Chapter 71. December 16 (2pm – 4pm), εуλ0009
The quake of Fenrir's engines reverberated through the city as Cloud gave chase towards the scream. The Remnants. He hadn't laid eyes on them since the Forgotten City.
They could only be waiting ahead.
Ahead, he spotted them, and as he barreled forward they scattered and leapt onto their own bikes; Cloud followed in hot pursuit, crashing through a barrier to the highway beyond, deja vu as he flashed back to another headlong chase down the same broken highway, desperately fleeing Shinra's forces in the night.
Times changed, enemies changed. Above, he heard the whir of a Shinra helicopter, as Kadaj split off for higher ground and bullets rained down on the other two Remnants; catching up to Cloud, weapons flashing, they pushed Cloud to the very edge of his skills – and beyond.
A deafening roar, and Cloud didn't need to look back to know the broken highway had collapsed behind him, crumbling to the same rubble as the one in Sector Six – and still the Remnants came on. Into the tunnel ahead, tearing sideways up the wall, across the ceiling, Cloud swerving wildly as the three locked in combat.
Flooring his own motorcycle out of the tunnel, he saw the Turks manning the end of the road, home-rigged explosives ready in hand. They let Cloud pass, immobile; he was nearly clear when he heard the blast, sending him reeling. Two down, hopefully gone for good, but one target still remained. Glancing down, he saw Kadaj now down below, and revving the engine he launched off the edge to confront his final challenger.
Kadaj swiveled, meeting him blade for blade; locked together, they flew as one over the highway's abrupt end, separating midair to slide down the near-vertical wall that once divided the sectors. Hitting bottom, Kadaj viciously sideswiped Fenrir, sending it crashing down to the side and Cloud down with it as he roared away.
Cloud picked himself up, battered, morose. Fenrir was scraped cleanly down the side. He'd have to fix that later. Not that he was in much better shape – his sleeve hung in tatters, torn from the pauldron. But it didn't matter – he no longer needed to hide. Defiantly, he tore off the fabric, trying not to retch at the black rot of his own skin; marks broken up only by the pink of Aerith's undamaged ribbon.
Aerith.
He knew where he was going. Righting the bike, he revved it into gear and took up the pursuit once again.
Kadaj squealed to a halt inside the church, scattering petals under his wheels. Disgusting things – but here was where Mother said she wanted to go. A place close to the Lifestream, so she could best feel the rot, the decay, that would be filling it soon.
It was almost time.
He gazed down at the box cradled in his hands, eyes glazed with rapture and anticipation. Turning it eagerly towards his face, he realized for the first time that Rufus's gunshots had sharply slashed the surface… and its treasured contents, leaked out.
His wail of anguish trembled through the rafters.
A noise, and filled with hate, Kadaj looked up to see an object for his fixation. Brother wheeled his bike dead center, framed by sunlight and the church's wooden doors, anger in his face to match Kadaj's own – and Brother gunned it straight towards him.
He reached for Mother's power, and she gave him her strength; Kadaj sent wooden beams crashing to the ground, roaring up the incline and out of reach. Peering down, he cackled as the Geostigma hit; Brother cringed in pain, seizing forward, glaring up with loathing for the one so like himself.
Cloud froze, paralyzed among the flowers, A cry of help from deep inside, reaching, reaching –
- she reached back –
She touched.
The water bubbled from the ground, the flowers joyfully drawing it to the surface, glowing with life and love as Aerith broke free of Sephiroth's hold. She sent all her hope, her love, to Cloud, and Lifestream turned to water, bursting from the walls, a waterfall of all they both held dear.
Cloud stood in heavenly amazement, the sweetness of the rain showering over him, washing him free; as he reached to catch happiness in his hand, he felt his wounds spontaneously heal. Pain and hate, melted away by the magic of life itself, and he could only stare in wide-eyed awe as he felt himself set free.
Aerith… you're really there…
Kadaj screamed as hissing droplets stuck his clothes and skin, burning with their purity, and in terror he wheeled out of the church, leaving brother alone with the putrid rain. Cloud was left alone in the sanctity of the church, cleansed and pure, gazing in wonder at the lake that had fallen from the sky and rose up from the ground. The flowers destroyed but happy for their sacrifice, ready themselves to rejoin the river of life, to become something new – just like Cloud himself.
A final drop splashed down from above, and this time Cloud heard her voice as if she was right there beside him.
Aerith smiled from the beyond. It was done; she was no longer held back. But the fight still belonged to him. But now, she'd be there right beside him, to see him through to the end. To the end – no, the beginning – he'd been meant for all along.
Let's go, Cloud.
Cloud burst from the church, his strength renewed, fearless and free. But underneath, he could still feel the dirty pull, the draw to the Remnant ahead.
Reunion.
It called him still.
But Cloud was not the same; he was no longer at its mercy. Instead, he followed the sensation, a desire, a need, to put an end to this once and for all. To prove he was no one's man but his own.
He knew when he'd reached his destination, the glow inside his soul growing brighter the closer he drew. Determined, courageous, he pulled his sword casually from the compartment that held it, the clap of the lid shutting tight an emphasis on the battle that lay ahead.
Air stirred in the silence; Kadaj stared down from a platform above. Sephiroth's eyes. That once might have struck fear into his heart, but now, he found nothing, not sadness, not pity. Only an empty question remaining.
"Brother," Kadaj gasped, mirroring Sephiroth's crazed look. "I'm with her at last!"
Only a Remnant. Desperate. Alone. "What happens next?" Cloud asked, barely more than curiosity behind the question.
Kadaj's voice choked up. "Mother's going to tell me," was all he replied.
Despite himself, Cloud felt compassion. For the pathetic soul before him, a being tormented, controlled. A thing he himself once had been. And perhaps it was that spot of reluctant empathy that softened his voice, stilled his hand. "I guess a Remnant wouldn't really know."
Returning his stare, Kadaj sneered. Brother. The man who thought he was too good for the rest of them, trying to pretend he was anything other than what he was, a dutiful son to Mother. He would know his place soon enough.
"So what if I'm a puppet?" Kadaj allowed his voice to go deathly quiet –
- and a little part of Cloud still screamed inside, the part that had been taken from him against his will. Kept him from love; kept him from life. A gnawing sore still not healed, an abrasion on the happy life he'd so desperately wanted to create a life that now that he realized its value, he would never willingly give up.
Cloud tightened his grip on his sword.
"Once upon a time – " Kadaj stroked the box lovingly, and Cloud braced – "YOU WERE TOO!"
Flares blasted down to Cloud, from everywhere at once, and he leapt into the fray. Kadaj, stronger, faster, than any human he had to face, but still he wasn't Sephiroth – still didn't have that power. Still, Cloud found himself nearly matched, as blades whirled and crashed, only to separate and strike again, over and over, neither able to gain the upper hand…
The Shera swept through the sky, zeroing on the fight below. Tifa ignored the arguments breaking out behind her, eyes only on the man she loved.
Cloud – the real Cloud – was back, and she couldn't be more proud.
They'd instinctively given her the spot in front, a position of respect; Tifa remembered how they'd once asked her to lead. She still wondered if she could. But for Cloud's sake, she would try. Cloud, the man who even in his absence had pushed her to become her OWN hero, to be someone who could stand by his side as an equal, not a burden. And it was for that a hundred other reasons beside that she loved him with all her heart.
It was Vincent's solemn, dignified voice that finally silenced the rabble behind. Others rose their voices in protest, but Tifa heard none of it, her mind focused on Vincent's few, heavy words.
He can do this alone.
Vincent, the silent observer, so often saw what others did not.
Kadaj is a Remnant of Sephiroth.
"Vincent," she asked carefully, turning from the window, "does Cloud know what Kadaj is?"
One would think.
Vincent watched Tifa, her presence, he grace, as she took his words in. Her loyalty to Cloud unwavering, her strength undeterred. Tifa, so often full of doubt, but hadn't she always been the strongest of them all?
Cloud's heart.
She stood now, turning back to the scene below. The decision was hers to make – but she already knew. This was Cloud's fight.
She'd tried so hard to love him – she was only beginning to learn sometimes that meant letting him be.
The protests gushed behind her, but Tifa remained firm, and they finally died as they all deferred to the woman who knew Cloud so well. Yuffie sniffed, determined to get in the last word. "That Cloud's a real pain in the ass!"
He was. But he was so many other things besides. "Cloud is Cloud," Tifa said with finality – and in her heart, she knew she didn't want him any other way.
The battle raged on, and even as Cloud heard the Shera swoop away, he could feel Tifa's faith still with him. His light, his love, and it gave him the courage to keep on fighting.
There would be no defeat. He had to win.
Inch by inch, he started to gain on the Remnant, wearing him down, seeing the desperation in his eyes, as Kadaj fought one-handed, never letting go of Jenova's head in his arms. Finally, desperately, Kadaj leapt high into the air – but Cloud was ready, and as the Remnant crashed towards him, Cloud struck.
Kadaj flew through the air, grabbing the edge of a building before he fell to a desperate death, and Cloud leapt like light above him. Stillness hung in the air, the one man hanging by a thread, the other looking down wishing there would be hatred in his heart, but could find nothing but pity instead.
A killing blow would end it now. But, even with sword poised in hand, he couldn't bring himself to move.
Kadaj's eyes were filled with hate, as he stared up at the man holding his life in his hands. Without fear, he flung the box into the air, the last dripping remains of Jenova's head dripping out in midair – and he let himself fall to it.
Cloud had no choice. He leapt forward afterward –
Driving, tumbling, toward the figure below, sword out and ready, as Kadaj smashed into the building below –
- his sword met with another, an earthquake of steel on steel, as Kadaj became before him, a familiar image of fear and revenge.
Sephiroth's stark green eyes met to meet Cloud's kindness-blue, faces near close enough to kiss.
"Good to see you, Cloud."
Author's Note: I usually don't like to do these kinda "progress report" messages, but I'll do one now. I'm on a crazy work schedule, but I do work on this slowly and steadily, even if I can work on it only fifteen minutes a day.
I actually came home today in a serious Cloti mood, after listening to "Thousand Years" GMV by Remi Lockhart. So I continued listening to an amazing remix of Aerith's Theme by Enrico Delana (look this all up on youtube).
Anyway, after this, I spent a few minutes working on the FINAL chapter. Yes, there is an ending to this, and though it's a happy one, it makes me absolutely bawl every time I work on it. So I will continue to push forward if for no other reason than to get that final chapter posted.
I'm often unsure who's reading this, but at this point there's enough kudos to reassure me that SOMEONE is. I hope I'm making you smile, cry, and most of all, making you think. The ultimate compliment is if this story makes you think of something that hasn't occurred to you before.
As I said in the first chapter, I will finish this even if NO ONE reviews. But thank you to all who are along for the ride, and ACC is NOT the end. Let's keep going together!