((A/N:here we go! Another new chapter! Sorry I'm not updating much, but I had to write a paper, in which I compare and contrast Final Fantasy VII and Final Fantasy VIII....it was 7 pages long >
"Where the hell did spike get to?" Cid demanded, walking around the Highwind, looking in all the rooms. Vincent walked behind him silently, along with Nanaki. Cloud and Vincent were supposed to have left hours ago.
"I don't know...Tifa's gone too...." Nanaki observed quietly. Cid grumbled, figuring out that wherever they were, it wasn't wise to go bursting in on them.
"Great! Now those two are off...wherever the hell they are, and all we can do is fuckin' wait!" Yuffie yelled, angrily, unaware of the fact that Cloud and Tifa had just walked inside. Cid turned to see them both in need of freshening...and sleep.
"You two look terrible." Nanaki commented. Tifa's hair was sticking up just as much as Cloud's. Tifa grumbled something, and walked off to her bedroom, collapsing onto the bed, immedately asleep. Cloud scratched the bck of his head.
"I'm a little tired, but I'll take a shower and we can get goin'." Cloud yawned. Yuffie looked at him, mildly confused for a second.
"How the hell could you sleep in this late and still be tired!? What were you doing last...oh....." She giggled a little, and looked away. Cloud didn't reply, just walked into the bathroom, and started a cold shower...since the hot water was long since used up.
Yuffie made sure Cloud wasn't about to come out, then took off towards Tifa's room. She was sleeping, and Yuffie groaned, before shaking her awake.
"Yuffie...what do you want?" Tifa grumbled, wiping her eyes, she sat up in bed. Yuffie grinned broadly, her eye sparkling mishceviously.
"Details." She said simply. Tifa let out an exasperated sigh, and fell backwards in bed. She looked at Yuffie, and shook her head.
"Oh well. You're not getting any." Yuffie noticed a glimmer in the light, and suddenly seized Tifa's hands. She gasped, noticing the ring.
"Oh my god! He actually proposed to you!? I would've never thought he would've gotten up the courage..." She kept going like that, while Tifa slowly drifted back to sleep, mostly so she didn't have to continue to be tortured by Yuffie's constant chattering.
"...I mean, sure...he's a nice guy and all....but Vincent? Not really my type...." Yuffie was stilltalking when Tifa woke up two hours later. She didn't have a clue what the young ninja was talking about, since she hadn't spoken to her in so long.
"Vincent...oh shit! Did him and Cloud leave already!?" Tifa bolted up. Yuffie nodded, looking a little bit frightened by Tifa's sudden outburst.
"Yeah...over an hour ago....Cloud came in with Vincent and said they were going...." Yuffie said, thoughtfully. And with those words she was sent into her little dream-world. In which the one who she just claimed to not be her type was her secretive lover.
"I'm gonna go out on the deck and get some fresh air...." Tifa said. She quickly combed through her hair before making her way out onto the deck. The Highwind was circling around above Costa Del Sol, which was where Cloud and Vincent would be surfacing at.
"I hope they're all right..." Tifa whispered to herself, not knowing that her well-being was more at stake at the moment. For in a room in that very airship, Jenova was preparing to wake her new host, and demolish AVALANCHE...for good.
***
Cloud and Vincent climbed out of the small Shinra submarine, outside of the cave hidden by a waterfall. They walked inside to see Lucrecia standing, facing the wall. She didn't turn, but her body visibly tensed.
"Vincent, Cloud...why are you here?" She asked softly. Vincent stepped forward. Cloud went to go forward as well, but Vincent held out his arm to stop him. Vincent continued forward, untill he stood right behind Lucrecia.
"Lucrecia, my love...I need to know....." Lucrecia giggled in a strange way. It was a sort of foresaken laugh, and didn't seem very at place.
"love? You do not love me any more...your heart belongs to the Shinobi....." Vincent stepped back, his eyes wider than Cloud, or any of the AVALANCHE members for that matter, had ever seen them.
"How-"
"Vincent, dear....I have Jenova's cells in me....I can sense what is in your heart......" She explained simply, not turning towards him. Vincent sighed, and stared at the ground for a moment, before looking back at her.
"I know. That's why were here. You are the only thing left keeping Jenova alive...and we need to stop her before she destroies us all....." Vincent explained quietly. Lucrecia turned, smirking. Her appearance caused even Vincent to flinch. Her skin was becoming scaley, and reptial-like. Her eyes were pupil-less, and a glowing yellow. Her hair was flowing long past her feet, and her arms were transforming to those that Jenova had.
"Oh, but dear, you cannot stop her. She is me...and She will not die. She will defeat you both, and all those you care about. Your deaths will be slow and painfull, and I will be sure your friends are here to witness them." Lucrecia, no, Jenova, hissed. Cloud drew his Ultima Weapon, and without hesitation, Vincent's Death Penalty was aimed at her head.
"You won't live long enough for those things to ever happen." Vincent said quietly, in a tone that said he was ready to pull the trigger at any moment. The creature let out a deafening scream, so high-pitched, that Cloud fell to his knees from the sound of it, and Vincent was nearly on the ground as well.
"They will be here soon...then the real fun will begin..." Jenova let out an evil smile, as she rose her tentacle-hand, sending both men against the wall, knocking them out form the sheer force of their heads hitting the stone. They stayed against the rock, so their feet were above the ground, Jenova's powers defying gravity.
***
Tifa stumbled backwards, startled by the shrill sound coming from the cave area. She would've fallen to the ground, if Reeve wasn't there to catch her. Tifa stood on her own feet, and turned to Cid, who was holding Shera in his arms.
"We need to get to the cave! Cloud and Vincent are in trouble!" Cid nodded, and kissed Shera on the top of her head.
"Shera, go inside, and make sure everyone else is okay. Shit! We gotta get there...fast!" Cid exclaimed, taking over the controls from the pilot.
***
Cloud slowly opened his eyes, to be greeted with pain. Jenova stood in front of him and Vincent, who were still pinned up against the wall. He took in a deep breath, trying to overcome his nasuea. A sharp pain stabbed at Cloud's chest as his lungs filled with air.
"augh..." He coughed up some blood, but with his arms pinned to the wall, all he could do was let it drip down his face. Jenova smirked. Her body was continuing to change, and only Lucrecia's hair and legs remained. Cloud's vision was blurred, but he could still see the smile on her face from the sight of his pain.
"Don't die yet, Strife. You still have so much more suffering to go through." With that, Jenova rammed her fist into Cloud's gut, causing him to sputter and choke on his own blood. He spit more out on the ground.
Jenova suddenly turned, as Tifa burst into the cave. Cloud managed to look over at Tifa, his eyes widening to see her, Cid, and Barret in the archway entrance of the cave.
"The guests of honor. And just in time." Jenova laughed evilly, and let out another scream. At that second a bright light burst both in what was left of Lucrecia's body, and it was totally Jenova, and Aeris's eyes opened. They glimmered the same green they always did, only with a different gleam to them...something a lot less...innocent.
