I'm very pleased to present the final chapter of New Friends, New Enemies.

Many thanks to the awesome scionoobydoo and Lichtschwert for both of their help in beta reading this chapter!

Chapter 10: New Year

"How could you kill your own father?" Cloud demanded, still in shock at what had just happened.

Sephiroth casually flicked his sword, scattering Hojo's lingering blood against the wall of the alley before shrugging.

"He was about to say something stupid. Besides, mother won't mind."

Cloud felt his mouth drop open at this cavalier response, before tightening his grip on his sword and glaring at Sephiroth. "You're a monster."

Sephiroth let out a full-body laugh at this. "People always fear what they don't understand. The work we're doing in this city is far more important than one pitiful man's life, regardless of who he might have been."

"Whatever 'work' you were doing is over, you're going to spend the rest of your life in a prison cell."

Sephiroth scoffed loudly in response. "Oh, am I? And what evidence do you have to back up that claim?" He paused, giving Cloud a moment to think. "That's right, none! I can frame you for Hojo's death just as easily as I framed you last year."

Cloud felt like he'd been punched in the gut at Sephiroth's last words. "What… what do you mean, last year?"

Sephiroth laughed loudly again before replying, struggling to contain his mirth. "That's right, the best part about the whole thing is that you don't even know. What with how your parents sheltered their poor, innocent, little boy."

"What the fuck are you talking about?!" Cloud demanded angrily.

"I'm sure you remember that grisly murder at Junon High last year, it was all anyone talked about for months. What you don't know, however, is that a student was accused of the murder."

Sephiroth smiled cruelly at the confusion written across Cloud's face as he heard this.

"You were that student Cloud. Your parents tried to shield you from what happened by lying to you. You weren't transferred, you were forced out."

Cloud's mind reeled as he tried to process what Sephiroth was saying. He kept playing the scene where his parents had told him about his transfer over and over in his head, struggling to remember if anything had seemed off.

"Unfortunately, the evidence I planted to frame you by shaking the blood from my blade onto that hunk of metal you call a sword wasn't strong enough for them to convict you, especially since you had the shaky alibi of having already reported the sword as missing earlier in the day. Still, the school felt like they had to do something, so they decided to expel you in secret, and then fed the public some bullshit story about how the police were hot on the trail of the murderer."

Cloud reeled backward as the truth slammed into him, all of the pieces fitting together far too well for him to hope that Sephiroth was lying to him. "Why… why did you do it?" he asked softly.

"I was bored," Sephiroth replied nonchalantly, shrugging his shoulders. "Mother had gotten me a new sword for my birthday and I felt like trying it out."

Cloud felt the familiar rage inside him ignite, but this time he stoked its fire, fully in control. "I swear I'm going to make you pay, both for my friend's life and for what you've done to Aerith."

Realizing that a fight in the close confines of the alleyway would benefit Sephiroth more, Cloud carefully, but quickly backed away from him, keeping his eyes fixed on Sephiroth's blade.

Sephiroth followed slowly after him, his eyes filled with amusement, and his body completely relaxed. "You know you can't beat me in a fight."

"You're wrong. You're not as good as you think you are."

Sephiroth just smirked, and then in the blink of an eye charged towards Cloud, his sword piercing ahead aimed directly for Cloud's heart.

Cloud whipped the Buster Sword in front of himself, using the blunt side of the blade to deflect Sephiroth's thrust, before rolling sideways into the main street. Since they were fairly deep into the slums, there were only a few people around and they all scattered at the sight of the two swordsmen attacking each other.

Sephiroth shot out of the alley after Cloud, moving so quickly it almost looked like he was flying across the ground. With the extra space provided by the wider street, Cloud was prepared for the assault and met Sephiroth's swing with one of his own, an explosion of sparks showering outward from where their swords met. The ensuing clash of blades between them was swift and merciless, neither of them saying a single word as they focused entirely on the battle.

After what felt like hours, but couldn't have been more than several minutes, Cloud could feel his muscles starting to strain under the constant pressure Sephiroth was applying. Even as he acknowledged this fact, he could tell at the same time that Sephiroth was also starting to tire, his slashes coming with less power than before. It happened in a moment, almost faster than Cloud could process, a small opening as Sephiroth was knocked slightly off-balance from a particularly powerful parry. Realizing this was his best shot, Cloud lunged for it, putting the last of his remaining strength into this one strike.

Right before his blade made contact with Sephiroth's arm, Cloud was blasted backward, his body slamming violently into the building behind him, causing a cloud of dust and mortar to explode outward. He struggled to take a breath as the wind was knocked out of him, his vision blurry as he struggled to make sense of what had just happened. There was no way Sephiroth would have had a chance to unleash such a powerful spell on him in the middle of their clash, which meant the only explanation was that someone else had cast it.

As Cloud's vision slowly returned along with his breaths, three green orbs in front of him slowly materialized into a pair of eyes and a Materia in the person's hand.

"A beautiful casting of Tornado, my dear," Sephiroth said, as he walked over and placed a hand on Aerith's shoulder. Together they towered over Cloud's broken body, leering down at him.

"Anything for you, honey," Aerith responded in a nauseatingly sweet voice.

"Aerith, it's me, snap out of it!" Cloud shouted desperately. "Fight him!"

In response, Aerith just coked her head to the side and raised one eyebrow in confusion.

"She's mine now," Sephiroth laughed sickeningly, tracing one long finger down the side of Aerith's face. "Such an obedient little puppet. And how fitting it would be to have hers be the hand that ends your pitiful life."

He handed her his sword, and Aerith stepped in front of Cloud, slowly placing the point of the blade over his heart. As the blade passed by his face he felt it nick his cheek, but he didn't even register the pain. All he could think of was how he had failed the woman he loved.

"Aerith… please…" Cloud begged, looking up into the bottomless pits of her eyes. "This isn't you."

Aerith gave no response, she just stood there, motionless, almost like a statue.

"Kill him!" Sephiroth snarled.

In that moment, before his inevitable death, Cloud thought back to that incredible night so many days ago when he and Aerith had gotten to know each other. How she'd drunkenly licked her drink off his face. How beautiful she'd looked in the moonlight as they'd walked through Elena's backyard. How they'd relaxed in the hot tub, learning about each other's pasts. If he was going to die like this, then he wanted to remember Aerith as she truly was, brilliant, cheerful, and full of life, nothing like this empty shell Sephiroth had turned her into.

"I love you," Cloud whispered, resigning himself to his fate.

The blade flashed, quicker than the blink of an eye, cleanly severing through the neck and the white hair around it.

Cloud blinked in surprise, his eyes slowly widening in shock as he watched Sephiroth's headless body collapse to the ground next to him.

"His mother's name," Aerith whispered, barely loud enough for Cloud to hear, before she collapsed to the ground as well, blood gushing from her nose.

Cloud leaped into action, ripping a piece of cloth from his shirt to use to staunch her nosebleed, before gently lifting Aerith into his arms. He rushed back into the alley, grabbed the Materia that had fallen from Hojo's jacket, and then ran for Fenrir as fast as his legs could carry him.

Cloud made it to the school in record time, thankful he hadn't run into any police cars. Since class was still in session, and no one was around to open the door for him, Cloud used his back to push it open, not willing to let Aerith go for a single second.

"Cloud! Have you seen…" he heard Tifa begin to ask, as he carefully carried Aerith through the door, before turning around to face her.

"What the hell did he do to her?!" Tifa screamed, her tone completely changing as she saw her best friend, covered in blood, lying in his arms.

"It looks worse than it is," Cloud explained quickly. "Most of the blood on her isn't even hers. I need to get her to Bugenhagen as quickly as possible."

"I swear I'm going to kill that bastard the next time I see him," Tifa hissed as they hurried in the direction of the nurse's office.

"Aerith actually beat you to that," Cloud replied, a small bit of mirth entering his voice. "That's where most of the blood came from."

Tifa's pace next to him abruptly faltered as she heard the news, causing her to momentarily fall behind him before she hurried to catch up. "You're going to tell me exactly what happened," Tifa demanded as they reached their destination.

Cloud just nodded as she opened the door to one of the patient rooms for him, stepping inside to gently lay Aerith down on the bed as Tifa rushed off to find Bugenhagen. He felt the exhaustion of the day hit him as the adrenaline pumping through his body finally died down now that Aerith was safe. Cloud grabbed a chair and moved it next to the bed before collapsing down into it to wait. Fortunately, it seemed like Tifa didn't have to search for very long, as the old man in question soon hurried into the room, quickly examining Aerith's body before moving to rummage in one of the cabinets.

"I thought I told you not to do anything stupid. I see you managed to find her though, I assume you're not responsible for her injuries?" Bugenhagen questioned as he began cleaning the blood off of Aerith.

"Of course not, as I already told Tifa, most of that blood is Sephiroth's."

"And where is Sephiroth right now?" Bugenhagen asked. "Not about to break through the school's front doors behind you I hope."

"He's dead," Cloud said simply.

The old man froze momentarily at this statement, before resuming his inspection. "I… see. That's going to complicate things in more ways than one."

"You don't think what he did to her ended with his death?" Cloud asked, even though he already knew the answer.

"Given the coma she appears to be in at the moment, no, I don't believe it has. It's unfortunate Sephiroth was killed, without his knowledge of what was done to her, I'm not sure if she'll ever wake up," Bugenhagen replied regretfully.

Cloud's eyes widened in horror, "No! You can save her, just get rid of the spell he cast on her!"

"Cloud," Bugenhagen said softly. "We don't even know if the spell can be undone in the first place."

"No," Cloud replied firmly. "I know it can be, Hojo implied as much before he was murdered."

Bugenhagen winced at this revelation before responding. "Well, that's encouraging to hear at least, but it still doesn't change the fact that we don't know what they did to her."

"I brought you the Materia that Hojo had on him though!" Cloud pleaded, pointing to where it lay on the medical bed. "Can't you just… I don't know, use it to reverse the spell?"

Bugenhagen slowly shook his head, sorrow filling his eyes. "I'm afraid it's just not that simple my boy. A spell of this magnitude is incredibly powerful, if I just tried to stumble my way through removing it, it's entirely possible I could end up making things even worse."

"Are you saying that we just give up and let her be a puppet for the rest of her life then?!" Cloud demanded angrily, slamming his fist into the arm of his chair.

"No, no, of course not!" Bugenhagen replied soothingly. "Of course I'll try my best to cure her, I just want you to understand that this may be beyond my abilities. At the very least it would be incredibly useful if we knew what the spell's key phrase was."

"His mother's name!"

"I'm sorry, what? Whose mother?" Bugenhagen asked in surprise at Cloud's sudden outburst.

"Sephiroth's mother's name!" Cloud exclaimed in excitement. "It's the last thing Aerith said to me before she passed out, 'His mother's name'!"

"Jenova?"

As the word left Bugenhagen's lips, the Materia lying on the bed next to Aerith let out a soft, unmistakable glow. Cloud leaped to his feet, while Bugenhagen spun to face Aerith as he grabbed the orb.

"Out!" the old man snapped. "I need to focus!"

Cloud ground his teeth in frustration but understood that there was nothing more he could do to help in this situation. He let out a deep breath, gave a nod to Bugenhagen, and left the room, closing the door behind him as softly as he could.

"Cloud, how is she!?" Tifa immediately demanded as the door closed.

Cloud was only able to shake his head softly in response, before slumping down into a chair as the exhaustion from earlier slammed back into him.

"She's still in a coma, but Bugenhagen is doing everything he can to save her," Cloud murmured, staring at his lap. "I'm sorry Tifa, I failed her."

Tifa quickly stepped over and crouched down in front of Cloud, placing her hands on either side of his face before gently tilting his head to look at her.

"Cloud, you did everything you could. None of this is your fault. You found her and you brought her back, that's all that matters. If Aerith were here right now, she'd be angry at you treating yourself like this."

Tifa paused to swallow hard, blinking the tears out of her eyes before continuing.

"Bugenhagen is incredibly good at what he does, we have to have faith in him. And Aerith is strong, she's going to pull through this."

Cloud nodded his head in response, unable to speak through his sorrow. He prayed she was right.

Epilogue

One Month Later

Cloud nervously fiddled with the small, wrapped box, as he rang the doorbell. Almost immediately, he heard footsteps and a voice drawing closer from the other side, and he swallowed hard, trying to calm himself.

"Cloud!" Tifa announced happily as she opened the door, loudly enough so everyone inside would know who had arrived. "You're late!" she hissed more quietly so only he could hear.

"I know, I know, I'm sorry. The only store that was able to pull it off was on the other side of town and…" Cloud trailed off as he realized there wasn't a good excuse for his tardiness.

Tifa placed a gentle hand on his arm and squeezed encouragingly. "It's fine, I'm sure she's going to love it. Now, stop moping and get in here!" she said, loudly once more, before tugging him inside.

She led him deeper into the house where multiple voices could be heard, growing louder as they approached until they arrived at the living room. Seated at the table, chatting while digging into a decadent chocolate cake, Cloud saw Zack, Vincent, Yuffie, Rufus, the four Turks, and, of course, Aerith.

"Cloud!" Aerith shouted, mirroring Tifa from earlier, as she bounced to her feet and rushed over to hug him.

Cloud embraced her back, clutching her to him as he held her for the first time in what felt like years. "I'm so glad… I was so worried…" he whispered in her ear.

Tifa cleared her throat loudly as she took her seat next to Rufus, causing Cloud and Aerith to break apart, the conversation that had halted to watch their reunion resuming as well.

"Why are you the one crying?" Aerith teased, quickly wiping a tear from her eye.

Cloud let out a short laugh, using his arm to rub his tears away as he smiled back at her. "I'd forgotten how beautiful your smile is."

Aerith blushed lightly, her eyes catching on the small box he was holding as she looked away from his eyes. "Oh, is that for me?"

Cloud nodded in confirmation, holding the box out in his palm for her to take. "Happy Birthday Aerith. I hope you like it."

She snatched it away from him, examining the present and its wrapping for a moment before quickly unwrapping it. Cloud held his breath as she cracked the box open, letting it out in relief as Aerith let out a happy gasp of surprise when she saw what was inside.

"Oh Cloud, it's beautiful!" she exclaimed, pulling a silver pendant necklace out to show everyone else before fastening it around her neck.

The necklace's chain was an intricate link of tree roots wrapping around each other. The pendant itself was a small tree, roughly an inch tall. The most striking aspect, however, was the multiple small emerald leaves scattered across the branches, each the exact shade of green as Aerith's eyes.

Before he realized what was happening, Aerith's arms were around his neck and she was kissing him. Cloud lost all sense of time and place as he kissed her back, lost in the wonderful feeling.

"Get a room!" Zack eventually called out, laughing, and causing Cloud to come out of his daze.

"Fine, maybe we'll do just that!" Aerith declared, blushing slightly, before grabbing Cloud's hand and pulling him after her.

"You go, girl!" Tifa shouted, causing Aerith's cheeks to glow an even brighter red as the two of them left the room and headed upstairs.

As soon as they reached her room, Aerith abruptly turned around and quickly kissed Cloud before taking a step back and smiling at him. "I want to officially thank you for saving me," she declared.

Cloud just shook his head in response, smiling back at her. "All I did was help. Bugenhagen said that if you hadn't been fighting the spell as hard as you were, that you would have been under its full control much sooner and we would have lost you forever. Not to mention you're the one who saved my life by not stabbing me through the heart."

Aerith looked slightly flustered to have her thanks turned around on her, but she nodded, conceding the point. "Fine, we're equally responsible for saving the other then."

"I'm just thankful it's all over with and we can get back to the fun times we had before everything went crazy."

"She's still out there Cloud," Aerith whispered, a look of fear entering her eyes that Cloud immediately never wanted to see again.

Cloud placed a hand on each of her shoulders and looked her directly in the eye. "Jenova is a coward, that's why she ran. Thanks to the Materia that was used to control you, we were able to prove that she and her husband had been responsible for the crimes around the city, and the police have sworn they won't rest until she's behind bars. You never have to worry about her again."

Aerith smiled up at him and nodded. "You're right Cloud, mom told me this already, of course, but it's much more reassuring to hear it from you."

"Good, then there's no reason to dwell on what happened anymore."

Aerith smiled before shyly looking down at her feet. "I haven't forgotten what you told me then."

Cloud cocked his head in confusion, not sure what she was referring to.

Aerith took a deep breath before looking up once again to meet his eyes, "I love you too, Cloud."

It was Cloud's turn to turn a bright shade of red. "I… I was just… I thought that… I…" he stammered.

Aerith put her index finger on Cloud's lips to silence him before dragging him down onto her bed. Alone together, at last, the two of them resumed where they'd left off downstairs.

End Note: It is seriously blowing my mind right now that thirteen years later I'm about to be posting the final chapter of this story and marking it as Complete at last. What an absolutely crazy journey it's been, starting with a massive chapter that came out of nowhere, to me scrambling to come up with an actual story to follow it up with. These last two months, in particular, of wrapping up the final chapters, have been really special. I'm happier than I expected with how well it ended up fitting together, and I hope that everything ended up making at least some sort of sense. A special thanks in particular to any readers still around from when this story was first published, I'm sorry it took so long.

Now. I'd initially planned on this being the last fanfiction I worked on since it's been such a huge part of my writing experience and felt like a natural endpoint. However. During the rewrite for the fifth chapter of this story, a tiny little idea popped up and then figuratively exploded inside of me. I've been working on it basically every moment of free time I've had since finishing this story. It's a one-shot, not a chaptered work, but it's already passed the twenty thousand word mark. Cloud and Aerith are, of course, the two main characters, and it's a story of two broken people meeting, slowly falling in love, and healing each other. It's drastically different from anything I've ever written before, and I hope people are going to love it. I'm not entirely sure when I'll finish it and be able to post it, but I'm expecting it to be ready by around the end of November.

Because of the recent instability with FFN, I've also created an account on ArchiveOfOurOwn where I'm crossposting my stories now. I will, however, continue to treat FFN as my main site for as long as it manages to stick around.

Anyways, enough of me going off on a tangent; thanks again for reading this silly little story, and I hope you enjoyed it.

Oh, and here's just a little sneak peek of what's to come.

Sneak Peek

Tifa lay on her back in her bed, one hand resting on her forehead, partially covering her eyes. She was wearing only her underwear under the sheets, her typical choice for the hot summer nights that were so common this time of year in Midgar. "Cloud," she murmured, not looking over at the man in question lying under the sheets on the other side of the queen bed. "I think we should break up."

"I'm sorry," was Cloud's only response, causing her to frown in frustration.

"Don't," she warned. "You know I hate it when you apologize for something that's not your fault."

She could feel his body shifting on the other side of the bed, presumably in discomfort, before stilling again. "Sorry," he whispered.

She let out a loud sigh of exasperation, but left it alone, having already anticipated his follow up based on past experience.

"It's not your fault," she repeated, being completely honest. "I… I just can't take this anymore." She glanced over at him from the corner of her eye and saw him nodding softly in response.

"I know. I get it Tifa, I really do," he replied, his voice surprisingly gentle. "I just wish I could have made you happy."

Tifa shifted over onto her side, putting her back to Cloud, not wanting him to see the tears in her eyes. She took a moment before responding, not wanting him to hear those same tears in her voice either. "You idiot, you did make me happy."

She could feel him shift on his side of the bed again, part of her wishing that he was closing the distance between them, to wrap his arms around her and hold her close against his chest in an embrace. But Tifa knew that that was just a fantasy, something that would never actually happen, and that he was probably just getting comfortable to fall asleep.

"Good night, Tifa," she heard him say quietly.

"Night Cloud," she whispered back. "Sleep well."

She sobbed silently to herself, her body softly shaking, making sure not to let any sound escape her lips, as she thought back on the past few months and wished that things had worked out differently.

When Tifa woke up and rolled over to find the other side of the bed empty the next morning, she wasn't surprised. Hurt, but not surprised. From her experience with him throughout their relationship, Tifa knew this was just how Cloud was, and it only firmed her resolve that breaking up with him had been the right decision.

Slapping her cheeks with both hands, she sat up and let out a deep breath. "Come on Tifa, up and at 'em."