Nearly at the end of our journey, hope you have enjoyed the ride so far!

-Chapter Twenty-Nine-

Nothing's Impossible

Ten hours to impact.

"Well I suppose taking out the threats in any order is better than not taking them out at all!" Yuffie said cheerfully to everyone. They were once again back on the jet to keep on the move, heading towards Ireland of all places.

"And we did manage to gain possibly the best weapon we can use against him…if we could use it…" Cloud continued, looking at all of his companions.

Yuffie then suddenly looked over at Tifa as though remembering something. "Alex said there was something she had to share with all of us, you never got round to it?"

Tifa looked at her. "Yes, would you rather she explained it, she was the one that witnessed it first hand after all." Yuffie nodded, and moments later Alex took control.

She first looked over at Reeve. "You told me to check the houses for people when we all noticed that the city was more deserted than we anticipated…" Alex began, starting to pace slightly, wringing her hands together. "Well the first I checked was deserted as we expected, the next one had an old woman in it though, and she was well…a little odd…"

"Comes with old age!" Cid joked.

"I don't mean that kind of odd!" Alex retorted. "I asked her where everyone was and she said 'what rock have you been living under', it isn't just Moscow apparently, cities worldwide are exactly the same." She looked straight at Reeve who considered this.

"I'm damned if I can understand that…" He answered, "…what else happened, you're yet to get to anything strange about her personally."

"Well…" Alex continued, choosing how to word this next part with care, "she died, right in front of me. But after she died it happened, a blue something kind of left her body and…well it made a break for it, smashed its way out of the window and flew away."

Vincent suddenly got to his feet and looked at her very seriously. "A blue something!?" He almost shouted, "Alex what exactly did it look like?"

"Like a kind of blue smoke ball like…thing…" She finished, rather lamely. Vincent looked like he was about to feint. "What is it?"

"She was a host!" He whispered in disbelief, making everybody around him gasp, "That's what happens when a parasite leaves the hosts body to move on. Alex where exactly did the wisp go?"

Alex was stunned. "I…I don't know!" She stammered, looking around at everyone, "Like I said it broke through the window and vanished."

Vincent collapsed into one of the chairs in stunned disbelief, trying to turn everything over in his head. So there was another parasite in this world even though they had all been re-united at last. But who could it possibly be?

"There's nothing we can do now…it's long lost, we are just going to have to focus on finding Sephiroth before…" Vincent gestured out one of the small windows where they could all see the approaching oblivion.

Reeve walked over to the television and switched it on to the familiar white noise. He then brought up the map screen to show their current location in comparison to their destination. "We'll be about another two hours…leaving us eight hours from when we touch down…"

"Why Ireland Reeve?" Cloud asked, walking to stand beside him to look at the monitor…

"I…I don't know, call it a feeling…an instinct…" He shut the television off and walked back over to where he was seated, "It just feels like the right place to go at the moment."

The airfield where they touched down two hours later was if possible even more deserted than the city that they had just come from. It was not completely empty however, they did see the odd face here and there, but nobody paid them any attention. The looming doom seemed to have made the public lose interest in hunting them down.

They walked to the nearby town, none of them really sure what they were looking for and all of them following Reeve's lead. It was barren and nearly deserted just as they had all expected.

"Reeve…" Cloud began, sounding a little bit annoyed, "we really can't just waste time like this, we have to…"

"Wait!" Reeve cut him off, looking at a building in the distance. He quickened his pace and walked over to it. They could tell from a distance that it was a pub, though exactly why Reeve was so interested in it was not immediately apparent, except for the fact that it was completely intact.

As they approached it however, the reason behind his excitement was obvious. Above the door, the name of what they now noticed to be an all too familiar bar read 'Seventh Heaven'.

"Oh but it has to be a coincidence!" Tifa said, looking at the golden emblazed letters. "Let's not forget guys, the bar was completely crushed by the plate." Nobody seemed to be listening to her, Reeve tentatively walked towards the door and pushed it open.

The modern exterior was just a front. Inside was, exactly the way they remembered it before it was destroyed, Tifa's bar, the Seventh Heaven. The few tables decked out and the lone pinball machine which hid the entrance to Avalanches lair, it was all there. Barret immediately ran over to the pinball machine and tried to get it to operate the lift in concealed. It did not respond however.

All but Yuffie, Vincent, Red XIII and Cid had been stunned into silence. "Anybody going to tell us what the hell is so damn special?" Cid asked.

"Back on Gaia…this was my bar in sector seven of Midgar…" Tifa replied. Reeve of course new this as well having worked for Shinra, "…but it was destroyed, completely destroyed! How is this even possible…"

"I think the words 'possible' and 'impossible' lost their weight the second we got here Tifa…" Cloud said, walking over to the bar and examining it, "…nothing's impossible anymore." He extracted the holy materia and began rolling it along the bar from hand to hand.

"Mind if I take a look at it?" Yuffie asked, Cloud was a little apprehensive, but handed it over none the less, even she wouldn't be reckless enough to try and use it.

She held it up to eye level and began to examine it closely. For some reason, and unbelievably overwhelming feeling of sorrow swept over her, as though the materia was showing her what it had witnessed it its existence. She threw it back over to Cloud, not able to look at it anymore.

He continued to roll it from hand to hand, still marvelling at the location they were at. Tifa had walked behind the bar and checked that it was all exactly the way she remembered it. She looked at Cloud. "Can I get you something to drink then stranger?" She asked. They looked at each other for a moment, and both began to laugh.

It was amazing, for the first time since meteor had been summoned, despite the whole hopelessness of the situation, this little piece of home seemed to bring them a flame of joy which did not feel like it could be extinguished by anything. The laughter seemed to be catching between the companions, and before they all knew it, Tifa had poured them all a drink, and they were truly, unstoppably happy.

The task ahead of them of defeating Sephiroth did not only seem possible now, it seemed simple, like nothing could stop them. "He had better not disappoint us now!" Barret joked, slamming down his glass on the bar, "All this skill he has been &*(& showing off, better be a good fight!" They all laughed again.

"Like I said…" Cloud smiled and held up holy, "…nothings impossible."

"Spoken like the true soldier you once claimed to be!" A voice boomed from the entrance of the bar. They fell silent and looked round at the new arrival, Cloud dropped the materia and it thudded on the bar, rolling towards Tifa who grabbed it. Standing in the entrance of the Seventh Heaven was none other than…

"Zack!" Cloud shouted, looking at the tall dark haired figure and getting to his feet. He ran over to him and embraced him like a brother, hugging him extremely tightly as if to check he was real. After finally releasing him he looked at him, "But how…how the…why…where…" He stammered, lost for words.

"Easy fella!" Zack said, patting Cloud on the shoulder. "One question at a time!" Everybody in turn walked over to him in equal disbelief and greeted him excitedly. "Now if you could all listen, I'm about to tell you everything…" He said, releasing Tifa from a tight hug who was the last to come over and see him.

Everybody stayed standing, unable to sit down from the excitement. Zack walked over to the bar and leant against it, looking at all of their stunned faces. "I suppose I should start with why we are all here." He began, grabbing their attention even further, "Anybody know?" Everybody in turn shook their head, Vincent then spoke however.

"The planets last line of defence against Sephiroth?" Vincent suggested to him.

"Yes…and no…" Zack replied, looking at him, "…even for the planet to achieve something like that it needs the aid of powerful magic, very powerful magic."

"Holy?" Tifa asked, holding up the orb.

"Partly. Holy was one form of magic the planet needed, another form was the black materia…" They all looked stunned, "…you cannot have 'good' without 'evil', the power of the two combined was enough to achieve this amazing feat, yet it needed one more thing, someone who could wield the magic."

Cloud had a sudden look of realisation on his face. "…Aeris!?" He almost shouted. Zack nodded.

"Again yes and no, Aeris could only ever wield holy, she would never ever be able to use the black materia. So that means the other person was…" He looked around at them all, "…anyone?"

"Sephiroth." Vincent replied simply, "But why? Why would he send us over here when he was literally on the brink of victory?"

"It was unintentional, something which he couldn't control. From what I can tell he was trying to neutralise holy's power with his own when he did it, accidentally breaking down the barriers between this world and ours…of course Sephiroth isn't even aware that he did this." Zack explained.

"You weren't even at the final battle though…you…you should be dead!" Cloud speculated, pointing this out for the first time and slightly dampening the mood. "I saw you die!"

"And what happens to us when we die Cloud?" Zack asked, knowing the answer, and making Cloud understand. "We return to the planet, the heart of which happened to be where you were fighting him at the time. We were both watching you, that's why Aeris did what she did and ergo we all ended up…" He looked around, gesturing to everywhere around him, "…here."

"So Aeris is here too? She's alive?" Cloud asked disbelievingly.

Zack turned towards Tifa. "You met her, I thought you would have worked it out by now…" He said to her.

"The old woman!?" Tifa asked, "Why didn't she reveal herself, why didn't she take over?"

"I assume if she could, she would have, the magic which she used to bring us all here has left her soul extremely weak however, taking over a host would more than likely have killed her completely. Don't think she hasn't been doing her bit however, why do you think all of the materia has been ending up in such locations?"

The stunned group looked at each other, everything seemed to be fitting into place. "That's right folks! It has all been her, she has been placing it where she thought you would be able to get to it best, putting it in places where one person alone would struggle but a team united would triumph. Of course she did not anticipate Sephiroth's power, nor did she consider just how ruthlessly Shinra and his Turks would hunt it all down…"

It was all beginning to make sense. So it was not the materia which was affecting the world around it, everything had been orchestrated after all, however not to the originally intended outcome. "One thing you might like to know however is that she always planned for Sephiroth to get the black materia."

This seemed to stun them all. "But why!? What on earth could be gained from letting him get hold of it again!?" Cloud asked, beginning to pace now, his hands behind his head as he thought.

"Because it is subsequently the only way you can beat him, there can be no good without evil, no black without white, light without dark. The second Sephiroth summoned meteor he damaged his defences greater than he knows. He knows sustaining the magic takes concentration, but he does not know the damage which it is doing to his power and ultimately his soul." Zack explained, then went on,

"The black materia does work differently in this world to ours, it leeches off of the user, slowly devours them entirely until the magic is complete and meteor has struck. It truly is the ultimate end, everybody on the planet may die from meteor, but Sephiroth will be utterly destroyed, no soul, no nothing, death would be preferable." Everybody was in awe at the story, this was beyond anything that they could ever imagine.

"You have exactly seven hours until meteor hits, you must strike in the final hour when he is at his weakest. Do not for a second think that this means it will be easy, the magic which connected our two worlds has grown extremely fragile, be prepared for absolutely anything." He looked at them all very seriously, "weakened though he may be, a tiger is at its fiercest when it senses the end."

"But how exactly do we kill him?" Tifa asked, holding up the holy materia expectantly.

"You will know what to do when the time comes." He said to her, causing her to pocket the materia.

"Do you know where he is?" Vincent asked Zack, looking expectant.

"I know where he will be." Zack replied, "He will be at the place which he crossed through into this world from ours, for you see there are only certain parts of the world where the connection is weak enough for us to cross over."

"And where is that?" Tifa asked.

"The same place both you and Red crossed over, it was all Aeris could do to group some of you in the same place as him to keep him in check, or at least that was her original intention, things seemed to have worked out quite differently." He looked at both Tifa and Red XIII.

"And where exactly did we cross over?" Red asked, looking at him confused "Can't say I have a clue where to begin there."

"Of course you do!" Zack replied encouragingly, "Think now, where did you appear when you first entered this world, and what to you looks like a significant point in which you could have come from?"

Both Tifa and Red looked at each other, then Tifa began to speak to Alex who was speaking excitedly in her mind. "Stonehenge?" Tifa asked.

"What you mean that pile of bricks with the thingy in the middle?" Red asked, "you think we came from there?"

"Makes sense doesn't it? Nobody knows what the true purpose of those stones is." Tifa was almost certain she was right, and turned to Zack for confirmation.

"You see, I told you you knew." He smiled at her. "Sephiroth knows that this is where he crossed over from, I believe he thinks it is only fitting for the end to be there as it is where it all began."

"You know for certain he will be there?" Cloud asked desperately.

"Wouldn't surprise me if he is there as we speak, you have time still though to prepare, like I said you must fight him in the final hour." Zack moved into the middle of the room and looked at them. "You stand a good chance, like Cloud said, nothing is impossible."

"We stand a good chance you mean?" Cloud corrected him, "You are coming with us right?"

Zack shook his head. "My part in this story is over, I can help you no further, taking over my host is the end for me." All of them looked at him confused. "I am meant to be dead, no amount of magic can change that." He smiled at them, "I am glad that I could help you out for the final time…"

"But you have been here for all this time, you can't die now!" Cloud shouted at him, walking straight up to him and grabbing his shoulders.

He laughed, "My dear friend, I was never even truly alive…" A blue something started to force its way up Zack's throat, "…I'll be cheering for you guys…" He opened his mouth and the blue wisp shot forward from it and out the slightly open window.

Cloud was now grasping the shoulders of a man he had never met before who was currently unconscious, Zack's host. He laid him down on the floor gently.

"Well, that's it then, six hours to go until our fate is decided…" Vincent began, looking round at them all, "…this is it everyone, the fate of our two worlds will rest in our hands or in his." He checked the clock on the far wall, meteor would impact at midnight, such a fitting time for the final battle, for their final hour.

A/N - Hope you enjoyed, reviews appreciated, have decided to do some fun little facts about this book at the end of the final chapter ^_^.

R&A