It was with little fanfare that the Highwind landed on a rocky patch of earth just outside the sleepy village of Wutai.

After unfurling the long rope ladder, Cid took a moment to stretch and enjoy a cigarette.

"God, I'd forgotten how nice the air is out here," he breathed heavily.

"And just how would you know?" Tifa frowned as he waved her hand in front of her face in an effort to blow Cid's cigarette smoke away.

"Whatever," Cid grunted as he crossed the railing and descended the ladder. Only a short time later and Tifa, along with Marlene, had joined him.

Not surprisingly, more than a few curious villagers were waiting to meet them at the front gates. As it was soon explained to Tifa, airships never flew over Wutai airspace, much less landed in their back yard.

"Tifa!" and excited voice called from somewhere in the small crowd.

"Oh, god," Cid groaned.

"Oh, god, yourself...dumb ass," Yuffie grumbled as she steadily pushed her way forward.

"Hi, Yuffie!" Tifa smiled as she embraced the ninja. "You're not sick anymore, I see."

"Nope. All better!"

"You were sick?" Cid quipped. "Not surprising, seein' as how you're always runnin' around in short shorts and a tank top."

"Mind your own business!" Yuffie shot back. She glanced down and saw a shy little girl quickly move to hide behind Tifa's legs. "Ooh, hiya, Marlene! Wow, you've gotten really big!"

"T-Thanks," Marlene blushed slightly.

"Aw, you don't remember me, do you?" Yuffie cooed.

"I'm not a two year old!" Marlene huffed. "Please don't make that face at me!"

"Oh, yeah? But you're hiding behind your mommy!" Yuffie grinned stupidly.

In reply, Marlene merely stuck out her tongue.

"Okay, okay," Yuffie chuckled. "Let's go inside so we can eat something!"

"Now that's the first sane thing I've heard you say today!" Cid said enthusiastically.

Yuffie ignored his comment and turned around quickly, only to run in to a nearby villager. "Okay, guys," she fumed, "move along! Go on, now! Nothin' to see here!" She animated her argument by waving her arms around rapidly.

Amidst quiet grumbles, the crowd slowly dispersed, allowing Yuffie and her party free access to the pagoda.

"Cleaned up the place pretty good," Cid commented as he glanced around. "Haven't been here in a while, so I guess it's not that unusual."

"Tifa never told you?" Yuffie asked with a disheartened look on her face. "Then she was only pretending to be amazed by my phenomenal leadership skills!"

"T-That's not true!" Tifa stammered hurriedly. "It's just that...well, we've been busy."

Yuffie stopped dead in her tracks and spun on her heels. Reaching up, she grabbed Tifa's shoulders and began to shake the frazzled woman violently. "You mean you all went on an adventure while I was sick and in bed?!"

"Something like that," Cid nodded. "If you count nearly getting killed as being an adventure. Honestly, I don't know what it is with you guys and your fascination with near death experiences!"

"B-But!" Yuffie stammered. Tears welled up in her eyes, and Tifa couldn't tell if they were for real or if the ninja was merely putting on a show. "But you know I love going on adventures with you guys!"

"Yeah, right," Cid snorted. "You just like treasure hunting."

Yuffie's eyes immediately dried up.

"So they were fake, after all," Tifa sighed inwardly.

"You, sir," Yuffie cried indignantly as she pointed an accusing finger at him, "are an inbred! You know you all bask in the glowing pleasure of my company!"

"What the hell kinda insult was that?"

"Miss Yuffie meant to say ingrate!" Marlene volunteered happily.

"Er..." Yuffie scratched her cheek nervously. "Excuse me, you two," she said to Tifa and Cid. Bending over, she patted Marlene on the head affectionately and whispered with a wide grin, "You're so sweet! Never do that again, please, okay?"

"Okay!" Marlene nodded.

"Look," Tifa interrupted, "it's not like we went looking for trouble. In fact, it kinda found us."

"Oh yeah!" Yuffie's face brightened. "Speaking of finding things, did you ever find Cloud? I mean, you went up on that mountain and never came back! I mean, I would have gone looking for you, but I figured that you could, y'know, handle anything up there. After all, she did help save the world, along with all the rest of us," she added as an afterthought. Tifa and Cid merely stared at her until she began to feel her temper rising. "Hey, guys, what're you two starin' at, huh?" she fumed. "Do I got something on my face?"

"Dammit, girl, what the hell have you been eating lately?" Cid asked in all seriousness. "You're wound up tighter n' an accountant workin' for Shinra!"

Marlene giggled while Yuffie bashfully twirled a lock of hair between two fingers. "Sorry," she apologized evenly. "It's just that I haven't seen you guys in a while, and...well, I got excited."

"We would've come for you, I'm sure, if we knew you weren't sick anymore," Tifa said in an attempt to soothe Yuffie's cheerlessness. "But yes, I found Cloud."

"Hoo-boy, did she find him," Cid muttered under his breath.

"Really?" Yuffie said excitedly. "How is he doing?"

"He's...doing well," Tifa managed after some thought. "As a matter of fact, we just dropped him off not too long ago."

"Where at?"

"Bone Village," Cid answered her.

A confused look slowly spread across Yuffie's face. "But there's nothing there," she stated. "Why would he wanna go there?"

"He wouldn't tell us," Cid answered truthfully. "He'll be all right, though. He lived in these mountains, didn't he? I wonder how he fixed his hair out there in the middle of nowhere!" Cid laughed all the more loudly when he thought of Cloud sleeping on a pillow of rocks.

"Hm," Yuffie pondered as she pushed open the doors to the pagoda. "You guys make yourselves at home while I go scrounge up something to eat."

"Let us do it for you, m'lady!" two men appeared suddenly in front of her face.

"Oh my GAWD!" Yuffie screeched as she held up her arms in self-defense and cowered slightly. In an instant, however, she had the two men on the ground with their faces pressed against the floor. "Lucious! Antony! I told you two never to do that again!"

"W-We're sorry!" the cried. "Please forgive us!" Straining slightly, they looked up to see two strangers and one familiar looking down at them.

"Oh!" Lucious said loudly. "Miss Tifa! How nice of you to come visit our Yuffie, again!"

"Tifa?!" Antony struggled to raise his own head against Yuffie's grip. "Where?"

"Hey, guys, what's up?" Tifa waved as she knelt down so that they wouldn't have to strain themselves to see her.

"I'm so glad you asked!" Antony replied. "Miss Yuffie has been worried sick about you ever since you went to the mountain! She thought you may have gotten injured...or even worse!"

"Yes!" Lucious agreed quickly. "The wild monkeys up there are none too gentle with strangers! Why, more than once they pelted Yuffie with small rocks until-"

Yuffie quickly raised the two men's heads and then slammed them back down onto the hardwood floor. "You guys, shaddup!" she ordered. "Hey, I've got an idea: why don't you go get us some food?"

"R-Right away, Miss," Lucious said as he and Antony quickly scampered away.

Getting to her feet, Yuffie let out a hollow sigh. "Sorry you guys had to see that," she apologized. "They aren't exactly the brightest bulbs in the bush."

"Huh?" Marlene tilted her head.

"Still," Tifa commented slowly, "something about them...are they...y'know."

"What?"

"W-Well," Tifa stammered. "Well, you know...are they..."

"Eunuchs?" Yuffie ventured a guess.

Cid inhaled sharply but then began to cough horribly. "Oh my god, they are?!" he wheezed in between rasps.

"No!" Yuffie said with an amused look on her face. "And no, Tifa, they aren't gay."

"Lucious, no!" came Anotny's panicked voice. "The fritters go on the left side of the plate- the left! Next to the salad forks!"

"I explicitly remember that the dressing goes there!"

"No it does not!"

Cid and Tifa exchanged suspicious glances before they returned their attention to Yuffie.

"If they aren't gay, then what the hell are they?" Cid demanded.

Yuffie winced visibly as loud shrieks and squeals could now be heard coming from the kitchen. "Sometimes," she said with a nervous smile, "it's better just not to ask..."

FFVII

"Well," Cid said with a sigh as he leaned back on the recliner, "whatever the hell they are, they sure know how to cook."

"That was delicious, Yuffie!" Tifa agreed. "I hope you didn't put all of that together just for us?"

"Nah," Yuffie said nonchalantly. "I eat that stuff almost every day."

Both Tifa and Cid's mouths gaped open, but at least Marlene still had control over her voice.

"If you eat like that all the time, you'll get fat," the little girl observed rather astutely.

Yuffie leaped up from her seat in a rage, but calmly and serenely took her place once more when it occurred to her that beating up a little kid in front of guests was not polite.

Nevertheless, she simply couldn't leave it at that. "One little princess," Yuffie remarked glibly, "is getting a rather large and very nasty pea under her mattress tonight."

"Yuffie," Tifa warned.

"Okay, okay, fine," the female ninja relented. Suddenly, her features eased up, and she leaned back in her chair. "So," she began steadily, "what brings you back to my humble little village?"

"Well," Tifa began rather half-heartedly. "The reason we came was because I think we're going to need your help with something."

"That's not what you told me," Cid groaned under his breath. He rubbed his temples wearily but decided to stay to hear what exactly it was Tifa wanted the ninja to do.

"Cid, can you please put Marlene to bed?" Tifa asked.

"Dammit!" Cid growled as he angrily got up from his chair. He quickly walked over to Marlene and held out a gloved hand. "C'mon, kid," he said roughly.

"Are you gonna read me a story?" Marlene asked sweetly.

"No!"

"...but, Miss Tifa reads me stories!" the little girl protested.

Once they were in the hallway, Tifa could hear the conversation only slightly less clearly.

"I don't care, I'm not Tifa," came Cid's gruff reply. Unfortunately for him, a few sniffles from Marlene quickly brought him around. "All right, all right, fine!" he relented. "I'll read you a damn story!"

At this point, Tifa couldn't make out anything else, signaling that she could begin speaking.

"I'm going to be completely honest with you, Yuffie," Tifa said quietly. "Cloud's in a lot of trouble. I don't think it isn't anything he can't handle, but still...just in case something goes wrong, I think we should be there to help."

"No offense," Yuffie blurted out with a chuckle, "but Cloud's way, waaay stronger than you and me put together, Tifa. I have a hard time believing that there's something in this world capable of giving him a hard time."

"Look," Tifa countered firmly, "that's what I thought at first, too, but that's not the case. If Cloud doesn't win this next fight, then we're all in deep trouble!"

Yuffie's smile quickly vanished once she realized that Tifa was being deadly serious. "Wait a minute, if Cloud can't even win, then what chance do we have?"

"That's why we need to get as many of us together as possible. Cid's with me all the way, so how about you? You said you wanted to go on an adventure, right?"

"W-Well," Yuffie stammered, "I guess...what about Barret? And Vincent, and Red XIII?"

"Red XIII says he can't leave his village right now because he's their new guardian."

"That's so lame!" Yuffie blurted out.

"Look, that's the way he feels, so just forget about it."

Yuffie's eyes grew a bit wider with excitement. "Then what about Barret?"

Tifa opened her mouth, but no words came out at first. "Yuffie," she said even more softly, "you know about Geo-stigma, don't you?" Yuffie nodded, but didn't say anything. "Well...someone in Corel...died from it."

"WHAT?!"

"Shh!" Tifa whispered fiercely as she held up a finger to her lips. "Quiet!"

"That's bull shit, Tifa, bull shit!" Yuffie seethed quietly. She took a few steady breaths to calm herself before she asked: "Is it contagious?"

"We don't know, yet," Tifa shook her head. "Fortunately, I don't think any of us has it, so we're probably fine. Needless to say, though, Barret's not goin' anywhere for a while."

"I see," Yuffie nodded in understanding. "So if Cloud loses, it's just you, me, and that jackass? No, wait, what about Vincent?"

"He's...disappeared," Tifa admitted reluctantly. "He was on the ship with us, but he vanished before we got to Rocket Town to pick up Marlene."

"So it really is just the three of us," Yuffie said somberly. "The we'd better hope to God that Cloud doesn't lose."

"I know," Tifa agreed.

"Miss Yuffie!" came a startled voice.

"Yes, Lucious, what is it?" Yuffie asked as she looked up.

The door slid open and both Lucious and Antony came stumbling in. "Miss Yuffie," Lucious continued, "something's wrong! In the northern sky!"

"Huh?" Yuffie raised an eyebrow. Getting to her feet, she quickly moved to a window and threw open the shudders. A pale green light permeated the room as she did so, but that was the least of Yuffie's concerns now. "W-W-What the f-fuck?!" she cried as she stumbled backwards. She bumped into a small chair as she did so, and it sent her falling squarely on her back, yet she couldn't take her eyes off the window.

"Yuffie, what is it?!" Tifa exclaimed as she moved to the window. She let out a startled gasp and took a step back.

There, hovering over the northern sky was the most enormous, oppressively black storm cloud she'd ever laid eyes on. Bright flashes of lighting seemed to course through it like veins, but what caught her eye even more was the source of the green light.

"Lifestream!" Tifa whispered softly. "It's starting..."

"What do you mean? Why is the lifestream coming out again? What's happening?!" Yuffie shouted.

"The final battle," Tifa breathed lifelessly. "It's starting."

"We're all doomed!" Antony moaned as he covered his head with his arms.

"Ggrr, stop that!" Yuffie demanded as she pushed him aside. "Tifa, come on! We have to get to the Highwind!"

Tifa seemed to be mesmerized by the awful sight that spread out before her.

"Tifa!" Yuffie called again. "Come on! We have to go!"

"I'm coming," Tifa said slowly as she reluctantly tore her eyes away from the sight. "Cloud, please," she said under her breath. "Be all right...for me..."

"Cid!" Yuffie bellowed as she ran through the halls. "Get your ass in gear! It's show time!"

"Bring Marlene along, too!" Tifa added.

"Are you insane?!" came Cid's voice as he threw open the bedroom door. "If there's danger, then-"

"The safest place she can be is with us," Tifa finished his sentence for him. "Now come on!"

After racing through the village streets and out the front gates, through the prairies and up the rope ladder, the group nearly felt ready to collapse from exhaustion, but they pushed on.

Cid raced to the cockpit and quickly began the launch procedure. "Yuffie," he said over the intercom, "stay with Marlene. She doesn't know what's going on, so try to keep her from freakin' out, okay?"

"Roger!" Yuffie saluted as she took the blissfully groggy girl from Tifa's arms and ran to the nearest bedroom, shutting the door behind her as she went.

By the time Tifa arrived at the bridge, the Highwind was in the air and headed straight towards the massive storm.

"Damn!" Cid raged. "If I'd known he was gonna start something like this, I never would have let him go!"

Tifa, for her part, couldn't help but stare at the colossal disturbance. "Look at it, Cid," she said without attempting to hide her fear. "Look at the power they're drawing from the planet. Those two are on a playing field that belongs to them, alone. Cid...if Cloud dies...we won't stand a chance. We'll be as good as dead, too."

"So what else is new..."

"Do you really think...he can stand up to that?" Tifa asked with a trembling lower lip.

"Hey," Cid growled, "that's Cloud's power showing itself, too, don't forget. We'll get there in time to help him, don't you worry! Look, we're coming up on it now!"

"No, w-wait!" Tifa cried, but it was too late.

The Highwind plunged into the outer rim of the huge storm, but even that was enough to send the tiny craft spinning towards oblivion.

"G-God dammit!" Cid grunted as he struggled with the controls. "What the hell kinda storm is this?!"

"Cid, get us outta here, or we're gonna be killed!"

"I'm t-trying!" Cid bellowed. All of the dials and meters on his control panel were spinning, now, and were completely useless; they could be flying straight towards the ocean for all he knew!

There was a burst of static from the intercom, and Yuffie's piercing voice came ringing through loud and clear: "What in god's name is going on? Cid! Are you trying to fucking kill us!"

"Shut your goddamn mouth!" Cid shot back. "I'm doing the best I can!"

"Your best isn't good enough!"

Cid was about to reply when he heard Tifa shriek.

His head darted to where she was standing, and he nearly let out a startled cry, himself. Hovering directly in front of Tifa's face was a pale, green tendril of the lifestream. It did nothing but sway gently in place, as if it were examining her.

"Tifa!" Cid shouted. "Are you all right? Tifa! What's going on?!"

Tifa could only stare in wonder. She was so close to the lifestream right now she could reach out and touch it if she wanted to. Her hands moved to try and grasp the tiny vein, but it ducked out of her reach and bobbled a few half steps away.

Tifa's eyes suddenly widened in recognition. "Aeris?" she gasped loudly.

"What?!"

"Aeris?! Where's Aeris?" Yuffie's voice demanded.

The tendril began weaving back and forth before it receded back out into the storm.

"Cid!" Tifa shouted. "I don't care what you have to do, but follow that light!"

"You bet your ass I'm gonna follow it!" Cid said through clenched teeth. "Not like I have much of a choice, now, do I? But hey, if that's really Aeris helpin' us out there, then I think we've got a real chance to make it through this thing!"

Tifa nodded and returned her gaze to the front view port. "Hang on, Cloud," she thought earnestly. "We're on our way to help you! Just hang on a little longer!"