Disclaimer: You know the drill

Chap. 5

The creature roared and lashed out a tentacle, catching Cid off guard and knocking him into the wall. Then it looked at Red XIII and lashed out again. However Red saw it coming and nimbly dodged it. He then attacked and bit into one of the tentacles. But the creature snapped upward, sending Red flying through the air and into Cloud. Vincent grabbed his rifle and fired along with Barret. This did nothing more than catch the monster's attention and it lashed out at them. Vincent leapt up into one of the rafters while Barret rolled to the side. Tifa took this opportunity to leap up to the creature and smash its face with a heavy punch. The monster was unaffected and it roared in anger. It then summoned energy and Tifa was blown with a Fire2 attack.

"Tifa!"

Cloud and Red XIII had gotten up and got on both sides of the monster. Cloud attacked first, leaping into the air with his sword above him. But when he struck down, he hit an invisible barrier, knocking him back a bit.

"It's got a barrier. We need to break through it."

Red XIII heard him and summoned the materia on his barrette. A blue glow emitted and a Bolt2 struck down, hurting the monster.

Raaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!

"We need something stronger." Red said as he dodged another tentacle lash.

Vincent yelled, "I have a better idea." Vincent then shimmered with energy and shards of the barrier appeared. The barrier was destroyed.

"Now we got em."

However, the monster stopped moving and summoned great amounts of energy and let it loose in a shockwave. Everyone was knocked down by the force.

"What the....Ultima?"

Suddenly, a burst of energy was felt. Everyone looked and saw Tifa standing up in a glow of light.

"Beat Rush!"

Tifa dashed forward and hit a combination attack on the monster, which roared in even more pain. However, Tifa wasn't done yet.

"Waterkick!"

She twirled in a sweep-like fashion and hit the monster below. Tifa was about to use the next attack when she suddenly tired out. Damn, I didn't have enough power. And that prove to be a fatal flaw as the creature wrapped a tentacle around her and began to squeeze.

"Tifa!" Cloud stumbled up, but was still hurt from the Ultima attack and fell back down. Tifa strained under the grip, keeping herself from screaming. Then, in a moment, she fell back down to the ground and the monster was slashed in two. Behind it, Cid stood there, his lance driven it the ground.

"Guess you forgot about me."

The monster gave a final roar before it dissolved. Everyone slowly got to their feet.

Cid lit a cigarette, "That was close."

Red XIII looked at the remains, "That creature. It looked like..."

"Yeah." Cloud finished. "It was her. It was a piece of Jenova."

Barret grumbled, "I don't believe this. I thought Jenova was dead."

"We all did." said Vincent as he helped Tifa up

"Thanks. But why did it attack now?"

Red XIII walked up the stairs, "From the way it looked, it was trying to keep up away from this." He then pointed to the active pod. "We should see why."

Everyone walked up and Barret looked in the pod first and suddenly jumped back. "What the heck is this?"

Cloud began to walk up, "A SOLDIER, more or less. Sephiroth once said, normal members of Soldier are infused with intense amounts of Mako energy, giving them unusual powers. But here, it's more than Mako. Its Jenova cells. At least it was. But since Jenova is no longer here, these things shouldn't be active."

Tifa looked in and gasped. Cloud shook his head, "Scary, aren't they."

"No, Cloud. Look inside."

Cloud walked up the pod, expecting a grotesquely mutated monster. Instead, in the chamber, with a partly deformed face was...

"Zack!"

Note: Sorry that this chapter is so short. I make it up in the next one.