Title: I Am I
Fandom: Dissidia Final Fantasy
Rating: PG
Length: 370 Words
Content Notes: References to past violence.
Author Notes: Post-canon, set in the world of Final Fantasy VII.
Summary: Terra reflects on a life she does not remember for a life yet to be.

* * * *

Terra realized that she had been a resident of Edge for four years, that it had been almost half a decade since she and Cloud had returned to his world together from the trials that had first brought them into contact. They had been enemies, then good friends, then lovers. One year after the return, they had become husband and wife. And she had learned, half a year ago, that they had a baby on the way, as the swell of her belly testified. Neither of them had expected to be able to have a child, and the news had brought them a level of peace that neither of them had known up to that point.

What a baby you'll be, little one, she thought, feeling a stir in her belly in response, a little human from two different worlds, a little Esper, and a little – No term for the monster inside Cloud, never mind that he had mastered it, put it to sleep. You'll be unique, nothing like you in all the world ... except the two of us, perhaps. All magic had gone from her world, leaving her as human as anyone, but the trials had brought it back, and it had followed her to the world that Cloud called home. And their child had inherited so much of it that she felt like she carried pure light inside her.

Footsteps behind her. Cloud. He embraced her from behind, resting his hands over where he felt the heartbeat of their child to be. It still struck her as strange that they could have so ordinary a life when both of them had come from lives that had largely been obliterated by the doings of others, lives that only existed as dim memories, barely recalled, made all the fainter by the trials. They had very little, but they still had enough to forge a connection, and, in the end, that was all that was necessary. That in mind, Terra closed her eyes, sighed deeply, and relished the warmth of the embrace.

You'll have a million memories, she thought, to make up for the ones we lost. And many more besides. Another stirring, and a sense of profound calm spread through her.

END.