Scars of the Past

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I've been thinking about you, my love - And all the crazy things that you put me through - Now I'm coming around, Throwing it back to you - Were you thinking of me when you kissed him - Could you taste me when you licked his skin - All the while I showered you with trust and promises - What I'm needing now is some sweet revenge - To get back all that I lost then - I gave you all I had to give, but I could never reach you - Adrienne, I thought I knew you - Once again, you used me, used me - Adrienne, I should have left you - Long before you used me, Used me up (The Calling - Adrienne)

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Chapter 9 - The Highwind

Elena was stood near the entrance to Icicle Inn. She folded her arms. 'Why me? I hate the cold. Why couldn't they have sent Reno or even Rude? God damn it.' Rufus had told her to go and check up on Avalanche, see where they were going. Not only that, they had sent two guards with her. 'Stupid idiots, they don't know left from right.' She turned to them.

"Come on, lets get this over with." She walked into town, arms still crossed. She could hear the guards mumbling about the cold behind her. She smiled a little. At least she wasn't the only one that was freezing. The blonde woman stopped at the entrance, as she saw Cloud, Tifa and Barret stood at the far end talking to a man. She grinned and opened her mouth to shout.

"There they are, hurry!" The two guards ran up to stand with her.

"Yes Ma'am!" All three of them ran to the members of Avalanche.

"Cloud...." She stopped talking to take a deep breath, then continued. "I won't let you go any further!" The blonde man just shrugged at her.

"What's down there." He pointed down the icy slope.

"It's a SE-CR-ET." She pointed out, stressing the word secret. "It really doesn't matter! But you really got guts doin' my boss in like that!" Cloud looked at her puzzled.

"You mean Boss... Tseng? That wasn't us. Sephiroth did it." Elena glared at Cloud for a minute.

"No! Don't think you can fool me, liar!" She shouted, getting the urge to stamp her foot.

"I'm not lying... it was Sephiroth." She stared again. She never really thought about it that much to be honest. Avalanche was there, she just wanted to blame someone.

"Don't try to act innocent. I'll never forget it!!" She watched Cloud scratch his head.

"Oh man...." Needing to stamp her foot again, she settled for tapping it on the snow covered ground.

"Looks like talking alone won't cut it. You're going to have to feel some pain!" Elena saw out the corner of her eye, one of the guards stepping forward.

"Just you... and me!!" He said. Cloud looked as though he was going to laugh The blonde Turk wasn't going to have some dim-witted guard fight for her.

"No, I can handle him! There's no way he can avoid my punch." The guard looked at her.

"What? Yeah..." The guard stepped back again. Elena took a deep breath, then drew her arm back, flung it forward, and hit Cloud right in the jaw. Not expecting the punch to be that powerful, the blonde fell back a couple of steps. Not remembering how far away from the edge of the slope he was, he miss-placed his foot and tumbled down the mountain a few feet. Elena resisted the urge to laugh, but then she saw Cloud look up, his hair covered in snow. She burst out laughing. The guards looked at her as though she had cracked up. 'That one was for you Tseng.' She smiled and walked away.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

The two male Turks were sat in a room on the Highwind, playing a game of cards.

"Got any five's?" The red head asked, cigarette dangling from his lips.

"Go fish. Got any seven's" Rude asked in return.

"Yeah, here." Reno passed his two seven's over to the bald Turk.

"I'm done."

"Damn it Rude! I can't even beat you at a kid's game." The bald Turk chuckled a bit. Rufus walked into the room silently and let himself fall on to the sofa, next to Reno.

"Have to get away from the two laughing idiots." He mumbled. "It's bad enough Hojo came back." The red head smirked. He patted the blonde President on the back.

"Now you know what we have to put up with every day." Rufus took out a cigarette and lit it up.

"You know, I might shove my gun up fat bastard's ass anyway. I would enjoy the look on his face." Reno chuckled. "Anyway I came in here to ask if one of you will watch Hojo for me? I don't care which one of you it is, fight amongst yourselves."

"I'll do it." Rude said, getting up from his chair. "If Reno loses at cards one more time, he'll cry." The red head sulked.

"I will not............. Ruffie, fancy a game of cards?"

"Not on your life, Reno" The blonde rose from his seat and left the room, Rude following behind him.

"I'll just have to play on my own then." Reno took the cards and began to deal them.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Rufus walked into the cockpit of the Highwind, stopping in front of the big front window. Scarlet came up to the side of him.

"So, I finally found you." The blonde man whispered to himself. Scarlet looked at him and started laughing.

"Kyaa haa haa." She turned to looked at Heidegger, who was stood a little behind her. "Kyaa haa hah. haa hah haa.............hah This is incredible......" Heidegger joined in the laughing. Rufus turned and gave both of them a a dangerous look.

"This is the Promised Land the President has been searching for!!" The fat Shinra Executive bellowed.

"But I'll be the one who gets it." The President murmured, turning back to the window. "Sorry, old man." He carried on staring into the clouds for a while. He turned again to hear Hojo mumble about something or other. Rude turned to look at Rufus, while the sound of Hojo's laughter filled the airship. The President cringed. The bald Turk walked over to Rufus. The blonde was still looking out over the clouds.

"What did the old coot just ramble on about then?" Rufus flicked his hair back with a hand.

"Something about a reunion happening. He also said he wondered if Sephiroth was going to be there." The blonde turned to the Turk.

"He just gets weirder and weirder." The airship came to a halt, as it reached it's destination. "Stay in the ship. This shouldn't take too long." He jogged out of the room. Scarlet stared for a while then followed. Hojo followed behind her, still laughing hideously.

Rufus wanted to know what Hojo was planning. He knew that the maniac was up to something or other. Hopefully he would spill the beans once down in the crater. Hopefully. The blonde eventually reached a cavern. The walls looked like they were covered in crystal. The blonde woman wandered in a few minutes later.

"Wow!! That's amazing!" She ran to the centre of the room and back to Rufus, looking up. Rufus looked up as well. Near the ceiling of the cave there was a huge, tree-like, amazing structure. Sunlight diffused through it, into the cave. One huge blue stone was in the center of it. Scarlet came to a conclusion. "It's all materia!!" Rufus looked at her.

"The outside is rich with Mako energy, The inside is a treasure trove of Materia. This truly is the Promised Land." No body noticed the skinny scientist walk in and speak.

"There is no such thing as the Promised Land. It's a legend... an old wives tale... ...it's utterly ridiculous." The President, a bit startled, turned to look at him.

"Everything as I imagined it to be. Isn't it splendid? It is that kind of dullness that makes you a second-rate scientist." Rufus smirked at his comment. He was thrown off balance when the room started to shake. He spun round. "What's happening?"

"It's coming from within the wall! Something's in there! It's moving!" Scarlet pointed to the wall. The President looked to where she was pointing. Just as he did, a huge eye winked from within the wall.

"Weapon..." The scientist smirked. "Then it really does exist... I didn't believe in it." Rufus turned round slowly, staring at the black haired man.

"What does this mean?" He asked in a dangerously low tone. Hojo looked at him.

"...Weapon. Monsters created by the Planet. It appears when the Planet is in danger, reducing everything to nothingness. That's what was stated in Professor Gast's report." The blonde looked at him, puzzled.

"I never saw that report... Where is it?" The scientist opened his coat and pulled out a tape.

"Here, right here." Rufus glared.

"You keep a lot of things to yourself."

"Indeed I do." Rufus just wanted to hit Hojo by now. Scarlet walked up to the blonde man.

"Mr. President... I've got a bad feeling about this place..." Rufus thought for a moment. He turned to her and put a hand to his chin.

"Hmm... perhaps we should return to the ship now. We need to prepare for the inspection anyway." Just as he started to turn away, the whole area flashed white.

"Hey!!! Where did you come from?" Rufus spun around to look at the blonde woman, who had shouted, then at the blonde man now stood in the centre of the room.

"...don't know..." Cloud muttered. He looked at Rufus.

"This place is going to get rough. Better leave things to me and get out of here while you still can!!" The blonde President, who had just had about enough of everything right now, flicked his hair back.

"Leave things to you? Hmph... I don't know what you mean." Rufus scoffed as he watched Cloud walk slightly away from him.

"This is where the Reunion is happening. Where everything begins and ends." Rufus turned to Hojo, who was grinning like an idiot by now. As the brunette ran into the cave, the blonde President just stared at her.

"Cloud!!" Tifa shouted. The red cat like creature also ran in.

"I'm here to help you, Cloud!" Everyone watched as Cloud, holding his head down and stopping once in a while, walked over to Red.

"Thanks... Red XIII. Where's the Black Materia?" Tifa shouted again, but Cloud took no notice.

"It's safe. I'm holding onto it." Red answered. Cloud looked down yet again.

"I'll take it from here. Give me the... Black Materia." The brunette shouted again, but still Cloud took no notice.

"Are you all right, Cloud?" The cat asked. The blonde nodded. "Then... here you go. I was a little apprehensive holding this thing." Cloud took the materia.

"Thanks. ......leave the rest to me." He walked to the centre of the room, while everyone was staring at him. Hojo was still grinning like a maniac. "Everyone, thanks for everything. And... I'm sorry."

"Ha, ha, ha... this is perfect!!! It means that my experiment was a complete success!" Hojo began to laugh. "What number were you? Huh? Where is your tattoo?" Cloud shook his head.

"Professor Hojo... I don't have a number. You didn't give me one because I was a failed experiment." Hojo scowled and turned away.

"What the--? You mean only a failure made it here?"

"Professor... please give me a number. Please, Professor..." Hojo spun back round, glaring at the man.

"Shut up, miserable failure..." Cloud stood back a bit, then he just lifted into the air, stopping at the tree-like structure above them.

"Who... was that?" Rufus decided to ask, not knowing what had just happened, at all.

"...He's a Sephiroth-clone I created after the real Sephiroth died five years ago. Jenova cells and Mako, with my knowledge and skills, have been combined with science and nature to bring him to life." He looked up towards the tree. "...I'm not wild about the failure part, but the Jenova Reunion Theory has now been proven. You see, even if Jenova's body is dismembered, it will eventually become one again. That's what is meant by Jenova's Reunion. I have been waiting for the Reunion to start. Five years have passed, and now the Clones have begun to return. I thought the clones would begin to gather at Midgar where Jenova is stored. But my predictions were not entirely correct. Jenova itself began to move away from the Shinra Building." Rufus looked up to see Cloud, now stood by the huge blue stone. Hojo carried on talking. "But being a genius that I am, I soon figured it out. You see it was all Sephiroth's doing. Sephiroth is not just content to diffuse his will into the Lifestream; he wants to manipulate the Clones himself." Cloud crossed his legs and hovered near the stone. "Yes, that was how it got started. I wondered where the clones were going, but I was never able to figure it out. couldn't figure it out, either. The one thing that I did know was that Sephiroth was at their final destinations. I wasn't pursuing Sephiroth. I was being summoned by Sephiroth. All the anger and hatred I bore him made it impossible for me to ever forget him. That and what he gave me." Cloud then, defying all gravity, stood upside down on one of the roots. "Sephiroth? Sephiroth? I'm here. And I have brought you the Black Materia. Show yourself to me. Where are you?" The blonde stood nearer to the stone "Sephiroth... So we finally meet again."

The blonde Avalanche member walked to the centre of the tree. The stone slipped down a few yards. Rufus' eyes went wide, when he saw that encased inside the blue stone, was Sephiroth. Hojo started to cackle. The blonde man took one look at Hojo, looked at Scarlet, who was starting at him and they both ran off. Rufus didn't want to find out what else Hojo had to say. He'd already seen enough. What the hell was going on? Rufus stopped running. 'I have the perfect opportunity to catch Avalanche.' He smirked and ran back into the cave once again.

"Whatever I say now is too little... too late... We must evacuate." Everyone in the cave turned to him. "I want you all to come with me. There is still much more I want to hear." He ran off again, deciding that he didn't care if they followed him or not. He looked behind him to see that they actually had followed him. He smirked again. The ground shook once more and he was nearly knocked off balance. Pushing off the ground with one hand to right himself, he jumped onto the airship, where Reno and Rude were stood outside.

"Err...... What the fuck is happening out there Ruf?" The red head asked, holding onto a hand rail.

"Don't ask, ok. Just go and tell the pilot to lift off." Reno nodded and ran back inside. Rufus stared at the crater. As the ship began to take off, a beam shot out of the crater. The blonde man looked in awe. After the beam disbursed, a huge, dragon like creature emerged from the hole. That was followed by a red creature. More Weapons climbed out the hole. A huge dark purple coloured one, was stood near the flying Highwind. It powered up and shot off, rocking the airship dangerously. A few minutes later all the weapons had gone, the area was calm again, the only thing different was the huge barrier that was now covering the crater, where Sephiroth still slept.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------