Where is he?
I know he is still alive.
I can feel his presence, sense the Jenova mutation pungent in the air as it leaves him; the rancid smell is making my eyes burn.
It's just me and Sephiroth now.
I'm getting closer, the tunnel is twisting and turning at a fast pace, I can barely direct myself through it. It feels strange though, it's like I'm not even in here. Only, my mind is awake; I can see the black and white flecked tunnel surrounding me, twisting like a cylindrical labyrinth as my psyche flies through it. But I can't explain how or why I got in here.
I just now one thing, I must go forward. He's drawing me in towards him. I can almost smell the fear on him in the air whipping around my face.
He's weak.
The corner of my mouth curls up into a small grin as I know Sephiroth can sense me coming. He's trying to escape but I'm gaining on him and he knows it. I'm almost there; my fingers tingle, twitching for the grip on the hilt of my sword that will no doubt puncture Sephiroth into death and lock that monster eternally into oblivion.
'I'm sure Hades could use a playmate' I think to myself with a smirk.
But suddenly, my body is – 'Slowing? Why? What's going on!' The tunnel jerks upwards and opens up, revealing a window into a distant area in space.
'What is this place…?'
I can see the stars, the constellations are unfamiliar to me though…it hits me – I'm a long way from home now. As my eyes roam the window into this foreign galaxy, one planet stands out. A heavenly aura surging through it causes it to glow like an ancient moon, enchanting with the colour of a golden star.
For some reason, I feel at peace. Everything else just melts away; I can't remember it, any of it. I'm comfortably numb in this serenity. Only one person fills my thoughts at this moment, calling me, beckoning me, soothing me.
Aeris…
I can hear her voice. She isn't speaking, yet I know what she is telling me. She's waiting for us, all of us. We can go there, to this mysterious planet before me, and meet her there when our time comes.
This is Aeris' promised land.
I yearn to linger just a moment more, but as quickly as I arrived here, my body falls and with a burst of speed, is pushed through the tunnelling labyrinth once more.
Aeris…you caught me…but you couldn't hold on…you never could. And now I'm back into oblivion.
Within seconds the tunnel narrows to a straight, and I can see something faint up ahead. The more I look, the faster I head towards it before I finally emerge in a surge of light. The light reveals itself to be the emerald glow in the unnatural ancient eyes of my awaiting foe.
Sephiroth stands before me, completely stripped of his Jenova cells and strengths.
He is only human now. Here in the lifestream, Jenova cant…she can't dwell can she? I feel myself smirking at him. The Masamune held in his grip, is the only sign he is his former self. No armour. No materia. No nothing. Just Sephiroth and his keepsake.
He smirks at me as if I am a puppet he always wanted me to be. Taunting me. His haunting laughter is ringing through my ears, stinging them to an almost unbearable level.
It's time…
Without even trying, I know the purpose my spirit was summoned here into the lifestream, and I feel my body pulsate with a phenomenal amount of energy…
To end this…
I feel myself running towards him. Anger, hatred, betrayal, murder, all the emotions and memories he ever stirred in me rush to my head in a steady thudding, throbbing and pulsating until the sound of my own heartbeat becomes too loud to bear; and the sun of a bitch still dares to laugh at me…
Now.
"AR----------------GH!"
Slash after slash after slash.
For Tifa
For Zack
For Mom
Slash, he yells, slash, he bleeds, slash, blood, slash, red, slash, pain.
Slash,
Anger.
Slash,
Hatred.
Slash,
Betrayal.
SLASH – Murder.
"And this…" I spat, into his butchered face as I raise my sword high above us, and whisper in panting breaths;
"Is for Aeris"
The blade slices the smirk clean off of his mangled face for good. My blade.
I am the master of puppets now Sephiroth.
His face distorts into an expression mixed with excruciating pain, sheer shock and panic as he looks at me. Because he knows exactly where he's going now. There is only one place left for him. He is to be a trapped soul, forever chained onto the walls in the madness of his tortured mind. His spirit is dead and as with everything there ever was of him.
Everything is gone.
He went from everything to nothing, and now there can finally be an end.
His body explodes in front of my eyes, in a blinding light, spitting out the last of Jenova's red contrails, and I watch every second of it to make sure;
Sephiroth will never return.
"It's over. It's finally over." I whisper in my gasping breaths. That last fight took all the energy I had in me. It's as if my whole body has gone limp. God I can hardly breathe let alone stand… "Well, at least the world has a chance now to fight for itself. I hope there is still time…"
Wait, what's that?
As if to answer my plea, a green soothing aura begins to snake around me, seeping through from the earth below me, illuminating me in a tall cylinder of white light. "…Lifestream?" I struggle in weakness to lift my head enough to look for the source – and am welcomed with the best sight I could have ever hoped for.
"Aeris!" My mind calls.
Immediately, I feel my energy restored, just by gazing into her captivating green eyes, so calm, so innocent and yet so strong. She is floating - just a mere image and nothing less.
But…
My initial hope fades - she's not coming back to me.
I can see her hand, her arm, reaching out of the green mist surrounding us with it's bright, temporary light. My trembling hand reaches for hers, as much as I dare. Slowly.
Slowly,
Just a bit further,
I can almost touch her fingers, and pull her from her world, back to mine, hold her again and tell her just how sorry I am for everything and sorry I never let her get close, because she was right all along, I only ever lov--
Suddenly, she blinks breaking eye contact. I falter, what is going on? The look in her eyes, it's chilling me to the spine – one of sheer horror and shock. She never had that look in her eyes ever before, not even at her own…death.
She screams almost deafeningly, shattering the light around us. In a split second I'm back where it all began – and what I see makes my heart leap into my throat.
The hand of Aeris turned out to be Tifa's as I return to reality. Her eyes are frightened, so terrified, oh Hyne she's so scared! Through determination and sheer desperation, she is reaching for me with all her will, dangling dangerously over the –
"CLO----------UD!"
I don't have time to think.
I just leap into the air and grab her, not caring if I fall, I just need to hold her and try to save her – in the same instant, I reach my hand out and cling onto the ledge just in time. We hang there for a few moments frozen in time as the world collapses around us.
My heart is thumping hard in my chest.
God I almost lost her.
Panic, sheer panic. I'll never forget it. The way my heart just seemed to jolt, as if being squeezed suddenly by a tight fist, suffocating, excruciating pain. Just now, seeing Tifa on that ledge, it was as if my whole world was on the edge with her. My nerves tingled with panic and I couldn't breathe.
The moment the ground crumbled and her body fell, my whole world shattered into a million worthless pieces.
But she's safe now.
You're safe Tifa…you're finally safe.
I don't think I have ever, or will ever want to go through that experience again. My arm tightens around her, protecting her as she clings to my chest. She is so precious to me. I don't ever want to let her out of my arms again.
She's safe…I keep telling myself. I didn't let Tifa down, I didn't lose her. She's ok, I saved her. She's here with me. This time I saved the one who needed my help…this time…but only just. I would have failed Tifa too if it wasn't for Aeris.
Aeris…
Then why couldn't I do the same for Aeris! Why couldn't I have saved her too!
The blame, the guilt it's coming back.
No! I can't let it take over me again. My thoughts are messed up, I need to start thinking straight again. The planet and Aeris showed me, told me not to blame myself and that one day I can go back to her and see her again. But only when it's my time. Not now. Now is not my time to go, not yet.
And thank God it wasn't Tifa's.
"I think I'm beginning to understand." I mutter, breaking the silence.
She stirs lightly in my arms.
Just that little movement had my breath caught.
"What?" She says looking up at me with those unforgettable eyes of hers.
"An answer from the planet. The promised land. I think I can meet her…there."
My realisation voiced, it makes sense to me now. I will meet her there, at the distant place that my planet showed to me; the promised land. The final resting place of the ancients. I will go there, I will go to her. I can.
I know that now.
"Yeah, let's go meet her."
I look down at her. 'Let's? Does she understand what I just said?' It's Tifa, of course she does. Then that means…
I feel her gentle grip around me tighten as she rests her head against my chest. She feels so warm, I don't want to let her go. In her own discreet way she just let me know that she would go wherever I would go, even in death she wouldn't let me go it alone. In her own words as she always did, she showed me her never-faltering companionship to me. She would be with me always.
I owe her so much.
Slowly, I hoist her up safely until she can grasp the ledge herself. Once she pulls herself up, I follow her, sitting down hard on the ledge in relief; we made it, we're safe…
She's safe.
Then it dawns on me.
"Hey, where is everyone?"
Tifa looks at me baffled with a sudden look of worry and deep concern on her face. 'Oh no…please don't tell me they didn't get out…don't tell me their –'
"Heeey!"
Both me and Tifa look up instantly to see the beaming face of Barrett smiling down on us, waving his large hand in the air. The others are all sat with him, looking shaken up but safe.
Phew…
"I'm glad your all safe!" Tifa shouts back waving happily at them. I can tell she was as terrified as I was that we could have lost our friends to the crater. But everyone's safe. It's finally over…
I look over at Tifa smiling up at our friends; just take a few moments to simply gaze at her. I never did take the time to appreciate just how beautiful she really is…though it's a bit late now, I just can't resist. She's grown up into the picture of her mother. Just as beautiful a person inside. Her loving heart really shows as she smiles up at everyone.
I love everything about her. Her never ending optimism, her hope even when times are hard (And I'm getting myself chucked into the lifestream), her will, her strength of heart, her companionship, her friendship, her hair, her eyes, her smile…
I can hear the sounds of the rest of AVALANCHE talking high above us, and all of a sudden her eyes look over at me and meet mine. She's looking straight at me, that smile of hers still on her face.
How am I supposed to fight that look?
Without holding back, though I doubt I could have even if I wanted to;
I smile back.
She moves closer to me as if to say something, but I can tell by the look on her face she is as speechless as I am in this moment. Tonight nearly cost us our lives. We came so close to death in the battle for the planet, but we came through in the end.
And here we are again, it's just me and Tifa. Just like it was when it all began. When we were kids. We're still here, still the person the other depends on and always will.
Her smile fades, but not in sadness. Not one bit.
She looks closely at me and I look back at her, exchanging a silent understanding.
At the same instant, we reach out – I open my arms and she falls into them.
We survived
We're alive.
We're as close as we ever were.
And as I kiss her hair I make a silent thank you to those above us for granting me one more day with the woman who unknowingly taught me how to love her.
The girl from Nibelheim.
