Chapter 1
In a dark sky, a very beautiful moon appeared from hiding behind the clouds. The sky filled with stars and the wind blew smoothly through the trees.
Suddenly, six fighters of Avalanche appeared running through the woods. They panted heavily as they all running. One of them is badly wounded. That person is Sephiroth.
"Hold on there, Sephiroth!" said Genesis as he is helping Sephiroth to run.
"I think we lost them!" shouted Cloud from behind.
They all slowed down their speed and stopped to conserve their energy. Suddenly, they heard a rustle around the bush next to them. Angeal, Zack, Cloud and Vincent were circling Genesis and Sephiroth in a protective position. Cloud, Angeal and Zack pulled out their sword, Vincent takes out his gun.
Without wasting time, a huge Bengal tiger leaps up in front of them. They did not do anything since the beast just kept circling them. Then, when the beast was about to attack them, a mysterious voice shouted:
"Onyx, hail! Do not do anything!"
Immediately, the beast backed off a couple of meters. They all –except for Sephiroth since he is badly injured to notice anything- looked at the direction where the voice came from. A shadowy girl jumped from a tree, do a back flip and land gracefully on the ground.
They can hardly see her since she was standing in a shadow of a tree. Except for her eyes, it was violet, as clear as a crystal as if it was glowing.
"Who may you be?" she asked.
"Who may YOU be?" Angeal copied her.
There was no answer. After a couple of seconds, the Bengal tiger, Onyx said "What are you all doing here?"
It wasn't the words that shocked them, but the voice and the sentences that came out of the tiger's mouth.
"A tiger that talks?? It is really rare for them to talk these days!" thought Zack quietly.
Then, the silence came in again. Each seconds of the odd silent made Cloud sick so he said:
"We are a part of the organization named Avalanche. We were on a mission and bumped to the remaining of an organization named Deep Ground. They had special machines and new powers that injured us."
"Part of the Avalanche you say?" asked the girl.
"Yes, exactly." said Vincent.
"Then, forgive me for being this way." she said while walking out of the shadow.
Now, they can see her better. She was a couple centimeters shorted than Zack. Her eyes were now clearer than before when it really touches the moonlight. Her hair was striped black, straight and shoulder length. Her front hair was mostly on the right side while there are some on the left that have the color of pink stripes on each sides and both of the front hair was shorter than the back hair which has purple stripes.
She wears a short dark purple jacket at ribs length, not zipped, black T-shirt, the sleeve on the left is longer than the right, black in color, a dark blue jeans like pants that are tucked inside the black knee length boots. On both of her hips there are white straps that are attached to her swords. And also a small beg that is attached to another white strap was located on her waist.
"I did not know you guys at first because you yourselves were standing in the dark." she said. They did not notice a big tree at their left back till she said so.
They suddenly felt a very familiar feeling when hearing her voice and saw her face more better.
"I, too apologize for pouncing before you moments ago," Onyx said as she bowing her head lowly.
"I see that one of your friends is injured." said the girl.
"Yes, he was protecting us from the big blow that was given to us from the Deep Ground." said Genesis while looking at Sephiroth.
Suddenly the sky went dark and thunder starts to make booming sound.
"Well, fighters, looks like we are having an uninvited weather. Do you have a shelter?" asked the girl.
Angeal shook his head. "No, we supposed to meet one of our friends at a rendezvous point. Since we were running away from the Deep Grounds, we lost track of our way to the point." he added.
"Then, I'll let you stay at my house. You will not find your way through this storm to the point." the girl said.
"Thank you very much." Cloud said to her.
"Here, let me carry Sephiroth so you, Genesis could walk a bit more easily and since you are also injured." she said to Genesis.
They were shocked since they did not even introduce themselves to her yet. She turned around to look at them and they were still standing there. She was confused and then, she got it why.
"Oh yes. I know you guys because you are very famous at a nearby village. They liked you a lot because you are the ones that saved their village from being attacked by Deep Ground. So don't just stand there, it's either follow me, or get soaked in the cold rain." she said the last sentences teasingly. They felt again the familiar feeling when she turned around and walked away. A memory flashed in their mind as she glanced back at them. Then, she chuckled silently by the way they snapped back to reality after herd the last sentences.
Meanwhile, in Cid's airship.
"Yahhhhhh!! Where are they??" asked Yuffie as she puts her face on the newly wiped glasses.
"Hey! Don't put your dirty little face on my glasses!" said Cid.
Yuffie poked out her tongue at Cid.
"You know, Yuffie, we're also worried about those gentlemen." said Tifa in a worried voice.
"I hoped that they are okay." added Aerith.
"If they did not come this instant, I'm going to fly this junk and go looking for them!" said Barret.
"Now, don't you dare to touch my baby." said Cid shooting a death glare at Barret.
"I'm going to go and find them now!" said Yuffie as she marched to the exit.
"Oh Yuffie my dear, I want to look for them too, but it looks like the weather did not allow us to do so." said Aerith looking outside the glass.
"What else can we do to make sure that they are okay?" asked the little Cait Sith.
"Have you tried phoning them?" asked Red XIII lifting his head from his resting position.
"All right, I'll phone them right away." said Tifa as she raced down the narrow hall way and came back seconds later with a phone.
Back to the stranded fighters.
"Here we are it's not technically a house but, it's what I call home sweet home." said the girl unlocking the door.
The fighters were amazed with the large house. They entered the house and were surprised by the big staircase that is 4 meters away from the door, and there also big windows that have grills. On the right side of the house (facing inside) was the living room that has a TV, a coffee table, a fire place at the corner of the house and 6 sofas. There were also some portraits hanging up the wall and paintings.
The left side of the house was 2 tables that are full of flower pots that are placed near the windows. There were also 3 chairs near the tables. Next to the left part of the stair case, there were a big and for 8 people dining table. Next to the dining table was a wall that has a painting hanging. Next to the painting was the kitchen.
On the right side of the stair case was a small library that have a lot of books. There were a lot of rooms that was lead by the stair case and two hall ways on both ends. For some reason, they felt so home or safe as they looked inside the house.
A very familiar feeling that they felt 3 years before they lost some of their memories of fighting against Jenova, who is trying to make Sephiroth, Cloud and Zack to join her. As the girl walked in, she saw the expression of the fighters and knew that they liked the house.
"Well? Are you coming in or not?" she asked teasingly.
"Wow! Your parents must be a wealthy one!" said Zack as he looked up and saw a big chandelier hanging and giving light to the house.
"Not much actually." she said as she was helping Sephiroth to sit down on the sofa. "You okay Sephiroth? Can walk up the stairs? Then, you can finally rest better." she said kneeling in front of Sephiroth. Then, Sephiroth nodded.
"Okay." she said while lifting him up again. "Onyx, could you help me get some cure materia and an aid kit. Then, put it on the coffee table." she said to Onyx. "Can you guys bear the wound for a while when I'm fixing him?" she asked while looking at them.
"No, it's okay. I could mend them myself. You've done so much for us already." said Angeal as he took the aid kit and some of the cure materia from Onyx.
"Really? Okay. If you need anything, you could ask Onyx or me okay?" she said.
"Okay." said Genesis.
"Wait, what is your name anyways?" asked Zack quickly before she could reach the stairs.
"Lightfeather, Phoenix Lightfeather." she said while smiling sweetly for the first time.