Author's Note: A day late, but worth the wait. This will be the last chapter without a "Next Time On" section. From here on out, you'll be a bit more informed. In the meantime, everything changes in this chapter...

Chapter 19

Failing to pay attention, Selphie ran straight into Rakunya, knocking him over. Had he not let out a yelp of pain, she might not have even noticed. "Oh!" she began, stumbling over herself in profuse apologies, helping him up from the uncomfortable position of landing on his wounded arm.

"It's alright, it's alright," Rakunya said finally. "I'm not hurt…" he grimaced in pain before adding, "…that badly."

"I'm so sorry Rakunya," she continued.

He gently placed a finger on her lips. "Don't worry about me," he said, his tone suddenly soft and calm. "What about you?"

She pretended to be confused. "What do you mean?"

"I heard you shouting," he said simply. "I was coming to go see what was going on when you ran into me. Was it a fight with Irvine?"

"How did you…?"

"Lucky guess," he replied, his sarcasm laced with bitter cynicism. He had warned her before about continuing with Irvine; in fact he seemed to recall warning her the fourth, fifth, and sixth times before giving up. "What happened?"

Bitter tears began to refresh the stains on Selphie's cheeks. "He tried to sweet talk me again," she said. "I shouldn't have lashed out at him like that, but I just couldn't take it anymore, Rakunya."

"I can't blame you," he agreed. "You took it too many times…"

"I know, I know, you tried to warn me about it, I shouldn't have taken him back…"

He cut her off. "I'm not trying to lecture you, Selphie. You had your reasons for taking him back, and I accept that. No lectures, no preaching, no 'I told you so', none of that."

"I still shouldn't have taken him back, but I didn't want to just leave him…but look at where it's gotten me, Rakunya! I've changed a lot, haven't I? I must've," she answered herself. "I shouldn't have lashed out like that…"

Rakunya reached over and pulled Selphie into a reassuring hug. "It's alright," he whispered. "Everything will turn out alright in the end. Just wait and see."

Selphie didn't say anything; she simply sat and cried into Rakunya's shoulder. Irvine hadn't completely lied; she did still have feelings for him. If she didn't, she never would have taken him back a third or fourth time, let alone as many times as she did. Part of her knew that somewhere inside Irvine was a good person, but passing with her tears she felt the desire to change him leaving her. No matter how good of a person she could make him, he was not worth this much heartache, especially when she apparently meant so little to him.

She pulled away slowly. "Thank you, Rakunya. Thanks for just being there for me."

"Anytime," he smiled. "If you ever just need to talk…besides," he added with a chuckle, "is there anything better to do?"

Selphie laughed. Rakunya had always managed to help lighten her mood, just like he had always seen through her happy faces when she really felt pain.

"Well, at the least there's sleep!" she laughed. "I'm heading off to get some shut eye. I'll see you tomorrow, alright?"

Rakunya nodded. "Sleep sounds like a wonderful idea right about now."

"You're lying," Rinoa said simply. "You're trying to tell me there's another world here?"

"These are not the only fragments I have found," Vincent confirmed. "These just mean that the ones helping Reeve aren't from this world, either."

A noise was heard in the distance as the room began to shake. Rinoa sighed. "Why is it we get attacked when we try to figure things out?"

Vincent stared at her, unintentionally scaring her. There was something about the intruder…He could feel a presence, but he wasn't entirely sure what he felt. He almost thought he recognized it, but he couldn't place it.

"Go find the others," Vincent said suddenly. "We have a fight approaching."

He had wanted to make this quick and simple, yet at this rate, the entire complex was to be charging him in a matter of minutes. Good, he thought. It means I won't have to go searching for them.

Another blast of weapon fire, and another row of soldiers fell. He ridiculed their efforts. They were nothing, less than pawns, and they had all managed to become forked by his "master's" knight. He paused on the term "master". The man was telling him what to do, but like Sephiroth, rebellion was a consistently open option…

His train of thought was interrupted by more gunfire. He tore through the soldiers with Masamune, Sephiroth's prized blade. "If they are indeed there," Sephiroth had said, "I want Cloud's head brought to me on the end of Masamune."

He had kneeled and accepted the sword, equally eager and reluctant. "You would rather not have the pleasure yourself?"

"I have my own dirty work to do. It is your job to cover his."

And so he had accepted Masamune and infiltrated the area where the enemy was to be hiding. It had not been hard, and he wondered why his "boss" had not done it himself.

The soldiers were growing wiser, keeping their distance from him and using more powerful weapons. None of this mattered, however. Any bullet that was fired he could stop, any sword he could parry, any berserker he could impale. He noticed a high ceiling atrium at the end of the hall he was proceeding down. If he could simply move the fight to the atrium, his true enemies would fail nearly instantly.

Irvine stopped shortly before his room as a panicked Zell came charging through the halls. Zell stopped as yet another rumble echoed through the building, distant yet more distinct than the last series. "Earthquake?" Irvine joked, trying not to let Zell see the pain in his eyes.

"Worse!" Zell shouted. "Some dude who looks a bit like Sephiroth is busting in here! We've got to do something! Don't just stand there," he added, shaking Irvine. "Do something!"

Irvine nodded, collecting himself. This certainly explained the rumbles. Between any battle to keep him out and his forced means of entry… "You alert the others. I'll try to hold him back until we have enough people up here to fight him."

Irvine raced through the halls until he found the source of the commotion. A man stood at the entrance to the atrium, clearly annoyed with the soldiers in front of him. Irvine could certainly see Zell's point; in the facial structure, he did vaguely resemble Sephiroth, and the sword he wielded was unmistakable. The obvious differences, however, were the normal hair, stranger outfit, and ridiculously large black wing, now fully extended, protruding out of this man's back.

Irvine raised his shotgun, taking careful aim, waiting to see what this man was doing, when suddenly he heard a gun cock beside him. "You didn't think I'd let you have all the fun, did you?" Rakunya said slyly.

"Glad to see you're on my side," Irvine replied darkly, hoping Rakunya wouldn't catch the cynicism.

Of course, Rakunya caught it immediately. "Her prejudice, not mine," he said. "Now what do you say we put your breakup behind us and kick some intruder ass?"

"My thoughts exactly," Irvine smiled, his spark returning.

The two gunners fired nearly simultaneously, but the warrior stopped their bullets with his sword. Realizing its obtrusion, he retracted the wing, a concept which baffled Rakunya, though he refused to show it.

"Who are you?" he heard Squall demand from behind him.

"Your worst nightmare," the figure growled, lunging forward.

He was tripped by a pair of nunchaku, apparently caught off-guard. "We'll just see about that!" Selphie shouted confidently.

Squall leapt in for a devastating strike, but the figure parried the attack and threw Squall against the nearest wall.

"Cover me," Rakunya whispered to Irvine as he holstered the pistol. "Just like every other time we've fought together."

Irvine nodded as he released the pressure on the trigger slightly. His mind was focused into the battle now; there was a time to shoot, and it was all based on his partners. Their actions and safety determined how and where he would shoot, and whether his goal was fatal or distraction.

Rakunya attempted to catch this warrior from behind, but another sword came down to parry the attack; the warrior was carrying a second sword of similar length to Sephiroth's. The warrior turned to finish this pest, but he was suddenly stunned by a pain in his shoulder.

He turned and saw the gunners who had struck him. The first was unknown to him, and the warrior assumed that his shotgun would prove to be more of a nuisance than a real threat. Beside him, however…

"Vincent Valentine," he smiled. "What a pleasure to meet you here."

"Who are you?" Cloud asked, appearing from behind Vincent.

The warrior smiled. "Some refer to me as Genesis, others simply as G. For you, Cloud Strife, I am the Angel of Death."

The two lunged at each other, crossing swords in midair. Cloud unlatched a sword from the First Tsurugi to parry Genesis's second blade. He began a merciless assault on Genesis, whose single wing was now protruding once more. Despite Cloud's skill however, Genesis was able to parry every attack until Squall attacked from the ground, catching Genesis squarely in the back, leaving a shallow gash.

Genesis fell, yet his wing blocked the shower of bullets fired by the gunners, leaving him with little damage. Selphie went to attack, but he caught her nunchaku in mid-swing, using it to throw her against the far wall, rendering her unconscious. Furious, Irvine began to unleash a new storm of bullets, and shortly behind them was Rakunya, slashing with all the fury that Cloud had shown mere moments ago.

With one swift motion, Genesis threw the warriors away from him, giving himself space to mentally regroup. He brought his own blade down with one swift motion, hoping to catch Rakunya's shoulder. Rakunya avoided the blow, but only barely, and he let out a yelp of pain as the blade left a new gash in his injured arm rather than catching his shoulder. He fell in pain, struggling to fight it enough that he could continue to aid his comrades.

Squall and Cloud resumed their assault, each swinging their blades in wild yet controlled motions, each warrior demanding the attention of one of the swords, leaving Vincent an opening to fire a series of bullets into Genesis's shoulder.

Irvine, however, neglected his duties and rushed to Selphie's side. He refused to let her die in this fight, and he was determined to make sure he hadn't already failed. He had begun to develop feelings for her that he had merely joked about before, giving weight to words once taken jokingly. She would not die while he was on the field of battle, he would make sure of that.

Slowly but surely, she began to stir. "Irvine?" she asked. "What…?"

"Don't worry about it," Irvine said casually. "I just had to make sure you were okay. I don't know what I'd do if I let something happen to you," he added, his tone blatantly more solemn and serious.

Their "moment" was interrupted as Cloud struck the floor near them. He raised his blade and charged again, but Genesis was able to parry both warriors with greater ease now, having learned their tactics early into the duel. He had failed to consider the fallen warrior from before, however, and was stunned when his was struck in the back of his shoulder with a bullet; while still in pain, and failing to have great aim in his state, Rakunya did still have a pistol.

The opening was all that Cloud and Squall needed. Between the two of them, Genesis was thrown against the wall opposite them, taking a piece of it with him. The two moved closer to inspect the rubble, but this proved to be a mistake; Genesis shrugged off the rubble and cast the two warriors aside. He felt the pain of three new bullet holes, and with a well placed thunder spell, Vincent, too, flew away from the fray, landing not far from where he had first entered. He turned to what he believed to be the last remaining nuisance, which had just caused him another shoulder wound.

While not completely steady, Rakunya had managed to pull himself to his feet and was firing careful, precise pistol shots at Genesis. Most of the bullets were deflected, but enough passed to be a nuisance. Rakunya cringed as Genesis moved towards him; while he remained collected, taking precise steps backwards, he had hoped that his end would have been less painful. He knew that he had no chance left to escape; the closest exit, where Cloud, Squall, and Vincent were stunned, was on the other side of Genesis. On his side was Selphie, and he stopped as he felt his heel gently press against her thighs. She was slowly recovering, and Rakunya knew that if he could keep her alive long enough, she could escape, and that was enough for him right now.

Genesis moved continually closer, his single wing, which Rakunya had once considered absurd, now added to the menace and foreboding that surrounded these last moments. Rakunya cursed as he heard is pistol click; he had no more bullets, and Selphie was still quite stunned. He watched as Genesis raised the Masamune, prepared himself as he brought it down for a death strike, began to separate his mind from the situation as the blade approached his skin…

Contact was never made. Instead, Masamune struck metal, and Rakunya and Genesis were equally surprised. The gunner that Genesis had initially disregarded had parried the attack with his shotgun.

Behind him, Rakunya felt Selphie slowly begin to stand. "Irvine?" she asked wearily. "What are you doing?"

"Take her and run," he told Rakunya. Rakunya thought that his friend was joking, but he noticed a tear run down Irvine's cheek. "I might not kill him, but I'll stop him enough that you all can escape."

Genesis brought his blade around, and Irvine again caught the attack with his shotgun. "None of us are in good enough shape to get away in time unless we slow him down," Irvine explained, struggling to move fast enough to stay alive. "I'll buy you enough time to get more help."

"Irvine, no!" Selphie shouted, regretting that her nunchaku was across the room from her. She cast Wall in an attempt to protect the three of them, but she doubted it would do much against a fatal strike from the two blades of Genesis.

Genesis caught Irvine's chin with his elbow, knocking him into the wall. He brought Masamune down once more, and for once Irvine could not respond, his senses being slowed by the impact. Masamune tore through him, piercing his abdomen. With his remaining strength, Irvine thrust the Masamune in deeper, piercing the wall, forcing the end of the blade to stick in it.

"What the hell do you think you're doing?" Rakunya shouted. He scanned the others for help; Squall and Cloud were beginning to stir, and with any luck, they could still save Irvine; Vincent, while presumably conscious to some degree, was still twitching from the thunder spell.

"Selphie," Irvine said solemnly, his face lined with tears of pain, both physical and emotional. "I…I love you." With effort, he knocked away another pair of attacks from Genesis's free hand. "I know I never really showed it, but you really were the one for me. I was just too damn stupid to admit it."

He grunted in pain as the other blade thrust itself beside Masamune, the blades crossed. Genesis began trying to free the blades, and Irvine rested his shotgun in the cross-section of the blades. "No!" they heard Squall shout; his consciousness mostly regained, he realized what had happened to Irvine, and he rushed towards them as best he could.

With effort, Genesis freed the blades and spun to meet Squall's gunblade. The two crossed blades, and as Squall was pushed to the side, the sound of gunfire was heard. At first, Rakunya guessed that Squall had pulled the trigger instinctively when he was knocked to the side. His suspicions were denied as Genesis dropped his blade and placed his hand at his stomach. Removing, he noticed much blood, far more than had come from the battle wounds of the day.

He turned to see the gunner he had once dismissed as a nuisance dying on the ground, shotgun casually resting in his hands, smoking from its most recent shot. In his final moments, Irvine had not only distracted Genesis enough to allow the others to escape, he had greatly injured him, hopefully providing a fatal injury. He fired one last time, this wound leaving its mark slightly higher than the other, with fragments of the bullets landing behind Genesis.

Angered, Genesis brought Masamune around, leaving a large gash across Irvine's chest, deep enough that he wondered if he had penetrated the heart. To be sure, he stabbed Masamune into the dying gunner's chest, painfully bringing his life to an early close.

Rakunya held back an unarmed Selphie as she charged at the one winged demon, screaming and crying for the loss of a man she had once believed to be insensitive. Squall and a recently revived Cloud charged Genesis, hoping to finish the work that Irvine had started, but potent lighting spells, while less concentrated than the one that struck Vincent, pained them enough to keep them at bay. Vincent regained himself as Genesis was leaving. He walked over to the fallen gunner and studied him carefully, waiting for the twitches to subside. When he felt that they were subdued, he bent over and symbolically closed Irvine's eyes before walking away from the somber gathering.