Chapter 108: Collapse

Cloud and Sephiroth crashed together in a whirl of moving steel, of silver and gold, of sunlight and moonlight and shadows. Again, blue fire flared along the metal of the Fusion Sword.

"Spirit energy," Zack named it for Tifa even though she wasn't aware she'd asked. One edge of his mobile mouth lifted but his eyes stayed worried and locked on the two fighting in the center of the cracked and ruined room. "I – " he shook his head. "I can barely remember someone telling me about it once. Said that only the best SOLDIER ever channeled it. Materia comes from an outside source. Spirit energy comes from inside." His arm slipped around her and he pulled her further away from the fight. "You look pretty hot sheathed in it."

She made a noise at his teasing and together they edged toward the door. There wasn't a chance that they were going to leave Cloud. It just seemed sensible to remove any distractions Sephiroth might want to try to use them as from range. Which meant watching from the door. And making sure, if reinforcements came, they were on the right side. The hallway beyond was empty and hooked abruptly to the right. Tifa stationed herself so she could keep an eye on Cloud and the curve in the hall. But she quickly forgot about the curve.

The fight was moving at a speed that she had a hard time keeping up with but she did see that Cloud wasn't doing well. He was bleeding – more than he had been before and his left arm was hanging useless. She bit back making a sound as Sephiroth's sword cut through him, almost impaling him before Cloud stumbled back and escaped the danger. His blood splashed down though and his boots almost slipped before he spun over the dangerous crack that offered a fall into Lifestream green.

Against her chest, Tifa felt her heart burn and throb.

No… her eyes went huge and she looked down to realize that she was still holding Aerith's stone against her chest with one of her hands. As she watched the threads of green twined upward under its glass surface and the stone seemed to throb against her again.

"Aerith?" she whispered and in answer she heard a soft sigh. The stone throbbed again and Cloud twisted away from Sephiroth's blow and stepped in close to steal the advantage of his sword's long reach from the silver haired man.

"Put the stone back in the Lifestream,"Aerith's voice was a whisper in her ears. "It's time to let me go..."

"No," Tifa protested it and clutched the pulsing, burning stone closer to her chest even though it burned her fingers. "No," she repeated.

"Teef…" her friend's voice was gentle. "This is the way it's always supposed to have been. I can help Cloud. I want to. He's always done so much for me. But you have to let me. You have to let the stone go."

"Aeris…" Tifa felt tears clogging her throat and they threatened to cloud her vision so that she couldn't watch the fight going on in front of her. Zack made a hissing noise between his teeth and tensed next to her and she knew Cloud had just taken another blow.

"You asked if I could fix him," Aerith's voice was against her ear as if her friend stood just behind her. "And I said I couldn't. I just didn't realize, he's not broken. Not anymore. He's mended in his own way. His body just needs to stop fighting that. He was never dead. Jenova lied to him. He was the only body that was alive they've ever injected the cells into. His body adapted but it wouldn't let her rewrite him. He's whole, Teef. He's whole." The pleasure of being able to say it overflowed the Cetra's words. "His body just needs to stop fighting what its done to survive. Let the stone go. Let me go…"

"I won't choose between the two of you," Tifa shook her head and felt liquid fall from her eyes. She also felt her friend smile.

"No," Aerith agreed. "Because I was never a choice to save."

"Aerith – " Tifa choked it as Zack gave a sympathetic grunt next to her. She wondered how he was missing her conversation and decided it was like Cloud's fight with the dragon on the island in the middle of the silent lake. The Ancients seemed to have a thing about privacy. Wiping at her eyes with the backs of her hands, Tifa pulled in a deep breathe and then, before she could hesitate, she darted forward to the nearest crack large enough to fit the stone and let it drop in. The thick, glowing green swallowed it without a single ripple.

Tifa felt something inside her heart collapse.

And then Zack was pulling her backward. She caught a glimpse of Cloud, pinned to the wall, impaled on Sephiroth's blade and yet somehow, reaching up as if he would actually pull it out of himself. Of Zack's worried eyes. Aerith's face, smiling and content, seemed to be a ghost in front of her for a moment. And then the Lifestream started to… leak upward from the cracks.

At first Tifa thought it was her eyes watering and blurring everything. But no, when she squinted and rubbed the tears away, the green was moving in long, slender ribbons along the floor. Like low lying fog or grass snakes it wove its way forward. Forward to where Cloud had somehow managed to jerk Sephiroth's sword out of him and drive the man back with a low swing of the Fusion Sword. Sephiroth settled and where he did, the green split and gave him wide berth. But it wrapped itself around Cloud as he tried to pull himself to his knees, winding like bands of living light around his legs and the wrist that he had propped against the ground to brace himself. Sephiroth charged forward with a sound of distain –

And suddenly froze. Next to her, Tifa felt Zack fall into the same single caught second. Her own body stopped. She even felt the beat in her chest pause. Cloud however was mobile still and he caught one look at the glowing green wrapping around him and jerked upward with a strength that only came from suppressed terror. And then… Tifa watched him pause… as if he were hearing a voice… and while he listened, unnoticed, the gentle green crept upward and wove around his left arm like fingers or strands of long hair. For an instant, Tifa thought she heard Aerith's sigh of contentment…

And then the green was gone. Sephiroth was plunging forward. Tifa's heart skipped and started again. Next to her she felt Zack inhale.

Cloud rolled to the side to escape Sephiroth's blade and when he came up he had both hands around the hilt of the Fushion Sword.

Tifa covered her mouth with both of her hands and couldn't decide whether she should laugh or burst into tears.

"Go Spikey!" Zack cheered it as Cloud, still bleeding, still covered in the sweat and gore from Jenova and all the battles that had led to this point, moved forward aggressively. Sephiroth's movements were still fluid and calm however as he blocked Cloud's more focused blows. He did take steps back however from the onslaught and Tifa had just a second to voice her:

"Oh… crap…"

As Sephiroth's free hand moved in a familiar gesture. Materia triggered.

And the building started to collapse.

"Shit," Zack grabbed her hand and Tifa had to repress the urge to shout something. Sephiroth couldn't even fight on his own? He had to throw a building at Cloud?!

The silver haired man did something and the ceiling above him blew upward. Like a rocket he shot skyward. Leaping, Cloud followed. Zack dragged Tifa out of the doorway by her hand.

"He has to drop a building now?!" Zack voiced Tifa's previous thought, sounding annoyed and again, she found herself with a smile. Strong, she twined her fingers through his as they ran.

It was just occurring to her that there might still be people trapped in rooms and maybe they should check, when Leon came barreling around the hallway coming toward them. He pulled to a stop when he saw them and then turned and with a gesture to follow over his shoulder, headed back the way he'd just come.

"Think he missed us?" Zack teased as they pounded along and Tifa made a noise. Knowing that, the worse a situation got, the funnier Zack tended to get. Which meant he was really, really worried at the moment.

This wasn't a story. Just because they'd defeated the bad guy didn't mean they got to walk off into the sunset. Or even live long enough to appreciate it for that matter. Under her feet, the ground was starting to pitch and crack and chunks of the ceiling were starting to fall. Small chunks but Tifa didn't even pretend the small chunks wouldn't lead to larger ones shortly. She darted into the stairwell with Zack – funny how it had seemed to be such a longer hall when they'd been fighting their way inch by inch through monsters through it before – and started up the stairs. She knew, with her head, that her body was exhausted and shouldn't be able to move with anything like speed at all after all they'd been through – but adrenaline was a wonderful thing, especially when it was linked with panic and she hardly noticed the stairs as they pounded up them.

The higher they climbed the more the world tried to shift sideways and soon Tifa was hanging on the railing as much to pull herself upward as to keep from falling over its edge. Even with the adrenaline and the panic the stairs seemed to go up forever. Tifa focused on Marlene and Denzel because it was the only safe place for her mind to focus. She'd promised them… she'd make it back. Or at least try her best to…

Hands suddenly caught at her and she lifted her eyes to see…

Barret and Yuffie, Barret lending the strength while Yuffie lent the enthusiasm to pulling her out of the crumbling stair well. She had time to gasp their names. To see Red and Vincent and Leon and Zack and then everyone was running again and the ground wouldn't stay flat and still under their feet, trying to cave downward as they ran across it. The building rained down on them in huge pieces. Tifa choked on dust and smoke and stumbled as she remembered the last time she'd run through an exploding building what felt like so many lifetimes ago. Barret's hand on her arm kept her upright and together they sprinted toward the opening in the wall that had probably once been a bank of glass doors.

Tifa burst through the opening and into the night beyond, stumbling and gasping and shaking as the last of her energy burned away. She didn't get to stop there though and hands pulled her further away from the building. She saw Cid and Reno and a darkly bearded slender man she'd never seen before and then the ground was collapsing around the building as well because they were still on the Plate and the building had gone all the way down through it to the slums below. Tifa raised her face and looked upward, gasping the name of what she was looking for.

"Cloud – "

"There!" Zack had apparently been watching as well, because he yelled it and pointed. On the rooftops nearby, silver flashed and she caught a brief glimpse of sunlight against the murky Midgar atmosphere. Blindly, Tifa turned to the group trying to tear her away and take her somewhere safer.

"Vincent!" She reached out. "I need your wings. Please."

"Tifa – " Leon's voice but she shook her head and kept her arms out.

"I'm so sick of not knowing. Please. I need to see. Just… I just need to see."

Vincent stepped forward and whether he'd already been in his winged form or just taken it for her, she didn't know, but he was winged and clawed and yellow beast eyed now. His claw marks on her hip from before hadn't healed with the Cure spells she'd had cast over her but she didn't hesitate to step forward and wrap her arms around his shoulders again. She met his glowing eyes.

"I need Cloud," she told whatever was in there watching her. "Please."

His golden claw closed around her hip again but it didn't dig into her skin this time.

"Wait!"

Zack pushed past the others and stepped in.

"I'm going too. You carried Red and Aerith's mom. You can handle me and Tifa."

Vincent made a sound, like a cat clearing fur from its throat and Tifa saw that, in this form, his teeth were all sharp and pointed. But he snaked his other arm around Zack's waist and Tifa felt his muscles knot under her. With a push that left her stomach behind, they were air born. She slit her eyes against the cold rush of wind.

And she prayed.