"Your love for her means nothing. You were created for a unique purpose."

"...That's a lie."

"Is it? Tell me, what did you really felt when she died?"

"...Pain...A feel of loss...Despair..."

"Tell me the truth. It's okay, it's just you and me here."

"...I..."

"Say it! Tell me the undeniable truth!!!!!"

"No..."

"Tell me!!!!!!! Tell me, you mindless puppet!!!!!!!"

"I felt nothing!!!!...."

"Don't cry. You are not allowed to cry. Go back now."

"Back... To where?"

"To your wasted world."

NEON CETRA SEPHIROTIC: IN THE YEAR 1 AM(AFTER METEOR).

A year passed after Meteor and Holy crashed in Midgar.

I still remember that moment...

When the Lifestream stopped the Apocalypse from happening...

However...

Who could have thought that was the beginning of something much worse?

Something...

That surpassed every power known to the Human race?

Who could have thought....

Their deaths were part of the Profecy?

Cosmo Canyon, 14:30 AM

Tifa felt uneasy. Ever since Cloud, Vincent and herself returned to Nibelhein, contact between the members of the former AVALANCHE group had ceased.

A year without seeing my old friends, she thought, that's quite a lot of time.

"Tifa, you look uneasy. Are you alright?"

Vincent had become quite close to her. Even though he remained a misteryous man, the stoic character of the group, he was alway's ready to listen to her.

"I'm alright, Vincent. Just nervous, i guess."

Vincent had cutted his hair, and changed his clothes to a Turk suit. Although the Turks had vanished, he liked his old looks.

He was still unemployed, but the his part of all the Gil they had was enough to live a life without working! Even still, he wasn't a lazy ass. Yes, Vincent had changed...

"I wonder... How's our host?"

Red XIII...

He was the one who invited them to join together again, in Cosmo Canyon, and so they did.

Cloud, Tifa and Vincent were the first, but still no sign of Red XIII, or Nanaki.

"Cloud, why don't you go look for Red?"

Cloud... In this last year, he had been searching for answers about her...

The Promised Land, the Cetra, Original Crisis...

With Vincen't help, he could only find clues to the real Promised Land:

A land where the Cetra can live in peace and harmony with the Planet.

He needed to bring Aeris back....

"...did you say something, Tifa?"

Vincent sighed, and got up.

"Forget it, Cloud."

Vincent went to check on Red, leaving Cloud and Tifa alone. It wasn't the first time he tried to put those two together, but it was no good, they remained silent all the time:

Cloud thinking about Aeris, and Tifa afraid of showing her true feelings.

"I don't like to wait. I wish they could teleport here in a flash."

"Maybe it's possible, Cloud. Nothing's impossible."

"Your right. You, for instance."

"Me?"

"Yeah. Who could have thought you could be a great cooker?"

"Why you!..."

She wasn't that angry has she appeared. In fact, she smiled a bit, since he was joking with her, something they didn't do for some time now.

"You were right Vincent, they can't be left alone for 10 sec, and their fighting already."

"RED!!!!"

Red didn't changed a bit, but now he looked more mature and decided, like a good lider should be.

"Cloud, Tifa, it's so good to see you again."

"Same feeling, Red. By the way, how are things here?"

"Well Cloud, the damage caused by the wave was minimal. Midgar was really the only place with severe damage."

"This is all nice, but where are the others?"

"Shit, i don't remember you being so bitchy, Vince!"

Cpt. Cid Highwind. Same clothes, same smart mouth, same trademark cigarettes.

"Cid, how ya doing?"

"Same as a year ago, strong as a fucking Behemoth! You guy's seem to be in good shape too!"

"Cid, did you brought the others?"

"Of course, you can alway's count with the Captain to take care of shit like this!"

"Who you calling shit, you damn foo?!"

"Barret!!!"

"Hey Tifa! How ya doin, girl?"

Barret had a new hand, and was wearing a clean suit that looked a little like the one Vincent had, but he was the same warm-hearted Barret Wallace.

"I heard you rebuilded Corel. Good work."

"Thanks Cloud, the money really helped. And i couldn't do it without my partner!! Hey, what's the hold up, Reeve?! Get your butt over here!"

There he was, the former Shinra executive Reeve, known to all as the creator of Caith Sith. They didn't seen him for a while, but he looked alright.

"Cloud, Tifa, Vincent, Red XIII... How you doing?"

"Reeve? What happened to Caith Sith?"

"Oh, i didn't tell you before, but Caith Sith has been mass-produced, and he helps in the digging of coal in Corel!! All thanks to Reeve!!"

"Well, i didn't have anywhere to go, so i decided to live near the place where we all met for the first time, the Gold Saucer."

"That thing is still open?!"

"People are going there day by day, and if you like, i still have my sources there...I can get you all a job there!"

"Damn! If i didn't changed my looks, i could have go to work in the Hotel."

"Too bad Vince, but don't fret yet!!!"

That voice... Yuffie Kisaragi, the spoiled brat of the group. In the end, she gave all her money to the people who got homeless after Meteor. She just wanted the materia.

"Yuffie, you have grown up, but you still haven't changed a bit."

"Ha ha ha! Didn't you tell them, Cid?!"

"Tell what?"

"Oh yeah! Yuffie made Wutai a giant empire again! It covers the whole frickin island now!!!!"

"Congratulations, Yuffie. What if we sign a friendly pact between Cosmo Canyon and Wutai?"

"You serious Red?!?!?! That would be soo cool!"

"Well, here we are together again!"

"No, were not."

Cloud looked at the sun, and once again his heart only thought about the Cetra girl who saved them all. It wasn't easy to live with that pain on his heart.

Tifa and the others suddenly were quiet, quickly understanding the ex-SOLDIER.

"Cloud, i've been wanting to tell you something for some time now."

"What is it, Red? Is it about the Cetra?"

"The Cetra, but not only the Cetra. About Jenova, Sephiroth...."

Cloud was surprised. He and Vincent spent a whole year searching for tracks of the Cetra, but nothing they found was useful.

"Well, tell me Red!!!! What is it??"

Red XIII sitted, looking at the horizon, and then, after a moment of reflection, he spoke:

"The Ancient Manuscripts. They have all the answers we searched for a long time..."

"Ancient Manuscripts? What are those?"

"Something very important, Barret... Something that goes beyond our comprehension."

"Tell us more, Red."

"The Ancient Manuscripts have records and premonitions made by the Cetra before Jenova arrived. They are really old, and translating them was a difficult task...."

"Translating them? You have them?"

"Let me finish, Cid. The Cetra predicted that they would all die one day, with the arrival of Jenova. So, a profecy was made and written in the Manuscripts...

This seems very weird, but they predicted Aeris death and Sephiroth's madness."

"What?! How?! Sephiroth wasn't a Cetra?! The human's didn't appears till much later, right?"

"Cloud, there's much more than that. For instance, Weapon and Jenova.

Weapon are not creatures created by the Planet. They... they are... Cetra that received powers from the Planet!"

"That can't be!"

"Weird..."

"And the Weapons we fought were just puppets, clones from the original Weapons.

The Cetra knew that Jenova would come, and all the situation that it would cause, so they wanted to fight Jenova to avoid it all...Shinra, Sephiroth, Meteor...

In conclusion, Aeris death and Sephiroth's as well are part of a greater event, something that surpasses Meteor and Holy."

"That seems bad news. I see shit coming..."

"They called it...The Second Return."

"What's that, some war or something?"

"No Cloud, it's something worse, or better...

The purpose of the Second Return is to Jenova's first son, Sephiroth, to return to the Planet, and merge with an entity called Orochi."

"What?! Sephiroth's coming back?!?! We gotta kill him again, that deepshit!!"

"Cid, calm down! Tell us more about this Orochi, Red."

"Orochi is a life form that was born at the same time that the Planet did. Orochi is, by all means, were we are all born, and were one day we will all return."

"What?!"

"That's right. If Sephiroth returns and contacts with Orochi, the Second Return will happen. According to the Manuscripts, the souls of all living beings will separate from their bodies, and merge with Orochi. Then, it is the Carrier's decision on what to do."

"Who's the Carrier?"

"I don't know, nor what's his relation with all of this. The Carrier will decide on either making a new world, a new beggining, a new world of hapiness through Orochi, or to become the bringer of death to us all. And that is that."

"...Are you sure this is true?"

"Yuffie, my sources aren't very reliable, but they had solid proofs."

"Sources?"

"The Turks themselves."

"What?! Those punk asses are still alive?!"

"Yes. At this moment, their in Junon, renting a boat to go to the City of the Ancients.

I believe that we can find our answers there.

Oh, i forgot about something. Jenova wasn't the only of it's kind."

"There are more?!"

"Counting Jenova, they are 12. The Cetra called them Angels, and the second one is bound to appears in a week from now."

"So? Well fight it!!"

"It's not that easy, Vincent. These are giant monsters were talking about. We have only one defense against them, thanks to the Shinra."

"What do they have to do with this?"

"First of all, Yuffie, you should know that the war against Wutai wasn't because of just power, but also for knowledge. Old Shinra believed that in Wutai lied clues to the secret of the original Weapons, but he didn't get anything."

"Bastards..."

"Red, tell us! What are the original Weapons?!"

"I believe they are like living mechanic organisms, covered by a special armor that allowed the Cetra to pilot them. The Weapon Units location are unknow, but Reno believes they are in the City of the Ancients."

"What if he finds them?"

"First, he can't do much. The Cetra also made special modifications that only certain people can pilot the Weapon. This person needs to have a high syncronization with the Weapon to pilot it, or else he or she would become insane, or worse: They could die of rejection."

Yuffie, picturing the whole deal, throwed up her lunch.

It was all too sudden. They had their lives upside down by Jenova and Sephiroth, and know they had to face more and worse than those two?

"Red, do you think we are the pilots?"

"Some of us may be, but the Manuscripts aren't too precise. However, we still need to find GeoFront."

"Excuse me?"

"GeoFront is the last bastion of Humanity, as the Manuscripts say. It's an impregnable fortress, where the Weapons are."

"So, the Turks believe GeoFront is in the City?"

"Yes. But they won't be able to do anything without the pilots of Weapon."

"Well, this shit is bad enough, and i think we should go all see what those punks are up too. All to the Highwind!!!!"

"What about lunch?!"

"Forget the damn lunch Reeve, well eat a sandwich on the way!"

Cloud's thoughts were only one: What were they doing?

What was their purpose?

And... Who was this Carrier?

Tifa noticed this, and walked up to him.

"Are you worried, Cloud? Don't be."

"...Why do you say that? Were gonna battle once again."

"Who knows? Perhaps well just need to find the pilots..."

"Tifa, you didn't notice, but i understanded by Red's way of talking that we were the pilots, all right. But...you know... what does this have to do with Aeris?"

"...Why don't you ask Red?"

"Yeah, i problably will. C'mon Tifa."

"Go ahead."

Tifa started to cry. She knew in that exactly moment Cloud only saw her as a childhood friend and combat buddy, and nothing else. Cloud's heart belonged to the last survivor of the race that was leading them to their deaths...

Five minutes later, they were going towards the City of the Ancients.

(City of the Ancients)

"Rude, they were right... old man Shinra was right..."

"Reno, do you realize what we are looking at now?!"

"Yes, Elena, i do: The one who will take our lives after the 11 are dead... Our real mother..."

"Orochi...It's here."

TERMINAL JITA: ACESS FORBIDDEN.

NEON CETRA SEPHIROTIC: GEOFRONT STRAIGTH AHEAD.

All of them were particulary nervous on the Highwind's bridge.

After all, a year of peace had been passed with joy and hapiness, and now everything was about to fall.

However, two of these people were more worried, Cloud and Tifa.

Cloud was thinking on how they could be the pilots of the Weapons, and fight the Angels was another problem.

Tifa didn't care about this new situation. She just wanted to have Cloud's attention...

"Cloud?..."

"Yes, Tifa?"

"Did you asked Red about..."

"I did, and he said he didn't want to think the worse...."

"What does that mean?"

"I wish i could know..."

"What the fuck?! We are getting a strange signal from the mountain!"

"Can you pinpoint it?"

"Who the fuck you think i am, Reeve?! Of course i know! It's from the City."

"Reno?"

"This is the Turks. Can you read us, Highwind?"

"Loud and clear, deepshit! Over."

"Hello to you too, Cid. Red XIII, we have found it. Come to the City, and well show it."

"Wait! Reno! Damn...."

"What the hell is going on, Red ? Why are you doing plans with the damn Turks?!"

"Barret, calm down. I believe Red has his motives, and i trust him."

"Thanks Cloud."

"Enough talk, when are we landing?"

"ASAP. And we should be ready for everything. Everything."

"I agree with Cloud. Yuffie, could you please let my leg go?"

"I'm sick, waaaahhhhhhhhh...."

(GeoFront)

"Rude, can you work with this?"

"...No."

"Damn, your really uselless. Elena?"

"I think i can put the computers to work, but i can't say much for the rest."

"I guess we will need their help..."

"Reno, they are the pilots, right?"

"That's what i think... It's funny, i think i will have to trust them after all."

"Well, if we want to destroy the Angels, we need the Weapons."

"Brilhant conclusion, Dr. Elena ! "

"Rude, let's go receive them. And remember, both of you! Not a word about Terminal Jita! Not even Red XIII!"

"...We should maximise security there."

"Good idea Rude. Elena, see you in a while."

Meanwhile, the ex-AVALANCHE members were entering the City of the Ancients.

A year ago, they had follow Aeris and Sephiroth's tracks there, and saw the tragic event that was Aeris death, slain by Sephiroth.

Cloud's heart suffers deeply, but so as the others, for she had given up her life to summon Holy...

"So... Where to now?"

"Shit!!! We shouldn't have trusted those fucking Turks!!"

"Cid, please calm down. They are just waiting for us."

"Red, why don't you tell us what have you dealed with the Turks?"

"I..."

"He hasn't dealed anything, Tifa."

Reno and Rude of the Turks. They didn't changed much for the year that passed, but what really was strange was the relaxing way Red XIII and Reno talked to each other.

"Reno, show us the entrance."

"OK, let's go. Oh, i'm sorry, how are you all?"

"What are you up to, Reno? How much do you know about this Profecy, the Ancient Manuscripts..."

Reno smiled.

"I know enough, Reeve."

"Reno! I still didn't forgot what you and Shinra did to the people of the slums, a year ago! You hear me, foo?!"

"Barret... Do you really want to compare the people that died in Sector 5 with the people that died with Meteor, Holy and the Lifestream? How much people returned to the Planet?"

"Grrrr!!!!!!!"

"Barret, calm down. We have a bigger crisis at hands."

"...Next week, we can all die. Or we can fight to the end."

Rude's words were true. They didn't want to die without fighting, or let all of Humanity be destroyed by some ancient Profecy.

They followed the Turks to an underground tunnel that was deeper than the place where Aeris had been praying.

And suddenly, they didn't want to believe it:

GeoFront didn't seemed to be builded in a time were the Cetra were the only on the Planet...

It was truly a fortress, a last bastion...

"It can't be...How?"

"Welcome to GeoFront, AVALANCHE."

They felt amazed by the magnificent structure, hidden beneath the City, on the underground of the Northern Continent.

But questions quickly jumped to some of AVALANCHE's members, specially Cid and Vincent. How could Cetra build something so advanced?...

"Some of you may think on how could the Cetra build such an advanced structure. Right?"

"Yeah, i was thinking that, you red-haired punk! Aren't you setting us a trap or something?"

"I don't think so. They could have killed us by now..."

"I don't want to do such a thing. No, although we were enemies in the past, now we must fight together for a cause...."

"That doesn't sound like a Turk talking."

Tifa knew that, exactly. Turks were mercenaries, and they fight for only two things: To save their butt, and money.

Reno and Rude continued their walk towards the main room, were the biggest computer in the world was.

"Holy shit, foo! That's one big computer!!"

"Guess who's fixing it..."

"AAAHHHH! You could have knocked!"

"Where would we knock, you propeller head? How's things?"

"Nice. The diagnostic programs, communications, and some artilhery pinpoints are online now."

"What about the Tactical Offense Mode?"

"I need more people to help it fix it outside."

"What are you talking about?"

"I'll explain. You see, this is where we control everything with the Weapon's, the Angels, the pilots... But we need specialists on those fields to help us."

"I understand now, Red. You want us to be controlling this with the Turks. Am i right?"

"What?! But we don't know anything about this?!"

"Reeve, it's not that complicated. Our problem is staff, a good one. So..."

"So?..."

"Cloud, i propose an alliance to fight Weapon and prevent the Second Return!"

Cloud couldn't be more surprised. He knew that it wasn't easy to trust Reno that simple.

But AVALANCHE were waiting for his call. He had the final call...