'Daddy, you can't do this!!' Tall, dark haired and eyed, Tifa Lockheart ran out the sanctuary of her house and ran to her father, almost pulling him off his horse.

'I don't want to do this Tifa, but I have no choice. If we don't do anything, the enemy will take every life in the whole village. The least we can do is to try and defend Nibelheim,' said Lord Dio.

'But Shinra will never stop trying to abolish Nibelheim, Dad, not unless we can take care of Rufus, and he's got the strength in his army, that Sephiroth has on his own!! We can never take him out! At least let me fight as well,' argued Tifa.

'You mean too much to me, Tifa, I can never let you fight. Even if I survive, I won't be able to stay happy if my only daughter, my only child, is murdered. I cannot allow it, and neither will your mother,' retorted Dio.

Tifa ran back into her house, ignoring her mother trying to calm her down as she ran upstairs. She came back down ten minutes later, weighed down by armour. A sword was in its case, attached to her belt. She ran clumsily back to her father.

'See Daddy, I have some armour to protect me, and even a sword! People are always remarking on my ability to defend myself against anything nasty, and someone even said that I could be a war hero!'

This was true. Tifa possess a talent for defending herself with, or without magic. But Dio shook his head despairingly and said,

'Tifa, you don't understand, I know quite well you are good at fighting, but the people whom who have 'sparred' against don't have a killer instinct. You are good at your own methods of fighting, but if you go into battle, you won't last a minute. These monsters in Rufus's army couldn't care less if you die. They'll just think of it as another kill they've scored. Dio sighed. 'Let me show you what I mean,'

Lord Dio got off his horse and told Tifa to draw her sword. He explained that he was going to demonstrate the outcome of Tifa's fighting method against the enemy's method. They had a spectacular sword fight. Tifa was dodging, blocking her father's sword with the blade of her own. Then suddenly, Dio swung his sword hard at Tifa's head. He stopped inches away from beheading her. She screamed and covered her head protectively with her arms.

'See what I mean Tifa? If I was fighting against you then, I could've taken your head off. This is what the enemy'll do,' sighed Dio. 'You possess skill, I'll admit that, no sense in denying it, but you don't possess enough to help fight. I'm sorry. Go and take that armour back where you found it please. Now, where were we?'

Dio had turned his attention back to the captain, as Tifa slowly walked back inside.

'What is so bad about my skills? I bet he won't let me fight if I improve. It's not fair! I have just as much right to help in this upcoming war as he does!' shouted Tifa angrily.

The battle was not spoken about again all afternoon, and it wasn't until the evening, when Tifa, Dio, and her mother, Yuna settled down for dinner it was spoken about again.

'What is the situation with your army, Dio?' asked Yuna.

'Well, the captain came up to me this afternoon, as you know, and told me that the troops have completed their training, and when the Shinra attack, they'll be prepared. Gohan, the captain, also told me that until they do attack, he's going to keep training them, going over everything they've done so far,' replied Dio.

'If I improved my fighting skills, and became as good as you, then will you let me fight?' demanded Tifa.

'Now, honey, the war might even be tomorrow-' started Yuna.

'Don't say that! I don't want it to be that early. Look Tifa, drop it. It'll take ages for you to become worthy of fighting in a war. It took me ten years of undergoing intense, painful training, to get where I am today,'

'But you didn't have a natural talent when you started!' said Tifa, furious. 'I do!!'

'Silence, you stupid girl! It would take you five years, and that's still way too long! Just drop the subject, and go to bed!' snapped Dio. A boiling hatred was brewing up in Tifa's chest, like she had never felt it.

'Stupid, am I?' she bellowed when she was in the safety of her bedroom. 'Well, excuse me for trying to help save the village I was born in!! Well, fine! I'm not going to give in without another chance to prove myself!'

The next morning, Tifa's mood had improved slightly, but she was still fuming at her father's words last night. There was a stiffness in the way she greeted him compared to the warm 'good morning, Mum' that he furiously told her that being childish like that isn't going to help her in anyway.

'I am not being childish! I would be a lot worse if I was going to be childish! You're being totally unfair!' roared Tifa.

Dio was about to reply, but Yuna placed a warning hand on his shoulder and told Tifa to get her breakfast.

After she had had that, she went upstairs to her bedroom, and beat out all her fury inside, by beating up her punch-bag, with amazing speed. She stopped, and turned to her bed, but nearly got knocked over by the punch-bag, coming back from a rather hard hit. Half an hour later, she was coming down the stairs in her goth clothes, and make-up, about to open the front door, when someone knocked on it. She opened it and grinned at the person on its other side.

'Oh hello, Cloud. Ready to go you-know-where?'

'Ready as I'll ever be,' replied Cloud.

Cloud Strife, Tifa's best friend is tall, taller than Tifa, with deep blue eyes, and blonde spiky hair. He and Tifa have known each other since they were both very small, but they make sure that they don't go past friendship. Tifa said goodbye to her parents (mainly to her mum though), and she picked up her coffin shaped bag, and swung it on her shoulders. Five minutes later, they arrived outside a building that had just been built. They walked inside, when a well built man who looked like a wrestler burst through another door as Tifa and Cloud walked up to the front desk to say they had arrived (this place worked on appointments, until you get made a member). He turned to them. He had a great booming voice.

'Lockheart and Strife, right?' he demanded.

He motioned for them to follow him and pointed to two separate changing rooms. They silently walked in and changed into t-shirts and shorts, and trainers. When Tifa walked out of her changing room, she saw Cloud had already changed. The booming man came back, also in t-shirt and shorts.

'I am going to be your tutor for the period of four weeks, to teach you how to do well in a fight, with, and without weapons. I am called Zangan. You will abide by my rules, if you don't, you will not be welcome back in here ever,' boomed the man. He spat the word 'tutor' as though it was a disgusting swear word.

They first trained battling against each other without swords, and Zangan was yelling out comments during their fight like, 'get her Strife! She's on the floor, show no mercy!' which made the ground shake, from the sheer volume. After another half an hour, Tifa used a well-placed windmill kick, and knocked Cloud unconscious. This seemed to please Zangan. He roared words of encouragement to Tifa, and went to get a bucket of ice-cold water to bring Cloud round again. When he came round again, he said that when Tifa makes to do that again, he should back off. After that they moved on.

'Right, I think that you show know how to dodge attacks from a sword blade. Lockheart, bring me two swords, and make it quick!'

Tifa ran off to get Zangan the swords, and looking excited, handed them to him.

'Right, well, before I set you two loose on each other, I'm going to take you both on individually so you can get ideas from each other. Lockheart, up here, now,'

Zangan would've met his match if he fought Dad, thought Tifa, as she dodged another attack. He used the same method as Dio did when Tifa came out of the house in her armour. When he came to use the beheading attack that Dio had used before she covered herself protectively, she brought up the blade of her own sword up in front of her face, and struggled to fend off Zangan. He fought to disarm her, but neither of them could do a thing. They were both red in the face, and sweating. They both put in a tremendous amount of effort, but Tifa could feel her energy fading away. Zangan definitely had a killer instinct. Tifa was crouched down, with her sword over her head, and Zangan was standing upright, trying to knock Tifa's sword out of the way, their weapons still locked. Finally, Tifa gave in and Zangan took a fantastic swipe and knocked her sword clean out her hands. She tried to stand up, but fell backwards again, and rolled out the way just as Zangan thrust the point of his sword down. Cloud let out an anxious cry of surprise, as Tifa grabbed up her sword, scrambled to her feet, and jumped backwards to get out of the way of another attack. She brought her arms back, and swung her arms directly at Zangan's face. He held one hand up to his face, stunned, as Tifa crouched down and swung her foot in a circle, tripping him up.

'That was...a fantastic defeat Tifa!! Well done!!' exclaimed Cloud as Zangan got to his feet and Tifa drooped down onto a chair, panting.

Zangan looked amazed at Tifa, then announced that it was Cloud's turn.

Tifa seriously fretted about Zangan's attacks, and when he span round in a circle and raised his sword over his head, ready to bring it down on Cloud's head, Tifa got up and ran over to him. She pulled him down onto the floor, as Zangan made his deadly blow. Cloud stood up again, helped up Tifa, when Zangan told them that it was the end of their lesson for that day, and he'll see them again in two days time.

Cloud suddenly voiced some thing that had been wondering for quite a lot of time.

'Why did you want us to go for those lessons?'

Tifa told him all about the arguments with her father and how she wanted more than anything to prove herself worthy of fighting.

'...And so I thought that if we went to these lessons, I could challenge Dad to another fight and maybe beat him,' finished Tifa.

Cloud looked fairly worried though.

'What?' demanded Tifa when she saw his expression.

'Well, it's not exactly a very smart move, is it? Trying to get involved in battle. You could get killed, you know? You do realise that, don't you?' asked Cloud.

'Oh man, you sound just like my dad!' moaned Tifa.

'Well, I don't want you to get killed by some freak in Rufus's deformed army!' said Cloud, his voice ringing shrilly in her ears.

'Ok, ok, I'm sorry!' She looked at her watch. 'Look at the time! We've got to get back! My parents are going to kill me!' exclaimed Tifa when she saw she was an hour late.

'Just fight like you did against Zangan! Joking...!' Cloud added hastily when Tifa glared meaningfully at him. She said goodbye to Cloud, and ran at full speed back home. Sure enough, when she arrived Yuna appeared, looking most displeased, but that was nothing compared to the look her father was wearing. Dio, stormed out of the chair he was in, as Tifa opened the door, and glared at her. Tifa has often seen her dad angry, but she was shocked when he came in, bright red, redder that Zangan had been during their weapon lock, and bellowed at the top of his voice.

'DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA HOW WORRIED YOUR MOTHER AND I HAVE BEEN? YOU WERE MEANT TO COME BACK AN HOUR AGO!! WHERE WERE YOU?' he screeched.

'Well, If I told you, you'd just get even more annoyed, so I don't think I'll tell you,' said Tifa coolly.

'Tell us where you have been Tifa. Your father and I will appreciate it more if you do,' butted in Yuna.

Tifa took a deep breath, and told them.

'WHAT? HAVEN'T I TOLD YOU, YOU CAN'T FIGHT IN THE WAR! DON'T YOU REALISE HOW-'

'Yes! I do realise how dangerous it is, and I don't care how many times you say I can't fight, because I'm going to, whether you like it or not! If I fought you now, even you would realise that I've improved greatly, not only did I beat the teacher, I managed to save Cloud from being injured!' screamed Tifa. She then added, 'You know the instructor I had. It was Zangan.' She stopped there to see what the reaction would be.

'Zangan? Zangan? You beat him in a fight?' asked Dio faintly.

'Yes! Now will you let me fight?' said Tifa, slightly irritated.

Dio and Yuna exchanged confused and anxious looks, and Tifa's spirits lifted. It looked like they might say that she could fight. Then suddenly, they started debating with each other in a different language, which greatly annoys Tifa, as she can't understand what they are saying. Finally, they sigh and turn to Tifa and Dio says:

'Show me your skills then. Get your armour and sword.'

'You mean it? You really mean it? Thanks!' replies Tifa.

She dashed upstairs and Dio goes to put on his armour. Tifa clunked noisily down the stairs again, and went out into the pathway in front of the house.

'Tifa!'

She spins around and sees her father coming up and carrying another helmet.

'You'll be needing this. It'll reduce the risk of beheading.'

He throws it to her, and she catches it, a look of ecstasy spreading across her face in the form of a huge grin. She thanks him and jams the helmet onto her head. Dio draws his sword and Tifa does the same. She can't help but feel a tiny bit nervous, as she remembers the fact that she is going to have a sword fight with her own father. They fight. Tifa remembers what she did in her battle against Zangan, but hopes that she doesn't lose her energy as fast as she did last time, and hopes that their weapons don't lock.

Dio swings the sword at her neck again, and Tifa thrusts hers up and blocks it. But, sure enough, the two swords lock. In a flash, both of them, red in the face and sweating, are trying to out do each other. Dio swung his sword free, and aimed an attack at Tifa's head. She ducks, and pulls her leg round to trip him up. She looks down at him and hears him saying, very softly,

'Go on then, finish the job,'

Tifa hesitates, but reckons that her father wouldn't let her kill him on purpose. She almost throws the sword down, but then Dio flings it out of her hands with one deft swipe. Tifa looks around for her sword, but as Dio makes to attack her once more, she sees her sword falling. Without warning, she somersaults backwards and as she falls to land, sticks out her right arm and catches her weapon again. She turns to face her father, who has now gotten to his feet again. They look at each other for a split second, then both charge at each other, looking determined. They have a ferocious fight, in which Tifa is showing no mercy and pressing to every advantage using all of her abilities. She carries on attacking and moving forwards at the same time, forcing Dio to retreat backwards. Dio suddenly swiped at her, making her jump out of harm's way, but then when he came forwards again, she kicked him in the face as hard as she could, and while he was standing there, with one hand on his cheek, Tifa once again drew back her arms, and smacked him around the face as hard as possible, knocking him to the floor.

'Stop! Okay, that will do for now. You have most certainly improved. Well done, but now I must go and dress this cut,' wheezed Dio.

'I'm sorry Dad, I..I....' started Tifa

'I'm fine Tifa. Don't worry about this. I've taken worse damage before. And that includes you as well, Yuna!' replied Dio.

Dinner was an enjoyable affair that evening. Everyone laughed and joked, Dio and Tifa made fun of themselves and each other about their battle that afternoon.

'Honestly Dad, the look an your face after I kicked you, you never seemed so horrified!' laughed Tifa.

'You wouldn't look so clever if you got smacked in the face, then attacked with a sword blade!' retorted Dio.

'I was horrified at the whole thing!' admitted Yuna.

'We could tell!' replied Tifa.

They finished having dinner and all went to bed. Tifa was a having a wonderful dream about being a war hero with her father, having slain Rufus, and ending Shinra's reign of uttermost terror, when she was shaken awake several hours earlier than she would've liked.

'Tifa! Get up! Put your armour on! Tifa! Get up!'

It was Dio, and he sounded hysterical. He ran out of the room already in his armour. She leapt up, brushed her hair quickly, and put her armour on. She looked out of her bedroom window, and saw Rufus, with an enormous army of....what were they? Tifa leant closer to see. They looked like...humans...but, there was something, not quite as human about them as Tifa, or Dio, or Cloud...they...were hideous creatures that looked like something out of a horror film. And then, the words of her father came back to her...'Rufus's new recruits in his army are monsters that were made to be humans, but the 'project' went wrong, and these things were created...' Tifa gasped and sped down the stairs, and the atmosphere was very tense. After gulping down a very fast breakfast, Gohan and the rest of the army against Shinra arrived. Tifa and Dio ran outside to them. Gohan looked blankly at Dio, then spotted Tifa.

'What's she doing here?' asked Gohan.

'Don't sound too happy to see me will you?' snapped Tifa.

'She will prove very useful in our battle.' replied Dio.

'But she's your daughter!' cried Gohan.

'Oh, well spotted.' He said coldly. 'She has managed to defeat Zangan in a fight and will prove very handy to have in our battle.' Dio added.

'Besides, I wasn't going to let him fight without me.' chimed Tifa.

Dio mounted his horse, and pulled up Tifa behind him. He rode in front, followed by Gohan. They all turned around and marched towards Rufus. They stopped after a few tense minutes and Rufus called over to them.

'Is that a sacrifice sitting behind you there my Lord?'' he asked.

Tifa had always thought of him as a bit of a freak, but now she started to really hate him.

'You should be so lucky!' Tifa found herself shouting that out before she could stop herself.

'You really need to teach that brat of yours a lesson or two in how to behave in the presence of her betters.' called Rufus in his scornful voice.

Tifa had got off the back of the horse, and had drawn her sword, once again, the boiling hate brewed up in her chest.

'Tifa!' hissed Dio. 'Don't be a fool!'

Reluctantly, Tifa climbed back on the horse. Rufus was now charging, with his army close behind him. Dio shouted as well, and they were off also. As the two armies met, Tifa stood up on the back of the horse, and before her father could do a thing about it, she had drawn her sword again, and flipped over his head, cutting a deep gash in Rufus's arm as she flew over him and landed in the middle of Rufus's freak army.

'Tifa! What on earth are you playing at?? Do you want to die??' screamed Dio.

Tifa ignored her frantic father and started attacking the monsters, showing as much mercy as they did to Gohan and his army. She slashed her way through at least twenty of the freaks, but she got in a tight spot with one of the tougher ones. She found herself slashing the air protectively in front of herself more often than she is used to. The monster started to move forwards, forcing Tifa to move backwards. It didn't stop until Tifa was backed up against a wall. It brought its arms back and prepared to make the beheading move Tifa knew so well. In an ear-splitting crash, Tifa's strong sword clashed and locked against the monster's curve of metal it used as a sword. The strength of the monster was something that would've made Zangan proud to see. In what seemed like no time at all, Tifa was once again crouched down by her opponent's feet.

'Dad, help me!!'

Distracted by his daughter's call, Dio looked around to see where Tifa had gone. The monster trying to disarm him, took its chance and slashed him across his waist, through his thick armour.

'Daaaaaaad!!!'

'Dio!!' screamed Gohan.

In a second, Tifa, with extraordinary power and speed, overpowered her foe, and sank the blade of her sword, deeper and deeper into the monster's head. She ripped the sword out again, and almost flew to her father's side. Several monsters, saw his weakened body lying on the floor, and they all wanted to be the one to finish him off. Tifa ran in front of him, and with Gohan on her side, they killed, or at least wounded all of the monsters attacking them. They slashed and stabbed their way to what they thought was victory.

'Dad, are you alright?' asked Tifa.

'I'm fine, don't worry. What about you? Before that monster attacked me, I saw you, crumpled at the feet of that thing.' replied Dio.

'I'm fine as well. The monster stayed like that for too long. If it had used the same tactics Zangan used, it would've slashed my sword clean out of my hands. But instead, I got my energy back and stabbed its head in.' said Tifa.

'Well, Miss Lockheart. So nice to see you doing something for someone else for once. I bet you feel proud.'

It was Rufus. He had ridden his horse over to where Dio, Gohan and Tifa were standing. He got off and came right over to them.

'And what do you mean by that, precisely?' snapped Tifa.

Rufus just laughed at her and turned away. He started to walk off, but stopped when he heard the sound of someone drawing their sword. He turned around to see Tifa pointing her sword at his head.

'Don't point that silly thing at me. I could swipe it away at any minute. And you wouldn't that now, would you? You'd have no weapon.'

He laughed again in his scornful way. Tifa could feel her temperature rising. She could feel her face reddening. Her blood boiling with anger in her veins. She lifted her arms over her head. Rufus watched her with a highly amused look all over his smug face. The next thing anyone knew, a battle cry escaped Tifa's throat, and she heaved the sword down as hard as she could. Dio turned away. He listened...waited...nothing happened. He looked around. Rufus had caught the blade of Tifa's sword in his hand as she brought it down. Then, without any warning, Rufus's free hand, found Tifa's throat. She let go of the sword, and Rufus threw it away, narrowly missing Gohan. He tried to attack Rufus, but the monsters had risen again. The grip on Tifa's throat was tightening. She couldn't breath. She was suddenly lifted into the air, high above Rufus's head.

'Let her go!!' Gohan gathered up his courage, and kicked his way past monsters trying to stop him getting to Rufus. Tifa kicked out as hard as she could, and landed back on the floor with a thud. Something hit her hard across the head, and she knew no more.

__________________________________________________________________________________

'Eurgh...w...what.....ha...happened?...w...where..a....am......I?' every word was a struggle. Tifa had an awful headache and the whole of her body felt beaten.

'Yuna! She's woken up!' whispered Dio.

'How...how do you feel?' Yuna, as white as a ghost, eyes bloodshot, she looked as though she had been crying.

'What....h....ha..hap...' struggled Tifa. 'Rufus....falling....what...?'

'After you fell to the floor, one of the monsters threw your sword, while another removed your helmet. Your sword hit you. We thought you were....' Dio trailed off. Tifa could hardly notice.

'Go....han....what.....b....bout....hi..m...?' asked Tifa, remembering he had tried to free her of Rufus's grip.

'He got, um...stabbed. One of the monsters killed him...' muttered Yuna.

'We lost the war, Tifa. Nibelheim is gone. Destroyed. It no longer exists. Rufus ran through the village and killed everyone. You, me and your mother are the only survivors. Rufus won.'

'No....no!..He c....could...n't.....no!' started Tifa. 'NOOO!!!!! I'll get him back....if...if...if it's....the...last thing...I...do!!!...'

She started to sit up, but both her mother and father rested their hands on her shoulders and forced her back down.

'There's nothing you can do Tifa. Nothing at all. Everyone's dead,' sighed Dio.

It suddenly dawned on Tifa. Everyone was dead. And in all those people included...Cloud...his family...all her other school friends. All dead. Just because Rufus wanted Nibelheim out of the way. She wasn't going to let him get away with this. He was going to make him regret the day he ever took a dislike to Nibelheim!

The rest of the day didn't go much better. People from different places that had heard about Nibelheim came to visit Tifa and her parents. A good friend of hers from the Sector 5 slums in Midgar called Aeris Gainsborough came and comforted her. Aeris is a very different girl to Tifa. They are both twenty-five, but Aeris is wanted by the Shinra, by Rufus. She is referred to as an 'Ancient'. The legend of the Ancients - or the Cetra - was that they would lead people to a land of supreme happiness, called The Promised Lands. Now, Rufus and some other people at Shinra believes this, and he wants to find the Promised Lands. Trouble is, only an Ancient can find it, so he has been looking for Aeris so he can take her and force her to show them the way.

'Have the Shinra found you yet?' asked Yuna.

'Luckily, not yet. I have had to leg it on several occasions away from Reno and some other horrible people with the Turks,' replied Aeris.

'The Turks? Why are they looking for you?'

'Dad...the Turks are with the Shinra...and SOLDIER is their defence group. Cloud joined up with them and got to First Class to try and be like Sephiroth. Remember?’ said Tifa. She turned to her friend.

'Who else is with the Turks? Do you know?'

'Umm...I don't know everyone there, but they have Reno, - who almost caught me one time -, a bald guy with sunglasses, I think he's called Rude, long-haired man who I think is Tseng, and a new person, a blonde girl called Elena.' replied Aeris.

Finally, night time came. Aeris, Dio and Yuna all got a bed in the hospital to stay in until Tifa got better.

At about midnight, Tifa woke up. She turned over to her other side, and saw Aeris watching her.

'Are you awake, Tifa?' muttered Aeris.

'Yeah, I am. I also really need to get out of here. Before you say 'where about shall we go?' I mean, actually out. As in, out of this dead place,' whispered Tifa.

'Go out of the hospital? Are you sure that's a good idea? I mean, you only came round yesterday. I don't think you should be sneaking out. What about your parents?' whispered Aeris. 'Won't they be worried?'

'Not if I leave them a note saying where I've gone.'

About ten minutes later, Tifa, had got out of her bed, and got dressed in the clothes she wore underneath her armour in the war. They had agreed that they shouldn't go out of the front door, as they'd probably be noticed. Aeris prised open the window and clambered out. They both wandered back to Nibelheim, where their eyes met a horrible sight. All the houses, every single one, was a burning, collapsed wreck. They saw Cloud's house, the most wrecked of them all. Tifa was just about to say something to Aeris when someone called out to them both.

'Hey! Help me, please! Someone!!! ' There was something rather familiar about that voice, but...it couldn't be..could it? Aeris gasped next to her and pointed to a familiar body on the floor. It was Zangan. It looked like he put up a spectacular fight as well. He had several arrows sticking out of his back, and at least ten dagger marks around his heart area in his back. There were more arrows on the ground that had burnt ends, like they had been set on fire to give more damage to Gohan and the rest of the army. And the innocent people, come to think of it. The voice came again, but much more fainter, like the person speaking was getting weaker.

'Please....someone...Tifa...'

The person knew her! Aeris had heard the voice as well, and exclaimed that came from Cloud's house. Tifa thought that the voice had belonged to him the first time they heard it, and now that it seemed to be coming from his house, well, that just confirmed her belief. They cautiously edged nearer to his house, when suddenly, a monster that had been wounded, and thought dead, jumped up from the ground and grabbed Aeris. It was her shrill scream that alerted Tifa. She spun around, and saw the thing strangling her. Aeris was struggling with all her might, but the monster had too hard a grip round her throat. Tifa frantically searched around and seized a sword lying on the ground. The monster immediately let go of Aeris' neck and grabbed up Gohan's sword, which had been impaled in his chest. The disgusting creature lifted it up and kissed the bloody blade. This made Tifa angry. Taking up the sword that belonged to Gohan, the sword that had been driven through his chest, like it was public property!!!

Tifa ran towards the creature, and as it swiped at her, she did a forwards twisting jump and landed behind the monster, facing its back. It swiped at her, but she dodged it and - SMACK!! Its head came flying off. Tifa asked Aeris if she was alright, and they both set off to Cloud's house again, where they had another big surprise.

'Oh my...who's that?' gasped Aeris.

The two girls carefully walked over to the front door underneath all the wreckage, only to find Cloud alive underneath it!

'Cloud!! You're, you're..alive!! How?' cried Tifa

'Ahh! Be careful! I wouldn't be surprised if I've broken my left leg. It damn well feels like it,' muttered Cloud.

Tifa and Aeris helped Cloud out, and they saw that his clothes were all torn, and he had a deep gash in the right hand side of his face. Tifa introduced Aeris and Cloud to each other and they then decided to see what Rufus did to a reactor past the mountain range, called Mt Nibel.

'So what's this reactor for, then, Tifa?' asked Aeris.

'It's a special reactor that stores Mako energy. But it is destroying the earth,' replied Tifa.

'Mako...I've heard of that. Sort of a power source to use your mechanical things. We don't have that in the slums. Anything that'd be powered by Mako, we can't use because we can't afford it. How is it destroying the earth though?' said Aeris.

'Umm....I think when I got taken to Cosmo Canyon one time, there were people there who knew loads about the planet, said that Mako is condensed Spirit Energy...' said Cloud, going green from the pain in his leg. Spirit Energy is the planet's energy, so when any living thing dies, then energy inside it joins with the Lifestream, which is Spirit Energy moving around the whole planet ceaselessly.

'So, what you're saying is that the Mako reactors are sucking up Spirit Energy, making it into Mako, so there won't be a Lifestream?' wondered Aeris.

'Yeah and without a Lifestream, there is no planet. The whole thing will break apart. Damn Shinra. No good for anything...' said Cloud.

They reached the reactor and saw that nothing had been done to it. Tifa walked around the reactor, and spotted something lying on the ground, which looked like a ball of condensed Mako. Can Mako actually be condensed though? thought Tifa. I mean, Mako is Spirit Energy, so its already been condensed...

'Oi! Cloud! Come 'ere a minute!!' shouted Tifa.

'What? What now?' asked Cloud.

'What's that? It looks like Mako energy, but...not...if you know what I mean...'

'Nope, not a clue,' replied Cloud.

Aeris wandered over to where Cloud and Tifa were working out what the mystery object was.

'Oh wow...that's a materia...' whispered Aeris.

Tifa and Cloud stared at her.

'And how do you know that?' asked Cloud.

'It's simple. I take it Tifa didn't tell you much about me then?'

'What?' asked Cloud. 'Stop it, you're confusing me. What about you?'

'Cloud, Aeris is an Ancient,' said Tifa, as if this was the most obvious thing in the world. Aeris coughed meaningfully.

'Oh, sorry. Aeris is part of the Cetra.' giggled Tifa, enjoying the look of confusion on Cloud's face.

'Do me a huge favour and shut up, both of you,'

They inspected the materia and Aeris told then that materia enables people to do magic, if they had it equipped somewhere. Cloud understood none of this, and so Tifa tried to explain it to him. After looking around for more materia, they went inside the reactor. This was a big mistake.

They walked in, and it wasn't until Tifa told them to shut up and listen they heard the voices.

'President, what is the good of using this old reactor, when there are plenty better ones elsewhere? I mean are you telling me that your army wiped Nibelheim off the map, for this? '

'Shut up, you foolish man. I need the better reactors to store energy so I can keep Midgar with power. Well, except for the slums, they can't afford it. But, I need this reactor so I can use it for the same purpose you used it. To follow in Professor Gast's footsteps. Well, you tried to, anyway.

Aeris, Tifa and Cloud crept closer, and then Rufus and another man they didn't recognise came into view by what looked like metal cells or something.

'Hojo...he worked in the Shinra, but resigned. He also greatly liked Professor Gast. He's Sephiroth's father. And as for Professor Gast, um, I'm sure I've read something about him. Oh, yes! He was famous for his ability to create life using Mako,' said Cloud in an undertone.

'Created life? You mean he was an evil man? Like Rufus?' asked Aeris.

'No, he wasn't an evil man, he just experimented with things, and discovered how to make life, by mistake. Complete luck, that was,' replied Cloud quietly.

'Shut up! They can hear us!' hissed Tifa.

Sure enough, the other man talking to Rufus came looking for them and dragged them back to the cells.

'Oh, it's little Tifa Lockheart. What a shame you survived. I hoped you had died when your own sword knocked you unconscious,' said Rufus, quietly.

The man beside Rufus started laughing uncontrollably. Aeris was looking worried at Rufus, Cloud was massaging his knuckles, and for the third time since this war came up, Tifa felt a boiling hatred bubble up inside her chest. She clenched her fists, and bared her gritted teeth. Rufus laughed his scornful laugh, and slammed his fist against one of the cells. In the second after he did that, the cell split in two. A monster, exactly the same as the ones in Rufus's deformed army, - but without armour - was lying in the broken cell. Cloud gasped and jumped back, and both Tifa and Aeris screamed and backed off.

'You, you sick, foul man!! You slimy, horrible, disgusting, creep!!' screamed Aeris.

Both Cloud and Tifa seemed too shocked to say anything. Cloud was staring, his eyes bulging, his mouth opened in a silent scream. Tifa, was pale and shaking and still in shock of what she just saw.

'You all probably think that dear old Hojo resigned his job and got another one. Well, that's partly true, but after ten months away from the greatness of Shinra, you couldn't stay away, could you, Hojo?' said Rufus.

So the other man was Hojo. The creator of Sephiroth. His father.

'Why do you care what we thought?' snapped Tifa.

'I wish I could answer that to myself. Well, I could always kill you all instead of talking. Would you prefer that?' asked Rufus, in a deadly whisper.

'If you think you're going to kill us, then think again! We've been trained to fight by Zangan!' shouted Cloud.

'Oh, no, whatever shall I do? Hah! I hope you saw his mangled corpse on your way up here. He didn't last long,' sneered Rufus.

Tifa suddenly remembered his body. It wasn't mangled, but it had a load of dagger marks. Her train of thoughts was suddenly interrupted by Rufus attacking Aeris.

'Get off her!' screamed Tifa.

Rufus had Aeris in some sort of a headlock, as her face was forced downward, she was shuddering slightly. Hojo kept Tifa and Cloud away from attacking Rufus and he turned into a horrific monster. It wasn't Hojo. It was Sephiroth.

Not many people know what Sephiroth's real story is. Most people think he's a good guy. Cloud is not one of these people. After working with him in SOLDIER, and becoming First Class with him, he quickly found out that there is more to Sephiroth that most people don't know. Tifa also knows about him.

'S-Sephiroth!! Ahh!' Aeris broke free of Rufus's grip as he let go in surprise. 'Help us Sephiroth!'

Aeris quickly stopped talking at the sight of Cloud's disbelieving face. Sephiroth took a few, heavy steps towards Rufus. He looks very menacing, and people who haven't heard about his 'greatness', would think that he is probably evil. They would be right. He is very tall, and his long white hair falls past his waist. In his green eyes, lurks the flicker of madness and evil. He was wearing a long trench coat that fell down to his ankles. It was black and had white shoulders. It was fastened by two strips of brown material crossing over his bare chest. He had black trousers and black boots . But his sword is perhaps the most evil and weird looking thing about him. It had an extremely long blade, that curves slightly. It is said to be the strongest sword made in the world, and can slice through anything. He is also the only person in the world who can use it.

Tifa recoiled at the sight of him, as she remembers only too well what he has done.

'Sephiroth...what have you done with Hojo?' whispered Rufus.

Sephiroth didn't reply. Instead, he almost threw Rufus into another cell. He turned to Cloud, Tifa and Aeris.

'I suppose you are all wondering why I've been hanging around that piece of filth,' he said. His voice...it was so cold. So deadly. Like simply talking to him would kill someone.

'I needed him. I admit it. He has the Black Materia. Or, should I say, did have it....' he laughed. He then fished in his pocket and produced a small black sphere that looked similar to the one they found outside the reactor. He then shoved them all out of the way, and made his way out of the reactor. In some sort of a horrified trance, Tifa started to follow, but got held back by Cloud.

'Don't be stupid Tifa. Now he has the Black Materia, nothing will stop him from getting his way,' said Cloud.

'How would you know? Before we came in here, you didn't even know what a materia was!!' exclaimed Tifa, irritation filling her horrified trance.

'I've heard about the Black Materia. Meteor Magic. If he uses it, that will summon Meteor. It finds small planets in its path, and then collides with them. This planet could get wiped off completely!' retorted Cloud.

They all arranged to go to an inn somewhere, so that Cloud could explain the full story to Tifa and Aeris. Once they arrived to the small village of Kalm, they went inside the inn, and up to their rooms.

'You have to promise not to interrupt me while I'm talking though,' said Cloud. He sighed.

'As you know, or, as Tifa knows, I used to be in SOLDIER. I wanted to get to First Class so I could help in fighting a war that was going on. To try and be like Sephiroth. When I made it there, the war was over. I became 'friends' with him. There was a special mission to get rid of some monsters that were causing trouble in Nibelheim. They were produced in the reactor. Before we did that, we spent the night in the big mansion that was for Shinra people. It was called Shinra Mansion. The next day, I got up to see Sephiroth, and the other two people from SOLDIER already waiting for a guide that was hired. I was very shocked to find out that the number one guide in Nibelheim was, none other than Tifa. She led us to Mt. Nibel where the reactor was. We lost one other SOLDIER member on the way. When we got there, Sephiroth told the other man to keep Tifa out of the reactor. All of Shinra's industrial secrets were kept in there,' he paused for a second and then carried on.

'Tifa was a bit irritated at being left out in the cold, and we went in. We went to the room where the cells were. He noticed a valve wasn't done up properly. He made me sort that out, while he peered through the 'window' of another cell. The monsters in Rufus's army where being created in there. Suddenly, he twigged that he was very different to normal people. I can still remember his words..."I always thought when I was small that I was different. Special, in some way...but not like this..." he 'realised' that he was created, not born. This made something in his mind go...strange. He started slashing the cells with his sword, and I backed away to safety.

After that, he spent loads of time in the basement of the Shinra Mansion, reading. When I went down there, he saw me and called me a traitor. Of course, I had no idea what he was on about. Then he explained. He started saying about the Ancients' journey to the Promised Lands. Then apparently, people who wanted an easy life appeared and they were my ancestors. The Ancients sacrificed themselves for the planet, and my ancestors survived because they hid. I walked out of the basement and went back to my room in the mansion. The next morning, I awoke to the sound of flames. I ran out of the mansion, only to see Nibelheim had been burnt down. Everyone had been killed. I realised what had happened. I checked Tifa's house, nobody was in there. I then rushed to the reactor. I saw Tifa by her father's side. He was dead with Sephiroth's sword next to him. She said "Shinra...SOLDIER...Sephiroth..Mako..I hate them all!" then she picked up his sword and walked into the room with the cells. She grasped the sword in both hands, and started up some stairs leading to a room that I had never been in before. She walked up shouting "how could you do that to Papa and all the townspeople?" Sephiroth turned to face her, and grabbed the sword. They had a short fight for it, and he swiped it out of her hands, and gave her that scar across her chest,' said Cloud.

'After that, I fell backwards down the stairs again, and Cloud picked me up and put me to one side, out of the way. He then went after the freak in the other room, challenged him and survived,' finished Tifa.

They looked at Aeris, who was sitting there, stunned. They explained that they knew he wanted to kill everyone on the planet, but weren't sure why.

After a goods night's sleep, they all decided to head to Midgar, to see an old friend.

'How come Nibelheim didn't looked burnt down the last time I came?' asked Aeris.

'Because Shinra had it restored, so no-one would ever know what happened. Except us,' said Tifa.

'And Rufus isn't exactly going to be nice and welcoming to Sephiroth on his visits, as he only became President because Sephiroth killed President Shinra, who named the planet's burden. He was Rufus' father,' said Cloud.

They arrived at Midgar, and started towards the Sector 7 slums. They came to a pub called '7th Heaven', that Tifa owned with her friend.

Her friend is actually a muscular black man, with short black hair and beard. But the most unusual thing about him is that his left arm is a gun that was grafted in after a nasty accident. He was called Barret Wallace.

They followed Tifa into a small pub, where she was suddenly attacked by a little child of five hugging her around the knees.

'Hello Marlene. How are you?' asked Tifa. She then turned her attention to the man behind the counter of a bar.

'Tifa! Cloud! So good to see you both again!' he roared. 'Hello, miss,' he added when he spotted Aeris.

Tifa introduced them to each other, and then to the two men and one woman sitting around a table.

'Biggs, Wedge, Jessie, this is my friend, Aeris. Dio, I think I'd better tell you now while it's still on my mind. We just saw Sephiroth in the Nibelheim reactor yesterday. He has the Black Materia,' said Tifa.

Biggs, Wedge and Jessie, all gasped, and Wedge fell backwards of his chair. Marlene cowered behind her father at the sound of these words.

'Tifa, don't say such things. He can't have the Meteor Magic,' muttered Wedge.

Short, plump, and very jolly, Wedge couldn't keep the fear put of his voice. The other man, Biggs, was about Tifa's height, with black hair that flops down at the front, and red headband underneath. He wore a dark green vest top, and baggy khaki trousers, and black boots. Jessie, was a bright young woman who was an expert in the way things like bombs worked. She was a bit smaller than Biggs, and had waist length light brown hair. She wore a brown shirt and trousers, and looked like a cowboy. She said:

'Are you sure it was the Black Materia? I mean, it could've been a different one....' she trailed off hopefully.

'It was black. Red ones are Summon, blue are Support, green ones are normal Magic, yellow, is Command, and purple is Independent. The Black Materia, is currently with Sephiroth,' replied Tifa.

Dio walked up the stairs to a higher level and had a look around. When he came back down, he had his box of weapons, clutched dangerously under his proper arm. Tifa ran over to help him with it. He set the box down and fished around for something to give Biggs, Wedge and Jessie.

Out of the corner of her eye, Tifa could see Cloud drawing the sword he had used in Zangan's lesson.

'Cloud...did you steal that weapon from Zangan?' she asked suspiciously.

'Zangan? You want to be careful then, mate. He'll have you for dinner if you don't give it back!' warned Biggs.

'No, he won't. Reason being is, he's dead. Got killed by Rufus when he and his freak army raided Nibelheim. Jeez...burnt down by some nutter, and destroyed by Shinra. What else is going to happen to Nibelheim?' sighed Cloud.

'Dead? Zangan? No way! I can't believe it!' said Jessie.

Tifa and Aeris both got given weapons from Dio, and they all got materia to put in their weapon slots. Tifa got given her metal knuckles back, and Dio gave Aeris a staff to fight with.

'Ooooh..I should really send a note to the hospital telling Mum and Dad where I'm going,' said Tifa suddenly. I got knocked out in a war with Shinra trying to defend Nibelheim, and I woke up in the hospital. Nothing too serious. Wedge, I'm fine!' she said as Wedge was giving her worrying looks.

'And why were you fighting in a war anyway?' asked Barret, curiously.

'I was trying to help defend Nibelheim, but it didn't go as well as we hoped,' replied Tifa.

They started to go to Midgar, to see if the Jenova specimen was still being kept in the Shinra HQ.

The thing about Midgar was, that it is like no other place in existence. It is completely circular, with the slums at the bottom. All the different places used to have names, but no-one can remember then, so people refer to what they mean by saying what sector they are talking about. In the heart of the slums, there is a massive cylindrical tower, and that has a plate above it, the same size as the slums. The people that live in the slums cannot see the sky. All the pollution is underneath the plate, poisoning the slums. All the rich people live actually on top of the plate, and don't have to worry about being polluted to death, unlike the people under the plate. As for the Jenova specimen, that is Sephiroth's 'mother' and it is kept in a tank in the Shinra HQ. They saw it one time they had to go there and its tank had been broken. It got set free.

Barret came up with the idea of using the Jenova specimen as a way of luring Sephiroth to them, so they can try and slay him. Dio also conveniently ignored the horrified looks from the others, and Tifa muttering 'suicide' under her breath.

'The last time I came here was when I got kidnapped and taken here, when Sephiroth killed President Shinra,' said Aeris. 'And I don't want a repeat of what happened there this time, either,'

'Don't worry. With Barret, Cloud and me, you're well protected. Hang on, did Biggs, Wedge and Jessie come?' said Tifa.

'Nah, they didn't want anything to do with Rufus. Mind you, can't really blame 'em,' replied Barret.

They crept into the Shinra building, and clambered up about a hundred flights of stairs, to the floor that has the Jenova specimen. Dio led the way, with Aeris following closely behind, and Cloud and Tifa keeping watch for any Shinra guards. Several times, either Tifa or Cloud had to shove Dio into the shadows because he was making too much noise, so they hid away from the guards for a while.

They got there. They finally found the floor that had Jenova. They saw, inspecting the tank, the real Hojo.

'My precious specimen....'

Tifa and Aeris had to clamp their hands over their mouths to stifle their laughter at Hojo's words. When he walked away, Barret stepped out from where they were hiding, and looked into the tank. Sure enough, Jenova was still in there.

'Let me see, Barret. I want to know how much it resembles its so-called son,' said Aeris.

She stepped past him and looked inside. After about a minute of staring at it, she drew away.

'Hmm...well, it doesn't resemble him that much. Reason being, something's taken its -'

'What was that?' interrupted Tifa, looking around with a nervous expression on her face.

They all listened carefully, but couldn't hear anything. Cloud suddenly collapsed to the floor. It was Aeris' scream that told Barret and Tifa what happened.

'Oh my God! What's happening to him?' shrieked Aeris.

'Sephiroth...he's near...' whispered Tifa. 'He's close....very close.....'

The next thing anyone knew, they were all lying on the floor, all dazed. Tifa squinted, and saw a white-haired blur with a long sword moving towards Jenova's tank. The figure pulled back its arms, and cut the top of the tank clean off. The figure reached inside and pulled out Jenova. The thing didn't have a head. Then they heard the familiar deadly voice.

'Mother, it's me. I've come to take you away from your prison. I shall kill the fool who trapped you, and revive you. We can take back our planet together,'

Tifa stood up. Shaking her head, to try and clear her vision, she stepped towards the others, and pulled them up. Sephiroth sensed the movement behind him, and started to attack Tifa. She snatched up Cloud's sword so she had a very slight chance of defence. She realised that the only way to get at him, would be to try and kill Jenova. She swiped at it, but this only made Sephiroth more mad. He shoved her over and started to walk off. Aeris stood up, and examined her materia. Tifa got up also and they both used magic to try and stop him. Now Barret joined in. All three of them were using Bolt3 to try and stop him from going any further. but then as quick as lightning, Sephiroth had put the Jenova specimen on the floor, and emitted a blast of bright light, that blinded them all. Unknown to them, they had been causing a racket in the floors below them, and so Rufus had come up to see what was going on.

'Sephiroth! What are you doing here?' screamed Rufus. 'Kill him!'

The Shinra soldiers that had come up with Rufus all started trying to shoot Sephiroth, but this did no harm to him.

'You stupid fools. You mere humans can't stop me. You can't hurt me. I, however, can hurt you. I can stop you. But you....ha ha...' sneered Sephiroth, not noticing Cloud -who just came round- slip behind him to get the Jenova specimen. 'I shall take my mother back, and revive her, and -'

'Get away!' shouted Rufus, as Cloud picked up the Jenova specimen.

Sephiroth suddenly swiped at his 'mother', and protected her from Cloud, and Rufus. He suddenly took flight, knocking aside two stunned guards.

'You stupid man! If you had let Cloud do what he was going to do, then Sephiroth wouldn't be about to destroy the planet!! Now with your interference, he's going to use his power against the us all!!!' screamed Tifa, who was losing control completely. Dio had to hold her back so she couldn't try and beat him up.

'What is your problem, Rufus? We're trying to do something good, but you won't let us!' said Aeris.

'Take them away! Make them regret the day they ever tried to get in Shinra's way! Lock them up and tomorrow, torture them,' spat Rufus.

Before anyone could do a thing, Tifa had launched herself at him, but quickly got held off by the guards. Barret, Cloud and Aeris got taken off to be locked up, but it took the combined strength of about five guards to subdue Tifa, who was desperate to get at Rufus. She got hurled into the same room as Aeris, and was still out of control with rage. She started banging against the walls with her fists.

'Let us out! Let us out! Let us out!!' she screamed.

'Tifa, don't give them the satisfaction of getting annoyed,' said Aeris, cautiously. She had never seen her friend so....so, frankly dangerous. It worried her.

Tifa walked over to her bed, and slumped on it. She fell asleep instantly.

__________________________________________________________________________________

'Come on, get up!' shouted a sneering voice. It took Tifa a minute before she remembered why she was in the Shinra building prison.

'Oh no, Aeris, I've just remembered! They're going to torture us!' whispered Tifa, anxious.

'I know. All because Rufus is so full of himself and that he thinks he's on the good side,' replied Aeris.

Tifa crept towards the door, and looked underneath the crack at the bottom. There wasn't a soul outside guarding them. She stepped back to the other side of the room, and ran towards it, swept her foot up, and kicked the door, to find that it wasn't locked.

'What the-?' started Tifa, but a strange scene met them. The whole prison section was deserted. Tifa ran over to the room Cloud and Barret were locked up, and their room was empty. Footsteps behind her told her and Aeris that guards were coming for them.

Tifa stood, too full of fear for what might be happening to Barret and Cloud to move. Rufus suddenly appeared around the corner.

'Don't worry, brat I haven't tortured the others yet. After your performance yesterday, I thought that it should be you that gets the honour, if you please, of going first. Come with us now,' said Rufus, failing to suppress a broad grin.

Tifa and Aeris knew too well to struggle, so they walked to where they were being taken to, led by Rufus, tailed by guards.

They quickly saw a new room that they had never seen before. They got taken inside there, and Cloud came running towards them. Yet another guard had suddenly hit Cloud around the head with his gun, knocking him unconscious in front of a fearful Tifa. She turned and saw that her friend had lapsed into silent tears. She knew what was going to happen. They were going to die through torture.

Tifa looked around, at the body of Cloud, still out cold on the floor in front of her, Barret, looking as though he didn't dare do a thing wrong. She had never seen him like that. Normally, he'd be attacking Rufus and everyone who got in his way by now. But he was terrified as well. Tifa's eyes swept over some sort of machine. It was a rack, used for stretching people's insides until they were ready for the enemy's needs. She couldn't help it. At the sight of this, she started shaking uncontrollably.

'What's the matter? Don't tell me brave little Tifa Lockheart is actually scared? Well, this is going to be interesting...' said Rufus, his cruel voice full of satisfaction. 'Guards! Take her! Make her suffer first,'

'This' stupid Rufus! If you gotta take someone to be first, take me!' screamed Barret.

Tifa was pushed onto the rack. She felt sick with fear. Her whole body felt like lead. She couldn't fight as her arms and legs were strapped in place. But she forced herself to use her voice.

'What is the point? What do you want?' she asked, faintly.

'What is the point? What do I want? I want you to regret the day you ever crossed Shinra Incorporated!!! That's the point! I'm going to give the signal to start, then I'm going to watch you, in pain. In fact, I don't know myself when I'm going to call it off,' he replied. He once again, laughed his scornful laugh.

Tifa started breathing rapidly. She was sweating worse than she ever had done before in her whole life. Suddenly, the guards started moving levers about and she felt her arms and legs, sort of, fight to get away from each other. It wasn't that bad until-

She was screaming louder than ever. Louder than before she got locked up yesterday. Then, in all the pain, she noticed someone else was screaming with her. Aeris! Tifa turned her head, and sure enough, Aeris was there, making no effort to stop the flow of tears, screaming at the top of her own lungs, in fear. Tifa was still in great pain. She felt as though her arms and legs were going to be pulled straight out of their sockets.

'STOP IT!!! please! I'll do anything! Just stop- ahhh!!' Tifa screamed suddenly. Rufus smirked, but paid no attention to her words.

She blacked out. Her vision was becoming more and more unfocused, and the last thing she remembered seeing, was Barret fighting off the guards operating the rack.

It stopped. She still couldn't see, but the pain lessened. The sounds of someone scrambling to their feet. Two people running towards her. She felt someone pick her up off the rack, another person supporting her. Her vision came back, as gradually as it went. Guards were holding back Aeris, Barret, and Cloud, who seemed to have just come round. Another two were dragging her along the room. Her eyes rolled hopelessly in their sockets. Her head drooped forwards. Her feet were dragging along the floor. The guards tipped her onto Aeris' bed, and left. About a minute later, Aeris herself came into the room, apparently having slipped off without anyone noticing.

'How are you now? Does it still hurt?' she asked.

Tifa couldn't speak, but nodded very slightly. It was true. The whole of her body ached all over, worse than when she woke up in the hospital after the newly lost war. The air was suddenly filled with what sounded like...Cloud's screams. Tifa collapsed backwards, and tried to sleep.

She was walking. She wasn't sure where, but it was somewhere. She saw a man in a Black Cape, who looked familiar, and she started to give chase. She chased the mysterious person into a cave. She saw a rack. She was in the torture room! The figure wrenched off its Cloak and threw her onto the rack. It was Rufus!

Tifa awoke with a start. She was sweating again, adding to when she was being tortured. She heard a strangled cry. Rufus seemed to have noticed Aeris was missing.

'Go! At least one of us can make it out without torture!' muttered Tifa.

'No, I'm not leaving without you, Tifa,' replied Aeris.

They both jumped as the door flew open with incredible force. Rufus was there, baring his teeth. He grabbed Aeris' upper arm, and dragged her out of the cell. Cloud came, not helped by guards, but on his own. He was pale. As pale as death. He was holding his left arm with his right, and was dragging his left leg, as though it was severely damaged, and he couldn't use it for support.

'Come in here Cloud,' said Tifa, in a strained voice. He hobbled over and flumped down on her bed.

'I thought they were never going to stop....it seemed to be hours...' said Cloud.

'Well, at least you never blacked out though,' retorted Tifa.

Cloud suddenly keeled over backwards onto the floor. Tifa gasped and tried to pick him back up. She was shocked to see that he had something that looked suspiciously like a tranquilliser dart. She was horrified to see this and, in an instant, forgot the ache in her body, forgot that she could face another torture session, and sped out of the unlocked cell. She ran all the way back to the torture room, where several guards were trying to subdue Dio. She ran towards to the one that was about to pin him onto the rack, and punched him in the back of his head with all the strength she could muster.

'Aeris! Help us!' yelled Tifa, staring at her. 'What's the matter with you?'

She was starting past Tifa, a look of terror on her face. Tifa whirled around. She looked around frantically for the thing horrifying Aeris.

'What's the matter with you, Aeris? Help us!'

Instead of coming to her senses, she turned on her heel, and sprinted out of the room. Tifa turned back to Barret, who was surrounded by guards that were trying to pin his gun-arm down and avoid being shot at the same time. In the shadows, Tifa could see Rufus watching with an air of great interest. He looked like he was trying not to laugh.

'Tifa! Go and find Aeris! Help Cloud! I'll be fine on my own!' shouted Barret. No sooner had he said this, Rufus had come behind him and hit him around the head with something Tifa couldn't make out. If it was a slightly harder blow, it could've been a killing strike.

'Psst...Tifa! In here!' whispered a voice.

Tifa turned and saw Aeris in another cell.

'Aeris! What are you doing here? Why did you run like that when I asked for help?' she asked.

'Look! Rufus spotted Cloud limp off after being tortured and he alerted one of the guards. That guard then shot him with a tranquilliser round. The poison must've just started taking effect,' she said. 'I knew this because Barret just about got to tell me before he was seized. I ran back here to find Cloud, and saw his body in your room,'

'He was talking to me, and he keeled over onto the floor,' explained Tifa.

'I nicked the round and examined it. He's not dead. The poison in the dart only knocked him out. But because it wasn't fired at his head or heart, the poison didn't take effect immediately,' whispered Aeris.

'How do you know all of this, anyway?' asked Tifa, amazed.

Aeris shrugged and then started towards the door. They both went back to the torture room. The pain was starting to come back now. The two girls spied on Rufus, and they saw all the guards standing around the rack. Twisting and turning levers. Then they saw the four binds on Barret start to move.

'Stay here,'

'Huh? What?' said Tifa. Aeris had gone off somewhere.

She turned back to Barret on the rack. The binds had pulled him exactly vertical. She never realised just how slowly they were tugging him. Maybe that's how they make being stretched more painful, thought Tifa. Aeris hurried over with Cloud, fully awake again, rubbing the top of his head, and a red hand mark starting to glow on his left cheek. Tifa put her finger to her lips, and pointed to Barret on the rack.

He had started screaming. The rack had started doing its job. They didn't stop torturing him right until...they had wrenched out Barret's gun-arm!!!!! Tifa suddenly had an idea. She looked around for something to throw. Then Cloud, guessing what she wanted, bent down and picked up an object, and handed it to Tifa.

'On three, I'm going to throw this, to cause a distraction. Then you two, have to go and untie Barret, and I'll keep the guards from getting you. One....two........' - she took a deep breath and prepared to run - '...three!'

Tifa heaved the object as hard as she could, in the direction as far away from the rack as possible. The guards stopped operating the rack, and turned to see what made the noise. Go! thought Tifa. Go and see what was thrown! Sure enough, the guards hurried over and started to look for the person that threw the thing. Aeris and Cloud sprinted over to the rack, Aeris undoing the binds at Barret's feet, Cloud at the one on his arm.

Rufus started towards them, but Tifa kicked him in the face.

'That one was for Nibelheim!'

Aeris and Cloud heard her cry and, unluckily for them, so did the guards. Rufus was still standing, stunned, but the guards started for Aeris and Cloud. Tifa tried to fend them off, but they shoved her to the floor, and wrestled Aeris and Cloud away from the rack. Away from Barret. They too, got thrown to the floor. The guards turned to face them. They got up, and stood defiantly.

'We're taking Barret back with us,'

'Oh are you, indeed? Well, I'd like to see that,' retorted the guard. 'Look behind you,'

Tifa, Aeris, and Cloud all turned around to see at least one hundred guards come into the room. Tifa and Aeris both gasped.

Tifa! Just take the others and go! Make sure that at least one of us can get out!! I'll get out myself!' shrieked Barret.

'But-' started Tifa, but Aeris and Cloud had started dragging her away. They stopped right in front of a solid wall of guards. Tifa flipped over them, and turned on her heel, knocked a few of them out of the way, to let Cloud and Aeris through. All three of them sprinted, probably for their lives, with only one last look back. Tifa turned back and saw the guards all chasing after them. She saw Rufus going livid, screaming 'get them!' and then grabbing what looked like to be a megaphone. They could hear Rufus's voice, magnified shouting.

'All SOLDIER, First and Second Class, head towards the third floor. Two girls and a boy trying to escape. Stop them by using any means necessary!!'

At these words, even more soldiers started coming. The only way they could get past them would be to fight them.

'Come on then! If you think you're hard enough! Come and hit me!' screamed Tifa.

She turned to face Cloud and Aeris. Cloud was drawing his sword, and Aeris was gripping her staff in a way that told Tifa she was ready to fight.

The guard behind Tifa attacked, and hit her in the back. She flipped backwards, landing on, and injuring another three guards. She then turned to face the on that attacked her. She brought the sharpest part of the knuckle-duster straight into the man's face. Staggering backwards, she then turned to the others. She fought, and swung her feet up, in any direction, with the theory that there was so many others, she was bound to hit a SOLDIER member, or Shinra guard.

Aeris was swinging her staff around her, but them a guard caught hold of the end, and as she struggled to get it back from him, another one came up behind and grabbed her around the neck. She did what Tifa would do in the situation, and kicked the guard holding her staff in the face. He went flying backwards, and bowled over a few guards that were advancing on Cloud. She then swung her staff backwards and hit the guard behind her on the head with the force of a runaway freight train. Then she ran next to Tifa and they both started attacking a massive group of guards together. Tifa threw Aeris into the air, and she then went sailing over Cloud's head - he gave her his sword at this point - and she then stabbed five guards through the neck with the blade. Tifa fought a SOLDIER member, First Class, and dodged his attacks with his sword. The man thrust the point of his weapon at Tifa's chest, but she grabbed the handle, swung the sword - still in the owner's hands - and pressed it through his chest. The body dropped in front of her, and she wrenched the sword from its feeble grip.

Cloud was in a fight with a SOLDIER Second Class, and the foe was very good at what he did. Cloud defended, attacked, but he couldn't harm this guy. He ducked as the blade came rushing over his head, and then Cloud moved swiftly. In a second, he was behind the Second Class foe, and with one quick move, Cloud beheaded him. He rushed over to Aeris and helped her out. Tifa somersaulted over as extra assistance. Meanwhile, Rufus was going mental.

'All SOLDIER members, not giving a damn about Class, get to third floor immediately. That includes any other Shinra soldiers as well!'

Almost every soldier had either been killed, knocked put, or just too injured to continue fighting, when the most skilled fighter Shinra had came along to help out.

Tifa, Aeris and Cloud could only stare in horror. This new foe was about five meters tall, and carried a sword in each hand. Tifa suddenly realised what it was.

'This is one of Hojo's experiments on making a.....powerful....soldier...we're dead,' said Tifa.

'Nice to see you're on the positive side of things Tifa!' said Cloud as he started swinging his sword at it.

The creature brought up a foot, and kicked Aeris away. Yet more SOLDIER members had arrived, but they were Class Three and Class Four, and therefore, not as talented and difficult to fight as First and Second Class. They lingered behind the massive soldier, only going to act if it was defeated.

It started towards them, Tifa facing away from it, looking for Aeris. Cloud suddenly jumped her from behind, and pulled her to the floor. They got up and faced the thing. It brought both its swords down and swung them at the two. Tifa got caught blocking the left sword, and Cloud blocking the right. It was determined to kill Cloud and Tifa, and tried to behead them both at once. Cloud blocked and flew through the air from the force of the blow, and into a wall. He slumped down, landing near Aeris' unconscious form. Tifa was on her own.

She had ducked, instead of blocking, and was now the only one out of three left to fight. The monster moved quite quickly, considering its height, and swung both its arms down. Tifa was forced to fall over backwards, to avoid being hurt badly. She landed on her elbows, and cried out in pain. She brought the blade up in front of her face, and the thing brought both of its down on top of hers.

The force was unbearable. She was struggling to keep her sword in front of her, but she couldn't keep it there much longer. The blade was sure to break from the pressure soon, and then she'd really be in trouble. If only she had a gun, then she'd be able to shoot the thing from a distance. Barret's arm!! he was still in the rack, but would she be able to use it? Surely, only the person that had it grafted into their arm could operate it? Well, she had to find out. She thrust her sword upwards, and rolled backwards to an upright position. She then turned round and legged it as fast as she could, over to Barret.

'Tell me, quickly, how do you use your arm?'

Barret gave her a blank and dazed look, which made Tifa think that his dose on the rack made him a bit...well, not all there anymore. But he could shout to us to go quick enough...she didn't have much time to think about it though, as the monster was creeping up behind her. She turned to face it, and could see that as far as appearance went, it looked almost...human. She could see it breathing. It probably had all the inner organs that a human would have, so she could kill it like a human!!! That was it! She, Aeris and Cloud killed a whole load of SOLDIER members, and Shinra soldiers, so she could use the same method on this. Get a grip on yourself. This thing is five meters tall! It has better skills and two swords! You don't have a chance on your own! said a voice in her head.

'Man, talk about positive thoughts!' muttered Tifa, sarcastically.

She ran over to Aeris. It didn't look like she was about to regain consciousness on her own. She tapped her head muttering 'come on, wake up!' under her breath, her eyes on the slowly advancing monster. She stood up, and kicked Aeris in the head, but this made no effect. She then turned to Cloud. She ran over and started shaking him vigorously. He groaned, but didn't come round.

'That's it. I'm completely on my own. What am I going to do?'

She picked up Cloud's sword, that had flown a small distance away when he was knocked through the air. Now she had two swords as well. She retreated until she was against the wall. She then took careful aim. She lobbed one sword at the monster's heart, but it just flicked it away. It didn't look very intelligent, so she might be able to use that to her advantage. She pretended to throw the other sword, and quickly hid it behind her back. The creature turned to see where the sword had gone, and while its back was turned, Tifa lunged it at the head, and it pierced the creature's skull easily. It started to fall, dark coloured liquid protruding from where the sword hit. It fell where the other Shinra and SOLDIER soldiers were watching, blocking them from her. As she ran towards Cloud, he started to stir. He sat up, and looked around.

'How did you manage to kill that thing?' he asked, gaping at the sight of the dead monster.

'I took your sword and lobbed it at its head,' replied Tifa. A sudden movement attracted their attention, and they turned to see Aeris was also starting to come round. She sat up, rubbing her head.

'Oh wow. My head. It hurts so much. It feels like someone kicked me or something,' she muttered.

'Can't imagine how that could've happened,' said Tifa, looking guiltily around, trying to show innocence.

She helped up Aeris and Cloud, and told them, in a wealth of detail, exactly how she killed the monster. Then she pointed to all the soldiers dying to attack them, but couldn't because of a five metre long body in the way. Cloud rushed over to a window and exclaimed that they could jump out of it, and escape. Tifa almost flattened this plan.

'Um..hello? Is there a brain in there? We're on the third floor. I didn't kill that thing so we could commit suicide by jumping out of a window, and what about Barret? He's not all there. In his head. What could we do for him?' Aeris dashed over to him, but once again, he gave that dazed look again. She started to tug him upright, and Tifa came over to help. Cloud remained gazing out of the window. Soon, Barret was upright, his right - and remaining - arm held tightly around Aeris' neck. Tifa however, was looking at the materia she had. She knew she had Bolt, as she had already used that. But there was a yellow one that caught her eye. It was a 'Sense' materia. This sensed someone's or something's HP (Health Points) and MP (Magic Points) She used it on Barret, and discovered that his MP was nearly full, but his HP was dangerously low. She examined the rest of her materia again.

'Oh damn, I don't have a 'Cure'. Hey, Cloud! What materia did you get given? Did you get a 'Cure'?' she shouted.

Cloud started rummaging in the recesses of his pocket.

'Yeah, I got a 'Cure'. Here!' he replied.

He threw it across the room, and Tifa caught it. She turned and concentrated on healing Barret, and making his HP full again. The next second, Barret unravelled his arm from around Aeris' neck, and picked up the gun that was still lying on the rack. He simply shoved it in the stump of a shoulder, and they heard a metallic 'click' and his gun-arm was as good as it was before.

'Hey, you guys. There's a tree almost underneath this window,' said Cloud.

'Yeah? And?' asked Aeris, rubbing her neck where Barret had been clinging on.

'Well, I was thinking that maybe if we do jump out the window' - Tifa tutted - 'we could land in it and climb down it to safety. And also, that way, we wouldn't have to waste our energy on the SOLDIER Third and Fourth Class people, either,' replied Cloud. 'No offense!' he shouted as he saw some of them shaking their fists at him in the corner of his eye. He laughed.

Barret had warned the others to stay back, and he shot out the window. Aeris went first. She jumped into the tree, hanging on for dear life. She steadied herself and called up to Barret, who leaped out the window next. He helped her climb down, while trying to steady Tifa, who jumped a bit too far, and almost went flying past the tree. She turned and glared at Cloud who was killing himself with laughter. In fact, Tifa thought she could see tears forming in his eyes from laughing so much. But before he jumped as well, he turned to the Third and Fourth Class people and shouted:

'I know that you all really wanted to fight us, but I used to be in SOLDIER, and I got to First Class, so you wouldn't stand a chance,'

Tifa scrambled down the trunk and landed next to Aeris and Barret. She jumped out of the way when Cloud threatened to land on her.

'Well, what do we do now then, Barret? Shall we go back to Biggs, Wedge and Jessie?' asked Cloud.

'I dunno. Maybe we should. But-' he said.

'Well, I think that we should be looking for Sephiroth. I also really ought to go back to the hospital. Whaddya say, Aeris? Shall we leave them to look for the twisted man?' interrupted Tifa.

They eventually agreed to all go and look for Sephiroth, but return to Cosmo Canyon Hospital, where Tifa regained consciousness after the war. They stepped inside the hospital, and was about to ask where Dio and Yuna were, when -

'Tifa Lockheart! What on earth do you think you were doing? Running away like that! You've been gone for days! Your father's livid!' screeched Yuna.

'Oh, Mum! I was in good hands!' complained Tifa. 'Dad livid? Not much has changed then!' she added in an undertone when Yuna walked off. Dio came into view, and he really did look mad. He looked as mad as he did when Tifa came home late after Zangan's lesson. He started to tell her off, but then spotted Barret, and both, him and Yuna gave him looks that showed nothing but ill thoughts.

'Oh. You're here. I assume you've been poisoning my daughter's mind with a dangerous taste for adventure?' he asked coldly.

'I haven't done anything except look after your daughter when she came to the pub in the Sector 7 slums. So just watch it,' he replied, his voice as easily as cold as Barret's.

'You've got a nerve. Still with that horrific gun grafted,' he sighed 'I thought you were looking after my daughter. Not using that gun a means of forcing her to do what ever you want. I know all about you, Barret,'

Tifa looked nervously between her father and Barret. She never realised they were enemies.

'Dad, I'm fine. I don't know what you're saying, but Barret has been very nice to me, and Aeris. Hasn't he? He's been nice to all of us,' said Tifa.

Yuna suddenly noticed Cloud was with them and pulled him into a neck-breaking hug.

'Umm...Mrs Lockheart? I'm, I'm fine. Well, can I um....get off?' Cloud wasn't sure how to get out of that politely, and motioned to Tifa to help him out. She walked forwards, and pulled her mother off him. Cloud explained how he managed to survive when Rufus came to destroy Nibelheim. Tifa then interrupted him.

'Dad, Sephiroth has that Black Materia! Rufus only wants the Nibelheim reactor to make more members of his army! We saw him!'

Barret started to ask her something, but with one look from Dio, he easily matched his anger. Tifa tried to stop them from arguing, but only made things worse. She told her mother and father that she was going to look for Sephiroth with Barret, Cloud and Aeris, but Dio blamed her choice on Barret.

'I knew it! She has had a hard time because of the war, and she sees you, you take advantage of her situation and make her help you out! Leave her alone. This is the last time I'm going to say it. If you don't, I'm taking action against you,'

At this point, he snatched Cloud's sword, and held it in front of him. Barret raised his gun-arm.

'Stop it! This is stupid! I chose to do this on my own! Barret didn't force me! I made up my mind on my own! No-one else helped me!' Tifa lowered her voice. 'I'm going to find Sephiroth, no matter what you say. I'm staying here overnight, then I'm going with Barret to find, and maybe even kill him. If you say I can't, I'm going to do a runner again. I want to get revenge for my scar,'

She turned to face Barret, Aeris and Cloud. Cloud held out his hand and asked for his sword back. Dio reluctantly gave it back. The woman behind the desk, was watching all this with her mouth open. She quickly turned her gaze elsewhere when she realised what she was doing. A small television somewhere started giving the news, where they heard a bulletin about Sephiroth.

'Sephiroth. Was known as 'The Great', but now people are starting to see their mistakes. He was last seen in Midgar three hours ago, and since then, there have been mass murders of almost every villager. The whole of Midgar is in terror as he is setting everything aflame in sight,' Not much more of this was heard as Tifa started running out of the hospital at full speed, trying to remember the way to Midgar. Barret, Cloud and Aeris turned on their heels and sprinted out after her, leaving Dio and Yuna watching, wide-eyed.

'Tifa! Wait!' Cloud shouted, panting from the effort of keeping up with Tifa. She stopped and waited for the others to catch up.

'Do you think that Biggs, Wedge and Jessie have heard the news?' she asked Barret.

'Probably. They are always keeping an ear out for stuff 'bout him or Shinra. We might even meet them in Midgar. They might even be able to see him and are already there, Depends what Sector he's in,' said Barret.

They arrived in Midgar a short while later, and they saw a terrifying scene. The whole of Midgar was in flames. There were dead bodies everywhere. They saw Sephiroth surrounded by people, murdering, and setting things on fire. He had his supporters. This surprised Tifa. Barret saw Biggs in the distance, running towards the support tower for the plate. Tifa and the others started running after him, trying to see where he was heading for.

'Barret, what Sector are we in?' asked Aeris. Barret stopped dead.

'Marlene. We're in Sector 7!! '

'The man said that there had been....mass murders...no! She can't be..! I won't believe it! Aeris! Can you go and make sure she gets somewhere safe while we attempt to take care of Sephiroth and company?' said Tifa, getting worried.

Aeris nodded and ran off. Cloud and Tifa pushed Barret to make him start running again. They clambered up the staircase surrounding the 7th part of the support tower, and saw Biggs, Wedge and Jessie, all trying to fight Sephiroth's supporters. Cloud and Barret ran past Jessie, knocked out the supporter trying to injure her, and carried on up the stairs. Tifa helped her to her feet.

'Oh Tifa...what are we to do?' she asked, but Tifa wasn't listening. She was staring above her head, and saw that the staircase went above her head.

'I wonder if I could jump up there and grab it. That would save me from climbing up all the stairs, and wasting my energy. Yes! I'm going to try! See you later Jessie!'

With that, Tifa somersaulted to the stairs above her, and hung there by her arms. Biggs, and the surrounding supporters stopped fighting to watch her. She tried to lift herself up, but could feel her grip loosening. She let go with one arm, and tried to get a better grip. Then she hoisted herself up. She got to her feet, used Ice3 on the people attacking Biggs, and carried on running. She ran up a few more stairs, and looked around overhead to see if she could do the same thing. Sure enough, there was a metal barrier above her. She could see Sephiroth trying to attack Barret and Cloud, and them dodging his attacks. She jumped up again, and grabbed the metal floor, not in Sephiroth's range of vision. She let out a cry that distracted him. He turned around, but could sense movement behind him. Cloud was about to stab him in the back, but Sephiroth turned and caught the blade an inch away from him.

Tifa raised one arm, and grabbed the first of three poles that consisted of the barrier. Barret backed away, as Sephiroth tried to catch him out with a deadly blow.

Tifa raised herself to the next pole.

Cloud locked swords with Sephiroth, which gave Barret a chance to catch him out. He stepped back, and prepared to shoot Sephiroth. Suddenly, he shoved his arms forwards, and Cloud went flying over to the other side of the Sector 7 plate. He flew over the barrier on that side, and clung onto the second pole with one hand, the other one holding his sword. Barret turned and ran after him, to try and pull him to safety. Sephiroth gave chase.

'Barret, behind you!!' shrieked Tifa. Barret whirled around, and ducked beneath Sephiroth's sword, which was flying towards his face. Tifa grabbed the third pole, and brought her feet up, so she could stand on the narrow ledge. She looked behind her, and saw that if she fell, she'd be dead. Then there was the grinding sound of metal on metal, and she turned again to see Barret, was blocking himself with his gun-arm, Sephiroth pressing forwards with his deadly sword. Tifa brought her feet up behind her, and flipped over the barrier. She somersaulted several times over Barret's confused head and landed behind him. She still had the sword from that SOLDIER member she fought in the escape from the torture room. She turned to face Sephiroth, and charged towards him. She slashed, blocked, ducked and backed away, but the situation wasn't improving.

'Tifa! Help!' Cloud! He was still hanging! Tifa did a backwards somersault and twisted in mid-air. She landed facing in the direction of Cloud and was running towards him. She could hear Barret shouting 'what are you doing?' after her, but she ignored him, and skidded to a halt in front of the barrier. She dropped her sword on the floor and reached over and held out a hand to Cloud.

'Give me your hand!' she said. He reached up with his right hand, but Tifa noticed that the grip on his left one was slipping. She yanked his right wrist and tried to pull him up, but his left hand let go. Tifa was holding onto the barrier with her other hand, and it was a good thing as well. Cloud's solid weight was too much for Tifa to take. She was dragged down, headfirst, over the barrier, only holding on to the top pole with one hand, the other one, still holding Cloud.

'Tifaaaaaaaa!!!' Barret screamed as Tifa fell over the barrier.

'Damn! I can't hold on much longer!' yelled Tifa to Cloud. She hooked her legs around the bottom pole, and tried to lift Cloud up. He raised the hand holding the sword, and threw it over the barrier, narrowly missing Tifa's head. He apologised and raised his now free hand up. He wrenched his other hand from Tifa's grip, and wrapped both hands around her waist. She got herself in a position to stand up, but then Cloud would fall.

Barret came zooming past, and hit the barrier hard, loosening Tifa's grip. She felt Cloud manoeuvre himself in a standing position in front of her, and shinny along next to her. He climbed over the barrier, and helped Tifa over. They lifted Barret up, and he went back to fighting. Tifa picked up Cloud's thrown sword, and handed it to him. She then took up her own. An ear-splitting scream made Tifa's very heart stop beating. She glanced down to the level below and saw Jessie, on the stairs, outnumbered by at least ten-on-one.

'Cloud, you stay here with Barret. I'll go and help Jessie,' said Tifa. She ran to the barrier on the same side as where Jessie was, and turned her back to it. She flipped over and grabbed the bottom pole, and held on for a split second then let go. In the few seconds she had before landing, she used Quake2 to help Cloud and Barret with Sephiroth. She landed in the middle of the supporters. One of them tried to slash at her, but she moved her head slightly to the left, so he missed. She sent her fist flying around her, knocking most of the supporters over the barrier on the stairs. She and Jessie had a go at knocking out the others. She raised her fists in front of herself, and blocked. She then punched someone in the face so hard, it broke their nose. She then raised the supporter up by her throat, and threw her over the barrier to her death. She and Jessie gave most of them black eyes, and nosebleeds, but this didn't stop them. They came back for Jessie and tried to throw her over the barrier. She soared over, but Tifa shot out her hand and pulled her back over. Jessie pulled off a fantastic trick that got rid of all the other supporters. She pulled back her fist, and punched the nearest supporter. The force of the blow was so hard, he toppled over backwards, knocking over the one behind him. All the others behind were bowled over, and fell down the stairs, to the bottom of support tower.

'Here, take this. You might need it,' said Tifa, and she handed Jessie her sword. Tifa jumped back up, and grabbed the bottom pole of the barrier. She lifted herself up onto the platform and grabbed Sephiroth around the neck. He snatched at her arms, and caught her right one. He flung her out in front of him, and carried on trying to disarm Cloud, and injure Barret. Tifa landed on her stomach, and just as she was about to get back up, two strong hands lifted her up off the ground. They turned her around, and she looked into the deep green eyes of Aeris.

'Aeris! What are you doing here? What have you done with Marlene?' asked Tifa, getting frantic.

'Calm down! Marlene's safe! I had to take her Cosmo Canyon Hospital and ask your parents if they didn't mind looking after her. It was the only thing I could do. Before you say, yes I know that Barret won't be too happy, but I couldn't do anything else,' replied Aeris. She picked up her staff, and she and Tifa went to help Cloud and Barret.

Tifa ran up to them and kicked Sephiroth in the middle. While he was bent over, winded, Aeris came up and hit him around the head with her staff. Barret gave her a quizzical look that said 'what are you doing here?' but Cloud just smiled at her. Tifa clasped her hands together, and hit Sephiroth in the back. He straightened up, and slapped her, so she went flying again. This time though, she landed on her hands, and rolled over. She turned, and ran back. Barret and Cloud were showing no mercy, but Aeris was trying to get out of the way of everyone.

Sephiroth swiped at her, but Tifa leapt in front of her and took the blow for her. Aeris screamed and ran to Tifa's side, blood blossoming all over her clothes. Aeris stood up, and performed Regen to make Tifa get her HP back gradually. But this didn't stop the flow of blood though. Tifa tried to get up, but was held back down by Aeris, who was examining the deep gash in Tifa's left cheek. It was bleeding a phenomenal amount, and still stung. Cloud turned to see if they were both okay, and then tried to stab Sephiroth in the stomach. He was in a fast and furious sword fight with him, Barret trying to shoot Sephiroth, but not Cloud, which was hard as they were both moving around so much.

Jessie came up suddenly behind Sephiroth and stabbed him right through his stomach. He stopped moving, but didn't fall down dead. Instead, his eyes glowed a deep blood red. A red outline appeared around him and he wrenched the rest of the sword through him, by the blade. He hurled it behind him, and turned around, seized Jessie and pushed her by the blade. One of the supporters had followed Jessie, and trod on the blade of the sword before she could pick it up. Tifa swung her right leg around, and collided her ankle against the side of Sephiroth's face. He still hadn't lost that red glow around him, or in his eyes. Cloud and Sephiroth both attacked at the same time, but this time it was Sephiroth that went flying through that air. He went sailing past Jessie and the supporter, and crashed into the barrier. The supporter dashed and knelt by his side, throwing looks of pure venom at Cloud. Sephiroth sat up, shoved the supporter out his way, stood up, and walked towards the pole supporting the Sector 7 plate section. He looked at a small bomb type thing on it. It was the Emergency Plate Release System. The supporter ran to his side again, and looked politely puzzled at the bomb. Barret, Cloud, Tifa and Aeris were all too stunned to move. They just watched. Then it twigged to Tifa what he was going to do.

'Barret, he's going to set the plate release system, and bring the people in this Sector to early graves!'

'Aeris, what did you do with Marlene?' asked Barret.

'Don't worry, she's safe,' replied Aeris, with a worried look at Tifa.

Cloud ran over to Sephiroth, and smacked the supporter, making him dazed. Sephiroth held up a hand, and the fingers found Cloud's throat.

'No...I'm going to do it. Not even you interfering vermin can stop me now. Do you think you can escape in time? Or will you join the others? Will you live, or will you die?' he laughed, and pressed the release button.

Instantly, they all felt the tower start to fall. Cloud ran back to Barret.

'Tifa! Over here!' Aeris shouted. Cloud was holding back Barret, who was going mental, and Tifa saw that Aeris had found a long, thick wire that would take them right out of Sector 7. Barret climbed up the barrier, and grabbed the wire. He then helped Aeris up the barrier, and she gripped Barret around the waist. Tifa then climbed up and held onto Aeris and Barret.

Sephiroth, who was watching them with a look of great interest, walked forwards and grabbed Cloud, clamped one hand over his mouth to stop him talking, or shouting, and waited to see what would happen.

Barret turned his head around to see where he had gone, and saw him in Sephiroth's embrace. He tried to shake Tifa off, to go and try to help him, but Barret started to fall forwards. He started to swing the long wire out of Sector 7. Cloud shot out of Sephiroth's grasp and ran to the barrier. Tifa was swinging, looking longingly at Cloud.

'Aeris, no matter what, don't let me go. Keep a grip on my ankles,' said Tifa.

'Tifa, what-' but that was as far as she got. Tifa had launched herself at the barrier, and a split second before she was to fall, Aeris grabbed her left ankle with one arm still wrapped around Barret for support.

Tifa caught hold of the barrier pole. She turned to see how Barret and Aeris were doing, and saw Barret looking as though he was about to pass out. Tifa moved her hands up the poles on the barrier and got to the first one, looking very odd with one leg suspended by a friend.

'Cloud, give me one of your hands. Quickly!' yelled Tifa. Cloud reached over and grabbed her free hand. Tifa let go of the barrier and Cloud clambered over it. They started swinging again. He started to fall, Tifa's grip loosening, but she grabbed Cloud's other hand with hers. He was upright, looking down at the floor, then up at the tower, which had started to make its descent to the floor. He looked up at Aeris, holding on to Tifa's ankle, and at Barret, going pale with worry. He saw Biggs, Wedge and Jessie, all in a huddle in the falling tower. Tifa let go of Cloud in one hand, and tugged his other arm up to give him a firmer grip. All the blood had started going to her head, and she was sweating a lot from the effort.

Barret suddenly let go of the wire with one hand and helped Aeris pull Tifa and Cloud up. Aeris grabbed the neck of Tifa's t-shirt, and pulled her up like that. She started to choke, and gasp for air. Barret helped Aeris pull her upright, and the three of them all brought Cloud up to as much safety you can get on a swinging thick wire.

Soon they were out of Sector 7 and Barret let go of the wire. All four of them went tumbling onto the floor, and lay there, unable to believe what just happened. Cloud tried to sit up, but couldn't and flopped down again.

'What...was that...all...about?' panted Tifa 'What...was that...for?' Barret pulled her to her feet, and then she shakily walked over to what would normally be the entrance to Sector 7. The tower had smashed right into it. The entrance was blocked, and everyone inside was dead. This time, there would be no survivors. Biggs, Wedge and Jessie were all on the tower when it fell. They had probably been crushed to death.

As for Sephiroth...well Tifa hoped against hope that he had also died. But she had a feeling that he hadn't. She thought that she remembered him saying that he was immortal, that he was above the Ancients. The Cetra. Above Aeris. She turned to Barret.

'Biggs...Wedge...Jessie...they're...dead...all because of Sephiroth, loads of innocent people lost their lives,' she said, her voice shaking with emotion.

'You don't say,' snapped Barret. 'Of course Biggs, Wedge and Jessie are all dead. I knew that one day Sephiroth would go too far. And well, that day has arrived. Ever since people started to look up to him, I knew, one day all that respect would go to his head,'

Cloud and Aeris both got to their feet, and gently pulled Tifa away from the entrance to the now demolished Sector 7.

'Aeris, where is Marlene?' asked Cloud.

'She's now at my house, I think. I had a friend round who wasn't up to long trips, so he's still at my house. Marlene was at Cosmo Canyon, but told me that she was going to go somewhere else, and was seen to my house. With Tifa's parents as well...' replied Aeris.

'What has long trips got to do with it?' asked Tifa, confused.

'Well, after the war you fought against Shinra, I came to visit you on my own. That was because my friend wasn't up to long trips at the moment. But he's very good at looking after people, so don't worry Barret,' she added, seeing Barret's features contort with worry. He started towards the Sector entrance and pounded his fist and gun against the metal screaming the names of people he knew in the sector.

'Biggs! Wedge! Jessie! Damn Sephiroth! I'm gonna get him if it's the last thing I do!'

'Hmm..is that a challenge? But you really ought to know better than to say silly things like that,' said a voice. Barret looked wildly around, and Tifa turned to see Sephiroth had appeared at Cloud's shoulder. He jumped backwards and glared, and Aeris screamed, then ran behind Tifa. Barret was going mental. He was about to launch himself at Sephiroth, to try and get revenge for Sector 7. Tifa ran in front of him, to try and stop him from doing anything stupid. Instead, he gave Sephiroth looks of intense loathing.

'Get out the way, you stupid girl. If he wants to die, then let him. Don't get in his way,' sneered Sephiroth. Tifa moved out of Barret's path, and watched him cautiously. Sephiroth bared his teeth. He looked more menacing than normal and drew his sword. Tifa could see in the corner of her eye, Aeris clutch her staff more tightly, and Cloud draw his own sword. Barret raised his gun-arm, prepared to attack. Two pairs of thudding footsteps alerted Tifa and she, and the others spun around. To Tifa's great horror, Yuna and Dio came running up looking like they were in immense shock. They both stopped dead at the sight of Sephiroth. Marlene froze behind them.

Sephiroth saw his chance and used it. He tried to stab Tifa in the back, but she backflipped over his head and landed behind him. she found several spikes on the floor that looked like they could be attached to her metal knuckles. She picked them up and slotted them in, trying to block Sephiroth's constant attacks. Aeris decided to help out and swung her staff low on the ground, tripping up Sephiroth.

Tifa jumped backwards, snatched Cloud's sword and pointed it at Sephiroth's chest.

'I wish you would warn me when you are about to nick my sword!' exclaimed Cloud.

'Shut up Cloud,' she turned to Sephiroth. 'What do you want? What is the point of summoning Meteor?' she said, referring the great ball speeding towards Earth. He stood up, knocking Tifa's sword out of his way. She was careful to keep it pointing at his chest, though. He said nothing. Aeris gripped her staff tighter still, her eyes fixed on Sephiroth. He suddenly attacked. He turned and wrenched the staff out of her grip before she could do a thing to prevent it. He swung it at her head and she spun round from the force of the blow. Dio ran over and caught her before she fell to the floor. Sephiroth had turned his gaze onto Yuna, who demanded to know what he thought he was looking at. He, once again, didn't reply.

Tifa crept up behind him, and as he started to turn, she threw herself at him, seizing him around the neck, and strangling him. He was doubled over, caught unaware. He straightened up. Tifa let go of him an backed away. Suddenly, he swiped at her and his fingers wrapped themselves around her neck. She choked again and was lifted high into the air. Sephiroth threw her at her father, and Dio was bowled over, Tifa landing hard on her elbows and knees. She cried out in pain. Her cry brought a grim smile to his face as he started towards Cloud again. Cloud bellowed 'what is your problem with us?' Sephiroth then stopped dead.

'What is my problem with you?' he repeated, laughing. 'I don't have a problem. I just want you dead,' He started forwards again. Tifa got to her feet and pulled Cloud out of the way as a long blade came rushing towards him.

Yuna, looking as though she was about to cry, whispered something to Dio, who nodded. He motioned to Tifa to give him Cloud's sword, which she did. He then walked determinedly towards Sephiroth and blocked another attack on Cloud with his sword. Cloud ran out of the way and performed Quake3 magic.

Dio started fighting with Sephiroth and was soon trying to behead him. Sephiroth, however, was too clever for that. He actually cut off the hand that was holding his sword. Dio slumped to the floor, holding the newly bleeding stump. Barret used Cure2 on him, and he got to his feet once again. Dio tried to fight left-handed with his sword, but it was no good. Sephiroth was pressing against every advantage he could get, and in no longer than five minutes, Sephiroth clasped his sword in both hands, brought back his arms, and stabbed Dio through his chest. His eyes widened in pain. His mouth hung open. He paid no attention to Tifa's consistent screaming, and fell to his knees, his attached hand holding onto the handle of Sephiroth's sword and he then keeled over backwards. He was dead.

Sephiroth walked calmly over to the body and pulled his sword out of its chest. Marlene started bawling loudly. Barret ran over to comfort her.

Endless streams of tears ran down Tifa's cheeks as she looked down at the body of her father. Aeris and Cloud gawped at her, still shaken by was they had seen. As Sephiroth advanced on her, she looked up at him and let out a great shuddering gasp. She backed away, her eyes filled with more tears and the look of fear. Four people Tifa knew had met their ends in Sephiroth. Tifa went over their names in her mind.

Biggs...Wedge...Jessie...Dad....I never got to tell him..how much I loved him...how much fun he was...thought Tifa bitterly. She screwed up her face against the howl of misery trying to escape her, trying to be heard. She ran over and buried her face in her mother's shoulder. She was too grieved to cry. She tried to comfort Tifa, her eyes passing over the dead body of her husband.

Tifa looked up at Marlene, who was still being hugged by Barret. She glanced at Cloud, who was holding Aeris by the shoulders, trying to stop her from hitting Sephiroth. She even risked a glance at Sephiroth himself, who was holding himself proudly, looking thoroughly impressed with himself. Tifa freed herself from her mother's tight embrace and punched him in the face. She kicked him as hard as she could and sped off and out of sight.

__________________________________________________________________________________

Tifa slept badly that night. All she could see was Sephiroth murdering her father over and over again. Several times she awoke with a start, screaming from the horror being replayed in her mind.

They were all staying in Aeris' house, but they had to share rooms. Aeris' friend had left her a note saying he had gone to Kalm, so there was just about enough room for them all, even without Dio. Aeris, who was staying in the same room as Tifa, wasn't sleeping at all. Tifa had woken up and screamed about five times in the middle of the night, and Aeris went over to her in the darkness to try and calm her down. Twice, she was reduced to a fresh wave of tears, and so Aeris had to wander around to get some tissues.

By the time morning had come, they all got up at about the same times. All, still looking distressed, but not as much Tifa did, who was still fighting off wails of misery. Cloud walked over to her and asked how she was, but she just threw her arms around him and broke down again. He rested his hands on her shoulders and gently steered her into a chair. She flopped her head down onto the table and carried on sobbing. Next to Tifa, Marlene looked as though she spent a sleepless night.

Aeris kept on wandering over to the window, as through expecting someone to come. Barret was sat in a chair opposite Tifa, his head in his hand. Cloud was leaning against the door-frame, watching Tifa. She looked up and gave him a weak smile. Aeris opened the door and greeted the person who was just about to knock on it.

'Oh, hello Cid. Come in,' She stepped aside and let the visitor step inside. He took a glance around the crowded room, at all the unhappy faces, and turned to Aeris, who shook her head.

She introduced the man as Cid Highwind. He lived in a small village named Rocket Town. Cid had a rocket that was to be flown into space, but he, the captain abandoned the mission at the last possible minute to save the life of a girl checking the oxygen tanks. She would've been killed by the heat of the engine if it took off.

Tifa stared at Cid for about a minute. He had light brownish-grey hair underneath what looked like to be goggles used when flying a bi-plane. He had a t-shirt that matched the colour of his hair underneath a blue jacket. He had navy blue trousers that covered brown boots. He also had a cigarette in his mouth. He took it out and stubbed it on his hand, then chucked it out the door. Yuna was sitting next to Tifa, with her arm around her, but she suddenly got up and walked up the stairs to her room. Tifa shivered and put her head back on the table.

'Hmm...nothing like coming to see a friend in such a miserable atmosphere,' said Cid.

At his words, Tifa looked up and glowered at him. Cloud started rubbing his knuckles, as though itching to punch him, and Aeris whispered for him to shut up. Barret didn't even hear what was said. Cid continued to look around the room for a few seconds, then took Yuna's vacated seat. Tifa shuffled along, away from him on her chair slightly. He must've noticed because he said 'Don't worry, I'm not going to do anything except rest myself,' Tifa continued to glare at him and then he seemed to recognise her.

'Are you Dio Lockheart's daughter?' asked Cid. Tifa stood up so suddenly her chair was knocked over, and was held down by Aeris, as she had just pulled back her hand, ready to slap him. Cloud stepped forwards to try and calm her down. Barret still wasn't doing anything. Cid just smiled at Tifa.

'You are. I can tell, you've inherited his willingness to attack at simple words,'

This was too much for Tifa's shortened temper to take. Cloud and Aeris were holding her hands to stop her from hitting Cid, but they couldn't stop her from kicking him. She brought her right leg up, and smacked her foot against Cid's chin as hard as she could. He stumbled off his chair and cried out. The noise brought Barret out of his daydreams, and he looked puzzled at Cid, at Aeris and Cloud holding onto a livid Tifa.

'How dare you insult my father! You - you...' she broke off and broke free of the arms holding her back, and pulled Cid to his feet by the neck of his shirt. She then wrapped her fingers around his neck, trying to strangle him.

'Tifa - no!' shouted Barret, and he rushed over to pull her off Cid. She ran off upstairs, crying again.

'Cid...you have to be very careful about what you say about Dio. You were right, she was Dio's daughter,' said Aeris.

'Was? Don'tcha mean is?' said Cid. Aeris started to answer but Cloud cut in.

'Yesterday, he was killed by Sephiroth. Tifa is still trying to come to terms with it,' said Cloud shortly, frowning.

'And she don't need the likes of you sayin' bad stuff 'bout him!' snapped Barret.

Yuna came back downstairs with Tifa, both of them giving Cid withering stares; Tifa seemed to have told her mother what was said about Dio. Cid looked slightly uncomfortable at the fact there were four people all giving him looks of nothing but ill. He stood up and apologised to Tifa, who ignored him. He then set off out the door, lighting another cigarette.

'Cid is a bit...well..um..'Aeris was struggling to find the right words. '...he tends to say things without thinking, but doesn't mean any harm. He just doesn't seem to understand sensitivity,' she whispered.

'Hey...where did Marlene go?' asked Barret suddenly.

'She came upstairs a minute ago and went into your room, Cloud. I think she was a bit offended by what was said about Dio,' replied Yuna.

Aeris glanced at Tifa. She had rather bloodshot eyes and had gone a nasty pale colour. She smile reassuringly at Tifa, but when she tried to smile back, her eyes brimmed with tears again.

Poor Tifa, thought Aeris. I can't even begin to imagine what she must be going through. I can't remember what it was like when my parents went.

'So...what are we going to do now then?' asked Tifa. Her voice was croaky. It kept quivering with emotion. She gritted her teeth and held her breath, trying to force back the tears.

'I dunno...Barret?' said Cloud.

'Well, I think we should stop Sephiroth -' here Tifa gave him a look of open-mouthed horror '- and try to stop him from hurting, or murdering anyone else. Well, you did ask!' added Barret, when he noticed that most of the crowd were giving him the same look Tifa was. Yuna however, walked over to Marlene, who had decided to see if the coast was clear from insults and arguing.

'What are we going to do with this little one?' she asked, nodding at Marlene.

Cid came back in, smiled at Marlene, then walked as far away from Tifa and Barret as he could. He pulled Marlene into a hug, but then let go when he spotted Barret glowering again.

'I could stay here with Cid...' said Marlene hopefully.

'Well, it would be safer for her then to drag her along to find Sephiroth. I suppose,' said Barret.

Marlene grinned at Cid, and clambered up onto his knees again.

'If Marlene stays, I want to stay with her!' said Tifa suddenly.

You have to come though Tifa. We'll need your skills in fighting to have any chance in stopping the raving madman,' said Cloud.

'Marlene will have to stay no matter what anyway,' added Aeris.

'If I go anywhere Sephiroth, I'll scream. You don't know what I went through last night. I could see Dad dying over and over again. Repeatedly throughout the night. I'm not going to go. I'm staying here,' retorted Tifa. She crossed her arms, a determined look spread across her face.

'What, and stay here with me?' asked Cid. It was a mark of how much she hated him because of what he said, because, as soon as Cid said that, she gave him another withering stare - identical to the one her mother was still wearing - and agreed reluctantly to help find Sephiroth, saying she'd rather risk her life than stay in Cid's company.

Ten minutes later, Tifa had all her stuff sorted out and was ready to leave. She was just about to go into the kitchen where Aeris, Barret and Cloud were waiting - Yuna also decided to stay with Marlene and Cid - when Cloud walked into her room.

'Do you really want to do this? I mean, well, you know...' he asked. Tifa heaved an impressive sigh.

'I don't really, to be honest, but I guess, even if you all didn't need me, I'd probably come anyway,'

'Why?'

'Because...because moving around might take me mind off that fact that my father is dead. It might help me to forget it, until we actually find Sephiroth,' replied Tifa. She sighed again. She slipped on her new and improved metal knuckles, just as Cloud wrapped his arm around her, and hugged her. She felt a sudden jolt in her stomach she knew had nothing to do with her nerves mounting higher about finding Sephiroth. She pulled away and checked that she had as many materia equipped as possible.

'How do you know how to use them?' asked Cloud.

'It's easy. I have Quake, Fire and Ice materia in my weapon slots, - she indicated the small coloured spheres in the little gaps in the knuckles - 'and so I can concentrate on using them, and then, I just, sort of, can,' said Tifa. She handed him the Cure, Transform, and Ifrit materia.

'All you have to do is, for the Cure materia, you have to 'chant' Cure, Cure2, Cure3 or Regen in your head depending which one you wanna use. For the Transform, you can either shrink an enemy, or turn then into a frog. This one doesn't always work though, depending on what you're fighting against. But you have to think 'Frog' or 'Mini'. As for Ifrit, you should notice that this one is red, and the other ones are green. That's because this one is a 'Summon' materia. You have to do the same thing, but instead of thinking 'Ifrit' you have to think 'Hellfire'. All the different 'Summon' materia have two names, and so in order to use it, you have to concentrate on it's second name,' Tifa took a deep breath.

'Um..what if you don't know what the thing's second name is?' asked Cloud, looking confused.

'Oh, that's easy,' - Cloud let out a sigh of relief - 'You're stuffed. Can't use it,' replied Tifa.

She picked up the little bag on her bed that contained more materia and walked out the room, leaving Cloud to try and remember all that she had said.

'Tifa, where's Cloud?' asked Aeris.

'He's currently in our room, trying to figure out everything that I said about using materia,' Tifa laughed.

'Well, that should keep him busy for a while. I see you're beginning to cheer up. Well, that's something,' replied Aeris. 'Hurry up Cloud, we're all waiting for you!'

They said goodbye to Yuna, Marlene and (some people did) to Cid, and set off. They headed towards Midgar again to see if Sephiroth had wrecked havoc on any of the other Sectors.

When they got there, nothing had changed. Sector 7 was still a wreck. The other Sectors were fine. They split up, and Cloud and Tifa went to Sector 8, and Aeris and Dio went to Sector 2.

'So, all we have to do is just ask people if they've seen Nutter Man?' asked Tifa. Cloud laughed.

'Nutter Man? No, we have to ask people if they've seen Sephiroth, not Nutter Man!' said Cloud.

'You know what I mean,' she replied scathingly.

'Hey, hey! Don't get moody! Joking...' he said. Tifa continued to glare.

'You really sure you want to do this?' asked Cloud.

'I don't want to do this, but I have to. That was what Daddy said to me when I told him that he couldn't fight in the war. You know. the one that I was in,' added Tifa. She sighed heavily. Cloud shook his head and placed a comforting arm around her shoulders. They asked quite a few people if they had seen Sephiroth, but none of them had. They also went to Sector 9 to ask people there.

'Excuse me, but I couldn't help overhearing that you are looking for a man in a Black Cape?' Tifa and Cloud spun around, and saw a small old lady standing behind them. She had stringy, long, dull grey hair, but vivid electric blue eyes. She grinned up at them revealing two sets of crooked, yellow teeth. Her nose was long and bent, as though it had been broken at least three times. She grinned, first at Tifa, who smiled nervously back, then at Cloud, who just looked puzzled.

'Um..yes, that's right. Um...long white hair, cold evil green eyes. Long sword...?' muttered Tifa.

'Well, you're going the completely wrong way for him, love. He is heading towards the Chocobo farms to capture one to get past the Midgar Zolom,' replied the old woman.

They thanked her and set off for Sector 2, praying that they wouldn't have to look for ages for the others.

'What's a Chocobo?' asked Tifa.

'A Chocobo? It's a bird that some people use to ride on. They're very big and some people use them to race against each other, so in certain betting places you can bet on a rider. As for the Midgar Zolom, I've not got a clue. We'll have to find out once we get to the Chocobo farm,' said Cloud.

They found Barret and Aeris quite quickly and told them what the old lady said. As Cloud and Tifa, they also had no idea what a Midgar Zolom was.

After a few long, hard hours, they arrived at the Chocobo farm. They saw that everyone in there had met death, which was a sure sign that Sephiroth had been there. There were a few spare Chocobos in the stables and Cloud was right. They were huge...they were roughly about the same size as horses, but they were all canary yellow, and were birds.

Tifa and Aeris got on the back of one. Barret and Cloud got separate ones. They rode over to a swamp that was near the farm.

As they were half way across, they saw a horrific sight that almost made the Chocobos tip them off in fright. They had found the Midgar Zolom. Tifa knew enough so she could say that it was a creature that lived in the swamp. But she was never told what it was. It was a giant snake. Its deadly looking fangs shone in the sunlight. It had a flat head like a cobra, but the tail of a rattlesnake. It was at least seventy meters tall.

Tifa heard a thudding sound behind her and saw that Aeris had fallen off into the marshy, muddy swamp. She got to her feet, and, losing her head, half ran, half waded across the rest of the swamp. She got out, swept off as much of the mud as possible, and ran though an opening in some rocks. It was about a second afterwards, they heard a shrill scream.

Steering the Chocobos away from the Zolom, they rode them into the gap after Aeris. Tifa stopped hers so suddenly at the sight now in front of them, she was flipped over the Chocobos head, and landed, duck-footed on the ground. Barret and Cloud were both staring in open-mouthed horror. Tifa had her hands clasped over her mouth. Aeris' skin had gone a faint, pale colour. She looked like she was going to pass out.

There, was another snake, just as big as the Zolom, but this one was dead. It was impaled on what looked like to be a sharp branch directly up on a tree. It was coiled around the tree, blood protruding from the many puncture holes in the dirty creature's skin. Aeris spoke, sounding as though she was talking underwater.

'Did..did Sephiroth do...this?'

'Our enemy is someone that can do this?' said Tifa, apparently to the world in general, but in the same terrified voice as Aeris. Now Cloud, and even Dio looked pale and trembly.

Tifa helped Aeris back up onto the back of the Chocobo and they all rode back out. They saw the alive and healthy Zolom waiting for them. The rattletail whipped at them. Tifa, Aeris, Cloud and Barret were all knocked off their steeds. The Chocobos took their chances, and ran back across the swamp. Barret pulled Tifa, - Cloud pulling Aeris - away from the Zolom. They went back to the dead one, and turned round to face it. Surprisingly enough, when they turned, expecting to see the dead snake, they didn't. Somehow, the place had changed. What they saw were lots of different stone tunnels, all except one were blocked up. The stone was an eerie blue colour with the occasional patch of acid green. But that was preposterous. You can't go into one place one time, and then when you go in the 'same' place again, you see something different! That sort of thing just didn't happen! But it had. It was also very unnerving. It felt as though Sephiroth was watching their every move, waiting, as though to lure them into a trap.

'W...where are we?' asked Cloud, in a small voice

'I dunno,' replied Barret in an equally small and pathetic tone.

'This...this is impossible! We can't just go to a different place without realising it! This has to be some illusion! This cannot be real!' shrieked Tifa 'He must be spying on us! Trying to make us lose our minds!'

Tifa shrieked and yelled and bellowed for Sephiroth to show himself, but the only answers she got were the echoes of her own voice.

Finally, they decided that it wasn't an illusion, and tried to find a way out. It was like being trapped in a maze. Twice they all hit dead ends in the unblocked tunnel, which had lots more, curving off to the sides. Tifa, being so sure of the way out, led them into the same wall twice.

'Tifa, you were also sure that this place was an illusion, and that Sephiroth was watching us, but you were wrong about that. You are wrong again. We have already seen this wall,' said Barret, sarcastically.

At last, they found their way out, ignoring the 'help' from Tifa, who became a hindrance more than anything. When they came out, they saw spread in front of them, like a dream, the beautiful surroundings that was Junon, the harbour of Junon, Fort Condor and many other places.

'Oh wow...look! Fort Condor! I heard that place is the only place that has Condor eggs! It's also the right season for them to hatch!' breathed Aeris.

'Correct me if I'm wrong, but I thought we were looking for Sephiroth, not gawking at Condor eggs...' snapped Barret.

'Umm...' started Aeris.

'I wouldn't test his temper if I were you,' whispered Cloud.

They headed for Fort Condor to ask people there about Sephiroth. They had no luck whatsoever. They were certain that he had been there, as all the people were, not dead as most people were after Sephiroth came to say hello to them, but they were in a state of shock, and couldn't speak.

'Well, I don't know. No-one here can tell us anything, so now what? Shall we try Junon? No, Aeris!' added Tifa when she noticed Aeris was looking longingly up a flight of stairs, where the Condor eggs were kept.

As they made their way around, to different places, Tifa was getting more and more apprehensive. They were looking for the insane madman that had killed her father, and many, many others.

When they reached Junon harbour, Tifa felt so terrified, she thought that if she opened her mouth, she would be sick. Her nerves were mounting higher and higher. Her stomach kept tightening. It felt like it was knotted up. She was shaking badly as well.

Cloud, noticing her trembling uncontrollably, squeezed her hand and smiled. Once again, she felt a jolt inside herself. She noticed that Aeris looked almost as bad as she did. She sidled over to her and whispered 'I'm sure it'll be fine once he's dead,' Aeris gave her a confused look, then realised what she meant.

Barret also looked nervous. Sweat was trickling down the back of his neck. Tifa watched him shiver.

A blurred shape up ahead made Barret stop. He flung out his gun-arm, to stop Cloud. He walked into it without realising it was there. Tifa and Aeris stopped and stared at Barret, who's eyes were fixed on the blur.

An odd prickling feeling started up right where her scar across her chest was. She ran a finger over it, as the feeling grew. She glanced up at the blur, puzzled. Cloud looked equally confused and asked her what she was doing.

'My scar feels odd,' she said. Aeris and Barret stopped looking at the blur to gaze at her instead. 'It...just feels weird. As though...I dunno. Anyway, never mind,'

They carried on walking, heading towards the blur. It seemed to be with something else, that was also blurred. It looked as though those things knew that they were being watched and didn't want to be recognised. But as they carried on walking, they started becoming more and more focused. They weren't focused enough to figure out what they were, but were getting clearer, all the same.

Tifa's scar still hadn't stopped tingling, and prickling. On the whole, it was starting to hurt. Not much, but it was growing still.

They stopped outside the entrance to Junon harbour, and Barret walked inside. He came back out two minutes later, with a blank, expressionless look on his face.

'Nope. All dead...'

Tifa took a few unsteady steps forwards, still gazing at the blurs. Suddenly, as though there was a thick fog concealing them shifting aside, they came into complete focus. Tifa stared. Rufus was there, and sure enough, so was Sephiroth. He turned his cruel head and grinned at Tifa. But as he spotted Barret, the grin became more like a grimace. Rufus just looked anxious at being in Sephiroth's company.

Now, there was complete pain. Tifa's scar was now searing with pain. She gritted her teeth, her eyes watering. Then she abandoned all pride and screamed a piercing scream that made Rufus howl with laughter.

She drooped to her knees. Her hands clutching the scar, she screamed, yelled, bellowed, roared.....then stopped. An odd dreamy feeling had come over her and she felt the pain drift away. All around her went black. Then grey. Then a bright white, that shone so radiantly, she had to shut her eyes. But the light shone through her closed eyelids. Then, there was no colour anymore. Nothing. She couldn't hear. Aeris' screams were fading...Couldn't feel. It seemed as though she was rested on air. She only knew that she as falling. Through what? It seemed as though she didn't land on anything. All her senses faded away.

It seemed to be about a minute or two later when she was awoke from her paralysing, fitful unawareness.

'Tifa! Tifa!'

She was being slapped around the face. Now, everything was blurred. She blinked. Aeris' petrified face kept swimming in and out of focus. Behind her, Tifa could just about make out Barret, holding back Cloud. She blinked several more times, so her vision came back completely.

Her scar felt almost normal. Now it had gone back to tingling. Tifa sat up, her arms drained of so much energy, they could barely lift her up to a sitting position. She tried to stand up, but that was like trying to run before she could walk. She was shaking so badly, and she had lost some much energy, she couldn't do it.

Aeris tried to lift her up, and Tifa tried to help her. But Tifa just couldn't force her limbs to move. Cloud wrenched himself free of Barret's grip, drew his sword, and turned to face Sephiroth and Rufus.

'Tell me Sephiroth, what did you do to Tifa?' demanded Cloud.

'I did nothing. Tifa seems to fear me. That's why she did what she did. Not anything that I have done,' replied Sephiroth in his deadly voice.

Tifa scrambled unsteadily to her feet. She swayed badly and almost fell back over. She took a few ungainly steps to Aeris, and tried to stay up. Aeris helped her to stay upright. Tifa was breathing heavily. She was still anxious of Sephiroth, he wasn't lying about that. Ever since they last met, he featured in all her dreams, waking up from them, in a damp, cold sweat. She shivered.

'Why did you kill my father? Why do you want us all dead? Why did you summon Meteor?' the words slipped past her before she could do anything. She felt that she was in petrifying danger, but half of her didn't. Half of her thought that they were all in danger when Sephiroth decided to attack. The sooner he stops talking, the worse.

'Why have I summoned Meteor? Why did I kill the obnoxious fool that was your father?' - Tifa bared her teeth at his words - 'Why do I want you all dead? Well, as I am sure you know, I am superior to the Ancients...no, the Cetra,' he said. 'When the planet is injured, Spirit Energy is gathered to heal the wound. The bigger the injury, the more Spirit Energy is gathered,'

He paused to take a breath.

'Imagine an injury that could threaten the very life of the planet. Think how much Spirit Energy would be gathered! Right in the centre of that injury will be me. All that boundless energy will be mine..I will merge with it, become one with it, and be reborn as a 'God' to rule over all forms of life!' he broke from his short speech with cruel laughter. Once again, he got that blood red glow around him, and in his eyes. A sight they hadn't seen since Biggs, Wedge and Jessie...

'Now, I shall kill again. Not Rufus, as I know you all want me to, but someone very dear to you. Someone with the initials T and L,'

Tifa gasped. She ran behind Cloud, and embraced his arm so hard, he winced. He forced her off him, and she stood, cowering still, with her arms folded.

'You see, Miss Lockheart, I have wanted you dead ever since you survived the slashing I gave you all those years ago. Just before I turned into the person you see before you now. When I was in SOLDIER First Class with Mr Strife,'

He started taking long, determined strides to Cloud and Tifa, both of them retreating slowly. Both of them scared beyond their beliefs. Tifa, breathing more heavily than ever, started sweating, and shaking again. She was now in that petrifying danger she thought about before. Barret ran in front of them both, and spread his arms out in front of him, normal, and his gun-arm.

'Take me!' he yelled. 'Leave Cloud and Tifa alone and take me instead! Please, I'm begging you. I don't normally beg to people stronger than myself, but..' His voice trailed off as Sephiroth advanced on him, seeming to be granting his wish.

Tifa and Cloud slowly moved away from behind Barret, watching Sephiroth's every move.

Barret looked determined now, as well. He shut his eyes, and drew in his breath. He held it. Sephiroth, smiled his evil smile at his victory. What he thought to be a victory. Aeris, Tifa and Cloud all huddled together. Flames surrounded Sephiroth, as he concentrated on using a deadly spell to finish off Barret. Barret let out his breath and drew in some more. The flames grew to a brightness that everyone around had to shield their eyes. Barret still had his eyes clamped shut. He was sweating as badly as Tifa, and seeming to fear greatly for his life.

Suddenly, Sephiroth raised his hands and conjured up a fireball in his cupped palms.

'I'll say hello to Biggs, Wedge, Jessie and Dio for you all,' whispered Barret.

A second before Sephiroth launched the fireball, Tifa ran towards Barret, avoiding Cloud's arms, trying to stop her. It was sent at Barret. The fireball flew at the speed of sound towards Barret, grazing Tifa's arm as she dived into him and pulled him out of the fireball's path.

They landed on the grass with a dull thump. Tifa got onto her knees, examining her grazed shoulder, when someone stepped in front of her. The figure's shadow washed over Tifa, and she froze on the ground. Reluctantly, she raised her view, but it wasn't Sephiroth in front of her. It was Rufus. Nothing to be that worried about then, she thought.

He picked her up by the scruff of her neck, a very ugly look on his face. He forced her face upwards, only to slap her. He let go and slapped her again. She fell over from the blow, but quickly climbed back onto her feet. Barret was still on the ground, looking stunned.

Rufus turned to Sephiroth, to find that he had disappeared. Tifa breathed a massive sigh of relief.

You might be safe for now, Lockheart, but don't think that you can hide forever,' sneered Rufus. 'The new Dark Lord will find you,'

Tifa stopped looking horrified and snorted.

'New Dark Lord? Rufus, you do go on a bit,' She couldn't hide her laughter, and this seemed to aggravate Rufus more. Before he could say anything, Tifa helped up Barret and turned round, and walked off with the others.

They walked on a bit, going nowhere in general. A sudden metallic ringing sound clanged through the peaceful air, making everyone start, then Cloud recognised it to be his mobile phone.

'You brought your phone with you?' asked Aeris, disbelieving. Cloud pulled a face and answered it. During the whole time Cloud listened to the chattering on the other end, he looked more and more confused.

'Who is this? How do you know me? What do you want?' Cloud pulled the phone away from his ear, looking at it as though it was a mysterious object. He hung up and put the phone in his pocket.

'Who was it, Cloud?' asked Tifa.

'I dunno. Not a clue. It was a woman, saying that I had better watch myself, if I want to thing I possess and cherish the most to stay with me. She too, rambled on about a Dark Lord. Like Rufus did. She said 'The Dark Lord will avenge all those mere humans that oppose him, and will deal with the ignorance that is the likes of you. Watch out, Cloud Strife, watch out...' what is that meant to mean?'

The clear, baby blue sky turned stormy. The blue turned to a purplish colour, and the very air turned cold. Beyond cold. It froze the blood.

Tifa turned to Aeris, and saw that something odd was happening to her. Her mouth was hung open, her usually deep, dark, sad eyes were bulging. Her pupils were reduced to slits, but her there was no colour in them anymore. The brilliant green of her irises had turned white. Thunder cracked, and lightning flashed. Aeris was suddenly suspended into the air, her arms a small distance away from her sides, her light brown pony-tail swirling in the heavy wind.

Barret, Cloud and Tifa watched as she shut her eyes, a bright piercing white light - as bright as the light that blinded Tifa when her scar burst with pain - shone from her fingertips, the ends of her feet, and when she opened them, from her eye sockets. Cloud placed one hand above his forehead to shield his eyes, Tifa did the same, and Barret squinted at the airborne figure.

A white glow shone round Aeris as well, then a ghostly voice sounded, in Aeris' voice, but she wasn't moving her lips. It seemed to be carried on the wind itself.

'Beware, Cloud Strife. Your most precious thing will be gone soon. It will be snatched, snatched by destiny. Fight it, and you will lose. There is nothing to stop the inevitable. Beware....'

Another fork of lightning lashed the ground, and it cracked apart. The massive gash in the ground grew, revealing hot lava in the pit of the earth. Barret ran away, Cloud stumbled, as though something wanted him to fall in, but Tifa couldn't move. She watched in complete terror as the hole in the ground became bigger and bigger. Unless she moved, she was going to fall in! She yelled to Cloud to help her, but as he started to move towards her, the gash grew faster. Something wanted her in the lava!

Soon there was a deep trench in the ground, separating Tifa from Cloud and Barret. Aeris was hovering directly above the lava filled slash in the ground.

The edge was now at Tifa's feet. This was it. This was the end. She swayed forwards, then backwards, circling her arms forwards, trying desperately to keep her balance.

She slipped. She fell into the hole, the last sounds she would ever hear was the screams from Barret and Cloud, and the whistling and wailing from the wind in her ears, as she fell.

__________________________________________________________________________________

As the wind whistled in her ears still, Tifa looked about her and saw the ground close up again. She had fallen head first into the gap. She saw a rock sticking out of the ground looming towards her. She stuck her arm out and grabbed it. Her fingers closed around it, and she was clinging on to life on this jagged rock. Her free hand found another one, and she grabbed that. Looking downward, she spotted more and more of the rocks protruding down. Like handholds. She carefully climbed down and landed onto a small, stone pathway next to the river of lava. She glanced up at the 'ceiling' where she had fallen and wondered how Barret was taking this.

He was in fact very close to tears, something that doesn't happen very often.

'Tifa! Please, for the love of God, don't let her be dead!' screamed Barret.

Cloud was in shock. Was this what was meant? He had lost a good friend...was this the most precious thing he was going to lose? Now that he thought about it...he was very fond of Tifa. He liked her more than life itself. He realised that he even loved her. She was the most precious thing that he possessed! Her friendship! So that meant...that she must be dead. He walked over to Barret and pulled him to his feet. Barret stopped pounding the ground with his fist where Tifa fell and allowed himself to be steered upright again.

'Barret...I don't know how to say this, but...oh, who am I kidding? 'Your most precious th-thing will be gone s-soon. Snatched, snatched by destiny.' She..I never got to say...' his quavering words trailed off. Neither of them noticed the sky turn a deeper shade of purple, or Aeris fall out of the air, her eyes still blank and colourless.

Tifa wasn't that worried, to be honest. Yes, she was slightly nervous, but not much. She ran along the thin pathway that followed the snaking river. Several times she had to stop and listen, because she thought that she could hear cruel sniggering somewhere up ahead. She ran on, her foot catching on one of the handholds that had fallen. She tripped, but carried on running. She stopped and listened. There was something there with her! She scanned the path ahead, behind, the walls, and looked in the lava for the sniggering creature. At last, she decided it must be right above her head and found a place to try and sleep. When she woke up, she carried on exploring the pathway, extremely glad that she didn't got for a swim in the lava while being asleep.

She arrived at a fork and walked along the left one. When she came to the end, she discovered that it was a dead end, but a huge creature was....sitting? Fast asleep? What was it? It was very big, bigger than the elite Shinra soldier she killed, but smaller than the Midgar Zolom. But pretty big, all the same. As it exhaled, a great stream of fire burst from its mouth. It had horns in its head, like a bull's. Also, massive wings. It was a murky dark green colour, and scaly.

Tifa gasped as she recognised it. She hadn't used that particular materia herself, but had watched someone else use it. She watched in awe as the creature ripped the ground apart and flamed the air. It was the summon monster, Ifrit. It was Hellfire. It stirred and woke up. Tifa looked around for somewhere to hide, but the monster growled and hit her with a scaly hand. She zoomed away and hit the wall with a sickening crack and fell to the floor, her nose bleeding, and unconscious.

Aeris still was on the grass, Barret and Cloud unsure whether they ought to try and bring her round or not. They sat beside her on the grass, wondering what had happened to Tifa, hoping that she had a painless death. They both were still in great shock and both wished they had said certain things to her...while they still had the chance.

Barret lay back and shut his eyes. Cloud wondered if he could see Tifa falling again and again, every time he thought her name. Cloud let his gaze wander over to Aeris' unconscious form on the grass, Barret, lying flat out next to her, and the place where the ground split open.

Barret sat up. He rubbed his eyes and looked around.

'No change with her then?' he asked, nodding at Aeris.

'What do you think?' replied Cloud, scathingly. He too, looked at Aeris. She seemed almost peaceful lying there in that fashion, but how peaceful would she be when she found out what her eerie transformation did?...Cloud didn't blame her. But when she..went like that, it started thundering and lightning started flashing in the sky. It was a fork of lightning that cracked the ground apart...

Aeris actually started to stir. She sat up. Barret shifted himself away from her.

'What's your problem?' asked Aeris, looking at Barret.

'Look around you,' said Barret. His cold voice didn't at all hide the fact that he blamed Aeris for Tifa falling. Aeris looked but didn't understand. It wasn't until Barret said 'notice anyone missing?' that Aeris realised Tifa wasn't there.

'Where's Tifa?' asked Aeris. Cloud quickly glanced at Barret, who was starting to get insane with anger. He screamed Aeris' question at her, and she never looked so bewildered. She couldn't understand why Barret had gone so livid.

'You ask where Tifa is, without remembering WHAT YOU HAVE DONE?' shrieked Barret. Aeris mouthed wordlessly, trying to say something, but faltering under the glowering glare that Barret was giving her. Cloud stepped up and dragged him away. He sat Barret down and turned to Aeris.

'You don't remember what just happened?' he asked. She shook her head.

'Hmm...well -' started Cloud.

'Why is the sky purple?' she interrupted.

'If you'll let me explain...right. It sudden went really stormy and cold,' said Cloud.

'I remember that much. But then what happened?' asked Aeris, completely perplexed.

'Well, you went..sort of..strange after that, The sky turned purple and you went...odd,' Cloud continued telling Aeris what had happened, and she was listening, open mouthed.

'So then she fell in the crack in the ground, and it sealed up. We're guessing that she's...back with her father,'

Aeris could barely believe what she was being told. Cloud reassured her that he didn't blame her at all for what happened, and made Barret say the same thing, even though he didn't mean it. Barret calmed down eventually, but was still hacked off with Aeris' apparent nerve for not remembering what had happened. Cloud watched her raise a mirror to her face, gasp and drop it in surprise.

'My...my eyes! What...is this what I looked like when..you know?' asked Aeris quietly. Cloud nodded and sighed.

'It's weird. Sephiroth turns up with Rufus, Tifa...I dunno..had that fit of pain from her scar. Sephiroth disappears soon after that, leaving us with Rufus. He goes on about a Dark Lord. Oh no! Do you think that Sephiroth is going to team up with Shinra?' said Cloud.

'I very much doubt it, Cloud,' replied Aeris, her voice full of fear. 'Sephiroth is well known for always working by himself. Good, or bad,'

Barret opened his mouth to say something, but was startled by a woman of about thirty running up towards them. She had a vexed expression on her face. Her blonde hair was flying behind her, her cold blue eyes fixed on Cloud. She wore a navy blue blazer, trousers, white shirt, and black shoes, like a uniform.

In no time, she was right behind them. Cloud started and leapt aside. Aeris glared at her.

'Who are you?' she demanded.

'I am a mere minion of the Dark Lord. But I shall rise through the ranks, and help his supporters do his bidding,' she had a mysterious voice.

'Hang on, I recognise your voice...you're that freak that phoned me up!' cried Cloud. The woman nodded. She hadn't looked at anyone else yet. She only started at him. She saw Barret raise his gun-arm in the corner of her eye, and she held up a hand, and lowered it again. She shivered.

'What do you want with me?' asked Cloud, his voice turning shrilly. The woman didn't answer for a while.

'I am called Elena. I currently work with the Turks, who help Shinra. But I also help The Great Sephiroth. When he rises, I shall break free from my prison that is the so-called 'law and order'. I shall go to Hell, and Cloud Strife, you're coming with me!!' She then laughed an insane laugh, and grabbed Cloud wrists. He struggled and broke free again, backing away, and drawing his sword.

'Oh, so you want to fight, do you? Alright, no weapons. Just materia. You and me,' whispered Elena. 'I see my well placed spell on your friend here' - she nodded at Aeris - 'worked well. That brat, that my master wants dead has met her end. Just think, the Dark Lord has been unlucky in trying to kill her for years now, and I will be rewarded beyond my wildest dreams when he finds out that I have done the deed for him,'

Cloud wanted to ask what her warnings were all about, but Barret and Aeris started tugging him away from her, giving her apprehensive looks. After they had wandered out of Elena's sight, they discussed what they were going to do.

'I think we should go to Aeris' house, and tell Yuna what had happened,' said Barret.

'That would practically kill her soul if we tell her that. When you think about it, Tifa and Dio, not to say thousands of other people, have met their ends in Sephiroth. I think we should tell Yuna after she has gotten over the after shock of Dio. Anyway, Tifa might not be dead,' ended Aeris, hopefully.

'Aeris, I want to believe that Tifa is alive as well, but I really can't see how she would survive. There is a small pathway of stone down there. I saw before the ground closed up. She would be crushed to death by the fall. Even if she didn't die like that, the lava river would...' trailed off Cloud.

In the end, Barret persuaded Aeris to go and tell Yuna the tragic news. They wandered back slowly, keeping an eye out for anything out of the ordinary. They didn't see anything until they got back to Aeris' house. When they walked inside, the whole house was empty. There wasn't a note, which might say where they all were. Yuna, Cid and Marlene were all gone. Barret was quite beside himself with worry, running room to room, shouting his daughter's name.

The front door burst open, to reveal Yuna, her clothes torn, holding her left shoulder, which was bleeding, and dragging her right leg. Aeris ran over to her and helped her into the room. She set Yuna down on a chair and asked what happened.

'Some people from the Turks came. Three men and a woman. They tried to get Marlene, to take her hostage, so that they could force you all to stop hunting Rufus. I tried to block them from her, and Cid took her away. I have just had to go all they way to Mideel, which is very far away, to make sure they are both safe. This is what they did to me,' she said.

Yuna showed them her injured leg, and it wasn't a pretty sight. There was a large gash going from her knee, all the way down to her ankle. There were lots of cuts on her face, and Cloud could see a black eye forming. She then showed them her shoulder. It looked very badly burnt, and also had a gash in it, which was still bleeding. The rest of her left arm was covered in bruises, and scars.

'Yuna,' said Barret very seriously, 'we have something we need to tell you. Umm..I'm not sure quite how to say this, but we had a bit of an accident, and well, Tifa is dead. We're sorry,'

Yuna looked as though the world had come to an end, and tears rose in the corners of her eyes. Aeris walked over to her and placed a comforting arm around her. Yuna sobbed into her shoulder.

After a few more distressed minutes, Cloud, Aeris and Barret set off again. They walked around and ended up back at Cosmo Canyon. They were walking around there, when Cloud stopped in his tracks.

'If, say Tifa is alive, then we might be able to get her back with us!' said Cloud.

'How?' asked Aeris and Barret.

'Easy. She fell into a lair, I reckon. Sooo...the Summon monster Ifrit, lives in a lair, doesn't he? If Tifa has walked into its lair, then, if it gets Summoned, she'll probably try and hold on to its leg or something, and will get brought back up to us!' He beamed at Aeris, who was chewing on her lower lip anxiously, and Barret, who said 'that's a good idea, with one little flaw. If Tifa did run into Ifrit, then it will kill her anyway, and she might not have even seen it. So...your idea might not work,'

'Well, there's one way to find out, isn't there? She gave me the Ifrit materia, I'll Summon it, and then we'll see!' replied Cloud. He faced the area of field in front of him. He thought hard, concentrated more than he ever did in his whole life, and didn't stop when a slight tremor in the ground started up.

Tifa regained consciousness, to find herself in Ifrit's grip, about to be flamed. It dropped her, looking upwards. She landed painfully on her hands and knees, and scrambled away. It seemed to have been attacking her while she was unconscious, as her face burned with claw marks, and her t-shirt had a gaping hole in it. She too, felt the sudden tremor that distracted Ifrit from her. She watched it draw itself up to it's full, impressive height, and start flying up.

Tifa climbed to her feet, and sprinted, jumped and grabbed onto its foot, as it soared upwards still. She clung on more tightly, and shut her eyes, as it pierced the ground with its horns. She would try and find Cloud, Aeris and Barret when it went back, providing it didn't try and take her back with it.

Aeris, Cloud and Barret all watched the spot where Hellfire was meant to come, and jumped in surprise when the horns lashed the ground out of the way. Ifrit flew upwards, and squinting, Barret thought he could make out a small figure hanging on for dear life on its foot.

As the huge creature saw it was a false alarm, and gathered speed towards the flaming pit again, the figure released its grip, and landed, splay-legged on the ground. It straightened up, and stepped out of Hellfire's shadow, shielding their eyes from the sunlight, as it washed over them, bringing them into view.

'Tifa!' screamed Aeris, as she, Cloud and Barret all ran towards her. 'You're alive! But, how?' Tifa had to fend off Barret from hugging her so she could tell them her story.

She said, about how she grabbed the handholds and climbed down them, how she followed the lava river, about the sniggering she could hear, and about finding Ifrit. She then took a breath and said about how it attacked her, then when it was Summoned how she grabbed its foot.

She turned to Aeris, who hugged her, and then to Cloud.

'Oh, Tifa...' he said before he pulled her into a hug as well. 'Come on, we told your mum that you were dead. Let's go tell her that we are wrong,'

As they walked back, they filled Tifa in on what she had missed. She listened raptly, and threatened to get the Turks back for injuring Yuna.

Cloud stopped in front of Aeris' front door and whispered something to Tifa. She smiled and nodded. Cloud walked in and called to Yuna. She came limping still, and bleary-eyed, and asked him what he wanted.

'We have a little surprise for you. We know that it will cheer you up immensely,' Yuna snorted and said, 'I don't mean to be ignorant, but nothing can cheer me up at the mo- Tifa!' despite the pain in her leg, Yuna ran and embraced her daughter. 'I thought you were dead!!'

Tifa smiled again and told her that it was Cloud who saved her. Yuna beamed at him. She looked as though all her dreams had come true at once.

They rested peacefully that night, Cloud still marvelling at the fact that his idea worked, and that Tifa was still alive. Tifa herself was very glad to be out, and back with her friends, and she admitted that she wasn't actually very worried. She described what it looked like, the stony walls, the lava river.

'It was mainly a reddish-orangey colour, but it had streaks of yellow in it. The heat that was radiated off it was incredible! It was like sitting in an oven!'

At ten minutes to midnight, they called it a day and went to bed. Tifa dreamed of her rescuing over and over again, reliving the feeling of hope, when Ifrit started upwards.

She fell into a deep sleep for most of the night. When it became morning, Tifa woke up, but kept her eyes shut, trying to drift off again. She started wondering what had caused her return to consciousness, when she could hear voices. Angry voices. She got up, and started down the stairs, but stopped when she heard she sound of someone being slapped. She crouched down and spied on the people below her, holding onto the banister, to stop herself from falling.

She saw three men, all wearing the same uniform as Elena, so they must be Turks! Two of them seemed to wear them with pride, but one looked like a complete mess. His spiky red hair was drawn back into a pony tail. He had brown eyes, a navy blue headband, just visible underneath his hair, and his shirt was untucked. He looked as though he was the leader of the three, and was keeping an eye out for anyone spying. Tifa ducked more out of sight. One of the others, was bald, with dark eyes hidden behind sunglasses, and an evil sneer. He was holding Yuna single-handedly. The last of the three had long black hair in a pony-tail, very cold eyes, and he was fighting off Cloud and Barret. Aeris was unconscious.

Tifa decided to do something to distract the untidy one, to make him come away from his colleagues, so she could help Cloud and Barret. She moved quietly back up the stairs and seized the first thing she saw in her room. It was a pen. She hurled it down the stairs, and it hit her target on the head and bounced off.

Wow, thought Tifa, he must have a head of rubber for the pen to bounce that far! She stifled her laughter and ducked out of sight.

'What's the matter, Reno?' asked the bald man.

'I think someone threw this pen at me. Hit me on the head. I'm going to go and check it out,' replied the untidy man, Reno.

Tifa silently ran into her bedroom and listened to Reno's footsteps as he came up the stairs. She hid behind the door, and when Reno stopped, looking into the room, Tifa jumped out, and punched him on his nose.

'What the? - Ow! You'll pay for that, little girl!' shouted Reno.

'You talk hard, but can you keep your word? Or are you afraid of hitting a little girl?' sneered Tifa. She laughed as Reno threw a punch in her direction, and hit the wall.

'What's the wall ever done to you?' laughed Tifa. Reno aimed a kick at her face but she just dodged that as well. This time, Reno's aim was true. He shot his fist at her so fast, she couldn't get out of its way. At the last second, Tifa pulled up her left hand, and caught Reno's, blocking his punch. She then turned, bringing her foot up, and her ankle caught Reno near his eye. Tifa let go of him and slapped him around the face ten times.

He stopped, stunned. She ran behind him and punched him in the back of his head. Reno fell to the floor, unconscious. A cry from someone downstairs made Tifa go back to her hiding place.

'Tseng, go check on Reno, will you? I'll keep a hold on this one,' Tifa heard a smack, and a cry of pain which told Tifa someone hit Cloud. This time, Tifa wasn't going to hide. She ran halfway down the stairs, and then she jumped over the banister. She stuck her feet out, and caught the bald man holding Yuna in his back.

Tifa landed hard on her elbows, but, ignoring the pain, she scrambled back up to her feet and turned to face the long haired man. She hated to admit it, but she thought he looked cute. Oh well, she thought, I'll still have to beat him up.

'Do you want me to put this - this woman aside, and help you with kiddo, there?' asked the bald man.

'No, Rude, that's OK. I can handle it,' Tifa let out a shriek of laughter. 'Rude? What sort of name is that?' Rude pushed Yuna, but stuck his foot, tripping her up. Tifa glared at him.

As Rude and the other man - who she assumed must be Tseng - started towards her, and Tifa turned on her heel, and ran down the passageway, where the front door is. Tifa realised she was heading to a locked door after she had started running. Also, she never noticed how long this passage actually was. Rude shouted 'you're trapped!' as the door loomed up.

When Tifa came very close to the door, she stuck out her foot, and started running up the door! She flipped behind Rude and Tseng, who both looked puzzled, and she slammed their heads together. Then, she grabbed Tseng by the back of his blazer and flipped him past her hip. He landed on his knees, and tried to get up again, but Tifa shoved him back down on the floor with her foot, and turned to Rude, who shrank as far away from her, into the door as possible. She pulled back a fist, and hit him in the forehead so hard, his head hit the door, and then smashed almost all the way through it. He slumped down the door, and landed in a heap at Tifa's feet. She turned back to Tseng, who was lying on the floor as still as possible, to try and avoid being punched anymore. But Tifa couldn't leave him pretending to be unconscious, after they had left Aeris like that, and after she knocked out two out of the three Turks. For some reason, Tseng thought it was safe, and started to get up. Tifa simply kicked him in the head, and he fell back down, for a long sleep.

She walked to Aeris, Cloud and Barret. Cloud was sporting a bloody nose, and Barret had a black eye. She shook Aeris awake, but didn't kick her in the head. Cloud went to help up Yuna. She started to say something to him, but a shrill, ear piercing, heart stopping scream came crashing through the otherwise, peaceful air. Aeris looked out the window, and the colour drained from her face as though someone had pulled a plug.

'What's up, Aeris?' asked Yuna. Aeris gulped but didn't answer. Instead, she ran to the front door, unlocked it, and peered out. She swore loudly and drew her head back in quickly.

'Cloud, you were right. I think Shinra and Sephiroth have joined forces,' Tifa stumbled backwards from surprise, and Cloud stopped her from falling.

'How do you know?' she asked. Aeris motioned for her to look out the window. Cloud, Barret, Tifa and Yuna all crowded around the window and looked out. They saw Sephiroth and Rufus, plus Sephiroth's supporters all going around murdering people. They used the Enemy Skill materia, and have learned to use Death Sentence magic from an evil creature somewhere. Death Sentence called up the power of some sort of Grim Reaper type being that slashed the sentenced person with its sword, killing them instantaneously. They were also moving closer and closer.

Barret ran out, with Cloud on his tail. Aeris asked Tifa whether to follow them or not, and ran outside. Barret had gone quite close up and started shooting the supporters, who were happily guarding Sephiroth and Rufus with their lives. Cloud called up the power of Ifrit once more and Tifa watched Aeris conjure Shiva, or Diamond Dust, the Ice Summon creature. After the heat from Ifrit disappeared, a slight cold settled in. Shiva was coming.

Shiva was a woman, with pale blue skin, and dark blue hair. She had a marking of some sort on her forehead, and was quite pretty. She waved her left hand, making icy waves float over to Rufus and Sephiroth. Then a tidal wave of pure ice came rushing towards, and engulfed them. The ice drew back, and Shiva faded.

A blast of lightning right in front of Tifa told her that someone had used Bolt magic on Aeris. Cloud rushed forward to heal her. Tifa was stunned. She didn't know what to do. She settled on using her materia. She thought hard. Quake3,...Quake3,...Quake3...another tremor told her that she had done her job. Then she though on using Ice magic.

It was in a split second after she used Ice3, Sephiroth and her eyes met. Her scar burst with pain again. Sephiroth tried to get past all his supporters, to get closer to Tifa. He stopped and used Death Sentence on her, but before the spell hit her, Barret and Cloud both came running. Barret jumped in front of her and took the blast for her.

'Barret...you, you're going to die! He used Death Sentence!' gasped Tifa.

'I know. It's better if I die than you. Trust me,' he ran off trying to get a good shot at Rufus. Tifa screamed as a supporter threw a throwing knife at her. She caught it a centimetre away from her face and threw it on the floor. She attacked a group of supporters attempting to slaughter Aeris' next door neighbours. Tifa used Fire3, which hit all of the supporters in the group, stunning them. She let out a shudder as icy fingers wrapped themselves around her neck. She shut her eyes, and kicked out behind her. She hit the person behind her, and turned to face them. Another supporter was there. But it was the sudden appearance of something further on, that interested Tifa.

A lot of black smoke started forming, and was swirling in a circle, piling up on top itself, like a coiled snake in front of Barret. It turned into a monstrous being. It had white skin, as white as a skull, wearing what looked like to be the remains of a black robe. It had a red cape on, which was flowing in the wind, and a long sword, the same length as Sephiroth's but thinner in the blade. The thin, bony, pure white arm swung forwards and slashed Barret through his stomach. He was dead before his body hit the ground.

'No, Barret, NO! No, no, no, no!' screamed Tifa. She repeated her cry, turning it into a sorrow chant. She even pulled him up to a sitting position and shook him until her arms ached, but it made no difference.

She ran to Cloud, sobbing.

'That should be me. I should be dead. Barret saved me with his own life. I feel so dreadful,' Cloud hugged her tightly, forcing away a prickling, burning feeling that he had in his throat. He glared at Sephiroth as Tifa sobbed on. Aeris was still battling, looking thoroughly depressed.

Cloud moved Tifa aside and tried to concentrate on battling as well, but it seemed a lot harder, even though most of the supporters were murdering people in their houses, it was unquestionably more difficult without Barret.

Sephiroth had done his disappearing act again, Aeris looking around anxiously, in case Elena was around, and was going to cast that spell on her again. The supporters slowly stopped, and walked away. Tifa picked up the throwing knife that nearly killed her, and threw it at the supporter nearest to her. It got him through the back of his chest, through his heart.

Tifa, Cloud and Aeris turned slowly to the body of Barret. Aeris started towards him, very slowly, and didn't take her gaze off him.

'Does anyone have a Phoenix Down?' she asked.

'No, why?' replied Cloud.

'Because a Phoenix Down restores life, and we could use it on Barret. What about you, Tifa?' said Aeris. Tifa glumly shook her head.

'I heard that Phoenix Downs are really rare and you can only get them in a place that's on a different island to where we are,' she said. Aeris chose not to answer that statement.

They walked back to Yuna, who was watching through the window.

Tifa and Aeris both had another dreadful night. It wasn't as bad as the night following Barret's death, but bad all the same. Cloud now had a room to himself, as he was in the same room as Barret. Aeris and Tifa were both in the same room still. They were both tossing and turning during the night, but the grief had finally gotten to Tifa. She saw Dio being killed, then Barret, then Dio, then Barret again. After watching the same two deaths, repeatedly in her mind, she woke up screaming. She had awoke, tears mingling with the cold damp sweat that broke out.

Aeris awoke as though she had been hit in the face with a sledgehammer. She sat up and groped around in the dark for her lamp. She found it and turned it on. She saw Tifa sitting bolt upright, her knuckles white from the tight grip she had on her cover. She was covered in cold damp sweat, staring at the wall opposite her, her eyes bulging.

Cloud walked in the room, tousle-haired, and puffy-eyed. He surveyed the room then asked who screamed. Aeris told him, and he walked over to Tifa. He sat down next to her, on the bed, and tried to talk to her. A tear escaped and rolled silently down Tifa's cheek. She was trembling.

'Come on Tifa, it's all going to be alright. Everything will be fine. Please, please calm down,' whispered Cloud. He squeezed her shoulder comfortingly, but it and his words made no difference to the expression on Tifa's face. She turned to him, tried to smile, but it made her look more distressed.

She threw off her cover and ran from the room before anyone could do a thing to stop him. Biggs, Wedge, Jessie, Dio, and now Barret. Their deaths swirled round Tifa's memory until she could no longer cope with it. She ran to the kitchen, grabbed up the sharpest knife she could find, and prepared to stab herself.

Cloud, Aeris and Yuna came running down the stairs before Tifa moved her hand grasping the knife. Cloud started to walk towards her, but Tifa warned him not to. She held the handle more tightly.

'Tifa...please don't. If you go, what will we do? I can't take this, either, but please Tifa, don't kill yourself,' begged Aeris. Cloud ran forwards and snatched the knife. He laid a hand around Tifa protesting wrists, trying to get it back, and put it back in its drawer.

'You lot all go back upstairs. I'll talk some sense into Tifa,' he waited until Yuna's last footsteps had died away before talking again.

'Tifa, I can understand what you're going through. You've lost friends, your father, and a real damn good ally in Sephiroth. But you can't commit suicide. That would mean I would have nothing to live for. Do you know why?' asked Cloud.

'I dunno. Because you would have more mourning to do?' guessed Tifa.

'No. Because I love you. I didn't realise it until after you fell when Aeris had that spell cast on her. I realised what the most precious thing to me was. Your friendship. If Barret hadn't sacrificed himself for you, I would've done. I was sprinting behind him, and he threw himself in front of you. If it hadn't been him, it would be me. It wasn't your fault, it was a choice that was made, with no influence from anything else. If you commit suicide, that will mean that Barret died for nothing,' said Cloud. He watched her as she took this all in. She reacted by throwing her arms around his neck. He gently kissed her forehead, and they both broke down completely.

Aeris had come down the stairs to see where Tifa and Cloud had gone to see them both in tears together. She crept upstairs again, completely unnoticed. Tifa and Cloud broke apart, both sniffling, both watery-eyed. Cloud wiped a tear away, but Tifa was doing nothing to stem the flow of tears escaping from her eyes. She sobbed and cried all the way up the stairs, Cloud behind her.

Aeris was sitting up when Tifa entered the room, and asked if she was feeling any better. Tifa nodded and said she thought so, turned the light off, and fell instantly to sleep. Cloud's words were the only thing that kept Tifa's dreams from reminding her of the details of Barret's death.

When she woke up again, she saw Aeris was watching her with an odd expression.

'What's up, Aeris?' asked Tifa.

'Oh, nothing. Nothing of interest,' replied Aeris. Her voice sounded unusually cold.

'Come on, Aeris, what's the matter?' repeated Tifa. Aeris told her that she heard what Cloud had said to her, and hinted that she was jealous.

'You're jealous? Oh my God, I can't believe what you just said. It was either him saying that and cheering me up, or I killed myself. As simple as that,' snapped Tifa. 'I don't want to start anything, a fight or something, but that is actually really stupid,' Aeris walked out of the room, looking angry. She glanced angrily at Cloud as he walked along the corridor. He stopped outside Tifa's room and said 'What's up with her?'

'She heard what you were telling me yesterday, and she's jealous,' replied Tifa, scathingly.

'I'll talk to her. Oh, and you might want to put something protective on, like armour as well, for when we next see Rufus and Sephiroth,' said Cloud. He walked out the room and went downstairs.

When Cloud found Aeris, she was in her living room, talking to Yuna. Cloud walked over to her and whispered something into her ear. She went red and whispered an apology back. Tifa came down the stairs wearing a short black skirt, a sleeveless white t-shirt, and red leather gloves with some of the finger cut off. She had slipped her knuckles over the top of them.

'Tifa, I said something protective, not that!' laughed Cloud, who was wearing his armour from when he was in SOLDIER.

'I don't care. I like this,' replied Tifa. She walked over to the window and looked out.

'What are we going to do with all the bodies out there? If anything, that is,' asked Tifa. Cloud shrugged. Aeris said she didn't know. Yuna walked in from the kitchen, looking grave.

'I don't know you you've found out yet, whether you have seen the news, but Sephiroth is currently wrecking havoc in Kalm. He and Rufus have decided to do mass destruction, so they have split up. And...Rufus is headed for Mideel, where Cid and Marlene are!' she said. Aeris stared, wide-eyed, Tifa clapped her hands to her mouth, and Cloud said 'Well, Cid'll be more than capable of taking care of himself, I should imagine, but Marlene...and we'll need someone to go and help out in Kalm. I'll go to Kalm, Aeris, can you go to Mideel, don't fight unless you have to, but just make sure that Marlene and Cid get out safe, and Tifa, can you come with me to Kalm?' said Cloud.

'Yeah, I guess. But what if they try and use Death Sentence on us again? That's a hard one to dodge, and is unblockable. So if one of us dies this time, say, I do, you won't be able to take care of Sephiroth on out own. No-one can. Not even Zangan could. He couldn't stay alive when Rufus attacked Nibelheim, could he?' asked Tifa. Cloud thought about that for a while and then ran upstairs. Tifa made sure, once again, that she had all the materia equipped that she could. She found Barret's little sack for leftover materia and tipped them all out. She had Fire, Ice and Quake. She had one slot left in her knuckles left. She picked up a Bio (poison) materia and looked at it. Cloud came down with a ring, and another thing in his hands.

'This, is a Reflect Ring. It will reflect any spell that is cast on you onto your enemies. That also includes Cure and Regen, so watch your HP. Now this is a special piece of armour. It just clips on somewhere, and will let you store up to five more materia,' said Cloud, showing her the objects.

She took them from Cloud, clipped on the armour, and put the ring on one of her fingers. She then picked out six more materia. She picked out Titan (Summons the Earth - or Quake - creature also called 'Anger Of The Land'), Phoenix (Summons the Phoenix bird of Fire, while reviving any allies that are dead at the time of use also called Phoenix Flame), Time materia (casts Haste on allies, speeding them up, Slow on enemies, or Stop), Neo Bahamut (Summons a non-elemental Dragon, which levitates enemies - and the ground underneath them - into the sky and disintegrates the ground, making the enemy suffer a fantastic fall), Enemy Skill (the ability to use skills that were used on the person with it equipped - like Death Sentence, Aqualung, or L4 Suicide) and Transform (transforms certain enemies into frogs, or shrinks them, narrowing their damage on allies).

Soon, all the materia had been equipped, and Aeris was on her way to Mideel, while Cloud and Tifa headed towards Kalm. When they got there, the scene was similar to the one in Midgar. Buildings aflame, people running for their lives, screaming, Sephiroth himself amidst his supporters, murdering. Sure enough, they were using Death Sentence again, finding it easier to do that then torture people with top level magic like Bolt3, or Quake3. Tifa was now more nervous than she ever had been. She was scared for herself, for Cloud. What if Cloud got hit with Death Sentence? Then it would just be her fighting Sephiroth. She wouldn't last a minute! What if Cloud was left on his own? It would be the same, He wouldn't last long, either. Thought after thought chased each other round Tifa's mind.

Cloud drew his sword. Tifa prepared to use the first materia she thought of.

'Tifa, you try and clear some of the supporters. I'll help, but then when enough are dead, or just too injured to fight, I'm going for Sephiroth. Take my sword, I'm not going to use it. I'm going to see if I can beat Sephiroth at his own game, kill him with magic,' said Cloud, or more likely, he tried to say. His throat was so dry, he could barely get the words out. He handed his sword to Tifa, who took it, looking very worried. He then ran at full speed, conjuring up Ifrit, and attacking with every materia he had.

Tifa started for a supporter who was about to attack Cloud from behind. She blocked the blade of the supporter's sword with her own. She dodged one attack, and blocked another. Then with incredible speed, she stabbed him through his chest, wrenched out her sword, and, in a second, stabbed another one from behind her. A group of four supporters came, slashing at her. One tried the beheading move, but Tifa locked swords, and then, just before the supporter could make her move, Tifa swung her sword forwards, the supporter stumbled backwards, her sword arm outstretched, and the blade sank deep into the face of another woman behind her.

Tifa hacked, slashed, and kicked her way through a number of supporters, but not enough for Cloud to make his move on Sephiroth.

A blade came rushing past her arm, just missing her shoulder. Tifa turned with fantastic speed, and launched her sword forwards, withdrew her arm and blocked a forceful blow from yet another supporter.

She slashed at the one in front, while kicking the one behind her in the middle, then cutting the head off a third that came to help out. She hacked off an arm, spun her foot round and kicked someone else in the face, the thrust her sword about again. It seemed that with ever supporter killed, another two came to take his or her place. She broke free of a gaggle that tried to surround her, and slashed at someone that was acting like Sephiroth's personal body guard. Tifa attacked high, she attacked low, but couldn't hit the man. He wasn't attacking back at her, either. He was only defending himself, and when it seemed that she was about to go for Sephiroth, he moved in front of him.

Tifa swung her sword with all her strength at the man's head, but he moved several inches to the left, so she only took a nick out of his ear. She kicked him in the middle, then, while he was bent double, her sword pierced the supporter's stomach. She pulled her sword out of him, the blade getting more and more covered with blood, and stepped away.

Sephiroth was watching with great interest and then decided to fight her himself. Tifa started backing away, retreating from him, but he was taking long strides towards her.

'Cloud! Help!' shouted Tifa. She threw her sword to Cloud, then had to duck as Sephiroth's own sword skimmed the top of her head. Then she jumped over the blade, when he attacked low. Cloud had come running towards her, while supporters ran after him. He stuck out the blade of his sword, and tried to behead Sephiroth while running past, but he held Cloud's sword firmly in his hand. Cloud tugged and pulled at it, but Sephiroth's grip didn't loosen.

Sephiroth lifted the sword high into the air, with Cloud still hanging on. Cloud then let go and ran back. Tifa was engaged in hand-to-hand combat with a more skilled supporter, who didn't need swords or materia to kill. Sephiroth lunged forwards, and lobbed Cloud's sword at him, and it struck. It hit Cloud in his shoulder. He fell into his knees from the blow, and tried to tug it out.

Sephiroth hovered over the ground, and flew over to Cloud. Within seconds, Cloud had stood up, and turned to face him, still wincing every now and then from the blade deep in his shoulder. He was standing defiantly, facing Sephiroth, as though challenging him to commit another murder. As though challenging Sephiroth to kill him.

Tifa risked a look a Cloud and paid for it. The supporter, punched her in the face. She stumbled sideways, then spat out blood. She tried to kick the supporter in his middle, but he jumped backwards and, in what seemed like no time at all, was behind her. He grabbed a chain off the floor, and wrapped it around Tifa's neck, choking her. Her hands flew up, to try and pull it away from her neck, to let her breathe, but the pull from the supporter was too strong. She kicked him hard in the shins, the grip loosened a bit - Tifa could breath a bit - but then it returned in full measure.

Sephiroth was advancing on Cloud, who was now on the floor, backing away. He tried to get up, but fell back down. He was more terrified than he thought was humanly possible. Sephiroth tried to stab him, but Cloud rolled away, which was hard, and caused a lot of pain, as the sword was still impaled in his shoulder. He caught a glimpse of Tifa, choking, but then, a bright red light blinded his vision, his head started hurting him, he felt his knees give way and fall flat on his face. The bright red became duller. It faded away to black.

Tifa saw Sephiroth hit Cloud over the head with the handle of his sword, and she saw him fall to the floor. She headbutted the supporter behind her with the chain. She got him in the nose, and pulled herself free. She snatched the chain, and threw it at the man. His nose was bleeding from Tifa's headbutt. The chain caught him round the neck, and wrapped itself around his neck several times. He overbalanced and fell over.

Tifa ran over to Cloud, checked his materia, and swapped a Sense and Cure for Transform and Fire. She used the Sense on him, and it told her that his HP and MP were both quite low. She then used Cure3 on him and looked around in a item bag he had with him. She found almost instantly what she was looking for. A small object which would restore Cloud's MP. An Ether. She pulled the top half of it away and threw it at Cloud's form on the floor. She raised the other half in her hand, and a cloud of red diamonds fell onto him. The diamonds were so small, they looked like red dust particles. She Sensed him again, and his HP and MP were both full. She tugged the sword out of his shoulder and shook him until he regained consciousness. He opened his eyes and blinked at her. Then he muttered in a raspy whisper, 'Behind you...'.

She turned her head, and saw that Sephiroth was standing right behind her. He slashed his sword. Tifa felt a burning pain in her left cheek, and raised her hand up to it. Her face was cut, the same way Tifa cut Dio in her last attempt to prove herself worthy of fighting against Shinra. The sheer force knocked her over. She stood up and was immediately seized by two supporters, holding her arms. Sephiroth kicked the hand that was holding Cloud's sword. It flew out and landed, blade first, in the grass. Blood was still leaking from Cloud's struck shoulder. Tifa never actually realised how thin his SOLDIER armour really was.

Sephiroth picked Cloud up onto his feet and glared at him for a while. Then, he raised his sword, and plunged the blade into his right forearm. Sephiroth cut a very deep gash snaking all the way down to his elbow. Then he withdrew the blade. He admired that way Cloud's blood seeped down it. He loved the way it dripped down the blade, onto the handle, and onto his own hand.

The supporters holding Tifa noticed that she was tensing her muscles, as if about to try and break free from them. One of them brought up their leg, and hit her in the stomach with his knee. She sagged slightly in their strong grip, completely winded.

Tifa lifted her head up, and saw that all colour had faded from Cloud's face. He clutched his newly pierced arm, wincing from his other shoulder. Blood was running down the armour protecting the rest of his arm. It ran down to his hand, and dripped onto the floor. She was sure that if something wasn't soon done, he was going to die from a lack of blood. Not if she could help it though! Tifa was not prepared to let another person die at the hands of Sephiroth. Barret cared for her, that's why she was still alive now. Well, she wasn't about to let another damn good friend go.

Tifa slightly tensed her muscles again. Not enough for the supporters to notice, but enough to pull off what she was about to do. She counted to three in her head, and on three, she pulled her arms up and punched both the supporters in their faces. She slipped her arms out from their grips and banged their heads together. She them pushed them into Sephiroth, ran to get Cloud's thrown sword, and then tried to attack Sephiroth. He moved out of the way, but she killed both the supporters in that one strike. She heaved her sword out of them, spun round on her heels and instantly blocked a clash from Sephiroth. Cloud passed out and slumped to the floor.

Tifa jumped backwards and tried to catch out Sephiroth. A supporter came up behind her and punched her in the back of her head. She stumbled forwards and prevented herself from falling into Sephiroth. She steadied herself and screamed as two blades zoomed over her head. She ducked down and watched as Sephiroth's sword embedded itself in his supporter's skull. The sword fell from her hand and landed by Tifa's feet. She snatched it up and sprinted at full speed towards a group of supporters that were about to attack Cloud's unconscious form.

She ran in front of him, lying on the floor and braced herself, with the sword from the dead supporter in her hand. There were four people facing her, all with identical, evil grins spreading out over their faces. They thought that they were going to kill her. One of them swiped at her, but Tifa ducked. Another one attacked low, but Tifa jumped over the blade. She kicked one of them in the face, and they fell backwards. One of the supporters had crept behind her. She blocked a deadly swing from one in front of her, but then she noticed that there was someone behind her. She kicked them in the middle, then turned round and swung her sword as hard as she could. This man was as powerful in a fight as she was. He locked swords with her, and they were both shoving against each other's force. Tifa could feel her face reddening, her energy depleting, but she didn't give in. She fought as hard as she could. She would either overcome this foe, or die trying. It wasn't made any easier by the fact that even though one of the men were trying to make the one Tifa kicked in the face stand up, the one that wasn't doing anything was also trying to catch her out. It was a challenge for her to keep locked with one man, while another supporter was trying to injure her from behind.

At last, Tifa's energy packed up. She had to give in. She managed to catch out the man behind her with her elbow, making his nose bleed, but the one in front was still flailing his sword about frantically. She backed off, more and more supporters coming in for the kill, and Tifa knew that this was the end. She knew, from the determined looks on the face of everyone gaining on her, that she was going to die. I should never have tried to do this, thought Tifa, as the supporters came closer still. I can't beat then all. There must be at least one hundred! Doubt forced its way into her mind through anyway possible. The bad thoughts swirled in her head, until they were the only things she could hear.

'Shut up!! SHUT UP!!' screamed Tifa as she fell to her knees, her hands clasped over her ears to try and block out the sound of the voices, but it was no good. They were inside her head. It was in this moment when all hope seemed to flicker and die. It was here, when the nearest supporter pulled back his arms, that a miracle happened. The sound of running footsteps became louder and louder, over the shouts of the voices that seemed to reach such a volume, Tifa thought her eardrums were going to burst, a blur leaped at the supporter. Tifa blinked at the blur. It was Cloud. He had flung himself, and wrapped his arms around his neck. The supporters behind were all startled, but they soon regained their determined look and advanced, some towards Cloud, some to Tifa.

Blasts of different coloured light suddenly illuminated the scene. Supporters ransacking the village. Tifa and Cloud surrounded. Sephiroth...Tifa remembered all the deaths. She pictured them in her mind. She tried to shake them away, but she couldn't. The tower in Sector 7 falling...Dio being stabbed...Barret being killed with Death Sentence...she felt the pang of fear she did when they were looking for Sephiroth. When her scar hurt.

Sephiroth himself, was suspended in mid-air, like Aeris was, but the different colour lights were crackling from him, like lightning. The evil green of his eyes and cruel pure blackness from his pupils had all turned to white. Tifa gasped. His hair was swirling in an invisible breeze. He had his teeth bared, and was looking more insane and dangerous then ever. Tifa ran over to Cloud and held tightly into his arm. The supporters had stopped whatever they were doing to watch him, and Tifa and Cloud were watching also, looking as though they were going to make a break for it and run like the wind.

Tifa lost control. She ran before she could do anything else. Sephiroth watched her and laughed a high-pitched, evil, sneering laugh that filled her ears. She knew she would never forget that laugh. Once again, footsteps sounded behind her. She tried to stop her eyes from watering, while fleeing for her life. She tried to block the voices that had started again. She tried to make her eyes see where she was running, not picturing the deaths of her friends and family again.

Tifa ran until she could run no more. She leaned against a nearby tree and tried to catch her breath. The back of her legs felt as though they had been wound up, but too tightly. She clutched at the stitch in her side, when she saw that she was not as safe as she thought to be. When she turned her head to see where she had run, she saw that the supporters were all closing in on Cloud, and that Sephiroth himself was soaring through the air. In her direction.

Sephiroth landed in front of her and cast a spell. It hit her before she could do anything. Her energy and senses faded, but she could just about make out the sensation of falling over backwards. Just before she hit the floor, a pair of strong hands stopped her fall and laid her down gently. Her vision had gone all dark and black. Tifa shut her eyes.

It was about ten minutes later, when Tifa was jerked out of her sleep by the same person that stopped her fall. It was Cid.

'Cid! W-what are you doing here? W-where's Marlene?' Cid nodded to a nearby tree, where Marlene came out from behind. She ran over and hugged Tifa, who was gazing up at Cid.

'I don't get it...how did you know-?' started Tifa.

'It was Marlene,' said Cid, smiling at them both. 'She saw you leaning against the tree and saw Sephiroth. I told her to hide and I came to help you,'

He helped Tifa to her feet, and they started off.

'Sephiroth's...supporters...they're by Cloud. He's probably dead by now,' said Tifa.

'I know for a fact that he isn't,' whispered Cid. Tifa stopped and stared at him. She asked him how he knew that.

'Because, my supporters wouldn't dare kill someone that I want dead very badly, without me there,'

'What-?' But that was as far as Tifa got. Her words caught in her throat. She saw Cid's unshaven face change smoothly into Sephiroth's. Tifa gaped at him, mouthing wordlessly. Her scar burst again and felt like it was on fire. Sephiroth split into two forms, duplicating himself several times. So that's how he did it! Well, now, she knew that she couldn't trust anyone. Not even Marlene...she screamed that piercing scream if hers, grabbed Marlene's wrist, and ran, ran as fast as she could.

'He said he would kill me if I told you...Cid's in real trouble. You need to see him, and quick!' panted Marlene as they sprinted away, hearing the same evil laugh twice, as the two Sephiroths laughed together. Tifa was still full of fear, even when they reached Aeris' house, where they left. Marlene told Tifa that the real Cid was left in the kitchen, as they decided to return, but it was at the wrong time. Sephiroth came and attacked Cid, who put up a fight. Marlene said about how she ran upstairs, but could hear the banging and crashed, then how he came up to her. How he forced her not to breathe a word.

Tifa kicked the door open, and let it bang against the wall. Her jaw dropped in horror. Yuna had now been killed. Her blood was pasted over the walls, and her body was at the foot of the stairs. Cid was by the door frame in the kitchen. He was lying unconscious on the floor. His mouth was hung open, full of blood. Some of it dribbled out and down his shirt. The rest of him looked unharmed. He had a dazed, dead look in his eyes, but there was colour in his face, so his heart must still be working...

Tifa approached cautiously. She tilted Cid's head forwards, and all the blood spewed out of his mouth, onto his trousers. Tifa stood up and stepped away from him. She Sensed his HP and saw that he was barely alive. He had an HP level of one. Tifa used Cure3 on him, and then he blinked. He looked at his blood stained trousers, at the bloody walls, at Yuna's body, lying, near his own. Then he looked up at Tifa and Marlene, both who seemed near to tears. Tifa walked back over and helped Cid to his feet. He got up and shook his head.

'I don't believe it. Yuna....we thought it would be okay to come back. Sephiroth burst through that back door...I don't want to know how he got Yuna into that mess...' He suddenly embraced Marlene and Tifa in a tight hug, and he started to cry. He was saying to Tifa's shoulder how much of a failure he was. He was saying how he had let down Yuna by letting her die.

'I tried, Tifa. Oh damn, how I tried...' he quavered. 'He burst through, and before I could do anything, bang! She was dead. Just like that...we have to go to where he is! What about Cloud?'

That was exactly what Tifa was wondering. Was he dead as well? Has he fallen down at Sephiroth's curse of death? Some friend I am, thought Tifa bitterly. Letting Cloud down like that. He's probably dead. Murdered by a bunch of stupid idiots, thinking that they are doing the bidding of...that, that madman! Tifa's brain then caught up with her ears.

'Go after him? Are you insane?' screamed Tifa. 'Look around you! Look at what he did to my mother! She's lying dead at the foot of the stairs, her blood used as paint! I'm not going after him!' she calmed down a bit. 'I'm sorry, but I can't go after him. This is the fifth person now that he has killed that is - or was - close to me. I'm too...too terrified. I'm sorry,'

She ran up the stairs, her face buried in her hands. Cid looked at Marlene, who shrugged. She walked upstairs quietly after Tifa.

Cid was feeling a rage stronger than anything he had ever been through before. He gritted his teeth, clenched his fists, and struggled against the howl of fury bursting to get out of him.

Tifa was in a panic upstairs.

'Go after him? I'll be the next one, I can tell! He's going to kill me, then Aeris and Cid...I can feel it. The next time we meet...' whispered Tifa, sitting in a horrified trance.

'Well, we could go to where Aeris is, and warn her. You said she's in Mideel, didn't you?' asked Marlene. Tifa nodded. She walked down the stairs to where Cid was trying to work down his anger.

'Um...Cid? I'm going to go to Mideel to warn Aeris and tell her what has happened. I'm, also going to take Marlene with me.' said Tifa. She watched Cid to see what his reaction would be.

'Fine then. But I'm not going after Sephiroth by my self. Not a chance. I'll go to where he last was, if you tell me, and see if Cloud is alive, and if he is, I'll take him away, but I'm not going to fight,' he said.

Tifa told him that Sephiroth was in Kalm last, and she and Marlene set off for Mideel. It was a hard, strenuous journey, and the fact that anything that was a long way off seemed like Sephiroth blurred again didn't help. When they got there, the first thing they saw was Aeris, surrounded by a pile of unconscious people, who where trying to protect Rufus.

'Whoa...go, Aeris!' whispered Tifa. She turned to Marlene. 'Now, I want you to hide. If anyone comes out through these gates, I want you out of sight, as it might be one of those nasty people with President Pillock,' - Marlene giggled - 'No, I'm serious. If Rufus's henchmen come out, they wont care about hurting you. Hang on...' Tifa poked her head round the gates, and stared at Rufus's own supporters. They looked oddly familiar...

'Um, Marlene? You really want to be careful. Rufus's, um..people are the monsters he had created and used against the army of Nibelheim. They are very good with their swords. Stay out of sight,' said Tifa. She got a better grip on her sword, which she had never let go of since she got it. Then she prepared herself to run, and with one last look at Marlene, took off.

'Good luck,' whispered Marlene, before running behind the nearest tree to keep a lookout.

Tifa tore through the gates of Mideel, slashing at all the monsters she rushed past. She ran to Aeris' side, and helped her out.

'Tifa, what are you doing here?' asked Aeris, bewildered.

'Nice to see you as well,' replied Tifa acidly, dodging a curved blade, and attacking. 'I'm here to help you. I'll tell you why Cloud isn't here in a minute,'

Aeris had made an alteration to her staff and attached a sharp spike on the end. She spun it around, hitting monsters on all sides, while Tifa ducked underneath it. Tifa herself was fending off all the monsters that seemed to be a challenge. One decided to take advantage of her lack of armour, and tried to cut her head off. Tifa raised her own sword and locked. She then swiped the opponents metal curve away, then attacked it in the back of its neck.

'Aeris, their armour is weaker at the neck!' shouted Tifa.

Aeris was trying to attack two monsters at the same time. She hit one with the bottom of her staff, and another with the spike. Another one came flying through the air, and crashed into Aeris. It got up and snatched her staff. Tifa took the same path through the air that her monster did, landed on its back, with her sword at its neck, and in no time at all, beheaded it. Aeris took back her staff from the cold, dead grip on it.

'Sorry 'bout that! I hoped it would get one of these gits,' said Tifa, stopping a curved sword an inch away from her face. A cry of pain alerted Tifa. She spun round to face Aeris, and saw that she had a thin strip of wood in her right arm. Tifa ran over and yanked it out. It was an arrow. She jumped up and landed on the shoulders of a monster about to attack from behind and squinted.

Tifa saw, up above on a bridge, another monster, but this one had a bow and arrow. She flipped several times in the direction of the bridge. She gripped it with her free hand. The monster on it hadn't realised that Tifa was hanging there. She gently rested her sword next to the monster, careful not to attract unwanted attention from it. Then she grabbed the bridge with both hands. She started swinging herself, backwards and forwards, until her feet were level with the bridge. She thrust her feet through the air and kicked the monster squarely in the face. It stumbled backwards, stunned. Tifa thrust her feet again and flipped right up. She grabbed her sword and straightened up. She stopped about four shots to her face, all a centimetre away.

She sliced off the fingers that pulled back the arrows in the bow in a split second. The monster seemed to sense a danger to its life and backed away to the other side of the narrow bridge. It took one step and stumbled again. It almost backed right off the end of the bridge. Tifa picked up its dropped bow and arrow and aimed one at the monster's head. She fired. It fell backwards and landed in the middle of the unconscious pile Aeris had been working away from. Tifa, up, and grabbed the spare arrows, slung the bag over her back, and in what seemed like no time at all, she killed ten monsters...twenty...thirty...she ran out of arrows. She then called up the power of Titan (Anger Of The Land) and finished off another thirty to that.

Tifa grasped her sword in both hands, the blade pointing downward, and jumped off the bridge. She fell down, feet first and landed right on target. Her sword struck a monster through its helmet, and shattered its skull from the force.

Tifa ducked, dodged and caught more arrows from more archers. She looked up and saw another four. She threw her sword at them like a boomerang, it catching one in the weak neck armour, blood pouring out from the wound. She then flipped up to the bridge and ran over to the archers. She snatched up the arrows from the one her sword struck, and shot the others with three arrows then went to get the rest of theirs. She glanced down and saw that Aeris was surrounded by a group of monsters, one of them holding her staff. They were closing in on her. Tifa aimed and shot them all in a flash. She flipped, and twisted in mid-air, and grabbed the edge of the bridge. She let go, using several monsters to break her fall. Her sword flew through the air, guided, only by Tifa's hand. She beheaded several monsters, and dashed to Aeris' side. A blade stopped two inches away from Tifa, stopped only by Aeris sticking out her left hand, and the blade cutting off half her index finger on her right hand. But this didn't stop her. She swung her staff above her head, carefully trying to avoid Tifa, who was attacking a large group of monsters advancing on a few surviving Mideel villagers.

A scream somewhere near the outside of Mideel's gate told Tifa that Marlene was in trouble.

'Marlene! Damn it! She's outside the gate! I told her to hide!' Tifa went running past a massive swarm of monsters and out the gate. Sure enough, a monster found Marlene lurking outside, and was trying to murder her. Tifa stopped at the gate and whistled at it.

'Hey! You think it's clever to go around attacking little kids? Why don't you try for something a little bit more satisfying to murder?' The monster turned its ugly head to stare at her. Then a grin formed on its horrible face. It started running towards her. Tifa waited until the last minute and then cut a trench through its stomach.

'The way to a monster's heart,' said Tifa. 'Is, through its stomach. Remember that,' She ran back through that gate, leaving Marlene looking startled before she came to her senses and ran for a place to hide again.

There seemed to be more and more monsters every time Tifa looked. Once again, there was a great swarming group, rounding up the last few villagers, who were looking as though they wished they had made something better of their life. Tifa was shocked to see that also, Aeris was once again surrounded. She was in the small group, not looking as though she dared to move.

'Aeris, can't you even get yourself out of trouble?' snapped Tifa, looking irritated at the thought of slicing up more monsters. 'I'm bored of this now. They're too easy to beat,'

What seemed to be the leader of the monsters turned and glared at Tifa. She asked it what it was looking at then it rushed forwards, that deadly curved blade coming closer. It happened quite quickly, but to Tifa, it seemed to be in slow motion. A burst of pain in Tifa's right calf made her limp round. She saw an archer monster aiming several arrows at her, then she felt a rush of wind, and turned round quick enough to see that the leader had come right up to her. Without stopping, it slashed at her left arm. She tried to move it out the way, but wasn't quick enough. The blade flew an inch into her arm, taking some of the flesh out of it.

Tifa gasped, wincing. Her uninjured arm wrenched out the arrow and tossed it aside. She picked up her dropped sword in her right hand, and braced herself for an attack. All this time, fighting against the monsters, she hadn't realised that someone had got away. Rufus had run off somewhere. Her struck arm and pierced leg where both bleeding a dangerous amount. There was a small puddle of blood around Tifa's feet, but she took no noticed of it.

The leading monster was watching her, but now it seemed to have decided to try and finish off Tifa. She grasped her sword the best she could in her right hand, but it wasn't easy, when her proper arm was injured. The disgusting creature ran towards her again, but she was prepared. She tried to lock swords, but she only clashed the blade against the monster's one. It fell out of her hand, and when it came for a third attack, Tifa decided to throw caution to the winds. She threw up her left leg - putting weight in her damaged one - and kicked the monster in the middle. It seemed to be winded and fell over, gasping for air. She picked up her fallen sword. Tifa hobbled forwards and attacked while her foe was down. She turned her sword so the point was facing down, and pushed the blade. It moved slightly slower as it made contact with metal and monster.

A rush of an overhead spell made Tifa spin round on one heel, her right leg flailing uselessly. Cid and Cloud had arrived. Cloud was alive! It was a miracle! They both rushed forwards, Cid wielding a spear, Cloud grasping another sword. Two swords in fact. Cid hurled his spear, catching about six monsters on the end of it.

'Hey Cloud! Fancy a kebab?' he asked, laughing.

'Not with what you're on about on!' replied Cloud as he stabbed a monster through the chest and blocking an attack with the sword behind his back. Aeris had started acting again. She was waving her staff above her head, catching many of the monsters with uppercuts. She aimed one at Tifa so she could do something. Tifa simply held up sword up and hacked its limbs.

Tifa jumped backwards, putting a small amount of weight gingerly on her injured leg. She then chucked her sword aside and whipped out her bow and an arrow. She shot a monster that was creeping up behind Aeris before it got the chance to attack. She felt an odd sensation in the leg that got hit with the arrow. She didn't know anything about their arrows, but judging by the way it felt as though her leg was seizing up, they must carry a sort of poison. She ripped another arrow out and examined it. The end of it glistened, as though it was wet. She was right. They did carry a poison! She had that swimming around her body now, as well.

'Cloud! I doubt you know what these arrows do to their targets, do you?' asked Tifa, sounding worried. Cid ran over to her and asked her what she meant. Tifa told him about one of the monsters shooting her with an arrow. Tifa called up the power of Phoenix, and watched as a massive gold and red bird appeared out of a drop of golden liquid. It attacked using Fire, while reviving all the villagers that were attacked and killed by Rufus' monsters, then, as suddenly as it appeared, it vanished. Tifa looked around to see where Aeris had gone, but this cost her. As she turned to face behind her, one of the monsters saw their chance to try and hurt her. Tifa heard to footsteps and whirled around. She tried to lock swords with the creature, but she tried too late. It cut deep into her waist then ran back to help the other monsters.

Tifa felt drained. She could almost feel her life trickling out of her, like water out of cupped hands. She fell to her knees, getting more and more drained with every second. Now breathing was a challenge. Everything had blurred. A pain like she had never felt it spread through her. It was worse than when she was on the rack. Worse than when her scar exploded with pain because of being near Sephiroth. She tried to call out, to even scream, but it felt as though her voice box wasn't working. She tried to grope around in the small bag full of different items, but she couldn't move her arms. She tried to think, but that didn't work. She couldn't even do that very well.

Aeris, thought Tifa, turn around..Cloud, Cid..Marlene...anyone.....

Once again, Tifa's vision went black. The pain had reached a level so high she was blinded. It was so intense she couldn't speak, could barely breathe....could hardly think...She had just about given up all hope when she heard her name. Aeris had spotted her.

'Cloud! Cid! Get over here! There's something wrong with Tifa!' called Aeris, sounding panicky.

'You don't say? I thought she just decided to lie on the floor for no reason,' sounded the sarcastic voice of Cloud.

'Oh, shut up and find an Antidote in her item bag,' snapped Aeris. A tingling sensation had started in Tifa's fingers and toes. It soared up her arms and legs, to her torso. The it travelled up her neck, to her head. She could easily breathe again. It no longer felt that her muscles had seized up. She could think and see again. Tifa saw Cloud using a Sense materia, checking her HP and MP. Then he used Regen. She felt her energy come back as rapidly as it went. Soon she was up and ready again.

'What is it on those arrows, anyone?' asked Tifa.

'It's a special poison that is used in SOLDIER when First and Second Class had to go to war. When I was working up through the ranks, First Class had to go to war and I saw the poison they dipped their arrows in,' said Cloud

'You used to be in SOLDIER?' asked Cid. Cloud nodded then started for Rufus, who had just arrived. Tifa checked her materia again before slashing about seven monsters to oblivion. Aeris and Cid worked together to try and clear a path for Cloud. Aeris stunning the monsters, Cid piercing their armour. Tifa helped to make sure that no monsters tried to get either of them from behind. Cloud found a quick way round to Rufus. He attempted to injure him, but Rufus turned round at the sound of footsteps and blocked the blades with a part of a shotgun he was holding. Rufus had a shotgun in his hand, yet he also had a sword tucked away in his belt. He wore the same armour as his monsters, but he didn't have a curved strip of metal. It looked like a duplicate of Sephiroth's sword. But it couldn't be...only Sephiroth could use that sword. Nobody else. Cloud raised his swords and prepared to attack. Rufus grasped his shotgun and aimed at Cloud, ready to shoot as soon as Cloud started the attack. He needed the silent assistance of someone. But Tifa was busy. She was the one who could slip behind Rufus and hold him so Cloud to kill him. But how to get her attention without Rufus knowing was another matter...

Cloud spun round, kicking Rufus in the face. He stood dazed and Cloud slipped off and over to Tifa.

'Tifa, I need your help. Rufus is stunned, but I won't be able to attack him with my swords because he'll shoot me. I need you to creep up behind him and hold him down so he can't use his gun. Ok?' Tifa nodded and set off after him.

Rufus had run up a set of stone steps leading to someone's house. Cloud gave chase. Once again, they were out-staring each other, ready to kill. Cloud swayed suddenly, and Rufus prepared to attack. Cloud dodged that bullet and carried on silently urging Tifa to go. She had to quietly put her sword up on the ledge behind Rufus, then lifted herself up without making any noise. She jumped and grabbed with one hand. She grabbed the high ledge with her other hand, lifting herself up, forcing herself not to make a sound. She lifted her leg up, straightened up, picked up her sword and crept a bit further behind Rufus.

Cloud forced himself not to look at Tifa, otherwise Rufus would notice, and turn. Tifa sprung. She put the blade of her sword at Rufus' throat, threatening to slit it if he moved wrongly. Cloud advanced menacingly towards Rufus, the swords in his hands poised, ready to attack. To kill. Cloud rushed his hands forwards, to stab Rufus' shoulders, but he dropped both his swords, bent over double, clutching his stomach where Rufus kicked it. He flung his leg back and kicked Tifa in her shins. She shouted out, but didn't let go. Rufus thrust his head back, hit Tifa full-on, and she stumbled. She let go of him and held her nose where Rufus had hit.

Rufus turned round, and concealed somewhere in his armour, he produced what looked like to be two small daggers. They were so small, Rufus could easily close his hand over them, but not get hurt. He kicked Cloud again with such force, he went tumbling down the steps. Rufus turned back to Tifa, who was about to try and run away, and grabbed her roughly by her shoulders. He spun her round then slapped her face a few times. He kicked her other shin, twice as hard then punched her in the face. She stood on the spot, swaying. Rufus slammed her into the side of the house they were still outside. Tifa tried to escape and she struggled as much as she could, but she didn't have enough strength. Rufus grabbed her left wrist, laid it on the wall, and stuck one of those small daggers through her hand. He didn't stop until the blade went straight through her palm and into the wall, so she couldn't move it. She swung her other hand at his face. He caught it and did the same. The agony she was put through made her cry out.

'Tifa!' shouted Cid and Cloud in unison. Aeris was hit hard on her head and slumped to the floor. Cloud turned and tried to fend off the monsters itching to perform a killing blow. Cid was sprinting towards Rufus and Tifa. Cid hurled the spear, catching Rufus' arm. He looked quite amusing standing there with a spear sticking out of his arm. Cid had to stifle a laugh at the sight of him. He dashed up the stairs, stopped at Rufus and grabbed the handle of his spear. He held it over the edge - Rufus still attached - and dropped it. Rufus toppled over and landed on his injured arm.

'Ha! Serves you right, you evil, dictating b-' started Cid.

'Cid! I could use some help here!' screamed Tifa.

'Oh. Sorry Tifa. No need to look at me like that!' protested Cid, when he saw the penetrating glare Tifa was giving him. He reached over and tugged at the daggers, but they wouldn't give. He gritted his teeth and tried and tried. Tifa screamed from the pain. She had her hands level with her head, like the standard hold-up position. Blood was seeping down Tifa's palm from a pierced vein. She was still in incredible pain.

'I-can't-get-them-out,' gasped Cid.

'Try, for the love of God, try!,' yelled Tifa. Cid tried again, but this time it was even worse. They were stuck in so far, they wouldn't give. The pain mounted and mounted. It wasn't the worse pain she had experienced, but it seemed so all-consuming she shrieked louder than ever before. The pain felt as though it was draining her. Or was it the lack of blood? Either way, Tifa noticed that she definitely was weaker. Cid decided to try to do one at a time. He focused on the left one. He wrapped both hands round the dagger's handle. He told Tifa to try and relax, and he pulled. The dagger was wrenched out, leaving a bloody mark on the wall. Tifa emitted a high-pitch shriek that almost burst Cid's eardrums. Cloud glanced over to see Tifa resting against the wall, her blood-covered hand held in front of her, a gaping hole in the centre of it. She was breathing heavily from the pain that was slowly fading away.

'I'm going to try for the other one now. Hold on, Tifa,' said Cid. Tifa gritted her teeth, held her breath and screwed her eyes up.

It'll all be over soon, thought Tifa. As soon as Cid pulls out this damned dagger, it'll be over. He tugged. Tifa held her breath and waited. Waited. Nothing seemed to happen. There was no pain.

'You ok, Tifa? Your HP was low, so I used a Hi-Potion on you. Revived 500 HP,' shouted Cloud, his voice shaking, from dodging out of the way of a monster's blade. Tifa held both her stricken hands to her face. She found it very amusing now that it didn't hurt.

'Hey, look! I can stick my fingers through my hand! Cool!' laughed Tifa. Cid sighed and rolled his eyes. He pulled out a length of bandages and started to wrap them around her hands.

Rufus started to stir on the ground. He looked down at his arm, a mere irritated look spreading across his face. He tugged out the spear, wincing slightly, and threw it on the ground. He then summoned up the Power of Ramuh, the Lightning Summon creature. A mountainous hill erupted from the ground, an aged old man standing on top of it. He had long billowing white hair, moustache and beard. He also carried a wizards staff. It crackled in the air. The man swirled it above his head, lightning pouring out of the sky, at Tifa and Cid. The pain spread like poison throughout Tifa's body. She had suffered too much of it in too short a time. She couldn't cope with it. She collapsed to her knees, Cid standing, arms slightly out from his sides, teeth gritted, hands clenched into fists.

Cloud saw what was going on, looked in amazement at Ramuh, then hit Rufus over the head with the non-sharp side of his sword blade. The force wasn't strong enough to knock him out, but it was strong enough to make him lose concentration in keeping Ramuh in place, which was what Cloud had hoped for. The mountain shrank back into the ground. The lightning illuminating the sky disappeared. The creature flickered in and out of sight, then vanished. The monsters had stopped watching with anticipation and realised that they were meant to be carrying on with what they were doing. The Mideel villagers however, disagreed with this. Aeris had woken up and come back into consciousness. She grabbed up her staff, picked up Cid's spear and attacked several surrounding monsters with the ends of both.

Cid sneaked up behind Rufus, who was holding his head, still sore from Cloud's strike. He grabbed Rufus' wrists, forced them by his sides, and warned him that if he made a wrong move, his neck would be broken. Rufus stayed perfectly still, which came as a surprise to Cid. He half expected to be punched in the stomach by now.

Cloud stepped up in front of Rufus. He brought the back of his hand round Rufus' face as hard as he could. Rufus trembled in Cid's grip.

'Why so scared?' asked Cloud, his tone of voice icy. Rufus said nothing for a while.

'Please! I didn't do anything! Sephiroth forced me to do this! I didn't want to!' shrieked Rufus, eventually.

'Liar,' whispered Aeris. 'You ransacked Nibelheim. You killed innocent people with Shinra all on your own. Why should we believe that you were forced to do this when you are more than capable of doing that through your own free will?'

'I-I b-beg you. Y-you have to believe me. I'm telling you th-the truth,' muttered Rufus, seeming to be more terrified than any of them had ever seem him before. He then got up, drew another one of those small daggers, stood up and ran. In that split second between getting his balance and running, he slashed a snaking trench in Aeris' left leg. She gasped in pain, and jumped backwards. All the monsters thought that Rufus was retreating, and they bustled after him Tifa was still lying on the floor in the same position she was in after Ramuh had gone.

Two villagers cautiously walked over to her, and caught Cloud's eyes, who grinned.

'Don't worry, she doesn't bite,' shouted Cloud playfully at them. They smiled nervously back and one of them shouted a thank-you for saving their lives. The woman out of who reached Tifa first pulled her to a sitting position. The man who shouted to Cloud helped her. He slung on of Tifa's arms round his neck, and the woman did the same with her other arm. They hoisted her up and started back to their hut. Aeris ran over to them.

'What are you doing with Tifa?' asked Aeris, suspiciously.

'We-we are going to take her to our h-house, and, and heal her...if you don't mind?' quavered the woman. She had a small, soft voice. Aeris smiled at her.

'Okay then. I was just wondering. That's all,' replied Aeris, still smiling. Cloud came running over to them.

'You lot all alright? Not hurt by those freaks when Rufus came?' he demanded. The man and woman both look taken aback by him. Aeris rested a hand on Cloud's shoulder and told him not to worry. Then he walked slowly back to Cid. Aeris, however followed the people carrying Tifa into their house. They were examining a small amount of materia, wondering out loud which one to use, then they both froze in terror. The woman nodded slightly behind her. Aeris smiled again and put a finger to her lips, signalling them to get on with what they were doing.

A monster was creeping up behind her, clutching two swords, ready to strike. Aeris waited until it was right behind her, then when it raised the swords, she swung her left fist up, hitting it in the face. She spun round, and stabbed it through its neck. Aeris then prised her staff free, ripping out the spike on the end. She rested it against a wall and took the monsters body outside and dumped it on the floor. She came back in, dusting off her hands.

'How did you know it was there?' asked the man. He had a croaky voice, as though he wasn't completely used to it yet.

'Easy,' shrugged Aeris, her smile firmly back in place. 'It wasn't quiet enough. From when it made a noise loud enough to attract you, I heard it as well. I was listening to its footsteps. They aren't very bright. Mind you, neither is their leader,'

Tifa was lying down on a very long table. She wasn't showing many signs of life. The woman gasped as Aeris held her fingertips up to her forehead for about a second, then held her hands out to Tifa. She shrugged and said that she was Sensing Tifa.

'Use a Cure materia on her. She doesn't have a very high HP. Rufus must have a very strong level on Ramuh. She just had 500 HP restored from a High Potion moments before,' said Aeris she stuck her head back out the door and asked Cid what his HP was. He shrugged and said something to Cloud.

'350 out of 3056!' shouted Cid. 'I could use a Cure materia,'

'Ask Cloud,' shouted Aeris, in reply. She turned back to Tifa, still lying motionless on the table. The couple were looking confused at a materia. Aeris walked over to them. She looked closely at Tifa. She had her eyes tightly shut. Her hands were flat on the table by her sides. Her skin was pale. She looked dead. But Aeris knew better than to think that she was. After all, she had survived a war against Shinra and several encounters with Sephiroth.

Only because Barret sacrificed him self for her, said a voice in Aeris' head. She would be dead if he hadn't. Aeris must've frowning because the man was giving her an odd look. She shook her head and concentrated on Tifa. The man held out something to her and asked if that would be any good.

'A Potion? Yeah, that will help. It will restore 100 HP. She could use Cure3 magic performing to get it almost full. Or Regen. But a Potion will do for now. Thank you,' said Aeris. She pulled the top off a small container, and threw the bottom part lightly, so it landed on Tifa. Before it landed, it emitted a number of green and turquoise sparks which landed softly on her as well. But she remained still.

'Is she...dead?' queried the woman. Aeris shook her head.

'This isn't the way she'd go. I think she must be unconscious. I can just about make out breathing. She has a slight pulse still. I think that the power of Rufus' materia has been underestimated,' Aeris Sensed her again.

'She has Fury. That means that in a battle, her Limit Skill level with fill up quicker, and she won't be able to do as much damage in a normal attack,' said Aeris. She looked at Tifa, then carried on explaining. 'Obviously, being hit in battle hurts, and so every attack, fills up a sort of 'level' inside her. Inside us all. The stronger the attack, the more the Limit Level fills up. In other words, the more she gets attacked, the more angry she'll get. When the 'level' is filled up, she will be very angry and will let all Hell break loose, in the form of a special attack. This is known as a Limit Skill,' Cloud and Cid came into the house, looking around. They saw Aeris, explaining something, the man looking as though she was explaining something as complicated as Quantum Physics, or rocket science. He gave Cloud a pleading look. The woman was busting around, looking for something. Cid asked what Aeris was doing.

'I was explaining Fury. Tifa has it. So I had to go on about Limit Skills and stuff. I don't think I can explain it well,' sighed Aeris. She turned back to the man and carried on. 'Limit Skills are very powerful and do a considerable amount of damage. But despite what I said about the Limit Level building up, you can't actually get Fury from that. Um, some creatures have normal attacks, but when they hit, sometimes you get an abnormal status, like Fury, Sadness, or Darkness, but I won't explain them,' Aeris finished her speech and turned to Cloud, who was entertaining himself by looking at a wall, and Cid, who was pretending to be asleep.

'Oh, you're awful, both of you!' she snapped. She furiously turned back to Tifa, and there was still no change in her lack of movement.

'Is there a cure for Fury?' asked the woman. Aeris opened her mouth to reply, but Cid cut in.

'Yeah, there is, you need a tranquilizer. Not the knockout rounds; we don't want her to stay asleep for longer, do we now?' laughed Cid. Aeris rolled her eyes. The woman carried on wandering around then held up a small dart with red liquid in it.

'Is this a tranquilizer?' she asked. Cid nodded and watched as she injected it into Tifa's arm.

'Cloud? You know when we were fighting Rufus and all the SOLDIER members? After I came round when Tifa defeated the really big monster, why did my head feel like it was kicked? Tell me the truth,' she added.

'Was that when I suggested to jump out the window to escape? Oh yeah! Um..Tifa tried to bring you round and it didn't work, so she kicked you in the head,' Cloud laughed. Aeris looked at Tifa. The woman had removed the tranquilliser round, but Tifa remained unconscious. Suddenly, she rolled forwards, stood up on the table, and while her legs were bent, she somersaulted over Aeris' stunned head, and landed behind her. She turned round, a grin over her face, and asked what was wrong.

'Have you been faking being unconscious?' asked Cid. Tifa shook her head.

'Aeris, you've been cut,' said Tifa, pointing to the mark that Rufus left before running. 'Where are all the monsters?'

'Rufus legged it, cut me and the monsters followed him,' said Aeris shortly. Tifa realised that she didn't have her bow and spare arrows from the monster she killed. She asked Cloud where they were, and he walked outside. He returned a minute later with it in his hand. Tifa thanked him and swung the arrows over her shoulder. She then turned to the man, who was standing as far away from the table as possible, his arms round his equally horrified wife.

'Was it you who brought me round?' she asked. The woman nodded. Tifa thanked them and then walked outside. The buildings were trashed. They were aflame. Every window was smashed. Everything that was wooden was used as firewood. Only the house that was still standing belonged to the man and woman, who were shaken by Tifa's sudden burst into consciousness. She shook her head in despair. Only Rufus or Sephiroth would sink so low. Her insides squirmed at the thought of Sephiroth. She ran a finger down her scar. It had started to tingle again. She gasped. She ran inside and flattened herself against the wall next to the door.

'What's the matter, Tifa?' asked Cid, curious. Tifa gulped and turned to face him.

'Get these people out of here and somewhere safe. Do it quick. Return immediately. Cloud, there might be another dead archer outside that has a bow and some arrows. You'll probably need them. Sephiroth is coming,' The small amount of colour in the faces of the couple drained out at these words. Cid beckoned to the man and woman.

'You can't possibly mean that...' whispered Cloud. His throat had gone dry, making it hard for him to speak.. 'You can't..please say he's not...' his bulging eyes glanced out the door.

'Cloud, listen to me. I don't want him to be here. I'm so scared of him. I reckon I'll be his next victim. Remember when we saw those blurred shapes, and they turned out to be Sephiroth and Rufus? My scar was tingling, then it started to hurt. Remember? Well, that same thing is happening again. Now,' replied Tifa, also in a whisper, as though Sephiroth could hear her talking about him. The tingling started to get worse, but it also started to fade. As though whatever was causing it wasn't sure what to do. Uncertainty filled the place of all feelings, except fear. Her fear was rising. Cid lead the man and woman out of their house and ran out of the village. The an icy cold wind swept over and went into the burnt houses. It flew through the open door, making Tifa shiver. Aeris hurried over and peered out, at the sky.

'Well, the sky isn't going purple, so I don't think Elena is nearby. Actually, its very cloudy. Dark grey ones, like-' said Aeris.

'Damn it Aeris! We don't care what colour the sky is!' shrieked Tifa, her voice high pitched and full of uncontrollable fear.

'I was going to say that it looks like a storm's coming, that's all,' muttered Aeris, looking at her feet. Cid came rushing back into the house.

'They wanted to find their own way round, and told me to come back here, so I don't know where they are. You're right though Tifa. He is coming. Rufus was lying to us though when he legged it. He's coming back as well. So are Sephiroth's supporters and Rufus' monsters. Oh, and you might want these Cloud,' said Cid. He handed Cloud a bow and arrow. Tifa and Cloud both looked out the window and saw a massive crowd marching towards the only house left intact. Tifa drew her bow, and an arrow. Cloud did the same. She stepped right next to the doorway and crouched down. She aimed at a monster and shot it. Cloud stood behind her and shot a supporter.

'Cloud, you take out Sephiroth's supporters. I'll go for the monsters,' said Tifa.

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The freezing gust still swept on. A monster right next to Sephiroth had its evil gaze fixed on that house. It smirked at the burning ones. In the intact house, a girl was crouching down. A boy was standing behind her. There was a rush of faint wind and the supporter next to it fell down. So did the fellow monster on the other side. A pointed thing came rushing towards it. The monsters helmet clanged as the arrow ricocheted off it. Another one came flying for its neck. The poison flowed through its body, as the arrow hit. It slumped, the last feeling it felt was ruthless creatures and supporters behind it treading carelessly onwards.

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Tifa was shooting with all her strength, silently urging every arrow to carry all the way to the mass of evil heading towards them. A blast of lightning struck the ground. It didn't hit any of the supporters or monsters. It illuminated the features of Sephiroth. His expression made Tifa scream. He was laughing. Laughing at his supporters, not caring whether they died or not. His eyes flickered. The wind seemed to sweep him up. Tifa shouted for Aeris and Cid to do something.

Cloud was watching every supporter. They all had their eyes fixed on him and Tifa. He shot more accurately than Tifa, who was trying to concentrate, but failing miserably. Tears were falling down her face. Cloud shot one hundred supporters in less than three minutes, but it didn't seem to have an effect on the mob size. He was terrified. He didn't think that they were going to live through this. Aeris and Cid had rushed out the back door as soon as Sephiroth rose up into the air. They hadn't come back yet. Nor had they heard any crashings or anything like that. It was extremely unnerving. Tifa froze in her stance. She was just about to shoot when she saw it. Cloud noticed she wasn't moving and nudged her with his foot. She stayed still as a statue. She rolled over and stood up in a second, facing in the other direction. She was pointing an arrow at a figure behind Cloud. He didn't need to turn around. Judging by the way Tifa was trembling, he could easily guess who it was.

'W-what ha-have you done with C-Cid a-and Ae-Aeris?' said Tifa. She tried to glare at him, but she was too scared. The figure smiled.

'Let me show you,'

Sephiroth snatched the bow and arrows away from her and threw them to the floor. He seized her wrist and dragged her away. She wanted to scream. She wanted to kick him. She wanted to cry. To escape. Anything except this. She felt sick. She felt weak. Commands seemed to go to Tifa's spinal cord straight from the rough grip Sephiroth had her in. There was a pile of wood by the back door. There was a wooden pole sticking out the top. Standing on top of the wood was Aeris and Cid. They were back-to-back by the pole. Their arms were linked in a way that stopped them from getting away from their surroundings.

Sephiroth conjured up a fireball, like the one Tifa saved Barret from. He set it to the dry wood. It burned easily. The flames flew up, licking Cid and Aeris, their screams so loud...so pained...the flames rose up the pole at their backs. Their clothes were alight. The flame shot up the pole, to the top. The tip of the pole was very close to the roof of the house. So that could catch the flames while Cloud was in there! He didn't know anything about it! Tifa pulled herself free from Sephiroth's grasp and ran round to the front of the house. The sound of Sephiroth's laughter followed her, taunted her. If she lived through this she would never forget the sound of his maniacal laughter. It taunted her in her dreams. Every night, she saw him. Every night she heard his voice. Every night she had suffered because of him. Round by the side of the house, she found a bucket full of water. Cid's pained shouted flew round and into her ears. She could hear Aeris' anguished breathing. Tifa grabbed the bucket and ran back to where Sephiroth was burning Aeris and Cid. She emptied the bucket over the fire. The flames had weakened the rope, making it easy to break.

Tifa used Cure3 and Regen on them both, then they jumped down from the scorched wood. They ignored the pain from their various burns and ran towards Tifa. Sephiroth reached out. He grabbed Cid's forearm and pulled him backwards. He pulled Cid into him, his arm pressing against Cid's neck, choking him. Sephiroth drew his sword and put that to Cid's neck. His arm that was choking him was now holding Cid's protesting unburnt arm. The sight caught Tifa's eye, and she held out an arm to stop Aeris.

'If you want another friend to die, stay where you are. If you don't, walk away. I'm sure Cloud will need assistance,' sneered Sephiroth. Tifa, very reluctantly walked off.

'Well, well, Cid. Looks like it's just me and you,' The hysterical laughter rose up again. Tifa screamed. She ran with, her hands covering her ears, trying to block out the laughter. She ran to the front of the house, but stopped abruptly. The monsters and supporters were all leering at Cloud, surrounding him in a circle. They closed in on him, making the circle reduce in size. They turned to face Tifa and Aeris, giving Cloud a opportunity to escape. He ran and punched a supporter in the face, knocking him out cold. He ran out the circle and round to Tifa. Aeris had tried to attract their attention by summoning Neo Bahamut, a non-elemental Dragon. Rufus was watching it all, obviously considering himself to be too important to fight. He watched with interest as a great red Dragon rose up and attacked. The ground where the monsters and supporters stood flew free, up into the sky, where the Dragon was waiting. It screeched, a blast of...something...erupting from the Dragon's mouth. The small platform of ground disintegrated and they all fell back down.

While this was happening, Tifa, Aeris and Cloud rushed back round to the back of the house. Cid was lying on the floor. He had a bloody mark on his throat. Tifa whimpered, and hid behind Aeris. Cloud walked over to Cid, and examined the mark on his throat.

'He's had throat slit. Sephiroth must've done it,' said Cloud. He was nearly knocked over as Tifa came running over to him. She smacked into him, but didn't pay any attention to him. She shook Cid's body, thinking that he must still be alive. Cloud laid a hand on her shoulder.

'It's no use. He's gone. Please Tifa, come away. The monsters and supporters will be coming round here soon,' urged Cloud. She ran. She straightened up and ran. Ran out of Mideel.

'Cloud, we're going to have to distract the monsters. I'll throw a piece of this wood. You run. I'll find a way to get out without alerting them,' whispered Aeris. She picked up a large piece of wood and threw it. It hit a supporter on the head, stunning him. Cloud set off. Aeris picked up a spare arrow on the floor and looked at it. Another supporter had seen Cloud running, and was about to shout it out. Aeris lobbed the arrow. Her aim was true. It hit him right in the head. The rest of the crowd were starting to come round the back to see who was there. She crept round the other side, waiting for them all to go. Then she ran. She ran like there was no tomorrow. But with Sephiroth around, there probably wasn't. She was about to carry on running when an arm flew out of nowhere. She crashed into it, and flipped over it. It belonged to Cloud.

'You almost ran straight past us!' laughed Cloud. Tifa looked more scared than she ever had done before. She was looking around in a panic. Her eyes were moving ceaselessly in their sockets. She was breathing heavily, and when Aeris asked her if she was okay, she jumped out of her skin. Whenever she spoke, it was in a trembly, cracked voice. Her eyes were all watery, like she was about to cry. She was also very pale. Cloud noticing Aeris' worried expression whispered into her ear.

'She's taken Cid's, um...passing very badly. I think that unless we do something quickly about Sephiroth, she's going to loose the plot,' said Cloud, moving his index finger in a circle around his ear.

'What am I going to do? Someone tell me. I can't take much more of this torture. Help me...' muttered Tifa. She ran off. Cloud started to give chase, but Tifa started to sprint. Aeris ran along behind. They chased Tifa into a forest around Mideel, where they lost her. They shouted for her, but something inside her head must've snapped, and she wouldn't answer.

'Tifa! Where are you? Oh, this is stupid! How does she expect us to be able to fight Sephiroth and Rufus if there's only two of us?' shouted Cloud, turning livid. A rustling sound make Aeris and Cloud start. Cloud drew his sword and pointed it at where the sound was coming from. Aeris walked over and pulled out the person hiding.

'Oh, nobody important, just Elena,' spat Aeris, her usually friendly voice cold and hard.

'What are you doing here?' asked Cloud, his voice evil and as cold as steel. Elena looked up at him as though she thought that he was the one person that could help her with some personal suffering.

'Please, help me...we've made a false idol of Sephiroth. He's gone insane. You have to help me. Please....' Elena was speaking so softly Cloud and Aeris thought that she was mouthing.

'Give me one good reason why we should help you. Rufus says something similar and the next thing, he's turned up in Mideel with Sephiroth, monsters and supporters. What makes you different?,' said Cloud. He was also speaking quietly, but Elena caught every word - something about the expression he was wearing made her sure that he wasn't going to repeat himself.

An arrow went whirring past Aeris' startled, white face, and hit Elena head on in her shoulder. She winced and pulled it out. Tifa came bounding out of what seemed like nowhere, and wrestled Elena to the floor. Elena punched Tifa hard in her stomach, winding her, and got back up to her feet. Cloud drew his sword and pointed it to Elena, who was fighting off a smile.

'You dare to point a stupid piece of metal at me? You don't know what you are up against. You and your surviving group must join with us. The winning side. You figured me out. I do not want the Great Sephiroth to fall, there is no point denying it. You must join us. Together, who could stop us? You certainly will be helpless on your own. Little Lockheart lying there on the floor, winded from a light punch. You, the runaway from SOLDIER. You could've been great, but you quit. Lastly, Aeris. The Ancient that doesn't have a clue. Holding a strip of wood as though it is the most powerful weapon in the world. Everyone knows that there is no way to beat Sephiroth. He is immortal. I shall rise up and serve him loyally. I am only a spy at the moment. I-' Aeris hit Elena round the face. Her blonde hair was thrown over her face from the hit. She was laughing. She carried on sneering. Aeris hit her again, but this time, jumped backwards, and used a Vampire Fang on Elena. A red cloud of mist rise up from the object that Aeris threw and hovered over Elena. It drained away some of her HP, and gave it to Aeris. She looked like she would have a fight to the death with Elena, if Cloud hadn't held her back at the right time.

'You are with the company that is poisoning this planet. Shinra will be the end for all of us. Not just Sephiroth. Sephiroth shows no mercy for anyone, whether friend or foe. He is full of a cold-blooded evil that is effecting us all. Once he has gotten rid of all his foes, and all the innocent people that are trying to get on with their lives, he'll start on his supporters. He will kill Rufus. He will destroy the Nibelheim reactor, thus stopping Hojo - you should know him - from creating more monsters. Then he will come after the Turks, and SOLDIER members,' said Aeris. Tifa shakily got up to her feet.

Tifa walked over to Cloud and whispered something in his ear. He nodded. Tifa started arguing with Elena, while Cloud beckoned to Aeris. Cloud dragged Aeris behind Elena and whispered to her what Tifa had said to him. He counted to three under his breath, then they both attacked. Aeris held down her right arm, Cloud holding her left. Tifa then smacked her round the face several times. She walked over and snatched Cloud's sword. She held it to Elena's heart.

'You're going to quit while you're ahead in this game. You are going to leave Sephiroth. I'm going to make sure of that,' snarled Tifa. Elena laughed. Not like a maniac, but soft laughter, like someone who has heard a slightly amusing joke.

'How are you going to force me? You can't keep a lookout to see what I'm upto all the time,' said Elena. Tifa smiled sweetly and walked up to her.

'I know this,' she started, her smile turning into a grimace 'Because I'm going to persuade you. But I guess you're right. I can't keep an eye on you all the time. So I'm going to do something that I am sure will do the trick,' She stepped closer still to Elena and held up the sword.

'You may call this a stupid piece of metal, but I think it's a lot more. It can do quite a bit of damage to people as well. Especially if it pierces someone's heart. Keep that in mind,' whispered Tifa.

She grasped the handle in a determined way and stabbed Elena. It wasn't through her heart, that was a threat. It was through her stomach. Tifa withdrew the blade and sank it deep into Elena's left leg. It sank deeper, deeper, past the bone, and broke through the skin on the other side of her leg. It went all the way through. Elena was screaming from the first stab. The volume was increasing from the pain. Tifa once again withdrew the blade. Elena was hanging limply in Aeris and Cloud's grip. They let her fall to the floor.

'Remember that pain, Elena. The next time you see Sephiroth remember what you will go through if you continue to serve him and if I catch you. I suppose I'm as bad as him. Not much mercy, but at least I show mercy to my allies, unlike Sephiroth,' said Tifa. She spoke in a menacing voice that was unlike her normal tone.

'Go! Go and don't you dare come back to bother anyone again!' cried Tifa as Elena limped off. Tifa handed the sword back to Cloud.

'Now what? What shall we do now? he asked.

'I think we ought to go and pay Rufus a visit. Get rid of him. That much we can do,' she replied, with an evil glint in her eyes.

__________________________________________________________________________________

They slept on the ground in the forest, because of the lack of inns and hotels in nearby villages. Tifa shivered and turned over. She was awake, but kept her eyes tightly shut in case a miracle happened and she fell asleep again. There wasn't much light, but the slight brightness that was shining through her eyelids was blocked out by a shadow passing over her. Something stopped to stare in amazement at Tifa, Cloud and Aeris lying there on the floor. The figure knelt down and looked closely at Tifa. She could feel the thing's putrid breath against her face. She opened her eyes and screamed at what was examining her. Her shout woke up Aeris and Cloud with a start, both wildly looking around to see what had made Tifa scream. Tifa herself had sat up and moved away in seconds, staring, wide-eyed that the person.

'I am sorry miss, I did not mean to startle you,' The man had a deep voice. He extended a hand out to Tifa to help her up. She stared at him in a way as to say 'get lost, you stupid man!'

He was wearing mostly black. He had a red headband that was resting underneath straight black hair. He had a jacket that crept down to the back of his knees. It had long flared sleeves. He had black trousers that were almost completely covering black shoes, which had copper covers. The man's right hand wore a black glove. The other one had a copper claw fixed over it. He had a red cape on as well. Tifa reached up and grabbed the man's extended hand. He pulled her to her feet and steadied her.

'Who are you?' asked Aeris, staring at the black-clad man. Cloud was giving him quizzical looks.

'I am called Vincent Valentine. I was walking through here and I saw you and your friends. I was surprised to see you and thought that you were bodies. There is something - or someone - going around to different villages murdering people, with a great army behind,' said the man.

'We know. We have just tried to fight him. He is called Sephiroth. As in, The Great,' spat Cloud, not concealing his obvious rage at the mention of his name. Vincent looked confused. Cloud explained about what he has done so far to them. Tifa finished off his small speech with who he has murdered that they knew.

'He has killed both of my parents, um...five of our friends and practically everyone he has come across. There were eight of us up against Sephiroth, and three of us are left. I dread to think who he will go for next. He has also joined up with Shinra, which makes thinks a lot harder for us,' she said. She sighed heavily.

'Shinra...' muttered the man. 'That is one thing I have heard of. I have been travelling on foot alone for a long while, and I do not hear about many things,'

'Can you tell us anything about Shinra that could help us?' asked Aeris, her eyes giving him a pleading look.

'I do not talk about my past. I know quite a lot of things about the burden that is Shinra, but I do not talk about it. I can get into a rage greater than most people could ever imagine if I think about it. Many think that I am mysterious in some way. I suppose I agree with them,' muttered Vincent, in a very small voice. He smile oddly at them and asked for their names. Cloud introduced them all.

'Hmm..I recognise your name. Lockheart....any relation to Dio Lockheart?' asked Vincent, treading carefully on dangerous ground.

'He was my dad,' said Tifa quietly.

'Ah, say no more,' said Vincent. 'Who was that blonde girl that came limping out of here, muttering angrily to herself? Did you see her?'

'Yes, she's Elena. She works with the Turks at the moment, but will 'rise through the so-called law and order' so then she can escape them and join up with Sephiroth. She's got a few tricks up her sleeve as well,' said Aeris, looking nervously at Cloud.

Vincent and them chatted for a while until Reno, the Turk and Tseng came up and made them all jump. Reno and Vincent stared into each other's eyes for a moment, hatred shining brightly from both. Vincent bared his teeth and in a flash, pulled out a small revolver gun and pointed it at Reno. Reno tutted at it.

'Honestly Vincent, when I think that you can't possible get any worse, you team up with these stupid children,' whispered Reno. Vincent growled softly, the grip on the handle of his gun getting harder. Reno kicked the gun out of Vincent's hands, and when he tried to get it back, Reno pounced, and brought him to the floor. Tifa started towards Reno, who was wrestling Vincent, trying to keep him from getting his gun back and kicked him in the face. Reno went flying backwards, off Vincent and into a small clearing further on. She helped Vincent to his feet.

Vincent suddenly jumped, and looked around frantically. Aeris asked him what the matter was, but he didn't reply. He ran to the clearing where Reno landed and looked around there.

'You say that you fought this Sephiroth person. Tell me what did he look like? Did he have long white hair and a long sword?' he asked. Tifa's eyes were bulging, widened in disbelief, but no-one noticed.

'Yes, that's what he looks like. How do you know that?' asked Cloud, stunned. Vincent turned to face them.

'He is coming. I should also check on your friend there as well,' he said with a worried glance at Tifa. Cloud turned to her, while Vincent kept a lookout for Sephiroth. Tifa held her stomach as though she had just been punched, but forced herself to keep looking at what Cloud and Aeris thought was nothing. Aeris tried to see what she was staring at, but couldn't see anything. Suddenly, Tifa fell to her knees, yet still kept her head up. She fell over backwards, unconscious.

'Vincent, how close is Sephiroth?' asked Aeris, in a panicky voice.

'He is quite near. He has a lot of people trailing behind him as well,' said Vincent. He ran suddenly and grabbed up his gun.

'He won't harm you, not while I am here. I will protect you. If you want me to, that is,' added Vincent, realising that Cloud and Aeris were the sort of people that would rather fight than run.

'We'll be okay for the moment, Vincent,' said Cloud. He drew his sword, and held it ready. Aeris grasped her staff, looking determined at the clearing. Vincent turned on his heel, and ran over to the tree nearest Cloud. He jumped and grabbed the lowest branch, and swung himself up to a higher one with amazing grace. Soon Vincent was out of sight. A supporter tore through the trees and, sword raised, ran maniacally towards a shocked Aeris. A bullet appeared out of the tree that Vincent disappeared up of, and buried itself in the supporter's head. He swayed on his feet, blood trickling down from where the bullet was. He fell over backwards.

Another horde of people came storming through the trees, treading over the body of the dead supporter, not giving a single thought about it. Several more bullets came rushing overhead, and flew straight the their targets. Soon, they were all surrounded. Cloud and Aeris tried to guard the unconscious Tifa, and Vincent was trying to shoot the supporters that were doing the worst to Tifa, Cloud and Aeris, but there were too many of them. Soon Vincent came dropping out of the tree, punched and kicked the supporters, hoisted Tifa over his shoulders, grabbed Cloud's and Aeris' wrists and ran. Occasionally, Vincent would point his gun behind him and shoot at whatever might still be following, making sure that he didn't get Cloud or Aeris. Eventually, they completely lost Sephiroth's supporters, and set down away from the large forest. Tifa started to stir and came round.

'Are you alright, Tifa?' asked Vincent. She nodded and asked what happened.

'There were too many of them. We wouldn't stand a chance. Not that we do anyway, but we stood a smaller chance in a forest, completely surrounded, and with you unconscious,' said Cloud.

'What are we going to do? Sephiroth seems to have more supporters every time we meet him!' exclaimed Aeris. 'There's nothing we can do about it!'

'Tell me the names of the places he has ransacked and destroyed again please,' demanded Vincent.

'Um..Nibelheim, Midgar, well one Sector, including the slums, Mideel, and probably more. They are the places that we have met him in,' said Tifa. 'Oh, hang on. No, Nibelheim was ransacked by Shinra only. Not Sephiroth,'

'Are there any survivors in any of those villages?' he asked.

'No, not in Nibelheim of Mideel, I don't think so anyway. Why do you want to know?' asked Aeris. Vincent shook his head.

'Don't worry about it. I was just wondering. Hmm...if there are no survivors, then we can't do that...this is going to be difficult. Can you kill Sephiroth like a normal human?' he asked. Cloud let out a bitter laugh.

'No, he's immortal. It's strange, because he was created by Professor Gast, yet Hojo from the Shinra is his father. I don't know how that works though,' Vincent continued to look thoughtful.

'I need to know for definite if there are any survivors or not. Because, if there, are, we can use them to make up an army to fight against Shinra and Sephiroth. But, not together at once though. I don't think that we could get enough people,' said Vincent, thinking out loud.

They agreed to go to Midgar, to try and find people that would try and get revenge on Sephiroth. They all relied on Tifa to persuade them. Aeris, Cloud and Vincent rounded up people, while Tifa worked out what she was going to say. At last, a reasonable amount of people were gathered in Sector 8, in the slums. Tifa clambered up onto a what looked like to be a stage to give her speech.

'People of Midgar, as I am sure you are all aware of, there was an attack on Sector 7, in which a lot of people were killed. Many of your friends, family, everyone that was in the Sector at the time. The attacker was none other than Sephiroth, whom certain people around the world have named 'The Great'. All the attention has gone to his head and he has snapped. It was him that set the Emergency Plate Release bomb, and he doesn't care. There are a few of us that are trying to fight him, but we need your help. We need an army of people strong enough to at least attempt to fight Sephiroth and his supporters. I will not lie to you all and say that it will be easy, because it won't. We need to stop him before something dreadful happens,' Tifa glanced at Cloud and Aeris, who signalled for her to carry on.

'Sephiroth has the Black Materia. It will only be a matter of time before he summons another meteor, like he did a few years ago. Many people do not know that it was him, but there are a handful of us that know the truth about him and what he can do. Several people have died at the hand of him, trying bravely to stop him, giving their lives for others. A man that I knew very well gave his life in order to keep me alive. I want revenge. My friends that work along with me are angry with him. We are all in shock at what he has gone, but it needs to stop! He still goes around, while I speak, invading villages and murdering all the people there. How many of you know anyone that lives in the small village of Mideel?' She stopped talking for a while to see a large section of the crowd slowly raise their hands, nervously.

'Mideel is no more! Everyone except for one family is dead! All the houses have been burnt down! Everything is ruined! All because of Sephiroth! The Shinra have teamed up with him! But we can still do this as they don't go around together, mostly. Like I said, many of you have suffered greatly at the hand of Sephiroth, including me and including my friends. It's time to stop him!' Tifa stopped there as all the people started cheering. She jumped off the stage, and turned to Cloud, Vincent and Aeris. Vincent lifted himself up onto the stage to add his own bit.

'I am assuming that by the way you cheered, you are going to help us? I know a blacksmith that does excellent work. I shall have sword and armour made for all of you so we can stop these dark times!' Vincent too, jumped down off the stage and said that he was going to head for a small building near Cosmo Canyon.

'Where is the armour you used in the battle against Shinra? When Nibelheim got invaded?' asked Aeris.

'I think I left that in Cosmo Canyon when we ran off from the hospital,' replied Tifa.

The people in Midgar started going back to their houses when a small girl, a bit taller than Marlene came a poked Tifa in the side. She crouched down to face the girl.

'When do we all have to fight in this, miss?' asked the girl. She had a nervous sounding voice, and a lisp. Tifa turned to Aeris, looking disbelieving at her.

'You rounded up a child to fight in the war?' she asked. Aeris opened her mouth to answer, when the child cut in.

'My, my daddy brought me here, because I can't stay at home on my own, but he wants to know so he told me to find out,' said the girl, looking relieved when Tifa smiled at her.

'Can you tell your daddy that we'll come back when we have everything ready and will then start training? Can you make sure that he tells all the other nice people that came here as well?' the girl nodded and ran off to her father. Tifa and Aeris headed off towards Cosmo Canyon, and Cloud tagged along behind. They were going to go to the hospital, get the armour, then see if they could find where Vincent went.

The secretary that watched the argument with Tifa's parent's and Dio was currently sitting in her chair, listening to the radio and was filing her nails. She looked up in amazement as Tifa and Aeris flung open the doors, with Cloud trailing behind them.

'Excuse me, but you can't just come bursting in here, and then go thundering through to the wards! This is a hospital, not a clubhouse!' cried the woman. Cloud gave her a warm smile then said 'We're collecting something was left here,' They carried on before the woman could say another word. Tifa walked to the ward that she was in and looked around. Soon enough, she found her armour. Cloud took it from her and they set off to see where Vincent had gone to.

They walked past the jagged and uneven lands that was Cosmo Canyon, and past the mountains. A small solitary house was by a river, the only neighbour, an exploded reactor. Tifa walked up and knocked on the door. A small man with a short black pony-tail answered.

'No, no, no, go away! I'm not selling anything today! I don't want buyers! Leave me alone!' the man was just about to shut the door in her face when Vincent came to see who was there and told the man that they were with him. He mumbled an apology under his breath and stepped aside for them to enter. A workbench was covered in iron. Swords, armour and lots of other things lined the walls. A few swords were lying on the floor beside the workbench.

'Vincent, I've got some armour, but Aeris hasn't, and I think it would be a good idea for Cloud to have some strong armour that actually works, because his SOLDIER armour isn't very thick,' said Tifa. Vincent, who was looking at a sword, dropped it and turned to face Tifa, Aeris and Cloud, with a look that made all three of them back away slightly.

'I never knew that you were with SOLDIER, Cloud,' he said, a hint of anger in his voice. Cloud and Aeris didn't spot that, but Tifa did.

'He used to be in SOLDIER, but quit. He, he joined up with me and one of my friends years ago. He's on our side. Honestly. He's still got the armour, but it is very weak,' she said quickly.

A week later, Vincent's blacksmith friend had got all the weapons and armour ready for war against Sephiroth, while Tifa and Cloud were teaching the people of Midgar ways to attack and defend. Tifa, Aeris, Vincent and Cloud came back to Midgar with all the equipment. Vincent, Aeris, Tifa and Cloud had already put their armour on and were ready for when battle came. The people in the war gathered in Sector 8 and helped themselves to swords and armour. Tifa still had her bow and arrow with her. She was to lure Sephiroth and his supporters to Midgar, where the army would attack. Cloud fretted about this, but Tifa was quite astonished to find out that she was alright with it.

She said goodbye and set off alone away from the comfort of not being on her own and started to search for Sephiroth.

While she was looking for him, she felt watched. She felt that something hadn't taken its gaze off her ever since she left Midgar. It was unnerving. By the way her scar threatened to explode with pain, told her that she was getting closer. She felt terrified again, and lost all faith in her helmet and the rest of her armour. Her breathing rose as her chest tightened in panic.

She found Sephiroth and his supporters much, much sooner than she had planned. She couldn't tell whether he was near or not by what her scar was doing, as it wasn't even tingling. But when she faced the way she came and stepped backwards, she bumped into someone. She apologised without thinking and turned to face who she had walked into. Her expression froze when she saw that it was Sephiroth. He had his evil sneer in place, and was watching Tifa, looking at her in her armour. He laughed, not his usual taunting laughter, but soft laughter.

'Do you normally go around in a suit of armour? Is this a new fad?' Tifa turned on her heel and ran. She glanced at her side and saw Midgar. She sprinted towards it, but was held down by her armour, despite that fact that she had the most lightweight armour for running in. She tore through the neighbouring Sectors screaming 'he's coming!' as loud as she could. She could hear Cloud shouting to her. She put on another burst of speed and ran behind him. Aeris laid a calming hand on her shoulder, and Vincent whispered 'Don't worry, we'll be fine' into her ear.

Sephiroth's supporters stopped dead when they saw the army facing them. Then, like their leader, they started to laugh. Tifa started shaking uncontrollably. She was so scared. A growing feeling of foreboding had started up. She knew that there was no way she could keep herself alive. Aeris was growing paler and paler. Cloud was perspiring and Vincent looked relatively calm. Tifa's head was spinning, she felt dizzy with fear. She shook her head, trying to clear all the bad thoughts from it.

What Tifa had failed to notice was that some of their army had pikes and shields. The others had swords. If only Barret was here, thought Tifa. We'd be okay if he was with us. But he's not. Because of me...

The supporters were leering at the Midgar army. They were stamping on the ground with their feet, the tremors from them reaching to the trembling, petrified Midgar army.

Sephiroth drew out his magnificent sword. Tifa looked up at the sky, outside Midgar. It was growing dark. The stars had come out. She never realised how beautiful they really were. The wind gushed, thunder roared, and lightning cracked. Sephiroth was pointing his sword at them. The supporters started towards them. The final battle had begun.

Cloud shouted again, and they started running to meet the supporters. Vincent starting picking off supporters from a distance. Aeris was swinging her staff around frantically. Cloud and Tifa were fighting, side-by-side. Tifa locked swords with a supporter. Cloud stabbed him from behind. Tifa turned to face another one. She blocked high, then low, she ducked and jumped. She couldn't get a chance to attack this woman. She used a technique from Zangan, and swiped the supporter's sword out of her hands. Tifa ran behind her and she groped for her sword. She pulled her arm back and stabbed. She flung her sword out behind her and beheaded another one. She attack furiously and advanced, forcing the supporter she was fighting to retreat. He was moving swiftly, avoiding her frantic swipes. Another supporter came up behind her. She swiped at the one in front of her, and kicked the one behind her in her stomach. She stumbled backwards. Tifa moved so fast she was almost flying. She swiped and slashed and did her best, but she couldn't kill this supporter. The woman that she kicked came up behind her and stabbed Tifa's stomach. She screamed in pain. Cloud, who was nearby came over to help.

Cloud quickly embedded the blade of his sword in the skull of his supporter and tried to help Tifa. He sliced the head off the woman that stabbed Tifa and then moved her away to another one. He did a windmill kick and knocked out the supporter that Tifa couldn't kill. He then thrust his sword down, in a deadly move. He put his sword away and fought another supporter hand-to-hand. He punched the woman that crept up behind him in the face. She spat out blood and tried to punch him back. Cloud blocked the hit and twisted her arm behind her back. He then held his other hand around her neck. The woman wrenched her arm free and tried to hit Cloud. He dodged the attack and wrapped his other hand around her neck. A sickening crack cut through the air like a gun shot; yet Vincent had his silencer on. Cloud had broken the woman's neck. He tossed her body aside and re-drew his sword. He blocked a wild slash from a supporter and overpowered him with a lot of force. His arms flailed the air as the sword flew from his grip. Cloud moved and caught it deftly. He plunged both the swords into the supporter's shoulders. He then rested his foot on the supporter's stomach and tugged them out. One sword sliced a deep gash in his cheek, and the other one rested in his leg. Cloud tugged out his own sword again and then set off for another supporter. Aeris was in trouble. She was surrounded by supporters and was disarmed. A blade came rushing past Cloud's face, and Tifa somersaulted over his head and landed right in front of him. She pulled out her bow and an arrow and shot three of the monsters. She stopped as Cloud came running in front and hacked the limbs of the other supporters. Tifa took up her sword and stabbed the blade through another supporter's neck. Cloud handed Aeris her staff back.

Aeris took her staff from Cloud and then ran over to a group of supporters. She swung her staff about herself and spiked about three supporters on her staff in one go. She kicked someone and then pulled her staff apart. She had one spiked half in one hand, and a normal one in the other. Two supporters crept up behind her. Aeris threw back her hands, catching both the supporters in their stomachs with the sticks, and then raised her hands, uppercutting them. One of the supporters was mauled by the spike on the end, the other one was just knocked to the floor. Aeris put the two ends of her staff together and fixed it. She turned it upside-down and stabbed the supporter's rib-cage. A pair of footsteps behind her made her turn around. As soon as she did, a club connected with the side of her face. She keeled over backwards, and had the slight impression of being dragged away.

Vincent wasn't having any luck. It started to rain. The odd drop fell off the edge of the Sector 8 Plate and splashed to the floor. Vincent was running rapidly out of bullets, but it seemed that the number of supporters coming for him was increasing. A foot kicked up and he dropped his gun. A pair of arms stopped him from grabbing it back, and another supporter took it up. She took off the silencer and cast it aside. She suggested to play a game of Russian Roulette. There was one bullet left. The supporter pointed it at Vincent's head. She spun the bullet chamber and waited for it to stop.

What are the odds? Thought Vincent. It is about one in six chance of me actually getting shot. I might get out of this alive....

The bullet chamber stopped spinning. Vincent held his breath, as the supporter shot him. The one holding him dragged his body away, out of sight. Their master would want to pay his respects...

Tifa heard the gunshot, as did Cloud, but neither of then could see Vincent. Things were really getting underhand. Sephiroth and his supporters were winning. Most of the Midgar army had been killed. Tifa and Cloud were surrounded. They were completely helpless. A supporter held down Tifa's arms, and another one snatched her sword, and took away her bow and arrows. The same thing was happening to Cloud. Both their weapons were laid outside the circles of supporters. Cloud was being beaten up quite badly. He slumped to the floor after about ten minutes of punishment. All the supporters in Tifa's circle turned to her, all wearing the same evil smirk. Tifa blocked punches, and fought back, giving as good as she could give. Cloud's unconscious body was being taken way as well. Soon Tifa had knocked out all of the supporters going after her and ran for it. The other supporters that had survived, and not got killed were finishing off the more lucky members of the Midgar army. They didn't notice Tifa slip off. She found Aeris and Cloud, both still unconscious, but in a fatal position.

Tifa looked around for Vincent, and screamed when she found him. He was hanging from the side of a small wooden shack near Aeris and Cloud from a piece of rope around his neck. But that wasn't what was bothering Tifa. His legs were ripped off from his torso, and there was blood everywhere. His clothes were torn, what was left of them. Tifa screamed and ran out of Midgar. It was raining very heavily. In seconds, Tifa was drenched. She ripped off her armour to help her run better. Her sleeveless top was sticking to her, and so was her skirt. Her matted fringe stuck to her face. She carried on running as fast as she could, without a look back.

She ran until a voice called to her. She stopped suddenly. Sephiroth appeared out of nowhere. Tifa backed off, mouthing wordlessly. Sephiroth advanced on her quickly. Tifa's legs seized up. They wouldn't operate. She could only watch in horror as Sephiroth pulled back his arms and slashed.

The next thing Tifa felt was considerable pain. It soared through her body like wildfire through a forest. Tifa's vision faded to a dark jet-black. The pain mounted, then faded completely. She awoke. She was in a room. It was completely empty except for her and a massive crowd of other people. A hand reached down to help her up. She stood up and looked around. Standing in one corner were Aeris, Cloud, Vincent and Barret. In another corner, Tifa recognised people from the Midgar army. She looked around, completely amazed. What was going on? She looked around again and saw Cid, Biggs, Wedge, Jessie, and her parents! She ran across to the other side of the room and flung herself at her father. Everyone else started cheering.

In the real world, Sephiroth began slicing up the body of Tifa Lockheart to make sure that she was dead. The Midgar army had failed. Sephiroth had won the war. Everyone else was doomed. Sephiroth threw back his head and laughed the sneering laugh that woke people up from their dreams in a panicky fit. He raised his sword and held himself in a proud position, as the rest of his supporters came and started cheering him on. Sephiroth equipped a small black sphere into an empty weapon slot and called up a deadly power. He had summoned Meteor. Now there were two meteors heading towards them. Planet Earth would become nothing more than a crumble of rock in the big universe, ruled by Sephiroth.

THE END