As they had reached the summit of the Fooji Mountains they found the Rheairds intact, relatively. "At least they're not totally destroyed," Cloud said with a bit of dry humor evident in his voice. "Hey bud, come 'ere, I'll show you my secret weapon…" Zelos said. Whether he realized it or not Zelos stepped on a trap and activated it. The only one not caught by it was Colette, still in her soulless state.
A man with silver hair and large dark angel wings appeared. "Well, well, Cloud Strife… I must say it is a surprise to see you here! When I heard that the Chosen of Sylveraunt was in Tethe'alla I never would've figured that her failure of a father was with her!" the man laughed evilly. "Sephiroth!" Cloud growled. "Sephiroth?" Lloyd echoed in surprise. "Who is he?" Vyse asked.
"Sephiroth is a Dark Angel, a class under Cruxis that's only objective is the slaughter of the Cetra race…" Cloud explained. To this Sephiroth responded, "Watch your mouth, Cetra, I'm not just any Dark Angel!" "Of course you're not, just the psychotic maniac who leads them! Under Yggdrasill's command, of course…" Cloud retorted. "I've had enough of your arrogant mouth, Cetra, it's time to die!" Sephiroth stated. "Hold it…" Yuan said as he appeared. "Lord Yuan, what are you doing here?" Sephiroth asked. "The Cetra and his friends are of use to me…" Yuan explained. "Very well… My only task was to get the Chosen…" Sephiroth explained.
"Uh, what is this? A pitiful attempt to make a Key Crest? I'll rid Martel's future vessel of such a disgraceful device," Sephiroth reached to grab the Key Crest. "N-no! Get away from me!" Colette yelled backing away. "What!?!" Sephiroth exclaimed. "I won't let you take this, Lloyd gave me this as a birthday present!" Colette continued. "Alright, fine… But now you're useless to me, I destroy what's of no use!" Sephiroth growled. To this statement Colette grew scared, she began to back away and tripped on a strange box.
The trap deactivated as soon as she realized she broke the strange device. "Oh no, I broke it!" she replied. Cloud payed no attention to her. "Servent of the dark lord, GALIAN BEAST!" Cloud called out. In an instant a strange Summon Spirit appeared and attacked Sephiroth. "D-damn… Next time, you're dead, Strife and your little girl too!" Sephiroth cursed. Sephiroth fled leaving the team to face Yuan. "The girl is of no use to me, all I want is the Angelus exsphere…" Yuan told the team. "Over my dead body!" Lloyd called out in response. "That can be arranged…" Yuan told answered.
The two swung their weapons at each other but were stopped at the last minute by an intervention from Kratos. "Yuan, Lord Yggdrasill wishes to see you…" Kratos announced. "What does he want me for?" Yuan asked. "Why don't you go ask him yourself?" Kratos asked in reply. After Yuan left Kratos turned his attention to his former comrades. "Learn to pick your fights, Lloyd…" Kratos advised. He turned to leave before coming face to face with his rival. "Where do you think you're going, Mr. Bigshot!?!" Cloud yelled, "You owe me a rematch!" "I'm a very busy man at the moment, perhaps we can arrange to play some other time!" Kratos replied. "Don't trifle with me, Kratos Aurion, that would prove to be a mistake!" Cloud yelled angerly after his rival as he flew away.
Cloud stood in the same spot for a moment cursing Kratos silently. Then he turned around, his composure seemed to have been brightened substantially. "Colette, are you alright?" he asked, his voice full of care. "Yes, daddy, I'm fine…" she replied simply. Cloud could have cried if her statement had not caught him by surprise. "How did you know?" he asked. "I heard eveything that was said, I just couldn't respond…" she told him, "It's not your fault, daddy…" With that being said she hugged Cloud, his response didn't surprise anyone he held her back. She walked over to Lloyd and kissed his cheek after that. His cheeks lit up a bright red color.
