Whenever I watch Aerith's death, I always wish Cloud could have done something to do save his beloved. So I thought Cloud might have been the one killed by Sephiroth instead Aerith. My Only Love fits CloudxAerith. I just decided to put Return to the Sea in for fun, plus the music sounded cool.

Final Fantasy VII: A Different Hero

Chapter 1 The Sacrifice

A young man with spiky blond hair and bright sea blue eyes stood between five columns, no wider than him. Below was a pool of pure, blue water. Cloud Strife leapt on the first column, a woman with long black hair and blood red eyes and a man with blond hair and light grey eyes tried to follow, but Cloud waved them away. He leapt across the other columns to reach a small shrine. He stepped onto the stairs leading up where a woman with long dark brown hair and deep beautiful emerald green eyes was kneeling.

Something glowed red, but Cloud shook his head and reached for his Buster Sword, but shook his head again and continued up the stairs. He stood before Aeris Gainsborough, but she didn't move. He faced away and drew his sword, she still didn't move, he turned to face her, he lifted his sword above his head, she still didn't move, he brought his sword down.

"Cloud!" Cid Highwind shouted.

"Stop!" Tifa Lockheart shouted.

Cloud shook his head and stepped back. "Ugh…..what are you making me do?" he asked himself.

Aeris kneeled in the small shrine, she was praying. She looked for the first time and saw Cloud. She smiled, beautifully. Falling from the bright white light above was a black figure. It fell faster and faster. Cloud realized the figure was Sephiroth, his sword drawn, the faster he fell, straight for Aeris. Cloud ran behind Aeris, Sephiroth's sword pierced through Cloud's body.

The next few moments seemed like hours, Aeris could hear her heart pounding in her ears at the sacrifice Cloud made. Sephiroth, his sword still through Cloud's body, just stared at Aeris. His light green eyes glittered cat-like, a sly smile on his face. With a great noise of grating metal, he pulled his sword from Cloud's body. Cloud fell backward; his eyes wide open in shock, the grip on his Buster Sword loosing, until finally he let go of it completely. Then his eyes closed, when he let go of the Buster Sword, it fell into the floor with big clang.

Cloud fell backward; Aeris caught him before he hit the floor, cradling her first true love in her arms. Tears starting to form in her emerald green eyes, she whispered, "Oh, Cloud….. You sacrificed yourself to save me. I love you, Cloud Strife." She remembered a song she heard when she was young.

"Deep in my soul," Aeris sang softy. "Love so strong, it takes control. Now we both know, the secrets there, the feelings show. Driven far apart, I make a wish, on a shooting star. There will come a day, something far away, in your arms I'll stay, my only love. Even though you're gone, love will still live on, the feeling is so strong, my only love. My only love. There will come a day, something far away, in your arms I'll stay, my only love. You've reached the deepest part of a secret in my heart. I've known it from the start, my only love. There will come a day, something far away, in your arms I'll stay, my only love. You're reached the deepest part of a secret in my heart. I've known it from the start, my only love. My only love."

"Giving himself up to save you," Sephiroth said. "How stupid. Oh well, you're both become of the planet's energy." He readied his weapon for Aeris, but some sort of invisible shield was protecting her and Cloud. He realized that Aeris was making it because of her love for Cloud.

"No," she said. "I won't let anyone else dear to me die again, Sephiroth. I will stop you, with the help of my friends."

She gently placed Cloud on the floor, got up and turned to face Sephiroth. She walked toward Cloud's Buster Sword, grabbing the handle and gaining the strength she needed to pick it up. At first, she placed over it her shoulder, and then brought it down while she stood in a stance that seemed to a mix of hers and Cloud's. Tifa and Cid ran up to help her, Sephiroth just grinned, he rocketed and his body became a tiny green sphere.

He turned in Jenova-LIFE; Aeris felt Cloud's spirit upon her. She ran toward her enemy, swinging the Buster Sword in front of her, slicing one of the parts. Tifa ran, she threw two punches and a kick, and Cid swirled his spear and pierced the part Aeris sliced. After Aeris, Tifa, and Cid finished Jenova-LIFE, Sephiroth said, "Cloud's a puppet, Aeris. Remember that. To the snowfields."

Cloud's body was resting against one wall of the shine, Cid stood before him, and he looked skyward as if in prayer, then turned and left. Tifa kneeled next to Cloud; she reached up and touched his face, his hair, then covered her mouth, squeezed her eyes shut, tears streaming down her face, and ran off.

Aeris walked over to Cloud, she gently picked him up, and carried him to the secluded pool. Aeris slowly lowered Cloud into the clear blue water; she released him and slowly backed away. He floated on the surface for one brief second, and then his face sunk beneath the water.

"Goodbye, Cloud…" Aeris whispered, tears streaming down her face.

Tifa stared at the silhouette of Aeris changing clothes; she sighed as she fell and landed quietly.

"Tifa…" Aeris said, putting a pair of dark brown pants under her dress. "I'm sorry."

"It's not your fault, Aeris," Tifa said. "It's Sephiroth's fault. I will avenge his death."

"I will, too," Aeris said, slipping on bright red fingerless gloves. "I will, too, Tifa."

She slipped on a carrier for the Buster Sword over her shoulder; she came out and walked up to Tifa, she grabbed her hand.

"Cloud's watching us in heaven," she said. "No matter what, he's watching us from heaven."

"Yeah," Tifa nodded.

They walked back to the others, Aeris undid her hair, letting her pink ribbon and white materia fell, she took a knife and cut her hair. Everyone gasped at the Ancient now; she tightly held the rest of her cut hair and whispered, "Fire…"

The hair caught on fire as she let go, becoming ashes as it fell to the ground. Tifa looked at her friend, she whispered, "Aeris…"

"Call me Aerith from on now," she said, looking at everyone.

They headed out of the Forgotten Forest, Aerith heard a gasp, she turned to a girl with short dark red hair and dark bright sea blue eyes shaking behind one of the trees, she held out her hand. The girl nervously stepped out of her spot and gently grabbed Aerith's hand.

"Who are you?" she asked.

"Kai…Kairi," she said quietly.

"Aerith Gainsborough," she introduced.

Aerith seemed notice a large white and gray key shaped weapon tucked in her belt, everyone else waited for her at Cid's large airship, Lady Luck. A black cloaked figure jumped down from the tree Kairi hid behind. He walked toward the lake and lifting one hand, he lifted Cloud's body.

Aerith watched the passing clouds as they flew across the sky, Cid sheered gently, Tifa and Kairi sat at the gunner seats, Barret and Yuffie stood at one side, Cait Sith and Nanaki stood at the other side. Everyone sliced to one side, Aerith asked, "What's happening?"

"We're being attacked," Cid said.

Everyone but Aerith got to fight whatever was attacking them, Aerith ran to the roof, she kneeled and folded her hands together. The necklace she made of her hair ribbon and materia blew roughly in the wind.

"The last page of a fairy tale has been re-written and changed into tragedy," she sang. "Even for one person's heart who believed in it, it's been lost. Love and dreams are nothing more but a sandcastle that's short-lived, and breakable, even if you didn't wish it so. But even now, I won't forget of that song you always to sing. It echoes in my chest, and I feel as if I might return to that day."

As she sang, her materia glowed, it glow brighter and brighter with each verse, Tifa and Kairi shot at the shadow silhouettes of airships nearby, Barret and Yuffie sat at the computers, Cid tried to sheer. Aerith continued her song.

"Definitely I can return to it, but right now all it's been a chain surrounding me that I will shake off. Our two worlds are linked by the blue sea. 'Definitely… Love will conquer all, the constellations that decide fate can be changed', should completely vanish. All it is, a cowardly lie. Like a jewel, the sea which shines bright as it's nursed. Engulfs everything with kindness and love, and gives seven lives birth and dream to gaze at. So I've come back here. I won't lie to myself any longer. I have my people to protect, and a world to protect."

A pair of pure white wings covered her and somehow lowered her back into Lady Luck.

Her song reached the ears of a man with spiky black hair and deep brown eyes, he gently pushed on Cloud's chest, behind him was a boy with short sliver hair and light sea blue green eyes. The man and the boy both wore black cloaks.

"Zack, I don't think it's working," the boy said.

"Don't worry, Riku," Zack said. "He'll wake up soon."

After he said that, Cloud opened his eyes, and looked up at Zack and Riku.

"Great, the first two faces I see in the afterlife are my best friend and a boy I don't know," he said.

"Well, Cloud Strife, as guides of the dead, it's our duty to inform you are not dead," Zack said, a huge smile on his face.

Cloud sat up quickly, seeing a small scar over his stomach. He looked at Zack, who seemed to wear a huge grin on his grin, and Riku, who held his clothes in one hand and a black cloak in the other. He remembered Sephiroth tried to kill Aeris, but he got in the way. So how did he get healed with just Zack and Riku here?

Zack leaned against one tree and Riku sat against another tree as Cloud got dressed in his SOLDIER uniform covered by the black cloak Riku gave him. He stepped out, Zack and Riku looked at him, he looked just like them, a black cloak over his clothes. Zack and Riku smiled.

Kairi looked at Aerith's resting body in the bedroom they shared, she was asleep lightly, Kairi grew sleepy and fell asleep aside her.