The Grey Ancient

by Ancient2

This is the Kingdom Hearts storyline through Riku's point of view. It's a take on who he is, where did he come from, and 'what' he is. Neither of the Light, nor the Darkness. So then where does he belong?

15. Chapter 15

The Revelation in the Reprieve (Part 3)

... Flashback Continued ...

Aeris and Sephiroth had taken two weeks of R&R after the birth of Riku. Aeris taking it easy to recover her body after giving birth, and the king saw this as an opportunity for Sephiroth to take a break from all the Soldier work piling on him. It was the perfect time for the General to bond with his growing family, regardless of the Copies problem outside Radiant Garden's walls. And Sephiroth had used his given time just for that. While his wife rested, he got to spend more time with his sons and got to learn about his newborn a little more.

Riku apparently was his second most expressive child, just below Loz. But Riku seemed to have more of a peculiar empathy for those around him, eerily so for an infant. Most of his features had passed on to Riku, but when he looked down at his son he could see Aeris's eyes looking back at him. But it was more like they were looking into to him to his heart, they were beautiful but at the same time rattling. His son's eyes frightened him, it scared him that they might see something in his heart that wasn't so pretty. The darkness inside him, the things that he had done, he had never wanted his family to see that. He wanted his sons to look up to him as their protector and guardian, something to strive to be like as they grow. He didn't want his dark deeds of the past to put fear in them, he was the one of the two things in these Worlds that they should never have to fear. If that day ever came in the eyes of his children or his wife, then he would truly feel like a monster.

But Riku never looked at him with judgmental eyes. He just looked at him... As if this was his way of getting to know his father. The child was forming bonds in the only way his little mind knew how. It was quite impressive. Sephiroth couldn't help but smirk in smug pride that his son could stare into his eyes without fear when most on this World couldn't. He was strong, just like him, and just like his mother in the heart.

Pretty soon Aeris became restless, she couldn't sit around the house any longer, she had to go out. Sephiroth was a little reluctant at first, but he could understand the feeling she was going through and decided to accompany her. Their eldest boys decided to spend some time with Uncle Merlin to see some Magic, possibly get some visual learning in while they were at it. While Aeris took Riku with them, she refuse to part with him at such an early stage. This was around the time when the bonding was crucial. So Aeris had taken him with her to the church to check in on her flowers, they have been going weeks without care so a maintenance was overdue. Sephiroth and accompanied the two of them, making sure that they got there okay.

Aeris had brought a few of Riku's baby blankets along with her flower basket and used them as a makeshift crib for Riku as she kept him close by while she tended the flowers. Sephiroth sat down by the front pews watching over the two of them, his arms crossed and him leaning back as he got relaxed. He thought to himself, about his worries, about his future. With his large growing family, he had to worry about what future they would have with Genesis Copies roaming around and the sudden Heartless spikes that would appear every now and then more frequently. For their sake, and the Ancient bloodline that they kept alive, he would have to do something to control the situation.

"(Sigh)."

"Something on your mind?" Aeris asked over her shoulder to him.

"Genesis copies are still being sighted around the World. The situation has not resolved." Sephiroth answered, running a hand through his hair.

"You've wiped out all those Genesis copies. So more must be being made." Aeris concluded to herself, cupping her chin with her curled in fingers in thought.

"Genesis must not have really die. I saw him fall into the darkness, but I did not feel his heart return to the World's Heart."

"Hmm..."

"They have been sighted around Radiant Garden too."

"!"

"Did you think I was being overprotective for no reason?" Sephiroth rhetorically asked Aeris as she looked at him with surprise and realization. "You have to take better care of yourself. This World isn't as safe to us as we would think. Even with the blood that runs in our veins."

"I see..."

"The device Hollander was using has been stolen. Genesis must be using it to make more copies."

"Probably." Aeris agreed with him, turning to him with a nod before looking at him with concern. "So then, does this mean...that you'll be leaving soon?"

"Aeris, I-" suddenly Sephiroth grew alert as he felt the hostile presence heading their way.

"(Gasp)!" Aeris could feel its heart shard too as she grabbed Riku and protectively held him to her as he slept. "Sephiroth!"

"!" Sephiroth swiftly got up on his feet to stand between Aeris and Riku and the incoming threat, ready to unsheathe Masamune. To his surprise a non-hostile presence made its way to them first, flying in from the roof holes. It was like an armor clad Heartless canine with wings, landing between them and the door. Sephiroth was ready to pull out Masamune on the beast, but Aeris placed a hand on his shoulder and shook her head as he looked over to her. The beast showed no aggression towards them and just stared at Sephiroth even as he got on guard. It raised its head to show the Angeal face that it had under its jaw. "An Angeal copy?"

That would make sense. Angeal had always had a fondness for dogs.

It used this as a form of identification before concealing the Angeal face again. Getting into a combat stance just as a Genesis copy burst in through the church doors. Apparently Genesis had infused his cells with the kingdom's combat robots that had gone missing. Apparently he had stolen them and he has the ability to infuse his cells into objects. However, Sephiroth had yet to see Genesis infuse his cells with a Heartless like Angeal could. Most likely due to his diluted Jenova cells he couldn't do it.

The Angeal canine copy had pounced before the machine could fire. Ramming it so hard that its short circuiting caused it to explode. Sephiroth blocked Aeris and Riku with his body from the blast while the canine copy flew away from it, coming down as the machine burned at a safe distance.

"Hmph, thanks." Sephiroth said to the beast while it only howled in turn.

"Was it...protecting us?" Aeris asked, slowly moving over from behind Sephiroth to get a better view.

"Probably."

The canine suddenly fell over.

"!" "(Gasp)!"

Sephiroth walk over to it, knelling down on one knee to check its condition. Aeris did the same thing, but at more of a distance and remained standing just in case she had to make a quick retreat with Riku.

"Looks like...it's degrading."

"Poor thing..."

"What does this mean...?" Angeal could not still be out there. Sephiroth had definitely felt Angeal's heart return to the World's Heart. The canine copy slowly got back up on its legs again. "!"

With a struggle it weakly flew away, up into the church's ceiling bay, resting on the wood.

"It was so...I don't know...sad." Aeris said in sympathy for the creature as they looked up at it.

"..." Sephiroth was inclined to agree with Aeris as he felt such a tiny flicker of that emotion is what existed as the creature's heart piece. He looked back up to the canine copy. "What did you...come here to do?"

The canine made no attempt to answer as it just looked down at them from its resting spot.

"Don't worry. I don't think it means us any harm." Aeris smiled over Sephiroth, admiring the thought of having a guardian canine protecting them. She always wanted a dog, but thought that a home with three grabby toddlers was no place for a poor canine, she couldn't put that fate on any poor animal.

"Hmph," Sephiroth nodded over to Aeris before looking back at the winged canine again. "Can you hear me? Stay right where you are. I'll...I'll take care of things."

Aeris went about tending to her flowers once again, with a pep back in her after the whole copies incident.

"You know, I always wanted a dog." Aeris honestly admitted over her shoulder to Sephiroth whom walked back over to her.

"Really? I thought our kids were enough." Sephiroth smirked with his eyes closed as if trying to hold back a laugh, crossing his arms. "It's all about the companionship anyway."

"They're not pets, Sephiroth." She pouted, turning around to Sephiroth cupping her arms in disappointment and slight embarrassment. "I just wanted something like a four-legged best friend."

"Don't be so picky."

"A tiny little wish, that's all." Aeris countered, turning away from Sephiroth, holding her hands behind her back.

"Heh, they're tiny, but you have a lot of them." Sephiroth said over to her with a small smile.

"That's right, wanna hear?" She instantly turned around with a smile.

"There must be a lot."

"Not really... Twenty...three?" She said counting them out on her fingers before saying the number aloud.

"Heh, you may have to write them down. So I'll remember them all."

"Hmph."

Suddenly Sephiroth's PHS ranged, answering it on muscle memory. It was the king.

"There are new developments with the Heartless situation."

"Sir?"

"Return to Hollow Bastion immediately." Was all king Ansem ordered before hanging up.

"(Sigh)." Sephiroth nearly groaned at the horrible timing as he put his PHS away.

"Work stuff?"

"Unfortunately..."

"Here." Apparently Aeris had been making her list as she handed him the paper. "Be safe. And come back soon, okay?"

"Hmph."

...

After his summon with king Ansem, Sephiroth had gather the infantrymen of Soldier for briefing.

"Legions of Heartless have spawned near an old regional mako reactor construction site. People in the area have all gone missing. Local Soldier operatives have also vanished." Sephiroth explained the situation to them. "The kingdom is dispatching additional operatives to investigate the matter. A selected few and I, that is."

"Sir! Yes Sir!" They all said in attention.

"You, you, and you." Sephiroth said pulling three infantrymen from the lineup, Cloud being included in his pick. "Return to your barracks to gather your supplies and report back. We leave immediately."

"Sir!" The three said in salute before the line up started to march away. One of them stayed behind.

"What's wrong?" Sephiroth asked to Cloud as Cloud struggle with himself to say what he wanted to say.

"Well... I thought you found something out about...that other matter." Cloud finally got out, referring to the Genesis copies incidents.

"The missing operatives were the ones tracking Lazard." Sephiroth further explained to him.

"?"

"Also, they had reported a strange pod-like device in the area. Along with a robed figure."

"Do you think it's Hollander's...?"

"Probably."

"Meaning..." Cloud asked as Sephiroth started to pace.

"Lazard, Genesis... We'll have to go see them." Sephiroth explained finally turning to face Cloud again as he stopped his pacing.

"All right...let's go."

"First, go to the Soldier's barracks." Sephiroth ordered. "We'll depart as soon as you and the rest of the men are ready to go."

"Understood." Cloud nodded in conferment before going of to follow his orders.

"Our orders are to investigate the Heartless." Sephiroth said one final thing before Cloud could leave, making him stop in his place.

"Hm?"

"They mention nothing of...old friends." Sephiroth had to look away at that, the loss still sadden his heart. "Depending on what happens, I may retire from Soldier."

"(Gasp)..."

"Heh. Until then, I'll remain loyal to Soldier." Sephiroth assured to Cloud as he looked over at him. Regardless of all the things that have happened to him, the kingdom actually had no direct part to it and has been good to him over the years. He would not simply just abandon his kingdom, or his king.

"Hm. (Gasp). By the way, where are we going?"

"To Nibelheim."

"!"

"?" Did Cloud's heart just freeze for a second...?

...

Sephiroth knew that Cloud admired him, his heart had gave away how Cloud wanted to be just like Sephiroth when he first joined Soldier. After working with Cloud on several missions, he could say that they became friends. He was older than Cloud, 27 to Cloud's 16, though his looks didn't show it. If not anything else they were war buddies... They could trust the other to have their back. So it concerned Sephiroth that the once open Cloud was suddenly wearing his infantry helmet again as they rode on the bed of Soldier Combat Supply Truck. He was hiding away his face from the World.

"That looks uncomfortable." Sephiroth commented as Cloud looked fidgety. "You can take off the helmet if you want."

"Yeah..." Cloud nodded but didn't make an move on removing his helmet. He looked out from the truck bed to the passing scenery. "It sure is raining hard."

"..." It was suffocating, Sephiroth could still feel the restlessness in Cloud's heart. "Hey."

"Hm?" Cloud turned to look at his General through his helmet's eye guard.

"Settle down."

"I'm returning home after leaving for so long... I'm nervous."

"..." Sephiroth could feel the nervousness along with the shame Cloud felt at returning home not as a First Class Soldier as if afraid of how his hometown would react to that. "Just like a kid?"

"..." Cloud curled up some more as if proving Sephiroth's point. "You going to brief us about this mission?"

"Heh," Sephiroth smirked at the pouting aura he could feel coming from Cloud's heart at his remark. But he decided to cut Cloud some slack instead of poking at him about it. "This isn't a typical mission."

"Good." Sephiroth could feel the excitement in Cloud's heart at that.

"Why do you say that?"

"...I joined Soldier to be like you. But by the time I made it in the Heartless situation had calmed down. My big hopes of becoming a hero like you were halted at that." Cloud confessed, easing out of his shell a little bit. "That's why I always signed up for whatever mission popped up. Kind of a way to prove myself."

"..."

"Say," Cloud looked up to were Sephiroth was sitting on the cargo. "How do you feel, General Sephiroth?"

"...I thought you wanted a briefing?" Sephiroth said, dodging the subject before it got too close to his walls.

"Uh, right..." Cloud sighed, realizing that he wasn't going to get much out of Sephiroth. He never tended to open up to people anyway...that was just how he is.

"Our mission is to investigate an old Mako reactor construction site." Sephiroth continued. "Though the Project never came into fruition, the barrier building around the site is still intact. There have been reports of it being tampered with, and producing brutal Heartless."

"Manufactured Heartless?! It seems impossible."

"I agree," Sephiroth nodded at Cloud's opinion before continuing on with the mission's plan of action. "First, we will dispose of those creatures. Then, we'll locate the problem and neutralize it."

"Where are they?"

"Around Nibelheim."

"Nibelheim..." Worry and anxiety began to fill Cloud's heart.

"That's where you're from, is it not?" Cloud nodded in confirmation and Sephiroth's eyes began to wonder off into the passing scenery outside. "Hmm...hometown..."

BANG!

"Sir...s, something strange just crashed into the truck!" The driver reported as they were forced to stop. With little care to the chaos that was going on outside the truck, Sephiroth rose to his feet. He could since the growing power of darkness surrounding the area with the encounter. Most likely, this was the cause to all the Heartless overrun in the area.

"That would be our Target..."

With ease Sephiroth stepped off of the truck bed's opening onto the muddy road. The rain causing him no discomfort as he leisurely walked around the truck over to the Heartless that had nearly rammed itself into it. Cloud had come out as backup, which was not necessary. Though the Heartless' was large and like a dragon, with a darkness that was stronger than most on this World had ever in countered, it was no match for Sephiroth. Even as the Heartless tried to burn Sephiroth with its Fire, the flames would not harm him. Masamune had taken it down in two strikes.

"I must say, your strength is incredible. Quite impressive." Complimented a dark robed figure with a horned crown on her head and a staff in her hand with long, purple nails. A raven rested on the ball of her staff like a loyal familiar. She was quite tall, nearly as tall as him without the horns, and her presence spoke of something that was far from human. She was something ancient, but its identity was shrouded in her heart by darkness. Whether it was birthed in her through hardship or brought on by her tampering with things she should not have, the darkness had consumed most of the crevices of her heart. "You are far stronger in reality than any of the stories I have heard about you."

"..." It was hard to ask 'how did she know him?' when most of this World knew who he was. So he had to go with the next best thing. "Who are you?"

"(Smirk) I am Maleficent, Commander of the Darkness and the mistress of all evil. And my pretty, feathered companion with me is Diablo."

"Quite the title." Sephiroth smirked in smug, pointing Masamune's tip at her in threat. "But regardless, you don't belong on this World. Return to your World, along with your Darkness, Witch."

"Witch? (Laughter) I have been called that many times, but that is not what I AM. You should know what I am, little Ancien-"

"Quiet!"

"(Chuckle) Oh my, they don't know what you are, do they? But I think it's more than that." She laughed at Sephiroth's discomfort and Cloud's confusion. "I don't think you even know what you truly are."

"I know what I am." Sephiroth answered sternly.

"Do you? Perhaps in a physical here-and-now you do. But you have no idea of where you came from, child. What great power runs through your veins."

"?!"

"Sephiroth, what is she talking about...?" Cloud asked, not knowing what to do in this situation. Sephiroth stayed battle ready while the eerie woman remained nonchalant, and the whole air was tense with their standstill and fog shrouded conversation.

"It doesn't matter what nonsense she is sprouting. She is the one causing the upraise in Heartless in the region," Sephiroth said, eyes slanting as Masamune singed for action. "And she must be eliminated."

"Hmph, do what you must. But I'm not the one creating the Heartless." Maleficent said with a small smile, grinning inside as she closed her eyes to see the shock reaction in their hearts.

"What?"

"Something else is manufacturing those creatures, and I am here to investigate it for my purposes." Maleficent state.

"..." Sephiroth could see the honesty in what was left in her dark shriveled heart. She was not lying. "Then if that is all you came here for, be gone, Fairy."

"(Chuckle) Very good. Your Senses skills are impeccable. Just like your mother's."

"!" That got Sephiroth tense. "How do you know my mother?"

"Why not ask Jenova yourself? She is much closer than you think." Was all Maleficent gave away before summoning a Dark Corridor to make her retreat back to her World.

"!" But Sephiroth was not done with her. "Wait! What is creating the Heartless here?! What purpose do you have for that information?! What are you hiding from me?!"

"The answer to all those questions are just up ahead. Go find them for yourself if you wish. Although, you might not be the same once you find the answers." Maleficent said over her shoulder as she walked into the Dark Corridor.

"Ggh!" Sephiroth hissed on his gritted teeth.

"You should unleash the Darkness you hold in your heart. It's such a shame to see such a beautiful gift that Jenova has passed on to you go to waste." Maleficent said over her shoulder to Sephiroth with a smirk as the Corridor closed, taking the presence of darkness in the area with it.

"Yes, I agree."

"!" That was the loudest Sephiroth had ever heard his mother in his heart. It was almost as if...she was right in front of him.

"What was that all about?" Cloud asked, pulling Sephiroth out of his derailing thoughts.

"I'm not sure." Sephiroth wanted some answers himself. "But we're going to find out. Let's go. The cause of the Heartless is still at large, we'll have to continue through Nibelheim and neutralize it."

...

By late afternoon they had reached Nibelheim. The rain had cleared up and the sun finally decided to show itself. Nibelheim was a small town, but a tight-knit community. This little country town out in the outskirts had a lot of heart. But beyond that Light, Sephiroth could sense something else lurking behind it. Something that was making Sephiroth feel uneasy. However, he put those feelings aside as he stood at the front entrance to the town.

"How does it feel?" Sephiroth turned around to ask over to Cloud whom was still wearing his helmet. "It's your first time back to your hometown in a long time, right?"

"Uh, yeah..."

"So how does it feel?" Sephiroth asked, genuinely curious. "I wouldn't know because I don't have a hometown..."

"Ummm...how 'bout your parents?" Surely they must have known, or at least given him some answers.

"My mother is Jenova. She died right after she gave birth to me." Sephiroth answered giving it some thought and consideration.

"..."

"My father..." Sephiroth suddenly stopped, realizing that he was giving out too much information. This was not like him. The incident on the road must have rattled him quite a bit. He laughed at the thought, along with the memory of whom his father was. Calming himself, he shook the thought away. "What does it matter?"

"..."

"All right, let's go." Sephiroth instructed, entering the town. Stepping into the town, he could smell a darkness that he had noticed before. Although he most certainly should have, his Cetra Senses and his experience with the darkness show have tip him off a mile away from the town. Yet, something about this darkness felt so familiar that it been pushed to the back of his mind until its presence could not be looked-over. "The darkness smells pretty bad here."

"What?"

"Don't worry about it."

"...The town is quiet." Cloud noticed as he looked over the familiar buildings and streets.

"Is that normal?"

"No. Everyone must be in their houses, afraid to come out because of the Heartless." Cloud speculated before coming to the conclusion that knowing from his experience living here was more likely the case. "No, maybe they're afraid of us..."

"..." Sephiroth was inclined to believe that Cloud's assumption was most likely the case. And he was use to it. Such reaction was a norm for him from the locals, no matter where he went he was looked upon with either unapproachable respect or fear. But he couldn't sit around and be upset about it, he had to roll with it and keep moving forward. "We leave for the reactor at dawn. Make sure you get to sleep early."

"..." Cloud looked a little sadden, but nodded in comply.

"..." Feeling bad that Cloud was finally home only to have to stay in their appointed Inn rooms, Sephiroth decided to turn around and do a nice gesture. "All we need is one lookout, so you others, get some rest."

"Sir!" They all stood in attention.

"Oh, and..." Sephiroth turned to Cloud. "You may visit your family and friends."

"Thank you Sir!" Cloud saluted Sephiroth as he entered the Inn, Sephiroth could see from the window as Cloud walked off to the house that was most likely his childhood home. He could sense how the heart that greeted Cloud shined brighter at his appearance. That must have been his mother...

"..." Sephiroth made his way up the stairs, towards the room he would be staying. Due to his privileges of being a 1st Class Soldier along with being the General, he got a room of his own. While the three infantrymen would have to share a room. One would think that such accommodations would be great. But, somehow...it made Sephiroth feel lonely. He envied such comradery and trust they had to sleep alongside each other, knowing that the others in the room had their back. He didn't have that, no peers as his equal. At least...not anymore... It's times like these where he could really use Aeris. He was already missing her right now.

As his mind wandered with his thoughts, he looked out the window towards the lone mansion on the edge of town. It was gated off and abandoned. From the looks of its condition it must not have been used in decades. Beyond the faded paint, vine covered walls, and dusty windows; something about that place was calling him...

"What are you looking at?"

"!" Cloud was back. The sun was almost setting. He must have been staring at that mansion for hours. Has his mind wondered off that much...? "...This scenery...I feel like I know this place."

"?"

"..." Perhaps his mind was playing tricks on him, mixing up memories. This mission was really starting to get to his head. He had to pull it together. "...We have an early start tomorrow. You should get some sleep soon."

"Right, let's get some sleep."

"I hired a guide to the reactor site." It would have been a Mako reactor site if Aeris and him didn't cut Hojo's plans short. Now it was just a reactor facility that did nothing but just take up space. The people of this World could thank them for that. "I've heard she's young, I hope we can rely on her..."

...

The next morning Sephiroth had woken bright and early, beating the others to the meeting point. Cloud was the straggler that slept in. Though at least he made it in time before their guide did.

"Once the guide gets here, we're heading out." Sephiroth explain the day plan to Cloud since we was late to the meetup.

The guides father had come out to talk to them, along with the other townsfolk that made their way out to see the famous General Sephiroth.

"Listen to me, Sephiroth. In case something happens..." The man started to demand, still slight uncomfortable in Sephiroth's presence.

"...Trust me." Sephiroth tried to reassure the man, but he was not good with these things. Perhaps if he had a daughter maybe he would understand more.

"I'll be all right, Dad!" Pouted their guide as she made her appearance, running to them as if she knew she was late on showing up. "I have men from Soldier with me."

"..." Sephiroth may not have been a father with a daughter, but...he knew that no body in their right mind would allow their daughter to go out hiking in THAT. She was wearing a cowgirl outfit with a short leather, tasseled skirt and vest, a white shirt, teardrop earrings, cowboy boots and hat. That outfit offered no protection from the harsh mountain weather or from the mountain which has been known for many experience climbers never coming back from. Perhaps the girl's father shouldn't worry so much about him and worry more about his parenting. This girl clearly lacked any self-preservation skills or common sense.

"I'm Tifa." She greeted them with a smile, finally turning from arguing with her father. "Nice to meet you!"

"Ti-(Cough, Cough, Cough)!" Cloud suddenly panicked, changing his voice to suddenly sound deeper. As if he didn't want the people to recognize him. Or was it 'her' he didn't want to recognize him? "You're the guide?"

"That's right." Tifa looked over to the strange guy that didn't want to make eye contact with her even as he was wearing a helmet. His voice sounded weird too. But even so, she didn't want this guy looking down on her skills just because she was young. "It so happens I'm the number one guide in this town."

"..." Cloud remained silent. He wanted to shout at her that this was too dangerous, and that he didn't want her to get involved in this, but...he was too much of a coward. He couldn't even show his face. They never were really friends, or even close acquaintances for that matter...but he did want them to be.

"...Let's go." Sephiroth ordered, tired of sensing Cloud's heart roasting in its own created fire. Sometimes he wished he could turn off his Cetra Senses, it would save him a lot of headaches and awkward moments.

"Ummm." Called out one of the locals, approaching Sephiroth. "Mr. Sephiroth! Please let me take one picture for a memento!"

"..." The nervous stutter of the young man almost made Sephiroth want to decline. He was brave enough to ask, but still afraid. Sephiroth did not like to waste his time on things that made him feel cut out from the rest. He already knew he was different, but he didn't want to feel unapproachable different.

"Tifa, can you ask him for me too?" The young man asked. Tifa had already moved over to the side to pose, the infantrymen followed after her, all them looking over at Sephiroth to join them. Realizing they weren't going to get anywhere until they got this over with, Sephiroth walked over to the Guide and the other infantrymen to take the photo. "Cheese!"

"..." On the bright side, at least he was quick about it.

"Great, thank you!" The local thanked them excitedly as Sephiroth walked out of pose lineup. "I'll give each of you a copy once I get it developed!"

...

The trip up Mt. Nibel was traitorous and long. The pathway was tight as it was steep. They had made it to the top at the split in the mountain peaks, where an old rigged wooden bridge was the only path between the other side and a long fall to your death. The cold mountain air did not make the trip across the bridge any better. As if like a bad idea, Tifa had walked onto the bridge first.

"It gets harder from here! Follow me!" Tifa instructed.

Cloud followed after her in concern, his heart panicking as if this whole thing was a repeat that didn't end well the last time around. They had bumped into some flying Heartless which made the trip across even harder. But Sephiroth had Bolt-All them out of the sky. However, the fight was too much for the already worn down bridge.

"Uh...the bridge!" Tifa began to panic as the bridge started to shake more than usual. That straining noise of rope did not sound good. Suddenly the stress on the bridge caused the rope to snap. Causing one side of the bridge to unbolt itself. Tifa had slipped and Cloud fell down to grab her, everyone else grabbing on to the other side of the bridge's rope to hold on. But weight unbalance was too much for the stressed bridge. Soon after the elasticity of the rope snapped the bridge in half, taking them all down with it.

The fall was hell. If Sephiroth didn't cast Aero on them when he did, they'd all probably end up like pancakes. Unfortunately they couldn't land in the same area. Getting on his feet again. He grabbed all of his team that he could find so they could continue the mission. He had bumped into one of the Infantrymen whom had survived the fall before finally making his way to where he sensed Cloud and Tifa's hearts were. They were flustered but still okay.

"Everyone seems to be all right. Will we be able to get back?" Sephiroth asked over to Tifa, making his way to what seemed to be an alternative trail up the other mountain peak.

"These caves are intertwined like an ant farm..." Tifa explained, before noting that Sephiroth was going to keep moving while one of the people on their tour group was still missing. "Oh, and Sephiroth...One person seems to be missing..."

Sephiroth stopped moving and looked back. He was hoping that he wouldn't have to address this.

"It may sound cruel, but we've got no time to search for him. We can't go back, so we must go on. We'll travel together from here." Also there would be no point. Sephiroth couldn't sense the other Infantrymen's heart anyway. He had most likely returned to the World's Heart.

Tifa was a little reluctant to just keep going. But she understood that Sephiroth was speaking the truth. These mountains were cruel, and just claimed another life. They would have to keep going, or else risk losing more lives on this. They had walked up to the first entrance that they saw within reach of the path, the insides of the cave were green.

"What's this?" Cloud asked, still covering his voice.

"A mysteriously colored cave..." Tifa answered with mystery, most likely not knowing the real answer herself.

"It's the Mako energy, or liquefied Lifestream if you will." Sephiroth began to explain to them. "This mountain is especially abundant in it. That's why they were going to build a Mako Reactor here."

"What stopped them?" Tifa asked.

"That's classified."

They continued on into the cave, along its curving tunnels. Until they came upon a natural treasure in the tunnels' opening. Trees grew vibrant in there as light shined down from the crack opening above. The dirt below their feet was soft and full of nutrients. A river of Mako surrounded a naturally growing Materia. It was beautiful, and untouched.

"...And what's this?" Cloud asked, already knowing that Sephiroth probably the one with the answer.

"A Mako fountain. It's a miracle of nature." Sephiroth answered.

"It's so beautiful..." Tifa gasped in awe, following behind him to get a closer look. Stepping on the uplifted stones to avoid the Mako. Luckily the girl knew of the dangers of Mako Poisoning. "So...if the Mako Reactor's construction was completed the energy would continually be sucked up and this fountain would dry up...?"

"Yes, it would have." Sephiroth answered, coming closer as well to get a better look at the forming Materia. The Infantrymen followed after. "Materia. When you condense Mako energy, Materia is produced. It's very rare to see Materia in its natural state."

"By the way..." Cloud asked over to Sephiroth, trying to be quiet about it. "Why is it that when you use Materia you can also use Magic too?"

"You are in Soldier and didn't even know that?" Sephiroth couldn't believe that Director Lazard was slacking off with the recruits that they didn't even know this basic information. Either he was trained too harsh going into Soldier, or the new Soldier were getting too much leniency. "...The knowledge and wisdom of the Ancients is held in the Materia. Anyone with this knowledge can freely use the powers of the land and the World. That knowledge interacts between ourselves and the World calling up Magic...or so they say."

He couldn't give away too much.

"Magic...a mysterious power..."

"Ha, ha, ha!" Sephiroth couldn't help but laugh at that. His shoulders shook as he looked up to the sky at the memory Cloud caused.

"Did I say somethin' funny?"

"A man once told me never to use unscientific terms like 'mysterious power'! It shouldn't even be called 'Magic'!" Sephiroth looked back down again, shaking off the laughs. "I still remember how angry he was."

"Who was that?"

"Hojo of Shinra, Inc... An inexperienced man assigned to take over the work of a great scientist." Sephiroth answered, trying to keep the disdain from his words. "He was a walking mass of complexes."

"A Mako fountain... So this is where the knowledge of the Ancients is." Tifa said aloud to herself as she did her own thing while they talked.

"We should keep moving."

...

Sephiroth had taken the lead the rest of the way, with Tifa in the middle and the Infantrymen covering the back. Cloud had stayed close to Tifa to keep her safe, though she would never know that. Once out of the caves, the path to the Reactor Construction Site went by easy enough.

But... there was a darkness in this place that was putting Sephiroth on edge.

"We finally made it." Tifa sighed out in relief. "We sure took the long way though."

They sure did. The sun was already starting to set.

"Tifa, you wait here." Sephiroth instructed as he made his way up the Reactor's stairs.

"I'm going inside, too! I want to see!" Tifa insisted.

"Only authorized people are allowed in. This place is full of Kingdom's and Shinra's industrial secrets."

"But!"

"Take care of the lady." Sephiroth ordered to the remaining Infantrymen, then looked over at Cloud. "You can come with me."

Cloud just nodded and followed behind Sephiroth. Tifa tried to sneak her way on the tail in of their group too, but the Infantrymen that Sephiroth ordered to stay had blocked their path up from her. Shaking his head 'no' at her.

"Mm, man!" Tifa huffed, stomping her foot before turning her back to the living wall blocking her path of interest and walking off a bit with her hands on her hips. "Better take real good care of me, then!"

That was all Sephiroth heard of the conversation before heading in. The place was still not completely built so they had to travel along the pipelines and climb down the chain lifts to get to the reactor area. Cloud following after Sephiroth a little far behind, struggling to keep up. Those this place was not functional as a Reactor, the gears around the place was still moving. A sign that this place was still powered. Meaning that this place served another purpose...

They had come to a room filled with pods. Pods like the one Hollander and Genesis used to make the Copies. But for some reason that did not seem so important right now. A darkness had called to Sephiroth like the sweetest lullaby. One that he knew since he was very small. The darkness was concentrated behind a door that lead up the stairs between the rows of pods. A room with the name 'Jenova' written above it.

"This is... JENOVA...interesting." Cloud examined the door, trying to open it. But the seal wouldn't budge. "It won't open..."

"As if I would let you in." Jenova mocked to Cloud as if he could hear her.

"!" That time it really felt like she was right there in front of him.

"Jenova...?" Cloud gasped, suddenly realizing that this was the name Sephiroth said was his mother's. He looked back at Sephiroth in concern.

Sephiroth had walked away, back down the stairs to where he noticed one of the pods were leaking Mako. The Reactor wasn't draining Mako from the mountain for energy. But it still seemed to be pulling out a little bit to fill whatever it was containing in these pods. But Shinra had abandoned these Reactor's a long time ago, meaning these places were under the direct jurisdiction of the king. What where...no, what ARE they doing here?

"This pod is leaking. That's a dangerous malfunction. This part is broken." Sephiroth deducted aloud as he examined the damaged tubes. The pod's door seal seemed to be damaged as well. "Cloud, close the valve."

Sephiroth ordered as moved over to a functioning pod on the other side of the stairs, looking into it's window to see what could possible be contained inside. Cloud walked over to the pods' valve on under the pod, turning to cut off all Mako flow into them.

"Why did it break?" Sephiroth asked aloud to himself as he leaned up to look into the pods window, Cloud coming over to him. What Sephiroth saw inside did not please him. This thing...no longer had a Heart. "...Now I see, Hojo. But doing this will never put you on the same level as Professor Gast."

"?"

"This is a system that condenses and freezes the Mako energy...that is, when it's working correctly." Sephiroth clarified to Cloud. "Now...what does Mako energy become when it's further condensed?"

"Uh, umm... It becomes Materia?"

"Right, normally. But Hojo put something else in there." Sephiroth sadly moved away to make room for Cloud. "...Take a look."

"..." Cloud nervously moved in front of the pod, looking to Sephiroth as if unsure.

"Look through the window."

"..." Cloud did what he was told. What he saw would haunt him for years. He jumped away, falling on his rear. "Wh...what is that?!"

"Normal members of Soldier are humans that have been showered with Mako. You'd be different from the others but still human." Sephiroth explained before looking to the creature in the pod. "But, what are they? Their Mako energy levels are exponentially higher than yours."

"...Is this some kind of monster?"

"Exactly. And it's Hojo of Shinra that was producing these monsters. And since the kingdom hasn't put a cease to these experiments after Hojo's demise it would seem that the king has a hand in this as well." Sephiroth continued on with his explanation. He looked back at the pod. "Abominations. Mutated living organisms produced by Mako energy. That's what these monsters really are. And once their hearts shatter from the shock and stress, they will become Heartless."

"Normal members of Soldier? You mean you're different?" That question caused something inside Sephiroth to snap. He felt sick. Gripping his head in pain from the shock and confusion going through him right now. Cloud reached for his shoulder in concern. "H...hey, Sephiroth!"

"No." But Sephiroth just pushed him away, gripping his head. "Was I?"

Suddenly he pulled out Masamune and started violently slashing at the pod in front of him. Cloud had to jump back from his blinded rampage.

"!"

"...Was I created this way, too?" He started moving to the other side of the stairs, slashing at another pod. "Am I the same as all these monsters?"

"...Sephiroth."

"You saw it!" Sephiroth shouted back at Cloud, still looking at the pod in front of him with Masamune digging into its door. "All of them...were humans..."

"Human?! No way!"

They turned in alarm as one of the pods started to short circuit. The monster breaking through the pod's seal it half form mutation making it unable to move as it started to deteriorate in front of them on the pod's broken off door.

"...Ever since I was small I've felt..." He tried to word it as delicately as possible without giving anything away. But he had to vent, he Needed to vent. "...that I was different from the others. Special, in some way. But... not like this..."

Sephiroth looked at his hands, seeing them for the first time as if they were something strange to him.

"Am I... What am I?" He asked himself.

Cloud didn't really understand what he meant by this. He was more surprised that Shinra was producing monsters and the kingdom was covering it than anything else.

"No such luck. You are a monster." Genesis answered him, making his appearance onto the scene, flying down on his wing. He had degraded much further since the last time Sephiroth saw him.

"(Gasp)," Genesis had attacked him with a Fire, but Sephiroth had easily blocked it with a Barrier, even his in mind was in a chaotic state.

"Sephiroth," Genesis called to him as he finally touched down on the steps. Sephiroth didn't even look at him. "You were the greatest monster created by the Jenova Project."

"Genesis... So you are alive." Cloud said on guard, Genesis only smirked at him.

"I suppose I am, if you can call this living."

"What is the Jenova Project?" Sephiroth asked over to Genesis, demanding for answers.

Answers that he was more than willing to give.

"The Jenova Project...was the term used for all experiments...relating to the use of Jenova's cells."

"My mother's...cells?" He looked over at the pod again. As in shock and denial that his mother's cells could cause such a monstrous reaction to a human being.

"Poor little Sephiroth..." Genesis mocked over to him smugly. Finally able to turn the tables around on the always smug Sephiroth. He was actually quite enjoying this. "You've never actually met your mother. You've only been told her name, no?"

"..."

"I don't know what images you've conjured up in your head, but..." Genesis had to take a seat on the stairs for this part. Apparently Sephiroth would probably have to do the same pretty soon after this. "Jenova...was excavated from a 2000-year-old rock layer. She's a monster."

"!" Sephiroth had to back away at that.

"Sephiroth...I need your help." Genesis began to get honest with him. Moving passed his pride and accepting that he could not find his body's cure on his own. He had to come to terms with his weakness and accept that he is a defect. "My body is continuing to degrade."

"..." Sephiroth didn't respond to his plea.

"Soldier 1st Class Sephiroth!" Genesis called to him, getting up on his feet again.

"Ggh!"

"Jenova Project G gave birth to Angeal..." Genesis said as he walked down the stairs to join Sephiroth. "...and monsters like myself. Jenova Project S...used the remains of countless failed experiments to create a perfect monster."

"What do you want of me?" Sephiroth hissed through his teeth, wanting Genesis to get on with it. The crisis that was going on in his head was already enough as it is.

"Your traits cannot be copied unto others. Your genes can't be diffused. Therefore, your body cannot degrade." Genesis summed up before, pulling out a Banora White Apple to offer to Sephiroth, just like he always wanted him to try one. "Share your cells with me. 'My friend, your desire. Is the bringer of life, the gift of the goddess'."

""..." Sephiroth finally turned to look at Genesis, before slowly looking up to the door that carried his mother's name over it. So much was carried with that name... "(Gasp)...Whether your words...are created to deceive me...or the truth, that I have sought all my life...it makes no difference."

"!" The rejection to help as Sephiroth knocked the apple out of his hand, stung Genesis more than he anticipated.

"You will rot." Sephiroth said with venom in his words as he simply walked out the door the way they came. Cloud only able to follow after him as the confusion of just went down still clouded his judgement.

"I see...perfect monster, indeed." Genesis sadly said, cupping his rejected hand to his heart. Or at least, what he believe to be what was left of it. He looked up to the sky as LOVELESS was his only comfort right now. His only truth. "When the war of the beasts brings about the World's end. The goddess descends from the sky. Wings of light and dark spread afar. She guide us to bliss... her gift everlasting."

...

A few days later Sephiroth had returned with his team, but he didn't come home the same. Something about him was...different. Before leaving Nibelheim he had raided the Shinra mansion. Breaking into the secret basement entrance on the east wing bedroom on the upper floor, going down the spiral wood walkway. He had sensed the presence of a dormant heart, sleeping in the Realm of Light in a locked room in the basement. It was the first room he had come across, but he paid it no mind. He had other things to find, he needed answers. It had found his way into the research room at the far end of the basement hallway which was practically a cavern. He took everything in the room from documents to books, even the desk in the lab containing locked drowses along with its chair, storing them in a summoning seal to carry with him back home to investigate.

Once home he had locked himself away in the basement with his newly acquired research and didn't come out... He just kept reading and reading to the point that Aeris was starting to worry about him. Heading down to the basement with baby Riku in her arms, she intended to confront Sephiroth about this to stop this mad pursuit. She had only made it half way down the stairs when what she saw had her slowing down to a stop where she was. He was circling around with his eyes to the pages of the book he was holding. But it was what she saw in those eyes that cause the alarms to go off for her. Those weren't the eyes of a stubborn man trying to fight his natural necessities and weaknesses just to find answers; these were the eyes of a mad driven man whom had become numb to his own necessities to get what he wanted. Those eyes sparked like the darkness boiling inside him leaked about, it scared her.

"...An apparently dead organism was found in a 2000 year old geological stratum." Sephiroth paced around, reading the research logbook aloud. "Professor Gast named that organism, Jenova... X year, X month, X Day. Jenova confirmed to be an Ancient... X Year, X Month, X Day. Jenova Project approved. The use of abandoned post-constructed Mako Reactor 1 approved for use..."

"Sephiroth..." Aeris called out to him, but he seemed to be in a world of his own. He stopped looking at the book to look up in thought.

"My mother's name is Jenova..." Sephiroth said aloud to no one in particular. "Jenova Project... Is this a coincidence?"

"Sephiroth."

"Let me be alone."

"Sephiroth you've been down here for too long. It's not healthy."

"I'm fine."

"No you're not. You've hardly eaten anything since you came back. You haven't been sleeping for three days now. I know you haven't because I've been staying up at night waiting for you. I miss having you by my side at night."

"There are things that are needed to be finished. I can't leave things half done, I must find the truth. Who or what I am, and how exactly did I come to be. This cannot wait any longer. I need to sort things out."

"You need to get out of this stuffy basement and get some rest. These researches can wait for you for another day." Aeris insisted to him, pleading to him to put the book down. Being stuck in this dark place with all these books were doing something to him that wasn't healthy.

"My Answers cannot wait for another day!" Sephiroth uncharacteristically roared at Aeris, making her frightened and causing Riku to cry.

"You're scaring me, Sephiroth." Aeris said shaken, holding Riku closer to her in protection.

"!" It was as if Riku's wailing and Aeris frightened eyes had woken him up from his mad spell momentarily. Likely shakened by his own actions, he brushed some loose strands back out of his face as he composed himself again. "I'm sorry Aeris... I shouldn't be taking my frustrations out on you and Riku."

"..." She was still a little stiff as he approached her, but she relaxed mostly as she saw the tired look in his eyes. No longer were they fueled by a mad drive. He had wrapped his arms around her waist, careful of little Riku in her arms as he pulled her in closer to him for a kiss. It was a chastise kiss on the lips but still full of emotions from the man that she fell in love with.

"I love you, Aeris..."

"!" She was about to respond back in kind when he suddenly lifted her up in his arms, making her hold on to Riku tighter as he started walking up the stairs with her.

"Let's get you two to bed."

...

He had woken up half-an-hour after his intimacy with Aeris in the sheets. He looked to see that their baby was safely resting in his crib across the room from them and his wife was snugly wrapped in their covers by his side. The moonlight coming from their window making her hair shine and her skin glow. She was like an angel. His angel.

An angel that he couldn't contain himself from wanting more of. More of her laughs, her smile, her voice, her eyes to always be on him, her love, everything that made her 'her' he wanted all to himself. But as much as he wanted her, he felt like he couldn't truly have her if he didn't even know 'himself'. Who was he to deserve this heavenly creature? What was he? Was he a fallen angel himself? Or, perhaps a monster?

"..." Silently he got out of bed, looking down at his wife one more time, before making his way down to the basement again.

As if continuing were he left off on pause, he returned to his reading. Slowly falling more and more into darkness with each word, beyond his knowledge and beyond his control.

"Professor Gast... Why didn't you tell me anything?" Sephiroth looked down in despair, hoping that his voice would reach Gast in the World's Heart. The man whom had all the answers he would ever need, and yet no longer around to give them to him. "...Why did you die?"

...

Sephiroth didn't come out of the basement...

He continued to read as if he were possessed by something, and not once, did the light in the basement go out...

Aeris had left him his food down by the end of the stairway, on the chest as he continued to read without paying attention to her presence. He had barely touched his plate, soon eating less and less. Until eventually, he stopped eating...

...

"I don't know what to do Cloud. He's scaring me." Sephiroth could hear Aeris talking as her footsteps made their way to the basement's entrance along with another set of footsteps. "He doesn't eat or sleep anyone more. All he does is spend his time down there reading books."

"He hasn't been showing up to Soldier. I thought he just needed some rest after that last mission. But...I guess this is more alarming than I thought it was."

"What happened in Nibelheim...?"

"To be honest I'm not quite sure." Cloud honestly answered, finally making it to the basement's door as Sephiroth could hear the doorknob turning. "I'll see what I can do about Sephiroth."

"Please do." Aeris pleaded to Cloud in gratitude, praying that he could pull Sephiroth out of his rut. Not realizing how deep Sephiroth had fallen into his pit.

"Ha, ha, ha!" Sephiroth laughed aloud at the words. As if there was something inside him that needed to be fix. He never felt more at tune with himself than he was now.

He was sitting at the desk, waiting for Cloud. His darkness practically smothering the whole room, choking at the basement light over his head. It was starting to make it hard for Cloud to breath, as the baby hairs on the back of his neck stood up on edge. Cloud may not have been able to put his finger on it, but...something inside his heart was telling him that something was wrong about this place. It made him want to run. But he stood his ground and approached Sephiroth.

"Sephiroth." Cloud called to him.

"Who is it?!" Sephiroth gruff through his teeth, his darkness starting to Cloud his judgement at how quietly Cloud had finally made his way down to him. This never raised any alarm bells inside him. He was too far gone in his truth to care over petty little things. "Hmph...traitor."

"Traitor?" Cloud was slightly shocked that Sephiroth would call him that. He had been nothing but loyal to his General and Soldier so far, following him through missions as ordered without any hesitation or complaint. Cloud stuck by Sephiroth's decisions through out his time by his side. So why did Sephiroth call him a traitor?

"You ignorant traitor. I'll tell you." Sephiroth huffed, getting out of his chair to walk over to a stack of already read books he had piled up not too far from the desk. Open books laid hazardously around the floor as if dropped down without a care. "The Worlds originally belong to the Cetra. This World belonged to the Cetra. Cetra was an itinerant race. They would migrate in, settle the World, then move on... At the end of their hard, long journey, it was said they would find the Promise Land and supreme happiness."

"..." Cloud confusingly stayed quiet as he waited for Sephiroth to finish his hard to understand rant. Most of the public were kept in the dark about Ancients, mostly hearing of their tale as legends. Cloud was only an Infantryman and did not know much of the secrets kept by Shinra, as he joined after its fall.

Sephiroth turned around to face him, there was unprovoked spite in his eyes towards Cloud.

"But, those who disliked journeying appeared. They stopped their migrations, built shelters and elected to lead an easier life. They took that which the Cetra and the World had made without giving back one whit in return!" Brushing back some strands that fell out of place from his rant he continued on. "Those are your ancestors."

"Sephiroth..." Cloud had to lean back, uncomfortable with the presence that seemed to surround Sephiroth.

"Long ago, disaster struck this World." Sephiroth continued, slowly walking around the desk as he made his way to the stairs. "Your ancestors escaped... They survived because they hid. The planet was saved by sacrificing the Cetra. After that, your ancestors continued to multiply. Now all that's left of the Cetra is in these reports."

"What does that have to do with you?" Cloud nervously asked as Sephiroth made his way over to him to pass.

"Don't you see?" Sephiroth scuffed as if Cloud was an idiot for not noticing yet. "An Ancient named Jenova was found in a 2000 year-old geological stratum. The Jenova Project."

"!"

Sephiroth stopped by Cloud's side, not facing him as he held his chin in thought.

"The Jenova Project wanted to produce people with the powers of the Ancients... Or, the Cetra." He slowly brought his hands back down to his side as he stood proud. "...I am what was produced."

"Pr...produced?!" Cloud grew alarmed tuning to look at Sephiroth directly.

"Yes. Professor Gast, leader of the Jenova Project and genius scientist...No. Not him..." He gritted his teeth as he started to walk away again. "It was Professor Hojo. He produced me. Shinra was all in on it. The king himself too! He knew about everything and kept everything that was done to us out of the public's eye! What they did to my remaining people! What they did to me and Aeris!"

"How...how did he?" Whether if he was referring to how Hojo created Sephiroth or how did the president of Shinra or king Ansem let this abominable Project happen and keep quiet about it, Cloud had no idea himself. But this whole mess was eating away at Sephiroth and he was concern at what Sephiroth would do next in the state he was in. That's why he tried to grab at Sephiroth as he made his way to the stares, pulling out his keepsake of Angeal. "Se...Sephiroth?"

"Out of my way." Sephiroth simply yanked Cloud off of him. He tossed the Buster Sword on the floor as if its touch burned him, as if it had lied to him throughout all these years through Angeal. Heading for the stairs he walked up them without looking back. "I'm going to see my mother."

He had made it up the stairs where Aeris was nervously waiting for them in the Kitchen to come up those stairs together. However, she grew alarmed when Sephiroth was the only one to come up those stairs. Even more so when the darkness inside him that he had spent his whole life trying to contain was freely flowing out of him. Protectively embracing her child closer to her, she had blocked the entrance to her other children in the Living room with her body and took a step back holding Riku close to her heart.

"Sephiroth."

"..." She called out to him but he made no response back. Walking passed her towards the hallway to the front door.

"Sephiroth!" She cried out to him, afraid of what he would do now that he so willingly let his darkness do whatever it wants, embracing it.

"..." For an ounce of a second he had nearly halted at her call. But the darkness drove out the sound of her voice as he headed out with a one track mind. The darkness would get him there much faster than if he left on foot. Summoning up a Dark Corridor of his own, a trick that he had easily learned from one look at how Maleficent had done it, he had made his way to Nibelheim.

...

Cloud had rushed his way up the stairs, holding on to Angeal's Buster Sword. He knew Sephiroth was in a rough place right now, and once he finds his way out of it he would want his friend's keep sake back. But first he would have to catch Sephiroth first to bring him back to the person he once was. Which would be hard since Sephiroth was already gone.

"Cloud! Sephiroth is on his way to Nibelheim!" Aeris told Cloud in alarm, frightened of what her husband might possibly do once he gets there. She had seen what he's done when the darkness flowed freely from him once, it was not something she wanted to be seen repeated again.

"What? How do you know-?"

"There's no time!" Aeris insisted summoning up a Corridor of her own. A small light that fit in her hands, made of pure Light. "Just go!"

"!" Cloud grew alarmed at the power growing in her hands without the aid of Materia. It was something he had never seen before, nor a Magic that he had ever encountered before. She had thrust the ball of Light into his chest, which had engulfed him and blinded all around him into a white light as it shot off with him to a destination unknown.

...

'You lied to me.'

"I did no such thing."

'You never told me the truth.' Sephiroth argued with his mother as he made his way to Nibelheim. His coordinates with the Dark Corridor still needed some work as if dropped him off a little more than halfway to the entrance of Nibelheim.

"I have done no such thing."

'You still kept so many things from me!'

"And with good reasons. Look at you, boy, you're already throwing a tantrum. Living on this World for 27 years and yet still a child."

'Of course I am! Compared to you I'm still a child, you 2000 year old Monster!'

"Silence boy. How dare you speak to your mother that way."

'How else would I speak to you? I've never been taught any better.' He sneered back to her in angry mockery. 'You've never been there to teach me anything!'

"I've always been there for you."

'Oh yes, of course. In your own way.'

"My actions have all been done to keep you safe. My beautiful, foolish boy who knows neither if he belongs in the Light or the Darkness. You're the one that's always contradicted me otherwise you wouldn't have gotten yourself into these messes."

'!'

"I've warned you countless times that the people of this World cannot be trusted. I told you to put them under your feet and claim your birthright. But you never listened to me. No...you became complacent to their will and settle for the mundane life of a serf when you could have been ruler as your blood commanded you to be. The blood of the Ancients. My powerful blood that runs in your veins."

'...'

"It's time that you stopped holding back what you are, son. The darkness inside you that you have inherited through me is not something to hate and to cast away. It is a magnificent gift. You should control it. Embrace it..."

'...I will embrace...my heritage.'

"(Chuckle) Yes. That's my boy. Become what you were truly meant to be."

'I will claim what is rightfully ours. And make those traitorous people of this World pay for stealing what rightfully belonged to the Cetras.'

"Ha ha hahahaha! I'm looking forward to it."

'Then you won't have to wait long. Because I'm about to give you one hell of a show.' Sephiroth smirked as he finally made it to the entrance to Nibelheim. It was coming towards sunset when he finally made it to Nibelheim. A fitting scene for his first descent into power of the Darkness. The Night has truly began for him, and he did not care if the sun never raised again.

Sephiroth soon began setting the buildings of the town on fire. Raining down cast of Fire on the town without discrimination. He burned everything, even the Inn he stayed in; even the home where he knew Cloud's mother lived; even the windmill in the center of the town. They had to pay, they all had to pay. All the people of this World who had deceived him for all these years. These traitorous humans have kept him away from his birthright, and he would make them pay. He began to hate them for it. The darkness inside him made it hard to discriminate or differentiate as he began to hate everyone. The people ran out of their burning homes screaming, running around like headless chickens. Sephiroth cut them down easily. Their bodies piling the streets before starting to fade away as their hearts shot up to return to the World's Heart.

"Sephiroth!" Cloud called to him as he charged at him to stop him in mid-swing. The Light that had transported him here had dropped in off at the front of the town, leaving him to run the rest of the way as it burned around him. "What have you done!"

"Get your hands off of me, you traitor!" Sephiroth commanded at Cloud with venom in his voice. The boy still wore a helmet in this place, Sephiroth saw this as a traitorous move as if Cloud was trying to hide himself from him, just like all the others. Using his darkness he pushed Cloud away from his, making Cloud ram into his burning home. The blow to his head knocking him out.

"Ggh..h..." Cloud gritted, trying to keep conscious as he looked up to the burning building that was once his home. Fighting to find the strength to get up and help pull people out of the burning buildings like Master Zangan, Tifa's martial arts master, was doing. At least enough strength to pull his mother out of the burning house he was leaning on, that's all he wished for. But sadly...it wasn't enough. "Mom..."

Cloud looked to Sephiroth, the man he had once saw as his hero who was now cutting through two more people as if they were insignificant to him. Sephiroth looked back at him smugly as the flames' light danced around his face. The flames raged around him, but he did not burn. Turning away from Cloud and the burning town of Nibelheim he made his way to Mt. Nibel where his mother awaited.

...

Sephiroth made his way to the unfinished Reactor site much easier than last time, already knowing the way. He had entered the building and climbed down to the pods' room just like he had done last time. However one of the townspeople had made their way in, possibly to investigate what Shinra could have been hiding in this place that could endanger his town and change General Sephiroth so much from the time he had returned to Nibelheim with his team one man short. Sephiroth had cut the man down easily without any second thought. The man's heart was already sent back to the World's Heart before he could even turn around all the way to face Sephiroth. He didn't even care to pull Masamune out of him, he had no more time to waste. Nothing would forestall his reunion.

Sephiroth soon recognized the man as their tour guide's father. Pitiful creature, having to go the rest of her life without him. Hopefully she was already burning with the rest of the town.

"Is that your way of compassion? (Chuckle) Oh my boy, you are more vindictive than I am."

"..." But it would seem that he was wrong about the girl burning with the rest of her town. Apparently she had followed after him. Impressively keeping up to him as shortly after he had made his way halfway up the stairs in the pod room she had discovered her father's body. Her heart wailing at his lost. He could practically hear the voice of her heart echoing her words as if he was right next to her.

'Papa...' Her pitiful heart sniffled as her hate started to boil. 'Sephiroth!? Did Sephiroth do this to you? Sephiroth...Soldier...Reactors...Shinra...the Kingdom... I hate them all!'

Her pain meant nothing to him. Nothing on this insignificant World with its infectious people could compare to the pain he was dealt. Paying Tifa's heart no mind, he continued his way up to Jenova's door.

"Mother, I'm here to see you. Please, open the door."

"...You might not like what you see." She sounded oddly shy about it, nothing like the prideful Ancient he had found her to be while growing up.

"How could you do that to Papa and all the townspeople?" Tifa cried out to him, holding his own Masamune as she prepared to attack him. She ran up the stairs at him, slicing down at him with Masamune.

"..." The girl was not weak, but she was not experience with the blade. Especially one as long as Masamune. Her stance was weak and her swing was slow, easy for Sephiroth to stop Masamune in mid swing and wrestle it out of her hands. He had nearly pulled Tifa off her feet as he yanked Masamune out of her hands. Startled at the lost of her weapon and frightened she tried to block her face from his strike only for Masamune to cut through her front. Sephiroth thought she should consider herself lucky that he didn't cut her in half for that stunt as he watched her fall down the stairs. Paying no more mind to the Minor Stalling, he made his way into Jenova's room as she opened the door for him.

In the Steel-enforced room was a decorative tube-line in the center of the room. A feminine angel of metal with long flowing brown cords of hair blocked his path to his mother. She was in the tube behind the lovely eyesore, he could sense it. He could practically hear her heart beats ringing in his ears. Cords, tube-lines, and Mako energizers all connected to the tube that laid behind the angel.

"Mother, let's take this World back together. I've thought of a great idea. Let's go to the Promise Land." Sephiroth proposed up to her.

"I don't think I'm going anywhere in the condition I'm in." Jenova for the first time honestly admitted her weakness.

"!" Sephiroth was confused by her words before he sense the presence of another making their way there. Another insignificant fool. He didn't even care to read their heart to see who they were. "Ha, ha, ha... They've come again, Mother. With your superior power, knowledge, and Magic. You were destined to become the ruler of this Planet, Mother."

Walking up the tube-lines he made his way up to the metallic angel, reaching out to it.

"But they...Those worthless creatures are stealing this World from Mother." He gently said to her soothingly as he reached for the angel's face. Wondering if the metallic face was a resemblance of his mother's. "But now I'm here with you, so don't worry."

Suddenly with more aggression he grabbed the angel from under its wings, violently ripping it out of the way, cords and all. It's liquid bleeding out of his tubes and mouth as if it were alive. Tossing the useless machine out of the way, he looked into the tube which contained his mother. The lights revealing her in her entrapped state. She was swimming in liquid Mako, tubes violently attached all over her naked body as her arms were tied back as if to constrain her. Though she was trapped in a rock for over 2000 years, this Ancient was still alive and they wouldn't take her powers lightly. Sephiroth knew how painful it was being exposed and engulf in liquid Mako from his experiences in Shinra. It was horrible, all those hearts screaming inside you as they are forced to fuse with yours. The whole experience was maddening, and if left in their long enough a weaker person's heart would collapse. His mother had been forced to remained inside that liquid Mako hell for over decades, to the point where she had become numb to this pain to even scream any more. This spoke highly of her powerful Strength or her saddened state. Shinra had taken so much from her...no, the people of this World had taken so much from her.

Her pale skin had slightly turned a bluish-grey from years of being engulfed in Mako and her influences with the darkness. Her hair was still a beautiful long platinum, just like his. Even her face resemble his greatly, much to his relief that he had inherited more from his mother than his supposed father. But her eyes...her eyes were like a tainted Lifestream whom the powers of darkness had corrupted. Cat-like pupils accompanied by glowing light purple irises. On her head was cruelly nailed in helmet that had the name plate 'Jenova' engraved in. She slightly smiled at him smug as she got to see him with her own eyes for the first time.

"Well boy, is this everything that you wished for? Did I live up to your expatiation?" She slightly said mockingly to him. Not really hoping to crush his dream at their reunion, but at the same time not wanting to show how vulnerable she felt to have him see her in the state she was in. Years of control and experience over the heart had trained her to keep such emotions hidden. Even if he was her son, he still had a long way to go. And she would help him to reach it...

No one would be able to hurt him again. She will not let him fall to the same fate she was dealt.

"They've done terrible things to you..." He said to her in pity as he reached his hand out to touch the glass at her face. "I will take this World back from the stupid people for the Cetra." Suddenly the glass to her tube cracked and he was filled with pain. He looked down to see that he was impaled with Angeal's Buster Sword, looking back over his shoulder he saw a helmet and a Soldier Infantryman uniform, but he couldn't recognize the heart. The darkness inside him was starting to make things fuzzy. "Aaarrrgh...who...who are you?"

"Tifa...My town...give it back..." Cloud said to Sephiroth in a heart broken plea, crushed that his hero would betray him like this. Pulling the Buster Sword out of Sephiroth he backed away from him as Sephiroth slid off his legs as he leaned into his mother's confinement tube bleeding out. "I had so much respect for you... I admired you..."

Breathing heavily in his rage and sadness, Cloud with shaky hands reached up to take off his helmet. Breathing in the air outside of the stifling helmet, looking back at Sephiroth one last time and the madness he had become before running out to the other room to tend to Tifa.

"Get up. Don't let such a little wound defeat you." Jenova demanded to him. Refusing to watch him die in such a place.

"G-gh..." Sephiroth struggled to get on his feet again, placing a hand on his mother's cracked test tube for support. He looked to see Mako was leaking out of the tube, draining from around her at an alarming rate. Her body leaning into the broken glass as it could no longer float. "Mother?"

"It's fine. This actual feels much better."

"I...I have to get you out of here."

"You won't be getting far anywhere with that gaping hole in you like that."

"Ggahh," he gritted his teeth as he fought through the pain. Why wasn't he healing natural like he use to? But then again, he had never been dealt such a jeopardizing blow before. "Why? ...Why am I not healing...?"

"You already stepped out of the Light of the Lifestream. This World cannot heal you like it use to. You need the power of darkness to close that gaping wound." Jenova informed him. "But you are still not ready to use that kind of power just yet. You've only just recently unlocked your true power over the Darkness. You still have yet to control it at such a mastery level."

"Then...I suppose I'll have to use someone with that kind of mastery until then."

"!" Her glowing purple eyes widened in alarm as he raised Masamune towards her. "You would cut me down for my power, Sephiroth?"

"Only temporary. I know it won't cause you any permanent harm. Even if your body is dismembered, it will eventually become one again. Returning to your heart." Sephiroth said slightly smug with a smirk, gripping Masamune tighter. "That's what is meant by Jenova's Reunion."

"Heh, I see you've been reading up on that ingrate Hojo's confounded Jenova Reunion Theory." She grinned at his cleverness before wondering of his ulterior motives for this. "So it's not just the Livestream and the Darkness you wish to control. You want to manipulate the clones with my cells to your will as well?"

"No. I want to have control over where your body returns to." Sephiroth answered with a straight face. "I'd rather have you close to my side or resting dormant in the Realm of Darkness than let the people of this World get their filthy hands on you again."

"..." Jenova said nothing or flinched as he raised his blade back up at her again. His eyes concentrating as his weak state would make it harder for him to aim his slash right. She closed her eyes in acceptance of this fate. "With this...you...will succeed the Darkness more farther than I."

Sephiroth sliced down at the tube. Cutting her head clean off her body as he opened a pocket of Darkness to lay her body dormant in for safe keeping. His power over the Darkness already being influenced by his close contact to his mother. Oh how he still had so much to learn, but he was learning fast as an A student.

"That's my boy..." Jenova said silently in content pride, closing her eyes as her head dangled in Sephiroth's hand by the grip on her hair.

Cloud was moving Tifa to a better position by the pods of the right instead of leaving her on the stairs as Sephiroth made his way out of Jenova's room. His grip still strong on his hold of Masamune in one hand and his mother's head in the other. He had done her a kindness of removing the helmet that had been bolted onto her skull, but his grip on her hair was not all that gentle. But he could feel the darkness and its overflowing power running throw his body. Is this truly what he had been fighting against since he was young? Has he truly held himself back from this immense ever-stretching power? Then he truly was a fool. He would never go against it again as he would truly embrace. Just like his mother did long ago.

"Just like you." He said aloud to her as he made his way down the stairs to the exit with her. Paying no mind to the people still in the room. Cloud had persistently followed him.

"Sephiroth!" He charged at Sephiroth with the Buster Sword, but Sephiroth would not allow him to strike twice.

Swiftly turning to his side, he thrust Masamune into Cloud as he turned all the way around.

"Don't...push it..." Sephiroth hissed through his teeth in this insignificant creator's constant interference, lifting him up with his blade for good measure.

"!" Cloud's eyes widened and he gritted his teeth in the pain, but he somehow powered through it. Grabbing on to Masamune while it was currently impaled in him, he had overpowered Sephiroth. Planting his feet back on the ground again as he lifted Sephiroth up in turn from his grip of Masamune alone.

"...It can't be!" Sephiroth couldn't believe it, such an insignificant being was overpowering him, Sephiroth, an Cetra of the Darkness. Lifting Sephiroth up as high as he could, Cloud tossed Sephiroth over to the side where he fell into the Mako ravine below, taking Masamune and his mother's head with him.

Sephiroth had fallen into the Mako. But unlike most whom would have returned to the Lifestream at that. Sephiroth used his influence over the Lifestream to transport himself home where his reunion with his family would finally be complete...

...

Aeris worried about the state of her husband. He had left with a sad forlorn look in his eyes as if the course of this mission to Nibelheim would decided the course of his future. He had just looked so tired, and dare Aeris say it, scared. Perhaps Sephiroth needed a break from Soldier and all this; she always thought that he needed a break.

Grabbing the Keystone to the Ancient's Temple, Aeris had decided that when Sephiroth finally returned home they should go there. Perhaps now was the time to find answers about their past, about their people. It was the perfect time to distract Sephiroth's focus from all the Copies and Heartless. Merlin had kindly agreed to watch over their boys while they were gone so now was the time. Holding the Keystone in her short, pink jean jacket pocket, she couldn't wait to propose the journey to Sephiroth.

But that's when she heard it. The sudden heart freezing screams of many hearts, far off from Radiant Garden, suddenly silenced. Their cries piercing her heart like a knife as the World's Heart woes for their lost. It wasn't as if they had all passed on in a phenomenally close time. No, they were snuffed out. This catastrophic conundrum frighten her, along with her boys as Riku began to cry in her arms and her three older boys shook from their place on the floor in the Living room where they were playing. Aeris rocked Riku, securing him tighter in his blanket while she tried to ease his distress. Her other boys looked towards the direction from the horrible cry had come from.

"(Gasp)!" Aeris felt a sudden eruption of darkness spring up far too close to the front of their house for comfort. Alarmed, she ran towards the front door, staff in hand, to investigate it. Things would be more difficult with Riku in her arms. But with her Magic prowess she could keep her distance. She flung the front door right open only to flinch in tension at the tar darkness boiling not too far inside their yard from the fence opening. "!"

"Mother." Kadaj called out in concern, trying to see what that dreadful presence was that suddenly appeared, Loz and Yazoo just right behind him for a nervous peek too.

"Get back inside, boys." Aeris commanded to her boys in strain, slightly pushing Kadaj back inside the safety of the house as she acted as the barrier.

The darkness boiled corrosively as it oozed from the ground, spreading out as something large was starting to surface from it. First was a bent back, that straightened out to betray a tall figure. The darkness slipped from the being to reveal platinum hair and a pair of familiar Lifestream eyes. The pupils were much more slitted than before, much more cold...

"!" Aeris put a hand over her mouth to hold back a scream as he waded out of the darkness like water. Carrying Masamune in his right hand while gripping something else in his left one.

"I'm home, Aeris..." Was all he said as if nothing was wrong. There was a darkness in his voice that made Aeris shiver inside and out. She took a step back. Something was wrong with her husband.

"Sephiroth what is going on? I felt the scream of hundreds of hearts suddenly returned to the World's Heart and then- AahhHH!" Aeris suddenly screamed as she realized that the thing he was carrying was a head. And not just any head, an Ancient's head. Jenova... He must have...but why? How could he do such a thing?! Masamune was covered in blood and he had a massive sword wound in his torso. What in the world has happened to him? "What have you done...?"

"..."

"Sephiroth what did you do?!" Aeris cried out with tears starting to blur her eyes. Not believing what his appearance was telling her, not wanting to believe what the World was telling her. She gasped as Sephiroth suddenly rushed in front of her before she knew it, pulling her in closer by the waist. "(Gasp)!"

"I just rid the World of some of its inferior traitors, that's all." Sephiroth tried to lean in to his wife. But his touch was like ice that strangely burned her while trying to seep in to her very heart, she recoiled from it. Holding back a cry of pained shock as she pushed out of his arms, protectively covering Riku from him.

"Traitors?" Aeris asked in concern for Sephiroth's being and state of mind as darkness seeped from him with no limits and a craze glint was present in his eyes. She backed away, slowly retreating further into the house only for Sephiroth to pursue.

"Yes, traitors. The wretched people that stole this World from our Cetra ancestors, from us."

"Stole the World? Sephiroth what are you talking about?" None of the things he was saying was making any sense. His logic sounding more and more like a deranged madman bent on World conquest. She grew worried by the minute.

"Don't you see, Aeris, this World was suppose to be ours! Taken from us by those wretched inferior creatures that continue to multiply on this World like an infestation. Stealing away our birthright and constantly trying to steal away this World's life."

"!" She grew frightened at her husband's sudden exaggerate negative view of the people on this World. "You don't mean that, Sephiroth. The people of this World have good hearts. Though some may have strayed, as a whole they have the potential and the desire to do great things."

"Lies...from the innocent naivety of one from the light such as you." He gently cooed to his wife, reaching out to caress Aeris's cheek but she pulled away. "You should know just as much as I do how coated in darkness these people's hearts are. Haven't you seen enough of it in Shinra? Deny it all you want, Aeris. But darkness lies within all the people's hearts in this World, and they are more than capable of using it."

"No. No, you're wrong. People are more than that. They are capable of so much more than that!" Aeris shook her head in defiance of his words. Her retreat slowing pushing them towards the kitchen as she maneuvered from being boxed in or trapped.

"It's not just the people on this World. No, darkness lies in the people on all of the other Worlds as well. The Ancients would travel the Worlds, spreading the light into the Worlds' Hearts continuing our long journey until we reached the Promise Land. But many Ancients tired from the journey and settled down on one World, spreading out our people. But the inferior creatures on each World continued tainting the Worlds with all their darkness and greed. Killing off our people along with their World. The process maybe slow and steady but in the end all the darkness in the Worlds' people's heart will lead their World into the Realm of Darkness."

"Sephiroth..." Such a heartbreaking pessimism towards people they share this World with, let alone all the other Worlds with. "Where is this all coming from?"

"The truth, Aeris. This is all coming from the truth that the people of this World tried to hide from us for such a long time. I found it, Aeris. I found that darkness lies in ALL beings' heart. And that's where my mother comes in." Sephiroth continued on with his bordering on the delirious ranting. "She continued on with the Ancient's journey long after the other Ancients had stopped. She continued to try and saved the Worlds and Kingdom Heart from the darkness in people's heart by keeping it from spreading. Then it came to her, fight poison with poison. She tapped into a darkness more ancient than the piety darkness squandering in the masses' hearts. She cured the sickness on the Worlds by purging the infested Worlds from the Realm of Light. The people called her a calamity, but I would called her a savior."

"Is that why you cut off her head? Is this your way of paying tribute to saviors? Has Soldier made you love fighting so much that you would decapitate your own mother?!" Aeris cried out, no longer able to hold back the tears. Riku began to whimper at the distressing vibe that was pressing down on the room.

"No. I cut off her head to keep her away from those insects that took advantaged of her sealed state and used her powers as they pleased with nonsensical measures." Sephiroth hissed as if his reasoning made any sense. "Mother had no idea there were other Cetra on this World when she was coming down to rain judgement on the World. She had to be sealed away to protect the remaining Ancients on this World from the calamity she had unleashed upon this World. Thousands of years she stayed sealed willingly, watching as the Cetra died off and the weak people of this World multiplied. The Ancients too gentle to fight back, too kind to bring harm to any heart to claim what was rightfully theirs. They vanished into history as Jenova could only watched from her stone, until there was nothing left but us."

"The people of this World had nothing to do with the Cetra's disappearance." Aeris tried to reason with him, but that only made Sephiroth angry.

"You know that's not true Aeris! Open your eyes! It's why you didn't fight back from those experiments! It's why your mother never desolated Shinra to try and escape!"

"!" He was hitting below the belt, and she knew he knew how much the subject of her mother would hurt her. The idea that Sephiroth would purposely hurt her was a devastating blow.

"Don't you see, Aeris? We can end the cycle." Sephiroth said with a more soothing voice over the wound he had just cut into her heart to try and win her over. "The light inside us has only been holding us back. The darkness will help us take back what is ours. We will rule over this World together as our birthright had intended for us."

"This World already has a king, Sephiroth. Have you forgotten the man you fought so hard to protect and stood by loyally for all these years?"

"He's just as bad as the rest of them." Sephiroth said with so much venom that Aeris had to recoil back in fright, holding Riku tighter to her. Sephiroth saw this and tried to ease his presence and his words to coax Aeris out of her frightened shell. The people of this World should fear him, not his wife. Reaching a hand out to her, he gently cupped her cheek and wrapped an arm around her waist. "Come my love. Let us take back what is ours. This World should be ours and will be our children's inheritance."

"!" The cold tried to seep through her skin again at his contact, trying to soak in to her very being. She began to realize that it was his darkness trying to find its way inside her heart to pull out and amplify what little darkness she has in hers. Recoiling from its presence and startling at the feel of Jenova's head by her waist she violently pushed away from him. Turning to her side to cover Riku from this darkness with her body. "But I don't want this World and I don't care to subjugate it! I like our lives the way it is! I love you just the way you were!"

"Were..." Sephiroth did not like that past tense, nor the fact she recoiled from his touch. His startled hurt slowly began to seep into unfathomed rage. "I see...it's that Light inside you, isn't it? It's repelling you away from me because of the darkness flowing freely inside me. It's blinding you from the truth..."

"Sephiroth."

"Well not to worry. It won't be around soon." Sephiroth said nonchalantly as he suddenly started to cool down. "I'll snuff out the troublesome thing. Soon we all can be one with the darkness."

"!" Aeris grew alarmed as the darkness flowed out of Sephiroth and began to devour the room around them.

"Soon we'll be together again in a new way, Aeris. You, me, and the boys." Sephiroth said with a smug smirk on his face as he closed his eyes and allowed the darkness to consume him.

"!" Aeris gasped as Sephiroth disappeared into the consuming umbra as darkness covered all around them. Aeris heard the sudden cries of her boys in the other room to realize that the darkness had covered the whole house.

"Mother help!" "What's happening?! Mother!" "Mother help." She heard the cried of her boys in the darkness. Kadaj, Loz, and even Yazoo had raised his voice to a normal volume in a state of fright.

"Boys! Hold on, everything's going to be okay!" Aeris cried out to her boys in the darkness. She tried to run over to where she felt the light of her sons' hearts were. But the umbra that consumed her husband began to rise and block her path. Her light could only push it back for only so much time, she needed to get her boys out of here before they were all lost to darkness. "Listen to me, you have to make your way over to me!"

"We can't! We can't see a thing!" "Mother, I'm scared! (Whimper)!" "Mother, please. It's too dark."

"Please boys, it's our only chance! Just follow my voice to me!" Aeris begged to her sons in the darkness, trying to coax them to come to her. "Come on, boys, you can make it!"

"I'll try!" "It just feels so heavy and cold, (whimper)..." "I feel...ill."

"Don't give up boys; just keep pushing to me!" Aeris beckoned to them. A shiver went up her spin as the umbra that consumed Sephiroth slithered its way over to her and Riku like a murky mist. She began to step back. "Kadaj, Loz, Yazoo, hurry!"

"We can't!" "Ahhh, something's got my foot!" "I can't...move."

"BOYS!"

"Mother!" "Mom!" "Mother."

"KADAJ, LOZ, YAZOO!" Aeris cried out to them, begging for them to reach her. But the umbra was closing in on Riku and her. She was backed into a shrouded corner which was most likely the kitchen wall. The umbra had made it to her toes. She had to do something now or Riku would be taken by the darkness with her. "UrahhHHH!"

She cried out as a burst of light from within her began to consume her and Riku, giving her Lifestream green yet see-through wings. She had transformed into a radiant ball of light, taking Riku into the form as well, as she burst through the darkness. Crackling through its cold hold like glass as she flew them far away from the darkness... from their home...

She had morphed back, the light and wings fading away back within her from the safe distance outside of the town of Radiant Garden. From the high treetops of the forest outside the wall she watched their home be consumed and taken into the Realm of Darkness. Along with her other boys...

"..." Aeris fell to her knees holding the whimpering Riku as she began to rock. Her life, her home, everything and everyone she loved had been taken away from her before her very eyes...all over again... The tears flowing freely from her eyes as she began to cry. She had saved one son, but had to leave behind the others. She felt so sick inside, so lost, so...devastated. "AAAHHHHHAA!"

...

Confused, hurt, and lost with nowhere else to go. Aeris found herself in Nibelheim, desperate for answers. All she found was burnt down buildings with the remaining ashes of the residence. The town was still simmering from its not too long ago catastrophe. The old, abandon Shinra mansion still standing strong and untouched by the fire. Aeris had searched for remaining lights that had survived the fire, only to find three. One being Master Zangan whom had tried to save as much people as possible only for them to burn in their homes, and another two far off in the mountains.

She had convinced Master Zangan to search the Mt. Nibel with much persuading since he was not fully comfortable with taking a woman with a baby onto a dangerous mountain. But Aeris had proved her skill and they made their way into the Mako Reactor's construction base where they found Cloud lying on his stomach with a Masamune impalement wound on his torso and a nasty slash bleeding out on Tifa in the other room with the pods. Both were in critically condition.

Master Zangan had insisted on carrying them both back, and Aeris was reluctantly forced to comply and walk the way back to Nibelheim to keep her Ancient lineage a secret. Cloud made the trip back a little harder for Master Zangan since he wouldn't let go of the Buster Sword in his grip, forcing Master Zangan to drag it along too. Teleporting with her Light would have been much faster, but with how things were going right now she had no choice but to conceal her Light to remain hidden. She constantly Cure 2 the both of them. Keeping them alive through the whole trip down while slowing closing up their wounds as the Cure sped up their regenative process. Master Zangan too concerned with worry to wonder where Aeris was keeping her Materia as she lacked the bracer holder for them. They had made it to Shinra mansion where they lied the two of them down on the beds in the room with three.

Tifa had remained in a coma state for much longer than Cloud. Sadly Tifa would remain in a coma for two weeks while Cloud would come to within hours of reaching Shinra mansion.

"(Groan)..."

"Cloud? Hooray, you're awake!" Aeris sighed with relief and a smile. She was sitting in a chair by Cloud's bedside, only to raise and look over Cloud once he started to wake.

"Aeris? Wha- where?" Cloud still groggy and confused with sleep.

"It's okay, Cloud. You're back in the Shinra Mansion in Nibelheim."

"I'm...no longer on the mountain...? (Gasp)! Tifa?!" Cloud suddenly rose up in alarm.

"Tifa's fine, Cloud. She's just resting." Aeris gestured with her head over to were Tifa was currently lying on the bed beside Cloud's while using her hands to gently push Cloud back down to rest. "Take it easy. You both had a rough time."

"I...I just..." Cloud sadly said, unable to get his words out as he turned his head to look over at Tifa.

"Master Zangan, could you gather up some food? Cloud most likely is hungry from this whole ordeal."

"Sure," Master Zangan nodded, not willing to go far with his favorite student still unconscious. But still understanding that she would be safe in the hands of this powerful Healer. What ever Aeris would need to get these two better, Zangan would make sure that she got it. "I'll be back shortly."

"Thank you, Master Zangan." Aeris nodded to his as he closed the door behind him.

"What...happened?" Cloud asked over to Aeris.

"That's what I would like to ask you." Aeris sighed out, looking up to the ceiling as she sat back down again before taking a deep breath before looking back at Cloud. "Master Zangan and I found you and Tifa inside the Reactor on Mt. Nibel, both of you badly injured from a sword wound. Master Zangan carried you both back down the mountain while I kept Curing you two."

"I see... Are there any other survivors?"

"I'm so sorry Cloud. But you two are the only ones that are left. Other than this building, the rest of Nibelheim was burned to the ground." Aeris said sympathetically.

"Ggh." Cloud greeted his teeth, gripping his covers in his hands as he tried to hold back the angry tears. "So we're...we're all that's left."

"I'm afraid so... Please, Cloud, can you tell me what happened?"

"Sephiroth..." Cloud hissed the name with such rage that wasn't like the young man that looked up to her husband that Aeris use to know. This was the hurt and the rage of a boy whom had just lost everything he knew. No, the rage of someone whom had everything they knew stolen from them. "He came to Nibelheim to find answers, my hometown had some possible records from Shinra that he wanted to investigate. But he found out so much more, things that did something to his mind. He was no longer the Sephiroth that I knew and respected. He had become a monster like the one they kept calling his mother Jenova. He burned down my town, he killed its people. Che, my mom..."

"..." Her husband stole Cloud's home from him, his hatred and rage was justified as his eyes burned with it. Though... she wised that he wouldn't. But it was never easy to be 'that' forgiving. Sephiroth had done such a horrible thing. She couldn't believe that Sephiroth would do such a thing. No...maybe the truth of the matter is that she didn't want to believe it.

"He came back to the Reactor to collect Jenova. I followed after him, but Tifa got to him first. She confronted him only to be cut down. I had only gotten the drop on him while he was too busy focused on Jenova. But he had somehow survived it, I followed after him only to be impaled by Masamune. Somehow, I...overpowered him, and tossed him into the Mako ravine below."

"!"

"He's dead now. I'm sure of it." That was the only comfort Cloud had from this whole ordeal.

"No he's not." Aeris said, correcting Cloud's assumption, not really liking how pleased Cloud look at the thought of her husband being dead. "He came home, Cloud."

"What? Impossible." Cloud sat up again in alarm. "How could he survive the fall in that much Mako, the concentration alone should have returned him to the Lifestream."

"He's built differently from normal people." Aeris would only give away that much, turning her eyes from Cloud as she continued. "He came back home. Saying that he would take the World back for the Ancients using the power of Darkness that he had been fighting against for such a long time. When I refused to follow him, he took our boys... I...I was only able to save one..."

"..." Cloud looked down at the baby wrapped in Aeris's arms as she began to silently cry. The baby with platinum hair and Sephiroth's subtle features. Even though he was only a baby; his resemblance to Sephiroth made Cloud hate the boy. This targeting hatred made Riku cry in discomfort at the foreign sense of emotion, pulling Cloud out of his darkening thoughts and bringing Aeris's attentions back to the child. "Aeris, where is Sephiroth now? What's his next move?"

"I'm not quite sure where he is. But I have an idea where he might be going."

"Where?"

"..." Aeris reached into her jacket's pocket and pulled out the Keystone. "This is the Keystone to the Ancient's Temple. It is here where we might find the answers Sephiroth is looking for or what his next move will be. Sephiroth will most likely be heading there."

She was hoping to have already been heading there with Sephiroth to find the answers they've been looking for by now. But...it would seem that fate had a change of plans...

"Then show me the way."

"What? Cloud you can't go there in the condition you're in. You need to rest."

"Sephiroth needs to be stopped! It doesn't matter what condition I am in, I have to destroy him."

"!"

"I want to know, Aeris... I want to know why he did it..."

"..." Aeris looked Cloud over as he calmed down. There was a darkness seeping into his heart. Most likely birthed from the destruction and heartache he witnessed. His hatred and pursuit of Sephiroth would only make it grow, possibly to point where it would consume Cloud. She could not allow this to happen, she could possibly destroy this festering darkness or at least keep it contained by keeping an eye on Cloud. This journey might just do the trick and ease Cloud's mind off the hatred of Sephiroth a little. "All right. But, we're not going unprepared. I'm calling a friend."

"Who?"

...

Aeris had made some calls on her PHS to some friends. Travel around their World had become much harder since the lost of Radiant Garden's hero Soldier to fight off the rising Heartless. But somehow Cid had made his way there by car, while Merlin just Teleported there. Appearing from a book that expanded out from thin air, sparkling light and dust popping out along with him. He had made it to Nibelheim before Cid and would most likely be gone before Cid arrived. Cloud had heard of the Wizard in Radiant Garden but never actually had the opportunity to meet him. This whole experience was something new for Cloud.

"Aeris, thank the Light you're alright, my dear!" Merlin sighed out in relief. "I felt the darkness suddenly surround your home and swallow it into the Realm of Darkness. What happened?"

"Sephiroth has...fallen."

"Oh... I see... I'm so sorry, my dear." Merlin said with grief, Sephiroth was like a son to him. The idea that Sephiroth, as strong as he was, gave in to the darkness inside him was a sad blow to Merlin. And most likely would be a big blow on this World with how powerful Sephiroth already is.

"I need a favor. Cloud and I are going to find some answers at the Ancient's Temple with Cid. It's going to be a dangerous journey. One that I will not risk taking Riku along for. Could you... could you look after him for a little while for me while I'm gone?" Aeris asked, holding out Riku for Merlin.

"Oh course. He'll be safe with me." Merlin assured to Aeris, gently taking Riku from Aeris.

"I know you will keep him safe, Merlin. Thank you." Riku began to stir at the lost of his mother, but he calmed once she ran a gently hand through his hair. "Don't worry son. I promise I'll be back soon."

...

It was a long trip through the plains of their World to the Ancient's Temple with no map to guide them, only sense of its presence through Aeris to go with. Cid was skeptical about this whole situation, openly saying so unlike Cloud. After the introductions were over, Aeris had filled him in on the whole story about Nibelheim and Sephiroth's fall to darkness during the drip, but he still couldn't wrap his head around it.

"Man, I can't believe Sephiroth pulled a stunt like that and turn a 180 on us. That's just not his style." Cid shook his head in disbelief, flicking around his toothpick in his mouth as he drove in the direction Aeris pointed him in. "I've known Sephiroth as many things: Smug, silent, loyal, stubborn, and tough. But not a traitor and a deadbeat."

"He's not really a deadbeat." Aeris said in his defense. "He wanted us to join him, forcefully. But I just didn't want that, for me or my family..."

"Still, what the heck happened to him?"

"He found out too many things at once. His mind and his heart just couldn't take it..."

"Are you sure he's heading out this way? Frankly, are you sure you know where we're going, kiddo? The Temple of the Ancients was only said to be a legend, an old wives tale. Who knows if it really exist."

"It is real, Cid. And it's close. Turn right into those woods." Aeris said instructing him with more directions as she followed the voices from the World's Heart guiding her way, along with the humming most likely coming from the Temple.

"How do you know for sure?"

"Because I am an Ancient. I can Sense it." Aeris said, no longer seeing a reason to keep it a secret from her friends any longer. She already known these two for a long time, if she couldn't trust them now then she never will.

"!" Cid almost slammed on the breaks in shock while his eyes popped out. Cloud almost giving off the same expression as well as they both turned to look at Aeris. "You're an Ancient?! There's no way. The Ancients died out a long time go."

"Not all of them."

"You don't look that unordinary to me."

"Who says you have to look different to be a Cetra? Look." Aeris lifted up her hand, calling forth a small Cure, it's wind circling into a sphere in her hand making the car glow a healing green with its light. "I'm casting a Cure without any Materia. No normal human could do that."

"!" "Crap kid." Cloud and Cid gasped in shocked.

"..." Aeris faded the Cure away, gripping her arm and turning away in concern of how the two of them would react to this news.

"Why didn't you say anything about this, Aeris?" Cid asked, slightly hurt that she would keep secrets from. Heck, he thought they were pretty close friends. He had even braved the plain lands of the Heartless just to answer her call for help. The burnt down town and story behind it was disturbing, and the brooding blond with Chocobo-hair was no cup of tea to ride with, but he still stuck with her because she was his friend. "Why would you keep this a secret until now?"

"I also was kidnapped from my home with my mother after my father was murdered by Shinra; forced to undergo experiments along with my mother and Sephiroth because we were Ancients which eventually killed my mother and caused us endless suffering until we escaped. But I kept that a secret from you as well." Aeris shot back at Cid in mockery, not liking his judgmental tone. But she calmed herself, realizing that he meant no harm and that most likely the hostility inside her was coming from her memories of her pain in Shinra. She wrapped her hands around her arms in comfort as she looked up towards the car's ceiling. "We ran to take our lives back from their cruel hands. And we were forced to hide, keeping our origins a secret so as not to have our freedom taking from us again. Whether or not Shinra is gone, there will always be others drawn to the powers of the Cetra. Such a life makes it hard for us to trust people with such information. But I trust you two enough to tell you these things, isn't that enough?"

"Aeris. I'm sorry, I had no idea, kiddo." Cid apologized driving back on the path again only giving Aeris a glance from the rearview mirror. "That must have been hell for you."

"It was my past, but it does not define who I am nor will it ever hold me down. I just hope the same goes for Sephiroth."

"I highly doubt it." Cloud grunted, finally putting in his two cents after staying quiet for so long.

"..." Aeris had just hoped that it wouldn't be so hurtful, guess beggars can't be choosers. Aeris gasped as she sensed the humming passed the trees. "We're here."

"!" Cid stopped the car in surprised awe as they gazed at the large temple of stone surrounded by a stone wall and a moat. A wooden bridge leading into the only entrance through the wall to the Temple's steps. The bridge looked surprisingly sturdy for its age. "Holy crap it is real."

Aeris ran ahead of them, drawn by the power and clarity of the Temple's humming. She lied down on the bridge, putting an ear to its wood as if she could hear the voices of hearts of ancient times that had passed through its crossing. The hearts of her people. She could hear them calling. "This is...the Temple of the Ancients...I...I know... I feel it... The knowledge of the Ancients...floating... You could become one with the World, but you're stopping it with the strength of will. For the future? For us?"

"What are you saying? Do you understand?" Cloud knelled beside her in concern. He had remembered stories about the Ancients being able to speak to the Lifestream and hear the World's Heart, but he had never thought he would be able to see it in person. It wasn't as Magical as he expected, it was just awkward for him like he was out of place in a party where he couldn't see the other guest but had to believe the host and his gut that they were there.

"..." Aeris hadn't heard him, she was in a world of her own as she listened to the voices that harmonized as one, rushing past the wall's gate entrance up the stairs as she listened to the Cetras' voices in her heart. "You're uneasy... But happy?"

"B...y...h..."

"Because I'm here? I'm sorry...I don't understand." Aeris finally turned to the other two with determination in her eyes. "I want to go inside!"

They made their way up the many stairs to the top of the Temple where the entrance lied. Inside the foyer had the typical columns and stone designing. But oddly the torches around the place were lit and in front of the stone altar where the Keystone needed to be place to go further into the Temple was a face she hasn't seen in a long time.

"Hey! It's Tseng!" Aeris said in surprised to see an old face that she thought she would never see again. Deep inside her heart she was glad that he survived the fall of Shinra Corp.

"A Turk?" Cid quirked an eyebrow.

"What's one of Rufus Shinra's elite guards doing in a place like this?" Cloud wondered, noticing the sword wound on Tseng side as he sat down against the altar holding his wound.

"!" Tseng had forced himself on his feet again at the sound of new threats in the facility, only to sit back down once he realized it was them. Looking at Aeris for a moment before looking back down again. "Oh, I've been tricked."

"What are you doing here Tseng?" Aeris asked, silently worrying over his wound.

"I followed Sephiroth's movement, assuming that he was going to follow the Ancient's lore of the journey. However..." Tseng hissed for a second as the movement from talking made his wound sting. "It's not the Promise Land...Sephiroth's searching for..."

"Sephiroth? So he is inside?!" Cloud questioned. Tseng only smirked and pointed to the stone altar behind him.

"Look...for yourself..." Tseng gave one small chuckle before it caused him to cough and hiss in pain from the movement. "Damn... Letting Aeris go was the start...of my...bad luck... The President...was wrong..."

"What's that suppose to mean?" Cid growled through his teeth, holding out his Spear to block the path between Tseng and Aeris. After hearing Aeris's story he wouldn't trust a Shinra lapdog anywhere near Aeris.

"After Aeris and Sephiroth's escape...the new President decided not to pursue them...Only to keep watch of them to make sure...they wouldn't be a threat to Shinra again..."

"Again? What do you mean again?" Cloud asked, but Tseng turned to Aeris instead of answering.

"He never told you about that night, did he?"

"No. But I knew." Aeris honestly answered.

"!" Tseng was shocked by this information. From what he had seen Sephiroth had did a masterful job of keeping the whole incident a secret from Aeris for all these years. He was curious on how she figured it out without anything to go by or any witnesses to tell the tale. Cid and Cloud just listened on in confusion.

"Do you think I wouldn't hear the voices of all those hearts returning to the World's Heart so abruptly? I know what happened, I heard their screams. His actions frightened me...but his fear of what my reaction would be if I ever found out made me push back the fear. Maybe I shouldn't have just washed it away...maybe I should have said something. Perhaps if I did...he wouldn't have turned out like this." Aeris said with her fists on her hips before the last part made her sadden a little, holding her hands behind her back as she looked down and turned away from the group. "But...I think deep down I wanted him to do that to Shinra. I wanted him to make them pay for what they did to us, for what they did to my mother... But beyond that...I wanted to stop Shinra from resourcing Mako."

"..."

"You were wrong." Aeris said to Tseng, finally turning around, directing her statement more towards Shinra than towards Tseng general thoughts or actions on the notion. "The Promise Land isn't like what you imaged. And, I wasn't going to help you reach it. Either way, there was no way Shinra could have won. You were dooming yourself and this World the moment you started."

"...Pretty harsh." Tseng smirked as she turned away from him, it sounded so much like the free-spirited girl he use to know that always spoke her mind no matter the consequences. "Sounds like something...you'd say."

"..." Aeris said nothing, only reaching a hand back to him as she cast a Cure 2 and Healing Wind on him.

"That's something you would do too..." Tseng smirked while sighing in relief as his pain healed and the wound closed. He got up from his spot by the altar, still exhausted from the ordeal. He was moving out of the way so they could place the Keystone on the altar to go further in, going to rest by a column for a bit to catch his strength when he noticed Aeris's shoulders shaking. "Are you crying?"

"..." Aeris just shook her head in denial, turning back towards Tseng whom was leaning against the column, her watering eyes made her argument hard to believe. "You may be with my former enemy, along with the rest of the Turks, but I've known you since we were little... There's not a lot of people I can say that about. In fact, there are probably only a handful of people in the World who really know me. And you Turks weren't as sneaky as you think, we knew you were keeping an eye on us all this time. As long as you did nothing to hinder our lives we did not care. However... I'm just... glad to see... you survived."

"!" Tseng was kind of shocked by her genuine words. He had thought she had hated him along with the rest of Shinra and the Turks. But she was smiling at him, actually happy that he hadn't burned with the rest of Shinra. In a way, she saw him as a friend, and he had a feeling that she felt the same way for the rest of the Turks. Aeris could come off too honest or harsh at times, but genuinely was a very maternal and forgiving young woman. Her kindness was special and one of a kind just like she was. Tseng had honestly missed these interactions. "Humph. Me too, Aeris..."

Closing his eyes he began to rest as the three of them put in the Keystone, the action making them sink into the floor in front of the altar.

It had taken them to a labyrinth of stairways and doors like a surrealism painting. They all looked around in awe as a spirit of collective hearts looked at them further off.

"Words...feelings... So many of them here." Aeris said, closing her eyes and holding her hands in serenity as she listened to the humming.

Cid walked up a little passed her to give the place another look around, not seeing the spirit standing in front of him a little further off. "...This place feels weird. It's giving me the heebie jeebies."

Cid shivered a little as the hairs on the back of his head and his arms stood up in a six sense, stiffly walking back over to the group and away from the spirit. Aeris seemed to be just fine with its presence, turning back to Cloud to encourage them to press forward.

"...Cloud! I know it's going to be tough, but... Don't give up! We can do it!"

"All right." Cloud nodded as the group continued on through the first door of the many stairways and sets. Unseeingly being guided by the spirit through the right set of doors.

It had also lead them to some treasures hidden around the Temple along the way, leading Cid to Trident which was more powerful than his Spear. Eventually it lead them up some sturdy vines to climb up to make it to a treasure room where it revealed itself to them. Cloud and Cid were startled by its presence, but hardened their courage as they approached. It didn't seem to give off any hostility.

"Nyum...nyum..."

"Whew! We finally caught up to you." Aeris cheered as she approached the spirit, shocking the other two members in her group that she was so calm around this thing which was practically a ghost. Even at the notion that this thing had been following them and leading them on since they entered the labyrinth. "I'm sorry. You waited for me."

"..." Cloud and Cid waited for her to explained as she finally turned to them.

"Those are the spirit bodies of the Ancients. They've been away from their World's Heart for a long time to protect this Temple. Over the many years, they've lost the ability to talk. Actually, they didn't need words from the beginning because there was only one objective for those left in the Temple."

"Objective?" "Bodies?!" Cloud and Cid said at the same, one more concern about one thing that she said than the other parts. Aeris ignored their outburst to turn back to the spirit.

"Please, talk to me!" It could no longer speak, but its words and meaning could reach her heart. However, most of it came out as a blurring jumble as the bodies began to split in voice unity. But the emotions still rang out strong. "No good. I don't understand the rest. Are you afraid?"

"S...T...Bl...M..."

"Is it because Sephiroth is in the Temple? Or something else?"

It would not say anymore, but offered them some items to help them on their journey further into the Temple or a place to rest safely in this place away from the other hazards that wondered the Temple. But the others saw no need as they came prepared, but they took it up on its offer on the Materias it had. Climbing down the vines they continued on ahead. Apparently they would have to take more vines down and up to other paths as some of the doors were sealed through Magic.

Eventually the spirit had lead them through a pathway inside the Temple that was booby-trapped with rolling stones along the steep path. Eroded pocket openings in the stones making it more of a curved horseshoe was the only way for them to pass without being squashed. It required a lot of well timing, crouching down, and was rather heart racing. But the moment they made it to the end of the pathway the stones had stopped. The trap must have deactivated.

"...phew... We did it!" Aeris gasped out in relief, still out of breath from all the heart racing and the running, bending down as she place her hands on her knees while she caught her breath.

"Everyone all right? That was rough." Cloud asked looking over at everyone to make sure they were okay.

"!" Suddenly Aeris felt a pulse that pulled her towards the halfway point. She felt it, and what she had Sensed alarmed her. "Oh no...Cloud. Come quick!"

She ran back to the cutaway path that lead to a broken column bordered pool. The other two forced to chase after her.

"Hurry, this way!" Aeris insisted when they couldn't follow after her fast enough. They had found a Morph Materia by the pool while Aeris circled around to the other side, slightly out of breath again. She could feel the pulsing again as the pool began to light up. Aeris began to explain to them what the pool was. "It's full of the knowledge of the Ancients. No...not knowledge ...consciousness...a living soul... It's trying to say something."

"..." They just watched as Aeris knelled down to get closer to the pool, hearing things that they could not.

"I'm sorry, I don't understand." She lied down on the ground and pressed her ear into the pool as if to help her hear better. "What? What is it?"

"(Gasp)!" Suddenly Aeris raised on her feet again. "...Danger? An dark...consciousness?...show? You're going to show me?"

Suddenly the light from the pull began to engulf them, they became see-through as images of a the foyer began to surround them. Tseng was looking around, seemly unharmed from the last time they saw him.

"What's going on?" Cloud looked around rather alarmed with the situation.

"Wait!" Aeris said, insisting that he calm down and pay attention. "Look! It's showing us!"

Suddenly another Turk, a newer one from Aeris's knowledge, showed up. She didn't recognized this short haired blonde female.

"Tseng, what's this? Can we find the Promise Land in here?" She asked, running up to him, but Tseng just shrugged at her question.

"...I wonder. Anyway, we have to report to the President." The young woman nodded and passed Tseng to go fulfill that order. But before leaving, she turned back to Tseng with concern.

"Be careful, Tseng."

"Yeah..." Tseng nodded in comply. "Hey Elena, how 'bout dinner after this job's over?"

"Th...Thank you very much." She replied in flutter. "If I may be excused..."

Tseng just smirked and shook his head as she ran off a little faster and less agile than usual. Getting back to the matter at hand, he looked around to find an entrance into the inner Temple.

"Is this place holding the key to the Promised Land? No, it can't be..." Tseng said aloud to himself. Suddenly a memory image of Sephiroth passed by them in the astral plain as he made his way into Temple through the darkness. Landing on one foot and bent knee as he held on to Masamune. Catching Tseng by surprise at the sudden feeling of his presence behind him, turning around he got on guard. "Sephiroth!"

"..." Gracefully and at his own pace, Sephiroth rose to his feet again, smirking smugly at Tseng. "So you found the Temple of the Ancients before me. Well done."

"This place...what is it?" Tseng asked, getting a strange vibe of this place in his gut. Something was telling him that this Temple did not hold the key to the Promised Land but held something else...

"A lost treasure house of knowledge. The wisdom of the Ancients... ." Sephiroth honestly answered him. Looking around the place as he basked in its Ancient wisdom. "I am becoming one with the World."

"One with the World?"

Suddenly Sephiroth's heart began to spread into fragments, making his heart there while also in another place. His heart fragments stretching into the astral plain with them but long since a shadow from the past. Echoing an image of action already done by the original.

"You stupid fools. You have never even thought about it." Sephiroth grunted as he turned away from Tseng. "All the spirit energy of this World. All its wisdom...knowledge... I will meld with it all. I will become one with it... it will become one with me."

"... You can do that?"

The heart fragment began to laugh at Tseng's idiotic question, as if he truly couldn't even fathom the true capability and power of an Ancient.

"Only death awaits you all. But do not fear." Sephiroth said, suddenly rushing toward Tseng before he could even comprehend what was happening and slashed him with Masamune. Mercifully missing any vital organs as he just left Tseng to fall and bleed out laughing while his heart fragment flew off laughing as well. "For it is through death that a new spirit energy is born. Soon, you will live again as a part of me."

The memory ended and the three of them found themselves back at the pool once again. Alarmed at the things they had seen, Aeris ran back over to the group. But what was most scary about all of it was that it felt like Sephiroth's heart fragment was looking right at her that whole time. As if... seeing her...

"Did you see it?" Aeris asked over to them.

"I don't know what the heck I saw but I saw it." Cid replied.

"...We should head further inside the Temple. Sephiroth might still be here, right?" Cloud said before determinately declaring without waver. "No matter what he thinks, it's going to end here. I'm taking him out!"

"!" Aeris flinched.

"(Clearing Throat) Brat..." Trying to subtly to address the elephant in the room with his head but failing utterly as he gestured toward Aeris. Hinting for Cloud to be more sensitivity about his murder boner for killing the poor girl's husband while she's right there.

But Cloud just ignored it as he took the lead to continue on, Aeris turned back to see Sephiroth's heart fragment enter the pool as Cloud and Cid continued on ahead. Cid probably catching up with him to teach him a lesson on manners or two, while Cloud was just rushing to confront Sephiroth and finish him off for what he did to Nibelheim. The spirit had halted their path again, giving them a chance to restock or rest before continuing on.

They had continued down the steps to circular room with a pit and many doors that only could be reached by a three point rotating clockwise bridge way. Only two of the points able to reach the pathways. If one were to look at it from a bird's eye view the room would resemble a clock. The room declared itself to be the 'Time Guardian. Ye who seek the knowledge of the Ancients. I control the time, select your path.'

It took them a while to get it right, having to command the clock arms to stop at the right time. Going on a guess to which door would be the right path. Coming in from the 10th door, the chamber had only eleven other doors to choose from so they had a lot to go by. Luckily some of the doors just lead to treasure rooms. At 10:20 Aeris had even found a chest containing an Ancient powerful staff called the Princess Guard, its strength was worthy of being called an Ultimate Weapon especially made for Aeris. She was happy to receive such a gift so closely tied to her Cetra heritage, honored to have such a weapon to fight with. Its Magical enhanced affinity making her more of a powerful force to be reckoned with.

Finally at 10:30 they had found the doorway into another chamber filled with many tunnel ways. The Ancients spirit was actually waiting for them at the only entrance way that carved out from the stone wall. Aeris went to check it out after the spirit had fled to the next tunnel over, only for the door not to budge.

"Hey! It's locked." Aeris pouted, it was sealed shut. The spirit probably had the only key to get in. But this wasn't the normal dominant spirit in control of the bodies. No, Aeris could Sense that this was an Ancient guard taking control, the one who was purposed with the task of guarding this chamber. "No good. We have to catch it!"

"(Groan)," Cloud sighed out at the idea.

"You must be tired." Aeris said out in concern.

"Yeah." Cloud honestly answered.

"Just hang in there. Someday we'll look back on these hard times and laugh." Aeris said, trying to perk him up. At least he wasn't whining about wanting to go home, that was a win in her book.

It took them a while to memorize the doors and pattern he would enter and exit doors, it was frustrating at least. There was a lot of jumping and running around until they caught this guy. When they finally caught up to it, the spirit didn't even drop a key, it just unlocked the door. Finding their way back up the rows of doors was another thorn in the side. But eventually it bared fruit as the room previously locked from the other side revealed to be a room will tales of Ancients' history on the wall.

"This is a room of Ancient murals..." Aeris gasped in awe as she looked around. But Cloud didn't seem to care for the history lesson as much as Aeris did. He was kind of spoiling her long sought out search for the truth of her people and what she was.

"Where are you!? Sephiroth!" Cloud demanded, roaring out into the room.

Sephiroth had instantly responded to the call with heart fragments. Two fragments at first, one echoing a few seconds after the other.

"So cold. I am always by your side." The first Sephiroth fragment addressed Aeris, frankly disappointed with her and upset as it started to float away again. "Why did abandon me? We could have come here together. Let alone bring these wretched humans into our sacred Ancestor's Sanctuary. This will never do, Aeris. Come."

The group rushed on after him, heading further into the chamber only to bump into the actual Sephiroth who was looking over the murals.

"Splendid." Sephiroth said in awe and fascination to what was depicted on the walls. "A treasure house of knowledge..."

"I don't understand what you're saying!" Cloud growled, his rage began to grow at such an alarming rate that was mostly fueled by Sephiroth's presence in the vicinity. It concerned Aeris about how this unchecked rage was effecting the growing darkness inside Cloud which would most likely fluster in his rage.

Sephiroth laughed at Cloud's ignorance and the barreling out of control bitter hatred burning inside his heart. It was like music to his Cetra ears. He flew further into the chamber, making the group give chase like a game of fetch-and-herd. It made him feel like a puppet master pulling on the strings of human puppets, while also a sheep herder as he lead his lost Cetra-sheep-of-a-wife to the right they were destined to take.

He laughed as they caught up, leading them to the mural with the blazing celestial object coming down on the Cetras. One female Cetra holding up a Materia as if to hold it at bay.

"Look well." Sephiroth insisted.

"At what?!"

"At that which adds to the knowledge of... I am becoming one with the World." Sephiroth answered, basking in the glory of the feel of it. The feeling was like a pull that was pulling him everywhere and yet holding him there at the same time. He laughed at Cloud useless attempts of ever understanding of what it would feel like to be a Cetra, what an experience it was to be him right now. The darkness in his heart may give him a taste, but not enough.

Sephiroth leaped back, even further into the chamber. Leaning down against the artifact altar at the end of the chamber looking up to the sky as he spoke to his mother to which he had left her head in his own pocket in the Realm of Darkness. Sadly her body had already found its way out, trying to reunite with her head, only for the gateways to the Realm of Darkness to chaotically open and close in any place at its own accord. Forever making it difficult for the headless body to find its way back in to the darkness by a natural door. Her powers were cut in half, she would need the return of her head in order to control the Corridors through the darkness freely. She was left in a conundrum while her son was too business drunk on the power of darkness to notice her predicament, much less care.

'...Mother...it's almost time.' Sephiroth called out to her in the darkness. 'Soon...we will become one.'

"I rather not. Sharing my powers with you is about the limit I'm willing to go with you, son."

'I'm going to have to agree with her, that sounds absolutely vile. And I'm pretty sure what you're doing would technically be termed under cheating' Sephiroth's eyes widen in shock along with his mother's as Aeris entered the conversation while crossing her arms and looking sternly at him in the physical plain. "How do you intend to become one with the World?"

'Jelous?' Sephiroth smirked before fully turning to face her. "It's simple. Once the World is hurt, it gathers Spirit Energy to heal the injury."

Sephiroth began slashing at the air in his excitement as he looked around the group. His heart fragments making an echo image of his actions as they try to become one with their whole again.

"The amount of energy gathered depends on the size of the injury." He began to laugh as he impaled Masamune into the ground as if to hurt the World. The World's Heart was mostly emotionally hurt and shocked that one of its chosen children would try to harm it. Aeris and Sephiroth could hear its heartache ringing in their ears. "...What would happen if there was an injury that threatened the very life of the World? Think how much energy would be gathered! Ha ha ha. And at the center of that injury, will be me. All that boundless energy will be mine."

"!" Aeris gasped in horror at the intention implied in Sephiroth's words as he pulled Masamune out of the ground and started swinging again.

"By merging with all the energy of the World, I will become a new life form, a new existence." Sephiroth chuckled with shaking shoulders as his swings halted. "Melding with the World... I will cease to exist as I am now... Only to be reborn as a 'God' to rule over every soul."

"An injury powerful enough to destroy the World?" Aeris repeated in horror, taking a single step back. She couldn't believe that Sephiroth would even entertain such a notion. This was their home... "Injure...the World?"

"Behold that mural. The Ultimate Destructive Magic...Meteor." Sephiroth continued to chuckle.

"Sephiroth you can't mean that?! Meteor is a powerful Magic tainted with darkness. Merlin forbid us from ever using it!"

"Merlin doesn't tell me what to do." Sephiroth shot back at her, his chuckling coming to a halt.

"It'll never happen!" Cloud barked.

"Wake up!" Sephiroth roared at Cloud's pathetic attempts of trying to halt his fate as well as this World's. It was useless.

Levitating passed them, over their heads, Sephiroth made his exit from the chamber. Cloud looking around, shocked at how fast he moved, not truly believing that Sephiroth left the place. He was still somewhere inside the Temple.

"Where are you?! Sephiroth!" Cloud called out into the room, but received no reply this time. He gave chase. To where? He had no clue.

"Wait, Cloud!" Aeris chased after him, Cid following right behind. Cloud didn't seem to go too far as he starred at the mural with Meteor coming down on the World. Most likely the same one that Jenova had brought down with her as she first initially attempted to bring judgment on this tainting World. Cloud began laughing uncontrollably as he stared at the mural.

"Cloud! What the heck's wrong with you!" Cid didn't see it, but Aeris could. The darkness inside Cloud's heart was being fluster and flail up uncontrollably. It was beginning to grip him.

"Ha ha ha. Black Materia..." Was all Cloud said as he continued to laugh. Aeris gasped in alarm at how Cloud had even come across the knowledge of Black Materia, the only materia that could summon Meteor. "Ha ha ha. Call Meteor..."

"Cloud! Get a hold of yourself!" Aeris called out to him in startled concern as the darkness began to grip his heart. The darkness was a dangerous thing once it took a hold of ones heart. It feeds off the negativity of its host to make it stronger, thinks like anger, jealousy, greed, and hate. It would alter the mind, even the memories of the host in order to boost these emotions until they were all that was there. Eventually it would come to the point were the host would begin to forget who they truly are, or who they were...

Cloud gripped his head as Aeris could literally see Cloud's heart start to fragment as it fought back against the darkness.

"I'm... Cloud... How should I?" Cloud said, struggling in pain to get a grip of himself. Suddenly his heart had pushed back the darkness, making Cloud shake away the pain as he finally started to become aware of his surroundings again. The fragments struggling to pull themselves back together with the whole. "...I remember! I remember my way."

"...Cloud." Aeris slightly approached him in concern as he looked at them as if nothing had happened.

"Mm? What's wrong? Is something wrong?"

"...It's nothing so don't worry about it." Aeris shook her head, deciding not to address the elephant in the dark. A choice she would later come to regret. She looked to Cid, silently insisting to him to play along. "Right, Cloud! It's nothing."

"Uhh, yeah..." Cid agreed with some reluctance, scratching his head and looking away in awkwardness of the situation. Cloud obviously had some issues he needed to address, but apparently they weren't going to address them right now.

"Sephiroth got away." Aeris informed him as that lapse with the darkness must have had an effect on recent memory on the short-term scale. But if it didn't it would at least sound like she was upset at Sephiroth slipping through their fingers.

"...Don't worry about it." Cloud tried to reassure to her, before turning back to the mural in contemplation. "I understood what he was saying. So this must be Meteor, right?"

Aeris nodded in confirm as Cid finally made a move to joined along side the group to look at the mural.

"That's one heck of a rock to drop down on us." Cid commented, not really foreboding but not exactly humorous about it as well.

"...This must be Magic. Just what Sephiroth was saying." Aeris explained, still not fully giving everything away as she turned back to look at the group. "The Ultimate Destructive Magic, Meteor. It finds small drifting Worlds with its Magic. And then collides with them. This World might get wiped out entirely..."

Suddenly the Temple began to shake and rumble.

"Sephiroth?!" Called out in accusing.

'Ha ha ha... It is not me.' Sephiroth's voice laughed into their heart, giving them a shiver inside at its dark pull. But he was right, it wasn't him, it was a Red Dragon Heartless. Left behind by the Ancients to protect this Temple's secrets from those whose hearts were filled with darkness. Sephiroth and Cloud sadly most likely being the culprits.

It spat out Dark Fire and attacked them with its fangs, claws, and its tail. Ice being its only weakness that did it any true harm. Aeris took the floor with this battle, acting as the head attacker and support fighter as she healed the others from bites, slashes and burns. Eventually they won, but the presence of Sephiroth voice that made an unwanted appearance inside their hearts was gone. Cloud looked around in confusion.

"Any sign of Sephiroth?"

"He disappeared." Aeris answered. Honestly answering about his disappearance from his presence in their hearts, but not from the Temple. He was somewhere around the Temple. Maybe not in, but close by.

They had lost him during the fight, but at least the fight bore fruit of a powerful Dragon Armlet for the others and a Bahamut Summon materia. This would probably make their future fights much easier. Unfortunately they had been seal in the room, forcing them to look around to try and find a way out. Which had lead them back to the artifact altar which revealed something new to them that wasn't there before. It was as if the Temple itself was trying to tell them something, or at least Aeris...

"What is this?" Cloud pondered aloud as he looked at a see-through miniature version of the Temple floating on top of the altar.

"...There's something written on it." Aeris pointed out as she leaned in to get a closer look. It was harder to translate since it was in ancient Cetra tongue. "B.l.a.c.k...M.a.t.e.r.i.a."

"!"

"Black Materia!" Cloud turned to her in surprise.

"Hey!... Black Materia." Aeris contemplated at the implication of this artifact before deciding to put their next move up on diplomatic vote. "What should we do?"

"I say we just take the bloody thing." Cid suggested, going for getting the matter over and done with.

"Cloud?" Aeris turned to Cloud with a tilted head. Cloud said nothing and just approached the floating object, giving it a shake. Suddenly the Temple began to shake as well.

"Hmm..." Aeris crossed her arms in ponder before an idea popped in her head. "Wait a minute. I'll ask!"

"..." She began wondering around, trying to get a better connection to the humming hearts of the Temple.

"I don't understand..." Aeris moved around as the light of their hearts slowly flickered. "What? Really?!"

"?"

Pretty soon she made her way back to her traveling party.

"They said the Temple itself is the Black Materia." Aeris said to them with awe.

"What do they mean?" Cloud asked.

"So, this whole building is the Black Materia?" Aeris answered like a question, slightly nervous at how they would react.

"This huge Temple? This is the Black Materia!?" Cloud couldn't believe it. "Then no one could take it."

"Hmm, it's pretty hard. You see this is a model of the Temple." Aeris gestured over to the floating artifact behind Cloud with her head for a second before straightening up again. "And inside it is a device which gets smaller each time you solve a puzzle. As the model becomes smaller, you become smaller too. Until it's small enough to fit in the palm of your hand."

"So, if we solve the puzzles, the Black Materia will get smaller and smaller and we can take it out?"

"Yes, but there's one thing... You can only answer the puzzles inside the Temple. So, anyone who solves the puzzle will be crushed by the Temple."

"I see... the Ancients didn't want dangerous Magic to be taken out of the Temple so easily..."

"Or at all for that matter..." Cid mumbled out, before Cid started to ask aloud what was bugging him. "So Sephiroth can't take it out either, right?"

"No. You saw how he pulled out heart fragments, right? He can easily use one of them to solve the puzzle and return back to him once the materia is in his hand." Aeris answered.

"No." Cloud said in defiance to this fact. "We've got to think of a way to get it out. Who knows when Sephiroth will figure this information out. This place isn't safe."

"So what are we going to do?" Aeris asked to Cloud, open to ideas. Because from the way things were looking Sephiroth had the upper hand. Unless one of them were going to sacrifice themselves, but Aeris refused to even consider that as an option. But Cloud just shook his head, he had no idea how they were going to do this. Suddenly the Temple began to shake more aggressively than before and it wasn't because someone touched the puzzle. "What was that?"

"We should go check it out." Cloud suggested, running out of the now open chamber all the way out the rowed tunnel way chamber passed the spirit and into the clock chamber. The time was set to 12:30 and refusing to move. The Time Guardian was bidding them to head to the sealed door behind the twelve o'clock door. Cloud cautiously approached the green still sealed door where the trimmers seemed to be concentrating from, placing a hand on the door. "It's warm..."

They could hear a heartbeat...coming from the door...

Suddenly a roar began to sound with the trimmers, directly coming from the sealed door.

"This isn't good..." Cloud anxiously said, getting ready for a fight.

Aeris and Cid ran to back away from the door as the roars got louder than the trimmers. Turning around to see that a monstrous Heartless was phasing out from the wall, only to reveal that it WAS the wall.

"Cloud... ...behind you." Aeris said quietly, not to startle Cloud so he could slowly make his way over to them.

Cloud turned around in alarm and jumped back to them as the Demon Wall Heartless began to fight them, bringing parts of the ceiling down on them in a Cave-In attack. The boulders were doing some real damage to them. Aeris had to constantly keep on the support as the Demon Rush move the Heartless would use to ram into them really did a number on their health. They had even come to the point they were forced to use the rare X-potion to help them out. Limit Breaks were a saving grace. She had to leave it to Cloud and Cid to attack. This was a good time as ever to use their Bahamut Summon. It was a hard fight, but they had come out victorious in the end.

At the end of the fight, Sephiroth's Heart Fragment came out the now open door, smirking at their exhaustion and worn out state.

"Sorry to keep you waiting. I'll take care of the rest." He grinned smugly as he passed them, heading back to the murals chamber.

"Sephiroth!" Cloud roared and tried to slash at him with his Buster Sword, but was too exhausted from his previous fight to even lift it all the way.

"I'd suggest making your way to the exit." Sephiroth smugly advise with a small chuckle on the end of his breath. Tseng certainly already made his exit, it would be wise if they did the same. "This place will soon be going down soon whether you like it or not."

"Sephiroth!"

"Don't look at me like that, Aeris. This is not our final goodbye." Sephiorth's Fragment said more gently to her as he looked back at her from the corner of his eyes. "I will return to my body shortly..."

"Cloud we have to get out of here!" Aeris insisted to Cloud, gripping his arm to push him towards the door Sephiroth had just came from, the fastest exit route out of the Temple.

"But-"

"There's no more time! We have to get out of here before Sephiroth begins solving this place! And I'm not sure he'll wait for us to find our way out before he starts!"

"Tst, damn." Cloud growled through his teeth as he was forced to agree with Aeris and had to make an immediate retreat from the Temple.

"Yeah I'm right behind you, pal!" Cid said not needing to be told twice to make a run for it.

"..." Aeris was going to run out soon after them but when a strong pull of her heart made her stop at the steps of the green door. She turned back around to look at the fragment of Sephiroth's heart as it continued to make its way towards the Clock Chamber and back to the Murals Chamber. Placing a hand over her heart as she spoke what her heart wanted to say. "Be strong Sephiroth! Please come back to me!"

"!" Sephiroth's Fragment was shocked at her words, almost halting in his step as they made his fragment piece-of-a-heart skip a beat. 'She told me to 'Be strong.' Why does this make me feel so happy?'

The fragment contemplated this fact more as he finally made it to the Murals Chamber, making his way to the puzzle's altar. A small piece of a heart broken off from its darkness, contemplating the notion of its existence and love... such a strange and wondrous World this is. Too bad it couldn't see more of it before it would have to return to the whole again.

'I...I am only but a fragment. A piece of the original... But I... She still loves me... She loves every part that is Sephiroth. How? How can this be? Why...?" The fragment pondered and pondered until he actually came face to face with the puzzle that wasn't there when the original was here before. "This must be it. The Ancients sure did a great job making this. I can become one with the World too! I can protect the Worlds as well! Such an embarrassing notion to say aloud..."

The Sephiroth Fragment began to solve the Chamber's puzzle, the Temple began to shake.

"There's plenty of fragments Sephiroth can pull off from his heart, but...there's only one me!" The Temple began to shake more violently as the place began to shrank with each part of the puzzle the Fragment solved. "She won't forget me even if another fragment comes along. I think she would love all of us pieces. Humph, she has enough love for it... for Sephiroth...for me... Good bye then. I guess I'll be returning to the Heart shortly..."

...

Aeris and the others watch in astonished horror on the other side of the bridge as the Temple darkened and bolts surrounded it as it began to shrink. Slowly fading out of few as the ground shook until their was nothing left but the bordering wall. Once the shaking had stopped they ran back towards where the Temple once was. Now all that was left was a pit with a pitch black Materia in the center of its depth. They all looked down at the intimidating long drop down as the wind blew around them.

"That's the Black Materia..." Cloud confirmed looking down at the Materia.

"Yeah no, I'm sitting this one out." Cid shook his head, dropping down with crossed legs and crossed arms as he figuratively put his foot down. "I ain't got the bones to be making that climb down and up again. You guys knock yourselves out, I'll be sittin' here."

Cloud just nodded as he made the climb down, a little faster than Aeris as she was actually climbing down where Cloud was just jumping from rock to rock and sliding his way down the steep drop. Cloud made it to the Black Materia first...

"As long as we have this, Sephiroth won't be able to use Meteor." Cloud announced reaching for the Materia.

"..." Aeris remained silent as she kept the thought to herself. 'Not really. The Materia just makes it easier to focus the Spirit Energy into the Magic's call. He could still summon Meteor, but with a lot more effort.'

"Mm? Can you guys use it?" Cloud asked Aeris as she finally made it down to him.

"Nope, we can't use it right now. You need great spiritual power to use it."

"You mean lots of spiritual energy?"

"That's right. One person's power alone won't do it." Aeris explained before pondering aloud the answer as to 'where' exactly. "Somewhere special. Where there's plenty of the World's energy... Oh yeah! The Promised Land!"

"The Promised Land!" Cloud exclaimed, too upset about the matter than what was called for. "No, but..."

"Sephiroth is different. He is an Ancient."

"He shouldn't be able to find the Promise Land." Cloud said bitterly, his emotions were starting to frighten Aeris.

"...Ah, but I have." Sephiroth mocked above them, coming from a Dark Corridor just above the square pit from the side next to Cid's, collecting his Heart Fragment from the Black Materia back to him while he was at it. He began to levitate over the pit as he looked down at them. "I'm far more superior than the average Ancient."

"Hey!"

"Sorry, Aeris, but you know it to be true." He apologetically said to her before bringing his attention harshly back to the rest of the group. "I became a traveler of the Lifestream and gained the knowledge and wisdom of the Ancients. I also gained the knowledge and wisdom of those after the extinction of the Ancients. And soon, I will create the future."

The ground began to shake as Sephiroth began to summon the power of darkness from his being, causing the darkness inside Cloud's heart to pulsate.

"I won't let you do it! The future is not just yours!" Aeris cried out to Sephiroth, silently pleading to him to stop this madness while it still wasn't too late. Her words almost reached him. But not enough to penetrate through his power hungry drunkenness for the darkness.

"Ha, ha, ha... I wonder?" Sephiroth contemplating his capability as he decided to give it a test drive. Using his influence of the darkness he began to pull and take control of the darkness inside Cloud. "Wake up!"

"Ggahh!" Cloud began to grip his head as his heart fragmented again, leaving behind the light fragment inside him while the darkness fluster over the whole, beginning to consume it. "Sh...shut up!"

Cloud fell to his knees, gripping his head as he shook while Sephiroth took his time floating down to them.

"The...noise..." Cloud could feel the pulsation of darkness in his heart. It's force knocking Aeris off her feet and crumbled Cloud onto the ground.

"There, Cloud...good boy." Sephiroth coed to Cloud on one knee as he held out his hand expectantly.

"Wa...aaaa...aaa..." Cloud couldn't control his body anymore as it made its way over to Sephiroth to hand over the Black Materia. The small light fragment of Cloud's heart, only a child begged him to stop as it could only run around and try to call to the whole. 'No! Don't be afraid-!"

It kept calling to him and calling, but to no avail. He gave the Black Materia to Sephiroth.

"Well done." Sephiroth smirked proudly to Cloud in praise before flying away again.

"No!" Aeris cried out, only for Sephiroth to get away. She could have pursued, but... she wanted to make sure Cloud was okay. That sudden burst of darkness forced from him really did a number on his heart. Getting up to her feet again she walked over and placed a comforting hand on Cloud's back as he knelled on the ground in defeat. "Cloud, are you all right?"

"...I gave the Black Materia to Sephiroth?" He couldn't believe he had done that. The darkness inside him was still pulsing. It was eating away at him. Making him unaware of his actions as he reached for Aeris, hugging her middle as he lied on the ground. "Wha...what did I do? Tell me, Aeris."

"Cloud...be strong, OK?" Aeris tried to instill in Cloud as her gentle voice attempted to calm down the raging darkness inside of him.

Cloud tried to get back on his feet again, only for the darkness to bring him back down to his knees again as he gripped his head in the splitting headache.

"Urrrrrrgh... What have I done!?"

"Cloud...you haven't done anything." Aeris insisted to Cloud, gripping his shoulders as she tried to pull him out of the darkness. "It's not your fault."

Cloud had pushed her away, non-the-gently.

"I...I'm-!" Suddenly he began to wale on Aeris, leaving her only able to block his blows from her face with her arms.

"Cloud!" Cid roared out in aroused outrage as he rushed his way down the pit. Screw the complaining bones! Rushing behind Cloud, Cid knocked him out with a blow to the back of his head. "Aeris, are you all right!?"

"Thank you Cid..."

...

"Everything is white..." Cloud said, floating in a place of blinding white. "What did I do? I don't remember anything... My memory...since when? If everything's a dream, don't wake me."

The blankness began to brighten and fade away into a forest a green with only one opening through the trees that lead to a glowing light off in the distance. He saw Aeris hiding behind one of the trees, popping her head out to look at him. This was a dream, it had to be. Cloud had never been to this place before.

"Cloud, can you hear me?" Aeris said, reaching out to his heart through his dream. It has been a long since she had to do this...

"Yeah, I hear you. Sorry for what happened." Cloud said, ashamed of what he had done.

"Don't worry about it." Aeris shrugged off as she came from behind the tree.

"...I can't help it..."

"Oh..." She quirked her head at him before returning back behind the tree only to pop out from another tree on the other side of the path. "Then, why don't you REALLY worry about it? And let me handle Sephiroth."

She giggle to herself at the thought of dragging Sephiroth home by the ear while he and Cloud pouted to themselves. She slowly faded away only to pop out from behind another tree. Cloud's heart was unstable right now, which was making their connection harder for Aeris to hold on to. She wouldn't be able to hold on to the connection for long, she had to finish up what she had to say soon.

"And Cloud, you take care of yourself." She said walking behind the tree she had just come from only to hold on to it as she leaned back to get the last part in. "So you don't have a breakdown, okay?"

This time both her and Cloud floated down from the treetops onto the path. Aeris touching down before him, while Cloud looked around in confusion as to where they were.

"What is this place?"

"This forest leads to the City of the Ancients... and is called the Sleeping Forest." Aeris answered, holding her hands behind her back as she looked up to the sky. It was a silent forest. No animals, no wind, no streams... "It's only a matter of time before Sephiroth uses Meteor. That's why I'm going to protect it. Only a survivor of the Cetra like me, can do it."

Aeris looked back down, turning around with her back to Cloud as she began to walk away towards the light at the end of the path. But she stop, turning around just to say a few more things to Cloud.

"The secret is just up here. At least it should be." She shook her head in thought before placing a closed hand over her heart. "...I feel it. It feels like I'm being led by something."

"?"

"Then, I'll be going now. I'll come back when it's all over." Aeris said, waving goodbye to him.

"Aeris?" Cloud tried to reach out to her but she turned around and walked away back towards the light. Trying to run after her, he only ran in place as she began to run into the light.

...

"Hmm... So she's going to interfere? She'll be a difficult one, don't you think?" Sephiroth hissed at Cloud as he made his way down into the dream as well from the treetops, landing on bent knee. He was still livid with Cloud for that stunt he pulled on Aeris once he left Cloud's darkness unchecked to run on its own. But at the same time, he was hurt that Aeris would continue to evade him and hinder his process of giving them a better future. A chance at godhood to rule over this World and the rest of them as they were meant to. 'Why my love? Why must you keep getting in the way? Why do you keep running away from me?'

"We must stop that girl soon." Sephiroth commanded more than said to Cloud.

...

Aeris had awoken from the dream a little before Sephiroth had showed up, rising up from her bed back at Merlin's house. She had left Cid to drive back Cloud to Nibelheim, where the presence of his friend Tifa could possibly pull him out of his darkness. Cid was a little reluctantly to drive in the same car as Cloud since he now considered him an unstable jerk after the stunt he pulled. But for the sake of Aeris he complied. Aeris had turned into a ball of Light as she transported herself back to Radiant Garden to the safety of Merlin's home where she longed to see Riku again.

The journey was tiring both physically and mentally as she took a bed in the spare room in Merlin's house to rest. Coming to terms that the next part of her journey would not be easy, and she would have to do it alone. But...at least she wouldn't have to go alone...

Getting her rest to also reassure Cloud that everything was all right, she had woken up slightly refreshed and determined as she made her way back down to Merlin and her baby.

"Merlin..." Aeris called out to him, silently asking for the return of her baby.

"You're going...aren't you?" Merlin said disheartened at the task he knew she was most likely about to do. "Is there no other solution to this?"

"It has to be this way. Sephiroth must be stopped. And he's no longer willing to stop himself..." Aeris sadly came to terms with this. "I have to call upon the World's Heart to defend itself..."

"But it's dangerous. You'll be too vulnerable..."

"It's for the good of people's hearts, on this World and the others."

"But Aeris, he could kill you."

"Please give me my baby, Merlin. Please..." Aeris held out her hands towards the baby in his arms.

"..." Merlin sighed in much reluctance at what such actions would initiate the start of a chain of actions that could not be taken back once they've been started. But with saddened compliance he handed over Riku to Aeris. And with that Aeris could be on her way.

"Thank you, Merlin. I promise this will all be over soon." She said, gently cupping her son in her arms closer to her as she gently swayed and rocked him.

"For the better or for the worse. That I am not so sure..."

"With my act, I hope for the better."

...

Aeris walked, keeping Riku and her safe from Heartless. She followed the whispers of the World's Heart, walking its path for days. And on the second day she had come to Bone Village, a town for nature lovers. But through this town laid the path to the Sleeping Forest.

At last she had arrived...

"Whoa, whoa, whoa! Hey, hey, lady. Lady! Where are you going?" Asked one of the excavators trying to halt her dangerous attempt of entering the Sleeping Forest.

"To the City of the Ancients."

"The City of the Ancients? Oh, you must mean the Forgotten City. Legends state that the only way to get to there is through the Sleeping Forest. But you'll never get through there without a Lunar Harp."

"There's no time to look for one. I'll just be on my way." Aeris said walking passed the man towards the entrance to the Sleeping Forest.

"You're crazy if you do this, lady. You'll only end up lost, wandering around in circles."

"Thank you but I'll be all right." Aeris said back to him without looking back. The forest seemingly awakening at the entrance of Aeris and Riku, happily unsealing the path to its Cetra children whom it thought it would never be graced with Ancients' presence again. The fog cleared from their path. Aeris was tired, she had been walking for such a long time. But for the sake of her World, her family, and her people she pressed on. Aeris looked down at her sleeping baby in her arms. He had been so good throughout the whole trip, but then again, all of her children were seemingly well mannered for their age. Riku would just have to hold out a little longer while Aeris does what is needed to fix their family. "Don't worry, little one. Soon everything will be just like it use to be. And Papa... Papa will come back home to us..."

Once the Sleeping Forest had awakened it did not take Aeris long to make her way out with Riku to the desolate canyon way towards the City of Ancients. The city was beautiful and yet resembled a fossilized coral reef, a large one at that. Even the ancient homes and buildings of the Cetras looked to be made of colossal cone shells, making the city seem built out of nature. The homes were surprisingly in good condition, as if the Ancients had just been there the day before. If need be, Aeris and Riku could rest in one of these abodes.

But for now the place she truly needed to be was further into the city, down the center path in the fork in the road at the front of the city. It lead her to a Cetra building made of a shell unlike the others. Crystal clear water glittered in the pool in front of the building as light shined down on it through the surrounding fossilized trees. She could feel the World's Heart closer here than anywhere else before. This must have been a sacred place...

Walking around the pool, onto the coral-material railed pathway into the building. Aeris had taken the spiral up the building, its inner layout oddly reminded her of a museum's. She had found a Comet materia along the way up which brought back memories... Sephiroth use to love using Comet when they trained with Merlin...he carried that Magic all the way into Soldier that it was his trade mark. It was his favorite spell...

Wiping away the forming tears, she pushed the fond memories to the side and continued on with her task. The path up was a dead end. But of course it was, this place was a spiral she was bound to reach the cutoff point at the top anyway. So if she couldn't go further up then she'd have to go further down. Aeris found crystal-like stairs in the center of the building, bordered by seaweed grass so she had missed it before.

Cautiously Aeris had taken the stairs down. There were no railings, no supports. The stairway seemed to stand in the air on their own in a place that looked to be under water where the light broke through, yet they could breath freely. The stairway spiraled widely down around crystallized towers that raised at their own height in this place. This reminded Aeris of a heart's set up. If Aeris didn't know any better she would think she was inside the World's Heart. The beautiful song that it was singing here would suggest this as well.

Taking the stairs all the way down she found herself at an altar in the center of the spiral, surrounded by towers that differed from the rest of the city's architectural design. It looked more castle-like, with doors and windows that resembled keyholes. Flattop stone pillars bridged the way to the altar through the deep waters below, darker waters from the clear pools they had come across so far. Hopping her way on the pillars she made her way to the altar. The light shining down gently on it, pointing to the spot she needed to be.

"..." Preparing her heart, she gently placed Riku down on the far left of the circular altar making a makeshift bed for Riku out of the many blankets she brought. Once her son was comfortable and safe, and always in eyesight, she began to sit down in the light on her knees and pray into the White Materia wrapped inside her pink ribbon. "Sephiroth. I'm sorry... I'm sorry my voice can no longer reach you. But... I hope that the World's voice can..."

...

'I feel it...' Sephiroth said in his mind as he followed the Sense. 'Aeris is here, ...and so is Riku. I feel it in my heart.'

Sephiroth had followed the light from their hearts which shined brighter together like a beacon telling him wherever they are. Aeris was good at keeping them hidden when the two were apart, but together there was no hiding from Sephiroth. He had followed them through the Sleeping Forest, which had done its best to keep away Sephiroth from the City of the Ancients as it sensed the threatening darkness from within him. But Sephiroth was no mere dweller of this World, he was a Cetra. And what lied ahead was rightfully his to walk in as well. The Sleeping Forest's Confusion could not work on him for long.

He had found his way to the City of the Ancients. Awed by its wonder and its presence as a still remaining remnant of his culture; confused and hurt that Aeris had found this place first by the guidance of the World's Heart whereas it said nothing about this piece of history to him; and jealously enraged that Aeris would go to this place without him. They were suppose to be a team. Two lone Ancients in the Worlds with no one to look out for them but each other.

'Us Ancients have to stick together. Hmph, some promise. Her words are lies. Why does she keep abandoning me?' Sephiroth hissed as the pain of Aeris constantly running away from him turned into anger. 'I'd best hurry and find Aeris. And rest assured, my little flower girl, I WILL find you.'

He could hear her heart far off on the center path. It was...singing.

"Aeris's voice... Coming from there?" Her heart had lead the way right to them. The way was easy enough to get there. But soon he had learned that this same fact made it easier for Cloud and his quick-made ragtag of a party to follow after him. They were a little behind from Cid having to call one of his favorite students from the Royal Academy, Squall, as backup; Cloud actually having to overcome his fears of Sephiroth controlling the darkness inside him again and finding the location of the Sleeping Forest through the description of his dreams; and, having to actually find a Lunar Harp in Bone Village in order to wake up the Sleeping Forest to pass through.

Sephiroth found their progress a little slow for his liking. But then again...he didn't want them to come at all. This was his people's city. And these inferior humans dare take their dirty steps into this sacred treasure. But more than that, they had come to take his Aeris away. Those wretched pest would take her away from him and she would go with them. She would always run from him, what he is...

He would never be the same man he was to her in her eyes again. She hated what he had become. Aeris couldn't take the darkness inside of him. It repulsed her. That horrible, weakness of a light that was inside her would always keep her away from him. No matter what he did for her and their family, she would always be out of reach.

And he couldn't take that.

He couldn't bare losing her. If he couldn't have her by his side in the Realm of Light, then he'd just have her with him forever more in the Lifestream. Once he becomes one with the World's Heart. But he couldn't do it; his heart may be filled with darkness but he couldn't find the will inside himself to dispatch her to the Lifestream. No, he would have to find someone else to do it for him. Someone like the puppet...

He was still furious with Cloud about how he throttled Aeris like that once he had gave Sephiroth the Black Materia. This would be punishment for Cloud, forcing him to eliminate a friend. But also a redemption, giving the failure of a puppet one more chance to do a simple task right.

But he would have to do it soon. Aeris was already calling upon the will of the World through the White Materia, and it was starting to stir to the call. Luckily Cloud and his party had already made their way down to the sanctuary, just a few stone jumps from the altar. Cloud had signaled to the others to wait there for him while he retrieved Aeris, much to the reluctance of Cid which Sephiroth could understand and appreciate after Cloud's last outburst with Aeris.

"Aeris?" Cloud called to her with curiosity as to what she was doing. She continued to remained knelled down and praying while Riku rested in his make-shift crib to the west side of the altar while she remained on the north. Now was Sephiroth's chance, while Cloud was walking up the altar's stairs.

Cloud's mind began to hurt as the darkness in his heart began to boil at Sephiroth's control. Cloud tried to shake it off, but he still approached Aeris, pulling out the Buster Sword while she continued to keep her eyes close in prayer. Sephiroth knew that Aeris knew that Cloud was there, but was confused as to why she didn't do anything to counter or dodge Cloud's rising blade. Cloud rose his blade over his head, bringing it down to strike.

"Cloud!" "What the heck are you doing!?" Squall and Cid shouted at Cloud at the same time, halting his blade. His actions making Cid and Squall rush to the altar. Cloud snapped out of it, shaking his head as he jumped back and pointed his blade away from Aeris.

"Ugh..." He groaned, pulling himself together as his mind recovered from the Manipulation. "What are you making me do?"

"..." At that, Aeris opened her eyes and looked up at Cloud. There was a gentle smile on her face as she was glad and proud of him that he didn't let the darkness control him. But that smile had done her in. Sephiroth enraged at Aeris giving away her precious smiles to that of a lowly puppet. Precious smiles that belong to him. The puppet had failed at his one job and Aeris was going to run away from 'him' again. She would leave with the puppet. He could not bare that, he would not allow it! Leaping down from his hiding place above with Masamune out, he came down on the altar and impaled Aeris with his blade. "(Gasp, Exhale)!"

It was a clean cut, no blood was spilled on her pretty pink dress. Her eyes widened in shock from the sudden pain as her upper body tilted over. Riku woke up and began to cry at the unsettling sounds. As smoothly as possible, Sephiroth pulled out Masamune from her in the same angle it came in her so as not to cause her more pain. Aeris began to grip her stomach as she fell over, Cloud running over to catch her from hitting the stone. Slowly flipping her over, so as not to joust the wound as he held her up in his arm.

"...Aeris." Immediately he began using the measly Cure materia he had to try to keep her alive, her eyes barely staying focused as she looked up at Cloud and the pain making her unable to do more than gasp for air. He couldn't believe Sephiroth would do this. He has struck down many people, some of which Cloud loved and cared about, but he didn't expect this. He couldn't believe Sephiroth would strike down his own wife. "This can't be real!"

"Do not worry. Soon Aeris will become part of the World's energy." Sephiroth said, basking in the energy as he looked up in triumph, waiting for Aeris's heart to return to the World's Heart. "All that is left is to go North. The 'Promise Land' waits for me over the snowy fields. There, I will become a new being by uniting with the World's Heart. As will my love-"

"Shut up! The cycle of nature and your stupid plans don't mean a thing to me!" Cloud shouted at Sephiroth over his shoulder as he scooped Aeris up in his arms. Continuing to use Cure as many times as need be in order to keep her alive. His MP and Stamina were draining quickly, but he'd endure through it if it meant keeping Aeris alive. "I've gotta save Aeris."

Cloud began to make a run for it out of this place with Aeris, passing the other two in a rush to get Aeris to emergency help as they finally made it up to the altar.

"Ggahh, nhh." Aeris gurgled out through the pain and lump in her throat as she tried to make Cloud stop. He was forgetting something important back there.

"Cloud!" Squall made a dash for the altar. Sliding on the stone to duck passed Sephiroth, and the atrocious Heartless he had summoned to take care of the others, as he grabbed the whimpering baby. Jumping down the altar after the others as he joined back with them. Passing Cid easily with his younger durability and strength as he caught up with Cloud, the baby safely secure in his arms. He had thought that showing the baby to his injured mother would help put her mind at ease. And it did, Aeris's gurgling sounds began to relax at the sight of Riku close by, following next to her. He wanted to chew out Cloud for that stunt, but such actions would not be good for the injured woman in his arms. "I'm going to assume that you knew I was going to grab for the baby instead of openly leaving him behind."

"That isn't important now. Aeris's condition is my top priority." Cloud said as they all ran for it up above, Cloud continuously using Cure.

"..." Squall had woke up this morning to go assist his Engineer Professor with a Rescue Mission, he was not expecting this.

...

At last he did it. He had stopped Aeris's call to the World and had initiated the process of returning Aeris to the World's Heart. Cloud the Puppet may have stalled the process by his attempts at keeping her stable and retreating with her body along with the others instead of engaging him in a misguided rage. Running away from the fight like a coward. But his actions only delayed the inevitable. Soon Aeris will return to the World's Heart and be gone from the Realm of Light as she is now.

Aeris will be gone...

"!"

She will no longer talk, no longer laugh, cry...or get angry...

He would never truly see her again in this realm. He wouldn't be able to smell the floral scent that was hers, or feel, or touch her in the sense of a body. She would just be a Lifestream. Forever apart of him, but no longer right next to him. What would this mean for him? What would this mean for their boys...?

"What about us...what are WE supposed to do?" Sephiroth began to panic as the heartache inside him began to stir, and darkness within him began to feast on his agony like a gluttonous beast. He gripped his heart in torture. "What is this pain? My fingers are tingling. My mouth is dry. My eyes are burning!... What...what have I done!?"

...

"Everyone, listen to me." Aeris could hear Cloud's muffled voice clearing out in the darkness as the numbness began to turn into a burning sting on her stomach that seemed to burn through to the back too. "I'm Cloud, now an ex-Soldier, born in Nibelheim."

'An ex-Soldier? What...?'

"I came here to settle up with Sephiroth."

"...Hmm?" Came the voice that Aeris had never heard before until that day at the altar. It must belong to that young man whom grabbed Riku for her while they all made their escape.

"I came here of my own free will... Or so I thought." Cloud was beginning to doubt himself. The darkness in his heartless easily feeding on his weakness, no doubt it could easily manipulate his memories in the sorry state he was in. "However... ...To tell the truth, I'm afraid of myself."

'Cloud...'

"...There is a part of me that I don't understand. That part that made me give the Black Materia to Sephiroth. If you hadn't stopped me, Aeris might have been..."

"But you didn't..."

"!" They all turned in alarm at the sound of Aeris's voice. She had pulled herself from the darkness, sucked through the pain, and opened her eyes again as she woke up from wound-induced sleep.

"You came for me, Cloud. You saved me..." Aeris assured to him as she struggled to sit herself up on the bed. Her pink, jean short jacket had been removed. And her wound had been wrapped up under her dress, meaning that someone had treated her while she was unconscious. Aeris had found herself in a bed inside the Inn of Bone Village. They must have run a long way through the City of Ancients and the Sleeping Forest to get here to save her life. She couldn't thank them enough. Even though she was a little worse for wear and it hurt like the dickens to bend her torso, they were truly her heroes. "Thank you. All of you..."

"But Aeris," Cloud began to looked down in shame at the actions he had almost done to her before Cid and Squall had stopped him. "...There's something inside of me. Something that is not really me."

"Cloud."

"That's why I should quit this journey for revenge. Before I do something terrible." Cloud pointed out the logically but went for the choice in his heart, the choice that was in the heart of darkness. He raised a clinched fist as it shook with 'righteous' rage. "But I am going. He destroyed my hometown, hurt you, Aeris. And is now trying to destroy the world. I'll never forgive...Sephiroth."

"..."

"I...I must go." Cloud said in determination.

"...I dunno, kiddo..." Cid said with uncertainly while also scratching the back of his head in awkwardness at having this discussion of taking down Sephiroth while the man's wife was still in the room.

"You fought back..."

"Hm?" Cloud said in confusion at Aeris's words.

"Even though you're about to break... That's a good sign." Aeris looked over to Cloud, wishing she could reach him to place a hand on his shoulder, but she would settle with a smile. "You'll find your way back. You can fight the darkness and find the 'you' that is you inside your heart on your own. I'm certain of it."

"Aeris?"

"Where is Riku?" Aeris asked, looking around in concern as she hadn't heard his crying since she had woken up. "Where is my son?"

"Right here Miss." Squall said reassuringly to Aeris, bringing her baby over to her whom had tuckered himself out from all the crying.

"Riku!" Aeris gently gasped in happiness as she reached out for her baby. Her close presence began to stir him awake as the confusion from before began to make him whimper again as he sought comfort in the warmth of his mother. Aeris cuddled Riku close to her. The sound of his heartbeat next to her putting them both at ease. In sincere joy and gratitude, she looked back up from Riku to Squall. "Thank you, uh..."

"Squall, ma'am. Squall Leonhart, student at the Royal Academy, hopefully a future guard to the kingdom."

"Squall, huh. I'm Aeris. It's nice to meet you." She tilted her head to him in greeting, but the movement from her lower body sent out a jolt of pain through her body. "Ggh!"

"!" "Aeris!" "Don't push yourself, kiddo."

"I'm all right guys. It just stings a little, I'm fine." Aeris assured to them. But then she asked them some questions that she needed to know. "What happened to Sephiroth?"

"Tch." Cloud crossed his arms and turned his head away as he tried to hide his anger and frustration from her.

"We left him behind in the City of the Ancients, along with that Heartless he tried to sick on us." Cid answered instead. "We had to get you to a doctor right away."

"I see..."

"My question is how did he find you so easily?" Squall began to question aloud to the others. "From what we heard from the villagers he had made his way into the Sleeping Forest a little after you, and some time before us. He had entered without a Lunar Harp so he should have been wondering in there for days, but somehow he had found his way."

"Almost like a beacon of light guiding him..." Aeris began to contemplate aloud as well. She knew that Sephiroth was following her, she had concealed the light in her heart because of this fact to cover her tracks. And yet somehow he had still found her before the others. She could conceal her light as much as she could, but...there was no way she could dim it down AND her son's. Their presence together as Ancients made the light within their hearts shine like a beacon. Sephiroth would always be able to find them whenever they are together. He would track them down and try to drag them both into the darkness. Both her and Riku. She could not allow this to happen. "..."

"Aeris?" Cloud said in concern as she got out of her bed to stand on her feet, her wound making her wobbly.

"Cid, do you have your Gummi ship on you? I'll need it for a bit."

"What are you going to do?"

"I'm going to do what I have to do to keep my son safe." Aeris said as she walked over to Cid, holding out a hand for the spare gummi ship that she knew Cid kept in its shrunk form in his jacket's pocket. With a sad determination, she would do what was needed to save Riku from the darkness. "I won't let Riku end up in the same fate as the others..."

...

Sephiroth had curled over from his spot sitting down against one of the back support pillars of the altar. Still within the City of the Ancients as he crumbled over what he had done.

"Aeris...my love... I can't believe I snuffed you out from this realm. What's the point of ruling over this pathetic World without you there by my side...?"

But that's when he felt her.

"!" She was weakened and badly hurt from the way her heart's light flickered, but she was still alive. "Aeris."

He hadn't removed her from the Realm of Light. He had not stopped her heart. She was still alive, and still there for the taking. His chance of having her at his side again had not gone out the window. All he had to do was bring her into the darkness; along with his boy, Riku. And soon they could be a family again.

He had sensed their light by Cloud and his party, to Sephiroth's rage. But he would let this one time slide once since the puppet had saved his flower girl from his rushed ill-thought-out action. But then he grew concerned as he felt their light shoot off from their World and out into the deep space between Worlds.

"Aeris, what are you doing?" He reached his darkness out to them, trying to pull them back to him through his dark corridors. But his darkness couldn't move fast enough through the vast space between Worlds, even if the darkness was present out there. Their movement made it hard for him to coordinate with the darkness, so he had to navigate through it instead. But suddenly as if they were never there, Aeris and Riku's hearts' light was gone, disappearing out of thin air. They were gone. Out of his reach once again. "No! NO! Why?! Why must you always slip out of my grasp, Aeris!? Why do you constantly run and hide from me?! Do you despise me that much? What could possible drive you away from me so much- (Gasp)! It's that Cloud puppet, isn't it? He's luring you away from me with his words. Well I'll show him. I'll show him what happens when he takes away from me. He will pay for this!"

...

"!"

"Cloud!" Cid and Squall hollered as a Dark Corridor appeared under Cloud's feet. Dropping him into a darkness with no end, only to disappear as quickly as it appeared. Taking Cloud with it.

...

Five years have passed. Radiant Garden began to fall into more turmoil with the loss of its champion. With its hero gone the Heartless began to run a'muck over the lands as they spread unchecked. The people began to grow anxious. Where was their General Sephiroth? Where were their Soldiers?

The records stated that Sephiroth was KIA during the mission in Nibelheim, the content of his AWAL and actions in Nibelheim lost to the public so as not to cause a panic about the sudden turn of the people's hero. Clean up had been a nightmare, but somehow king Ansem had done it, along with any evidence that Sephiroth was still at large.

But with Soldier gone, the people of Radiant Garden would need a new guardian to protect them from the Heartless. That's when the rise of new protectors came to be. Squall Leonhart, the honor student rising in the Royal Academy, had left his promising future in the Royal Guard to fulfill his duty to his World by becoming the new force to oppose the Heartless. From what started as only a handful of people only to rise into a full platoon, Squall had pulled together an organization of radical enthusiast bent on protecting their World, from the Heartless and from themselves. He called this organization, Heartless Resistance. He was young, but they could see the fire in his eyes and the determination to save his homeworld. He had a lion's heart that effortlessly drew people to him and the cause, enough so that the rising eco-terrorist group of AVALANCHE had changed their radical tactics and merge with Heartless Resistance to support their similar cause.

Tifa whom had joined AVALANCHE after her recovery from Nibelheim had come along again with the merger. The eco-terrorist were safe from possible arrest and AVALANCHE disappeared from existence and all existing leads to them went cold. That was when Aeris met Tifa again. Tifa had been unconscious when Aeris and Master Zangan dragged her and Cloud down from Mt. Nibel's reactor and Aeris had already left before Tifa regained consciousness so they never properly met and Tifa didn't remember her. But Aeris didn't mind, it was like they were getting a fresh start this way. Tifa was a kind girl, but still a little bitter about what had happened five years ago and at times she was slightly selfish, but even so she was still a good person.

Aeris had joined up with Squall and his band of Heartless Resistance, along with Cid, to give them all the help that she could give. Her powers had come in handy at supporting the team and keeping the Heartless from re-spawning. But she had always kept on the move, not staying at one place for a long time. And the team had always wondered why Aeris longed to be on time with her sleeping schedule. She was not lazy, most certainly not that. And she was plenty energetic when calling it a night so she wasn't tired. She tended to overwork herself, but not to the point of exhaustion from what they observed. She just... longed to dream. Cid and Squall worried that this was a form of depression from losing everything and everyone close to her. She was sad, no amount of smiles and good cheer could hide that, but...it wasn't an overbearing sadness. It certainly didn't cripple her; in fact, it pushed her harder to keep going. She desired to changed things back to the way they were. She would search for her lost family, and she would find them.

Taking care of the Heartless to ensure that they don't plunge her World into darkness was the first step in getting her family back. But the Heartless were not making this easy for her. They were feeding off the anxiety of the people and taking advantage of their fears. It had come to the point that the proud lands of Wutai had fallen to its own fears. The people were so scared of the closing in Heartless and lack of faith in their new protectors that their fears gave the Heartless the power to overrun the land. The village of Wutai was plunged into the Realm of Darkness and all its inhabitants could do was scream and fall into a deep sleep as their bodies left the Realm of Light.

This was no longer a Resistance mission against the Heartless, this was a rescue mission.

Members of the Heartless Resistance squabbled around finding whomever they could save in Wutai without falling into the darkness themselves. Aeris could only save a handful that hadn't already sank too deep into the darkness. But sad was the day when she stormed through the sinking Wutai palace to save its people's chief bloodline only to rescue just the princess. Little Yuffie cried in Aeris's arms as they, the members of the Heartless Resistance, and the surviving people of Wutai watched as their city plunged into the sinking tar of darkness. This form of attack had never been seen before on their World. The Heartless had devoured a whole city in darkness...

The remaining people of Wutai silently wept for their lost home and loved ones while the little princess whimpered and shook in Aeris's arms. Her head resting on Aeris's shoulder while her tiny arms wrapped as far around Aeris's neck as they could reach.

"Aw Yuffie, easy, easy." Aeris shush to Yuffie in comfort, patting her shaking back while resting her head on top of Yuffie's.

"It's all gone...their all gone..." She whimpered out, still crying.

"Shh, shh. I'm here, you're still here, we can get them back." Aeris assured to Yuffie. "As long as we're still here, we can beat the darkness."

"(Sniffle)..."

"C'mon. We can't stay here." Squall said over to the two of them, signaling for everyone to start heading out to a safer area away from the still boiling darkness. Right now, their priority was to secure the safety and well-being of the refugees of Wutai.

"Right." Aeris nodded, turning around to head out with the others, when suddenly she felt a heart starting to rise from a boiling burst in the darkness. "(Gasp)!"

She turned around, covering her back from exposure while also protectively shielding Yuffie away. Something began to rise from the darkness...a back...with a large sword strapped to it. Soon the darkness began to slide off of the body that was crawling out of the darkness onto the grassland. Dark tar began to reveal a purple Soldier uniform...and give way to spiky gold hair.

"(Gasp)! Cloud!" Aeris and immediately handed Yuffie over to Squall whom had returned at Aeris initial outburst. She ran to the edge of the darkness, sliding down into the dip to help pull out the crawling individual, beaten down and looking worse for wear.

"Aeris, get back!" Squall called to her in alarm as she got too close to the edge of the darkness and the being crawling out of it whom struggled to touch solid land again. "Aeris!"

But Aeris ignored his warning and reached her arms out to grab the back shirt of Cloud to help dragged him out of the darkness. He was heavy and weighed down by the darkness, both of them were out of breath by the struggle. Aeris had helped pulled Cloud out of the darkness as far as she could, but their was no way she'd be able to drag him out of the dip on her own. "Help me! Cloud's still alive!"

Squall had put Yuffie down to rush over to Aeris with a few others to help pull Cloud out and over to safety. Cloud's Soldier infantry armor was nowhere do be found as he dawned a strangely dyed 1st Class Soldier uniform instead with the exception of one shoulder guard and his boots. He was exhausted and weak from his time in the darkness, but Aeris could sense that it was so much more than that. In his gloved hand, she could see him holding something tightly in his grip as if it was too precious to let go and lose to the darkness again. As she saw some of its dark glow escape from between Cloud's fingers, she recognized the source as the Black Materia.

... Meanwhile in a pocket within the Realm of Darkness ...

"!" So Cloud escaped, along with the Black Materia as well. "..."

No matter. It was only a matter of time before the Black Materia would fall into his clutches again. The puppet would make sure of that. This time the puppet would definitely fall under his command. During his time in the Realm of Darkness, Sephiroth had grabbed a few things from the Shinra Mansion in Nibelheim to make sure Cloud fell better in line to his control. A little Mako immersing tube here, an injection of Jenova cells there, and Cloud was practically as good as a puppet could get. By definition and process he was now technically a 1st Class Soldier, just like Cloud had wanted all along since he joined Soldier. Sephiroth even changed his Infantryman uniform for a 1st Class Soldier uniform for such an occasion. However, the Mako immersing had a huge side-effect on Cloud, one of which was the reason he would never qualify for 1st Class Soldier to begin with. His body could not take the amount of Mako energy that was being forcibly absorbed into his body, creating a Mako Poisoning effect on Cloud. His mind and heart became numb as he became Mako Addicted, the Cloud that once 'was' was now lost to the labyrinth of his own crumbling heart. It was deliciously cruel. There was nothing better for Sephiroth than a revenge plan that was left to build up for years before it erupts into satisfying devastating destruction.

And yet somehow...he had pulled himself together enough to break out of his Mako Immersion Tube; grabbed the Black Materia while his memory and mind were still whack and foggy; and, find a way out of the Realm of Darkness through the first chaotic door opening he could find.

He was lucky the door pocket actually led back to Radiant Garden and not somewhere else. Cloud seemed to be full of unexpected surprises. Ones that Sephiroth hoped to bank in on in the future.

"Remember, don't force it, let the power flow through you."

"..." Sephiroth looked over his shoulder to see his mother, Jenova, teaching his sons how to coat their Magic in darkness. For a being that was nothing more than a head being held by a Guardian Heartless, she was rather good with kids. Cold, harsh, and at times unsympathetic; but still, a good teacher. Kadaj seemed to struggle the hardest with it, but out of all of them he showed the most potential. The separation from his mother, stress of a new environment, and his young age was most likely playing the roll at holding him back. But in time those flaws would pass. The darkness had a tendency of breaking such weakness from ones heart.

"Kadaj you have to pull harder once you let it out or it'll turn on you. The darkness bows to no one it deems weaker than it. Do you want to die by that weakness?!"

"I'm sorry! I'll try harder J Mother!"

"What was that?" Jenova grunted with a twitch in her brow at the odd nickname.

"I-it's what we decided to call you." Kadaj said in nervous fright that he had displeased Jenova whom was now starting to become the mother figure in their world through their time in the Realm of Darkness. They had felt like they were forgetting something important deep within their hearts, but the darkness made all memories and doubts that didn't benefit its growth fade away. Just like it was slowly doing to them. "I-is that okay?"

"..." Jenova just stared at them as they fidgeted around in nervousness. So the darkness was already starting to consume the memories of their mother from them through nervousness and fears of abandonment. Jenova had expected this to start happening, but not so soon. Such deterioration of mind and thoughts from the heart's pull was great for their growth in the darkness, but not for them in individuality. Eventually the darkness would corrode away any memory or feelings that would hinder its growth within them, such as memories and feelings of love, hope, and happiness. Eating off of their negative emotions until it formed them into nothing more than the perfect puppets for its bidding if they kept down this initial path. But this was also a step in their growth. She would let them continue on the course they were going until they found their own pathway out. "Call me what you will."

"!" Kadaj, Yazoo, and Loz's eyes widened and sparkled in delight at acceptance. An emotion that would not live long in this realm. Soon all light would be lost to darkness.

It was only a matter of time.

...

"Ugh-ah... huh?" Cloud came to in a place that wasn't covered in never ending darkness anymore. The light caught his sensitive eyes off guard as the colors in the room burned and blurred his vision with watering eyes. But with the watering came a spark that returned to his eyes, a sense of hope that was lost in his time in the darkness. He had almost forgotten how warm the Realm of Light felt on his skin. "Where am I...?"

"(Gasp), Cloud! You're awake." Came the relieved voice of his old... friend? She was wearing a short, white, sleeveless t-shirt and black short-shorts that were held up by suspenders. Her face had lost the rest of her baby fat, along with her cowgirl hat, but the tear-drop earrings were still there. She had grown up, both in body and in hair. "Cloud, it's me. Can you remember me?"

"Tifa...?"

"Yes, that's right!" She smiled in joyed at the news. "Long time no see, Cloud."

"It would seem that the darkness hasn't completely weared down on his mind during his long duration within its grasp." Added in Nanaki, walking over from his resting spot where he guarded over Cloud only to rest in the center of the back wall of the room. It would seem that the place was set up as 3 bed, 1 room Inn arrangement. The place was comfy but still lacked the subtle touches of a homey-feel.

Did that dog-cat just talk?

"Who are you?"

"Nanaki, though some people call me Red XIII." Nanaki introduced himself with a bow to his head in greeting. "I joined AVALANCHE with Tifa once the Heartless starting uprising beyond the balance to join the fight. Tifa told me about you. Though there is still so much to be craved to know."

"What do you mean? Wait. How long have I been in the darkness?" Cloud asked the early statement from before finally hitting home with him.

"Five years." Nanaki said blatantly with no subtlety nor care to the guy who just lost 5 years of his life to the darkness.

"!" Five years? He's been gone for five years?! The aging process should have stopped in the Realm of Darkness, but the pocket dimension in it that Sephiroth had manifested continued the natural time-flow. Most likely to continue the growth of his spawns so that they could become of use in the future. He looked down at his hands to see that they have grown from his time in the darkness, his muscles were more toned. He was stronger now, and yet so different. Something about him was off... he could hardly recognized himself anymore. "All that time... Wasted."

"Cloud, can you remember anything? About our childhood in Nibelheim? About your time after leaving to join Soldier? Anything at all?" Tifa asked, resting a comforting hand on his shoulder as she bent over to meet his eye level. She was trying to coax some of his memories back to him to help return himself back to normal from the darkness' fog.

"I remember our promise... I remember my mother... Ggh!" Cloud head began to hurt, like it was splitting in two. He gripped his head and shook a little from the ringing in his skull. "I remember leaving to join Soldier. I made...1st Class. I was a 1st Cloud Soldier. I remember him. I remember...Sephiroth!"

"!" Both Tifa and Nanki's eyes widened in surprise.

"Please, Cloud, can you remember anything else about him?! About what he's done, what he's doing, or where he's going?!" Tifa pleaded, worried about the pain it looked to be causing Cloud trying to force back the memories, but she wanted answers and some form of vengeance more.

"I remember going on missions together with him. I remember our last mission together in Nibelheim to investigate the Old Reactor Construction Site. I remember you being our guide up Mt. Nibel."

"!" Tifa did her best to hold back the gasp at Cloud's false information. She clearly remembered him not being there and yet he somehow recapped all the detail as if he indeed was there. She remained quiet not interrupting as he continued his story. He was her best, if not her only, chance of filling in the holes in the gaps of her memories around the events that she wasn't there for that led to the horrible day.

"We returned to Nibelheim. Sephiroth confined himself to the Inn. He didn't even try to talk to me."

"Then all of a sudden he just disappeared, right?" Tifa clearly remembered Sephiroth rushing out of the town to return home after raiding the old Shinra mansion. But she didn't want to contradict Cloud. Something about him didn't seem to be fully there. She didn't want to shatter what part of him that he had somehow paste back together in his heart. It could possible destroy what was left of him.

"We found him inside the biggest building in Nibelheim."

"The village used to call it the Shinra mansion."

"Long ago, people from Shinra used to live in that mansion..." Cloud continued on with his story. To where Sephiroth was lost in the Research; learning the truth about his origins; and, his fall into madness as he destroyed Nibelheim and headed for the unfinished Reactor to reunite with his mother, Jenova. Even to the part where Tifa charged at Sephiroth and he cut her down, and Cloud came and carried off her of the stairs and away from the danger. But as Cloud got to the part where he confronted Sephiroth... "...and that's the end of my story."

"Wait, that's it? No more?" Tifa asked in confusion after staying quieting for so long.

"...I don't remember."

"What happened to Sephiroth?"

"In terms of skill, I couldn't have killed him."

"The Official records state Sephiroth is dead. I read it in the newspaper." Tifa added in before pondering a thought out loud. "But the King has influence over the newspapers, so you can't rely on that."

"He made his appearance again when Cid, Aeris, and I made our way to the Temple of the Ancients to see what he was scheming. We found out about Meteor and how he was planning to summon it with the Black Materia to injure the World enough for him to become one with its Mako Energy to enter into some for of godhood, or kinghood; I don't know, it hardly made any sense to me. But with a powerful Magic like Meteor he could destroy the World." Cloud continued on. "We had finally solved the puzzle of the Temple and retrieved the Black Materia. But...I gave it to him."

"!"

"Somehow he took control of my body and I gave it to him!" Cloud began to shook unable to accept his past actions, his head hurting from the shame and feeling of failure. He gripped it and shook around as he continued to remember. "Aeris tried to counter his attempt of using the Black Materia with the power of the White Materia and ran to the Forgotten City of the Ancients to do so. But when we finally caught up to her... he stabbed her. He impaled his own wife with Masamune! What kind of monster...?!"

"..."

"We had to rush Aeris to medical help. We saved her life, but... after that everything went dark. I fell into darkness. Trapped in its cold clutch, only to come to in a Mako Immersion Tube. I broke out, looked for a way to escape, and found this..." Cloud said, reaching into his pocket to pull out the Black Materia. "We still have a chance. We got the Black Materia back before Sephiroth used it."

"But how? How did you get it back from him?"

"I don't know. I don't quite remember. I don't even remember if he was guarding it or where I was when I found it. But..." Cloud continued, lowering his head as he looked down at his hands. "...I want to know the truth. I want to know what happened. I challenged Sephiroth and lived. Why didn't he kill me?"

"...I'm alive, too." Tifa added in, finding it strange and almost making her guilt driven that out of everyone he had killed in Nibelheim he hadn't cut her down to kill.

"A lot of this doesn't make sense. What about Jenova. I didn't see her in the Realm of Darkness. And Sephiroth didn't have her head with him back at the Temple or the Forgotten City. Where could she be?" Cloud pondered aloud, mostly to himself. "Che, damn. None of this makes sense."

"..."

"Let's get moving. I remember during our encounter at the Forgotten City of the Ancients him saying something about all that was left was going North, over the snowy fields." Cloud started to remember, hopping out of his bed with drive. "He must be heading passed the Icicle Inn to the mountain's ravine's Mako Spring. Let's go!"

"..." Tifa stayed quiet for a moment as she watched Cloud re-strap the Buster Sword back on his back and as he turned his back to head out the room. She called to him as he was about to make his way to the door. "Cloud?"

"?" He turned back around, at her call, to face her.

"How bad was I after Sephiroth stabbed me?" She wanted to know if he was lying about ever being there. But the sadness in his eyes spoke of no falsehood as he lowered his head.

"I though you were a goner. ...I was so sad."

"..." She lowered her head too, ashamed for another reason. Ashamed that she couldn't fully believe what Cloud was telling her, and that she also didn't want him to be told he was wrong. So putting on a tough face, she looked into Cloud's eyes a the determination in hers that told him that she was coming along too. "Let's go."

Cloud nodded and started to walk out of the room again, with Tifa close behind him.

Further back in the room, Nanaki still remained in his place. His tail swishing lazily back and forth from time to time.

"What a fascinating story..." He said with a grin, taking it all in as an interesting storytelling. He would follow, if not for the sake of this World, then to see how it ends.

Further down in the opposite hallway, Aeris remained hidden behind the wall as Cloud and Tifa made their way down the stairs to the 1st Floor of the building. Her light energy kept conceal so as not to give away her presence. She had been close to the door once she had sense Cloud had waken up and decided to listen to Cloud's story. She would have gone in, she wanted to go in to see how he was doing, but... She felt a darkness in his heart. One that clearly felt like Sephiroth's. She could no longer be around Cloud for the sake of staying hidden from Sephiroth. Sephiroth's darkness had planted itself deeply inside Cloud's cracked heart. A cracked that was damaging Cloud's broken heart, soon to shatter. She wanted to help him, truly she did. Aeris wanted to help bring Cloud out of the darkness. But she couldn't. Cloud was just going to have to find his own way out with his own strength and the others'. She couldn't go near him; he could see through Cloud's eyes...

...

Aeris had made her way back to the Heartless Resistance Base of Operation, one of which was in the humble abode of Wizard Merlin, some time after Cloud and his party had left a safe distance from the Inn room he was staying in. Many of the Wutai refugees were being sheltered at the Radiant Garden's Inns, curtsy of the King.

This Heartless attack was on a scale the likes of which their World hasn't seen before, nor fully prepared for. A traveling wagon; a small group of people; at the worst on record, a house. But king Ansem, nor the people of Radiant Garden's World have ever seen a whole city taken by the darkness before. This power the darkness had was frightening, and the Sage King along with his legion of brilliant minds immediately began to investigate this phenomenally. Hollow Bastion Castle had been locked off from the pupil as the King and his researchers began to find a way to counteract the Heartless through the means of experimentation and anatomy breakdown of captured Heartless. The King would not be disturbed until him and his team found some answers. The doors to the Castle hardly if ever opened anymore, and the people no longer saw their beloved Sage King leave its walls. Pretty soon king Ansem the Wise will become king Ansem the Recluse.

Many of the Wutai refugees stayed at the Inns until they were found a permanent residence. All except for one little Wutai. King Ansem had immediately opened up the Castle doors for the remaining royal Wutai bloodline to stay in Hollow Bastion. But the little Wutai princess seemed to stall at taking king Ansem up on his offer and preferred to stay among the rooms in the Heartless Resistance Headquarters.

"I can't believe this." Aeris came into Merlin's house to see princess Yuffie pouting before running at Squall, swinging her little arms at him. Squall held her back with just an outstretched hand as she swung in the air missing him due to his height advantage. She tended to like to spar with the members to show off her stuff, and ended up being a sore loser when she lost. Just like old times. So there she was pouting and swinging while Squall let an apathetic sigh while being mindful not to harm the little princess. "You spikey-headed jerk! One more time, let's go one more time!"

"Not interested." Squall said flatly.

"C'mon... What's the matter? You're pretty scared of me, huh?!"

"Petrified..." Squall said, sparing her pride. She was just going to lose again and probably get herself hurt trying to prove him wrong so he just decided to play along.

"Hmm, just as I though. What do you expect with my skills?" Yuffie smirked, jumping back into a hero pose with her hands on her hips and her chest puffed out. "I guess I'll go easy on you this one time. I shouldn't be sweat'n on the little guys when I've got bigger fish to spar with at Hollow Bastion Castle."

"I'm sure the King will feel more at ease with someone with your skills in the Castle."

"Oh you're leaving, Yuffie? Well... the best of luck to you. I hope you'll be very happy in Hollow Bastion." Aeris said, finally announcing her return. It's true Yuffie would have more luxury and the prestige she deserves as the surviving heir to the Wutai Chief bloodline. But sadly, she was going to miss having the little ninja wandering around their headquarters.

"Uhh, right. Good luck to you guys, too. If you feel up to it, we can go another around. Later!" She said, walking passed Aeris to head to the door. But she turned around at the door frame to call for their attention. "I'm gonna leave! I mean it!"

Clearly she was stalling.

Squall was going to just let her go ahead and go, for her own good. But the pleading look of puppy-dog eyes she was giving him, along with Aeris's silent nudging, forced him to do otherwise. With a exasperated sigh and a hand running down his brown mane, Squall called Yuffie back.

"Wait a second."

Yuffie was instantly back in front of him with a proud look on her face. The puppy-dog eyes long gone, replaced by smugness and a deep pride.

"What is it, you still have somethin' for me?"

"Uhh."

"...Hmmm. So is that it? I know you want my help because I'm so good!" Yuffie said, volunteering herself into the ranks of the Heartless Resistance. She would be its youngest member, and nobody would say she couldn't join otherwise. "You want me to go with you?"

"..." 'You kiddin?' is what Squall wanted to say, Cid was giving him a look from the corner of his eyes from his spot sitting by the wall saying that he wanted to say the same thing. But Aeris was still nudging him with her gentle but stern eyes, and it was hard to say no to Aeris. "That's right."

"Heh heh...thought so. You put me in a spot. Hmm, what should I do?" Yuffie said smugly, playing it off as if she wasn't the one hinting around about wanting to join them.

"You can always say no, darn pipsqueak." Cid mumble, rolling his eyes away, but Yuffie ignored him.

"But, if you want me that bad, I can't refuse... All right! I'll go with you!" Yuffie said, doing poorly to hide her excitement as she pumped her little fist over her heart. Aeris could see Yuffie's heart's wish to defeat the Heartless and return Wutai and its people to the traditional glory it once was. "You can count on me! I'm on your side!"

...

Cloud and his party were making their way back from Nibelheim. Shocked by the sight of seeing Nibelheim rise up from the ashes of its demise anew as if nothing had happened. People they've never seen before occupied the Town, saying that they have lived their all their lives and denied everything about the Town ever burning down. Tifa had never returned to her hometown after escaping with Master Zangan and never looked back; afraid of what memories and nightmares would arise from gazing upon its rubble again. And Cloud was trapped in the Realm of Darkness for 5 years so both of them had no idea what was going on.

Apparently King Ansem had rebuild the Town to its exact look, and hired a troupe of actors to play as the Townsfolk so as cover up the actions of Sephiroth from the rest of the Kingdom. The last thing the people needed in these dark times was the tarnish of their beloved hero.

Cloud found it emotionally unsettling to see another person living in the house that his mother raised him in, openly lying to Cloud's face about living there their whole life. But they didn't have time for this. They needed to get passed Mt. Nibel to make their way North to put an end to Sephiroth. He had once told Cloud that he was heading North to fulfill his destiny. From what that said on the map, that was further passed Icicle Inn into the cold mountains. The quickest way was to cut through the Forgotten City of the Ancients. Cloud knew the way, and Tifa and Red XIII gladly followed him. One out of vengeance; the other out of curiosity.

However, it was passed the City of the Ancients, through its cavern cliff way that they ran into trouble.

"!" Cloud drew his Buster Sword, ready for a fight as two one-winged Genesis Copies flew down and blocked their progressing path. "Not again!"

As Cloud and them were about to engage the Copies, Genesis came down behind them. Slightly kicking Cloud in the back of his head to push him off his feet and gain Cloud's attention as he blocked their back-way tracks. Cloud had turned to Genesis, which wasn't a good idea. He left his back exposed to the Copies, each one of them rushing him. They grabbed him and held Cloud down by his arms.

"Get off me!"

"Cloud!" Tifa cried, she was going to Cloud's aid with Red XIII when Genesis pushed them back and out of the way with the force of his raw Magic power. The blast had knocked them both hard into the side cavern wall; the breath knocked out of them and their head discombobulated from the blow.

"Ow, my hair! Stop pulling!" Cloud growled at the Copies as they grabbed on to his golden spikes to force him to look up at Genesis as he approached.

"When the war of the beasts brings about the world 's end. The goddess descends from the sky. Wings of light and dark spread afar. She guides us to bliss, her gift everlasting." Genesis had deteriorated much more greatly than the last time Cloud had seen him. His hair and skin no longer held any color and his wing was a dull gray as the derogation was also effecting his cloths. In his hand was a Borona White; and in his Copies was a chunk of strands of Cloud's hair.

"That's my hair!"

"You were a test subject in Sephiroth's new experiment. A modified version of Jenova's power runs through you." Genesis explained, already sensing the changes and familiarity of Cloud the moment he stepped back from the Realm of Darkness. Sephiroth has been busy, and Genesis would be there to collect from his work.

"What?" Cloud didn't understand what he was talking about. Genesis didn't deem his lack of understanding worthy of an answer and gave a signaled command to his Copies. The one holding Cloud's hair began to eat it... "No way...he just ate my hair!"

"Your cells will be my gift of the goddess... The degradation will cease."

"!" Cloud forced his way out of the Copies grip and onto his feet again. They didn't seem to put up much of a fight anymore, they got what they wanted. "You...are twisted."

"The monster has been harvested, and can be discarded." Genesis commanded over to his Copies, passed Cloud.

"You're the monster!"

"..." Genesis didn't rebuke or confirm his claim. He just sought the comfort of LOVELESS, turning around and walked away. Cloud followed after him, only for him to fly off with one of his Copies. "Legend shall speak of sacrifice at world's end. The wind sails over the water's surface. Quietly, but surely."

The one Copy that had eaten the hair began to choke in agony. The hair was doing something to him, he began to change. Cloud watched as the Copy turned into a Flying Heartless monster. Two wings now, his appearance now more bird-talon, dragon-like and a little bit metallic looking. Tifa and Red XIII had come to around the ending point of the transformation to help Cloud out.

They had dispatched the Copy, sending the original heart back to the World's Heart while the fragment heart returned to its original owner. Leaving behind nothing but so many unanswered questions for Cloud. And a disturbing thought of 'was he like one of those wretched things?'

'Ha, ha, ha... Stop acting as if you're sad. And there's no need to act as if you're angry either. Because, Cloud... You are... Because, you are...a puppet.' Cloud could hear Sephiroth's voice inside his heart calling to him in his woes.

"I'm...a puppet?"

"Cloud?" Tifa asked in concern.

"Tifa...what do I do?" Cloud asked sadly, slowly turning to face her. "Tell me..."

"..." She couldn't answer him...

...

Some time had passed and Aeris was investigating a lead. She had heard some rumors going around of Angeal sightings around Gongaga, the place where Zack had once told her was his hometown. She didn't want Heartless Resistance getting involved in this, seeing as this was a personal matter, so she went alone to check it out.

But her search had proved to be fruitful. She had spotted Angeal further on the outskirts of the Village and followed after him. He was clearly leading her, but she would take her chances of this being a trap. She needed answers and she couldn't afford to lose him, if not for her own need for his information than for Sephiroth's sake.

She had already bumped into Heartless along the way, but she was clearly sure that they weren't part of Angeal's labyrinth plan. Although it was unlike Angeal to leave a person to fend for themselves, much less a woman. Something must be wrong...

She had found him inside the remains of an old Mako Reactor. This was one of the rare ones that made it past the construction stage. Shinra had still tried to go through with the Mako Energy Project regardless of the incomplete theoretical stage that Aeris kept resetting on them, torpedoing in all guns half-cocked to try and stumble upon something. Or at least to make some form a profit after all those postponing and drawbacks. But their half-heartiness had backfired and the Reactor had a major explosion, poisoning the area around it with excess Mako that would take decades to recover from. This was the action to cause Shinra to finally drop the Mako Energy Project, more like forced to since the King got involved.

He was inside the remaining Reactor structure, Mako poisoning long gone but the land still recovering. He was sitting on the ground, supporting himself up on one arm, slightly out of breath.

"It's been a long time, Aeris..."

"So what happened?" Aeris asked, referring to the Heartless she bumped into along the way that he flew passed. "That thing wasn't so tough."

"I can't fight like a 1st." Angeal admitted with a melancholy smirk. "I'm just an Angeal copy."

"Copy?" Aeris gasped. She thought all of the Angeal copies were wiped out. And this one had more Angeal characteristics about him, besides from his looks, that she couldn't believe he wasn't Angeal. Although Sephiroth had told her a long time ago that Angeal was dead, she had hoped...

The 'Copy' got back on his feet again.

"It's Lazard." The Angeal copy introduced himself, or in this case revealed his true identity.

"!" Aeris could hardly believe it. She could barely recognized him. Not in the obvious physical change, but in the changes of the heart. His heart had fused so much with Angeal's heart fragment that they had become one and the same. The fact that both people had similar character beliefs made the fusion much more sound. So Angeal had truly returned to the World. Only the fragments of him remained in the Realm of Light. But even so, Angeal may be gone but Lazard still had some answers. "So, you're the one who helped Hollander and funded his research? Why would you do such a thing?"

"To exact my revenge, I needed Hollander." Lazard answered as he bent a knee to rest an arm on as he sat back down while Aeris moved to stand beside him.

"You really chose the wrong friends, didn't you?" Aeris lightly teased to ease up the tension building up around them.

"I agree." Lazard waved off. "I never dreamed I'd be turned into an Angeal copy."

"Well, just be happy you're linked to Project G." Being a Angeal copy he wouldn't deteriorate at a faster rate like Genesis copies did. He was deteriorating, however it's been nearly 5 years and his graying wasn't as bad as Genesis's.

"It's a strange feeling..." Lazard admitted.

"Hm?"

"The lust for vengeance that had so consumed my life is all but gone now." Lazard looked at his clinched fist that he couldn't hold for long, it opened up to a passive palm. "In its place...is a desire to help you, a desire to save Genesis..."

"..." After all the things he had been through thanks to the kingdom, and by extension Shinra, he still wanted to help her save Sephiroth and her sons. He truly was an honorable man.

"No, it's bigger than that. I...I want to save the World."

"..." Aeris walked on ahead, her back turned to him. But then she turned to the side, her face looking over at him from her shoulder with a smile. "There's nothing strange about that. Angeal lives inside of you."

"(Chuckle)..." Her smiles were so warm and full of light, he couldn't help but smile back. "Genesis is trying to obtain the 'gift of the goddess,' but what is it, exactly?"

"?" LOVELESS?

"No, whatever it is, he must be stopped."

"I don't understand what he's thinking at all. What should I do?"

"Angeal may show us the way...perhaps."

"Maybe... I hope so, Director."

"Heh, 'Director'..." He smirked, he hadn't been called that in a long time. "So, Aeris, what is your dream?"

"Huh? Oh. Let's see... To live in a world where my family and friends can be happy. Where the sky is limitless."

"Humph, unattainable dreams are the best kind."

"Oh you. Come on! Lend me a hand! You and Angeal both." She fluttered over to in front of Lazard, bending down her knees a little. She rested her hands on her knees to look down more at Lazard's level. "If we pull this off and save them, we'll all be heroes! At the very least, I'd feel like one."

"Heroes... Heh." Lazard couldn't help but smirk at the thought, it was bringing back some old memories. "So, Aeris, where is Genesis?"

"Oh." She gasped, remembering that she didn't have a clue. "I don't know..."

"I see."

...

The journey was long, after they finally got over the mountains' cliff way- which protected the borders of the Forgotten City where the Sleeping Forest did not- it took them days to reach the Village of Icicle Inn. They had rested for a bit, but Cloud was eager to face Sephiroth once and for all. They had taken the map from inside the Icicle Inn of the area and snowboarded their way down to the Great Glacier. The snowboards were courtesy of a boy who injured himself snowboarding and his mother wouldn't let him go down the slope anymore. They could see why she wouldn't let the boy snowboard anymore, that thing was dangerous, especially without any protecting gear. Cloud and his party missed their landing and hit the snow hard on their face near the starting point of the Great Glacier.

The pathway was pretty clear, and the Heartless weren't too much of a hassle. The map really helped them with the split pathways. Soon they found their way to flat expanse of the Snow Fields. The snow made it look so blank and the winds could easily turn an unsuspecting traveler around, forcing them to go in never-ending circles. They had found their way through the Snow Fields by leaving landmarks. But the journey was long, it was already sundown by the time they reached the edge of the Snow Fields. The temperature dropped drastically. They had found a cave with an old abandon camp site, but Cloud pushed the party to go on.

They most likely would have regretted that decision if they hadn't had bumped into the cabin house of Holzoff, a veteran climber, at the base of Gaea's Cliffs. He had offered them food, provisions, and advise. He told them his story how he had once climbed the Cliffs with a friend to see the old crater that had been created from something that crashed down from the sky. The temperatures were so low up their his friend had cut his line off as he froze so he wouldn't weigh Holzoff down with him, Holzoff didn't even hear him cut the line. Now he lived his life there, telling his story to climbers as a warning and to make sure they're fully prepared so his story never happens again. For 20 years he has done this.

The party payed close attention to his story and his advise. Cloud was even more interested about the strange thing that crashed down from the sky and morphed the land creating the cliffs; it must have been Jenova. He wanted to see for himself.

They rested for the night at Holzoff's house before heading up to Gaea's Cliffs. The way up was traitorous, and the winds froze to the bone. They had to keep moving to keep their body temperatures up. Their only reprieve was when they entered the caves inside the Cliffs. The way up was cold and unforgiving. Poor Tifa was under-dressed for this, sticking close to Red XIII to seek out warmth from his fur. It had taken them all day but they finally made it to the top. Once they climbed up to the top point of the Gaea's Cliffs what they saw could never be forgotten or possible to describe to its full breathtaking wondrous.

The Aurora Borealis danced above them in the night sky as the chaotic winds whirled around the epicenter of the crater. The surrounding area sharply upchucked from the crash's blast as the winds created a fog around their sharp edges to protrude from. Razor sharp as Mako winds shot out from the crater as the World tried to heal itself. Cloud and the others slowly began to walk into the crater.

"An old crater... Something fell out of the sky and crashed down here... Leaving a scar on the Planet." Cloud said in wonder as they stopped for a second to admire their closer view of it.

"So all this energy's gathered here for the World to heal itself?" Tifa questioned.

"Sephiroth took that energy and is trying to use Meteor. Next time the wound won't be so small." Cloud scowled at the whirlwinds towards where Sephiroth was possibly waiting for them, before rushing off to the epicenter with the determination to make sure Sephiroth's goals would never happen.

As they ran down into the crater the party was surprised to find someone else had made it there. Someone in a black cloak.

"A-a person?" Tifa couldn't believe someone else had made it this far as well.

"!" Cloud's eyes widened in familiarity he could Sense from this presence. "No. Something else."

"(Gasp)!" Tifa gasped as the shrouded person collapsed in their spot. They ran over, knelling down to check on them.

"...bback... to...Sep... ...i...roth..." was all the figure could get out before their body failed them and their heart returned to the World, and a Sephiroth Heart Fragment returned to its owner.

"!" They all gasped in alarm at what they saw.

"Was that a clone?!" Tifa gasped in alarm at seeing a transparent Sephiroth fly into the sky with the heart and fade away.

"No...a Copy." Cloud corrected, staring blankly at where the cloaked figure once was. "I didn't know Sephiroth made Copies of his own. He's been busy these past 5 years..."

"This is sacrilege." Red XIII growled at the blatant misuse of a life's heart. Heart's were a scared thing of the Worlds not meant to be toyed with and mutated to others gain and pleasure. A child of the Ancients should know better. What has Sephiroth become to have sunk so low? This was not the powerful warrior he once knew.

"We should keep moving." Cloud advised, getting up on his feet again. The others soon followed, continuing on towards the Whirlwind Maze.

On the path they had bumped into more black cloaked copies. All collapsing, some falling over to their doom, as their bodies gave out from the stress on their hearts. All of them trying to reach Sephiroth, doomed to never make it. The concentration of Mako energy was so great in these parts that even a Neo Bahamut Materia formed in the area, it was no wonder the Copies hearts couldn't take it. If Cloud and the others stayed for a long duration of time their hearts would start to feel the effects too. There wasn't time to waste.

"Hey, that's!" Cloud couldn't believe what he was seeing, Rufus Shinra was flying over them in his own private Airship along with his elite bodyguards, the Turks. Cloud had no idea why they were here, or what interest they could possibly have with Sephiroth. One thing was for sure, he had to get to Sephiroth first before they did.

Crossing the whirlwinds proved to be a hassle, as it seemed to be for the Sephiroth Copies as well. It took patience and a well timed sprint-through once the whirlwinds died down for a moment. The Copies that did make it through marched in a stroll-pace line, the weak ones collapsing as the others pressed on over them, towards their destination to Sephiroth. The narrow ledge way was unforgiving to the weak and the steady-less. Cloud couldn't believe Sephiroth would do such a thing to beings with hearts. It would seem years without Aeris had turned the once unsociable 1st Class Soldier cold. He could see that more when they went on ahead to see Sephiroth cutting down the remaining cloaked Copies with Masamune.

"This is the end...for all of you." Sephiroth said to the last two remaining Copies that loyally knelled before him. Cutting them down with his back turned to the others, and heartlessly letting their bodies fall down the narrow pathway's edge before their hearts could return to the World and their bodies fade.

"Sephiroth!" Cloud roared at him over the winds.

"This is the end!" Cried out Tifa as she put up her fists for a fight.

"You're right." Sephiroth said, not turning his back from them. As if not seeing them as a threat. "This is the end of this fragment's usefulness."

Sephiroth faded away.

"He disappeared?!" Cloud rushed over to where Sephiroth once was, looking around as if he couldn't believe no longer there. He wasn't playing tricks on them and hiding around invisible, Cloud couldn't Sense his presence anywhere in the area. Something about that news made his heart unsteady and restless. 'Our purpose is to deliver the Black Materia to our master.'

"He might still be nearby..." Tifa suggested, her fists relaxing to her side again.

"Our..." Cloud began to mumble as the others continued to look around.

"He got away?" Red XIII couldn't believe Sephiroth disappeared without a trace.

"..." But Cloud could Sense further up on the path ahead.

'Those who carry Jenova's cells...'

"Master..."

"Did you say something Cloud?" Tifa asked, both her and Red XIII looking at him now.

'Of course...Sephiroth.' There was heavy presence inking its way inside Cloud's mind, clawing from his heart. 'Heh, heh, heh...'

Out of nowhere, the Sephiroth that faded away leaped down from the sky, sucker punching all of them. It walked ahead a little as Cloud began to compose himself first and rose to his feet again. Only for Sephiroth to turn to reveal that he was a Sephiroth Shadow, a Heartless.

The fight was strenuous, even as the others got back up to join him. This Shadow was just as strong, if not nearly as strong, as Sephiroth. They would have to prepare for a long battle ahead of them if 'this' was what they were up against. But in time and effort, the Sephiroth Shadow went down.

"Jenova cell's ...hmm. So that's what this is all about." Cloud said, carrying on the darkening thoughts aloud with more of a sound mind. "The Jenova Reunion..."

"Not Sephiroth?! You mean all this time it wasn't Sephiroth we've been fighting?" Tifa huffed in exhausted disbelief. If just a fake was this strong who knows how strong the real thing will be.

"No. It was just a Heart Fragment. The real Sephiroth is up ahead. I'll explain later." Cloud shook his head in answer. "Right now, the only thing I'm thinking about is beating Sephiroth."

"But Sephiroth is..."

"He's here. The real Sephiroth is just beyond here." Cloud pointed out towards the direction he could Sense Sephiroth in the distance. To think that Sephiroth would toy with living Copies when he could've easily used Heartless copies or Heart Fragments to achieve the same results. He was strong enough for his Heart Fragments to stand alone to do the job, Cloud had seen him do it before in the Temple of the Ancients, so why was he playing with Copies now? "It's both incredibly wicked and cruel..."

"?"

"He's releasing a powerfully strong will from deep within the World's wound." Cloud continued on, ignoring the previous thought. He grabbed the Black Materia from out of his pocket to hold in his hand. "But the Black Materia is back in our hands. Now all we have to do is defeat Sephiroth and that'll be the end of it."

"We'd better not take the Black Materia any further. Why don't you give it to someone else to hold on to?" Tifa advised as a precaution.

"Hm, you're right." Cloud nodded to her in agreement before handing the Black Materia over to Red XIII.

"You want me to take the Black Materia? All right, I understand." Red XIII nodded, accepting his responsible and burden as the others will accept theirs. It was probably for the best. Red XIII didn't think he had it in him to put down the man that saved his life and that he called friend, even in the crazy state he was in now. He could not destroy a friend whom he had given his true name to, he would leave the rest to the others. He'll do his part and keep the Black Materia safe. He'll hold the fate of their World in his paws for the short while he'd need to. It was the lease he could do.

"Don't give it to ANYONE. I'm counting on you." Cloud couldn't stress that enough, but he would trust in his friends.

"Let's find Sephiroth!" Tifa pumped with determination. The two of them would go on ahead to face off Sephiroth, while Red XIII would stay behind and secure the Black Materia.

Cloud nodded to her before turning back to Red XIII.

"We're going in first! Red XIII, you stay and keep watch."

...

Cloud and Tifa went on ahead, towards the center of the epicenter. Where the Mako winds blew with overflowing spirit energy. The exposure would be dangerous, but they had to press on...to end this. Running through the long straight path towards the Mako winds, they broke through to be greeted by a blinding light.

"Sephiroth is near. Anything could happen." Cloud warned Tifa.

Only for the light to fade as they found themselves back in Nibelheim. It's entrance to be exact.

"Nibelheim..." Tifa said in confusion as she looked around. Everything was as exactly as she remembered. "Why Nibelheim? Are we high on Mako?"

"This is an illusion Sephiroth made up. He's trying to confuse us." Cloud shook his head in correction. "It'll be all right. As long as we know it's an illusion, there's nothing to be afraid of. Come on, let's keep going."

"Yeah, you're right..." Tifa was nervous, but Cloud couldn't understand why. She was probably worried about the battle ahead of them. Not the memories that Nibelheim would bring...

"Look!" Tifa gasped and pointed as Sephiroth and his team of Infantrymen Soldiers made their way to Nibelheim's Gate. They moved out of the way as the memory went by as it did many years ago.

"All right, let's go." The memory of Sephiroth said, no longer the mad Cetra bent on World domination, but the strong 1st Class Soldier that was the hero of their World. Cloud got confused when he only saw three Infantrymen accompanying Sephiroth, instead of two with him in his 1st Class Soldier uniform.

"That's not me... Where am I?" Cloud began to question.

"Stop...Sephiroth." Tifa began to beg the memory as if the real Sephiroth would hear her plea. And he probably did, she saw the memory of Sephiroth smirked at a point she clearly remembered him not smirking at before. He was enjoying this...

"This is so stupid..." Cloud just shrugged it off.

Instead of the memory continuing, Sephiroth just started to laugh mockingly and the figures of the memory disappeared in a flash. Confused, Cloud began to look around in a minor hysteria.

"Cloud... It's just an illusion. Don't worry about it..." Tifa tried to ease to Cloud, but his heart was pounding with anxiety.

But the world around them flashed into white again.

"What's...next?" Cloud said with less enthusiasm than before, replaced with nervous anticipation.

"Stop it already!" Tifa screamed Sephiroth. Not that Cloud would know. But Sephiroth continued on with his game. The blankness of white dimming away to reveal a burning Nibelheim.

"...This is what actually happened five years ago. But..." Cloud remembered before preparing himself for another one of Sephiroth's mind games. "It's probably not me that will come out of the Shinra mansion. He's going to try and show us another stupid illusion."

But no one came out.

"See...didn't I tell you?"

"Hey! Is there anybody here still sane? Come over here and help me!" Called out the memory of Master Zangan over the blazing fires as he tried to pull out as many people as he could.

"I don't want to...watch this." Tifa whimpered, curling her arms around herself. "Cloud...Don't watch."

But no one came to Master Zangan's aid. All that was there was a lone Infantryman lying on the ground by Cloud's childhood home. Master Zangan looked around, sighing in melancholy acceptance that he would have to do this on his own.

"Tsk, I'll check this house. And then make it over to check the one over there."

"...What's wrong, Tifa? I told you before, right? As long as we know that it's just an illusion, there's no need to be scared." Cloud tried to comfort to her, not realizing how scared she was for Cloud instead of the memory. Having enough of these illusions frightening Tifa, he called out to the source. "Sephiroth! I know you're listening! I know what you want to say! That I wasn't in Nibelheim five years ago. That's it, isn't it?"

With a flash of light Sephiroth appeared before them. All of them surrounded by the fire.

"I see you finally understand." Sephiroth smirked at Cloud. Playing these twisted games were so much fun and bitter sweet. Memories were such a fragile thing.

"What you are trying to say is that you want to confuse me, right?" Cloud huffed, still resisting the ploy. But not for long... "But...even making me see those things won't affect me. I remember it all. The heat of the fire...the pain in my body...and in my heart!"

"Oh, is that so?" Sephiroth mocked smugly, shaking his head with a grin. "You are just a puppet... You have no heart... and cannot feel any pain... How can there be any meaning in the memory of such a being? What I have shown you is reality. What you remember, that is the illusion."

Cloud just shrugged him off.

"...Do you understand?"

"I don't want to understand." Cloud insisted before turning and resting a pondering hand on his forehead. "But, I want to ask you one thing. Why...why are you doing this?"

'Because revenge is the sweetest darkness of ALL.' In a flash Sephiroth was beside Tifa who instantly ran over to the safety of Cloud. "Ha, ha, ha... I want to take you back to your real self. The one who gave me the Black Materia that day... Who would have ever thought a failed experiment would prove so useful? Hojo would die again if he knew."

"Hojo?! What does he have to do with me?!"

"Nothing, and everything." Sephiroth chuckled with a smug grin, brushing some loose bang strands out of the way before looking back at Cloud again. "Five years ago you were... ...constructed in the darkness by a recreation of Hojo's old Research Project, piece by piece, right after Nibelheim was burnt. A puppet made up of vibrant Jenova cells, her knowledge, and the power of the Mako. An incomplete Sephiroth-clone. Not even given a number. ...That is your reality."

Cloud shrugged it off again, only it took a little more effort to do so.

"Cloud... Don't listen to him..." Tifa pleaded to him, shaking her head as she beg him to listen. "Cover your ears! Close your eyes!"

"What's wrong, Tifa? I'm not affected by it." Cloud shrugged again, only this time it wasn't believable. "...I wasn't paying attention to him."

"All that talk of you being constructed is a lie." Tifa insisted to him, trying to break through the doubt they could see starting to grow in him. "Don't we have our memories together? Being kids together, starlit nights..."

"Ha, ha, ha...Tifa..." Sephiroth mocked over to her. Such light filled memories of her were easily snuffed out by the darkness ages ago and held no threat to his ploy. Or perhaps, Tifa had too much confidence of her place in Cloud's cracked heart. "Why are you so worried and scared by those words? Hmm...Shall I show everyone here what's in your heart?"

"..." Tifa turned away with her head down as she tried to hold back the tears.

"Ha, ha, ha... You don't look well." Sephiroth turned away from them too with a chuck, before disappearing in a flash of light.

"...Tifa? Is Sephiroth right?" Cloud asked, her reactions were not helping with his doubts.

"Cloud..." She couldn't turn around to face him.

"Why are you so scared? Don't worry about me. I'm all right." He was trying to convince himself as much as he was trying to convince her as he looked to the ground. "No matter how confused I am, I'll never believe a word that Sephiroth says. It's true that sometimes I can't figure out who I am. There's a lot of things muddled up in my memories.

"But, Tifa... You said, 'Long time no see, Cloud' right? Those words will always support me. I am the one you grew up with. I'm Cloud of Nibelheim. No matter how much I lose faith in myself, that is the truth. That's why you shouldn't be so scared. No matter what anyone else says to me, it's your opinion that counts..."

"No, that's not true, Cloud..." Tifa said, finally turning around again.

"What's not? I'm the same Cloud you grew up with, aren't I?"

"That's not what I mean... I don't know how to say it..." Tifa said nervously, unable to find the words she wanted to say. "Cloud, I need some time... Just give me a little time..."

But Sephiroth wouldn't give her that time. In a flash of light he appeared again. This time further off, in front of the Shinra mansion.

"Cloud... Don't blame Tifa." Sephiroth tried to hold back a laugh and cover its tracks with his hand before composing himself again. "The ability to change one's looks, voice, and words, is the power of Jenova. Inside of you, Jenova has merged with Tifa's memories, creating you. Out of Tifa's memory..."

"!"

"A boy named Cloud might've just been a part of them." And in a flash, again, he was gone. The damage had been done.

"Cloud..." Tifa pleaded to Cloud who was no longer looking at her. He just kept staring at where Sephiroth once was. "Please...don't think right now."

"Ha, ha, ha... Think, Cloud!" Sephiroth appeared again, behind them. They quickly turned their exposed backs from him. "...Cloud? Ha, ha, ha...Oh, excuse me. You never had a name..."

"Shut up...Sephiroth." Cloud tried shaking out the wholes in his memories where Sephiroth's words seemed to fit in just nicely.

"You still don't understand? Then..." Sephiroth shook his head in disappointment, before turning his back on them. He began to laugh at his own scheme, holding it back with a hand over his mouth while lifting up his other hand back at them to give him a moment. He shook the rest of his giddiness away before turning back to face them. "Do you remember the picture that we took before we headed for Mt. Nibel?"

"?"

"...Tifa, you remember, right?" Sephiroth grinned at her before looking back at Cloud. "But there's is no way he would know. Now...what happened to that picture?"

Sephiroth walked over to one of the bodies lying around outside the burning houses. He reached into the pocket of the young man he remember taking the photo and pulled it out.

"...Is this it?" He turned around, holding the photo out to Cloud. Temping him to have a look. "...Do you want to see it? It turned out pretty good."

He never got the chance to get his copy. He had destroyed all of Nibelheim before the young man could make copies of his print. It did look rather nice. There was someone he once knew that would loved to have seen him so aside his usual unsociable self and surrounded by others. He should be concern that she was starting to fade away from his memories. But at the thought of finally getting revenge on Cloud, he could not find it in him to care.

"Cloud...Don't..." Tifa pleaded with Cloud, but he shook it off.

"I...should be in the picture. Even if I'm not there, no worry. This is just an illusory world Sephiroth made up." Cloud insisted before reassuring to Tifa. Cloud walked over to Sephiroth to look at the picture. To the right was Sephiroth, as he remember him to be. In the middle was Tifa, just as she was when they took the photo. But on the left... was three Infantrymen. "...Just as I thought. This picture's a fake. The truth is in my memory."

"..." Tifa couldn't even look at him.

"...Five years ago, I came back to Nibelheim, to inspect the reactor. I was sixteen. The town hadn't changed at all. What did I do? Oh yeah..." Cloud said aloud to himself, trying to recollect his memories and gather his thoughts. "I spent the night and went to the reactor site in Mt. Nibel, I was excited about it. Because that was my fist mission after becoming First Class in Soldier."

But the memories started to elude him.

"...Soldier, First Class?" He was trying to shake his head back together, but the wholes kept popping up in his memories. And the darkness began to fill the gaps. His head hurt. "...Soldier? When did I enter Soldier? How did I join Soldier? Why...why can't I remember? I'm...I'm... That's right...

"...I didn't have to worry about it, because I was..."

"Cloud...?"

"Let's go, Tifa. I'm...I'm all right."

...

"I wonder how Cloud and the others are? It's hard to believe... such a small piece of Materia could destroy the World." Red XIII said aloud to himself, bored out of his mind and also filled with worry for his friends that went on ahead to face with Sephiroth on their own. Suddenly Red XIII was consumed into a whirlwind that blinded him to everything around him. Rising to his feet again, he braced himself. "What's going on? Where am I?!"

That's when he saw Tifa running towards him.

"Red XIII, you're here! I'm so glad!"

"Tifa!" He turned to her, the winds had suddenly stopped and revealed their surrounds again in silence. Something about those winds sent a chill down his spine. His Senses were on edge. "Something is strange... Why was it dark all of a sudden and where is Cloud?"

"Cloud's in trouble! Please come help us!" Tifa exclaimed, pointing up ahead. "Over there!"

"R, right!" Something about Tifa was throwing his nose off. "I'm not sure I understand... but I'll go if you want me to."

Red XIII ran off in the direction that Tifa had pointed him in. Not realizing that Tifa had stayed behind.

"...hee hee hee... And remember..." The sweet voice of Tifa said before morphing back into Sephiorth. "...the Black Materia!"

...

"Mr. President... I've got a bad feeling about this place..." Scarlet, the former Barnes of Weaponry of Shinra Corp, said to Rufus Shinra as the area began to shake. They had flown to a closer, safer route to the epicenter and had arrived before Cloud and his group did. They were in the center of the crater where the concentration of Mako energy made the place rich with Materia. But it also seem to give rise to Weapon, creatures of Earth, Sky, and Sea created by the World to defined itself. Though they mostly mindlessly destroy things until the World no longer feels threatened or hurt before returning to the World's Heart to sleep until they are needed again. And right now they were very restless.

"Hmm...maybe we should go back to our ship now." Rufus agreed with her, not wanting to stay in this place any longer since there were no signs of Sephiroth. "We need to prepare for the inspection anyway."

Suddenly with a flash of light Cloud and Tifa were there too. Tifa ending further off in the back while Cloud appeared in front of them with his back turned, with his head down and his spirit in the ground as Sephiroth had finally broken him. The perfect puppet was ready to be pulled by his strings.

"Hey! Where did you come from?" Scarlet shouted in alarming fright at his sudden appearance.

"...Don't know..." Whether he was answering her question or his deeper one he didn't even know himself. Shaking the thought to the back of his mind for now, he turned back around to face them. "This place is going to get rough. Better leave things to me and get out of here while you still can."

"Leave things to you? Hmph...I don't know what you mean." Rufus didn't even know who this guy was. Who was he to tell the heir of Shinra what to do? But Cloud ignored Rufus's air of superiority and turned his back on the group again as he looked to the ground in broken exhaustion.

"This is where the Reunion is happening. Where everything begins and ends."

"Cloud!" Tifa called out to him. But he ignored her... The rest couldn't hear her. Sephiorth had Manip the others to render them unable to see or hear her.

"I'm here! I'm here to help you, Cloud!" Red XIII running his way over to him and the rest of the group. Cloud was acting weird as he approached Red XIII, he was starting to get unsure if he should have come here.

"Thanks...Red XIII. Where's the Black Materia?"

"Cloud!"

"It's safe. I'm holding on to it." Red XIII assured to him.

"I'll take it from here. Give me the...Black Materia."

"You can't hear my voice?"

"Are you all right, Cloud?" Cloud nodded to him. "Then...here you go. I was a little apprehensive holding this thing."

"No, don't! Please! Stop Cloud!"

"Thanks. Leave the rest to me."

'Come on. The Black Materia...' Sephiroth beckoned to Cloud.

'Please wait! Just a little longer!' Cloud shook his head as he looked back at everyone, familiar faces and not so much. "Everyone, thanks for everything. And...I'm sorry. ...Sorry. ...Sorry."

He was apologizing to everyone on both sides.

"Especially you, Tifa. I'm really sorry." He said over to her. So he 'could' see and hear her. "You've been so good to me... I don't know what to say... I never lived up to being 'Cloud'. Tifa... Maybe one day you'll meet the real 'Cloud'."

Tifa just shook her head as she fell to her knees and cried, holding her head with her hands. Cloud just shook his head and sadly sighed as he looked down while he floated up to where Sephiroth currently was... Inside the large Materia hanging up above them from its forming concentrated solidified Mako streams. Once reaching the top, Cloud stood upside down on its streams' branches.

"Who was that?" Rufus asked Tseng, his head Turk, whom had made his way over to his President after feeling the rumbles from the Airship.

"...He's Cloud, one of Sephiroth's Copies he created after being sealed in darkness five years ago." Tseng began to explain. "Jenova cells and Mako. ...I'm not so sure how it happened, but Professor Hojo's Jenova Reunion Theory has been proven. Even if Jenova's body is dismembered, it will eventually become one again. That's what is meant by Jenova's Reunion. Five years have passed, and it seems that Sephiroth's Copies have begun to return.

"We assumed that the Copies would gather around wherever Jenova's body was. But it seems that we were wrong. Jenova's body has been moving away from all forms of civilization. This has all been Sephiroth's doing. Sephiroth is not just content to diffuse his will into the Lifestream. He wants to manipulate the darkness himself."

Cloud began to curl into a ball in front of the large Materia as he looked up at the dormant Sephiroth inside, feeding on the spirit energy of the Lifestream.

'Yes, that was how it got started.' Cloud agreed with Tseng below.

"We've been wondering where the copies were going, but were never able to figure it out." Tseng continued reporting.

"I couldn't figure it out either.' Cloud look up to look down at Tseng in agreement before curling back to look back up at Sephiroth again.

"The one thing that we did know was that Sephiroth was at their final destination."

'I wasn't pursuing Sephiroth.' Cloud denied, shaking his head in correction. 'I was being summoned by Sephiorth. All the anger and hatred I bore him, made it impossible for me to ever forget him. That and what he gave me.'

Finally Cloud rose to his feet, prepared to do what he was 'created' to do.

'Sephiroth? Sephiroth? I'm here. And I brought you the Black Materia. Show yourself to me. Where are you?' More of the Materia began to slide out from it's branches, revealing more of him. 'Sephiroth... So we finally meet again.'

"No! This isn't happening. Don't you know what this means?" Tifa said, Sephiroth finally revealing her to the others now that his plans have finally been completed. The Black Materia back in his hands again, and Cloud reduced to nothing more than a broken puppet. Everything was working out so perfectly for him. If only one final part had returned to its place beside him then everything would be perfect. But he was starting to forget whom it was that he wanted beside him so much. He remember a face, he remember a name; but, he couldn't seem to remember why he wanted her so much? The little Cetra flower girl from Radiant Garden... "Cloud has the Black Materia! Sephiorth is going to summon Meteor! Every single person is going to die!"

"!" The others were shocked by her sudden appearance too. But now wasn't the time to be surprised as the ceiling was starting to tumble down over them.

"Whatever I say now is too little...too late. We must evacuate." Rufus ordered, offering a lift in his Airship to Tifa and Red XIII to help them escape. "I want you both to come with me. There's still much more I want to know."

"Cloud, NO! Stop! Please!" Red XIII tried to reach Cloud one final time. But it was for not.

"Cloud!" Tifa cried to Cloud.

He handed Sephiroth the Black Materia.

The ceiling came flowing down as Weapon awakened at the danger of the World. The three creatures taking off from the Mako ravine through the scar in the crater. Sephiroth had enough spiritual energy now...

...

Heartless Resistance was traveling around the World of Radiant Garden, fighting back the Heartless numbers to a more stable power balance. Aeris and her team had made their way to Mideel during the Heartless Eradication Campaign. Her team was only Squall and Cid, but that was all they needed to defend Mideel. Yuffie was a honorary member of the team, but she was mostly there as moral support and to learn from first hand. She was too young to join in the fight, and the others made sure to keep her a safe distance from the Heartless, no matter how ready she said she was. But they didn't have to worry about her much in Mideel. It was a quiet little Hot Springs town, not too far from the coast. Things may not have been so peaceful in the outside world. But here it's still nice and quiet. A beautiful place for folks to live out their lives.

Aeris fought to defend the town from the rising numbers of Heartless inhabiting the surrounding forest, and also healed the people when need be. But for the most part this place was peaceful, and yet strange. The structural design was much different than the towns she was use to, or even Radiant Garden for that matter. Everything was mostly made of wood and bamboo. Not in the Wutai look of design, but more like huts. For some reason it reminded her of Riku's World. It made her wonder, did his World look like this place? Was it as calm and quiet as this place? Were it's people friendly? Was he happy living in such a peaceful life?

She missed her son. She could always see him in their dreams. But that wasn't the same. She wanted to see him with her own eyes. She missed all of her boys so much.

It would seem that her dear Sephiroth has been busy. She had felt when the Weapon had awakened at Sephiroth's ungodly rise in Spiritual Energy. Weapon had arise to threat against the World and began to strike back. Though their attacks were uncoordinated with no focus source. Mostly the three creatures of Land, Sky, and Ocean roamed the no-man lands. Making it harder for the people of this World to travel outside of towns. But Weapon was no threat to the people compared to what Sephiroth has become. He has gathered enough Spiritual Energy from the scar on the World to have enough Magic power to summon Meteor. Cloud and the others had left a while back to put a stop to Sephiroth and his plans. Judging by how things have turned out, she could assume they had failed. At this point, she could only hope that the others were okay. She hadn't heard their voices enter into the Lifestream so they were still alive at least. But that still let Sephiroth. He could call forth Meteor whenever he wanted to. And yet he didn't... Why?

"!" Aeris startled at the sudden feel of Cloud's heart outside of town, coming from the ocean. The light from his heart was weak and flickering...and it was alone. Where were the others? There wasn't a moment to lose. She dropped everything she was doing and broke into a run without any notice to her team. "I'm heading to the beach!"

"Wha?! Don't go out of town on your own, Aeris!" Cid called out to her in concern. The Heartless may not have been much of a trouble here compared to all the others towns they have visited, but they were still out there.

"I'll go with her." Squall volunteered, following after Aeris with his trusty Gun-blade as she ran out of town towards the beach.

"I'll go too!" Yuffie volunteered as well with her hand in the air.

"No. Stay here and protect the town and Cid." Squall ordered much to Yuffie's disappointment at being left out.

"Pfft, fine. I'll look after things here." Yuffie pouted with her hands resting behind her head. "Cid's getting up in the numbers anyway."

"I heard that, you brat!" Cid barked over his shoulder at Yuffie. But Aeris didn't stay long to hear the rest of their banter, she had to find Cloud.

"What's the rush for, Aeris?" Squall asked, easily catching up with her due to his better physical prowess and long strides. She had made it to the tree lines, looking around the beach.

"He was here. Somewhere."

"Who was?"

"There!" Aeris pointed out the spot where she Sensed the flicker of Cloud's heart, only to reveal a large clump of seaweed washed to shore. A golden strands of hair contrasted with the surround green it was immersed in.

"Is that a body?" Squall began running towards the clump along with Aeris, concerned with the condition of the possible castaway. They had pulled away slimy strands of seaweed to reveal a 1st Class Soldier uniform and a poor spiky-headed young man. "!"

"Cloud!" He wasn't responding. His eyes were open, but they were dull and seemed to be looking far off somewhere else. More than his body, his heart was badly beat up. No wonder his light keeps flickering so weakly. It was shattered...

What did Sephiroth do to him?

"He doesn't look so good."

"Mako poisoning..." Aeris concluded before initiating a plan of action. "Let's get him to the clinic."

"All right, I got him." Squall lifted up Cloud, grabbing Cloud's arm around to rest on his shoulder. He carried Cloud back to Mideel. Aeris stayed on the other side of Cloud, holding Cloud up as she supported his back.

...

It had taken them a week before Cid finally got through to Tifa on their PHSs. Nanaki and Tifa were fine. They had escaped the crater with Rufus Shinra on his Airship and were answering some questions of his for a while. They were all glad that the two of them were okay. Cid had told them about how they had found Cloud, washed up on shore, and she immediately rushed over with Nanaki to see him. Flying down to Mideel, courtesy of Rufus Shinra.

"Cloud!" The people inside the clinic could hear Tifa called out in joy from outside as she rushed towards the place.

"Halt!" Red XIII barked out to her, trying to calm her down and slow her robes before she got her hopes up too high. Judging how things went down the last time they had seen him, they should prepare for the worst.

"Uh, Tifa..." Cid was trying to warn her of the state Cloud was in. But he couldn't find it in him to do it. He just didn't want to be the one to tear away the hope, relief, and joy from her eyes. Squall was already keeping outside with Yuffie to keep her out of the clinic. She didn't need to see that...

"Cloud?!" Tifa burst through the clinic's doors, looking around for him. The clinic was small, just like the town. It only had two rooms. One for check-ups, and the other for stay-in patients.

"Hey! You barged in here like Comet was crashing down or something." Barked the Doctor, not please to have such a rowdiness disturb the peace of his patients.

"I'm sorry...but I heard a friend of mine was here..." Tifa apologized, calming herself down a little as she remember that this was a clinic. People were trying to recover in peace.

"A friend? Oh...that young fellow?! Don't worry. He's next door. But his condition isn't good."

"Here? Over here." She marched over into the next room, excited to see Cloud again. Inside was a nurse and Aeris, checking up on Cloud while he sat in a wheelchair. "Cloud?!"

"..." The nurse and Aeris stayed quiet, moving out of the way so Tifa could see Cloud again with some comfortable space. She was probably going to need it...

The Doctor watched the interaction from the door seal, while Nanaki and Cid stayed by the entrance.

"Oh...Cloud! I'm so glad you're safe?!" She was brought to tears of joy until she realized that Cloud wasn't responding. He could barely lift up his head. "...?! Cloud?"

"Uh...aaa...?" He would barely look at her. He couldn't even speak. It didn't look like he recognized her.

"Wh...what's wrong...Cloud?" She moved closer to him, as if not believing what she was seeing.

"Aaa. .gurk. ."

"Cloud! What happened to you?" Those were no longer tears of joy. The heart gave her away easily. THAT was agony. Aeris could hardly bare to watch.

"Mako poisoning... Quite an advanced case." The Doctor explained. "It appears this young man's been exposed to high levels of Mako energy for an extended period of time. He probably has no idea who or where he is now... Poor fellow, he can't even speak. He's literally miles away from us. Some place far away where no one's even been... All alone..."

"Doctor!" Tifa growled at the Doctor with tears in her eyes. His wording was of poor taste, and he knew it himself the moment it left from his mouth and bowed his head in apology.

"How horrible..." Nanaki shook his head in sympathy for Cloud's condition. No one deserved such a fate. Having their heart shattered like that. It would be nearly impossible for Cloud to put the pieces back together again. Not in this lifetime. He would have to bind the pieces one by one again, which was an impossible feat outside the World's Heart. This truly was cruel...

"I know. This is bad..." Cid shook his head as he turned away from the sad sight.

"Cloud..." Tifa fell to her knees in front of Cloud in heartbreak. He couldn't even look at her. His head kept wondering around the room.

"Ahem! Let's excuse ourselves." The Doctor suggested to everyone in the room, giving the two of them some time alone. Maybe by some miracle, her voice could reach the young man. One could only hope. "Listen, would you all mind...waiting outside?"

"..." They all paused to look at Cloud for a moment before heading out the clinic.

"I'm glad you two are okay, Nanaki." Aeris said as they made their way outside.

"I'm glad to see that you are well too, Aeris." Nanaki replied with a nod. They could talk all they want outside of the clinic, but Aeris could still practically hear everything Tifa was saying inside through her heart. It was so open right now, and vulnerable...

She had stayed in their for hours. Crying her little heart out.

'Why? What do you want me to do? Please, Cloud... Talk to me... Tell me you see me, that you can hear me... Tell me, please...' Tifa's heart poured out to Cloud -and unexpectedly Aeris too- as her words probably did too. 'I made it this far believing in the memories we shared. This isn't happening! It's too cruel! Oh, Cloud! I...'

Outside, the others spoke with the Doctor.

"So what about him? You know...Cloud?" Cid asked.

"I'll say it again, he's got Mako poisoning. I've never seen a case this bad..." The Doctor replied, folding his arms. "An immense amount of Mako-drenched knowledge was infused into his brain. It's a miracle he survived! No normal human could have."

"No wonder... After falling into the Lifestream and being washed up here..." Nanaki said aloud, mostly to himself.

"But remember, the light of hope can be found anywhere." The Doctor said in encouragement. "If you give up hope... What will happen to him?"

"...hope..." Cid turned away from the others. "Hey, but honestly, dang... Do I really want him to come back? What did he do for the World? What can he do for us from here on out? He may be nothing more than Sephiroth's shadow..."

"!" Aeris gasped in alarm at Cid's darkening thoughts. His words didn't really reach from his heart, but they still stung nonetheless.

"Is something wrong?"

"No, nothin'. Nothin' at all, Doc." Cid said, pulling himself back together as he turned back around again.

"..." Finally Tifa had come out. Her eyes looking redder than before. Her cheeks were tear stained.

"You okay?" Cid asked in concern, composing himself from his previous word-lash for Tifa's sake.

"Yes... I'm sorry to worry you all." Tifa nodded. "There's something I want to say to you..."

They all came back in, Squall staying outside with Yuffie.

Tifa immediately went back to Cloud's side. Her back turned to the others.

"I don't care about anything else, only Cloud..." She sadly turned around to the others, there was a hidden insecurity in her eyes that she had hoped that they would understand. "I...want to be by his side..."

"Yes, that's best." Nanaki consented to her silent request, giving her his blessing. Aeris nodded in understanding too. They couldn't stay in Mideel for much longer, the other towns needed them as well. It would make her feel at ease to leave Cloud with someone close to him by his side. She knew that Tifa would look after him. And maybe with her there, maybe he could wake up...

"Yeah, that's probably best..." Cid agreed as well. "For Cloud...and you..."

"..." Tifa looked over at Cloud and then back at the others, bowing her head in apology. "I'm sorry, everyone... Especially now..."

Their vibrant World was slowly losing its radiance with each passing day as the Heartless choked its light. And with Sephiroth holding a powerful weapon at his disposal they would need all the fighters they could get. Losing two of them now would be a huge blow for the Heartless Resistance.

"That's all right." Nanaki assured to her. "We'll be by again."

"You take care now, Tifa. And take care of Cloud." Cid wished her the best of luck. They were all going to need it.

"Right..."

"Oh, and uh, Tifa..." Cid said before walking out of the door. "I don't like askin' this but... Are you sure he's really your friend? And not Sephiroth's shadow?"

"Huh?! Well...that is..." Tifa couldn't believe Cid would ask her such a thing. But did again he had a right to, she was having moments of doubts about that herself. He has done so many things that endangered them all. But...she had a feeling inside her heart that her friend from her childhood was still somewhere in there. "No, I'm sure of it!"

Cid nodded at her answer.

"Yeah? OK, then... Sorry for askin'."

"We should be heading out soon." Nanaki suggested, there was still so many places around the World that needed the Heartless Resistance's help.

...

For nearly a year they fought against the darkness. They have met many people and made new friends, and lost a few along the way in those times... But...

The Heartless had won.

Radiant Garden was falling into the darkness. Not just a town, or a large landscape, but the entire World. The King and his band of researchers in Hallow Bastion Castle collapsing first to the darkness mysteriously. Soon after the rest of the World of Radiant Garden was falling to the Realm of Darkness too. Their resistance didn't stand a chance once the moral of its people had fallen at the lost of their beloved Sage King. And the Heartless had an assured victory once the mistress of darkness, Maleficent, had joined in the fray. Now all they could do was run away with as many people as they can. Radiant Garden was lost...

"We have to get as many people on the Gummi ships! Hurry! Hurry!" Aeris commanded as the people panicked as their World crumbled around them. It would seem that Sephiroth wouldn't have to use Meteor to destroy this World. The Heartless had done with less effort on his part. Many people and hearts have already fallen into the slumber in the Realm of Darkness. There was only 2 dozen Gummi ship amount of people that were left to be saved. Nanaki and the people of Cosmo Canyon chose to stay and slumber with their World, to awake at its return to the Realm of Light. Aeris was heartbroken by their choice, but...she would respect their wishes. For now, her priority were they people in the capital town of Radiant Garden.

The Heartless Resistance's Gummi ships were scattered across World of Radiant Garden, extracting as many people as they could from each town to escaping their collapsing World.

"Don't push! Everyone single file onto the ships! Let's go, go, go!" Aeris instructed to the people as they panicked to get on-board of the Gummi ships in the great exodus of their lost World.

"What's this? The Lifestream is gushing up from below the surface of the earth!" Cid said in alarm from his spot on the docking lift of his Gummi ship, Highwind. He had to hold on to the docking door wall for support as their World tremored around them. But it was more than just a rumbling and shaking of the earth. Their World was breaking off into pieces, falling apart and collapsing down as they faded away into the Realm of Darkness. Those caught on those pieces were pulled into the Realm of Darkness as well, where their hearts and bodies would remain in dormant until the day their piece of their World returned to the Realm of Light again. Cid looked down as the parts broke off and collapsed, their disappearance revealing the ravine of Lifestream deep below their World's surface, giving the dark pits a warm green glow as the Lifestream protected the path to their World's Heart. It was eerily beautiful, but sent a hair raising chill through Cid. "Dang, that's... This is bad!"

"Everyone, please hurry!" Aeris shouted over the screams of the panicking people.

"Aeris, hurry and get on Highwind! This World is about to collapse!" Cid called out to her to get on their team's personal Gummi ship, his pride and joy. Squall and Yuffie were already on but they all wouldn't leave without her.

"But I... I can't leave until everyone is one the Gummi ships!"

"My how noble of you."

"(Gasp)! Genesis?!"

"I'm in need of your help, little Cetra."

"!" Aeris grew alarmed that he knew what she was. Even more alarmed as he grabbed her and started to take off to the skies with his one wing. "Eyaaaaghh!"

"AERIS!" Cid called out for her as Genesis took off with her to the sky.

"CID! Go without me!" They needed to get off of Radiant Garden before the darkness consumed them with it.

The tremors began to become more violent.

"What?! Are you crazy?! No, we're not leaving!" Cid roared at her, outraged that she would even consider the idea. Gripping harder on his hold as the earth around them shook more. "Th, this's bad! The main stream is kickin' up!"

Something way bigger than the last tremor was on its way.

"Cid, just go! I'll catch up with you in a bit!"

How would she be able to do that? Aeris has performed miracles at times, but this was stretching it. There was no time to go after her before the darkness consumed everything. They wouldn't get to her in time, she would have to come to them. But that feat alone would be impossible without a Gummi ship. She was putting on a brave face.

"Dammit! You better make it back here, Aeris...!" Cid hissed through gritted teeth as he ran into the cockpit, closing the docking doors. The others buckled up and ready as he got in there.

"Where's Aeris?" Squall said in alarm as Cid came back in without Aeris.

"No good! We're getting outta here!"

"But what about Aeris!?" Yuffie cried out kicking with tears in her eyes. Refusing to leave without Aeris, but unable to get out of her buckle after Squall had strapped her in so tightly before. "We can't leave without her!"

"Dang' it! We don't have time to worry about anyone other than ourselves! We don't know when that stream'll blow..." Cid shouted over his shoulder without looking back, his voice shaking along with his shoulders as he fought to hold back the tears. His words rang with truth, but that still didn't mean he wanted to leave her behind.

"Whoa!" Cid shouted as they let out any alarmed cry as the last tremor rocked the Gummi ship hard, jousting them forwards in their seat-belts. The piece of their World that Highwind was on was starting to break apart and fall into the darkness. They had to move or else they would go down with it. "There's no time, hurry!"

"AHH!" Yuffie screamed as they started to take off, starting to get airsick as the Gummi ship began to move and joust around.

Cid took control of the ship, flying to the sky without looking back at the destruction behind them that wanted to take them down with it. He took off Highwind in an outrage cry. For the lost of his home; for leaving a friend; for the lack of power to have stopped this from happening. "AhhHHHH!"

The most he could do now was wait for Aeris outside of Radiant Garden's World borders...and hope that she got out of there.

... Elsewhere in Mideel ...

The ground rumbled around them as the people panicked to evacuate. A town mostly comprised with the retired elderly struggled to get on their escape Gummi ship. While most of the little town was rushing to get on-board, the people in the clinic were still struggling to leave. There was still so much to be gathered to keep the patients alive before they could evacuate to the Gummi ship.

"Oh god... The tremors are getting worse." Tifa said in alarm, looking around as the clinic shook violently. She moved to hold on to Cloud and his wheelchair so he wasn't jousted around too. She held on to him until the tremors started to calm down again. "Wait a minute, Cloud."

Running into the other room where the Doctor was as he helped supplied the nurse for the last other patient in the clinic to send them off to join the others at the Gummi ship outside of town on the coast. He stayed behind to gather more things that the people would most likely need for the long trip in the space between Worlds.

"Doctor! Shouldn't we get moving?"

"Yes! Get going. I'll finish up things here." Tifa didn't have to be told twice to run back into the other room to grab hold of Cloud and his wheelchair bars and roll out of there. The place was already looking like it wouldn't last much longer.

"Don't you worry about a thing, Cloud..." Tifa said down to him in comfort from the chaos going on around him. He was probably scared. She was scared too. But she had to stay strong, for the both of them. She had to hold on to that hope, it was small but it was strong, that hope that they were going to make it out of there. "I'll see to it that you get somewhere safe!"

The tremors began start again, acting more aggressively.

"No! The structure can't take it!" The Doctor shouted in alarm as the tremors shook the clinic to its foundation as it started to creak and groan from the stress. He shouted over to Tifa and Cloud in the other room. "Hurry!"

"Yes!" Tifa responded back to him before getting behind Cloud's wheelchair and started pushing him. "Ready Cloud? We're leaving now!"

Tifa ran with him out of the clinic. Just in time as the piece of their World with the clinic on it broke apart and collapse, fading into the Realm of Darkness. The Doctor falling into it as well...

But Tifa didn't have time to look back. They had to keep moving. The earth all around them was starting to break apart and fall into darkness, leaving them to run off them just in time as they collapsed behind them. Tifa's heart skipped in relief as they were almost at Mideel's Gate. They were just a few steps away out of there and over to the others on coast in the Gummi ship. They were almost safe.

However fate was not on their side. The piece of World they were on broke off as they made it under Mideel's gate. Their eyes widened in frightful alarm as they tilted and slide forward off of the land piece as they fell into the Lifestream ravine. Off of their World piece that faded into the darkness and down towards the Lifestream. Tifa screamed as they fell, losing grip of Cloud's wheelchair. But it was no matter. Cloud had fallen out of it as they were free-falling into the Lifestream together. Fated to sink into the depths of the Lifestream, to lose themselves to the vastness of their World's Heart.

... Meanwhile in the Pocket of Darkness with Sephiroth ...

He had felt as the puppet fell into the Lifestream. Watching through 'his' eyes as Tifa had fallen with him. In the end...once you get passed the green glowing light of the Lifestream...there was nothing but darkness. The World's Heart was covered in darkness. Just like all hearts...

"Wh, where am I? What's happening? I..." Sephiroth got a twisted pleasure watching as Tifa began to panic and frighten in the darkness of this World. Watching it all through his connection to the Lifestream and World's Heart. She got up to her feet and looked around, running nowhere through the darkness in her panic. "Where's Cloud? Cloud, where are you?!"

Standing in the depths of the World's Heart, she began to hear the mummers of the many hearts accumulated in it. Still only mummers for her...not clearer words like a Cetra could hear.

"Huh...what? Who...?" She tried to look around for the mummers, but they were all around her. "Who is it? I can't hear..."

Some of them started to make sounds that were somewhat audible. Her heart's fright and anxiety making her hear what she thought she heard.

"Wait a minute! I know nothing about that!" She insisted to the darkness. Shaking her head as she covered her ears. "No! It's not me! I'd never do anything like that! No! Stop it! Stay back! Somebody...help! Please!"

'Foolish girl. No body would come to your rescue here.' Sephiroth thought with a grin as he saw Tifa fall to her knees as the mummers overwhelmed her.

"Cloud, help me!" Tifa cried out. "Eyaaaaghh!

'That's even more of a foolish- what?' Sephiroth was starting to chuckle when the puppet, Cloud, somehow reached out to her. Pulling her in to the safety, if not somewhat safer than the darkness. Into his shattered heart. He had some how reached out to her, broken as he was. Cloud was filled with more surprises than Sephiroth had anticipated. But this turn of events intrigued him. He wanted to see what would happen next. If not for curiosity then for the entertainment.

He continued to watch now through the eyes of Cloud's Heart. Which was a strenuous task since Cloud's heart was shattered about into different fragments. Each one different than the others, though still violently unstable.

Like many hearts, its structure was like bottomless tower that stood tall in the darkness. Only his darkness was more green with wavelengths circling around them in the great distances as stars and astral bodies floated around them in the vastness. And unlike other hearts that had floating rail-less stairs that lead to doors into other towers of the heart, each one holding a precious life affecting memory or moment of emotion, his were all close together and connected by pillars pathways and stairs, along with bridges. And unlike the usual church-glass look of most towers, his was made of tree trunks, stone, with yellow stone-pavement in the center. Many of Cloud's Heart Fragments were scattered about while the real Cloud floated above transparent, torn about by the skull cracking agony of his shattered being.

Tifa had come to in the center of it all.

"... Where am I?" She asked looking around. She looked up, getting a feeling in her heart that the Cloud above her was the real one. "Cloud?!"

Cloud didn't respond to her, continue to clutch his head as he shook about on his knees in silent agony.

"What is it, Cloud? What is this?" She needed him to respond, she needed answers. Looking around again, she was starting to put things together. "Is this the inside of your dreams? Or is it... your...heart?"

He said nothing, but she could tell by the way he was acting that he was fighting something. Or...trying to put back something.

"You're searching, aren't you Cloud? Searching...for yourself..." She looked up at him, seeing his struggles. With a determined heart she decided to lend a hand as well. Because sometimes...when things get hard...it's easier to get through them with the help of friends. And that's what she was going to do. "I can help, too. We'll work together to try and get the real you back!"

Easier said then done.

"But... Where do we start?" Tifa thought aloud to herself. Not wanting Cloud to have to suffer longer than he already was, she decided to converse with the first fragment of Cloud, the one that was sitting in front of the Tower that lead to had the entrance gate into Nibelheim. She walked along the pillar pathway to the tower where he sat with his back to her, blocking the way forward.

"The gates of Nibelheim... Five years ago, Sephiorth passed through these gates... And... That's how it all started..." The Cloud Fragment explained, rising to his feet.

"It connects... to Nibelheim?" Tifa was confused that they would start finding Cloud there instead of his childhood. But then again, that's where both of their lives took a dramatic turn. "That's right...It's probably best to start from there..."

"..." Cloud moved out of her way for her to pass then turned to face her.

"Let's go have a look, Cloud. I know it's not easy... I'll be here for you..." Both of them turned slowly with nervousness as they walked together into the front gates of their hometown Nibelheim, where its path turned into the town in another doorway in the heart...

'...' Sephiroth looked on with intrigue to see where this would go. It was fruitless, for sure, but he did enjoy a good hopeless struggle. Anything would do to distract him from the nagging distress in his heart for the little Cetra flower girl on a collapsing World...

... Sometime Earlier Back with Aeris ...

Genesis had taken Aeris further away from the safety of her friends to his hometown of Banora. He carried her around like a football, much to her discomfort as they flew. The town must have once been beautiful, that Aeris was certain. She would have loved to have gotten to chance to see it as it use to be, wishing that she had convinced Sephiroth to take Genesis up on his offer to come to his manor for a visit. But all it was now was a landscape scarred by the collapse of their world to darkness as the town had broken apart and sunken into the darkness. Only the green plains of a few parts of Banora White Tree Nurseries remaining and a single barely standing windmill stood tall around the edge of the Lifestream ravine. Genesis continued flying on, over the remains of his hometown as he made his way to a cavern on the edge of the town.

Once inside the main chamber, he dropped Aeris on the ground, unceremoniously. Aeris struggled to get on her feet again, shaking off the ache from her trip along with the one to the ground. Genesis just walked passed her to the large Materia forming around the natural Mako spring that flowed richly through the cavern to the statue altar dedicated to the Materia by the town people long ago.

"My soul, corrupted by vengeance. Hath endured torment, to find the end of the journey. In my own salvation." He quote LOVELESS as he admired the statue dedicated to this place. A statue that could be none other than a goddess holding a Materia in her graceful hands. Genesis turned to Aeris with a tired grin as she started to approach. "You're late."

"I did not know that I was expected. Was that LOVELESS? I remember you having such a love for that poem." He nodded to her in confirmed.

"You have succeeded the Ancients, and carried a part of Sephiroth within you." Genesis said, referring to her children on the last part. "Lazard must be close by, carrying Angeal's spirit. Thus, the three friends are reunited once again... ...and 'LOVELESS' is reenacted."

"What? Open your eyes, Genesis!" Aeris said, trying to reach his reasoning as she finally stopped in front of him at a safe distance. "Our World is falling into the darkness. We have no time for this!"

"..." He just stared at her for a moment as a tremor pasted by their feet once again to proved her point. But then he began to slowly pace in front of the statue. "When the war of the beasts brings about the world's end."

"I...I want to help you." Aeris sincerely insisted to him, trying to reach him with her words as he paced around. He looked so tired, and much weaker than the last time she had saw him. His hair was now white and his skin had dulled into a light grey... Sephiroth would not want to see his friend like this. She couldn't bare to leave Genesis like this... He kept on continuing his verse.

"The goddess descends from the sky. Wings of light and dark spread afar. She guides us to bliss, her everlasting." He finished his verse, lifting up his hand to the large Materia as he used his Magic to awaken its power.

"What are you doing?" Aeris asked, getting on guard a little as the flow of Magic spreading around the place started to tell a story. One that didn't usually have a happy outcome.

"The gift of the goddess... A heavenly boon found only in Banora." Not really, but Aeris didn't want to hurt his pride for his hometown. His words weren't really answering the question, or putting her concerns at ease for that matter.

"And what do you plan to do with this gift?"

"There are various interpretations." Genesis said as if admitting to a mistake on his part of some kind.

"I don't understand..."

"To ponder the mystery is in itself a gift..." Genesis replied before he started to pace again as he gather his Magic energy into the large Materia. "We will all...join the Lifestream... You...are no exception."

"I know this." Aeris did not deny her fate as was the fate of all things with hearts. But she didn't plan on returning to the Lifestream before her time. And it certainly wasn't her time now, or the others on this World, Genesis included...

"This World...has become my guardian." Genesis stated, raising Rapier into the air.

"!" He was absorbing the large Materia's energy into his body through Rapier. "Are you insane?! At this rate you'll end up meeting Minerva! Please, keep talking to me! Don't let it take over! I'm not going to let you fade away, you're one of us!"

"AhrrrahHHH!" His eyes began to glow yellow as the power of the large Materia took over. Genesis body began to change, as he was no longer there and the Spiritual Energy of the Lifestream took his place. The collaborations of hearts had no sound mind but one goal, to protect the World's Heart.

"Genesis, Please! Remember why you joined Soldier! Remember why you wanted to be a hero!" Aeris called out to his heart as he was most likely now being tested by the personified Will of the World, Minerva. A Summon with no Materia that only the World could summon, usually when it wished to have its voice heard or its will be done. Ironic since the Summon never was usually- if not rarely ever- summoned for a Judgement of some kind. Genesis call through the large Materia had reached the World's Heart's ears and it had answered it. Hopeful his heart and intent was pure enough to have his life spared from its wraith. Though this World was mostly gentle to its life inhabitants like a mother, it would still send you back the Lifestream where you would start over again anew and relearn your lesson in the next life. Aeris would leave Genesis to Minerva. For now, she had to get out all that Lifestream energy from his body so he could have something to come back to. Summoning her Princess Guard to her hand, she charged at Genesis. No...this Genesis Avatar. "Ahhh!"

He was larger, red, and armed to the teeth even at his one wing. She couldn't even recognize him. As the Lifestream inhabiting his body couldn't recognize her as a Cetra and charged at her like a threat to the World's Heart. His movement was slow with his size, but his blows were still damaging and he was hard to reach. Not to mention he kept summoning little Lifestream concentrated minions to engage Aeris at her own size. He had this move called Shadow Flare that kept chasing after her. She didn't know the World's Heart could use Dark infuse Magic, let alone would resort to that. The Heart was filled with so many surprises, many that she still had so much to learn.

But now wasn't the time. Now was the time to fight for her life, along with Genesis's. And that Purgatorial Wave the Genesis Avatar was sending at her was not helping. Cure 2'ing herself, she shook it off and kept fighting. It wasn't fair that she had a staff while he had a large sword, but she has fought through many unfair fights and pulled through them on top, this time would be no different.

The power was concentrating in the Sword. If she could break the flow there, the fight would be over. It was her best chance to save Genesis. She could do this. She had to keep fighting!

... Same Time Back with Tifa and Cloud ...

Tifa and Cloud had entered the Nibelheim in Cloud's heart created from his memories.

"Cloud...look." Tifa said as she looked around, seeing things as she exactly remember them. "Here's the well... And that's Gramps' Inn, too. The only truck in town. It's been here since we were little kids, right? This is the Nibelheim you remember, right? It's the same as my Nibelheim. That's why this is...our Nibelheim."

"..." Cloud said nothing as he looked to the ground in shame and his pride in the dirt for his darkness induced memories from before that clouded his sense.

"Five years ago...four men from Soldier came..." Tifa continued on with the memory, trying to help Cloud with the steps. "Sephiorth and... three Infantrymen. Can you tell me again what happened?"

Cloud ran the memory again with Sephiroth asking him how it felt to be back home again. As the memory went on the way Cloud said it had went before, word for word, Tifa began talking to Cloud again. Encouraging for him to remember the truth about what really happened.

"Five Years ago...I saw the real Sephiroth for the very first time. So this is... the Great Sephiroth? But to tell the truth, I thought he was very cold. I remember a foreboding about him." She shook her head as she looked back at Cloud. "I've been hiding it for some time, afraid that if I told you...something terrible might happen. But, I'm not going to hide anything anymore. You weren't here. Cloud did not come to Nibelheim five years ago."

"..." Cloud lower his head in shame... As Tifa turned around to reveal her memory as the other memory fragments flashed away. There the young Tifa sat, curled up into herself as she waited by the town's gate.

"I...waited. But, Cloud...never came." The memory of Tifa got up on her feet again as she looked towards the entrance at the approach of the newcomers. Only to run when the person she was looking for wasn't there. "The four that were ordered here were Sephiroth and three Infantrymen..."

The memory faded and they were back at the now sealed gate in Cloud's heart.

"You mean that there was no other 1st Class Soldier that came with Sephiroth? The persons with him was...Cloud?" The memory pondered to her with a tilted head. Making her doubt her own answer for a moment.

"There's nothing... I can say." Was her only reply as she looked over the tower, away from Cloud. "You must find the answer yourself. If you can't, then..."

"..."

She turned back to Cloud in reassurance.

"Take your time, Cloud. Slowly...little by little, OK?"

"..." The Heart Fragment began to change in a younger version of Cloud. Back to when he was a kid. He asked her again. "You mean that there was no other 1st Class Soldier that came with Sephiroth? That persons with him was...Cloud?"

She ran off, unable to answer him. Running over to the next tower beside the last. Connected to the main center tower by a flat branch bridge. Another Heart Fragment block her path to the tower. This one already standing, just turned to look at her.

"That starry night at the well...and our promises... What if the memory was all just a lie?" The Heart Fragment asked her.

"Don't hurry, Cloud... Don't answer too quickly." Tifa couldn't tell him enough to take his time. "Just keep checking all those small emotions and it'll come back... Slowly...little by little... Right...like the sky that night... the heavens were filled with stars..."

The Tower pulled them into its memory. The stars shinning brightly and as gorgeous as she had remember them.

"From the beginning...OK?" Tifa encouraged, but Cloud kept his back turned to her with his head down. "Try and remember, Cloud."

"..." He still didn't turn his back from her, but the memories of them there as kids began to fade in as the memory started to play out. Tifa nodded in approval as both of their memories checked out the same.

"...I was wearing these clothes. That's you, too. You were so small then... ...and cute." Tifa admitted with embarrassment as she sat down beside her memory fragment. "Sephiroth once said... Cloud made up his memories by listening to my stories... Did you imagine this sky? No, you remembered it. That night the stars were gorgeous. It was just Cloud and I. We talked at the well... That's why I kept thinking you were the real Cloud. I still believe you're the Cloud from Nibelheim..."

"..."

"But you don't believe in yourself..." Tifa lend back clutching her knee as she looked up at the memory Cloud as he climbed to the top of the well like she remembered. "These memories aren't enough."

They were pulled back from the memory into the tower again, what remained on that separate tower was the well. A precious piece of memory for Cloud in his heart. They walked to the center of the bridge.

"Cloud, what about your other memories?" Tifa asked, before shaking her head and correcting herself. "No, not memories. A memory is something that is consciously recalled, right? That's why sometimes it can be mistaken or wrong. It's different from a memory locked deep within your heart. That's why it must be a fake. If he could recall up that memory..."

"?" Suddenly the trail of thought hit her with an idea.

"That's it! What about some memory that has to do with me? If I say something, you can't remember it. But if you say something, and I remember it, too... Then we'll know that's a memory." Tifa summed up her epiphany. Then pleaded with Cloud to try and remember something on his own. "Talk to me. About anything, some important memory to you..."

"..."

"Now that you mention it, why did you want to join Soldier in the first place?" Tifa questioned aloud, to herself mostly. "I always thought it was a sudden decision."

"...I was devastated. ...I wanted to be noticed." Both the real and the Heart Fragment Cloud said at the same time. Before the Heart Fragment continued on. "I thought if I got stronger someone would notice."

"Someone to notice you?" That answer got her attention. This was progress. "...Who?"

"Who? You know who! ...You, that's who." The real Cloud said, while the Heart Fragment only answered. "You..."

"Me? Why?!" Tifa blushed in fluster.

"Tifa...Did you forget... about those days?" Now it was the Heart Fragment asking her the questions. Only this time, it came from another Heart Fragment. A younger version of Cloud standing on a lone column.

"Look!" Tifa pointed to the other Cloud, but he had turned away from her, sitting back down as his part was done. Looking back at the kid Fragment again, Tifa talked to him. "I'm sorry... But what are you talking about?"

"..." He jumped down with a sigh, back on to the main tower and shook his head. "No...it's all right. You were having a hard time back then. You were so busy with your own things, it's only natural you don't remember me then."

"'Then'?" Tifa approached the Heart Fragment with confusion.

"It's important to me... I hate to say it, but it's a very important memory. Do you want to see it?" The kid Cloud ran off towards a Cloud Fragment sitting on the stairway to the lower level of the main tower. "Come on, hurry."

"...A sealed up secret...wish... Tender memories no one can ever know." The Cloud Fragment said before getting up and moving out of their way without looking back to look at them. The kid Cloud immediately ran down the stairs, spiraling towards and area with an odd-placed wall with a window that you could look through and see what lies inside, beyond the wall into a long past memory.

"Do you know where this window goes to, Tifa?" Kid Cloud ask her as she ran to his side by the window. She didn't seem to remember. "Fine...I'll go."

They both looked inside, almost as if being pulled in. The Cloud Fragment lied in a corner out of the way while kid Cloud let Tifa take it all in. Tifa looked around the room as the memories came back. It was a place she knew oh so very well indeed.

"My room?"

"It was my first time there." Kid Cloud nodded, explaining the memory of this place.

"Was it?"

"I only used to look up at it from outside." Little Cloud nodded before looking away from her. Watching as figures from the memory began to flash in and replay the memory. Tifa was a kid again, lying in the corner crying while three of her friends from town stayed close to her in comfort.

"Hey look." One of the boys called out, looking out the window. "Cloud's coming! You think he wants to come in?"

"..." Little Tifa looked up from her sad curled up positon for just a moment before curling back into herself.

"Was that the first day you came into my room?" Tifa asked Cloud's kid Heart Fragment as the memory went on. But the answers were coming back to her themselves. "...that's right. We lived next to each other. But I really didn't know you that well. I've know you since we were children and always thought we were close..."

Young Tifa looked up from her curl again, shaking away the tears with her head. Whether to answer the other kids question or just simply pulling back the tears would be unknown to the other kids in the room. Tifa approached the figures of the memory to get a better look at her younger self.

"Now that you mention it...I don't recall you ever being in my room..." Tifa admitted behind to the kid Fragment.

"Tifa always used to have her own group." Cloud's kid Fragment explained.

"...That's right." Tifa nodded, remembering.

"I thought they were all...stupid." The kid Fragment admitted with somewhat of an angry pout as he turned away from everyone.

"What?!" Tifa huffed, looking back at him. He actually turned around to look at her with refusal to take back his words or apologize.

"You were all childish, laughing at every little stupid thing."

"But we were children then."

"...I know. I was the stupid one. I really wanted to play with everyone, but you never let me in the group." The kid Fragment admitted turning back around with his head down in slight uncomfortableness at revealing something so vulnerable about him. Then he turned back to look at her with a shrug of no hard feelings. "Then later...I started thinking I was different... That I was different from those immature kids. That then...maybe..."

But then the Cloud Fragment started to break off into another Heart Fragment. One that was more raw about the emotion it's Heart fragment carried. The shadow Fragment stood up on its feet and faced Tifa.

"Just maybe, they would invite me in."

"..." Tifa couldn't help but look at him. He was almost like a Cloud Shadow Heartless, but one without the darkness. But it was still... It seemed so sad...

"I thought that might happen, so I hung around..."

"I was so prejudiced. ...And weak." Kid Cloud added in, accepting what he was and how his weakness effected him.

"That night I asked Tifa to come out to the well... I thought to myself Tifa would never come...that she hated me."

"...It was so sudden. I was a bit...surprised." Tifa confessed to the shadow Fragment. Then she looked back to the kid Cloud Fragment who was still turned away from everyone. "But... It's true we weren't THAT close, but... After you left town, I really thought about you a lot. I used to wonder how Cloud was doing. I wondered if you were able to get into Soldier? I started reading the newspaper, thinking I might see an article about you."

"Thanks, Tifa." Kid Cloud finally looked back at her, with a smile. "Tell him what you told me, later. He'll probably be so happy."

"OK!" Tifa nodded. But then she suddenly remember that kid Cloud didn't mention what was so important about THIS memory. "Huh? What happened on this day? Was it a special day?"

"This was the day..."

"Tifa's mother..."

"The day Mom died..." Tifa finally put it all together. The memory began to continue playing out again.

"I want...to see...Mom..." Little Tifa cried, storming out the room. She had ran out of town, all the way to the edge of Mt. Nibel. Her friends following behind after her. Along with Cloud... "...I wonder if there's anything beyond the mountain?"

"Mt. Nibel is scary." Said one of the boys. "Many people have died there."

"No one crosses that mountain alive..." Said the other boy in the group.

"How 'bout those that dies?" Tifa asked. "Did Mama pass through the mountains? I'm going!"

Tifa began to walk off down the trail, her friends nervously following behind her. At least two of them were. The one that said that the mountain was scary backed away and watched the others walk down the trail, afraid of what to do. Should he call an adult? Should he let them go on their own? Making his choice, he ran back to town, passing Cloud as Cloud decided to go after them.

But when they got to the wooden hang bridge her friends bailed on her without looking back. But she didn't notice, she wasn't looking back either. Cloud continued on after her.

The memory flashed away, appearing again with them in a White Out scenario unconscious at the bottom of Mt. Nibel. Cloud lying on his back while Tifa was knocked out on her stomach. Tifa looked in shock with the Cloud Fragment and its Shadow Fragment.

"I don't remember the path I walked. Tifa missed her step. I ran to her...but didn't make it in time. We both fell off the cliff. Back then, I only scarred my knees but..."

The memory continued with two adult finding them.

"Cloud! Why'd you bring Tifa to a place like this!" One of the adults yelled down at Cloud in reprimanding while the other picked up Tifa to get her back to the doctor in town. "What the hell's the matter with you?! What if she dies?!"

Cloud sat up from his spot on the ground as they walked away with Tifa, looking up at Tifa as her head rested in a sag on the adult's shoulder.

"Tifa was in a coma for seven days. We all thought she wouldn't make it." The Shadow Fragment began to open up what Cloud was feeling that day. "If only I could've saver her... I was so angry... at myself for my weakness. Ever since then, I felt Tifa blamed me... I went out of control... I'd get into fights with anyone.

"That was the first time I heard about Sephiroth. I thought if I were strong like Sephiroth, then..." Sudden they were back in the tower, the window no longer showing what lied inside. The Shadow Fragment looked to the side in embarrassment and shame. "If I could just get stronger... Then even Tifa would have to notice me..."

"So that was it?" Tifa said, taking this all in. "Sorry, Cloud. If I had only remember more clearly what happened, I could have done something sooner..."

This time the Cloud Fragment spoke up, shaking his head.

"It's not your fault, Tifa."

"But, I remember back when we were eight! That's it! Now I know!" Tifa turned away, still ashamed that she ignored Cloud and his pain due to the immaturity of her own surroundings. But that's when it hit her! Turning her around back to the two Fragments. "You weren't created five years ago. My childhood memories weren't all made up! Hang in there Cloud! Just a little longer! You've almost found the real you!"

They both nodded to her in encouragement.

"Let's go back to Nibelheim again!" Tifa instructed. The two Fragments, both the Shadow and its Break Off fused together again. Running off back to the tower that lead into the memory of Nibelheim. Tifa followed after them. The Cloud Fragment that was sitting on the stairway now transparent, and easy to pass through. At the gateway into Nibelheim the kid Fragment of Cloud was there too, waiting for them. He was now transparent.

Tifa ran into the memory, waving after the Cloud Fragment to follow her. But soon the Cloud Fragment was beginning to run ahead, towards the edge of town.

"Cloud, wait." Tifa called out to him, making him pause. "Where are you going?"

"... The reactor...?" The Cloud Fragment said with uncertainty, but suddenly a fire and a determination started to build in his eyes as he looked towards the path to Mt. Nibel. "To the reactor! The incomplete Mako reactor of five years ago!"

Tifa nodded in approval of his determination and followed after him as they ran off into the memory.

It began at the place where Sephiroth was wrestling Masamune back from Tifa and slashed her with it. Knocking her down the stairs of the reactor...right outside the room that stored Jenova. Sephiroth went in. And left Tifa at the bottom of the stairs. Unconscious and bleeding out.

"You remember!" Tifa said in excitement as the memory played out exactly as she recalled before blacking out. "That's right! It was three Infantrymen who came to Nibelheim with Sephiroth! Then, where were you, Cloud?"

"..."

"Cloud... Did you...see it all?"

"I saw...everything..." Cloud said as an Infantryman rushed in on the scene, seeing Tifa lying on the stairs and the doorway leading to Jenova left wide open. He ran up the stairs, into the room where Sephiroth was face to face with the tube-entangled-pod-caged Jenova. The Infantryman ran up to Sephiroth without making a sound, stabbing Sephiroth from behind with his Buster Sword. Sephiroth was not expecting this. And neither was Tifa.

"Aaarrrgh...who...who are you?" Sephiroth asked, looking behind his shoulder in confusion.

"Mom... Tifa...My town...give it back..." Infantryman demanded mournfully as he pulled the Buster Blade out of Sephiroth and back away as he slid down the Containment Tube Jenova was held in. "I had so much respect for you... I admired you..."

He walked to the door of the room, holding his head down as he caught his breath from the ordeal. But then he suddenly removed his Infantryman's helmet to reveal s golden mane of spiky hair.

"Cloud?!" Tifa couldn't believe it. But at the same time...she felt relieved. Even at peace. As the hole she had been looking for answers for had finally been filled. Looking back at her memories, it all made sense. "That's what happened... ...You were there. You were watching me. Yeah, I remember. Hmm...so it was you?"

Another memory pasted with Cloud on the back of the Soldier 6X heading to their mission in Nibelheim with Sephiroth and the other two Infantrymen.

"That looks uncomfortable." Sephiroth commented as Cloud looked fidgety. "You can take off the helmet if you want."

"Yeah..." Cloud nodded but didn't make an move on removing his helmet. He looked out from the truck bed to the passing scenery.

Cloud's Fragment continued on explaining things to Tifa as the memories passed on.

"Yeah...this is...me." They looked as the memory of Cloud curled up into himself in shame while conversing with Sephiroth as their team made their way to Nibelheim. "I...never made it as a member of Soldier. I even left my hometown telling everyone I was going to join, but... I was so embarrassed... I didn't want to see anybody..."

The memory continue with his team making their way to the front gate of Nibelheim. The memory of Cloud turning his head away in shame through his helmet as he spotted Tifa sitting down, curled up along the fence inside the gate, waiting for something. Whatever it was she was looking for wasn't with them and she ran off. Soon after Sephiroth turned to ask him what it felt like to be back home after being gone for such a long time.

Then the memory changed to the night Sephiroth destroyed Nibelheim. Cloud was there, battered and beaten to the ground, in front of his burning group. Upset, grieving, and enraged.

"I'm..." It was all coming back to him.

"...You came. ...You kept your promise." Tifa said heartfelt as the memory changed just after Cloud had stabbed Sephiroth and had taken off his helmet, looking back at Sephiroth one last time before running out of the room to tend to Tifa. He carried her in his arms so gentle over to a safer spot. "So you really did come when I was in trouble!"

"Sorry... I didn't get there...sooner..."

"It's all right...Cloud."

The memory continued playing out with Sephiroth wobbly making his way out of Jenova's room with her head.

"Just like you." Was all he said as he leaned against the doorframe to catch his breath from the wound. With a stagger he marched his way down the stairs, out of the room towards the reactor's exit. Cloud followed after him to finish things.

"Sephiroth!" Cloud charged at Sephiroth with the Buster Sword, but Sephiroth would not allow him to strike twice.

Swiftly turning to his side, he thrust Masamune into Cloud as he turned all the way around.

"Don't...push it..." Sephiroth hissed through his teeth, lifting him up with his blade for good measure.

"!" Cloud's eyes widened and he gritted his teeth in the pain, but he somehow powered through it. Grabbing on to Masamune while it was currently impaled in him, he had overpowered Sephiroth. Planting his feet back on the ground again as he lifted Sephiroth up in turn from his grip of Masamune alone.

"...It can't be!" Sephiroth couldn't believe it. He was being overpowered. Lifting Sephiroth up as high as he could, Cloud tossed Sephiroth over to the side where he fell into the Mako ravine below, taking Masamune and his mother's head with him.

Sephiroth had fallen into the Mako. Cloud collapsed in exhaustion.

The memory ended there.

Tifa and a more solid kid Heart Fragment of Cloud were back in the tower again. Over in the center of the main tower. Things were finally over. They have found the truth. They have found the real Cloud.

"Cloud." Tifa said over to the Fragment, knowing what this would mean.

"Then...this is goodbye, Tifa." The Heart Fragment said up to her in a content smile that it would be whole again with the others soon. "Until we meet again..."

"?!" All the other transparent Cloud Heart Fragments rose at the same time to Tifa's confusion. Coming to join the kid Heart Fragment in the center, placing a hand over their heart as they fused back together again one Fragment at a time. Soon the Cloud above riving in agony began to shrink and come down, fusing with the collection of Fragments to become whole again. The real Cloud was now present. He fell to the ground in exhaustion from the ordeal. "Cloud!"

"Uh...Ah...uh..." Cloud came to, getting up on his knees while Tifa knelled down beside him with an arm on his back in support. He sat back on his bottom, stretching out a leg with one bent as he weakly looked over at her. "Uh...Tifa..."

"Oh, Cloud! It's really you, isn't it?" Tifa overjoyed with tears in her eyes.

"Yeah...Tifa... We finally...meet again..." He slowing raised to his feet, Tifa follow suit with angry-happiness.

"You stupid jerk! You had us all worried sick!"

"Krgh!" Cloud cried out, holding his head as the darkness inside him still tugged at him. But the many voices inside the World's Heart were not helping his headache out either.

"Cloud?! Are you all right?!"

"V, voice...their..."

"I see. We're...in the Lifestream, aren't we?" Tifa said, finally getting how they could enter Cloud's heart like this. It had to be the influence of the Lifestream. But they were running out of time. Their World was falling into the Darkness, and the Lifestream would be falling to Sleep too with them in it if they didn't get out of there soon. "Everyone's waiting. Let's go back, Cloud. Back to everyone..."

"Yeah, I guess so..." Cloud said, controlling the darkness inside him as he fought back the ringing in his head. "Come on, Tifa. Let's go home..."

They rose up into the green empty sky above them. Holding hands as the green turned into streams, and then into darkness. Never letting go of the others hands as the lights in their hearts shined around them and illuminated their bodies in a protective brightness through the darkness.

... In the Realm of Darkness with Sephiroth ...

Sephiroth couldn't believe it. Tifa had actually done it.

Cloud was a tough one. But he had never taken into account how tough Cloud truly was. Both in strength of the body, and the heart. While in the Lifestream it had shown mercy on them and didn't just assimilate them but actually allowed them to enter Cloud's broken heart. The World's Heart's Will had helped Tifa find her way to find the real Cloud.

She helped put Cloud back together. Sephiroth couldn't win against her on this battle. She was some kind of human. Grudgingly he could respect her more for this. But she didn't really find Cloud. Cloud...found himself.

He shouldn't have doubted them. He should have taken counter-steps more. Now he was out of a puppet. And his revenge scheme was down the drain.

... Meanwhile, At the Same Time Back with Aeris and Genesis ...

Battered and beaten nearly to the point of being broken, Aeris had defeated the Genesis Avatar. And Genesis had returned to his body. Now in his human form, cured from degradation... The old Genesis was back. Tired and weakened, but content as he looked up to the sky.

"My soul, corrupted by vengeance. Hath endured torment, to find the end of the journey in my own salvation." Aeris gasped at the meaning of his words as he looked up to the sky. "And your eternal slumber."

"Does this mean...you knew...from the beginning?"

"..." Genesis grinned at Aeris as he remember his encounter with Minerva. He was waddling through Lifestream in the darkness as she appeared before him in a shinning light. Her arm of gold and silver standing strong and true as her shield and two-headed polearm spoke of honor and glory. Her cape stretched out before like wings of silk, while her face spoke of gentle beauty with strength as her sunlight long hair haloed around it. She stood before him in judgement look through his eyes straight into his heart. He was pulled by her soft blues, holding out his hand to her. Prepared for her to take him back into the Lifestream. But she turned her head away from him in a silent no. She saw his desire to complete his duty as a Soldier, to protect his World and all the hearts that dwelled on it. His actions may have been wrong, but his heart was pure. And for that...she spared his life. Sending him back...

Exhausted, Genesis fell to the ground. The statue shatter to the ground along with him. Genesis was content.

"..." Struggling to get over to him with her own wounds. Aeris picked him up by his arm, wrapping it around her shoulders and grabbed his Rapier in one hand, she carried him out of the cavern. Supporting both their weight with her Princess Guard in the other hand...

She had carried him all the back to the edge of what was left of Banora, where a Banora White Tree gazed out at the forest far off. The sky had darkened to ominous pinkish-red as their World began to break further apart around them in the distance, slowly closing in on them, as their World faded to darkness. Under the tree was an hold resting chair, placed there by gazing farmer long past. Resting by its side was Lazard...

He looked so weakened. He must have been tracking down Genesis and followed after them when he saw Genesis flying off with Aeris over Banora.

Aeris rested Genesis down on the other side of the chair as she moved around to tend to Lazard, casting Healing Wind on them.

"The Heartless attacked the cave." Lazard grunted in pain.

"Please, save your strength." Aeris commanded as she knelled down beside him.

"I got some help..." Lazard said weakly, pointing over to his 'help', "from him...over there."

"..." Aeris got up and walked over to the other tree close to them where Lazard had pointed. She gasped and was brought to tears as she recognized the canine Angeal Copy that had protect Riku, Sephiroth, and her back at the abandoned church all those years ago. Covering her mouth as she held back a sob. "(Gasp)! It's you..."

But while she was looking back at the heartbreaking memories she felt Lazard's heart return to the Lifestream.

"(Gasp)!" She rushed back around, practically sliding down on her knees again to Lazard side as she called out to him. "Director!"

But it was no use. He was already gone. He made peace and returned to the World's Heart. It was bound to happen eventually. Even so... It made her sad... She cried for him.

"Thank you." She said to him in gratitude for what he had done to help her get to this point. She wouldn't have been able to help Genesis without his help... Reaching up into the Banora White Tree above them, she grabbed three apples. Placing one in Genesis's hand, and one in Lazard. While raising her own apple like a toast as she walked a little up ahead to stand in front of them. "Okay, let's eat!

"Sorry I'm not the real thing, but... my Cetra blood and ties makes me close to Sephiroth..." Aeris apologized to Genesis before taking a bite of her apple. It's juices dripped onto her fingers and a little down her lips.

"Is it good?" Genesis asked, startling her a little bit that he was awake.

"Yes. It's delicious. I'll be sure to drag Sephiroth back here next time to try one..."

"The gift of the goddess..." Genesis said with a small smile as he finally got to live out one of his dreams. It wasn't the way he had thought it would turn out, but it was still good...

"This apple?" Aeris asked in confusion, not knowing that this had been a dream of his for a long time, but he shook his head at her answer in understanding.

"Angeal... The dream...came true."

"Hm?" She tilted her head at him, still not understanding what he meant. Their World began to shake again with tremors. The darkness had finally caught up to them. The bodies of Lazard and the canine Angeal Copy had faded back into the Lifestream, leaving behind the purest white feathers like angels. Safe to sleep in the World's Heart as the World would soon turn into dormant in the Realm of Darkness. But that still left behind Aeris and Genesis. And they were running out of time. "Time to go, Genesis! We need to get out of here!"

"No, Aeris... This is the end...of my long Journey. The final moment as I am..." Genesis said, shaking his head at the hand she had reached down to him.

"What do you mean 'Final'?!" Aeris cried down to him, refusing to leave him behind. "This isn't the end for you. We didn't come this far just for you to give up here!"

"I'm not giving up, Aeris... Far from it." Genesis assured weakly, his eyes barely opening shortly before they closed again. "I'm just...going to slumber with the rest of guardians on this World. Until my beloved World needs me again..."

"..." He was going the way of the Summons. Alone awakening when the World returned to the Realm of Light once again, or else when it needed him. It was nearly impossible for ones heart to reach such an honor of becoming a Summon, only the greatest of hero's and champions of the World become that. But with all the power he absorbed from the large Materia and the approval of Minerva over his pure heart he had the best shot out of anyone. It was such an Honor to become a Summon, let alone a great feat to reach such heights. But... Aeris was still said about leaving him behind... It made her feel, in someway, that...she had failed him, like she had failed Sephiroth. "I, I can't leave you behind... How am I going to tell Sephiroth?"

"You can tell him that if he doesn't come back home again, you'll summon the great Genesis to set him straight." Genesis said with a small grin and a light chuckle. "Heh, I'll kick his butt anyway if he tries to threaten this World again."

"Genesis..."

"Bring him home for me, Aeris. I know you can..." Genesis genuinely said as he looked up at Aeris with the last of his strength to open his eyes. "I mean, you already did it for me..."

"..." She wanted to cry. Heck, she was crying. A piece of the World not too far behind her had just broken off into the darkness. Rattled by the tremor, Aeris struggled to stay on her feet. She couldn't stay much longer. Genesis has already made his choice. She had to make hers. "Ggh!"

Summoning all of the light within her as she could, she had called forth her Lifestream tendril wings and shot up to the sky in a ball of light. Leaving the consuming darkness behind.

But there was more than one darkness on this World. One that she hadn't felt in years, tried to reached out for her. Aeris's light sped up faster as the darkness chased after her. Trying to grab her...

In some ways, she wanted the darkness to catch her. She wanted to returned to her husband, to her boys... She missed them so much... But no! This was not the way she would reunite with her lost boys. Not like this!

Blasting off with one final push like a rocket she left the darkness behind in the dust and teleported into the Highwind.

"!" "Aeris!" "Whoa!" The others practically having a heart attack at her sudden appearance in a ball of light that had come through their ship's walls. Her wings long since faded away into her again.

"Aeris! Thank goodness you made it!" Cid said in relief, almost jumping out of his seat buckles to bear hug her. But then he saw all the bruises and wounds all over her body. "Aeris, are you all right?! What did that punk do to you?!"

"Nothing I couldn't handle and pay him back for. We have to leave now." Aeris insisted, wobbling over to her seat.

"How did you do that?! Where the heck did you learn to do that?!"

"There's no time, we gotta go!" Aeris shouted in command as they could practically see the darkness from their World reaching out to grab them. Not realizing that it was Sephiroth's that had caught up with Aeris. "Go, go, go!"

"Alright now, saddle up and hold on to your britches!" Cid shouted over to them as Aeris rushed to buckle up into her seat. Cid had driven them through a Rift Lock, where what awaited them on the other side of the Lock was unknown to them. Hopeful for them and the other Gummi ships, they would find someplace safe.

...

Sephiroth was furious. He had lost his Cetra Flower girl; he had lost his puppet; he had lost his revenge; he had lost everything! Everything had fallen into shambles and out of his grasps!

But he would find them. No matter how long it would take, he would find them all again. Especially his precious Ancient. He was starting to get tunnel vision in his memory from his anger, but he wouldn't forget them. Sephiroth would dedicate the rest of his life, if he had to, to bring them into the darkness. And he would make certain that Aeris, nor Cloud, forgot him.

"I will...never be a memory." Sephiroth declared into the darkness. For now he needed to find a World he could let off his steam and go on a rampage unchecked. Perhaps it was time to properly find a place to train his little Remnants on the ways of darkness. It was time to take off the kiddy gloves.

"!" Sephiroth shot up from Aeris's lap. Leaping away from her, back on his feet again. He stared her down as she looked over at him with pleading eyes, beckoning him back to her with an outstretched hand. She had pulled things out of him that he never knew was there. Memories he did not recall experiences. But they were his. He could distinctly remember getting a reaction from his heart from some of them.

But he didn't have a heart...

So then...what was that? Some of the memories may have clicked with him. But some of them he couldn't recall, and some of them weren't his. It must have been Cloud's. That accounted for some of the odd ones, but not all of them.

The rest were hers...

She had opened her heart to him to share her memories along side the ones that were supposed to be his, sealed away by the darkness. But for such a bond to be connected between them, they both would need to have a heart. Which meant that he did indeed have one.

This thought greatly disturbed him. Along with the things that he had seen. But he couldn't be too sure that they were real. If anything, the Cetra girl could have easily manipulated the memories to alter to her own chosen desire. But if her influence over him was that great.

"You...are a threat."

"Sephiroth." Aeris sadly called out to him at his statement, making something inside him twitch in guilt. He couldn't take this anymore. He had to get out of there. Pulling out his one wing, he flew off into the sky. Leaving behind nothing but stray feathers. And a hope in Aeris's heart that she had planted the seed of light inside of Sephiroth through their memories to start to bring him back from the darkness. If things played out as they should naturally, he should find his own way out of the darkness through his own light sparked back to life from this seed. Some may see it as a seed of doubt planted inside his darkness covered heart. But Aeris saw it as a seed of hope for the dawn of morning to come. To light away the darkness over his memories, and him.

*** Author's Notes ***

Time-line for Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days and this story... continued: This chapter is only day 118. On this day everyone in the Organization gets the day off, or a Vacation to be precise. Axel takes a nearly full-day nape; Xion decides to train; and Roxas goes to Twilight Town for ice cream. This is where Roxas properly meets Olette and Hayner for the first time- he already met Pence when he was looking for Xion- and is introduced and taught how to play Grandstander. And to Roxas's pleasant surprise, Axel and Xion had come on their own to their meeting place for ice cream like they always do. This is where Axel tells the two of them that he was going to be gone for a recon mission for a couple of days (Castle Oblivion). And that is where this chapter has ended. The rest of the story line will continue onto the next chapter.

Other notes: Umbra is the innermost and darkest part of a shadow, where the light source is completely blocked by the occluding body. While penumbra is the region in which only a portion of the light source is obscured by the occluding body.

Okay so the flashback is finally over. This took long enough. Now we can go back to Kingdom Hearts again. And back to Riku. Hopefully the chapters after this won't be as long. Thank you for reading everyone! Until the next chapter!