Standard Disclaimer: I do not own Final Fantasy, or any other properties mentioned in this story. This is a work of fan fiction.

"Insert Disk Two"

Chapter Three: "Come Together"

OOOOOOO

=== Begin Third-Person P.O.V: Cid ===

Aboard the Highwind, Cid strode purposefully through the various aisleways and mechanical rooms, examining components, speaking with crew members, in general making a nuisance of himself to anyone on duty. Though he would never admit it, this had become an ongoing habit of his since regaining control of his creation. Anytime he wasn't needed on the command deck, he roamed about checking up on even the most unlikely of potential problems and annoying everyone who crossed his path.

As he approached the control room for the starboard engine pods, a loud whistle sounded through the ship and a voice announced "We are approaching Kalm. Captain Highwind, please return to the command deck." Grumbling, Cid turned away and rushed to his post.

He arrived to find a trio of crewmen busily working and the remaining members of Avalanche, Barrett, Vincent, Red, and Cait waiting for him. "How close are we?" Cid asked, scanning the horizon. "I don't see the town yet."

"We're ten minutes out sir." Came the reply. "I caught sight of the town briefly but it's currently hidden behind the peaks of those hills."

"Alright. Start looking for our pick-up. It'll be the ninja brat and a guy you don't know."

The crewman saluted. "Yes sir." He said, then walked to the front viewport and began searching with a pair of large hi-power binoculars.

Sitting to one side of the chamber, Red said "Cid, you are certain the person you spoke with was Christian? We all remember how he vanished. And even if he were alive, what are the odds of his returning to us now?"

"It was him, I recognized the voice for sure."

"Then Red's first question is answered." Vincent said. "But not the second. How is he alive, and why choose now to return?"

"Are ye suspicious Laddie?" Cait asked.

"Not precisely. But this does seem odd. There's something more to this than we know."

"You think it's some kind of trick? A trap?" Barrett asked. "That don't seem likely."

"Even if it is, we need to proceed." Red said. "Consider the only three possible outcomes; First, it is a trap and we die. Well, we were going to die soon anyway. Second, it is not a trap and we don't go, fearing it is. We die soon when we might have lived. Third, it is legitimate and we go. Just maybe we put a stop to the madness and survive."

"He's right." Vincent agreed. "And besides that, as Barrett said a trap is unlikely. Why bother with us now with bigger threats to handle?"

"Sir?" the crewman at the binoculars said.

"What've you got?"

"Three contacts sir."

"What? Three? Whatd'ya mean three? There oughta be two."

"As you said sir. Nevertheless I have three contacts. Miss Yuffie, the man you said I wouldn't recognize, and an unidentified female."

Cid shoved the man aside and looked for himself. "Let's see here… Okay there's Princess Bratling… …And… Oh, yeah, I called it right gentlemen. That's Christian for sure. And the third person…" Cid gradually rotated through the view until his target came into sight. He choked briefly, and the cigarette in his mouth fell to the deck. "No way!" He exclaimed. "No freakin' way in hell!" He was cursing and laughing at the same time.

As Cid stumbled backwards from the scopes, Barrett asked "What? What is it? Who is it?"

"You'd better look for yourself…" Cid answered. "You'll never believe me if I say it."

Red walked to the viewport, reared up with his forelegs on the sill and, angling his head to get his nose out of the way, carefully peered through the binoculars. "Well?" Vincent asked.

Red turned, dropped to the floor, and whispered "Aeris."

"That is not possible." Vincent answered.

Red motioned towards the binoculars with his head. "See for yourself then."

Vincent did so, then turned and said "As certain as I may be that this is unlikely to be a trap of some sort, we're going in armed and ready…"

OOOOOOO

=== Resume First-Person P.O.V. ===

As the Highwind moved in overhead, the downdraft from it's propellers washed over us, a powerful blast of wind that threatened to knock the three of us off our feet. The breeze diminished as the airship lowered to less than twenty feet overhead and switched into 'hover' mode. A gangplank lowered to the ground, but no one appeared. "Maybe they want us to come to them." Yuffie suggested.

From behind, a familiar voice said "Or maybe the gangplank is just a diversion." Spinning around to look, I saw Cid and Vincent staring right at us. Vincent's gun was drawn, hammer cocked, barrel aimed directly at my head. His stared flickered briefly to Aeris then back to me. "Explain." He demanded.

Staring down the powerful gun, I swallowed and said "That would take time we may not have."

"Cid, Vincent, it's me." Aeris said. "I know how that's gotta seem to you, but it's true."

"Christian and Aeris both vanished. And Aeris was mortally wounded." Vincent insisted.

"Not quite mortally… Look, Red's still with you, right? Get him out here, let him test our scents. He'll know it's really us."

Descending from the Highwind along the gangplank, followed by Barrett and Cait, Red spoke. "I will indeed. As in fact I already do. It's them Vincent, I can tell from here."

Vincent nodded, lowered the gun slightly but not all the way and said "Very well. But I say again, Explain."

"Here's what matters. Cloud is still alive. I know where he is. It's still possible to stop Meteor, Sephiroth, and Jenova and save the world. But in order to do so, we need to find Tifa and get her to Cloud's side, and we need to do it fast. I don't know how long we've got." I sighed. "As for how I know all of this and where I've been… Can you trust me until we locate Tifa? I'll explain the rest then."

"Hell, I say we do it." Barrett rumbled.

"Aye, I agree totally." Cait said.

Vincent lowered the gun the rest of the way. "Alright… What do you have in mind?"

"We need to find Tifa first." Aeris said. "Do you know where she's gone?"

"No idea…" Barrett said. "She jus' stormed off."

"We've tried to call her, but her phone is turned off." Yuffie added.

"We've got to locate her!" Aeris said.

"Yeah, we're sunk if we don't…" I mused. "Any ideas?"

"Oh!" Cait suddenly exclaimed. "I've got it lad! We've got Tifa's number. That can be traced back to her location!"

"Even if the phone's turned off?" Red asked.

"Aye. For emergency purposes the GPS beacon never turns off even if the rest of the phone is powered down. Unless the battery is totally dead, my handler at Shinra can track the thing down… Hang on…" we waited perhaps five minutes then Cait said "Got it! She's in Nibelheim!"

"Then let's move." Vincent said.

As we climbed the gangplank up to the ship, Red came alongside and said to Aeris "May I assume that you are now aware of Christian's origins?"

"I've… Actually known since Cosmo Canyon." She admitted.

"Truly?" Red looked at me. "You told her?"

"Well, your busybody Grandfather didn't leave me much choice… Though in fairness once it was over I was glad he didn't."

Shaking his head, Red said "So even he knows? When, then, do the rest of us learn the truth?"

"I'll tell you what. Once Tifa's back onboard I'll fill the rest of you in."

"We're not waiting for Cloud?" Aeris asked.

"After our reception I doubt Vincent will be willing to wait that long… Of course I still don't wanna have to tell it more than once, but…"

"Teef can fill Cloud in, then." Aeris said.

I grinned. "That works for me."

OOOOOOO

=== Begin Third-Person P.O.V: Aeris ===

When we arrived at Nibelheim, Cid and his crew parked the Highwind just south of the main gate and we entered to begin our search. Surprisingly, the faux townsfolk were not panicking about the Meteor crisis. Quite to the opposite, they were still going about their normal routines as if nothing was wrong.

We checked the reconstruction of Tifa's family home first. The place was empty, but it was clear that she had in fact been there. A bed was torn apart, her discarded cell phone rested on a dresser top, and the dozens of empty liquor bottles provided a clear clue as to where we should look next.

When we found the local tavern, it was abandoned save for the bartender and Tifa. She was sitting at the bar, but didn't seem to have been there for long as only a single empty glass was out. We started to enter, but Aeris motioned us all back out to the alleyway. "Maybe we shouldn't overwhelm her." She said. "Only one of us should go in at first."

"That's smart." Barrett agreed. "Who's it gonna be?" Before anyone else could speak, Aeris answered by slipping through the door herself. "Guess that answers that." Barrett said.

"Yeah." I agreed.

Inside, Aeris quietly stepped up behind Tifa and asked "Is this seat taken?"

"Helf yerself" Tifa mumbled. She was drunker than it had seems at first, and never looked up, nor seemed to recognize the voice.

Aeris sat to Tifa's right, and disappointed the bartender with an order for seltzer water. Serving it, he said "I'll be in the back if you need anything else." Then he retreated to his office.

"So…" Aeris began, "You a regular here?" Tifa didn't answer. "Not me." Aeris continued. "I'm not much of a drinker, see. So what's your name?"

"Yrrg.." Was the closest Tifa came to a reply.

"'Yrrg?' I've never heard that name before. Is it Wutaiian? No? Ah well… So, you look down, wanna talk about it?"

At that point, Tifa rose up off the bar counter and turned to face Aeris. It was clear that she was ready to say something rude and cutting to whoever this person annoying her was. When she saw, though, the words caught in her throat and she just stared, tears welling up in her eyes.

"Heya Teef." Aeris said.

Rather than answering, Tifa turned, slammed her shot glass down so hard it shattered, and loudly exclaimed "BARKEEP!"

Emerging from his back office, the bartender shook his head at the mess and demanded "What the hell'd you do that for!? Those thing's ain't free y'know! Look, what'dya need?"

"I need to know what in the hell you're watering this stuff down with!"

"Listen lady, I don't water down nothin' no time!"

"Then why am I seeing things?"

Laughing, the bartender answered "Jeez lady, as many of those as you've been knockin' back lately, I'm surprised you weren't seein' stuff last week!"

Aeris sat quietly and listened to the ongoing exchange. As the bartender swept up the broken glass, Tifa shook her head and said "Look, I… I'm sorry about the acc… the ac…" Unable in her inebriated state to spit out the word 'accusation' she said instead "Sorry I said what I said. I'm sure you don't water your drinks."

"Apology accepted."

"Good, I used to run a bar myself y'know. Know what that's like…"

Hearing this, the bartender seemed to become more sympathetic. "Ahh. I didn't know that, all the times you been in lately you never mentioned it. So, uh, what exactly did you think you saw?"

"My dead best friend." Tifa whispered.

"Oh… Oh jeez… That's rough… I'm sorry I got so mad lady."

"S'okay."

Finishing his clean up, the bartender returned to the back door, but before leaving he turned and said "Listen, if nothing else, I can at least reassure you that it really was a hallucination."

"Yeah?"

"Yeah. There's no ghosts here. Believe you me, the only people here are you…" He pointed at Tifa, "Me," thumb back towards himself, "And 'Little-Miss-Likes-Pink-Too-Much.'" He pointed at Aeris, then left the room.

Something about the way this was delivered seemed to pierce through Tifa's drunkenness. She blinked once, twice, three times, and shaking turned to face Aeris. "A…Aer? It's you? You're really here? You're alive?"

"In the flesh." Aeris smiled. "And this is where I find you? Avalanche needs you Tifa. The world needs you."

"But… But Cloud… And Christian…"

"Christian's here with us Teef. And Cloud's alive too. We need to go to him."

"He's alive? Everyone we thought we lost is alive?"

"Yeah. But we need to hurry."

And so Tifa hugged Aeris and Aeris hugged Tifa and then, of course, Tifa ruined the moment by throwing up and passing out…

OOOOOOO

=== Resume First-Person P.O.V. ===

Vincent and Cid carried the unconscious Tifa back to the Highwind and put her to bed in an empty passenger room. "She'll sleep it off in a few hours." Cid said when they joined the rest of us on the ship's command deck. "What now?"

"Two things." I answered. "First, we need to head for Mideel as fast as we possibly can. That's where we'll find Cloud. Second, we really need someone on the crew to monitor all information on Obsidian Weapon. If it starts to move, we need to know about it yesterday."

"I'll give the orders." Cid said, "But I don't like not knowing what this is about."

"Nor do I." Vincent agreed. "How do you know where Cloud is? Why are you more worried about one particular weapon than the others?"

Holding up my hands, I said "Just a little longer… As soon as Teef wakes up, I promise I'll tell you everything."

"How long will it take us to reach Mideel?" Aeris asked.

"Lessee…" Cid checked his control panel. "At full speed, eighteen hours…"