I Never Let Her Die! (Aerith x Male Gamer Reader)

Disk 01: Chapter 33: Dark, Dark, Dark; We All Go Into The Dark

Everyone drew their weapons as Sephiroth stood facing us. It was apparent that the majority of the team was expecting the climactic battle here and now. Sephiroth, however, had different plans. He turned away and faced the murals along the walls. "Splendid." He murmured.

"Sephiroth! What are you talking about!?" Cloud demanded.

"Hmm? Come further and see." Sephiroth replied, then he vanished in a flash of light.

"The Hell...?" Barrett asked. "Where'd he go?"

"There!" Vincent said, pointing. We looked and saw Sephiroth further in the room, still admiring the murals.

We rushed to catch up, and when we arrived Sephiroth turned to face us again. There was a distinct difference between how he looked now and how he had appeared in our first two meetings. Before, he had radiated a feel of pure evil and deep madness. Now, he seemed even more insane than before, totally detached from reality, but oddly the sense of evil was less pronounced. I supposed that made a little sense; the truly insane aren't really responsible for their actions. You can't choose good or evil if you're too far gone to appreciate the difference, and I suspected that Sephiroth had finally fallen the rest of the way over that edge.

"Answer me!" Cloud exclaimed. "What are you doing here? What do you want?"

"Nothing much." Sephiroth answered. "Just godhood."

"Godhood!?" Tifa asked.

"What in the hell are you talking about?" Cid demanded.

Sephiroth sighed. "Shall I spell it out for you? Tell me, what happens when the planet itself sustains an injury?"

"It draws extra lifestream energy to the site of the injury to repair the damage." Aerith said.

Nodding, Sephiroth said "Exactly. And, the bigger the injury, the more lifestream energy is diverted to it. So, I ask you, what do you suppose would happen if Gaia sustained an injury so severe that it's very existence was threatened?" Sephiroth vanished and reappeared behind us. "An injury so large as to be a mortal wound to the very planet." He said as we swung to face him. As soon as he finished speaking he vanished and reappeared again. This time, an angry Yuffie threw her giant shuriken at him, but once again he teleported across the room out of it's way.

"Alright that's cheating!" Yuffie exclaimed. "Hold still!"

Sephiroth laughed, then said "Yes, a mortal wound. Cloud, come and see." He vanished.

We quickly found Sephiroth again and cautiously approached. Depicted on the wall in front of him, just as in the game, was Meteor falling from the sky. "Behold... The Ultimate Black Magic... Meteor. With it, I can wound Gaia herself."

"Something that falls from the sky?" Vincent asked.

Tifa shook her head. "But... Hold on here! What's the point of this? So you can wound the planet, what good would that do you? If the planet dies so will you!"

"Not at all. Gaia won't die instantly. She will be wounded. She will try to heal herself, but the wound will be so great that it will not be a matter of just diverting some lifestream energy. No, rather all of the energy, the entire lifestream, will flow into the wound. And there, at the center of it, will be I, ready to take the power for myself. And then as Gaia dies I will become a god, albeit a god of death. And then, Mother and I shall journey on and do the same to another world, and another, and another..."

"You're insane." Vincent said.

"Not at all." Sephiroth answered. He vanished again, and as he went said "Cloud! Wake up!"