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Well, the last three chapters weren't all that great, and on top of that they were a little confusing, so I'll make it up to you in the next chapter.

Chapter 16.

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Instead of a hailstorm of summon spells emanating from our three bodies, instead we all felt pain. Excruciating pain. Uncontrollable, heart wrenching pain. It felt like every muscle in my body had suddenly gone into the cramp of my life, but on top of that, burning…I could feel and smell my flesh burning.

I couldn't even scream very loud. My diaphragm had locked on itself, only compounding the pain I was experiencing. How is it possible for humans to feel this and not pass out?

I opened my eyes when the horror subsided a bit and saw a huge black void encompassing our bodies. Red XIII was bent over backwards. He was moaning in agony, as his head was nearly touching the base of his tail. I suddenly realized that his back might actually be broken in two pieces right now. I glanced at Tifa. She was curled into a ball, and her skin looked like it was melting. She was moaning and screaming through clenched teeth.

What was doing this to us? It looks like Shadow Flare, but Shadow Flare never felt like this!

I had been screaming this whole time, and when I stopped to breathe, the dark corrosive substance that had exploded around us penetrated deep into my lungs. I felt my lungs on fire.

I wish I could describe it to you. But then again, I'm glad I can't. I don't want you to know how I felt. I don't want anyone to really know how I felt right then. The only way I can safely describe it to you is that, under normal circumstances, humans would have passed out after a few seconds of this.

Here I was…at least a minute of this, and something wasn't allowing us to black out. We were all doubled over in pain, (or in Red XIII's case doubled back in pain).

Then, the pain subsided. It didn't go away, not by a long shot, but suddenly digressed into something the three of us could tolerate. We stood up on our giant floating rock and squinted around to see the black around us, and in its center, a somehow resurrected Jenova.

So that's what had happened! Jenova had willingly made us think she had died so she could get us close to her "dead" body in order to unleash this new attack.

I reached for my sword through clenched teeth and felt that it was burning hot. The leather surrounding the hilt had actually melted off.

Speaking of skin…

I looked at my hands and saw charred flesh. I felt my face and felt ash…

Like I said, under normal circumstances, we should have passed out a long time ago. We probably should be dead.

But she was keeping us alive. Using power I had never seen nor fathomed possible, Jenova was tormenting us to death, yet keeping us alive.

Suddenly Jenova, renewed and reborn, stood up, spread all her arms out wide, and let loose a massive wave of blue and black.

It hit us sending us at awesome speeds against the walls of the dungeon. With a crack, our three bodies were thrown like rag dolls into a wall that felt like concrete. Red XIII finally passed out and his body lay limp, suspended against the wall by the painful blue/black waves emanating from Jenova. Tifa squirmed and looked up at me.

I take it back. If there is any one thing I am glad I can't describe to you right now, it is how she looked at me. A mixture of pain, guilt, remorse, horror, love, hopelessness, and sheer terror.

BAM!

With all the force of a truck, a giant purple blast hit Jenova from behind. Her giant body fell flat against the ground releasing a tremendous boom. Tifa, Red XIII and me, finally released from Jenova's magical grip, fell to the ground. Tifa lay in the fetal position. I was sprawled on my face twitching. Red XIII lay still…

I couldn't see what was going on. My eyes hurt too much. But from what I was hearing I could see the new battle that was happening around us.

The giant purple blast I saw was Yuffie unleashing her most powerful attack: All Creation. I had seen it only once before, ironically, right on this very spot when we had been fighting Sephiroth. That attack had not only broken Sephiroth's concentration, but also had sent him reeling.

The same thing had just happened to Jenova.

Unfortunately, Sephiroth had been hurt last time. Jenova, this time around, had not.

She stood up, completely unhurt, and then turned on Yuffie and the rest of the reinforcements. I'm not sure what happened next. All I know is Barrett screamed "NO!!! CAIT SITH!!" followed by the sound an engine makes when a piston blows: a large crack followed by a screech, and then silence.

I forced my tired, burnt, and battered body onto its knees. I cast a heal spell on myself and felt life back in my wobbly limbs. I then cast Big Guard on the three of us again to ensure our safety as I brought Tifa and Red XIII back to consciousness. I looked around and saw Barrett unleashing his Pile Bunker with unabated fury. Cid was too nervous to get close enough to use his powerful Venus Gospel, so he resorted to summon spell after summon spell after summon spell. Yuffie focused, and unleashed a second All Creation which again put Jenova flat on the ground. Cait Sith…

…lie on the ground in pieces. I saw the remains of his gears and his HP Shout, and only cringed at the thought of what possibly could have blown him to bits. Literally.

Red XIII, after I had healed him, stumbled to his feet. "We can't stay here," he cringed and his leg spasmed. "She's too strong. We must leave…" "We can't leave," Tifa said. "Jenova was always weaker then Sephiroth. Think how strong Sephiroth will be if Jenova is allowed to resurrect him!"

"Tifa's right. We can't give up!" I said. Just then Barrett, Cid, and Yuffie were hit by that same blue/black wave and they went flying into the wall with a crash. Their bodies left imprints into the rock, and Cid's leg was speared by a rock that had been jutting out of the wall. His blood ran down his clothes extremely fast. For once in his life he didn't cuss. In fact he didn't make a sound. He couldn't. His diaphragm, like mine, had locked under the pain. But we didn't need to hear a scream to know what pain he was in. His face was screwed up and the veins in his neck were bulging.

The other two, Barrett and Yuffie, had it easier. First off, they didn't have they leg skewered against a sharp rock. Secondly, they had blacked out. I guess Jenova is only able to force one person to stay conscious at a time when she uses her blue/black wave. The first time it had been me. The second time, it had been Cid.

But hadn't also Tifa stayed conscious during that attack? Right up until the end?

I shook the thought out of my head. It was irrelevant.

I had to stop Jenova. I couldn't let her do this to my friends. They meant too much to me. I couldn't let the planet down. I couldn't let Tifa down. I couldn't let Aerieth down.

"For Aerieth…" I whispered.

I ran forward, grabbing my sword, and ignoring the singeing sound my hands now made, I released, with all my fury, hatred, and vengeance, my most powerful attack. The attack that I had only once before been able to pull off.

"OMNISLASH!!!"

I felt my sword pierce her hard, fleshy skin, and let my body twist and twirl, stab and slash with glee. I cut her body to ribbons, it seemed. Again and again and again and again I unleashed the demons in my heart with absolute exhilaration.

Only to find out that my sword was not piercing her flesh at all.

She made a slow moaning sound that sounded eerily like a laugh, and then I saw her giant web like arms grab me and throw me like a base ball. I hit the wall so hard that the wall actually broke and folded around my body. I think I broke my neck by the whiplash, because I could no longer feel my legs. I fell flat on my face and struggled to breathe, but my arm could move fine so I pushed myself on my back in order to breathe better. Tifa crawled up next to me and held my head in her arms. She muttered something under her breath, which must have been another heal spell, because I felt my vertebrae in my next pop back into place and suddenly I could feel my legs again. I stood up, not exactly sure how my body was still in one piece. I looked at Tifa and thanked her. I then looked at Red XIII who looked confused and scared. Yuffie and Barrett lay against the floor, and Cid was now on the ground. His leg was still bleeding profusely even though he was no longer pinned against the rock, so I ran over to him and healed him as fast as I could. As soon as I saw that his leg was no longer bleeding, I risked a glance at Jenova, which I am later glad for, because it saved both our lives. I saw Jenova prepare a new attack. It was yellow colored, and judging by her movements I knew it was aimed for me and Cid, and also judging by how long it was taking her to power up it was extremely deadly. I grabbed Cid's limp body (he was now cursing again, which was a good sign) and ran as fast as I could behind a large rock. I then looked behind me and saw a huge yellow flame explode where Cid and I had just been. The rock that we had been standing on literally disappeared. "Holy $#%!" I said. If that had hit either of us, there wouldn't have been any bodies to bury.

'What are we going to do?' I thought. 'None of us can even pierce her skin now that she's mad. Not even my Omnislash could do it.' "We'll die together," I heard a voice say behind me. I felt Tifa's hand on my shoulder. "And we'll die defending the planet." I heard her say. I stood up. I looked at her. I was still angry with her. Despite all that was happening around us, I was still angry with her. To this day I can't believe that I was unable to say I was sorry right then. But I did agree with her. I nodded my head, roused the others, and then convinced them to give it one last chance. Yuffie and Barrett stood behind Cid, who stood behind Tifa and Red XIII and me. We moved out from behind our protective rock in a brave, triumphant last stand. Jenova looked amused. Again she did that strange little moan that sounded kind of like a laugh. Then she lifted her web-arms above her head and she started chanting again. The ground around us shook. The lifestream around us swirled in all directions, almost as if it was trying to run.

I readied my sword, and with tears in my eyes, muttered, "For Aerieth guys…for Aerieth…"