Final Fantasy VII: Beyond Apocalypse

by Tifa's Knight

Seperate "Volumes" are now using the new chapter system, so every volume is just contained in this one section. For those left hanging on a cliff at the end of Volume 3, VOLUME 4 IS NOW COMPLETE AND UP! Please R/R

2. Volume 2- The Rejoining

FINAL FANTASY VII: BEYOND APOCALYPSE

VOLUME 2- THE REJOINING

PREFACE

In my opinion, the LifeStream is not just a massive flowing collection of liquid, but a place where souls can live and interact with oneanother on their way back to the Planet. In this vast, flowing world, souls do not communicate in ways that we can undestand; instead of a physical world, they have an existance on a different plane, one where thoughts dictate all actions. In the story of Final Fantasy VII: Beyond Apocalypse, my idea of the heirarchy of the LifeStream will be important.
Those new to the LifeStream flow into it under those who have been there for a time, making up the lowest, most common class of life in this world. Depending on how worthy they are judged, they may be returned to the planet immediately or they may remain in the LifeStream for a greater period of time. Most souls that pass through the LifeStream leave after the first level, and this does not mean that they are evil, simply ordinary.
Souls who lived especially good lives on the Planet are taken to the middle level before being returned to the Planet. On this level a higher knowledge and understanding of the universe are granted, for the souls there are more able to comprehend such things.
The final level is that of the LifeStream Sages. These are not neccessarily souls who lived good lives- they are those who had something profound, something great about them, something that sets them mentally above the rest of the human race. These few souls are in charge of handling and taking care of the LifeStream, and also have other duties to carry out in times of need- for example, the reason why Aeris heard the cries of the Planet in Final Fantasy VII was because a LifeStream Sage was communicating directly with her. LifeStream Sages are the link between the physical and the LifeStream, but even as only those souls of the LifeStream whose minds are elevated to a higher level than those of almost all others can be LifeStream Sages, only those on the Planet whose minds are of incredible power are able to communicate with the Sages. That is why for the most part the Cetra were able to communicate with the Planet and not humans. Some humans could, but they were not well known, and often mistaken for Cetra when rarely they were seen.
And so the saga continues, the saga of Final Fantasy VII: Beyond Apocalypse, in the second volume, The Rejoining.

THE JUNON AREA

Cid stared forward into the rising sun as he and his companions, Vincent, Red XIII, and Cait Sith a.k.a. Reeve, trecked across the wastelands nearby the huge city of Junon. Ever since the fall of Shinra, the town taken a back seat to the commonly talked about subjects of the day- most people had been more interested how decimated Midgar had been, and if Shinra was going to rebuild it. Junon was, however, still a Shinra city, and still the center of their navy- half of which was now engaged in fierce warfare on the western side of the world at Wu Tai.
"It should be about two more days until we make it to Junon," Red commented. Red was good with distances and times, so they trusted his opinions.
"I hope so," Cid said irritably. "I'm startin' ta get sick o' all this walkin. I like the sky, not the fuckin ground." He lit up a cigarrette as he spoke.
"Keep the smoke at a distance, please," Red asked politely.
"You oughta try a smoke for yourself," Cid suggested.
Red made a face of disgust. "Such things are not for me. I don't really understand the point of it."
"Mostly it's just ta get addicted to it, I guess," Cid admitted.
"Then why do it?" Red asked curiously. He was always interested to understand human ways, but usually did not.
"It's tough to explain," Cid scratched his head. He was certainly not good at explaining these things.
"Some people think it makes them look good in public," Vincent put in for him. "It is a foolish and irrational thing to do, but human nature is to disregard such in order to advance themselves."
"I see," Red said trustily. He and Vincent almost always seemed to agree on philosophical things.
"You make it sound like a bunch o' bullshit," Cid complained.
"If that's the term you want to use, then yes, I meant to."
Cid sighed. "Nobody understands me," he mumbled. "And another thing. I wanna hear you curse, Vincent. Yer too polite."
"I see no need to use such vulgar terms," Vincent shrugged.
"It's more satisfying. Try it."
"Why?"
"Just do."
"Fuck," said Vincent. "I see no entertainment in that," he followed up.
"No," Cid shook his head in frustration, "Ya gotta say it in the right situation. Like when someone annoys ya, you say, 'Fuck you'. Get it?"
"I'll try it," Vincent shrugged. "I guess I should keep an open mind."
"Good," Cid said satisfactorily. "Now you need to try a cigarette," he said to Red.
"I really am not interested," said Red.
"Why do you feel the need to corrupt people?" Cait Sith laughed.
"What? Swearin's good for ya. Smokin is just... smokin. I dunno."
"I don't see how certain words could be good for you," Cait Sith shook his head. "They're not very polite. Imagine if I went around saying that to everyone who annoyed me. I wouldn't have been able to keep a job, and concequently we never would have met."
"Whatever," Cid shrugged. He didn't feel like talking with a businessman right now. He wasn't that type at all.
"Perhaps the entertainment is derived from a sense of defiance," Vincent brought the subject back up again. "Could that be it?"
Cid scratched his head. "I think what yer sayin is that you think I curse because I like to be bad."
"Well, it comes to the same thing."
Cid shook his head. "That's fer kids. Swearin's good for ya. Helps ya take out aggressions without actually doin anything."
"I think I get it," Vincent nodded. "Allright. I'll try it sometime, and see how it works."
Cid nodded. There wasn't really anything else to say.
The four of them walked on in silence for a bit, but the calm was quickly broken as a cry from Cait Sith could be heard from the rear of their small group; the three of them whirled around to see what he was talking about. They understood the reason all right. Behind them stood a tremendous monster that none of them had ever seen before. Its back was covered by a thick, gray shell with large spikes protruding from the it in a symetrical design, and its body was jet black with ferocious, hungry green eyes on the sizable head- which had its own shell, making the beast look like a great armored knight. Its forelegs were covered partially in the same shell, and ended in large paws that looked to be designed for digging, while its hind legs were supporting its body weight and had flat, almost fin-like feet. A long, spirally tale waved about in the rear, with a pine-cone-like smashing club at the end, covered in dull spikes. Its skin was such a dark black color that no mouth was visible on the head- until its lower jaw opened widely to reveal a blood red, salivating tongue and seven rows of wicked teeth. Up its underbelly ran a thin strip of spikey scales that extended from its chin all the way to its tale. It was quite a site to behold, as it stood five times Cid's own height and about ten times his width.
"What do you suppose it could be?" Red asked curiously, fascinated with the creature's armored appearance.
"I dunno," Cid shook his head, taking his spear from his back, "But I don't think it's friendly. We might wanna get outa here."
"On the contrary," Vincent said, his eyes flashing with eagerness as he pulled out the Death Penalty in a spin that automatically cocked the deadly weapon. "It will be a new and interesting battle."
"Somehow I thought you might see it that way," Cid said dissapointedly.
"It looks like it's probably a digging creature, and the scales don't look particularly flamable, so don't use any Quake or Fire spells," Red cautioned as the four of them approached.
"Let's see if I can weaken it," Cait Sith suggested. He raised his moogle's arms into the air and shouted, "Demi 3!"
A great sphere of pulsating gray energy began to form around the giant beast, and it looked around in confusion. The sphere quickly began to retract into the center of the creature, and when it was done, the loud whirring sound it produced stopped. The beast, rather than looking discouraged, suddenly opened its eyes wider, let loose a thunderous roar, and began to approach the companions.
"I don't think that helped, Reeve," Cid groaned as the behemoth approached. Vincent let loose a thunderous blast from the death penalty, and although it did not hit the armory parts of the creature, it seemed to have little effect.
"He's got to have a weakness," Red mused. "All the extremely powerful ones do."
By now, the beast was upon them. It reached up one of its forelegs in preparation to stamp on Cid, but he rolled forward and under its exposed belly before the slow attack could hit its mark. He then proceeded to jam his spear upward into the thing's stomach. It let out a roar of pain and quickly reared up on its hind legs, its eyes flashing with anger and hate. This time, the leg came smashing down much faster than Cid was prepared for; he leapt from where he stood, but then cried out in pain as he felt the tremendous paw land squarely on his left leg. His right one had managed to get out, but the left was becoming crushed under the beast's massive weight. Vincent tried shooting it again, but the results were as before. Cid wasn't going to let this thing just stand there on his leg- he reached out with his spear and jammed the sharp end right inbetween where one of the claws met the skin. The creature began to shout in agony and let go of Cid; Cait Sith helped him up and dragged him off while Red and Vincent held the creature at bay.
Cait Sith propped Cid up against a large rock. "Damn this hurts," Cid muttered. "I can't believe the bastard stepped on me..." he looked up at the fight. Vincent had resorted to using magic, but it seemed that no matter how many times he cast Flare, the damn thing just wouldn't die. Red had leapt in top of the beast's head and was desperately trying to break through the shell, but to no avail. Cid wasn't going to just stand around and let his friends struggle with an impossible opponent. He had to do something.
"Ice 3!" he yelled. As frosty energy exploded onto the creature's giant body, it seemed to change. It almost looked like it shriveled. The burning green eyes lost their anger, the mouth hung stupidly open with drool hanging down, and the massive, hulking body crashed to the earth on its side. Crystal-like ice shards ran all over the thing's body, covering until it was a mass of shining ice. Cid and Cait Sith looked on in awe.
Red and Vincent walked over to them.
"Good move," Vincent complimented.
"It's not like I exactly knew that would happen," Cid admitted. "But I guess it was a pretty good thing I did it."
"This is a very interesting creature," Red commented. "I must study it sometime. Completely immune to all form of attack except those of the ice affinity."
As he spoke, however, something strange began to happen. The beast that lay defeated behind them suddenly began to quiver, and then it began to pull itself upright, still encased in the icy shell that now enveloped it. Finally it stood as it had before, an icy statue full of deadly life.
"Behind ya!" Cid shouted as the beast stood up again. Everyone whirled around to see the beast suddenly rear up on its hind legs and then charge insanely toward the group. Before anyone did anything, though, Red took action. "Ifrit!" he called in a great voice, and the area around them turned an intense, firey red as the mighty Summoned Beast of fire blazed up from the depths of the earth. He charged up his energy for a moment, flames billowing all over his red hot body, and then, like a giant fireball, rushed at the beast, which had stopped its own charge after being startled by the sudden firey being.
Ifrit's flames had a starnge effect on the creature. It began to go crazy, convulsing as though it were having a siezure, and then its body slowly began to mealt away. The companions saw that the beast had actually become one giant walking mass of ice- it wasn't just covered by the stuff anymore.
Soon, nothing remained of the creature but a simple puddle of steaming water. Cid shook his head in amazement.
"Now that's one wierd thing," he commented in awe.
"Excellent move, Red," Vincent complemented.
"Allright," said Cait Sith, "Let's get toward Junon. Cid, can you walk on that leg?"
"I'll be allright," Cid nodded. "It's not broken. If you'll all just go a little slower, I should be fine."
"Okay," Cait Sith said dubiously. "Onward ho."

By the end of the day, Cid wasn't fine. He was lagging farther and farther, and consequently their progress was slower and slower. He insisted he could carry his own weight; besides, how else would it be carried? Finally, though, just as the sun was beginning to set, Cid dropped the ground, unable to stand.
"It's okay, just gimme a moment and I'll get up," he told everyone when they crowded around.
"Oh no you don't," Cait Sith said determinedly. "You're getting pulled the rest of the way. That leg isn't going to carry you at all."
"Can't we just cast cure on it or somethin?" Cid asked grumpily.
"That won't work for a specific injury that bad," Cait Sith shook his head. "It only heals weakness and fleshwounds."
"How will we manage to carry him?" Red asked skeptically.
"Yeah," said Cid.
"We'll make a sled-type thingy," Cait Sith decided. "It shouldn't be too hard. We'll just... umm... I dunno, actually."
"Slight problem," Vincent mused, thoughtfully scratching his chin through the mask he wore.
"If only there were more raw materials around here, we could probably do it, but this area is too barren," said Red.
"Maybe I'll just crawl," Cid said sarcastically.
"I wouldn't advise that," said Cait Sith. "Don't worry, we'll think of something."
It was then that the low rumble of a helicopter could be heard in the distance. The companions suddenly turned towards this new sign of hope in eager anticipation, hoping that the vehicle would see them and give them passage to Junon.
The funny thing was that the helicopter seemed to be getting lower, and heading right towards them. As it drew closer, it became evident that the chopper had already known they were there, and was intending to meet them. Then, they realized it was not just one chopper, but seven! Seven of the whirring vehicles began to make a circle around the companions.
"Shinra," Red whispered ominously as the choppers grew close enough for the Shinra Inc. logo to be clearly visible on each chopper.
Suddenly, a booming voice came from one of the helicopters: "Drop your weapons now and give yourselves up!" it yelled. The doors of each chopper opened, and inside each one sat a Shinra soldier at a mounted machine gun turret.
"I'll waste them!" Cid exclaimed. He may not be able to use his leg, but he could still use Materia. "Bolt3!" he yelled.
The rain of lightning bolts that followed was tremendous, since Cid's All Materia was causing the Lightning one to attack all enemies in the area. But the results were nothing. The bolts were flung aside by some unkown force before they made contanct, causing them to slam harmlessly into the sandy ground and vanish.
"Damn," Cid muttered, "They musta already started usin those shields!"
"This is the last time we will tell you," the loudspeaker voice said irritably. "Drop your weapons and surrendur."
"We don't have a choice," Cait Sith sighed in defeat. He threw his megaphone to the ground. Vincent nodded, and tossed the Death Penalty beside it.
"Cut that out!" Cid yelled. "We'll fight 'em!"
"Not with you in that condition," Red shook his head. "We'll have to agree to their terms."
"What about the others?!" Cid argued.
"I pray they can make it back to the Chocobo farm if they can't reach Shinra HQ," Red replied. He took Cid's spear and tossed it in the pile. The Shinra troops came cuatiously out of their helicopters, always watching the companions and keeping their rifles aimed at them, and then they quickly took the weapons.
"Each of you get into one helicopter," the loudspeaker voice instructed.
"One of us is unable to walk," Red called out.
There was a brief silence, then the voice said, "The ones who can walk will get into one helicopter each, and then we will bring the wounded one to his own."
They did as they were told. As soon as they were all inside, the soldiers came out and carried Cid on a stretcher to the helicopter. When he was in, the doors closed, and the companions felt themselves rising above the ground.
Cid lay on his stretcher feeling aweful. They had failed to get a ship, and now the others would be lost out there. And to top it all off, he may never get to fly again if he didn't get out of this mess fast.

Admiral Kalakran of the Junon Corporate Fleet of Shinra was in a very good mood when he was told that four members of AVALANCHE had been captured. The Shinra had been attempting to apprehend all eight of them for a long time, and then their numbers had recently increased to twelve as a widely known criminal named Hanshi Terakata as well as the former "turks", Shinra's once-feared special agents, had unexpectadly joined up with them. There was also the mysterious dissapearance of the Ancient, the girl that Shinra had been chasing from the beginning, who was also rumored to have been collaborating with AVALANCHE- where had they hidden her? Supreme General Ashroth had been dying to know the answer to that. He still believed she could be of use to Shinra. Both these objectives could be completed in one stroke- all he had to do was capture one or more members of AVALANCHE, and the others would flock to him in return for their safety. Even the Ancient would have to come to him, lest her friends be killed.
And Kalakran, he was the one who would finally deliver four members of AVALANCHE to Ashroth. He would be showered with wealth for the next few years, no doubt, and he'd also be on Ashroth's good side- a very, very good place to be.
He had ordered for the outlaws to be brought forth immediately when they arrived at the base, and was pleased to see them led into the room, one of them limping pathetically, all chained up and helpless. The legendary AVALANCHE, the warriors who had apparently defeated the great Sephiroth, were now helpless before him. It was quite a good feeling.
"Well," he mused, "It appears that I've got myself some rather valuable hostages. Do you know that there are over seventy bounty hunters after each one of your hides right now, and I'm the one who gets to turn you in to Supreme General Ashroth? It's quite a priveledge, you know. You should be proud."
"Of course we're proud that we're more valuable to Ashroth than you are," Vincent said smoothly. Cid had to force himself not to laugh, especially since this Shinra peakock, whoever he was, was having a hard time dealing with a wit ten times as quick as his own.
Kalakran collected himself and tried to look intelligent while he thought up a decent comeback. "At least I'm useful to him alive instead of dead," he retorted finally.
"So you're saying that we're more useful dead than you are alive," Vincent shrugged immediately. "Well, I'm honored."
Kalakran's nostriles flared. "Do you have any idea who you're talking to?!" he raged. "I could have you killed any time I want!"
"Well, I'm not too worried about that, because I'll still be more valuable than you in that condition."
Cid was having to summon every ounce of self-control he had by now. Even Red was amused- he looked up at Vincent with a broad grin, seeing that Vincent was constantly absorbing this man's personality, coming up with more and more ways to anger him, but not bring him to the final extent of his temper. Red always enjoyed watching Vincent's extreme perceptiveness at work- it was an amazing thing.
Kalakran ignored Vincent's last statement with some effort. "Well, I suppose we'd better introduce ourselves," he said. "I am Admiral Kalakran of the Junon Corporate Fleet of Shinra, master of the city of Junon and ruler of the seas of this planet. Now how important do you feel, scum?"
"Actually, I feel magnificent if I'm more important than the master of the seas, especially if I still am when I'm dead," Vincent said nonchalantly. If Kalakran wasn't eager to keep them alive so that Ashroth could use them as bait, he would have snapped and shot each one of them there- but, for all his lack of wit, he was at least a strong-willed man.
"Just tell me who you are," he grated.
"My name is Vincent Valentine, ex-turk and proud member of the saviors of the Planet, AVALANCHE," Vincent said exquisitely.
"Cid Highwind," Cid said shortly. "An I ain't much for intelligent conversation, so if ya try throwin some of that incredible wit my way, I'll just curse ya out."
"Some know me as Nanaki, my friends call me Red XIII," said Red. "I am the guardian of Cosmo Canyon as well as a member of AVALANCHE."
"I'm Cait Sith, or in reality, a former Shinra executive named Reeve. You may remember me, actually."
Kalakran seemed startled at that. "Reeve? Is that really you?"
"Yes, I'm afraid it is," said Cait Sith. "But I'm not here- Cait Sith is. I'm somewhere totally different, controlling Cait Sith by remote, and there's nothing you can do to cut off the connection, either."
"I see," said Kalakran. "Torch that one immediately." The guards lit Cait Sith on fire, and he burned with a big smile on his face, happily waving his hand.
"Stay tuned for Cait Sith No. 3," was the final sentance of Cait Sith No. 2.

Cid was shoved roughly into a small cell next to a shabby, dirty, and rather glum-looking adolescant with wild, uncut hair and eyes that burned like fire. He was a little startled at the amount of maturity in those eyes- like this kid had seen, heard, and experienced things that made him far more adult than most boys his age.
"What're you doin here?" he asked, slightly startled.
The kid looked up at him and raised one eyebrow. "I dunno," he said quietly, "I just sorta thought it might be fun to live in jail for a while."
"I meant what did ya do," Cid rolled his eyes.
"I didn't do nothin," the kid shrugged, still in that quiet whisper. "It's a free world, but these guys seem to think they make the laws everywhere. They're just a company... sheesh."
"You hit the nail on the head," Cid nodded. "I know what you're talkin about, I'm in AVALANCHE."
The kid looked at him dubiously. "I don't really care about AVALANCHE," he said nonchalantly.
"Well... we did sorta save the whole planet," Cid said, slightly offended at the lack of recognition for his acomplishment.
"So what," shrugged the kid.
Cid began to get mad. "So without us, you wouldn't be alive!" he raged.
The kid looked at him with an increasingly dissatisfied expression. "So, looking at me now, you actually get the impression that I want to live? You're either high on something or incredibly imaginative."
Cid didn't really know what to say to that. He was a simple guy- fly, smoke, and do the right thing was all he'd ever lived by- and psychological things weren't up his ally at all. "Well, that sucks fer you," he said lamely. "What's yer name?"
"Ashroth," he said bluntly. Cid jumped.
"Uhh... are you sure about that?"
Now the boy looked amused. "Of course. Boo, I'm the Supreme General of Shinra Incorporated."
"Uh-huh," said Cid, convinced the kid was off his rocker. He was even more sure of that when the youth suddenly burst into hysterical laughter.
"Oh, you're great," he said in the high-pitched, pubescant voice that Cid had originally expected. "Man, I can fool with the head of every bimbo who comes in here. Hi, my name's Andrew. I got tossed in here cuz I cursed at Ashroth." He laughed maliciously. "Man, what a loser!"
Cid was taken aback once again. "Uhh... yeah," he said, still unsure if this was actually who the kid was, or if he was putting on another show. "When did you meet Ashroth?"
"Oh, he was giving some stupid public announcement in Junon about how he was going to revive the company and all that," Andrew said, making a face of contempt. "The sad part is everybody seemed all enraptured in what he said. It was retarded. The guy wouldn't even look at the crowd! He just sort of stared into space."
"So you yelled curses at him?" Cid almost laughed.
"Sure," Andrew shrugged. "Why not? He was a big ass, and I didn't really wanna just let him get total support from the crowds."
"But didn't ya know you'd get in trouble?" Cid asked, now in the conversation for the entertainment of it all.
"Yeah," Andrew shrugged, "But I don't care. My parents are a couple of Shinra puppets who make over a million a year, so life pretty much sucked anyway."
"What?" Cid asked in confusion. "I thought being rich was supposed to be a good thing!"
"Hah!" Andrew scoffed. "Maybe for some people, but not for me. My parents were never around, and all the kids in school hated me because I was so much richer than them. I didn't even want to ride in to school in a limo, but they made me!"
"Sucks," Cid said mellowly.
"Yeah. So who are you?"
"Cid Highwind," said Cid.
"Is that where AVALANCHE's airship gets its name?" Andrew asked curiously.
"Yeah," Cid nodded. "I actually designed that ship. Not many people know about it, though, cuz I left to be part of the space program before it was done, so I never got any credit for it. Don't really care, though."
"Well, you're never gonna fly again, just warnin ya," Andrew changed the subject. "You sure won't get outa this hellhole."
"Eh, I'll figure out one way or another," Cid shrugged. "I gotten outa tighter scrapes than this before. Although I guess I didn't have a busted up leg then."
"Yeah?" Andrew seemed interested. "Like what?"
"Well," Cid scratched at his chin, thinking back on his quest to stop Meteor. "One time, me, Red, an' Barret were tryin ta stop a Shinra train from gettin inta Corel. We took the train, but then we couldn't figure out how ta stop it. Almost crashed inta Corel, but I managed ta stop it before it did. That's just one example."
"Sounds like you had a good time stopping Shinra from destroying the Planet," Andrew commented.
Cid looked puzzled. "Where'd ya hear it was Shinra doin that?"
Andrew shrugged. "That's what everybody says. It was Shinra, wasn't it? I thought that they were the bad guys-"
Cid shook his head. "They were at first. But after a while, it got much more important to stop a maniac named Sephiroth."
"Really? But I thought Sephiroth dissapeared-"
"Ya got that right," Cid nodded, "But then he came back as a buncha clones, and he was controlling them from inside a chunk of crystalized Mako. Only his mind was still alive. But he was the guy sendin' Meteor, not Shinra."
"So Cloud Strife didn't really impale Rufus Shinra?" Andrew asked dissapointedly.
Cid looked startled again. He was startled- there were a lot more twists to this story than he had realized. It would never be told accurately if he didn't do it now.
"You seem ta have a lotta things wrong," Cid mused. "Allright buddy, I'll start from the beginnin."
Andrew looked excited. "Sweet!" he shouted.
"Keep in mind I didn't join for a while, so all the stuff until I come in is second hand," Cid warned. Then he began to tell the story of what he and the others had done in full detail for the first time. It was sort of fun, to see Andrew getting such a satisfied look of understanding on his face.
"I never heard it that way," he marveled when the story was done.
"That's the way it really happened," Cid concluded.
Before any more words could be spoken, a guard walked up to the cell and opened the door. A squad stood behind him.
"Cid Highwind, you have been sentenced by the Supreme Court of Shinra and Supreme General Keer Ashroth to be executed in exactly thirty minutes. You are to proceed, accompanied by myself and my squad, to the execution chamber immediately, where you will watch the executions of your companions as well. Come."
Cid refused to respond, but the guards walked in and grabbed him roughtly. He certainly wasn't in any condition to fight, he didn't have any weapons or armor, and he was outnumbered. There was nothing he could do. Andrew watched him get dragged off with fearful eyes. If I ever get outa this, I gotta come back and rescue that kid, Cid thought to himself.

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Sepheros had been having strange dreams. His Sephiroth side was dominating him more than ever. He was not Sephiroth, and he did not want to become wholy Sephiroth; he knew that in the end, he could not, but he could become so dominated by Sephiroth's personality that he would be almost the same as Sephiroth. Sephiroth was him, but he was not Sephiroth, and he wanted to keep it that way- he had his own personality, his own thoughts, his own feelings even; to be dominated by Sephiroth would be to lose himself.
But even so, he was obedient to Sephiroth, because Sephiroth was his ruling personality, and he had chosen it that way, not because of prepherance, but because Sephiroth had the strongest mind of any of the minds that made up Sepheros's mind. But the price was that Sephiroth controlled him.

And in his dreams, he was beginning to realize the driving force behind his own creation, and the intentions of Sephiroth.
And he finally knew who his real enemy was. Although Sephiroth hated Cloud Strife, he was not the true enemy. The true enemy was the one who could bring Cloud Strife to his full potential- the one who he had thought he was rid of long ago, but who haunted him with even more power now. The one named Aeris Gainsborough.
This woman of seemingly impossible power was a constant thorn in Sephiroth's side. The Plan was being countered by her own plan, and it would result in a destructive meeting that put all of Sephiroth's intentions at stake. That was why he had harnessed his father's brilliance to create Sepheros. Sepheros had been made as a backup weapon, an incredibly powerful backup weapon that could help Sephiroth achieve his goals without having to battle Aeris on even ground should he be killed before Meteor hit the Planet. Meteor was done now, and the larger force- that which spawned both Meteor and Holy- was the goal. Sephiroth had not known it until he had been made a Sage of the LifeStream, but now its full powers were revealed to him, and that had been what revised his plans of using Sepheros. Originally, the clone of billions of minds had been created to seek out Meteor and re-attempt to wound the Planet with it; but now, he was to break the plan of Sephiroth's rival, Aeris, in order to ensure that Sephiroth's own plan was successful. And if he was unable to do that, to help Sephiroth get around Aeris. And the only way to do so, because Aeris was millions times more powerful than Sepheros was, was to destroy one of her tools, Cloud, or either of the other two. But Cloud was the ideal, because Sephiroth had no grudge against the others- he did not even know who they were yet, although he would soon, he expected. So, because he was Sephiroth, Sepheros wanted to kill Cloud the most, and would use every method possible to do that. Thus Sephiroth had agreed to focus on hiding Sepheros's new weapon from Aeris as long as was possible. How long that would be, Sephiroth did not know, for he and Aeris were equally powerful, both among the highest level of Sages of the LifeStream. Sepheros would have to work fast, and to do that, he needed Hojo. He had formed an alliance with the madman, the father of his father, his own father; an agreement known only to them. And when he was done with Hojo, he would kill him.
Sepheros was ready to put together his new weapon with the help of Hojo, finally. And soon, Cloud would be killed, because there was no way he could escape this weapon.

************************************************************************

Cid knew that if he didn't get out of here fast, he and the others would be killed. At least Reeve could tell them something, but they'd never know they'd been killed. Or perhaps Shinra would broadcast it, and then everyone would know.
He was lead into the execution room at Junon, the very same one he'd been to ages ago when he and the others were going to be executed during the quest to stop Sephiroth. Funny how he would die here anyway, after all that. But at least he'd stopped Meteor, so his life had a purpose.
They were told to keep utterly silent, and knew it was in their best interests to do so. Cid sat and watched as Vincent was taken from his seat and lead up to the electric chair. This was it. The end was near. Cid shut his eyes as the Vincent was strapped to the chair. He did not look nervous before Cid stopped looking; he wasn't sure how the young warrior's face looked when the electricity started, but Cid could hear the horrible sound of the voltage seeping through Vincent's body. He started imagining being a chunk of LifeStream. It sounded pretty boring.
But then, all at once, the buzzing stopped. There were noises- guards yelling, and gunshots. Cid opened his eyes suddenly. There, to his astonishment, was Andrew, and he was casting spells on the Shinra guards! They tried to fire back at him, but he'd cast Shield, and their bullets did nothing. An alarm went off.
"Andrew!" Cid shouted in amazement. "Where did you-?"
"My name's not Andrew, it's Denny," said Andrew, who was now Denny. "And there's no time to explain. Let's get you guys out of here before they bring in SOLDIER."
He grabbed a key off one of the fallen bodies of the guards, whose chest had been blown open by Flare, and quickly undid the chains that held Cid and Red down, then freed Vincent from the chair and promptly cast Cure 3 on him, healing the effects of the shocking.
"That was quite an odd experience," Vincent commented.
"We have to go now!" Denny shouted. "Let's go!"
Instead of running for the doorway, though, he cast Quake 3 on the wall that overlooked the Junon Bay, and charged for it. "Jump!" he shouted, "And slide down the slanted walls of Junon! You'll be okay!"
It was crazy, but Cid realized it was really their only chance of getting out. But he had to find their weapons and Materia, so he would be back.
The three companions jumped out the hole in the wall as Denny advised. It was surprisingly easy to safely slide down to the the ground below. Unfortunately, Target Walkers, the latest in robotic security for Shinra, were already heading towards them, blazing their machine guns and preparing to launch missiles.
"What do we do about those?" Red asked.
"We let him play with them," Denny shrugged, and cast Ramuh. The gigantic form of mighty Ramuh burst up from the ground, lightning blazing from his staff and short-cuircuting the walkers, causing them to explode.
"You are one amazing kid," Cid shook his head.
"You're not the only one who can fight Shinra," Denny replied. "Let's go."
"We need to find our weapons and Materia first," Cid argued.
"What do you think I've been using to fight all these guys?" Denny grinned back at him. They ran off.
They were running across the port area when a battallion of Shinra guards saw them and began to run after them, firing their assault rifles and chucking grenades. Fortunately, they weren't particularly good aimers with those grenades.
Then, Cid spotted what could be their saving grace- a large tank. "Get in there!" he yelld, pointing at the armored vehicle. Denny nodded at him, and they ran for the tank.
Cid was the last in. "Any idea how ta drive this thing?" he asked to everyone in general.
Vincent nodded. "They taught us how to drive these in the turks," he said.
Cid had forgotten that Vincent used to be a member of the turks over the course of their adventures, and he now realized how useful that fact could be. Vincet may be able to reveal important information about Shinra that they'd never known. He stored the information away in case of need.
Vincent proved to be miraculously adept at piloting the huge machine. His memories must have been very strong- thirty years in a coffin would be enough to lose half the ability to speak for most people, and Vincent was one of the most well-spoken people Cid knew. He was an amazing fellow sometimes, although Cid still didn't know him very well, and niether did anyone else.
Needless to say, the Shinra guards weren't very effective at taking the armored tank out, and they rolled out of there with speed.
"To the ports," Cid said. "We're finally gettin outa here."
"Not a chance," Denny shook his head.
"What?!" Cid practically hit the kid.
"I can't leave until I finish everything I was sent to do. I've only done half of that."
"And what exactly does the other half consist of?" asked Red.
"I have to shut down the Shinra fleet," said Denny. "They're going to send everything at Junon to Wu Tai in a week. If we don't stop that, it'll turn the tides of the battle. Wu Tai's navy is rather pathetic. If this fleet gets there, they won't stand a chance against it, and Shinra can keep the whole continent under siege."
"Who the fuck sent you, boy?!" Cid practically screamed.
"I work for... a rather unique organization," Denny said uneasily. "You're probably not really ready to find out about it."
"But you're just a kid!" Cid argued. "What kind of an organization sends teenagers to do its dirty work?"
"I imagine no organization does," Denny shrugged. "Allright, this isn't going to work if I don't unveil myself now."
Cid was about to respond with another quip, but he stopped in amazement as Denny's body slowly began to wriggle around like jello. His clothes seemed to merge with his body, which was turning blue, and out of that mass came dark gray chain armor, and then, even more strangely, a pair of bat-like wings. He finally stopped his odd shape-shifting, and when the miraculous change was done, he no longer stood on the ground but hovered softly above it by about a foot, not using his wings, but some unseen, gravity-defying force held him. His body was completely blue and he wore powerful looking chain male. His face was the most astonishing- it looked mostly human, except that his features were sharper and his ears looked more like bat's wings. His body was very powerfully built, although not any taller than he had been before- about three fourths of Cid's height. However, he was still mostly at face level with Cid because of his levitation trick.
"I am aproximately 500 years old in your time," said Denny. "My real name is Devonan."
"Damn," Cid said in amazement.
"Most peculiar," Red mused.
"You both should have guessed," Vincent said carelessly.
"What?!" Cid freaked out again. "Why the hell would we be able to see that he's some wierd gargoyle thing?!"
"Shiniji," said Devonan.
"What?"
"I am a Shiniji."
Vincent broke in again. "It was obvious he was not truly human because no human boy of that age could possibly perform the feats he did, and didn't you see that his running speed was aided by slight levitational capabilities? I didn't know he was a Shiniji, whatever that may be, but I knew he wasn't human. I am living proof that a creature can appear human yet be something else on the inside. You should be more alert."
Red smiled. "You are wise, Vincent, but not in the way you think you are."
Vincent disregarded him.
Cid turned back to Devonan. He hated it when these two got all intelectual, so he decided to try and figure out what was up with this "Shiniji".
"So what exactly are you?" he asked.
"I am quite similar to you humans, really," Devonan shrugged. "I am a Shiniji. We are beings who live many times the life of one of you, but do not reproduce even a fraction of the speed. There are probably no more of us than 20 in this world, and we are thriving."
"Must suck," Cid commented.
"Not really," Devonan shook his head. "We do not know the need for companionship like you humans do. We do what we must do, and that is all."
"So what is it that you do?" Red asked.
"We do whatever the Planet asks of us," said Devonan. "You may even have seen one of us before but not known it, as we are skillful shapeshifters, but only in our own size. That was why I appeared to you as a youngster- I simply could not look older."
"You can communicate with the Planet?" Red asked, now seeming more interested in this than Cid was. Cid wasn't sure if Vincent was paying attention; he was busy avoiding Shinra troops, but could have been paying attention. anyway. Who knew what Vincent was capable of?
Devonan shook his head. "The Planet can only communicate with us. We do as it asks, but cannot ask anything of it, or tell it anything. We believe we were probably created for the sake of serving the Planet, but do not know for sure."
"So the Planet told you to rescue us and destroy the Junon fleet?" asked Cid.
"Correct," Devonan affirmed. "And I could probably use your help."
"Well..." Cid mused. "I suppose that we can't let Wu Tai get wasted by those things."
"Excellent," said Devonan. "Vincent, head for the docks. There's a hidden stash of explosives there."
"Right," Vincent confirmed.
"Did you store them there beforhand?" Red asked curiously
"A friend of mine did," Devonan shook his head. "His name is Tyrot. He should be joining us when we get there."
"So do you guys have like magic or something?" Cid asked.
"Without the aid of Materia, we can't cast our own magic spells," Devonan shook his head, "But we have our own ways of battling the forces of evil."
Great, though Cid. Another serious, mystical person to talk to. Even Cait Sith was better conversation than a combination of Vincent, Red, and some strange floating magical being. He liked it better when Devonan was just Andrew.
"This really isn't the time for small talk," Vincent reminded them as the ground outside the cramped tank shook with the force of some kind of explosive weapon.
"Looks like they're chuckin' grenades at us again," Cid said, his reverie broken. He climbed up and peered out of the turret of the tank, and saw that the Shinra were now chasing them in other tanks.
"I think I can take care of this," he muttered. He held his spear high in the air, summoned a great portion of power, and released the waves of energy that called to Bahamut as strongly as possible, causing him to appear in his most powerful form, Bahamut Zero.
The tanks only managed to fire off a couple of rounds before they were consumed by the deadly, pinpoint-accurate blast of the mighty dragon lord, but they had been hit. Vincent brough the tank to a careening halt as fast as he could, and the four of companions leapt out.
"We should be pretty near the hiding place," Devonan said, and he hovered off. The others ran after him, keeping an eye out for the next wave of Shinra attackers.
Devonan led them to the edge of the Junon Port, where he floated down and along the edge until he came to a small hole in the structure. He reached in and removed several small devices, then carried them back up to his new allies.
"Those things are gonna destroy the whole fleet?" Cid asked skeptically.
"These are some of the most powerful explosive charges ever made in this size," Devonan reassured him. We need only to plant each one of them at the required mark. My friend has put a large X on each of the spots. But we must first escape and then wait until nightfall. They will be looking for us at this point."
"And we're gonna have a nice long chat, too," Cid agreed. "Let's get outa here."
"Going somewhere without me?" asked a new voice from behind the group. They whirled around to be confronted by another creature similar to Devonan. This one's winds were smaller and his face looked a little more animalistic, but he was built basically the same way- the biggest difference was that his skin was a deep shade of rade, as opposed to Devonan's light blue.
"I almost thought you wouldn't show up, Keveki," Devonan smiled at him.
"Would I go back on my word?" asked the new Shiniji who was apparently named Keveki. "I trust these are the members of AVALANCHE who were taken here?"
Devonan nodded. "We've no time for introductions. Let's go."
Though Cid was curious and his head was packed with questions, he submitted. There wasn't any point in hanging around here, and so they crept away from the port area and into the depths of Junon.

Ashroth's forehead glistened with beads of sweat, his muscles undulated with an almost inhuman power, his concentration focused utterly on one thing and one thing only, destroying the imaginary opponents that surrounded him. He dodged left and right, weaving inbetween their various attacks, performing techniques that most normal men could not even dream of doing; he would leap into the air upside down, spin around with his legs outstretched, and then land on his feet; or he would perform a similar motion revolving on his head alone, or he would run against the wall with such speed that he could run up it halfway and leap all the way around to come down behind an opponent who was chasing him.
He was abruptly interupted, however, by the buzzing of his intercom. Annoyed, but knowing that it was probably important, Ashroth stopped his relentless training and went to the intercom. He pressed the button to allow the person on the other line to speak with him, and was greeted by the voice of Lora, his secretary.
"Sorry to bother you, sir, but there's some rather important news you may want to hear," she said nervously.
"And that is?"
"I don't know, I was told that by the man who wants to see you."
"Who is that?"
"I don't know."
"What?!" Ashroth was furious. "How did he get all the way up here?!"
"It could have something to do with the fact that he's a Taian ninja who's holding a knife to my head right now, sir," she squirmed.
"I see," Ashroth smiled. "Send him in."
About ten seconds later, Ashroth was greeted by a large, powerfully built main in nothing but tan-colored ninja stealth clothing, who carried a rather extensive arsenal of weaponry.
"What do you want?" asked Ashroth.
"My name is Tyshaner Ko Tenjetsu, and I have a message for you from my master."
"Why didn't you come in the normal way instead of threatening my secretary?" Ashroth asked without looking at the ninja. Unlike most people, this fellow was not bothered by the fact that Ashroth did that. The general wondered to himself if people assumed that was why he never looked at anyone.
"I would not have been permitted to see you."
"I see," Ashroth replied in an uncaring tone. "Well, under normal circumstances I'd kill you here and now, but the fact that you made it this far interests me. What do you have to say?"
"My master is a wealthy man of Wu Tai who goes by the name of Kul'Rann Jinn," the ninja said robitically. "I deliver to you this message."
The ninja tossed a small sphere to Ashroth, and he caught it without looking at it. "A message sphere, I see," Ashroth muttered. "Your master must be wealthy indeed if he can afford this kind of technology."
The ninja didn't reply. Obviously, he cared only for acomplishing his mission and not making idle chat. Ashroth admired that in a man, but still found this ninja annoying as he did with most overly serious people. Ashroth did not have a good sense of humor, but he didn't like people who tried to act tough by being silent types. He would teach this ninja a lesson when he had seen the message, assuming he did not need to keep him alive for some reason.
Ashroth flipped the switch, and the sphere caused the room to appear as a blank, utterly black area with a middle-aged man in strangely patterned Taian robes standing in front of him.
"Supreme General Keer Ashroth of Shinra, Incorporated, I presume?" he began in a slow, polite tone.
"I am. And I assume you are Kul'Rann Jinn, a wealthy man who wishes to do some sort of business with me."
"I am as you speak. First, do you know of the legend of Meteo, Ashroth?"
Ashroth snorted. "I've heard of it before, but if you ask me it's all just bullshit. Ultima is the all powerful Materia, and everyone knows that."
"Meteo exists," Kul'Rann said firmly.
"And how exactly would you know that?" Ashroth asked, not looking at the apparition.
"I have connections," Kul'Rann said simply. "But whether I am right or wrong does not concern you in the deal I propose. I have formed a specialized congregation in Wu Tai dedicated to reviving the power of Meteo. This powerful spell could mean the ability for me to overthrow Wu Tai. I assume you remember the method legend states for obtaining Meteo?"
Ashroth nodded. "Apparently the Planet releases it in a time of great need. But it only does so if such is in its best interests."
"That time is approaching," Kul'Rann said ominously. "The Planet will soon release Meteo, and I will obtain it then. But you must assist me by helping to plunge the world into a state of warfare."
"I see," Ashroth mused, "And what do I get in return for this?"
"Two things," Kul'Rann said in a businesslike manner. "First, I will assist you in financing the construction of your new city in Mideel. I understand you could use this."
"I certainly could," Ashroth nodded. Even though Shinra was still a relatively rich company, they were only a shade of the former glory of the company, and a huge city that would be even greater than Midgar was an extremely expensive project.
"The second part of the deal is that I can assist you in dealing with the members of AVALANCHE," Kul'Rann explained.
"I already have them taken care of," Ashroth said smugly. "The thing about them is that once you have one, you have them all. It's just a matter of waiting for them to turn themselves in."
Kul'Rann smiled at him. "On the contrary, Ashroth," he said. "My sources in Junon tell me that they have already escaped."
Ashroth slammed his fist down on his desk, which, because he had been sitting at it, was the only physical object in the room that was part of the apparition that simulated a meeting between the two leaders.
"How do you know this?!" he demanded.
"I have sources," Kul'Rann said with an annoying grin. "Just call up the prisonkeeper and ask."
Ashroth, fuming, but never looking at Kul'Rann in the midst of his anger, pressed a button on the intercom on his desk. "Yessir!" the voice on the other end snapped to attention.
"Have the AVALANCHE prisoners escaped?!" Ashroth fumed.
"Well..." the prisonkeeper sounded very uneasy. "Well, you see sir, it was sort of like this..." Ashroth slammed his fist down on the intercom, destroying it and cutting off the voice of the frightened prisonkeeper.
"You have a deal," he told Kul'Rann grumpily.
Kul'Rann smiled wickedly. "I thought you'd agree." The conference ended.
"Lora!" Ashroth yelled. His secretary came running in.
"Get me a new intercom," Ashroth grumbled.
"Yes sir," Lora nodded. She ran out and returned shortly with a brand new intercom, which she placed carefully on Ashroth's desk.
"Good," he said. "Now go."
She nodded and left. Ashroth pressed the same button, connecting to the prisonkeeper again.
"Get your ass up here, prisonkeeper," he growled.
"Sir, if you just let me explain-"
"I said get your ass the fuck up here, or I'll come down there and pull it up myself!"
"Yessir," the voice said meekly. Five minutes later the prisonkeeper walked humbly through the door.
"You called me, sir?" he asked meekly.
Ashroth stood up and looked right at the man's face. The prisonkeeper screamed and his body burst into blue flames, writhing and vibrating violently on the ground, until he was melted into a pile of human sludge.

"Allright, we need one bomb on each of the three largest ships in their fleet," Devonan instructed. "I'll go with Cid, since his leg is in bad condition. Red and Vincent will each place their bombs on one of the ships."
Everyone nodded. Night had fallen and the time was approaching when they must carry out their deeds. This wasn't how things were supposed to go, but it was important that they do this for the sake of Wu Tai- besides, it would put a major hurt on Shinra.
They split up at midnight. Security guards patrolled the landscape, but for Red, that was no problem. His low stature enabled him to duck behind places a human would not have been able to to stay hidden, and when a soldier did find him, all he had to do was make a quick lunge at their throat for a silent take-down that probably wouldn't alert any of the guards. He managed to slink across the dock and onto the ship he was supposed to place the bomb on without much trouble.
Once onboard, things were different. There were more guards on the ship and not as much space to hide in, since it was closer quarters. He slunk across the deck, jumped behind a crate so that a guard wouldn't see him, and was surprised to hear an alarm going off. Well, that was just fine. He leapt through a window in the wall next to him and unwittingly landed right on the bridge.
"Hey! What the hell is that?!" yelled the captain. The two Shinra guards in the room opened fire. Red leapt to the side, then jumped forward in a great arch to the wall behind the soldiers, proceeding to rebound into the back of one in a spinning attack, then kick the other in the chest with his powerful hind legs. The one he's hit first got up and aimed his rifle, but a quick fire spell took him out. Red walked over to the captain.
"You can jump off, or I can throw you off, either one is fine," he said calmly.
The captiain ran.
Red pulled the explosive device off his back and placed it squarely on the control panels that helped guide the ship. He would have two minutes to escape. That shouldn't be too hard. Red turned and ran toward the window, but more guards came in because of the alarm and began to fire at him.
"Flare!" called Red. Tiny specks of flame began to converge around the soldiers, and before they knew what was happening, the spell had exploded into a blast of fire that sent them all flying against the walls of the room.
Red leapt over the deck with machine gun fire blazing all around him. He was a very skillful swimmer, and just as he reached the dock again, the ship exploded in to a fury of towering flames, taking many of the surrounding boats with it. "That's one powerful bomb," he mused to himself.

Vincent took the stealthy approach. He silently dipped into the water, then swam to the edge of the boat, where he grabbed a ladder on the side and slowly slunk up. He could not use the Death Penalty at this point, since it would be far too noisy and he didn't want to attract attention; instead, he hung at the edge of the ship until a guard walked by, then he leapt up and smashed the butt of the large gun into the back of the man's neck, knocking him out cold. Vincent stripped him of his clothes and tossed the body overboard, then dressed in the uniform. He would look a little suspicious with his abnormally long hair, but at least it would help a little.
Creeping along the decks in the dark of the night, he found a door and stepped inside to end up in a small corridor with many doors on the sides. A guard was standing a few yards away from him; he might as well try the disguise.
Vincent approached the man and asked in a quiet voice, "Could you direct me to the fuel tanks, please?"
The Shinra guard looked over at him, and then, in surprise, yelled, "Who the hell are you?!" Vincent knew that the disguise had failed, and he quickly disarmed the man, then held him in a rear lock with his claw to the man's throat.
"I want to know where the fuel tanks are, now," he demanded in a menacing tone. The fearful Shinra guard gulped and said, "Follow me."
He led Vincent through the corridors and down several staircases to a large metal door far below deck. Two guards stood by it, but they lowered their weapons when they saw that Vincent had their comrade in captivity.
He didn't show any mercy though; Mercy was not like Vincent. He quickly released two Ice spells that killed them quickly and savagely. He walked through the door, still holding the man in place, and saw a row of large tanks in the huge room. He tossed the man aside and started for them. But halfway towards the fuel tanks, he suddenly heard a blaring siren go off, and red lights began to flash on the walls. He looked back, and saw the man running quickly out of the door. He could hear the tramps of soldiers coming quickly down the stairs; he'd have to work fast. Tossing off the soldier's clothes and once again in his own clothes, he ran to the tanks and quickly attatched the bomb, then set it for two minutes. He would have to hope that the guards could not disable it in that time. They began charging into the room, but fortunately, they were hesitant to fire their rifles- a richocheting shot in here could blow them all to kingdom come. Vincent aimed a Flare spell at the wall, and blew a large, gaping hole in the side of the ship, then ran for it. Some of the guards decided to take the risk to fire at him. Vincnet leapt forward to escape the flying bullets, rolled, and came up firing. Every shot he fired took down one guard, and they began to take cover. He ran to the edge of the hole and leapt, leaving the guards firing their rifles in vain.
Once in the water, he swam like hell. He guessed he probably had about a minute until the bomb went off. Fortunately, his powerful arms and legs took him to shore with great speed, and he watched the ship explode in a firey mushroom cloud from the docks, sending the surrounding ships up in flames with it. He had made it. He could only hope that Red and Cid would succeed as well.

Cid's leg was hurting badly, but the mission was more important. He moved along the docks as swiftly as he could, Devonan floating effortlessly along behind him.
"If you run into trouble, just use Ice magic on them," Devonan instructed.
"Why?"
"You'll see why."
"Okay," Cid shrugged. He reached the plank leading up to the ship and slowly walked upward toward the deck. A guard was walking along nearby; Cid simply cast a normal Ice and took him out fairly quietly.
"I didn't notice anything special," he said to Devonan.
"You didn't need to that time," Devonan shrugged.
Cid continued onto the deck of the ship. He soon found a doorway and walked through. Fortunately, Cid was into vehicles, and he knew a lot about ships in general; finding the tank room shouldn't be too hard.
He slowly went down some stairs, his leg hurting more than ever now, and then a couple of guards he hadn't noticed saw him.
"Hey! What's he doing here?!" yelled one of them. He opened fire immediately; Cid ducked behind a doorway.
"Ice!" he yelled, and the guard screamed as the icy shards of the spell took him down. The other guard, however, immediately slammed his fist down on an alarm.
"Shit," muttered Cid. He cast Ice on the other guard, too, but it was too late. He tried to make more progress towards the engine room, but his leg was too painful. He could go little faster than a slug with his leg like this. Soon, guards were upon him.
"Use Ice 3!" Devonan commanded.
"Fine," Cid said a little grudginly at being ordered around, "Ice 3."
Cid felt something passing through him into the magic as he cast the spell, and when it was released, it was far more powerful than any Ice spell Cid had ever seen. It froze all the guards instantly. It had to have been at least as powerful as Ultima.
Cid looked on in astonishment.
"Come on, Cid!" Devonan yelled. "Let's go! We don't have much time till more come!"
"Right," Cid shook off his shock, and continued towards the engine room. It was slow going, but by the time more guards found him, he had placed the bomb. Another Ice 3 took out the next group.
"That's it," Devonan sighed, "I'm out of mana."
"What?!" Cid cried. "Already?!"
"Hey, you think that's easy to do? It takes a lot of power."
Cid nodded. He'd have to get out of here fast- and unfortunately, that was not something his leg would let him do. He needed an alternative.
"Bahamut!" he yelled. Fortunately, the chamber was large enough for Bahamut's massive body, and he blew a huge hole in the side of the wall. Cid hobbled toward the hole as fast as he could. There was about three minutes left on the bomb.
But just as Cid got near the hole, a face he knew well leapt down from the platform above and in front of him. His posh white naval uniform was spotless, his hair slicked back, he was the ideal military man, and in his hand was a ruthless looking spear.
"Cid Highwind," said Admiral Kalakran. "I see that you've pulled quite a stunt. Two thirds of my navy already destroyed, and you're about to try to destroy the last one. It's no wonder Rufus Shinra wanted you so bad, and that Ashroth does as well. You seem to be able to cause quite an uproar for so few people."
"I sure can, and you sure as hell ain't stoppin me," Cid said defiantely. "Ice 3!"
But to Cid's surprise, his spell went flying out the hole in the wall to dissapear harmlessly in the Junon Bay.
"Tsk tsk," Kalakran shook his head sadly. "I'm afraid I've got one of your anti-mako devices as well. Shinra wasted no time in putting them into action. You'll have to go through me physically."
"My pleasure," Cid shrugged. Though he pretended confidence, and though he was very skillful when it came to spearfighting, his leg almost guaranteed failure if Kalakran knew anything about it. He had to find some other way to do this. "On the other hand," he suddenly had an idea, "I know a different way ta get us out of this. My leg's busted, which means I don't stand a chance against you. Basically, I'm dead. Course, I could take you with me."
Cid pointed at the bomb. "Remember," he cautioned, "I still got plenty a magic. A good bolt spell would make that little toy blow its top in a second."
Kalakran went over this for a few seconds, and began to look genuinely worried.
"On the other hand," Cid pretended he was thinking of this all just now, "There is a way we could both live. We could both just bail right now, since that thing's gonna go off real soon."
"You're bluffing," Kalakran tried to sound scornful.
"That a risk ya wanna take?" Cid asked nonchalantly.
"I'm not done with you, Highwind," Kalakran said angrily, and leapt over the side of the boat. "We'll meet again!" he called as he fell.
Cid scrambled to the hole and leapt. With Devonan helping him stay afloat, since he couldn't swim well with his busted leg, he made it back to the dock seconds before the firey explosion took the boat.
"Right, let's get to your sub," Devonan said.
Cid nodded. It was time to pilot the sub again. It would be just like the good old days. But in this case, that was not a good thing. If this whole ordeal turned into the Meteor incident again, Cid wasn't sure if he could take it. Those thoughts troubled him all the way to the sub.

SHINRA HQ, TWO DAYS LATER

"So you didn't tell them about when we approached you, right?" Hojo asked his acomplice from his lab desk.
"Nope, left off right before that part," replied the acomplice.
"And you did make genuine ones for them, right?"
"Right," the acomplice acknowledged.
"And you're absolutely positive you gave away nothing about your affiliation with Shinra?"
"Completely," the acomplice nodded.
"Allright. Your last name is Majorik from now on, remember that."
"I do," nodded the acomplice. "How is- X?"
"You may call him by his real name if you like," Hojo shrugged. "Just don?all it to his face. Anyway, he's coming along well. His rage is quite astonishing at certain points, though. He's a real fury machine. I don't blame him, of course. He even wants to kill Cloud now."
"I assume he's not mad at me-"
"Of course not. You're all he has left."
"What about Cloud? I thought they were friends?"
"They were," Hojo shrugged, "But I told him a false story about when the two of them escaped that changed everything he ever felt about spikey-ass."
The acomplice nodded. "Good," he said. "I hate that dipshit. He could have helped him-"
"He didn't want to be helped at the time," Hojo shrugged. "Besides, Cloud has a very high sense of nobility. He had to help the girl first. It would be right in his eyes."
The acomplice nodded again. "I guess so. But still, I'll never get over the fact that he could have done something, but didn't."
"Hojo!" a voice from Hojo's intercom interrupted their conversation with its screaming. Neither had been prepared for such a furious shout.
"Yes sir?" Hojo asked emotionlessly. When Supreme General Keer Ashroth of Shinra Incorporated was yelling at you through an intercom, it was a very, very bad sign, even for Proffessor Hojo. In fact, it might even mean he wouldn't get to use Shinra to his own ends anymore, and that was an idea he really didn't like.
"Get up here now!" the general yelled furiously. "And bring that dumbass who's working with you up here too!"
"Yes sir," Hojo said, and flipped off his intercom. Then he turned it off. "Aers!" he yelled. "His royal nonchalance wants to see us."
Aers "Majorik" walked out of his office into Hojo's lab. "Did he-?" Aers asked fearfully.
"Probably," Hojo nodded. "I guess I should have anticipated he might."
"But... I'm the one who'll..."
"Actually, we both might," Hojo shrugged. "Or he might spare us. Ashroth is a moody and unpredictable man. Let's go."
The two scientists walked along the corridors of the makeshift Shinra HQ in Mideel towards Ashroth's office. Hojo knocked.
"Get in here, assholes," Ashroth roared from inside.
Hojo and Aers stepped in.
"Yes?" asked Hojo.
"Well," Ashroth began, "There's a report I recieved that I thought might interest you. Two days ago, the three escaped members of AVALANCHE destroyed the remainder of our fleets at Junon. The interesting part is that apparently, they had working versions of the Mako deflector device. Would you care to explain what's going on here?"
"I... musta..." Aers stuttered.
"What did you do?" Hojo asked suspiciously.
"Wha-?" Aers suddenly looked extremely confused.
"WHAT must you have done?!" Ashroth raged.
"I- must have-"
"WHAT?!"
"I must have made a mistake!"
"Aers," Hojo asked with fury so well acted it looked completely genuine, "What on earth did you do that for? We had a deal!"
"Apparently, someone is still mad at Shinra afterall," Ashroth said menacingly, but looking at his desk.
"Well.... no! I-"
"I'll leave him to you, sir," Hojo said, and walked out the door.
"Hojo! Wait! You can't just-" The last sounds uttered by Aers "Majorik", brother of Zack, were agony-filled screams of pain as he died a torturous death.

MIDGAR PLAINS, ABOUT THE SAME TIME

"I hate bugs," Yuffie said viciously, swinging wildly around at the what seemed like the billionth mosquito that day. She, Tifa, Rude, and Hanshi had been traveling at a rather grueling pace for the last three days, desperately attempting to find a way around the frustratingly long gorge that Sepheros had created in his tantrum after being almost defeated by Cloud. As they walked alongside the huge deformation in the earth's crust, they would often glance down to the bottom of the canyon and see the vast flowing rivers of green, bubbly LifeStream that had been exposed to the fresh air of the surface.
"Just ignore them," Tifa advised. "You'll catch on."
"Or pretend that they're candy," Hanshi said in his aloof way. "Try to eat them! Show 'em who's boss!"
"Yuck!" Yuffie practically screamed, even so there was laughter in her voice. "You're sick!"
"I'm not sick," Hanshi shook his head, "You're just a jerk!"
Tifa found herself smiling in amusement as she always did at Hanshi's antics. It was like he wished he were still only three years old. And yet, he found nothing wrong with killing or stealing when he felt he needed to do it- it was strange. She also sort of expected that Yuffie was attracted to him. He even seemed like her type, the type that could satisfy her wild heart.
"Well you're the one making gross comments about eating bugs!" Yuffie retorted, giving him a playful push.
"That's just different, not sick," Hanshi said.
Tifa looked back from the bickering Taians at the quiet Rude. He hadn't exactly been the most active member of their group- in fact, he seemed rather depressed. He probably felt out of place here- afterall, two of his companions were his former enemies, and Elena had been the one who'd really arranged the connection between them, so he didn't have a real assosiation with these people yet. And he'd never even seen Hanshi until recently. She decided she might as well try to make him feel as comfortable as possible, and fell in beside him.
"Silent type, huh?" she asked conversationally.
Rude looked up in surprise. "Huh? Oh, hi."
"Hi," Tifa said brightly. "Why so glum? It's a nice day. Good day for a walk."
Rude shrugged. "I just feel like I don't have a purpose in life anymore," he confessed. "I've always been a Shinra man. My parents worked for Shinra, and I've always worked for Shinra since I was old enough to train to become a Turk. Now what do I do?"
"You're part of AVALANCHE now," Tifa said enthuisiastically. "That's really much better than working for Shinra. You're a lot more free. Not to mention that you're on the right side."
Rude shrugged.
The silence was suddenly broken by the yells of Yuffie and Hanshi up ahead. Tifa and Rude bolted towards them.
The two Taians were facing a tremendous monster, something Tifa was extremely startled to see out here on the Midgar plains. She had only seen these things in the cave under the North Crater, and didn't think they existed anywhere else. But there was no mistaking it- the large, black-scaled creatured could only be an Ultima Dragon.
"Careful!" she shouted. "That thing casts some of the most powerful magic spells in existance!"
Hanshi was trying to shoot it with his gatling gun, but the tough scales deflected the bullets as though they were ping-pong balls. Yuffie attempted to hurl her Conformer at its neck, but got similar results. Tifa knew that they only way they could effectively take this beast out was with magic.
"Quake 3!" she shouted, and the thunderous eruptions of the earth that the spell causes threw the dragon backwards, giving Yuffie and Hanshi time to move away from the dangerous cliff that was the edge of the gorge created by Sepheros's fury.
The dragon was by no means defeated, however, and it quickly recuperated and turned back to its advarsaries. This time, though, the beast attacked in a completely different manner than before.
"Run!" Tifa screamed as she realized that the beast was charging up an Ultima. She had been right, too; fortunately, no one was hit by the blast, but the force of the impact sent them flying to the ground.
Hanshi leapt back up again, a rage in his eyes. "Allright, punk, try me!" he yelled, and made a charge for the dragon.
It immediately charged him as well, but instead of meeting head on, Hanshi leapt into the air and landed on the dragon's neck. He tore his katana from its sheath and began to vigorously slash at the tough scales that covered the dragon's throat, but even his razor-sharp blade could not penetrate the blades.
Meanwhile, Yuffie cast Fire 3 and Rude cast Lightning 3, but niether did much to hurt the dragon signifigantly. Tifa knew she would have to think fast; the fight wouldn't go much longer if they couldn't gain an advantage over the monster very soon.
"Yuffie!" she yelled. "Get around the dragon, so that you're facing the gorge, but it's between you and the gorge!"
Yuffie looked at her blankly, but obeyed. But as she ran to the position Tifa had instructed, the dragon noticed her running there and seemed not to like it. He immediately sent another Ultima flying her way, and knocked her sprawling to the ground.
Tifa gasped and ran after her; meanwhile Rude and Hanshi distracted the beast.
"Are you okay?" she asked desperately, kneeling down beside Yuffie.
"Not... really..." Yuffie muttered through aching lungs.
"Cure 3!" Tifa called desperately. She was not to late, and the magic kicked Yuffie back into action. She leapt up, her energy renewed.
"Okay, what do I do now?" she asked, at the ready.
Tifa almost laughed at the irony of the drastic change, but concentrated on the fight. "Cast Leviathan on the thing," she instructed. "The tidal wave should knock it into the pit."
"Good idea!" Yuffie exclaimed. "Leviathan!" she yelled, and the mighty, majestic form of the god of Wu Tai sprang to life in front of them, ushering in with him a temendous wave.
"Hanshi!" Tifa screamed, having forgotten he was on the creature's back. "Get off!"
Hanshi took one look at the approaching wave and ran. The dragon, fortunately, was much slower due to its massive body weight, and didn't have time to escape the wave. It was carried up by the force of the water and hurled over the edge of the pit, where it dissapeared from their site.
Tifa breathed a gasp of relief, and she and Yuffie ran to meet the men. But as they all came together near the edge of the pit, a dark black claw suddenly burst up from over the side of the gorge, and the head of the Ultima dragon followed it. The dragon had actually grabbed the side of the gorge and climbed!
"Quake 3!" Tifa yelled quickly, and the ground where the dragon held on rumbled and broke apart, sending it tumbling into the LifeStream far below.
"I'm almost glad Sepheros made those pits now," Tifa remarked.
"We wouldn't have met that dragon in the first place if he hadn't," Rude pointed out.
The four of them sat down to rest for a while. They talked of many things during the hour they sat, and then got up to continue their trek, far more united than before the fight, and ready for anything.

JUNON PORT

Cid was surprised to see yet another Shiniji floating idly beside Vincent and Red when he approached the sub, his leg killing him. This one was very black, his wings a little less bat-like, and his body a bit more well-built. He was roughly the same size and shape as Devonan and Keveki, however.
"This is Kicharin," Devonan informed Cid when they met.
Kicharin nodded. "I'll be accompanying you, as will Devonan and Keveki," he said solemnly.
"What? Why?" Cid asked.
"Apparently the Planet told them to," Red explained for them. "These Shiniji could be a big help, though. Have they told you what they can do to enhance the power of magic spells?"
"Shown me, actually," Cid acknowledged. "Allright then, let's go."
"Don't forget me," said a familiar voice from behind them. They all whirled around instantly, to be faced with the astonishing sight of Cait Sith no longer riding a moogle, but instead a proud, sturdy, golden Chocobo. "This is really a much more useful ride, don't you think?" Reeve asked through Cait. "You're looking at Cait Sith No. 3!"
"Is it alive?" Cid asked dubiously.
"It's stuffed, but it's at least as fast as a real chocobo," Cait assured them. "It?ven fire proof. Now come on, let's go!"
They all nodded, and climbed aboard the submarine. It was time to find the others and finally finish the long process of the rejoining.

Cloud's mood was somber as he slowly trudged across the Midgar plains. He had a very, very strange tornado of feelings moving around too fast for him to keep check of in his head and his heart, and sorting them out would take quite some time. Ever since he decided to let Aeris flow freely back into his mind, he'd been feeling her absense like a hole in his chest. He had the distinct feel that she should be there with him, every waking moment she should, but for some reason she was not, and it was unbearable. But there was also the shock of having suddenly become so close to Elena. The two of them were talking a lot now, and discovering what amazingly interesting people they both were. Cloud had never really thought of Elena as another person in that kind of way- she'd always been an obstacle, but then she had become a tool, and now she was a companion. He didn't know exactly how he felt about her, but he did know that he would miss her enormously if she was ever taken away.
It took awhile, but Cloud finally came to a conclusion about why they could relate to eachother so perfectly. Both of them had loved and lost, and both to the same terrible enemy: Sephiroth. Though Elena had originally thought it was Cloud who killed Tseng, she now knew that it had indeed been Sephiroth, and her hatred had been turned to him as completely as Cloud's. They had first shared and discovered that mutual feeling in the desperate battle they'd just had against Sepheros, who they knew was Sephiroth, though more as well. It was a binding feel that wove them together and connected them in a way Cloud had never experienced before. The only thing he was certain of was that is was not how he had felt about Aeris.
Another thing Cloud noticed was the increasing edginess of Reno. He hadn't seemed too uncomfortable in this group before, but all of a sudden he was angry and dispositioned most of the time. As a result, everyone just left him alone, which only made his moodiness more profound. Cloud hadn't ever thought of Reno as a moody kind of guy, and he couldn't seem to figure out what was up with this sudden change. When he asked Elena about it, she just shrugged and said, "He's childish. I don't think I understand him at all anymore." That didn't seem like a normal thing for Elena to say, either. As far as he could tell, she'd always been good friends with Reno and Rude, even if they were always bickering. Something odd was going on.
But all thoughts of those kinds of matters suddenly faded into oblivion when after what seemed like an eternity, they finally came upon the welcome sight of the shore. It shouldn't be long before the sub came floating past, ready to pick them up. Then all they'd have to do was look for the others.
The sub showed up right on time- they only had to wait an hour for the sub to return. The wait was only a couple days until Tifa, Rude, Hanshi, and Yuffie finally appeared in the distance. They quickly boarded the submarine, and the group was finally reunited. It was time to go home and find out where the hell Shinra had dissapeared to.

Syphe Techro, lead engineer for Shinra Inc, was in a very bad mood that afternoon. He had reluctantly begun drilling into the soil of the ravaged land of Mideel to start sucking out the precious Mako from underneath the crust of the earth. But every time he felt like shutting the whole thing down and quitting, he remembered that his boss was possibly the most dangerous man in the world, and if he made that boss angry, he'd get it, and if he got it, his wife and his two beautiful kids would recieve no money and starve. No matter how many times he told himself that Shinra was wrong and that he was supporting it, he simply could not bring himself to do what he knew he should. He could not bear to think what would happen if he was gone.
But he had to do something, so he decided to talk to Ashroth about it. He knew there was a slight risk involved, but also he was one of the best engineers in the biz, and that Ashroth probably wouldn't dispose of him too quickly. He prayed he was right as he approached the tent that Ashroth had made his office during the construction of Midgar 2.
"Come in," came the response as Syphe knocked. Muttering one last prayer, he opened the makeshift wooden door to the tent and slowly approached Ashroth's wide desk.
"Yes?" Ashroth asked. He sounded like he wasn't in a particularly bad mood, which was promising.
"I just was wondering if we could talk about an issue I feel is of some importance," Syphe began.
"Sit down, Techro," Ashroth said bluntly. Of course he did not look up at Syphe. "I assume you're here because you're upset with the Midgar 2 project. You don't like destroying Mideel."
Syphe was, naturally, taken aback by this, but before he had time to say anything, the supreme general continued:
"I am well aware of your objections to the project, Mr. Techro. But I want you on this project, and I'm not letting you leave. You're a good engineer, and they're hard to find these days."
That made Syphe mad. What did this bozo mean, he wasn't going to let him? Syphe did not belong to Ashroth.
"Sir, I have every right to quit this job," he said a little defiantly.
"Most certainly," Ashroth agreed, a little too wholeheartedly. "But that has nothing to do with what I will do if you actually do quit. If you quit this job, you will not find your family at home when you leave."
Those words struck terror into Syphe's very core. Ashroth was a deadly, deadly man. He was so uncannily perceptive about these things; it was like he had a natural ability to sense whatever it was that could cause a person more pain and fear than anything else. Nothing was more important to Syphe than family, and Ashroth had somehow picked up on that even though he'd never talked to the man about it. He was horrifying in that respect, and in the dim light of the tent, he almost looked to Syphe like a monster, a demon sent to this earth to torture as many people as he possibly could.
"Yes sir," he said meekly. He left the tent and ran for his own quarters to shiver for a while.

The chocobo farm was not the destination of the sub as it floated carelessly along the gentle waters of the Junon Ocean. Instead, the craft was heading in the direction of Rocket Town. Cid had informed everyone that a little surprise he'd been having prepared should be ready by now, and that it would be very useful to get a hold of now.
Unfortunately, this was no cruise; the sub was not designed for comfort, and so the living conditions were not good. It was fairly cramped and there was little to occupy the companions other than sitting up on the deck and staring at the sky or sleeping. Concequently, they all sort of retracted; Cloud turned to daily manning the sub in a silent, uncaring way; Barret became grumpy and temperamental of course, Cid sat and smoked all day, Cait Sith did nothing as Reeve was not bothering to control him, Hanshi paced around and whined about how bored he was, Yuffie did was Hanshi did, Elena sat around thinking deep thoughts, Reno and Rude sat around thinking shallow thoughts, and Red and Vincent sat and conversed about a wide variety of matters. Meanwhile, Tifa desperately tried to bring everyone out of their repressed moods, but to no avail. It was a rather boring time, and by the time they were only a day away from Rocket Town, everyone was grumpy, even Tifa, which was almost unheard of.
Cloud sat and fiddled idly with the control stick of the vehicle while he thought about Aeris. He had gotten to the point where he could think about her without hurting- he felt a sorrow still, but did not feel a great pain as he had before. Maybe it was helping to think about her without trying not to. He snapped out of his reverie when he heard two voices unexpectedly shouting at eachother: Tifa and Elena.
"Would you just shut up and leave me alone?!" Tifa yelled.
"Then take it back, bitch!" Elena retorted.
"Why the hell should I do that?!"
"Because I'll kick your ass, that's why!"
"Oh, come on, get over here and try it!"
Cloud went running in the direction of the yelling. It was soon joined by an enraged Yuffie; Cloud couldn't tell whos side she was on, but expected it to be Tifa's, since Yuffie tended to be loyal to whoever she'd known for longer- assuming it was not in her best interests to be unloyal, that is.
Cloud rushed into the cargo room, where the ladies slept, but was too late to stop a fight; Tifa had already flipped Elena onto her back and put her in a vicious lock on the floor by pressing her knee against the helpless turk's back and pulling her arms upward.
"Tifa!" Cloud exclaimed in shock.
Tifa seemed to snap out of something, and then reluctantly got up, shaking her head.
"I'm sorry," she said, sounding exhausted, "I can't believe I snapped like that."
"Me niether," Elena muttered, getting back up from her humiliating position. Yuffie was standing by the two of them, looking back and forth between the them with huge eyes. Apparently, she hadn't actually thought that it would come down to a fight.
"Cloud, tell that bitch to take back what she said about me, okay?" Elena added.
"I won't tell her anything if you don't apolagize for calling her an offensive name," Cloud said sternly.
By now, Vincent, Red, Cid, Hanshi, and Rude and Reno had all come in to see what was going on.
"Oh, right," Elena rolled her eyes. "I had every right to!"
"She's not exactly telling the whole story," Tifa said grumpily.
"I told all he needs to hear," Elena shot back.
"Everybody shut up," Cloud said exhaustedly. "Why don't I let Yuffie tell me what happened?"
"Oh sure, let that little bitch do it," Elena rolled her eyes. Cloud gave her a look, and she shut up.
"Allright," said Yuffie, who seemed to have regained her composure. "Elena was in a bad mood, so she started bitching at Tifa for everything she did. Then Tifa told her to just leave her alone, and she started screaming. So then Tifa just starting yelling back, and of course I started yelling at Elena too, cuz she's a bitch..."
"If anyone says the word bitch one more time, I'm going to toss all three of you overboard," Cloud grated. "Now just tell it from a nuetral point of view."
"There's nothing more to say," Yuffie shrugged. "Elena thought she could beat Tifa in a fight, which was really stupid."
"I wasn't trying very hard," Elena mumbled.
"I think you guys are just getting a little groggy from these cramped conditions," Cloud sighed. "Go get some fresh air or something. Just don't act like kids, okay?"
Elena and Tifa both looked ashamed, and Elena quickly climbed up the ladder that led to the deck. Everybody cleared out except Cloud and Tifa.
"I'm sorry," Tifa said quietly. "I don't know why..."
"It's okay," Cloud shrugged. "Remember, I've gone crazy before too," he added with a smile. "Is Yuffie's acount accurate?"
"I'm just... very upset with Elena," Tifa shrugged. She seemed to feel it was a slightly delicate subject.
"Why?"
"I-" Tifa didn't finish, but simply got up and left the room. Cloud shook his head in bewilderment and went back to the controls, wishing he could just go join the LifeStream now, where everything would be peaceful.

Like a steel blade snapping in two, all tensions completely ceased between the companions as soon as they stepped onto land- at least for now, anyway. Cloud couldn't help but notice that Tifa and Elena were still keeping away from eachother, and he made a mental note to figure out just what was going on between them sometime- just not now. There were too many other things to figure out going on now.
It didn't take long for them to reach Rocket Town as it was fairly near the coast, but they could already see what the surprise was from a distance: The Highwind was resting on a high platform where Shinra No. 1 used to stand, but it was not the Highwind they had previously known. Huge rocket engines now jutted from the back, it had been re-painted a shining, spectacular gold, and a pair of magnificent wings jutted out from the sides. The former airship had been transformed into an awe-inspriring supersonic jet- and Cid immediately informed them that that wasn't the half of it.
"I also had her equipped with a bunch of weapons, both Mako-type and normal," Cid bragged. "And the coolest new feature is that it can carry the buggy and the sub around underneath it! This baby is a masterpiece!"
"Cid, congradulations," Cloud said in awe.
"It's gorgeous," Elena said admiringly.
"Yeah, kinda like me," Cid grinned, sending Elena into an uproar of laughter.
"Aren't you just the cutey," she joked.
"Whatcha talkin about? He's even uglier than Cloud," Barret joined in.
"Thanks, Barret," Cloud laughed.
"Can I be cute too?" Hanshi asked in a high-pitched voice that didn't sound entirely healthy. Elena cracked up more.
"I'm surrounded by comedians," she said between bursts.
"I can do cute stuff, like rumple your hair," said Hanshi, and he gave Elena a noogie. She squealed and ducked. "Cloud and Elena are both chocobo heads," was the oddball Taian's next ridiculous comment.
Cloud smiled to himself as Elena laughed with the others. It was so strange how she'd so quickly settled right into the group. But what had happened that she and Tifa had ended up hating eachother? And Yuffie, too?
Meanwhile, Tifa felt a pang of jealousy as her old term for Cloud's hair was used to describe Elena with him. She immediately tried to purge herself of such childish feelings, but they were too natural. Why was she so jealous every time Elena was the focus of attention? Tifa was most certainly not desperate for attention; she'd always been quite content to be the quiet one in the backround.
Maybe she had been too used to being the lady of the group? But that didn't make much sense either; they treated her like one of the group, not like a godess- and Tifa certainly wouldn't have it any other way, of course. It just didn't fit.
Then it hit her- she was jealous that Elena was hogging Cloud's attentions. They'd been good friends for so long now, it just didn't feel right for him to be paying more attention to another woman. That was ridiculous, she told herself- it's a good thing that Cloud is talking to women again. Maybe it means he's over Aeris. He has every right to take an interest in Elena. Afterall, she's smart, fun, and good looking- why shouldn't he? But wasn't Tifa all those things too? She shook her head, trying to clear those thoughts away. It was completely natural for Cloud to be paying attention to Elena; Tifa knew perfectly well that the two of them were just friends, and that that feeling was mutual. But the matter kept bugging her for days on end anyway.

"How is the subject, Dr. Zephyn?" asked Hojo as he entered the Project X Lab.
"He's dealing pretty well with the knowledge that Aers was killed by Cloud," Zephyn smirked. "He actually stopped putting holes on the walls to eat this morning."
"Excellent," Hojo congradulated his apprentice. "You've done well, Doctor. I think you'll be the next of Shinra's great proffessors someday."
"I eagerly await that position," said the young but brilliant Zephyn, leaning back in her chair and smiling at the prospect.
"I think our subject will be ready to go hunting in a few more months," Hojo smiled, looking through the broad, one-way-mirror that the two proffessors used to watch X as he carried out his meaningless existence inside the steel room he was caged in. Hojo was the only one who was alowed to go into the cage, as he was the only one X trusted- anyone else would be nothing more than a bloody splat on the wall if they dared enter the forbidden room. Before Aers was gone, there were a few other scientists who could enter, but now that he had been "killed by Cloud", X was twice as dangerous as before. "I think I'll go see him."
The room was a very large space that contained several punching bags and various other training equipment, a small table in one corner, and a small cot in another. X was doing pull-ups on a twenty-feet-high pole that stretched across the expance of the room. That pole was where most of X's daily activities happened- he would swing across the beam like a monkey, do flips off of it, and of course do pull-ups. "How are you, Zack?" Hojo called up to X.
X flipped off the pole and landed in front of Hojo.
"Angry," he said in a whisper.
Hojo smiled. "Who are you angry at?"
"CLOUD!" shouted the furious young man.
Zack had changed. His hair was still spikey, but so long now that it went down across his back; he still wore his old SOLDIER uniform, but he had trained so hard that the expanding mass of his muscles had caused it to tear in several places; he no longer wielded a Buster Sword, but a deadly Murasame, and most of all, his eyes no longer glowed lightly, but with an intense, horrifying red light that bespoke of boundless rage and hatred. After being shot down, he'd undergone a treatment that Hojo had once sworn he would never allow to be duplicated- but with new research from a brilliant young student named Kre Zephyn, the process seemed tempting again. Zack had been given the treatment of a former turk named Vincent Valentine, but the process had been refined to cause his powers to be more in control. Unfortunately, the fact that he had complete control over his powers made the temperamentalness go elsewhere- his personality. Zack was possibly the most dangerous person alive now, with the exception of Keer Ashroth, who destroy people's souls by looking at them.
"That's what I thought," Hojo nodded routinely. "You have a lot to be angry at him for. Remember all the things he did?"
"First he left me to die as we tried to escape from AVALANCHE," Zack began, the furious glow in his eyes even more intense, "Then he joined them and betrayed me. And to top it all off, he killed my brother."
"The last remnant of family you have," Hojo said with feigned sympathy. "Soon, Zack, we'll be done with Shinra, and then, then you will really be able to kill Cloud. Whether or not you are used by our Master, you will still get to kill Cloud."
"But what if the Chaos Leader kills him first?" Zack asked.
"The Chaos Leader can't truly kill him. It's very hard to explain- when the Event happens, there won't be any killing of actual people, it will just seem that way. I really don't know much more than that- it is all the Master has revealed to me. What I need to do now is seek out the Companions of Chaos. I still have no idea who they are. Once we've found them, and our enemy has formed the Companions of Order, we will know which course of action to take. Until then, you must be patient."
"Patience is so hard," Zack groaned.
"The Master won't let you kill Cloud until we know, so just keep telling yourself that you must be patient to have the chance."
Zack nodded. He was temperamental, but not stupid. He understood.
"We'll be moving from Shinra soon, and then we won't have to keep you in a cage anymore," Hojo changed the subject. "But you have to be able to control yourself. Understand?"
Zack nodded.
"One more thing, X," Hojo said.
Zack looked at him questioningly.
"You absolutely must not forget that you are no longer Zack. You are X."
Zack nodded again. Hojo left.
"How is he?" Zephyn asked when he returned.
"Excellent," Hojo replied. "The last thing that remains before we move on to our own plans is to kill Ashroth."

A convoy of ten Shinra trucks was driving along a twisting mountain road somewhere in the Nibel Mountains. The trucks had been sent by ship from Junon just before the bulk of the fleet was destroyed, and had now almost found their destination. Soon, the workers on board the trucks were boring into the side of one of the largest of the Nibel Mountains. None of them knew what they were looking for, only that they would know they were looking for it when they saw it. Soon, they broke into what was perhaps the most massive cave in history. The entire interior had been carved out- and not by any machine, either. It was obvious from the way the digging was done that some supernatural force had done this.
What was really astonishing, however, was that over 500 airships, all marked with the Shinra Inc seal. Soon they would be serving the company they were never quite put into action for years ago.

"Sir, you've recieved a call," came the voice of Supreme General Keer Ashroth's secretary through his intercom.
"Put me through," he said shortly.
"Sir," said a voice Ashroth had been hoping to hear from.
"Yes, general?" Ashroth responded, hoping to hear good news.
"Good news," the voice reported. "You know that assignment you put me on? I think we've found what you wanted."
"Excellent," Ashroth grinned maliciously.

It took a miniscule three ours for the new Highwind to blaze back to the chocobo farm, where Choco Billy rushed out to see what on earth was up with the furiously loud roaring of the jets of the Highwind as they turned downward for it to land. The companions spent the rest of the day in the buggy rounding up lost chocobos who had gone tearing over the fence in fear at the sound of the engines. When the day was done, Cloud took a short nap, got up for supper, took another short nap, and then awoke. Something was bugging him. He got out of bed, still in his mercenary outfit because he'd never bothered to get changed before going to bed, and walked out to the deck, where he stared into the night for a while. It was a very nice night- and out here in the middle of nowhere, the stars littered the heavens like dust in the sky. The air was cool and crisp, but not chilling. It was the perfect night to be out.
But it was like something else was calling to Cloud. He looked out over the horizon, and that was when he saw the star that was not in the sky. It looked exactly like a star, but brighter and more intense than any star he'd ever seen. He felt drawn to it, almost like he had an affection for it. He simply had to figure out what this earthbound glow could be.
Without bothering to use the stairs, Cloud jumped off the balcony and landed nearby the Highwind, where they had parked the buggy after the roundup. Cloud jumped in and started the engine. The last thing he saw of the chocobo farm before he left was Tifa running out onto the balcony in her robe to see why the engine was starting, but he didn't stop to tell her what he was doing. He felt more and more drawn to the light.
The light was dead west of the chocobo farm, and drew closer faster than he would have expected. Before he knew it, he was at a very strange sight in the middle of the Midgar Plains- a large hole in the earth with a great light pouring forth from it. Cloud approached the hole and looked down into it. It was strange- there were steps carved crudely into the earth, and they almost looked like they'd been formed naturally. Cloud shiverred at the thought.
But he must know where this light was coming from. He slowly descended the stairs of the cave. As he went, a strange feeling passed by him- a feeling of the coldest, more terrifying dread he had ever felt. It struck his heart and surged through his body like a toxin. His head almost spun, his back felt frozen, and he wanted nothing more than to get out of here. It only happened for about a second, and then it was gone, and the feeling of affection for the light returned. Shaking his head, he plunged on, and into one of the most gorgeous rooms he'd ever seen.
The walls and floor were nothing but solid, glowing crystal. Shards prodruted here and there, and they seemed to be what were generating most of the light. But Cloud was not paying attention to the beauty of the room. Something else was there that he simply could not believe. Tears of joy streaming down his face, he slowly, surely approached the large dais in the center of the room where, in a slight dip of flowing crystaline colors, lay Aeris Gainsborough, and her eyes had opened as soon as he entered the room.

Here ends Volume 2: The Rejoining of the saga Final Fantasy VII: Beyond Apocalypse. The saga is continued in Volume 3: Opposing Powers.