A/N: It's a new Final Fantasy chapter, YAY! Vincent is one of the main characters here and he's one of my favorites in the game and a favorite to write as well. I hope I get him down accurately.

Reviews are still very much wanted! I love knowing what my readers think about my story and I might be inclined to use your advice or ideas in the story, wouldn't you like that?

I was singularly uninspired to write this chapter until I got a very nice review from the-ice-cold-alchemist. I'm dedicating this chapter to you, ice cold (which is your new nickname), and to my copy of Advent Children Complete which I just watched again.

Also I'm so sorry it took so long to update! I got busy with school and then I got sick. The next chapter should be easier to write.

Italics = journal entries


The drive out the Temple was always a long one, nothing could be done about that and there were any number of unfriendly monsters roaming the land between Midgar and the temple. Cloud could have called Cid of course and requested a ride out to the forgotten city, Cid would have been happy to do it, but Cloud would have felt lazy doing so. There was a bridge between the two land masses and Cloud kept up his fighting skills specifically for situations like this. There might not be any wars to fight or corrupt governments to overthrow, but there were still plenty of monsters left to fight on Gaia.

The white trees of the forest surrounded Cloud as he neared the temple. The ride had been long, but uneventful. Most of the more unfriendly creatures avoided roads these days, Shinra had more patrols on the roads to protect travelers. Rufus' father had never been interested in protecting civilians and the patrols were only one of the things that Rufus had done that showed he was a better leader than the former President.

Cloud pulled his bike to a stop in front of the lake that surrounded the temple and got off the bike. Vincent and Cid had built a bridge over the moat-like area a couple of years ago and Cloud crossed it, not bothering to mask the sound of his approach; Vincent had good hearing and no doubt he had heard Fenrir and already knew that Cloud would be in shortly.

"Vincent!" Cloud called as he entered the main room. "Where are you?" A crash sounded from further back in the complex, along with a muffled curse. Cloud laughed, Vincent was graceful most of the time, but if you managed to surprise him while he was up on a ladder digging through the archives he was likely to lose his balance.

"Back archive!" he heard Vincent call out and Cloud followed the voice to the stairs at the back of the Temple. They led down to Cetra archives which Vincent had discovered shortly before the incident with Kadaj, Yazoo and Loz; which really explained why he'd been spending so much time out here when the shit started to hit the fan before the kids were kidnapped. Cloud walked down a subterranean hallway when he got to the bottom of the staircase and finally entered a doorway at the far end. Vincent was pulling himself out of a stack of manuscripts that had fallen from whatever shelf he had been looking at most recently. The ladder was still leaning against the shelves, which was a minor miracle considering the level of mess on the floor.

"Hey Vincent, how are you?" Cloud had gotten better at engaging in small talk, but it still felt a bit strange to talk about nothing in particular with Vincent Valentine. Cloud would have offered to help clean up, but Vincent was very protective of the archives and touching any of the manuscripts could result in a glare that Cloud would rather not see directed his way ever again.

"I'm fine Cloud" came the terse reply. "You got here quicker than I would have expected. I assumed you would want to spend more time with Tifa, considering it was your anniversary yesterday."

"She all but shoved me out the door, said that whatever had you worried enough to call me today must be important. Apparently I was not needed tonight." Cloud could have sworn he saw Vincent's lips twitch up into a smile for a moment. It was still strange for Cloud to realize that Vincent did indeed have a sense of humor. Being with Cid, as unlikely a match as they were, had been good for both of them. "So what did you want to tell me about that couldn't be shared over the phone?"

"Ah, yes. I was being paranoid, but considering what I found…" Vincent trailed off and pulled a notebook off the top of one of the stacks on the table next to him. He opened it to a certain page and handed the book over to Cloud. "Read that section there, it's rather…enlightening when it comes to what level of knowledge the Cetra held about Jenova's true nature. I believe that I accurately translated the text from the Ancient's language." Vincent's connection with the beings that had been forced to become part of him due to Hojo's experiments had given him a lot of grief over the years, but the only good thing that had come of it was his ability to decipher the Ancient's language. Cloud took the book and glanced at Vincent, who simply stared back at him with dark eyes that showed no sign of good humor.

The day the meteor crashed into the northern continent we mounted an expedition to see what had been at the core of the meteor. It was larger than any that had ever fallen from space before. We did not know what to expect.

When the excavation began and we found the body of a woman at the core I knew immediately what we had found, though many of the younger generations were unaware. It was their curiosity and the elder's inability to control the situation that brought us to our downfall. I merely hope that someone may find this story useful someday and the knowledge that I am writing here before I Ascend, will help guide others away from committing the same misdeeds as the Cetra.

The women, known now as Jenova (The Calamity) came to our planet to become a plague upon us. When the Ancients splintered because of the evil of one Ancient and his followers The Cetra fled to this planet, forsaking contact with our brothers and sisters. The Alterans and the Lanteans fled to new galaxies and planets. The Ori retained control of our home galaxy and branched out, taking over planet after planet. They were misguided and they enslaved whole races to their teachings, building armies to continue their conquest. The Ori were not satisfied with normal soldiers however and when they took the home world of a race who was genetically advanced, they took advantage of their abilities and tried to create a race of unstoppable soldiers through genetic experiments. Jenova was one of these Ashkari, they eventually rebelled and their planet was irrevocably destroyed. Her body was within a containment vessel trapped in a piece of her destroyed planet.

The younger generations of our planet refused to listen to our warnings. They were tired of being tied to one planet, but we were not strong enough to leave our planet. If we left it would alert the Ori to our presence and cause the downfall of the Cetra. To prevent that they young ones began to experiment with the genetic material from Jenova. She had died in the decent, but the genetic code was intact and the advancements that the Ori had made were obvious to those of us with the training to recognize the forced changes in the structure. They began their experiments on the animals of our planet and slowly advanced to experiments on the Tau'ri that had come with us to this planet. The animals changed into monsters, that is the only word to describe them. We could not control them and many of them escaped into the wilds and began to breed. The experiments on the Tau'ri were a failure, the genetic material was incompatible with that of Jenova. The experiments continued with support from some of the most powerful militaristic factions of the Cetra. Many of the elders were pacifistic and had no interest in war, which meant we were ill prepared to stop the experiments on our fellow brothers and sisters. The changes were fast and violent. The Ashkari transfer memories and knowledge through genetic code, the stories and pain of the Ashkari were passed on to the Cetra who had been changed and they went insane and that was when the massacre began.

We were unable to stop the war, but many of the elders Ascended to escape. Many of the Hari, the original inhabitants of this planet, fled through the gate and our calls for aid from the Asgard went unheard. Some of the younger generations refuse to Ascend, they believe that they can find a way to destroy the creatures they made. They have already sealed Jenova into a block of solid Mako matter at the Northern Crater where she was recovered. We can only pray that they Tau'ri, who now outnumber us and are the dominant species, will not repeat our mistakes. We have destroyed most of our technology, in the hope that they will never advance as far as us technologically and perhaps they will never find Jenova. The planet has rejected us, we have brought a plague to Gaia. I am preparing to Ascend as soon as this account has been recorded.


Cloud looked up from the account, shocked at what he had read. "Vincent, do you think this is all true?"

"I cannot imagine why the account would not be accurate. I believe the Cetra's worst fears were realized."

"Who were the "Tau'ri" then? And the Hari?" There had not been a description of either race in the writing, but Vincent was sure to have at least a theory from all his other studying. Vincent rifled through another stack of manuscripts.

"I've haven't found many references to the Tau'ri, but since they are referenced as the new dominant race, I can only imagine that the author was referring to humans. As for the Hari…" Vincent handed him a new manuscript that looked to be full of sketches. The page it was open to was titled "Hari" and the picture bore a striking resemblance to Nanaki.

"I guess that explains why there are no more of Nanaki's people, the few that didn't flee the planet stayed and eventually died out, he really is the last of his kind…on this planet at least." Cloud didn't look forward to telling Nanaki that news, he had spent the better part of the last 5 years hunting for any clues on the whereabouts of the rest of his race.

"It would appear so Cloud. I would also venture a guess that many of the monsters on our planet are the result of these experiments, perhaps even Chaos was a result." Vincent's eyes were dark, but his face appeared neutral.

"So all the problems on our planet were caused by a bunch of overly curious alien residents of Gaia?" Cloud threw the manuscript down onto the table, frustrated.

"I believe some of the problems can only be attributed to the humans, but yes…it would appear that many of the more deadly issues, at their core, started by the Cetra. They did try to prevent the same thing from happening to us, but they underestimated Shinra's skill at finding anything that could be useful for them." Vincent seemed to collapse into himself and he leaned back against the ladder. He had been hoping to find information in these archives that could help humanity, instead he had found that everything that happened in the past years had been part of a cycle that had been occurring for thousands of years.

"On the bright side, all of humanity wasn't destroyed. I think we may have done a bit better than the Cetra in that case." Cloud smiled weakly at Vincent.

"There were most likely many fewer super soldiers being created in Shinra's Jenova project. We are advanced, but from some of the texts I've found, we are nowhere near the same level as the Cetra. They did a remarkable job of destroying their technology."

"That's probably a good thing, all things considered." Vincent nodded in agreement. The frown on his face was all the more noticeable since he was no longer wearing clothing that covered the bottom half of his face. Cid had demanded that he get a new wardrobe some years ago.

"What do you think we should do with this information?" Vincent asked him.

"I think we needed to bring everyone, Rufus and the Turks included, back here. We all have the right to know why these things happened to us. Other than that, there isn't much we can do Jenova has been destroyed completely for 5 years now."

"There were more of Jenova's race at some point." Vincent pointed out.

"That was thousands of years ago Vincent. I highly doubt they are going to cause any trouble now. I'll call everyone and see how fast they can be ready to go. Can you call Cid and see if he can pick them all up in Sierra? It'll be far easier to get them here." Vincent nodded and reached for his cell phone. Cloud paused midway through grabbing his own phone. "That journal, it said that the Hari fled through the "gate". Any idea what that meant?" Vincent grinned, the sudden change in facial expression shocked Cloud.

"That is one question I can answer." He motioned for Cloud to follow him. At the back of the archival room there was a hole in the floor which opened onto a steep staircase. Vincent grabbed an electric lantern and descended into the whole. Cloud followed hesitantly. At the bottom of the stairs they found themselves in a large man made cavern made of darker stone than the rest of the temple. Vincent turned up the lantern and shone it toward the back of the cavern. Cloud's jaw dropped; at the back of cavern stood a huge metallic circle. The inner track of the circle was covered in strange symbols and the outer track had 9 triangular metal pieces extended out over the inner track.

"So that's the gate?" Cloud said slowly.

"Yes, the Stargate" Vincent said solemnly.

Next chapter: Back to Daniel, can he figure out what planet needs Sg-1's help and why? And can Sg-2 ever manage to get through a mission without trying to bring back some sort of pet?