Disclaimer: I do not own any characters or concepts from FFVII. They are the property of Square-Enix. No infringement is intended. ^^
A/N: It occurred to me one night that Sephiroth was really, really powerful. (That's not as dense as it sounds, I promise. -.-) And that when I tried to beat Sephiroth on a really low level, I couldn't do it. So I started to wonder... what would happen then?
And then I got this. ^^; Enjoy!
Prologue
The Planet is trembling. This Aeris knows, even as she lies in eternal slumber at the bottom of a lakebed. She reaches out to the Planet, to her mother, and sees.
Cloud is surrounded by a glittering illusory world of stars, travelling through a vortex that pulses with light. He grips his sword tightly in one gloved hand, the other clenched into a fist. He does not know where he is, where he is going. He only knows that the lights are beautiful, and that here, somewhere, is Aeris.
The lights fade abruptly. Blue eyes, the startling shade of a Fatal Error screen, blink and then widen.
Sephiroth raises his sword.
And the sword falls.
Red envelops blue. Cloud's empty body collapses slowly. In the true world, a woman screams. Aeris reaches for his soul, not with her pale hands (for they are lying by her sides in the silt of the lake bottom) but with her own soul, seeking to bind him firmly to the Lifestream.
Cloud makes desperate snatches at Aeris as his progress slows. Their souls touch.
Jenova's presence oozes into the Lifestream like poison, and this time Aeris screams, too.
Far away, in the city of smoke, a young girl looks around her in confusion and fear. The... flower lady? There is no one there. From the street? She trots to the window and is frightened by what she sees.
Raging pillars of fire run rampant through the slums of Midgar, destroying all that cross their path. They stretch from the Meteor to the Planet, a distance that is getting smaller by the second. She knows the Planet is doomed if the Meteor hits.
She squeezes her eyes tightly shut and prays as the Meteor falls.