Cloud's POV


The white light blinded me and I put up my hand to cover my eyes. A revolting crunching sound suddenly cracked through the air. I opened my eyes, the blinding light gone, and everything seemed to move in slow motion.

Everyone stared at the cataclysmic event as Meteor smashed right through the LifeStream, pounding into the city, ripping it to shreds. The LifeStream had failed, Holy was useless, Aeris's prayer had died, because of the Black Materia. As Meteor made contact with the Planet, I heard an awful moan sounding through the earth- The Planet itself was crying out in pain!

Meteor exploded as it crunched into Midgar, sending a shockwave of heat and debris flying around for miles, right at us!

"Tifa!" I yelled through the noise, knowing she couldn't hear me.

She turned, her face distorted in horror as she realized this was the end.

"Cloud!" she called back, her soft lips quivering.

I could see my reflection in her misty eyes right before the shockwave hit us, throwing buildings and people every which way.

I was thrown down onto the ground and I fearfully watched the buildings collapse around me. The heat was exhausting and painful, scorching my lungs with each breath. Closing my eyes, I winced hearing screams of pain and sorrow.

"Tifa!" I screamed, hoping she was alright with every drop of my soul.

I opened my eyes and immediately stood after the noise and shock ended, gazing through the yellowish mist that clouded the town now. It was a sickening color, and I coughed so hard my lungs ached.

"Tifa!" I called again through the sick haze, coughing. I heard others coughing and crying around me. But I didn't care about them right now...

I noticed a small broken body lying at my feet. I bent down and cringed as I saw it was Marlene, curled up, her torso was torn in two by a portion of a roof that fell...

I looked away from Marlene's saddening figure and saw that the entire town was now littered with corpses and broken houses. Only a few people remained with minor or no injuries, me being one of them...

Everyone else was dead.

Then I saw her, lying still under a broken support from a building that crushed her. She had been pulled under it from the shockwave.

"NO!" I ran over and pulled her body from the wreckage. "No! This isn't real! This can't be happening! Tifa!" I held her in my arms, but her body fell limp.

I stared in disbelief and blood began trickling down her lips.

"Tifa! You can't die!! You can't be dead! I love you!" I confessed and hugged her tight. "I love you..." I whispered, sobbing terribly against this new pain.

It was worse than the pain I had felt when I killed myself, it was worse than when I had to die again in the LifeStream, it was worse than being impaled by Sephiroth's Masamune - it was so much worse...

"I came back for you...I went through all that pain for you... You can't just die on me," I whispered, but her eyes lay shut, her body lay still. "Please don't leave me here alone..." Hugging her cold body to mine, I felt the worse sensation of loneliness and sorrow swept through me.

"What did I do to deserve this?" I asked outloud, lying Tifa's corpse back on the ground. "What did I do!!!!??" I shouted, rage coursing its way though me.

I stood, unsheathing my Ultima Weapon and let out all my anger and frustration pounding into the ruins of a destroyed house. I screamed in a flurry of intense rage. "This is all HIS fault! This is all Sephiroth's fault!" If it weren't for him, Meteor would have never been summoned and Tifa would have never been hurt!

But if it weren't for me, he would have never gotten a hold of the Black Materia... That didn't matter, I argued in my head, HE'S the one who summoned it, and his destruction was the only thing on my mind!

I knelt next to Tifa's corpse for a moment and gently gave her a final kiss, stroking her beautiful dark brown hair.

She would never smile, laugh, cry...or get angry. She was gone.

Taking a final glance at her beautiful face, I wiped the renegade tears from my cheeks and picked up my Ultima Weapon once more, watching its pale glow illuminate the yellow dust that was now settling.

Then, I turned and rushed from the dead town, running as fast as I could. In the distance, Midgar wasn't even visible, crushed under the giant rock of Meteor. Everyone in the slums, everyone I had known was dead now...

"This is all his fault..." I cursed, rage spitting through each syllable.

But a sudden faint sound stopped me short. It was a muffled chirping, like the warbling sound of a chocobo. I paused, listening again, trying to decide where the sound was coming from. Then I heard it again.

I followed the warking sound and found the tattered remains of the Highwind, useless for flight now with its cracked hull. I tore through pieces of the ruined hull, as the warking got louder and louder.

I uncovered my gold chocobo, warking ferociously. Once it saw me, it began chirping cheerfully, trying to run over to reach me. It's a wonder the thing didn't die. The airship must have provided great protection for it.

"Wark?" It stared at me as I pulled debris out of its way, freeing it from the airship.

I patted the chocobo on its golden-feathered back, when I got an idea. I could take my gold chocobo to the North Crater and avenge my friends' deaths... and Tifa's death...

I would kill Sephiroth.

I swung my Ultima Weapon back into its sheath across my back and mounted the chocobo, grasping the reigns. I steered him out into the ocean and across to the snowy continent where the Northern Crater lay...