Section 2

It searched.

Blindly, coldly, with one purpose in its blackened mind.

To find it.

To have it.

To complete the circle.

To have the power.

Where its master failed, it would prevail. Prevail or be killed. Kill or be killed. Destroy or be killed.

It would destroy. It would obliterate. It would consume the entire populace of the blackened world one by one if need be. It would complete its task. It would do so for its master. It wasn’t ready to killed. Not yet.

Not before it had revenge.

And it would have its sweet revenge.

It could taste the blood already, the crimson rivers of sticky liquid flowing from open wounds.

It could smell the death already, the acrid stench of mauled corpses and burned flesh hanging from pearly bones.

It would have revenge. It would taste it and smell it and drink it deeply as though the death was its life’s blood.

It had the power to destroy the people, so it could get the power to destroy the world.

The Planet would feel its vengeance. The Planet would do – could do – nothing to prevent the destruction. The Planet was doomed as long as it was alive. The people were predestined to die, swiftly and by its jaws’ fire.

There was nothing anyone could do to stop it. It had the power of anger.

Of hate.

Of fear.

They were all on its side.

They would all reap from its plunder and pillage.

The Planet could not fight the fear and oppression even with the pathetic Lifestream.

The Planet would die.

It laughed, an unnatural, guttural sound from deep within its throat.

And it searched.

"It’s looking," Cloud declared suddenly, turning his gaze from the rain-stricken window of the Highwind. Tifa fought the urge to look his way, and Barret snorted indignantly, crossing his massive arms over his chest.

"What’s lookin’ fer what?" he growled. "The bathroom?" He shook his head. "Quit using them damn pronouns and tell us somethin’ straight fer once. Without yo riddles." Barret looked expectantly to Cloud. The blond-haired man didn’t answer. "Damn it, Cloud! This is startin’ ta piss me off! Now, I was willin’ ta leave the Turk in the City of the Ancients, and I was willin’ ta go on and leave the pilot, but I ain’t willin’ ta go off followin’ ya around half-cocked. So, either ya tell us what’s goin’ on without all yo mumble-jumble crap or else I ain’t comin’."

Cloud shrugged indifferently. "Then don’t come. I don’t need your help. Through some sad, twisted set of morals you follow, you have chosen to come along and help me ‘save the world’. In this game, there are no people to save. This isn’t for the people; the people can rot in hell. I’m doing this to save the Planet, and I don’t need your help. I’d just as soon kill you than ask for your help. It doesn’t matter to me, just like the people of this world don’t matter to me."

"That’s cold," Tifa declared, her tone harsh with disapproval. "How can you be so indifferent to the people? To your friends? After all we’ve done for you?"

"What have you done?" he snapped. "Friends are too much trouble. Friends don’t help you; they hold you back, asking for help, asking for money, taking and never giving. Whoever made the word ‘friend’ was an idealist set on having people like and worship each other. The day I have friends will be the day the world stands still."

Tifa felt her anger replacing the bitter hurt his words inflicted on her. "So that’s what we are to you, huh? Nothing. Well, let me tell you something. We’re not following you around because of our twisted morals. We’re not following you around because we think you need help. We’re following you because we care, and whether you like it or not, Cloud Strife has friends!"

Cloud’s eyes narrowed with anger. "And what will friendship get me but another death weighing down on my shoulders because I was too weak to stop it."

Tifa opened her mouth to reply but found she had nothing to say. That had sounded too much like Cloud’s reasoning, too much like his old cynicism and bitterness. I never had the strength to save you. Oh, God… was this really Cloud? Was this the man she had loved, had spent five years of her life wishing for? Had it all come down to this?

She turned away from him. He wasn’t just the shadow of the man she had once known. He couldn’t just be another broken man once more. They had come passed that point. They had learned so much from when he had been captured. He had accepted himself for the first time in his life. He said he loved her.

He couldn’t be lying.

He wouldn’t have lied.

It had never been a question before these events. She had given him love and affection. She had given him her soul. But even her soul could not keep him with her, could not keep them together. When would she ever learn? She always made the same wrong turns, the same stupid mistakes. Did he love her?

"Cloud…" Her voice trailed off, and he turned away from her.

Was he a liar? Was this what he wanted? Wasn’t there something they could salvage between them? He loved her… once. Once.

An uncomfortable silence fell over the room, only an occasional growl of thunder or the frightening flash and crack of lightning signifying the pass of time. No one spoke. No one dared to break the silence that seemed as though it was sacred. There was little time spent pondering the silence when you were fighting for lives.

Barret cleared his throat. "Where are we headin’?" he asked, trying to make it seem as though the last biting comments between Cloud and Tifa had never been muttered.

Cloud turned to the window, his gaze seemingly sightless as he looked out beyond the churning rage of the heavens. "To Wutai," he declared, his voice a soft accompaniment to the pounding rain. "We can find it there."

Yuffie held the Oritsuru over her head as she ran through the muddy streets of Wutai to her house, eager to get away from the relentless rain and storms. She ducked through the door, tossing the Oritsuru to the corner of the room underneath the place on the wall where her prized Conformer hung suspended on its pegs.

Clutched in her other hand was a small satchel, a ratty old bag filled with the most wondrous treasure in the whole world. Materia. Enough materia to make herself an invincible machine. Enough materia to take out her revenge on the people who had broken her town, the ones who had broken Wutai’s spirit.

Sure it wasn’t her materia, but that didn’t matter. The materia’s former owners didn’t have any uses for it anymore. Cid had said so himself. Cloud was all wonky again. What use would he have for it? It was hers now. Especially the shining black orb of power with which she had just been reacquainted. That would be the kick behind her threats. The people of Wutai would be reborn with the spirit of the Black Materia. Shinra would go down, and Wutai would rise to power.

It was all so simple.

Her father would be pleased.

"We’re gonna be rich and powerful again," she declared to the dark, empty house. "Wutai will rise again out of the ashes of the old."

"Ashes…" A light flared to life in her house, chasing all the shadows from the corner as each and every lamp was lit. Only one shadow remained, and that shadow was the most malevolent of them all.

Yuffie took an involuntary step back, her eyes widening in surprise. She had not been expecting this. This was not what she had had intended when she meant ashes. A fervent wish flitted across her mind for the lights to go out again and leave the black shadow in its darkness.

Before her, menacing red eyes glared out from beneath the majestic crest covering the head of a decidedly evil creature, its black body as dark as coal. Its teeth were bared, gleaming long and sharp in the light. It stretched wings absentmindedly, tapping wicked talons on the wooden planks that made the floor of her house.

"Ashes will be made of the old," it whispered, a voice that sounded too much like grating gravel. "But nothing new will come of it. Nothing will rise from the ashes of the dead. There will be no more after this."

The dragon rose up on its hunches, extending its wings to each wall of the house. "Give me my property," it growled, "and I will give you a quick and easy death. No lingering pain. Just nothing."

Yuffie clenched her fists at her sides. The materia was hers, and if some overgrown lizard was going to tell her otherwise, it was sadly mistaken. "Your property?" she asked dubiously. "It’s mine!"

The dragon roared in anger, seemingly growing larger as it tore the roof from her house and threw it for the wind to catch. It collided with another house as the rain and wind whipped it about. The cries from inside the collapsing structure could not be heard over the dragon.

Yuffie swallowed hard, a sudden realization making her go cold. The dragon was getting bigger, feeding off of the darkness of the clouds, expanding off her fears and anger. This wasn’t going to be as easy as she thought. Forgetting the first rule of combat her father had taught her, she turned her back on the creature and ran for her life.

"Where do you go in such a hurry, little one?" the dragon demanded, bringing its forearms down onto the ground with a loud crash. The earth shook in response, shattering windows in their panes and ripping the muddy ground. Yuffie fell forward, losing her footing on the slick surface and falling into the puddles. Her face was propelled into the mud, and she got a mouthful of the vile ooze. She spit it out angrily, standing and facing the dragon.

Lightning flashed, followed shortly by a growl of thunder. She was not intimidated, her anger seething from her as her weapon. She reached into the small, soaked satchel, pulling a perfectly crimson orb of materia from its depths. It twinkled of its own accord, untouched by the raging rain that was soaking the earth. Yuffie allowed herself a small smile.

"Tidal Wave!" she shouted, her voice rising over the roar of the storm. Blinding light flashed around her as she flickered from existence. Water seemed to collect from the very air itself, gathering up the pouring rain into one large sphere of crystalline ice. It shattered into a thousand pieces, shards of it melting before they hit the ground, to reveal a long, wiry serpent seemingly made from the ocean itself.

It hissed as water droplets fell from its sleek body, sizing up the dark dragon before it. After a few minutes of total indifference, Leviathan struck, roaring a serpentine curse at the black lizard. Water formed behind it, a gigantic typhoon of immeasurable strength wrought from the power of the oceans.

The wave crashed into the dragon, hundreds of thousands of gallons of biting seawater washing over its shimmering black scales. It would have been enough to take the strongest foe down. It demolished Wutai.

And the dragon laughed.

Rain fell upon the creature of darkness as it hissed an ugly chuckle. "Making my job easier," it whispered. The clouds churned, crackling with power.

Leviathan reared back in fear and anger and was disintegrated. Plumes of lightening more powerful than the strongest materia could summon struck the serpent over and over, picking the being apart with the crack of electricity. There was no smell of charred flesh nor that of death. Leviathan was not alive; it had no flesh to burn, no life to be taken. But it could be destroyed.

And it was.

Yuffie screamed as she was torn back to the rain soaked earth, the materia in her hands shattering. Bits of the crystal sunk deep into her flesh, pain flowing red with her blood. She looked up at the dragon, wide-eyed with panic.

If lizards could smile, the dragon was grinning like a child with bubble gum. Its red eyes blazed with a fatal beauty as it stared deeply into Yuffie’s horrified face. "Will you give me my property, little one? Or do you want to feel the real meaning of pain as I eat you alive?"

Yuffie’s chin quivered as tears of fright filled her eyes. Something that could destroy a summon. Something that could call upon the strongest power of the heavens. Something that would break her as easily as if she were made of porcelain. She held the bag out to the dragon, hot tears burning streaks down her cheeks.

"Take it," she whispered. "Leave me alone."

The dragon snatched the satchel from her hands with one clawed limb, sharp talons tearing through it like scissors through paper. Multi-colored gems of power fell from the bag, falling into the muddy puddles and disappearing into their murky deep. These were of no interest to the dragon. Its eye was for one thing only.

The Black Materia.

The Black Death.

It was the last to fall from the tear in the satchel, the last to emerge like liquid shadow dripping from the light. It caught the light of a burst of lightning, reflecting it beautifully in its unmarred surface, a smooth and shining orb that knew nothing of flaws. The dragon snatched its beauty from the air, enclosing one sharply taloned hand around it. Fiery eyes sought Yuffie’s gray.

"Why, thank you, little one," it said gravelly, a wicked gleam glinting within its gaze. "Now, you can die."

With reflexes faster than a cat’s, its other hand whipped around to knock into her. Claws raked her flesh, leaving a trail of fire in their wake, as she was thrown back into the remnants of her neighbors’ house. She hit the concrete wall with a bone-crunching thud and lay still. Rain ran unheeded into her staring eyes.

The dragon cocked its head, its gaze flickering across the soaking debris, staring through the salty haze that had settled over the town with Leviathan’s destruction. It was searching once more. And what it found, it didn’t like.

Walking steadily into the town on the main road, one man entered, coldly, calmly surveying the damage it had sustained. Indifferent to the loss of life, the man hefted a large broadsword, bringing it about to hold in both of his hands.

The Destroyer.

The dragon growled its displeasure.

"You cannot take the power from me," it hissed, snapping its jaws together on its last word as though to offer a silent threat.

Cloud’s indifferent mask didn’t slip; he felt no fear or anger in response to the dragon’s words. "I would only seek to reunite you with your master," he declared, his tone as hard as granite. "Surely you would find that acceptably within your range of actions."

"Fool!" it cried, anger seeping through its entire demeanor. This little man could not scratch it, much less reunite it with the dead master. To even suggest such a thing was insulting. "We shall see, Destroyer. We shall see."

Almost before the dragon had completed its sentence, it brought its jaws down to the man in an effort to take off the Destroyer’s head.

Its teeth met cold steel.

The Ultima Weapon hummed with power as it held back the lithe jaws of the dragon. Cloud did not strain to hold the jagged teeth back, did not flinch against the sulfurous breath emanating from its open mouth, did not seem to care that he was inches away from a razor death that would cut him to shreds.

He twisted the Ultima Weapon in his grip, and, for a startling moment that would terrorize any man, the teeth came hurtling straight for him. The Ultima Weapon shifted again as he took a step back and cut deep into the back of the dragon’s throat. It reared back from the sharp pain, roaring in an almost tangible anger, black ichor leaking from its mouth.

"You will pay for that, Destroyer," it declared, cursing him in an unintelligible tongue. "Dearly."

The next few minutes was a flurry of movement, marked only with the ring of the Ultima Weapon as it collided with the hard bone of the dragon’s claws. No one gained an upper hand; they both fought to keep a lengthy distance from the sharp edges of the weapons. There was nothing besides the strain of the fighting. No curses, no taunts or jeers thrown at the face of the opponent. There was only the cold ring of metal, the heavy labor of breathing, the grunts of the strenuous work.

No distractions.

Just him and his opponent.

The way he liked it.

It didn’t last forever.

"Cloud!"

A part of him moved with the call, breaking free from the cold prison of the Destroyer. A part of Cloud emerged.

Cloud turned to look at the source of the scream, and, for a brief moment in time that seemed to last forever, his eyes locked with hers. That was his mistake, for then came the pain, the jarring impact as the talons of the dragon scraped against his ribs, the gasping rush as the air left his lungs, the heat of his own blood as it left his body.

Tifa climbed over the debris, running forward. "Cloud!" she screamed in terror, watching as he stumbled, the Ultima Weapon falling from his numbed hands. Her breath caught in her throat as he doubled over in pain, crimson rivers flowing from the large gashes on the side of his chest. He clutched at the wound as if to stop the immeasurable amount of his life from leaving his body. He fell to his knees.

"Tifa…" he muttered, his voice a mere harsh whisper. He had no breath to say more, no thought to speak, something coming to his confused mind. The lock the Destroyer had pressed on his soul lifted, the murky cloud shrouding over his mind fading for an instant. Where was he? He couldn’t recall being there, couldn’t recall what it was he was doing there. All he knew was that she was there with him. That was all he needed to know.

He collapsed, his arms still wrapped tightly about his body.

"No!" Tifa shouted, her voice tight with denial and anger. This couldn’t be happening, not when they had finally ended all the madness, not when they had finally had a glimpse of the life they were about to embark on, not now… never now.

She pressed her hands tightly together, her face a stone mask of her emotions. Compressing her lips in a thin line, she summoned the power of her anger and the power of her materia. Green light flared to life around her.

"Ultima!"

A detonation of green power exploded around her, encompassing the entire vicinity, leveling all of the town that remained standing. The heat seared in the air, evaporating the rain before it had a chance to hit the ground, obliterating everything into ashes and charred remains. It was the incarnation of her anger, of all the rage that had built up throughout the plight and pain she had gone through with him. It was all the fear and hurt of living a life without him.

It wasn’t enough to scratch the dragon.

The creature of darkness turned its bloody gaze on her, snorting its distaste at her feeble attempts to destroy it. The rain, so recently gone for a small respite, returned with a vengeance similar to that of the dragon’s. Murder in red eyes, it snapped its jaws hungrily.

"Foolish human," it growled. "You cannot defeat the dark with anger." It chuckled weakly. "I am anger."

Its tail crashed down to the ground to mark its words, shaking the land with the fury of a maelstrom. Muddy water splashed up around the massive whip as it was flicked once again. Tifa staggered as the earth shook beneath her feet.

There was no time for anything but fear.

The tail came crashing into her with the speed of a gold chocobo, knocking the wind from her lungs and sending her head over heels. She fell back into the mud, cracking her head painfully on the ground as she slid through the muck. Her body came to a halt, an aching pain settling in her bones where she had been hit with the dragon’s tail. Water sprayed into her face from the rain as she lay prone on the saturated ground among the scorched remains of someone’s house. It was as this she laid there, gasping for breath, dazed and confused, waiting for the end to come claim her so that, for once, she could be with Cloud for all eternity. It was as this she lingered in the world of the living, wishing for a quick end to her body so that she might be with him as a soul.

The rain stopped.

The thunder died.

Cloud Strife, blood leaking down his side to pool at his feet, slowly pushed himself to a standing position, reclaimed sword in hand. He could no longer feel the pain of his wounds, nor could he heed the warnings inside his head. There was one thing alive in his body, one thing pushing him far beyond his limits. It was the same one thing that had kept him moving throughout his life. The one thing that fueled his actions. The one thing he would always have to hold dear, even when there was nothing to use it against.

Vengeance.

The hilt of the Ultima Weapon was slick with rain and blood, slippery but not unsure in his grip. His face was grim with his anger. Sephiroth would pay once more for all the hell that he’d been through. Sephiroth would pay once more for all the pain he had felt. Sephiroth would always pay for what had been taken. Sephiroth would die with this creature as he himself had died just a little more with every piece of his battered soul that had been destroyed.

It was time to give a little bit back.

With a wordless cry of anger and rage, Cloud raised the Ultima Weapon high above his head, the blade glinting evilly of its own accord. The sky churned back and ugly, creating a vortex of blue as the clouds slowly spun away from the center above him. Sunlight streamed down to meet him, proud and majestic, disintegrating the shadows around him.

Proud Cloud… never knew when to quit…

Shimmering light exploded around him, a raging inferno of fire and heat, borne of the pureness of Holy and the taint of Black, a force that was symbolic of how he felt. Torn between light and dark, between the heat of his hatred and the cold of his vengeance. It was his purpose to destroy like this… it was what he was supposed to do.

White light filled his vision, blinded his eyes.

He closed them.

And then red filled his vision; his eyesight bled crimson with his rage.

The world melted.

The fire died.

The rage ended.

The light was brilliant, and the heat wave fierce, and then the violent explosion snapped out of existence. Everything that had been in its path was charred, burned, ruined. The fires of hell in their rage had sundered the land, counteracted with the good of the Planet. And everything had been destroyed.

Tifa slowly took a breath. The air was charged with power, seemingly crackling, hot and humid. It hurt to unclamp her lungs and inhale, and the air tasted of death and blood as she did. She lowered her arm that had protected her eyes from the brightness and slowly opened them, her heart still thundering, the echo of the magnificent explosion still reverberating through her skull. As the light faded from her wracking eyes, she was able to see again.

She blinked the tears away from her eyes in a vain hope that she was imagining what was surrounding her, that what her mind had refused to accept before was still only a sad figment of her worst dreams.

Wutai lay in ruins, a few walls of the sturdiest buildings remaining upright among the debris. Most were on the ground in heaps of charred masonry and wood. Everything was smoldering, decimated. The dragon was nothing more than a collection of ashes on the ground. The world was dead and gray.

Cloud was the only thing left standing.

The red left his vision, fading away to a dull black that was the entire world around him. It was as though he was locked forever in a vast nothing with no more fears nor anger nor foolish pride to haunt him in the night. It was as though his mind was far too tired to even think much less comprehend the tangled knot of emotions filling his heart and spirit. He had done it again. He had killed again. And for what?

For the Planet. What a joke.

He fell to his knees, wishing that something could come fill the empty spaces occupying his heart and soul. There was no longer even vengeance to soothe his painful wounds. The lack of even the satisfaction of his vengeance was only salt within them, burning like alcohol, mocking his hurt. All he had was cold. There was nothing left to make him warm, no fire in his spirit, nothing left but icy ashes blown away in a gust of the wind.

And the cracks. How many, many cracks had been formed with this terrible turning of events? How many people had he hurt and killed and lost because he was too weak to save them? How many friends cheated out of a happiness they were sure to have owned for the rest of their lives?

He had no right to happiness even if he could find one scrap of it left in his shredded life. All the hell he had put his friends through, all the pain they had to muddle through just so he could be amused. He had no right to happiness; he had no right to life. To think this had happened to all of them because they had sat down and put up with his crap day after day. How they would sit on their asses and nod at the stupid things he said. How they would lean back and watch him as he followed through on another one of his silly quests to regain some part of his conscience. He had no conscience. Whatever peace of mind he had had died on that day, five years ago. And here they all had been, sitting on the crossroads of the past and the future, and putting up with his crap.

What a joke. What a stupid, stupid joke the Planet had pulled on them all. He wasn’t laughing. No one was laughing. You couldn’t laugh when you were dead. You couldn’t give a cry of mirth when there wasn’t enough breath left in your lungs to sustain the worms chewing through them. The Ancients were sadistic comedians, and all the Planet was their stage. They were all puppets. And he the worst of all.

Because he was destined to cut the others’ strings.

"Take me," he uttered, his voice cracking from disuse. "Oh, God, take me. Kill me now."

There was no answer.

The only thing left standing.

It always seemed to be like this. The Planet would be reduced to nothing, to lifeless rock. All the world could shred itself, and he would always be alone in surviving. Not this time. Not now. The pact had been set.

He was the only thing left standing.

And then he, too, fell to his knees.

"Cloud," Tifa whispered through barely parted lips. She scrambled to her feet, ignoring the shouts of the rest of the team who called to her and Cloud to return to the ship, who called for them to leave this ruin. She nearly stumbled from the dizziness, but forced herself on, bounding over fallen debris and wreckage. "Cloud!"

He dropped the Ultima Weapon, the huge sword falling from his weak fingers into the dirt, scraping along in it. Cloud doubled over weakly, and he collapsed onto the ground, which was incredibly dry and arid, cracks running through it. All the moisture had been boiled away with his rage. All the raining anger of the heavens had disappeared, apparently forgotten.

"Cloud," Tifa said, skidding to her knees beside him. Looking his battered body over, she saw the wounds that beast had inflicted upon him, a large gash in his side gushing blood sticky with dirt. She pressed her hands over the flow as if that had the power to stop it. "Cloud," she said again, breathing hard. His eyes were closed, his face one of agony, his breath faint and raspy. "Cloud, open your eyes and look at me."

Blue eyes, unfocussed with hurt and exhaustion, creaked open and trained on her form as she leaned over him. "Tifa?" he whispered.

She took his hand. "I’m here, Cloud," she promised, squeezing his fingers. "I’m with you."

"Tifa…" he said softly. "I can feel myself dying…"

"No," she said strongly, surprised and angry at his words, angry more at herself because, deep down, she knew he was right. "No, Cloud." Unwilling to admit it. "No." Denial. "We’ll get the Restore Mater-"

He closed his eyes again. "… it’s… too late," he declared softly. "You… you can’t heal… this… can’t…" He licked his lips, his breathing labored. And Tifa understood. Her eyes filled with tears. Curing his flesh wounds wouldn’t help. His soul was shattered, broken into too many little pieces to repair. He was going to die. He didn’t want to live. He had nothing left.

The tears slid from her eyes as she held his broken body in her arms. He couldn’t mean that. He had to think that she was worth something, that her love – that their love – was something that was worth living for, fighting for… dying for. "No," she whispered, her voice shaking. "No. You can’t die, Cloud."

His lips tugged into the weakest of smiles. "… even you… can’t stop…" His voice faded. Tifa’s lower lip was quivering as she fought the great sobs wracking her. She held Cloud’s hand, her arm behind his neck. She couldn’t speak. Her voice was lost with the wind, gone in the fight, her strength pouring out of her with each tear. Cloud’s fingers tightened weakly around hers. "I’m so… sorry, Tifa…" he whispered, "for all the… times I’ve never been… there… never been with you… to say this… I’ve… wanted to ask you… for a long time…. Never had…courage…. It’s now or…." He trailed off.

"Cloud," Tifa whispered.

He forced his eyes open and focused on her. "I… I love you…" His voice was a strained whisper. He took a slow breath. "Would… you …." He opened his eyes again. Tears were running down his temples. "Marry me…" Then they closed forever. Cloud’s hand was limp in hers as the breath exited his body, and he was still.

Tifa held him in silence, staring at his lifeless body in shock, rage, and great sorrow. She couldn’t think. She couldn’t breathe. Tears escaped silently. Her soul split from her body, anxious to follow her lover’s to the afterlife but still tethered by mortality. "No," she whispered, tears running into her lips. Denial ravaged her as she ran her hands down Cloud’s face. His skin was still warm. "No," she said louder. "Cloud, no." She drew a short breath and exploded. "NO!"

Her cry was lost in the still air, no ears left to hear it, no hearts left to care. She collapsed over him, oblivious to the blood that seeped into her clothing, her sobs choking the breath from her lungs. "It wasn’t supposed to be like this," she whispered, her voice shaking with her tears. "We were supposed to be together forever. I can’t lose you."

It was silent beside her crying; the world seemed too shocked to move. Time stood still as Tifa wept with a vengeance, laying over Cloud’s lifeless body, holding him. "I love you…" she whispered, her eyes squeezed shut against the sight of his blank blue eyes, his eyes that would never again shine because of his happiness or because of his pain. Why was it like this all the time? Destined to hurt, together and apart. She took a shaky breath, wishing he could still hear the words that flowed from her mouth like a reservoir of feelings whose dam had finally eroded away. "I loved you since the first moment I saw you… You were everything to me… Everything…" The wind picked up, spreading the stench of death and soot.

And something else. Something that was too familiar, no more than a tingling in her nostrils, but an entire lifetime of memories. It brought her a sense of déjà vu, prompting her to recall a time she had lost him before this, one more of the thousands of memories she would give anything to forget.

A soft tickle coiled around her hand, a caress one would expect to come from a gentle breeze or a loving embrace. It was strangely familiar and somehow vaguely malevolent though it showed no menace to her now. Curiosity stifled her sobs, and she raised her head to look at the presence streaming around her.

"Lifestream…"

It flowed up from the cracks within the arid ground in little tendrils, swirling around her and Cloud as though it was dancing to a lethargic melodic tune that no one could hear. Tifa stared at the green coils as it crept around them, wide-eyed with fear. Was this green horror returning to destroy her mind once more? What would she do without Cloud to pull her from the lulling insanity offered by the emerald streams?

But the fear was replaced with an increasing hope. Would the Planet finally acknowledge the err of its ways? Was it trying to repent for destroying a man who had fought so hard to make sure it continued on in peace-filled harmony? Or was it just toying with them once more, another cruel practical joke that could make the funniest clown cry?

Tifa had no time to answer her own questions; the green blanket smothered her.

For the longest moment of her life, nothing but the infinite green exploded around her, filling her vision, drowning the air from her chest, clouding her mind with its swirling endowment of incomplete sanity. And then she could hear them once more, the demonic voices that seemed to be derived from Hell itself, filling her ears with their cries of loneliness and lusty hunger, screaming loud enough to leave an unbearable ringing reverberating through her skull. And then there was blissful silence.

Tifa doubled over with a gasp of surprise when the voices cut out from her mind as quickly as they had come. Still the green encompassed her with its vastness, still it whispered to her with the murmur of a calm spring rustling over rocks. And she knew that this was the Planet, this was the Planet when it chose to cut off the pain and its suffering and exist for one brief moment in gleeful solitude.

The gateway to the Promised Land.

He wanted it like this…

Tifa looked up sharply as sing-song voice came to her ears from nowhere and everywhere, echoing through the green mists without a clear beginning or end. It was omnipotent, godlike in its infinitude, seemingly caring but somehow cold to her feelings and the feelings of all the others who had once sought its help. It was as though it knew that it could never truly be destroyed, as though it was indifferent to the kinds of life that existed on the Planet.

She couldn’t believe its words. "No," she whispered, suddenly realizing the meaning of the soft voice. "He didn’t want this!" He would not have given up his love for them. They weren’t worth it…

Savior…

Tifa felt the tears wetting her cheeks. She was so selfish. Friendship was worth dying for, but love was the ultimate friendship. She hated her thoughts. And the moment they invaded her mind, she hated herself. Of course her friends were worth it. But that didn’t make it hurt any less. "Cloud, no…"

Destroyer…

It couldn’t be true. How could he abandon her like this after all they had gone through together, after all they had to share, after all the years they had yet to come? What was he thinking? Destroying their destiny together in the name of his friends; his title was more true than any could imagine.

Giver of life…

What had he been thinking?

"No!" Tifa screamed, clutching at the Lifestream as if to choke the life from its tendrils. Her hands grabbed nothing, the green mists dissipated, shooting away from her and her lover’s corpse. She broke down into a fury of tears and sobs, clutching his lifeless body in her arms as the warmth slowly melted away from him. "You can’t leave me! Cloud… come back…"

And she knew then that she would always be alone.

© Junj, 1998

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