Disclaimer: I do not own any of the Sqauresoft Characters such as Cloud,
Tifa, and Barret etc. I do however own all of my own Characters Such as
Gale Amber, Stratus Strife and so on.

The Forgotten

Chapter 44: The Final Battle Part One

"He just wiped out Knights of the Round in one move?" Cloud gasped. "Unbelievable!"

"Dad." Stratus began. "This is very bad."

"Don't just stand around and do nothing." Piper cried. "Attack!"

With this Piper thrust his hand forward and a huge flame flew from his hand and hit Staan/Apocalypse directly in the chest. After the smoke cleared Staan/Apocalypse just laughed and stomped on the ground, causing it to shake and our heroes to loose their balance and fall to the floor.

"You cannot win!" he stated with force. "I am unbeatable!"

"Unbeatable huh?" Blain got to his feet. "Well let's see how you handle this!" He began to fire rapid bullets at Staan/Apocalypse with his Uzi. To his surprise and utter shock they just bounced of the armour and he continued to laugh.

"Stratus!" Piper stood and helped Stratus up with a hand. "Fire a shockwave at him on the count of three!"

"Chest?"

"Yes."

The two drew their swords about them and pulled back.

"One." Piper said.

"Two." Stratus added and with the three they both swung their black blades and sent out a blur of white light that his Staan/Apocalypse and caused him to stumble slightly. He regained his composure though and with anger slammed is foot down at them. They quickly dodged to the side and ran back a few feet.

"That's all it did?" Stratus panted. "Dammit!"

"Fire at him." Vincent said as he stepped up to Lance and Barret.

"Sure." They took up their guns and all fired at the exact same time but the bullets still didn't affect the huge creature.

"Pests!" Staan/Apocalypse grunted and lashed his tail at the group, who jumped back in time but fell to the ground with the force of the move.

"This is impossible!" Gale whined.

"We don't stand a fucking chance against this fiend!" Barret grunted as he got to his feet, bringing Lance up with him.

"No sense moaning about it." Red spoke and began to gather as much energy he could into his body then with a roar he fired his ultimate move the Cosmos Memory at the huge beast and the wave began to burn away at the armour. The blast had left the armour white and a small trickle of smoke rose from it but other than that the beast was fine.

"Eat this!" Cid yelled and with great force jumped high into the air and then descended, aiming his spear at the beats burnt armour. The spear hit but to Cid's horror just snapped on impact and he fell to the floor below. Vincent saw this and levitated slightly to catch his comrade. After setting him to the floor he spoke:

"I will let Chaos take me again. I am no help like this and we could use Chaos's flying ability."

"No!" Yuffie protested. "You can't!"

"I have no choice Yuffie." Vincent whispered to her.

"Vincent is right." Akira stated. "We don't have an option and we need all the help we can get."

With this Yuffie nodded and Vincent began to transform before them. Soon he was Chaos in all his glory and flew to the air, stopping at Staan/Apocalypse face.

"You again!" He bellowed and with a roar he sent Chaos hurtling backward. Chaos righted himself and attacked again, clawing away at the weakened spot on the beats black armour.

"It is useless." Staan/Apocalypse told him. "You cannot harm me with your feeble attacks."

As a statement he swung his palm at Chaos, who found it was too late to dodge and was sent crashing into the mountainside.

"Vincent!" Yuffie cried and ran to where he had landed.

"Let her go." Cloud ordered as Akira went to stop her.

"I'll go help her." Tifa said. "I'm useless her. If your weapons don't damage it my fists wont."

"Okay." Cloud nodded and Tifa ran of to help her friend.

"So what the fuck do we do now?" Cid bellowed as he gazed at his broken spear.

"To be honest I'm not sure."

"We keep attacking that's what!" Piper shouted as he and Stratus approached the group again.

"We aren't even dinting that damn armour!" Blain yelled.

"So we keep trying and eventually it will break." Piper said with a hint of annoyance in his voice. "It may be good armour but it will eventually break."

Blain took that to heart and began firing away with his gun, not backing of as he continued to unload his ammo onto the beast. Lance followed suit and began firing, followed shortly by Barret. While they continued to fire Cloud looked at Piper and Stratus and then spoke:

"Why don't we try a combined Flare attack?"

"Good idea." Stratus said and the three nodded and broke apart. Within seconds they had gathered their magic power around them and then fired of the huge flames at Staan/Apocalypse. He roared as the flames took affect and melted away at his armour.

"It is futile!" he thrust his hand around him and sent the three to the floor with a thud.

After regaining their composure they looked up to see the armour slightly melted but still not broken under the intense flames.

"Shit!" Piper swore and hit the ground standing up and bringing his blade to his side. He then began to swing wildly with rage and sent forth many shockwaves that struck the beast and caused him to flinch but still not breaking the armour.

Lance continued to fire and was unaware that Staan/Apocalypse had targeted him with a well-placed ice attack. The icicle was sent spiralling through the air towards him before he knew it he was pushed out of the way and the ice pierced his rescuers side and impaled him on the floor.

"Blain!" Lance cried and hurried to the man's side.

"Look after." He spat up some blood and then continued. "Look after Luna." And that was it. His eyes drifted shut and he fell limp on the icicle that was his death.

"You bastard!" Lance began firing away rapidly and Staan/Apocalypse just laughed and threw forward another wave of ice that Lance was able to dodge.

"I'm afraid we seem to be loosing this battle." Akira stated as he helped Lance to his feet.

"No shit." Piper barked back.

"No use fighting each other guys." Stratus said as he brushed the dirt from his clothes.

"We have to get out of here!" Rain finally said after a few minutes silence between the team.

"Listen to the pathetic boy!" Staan/Apocalypse gloated. "He is right. You know why? Because I am done wasting time with you! Behold the ultimate move that will finish you and this world. Behold. Armageddon!"

"Shut your mouth you foul creature!" Piper roared and charged forward, his Oblivion held tightly in his grasp until he yelled and threw it through the air at great speed towards the demons chest plate.

Staan/Apocalypse just smirked and thrust his hand forward sending out a shockwave which sent the blade spiralling back towards it's master and before Piper could even comprehend this the blade pierced his chest and sent him to the floor. Blood poured from his wound as he cried out then lost consciousness.

"Piper!" Stratus cried as he witnessed the demise of one of his greatest enemy's and one of his greatest allies.

Staan/Apocalypse laughed again and the held up his hand, dark black light began to form in his hand slowly as he smirked at out heroes. Yuffie and Tifa arrived back just in time to see the demise of Piper, with Vincent with his arms around their shoulders and tumbling through the land, barely awake.

"We better move guys!" Lance said as he began to back towards the airship.

"Agreed." Red spoke softly and followed after the boy.

The rest ran after them and they boarded the Airship quickly as the dark energy grew and grew. They gathered on the deck and looked on at what would be the end of the planet itself.

"Wait a minute!" Red suddenly cried. "I've got it. The Materia! We must attack the Materia on his head. Without that he would no longer be Apocalypse."

"He's right." Akira confirmed.

"But can we break the Materia in time?" Gale asked.

"I can." Stratus spoke. "Just get me close to that mountain and I'll jump to it."

"Done." Rain replied and ran to take the helm of the Highwind.

Soon the ship began to move towards the high ledge on the mountain that would allow Stratus to attack the Materia on Staan/Apocalypse forehead. Gale walked up Stratus and wrapped her arms around his neck.

"Good luck." She spoke into his ear and then kissed him before stepping back.

"Thanks." He replied with a smile.

The ship stopped and he walked towards the barrier between him and the ledge and with one leap he was on the others side. The Highwind floated of to watch from afar as Staan/Apocalypse energy ball became larger as more and more dark energy gathered in his open palm. Staan/Apocalypse had not yet noticed Stratus sneaking up on him and that's the way they wanted to keep it.

Stratus ran on and on, creeping slowly behind the demon Forgotten. Staan/Apocalypse ears twitched as they heard a scuffle from behind him and he began to turn as Stratus reached his back.

Shit! Stratus thought as the demon began turning and was relieved when a loud voice rang in his ears. One he hadn't expected to ever hear again. Piper.

"Hey!" Piper roared as he stumbled forward, clutching the sword that was embedded in his gut. He pulled it slowly from its place in his chest and grimaced at the pain until it was completely removed and it dropped to the floor, blood staining its long blade.

"You forget about me tough guy? I swore I wouldn't allow you to harm this planet and I meant it. Even if it kills me I said! So eat this!" With that he thrust his hand forward and tried to fire another wave of fire but failed and nothing but smoke rose from his palm.

Staan/Apocalypse roared into laughter and suddenly stopped when Piper began laughing too, clutching his wound tightly.

"What are you laughing at you idiot?" Staan/Apocalypse roared.

"You!" Piper cried back and motioned for him to turn around. Staan/Apocalypse slowly did so and was rewarded with a shockwave to his forehead that hit the Materia dead on and cleanly cracked it.

Stratus then dived forward and began slicing away as he reached the huge red orb. After many hits he drew the blade back and then drove it back down for the final hit, which to Staan/Apocalypse dismay shattered the Materia into tiny pieces in his forehead. Staan/Apocalypse began to shrink back to his normal size but the huge energy remained and began to fall to the ground.

"No!" Staan roared as the ball enclosed around him and swallowed him up. Stratus managed to avoid the relatively small ball as it crashed down into the planet and blew up, creating a huge wave of smoke and ash to rise and then fall back down.

"Stratus!" Gale cried and tears formed in her eyes as she saw the ball explode in his vicinity.

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