Disclaimer: Squaresoft of course.... ***Author's notes***This was a chapter I did for a writing contest on FFGON, and I really like it so I wanted to post it and see what kind of reviews it got...anyway, have fun!!!!

Darkness loomed before him. It was as if a black fog had set in and was refusing to lift. The blade tried to come crashing down, and resistance was useless on his part. Her frail head would crack beneath his blade, at his own hands. He couldn't bear that, but it seemed as if he must. He was being controlled, by another force. She didn't have long for her life, not long at all...

A voice shouted for him to stop, but he couldn't. He thought there were other shouts, but they had become inaudible. His blade would come crashing down at any second....

'but shouldn't it already have fallen?'

He was being stopped. He still couldn't see, but he felt the ground rush up to meet him. He lay there for a few moments as memories rushed to him. Sitting on the playground with her, talking about........

'what were we talking about............'

her old boyfriend.

Memories of him crashing down on her flowerbed and hearing her name for the first time. A name he would remember forever. A name stored in his mind from the second he had heard it. He felt himself being lifted slightly.

He opened his eyes, realizing for the first time that they had been shut, and that the black fog billowing in his eyes, in his head, had deteriorated. He looked up to see a smiling face. That face that he himself had almost just put his blade through.

"Who stopped me......."

"You did it yourself." the smile replied as it grew slightly larger.

"How......" He couldn't finish his sentence. A flash came over his eyes, and she even saw them turn entirely white. In his eyes, things started forming. Those things became them. He was holding his blade and she was smiling.......just smiling at him. But as he put his blade down after his internal struggle, another blade came down and went behind her. A black figure held the handle of the sword and pushed it forward.

The other end of the long, slender blade protruded from her delicate stomach. Blood spilled onto her dress and it became shades darker. The blade was withdrawn as she still smiled. Forever smiling as she fell forward.................................................

His eyes returned to their normal blue and he saw once again. The girl's smile was gone, but seeing him awake seemed to rejuvenate it.

"You alright?" She asked, knowing he would say he was fine. And he didn't let her down.

"Yeah....I'm fine."

"Good."

She helped him to stand slowly and they began to walk away. But he took in his surroundings quickly and knew what was going to come. But he was prepared.

A black figure came down with his slender blade pointed toward the girl. He saw it in the corner of his eye, but he didn't want to see the blade from her stomach again. He took out his sword quickly. She looked over at him with alarm, before noticing the danger looming above them drawing ever closer.

He was pushed back as he slashed and the blade missed her stomach. It went in her still and blood dripped from her back.

"NOOOO!!" He cried, but she remained standing and looked to the man in black.

"You can't stop it." she told him. "Evil never wins and the planet doesn't want to be destroyed."

"But all that is left is to take your life and head north." he replied. "The planet has no say in whether or not it is destroyed!"

"What about US!" he cried to him, aware that he wanted her dead, and was fully prepared to do so.

"Are you trying to act as if you have feelings? You can't"

He stood up from where he had been knocked back. "I won't let you kill her..." She glared at the evil man before walking away to him. She was smiling again. She pressed her face to his lightly and thanked him in a soft quiet voice. She pushed him back, and told him to stay put. He didn't want to; for his stomach had gotten an aching feeling...

'my fingers are tingling.........my mouth is dry......and .........tears?'

She walked away from him and stood next to the man in black. He pulled his sword forward but she took no notice and walked forward pulling the jewel like ball from her hair. She chanted things in the language of the Ancients and it began to glow. The glow grew larger and the blade now near her neck was unable to move, and so were both men. The light grew bigger and brighter with seconds, and he was unable to reach her, to save her.

'but this is what she wanted.......she went with a smile............'

He couldn't help it....there was nothing he could do, and he couldn't see her in the white fog now.

He could do nothing. Nothing but let the tears flow freely for the first time...........and yell to her................

"AERIS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

And his yell repeated over and over until the blinding light dissipated and both her and Sephiroth were gone. Two things lie on the altar where they had once been. A long slender sword lay where Sephiroth dropped it, and the shiny Materia lay where Aeris had last stood. Cloud picked up the White Materia, and cried, knowing, that though she was gone, so was Sephiroth and Meteor. But neither of those thoughts comforted him now.

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The End.....