Ninjagirl: Eh, well…no reviews yet…can't help that, though…well—hey wait, where're my plushies?

Cloud: (walks in) Plushies? You mean the ones Sephiroth has?

Ninjagirl: Oh no he didn't! SEPHIROTH!! Get back here with my plushies or else!

Sephiroth: (from some random where) NEVER!!

Ninjagirl: (growls) NOW!! Gimme my fucking plushies!!

Cloud: (shrugs) Well, I still have to do the disclaimer…Okay, BlackNinjagirl does not ownFinal Fantasy VII or Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children so don't try suing her or else I'll have to send you a very gross (but funny) picture of Vincent in a pink dress. Oh, and I'll kick your ass to the moon and back, too.

Ninjagirl: Well, here's part two, the rest of the story, blah blah blah…enjoy while I wrestle my voodoo plushies from Sephiroth. (growls) Get back here, you moron!

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Two Years After The Fall Of Midgar

Part Two

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She later came to on a bed with Cloud, still passed out, lying next to her on the bed, both of them laying on their backs and their swords propped against the wall.

She sat up and spotted Tifa on another bed nearby, also still passed out, then rested her elbows on her knees after crossing her legs Indian style and massaged her temples. "Man, do I have a headache…"

She heard a low moan next to her and looked over to find Cloud coming to, then grinned at him. "Look at who's up from his nap."

Cloud sat up and rubbed his head. "Where are we?"

"I don't know, but if I had to guess, I'd say we were back at Shinra Headquarters." She shuddered. "Ugh, I hate this place…"

"Well, I wasn't expecting to end up back here, that's for sure," Cloud half-agreed.

She looked at him. "Damn it, Cloud, why didn't you tell me how bad you were affected? You know that I could have tried to help you as best I could."

Cloud stared down at the bedcovers. "I didn't want to burden you."

Christina tilted her head at him. "Did you ever call me a burden when I told you everything that happened with Shinra that I wouldn't even tell Zack?"

His ocean blue eyes met her forest green ones. "No, because you weren't."

"Then why would I ever consider you one?"

He nodded slowly, his eyes never leaving hers. "Okay, I think I see what you mean."

She smiled before leaning over and kissing him, which lasted three minutes or so before the both of them heard a moan from where Tifa lay and quickly separated, Cloud getting up and going over to stare out of the window and his fiancée lying back on the bed with her hands piled behind her head, her eyes closed as if she were trying to fall asleep and her leg giving a twinge of pain as she did.

Good thing Tifa's so hard to knock out, she thought to herself. It keeps her knocked out longer because of it.

She smiled as she remembered the promise that Cloud had made to Tifa and their other friends that the two of them wouldn't make out in front of any of them.

She noticed Tifa had slipped back into unconsciousness, and at almost the same moment she heard Reno's voice say, "You know, you guys are rather heavy to lug around."

She turned to the door and sure enough, there stood Reno, with Rude standing next to him as always.

"It's not exactly our fault," she retorted, turning to look back at the ceiling.

She glanced at Reno and saw him raise an eyebrow. "What do you mean by that?"

She shrugged and glanced over at Cloud, whom she saw was glaring at her, and couldn't restrain a grin. "Oh, nothing," she said evasively as Cloud came over and sat down next to her on the bed, since she knew he'd end up smacking her on the back of the head if she continued. "By the way, you still owe me a rematch, Cloud."

Cloud gave her a strange look. "And how, exactly, do I owe you that rematch?"

"When the practice fight we were having before you got called on a delivery got postponed because of said delivery and you promised me a rematch," she replied smoothly.

"Oh yeah, I forgot about that," he said teasingly, evading her playful swipe at his head.

She scowled teasingly, restraining herself from breaking out into a grin. "Oi! Stay still so I can get you!"

"Never!" he retorted, laughing, as he evaded more of her playful swipes at his head.

Reno rolled his eyes. "Enough flirting, you two."

Christina scowled at him. "Who said we were flirting?"

Cloud, however, took the opportunity to tickle her.

"GAH!" she squealed. "No! Hahahahaha—stop—hahahahahahahaha—Cloud—hahahahahahahahahaha!" She squirmed and couldn't stop laughing until Cloud at last relinquished his tickling.

"I'd definitely consider that flirting," Reno put in as Christina gasped for breath.

"That just shows how little you know about us," Cloud retorted.

"You and Rufie both," Christina muttered so that only Cloud could hear her, then added in her normal tone, "Cloud, let me up."

"If you say so," he said teasingly, but let her up anyway.

"So what's the news?" she asked the Turks as she got up off of the bed and stood next to it, Cloud taking her old spot.

"We're looking for the hideout right now," Rude informed them. "We have a pretty good idea where it is but we're not sure."

Christina nodded and she heard Cloud grunt in response, apparently thinking.

"We'll check it out and tell you if it is their hideout or not," Rude finished before they walked out the door.

Christina looked at Cloud, who was staring at the ceiling. From the look on his face, her assumption had been right—his head was buzzing with thoughts, and she guessed there were a few memories thrown in as well.

She was about to walk over and snap him out of his thoughts with a kiss when Tifa sat up and looked around, rubbing her head.

"They've gone looking," Cloud said suddenly, startling both women and making Tifa stare at him. "They won't be back for a while."

"How long have you two been up?" Tifa asked them.

"Long enough," Christina replied smoothly, going over and sitting where Cloud had been sitting when she was the one lying down.

"You didn't do anything rash, did you?" Tifa asked them suspiciously, one eyebrow raised.

Christina fought to keep her face straight. "Nope."

She could tell Cloud was also trying to keep his face straight as well, and when their eyes met, the both of them burst out laughing, unable to stop themselves.

"Aha! So you have been kissing!" Tifa exclaimed triumphantly.

Still giggling, Christina managed to get out, "You said when we were around you we couldn't make out. You didn't say we couldn't if you weren't awake or conscious."

Tifa frowned. "That's true." She looked at Cloud, who had sat up in his fit of laughter and was now staring sullenly at the bedcovers.

"What say we go get Marlene?" Christina suggested in an effort to cheer him up.

Cloud, however, shook his head. "I'm a broken tool," he mumbled. "I'd just hold you guys down."

"Bullshit, you are!" his fiancée blurted. "Cloud, if I've told you a million times, I'll tell you again—you aren't a hinder to anyone! Why do you keep beating yourself up over that? Don't you rememberanything I told you while we were in SOLDIER?"

"Yeah, I remember, but—"

"No buts! You're not the only one who's had to deal with Zack and Aeris' deaths! They were as much my friends as yours, Cloud. And all this shit about being 'broken' is not true! Sure, we're afflicted with the damn stigma, but so are thousands of kids—most of them orphans—that have it too! And they had as much choice as we did with the cells—they were forced to get it just like we were when we joined SOLDIER! Plus, I had to deal with that jackass before and while I was in SOLDIER too! But do you see me giving up? No, because I know that we can prevent assholes like that from affecting anyone else, and plus, there are much bigger fish to fry! Think of Marlene—and by the way, Barret is gonna be so pissed when he finds out that she's been kidnapped.

"Anyway, that's beside the point. The point is, all those orphans out there, Denzel included, look up to us—well, you mainly. And I wouldn't say that we're the ones that have started this mess, but we damn sure need to finish it before it ends up being another Meteor vs. Lifestream. Now what say we send Kedaj and the other two back to Hell where they belong?"

She lifted Cloud's chin so that his eyes looked straight into hers. "Now," she said softly, "are we gonna sit here twiddling our thumbs or are we gonna go kick some ass out there?"

Cloud grinned and kissed her briefly before standing up and going over to stand next to the door over where his sword rested. "I say we go kick some ass!"

Christina smiled and stood up as well before she went over and grabbed her sword and put it in its harness on her back, then turned to Cloud and gave him a mock salute. "Aye, aye, Captain!" she said teasingly, then turned to Tifa. "You coming?"

"Could I possibly ask a question before we go anywhere?" Tifa asked curiously. "And besides, we should wait until Reno and Rude get back."

"She does have a point," Cloud put in. "We should wait for them to tell us where the hideout is."

Christina scowled. "Oh, all right," she conceded finally, sitting back down where she had been before she had gotten up, Cloud going back to where he was before he had gotten up as well. "What's the question?"

Tifa hesitated slightly before asking her question. "You both have Geostigma, don't you?"

Cloud sighed and went back to staring at the ceiling just as Christina nodded, then she stood up again and went over to stand at the window to stare out of it.

"It's not like either of us wanted it," she said after a few minutes, not looking at either of them. "Actually, I never even wanted to join SOLDIER in the first place, not even when He forced me in it. If I hadn't have met Zack and Cloud, I would probably have bailed the first chance I got."

"Zack?" Tifa asked, sounding confused. "I thought Cloud said he didn't know any Zack."

"He didn't at the time," Christina corrected. "He remembered once he was out of the coma." She looked at Cloud. "Am I right?"

Cloud nodded, still staring at the ceiling. "Actually, I met Christina because of him."

"Ah, I see," Tifa noted, looking at Cloud. "Cloud, you care more about memories than us, don't you?"

Cloud sighed so forlornly that Christina went over and hugged him, which he sat up to greet. Hugs usually made her feel better whenever he hugged her so she figured it would work on him.

She straightened up then sat down next to him on the bed, letting him rest his head on her shoulder as she retied his boot laces.

"Dilly-dally, shilly-shally," she heard Tifa say suddenly and couldn't restrain a chuckle. "Dilly-dally, shilly-shally!"

"I think she means for you to move on," came a familiar voice from the door, which caused the three of them to look up, and Christina saw that it was Reno, of course.

"So where are they?" Tifa asked him.

"They're at the Forbidden Forest," Rude replied for him. "And they've got the works—even a box of Materia."

Cloud and Christina exchanged looks, then Christina cursed loudly.

"Damn! I should have figured that they were the ones that had taken both Marlene and the Materia!" she said, smacking her forehead. "Yuffie is gonna be really pissed when she finds out."

Cloud, however, looked at the Turks. "Go take care of them."

Christina smacked him on the back of the head. "You dumbass! They wouldn't stand a chance against those assholes! We have to take care of them."

"She has a good point," Tifa put in. "I've fought the short-haired one and, man, was he tough! We're dealing with experienced fighters."

Cloud looked at Reno, who said, "It's all yours."

"Then let's go kick those guys' asses!" Cloud exclaimed and they ran outside the building (Cloud grabbing his sword on the way and putting it in his harness on his back), Tifa running on foot to Midgar and Cloud and Christina hopping on their bikes and heading over to the Forbidden Forest.

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They headed along a path with ghostly white trees, Cloud in the lead and Christina not quite behind him, since her front wheel lined up with his rear wheel.

Cloud and Christina sped up when they saw Kedaj and his two brothers, and both of them pulled out their swords.

Right then all the children with the stigma landed in front of the three silver-haired men, and the two warriors skidded to avoid hitting the kids.

Cloud ended up leaning too far and was thrown off of his bike, his sword landing amongst the kids but not harming any of them.

Christina had a bit more luck and managed to use a tree to stop her bike, but her sword was stuck in another tree nearby and she, too, was thrown off of her bike, landing next to Cloud.

She sat up and rubbed her head, and noted as she did so that Cloud had done the same when she felt cold steel at her throat and caught a glint of metal near Cloud's as well.

"These two are our big brother and big sister," a voice near her holding the swords said, apparently talking to the children. "But they're also what you would call black sheep!"

A vision of President Shinra before he had cut his hair flashed before Christina's eyes and a low growl issued from her throat once she realized how similar this guy looked to him.

After just a minute's pause, she tripped the guy—whom she saw to be Kedaj from what Rufus had told them—then got up and leapt on top of where her sword was stuck in the tree, noticing Cloud dove for his as well, then quickly unstuck her sword by jumping on the handle and caught it before slashing at Kedaj.

"You have officially asked for a can of whoopass," she said, smirking, then launched herself at him and out of the corner of her eye saw Cloud go for the other two, Yazoo and Loz.

A few minutes into the fight, she found that she still could fight like she could two years ago thanks to the practice fights she and Cloud often had to keep their skills sharp. She had even come up with new techniques once she had taught Cloud some of her moves and which worked well against him, but she quickly found that she needed an advantage if she was to win.

Seeing Cloud use one of Loz's arms to get into the branches of the trees above, Christina duplicated the move on Kedaj, using it to get to the higher branches of a tree above them and leapt over to help out Cloud some.

When Kedaj jumped in, she quickly found that she could fend them off thanks to the fact that she had Yuffie's old shuriken hidden away, using it to help not only fend off Kedaj and Loz but also to catch Yazoo off-guard several times as well, considering the shuriken boomeranged back to her every time she threw it.

They had been fighting for a while when she saw Yazoo catch Cloud off-guard, sending him to the ground.

"CLOUD!!" she yelled in horror, knocking the two guys away from her and leaping down to land next to him, then turned and was just about to attack the guys again when a bright red cloak appeared out of nowhere and snatched Cloud up, sword and all.

Christina watched as the cloak evaded the gunshots from Yazoo and Kedaj's guns and followed after it when it left although she could barely keep up with it, hiding away her shuriken and putting her sword back in its harness as she did.

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She arrived at a clearing with a lake a few minutes afterwards—nearly losing sight of the red cloak when she had been following it—and discovered a much stronger-looking Cloud sitting next to the lake.

"Cloud?" she asked him cautiously, crouching next to him. "Are you alright?"

"I could have been worse, I guess," he replied, which made her smile and hug him.

When she let go of him she spotted Vincent Valentine—whom she knew had been "the cloak"—and stood up to greet him. "Vincent, do you know anything about the stigma? Something that could help get rid of it?"

"Nothing that could cure it, I'm afraid, but I have found some interesting information," Vincent replied.

"Like what?" she asked him, sitting down next to Cloud on his "good" side—the side the stigma wasn't on—and rested her head on his shoulder, which made him smile and slip his arm around her waist.

"The Geostigma results when the body attempts to rid itself of an alien substance but the substance fights back."

"The injected Jenova cells," Christina pointed out, making Vincent nod.

"Yes, and the injected Jenova cells are stronger, which causes the area around the injection site to become bruised and painful."

As if to give an example, he grabbed Cloud's stigmatized arm—which made Cloud wince sharply—and held it for a minute before letting it go.

"See what I mean?" he said pointedly.

"Not really," Cloud retorted, taking his arm from around Christina's waist and using it to gently rub his afflicted arm.

Christina's head shot up in alarm just before the three of them heard rustling from a set of bushes nearby and stood up—Cloud holding his sword, Christina with her hand on the hilt of hers, and Vincent with his hand near his gun holster.

The rustling continued for a few more seconds before Marlene appeared, running over and hugging Cloud's legs.

"Marlene!" Christina exclaimed, relieved. "Thank God you're alright."

The girl turned to her and gave her a smile, then greeted Vincent with a nod as Cloud turned to him.

"Vincent, could you take Marlene to Tifa?" he asked the forbidding-looking man, though Christina knew he was really the exact opposite.

Vincent shook his head. "I'm not taking her."

Marlene let go of Cloud. "Cloud! You never pay attention to us anymore!" she half-scolded him before running over and hiding behind Christina.

Christina scowled at her fiancée. "Cloud! Tifa was right. You should try to live your own life rather than reliving SOLDIER every day." She crossed her arms. "I shouldn't be the only person you pay attention to all the time."

She saw Cloud's eyes get a glazed-over look to them and knew instantly that he was talking to Aeris, since she had done that several times herself, and when he snapped out of it he asked Vincent, "Do sins ever get forgiven?"

Both Vincent and Christina were startled at the question, but Christina noticed that Vincent hid his surprise rather well as he replied, "I don't know, I've never asked."

"You mean, never tried," Cloud muttered before looking at Marlene, who was still hiding behind Christina. "Well, there's no reason not to start now. C'mon, Marlene, I'll take you home."

Marlene nodded and ran over to Cloud.

"Hang on," Christina called after them, catching up to them after waving goodbye to Vincent. "I'm gonna go too, since my bike's where yours is anyways."

Cloud smiled and nodded, then yelled after them, "See you later, Vincent!" as the three of them walked over to where the bikes were.

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The three of them found the bikes and Marlene rode on Christina's bike sitting in front of her, then they took Marlene to Tifa's bar, Tifa's Seventh Heaven.

"Let's go try to find Tifa—maybe she's gotten Denzel by now," Christina suggested to Cloud once Marlene was safely inside the bar.

Cloud nodded and the two of them zoomed off towards Shinra Headquarters.

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When they got there, Christina found that Tifa had rescued Denzel and the boy looked eager to see the two warriors.

"Cloud! Christina!" Denzel yelled happily. "You made it!"

"'Course we'd make it," Christina retorted a little arrogantly. "You didn't think that we'd let a monster demolish Midgar more than it already is, did you?"

The remark made Tifa laugh and Cloud smile slightly, then Tifa asked, "Where's Marlene?"

"She's safe, back at your place," Cloud replied, now fiddling with his sword in piecing it back together.

"I think I'll go back to Tifa's with Marlene so that she's not lonely," Denzel put in suddenly, starting to go but turning to look back at Cloud. "Cloud, promise you'll come back?"

Cloud stopped piecing his sword together long enough to look at Denzel and nod, which made Denzel smile before running off to go join Marlene.

Christina moved up so that her bike was next to his and teased him, "Oh yeah, Cloud, promise me too while you're at it, will you?"

Cloud grinned and ruffled her bangs affectionately. "You already know the answer to that question, Christina."

Christina set to checking her weapons like she usually did before a fight, since she always liked to make sure her weapons were in working order so that she didn't have to worry about them malfunctioning in the middle of a battle.

"You know," she heard Cloud say after a few minutes as he put the last pieces of his sword together, "I feel lighter. Maybe I've lost a few pounds, with all that dilly-dally."

"Was that an attempt at a joke?" Tifa teased him.

Christina snorted. "Well, it's not like he didn't need to anyways, being lazy and all," she teased, ducking his playful swipe to her head as she checked her last gun.

Cloud, who had finished putting his sword together and now had it in the bike compartment, scowled at her playfully. "Stay still! I have yet to pay you back for earlier!"

"Actually, that wasme that needed to pay you back," Christina retorted, grinning, as she replaced the gun and quickly checked that her shuriken was hidden away on her person. "Now, what say we join the fun, meh?"

Tifa grinned and hopped behind Cloud—making Christina glare at her for it—then the three sped off to park the bikes elsewhere and headed over to join the fight.

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Once Christina got to the battleground, she saw that everyone else had joined in, then leapt in and threw her shuriken at the monster, then slashed at the creature and smoothly caught her shuriken in her left hand while she twirled her sword in her right.

She evaded a blow from the beast's tail and landed a good distance away as she watched Cloud snatch Barret out of harm's way.

"Where the hell have you two been?" Barret demanded of the two warriors.

"Getting your daughter to safety," Christina retorted calmly. "Therefore, you should be thanking us rather than yelling at us."

"Well, you could have been quicker with it!" Barret snapped back.

She rolled her eyes just as Cloud leapt off to fight the monster, then she pulled out her shuriken and threw it after him to help him out, slashing at the monster while the shuriken was in the air and catching it mid-comeback, and upon catching it, landed nearby.

When the monster's tail came at her again, rather than dodging it a second time, she slashed it off with her shuriken and evaded the cut-off part of it while catching her shuriken at the same time. She then slashed at the monster again with her sword but missed as the creature flew upwards out of normal leaping range, then, upon noticing Cloud getting boosts upwards to slash the monster, hid her shuriken away and leapt over so that she, too, could help give him a boost up.

When she got her chance, she leapt over so that she was next to him and put her hand on the bottom of his right foot, whispering so that only he could hear, "Demolish that monster, Cloud," before throwing him as hard as she could upwards, then landed near the others but on a different tier that they had landed on, putting her sword back in the harness on her back.

She stood up and watched Vincent and Tifa help him out as well, then the monster attacked, but Cloud went straight through the attack and, when Christina saw that he was going faster than he had been when he went into the attack, she knew that Aeris had helped out as well.

He slashed the monster across the back and kept going up while the monster, defeated, fell down and disintegrated, as did its attack, then he landed next to Christina a minute later and his fiancée hugged him, relieved.

Once they broke apart, Christina noticed a strange blue light behind them and nudged Cloud, who looked just in time to see Rufus fall and Kedaj already after the box that Rufus had dropped.

"Peculiar," she noted, half to herself. "Kedaj wouldn't be after the box, unless…no, it can't be! Is it…?"

"Is it what?" Cloud asked her curiously.

"I think that's what's left of Jenova," she whispered in his ear.

"We can't let him get it then," Cloud exclaimed before leaping off towards where the bikes were hidden.

"Cloud!" Christina yelled after him exasperatedly. "You jackass! Get back here!"

He apparently ignored her for he didn't stop at all and, once he was out of sight, she sighed. "Damn it…Sometimes I wish I could have some sort of leash on that asshole…"

"You're not the only one," she heard Tifa say behind her. "Besides, Cloud is Cloud."

Christina smiled and nodded. "That's true," she replied before she leapt off to the bikes, then got on hers and took off after Cloud, twirling her sword.

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"You take Loz, I'll take Yazoo," she told Cloud once she caught up with him. "Or, I can take Kedaj and you take both Yazoo and Loz."

"Do you always have to follow me?" Cloud said mock-exasperatedly.

She grinned. "Hey, I'm not gonna let you have all the fun. Besides, it's not like there isn't enough to go around, right?"

Cloud smiled and shook his head. "No, I suppose not."

Christina smirked and sped up so that she caught up with Kedaj, who was holding the box, and slashed at him, which he evaded and counter-slashed and which she evaded by doing a wheelie. She then landed her front wheel so that she was ahead of Kedaj and slashed at him a second time, evading an attack from Loz soon after.

The battle continued in this manner until they went into a tunnel, which at that point Yazoo and Loz started launching surprise attacks on the two ex-SOLDIERs following Kedaj.

Eventually, Loz threw his bike into the air while Christina had her turn fighting Kedaj, since she and Cloud were swapping frequently, and Kedaj ducked under it while Christina cleverly sliced it in half so that Loz could not ride it and Cloud sliced open both Loz's and Yazoo's weapons so that they couldn't use them. The two warriors then landed on their bikes again and raced through the end of the tunnel, where Reno and Rude were waiting with a pair of bombs to knock the two younger brothers out of the rankings.

Once they were out of the tunnel, Christina turned to Cloud. "From here on out it's all yours." She smiled. "Cloud, show that asshole who's boss and don't let him forget for a minute who he's dealing with, okay?"

Cloud smiled and nodded. "You've got it, Christina," he said before moving his bike over to hers, leaning over, and kissing her deeply but briefly, adding in a whisper afterwards, "I love you."

Christina smiled. "I love you, too, Cloud," she whispered back before they had to separate once the two of them caught up to Kedaj. (AN: Everybody say "Awwwwww…")

Up ahead was a leap, and Christina sped up so that she could make it to the Highwind's ramp, then landed on it just as Cloud and Kedaj went off of it and slid down the steep cliff leading into the dilapidated church that Christina and Cloud had first been introduced to Aeris.

Christina, once her bike was parked and safely secured in the cargo area, went up to what she called the "lookout point" on the airship, where she saw everyone else was.

"Hey guys," she greeted them meekly before staring out at the church where she knew Cloud was, her arms crossed.

"What'd you tell him?" she heard Cait Sith ask her curiously.

"Basically, to kick that bitch's ass to the moon and back," she replied, still staring out at the church. "Kedaj needs it anyway."

The whole group watched Cloud fight Kedaj, and eventually saw Kedaj toss the box into the air and dump the contents out onto himself, then landed, and Cloud attacked him a second later and Kedaj turned into Sephiroth.

Christina's eyes widened, then narrowed to slits. "I should have known…I knew he looked familiar!"

"He did look considerably like Sephiroth in the first place, didn't he?" Tifa commented, scratching her chin.

"Kick his ass, Cloud!" Christina yelled, even though she knew Cloud couldn't hear her. "Make that bastard pay for what he did to Aeris!"

She could have sworn she saw Cloud smirk before he proceeded to fight Sephiroth, and, getting an idea, she ran out of the Lookout Area and climbed up on a ladder to stand out on the deck where she could hear what the two warriors said, the wind making her hair flap out behind her.

She saw Cloud get knocked over and Sephiroth stab him in the shoulder with his sword, which in turn made Cloud yell in pain.

"Tell me what you cherish most, so I can have the pleasure of taking it away," she heard Sephiroth say to Cloud.

Cloud, without answering, took the sword out of his shoulder and leapt at Sephiroth, forcing the other to retreat, then said, "You don't get it, do you? There isn't anything I don't cherish."

"Nice comeback," she commented to herself, a bit impressed.

She watched as Cloud then proceeded to fight Sephiroth again, and, after a long battle, he finally got the upper hand and used his Omnislash technique to defeat the much more experienced silver-haired warrior, who wrapped his black angel wing around himself and dissolved into Kedaj.

"All right Cloud!" she yelled happily. "Way to kick his ass!"

She then watched as Kedaj attempted to attack Cloud but collapsed before he could and eventually dissolved into the Lifestream thanks to Aeris.

"Let's see…so that's twice now that Cloud has whooped Sephiroth's sorry ass. I bet Cloud's gonna get arrogant now," she noted to herself as Cloud stood up, still staring at where Kedaj had vanished. "Mental note to self: Don't let him stay arrogant for too long."

She heard a sudden shot ring out and saw Cloud wince and clutch his chest, then a second later saw him turn and attempt to attack Loz and Yazoo, who were standing nearby.

"What?!" she yelled in astonishment. "No way! Those jackasses were dead! I saw them get blown up in the tunnel! How dare they shoot Cloud like that?"

Once Cloud got to the two brothers, there was a huge explosion and Christina saw Cloud get thrown back from the force of it and couldn't restrain a gasp of shock.

"CLOUD!!" she yelled in panic before she was thrown back from the force of the explosion and hit the wall.

She stood back up and a second later found herself in a white room with Cloud floating in the middle of it, unconscious, and ran over to him, noticing as she did so that he was at the perfect height for her to take him.

"Oh, God, Cloud!" she moaned when she saw the bullet wound in his chest, but noticed it disappear a second later, as well as the wound in his shoulder where Sephiroth had stabbed him. "Huh?"

Christina frowned but slipped her arms underneath him and his body rested on them, then she spotted Zack and Aeris standing across from where she stood and saw they were watching her.

"Cloud," she said softly, gently shaking him. "Cloud, come on, joke's over. Wake up."

"He won't wake," Aeris told her, stopping her attempts. "The only way that he'll come back is if you put him in the lake in the church where I met you both after the Mako Reactor exploded."

"There's a lake there now?" Christina asked curiously.

Zack nodded. "That's why Cloud doesn't have the stigma anymore."

She looked down at Cloud again and noticed two things: one, that the sleeve that she had seen Cloud wearing ever since his stigma started acting up was gone and two, that the Geostigma that had been there was indeed gone.

She looked back at her two old friends. "Do you think it could heal mine?"

Aeris laughed. "Let's get Cloud back where he belongs first, then we'll see about your stigma."

"Now go," Zack added in a mock-commander's voice. "The children that had the stigma are already waiting, and the others will know where you're talking about—or at least Tifa will."

Christina nodded. "All right." She gave the two of them a sad look. "Thank you—for everything."

She simply blinked and she found that she was back in the Highwind in the lookout room with all the others, though she had no memory of walking there.

"We've got to get back to the church ASAP," she told Tifa, who nodded and ran up to tell Cid while the others stared at Christina in shock.

"Why do we need to get back to the church?" Yuffie asked curiously.

"Because the only way to get Cloud back is to put him in the lake that's in the church now," she replied.

"You can put him down in the bedroom, you know," Barret told her.

She shook her head. "No, I refuse. I'm not letting him out of my sight until I see him back moving around again." She looked down at Cloud again and smiled. "If I didn't know better, I'd say he was sleeping."

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They got to the church and everyone got out of the Highwind and walked inside, then Christina walked over to where several children stood in the water waiting, and handed Cloud to them, then stood back up to watch as they took him to the middle of the lake and dropped him into the water, and she bit her lip to keep herself from crying out.

A minute later, she saw Cloud stand up in the water, which came up to his waist, and the funny thing was, his top half wasn't even wet, and his eyes went to where his friends stood, finally meeting hers and keeping them locked in a sort of trance.

"There are still children with the stigma," Red XIII said a minute later, breaking their trance and making Cloud walk over to Denzel, holding out his arms.

"C'mon, Denzel, I'm right here," he told the orphan soothingly.

Denzel nodded nervously and walked over to where Cloud stood and let Cloud pick him up and set him into the water, then the warrior cupped some of the lake water in his hands and drizzled it over Denzel's head, and Christina saw the stigma vanish from the boy's head. At that, the other children that had been standing nearby jumped into the lake and started playing in it.

Christina, using the playing as a kind of a cover, went into the water as well and ran over to where Cloud stood, then threw herself into his arms while at the same time feeling the tension in her leg from the Geostigma go away.

She placed her hands on his chest and rested her head between them, and felt his arms encircle her waist but noted he seemed a little distracted, and snuck a glance at him to see that he was staring at the door, then followed his gaze to see Aeris standing up from talking with some kids and Zack leaning against the doorframe.

Christina, not caring who was watching, smiled and waved at them as her two old friends turned and walked out the door, then looked up at Cloud, whom she noticed was looking at her.

Cloud, completely forgetting the promise he had made about not making out in front of the others, leaned down and his lips met hers in a tender kiss.

Around ten minutes later, the two of them heard a loud "AHEM!" and separated to find the others looking at them, then the two of them ran over to where they were on the dry wooden floor.

Once on the wooden floor, Cloud pulled Christina over to him possessively and she allowed him to, resting her head on his chest.

"Boy," Yuffie teased, "the way you act, it's like you two were engaged!"

Christina muffled her giggles in Cloud's shoulder.

Vincent stared at them. "Don't tell me you two really are engaged."

Christina's giggling intensified and Cloud smiled slightly. "You have no idea," he muttered.

"You mean you were engaged this whole time and you didn't say a damn word?" Tifa asked incredulously.

Cloud shrugged. "You didn't ask, and besides, I didn't exactly want everyone fretting over us when we were trying to get rid of Kedaj and his brothers."

"How long have you been engaged?" Cait Sith asked them.

"A little over a year now," Cloud replied simply.

"When's the wedding?" Cid asked.

Cloud shrugged. "We don't know yet, but it'll be soon."

"You could have said something, you know."

"It's not his fault!" Christina put in once she had stopped giggling. "He kept forgetting."

"Where is the ring? I never saw Christina wearing a ring," Vincent pointed out.

"I keep it around my neck so I don't lose it," she said, pulling out the ring on the necklace around her neck from underneath her shirt.

"And when did you get around to asking her?" Cait Sith asked them.

Cloud shrugged again. "I asked her when I thought it was a good time."

"Yeah," Christina heard Cid mutter, "over a candlelit dinner."

Tifa smacked him on the back of the head, making the pilot yell "OW!" and glare at her.

Christina grinned then slipped out of Cloud's possessive hug, yelling, "Last one back to the Highwind is a rotten egg!" and ran off towards the ship, everyone but Cloud and Vincent following.

Cloud smiled and shook his head. "It's a wonder she hasn't changed any through all of this."

"Hey," Vincent pointed out, "what'd you expect from her? Of course she hasn't changed any. Now what say we catch up to them?"

Cloud nodded and the two of them ran off to catch up with the others.

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Ninjagirl: Yay! I managed to make this a two-shot! But my God…18 pages! Though I might change it to a one-shot if I need to…and I might do a sequel to this, too…I'm already thinking about it…

Sephiroth: (runs past Ninjagirl, not seeing her) I have the plushies, Kedaj!

Kedaj: (from somewhere unknown) YAY! PLUSHIES!!

Ninjagirl: (growls) Sephiroth!! Don't make me call you Sephy! Get your ass back here or I will make you fall off the couch a zillion times the next time you ever fall asleep on it!!

Sephiroth: (from somewhere unknown) NEVER!! You'll have to make me!

Ninjagirl: Okay, you asked for it…CLOUD!!

Cloud: (walks in) What?

Ninjagirl: You can kick Sephy's ass now.

Cloud: Yay! (pulls out sword and runs off)

Ninjagirl: (sighs) He's hopeless…Anyway, read and review! (Oh, and I might put up a oneshot that has Christina's background, as a note.)