Title:I Have a Rendezvous With Death
Rating: M
Main Pairings: Sephiroth/Cloud, Rufus/Reno.
Genre: Action/Adventure, Romance, Angst, Time travel
Warnings: Character death, M/M scenes, language, eventual graphic sex scenes, graphic violence, terrorism and other canonical warnings. NOTE that these warnings will not be given chapter by chapter!
Chapter: 1/24
Comments: Because I love time travel fics and I can't help but play at my own. Teaser for the rest of the fic I guess.

Prologue: A Rendezvous With Death

To do this is to cease to exist. To have ever existed. It is to undo the essence that had created her. To forfeit her right to even be a part of the world.

It is a sacrifice beyond anything she had given so far.

It was all right though.

She could feel Zack beside her, around her, his presence almost suffocating in its worry, in its warnings, in its condemnation. She could almost hear his voice trying to call her back from this step, but she would no more back down now than she would have done all those years ago when Sephiroth's sword separated her soul from her body.

And what options did they have?

Cloud had no more defeated Jenova this time than he had all the rest. She would never die, never cease existence, unless something drastic was done.

And it was all right.

Aerith didn't even think it was a choice. Her existence for Jenova's obliteration? It was almost a laughably small price to pay.

The Cetra had refused her plea when she had requested they intervene in the suffering of her friends. But they did not have the humanity, or the power, that she possessed. They didn't hear the screams of the humans anymore, just the Planet's wailing cries.

Aerith knew that Cloud couldn't fight Jenova again. Couldn't fight Sephiroth again.

Zack's presence became more oppressive than ever and Aerith closed her eyes, letting him brush against her before gently pressing him away. She could feel his alarm, but there was nothing that her SOLDIER could do anymore.

She caught the darkness in the corner of her eye. The lurking presence that always was in background, just out of sight.

Sephiroth.

She steeled her determination, turning towards the darkness and clenching her fists.

The whole of her life, the whole of her being, everything she ever was, everything she ever could be, and everything she would have been again. She offered it all.

As her glowing energy began to unravel, she felt the darkness reach out to her, touching her gently like her mother used to stroke her hair.

Thank you.