Final Fantasy VII Fan Fiction

Once

By Kraven Ergeist

Cloud shut off the engine of his bike and sighed. The forgotten city had never seemed welcoming before, and it seemed even less so now. He wasn't sure why he kept coming back. He knew the guilt was over – he knew it! He had made mistakes, and he had accepted them! It was time to move on.

Tifa had.

Cloud shrugged it off. Was that all that was really bothering him? Just because he and Tifa had stopped seeing each other was no reason to start blaming himself for mistakes long forgiven.

His internal debate earned him nothing, as he prodded into the seashell confines of the city of the Ancients, the same eerie resonance haunting the back of his mind. Like the spirits that had inhabited the city long ago still breathed within the city walls. Cloud found it vaguely…soothing…

He reached his destination – the fountainhead within the catacombs, the resting place of the last survivor of the Ancients. What it was he hoped to find, what it was he hoped to learn, he couldn't say. Enlightenment? Memory? Some kind of answer?

He stepped towards the fountainhead. Aeris had prayed here once. On this very ground, she gave the last of her breath for the sake of the planet. He had blamed himself before – that had been a time when he was a mystery, even to himself. He had since accepted that the choice was hers to make, and that she knew what she risked.

The one at fault had been Sephiroth, and no other.

The old man had answered for his crime.

So why did he feel so unsettled?

His sword clattering to the stone template, Cloud felt strength leave him and he collapsed onto his knees, tears flowing freely form his eyes. He missed her! She had been the first one to teach him what his feelings truly meant! She had opened the doors to warmth and sunshine, and he had wanted her to be there with him when he became what it was that he truly wanted to be!

"Aeris…" he breathed, though it came out more like a sob.

His voice seemed to carry across the ages.

"Here I am…"

Cloud's eyes snapped open in an instant, and he saw her, beautiful and vibrant as ever. She shone in a gown of white light, her smile echoing like fireflies on a warm, summer evening. She seemed to float on a soft cushion of air, looking down at him with a mixture of compassion and sorrow.

"Aeris," he spoke, reaching for her.

His hands passed through nothingness.

"Cloud…" the apparition lamented softly, "I can't be there for you anymore, Cloud. This pale shadow you see before you isn't even truly me. I've left this world to you, Cloud…I want you to live in it."

Cloud blinked away tears, shaking his head. "Aeris, I…I can't. Not without you!"

The pale woman closed her eyes and sighed. "You must let me go, Cloud. Clinging to someone you lost isn't living. It will only bring you more pain, and that is a pain that I cannot bear to see you in."

The air seemed to condense around him as Cloud felt a new wave of tears force their way out of him.

"Aeris…" he sobbed. "Please…"

"There is nothing I can do, Cloud," her words carried the painful barb of truth.

"There has to be a way…" he gritted his teeth. "You're right here! There has to be…"

"Don't do this to yourself, Cloud," she spoke softly, her hands coming forward as though to grasp his face. They disappeared as they touched him. "You have to let me go."

"No…" Cloud cried. "I can't, Aeris, I can't…I love you…"

Aeris eyes came wide in an instant, her heavenly features shaking as ephemeral tears came down her face. "Oh Cloud…"

Cloud was heartbroken to hear those tears. He desired so desperately to reach out and touch her, to take her in his arms, and hold her until life itself withered away.

"You can't live like this, my love…" her words spoke volumes. "I died so that a world could live on. I am the last heir of the Ancients, it was my duty, Cloud! My duty came before everything…even my heart…"

Cloud shook his head. "No…I won't believe that…I can't…"

The apparition seemed to shake as another wave of tears flowed down her, as she drifted down to sit before his kneeling form, her eyes stricken with grief.

The one time mercenary looked up to see her sad face. So close, and yet so far away. He could see her, he could hear her, he could smell her, he could taste her. So powerful was the urge to complete that list as he reached out for her.

His hands touched skin…

And in an instant, she was real, whole, and one. In an instant, life flowed through her body and air rushed out from her and her tears became real. In an instant, she was clinging to Cloud's stricken form like a desperate child, her sorrow overflowing like an exodus of lost emotions and tragic memories.

Cloud felt a touch that was warm, and he embraced it. He could feel a heart beating, and it was hers. He could feel her clutching him like life itself depended on that one simple contact. Lost for reason or logic, Cloud embraced the soul lost in his arms. Wet tears touched his face, and they weren't his. He could taste their salt, and he cried even more, his hands holding her closer than anything he'd ever kept.

Her scent drove him mad, her feel in his arms betraying her need. He could feel her warm body squirm around his, her breath turning to fire as her lips came to his, and in an instant, he was devouring her. Her hands, as real as they had been once upon a time, came to his hair, seizing tufts, her whole body stiffening as his weight pressed her to the floor.

Cloud refused to look at her for fear of it being an illusion. His eyes had betrayed him before, but now, every sense burned of Aeris. Her scent was real, and her touch was undeniably human. With every kiss, he could taste her, and with every gasp, he knew that she wanted this as badly as he did.

Emotion flowed from what had once been lifelessness. The apparition had not known true sadness, until it learned what it had lost, and now that it had been granted this chance to touch what had once been hers for the taking, passion overflowed like a maelstrom of memories and long forgotten desires. All at once, she had been able to feel and taste. The one had longed for but could never have was loving her into oblivion. Her senses were on fire, and her tears were now those of joy.

She could cry out with open passion, and feel his heart beat, once for the last time. She could whisper his name as he kissed her, once for the last time. She could touch his body and be warmed by his loving embrace, once for the last time.

And as clothes were torn from her body and she screamed his name into the night, she heard him tell her how much he loved her.

Once for the last time.

"Aeris..." the boy sobbed.

But she was no longer there. He was clutching nothingness, and the air around him suddenly tasted rancid. The sweat dripping from his hair the only evidence of their passion, he cursed the very Earth he lived on. His tears long from gone, he stood up found his way back to where he was supposed to be.

Was life so cruel that it would dangle what could have been before your face? His one consolation was that he had at least proven that he had loved her. But now, she was gone, forever now. Whatever force that had brought her back had emptied its reserves. Now, not even an apparition could be there when he needed her.

"Aeris..." he called her name.

Once...

And he turned to go.

...for the last time...