FINAL FANTASY VII

THE LAST ANCIENT

By AerithT

Part One: Deciding My Path

I sat on my bedroll at our camp just outside the Temple of the Ancients. We had just gotten the Black Materia and lost it as well. Sephiroth was so close now. I knew what I needed to do, but my thoughts are so jumbled. I took a deep breath and started from the beginning of what I knew. Thinking these things silently to myself.

The planet is the source of life for all things that live on it. It sighs with gentle winds, cries with thunderstorms, and bleeds with lifestream.

The lifestream is the living essence of the planet. When we die we return to it and become one with the planet once more. When and Ancient or Cetra dies, they are taken to the Promised Land, if worthy. There they are given a second life; they become whatever it is they wish to be. They can love, become married, and even have children. They do only what they wish to do. They love, live, and die when they wish, if they die for a second time they are then returned to the planet to be reborn.

Therefore, when we die we become one with the planet, this is only achieved in death. When we are born parts of the lifestream that carry memories, knowledge, and experiences are given to a new life to be added unto. This is only achieved in birth. When the planet is injured by anything like explosions, wars, or meteors, lifestream heals the wound as our bodies would if they were cut or bruised.

One man wishes to become one with the planet, to meld and gain it's memories, knowledge, experiences, and power in neither death nor birth, but life. Doing so would make him a god, the ruler of the planet and all life on it.

The only way to do this is to wound the planet beyond repair. Only one thing is capable of such damage, METEOR.

This psychotic and deranged man is Sephiroth, trained from birth to become the perfect SOLDIER. He is going to summon METEOR to wound the planet and then become one with planet, a god to a broken world.

I believe I am the only one who can stop him. I am Aerith Gainsborough, the last of the dying race, Cetra, the ancestors of the planet. I have long brown hair I usually wear in a braid and I use a rod. Mostly I rely on my magic ability. I was just a flower merchant on the streets of Midgar, but now I am the planets last hope. I know so little of my past and even less of my future.

Of my past I know only that my mother died when I was very young and ever since then I have been hunted down for experiments. ShinRa, a power company who also wishes to rule the world, has always wanted to use me as their weapon, like Sephiroth I suppose. But I will not become him.

Of my future I know only that it is not certain, and not guaranteed. It is without promise and hazy to me. I only know what I must do, now in this moment, as I make my final choice.

My friends are the only reason I have this want to stay in my head. I have not known them long, but I feel they are a part of me. They have become my guardians and my very source for living. I have come to know them so very well in such a short time.

Barret Wallace is the leader of a small resistance group named, AVALANCHE, fighting to destroy ShinRa's lifestream sucking reactors. He is about forty-two years old. He is a very tall with large shoulders and muscles. His right arm has been replaced by a gun. His skin is dark black and he seems rough and angry. He is angry, angry at the loss of his wife, his best friend, his hometown, and even his remaining friends in another town. Barret cares for a small girl named Marlene who is his best friends daughter. He took her in and has loved her as his own since the death of her parents. I have seen his go from screaming curses and firing bullets everywhere to bouncing his daughter on his lap.

Tifa Lockheart is also part of the resistance group AVALANCHE. She is average height with long black hair and deep brown eyes. She is about twenty years old. Her figure is one that could melt any man's heart in seconds. Tifa's parents were killed years back and she grew up with Cloud. Tifa is very encouraging to everyone around her. She is sweet and almost always cheery. I was almost blown away when I first saw her fight. As sweet as she is, she has hand-to-hand combat skill unmatched by most. Although she seems as though she is hiding a secret of some sort.

Nanaki, or RED VIII as we call him, is a fire lion. He is forty-three years old, yet in his time he is only ten or fifteen, seeing as his kind can reach seven-hundred-years in age. We call him Red VII because of a # VII tattoo he has from ShinRa. He too was experimented on for being of a dying race. He lives in a tribal village with an Indian tone to it. He amazes me, although he appears to be an animal, he is truly wiser than most of us. He is very polite and well spoken, hardly an animal.

Cid Highwind is a pilot with and attitude. He is a little above average height with gelled back blonde hair and flight goggles that are almost permanent. He uses a spear in battle and is never without a cigarette at thirty-two that can be dangerous. Once a ShinRa pilot he joined us on our quest after his company betrayed him. Cid's dream is to fly in a rocket to outerspace. It nearly happened once, but a worker would not leave the engine room so he stopped the flight and canceled his dream for another three years. It was at this point that I realized his true character. In my moments with Cid I heard more foul language in sixty seconds than in my entire life. When he is angry he lets the entire world know it, with a vengeance. Inside, though, he truly cares. He put his dream on hold to save a life. He truly is a tough talking tenderhearted old pilot.

Cait Sith is actually not a living being at all. His body as we know it is truly a stuffed toy of a black and white cat riding atop a giant Mog. The true Cait Sith is a spy for ShinRa whom controls the toy from ShinRa HQ. We first met Cait Sith at Gold Saucer, where he worked as a fortune-teller. Cait Sith uses a mega phone as his weapon, a little odd I must admit, but it fits his personality perfectly.

Yuffie Kisaragi is a sixteen-year-old ninja. She does not look the part, though. Yuffie is a little under average height with short brown hair and blue eyes. She uses a shuriken as her weapon, a four-sided star-like figure. Yuffie seems very high-strung and has little bit of a cocky attitude. Her hometown, Wutai, is, in her opinion, very boring and in need of a change. I think this is the reason that Yuffie has her little addictionm, an addiction to Materia. She's obsessed with the stuff. She even stole our entire groups Materia once. She did give it back though and claimed it was to help her town, so I suppose it's all right.

Vincent Valentine is the most mysterious member of our party. He is average height with black hair and deep red eyes. Vincent uses a pistol or a gun as his weapon. We found Vincent in the basement of ShinRa mansion, locked up in a coffin. No one knows how long he was there or even how old he is. I feel very strongly for Vincent, his life before and after his "sleep" in the mansion has been nothing but hardships. His true love was killed and his company left him to rot. I think he has a happy future ahead of him. He deserves it.

Cloud Strife is first class in SOLDIER. After he left ShinRa he became a mercenary, doing a little bit of everything. Cloud is average height with long blonde hair that is gelled in long thick spikes. He uses a giant buster sword with deadly skill. Cloud did a job for Barret and helped him destroy two Mako-Reactors. I bumped into him on the streets of Midgar and sold him a flower. Surprisingly he took it and for some reason I sold it to him for a hundredth of my normal price. He captured me from the beginning. Cloud is so cold and seems to hide from everyone and everything. He knows almost nothing about his past. I think I felt I could help him. I did when he fell through the roof of my church. But now things are so much more complicated. We went on a date rode the Gondola. We've become close. All the time he did noting but frown or grimace. But after that night he smiled. He opened up to me. We found we are so much alike. We both know very little of our pasts and are unsure of our future.

He is one of the reasons I have to leave. After all the places we have gone and all the things we have experienced I know I need to leave. Not just for Cloud, but for the entire planet. I know I love Cloud, with all my heart in fact, but I need to leave him for a time. Leave him to save him. I believe that only an Ancient Cetra can stop Sephiroth.

The past few days he has been talking to me, psychically. I have found that he too is an Ancient and needs my help. At first I was astonished, the mighty Sephiroth needs my help. This is when I learned that he being controlled by a being called Jenova, whom he believes to be his mother. I know the truth and I have to help him. He is not the evil killing machine he was meant to be.

As a child Sephiroth was experimented on every day. He was town from his mother's arms at birth. Since then he has known nothing but the evil workings of a mad scientist, Hojo. He was raised in a lab to become a warrior, THE warrior of all time. He has been lied to and punished for being one of the last two Ancients on the planet.

The same fate would have been bestowed on me and almost was. If my mother was not there to protect me for the few years she was alive. Or if Cloud had not come for me when I was captured, I would have become as cold as Sephiroth.

I believe I can change him. I must change him. When he called out to me with his mind and I saw his vision of himself, his true self, he was not cold, uncaring, or evil. He was in pain. He was struggling to gain control of the monster that took him as her slave. He cried out to me in a voice that sounded as though it had seen and known all the pain in the world and begged me to free him.

I know this could be a trap, but if there is any chance to save him I must take. He is even more like me than Cloud. I know I love Cloud, but I am feeling things for Sephiroth as well. I am so confused I feel like screaming. Are these things I feel just a desire to help these men or is it really love. All my thoughts are conflicting. I don't know. I don't know!

"I don't know!" I said, in a low confused voice.

"Hmm?" Cloud said, sitting up from his bedroll. "Aerith, are you okay?"

"Hmm, oh, I'm sorry to wake you Cloud."

"You didn't answer my question, are you okay?" A look of concern crossed his face.

"Yes, I'm fine just a little tired."

"Get some sleep okay. We've got a long walk ahead of us tomorrow." With this Cloud laid back down and smiled at Aerith. Then he closed his eyes to sleep.