Aeris heard it before any of the others did. Violent screams of hate, and a ridiculously large surge of magical power. What on earth was happening?

Aeris sprinted on ahead, while the other members of AVALANCHE watched her, mouths agape. Tifa shook her head, and began running after her, the others soon following.

Running along the edge of the lake towards the entrance of the Forgotten City, Aeris began to panic. What if it was Sephiroth? What would they do?

An earth-shattering explosion threw Aeris off balance as she reached the entrance way that would allow her to gain access to the Forgotten City. She fell backwards, smacking into Vincent, who'd been the fastest to follow her. What exactly was going on? They raced down the stairs, and about halfway down, they saw it. A tiny red head was hurling fire at a small girl, who effortlessly dodged them. Next to them, a young boy skillfully held off a blonde haired swordsman and his chimera like accomplice, as a young purple haired girl panicked at them to stop.

Aeris cried out in alarm, as the blonde man knocked the young boy down. Cloud quickly unsheathed his buster blade and leapt from the stairs, landing in front of the boy, and helped him fight off his opponents.

The rest of AVLANCHE hurried down the spiraling staircase in an attempt to help. Tifa and Yuffie made their way to the altar to help out the young dark haired girls; Barrett and Cid rushed to the aid of Cloud and the young boy, while Vincent stood off in the shadows, calmly watching the scene unfold in front of him; he would only stand if needed. Cait Sith was nowhere to be seen, as usual. A golden, impossibly cute flying teddy bear had bitten Nanaki's tail, and a swatting war had broken out.

Scanning the room, Aeris saw it. The young girl from before was zooming past the head of the angry red head sorceress. They both possessed intense magical powers; it would be hard not to notice. What could they be fighting over?

Exhaling loudly, Aeris gripped her staff tightly, and began to walk decisively toward them. The other battlers stopped fighting to watch Aeris, curious as to what she would do. Aeris marched straight up to the red head, who was so absorbed in chanting the incantation that would unleash the Dragon Slave, that she didn't see her. That's when Aeris raised her staff and smacked her across the head.

Zelgadis, Goury, and Amelia's jaws dropped, while the members of AVLANCHE looked at Aeris in amazement, and the young children and the flying teddy bear wore worried looks. Was she crazy?

Lina's head exploded with the sudden pain. She froze for a moment, as a gigantic lump formed on her head. Clenching her fists, her whole body shook, and Aeris took a hesitant step back. Taking a large breath, Lina spun around to glare at Aeris and screamed, "WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT FOR?!"

Aeris glared back and smacked Lina's head again before responding with, "because you're a little bully! What did those kids ever do to you?"

Lina started yelling at Aeris, and Aeris started yelling back. Sakura and her friends, Zel, Goury, Amelia and the other members of AVALANCHE slunk off while they continued their yelling match, whereupon Tifa found out a mysterious light had transported them all to Gaia.

Nanaki howled, and everyone became quiet, including Lina and Aeris. They all turned to face him as he sat on his hind.

"Listen to me," he began in his quiet voice, "for this is a sign that was predicted long, long ago…"

AN: Sorry, I haven't updated in a veeeeeeeeeery long time. Naughty me =( I hope this will do for now, I have two weeks left of assignments then my first year of uni is over, and I have plenty of time to update ^_^ Stay tuned for Xellos, the Turks, and of course Yukito and Touya (Julian and Tori in the Americanized dub of CCS). Stay Cool

~Nacina~