Standard Disclaimer: I do not own Final Fantasy, or any other properties mentioned in this story. This is a work of fan fiction.

Author's Note One: This story takes place after the events of 'Courage to Change the Things You Can' and 'Stranger Highways: Redux.' You might want to read those first in order to follow what's going on here.

Author's Note Two: For the purposes of this story, I've re-named 'Ultimate Weapon' as 'Obsidian Weapon.' It just makes more sense to me to follow the theme naming of the others, and besides that why would the people of Gaia give the name 'Ultimate' to one of the weakest ones?

OOOOOOO

"Insert Disk Two"

Chapter One: "A Surprise Guest"

After the events I have previously related in 'Stranger Highways' Aeris and I lived together in my home for about six weeks. During this time, she helped me with recovering my memories and we filled each other in on the details we were not aware of; Aeris what she knew from her time in the hospital, and I what I knew from the second half of the game.

In time, I started getting worried about how long we were waiting. Minerva's instructions to Aeris had been clear. We were not to return to Gaia until we received some kind of sign, something which would be "Unmistakable." Nevertheless, I still worried. After all, around five months had passed on Gaia between Aeris' injury at Knowlespole and her journey to my world, and while I was fully aware that the timeframe was longer in reality than in the game (It had, after all, taken more than a year to travel from Midgar to Knowlespole), this particular delay was seeming horribly long. Especially knowing that Meteor had been summoned.

I wished fervently for someone to discuss these concerns with, but neither Minerva, nor Ganthet, nor anyone from Ganthet's Tempus Council put in a single appearance during those weeks. More worrisome to me; the fragment of Masamune, shaved off the end of that blade when Aeris closed the Gate of Worlds in Sephiroth's face, had vanished. I knew exactly where I had left it, of course, but a week into our wait it simply disappeared overnight. I should have been relieved, I guess. I wanted the thing gone and now it was. But the mystery was unsettling…

OOOOOOO

And so it came to pass that we awoke early one morning, six weeks after our reunion. We ate breakfast, and discussed our plans for the day. "I'd like to get started on the back lawn." Aeris said, looking out the windows. When she arrived weeks earlier, Aeris had expressed upset that the yard around my home was devoid of any kind of flowers or shrubs or landscaping, but it had been winter then and there was nothing to do. "Spring's coming soon, I can feel it." She added.

"It's still awfully cold though… The ground's got to still be frozen." I replied.

"Yeah. No reason to not make some plans though."

"You wanna go check out the local greenhouses?" I asked. "Maybe get an idea of what you'll have to work with?"

"That sounds like fun. Let's go!"

We finished our meal and made ready to go out for the day, unaware that those plans were about to be put on indefinite hiatus. After we were suitably dressed we returned to the first floor. We were about to leave via the front door when a loud yelp and a clattering sound arose from the direction of the kitchen. "Stay back." I whispered. "I'll check this out."

Creeping as quietly as I could manage down the hallway, stepping just so to avoid squeaky floorboards, I moved towards the source of the noise, which had now gone silent. Just outside the kitchen door I paused. Light from the window streamed through the kitchen and out the door onto the floor and opposite wall, and clearly visible in that light was the shadow of someone moving. A small someone I guessed, but still a possible threat.

I glanced around for a makeshift weapon, greatly missing the Katana I had used on Gaia, and settled for an umbrella hanging from a closet door. Shaking my head at the absurdity of such a pathetic weapon, I tensed, waited half a second more, then sprang into the kitchen ready to do battle with…

"Yuffie!?" I exclaimed in shock.

I would have said more, would have asked how in the hell she had gotten here, but before I could say anything further the ninja was leaping into my arms and babbling a mile a minute. "Christian! You're alive! You're alive? But how… Where am I anyway? What's going on here? How are you alive? We all saw you vanish! What the hell?..."

I would write out everything Yuffie said, but let's just say it would make this first chapter alone longer than I intend for the entire story to be. Suffice to say that once she started talking she couldn't stop, exclaiming and questioning, repeating herself over and over, trying to talk about how sorry she was about Aeris, on and on she went, somehow not needing to stop for a breath for close to ten minutes.

As Yuffie continued on and on, Aeris stepped into the door and waited quietly for her to calm down. In time, Yuffie must have registered Aer's presence subconsciously, because she slowed way down in her speech and eventually stopped entirely. Facing Aeris, jaw dropped open, giant shuriken dropped to the floor with a resounding clang, the little ninja was as quiet as I'd ever seen her for a full minute. Then she sprang forward as if shot out of a cannon, making a loud squealing sound like "EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!" as she went, bowling Aeris over backwards.

"You're alive!? You're alive too!? Will somebody please tell me what the hell is going on here already!?"

Helping Aeris back to her feet, I motioned to the kitchen table. "Have a seat Yuff. We've got a lot to tell each other…"

OOOOOOO

Shortly thereafter, we were all seated around the small table, Aeris by my side and Yuffie across from us. "So what's the deal?" She asked.

I held up a hand. "Yuff, listen… You've got a lot of questions. And you deserve the answers, and I intend to give them to you. But, the rest of Avalanche deserves those answers too, and it's a really long story that I don't wanna have to tell over and over."

"You wanna wait for everyone to be together?" Yuffie asked. "Guess I can get that. But I don't think you're gonna get the chance now."

"How do you mean?" Aeris asked.

"I mean Avalanche is gone! History! All broken up, that's what!"

Looking at me in shock, Aeris said "I didn't think anything like that was supposed to happen."

"It's not." I answered. Looking at Yuffie, I said "Can you do me a favor Yuff? What has happened since you left Knowlespole? I need the details."

Nodding, Yuffie began to fill us in. The first part of her story fit with what I expected. They had journeyed north to Icicle Inn, and from there across the Great Glacier and up Gaia Cliffs. In the crater, a third Jenova monster had attacked and been beaten, but then Shinra arrived and Cloud handed the Black Materia to Sephiroth.

"After that," Yuffie continued, "All hell broke loose. The planet's weapons woke up and went crazy. We got out on Shinra's airship, but then Rufus tried to arrest us all. Barrett and Tifa were captured. Cloud, I dunno, no one's seen him."

"This is tracking so far." I said. "Please, keep going."

"Well, A while later, I lost track of exactly how long, those of us who got away found each other. Cid and Vincent hatched a plan to rescue Barrett and Teef by hijacking the airship. It was right about then that Meteor appeared in the sky."

"So this was several weeks ago then? I asked.

Aeris asked "What about Meteor? Have you heard anything about how long until it hits?"

"Weeks ago." Yuffie confirmed. "As for Meteor… Remember, I'm no science-brain. But Red said something about it being in some kind of funny orbit that would take several months to reach the planet."

"Retrograde orbit, spiraling inward probably." I mused. Yuffie stared at me until I said "I'm not exactly a science-brain either, but I know a little… Okay, so what happened after you hijacked the airship?"

"Well, we broke Barrett and Teef out like we planned. Wasn't easy. Then, once we were clear there was a big meeting, trying to decide what to do. Everyone wanted Tifa to take charge but she wouldn't do it. Refused and walked away. I don't even know where she is now."

"Of course…" I whispered. "It makes sense now."

"What? What makes sense?"

"Yuff, Aer and I need a moment, please wait here." I said.

In the hall, Aeris asked "What is it? What have you realized?"

"Butterfly effect. It had to happen sooner or later, with me in the middle of things… This is my fault."

"What is? I'm not following you."

I sighed. "Remember, the game represents the unaltered timeline… In the game, Tifa accepts when she's offered command. But she almost doesn't. See, she was dealing with two deaths; yours which was real in that timeline, and Cloud's which wasn't real but she didn't know that yet so it still counted. The deaths, real or not, of two close friends was almost too much for her to take. She pulls herself together, but not before going, like, ninety-nine percent of the way to falling off the edge of the despair cliff. And if two deaths came that close to ruining her…"

"…Then what must three apparent deaths, mine, Cloud's, and yours, have done to her." Aeris finished, understanding now where I was going with my thinking. "Of course this time none of us are really dead, but that doesn't matter does it? She thinks we're all gone. Okay, so what do we do?"

"Right or wrong, I'm taking Yuffie's arrival as the sign we were waiting for. C'mon, let's see what else she can tell us."

"Yeah, with luck there's still time to pull it all back together."

Returning to Yuffie, I asked "What happened after Tifa left? How long has it been?"

"And how exactly did you find yourself here?" Aeris added.

"We tried to keep Avalanche together." Yuffie explained. "Vincent took command for awhile. We actually managed to do one good thing, we overheard Shinra messages about a Huge Materia at Corel and captured it. Saved the town too! But after that, there was no clear leadership, no real plans. We broke up two days ago. Cid's using the Highwind to take everyone home, though I had him leave me where I first met you guys. And that's how I got here. I found this weird blue thing, like a magical door or something, just floating out in the wilderness. I was trying to figure out how to safely look inside when it rushed at me and pulled me in. Next thing I knew, here I was."

"Minerva's work." I thought to myself. I said "Okay Yuffie, one more question. I warn you, this one's gonna sound kind of strange, and you might not know the answer, but it's vitally important if you do: The black Weapon… What is it doing? Has it attacked Mideel yet?"

Yuffie favored me with a strange look, but said "Obsidian? No, it's not attacked anything. It's just sat in one spot, southeast of Junon, for weeks now. What's this about Mideel?"

Aeris said "That's a part of what Christian wants to explain all at once. But, Yuffie, Cloud is alive." –the ninja's eyes widened at this- "He's in Mideel, but he's not well. Catatonic. We've got to get Tifa to him, and fast."

"Alright then, let's go!" Yuffie exclaimed. "Only, you still didn't tell me where we are. How can we get there from here?"

"Aeris can handle that." I answered, thinking of the Transit Materia Minerva had given her. "Give us a half hour to get ready, then we're getting Avalanche back together, and stopping Sephiroth." Yuffie cheered.

OOOOOOO

Slightly less than thirty minutes later, we were ready. I had dressed in heavy denim cargo pants, a thin cotton t-shirt, and a denim jacket with heavy combat boots from a surplus store. All of my pockets and a large satchel were filled with supplies, but my efforts to obtain a katana had been fruitless. I supposed it was best to obtain a new one in Gaia anyway, for the Materia slots.

Aeris had dressed in a style similar to her traditional outfit from the game, but a little better suited for fighting. Her dress was several inches shorter for better mobility, and was tied off at the waist with a belt-sash. She had replaced her old bracelets with armlets that covered and protected the entire lower half of each arm, and like myself she wore new boots that rose higher on her legs than her old pair.

Unlike myself, Aeris already had a viable weapon; the gift Minerva had given her before she came to my world. Called the 'Heart of Gaia' it was a six-foot staff imbued with great magical power. Among other things, the staff could somehow channel the power of the White Materia, creating Holy-like spells that could be used in combat. It could also retract into a harmless-seeming foot-long rod for portability and stealth.

Prepared, I stepped towards the bedroom door but Aeris stopped me. "You're blaming yourself, aren't you? For Tifa's reaction."

"How can I not?"

"You said it yourself… Butterfly Effect… Things had to start changing sooner or later."

"Maybe. Kind of makes my knowledge useless though."

"We'll see. Now let's go, Yuffie's waiting and there's no telling how much or little time we have left."

"Right." I opened the door and we quickly rushed back to the kitchen.

"Ready Yuff?" Aeris asked. She held her staff in the spell-casting position and activated the Transit Materia. A greenish glow swirled through the room, accompanied by a rush of air, and then a swirling, glowing blue portal opened up before us.

"Hey!" Yuffie exclaimed. "That looks just like the thing I came through to get here!"

"It surely does." I answered, then placed a hand firmly on her back and shoved her through. Aeris giggled slightly as she followed, and I went last…