Author's Note: Okay this is my very first fanfiction and I have almost no clue how to write one. Constructive criticism would be much appreciated and blah blah blah.

Disclaimer: I do not own the whole or any part of Final Fantasy or the characters involved in this story. This story is purely a work of fiction by a fan, hence the word "fanfiction."

~~~~~Tifa's Point of View~~~~~

"Father! Where are you? If you're there, please respond! Father!" I shouted while searching for my father.

The small town of Nibelheim was engulfed in incinerating flames. Many people lay dead with their loved ones crying at the side of their lifeless corpses. Men, women, and children; no one was spared, that is, except for the few that were fortunate enough to escape. I searched the town, calling out to him, hoping that my father was one of the few who are still alive. While searching, I came across my martial arts mentor, Zangan, who was holding an injured civilian.

"Master!" I shouted as I ran toward him.

"Tifa! What are you doing here? Get out of here now!" Zangan shouted to me, although I completely disregarded it.

"What on earth is going on here?" I asked as I finally reached him.

I looked around at the burning town for a brief moment and quickly turned to the injured man in Zangan's arms as he started to quiver in pain.

"Why did things turn out like this?" I asked no one in particular, still hoping for an answer.

"It seems like Sephiroth was behind all of this," Zangan responded.

"Huh? Sephiroth?" I paused for a brief moment, unable to believe Sephiroth was the cause of my home being set ablaze. "Impossible. Why would Sephiroth do a thing like this?" Suddenly I remembered what I was doing out on the streets to begin with. "Master, have you seen my father? He's nowhere to be found."

"Your father was at the Mako Reactor in the mountains…"

I took off in a sprint at the sound of my master's words, but before I could really get anywhere the voice of the injured man caused me to stop for a moment and listen. He admonished me not to go because Sephiroth was in the mountains, but I ignored the man's warning and continued onward toward the mountains.

"Wait, Tifa!" Zangan yelled, trying to stop me. "You can't do anything even if you go! Tifa!" I didn't want to hear that. I didn't want to hear anything. All I wanted was to find my father, so I ignored everything I heard still running toward the mountains.

After about fifteen minutes of running through the Nibelheim mountain path, I finally reached the summit and called out to my father. Upon coming closer to the mako reactor, I found a man lying down on the ground and instantly recognized him as my father. I ran to his side and put my fingers on a vein in his neck to see if he's still alive. After a moment, tears start to form in my eyes and flow out like raindrops as sadness consumes me over the death of my father. I hug his lifeless body tight to my chest as I bury my head in his own and continue to cry heart filled tears of grief and despair.

"Another survivor," a sinister and familiar voiced said.

I look up in terror and see Sephiroth at the foot of the stairs to the reactor. The countenance on his face is pure evil while grinning at the death of my father and his sword soaked in blood. He begins to walk away from the reactor toward me with the Masamune in his left hand with the full intent of killing me.

"Fear not for you shall join him very soon," Sephiroth announces.

"Sephiroth, right?" I say to my father's body. "Sephiroth did this to you, right?" I get myself up from the ground and walk around my father toward Sephiroth. "Sephiroth… SOLDIER… Shinra… Mako Reactor… I hate you all!"

I scream and charge toward Sephiroth. Sephiroth grins and raises the Masamune above his head and swings it down as I come within reach.

~~~~~Zack's Point of View~~~~~

"Tifa!" I shouted as I pushed Tifa aside and blocked Sephiroth's Masamune with my Buster Sword.

We both jumped back a few feet out of range of each other and I looked over to Tifa for a brief moment. She looked back at me and it looked like she was both surprised and angry at the same time. Of course, how could she not be angry with all that's happened so far? Her home was burned down and the famous hero, Sephiroth, killed her father all in less than a day. I couldn't help but feel like this was partially my fault. If I had watched Sephiroth more closely I could've stopped him before he'd done all of this. Nibelheim would still be standing. Everyone would still be alive. And Tifa wouldn't have to suffer like this.

"You guys came to this village just for an investigation, right?" Tifa started. "That's why I guided you guys here. It was just for that." Tears started to fall from her eyes. "But why did it turn out like this? I hate it. Shinra, SOLDIER, and you too… I hate it all."

"I'm sorry," I started. "I won't ask you to forgive me, but… let me put an end to this."

"No! I'll be the one to kill him!"

"You can't. I know you want revenge, but this isn't something you can handle."

"Then what am I supposed to do?"

"Just let me deal with him! I'll avenge everyone."

"How can I trust someone like you? You're just like him!"

I didn't know how to respond to her. So I said the only thing I could. "Because I'm here protecting you now."

"Stupid."

With that I refocused my attention on Sephiroth. "Sephiroth!" I yelled. "Why did you kill the villagers? Why did you burn down the town? Answer me, Sephiroth!"

Sephiroth started to chuckle, which surprised me a bit, but also angered me. Did he think this was funny? Was killing innocent people amusing to him? I needed to know why he did all of this.

"Why?" Sephiroth asked. "Mother was supposed to become the ruler of this planet with her superior power and knowledge. But those fools… those worthless fools snatched this planet away from her."

"What the hell happened to you, Sephiroth?" I didn't understand what he was talking about. All I knew was that I had to put an end to this.

"You traitor," he whispered.

In an instant, Sephiroth was at point-blank range with his sword approaching horizontally at my neck. On reflex, I ducked and swung the Buster Sword upward and deflected the attack. Sephiroth back flipped away to reduce the impact of my attack and charged at me again, this time with a downward, vertical attack aimed at my head. I position the Buster Sword above my head horizontally to block his attack. My next move would've been to knock him back and go on the offensive, but he was putting a ton of pressure on me that it took most of my strength just to keep the Buster Sword above me to stop the Masamune from splitting my head in half. During the stalemate I felt Sephiroth relieve some of the pressure off me, not enough to go on the offensive, but enough to know I can push him off of me. And at the very instant I though that, I felt his foot slam into the side of my right ribcage and I flew straight towards one of the pipes leading to the reactor. I recovered fairly quickly and rebounded off the pipe back at Sephiroth with a horizontal slash. To my dismay, he swung his sword upward knocking the Buster Sword out of my hands, wrapped his hand around my throat, and slammed me into the ground. As if that wasn't bad enough, he thrust the Masamune through my stomach pinning me to the ground.

The pain was unbearable. The Masamune's hilt was about a foot away from my stomach. I started to cough up blood while Sephiroth stood over me grinning at his accomplishment.

"I was the chosen one," I heard Sephiroth say. "I am the chosen existence that is to become this planet's ruler. In order to return this planet from you fools to the hands of the Cetras, I was born… for mother's sake," he said as he walked away.

I can't lose here. I was supposed to protect Tifa. I told her I would avenge Nibelheim. I was starting to lose consciousness.

"Sephiroth!" I heard Tifa say. "How could you? You'll pay for this!"

"Tifa," was all I could say before everything faded to black.

~~~~~Sephiroth's Point of View~~~~~

This girl was proving to be quite irritating. This is the second time she has delayed me from reaching mother. I will not have any more interruptions.

"You won't beat me so easily without your sword," the girl says.

"Fool. Do you really think I need a weapon to dispose of you?" I asked as I started to walk towards her.

"Don't underestimate me!" she cried as she rushed toward me.

She attacked with a palm thrust at my head, but the speed of it was far too slow and I caught her wrist in the middle of it. She squirmed to get free so I granted it to her by punching her gut, sending her flying to the same pipeline I sent Zack to. The impact made a sound similar to that of a gong, only with less pitch. She fell to the ground and stayed there for a moment, but I knew that it wasn't enough to kill her. She finally rose slowly from the ground, clearly injured from that impact, and coughed up a little blood.

"I'll beat you," she mumbled. "I'll beat you if it's the last thing I do!"

She rushed at me again, this time jumping in the air and preparing a kick. I favored a counter and extended my left leg upward for it to get well acquainted with her face, but she landed earlier than I anticipated and tripped me with a quick leg sweep. She spun around while bent down on her right knee before I fell completely and quickly jumped up, bringing her right foot forward to meet my own face launching me a fair distance away from her. I recovered partway through the air and landed on my feet. She was lunging at me for a tackle, but having learned my lesson the first time I knew it was a fake. She landed with a roll and finished with an upward kick, which I easily dodged and grabbed leaving her hanging by her leg.

"Enough," I said coldly.

I swung her around in a circle through the air twice getting enough momentum before slamming her body facedown in the cold dirt. I stepped on her right shoulder and pulled the arm that was connected to it back until that was no longer the case. She screamed and writhed in agony over a broken arm, although that was the least of her worries. I flipped her on her back and wrapped my hand around her throat while lifting her in the air until our eyes were aligned with each other. She opened her mouth to say something, but I guess my hand on her throat prevented her from doing so. I punched her in the gut repeated a few times until I saw tears fall from her eyes. Feeling accomplished at making her submit, I decided to celebrate by punching her in the face until she was a bloody mess. Unfortunately, she was not as tough as Zack Fair and lost consciousness after the seventh punch. I released her assuming she was dead and went inside the mako reactor to retrieve mother. Moments later, I made my way to the heart of the reactor where Mother was kept and saw her prison.

"It's alright now, Mother. Please don't be sad anymore. Come with me." I tossed the giant mechanical replica that impersonated Mother into the reactor and saw her for the first time with my own eyes. "We finally meet, Mother."

I break the glass and rip her head from the machine, freeing her from her horrible prison. Upon exiting the heart of the reactor, an infantryman stands at the bottom of the stairs holding the Buster Sword.

"Give them back. My mother, Tifa, and my village!" the blonde said. "I respected you and admired you, but…"

"They came back, Mother. How should we dispose of this one?" I asked Mother.

"Sephiroth!"

The blonde rushes toward me screaming in a fit of rage thrusting the sword at me. I simply move to the side as he runs past me. He mindlessly comes back and before he has the chance, I punch him in the face, forcing him to drop the Buster Sword and watch him roll toward the edge of the platform. That is when I had the brilliant idea of throwing him into the mako reservoir. He gets back up and charges at me again with a shoulder rush. As soon as he got to me I kicked his face sending him soaring of the edge of the platform, but before he fell I saw something in his hand and that's when I realized he took Mother. I reached for Mother as she fell off the ledge, but it was too late. Mother had disappeared into the mako.

"Mother…" I cried. "Mother… Mother… Mo-," My mind went blank in an instant. Who is Mother? I wondered. Suddenly a sharp pain pierced my chest.

"Die," a female voice muttered. "For all the pain you've caused us today."

I felt life leave my body. The last thing I heard was a thud on the floor behind me. My vision blurred and I lost consciousness shortly after.

Author's Note (Again): So yeah I'm think I ended it a little too abruptly sooo yeah, I'm sorry for that. Also I apologize for anyone who took offense to Cloud's death, but if you support this story then he'll come back more badass than ever.

Also I'm not too sure about the rating. It may change later but for now it's going to be a "T" rated story

Please review and if you actually decide to, then no flaming (not that I can stop you but whatever)