Time for the finale!

When Harry came to, he was treated to the amusing view of the reserved Red XIII sprawled in a most embarrassing position next to an unconscious Tifa Lockheart. Harry raised his head enough to look around, seeing Cloud (or at least his giant Buster Swrod) and what looked like Barret's gunarm on a floating rock up and to the left. To the right, Cait Sith's stuffed moogle and Cid's spear could be seen. And all around them was a soft, white glow, pulsating with energy as though it was a beating heart.

"Oww...damn, man..." Harry heard Barret grumble. He stood up slowly, keeping a firm grip on Gryffindor's sword.

"Barret?" Cloud asked.

"Hey," Harry called up, making the two look down toward him. "Everyone's here, together again." Harry's voice was enough to stir those still out cold to come to.

Only to have a ring of white fire shoot out from the center of a green sphere surrounded in a red, bone-like structure. Everyone, now shocked wide awake, were levitated, struggling into the air with pained groans.

"Sephiroth!" Cloud growled, as the ex-SOLDIER's face flashed in their vision for a second, only to appear in the center of the sphere.

They were pushed back - painfully, Harry added - by another ring of white fire emanating from the sphere. "UGh...Is this..the true power of Sephiroth?" Barret grunted.

"My...my body...I can't control...Uuugh?" Cid hissed.

Sephiroth drew them closer before kicking them back with more white fire. Nanaki's voice had the hint of a painful, tormented whimper in it. "My front legs...my hind legs...my tail's about to tear off!"

"This is definitely not good...He's way outta our league," Cait Sith moaned as they were turned and spun like tops.

Harry groaned, gritting his teeth. "Here...it's...here." His hand trembled as he reached to his Materia bracelet...and touched the pale green Materia that had fallen from Aeris' ribbon. Holy.

A softer, gentler light began emanating from the condensed Mako orb, and began to push back against Sephiroth's darker glow. "Holy?" Cloud asked. "It's shining...Aerith's prayer is shining."

"Right..." Harry replied. "It's not over yet."

"This isn't the end yet!" Tifa agreed. With their resolve bolstered, the energy trying to tear them limb from l imb snapped and broke...and everyone landed lightly on their feet on the rocks and platforms surrounding Sephiroth. "We're not gonna lose! Aeris is here...everyone...is here...Cloud is here with us! There's still many things for us to do. I'm not giving up!"

"Hoo-ok...!" Cid twirled his spear. "I can't be foolin' around in the bottom of this hell hole. I still have lots of stuff to do with my life!"

Cloud raised his sword to his regular standard battle stance. "Aeris' memories...Our memories...We came to tell you...our memories...Come, Planet! Show us your answer! And Sephiroth!...To the settling...of EVERYTHING!"

There was a silence for a moment, a silence so complete that even the rushing of the wind and energy was softened. Sephiroth's physical form in the sphere twisted and mutated, transforming into a massive grayish creature. The head itself was easily as large as Barret's entire body. Sephiroth's arms elongated and tripled in mass, thick as Harry's body. Sephiroth's lower body curled up into a pale-blue core of magical energy.

Nanaki's nose twitched. "The core. That core is our real target. It is the only part that has any kind of tangible scent."

Cloud nodded, understanding. "Red, Tifa, Harry. Destroy that core. Everyone else...cover them!"

Barret didn't need to be told twice before he aimed and opened fire, pumping a continuous stream of lead toward the right side of Sephiroth's head and right arm. Cait Sith prepped his spells before letting them fly, third-level elemtnal spells clashing against the left arm's mass as it pushed back to swipe the toy and Cid from the platform.

"Let's go, you two," Harry said softly, taking his focus off their comrades to focus on his own battle and dashing in and striking the core with Gryffindor's Sword. The enchanted blade ripped into the core, spraying Harry with bright blue ichor. He jumped back in time for Nanaki's Trine spell to slam into the wound Harry ripped into the core. Tifa stepped back into a support role, protecting the three of them with Wall in time to deflect the worst of a reactive blast of energy from the core.

Harry came up from his defensive crouch as the blast energy dissipated. "Heh. I've been tickled harder than that." He shot a short nod toward Tifa before resuming his assault on the core, trading shots with Nanaki who leapt in toward the melee, leaving Tifa to keep them standing with her Restore materia.

Sephiroth wasn't still in all the commotion, though. Battle cries and spell incantations echoed in the background noise as Cloud, Barret, Cid, and Cait Sith laid into his arms and face in an effort to keep his focus off the three attacking his weak point. Sephiroth's formidable mental powers lashed out, striking the four of them with tendrils of dark purple energy that sliced open cuts and gashes where it connected. Even Cait Sith's body, normally unblemished by injury even as it was torn through by monsters, suffered visible damage from this assault.

Harry stepped back and glowed with red energy. "Ice him down, Shiva!" A cold wind blew through the battlefield, and a massive icicle dropped down between Harry's team and Sephiroth's core. The Mistress of Ice formed and burst from the ice before winking at Harry and sending dagger-like shards of ice into nearly every inch of Sephirtoh in view and fading from the battle.

A roar of pain could be heard as Sephiroth eyed them all beadily from what was supposed to be his face. A whisper, nothing more of 'Heartless Angel' preceeded a blast of energy that slammed into Harry with all the force of a mountain trolls club, picking him up and throwing him back over the edge of the platform. "Harry!" He heard Tifa and Red XIII cry out before he disappeared from view.

Harry fell, barely conscious. He grimaced, not having a Restore materia handy even as he felt that particular sensation he'd come to recognize as his Limit Break arriving swirl around his hands.Ow...where's...that Elixir...Cloud handed me...earlier...There... He broke the clasp of the bottle before bringing it up to his mouth and drinking down the healing fluid. The magic went to work immediately, bringing Harry to full alertness and restoring his strnegth. Harry's eyes snapped open just in time for him to plunge into the Lifestream.

"You're not done yet, Harry," Aeris's voice giggled at him.

Harry grimaced. "I know. He got a cheap shot and knocked me off. I don't suppose you know a way for me to get back up there?"

"Happy thoughts can do a lot to raise your spirits, Harry," Aeris hinted.

"Right..." Harry rolled his eyes snarkily. Wait...Is she talking about...? "My Patronis?"

"Oh, is that what you call it, Harry?"

Harry blinked, the surface of the Lifestream just above him. Cloud mentioned that a bloke's ultimate Limit Break was supposed to be learned differently from the rest...but I already have it? There I go again, breaking tradition, he thought with a grin. "Expecto...Patronum!"

The familiar silver-white stag sprang into being next to him. Prongs snickered once at him as the Lifestream swirled around them both. The normal silver-white glow brightened from the energy of the Planet's lifeblood, becoming almost platinum silver, before Prongs took hold of Harry's collar and helped him swing around to mount onto his back. Once Harry was safely in place, Prongs galloped forward and upward. They burst through the surface of the Lifestream, soaring up through the air.

Aeris' voice whispered into Harry's ear, fading with each word. "Don't forget, Harry...Throw Holy into the Lifestream."

"I won't, Aeris...I promise."

The battle still raged above him. Harry could see that everyone was tired, but then, the grotesque creature Sephiroth had become was hurting, too. For one, Prongs had to swerve around the arms as they fell, cracked and scorched and dissolving into particles of dark, purple smoke.

"Harry!" Tifa gasped as he shot up past them.

"Hey guys. Miss me?" Harry quipped, leaping off his Patronus as the etheral creature galloped past Cloud and Barret's platform before huffing self-importantly. Harry snorted. "Right. Thanks for the save, Prongs."

"You named your Limit Break 'Prongs,' kid?" Cloud asked dubiously.

"Long story, Spike."

Prongs huffed, amused, before turning and charging toward Sephiroth's core, piercing the abused, depleted bright blue gem-like stone with his antlers. With a wailing cry, Sephiroth exploded with a burst of white light...

...When next Harry could see, Cloud, Barret, and himself stood alone on a rocky outcropping floating in a purple, wavering sky with streams of white, swirling energy. "Where...are we...and where...is everyone..else?" Cloud breathed, his shoulders slumping slightly.

He didn't get his answer as Sephiroth, now looking far more like his previous human form, descended from above, with a single, white-feathered wing flapping almost lazily to keep him aloft before them. "Guess our job isn't done quite yet," Harry grunted.

"What teh hell...does i' take...to kill this goddamned basturd?" Barret panted angrily.

Sephiroth smiled coldy, devoid of emotion, down at them and reared back and swung his wing and arm forward, sending a shockwave down to crash into them. Cloud and Harry knelt down, their swords held in a guard position, avoiding being knocked back. Barret, too, crouched, taking cover behind his gunarm, and was only pushed back a foot before returning fire.

Harry leapt forward, swinging his sword only for sephiroth's Masamune to materialize and parry it. Cloud took advantage of this to jump forward and strike Sephiroth's unprotected side while Harry was pushed back, leaving a gash in the would-be demigod's side. Sephiroth's dead, empty expression never changed as he flicked a hand at Cloud with an air of casual arrogance, a blast of yellow-orange energy slamming into the blonde mercenary, knocking him back to hit the ground painfully. A twist of his sword wrist, and Harry hit the ground next to him.

"I've got ya covered!" Barret growled, stepping forward and pressing his attack. He stopped firing long enough to shift gunmodes and started firing larger, heavier rounds at the One-Winged Angel. The bullets dug into his torso and arms...the few that slipped past Masamune, anyway.

Cloud grimaced and climbed back to his feet, chugging a Hi-Potion down. He glowed green for a moment before a comet materialized above their heads and slammed into Sephiroth. As he reeled from that particular blow, Harry rushed in, swinging Gryffindor's Sword with a forceful two-handed uppercut, leaving a two-inch-deep gash from the Angel's hip across his breast to his shoulder that bled heavily. Harry jumped back to allow Cloud to strike with a follow-up chop, his strength combined with the sheer weight of the Buster Sword allowing him to break the arm holding the Masamune and rendering it near-useless.

"We've got ya now, you sunuva...!" Barret grunted, switching gunmodes once more before a soft whine was heard. Barret took aim and launched a bolt of blue energy that crackled with power into Sephiroth's face. Sephiroth's head jerked around, and when he faced them again, Barret smirked triumphantly at the scorched, half-melted flesh that was now the right side of the One-Winged Angel's face.

Sephiroth lost his cool emotionless expression and snarled. Harry could feel the power gathering, but his shouted warning was too late. Before they could raise any sort of defense, the entire area was engulfed in a maelstrom of flames and energy.

And pain.

Harry opened his eyes, painfully climbing to his feet. There wasn't much left of the rock they were on. Cloud was supporting his weight on his Buster Sword. Barret had raised himself up to hands and knees, and working his way to his feet. Sephiroth appeared to have not suffered from his own attack. Figures, Harry thought.

"Let's...finish this," Harry whispered.

"With pleasure," Cloud agreed. He wearily hefted his Buster Sword, lifting it up and ready to strike. Harry beat him to the proverbial punch, forcing his protesting legs to propel him toward the One-Winged Angel and driving his sword through Sephiroth's body, weakening him further. He stepped back, breathing heavily, as Cloud glowed orange. "Finishing...Touch!" Cloud dashed forward and swung around, wisps of energy swirling around his blade as he twirled, Buster Sword out and slashing Sephiroth repeatedly before turning into a single forward flip, bringing his heavy greatsword down on the Angel's head, bringing them both crashing to the ground.

All sound died. Sephiroth's face held an expression of honest surprise...before he began to emit beams of light from his injuries and dissolved into bits and wisps of purple smoke and dust until he was no more.

Harry blinked. "It's over."

Harry, Cloud, Barret, Nanaki, Tifa, Cait Sith, and Cid stood around (in some cases, rested against the cavern wall) at the ledge where they'd rendevous before engaging Sephiroth. "This...was all we could do," Cloud agreed.

Barret looked up. "Wait! What about Holy! What's gonna happen to the Planet!"

"That, I don't know," Cloud shook his head. "Isn't the rest up to the Planet?"

Tifa nodded tiredly. "You're right. We've done all that we could do."

Cloud glanced around them all. "All right, everyone...It's no use thinking about it. We'll leave...all...our worries here." He raised a fist, Buster Sword once more attached to the magnet on his back. "Let's go home proud."

"Sounds good," Cid nodded. They turned to leave, but...Harry turned, alongside Tifa, to look back at Cloud.

"...I feel it..." Cloud whispered.

"What?" Tifa asked.

"He is still...here." Cloud fell to teh ground, clutching his head. "Still..."

"Cloud!" Harry and Tifa doubled back, wrapping his arms around their shoulders to pull him along.

"He's...laughing."

"Cloud!"

Ron, Hermione, Ginny, Tonks, and Remus watched as the spikey-headed mercenary named Cloud rocketed head first through a swirling wormhole. The very air moved out of his way as he was shot faster and afster, the walls of the tunnel seemingly intangible; made up of air or steam or thoughts. Flashes, glimpses, really, of past memories could be seen before Cloud was ejected into a vast black space, bright blue tendrils floating around him gently. Cloud opened his eyes, which narrowed with bright blue fury as they landed on Sephiroth.

"Just kill the bugger already," Ron grumbled as Cloud and Sephiroth faced off, standing still and glaring at each other, swords ready. Ginny and Hermione cuffed his head for his trouble. But it seemed to be the cataclyst, as Cloud suddenly charged forward, his sword glowing with energy and flashing as he swung, twice, five, a dozen, twenty strikes, fire burning behind every blow and leaving Sephiroth staggering, the Masamune clattering to the ground useless at his feet. Cloud leapt up into the air and an audible whine could be heard as energy gathered around the tip of the Buster Sword before it was slammed down, the full weight of the blade cleaving the white-haired man in two.

The remains of Sephiroth's body, somehow still standing in Cloud's subconscious, stumbled back, clutching his chest with an expression of shock and horror on his face. He rose, flailing, into the air, before exploding with a small, rather anticlimactic, shower of glowing red embers.

Cloud watched his rival vanish, panting from the exhertion his Omnislash attack required, a slight smile of victory on his face. His Buster Sword faded as he turned, looking up as green tendrils and droplets of lively energy snake upward around him up into the air where a hand, clothed in a pink sleeve, extended down to him. Cloud reaches forward...

Harry heaved Cloud forward, up into Tifa's arms to the safety of the ledge above. Everyone else watched from yet a higher ledge, having not realized immediately the three lagging behind. With Cloud safely pulled up, Harry barely had enough room for a single running step before jumping, leaping up to the ledge as the rock he stood upon crumbled into the Lifestream below. Harry's fingers gripped the ledge, and he swung just enough to grab the edge with both hands before hauling himself up.

"...I think I'm beginning to understand," Cloud whispered once they they had reached the safety of the stable platform.

"What!" Tifa gasped, clutching Cloud close.

"An answer from the Planet, the Promised Land," Cloud replied. "I think we can meet her...there."

Tifa nodded, closing her eyes a moment. "Yeah, let's go meet her."

"Where is everyone?"

"Up there," Harry pointed across the cavern.

"Heeey!" Caith Sith, Barret, Nanaki, and Cid waved to them.

"Holy should be moving soon," Red XIII yelled to them. "That means this place will..."

"Lady Luck, don't fail me now..." Cid breathed, almost in prayer...only to gape, his cigarette falling from his mouth. The group followed his gaze upward to where the Highwind came crashing down, nosefirst into the crater an dislodging rocks and debris before coming to a stop, wedged into place.

"Everyone, get aboard, now!" Cloud ordered. Everyone climbed aboard...except Harry.

"What's up, kid?" Cid called down. "Hurry the hell up!"

Harry was trying to pull a pale-green Materia from his gauntlet. "It's stuck..." He frowned. He tried to take the gauntlet off...but the damage it had taken to protect him had fused the buckles together, and it would take careful, meticulous application of metal cutters to get it off.

"What the hell you doin' ya friggen idiot!" Cid bellowed.

"Harry!" Tifa yelled.

Harry looked up. "I have to give Holy to Aeris..."

"Teh hell ya talkin' about?" Barret grumbled.

"Heh," Harry laughed softly. "I swear...My luck just loves to screw me over." He shook his head. "You guys, get out of here while you can. I've got to help Aeris use Holy and save the Planet."

Nanaki shook his head. "Harry..."

"GO!"

Cloud locked gazes with Harry for a moment, before nodding. "All right...Harry. You take care of yourself, you hear?"

"CLOUD!"

Harry waved them off. "Of course. How many times have I told you...us hero-types always find a way to survive." You might not see me again...and I probably won't see you, either, but... "Hey, Cloud...do me a favor, all right?"

"Sure, Harry. Name it."

Harry smirked, at this one last chance to finally get one over on Cloud, and embarrass Tifa again. "Make lots of sprogs with Tifa for Barret and Cid to spoil, got it?"

Tifa burned a bright red, while Cloud just blinked and made a good impression of a goldfish, caushing Cid and Barret to laugh uproariously while Nanaki chuckled a deep bass. Cait Sith had already gone into the ship, and thus missed the joke.

Harry waved. "Have fun." With that, he leapt from his ledge and plunged back into the Lifestream before they could recover and respond.

The camera panned out over Midgar as Meteor finally pushed through the atmosphere and screamed straight down, toward the old Shinra tower, only to be caught be the streams of while energy cast by Holy, criss-crossing each other and forming a net and stopping Meteor a sheer half-mile from the top of the remainder of Shinra H.Q. The two forces struggle, Holy's energy turning pink and then burning to a red as Meteor's magic begins to push through and lance down toward Midgar.

"What's happening...Holy is not working!" Tifa gasped aboard the bridge-slash-jet of the Highwind.

"Holy is having the opposite effect...because it is too late...it is failing and being absorbed by Meteor," Red XIII intoned softly.

"What...can we do?" Cloud asked.

"...What the hell is that?" Barret growled before any answer could be given.

Cloud looked. In the distance, from several different directions, pale-green strands of Lifestream rose into the air and twirled toward Meteor and Holy, interweaving with the strands of energy creating by Holy. "Lifestream." Cloud whispered.

The weave of energy bowed, Meteor renewing its effort to brush the Planet...but the net held, and slowl, so slowly, pushed Meteor back. Until, at least, the net pushed Meteor up from the city and encased the giant rock and began to compress it, lances of energy striking off chunks of rock and magic. And in minutes, it was over - Meteor was dispelled.

The Planet...was saved.

Harry dove headfirst into the Lifestream, disappearing beneath the waves just seconds before the Lifestream surged up, pushing the Highwind and its occupants up and out of the crater. The Materia orb that was Holy shined as Harry's hand found another hand to grasp.

"I don't believe I requested you join me, Harry," Aeris giggled.

Harry shrugged. "Yeah, well...Holy's stuck in my gauntlet and I couldn't pull it out fast enough."

Aeris shook her head, laughing. "I'm sure."

"It's the truth!"

"All the same...It's nice to have someone other than Zack to talk to, even if you won't be staying long."

"Who?"

"Me." A dark-haired, energetic youth with glowing, Mako-enfused eyes walked up behind Aeris in the same SOLDIER first class uniform Cloud wore. In fact...he looked remarkably like Cloud. A few different alterations, color the hair to blonde, and make the eyes blue, and he could have passed as Cloud's twin.

"I saw you in Cloud's memory...the first time I fell in the Lifestream," Harry gasped.

Zack shrugged. "What can I say...I'm a memorable character."

Aeris giggled and shook her head before standing next to Zack, entwining her hand with his, Holy shining in her hand and leaving Harry with no clue as to how she got it out. "So, Harry...I take it this means you're ready?"

"For what?"

"Well...this isn't your home, is it?" Aeris asked softly. Harry shook his head. "And you have more adventures waiting for you, you know. So...get to it!"

Harry snorted. "I've had enough adventure to last a lifetime...before I started this one."

"So have fun," Zack smirked. "No, really. Havev fun. Make people laugh. Make yourself laugh. Find a girl or two to make out wi-OOF!" And there went Aeris' elbow into his gut.

"What Zack means, Harry, is that adventures don't have to be a source of stress." Aeris reached out, running her fingers through Harry's mop of raven-black hair, darker than even Zack's, as one would to comfort a scared child. Harry felt a moment of indignation - he wasn't a child anymore, after all - but something about Aeris' hand made it seem less an indignation and more like a supportive gesture. "Instead...enjoy yourself. And don't worry. Okay?"

Harry smiled. "...Yeah. That sounds good."

"Good, kid." Zack grinned. "Don't do anything I wouldn't do, ya hear?"

Aeris giggled. "That doesn't restrict much."

"Hey!"

Harry laughed as their playful bantering forms faded, as the background pale green of the Lifestream faded to black. And he knew no more.

Something warm and wet licked at his ear. "Gerroff..." Harry said sleepily, swatting at whatever was disturbing him. He had been having a nice dream, too, about saving the world of a video game.

The warm wet thing backed off with a playful growl, and then..."GRROOWWWFF!"

The dog's bark caused Harry to snap open his eyes and roll to his feet, sword in hand and pointing at...

"Angelo!"

Whew...what a rough year it took to get this out. But I'm glad it's done at last.

Harry: So when do you plan on starting the next?

Sirius: Hopefully soon and not after another year.

It's always easier to start a fic. It's actually working through and finishing it that's the hard part.