"Sephiroth, I have a favour to ask you.." The Flower Maiden Aerith said, approaching the former leader of SOLDIER, Sephiroth.

Sighing, Sephiroth turned to face the maiden, "Aerith, if this is about your flowers again can it wait? My back is still aching from last time..."

Giving a mischievous smile Aerith replied, "Don't worry, I'm sure you'll enjoy this one, it's involves you temporally returning to life and messing with cloud."

'Mess with Cloud, return to life?' he thought questioning whether he had heard her correctly, he replied, "When you say messing with Cloud, you mean go and start a fight with him?" he remembered the battles he had with Cloud how despite his superior skills and strength he had lost time and time again to this infantryman. "I thought Minerva didn't want us doing anything to hurt him?"

Aerith, pondered this for a moment, "You are correct there, you will NOT be allowed to do anything to cause him physical harm… Remember that day he spent stalking you..? Well it's now your turn, but you cannot let him know who you really are, if you tell him you will be teleported back to the lifestream."

Sephiroth, looked over the flower fields, then after a couple of moments, replied "That sounds like something I would greatly enjoy. I assume I be able to talk to people and interact with my surroundings."

"Yes you will be able to, but remember Minerva and I shall be watching, if you do anything to harm Cloud you will be returned here and as punishment will have to tend the flower fields again for as long as I deem appropriate. So are you up for it?"

Sephiroth stopped staring at the fields and averted his gaze to her again, "Yes I am."

"Ok great I just need you to sign this contract." She said producing a sheet of paper in her hand.

Staring at the paper, he took it from her, "Ok, just let me read it first."

On the paper he read

'I Sephiroth (hereafter known as "S") agree to stalk Cloud (hereafter known as "C"), I understand that if I do anything that directly or indirectly results in physical harm to befall C or anyone else living on Gaia, I agree to the punishment of tending the flower fields overseen by Aerith (hereafter known as "A"). I agree that in case of disagreement that A's decision is final.

I understand that anything I manifest must not be used to cause damage to anyone or anything in the living world. Anything manifested must not draw too much attention to myself.'

Upon reading it he looked back at Aerith, "You call this a contract? It's a bit vague isn't it? and what's this part about being able to manifest anything I want?"

"I agree it is short and vague," she giggled "but it has all I wanted it to say. You may summon any object you require, but remember I will be watching. So do you agree?"

"Yes, This gives me a chance to freak Cloud out." Sephiroth said signing the contract.

"Ok, get ready." Aerith held her hands together to pray.

He stood there, and started to feel cold, he realised his clothing had mostly all disappeared.

"Err, Aerith what is going on here?" he nervously asked blushing...

Opening her eyes she smiled seeing him standing there in a red leather thong, she started giggling as he faded, "No I just wanted to see your reaction, remember I'll be watching." She said after he had vanished.


He found himself on a stage in the corner of a bar still with only his thong on, looking round he saw a large group of women cheering, after a few moments he heard a man's voice "Hey man why'd you stop gyrating? It's time for our big finale."

Sephiroth groaned thinking 'Oh Boy'. "Dude what you waiting for? It's time for your finishing move."

"Finishing move?"

"You know, turn away and pull the thong down, then rush off stage"

He paled in terror, and debated just rushing off stage, but decided to get this over with and did it anyway. To the side he found Yuffie standing there holding up a towel for him to cover himself up with. He took the towel thanking the young princess. After positioning it he heard the man from the stage speaking to the rowdy crowd of women. "...Thank you we are the Firsts, Stephen come back out here and take a bow".

Sephiroth stood there, when Yuffie pointed to the stage, he looked and saw Zack summoning him back on stage. "Are you going out to take a bow or not Stephen?" Yuffie asked, realising he was Stephen, he walked out onto the stage and bowed gracefully acknowledging the cheering crowd.

As the curtains closed the Zack look alike put his arm around his shoulder he noticed this guy had his hair spiked and had a scar on his left cheek to make him look more like the real Zack, "So Stephen great show,"

Sephiroth walked off stage, and headed to the dressing room, and quickly found some clothing that fit him assuming them to be his he quickly dressed. The Zack look-a-like came in. "So, are you sure you want to quit the group?"

"Yeah, I'm sure this isn't for me I'm sorry."

"It's ok, I'll sure miss you honey." Zack said brushing Sephiroth's arm with his hand, "I'll go get our pay; I'll meet you at the bar later."

"Here's your pay, you even got a huge bonus, 2,000 Gil, that's more than I usually get in a month doing this 5 days a week." he said joining him at the bar, "So, I guess you'll be leaving town soon?"

After a while, Tifa walked over, "Stephen isn't it? I must admit, you are a spitting image of Sephiroth. You want for a drink?"

Sephiroth nodded,

"Ok, well Sephiroth's old fan club was in tonight, they each brought you a drink." Tifa handed him a beer and went back to cleaning the bar.

After a couple of beers and Zack and rest of the group had left, the bar door opened and Cloud walked in. Noticing him cloud shouted over "Sephiroth! What are you doing here..!"

"Wait Cloud it's not Sephiroth, it's the look alike from tonight's 'Girls only' night" Tifa said running over to Cloud.

"Oh you look just like him." Cloud said taking a seat next to him. "So what's your name?"
"Sephi... sorry Stephen, I introduce myself as Sephiroth on stage, I was still kind of in character" he replied.

"Nice to meet you I'm Cloud."

"Well, I must be off." he got up and headed to the Exit.

After wondering around the town, and found an Inn. Laying in the bed he spoke to himself "Aerith why didn't you tell me I was going to be a look alike named Stephen?"

"Yeah, I thought you'd never to do this, so I kept it as a surprise for you." Aerith replied appearing in the room.

"So what happened to the real Stephen?"

"Oh don't worry about him, he's relaxing in the lifestream. I explained the situation to him, he's cool with it."