Ah Chapter 12 at last.....this was hard to write. Mainly because I really couldnt decide where I wanted to go with things from here on as everything has finally come to the climax and now we're racing toward the end. I almost left this story unfinished, I almost forgot comletely about but random reminders and the occasional review email eventually got me to look at it again and hey whaddaya know? I just happened to be in the mood to write one of those times. So Enjoy cause there's no telling how long it'll be till the NEXT one.

Chapter12- A heart at war.

Sephiroth,Hiita,Tsunami,Bliss,Kadaj,Yazoo,Los, Tifa,Aeris,Vincent,and Jenova/Lucretia all met together. Sephiroth pacing the room. the trio's kept to themselves each on the opposite side of the other staring each other down. Tifa stood oddly alone watching Sephiroth's pacing it worried her that he was so worried. Aeris stood not too far from Jenova leaning against the wall.

"He's near....Hiita, Bliss, Tsunami. Take your troops and begin the extermination as we planned if nothing else it'll keep his friends from getting involved. Kadaj,Yazoo,Loz. You three will be in charge of defenses." He paused glancing at Vincent. "Valentine...I won't bother assigning you a job that involves directly facing Cloud instead you will take mother somewhere safe and keep her that way." The last thing he wanted was to lose his mother again.

Vincent nodded that was a task he was prepared for, though he wasn't ready to face Cloud head on if he had to protect Lucrecia...he would.

"Sephiroth....what about me?" Tifa asked. He stopped and turned towards her. Even he wasn't sure what to do with her...or Aeris. Then an idea came to him.

"Since everyone else is moving in a group of three let's keep it that way. "Tifa, Aeris. You two will be with me our job will be to hunt down and kill first...there's something else I want to do."

Aeris nodded Tifa on the otherhand had mixed feelings...true she had wanted to hurt Cloud but kill....she wasn't sure she was ready for that.

"You have your assignments." Sephiroth started out of the room "Tifa,Aeris." The two took their cue's and followed him out of the room.

Cloud started his approach towards Genesis. But stopped when he saw the massive force making a hasty exit. "fleeing? No...that's not all of them...." Cloud wondered what they were up to. "It doesn't matter...I'll get them all soon enough...but first....Sephiroth."His eyes narrowed and his pace quickened.

Kadaj Yazoo and Loz were waiting for Cloud in the main hall.

Cloud strolled in like he owned the place. Giving them all the evil eye.

"So who moves first?" As soon as he asked the question Loz charged while Yazoo fired shots over his shoulder forcing Cloud to block the shots and Loz's fist connected with the flat side of Clouds sword pushing him off his feet and into the wall. He recovered quickly rolling to the side just as Loz's fist smashed down where he had been he was about to counter attack when Kadaj's sword swung through the air making a whistling noise as the air passed between the two blades. Cloud instinctively jumped back and spun around swinging his sword in a vicious horizontal slash connecting with Kadaj's blade and hurling him through the air. Cloud lifted his materia blade and pointed it at Yazoo fireballs formed and hurtled towards Yazoo forcing him to move. Loz came in with an uppercut and Cloud leaned back to avoid it countering with a right hook and then while ducking another punch, kicked back into the only just then returning Kadaj's gut but was soon after hit in the face by Loz and thrown back by the sheer force as Yazoo's bullets rained down like hail he turned as he skidded allowing them to only graze him at worst. When the skidding stopped he stood facing the trio

"Well....this looks like it might be more fun than I thought."

Elsewhere Sephiroth, Aeris, and Tifa made their way down to the basement levels where the mako showers were.

"Sephiroth...What're we doing down here?" Tifa asked

"I'm going to absorb some mako so I can fight cloud." He replied with an icy tone

Tifa froze. "Again? you're going to do it again? Don't you remember the sort of monster you became last time?!"

This time Sephiroth froze in stunned silence. "....You understand don't you? Cloud's already become a monster. You can only beat a monster like that with another monster." He replied turning to look at her.

"No....that's not true! The three of us....I know we can all do it." Tifa protested one of those looks in her eyes like she used to give Cloud when she was pleading with him to do something. Surprisingly or perhaps not surprisingly it worked on Sephiroth too.

Sephiroth sighed. "Alright we'll do it your way." he gave in knowing she'd be incessently nagging about it even after he'd done it if he didn't give her this victory.

Tifa lit up. "You won't regret this."

"I better not." Sephiroth replied turning to march back between her and Aeris. "However, there is one other thing..."

Meanwhile

Cloud spun around in a circle conjuring up a shield of ice as Yazoo's bullets impacted the thick barrier harmlessly but Kadaj and Loz leapt over coming in for another double attack but Cloud was prepared. He turned his sword upwards and leapt up to meet Kadaj's blade, his materia blade had reached a level of hardness far beyond Kadaj's blade by now and shattered one of the blades and threatening to do the same to th remaining one as they collided in mid air. Loz turned and smashed Cloud in the ribs with his him back into the ground as he spun through the air. He hit the ground and gritted his teeth "ENOUGH" The room exploded with Cloud's darkness, his wings spreading wide throwing back Loz and Kadaj into the wall of ice he'd formed. He stood up his as crimson lightning surrounded him. "No more games."

Kadaj and Loz looked at each other and then charged but Cloud wasn't even thinking about playing with them anymore. The lightning shot out and lifted Loz right off the ground slamming him right back into the ice wall as it cracked. Kadaj swung but Cloud's materia blade shattered the remaining blade and sliced his side. Kadaj cried out as he desperately tried to put distance between himself and Cloud. Yazoo finally worked his way around the ice wall and fired some shots to cover Kadaj but in his transformed state it was like Cloud had a constant barrier around him and It became apparent that they were no longer a match for this......monster.

Elsewhere Hiita,Tsunami,and Bliss were assailing Corel and the golden saucer which by now was where the largest remaining population of humans lived with all the evacuations and refugee' out there. With the only others being hiding up in the northern lands in the mountains around north crater and perhaps a few pockets here and there hiding in caves or some such dark place.

However what they hadn't planned on was The highwind along, with Yuffie, Cid, Barret,Nanaki, Zack and the turks showing up.

The highwind in it's time at the new Shinra HQ had been fitted with weapons and some reinforced armor to take hits. It sailed out over their army and rained down elemental bolts from materia based cannons.

Bliss was first to react her eyes narrowing. "Guns." She hissed. The Airship was too big for her to take it down with her wind powers."Hiita, Tsunami." She called and the two were at her sides as she swirled the wind aroud them and lifted them into the air along with a few others.

Barret and Nanaki were standing by on the deck they were going to land on. "SHIT We got boarders!" Barret yelled. As Hiita's arm swung forward throwing a oversized shurikan much like Yuffie's however as barret raised his gun arm and the bullets rained the shurikan met with the hail and it's momentum was lost clattering to the ground harmlessly.

Bullets whizzed by the trio as they seperated to get out of the path of fire except for Bliss, whose winds swirled like a miniature hurricane throwing bullets off course and just narrowly missing her she seemed perfectly calm untill barret took slightly more careful aim realizing what she was doing. and one cut across her cheek. Her eyes widened and then came the scream. The deafening siren wail that made one want to grab their ears as the wind lashed out with enough force to make even small loose objects deadly her shurikan flew off her sliced through the air headed straight for a stunned Barret, Nanaki made it around the corner just in time to pull Barret down(or more accurately to tackle him and get him out of the way).

Bliss had completely snapped and even Hiita and Tsunami didn't know what to do about it. "We should withdraw! She'll kill everyone when she's like this, us included!" Tsunami yelled over the roaring winds to Hiita. "If we leave now Sephiroth will have our heads! Just take out the guy with the gun arm and she'll calm down!"

Meanwhile Nanaki continued from his position on Barret's back and the wind swirling around his body in a spiral and his body propelled itself forward like a missile. (If you hadn't caught on that's sled fang.) He pierced Bliss's barrier of wind as the winds canceled each other out and allowed him passage to the stunned girl his fangs found her shoulder long before either Hiita or Bliss could move. She cried out another banshee wail as she flailed and Nanaki was thrown from her tearing a chunk of her out and taking it with him.

Tsunami was first to reach Bliss as she clutched the wound and fell to a knee with tears streaming out of her eyes. "P-Pain......." she muttered over and over again. Tsunami picked up Bliss and turned to Hiita running past her as Hiita took up a defensive stance. "Hiita! forget the plan! just blow them all to hell! We'll figure out who survived later!" Tsunami yelled as she leapt over the side. The ocean was near enough that she could call upon it's waters to cushion their fall.

While on board the airship, as Nanaki tried to give chase, Hiita let loose with bombs of all shapes and sizes driving him and the now standing barret back around the corner Nanaki had come from. She would make her way around the airship tossing bombs around corners and charging into the blasts showing off her apparent immunity to fire. It wasn't long before the airship was on it's way to meet the ground with everyone on board powerless to do anything against the constant assault of Hiita's bombs in the close quarters of the Airship.

Cid was cursing at the sound of every explosion knowing they were all fatal wounds to his beloved Airship. If the explosion itself didn't destroy something critical the fires would and they were running low on crew as it was. there was no way they could put out everything and he knew it. He knew his ship was dying and unlike so many other things there probably wouldn't be another to replace it later. The turks were all figuring out ways to abandon ship from makeshift parachutes to trying to get the onboard Chocobo's to fly(Zack's Idea "A bird should fly shouldn't it?!").

All that is...with the exception of Reno and Rude who made their way through the exploding halls looking for an exit but instead came face to face with Hiita. "So, there's some men on this boat afterall." She stood shifting her weight to one leg and giving a seductive smirk as the flames raged around her. "Wanna play?"

Reno returned the smirk with an almost crazed grin of his own. "Now how can I refuse an offer like that?" He replied with a smug shrug as he looked toward Rude then back at Hiita simultaneously whipping out his baton. "Rude, you don't have to hang around for this."

Rude silently took his usual battle pose. Then after a moment when Reno looked over with an arched brow he spoke "It's all the same to me." Nanaki skidded in behind Hiita here, but seeing the two turks facing her down decided to leave it to them, the turks may have been only human but they weren't weak and with the airship doomed already he was probably better used helping barret and the others get off this death trap.

Hiita couldn't help but laugh. "You two are priceless. If I didn't have to kill you I'd keep you as pets or something."

"Sorry, but I'm not anybody's pet." Reno said as he moved in swinging his baton as Rude moved up behind him. Hiita just kept laughing. "Morons." She somersaulted backwards simultaneously rolling a grenade along the floor. "SHIT!" Reno yelled diving forward as it rolled past him exploding and throwing both Rude and him through the hall at Hiita who with unusual grace snatched Reno out of the air while letting Rude fly past her. "I like you reckless types. Shame you're so weak and on the wrong side." she said about to toss him aside when she felt the sting of the electro mag rod against her neck.

"Don't go lookin down on me cuz I'm human." Reno told her as she released him holding her neck and growling like a injured animal. "You're dead." Hiita hissed.

"We're already dead, this Airships goin down and as long as I keep you here you'll be going out with me." Reno explained

Hiita's eyes flickered with a momentary surprise. "Oh? Was that your plan? Surprisingly noble. But even if this ship goes down with me on it I won't die. Hell I probably won't even be hurt."

"The hell are you talking about? Nobody could survive a crash like this." Reno said keeping her talking while Rude got into position behind her.

"Haven't you noticed? I've walked through these halls blowing up everything in my way and I'm not even singed. Why?" She posed the question to him like a teacher trying to get a student to enlighten himself and Reno realized it all too late.

"You're....." He began a look of horror crossed his face as he realized this was all in vain.

"Mmmmmn...that's a good look." She said watching his horrified expression. "That's right. Now you've got it" She spread her arms and the flames came unto her but did her no harm. "I absorb fire....or I suppose you could say in a way I am fire. When this ship crashes and explodes the explosion will do nothing to me. That's why I can throw around these bombs without a care in the world." She explained.

"Damnit I screwed up!" Reno cursed he'd gambled and it was looking like he'd lost. Rude swung hard from behind since Hiita seemed so intent on ignoring him. His fist hit hard pushing her forward drawing a curse from Hiita. "What the hell? Can't you see we're talking here? That's why I hate you quiet types you're too damn sneaky." She spun around kicking him in the chest giving Reno the opportunity to get another hit in with his mag rod across her back.

"Oooh, playing rough? I can do that too!" She yelled driving an elbow into Reno's gut. She spun around behind him and as he tried to turn to follow her movement she leaned close and whispered "Like it or not you're gonna be my toy for awhile." Shortly after which she pushed him forward toward Rude keeping them on the same side of the airship.

"Alright, boys lets play all the way to the final boom!" Hiita roared with a crazed grin.

Reno looked over a Rude "Hey, buddy. somethings wrong with me."

"Hm?" Rude gave him a curious look. "I think I'm in love." Reno finished staring down the red haired femme fatale.

"Heh. Too bad she's crazy." Rude said

"Ain't they always?" Reno asked with a widening grin.

"Hey hey pay attention!" Hiita cut in, a whip of flame had formed in her hand and she lashed out striking between the two of them as they took to opposite sides of the hall to avoid the strike. "Don't think I'll go too easy on you just cuz I'm playing!"

Elsewhere, those who'd escaped from the airship made their way into the older area's of Midgar, which was now teeming with monsters of all shapes and sizes, all made quite active by the whirlwind of large scale movement and destruction going on in the area. Yuffie,Tseng,Elena,Barret,Nanaki, Zack and Cait Sith all were now in the forest around midgar. Cid seemed to have been intent on staying with the Airship as long as possible for what reason none of them knew, maybe he just wanted to find that girl responsible for killing his airship and get some way this group began the rough trip towards the old shinra tower, where their friends, and enemies both awaited.

Meanwhile, Cloud had more or less taken the trio of Kadaj, yazoo, and loz apart. Yazoo had quickly been reduced to a useless husk sprawled out on the floor with a large gash in his chest. His weapon destroyed much like Kadaj's. Kadaj was still trying to fight, but without his blade he was mostly useless as his powers were draining rapidly from overuse of magic, Loz being the brute of the group was the only one still going strong. Since he used his fists Cloud had been unable to remove his 'weapon' of choice and the stuns from the odd device attached to Loz's arm still seemed to be effective at least in slowing Cloud's movements. This is not to say the battle had been completely onesided though, Cloud had lost his barrier at some point and had taken a couple of solid blows. But in his current state they simply werent enough to stop him.

As it was now, Cloud held the materia blade on his shoulder looking between a very winded Kadaj and Loz. "Well this has been tougher than I expected, but clearly this is coming to a close." Cloud stated as he eyed the two of them. "One of you is about to go down and once that happens the other will simply be overwhelmed. The only question is which of you will have you stamina fail first hm?" He pointed his blade at Kadaj. "I'll bet it's you. So maybe I should just take you out now." Cloud's wings flared and he pushed forward with the blade still pointed at Kadaj, it was a classic dragoon style rush just...with a sword instead of a spear. The attack was broken off however when Cloud sensed an all too familiar presence from above.

He hopped back just as Sephiroth crashed down into the ground where he would have been. Masamune stuck into the ground much the same way as it had when Sephiroth had killed Aeris.

"You're getting a little predictable Sephiroth." Cloud said as he shifted stance.

"Oh? I figured you'd recognize the move, but I was curious whether you were so far gone as to be willing to die just to kill them." Sephiroth replied casually as he withdrew masamune from the ground.

"Hmph, as if I'd die removing some trash from my path. The only one here worth that price is you."

"Is that right? I'm flattered you think so highly of me."

Cloud frowned "enough of this. are we gonna get started or what?"

Sephiroth focused on the new sword in Cloud's hands. "Interesting sword. Where'd you get it?" he asked ignoring the challenge.

" As if I'd tell you!" Cloud roared starting the fight with the usual blind charge. Their blades locked only momentarily as Tifa emerged from the shadows rushing out Loz style and nailing Cloud with a left straight. He'd been caught completely off guard and tumbled into a pile of rubble he'd made earlier while fighting Kadaj,yazoo,and loz.

It was only a matter of seconds before he was standing again through. Looking more irritated than ever. "What the hell Tifa?!"

"You didn't really think I'd just stand by and do nothing did you?" She asked without looking at him, adjusting her gloves slightly, the hit had felt a little off.

"So you're siding with him? against ME? I get it, you're pissed about Yuffie, but this...."

"It's not just about Yuffie anymore." Tifa said cutting him off. Cloud simply stared at her dumbfounded.

"Yes Yuffie is a part of this...but you left me here. You just ditched me completely Cloud. You must've had some idea where I was for awhile now, but only now you come here? And even now it's not to find me but just to fight him?" She shook her head. "But all that is beside the point. You're not even the Cloud I knew anymore are you?" She asked staring him in the eyes.

Cloud's facade faultered. The mask broke, and the real face of the 'new' cloud showed itself. "Hah, so you noticed that too huh? Damn am I really that obvious?" He asked "But more importantly why is it everyone keeps opposing me and telling me I'M the one who's wrong?!"

Cloud pointed at Sephiroth "This......THING. Took everything from us, but you'll defend him now?"

"Cloud...." Tifa began. "NO! I don't want to hear it! I don't care what explainations you have. If you're siding with him you're as bad as he is!" Cloud yelled and then suddenly he switched to a very calm nature his gaze shifting to one that gave Tifa chills "And if that's what you've become Tifa. Then I'll kill you too. Right along with him."

There was a echoing giggle, that made everyone but Sephiroth look around. "Oh really? Wonderful Wonderful!" the sound of clapping came from behind Cloud and he whirled around to face a all too cheery looking Aeris. "So I guess that means you'll kill me too right Cloud?"

Cloud froze, his mind went blank. Inside his head everything was contradicting itself, good was bad, bad was good, it didn't make any goddamn sense. Why was Aeris still here? why was she standing against him too? All of this, no not all but a good deal of it had been for her sake. It had been her death that had locked him onto the path of destroying Sephiroth with no other options. Yet now she was asking him if he'd kill her too along with the others. He couldn't. wouldn't.......would he? She did try to kill him once. But given his failure to protect her he was almost willing to let her but only if he got to kill Sephiroth first.

"Aeris....I...." He managed to find words but during the long period where his brain had been working she had moved within inches of him. and Cloud felt his body aching to close the last few inches and embrace her. But somewhere in the back of his mind a part of him reminded himself he had yuffie now. He couldn't have Aeris anymore.

That's when he felt it, a sharp pain in his back. Sephiroth had moved while he'd been focused on Aeris and stabbed him. "Fool. You're still a failure." Aeris said her voice losing it's sweetness as her own blade pierced his chest. Their plan had worked, Sephiroth had predicted Cloud's weakness perfectly. To think he'd figured it out simply from Tifa mentioning his mental instability. The 'one other thing' he'd mentioned earlier was their plan of attack using Aeris against Cloud again, preying upon his weakness and striking making that power of his useless.

"A---Aeris.....Why?" He still couldn't fathom it. She was the very definition of purity and perfection to him. So to have her turn against him shattered all the basis of his fragile definition of the world.

"You still didn't get it Cloud? They brought me back. Or more specifically, she did."

Cloud's dazed stare told her he didn't understand. "Jenova. But of course she wouldn't allow me to meddle like I had in the past. So....she made a slight alteration, Now like you I'm just a puppet that dances to mother's will. But I have much more freedom than you do because I stand with her."

"NO!" Cloud roared his power spiked again. and his body tried to regenerate the damage he'd taken. "I won't accept that!"

Tifa was paralyzed, frozen in terror of the Cloud she was seeing. "Quickly! Finish him off before he recovers!" She yelled without thinking. She no longer considered the being in front of her 'Cloud' it was someone else. Some other cloud she didn't know.

"It's the truth Cloud." Aeris told him. she draped her arms around him and leaned close whispering in his ear. "Even the most beautiful and pure things can turn out to be the most cruel or even evil. There are no absolutes in the world. So what will you do? Will you kill me this time? Will Sephiroth be the one who protects me and prove everything you think is wrong? Or will you let yourself break to preserve your beliefs?"

"NO NO NONONONONONONONO IT'S ALL WRONG! " Cloud fell to his knee's clutching his head, his mind was falling apart. but his body was going berserk. his power was lashing out in all directions. "Tifa get the others away from here. You should all pull back!" Sephiroth ordered and without questioning him she moved to fetch Yazoo. Loz, was still able to move well enough on his own and helped Kadaj along. "What about you?" Tifa asked suddenly as she was about to leave.

"I'll finish things here. But I don't know what'll happen once I do." Sephiroth said as he raised masamune, intending to behead Cloud while his power raged, for all he knew Cloud's body could've exploded once he died killing everyone in the room instantly. But it had to be done.

Tifa shut her eyes and turned away not wanting to see Cloud's death with her own eyes as she hurridly made for the exit but Yuffie and the others entered almost at the same time. "Noooooo!" Yuffie let out a blood curtling scream upon seeing what was about to happen. She didn't even notice Tifa or the others. Only Sephiroth about to kill Cloud.

Her heart raced and she could feel herself moving forward with speed she shouldn't have had. A shocked Sephiroth turned his head to see the new threat but began to swing his blade anyway. Knowing she was trying to save the puppet.

What happened next was simply a blur. Yuffie radiated with light, the blood Cloud had given her to keep her alive had finally truly awoken and now she too was a monster, just like him....like Tifa, like Sephiroth and all the countless others. Cloud was oblivious to what exactly had just happened he only recognized the sound of Yuffie's voice and that something very cold had come into contact with him but soon after it felt warm, and when he looked at it it was beautiful. It was Yuffie, her skin covered in Crystal, hugging him tightly and shielding him from Sephiroth's sword.

"Yuffie." His brain slowly began to work again. some sembalance of logic formed and he was able to function. Yuffie made sense. If Aeris was not the thing he should fight for, then Yuffie was. She could be his light. His angel and those who opposed her would be the devils.

Cloud's grip on his sword tightened and he swung over her at Sephiroth. As his arm cradled around her and his body turned forcing Sephiroth to jump back though he still caught the edge of the blade.

"Damnit. What's going on here? She shouldn't have this power." Sephiroth demanded.

"You're right, she shouldn't. But, she does because of me." Cloud answered.

"So you've resorted to creating monsters too?" Sephiroth asked laughing. "You really don't see how corrupt you've become do you? She was right, you have become like me."

"SHUT UP! I'll kill you and that'll be the end of it!" Cloud yelled he and Yuffie took positions to fight, while Tifa now found herself with the dilemma of figuring out what to do now. The arrival of the others was unexpected and She couldn't leave Sephiroth to fight them all alone.

Aeris backed off using the confusion caused by yuffie to quickly get out of sight when she realized Zack was there. why couldn't she face him? why was she always hiding when he showed his face? It frustrated her.

On top of the shinra building Vincent and Jenova stood alone. watching the crash of the highwind. "Do you feel regret for being here?" She asked him suddenly.

Vincent was silent for a long while. Refusing to look at her, simply watching the fire burn. Finally she decided he wasn't going to answer and spoke again. "If you feel you've committed another sin then-"

"It's not that." Vincent cut her off suddenly."I'm more concerned with what's going on down below us."

"You felt that too? It's begun. All of them have gathered and the ones who survive will either rule or destroy the world." Jenova stated as she carelessly leaned over the railing. "It feels strange not taking part in the battle myself when I likely have the better chance of defeating that....thing. Than Sephiroth does right now. But if I failed then all this would be for nothing."

"You're worried?" Vincent asked with a slight hint of surprise.

"Of course. She is worried too. Our fates are essientially being decided without us lifting a finger. Who wouldn't be worried?"

"So. The original monster has emotions afterall." Vincent mused.

She moved closer to him. "Of course I do, I spent eons emulating other species, being different things and having to first understand them to do so. But also for that very reason I must have far more control over those emotions than anyone else. Which is why....." she almost trailed off. but then decided to continue "It's confusing having that womans emotions bubble up when I'm near you. it's distracting."

"Is that a request for me to leave?"

"......No.I haven't decided whether I like the feeling or not yet."

"If you say so." The air between them was awkward to say the least. Vincent was so incredibly uncomfortable around Jenova he didn't know what to do with himself so he took on the aloof, persona he had worn when among Cloud and the others. Only when Lucretia showed herself did the original vincent...the one from before the coffin showed himself.

The building shook with some explosion at ground level. "Shouldn't we at least watch the final battle?" Vincent asked.

"No. It's best if we don't distract them. Though if you're feeling restless there is something we can do....." Jenova answered with a sly grin. "Yes...there's definately something we can still do."

Vincent merely arched a brow left hanging in suspense as to what she had in mind.....

End Chapter 12.

Well there it is. Chapter 12. love it or hate it. it's here. Originally I planned to get to 15 chapters for this story buuuut I'm thinking it'll probably be over around 13 or 14 now. Characters will die. Brace yourselves. depending on my mood and how busy I am 13 MAY appear in the next couple of days but if it doesn't expect a long wait.