[Author's Quickie: Sorry, once again, for the delay! Impediments abound in my life...(mainly SATs, homework, and my own hectic lifestyle). Anyway, don't let the title fool you. This isn't the last chapter, but rather the next-to-last chapter. Chapter thirteen will be an epilogue, of sorts. So...what were you anticipating, eh? They just might come to fruition....]

Disclaimer: Haven't put up one of these in a long while! I don't have ownership of Squaresoft licensed...things. Just pretend it's omnipresent at all times.

Project: Trinity

Chapter Twelve: The Devil's End

Lost within a sea of dreams,

forever drowning in your tears.

Look up towards the sky, and, maybe...

you'll see my soul amongst the stars.

Curiously, she felt no pain, no fear, no panic. It was nice and simple, like watching everything out of a television screen, remote from the comings and goings of former loves and past enemies. Detached, Aerith looked out of glazed eyes at the thunderstruck face of Leon, and the two clashing figures to the side with little more than apathy. Who cared, really? Life and death, death and life...one revolving wheel, of which she was just one tiny spoke. Who cared?

She could just float away...

* * *

"So," Sephiroth drawled in smug amusement, bringing the curve of the blade up and forcing Cloud to look at him, "Any last words? The curses and unholy epithets usually reserved for me? Sayings of endearment to your long lost love, perhaps, before you pass out of this world?"

His face carefully blank, Cloud nevertheless glared at him out of lidded blue eyes. "Fuck off," he said derisively, turning away. This is it, he thought, trying to steel himself for the inevitable blow, no more pain, after this. Just eternal oblivion. The sweet death, even though death was hardly ever sweet. Once again, his love was thwarted--once again, death would keep them apart. Aerith, I'll see you again...till everything is over...I won't give up. The afterlife--was such a thing possible? He hoped so.

Until a thousand years has passed...I'll wait for you.

Closing his eyes, he waited for death to embrace his soul.

It never came.

A sudden whoosh passing by his left ear told him that Sephiroth had struck--just as a warm, sticky crimson-colored liquid streamed down his arm--but there was no pain. Death was supposed to be painful. With wide eyes, Cloud stared uncomprehendingly at his hand--still moving--for a few moments, his brain knotted into a tight twist and unable to function. Sluggishly he tried to move the rest of his body, and found that something was on top of him that was preventing it.

Perplexed, he watched as a black-gloved hand dangled limply in front of his face. His stomach curling, he reached up and tugged the body over onto the ground. His heart stopped as he realized what Leon had done. The fool! Cloud thought angrily, though what he was angry about he couldn't say. Jumping in front of Sephiroth's blade...!

"Looks like you've made a new friend," Sephiroth observed, his lips twisting into a sneer, "But it's a little too late for much to come out of that now."

"Why--" Cloud muttered, grabbing Leon by the jacket and shaking him desperately in an effort to get an answer, "Why, you fool?" Leon's eyes flickered open weakly and he made an vague effort to smile.

"It had to happen," Leon said, his head feeling unbearably heavy as the pain in his chest increased with the laborious effort of speaking. Slowly his fingers held up the pendant, where the Griever emblem had once hung lustrous and gleaming. In its place was a carving--but no longer bright, no longer beautiful, no longer a masterpiece of craftsmanship. The pendant was tarnished, rusting right before his eyes. Impossible! Cloud thought violently. Impossible...!

In the background, he thought he could see Griever rotting before his very eyes. He was sure he wasn't just imagining the guttural, animal screams of pain. What had happened?

Another deafening scream resounded in his eardrums, the voice sounding peculiarly like someone he knew, and Cloud whipped his head around to see Aerith hunched over on the ground, her shoulders shaking. Her hair tangled into wild knots and with her eyes wide and overflowing with tears, Aerith scrambled up, an unmistakable look of dread fixed onto her face. Emotion. She was feeling, showing, emotion. She had broken out of her shell. Cloud's heart leapt.

Sephiroth's face became a distorted look of fury, and his voice was seething cold anger. "So," he hissed, the Masamune quivering in his grip, "He figured it out." He touched his temple with the tip of his index finger with a mocking sneer. "You're smarter than I give you credit for, Squall Leonhart, but no less a fool." A sharp bark of laughter escaped his lips as he floated up, his solitary wing outstretched lazily. "Fool," he scoffed, gathering a black orb of crackling energy in his hands, "To save your own enemy who would have killed you in battle moments before...you would sacrifice yourself!"

Burning with irrelevant anger, Leon stumbled to his feet and yelled, "What would you know? You, who destroyed worlds for one measly, pathetic little vendetta... Using me and Aerith just to gain your precious revenge..." His hands shook as he clenched them into fists, the pain of the wounds searing through his whole body like liquid fire. Fight. Fight it. It's almost over... "What right do you have to preach to me about what I should do?!"

The amused look died out in Sephiroth's eyes, and he regarded Leon with a cold glare. "She said that to me, too," he said, jerking his head to indicate Aerith's quivering figure. He raised his hands, the power coursing throughout his whole body, engulfing him in a gleaming robe of black. Like a scythe, the Masamune quivered in anticipation of the blood to be shed. "But it does not matter, anyway. May you rot in eternal oblivion!"

In a downward strike the sword flew, and Cloud knew instinctively there was no dodging this blow. All of a sudden, a blast of white light from the side knocked Sephiroth away, and he crumpled to the ground, eyes wide. "What the--" he muttered uncomprehendingly.

With deliberately slow steps Aerith advanced, her trembling hand held out in front of her. "Stay-away-from-them," she gritted out, tears of anguish sliding down her cheeks. She finally understood; Sephiroth had been sly enough to realize her special connection with Leon, and Sephiroth had used that to his advantage. It was Sephiroth who had planted the spell to summon Griever in her brain, Sephiroth who had played the clever role of manipulator by bringing Cloud to fight Leon in the arena, Sephiroth who had known how poisonous Griever would be to any magic wielder. But I... But when Leon had taken the fatal blow, it had shattered her summoning spell--broken the threads she had weaved around herself and banished Griever back into the void. Torn away from her reverie, she had found herself in the midst of a battle for life. And while she had been wandering...Leon had suffered. Inside she felt her guilt mounting. She had been the one who had started it all.

She stopped, protectively shielding Cloud and Leon from his wrath. "Cloud," she whispered, her voice burdened with anxiety, pain, and fear. Behind her, she could hear Leon's breaths coming out in shallow, laborious pants, the breathing of a man who was dying. It wasn't supposed to be like this. She dared not turn around to face them, either Cloud or Leon. My fault. "The killing blow," was all that she could manage to say.

Without a word, Cloud nodded and rose, picking up Leon's discarded gunblade in one hand. No emotions, he told himself, readying himself to accomplish what he hadn't done for so long. Just anger. Sephiroth glared up at him, and, faster than the eye could see, let out a burst of black fire that streamed out of the palm of his hand.

"Flare!" Sephiroth screamed, his eyes glowing with cruel malice. He would not lose. He would not lose...! He had so much at stake! He needed his revenge...!

Cloud leapt back from the flames from sheer instinct, but Aerith had realized Sephiroth would put up a last-ditch effort. "Wall!" she cried, forming a luminous shield around Cloud, even though a part of her wanted to retch at the reminder of the crystal veil she had so unknowingly destroyed. The flare spell bounced back from the invisible barrier, dissipating into dust. Seeing the opportunity to strike, she screamed, "Cloud, now!"

Swinging back his blade, Cloud dashed forward with a loud cry, the tip of the Lionheart shining with bright white light, the light of Holy that Aerith was trying so hard to secure. "Omnislash!" he yelled, his hand moving with well-practiced fluency. The killing blow! Right, left, up, down; his arm swung this and that, the blood pounding thickly in his ears as he ignored Sephiroth's howl of despair. In a final, downward slash, he pierced his enemy straight through the heart. He doubted that the bastard even had one.

Sephiroth's face twisted into one of fury--and then he disappeared into infinite black dust, so very much like the way the Heartless had died. There was nothing left of the man who had caused so much misery.

The gunblade fell from Cloud's limp hand, an enormous burden finally released from his shoulders. Peace...at last. Aerith... He turned around, wanting nothing more than to enfold her in his arms and shed the tears he had held back for so long. He found her kneeling on the ground, Leon's head resting loosely on her lap. Something was wrong.

Aerith looked up at Cloud, the tears still running down her face like rain.

"Leon..." she choked out, a look of pure pain etched on her beautiful features, "He's dying..."

* * *

[Ending notes: Please don't torch my house down, Leon-Aerith lovers! Alright, so readers finally know what my plan is! But don't get so smug yet... The next chapter, number thirteen, will be the last. Exactly a week from today, on Thursday, April 10th 2003, I will post up chapter thirteen. Can you wait until then? Alright, see you next week!]

**Psst, Wild Rinoa! Want to be more specific? What setting, Kingdom Hearts or AlternateUniverse? Love triangle or one-sided? Supernatural or modern setting? Give me some hints here, okay? I want to do a good fic for your reading pleasure!**