"I can't last much longer out here" I said to myself as I climbed away from the hoard of monsters that were climbing out of the crater after me. I got to the top of the crater and froze when I saw the monsters that where waiting for me at the top. I knew what the wanted from me, the jewel I just stole from the center of the crater, but I wasn't about to give it up. I pulled out my sais and readied myself for their attacks. They attacked me from behind first, knocking my sais out of my hands, then they started slashing at me with their claws. I rolled away from them and grabbed my strongest materias and felt their magic flow into me as I summoned the energy to use them. "Flash!" I yelled as I ran past the monsters. I turned around in time to see the weaker half of the monsters turn flat and transperant, then float away to the sky. I turned to another group and yelled "Bolt 3!" then a large amounts of lightning smashed into the monsters, totaly destroying half of what was left of them. "Ice 3" I shouted and then waited for the ice shards to cut up the rest of the monsters, but nothing happened. "Oh no! I'm out of M.P." I said. Then the monsters rushed at me again with severe blows. I landed a few feet away from where they hit me, and they started their attack again. I raised my arms to try to protect me from their brutal assault, but they never did. Instead I lowered my arms and I saw two guys and a young ninja girl in between me and the monsters. The guy with white hair pulled out a radio and said something into it and a barrage of missles bombed on the monsters and killing the rest of them off. The group started some victory poses and I decided to leave before they asked me for money for saving me. I grabbed my sais and took off as fast as I could. I checked my bag to see if I had lost anything and saw the hole in the pocket that held my ethers. I shook my head and realized that I would have to physically fight for a while. I finally got to the nearest town and used the last of my money to pay for a room for the night. The manager gave me the key to my room and I went to sleep. A few hours later I was woken up by furious banging on my door. I opened the door and the manager was standing there. "I need to rent out your room to some new clients, there are more of them so I'll get more money." he said "So give me the key to your room and get out." "Will I get a refund?" I asked angrily. "NO!" The manager shouted, taking my key. I grabbed my bag and headed for the lobby. As I passed through the lobby I looked at the group that just had to get my room, forcing me out into the cold. I saw the group that saved me before along with some others. I then kicked the doors open and the manager started shouting at me about his doors and he would have to fix them now. "I don't care," I yelled back, "and the next time you kick me out of a room this place will be a crater in the ground." I was so angry when I left I didn't see the young girl from earlier following me. I left the town and was confronted by a group of sweepers. I grabbed the crystal I stole and was about to shout out to use it when I remembered I didn't have much m.p. from my rest, and I didn't know what it did. I rushed at the sweepers and started to slash them with my sai instead. I beat one of the sweepers when the crystal started to glow in my hand and I was covered in a dark purple orb. When the orb dissapeared, I was covered in armor that was the same color as the orb I was just in. I also noticed I was hovering a few feet above the ground because I had a pair of black wings. I also noticed my sai was longer in the middle like a sword, as was my other one. The sweeper fired it's mantra magic attack and I noticed a few went off in another direction. I turned to the sweeper and felt a new energy building in me and I put my hands together in front of me and shouted "Psychic blast!" A ball of psychic energy gathered at my hands and shot off in a constant stream and destroyed the sweeper. After the battle was over my armor dissapeared in a flash of light and I fell on the ground. I picked myself up and walked over to where the other missles went. I saw the ninja girl curled into a protective position and said "I thought you were with your friends at the hotel." She looked up and said "They sent me out to see if you would be alright and to appologize for getting you kicked out of your room." I then helped her to stand up and she said, "Have I seen you before?" "I think you were the ones who appeared and killed off the monsters that were attacking me." I said. "Yeah, that's right," she said, "what did you do to get them so mad at you?" "I stole this from them." I said holding up the crystal. "Wow," she said, "but what does it do?" I looked into the crystal for a while and tried to summon the orb again. When I realized I couldn't, I shoved the crystal back into my pocket and said, "I don't know how, but it summoned some new armor on me and gave me some kind of psychic powers, then it just dissapeared as fast as it appeared." I reached for one of my elixers and was about to drink it when the ninja girl said, "Were you hurt from that battle?" I looked at her and said "No, I'm just out of M.P. I lost all of my ethers when those monsters smashed into me." I said sadly remembering all the gil I lost from the ethers. "It took me weeks of battling without rest to earn enough for them too." I thought to myself and finished drinking the elixer. I noticed the ninja girl was looking around nervously. "By the way, what was your name again?" I asked. "I'm Yuffie Kisaragi, a materia hunter." she said hoping to change the subject. "Why were you looking around so nervously?" I asked. Yuffie bit her lower lip and looked to the ground and said "Cait Sith found a couple dozen ethers and sold them for 60,000 gil." I clenched my fist and drove it into the ground, leaving a crater when I hit. After a minute I calmed down and spied another group of monsters trying to sneak away from me after seeing my display of anger. Yuffie said I could go with her back to town and she would try to convince Cloud to let me stay with them. I followed her to the inn and waited for her to go inside before I snuck away. I left the town again and headed for Midgar, thinking I could get a job to buy my ethers back. I took a train up to the top plate and forced my was to the Shinra Headquarters, I was going to get a job from the President of Shinra himself. I finally barged my way into the main office and knocked another group of guards out of my way. The President looked almost impressed that I had made it up to the top. "So why did you come all the way up here?" He asked. "I need a job. I lost several expensive items in a battle and I need to get more." I said. The president looked at me and smiled. "I have the perfect job for you." he said. "At least I didn't come all the way up here for nothing then." I said returning the smile. He gave me a job as the newest member of the Turks since they just lost a member but they didn't want to talk about it. Our first job was to go to Junon and oversee the reattachment of the main cannon, since it took too much energy to fire it from Midgar it was going to be used to protect the ocean side from Emerald Weapon. We were also to lead the assault team if there was an attack on the cannon, though I doubted anyone would be foolish enough to attack the Turks and Soldier. "This is going to be a boring job." I said as I watched the crew start to attach another piece of the cannon. Reno looked at me and said "Only if Avalanche doesn't show up." "Avalanche?" I asked. Reno said "They're a small group that we have priority orders to stop." "Did they kill Tseng?" I asked then noticed how sad Elena got at the mentioning of their former leader. "No," Reno said, "It was the ex-Soldier leader Sephiroth who did, He discovered he was a clone of one of the Ancients and went mad." An hour later there were reports of the weapon heading to Junon. Reno, Rude and I went down to the docks and waited for the weapon's arrival. There were several Soldier members already there to fight with their weapons out. Rude got in his fighting pose and Reno pulled out his Electro-rod. I pulled out my sais and readied myself as well. The weapon appeared and wiped out the first line of Soldiers in it's first attack. Reno, Rude and I ran up and began our own attack as Reno launched his fire attack and Reno jabbed his Electro-rod into the weapon. I jumped up to the top of the weapon and attacked it's face repeatedly. The Weapon finally separated and slung me off of it's head. I noticed that my Crystal was glowing brighter than before, so I held it and summoned the purple orb again. In an instant I was in my new armor again and I gathered my psychic energy in front of me again and shouted "Psychic shot." The energy was shot from my hands in a constant stream again and I cut through the Weapon's upper half and sent it crashing into the sea. I deactivated the armor again, and ran down to check on Reno and Rude. They stared at me when I got down there and I asked them why. "How did you do that?" Reno asked. "It's because of this crystal I found." I said holding it up. "Sorry guys, it was the only one." I said with a smirk on my face. We went to the bar to get a drink, but I was going to get a soda instead of beer like Reno and Rude always did. Elena leaned over to me and whispered "Just wait till Reno gets drunk, then the fun begins." and I laughed to myself at the thought of a drunken Reno stumbling around in a bar. We went to the bar and waited for the canon to be finished. I made a bet with Elena that when Reno got drunk he would start a fight with some guy over his mother, she said it would be over himself. We waited for Reno to get incredibly drunk, which was five beers later, then we watched as he walked over to some guy and started to yell at him. "What did you say about my mother?" He asked drunkenly. I looked at Elena and held out my hand and she reluctantly gave me the 200 gil, and I gave her a smile that said I win the bet. Rude walked over and pulled Reno away from the other guy he was yelling at. Another three hours, and three near fights, later one of the workers came in the bar and said the workers were done with the cannon. We got back to Midgar and gave our report to The president. "Well done," The president said, "I guess I was right to make you the newest Turk." I bowed in appreciation and we were dismissed. That night I noticed Rude and Reno sneaking out of the Headquarters to the train station. I followed them from a good enough distance that they didn't see me. I followed them all the way to the newly rebuilt Sector 7. "What do they want here?" I wondered as I followed Reno and Rude. I overheard the president say the group known as Avalanche was back in one of the sectors and I thought they were going to find them. But then they went into a bar called "Seventh Heaven". I changed into my other outfit I carried with me and went in. Neither Reno nor Rude could recognize me because I had a fake scar across my eye and a heavy cloak covering the rest of my body. Reno and Rude sat down at the bar and waited for the waitress to take their orders. Reno started looking at the other women in the bar, but Rude seemed way more interested in finding the waitress. She finally came out from behind the counter and took their orders. I thought I saw the top of Rude's head start to turn red and guessed he must be trying not to look embarrassed. The waitress got their drinks and Reno started chugging his beer down, while Rude just sipped and stared at the waitress. The waitress just gave Reno another glass and looked up to me. I quickly lowered my head and tried to remember why I got the feeling of Deja-Vu around her. I realized she was one of the people that got me kicked out of my room. I was about to leave, when Reno started hitting on the waitress and offering her ones. I went outside and changed into my Turks outfit. I waited until she went out from behind the counter and over to one of the tables, then I went in to talk to Reno and Rude. I was a little nervous because of the rumors about dunks like to pick fights with anyone who might be threatening them and my Turks uniform could not hide my Sais as well as Reno could hide his cane by acting like it was a real one. I sat down beside them and tried not to make eye contact with the waitress. "Do you guys sneak out of Headquarters everynight and come here, or is this just a one time thing?" I asked Reno. Reno just looked at me with half open eyes then he passed out on the counter. Rude was staring at the waitress again and I could tell he liked her. "Why don't you talk to her?" I asked Rude, "Or to anyone for that matter?" Rude just shook his head and said nothing. I just shrugged and the waitress asked me what I wanted. "Nothing for me," I said covering the side of my eyes with my hand, "I'm here to make sure they get back." "But this man usually doesn't drink much and is usually the more sober one." I looked up at Rude and gave a smirky smile. I noticed Yuffie at the pinball machine and she looked like she was trying to play it. I walked up behind her and said "It usually helps to put money in it first." Yuffie spun around with her arm extended to backhand me, but I easily blocked it. "Where were you last night?" She asked folding her arms across her stomach and leaning her head to one side. "Would you want to stay with some people who just sold some items it took you months to earn?" I asked as my answer. She just shrugged and said, "That still doesn't tell me where you were." I let out a quick breath and said "I needed a job to get those ethers back and I got one." "As what, a demolistionist?" She said jokingly. I took a step back and opened out my arms to show off my suit. "You're one of the Turks now?" She asked in disbelief. "Somehow you don't sound too thrilled about that." I said. She just lowered her head and shook it slowly and said, "It's hard enough for me to not beat those two up, now you're one too. I'm trying not to beat you up too." I looked back to see the waitress watching me and Yuffie out of the corner of her eye. "Let's go outside and talk about this." I said leading Yuffie outside. When we got outside, I led her to an area where there was no one around and asked "What is wrong with being a Turk? What could they have done to be so bad?" Yuffie looked me in the eye and said, "They were always trying to keep us from finding Sephiroth and trying to get Aeris from us when she was still alive." I noticed the tears forming in the corners of her eyes and wiped them off her face. I rubbed my chin for a moment and said, "Reeve is working as the Vice-president of Midgar and he is always controlling something from his room and I thought I saw one of you on the screen a few times Does he have a camera with you or something?" Yuffie nodded her head and said "Yeah he controls the Cait Sith that is always with us." I thought about going to Reeve the next day and demanding he pay me back for my Ethers he sold. "I never noticed what kind of weapon you use," Yuffie suddenly said, "Can I see one now?" I just shrugged slightly and pulled out my sai. Just then a shot rang out and I was hit in my right arm, making me drop my sai. I turned around and pulled out one of my newest materia and shouted "Laser fire!" Then the orb glowed and several green lasers shot out of the orb and at the guy who shot me. "Stop!" Yuffie yelled as she jumped between me and my attacker. "What the #@$$ Yuffie, get out of the way and let me finish this Turk scum for attacking you." "You know this guy?" I asked Yuffie while still pointing my materia at him. "This is Barett Wallace," Yuffie said, "He's one of my friends." "Oh." was all I said as I put my materia back on my belt and picked my sai back up and rubbed my arm. "How come you're not bleeding?" Barett asked. "I've got metal plates inside of the jacket that can stop bullets." I explained putting my sai away. Barett went back inside and Rude and Elena rushed out. "What happened?" Elena asked, "Who fired a gun?" "No one," I said, "It doesn't matter now, just go inside and finish your drinks it's about time for us to go back anyway." We went back inside and Rude resumed sipping on his drink and staring at the waitress, and Elena tried to wake Reno up. I sat down at the table again still rubbing my arm underneath my jacket. After Rude finally finished his drink Reno still wasn't awake and Rude and I had to drag him to his room. That night I couldn't sleep, so I went to the gym room instead. I showed my ID to the guy behind the counter and he opened the training room for the Turks and first class soldiers. There were three soldiers already practicing, so I went to an unused punching bag and began hitting it. A few moments later I heard one of the soldiers say that he was better than the Turks. "Care to back that up?" I said pulling put my sais. The soldiers took their fighting stances and two of them rushed at me. I ducked their slashes and brought the end of the handles to my sais into the two soldiers ribs, and they dropped out of breath. The third one was obviously better than those two because he dodged my first attack, but eventually I smashed my fist into his face. I left the training room and saw Reno in the gym. "What's up Reno?" I asked walking up to him. He looked around the room for a while and finally said "Where'd the bar go?" I hit my hand on my head and said "The bar is three floors down, and I don't think you need anymore." I waved my hand in front of my face to get rid of the smell of alcohol from Reno's breath and left the gym. I walked down to the train station and got on the next train to sector one. As I got off the train, I noticed how sector one is the cleanest of all the sectors. I wasn't in my Turk uniform, instead I was in my casual clothes, blue jeans, T-shirt, light jacket, and sneakers. I noticed a weapon shop with a delivery truck in front of it and decided to take a look. I walked in the store and the merchant had just finished storing his new weapons. "We won't be open until tomorrow." the merchant said as he noticed me. I pulled my Shinra ID card and held it up for him to see and said, "I thought the Turks could get a weapon when they needed it." The merchant looked at my ID and opened the display case. I thought about buying a new pair of sais, but then I saw the Yoshiyuki sword and I bought one. I left the store and looked my new sword over, "My first sword." I thought as I put it in it's sheath at my side and walked to sector two. Sector two was nowhere near as clean as sector one and I guessed it was because sector one housed the Soldier members. I was actually relieved when I got out of sector one because of all the eyes that glowed with mako energy creeps me out. I walked around sector two for a while and then headed for sector three. As I walked through the next two sectors nothing much was different between the two sectors and I eventually came to sector five. Sector five had a few groups of repair crews up by the edge of the plate, but I couldn't tell what they were doing. I noticed a church and decided to look inside. I saw two children sitting by a flower bed tending to the flowers. I walked over to them and asked them what they were doing and they said, "We're taking care of the flowers for the flower lady." "I see," I said, "and where is the flower lady?" I asked. "She's dead." a voice said sadly behind me. I spun around in surprise and saw a man with spiky blond hair and a blue battle suit on. I noticed his huge sword on his back and then knew where I'd seen him before. "So where are you and you're friends staying now?" I asked. He just stared at me for a moment and said "Why do you want to know?" I let out a breath to keep my temper in control and replied "I wanted to know who you got kicked out of their room this time." The soldiers face softened up a bit and he said "You're the guy Yuffie was telling us about at Kalm, then you dissapeared. By the way my name's Cloud Strife, and yours is...." "Pash." I said finishing his sentence. "Pash what?" Cloud asked. "Just Pash." I said. I turned around and saw the two kids were now more interested in our conversation than in the flowers so I bent down and said, "Shouldn't you two be helping the flowers?" The kids giggled to each other and then turned around to tend to the flowers again. I motioned to the door to suggest we go outside to talk. When I got out the door I turned around to shut it and I saw another woman standing in the garden in front of the kids, but they didn't notice her. I took another step back in the church and the woman looked up at me then dissapeared. I walked out of the church and followed Cloud through sector six. We came up to a group of bandits who immediately tried to mug us. I still had my ID in my pocket and it fell out when they ran at us. They recognized the ID and dropped our stuff they managed to steal and ran. Cloud laughed out in wonder as they ran away, then asked, "Why would they run away for without the stuff they stole?" I showed the card to Cloud and he read it, "Pash, Special forces Turks. You're one of the Turks." "Yeah, I had to do something to get the Ethers back that I lost and someone sold." I said as I put my ID back in my pocket. Next we ran into a group of Whole Eaters and, Cloud pulled out his Ultima Weapon and prepared to fight. I just shouted "Flash!" and ran past the Whole Eaters, then they turned flat and transparent and floated away. We got to the gate before sector seven and cloud stopped to look at the mog head slide. I noticed his eyes had a far away look to them and realized he must be deep in thought. Finally we Walked through the gate into sector seven and Cloud led me to the Seventh Heaven bar. Just so you know," I said before going in, "I don't drink." Cloud rolled his eyes, opened the doors and went inside. When we got inside I noticed Barett and Yuffie were both there. Cloud walked up to the waitress and gave her a hug and I thought, "Rude would be surprised when I tell him his favorite waitress has a boyfriend already." Cloud turned around and faced everyone and said, "This is Pash, he's the guy Yuffie, Cid and I saved from the monsters, and got kicked out of his hotel room in Kalm, then the Ethers Cait Sith sold were his so he got a job as a Turk to get them back. I looked at the Cait Sith doll and said "Are you watching Reeve?" Cloud then proceeded to introduce the rest of his friends to me. "This is Tifa, I've known her since we were children in Nibelheim. This is Barett, he is the leader of the group Avalanche." "Geez Spike, tell him about all our secrets why don't cha." Barett said annoyed. "We've met anyway." I said holding my arm again. Cloud wondered why I would grab my arm like that, then he continued with the introductions, "This is Vincent, he was also one of the Turks. This is Cid, he was going to fly a rocket into space for Shinra, then aborted the mission to save Shera from being killed. You know Cait Sith's controller Reeve obviously, this is Red XIII, he was going to be an experiment until we rescued him and Aeris at the same time, over there is Yuffie..." "She's a materia hunter, Yeah I know her to, this is our third meeting now I believe." I said looking to Yuffie. "You mentioned the name Aeris, why does it sound familiar." I said scratching my head. "You may have heard her name from on of the Turks, they used to be after her all the time because she was the last of the ancients." Cloud said. I looked around the bar for a while and then said "So where is she now?" I noticed everyone look down and get a saddened look in their eyes and Cloud said "She died remember? It was Sephiroth that killed her." We just sat there for the next hour until Cait Sith said "Pash, they're starting to look around the headquarters to make sure everyone is here, you better hurry and get over here. You have about two hours." I quickly said goodbye and ran out the door. I made it to my room through my window just before they came to check my room. All through the night I kept thinking about the ghost that I saw in the church. I finally decided to sneak out of the building again, and go to the church to see if the ghost was back. The ghost was standing there again. I noticed my crystal was glowing again so I changed into my dragoon form. I used my telekinesis to talk to the ghost without scaring it away like before. "Who are you" I said to the ghost." "I am the ghost of Aeris Gainsborough. I used to take care of these flowers." she said. "You're Aeris?" I said surprised, "You're the one Cloud and the others miss so much." "I know, I miss them too." Aeris said. "Why don't you go back to them?" I asked. Aeris looked me in the eyes and said, "I would if I could but I can't" I rubbed my chin and thought for a moment. "Forgive me for asking this but how did you die?" I asked. Aeris' eyes showed a past pain, then she finally said, "I was murdered when Sephiroth ran me through to keep me from stopping him." I thought about that for a while then I said, "Cloud told me about how he was run through by Sephiroth, and he's still alive, so maybe there's still hope for you." Aeris looked up and I could see she had a new hope in her. I found out where her body is and I asked her to meet me there. I got back to the Headquarters and went to the helipad to get the chopper. Reno was up there trying to convince the pilot to let him take it to Wu Tai by himself. I walked up behind him and said, "The bar downstairs is trying a new thing called drink buffet. It's all you can drink for a gil. Reno eyes opened wide and then ran downstairs to the bar and I said to the pilot, "Or was that all your gil for a drink? Never mind, I'm so bad at remembering stuff like that." The pilot laughed and said, "Thanks, Reno's breath was really bothering me." "So anyway, I need to take the chopper to Bone Village, Reeve wants me to find the key to sector five's outer gate that someone lost over there." Just then Reeve came up to the roof and said, "Does anyone know why Reno is so mad, he keeps muttering something about one gil and beer." I walked over to Reeve and said quietly, "I need to go to Bone Village, I think I know a way to resurrect Aeris, but I need the chopper to get there and bring her back here. Can you tell the pilot to let me take it?" Reeve smiled and nodded and went to talk with the pilot to let me use it. "You're all set." Reeve said, "Can you take me with you? I want to meet Aeris again too." Reeve and I got into the chopper and flew into sector seven to get the Lunar Harp from Cloud. Yuffie saw me and Reeve getting into the chopper and asked if she could come. I looked at Reeve and he looked back to his Cait Sith doll and said "But there won't be enough room if she comes." Before I could say anything Yuffie said, "But if I come I can help protect you and you won't need the Cait Sith doll. I looked at Reeve and said "She has a point." A few moments later, we were on our way to Bone Village. When we landed Yuffie looked out the window and said "Just why are we here?" I shook my head and told her about my plan to revive Aeris. We walked into Bone village and saw it was more of a mess than usual. "What happened here?" I asked out loud. We made our way past the broken tents and tools and entered the forest. Reeve was about to play the Lunar Harp when I noticed we didn't need it. I drew out my sword and Yuffie pulled out the Conformer, then we walked deeper in the forest. Suddenly a Vlakorados jumped out from behind some trees and fired a bolt ball. I deflected it with a quick swing and knocked it back into the Vlakorados itself. "That's right," I said as I dodged another bolt ball, "These things absorb lightning." I held my sword in both hands and ran at the monster and cut it's head off. "Alright then, can we go now?" I said turning to Yuffie and Reeve. We finally arrived at the City of the Ancients and went to the small lake where Aeris' body lies. I dove in and started to swim to the bottom. Halfway down, I accidentally let all my air out and thought I would drown, then I discovered that the water didn't choke you when you were totally submerged in it. "Cool." I thought then swam the rest of the way to the bottom. I finally found Aeris' body and was surprised to see it look like it was just put in the water. I picked up her body and swam to the surface of the lake. "You were down there a long time Pash," Reeve said as I came up, "I'm impressed you have a large lung capacity." I set Aeris down on the ground and said "Actually I lost all the air I was holding about halfway down, this water must have some magical properties, I didn't choke at all and I could breath normally and Aeris' wound seems to have healed up as well." Yuffie and Reeve picked up Aeris' body and carried it to the chopper with me clearing the way for them. After we secured her body in the chopper, Reeve took his place in the pilot seat and asked me "Where to now?" "The reactor on Mt. Nibel." I said taking my seat on the copilot's side. We arrived there in a matter of moments and Reeve opened the door to the reactor. Yuffie and I were going to carry Aeris into the reactor and we accidentally grabbed each others hand when we tried to pick her up. Yuffie moved her hand away and blushed a little, I noticed her blushing and I then noticed how beautiful her face was and couldn't help but blush a little too. We carried Aeris' body into one of the mako chambers and Reeve turned it on. "Now what is this supposed to do exactly?" Reeve asked. I explained about how Cloud told me he was run through by Sephiroth too and he lived, I then told them that he was showered with Mako energy and maybe it will bring Aeris back to life. After an hour of waiting we hear a slight thud against the chamber Aeris was in. I looked in the window to see Aeris' head moving a bit. I took a step back and pulled on the door to the chamber. After it was open Aeris opened her eyes and looked around, but when she tried to walk she started to fall but I caught her instantly. She looked at me with tears in her eyes and said "It worked, I'm alive again." I helped her down to Reeve and Yuffie and Reeve carried her back to the chopper. Yuffie gave me a quick hug them ran after them as I shut the door to the chamber. Once we were all in the chopper, we lifted off and went back to Midgar. Aeris asked to be dropped off at the church in sector five. Yuffie and I went with her to help her until she could walk herself. When we walked in the door Aeris smiled because her flowers were still blooming like the day she left. She picked a couple of flowers and gave one to me and Yuffie each. She gave one to Reeve after he came back from returning the chopper. We walked to Tifa's Seventh Heaven and Yuffie and I went inside to tell them we were back. Tifa saw the flower in Yuffie's hair and said, "Yuffie you know you're not supposed to pick those flowers." Yuffie laughed to herself and finally said "It's OK, Someone gave it to me." Cloud stood up and said "Who gave it to you?" Yuffie and I opened the doors to the bar and Reeve came in with Aeris leaning on him. Everyone stared in surprise to see Aeris standing in front of them alive, and soon Cloud came running up to her to help Reeve get her inside. Everyone gathered around Aeris except for me, I left the bar and went into sector six. I climbed on top of the mog slide and stared at my dragoon crystal for a while. I got so caught up in staring into the crystal, I didn't even notice Yuffie sitting next to me. "What cha looking at?" She asked. I picked my head up and looked at her, "Huh? Oh, hey Yuffie." I said with a slight smile on my face. We sat beside each other for a while staring at my crystal, then Yuffie began to shiver. "What's the matter? You cold?" I asked looking at her again, she was in her tank top and shorts. She nodded her head and I took off my jacket and put it around her. She had just stopped shaking when I heard Reeve behind us saying, "We're going to the Gold Saucer to celebrate Aeris' revival, care to join us?" "Sure." I said hopping to the ground, then helping Yuffie get down. Tifa gave us a different look when she saw Yuffie in my jacket, then smiled like she knew a secret. We got on the rope way and soon we were looking at the Gold Saucer's entrance gate. We got off and paired up. Tifa and Cloud left first, then Barett and Marlene, then Shera and Cid, Vincent and Aeris, Red went by himself, Reeve also went alone, leaving me and Yuffie to go together. Because this was a very special occasion (and Reeve was a part owner of the park), we got to go in at no charge. First Yuffie drug me to the Wonder square and we played games for a while. First we played the G-bike game and Yuffie won the two out of three races, then I got high score on the snowboard and torpedo attack games. Then we went to the chocobo racing and I rode our Gold Chocobo, (named Aeris), and got first place and won a final attack materia, which I immediately linked to a mastered life materia I had. Then Yuffie won the short race and won 3 megalixers. We then headed to speed square and rode once on the ride and got a custom sweeper. We finally headed to the area I wanted to go to the most, The Battle Arena. I entered the tournament and easily beat my first fight against a dragon. The slot stopped on Zero MP. Then I fought two bullmotors and defeated them easily. The slots then stopped on Items Sealed. I then fought five Capparwires and eventually beat them. the next few times the slot stopped on lucky 7 and I wasn't penalized. I finally got to the last opponent which was a copy of the Proud Clod. I had no magic or items to fight it with so I used my dragoon crystal to transform into my dragoon state. I used my sword and destroyed the Proud Clod quickly. I received my BP and got the W-Summon materia. We got on the roller coaster after that, and Yuffie started to feel sick, so we walked around the park until she felt better. We entered the Event Square and were invited to participate in the play. Backstage Yuffie and I decided to mess it up for fun, then they told me to head out on stage. I activated my armor to add to the show and ran out to the center of the stage. A guy dressed as a knight spun out next to me, and said,
Knight: "You must be the legendary hero, Alfred."
Me: shaking my head "No."
Knight: "Then you must be the hero, Belmont."
Me: shaking my head again, "Nope."
Knight: "Then who are you?"
Me: "Alfred."
Knight: "But you just said..., anyway, you must speak to the king."
King: also spinning out to the stage, "You must help the Princess Rosa, speak to
the one who can help you."
A guy dressed as a wizard comes out and stands next to the knight.
I ran up to the knight and said,
Me: "Help me overthrow the King."
All: "Look out"
Guy in a dragon costume comes out carrying Yuffie.
EDK: "I am the Evil Dragon King, I have come to defeat you Alfred. I already
know your name."
The knight runs at the Evil Dragon King and weakly hits him until knocked back.
Wizard: "What will you do legendary hero?"
Me: "To home." then I turned around and started to run off stage.
The announcer then gave a story about how the Dragon King won but suffered a heart attack and died anyway. I waited for Yuffie to come out backstage and we started laughing. "That was fun." Yuffie said when we calmed down and stopped laughing. We got back to the main area and I checked my watch. "7:50," I said, "we still have time to do one more thing before we meet with Cloud and the others in the Ghost Hotel." Yuffie thought for a moment and said "I always wanted to ride the Gondola, I didn't get to last time." We got to the ride and there was no line so we got on immediately. The Gondola was moving slow and we could see all the attractions in the Gold Saucer. I looked over to Yuffie who had fallen asleep after the day we had, so I put my jacket around her again. Her head soon fell against my shoulder, but I didn't feel it because I was asleep too. I woke up the next day still in the Gondola and Yuffie was still asleep. I leaned her against the wall so I could get out and I saw the ride operator just arriving for work. I walked up to her and said "did we sleep on the Gondola all last night?" The operator just smiled and nodded, then she said "You two made such a cute couple that nobody wanted to disturb you." "But did anyone come looking for us?" I asked. "Actually we did, but we didn't want to disturb you two either." Tifa said walking out of the tunnel leading to the ride. I went back and woke Yuffie up, then we headed to the main area to meet the others. Barett saw us walking together and said, "It's about time you two joined us." I just shrugged and we got on the rope way and we went back to the Highwind. I stayed on the deck and felt the wind hit my face as we flew around for a while. I was leaning against the rail when we hit some turbulence and I fell off. I quickly grabbed my crystal and activated my Dragoon armor and tried to keep up with the Highwind. I saw the crystal running low on power so I landed in the center of Mt. Nibel. I pulled out my PHS and phoned Cloud to tell him I fell off and to come pick me up at Nibelheim. I started walking back to town when I ran across a group of monsters. I quickly beat them and the energy in the crystal increased. I then ran into two dragons and I had to use my armor to keep from being hurt since I left my money on the Highwind as well as my healing items. I killed the first one then I felt a strange feeling in me like Cloud said he felt when he learned how to do the Blade Beam. I suddenly knew how to do another magic powered attack. I landed on the ground and moved my hands to my side and bent at the elbows. I then raised me arms in the air and shouted "Psycho Explode" then I dropped my arms to my side straight down this time and generated a sphere of psychic energy around me and it expanded and covered the dragon with a purple hue and then the dragon dissolved. I deactivated my armor and went into Nibelheim. A few feet in town, I saw a man hunched over in a black cape beside the gate to the largest house in town. I noticed the gate itself was open and so was the door. I went inside and almost got sick due to the smell of hundreds of rotting corpses of the monsters that used to stay there. I pulled a cloth out of my pouch and covered my mouth and nose with it. I was about to leave when I heard insane laughter from somewhere inside the mansion. I made a better mask over my face that wouldn't slip, then continued to explore the mansion. The further into the mansion I got the more dead monsters I saw. The closer I got to the basement the louder the laughter got. I finally got in the basement and I stopped when I saw the door to the room where they found Vincent was busted open. I looked inside and saw
his coffin was slashed apart. I then looked to the other coffin and saw it was slashed opened but otherwise fine. The laughter once again shot through the air and I ran for the lab. I half expected to see Sephiroth in the library, but instead there was a man that looked like Vincent, only entirely in black and had two short swords instead of a gun. He turned around and I could see he had a pale complexion like he hasn't seen the sun in years. "Man," I said aloud, "and I thought Vincent was pale." The other guy then glared at me and said "Where is Vincent?" I jumped back when I noticed his eyes were totally blood red. I drew out my sword and activated my armor. "If you want Vincent Valentine, you'll have to get past me." I said taking a defensive position. The other guy just said "You can't stop me." then he crossed his arms across his chest and started spinning around, creating a whirlwind around him. I stared into the whirlwind and tried to see what he was doing, when he suddenly rushed out with his swords in a crisscross pattern. I jumped to the side and barely avoided getting sliced into as he ran past me and out the door. I ran after him, but he was to fast for me to catch. I then hurried out of the mansion and saw him disappear in the mountains. I saw the Highwind fly over the town and land just past the city limits. I put my sword in my sheath and walked out to them. When I saw them, Tifa waved over to me and then suddenly stopped. I noticed the look of shock on their faces and looked down to see I didn't totally dodge the attack that guy made. I quickly cast Cure on myself but the cut didn't go away. I cast it again and again but it was still there. Vincent walked over to me and said, "What made this cut on you?" "It was this strange guy I found in the basement lab of the Shinra mansion and he was looking for you." I said then took the cloth off my face that I forgot to remove. I went to my room in the Highwind and got another shirt and threw the old one away, then I went into the meeting room where the others were gathering. When I got in the room, Cloud asked me to describe the guy I saw in the basement lab of the mansion. I tried to remember exactly what he looked like, but before I could tell them Vincent stood up and said "He looks like me, only with paler skin, and two short swords instead of a gun." 'How do you know? You were with us on the Highwind." Cloud said. Vincent just turned his head to Cloud and said "I wasn't the only ex-Turk they performed experiments on." With that said Vincent left the room. I left after him and found him on the deck. "Does he share your powers too?" I asked making Vincent jump and turn around in surprise. "Well, I got a reaction out of you. I guess I win the bet." I said with a smile. "What bet?" Vincent asked. I just shook my head and said, "It was just a joke, you need to relax a bit. Now do you and that guy have the same powers, you know like being able to transform?" Vincent turned back to the rail again and said, "As far as I know he does. But I also learned some moves while traveling with Cloud and the others, so who knows what that guy knows now." What was his name?" I asked, "You never told us." Vincent just shrugged and said, "His name is Selphus. He was a Turk like me, but he went power hungry and was sealed in the coffin. Soon after that, they accused me of the same and sealed me away too. But before they sealed us away, they did the experiments on us." "What do you know about his weapons?" I asked. Vincent thought for a moment and said, I don't know, he didn't have any when we were sealed away, but they must be evil to leave a scar like yours." That night I went back to the mansion to look for clues. Most of the bodies were cleared out when I got there, but the stench remained. I walked to the basement lab and decided to check the book Selphus was reading when I came in. As I looked through the book, I saw many illustrations and explanations of experiments. I kept flipping through the pages when a voice behind me said, "What are you looking for?" I jumped three feet in the air and landed with my weapon out and ready. "Vincent," I said when I realized who it was, "why do you go around and scare people all the time like that?" I held my breath for a few seconds to slow my rapid heartbeat down to normal. Vincent just shrugged slightly and replied, "It just happens." I turned back to the book I was looking through and noticed the next few pages were ripped out. "Weird." I said looking at the tears across what was left of the pages. Vincent leaned over to look and noticed the straight tears to. "It looks like a blade cut these pages out instead of tearing them out. Whoever wanted these pages didn't want them ruined." I checked the page numbers for the pages that weren't ripped out and then checked the contents page in front. "This says those pages held the vampire experiments that were performed on you." I said looking up to Vincent. "I think it was Selphus who tore the pages out, he must be looking for a way to kill you." I said. Vincent started to look worried. I still had the book open to the contents page when I noticed another fact. "He also has the page about the black materia," I said almost in panic, "If he gets it, he could destroy the planet and kill us all." I held the book in my hand as Vincent and I raced for the Highwind to tell the others. After we told Cloud and the others, we started searching for him again. Cloud, Tifa and Aeris took the Gold Chocobo's Tifa, Aeris and Yuffie, Barett, Cid and Vincent stayed on the Highwind, Red XIII and Cait Sith went to Cosmo Canyon to find some information, and Yuffie and I took the Buggy to check around the continent for Selphus. We met back at the Highwind the next afternoon to report what we found. "We found nothing at all on this guy." I said when Cloud asked us what we found out. Vincent stood up and said, "I discovered he is after some crystal like the one that disappeared from the northern crater not too long ago." Cloud thought for a moment then said, "If he is looking for that crystal so badly, we need to find it first and destroy it." Everyone but me, Cait Sith and Yuffie agreed. I gave Yuffie and Cait Sith a quick look that told them to keep my crystal a secret from them so they don't try to destroy my crystal. Cid had the pilot fly the Highwind to the Northern Crater so they could look for clues to it's disappearance. We got to the center of the crater and split into groups again. Reeve and Vincent were still on the Highwind so we split into three groups of three; Cloud, Tifa and Barett; Cid, Aeris and Red XIII, and Yuffie, Cait Sith and me. We were searching different parts of the cave when my crystal started shining. I started to walk around and the crystal started glowing brighter. I finally found what my crystal was reacting to and picked it up. It looked like a black crystal like mine, but it seemed to be dead and didn't have a glow of it's own. Yuffie came up to me to see what I found. When she was standing next to me, the crystal started glowing again and floated to her. The crystal settled in her hand and she was covered in a black shadow. the shadow changed shape and grew wings and Yuffie was in Dragoon armor like mine only totally black and she had a headband. Yuffie's Conformer was changed into two half circles with long spikes coming out of the edges. "Cool, you have the Shadow Dragoon armor." I said looking at Yuffie's new armor. Yuffie's crystal ran out of power and she fell on the ground. I held back a laugh and picked her up off the floor. She had a look of confusion and excitement all at the same time. "That was awesome." Yuffie finally said after regaining her balance. I told her how to activate the crystal's power and how to store power and make it last longer. We went to were Cait Sith was searching. Before we reached him, I leaned over to Yuffie and whispered, "Let's activate our dragon crystals and scare Cait Sith." Yuffie laughed to herself at the thought and we went to find some monsters to build up the required SP (Spirit Power). We built up enough after the fourth battle and moved back to where we first saw Cait Sith and activated our dragoon armors. We flew around the corner and shouted as we rushed at Cait Sith. Cait Sith panicked big time and started throwing whatever he could pick up at us. We stopped after a rock hit the top of my head. I deactivated my armor and landed on my feet, but when Yuffie finally remembered how to change back to normal, she fell on her butt again. Cait Sith finally stopped panicking and helped me pick Yuffie up. When we didn't find any clues, we met back with Cloud and the others I the center of the crater. "Sephiroth's body was taken away from the spot where we fought, Selphus probably took it to revive it." Cloud said when the others joined us. We started back to the Highwind and Yuffie and I made Cait Sith promise not to tell the others about our dragoon armors. We boarded the Highwind again and everyone went to their normal spots again, Cloud at the very front of the control room, Barett was standing behind Cloud to his left, Cid was behind the pilot, Red was in the corner at the bottom of some stairs, Tifa was to Clouds right, Vincent was standing at one of the control panels, Cait Sith was beside the power controls, Yuffie was sitting in the larger room outside of the control room trying not to be sick, and Aeris was outside letting the wind blow through her hair. I was in the Chocobo stall keeping the chocobos from going crazy from the ships sudden movements. I left the stall after tying the chocobos down and saw Yuffie turning green. "Feeling sick?" I asked sarcastically. Yuffie just gave me a 'well duh' glare and I said, "You'll need to get over that if you're going to be a dragoon." I spent the next hour helping Yuffie get over her motion sickness until Cloud came out and said, "We've found Selphus. He's in Hojo's old lab in Midgar and we need to stop him before he does anything bad." "What could he be after?" I asked Cloud who just shrugged and went to get the parachutes. "Why does he always want to jump down into Midgar? We got the key from Bone Village already, we could just go through the gate and surprise him from below." Yuffie said. "That might not be a bad idea," I said quietly, "You and I can attack from below and Cloud and the others can attack from above. Selphus will see the others coming and attack them, while we get him from below." Yuffie and I made our way outside and lowered the ladder to make it look like we climbed down before jumping. We then activated our armors and jumped over the railing and flew to the ground. We got to the gate and I began to search my pockets for the key to the gate. "What's wrong?" Yuffie asked when she noticed my frantic searching. "I don't have the key to the gate with me." I said. Yuffie hung her head down and said, "Now how are we going to get inside?" I started to think about how it was too late to fly to the Highwind to get the key and then hit myself for not thinking of the obvious solution. "Of course, it's so obvious," I said, "we're still in our dragoon armor so why don't we fly over the wall?" Yuffie just looked blankly at me then we flew over the wall when we were sure no one was looking. We made our way through the streets and fought a few easy monsters to build up our SP again for the upcoming fight against Selphus. We got to wall market and began looking for how Cloud, Barett and Tifa got to the top plate the first time. We found the wire and began a hard climb to the top. There were no monsters on the way up so we got to the upper plate in a few minutes. We then made our way through the streets and easily took out the monsters that were settled at the entrance to the main building. "I say after we defeat Selphus, we send the rest of the plates crashing down to the ground to finish off the rest of the monsters." I said as we climbed the seemingly endless flight of stairs. We got to the floor with Hojo's lab and stopped to catch our breath before we went in. I could hear Cloud and the others fighting on the other side of the door. I looked through the keyhole and saw Selphus in his own dragoon armor. His blades were three feet long and black. The light reflected off the black blade in a way that suggested it was probably coated with a poison of some kind. I summoned my armor and heard the sound of Yuffie summoning hers shortly after. "Yuffie open the door when I charge up my psychic shot so I can hit him by surprise." I said as I backed away from the door. When she put her hand on the door knob I cupped my hands at my side and focused some of my energy at that point. I nodded to Yuffie and she flung the door open and dived out of my path. "Psychic shot!" I shouted while thrusting my hands forward and firing a stream of psychic energy straight into Selphus' chest plate. He went crashing into the wall on the other end of the room. Yuffie helped Cloud and the others get to their feet and then flew back to me to prepare for the counter strike. I could see Cloud's surprised look to see Yuffie and me in dragoon armors and fighting Selphus in his own armor. Selphus finally came from the place where he landed with both blades extended to us to run us through. We darted to the side at the last second and watched as he crashed into the wall behind us. I fired another psychic shot and sent him through the wall. I went through the hole in the wall and Yuffie followed. I pulled out my sword and began a sword duel with Selphus. After a while, Selphus was just blocking my attacks and I could tell he was tiring from nonstop fighting without rest. "Let's see how he does against my new attack." I thought to myself as I raised my sword above my head and shouted "Shi-Ken!" My sword was covered in a dark purple light as I brought it down at Selphus' head. He raised one sword to block my attack and cried out in surprise and pain when my sword cut his arm off. Yuffie, who had been hovering above and gathering her energy while I was fighting, extended her arm and shouted, "Shadow ball!" As soon as she finished saying it, a black ball the size of her palm appeared and shot off at Selphus. It hit him in the face and he was covered in black and started slashing blindly. I realized that he was blind and got behind him to finish him off. I performed the Shi-Ken again, but he recovered from the blindness and dodged my attack. He countered with a swinging slash meant to take off my head but missed by three feet. I brought my hands together at my side and performed the Psychic shot again sending Selphus through the outside wall where he fell to the top plate. I flew down after him and continued our battle. After an hour neither of us had done much injury to the other and I was starting to tire out. I went for an overhead strike and wound up on my back when his fist met my face. My sword had been knocked from my hand and landed in one of the empty stores. I tried to stand up, but I was so tired I couldn't even sit up. I saw Selphus standing above me with his remaining blade above his head. I closed my eyes and waited for the final blow, but instead I heard a series of rapid gunshot. I opened my eyes in time to see Selphus fall to the ground with several bullet holes in his back. I leaned up against the nearest wall and saw Barett's gun arm smoking. Yuffie landed next to me and helped me to my feet. As soon as I got to my feet, the blood rushed to my head and I put my hand on my head and felt my hair. "I must have run out of SP" I thought as I realized I was out of my dragoon armor. I looked over to Selphus' body which had no armor. "It's over." Vincent said as we headed back to the Highwind. We took Barett to Kalm to get Marlene and then dropped them off at North Coral, then we took Red back to Cosmo Canyon. Next we dropped Cloud, Tifa and Vincent in Nibelheim, and took Aeris to Kalm, and Cait Sith stayed at Midgar. We landed at Wu-Tai to drop Yuffie off and Cid walked up to me and said, "So where are we going to drop you off?" "I don't know." I said, "I really don't have anywhere to go." Cid got a stupid grin on his face and finally said, "So why don't you stay here? I know how well you and Yuffie have been getting along." I looked over to Cid for a second then back to Yuffie. "Can you do one thing for me?" I said to Cid, "Get my ethers back from Cait Sith. He owes me." Cid laughed and said, "Sure it'll be fun." I grabbed onto the ladder and slid down to the ground. "Now I know why people don't do that anymore, it burns too much." I said rubbing my hands. I waved goodbye to Cid and went to start a new life with Yuffie in Wu-Tai.
Knight: "You must be the legendary hero, Alfred."
Me: shaking my head "No."
Knight: "Then you must be the hero, Belmont."
Me: shaking my head again, "Nope."
Knight: "Then who are you?"
Me: "Alfred."
Knight: "But you just said..., anyway, you must speak to the king."
King: also spinning out to the stage, "You must help the Princess Rosa, speak to
the one who can help you."
A guy dressed as a wizard comes out and stands next to the knight.
I ran up to the knight and said,
Me: "Help me overthrow the King."
All: "Look out"
Guy in a dragon costume comes out carrying Yuffie.
EDK: "I am the Evil Dragon King, I have come to defeat you Alfred. I already
know your name."
The knight runs at the Evil Dragon King and weakly hits him until knocked back.
Wizard: "What will you do legendary hero?"
Me: "To home." then I turned around and started to run off stage.
The announcer then gave a story about how the Dragon King won but suffered a heart attack and died anyway. I waited for Yuffie to come out backstage and we started laughing. "That was fun." Yuffie said when we calmed down and stopped laughing. We got back to the main area and I checked my watch. "7:50," I said, "we still have time to do one more thing before we meet with Cloud and the others in the Ghost Hotel." Yuffie thought for a moment and said "I always wanted to ride the Gondola, I didn't get to last time." We got to the ride and there was no line so we got on immediately. The Gondola was moving slow and we could see all the attractions in the Gold Saucer. I looked over to Yuffie who had fallen asleep after the day we had, so I put my jacket around her again. Her head soon fell against my shoulder, but I didn't feel it because I was asleep too. I woke up the next day still in the Gondola and Yuffie was still asleep. I leaned her against the wall so I could get out and I saw the ride operator just arriving for work. I walked up to her and said "did we sleep on the Gondola all last night?" The operator just smiled and nodded, then she said "You two made such a cute couple that nobody wanted to disturb you." "But did anyone come looking for us?" I asked. "Actually we did, but we didn't want to disturb you two either." Tifa said walking out of the tunnel leading to the ride. I went back and woke Yuffie up, then we headed to the main area to meet the others. Barett saw us walking together and said, "It's about time you two joined us." I just shrugged and we got on the rope way and we went back to the Highwind. I stayed on the deck and felt the wind hit my face as we flew around for a while. I was leaning against the rail when we hit some turbulence and I fell off. I quickly grabbed my crystal and activated my Dragoon armor and tried to keep up with the Highwind. I saw the crystal running low on power so I landed in the center of Mt. Nibel. I pulled out my PHS and phoned Cloud to tell him I fell off and to come pick me up at Nibelheim. I started walking back to town when I ran across a group of monsters. I quickly beat them and the energy in the crystal increased. I then ran into two dragons and I had to use my armor to keep from being hurt since I left my money on the Highwind as well as my healing items. I killed the first one then I felt a strange feeling in me like Cloud said he felt when he learned how to do the Blade Beam. I suddenly knew how to do another magic powered attack. I landed on the ground and moved my hands to my side and bent at the elbows. I then raised me arms in the air and shouted "Psycho Explode" then I dropped my arms to my side straight down this time and generated a sphere of psychic energy around me and it expanded and covered the dragon with a purple hue and then the dragon dissolved. I deactivated my armor and went into Nibelheim. A few feet in town, I saw a man hunched over in a black cape beside the gate to the largest house in town. I noticed the gate itself was open and so was the door. I went inside and almost got sick due to the smell of hundreds of rotting corpses of the monsters that used to stay there. I pulled a cloth out of my pouch and covered my mouth and nose with it. I was about to leave when I heard insane laughter from somewhere inside the mansion. I made a better mask over my face that wouldn't slip, then continued to explore the mansion. The further into the mansion I got the more dead monsters I saw. The closer I got to the basement the louder the laughter got. I finally got in the basement and I stopped when I saw the door to the room where they found Vincent was busted open. I looked inside and saw
his coffin was slashed apart. I then looked to the other coffin and saw it was slashed opened but otherwise fine. The laughter once again shot through the air and I ran for the lab. I half expected to see Sephiroth in the library, but instead there was a man that looked like Vincent, only entirely in black and had two short swords instead of a gun. He turned around and I could see he had a pale complexion like he hasn't seen the sun in years. "Man," I said aloud, "and I thought Vincent was pale." The other guy then glared at me and said "Where is Vincent?" I jumped back when I noticed his eyes were totally blood red. I drew out my sword and activated my armor. "If you want Vincent Valentine, you'll have to get past me." I said taking a defensive position. The other guy just said "You can't stop me." then he crossed his arms across his chest and started spinning around, creating a whirlwind around him. I stared into the whirlwind and tried to see what he was doing, when he suddenly rushed out with his swords in a crisscross pattern. I jumped to the side and barely avoided getting sliced into as he ran past me and out the door. I ran after him, but he was to fast for me to catch. I then hurried out of the mansion and saw him disappear in the mountains. I saw the Highwind fly over the town and land just past the city limits. I put my sword in my sheath and walked out to them. When I saw them, Tifa waved over to me and then suddenly stopped. I noticed the look of shock on their faces and looked down to see I didn't totally dodge the attack that guy made. I quickly cast Cure on myself but the cut didn't go away. I cast it again and again but it was still there. Vincent walked over to me and said, "What made this cut on you?" "It was this strange guy I found in the basement lab of the Shinra mansion and he was looking for you." I said then took the cloth off my face that I forgot to remove. I went to my room in the Highwind and got another shirt and threw the old one away, then I went into the meeting room where the others were gathering. When I got in the room, Cloud asked me to describe the guy I saw in the basement lab of the mansion. I tried to remember exactly what he looked like, but before I could tell them Vincent stood up and said "He looks like me, only with paler skin, and two short swords instead of a gun." 'How do you know? You were with us on the Highwind." Cloud said. Vincent just turned his head to Cloud and said "I wasn't the only ex-Turk they performed experiments on." With that said Vincent left the room. I left after him and found him on the deck. "Does he share your powers too?" I asked making Vincent jump and turn around in surprise. "Well, I got a reaction out of you. I guess I win the bet." I said with a smile. "What bet?" Vincent asked. I just shook my head and said, "It was just a joke, you need to relax a bit. Now do you and that guy have the same powers, you know like being able to transform?" Vincent turned back to the rail again and said, "As far as I know he does. But I also learned some moves while traveling with Cloud and the others, so who knows what that guy knows now." What was his name?" I asked, "You never told us." Vincent just shrugged and said, "His name is Selphus. He was a Turk like me, but he went power hungry and was sealed in the coffin. Soon after that, they accused me of the same and sealed me away too. But before they sealed us away, they did the experiments on us." "What do you know about his weapons?" I asked. Vincent thought for a moment and said, I don't know, he didn't have any when we were sealed away, but they must be evil to leave a scar like yours." That night I went back to the mansion to look for clues. Most of the bodies were cleared out when I got there, but the stench remained. I walked to the basement lab and decided to check the book Selphus was reading when I came in. As I looked through the book, I saw many illustrations and explanations of experiments. I kept flipping through the pages when a voice behind me said, "What are you looking for?" I jumped three feet in the air and landed with my weapon out and ready. "Vincent," I said when I realized who it was, "why do you go around and scare people all the time like that?" I held my breath for a few seconds to slow my rapid heartbeat down to normal. Vincent just shrugged slightly and replied, "It just happens." I turned back to the book I was looking through and noticed the next few pages were ripped out. "Weird." I said looking at the tears across what was left of the pages. Vincent leaned over to look and noticed the straight tears to. "It looks like a blade cut these pages out instead of tearing them out. Whoever wanted these pages didn't want them ruined." I checked the page numbers for the pages that weren't ripped out and then checked the contents page in front. "This says those pages held the vampire experiments that were performed on you." I said looking up to Vincent. "I think it was Selphus who tore the pages out, he must be looking for a way to kill you." I said. Vincent started to look worried. I still had the book open to the contents page when I noticed another fact. "He also has the page about the black materia," I said almost in panic, "If he gets it, he could destroy the planet and kill us all." I held the book in my hand as Vincent and I raced for the Highwind to tell the others. After we told Cloud and the others, we started searching for him again. Cloud, Tifa and Aeris took the Gold Chocobo's Tifa, Aeris and Yuffie, Barett, Cid and Vincent stayed on the Highwind, Red XIII and Cait Sith went to Cosmo Canyon to find some information, and Yuffie and I took the Buggy to check around the continent for Selphus. We met back at the Highwind the next afternoon to report what we found. "We found nothing at all on this guy." I said when Cloud asked us what we found out. Vincent stood up and said, "I discovered he is after some crystal like the one that disappeared from the northern crater not too long ago." Cloud thought for a moment then said, "If he is looking for that crystal so badly, we need to find it first and destroy it." Everyone but me, Cait Sith and Yuffie agreed. I gave Yuffie and Cait Sith a quick look that told them to keep my crystal a secret from them so they don't try to destroy my crystal. Cid had the pilot fly the Highwind to the Northern Crater so they could look for clues to it's disappearance. We got to the center of the crater and split into groups again. Reeve and Vincent were still on the Highwind so we split into three groups of three; Cloud, Tifa and Barett; Cid, Aeris and Red XIII, and Yuffie, Cait Sith and me. We were searching different parts of the cave when my crystal started shining. I started to walk around and the crystal started glowing brighter. I finally found what my crystal was reacting to and picked it up. It looked like a black crystal like mine, but it seemed to be dead and didn't have a glow of it's own. Yuffie came up to me to see what I found. When she was standing next to me, the crystal started glowing again and floated to her. The crystal settled in her hand and she was covered in a black shadow. the shadow changed shape and grew wings and Yuffie was in Dragoon armor like mine only totally black and she had a headband. Yuffie's Conformer was changed into two half circles with long spikes coming out of the edges. "Cool, you have the Shadow Dragoon armor." I said looking at Yuffie's new armor. Yuffie's crystal ran out of power and she fell on the ground. I held back a laugh and picked her up off the floor. She had a look of confusion and excitement all at the same time. "That was awesome." Yuffie finally said after regaining her balance. I told her how to activate the crystal's power and how to store power and make it last longer. We went to were Cait Sith was searching. Before we reached him, I leaned over to Yuffie and whispered, "Let's activate our dragon crystals and scare Cait Sith." Yuffie laughed to herself at the thought and we went to find some monsters to build up the required SP (Spirit Power). We built up enough after the fourth battle and moved back to where we first saw Cait Sith and activated our dragoon armors. We flew around the corner and shouted as we rushed at Cait Sith. Cait Sith panicked big time and started throwing whatever he could pick up at us. We stopped after a rock hit the top of my head. I deactivated my armor and landed on my feet, but when Yuffie finally remembered how to change back to normal, she fell on her butt again. Cait Sith finally stopped panicking and helped me pick Yuffie up. When we didn't find any clues, we met back with Cloud and the others I the center of the crater. "Sephiroth's body was taken away from the spot where we fought, Selphus probably took it to revive it." Cloud said when the others joined us. We started back to the Highwind and Yuffie and I made Cait Sith promise not to tell the others about our dragoon armors. We boarded the Highwind again and everyone went to their normal spots again, Cloud at the very front of the control room, Barett was standing behind Cloud to his left, Cid was behind the pilot, Red was in the corner at the bottom of some stairs, Tifa was to Clouds right, Vincent was standing at one of the control panels, Cait Sith was beside the power controls, Yuffie was sitting in the larger room outside of the control room trying not to be sick, and Aeris was outside letting the wind blow through her hair. I was in the Chocobo stall keeping the chocobos from going crazy from the ships sudden movements. I left the stall after tying the chocobos down and saw Yuffie turning green. "Feeling sick?" I asked sarcastically. Yuffie just gave me a 'well duh' glare and I said, "You'll need to get over that if you're going to be a dragoon." I spent the next hour helping Yuffie get over her motion sickness until Cloud came out and said, "We've found Selphus. He's in Hojo's old lab in Midgar and we need to stop him before he does anything bad." "What could he be after?" I asked Cloud who just shrugged and went to get the parachutes. "Why does he always want to jump down into Midgar? We got the key from Bone Village already, we could just go through the gate and surprise him from below." Yuffie said. "That might not be a bad idea," I said quietly, "You and I can attack from below and Cloud and the others can attack from above. Selphus will see the others coming and attack them, while we get him from below." Yuffie and I made our way outside and lowered the ladder to make it look like we climbed down before jumping. We then activated our armors and jumped over the railing and flew to the ground. We got to the gate and I began to search my pockets for the key to the gate. "What's wrong?" Yuffie asked when she noticed my frantic searching. "I don't have the key to the gate with me." I said. Yuffie hung her head down and said, "Now how are we going to get inside?" I started to think about how it was too late to fly to the Highwind to get the key and then hit myself for not thinking of the obvious solution. "Of course, it's so obvious," I said, "we're still in our dragoon armor so why don't we fly over the wall?" Yuffie just looked blankly at me then we flew over the wall when we were sure no one was looking. We made our way through the streets and fought a few easy monsters to build up our SP again for the upcoming fight against Selphus. We got to wall market and began looking for how Cloud, Barett and Tifa got to the top plate the first time. We found the wire and began a hard climb to the top. There were no monsters on the way up so we got to the upper plate in a few minutes. We then made our way through the streets and easily took out the monsters that were settled at the entrance to the main building. "I say after we defeat Selphus, we send the rest of the plates crashing down to the ground to finish off the rest of the monsters." I said as we climbed the seemingly endless flight of stairs. We got to the floor with Hojo's lab and stopped to catch our breath before we went in. I could hear Cloud and the others fighting on the other side of the door. I looked through the keyhole and saw Selphus in his own dragoon armor. His blades were three feet long and black. The light reflected off the black blade in a way that suggested it was probably coated with a poison of some kind. I summoned my armor and heard the sound of Yuffie summoning hers shortly after. "Yuffie open the door when I charge up my psychic shot so I can hit him by surprise." I said as I backed away from the door. When she put her hand on the door knob I cupped my hands at my side and focused some of my energy at that point. I nodded to Yuffie and she flung the door open and dived out of my path. "Psychic shot!" I shouted while thrusting my hands forward and firing a stream of psychic energy straight into Selphus' chest plate. He went crashing into the wall on the other end of the room. Yuffie helped Cloud and the others get to their feet and then flew back to me to prepare for the counter strike. I could see Cloud's surprised look to see Yuffie and me in dragoon armors and fighting Selphus in his own armor. Selphus finally came from the place where he landed with both blades extended to us to run us through. We darted to the side at the last second and watched as he crashed into the wall behind us. I fired another psychic shot and sent him through the wall. I went through the hole in the wall and Yuffie followed. I pulled out my sword and began a sword duel with Selphus. After a while, Selphus was just blocking my attacks and I could tell he was tiring from nonstop fighting without rest. "Let's see how he does against my new attack." I thought to myself as I raised my sword above my head and shouted "Shi-Ken!" My sword was covered in a dark purple light as I brought it down at Selphus' head. He raised one sword to block my attack and cried out in surprise and pain when my sword cut his arm off. Yuffie, who had been hovering above and gathering her energy while I was fighting, extended her arm and shouted, "Shadow ball!" As soon as she finished saying it, a black ball the size of her palm appeared and shot off at Selphus. It hit him in the face and he was covered in black and started slashing blindly. I realized that he was blind and got behind him to finish him off. I performed the Shi-Ken again, but he recovered from the blindness and dodged my attack. He countered with a swinging slash meant to take off my head but missed by three feet. I brought my hands together at my side and performed the Psychic shot again sending Selphus through the outside wall where he fell to the top plate. I flew down after him and continued our battle. After an hour neither of us had done much injury to the other and I was starting to tire out. I went for an overhead strike and wound up on my back when his fist met my face. My sword had been knocked from my hand and landed in one of the empty stores. I tried to stand up, but I was so tired I couldn't even sit up. I saw Selphus standing above me with his remaining blade above his head. I closed my eyes and waited for the final blow, but instead I heard a series of rapid gunshot. I opened my eyes in time to see Selphus fall to the ground with several bullet holes in his back. I leaned up against the nearest wall and saw Barett's gun arm smoking. Yuffie landed next to me and helped me to my feet. As soon as I got to my feet, the blood rushed to my head and I put my hand on my head and felt my hair. "I must have run out of SP" I thought as I realized I was out of my dragoon armor. I looked over to Selphus' body which had no armor. "It's over." Vincent said as we headed back to the Highwind. We took Barett to Kalm to get Marlene and then dropped them off at North Coral, then we took Red back to Cosmo Canyon. Next we dropped Cloud, Tifa and Vincent in Nibelheim, and took Aeris to Kalm, and Cait Sith stayed at Midgar. We landed at Wu-Tai to drop Yuffie off and Cid walked up to me and said, "So where are we going to drop you off?" "I don't know." I said, "I really don't have anywhere to go." Cid got a stupid grin on his face and finally said, "So why don't you stay here? I know how well you and Yuffie have been getting along." I looked over to Cid for a second then back to Yuffie. "Can you do one thing for me?" I said to Cid, "Get my ethers back from Cait Sith. He owes me." Cid laughed and said, "Sure it'll be fun." I grabbed onto the ladder and slid down to the ground. "Now I know why people don't do that anymore, it burns too much." I said rubbing my hands. I waved goodbye to Cid and went to start a new life with Yuffie in Wu-Tai.