Disclaimer: I do not own Final Fantasy VII, Advent Children, or any of their characters.
Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children
JENOVA flung one of its whip-like tentacles at Cloud, only to have him dodge it. Both Tifa and Cloud had an uneasy feeling as the ground shook and dirt was thrust upward from where the monster had hurled its limb.
' How do we destroy this thing?' The blonde man asked in his Sephiroth-infused mind.
' I honestly have no idea. I assume that our combined strengths will be enough to at least hold her off...' Sephiroth, with his mind now fused with Cloud's, was completely clueless on what they were going to do.
' You better be right!' Cloud yelled in his mind, running forward at the towering creature in front of him. The Buster Blade made a connection to the tip of a tentacle, and tore through the hideous flesh.
Blood spilled from the wounded limb, and both men gained a ray of hope. Their victory was short lived however, as the fragment merely re-attached itself to JENOVA's slightly gored body.
The parasites voice rang out in a laugh as the tentacle lashed out once more to bite the man in front of it. Its fangs tore into his flesh, letting a trail of crimson flow down his right shoulder where it had clamped him. Both Cloud and Sephiroth's voices cried out in agony as another tentacle attached itself, and then another. The small jaws of the awkward looking mouthed tentacles began to grind at the man's flesh, sending a searing pain throughout his body.
In a fury, Cloud slashed at the attacking limbs and sliced them off, causing the biting jaws to fall off limply and reattach themselves to their former body. Blood trickled out of his wounds as he stared up at the monster in bewilderment, just in time to have its abdominal jaws snap at him. He moved as quickly as possible out of its path, receiving only a slight tear to his leg from a jagged fang.
Tifa watched in horror at how JENOVA toyed with him, planning to slowly kill him, and regain its cells by devouring his body. Cloud was indeed struggling to destroy JENOVA, and with the fact that JENOVA had just knocked him to the dirt like he was nothing, it became apparent it was a struggle he was going to lose.
" Cloud... Please don't die... I couldn't bear to lose anymore..." Tifa choked softly from her pale lips. Her eyes were bloodshot, and her face stained with tears, as she continued to stare at the battle in front of her.
Cloud and Sephiroth cried our for the second time that night, being thrown mercilessly into the ruin Tifa had chosen to take shelter in. The force of the throw caved the weakened roof in, and dust, wood, and weak concrete fell to the ground. The woman was lucky that none of it hit her, but the relief was brief, as she realised Cloud wouldn't have the strength to break free from the rubble.
A black leather gloved hand reached out of the ruins, and both Cloud and Sephiroth used all of their power to pull Cloud's weakened body from it. Slumping over onto a wooden board, they glared at the monster before them intensely, determined to make it pay.
Weakly, using both of his hands, he pointed the Buster Sword at the now laughing JENOVA.
"You fools! Don't you understand?! You cannot defeat me! I have the power of the Cetra with me! There is no way to kill me!" It screeched in its hideous voice, saliva dripping from each of its many mouths.
"We'll see about that, BITCH!" Sephiroth suddenly separated from Cloud's mind and took over. Cloud was too shocked form the sudden change to fight for control, and let the ex-general fight.
The blonde, now Sephiroth's to control, continued a deadly dance with the beast, hoping that somehow, they would find a weakness... A hope he knew would never be fulfilled.
Yazoo was frozen. He couldn't move. He couldn't breath. But strangely enough, he found that there was no need for air. Struggling with his frozen body, and the blackness about him because he couldn't open his eyes, a sudden realisation hit him hard.
' I am... dead...?" And no sooner had he realised this, did he realise something else. ' If I am dead, then surely I cannot move by physical means... Perhaps... I must move myself mentally...?'
He focused on movement, and sure enough, he felt himself stand from his laying position. Slowly Yazoo let his eyes flutter open, hoping that at the very least there would be light...
Nothing... Blackness... Yazoo was surrounded by the same darkness he had been just moments ago. He expected his mind to be filled with confusion- maybe even fear- but all he felt was some sort of knowing.
Slowly, a soft green glow began to brighten, and he turned himself to its source. He found it easier to move himself now, and his gaze met the wispy green substance that lay behind him. Yazoo's eyes widened in shock and his mouth dropped slightly.
"The Life Stream..." His soft words echoed within this massive void. He glanced around at the rivers of green, turquoise, and soft hints of many other colours in front of him.
A few of the brighter strands weaved their way quickly to his left, and Yazoo watched them, forcing his gaze to fall over to another figure.
' Perhaps this is not a void after all...' He thought, as his yellow eyes met Loz's yellow-green ones.
" Yazoo!" The shorter haired man dashed toward him, and stopped a few feet away. "You're alive!" He said exasperatedly, a grin crossing his features.
"No... We are dead..." Yazoo replied monotonously, the grim thought re-entering his head.
Loz looked slightly shocked to hear those words, but it clicked into him pretty fast. "I guess Kadaj broke my neck back there..." He raised a hand to touch his throat, and he rubbed the spot that had been gripped. Strangely enough to him though, there was no pain. " So, are we stuck in the Life Stream?"
"I do not know... I have heard that it absorbs souls and reincarnates them... That or sends certain individuals to some 'Promised Land'. I am unsure of what will become of us..."
"Well that... sucks..." Loz stated, and noticed his comrades eyes roll at the childishness of his choice of words.
Do not worry my children... Soon it will all end... Soon the Calamity from the skies will be no more...
Both men looked around them, shocked at the soft voice that had just rung out. The elder of the two decided to yell out to it. "Who's there?! What do you want?!"
A soft, gentle laugh echoed around them, and the voice began again.
I am The Planet... You are my children, and soon you will fulfill your purpose, and save the lives of many...Aeris... Show them...I will wait for the third... Then, peace will reign...
Yazoo and Loz saw the blackness around them fade. It grew more and more white around them, and soon it began to fade into something else. The two men found themselves in a field of flowers. The many sweet fragrances from the different varieties toyed with their senses, and both stared in wonder.
Neither noticed that they no longer wore black, and proceeded to look around at the endless plants. Yazoo wandered over to a small rose bush and knelt down. He noticed his change of attire when he reached out a no longer gloved hand to touch one of the delicate petals, and saw a white sleeve. He looked down at himself, and no longer saw a black trench coat.
Loz had noticed the same thing when he saw Yazoo wander over to the flowered plant; both of them were clothed in long white robes
Yazoo was wearing the long white robe, and it reached to around his ankles. Like his trench coat before, the collar went up to his chin although it didn't have the zipper that ran up the middle of his former garment. The sleeves were long, and partially covered his hands, the opening at the ends being wider the sleeve itself. A blush crept across his pale face slightly as he realised that he no longer felt the fabric of his pants underneath the robe, making him wonder how it was even possible to blush in death. He did however feel a soft pair of boots that went up to just below his knees, which unsurprisingly were white as well. Yazoo didn't mind wearing the robe; in fact he found it quite comfortable. What he found awkward was the feel of something extra on his back, a weight that wasn't there before.
He looked over his shoulder to find his gaze disrupted by white feathers, and he stared for a moment in fascination as he stretched and folded the wings on his back a few times.
Loz found himself doing the same thing with his newfound wings, being clothed in basically the same thing as his companion. The only difference their attire held was the fact that like the elder of the two's old outfit, it was open at the front around the chest.
"You two like them don't you?" A cheerful voice suddenly called out. Both men immediately snapped out of their child-like state of amusement, to turn their gaze toward a pink-clad woman with long brown hair. They stared at her in questioningly, Yazoo ruffling the feathers on his wings slightly.
"You must be Aeris, like that voice stated earlier." Loz spoke out to her. "You were a friend of Cloud's, right?"
The woman nodded, spreading her own pair of white wings. "The Planet brought you here for a reason... Do you know why?"
Loz and Yazoo exchanged glances and then looked back confused. Both shook their heads gently, and Aeris responded by making a gesture with her hand to come closer. The men walked over to her, and found themselves kneeling as they reached her.
" JENOVA may have erased your memories after your reawakening..." Aeris reached out both hands, her index and middle fingers touching their foreheads. Her fingertips began to glow with a white light. " You were told that you were meant to be super clones of Sephiroth... You believed you were nothing more than failed experiments... You weren't failures at all..." She smiled, as she let their true memories flood back into their confused minds, pushing away any of JENOVA's created thoughts. "The Planet created you, to protect it at this time. You weren't products of Shin-Ra Inc... You weren't Sephiroth clones... It's true, you weren't human... Yazoo... Loz... You and Kadaj are Cetra... Let your true memories reawaken, the time has come for you to carry out your real intentions!"
The memories flooded their minds, and they felt the lies being washed from their thoughts rapidly. This woman was telling the truth to them, and they had the memories to prove it. Aeris took her hands away, a soft smile forming on her face.
"You remember?" She asked them.
Both Yazoo and Loz nodded at her, rising to their feet. She stared up at them and then she closed her emerald eyes.
' Planet... Is he there?' The half Cetra questioned the voice in her mind.
Yes... It is only a short time before he awakens... Then the three will stop the Calamity... Soon my daughter... Soon my sons...It is almost time...
The Planets voice reached all of their ears, but this time it wasn't a shock to the men. The three of them simply stood and waited, a gentle breeze blowing by in the field.
Kadaj stared at the Life Stream flowing around his laying form. He had already figured out how to move his body, but he chose not to. The thought of how he had just caused so much devastation before death kept him from trying to go anywhere. A few tears leaked their way from his eyes, and he began to cry softly. He didn't bother to wonder why he could cry even though he was dead, and moved his entire body for the first time. Kadaj curled up into a ball, and let his emotions rush out of him in the form of sobs.
Strands of his silver hair clung to his face, now wet from the fluid flowing out of his eyes.
"Why?" The young man choked from his dead, unphysical self. "Why was it me who had to kill so many people? Why did I have to make so many lives suffer? I'm evil... I don't even deserve death... I deserve eternal suffering for what I've done... Why, Planet, has The Life Stream not dissolved my soul into nothingness?"
Child, the Calamity used you to create havoc on my surface... You were never meant to do such things... But it could not have been prevented... Your mind was weak... You knew not of your true past, and thus the Calamity found it fit to use your body for her work... After all, it had less power than that of a Cetra...Who better to use than a Cetra?
Kadaj's eyes widened. His tears continued to flow from his emerald, cat-like eyes, as he looked around fearfully for the source of the voice. He knew, however, that it was futile. Not only did the voice seem to come from all around him, but it was inside of him as well.
" Who-Who's there?" He whimpered in between sobs.
It is good that all three of my children are ready now... Kadaj, you are my son, a Cetra... You were born straight from The Life Stream, not from the glass of a test tube... You were never clones of Sephiroth, but rather beings of your own. Your memories were falsely burned into your mind by the Calamity... Do not worry... The time has come for her to be extracted form this world...
" Cetra... I am no Cetra! I'm a monster, created by humans to protect them, and I destroyed them! I've doomed their race, and the entire planet!" Kadaj cried out at the voice, and the wisps of The Life Stream began to swish around him. A few green strands of the mako energy made their way to his forehead, and they passed through, filling him with his true memories.
Kadaj, you are my-The Planet's- son. A Cetra, born directly from me, whose purpose was indeed to defend mankind and myself... And you will do so, now that you remember who you are... Look at yourself...Your wings have spread, and your true form has been revealed...
He looked down to see the white robes on him, the only difference from Loz's and Yazoo's, whom he hadn't seen, was the fact that the collar was open to the top of his chest. He felt the weight of feathers on his back, turning his head to see the wings on both sides.
The blackness began fading to white, and then a flowery field, where he saw Yazoo and Loz standing with what looked like a young woman, both of them having undergone the same changes. He walked, taking long strides over to them, anxious to be with them once again. Kadaj nodded at the woman whom he recognised as Aeris, even though he had never seen her before.
"With your memories you have probably regained the thoughts of what you must do... JENOVA took your bodies, and most likely doesn't realise that you can still control them. Kadaj... Yazoo... Loz..." She looked at each of them. "Each of you is now a part of JENOVA's body... A part that you can take away..."
The men before her nodded. She fell to her knees and clasped her hands together in prayer, chanting something in a strange language that Loz and Yazoo seemed to catch onto quite fast.
Kadaj watched the eldest of the two men kneel down by Aeris, and he joined in her chanting. Yazoo watched them for a moment and then he knelt as well by the brown haired woman. He chanted the strange words in this foreign prayer, and the young man noticed a weak light on both Loz and Yazoo's hands beginning to glow brighter.
He knew he had to pray with them... But what if all he did was doom The Planet again. Kadaj looked toward the ground below him in shame, unable to carry out what he was supposed to do.
' What if I'm not the right one? What if..."
You are a Cetra... Pray my son... Pray for Holy... Take your place with them and call upon Holy...The Calamity will be stopped and peace will reign...
Kadaj nodded at the voice, and knelt down with Yazoo and Loz, completing the triangle they had seemed to form around the woman. He clasped his hands together and began chanting the strange, but familiar words silently.
The four voices repeated their words in unison quite a few times. Kadaj noticed that the light that had found its way to his hands was coming from a small, white orb that Aeris was holding. It glowed brilliantly in her hands, as did the once weak light on theirs. He and his two brothers were almost startled when they heard many more voices that seemed to come from all around them join in. The light began to grow brighter, and more and more voices began to call out.
He realised these were the other Cetra, and that Holy was taking effect. Soon, through his now closed eyes, the young silver headed man could see the light making its way from his hands to the materia in Aeris', and to both his brothers. As if Kadaj had been mentally instructed along with all of the other voices, their chanting stopped.
He opened his eyes to see the light had made it nearly impossible to see, but he could make out the figures of many other men and women. Their appearance didn't frighten him, but rather made him smile. He looked at Yazoo and Loz to see warm smiles on both of their faces directed at him.
It is over now... The Calamity's reign of terror ends now...
All three men, along with Aeris and the other Cetra watched as the brilliantly glowing white orbs flew from her hands and into the air. The light completely engulfed everything, blinding them all for that moment.
Cloud and Sephiroth let out a cry as the blondes body hit the ground with a sickening crack. They stared through his eyes, bloodied and broken. Barely able to even force a glare at the creature, both men realised this was the end. They were going to die now.
"You should've made this easier for yourselves..." JENOVA hissed, somehow rushing forward at Cloud, jaws salivating and snapping violently.
Tifa screamed and Cloud braced himself as he felt Sephiroth lose control of his body.
Suddenly, JENOVA stopped. Both individuals stared at the monster, which had just frozen dead in its movement. It glared at them, growling as a white light began to leak from it.
The light suddenly poured from its mouths, its eyes, and through cracks that were forming on its body. A glowing white split began to make its way down JENOVA's forehead, light spilling from the opening.
The parasite howled loudly and inhumanly, pain rushing through every square inch of its being. It felt itself being split forcefully apart, and true to the feeling in its body, it shattered.
Cloud and Sephiroth stared through weakened eyes as the parts of JENOVA's body began to be swallowed up by the light, and it screamed in agony as it was torn and dissolved violently by the light of Holy. The blue light that remained from the parasites mind tried to fly from its doom, but was also engulfed in Holy's merciless light.
The screaming stopped, as JENOVA was completely absorbed. The white light faded and there was nothing. Silence, except for Cloud and Tifa breathing, and the rustle of wind through the ruined area.
Cloud felt his strength return, as well as Sephiroth's presence strengthen; Holy had rekindled their energy before vanishing back to its place in the Promised Land. He rose to his feet, as did Tifa. With JENOVA gone, GeoStigma also disappeared, allowing the woman to walk as if nothing had happened. She and Cloud stopped and stared at where the monster had once stood. The creature that had caused them so suffering, was now gone for good.
Tifa strode off toward where Loz had run earlier with Marlene, figuring the High Wind was that way. She didn't feel like talking too much after seeing Yazoo die.
The blonde man unwillingly let her go, as Sephiroth stopped him.
' It's best if you let her go Cloud... She will be fine. Soon we should head back, but I sense that you should remain here a short while longer...'
He accepted the ex-general's suggestion and took a seat on the ruined, dirt ground, the wind blowing his even messier blonde hair slightly.
" Cloud..."
He looked behind him, unsurprised to see Aeris there. What did surprise him were the three figures with her.
" Aeris..."
"It's over now... She's gone... The Calamity from the Skies is no more..." She looked at Cloud with a smile on her face, and quickly noticed his confusion as his gaze wandered to the three men behind her. "They are Cetra. Kadaj, Yazoo and Loz are the ones who just helped you out... It's funny how people can go from bitter enemies to having to save each others lives, huh?"
The blonde stared at Kadaj, and the silver haired man returned his gaze with his now gentle one. He could tell the young man was different now, and didn't feel any threat from him.
"I am sorry for what I have done... I was never meant to be that way..." The young man stated softly, bowing slightly at Cloud.
Yazoo and Loz also bowed at him, before the longer haired one strode off quietly toward the now running Tifa in the distance. His pace quickened, and he broke into a slight run himself.
" Yazoo!" Aeris called out. The man stopped and turned. "Not now... You'll have time soon enough..." She smiled sadly at him. He shot one last sad, yet warm glance toward the running woman, and came back toward them.
"We will have more time together soon enough Cloud... Right now, it's a little hectic in The Life Stream dealing with JENOVA, but it should be under control soon... Good bye for now Cloud..." She hugged him tightly, and surprised him by delivering a long, gentle kiss to his lips. Aeris stepped back from him with another sad smile. The four figures of his friends floated upward slightly, a white light engulfing them.
Cloud reached out for Aeris' extended hand, his now un-gloved fingers touching her ghostly ones. She smiled and so did he as she and the silver haired men disappeared. It saddened him slightly to see them go so soon, but he had a gut feeling he would see them... her... soon enough.
Averting his gaze to the now starry night sky, he smiled as he watched a shooting star sparkle and burn up. He bowed his head slightly for a moment and made a wish, lifting his gaze to see even more.
' A meteor shower... Quite beautiful isn't it?' Sephiroth interrupted his thoughts.
"It is... It truly is..."
The blonde man turned toward the general direction of the High Wind, and began striding off for his friends. His eyes never left the sky, as he watched not for the shooting stars, but for a glimpse of his angel, who he knew was still somewhere out there.
FIN
A/N: Well, sort of... And thus concludes my AU, totally off version of the unreleased movie Advent Children. A big thank you to all who have reviewed and do review in the future! :) Thanks for your support, I really needed it Hope you enjoyed this story, and it's conclusion... Well... Ok, chapter before conclusion. If you want, you COULD stick around for the epilogue to come...
Thanks again for the reviews and the support! I'm serious, this is the first story I've ever actually finished that was more than five chapters... --; Well, review as always!