The first thing Rin saw was the water and the light shining through it. Grasping her surroundings quite quickly swam back up to the surface. Her dress was sticking to her and her hair was heavy when wet.

"So how can we be sure that yer friends back t' normal?" Cid asked Jecht as he lit another cigarette, watching Rin shout at Ayama for throwing her in a lake

"Heh just watch" Jecht replied with a smirk on his face "Rin nice dress! You look like a man in drag!" Rin turned to glare at the tanned man and despite being injured ran over to him punching him square in the solar plexus making him buckle. The pair ended up shouting childish insults at each other and then the fists broke out.

"Jecht!" Braska tried to pull Jecht away from Rin who was ready to knock the guys head off

"Whore" Jecht sniggered

"What did you say?" Rin narrowed her eyes at him

"Now lass calm down" Cid interjected pulling Rin into a full nelson hold "He's only jokin'"

"You didn't look too brainwashed to me. What else did you let him do" Rin's temper skyrocketed her checks flushing red and regardless of Cid holding her arms back Rin used her free legs to kick Jecht in the face

"You drunken ass!" The pilot was finding it hard to keep Rin under control so Tifa stepped in

"Rin you're injured let's get you fixed" with Cid's help the managed to force Rin onto the Shera. Rin ended up sat with Tifa in the medical part of the airship; Tifa was removing all the bullets Ayama had shot her with.

"I'm sorry about Ayama she went a little over board" Tifa apologised removing the last of the bullets, the Jenova cells had started to heal her wounds. "I'm also sorry you got caught up with Sephiroth..." Rin could see Sephiroth had done something awful to them but as it stood she didn't actually know who these people were but they seemed to know Braska.

"Thanks for taking the bullets out" Rin said rising to her feet and grabbing her now dry dress, pulling it over her head "your friend needs to stop shooting me though" she added jokingly

"I'll introduce you to everyone" Tifa smiled and led Rin through the narrow corridors of the ship till they reached the hull where everyone was gathered. Braska was the first to notice and hurried over to her with a genuine smile

"Are you okay?" Rin looked past Braska; Auron was watching her like a hawk. She looked away when she realised at the series of burns he was donning was her fault.

"I suppose" she mumbled turning her gaze to the floor, was she suppose to apologise? She couldn't pretend it didn't happen. Auron wasn't going to trust her anytime soon not after almost decapitating Braska. Why did they even bother saving her?


After pulling all the bullets out of her arms and torso Ayama bandaged herself back up and decided to relax her screaming muscles for a while when Tifa came over,

"Ayama this is Rin"

"We've met although unofficially" Ayama replied, "I'd say sorry for shooting at you but I don't apologise to potential enemies"

"It's fine after all I cut you up pretty good"

"I figure that makes us even" Ayama nodded. Rin seeming to accept the back and forth simply nodded back as Tifa guided her off to meet the rest of the people on board.

Ayama chose to look out the window as they passed over land and sea on their way back to the city while the rest of the people on the ship engaged in conversations with each other. Braska in particular seemed enthralled with everything this world had to offer,

"You're worried" Vincent's voice broke Ayama out of her thoughts making her jump a little,

"Nah I'm just blue balled" she joked flashing Vincent a devious grin, "because someone interrupted my sexy time. Which reminds me" fishing her phone out of her pocket Ayama flipped it open and quickly called Reno,

"Hey! What's up?" the background was silent so Reno was obviously alone,

"Well I know what I want to be up when I get back"

"You're on your way back already?"

"Yeah called in a favour from Cid, we got the girl and everything is back to relative normality so I'll be over as soon as we land. Which should be in about a half an hour" Ayama looked out the window to get a fix on her location, "So be ready"

"Yes Ma'am!"

Ayama hung up and put her phone back into her pocket. Vincent simply shook his head and left, his presence however was quickly replaced by Cloud,

"Really Aya? You're making booty calls right now?"

"Don't blame me for this. I would have been fine if you hadn't told Vincent there was no reason I wouldn't be answering my phone prompting him to come and find me in the middle of sexy time" Cloud laughed, "its not funny Strife. Next time you want to get your freak on you better make sure I don't know about it because you can bet I'm out for blood"

"I'm sure you are but do you really want to walk in on that again?" Cloud asked arching an eyebrow.

Once when the pair had been SOLDIERS and Ayama couldn't find Cloud for a mission she'd stormed into his room and caught him in a compromising position,

"Ok so that's now off the table as my choice of revenge, but I'm sure I'll think of something when I'm not completely blue balled"

"I'm sure you will"


When the group finally touched down Tifa gave Ayama a quick once over before letting her leave for Shinra,

"Honestly Tifa with the amount of Jenova cells I'm infected with I could break all the bones in my body and still be fine with nothing but a bottle of whiskey and sleep" Ayama turned to Rin, "All of this you have to look forward to as well seeing as you're dosed up about as much as I am. Also for as long as you stay in Midgar you're going to be subject to fear and hate because of how your eyes look now" Tifa's mouth dropped open, "Well I'm off don't wait up I don't plan on coming home!"

Ayama waved and walked off towards the Shinra building, she could hear Cloud laughing in the distance and Tifa trying to convince Rin that no one was going to hate her. After Marlene and subsequently Denzel coming to live in Seventh Heaven Tifa had become a sort of mother hen around everyone and took it upon herself to meddle and interfere in their lives, of course she thought she was helping but it didn't always turn out that way.

And now that the people who fell from the sky were all back together Tifa's mothering would take on a whole new level of meddlesome. Ayama praised all the gods she could think of that she was escaping to the Shinra Building that evening.


Rin was shown seventh heaven the bar Tifa ran it was small but had a cozy feel to it. Everyone convened in the bar and the interrogation began. All eyes were on Rin as Tifa asked her a series of questions about Sephiroth.

"Look I really don't know anything" Rin sighed running a hand through her curly hair,

"He gave you jenova cells and didn't explain anything to you?" Vincent asked curiously, Rin nodded in response

"He told me what jenova was but that was it."

"And you still agreed to it?"

"May I add that the brainwashing part wasn't included" Rin added getting board with all the questions

"Did he tell you what it would do to you?" cloud asked this time from his spot next to Vincent at the bar

"I would get stronger" Rin replied, her nonchalant attitude had ground Auron's patience into the ground.

"You risked lord Braska's life for power?!" he shouted at Rin,

"Not intentionally" she looked over her shoulder at Auron who at been stood at the other side of the room with Jecht and Braska.

"Not to mention you almost fried Auron" Jecht reminded gesturing to the samurai's remaining burns. Rin looked away she didn't want to be reminded of that.

"Did you not think of the consequences?"

"Clearly not! I didn't know I would get my head messed with!" Rin snapped back her own patience was wearing this

"You didn't look too controlled when he got handsy with you" Jecht sneered at her, and that was Rin's temper gone shattered like the chair she threw across the room at the tanned man

"Keep your snide comments to yourself" she strode across the room ready to lamp Jecht but Auron stopped her, he looked down at her with such overwhelming hatred it was killing Rin

"Stop blaming others for your mistakes. You sacrificed the safety of lord Braska and the other people here. You swore to protect him and yet-"

"Shut up. PROTECT?! We're leading him to his grave!" Rin shouted angrily pointing to the summoner behind Auron"

"You don't believe he can defeat sin?"

"No! No-one has ever defeated sin and unless he does something different he won't either!"

"This still doesn't change the fact that you tried to kill him" Auron added still staring down at Rin "you will atone for your sins"

"What do you want me to do? Get on my knees and grovel?" Rin asked sarcastically, she was starting to shake from anger. She was angry that everything was being labeled as her fault, just like it had been in her home town back in Spira. The next words that were spoken broke all remaining ties to the group

"Lord Braska we shouldn't have brought her-" Auron was interrupted by Jecht chipping in from the background

"She's a heretical monster" he was clearly mimicking Rin's mother who had said those exact words. Rin hid her sorrow with a frown and an awkward smirk

"Thanks for reminding me. I give up" Rin stepped away from Auron and left the bar quickly slamming the door behind her. Braska called after her but Rin just ran down the streets not caring where she was heading or how ridiculous she looked with her dress billowing behind her.

'I don't want to be here anymore. I hate it. Why does it hurt' she chanted this through her head as she ran and ran through the alleys

"Make it go away" darkness clouded her eyes; she was pulled backwards by a singular strong hand

"You called?" Rin felt her nerves calm down, pulling the hand away from her eyes leaning her head backwards so it rested on his chest so looked up at sephiroth.

"I told them you'd come back to me" he said not averting his gaze from the shorter woman

"I knew they thought it but I didn't expect him – them to say it to my face. I know I'm a monster but I don't need everyone reminding me of it" Sephiroth turned Rin so she faced him and caressed her face gently

"You are no monster. They just don't understand you. I can show them a monster" he held his hand up o the sky and fired a blue blast into the sky. A mighty roar soon followed and a huge beast flew over Midgar

"Is that bahamut?"

"Do want to see them struggle?" sephiroth grabbed hold of her waist and jumped into the air easily and landing on a building roof. She started to hate herself, is that what people saw her as a beast as great as bahamut, she really was a monster. Subconsciously Rin clung to Sephiroth's leather coat

"It doesn't matter what they think. All that matters is that I appreciate your gift" he whispered leaning down to pull Rin into a fiery kiss, Rin shocked at first went with the flow. It was the first time anyone had shown interest in her and she wasn't going to push him away.


Ayama true to her word headed straight for Shinra and not bothering with the conventional entrance, she chose instead to scale the fire escape and get in through Reno's window,

"Lock the door" she commanded slamming the window shut and locking it from the inside. As soon as Reno had locked the door Ayama grabbed on to the lapels of his jacket and slammed her lips down on his.

They had a lot of missed time to account for.

"Damn you leave for a day and then this happens. You need to get your hormones in check yo" Reno joked as Ayama light a cigarette,

"Yeah let me get right on that. Oh wait that's right I'm pumped that full of chemicals and artificial hormones because creepy Professor Hojo wanted to breed me with his insane son to make millions of tiny Super Soldiers for Shinra that it's impossible for me to get a handle on my hormones like a normal girl" Ayama bit out sarcastically,

"Artificial hormones or not you're still hot" Reno laughed

"Thanks that's a real boost to my self worth. I might be a walking experiment but at least I'm hot" Ayama deadpanned

"You know what I mean" Reno was no stranger to Ayama's sarcasm or her deadpan comments; it was a defense mechanism she had told him. If you're a sarcastic bitch then no one wants to get close to you and therefore you can't be hurt by them.

Ayama was about to say something when an almighty roar sounded over Midgar, scrambling to look out the window Ayama almost dropped her cigarette,

"Fuck!" hovering in the sky was none other than Bahamut itself in all it's horrible glory, "Sorry red but duty calls" Ayama stubbed out her cigarette and dressed quickly, giving Reno a chaste kiss she rushed out of the room, down the stairwell and out of the building, "I swear to whatever God there is if this is Sephiroth's idea of a good time I'm gonna cut him into little pieces!" Ayama muttered as she raced through the throngs of scared people rushing to get as far away from the monster as possible.

Ayama ended up being the first on scene as Bahamut laid waste to the monument Shinra had built to commemorate METEOR, "Why must they always go for the monument? Why can't they tear up a tree or something?" Ayama sighed as she took aim at the beast, "The rest of them better hurry their asses, I have a feeling this is just the floor show"


Rin watched as Ayama ran onto the scene guns blazing. Strong as Ayama was she wasn't strong enough to bring down Bahamut on her own. It didn't take long for Cloud and co to get there. Rin couldn't decide if it was overwhelming sadness or hatred that shook her body as she saw Auron entered the square. Rin twitched as Sephiroth wrapped a strong around her waist, breathing down her neck

"Do you love him?" he whispered

"NO!"

"Hmm, I see" his hands started to wander up her torso slowly "Will you do what I ask?"

"Yes" Rin replied quietly resting against Sephiroth's well toned chest

"Do you wish to bring them despair?"

"Yes" Sephiroth smirked, standing at his full height letting Rin walk over to the edge of the building they were standing on. Her arm transformed into a cannon and fired a quick blast at the group gaining their attention.

"RIN!" Braska was the first to run over the building almost tripping over his robes in the process "PLEASE COME BACK!" he called,

"I'm sorry, it's too late" she drew one of her butterfly swords and grasping it with both hands pierced her stomach with it letting the fresh blood run over her hands,

"Altima" closing her eyes she called out to her aeon. Altima was the other side of Ultima. Altima was known as the bloody angel notably for the blood sacrifice needed to summon her.

'Oh-ho~ you never summon me. First time for everything' Altima mused answering her masters call. The blood that soaked Rin's dress melded with the black turning it crimson, matching thigh length heeled armored boots followed, a charcoal grey gauntlet covered her right arm and to finish the aeon summon, two huge charcoal wings burst out of her back and two smaller ones popped onto her head.

"Sorry if I kill her" Rin said pointing to Ayama who was fighting Bahamut with Cloud and also trying to see what was happening on the roof

"I don't need her anymore" Sephiroth cupped Rin's chin and pulled her into a deep kiss, Rin slid one arm around his neck. Sephiroth wanted to see if the samurai truly did care for Rin and it seemed he did. "Look Ayama's pet has arrived" Rin looked over her shoulder at the new red head that entered the square "I'll leave this to you" Rin nodded accepting her mission and jumped off the building letting her wings take her off into the sky.

Sephiroth took this moment to leave. Drawing her other blade Rin used them to cast a powerful petrify spell. She knew who to aim for: Vincent, Tifa, Yuffie and the new red head, they were all turned to stone. Pleased with her work she landed on Bahamut's head and petted it like a cat

"Hold out a bit longer for me" she cooed watching the group look at her with resentment

"You bitch you turned my boyfriend to stone! How the hell am I supposed to get any now!" Ayama screamed aiming at Rin's head, a tunnel of wind threw her back but that didn't stop her

"I wonder if you can stop me because if you can't there's going to be nothing left" Rin smirked kicking Ayama back and launching herself into the air

"You're starting to sound like that Silver Haired Bastard!" Ayama fired a few more rounds at her, Rin let them hit her nothing fazed her anymore. "Don't you care about the people you're going to kill?"

Rin cocked her head to the side pretending to think then grinned showing off a set of rather sharp teeth,

"Nope"

"Not even your friends?"

Rin laughed loudly throwing her head back this time so the sharp teeth were hidden,

"Monsters don't have friends" She narrowed her eyes at Jecht and Auron as she said that "So logically I don't have any friends. So I don't have anything to stop me wiping your little city off the planet. Bahamut will keep you company for now"

Using a strong tunnel of wind to propel her off into the atmosphere, the higher she got the thinner the air gone but this triggered a mask worn by Ultima to help her breath in space "I wonder how hard this will be to aim" Rin mused as a large gold summoning circle appeared under her feet. To start off it turned slowly as it gathered a strange green energy and as it was ready to fire the circle spun faster "Eschaton" the green ball of energy was fired at the planet at a supersonic speed. Luckily for the people of Midgar it missed only taking the south part of the city with it. "Missed" she hummed heading back to the battle field since she didn't have enough energy to fire another blast.

Bahamut was fairing quite well but Rin decided to take her spoils of war before she lost them. She let out a shrill whistle summoning shadows creepers which circled the petrified prisoners and started to drag them into the shadows

"Rin stop this! This isn't like you" Auron tried to reason with her but it fell on deaf ears as she dropped down next to the Braska statue which was half way submerged in shadows

"If you want them back, come and get them" she smiled "Oh and Mr. Highwind your ship might be on fire" and stepped into the shadows herself leaving Bahamut to finish the battle.


"Whatever any of you said to her to make her side with Sephiroth you'd better be pleased with yourselves!" Ayama yelled as Bahamut began its attack on the group, "That girl has lost her mind!"

"She sold herself for power" Auron said calmly as if he'd expected this all along, "She broke her promise to Lord Braska to become more powerful and for that I have no remorse for her"

"Auron you can't mean that!" Braska turned to his friend with wide eyes not believing for a second the Samurai meant what he'd said about Rin,

"She's a monster Braska. Always has been, she's just showing her true colours now" Jecht agreed with Auron, he thought the girl was trouble from the beginning and was against her joining their group from the get go but Braska had overruled his judgment and allowed Rin to join them,

"Well no wonder she's siding with Sephiroth" Ayama tsked fighting off the shadow creepers who'd returned after taking the petrified captives somewhere the rest of the group couldn't follow, "With talk like that I'd join the other side myself. I'm pretty sure she just wanted to be a part of something but you two talking about her like she's some sort of dangerous lunatic just waiting to kill you all in your sleep made her feel like more of an outsider than ever, couple that much self loathing and loneliness with Sephiroth's manipulative nature and she was exactly what he was looking for"

"On the plus he said he didn't need you anymore" Cloud interjected

"Yes we must be thankful for small miracles" Ayama rolled her eyes quickly dispatching two more shadow creepers or so she thought.

Even though she'd shot the heads off the advancing creepers they still managed to find their targets and Ayama ended up with a nasty scratch to the head that send blood trickling down her face imparing her vision, "Son of a bitch" she cursed, "Well we know that cutting their heads off does fuck all"

"There has to be a way to get rid of them" Jecht growled fighting off his own pack with little success,

"Lord Braska perhaps there is something you can do" Auron turned to the summoner who nodded once and began chanting while the remainder of the group fought of the creepers as well as Bahamut.

When Braska had finally finished whatever he was chanting he was able to unsummon all the creepers but it drained him physically so he was unable to stand any longer, "Lord Braska!" Auron was just in time to catch Braska as he fell, "Lord Braska!"

"I'm fine" came the wheezy response, "Not enough magic"

"Hide him somewhere and hurry back!" Jecht called to Auron who nodded and hurried off with Braska

"I guess it's up to the three of us to get rid of that thing" Jecht said standing his ground as Bahamut charged towards them,

"Looks like" Ayama agreed, "Let's make a bet"

"What did you have in mind?" Cloud asked,

"First one to die loses" Ayama answered,

"Deal" both Cloud and Jecht agreed raising their weapons to take on Bahamut as it gained momentum and charged straight for the trio.


It took longer than the trio would have liked but they finally managed to defeat Bahamut. Covered in cuts and bruises not to mention a few broken bones, that in Ayama's case were already knitting back together painfully, all that was left now was to find Rin and Sephiroth and where they'd taken the people they'd turned to stone,

"Hey you have an unfair advantage in the bet" Jecht laughed as Ayama's wounds starting healing,

"Yeah that's true but it doesn't mean I can't die. I'm not immortal just infected" Ayama grimaced as two broken ribs healed themselves slowly and painfully, "Dammit. Has anyone got any bandages?"

"Here" Cloud threw Ayama a packet of bandages from the pocket in his bike,

"No one look" Ayama ducked behind a pile of rubble and discarded her now worthless shirt and wrapped the bandages around her chest and torso covering up her exposed breasts as well as binding her ribs so they'd heal but it would be less painful,

"So where do you think they took the others?" Cloud asked once Ayama was bandaged up,

"Probably the forbidden city since that's where Sephiroth seems to be working out of" Ayama answered,

"How long will it take to get there?" Jecht asked, "That airship was on fire last time I checked"

"Cid's a competent mechanic but I don't know if he'll get Shera back in the air anytime soon" Cloud answered, "If we take bikes it'll take at least two days to get there even without breaking for food or sleep"

"There's no other way though" Ayama said, "The only way to get there is by airship or bikes unless someone can teleport and hasn't shared with the rest of the class"

"What about Shinra?" Cloud asked, "We could use the helicopter"

"Yeah except the pilot has been turned to stone and taken with Rin and Sephiroth" Ayama sighed blowing a hole in Cloud's otherwise brilliant plan,

"I might know of something. Your young companion Yuffie had some materia I believe could help" Braska's voice interrupted the trio, aided by Auron he was limping towards them,

"Yeah except Yuffie was also taken along with Vincent who could have gotten us there quickly as well" Ayama growled getting rather annoyed with Rin and Sephiroth and their plan to strand everyone in Midgar while they do who knew what in the forbidden city,

"She left some of her materia in Seventh Heaven when we had to run out because of Bahamut" Cloud said suddenly, "Maybe what we need is there!"

"Well let's go then!" Ayama started to run off towards Seventh Heaven but it was proving difficult with her broken ribs,

"You're not really in the shape to run anywhere, come on get on the back of my bike I'll take you. Can you three manage?" Cloud asked Auron, Jecht and Braska,

"We'll manage. We'll meet you back at Seventh Heaven" Auron answered, Cloud nodded and helped Ayama onto the back of his bike before leaving the scene,

"You know I feel bad for her, Rin" Ayama said, "She just wanted to fit in. I can relate to that"

"Yeah but you never went nuts and tried to blow up the planet" Cloud told her,

"She's being used. Sephiroth is preying on her loneliness and manipulating her into thinking he loves her. If we can we have to try and save her" Ayama sighed knowing it was probably going to end up with another Funeral in the Forbidden City where they would be laying another dead girl into the pool,

"We can only try" Cloud agreed not wanting to have to go through what he went through with Aeris again anytime soon.


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