Prologue: The Day of Judgment
The sun blazed brightly above even the great north, magnified by another, greater presence in the sky. Even the Great Glacier and the Gaia Cliffs, which remained frozen throughout the year, were beginning to melt. Winter was approaching, but there were no visible signs, and the meteor flared away in the sky, an ominous tribute to the unmatched strength of Sephiroth. Nothing would be able to stand in the way of its descent, which was about to begin. The citizens of the upper sectors of Midgar city, to which the meteor was closest, had begun to depart to Mideel, or Costa del Sol, or dozens of other locations. The poor were flocking out of the slums of Midgar, fleeing to Kalm, the closest town in the area. The Day of Judgment was at hand.
North of the town of Icicle Inn, the last bastion of civilization in the arctic lands, north of the endless snowfields and snowy forests of the Great Glacier, and north of the sheer frozen glaciers of the Gaia Cliffs, lay the Crater. It had been there for as long as humanity could recall, perhaps the result of the first time the Weapons were unleashed upon the world, or perhaps a scar from an earlier age, from even before the Cetra. It marked the northernmost part of the planet like an ancient, unhealed wound. The Crater ran deep down, towards the center of the planet, and from above, the view was soon obscured by shadows and the Lifestream, the blood and essence of the planet. Farther into the planet, the crater narrowed, and the waters of the Lifestream cascaded freely down its sloping walls. Few mortal eyes had ever set sight on such a spectacleStill farther the Crater tore, down into the very heart of the planet, surrounded by the Lifestream and pure Mako energy. Huge floating rocks spiraled downwards, serving as a crude stairway leading to the pulsing light locked away in the core of the planet. Too bright to observe without being blinded, the Materia Crystal Holy was all that could stand between Meteor and the mortal world.
Around the shining White Materia was clustered a tiny group of eight, floating in midair, and catching their breath. Slowly, the environment shifted around them and rock platforms materialized beneath their feet. Standing just in front of the others, a man of twenty-one, with brilliant blue eyes and elaborately spiked blonde hair, slowly sheathed the giant sword gripped in his hand and hung his head. Before his hand had left the sword hilt, however, his head snapped up, cold blue eyes locked on a distant island of stone, the sword back in his hand.
"He's here. I can feel him," was all he said before jumping down from the platform on which they stood, and heading determinedly toward the island of rock.
"Cloud, wait!" cried one of the party, a slim and beautiful young woman, with long dark hair and large brown eyes. "Cloud!" she cried again, running after him. It was no use; Cloud simply walked onwards. As he approached the ledge he had fixed his eyes on, he looked around to see the air filled with dozens of floating rocks.
"Sephiroth!" he cried, cold fury burning in his eyes. Instinctively, he leapt to the side as a man jumped down from an island above his head. Cloud winced with pain as the man's blade cut into his back, then turned to face his adversary, the man whom he had hunted for so long.
Sephiroth. The man who had unleashed the Black Materia itself upon the world. The man who had burned Cloud's hometown, Nibelheim, to the ground and killed his mother. The man who had killed Aeris. The man who was standing before him now. His chest bare, with waist-length silver hair and green Mako eyes, he held his long slender sword, the Masamune, carelessly at his side. Cloud leapt forward, sword in hand, and there was a flash of light as blade met blade. As Cloud drew back, Sephiroth lunged, and there was another brilliant flash as their swords clashed again.
Hurrying across the cliff, the beautiful young girl ran after Cloud. Clothed in a short leather skirt and white shirt, she scampered across boulders and leapt over pits with one thing in mind: reaching him. Topping a ledge, she saw him, facing Sephiroth, with their swords outstretched. Their blades clashed repeatedly, producing flashes and sparks of light. At that moment, the Planet gave a violent heave, and the ground beneath the girl's feet collapsed, sending her tumbling over the ledge towards Sephiroth.
Without sparing her a look, Sephiroth pulled back the Masamune and thrust it backwards, impaling the girl on the blade. Carelessly, Sephiroth tossed the girl's lifeless body aside, his eyes fixed intently on CloudAnd Cloud saw only her. First Aeris, and now Tifa. How could it have happened like this? A roar of rage and sorrow ripped from his lungs as he drove his sword straight through Sephiroth's chest. Both men looked down at Cloud's blade in surprise, and then Sephiroth tilted back his head in what might have been a laugh and fell backwards over the ledge, into the Lifestream. Cloud watched him fall with a mixture of surprise, satisfaction, and sorrow. As Sephiroth's body began to sink farther into the Lifestream, it became that of a young girl in a pink dress, with brown hair flowing down her back, her eyes closed in an eternal sleep. Horror began to form on Cloud's face as he looked down upon the familiar body disappearing into the murky depths below.
"Aeris?" was all he managed before sheer disbelief overtook him. It was impossible, yet she was right there before him, slipping away faster and faster into the depths of the Lifestream. As Cloud turned his head away, unable to watch silently as the girl he had failed to save disappeared forever, and his eyes fell upon Tifa, lying motionless in a pool of her own blood. Sobs racked Cloud's throat and he tried in vain to call to her, to get her to respondAll that Cloud could think of was that he had failed them both. He had sworn to protect both Tifa and Aeris from harm and yet he had been unable to save them; he had simply watched as both women died before his eyes. A cry of anguish escaped from his throat, and–
Cloud awoke with a start, sweating uncontrollably and breathing heavily. He looked over his right shoulder and saw Tifa, lying on the bed beside him, her beautiful body silent and still, but silent with sleep, not death. Cloud's breathing relaxed and he lay back on his bed. He had often had nightmares about that fateful day seven years ago, when the Planet had decided in favor of the humans, but none so vivid or real as this one. He and Tifa had lived together in the city of Neo-Midgar for two years after their marriage. Built around the small town of Kalm, where the survivors of Midgar had gone after the city's destruction, it had become a metropolis to match the original city. Cloud looked at the bedside clock and saw that it was six-thirty. Oh well, too late to return to sleep now, he thoughtJohn Reeve, the president of the Shinra electric company, had requested his presence at the unveiling of a monument to the Day of Judgment. It would be a busy day. Cloud found a clean shirt, and was drawing it over his shoulders when he suddenly felt a stinging pain from his back. Glancing over his shoulder at the mirror, he saw a thin, clean slash across his back that had not been there when he had gone to sleep.