Blood of the Planet

by Alyssa2

It is seventeen years after Meteor, and young Seth Drasil has discovered an unwanted truth about himself. Before long, he is caught up in a new battle for the Planet... and his allies have their own truths to deal with. COMPLETE

15. Chapter 15 The Thing With Feathers

Chapter 15 - The Thing With Feathers

-

A/N: Your eyes do not deceive you. It is indeed another chapter.

I can't apologize enough for taking so long with this one. o.x Hopefully its length will make up for that. And I hope the scene formatting in this one isn't too confusing...

And this is still not the end. There's at least one more chapter to go. XD

-

"How is it? Pretty accurate?" Rowan smiled as Seth crouched by the Mako fountain.

"It's great, Dad," Seth said quietly, running his fingers along a branch of the little tree. "Just like when I was a kid."

"Have you ever gone to see it since? You know, up there?" Rowan asked softly.

"Yeah..." Seth stood up and backed away. He turned to grin cheekily at his father. "It's bigger now."

Rowan laughed. "What's it like?"

Seth tilted his head up to look at the arching ceiling of the cavern. This was so bizarre. His fond memories of the fountain had mostly faded away as he watched it grow and develop over the years. Being here was like seeing his childhood memories restored and brought to life. Now it was the reality of the living world that had become the memory...

"It's got leaves now," he said softly. "Kind of. They're not like real leaves, though... it's like they're made of Materia. It's hard to explain... but it's really cool."

Rowan sat down amid a tangle of roots and rested his head on his chin. "Hnh. It does sound pretty cool. How big is it now?"

"About twice this one's height... and it really looks like a tree now. And the leaves kind of glow a bit, so there's this light..." Seth groped for words, and finally gave up. "It's too bad you can't see it."

"Hmm." Rowan looked contemplatively at the tree. "...You could show me."

"Buh?" Seth blinked in confusion. "But how-- oh. Makoforming?"

Rowan grinned, and shrugged. "If you wanna give it a shot, this'd be a good first project... something you already have a clear picture of in your head. I could teach you."

Seth brought his gaze back down to the tiny tree and frowned, kneeling beside it. When it had been this small in the living world, Seth had also been so small that his hand would not fit all the way around the largest branch. He could still remember the sight of his own tiny fingers clutching tightly to the branch, and his father's warm laughter...

Gently, he reached out to take the same branch in one hand. His fingers wrapped easily around it.

'I'm not a little boy any more...'

Sighing, he removed his hand from the branch. He was vaguely aware of Rowan's expectant gaze as he waited for an answer, but he didn't want to rush this. He didn't want to carelessly destroy a precious memory and regret it later...

His eyes were drawn to the crystals of natural Materia resting in the fork of the branches. He could hear people talking, two men and a woman, and he thought that Hojo and Lucrecia must have caught up to them already.

"Why is it that when you use Materia, you can also use magic too?"

Wait.

"You were in SOLDIER and you didn't even know that? The knowledge and wisdom of the Ancients is held in the Materia."

Was he talking? He felt his lips moving, but was he actually saying those words? Why didn't that sound like his voice?

"Anyone with this knowledge can freely use the powers of the Land and the Planet."

...He could see Zax there, standing beside the fountain, and a pretty girl with long brown hair. He stood taller than any of them, calmly explaining to the black-haired SOLDIER the how and why of Materia, just a little bit amused at his friend's ignorance, and slightly irritated at the delay. They didn't really have time to be dallying around chatting about Mako fountains. Though he had to admit, the place was very soothing...

"Seth?"

And then he was on his knees, staring wide-eyed with one pale hand stretched out in front of him.

"Oh, shit," he said softly.

"What? What's wrong, Seth?" Rowan shook his shoulder gently. "You completely spaced out. What's going on?"

"I-- it's nothing," Seth said quickly, shaking his head and turning to face Rowan. "Nothing."

"Are you sure?"

"Yeah," Seth said, grinning a little to try and erase the worry from his father's face. "Yeah, I'm fine. Just... weird memories. I'll tell you about it later."

"We have time now..."

Seth shook his head again and glanced back at the softly glowing fountain. "No... right now, I want to learn how to Makoform."

-

Jenova really did have a singular smell.

Galian Beast's nose wrinkled in disgust, and he stopped to paw at it in irritation. 'Closer.'

/Still not close enough,/ Vincent's voice murmured in the beast's mind, with an edge of irritation. /Where is she?/

'Near,' Galian Beast insisted, shaking off the snow that had accumulated in his fur and trudging forward. He was well protected against the cold by virtue both of his fur and the internal magic that allowed him to produce a sort of fire spell. But that didn't mean he liked wind and snow, and he whimpered slightly in displeasure.

/Don't let the bitch hear you,/ Hellmask snapped.

/Are we all quite sure she is actually outside the crater?/ Chaos said sardonically.

'Quiet,' Galian Beast whined at the voices. 'Too noisy, can't think.'

/Now you know how I feel,/ Vincent said flatly.

'Smell strong anyway,' Galian Beast said in a sulky tone, sniffing at the air. 'Outside for sure.'

/As long as you're sure./

/He is, now everyone shut up and let him hunt. The sooner we find Jenova, the sooner we can end this./

The other aspects fell obligingly silent at Vincent's commanding tone, and Galian Beast trudged on through the snow.

-

"Keeping up all right, Yamaki?" Lucrecia called teasingly to her husband, who gave her a half-hearted glare as he made his way down the cliff.

"I never was one for mountain climbing," he grumbled, carefully searching out a foothold. Lucrecia laughed softly.

"Just jump, it's not as though you can get hurt."

"Let me cherish the illusion."

"Shall I catch you?" Lucrecia set her arms akimbo, walking back to the cliffside and looking up at Hojo.

"Not unless I--"

The outcropping that Hojo was standing on, which he could have sworn was solid, abruptly crumbled away from the rock face. With a terribly undignified squawk, Hojo found himself tumbling down the cliff. And as though it had been planned that way, he fell directly into his wife's arms.

"--fall?" Lucrecia finished his sentence sweetly, smirking at him. He gave her a flat look.

"You did that on purpose."

"Maybe I did, and maybe I didn't - I'll never tell." Setting him down on his feet, she brushed the dust off the front of his coat and affectionately straightened his glasses.

Attempting vainly to salvage his dignity, Hojo crossed his arms and turned to face the roaring waterfall. "Is this what you wanted to show me? Because if it is, I should remind you that I've seen it before. Many times."

Lucrecia slapped lightly at his shoulder. "I know that. This isn't what I want to show you."

"Pray tell, then, why we're at the lake?"

Although, Hojo had to admit to himself, the small valley was not altogether an unpleasant place to stay. Lucrecia had done it all by herself when they had been helping Rowan form the mountains, and hadn't told him about it yet. Although Rowan could have found it on his own and chosen not to tell them, Hojo felt confident that the lake valley remained his and Lucrecia's secret.

"It's behind the waterfall."

Hojo blinked as his train of thought sharply derailed. "Uh? Behind? I, er, I wasn't aware there was anything there. Er, unless you didn't take it from real life..."

His wife laughed softly and patted him on the head. "Don't hurt yourself, Yamaki. I did take it from real life, actually, but it's quite small. Come on, I'll show you."

And Hojo found himself dragged by the hand in a most undignified manner towards the waterfall.

-

'Getting close,' Galian Beast thought excitedly. 'Smell strong.'

/We noticed,/ was Chaos's sardonic reply.

/We need to focus,/ Vincent thought fiercely. /We're here to steal the Black Materia and get out. Concentrate./

'Am,' the beast whined. 'Quiet.'

/Just be careful./

Muttering in his mind about Vincent being annoying, Galian Beast kept close to the lip of the crater, picking each step carefully and painfully aware of each noise he made. If he wasn't careful he could easily call Jenova's attention to him...

He nearly tripped over her.

/Careful,/ three voices hissed at him in unison. He grumbled back at them and peered curiously at Jenova.

She was half buried in a snowdrift, with her eyes closed and her arms loosely encircling the Black Materia where it rested on her stomach. The character of her scent indicated that she was not dead, just asleep. Galian Beast blinked several times, thinking that it could not possibly be this easy.

/Just take the fucking thing,/ Hellmask hissed.

Almost reluctantly, the beast reached out carefully to take the thing gingerly between his claws. As he lifted it carefully away from Jenova, she shifted, murmured, opened her eyes, and looked straight at Galian Beast.

For a crazy moment the two of them stared almost uncomprehendingly at each other. The beast was the first to react - stumbling backwards in a panic and grasping at the orb. Jenova was faster, however, and erupted from the snow to assault Vincent's alternate aspect before he had managed three steps back. He shoved the Materia between his jaws and turned to run away in frantic terror, but she bore down on him. Incoherent with fear, the beast scrambled desperately away, barely noticing as he scrabbled up ancient rock.

He did, however, notice when it reached the edge of the crater. By that time, it was too late to turn back, and Jenova ploughed straight into him, sending the two of them plummeting into the depths.

-

The sun had almost completely set.

Faris could tell by the fading light - she didn't dare look at the sunset itself, keeping her eyes locked to the northern horizon.

...He really should have fired off the flare by now.

'Fuck, no.'

"Captain?"

'Fucking hell, Vincent, don't you dare. This shit is not funny.'

"Captain, the sun's already set."

'You'd better fucking just be distracted...'

"Captain, we have to call them now. You said Valentine was very clear about that."

"Fuck. He was, wasn't he?" Faris stared at the horizon for a few more agonizing minutes, before finally turning away. "Fucking stupid-ass shithead... he had to fucking go on alone, didn't he?"

"I'm sorry, Captain." Faemdos laid a reassuring hand on Faris's shoulder, but she shrugged it off.

"Don't apologize," she said, her voice too gruff. "It's Vincent who needs to be fucking sorry..."

-

"Well... what do you think?"

Hojo glanced around the cavern, wondering what to say.

It was beautiful, there was no doubt about that. Layers of gracefully curved white pillars lined the walls of the surprisingly round cave, and some sort of light source glowed on an elegantly sculpted throne. Beautiful, but a little cold. Turning to face his wife again, Hojo opened his mouth to say so, but something in her stance and in her face suggested a strange kind of vulnerability. He realized that this was important to her in a way he didn't understand.

"... You took this from real life, you say?"

"Yes." Lucrecia clasped her hands behind her back and gazed wistfully around the small cave. "Do you remember when I died?"

Hojo felt a cold shiver run down his back. "When you gave birth to Sephiroth?"

Lucrecia nodded. "The Jenova in my body wouldn't let me stay dead... when you disposed of my body, I crawled away... and I found myself in the river valley. I still don't know why I came to this cave, but this is where I stopped. I stayed here and waited to die."

Hojo could feel each individual hair rise along the nape of his neck.

Lucrecia gave a soft, self-deprecating chuckle and bowed her head, brushing her hair out of her eyes. "Nobody ever did ask where that sword came from, did they? Sephiroth's sword?"

"Some did," Hojo said lamely. "Nobody ever got an answer."

"It came from here," Lucrecia said softly. "I made it; I left the cave just long enough to deliver it. I told you after Holy moved, right? That my father was a Cetra?"

"Yes," Hojo said hoarsely. "But you never said much more than that..."

"I inherited his magic," Lucrecia said softly. "But I couldn't hear the Planet... never in my life. To me, that was what a Cetra was. Because I couldn't do that, I renounced my magic. I didn't think I was entitled to use it if I couldn't even communicate with the Planet."

"Then, is that why you went along with the Jenova Project?" Hojo felt paralyzed, frozen. "Because you wanted to become a real Cetra?"

"Yes." Lucrecia closed her eyes. "And... I feel terrible about it now. All that time, the secret was right there in my body. And we ruined it. I let us ruin it..."

"Lucrecia." Hojo's voice came out as a whisper and he stepped forward to take his wife in his arms. "It wasn't only your fault... oh, Lucrecia. I really hope you aren't going to cry, you know I have no idea how to deal with crying women."

Lucrecia lifted her head and laughed. To Hojo's utter dismay, there were tears running down her cheeks as she did. "It's okay, Yamaki, it's just... well, I think you're right. Seth was our son."

Hojo blinked, not quite sure of what to say.

"But... Sephiroth was never really happy, was he?"

Hojo looked away, feeling guilty. "No. He might have been if it hadn't been for..."

"Hush." Lucrecia placed her finger to Hojo's lips and smiled through her tears. "I think Seth might have had a happy life... I think that what we did to Sephiroth has been made up for. There's no reason any more for us to dwell on these things. We should move on..."

"Can we?"

"We won't know until we try," Lucrecia said, and chuckled. "I... really hate this place, you know."

"Then why...?"

"So I could break it," Lucrecia said, with a bit of an edge in her voice, stepping out of her husband's arms. "Thirty years in here, wanting to just die... I want to see this place broken."

Hojo gave her a worried look. "Lucrecia?"

"Will you stay here with me, Yamaki?" She turned her gaze to him and smiled. "Oh, it's really not all that dramatic, and it can't hurt us. I just want to see it broken... I want that victory, at least. And I want you here. Will you stay?"

He stood numbly for a moment, staring at his wife; with her face streaked with tears, her eyes shining in the strange light, and that smile on her face...

Giving his answer, Hojo wondered if he could have ever possibly said no.

-

Halfway down the crater, the Galian Beast finally had the presence of mind to grab the Materia out of his mouth. The moment he did, wings sprouted from his back and he was suddenly Chaos. Cradling the Materia against his chest with one hand, he grabbed at the nearest wall as it came near, leaving claw marks for nine feet until the friction slowed his downward motion enough for him to dig a foot into the wall and stop himself. He barely spared a moment to watch Jenova falling below him before he stretched his wings and pushed himself up, flapping wildly to gain lift.

He'd never had to fly that fast in all the time he'd existed, and his wings ached as he fought air resistance and his own limitations to get out of the crater as soon as possible. It seemed like eons too late when the rock all around him suddenly gave way to snow and sky, but as long as Jenova was even a few moments behind him, there was still a chance.

Chaos arrowed away from the ancient crater, praying to any kind god that had ever spared Vincent a sideways glance to let the wind change against Jenova when she came out.

-

The PHS rang precisely three seconds after Cloud had finally finished his daily chores and relaxed into his bed. He opened one luminous eye to glare balefully at it, before grabbing it and turning it on.

"Yes, Cloud Strife speaking," he said tersely, thinking happy thoughts of throwing the phone against a wall. Why the hell did he even still have it?

It was a woman's voice that answered, sounding deadly solemn. "Cloud, this is Faris Scherwiz, captain of the light cargo ship Tycoon... um, I'm a friend of Vincent's. He... he told me I needed to call you."

Cloud sat up and blinked, his irritation fading. "What? Why?"

"... oh, it's long and complicated. Do you by any chance know a boy named Seth Drasil?"

"Seth? Oh, yeah, he passed through Cosmo not too long ago... what happened?"

"Well... I was transporting him and Vincent to the North Continent, he stole a lifeboat and went on ahead with some braindead notion of killing Jenova alone--"

"The hell?!" Cloud interrupted. "You're kidding, right?"

"Don't I wish. Anyway, Vincent went on after him, and gave himself three days... he was supposed to signal me after each day to let me know he was alive--" Here the woman's voice broke, and Cloud listened, horrorstruck, to her ragged breathing across the line for a few seconds. "Cloud, he didn't signal me tonight."

"He's dead?" Cloud said hoarsely, disbelieving.

"I don't know... I just don't know. He told me that if I didn't get his signal, I had to call you and--and get you to bring AVALANCHE. So... so get your world-saving asses up here and do what they made you famous for!"

-

Seth sat heavily back against the newly shaped fountain, rubbing his head. He had a headache.

"Wow," Rowan said in a soft, appreciative tone. "Nice work, kid."

"Thanks," Seth said, absently wondering how he could be breathless when he didn't need to breathe.

"No problem. Hey, thank you." Rowan smiled. "It's nice to see it the way you did."

"Happy to be of service," Seth chuckled. "Ow..."

Rowan sat next to his son and patted him on the shoulder. "Yeah... it'll do that. Don't worry, just give it time and it'll go away."

"Lifestream time or real time?" Seth grouched, rubbing his temple.

"Does it matter?" Rowan pulled Seth into a loose, one-armed hug. "It'll quit hurting when it quits hurting."

Seth muttered something impolite, and Rowan laughed.

-

Chaos' wing muscles screamed for rest, and his breath came in ragged gasps. He urged himself on, the chorus of voices in his head howling encouragements the whole way, as the inn came into sight at long last. He felt Vincent's presence rising up as he approached, and while it was Chaos who crashed through the window in a shower of glass and windowpane, it was Vincent who hit the ground and rolled across the floor, springing to his feet and deftly grabbing Jocasta's bag from the bedside table. Shoving the Materia in after it, he took a moment to shake the burning sensation from his hand as he dashed to the door, flinging it open and thundering down the hallway.

Zair had just emerged from his and Aerin's shared room when Vincent reached the door, and Vincent shoved the bag into his hands.

"Go! Take Strife!" Vincent roared. "This is the Black Materia, take it to the Sleeping Forest and leave it! The harp is in the bag too! MOVE!"

"Are you fucking kidding me?!" Zair squeaked, his voice betraying his young age.

Vincent didn't give him any more time, instead manhandling him towards the stairs. "GO NOW!"

As a very flustered Zair ran down the stairs without further hesitation, Vincent turned to Aerin, who stood in the doorway looking shell-shocked.

"If you wanted to fight, Aerin," he growled, "this is your chance!"

-

"See?" Lucrecia smiled, brushing the dust from Hojo's hair. "It wasn't all that dramatic."

Hojo glared flatly up at her, buried up to his ribs in fallen rock. "If you would, kindly help me out before you decide to get smug with me."

Lucrecia giggled in amusement before taking his arms and standing up. He came out easily, a few rocks conveniently shifting around him as Lucrecia pulled. "You have to admit, it was a little bit fun."

"And very carthartic, I can well imagine." Hojo straightened his glasses. "I'm quite glad you've overcome that personal demon, my dear, but next time, do try not to bury me in rock while you do so."

"I'll certainly make an effort," Lucrecia chuckled, kissing him on the cheek.

"Excellent. What do you plan to do with the waterfall?"

"Oh, I'll rebuild it eventually." She waved her hand dismissively. "I'd like to have the rubble to look at for a while, though. If you don't mind."

Hojo shook his head, smiling despite himself. "As much time as you need, Lucrecia."

"Thank you, Yamaki." She wrapped her arms around him and squeezed. "For now, though, shall we go and see Rowan and Seth?"

"I suppose so, if you're up to it."

"I am." She playfully hit his arm. "Let's go see them."

-

Aerin clutched at the Princess Guard, holding her cloak around her tightly as she followed Vincent out into the chill air. Her panic-stricken mind ran through a number of unrelated thoughts, ranging from 'how am I supposed to do this?!' to 'is the Candle still burning?' to the utterly absurd 'did I remember to sweep Mom's atelier before I left home?'.

"She'll be here any moment now," Vincent shouted, dashing through the snow and reaching for his gun. "We have to get out of the town before she gets here!"

Aerin panted as she frantically tried to keep up with Vincent's inhuman pace. She started to call out to him, but anything she might have said was swallowed by the report of Vincent's gun as he stopped and fired into the sky. Looking up at where he had aimed, Aerin staggered back in panic, raising her staff defensively.

Jenova had arrived.

-

"Should we get moving, or would you rather stay here for a bit?"

Seth's head came up quickly from where it was resting on his knee. "Oh, sorry - did you want to go?"

Rowan put his hands behind his head and leaned back against the cave wall, stretching leisurely. "Oh, it doesn't matter. I was just asking."

"Oh. I kinda wanna stay," Seth said quietly, looking back up at his Yggdrasil.

Rowan's eyes softened and he scooted over to put an arm around Seth's shoulders. "Homesick?"

"...A little bit."

"Wanna hear a secret?" Rowan gave Seth a sideways grin.

Seth returned the grin with a sardonic smirk. "Sure. What?"

"I get homesick too."

Blinking at his father, Seth suddenly burst out laughing, provoking the same response from Rowan. It felt good, being treated a little bit like a kid again, sitting here in his favorite place, bathed in Mako-light and being here with his father. It was a warm and comforting mix of both his earliest and last memories of Nibelheim. And if only for a moment, it was enough to keep the homesickness at bay.

Minutes later, when the echoes of their laughter had faded, Seth turned to face his father, eyes bright and grinning.

"We should make a Nibelheim," he said.

"Oh, come on."

"No, I'm serious. We can move Mt. Nibel or something, right? We can put Nibelheim together, just you and me. And... and when Mom comes here, it'll be the three of us again." His face and voice softened. "Wouldn't that be great?"

When Rowan spoke, his tone was hushed, but he was smiling. "You're a dreamer, Seth."

"Best damn way to be."

Rowan looked at his son for a moment, then let out a short bark of laughter and shoved him playfully. "You're my kid, all right. You're definitely my kid."

"Was there ever any doubt?" Seth said with a grin. Even as he said it, the look on his face suddenly turned to one of surprise, then of wonder. Rowan blinked and tilted his head slightly, and then Seth spoke again.

"...There wasn't, was there."

"Seth?" Rowan raised an eyebrow curiously, watching as a huge grin spread over his son's face for no visible reason. "Is something wrong?"

"Uh, no." Seth shook his head quickly as though coming out of a reverie, but he didn't stop grinning. "I think I just realized something really, really important."

"Hey, good for you. Mind sharing with the class?"

Seth laughed brightly. "It's gonna sound stupid, but I think I just figured out who I am."

-

Jenova descended almost leisurely, seeming to take Vincent's gunshots in stride. He managed to shoot the whole clip off before the alien woman even touched the snow. Aerin stared, paralyzed, as Jenova landed, seemingly unfazed by the multiple bleeding bullet wounds.

"Vincent, my dear boy," she said in a lilting tone, "you are making this all far more difficult than it has to be."

Vincent's only response as he tried to load a new clip into Death Penalty without taking his eyes away from Jenova was a gutteral animal snarl. As Jenova sauntered slowly forward, he took a step back, not breaking eye contact.

Aerin saw it too late. She knew what Jenova was doing; once, when Illyra had needed a kind of serpent venom for an antidote, Aerin had seen her do this to charm the snake.

Even as her mouth opened to warn Vincent of the deception, Jenova darted forward, wrenching the Death Penalty out of Vincent's hands with such force that Aerin could hear the metal bending as Vincent's claws were bent out of shape. By the time Vincent reacted, Jenova had already leapt back out of his reach. She let out a cruel, triumphant laugh as, with her bare hands, she bent the barrel of the gun into uselessness and tore the bullet chambers open. As she tossed the mangled rifle aside, her laughter masked the sound of it hitting the snow.

-

"...Who you are," Rowan repeated dully.

"I told you it'd sound stupid - but I swear it's actually really important - okay, remember how I said I was trying to save the world?"

"Yeah...?"

"Well... geez, um, where do I start? Um... okay, Mom and I were going to see Aunt Lena in Midgar, right? And we went to the big museum, yeah, I swear this is relevant, and I started hearing a voice in my head, okay?"

Rowan gave Seth a look of worry edging towards terror.

"It's not as bad as it sounds, really. It turned out to be a talking sword. ... And that doesn't sound any better. Okay, well... fuck it. I'm the reincarnation of Sephiroth. Was the reincarnation of Sephiroth. When I was alive."

Seth burst out laughing again at the absolutely blank look on his father's face.

"And now you think I'm crazy. But I swear it's true - I can wield his sword, and I'm the only one who can. And I've been remembering things from his life... It messed me up. I was so freaked out about it... I guess I thought I was going to turn into him or something."

"But-- how would that even be possible?" Rowan said lamely, having some trouble dealing with this news.

Seth grinned widely. "That's what I just realized, Dad. It wouldn't be."

-

Vincent stood absolutely motionless for a moment, eyes wide in complete and utter disbelief. Aerin looked between the two of them - Vincent, unmoving, robbed of his gun and with his claw now a useless weight on his arm; and Jenova, wearing a look of ecstatic triumph, the ruins of Vincent's gun to her left.

Days of hard journeying came to mind. All the time she had spent at Seth's side, the seashore at Costa del Sol and the farewell at Mideel, Seth's graceless death at this horrible woman's hands, and the memories of everything she had endured since leaving the canyon struck her in one screaming rush.

The world blurred around her as she raised her staff and charged.

-

"I can't believe it took me this long to figure it out. Mom told me, Aerin told me, but I was so wrapped up in my stupid existential angst... and all that time, I was just about convinced that if I dropped my guard for a second I'd be slashing people up and summoning meteors..." Seth laughed, feeling wonderfully light and almost giddy. Now that he really thought about it, he couldn't imagine what he'd ever been worried about. Hadn't it been obvious to everyone else, even Vincent, that Sephiroth and Seth were ultimately two different people?

Rowan shook his head, grining helplessly. "Somehow, Seth, I doubt that ever would have happened."

"And you're totally right!" Seth grinned. "I can't tell you how glad I am that I finally sorted that out..."

'Too bad I couldn't have done that while I was still alive,' he thought passingly, but in the mood he was in, even that somber thought couldn't drag him down.

-

The sun had long ago set in Cosmo Canyon, and it was only by the light of the stars and the Candle that Cloud and Nanaki made their way grimly down the stairs. Most of the village had turned out to watch their departure. Nobody had said anything at all.

Cloud shrugged his shoulders, the familiar weight of his armor feeling entirely too heavy at the moment. The Ultima Weapon hung on his back, dormant and harmless while out of his hands. Nanaki padded beside him, Master Summon set into his jangling headdress.

The call to arms had already been made. Cid had sworn a blue streak on receiving the news, but had promised to see what he could do about getting the Highwind up on short notice. The last fifteen minutes had been full of short, urgent calls to the remaining members of AVALANCHE.

It appealed to the romantic in Cloud's heart that every last one of them had agreed to come.

-

The next thing Aerin knew, she was lying on her back in the snow. A huge purple-furred beast stood between her and Jenova, snarling and snapping. Jenova had a grip on its neck and one of it shoulders and was only barely managing to keep it away at arm's length. Despite that, she was smiling.

"You don't get it," she said. "You cannot win, Vincent. My son's sword is useless, your gun is broken. There is no weapon that can break through the Black Materia and defeat me!"

The beast seemed to actually hesitate for a moment, whining uncertainly. Jenova took the opportunity to fling it aside, and it landed in the snow with a pained yelp. Feeling as though her blood had heated, Aerin rose up out of the snow like a tiny, dusty avenging angel.

"You're forgetting the Planet's last weapon," she shouted, ignoring the tiny little voice in the back of her head that was screaming 'She can throw you around like a toy, she could crush you without half thinking, and you're trying to get her attention?!"

"What? You? You're pathetic!" Jenova laughed, high and cruel and hysterical. Behind her, Aerin could see the discarded beast rising slowly to its feet. Her grip tightened on the Princess Guard. "I shouldn't even bother killing you!"

The staff's Phoenix emblem seemed strangely alive, the staff oddly warm in her hands. In that precise moment, Aerin knew exactly how Phoenix would help her.

Raising the staff, Aerin felt oddly calm as a slight wind began to whip around her, kicking up flakes of snow. The Princess Guard seemed to resonate with birdsong, and Aerin drew in a deep breath.

"This," she screamed, "is for Seth's life!!"

The Phoenix rose in her mind then, and for a moment she saw nothing but a torrent of green, a rush of fire, and then a pair of deep green eyes.

-

"I wish I could tell Aerin."

"Aerin?"

"She's this girl from Cosmo Canyon," Seth said brightly. "I met her after I found Sephiroth's sword. It's a long story."

Rowan laughed heartily. "Hey, we've got time. I wanna hear about my little boy's girlfriend."

"She wasn't my girlfriend!" Seth protested, slightly wishing that it hadn't been true. His elation from earlier was turning into a knot in his chest. "I mean, I like her, but--"

"No, never mind, it's okay," Rowan said, putting a hand on his son's shoulder. "I shouldn't be asking about every detail of your life this soon. You can tell me later."

Seth nodded, and then abruptly shot to his feet. "Dammit - can we go back, Dad? I feel really restless all of a sudden."

Looking taken aback, Rowan nodded and got to his feet. "Sure... let's go."

-

Galian Beast stared at the scene before him, his jaw hanging slack. The voices in his head were absolutely silent as well, and the beast could imagine that they were all wearing very similar expressions.

Aerin was statuesque in the snow, her arm absolutely steady as she held out the staff. Her cloak had slid off her shoulders at some point and now lay pooled around her feet. Above her, shining against the night sky, the Phoenix hovered, beating her massive, fiery wings to keep herself aloft. Aerin's skirt billowed and flared in the wind produced by Phoenix's wings, and her hair was wind-whipped to the point where it almost looked like feathers. In an ever-growing circle around the two of them, the snow was melting.

Jenova didn't seem nearly as impressed as Galian Beast thought she should have.

"I've dealt with worse than summoners in my time," she said arrogantly, and turned her gaze up to Phoenix with a cruel smirk. "There is no force of this Planet that can defeat me now. But you can try."

As Phoenix narrowed her eyes in anger at Jenova, Aerin's voice came out hoarse and croaky.

"We will," she said.

She sank into a battle stance, adjusting her grip on the Princess Guard; and as she ran forward with the staff raised, Phoenix surged forward as well with a powerful beat of her vast wings. Following Aerin and Phoenix's lead, Galian Beast dropped to all fours and charged. Taking an unhurried step back, Jenova spread her wings as her right arm lengthened into a blade once more.

Some small part of Aerin's mind couldn't help but think there was something ominous about this. Outnumbered and outgunned, with three foes bearing down on her at once, Jenova smiled.

-

The very second Seth stepped out of the cave, he gasped, clutched his chest, and doubled over in shock. Rowan was at his side almost immediately, helping Seth up by elbow and shoulder. Seth's eyes were wide and startled. He had forgotten to maintain the illusion of breath.

Rowan had never seen anything like this happen on the island before.

"Seth, what's wrong?!" he demanded. In the course of the last fifteen minutes, he'd seen his son space out entirely, heard him admit to being the reincarnation of an insane megalomaniac, and now had witnessed him having what appeared to be some ghost equivalent of a heart attack. He felt perfectly justified in panicking.

"It's like--fire--"

Before Rowan could reply, Seth pulled himself up a bit and stared up at the sky with wide, wild eyes, his movements rough and jerky. He seemed to be looking for something.

"Dad--" his voice came out strangled "--Dad, I have to get out."

"Out of where? The mountains? What?" Rowan was fully aware he sounded a little shrill, and didn't care. Somehow, something was wrong with his son.

"Out of... off the island," Seth said, as though only just realizing it himself. "I've got to get off the island."

He paused for a moment.

"Why the hell do I have to get off the island?"

"Good question!" Rowan stared at his son, utterly disbelieving. "You just got here, and you're going into the stream already?!"

"Not the stream," Seth said vaguely, and shook his head, shrugging out of his father's grip. "I have to go. I don't know why, but -- Dad, I just have to go..."

"Seth, you can't just fade out now!"

"I'm not going to fade out," Seth said, and he stepped forward, intending to follow the path down the mountain. Rowan grabbed his elbow, stopping him. "Dad, let go of me!"

"I don't want to lose you!" Rowan said, his voice high and desperate. "Seth, I love you! I just got you back, I don't want to lose you again!"

Turning to meet his father's frantic eyes, Seth thought he understood another part of why Rowan had not fully accepted his own death. And he suddenly felt sorrier than he had ever felt in his life.

But the feeling of fire in his chest was intensifying, and with it the inexplicable compulsion to leave. He didn't want to leave Rowan either, not after just meeting him again, but for reasons he could not understand or explain, he couldn't stay here any longer.

"Dad," he said, his voice cracking, "I have to go. I have to."

Rowan seemed to be fighting an internal battle, and finally, with a strangled sigh and a look of agony in his eyes, he released Seth's arm.

"If you have to... then let's go."

-

Aerin picked herself up out of the snow, shaking it out of her face and hair and craning her neck to look up.

As they had drawn close to her, Jenova had sprung into the air and smoothly arced away, putting Aerin and Galian Beast suddenly on a collision course with each other. The beast had thrown its weight back and dug its heels in to halt its forward momentum, spraying Aerin with snow in the process. She had barely recovered before she had seen wings sprout from the monster's back and watched as Chaos rose in a flurry from the snow.

Snow which was rapidly melting into slush. The heat from Phoenix was not uncomfortable, but it was more than enough to destroy the snow. Aerin felt a brief pang as she thought of Seth, but stifled it. There would be time for proper mourning later. Now she had to concentrate on the battle.

Not that she was really involved in it by now. It seemed to be a purely aerial fight already, which was far beyond the scope of her own abilities. She couldn't help feeling slightly put out, but she stifled that too and watched the battle.

Phoenix was surprisingly agile for her size, banking and arcing away from Jenova's attacks while doing her best to strike with her beak and talons. Chaos weaved between the two of them, slashing at and interfering with Jenova; at one point, Phoenix actually turned and soared at a distance to give Chaos an opportunity to attack alone. Despite Jenova coming off visibly worse from that encounter, Aerin could just barely hear her laughing.

That was very disconcerting, she thought as Chaos backed off and Phoenix swooped down, managing what looked like a terribly deep cut on Jenova's shoulder. A few of the last stubborn drifts of snow were flecked red with blood.

Just Jenova's blood.

Aerin felt a short surge of panic. Despite preparing herself for battle, Jenova hardly seemed to be fighting back... neither Chaos nor Phoenix had appeared to take a single blow thus far - in fact, Jenova hardly seemed to have been trying to land one. And though she had already taken what looked like enough of a beating to kill anything her size, she was still flying as gracefully as before... Squinting, Aerin could see that Jenova's skin, previously crisscrossed with countless wounds from Chaos's claws and spotted with bullet wounds, was now clear and unbroken again. Aerin's heart gave a funny jump at that realization.

Jenova was making a game of the battle for the Planet.

-

Zair had never ridden so fast in his life.

Strife was racing through the snowfields at speeds even he had probably never known he could reach, with little to no urging from Zair. He seemed to have understood the urgency of the situation from Zair's panicked shriek of "Sleeping Forest! Now!" as he had burst into the stables.

Chocobos, Zair mused briefly, were a hell of a lot more intelligent than a lot of people gave them credit for.

-

"Ah, Seth! Are you two done so soo--"

Lucrecia blinked in befuddlement as Seth strode past her without responding. Turning her head to see Rowan following down the path, she squawked as the engineer passed right between her and Hojo, grabbing an elbow from each and dragging them along.

"Rowan, what in the world is the meaning of this?" Hojo demanded, breaking loose from his friend's grip but keeping stride beside him.

"Seth's got some mad notion," Rowan said. "I think he's going into the stream."

"What?!" Lucrecia followed her husband's example, hurrying along beside Rowan. "What do you mean? He can't! He's just barely got here."

"I know!" Rowan said tensely. "But he seems to think he's not going to fade... I have no idea what's going on. He doesn't seem to either. I'm hoping he'll figure it out by the time he reaches the shore."

-

The ship that had sunk down into the Canyon and now lay hovering above the ground resembled the old Highwind so well that Cloud had to admit he was impressed. Cid had spent a good five years restoring the battered ship after the narrow escape from the Crater all those years ago, and had done a remarkably good job. Even the ridiculous bikini lady had been painted back on.

It was almost a little too similar, Cloud reflected as he heaved himself over the rail and felt the familiar deck under his feet again. The ship looked just the same, and the same people would be assembling within for the same purpose as they had seventeen years ago; only Vincent was missing, and even that was familiar.

Nanaki reached the top of the ladder and climbed the rest of the way onto the deck with a surprising lack of difficulty, though the crewman who had let down the ladder stood by with a vague look of concern on his face. Cloud might normally have grinned at this, but a huge weight seemed to have settled in his chest. A part of him even wanted to retreat back into the cold SOLDIER persona from seventeen years ago, if there was any chance it could save him from the sudden grip of despair. Feelings of hopelessness were not good feelings for a professional world-saver to be having, and he tried desperately to choke them off. Despite his best efforts, though, it was hard to ignore the little voice in the back of his head saying 'You fought her before, trying to get to Sephiroth... you obviously didn't kill her then... how can you do it now?'

He was still trying to come up with an answer when he and Nanaki headed below deck to meet Cid again.

-

"Seth, just what in the hell are you thinking?" Rowan demanded, once they had stopped.

"Not a whole lot," Seth returned off-handedly, staring at the green sky.

"Well, that much is obvious--"

"It's just - I can't explain it," Seth said, sounding distracted. "From what I understand, we come here if we're okay with dying but we don't want to give up who we are, right? And the stream is where you go when you're ready to let go of everything?"

"Yes," Rowan returned a little tensely, "which is why I'm just a little bit worried that you're running off to the stream after about one day here."

"I feel like I need to go," Seth said quietly. "Like something's telling me I need to. But I don't feel ready to give up yet. It's like I don't belong here at all, it's like --" He cocked his head up suddenly, just slightly, and his voice took on a tone of sudden understanding. "I need to go up."

"Topside?" Rowan said in confusion. "Uh, has this voice in your head or whatever told you why, exactly?"

"No, I don't even know what it is."

"It could be anything, then," Hojo said suddenly, sounding a bit paranoid. "It could even be Jenova, especially if you are who I think you are--"

"Yamaki!" Lucrecia said in a panicky tone.

"You mean Sephiroth?" Seth said, turning to face them.

Despite the severity of the situation, Rowan couldn't help but grin at the looks on his friends' faces. They had both been caught completely flat-footed.

"Er, yes," Hojo said weakly.

Seth shrugged eloquently. "Yeah. I am. I thought it might be Jenova too, but she's gotten in my head before and it doesn't feel like her. It feels more - honest, if that makes any sense."

"It does," Lucrecia said softly. "Then, I don't suppose we had better delay you."

"Lucrecia?"

Hojo and Rowan had spoken at the exact same time, in the exact same incredulous tone. Lucrecia turned to face them, with a look on her face that made Hojo suddenly appreciate that she was half Cetra. In his distant, vaguely nightmarish memories, Ifalna had often worn a very similar look while he had her in his custody. It was a look that said, 'I understand things that I could never explain to you.'

"Let him go," she said softly.

The two men looked at each other helplessly. Hojo shrugged, and Rowan turned, scratching the back of his head, to face his son.

"I don't understand a bit of this," he said truthfully. "But I guess, if you make it up... would you say hi to your mom from me? Tell her I love her."

Seth grinned ear to ear and nodded. "I'll tell her everything."

He had just started to trudge down the shore when Hojo cleared his throat. Seth stopped and turned around again. Adjusting his glasses, Hojo stepped forward.

"As long as we're delivering messages to the living... would you extend my apologies to Vincent Valentine, if you should meet him?" He met Seth's eyes and continued, his voice low but unwavering. "What I did to him - and to you, once - is unforgivable. But I feel he should know that I..." He took a steadying breath. "I regret it more than I could ever have imagined."

Seth was somewhat taken aback, and before he could recover enough to respond, Lucrecia put a hand on her husband's upper arm and added her own piece.

"Yes, and while we're at it, Vincent should also know that none of it was ever his fault. Tell him that for me, Seth."

Closing his eyes for a moment, Seth finally said, "I will." And then, after a moment's thought, he said "I promise."

Nobody moved or spoke for a second. Then Rowan impulsively went to hug Seth tightly.

"Goodbye," he said hoarsely.

Seth stood still for a moment, trying to commit it to memory. He never, ever wanted his father to fade from his mind again.

"Goodbye," he said softly back, before carefully pulling away from his father's arms. Taking a few steps back, he looked over the three of them one last time.

Then, with a confident grin and a thumbs-up, he walked back down the shore and into the sea. As he fought forward against the tides, he reached the point where the sky met the ocean, and vanished into a wall of green.

-

"Will you just DIE already!" Chaos roared across the sky at Jenova.

"No," she called back cheekily, easily gliding away as he swooped to attack.

"You're the cause of EVERYTHING! Sephiroth's madness, the Planet's illness, the death of Lucrecia - you're the root of it all!"

"You flatter me, dear Vincent!" She laughed coldly.

Chaos began to charge her again, but Phoenix beat him to it, swooping down and burying her talons in Jenova's shoulders. She curved her neck to strike at Jenova's belly, almost too fast to see.

It seemed to Chaos that it had happened in a second, done before he could complete a single wingbeat. Jenova, reacting almost to the suggestion of Phoenix's attack rather than the actual motion, had thrust her bladed arm up and through the firebird's neck. Far below, Aerin's scream cut through the night. Chaos went rigid with horror, barely remembering to keep himself aloft. The others in his mind began to scream.

Jenova met his eyes, and he found to his horror that he couldn't look away.

"This world would have killed itself whether or not I had come here," she said, and her words for the first time had the edge of long-nurtured insanity. "What I do here is no matter. This world does not matter."

She pulled her blade from Phoenix's neck, and shook herself loose from the talons, watching impassively as the dying firebird fell. Numbly, Chaos followed her gaze and saw the little speck that was Aerin rushing to meet her patron beast.

It didn't seem possible. It couldn't be possible. The ace up Aerin's sleeve had, unbelievably, been defeated.

-

Strife was beginning to tire. Zair stared resolutely ahead, trying very hard not to panic again. He could see the familiar mountains around the valley, it wouldn't be long before they were in the city and then the forest lay just beyond.

-

Seth had really expected a bit less of the Lifestream.

As far as he had been able to see from the island, the stream was just a whole lot of green. Knowing it was the blood of the Planet, he certainly had expected it to be a little more than that - but he hadn't expected this.

It didn't actually exert any pressure against his body - or what he percieved to be his body, which really wasn't an accurate perception - but entering the stream had felt like stepping directly into a mental wind tunnel.

Images and memories assaulted him. Though he knew he was surrounded by green, he was barely aware of it as things that had never happened to him flashed across his consciousness. He panicked, and would probably have gone blindly running further into the stream if the word "up" hadn't suddenly made itself known through the flood. And so, barely knowing what to do anymore, he looked up and began to swim.

It worked. He hadn't expected it to, but it did. The flow of foreign memories abated somewhat, and he was aware of upward motion. Encouraged, he kicked his legs harder, paddling frantically at the stream.

Despite this, he couldn't completely stop the mental intrusion. He remembered a view of Wutai when it was green and beautiful, and felt an accompanying flicker of emotion - gone before he could identify it. There were images of a war, of children playing under a massive tree, of a tender meeting between secret lovers - he flagged uncertainly, and the flow of memories became stronger.

It was too much, the small part of his mind that was still his own cried in despair. He couldn't make it out. Despite all his assurances to the contrary, he would fade. He would never make it back, and would never again speak to Lucy, or Vincent, or anyone.

He would break his last promise.

-

Chaos started to fly forward, his body feeling leaden and dead. He could hardly hear anything over the horrified din in his head. And yet, somehow, he knew that he had to keep fighting. They all did, even though all hope seemed to have been suddenly and cruelly extinguished.

As he flew forward, Jenova turned her head to face him. She smiled, the most hateful and chilling smile Chaos had ever seen. In his mind, Vincent recoiled from the sight. Chaos bared his teeth and readied his claws.

Jenova was suddenly illuminated from below. She looked down in surprise, and Chaos echoed the action.

Where Phoenix's corpse had landed, it had burst into brilliant, almost blinding flames.

-

At what seemed to Seth like the the absolute last moment before surrender, he was shocked out of it. The fire burned in him, more intense than ever, and the weird compulsion took hold of him once more.

UP.

Seth flailed, but his confused movements quickly came together and then he was swimming again. The fire was searing, and the foreign memories were ebbing again. Staring determinedly upwards, Seth kept swimming.

'I am Seth Drasil.'

He could actually see the green of the stream now, other people's memories were having a harder time getting into his head.

'I'm from Nibelheim. I have to go home.'

He could see a faint shape far above.

'I have to see my mother again.'

The shape was coming closer. It looked human.

'I have to see Vincent again.'

Yes, definitely human - floating facedown beneath the surface of the stream. He couldn't make out its features yet, but he had a guess.

'I have to see Aerin again.'

As he came closer to the body, Seth's suspicions were confirmed. He felt a little thrill of apprehension as his own face became recognizable through the green. Unsure of what to do at this point, he hesitantly swam closer, and then uncertainly put his incorporeal hands on his body's shoulders.

Abruptly, Seth saw his own eyes suddenly fly open. Then there was a peculiar sensation of falling, and in the next moment, all he could see was green.

-

The fire flickered and died away, but the light did not. On her knees nearby in the snowmelt, Aerin stared in disbelief and suddenly began laughing. Jenova wore a look of complete and utter disbelief, and Chaos felt his heart soaring.

Phoenix rose majestically from the ashes and embers of her flame, sending sparks in every direction as she beat her wings.

Of course. They should have known.

-

Zion was napping uneasily beside the Lifestream crack that had become Seth's grave, emitting faint, mournful warbles in his sleep. Other than that, the gravesite was silent. The silence was not to last long.

The calm surface of the Lifestream suddenly broke as Seth surfaced with a gasp like the first breath of a newborn.

-

"I am the Phoenix, Jenova," Phoenix said calmly as she came level with her nemesis. "I do not die so easily."

-

Zion, startled awake by the noise, shot to his feet with a shriek of surprise. Seth flailed in the stream, still gasping for air, seeming to have difficulty grabbing onto the side. Thinking quickly, Zion darted his head forward and managed to catch Seth's sleeve. Making a lucky grab at Zion's neck, Seth took a handful of feathers. Holding on in that awkward way, Zion dragged Seth out of the stream and onto solid ground.

Seth lay on the ground, his breath still labored and harsh. His body seemed uncomfortably stiff, and for a few moments he entertained the bitter thought that resurrection sucked.

Zion warbled questioningly at him, but speaking was out of the question right now, as he was still trying to get the hang of breathing again. His heartbeat thudded deafeningly in his ears. He attempted to make a sound, but all that came out was a kind of strained cry. The fact that he could make noise was kind of a comfort, and he spent the next few minutes whimpering softly.

Gradually, he realized that his breath was starting to come easier, that his muscles were loosening again, and his heartbeat didn't seem quite so loud any more. It was then that it actually sank in.

He was alive.

He was really, truly, honestly alive.

The whimpers gave way to giggles. The giggles gave way to wild, ecstatic laughter. Looking up at Zion, Seth reached up one awkward arm and petted the chocobo's fluffy neck, rejoicing at the simple fact that he could. He could do anything now. He was alive!

He lay there for several minutes, petting Zion's neck, laughing for sheer, unbridled joy.

-

"I see," Jenova said coldly, after a long silence. "No, you wouldn't, would you."

Phoenix hovered serenely, beating her wings slowly. She said nothing. Chaos fidgeted uneasily, watching the apparent cease-fire and wondering if he should do something. Jenova regarded Phoenix icily, and then seemed to think of something. She smirked. Her gaze flickered down to Aerin.

Chaos wished she would have stopped to gloat. Then Phoenix might have realized what Jenova's plan was and done something. But Jenova did not stop to gloat. She went into a sudden dive, and Chaos reacted purely on reflex. He was already diving after her, Phoenix mere moments behind him, when he realized that Jenova was aiming directly for Aerin.

By sheer, outright luck he managed to catch one of her ankles to stop her descent, beating his wings furiously to counter the inertia. He swung her to the side and released her, diving again and hitting the ground beside Aerin in moments.

"Get down!" he hissed, and she complied instantly. He crouched over her, and had his wings tented protectively over her by the time Jenova had recovered and landed in front of them. As Chaos raised his head, he felt Vincent rising up in his mind.

"Dear, dear Vincent," Jenova said in a bored tone. "What are you doing?"

"As if you don't know." It was Vincent's voice now, coming low and smooth from Chaos's throat. "You will have to kill me to get to her."

"You really are distressingly clever," Jenova sighed regretfully. "Though at this point, I can hardly tell if it's you or the voices in your head."

"It's all of us," Vincent countered.

"You know that if I kill you, you will just come back. You have too much of me in you to die."

"But it will cost you time."

"Time doesn't matter to me, Vincent. I have been waiting hundreds upon hundreds of years. I can wait a little longer."

"You will wait forever. I have cut my strings, Jenova. I will not be your pawn again."

Jenova had no reply to that. She heard the beating of fiery wings behind her as Phoenix landed elegantly on the ground. Eventually, she chuckled.

"It seems that for now, we have reached a stalemate."

-

"C'mon, Strife, you can do it," Zair wheedled, petting his chocobo's neck. "Just a little ways further and it's all downhill from there."

Strife seemed to have exhausted the store of energy that had taken him this far. He looked weakly up at the mountaintop and took a few weary steps. The peak inched closer.

"Come on," Zair said urgently. "Just a little bit farther..."

-

The words sounded unbelievable. Vincent stared at Jenova, Chaos's face registering utter disbelief. Jenova didn't seem like one who was willing to concede anything.

"For now," she clarified. "If you do not move, I cannot get at the girl, and so Phoenix will remain. If I should kill you both, it would just inconvenience me. If I try to attack or flee, at least one of you will attack me. And we have, I feel, rather dramatically demonstrated that any battle between you and I is ultimately pointless. You cannot win at present, and neither can I."

At that moment, Aerin tapped Vincent on the shoulder.

"Whatever you do, don't move," she hissed. "Not even if she runs."

"I had no plans to," Vincent murmured towards her.

Jenova tilted her head, and Vincent wasn't sure if she'd heard the exchange or not. "But you cannot stay there forever, Vincent. You must move eventually."

"Don't," Aerin whispered urgently.

"I will wait as long as it takes," Jenova said conversationally. "If you intend to stay here until she dies of hunger or thirst, I can wait. I have the months to spare."

"Don't listen to her!"

"And if you should choose to move before then to get her to safety, I will find her. And I will find a way to kill her." Jenova smiled cruelly. Chaos's body shook with Vincent's effort not to speak or attack.

"Hold your tongue," Phoenix hissed.

"You." Jenova turned to regard Phoenix disdainfully. "Summoned to kill me, I imagine - yet you won't do it. Is it because you know I am, in my own way, as immortal as you?"

"She said hold your TONGUE!" Vincent roared. Jenova turned back to him, smiling again.

"Poor Vincent," she said. "That girl is the last thing you have worth protecting, isn't she?"

-

His laughter subsiding, Seth decided it was time to get up. The others were somewhere up north, and Seth couldn't stand the idea of lying around when he could be going to find them. Tentatively, he dragged himself up to stand on shaky legs.

Okay. It wasn't as bad as he thought.

He took careful steps forward, not wanting to put too much strain on legs that were just getting used to being alive again. It seemed like eons, but he finally made it to where the Masamune was embedded in the dirt. Smiling, he reached out and wrapped his hand around the hilt.

The moment he touched it, the familiar presence in the back of his mind flickered back to life. Seth felt like singing. He'd been so distracted by other things in the island, he had forgotten how much he had missed that connection. Not that he would ever admit that he had grown to like having the sword in his head...

'Hey,' he thought at the blade as he tied the scabbard around his waist again, 'did you miss me?'

There was silence for a minute, and then Masamune's scraping steel voice cut into his thoughts. /...Seth?/

'No, that other guy who can wield you.'

/...SETH?!/

'Why so shocked?' Seth thought gleefully. 'Never had a master come back from the dead before?'

/I have,/ Masamune replied, regaining some of its composure, /but not usually as the same person./

'First time for everything!' Seth drew the sword and held it up, where it was illuminated in an eerie green. He took a moment to revel in the familiar weight of it and the perfect balance before sheathing it again. He bent down to take the cloak Vincent had left behind, nearly as an afterthought, and then walked carefully back to Zion.

"Alright, Zion," he said cheerfully, "let's go."

-

Vincent glared hatefully at Jenova. If she was fazed at all, she gave no sign.

"There is always something worth protecting," he growled.

"I wonder," she said softly, "if you will still feel that way in a thousand years' time."

"I will. It will not cease to be true."

"Then when the Planet has rotted to the point where it can no longer sustain true life, and all civilizations have collapsed and all life gone extinct, and it is just you, and I, and perhaps dear Cloud surviving on a dead, gray, lifeless rock, you will still think it is worth protecting?"

"That won't happen!" Phoenix cawed, spreading her wings in indignation.

"It will," Jenova said calmly. "Because I will not die as long as my Materia is intact. It doesn't matter where it is. And the only two weapons that could have destroyed it are no longer a threat to me. Vincent's gun is ruined, and the sword is useless outside of Seth's hand. My Materia can no longer by harmed by any weapon the Planet has to offer, and therefore I will never die."

"Lies," Vincent said, but his voice lacked conviction.

Jenova smiled. "I never lie."

-

"Calm down, Zion," Seth said gently. "I know it doesn't look right, but this forest is all illusion, remember? Just follow Masamune."

Zion cooed uncertainly, but trotted forward anyway. Seth was holding the sword straight out in front of him, angling it whenever a turn was necessary. Zion trusted Seth, even if it was weird and a little scary that he had been dead and was alive now, and was sure that Seth knew that he was doing. It still didn't help him get used to the fact that he couldn't see any clear path through the wood and that it frequently appeared that he was about to walk into a tree.

"I can see the trees thinning ahead," Seth said encouragingly.

Zion stared gloomily ahead as he walked. It seemed to him the trees only got thicker. "Wark."

"We're almost out now," Seth coaxed. "Just a little further... just a bit..."

Zion plodded ahead resignedly, not entirely believing it, until suddenly the thick dark woods vanished. He stopped dead at the shock, chirping in disbelief at the surroundings. He turned to look around behind him, and squawked. The forest was in fact behind them.

"See?" Seth smiled and sheathed Masamune again. "C'mon, let's keep going as far as we can."

This time, Zion needed no further coaxing. He warbled joyfully and shot forward into the night.

-

"You're horrible," Aerin whispered from underneath Vincent. "You're absolutely horrible!"

"I am myself," Jenova responded.

"You will not win," Vincent said hoarsely. "If... if I must follow you from Planet to Planet, through hundreds or thousands of years, I will find a way to defeat you. I will find a way, Jenova!"

"Helpless to stop the ruination I will leave in my wake," Jenova added, chuckling. "You don't mind leaving behind a trail of dead worlds? Worlds you cannot save from me, despite seeing the danger long before anyone else? Well, no, I suppose you wouldn't. You must be used to that by now."

Aerin screamed something, but it was drowned out by Phoenix's enraged cry. The firebird lunged forward, and Jenova couldn't move aside fast enough to avoid a gouge on the arm.

"Cease this cruelty!" Phoenix screeched. "We will fight, Jenova!"

Jenova looked genuinely puzzled. "You honestly wish to fight me? Even though you know it is hopeless?"

"I am hope," Phoenix responded evenly. "It is not in my nature to give up."

-

Strife trotted easily down the shell road, grateful that the running and mountain climbing were done for the night. Once in the ancient holy city, Zair felt okay about letting Strife take the rest of the way slowly - there was no sign of Jenova following them, and Zair doubted she could catch up any time soon.

This, at long last, gave him time to ponder his directive. Swinging the bag onto his lap, Zair opened it and looked inside bemusedly. One Lunar Harp, one baseball-sized orb of concentrated destruction.

The idea made sense, of course. Keep the Materia away from Jenova, hopefully so she can never find it again. But Jenova had obviously gotten her hands on this particular harp, so what would stop her from getting another? Did Vincent want them to just smash all the Lunar Harps in the world, or what?

He reached into the bag for the Materia, and immediately withdrew his fingers, hissing in pain. What the hell was up with that thing? Back when he was Zax, he was sure he had never seen any of Cloud's party suffer pain just from touching it.

He was shaken from that particular train of thought by Strife stopping abruptly. He looked up and had his mouth open to tell Strife to keep going, but the words died in his throat as he saw what Strife had obviously seen.

Somewhere, once in one of his lifetimes, he had heard of an old folk belief that black chocobos were unlucky omens, and carried the souls of the dead at night. He had frankly thought it was pretty much bullshit - unfair discrimination against some of the coolest birds ever just because of some ignorant superstition.

Right now, Zair wondered if maybe the stories hadn't been somehow rooted in truth. Seeing a black chocobo trotting up the path towards him carrying what was obviously a ghost on its back certainly made a convincing argument.

The ghost raised its head, and seemed to see Zair for the first time. It raised its right hand in a wave.

What the FUCK were you supposed to do when a ghost on a black chocobo waved at you?

Strife made a motion as if to back off or run, but before he could manage it, the chocobo and its accompanying spectre had ridden up beside him.

In the tiny part of his brain that was still seeking logic rather than yammering in incoherent fear, Zair couldn't help noticing that Seth looked awfully solid for a ghost.

"Zair!" Seth's ghost said. "Can't believe I found you this soon, where are Aerin and Vincent?"

Zair's answer was a pathetic whimper.

Seth looked puzzled for half a second, and then his face went flat as he realized what was wrong. Sighing, he reached out and smacked Zair on the side of the head.

Zair's logic center hit overload and shut down, and fear was replaced with incredulity and annoyance. Rubbing his abused temple, he snapped, "What the fuck was that for?"

"To prove I'm real. It's a long story, but I'm not a ghost. Where are Aerin and Vincent?"

Zair narrowed his eyes suspiciously, then jerked a thumb over his shoulder. "Up north. In Icicle."

"Icicle?!" Seth's jaw fell open. "Holy shit, we'll never reach them in time! What the hell are you doing down here?!"

"Vincent sent me here," Zair said reproachfully, and held up the bag. "He told me to stick the Black Materia in the forest."

Seth's expression changed instantly into one of joy. "All right, you've got it? Excellent, let me have it!"

He realized how bad that had sounded a second before Zair recoiled and held the bag away from him.

"Hell no, what would you want it for?"

"The same reason I wanted it before," Seth said wearily, and slapped his forehead at the look on Zair's face. "No, not that 'before'! Look, I want to destroy it."

"Can I trust you on that?"

"Zair, dammit, at any moment Jenova could show up and try to blow up the world with this thing, will you please just let me have it?!"

Blinking for a second, Zair handed the bag over. "Okay, that sounded convincing."

"Thanks so much." Seth awkwardly dismounted from Zion, and grabbed the Black Materia from within the bag. He bit back a curse as the pain shot up his arm and then dropped the Materia on the ground, wiping his hand on his pants. "Okay... now everyone stand back."

The chocobos quickly trotted several paces away as Seth pulled Masamune from its sheath. Hefting the sword with both hands, he raised it above his head, and brought it down in a shining, lethal arc.

The sharp edge bit into the Materia, and then for a moment everything went white.

-

Watching the fight underneath the protection of Vincent's transformed body, Aerin felt something.

She couldn't explain it, even to herself. It was as if there had been a silent, worldwide shudder and sigh; and then, all of her apprehension melted away. She felt like she suddenly knew something, but wasn't quite sure what. As she kept her eyes on the battle between Phoenix and Jenova, she saw Jenova suddenly falter in midair, and a peculiar feeling of relief and joy overtook her.

Without knowing how, or why, she knew that they would win.

In the air, Jenova whirled incredulously to face the south. Following her gaze, Aerin saw a fading column of bright green. Her first thought was that something had happened to the Lifestream, but then Jenova screamed in disbelief and outrage.

Vincent protested briefly as Aerin squirmed out from under his wings and got to her feet, running in the direction of the battle.

"Phoenix!" Aerin called. "We can do it now! We can win!"

"I know!" Phoenix crowed triumphantly, and bore down on Jenova. Jenova turned just in time to see Phoenix approach, coated in flames.

It was too bright to look at directly. Aerin threw up a hand to shield her eyes and squinted through her fingers. She supposed Phoenix had caught Jenova in her talons, but all that was visible was Phoenix's brilliant fire, Jenova lost in the flames.

After a moment, Aerin barely saw something fall away from the flames. The conflagration surrounding Phoenix flickered out, but the falling thing kept burning. Before it reached the ground, the fire died away.

There was nothing left for it to burn.

Aerin sank to her knees, stunned and too overjoyed to speak. Vincent staggered over to her as Phoenix landed, finally taking back his own shape as he too fell to his knees.

"It's over?" he croaked, looking dazed. "How?"

"Something happened," Aerin said, her voice unsteady. Phoenix bowed her head to Aerin's level, and Aerin gratefully stroked the great feathery neck. "Some kind of miracle... oh, Vincent, we've won!"

-