Chapter 4: The Plan

"Rinoa?" Squall whispered breathlessly. He saw the same auburn haired, fair skinned Rinoa that he had always been used to seeing in his dreams. Squall hoped this wasn't all a dream. In the instant he looked over his shoulder, every troublesome thought was lifted off his soul and everything once again felt whole. His emotion suddenly got the better of him and he rushed to her side, "I thought I had lost you!" Squall whimpered into her ear as he embraced her tightly. Not letting her out of his grasp he gave her a soft kiss on the cheek and ran his hand through her hair, "Is it really you?"

Rinoa was surprised at the sudden burst of emotion. They had traveled to the ends of time and back, lost each other twice during the journey, and at one time they had almost died, but all that time Squall expressed not even the slightest of emotions. It had taken her so long to open him up, and he does it after this? A puzzled look crossed her brow. Rinoa tried to hide it from and squeezed Squall just as tight. She had always wanted this type of attention from him and didn't care how she got it . . . even if this crisis had brought it out of him.

"Yes it is," Tifa answered for Rinoa, seeing that she was one second from being smothered. She came up from behind Cloud and put her arms around his waist, "I missed you Cloud."

"You're here too!" Cloud exclaimed with as all the muscles in his face worked to create the biggest smile ever seen. He turned around and grabbed Tifa by the waist, raising her up into the air. He then brought her down gave her a big hug, "I missed you . . . I thought you guys were gone for good after what I saw happen. It was like back at Nibelheim, I didn't know what to do." Cloud's smile disappeared as he thought of what it might have been like if he had lost her forever.

"What you fussin' about foo?" Barret shouted in his usual gruff voice as he knocked him lightly on the head with his gun arm, "There ain't nothin to worry about as long we all stick together." Barret continued to banter on as he walked past Cloud.

'We?' Cloud thought as he blocked out whatever Barret was saying.

"Who do we have to thank to get out of here? I'm getting really tired of waiting around this damn place and I need a cigarette," Cid yelled out as he appeared from behind Cloud, toting his spear the Venus Gospel over his right shoulder, "How ya doin champ?"

"I . . . don't believe it, you're all here!" Cloud said as he turned around and saw Nanaki, Vincent, and Yuffie talking to each other not to far away. The excitement of seeing them all alive again was almost too much for Cloud and he felt tears beginning to brim around his eyes. His emotions were about to run over but he restrained himself. There would be time for celebration later.

"We thought that we had lost everyone . . ." Squall continued to say in a soft voice as he lowered his head, "We thought we had let everyone down . . ."

Rinoa took his chin and lifted it up, "Don't worry, everything will be fine now," she reassured him. Out of the white background more people began to appear. Quistis and Selphie had no problems coping with their materialization, but when Zell and Irvine found out that they still lived, they almost freaked.

"What's going on here?" Zell yelled out, just as hyper as ever. He twisted his head around and looked all over himself to make sure that everything was okay. He looked over and pinched Irvine in the shoulder.

"What did you do that for?" Irvine snapped, rubbing his arm.

"You mean . . . we're alive? Whoopee!" Zell responded, pumping his fist in the air triumphantly.

The brief reunion of friends continued for a few minutes as Zell and the others adapted themselves to the current situation. Both Cloud and Squall began to introduce each of their friends to the other, "Cloud these are my friends. Tifa, this is . . ."

"Most of us have met," Quistis informed Squall, a smirk of content crossed her face, "We had plenty of time to talk when you two guys fought Sephiroth. We all came here at different times though, but that voice has brought us up to date on the situation too," The former SeeD instructor met with the few others she hadn't yet talked to while Nanaki continued to debrief those that had just arrived.

"We've had lots of time to think as we watched and most of us agree that there is a way to stop this from happening again. Here's the plan," Nanaki stated.

"Wait, where is Reeve?" Cloud asked as he searched for his other friend.

"The one known as Cait Sith could not make the transition to this place. Alone the robot did nothing, and by himself I don't think the man could have survived the transition. You now hold his fate in your hands," the voice spoke again, still as benevolently and omniscient as before, "All of you will be given a second chance to right the wrongs that have been inflicted on your worlds. As Nanaki was saying, a plan has been resolved. You will split into two groups from here on out to tackle this difficult mission. Cloud, it has been decided that you and your friends will be one team. Squall Leonhart, you and your friends will be the other," the two leaders shook their heads in agreement and the mysterious entity continued, "The plan is simple. You will both begin these tasks at the same time and hopefully reach the end of each instantaneously. Cloud's team will infiltrate the Lunatic Pandora to confront and destroy Adel before Time Compression takes place," another wall of mist appeared in front of Cloud, Tifa and the others and showed a detailed map of the Dark Monolith from inside to outside. A pink arrow began at the insertion point where the Spaceship known as the Ragnarok first broke through the hull of the Pandora. It then slowly worked its way around many paths and up many elevators before coming to a stop in front of two massive metallic doors, "In theory, if you can stop the Sorceress Adel from attaining either Ellone or the Rinoa of that time from melding, none of this will ever happen and you'll all go back to where you came from."

"Without Adel, what will stop Ultimecia from finding someone else's body to use as a vessel?" Squall pointed out, wondering if this voice actually had all the facts before creating this seemingly impossible plan.

"That is where you come in Squall. I will be sending your group into the future to confront her. The goal there is to eliminate Ultimecia and prevent her from passing her powers onto another host. It is very important that you do this before Cloud kills Adel, or she will send her powers across the bends of time to the other sorceress. If that happens, it will create a time loop and we will have to do the entire thing over again. I have the ability to send you through time and bring you back if something bad occurs, but only once," the voice explained.

"So it's a one shot deal?" Irvine asked with a cocky grin, "You know I won't let you down then."

"That's the attitude Irvy! Booyaka!" Selphie added in as she ran over to hug the handsome sharpshooter.

"Knock it off guys, keep your mind on the mission," Squall butted in, returning to his usual cold self.

"He's right. Don't worry about anything but completing your mission now. I wish you the best of luck."

"Let's do it!" Zell screamed.

"Yeah, let's do it," Tifa nodded as she punched her fist into her other hand.

"Let's take a little break first please!" Yuffie objected. She had always been the lazy one, but not being able to get any rest for the past two days did quite a number on her.

Seeing her and the other's lagging behavior, Cloud decided to go along with the consensus, "I guess we should. My neck is hurting me a little bit," he added.

"Anybody would have got whiplash from a hit like that!" Selphie snickered from out of the blue.

Rinoa saw Squall rubbing his own neck and went behind him to massage his neck without being asked.

"How do you know what I'm talking about? Are you saying you guys were could watch the whole thing too? How?" Cloud said with a questionable look on his face.

"Yeah, right over there," Yuffie told Cloud as she yawned and pointed to another screen off in the distance. The screen looked to work just like the surface map of the Lunatic Pandora but instead showed the events of the day in a constant loop.

Tifa grabbed Cloud's hand and walked him over to where a small waterfall trickled over an invisible cliff. With a closer inspection, he saw that it was actually a projection of light reflected onto the water. Everything that had transcended a few hours earlier was unfolding before their eyes again and again. Yuffie had seen it enough for a lifetime and was already sound-asleep on the cloudy ground. Cloud found it hard to watch the beginning of the fight when Sephiroth had killed all his friends. It all came unexpectedly and they had no way to protect against it. He cringed as each one fell to Sephiroth. It was painful to watch a second time, even though they all went down with a fight. Each of his freshly healed wounds seemed to reopen and hurt twice as much and Cloud keeled over in pain.

"Oh my god! Cloud are you okay?" Tifa cried as she grabbed his arm and tried to get him back on his feet. The screen flashed off and on and changed its picture when Squall walked over holding hands with Rinoa. He too watched the same thing happen over and over again with his own friends. It seemed to affect him in much the same way it had affected Cloud. Eventually they were able to stand upright again, and they saw the ultimate warrior, Xanien, form from their defeat. It fast-forwarded with a flash of light as the moon's impact destroyed the sky and soon after the water turned pitch black. It showed that darkness was all that could exist after that. The fight was over. Cloud seemed to still be worried, doubtful that this plan could work and showed it with his distraught facial gestures.

"Cloud, we'll be ready for him next time." Squall confided to him. Cloud only clenched his fists to respond.

"I won't let him do this again. This will be our only chance to make things right." Cloud stated in a defiant tone.

"We can do it," Vincent said as he spoke up for the first time. The others might not have remembered what happened to them during all the chaos, but it was vivid in Vincent's mind. There were a few clicks of his rifle as he locked rounds of ammo into place. Hopefully his Death Penalty would make a difference this time and not go unused. After he said that, the brightness of purgatory seemed to dim, and they took it as a sign to get some rest. Tomorrow would be a big day for all of mankind.