0001, Nibel Mountains, March 28th

I couldn't move my body. Not that there was much left of it for me to move. I sat out in the field of flowers which had never lost their vibrancy even an entire year after their creation. Out here, I could feel the whispers of the planet. I knew everything that went on. I knew of the mass SOLDIER dissertation. I knew the conflict between the SOLDIERs in the 1st class. I knew the agony all three of them were currently going through. I felt Zack's pain. I heard Cloud promise to help Tifa at the water tower. I listened as Reno and Rude fought AVALANCHE. I knew it all. But I could do nothing. Until I went to my fate, my body was useless. All I was now was an observer. Painful. I shouldn't still be alive, but I was. Because I had one mission left. My stubborn will refused to die. The lifestream was all that was keeping me alive. I had dragged myself out here with my arms months ago, wrapped in Sephiroth's blanket. Ever since I've sat under the open sky.

He would come soon. I have been tracking him, as he flies to try to escape his agony. I wish I could take it from him. All that he has learned only causes him pain. I wish I could give him what he wants most. But I can't. His fate has already been decided. And he accepted it. Soon he will go to the boy he loved like a son and make him carry the burden of destiny. But not yet. There he is...

The figure flying with one wing banked slowly and came in to land in the middle of the flower field, clearly startled to see a cabin out here. Then his eyes landed on me, covered by the white blanket, and widened. "Ciara, is that you?" He asked, clearly shocked. I smiled weakly at him.

"Hey Angeal. I guess you kept your promise after all. Though I don't think you meant it literally." I teased lightly. He looked at the wing on his shoulder with disgust, folding it against his body as he walked up and knelt beside me. His eyes studied me closely, probably looking for injury. Why else would I be so pale, so drawn. I lifted a hand, the skeletal appendage trembling.

"Ciara, what is wrong with you?" Angeal asked as he grabbed my hand. "Is it because of Jenova and us? Our blight on this planet, is it hurting you?" Will it take Aerith from Zack? I heard his unspoken fear and smiled. He is such a good man. A honorable man. He'll do what is right. Which was why I had waited for him.

Jenova, though... ah. Calamity. Someone gave it a name. How cute. "No. This is my punishment." I said, removing the blanket. The SOLDIER stumbled back from me, hand flying to his mouth. I quickly covered myself again, a little ashamed. "Disgusting, no? I'm dying. I won't live much longer. But before I go, I need you to do something for me."

"Anything." He said, his words taking me back to when another SOLDIER had said that to me. I shook the thought away.

"Inside the cabin, there's paper and pens. Lots of them. I need you to write the truth down. Write what I say and what you know. FIll in the the blanks. Leave nothing out. I need to leave behind the truth. We both do." I said, meeting his eyes. He understood me right away. The truth was all either one of us had left, though it left us floundering and suffering. He quickly went inside and got the papers, then sat beside me.

"How should I begin?" He asked, paper and pen at the ready. I closed my eyes and tilted my face up to the sky.

"This world has monsters enough without me adding to their number. I know my time will end soon, yet that even at its ending, the nightmare my time induced is only beginning. I still am not clear on how this happened..."

0001, Nibel Mountains, March 31

My voice faded as Angeal wrote down the last lines. Night was surrounding us, the stars our only light. We'd been at this for days now... I looked over at him. "Add whatever you like." I whispered, hardly able to focus my eyes any longer. He set the paper aside and knelt by my side, taking my hand in his as he watched me with pain in his eyes.

"Ciara... you've suffered so much. And you will continue to suffer... will this really happen? Will Sephiroth really fall to Jenova?" He asked, pain lancing his words. My eyes slid closed. "Ciara!"

"Sephiroth will fall. Zack will die. Cloud will fight. Aerith will make the sacrifice. Vincent will find hope and life. Nanashi will find love at last. I see and know so much, Angeal... I'm tired. But I will never sleep. Because Sephiroth will never truly die." I whispered, using the last of my will to open my eyes and look at Angeal. "He wanted to marry me. I said... I would say yes. One more favor?" My vision was fading. I was falling into the planet's embrace. Angeal gathered the remnants of my body into his arms and nodded.

"I wrote a letter... leave it where... he'll find it... please...Sephiroth." My voice failed and Angeal started calling my name, but I heard it not. Instead I fell, the pain in my body finally fading after the year of torment. I fell and the lifestream curled around me as I made my way to the core of the planet. But this time, my soul was free, no physical body binding me. I could feel everything. All the planet's life and joy, all her hidden injuries and pains. I knew all the secrets and was in all the lifestream. I... oh. I stopped at the core and opened my eyes, knowing at last the second name my mother had heard when I was born. I'm Ciara. I'm Minerva, the conscious of Gaia. I'm the goddess, with wings of black and white.

In me is Holy, the power to fight all darkness. I will give power and my life to Omega. I will visit dreams. And I will never stop fighting. In the darkness corrupting the core, I saw her again, this time not hidden. Her hideous snake-like body was revealed and she smirked at me. I smirked back.

"You lost the battle, little goddess. I await only a small chance and that man will be mine." She taunted in that vile voice. I smiled back, feeling my ancestors gathering around me as the armor of my life wrapped around me. I felt my spear and my shield, the planet's protection.

"He knows love, Jenova. You'll never wholly control him. And because he has known love, he will be stopped." I told her, laughing as she hissed and retreated into her black corruption, fading, for a time, from the planet's core. I looked around at the lives swimming around me, the flow of the planet, and felt the expansiveness of my life threatening to crush me. But I closed my eyes and fought it off. "I know love too. I will never stop fighting." I whispered, taking my first step into the void. Let my destiny begin.

0011, Nibel Mountains

"Ciara died in my arms. I buried her in this valley, where the flowers never died. Like she told me, there was a letter addressed to Sephiroth inside the cabin. Though I felt like I was doing her a misdeed, I opened it and read it. The contents... they made me cry. I copied them; I know Sephiroth. And apparently, he will fall, so I want some record of this letter to remind.

'Sephiroth. If you're reading this, then it means I've finally gone on to join my ancestors in the planet. But I am still keeping my promise. I will always be with you. When you fall, I will catch you. When you cry, I'll hold you. So live your life. Live it for both of us. Forever, Ciara'.

She sacrificed so much... for all of us. She is now acting as the planet's conscious, has become Minerva. One day, according to her, she will awaken as Holy when her niece Aerith summons her with the materia she left the girl. Her fight will never stop. But I cannot write about this any more. It is too much sorrow, too much pain. Sephiroth and Ciara loved but never had a chance. But they face their fate. I'm done running from mine. I will go to Zack and leave him my legacy. So here ends the records of Angeal Hewley, on March 31st, 0001. Truly, though I was just the scribe. These words are Ciara's last will. You who are reading this... I pray that the future she foresaw does not come to pass, but if it has, please forgive Sephiroth. His true self would not have committed such horrors. He was a man who had honor. Gaia guide you. Farewell." Vincent finished and put the paper down.

Everyone was silent. They all knew what happened next. They had lived it. In October of that year, Sephiroth would fall. Zack would die. All the pain and torment would begin. Horrible things happened. Jenova won, if only for awhile. Darkness fell. Gaia was covered in corruption.

Yuffie spoke first, jumping to her feet with her hands clenched. "It's all that Ciara's fault! She had so much power, she should've ended Sephiroth and spared us all!" She shouted, even as tears streamed down her face from what they had learned about this woman who had borne such a heavy burden.

"So then, should you have killed me, simply because I was destined to one day become Chaos and bring about the destruction of this world?" Vincent's soft words made her freeze, and she turned to face him with a stunned face. He patted her shoulder and then faced the others. "That is the same as the situation Ciara found herself in. I will one day destroy Gaia. There is a small chance I won't, though will you risk leaving me alive for it? Ciara chose to risk it, and that risk failed. We cannot blame her for that when we are making the same choice." His words dared anyone to make a complaint, but they couldn't. He was right.

"But... what broke Sephiroth enough for Jenova to take control of him? The betrayal of Angeal and Genesis didn't do it." Tifa asked, sounding confused. Cloud was going through the pack which had held all the papers and he froze, then pulled out a sealed envelope, with a scrawl unlike Angeal's script on it. "Cloud? What's that?" She asked. He didn't answer and instead broke the seal, opening the letter. It was just a few pages long. After a long moment, he sighed.

"This... is from Sephiroth." He said, waving the paper a little. The group around him stiffened. "It's dated December of 0007." The year they had been chasing Sephiroth all over Gaia, fighting him and trying to stop him from destroying the world. It was just before he'd used the black materia to summon Meteor.

"Well, don't tease us now, Cloud. Read the derned thang!" Cid said around his cigarette. Cloud nodded and began.

"I feel, since Angeal left the accounts of both he and my heart behind, I should add my own small contribution. I found myself coming here when Jenova left my mind enough that I could regain some of my old self. I don't know why; I'm poisoning this place just by stepping foot here. But... I got Ciara's letter. I received it before I left for Nibelheim. When I learned that she had died... I decided that I no longer had the drive to kill that I used to. I told Zack in all earnestness, that I wanted to leave Shin Ra, depending on circumstances. I should have left right away. Maybe I would have not become as I am. But I was too cowardly..."

0002, Midgar, September 20th

The man known as Sephiroth, a warrior renowned and feared throughout Gaia for his strength and cruelty, was brought to his knees by a small piece of paper. It was just a single small sheet, a bit wrinkled with age, but Sephiroth was unable to stand after reading it. His numb fingers were unable to hold it any longer and the paper floated to the ground. A pained gasp escaped his lips, the only sound he had made the entire time. The tall man hunched forward, palms flat on the ground, and stared at the floor sightlessly, eyes wide. his mind wanted to claim that the letter was a fake, but he knew that handwriting. He'd read and loved it almost every day of his life for eight beautiful years. And even if he could convince himself that someone had managed to fake her handwriting perfectly... Angeal had left a note of his own.

'I know you don't often return here, so I don't really know when you'll get this letter. It could be days or years from now. Either way, I must let you know that it is true. I'm so sorry, but she has died, Sephiroth. She was wasting away... rotting from the inside out like some foul disease was eating her body. When I found her, she shouldn't have even been alive, but she was. She asked me to deliver this letter to you. I'm sorry. She died in my arms, but they should have been yours. If Genesis and I hadn't rebelled, they probably would have been. I buried her, in that valley where all her flowers grow. Maybe she will be happy now, in the planet. I don't know. Sephiroth, I can't express my sorrow to you. I will also be leaving you forever soon. I won't ask you to forgive me. But forgive her. Angeal.'

Sephiroth knew that both letters were damnably real. The small piece of paper announcing the death of his heart, how long had it lain in his empty house, a building he could no longer enter because it had lost her scent, her presence? At least a year. That was how long Angeal's boy Zack had been carrying the Buster Sword. How long since Angeal had come to the boy to die. And in that time, Sephiroth had been cracking jokes at the rookies expense, even granting the boy leave to go be with the slum woman he loved because he was thinking of Ciara. And while he was doing so, she was rotting in the ground. His woman. His life.

Sudden pressure pushed against his skull, a throbbing nail of pain shoving into his mind from the outside. Sephiroth gritted his teeth and shoved the pain back. Genesis was still alive out there somewhere, he knew that. Until he got the truth from the man and learned what was truly going on at Shin Ra, he couldn't afford to be distracted. But once this mess was dealt with, then maybe it was time for Sephiroth to leave Shin Ra. He'd been thinking about it for a few years now. If he weren't part of Shin Ra, then Ciara could live with him, without having to hide. He would protect her from any coming after her. It was his dream.

Only a dream, now. The pain stabbed in again, but Sephiroth ignored it, shakily getting to his feet. Brushing his silver hair back, he drew in a deep breath and pulled his impenetrable emotionless armor on. The headache receded a little. Sephiroth then stared down at the two letters which had destroyed his world. Ciara... even in death, she was still in danger. Hojo still searched for her. He could not allow that madman to disturb her final rest. Snapping, Sephiroth caused the letter to be engulfed in flames, watching dispassionately as the edges curled and the floor caught fire as well. He saw the flames spreading to his house but did nothing to stop them, instead walking out and leaving the destruction behind. Any trace of Ciara needed to be destroyed, to protect her.

That night, Sephiroth didn't sleep. His cramped Shin Ra Quarters were no less comfortable than they ever were, but each time he closed his eyes, he saw a shifting shadow at the edge of his vision which frightened him. He'd sometimes seen it while awake, but when he did, he'd go find Ciara or one of her letters, which he kept in a securely locked safe, and the shadow would vanish. Now, there was no escaping that darkness lurking at the edge of his mind, or the pain inside of him.

While he laid there, Sephiroth allowed himself to shed a single tear. He wasn't a man given to emotions or crying, but Ciara was gone. The single light in his life was no longer guiding him and he felt like he was slowly sinking into a dark mire he would never be able to escape from. "Ciara..." he whispered her name like a talisman, covering his ears the way he had as a child when strange voices had kept him from sleeping at night. They were back. As a child, Professor Gast had helped him keep those nightmares away. As an adult, Ciara had. But both were gone. He was alone... All around him, the shadows seemed to take on monstrous shapes and vile laughter bounced on his walls all night.

0002, Nibelheim, September 23rd

When he saw the Makonoids, the knowledge that Sephiroth had been blindly denying all his life started to creep into his tormented mind. Ever since he'd arrived in Nibelheim, his head had been throbbing nonstop, making him act out of character to try to gain relief from his pain. He knew Zack was worried about him, but he truly couldn't focus much on the boy. His mother's name was inscribed on the reactor wall behind him, monsters were growing inside the facilities, and...

"Wait, normal SOLDIERs? What about you then?" Zack asked, his voice suddenly breaking through the chaos in Sephiroth's mind. Him. He's been stronger and faster, more capable, than everyone else since his birth. He can use materia in ways others cannot. He has the Masamune. He'd thought all these gifts that meant he was meant for something bigger, but...

Sephiroth staggered, the sudden realization too much for him. Zack shouted his name, trying to find out what was wrong, but he shoved him off, struggling to breathe, to think. "Am I... the same? Am I a monster?" He whispered, staring at his hands in horror. He'd used these hands to hold Ciara... to touch her. If he were a monster, does that mean he'd done something terrible to her?

Genesis's arrival didn't really matter to him. He blocked the man's weak attack and tuned out most of what he was saying. His head was in agony. Ciara... if he were truly a monster, then when he embraced her, had he done something unforgivable? 'She was wasting away... rotting from the inside out like some foul disease was eating her body.' Angeal's words came back to haunt him. Something eating her from the inside out? He'd... inside her. Sephiroth's entire mind fractured and his soul screamed. He'd killed Ciara.

As his torment washed over him, the pressure which had been constantly assaulting his mind for days finally broke through, seeping into his mind. He saw a flash, a vision of a foul face and mind, gloating yellow green eyes, and heard an evil voice whispering to him. I can give you power, I can take away your pain, it said. Sephiroth would die if he had to live with the knowledge that he killed the only woman he loved, the only person he truly cared for. He couldn't. He wasn't a hero, wasn't strong. He was weak and a coward. So Sephiroth let go, and felt that darkness washing over his mind, drowning out the pain until it was nothing, not even a memory. Then Sephiroth opened his eyes and looked at Genesis.

"You will rot." He pronounced, turning and walking out of the reactor, leaving it all behind as he relinquished his body and mind to the darkness which had always been inside him, his shattered soul locked away for all time.

0002, Nibelheim, October 1st

For a moment, Sephiroth saw Ciara, as he fell into the lifestream and carried Jenova there with him. She was surrounded by the most beautiful light, dressed in silver and gold armor. The spear she'd used to spar with him was clasped in her hand. As he fell by her, those beautiful blue eyes he'd never been able to forget about widened and tears rained down her face. She reached for him, mouth forming his name. She even dove after him, leaving her light behind and falling into shadow with him. He reached up his hand for her briefly and their fingers touched, reawakening his tormented soul. "Ciara..." He whispered her name, then allowed his hand to drop. She didn't belong with the monster who had killed her. He allowed the shadows to take him away.

"Sephiroth!" Her anguished cry followed him, making him shed another tear. But Jenova was still inside him, and since his body and mind would not meld into the planet, she saw an opportunity. She rose up again and took control, using his unique abilities to start absorbing information from Gaia and plotting his revenge. Sephiroth started plotting, too. Plotting how to die.

0011, Nibel Mountains

"Though I cannot reject Jenova entirely, I can undermine her. I will do so. This body is still mostly human, after all. I will gloat. I'll taunt. I'll arouse anger and determination inside of those seeking to stop me. And most of all, I will never truly fight them. The strength of Sephiroth will never rise again in this world. No one could stop me if I did, not even Ciara, if she rose to fight me. There is a chance that I will never truly die; Calamity has essentially been born anew in me and even if my body died, I will live on in one form or another as long as her corruption exists in this planet. If a person gathered enough of Jenova's cells, I could take them over and come back. But I'll only do so if Cloud is still alive, so that I may be stopped after I have once again breathed the air that Ciara breathed once more. In the lifestream, we are separated by the darkness into which I fell. She still waits for me. I fear she will forever. Maybe once Chaos rises and destroys us all will I be free. Perhaps if a true Cetra were to use the purest of lifestream to cleanse my taint for this world, we could even be together again..."

"I found her grave. When I did, I wept. I called for her. She is a Cetra, I know she can hear me. She can even appear before me. If she wished she could take on physical form once more and embrace me again. I gained this knowledge from the planet. But she does not. She probably cannot stand to see me, fallen as I am. But even in my destruction, even in this darkness, I still want to ask her the question I never got the chance to. You promised me a yes, Ciara. My soul, corrupted by vengeance, Hath endured torment, to find the end of the journey, In my own salvation, And your eternal slumber. Loveless, Act IV. I don't have much more time left to myself. Jenova will control me again soon as I summon down Meteor to destroy this hellish world. But I know Ciara will stop it. Maybe I will see her then. I don't know. I have left my recollections here for those who seek the truth. I want no sympathy. I allowed this to happen because I lacked strength. All I wish is for Ciara's happiness. Put a flower on her grave for me. I lo -"

Cloud finished and looked up. "It stops there." He whispered. The women in the group were wiping their eyes. Even the guys looked a little sad. Sephiroth had fallen into Jenova's control not because he was power hungry or deluded, but because he was beset by horrible grief and vulnerable. The man they hated had been taken advantage of at a time in his life when all he held dear and loved was taken from him. Even though he asked for no sympathy... Every single person there felt some. He'd suffered, more than any of them knew. That didn't mean he was forgiven for making the wrong choice, but now that they knew, that they understood, they could all recognize why the man always had such sorrow in his eyes.

The fire cracked in the still night. No one knew what to say. This wasn't what they had expected when they'd started reading. None of them had ever thought they'd be feeling sympathy and sorrow for their greatest enemy.

Suddenly a sweet wind started blowing through the valley and the flowers began to glow with the life of the planet. Everyone stood and watched as the glow became brighter until they had to close their eyes. When they opened them again, the luminous flowers were only faintly giving off light, and in the clearing stood a woman with hair of honey gold and eyes of such blue sorrows that to look at her was to want to weep. She was in full silver and gold armor, but as she stepped towards them, the armor faded away until she wore a simple white dress, a blanket the same color wrapped around her shoulder likes a shawl. She approached slowly, bare feet making no sound as she trekked across the flowers.

When she stopped just outside the ring of people, everyone stared at her. They felt no fighting spirit from her, no danger, and yet, being this close to her caused all of them to feel power rubbing against their skin. Cloud frowned a little and rubbed his forehead, then nodded.

"You're Ciara." He pronounced it softly, making the others stare at him, then the girl again. The blonde woman smiled sweetly and nodded, finally stepping into the light of the fire. "Like Aerith, you can return to the living world." Cloud continued. The girl called Ciara just tilted her head at him, then smiled as a tear rolled down her cheek. She reached up and wiped it away before speaking.

"I... made so many mistakes... mistakes that hurt you. And I'm so sorry that I did. My failures have cost each and every one of you dearly. I want to be forgiven but I won't ever be. Thank you, for finishing and stopping what was my duty originally. I wish I could turn back the clock of time and keep you all from the pain you suffered, but I cannot. All I can do is let you know that Sephiroth is free of Jenova now. He won't arise again." She said, turning and starting to walk away.

"Wait!" Tifa shouted, throwing her hand out. The martial artist didn't know why, but something about the Cetra made her want to cry. The Ancient stopped and looked over her shoulder. "If Sephiroth is free from Jenova, then you and he... you're together now, right?" She asked. Ciara was silent a moment, then gave a sad smile.

"I found Genesis in 0007, after he fought Zack. When he saw me, he reached for me, but I could not embrace him. Instead, because he wished for what he used to have, I sent the lifestream through him and chased out Jenova. But doing so put him into a coma and then he was taken by Deepground. I've lost him since then. Angeal I saved when he died by sending his soul to the Paradise of the Cetra. He was able to guide Zack there once his apprentice died, and reach happiness. But Sephiroth was too dark, too corrupted. There was no way for me to separate the two. From his birth, he was partially Jenova's already. As long as he survived, so would she. He cannot be free of her and still live. After he was defeated the second time, when Cloud accepted his past and his memories, he shook free the last remnants of Jenova from his mind. That enabled Aerith and I to unleash the pure lifestream Jenova had blocked up and cleanse the planet. I destroyed all traces of Calamity then, freeing Sephiroth in the process.. by truly killing him. He is with the planet now, as he should be."

None of the people standing around the fire knew what to say. They hadn't ever wished for Sephiroth to have a happy life or death and even now, their hatred of him ran deep, but... Ciara stood tall and alone, underneath a black night sky, and their hearts broke for her. She only wished for one thing and yet, she could not have it.

Yuffie stood up, anger vibrating through her. "But, but what about you? You've suffered so much, and now that Sephiroth is free shouldn't you be as well?" She asked, tears choking her voice. Ciara softened her gaze and smiled fully at the small ninja. It was so beautiful, but the sorrow in the Cetra's eyes made everyone want to cry.

"Thank you, for crying for me. I am Minerva, the consciousness of Gaia. I can never truly fade to join the planet unless I die. But Sephiroth asked me to live for him, when I freed him. I have my memories. One day, when Chaos awakens Omega for the true final journey, I will be free from my destiny at last. And when that happens, Sephiroth and I will finally be together in the lifestream. Until then... for the both of us, I will live." She said, her words impacting all of them with their strength and utter loneliness. She bowed to them. "Thank you for listening, and for taking the time to read the truth. I just wanted someone to know, to understand, that Sephiroth was a good man, once. Continue to live your lives. Gaia's blessing upon you all." She whispered, turning and walking into the night, fading into the darkness until she was gone.

All were silent, then Tifa turned and looked at Cloud with tears in her eyes. "It's... so sad." She whispered. He put an arm around her waist and pulled her in close to his side, looking up at the stars. A single streak of light danced across the sky, a silent tear. Vincent softly recited the last lines of the poem describing her life, the life of the one who had made the biggest sacrifice for the betterment of the entire world. He said it for the one who smiled alone.

Even if the morrow is barren of promises, Nothing shall forestall my return. To become the dew that quenches the land, To spare the sands, the seas, the skies, I offer thee this silent sacrifice.

-Note: That's the end. It's so sad... I hope you enjoyed my take on this story and thank you for reading the entire thing. I know it's kind of long.