A young woman with long, chocolate brown hair down to the backs of her knees turned to the only couple, and the newest members of the group, General Lee and Corporal Kirsty.

‘Now that that’s all been cleared up, hopefully you two can start to live here properly, without worrying about being killed or maimed by something,’ she joked. General Lee smiled at her with his arm protectively around Kirsty’s waist.

‘Might be less stressful, I suppose.’

‘Ohhh, crap,’ muttered the hulking black man, Barret Wallace, craning his neck to see over the side of the airship.

‘What is it?’ demanded the ship’s owner, Cid Highwind, shoving the teenage girl Yuffie out of the way. She shot a dirty look at him behind his back.

‘Tifa, you know what you said about without worrying about being killed or maimed?’ asked Barret tentatively.

‘Yeah…’ she started cautiously.

‘Hold on to that thought.’

_____________________________________________________________________________

In the destroyed village of Mideel, where the Lifestream flowed freely over the ground, the core of the earth was starting to crack. The huge, gaping trench where the Lifestream bubbled up under the ground was getting larger and larger.

Even from high in the air in the Highwind, lingering above Midgar, the AVALANCHE team could make out the massive burst of fire shooting up from the wrecked village. Strange creatures that even the oldest members of AVALANCHE had not seen the likes of started clambering out through the scar in the ground.

Cid ran to the cockpit of his ship and growled at the intimidated youth flying it to take them to Mideel. The young man nodded, not trusting himself to speak, in case he said something he would live to regret. When around Cid, that amount of things that he could say to the ‘pilot’ without regretting it was somewhat limited. Cid would reprimand for the smallest things.

The Highwind headed further south, to where the underground invasion was taking place.

General Lee and Cloud Strife made their way swiftly down the rope to the ground. Lee burnt his hands and he rapidly slid them down the coarse rope. The two men approached cautiously to Mideel where all the demons were escaping from, making sure that they were out of sight, not giving the demons a chance to see them.

An arm clasped the ground and a bare torso was heaved out of the snake like slash in the ground. When the apparently human male came fully into view, he reached back into the split ground and heaved a huge sword out and hefted it carefully, as though not used to the solid weight.

The figure straightened up and stood tall and proud. The demons which were escaping froze and turned back. Ten evil red eyes fixed in the man before them and as he walked forwards, they surrounded him, giving him no easy way to get free. He shifted his grasp on his sword and gave Lee and Cloud smile.

The figure looked at the demons which were all around him, a strange smile still playing on his lips. He lunged with the sword, driving the blade through the neck of one demon on his right before slashing wildly to the left. He aimed a high kick, jumping and twisting in the air. The two hidden in Mideel’s forest saw that he had twin pistols tucked into the back of his black leather trousers.

His left hand reached behind him and pulled one of the pistols out. He spun it around, his finger on the trigger. One of the demons that was armed with a large scythe swung it at him. Cloud involuntarily switched as the blade swung down towards the bare-chested man.

There was a metallic clang as the scythe blade rebounded off the gun which was still spinning on the man’s finger. He swung the gun to the other side as another demon attempted to attack him. He ducked and jumped, twisting and turning out of the way, avoiding endless attacks. The onslaught did not seem as though it was going to end. At least, not soon.

He ran at the demon standing right in front of him, slipping the pistol back in its place at the back of his trousers and knocked the beast to the ground. He stumbled, and landed heavily on the creature’s head. There was a loud crack as the skull of the being was crushed.