Everyone looked up at the sound of the mysterious voice. A person walked onto the battlefield from the right of Damien. He stopped, the laughter dying in his throat.
"You."
Tifa Lockheart stood in between the two warriors, glaring daggers at the imposter figure.
"Me."
Cloud had let the handle of the Ultimate Sacrifice slip from his fingers. The bright gold weapon clanged loudly as it struck the dirt, and time suddenly seemed to stop. He took a shaky step forward.
"Tifa...?" he gulped.
"Cloud..." she looked over at him, her brown eyes soft and sorrowful.
"Tifa!" Barret shouted. The others ran back onto the field.
"Tifa!"
"Stop right there!" she cried. They all skidded to a halt before her. She closed her eyes and smiled gently. "I'm fine, but now I need you all to do me a favor and leave this place as fast as you can."
"But we can help!" Yuffie protested. Tifa shook her head, opening her eyes.
"This is a battle Cloud and I must fight together...by ourselves."
They all looked at one another.
"Promise me you'll come back," Red XIII lowered his head and inched toward her. Tifa rubbed his fur and stroked a hand across his scarred cheek.
"I promise."
"You too, Cloud," the animal turned to him.
"I'll see what I can do," the boy replied dryly.
"Good luck," Kenya nodded to them both. He and Red XIII turned and made their way from the battlefield.
"I love yeh, Tifa," Barret gave her a strong, one-armed hug.
"Barret..." she grinned sheepishly and rolled her eyes. Barret wiped his own eyes with his hand and suddenly whirled on Cloud.
"You'd better bring her back alive or your spiky white ass is mine!" he shouted, running off after the two creatures. Cloud shook his head. Vincent tossed a clear orb to Tifa. She caught it in both hands and studied it.
"I don't know what it's called," he explained, "and I'm not quite sure what it does–why don't you find out?"
"Thank you, Vincent," she smiled. The mysterious gunner turned on Cloud.
"Cloud...take care."
"Thanks," he blinked in surprise.
"Tifa, I can't let you guys fight alone!" Yuffie stomped her foot. Tifa put a hand on the younger girl's shoulder, "Yuffie, take this back to Wutai."
Yuffie stared at the offering, eyes wide.
"You're serious, aren't you...?"
"Take the materia, Yuffie," Tifa nodded. The ninja girl took the pouch full of orbs, tears abruptly clouding her eyes. She swiped an arm over her crimson cheeks and darted after Vincent.
"You two better not die!" she hollered over her shoulder.
"Good luck, Kid," Cid slung his arms around both Cloud and Tifa's shoulders. "I hope you both beat the royal fucking crap outta this guy...but don't do anything I'd be doin' afterwards..."
With a wink he turned and left. Tifa blushed slightly and Cloud just looked plain bewildered. Cait Sith was the last one left. He bounced up to the two, smiling at them happily.
"I'm happy I stuck by you guys," he meowed. "You've taught me a lot; now I think you've taught me something else."
"I'm glad," Tifa smiled back.
"You guys have always told me to be strong. Now I'm going to tell you the same thing," he grinned, backing up a few steps. "Here, I'll even do a reading!"
The cat-mog creature swung his arms and tapped his feet, performing his fortune-telling dance. He pulled out the card and handed it to Tifa.
"Read it when I leave," he said. "I don't want to know how right I might be."
"Thank you, Cait Sith," Tifa nodded. The black cat waved and bounced off atop his stuffed pink mog. Cloud and Tifa looked after him until his figure faded from view.
"It's just us now," Cloud sighed, leaning down to pick up his sword.
"It will always be us, Cloud," Tifa looked down at the paper in her hand.
"How'd you come back?"
She smiled her sorrowful smile again, then read the card: "'Death cannot stop true love, only delay it for a time'."
"What?" Cloud looked down at the card. "He's never gotten something like this before–"
"Cloud, I want to tell you what I learned in the Promise Land."
He glanced up quickly at her: "You were at the Promise Land! Then you saw–!"
"Aeris is fine. In fact, she's the one who explained the war of the gods and the legend of BahamutZERO and the other summons to me."
"So it's true? We really are descendants of gods?"
"Not descendants...just people inhabited by a second spirit. When the souls return to Gaia, sometimes the god which created that particular river of Lifestream stays with them as they are reborn into the world."
Cloud's eyes went to the floor: "Then I am evil."
Tifa's hand on his cheek made him look up into her eyes.
"You have just inherited the power of the dragon, not his nature. If that were true, would you really be the Cloud Strife you are?"
He shook his head. Tifa smiled, then leaned over and put her lips against his ear.
"Would you like to know how I came back, Cloud?"
"Y-Yeah," he nodded, staring at her beautiful face from the corner of his eye.
"I heard you," she whispered softly.
"I love you," he whispered back.
She stepped back and he watched her. The materia she had been holding in one hand rose into the air above them, suddenly joined by the gold and red PhoenixZERO orb. The two spheres hung there for a few moments, and then a deep golden hue encircled them both. The light spread across the ground, reaching the figure of Damien, who had stood frozen. Now he looked up at this new glare of light and raised one half-amused eyebrow.
"What is it this time?"
Tifa turned to face him. The materias flared, and a red beam of light encircled the three left in the area. As she stepped toward the clone her feet left burning prints where she placed them slowly, deliberately. Halfway across, wings of flame burst from her back, incinerating all of her clothing. Golden electricity shot from her body and crackled along the ground around her. Her eyes burned a bright, gleaming gold, like the materias which hung above her. She was suddenly clad in a long white robe, red and gold trimmings hanging from the sleeves and skirt. A golden headband with a red gem stood out on her forehead, jewelry adorning her arms, hands, and neck.
"BahamutZERO... I have been defeating you for thousands of millennia, and you still do not surrender."
It was Tifa speaking, but wasn't; Cloud heard this as she addressed the god living inside Damien now.
"The Phoenix God has come to fight one last time, only to fall," he replied, his own purple and black aura surrounding him. It seemed to suck up the light Tifa was emitting and growing larger. Damien had also suddenly sprouted huge silver and purple wings. Wicked-looking spikes had rose from his back and shoulders, and his eyes were intensifying in their green glow, narrowing to slits. The Phoenix shrieked. BahamutZERO roared.
Cloud Strife watched in awe as the two entities rose up to the sky, blocking out the stars which tried to outshine the light of the battle before him. There were shrieks and roars; some of triumph and some of pain. The Phoenix shot across the sky, leaving a trail of golden light behind it. The silver, six-winged dragon suddenly filled the sky with purple lightning and covered the ground in flames of the same color. The Phoenix landed in front of Cloud, singing the song he had always recognized–
...Steal through the night and discover, beside me forever...
–but never placed until recently. The dark shadow of BahamutZERO loomed over the great bird in a last attempt to smother its life. It gave one mighty shriek, its song filling the air with such sweetness it brought tears back to Cloud's eyes. The Phoenix's eyes shone and it dove forward, shrieking wildly. A brilliant white explosion rocked the earth, making Cloud stumble. He looked up to see BahamutZERO and the Phoenix no longer there, but Tifa and Damien. The clone fell to his knees, clutching at his chest. He wasn't injured, but something else had occurred–Cloud could feel something was missing now.
"Your defeat was for the planet..." Tifa said weakly, "but your life shall be taken in the name of the brave warrior who fought with us until you brought about his demise. For Zeo."
Damien fell over and did not move. After a moment's pause she turned to face Cloud. The materias that had disappeared in the beginning of the battle appeared directly in front of him. The clear orb had become pitch black and the summoning materia no longer retained its powerful glow.
"What happened?" Cloud asked.
"This..." Tifa pointed to the first sphere, "is Black Materia. The ability to summon the ultimate destruction upon the planet."
It disappeared in a wisp of purple smoke. "The PhoenixZERO materia no longer has a phoenix...I have it." The red-gold sphere shattered into golden pinpoints of light and faded.
Cloud blinked, then looked to Damien's still figure.
"If he's dead, why aren't I–?"
"He merely had the will of BahamutZERO in him," she explained. "Now that it's gone, he's nothing more than a mindless puppet."
Cloud shook his head. "Mindless puppet...that could have been what I was to become."
Tifa shook her head, smiling her sweet smile–'his' smile.
"You are Cloud Strife and that's all that you need to be. Right?"
He paused, then returned the gesture, strapping the gold and mako sword onto his back.
"Right."
"Let's go home, okay?" she asked. He nodded and they turned from the battle area. The sky had brightened to the dull grey hue right before dawn. Remains of the clouds which had hung over the field still clung to the horizon like distant nightmares departing. Cloud suddenly felt Tifa leaning heavily against him, then she fell. Cloud caught her in his arms and shook her.
"Tifa!"
Her eyes were closed but she was breathing. Her cheeks were patches of rosy flames; the rest of her skin was pale. It had been too much for her after all.
"Of course it was too much for her–she is, after all, only mortal."
Cloud froze, one arm around Tifa and one hand on the handle of his sword.
"You're still alive?"