FREAKING EPIC BOUND POST OF SPOILERY AWESOME

[nashidesei]

You read that right, this is actually a freaking epic Bound post of spoilery awesome. See, a long time ago I gave up on finding the Bound notebook. I think it's boxed up in one of the sheds out back at Mom's and Dad's, so I don't think I'll be seeing it for a while. Thing is, I remember most of what happens. So, back in...June, I started typing it all down in outline form. Came back to it now and then, trying to finish it up. JUST finished tonight. This thing is a freaking monster.

It's really sad that I can't get back into this story, but typing this up sure has made me want to draw for it again. I really should give it another go. Redo it or something, retcon some things, clarify others...

ANYWAY. I have here an outline of the remaining major plot points of Bound, and the entirety of Undone. Anyone curious? Good. You should be.

Here we go, then, let's just dive right in!

• Tifa is possessed by Jenova, completely and totally, and ends up wreaking havoc with Hojo by her side.
  
  
• During the reign of Tifanova, the Calamity manages to forcibly yank Sephiroth's soul out of the body he shares with Cloud, leaving the merge of souls incomplete. However, because the body was originally Sephiroth's--see the next point for details on that--the energy released with Sephiroth's capture restored it to its original state. (It was on its way anyway, though, for anyone who remembers.)
  
  This means we have Cloud alone in Sephiroth's body, with Sephiroth's spirit trapped in Jenova's rather unpleasant clutches. This lasts for a couple months, and thoroughly sucks.
  
  
• As I said, the shared body was originally Sephiroth's. The belief thus far has probably been that it was a merge between the two, given the appearance, but that was actually just some touches left by Gaia to make Cloud more comfortable. She originally tried to fuse the bodies as well as the souls, but Cloud's body couldn't be restored in the limited timeframe necessary to make sure Jenova remained asleep. Sephiroth's body, which was already acclimated to changing at the orders of others, was easy enough to rework slightly to fit them both.
  
  This is actually very important, but won't come into play until the final battle with Jenova.
  
  
• All the main characters from the game ARE introduced and DO play key roles in the story.
  
  
• Yuffie, who followed Seph's group to Kalm, is the only one who sees which direction Tifa heads off just prior to her complete possession--a possession I still want to draw. Badly. Before this, she was actually rediscovered by Vincent and dropped on Barret and the others to hold on to for a while, just so she'd stop following them. Eventually, the majority of that group leaves to find Tifa, though Seph's group doesn't know it.
  
  
• Cid is still Cid, pretty much. He's introduced during Tifanova's first big attack, which is centered on Rocket Town after Seph's group arrives, and almost stabs Hojo through the heart with his spear. Tifanova manages to save him before that, though, and they get away. Sephiroth and the others thank our dear Captain Highwind for his help, and he tells them to get the hell out of his town before they bring in more trouble. They also end up unwittingly enlisting Cid's help in tracking Tifanova and Hojo, and the Highwind--which is still in Cid's custody, after a brief stay in Junon--is added to their resources.
  
  
• Reeve continues to do his thing back in Midgar, though Cait Sith does come into play with Aerith's group as they track Tifanova. In this case, though, everyone is well aware that Reeve is the face behind the cat, so that's not going to cause a major problem. Reeve multitasks like whoa.
  
  
• Eventually everyone will meet up into one supergroup, by the way, but that's not until the final showdown with Tifanova.
  
  
• During that final showdown--which obviously occurs AFTER Seph's been captured--Tifa manages to break Sephiroth free, which almost costs her own life. He gets blasted back into his own body, and the temporary weakening of Jenova gives Vincent and Katal an opportunity to force the Calamity back into submission. (This is why Leader Clones aren't kept with the rest of the Clan, by the way. Their inner strength, combined with the powers afforded them by Jenova's cells, give them and them alone the power to hold Jenova down.) So yeah, Kat and Vin take the bitch down.
  
  
• Chaos does not approve of this shit.
  
  
• During the battle with Tifanova, Cloud is mortally wounded. Not physically, mind you, but Jenova has the ability to damage souls, and damage she does. Sephiroth, once returned to his own body, demands that Aerith contact Gaea and tell her to FIX THIS, DAMMIT. Aerith hasn't been able to properly contact Gaea since the Three took their places in the Circle, due to the fact that she actually gave a part of his own spirit to the planet to serve as a shield against their powers, but she does as she's told anyway.
  
  
• Gaea eventually comes to Cloud's aid, so long as Sephiroth promises to give up anything and everything to save the kid. The Goddess initiates a healing of souls and accelerates it a hundredfold to make certain that Cloud's spirit will survive. The inner sanctum of Sephiroth's and Cloud's shared mind flares white, and they both black out.
  
  
• Outside, similar events take place, in perfect time with the binding of Jenova. Tifa, ice-lavender-haired and slit-pupil-purple-eyed, passes out. Hojo manages to get the hell away while everyone else is fazed, and stumbles off into the woods. And right into Liam, who grabs him by the hair and carts him off to do who-knows-what.
  
  
• Backtracking slightly, I should explain what's going on with the side characters.
  
  
• Liam and the rest of the Clan have been continuing their tracking of Jenova and movement toward Reunion. Liam, however, being as against this sort of puppetry as he is, intends to use his abilities at Leader Clone to actually KILL Jenova when he finds her, and now commands the questionable loyalty of the Three in this endeavor. When they came close enough to actually do something, though, they sensed the presence of Gaea and held off. They'll be back to finish things once Liam's taken care of Hojo and the place stops stinking of Goddess.
  
  
• Kuroha and his gang have moved to Junon, only for Kuroha and Kage to leave them there--under command of Kuroha's third--because they know more than enough of the madness that's going on, and like HELL if Kuroha is going to sit idly by and let that Valentine Bastard ride it out. So off they go to kill Vincent.
  
  
• Okay, jumping forward again. Sephiroth and Cloud pass out, there's a HUGE wave of energy expelled from Gaea's healing, and everything goes so bright white it's impossible for ANYONE to see. When vision finally clears, the group finds themselves in a crater. In the middle of this crater SHOULD be Cloud and Sephiroth in one body, and that might be who this guy is, but he definitely looks different than he should.
  
  Instead of looking exactly like Sephiroth or being the blend the group knows as being the mix of Cloud and Seph, this guy is decently tall, with long blond hair, tanned skin, and blue-green eyes. He's also wearing a Shinra Regular's uniform.
  
  
• Turns out Gaea managed to accelerate the fusion process with her healing, and instead of using Sephiroth's body alone--which was turning out to have been a bad idea to begin with, it gave the guy WAY too much power--she finally incorporated Cloud's as well. So now we actually have a mixed body after all.
  
  
• The kid--he only looks MAYBE eighteen, he's a kid--is unconscious, so they take him back to the Highwind and lay him and Tifa both in the rather impromptu infirmary. Zack and Vincent take turns sitting at the kid's bedside, waiting for him to wake up. A week goes by and Tifa's still unconscious, but Cloud/Sephiroth wakes up. And doesn't remember a thing.
  
  
• Bound reaches its end.

• Here's a little sidenote you might find interesting--Jenova's children have the ability to reshape their bodies, while Gaea's children can reshape their souls. If the two of them came together into one being, this being would be second to none, a god among men. This is why Jenova cells are rejected by the descendants of the Cetra; instead of taking hold like they do with common people, the cells actually destroy the person's body and soul little by little, to ensure that there will never be a god above Jenova.

• Enter Undone! This one starts off about three days after the previous book closed, with Vincent and Katal and Zack all debating amongst themselves about what to do. At this point its obvious what's happened--there's only one soul there, only one body, so Gaea got her superweapon, her god above Jenova. He just...doesn't know anything. Cloud and Sephiroth are GONE, but they're also not gone because they've turned into one person. Basically, this sucks.
  
  
• Yuffie is the one who boldly declares that this kid needs a name, which Zack doesn't like because giving him another name feels like they're giving up on Seph and Spike. Yuffie explains that nooooo, they're noooot, she's just tired of calling him HEY YOU all the time. She's decided that his name, for now, is to be Cleph. Huzzah, everyone say hi to Cleph.
  
  
• Aerith decides that Cleph needs to be taken to the City of the Ancients to communicate with Gaea, and so they can find out what needs to be done with Tifa, who is still in a coma and still has Jenova sleeping inside her.
  
  
• ...Lots of other stuff happens, the details of which elude me at the moment because I CAN'T FIND MY FREAKING NOTEBOOK. It basically amounts to them getting to the city, and Aerith almost gets killed by Liam. They fight off Liam, almost weaken him enough to where they can capture him, but then Blue XX jumps in and fights the gang off so Liam can get to safety whisks him off.
  
  "But wait," you're probably saying, "I thought it only went up to XIX!" You're right, it did.
  
  
• Blue XX is Jessie. Liam, as it turns out, didn't kill Hojo. He just used him to help him change Jessie so being with the Clan wouldn't wear her out and kill her. She's only tertiary, at best--a couple streaks of white in her hair and a faint glow to her eyes--but a Clone is a Clone is a Clone, and that's all the matters.
  
  
• What happened to Hojo? Well, he's currently in the care of the Three, because Liam is fairly certain Hojo has the key to actually killing their dear Mommy-Jenny, and therefore refuses to have him killed. Yet.
  
  
• More plot points I only have vague recollections of, including going to visit Bugenhagen and Nanaki being awesome and telling the old man what he's doing, why he's doing it, why he's going to KEEP doing it, and Cleph being pretty damn useless. He tries, really he does, but he has NO CLUE WHAT HE IS DOING. And Gaea won't talk to him or to Aerith right now, so no one has any idea what to do.
  
  
• Tifa wakes up! As Tifa, no less! She still looks funny, but she's not Jenova anymore. Her hair is starting to grow back in brown again, and her eyes are slowly fading back to their original color as well. Jenova is still in her head, though, so they really need to do something about that. Here's where Reno comes in, and offers to go back to Midgar and pump Hojo's lackeys--anyone remember Merien Tyne?--for information on Jenova. Vincent goes with him to assure the lackeys' obedience, on the condition that everyone takes freaking PERFECT care of Cleph and Katal while he's gone. (At which point Katal goes "Uh...actually, I'm okay, Vin. Stop being overprotective." and Vin just gives him a Look and leaves.)
  
  
• Chaos still does not approve of this shit. He actually keeps playing around with things, here, but he's not so stupid as to start screwing things up when Jenova's binding is at stake. He doesn't want her to come back, thanks.
  
  
• This eventually leads to Tyne and Ashura agreeing to perform another soul transfer--for which Cleph volunteers to be the vessel which will hold Jenova. He understands that much, at least, of what everyone keeps trying to explain to him, and hates the way that Zack and Vincent look at him, so he wants to do something to help. The transfer occurs, and works out just fine. Except that it wakes Jenova up again, which is bad because Cleph doesn't know how to fight her off. She lays low for a while, though, because Zack and Vin and Katal are ALWAYS with Cleph, and they could force her down in a heartbeat if they had to.
  
  
• During their time in Midgar, Reno meets back up with Tseng and makes sure he's okay, Rufus is doing well, we see some more hints of Rufus/Tseng going on and some possible Tseng/Reno as well, but nothing blatant. Tseng, it turns out, is working with Reeve, the other Turks, and the scientists to track the Jenova Cells lost in the Lifestream, because they can't be properly assimilated into the planet without causing an infection--think Geostigma, but for the planet itself--so eventually they should be able to find it.
  
  
• "It" is Jenova's head. Gaea was able to wrest the Calamity's soul from the fragment of her body, but couldn't actually take in her body itself. Key plot point, ho!
  
  
• More secondary plot points I don't properly remember, (stuff involving Kuroha, if I recall, as well as Liam's blood-siblings), and we're just going to skip.
  
  
• Eventually--during a stop in Mideel so Reno can run a scan for Jenova's head--Jenova rises up and attempts to break Cleph's spirit and thereby claim his body as hers. This, unfortunately, doesn't exactly work--she breaks him, yeah, but she breaks him IN TWO. So, thank you Mommy, we have Cloud and Sephiroth back! Neither of whom have a CLUE what's going on, but do their best to fight Jenova off again anyway. There's lots of flashing between shapes and colors for their body, too, and it eventually settles back on the mix that-wasn't-a-mix they had before.
  
  
• This time Jenova's actually going to try and take complete control, and triggers a transformation of the Jenova cells in Cloud and Seph's body, which ends up making him look like this. (Mar, that picture is OLD. Blech.) Liam and the Clan feels this, and pick up the pace to reach their dear Mommy with plans to take her out once and for all.
  
  (I'm sorta losing my drive to do this now. I've been working on this post for QUITE a while now...)
  
  
• Things go along, blahblahblah, everyone is CONSTANTLY pushing Jenova back into submission. Over time Jenova gains more control little by little, until eventually--once all the groups have met up at the Northern Crater--she draws enough power off the Lifestream, the bit of herself that's still her, and the power of the other Clones, to trigger a final transformation.
  
  
• Enter the final battle! Here I'll give a play-by-play, mostly, because I have it all worked out in my head still. ^^ Okay, so Cloud and Sephiroth's body is completely overwhelmed by Jenova, and we end up with something that looks somewhat like the first Jenova fragments fought in game canon (JENOVA Birth, JENOVA Life, JENOVA Death).
  
  
• Jenova, inside her head, fights back Sephiroth. Powerless without the abilities Jenova afforded him, has been reduced to little more than a child and he can't do a thing. She pretty much kills Cloud, and his spirit fades out. This seems to confuse Jenova, and she turns her attention back on Sephiroth. She picks him up by the neck and stands there strangling him inside her head--and does something very similar to Vincent outside. She threw off the Leader Clones and, upon being charged by Vincent, grabs him by the head and rips out his prosthetic arm. As in OUT. All the ribbons of metal unwind and wear away at his ribs and collarbone and shoulderblade and OW.
  
  
• During this, Chaos finally does something truly useful and shoves Vincent the hell out, forcing his spirit into Jenova's hand and straight into her body. There, Vincent blinks back the last flickers of pain and and pushes himself up--and mentally he still sees himself as he was during his time as a Turk, so we have a young Vincent in a blueblack suit. Score. He tells Jenova to get her hands the hell of his son and manages to make her do just that.
  
  
• Outside, Jenova has let go of Chaos, and Chaos flies off down into the Crater itself to do...something. It looks sorta like he's running off, which is bad. Aerith is on her hands and knees screaming for Gaea to help, and at the same time, miles away in Kalm, Marlene drops to the floor and does the same thing. Everyone is doing their best to fight off Jenova--weapons flying and firing and limit breaks galore, (viewed from above it's probably quite sparkly and pretty)--but it's not doing much.
  
  
• Liam is extremely weak, having been thrown a good hundred feet by Jenova, but manages to pull himself over to where Hojo is laying in the snow, unconscious, and slap him awake with the demand that he tell them, NOW, how to kill her for good. How to make sure she'll NEVER come back. Hojo looks toward the crater just in time to see Chaos shoot back up out of it, holding Jenova's head in his hand. He flies over and asks Haishin--he calls him by given name here, it's very cool--what will happen if he destroys it, and he replies that, seeing as it's Chaos, the cells will die.
  
  
• Chaos used to be an Old God, and would have become a Summon Beast like all the others if he hadn't refused to fight the Calamity. As it is he was never reduced to being a Summon Beast--he was trapped in a Materia, but then that Materia was shattered, so he never took orders from a mortal before. His powers haven't faded, while Jenova's HAVE. He has to power to kill her body, they just need someone to put her soul to rest. For that, they need the servants of the Old Gods--the Cetra--and Jenova's overpowered children--the Leader Clones.
  
  
• Chaos grabs Hojo with one hand and Jenova's head with the other, and flies back over to where the big battle is raging. He looks at Jenova--and through Jenova--and shouts Vincent's name. Jenova turns, and Chaos holds up her head to show that he has it.
  
  "Vincent!" Chaos shouts. "Haishin says we can kill Her!"
  
  
• Vincent's been fighting off Jenova in her head for a while now, keeping her away from Sephiroth, but he hears Chaos and realizes that he can't just stay here and hold her. He turns to look at Sephiroth and tells him that he needs to fight, because if anyone can do this it's him.
  
  
• Sephiroth, who looks about TEN right now, shakes his head and says he can't--all his power came from Jenova, without her lending it to him there's nothing he can do. Then someone says, "Don't worry, Seph, I'll help."
  
  
• Cloud fades back in from the darkness, looking more mature and far more serene than anyone has ever seen him. He just got a personal audience with Gaea, got to speak with her by himself, and knows what has to be done. He goes and helps Sephiroth to stand, and as soon as they're both on their feet Sephiroth phases back into his adult self.
  
  Cloud then goes and steps to Vincent and tells him to go tell the others what to do--the Leader Clones and the Cetra. He and Sephiroth will take care of things here, but they need someone to make sure Jenova is caught when they send her out. Vincent agrees and, with a shout for Chaos, shatters and disappears in a flash of red light.
  
  
• Enter the real final battle, which is so epic I'm going to get VERY long-winded. Here's where it finally clicks for Mommy-Jenny that Cloud is a Cetra (DUH) and here's where she gets scared. Cloud turns stands back-to back with Sephiroth, and they move in perfect unison--mirroring one another. Sephiroth lifts his left hand and Cloud lifts his right, and the Masamune materializes and then falls into their shared grip. Seph holds toward the hilt and Cloud holds toward the pommel, and then both swing it in a wide arc to point at Jenova.
  
  "You're done," Cloud says, almost gently, "it's over. Surrender, and Gaea will take you--just like she's wanted to all along. You don't have to die forever. She'll let you come back, let you start over. Finally." His expression turns almost sympathetic, and his voice drops to a whisper. "You won't be alone this time."
  
  Jenova laughs. "I am not going to give up--I am not surrendering because I am not going to die, least of all against a little boy like you. Your people rose up against me once, and fell. This time will be no different."
  
  "Yes," Sephiroth interjects, "it will. Before, it was you and yours against them and theirs. This time...it's just you and us. Your armies, your power is gone. Passed on to a forced lineage that would rather crucify you than ever feel the ice of your breath again."
  
  "Your children have forsaken you, Jenova," Cloud says. "Those that remain stand against you, and they're going to kill you. We're going to kill you."
  
  
• Outside, Chaos jerks as Vincent shoots back into him, and blinks rapidly. The manic glint in his eyes clears for the first time since his imprisonment, and when he speaks it's quite clearly Vincent's voice that emerges. He looks at Jenova's head in his shadow-hand, and then to Hojo, still held against his side. "What do I have to do?"
  
  
• Within moments the Leader Clones--Katal, Liam, Zack, and Tseng (yes, Tseng's there, Shinra couldn't very well let what's left of Avalanche take all the credit, could they?)--are assembled. Hojo gives them very clear instructions on what needs to be done to destroy Jenova once and for all, and they all nod in understanding. Meanwhile, ChaosVin is giving instructions to Avalanche and the Turks, mostly to Aerith. The rest of the folks are still shooting and slashing and blowing bits of Jenova all the hell, but not enough to do anything. After delivering his instructions, ChaosVin takes to the air again.
  
  
• He settles down in the circle of Leader Clones--plus one Hojo--in the middle of a discussion. The following conversation goes about like this:
  
  "We'll need a distraction," Katal says. "Something to hold her attention long enough for us to mass our attack."
  
  Zack turns as ChaosVin comes to land beside him. "Won't Cloud and Seph be enough? If they've got her spirit occupied, all we have to worry about is her body."
  
  "Their body," Liam whispers, reminding them all that the body they're about to help destroy belongs not to Jenova, but to Cloud and Sephiroth. They're about to kill them.
  
  ChaosVin shakes his head. "Hopefully Avalanche will be able to hold her attention for the minute or two it takes before you and Aer--"
  
  "I'll do it," Hojo interjects. Everyone turns, confused, and Haishin repeats himself. "I'll distract her. She knows me--even likes me, sometimes. There's a lot of her still in me, she won't be able to resist."
  
  ChaosVin exchanges glances with the others, who seem to be waiting on his verdict. Back to Haishin. "You'll die." It isn't gentle, and it isn't a question.
  
  "I know," Haishin replies. He smiles, just a little. "I've had a good run anyway--and done some bad things during it. This won't undo them, won't earn me any forgiveness--"
  
  "Damn straight," pipes Zack.
  
  "But maybe it will be enough to convince Gaea I'm worth saving."
  
  
• It's settled. On the outside, the remaining force against Jenova gets into position, spells begin to charge, weapons continue to fly, and ChaosVin flies just close enough to Jenova to drop Haishin in front of her. The scientist throws out both arms and just looks up at her. The mass that is Jenova tilts to look down at him, and for a moment everything seems to go entirely still. Silent. The entire world collapses into thie microcosm, between scientist and experiment, between mortal and god.
  
  Then Jenova thrusts her hand straight through Haishin's chest. Mid-motion, the instant her claws touch his front, he grits his teeth and clamps both hands around her massive wrist.
  
  "This is your fault," he gurgles.
  
  "Oh, feeling bitter?" her voice hisses, echoing and low, distracted on so many levels and resounding in Haishin's head instead of his ears. "Are you going to say I turned you into the monster you are today? Destroyed your chance of a normal life with your murderer friend and the woman you both loved?"
  
  "No. My obsession did that all on its own." If it weren't for all the Jenova in him, Haishin would be very dead already. As-is, his vision fails completely with his next attempted breath. He smirks anyway. "It is, however, your fault that you're about to die."
  
  Jenova jerks, and Haishin can feel something in his head snap. Just like that, she's gone. His mind is silent. He lets out a sigh, and slumps against her arm, impaled, bloody, and very dead.
  
  
• Internally, Sephiroth and Cloud move in perfect unison, swinging the Masamune to take a swipe at Jenova, then another, then another. She leaps back and dances around the blade, avoiding the strikes with far too much ease. She's smirking, but her eyes are scared. She's going to fail, and she knows it. She just refuses to admit it, refuses to give in.
  
  
• In a split second Sephiroth lets go of the sword and does a flip up into the air, one massive black wing pushing out through his jacket as he soars over Jenova's head and lands behind her, throwing both arms around her and holding her tight, glowing with the very power she bestowed on him before his birth. "Cloud," he shouts, "now!"
  
  
• The Leader Clones fire, Aerith screams at the top of her lungs.
  
  
• Cloud takes a final leap forward and stabs the Masamune straight through Jenova's chest, through Sephiroth's chest. Then Sephiroth gives him a nod, and Cloud lets go. Before Jenova can try to reach up and and remove the sword, Sephiroth reaches out over her shoulder and grabs Cloud by the wrist, just pulling him up and over both him and Jenova. Cloud throws his arms around Sephiroth's shoulders from behind, and hisses, "I love you" even as Sephiroth reaches past Jenova, grabs the blade of the Masamune, and pulls, stabbing straight through his spine and Cloud's. Everything around them burns brighter and brighter, until it's a searing, blinding white.
  
  
• Jenova screams, inside and out, and at the same instant ChaosVin digs his claws into the severed head in his hands, crushing it. The pieces cling together, turning a burning violet, and ChaosVin clenches his hands harder, compressing the glowing mass into a ball a little smaller than his fist. He's hissing in pain and almost blind from the light as he brings up the only remaining original Jenova cells and, with a growl, shoves the mess into his mouth.
  
  
• Jenova's stolen body jerks and squirms, as if trying to move, and Aerith's cries turn ragged as green light moves up over the twisted form of the Calamity, coating her completely. The Leader Clones are still holding their spell, blue and violet light shafting out from their hands to Jenova's writhing body, and ChaosVin clenches his teeth down on the mass of shivering cells in his mouth.
  
  
• Jenova's body bursts in the shield of Gaea's power, then the explosion turns in on itself. Everyone ducks for cover when the shield pops--just like a bubble, droplets of Lifestream beginning their fall back to the earth. The explosion has pulled into a massive flare of gold light, and the Lifestream particles suddenly twist and begin spiraling around it, shooting into the light until they're all gone, and the glow bursts.
  
  
• Light shoots out in all directions, like shooting stars against the sky, and begin landing on the snow all around the Crater. When they hit, they seem to solidify, take on proper shape and form, then the coating of light dissipates in much the same way Gaea's shield did, one by one revealing all the Clones that Jenova absorbed so she could return to power.
  
  
• Everyone stares in awe as the lights shoot out and people appear--Liam finds Jessie, and even with a broken leg he pulls himself over to where she lays in the snow and drapes himself over her, almost sobbing in relief. Reeve and Katal both jerk when the woman that used to be Blue IV pushes herself up out of the snow in the gap of space between them, and neither of them feel they could be fast enough to pull her up into their arms. Everyone comes back, one by one, until there's nothing left of the light but a flickering, shivering plume the size of Zack's hand.
  
  
• ChaosVin, lungs and mouth burning, drops to land beside Zack, crouching in the snow, and looks up at him with concern. Zack, who's been looking around intently, shakes his head. No Cloud, no Sephiroth. The remaining wisp of life-fire shudders just once more, and then falls to the ground where Jenova stood. It sinks into the snow, and the glow fades out.
  
  
• Avalanche and Shinra are being celebratory, of course, while the Clan reunites under much better circumstances, and Zack and ChaosVin continue their search. After a moment, the mound of snow where Jenova stood begins to shift and rise, and Sephiroth breaks the surface after another second, gasping for air before falling back to his hands and knees. Zack starts to run toward him, but ChaosVin grabs under his arms, flaps his wings, and carries him there instead. They land, look down at Sephiroth, and watch as he carefully pushes himself up to reveal a sixteen-year-old Cloud laying in the snow beneath him.
  
  Completely naked.
  
  
• Sephiroth strips off his coat as he stands up, draping it over Cloud before helping him to stand, and the two of them just stand there for a minute before they dare turn to Zack and ChaosVin.
  
  "Did we make it?" Cloud asks in a whisper, wary. "Is she...?"
  
  "Jenova's dead," ChaosVin replies, and Cloud looks a little shocked to hear Vin's voice emerging from that sharklike mouth. "She's not coming back this time."
  
  Seph looks to Zack for confirmation, and he nods in reply, finally cracking a smile. "Yeah, she's gone. Dead for good."
  
  Sephiroth nods and then looks around, brow furrowing in confusion. "Did we lose anyone?"
  
  Zack shakes his head. "Everyone's kinda banged up, but even the people that Jenova took before are back. We're all accounted for."
  
  "Haishin," ChaosVin says after a second. He closes his eyes. "Haishin's dead."
  
  "...Relieved?" Sephiroth asks.
  
  He stands there for a moment, looking a little confused. "No," he finally responds. "No, I...I think..." He closes his eyes and shakes his head.
  
  Cloud smiles, apologetic, and reaches up to put one hand on the side of ChaosVin's silver-and-black face. "He did the right thing. For the first time in his life, he did the right thing." He closes his eyes and lets out a sigh. "He'll be back. Not as Haishin, but he'll be back."
  
  "And in the meantime," Sephiroth says, slipping an arm around Cloud's shoulders, "we all have lives to live without him or Jenova playing around in our heads."
  
  ChaosVin squints, then sinks down to a crouch and shakes his head again, eyes still closed. "It's been so long, I don't know--I'm not sure I know how..."
  
  "There are plenty of people who'll help," Cloud replies, looking around the small group assembled here. Then he looks past the former Old God and ChaosVin turns to see Katal and Sanndi and Reeve--Katal waves a hand for him to come over, calling his name. Sanndi turns, and stares, taking a step back to stand behind Reeve. Her full-grown son laughs a little and says something reassuring, but while she relaxes she doesn't look quite convinced.
  
  Zack grins and chuckles. "Aw, Vin, stop being a weirdo and scaring the ladies. I mean, they're so fragile and pretty and--and oh shit." He turns and breaks into a dead run in Aerith's direction.
  
  
• Someone forgot about his girlfriend again. He does that a lot when Seph's around, anyone notice that?
  
  
• ChaosVin chuckles, then, looking amused in ways that are more than a little frightening, given his face at the time, gives a nod to Cloud and Sephiroth before standing, flipping open his wings, and shooting up into the air, coming back down beside Katal.
  
  
• Cloud and Sephiroth are left alone while the world falls back into place around them. They look at each other for a minute, then Cloud puts his arms around Sephiroth's bare chest and gives him a tight hug.
  
  "I thought I'd lost you again. And me, too."
  
  Sephiroth embraces him in return. "So did I."
  
  Cloud slides his hands up to Sephiroth's shoulderblades, feeling the extra bone placed just over his left--what appears to be a flatter, more stretched shoulderblade--and the patch of silky black feathers growing from the skin there.
  
  "You're not going to die again, you know. Not after that."
  
  "Neither are you," Sephiroth replies, holding him close.
  
  "...Gaea, I've missed this," Cloud breathes. "How is it that we could be so close for so long, closer than most people could ever even dream, and now that we're separated all I want to do is hold you?"
  
  "Because that's all either of us ever wanted in the first place."
  
  Cloud just smiles, and doesn't ever want to move.
  
  
• THE
  
  
• FREAKING
  
  
• END

If you actually sat down and read all that, I SERIOUSLY commend you. Liiiiike whoa. You are my buhdee 4 lyfe. :B

Any comments on this would, of course, be appreciated. If there's something I didn't cover--like a lot of things, my memory isn't infallible and I'm sure there are plot holes all over in there--then ask about it and I'll see if I know anything. Hopefully I still will, my brain retains knowledge pretty well.

...But right now I am going to bed because I've been working on the latter half of this thing since freaking two this morning, and it's five now. I was up all night being a fannish dork. Oh well, I'm not due awake until noon or so anyway. *yawns ans stumbles off to sleepyland*