Chapter 7: The Final Confrontation

"Sephiroth…" Cloud whispered in horror, "How is this possible? We killed you six months ago."

"You did kill my body Cloud, but part of me remained inside you. That part could only emerge once you were angry enough. Back when you let your anger take control of you while chasing that girl I was finally able to take a semblance of control over you. My rebirth was completed when you thought of me before activating the White materia," Sephiroth smirked.

"Now I'm back, thanks to you, and I can attempt to destroy the Planet once again. This time, you and the Ancient won't be able to stop me," he snarled. "The only question is which of you I should kill first?"

Cloud looked around in confusion at Sephiroth's statement until he noticed a pink shape lying on the shore of the lake. By the way its chest was moving up and down he could tell that it was breathing.

"AERIS!" Cloud thought excitedly, "You're alive!"

"Yes, the Ancient was brought back as well," Sephiroth growled in anger, noticing Cloud's excitement. "I wasn't able to prevent that, but now I'm not so sure that was a bad thing. By killing her again in front of you again it will only increase your suffering even more," Sephiroth said spitefully. "Then I will finish you off before hunting down and killing everyone responsible for what happened six months ago," Sephiroth said spitefully.

He pulled his sword away from Cloud's neck and started slowly walking toward Aeris.

"NOOOO!" Cloud screamed in pure agony. He tried to get to his feet but some invisible force prevented him from moving. Cloud started thrashing his body around in an attempt to break free but nothing seemed to work. Tears of frustration filled his eyes as Sephiroth turned to look back at him before raising the sword over Aeris' chest.

"I still have control of your body Cloud, there's nothing you can do," Sephiroth said as he readied the sword with both hands to pierce Aeris' heart.

Cloud suddenly recalled one of the things Sephiroth said to him and let his anger recede. He felt the invisible barrier vanish and jumped to his feet, drawing his sword as he stood. Sephiroth looked over in shock before viciously thrusting his sword downwards.

"The Ancient still dies!" he screamed furiously.

Cloud started running as fast as he could, even though he knew there was no way he would make it in time. Right before the sword pierced her clothing, however, a golden sphere shot out around her body, forcing the sword back.

Green eyes met green eyes as she opened hers and started into Sephiroth's. "I am the Planet's Protector and I will not allow you to harm it again," she said.

It had been ages since Cloud had last heard her voice and his tears of sadness changed to joy upon hearing her words. Sephiroth nervously stepped back, a look of confusion entering his eyes. He had planned on killing them both while they were still helpless and he had not prepared for events to turn out like this. Cloud stepped next to Aeris and smiled at her before shouting, "It's time for you to die for good Sephiroth. We end this today!"

Sephiroth snarled in anger before readying his sword. It had taken more then two people to kill him last time.

Cloud, deciding to end this battle quickly, leaped at Sephiroth and screamed, "OMNISLASH!" before performing his most powerful move. As he jumped back to Aeris' side he gauged his damage and was shocked to realize that Sephiroth didn't look hurt at all. Sephiroth started laughing uncontrollably at Cloud's feeble attempt to harm him before counterattacking.

Cloud screamed in pain and collapsed to his knees as Sephiroth's blade left a huge gaping cut across his chest. Aeris gasped in fear before pointing her finger at Sephiroth and muttering a single word, "Holy."

Sephiroth's laughter changed into a howl of pain as the spell smashed into him, knocking him onto his back and causing him to writhe in agony.

"I… will not… be defeated… by… a failure!" Sephiroth growled as he staggered to his feet, glaring at Cloud in hatred.

Cloud just looked at Sephiroth in disgust before pointing his sword at him and saying, "Ultima."

The spell, repeated four times because of the Quadra materia, crushed Sephiroth, brutally killing him, once and for all. The effort of casting the spell, however, caused Cloud to fall to the ground, unconscious.

"No! You can't die now Cloud! Not after we've finally found each other again!" Aeris cried out as she knelt by his side, tears rolling down her cheeks and gently splashing on his face.

After casting several cure spells Cloud's eyes finally opened and he smiled upon seeing Aeris' face.

"You really are back," he said happily, raising a hand to caress her cheek.

"Thanks to you," Aeris said as she looked deep into Cloud's eyes and smiled.

"Let's go find Barret and head home, everyone will be so excited to see you," Cloud said as he got to his feet and grabbed her hand.

Together they walked into the forest, happy to finally be together once again.

The End

A/N: Sniff… It's… done? Well actually not quite, there's still going to be an Epilogue where Cloud and Aeris get to spend some quality time together ;) This fic will be moving to an R rating when I add that chapter so you'll have to look in that section if you want to read it. In general I'm very pleased with this story and I think it turned out really well, yay! I hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I did writing it!