XII Live, Life, Love

Aerith sighed to herself as she walked into the hospital room. It had been a little over a month since the incident at the old ShinRa building, and things had finally calmed down. After Zack had passed out, Cloud had called for help, and gotten both him and Aerith to the hospital in time.

While Zack had dug his claws into Aerith, the cuts weren't severe; she had just lost some blood and passed out from shock. Her injures had healed within a few weeks, but she would forever have a few thick scars on her back.

Zack, on the other hand, had lapsed into a coma. The bullets he took weren't fatal, and while the doctors had been able to remove all of them and patch him up, he still showed no signs of waking up, even long after he had healed up. In fact, he seemed to just get worse. With time, they all began to see that he was slowly slipping away with each passing day, and they didn't know why.

Kunsel figured it out though. He had managed to get out during the chaos that Zack had distracted the copies with, and since he had just been bait to lure Zack, he was unharmed. He remembered that, before Zack had gotten back together with Aerith, he had told him that he had nothing to live for. Now Zack thought he had killed the woman he loved, and his reason to live along with her. With no will to live anymore, he was slowly slipping away.

Aerith came and visited him every day. She would sit by his bed for hours as she talked to him and held his hand, hoping that her voice would reach him and bring him back. Cloud and Kunsel also popped in once and a while to see how he was doing, but even while they worried and cared about him, their main priority was hunting down Genesis, for he had vanished once more.

"Please, Zack," she said softly as she gently squeezed his hand. "Won't you come back to me?"

He had gotten so weak that he had been placed on life support. . Everyone knew that it wouldn't be long before he slipped away into the lifestream, but no one would admit it.

"Losing you once was bad enough!" she said as her tears began to fall. "Please don't make me go through that again..."

She cried her heart out that day, and soon fell asleep at his bed side, still holding his hand.

"Zack..."

He heard many muffled voices as he drifted between life and death, but that one in particular stood out to him.He felt tired and heavy, but as the voice grew louder and the rest of them faded away, he slowly felt his strength returning.

"Wake up, Zack," the voice said.

He slowly opened his eyes and blinked a few times when he saw Angeal standing over him with his white wing spread out.

"Angeal…?" he asked.

He smiled down at him and offered a hand to help him up. Confused and a million questions rolling through his head, he took it and pulled himself up. He took a look around, and saw they were surrounded by a seemingly endless space of white. There was nothing in sight.

"Am I dead?" he asked.

"No," Angeal answered. "But you're close."

He guessed that was why he had felt so weak before; because he was getting closer to death now.

"Is Aerith here too?" he asked, his heart heavy when he remembered that he had killed her.

But Angeal looked confused.

"Aerith?" he asked.

"She died..." he explained softly as he glanced down."Right before I lost consciousness..."

He hoped that Angeal wouldn't ask how, of all things. More than anything, he wanted to find her and beg for her forgiveness for what he did.

"She's not here, Zack."

That caught his attention and he glanced back up.

"What does that mean then?" he asked, his heart racing.

"It means that she's still alive," Angeal told him with a smile. "And that you shouldn't be here just yet."

He patted Zack on the shoulder, earning him a small smile from the younger man.

"Thanks, Angeal."

"Just remember: We're SOLDIER's, not monsters..."

Zack nodded, and watched as everything slowly began to fade out...

He awoke in his hospital bed, and smiled when he saw that Aerith had fallen asleep in the chair beside him. He gently squeezed her hand, then reached up to move a lock of hair out of her face.

"Aerith..." he whispered weakly. His voice was horse, and his entire body felt heavy. It made him wonder how close to death he actually had been...

She woke up a few moments later, and gasped when she saw that he was awake. Her eyes watered with tears of joy, and he knew if it wasn't for all the IVs in his arms and his weak state she would've hugged him tightly right then and there.

"I'm back," he assured her as he wiped her tears away.

"You're sure?"

Aerith nodded silently as Zack took it all in. It had been a few weeks since his steady recovery, and their lives had once again returned to normal. While Zack was in his coma, ShinRa had sent out most of their SOLDIERs to find Genesis and finish him off. They found him in the ruins of Banora, but there was no need to finish him off as ordered, for he was already dead. They weren't sure what exactly had happened, but judging by the way that he had stabbed himself to death, they guessed that the real Genesis had regained control and decided that his death was for the best.

The threat was gone. None of the experiments or Genesis copies remained, so everyone was able to continue living peacefully once more. Zack had returned home with Aerith, and continued to take on mercenary work, as well as help out Cloud on some of his deliveries when he had too much of a work load for him to handle.

He also spent as much time with Aerith as possible, for the feeling of almost losing her had been too much for him to bear. It was then when she told him, for he needed to know.

"I want this child Zack," she said softly.

"I know," he said, still staying in his chair. "It's just..."

He was terrified. Would their child be born like him? When they grew up would they accept him for what he was? Would he be a good father? Each question brought more anxiety, and fear along with it.

"I figured we'd at least be married first before we started thinking about a family," he told her, not wanting her to see his fears.

She nodded, understanding where he was coming from. They had both been careful, but it was clear that nothing was perfect.

"We could move the wedding up," she suggested as she nervously turned the silver engagement ring on her finger.

Almost losing her also made Zack realize that he indeed wanted to spend the rest of his life with Aerith. They had planned to have a long engagement, but now it looked like their plans would have to change a bit.

He smiled at her as he finally stood up, and gently pulled her into a tight embrace before placing a kiss on her lips.

"We'll make this work," he promised.

It did work out well for them, as Zack promised. The church was fixed up for the wedding a couple months later, where everyone was there and happy to see them finally getting married. Tifa was Aerith's maid of honor, with Yuffie and Marlene as her bridesmaids. Naturally, Cloud was the best man, and with Denzel helping him walk down the aisle, little Zackary was the ring bearer.

It was a simple wedding, with a short ceremony and a small reception, but that was the way they both wanted it. Zack took her to Costa Del Sol for their honey moon, and spent some time with Zack's parents in Gongaga afterwards.

It was then when Zack and Aerith told both of them that they were expecting a child, and immediately they were both overjoyed about having a grandchild. Zack also decided it was time that they stopped being kept in the dark about what had happened to him.

He sat them both down at the kitchen table, and slowly told them what happened in Nibelheim. He left out all the horrendous details of the experiments and his time on the run, for he didn't want them to know how bad it had truly been for him. They both listened silently, but as he went on the color in their faces slowly drained. When he finished, he slowly took off his leather gloves and stretched out his wing to show them both that he was telling the truth.

"I'm sorry..." he apologized as he stared down at the floor.

He wasn't exactly sure what he was apologizing for, but he felt that it needed to be said. It wasn't his fault he ended up the way he did, but now here he was, making them realize the truth. He had hid it from them for so long. He had run off to join SOLDIER and they hadn't stopped him. It wasn't his fault, nor theirs, and he hoped they would see it the same way.

Guilt weighed him down when he heard his mom begin to cry, then he flinched and looked up when he heard his father slam his fist down on the table. Tears were in his eyes too, but anger overpowered them.

"This is ShinRa's doing, isn't it? I'm not going to just sit here until they pay for what they've done to you!"

Zack's heart skipped a beat. ShinRa may have changed, but something like that was not going to end well with anybody.

"Dad, no!" he pleaded.

"Zack's right, it's not a good idea," Aerith chimed in.

"Besides, I've accepted it, I'm still human," he assured them.

"And what about the child?" he asked.

"I...We don't know..." Zack said quietly as he started back at the floor as Aerith gently squeezed his hand. "But we'll love them all the same."

As Aerith's due date grew closer, Zack began to take on less jobs that were far away, so he could be by her side in case anything happened. She was glad that Zack was close, and seemed to get happier about becoming a mother with each passing month. Zack, on the other hand, began to panic a bit more about all the "what ifs" each day. He, too, was happy about getting to be a father, but was also becoming very stressed.

He knew it wasn't healthy to keep everything bottled up inside, so he poured it all out to Cloud, hoping he would understand at least some of what he was going through. He listened, and did understand some of the stress, for he too had been worried about being a good father when Tifa was pregnant.

Zack felt better when he realized that he wasn't completely alone, but he was still worried about his child being different than the rest. He thought about going to a couple of ShinRa's scientists and allowing them to run some harmless tests to see if the experiments were genetic in any way, but he still didn't trust them just yet.

More relief was provided when the doctor said their child was developing normally and healthily, but the pit of worry still remained.

He was by her side when she went into labor, and held her hand and whispered words of encouragement until it was all over.

"You have a healthy baby girl," the doctor said before he handed their newborn over to them, wrapped in a warm blanket.

Zack sighed from relief and sank back into his chair when he realized that she was indeed completely normal. No claws or little wings in sight, just a cute, small, little baby girl with a head full of black hair and green eyes. All his fears and worries melted away.

"She's beautiful," he said as he gently leaned over next to Aerith to get a closer look at her. "Like our own little angel."

"That'd be a good name for her," Aerith suggested as she gently rocked her to sleep in her arms.

"You sure you don't want to go with Ifalna?" he asked, remembering they had been considering that one if it was a girl.

"That could be her middle name: Angel Ifalna Fair."

Zack nodded, liking the sound of it.

"Angel it is," he said with a smile."

It was that moment when he realized that nothing really mattered to him, except for the two of them. It didn't matter if he was completely human or if he forgave ShinRa. He was Zack Fair, Ex-SOLDIER, mercenary, a husband and now a father. This was his life, and he was going to live it out no matter what.

~FIN~

Author's Notes

Here's the last chapter as promised ^_^ A nice wrapped up happy ending for you. However, as I have already told some of you I will probably do a sequel at somepoint. At the moment though I have no solid plot ideas (ideas welcome!) and I'd like to work on some other fics first. I'd like to give out a nice big thank you to Chibipinkbunnny, Shippudenfanfic, and Zythxx all for helping me on this story. I also broke my longest word count! ^_^ I hoped everyone liked it, and will check out some of my other stories.

THE POLL FOR A SEQUEL IS NOW ON MY PROFILE