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?"
