epilogue;

The sun was shining over the town called Mideel and a young woman was returning to her little house after work. Her dark hair dancing in the light breeze while her eyes showed her thoughts were miles away from the pleasant surroundings. Her left hand was absently stroking her stomach, lovingly caressing the slight swelling that revealed the life growing inside her. Still there was a sadness about her. Loneliness.

"Uhm, excuse me..." Aeris stepped out on the road to greet the approaching woman and hoisted her flower-basket slightly, "you look like you could use a flower."

Giving a weak smile, the woman halted and shook her head apologetically, "I'm afraid I don't have any gil on me right now..."

Aeris returned her smile with a bright one, "don't worry about it!" She picked up a deep red rose, the tip of it's petals almost black, "here. They say this rose helps to soothe the worried heart."

Gazing at the flower, the woman hesitatingly accepted it. Her fingertips lightly touched the fragile petals, like the colour reminded her of someone.

Aeris hoisted her basket again, "you know... that daughter of yours will be her father's exact image..."

Starting, the woman automatically place her free hand protectively to her stomach, "w-what...?"

Turning to leave, Aeris gave her a final reassuring smile, "you needn't worry so much. Your daughter will be fine. She'll have no demons to carry, but will help her father fight his. And she will be a strong fighter as well, so try not to worry so much, ok?"

Before she could reply, Aeris had disappeared behind a house and was watching as hope spread over the previously so concerned face.

"You done playing mystical, good fairy yet?" A voice grumbled from beside Aeris, the voice belonging to a tall figure hidden by a black cloak.

Straightening, Aeris sent her companion a resigned look, "you're no fun, Sephiroth!"

Letting his hood fall down, Sephiroth raised an eyebrow, "yes, it's so exceedingly amusing to sneak into towns knowing they'd have my head if they see me and hiding in the shadows while you could get hurt before I would reach you should something go wrong!"

Aeris smiled softly, reaching up to caress his cheek, "you wouldn't let that happen. I trust you." And with that, she turned to leave the town. Their mission accomplished for now.

"H-hey," Sephiroth quickly pulled his hood up again as he knew his silver hair wasn't exactly the least attention-drawing trait about him, "are we going home now?"

Aeris nodded, "yeah, it's all up to Vincent now." And something told her the former Turk wasn't someone who gave up easily.

Sephiroth let out a sharp whistle and a cheerful wark was heard from the forrest and a shining gold chocobo came trotting out to meet them.

Aeris had a suspicion that the Chocobo Sage had told the bird to stay by their side, despite Sephiroth declaring it was just because they'd been foolish enough to feed it once and now it was set on leeching on them for the rest of it's lazy years!

"Yeah, yeah, bird-brain," Sephiroth scolded half-hearted as the chocobo nudged it's head against his chest rather harshly and the former general pulled out a couple of greens he'd brought.

Aeris smiled softly at the sight, even more when she saw Sephiroth slide a discrete hand up to scratch the chocobo's feathery neck. He'd changed so much. Oh, there was still half a dozen tantrums a day, but he was learning. Every day, he was becoming more like the man he could have been had not cruel hands interfered with his life.

Aeris glanced up at the sun, her thoughts wandering back 6 months earlier...

She remembered seeing Sephiroth in the Lifestream, remembered giving up on everything for him then it all turned black.

The next time she opened her eyes, she was in a bed. Blinking confused, Aeris sat up to realise she was at the Icicle Inn and Sephiroth was asleep in a chair by the bed. It had been impossible to hold back the tears, but she had to laugh at the startled look in Sephiroth's eyes when being yanked out of slumber by a girl hugging the air out of him while switching between sobbing and smiling.

Later, when she had calmed down, Sephiroth had quietly admitted that his visit in the Lifestream had been a painful one. But with all his sins, he'd accepted the punishment and Aeris knew it was a huge part in the Lifestream's decision to return him to the planet.

Aeris had to smile embarrassed as she remembered the yelling she gave Sephiroth for chasing her away on the chocobo while remaining to fight a futile battle against Jenova. He still refused to apologize for that.

It was the day after when Sephiroth heard them for the first time. The ancients. He'd been terrified, certain he was loosing his mind, but Aeris had understood.

They had been returned to the planet for a reason.

And for 6 months now they had been traveling around helping people and fighting monsters, following the orders from the ancient that was given to Sephiroth.

Aeris had been heart-broken to learn that Nanaki had fallen in the fight against Jenova, and that Yuffie was still in a coma. She knew battles demanded their victims, but it didn't hurt any less. Sephiroth had said nothing, merely held her close as she cried.

Her surprise was great when she learned that Rufus ShinRa had joined forced with AVALANCHE in the fight, and that Tifa was now living with him. Almost as surprised as when Sephiroth told her the ancients wanted her to make sure Vincent Valentine's child would come to no harm because of her mother's distress.

And Cloud... He'd been traveling ever since Jenova was defeated, roaming restlessly from one corner of the world to another, and Aeris dreaded the day when she'd meet him. It was easy to hide behind the fact that she had no idea where he was, and that she had missions to accomplish, but she knew he deserved to know the truth...

"What's up with the gloomy look?" Sephiroth's voice brought her back to the present, and she blinked the depressing thoughts away.

She noticed he'd already gotten up on the chocobo and was offering her his hand. Taking it, Aeris got up on the chocobo as well, settling behind him. "I just want to go home now and have a few days of peace, that's all."

Home was now Icicle town to them. The place where everybody knew who Sephiroth was, but simply did not care. To them, he was just another man, who just happened to have a name that gave everyone at the mainland a nervous twitch.

"Yeah," Sephiroth agreed, "that would be nice, huh?" He set the chocobo in motion, their course straight for the ice lands.

Finally back at the remote ice town, Aeris was busy building up a fire while Sephiroth was still outside, taking care of the chocobo. They had taken over the very house where Aeris' parents had lived. The old woman at the inn had shown Aeris the house, even the video tapes that still remained. It had been horrible to look at, but Sephiroth had stayed beside her throughout it all. It was now a house filled with life and warmth again, her father's thingamajigs was ejected and she'd happily redecorated the place to her own taste and Sephiroth's light grumbling. She never thought over how it had ended up with the two of them living there, but knew she would have it no other way. Sephiroth was still insisting on sleeping upstairs, and not in the basement apartment where Aeris had her bed. He'd claimed it was because he was frightened half to death that her flowery covers was contagious and he'd wake up with his skin covered with daffodils, but she knew he simply didn't trust himself. But, dammit, after seeing him walking around in nothing but his black pants, Aeris had seriously considered sneaking up one night and see what would happen. The thought brought a furious blush to her cheeks, and Aeris tossed another log onto the fire, knowing herself it would stay with the frustrated thoughts. Heck, she hadn't even managed to summon up enough courage to tell him she loved him! He was probably prancing around half-naked on purpose, the tease! Knowing what effect it had on her!

That was when a strong arm went around her waist and she was hoisted up. Squeaking with surprise, Aeris squirmed to get free only to freeze when something was shoved down her neck. Snow.

"Sephiroth!" Aeris screamed as he released her, backing up with a cackling laugh while rubbing his hands.

"It's cold outside," he declared innocently, watching as Aeris franticly groped for the snow melting down her back.

"You're going to pay for that!" She declared, launching herself at him and her nimble fingers easily found his sides.

"Aaaaah, no fair!" Sephiroth yelped, trying to grab a hold of her wrists as he laughed helplessly. Dammit, why did she have to find out he was so damn ticklish?! It made their fights so much harder!

He backed up until he suddenly bumped into her bed and feel backwards to land with huge eyes. Glancing around, Sephiroth then let out a horrified shout and thrashed franticly to get up, "gah, it's sucking me in!"

Huffing, Aeris pounced and straddled his stomach as she continued her assault on his sensitive sides, "making fun of my bed-sheets, are you?!"

Laughing and squirming desperately, Sephiroth finally managed to get a hold of her wrists and locked his grip around them as he removed her hands.

Catching her breath, Aeris was smiling as well as she met Sephiroth's eyes. Life was good, she realised. Tilting her head, Aeris made no sign to free herself from his grip. "Sephiroth...?"

The silver haired man puffed his bangs out his face, "yeah?"

Now or never.

"I love you," Aeris stated softly, knowing their future was going to be decided by his reply.

Sephiroth was gazing at her like he didn't believe what she said, or that he'd heard wrong. Slowly, his hands released hers and travelled up to cup her face, and Sephiroth let a thumb brush over her lips.

"Say it again," he demanded silently, eyes locked with hers.

Aeris shivered, "I love you."

Sephiroth exhaled, like he'd been holding his breath for a long time, then gave her the most beautiful smile she'd ever seen. "And I've been in love with you for a long, long time, flower-girl..." He carefully guided her down for a warm kiss, then hugged her close. "Will you still love me when I'm covered in daffodils...?"

Aeris' hands moved and Sephiroth's eyes widened as they landed on his sides, "Aeris! No, seriously! I was only joking! I didn't mean it! I'm sorry!"

Yet, his pleads was only followed by his laughter, and for a little while they were allowed to just be themselves and together.

Free to live.

And free to love.

The End...

A/N

Wow... A sad day indeed when the final letter was written in this chapter, and that is simply because, uhm, the story was never meant to go any further than this...

When I started out with this fic, I had a plan ready and was already considering writing another fic with a different pairing...

However, with all the wonderful reviews (and not to mention that I've grown found of this story as well) I'm actually considering writing a sequel, but I'm going to leave that up to you.

Should or shouldn't I write a sequel? Press review button and give vote!

Still, I hope you enjoyed the final chapter in the World is not Enough, and if you wonder about the destinies of the others in AVALANCHE, it might be worth to mention that all my fics are in the same universe and you can find answers in the other fics.

And finally, thanks once again for all your kind words! Without them, I would never have gotten this far at all!

A deep personal thanks to every single one who took the time to write a review!