Claire Crescent watched with big wide ice blue eyes.
She had already managed to realease her other hand, had begun working on her feet instead when suddenly there was a fierce low battle growl and General Sephiroth Crecent charged forward at professor Hojo with a familiar looking crowebar swinging from his arm.
Lightning saw it happen in slow motion. Saw it through the glass pane of the reactor observation window.
The way the man from her dreams lunged himself at his bespectacled opponent, the way Hojo's arms surged forwards so fast that she could barely see it, suddenly sprouting razor claws instead of fists.
There was a short moment of cruel anticipation where Lightning tuggend at her remaining bonds so hard that she managed to fall forward onto her face, allowing her to break free in the process.
Then another where she scrambled back up on her feet just in time to see those saber long sharp claws go through her husband's middle as if he were made of flan, impaling him on top of them and making the professor stumble backwards.
There was the deafening noise of the crowbar hitting the jenova tank and a burst of glass followed by a high pitched screem and the sound of breaking metal as the platform's railing gave in and the three of them, Jenova, Hojo and her husband, tumbled backwards and out of her sight.
It took her a tiny moment to take it all in, to process what had just happened, before finally she stepped up to the glass, watching with big blue alert eyes. Waiting for someone to emerge from the debries, meaning Sephiroth hopefully, Lightning found he wouldn't come.
'Sephiroth!' she cried his name from the top of her lungs as she turned to dart through the huge maintainance doors, flew over the metal walkway, rushed up the steps of the platform and raced towards the edge to stare into the mako depths beneath her.
There he was.
The man she loved.
A bloody mass dangling from one of the cables that were still attached to Jenova's tank.
'Light!'
He was holding on, but only barely so, was slipping, was about to tumble to the mako below him just as Hojo and Jenova had, to vanish in it's depths forever.
She had to pull him up and fast.
Getting down on her aching belly Claire Crescent quickly reached out for him.
'Take my hand!' she urged.
The silver haired first class looking up at her with desperate big mako eyes, he only shook his head.
'My weight will pull you down with me.' he told her, looking back down at the mako.
It was true.
He was heavy. Much too heavy for a girl like her. There was no way she could pull him up like this. No way that he would risk it, risk her life.
'It isn't worth it.' he told her somewhat defeatedly.
It made Claire Crescnet's eyes go huge.
'NO!'
Staring down at her husband, his bloodsmeared alabaster face, his devasted mako eyes, Lightning found his fingers open, found his hand begin to slip. It was before she even knew it that she'd lunged forward, catching his wirst in an iron grip.
No way was she going to let her husband fall into the mako.
No way was she going to let him die like this.
Not after all they had accompplished. Not after everyting they'd gone through.
Because yes. They had defeated Hojo. He had defeated Hojo. Had gotten rid of him and of Jenova too. Had gotten rig of them for good. They were safe. Were free to go and so were her kids. No way was she going to leave without him. No way was she going to let him fall.
She didn't know how she did it but her panicked body mobilizing all it's remaining forces, together with her husband's help, Lightning managed to heave the silver haired first class up and over the edge of the cursed platform.
They both came to lie next to each other on their backs, both panting, both shaking uncontrollably.
'Shit, what were you thinking?' Claire Crescent managed between heavy gasps of air.
The man beside her gave one of his dry chuckles, followed by a painful wince.
It made the pink haired female get back on her knees and over to her husband's side in almost no time at all.
'You're injured.' she realized as she took in his blood drenched shirt, the small puddle of sticky warm red that was forming all around them.
She had seen it of course.
Had seen it all before her very eyes. How Hojo had impaled him on his long sharp claws. Still, she somehow had not grasped it, had not grapsed what it all meant, not until the very moment.
'Sephiroth you gotta heal yourself!' she managed to choke out.
But it was too late already.
Looking up into his face she found his features empty, slack, found his mako eyes had fluttered shut.
Suddenly the air was sucked out of her lungs. Claire Crescent couldn't breath.
No. Please, it couldn't be.
This could not be happening. Not now. Not so close before the finish line.
They had almost made it through. Made it through all of this alive.
'Sephiroth!' she yelled at him, again and again, trying to shake him awake, it was no use.
He had lost unconsciousness, was bleeding to death in front of her very eyes.
For a few moments Lightning could only stare.
Panick overcame her, quickly replaced by cold businesslike rationality.
There was only one thing left to do.
She had to heal him with her Jenova cells. There was no other way.
Oh shit, if only she had practiced harder!
If only she had taken it seriously, if only she had given it a few more tries!
Enough! There was no time for that now...
She had only seconds. Moments.
Pressing her palms to her husband injured belly, Claire Crescent made to close her eyes.
Okay Claire... You can do it.
Focus on the bond.
Reach for the connection.
Oh, if it weren't for all the hot red blood, all around her, if it weren't for the urgency of the situation, if the man she loved weren't just dying underneath her very palms...
No.
She had to get herself together.
She had to be strong.
Just for a few more minutes, just this one last time.
If Sephiroth could do it. She could do it too. They were one of a kind. Were the same.
Closing her eyes tighter, Lightning fumbled for the bond again.
It was different this time, was almost impossible for her to do.
His cells usually reaching out for her themselves, eager to link up with her's, somehow they were reluctant to connect, reacted only feebly.
He was slipping away from her, she was aware.
There was nothing for it.
She had to let the piece of the alien that resided inside her take over.
The beast alseep inside the deepest recesses of her mind, all that time she had fought to keep it dorment, now finally she poked it in the eye.
Do something! She yelled at the piece of their mother that was still lodged deep inside of her.
Help him! She screamed at it inside her head.
'Please!'
Her cry of frustration, it left her lips as a desperate plea and suddenly, miraculously, she found their cells connect, felt the bond established.
Looking up in shocked amazement Lightning concentrated on the wound inside her husband's torn abdomen.
'Please... Please heal him.' she whispered through her trembling lips and it was then that suddenly she felt the cells react. Felt them tugging at the bond for real, felt them arranging themselves and starting to work, draining her of energy.
Lightning was happy to lend it too them.
Concentrating on nothing else but the gaping wound beneath her palms the pink haired woman slowly felt the bloodflow cease, felt the skin beneath them knit itself together.
It was panting as though she'd run a marathon and depleted as though she'd won it too, that Lightning finally took her hand away and opened her eyes to freshly healed alabaster skin.
For the first time in her life she'd done it. For the first time she had healed.