Another Time, Another Place

Authors Notes- Contains slash, angst, swearing, violence and character death.

Pairings- Sephiroth x Kuja, Cloud x Aeris, Vincent x Tifa, Rufus x Tseng, Reno x Yuffie.

Disclaimers- I own none of the characters mentioned hither.

She woke some time later, feeling blissfully warm and not at all tired. Firelight flickered across the dimly lit room. With a soft sigh, she rose and quickly changed. Someone had brought her bags in already. Tifa pulled her hair back and headed downstairs.

The rest of the group were sat quietly around a fire, apparantly lost in discussion. Yuffie was there, with a bright scratch racing across her forehead but her usual grin intact. "Tifa!" She sprang up instantly and raced over to her. "Are you ok?"

"Shouldn't I be asking you that?" Tifa pondered.

"I'm fine and dandy," Yuffie said cheerily. "Thanks for coming after me,"

"Thank Vincent," Tifa said offhandedly. "I'd have never got you back alone. Anyway, what have I missed?"

"Nothing really," Yuffie frowned. "We still haven't met the Turks and co. Which is a shame cause I'd like to see Reno again," She blushed slightly. "Anyway, Cloud didn't want to start without ya, so come on over,"

They joined the group by the fire. "Shouldn't we take this somewhere more private?" Cloud frowned. "It's a serious issue and people could listen in here,"

"Then come to one of the private rooms," A strange voice said jauntily.

"RENO!" Yuffie exploded and then blushed hard. "I mean, hi!"

"Hi Yuffie," Reno smirked and she turned a deeper shade of red. "We've already hired one of the conference rooms if you'd care to join us,"

"Can't think of anything I'd like ta do better," Barret growled, standing suddenly. "I'd jest love to meet that Shinra kid again,"

Reno looked pained. "I need to ask you all to avoid confronting Rufus," He looked down at the floor. "I know he was.. well, a bit of a bastard-"

"He tried ta kill Tifa!" Barret broke in.

"-But he was under a lot of pressure, ya know?" Reno frowned. "Taking over a company that ruled the world at that age isn't easy. And he's already paid for what he's done. Lost everything, keeps hearing the Planet's screams-"

"What?!" Red XIII looked up interested.

"I sometimes think he survived Weapon's attack as a punishment more than anything else," Reno said slowly. "He keeps hearing the lifestream in his head ever since. Can you at least avoid killing him?"

"Come on, Barret," Tifa smiled at her old friend. "If I can forgive him for trying to kill me, surely you can too?"

Barret frowned and then nodded reluctantly. "But if he tries anythin' funny, y'all better not try to hold me back,"

"Agreed," Reno said. "Coming now?" The remainders of the group stood and filed slowly after Reno into one of the private rooms.

Rufus, Tseng, Rude and Elena were already waiting there. Tseng looked surprisingly alive after the state they had last seen him in. But he'd had over five years to recover in. Rufus looked rather shaken to see them again and after hearing Cid and Barret's mumbled threats, Tifa couldn't blame him. He looked quite untouched despite the attack and indeed hadn't changed much. His blonde bangs still fell into his intensely blue eyes and there was a strange kind of familiarity in seeing him flick them away. He still favoured white, a rather inappropriately pure colour for someone who had fallen so far from grace.

The remainders of AVALANCHE sat and stared warily across the table at the remainders of Shinra. There was a long and awkward silence whilst they exchanged evil looks. Yuffie stared adoringly at Reno who blushed under her intense dark gaze. Cloud cleared his throat and everyone stared at him, hoping for some kind of speech.

"So...." He started awkwardly. "Sephiroth is back,"

"It looks like it," Rufus stated. "We came here after his first defeat and there was nothing to report. Recently, however, the guard spell around the entire crater has reformed and the Planet's cries have been heard. Diamond Weapon has also been sighted off the coast of Junon,"

"Bet yer real pleased to hear that ole Weapon is back," Barret couldn't resist. Rufus met his blazing eyes coolly.

"This time round however, there is no Aeris to summon Holy, there is no Sister Ray to attack the Weapons, there are no Shinra resources to stop Meteor. I hardly think it's a laughing matter,"

Reno nodded. "It would take an immensely powerful cannon to break down the guard that Sephiroth has around the crater. Although some of the Shinra funds and resources have been retained, we cannot risk building another cannon even assuming it could be done in time,"

"Why?" Yuffie asked, trying hard to look as though she was enthralled.

"Shinra is effectively dead to the world, as am I," Rufus started. "There would be a massive outcry if Shinra activities began again. The company was held entirely responsible for the destruction of Midgar,"

"Despite you %^£#!&$ Shinra trying to blame it on AVALANCHE!" Cid burst out. "And trying to execute Barret and Tifa on live TV just to keep yourself from being blamed!"

Tseng looked pained. "Why didn't I hear about this?" He asked Elena quietly.

"You were dead then," She whispered back helpfully.

Rufus stood up. "If there is to be any chance whatsoever of defeating Sephiroth this time round, it will require combining our resources and forgetting what may have happened in the past. No-one knows more about the Jenova project than Shinra and if you refuse to co-operate then you may as well summon Meteor yourselves," He paused lengthily. "And believe me, it is that serious. I've heard the Planet's cries for some time now and the voices of those in the lifestream. Sephiroth is recovering slowly down there, festering within the Planet and working back to full power. I'm not particularly fond of Avalanche either, but we're running out of time and unless you work with Shinra, all you worked for will be simply thrown away,"

"He really does like making speeches," Red XIII murmured.

"Does Sephiroth have the Black Materia?" Cloud enquired suddenly.

"Not yet," Tseng frowned. "After his 'defeat', the Black Materia was taken by Emerald Weapon as it defended the Planet. We suspect Emerald Weapon still holds on to it now,"

"That's good, isn't it?" Yuffie asked. "I mean, those monsters are HUGE. One little Sephiroth couldn't kill it.. right?"

"We can't risk it," Rufus stated. "It will take a lot to defeat Emerald, but we believe our best chances stand in regaining the Black Materia ourselves. Then in finding a method to destroy the Guard around the Crater and disposing of Sephiroth at last. Once that is over, the Black Materia must be locked away again,"

"Defeating Emerald will be an enormous operation," Reno added. "It's grown in power over this time. Even the Sister Ray couldn't kill something like this off,"

"Then how...?" Cloud asked thoughtfully. "It would take tremendous magic to destroy something like that,"

"And we don't have the resources of Shinra any more, so we can't experiment with weapon making or Mako energy," Tseng said slowly.

"Experiments... that reminds me of something," Cloud looked up. "It's not really related, but what is Project Kuja?"

"Before my time," Rufus shrugged. "I've heard the name of that project but I believe it was a failure,"

"Project Kuja.." Rude looked suddenly inspired. "Sir, I remember that project. I took great interest in it. The specimen had virtually untapped powers which Shinra looked at for use as a weapon, but sadly it turned on Shinra and turned out to be uncontrollable,"

"Virtually untapped powers?" Rufus frowned. "I never cared much about what Hojo was meddling with. Tell me more about this,"

Rude nodded eagerly. "The creature used within the project used magic in a way we had never seen before. Sir, it had destroyed an entire world before, single-handedly!"

Rufus looked interested. "Is there any way that we could recreate that kind of power within a couple of months? It sounds ideal for defeating Sephiroth,"

"Sadly the project was terminated and destroyed," Rude shrugged. "As far as I know, nothing remains of it,"

"That's not true!" Cloud burst out. "I asked because the project is still alive! It's in a hidden room in the basement of Nibelheim!" There was a long and shocked silence from the remainder of Shinra as they took in the information.

"That old rogue Gast," Rude shook his head. "I guess whatever he told us, he couldn't just destroy something of that strength, hmm?"

"So is there any way we could use Project Kuja to destroy Emerald and take the Black Materia?" Rufus inquired. Rude nodded.

"In theory, yes. But whether it will want to co-operate or not is a different story. The project has reason to hate Shinra, even if it's still sane after all that happened,"

"It looks like our best plan," Red XIII piped up. "We know how strong Sephiroth is. If he gets the Black Materia and gets back in that crater, we won't be able to do anything at all except wait to die!"

"Then it's off to Nibelheim to find the project," Rufus frowned. "At times like this, I really wish Hojo was still around. He may have been a twisted man but he knew better than anyone how to control something like that,"

"It's still a person," Tifa broke in. "It's not a monster or something you can't reason with. Perhaps it can be persuaded to join our side. With Kuja to help us, I'm sure we could defeat Sephiroth once and for all,"

"Then we'll set off to Nibelheim tomorrow," Cloud announced. Rufus glared at him momentarily, annoyed at the loss of authority. Mako-blue eyes met dark blue eyes and after a few minutes Rufus looked away and fiddled with his bangs.

"We'll leave tomorrow then," He said uncertainly. "I suppose this meeting may as well be dismissed now,"

There was a scuffling of chairs as they filed out. Cloud was one of the last to leave. "Wait one minute!" Rufus called the blonde man over. Cloud frowned, suspicious.

"What do you want?" He asked, a little harshly.

Rufus met his gaze. "You probably know that I've been hearing the voices of the Lifestream and those who have passed on, as a weird kind of retribution?"

Cloud nodded.

"Well.." Rufus pushed his hair from his eyes. "There was one particular voice that wanted to make contact. It was clearer because she wasn't angry.. wasn't judgemental.."

"She?" Cloud looked up.

"Yes, she," Rufus nodded. "The Cetra herself asked me to pass on a message to you. We've been talking for years now. She seems a very special person.. I only wish I could take back what we did to her.." he frowned.

"What message?" Cloud asked, eagerly.

Rufus looked at him steadily. "Cloud, Aeris Gainsborough said she loves you and you have to be strong. But you will meet her again, Cloud. Sooner than you think,"