouldn't give that up for the world."

Without warning the figure collapsed into itself. The tendrils of sticky ichor receded into the webbing that covered the ground. Aerith watched mutely in confusion. She hadn't expected it to give up so easily.

"Then you will lose the world as well." The same voice said from behind her. She spun and saw the creature even taller than before, towering over her but now one of its limbs was hard and sharpened and lifted up to stab her.

Aerith staggered back and tried to throw up a shield spell.

Before the blow descended the creature cried out in pain. The tendrils it was made from writhed and shrieked, pulling away from a blade sticking out through its stomach.

The figure tore apart, its twitching bits melting into the floor again. All that remained was Hawke, standing behind where the creature had been, with murder in her eyes and her staff in her hand.

She pulled back her weapon, flicking ichor off its blade. Genesis stood behind her, his sword drawn but still clean.

"You," Hawke said, looking at Aerith with a grin that was not particularly friendly "Are meant to be in Midgar."

"I am in Midgar." She said. "Technically." She amended, seeing the raised eyebrow of scepticism she received.

"You may argue details later." Genesis said, "We are still in enemy territory. As is Sephiroth." He looked down the far tunnel, a troubled look in his eyes.

"Come on." Hawke said, putting her staff on her back. "We're going to need all the help we can get."

Genesis led the way down the tunnel. The walls didn't change in the slightest, but he knew they were drawing near. The ichor seemed to hum and almost mutter as they passed and it grew ever louder. Jenova, the driving force of the Blight, was very close.

The tunnel took a turn and they found themselves in a large circular chamber. It looked a little like an arena, with the walls of black webbing slopping away before coming in overhead.

In the centre was Sephiroth.

Genesis faltered at the sight. He heard Hawke give a startled cry and Aerith gasp beside him.

Sephiroth was completely wrapped up in the webbing and hanging several feet in the air. He was unconscious and suspended with his arms at his sides between two pillars, standing alone in the centre of the arena. The twitching tendrils had him almost entirely encased, like little branching vines wrapping him into a cocoon. It was coiled around him, all the way up to his chest, the little tendrils reaching up even further to cover him completely.

He appeared to be sleeping but not peacefully. In the shocked silence as they took in the sight he started to struggle, thrashing and trying to tug his arms free but the elastic webbing would not relinquish him. He swiftly tired, his strength giving way far sooner than it should. As his movements slowed and he sagged wearily the tendrils spread higher over him, stringy fibres reaching all the way up to his neck.

Snapping out of the trance the sight had thrown on him, Genesis leapt up with his sword. A second before he brought it down on the thick black tentacle holding up the General an ice spell struck it, making the entire limb brittle. It shattered under his sword. As he landed he saw Hawke lowering her staff.

The General fell to the ground and awoke on impact. His eyes opened to reveal the cold green that looked at them with nothing but distain.

Moving slowly, Sephiroth rose to his feet, the ichor shifting to allow him movement but still covered his limbs completely. It murmured around him, anchoring him to the ground and coating him in corrupt magic. He drew his sword from where it rested on his back.

There was a brief moment of silence before he leapt forward, sword whistling through the air. Genesis met his blade, staring down his opponent. This fight was different from the last. Here they were in the Fade, magic flowed all the more freely putting him at far less of a disadvantage.

Just as Sephiroth lunged at him, half a dozen black tentacles sprung up from the ground behind them and whipped towards Hawke and Aerith. Genesis barely caught sight of them between his own fight, long fluid limbs whipping towards the two women.

The inky limbs reached across from the roof, the walls and the floor, shifting constantly as they tried to wrap around them and drag them down. Hawke brandished her blades and threw all manner of magic at them. From the way she moved Genesis could see she was trying to draw attention away from Aerith. A powerful shield sprung around the girl and Hawke added her own barriers to it.

The Cetra stood perfectly still, holding her staff out before her and muttering something with her eyes closed. Glowing little glyphs lit up around her as she built up an intricate spell. What she might be casting he had no idea. The magic swirling around her was far beyond his understanding.

He had no time to be distracted though and focused back on his own fight.

Sephiroth swung his blade, shadows moving with him and the humming ichor striking in unison.

For once Genesis kept up, his grasp of magic in the Fade finally turning the tables and it infuriated him. This was a fight he not only didn't want to fight but he didn't even want to win. He couldn't decide to not fight though and Sephiroth held nothing back. Hating himself for it, he returned every blow. Their blades clashed again and again in a lightning fast exchange.

Losing his patience Genesis unleashed a fireball at point blank range. Sephiroth's shield wasn't quick enough and it burnt straight through the ichor over his chest and shoulder.

Rather than retaliating, Sephiroth stumbled back, confusion in his eyes.

"Genesis?" he said. He looked in bafflement and at the blood on the swords they held and the burn marks on his own chest. Less than a second later the webbing surged up over his body again, reclaiming its lost territory and the recognition faded from his eyes. He brandished his sword and attacked again.

Realisation hit Genesis.

"Hawke!" He called out, "Ice!"

Without halting her own fight she sent a frost spell hurtling towards them. Genesis sliced through Sephiroth's shield a second before it hit and leapt out of the way. The ice struck with its full force, freezing the ichor and holding him fast for a moment.

Before Sephiroth could shake it off Genesis slammed the hilt of his sword into him. The brittle webbing shattered and fell off in large frozen chunks.

Recognition returned to Sephiroth's eyes.

"What is this?" He said, looking at the cracking black stretching over his arms.

Genesis prepared his own ice spell, it was weaker but it would get the job done. A tentacle snapped forward though, wrapping around his arm and dragging him back. He cried out and tried to slice through it but the angle was wrong. He twisted around to fight it off, growling in frustration because Sephiroth would be being overrun again behind him.

Out of the corner of his eye he saw Hawke leap in to take his place. The tentacles had all turned to focus on him and she took the chance to descend upon the General.

A wealth of gravity spells sprung up, slowing Sephiroth enough that she could keep up with him and he couldn't shield himself from her magic.

Genesis sliced through the last of the tentacles. He turned in time to see Hawke stretch out a hand, magic he didn't recognise sweeping through the room.

The nearest pillar of the two Sephiroth had been suspended from was caught up in her magical grip. With a grunt of exertion she wrenched it up out of the ground, and swung it around in a great arc. Sephiroth moved to leap out of the way but her gravity spell held him down and it slammed straight into him. The momentum of the giant stone column sent him flying back across the arena.

The pillar landed on top of him. There was a moment of silence as the fighting halted. There was only the sound of Aerith's quiet chanting behind them.

A second later the pillar, beneath which Sephiroth was presumably crushed, glowed with magic that wasn't Hawke's. There was a sharp whine and then it exploded into a countless tiny pieces. Sephiroth emerged from beneath it, fuming with rage and with clumps of black webbing still sticking to him.

Hawke grinned sharply.

She stabbed her staff into the ground. A whirlwind rose out of the ground around him, high speed winds picking up the shards of the broken pillar. Innumerable razor sharp splinters of stone hurtled through the air, tearing at him and shredding the hissing tendrils. He cried out in agony, but she didn't relent. The storm grew stronger and more focused, the stubborn webbing cracking and falling away. Rogue tentacles sprung up from the ground and reached in to defend the corrupted Soldier.

Genesis chased them with a quick succession of fire spells; burning through them all before they could make a difference.

The storm eventually subsided, the deafening roar of its power still ringing in his ears. Sephiroth stood alone, finally free of the webbing and looking utterly drained. The tendrils twitched around him in agitation.

There was a faint shriek on the edge of hearing, and then it burst out deafeningly loud, a wordless cry of outrage. The walls shook, distorting with fury.

But then with a shout Aerith finished casting. An enormous rune sprung up over the entire area of the fight and a second later a huge torrent of water exploded up out of the ground.

It was infinitely more powerful than the little fountain in the church. The pressure was punishing and its potency ruthless.

The black ichor shrieked and twisted madly, the tendrils melting away as though being eaten by acid. The very ground shook and a high pitched scream pierced the air. Tentacles rose up only to writhe and wither pitifully, their strength sapped by the waters.

The blackness drew back; the green sky of the Fade breaking through the disintegrating ceiling. The melting tendrils left nothing but sticky clumps of growth sliding down the pillars and falling limp to the ground.

In the centre of it all was Sephiroth. He was on his knees and panting, torrents of the ichor sloughing off him. He looked at it in revulsion before looking up at them; his green eyes clearer than they had been since before they left Midgar.

In that moment the Fade lost its grip. Their surroundings gave way to darkness as the dreamscape fled and consciousness returned. Soon after they were all sitting on the floor of the Reactor.

Sephiroth woke with a gasp. His eyes snapped open, only to slam shut again at the white light flooding the reactor. His head was pounding with the worst headache of his life.

He hesitantly cracked open his eyes again and sat up slowly so as to stop his head from spinning. He was completely drenched for some reason. The room was dripping with water that reeked of magic. It fizzed softly as it mixed with darkspawn blood.

The faint light of dawn was streaming into the chamber, a cool breeze accompanying it. That caught his attention more than anything else, his eyes following the beams of light back to the holes in the reactor wall.

He stared at the large gashes carved all around him, great gaping wounds exposing the reactor core to the outside world. His mind sluggishly tried to understand the significance of it all.

A second later it struck him that he was the one who had put them there. Through the sharp ache in his temples he remembered attacking Genesis, the memories vague and indistinct, but he knew with growing horror that he had tried to kill his friend.

His head snapped around, looking for Genesis.

The red head was slowly getting to his feet. He didn't seem injured. Instead he looked around marvelling at the ruined reactor, now dripping with whatever that girl in the Fade had cast, before his eyes settled on Sephiroth.

Genesis immediately straightened, looking at him wearily. His hand moved to the hilt of his sword but he didn't draw it.

"Sephiroth?" He called, studying him intently from the other side of the chamber. "Are you… yourself again?"

The doubtful hope in his voice struck Sephiroth as something he'd never heard from Genesis before. It almost sounded like pleading.

"I… yes." He said, searching through his own mind for what had happened and what remained. "She is gone." Relief filled his voice. His mind was finally free, more than it had ever been in his life and he felt so much lighter for it. Then he remembered what had happened to buy that freedom.

"Are you hurt?" he demanded, getting to his feet and looking at Genesis critically. A flood of regret and disgust at his own weakness filled him, "Did I injury you? Genesis I didn't-"

"Is he back?" Hawke called, making her way to the bottom of the stairs. She stopped behind Genesis, holding her staff in a defensive position and eyeing him suspiciously. She was drenched in darkspawn blood, some of which was probably her own. Red was mixed in liberally with the black, the magical water doing a poor job of washing it off.

"Yes. He's himself again." Genesis said with a sigh of relief. His hand dropped from his sword.

"Thank the Maker." Hawke said, letting her shoulders drop and her staff hang limply at her side. She was looking a little pale and weak, exhaustion had probably worn her down. She turned to go investigate Zack, who was sitting up and blinking in confusion.

"Genesis," Sephiroth said earnestly, before he wandered off to attend the younger soldier. "I am sorry." The words were awkward and inadequate, he knew, but wholly sincere.

Genesis watched him in contemplation for a moment. He looked exhausted, the last of his adrenaline completely worn off.

"It wasn't you." He said, as though it were that simple. "That was Jenova. Either of us could have fallen to her, you just happened to be standing the closest." He rubbed his shoulder where an old wound had been, almost a year ago now. He shook his head idly, returning from whatever thoughts had seized him, a mocking smile on his lips. "If you should feel the need to repay me however for randomly turning on us in the middle of a fight, don't let me stop you."

"You don't seem too offended." Sephiroth said, crossing his arms.

A moment of sincerity flickered through Genesis' eyes.

"I thought I would be forced to kill you." He said quietly. "But I'm not the only one you need to apologise to." He looked sidelong at Zack, who was letting Hawke poke him experimentally where a fatal stab wound should have been. Instead there was barely a scar.

"Zack-" Sephiroth started.

The boy looked up in panic for a moment before giving a huge sigh of relief.

"Oh, thank goodness, you're not crazy anymore." He collapsed back onto the reactor floor, apparently done with them all for the day. Then he sat straight back up again, looking nervously at the nearest darkspawn corpse. "So, is that it?" Zack said. "It's done?"

"Not quite." Hawke said. She looked around at all the corpses. "Aha." She narrowed her eyes, focusing on the one closest to Sephiroth.

It was still twitching. The others were all completely still.

Sephiroth instinctively backed away from it, the memory of a vicelike grip over his thoughts still fresh in his mind.

It twitched further and even groaned a bit. It looked like it might have been trying to get up or maybe even transform but too much of Jenova's strength had been sapped and it collapsed back down. Sephiroth glared at it, practically daring it to attack again.

Hawke went and stood over it, watching it intently. A trail of watery blood was left in her wake. She moved to bend down and examine the creature but halfway down she hissed in pain and stood back up again.

The creature jerked, its limbs blurring oddly for a moment. It really was trying to transform, probably into a dragon given what Hawke had said. Jenova was undoubtedly trying to do anything to rescue her tattered plans, but it just didn't have enough strength left.

"So now what?" Zack asked.

"Now someone kills it." Genesis said. "We already know it can't be you Zackary."

"It should be me." Sephiroth said quietly.

"No. It should not." Genesis said, ice in his tone.

"Would you prefer to do it?" Sephiroth returned.

Genesis glared before grudgingly answering.

"No, I wouldn't."

Zack just looked confused.

"Somebody has to." Hawke said quietly, turning back to watch the two of them. "There aren't any other options." She didn't offer an opinion as to who should take the fall, but the way she looked anxiously at Genesis said more than enough. The way Genesis avoided her eye was equally telling.

"Why does it even matter who kills it?" Zack asked.

There was a damning silence. Genesis and Sephiroth watched each other, a mute debate raging silently between them.

"The closest person with the Blight goes with it." Hawke said finally. Zack just looked more confused so she elaborated. "Whoever kills it dies."

"What?! Why? Why even kill it then, can't we just seal it away somewhere?"

"It would still call out to anyone corrupted." She said, shaking her head.

"There has to be something-"

In their distraction the last darkspawn staggered to its feet.

Sephiroth's sword was immediately in his hand but the snarling creature lunged for Hawke.

In the blink of an eye she had drawn her dagger and swung at it. Just as her blade flashed out a fireball streaked past them both, incinerating the corpse.

Sephiroth staggered to a halt, and then spun back around to stare at the culprit.

Genesis stood, hand outstretched, the soft glow of materia fading away.

"No…" Hawke whispered.

Genesis' hand fell. Sephiroth stepped towards him, as though there was anything he could do, as though it wasn't already too late. He felt like he was going to be sick.

"I suppose this is goodbye." Genesis said quietly.

There was a blinding flash of light.

Hawke's eyes met Genesis'.

Her dagger hung uselessly in her hand, only the thinnest streak of blood on the edge.

"Genesis…" she said, her voice broken and her eyes filling with tears. He looked at her sadly, regret in his eyes.

"I suppose this is goodbye." He said, giving her a tragic smile.

It felt like she'd just been stabbed.

Sephiroth and Zack both looked on helplessly, the younger soldier crying out in protest and Sephiroth rendered mute.

Hawke felt her tears streak down her face. Genesis still stood, eyes only for her as he awaited his fate.

There was a flash of light.

Her chest burned.

She looked down at the darkspawn blood covering her front. Some of it was her own. The cut on her abdomen was filled with both.

Oh.

Comprehension struck her. She looked back up at Genesis and the others; realising she was standing between them all and Jenova's last vessel.

The light condensed and focused, growing so much more powerful. It stood like a towering pillar of fire only it wasn't surrounding Genesis, it was around her.

She barely had time to register her own panic or the look of shock on Genesis' face before her vision failed. Blinding light flared behind her eyes, her mind reeling with a stab of agony she'd never felt before. She heard someone call her name just as the world disappeared into a maelstrom of bloody red that filled her mind. A wave of regret was the last thing she knew before pain flooded her every nerve ending, impossible fire consuming her.

Someone was screaming.

Hawke fell.

A/N: Thanks for reading! As always reviews are very much appreciated.

Next Time: The last chapter.