Chapter 16: Where have you been?!

Author: Suzaku no miko

Disclaimers: I do not own Final Fantasy or its characters...I do own Angela, however...

*NOTE* well well, looks like another slow post from me. Hee hee.... now then, it looks like this story is going very well and I'm very happy! ^_^ oh, and there's a special treat to come for author Fenice Evangelista who's been waiting ever so patiently. Don't worry, I didn't forget about your request. ^_~* hope everyone likes it!

In almost no time at all, the Highwind had crossed over to the Midgar area. Just like many of the group expected, it was nearly destroyed. Some parts of the industrial city had remained intact, but most parts were nearly gone.

"Cloud! Look! There's a part of Sector 7 that looks like it was never hit!" exclaimed a shocked Tifa.

Tidus, obviously having never visited Midgar before, tapped Cloud's shoulder. "Um...you mind telling me what happened here?"

Not turning away from the view of the once magnificent city, Cloud began to speak.

"It was during our final battle with Sephiroth...

We had to find the Black Materia. To do that, we had to go to this place called the Temple of the Ancients. We succeeded in claiming the materia, but Sephiroth caught up to us. He stole the materia and used it to summon Meteor. Using meteor, Sephiroth wanted to destroy the world.

We became desperate...we couldn't let him do such a thing. The meteor spell was then cast and we had a very limited amount of time to think of something to stop it."

When Cloud could not speak anymore, Tifa took the initiative to speak for him.

"And that's when Aeris, who's no longer with us, decided to use her special White Materia to counter it. With it, she wished for Meteor to be stopped. But she paid for it with her life, thanks to Sephiroth."

Barret also added to it. "Yeah, so after beatin' the crap outta' that jackass, Meteor was gettin' too close for comfort, ya' know? But finally Holy, the power from the White Materia, finally showed up and came at Meteor. Bad part was it didn't do nothin'! It made the damn Meteor stronger and it kept eatin' at the city!"

And finally, Red XIII decided to finish it. "Meteor destroys, bit by bit until there is nothing left. We thought all we did was for naught and that this was the end, but an unsuspected turn of events occurred. The Lifestream rose up and tore apart the Meteor, destroying it just in time..."

Looking back into the direction from where they came, Rinoa shook her head. "Now instead of helping it's destroying."

"Well, let's just land and get into a safe place so we can think better. There's not much we can do up here." Auron spoke up.

After some time hovering over Migar, the Highwind was landed just a few feet away. As the group of heroes descended down the platform onto the ground, they noticed the church where they first met Aeris was still standing and was only a few feet away. The group began to make their way towards it when suddenly....

"Hold it right there! Where do you guys think you're going?!" a voice stopped them suddenly.

"What? Who's there?! Hey, I thought you guys said there wouldn't be anyone here!" Zell exclaimed, just as startled as the rest of the group.

Everyone immediately took out their weapons and readied themselves for some type of attack.

"Heh...My thoughts exactly... Shall we go for round three?"

"....."

"We'll get rid of you once and for all and I'll finally be able to avenge Tseng!"

"The Turks?! What are you guys doing here?!" Yuffie exclaimed.

"We should be asking you the same thing."

One by one, the Turks which now only consisted of 3 people, the remnants of what was Shinra, stepped out of the shadows and into the bright light. Cloud and his team stared down at Reno, Rude, and Elena as they appeared in front of them. Other than Cloud and his friends, no one else knew who these mysterious people were and displayed very confused expressions on their faces.

"Do you know each other?" Quistis finally decided to speak up.

"Unfortunately..." Barrett muttered.

"To make a #%*@! story short, after all the rotten things they did to people and to us, we hated each others' guts." Cid gritted his teeth.

Shrugging his shoulders, Zell completely understood. "Sounds logical."

"Who are these guys?" Reno asked, placing his hands on his hips.
"Who you?" Kimahri stepped in front of Yuna.
"How about you answer me first?"
"No trust you."

"Look, this is pointless so just get out of our way so we can try to do something about Kuja, Sephiroth, Ultimecia, and Seymour!" Zidane ran out of patience.

"Sephiroth? How do you know...." Elena began.

"........" Rude lowered his head.

"... See you've met up with that bastard. We've been hunting for him ever since we saw him a few weeks ago." Reno nodded.

"Do you know what's going on?" Auron spoke up.

"Not really... We've been trying to figure out what he was up to when we saw him back at the Shinra mansion in Nibelheim. But before we could question him, he disappeared." Reno explained.
"Okay, but that doesn't explain why you are here in Midgar." Vincent interrupted.
"I was just getting to that...."
"So then..."

"We figured that our next best bet was to come here to Midgar and see if he came here. But we haven't seen any clues on where he might be." Elena finished for her fellow Turk.

"But do you think that Sephiroth also has something to do with the Lifestream?" Tifa thought aloud.

"What about the Lifestream?" Reno sounded confused.

"It started to come up and taking people's souls away! You guys didn't see it?!" a very energetic Eiko exclaimed.

"How can that be possible? Something very wrong is going on..." Elena's eyes grew wide.

"So, now we're chasing after them to ask questions and find out what's going on." Squall spoke as the group began to finally make their way into the church.

When they finally sat down....

"Exactly how did these other people end up here? Was that also the cause of Sephiroth and his new pals?" Reno looked from Cloud to the new additions.

"We think so but that's also another thing we want to ask when we finally do catch up to them." Rikku replied.

"Hey, if these guys join us, we got a better chance. If they know about Sephiroth then we can get him quicker." Tidus exclaimed happily.

Everyone in the church just looked at him with very confused looks. Did Tidus really know what he was talking about? Or did he not see the hostility between Cloud and his group with the Turks? Barrett could not believe his ears....

"Are you friggin' stupid?! They're a bunch a back-stabbers! I don't want no back-stabbers on the team." the large man crossed his arms over his chest.

"Look who's talking." Reno muttered.

"I don't know about anyone else but I think I kind of agree with Tidus. We do need all the help we can get." a cheerful Selphie spoke up.

"Selphie..." Irvine whispered.

"Yeah, just for now, let's just join with them. We obviously have the same idea to get rid of Sephiroth and our other adversaries once and for all." Angela agreed.

"I guess..." Cloud looked to the Turks, not really sure.

"So is it agreed then?" Quistis looked to the leaders of the various groups.

Looking from one to another, Cloud, Squall, Zidane, Tidus, and Reno all nodded. The now one extremely large group cheered, except for some of the more quiet members. They soon began to form a plan.

As our group of heroes obtain more and more members, does it look like they have a better chance of winning against the team of evil-doers? Now that they have gained the aid of the Turks, will it work? Or will they end up killing each other first?

"I can't believe it's come to this..." Cid Highwind sighed.

"Yeah, well it ain't no fun joining you guys either." Reno snarled.

Right now it does not seem that way, but will something come out of this alliance? We'll have to hope so... So just hang on tight for the next chapter! Bye now!

To be continued.....