Final Fantasy 7/ Megaman X: Left Behind

by ExctMonk

In the FF7 world, Megaman X is found buried under Bone Village, still active.

Is that light? Is someone there? Am I finally going to be free…?

"Whoa, I think there's someone down here!"

"A skeleton?"

"No, professor, someone alive!"

"This is an excavation site! How can anyone be down there?"

"I don't know, professor. But he's wearing some sort of armor, and he has a gun on his arm like that Avalanche guy did…"

"Barret, yes. My, you're right!"

Voices… I hear voices… This can't be a dream! They have to get me out of here…"

"I think he just said something."

"I heard. What a discovery…"

"Sir, he's saying 'Help.' You think we should…"

"Yes, help me get him out…what a heavy guy…"

"…hey, I think he's coming around…Excuse me, uh, sir, can you hear me?"

The being on the table was hardly larger than a child, though much heavier, as the professor's back was reminding its owner. He was clad in blue, technologically advanced armor and had a oval-shaped gun where his right hand would have been. The left hand twitched and balled into and out of a fist. The being spoke:

"Where am I?"

The professor came to the side of the table. "Bone City. We found you doing research into the artifacts littering the area, though I certainly don't remember you from the history books." He paused, then continued. "Do you have a name, son?"

"Megaman, X model. Call me X."

"Where did you come from?" asked the professor.

"Earth, to protect Jenova until she built the planetary defense weapons. Where's Sigma?"

"Who? And where is 'earth?' And did you just say Jenova?!"

"I'm sorry, mister, but I have to talk to whoever is in charge."

"I'm the professor here."

"I mean of the planet."

"Oh, well, that I'm not…and at the moment, I can only offer someone close."

"It was within these reactors for so many years that we slowly helped kill our planet, throwing off her natural balance to feed our own greed and hedonism. Had we not been shown the error of our ways, we would have surely have withered and died like the wilds around our city rather than almost being crushed by a madman's foolish ambition."

Reeve was disappointed that so few of his friends were able to make it to the reactor shutdown ceremony. Barret was behind him, of course. He had shut one of these down the hard way a few years ago, and many people in the crowd still despise him for that. Of course, it's hard to hate a guy that large who has a gun on his arm for too long. Yuffie was almost certainly here, though she wasn't here so much for the ceremony as the number of people that came and thus the number of pockets that are just ripe for picking.

But so many weren't able to make it. Red XIII was up at Cosmo Canyon setting things up for his Grandfather's funeral, while Tifa and Cloud were at the timeshared villa in Costa del Sol expecting their first child. Cid was converting the Highwind to run completely without Mako, though the conversion was going slow. And last Reeve had heard, Vincent was still hunting the remnants of the Turks after the near-disaster in Sector 3.

Reeve took a breath and continued: "We are here not to end our use of Mako energy, as we can never truly do such a thing. Yet we are here to end our overt use of the energy, instead using it as Gaia intended: by merely living. And so that our standard of living will not be reduced, we have erected wind and solar generators on and around the deactivated reactors, as we will do with this last. It is the end of an era that has long since worn out it's welcome." The crowd reaction was not overly excited, but no one was booing. Reeve smiled at that. "Now Barret, would you do the honors?"

"Well, I always like finishing what I start."

A large lever was on the stage. The lights of the last functioning Mako reactor, shining behind Barret and Reeve on the stage, died as soon as Barret used his normal hand to bring down the lever. The crowd was in pitch dark for a moment, and Reeve cursed Yuffie for the crime she was probably committing, but the darkness only lasted a moment. The giant windmill on top of the reactor started turning, and the lights slowly came back on.

"Now, our city can begin its next task: dismantling the Junon Cannon!" This met with the excitement the crowd had lacked before. The cannon was an eyesore, and everyone was happy to get rid of it. Of course, Shinra had Mako energy to help them. And now that Mako energy was officially illegal with the closing of the last reactor, the task at hand became much harder…

Oh well, thought Reeve.

The Shinra building had been opened to the public for almost a year now, acting as a combination apartment complex/government center. Most of the settlements on the planet were at work on how to proceed politically, and Reeve was right in the middle of it. The President's office had been converted from one luxury space to a giant office complex where at least 200 people worked. Reeve was busy looking over some papers when one of his aids coughed.

"What do you need? I'm kind of busy here…"

"Sir, this professor found something in Bone City."

"What did he find? A harp? Some new form of materia?"

"Well, sir…a man."

"A man."

"Yessir."

"So they found a dead guy in Bone City. That's like finding an apple at the market."

"He's alive, sir. They excavated him a few weeks ago and just got back here. The excavated man wishes to speak with you."

"Do you have any idea how creepy that sounds?"

The aid rolled his eyes. "Yes, I have a very good idea, sir."

"Is he dangerous?"

"He's covered in highly advanced armor and has a gun for a hand, and he seems to know more about Jenova than anyone ever has."

"That sounds dangerous. I'll meet him, but see if Barret can tag along."

Cait Sith and Barret arrived at the Sector 6 playground. The professor and X were standing by the slide when Barret and Cait walked up.

"Sorry about the location, we don't want you harming anyone, and this playground is as abandoned as it gets around here," Cait said.

"Mr. Cait Sith, this is Megaman X. He's from a place called earth, and he has an incredible story to tell you…"

X stepped forward. "That story can wait. Has Sigma ever surfaced?"

Cait and Barret looked at each other.

"Who the hell is Sigma? And who the hell are you? And do you have another one of those guns?"

"Maybe you should tell them, X."

"Alright." X took a moment to collect his thoughts, then started:

"My name is Megaman X. I was built by Dr. Light on Earth what I think is many thousands of years ago, but I have no way to tell. I was built to protect the earth, and I did this mostly from Sigma. Sigma was determined to take over the earth's human population with the help of the machines, but I defeated him every time with Zero's help. With me so far?"

Cait and Barret both shook their heads, "No."

"Well, you'll get the idea. I hope.

"Anyway, Sigma eventually struck with a surprise biological weapon attack that eradicated most of the earth's human population, and the virtually untouched machine population were convinced by Sigma to exterminate the rest. The human race lasted just a month longer, but the resistance to Sigma lasted 20 years with the machines that were still loyal to the creators. Sigma had no idea that humanity had a chance to live on with the Jenova project."

"Jenova!" Barret cried out.

"Yes. The Jenova project started out as a colonization method. Humanity wanted to explore the stars, but biological cryogenics weren't up to the levels they had to be to maintain enough humans to launch a colonization effort to habitable planets. That's where Jenova came in. She's a reploid whose purpose is to be flown to habitable worlds and establish the human race there. Upon landing, she would begin to use the planet's resources to build an incubation facility, and eventually other things a beginning human race would need for colonization. She could even build giant Planetary Defense Weapons that could be used to repel possible alien invasion, or, as they were used on earth, wars between reploids and humans.

"After the human race was wiped out, Zero came up with the idea to reestablish the human race elsewhere. This planet was discovered by scouring old astronomical charts, and we soon discovered a functioning Jenova. Just as we were preparing to launch Jenova, Sigma found us and personally led an assault on our base. The battle raged until the only resistance members left were Zero, myself, and just two others. I was thrown onto the ship with Jenova as Zero and the others held off Sigma's forces, and the last memory of Earth I have is seeing Zero and Sigma fighting amongst a sea of reploids."

"So you came here and…"

"I was about to enter a storage cell for the long trip here when the ship's radar detected another ship. Our ship was the fastest earth had, but not by much. Still, our negligible speed advantage added up in the end to a massive head start on whatever was coming in that other ship. Jenova and I arrived on this planet a year before the other ship, and she was able to establish the human race up in the northern region of the planet, along with seven Planetary Defense Weapons: Diamond, Ruby, Emerald, Sapphire, Onyx, Amethyst, and Pearl."

"Wait a sec…" Cait said. "Are these Weapons really big, robotic, and hard to kill?"

"Yes."

"Barret, he's talking about the weapons we fought…"

"Yeah, but I only remember 5…"

"Jenova was only able to establish 2 by the time the enemy craft got to this planet, but that was probably a good thing. The only two things aboard that ship were Sigma and a computer virus that attacked the Weapons' programming, turning them into his minions. But he only had the ability to use the virus once, because I destroyed the device once he got on the planet. Onyx fell under his control, and Amethyst stayed under Jenova's control. Amethyst lost the battle, though Onyx was too critically damaged to do anything. It retreated, leaving myself and Jenova to deal with Sigma. Jenova was able to use my blaster, overloading it while the three of us were at the north pole, where Sigma's ship landed. The shockwave from our attack buried Sigma deep in the north pole, which also had a meteor dropped on it later, I hear. I was shot into orbit and fell down to the planet again where Bone City would luckily appear. I was trapped there for millenia, though I'd only be activated for a few seconds every decade just to make sure I was still active. Jenova must have been ravaged in the attack, and her powers have been used by evil men lately, though it's good to see that the human race has survived."

Barret's jaw was open, and Cait was just standing there.

"So we're all from this earth place?" asked Barret.

"Yes. According to the professor, there was a race of people you call the Ancients. They have a city in the northern part of this planet, which is converted from Jenova's first incubation center. The human race as it is today stems from that, though the last of the Ancients seems to have died a few years ago…"

"Yeah, Aeris! She died saving the planet from Sephiroth!" Barret was gesturing something with his gun arm, which X took to be an insult. He let it slide.

Cait spoke up: "This has been a wonderful history lesson, and I'm sure the academics of the planet would love to know where we all came from, but why is it so important to tell me all this?"

"It's so important because Sigma isn't dead, and when he manages to get out of his hole he'll probably be really anxious to continue his goal of human conquest."

"But you buried him where the meteor later fell…"

"We buried him, Jenova and myself. But we buried him so deep that he could have, and did, survive the meteor strike. Besides, I can still feel Sigma and Jenova right now. Sigma may just be waking up, and if the crater has become unstable recently, he may be able to get free."

Cait and Barret shared a look again. "Do climatic battles utilizing attacks of gigantic power and summoning large creatures count as things that could destabilize that crater?"

X shrugged. "Did the walls come crashing down?"

Barret and Cait both recalled the frantic escape from the crater. "Oh," they said as one.

"I think we should get up there, just to make sure. By the way…where's Jenova? It would be great if we could get her as far as possible from Sigma. He may try to use her to repair Onyx, or build another weapon."

"Well, we thought we destroyed that big reploid right before we fought Sephiroth…"

"Let me guess: using attacks of gigantic power in the crater, right?"

Cait blushed. "Well, yeah."

"I suggest you get as many of your most powerful fighters together and get up there. I can feel him waking up all the way, not just running diagnostics. I think he's starting to get out of his hole, and he has a better idea of where Jenova is than I do."

It was night at Costa del Sol, and it was raining. It was hurricane season, and a doozy of a storm was raging just off the coast. Cloud smiled the entire time, attempting to wield a gigantic sword in the rain. The sand and wind and water all made it harder to use Sephiroth's former and supposedly unusable weapon. Cloud just smiled as he slashed at unseen opponents.

Tifa walked up to the window and looked out at her husband. Her hand went to her swollen belly as she watched the lightning flash. Cloud's pointy silhouette flared for a moment, and the Masamune blade they found buried in Shinra's president reflected the light astonishingly. She shielded her eyes against it, but the flash was already gone by the time her hand was up. Her hand returned to her belly, with the scar from Masamune on top and the baby growing below.

"Oh Cloud, you better be wearing your lightning elemental…"

Cloud was grinning like a fool. He had the hang of it. He knew how to use Masamune, the sword no one else could use besides Sephiroth. He imagined Sephiroth standing right in front of him, holding a duplicate of the sword laying in Cloud's hands, and attacked. His imaginary target just stood there, parrying his blows with the perfection allowed to exist only in your imagination. Cloud got going, striking faster and faster, until Tifa was having trouble following him. He felt that rush coming up, the one he hadn't felt until his last meeting with Sephiroth. He felt himself transcend somehow then. Vincent described the feeling best: "Like being light as a feather but hard as mythril." Of course, it was a little different for Vincent, who turned into a demon. Cloud just went ballistic.

All Tifa could see was a seemingly separate storm right in front of her. It even had it's own little shots of lightning here and there.

"Well, at least I know he has on his lightning elemental…"

Cloud laughed. The sword was amazing, once you knew how to use it…

He lost his grip. "Damn! Too fast…" The sword went flying toward the house, through the window, straight at Tifa. Cloud's jaw dropped. He was still in the zone, things were moving at something that would bore a snail, and he could do nothing to catch something he threw at that speed. He cringed, knowing that he had just killed his wife and child.

The blade started to tear through the window, and Cloud noticed Tifa's arm, which had already been raised, begin to intercept the blade. "She can't do anything about that sword, unless she's wearing…"

Tifa's Premium Heart was on her arm, and its materials were of things just as hard as the Masamune. Amazing what you can find in vending machines. She caught the sword cleanly, and still had a whole foot until the blade would even touch her.

Cloud rushed into the room. "Tifa! Are you alright! Are you…"

She hit him hard with the unarmed fist. Cloud was falling from his state and didn't see it coming. It was hard to think of a pregnant woman as such a threat, he thought as he hit the ground. "Cloud Strife. If I hadn't been wearing this, you would be dealing with and injured and pissed woman, instead of just pissed."

"Why were you wearing that, anyway?" Cloud asked as he rubbed his jaw.

"For this very reason. Besides, Barret just called. It seems something came up."

"Something?"

"Something about Jenova."

"But we killed Jenova in the crater…"

"Tell me about it, Cloud. Grab Ultima Weapon."

"I'll be fine with Masamune."

"No you won't. Or did you not notice me almost dying because you screwed up…"

"It was wet out there, and windy."

"I think it'll be very similar up in the crater, Cloud. Take Ultima Weapon, it's tested and proven."

"But Masamune…"

"Fine, you know what, take both of them. Then when you kill someone because you tried to use a weapon that only the most evil being to walk this planet has gotten right, maybe you'll think straight, though by then it'll be too late, and your poor son or daughter is going to grow up with a father who killed one of his friends…"

"That won't happen."

"Won't it?"

"No."

"Fine. Let's go."

"Wait. You can't go."

"Why not? Someone has to catch Masamune when it slips from your butterfingers…"

"You're pregnant."

"And you're short. Come on, we have to get going. The next boat leaves tomorrow morning."

"But that's my kid too, Tifa."

Tifa's eyebrows shot up. "You almost did quite a number on 'your kid.' Now quit worrying and pack, dammit." She threw a Ribbon at him. "How many of these did we end up finding?"

"Enough for everyone, though Vincent has a couple of them right now."

"Ok, I'll call him and tell him to bring them. And Cloud?"

"Yeah, Tifa?"

"I love you, short stuff."

"I love you too, bruiser."

Tifa giggled in that cute way Cloud had grown to love.

The baby kicked.

"Fall back, dammit! He's still coming!"

The Turks had used the last of their tear gas, and an opaque cloud was hanging in the tunnel they were occupying.

"Rude, there's no way out of here! That underwater reactor is the end of the road!"

"Reno, shut up. I have this under control. Just cover me a sec." Rude rushed into the cloud.

"Rude, where the hell are you going…ah, shit." Reno threw a couple of grenades into the cloud before Rude got there. They went off, though the only indication through the puke-green smoke was a little pop and a little light. Rude jumped into the cloud and immediately Reno heard the familiar sounds of Rude's fists beating on things. Reno stayed out of the cloud, knowing that besides tear gas, there was a frightening thing from his past lurking in there somewhere.

The familiar thunks and whacks of Rude's fists stopped short with a gunshot. There were two more shots and a tearing, meaty sound that Reno didn't like at all. Then Rude came out of the cloud, thrown and moving at a speed of nearly 50 miles an hour right by Reno's head. Reno heard Rude's body bouncing off the walls before settling. He knew the glass walls behind him were covered in almost as much blood as he was. Reno wiped a bit off of his sunglasses.

A silhouette emerged at the edge of the cloud. It was the shape of a man, which Reno was surprised by. Considering the shape Rude was in, he fully expected a demon or chainsaw murderer. Of course, that was within Vincent's power.

"Vincent, please, I'll turn myself in! Just don't kill me!"

The voice didn't seem to come from the silhouette, but from all around him: "Ah, you want pity. Funny, I seem to remember Barret telling me that you wouldn't save Sector 7. You pushed that button and brought that pillar crashing down. How many of them received your mercy, killer?"

"Killer? Killer? How many did you kill while you were a Turk? It has to be up in the hundreds, hypocrite."

"Reno Reno Reno. At least I had the balls to look my kills in their eyes before taking their lives from them. At least I've paid for my sins. My very life is a punishment, one I'll be all too happy to be relieved of when that time comes. But for now, I'll continue to atone, and I think I'm going to start atoning some more by seeing what your insides look like. I'm sure they're very black and decayed by now, you piece of…"

"Please Vincent!" Reno was on his knees, groveling before the silhouette in the cloud of tear gas that was slowly dissipating. "Vincent, say something!" The cloud faded, and to Reno's horror, the silhouette disappeared with it. Reno just sat there a moment on his knees.

Then he broke down crying. "Thank you, thank you, Vincent. I knew you'd come through for a friend…"

" 'Something.'" Reno screamed like a girl at having the sound so close and with a source. It sounded great to Vincent. He picked the groveling Turk up with a clawed hand, making a point to dig in a little. More blood started running down his claw. Reno was struggling, but Vincent could tell how token it was. He started to rise into the air with Reno.

"You know what Barret asked me to do, Reno?" Reno shook his head. "He said, 'Vincent,' and he said this crying, something I never saw him do, 'Vincent, Reno destroyed my home and tried to destroy me, my friends, and most of all, my daughter.'" Vincent was whispering, and Reno realized that Vincent was pulling off a perfect imitation of Barret. "' Don't bring that mofo to justice, Vincent. Kill him. Kill him slow, and keep the pieces. I don't want to see them, but I want any other Turks left to see them.'

"Too bad, though. You're the last Turk, aren't you? Oh well. I suppose I'll keep the pieces, anyway. Souvenirs." Vincent dropped Reno. He hit the ground hard, almost breaking a leg. Reno started crawling away when he heard one of the most horrible sounds he had ever heard, and to his horror, realized that his life was about to end. He turned around to see the demon he feared to come out of the fog. The demon smiled at him, and said, "I'm getting a little less human every day, you know." The sound was everywhere again. Reno screamed for hours.

Vincent walked toward the exit, lighting a smoke on the way. He took a drag and picked up his phone. He had a message from Barret. He listened, heard something about Jenova. Right before the elevator doors closed all the way, he shot the glass tube connecting Junon to its underwater reactor. The last thing he saw of that tube was shattering glass, water, and blood. Blood more than anything else.

"Junon reactor is out of commission, the Turks are dead, and did you say something about Jenova in your message?"

The elevator was quickly ascending to the surface. Vincent was holding the phone with his shoulder while putting a pair of teeth on a chain.

"Some sort little robotic punk with a gun on his arm is claiming that Jenova made the human race, that she's still alive, and there's some ancient evil lurking at the meteor crash site just waiting to destroy humanity."

"Wow. He has a gun on his arm too, huh?"

"Yeah, little copycat. But he has a bunch of good points. You did say all the Turks were dead, right?"

"I'm putting on Reno and Rude's teeth as we speak."

"How long did it take?"

"Rude I was a bit merciful towards. I liked him. But Reno lasted almost three hours."

"Three? I thought I told you to take your time with him?"

"Those three hours were worse than anyone should be exposed to for a matter of seconds. So is the team being assembled?"

"Yeah, we're all meeting at Cosmo Canyon, where Cid will arrive with the Second Wind, then we're goin' up to the crater."

"Great. I always loved going there. Is our little friend going too?"

"Yeah, I'd like to keep an eye on him, and if he's right, I'd like him by our side."

"One more target, right?"

"Right. He's armored, he can take it. Besides, the guy he's talking about sounds like someone as powerful as Sephiroth and as greedy and ambitious as the Shinras."

"Ew."

"To make matters worse, there maybe be another weapon up there, Vincent."

"Ew again."

"You don't sound too excited."

"Sorry Barret. But really, when have I sounded excited?"

"There was that Turk…"

"Ha. I'll meet up with you at Cosmo." A pause. "How's Red?"

"He ain't the same. Lately he makes you seem cheerful."

"Oh my. There's something to look forward to."

"Yeah. I'll see you there."

"I am truly looking forward to it." Vincent cut off the phone and thanked whatever god there was for the rain. The sun was hurting more and more lately.

"Aw, shit. Goddamn it, that's the last time this is going to happen, Shera. Hand me that wrench."

Cid and Shera were working on the engine to an ungainly craft which was floating a few yards off the airstrip they were on. The ocean was in front of them, the continent was behind them, and Junon was about 500 feet down. The same airstrip where Cid and the gang made off with the original Highwind was the home of the second.

"Cid, I told you this was a bad idea. The Highwind was an airship, the Tiny Bronco was an airplane, and what the hell are these parts from?!"

"Ulitmate Weapon."

"Ultimate Weapon?! Why the hell are parts from the Ultimate Weapon on the Second Wind?!"

"Remember when we chased the Ultimate Weapon all over the planet…no, wait, you weren't there…ask Barret sometime, he'd remember. Anyway, I'm pretty sure these are some sort of anti-gravity generators…has to be, how else could that thing move like it did…"

"Cid, you can't put these parts on! You don't know what powers them, or how they work…"

"Shut up. I know I'm doing. Besides, if I screw up, there's you to blame and make it work, now isn't there."

"There always is, Cid. Alright, I'll look at it. I think these things run on Mako, just not the way we're used to."

"Atta girl. And hurry it up! This thing has to be ready soon, there's something going down up in the crater again." Cid got off the ship, then looked back up. "Do you think you can rig the bombs on her again?"

"I could only scrounge up three bombs, Cid. That won't be worth the effort."

"C'mon, she can't be completely defenseless!"

"She isn't going to be, Cid. I found a lot of artillery in the armory here, you'll have a bunch of cannons bristling off of her. Lots of stuff they used while the Weapon was attacking here in Junon."

"Ooo, baby, keep that up, please."

"Only if you're good, Cid."

Cid chuckled to himself and began walking into the hangar when his phone went off.

"Yeah, Cid here."

"Cid, it's Bill."

"Hey Bill! How's the Chocobo business treatin' ya?"

"How many Chocobos are you taking with you?"

"Ah, c'mon Bill, that's supposed to be a secret. How'd you know?"

"Hard to keep a secret like that, Cid. Listen, I've got 3 golden chocobos just waiting to get out on an adventure, and I'll part with 'em real cheap."

"You mean the ones Cloud raised to get to that island where Knights of the Round was? I didn't think he parted with 'em."

"Oh, he didn't, really. But Tifa did."

"Eh?"

"She sold them back to me so she could buy Cloud that sword Sephiroth had for his birthday."

"Masa-somethin'."

"Yeah, that. Listen, you don't even have to pay me up front, and don't you think three golden chocobos, the elite of the elite of the beasts of burden would come in real handy, especially in this post-Mako world?"

"Chocobo Bill, you are a businessman. We'll pick the birds up on our way up there."

"No no, I'll bring them to you. It's great to do business with you, Cid."

"Same here." Cid hung up and turned to look at the Second Wind.

"Ninety percent of her runs off of Mako…post-Mako world my ass."

A hand twitched in a crater. For the first time in thousands of years, the form of Sigma was exposed to atmosphere. He pulled himself out of the loose rubble that had replaced the immovable wall of earth that had prevented him from surfacing earlier.

The Sigma that rose from the dirt and rock was very much like the Sigma that had been built so many years ago. The damage caused in the last attack had been repaired by his internal repair systems, and his systems diagnostic read green across the board.

Sigma looked at his surroundings. "My o my. I don't think Megaman had this in him, even with that traitor Jenova's help. Speaking of her…"

Sigma started to follow the "scent," which was really just his sensors homing in on a familiar energy signature. The task was similar to finding a needle in a haystack, only the needle had a really large tag on it. Sigma guessed that Jenova was 15 miles south, and he was only off by a couple of yards. He started the hike over to her.

Red XIII was lying on Bugenhagen's old bed, which was up near the very top of Cosmo Canyon. His door knocked.

"Go away."

The door opened. Vincent walked in, closed the door behind him, and sat down in midair.

"Who taught you to fly, Vincent?"

"Hojo."

"You just look a lot like Grandpa like that. And you should quit that disgusting habit. I can smell it on you."

"You can smell a lot. I'm down to a pack a day."

Red grunted. "That's not the habit I'm talking about. How many Turks are left?"

Vincent pulled out his necklace. It was lined with teeth.

"That's all of them, isn't it?"

"Every last one."

"Reno? Rude?"

"They were the last, yes."

Red grunted again. "I thought I smelled something bad."

"I can go, if you want…"

"No, Vincent. Please, don't. We have to talk."

"You bet we do. There's trouble up at the crater."

"I know, Vincent. I could see it up on the machine. But what about you?"

"What about me?"

"Is it over?"

"Is what over?"

"The Turks. You've got no one left to kill."

Vincent met Red's stare. "Are you implying something, Nanaki?"

Red's lip began curling. "I need to know if this vendetta of yours is over."

"The Turks are dead."

"I know. The fact that you were able to get away with such wanton homicide is a testament to the lawlessness this world continues to show off. We've gone from lazy to restless, Vincent. The last thing we need is one of our little group going completely rogue."

"At least I'm not hiding from it, coward." Red's hackles came up. "All you do is sit up here and waste away. You're a warrior, Nanaki. Don't just wither up here. Fight. There are battles to be fought, one great big one about to go down right now."

"There's a difference between battle and murder, Vincent. I don't want you crossing that line. Again."

"Elena was a terrorist, she had it coming…"

"Did she? We were all labeled 'terrorists' at one point, Vincent." Red got up. "The last thing we need is to become another Shinra."

"She was going to bring down another plate, you mutt…"

"She begged for her life! She wasn't a threat while she was on her knees, when you put your disgusting gun in her mouth and…"

"I've had enough of this. They're all meeting here, then we're heading out in the Second Wind. Are you going to be coming with us? I don't think I'll be too upset if you don't…"

"I'll be there. Someone has to keep an eye on you."

The doors to the Presidential Offices of Shinra slammed open, and 200 people briefly spared a glance to the newcomer. Seeing that it was only Yuffie, they all went back to work. She stormed straight up to Reeve.

"Very ninja-like entrance, Yuffie," Reeve said, not looking up from his papers.

"Can it, doll boy. Word is you guys are getting ready to go again."

Still not looking up: "Yep."

Yuffie became uninterested. "So, where ya going?"

"Up north somewhere."

"Somewhere?"

"Oh, you know how it is. Ancient evils tend to be either really easy or really hard to find. So until we get a better look, I think 'north' is the best answer I can give."

"Ancient evil, huh?"

"Mmhmm."

"Sounds dangerous."

"Mmhmm."

"Who's going?"

"Me, Barret, Cloud, Tifa, Vince, Red, and Cid."

"Gang's back again."

"Mmhmm."

Yuffie looked around. Reeve stared at his papers. Yuffie started tapping her foot. Reeve stared at his papers. Yuffie started whistling Dixie. Reeve told her to stop.

"Oh, c'mon, take me with you!"

"I thought Godo was training you."

"Dad?! I kicked his ass! He has nothing left to teach me!"

"I just talked to your father. He said you were into some 'disreputable' activities…"

"I'm a ninja. What am I supposed to do, just sit around a meditate?! Ninja don't meditate, ninja steal things! Kill people! BURN THINGS!" Only a couple of newbies looked over at Yuffie. Everyone else didn't care.

"Please, Reeve, I wanna go too!"

Reeve sighed. "Got your Conformer?"

Yuffie pulled out a gigantic throwing weapon effortlessly. "Check!"

"Got your materia?"

She pointed to the little gem-like objects imbedded in her weapon. "Check!"

"Your chocobo is in town somewhere?"

"Nightrider's right downstairs at this very moment!"

"Did you put my pen back?"

Yuffie's smile froze. "Pen?"

"The one you stole off my desk." Reeve had never looked up.

Exasperated: "Fine, here's your pen. It's not like you were using it, just looking at your papers the whole time…"

"Thank you. Now just get to Junon. Cid and the Second Wind are there, and after he gets it finished, we'll meet everyone else at Cosmo Canyon, then head up to the crater."

"The crater?! Why are we going there?"

"Because the little blue guy said there was something up there."

"What little blue guy?"

"Megaman X."

"Who?!"

"You'll meet him later. He's already on his way to Junon with Barret and Marlene."

"Being with you people is never boring. Thanks, Reeve! See you in Junon!"

Cloud, Tifa, Cid, Red, Shera, Yuffie, Megaman, Barret, Marlene, Cait Sith, Chocobo Bill, and four chocobos looked on at the Second Wind on top of the former site of the Junon Cannon.

"Isn't she a beaut?" Cid asked.

"I didn't know something so ugly could be called a she," Yuffie said.

"What's that stuff on the bottom?" Tifa inquired.

"Are those guns? That thing's better armed than me!" added Barret.

"Are you sure something that big can fly?" Cloud asked.

"Wark!" squawked Nightrider, Yuffie's black chocobo.

"Wark!" Shiny Beak responded.

"You have good stables onboard?" Bill asked.

"We saw the need for chocobos and added to the Highwind's accommodations. There's room for all four chocobos," Shera said.

"Yeah, and I ripped armor plating off of some of the Weapons and hooked them on to her!" Cid said.

No one really felt like reacting to that.

"Aw, c'mon. At least one of you has to be impressed with that. Barret, you like the armor, right?" Cid's eyebrows were bouncing up and down, making him look like a used car salesman.

"I was more impressed with the guns." Shera smiled at the comment.

"You people suck. Let's get the gear and chocobos onboard."

The group started to do their own things, except for Marlene, who had come just to see her father off. She saw the blue stranger standing by the edge of the platform, looking off into the distance. She walked up right next to him.

"What are you looking at?"

They faced north, and the setting sun on one side and encroaching night on the other made Marlene think of two giant cans of paint being spilled next to each other, with the big blue can starting to engulf the big orange can.

"Is it the sunset? Pretty, isn't it?"

"It's Sigma. I think he's found Jenova."

"How do you know?"

X sighed. "The scientists always said that it was our internal sensors just detecting another energy signature. But the range on the sensors isn't anywhere near this."

"Maybe it's the planet."

X arched an eyebrow at her.

"One time I was eating dinner with Cloud, and we were having steak. The cook made the steak a little too rare for Barret, and he started complaining. He does that a lot." X chuckled. He had noticed. "Anyway, Cloud told him to calm down, and then this little ball of fire appeared in his hand, almost like a glove. He put his hand over Dad's steak and cooked it to the point where Dad could eat it and not complain the whole meal."

X smiled. "I don't know what the scientists of earth would have thought of this, though they may not have been too surprised. Part of Jenova's program for raising the human race here was to make them more, 'environmentally friendly.' I don't know if anyone intended for that to mean for humans to be so in touch with the planet's life force."

Marlene shrugged. "It's hard to use magic without materia. Some people can do it, Aeris could. Dad can't use it well with materia." Marlene giggled. "Of course, he'd say he doesn't need magic with his gun arm."

Megaman looked at his own arm. "That's something I can agree with."

"Come on, let's see if we can find something to help with."

Sigma dug into the ground of the crater. The violent Mako storms raged all around him, but he didn't care. He only wanted what was almost excavated beneath him. His fingers finally found her, and he pulled her out in one yank, holding her over him. She was burnt and beaten, missing everything but her head and torso.

"Ah, Jenova, we could have ruled here. Come now, wake up. If you aren't going to be by my side, you'll be at my feet, licking my boots. Wakey-wakey."

Jenova's eyes started to open.

"Ah, there you are. Now, let's get you playing for the winning team."

The Second Wind landed at Cosmo Canyon a day later, and a huge party was held. It was very wild and festive and Red had to tell Yuffie to give a lot of stuff back. When the party started to die down, Red retired to his room. There was a knock on the door.

Tifa poked her head in.

"Tifa! Come in, please."

Tifa came in, and Red noticed that she was still just as graceful as ever, even carrying the child.

"How long until Cloud Jr. decides to make his grand entrance?"

Tifa laughed. "We don't know if it's a boy or girl yet."

"Oh, it's a boy. Smells like one."

"You…well, ok. I'll know in about 3 months. How about we keep it a secret from Cloud, ok?"

"That's fine by me. What's on your mind, Tifa?"

"Well, there are a couple of things. It's just that everyone here has changed so much since after we beat Sephiroth. Cloud's been mastering Masamune like there was no tomorrow, Vincent may just be going off the deep end, don't even get me started on Yuffie and her kleptomania."

"I thought she was always a kleptomaniac."

"Not like this. And you've been holed up in here all the time…"

"Vincent and I have discussed this, yes."

"I know that losing your Grandfather was hard, but he's the one that died, Red. Not you."

"I'm far from dead, Tifa."

"Then why don't you come down, have some more fun with us?"

"Tifa…after Grandpa died, I came up here. I started going through his research and studies, and there was a lot to go through. He was working on such things as alternate energy sources to Mako, and a few of those are being used in Midgar at this very moment. He was also working on a way to combine Ether and Phoenix Down to somehow awaken the power of magic completely without the use of materia. Such studies are just the tip of the iceberg, and I think I've found what I want to do with my life. I want to continue these studies. I thank you for your concern, but I have found my calling, and have been spending a lot of time on it."

"Wow, Red, I'm really sorry…"

"No, I'm sorry. I just haven't told anyone yet. I just think this is going to be my last outing as a member of our party. Cosmo Canyon is my home now."

"Red…" She scratched him behind his ears, and he made happy grunting noises. "Let's just hope this won't be too taxing on any of us."

"Especially you. Are you sure you can go, in your state…?"
"My state is fine and dandy, thank you very much. I get enough of that from Cloud to have you go and start worrying about me to."

"Well, I think I should get some sleep now. Busy day ahead of us."

"Ok. Goodnight, Red."

"Goodnight Tifa. Don't drink too much."

"With this load?" She pointed at her stomach. "I'd hate for Cloud Jr. to come out more stunted than his father."

Red's barking laughter filled the room. "Please, go, before I decide to change my mind."

"'Night." Tifa closed the door behind her. Red rolled over and fell asleep.

Tifa looked down at the party from Red's tower and saw a large group gathered around two people near the bonfire. It only took Tifa a moment to realize that Cloud, toting Masamune, was fighting Yuffie, who had her Conformer and was doing all she could to block a barrage of attacks from Cloud.

"Cloud, you've gotten even faster with that thing."

Tifa hurried downstairs and pushed her way through the crowd, which was only on one side of the fight. The other side was the bonfire, and it's light reminded Tifa of the storm, when the lightning would flash and the light would glint of Masamune. The giant, almost hook-like sword was amazing to see in action when used by someone who knew how to use it. Tifa remembered Sephiroth cutting into her with it, how he had such amazing grace despite what his intent was, and that grace was starting to show in her husband. Tifa realized that Masamune had probably shed more of Cloud's blood in more instances than anyone else on the planet that ever lived. The thought was interesting, if horrifying. "And you still use it, Cloud."

"C'mon Cloud, you suck with that sword!" Yuffie was taunting Cloud almost constantly, and Cloud had not a single thing to say in return. While it looked pretty even, no one seemed to realize that the Conformer was a throwing weapon, and it had yet to be used in any capacity except a shield. "This is the dullest sparring session I think I've ever had, Pointy."

Yuffie lobbed a fireball at Cloud, which he parried easily, but it was just enough for Yuffie to jump back far enough to get a shot off. The Conformer screamed through the air, sounding to Tifa like a buzzsaw, and Cloud had only a moment to react to the throw. He lined up the shot and swung Masamune like a giant baseball bat that was intent on nailing a giant buzzsaw of a ball.

Tifa was about to scream something about how he should be dodging that thing instead of blocking it, but Yuffie had become a formidable opponent, and Cloud's reactions were so much faster than she remembered, but Cloud was using the extremely lightweight Masamune more like he would be using the Buster Sword right now, and Tifa worried about the intelligence in the move.

The sword clanged off the Conformer, and everyone's hands went to their ears to stop a sound that was already past. The Conformer was deflected, but Cloud lost his grip on Masamune. It went flying towards the fire while the Conformer sailed back to Yuffie like it was on a string. Cloud ran for the fire to retrieve his weapon, but stopped short just before the Conformer tore a line right where his foot was about to step. The blade flew back to it's master, and she lined up for another shot.

"Yield, Pointy?" Yuffie was dripping with sweat and much more exhausted than Cloud, but Cloud knew he wouldn't get his blade back for this fight. He could see its blade in the fire, begging him to try and race the Conformer.

Cloud's hand went up, and Yuffie thought he was surrendering. She relaxed for a split second, then realized what a mistake she had made. Only one hand went up, and then it extended right toward her…

She threw the blade as hard as she could right for Cloud's heart. Cloud's hand became impossible to look at as he cast a third-level fire spell right at Yuffie. The onlookers all gasped. The ball of fire passed the buzzing Conformer and both fighters were nailed.

The crowd stood there in silence. One woman would have started crying if Cloud hadn't sat up. He brushed off the dust from his fall and picked up Conformer. Yuffie sat up too, shaking her head. The crowd was still in shocked silence. Tifa was smiling. The woman who almost started crying saw that Tifa seemed to know what was going on.

"Excuse me, but what just happened? They should have killed each other!"

"They're wearing fire elemetals in their armor, and they're weapons are equipped with the same. Either one of them could slash at the other all day, and the elementals would just repel each other like similar sides of a magnet. Yuffie's father came up with the idea, and that's how they train in Wutai's Pagoda of the Five Gods."

"So that's why they were both knocked down and not killed…"

"Exactly." Tifa walked to her husband. "You shouldn't have tried that deflection."

"You've never had Conformer thrown at you. She's gotten amazing with it."

"Good thing you wore protection."

"I always wear protection."

Tifa patted her stomach. "Not always."

"Ha."

Cloud got a bite to eat and wandered around for a minute until he came across Megaman. X was leaning against a rock, staring off to the north.

"You have some nice moves."

"It's all in the shoes."

X smiled at that. "I noticed both of you threw a fireball at each other."

"Yeah, we do that from time to time."

"How?"

Cloud took a small green stone from his bangle and handed it to X. He examined it a moment, then handed it back. "Materia?"

"Yep."

"What is it? How does it work?"

Cloud snapped the stone back into his bangle. "Materia is concentrated Mako energy. The materia compresses over time into these little balls, and they give off whatever power or knowledge is in them, passed down from our ancestors, trees, rocks, animals, etc. The color is tells you what kind it is. Green is magic, blue helps you or other materia, yellow gives you special skills, purple makes you stronger somehow, and red summons."

"Summons?"

"You can call on creatures to help you. It's debated what exactly they are. Some say they're actualized figments of our imaginations, others say they're creatures from another dimension. I don't really know, actually. But they're powerful, and can get you out of a jam."

"How are they used?"

"Usually just having them near you works, though most weapons and armor nowadays are made so that the energies within materia are focused toward you. That's how most people use it."

"So that's why you have the slots in your armor there?"

"Yeah."

"Would this work?" X held out his gun arm, and a slot opened. Inside the slot were eight round holes.

"You have materia slots?!"

"No, these are upgrade hardpoints. When I defeat an enemy robot, I can use a bit of its remains to upgrade my own system, usually resulting in different weapon attack options, though it doesn't run off my internal power supply. I wonder if that will work in here?"

Cloud took out a green materia and gave it to X. X took it and put it in the upgrade slot.

"Scanning…scanning…hey, I'm getting a reading."

"That's a fire materia. You should be able to…well…shoot fire."

X pointed his gun out in the distance. A jet of flame erupted from his gun.

"Wow. This seems to work."

"That's mastered materia, so you should be able to use different levels of strength."

"Yeah, it's reading as such. I just charge it up and it gets more powerful."

"We have a lot more, let's get you decked out."

"Sounds good to me. I think Sigma has Jenova now, so we'll need all the help we can get."

Sigma took a couple of wires from his arm and connected them to Jenova. He started probing around in her mind, finding out what had been going on in the world. He saw that her memory had been damaged in the attack with Megaman, and during a recent scuffle with a group of would-be heroes, but after a little repairing and recompiling, he had Jenova's full history online and ready to read like an open book. He suppressed her personality, something he wouldn't need until he was ready to have her make things for him again.

He saw her awakened on this planet, told by X to begin repopulating the human race. She began willingly, as her place in life was to create and defend. He saw the incubation chambers go up and DNA strands begin to become little fetuses. The thought made Sigma cringe.

He saw them frantically getting ready for his arrival, building 2 complete Weapons and starting 5 others. He saw his handsome visage taking over one of the Weapons, going for the other when X destroyed his device, watching Onyx and Amethyst go at it while he and X did the same. He saw Amethyst die and Onyx dig itself into a hole so it could repair itself.

"Amazing it lived through that."

Sigma continued, watching his horror-stricken face as X and Jenova joined together and blasted Sigma straight through miles of the planet's crust. He knew what happened on his end, but he didn't know that X was shot into space, and may have landed somewhere. He saw Jenova get flung miles away. After a gap, he saw that humans had found her, and the little sheep were worshipping her as some sort of goddess. Sigma thought how interesting it was that she could count as such a thing. Because her memory was blocked and her personality was devastated, her survival programs adapted and bought into it. The only element of herself to continue on was the program to be more "environmentally friendly," much of which was designed so that machines would be used to a minimum so another Sigma would never rise. Sigma was hurt by this, but carried on. The human race tried to do without tools, and instead found Mako, and were able to blend with it and use it in the form of magic. Sigma was intrigued and made a note to attempt to later build reploids with similar abilities.

Then disaster struck. A meteor hit and ravaged the land, and Jenova was lost again, not to be found for what seemed like hundreds of years later, in a world that had apparently moved on without guidance from Jenova. The human race now was quickly approaching what it was when Sigma had eradicated it, and the thought disgusted him. He liked the ancients. They didn't want the help of machines, and would never have enslaved them as the earthlings had, though now the ancients were almost wiped out, and humanity was back to its old self.

"Pity."

Jenova was discovered and tests were run. Sigma was amused to find they had no idea what they had. Sigma saw them create things from Jenova, horrible things, and the most horrible of all was the man named Sephiroth. Sigma didn't know what to make of him. He wanted to kill, though not for the humans themselves, but their power. Sephiroth wanted to be something more, and he wanted to do it by killing the planet. The thought bounced around in Sigma's head, becoming all powerful at the cost of the planet, and he decided it may be an interesting idea to try on a planet he wasn't currently sitting on.

He saw the plan almost work when the group of heroes came and "killed" Jenova. Fortunately for Sigma, Jenova has powerful recuperative abilities, and she came back partway to what Sigma was now attached to. Sigma guessed the one called Sephiroth had died, as the planet's lifeforce billowed all around him.

Sigma told Jenova to awaken, and find his Onyx. He brought back just enough of Jenova to do her job. He'd let the rest come back later, but for now he'd rather not have to "convince" her to work for him. This was so much easier to do without X shooting him the whole time.

Jenova located the Weapon with ease, but it was still just as damaged as it was when it had burrowed, probably due to the destruction of its self-repair systems. Sigma told Jenova to fix herself, then start repair the Onyx, then Sigma told Jenova to construct a new headquarters, and to include a robot factory and repair facility. Sigma transferred much of his remaining power into Jenova, and she her self-repairs went by at an amazing rate, even for Sigma. After seeing that she was beginning to work on Onyx, Sigma shut himself down into a power conservation mode, so that his levels would restore themselves. He guessed it would take quite a while, considering how low they were and how long he had been inactive.

As Jenova worked on Onyx's repair systems, something started to not compute. While this line of thought was insignificant considering how much of her computational abilities were devoted to the task at hand, it was still enough of an oversight of Sigma's for Jenova's real persona to start to crawl back up to the surface of her psyche.

Vincent was deep in the Cave of the Gi under Cosmo Canyon. The ancient things that had haunted it were long since gone, and it had been opened to the public. The stone carvings weren't intact anymore as visitors broke off pieces of the "evil rock" to take home as souvenirs. Vincent was in front of the evil grinning visage with the pools of red Who-Knows-What to either side. He heard footsteps behind him, but knew from how heavy they were that Barret was the owner.

"This place gives me the creeps. How the hell can you stay down here all alone?"

Vincent smiled. "Places like this are more and more comforting to me these days. Give me long enough and Phoenix Down will start doing more harm than good."

"Funny, that's the exact way we beat Gi down here. But you're human, Vincent."

"Oh, sure. Now. But those things I turn into…"

"…yeah?"

"At first, I would call them, like a summon, and they'd just do their thing. But lately, especially with Reno, I didn't call him, but he surfaced. He tried to be me. I think whatever happened to me under that mansion in Niebelheim was just the beginning, Barret. It's starting to crawl into me. It's like I'm supposed to be dead, and the demons from hell are coming to claim me."

"Vince, you really need to chill out…"

"I can't, Barret! I don't know what I'm supposed to do. It's not like I can stop now. I don't know if I'll be able to contain them anymore, especially Chaos. He's more powerful than you know, Barret. What you've seen him do is insignificant next to what he has within him. I've felt that, I've touched it, and now it's touching me back."

"Jesus, Vincent."

"Sometimes I think Hojo was trying to reach pure evil. Well, he's come damn close this time."

"Maybe you shouldn't call on him anymore, just bury it…"

"Oh, yeah, bury it. It's as hard for me to bury Chaos as it is for you to stop breathing. If I cut him off, he'll only come back, angrier, and he may just try and take over all the way. And who knows? Maybe the only thing keeping me alive is their evil."

"What do you want to do then? Let it take you? Screw that! There has to be a way to help you. Tifa was saying that Red found a lot of his grandfather's research, maybe there's something in there that can help out."

"Like what? A de-eviling machine? A soul purifier? Look, Barret, maybe the best thing for me now is to just go back to that mansion and crawl back into my coffin."

"If what you're saying is true, it would come back anyway. You'd just be putting it off, man. You need to stare that son of a bitch down and show him who's in charge of you soul."

"I don't think I can do that without finding out that I'm not the one." Vincent took out a cigarette and lit it with a fire spell.

"Why do you smoke those things?"

"Cid got me started. They help calm me."

"Sounds like you need an assload of cigs."

"It's like trying to cancel out a sea of distress with a drop of calm, but it's still more than nothing."

"I see. You'll pull through this, alright? I don't want to lose you, not after you got back at the Turks for me." Barret patted Vincent on the shoulder. "I owe you, Vincent. More than you'll ever know."

"Because I killed some people for you?"

"Because you kept me from having to do it." Barret left.

Vincent thought about that a moment. Barret was the kind of guy that probably would hunt down the Turks after what they did. Did he save Barret's soul by letting his slip further? Barret had killed many things, but hunting down the Turks was a little more personal than the rest of it had been. Could he look Marlene in the eye if he were the one who shot Elena?

What had started as a commotion in Sector 3 had turned into a terrorist act. The Turks, reorganized under Elena, were based out of an old warehouse in Sector 3 until a hobo had slept there one night and seen enough to alert the authorities. Barret, Cait Sith and Vincent had come, and they had chased the Turks all through town, finally coming to the support pillar. The Turks were now made up of a lot of former Shinra lackeys, and they were easy enough to tear through. Near the top, Elena had used the last of her men to keep her protected while she tried to duplicate Reno's work.

The giant doll got just with punching range of Elena when she used he last-ditch weapon, a Mako gun that sent a shockwave powerful enough to knock everyone else off the platform. Barret had managed to use his gun to slow his descent enough to land safely and was making his way back up the pillar, but Elena hadn't counted on someone who could fly.

Vincent hovered just beyond the end of the platform, smiling at the young Turk.

"You're going to have to do a lot better than, dear."

Elena turned a knob on her Mako gun, which concentrated the wave into a column of energy that she shot Vincent with. His hand met the blast and deflected it, with energy cascading all around him. When she ran out of ammo, Vincent's outstretched arm was a huge demonic claw.

"Oh, poor baby. It looks like your gun is out of gas."

Vincent floated over to her, lightly touching down close enough for her to smell him.

"Give me that bomb, child." Elena was clutching the satchel charge to her chest, but Vincent reached out with that claw and took it from her. She wasn't putting up resistance. She was too scared.

Vincent's human arm pushed a few buttons on the charge and he threw it to the side. "Now that we have that taken care of, why don't you do me a favor. Could you do that, Elena?"

Barret was saying something, but Vincent couldn't hear him very well. Vincent thought this was odd, as his hearing was superb and Barret seemed to be screaming, but the matter at hand seemed much more important.

Elena nodded.

"Good. I want you to get down on your knees. Can you do that, Elena?"

Elena did as told.

"Why, you're doing great Elena. Just great. Now I want you to open your mouth. Can you do that?"

Elena was crying more tears than Vincent had ever seen in his life, but it didn't seem to matter much. He wasn't entirely sure what he was doing, but it didn't really matter. He knew he'd know soon enough.

Elena opened her mouth a little.

"No, Elena, all the way. Like you're trying to swallow your fist."

Elena complied.

"Much better." Barret was screaming even louder now.

"Now, Elena, I'm going to put my gun in your mouth and shoot you. Ok?"

Elena nodded, but uttered "Please don't," under her breath.

"Good girl." Vincent took out his gun, Death Penalty, the gun that Never Missed, and put it in Elena's mouth. He thought it odd that he should go to all this trouble to shoot Elena like this with a gun that Didn't Miss when he saw little bits of blond hair and brains flying through the air in front of him and Barret screaming that she could tell them where the other Turks were and Vincent realized that maybe this wasn't such a good idea after all, but at least his arm was better.

Vincent began hunting down the Turks almost 2 years after Sephiroth fell, and ended just a few days ago, almost 3 years after Sephiroth. The ranks of the Turks had swelled considerably after Shinra fell and for two years almost seemed poised to become a new underworld criminal organization, maybe one day an overt state all its own, but the act of their recently appointed leader Elena had damned it all. A Midgar newspaper had proclaimed Vincent a "guardian angel" for humanity, and Vincent had laughed at that. Mostly at the angel part.

He took out the string of teeth at his neck. They were all the same tooth, left-upper canine, which had somehow gotten lodged into Elena's gun when he had ended her life. He started his collection there, and had been mostly successful, except that one guy who didn't have a left-upper canine, so Vincent had taken his right canine instead. Vincent wondered why he was doing this, though Yuffie once said it looked really cool, until Vincent said what they were all from. Then she said it was gross and walked off.

He played with it a moment, wondering what he would do after Sigma. Nothing came. There was nothing after Sigma. Nothing for Vincent, anyway. He had plenty of ideas of what Chaos could do.

Maybe, Vincent thought, maybe there was nothing for either of them.

Onyx and a small fleet of yellow hardhat robots were finishing up the compound. Onyx was slowing fixing himself at the same time, but wouldn't truly be ready for weeks. The Onyx weapon was easily as large as any of the others, only it was much more spider-like in appearance. A black core was surrounded by numerous tentacles that were busily collecting materials to be part of the new headquarters.

Jenova had the repair bay complete and used it to finish off her repairs. She was now in the shape she had been when Zero launched her and Megaman for this planet.

The memory of Zero and especially Megaman had crept in through the hole Sigma had left in her mental block, and with them a huge element of her persona shot in. She remembered her purpose, and she saw that this was wrong, but what could she do against Sigma? He could cut her down in an instant, and that wouldn't do anyone any good. So instead she slipped in a small portion of code to all the new robots. Just a little "backdoor" to go into in case of trouble. In the meantime, she made sure that Onyx would be having further trouble.

The big can of spilled orange paint was back, taking over the big blue can of spilled paint.

Tifa was one of the first awake. For some reason this day reminded her of when everyone had been given the choice not to come back for the final battle, and everyone had. No choice was given, but it seemed like none was needed. Everyone wanted to go.

Tifa found X where he had been when Cloud found him. He was still looking off to the north.

"Hi there."

X turned to her. "Hi."

"They say you know what's going on up there."

"I do, sort of. At first I could feel Sigma and Jenova up there, but through the night it's been harder and harder to sense them."

"Are they dying?"

"No. More like trying to pick a face out of a growing crowd. There are more machines up there now. I know Sigma's up there, and Jenova too, but there are so many more faces now. And there's a really big one that has to be Onyx weapon."

"So we're dealing with an army, now?" she asked.

"Don't worry. Dealing with Sigma's army single-handed was my job. Now I've got help from you and materia." Megaman flipped open his upgrade slot, revealing 8 shining stones.

"You have a summon. Who is it?"

"Alexander. Something about him just feels right."

"I have Phoenix. I hate it when people get hurt, so I like to carry someone who specializes in bringing people back."

"I wish I had that before Sigma came."

"I heard, I'm so sorry."

"It's ok. I had the entire trip here to mourn, but now I have another group of people to watch after. I just wish Zero was here. He'd wipe the floor with Sigma."

"I think we'll be ok with who we have."

X smiled. "Yeah. We'll be fine."

Yuffie, Cid, Red, Vincent, Cloud, Tifa, Cait Sith, and Megaman X all boarded the Second Wind. The Cosmo Canyon residents all cheered them on as the airship took off for the Northern Crater. Some of the members of the party were a little uncomfortable with going, most of all Yuffie, who puked overboard and nearly drenched a young couple in the previous night's consumption. She tried to yell an apology but all that came up was more vomit.

Vincent was on the observation deck watching the landscape roll along down below when Red came up and sat down beside him.

"Those cigarettes will kill you, you know."

"I was more concerned about robots, myself."

"I heard about your inner demons."

"I heard about you discoveries upstairs."

Red huffed. "I don't think it's going to do either of us any good to keep up this little hiccup in what has otherwise been a marvelous friendship. I looked through grandpa's research last night, and he had something interesting on exorcism."

Vincent grunted. "Really."

"Yes. Supposedly, the ancients had to deal with it, and they had called on Alexander. He nearly killed the ancient being exorcised, but it worked. At least, that's what the paper said."

They sat there for a full minute, both just watching the world go by.

"If we get out of this, do you think it has a chance?"

"I honestly don't know. But I'd rather not bury another friend this soon." Red looked up at Vincent. "If that's alright with you."

Vincent looked at the cigarette, threw it overboard. "That's fine by me, Nanaki." Vincent looked at Red. Tears were in the four-legged warrior's eyes.

"I should have done something sooner, Vincent."

Vincent bent down and hugged his friend. "I don't know if I can beat it, Nanaki."

"We'll find out after this is over."

Cloud reviewed his options. On the one hand, there was the Ultima Weapon, which was proven in battle time and again. On the other hand, there was Masamune, which had potential that Cloud had come to realize he may never be able to handle. The sword was incredibly awkward, yet was so immensely powerful when you got it right. Cloud thought of the sword flying out of his hands and almost killing his wife, and the other time where the only way he would have beaten Yuffie was to force a draw, and forcing a draw wouldn't be enough if he wanted his child to have a father.

Cloud picked up Ultima Weapon. It was much heavier than Masamune, but it fit.

Tifa was shadowboxing in the stables when the baby kicked. She doubled over for a moment. "I guess you take after me, kid. That was one hell of a kick." She continued to shadowbox.

Barret was cleaning Missing Score. The weapon had become a part of him almost, to the point where he could take it completely apart and back together with one hand blindfolded. While doing it one handed was required, having only one hand and all, the blindfolded part was still an achievement.

Cait Sith and Cid worked on the ship.

"You have to be in top shape for this fight. You be in top shape, alright?" Cid didn't think the ship could understand his language, but he knew she could tell by how he was talking to her that he was praising her. Cait Sith just shook his head.

Sigma felt something. The radar station on top of the headquarters told him that one ship was coming in at high speed right towards him.

"Oh, I knew I should have put up that AA system. Onyx, take it down!"

The black weapon lifted off into the air and flew off to meet the intruder, looking like a giant black comet with a giant black tail. He curled up and went back to sleep, getting his strength back.

"Alright everyone, we have really friggin' big incoming! Let's get to the observation deck, now. We're going to need everyone's firepower here!"

Everyone was facing north. They could see the continent beginning to come up over the horizon, and Vincent was sure he saw Bone City off to the east a little. But everyone's attention went straight to the black dot that started to grow in the distance. The Second Wind was just about to run into it when it stopped just over the coast. The arms came out from behind the core, making it look like a black sun with a crawly black corona. The Second Wind yawed right sharply, firing all its port guns into the black core. The beast seemed to recoil from the attack and its tentacles covered the central portion.

Cid came in over a loudspeaker as he flew the ship away from Onyx: "Alright, it looks like we already have a weak point picked out. Let's hit it!"

Onyx counterattacked with little blasts from each of its tentacles. The shots were easily dodged by Cid, who had already put enough distance between them to make maneuvering easy. He brought the ship in close again and let loose with the guns just as every one on the deck either fired, threw, or cast something. But Onyx learned, and its tentacles created a barrier just after the first blast hit the core, allowing nothing else in.

"Dammit, this thing's quick in about every sense of the friggin' word!"

Onyx opened up to reveal a giant ball of energy already built up.

"Shit! Hang on!!!" The Second Wind dropped straight for the frigid ocean just as a beam of light shot out from Onyx and started to follow the airship. Right before they hit the water, Cid managed to pull them out of the dive, kicking up a pair of waves that made a "V" behind the ship. The beam followed and cut into the waves behind them. The ship was running at full speed, and Cid tried to go behind a mountain to lose the beam. He went behind the closest peak he could find and was shocked to see the beam cut though the peak, slicing it clean off and at enough of an angle for the top of the mountain to slide off. Cid almost tried a straight vertical climb before remembering that the entirety of the force other than himself was standing on the observation deck. Instead he tried to bank away, but the beam found the ship. It shuddered and lurched for a moment, then leveled out.

Barret let go of a rail he had been holding fiercely enough to leave a handprint in. "What the hell happened?! That thing could cut through a mountain and not us?!"
Laughter came all over the loudspeakers. "Weapon armor! Yes! I told you it kicked ass!" Onyx started firing normally again, and the Second Wind maneuvered through the cloud of fire and skidded right into Onyx, firing all her guns at the same time. Everyone else was thrown off their feet on impact, and Onyx closed its tentacles into a shell again. Of course, with the Second Wind right next to it, the tentacles closed over the Second Wind, trapping it.
"Ah dammit! Everyone hit that damned thing, get it to let us go!" Cid cried out over the loudspeaker.

Onyx started to charge another beam, which would hit them at point blank range. Everyone was just getting back up, except for Vincent, who had been floating the whole time. His Death Sentence fired one round into the middle of the growing ball of light. The round pierced the ball and exploded it, causing Onyx's arms to go flailing and the Second Wind to go flying away. Cid regained control again just as everyone was getting back to their feet.

"Cid, don't you try that again!" just about everyone said in some form or another.

Megaman spoke up: "Don't one of you have some sort ofok gravity spell?"

Cait said, "I do."

"That thing is running on anti-gravity thrusters. If you can use a gravity spell on it, you may be able to force it down. That would make it easier for us to attack it."

Cait nodded, and Cid brought the ship back around. The ship came around and fired, forcing Onyx to close up. Then Cait let loose with a whopper of a gravity spell, nailing Onyx with enough force to send it sprawling out of its defensive position. The Weapon stayed in the air for a moment, then fell like a brick back to the planet.

Everyone cheered, and Cid brought the ship down right next to Onyx. Everyone jumped off and got into position around the Weapon, surrounding it. Cid stayed in the ship and lined up for a strafing run.

Onyx was trying to walk on its damaged legs when Cloud and Yuffie starting hacking at the tentacles. There were dozens of them, but only a couple of whacks took them off. Cid, Barret, X and Vincent were laying down fire while Cait and Tifa shot fireballs and gravity spells at the Weapon. It went down quickly.

Cloud walked up to the ravaged core. There were three little eyes at one point, but now only one wasn't popped out. He brought Ultima Weapon over his head for the coup de grace.

"Wait." Cloud turned toward X, who was standing behind him. X knelt beside the eye, looking back at it.

"Any reason why I'm waiting, X?"

"Onyx wasn't near full strength. We should have had a much harder time with him." X got up, walked away. "You can kill him now." X heard a crunching sound.

"That was fun," Yuffie said, "…now what?"

X said, "Sigma's over there waiting for us. I think we should get him now before he can get any more of these built."

"Yeah, I'd hate to fight Ruby weapon again," Cloud said, pulling Ultima Weapon from Onyx's core. Everyone moaned in agreement.

"So what are we waiting for?" X asked.

Yuffie raised her hand. "How about Judgement Day? I could wait that long, if this thing's the henchman."

X cut a look at her. "Sigma killed the entire population of earth, and he'll do the same here eventually. If you really want to wait that long, you won't wait long."

"Jeez, sorry. Let's go kick his ass then!"

Everyone couldn't help but laugh, even X.

Cloud said, "Maybe after this guy, we can all retire to Costa del Sol and not have to worry about megalomaniacal villains anymore." Everyone laughed harder.

"Hey, remember when we found Hojo on the beach?" Barret asked, his eyes starting to water.

Tifa pointed at him. "Yeah! He had all those girls around him! Hojo! The ladies' man!" Yuffie was rolling on the ground.

Vincent said, "Remember when Hojo almost destroyed Midgar when he tried to overload the Sister Ray?" Vincent might as well have shot someone. "And how he created Sephiroth? Oh, was that a gag and a half." No one was laughing now. "Or the time when Sephiroth jumped down in the City of the Ancients and killed Aeris?" Cloud looked as if he had been shot.

Red said, "He's right. We need to remember what the stakes are here. Some of us may very well not come out of this one, if anything X says is true. And we just saw what Onyx could do."

"Right," Cloud said.

Cid came around with the Second Wind and got up on the observation deck, poking his head over the side rail. "What the hell is wrong with all of you? Someone die?" Despite the last minute or so of dialogue, everyone just cracked up laughing again.

"What'd I say?"

The Second Wind stormed up towards where X felt Sigma. They didn't get too far before they saw spotlights coming from the crater.

"Oh man, they have AA stuff up there. This thing won't be going in until you guys get it cleared."

The team headed for the stables.

The defense systems started going haywire. Sigma barely noticed, as he was too deep in his recuperative cycle to care. Had he cared, he would have known about the 3 golden chocobos, one black chocobo, one dog, one flying man, and the largest stuffed Mog being controlled by a cat with a microphone in the history of everything.

Robots of every description poured out to meet the riders, who immediately began hacking into their ranks. All the chocobos were S Class champions, and Nightrider, the weakest of the bunch, was still only the fourth best chocobo on the planet. While the riders drove into the small army coming at them, hacking and shooting and maiming and burning, one person flew right overhead, barely seen by any. The one or two robots that actually tried to attack Vincent got instantly destroyed by a gun that Never Missed. Vincent called Cid. "Now what am I looking for?"

"Ah, some radar or another. All I know is something's lookin' right at me and wants to take my picture with a rocket."

"I think I see it. Rotating device, right on top of the structure…"
"That's it! Kill it, Vincent!"

Vincent held on to the phone in one hand, pulled Death Sentence with the other, and filled the top of the station with lead. Cid smiled at the complete lack of radar signals he was picking up from the base. "Dead on, Vincent! I'm coming in to provide air support!"

"Cid, these robots are coming out of the building. I suggest you focus your attack on that."

"Roger, Vince. Coming in hot, you guys get clear, unless you like being shot with big friggin' rockets."

The Second Wind stormed over the battlefield, picking out targets here and there before coming into range of the station. He passed it on the right, filling it with cannon and rocket fire as he passed. The headquarters blew amazingly, making the night sky day for a moment.

The robots continued their attack, but it was fruitless. Anyone they hit got a Cure spell immediately. Tifa didn't even need to call on Phoenix.

Then the army pulled into the crater suddenly. Before the party could follow them in, a beam of energy shot out of the rubble of the station.

Two beings walked out from the light. They all immediately recognized Jenova, but the smaller one on the right was only recognized by one.

"Sigma!"

"In the flesh."

Yuffie whispered to Tifa, "I thought he was a robot?"

Tifa shushed her.

"Well well. You all managed to defeat my 'army' without even getting too banged up. Darn." Sigma started laughing. "I mean, there goes almost half of my construction force!" He started laughing hysterically. No one else seemed to get it. "Don't get the joke. Aww, I'm sorry, little heroes. Here's the punchline!" Sigma pointed to the inner part of the crater, where the little robots had been replaced with much more menacing looking robots. "The real might of my force, ladies and gents!" Sigma snapped his fingers and pointed at the party. The army charged.

What had been a shooting and slashing gallery became a fight for dear life. The new forces were much more brutal and effective, and Tifa found herself overwhelmed trying to keep the cure spells going. Yuffie nearly fell off her steed when Barret mowed down everything around her, but lost his own chocobo while doing so.

Cid was tearing into the ranks, but had to do so sparingly, as the enemy liked to shoot up at him when he swooped by, and every time he thanked the heavens for his choice of armor.

Vincent was shooting robots away from Tifa when he felt something that he could only describe as his soul trying to puke. He fell to the ground, writhing, and felt his arm starting to change. He wasn't being replaced by Chaos, as he usually does, but Chaos was trying to break in. Vincent chewed back the vomiting soul, and found himself under control, still on the battlefield. A robot was about to crush him when Red tore right through it. He walked over to Vincent and dropped the gun he had been holding in his mouth. Vincent saw that Red was smelling him.

"I'm still me."

"Stay that way."

They continued to fight, but the robots had them all boxed into separate corners. They were cut off, and Tifa was the only one with Cure spells. Then Cloud noticed something odd. The robots were attacking themselves. A lot. They all started to notice, and the robots became too busy fighting themselves to worry about their intended targets.

A look of smug certainty had vanished under a wave of horror on Sigma's face. The army was still attacking, but now it wasn't even trying to shoot at the humans. They were tearing into each other.

"What's happening? All of you, attack the humans!" But they kept at each other.

Jenova just stood there. Smiling.

Megaman saw the smile. "She's smiling…did she do this…?"

The last two robots finished each other off. A field of dead and broken things surrounded the party.

"Well, that sucked," said Sigma. "Maybe leaving everything to Jenova wasn't the best of ideas."

Sigma looked behind him, seeing that the lower levels of his headquarters were still intact, even after Cid's attack. Sigma smiled. The silo was intact.

The party approached the pile of rubble that used to be a building. Barret downed a hi-potion and Tifa applied some ether. The party stopped at the base of the hill.

"Aren't you a motley crew? I'm not sure which stands out more, the dog or the doll." Red did nothing, but Cait gave Sigma the paw. "But then there's you, Megaman. I guess I'd usually give you the speech about how together we can destroy all the humans and live like kings amongst the robots, the fact of the matter is that the last thing in the world I want right now is for you to continue to exist."

"Sigma, if you leave now, we won't destroy you," X said.

Sigma seriously gave it a moment of thought. He was outnumbered, but then launching the missile could deal with that easily enough…but what fun would that be? Besides, he was fully healed after his rejuvenation cycle. He could bust heads with the best of them. Better, even.

"Here's the way I see it. I could go back to earth, and probably have an empire of robots awaiting me. Who knows how far into the cosmos they've spread? But then I'd just feel obligated to come back here and crush every single atom of life for the trouble.

"So I'll do you a favor. If you can kill me, I won't kill you."

Barret screamed and fired Missing Score. The shot glanced off Sigma easily, but it threw him off balance just long enough for Tifa to charge in and slam her fist into his head. Tifa was reminded of punching Ruby weapon and realized that they were probably made out of the same stuff. She tried to follow it up with another to the torso, but Sigma caught her fist and said, "Aren't you a little pregnant to be doing this?" He pushed her aside and ducked just in time to not get decapitated by Conformer. The buzzing blade went by Red and Cloud, who were charging up the hill. Tifa somersaulted off of Sigma, moving Sigma as much as she would have moved a steel wall, and let the harder hitters work on him.

Sigma started showing off some, dodging Red's attacks and Cloud's at the same time. He flip-kicked and started walking on his hands, kicking Cloud while avoiding the Ultima weapon. Red tackled Sigma and starting going for a kill, but Sigma kicked him off easily and flipped back up. Conformer flew at him again, but this time he caught it in midair. "No fair!" Yuffie screamed as Sigma threw the weapon into the ground, where it stuck out. Barret and Vincent found their weapons did nothing but make Sigma laugh, though Sigma was careful to avoid Megaman's fire. Cloud was too slow and Yuffie was having no luck with someone who could catch her Conformer.

Cloud swung high, again, and saw Sigma's fist come around in a haymaker. Cloud leapt backwards and tripped on a rock, falling almost to the base of the hill again. He got up and saw that Sigma wasn't scratched.

"Everybody, get clear!" Tifa and Red ran down the hill. "Odin! Help us!"

A giant horse with an equally large rider jumped out of a hole in reality. It rode up to Sigma, who was taken back.

"Wow. There is truly something you don't see everyday, or at least not since Viking times."

Odin looked up, as did Sigma, and they saw the clouds part and a giant lance come screaming down toward Sigma. Everyone's eyes tracked the lance all the way to Sigma, who caught it like it was a stick. He tossed it to Odin, saying, "I think you dropped this." Odin glared at Sigma and rode back where he came from.

"I don't know what that was, but if that's the best you have…"

"Cloud, Bahamut!" Cid called.

"Which one?"

"All of them!"

The plot of land Sigma was standing was ripped from the rest of the planet and levitated into the air. Sigma looked up, almost bored, at the giant winged monstrosities before him. "Wow, dragons. I'm impressed…" He yawned as Bahamut and Neo Bahamut attacked at the same time, and still yawning put his arms out. The blasts met the hands, and when they had ceased Sigma found that the rock he was standing on wasn't there anymore. Sigma can't fly, so he fell instead, coming to a perfectly safe and graceful landing in the little hole where he had been standing a moment before. He stopped yawning.

"That wasn't all that bad…"

Bahamut Zero fired it's blast from space at the same time as the other Bahamuts had, only this one just reached its target. The air around Sigma actually caught fire the instant before the blast hit, and the ground shook with the force of the attack.

Sigma sat up and shook his head. "That wasn't funny." He got up and looked himself over. "Good, nothing was blown off." He wiped some dirt off of his armor. "Alright, I'll give you little punks one last shot with these little critters of yours."

Megaman took a breath to call on Alexander. Red XIII bit his leg before he could say it. "What, what'd I do?"

"Don't call him. Not now."

"But who else…?"

"We have another ace up our sleeve. The ace. Now don't call him yet."

Red called out, instead. "Knights of the Round, send this fool to the hell he belongs!"

Sigma disappeared.

X looked around. "Where'd he go?"

Barret was grinning. "Knights of the Round, kid. Sigma's off in some other dimension being diced by 13 pissed medieval warriors just as large as the horse riding guy Cloud called. Every time we do this, the poor soul we send in there comes out in about 100 pieces."

Tifa said, "Except the weapons. They could take it."

Cloud added, "I remember Sephiroth taking it, too."

A red jewel on Red's bangle shattered. "What the…?" he started to say, then knew.

The Knights of the Round materialized one after the other. Each was cut in half or missing a head or just sliced into pieces. Finally Sigma appeared. In one hand he held a sword twice his length, and the other hand had the last of the Knights.

"He…he just iced the Knights!" Yuffie screamed.

"How could he…?" Barret started.

"…kill these savage fools who thought they could kill me?!" Sigma finished. "Easy! I grabbed the second Knight's sword and started chopping the rest to pieces, ending with the twit wearing the crown!" He drove the sword into the ground. He pulled out a small cyclindrical object and pushed a button on it. A beam of light 5 feet long was emitted from the end. "Now this is a sword. Who wants to taste it first?"

X started to walk toward Sigma, but Cloud stopped him. "X, can you beat him?"

X looked down at his feet. "No. I don't have a chance. Not even with this materia. I don't think any of us do, Cloud. He's too quick, and nothing we do hurts him. And even if we do manage to damage him, he has Jenova. She can fix him up just like he rolled off the assembly line."

"Wait…where is she?" They looked around, but everyone's attention had been on Sigma so long that no one had noticed her leave. "Damn. She isn't around anywhere."

"She might be under the rubble. I bet some of the lower levels of the station survived Cid's attack. She could be rebuilding it as we speak."

"How the hell are we supposed to beat him?"

"He's been avoiding my blaster, your sword, and Yuffie's Conformer. I bet any one of those would hurt him, if we could actually land a hit."

Sigma cleared his throat. "I'm waiting, children."

Cloud turned to the party. "Red, get a slow/haste combo ready. Vincent, call Cid, tell him to be ready to strafe. Barret, can you and Yuffie pull your limit breaks out?" Yuffie and Barret smiled devilishly. "I'll take that as a yes. Tifa, have Phoenix on hand. Megaman, I need you to keep fire on Sigma. Cait, I need you to get right up in Sigma's face, with you being not real and all. I need to know how powerful that sword is. Everyone ready?" He got affirmatives from his party. "Then…Barret! Yuffie! Now!"

Barret rode a column of energy into the air and moved it right over to Sigma. The blast of superheated plasma was joined by Yuffie's All Creation attack, which was a taste of the big bang. Yuffie's blast met Sigma as well, and the two of them kept it up for almost a minute. When they couldn't hold it anymore they stopped, just as Cait tried to tackle Sigma. The reploid wasn't even fazed in the attack and made a vertical slice that split Cait straight in two down the middle. Cloud was right behind, engaging Sigma. For a moment it seemed like Sigma was winning, but Red cast two spells. The first made Cloud speed up, and the second slightly slowed Sigma down. As swordsmen they were now equals, and X was laying down enough fire to make Sigma think defensively. Cloud and X kept it up for almost half an hour, with Tifa using Cure on Cloud more than once.

Then Sigma, seeing that he wasn't going to win anytime soon, jumped back. He pushed a button on his arm and a missile heaved out of the ground.

"That's the missile that wiped out the earth's population!" X cried out.

"Yes it is." A gush of smoke shot out from the ground, and the missile flew out from the smoke a moment later. Megaman screamed, "Not again!" as the missile shot into the atmosphere.

"X, how much time do we have?" Cloud asked.

"Once it gets high enough, it'll blow, and an airborne virus will kill everyone. It's slow as far as missiles are concerned, though. I'd say 3 minutes."

"Tick tock. Now, how would the living members of this little band like to spend the last three minutes of their lives?" Sigma taunted.

Vincent flew over to X. "Is Jenova supposed to be on that thing?" Megaman looked at the rapidly ascending missile. He saw the Second Wind chasing it up, though he couldn't fire on the missile without releasing the virus.

Sigma looked up, too. "What's she doing on the missile?!"

Megaman's eyes rolled up in his head for a second, then they came back. "I just got a message from her, Sigma. She'd rather die with humanity than have you destroy it."

"What the hell does she think that's going to accomplish? I can just kill her and use the remaining facilities to make my army and return to my empire."

Megaman was grinning from ear to ear. "She says, 'Not after what I did to your facilities.' "

Sigma's eyes widened, then narrowed. He walked over to the hole that led to the remains of the headquarters. "It's exactly the same, functioning and everything."

"It's been reprogrammed, Sigma. No evil robot will be built on this planet ever again. She says her psyche was able to crawl out of whatever little hole you buried it in, and now you're only choice is to tell the missile to harmlessly self-destruct or else you'll be stuck here for all time on a rock with nothing to rule but yourself."

"Well, she turned out to be quite a bitch." Megaman's smile broadened even more. "Tell her to have a nice death."

Megaman's smile died. "She's your only ticket out of here, Sigma. Don't you think your precious empire would have come to this planet by now? They had the ability to, obviously. What do you think happened to them? Perhaps they turned on each other without your 'guidance?' I think your empire is dead, Sigma."

Vincent asked, "X, is that bioweapon a gas?"

"Yes. Why?"

"I have an idea." Vincent soared into the air. He flew as fast as he could, but he'd never catch the missile in time. Not unless he turned into Chaos, though. Chaos flew a lot faster than he did by himself. He felt Chaos bubbling up within him, and knew that he had to let him back in one more time. Chaos overcame him, and immediately he felt the surge of power.

He flew faster than he ever had before, passing the Second Wind and flying right alongside the missile, right up to Jenova. Vincent first got right up to Jenova and yelled in her ear. She nodded, and he grabbed her and took her to the Second Wind, putting her on the observation deck. He handed her a Ribbon.

"Take this to Cid!" The demon said. She nodded and went into the ship. Chaos then flew right up to the missile and cast a spell. The missile slowed, then stopped in midair.

"What's happening now?" Sigma demanded.

"I…don't know," Cloud responded.

Chaos and Vincent were fighting for control, but Vincent was in control enough to keep the gravity spell in place. He hovered miles above the surface with the Second Wind circling around. He screamed, "NOW!" at the top of his lungs, which was very loud for Chaos. Jenova repeated to Cid what Vincent had told her, and he launched a salvo into the missile. It exploded, and the green gas exploded into the atmosphere.

"Jesus, this better be a good idea, Jenova," Cid said. The gas was going everywhere, and some of it entered the cabin. Cid held his breath for a moment, then remembered that he had the Ribbon on, and breathed normally. He didn't die, and found this to be a very good thing.

Then he saw that the gas wasn't continuing outward. It's expansion had slowed and was quickly coming to a halt.

"What's he doing?"

Jenova said, "He's continuing to use the gravity spell. The gas should all be condensed into a ball." The gas was now retreating into where the gravity spell was centered. The gas all converged into a ball, just like Jenova said. It got tighter and tighter until it was just a particle. Chaos brought the ball very close to his face.

"What's he doing now?" Cid asked.

"He's taking all the gas into himself. Since he's wearing a Ribbon, the effect is being negated once it hits his body. Cid brought the Second Wind right up to Chaos and went to the observation deck. He walked right up to Chaos, who had landed on the deck. Cid saw that Chaos let up on the spell just enough to inhale what gas escaped, then exhaled clean air. He kept doing this until there wasn't any gas left.

"Wow. Vincent, I'm impressed."

"Cid, get me back down. Now. I can't turn back, and I don't know how long I can hold Chaos out."

Sigma screamed at the sky. "What is this? You're all dead! You have to die now! Just die!" Yuffie couldn't help herself. She started giggling. "Oh, great, now your funeral is becoming a joke, is it? Well, let's see if we can try something else that's funny!" Sigma charged right at Yuffie, who threw Conformer at him. He knocked the weapon away and was just about to lop her head off when a charged blast from Megaman's gun knocked him to the ground.

"You're finished, Sigma." Megaman walked over to the reploid. His arm was charred and some circuitry was visible. "Jenova is back on our side, where she belongs. The people of the world are safe again. Surrender."

Sigma picked up his sword. "Never. I'll roam this planet. I'll kill everyone. Each individual life will be ceased under my blade. Humanity deserves nothing less. I'll start with the one with the spiky hair, then take out his woman. I'll get two for the price of one, there. Then I'll take out the dog, it talks. Dogs shouldn't do that. Then everything else on this stinking rock will come to fear me, and know that I will bring them their end."

The sword came alive and Sigma charged X, who fired a fully charged blast. Sigma took it, a hole in his torso, but he pressed right through it. X fell back a step, but it wasn't enough. Just as the Second Wind came swooping down, the blade went straight into Megaman's chest. Megaman and Sigma both looked at their chests, then back up at each other. Megaman raised his gun to Sigma's temple. Energy started to coalesce around the gun, but it died. Megaman's eyes slid shut, and he slid off the blade. Sigma dropped to his knees. He closed his eyes.

For a moment, no one spoke.

Jenova yelled, "He isn't dead! Someone finish him!" Yuffie let Conformer fly, and it almost reached Sigma. The weapon instead got batted away by a lightning-quick strike. Sigma rose to his feet again while Tifa jumped on board the Second Wind.

"Damn you all." Sigma extinguished his blade. "That was my primary power supply. Now I only have 10 years of battery power. It's saddening, really." Sigma began walking toward the party.

Cloud shouted, "Everyone, hit him with your best magic now!" Holy, Flare, and Meteor slammed the uncaring Sigma. A point of light appeared just over the spot where Megaman had shot Sigma, a point of light that exploded into Ultima. Green, angry fire surrounded Sigma. Still he came. Cloud rushed to him, slashing with the Ultima Weapon, but Sigma was too quick, and Red didn't have any magic left.

The fight only lasted 20 seconds. Cloud was losing the whole time, and was able to do nothing when his sword was thrown from his hand. Sigma's blade was just inches from his neck. "Any last words?"

Masamune shot into the ground between them, sticking straight out of the ground. Sigma's surprise bought Cloud the split second he needed to grab the sword.

"Yeah, two. 'Thanks,' and 'Tifa.' "

Sigma didn't know whether to smile or cringe. He decided on just hacking away at Cloud. They fought fiercely, quickly, and relentlessly for almost a minute. Tifa started to notice Cloud starting to speed up, knowing that he was starting to enter the zone. She watched as her husband wielded the sword that had cut her, that had cut their entire hometown, that had cut him, that had cut Aeris as she prayed for the lives of the people of the planet. It was Cloud's final conquest over Sephiroth to handle the sword with the grace, skill, and ferocity that the evil man had done, only more so, and to turn that evil weapon into a tool of good. The tool found Sigma's arm, and removed it from the rest of him. The laser sword went flying with it. Cloud took the other arm, too. Just because.

Sigma sneered. "You wouldn't kill an unarmed man, would you?"

"Just for that last remark…" Cloud did little more than flick his wrist to decapitate Sigma. The head went bouncing away, only to be chopped in two by Conformer.

"Nice to finally get a hit in," Yuffie said.

Jenova walked over to Sigma's body. "He is dead, now." She walked over to Megaman. "But you have some life left in you." Jenova kneeled down, placing her hand on Megaman's head. She was easily four times larger than Barret, making her sixteen times larger than X. Yuffie thought X looked more like a doll than anything else in comparison.

While Jenova was with Megaman, Tifa ran to the party. "Guys, Vincent is in trouble."

They ran to the observation deck and found Vincent. He was in his Chaos form, and didn't look good. The muscular Chaos was shriveled and sickly. Red got right up to him and started sniffing. "He's fighting Chaos, but the demon is surfacing." Red ran to Jenova, who was still tending to Megaman.

"I can repair him. He should be fine." She took a red stone from X's gun arm and held it out to Red. "You may want to help your friend now, Red XIII." Red took it in his mouth, and in a muffled voice said, "Alexander, please, help us."

A giant mechanical form rose from the ground, planting two huge support struts. He spoke: "Ah, Nanaki. What would you have me do?" His voice was deep and soft, and not nearly as loud as one would think a being like Alexander would have it.

"It's my friend, Vincent. The creature Chaos is trying to take him over."

"Hmm. Bring him before me." Barret picked Vincent up over his shoulder and carried him to Alexander. Soft light came from the summoned being, and Barret thought he heard a choir. "He is possessed, that much is certain." The others were gathering around. "Chaos is a powerful demon, just as strong in evil as I am in good. I will not be able to destroy him."

"Is there anything we can do to help, Alexander?" Red's voice was strained.

"This man is too far gone for me to save, Nanaki, at least in body."

"What do you mean?"

"The best I can offer is to transfer the possession from Vincent to someone else. This is not a natural possession, as Chaos did not choose to possess Vincent. It was Hojo that made Chaos possess Vincent. Chaos is as trapped in Vincent as Vincent is trapped by Chaos. Yet I cannot release Chaos now, for he would be a force much stronger than the one you just vanquished."

Red said, "You said you can transfer the possession?"

"Yes. Furthermore, you are the only one here who could survive the transfer for any length of time, Nanaki. Like Vincent, you have been altered by Hojo. Much of the alterations were similar, and I am sure you would have eventually suffered as Vincent has. I am sorry to put such a burden on your shoulders, but if this isn't done, Vincent will die and he will not ascend in the next world, but fall, regardless of the good he has done on this day. If you accept the transfer, he will die, but he will ascend in the next world. But the evil will not die. It will live on in you, and unless you find some way later to destroy it, you will never be able to ascend."

Barret knelt next to Red. "We'll help you, Red. We'll beat that evil, one day. And if you don't want it…"

"I don't want it. But I couldn't live with myself if I didn't take it. Alexander! Give me Chaos!"

"As you wish." The soft light around Vincent flared to life. Vincent returned to normal and was still for a moment. Right before Tifa asked if that was it Vincent puked up a black sludge. The light from Alexander ascended, and the sludge went with it, right towards Red. He held his ground, even as the sludge was poured over him. He shook, and flinched a few times, but the evil liquid crawled into him.

The light softened once again. "There. You are now possessed by Chaos. May I suggest you not engage in any hateful acts, for any such acts will give more power to Chaos, and he will eventually find enough to take you over much like Vincent. However, you should now be able to call on Chaos for help, as your relationship is symbiotic."

Red could feel the evil in him. It was an unidentifiable wrong, like a feeling of unlocalized sickness. Red didn't feel like letting the creature out, though he thought it wouldn't be too hard.

"Keep him bottled, Nanaki. Search for the power to defeat that evil. I shall be here to help." Alexander returned to the dimension that he came from.

Everyone gathered around Vincent. He had aged decades in the last few minutes, and looked to be older than Red's grandfather when he died. Red walked up to his friend.

"I don't smell it on you anymore, Vincent."

"Nanaki…"

"Shush, don't speak. You've had quite an ordeal."

"Nanaki, I'm dying. I could have taken that thing with me…"

"You would have taken it to a place I'd not have you go. But you'll pull through…"

"That's bull…Nanaki…you know more than anyone here…can't you hear my heart? It's slowing, Nanaki…"

"Yes, it is."

"But…thank you…maybe…maybe…"

"Yes?"

"I…forgot…what I was saying…"

Red listened to Vincent's heart fail. Tifa asked Red if she should call Phoenix, but all Red XIII could think of was how he failed his friend. He was dead, and he could have been saved if he hadn't just opened up to him earlier, instead of attacking him for something that Hojo had done to him too. The tears were streaming from his eyes, and Red was getting angry. Angry at Sigma, angry at Sephiroth, angry at the raiders that killed his father, angry at Time for stealing his grandfather…the tears were on fire, and then he was on fire, all of him and everyone had jumped back, and there was Chaos's form in Red XIII.

"Red…you ok?" Cloud asked.

Red moaned, and the fire receded until it was just his tail again. "That…was Chaos." Red regained his composure. "That was Chaos. If I turn into him, and I don't come back…"

"We know Red," Cloud said, "…you don't have to tell us."

Epilogue

Red was lying on the beach, fast asleep. Tifa and Cloud's child, Vincent, was asleep on his belly, rising up and down with his breathing.

From the same window that Cloud had almost killed Tifa, they watched the dog and their child.

"Is it safe for him to be on top of Red like that? What if Chaos…?"

"Tifa, he'll be fine. That's Red, remember? Besides, if Chaos did erupt from Red, there are 30 Weapons on this planet that would love to destroy him."

"We owe so much to her. She programmed all those robots to fight each other in that battle, she makes Weapons to defend us against whatever the robot empire might send, and helps us find alternate power sources to Mako…"
Cloud nodded. "Hard to think that we were fighting her to get to Sephiroth just a few years ago."

Vincent sneezed. The baby rose and stopped a moment. Red peeked at the child through a half-open lid, then shut it again. The baby was fine. He went back to sleep, hoping not to have a nightmare about Chaos. The demon was contained, but it bubbled up to the surface every now and then. Red knew he would defeat it one day, but until then, he would keep it bottled. He wasn't failing another Vincent.

Megaman boarded the ship. His armor was heavily upgraded by Jenova, and he carried some of the planet's most powerful materia. The crater was the last thing he saw before the hatch closed shut.

Cid called in on the intercom. "Alright, Shiny, it's Earth or bust. You sure you want to go back? This sounds like you're just asking for trouble this time…"

"I have to see what's become of it, Cid. Besides, I thought you wanted to fly in space so bad."

"Well…I do…it's just that this isn't exactly a necessity, you know? I don't know if this robot empire has anything that can deal with 30 Weapons…"

"They were high tech when I left, remember. That was thousands of years ago…"

"Yeah yeah, I got the history lesson." Cid flipped a switch. "Elena, Yuffie, ya'll strapped in back there?"

The voices came back, both affirmative.

Cid sighed. "Well, here we go again. T-minus 10 to liftoff. Nine, eight, seven…"

The End.