Sephiroth staggered forward, trying to ignore the voice in his head. He shook his head to try to make it go away. The blood gushing from his eyes landed in his hair and on the walls. The blood from the gashes in his chest spattered the floor. How had he gotten them? He didn't know. He didn't care. He would live.

Please, Sephiroth… You'll just… more hurt… dear… no one… please…

Sephiroth slumped against the wall again. It was no use. The voice was swimming in and out of focus, just like the red tinged hallway around him.

Sephiroth… coming… forgive… dear… please… Sephiroth!

The voice was pleading, crying. He wiped more blood out of his eyes and rose. He had to find the way into the Mako Reactor. That was where he could find the Lifestream. He smiled. He would use the Lifestream's power directly.

There it was. Just as horridly peaceful as when he had first plunged into its depths. Peaceful on the outside, but within… Sephiroth didn't want to think about that.

Another voice was talking in his head, more coherently than the voice he had been tuning out for uncounted hours. This voice had a similar eerie quality of being familiar, though he knew he had never heard it before.

Sephiroth. You know right from wrong. Is what you're doing really going to work?

He shook his head to try to shut this voice up. At least the other voice was quieted now, still crying, not speaking. Sephiroth leapt across the sea of greenish glow and landed, catlike, on a crossbeam holding one of the mechanical parts of the reactor above the pseudo liquid below. The movement would have looked supremely graceful, but something felt wrong to Sephiroth. His balance was off, he landed too hard, something wasn't right.

Sephiroth, is this what you do with a second chance?

Would that sickeningly sweet voice just shut up?

"Damn it Fenrir…" The spiky haired man hunched himself lower on the motorbike, trying to convince it to move faster. He needed to get to Midgar. Now. It was times like this he wished he still had a chocobo.

Cloud took one hand off of the steering and reached for something at his waist. He opened the sleek, new, black phone one-handed and called the first person on his speed dial. It rang only once.

"Hello?"

"Tifa. It's Cloud."

"Cloud? Is something wrong?" She had heard the worried note in his voice.

"Yah… Listen, Tifa, I'm not… crazy. Right?"

"Of course not! Cloud, what's wrong?"

"I… I saw… Sephiroth…"

"What?"

"Yah. He was headed… for Midgar."

"…I know what you're going to do Cloud. Don't."

"I have to."

"Cloud… at least… don't go alone."

Cloud brought Fenrir to a skidding halt, thinking.

"Tifa, I—"

"Cloud!"

"… Alright… I'll call up the old crew."

"I'll start calling people too. We'll meet here first… Okay?"

"Alright. Bye, Tifa."

"Cloud…?"

"Yah?"

"Goodbye."

Cloud hung up and looked into the distance. He could see the hulking shape of ruined Midgar framed by mountains. He dialed another very familiar phone number. "Hey, Barrett…"

He would never listen, she decided. He would never, ever have any single thought process that did not end with death and destruction. "Sephiroth…" She whispered, looking at him pleadingly. He couldn't see her. She moved closer to him. "Sephiroth, you don't know what you're doing. I don't think that even I could do what you're trying to do, and I'm a Cetra."

Sephiroth's eyes widened withsome kind of subconscious recognition. "I… I am greater than… the Ancients… I am…"

The other presence had started sobbing again, she tried to comfort it. She didn't know who it was, but... It took a very strong determination to separate from the Lifestream like this.

If Aerith had had breath she would probably have sobbed as well. She looked into the depths of the Lifestream and saw her mother's eyes pleading to her not to do this. "But…" She looked at Cloud, miles away, sitting on the ground next to his motorcycle, crying silently. "But, I have to… For my friends…"

Cloud climbed down a ladder into Mako Reactor 0. It was exactly the same as every other reactor he had (or hadn't) ever been into. Most of his team was still above him. He leapt down the last three rungs and turned around. He almost jumped backwards into the ladder in shock.

"What?" Vincent asked.

"Didn't know you were there."

".......We have to hurry." He said. He turned abruptly and continued forward.

Cloud shook his head, sometimes Vincent could be so…

There was a loud noise of something landing next to him.

"Ouch!"

"Oh. Hi, Yuffie."

"What's with Vince? He's acting even weirder than usual."

"I don't know."

Vincent was climbing another ladder, but stopped. For the third time since he'd entered Midgar he felt what he could only describe as a "shockwave" of energy.

"I… I'm coming." He whispered. He leapt to the top of the ladder, completely ignoring the last six rungs, and broke into a flat out run on the rusted metal catwalk.

Vincent Valentine was the first person to arrive in the physical vicinity. The moment he did, the other energy who Aerith couldn't recognize began to cry even harder.

"…I see," Aerith whispered. "Go to him."

She did and Aerith turned to Sephiroth, but she was too late.

"Sephiroth." Cloud was shouting across the space at him. "Sephiroth, you… you don't give up, do you?"

"Give up?" Sephiroth asked almost hazily, "Give up what… Cloud?"

Cloud started to respond, but realized that it was a rhetorical question. Sephiroth was still talking.

He looked at where Aerith had stationed herself, as though he could see her. "If I… Will everyone…?" There was almost a look of concern in his eyes.

"Yes, everyone will probably die, including you."

Sephiroth looked down into the Lifestream. He watched a dark droplet of blood fall into the strange ooze. The blood floated, but… as he watched, the unusually dark quality of his blood faded and the drop looked almost normal.

His eyes widened, he looked into Aerith's eyes. "Help me." He grabbed her arm and dove once more into the Lifestream. Aerith gasped, shocked that he had grabbed her. She was less than a ghost to the living.

Sephiroth gathered energy around himself, sifting through it for what he needed.

"Good luck."

Cloud looked into the mass of energy above him. Sephiroth gasped and tried to speak, but couldn't.

Aerith smiled, giggling. "Good luck to you to..."

~FIN~

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