Final Victory

A memory suddenly came snapping back into her head, reaching out a hand in knowing what it meant. A word, a name, stood at the tip of her tongue, a fleeting dream that had once been faded coming to her. She ran forward, tears still lining in her eyes, as she stumbled to get to the arena floor. But something from behind reached for her, wrapping around her throat and ankles and holding her back as she continued to reach out a hand, another trying to get the black essence off from around her neck.

In her blurred vision, she saw the man suddenly disappear, the essence being cut away and allowing her run to the one wounded. Behind her, in what she had not noticed, the man glared, the light left in the sky reflecting off the blade he held in front of him. Hade shouted him a rage, his hair turning a blazing red.

"No! What have you done! Now she'll remember everything!" he shouted.

"Of course she'll remember," he answered, grinning that same small smirk that appeared so menacing. "And on top of that, you'll suffer a much worse fate than what I would've granted if you had obeyed me." The man side-stepped, waving a hand to him. "Though, I leave this first part up to the father of the kid you just murdered."

An enraged being came flying through just as he said that, reaching behind his back to grab the Buster Sword and slice it right into Hades. It somehow didn't hit him, but it did send a shockwave that pulsated him back into his chair and slamming into a wall. Cloud stood back on his own two feet, his face expressionless but his eyes filled with anger, as electric bolts shocked throughout him.

The man brought the blade that had been over his shoulder back into ready position, narrowing his eyes. Cloud nodded his head as Hades came to his feet again, saying, "For honor."

"For final victory," the man followed up, shouting in anger as he charged at Hades still shock being, Cloud coming up to the side in doing the same.

Nevaeh came barely to his side before falling to her knees in agony, seeing the pool of blood now soaking past his shirt and collecting on the stone ground. She could see the pain he suffered in his thin gazing eyes, grabbing the blade but unable to pull it out. Instead she did it for him, putting her hands on the side of his face to bring it back facing her. As tears rolled down her face, she surprisingly heard a chocked laugh coming from him, a smile forming on his face.

"Ow, that hurt, Nevaeh!" he said, her eyes becoming wide when she heard the tone of his voice. It sounded almost as if...he'd known her for all this time, for the time she could not remember, and yet before he acted as if he had never met her in his life. He only smiled, continuing. "I remember you now. My best friend Nevaeh from my time in the academy of SOLDIER. How did I ever forget that silver hair of yours and those beautiful green eyes...? The dance and then...darkness...that must've done it. What am I saying? Do you even remember me?"

As she stared blankly, down into those brilliant blue eyes, her heart seemed to freeze, that word now coming to her, along with the rest of her memories. Those days at the academy, spending time with her one and only friend; the day she had come back to find the main jock's nose was broken, learning it was he who had done it; that night when he had asked her to the school dance; and the first day she had ever realized he was like her, with a wing...

"Lance..." she whispered, him keeping a smile as he winced in pain.

"Hey," he replied. "Long time no see, huh?"

She laughed slightly in spite of her sadness. "Yeah. Nice to remember a friendly face."

He reached up and grabbed the wound in his chest, shutting his eyes as he gasped for breath through the gaps of his gritted teeth. Nevaeh became excruciatingly nervous, her hands beginning to shake in worry. She put her hands to her head, not coming with any solutions to this.

"Lance, I can't do anything for you. I don't have the power to heal. Can't you just use that healing technique again?" she asked.

"Sorry, but all the energy I had is gone. Even if I was to use a healing technique, it would kill me even quicker and before I could finish the spell, so..." he replied.

"No...No, you can't die! You can't!" she exclaimed, her throat tightening. "Please...Don't die, Lance...You mean so much to me...I ask of you, please, don't go..."

He tried smiling to make her feel better, but it was no use. He could not. Instead, he only reached up a red hand, putting it to the side of her face. "I had hoped that I could stay...but it seems...my time's up..." As he witnessed her shut those mako-green eyes, a small, clear tear coming off her eye, he could no longer sit back and watch as his life slipped by his fingers. If he was going to die, he was going to go out with a shock, maybe somehow setting his own troubles to rest. Lance, in his last effort, put his hand on the back of her head, leaning his head up to reach her forehead on his. Her eyes, in this sudden surprise, widened as he continued in a whisper. His mouth moved, but it was as if, to another that approach, nothing came out at all. That he was telling her, and her alone, what he had been meaning to say. But as the lady in white came behind and able to hear, she heard the whisper back of Nevaeh.

"And it is what shall always keep that light in my eyes for you..."

The woman in white took her shoulder, making her stand slowly but never leaving the sight of their glances. Nevaeh didn't need to turn and look to see who it was, for she already knew by the sound of the woman's voice as she spoke.

"Nevaeh, we should leave..." she said.

"But want to stay with him. Please, mother, let me stay!" Nevaeh proclaimed, reaching out a hand to Lance who did the same, soon crowded by the medics and his mother than came to his air.

"Nevaeh," her mother said sternly, "we cannot. As much as I would let you, we must flee. This world is unstable without the guidance of the Heartless, and with Hades weakening, it is only a matter of time before it reforms and sends it back from whence we originally came when the Heartless arrived. I am sorry, my daughter, but our world no longer exists, and if we stayed..."

"B-but what about them?! They were on the world as well!" she stated, being pulled along gently.

"Yes, but they have already made plans to leave. They have a ship waiting for them, as we do ourselves," she answered. "Now come, hurry!"

Nevaeh looked back again as the medics picked him up on a stretcher, about to carry him off. His eyes were falling back, his consciousness going dim, and as she was about to say the most crucial thing she ever said, she could only hope she heard him. She was released from her mothers grip, standing out a few feet as she screamed the last words he would ever hear.

"I love you! Do you hear me, Lance Strife?! I always have, and I always will!"

With this, the man looked down, catching this moment as his ally continued to torture the creature with a name. He just stared, confused for a moment as his only child fell to her knees, beginning to cry as his wife kneeled down, hugging her for comfort. His blood boiled as he remember this from so long ago, back when he was only there to realize his life finally meant something, back when his very soon reason of being was taken away. Well, now he had two, and he would not see either be hurt. This man, known as Sephiroth, clenched his fists with the masamune still in hand, looking out to the arena floor.

"Daughter," he spoke, his voice echoing and coming to her attention. She looked up to him, seeing his one free hand held out and clenched, his thumb outstretched and parallel to the ground. Nevaeh knew exactly what this meant for in a life of training to fight, she had always known what it meant. She raised her hand in the same way, narrowing her eyes in anger as she twisted it upright, her father grinning in amusement as he turned back. Sephiroth, going over to where Cloud had Hades in a headlock and extinguishing his hair with a pail of water the maids had brought him, only smirked, beginning to laugh. "Seems you've been outsmarted once more, have you not? Pitiful work in guarding your 'little gladiator'. But what can we expect from you, of all things. Anyway, be expecting to get what you deserve." He flipped the masamune in his hands, bring the handle side down onto his head, setting him unconscious and fall to the floor as Cloud let him go.

He kneeled down, reaching into his pocket and grabbing a small computer chip of some sort, setting it into the back of Hades' head and standing up as it sunk in.

"What was that?" Cloud asked.

"I ran across and annoying little robot on the way over, and, oddly enough before my wife gave my a computer chip extra from the ship, so decided to download the personality trait into it. Let's just say he'll be walking up with just another little voice nagging inside of his head."

Cloud smirked, chuckling. "You still got that bit of evil in you don't you?"

"Of course," he answered, turning away and beginning to walk.

"Hey Sephiroth," Cloud suddenly said, shrugging. "Thanks."

"Did what I could," he spoke. "But do you really think I would've helped you out if my child hadn't been here? HA! Whatever, you just get off this planet before it reforms. If anything, I'm going to be the one to destroy you before some planet does." With it, he disappeared around the corner, Cloud spreading his wing and flying off to where he was to go, the two families never likely to see each other again....

***

A light, illuminating glow fell from the skies, a dark, dotted area of space reaching to where it stopped at the gates, but it went on much farther than that. The snow collected at the base of her feet, even on the steps of which she sat on. Wearing a wool gray coat, her hair was back once again to the length it had been, maybe a little bit longer to her shoulders. She rubbed her hands together to keep warm, getting impatient as to why she was even out here. It had been her parents idea; why, she did not know, but they said they had a surprise for her. Some surprised, making her stand out here in the freeze cold. At least this town was deserted, or else everyone would be staring at her like back home. But then again, her original home was destroyed, so what was the point it bringing it up. This town, also known as Traverse Town, served for many refugees from the Heartless sweeps from a long time ago as a home, but ever since then, they had slowly weeded themselves out, making there way for knew and better places. The only thing that made them different was that her family hadn't found a sufficient home yet.

But it didn't matter. So long as she had a place to live, she was happy, and now that she was with her family she was even happier. The only thing missing was the big gap in her heart left behind at the Coliseum. The light which she had promised never did go out in her eyes, not even after the two months they had been staying there. But it seemed to dwindle every so often in the cold, miserable state she was in.

Soon enough she just couldn't take it anymore. After one last wind gust she had had enough. Nevaeh stood up, tightening her jacket to her. She turned away from the gates, looking back one last time before she began to climb the steps. As she reached the last step, hoping before that something would stop her, she sighed, shaking her head. It was a stupid notion anyway, to think he was ever coming back...

And then...she heard a humming. Surprisingly enough it seemed close, even when she didn't think someone was around. She twisted around, looking for who it might be. Though there was no one in sight, it still continued, Nevaeh beginning to think it was all in her head. But as she heard cough, she could determine where it was coming from, finally looking up. Her eyes widened, her throat tightening and her eyes swelling with disbelief when she saw who it was, sitting aloft on the roof and looking down on her.

"I was wondering when you were going to look up," Lance smiled, hopping and gliding quickly to the ground, folding his wing behind his trench coat.

He came over to her slowly, trying not to alarm her by taking any sudden moves. Instead, Lance put his hand on her shoulders, Nevaeh not flinching at all, but shocked that he was actually real. She smiled to this, reaching forward too and, in what it had seemed forever since the first time she'd truly known him, hugged him. He put an arm around her shoulder, a hand on her head as he hugged her back. They did not say anything, but only stood in that moment as the world was in a silence, the snow continuing to fall lightly on the town.

In a back ally, four people stood, watching as this reunion took place. Two of them just stared at the cute sight of their kids, the other two just standing back until their business was done here.

"Aw, isn't it that sweet!" Aerith proclaimed, gazing on to them as well as Kerah.

"Kinda funny if you ask me," Cloud stated, smirking and crossing his arms. "Never would expected something like this, but it's weird how life throws you a curveball."

"Or a nutcase, like you're head," Sephiroth sneered, beginning to laugh as his wife looked back with a irritated smile. "Yeah, yeah, I know. Stop making fun of people. Alright."

"Especially now that he will be Nevaeh's father-in-law," Kerah said, knowing by this he'd get annoyed.

"Don't remind me..." he replied in a mumble.

"Just for their sake, let's call it even," Cloud concluded, holding out a hand for him to sake.

"Sure," Sephiroth answered, shaking his hand. As he pulled it away, he smirked again. "But this still doesn't mean I couldn't kick your sorry-"

"Sephiroth!" Kerah exclaimed, cutting him short.

"Right...No swearing either..."

Cloud growled. "Do I see this as a challenge?"

"Yeah," he stated angrily back, putting up his fists.

"Alright, that's it! Bring it on!" Cloud shouted, jumping forward and putting his hands around Sephiroth's neck. He punched back, sending him out of the ally and storming after.

Aerith shook her head, sighing. "I swear, you couldn't mistake them for children!"

"Yes, well, what do expect from them?"

"Good point..."

Lance and Nevaeh broke from where they were standing, looking to their father's as they came tumbling out, Cloud landing another punch on Sephiroth's face. As he kicked up, he sent Cloud back again, standing up and turning to them with a reassuring grin.

"Don't worry, daughter. You just go back as you were," he said, and soon after a fist cracking him in the jaw and Cloud racing after him.

They both began to laugh, Lance shaking his head in pity. "They'll never learn, will they?"

"Nope," she replied. She looked back up to him, smiling. "But we did, right?"

He nodded his head. "Yep, and it's the only thing that was needed to be learned." He put his hands on the side of her face, just smiling for a moment before he slowly leaned his head of, not quite sure if it was something she'd agree with. But she just smiled back too, shutting her eyes when finally she received her very first kiss...

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And there you have it...THE VERY LAST CHAPTER! YEA! I finished my first sequel to ANY fanfiction! (not to mention you went through 44 pages in twelve font!) Well, hoped you liked it, and please review and tell me what you think!