Marlene screamed as she felt her legs leave the ground. "You know if you struggle too much, I can always drop you," Her abductor calmly said. She shut her mouth, but couldn't quite manage to get her eyes closed. "That's better." He said, and they started to fly even higher. After what seemed like hours, he finally decided to land in another small clearing.

He gently set her down, and she promptly fell to the ground. She glared up at him. "Who are you?" He stopped laughing. "You don't know?" She hoped her silent glare would answer his question. "I suppose it's not a surprise," He started, his voice holding a sarcastic tone, "Sephiroth was always the most popular SOLDIER 1st Class. The 'Hero.'"

Even though she hated it, the thought of Sephiroth still brought fear into her mind, and it showed on her face. He noticed. "But he turned on all of you, didn't he?" He chuckled and turned around. "So I was wrong, it never was Angeal in the first place."

"What the hell are you talking about?" Escaped Marlene's lips, and she gasped. Having Barrett as a father had apparently affected her language. Even so, she /was/ a little frustrated. Just a little. He turned around. "Have you ever read 'Loveless?'"

She vaguely remembered seeing a book with the same name somewhere in Tifa's library. She had never actually taken the trouble to read it though. So, she shook her head.

He sighed, seeming genuinely disappointed. "Then you are truly deprived, my little friend." She started getting up. "I'm not your friend." And she was very insulted that he had called her 'little.'

"'Infinite in mystery, is the gift of the goddess, we seek it thus, and take to the skies,'" His wing slightly fluttered, and he lowered his head for a split second. Then he turned around to see that she was standing. "So I see that your legs are capable of supporting you again."

She looked up at him. "Shouldn't that be obvious?" It was her turn to be sarcastic. "Hm," He said, seeming amused. "Well, since you asked," He drew his long red blade and pointed it at the sky. "I am Genesis Rhapsodos, Protector of the Planet!" He had probably meant it as an inside joke, but she didn't take it the same way.

"Protector of the Planet?" Marlene asked, having lost her temper. "My family was doing nothing to harm the Planet! The WRO is helping the Planet! Why did you attack us?"

He turned back around, and pointed the sword at her chin. "You don't quite understand things yet, do you?" She gulped. "You're still my captive, little girl, you shouldn't blow your cap so easily."

She simply gulped again. He slightly smiled, and withdrew his sword. She took a deep breath, relieved to have the metal removed from her skin. "Would you at least tell me where you are taking me?" Her voice sounded humiliatingly shaky. He smiled. "Do you happen to like apples?"

This time he seemed to be much more gentle with her as he carried her through the sky. That didn't mean she wasn't terrified. The wind flying in her face felt wonderful, that was true, but the ground being at least fifty feet below her was not quite the same. She had to make sure she kept her face forward, or else she would become motion sick, and puke all over this 'Genesis."

All over again.

Yes, last time they had taken off, she had lost control of her stomach. He couldn't deny it was partially his fault though, could he? He had picked her up quite suddenly and roughly, taking off without a word, aside from muttering something else about apples.

She couldn't make any connection between apples and suddenly taking off.

She couldn't make any sense of the man who had kidnaped her either.

He had known Sephiroth? He had been in SOLDIER? Like Cloud thought he had?

She briefly wondered if Cloud knew anything about Genesis. Maybe he did, and that was why he'd been so tense last night. But if //he'd// been so tense, Cloud, who took everything in stride, wouldn't that mean that //she// ought to be absolutely terrified?

In a way, she was. But not in the way that she was afraid for her life. She knew that someone would come to find her; Barrett would be especially determined.

But, would they even know who had taken her? A fear gripped her stomach, and she felt a whole new wave of motion sickness. This time though, she managed to keep control, and he never noticed a thing. She thought he hadn't, at least.

He suddenly dove down, and she finally got her eyes shut. Then, her feet touched the ground, and she would've fallen on her face, if Genesis hadn't caught her shoulder. "Would you stop doing that?" He grumbled. She caught her balance, and took a few deep breaths. If there had ever been one, that was a rough landing.

After her stomach had calmed down, and her lungs were appropriately filled with oxygen, she looked back up. "Sorry," She took another deep breath. "It doesn't matter anyway." He continued in the same tone. "We're here." She looked up to see a destroyed village. He smiled and turned towards a large tree.

"Banora Village." Judging from the tone of his voice, he was content to be there. "From the war with Wutai?" Marlene asked, looking around. He turned around, a slight scowl of his face. "No." "But I thought that—" She tried to continue. "No." He said again, this time his voice was dark and stern. "This is Banora Village. The only ties its destruction holds are with me, and with Shin-Ra."

She stared up at him like he had spoken a foreign language. "I see that even after the destruction of Shin-Ra's power, people still haven't taken the time to fix the history books." He coldly commented. She blinked. "It's only been seven years, it took us long enough to get back on our feet as it was! With Geostigma and Sephiroth coming back five years ago," She glared up at him. "It was hard."

"I missed all that, huh?" He muttered, his eyes as cold as ice. Marlene, taken aback by the cold glare in his eyes, shuddered, and could say nothing else. He turned his back to her once again. "Follow me." She unwillingly did as he said, and he spread his wing out. "We're going to have to fly one more time."

He turned around to pick her up. She held her breath, and they had taken off. He flew a few dozen feet off of the ground, and she saw the setting sun over a few trees. And then, directly below her, a glowing crevice in the ground. Genesis slowly fell down into it, his wing making their landing as light as a feather touching the ground.

She waited for her eyes to adjust, and saw a single apple tree in the midst of a huge cavern of materia. Genesis was walking over to it. She touched the materia that hung around her neck, and found the courage to follow him. He plucked an apple from the tree, and handed it to her. "Welcome home."

Yuffie had put her foot down. She would not stay in Wutai while the others, including Shelke, the 25 year old in a 12 year old's body, got to run off doing various dangerous missions. There was no way, she had said, and that was why Denzel was stuck with the chatter-box for an entire four hours on the 'Shera' as they headed to Edge with Cid.

It seemed, much to his dismay, that she had finally gotten over her motion sickness, and she was perfectly able to talk to her heart's content without any interruptions. He finally came up with the excuse that he needed to get some fresh air, or he himself would throw up, to get away from her.

He walked down to the air deck, and took a deep breath. If he'd stayed any longer, his ears might've started bleeding. Or something along the lines of that. He started thinking about Marlene, and stared out into the empty sky.

Cloud hadn't taken it very well. He'd called Denzel immediately and grounded him for the rest of his teenage life, until he'd realized that he wouldn't be home to enforce those rules. After Cloud had realized this, he made it Denzel's job to tell Barrett.

Cloud's temper had been nothing compared to the way that Barrett had reacted. He had screamed cuss words that Denzel wasn't even sure really existed. Then he threatened to kill the first (more cuss words) that crossed his path. Luckily that person was Tifa, and in her own frazzled emotional state she had managed to calm him down. Slightly.

After several rounds of mindless yelling and the sound of flying bullets, Barrett calmed down enough to listen to the details and realize that it wasn't anyone's particular fault. And then the black feather was mentioned, and the phone line went dead.

Tifa called a few minutes later to apologize, Barrett had crushed his phone and shot several of Reeve's computers into tiny pieces.

Was it really Sephiroth that had taken Marlene? He wondered. He rubbed his forehead, leaning on the guard rail. It couldn't be. He had survived, thanks to Cloud, Tifa, and Marlene.

She couldn't just run off and die, now that he'd finally gotten back on his own two feet. He absentmindedly stared down at his worn sneakers.

"Hey kid!" Cid's voice croaked over the intercom. "You'd better get inside, we're headin' in for a landing!" Denzel started to feel the airship descend, and ran inside. Past the chocobo stables. Up to the bridge.

"We're just about there." Yuffie said, incredibly excited. Denzel stared at her. Did she ever calm down? He shook his head, and decided to ignore the hopping woman next to him to the best of his abilities.

After they had finally landed, and he had had a tearful reunion with Tifa; received a pat on the back from Cloud, and had had his eardrums blown out by Barrett, they all sat down with Reeve and Cait Sith for some news.

"Well, we have good news, and some bad news." The puppet started. "Which would you like to hear first?" Reeve finished. "The good," Cloud and Tifa said at the same time. "Alrighty," Cait Sith agreed. "We've found the missing WRO members, and they're all doing fine."

"However, the bad news," Reeve started, "Is that we now know that the person you ran into isn't the one that recently woke up beneath Midgar. Although our evidence would suggest that he was there, once, he's been awake for quite some time."

He took a deep breath. "What has awakened, I'm afraid, is far, far worse."