Disclaimer: I do not, nor shall I ever own, Avatar or Final Fantasy. I will however have fun with the plot bunnies that both have invoked.

A/N: This is just a random piece that prodded my mind and wouldn't leave me alone. Life's been hectic so I've literally not been on my account in a bit more than a year. Hopefully I'll start posting again, and I may even pick up again on Witchy Buffy, but that's a very big maybe. Anyway, I hope that this idea inspires someone to write a x-over fic of their own.

Written: 29 March 2011
Posted: 4 July 2011
Word Count: 1178

Staring up at the softly glowing tendrils, Cloud was content with lying there and never moving again. Ever since opening his eyes, he had made no move to check his surroundings for danger, see if he was injured, or even if he had any weapons on hand or nearby. Instead, he had simply stared at purple/pink/blue tendrils, allowing his mind to stay blank.

Of course, it didn't take long for thoughts to drift in at a leisurely pace. Inevitably, the first thought that crossed his mind was his latest trip to the Lifestream. A soothing touch and achingly familiar voices, telling him that he had no place there. As the words replayed in his mind, Cloud was grateful that he was too numb to really feel anything, even if the reprieve from his emotions would not last long.

Listening to the way the tree above him seemed to whisper, Cloud felt his lips tug up in the slightest of smiles. Aerith would have loved to see the tree above him. He could hear her bright laughter as she slapped Zack lightly on the arm for teasing her on how the tree looked like a willow with a bad case of mako poisoning. Then Zack would turn his attention onto the drifting white seeds that glowed with the same inner light as the gently swaying tendrils above him.

Cloud had only seen one at first, but soon dozens were drifting above him, with a few dozen having landed on him. Zack would have called them jellyfish, and then he would try to convince Aerith that they were the perfect pet for her. Even as he heard their laughter in his head, the smile slipped from his lips.

Wherever he was, he couldn't feel Gaia or the Lifestream. At first, he hadn't noticed, not really. But then he had slowly realized the thrum of energy he had felt all around him was different from what he felt on Gaia. The first clue being how foreign and all-encompassing it felt. If he had to compare the two, it was like comparing how his senses were before and after he had mako in his blood. After the mako, everything was so much sharper, making what he had felt before seem extremely dull.

Gaia wasn't completely gone, he could sense First Tsuguri and a handful of materia. That at least answered the question of if he was weaponless. Not that he particularly cared either way. He was very difficult to kill.

"Cloud, Jenova has been purged from the Planet, of everything but you. You cannot die here, Gaia won't let you until the last of Jenova has been destroyed." Sadness and pain tinged Aerith's voice.

"What Aerith's trying to say buddy is that you have an extremely long life ahead of you. With everything that's happened, it will take Gaia more than a few centuries to regain her strength. Even then, Jenova won't be completely eradicated. You can thank that bastard Hojo for that. The bitch has adapted to mako, enough so that she can use it to hide herself in your blood." Anger laced Zack's voice, but it was the helpless note that held Cloud's attention.

"There's another Planet, one that is more than strong enough to destroy Jenova for good. It's very different from Gaia, but you'll be able to join the Lifestream there when you die. Eywa has agreed to adopt you as one of her own. You will find peace there."

"There's no coming back though Spiky. If you stay, Gaia will likely turn you into a Weapon. You've saved her one too many times, and doubtlessly will even more if you wait the thousands of years it would take for her to purge Jenova from you enough to join the Lifestream, if she even can."

"Zack's right Cloud. Gaia will come to see you as a Weapon. Will you accept Eywa's offer? We don't have much time left."

"Either way Spiky, this is your last trip to the Lifestream. We want you to be happy, even if it means never seeing you again."

Finally, Cloud found his voice. The decision wasn't a hard one to make either, no matter how painful it was. "I'll go."

Those words had sealed his fate. He would never see his friends again, but he would also never put them at risk of having to deal with him if Jenova ever managed to make him go insane. He also would no longer have to fear the possibility.

The gap between his last goodbye with Zack and Aerith and opening his eyes to see the mako poisoned willow was filled with flashes of green Lifestream, pain reminiscent of his worst days of mako poisoning and Geostigma combined, and a brief glimpse of a blue Lifestream, for lack of a better way to describe it. Which once again brought him back to the fact that he hadn't currently moved since opening his eyes, nor was he inclined to.

Of course, that was before he found a large blue cat person glaring down at him, an arrow aimed straight for his heart. Meeting golden eyes, Cloud laughed.

Nearly an hour later, Cloud was still grinning slightly as he found himself surrounded by even more blue cat people. First Tsuguri and his few materia were laid at the feet of who was clearly the leader, revealing to him that the only materia he possessed were a few mastered Cures and two or three others equipped to his sword. Not that he remembered what they were at the moment, nor did it really matter.

He wasn't the only one being glared at, since another man dressed in tatter clothes similar to his own had arrived shortly after he did. However, Cloud was fairly sure he was drawing the most stares given what he had glimpsed of himself.

It seemed being adopted by Eywa had turned him into a blue cat person too. Except, his hair was still blonde and he wasn't entirely blue. Instead of having slightly darker blue stripes, his were green. Aside from that, the only other difference he noted was that he still had human hands and feet, rather like the man standing beside him. It would seem he wasn't the only foreigner.

Watching a woman that reminded him oddly of Aerith examine the other foreigner, Cloud wondered if he should stop her from tasting his own blood. Purged of Jenova or not, he still had mako in his blood, an entirely foreign substance that could be fatally poisonous to her. If she died, he would undoubtedly be killed in retaliation.

Although, he wasn't sure if he would remain dead or not yet, and he wasn't in too much of a hurry to find out. If he died, he wouldn't be joining Aerith and Zack in the Lifestream, and if he lived he would then have to explain why and even face more attempts to kill him. Either way, it would hurt getting killed, regardless whether or not if his death was permanent.

A/N: Well, that's it. I thought that I would share since it's been floating around on my computer for a while. Reviews are always appreciated, so thank you for taking the time to read :) Also, Happy 4th of July to everyone in the USA, let your inner pyro out safely.