On their left hand side were three blue stepping stones protruding out of the cool liquid that was perfectly visible underneath their feet which led to a circular platform that was also glass. The only other man present, a young boy in his twenties, Cloud Strife remembered how he and his companions, Yuffie Kisargi, Tifa Lockheart and Aeris Gainsborough met their new friends, General Lee and his second in command, Corporal Kirsty. He remembered how they had to pull together to try and make sense of the horror that was faced before them. They managed to find a way back to civilisation, but the General and the Corporal were not even from the same planet, possibly universe.

The group were just gazing around, filled with relief that their nightmare was now over, and they could try to put it behind them, try and forget. General Lee could not stop staring at what lay out in front of him and wondered if the rest of Cloud's world was as gorgeous as what they were looking at.

Ahead of them were three small glass steps which leaded into a little hut that was completely empty. It only had gaps in the front and back walls for people to walk through instead of doors. Behind it, the platform continued and twisted up into a narrow, spiralling, tall deep blue staircase, leading up and out in the far side in the top of the chamber.

'Shall we get moving?' asked Tifa. She looked at the General and Kirsty, both in their white, blood stained uniforms. 'You'll need to stick really close. We're currently mixed up in a huge battle before the siren shrieked, so just keep close.'

The couple nodded and followed, wishing they had several more eyes as they wanted to keep on taking in their surroundings. Aeris Gainsborough walked on behind them, and the General caught the scent of her sodden and bloody clothing. He knew that Kirsty was not much better.

There was a metallic clang from behind them. Startled, they turned around, not knowing what to expect. On the platform where Aeris was found praying before the siren screamed, was a black clad man, holding a huge sword that had struck the ground. He straightened up and pushed his silver hair out of his eyes.

His hair was waist length and two thick strands stuck out slightly before falling down almost in front of his eyes. He wore a black leather trench coat that was fastened over a bare chest and black trousers with large black boots. His hands were covered with leather gloves, also black in colour and they were grasping the hilt of the longest sword that both Kirsty and Lee had ever seen. The blade looked to be at least ten feet in length and was narrow and also extremely sharp. It was a wonder that this mysterious stranger in front of them could lift it up, let alone actually try to use it. He narrowed his cold green eyes - eyes that were the same shade as Aeris, but filled with none of her warmth - as he saw the two additions to the party.

Lee did not know what the significance of this man was, but there most certainly was one, because Aeris tightened her grip on her staff, Yuffie held up her shuriken, and Tifa brought her fists up. Cloud moved swiftly over to him and the Corporal and started to ease them back.

'Stay out of the way. You don't want to go near him. He's dangerous.'

The black clad man made his way down the stepping stones, not saying a word, staying silent all the time. His boots barely made a sound as they came into contact with the ground. He stopped in front of the Corporal, who drew back, holding onto Lee for safety. Before either of them could do anything, Yuffie had lunged and caught the stranger in the back with her shuriken. Tifa punched him in the face and kicked him in the shins before grasping the wrists of Lee and Kirsty and pulling them as far away from the fight that was breaking out as possible.

The man lazily raised a hand and the back of it hit Yuffie around the face. Aeris ran over to help, striking him pathetically with her staff, while Cloud stood frozen, his face a mask. Aeris whipped the end of her staff around the man's face again, his head snapping to the side from the force of the blow. The black clad figure roughly pushed her away and grasped Yuffie's neck, lifting her high above his head and then threw her bodily away from him, past Kirsty and Lee. Kirsty called out and rushed over, to see if she was alright and to try and helped her to her feet.

The mysterious stranger jumped into the air and hovered several feet over their heads. He watched Yuffie climbing back up again and sent a fireball at her and the Corporal. He watched as General Lee threw himself in the path and pulled them both down. The ball bounced off the ground and into the water.

The man drifted over Aeris, who was watching Cloud, wondering what was wrong with him. She was standing far away from Lee, who noticed the evil glint in the maniac's eyes and ran over to her.

As he started to run, the hovering silhouette dropped.

Everything seemed to be in slow motion. The General screamed at Aeris to move, seeing that he would not be able to reach her in time. She did not realise what was happening and did not move, the realisation only sinking in when she felt cold steel penetrate her back. Before she could think, or even call out in shock or in agony, the blade protruded from the front of her chest. There was a light thud behind her as the man landed.

He pulled his huge sword from out of Aeris' dead body and held his arms in the air, smirking, apparently rather pleased with himself. Cloud jerked out of his trance and ran, catching Aeris before she hit the ground. He glanced at her, her eyes wide open and gaping, her mouth half shut. Tears welled up in his eyes as he gently rested her on the cool ground. General Lee gave him a sympathetic look and they made their way back to Yuffie, Tifa and Kirsty.

The teen ninja buried her face in Cloud's shoulder as the first tear trickled from Cloud's eye.

'Do not worry. The girl will become one with me, and when I merge with the world, she shall come back, but as a part of me,' said the black clad man, the pleased expression becoming wider.

'Oh shut up,' snapped Cloud. 'Do you not realise? Aeris is a human being. She will never laugh again. Or cry. Or get angry...' he tailed off in his sadness.

'Stop pretending to be sad. And don't try to get angry.'

'What? Of course I'm angry! You just murdered one of my friends!'

Kirsty could feel anger boiling up in her chest at the stupidity of this man's actions. She found it hard to believe what he had just done and what he was saying.

'What the hell is wrong with you?' she admonished. The black clad man looked at her. Tifa hissed at her to shut up. 'You just took the life of a fellow human being! What, in God's name, is wrong with you?'

'Are you only this brave when you have somebody in front of you, to protect you? Because I don't see you saying all this to my face...'

Kirsty pushed her way past Tifa, despite she was doing all she could to keep a grip on the Corporal. Kirsty stood right in front of the dark man, their face inches apart, and repeated her words. She was rewarded with a slap which caused her to stagger backwards. The man launched himself into the air and floated serenely over them, past the hut and up the stairs and out of sight.

Cloud made his way to the stepping stones and pulled something out of the water. It was a huge, thick bladed sword. He then started to pick up Aeris' body and Lee walked over to help, but Cloud warded him off. As the suddenly depressed party made their way out through the hut, Kirsty, who was walking next to Tifa with Lee on her other side could hear Tifa muttering 'Damn him. Damn Sephiroth.'

'Sephiroth? Is that his name?' whispered the Corporal, and Tifa nodded.

They walked carefully up the blue glass stairs, making sure that they, or anybody around them, were about to fall and came up into a completely different surrounding. They were in the centre of a tall and narrow construction, which was spiralling downwards. The gap where the staircase was in the middle was blocked off by a wooden barrier, which had a break in near the top at the top of the steps.

Pale blue ovals were either hanging on the wall or resting on the ground. They looked like coloured mirrors. General Lee gazed into one as they passed, with Kirsty by his side, holding his hand firmly. They thought they could make out a very faint marking in the middle of the oval, but they could not make it out.

'Come on, lovebirds!' called Yuffie impatiently.

Reluctantly, Kirsty and Lee followed.

When the reached the bottom of the spiral, they came out of the side of what looked like to the General as a giant spiky sea shell. A large pool was in front of the construction they had just left, and Cloud waded in until he was waist deep, Aeris in his arms. He rested her body in the surface of the water, watching as her body sank into the depths and out of sight. He sighed and shook his head then came back out. He glanced at Tifa, who rested a hand on his shoulder, and started to head off, away from the pool and away from the mysterious construction by it.

Past the pool was a narrow stone path by the drop of a large cliff. Lee could feel Kirsty's grip become increasingly tighter as she gazed down below, looking to see where they would end up if they stumbled and fell. The bottom of the cliff was too dark to see the ground.

Tifa kept glancing over her shoulder at the General and the Corporal, making sure that they were not about to put themselves in danger. The path rounded a corner and started to widen. A decrepit one storey building held Lee's attention as they walked past. It looked like nothing more than a few slabs of concrete placed together with squares cut out for windows and a rectangle at the front for a door frame.

Soon they noticed that the path was beginning to join with others, and when the Corporal drew her eyes away from what they ambled past, she realised that they had come down the right hand path of three, all leading to different places. Kirsty longed to explore the other paths, but, when she thought that Cloud - who was leading - was going to walk down the middle one, he continued straight on the path that was now joined from all three together and into a thick forest.

'Where are we?' whispered Lee.

'We have just left the City of the Ancients. This is the Sleeping Forest,' replied Cloud.

'City of the Ancients...that's the place that Aeris mentioned after the siren. Isn't it?' asked Kirsty tentatively.

Cloud nodded solemnly in reply.

The General thought he could see Cloud fumbling in his armour for something, and almost made out a glint of gold. He shook his head and put it down to an over-acting imagination.

The large trees in the forest were close together, blocking out most of the light coming from the sun that was beating down on them. Patches of golden sunlight shot through the areas of younger trees, looking like golden beams. Hundreds of tiny flies glided through the air, although the majority of them hung around in the beams, flying around in circles, the light illuminating them. Kirsty seemed beside herself with wonder, the pain of recently losing a friend being very much overpowered by awe.

'Is really is beautiful, isn't it?' she muttered, noticing that Lee was just was interested in their surroundings as she was. He nodded his head very slightly.

They eventually found their way out of the forest to a small village that was almost surrounded by trees. It was hardly anything more than a large clearing.

Cloud looked around. Nothing seemed to have changed from when they had charged through here in search of Aeris. He wondered if any time had passed when they were fighting their worst nightmares. He wondered if the rest of AVALANCHE were still waiting for them, or if his friends had assumed them all dead and left...

He was walking over to a small drop, the lower level accessible by means of two wooden poles bound by several other pieces of strong wood in the rough form of a ladder. Kneeling in the soil on their level were two brightly dressed men digging around. One stood up and backed off before producing what looked like a tiny remote control. He pressed the large red circular button and in the ground he was rummaging around came an explosion. It seemed to be too deep in the ground to cause any damage to the surface. The man dashed back to where the explosion took place and continued digging, rooting around in the loosened dirt. A crudely erected grey-white tent was standing, the front open for people to easily see inside.

Cloud motioned for the others to follow him and made his way down the ladder where there were more brightly coloured men digging around. The three on the ground, in turn, activated another deeply buried bomb like the man on the high level. To the right of the digging was yet another person, standing on his own in front of the entrance to a large circular tunnel. The walls were the orangey colour of pine wood, but the shade could have been made by the old fashioned lanterns hanging on the walls.

Yuffie pushed her way to the solitary man and bought a small flask of something she did not feel inclined to show any of the party. She handed over roughly one hundred and fifty tiny silver coins and secreted her item somewhere about her person. Cloud, Tifa, Lee and Kirsty waited ahead for her to finish her exchange before carrying on.

What lay ahead almost caused Kirsty to sink to her knees. As she started to collapse, Lee wrapped his arms around her to keep her on her feet. Ahead of them would have been a huge field, had it not have been that the land in front of them was a U-shape and where it stopped, the largest, bluest ocean sloshed, the white foam rushing over the edge of the ground. Now they were not in danger of gazing directly into the sun, and their vision was not obstructed by trees, they could see that it was a perfect day. There was not a single cloud in the light blue sky. Had it not have been such an unhappy day, with Aeris' departure, Lee suspected that their moods would have been sky high.

A huge airship was on the bright green grass, the only noticeable way of enter and exiting the giant aircraft was by means of a rope that was tied around the balcony. A man was leaning against the monstrous machine, peacefully lighting a cigarette. Tifa pulled the group forward, towards him.

The man had blonde-brown hair and light, pale blue eyes. On the top of his head rested a pair of flying goggles. His chin was covered with light stubble, giving the impression that he had not shaved for a while. He wore a white t-shirt underneath a dark blue jacket. Protecting his hands from the icy, biting wind were brown leather gloves, in the same shade as his boots. He wore dark trousers that were tucked into his boots. He looked up at the oncoming group and took a large drag on his cigarette.

'See you made come changes to your party on your journey. We were wondering if you was actually planning on returning,' he said, looking hard at the group. 'Where's Aeris? You were meant to be bringing her back.'

'Cid,' began Tifa, 'she's dead. We got to the Forgotten Capital in time, we got to where she was praying in time. Sephiroth killed her.'

'If you got there in time, then how the hell did Sephiroth manage to kill her? And who the hell are they?' asked the man, gesturing towards General Lee and Kirsty.

'It's a long story,' replied Cloud.

The man shrugged and flicked the remains of his cigarette out of his mouth and then started to ascend the rope. Tifa sighed heavily and trod on the stub her companion had carelessly thrown.

'For God's sake Cid, are you trying to cause a fire?' she snapped. Cid pretended not to hear her.

Yuffie looked at the airship with an expression of dread. She snatched at the rope and handed it to Kirsty, who was looking at it, feeling nervous.

After a few minutes, they were all up except for Kirsty, who had passed the rope on to Cloud. She clambered laboriously nearer and nearer the top, and Lee reached down to help pull her over the balcony. She grasped his hands and swung one leg over the steel barrier, making a thud on the wooden floor with her boots.

The man called Cid prised open a set of cold metal double doors and walked through them, not turning back to see if the rest were following.

Through the doors was a large landing, the floor made up in some areas of metal gratings. To the left, was another smaller room, with the steel door wide open. Sketched onto the ground was a picture of a large bird and an arrow pointing into the room. Kirsty thought she could see a large yellow thing moving around in there, as well as a few stacks of straw. Near that room was yet another large door, where the floor was not make of gratings, and there was a barrier sticking up on the ground, separating the gratings from the solid ground. Lee wandered over, through the door with Kirsty hesitantly following.

Straight ahead in what turned out to be the cockpit were three steps leading down to a circular part with a large and complicated looking machine in. By it, out of the circular pit was another machine with a man in an orange and black uniform pressing the buttons and feverishly working the levers. There was another machine, similar to it, but much larger on the opposite side, with two uniformed men working at it. The very front of the airship consisted of a huge window, where the rest of Tifa, Cloud's and Yuffie's friends were gathered.

The four beings at the front of the ship consisted of two humans and two creatures. One man was a massive, muscle bound black man, with black hair and beard, and dark brown eyes. He wore a thick silver belt underneath a sleeveless brown leather jacket. Around his neck was a metal army tag, bearing his name: Barret Wallace. He wore dark green trousers and thick, chunky brown boots. But what made him so very different from normal men was the fact that his right forearm, a heavy black gun had been grafted in.

The other human was a pale skinned man with black hair that reached to his shoulders. He had dark red eyes in the same colour as the band underneath his growing out fringe and the cloak flowing around his body. He wore black trousers, black boots and a black top, the only colour - apart from the red - coming from the copper claw on his left hand and forearm, and the pointed copper covers on his shoes.

One of the non-humans was a dog-like creature with bright orange-red fur, a burning flame on the end of his tail, a scar over his right eye. His mane stuck out in spikes over his head, two feathers showing above his pointed ears. On the bottom of each leg, just above the paws was a chunky golden bangle, that looked like the bangles Aeris was wearing on her wrists before she died. The creature had a barbed wire tattoo on his hind left leg, and a band tattoo on the front left leg, underneath the marking 'XIII' on the animal equivalent of his shoulder.

The final being of the four, seemed by far, to be the most strangest looking one of them all. It was a black cat, wearing a crown and carrying a small metal microphone. It was standing on top of a tall and fat creature that was white in colour, with long, yet blunt, lower canines protruding from its pouting lip. Sticking out from its shoulder blades, were two very small, leathery purple bat wings, that looked as though they would never be able to support the weight of the huge creature in many, many years.

The man called Cid had stopped terrorising the two nervous uniformed man huddled around the one large machine and joined the crowd of four. Cloud walked past Kirsty and Lee, while Tifa beckoned them to come over. The pale man in the black and red eyed Lee suspiciously, his gaze lingering on their blood stained uniforms. Feeling self conscious, Lee looked down and saw that the blood had dried, turning a nasty brownish colour, instead of vivid red. He saw that the front was solidly covered from when Kirsty had hugged him.

Awkwardness and tension had started to break out as Lee and Kirsty looked around in any direction possible, except where the strangers were. Tifa cleared her throat and noticed that nobody else was going to break the ice.

'Kirsty, Lee...meet our friends in AVALANCHE. We're a rebel group fighting against Sephiroth and Shinra. This is Vincent Valentine -' here she motioned to the pale skinned man '- Red XIII -' the red furred creature looked up at them '- Barret Wallace, Cait Sith -' the cat perching on the huge white beast nodded '- and Cid Highwind, who owns the Highwind.'

General Lee introduced himself and Kirsty and they both smiled and held out their hands. Kirsty instantly regretted holding out her left hand to Vincent and repressed a shudder as the cold claw wrapped around her fingers.

'So what happened to Aeris? You gonna actually tell us this time or say 'it's a long story' and leave it at that?' asked Cid.

'I'm gonna say 'it's a long story' and leave it at that, 'cause we have more pressing matters like Sephiroth, then reliving all the gory details that was Aeris' death,' retorted Cloud.

Kirsty looked around and noticed that there was one person missing. After a few moments of thinking, she realised that it was Yuffie.

'Hey, where's Yuffie?'

'That brat gets airsick and always hangs around near the balcony, thank God,' said Barret. His voice was barely anything more than a low growl.

Cid walked over to the uniformed man standing by himself, clapped the youth on the shoulder and instructed him to go up to the Northern Crater, before double checking with Cloud that it was their destination.

'Yeah, that's where Sephiroth said the Reunion would be.'

'Reunion?' asked Lee, puzzled.

'In Nibelheim, there were loadsa creatures in long robes pacing around muttering either 'Sephiroth' or 'Reunion'. Those clones are all gathering in Northern Crater for the Reunion,' explained Barret.

General Lee and Corporal Kirsty exchanged confused glances and Tifa muttered that Nibelheim was her and Cloud's hometown. Noticing Cid pulling a face and wondering why Tifa was explaining this, she said to Cid: 'Be nice to them. They're not used to the idea of materia and magic and everything that we grew up learning about. They don't know the names of any of the places here.'

'What the hell are you talkin' about, Tifa?' snapped Cid. 'Everyone ones about that! Not unless you've bin asleep for several years, and even then you ought to be able to get the gist of materia.'

Feeling an unfair exasperation, Tifa decided that the only way to get Cid to stop making his ignorant remarks would be to bite the bullet and tell all what happened when they ventured to the Forgotten Capital.

Barret, Cait Sith, Red and Cid hung on Tifa's every word as she explained, reliving each awful moment in the confines of her memory. Kirsty and Lee barely knew how to react, especially when they attracted an interested glance from one of the strangers. The only one who did not seem to be as interested as his companions was Vincent.

He and the General held each other's gaze solidly for an uncomfortable minute. Lee thought he looked familiar, but could not put his finger on it, and spent the rest of Tifa's story-telling time thinking, wondering on who else he had seen the evil glint of disdain in somebody else's eyes. Vincent swept past the General, staring at him as he passed. Lee had desperately looked in any other direction, so he would not have to make eye contact again. Tifa saw and walked over.

'Don't be intimidated by Vincent. He's very cold and keeps himself to himself, but he acts the same with everybody.'

'He reminds me of somebody, but I can't think who...' muttered the General, closing his eyes. He saw himself walking in the huge chamber hand in hand with Kirsty when they heard a loud sound behind them. He remembered how they all jumped, and the anxiety seemed to increase further by the apparition of the black clad man.

'Sephiroth! That Sephiroth man! That's who he reminds me of!' exclaimed Lee in a tiny whisper. Tifa shushed him hurriedly, hoping that Vincent did not hear.

The Corporal was thrown off-balance when the Highwind landed, bumping the ground. The youthful pilot in-training trembled as much as the aircraft did, but out of nerves and also because Cid was breathing down his neck. He braced himself -

'Dammit! Be careful! I don't wanna have to repair the Highwind 'cause you can't land!'

Kirsty and Lee felt Tifa's hands on their backs as she ushered them out, hearing loud footsteps behind telling her that Barret, Cait Sith and Red were following. She snatched at the back of Cid's clothing, pulling him away from the terrified youth. Vincent made his way out of the cockpit in front of Lee. They followed him out to the balcony and watched in amazement as he rested one hand on the barrier and kicked his legs up high, flicking his body over it, completely ignoring the rope that was tied.

Once the whole party was down, Barret surveyed the group.

'Wanna split us up into two groups, Cloud?' he asked.

'Not really,' replied Cloud. Sighing, he pulled Lee, Kirsty, Tifa and Vincent over to him. He said to Barret that he would take the most direct route up to the Crater, and told Barret to lead the others a different way, seeing if there was an easier way to get back to the Highwind.

Cloud, Lee, Kirsty, Vincent and Tifa fought to make their way up the mountains, battling with their ever-dropping body temperature, stopping for up to several minutes at a time, jogging gently on the spot to bring back some warmth into their numb limbs.

Cloud pulled himself up the mountain, clutching at jagged rocks sticking out in a fashion so they could be used as handholds. He clasped one that was becoming considerably loose and it fell out of his hand, down, past the rest of the party and to the ground below. He glanced down, checking that no one was about to slip. Tifa, who was directly underneath him, flashed him a reassuring smile, Vincent merely gave him a cold, hard stare, and General Lee grinned like Tifa. But the Corporal had frozen on the rocks, only centimetres below Lee. She was glancing around, feeling more apprehensive than she had ever before, and the largest area of space that caught her vision was what they had left behind. She gaped unblinkingly at the height they were at, her terror grasping her tightly. Cloud gave Lee an enquiring glance and looked down at the horror struck Kirsty.

'If you think you're going to fall,' shouted the General over the noise of the rushing, ice-cold winds, 'if you think you're going to fall, grab onto me. You got that?'

He saw her give a tiny nod and look up to meet his gaze. She felt a bit more relaxed, basking in the warmth of Lee's eyes.

After several more minutes hard climbing, they could see the top of the mountain, relief that they were almost able to continue to the Reunion without the fear of falling back down hovering over them.

After feeling positively fear-ridden, Kirsty regained her composure and started clambering up the side of the mountain more confidently. She grabbed a rock that, after supporting the weight of people before them had become loose, and slipped from out of the wall.

A deafening shriek and the feeling of somebody snatching wildly at his boot was all General Lee needed to realise what was happening. He brought up the leg that the Corporal was holding onto and grasped her wrist in the hand he precariously took off from the mountain. She placed one arm around his neck, and then did the same with the other when Lee re-grasped the rock.

It took a few minutes to get completely sorted, but because of her near death experience, Kirsty took the handholds slower than ever, determined not to put herself back in that position. She tested the strength of each rock before entrusting it with her weight, probably making each one considerably looser after she had held it, but she did not seem to notice nor care. As long as she could get up the mountain in one piece, then she did not want to know.

Cloud heaved himself up to safety and reached down to help Tifa. Vincent pushed away Cloud and Tifa's hands, almost in contempt and dug his fingers - and claw - into the snow and pushed away from the mountain face with his copper covered shoes, somersaulting onto the stone ledge by Tifa. Lee managed to get himself over, and him and Cloud unceremoniously tugged Kirsty as the final foothold clattered against the mountain face in its descent back to the ground.

Now they were all safety up on the tip of the mountain, they instantly saw that they were not as safe as they had first thought. They were on a stone ledge, that luckily was not very narrow, but at the same time was not exactly wide. A long way ahead on the ledge - that was rising up to the very peak of the mountain - were several of the clones that Barret had mentioned earlier. They were hunched over being roughly in human shape, their bodies covered with black material, their heads hidden from view by a large hood. They were shuffling in single file up the ledge. Occasionally, one of them fell to their knees and collapsed to their side before falling off the ledge and plunging to their doom. Cloud nodded meaningfully in their direction and set of at a run, the others hot on his heels.

They stopped abruptly a couple of minutes later as the last clone in sight toppled off the ledge. What they saw ahead of them was going to be, most definitely, a very large hindrance.

A large section of the ledge - which looked more like a bridge over nothingness to Tifa - was in possession of a ghastly wind, powerful enough to sweep even the most sturdy person off their feet in no time at all. They noticed that, luckily, the wind patrolling the ledge died down long enough for them to make it across and tackle the next challenge on their way to the Reunion - providing they were very quick on their feet.

'Get ready,' muttered Cloud, more to Kirsty and Lee than to anyone else, 'when the wind dies down the next, we're running across.'

Just after the words had left Cloud's lips the wind stopped, an eerie silence creeping across anyone who was paying the utmost attention. Cloud screamed for them to go and took off at a sprint, Vincent almost hovering behind him. Tifa pulled at Kirsty's clothing as they dashed. They were slowed down slightly by the shock of having to run for their lives across a snow covered bridge so soon after Cloud warned them. Lee did not help matters much either by looking down, trying to see the ground when Kirsty was pulled and dragged him away by his hand.

The powerful wind kicked up again just as they made it across the ledge, knocking Tifa slightly to one side; Cloud held her close to him to stop her from falling. He urged them onwards, starting to dread what they were going to see next. He had never been up here before, but he could remember being told about those heading up the Gaea mountain. He remembered being told about the winds, he remembered being told that there were three bridges they would have to pass, but the second two had elements thrown in, to make it even more hazardous to cross. Had he not had a reason to pursue this dangerous task he would decide that it was not worth risking his life and walk back to the Highwind. He wondered how Cid and the other party were doing. He wondered if they had found another, more safer route, as he really did not want to come back this way; he was exhausted enough as it was.

Sure enough, as they were starting to recover from the arduous climb up the mountain and the sprint across the ledge to avoid the powerful wind, they came across to the second obstacle. Just as the first obstacle, most of the bridge was possessed by a powerful wind, but as they saw the air moving rapidly across - and feeling extremely grateful for whatever was stopping it from sweeping them up - they noticed that a green mist was hovering in the wind as well. Kirsty and Lee did not have a clue what it was, but Cloud, Tifa and Vincent could hazard a guess.

'Looks like the Ultima element,' muttered Cloud, remembering the brilliant green he had seen when witnessing the Ultima materia being used. He did not yet possess one, but he intended to, especially if they were going to fight Sephiroth to the death. He felt as though his insides had been plunged into icy cold water at the mere thought of Sephiroth's name.

Once again they had to wait until the wind had slowed down before running across to safety on the other side. As Lee ran across, he wondered what would happen if they fell off. He started to ask Cloud as they continued, but he saw their blonde, spiky-haired friend shudder with fear as another unpleasant memory crept over him.

The third bridge was by far, the worst one. The green Ultima mist still hung in the air, but a blue bolt of lightning ran across as well. Only the most stupid or brave - or possibly both - of people would attempt getting across.

As for the third time they made their way across, a thought occurred to Tifa.

'Do we count as the most stupid of people, the most brave of people, or both?' she yelled, with a grin plastered on her face.

They came to a huge cave that was almost cavernous in its sheer size. In the very back of the cave was a huge creature, frozen in the rock, almost indistinguishable. To those who did not know that it was there, it merely looked like part of the back of the cave. Already waiting, not too far in, were Barret, Cait Sith, Red and Yuffie, looking smugly at the drained group traipsing toward them.

A sudden change happened to Cloud. He held his head, which suddenly seemed to burst with pain, the palms clasped over his temples. He sank to his knees, gently shaking his head, trying to lift the pain. Fear gripped him tightly. What the hell was happening? What was going to happen? He heard a gasp from the Corporal and once the agony pounding through his head subsided, he dared to open one eye. What lay in front of him filled him with old horror, anger, fear...

Flames roared and crackled. Buildings lay torched, in charcoal black ruins. Many bloody bodies littered the ground, their final expression was one of terror. A hand appeared in his view. He clasped it and allowed Tifa to pull him back to his feet. He looked around, to see that he was back in Nibelheim, five years ago, to when he and Sephiroth were in SOLDIER together. Back to when they were sent to fix the Mako Reactor up in the mountain range. Back to when Sephiroth started to turn insane...How had it happened? It had to be a hallucination. But then why were Tifa, Lee and Kirsty here? Cloud wandered numbly over to one of the flaming houses. A fiery tendril leapt out, almost catching him on his face. He felt the warmth as the fire narrowly missed him. This was not a figment of his imagination. It was real. But how?...

There was another noise in the background. He had not heard it before, because it was too low in pitch to be heard over the roaring of the flames and the whispers of those with him. It rose, the noise becoming louder and higher until it was identifiable as laughter. Cruel laughter that he knew could only belong to one man. Tifa pulled him back away from the fire, out of the way of any harm as Sephiroth appeared, as suddenly as when he showed himself in the Forgotten Capital. When he murdered Aeris.

Cloud's throat constricted with fear and anger. He felt his eyes clog up with angry, hot tears as he suppressed the urge to fly at this man and rip him to shreds.

She could not remember how he got onto the subject, but Kirsty could vaguely make out Sephiroth advancing on Cloud, and then start to say that he was a puppet. He was a being, something human shape, a clone, created not born. When Cloud countered, using his memories, the memories that he and Tifa shared, Sephiroth said that when he was created - as a Sephiroth clone - he was formed, using Tifa's memories of the 'real' Cloud Strife.

'But don't blame Tifa, it's not her fault...' whispered Sephiroth.

Angered, confused, Cloud watched, almost helplessly in his emotional pain, as Sephiroth showed them several scenes from the burning of Nibelheim, trying to prove that the clone in front of him was never in SOLDIER, that the real Cloud was never good enough to be who, or what, he pretended. Sephiroth claimed that Cloud, ashamed he never made it far, used the life of his best friend in SOLDIER, Zack.

New memories passed in front of the eyes of the crowd. Tifa was standing in front of the Nibelheim Mako Reactor, in a mood because she was not allowed inside. Sephiroth had firmly instructed the other SOLDIER member who survived the trip to watch after her, while Zack - who Cloud had said was himself - entered the Reactor. She snapped at the man left behind to prevent her from sneaking in, and asked how come he was not going to take off his helmet, surprised that the heat was not getting to him. The blue uniformed man shrugged and lifted it off. Cloud was underneath.

'Lies!' screamed Cloud in frustration, as the memory passed. 'They're all lies!'

Sephiroth smirked at Cloud's reaction, pleased with the fact that he had messed up Cloud's head. He allowed another memory to pass.

Tifa was falling backwards down the stairs of the Reactor, outside the small chamber where the Jenova specimen was kept. She crashed down, her chest bleeding from the diagonal slash that Sephiroth's Masamune had left. Zack burst into the larger chamber to find her at the bottom of the stairs. He lifted her up and gently rested her to one side, making sure she was out of the way of any harm.

'You promised you would help me when I was in trouble...'

Zack jerked his Buster Sword out of its sheath that was slung across his back and followed Sephiroth into Jenova's chamber. Moments later, he burst out again, falling down the stairs, in the same way Tifa had done. As if the time was on a continuous loop, but changing characters, Cloud flew open the Reactor door, seeing both Tifa and Zack wounded, in agony.

'Cloud...kill Sephiroth...'

The 'memory' faded as Cloud took the Buster Sword and made his way up, ready to be a third victim, injured at the end of the Masamune.

The present Cloud held his head, jerking Kirsty's hand off his shoulder, staring at the ground and breathing heavily. It could not be true. It was not true. It was all lies. Lies that Sephiroth had made up to deliberately mess with his mind. He glanced up, looking wearily at the silver haired man in front. He felt sickened to his stomach with the thought that he actually looked up to Sephiroth, respected him when they were both in SOLDIER. The only thing that Sephiroth had proposed that made sense with the truth was Zack's existence. Zack was a real person, instead of somebody who was never real, only living in Sephiroth's disturbed mind. Cloud became close to Zack, thought of him as a brother. But it was Zack who was came second to Cloud in First Class. It was not Zack who walked in on Tifa crumpled at the bottom of the stairs. It was him. Cloud Strife. He had no doubt in his mind that what he remembered was right. He did not doubt his own mind. He only doubted Sephiroth's.

The smirk on Sephiroth's face was too much for him to bare. Something inside him snapped, and before he could prevent himself, he had lunged, restrained only by General Lee. Cloud's arms were outstretched, his fingers scrabbling desperately, as he sought to free himself from the grasp holding him, all the time he was shouting obscenities at Sephiroth, screaming blue murder that he was going to die, yelling, venting his emotional pain, converting it into physical pain, which he handled better.

Tifa slapped him around the face, jerking Cloud back to reality. Stunned, he stopped screaming and bellowing at Sephiroth. He relaxed and Lee drew away from him. He breathed heavily again, feeling confused once more. But he did not have time to feel confused for much more because the Nibelheim burning scene flickered and they returned to the cave, where the Reunion was being held.

'What,' started Lee, 'in God's name was that?'

'Just a taster of Sephiroth's power,' muttered Tifa, looking at Cloud. He was fumbling in his pocket with something and pulled out a large orb, big enough to fit in his hand. It was black. He looked at it in despair and slipped it back.

As the rest of the group edged deeper into the cave, four figures appeared at the mouth and strode determinedly inside. Kirsty gave Tifa an enquiring look and she sidled over, pointing out the Head of Weapons, his second in command, the Head of Science and the President of Shinra Incorporated.

The President, who Tifa whispered was called Rufus had large dark brown eyes and red hair that was not very long, but long enough to get in his eyes, causing him to sweep it backwards in a self-adoring way. He was dressed in a white coat, which was fastened over a white shirt, and wore white trousers and black shoes.

Tifa pointed at the rather large man dressed in a green suit next to Rufus with short black hair and beard, making him look like an unfit and white version of Barret mutter something to the only woman in the new arrivals, a blonde in a red dress. The other man was walking to the stone at the very back of the cave, running his hand down it, examining it, apparently under the illusion that there was something encased in the rock. He had small black glasses, long black hair that was dragged back behind his head in a pony-tail, and, like Rufus, wore all white, his shirt and trousers covered by the ankle length lab coat.

'Anything there, Hojo?' called Rufus. The man gazing at the wall gave Shinra's President an uninterested glance and continued as though there was no interruption.

The large man started over to Barret.

'What do you want, Heidegger?' he snapped, raising his gun-arm. The man called Heidegger glared daggers at him before making his way back to the blonde woman. She studied Kirsty in the least subtle way possible, evidently wondering who she was. Kirsty felt Tifa bristle beside her and heard her mutter 'Scarlet' under her breath.

'Great. We get rid of one maniac called Scarlet, only to gain another,' whispered the Corporal. Tifa fought to keep a straight face underneath the Shinra's stare.

Lee raised his eyes to the top of the cave and saw, fixed to it was a cocoon of ice. He could just about make out the figure of a man trapped inside it. Cid followed his gaze and swore.

'Jeez, it's Sephiroth in there! I'm sure of it!'

'Huh? Sephiroth? But how? We just saw him!' cried Kirsty.

Cloud let out an audible gasp and looked up, moving around in different parts of the cavern, trying to see it if was true, but he could not get a clear enough view. As though his gaze triggered something, Cloud was lifted effortlessly off his feet, and was carried to the top of the cave, He turned in mid air, travelling at speed, but also upside-down. He landed gently at the top, noticing all the figures below him, glancing up, wondering what he caused him to land near the ice cocoon.

Cloud sat down and hugged his knees, resting his head on them, in a way reminiscent of somebody sulking. He barely listened to the conversation, that was heating up to a row between AVALANCHE and Shinra, but one line that came from Scarlet caught him off-guard.

'...being stupid, all of you, going after Sephiroth. We can take him!'

Cloud raised his head off his knees.

'I wasn't going after Sephiroth. I was being summoned by him.'

What looked like normal rock at the back of the cave blinked. Yuffie saw the movement and called out, backing off.

'Gawd! What's going on?' her voice was rising rapidly in her panic.

The back of the cave disjoined itself, revealing two huge winged creatures, that took off, flying into the sky.

Off the coast of a small town south west of Northern Crater, the sea was becoming disturbed. A magnificent emerald green beast was awakening from the sea bed, emitting ear-splitting shrieks that carried far, washing over the people of the coastal village of Junon.

Another one, just as huge, just as deadly half rose out of the quick-sand surrounding an amusement park prison, the sun glinting off the red of its skin. The Weapons were emerging.

As the cave started to crack apart, Cloud moved to the icy cocoon, looking in, and to his great surprise, Cid was right. Nestled in among the ice was Sephiroth, bare chested, dressed only in his trousers and boots. Cloud's black-gloved hand reached into his pocket and pulled out the Black Materia. He held it in his palm, the orb too large for him to close his fingers around it. Still holding it, he plunged his wrist through the ice, and allowed the Black Materia to float around. It started to let out deep purple-black waves that coursed over Sephiroth.

The whole of the cave split into two. The air filled with screams of fear, and the yells of Barret trying to get the rest of AVALANCHE out of the way of any harm. Tifa was the only one who resisted him, screaming, yelling that she was not going to leave without Cloud. Barret held her the same way Lee held Cloud when he was going to try and hurt Sephiroth in the apparition of a burning Nibelheim. She eventually allowed Barret to take her away, her shrieks reverberating around the cavern as Cloud was knocked loose from the top of the cave and into the open ground below, into the light, poisonous looking Mako green of the Lifestream.

_____________________________________________________________________________

Tifa groaned and opened her eyes, holding her head. She saw that she was lying on a cold steel table in a plain, white room, that was filled with only the table she was on, and a chair that the hulking figure of Barret was sitting on.

'How long have I been unconscious?' she asked, unsure if she wanted to hear the answer.

'A week,' was that only reply she got from Barret.

'Where's Cloud? Is he alright? What happened to everyone else?' demanded Tifa, slipping off the table, onto the floor.

'Nobody knows where Cloud is. No one's seen him,' replied Barret, watching her closely.

'What about Sephiroth? Cloud gave him the Black Materia!'

Barret got out of his chair and pulled up the plain white blinds, showing off what seemed like another perfect day. But there was something wrong, something out of place. In the sky was a meteor, heading rapidly down to Earth. Tifa gasped and covered her hands with her mouth, her elbows resting on the window sill. Her knees gave way and she almost sank to the floor. He had summoned Meteor. Sephiroth had summoned Meteor!

The door of the room burst open and three Shinra Guards filed into the room with Lee. The one holding the General stayed in the door frame, watching as his colleagues forced Tifa and Barret out of the room at gun point.

As Tifa was ushered out into the cold grey, metallic corridor, her eyes lingered on the Meteor rushing down to Earth. She exchanged a terrified glance with the General and was struck on the back of the neck by one of the Shinra Guard's gun.

All of the building was a dull grey colour. She gazed around at the cavernous corridors, which were more like rooms large enough to fit the Shinra Mansion in Nibelheim at least four times. As the three were guided up a set of steel stairs, Lee stumbled and cascaded into the wall, which was freezing to the touch. He received a punch in the stomach from the guard watching him and was seized roughly around the neck and forced onwards.

Up the metal stairs that coiled around like a snake, but in a strange rectangular shape, they came to another massive room, although, nowhere near as huge as the room leading to the stairs.

There were rows of chairs throughout the room, and in the far wall was a door. Tifa and Barret froze, or at least attempted to freeze when they saw a camera crew speaking to Scarlet. One man was shoving a microphone under her nose and asking her questions. He was built along the same lines of Cait Sith, at least by bodily shape; what was visible looked human.

'What's going on?' asked Lee, peering at the camera, that had just turned to film their entrance.

'God knows,' whispered Barret, also aware of the attention they were getting.

The guards nudged them forwards, closer to the unfamiliar and unwelcoming crew. Scarlet seemed beside herself with joy. Nobody seemed as though about to fill them in on the details of what was happening, so the captives saw no choice but to try and pick out any vital details in Scarlet's interview.

'So Scarlet, tell us, why a public execution in this day and age?' asked the large, Cait Sith shaped man.

'Public execution?' screeched Lee, staring incredulously at the Shinra employee. She gave him a hard look before turning her back on him.

'Well, we thought it would be good for the world to see that those who are destroying the Planet and trying to destroy Shinra are going to be gone for good,' she replied, a smirk creeping across her face.

'And what about the two new additions to the team?' the reporter asked, eyeing Lee.

'Well, naturally, they cannot be allowed to stay alive when they are working with AVALANCHE, so we have no choice put to execute them as well.'

Scarlet turned back to face Tifa, Barret and Lee, noticing that they were wearing identical looks of anger mingled with unspeakable horror. She pointed at Tifa, and her guard shoved her roughly forwards. She was going to be the first to die.

'This is stupid!' yelled Barret. 'If you gotta take somebody, then take me first!'

The smirk on Scarlet's face widened. She motioned to the camera man.

'Make sure you get these tearful goodbyes!'

Tifa was pushed and shoved to the far end of the room and forced through the door, Scarlet eagerly following. She watched as the guard made Tifa sit in one of the only sticks of furniture in the room; a metal chair with manacles attached to hold down the captive's wrists. As Tifa heavily landed on the painful, hard seat, she snarled at Scarlet.

'You stuck up cow,' she spat, glaring up and behind the blue uniformed man. Scarlet stepped forwards, past the guard and slapped Tifa around the face and walked off, laughing, her eyes full of mirth. The guard followed. As he slammed the door shut, Tifa heard another sound. By the door in the tiny room was a key. The idiotic guard obviously did not realise that he had dropped it, as he was too busy making a loud noise by slamming the door.

'Just where are we?' said General Lee, watching as Scarlet and the guard made their way back.

'We're in the airship for Junon. Well, airship and boat, really,' replied Barret.

In the cockpit for the aircraft, Rufus and Heidegger were staring out at the calm blue ocean ahead. Rufus was standing by the window, lost in the beauty of what he was looking out at. But a shape by the horizon, its size dwindled down to almost nothing at its distance was swimming ever closer. A siren went off, shrieking and screaming throughout the craft.

Lee was startled out of his thoughts.

'Oh no. Not another damned siren!' he called. Barret gave him a puzzled look, which was soon replaced by one of comprehension.

Heidegger and Rufus both craned to make out the shape.

'Warning, Weapon alert! Warning, Weapon alert!'

'Fire at it!' screamed Rufus. 'Fire the Cannon!'

Heidegger nervously glanced around.

'Fire it! Now!'

Scared, the head of weapons ran to the intercom and instructed those working by the Junon Cannon and screamed Rufus' orders. The Ray made a dangerous humming drone as it started to charge up. Rufus ran and snatched a megaphone that would enhance his voice so it could be heard from every point on the craft. He yelled at the many Shinra soldiers on the front of it, on the small ledge under the huge window at the front of the cockpit to begin firing.

Hundreds of men aimed their shotguns at the approaching shadow of death. They were under the command of the several green uniformed Shinra Guards who took out more powerful and destructive guns of their own. The air was rent with the shouts of 'Fire!' and the sound of gun shots.

Scarlet and the guard had made their wobbly procession back to where Lee and Barret were still waiting, their anxiety on if Weapon would make it to them getting the upper hand. Loud bangs were coming from the cockpit as the Cannon became fully charged and started to fire.

Rufus was becoming more frantic.

'Why isn't it working? Why isn't the Cannon slowing it down?'

Weapon was creeping ever closer, the shots from the powerful Junon Cannon and from the Shinra Guards useless. It was just as effective as allowing Weapon to destroy the airship without bothering to defend it.

'Warning, Weapon closing in at fifty feet! Warning, Weapon closing in at fifty feet!'

The gunshots barely did anything more than just aggravate Weapon, and as it drew closer and closer it started to rise out of the water. The fifty feet between the craft and the beast was rapidly decreasing. After several minutes Weapon was almost on top of Junon. It crashed into the thick glass in the cockpit, Rufus joining Heidegger stupidly underneath a table to avoid being killed.

All the soldiers fighting, shooting at it were either crushed between Weapon and the solid wall behind them, or were swept off into the water to drown or die of hypothermia.

General Lee cried out in his shock as he was almost knocked off his feet as Weapon struck. Barret grabbed him by the golden collar of his jacket and heaved him back up to his feet. Scarlet and her guard had made their way back, staggering theatrically over the place as the whole craft shook from the blow that Weapon landed. She called out as the force scared the camera crew and they fled for their lives.

'H - hey! Come back!' she called, watching the retreating figures.

The only person out of the crew who had stayed was the reporter who was walking calmly and confidently over to her. She turned to face him. 'You stayed...'

The last thing she remembered before she keeled over backwards was the reporter taking out a small can of what she assumed was deodorant. He took the cap off and sprayed it in her face. The spray made her drowsy and she fell to the floor. The guards who were still present looked suspiciously at the large man who threw down his disguise and revealed his true identity. Lee and Barret looked on in astonishment as Cait Sith stepped out of the bundled of material on the ground. There was a second reverberating thud as Weapon smacked into the side of the craft.

Cait Sith, Barret and General Lee stood side by side, facing the three Shinra Guards head on and prepared for battle.

'You sure you can fight?' asked Barret, looking at the General who nodded.

'Positive.'

Barret held up his gun arm and shot the guard opposite him in the shoulder. Lee saw his chance and unsheathed his katana, leaping in for the attack. The blade punctured the stomach of the already wounded man and warm blood gushed over the floor in sickening splats as Barret and Cait Sith started their assault.

The cat on the top of Cait Sith's head lunged with the copper megaphone and struck one guard over the head. There was another gun shot as Barret attacked again. Two bullets from the double chambered shotgun that the Shinra employees were armed with tore through the air and placed themselves inside the creature Cait Sith was standing on. He looked down at the stuffed body and tutted at the torn material. Lee was momentarily distracted by the odd sight of a living thing being made out of cloth, and was attacked. He called out in pain as two more bullets were launched out and embedded themselves in his right leg. One of the only white spots of his own uniform was dyed a bright red.

Emerald green flames jumped up around Barret. He waved his arms around and held his gun arm up high, flames soaring out of thin air and at the guards. They fell to the ground in a dead faint.

Tifa was sitting in her chair, secured in, and wondering what was happening outside. She had been painfully jerked into the arms of the chair, her sides pressing against the cool metal. A small hissing had started up and green gas began to fill the chamber. She screamed to Barret who started running up to the door and rattling the handle.

'Damn! I can't open it! I'll have to find another way to get in there! Just hold your breath, Tifa!' called Barret.

'I can't hold it forever!' she warned ominously, when another thought came to her. 'Where's Lee and Kirsty?'

'I'm here, Tifa. We're fine. Although I don't know where Kirsty is...' trailed the General.

'She okay. She's on the Highwind,' replied Cait Sith. 'Come on, we'd better find a way to get Tifa.'

They assured Tifa that they would be able to get her out alive and raced back across to the other side of the door, barely noticing that Scarlet was no longer unconscious on the floor. When they tore through the door, it slammed shut and the noise was followed by the tiniest of clicks. The door had locked itself. Lee punched the door in anger.

'Damn!'

'Ha ha. You fools. Now you won't be able to save her!'

Scarlet's gleeful voice rang around the aircraft as she was somehow watching them try and save their friend. Lee looked around, trying to find the source of her voice.

'Follow me!' called Cait Sith and ran off.

They chased him outside the aircraft, through Junon's naturally massive airport, where they ran into the only female member of the camera crew recording what should have been their deaths earlier.

'Get out of our way!' snapped Barret, baring his teeth at her.

'Hey tall, dark and gruesome, it's me! Yuffie! Sheesh!'

'Yuffie?' asked Lee incredulously.

'Yes!'

'Why are you dressed like that?' asked Cait Sith.

'Never mind that now, we've gotta save Tifa!' exclaimed Yuffie, unusually concerned about somebody else for a change. The Highwind was in the airport, waiting for them, Cid throwing the rope down. He broke his footing momentarily as he headed to the balcony. Barret could just make out the tiny figure of the foul mouthed pilot turn back to shout something through the doors at whoever was at the controls.

The third hit was at the back, right by the gas chamber where Tifa was locked up. She screamed involuntarily and quickly sucked in another breath and held it. The blast against the wall had caused a great big hole, where she would be able to get out. She slipped off the seat of the chair and crouched on the floor, her wrists still painfully tied behind her. She cautiously stretched out one leg and stamped on the key. She pulled it towards her, dragging it under her foot. When she got it close enough, she sat back in the chair and contemplated the impossible problem of getting the key wedged firmly between her feet and to her mouth.

Tifa managed to get the key between the thick soles of her shoes and started to bring her legs up, being careful not to relax a single muscle in her body. She lowered her head to try and take the key in her mouth when it slipped out from between her boots. Resisting the urge to swear loudly, she picked it up again and when she got her feet high enough, lunged forwards with her head, just able getting the key in between her teeth as it was about to fall. She rested her feet back on the floor and forced the key into the lock on her right wrist. There was a small click and her wrist came free. She took the key from her mouth and unlocked her left wrist and sprang up from her seat, running around to the left hand side and turning off the gas canisters. She edged her way to the hole Weapon left in the wall, breathing heavily, when the door burst open and Scarlet, flanked by two Shinra Guards who remained alive appeared in the doorway.

Tifa jumped through the hole and managed to get purchase on the wall. She scrambled quickly, but safely down the jagged cliff face leading to the water. She could see the huge Junon Cannon at the front of the aircraft. She decided to make her way to it. Looking up, Tifa noticed that Scarlet and the guards were chasing after her.

It only took several minutes for Tifa to get all the way down the cliff face and onto the huge Cannon. The Shinra Guards had abandoned the chase and she only had to avoid Scarlet now. She pulled herself up the ray and ran along the barrel of the cannon. She heard a strained grunt as Scarlet heaved herself up, still in pursuit.

Tifa stopped suddenly at the end of the enormous barrel. She was trapped. Ahead of her was water, and icy death, and behind her was Scarlet. She was no better. Knowing Scarlet, she would be most likely to push Tifa off the end. Tifa, knowing that there was nothing else to do, turned to face the second in command of weapons in Shinra. Her face was flushed and her blonde hair was falling out of its elegant bun she always had it in. Scarlet straightened her red dress and stepped ever closer.

Scarlet's head was knocked sideways as Tifa's hand whipped around her face. She head moved so fast, she cricked her neck. Scarlet raised her own hand to where Tifa had struck and glared, her teeth bared. She looked menacing, but Tifa was not intimidated. Scarlet responded to Tifa's unprovoked attack by slapping her back. But harder.

Barret was in the cockpit of the Highwind, screaming and shouting at the pilot in training to make the craft go faster. He was easily a good match for Cid; it would be very difficult to tell who terrified the young man more. He and the Corporal sprinted out to the balcony, where they saw Tifa and Scarlet on the end of the Junon Cannon, both slapping each other with any strength they could muster.

The Highwind ducked lower, so that the balcony was on the same level as the two fighting. As they came nearer, Tifa gave Scarlet a rough shove backwards, causing her to trip. She reached out and grabbed the extended hands of Kirsty and Barret and allowed herself to be pulled aboard. The three headed to the cockpit, where they were greeted by the rest of the crowd. Kirsty instantly made her way over to General Lee and slipped her hand into his and interlocked fingers.

'What are we going to do about Cloud?' asked Tifa. 'Where are we going to go to find him?'

'Where can we go?' retorted Cid.

'Actually, there is a place.'

The heads turned to nearer ground level to the vividly coloured Red XIII who had just spoken. 'The Lifestream washes up near Mideel in the south. I think that if we are to have any chance whatsoever of finding Cloud when we ought to head there.'

Cid turned to the pilot, who hurriedly looked away and started heading in the direction of south. General Lee and Corporal Kirsty headed out to the balcony together, past Yuffie who was bent double clutching her stomach and threatening to throw up everywhere under her breath. Their hair moved wildly from the wind blowing in their faces. They gazed down at the clear blue water, still hand in hand.

'It's so beautiful,' said Kirsty, raising her view to the clear skies and gaping at Meteor, evidently unaware of the fear it inspired.

'Vincent told me about that Meteor,' muttered Lee, also staring up at it. 'He said that apparently it is Sephiroth's doing and that it's going to collide with us.' He could barely keep the anxiety out of his voice.

Kirsty placed a hand around her partner's waist and clung onto him tightly, feeling the warmth of him through their clothing. Despite they were just talking about the ominous sign of Meteor, she felt so close to Lee and did not want to ever let him go.

They turned to face each other and while Kirsty was still looking out at the sea, Lee was gazing right at her. He rested his hands on the side of her face and drew her to him, kissing her. Kirsty's hands fell around his waist.

They were barely aware of anything except the passion and love jolting through them both as they kissed. They did not notice Yuffie glance at them and almost limp away, and neither did they notice the air rushing through their hair become warmer as they headed further and further south.

Tifa and Barret meandered to the balcony, not realising that Kirsty and Lee were there. When she spotted the couple she sighed, her shoulders drooping by several inches. She felt Barret's hand on her shoulder and she turned to face him.

'I miss Cloud,' she whispered.

'I know you do. I know.'

The Highwind gently landed on the ground and Lee and Kirsty only broke apart when Yuffie came tearing on the balcony, snatched at the rope, threw it over and headed down it, crashing inconsiderately into Kirsty as she went without so much as an apology.

After they had all managed to climb down the rope - with the exception of Vincent who ignored it as always - they turned to face the exotic island of Mideel. The village was surrounded by dense forest, almost as thick as the forest that surrounded the village they came to after heading through the Sleeping Forest. There were not many houses, the only constructions in sight were shops selling materia, weapons, items and lots of other things. Most of the shops were built in twos, one on top of the other, reminding Kirsty of houses she had seen in places where floods were aplenty, and were on stilts. The top shops were only accessible by ladders. Everything was made out of wood. The buildings were wooden shacks that were almost piled on top of another one, scattered around the village.

Near the other side of the small area was a one storey building with two people outside talking. As Lee looked around, he realised that there were only three people present outside; he assumed that the other inhabitants of this place were inside. A scruffy looking man was sitting down on the stony path leading into the heart of Mideel. Tifa edged forwards, Kirsty, Lee and Vincent following.

'My, aren't you a beaut?' said the man, staring up at Tifa, who felt inclined to either slap him or just ignore him. 'This here's Mideel, a nice holiday resort.'

'Wonderful,' replied Tifa in a distracted voice, looking around for anything that might give her a hint as to where Cloud was hiding.

As the Corporal and General followed Tifa, Vincent turned back and asked what the others were doing.

'We'll just stay here and look after the Highwind,' answered Barret.

Vincent rolled his eyes and floated over to the figures already in the distance. The three had stopped and were watching the other two people conversing with one another, completely unaware of the attention their words were attracting.

'I wonder how that poor boy is doing.'

'Whatever he got, he certainly got the worst case.'

'Did you see his eyes? So strange...they glowed.'

As though she had received a giant electric shock, Tifa jumped up and ran over to them, who were standing near the one storey building.

'Excuse me, but who are you talking about?' she asked.

'A young boy, probably about your age, was washed up on the shore. He was unconscious and looked near death,' said one man.

'Did he have blonde spiky hair and glowing blue eyes?'

'Yeah! You know him?' the other one responded.

'Cloud...' murmured Tifa.

'He was taken into that hospital,' offered the first man, pointing at the one storey building. Tifa looked at it and thanked the men for their information before running over to it, her friends hot on her heels.

The hospital was tiny. It was basically one room with a wall separating it in half, a door frame without a door in it allowing the other half of the room to be entered. The left hand side of the room where she burst into contained a table with a chair and a bed. A young brunette in a nurse's uniform was sitting at the desk and almost fell out of her seat when Tifa barged in. Ignoring her, Tifa strolled in through the doorway and into the other room, the only occupants was a man in a wheelchair speaking spoken to by the doctor, who was not getting any sense out of his patient.

There were metal shelves on each side of the room, filled with bits of paper from previous patients, reaching from the floor to the ceiling. The doctor turned around, pushing his grey hair out of his face and readjusting the band on his forehead with a grey steel plate fixed into the front. Tifa had never understood what that was for, and she was not going to find out now. All she cared about at this present moment in time was locating Cloud.

'Where's Cloud?' demanded Tifa, the pitch in her voice rising uncontrollably.

'Do you mean this young man?' asked the doctor, moving aside so she could see the person in the wheelchair.

His head was rolling around on his shoulders, his hands were clenching and unclenching. He was fastened into his wheelchair, which turned out to be a good thing when he leaned forwards precariously. His deep blue eyes glowed more than before, and the constant tossing of his head shook his blonde hair all over his face, long blonde spikes falling in front of his eyes.

'Oh! Cloud!' muttered Tifa, making her way over and kneeling in front of him.

Tifa did not turn back when she heard Kirsty give an almost inaudible gasp as she laid eyes on Cloud. Tifa rested one hand on Cloud's and tried to look into his eyes, but they were moving in their sockets almost frantically. A tiny tear trickled down Tifa's face as she stared at Cloud. He stopped shaking his head momentarily, just to gape at the newcomers, but there was no spark of recognition in his eyes. He had no idea who they were.

'Ugh...ahh...Sephiroth...'

'What? What did he say?' whispered Kirsty, staring hard at the insane Cloud.

'He said 'Sephiroth',' replied Tifa, fear clutching her heart.

'Ugh...ahh...what number am I?'

'That is all he says,' interrupted the doctor. 'All the time I've been trying to make sense out of him, he only says those two lines.'

'What does he mean when he said 'what number am I'?' asked Lee.

Tifa reminded him when they were heading to the Reunion in the Northern Crater, that Barret had explained to him and the Corporal about the Sephiroth clones, and she went to say that each clone - which were created by Hojo of the Shinra science department - were given numbers.

'But what has that got to do with Cloud asking what his number is?' asked Kirsty, confused.

'You remember when we finally reached the Reunion and Cloud clutched his head and we were taken back to Nibelheim five years ago, when Sephiroth burnt it down? You remember what Sephiroth was saying? He was saying that Cloud was created as a Sephiroth clone, but was not given a number because he was dismissed as a failed experiment? That's what Sephiroth was implying, and that's why Cloud wants to know what his number is,' explained Tifa, her voice becoming weary and unhappy.

'What is it that Cloud has?' asked Vincent, glaring at the doctor, who swallowed nervously.

'Mako poisoning. He's lucky to be alive. If the poisoning was any worse, then he would have been killed,' replied to doctor, glancing at Cloud.

Tifa straightened up, shaking her head sadly and walked past Vincent, Kirsty and Lee. She paused outside the hospital, waiting for her friends to catch up, battling with her emotions. She felt the Corporal's hand on her shoulder and turned around to face them.

'I'm not going to come with you. My priority is Cloud, and I don't want to leave his side until he's well enough to rejoin us. I hope you understand.'

Lee gave her a sympathetic smile which she returned, and walked back to the hospital, only pausing outside the door, shaking her head.

Vincent led the way back out of Mideel, Kirsty and Lee meekly following in his wake. It seemed that they were losing everybody the pair had come to trust with their lives. Aeris was dead, Cloud was too ill to even speak sense and Tifa was not going to leave him until he was able to continue with AVALANCHE's on-going battle. They only had Yuffie left. Sure, they trusted Barret, Cid, Cait Sith, Red and Vincent, but there was something about them that Kirsty and Lee found daunting.

'Where's Tifa? Don't tell me the same thing has happened to her as it did to Aeris? Or did you pop off to another dimension and leave her behind?' asked Cid, nastily joking.

'She's decided to stay behind with Cloud.'

'So he was there, then?' questioned Red.

Vincent nodded.

'Oh yeah, Barret, I've been meaning to tell you. The Shinra are after the Huge materia, and they're going to put it into a rocket and launch it at Meteor,' said Cait Sith, carefully watching the huge man's reaction.

'Damn Shinra! No good fer nothin'!'

'There's Huge materia at Corel and near Junon, if you wanna head 'em off...' trailed Cait Sith.

Corporal Kirsty, General Lee and Yuffie were dragged away from Mideel and towards the Highwind by Cid, leaving Barret, Vincent, Cait Sith and Red.

'Where you goin'?' shouted Barret.

'To get the Huge materia! We'll get the one at Corel, and you get the one at Junon!' called Cid.

He turned and ran before Barret got the chance to say anything, the only resort he was left with was to swear viciously under his breath.

Cid walked into the cockpit and glared at the pilot in training.

'Corel,' he snarled, instantly terrorising the youth into action. Kirsty and Lee made their way in, holding hands and shaking their heads at Cid.

'Surely you could be a tiny bit nicer to him?' asked Kirsty, smiling.

'Waste o' space, if you ask me. Only got him 'cause I can't be bothered to fly the damned thing myself,' said Cid angrily. He turned to the pilot. 'You're as useless as Shera, you know that don't you?'

The pilot anxiously nodded, concentrating hard on the controls.

'Shera?' queried Lee.

'Woman I live with,' replied Cid shortly.

The wobbly jolt of the Highwind taking off was punctuated by a cry of 'Crap!' from outside the cockpit, which came from Yuffie, who was running to the balcony unsteadily with one hand over her mouth.

'Well, I guess enjoying the view of this journey will be out of the question now,' joked Lee.

Kirsty made her way to the front of the cockpit, past the trembling pilot, who was anxiously looking around to see where Cid was before being jolted to find that he was standing right behind him, breathing down his neck. She stared out the window, feeling her concentration slipping away. She wondered what was going to happen to Cloud, and if he was going to be alright. She thought about Sephiroth, and shuddered when she remembered the powers he possessed. If he could take us back to Nibel...whatever five years ago, just to get to Cloud, then what could he do to get at the rest of us?

'Oi Kirsty! We're here!'

Kirsty was shaken out of her disturbing thoughts by Cid yelling at her. She wandered back to the balcony and swung her legs over the barrier and slid down the rope. Only Lee had decided to wait for her; Cid and Yuffie had already walked off ahead.

They entered Corel, and Lee's mouth dropped open in amazement at what they saw laid out in front of them.

Corel was clearly a very poor village. There was one row of grubby tents, crudely erected to roughly form a habitat for a family varying between two to four persons on the left hand side of the village, and another row of tents on the other. Past them, were three men sitting behind huge blocks of concrete, with several objects behind them, forming rough shops, as they struggled to make ends meet.

Cid strode past the tents and up to the shops. It looked as though he was about to part with some of his money; all three of the shopkeepers were looking at him, silently urging him to buy something from them.

Above the shops was another part to the village, high up on a ledge that was accessible by a large concrete slab propped up in a way that could be climbed. There was one building up there, with a man sitting, leaning against it. All it consisted of was four slabs of concrete standing up, with another, larger slab balanced on top. It looked very dangerous.

Cid stopped in front of the shops and looked to the left, where there was a muddy brown path leading to a ropeway station. No, we don't want to go there...thought Cid. He turned to the right and saw a rickety bridge, with several planks of wood missing, and the rope becoming threadbare in certain places. He headed to the bridge.

'Cid, it doesn't look safe,' muttered Kirsty, looking at the thinning rope.

Cid shrugged.

'Safe or not, this is where we need to go.'

Kirsty gave Lee an anxious look and he took her hand and squeezed it reassuringly. He almost had to pull the reluctant Corporal across the bridge after Cid and Yuffie, who were already far ahead.

On the other side of the bridge was a cliff face. Lee walked to the edge of the drop and peered down. It was too deep to see the bottom. Over the top was a stone bridge that was connected to a ledge higher up from where they were standing. Yuffie walked under the bridge and came to small stone steps, leading up to the same height as the bridge. She jumped up them and started across the bridge.

'Oi, where you goin'? We ain't goin' there! We wanna get to the generator,' snapped Cid, gaping up at the teen. She came back across the bridge and waited at the top of the steps for the others to join her.

At the top of the steps was a huge area of land. At the edge was a metal bridge, leading to a towering circular building. There were several other long bridges leading from other sides of the generator to other parts of Corel. They all resembled train tracks. Cid motioned to Kirsty and Lee with a shake of his head and started to cross the bridge. Kirsty and Lee walked side by side, hand in hand, whispering to one another.

'This place isn't how it seems, is it?' muttered the Corporal.

'I doubt anywhere in this world is. It's so much different to what we're used to. It's going to take me forever to get used to all this,' replied Lee.

As they came to the opposite end of the bridge, two blue uniformed SOLDIER Guards walked out of the nearest exit in the generator and nearly tripped over the group. They both drew their shotguns at the sight of the intruders and yelled for them to step away. Yuffie impatiently sighed and slapped the barrel of the gun being aimed between her eyes as though swatting a particular annoying fly.

She tried to get past, but the Guard held her back. Cid punched the other Guard squarely in the face, causing him to stagger back. He then followed through with a deft kick to both shins and clubbed him over the head with his own shotgun. Kirsty was landing punch after punch on the other Shinra Guard, who managed to stop the flow by blocking one and seizing her around the neck. Lee started to help her, but Kirsty stamped heavily on her captor's foot and elbowed him deep in the stomach, causing him to release her involuntarily. She swiftly spun around and placed one hand on the back of his head and the other on his chin and tugged sharply, making his neck crack loudly. The Guard that Cid was fighting fell to the ground in a dead faint.

'Thanks for your help Yuffie,' he snapped, glaring at the girl. She made another impatient noise and started forwards.

Before she could reach the entrance to the generator, a whistle sounded and an old fashioned Shinra steam train came out, running on the rails to its destination. Cid cursed loudly.

'Dammit! Shinra's already got the Huge materia from here! Dammit, dammit, dammit!'

As the last carriage of the train left the generator, Lee threw himself at it, his fingers getting a loose grip on the top. Cid jumped up, realising that if they wanted to take the Huge materia from Shinra, then clambering around on the top of the train was going to be the only way to get it.

They heaved themselves up; Kirsty and Yuffie were just able to get some purchase before they were heaved up. As the four turned around, they saw that Vincent had appeared in front of them, from almost nowhere. General Lee jumped as he saw the stern, silent figure in black. Vincent had not said a word since entering Corel, and Lee had completely forgotten about him. Yuffie carefully made her way to the front of the carriage and looked down. There was a small gap between the two carriages which was about nine centimetres that consisted of the latch at the bottom joining the two carriages together. It looked very easy to jump over.

'So what are we going to do now?' she asked, staring at Cid.

'I'm thinking, I'm thinking. No doubt the Huge materia is at the very front of the train, with the driver, instead of in any of the compartments with the passengers.'

'Well, then, let's get to the driver and...persuade him to give us the materia,' suggested Vincent, his voice icy cold.

Kirsty caught the tone of his voice and shuddered. It was so cold. She never thought it was possible for anybody to speak with such disdain in their voices. Especially to their friends. Or at least, people who were meant to be friends. Cid, however, did not pick up the chilliness in his voice and started over to the next carriage. The Corporal gave Lee a look and he smiled at her. She did not have time to return it because Cid had started running over the carriages, sprinting to the front of the train, his footsteps sounded noisily on the tops.

When they made it right to the front of the train, they saw a solitary man standing with his back to them, furiously working the levers that was controlling the train. Cid grasped a spear he usually had slung over his back and crept forwards. Sensing movement behind him, the train driver looked around and saw Cid skulking behind him. He called out in surprise, his shout cut off abruptly as the tip of the spear penetrated the man's throat. Vincent picked up the body, the end of the claw on his left hand digging into the flesh of the arm and piercing the skin. He carelessly threw the body out of the train, and turned to Cid, who was staring at the levers.

'You might want to do what the driver was, and actually drive the train,' said Yuffie in her usual sarcastic and annoying tone.

Cid grabbed the levers and started pushing and pulling them repeatedly, working his arms feverishly as the train started to gather speed. The train was starting to rock gently on the tracks from the speed, causing Lee, Kirsty, Yuffie and Vincent to wobble around. Lee grabbed hold of the side of the driver's compartment to prevent himself from falling over.

'You're going to crash this damned thing if you continue going this fast!' he called, apprehension building up inside him.

Cid slowed down, trying to find out how to control the train, but it did not seem to make the slightest bit of difference. Instead of losing speed, the train seemed to be gaining speed. They raced along the track, the landscape whizzing past in a blur.

'We're going to crash!' screamed Cid.

As they started screeching around the corner that leaded into Corel, Cid shoved Yuffie, Lee and Kirsty to the exit of the train, knowing well enough that whatever happened, he need not to disturb Vincent. Just before they would have smashed into something, they jumped out, landing painfully on the hard stone ground. They all heard the sound of the train coming to a halt as it met with the rough shops, destroying two out of the three.

'Well, we won't get the Huge materia. But then again, neither will Shinra,' exclaimed Cid, with uncharacteristic optimism.

A small child clambered onto one of the overturned carriages and sat, his legs dangling as he kicked them absent mindedly in the air. The villagers of Corel gathered around the wreckage, feeling despair as they went back to square one.

_____________________________________________________________________________

Barret, Red and Cait Sith made their way to the small building near the village of Junon called Fort Condor and traipsed inside. Barret climbed up a rope with great difficulty while Red and Cait Sith somehow managed to clamber up themselves. As Barret pulled himself out of the hole, and reached down to assist Red and Cait Sith, a tanned man sitting in a wooden chair by a table glanced up, seeing the visitors. He wore dirty white clothes and his head was covered by a large straw hat. He rubbed his beard, wondering what these people could possibly want.

'We're here to fight in the war against Shinra,' explained Barret, remembering how Cloud had volunteered them when they came here for the very first time. It seemed like ages ago.

The man did not speak, but only nodded and pointed to another rope on the wall of the room on the right hand side. Barret's shoulders sagged at the prospect of fighting to get himself, Red and Cait Sith up yet another long rope, and, seeing no other possible alternative, headed over to it.

Barret heaved Cait Sith up the rope, Red watching intently from behind and then turned around to see where they had to go now. They were on a small landing where - to their great relief - was a set of stairs, leading to a closed door.

'Thank God for that,' puffed Barret. 'Stairs I can just about manage.'

He threw open the door at the top of the stairs, where another man was standing on a table, looking wistfully out of a large window, where they view consisted of a massive yellow condor, on top of the reactor next to the building, hatching its egg.

'Are you here to help us fight against the Shinra?' he asked, stepping off the table.

The man wore black trousers and a dark green sleeveless top. He gave his head a quick shake, dislodging his jet black hair from out of his eyes. He had a tan, like the elderly man they first came to.

Barret nodded.

'If you're busy doing something, then you don't have to fight, but I must ask for a contribution so we can hire more soldiers to do the physical fighting against Shinra,' said the man, looking hard at Barret, who sighed and plunged his hand into his pocket, and pulled out thousands of tiny coins.

'One thousand five hundred gil. That's all I got,' replied Barret, handing the small silver coins over.

'But Barret, we can still fight. The Huge materia is here. We can get it and protect this fort,' Red stated.

The man looked out the window, and down the hill which led up to the reactor and swore loudly.

'They're - they're coming! The Shinra! They're here! Okay, we'll only need you if Shinra get past our hired soldiers and to the condors. If that happens - God forbid - can you stop them?'

Red nodded. He jumped up onto the able and gazed out of the window, his front paws resting on the sill.

The hired soldiers were wearing a uniform of deep blue, similar to the uniform of SOLDIER. The Shinra army were wearing dark, blood red. They crept up the hill, looking like ants below them.

Huge catapults were dug into the ground, facing in the direction of the paths that the intruders could take. A few of them only fired one huge boulder at a time; the more powerful and expensive catapults fired three. There was a nervous looking man standing behind his catapult, ready to refill it when the Shinra showed themselves. Past the catapults were more men, waiting, sword in hands. A handful of people were anxiously wandering around, checking up on the catapults, calming their shattered nerves, feeling sick with apprehension.

The first Shinra soldier showed himself, and started climbing laboriously up the steep hill. He was almost walking up on all fours, clutching his shotgun protectively, seeing the first enemy and taking careful aim.

Barret had his nose pressed to the cool glass, just able to get himself in the correct position to see what was going on. He could see a blue-clothed figure writhe with pain as a bullet tore through the flesh on his leg. More red ants were traipsing up the hill. There was a loud rumble as the catapults were activated, huge rocks rolling down, knocking back some of the Shinra, but most were able to dive out of the way before they were hurt.

Tiny bodies were working furiously together, trying to reload the catapults, always looking down the hill, terrified that more of the Shinra were about to climb up to them. They managed to wind the catapult back, and heave more rocks into it before releasing it.

Three rocks were hurled into the air and landed squarely on one Shinra soldier who was, most definitely, in the wrong place at the wrong time. They rolled down the hill, scattering the endless supply of enemies, occasionally catching another Shinra soldier at a glancing blow on the way down.

Red could see that things were looking bad for Fort Condor. Shinra were over three quarters of the way up the mountain, and there were still more of their soldiers coming, starting their ascent at the bottom of the hill. It seemed as there was no end to the ever increasing number tugging themselves up the hill.

Their companion in the small hut at the top of the hill had his hand clamped over his jaw in his horror, as though he was trying to take himself hostage. His eyes were pinpoints of terror. As the last man fighting against Shinra fell, he screamed and fled from the hut screaming: 'They're attacking!' Barret gave him a disapproving look and rolled his eyes before heading out the door at the opposite end of the cabin and facing the force of Shinra full on.

The creature that was standing in front of them was one that Barret and the rest of AVALANCHE had fought and beaten before without raising a sweat. But he doubted that this creature was going to be as easy. It was very likely to be highly evolved, and one of the strongest of its species.

It had dark brown matted fur on most areas of its body. Its head had two strong horns sticking out from the top, the points looking sharp and deadly. It was standing on its hind legs, its front paws not being suitable for its dead weight. They were barely anything more than huge spiky stone clubs on the ends of its front legs.

Before they could prepare themselves, the beast jumped forwards and struck the ground with one stone paw. The earth shuddered and shook underneath their feet, and a large mound of earth raised painfully into Barret before shrinking back into the ground again. He countered by summoning a powerful creature for his retaliation.

The overhead sky turned to grey as clouds formed and linked together, blocking out the sun. The thick dark cloud swirled around, chasing one another in a circular pattern. A small rip formed in the middle of the circle of clouds and grew, to a large hole. It gave the illusion that the sky was tearing, showing the black nothingness above. A huge, steel grey dragon floated down through the tear and roared, deafeningly in the air. It turned its head down to look at the beast below it and opened its mouth, revealing long jagged teeth and shrieked, a pale yellow energy ball rapidly growing in its mouth. It slipped forwards and burst out, as the screams from the dragon failed to cease, a white hot energy beam crashing down, striking the abnormal beast before dissipating. The figures of Barret, Red and Cait Sith flickered into view again and solidified as the dragon Bahamut was banished.

Barret failed to block the attack as the creature flew at him, hitting him hard on the head. He was powerless as the continued attack washed over him. He was beaten down until he had not a single ounce of strength left in his body, and he had no choice but to give in. When the beast finally finished and stepped back, Red and Cait Sith stared at the bloody beaten body of Barret lying lifelessly on the ground. Red concentrated. Emerald green flames jumped up from the stone around his feet and stopped high above his head, which he lifted as he casted his magic. The three figures dissolved again as the second summon was called.

A silver beam of light shone through the tear in the clouds, silver crystals twinkling beautifully in the light. A figure of a young woman came into view in the beam. Her skin was a pale dark blue. She had long turquoise hair scraped back behind her hair into a long sweeping pony tail. Most of her skin was exposed, her body only covered by small pieces of lighter blue pieces of cloth, lighter than her skin. Her large eyes resembled sapphires. She had a dark blue gem glistening on her forehead. She lazily, carelessly waved one hand in the direction of the creature, and a solid wall of ice apparated, rushing forwards to consume the beast. Cait Sith looked at the body of Barret and pulled out an item which he threw on the black man's body. A tiny little angle hovered over his body, scattering minute red crystals which were absorbed into Barret's body on contact. The fingers on his hand twitched and he opened his eyes. He instantly picked himself up and braced himself for an attack as though no time had passed from when he was attacked, as though he had only been knocked over instead of killed.

The three only stayed only long enough for Barret to cast the winning spell of the battle. In a way that was reminiscent of the first attack on him, a large mount of earth raised itself from where they were standing, where an elderly wizard appeared. He was dressed in a long white robe that reached to his ankles. His white hair, moustache and beard were very long and fluttered softly in the breeze which was conjured up as he raised a long wooden staff in his left hand. The dark blue black orb flickered as electricity crackled inside. Bolts of lightning burst from out of the orb and raked the ground in a circular motion around the raised mound, like children dancing around a maypole. Each fork of lightning struck the Shinra's creature, as the element surged through its body. For the last time, Barret, Red and Cait Sith flickered into view as their enemy fell down dead. Feeling satisfied, they headed back into the cabin, where the man burst through the opposite door, beside himself with joy, screaming 'We've won!' over and over again.

Remembering something, Barret headed back out of the cabin and to the condor egg. Near the bottom were two small orbs, one of which was the Huge materia. The other was a small red sphere. He could hear the footsteps of Red padding behind him, and the heavy thuds of Cait Sith stomping over. Barret picked up the Huge materia triumphantly and pocketed both materia. As he turned to head off, the large condor egg started to crack, and hatched. A large, canary yellow bird sat in the shards of broken egg shell, gazing around in a dazed fashion. Barret ignored the sight behind him and motioned for Red and Cait Sith to follow him back into the cabin.

As they exited the Fort Condor, they saw the Highwind flying overhead and landing on the grass nearby.

Cid and General Lee bent over the barrier and threw their hands down to assist their friends back onto the aircraft. They walked back to the cockpit, where they took their places, staring into outer space. Cid seemed to be lost in thought.

'I wonder how Cloud and Tifa are doing...'

'Why don't we go and find out?' asked Red.

Cid turned to the pilot, who was listening to their conversation and took the hint. Yuffie came into the cockpit, with her mouth opened to say something as the aircraft lifted into the air. She froze, hurriedly shut her mouth again and moved away in an ataxic fashion.

Vincent hovered nearby, glaring out the huge window at the front of the cockpit, his face a mask of anger and self pity. He watched the blue sea speeding away underneath them, and the clouds in the sky roaring past, as they blocked the glow of the sun, and the shadow of the Meteor.

The Highwind landed gently on the ground next to the forest surrounding the small village of Mideel. Vincent, Cid, Yuffie, Lee and Kirsty exited the Highwind and made their way through the thick trees, the others trailing behind at their own pace. Vincent waited outside the hospital with Yuffie as Cid, Lee and Kirsty entered. The brunette nurse glanced up from her desk as she heard the door open and greeted the visitors with a warm smile. She motioned to them that the doctor was through the door.

In the other room, the doctor was bent over Cloud, like he was when he was first found to be in the Mideel hospital, with Tifa sitting on the floor behind him, her knees brought up to her chest in worry, staring at the wall opposite, her eyes sparkling with tears. Cid cleared his throat quietly, causing Tifa to look up. She stood up and walked over to them, trying to smile, as a tear fell down her cheek. She wiped it away as more welled in her eyes and threatened to spill. Kirsty had seen how distressed Cloud's illness had made her, as had the others, and took her in a warm, enveloping hug.

When the Corporal let Tifa go, she cast a look in Cloud's direction, trying to see if he had improved at all from when they had last seen each other.

'The others are waiting outside,' whispered Lee.

'Didn't seem like a good idea to swamp you with people at the same one time,' added Cid.

The doctor straightened up and moved out of the way, so that Cloud was in clear view. His head had stopped lolling, and he was no longer constantly groaning with inner torments. His gaze seemed to be sharper as his eyes focused on the newcomers.

'How's he doing?' asked the General.

'Much better. He has started to recover his memory that he had lost from the Mako poisoning, so he can now recognise his friends.' The figure of Cloud in the wheelchair nodded affirmation. A smile started to spread across his face as the ground began to tremble and quake.

Cid went pale and tore outside, Lee and Kirsty hot on his heels. The brunette was hiding under her table, shouting 'Earthquake!' Cid swore when he saw outside the hospital. The stone ground was flickering from its usual grey to a red, then green, then blue, then yellow, and many other colours as the earthquake continued to ravage the land.

'Damn! The Lifestream's bubbling underneath the land!'

'What does that mean?' shouted Kirsty over the roar of shaking land, and screams of terror.

'Trouble!' came Vincent's voice in her ear.

'What's going on?' Tifa had emerged from the hospital, with Cloud still in his wheelchair.

'Nothing! Get back inside, Tifa!' retorted Cid, watching anxiously as she retreated back into the small building.

A huge dragon was flying around in the sky, circling over Mideel, closing in on the tiny figures below it. Cid let another curse slip from his mouth, but more obscenely this time.

'Weapon! Of all the goddamn times to show up!'

General Lee thought he recognised one of the winged monsters that lurked in the cave during Sephiroth's Reunion. It landed on the ground in front of them, adding more tremors. Vincent and Cid stood defiantly in front of it.

'Barret! You get over here and help me fight this! But tell the others to get back!' screamed Cid.

The huge creature turned its evil eyes on those facing it. If it was human, it would most likely laugh mockingly at the sight of these people who actually thought that they could defeat it. It was a light black-blue colour, its strong hide, shiny and leathery to look at. It had a small waist which looked quite odd compared to the rest of the beast, which was elongated at the back, like the stump of a tail, looking like part of an insect that had been magically increased in size. A long dark coloured spike stuck out of the stump behind it, and another one was visible on the side of its left knee. The chest was slightly bigger than the rest of the torso, but not to the extreme of the lower half of its body, its shoulders broad. It had little neck, its head perched almost on top its shoulders. Three more spikes were seen on the very top of its head, the one in the middle the longest, the other two on either side of it stuck out at a small angle. Protruding from the wide shoulders, almost making it triangular in shape were two wings that were narrow, even when they widened past the joints. They did not look as though they would be able to hold the beast in the air, but they obviously had more strength in them than they seemed.

A clawed hand rushed through the air at Vincent, and struck him heavily in the middle of his body, almost snapping him in half. When he managed to clamber back to his feet, his eyes were alight with menace. Flames erupted around him, but instead of the beautiful green ones from using magic, they were a deep red near the bottom, at his feet, and became light, until the tips of the fire was a bright yellow. Vincent momentarily vanished, as though Summoning, but when he returned, almost instantly, another hideous beast stood in his place, and the cold hearted man they knew was no longer in sight.

The skin on the beast was a dark greyish, black colour, and was pulled tight across his bones. Each separate rib was visible underneath the taut skin. He had two sharp horns on the sides of his head, pointing backwards. His eyes glowed an eerie, evil red as he glared more maliciously at the Ultimate Weapon. Like Weapon, he had a small waist, his spine almost showing off all the individual vertebrae. His arms and legs were much more muscular in the form of this beast, than in human form. At the back of his shoulder blades were two large bat like wings big enough to consume his whole body. They were the same evil red colour of his eyes, looking as though blood had been shed on them.

Vincent raised himself into the air, his arms folded over his chest, as the land underneath Weapon started to rise up in certain areas and form the illusion of a skull. The land moved, as though the skull opened its mouth. Two brick coloured toxic streams of hot air rushed out, circling around Weapon, causing its damage before making its way down to the skull below it and entered the land again via the eye sockets. The skull flattened out again, and Vincent floated back down until he was a couple of centimetres above the surface of the ground.

Cid stepped forwards as the usual green flames kicked up around him, and the three were abruptly banished from sight. A deep gold coloured drop of liquid fell out of the blue sky and burst softly on the ground, casting deep ripples across Mideel's stone ground, as though the land was water. A massive, gold and red bird rose up from where the drop landed, a vivid rainbow behind it as it spread its elegant tail feathers. A rush of fire shot forwards and over the Weapon, devouring it in flames, and dissipated almost instantaneously. The phoenix lifted is head up to the sky and blinked before fading out of sight and being replaced with Cid, Barret and Vincent.

In a way reminiscent of Vincent, Weapon flew a distance into the air, the beady eyes on the small head always focused on the three facing it. It held its clawed hands together and produced a spark of white light. An energy ball grew between its palms as it drew its hands further apart. When it was big enough, Weapon launched it, exploding in a flash of light, and turning the air a poisonous green colour. The thick green fog hung around the party, the touch of it excruciating. As it died down, the three flinched horribly, and Cid collapsed to the ground, on his knees, waiting outside Death's door.

Once again, the flames stood up on the stone, the ancient symbols hidden and they flickered from view. The sky turned overcast, thick heavy dark rain clouds overhead. Rain started to pour down and thunder roared while lightning clashed. A rider on horseback galloped up to Weapon and the horse reared onto its back legs, the front four kicking the air. The rider turned its antlered and pale yellow face slightly to one side as something careered through the cloud, casting a beam of sunlight down on the rider and his six legged horse. A spear of pink and purple light shot into his held out hand, and was then thrown forcefully at Weapon, striking it heavily in the middle.

Vincent lunged forwards at Weapon and caught it hard with a strong blow to the chest, which, on any human, would have caused every bone in the arm to shatter in several places.

Red, green and blue crystals twinkled and winked around the figure of Cid as they cast their healing magic and evaporated, inside his body. He stood up, after curing himself, looking as bold as brass. He turned to Barret, who was well into his own attack.

Comets cascaded down to the ground, colliding into Weapon with great force and speed, breaking into tiny parts on impact. After the five one, the meteor shower ceased, and Weapon rose into the air again, but, instead of attacking, it flew off and into the distance.

The door of the hospital opened again and Tifa emerged, pushing Cloud. Kirsty and Lee ran over to her, as the ground started to crack. Cid, who was near, reached out and grabbed the back of General Lee's jacket, pulling him back just in time as the crack in the ground grew bigger and bigger, almost swallowing the small village. Tifa and Cloud fell in, the wheelchair falling after them dangerously. Kirsty stood on the edge of the large break in the land and stumbled forwards.

Lee fought to get out of Cid's grasp as he watched his Corporal fall down into the centre of the Planet with Cloud and Tifa. He screamed her name, fighting with all his strength to get back, but Vincent, human again, stepped in front of him and assisted Cid in keeping him restrained.

'Come on, we have to get out of here, or else we'll all end up down there!' cried Cid, his voice high pitched with urgency.

The rest of AVALANCHE made their way out of Mideel, as the ground started to collapse into the gaping hole. Most of the villagers were lying on the ground, killed by the collapsing bodies, but a few were still alive. Pouring out of the hole was a vivid green that was much lighter than the colour of the flames Lee had seen when witnessing magic. It was almost florescent. He imagined that when it grew dark, it would produce a strange green, radioactive light.

He tore through the trees, the leaves slapping at his face and body as he tore through. He struggled to keep Cid in his view, but the trees were so close together he could barely see a thing. Eventually, he made it out of the forest, and to his relief, he saw Cid and Vincent just ahead, not too far away. Cid waited for him at the top of the rope and helped him over the barrier. As they started to fly away, the General saw that the village of Mideel was now nothing more than a square of cut down forest deep in the ground, awashed with the strange green substance.

__________________________________________________________________________________

Tifa, Cloud and Kirsty were falling serenely down into blackness. They turned head over heels slowly in their descent into nothingness. When they landed, Cloud had gone, yet again. They were in a large circular chamber, with blackness around the edges, as though they were hovering in outer space. There were two ledges, with a small blonde, spiky haired figure sitting there.

Tifa was helped to her feet by the Corporal and they stared around.

'What happened? Where are we?' she asked, gazing around.

Tifa looked up and saw that above them, like a huge balloon secured by invisible strings was an enlarged figure of Cloud. She looked at the blonde figures on the ledges and saw that they were the Clouds of the past, at various stages of his life.

'In Cloud's mind...' Tifa replied.

She walked over to the small Cloud sitting right at the very north of the chamber. As she approached, he heard her footsteps and stood up and turned around to face her. There was a solid brick wall in front of where Cloud was facing, and on the bricks was a scene of the burning of Nibelheim playing over and over like a video. The young man staring at her stood looking hurt and confused, unable to comprehend something.

'I didn't tell you that you weren't really at the Mako reactor with Sephiroth....that time, because, well, I didn't want to confuse you. But - but you're more than Just a clone! Think...can you think of a time, of a memory that we both share?'

Cloud made no reply. He gave no reaction to show that he had heard her, and stared over Tifa's shoulder, at the Corporal, who was lingering nervously behind.

'I remember...heading to the Jenova specimen together...' muttered Cloud. Tifa gave a weary, heartfelt sigh and shook her head.

'No use.'

She walked past the Corporal and to the little boy sitting on stone steps on the right hand side from the centre of the chamber. On the wall in front of the child Cloud was a window. Through it was the front of Tifa's house. She and Kirsty looked at it. They saw inside, Tifa sitting on her bed by the window in a knee length strappy blue dress with three unfamiliar people around her. Tifa was sitting hugging her knees and crying. She raised her head and looked at her friends.

'I miss my mother.'

The only other girl looked out of the window and saw Cloud walking up, his blonde spiky hair long, and pulled back behind his head in a pony tail. He stopped outside and looked up.

'It's Cloud. I wonder what he wants?'

The playing image clouded over and was replaced by another. Tifa was running through the mountain range just past Nibelheim, her three friends chasing her, but distantly, quite some way behind her. Behind them, was Cloud, wondering where they were all going, and wanting to see Tifa on her own.

As Tifa reached the bridge leading higher into Mt. Nibel, the girl turned back, giving Tifa one last glance and ran off, barely looking at Cloud as she passed him. The two boys followed Tifa across the bridge, neither of them aware of Cloud behind. Halfway across, one of the boys lost heart for the dangerous exploration and headed back, his friend hot on his heels. Both of them gave Cloud piercing looks as they barged past, their shoulders clipping into him, knocking him backwards. He fell over and sat on the bridge from the force of the blow.

Cloud meandered slowly over, thinking that he had got his wish. He was on his own with Tifa. None of her stupid babyish friends were around to stop him from talking to her. So why did he feel afraid? Why was he not happy that he could speak to her? Why was his throat contracting?

When he came up behind her, she turned and saw him, her face splitting into a large smile, when she saw that she still had some company. She looked down at the ground below. It was a long drop down. Cloud followed her gaze, working up the courage to say something, when she slipped. She lost her footing and slipped, only able to hold onto the edge of the drop. Cloud sank to the ground and lifted her hands from the edge and tried to pull her up to safety, but he was not strong enough.

'Help me, Cloud!'

He tried with all his strength to pull her up, but her dead weight was too much for him and he toppled forwards and crashed down to the ground, still holding onto Tifa.

He groaned and opened his eyes, a blinding pain shooting through his left arm. He sat up, holding his injured limb and saw Tifa's unconscious body not too far away. There was the sound of running footsteps and her father, and another villager of Nibelheim appeared. Tifa was picked up be her father and Cloud saw that she had a bloody mark across her forehead. He expected to be helped by the other villager, but he only got a glare and a snarl before both men headed off, leaving Cloud alone, injured in the cold.

The image clouded over again and turned to black as the present Tifa and Kirsty stepped back.

'Everybody thought that I had forced you to come down to Mt. Nibel with me,' whispered the boy Cloud, staring up at the women with tears glistening in his eyes. 'The only ones that could say what really happened were your friends....'

Tifa held one hand over her mouth and shut her eyes, breathing deeply. The Corporal placed a comforting hand on her shoulder. Both the figures of the past Cloud dissolved into the air. Looking up, she saw that the floating figure of Cloud had also vanished. On the centre of the chamber was yet another figure of Cloud. Tifa and Kirsty raced over to the body lying on the floor.

'Cloud....Cloud....speak to me. Give me some sign that you're alive, please,' begged Tifa, her gaze held by the prone body. He twitched and slowly sat up, and was then instantly hugged by both Tifa and the Corporal, who were both saying at the same time how glad they were that he was alive and how worried they were about him.

__________________________________________________________________________________

General Lee and Barret were on the balcony as the Highwind hovered over Mideel, when something caught the General's eye. Three bodies had drifted to the surface of the Lifestream that took over Mideel and were making their way through the forest. It was Tifa, Kirsty and Cloud!

Barret fumbled with the rope and eventually managed to lower it while Lee ran to the cockpit and screamed at Cid incoherently.

'Jeez, you trying to deafen me? What the hell are you saying?' snapped the pilot.

'Cid, you've got to land the Highwind -'

'Why?'

'Because Tifa, Cloud and Kirsty have just been seen coming out of Mideel Forest!' exclaimed Lee.

The rope tied on the balcony shook as hands on the ground gripped it and started to heave their bodies upwards. Tifa came up first, looking down every so often, checking to make sure that Cloud was secure. Barret's large hand wrapped around her wrist as he and Lee pulled her over. The General then reached down again for Cloud. His hand was like ice and clammy. Cloud's expression was one of great inner torment, as though he had just witnessed something traumatic. He stood by Tifa, almost cowering behind her as Lee bent over a third time to help up his lover.

Kirsty slipped as she got one leg onto the balcony ground and almost fell over. Lee caught her before she landed, laughing. The Corporal gave him a playful slap on the arm and smile. She kissed him on the lips and walked hand in hand with him to the cockpit. Red was curled up on the floor. He stood up and shook himself, like a dog after a bath.

'Can I make a suggestion?' he asked.

'Sure, knock yourself out,' muttered Barret, almost under his breath.

'I don't know about you, Barret, but I think it would be a good idea if we went after the other Huge materia. Like the one in Junon, perhaps?' snapped the beast.

Cid made a pointed cough. The pilot quickly started the engine on the Highwind, and they were airborne yet again. Yuffie, who had been staring out the front window lurched forwards and rested against it, leaving her handprint on the glass.

Yet again, the land flew by underneath them, as the Highwind flew the crowd across to another place in the world at high speeds.

As the Highwind made its way back down to earth a mere few minutes later, Kirsty realised she was filled with wonder. She had seen so many strange things in the world, so many things that she was were not possible, like entering people's memories, like magic, but it was real. She wondered where her friends' fight against Sephiroth was going to end. She wondered what was going to happen if they failed and died fighting him. She barely noticed walking back through the cold grey aircraft to the balcony as General Lee practically had to pull her along to get her to move.

'Are you okay? You seem distracted,' said the General, looking worriedly at his partner.

'After that place fell apart, do you know where Tifa and myself ended up?' asked Kirsty.

Lee shook his head.

'Inside Cloud's mind.'

Lee raised one eyebrow and continued to urge her towards the rope. She climbed over and was almost knocked off as Vincent flew out and rushed over the barrier. She drew in a deep breath and held it, closing her eyes as he clasped her around the way, taking her down to the safety of the ground.

Tifa, who was already down the rope walked over to her and gave her a cheery smile. Lee came down behind her, followed by Yuffie.

'Oi, who says that you're going to get this Huge materia with us?' shouted Barret from the Highwind.

'Me, that's who. I ain't done much for a while,' replied Yuffie loudly. The black man tutted and shook his head impatiently.

Tifa turned back to Cloud who had already made his way down the rope before the Corporal. He was staring blankly at the sky. He sighed, his shoulders drooping dramatically and lowered his gaze to the grass underneath his feet. Tifa saw that Lee was giving him a look.

'He misses Aeris.'

'I should think that everybody who knew her and knows that she has...passed on will miss her,' muttered Lee mournfully.

His eyes travelled over the village of Junon and saw that they had landed near a submarine dock. As with every other place they had been to, Junon seemed to have been built in the middle of nowhere, with acres and acres of grasslands surrounding the land behind the village. In front of Junon was the sparkling waters of the huge ocean they had flown over a number of times.

Cloud waited until everybody who was going to climb down the rope had, and marched towards Junon determinedly.

He quickly walked past the run down houses and shops until he came to the very end. There was a huge metal door which was kept shut and guarded by a blue uniformed SOLDIER. Cloud demanded to get through, trying to show the guard that he had authority, but not with much luck. The guard just looked at him and sneered, thankfully not knowing who Cloud really was. He did not seem to recognise any of them, which made Yuffie wonder if this particular man walked around every day with his eyes shut, because she - like the rest of AVALANCHE - was fully aware that she Shinra were after them as well as trying to stop Sephiroth and his Meteor, and if they were caught, they would be shown no mercy.

'If you really want to get through here, pay me ten gil,' grinned the guard, his voice coming out in a sneaky and underhand tone.

Cursing under his breath, Cloud fished around in his pockets, and pulled out ten small silver coins and threw them ungraciously in the guard's hands as he stepped back away from the doors, which were opening along the horizontal zig-zag along the middle of the sheet of metal. Cloud motioned for his companions to follow him. As they walked through, the door shut again with a loud clang.

Ahead of them was a square piece of metal attached to the narrow tube-like chamber leading high above their heads and far down below. Tifa strolled forwards, the first one to the far side of the elevator and pressed the button, which, once everybody was on, caused the lift to head downwards.

Yuffie was the first one to get of the lift, as her motion sickness had kicked in again from the downwards movement. They came to an underground caved in chamber, on a metal grating bridge, where they could see in the distance, a large glass container with a very big coloured orb inside it about to be loaded into a submarine.

'Oh no! The Huge materia!' called out Cloud, extending one arm, as though hoping to be able to stretch his limb to grab the precious sphere.

He ran along the bridge, which turned sharply to the right, and along into another room. It was L-shaped. They ran through one set of metal doors to enter to room, and it seemed to turn for the other section of the 'L', there was another metal motion detecting automatic door.

Two SOLDIER guards were blocking their path through the doors. They noticed Cloud, Yuffie and Tifa, and drew their shotguns, paying no heed to Lee and Kirsty, who were not known to be in AVALANCHE, and therefore, were not their top priority.

Yuffie's four point shuriken appeared suddenly from the back of the teen's clothing. She held it out in front of herself threateningly. There was a soft metallic scrape as Cloud pulled his Buster Sword from out of its sheath and pointed it at the guards.

He rushed the nearest guard, catching him in the stomach with the blade of his weapon. There was a soft splat as some of the guard's blood shed and hit the floor. His fellow SOLDIER guard aimed a shot at Tifa and caught her despite she made a desperate attempt to dodge it. The bullet zipped through the air and caught her in one arm. She hissed between her teeth and clutched at her right arm, just under the shoulder blade.

Footsteps thudded across the floor as Kirsty made her way over. Another gunshot. The Corporal made no reaction as a bullet tore through her abdomen. She whisked the gun out of the guard's hands, the one who was stabbed, still contending with Cloud and Tifa. Yuffie watched from a safe distance, and Lee started forwards to pulled Kirsty back to safety.

A dull thud rang through the air as Kirsty clubbed her guard around the head with his own gun and slumped down to the ground. Knowing that there was no risk of any personal harm, Yuffie lunged forwards and drove one point of her shuriken through the rib cage of the immobilised guard.

The clashes and bangs from Cloud had not ceased, but were steadily increasing as their battle became more furious and more intense. The battle was momentarily interrupted as General Lee's fist came out of nowhere and caught the guard on the chin, throwing him off balance. Cloud took advantage of this and the tip of his sword penetrated the guard's chest, somehow missing any vital organ. Lee placed his hands over the top of Cloud's and guided the sword up, so that the blade caught one of the guard's lungs and punctured it. He withdrew the sword and looked down at the pitiful figure surrounded by his own blood. He cascaded into a nearby wall and slid down, leaving a bloody mark. Lee and Clouds exchanged a glance and ran through the door, where they found two more guards waiting for them.

'So you were looking for the Huge materia!'

Before any of them could think of a reply to the guard, they both attacked. There was a burst of bright white light and Yuffie, Cloud and Lee fell to the floor, holding their heads, their eyes screwed up at the pain shooting through. Kirsty and Tifa, who were lingering near the back of the party only caught the back end of the attack, and were left with a slight headache.

As Kirsty came up to one of the guards, she lashed out and hit the guard full on in the throat with one of her heavy boots. He choked and staggered backwards, holding his neck, unable to stop the ugly noises as he attempted to sort out his breathing.

Tifa punched the other guard in the face, breaking his nose, and then followed through the a deft kick to a shin. She grasped any part of his blue armour she could and forced him into a wall and slammed his head into pure concrete. A sudden movement in the corner of her eye caught her attention, and she saw the General Lee had started to get up, still holding his head delicately. He saw that the guard Kirsty was fighting had recovered from her blow and was aiming his gun directly at her heart. Kirsty had not noticed this because she was checking to make sure that he, Cloud and Yuffie were alright.

Lee reached the Corporal in time as placed a hand over the double barrel gun as the guard fired, two bullets painfully speeding through his hand, tearing at his flesh. He screamed in agony as Kirsty looked dumbstruck at the damage. He screwed up his eyes and bared his teeth, trying to pacify himself. Ignoring the searing feel of the bullet ripping through his hand, his quickly jerked his other hand up to the chin of the guard and tugged at his chin. There was a heart stopping crack and the guard fell down dead.

Tifa was working her opponent into a bloody mess as each punch she landed battered his aching body, causing severe damage to him. At last, when he was worked down to the ground with Tifa standing over him, never relenting in her hits he placed his hands over his head and screamed his surrender. She looked down at him, her expression falsely softening. She placed a hand on the top of his head. The guard relaxed, leaning against the walls he was pinned against. Tifa threw her hand backwards, and the guard's head struck it for the second time, but with much more force behind the blow. Tifa ignored the two bodies of the dead guards and walked through the other door, her friends hot on her heels.

They came out into a huge underground chamber, with a submarine at the far end. The Huge materia was being carried towards it by means of a large piece of machinery. SOLDIER guards littered the chamber, running around, preparing the submarine for when the Huge materia was loaded into it. A man stood nearest to them with his back to them. Cloud let out a soft groan of despair as the large orb disappeared into the sub. He had messy, spiky red hair pulled back behind his head into a pony tail and had large brown eyes. He wore yet another uniform, not the light blue of SOLDIER, and not the deep red of Shinra. Had it not have been so untidy, he would not have looked out of place at a formal dinner party. His white shirt was untucked, with the top two buttons undone. He had lost his tie. His hands were shoved into the pockets of his dark navy trousers. Over his shirt he wore a jacket of the same navy blue.

'Come on, don't stand around. Help load the Huge materia into the sub,' he instructed, still with his back to Cloud and his friends. When there was no reaction, the man turned around. His red-brown eyes narrowed as he saw the group in front of him.

'Well, well, Cloud Strife. As you can see, I've made a full recovery from our last meeting,' his voice was a sneer. He focused on Lee and Kirsty, and the flicker of recognition winked out from behind his eyes and his stare turned vacant.

'Recruiting are we? I'd love to stay and teach your friends about fighting against the Shinra and how badly you're going to lose, but I'm a very busy man. But don't fret, Cloud,' said Reno, as Cloud opened his mouth to interject, 'I've got a friend for you.'

There was a metallic clanking noise which was becoming ever louder with each slowly passing second. The man quickly bid his goodbyes and almost ran off. Yuffie frowned at his back as he ran off.

'What is Reno planning?' wondered Tifa aloud, her voice thoughtful, and her face contorted into a frown like Yuffie's but was distracted by his manner. The way he suddenly left caused her to think about what they were going to have to get past. Her unasked question was answered almost immediately as the loud clanking suddenly stopped and a huge machine came to a halt in front of them. It looked like a kind of evolved spider. There were four legs, four massive legs all twisting up to meet a metal stem reaching up where two thick steel arms protruded near the top. On the very tip of the backbone of the machine was something very small, almost too small to be seen. A light blue laser burst from it, striking the ground underneath Yuffie's feet to yelped and jumped into Cloud's arms before she was given the chance to be hurt.

Cloud forced the youth off him and lined up next to Tifa in front of the carry armour, Yuffie bravely stepping next to him. Barret suddenly appeared on Yuffie's other side and stood, glaring up at the tall robot.

'Where the hell did you spring from?' asked Yuffie, noticing that he had not helped in fighting the Shinra guards because he was not there.

'I lingered behind with Vincent, who eventually decided that he could be arsed and went back. I've only just got here after getting lost,' replied Barret, giving the teen a warning look as she opened her mouth to make a sarcastic comment about his disorientation on their path.

Movement on Barret's side caused him to look around and he saw Lee and Kirsty had lined up, ready to fight against the carry armour as well. Cloud noticed as well, but before he got the chance to say anything, to shout out a warning for them not to get involved in a fight against such a powerful foe, one large clamp on the end of the carry armour's left arm wrapped around his waist and picked him up. Both the arms started to swirl around, not particularly fast, but fast enough for Cloud to feel sick and dizzy.

Emerald light exploded around Yuffie as she concentrated. A black ball of thick fog was emitted from her outstretched hands and struck the carry armour on the backbone, lingering around, working its magic. General Lee thought he could see a chain of small golden spheres fixed in a circle, twisting around in the centre. After a couple of seconds, it dissipated and Yuffie swore.

'What?' asked the Corporal, her eyes widening as the clamp holding Cloud slammed him hard into the backbone.

'No effect.'

'What?'

'The magic had no effect on the carry armour!'

Crystallised ice flew dangerously towards the carry armour and formed a star shape in the same area as the gravity spell was cast. Cloud narrowly missing being impaled on the ice as the clamp struck him again. He covered his head with his hands protectively, as his head came only millimetres away from the metal. His collarbone struck it heavily, almost fracturing the bone. He was dragged away just as the ice erupted. A shard flew past his eyes, making him jump. It was so close he could feel the cold radiating from it.

'Watch it!' Cloud snapped at Barret as fear released his insides.

He saw Tifa standing, huddled between Lee and Kirsty, handing them minuscule orbs, quite obviously teaching them how to use materia. It was up to Yuffie and Barret to keep them from being hurt while their guard was down. But Yuffie was becoming interested in their conversation and was making interruptions and correcting Tifa and Barret was trying to find out the health of their opponent by Sensing it.

Another laser burst out from the carry armour, striking all except Cloud who was out of reach and was nearly dead from the amount of damage being induced by all the hits he was taking. The laser ran over Yuffie who was brought back into the fight howling with pain, and over Barret, who had finally managed to Sense the carry armour and saw that they still had a very long way to go before the battle was over. And all the while they were fighting, the Huge materia was getting more out of reach and into the clutches of Shinra...

Tifa dashed around Yuffie and Barret and took her place again as Kirsty concentrated. The Corporal focused her mind entirely on what she had to do. She thought fiery thoughts. Deep, crimson flames leapt up around her. She stretched out her hands to the carry armour, her wrists touching. From between her curled fingers, a rush of flame lunged out, striking the opponent as she used her special materia.

Cloud braced himself as the fire roared a bit too close for comfort; Kirsty's aim was ever so slightly off.

The flames dissipated, and the red light blinked out. Lee watched as Cloud was yet again struck painfully. The General could feel his friend's weakness growing as his strength faded. The blonde figure in the metal clutches was becoming more and more limp with each attack.

The other arm of the carry armour swooped down upon them and gracefully shot through the air, into Tifa. She cried out as the steel plunged into her stomach, bowling her over. The arm was raised into the air and sharply changed direction, hitting Tifa again hard on the back of the neck as she struggled to raise. She stayed in a crouch, her low health putting her in a critical position, vulnerable to attack.

Lee turned to face Tifa and once the green flames encircled him he held out one arm to Tifa, as a white fountain exploded from beneath her feet. He heard Kirsty gasp; she clearly thought he had done something to hurt Tifa. The white substance resembled Spirit Energy from the Lifestream. It flowed like a liquid, but it did not leave whatever it came into contact wet, unlike a liquid.

Tifa could feel her strength growing back, stronger than before as the curative magic spell washed over her. As the fountain died back down into the depths of the planet, she straightened up, looking at the carry armour haughtily. You may have injured me, she thought. But you haven't beaten us yet...

Tifa summoned up her energy and attacked. Wave after wave of solid, freezing cold ice trapped the carry armour, just missing Cloud, who had started to shiver badly from the severe drop in temperature. The ice set around the robot, tightly packing it, disabling any power of movement.

'What's happened to it?' asked Lee, staring at the immobile robot. 'It can't move.'

'It's been Stopped,' replied Yuffie.

'Right! Barret, you use Hades, Yuffie, use your Bolt materia, Kirsty and Lee, stay out of this, let us finish it!' barked Tifa. 'And Cloud....you just hang there.'

'Like I have a choice,' replied Cloud, his voice thick with sarcasm.

'What about you?' queried Barret.

'I'm going to use my non elemental materia.'

Barret jumped forwards, ready to cast his spell.

The group vanished before Cloud's eyes. He prayed that their aiming would be bas accurate as possible, since there was a good chance that he could get hit with their spells as well.

Suddenly there was a circular stone platform in front of the carry armour, with five stone pillars standing around at equal intervals. Ancient markings had been engraved deep into the pillars. Flames hovered gently, a few inches above the top of the pillars. A large, deep black cauldron stood alone on the platform. The next minute there was a cloaked figure behind it, the hood up to cover the newcomer's head. A skeletal hand reached out from the flared sleeves and stirred the contents of the cauldron. A high pitched, evil cackle emerged from the skull's mouth which was hidden underneath the hood. The purple and blue mixture rose and washed over the carry armour, and over Cloud, as they were both struck with magic that had no element. The pain it induced was worse than what could have been described. There were no words to say what it was like. The agony was too much to cope. Cloud was screaming at the top of his voice. It was the first time he had ever been on the receiving end of a non elemental spell like that, and he hoped it was also going to be the last time.

The five came back into view again, which caused Cloud to scream in anger at Barret, and berate him about his lack of aiming.

Yuffie rolled her eyes at Cloud's words and shuffled out of line to cast her spell. Lightning careened out of the sky, striking the carry armour full on. The three bolts struck its target with frightening accuracy.

As the arm holding Cloud was hit, he flinched. The air crackled with electricity.

Despite what Tifa said, General Lee jumped in before she could cast her spell and as he stepped back, Cloud's body started to flash an eerie orange-red colour. He glanced at Tifa who was smiling.

'Quick thinking!' she said, watching as the Regen spell took its effect on Cloud's body, slowly, but surely regenerating his health.

As the empty arm once again made its way down to the ground to strike Lee, he hopped back, out of the way, and Cloud saw his chance and struggled out of the clamp, dropping heavily to the ground, landing painfully on his side. He dashed next to Tifa, who was already concentrating on her summoning.

Once the party had vanished and were safely out of the way, the ground under beneath the feet of the carry armour was prised free by some invisible force and launched miles up into the air, until the armour was on the same level as the clouds. A magnificent, blood red dragon, floated serenely down from above in the sky until it was facing the carry armour. It opened its mouth and screamed, the pitch above and beyond what only animals could hear. Even from so high up in the sky, anybody who was present in the vicinity, and not safely hidden as were Cloud and his friends, their eardrums would have burst. A pale yellow energy ball expanded between the teeth of the dragon and when it became too large to contain, it burst out of its mouth, a huge beam of powerful energy colliding into the carry armour. The ground underneath the armour crumbled, and it fell back down to the ground. But when it landed, the crater that had been created when the robot was sent up into the air had filled. It looked as though nothing had happened.

'It's nearly beaten! One more powerful attack should do it!' cried Barret.

Cloud jumped forwards, brandishing his Buster Sword as the flames around him leapt about and crackled. All the spare energy in the vicinity was pulled to Cloud as he struggled to cast his powerful spell. A terrible suction was pulling the useless energy towards him. A vivid, dangerous looking green mist shot out from his palms, expanding until it covered the carry armour, as though acting like a barrier, separating the two battling parties. The mist swirled around the armour, the individual particles dancing around the metallic monster and sinking in, damaging whatever it was that was causing it to move, to fight and destroy. Once all the miniature particles has sunk in, the carry armour froze for a split second, and then fell to pieces. The air was filled with the clangs as steel struck the ground.

Not wanting to waste a second, Cloud tore past the destruction that was once the carry armour, and sprinted to the other side of the underground chamber where the Shinra submarine with the Huge materia was. As he came close, the others tailing after him, the sub left the bay.

'Dammit! Dammit!' cursed Cloud.

The only footsteps that could be heard now were the ones of Kirsty as she padded up to Cloud. There was a small sound, as though she had stepped on glass. Kirsty hurriedly jumped backwards and saw something small and turquoise on the ground. She bent over and picked it up.

'It looks like scales,' muttered Lee, staring at the item over the Corporal's shoulder.

Intrigued by what they had discovered, Cloud turned his attention to Kirsty and saw the object in her hands.

'That's because it's a Levithian Scale. One of the scales of the summon creature, Levithian,' explained Cloud. What it was doing near a dock for Shinra submarines, Cloud could not guess.

He ignored the questioning looks from both Lee and Kirsty, and hurried them onto the net dock, where there was still a submarine, and jumped up on the top. He attempted to turn the valve to get inside the sub. Lee clambered up after him and they both seized the valve and turned. It eventually gave way, and they carefully climbed down the small hole into the submarine. Kirsty was the last one down, and she shut and sealed the valve, while Tifa and Yuffie waited for her at the bottom of the ladder. Lee and Cloud went on ahead.

Just before Cloud could open the metal airtight door to get into the cockpit of the sub, it opened as his hands came mere millimetres away from it, and a red uniformed Shinra guard came out. He jumped at the sight of the crowd in front of him. He jumped, and his hat almost fell off. He froze in the face of Cloud's Buster Sword. Both General Lee and Cloud were staring at the Shinra guard with the same expression of loathing.

The guard looked behind the two in front of him to see Kirsty, Yuffie and Tifa making their way over. Yuffie drew her shuriken and held it up menacingly.

Cloud edged closer forwards, so that the tip of his sword blade lightly touched the guard's throat at the jugular vein.

'Now,' he said, his voice low and filled with malice, 'we can do this two ways. The easy way, or the hard way. And let me just say that it makes no difference to us which one you choose. Only to you.'

The guard swallowed nervously, and raised his hands into the air, in the hold-up position.

'Answer me!' screeched Cloud, pressing the blade further into the skin on the guard's neck.

Beads of perspiration started to trickle down his face as the door behind him opened up again, revealing yet another Shinra worker. He froze, staring at the scene in front of him. Neither guard spoke. Both were too terrified.

'Oh, for God's sake,' muttered Cloud.

He pressed the blade into the guard's throat, piercing the skin and then lashed out to one side, cutting half of the man's throat. The guard made horrible, ugly choking noises and clutched at his neck, sinking to his knees. General Lee made his way to the other guard and Yuffie threw her shuriken. At the point where it should have embedded itself in the back of General Lee's head, he ducked down into a crouch, allowing the weapon to soar over his head and into the face of the other guard, striking him directly between the eyes.

As though rigor mortis had already set in, the body fell stiffly backwards, unbending as it made its decent from vertical to horizontal.

The crowd walked through the door, to find one other person, sitting in the high-backed chair at the very front of the sub's cockpit. He spun around, clearly expecting to see his comrades, but instead finding himself face to face with a murderous group. As he started to get out of his chair, Tifa was suddenly in front of him and the sole of her heavy boot scraped against his chin, making him fall back down. She grabbed his hair and tugged him out and onto his feet, pulling him along with her arm stiffly out behind her. She could feel the man's fingers on her as he tried to loosen the death grip she had on the top of his head. She stopped in front of the door and forced the Shinra guard into it, slamming his head into the metal. It made a dull thud which reverberated around the whole of the sub. The door vibrated from the force of the blow, the vibrations renewed as Tifa repeated her action. On the fourth blow, Tifa found herself holding an unconscious body.

Cloud strolled forwards and sat himself down in the high backed chair, looking at the rows upon rows of buttons for control of the submarine, and wondered what on earth he was supposed to do.

General Lee stood by the side of the chair, looking at the panels, trying to think of something that would help them drive the sub.

'We should have keep that bloke conscious,' muttered Yuffie, 'He would have helped us.'

'Yeah, given the way his mates were treated, I'm sure he'd be only too glad to help,' retorted Barret.

'Well, it isn't exactly like he'd have much choice is it? Help us or die. Gee, I wonder which one I would pick.'

'I'm hardly surprised. You'd do anything so long as it means you'd stay alive. You'd take up a career in prostitution providing: one, you didn't get killed, and two, you'd get loads of materia,' snarled Barret.

The next sound that was heard was Yuffie's hand whipping around Barret's face as she slapped him with all the strength she could muster. Tifa, who was standing on the other side of Cloud's chair, turned back and grabbed Yuffie's upper arm, pulling her away from Barret. Barret watched Kirsty, who was clinging onto General Lee's arm. He had a hand around her waist, pulling her to his side. Her head rested on his shoulder as she gazed blankly at the thousands of buttons in front of them. He looked down at her. He dipped down and kissed the top of her blonde head. She looked into his eyes and smiled, kissing him gently on the lips.

Cloud finally managed to get the submarine in gear and sent it underneath the surface of the water in the underground chamber and into the sea. They instantly saw that somehow Shinra had been alerted about the hijacking of the Shinra sub, judging by the way the sea was filled with other subs, which were firing missiles at them. One that was in the distance was their goal. The one containing the Huge materia.

A missile came very close to hitting them and Cloud had to swerve sharply out of its path in order not to be hit. Cloud turned the joystick sharply, guiding the submarine out of the way of yet another missile, which came a little bit too close for comfort. Tifa had gone to the far end of the huge window, trying to see if she could make out any more enemy subs. General Lee kept an eye on the other side, after ushering Kirsty away and telling her to keep and eye out and to fire back at them providing the need arises.

Another submarine rose from the depths in front of them. Startled, Kirsty hammered the button pointed out to her as the fire button. Their vision was momentarily blocked as a stream of bubbles from the fired missile disturbed the ocean. When they cleared, Cloud could see the other sub still rising, trying to get out of the way of their missile, but was a bit delayed. It exploded on impact.

'Holy hell,' muttered General Lee. Cloud chuckled to himself.

'That's quite strong language for you,' he said, looking at the General. He met Cloud's stare and laughed.

'Yeah I guess it is, but even so! I was expecting it to take several hits before the sub was brought down, but....one? Talk about advanced firepower...'

'Huh. Can't really say I've thought about it,' replied the blonde man.

A missile whirred straight in front of the large glass window, taking them all by surprise. Cloud forced the submarine around the corner as Kirsty tensed, her hands on the fire button. The enemy sub fired at the exact same time as the Corporal. Cloud pulled them up, getting closer to the surface of the ocean as the enemy submarine sank back down into the gloom. Both of the missiles cascaded into one another, erupting forcefully. The water was disturbed. The two subs bobbed in the depths from the force of the explosion.

The other three Shinra submarines formed a line and rushed to the hijacked sub that once belonged to them. Yet another missile was sent downwards by Kirsty to the one that fell down near the bottom of the sea. She anxiously hammered the fire button, launching attack after attack after attack.

Only the very last sub at the end of the line was able to swerve out of the crossfire. Cloud squinted into the distance. Sure enough, the sub containing the Huge materia was shrinking as it shot further into the distance.

Cloud raised them to a higher level, so that final opponent was underneath. A shot was fired. Cloud put on a burst of speed, but slightly too late. The missile caught the back of their sub hard, causing it to rapidly move downwards, plunging into darkness.

The air inside the sub was filled with shrieks of terror. Neither Barret nor Cloud were trying to calm the increasingly growing hysterical women as they were pulled further to the bottom of the ocean. Barret was looking around at the room where they were, trying to find anything that may assist them, should the worst happen and they have to leave the sub rusting on the sea bed. Cloud was punching any of the buttons he could, desperately trying to rectify the mistake that was allowing them to be struck by the missile. General Lee was gaping disbelievingly at the rows of buttons on the control panels, apparently shock-ridden.

Nothing that Cloud could do had an effect. The enemy sub up ahead was serenely sinking down, ready to finish them all off, hovering gracefully above like a bird of prey.

'Dammit! Nothing's working! That missile seriously hit us! I can't do a damned thing with it! We're done!' exclaimed Cloud, exasperation filling his voice.

'Shame the missile didn't hit us harder. If it had, then our deaths would be quick an' painless, instead of sufferin' without food, water and air,' replied Barret, staring at the front of the sub.

'No!' screamed General Lee. 'No! I refuse to give up like this! I refuse to believe that we're through! I am not going to die at the bottom of some ocean I've never heard of before in a rusting lump of metal, that's becoming useful for only collecting barnacles! We managed to get here, at least, back to civilisation. I'm not going to throw away the opportunity that we've been given.'

'And what opportunity is that?' asked Yuffie, her voice hoarse from her screaming.

'A second chance at life. We could have been killed so many times in that other place, but we didn't! I'll be condemned to hell before I die like this.'

Yuffie gave Kirsty a look.

'You boyfriend's lost it.'

'He never had it,' joked the Corporal. She smiled innocently at the look on Lee's face.

In an uncharacteristically violent fashion, the General roughly shoved Cloud out of the way and snatched at the joystick and pulled it back. With a tremendous strain, the front of the submarine started to lift up. It slowly began to rise, and free itself from the silt on the sea bed. He slammed his fist on the fire button, sending a missile screaming up on a collision course with the final Shinra sub. Light from the close-up explosion shone through the huge window, lighting up the submarine. Lee barely paid it any heed, and squinted as he forced the large machine to snail after the Huge materia. It had gone out of sight. Their trip down to the bottom of the ocean cost them the Huge materia. Cloud swore obscenely when he could not find any other activity in the waters.

The underwater radio crackled on the control panel. Everybody went very quiet as the radio message from a member of the Shinra who obviously was unaware of the hijacking gave out vital information.

'Shinra sub eleven, are you there? Over.'

'Yes, this is Shinra sub eleven. What's wrong? Over,' replied Cloud, giving Lee a questioning glance as though he was the cause for the radio message. The General shrugged.

'Just sayin' that the final Huge materia is bein' safely shipped from Junon airport. Over and out.'

With that, the radio fell dead.

'Looks like it's back to Junon we go,' stated Tifa.

Lee guided the damaged sub up and pieced the surface of the water. Luckily, they saw that they were very close to the dock by Junon. He drove it over and left it in the dock and started to urge everybody out. Only Barret had something to complain about.

'Jeez, who the hell does he think he is? The boss? Tellin' me where to go an' what to do. As though I dunno what to do myself.'

'Oh Barret, give it a rest. Lee and Kirsty are now just as caught up in this mess as we are. Therefore we have to treat them as any other member of AVALANCHE,' retorted Tifa, trying to keep the weariness out of her voice, and almost succeeding.

Tifa followed Barret out of the submarine and closed the valve on top tightly behind her. She slipped down the side, almost missing the land and falling in the water as she jumped to the dock. She saw that Cloud, Lee and Kirsty were itching to get into Junon as soon as possible, and as soon as she appeared and narrowly missed taking an early bath, they headed towards the run down village.

They ran as fast as they could go without using a vehicle and within minutes were nearing the airport.

Tifa and Cloud were the first two into the platform which would be able to take them up to the higher level, where the planes were kept and where the runways were. Yuffie, who was last on, struck the large yellow button on the edge of the platform, and staggered theatrically as they were raised into the air.

Cloud, growing ever more impatient, jumped up and started to run before the platform could reach up to its highest extent, leaving the others trailing in his wake. But despite his impatience causing him to run faster and cut corners wherever he could, when they came within sight of the plane containing the Huge materia, it took off, speeding down the runway and into the sky.

'Dammit! If only we hadn't taken that goddamn hit under the water!' he called vehemently.

'If we're quick, we could take the submarine to Rocket Town and maybe try and intercept it. Or perhaps Cid could drive us there in the Highwind. Either way, we stand a good chance of stealing the Huge materia from the Shinra,' suggested Tifa.

Feeling defeated, Cloud gave up and walked past them, heading back to the dock outside Junon where their newly acquired submarine was waiting. On the grass by the sub was the Highwind, with Cid leaning against it in a way that was reminiscent of when Lee and Kirsty first saw it, the only exception being that he was not smoking.

'You get it?' he called, looking at them expectantly.

'Of course not. Lady Luck ain't smiling down on us. She's screwing us around. Take us to Rocket Town. Hopefully we'll be able to intercept the Huge materia from there,' replied Cloud, glaring at the ground.

Cid shrugged to himself and forced himself up the rope. Once he was over the balcony and out of sight, he made up for them not being able to see him by making sure they could hear him. He bellowed loudly at the pilot in training to get ready to take off. Kirsty was mildly surprised that his voice was able to carry all the way to the cockpit.

When the last person entered the cockpit, the pilot hesitated for a minute before taking off. For his lack of attention he received a blow around the back of the head from Cid. The pilot panicked, clearly terrified of Cid. It was obvious that with each encounter he had with Cid, his fear of Cid rose, and his self confidence was knocked down another notch. Corporal Kirsty felt a pang of sympathy for the young man trembling terribly in front of Cid. Her eyes met Tifa's and she was wearing the same look of sympathy as Kirsty was.

'Cid,' began Tifa in a soothing voice. 'Don't be so awful to him. He's learning.'

She conveniently ignored the pilot in training turn red as he felt a hot flush of embarrassment on top of all his other emotions.

The Highwind lifted into the air. There was a grotesque retching noise from Yuffie, and she raced out to the balcony, vomiting over the edge.

'Nice,' said Cait Sith, watching her vanish through the steel doors.

The first part of Rocket Town they saw was the object that gave the town its name. A huge rocket stood straight up, as though it was about to be launched into space. The houses in the town were shaped in an 'L', using the rocket as the corner of the letter shape. A row of shops stood opposite the longer line up of houses, facing each other, looking like two armies about to march.

The Highwind landed softly on the ground, and it almost went unnoticed. The pilot permitted himself to relax at his excellent landing went Cid started on him again.

'What the hell you taken your hands off the controls for? So what if we're only a few feet over the ground, you could still do the airship damage! Stupid kid!'

The pilot had flinched horribly from the first word, his teeth gritted, arms raised protectively and eyes screwed tightly shut.

'For God's sake Cid, can't you see you're scaring the boy?' snapped Lee. 'Anyway, we're on ground. We've landed.'

The cold tone of General Lee's voice made Cid momentarily regret being so nasty. He pushed his way to the front window, looking amazed when he realised that Lee was right. The pilot had landed without attempting to cause major damage to the underneath of the Highwind.

Cloud and Cid ran out to the balcony. Vincent stalked after them, his footsteps almost silent. Kirsty shuddered after he had walked past.

'He's so creepy,' she whispered to Tifa.

'I know. But that's just him. You'll get used to it.'

'I'm unsure if that's a good thing of a bad thing,' interjected Lee.

'I know what you mean,' said Tifa.

Lee and Tifa started towards the exit out of the Highwind when they realised that Tifa was not following.

'Aren't you going to come as well?' asked Kirsty.

'No, I'm going to ride this one out,' she replied.

Kirsty shrugged and continued onwards silently. She slid down the rope after Lee, inflicting minor friction burns on the palms of her hands. She placed one in Lee's and they followed the already distant figures of Vincent, Cid and Cloud.

The three paused momentarily when they started to make their way to the rocket when a young woman caught up with them. Kirsty and Lee jogged over, not wanting to miss anything, in case something important was said.

'Oh, captain, you're back!' gasped the woman, breathless as though she had been running a marathon.

Her usually fairly pale skin was flushed red. Her long brown hair had started to come out of the untidy ponytail behind her head. She had chocolate brown eyes that sparkled behind thing black framed glasses. She wore all white, except for her shoes. She had a short sleeved shirt on under a full length white lab coat and white trousers. Her shoes were black.

'Kinda looks like it,' replied Cid, with no emotion in his voice, but a slightly chilly tone. The only other person he used that tone of voice was when speaking to the intimidated training pilot.

The woman's eyes rested on Kirsty and Lee, who she thought of as newcomers to Cid's group. Cloud saw where she was looking and introduced them.

'This is General Lee, and his second in command, Corporal Kirsty. They are hopefully starting to consider themselves as the two newest members to AVALANCHE,' he explained as Lee and Kirsty held out their hands to the woman.

'I'm Shera. I live with the captain,' said the woman, shaking Lee's and Kirsty's hands, instantly taken in my Lee's looks and found herself wishing that he had put on some make up and had done something with her hair.

'I feel sorry for you,' replied Kirsty with a laugh, pretending not to notice Cid pulling a face and sticking up a finger behind her back.

'Captain,' started Shera, staring at Cid. 'A few representatives from Shinra are here. They have repaired the ship and want to fire it into space in order to destroy Meteor.'

Without uttering another word, Cid took off in the direction of the rocket. Exchanging slightly exasperated and annoyed looks, they bid goodbye to Shera and followed him.

Cid dashed up the stairs and down the other sides of the bridges over gigantic, thick cables that littered the ground and climbed up the ladder to the support on the rocket. He ran along the ledge and started to go through the door. But what nobody had encountered on was the three uniformed people standing on guard at the rocket's door.

The man they had met before fighting the carry armour - Reno - was there, joined by a man and a woman.

The man was between six and seven feet in height, and was quite thin, but also muscular. He was completely bald. His dark eyes were covered by sunglasses. He wore the same uniform that Reno did, but only much more smartly. His dark navy blue jacket was done up over his tucked in white shirt, and he had a tie in the same colour as his jacket and trousers. His top button was undone. Everything that made Reno look like an unmade bed was the opposite on the man and the woman, who both looked very smart.

His female companion had shoulder length blonde hair and light, sparkling blue eyes, which hardened and turned icy cold when they rested on Cloud, Cid and Vincent. She barely paid any attention to Lee and Kirsty because she did not know who they were, and therefore, that made them unimportant. Cid swore crudely at them.

'What the hell are you doing here, Rude?' he snapped, glaring at the bald man.

'Trying to put some good into this world -' said Rude, but was cut off by Cloud's interruption.

'You're with Shinra. You can't be putting good into the planet if you stick by them.'

Rude ignored Cloud's ungenerous comment and studied the group before him.

'Dear me. An ex-Turk, an ex-SOLDIER with amnesia, a foul mouthed pilot, and whoever they are -' here he stared blankly at Lee and Kirsty. '- what are you doing as your circus act?'

The woman had skulked forwards and shoved her face close to Kirsty's who backed off. The two blondes were staring intently at one another.

'Elena, stop wasting your time trying to intimidate her, we have a rocket to launch. In case you are wondering, we have set the rocket so that it will strike Meteor, and the power of the Huge materia shall destroy it. You caused this, we end it. Come, Elena,' said Rude.

The woman backed away from Kirsty, who breathed a sigh of relief as Lee stepped forwards.

'I don't think you'll be going anywhere. I personally don't think that you will be launching that rocket.'

Reno laughed scornfully.

'You think that!'

Cid drew a spear from the confines of his clothing and hit Elena in the back with it. She called out in pain. The effect was the same verbally challenging somebody to a duel. Reno slipped a hand into a pocket and took out his shock stick. He ran forwards and jabbed Kirsty with it. She screamed as electricity jolted through her body. Reno stumbled backwards when General Lee punched him hard in the face. There was a sound of sliding metal as he pulled his katana free and lunged at Elena, who stepped backwards, out of reach.

Rude jumped in front of the party and punched Cloud several times in the face like a boxer would. Cid concentrated, and cast a spell on Elena. Within seconds, she was covered, shrouded from sight by a curtain of stone, setting around her like a box, casting its extreme Quake magic. When the stone fell away and dissipated on contact with the ledge, the same greyish-brown colour of the stone swept rapidly down Elena's body, until she looked like a statue. She was Petrified, and could not move.

'You'll regret that!' promised Reno, slamming his fist into Cid's face.

Vivid, blood red flames shot up, surrounding Kirsty once more as she concentrated on her materia. A ghostly, black mutated skull which was missing the lower jaw, with impossibly large teeth hovered over Reno's head. It dipped down at the front, the tips of the teeth only centimetres away and vanished into thin air. It was replaced with a small number. The digits making up 'thirty'. It started to count down, as though counting the seconds down until when a reaction was to take place.

Hot, flaming spheres rushed over Rude as Fire3 was cast on him by General Lee. Reno leapt forwards and struck the General full on with his shock stick. Ten seconds had passed. A mount of earth rose up from the ledge as Rude used Quake3 on Cloud. He staggered back and counter with a sharp stab from his Buster Sword. The numbers above Reno's head now read 'twenty'. Kirsty looked hard at Elena. She seemed out of the battle, unable to do a thing. Rude punched Cid repeatedly on his face and chest, and Cid retaliated with thrusting with his spear. The spear head penetrated his skin, and broke the skin on his back. Cid sharply pulled his weapon back. The final ten seconds were spent watching the digits shrink to zero above Reno's head. When it reached zero, the white numbers vanished, and thick black smoke poured out of the air at head height, coiling up on itself, like a snake. It reshaped itself and turned into a skeletal thin, black robed, bone white ghoul, with a scarlet cloak flapping behind it, in the same way Vincent's does. It pulled out a sword, that looked similar to Sephiroth's Masamune, but had a smaller blade. A bony, pure white arm swung the sword at Reno, catching him in the stomach, the deadly powers seeping through his body causing him to be helpless to death even before his body hit the ledge. The ghoul sent itself back to whatever realm it came from, and the only interruption of the battle now was the sound of Reno's heavy head hitting the metal ledge.

General Lee rushed forwards to meet Rude, brandishing his katana. Rude was waving his limbs frantically, ducking and jumping, dodging left and right to avoid being struck. He sliced the under side of Rude's left upper arm in a wild upswing in his determination to fin this battle. Rude hissed between his teeth and examined the damage inflicted on him.

Green light flickered up around him as he cast a regenerative spell on himself. Rude's body flashed the curious, red-orange colour that was consistent with the magic Regen. There was a blur of black and red with a hint of copper as Vincent flew forwards, charging through the air, and snatched at Rude, clawing at his throat with his copper claw. Rude made awful choking noises as Vincent continued to maim him. The ex-Turk gave Rude a hard shove to the side. He tripped over Reno's lifeless, prone body, and cascaded into the stone Elena, entangling himself in her arms.

Vincent, pleased by what he just saw and did strode forwards and opened the door to the huge rocket, waiting to be launched. Cid and Cloud followed. Just before he went through the door, Cid paused. He turned to Lee and Kirsty who were meekly following him and grabbed Cloud's wrist to prevent him from going further.

'There's too many people here. There's five of us, an' we all ain't gonna fit into the escape pod if we all go into the rocket. See my point?' said Cid.

'We'll stay here,' offered the General, referring to himself and the Corporal. Cid smiled. He and Cloud turned their backs on the couple and entered the rocket.

In Elena's rock hard arms, Rude groaned, holding his throat. The flow of blood leaking from his body had slowed down thankfully, as the Regen magic was returning him closer to full health. Lee grabbed the back of his jacket and threw him off the ledge, down to the ground. He landed on the grass with a thud. There was no way that the fall was large enough to kill him, but just to injure him enough to keep him out of action for a long while. He picked up his cracked sun glasses from the mud and placed them over his eyes, his left arm oddly limp. He cradled it in his right, giving Lee cause to think that his landing either dislocated his arm or broke it.

__________________________________________________________________________________

Cloud, Cid and Vincent burst into the cockpit, startled to see that there was already somebody in the seat at the front at the controls, ready to launch it into space.

'What the -?' he started, staring at the three newcomers. He gave Cloud and Cid a glance before allowing his eyes to dart back to Vincent, who looked even more menacing then usual, if that was at all possible.

'Get outta that damned seat, you stupid Shinra git,' demanded Cid.

The pilot jumped jump instantly, wearing a scared expression that matched exactly the one the youth in the Highwind always wore when he knew that Cid was nearby.

'Now then. I'm going to pilot this rocket. You aren't going anywhere. You're going to help me,' added Cid nastily, when he saw the pilot nervously try to get out of the cockpit, presumably to find one of the Turks.

'There's no point in running to the Turks. Reno, Elena and Rude are all taken care of,' said Cloud, watching as the pilot tried to get as far away from Vincent as possible.

'What do you mean, taken care of?' asked the pilot, staring incredulously at Cloud.

'Don't get the wrong idea,' intervened Vincent, his cold voice instantly silencing everybody else present. 'We have not wasted our time killing them. Just put them out of action long enough to do what we need to here.'

Cid seats himself in the chair the rightful pilot was a few minutes ago and instructed him to stay nearby, immediately demoting the young man to co-pilot.

'Finally, I'm going to be able to fulfil my dreams of going into outer space,' muttered Cid, mainly to himself, unable to stop the large grin spreading over his unshaven face.

Cid pressed a button on the controls and told Cloud and Vincent to brace themselves, not remembering Lee and Kirsty still standing around near the rocket. A red light flashed inside the cockpit and a robotic voice sounded, giving the countdown.

'Ten...'

'Nine...'

'Eight...'

'Seven...'

'Six...'

'Five...'

'Four...'

'Three...'

'Two...'

'One...'

__________________________________________________________________________________

There was a deafening rumble from the launch pad. Clouds of dust were rising up from the ground. Kirsty felt herself being pulled away from the rocket as she coughed and fanned the air in front of her face, trying to clear her vision. The dust was rising so high, their eyes were looking at thick greyish-brown clouds.

Lee pulled his lover back to the very end of the ledge, back to where the ladder was, that they climbed over, before meeting the three Turks.

Flames roared at the bottom of the rocket, making the dust even worse. The rocket eventually rose, slowly at first, but gathering speed with each passing second. The wind blew the dust back into their faces, but the couple had nowhere else to go to escape it except down the ladder, where it was no better.

Kirsty pressed herself up against the General, her wrists on his shoulders, hands reaching to the back of his neck. His own hands were clasped around her waist. They both squinted up at the launched rocket as it propelled itself into space, generating strong winds as it went. Lee looked almost as though he was frowning at the departing rocket. Kirsty appeared much more relaxed. her lips were unwisely parted slightly, causing her to cough again when she received another mouthful of dust.

__________________________________________________________________________________

Once he was sure that the motion of the rocket was not going to throw him all over the place, Cid climbed out of his chair, instructing his co-pilot to keep and eye on things. He beckoned to Cloud, who was holding onto the back of his chair and they both walked out of the cockpit. Cid led him into another room, a smaller one fairly far away from the cockpit.

The basic colour was white. The room was very small, and very white. The only thing inside it was a cylindrical container in the middle of the floor, holding a large, pale coloured orb inside. There were hundreds of wires at the bottom of the container, and cloud could see that the Huge materia could be taken down to whatever was below. Near the bottom, just above the wires was a small panel with four buttons, each with a different shape scrawled on. There was a square, an 'X', a circle and a triangle.

'Aw crap, I forgot about this,' mumbled Cid, peering at the buttons. 'You gotta find the correct code using those four buttons to get the Huge materia. And it has to be done in thirty seconds, or you won't get it, and it'll be taken down there - see, where the wires lead - and we won't be able to get it.'

'So no pressure then?'

'As soon as you press the first button, there will be a countdown. Oh yeah, and we don't know when thirty seconds is up. Only way we'll tell that is if you don't make it, when the materia sinks out of reach.'

'Can you remember the combination?' queried Cloud, crouching down to look at the buttons.

'Nope.'

'Always useful.'

'Don't get smart.'

'You know, you could always do this, instead of me.'

'You're right, I could. But I'm not. Do you know why? Because while you're trying out different combinations, I'm going to be trying to remember the correct one, and there's always the slight chance that you get it right by fluke, while I'm still thinkin'.'

Cloud sighed. He stabbed at the controls, pressing the buttons at random. Once he had pressed four buttons, a klaxon went off, signalling that the combination was incorrect. And all the while, the time they had left was slipping through their fingers, slowly stealing the Huge materia from them...

'I think...yeah...two buttons are the same an' 'ave to be pressed together, say like, two triangles, then a circle, than an 'X', maybe,' suggested Cid.

Cloud tried this, but was met with a klaxon.

'The second one might be a square?'

He stabbed out square, square, triangle, circle. Wrong.

'I think that there's the possibility of there being no triangles. Leave out the triangles,' thought Cid, staring at the buttons.

Circle, square, circle, circle, thought Cloud. Worth a shot.

'Include an 'X',' interjected Cid, his helpless suggestions starting to grate on Cloud's nerves.

Ready to give up, Cloud pressed 'X', square, circle, circle, and almost sent his fist through the container when he heard the same damned klaxon again.

'I've got it! I've remembered! Circle, square, 'X', 'X'!' shouted Cid.

Cloud hammered out the last combination he was prepared to try, and to his great surprise, Cid was right. The lid of the container lifted up. Cloud snatched the Huge materia and placed it in his pocket, where the Black Materia once was...

No, thought Cloud, stubbornly. I am not going to dwell on that...

Cloud followed Cid back into the cockpit and into the escape pod, where Vincent and the co-pilot were already hiding. The co-pilot looked very uncomfortable being so close to Vincent, and he knew that that lack of comfort was going to worsen dramatically when Cid and Cloud piled in as well.

It was extremely crowded in the escape pod after Cloud had joined the other three and shut the door. Despite its ridiculously small size, it was of good quality, and was guaranteed to make sure they would make it back to earth.

'I gotta admit, Shera's gettin' better. At last,' acknowledged Cid, with a rare word of praise for her.

'You gonna tell her you said that?' questioned Cloud, already knowing what the answer was going to be.

Cid shrugged. The claw on Vincent's left hand was digging painfully into Cid's side, but he did not dare mention anything about it. He nodded to the co-pilot, who looked behind him and took the hint when he saw the large red button to detach the escape pod from the rest of the rocket.

The four gaped out of the small window which showed the inside of the cockpit as they started to separate from the Shinra 26. They had not realised how close to Meteor they actually were, and were shocked to discover that if they had stayed inside the rocket for only a few minutes longer, then they would have plunged into it as well.

As the escape pod started to fall back down to the planet, they watched as the rest of the spacecraft exploded into Meteor. Much to their amazement, the outer layer of crust started to crumble on Meteor, but a great, hidden energy deep in the core stopped any real damage from happening, and pulled the stray pieces of rock back together, so it looked as though no damage had occurred.

'Ohhh...crap...' whispered Cid, as he watched Meteor mend itself. 'We're screwed...'

'That's a more negative way of looking at the situation,' replied Cloud, gazing at the flaming ball still screaming down to them.

__________________________________________________________________________________

From the safety of the Highwind, which was still resting on the grass just outside Rocket Town, General Lee, the Corporal and Tifa saw the escape pod land and almost threw themselves down the rope, running back into the village.

The pod had landed in the middle of the town, somehow missing all of the houses. The door shook once, as though it had been kicked and was stuck. It flew open as Cloud kicked it again. The door smacked into the outside of the pod from the force of the blow. He came out of the smashed pod followed by Cid, Vincent and the co-pilot, who saw his chance and ran far, far away from Vincent.

Tifa rushed forwards to Cloud and started checking him to make sure that he had not sustained any injuries.

'Oh my God! Are you alright? Did you hurt yourself? What happened to Meteor? You came down so hard! What are we going to do now?' she exclaimed, stumbling over her words.

'Hey. hey, give me a chance to answer! I'm fine, all of us are. We thought that Meteor had began to break up, but it somehow managed to repair itself. As for what we're going to do now, I don't know...'

'Well, Red was saying lots of things about his grandfather, and how he knows everything, and this and that, so...why not give him a visit?' volunteered Kirsty.

'Bugenhagen?' asked Cloud.

'Bless you.'

'Bugenhagen is his name,' explained Cloud wearily.

'I knew that.'

'Sure you did,' smirked Lee.

Back on the Highwind, Tifa and Kirsty stood out on the balcony, leaning against the barrier, and staring out. The wind rushed in their hair, blowing Tifa's all over the place. She slipped the tips of her hair out of her red tie, and allowed her chocolate brown, knee length mane to blow wildly behind her. Kirsty watched, mesmerised. Tifa opened her amber eyes, saw the Corporal's looks and laughed.

As they travelled nearer to where Bugenhagen lived, the sky turned to the red colour of the evening.

When they reached their destination, the sky was so deep in colour, it looked as though the sun was setting. The ground was cracked. It was an orange-brown colour and dusty, like dried mud in the desert.

The Highwind landed on a nearby patch of grass and the party clambered down the rope, Cloud first. He had already started to walk off by the time the last person had made their arduous journey down the rope. This was Red. Cait Sith had slightly less difficulty by being a small cat on top of a large stuffed creature that could be thrown down long drops and not feel a thing, despite it had been magically brought to life.

There were large hills which intertwined together to create a much bigger disturbance on the ground of Cosmo Canyon. Next to it was a crass covered cliff, that was inaccessible. The trees were so thick, it was supporting a forest.

The ten traipsed up a rising pathway to climb up to the town. As they drew nearer, red seemed to become more excited.

'Is this place special to you?' asked Kirsty, watching the vivid coloured beast.

'It is my hometown.'

A young man greeted as they entered Cosmo Canyon, claiming that it was good to see them all again. Then he noticed General Lee and his second in command. They introduced themselves, and the man took Kirsty's hand and kissed it, before offering his own hand to the General. Then finally, he turned to Red.

'Bugenhagen is waiting for you in his observatory, Nanaki.'

'Nanaki?' queried Kirsty, in a confused voice. 'Who - who's Nanaki?'

'Nanaki is Nanaki,' replied the young man. 'That is his name.'

The Corporal raised one eyebrow at the man and found herself being dragged off forcefully by Tifa.

__________________________________________________________________________________

An old man was standing in his tiny little room, with just enough room for a bed, waiting for his visitors to arrive. He was bald on the top of his head, but had long white hair falling down at the back of his head in a pony tail. He ran a hand through his soft, long white beard in a preoccupied and thoughtful way.

His eyes were covered by two pieces of shaded glass, so he could see the world, but the would could not see a glimmer of life in his eyes, or even tell what colour they were. He wore a long deep green top, the flared sleeves falling past his hands when his arms hung loosely by his side. His shoes were covered by the wide navy coloured trousers he wore. It almost looked as though he was floating a few centimetres above the ground, which struck those who did not know him as eerie. They found themselves gaping at his feet - or more accurately, the bottom of his trousers - trying to see if he was indeed standing on nothing but air.

He walked past the bed in a few small steps, where there was a large dip in the wall. Inside it, - it was big enough for a human being to stand in, providing they did not mind their shoulders being squashed - was a ladder, which would take whoever climbed up it into his observatory. He climbed up it, his hands gripping the smooth, thin wooden rungs tightly as he quickly made his way up.

__________________________________________________________________________________

As soon as the feet of Bugenhagen disappeared from sight, the bedroom door opened, to reveal the spiky hairstyle of Cloud, and the rest of his group. There was barely any room for five people to stand, hunched together, so the party that was AVALANCHE spilled out to the landing from which they just came.

'He's probably climbed up into the observatory itself,' said Red, motioning excitedly at the wooden ladder.

Cloud beckoned Barret and Lee over to follow him up the ladder, since they were one of the only people who managed to jam themselves into the tiny bedroom, Lee having had a rare momentary lapse in concentration and allowed himself to fall away from Kirsty's side.

They pulled themselves up the ladder and saw Bugenhagen standing some distance away, watching them beadily.

The observatory was far bigger than what Lee would have expected, judging by the size of the bedroom underneath them. There was a circular platform with a strange looking machine next to it. Bugenhagen was already standing on the platform and was evidently waiting for the three to stand on it as well. They took his hint, and when he was certain that they were all safely on, he flipped a switch on the machine, and the platform started to rise, to a higher chamber.

'Oh...my....good.....God,' uttered Lee, awe struck by what he was seeing. He gazed wide eyed around , taking in his surroundings, but not, by far, believing what he was seeing.

The ceiling of the observatory was black, and it looked like the night sky, with stars twinkling realistically at them. There were nine wide red circles, showing the orbits of the planets in their solar system around the bright balls of gas that was, of course, the sun.

'I understand that you have been searching for the Huge materia?' asked Bugenhagen, staring expectantly at the visitors. Barret and Cloud nodded confirmation, but Lee, who was still amazed by what he was seeing, had not heard the question.

'You may leave the ones that you have found here, and observe them when you wish,' offered the old man, smiling behind his beard.

Cloud dug into his pockets and pulled out the magnificent orbs and handed them over to Bugenhagen. He held his hands on either side of Cloud's as though he was about to grasp them, and the materia floated out of his hands, and scattered around the realistic model of the solar system.

Cloud took a deep breath and started to speak.

'Sephiroth -'

'- Has summoned Meteor, yes I know. I know that the Shinra has -'

'Dammit! What the hell's the Shinra got to do with anything?' snapped Barret.

Bugenhagen looked stonily at the black man and then continued as though there had been no interruption.

'I know that the Shinra has been racing against you to collect the Huge materia to try and stop Meteor, but since you have all the Huge materia, it is down to you.'

'We don't have all of them,' stated Cloud. 'We couldn't get the one at Corel. Cid told me he crashed the train that was carrying it and couldn't prevent it in any way.'

Bugenhagen considered this.

'The Ancient City. You will have to go to the Ancient city. Take me there. We can talk more there, to all of you, instead of just three, where only two of which are listening,' added Bugenhagen with a cold glare at the General.

Barret elbowed him sharply in the side to bring him back to his senses.

Tifa glanced at Kirsty, who was impatiently looking around, wondering what was going on above them. They could hear thudding footsteps, and saw Cloud's ankles on the ladder as he, Lee, Barret and Bugenhagen came down to the lower level.

When all four of them were down and off the ladder, Cloud called to Cid.

'Tell the young pilot to take us to the Ancient City, when we get to the Highwind,' he ordered.

'Gotcha,' replied Cid, turning around and heading off.

'Cid?'

He turned around.

'And be nice to the poor kid, will ya?'

'As if I'm anything else!' countered Cid, grinning and conveniently ignoring the coughing fits his words bring to Kirsty and Tifa.

They trooped out of the small room and down back to the entrance of Cosmo Canyon with Bugenhagen in tow. He accepted no help that he was offered in regards to climbing up the rope and into the Highwind and tugged himself up with the same agility as the youngest and fittest of AVALANCHE.

Cid climbed up after Bugenhagen and went to the cockpit to tell the youth where to take them. As Kirsty pulled herself over the banister and watched Lee start to make his way up after her, the Highwind lifted a few feet in the air, but after a highly strained, highly strangled cry from Cid, it landed on the ground roughly again. A long stream of vicious curse words flew from the cockpit in Cid's livid tone of voice tailed closely by insults. Kirsty ignored Lee as he struggled to keep a hold of the rope, just in case the aircraft should rise again. The Corporal ran into the cockpit to find Cid holding the pilot by the collar of his jumper.

'You stupid-ass, no-good-for-nothin' kid! The hell you tryin' to do? Huh? Bust the Highwind? I oughta bust you!'

'Cid, no!' screamed Kirsty and she pulled the pilot away from Cid's wrath.

The youth had misinterpreted Cid's instructions, and thought that everybody was safely inside the Highwind. Cid had neglected to mention that there were people attempting to climb up the rope. The poor boy was reprimanded further by Cid because of his heavy landing when he realised his mistake.

Kirsty turned from Cid to the pilot, trying to calm the tension between both men in turn. The pilot in training was so terrified, he almost burst into tears when Cid grabbed him. His eyes were still watery, and his face was glowing a deep crimson. He was glad that the Corporal came in when she did, because he thought that Cid was going to strike him.

Cid's version of events was that as he was about to tell the young pilot not to take off because not everybody was inside yet, he tried to take off. He tried to make it sound like the young pilot was being irresponsible, and was not listening properly, but he did not sound plausible enough to fool Kirsty who just scowled at him.

The youth bravely stepped out onto the balcony and watched as more bodies climbed up the rope, apologising about his mistake, feeling Cid's eyes on him. He received the same forgiving reply from most, except from Vincent and Barret. Barret held similar views on most things as Cid and just glared at him. Vincent ignored him, as he does to everybody he meets. The training pilot repressed a shudder and headed back to the cockpit, lifting the aircraft off the ground and started north.

Eventually the Highwind landed on the same patch of grass it was when Lee and Kirsty got their first look at the craft and its owner. The airship emptied and as they climbed up to the higher level and past excavators, Lee saw the same glint of gold by Cloud as he did the first time they walked through the Sleeping Forest. He and Kirsty sped up until they caught Tifa up. The General tapped her on the shoulder.

'What?' she asked.

'Just reassure me I'm not turning mad. Every time we come here, I see Cloud holding some gold object, but I can't make out what it is, and as soon as we exit this forest, he slips it away again.'

Tifa glanced at Cloud's hands and saw the gold item that Lee kept on catching glimpses of. She whisked it out of his hands and help it up to Lee. Cloud turned around, looking puzzled.

'You mean this?' questioned Tifa.

The object in her hands was solid gold. It looked like a harp.

'Its the Lunar Harp. We need this because when the Sleeping Forest is...asleep...it confuses travellers and they cannot make their way through the trees and end up going around in circles. The Lunar Harp awakens it,' explained Tifa. She scanned Kirsty and Lee's faces for a look of comprehension.

'So much we've got to learn about this world,' replied the Corporal. Tifa laughed.

'Don't worry, you'll get the hang of it, I promise.'

Past the Sleeping Forest, they were faced with the same three forks in the road. Every eye was on Bugenhagen, who had started to lead AVALANCHE along instead of Cloud. He took the left of the three forks and glanced behind to make sure that he was being followed.

Bugenhagen led them to a strange sight. She did not know why, but Tifa was forcibly put into mind of the old fashioned, gladiator arenas that used to exist over two hundred years ago. Where she imagined the stands would be that surrounded the arena was the high stone paths, leading around almost in a complete circle, only making it three quarters of the way around. At the point it split into two forks. One completed the circle, sinking to ground level as it went. The other, staying at the same height would take whoever walked along it into the very centre of Tifa's imaginary gladiator arena.

It looked as though it used to be a slim cylinder of stone, standing up, but thousands of years had worn it down so it narrowed in the middle, almost to breaking point. A large piece of separate stone was on the top of the circular platform.

Bugenhagen walked along the path, his footsteps sounding softly on the cool stone. When he came to the fork in the path, he turned to the right one, into the middle of the arena. He was soon surrounded by the vast group of AVALANCHE. They all turned to the separated stone block. On the top was a shape that looked as though a special key could be fitted into it.

'A key goes in here. Find it, and it will give a hint as to how to stop Meteor,' stated Bugenhagen.

'Okay,' said Cloud uncertainly. 'Where is it?'

'I cannot tell you where it is, but I can give you a clue. It is where sunlight does not reach.'

'Where the sun doesn't shine?' repeated Cloud.

'That could be seriously misinterpreted, Cloud,' laughed Lee.

'Only in your lascivious mind.'

'Where sunlight can't reach...' muttered Tifa.

'Underground?' suggested Yuffie.

'Either that or under water,' replied Kirsty.

'Under water we can handle. We've still got the Shinra hub. Let's search the seas first,' Cloud instructed. He pointed at Lee, Kirsty and Yuffie and told them to follow him.

He led the three away from the rest of the party and back out of the Forgotten Capital. When the entered the Sleeping Forest for the third time, Lee noticed yet again, a glint of gold as Cloud slipped the Lunar Harp out of his pocket after taking it back from Tifa once she had finished her explanation of it and its importance in the Sleeping Forest to Kirsty and the General.

The excavators stopped digging and setting off bombs when they saw two women and two men walk past them purposefully. They jumped down to the lower level, ignoring the ladder that was still fixed to the wall and headed off without so much as a backwards glance.

They jumped up the grab the rope that was always attached to the banister on the balcony of the Highwind and laboriously pulled themselves up. After Yuffie had flicked herself over and pulled the rope up, Kirsty, Lee and Cloud set off to the cockpit, terrorising the pilot in training into action, obviously thinking that Cid was with them. He relaxed when he failed to see the foul mouthed individual and was surprised when he received a smile from the Corporal.

As they rose, there was the usual ominous sound of Yuffie retching. She staggered into the cockpit and glared daggers at Cloud, who pretended not to notice.

'Is there any particular reason why you deliberately dragged me along here as well? You know full well that I get airsick. You told me yourself that you did as well!' snapped the teen.

'And do you see me stumbling around, holding my stomach stupidly? You're not fooling anyone. Stop being so melodramatic.'

The teenage ninja slinked off, muttering foully under her breath. Cloud turned to the window, where his eyes rested on Corporal Kirsty and General Lee, arms wrapped around each other as they stared out at the fast moving landscape underneath them. He wished he had that kind of intimacy with Aeris when she was still alive. But his hope of being with her had faded when he froze, unable to move, fully under Sephiroth's spell as he plunged from the sky, the Masamune puncturing her body. He could still feel her body in his arms as she started to fall backwards. He could still feel the warmth of her blood as her vital fluids leaked from her body. He could still see the pained, yet blank look in her eyes. He shook his head as painful memories passed and anger at Sephiroth flared up inside his mind. Maybe he could focus on Tifa. He had always felt a slight attraction to her, but it had been ripped to shreds by Aeris. Maybe he could learn to fall in love with her just as much as he did with Aeris. He knew, had always known, will always know, that if Aeris was alive, and he stood in a position where he had to choose between the two women, Tifa would not stand a hope in hell. Aeris would win every time. Cloud continued to think about Aeris. He thought about how they first met, he wondered what she was feeling when she died, and he wondered what would be different about their mission to save the planet if she was still with them. He fell into a deep depression, unable to rise out of his mental pool of misery. He felt himself drowning, lost in his thoughts about the woman he once loved. Aeris Gainsborough.

Kirsty pressed against General Lee and felt his hand around her waist. She looked out the front window, still barely able to believe the beauty of what she was seeing. She remembered when the portal opened to Tifa and Cloud's world the feeling of happiness for her friends, but also the feeling of apprehension. She had always wondered if they had stayed, whether they would have been allowed to return to Tokyo - even if it was eventually. She could not help but feel that if they had not have gone through into this whole new world her life might have taken a different turn. She and Lee probably would not have realised that they were absent mindedly walking hand in hand; they would probably be celebrating being back where they belonged like a pair of lunatics. So therefore, they would have ended up not being together. She remembered as she and Lee drew away from one another, feeling more embarrassed than what they thought was humanly possible, she noticed that something hidden was rising inside him. She saw the man she was madly in love with become more determined to do something that only he knew and then....he kissed her.

Kirsty sighed contentedly.

'You okay?' asked Lee, peering down at the top of her head.

She looked up and nodded at him.

'I'm just thinking.'

'What about?'

'Nothing important.'

'Tell me.'

'Just how different things may be if we were able to return to Tokyo.'

The two watched as the land came closer as they sank to the ground nearby Junon. As they felt the gentle thud indicating they had landed, Lee and Kirsty turned around where they saw Cloud, leaning against one of the large contraptions near the training pilot glaring angrily at the floor.

'Cloud,' called the General. 'We've landed.'

He barely responded.

'Are you alright?' asked the Corporal, disengaging herself from Lee and walking over to him. She bent down and peered up, trying to make eye contact with somebody staring at his shoes. She could see his eyes watering as he desperately continued to ignore her.

'Goddammit!'

Cloud broke out of his thoughts and punched the machine he was leaning on, startling every person in the vicinity. Yuffie had walked into the cockpit, wondering how come nobody was exiting the Highwind.

Cloud furiously wiped away the angry hot tears that had leaked from his eyes. He involuntarily raised his gaze and hurriedly looked away when he saw Kirsty peering at him closely still. He sighed and realised that it would be much less painful and quicker to tell them what was on his mind.

'I miss Aeris.'

'So do we,' replied Lee, walking over and resting one hand on Kirsty's shoulder.

'You don't fully understand. I'm in love with the woman. I loved her when she was alive, and I still love her, even though she's dead.'

'If it's any consolation,' began Kirsty, 'everybody who knew her was in love with her in some form or another. Not necessarily in the same way as you, but in love with her nevertheless.'

Cloud looked up and met Kirsty's stare head on, and she suddenly wished he would not.

'I was watching you two together and it made me think. I just wondered what would it be like if she was still alive? After all we have been through together. We've managed to evade the Shinra when they were after her, because I was her bodyguard. She got taken away by one of the Turks when they wanted to destroy the Sector Seven Slums in Midgar and they damn well succeeded. We got her back. We went straight into Shinra's headquarters and let loose merry hell. Then when that goddamn siren went off, we all came back alive. And she died, at the hands of....of Sephiroth -' he spat the name as though it had given him a disgusting taste in his mouth '- and I couldn't do a damn thing about it because I was frozen. Frozen because his appeared scared the holy hell outta me. And he knows it. I can't bare to be bear him, not after he killed Aeris, and he terrifies me. You have no idea how that feels.'

Cloud looked at Lee, more tears pouring down his face.

'You have no goddamn idea how that feels...'

He sighed, his voice cracking when he tried to speak.

'We'd better get to the sub.'

He braved a smile and walked past Yuffie, who had been watching from the doorway of the cockpit, ignoring her.

Midgar was the city in which Shinra and AVALANCHE headquarters were. A huge city, it was circular in shape. In the centre, was a gigantic support tower which balanced the heavy plate on top of it. The whole city, and indeed the plate and support tower had been split into eight sectors. Only those who were very rich lived up on the plate. The poorer people, Cloud had explained later, lived in the slums. Like Aeris. Tifa's bar, Seventh Heaven, which was also the headquarters for AVALANCHE was based in Sector Seven. Shinra had heard the sector in which AVALANCHE were, and ordered one of the men in the Turks, a young man called Tseng to set the Emergency Plate Release System at the top of the support tower. Cloud, Barret and Tifa had managed to get there, but just not completely in time, as when they finally made it, Tifa and Cloud found Barret shooting at a Shinra helicopter, and Tseng at the Plate Release System. Their escape was a miraculous, yet harebrained scheme thought up by Barret in a couple of seconds, which seemed to work somehow.

When the four reached the dock, they heard movement behind them. The group turned, and to their surprise, they saw Vincent.

'What the - how did you - huh?' stammered Cloud, dumbstruck.

'I was damned if I was going to be left with the rest of AVALANCHE. I'm interested to see this key,' replied Vincent, in his always icy tone. A shiver ran down Kirsty's and Lee's backs.

'But you're going to anyway when we bring it back,' exclaimed Cloud, looking at the black clad figure.

Vincent's blood red eyes glowed menacingly at Cloud's stupidity. As the most antisocial of the group, he did not want to be stuck listening to the rambling old tales of Bugenhagen. That was what he meant, but he hardly ever said what he meant. He usually left it for everybody else to work out for themselves.

Cloud shrugged, and walked up to the stolen Shinra sub, and forced himself inside. He fell down the metal ladder, landing deftly on his feet, stepped back and watched as Yuffie began to climb down.

When the last person had climbed down, - Vincent - Cloud sat in the seat he took when the first drove the submarine, at the control panels.

He guided the submarine under the water, heading south east.

'Any particular reason why we're heading in this direction?' asked Yuffie, in her usual obnoxious tone.

'Might as well start down here,' came the distracted reply. Cloud's face was still red, but had faded in certain areas, making his face look blotchy. It was very obvious that he had been crying.

Lee stood right by the front, gazing out the panel of glass at the front, trying to decipher the underwater scenery, trying to make out what was shadows and what was the underwater walls of the various places they were speeding past.

Kirsty saw something in the distance, a dangerous looking shadow heading in their direction. Two streams of bubbles were tailing away from it, up to the surface. It was too far away to make out what it was. She could tell that it had stopped by the way the bubbles started to flow directly upwards, instead of at a slant. It moved, just as slowly in the opposite direction, further into the distance. The shadow shrank as it moved, the line of bubbles also decreasing in size, until it was completely out of sight.

Cloud spotted a tunnel in the wall and sharply turned the submarine into it, and followed it around a corner where they - somehow - saw something on the bottom of the tunnel. Cloud drove the submarine lower, to try and get a better look at it.

'That thing looks like the pattern in the stone block that Bugenhagen was saying about,' stated Kirsty.

'That's because it's the key,' replied Cloud.

He lowered the sub until it could go no lower and fled out of his seat as though he had just been electrocuted and started up the ladder.

'Er, what do you think you're doing?' asked Yuffie, her eyes widening as she watched Cloud try to undo the valve on top of the ladder.

'Going to get the key. Don't worry, I won't let too much water in.'

Before Yuffie could say anything else, Cloud had taken a deep breath, opened the valve, forced himself out, slammed it shut and started swimming to the key.

'How will he get back in?' asked Yuffie, staring at the suddenly darker figure making his way to the key.

'Probably the same way as he gets in normally.' Vincent's cold voice knocked away any other questions that were contemplated being asked.

To keep themselves from worrying about whether Cloud was going to make it back inside before he either drowned or froze to death, they occupied themselves by watching him, creep closer and pretending that the situation they were involved in was not as bad as reality.

Finally, they heard the sound of rushing water as Cloud fought to get back inside the submarine and close the valve as quickly as possible to prevent much more water flowing inside.

Cloud sat himself back in front of the control panels and turned the submarine out, heading back out of the tunnel. He stopped when the reached the tunnel entrance as the same shadow they saw earlier made its slow procession in front of the opening, blocking it so they could not get out.

In a flash of sudden inspiration, Vincent instructed Cloud to take the sub along the west wall until he found yet another opening in the crumbling rocks. When Cloud gave him a strange look, wondering what he was planning, he met the blonde's stare with his own, evil red eyed stare, which caused Cloud to concentrate on what he was doing.

They went across the ocean, looking for this opening in the west wall that Vincent was so intent on finding, but not hurrying to explain why.

Finally they found it. Corporal Kirsty noticed a part in the west wall that looked distinctly even more shadowy than normal and pointed it out to Cloud, who drove the submarine closer to give a better inspection. Vincent stood behind Cloud's chair, nodding and saying that was what he was looking for. Cloud took them into it. It carried them to the left, underneath the ground. Lee could not help but wonder what town or village they were underneath.

At the end of the tunnel, they came to a circular clearing under the ground.

'Head to the surface,' ordered Vincent. Cloud swiftly hammered the controls, suggesting that, despite he would never admit it, he was secretly intimidated by Vincent.

When the submarine came to the surface, they saw that they were in a enormous circular lake, with a water at the very north. Vincent rudely pushed Cloud out of his seat and sat himself down and guided the surfaced sub to the side of the water, and climbed out, waiting for Lee, Kirsty, Yuffie and Cloud.

The thin piece of land they were standing on prevented them from heading out onto the fields and walking from town to town normally, because the lake was set slightly lower, and the even land nearby acted as a wall surrounding them.

Vincent led them to the waterfall, and stepped through the rushing crystal clear liquid quickly.

On the other side of the waterfall was a cave. It was icy blue inside, and put the General in mind of the Forgotten Capital where Aeris was murdered. There was a crouching figure at the end, sobbing quietly.

'Sephiroth...'

She straightened up and turned around, startled by the newcomers. She had long hair swept back behind her head in an elegant pony tail. Her bright eyes shone. They sparkled with tears. She wore a long white lab coat, the buttons done up protectively. Behind her was a bright sphere of blinding white light. Vincent stepped forwards to the woman, an uncharacteristic warmth in his cold red eyes. He held out his hands and took hold of the woman while she wept.

'I was his mother...' she stammered. 'I never got to hold him from the moment he was born. Surely you can't say that I was a good mother?'

'Lucrecia...' muttered Vincent, staring at the woman.

'Tell me Vincent. Is,...is Sephiroth...dead?'

Vincent closed his eyes and nodded his head.

'The real Sephiroth, yes, is dead.'

Behind him, Lee and Kirsty exchanged glances.

Lucrecia sighed sadly, and withdrew her hands from Vincent's. She slumped back down to the ground and continued to cry, ignoring the shadow falling over her of Vincent.

He walked past her, to the shining orb. Squinting against the sheerness of the light, he reached down and grabbed at the light. His hand sank into it and rested on something inside it. He pulled it out, revealing a long single barrelled gun. He held it in his hands, testing the weight. He turned back to look at Lucrecia and silently moved past her again. As he made his way towards Cloud, he gave the ex-SOLDIER one brief look, as though daring him to say something and pushed past.

The five headed back to the submarine in shocked silence, unable to comprehend what they had just seen. The fact that somebody had managed to get past Vincent's icy exterior was, on its own astonishing, but what Lucrecia spoke about rang around in their ears. Something in Cloud's memory stirred....

__________________________________________________________________________________

He was in the library of the Shinra mansion, five years ago, when he was on SOLDIER, with Sephiroth. When he was in SOLDIER, not Zack, no matter what he was told.

Cloud remembered Sephiroth pouring over the books in the library, only looking up when he heard Cloud's footsteps to utter one word.

'Hmm....traitor...'

Cloud had no idea what his war hero meant by calling him a traitor.

'What? What do you mean?'

Sephiroth got up and walked around, still holding the book he was immersed in to his nose.

'It says here, that an inhuman being called Jenova was discovered in a geological stratum over a thousand years ago. My mother's name is Jenova...'

__________________________________________________________________________________

Cloud shook himself back to reality, vaguely aware that he was being spoken to. Of course, Sephiroth did not know who his real parents were, thinking that his mother was a woman called Jenova. The truth, something that hardly anybody knew, seemed much more confusing than what Sephiroth thought was the truth.

'Cloud? Hello? You okay?'

'Hmm? Oh...yeah...' he replied, looking at the Corporal.

Vincent automatically sat himself back in the seat at the control panel of the submarine and started to take it back to the Junon dock where the Highwind was waiting. Cloud took advantage of this to try and calm his thoughts, to get over Aeris, and just generally relax. Lee sidled over to him.

'Can I ask you a question?'

'I dunno. Can you?'

'That woman in the cave,' said Lee, keeping his voice low and glancing at Vincent. 'When she asked if Sephiroth was dead, he said that the real Sephiroth was. I don't understand.'

'The real Sephiroth died supposedly, and the Sephiroth who summoned Meteor is a successful clone. One of the only ones that actually worked.'

'Oh.'

Cloud found that he could not be bothered to explain it more, and lapsed into thought, only to be taken back to the exact same memory he was taken to a few minutes ago.

__________________________________________________________________________________

Sephiroth continued to pace around the library, looking only at his book. He had not looked at Cloud once after calling him 'traitor'.

'The Ancients wanted to go to the Promised Lands, a land that promised supreme happiness to whoever found it,' explain Sephiroth. 'They would speak with the planet, connect with it, find the Promised Lands and live happily in the Promised Lands.'

He stopped pacing to look at Cloud for the first time since he arrived in the library, and he wished Sephiroth would turn back to his book.

'But then,' he spat, still glaring at Cloud. 'Those who did not like the journey started to appear. They are you ancestors. They decided to lead an easier life, elected to build shelters and stay where they were. Shortly after that, the planet was plunged into turmoil, and had to sacrifice the Ancients in order to survive. Your ancestors survived because they hid. And then they began to multiply. Now all that's left of the Ancients is in these files.

'More recently, people wanted to create human beings to be born with the power of the Ancients. No, the Cetra...I am the one that was produced. I am the one that was created.'

'C- created?' repeated Cloud, in a surprised and scared voice.

Sephiroth walked past him into the other section of the library and stood in the archway which separated both chambers. He sighed, his shoulders drooping.

'Professor Gast created me. Why did you die? Why couldn't you live?' added Sephiroth, staring up at the ceiling as though Gast could hear him.

Cloud remembered after his conversation with Sephiroth in the Shinra Mansion, he walked out. Cloud followed him, worrying, wondering what was going to happen next. When he talked out the front of the Shinra Mansion, he was Nibelheim in flames.

'This is too terrible. Sephiroth....this is too terrible...'

Cloud Strife watched himself inside his mind run to the Nibelheim Mako Reactor. He saw once again Tifa at the top of the stairs in one of the Reactor's chambers challenging Sephiroth. He saw one more time Sephiroth snatch the Masamune out of her grasp, strike her across the chest, and her descent down the stairs.

Cloud kept his eyes tightly shut, as though scared of going back to reality, of facing the problem that was in front of them, as though solace could only be sought in his disturbed and twisted memories of Sephiroth's evil.

Cloud burst through, where he saw Sephiroth with his back to him, talking to something that was out of sight.

'Those fools...those worthless fools...they tried to take the planet from Mother. But don't worry. I'm here now...'

Sephiroth pulled the metallic angel off the front of a container, revealing, inside it, the figure of Jenova, found in the geological stratum over a thousand years ago. It was floating, almost serenely in its tank, bubbles rising in the fluid surrounding the being.

Cloud flicked his Buster Sword out of its sheath as Sephiroth turned to face him, still holding the Masamune.

'Sephiroth...how could you do this? My pain...the pain of having my family, my friends, my hometown taken away from me! It's just the same as your pain, your sadness!'

Sephiroth looked down at him blankly.

'My sadness? What do I have to be sad about? I have been given orders from Mother to take back this planet from you fools.'

Cloud despaired, his arms that were tensed in front of him, holding his sword, hanging limply by his sides. He turned his head to one side, staring at the floor.

'I trusted you. No, you're not the Sephiroth I used to know!'

__________________________________________________________________________________

Lee waved his hands in front of Cloud's screwed up face, trying to get a reaction. He lightly tapped Cloud, startling him back to reality.

'We're back at Junon.'

Cloud looked around and saw that only Lee and Cloud were left inside the submarine; Kirsty had just vanished up the ladder to join Vincent and Yuffie.

'You sure you're okay? You've been really quiet,' asked Lee, his voice full of concern.

'I've just been thinking about Sephiroth. Really. I'm okay.'

'Well, if you're sure,' replied Lee, still staring questioningly at Cloud.

He nodded and started to the exit of the submarine. He pulled himself up and out and waited for Lee before shutting the valve. He looked at the group in front of him and smiled, then ushered them - except Vincent - towards the Highwind.

Kirsty and Lee stayed by the balcony, looking out when Cloud and Vincent stalked into the cockpit and Yuffie took her usual station outside the door. As they started to lift up into the air Kirsty spoke.

'What do you think is wrong with Cloud?' she asked looking at Lee. 'Because there's definitely something on his mind.'

'He just told me that he was thinking about Sephiroth.'

'He disturbs me. I can't believe how one person can go that bad.'

'Well, don't forget what Cloud said. He did say that the real Sephiroth is dead, and the one who we're after now is the only successful clone.'

'Same thing,' retorted Kirsty stubbornly. 'We never had to put up with anything like this in Tokyo. I feel so vulnerable here. Unable to use materia with the same expertise as the rest of AVALANCHE, I feel like I've got loads of weaknesses here that could be used against me by somebody as malicious as Sephiroth.'

'I'd never let anything happen to you,' said Lee, looking directly into Kirsty's eyes. She smiled and rested her head on his shoulder.

The wind whipped through their hair as they stared out at the landscape. Lee found himself thinking about where their fight would end, how it would end. He wondered if it was going to be in a final showdown against Sephiroth, or if they could destroy the threat he posed in a different, less risky way. Even though he did not admit it, the thoughts that Kirsty voiced were the same ones that were going through his head. He felt horribly weak because he did not know how to use materia as well as their friends. I guess the only way we're going to get better is to participate more in future battles, thought General Lee.

He leant against the barrier on the balcony, bent over and enjoying the feel of the warm air blowing against his face. He felt Kirsty place an arm around him and lean against him.

He had a sinking sensation and opened his eyes again to see that the Highwind was standing. He was suddenly struck by the considerable drop in temperature and shivered.

Cloud, Yuffie and Vincent walked out onto the balcony.

__________________________________________________________________________________

Tifa was standing around, sighing impatiently, wondering where Cloud had gone. She had noticed that Vincent had vanished as well, but did not mention this, as it was Vincent. She thought that it was probably much better not to say anything because she knew what it was like getting on the wrong side of him.

Barret was tapping his foot, feeling more and more annoyed with each passing second.

'Jeez, how long does it take to get one stinkin' key?' asked Cid, with a bite of annoyance in his voice.

'Perhaps they really are trying to get underground,' joked Barret.

Bugenhagen listened to their stupid comments and tried to ignore them. But he too thought it was taking them far too long. He always had a high opinion of Cloud. He would have thought he would be back by now...

Red squinted at something in the distance. He thought he could see several people walking over, not caring much about hurrying.

'Is that Cloud?' asked Tifa.

'At long past,' snapped Cid.

The five made their way to Bugenhagen and Cloud pulled the key he found under the water out of his pocket and handed it to the elderly man. He took it from Cloud's hand and slipped it into the stone block and waited.

From out of nowhere, a sudden rush of water poured down, all around the worn stone platform they were standing on, the whole of AVALANCHE and Bugenhagen crammed together. Images flickered on the surface of the falling water, as though it was projecting a film.

The place looked familiar to the General. It was the Forgotten Capital.

They saw Aeris praying on her platform. As though there was a camera, recording her prayers, they could see her face clearly, as though she was being zoomed in on. Her eyes were tightly shut, her hands clasped before her. Her eyes flicked open, the brilliant green of her irises even more noticeable than before.

The scene changed.

Yuffie, Tifa, Kirsty, Aeris, Lee and Cloud were heading back, out of the Forgotten Capital when they froze. Turning back they saw Sephiroth. Once again, they watched helplessly as Sephiroth fell down to the ground, Masamune in hands and stabbed Aeris. Once again, they saw her expression of pain, heard her choke as agony spread through her slim body. Once again, they saw her fall into Cloud's arms as he broke free of Sephiroth's spell and ran forwards to catch her.

The water falling stopped, dissipating as it came in contact with the ground. Bugenhagen looked at them all.

'So there you have it,' he said. 'Your friend Aeris is the way to stop Meteor. That is, of course, if Sephiroth is destroyed. While he is still alive, the power of Holy won't stand a chance. It is up to you as a group to stop him.'

A stunned silence greeted his words. Cloud led the way back out of the Ancient City and back to the Highwind. As they walked, Cait Sith, bobbing up and down on top of the stuffed creature, started to speak.

Just thought you oughta know...the Junon Cannon has been attached to Midgar and the Shinra are planning on firing it at Sephiroth in the Northern Crater to stop Meteor...' he trailed off as he became aware of Barret's dirty glare on him. The small black cat swallowed and looked in another direction.

Kirsty, who was walking next to Cait Sith was staring at the stuffed animal, still hand in hand with the General.

'Just what is that you're balancing on?' she questioned, looking hard at the blunt-fanged beast.

'Stuffed Mog. Kinda animal,' grunted Cait Sith. The Corporal pulled a face which clearly showed that she had no idea what he meant, but was trying to look as though she understood.

A crackling noise was emitted from Cait Sith, as though there was something interfering with reception. Interested, Cloud turned back, wondering what Cait Sith had that was causing the noise. There was a muffled voice and the small cat looked embarrassed, trying to ignore the building stares that he was receiving. The voice sounded again, this time more urgently. Cloud thought he recognised it...the voice...it sounded like somebody he associated with the Shinra...But why would Cait Sith be in contact with the Shinra? wondered Cloud, and then he remembered. He remembered how Cait Sith had first joined them when they were on the hunt for Sephiroth at the beginning of their nightmare. He remembered how Cait Sith had managed to worm his way in as a spy for the Shinra, and how he was really controlling the stuffed Mog from the Shinra HQ in Midgar.

'Who's that, Cait Sith?' he asked, not sounding as though he really wanted to know, his interest brought down with a bump at memory of the cat's nerve.

Cait Sith abruptly excused himself, and clumped up into another area of the Sleeping Forest, where AVALANCHE could hear him speaking in low tones. He thudded back a few minutes later.

'That was Reeve, from Shinra. He's the one who's been controlling my body. He's on our side, though.'

Tifa whispered something into the ears of Kirsty and Lee, no doubt informing them that he was once a spy.

Cid and Barret had now overtaken Cloud and were the first ones past all the excavators and were heading to the Highwind. They had both vanished up the rope by the time the rest of the group had made their way out of the village.

Something splashed up in front of them, in the water. It was enormous; it looked big enough to pick up the Highwind and throw it around as if it was only a small model aircraft. It was a dirty grey in colour, and it looked as though it had been carved out of stone. It was roughly human shape, with a small head, and dramatically elongated shoulders. It waded in the deep water, across the ocean towards the nearest city. Opposite them, was Midgar.

Cid screamed at the rest of the party to hurry up and get inside the Highwind, and instantly started tugging at whoever was climbing up the rope, trying to help them up.

When everybody was finally inside, the aircraft rose up into the air, and started over the sea, after the Diamond Weapon. As they overtook it, the pilot accidentally manoeuvred them too close and they struck the side of the monstrous creature. The energy radiating off it was massive, and sent the Highwind flying backwards.

'Dammit! What the hell you playin' at? Don't attack it here! We fight at land!' screamed Cid as he struggled to keep his balance.

They landed on the large field in front of Midgar and Cloud and Tifa exited hurriedly. General Lee rushed forwards to join their battle, but to his surprise, was held back by Vincent.

'I wouldn't, if I were you. Leave us to take care of the Diamond Weapon.'

He leapt out over the barrier and landed deftly on his feet. Lee had no choice but to watch his friends fight this giant of a being with no help. He wondered whether Cloud would be mentally able to fight. The General had not yet forgotten how sick he was after the Reunion, when he gave Sephiroth the Black Materia. He still remembered the way his head lolled and how his eyes rolled in their sockets.

Vincent, Cloud and Tifa stood on the bank in front of the Highwind, watching, waiting for Weapon to attack. Further behind them, they would hear the wailing drone as the equally huge Sister Ray in Midgar charged up on sight of Weapon.

Finally, the quaking thuds of the almost machine-like Diamond Weapon ceased as it seemed to survey the small group in its way. From its eyes, it fired a pale yellow beam of light which fled down and struck Tifa squarely in the face. She cried out in pain, holding her face and ducked down as she tried to reduce the pain. She had almost been killed by one shot. Vincent thought hard, concentrating on his magic. A white fountain of what looked like to be the same substance as the Lifestream exploded under Tifa's feet, rising up, engulfing her as pearly white spheres scattered in the air. Tifa managed to get to her feet again and took her hands away from her face, looking exactly as she did before the attack.

An orange flame surrounded her, getting lighter nearer the tip, so that it faded to yellow. She dashed forwards to strike her opposition.

Lee and Kirsty were hunched over the barrier, leaning on it as they witnessed the fight with the rest of AVALANCHE. They saw Tifa run forwards and strike Weapon, kicking it and following through with a sharp punch with her opposite hand. She raised one leg and got her footing on Weapon, flicking herself head over heels, catching Weapon with her other foot. She then ducked down low and performed a spinning kick, before rising up and punching it. As her punch landed, the Corporal could have sworn that she saw an image of a dolphin diving over her outstretched fist and vanished as soon as her attack ended. Tifa fell back into line as Cloud stepped forwards to make her attack.

Kirsty found that she could not bare to watch. How could they possibly win against something that large? It did not seem possible, that a group of such minuscule size could defeat a monster so big. She knew that they outnumbered this being, this...Weapon, or whatever it had been called, but what was the use of strength in numbers when the opposition looked far more than capable of destroying the entire planet in one hit?

She lingered in the cockpit, lost in her thoughts, occasionally looking up and exchanging a grim smile with the pilot, who once again was far more relaxed now Cid was no longer in the same room. As gaped out of the front window, unable to see the battle, but could still hear the sounds of roaring winds as magic was cast, the grunts of pain as one of the three was struck and the awful shrieks of Weapon. Footsteps were added to the mixture of sounds, but she did not pay the new arrival any heed until she felt a familiar arm wrapped around her waist.

'How come you retreated into here?' asked Lee, his chin resting gently on her shoulder.

'I couldn't bare to watch them fighting that evil, vile thing. How can they beat it? It's clearly got the advantage over them.'

'Hey, they're trying to defeat Sephiroth and Shinra. I don't think they're going to give in easily. They probably knew when they first decided to take action that they were up against creatures that looked as though they'd be able to wipe them out in one go. Appearances can be deceiving. You ought to know that. Remember all the horror we left behind?'

She nodded and changed the subject. She noticed that the pilot had left them on their own, thinking that they wanted to be alone together. Kirsty heard Lee sigh.

'What's the matter?'

'Nothing. Contented sigh. Shall we go and see how Tifa, Cloud and...Vincent are getting on?'

The Corporal laughed.

'You really don't like Vincent, do you?'

'Do you?'

'I asked you first.'

'I don't...dislike him as such. He's...scary. The man reminds me of Sephiroth!'

Kirsty rolled her eyes.

__________________________________________________________________________________

Yuffie was shouting encouragement to the three fighting as Lee and Kirsty emerged onto the balcony. The pair instantly saw that their friends were on tenterhooks as they anxiously watched the battle.

Weapon was making an ominous noise somewhere between a growl and a bland drone, which was enhanced by the sound of the Sister Ray continuing to charge. Cid noticed that the noise from Midgar had reached a higher pitch, which only meant one thing: the Sister Ray was ready to fire, and they were directly in its path. He screamed loudly for Vincent, Cloud and Tifa to abandon their fight against Diamond Weapon and get back into the Highwind, who eventually took his advice and climbed up the rope after he shredded his voice box by roaring 'Shinra's going to damn well fire the goddamn Sister Ray and we're fight in it's damned path!'

He turned away and looked at the pilot who smartly ran back to the cockpit, ready for the signal that he could take off.

Vincent was up and over and onto the balcony in seconds. Tifa was halfway up the rope and Cloud had started his ascent at the bottom. Cid was peering over, and as soon as Cloud had got a tight grip on the rope and started to climb, he shouted 'Take off!' in the general direction of the cockpit.

As they rose up and out of the way of any incoming shots, Weapon made his way closer to Midgar now that there was nothing in its path. A loud bang tore through the air and the Sister Ray was fired, shot after shot after shot. The lengthy pale yellow beams ripped through the air, smashing through the Diamond Weapon, and cracking open Northern Cave, which after the Reunion had sealed itself with a hard light blue dome to protect Sephiroth.

Diamond Weapon sent shots flying over Midgar from its extended shoulders; the beams were exactly the same as the ones it hit Tifa with.

The citizens of Midgar screamed and covered their heads with their hands as they watched the aerial battle. The sky was lit up with pale yellow as Shinra and Weapon battled.

__________________________________________________________________________________

Rufus was watching the scene, high up in the Shinra Headquarters, in the presidential office. He had a clear view of the people of Midgar panicking, of the Highwind floating out of the way in mid air, of the shots being fired from the Sister Ray and Weapon, and on Weapon itself. The beast seemed to turn its gaze onto the office and another shot was fired. Rufus was standing by the window, that took up the whole side of the wall as the deadly fast beam of energy came ever closer. It was nothing. It would never penetrate the highly reinforced glass. Rufus knew fully well that the window in the presidential office ought to be able to repel any attack that was made. He was confident that nothing bad was going to happen.

__________________________________________________________________________________

The Highwind turned around in the air as the Diamond Weapon's last shot screamed past them and into Midgar. AVALANCHE gathered around the front window in the cockpit - bravely including Yuffie, who was holding her stomach and looking pale.

Kirsty and Lee watched, awe-struck as the attack flew over the plate, to Shinra HQ, to the office that was nearest - Rufus' office - and exploded. Kirsty gave a small involuntary scream and covered her hands with her mouth as the office and Rufus erupted. Lee grasped one of her hands and gave it a reassuring squeeze. AVALANCHE looked at the ruins. They had all seen it, yet it had not registered. Rufus was dead. Shinra was finished. There was nobody else to take over the company after Rufus. Nobody else to be president. There was no way they could get out of that.

'Head north.'

Lee shook his head and looked at Cid, who was gaping at the pilot.

'What?' he stammered.

'Head north.'

Diamond Weapon disappeared from sight as they flew away, still numb with shock at the death of Rufus. It seemed strange to know that Shinra were finished, that they would never pose a threat to the life of the planet again.

'Many people have died because of Sephiroth,' Cloud's voice was distracted.

'Sephiroth?' queried Kirsty.

'If he had not have summoned Meteor, then the Weapons would not have shown themselves. Diamond Weapon killed Rufus. So, Sephiroth ended Shinra, at least indirectly.'

'So what?' said Barret, 'you sayin' that we oughta be grateful to Sephiroth?'

'No!'

At the very north, where the crater was, they could see that the forceful energy creating the dome had died from the shot from the Sister Ray. They could go down and face Sephiroth. They could fight him. They could now finally challenge him into a final battle. The final battle for the fate of the planet and everybody on it. Millions of people had died alone at the hands of AVALANCHE, such as when Shinra dropped the plate of Sector Seven. If they defeated Sephiroth, stopped Meteor, they could repay their debt to the friends and families of those who died because of them.

'Oh my God...'

Cait Sith, who had been communicating again with Reeve from Shinra suddenly let out a small choked noise. He stared wide eyed at Barret.

'The Sister Ray's overloading! Shinra's trying to fire another shot at Northern Crater. Hojo is overloading it to try and fire again to destroy Weapon, but it's likely to malfunction if shot again!'

Barret cursed. He instructed the pilot to take them back to Midgar, ignoring Yuffie's distant remark of going backwards and forwards.

'How are we going to get back inside Midgar? We can't enter the way we left, can we?' Cloud questioned, looking at Barret. He started to answer, when Cid intervened.

'We've got the Highwind, haven't we? We can parachute down!'

The atmosphere was tense as they made their way back to Midgar. What was making Hojo of the Shinra Science Department overload the Sister Ray? What caused him to go completely mad and try to destroy the cannon, no doubt causing a horrific explosion and the complete annihilation of Midgar?

Cid gave Cloud three parachutes as they closed in to their destination. He slipped one on, passed another one to Tifa and gave the last to Cid.

'Cid, get me one,' demanded Lee.

'It's alright, Lee, we've got it under control,' replied Cloud. He was rewarded with a sharp look from the General as he turned his gaze back to Cid.

'I'm coming with.'

'Not a good idea,' said Cloud. 'Hojo is very powerful. We need people who would be capable of fighting him, using magic as well as physical attacks.'

'I don't care. You three can use your materia. I can do physical damage. Kirsty and myself are in AVALANCHE as well now. This is our problem, too. No matter what you say, you're not going to change my mind,' snapped General Lee.

Cid mentally told Cloud to give in and fetched two more parachutes, handing them to both the General and the Corporal. Nobody had noticed that Cait Sith had slipped off somewhere.

The five made their way out to the balcony, where they saw Cait Sith waiting, already having parachuted down, and was watching for any sign that he was going to be joined. Cloud threw himself over the barrier in a way that was reminiscent of Vincent and tugged at the cord, the parachute flowing out, slowing his fall. Four more figures followed, and they landed on the ground gently, hardly making a noise. They ripped off the now useless parachutes and threw them to the ground. Kirsty gave the Highwind one last glance as it zoomed away, leaving them stranded in Midgar.

Cait Sith beckoned them over and ran, leaving the five in his wake. They followed, running through the slums. People opened the shutters on their dingy houses and stuck their heads out the window, wondering what was going on. No one had thought that it was necessary to keep them up to date with the latest events, so they had no idea about Hojo and the overloading Sister Ray.

They ran up a wide steel staircase which coiled on itself and to a platform. They went through a door and found themselves in a huge chamber filled with chutes, pipes and ladders.

'This,' gestured Cait Sith, 'is the Midgar tunnel system, which is connected to the Sister Ray. And this is also where I leave you. Bye!'

Cait Sith took off before anybody could say a word.

'What was that all about?' asked Tifa.

'Probably doesn't want to be near a place that might have Shinra executives now that he's turned against them,' replied Cloud, looking thoughtfully around.

Cait Sith ran at full speed out of Midgar, attracting just as much attention in the slums as the six of them did heading to the tunnel system, mainly because of his strange appearance.

When he found green grass and open fields again, he searched the skies, looking for the Highwind. He saw it circling around the city and it landed near him to allow him to climb back onto the balcony. He climbed speedily up the rope and vanished from sight as he walked to the cockpit. The Highwind continued its laps around Midgar.

Cloud, Cid, Lee, Tifa and Kirsty had managed to successfully navigate their way around, through the tunnel system and found a small passage that they would have to crawl through. Lee pulled himself up first, Kirsty behind him, followed by Cid.

When they were all in, they made their difficult trip through the tunnel, their backs pressed painfully against the top. Every second was punctuated by curses from Cid as he struck the tiny tunnel again. He raised his head to see Kirsty still in front of him. He grinned, clearly enjoying the view.

General Lee slipped just before he could think of a way to safely get out of the tunnel and fell head first out and onto the ground. He hissed in pain and rubbed his head. He was standing in a large passage, which continued on to both his left and his right. He wondered if Cloud knew about the choice of directions. He assisted Kirsty out, allowed Cid to awkwardly make his own way out, not wanting to be helped and crashed to the ground, miraculously landing on his feet, as opposed to the General, landing on his head. Tifa and Cloud flicked themselves out of the tunnel easily, as though they did it every day.

Cloud looked left and right, deciding which way to go and faced his left hand side.

'Come on, we need to go north to find the Sister Ray and Hojo.'

Cloud took off, not bothering to look back to see if the rest were following him. They all skidded to a halt when they saw the three emerge from in front of them. Blocking their path, yet again were Reno, Rude and Elena.

'Oh no, not you three again!' cried out Corporal Kirsty, feeling weary and annoyed at all the countless interruptions they had suffered.

'Nice to see you as well,' replied Reno, smirking at Kirsty.

Elena stepped forwards, fists raised.

'We don't wanna fight you,' said Cloud.

'We don't want to do this, either....but....orders are orders. We have to take out those in our way...no matter what it means,' exclaimed Elena.

'You're going to kill us?' sputtered Tifa.

'You don't have to. You can just let us go,' whispered Kirsty, trying to coax them into leaving.

Rude looked thoughtfully at her and shook his head.

'She's right. Shinra is finished. Let's go.'

He moved quietly past them, Reno on his heels, but Elena was hesitant.

'But - our orders!'

'Rufus is dead! He's not going to know!' snapped Rude.

As though nothing had happened, Cloud continued further through the passage until they came to a fork.

'Great,' muttered Cloud sarcastically. He glared at both shut doors, as though forcing them to direct him to Hojo.

'Left,' he mumbled, mainly to himself, and strode determinedly forwards.

The left fork took them outside, closer to Hojo. As they ran to a flight of stairs, leading directly up to the ray, a large human controlled robot stood in its path. In the head, sat Heidegger and Scarlet, looking down, grinning insanely. Nothing was said, not a single word was uttered. Scarlet moved the left arm down to swing a blow at Cid, but General Lee jumped in front of him and took the blow. He was sent spiralling off to one side and landed painfully on the ground. Kirsty called out and ran over to him. She helped him back up to his feet, and they both glared at the Shinra executives.

They both ran and stood defiantly in front of the robot as the face part lifted up and Scarlet shouted down at them.

'I understand that the Turks did not manage to take care of you! Well, this shall! This is the pride and joy of the Shinra Weapons Department, the Proud Clod!'

The face part snapped down again, and Kirsty and Lee thought hard on what spells to use. Cloud and Tifa started forwards, but were held off by Lee. Vivid green blocked Kirsty from view as she and the General slipped from view.

A giant stood in their place. He was muscular, his whole body bulging. Around his neck was a necklace of shark teeth. He wore nothing but a greying loincloth. His huge hands dug into the ground and pulled up a large chunk of land. With incredible strength, he lifted it up and turned it over, so that it fell and crashed on top of the Proud Clod, bowling it over. The ground that was ripped up replaced itself instantaneously as Scarlet and Heidegger attempted to right themselves.

Kirsty and Lee reappeared momentarily, but only long enough for the General to conjure yet another summon creature. The air tingled and became humid. The sky turned red. The ground was torn apart as a putrid, green coloured beast threw itself from the depths of its lair, under the ground. A heat barrier formed in front of it as it growled, flames lashing out at nothing from inside its mouth. The heat barrier was broken as it exhaled, a tidal wave of searing hot flames rushed from between its teeth and over the metallic Proud Clod, scalding Scarlet and Heidegger inside.

When the couple entered sight again, the ground had repaired itself once more, and the two Shinra executives were still wincing at the touch of their robot. The right arm swung down at Kirsty, who deftly jumped backwards, the blow missing her by inches.

Behind them, Cloud, Tifa and Cid were watching the fight, open mouthed.

Blood red flames covered Kirsty and when they died down, large multicoloured bubbles hid the Proud Clod from sight. It was hidden behind a wall of peach, pale blues, greens and reds as the fire, lightning and ice elements poured over Scarlet and Heidegger. They were in agony inside their robot and were seriously contemplating giving in. At least then, they could give a surprise attack, maybe wipe all five of them out in one go.

The same red flames circled Lee once his lover's attack had finished, and a translucent, faint yellow pyramid turned over and over as it made its way to its target. Electricity crackled in the centre of the pyramid, shocking Scarlet and Heidegger again as lightning coursed over them.

Kirsty summoned again and within seconds, the couple dissipated again. A turquoise water snake slithered in front of the Proud Clod and hovered in mid air, as though swimming in water. Its darker coloured fins flapped up and down as it surveyed its opponent. Scarlet closed her eyes and turned away, hoping that when she opened them, the situation would be different, that they would be the ones winning. She heard the sound of rushing water, and opened one eye anxiously just before she, Heidegger and their prize robot were doused in water. Kirsty thought she could hear a whimper from inside the head of the Proud Clod as she and general Lee reappeared after her attack.

The machine fell forwards, landing hard on its steel knees. It fell forwards on its face in a way that prevented Scarlet and Heidegger from escaping and going after them without a robot. A gust of wind ran through their hair, raising a cloud of dust as Shinra's final defence against AVALANCHE toppled over, merely centimetres away from striking them.

Lee and Kirsty continued towards the staircase, leaving a stunned Tifa, Cloud and Cid in their wake. Cid was the first one to speak.

'How the hell did they get so good at using materia?'

The pair stopped and turned back, waiting for the three to catch up. The Corporal exchanged a smile with Tifa and slipped her hand into Lee's again. Cloud walked next to the General.

'Well, I gotta admit, I was wrong. Damn, with what I saw there, you two seem like you'd even be able to stop Sephiroth on your own!' he managed.

Lee laughed.

'I doubt that somehow.'

The five sprinted up the stairs, their heavy boots clattering on the metal steps. They came to an enclosed area where, at the end, was a control panel for the Sister Ray and, frantically slamming the buttons, Hojo. As they drew nearer, they heard him laughing to himself, quietly at first, but when they stopped right behind him, he threw back his head and let out a wild laugh that seemed inhuman. It sounded more like a roar from an angry animal rather than a human laugh.

'Hojo! What are you doing?' shrieked Cloud, enraged that Hojo had made no signal that he knew they were there.

'Isn't it obvious?' whispered the Head of Science. 'Sephiroth is in Northern Crater. I need to give him energy. By using the Sister Ray, I can fire shots at the Crater, passing the energy on to my son.'

It did not register. What Hojo had said could not be true. It just could not.

'Sephiroth is your son?' queried Kirsty, her eyes widening in horror.

'Yes, but he doesn't know it. Oh, how he looks down at me! How horrified he would be if he knew that I was his father!'

The Corporal looked wildly around. When her eyes rested on Tifa, she was answered with a shrug.

'Lucrecia...' she stammered.

'My wife. When she was pregnant with Sephiroth, I injected the cells of the Jenova specimen into her womb, giving my son his strength.'

'You! You created him!' snapped Cloud. Hojo had yet to give the party his eyes. His words were punctuated with bursts of cruel laughter.

Finally, Hojo stopped hammering the buttons and stood up, his white lab coat whipping around his legs as he turned. He straightened up, looking much taller than what he normally does. Mirth built up inside him. They could see it in his eyes. Another bout of laughter passed through him. He clutched at his stomach and threw back his head, his chest heaving with his hilarity. Hojo's hysterical laughter rang in their ears. He eventually stopped and wiped his eyes underneath his glasses.

'I've also injected the cells of Jenova into my own body. Now....let's see....my results!'

Hojo stood in front of the five, still laughing hysterically, holding his stomach again, breathing heavily. He took something from an inside pocket of his lab coat and threw it down to the ground. Thick, grey smoke rose up from it, and Cloud thought that it was a smoke bomb, and that he was going to try an escape. But, when it cleared, they saw that Hojo was no longer alone. He had two disgusting looking, poisonous creatures by his sides, as though protecting him. As he watched, waiting to see if he was going to provoke a reaction from them, Cid noticed something wrong. Hojo, and the two beasts were flashing a pale green, similar to the visual effects on somebody after the Regen magic had been cast on them.

Hojo stared at Kirsty. He waved a hand lazily at her, and a circular black cloud flew at her, only inches away from her face, causing her to retreat. A coiling ring of golden spheres moved around in the centre of the black cloud. It dissolved, the magic causing more damage than what was expected. Kirsty fell down to the ground.

The Head of Science turned his attention to Tifa. Bubbles of different shades of green grew and popped around her, poisoning her. The magic was too much for her to take as well. Two were dead at the hands of Hojo. Cid stepped forwards, summoning. The three living and two bodies flickered from sight.

A drop of thick golden liquid fell from the sky and caused the ground it landed on to ripple, like a stone in water. From where the gold drop landed, a beautiful gold and red phoenix stood, a rainbow forming behind it. It turned its head downwards, looking at Hojo. A rush of flames engulfed him in the same way the Proud Clod was devoured by fire after Lee summoned the fire demon Ifrit.

As the phoenix was replaced by the bodies of the five members of AVALANCHE, the hidden Revive spell worked on Tifa and Kirsty, filling them with life once more. They rose, feeling more determined than when they died.

Hojo leapt forwards and struck the General around the face with the back of his hand and then swiftly jumped backwards, out of the way of Lee's retaliation.

The hand-shaped patch of skin on General Lee's face burnt and before he knew what he was doing, scarlet red flames erupted from his feet, the tips towering over his head a bright yellow as the deep colour grew lighter. He slowly drew his katana, staring all the while at Hojo. He ran at the Head of Science, charging forwards before the white clad maniac could get out of the way.

The blade of the katana sank into Hojo's stomach and was quickly withdrawn as Lee body-swerved around him and placed a deft kick to the back of his head. Hojo looked around, and then found Lee at his right hand side, barging into him, knocking him to the ground, well into his next attack before Hojo could summon any form of defence. Lee forced his katana into Hojo's side and whipped it out again, falling back into line with the rest of AVALANCHE.

Looking around, Lee could see that Cloud and Cid looked angry, as though the next time he laid so much as one finger on them, they were going to beat the scrawny Shinra employee in front of them to a pulp.

Hojo had managed to stagger back to his feet, clutching his aching, beaten and bleeding body, forcing himself to hold together, but the Jenova cells inside his body wanted him to change....He needed to destroy these worthless beings in front of him, so he could continue sending energy to his son. He had to support his son. He could not afford to let these pathetic excuses for a fight get in between him and his son. An agonising groan escaped his lips as his body lurched and the Jenova cells running in his veins tried to make him work to their will.

Kirsty stepped forwards and concentrated on her magic, ignoring the fact that their enemy was lumbering around in a way that was slightly more than ataxic, holding his punctured stomach and groaning like he was going to be sick.

Green flames licked her body as she tried to use her magic. A cocoon of thick, dark blue ice packed around Hojo, setting around his body, so thick it completely blocked him from sight. After containing him for a few seconds, the outer layer of ice began to crumble, the small flecks of ice melting as they fluttered down to the stony ground.

When Hojo finally emerged from inside his frozen prison, his skin had almost turned blue and he was shivering. The ice that was in direct contact with his skin had already started to melt slightly, so that he was damp.

He was able to regain his composure, and stood straight backed and proud once more, staring almost haughtily at AVALANCHE. The impression of somebody important and powerful standing before them was ruined by the way Hojo gave another sickly lurch and stood bent over, hands on knees, breathing heavily, his head still up and staring. It was no good. He was going to have to give into the Jenova cells...

He straightened up again, ignoring the bile creeping up his throat. He swallowed and narrowed his eyes as another bout of hysteria overtook him again.

Laughing hysterically once more, he focused on the confused party and gasped for breath as he tried to speak.

'Ah...' he began, still slightly breathless from laughing, 'the Mako juice is reacting...'

Hojo then started to fade, his skin turning red as he turned more and more translucent, until only a mere outline of his body remained in the air. The outline changed, evolving into a strong beast that looked worse than anything they had the misfortune to battle in the past. When Hojo came back into sight, he lost any strange unnatural colouring of the skin, and was no longer human.

His skin was an unhealthy, dark grey. His body was almost warped in appearance, a mutation beyond what was thought to be possible. He had no obvious legs. His torso just widened out where his hips and legs should be and was completely flat at the bottom. He was leaning to his left, his muscular right arm stretched up, as though he was working out. His left arm was much shorter than the impossibly long right one and ended in a sharp point. The whole of his left arm did not look as though it was of much use, bent at the elbow in front of Hojo. His mouth was stuck open, making his facial expression looking as though he was being tortured and was screaming.

Kirsty and Lee were he only ones who though that Hojo's transformation was strange. The rest of AVALANCHE continued to stare on at the beast in disgust, the same expression of contempt on their faces before Hojo made his metamorphosis.

The Corporal called out in pain as Hojo swung down his right arm and landed a heavy blow on the top of her head. He had plenty of strength in his body, probably more than what he had when he was in human form. Kirsty held her head, staggering backwards as pain racked through her body. She ran forwards and struck Hojo with her katana in retaliation and fell back in line, very narrowly avoiding the right arm as it made another swing towards her in an attempt to knock her off her feet.

The sounds of Hojo's heavy breathing was eerie, unnerving. He stared at them all through his evil black eyes as his right arm came down a third time, catching Cloud on the nose, almost breaking it. Blood poured down his face as he pinched the bridge of his nose, trying to stem the flow of blood.

Cid, behind Cloud cast his curative magic on Cloud, and dark blues and purples curtained Cloud in a screen. The same red, yellow tipped flames that surrounded General Lee near the beginning of the battle surrounded Cloud. He secured his grip on his mighty Buster Sword and ran forwards, penetrating the tip deep into the mutant's torso, before leaping up in the air, roughly dragging the heavy blade with him, leaving a trail of pink light in his wake. He handed lightly on his feet, stepping to one side as Hojo's powerful right fist came crashing down, inches away from where Cloud was standing. All Hojo seemed to be able to do was swing his right arm. He did not seem to be able to perform any other attacks, which suited AVALANCHE fine.

Tifa held something in her closed hand and threw it hard at the creature, catching it full on in the face. The grenade exploded, casting a bright light on impact. Lee shielded his eyes and turned away. His eyes rested on Cid, who was at the back of the group. He did not understand what he was signalling when he started to point ahead, seemingly momentarily speechless. Kirsty pulled at his clothing as Hojo lunged at him. Instead of catching him full in the face like he was hoping, Hojo landed a blow deep in the General's stomach, catching him by surprise and winding him.

He bent over, holding his stomach, his face a mask of pain. His breath was coming out in jagged gasps and he fell to his knees, weakened.

Despite only being able to attack with his right arm, it was enough to cause significant damage to the party facing Hojo. He surveyed the injured General as Kirsty crouched down next to him. Hojo swung his arm again. Kirsty raised her head and tried to block the attack but she was not quick enough.

The blow landed on the back of General Lee's neck, who cried out, before falling forwards, landing on his face, dead.

Kirsty stood up and tried to use the Life materia that had been entrusted to her, she tried to bring her lover back, but for some reason she could not do it. Then a wave of mental exhaustion slammed into her. She turned to Tifa.

'I can't do it! I can't use any of my materia!' she called, after attempting to cause damage to Hojo.

Cid pulled an item out of his pocket and threw it at Kirsty, where it released thousands of tiny red crystals that glittered and winked as they fluttered down, relieving the Corporal of her mental exhaustion, as though her brain had been allowed to sleep.

Cloud pulled a similar item out of one of his pockets, but instead of copying Cid and throwing it at the Corporal, he threw it to the body of General Lee. A small angel hovered over his body, and scattered the same red crystals over him, allowing them to dissolve into his body before winking out. Lee heaved his chest up as the final crystal landed on his cheek. He flicked himself up to his feet and immediately attacked.

The green flames spiralled around him and flames shot out from his palms. A tornado of fire flew around Hojo, enveloping him, covering his whole body in painful, shiny burns. Areas of his body were scorched black by the heat of the fire that still wrapped around his already twisted and warped body.

The individual flames lashed at each part of his body, leaving the grey skin stinging painfully. They sank into his body, like the claws of a demon into a victim's throat as it made a fatal attack. Soon, every flame that had scalded and burnt Hojo had seeped through his skin, to attack his innards.

The five vanished as Tifa summoned. The ground underneath Hojo shook and came free, stray bits of the ground falling free back down to the large crater as Hojo was escorted miles up to the darkened sky, which was falling swiftly into night. A deep red dragon floated down until it was the same level as Hojo. It opened its mouth and screeched, building up a powerful energy ball in its mouth which glowed a pale gold, glinting inside the dragon's mouth. It burst forwards, knocking the dragon's head backwards slightly from the force. The golden beam knocked straight into Hojo, dealing immense damage to the Shinra Scientist.

The ground that had been pulled up as well started to crumble underneath Hojo's deformed body, and he tumbled back down, not into the crater that had been created, but onto the ground that had been repaired by the planet itself.

Once Hojo had recovered, he started to mutate again. He turned the same pale red he did when evolving from human to mutant and faded. His outline changed itself again, and when flesh, blood, organs and the rest of Hojo began to fill it out, he looked more human, but still a monster.

Broad shouldered, muscular, all his body parts were the correct size. Still, he had no proper legs, and where his waist was, instead of widening, it narrowed, so he had a thin tail, the end of which kept flicking around. He was hovering a few feet above the ground. He reminded the Corporal of an enlarged tadpole with arms and a proper body and head.

His head was bald and across his face were two strips of pale, yet dark red which travelled all around his head. He had two more strips on his torso, one high up on his chest, and one across his stomach. He had actual hands on the ends of his arms, instead of the deformed lump on the tip of what looked vaguely like his right arm.

Hojo flew forwards and punched Tifa heavily twice with both fists and ended with by striking her in the face with the tip of his tail. He then buzzed over to Kirsty and hit her with the end of his tail, again in the face. Sparks flew and shocked the Corporal as she backed off, holding her face. Her body flashed green like when Hojo was still human and she fell, sitting on her knees.

The party momentarily flickered from view as Lee summoned.

A mound of earth raised itself up where AVALANCHE was once standing and an aged, old man stood on top of it. His beard and long hair fluttered as a breeze kicked up and swirled around himself and Hojo. In his right hand was a staff, with a midnight blue orb perched on top. In the centre of it, lightning crackled. The bolts burst from inside it, circling around the raised earth, roaring over Hojo, raking the ground with electricity. A satisfied look passed over the old man's face as he dissipated, and the ground smoothed out.

Cid barely had any time to protect himself. As soon as he had reappeared, Hojo was almost standing on his feet. His head snapped back as Hojo grazed a knuckled against his chin, and the pilot was forced backwards as the mutant's other fist embedded itself in his stomach. His tail arose, like a scorpion about the strike. He swung it down, landing the blow right in Cid's chest. He too, like Kirsty crouched down, weakened dramatically, knowing that if he did not summon the energy to Cure himself, he would be dead before the battle was over.

Tifa blocked a punch to the face and twisted Hojo's arm behind his back, only to involuntarily release him when she was shocked by the electrical crackling of Hojo's tail. He floated back in front of the five, leaving Tifa rubbing her arm, staring at the lightning burn on the surface of her skin.

Kirsty, still on her knees, winced as another wave of agony poured over her. Her body had not stopped its strange glowing, and every few minutes, she hissed between her teeth in pain and she felt more life trickle from her, from out of her grasp. She stood upright, only to lunged at Hojo.

Hojo moved to the left, dodging her punch, and before she got the chance to get back to a somewhat safe distance, the end of his tail wrapped around her neck and tightened, choking her. Lee came over and tried to punch him, but froze when Kirsty emitted a grotesque choking noise. Her face was reddening and she was starting to perspire. Her hands were at the limb around her throat, so tightly it felt like a forcefully bound ligature. She could not get a strong enough grasp on Hojo to free herself, and when Lee made so much as one move forwards, the pressure on her trachea increased.

The General felt Cloud's hand on his arm and started to pull him backwards, so Hojo had no excuse to throttle the Corporal more than he was already.

A pointed, icy white frozen star erupted from Hojo, shocking him into letting Kirsty go, who turned around and started to pummel him, beating him with the full force of her wrath. She glanced back and saw emerald green flames die down after surrounding Tifa. So she cast the magic that caused Hojo to release her.

Kirsty made her way back out of reach, only taking a knock to the back of the head as Hojo made one last wild attempt to injure her. She exchanged a brief smile with General Lee and watched as fire made its way around the Shinra employee.

Cloud pushed past Lee, his mind set on the spell to cast that would finally defeat Hojo after their long and exhausting battle.

The sky darkened. Clouds covered the blackness of oblivion above them. Thunder rumbled and the rain poured down. There was a sound of hooves and the summon creature Odin reared up, on its six-legged horse. It kicked its front four legs, standing up, as the pale, yellow faced Odin surveyed Hojo through its red eyes. The whites of its eyes had grown darker from centuries of corruption until they were completely black. In its left hand was a brightly coloured, pink light spear, which it threw into the sky, tearing at the clouds. A beam of light shone through the hole in the clouds, and almost seemingly in the sky itself, as the spear of Odin came thundering down and struck Hojo directly through the chest. The atmosphere lightened, Odin reared up its horse and galloped off. Hojo froze, then keeled over backwards, landing with a thud on the ground, his head cracking against the cold surface, turning human once more. He was dead. The father of Sephiroth, Hojo, was now dead.

Cloud reappeared and looked behind him. Not a single face was smiling, despite their victory. Cloud glared at the body in front of him one last time and turned, walking past his friends, waiting for them to catch him up. The only person who hesitated was Lee. As the others walked from sight, Kirsty lingered nearby.

'Rest in peace Hojo,' whispered the General, with a coolness in his voice and a stern glimmer in his eyes. He turned back and grinned at Kirsty and made his way over to her as if nothing unusual had happened.

Kirsty and Lee were the last ones back to the Highwind, and when they eventually walked into the cockpit, Cloud was staring out of the window, and was, unbeknownst to him, attracting all the worried glances.

'Now that Hojo is gone, Shinra is destroyed, and we can finally go after Sephiroth in the Northern Crater,' said Tifa, looking around, wondering if anybody was actually paying her any attention, or if they were just gaping at the blonde man by the window.

'Take us to the North,' instructed Vincent, to the training pilot. 'The time for flying is over. Our battlefield is now below the earth.'

The thought of going to fight Sephiroth filled Kirsty and Lee with dread. How were they going to manage? It was all well and good for the rest of AVALANCHE, because they were used to their materia. Lee walked out to the balcony, and Kirsty, anxious, followed him.

'Are you okay?' she asked, staring at her lover, trying to read his expression.

'Doesn't the idea of going to face Sephiroth in a kind of...final showdown worry you? We're both caught up in this just as much as they are and...we're the must vulnerable.'

'We did okay against the Proud Clod, didn't we? We fought those three from the Turks and won, didn't we? Sephiroth can't really be that bad,' replied the Corporal, her eyes glowing with an unbelievable optimism.

'Are you crazy? Were you not paying attention to what happened to Cloud at the Reunion? We get taken back to his hometown, to the tragedy that happened five years ago. It was like he took us into the past. He drove Cloud mad by merely suggesting that he's not who he says he is. We don't stand a hope in hell,' retorted Lee bitterly.

A light breeze lifted their hair as the Highwind rose into the sky. They were headed to Northern Crater.

Back in the cockpit, nobody was talking, they were all to anxious. Cloud looked away from the window and wandered over to Tifa.

'You alright?'

'I guess so. Everything will be fine won't it? If you say it will be, I'll believe you,' she muttered, turning to look at Cloud with her huge amber eyes.

'Everything will be okay.'

He did not speak with much confidence in his voice; he too was almost sick with nerves. Her tone of voice caught Barret's attention.

'What's up with you? Where's the tough girl I used to know?'

Tifa shrugged, not wanting to say too much. Her eyes lingered on the back of Cloud's head as he walked out of the cockpit to where Yuffie was once again lingering, holding her stomach.

'Cloud....sign this.'

'What is it?' he questioned, looking at the piece of paper in her hands.

'It's a contract, saying that when we've won the war, all the materia will be given to me. Everything's in there, read it carefully, then sign it.'

Cloud shook his head.

'I'm not going to even look at it. I get airsick when I read whilst moving,' he replied, knowing that she would be able to identify.

'No kidding? Damn, my plan failed. Let's pick on Red later to let off some steam.'

As the Highwind hovered over the north, nearer Northern Crater, Cloud told the pilot to land and gathered the rest of his allies into the cockpit. When the last person - Yuffie - had entered, Cloud took a deep breath, every eye in the room lurking on him. He was mentally steeling himself for what he had to say. He shut his eyes and imagined the words inside his head, thinking about what he was going to say carefully.

'You gonna actually say somethin' or what?' demanded Barret.

'I'm not who you think I am,' he said, his throat so dry his voice barely came out in anything more than a whisper.

'What do you mean?' asked Kirsty, her eyes widening in confusion.

'When you, Lee, Tifa and myself saw Sephiroth before the Reunion, when we were....in Nibelheim....Sephiroth told me who I really was. I tried to fight it, but I can't lie to myself. He was right.' He took a deep breath.

'I never really made it to SOLDIER. I tried so hard and failed, so I pretended that I made it, using the life of my friend Zack, pretending that I was him. I thought it so hard that I started to believe it myself, but Sephiroth opened my eyes. I'm not. I never was, and I never will be. I lied to you all, and for that I'm sorry. I was just too weak.'

Tifa blinked and looked away. She was aware of Cloud's attraction to her, and remembered when she and Kirsty ended up in Cloud's mind how he wished he was stronger.

'I was created by Hojo as a Sephiroth clone. But I was a failed experiment.' He walked over to Tifa, took her hands and she reluctantly looked at him. 'One day you will meet the real 'Cloud'. I don't know when, but you will. I'm sorry I could not be the real 'Cloud'.'

He released her and addressed the whole group again.

'My reasons for wanting to stop Sephiroth is, really...to settle the score. To get revenge on what he has done. To...I don't know...' He sighed, and walked over to the window, where Meteor loomed threateningly overhead.

'We've got about seven days at the very most until Meteor crashes into us. We've got that long to stop Sephiroth. But...I don't think we can do it, not unless each and every one of us knows what we are fighting for.'

Cloud looked out the window again, at the setting sun and evening fell, soon to be replaced by night.

'Me, I'm fighting to stop Sephiroth. But I think that the rest of you ought to take a short break, just to discover what you're all fighting for. If you don't want to return to go down to Northern Crater, then I understand. But me, I'm going there anyway. I've got nothing to lose. Go.'

He stared at the group until they walked out, feeling confused, tired, unsure of what was going on. Only Tifa remained. She leant against a nearby wall, staring at her feet.

'I said go,' he reminded, watching her. Maybe I could learn to love her like Aeris. Maybe there is a chance for us to be together.

'I heard you,' murmured Tifa, her voice trying to hide the sadness inside her, but it showed in her eyes. 'I've got nowhere to go. Nowhere to go, nothing, not a thing in this world. You've got nothing to lose. Neither have I.'

She walked in the next chamber, staring around at the vastness of it all, thinking that none of their friends would return. Cloud was thinking the same thing.

'It's too big for just the both of us.'

'Don't worry, I'll make enough noise so it seems like there's more of us. We'll be having too much fun to worry about that,' joked Cloud, gently nudging Tifa. She laughed and gave him her eyes again.

__________________________________________________________________________________

The rest of AVALANCHE stood in the nearby village, which they seemed to be visiting more and more recently. One of the excavators caught their eye occasionally.

'What have you decided you're fighting for?' asked Cid, looking at Barret.

'Marlene,' he replied, in his usual low growl of a voice.

'Who's Marlene? Your wife?' asked Kirsty.

'My daughter. My wife, Myrna died several years ago. My adopted daughter, Marlene, she's all I've got left.'

'Where is she?' asked Lee, cautiously.

'With Aeris' mother. In Midgar. In the slums. She said she'd take care of Marlene. They both know about Aeris' death. Sobbed her eyes out apparently, and I couldn't even go over there and comfort her,' muttered Barret, kicking at a stone on the ground.

'What about you two?' queried Cid, staring at the couple.

'We're fighting for each other.'

'That's if Cloud decides to take you two along,' intervened Barret. 'No offence, but you ain't exactly experienced with materia, are you?'

'You should've seen them in Midgar. They fought Scarlet and Heidegger in the Proud Clod and won. Completely on their own. Never seen nothin' like it before,' replied Cid, shaking his head in disbelief at the memory.

Barret gave them a half interested look.

'Well, I know what I'm fighting for,' interrupted Yuffie.

'What?' asked Barret, as though he could not guess.

'Materia!'

'Surprise, surprise.'

'I don't fully understand what Cloud was saying. How can he actually get himself to believe a lie as big as what he made? What was he saying about the real Cloud? Why is he so ashamed of not being able to make it into SOLDIER? I don't think that it's because he's weak, because he's not. I just don't get it,' stumbled Kirsty, tripping over her words.

Nobody answered. They just shrugged.

__________________________________________________________________________________

Tifa and Cloud sat side by side on the ground near the Highwind as the sky blackened. They talked, argued, made up and cried as they tried to piece together a fractured past, ripped to shreds by Sephiroth. He had destroyed so many lives, ruined so many people, physically and mentally. It was clear that Cloud was fine on the outside, but inside he was tortured by the mere name of Sephiroth. He had failed so many times, at his hand. He was thought to have given Sephiroth the Black Materia, Barret berating him when he was in the wrong, and Sephiroth was not armed with the most destructive magic known. But then at the Reunion, Cloud gave away the Black Materia for real. The huge rock in the sky was enough proof for that. Cloud could not let go of what he thought was the biggest failure in his life. His inability to control his white hot fear of Sephiroth, his inability to stay calm, not to fall under the spell of being frozen, and he allowed Aeris to die. He hated himself for that.

Now, under the midnight sky, not a single one of their friends had been seen since he told them to go. It did not look likely that they were going to come back. He shifted position, but carefully, so he did not wake up Tifa, who was still crouched next to him, hugging her knees, her head resting on his shoulder. He sighed and stared up at the sky. He looked at the stars, only really noticing how beautiful they were, only really appreciating the way they twinkled and winked down at who was looking up at them. A crystalline tear slid down his face and he sobbed, Tifa's head jerking softly as his body was consumed by his depression.

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The sunrise shone through Tifa's eyes and she groaned, still feeling tired. She had no other alternative than to wake up. She opened her eyes, squinting against the sunlight and listened to the sound of Cloud's breathing. He had been awake for several hours. His shoulder twitched.

'I wish we could stay like this forever.'

Cloud did not question her reason for wanting that, because he knew that she was referring to the intimate closeness they were sharing together.

Tifa finally picked her head up from his shoulder at looked at him. She gave him a smile, unable to hide the fact that she could see the sadness still in his eyes. She stood up and reached a hand down to help up Cloud.

'Come on, we'd best get back to the Highwind. Let's see who's returned.'

Cloud grasped her glove-covered hand and allowed himself to be pulled to his feet as they made their slow procession up to the Highwind and up the rope.

When they walked into the cockpit, they saw that it was full. Everybody had returned. He could not help it; at the sight of all his friends together, Cloud burst out with grateful laughter. He walked over to the training pilot and saw Vincent, looking at him with a rare smile.

'Vincent...' he started. 'How come you returned? You were always....so cold. I didn't think you cared about our mission.'

Vincent shrugged.

'Before we go to Northern Crater, take us to Junon briefly,' demanded Cloud.

The pilot nodded and started to fly them south. Cloud was aware of the questioning stares he was attracting.

'I don't think we're quite strong enough to fight Sephiroth yet. Hopefully we will be soon. See that thing flying around out there?' said Cloud, pointing out the window. The party turned and looked, where they saw the same beast that was flying around Mideel when the Lifestream began to bubble underneath the surface of the ground.

'After fighting that, we will, with any luck, able to face Sephiroth properly, we'll be strong enough.'

'But just what is it?' queried Kirsty.

'Ultimate Weapon.'

The Highwind was guided closer to the Ultimate Weapon, until they were right next to it. The small head turned and they eyes gaped at the aircraft. Cloud, Tifa and Cid hurried out onto the balcony and prepared to fight.

They were not close enough to attack Weapon with any physical attacks, so they were going to have to reply solely on their materia.

The gusts of winds that kicked up with the different coloured flames in the battle against Weapon could be heard from inside the Highwind. There was a electrical crash as Weapon was struck with a Bolt spell. The air even inside the cockpit lowered a few degrees as pure crystal ice cocooned the beast.

Kirsty and Lee were thrown off balance when Weapon suddenly took off, and the Highwind roared after it.

Weapon was fought in the air over Nibelheim, after fleeing from Junon, then Midgar and Cosmo Canyon. After Weapon was fought over Red's hometown, it was sent flying out of the air, and crashed into an area of land where the forest was, casting a shallow crater into the ground. Cloud hurried out of the Highwind and explored the damage. Weapon was nowhere to be seen, as though it had vanished into the air after cascading into the ground.

In the middle of the crater was a sword. The hilt looked far too thin to support the width and no doubt the weight of the blade, just like the Buster Sword. The blade reminded Cloud of a single flame. It was rounded at the hilt and ended in a sharp point. A small flame shaped part of the blade was a deep blue, surrounded by a larger red colour. The rest of the blade was white. Cloud picked it up, tested its weight and waved it around experimentally. He unsheathed his Buster Sword with the other hand, looked at them both and placed it on the ground, replacing his new weapon in the empty sheath.

When Cloud climbed back up the rope, Tifa took out his new sword again and looked at it, almost dropping it from the sheer weight. She turned to hand Cloud back his weapon to see that he had walked off.

'Come on. Northern Crater,' he said, looking at Cid.

Cid gave the pilot a meaningful look. The Highwind lifted up, one more time and carried them North until they hovered over the huge Crater. The pilot caught Cloud's eye, and he nodded. He landed next to the Crater to allow Cloud to sort out their parties.

'Tifa, Kirsty, Lee. You three come with me. The rest of you, go on, we'll catch up with you.'

Cloud gulped quietly, fear creeping in. He waited until the rest had vanished down the crater. Then he ushered his party out of the Highwind.

'Sorry, but I didn't want to go with the rest of them. I feel claustrophobic in a group larger than this,' said Cloud, feeling the need to explain.

The four jumped down the rope and slipped down the least steep part of the entrance to Northern Crater, small stones falling down under their feet as they sank down into darkness.

A stone ledge led them around in circles, spiralling gently downwards. There were many gaps in that had to be jumped over in the stone.

They came to an area under the ground, which was like earthworks. There were ledges and gaps everywhere, and the occasional, man sized hole in the wall of the crater, which would no doubt lead them to an different area of the earthworks.

The four jumped down as far as they could go, and then wandered through one of the entrances, where they found themselves in a circular tunnel leading down. Out at the other end, they came to another ledge, by a fairly steep drop. Every eye was on Cloud, who was peering down. He looked up.

'Come on, we can make it.'

Before anyone else could say another word, Cloud and thrown himself down.

Underneath here, they came to another platform, which was stone, but looked like ice. A stone icicle hung down, as a means to get right down to the ground, where the rest of AVALANCHE waited.

Cloud was the first one down the stone icicle, and he ran to the centre of the group to see why they had waited. The cave they were in split into two. The right hand side of the cave was divided neatly into two by a large stone wall. He listened to the sounds of Kirsty and Tifa climbing down and landing on their feet as they let go of the icicle. It was obvious that it was going to be down to Cloud to tell who where to go.

He motioned for Tifa, Lee, Kirsty and Yuffie to come over to him and they were to take the left hand tunnel. Cait Sith, Red, Vincent, Cid and Barret were to take the right one.

The five continued to slope downwards, jumping over gaps in the ground, gaping around at their surroundings, until they came to a set of stone steps. They jumped down them, turned right, jumped over gap, along a platform, over and other gap into a small platform, quickly snatching up a materia that was lying on the ground before heading onwards, and dashed down the stretch of stone that awaited.

As though they had taken the slowest path, when they came to the very bottom of the spiral they ran around at the very top of Northern Crater, they found their friends already there and waiting. A few steps led down into the centre of the spiral, where poisonous, fluorescent, Mako green light was spilling out.

When Cloud passed, Cait Sith, Red, Vincent, Cid and Barret handed him an item they had found lying on the ground on their way down.

Every eye was now on the middle of the spiral, leading further into the centre of the planet, into the very core.

'This is the centre of the planet?' asked Tifa timidly. She did not look up or make any reaction whatsoever when nobody answered her.

Cloud suddenly clapped his hands together, in a businesslike fashion.

'Alright! Let's mosey!' he exclaimed. Cid let out an irritated noise.

'Damn! Again! Why you always got to say it like a wimp? Can't you say 'move out!', instead?'

Cloud scratched the back of his head, embarrassed.

'Move out!'

An eerie growling noise arose from the depths of the darkness around them. Startled, the group jerked out of their private thoughts and saw a snarling beats skulking towards them.

'Look at the number...' muttered Red, his eyes widened with shock, as he was reminded of the tattoo on his own body. He wondered if this creature was Hojo's doing before he died.

'Is this like a practice run before the real thing?' queried Tifa, still in her timid, tiny voice.

'Yeah, a major practice run...' trailed off Cait Sith.

'It's probably more fun up here than fighting Sephiroth down there,' interjected Yuffie, staring down into the depths.

'Hmm...this might be fun to pass the time,' added Vincent. He did not spot Cloud giving him a strange look, and Cloud was not hurrying to point out that he had almost repeated the same words Yuffie had said.

'Cloud, you get goin'!' called Barret. 'They're already on the floor next to us...'

Cloud shook his head stubbornly.

'No, I'm fighting here, too.'

'Damn! It won't do us no good with everyone back here! Take three of us and go!'

Cloud pointed again at Tifa, Kirsty and the General, who walked over to join him, numbed with the shock of what they were doing.

'Everyone!' called Cloud. 'Later!'

'Yeah, later,' replied Barret, watching as the four disappeared into the core of the planet.

They had no idea where they were. Everything was the same bright Mako green of the Lifestream. Rocky platforms hovered in the air, in a spiral, leading to what looked like a small island below them. Cloud turned to Lee and the Corporal, who were completely dumfounded.

'You two okay?'

They looked at him and nodded.

'Let's get going then.'

They jumped the gap to each platform, not daring to think what would happen if they mistimed it and fell down, trying to push thoughts of falling into oblivion out of their minds.

When they set foot on the island, they saw that it was made of long cuboids standing up, stuck together somehow, creating a square pattern underneath their shoes. Cloud moved out of the way so Tifa, Lee and Kirsty could get off the final stepping stone.

'Where are we?' asked Kirsty, as the four of them gaped around.

Something in the distance could be seen coming ever closer. It looked like a giant sphere, but as it drew nearer, they could see the feminine torso and head at the front, two long tentacles whipping at the air in front, where arms should be. It was a peachy colour mostly. Cloud suddenly remembered when he dwelled on the burning of Nibelheim, tearing after Sephiroth, when he ripped the metal angel off a container inside one of the chambers in the Mako reactor, revealing a human shaped being inside, with 'Jenova' written on a band across its forehead.

'Oh God,' murmured Cloud, when he realised what it was. 'It's Jenova! It's attacking!'

Jenova hovered on the ground in front of the four, the tentacles moving in the air. One lashed out and caught General Lee across the side of the face. He drew in breath sharply, his eyes closed, as he raised a hand to where the blow landed. Cloud stepped forwards. Their four bodies dissolved into the air.

A circular, worn stone platform emerged on the ground, and five pillars leapt up from the ground, lighting a vivid yellow flame, hovering inches above the stone. A large black cauldron was in the middle of the platform, and a black robed, skeletal figure stood behind it, stirring the blue-purple contents. The pure black sleeves fell back to reveal a bone, the bone of a human arm as the skeleton cackled menacingly, causing the liquid inside the cauldron to gush out over the brim and pour over the Jenova-Synthesis. The head of the beast jerked back ever so slightly from the pain of the attack.

As Kirsty stepped forwards, her attack was delayed as Jenova slapped her about the face with the thin tentacles at the front of it, causing her to stagger backwards.

A turquoise water serpent slithered into the battle where the party was stood, its body bobbing up and down as though swimming underwater in the air. A tidal wave of water rushed forwards, drenching Jenova, the inhuman creature writhing with pain at the water element based attack.

Tifa took the next blow from Jenova, and instantly retaliated, the red-yellow flames, that were becoming ever so regular now surrounding her as she sprinted in front of Jenova, punched it hard, kicked it, then lifted one foot up onto the beast and flicked herself head over heels, landing another kick onto it, crouched down, and slid her ankle into it. Then when she straightened up, she leapt into the air and punched the Jenova-Synthesis. Once again, Kirsty thought she saw the image of a dolphin jumping over her outstretched fist.

Deep crimson fire lashed at the air around Lee as he cast his spell. Pale blue, green, red and peach covered Jenova as poisonous bubbles grew and erupted around it, inflicting Lightning, Ice and Fire damage onto it.

Without giving it a chance to attack, Cloud moved out of line again and the same bloody flames flickered around him as a revolving, pale yellow pyramid slowly made its way to Jenova, lightning flashing inside it.

A stream of flames burst out from between Kirsty's outstretched palms and washed over Jenova. The last of the red light died down with the flames. Both of Jenova's tentacles were drooping pathetically. It was almost defeated.

Tifa stepped forwards, the ancient symbols glowing in the emerald flames as she summoned the last creature in the battle.

A huge, hulking muscular man in a greying loincloth showed up where the four were standing merely seconds ago. Around his neck was a necklace of teeth. A slightly blank, yet angry glow shone in the brute's eyes as he dug his fingers into the ground underneath the Jenova-Synthesis and tugged it up. A large slab of the ground was lifted up and thrown over, crashing down on top of Jenova. Because of being far closer to the Lifestream, the Spirit Energy which made it up enabled for the ground to be repaired quicker than normal, so almost as soon as Titan ripped it up, it was healed again. Jenova fell backwards on the newly healed ground, defeated at last.

The cuboids which made up the platform underneath their feet began to break free and rose up into the air. The four panicked and huddled together as more and more of the platform rose to the surface of the planet. When all the ground under their feet had broken, they fell down, into a blinding white light.

The white faded to black, with only a white sparkle in the distance. Cloud could feel himself floating in the air, closer to the sparkle.

'Holy....is this light...Holy?'

As though waking up from a dream, Cloud found himself on a vaguely green, moss coloured stone surface, which was hovering in the air. There were several more to each side of him, but he did not pay whoever was on it any heed.

'Damn, man!' came the voice of Barret. Cloud's head snapped to the right.

'Barret?' he exclaimed, his tone showing his inner surprise.

Barret stood up and surveyed their surroundings. Before the platforms was a red shape, which looked similar to a human heart, the white light that Cloud saw shining from the centre. Everything else was black. Next to him to his right was Tifa, Barret, Yuffie, Lee and Vincent. On his left was Cid, Red, Kirsty and Cait Sith. Barret stood up.

'What? So...everyone's back together again?'

A shadow appeared from the orifice in which the light was shining. The face became visible, and Sephiroth sneered down at them all.

'Sephiroth!' shouted Cloud.

A blast of light, in a darker shade than Holy burst out from Sephiroth, in a blast radius around him. AVALANCHE was picked up and held against the air.

'Oh God,' muttered Lee, his eyes widened with shock. He looked over to see Kirsty had gone completely white, frozen by her fear. Nothing could have prepared even Cloud for this.

'Is this - the true - power of - Sephiroth?' managed Cid, his voice shaking by his vain attempts to get out of the invisible grasp.

'This is bad...' started Cait Sith. 'He's way outta our league...'

'My - front legs! My - hind legs! My tail's about to tear off!' shrieked Red, writhing with pain. Tifa was watching him, and turned to Cloud, next to him.

'Cloud?'

Another burst of white light sent the group head over heels on the spot.

'Cloud?'

'Holy...Holy is through there. Aeris' prayer is shining...' whispered Cloud.

'Holy...Aeris...' Tifa's voice was almost inaudible. 'Aeris is with us...we're all together again...'

'Not just Aeris,' interrupted Barret. 'Holy is the prayer of AVALANCHE, of Marlene, of everyone, of Dyne...' Barret mentioned the name of a man he was friends with for years until tragedy stuck, and angered by the world, he committed suicide.

'Our memories...Sephiroth...we came to - tell you - our memories...' said Cloud, his voice becoming more defiant. 'Come planet! Show us your answer!'

The atmosphere changed again and AVALANCHE found themselves on solid ground again, split into their parties, although Cait Sith seemed to have vanished from the fight. Their opposition stood in front of them, almost unrecognisable.

Sephiroth had grown to a giant's proportions, his body muscular, and his skin turned a dark grey colour. Underneath his left eye, he had a open cut which looked almost fresh. The eyes itself were black and fathomless, filled with evil, and not a single ray of warmth. Perched on the top of his head was a small angel of the same grey. At the end of Sephiroth's arms were what looked like to be the fin of a fish, instead of hands. At his waist, where his legs should be was a huge, ugly yellow pod.

The final battle had begun.

Sephiroth waved a fish fin arm in the general direction of Cloud, Tifa and Yuffie. A mound of earth raised itself underneath Yuffie's feet, catching her painfully as his Quake spell did its job. It sank into the ground again as quick as it had risen. Cloud stepped forwards for his counter attack.

As he waved his new Ultima Sword around to cast his magic, engulfed by green fire, the spell landed on his party. A translucent, red, blue and purple star was conjured up in front of the three, a magical wall, giving them some extra protection against any attack that Sephiroth could dish out.

Tifa stepped forwards, and as she did her magic, the image of a grey clock floated down in front of Sephiroth, the hands winding backwards. When it dissolved into the air, Sephiroth's actions and movements had slowed down dramatically.

Yuffie cast the first offensive spell on Sephiroth, a horde of comets falling down, crashing into Sephiroth, each dealing incredible damage.

Cloud prepared himself, hoping that he still had enough magical power left in him to use the most damaging Summon materia any of them possessed.

Kirsty and Lee watched from their party nearby, as Cloud, Tifa and Yuffie sank out of sight, and they suddenly wondered whether they were close enough to be struck by their magic.

The background changed to a murky brown as a figure came down from up above, its body shielded by a coat of armour and wielding a thick, heavy sword, much heavier than Cloud could use, and swung it at Sephiroth. As each new figure came, launching their attack, the colour of their surroundings changed, as though there were hidden elements in their attack. Another knight floated down, its weapon twirling over its head, coming down like a helicopter. It stuck the spike into the muscular chest of Sephiroth, before continuing downwards, falling out of sight. Lee had counted twelve knights so far coming down for the attack, and off to one side, he could see the thirteenth, the largest and strongest one of them all. It had the slight appearance of like an oncoming train, running without tracks, if whoever was watching was not paying attention, the body of it, a shade lighter than blood red. A beam of blinding yellow light shone in a horizontal line from its eyes, widening until it was wider than the knight's face, and shot out miles in front of the eyes. What looked like the red front of the 'train' opened once it reached Sephiroth, and it was a cloak on the back of the knight. A sword thicker, heavier and more destructive than Sephiroth's own Masamune was clasped in the tightly closed hands of the knight, and was lifted with incredible strength, before the knight brought it down on top of Sephiroth. It seemed to leave a white trail in the air as it made its descent on top of Sephiroth.

The arms hung limply by Sephiroth's side and the head slouched forwards, seemingly dead. Sephiroth managed to summon the energy to lift his heavy arms and placed the fish-like fins together, tip to tip. The same greens. blues and reds danced around Sephiroth as he casted his own curative magic on himself. He head perked up, and the awful black eyes focused on Kirsty, Lee and Vincent.

'What parts of his body have you managed to wound so far?' called Lee to Cloud.

'It's head, which its gonna keep on reviving, with Bizarro Energy, like it casted just now, and it's right and left magics,' replied Cloud, shouting.

'Right and left magics?' queried Kirsty, looking at Vincent, for once, not shuddering at the sound of his voice.

'This is the Bizarro Sephiroth. Instead of arms, it has right hand left magics,' replied Vincent coldly.

The Bizarro Sephiroth waved one of his magics lazily at the three, and a tiny angel hovered over them, scattering deep purple crystals over them. The three winced as though they had been attacked by a powerful spell, instead of having a few coloured crystals showered over them. They sank into their skin, prickling whichever part of the body they touched as the Heartless Angel vanished again.

Vincent rummaged around in his pockets and pulled out a small bottle. He tugged the top off, and threw it up into the air. Once again, the same three colours that were associated with healing magic surrounded the three. They felt re-energised. Their magical powers felt stronger, and the damage the Heartless Angel did had been repaired.

Flames licked at Kirsty as the temperature in the core of the planet rose further. Loud cracks rent the air and flaming spheres covered the chest of Sephiroth's gigantic transformation, burning and scalding his body.

After the Fire spell had worn off, the humidity sank, much to the appreciation of AVALANCHE and Sephiroth alike. His movements, which were sluggish and slow after Tifa had Slowed him had regained their natural speed, which was something that Barret, in the next party had noticed.

'Make sure you keep on casting Stop or Slow on it, so it don't get the chance to attack as much as it would!' he shouted, giving General Lee meaningful signals.

Once more, the clock pieced itself together in front of Sephiroth, and the hands turned back, as though it was malfunctioning. Again, Sephiroth's action were slowed down.

Vincent concentrated, envisioning Sephiroth covered in stone, unable to break free from it, and felt his arms guiding themselves around. A pale green twinkle to light, it almost looked white sparkled on top of Sephiroth's head, and a prison of stone caught him, building itself out of thin air, cocooning Sephiroth completely until he was out of sight. After a second of being curtained behind it, the stone shattered.

Once more the head slumped forwards on Sephiroth's neck. Cid, Barret Red took over the fight. Sephiroth jumped to the attack before any of the three got the chance and cast the Heartless Angel again, weakening the three so that even one tiny hit would ensure their deaths. Lee's Slow spell had already worn off and Sephiroth followed through with the same Fire spell Kirsty used. The heat shot up again, and the same fiery spheres charged at Red. He fell down, dead.

Barret pulled out from his pocket the same item that Vincent had used to repair the damage the Heartless Angel caused. The magic from the Elixir missed Red, able to bring people back from an inch from death, but unable to help anyone who crossed that inch.

Cid summoned Phoenix, just able to catch a last glimpse of their dead companion and friend before fading from the fight. A thick golden drop burst wetly as it landed on the ground, sending ripples through the ground, like a raindrop landing in a puddle. Phoenix arose from it once more, shining, radiating. A sharp and clear rainbow shone behind it. A rush of roaring, surging flames blanketed Sephiroth completely, making the burns from Kirsty as insignificant as a small electric shock. The power of Phoenix caused Red XIII to rise up again, filled with life, and prepared for battle.

Sephiroth placed the tips of his magics together again, and cast Bizarro Energy on himself once more. He threw one magic forwards, pointing at Red, and a black gassy sphere rushed at him, striking him hard with a powerful Gravity spell.

Barret used his curative magic on Red, who was now preparing to unleash one of his more powerful attacks. Red-fading-to-yellow flames danced around him. Red started to run forwards, on the spot to begin with, as a very pale blue energy shield was built up in front of him. He burst through it, shattering it and shot through the very torso of Sephiroth, who healed rapidly, looking as though nothing had happened, but the pain was still there, still racking inside his stomach from where Red had struck.

Sephiroth was swaying slightly forwards now, looking very dangerous. Red's last attack had almost killed him. He watched, towering above the group as Red, Barret and Cid turned to Cloud, Tifa and Yuffie, who were to take over the battle again.

'He's almost finished!' whispered Cloud to the two women. 'I think we could possibly win this battle in three hits if we use the right magic. Yuffie, you use your Comet materia, Tifa, you cast Trine. I'll use the Flame Thrower.'

Yuffie shuffled out of line and started to gather her power to cast her spell. She was weakened from the amount of magic she had used in the battle, and was unable to cast the more powerful of the Comet spells and instead of five comets falling out of the sky, smashing into the Bizarro Sephiroth, only one did. It was much larger than normal, its uneven surface cracked and worn. It broke instantly on contact with Sephiroth, showering his whole body with pieces of falling rock. Cloud threw her a sharp look. Tifa stepped forwards as Yuffie took a step back.

Blood red, crackling flames soared up, sparking up from the ground, waving around the spell caster as though being turned on with a flick of a switch. Yet again, the translucent pyramid, inhabited by electricity, floated serenely to Sephiroth and stopped, hovering in mid air through his chest, sending bolts of lightning flying out to all over his body, scorching him from the inside. Sephiroth never knew that humans could be so powerful. He would never have thought that there was a chance he could be brought down. But no, there was still a few tricks he had left in store yet...

The fire died down as Tifa's Trine spell dissipated. It jerked up again only a few seconds after falling down, but around Cloud, and he pressed his palms almost together, when a stream of fire flew out, guided completely over Sephiroth. When Cloud's spell had finished, Sephiroth felt dead.

The nine watched as the grey giant started to sink into the ground, slanting to one side, pain and possibly even a glimpse of fear shining in his eyes. Kirsty and Lee were about to congratulate themselves and their friends on a job well done, on finally defeating their foe and saving the world, then they realised, that Sephiroth was not the only person who was missing.

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How had it happened? It was all so sudden. One second he was watching the Bizarro Sephiroth falling, dying, and then, the next, he, Tifa and Yuffie were in the sky. Cloud looked around. Sure enough, the three were standing firmly on something which most definitely was not solid ground. But how did he suddenly get from the centre of the very planet to hundreds of miles up in the sky? It had to be an illusion. It had to be. But Cloud no longer had time to ponder what had happened, when he discovered that their enemy was not yet dead.

Sephiroth was gently guiding himself from above the small party down until he was level with them. he was holding his arms out, bent at the elbows, so that his arms were vaguely in the shape of a wide 'W'. His shining, silvery hair was flowing upwards behind his head, except for the two strands, which, as always, obstructed a part of his face from view. He was bare chested, and also, from the waist up, mostly human. From the waist down, it looked like Sephiroth's torso was settling on a large white cloud, with four white and green tentacles creeping down, moving up and down, keeping Sephiroth in the air. Their movements were like the movements of a person's arms and legs when swimming, but staying in one spot. There was a golden circle behind his body and head, a symbol of some sort contained in the centre. His left arm was shrouded in feathers, looking like a wing. But it did not seem to be helping Sephiroth to remain in the air. It looked completely functionless.

Cloud looked to his left. Tifa was not paying him any attention, but kept her eyes locked on the beast in front of them. She had her fists raised defensively in front of her, but he could see that she was scared. Her eyes were unnecessarily wide, and her breathing was louder, more jagged. Cloud wondered if she had frozen in her fear. On her left was Yuffie, trying not to look at the ghastly monster facing them. She was grasping her shuriken. Cloud noticed the weight of his Ultima Sword in his hands. It suddenly seemed so much heavier.

Sephiroth made the first move. He casted Wall on himself and Cloud copied. Tifa then used Regen, despite the three of them were not injured. It was only a matter of time. Yuffie tried to use Slow of the Safer-Sephiroth, but when the spell should have struck, the mass of evil slipped back, so the spell missed, hitting the air centimetres in front of him.

'Cloud, use the Knights Of The Round!' called Tifa as Sephiroth brought the tip of his somewhat surprisingly sharp wing across her face, warm blood starting to gush down her front.

Before Cloud could use his summon, Sephiroth struck him as well, who was taken by surprise, and fell down dead. Tifa, her eyes widening further in her horror fumbled around with her materia. They her doused in blackness, hidden by shadow. The only thing that was visible was a colourful little angel, gently sinking down over Cloud as it scattered deep red crystals. The same looking flames which surrounded Tifa and Cloud when making their final moves against the Bizarro Sephiroth shot up around the body of Cloud, looking light at the bottom, but darker nearer the tip of the flames. The radius of the flames widened as they washed over every millimetre of Cloud's body, filling him again with life that Sephiroth had so cruelly tried to take.

Sephiroth hovered further up in the sky.

In her fright, Yuffie used the wrong spell and casted Mime, which allowed her to copy the same spell that was used right before her, and the Life spell was repeated. She turned pale under her golden skin, immediately aware of her mistake and swore under her breath.

Tifa jumped in before Cloud could take his turn and attack Sephiroth and casted a magic spell, which a dark, but pale blue icy barrier formed in front of Sephiroth, stayed visible for a second and shattered. With the blue barrier, Sephiroth's Wall was also destroyed.

Cloud remembered the demand that Tifa has said before he was hit and casted Knights Of The Round. The same thirteen knights hovered around the colour changing environment, attacking Sephiroth with all their power. Cloud was thankful that Tifa has the presence of mind to destroy Sephiroth's Wall, otherwise, he knew, that the Knights Of The round summon would not be as efficient as it could be. He hoped that Tifa would now allow Yuffie to cast a spell before her, so Yuffie could try Miming again, and use the same materia for the third time, destroying Sephiroth.

Sephiroth decided to interrupt the flow of attacks raining down on him and used a powerful summon of his own.

Hundreds of thousands of miles up above them, a comet was flying around the solar system, crashing into whatever got in its path.

Pluto was smashed into the tiniest of pieces as it soared through it, breaking up like glass. It cascaded at breakneck speed past some of the other planets until it reached Saturn, destroying some of the slightly smaller rocks in its ring, leaving only a gritty dust in its wake. Next it tore a gaping hole right through the centre of Jupiter. Other, smaller holes opened up on the surface of the planet, blinding beams of light shining from each unwanted orifice. When it erupted, scattering pieces of rock, Sephiroth's comet was far away. It slipped past Mercury and plunged deep into the sun. Sephiroth was rising, holding himself up in the air, in front of the burning ball of gas behind him, retreating slowly. Cloud, Tifa and Yuffie somehow found themselves facing Sephiroth again, even further up in the sky, in space. They watched as the vivid yellow beams which were emitted from the sun covered Sephiroth as he shrank back, and finally out of sight. The three could feel the physical pull as they were tugged to their doom, into the sun after their enemy. Cloud tried to stay awake, but it was so hard. The agony writhing through his body was like a demon, which was struggling to break free, tear through his chest and escape. Cloud blacked out, and when he opened his eyes, he found himself crouched down, nearing death again, back in the illusion of floating in the sky. Tifa was also crouched down low, as though searching for the remainder of her health and Yuffie was lying flat on the ground, dead. Thank God for Phoenix Downs, thought Cloud, as he used Cure3 on himself and Tifa, and Tifa revived Yuffie using a Phoenix Down.

Cloud now knew that defeating Sephiroth was going to make distinctly harder because Yuffie could no longer Mime him using the Knights Of The Round, because he and Tifa had used spells and items to get all three of them all alive and ready to continue fighting. He wished he could use it more, but he just was not strong enough to use that particular summon more than once in a battle because it was merely too powerful. It took a lot out of him.

Sephiroth focused on the party before him and called up another spell of his own. Their whole surroundings turned to white, just like in the place they first met the Corporal and Lee after the siren screamed, but the only varying detail was colour. The forms of Cloud, Tifa and Yuffie looked like shadows, just an outline. A black circular shadow fell slowly down from where Sephiroth was, to Cloud and rested close to his face. The sharp pain of an attack with the absence of an element flew through him. He jerked backwards, his head snapping back as though he had received a sharp punch in the face.

The same flames that had surrounded Red when he made his last attack on Sephiroth now flew around Yuffie. She spread her arms wide and brought her shuriken close to her chest, her arms moving around in a wide circular motion. A blast of white light shone from her weapon and a huge energy beam shot right at Sephiroth. The beam was thick and dark blue in colour, but the tip was a magenta. In front of Yuffie, at her end of the beam was a massive circle, a blinding white. The tip of the beam froze as it charged through Sephiroth and widened further until it exploded, an even larger amount of energy shooting out as it became too large to contain itself and erupted.

Sephiroth's body was drooping. He had made the fatal mistake of underestimating these humans, and they were defeating him. He struck Cloud heavily across the face.

Identical flames moved around Cloud in their magical ritual. He dashed forwards, stabbed his Ultima Sword deep inside the body of Sephiroth, and launched up, dragging his sword with him, a pinkish-magenta light following him as he made an arc above their heads and landed back in line. Tifa stepped forwards.

A poisonous green fog, which was as thick as pea soup floated over Sephiroth, making the air heavy. The tiny green molecules sank into his body. Tifa's Ultima spell was the last thing needed to win the battle.

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Kirsty and Lee were too scared to move. What could have happened to Cloud, Tifa and Yuffie? What had Sephiroth done to them? Where were they? Would they be able to get back? Lee looked over at the space where his friends once were, and saw the women. Cloud was not with them.

'Tifa! Yuffie!' called Kirsty, shouting and waving at them. She stopped. 'Where's Cloud?'

They saw Tifa and Yuffie look around and realise that Cloud was missing.

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Waves of strong wind had formed a tunnel, and a black object was falling through it, on its back, head first. It's blonde spiky hair was constantly being ruffled by the movement. Cloud was lying in the air, Ultima Sword limply held in his left hand, eyes closed as though unconscious, or worse. He opened his eyes and adjusted himself so he could see where he was being taken. Sephiroth was at the end of the tunnel, completely human this time, underneath where he was coming out, gazing up at him, his green eyes widened, giving him an uncharacteristically innocent look.

Cloud and Sephiroth glared daggers at each other, standing, holding their weapons up as they assumed their battle stances. The points of the Masamune and the Ultima Sword were very close. Cloud held his sword, the tip of the blade pointing up. Sephiroth held his at chest height, arms bent, the blade horizontal. Sephiroth was still bare chested.

The two stood staring at each other, daring the other to make the first move, nobody moving for a few seconds. Each second seemed like an hour to Cloud. He was tired, exhausted from all this fighting. What he would do just to be able to lie down and rest. But no, he could not, not when Sephiroth was standing in front of him, silently provoking him into making the first move.

Cloud could feel his anger at Sephiroth growing, until it would burst out of him again, like when he made the final attack on the Safer-Sephiroth. Like what happened to Red against the Bizarro Sephiroth.

He hit his limit. Barely allowing the flames to build up, he charged at Sephiroth and brandished his weapon, striking his target each time, knocking him back with the extremity of the blows. His arms were working furiously, slashing left and right, moving backwards and forwards with an unbelievable speed. Cloud jumped high up into the air again, and brought his blade heavily down on top of Sephiroth's head. He straightened up, prepared for whatever was going to be thrown at him next.

Sephiroth was bleeding. A trickle of precious red liquid slid down his face from his hairline, around his eyes and down his cheeks in a way that almost made him look like he was crying blood.

His mouth was wide open. Blood continued to streak down his face and he was involuntarily picked up off the ground. In a way that was reminiscent to Sephiroth's summon, Super Nova, when his comet charged through Jupiter, beams of light shone from his torso. Sephiroth lifted his left hand limply and covered his face as he was shining like a beacon as he was coming to his death. It was over reasonably quickly, and without much sound. Cloud had been expecting an ear piercing shriek from him. But it was over.

Small, Mako-green balls floated past him suddenly. He held out a hand to touch them.

...Lifestream?...

A hand appeared overhead, reaching down. Cloud grabbed it and sound himself being pulled out of the pit of Mako. He had been rising past the floating platform where he fought Jenova, past the stepping stones to get there, and was being tugged out of the pit where AVALANCHE had been separated.

He allowed himself to be pulled out and he saw that it was Tifa who had a grip on him. Cloud managed to maintain his balance on a platform that was underneath where Tifa was and she stretched out her hand again to pull him up. Cloud looked around and saw to his right the rest of AVALANCHE watching him intently.

The rocky platform that Cloud was standing on started to crumble. Tifa seized a hold of his hand again as the surface under his feet fell down into the Lifestream. Cloud gripped the edge of the ledge Tifa was on as she over balanced and fell down. Her screams rang through all their ears as she snatched at Cloud, who was holding onto the ledge still, and clasping Tifa to him with his other hand. They hung there, unsure of how to get out of their situation.

Cid waved at them, and listened to Kirsty whimpering in his ear.

'Hey!' he called to them, and turned to the Corporal, who was white in the arms of the General. 'Don't worry, they'll be fine.'

'Aeris,' whispered Cloud. 'Aeris is in the Lifestream. She's here.'

'Yeah,' replied Tifa, 'let's go and see her.'

Cloud adjusted himself so he could get Tifa in a reasonably safe position to grab the ledge and pull herself up. Once she was back to safety, she reached down and assisted Cloud back up. Cloud looked over at the rest of the party, and Cid gave another reassuring wave. The relief had replaced the terror on Kirsty's face as she watched her friends pull themselves back to safety.

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The Highwind was flying at top speed out of the Northern Crater and shot out, back into the planet as though it was fired, a mysterious, Mako-type substance rushing up with them, like lava reaching the top of a volcano.

Yuffie was in the doorway of the cockpit, holding onto it with one hand, the other firmly over her mouth. The rest of AVALANCHE were being thrown around the cockpit, almost falling over. For once, Cid could not blame the pilot for the dangerous flying. For once, he was not even going to contemplate blaming him, because Cid knew that he could never, ever think of a good enough excuse.

Shrieks were sounding, mostly from Kirsty and Tifa, who were clinging onto whoever was near, trying to keep their balance. Cid was knocked onto his stomach, behind the pilot, who jumped out of the way. On the floor was a pulley-lever marked 'emergency' which he was reaching for. He moved closer on his stomach and grabbed the lever and pulled it. The Highwind gave another sharp jolt. More screams rent the air.

'Shit!' yelled Cid.

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In an upper storey in a house in the slums of Midgar, the wooden shutters on one window were flung open. A small girl of five peered out. She had white skin, large brown eyes and shoulder length brown hair with a fringe that stopped just above her eyes. Marlene, Barret's adopted daughter stared out at the world. She was in the house which belonged to Aeris' mother. Marlene had never learned her name, and only knew her as 'the flower girl'. She had heard the news of Aeris' death, and was deeply grieved by it.

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Meteor was almost upon Midgar. The sky was a deep red-orange colour from the light being emitted from it. Thick tendrils like ropes struck the city from Midgar, swirling around in a tight coil, like a slim tornado, destroying whatever they touched. One of the tendrils attacked the empty, abandoned Shinra Headquarters, tearing great chunks of the building, whole walls being ripped apart and flew up at Meteor as it still crept ever closer.

Flying calmly once more, the whole of AVALANCHE was watching the scene from the balcony, looks of identical horror spreading over their faces.

'Midgar's being destroyed! Can't we do something?' demanded General Lee, turning to Barret, who was next to him.

'Forget Midgar,' intervened Red. 'We've got to worry about the rest of the planet!'

Barret looked choked. He knew that his pride and joy, Marlene, was in Midgar somewhere.

'Don't worry,' murmured Cait Sith, as though he was reading the hulking man's mind. 'I had everyone hide out in the slums.'

The blue substance that had followed the Highwind out of Northern Crater was covering Midgar, acting as a barrier between the city and Meteor.

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Marlene was still staring out of the window. The orange-red colour from Meteor changed to a cool blue from whatever it was blocking them from the danger. The city was bathed in the blue light, blinding them all. Marlene turned away and shielded her eyes with her hand. She only looked back when the blue changed and reverted back to the orange it was before. Meteor was penetrating the blue shield, and coming further down, ready to crash into them all and destroy everything.

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From a greenland, far off from Midgar, a shoot of a plant stuck out of the ground. It suddenly shot up, four small threads of a green, almost liquid substance grew out of the ground, coiling together, spiralling up, close enough to make a tendril, but far enough apart so the four individual threads were clearly visible.

More of these threads shot out of the ground, coiling together, to make many more tendrils. The Lifestream was pouring out of the ground! The threads snaked over the ground until they reached Midgar. They stretched up to Meteor and coiled around it, clutching the Meteor firmly.

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Up in the Highwind, AVALANCHE watched as Meteor was completely covered by the green threads of the Lifestream.

'What the hell is happening?' screeched Kirsty, obviously thinking that the Lifestream was one more thing to worry about.

'It's the Lifestream,' muttered Tifa.

'Huh?'

'Remember when we first met you and Lee?' questioned Tifa. Kirsty and Lee both nodded, watching her. 'Before the siren called, when you were still in your world, and we were here, we were after Aeris in the City of the Ancients because she had run off. She was praying to the Lifestream, because we knew, we knew that Sephiroth was going to use the Black Materia and summon Meteor. So Aeris prayed to the Lifestream to prevent him from succeeding in his plan to destroy the planet. You saw her praying when we returned there with Bugenhagen on the water screen.

'Her prayer was almost cut off by the siren, but if the siren didn't scream, then she would have been murdered by Sephiroth sooner, when he landed on the platform she was kneeling on.'

She, the Corporal, and General Lee turned back to Midgar, Meteor now every millimetre was blocked by the Lifestream.

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Marlene was almost paralysed with fear as Meteor did not seem to stop, despite it was being blanketed by the Lifestream. The green threads started to fade away, draw away from the Meteor. Was it going to be destroyed? Or was Sephiroth going to succeed in killing everyone?

She thought she imagined it. Marlene was certain that she had just seen something fall from Meteor. But it almost went unnoticed. She saw something else drop from it, so she knew that she was not imagining things. Meteor was breaking up. The Lifestream had withdrawn from it, because it has served its purpose. A bright green light exploded from it and Marlene had to turn away to avoid being blinded. She only looked back when all the light had dissolved into nothing.

Huge pieces of Meteor were falling apart now. it was crumbling more rapidly, larger bits falling, breaking into smaller pieces as they made their way down to the ground. The Lifestream had long since vanished from sight along with the green light and Meteor was disappearing fast as well.

It was destroyed. Sephiroth had failed. Meteor had been destroyed.

AVALANCHE were frozen, unable to believe what they had seen. They were successful! They had defeated Sephiroth and his Meteor! The planet had been saved, brought back from the door of Death, and saved.

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Five hundred years later...

A much more aged Red XIII was running up the rocky surface of Cosmo Canyon, to get to the very top. He had not changed much, except his mane was much fuller, and he had more feathers at the back of his head. Running at his sides were two tiny pups, following him, eager to see what Red had to show them. He reached the top and walked slowly to the edge of the drop. The three could see easily into Midgar.

Midgar was in ruins. it had been ruined by time, uninhabited now. But from when Meteor almost destroyed the city, a strange, vivid green moss had grown, covering the ruined outlines of the buildings and paved the ground. The city looked so much different now, unlived in, then what it did when people were living there.

Red stared at the green-covered city, pride sparkling in his eyes. He was one of those who had saved them all. The two pups stared at the ruin in astonishment. A thought swirled in Red's mind.

I helped save this planet...

THE END