A distraught Cloud tried furiously to defeat his all too common foe once again, yet even with the help of Nori, Sephiroth seemed to be far stronger than before. Every strike they made towards him was deflected, a superior smirk was etched on his face as he knocked them both away once again.

"Wait a minute...I know what this is." Nori said sheathing his sword.

"What are you doing!?" Cloud yelled in confusion.

"This...thing, he isn't actually this man that you know...Sephiroth." Nori said turning around and walking away.

"What?" Cloud said looking at what he now believed probably wasn't Sephiroth.

"It's a phantom of fear that Lucifer summoned. All this demon does is take on the worst fear of the first person it sees; in reality it's basically harmless. There's no use fighting it; all it'll do is feed off that fear and make itself stronger. If this were the real Sephiroth, we'd both probably be dead or seriously wounded by now. Just walk away from it." Nori said.

Hesitantly, Cloud sheathed his sword and turned his back on the false Sephiroth.

"Don't turn your back on me Cloud!" The false Sephiroth said angrily and charged.

He was two steps from Cloud when he suddenly stopped and made a choking sound. His eyes glowed white and he held his throat as he suddenly began to disintegrate.

Cloud caught up to Nori, who just sent and eagle off with a strip of paper attached to it's leg.

"What happened back there? Where did he take Tifa?" Cloud demanded angrily.

"If it hasn't sunk in by now, that was Lucifer. You know, Satan, the devil, prince of darkness, the whole shabang. Unfortunately he's taken Tifa back to hell with him; I don't know why that might be. However, I don't plan to let him get away with this, and I know I wasn't the only one who felt him in this world. I've already sent my messenger to a few people I know can help get her back and figure out his motives for taking her in the first place." Nori said.

"How long will it take for them to get here?"

"With a message like this, they should be here by the end of the day, if not sooner. I told them I'd be in the city of Edge with a man named Cloud. I'm not one to judge how fast they'd get here so we should hurry back." Nori said walking off.

"I have a motorcycle, it'll be quicker that way." Cloud said pointing at his Fenrir.

"As much as I'd like too, I'm not to fond of the idea of holding on to a guy while riding a motorcycle. Besides, why ride when I can do this-" he said jumping back and disappearing.

"What the-" Cloud said looking around. He quickly got on his bike and sped back towards Edge.

He arrived at his home to see Nori leaning against the wall. Along with him were three others.

The first, a girl, had black hair that went to the middle of her back. She wore a black, sleeveless zip-up jacket with black pants and ankle-high black boots. Strapped to her left thigh was what looked like the hilts of two swords combined into one. She had ocean blue eyes and looked Cloud up and down as he walked up.

Next to her was man with short black hair the fell over his red eyes. He wore a fishnet shirt with the same black pants and boots as Nori. On his back was a katana with a red hilt, the blade itself was black.

The last guy looked similiar to Cloud in facial features, except his eyes were darker and his blonde hair hung over his eyes. He wore a long sleeve black shirt and black pants that covered the back of his black shoes. On his back was a blood red claymore.

"Is this the Cloud you mentioned in the message?" The girl asked.

"Yes. Cloud, these are allies of mine: Ayane, a powerful preistest, Sozin, one of the best paladins I've ever known, and Damien, the son of Lucifer." Nori said.

Cloud looked at Damien, who stared back with his deep blue eyes.

"Son of Lucifer?" Cloud asked in disbelief.

"Not something I am proudly known for, but yes." Damien said.

"We should head inside and discuss this; we have no idea who may be listening." Ayane suggested.

"Good idea." Cloud said opening the door for them.

"So, what's going on? Where is Tifa and why did Lucifer take her?" Cloud demanded once they were all inside.

"To tell you the truth, we don't have a definite answer for you." Ayane said.

"Like Nori said though, it is weird that he chose to show himself like that. What's even more confusing is how he was able to physically take a person, who isn't even dead, into hell." Sozin said resting his chin on his hand.

"How is that weird?" Cloud asked.

"Contrary to popular belief, my father has no real power over man. In fact, he has no power at all since he's chained and imprisoned in the ninth circle of hell. The demons people run into are merely minions of his that carry out his bidding in his attempt to bring about the downfall of man. The fact that he was strong enough to come into this world and take someone, body, mind and soul, back into hell could mean only one thing." Damien said looking at Nori.

"Which is what?" Cloud said sitting down.

"His chains have been weakened..." Nori said quietly.

"How's this even possible?..." Ayane asked.

"Sin is what makes my father strong, but we would've been able to tell when his chains were weakening. For them to be weakened so fast could only be caused by someone tampering with something...." Damien said.

"Something like the lifestream." Cloud concluded, remembering Sephiroth calling forth the tainted lifestream in their last battle.

"That could be it...what happened?" Damien asked.

Cloud explained the entire story to them: The remnants, jenova, and the final battle with Sephiroth.

"A...negative lifestream?" Ayane sounded perplexed.

"That had to be it. When you defeated Sephiroth, and the negative lifestream vanished, with no were to go it ended up going to my father." Damien said.

"And with all that negative energy..." Nori stopped.

"His chains were weakened." Cloud finished.

"Then it's decided; we need to descend into hell, stop Lucifer and save Tifa." Nori declared.

"I'm coming too." Cloud said.

"Hold on there loverboy," Ayane said holding her hand out,"This is no place for any mere man."

"I'm not leaving this up to you guys. I'm going there to save Tifa." Cloud said firmly.

"Listen, hell is filled with demons who'll jump at the chance to possess a physical corpse so that they can wreak havoc in this world. Our bodies have seals on us that will lock our bodies should we ever die to keep that from happening. I'm sorry Cloud, it's much too dangerous to let you come." Ayane said apologetically.

"No, let him come." Damien said.

"What! Why?" Ayane protested.

"If he wants to save her, then he has every right to come with us. This...Tifa was it? Meant a great to him; we can't just have him stay back and worry on our success."

"So did you just totally ignore my last statement? You know the one about death and possession?"

"If he dies in hell, we destroy his body. It's a very simple task." Sozin said.

Ayane rolled her eyes,"Fine, but I'm not gonna be the one destroying it."

"So how do we descend into hell?" Cloud asked.

"First, we die." Damien said with a smirk.