We are kind of sad to be uploading this... =(. For the final time, enjoy everybody!

-Chapter Thirty-

When Worlds Collide

The time seemed to fly by in no time. Before they knew it, there was a mere two and a half hours to go before meteor was due to collide with the earth, one and a half hours to go before the final hour. They all boarded the jet for the final time.

"This is it." Cid said, getting into the cockpit and putting the engines into action. "Buckle your seatbelts everyone this is gonna be a bumpy ride!"

They took off and began to head east towards Stonehenge. None of them knew what to expect. Would Sephiroth even be there? They would soon find out. The quick flight seemed rather uneventful yet painfully too fast. One and a half hours to go until impact, half an hour to go until the final hour.

Suddenly, horrifically, the engines of the plane cut out. "What the!?" Cid shouted, he had left the plane on auto pilot and ran back into the cockpit. He attempted to restart them, but to no avail, something or someone had sabotaged the jet beyond repair.

"It's no good!" He cried, running back into the cabin. "We're gonna have to jump, tell me you have parachutes on this heap of junk Reeve?"

Reeve was already on the case, opening an overhead compartment. "What…" He began, throwing one parachute with every word, "Kind… of… Idiot… do… you… take… me for?" He said the final two words as he strapped his own parachute to his back.

The jet had begun to slowly lose height. "How far are we from Stonehenge!?" Tifa cried as they ran over to the door and released the emergency switch, causing it to fly off.

"Almost there, we will have to hurry!" Reeve shouted back, and without further ado he ran to the door and leapt out.

Nobody was hesitant to follow suit, and before long they were all in free-fall. Yuffie who had refused a parachute summoned the great Phoenix in mid-air and nose-dived on it towards the earth just as the rest of them released their parachutes and gently fell.

On the horizon they could see a huge beam of light connecting towards meteor. "At a guess I would say that is the place…" Tifa unnecessarily pointed out. Yuffie dismissed her Phoenix, and together they all began walking towards the beam of light, towards the final battle.

In the distance they watched as the jet finally collided with the earth and exploded in a spectacular ball of flame. It lit up the horizon brilliantly. None of them were too worried about casualty's considering just how few people there seemed to be left in the world.

"Zack never explained that…" Cloud said aloud, obviously thinking along these lines, "…where has everyone gone?"

"He said the barriers between the two worlds were becoming weaker…perhaps they have slipped through?" Vincent speculated. This seemed like the most likely option.

"Why only let certain people through though?" Cloud asked, "Doesn't make sense to me."

"Perhaps some things never will." Tifa replied.

They were growing ever nearer to the pillar of light. They could see Stonehenge now atop the hill on which it sat. There was someone there alright, and it could only be Sephiroth. Vincent checked his watch to see that it was five minutes to eleven. The final hour was about to begin.

All of them sprinted as fast as they could towards the hill, and within moments they were standing at the bottom of it, gazing up at the great construction which was Stonehenge. They began to climb, each step taking them closer to their final judgement.

"Why can't you all just be good boys and girls and die?" Sephiroth asked upon seeing them approach, he was standing on the stone in the centre of the circle. They halted their advance at the outer circumference.

"You first…" Cloud replied, unsheathing his sword and pointing it at Sephiroth, "your soul is going to be completely destroyed after this, whatever the outcome, you won't be able to come back anymore…I killed you once, I will kill you again…"

Sephiroth laughed mirthlessly. "We will see, old friend…" He put particular sarcastic emphasis on the final two words. From his right shoulder erupted a huge black wing, huge in length, and terrible to gaze upon.

Cloud ran at him, Sephiroth unsheathed the Masamune, and as their swords clashed, something incredible happened. There was a huge burst of white light which engulfed everybody, they could not see a thing…

Moments later when their vision returned, they were standing in what looked like a derelict run down church. Cloud and Sephiroth still with their blades locked. It stunned them for a few moments as they took in their new surroundings, and then Cloud realised where they were, this was the same church that he had fell through the roof of and met Aeris!

Sephiroth began attacking Cloud relentlessly, sending bolts of lightning over at the others at incredible rates, forcing them to scatter. Fighting in the confined space of the church was extremely difficult, none of them could summon effectively in here.

It was all Reeve, Barret and Vincent could do to keep firing at Sephiroth and attempt not to hit Cloud instead, which was especially hard for Barret, who could only safely fire his machinegun grafted arm when they were at considerable distance from each other.

Everyone else was resigned to casting whatever magic they had at him, even though he was a lot weaker however, he was still deflecting almost every single spell which came his way. He hit Yuffie with a strong lightning bolt, and Red was quick to cure her immediately, as he did so however, another huge white light engulfed them all.

Another church again, no, a cathedral, the cathedral Vincent had called them to at the dead of night. Yuffie was now the one in close proximity combat with Sephiroth, dodging all of the blows he threw at her with incredible agility. Cloud tried to join back in the close quarters combat, however something Sephiroth was doing seemed to deflect his efforts.

"What the hell!?" He shouted, unable to get within ten feet of the situation, Sephiroth laughed loudly.

"Wait your turn!" He joked, making another mad lunge at Yuffie, and then it happened.

Just as Reeve fired another bullet at Sephiroth, the reflective barrier he was so renowned for by now was erected. The bullet bounced back and hit him square in the forehead. Reeve had a stunned look on his face, then fell back gracefully into one of the pews.

"No!" Red shouted, running over to him, though there was nothing he could do now, another mirthless laugh sounded from behind him, and the white light engulfed them again.

They now found themselves in the familiar town of Kalm, only there were far more people inhabiting it than usual. From what they could tell, this is where some of the inhabitants of earth had ended up. It was extremely crowded, almost like a bustling market place, making it difficult to move.

Amidst the crowd though were two figures fighting, one man, and one bright red beast. There were cries of panic from the crowd as everyone scattered away. This enabled the rest of Red's allies to join back in on the fight, no time to grieve the loss of Reeve.

"Time to bring out the big guns…" Cloud shouted, making his arm glow red. The tiny dragon like creature that was Typhoon swept down from the sky. The summon seemed to be far more accurate with its attacks, it was able to sweep Sephiroth alone off his feet and send him hurtling into one of the nearby house walls, this was the first real bit of damage they had landed. There was no time to celebrate however, the light engulfed them again.

They were in a sealed room now, in the centre of the room was nothing other than the crown jewels themselves. They were at the tower of London. Cloud was in CQC with Sephiroth once more. The room was so small however that it was extremely difficult to make any kind of serious attack for anyone other than Cloud. Sephiroth managed to land a heavy cut on his chest, just as he did so however, Yuffie's shuriken hit Sephiroth's arm, cutting it. The light appeared again…

They were atop a huge fort this time. Fort Condor, and Yuffie was the one who was in close proximity combat once more. Not wasting anytime she summoned the great phoenix to her aid. Sephiroth took flight, as did Yuffie, the fight was in the air now, there was nothing the rest of them could do but watch.

The fight raged round the edge of the fort, whenever they got close enough Yuffie's allies fired bullets and magic as accurately as they could. It was all in vain however, Sephiroth with one mighty swing of his sword beheaded the beautiful creature, sending Yuffie into comatose. Everybody watched hopelessly as Yuffie fell to her death… Another flash of light.

A ceiling full of security cameras and a floor full of green felt tables. They were at the casino in which they had met Elena. Cid was forced into close combat now. It was horrible, whatever magic Sephiroth was using to ensure only one close fighter at a time rendered those such as Cloud, who had no attack materia, useless.

He went to summon again, disregarding the confined space, only to see that Typhoon had vanished from his arm. "Not again!" He shouted in despair, why was it happening this time. One of Barrett's many bullets then found its way into Sephiroth's wing. Another flash of light.

A long cannon over a body of water, they were on the main gun of Junon. Barrett was in close combat, which was extremely bad news for him considering he was a long ranged fighter. Sephiroth, deciding to try and take everyone out in one swoop, caused an explosion at the connecting end of the cannon, it began to fall into the sea. For good measure almost, he stabbed Barrett right through the heart and hovered as the cannon fell. Before it hit the water however, they were transported once more.

The fight was looking bleaker and bleaker, Sephiroth was picking them off one by one and there was nothing they could do to match his awesome power. Standing on the roof of the huge Golden Saucer, Vincent was the one finding himself dodging Sephiroth's blade now. His agility made this easier than his allies found it, and he even managed to sink a bullet into Sephiroth's shoulder, causing him to recoil in pain, the light returned once more.

"How many times is it going to do this!?" Tifa cried, she was now the one fighting and dodging, using her fire magic to great effect now she was near. All of a sudden a beam of golden light hit her eyes, and the world seemed to slow right down.

Knowing that Red must have been using his time magic Tifa wasted no time in landing blow after blow in Sephiroth's face, stunning him greatly and giving the team more of an edge. Just when they thought the tables were finally turning however, a halo appeared over Red XIII, and he fell to the floor stone cold dead. This was far different to what heartless angel used to do to a person, but the effort in using it seemed to cost Sephiroth dearly. More light.

Cid once again fighting with his spear the allies found themselves in the Louvre art gallery in Paris. "Why do you keep fighting?" Sephiroth taunted them all, there were only four of them left now.

Enraged, Cid summoned the thunder god Ramuh, not caring about the lack of space for effective use. Ramuh fired bolt after bolt at Sephiroth before finally landing one square in his chest. Another blinding transition.

They were now outside the mansion in Nibelheim. Vincent who was fighting once more, suddenly shivered, and moments later transformed into the terrible beast that was Chaos.

Sephiroth was not fazed by this, and the fight was taken into the air. Chaos seemed to be an equal match for him however, each opponent hitting one another an equal amount of times, were the tables turned at last? No, Sephiroth landed his sword straight in the beasts heart, and it transformed swiftly back into Vincent Valentine as it fell towards the ground.

In the blink of an eye they found themselves on the leaning supports what had once harboured the rocket of Rocket Town. Fittingly it would seem, Cid was fighting again, summoning the fire demon Ifrit and double teaming Sephiroth. The two of them together seemed to be a formidable force, hitting him time after time until Cid, getting overconfident, was grabbed by the neck.

Electricity flowed through his body at an alarming rate and seconds later, he fell to the floor immobile, just as Ifrit vanished into the ether. Only two remained…

Now they were on the ship which Sephiroth had stolen to reach the gulf of Mexico. Both Cloud and Tifa however were at a considerable distance. "You know this has turned out to be even more fun than I had anticipated…I am glad you all survived for me…" Sephiroth taunted.

"We survived so that we can kill you once and for all…" Cloud shouted back menacingly, "…there may only be two of us left, but that's more than enough to put you in the deepest circle of hell!"

He laughed manically, "So the eight of you weren't enough but you think two of you are more than enough, my my Cloud, you never cease to amuse me." The scene changed once more.

The forgotten city was their new arena. Cloud once more within fighting distance, Tifa doing all she could with her fire magic. It was no good however, he dodged every flame easily, leaving Cloud to do all he could with his katana.

Sephiroth seemed to be considerably weakened from all the fighting however. Cloud was finding it easier and easier to break through his defence. Just when he thought it was all going their way however, Sephiroth moved with the speed of a bullet behind Cloud and stabbed him through his heart from behind.

Cloud looked at Tifa for a few moments, registered the look of terror on her face, and then fell forwards into the same pool he had laid Aeris to rest in. The final flash of light.

Tifa and Sephiroth were back where it had begun, at the northern crater. It was all but over now, then Tifa was struck by an idea.

Sephiroth ran at her, and much to his surprise, she did not make any attempt to dodge, the sword went straight through her stomach, and their faces were two inches away from each other. He twisted the blade to cause her more pain, blood starting to come out of her mouth.

"My regards to Cloud…" He said menacingly.

"Tell him yourself…" Tifa replied, looking straight into his eyes.

She then plunged the white orb which was the holy materia straight into Sephiroth's chest. He screamed in terrible agony as Tifa sank to her knees from the wound she now bore. She looked up at Sephiroth trying to desperately remove the orb.

It was no use however, the light of the orb spread from his chest to the tips of his fingers and toes, and standing with his arms wide from the pain, Sephiroth exploded in a white light, leaving nothing behind.

Tifa, unable to fight it any longer, blacked out.

X

Seconds turned to minutes, minutes to hours, hours to days, or perhaps it was no time at all. Regardless, twenty-six people now stood in what appeared to be a white void like space. There seemed to be no boundaries to this new area, it seemed to just be a limitless plain.

What stunned the occupants of this new area however, was that hosts and parasites were no longer joined, and all those who had been killed, including the likes of Elena and Rufus, were present.

"What happened?" Reeve was the first to break the awkward silence, stunned to hear that there was absolutely no echo to his voice, yet it still effortlessly carried through the void.

"Erm…" Tifa began, taking a step towards everyone, re-orientating herself, "…we won, I think?"

The twenty six people looked around and assessed who was there and, more importantly, who was not. It did not take long for them to realise the only parasite and host who were not present, and it was Alex who broke the tension.

"They're gone! Sephiroth and…" She paused, the gravity of what she was saying seemed to be weighing down on her like meteor itself.

"Josh…" Shaun finished for her, approaching her and putting a comforting arm on her shoulder.

"Destroyed entirely." Cloud said simply, remembering what Zack had said. He looked around for a moment as though expecting to see his friend appear through the crowd, after all he himself had just returned from the dead so this was not entirely unfeasible.

"He's not coming back," Tifa began, and Cloud wondered whether she was referring to Zack or Sephiroth, "he has lost, it's over!"

Something about their current predicament seemed to make joy a very difficult emotion. After all, they were all stuck in this prison like world with, what appeared like, no means of escape.

"That's not entirely true." A woman's voice echoed loudly from all around, making them all jump. "Yes Sephiroth is destroyed, yet the black materia can never be destroyed."

"Oh this is bulls**t!" Barrett boomed, his voice clearly audible over everyone else's protests to this revelation. "Destroy Sephiroth, stop meteor, that was always the deal!"

"Deal?" The voice replied. "You can't make a deal with destiny. I applaud you on your victory over Sephiroth, yet I have…distressing news." Everyone fell silent, and each of them was sure they knew what was coming. "Meteor must fall. I am sorry."

Nobody spoke. There was a long silence during which the harsh reality seemed to sink in to everyone. Rufus Shinra was next to address this unseen messenger.

"But that can't be right, the holy materia has the power to stop meteor, this much we know, so why can't it stop it now?" He looked up as he spoke. "And why won't you show yourself!?" He screamed the last two words, yet this did not have much impact in the void.

What appeared to be a cross between a ghost and a living being suddenly erupted in the centre of the crowd. It was a chilling sight, the figure was clearly female, yet her face was literally blank, a faceless entity.

The beings head turned towards Rufus, and although there were no eyes, he felt as though there was a gaze piercing through him. "You speak the truth," She began, and her voice echoed eerily around them, "fear not, all isn't lost yet, however your victory will come at a price."

"Price!?" Savina, who had made her way over to stand with her former parasite Yuffie, almost laughed. "Millions upon millions are dead because of this, you don't think that is a 'price'?"

The entity vanished, then suddenly reappeared inches away from Savina. She approached her, putting the blank hooded head within what seemed like centimetres from Savina's face.

"I don't make the rules," It began in a whisper more chilling than before, "I merely recite them." The being then glided gracefully backwards to stand in the centre of them once more. "Yes at a price. Sephiroth, one of the only men able to wield black materia, is obliterated. This has left the black materia rogue. In any other circumstance holy would be able to counteract this and shield against meteor."

The void suddenly changed, the group now found themselves floating in space above two planets. "Yet these are no normal circumstances, meteor is about to fall on two planets at once."

They all suddenly realised what they were looking at. Earth and Gaia, side by side, a projection of the entity showing them their dilemma. "I'm sorry, I truly am, but I'm afraid it is time for you to make a choice. Holy can stop one meteor and one meteor only, you must choose which."

The void went white again. "You have ten minutes. Choose." The entity had vanished.

The power of their location seemed to stop them from panicking, which is what each of them would have done in this situation. Vincent spoke first, and much to everyone's grief, he sounded defeated.

"All that we have fought for, all that we did, and still we have lost…" He crouched down on the floor, standing seemed like too much effort at this stage.

"Come on now let's think about this." Alex began, "We can't let this thing impact on Earth, billions of people would die!"

"Don't start making this a numbers game!" Cloud snapped at her angrily.

"Stop it both of you!" Reeve cut in, "Alex is right. Think about it, the meteor will obliterate Earth but there is always a chance Gaia will survive, it survived it once before it can survive it again."

Cloud reluctantly backed down. "Fine, but we are going back there and we are going to do what we can…"

The entity suddenly appeared. "Nice to see you aren't wasting time." Two portals suddenly appeared on either side of her. "If it truly is your choice to return to Gaia, take the portal to my left." She gestured towards it, "To return to earth, the portal to my right." She gestured again.

The former hosts wasted no time in making towards the portal bound for earth. In no time, only Cloud and his companions remained in the void, though this was not by choice, the entity was preventing them from moving. "You have one more choice to make," It began, "holy needs to be wielded, and only one of you can do this. Do not make this decision lightly, whoever takes this path will be bound to Earth, unable to return, forever."

They all looked at each other, their grief mirrored on each other's faces in the white light.

X

Epilogue

The mysterious entity had made good on its promise and more. Holy had done its job, meteor was obliterated, yet it was what happened after that stunned the lone warrior who chose to wield its power.

Time collapsed, and after what felt like a millennia, our hero found themselves right back at the time when it had all began, the first day they had arrived on Earth, one year ago.

Not bound to another and free to go their own way, they felt it their duty to seek out their former host. Oddly, they had ended up in London after the collapse, a far cry from where they had begun last time. It took them a while to get their bearings before making their way to a train station.

Just as they were about to board the train however, they saw none other than Savina. They caught each other's gaze for a split second, yet no recognition was reflected in Savina's eyes.

One journey, two weeks and one job application later, our warrior found themselves sitting in front of a posh looking desk, behind which sat a formidable looking woman.

"Well I must say," The woman began, flipping through some paperwork in front of her, pausing every so often to read the odd line here and there, "As far as CV's go, this one certainly did jump off of the page."

"Thank you."

"It does however pose the question," The woman set the CV down and picked up a cup to take a sip of her drink, "what has drawn you to this job?"

"I'm looking to pass on my knowledge."

"Indeed," She set her cup back down on the desk and got to her feet, "Well the job is yours pending all our regular employment checks." She extended her hand, "Welcome to the team Ms Lockhart."

"Thank you," Tifa got to her feet and shook the headmistress' hand. "lets see if we can get these teenagers interested in fencing."

"I have every confidence you can." She replied, a grin creeping onto her face.

Leaving the office, Tifa made her was round the college towards the Café. It was strange to walk around without getting odd looks off of people, not having a voice in her head give her directions, and feeling relatively at home with her surroundings.

Reaching the Café and purchasing a coffee to go, Tifa turned round and scoped the room. She found exactly who she was looking for sitting by the far window. Not wanting to test a theory of hers yet, she made to leave. Just as she reached the door however, she caught Alex's eye. They looked at each other for a moment. She was sitting with Shaun who didn't seem to notice her at all. Josh was nowhere to be seen, and Tifa wondered if anybody remembered him. Perhaps Tifa was imagining it, yet she thought there was some look of understanding in her eyes, a feint heir of recognition. A small smile crept onto Alex's face.

Tifa smiled back, then looked away and left the building, there would be plenty of time to see if she remembered. Plenty of time to talk face to face as teacher and student, not as host and parasite.

THE END

Final Note from the Authors

It has been a long journey and it is our pleasure to pen in the title word as our final in the book. To our readers we must say that the ending took much thought and deliberation (as well as several alternate endings we weren't entirely happy with) this has always been the way we intended to end it, and we can truly say that this is our vision.

It is worth pointing out that we are not intending to write a follow up on what happens to Cloud and his companions unless we are drawn back to this story, however it is safe to say that the door will always remain open.

A word about the entity; This is not a random character, we shall say no more =).

And finally a big thank you to everyone who has read this, we set out to write a truly original story amongst the 38,000 that are here already, and we feel we succeeded and hope you do too!

Fun Facts

We vow never to write a story under 100,000 words, this is our third finished 'Novel Length' piece of fiction =).

At time of writing, the 98th FFVII story to be 100,000 words and complete, woop!

To all those who may think we are ripping off Stephanie Meyer's 'The Host' NOPE! We began writing this 15/2/2007, a clear year before. So yeah, see ya in court Stephanie! =D

Following on from the last point, probably the story we need to apologise about most for delayed updates, hope it was worth the wait!

Next story is in planning stages with working title of 'Adrift'. (Not FFVII)

'Parasite' has been written and edited on three separate laptops.

The idea was conceived in the drama block of our (R+A's) college, and much planning was done in a music room xD.

First time we have written fun facts to accompany a story, fact!

Has caused too many arguments over plot disagreements between authors =(.

Thought of the title before we thought of the plot!

By the time we had finished we had googled more places on google earth and searched air travel times than we thought we would ever have to xD.

Currently watching Graham Norton and procrastinating uploading this, I hate endings =(.