Journey Fifteen – Submerge

Two years since I met Sephiroth for the first time in the Olympus Coliseum. Two years ago is where my eyes firstly laid on him. I thought that One Winged Angels were a bunch of bad luck superstition, but being saved by 'my knight in shining armour' Sephiroth, made me changed my mind. To be honest, I like his black wing and he's actually a shy, yet brave person I met. But then, during those two years, I became so close to him; I even talked to him around our private lives and my heart is bumping hard. I wonder if he noticed we've become so close together.

I wish I could tell him that I'm in…

"Aerith…" called Sephiroth's voice gently.

Mateel Surface

Jehovah cockpit

"Aerith!" Sephiroth exclaimed to Aerith gently, as if she was dreaming into another world "I hate to spoil your dream, but if you don't do your job, it will be your fault for killing us."

"I'm sorry. I was just thinking." Aerith could replied to him as she 'woke up from dreamland' and got back on tapping softly on the holographic keyboard. Nothing seemed to happen as she looked beyond the projection screen around her, until the 'lines' picked up two anomalies on sight. "Uh, Sephy…"

As the anomalies were getting closer, it was getting clearer that there were two MAs in front of them a few minutes later – one of them the main individuals already knew Lawrence's MA, Azura. As for the other MA, it was pure white and had a griffin-shaped structure to it.

Aerith and Sephiroth stood still silently for some time, until the One Winged Angel sensed something was unusual.

"I would like to say thank you for coming here in such short notice." The unfamiliar, yet so familiar to Aerith, male voice remarked "However, we need to be quick, due to vicious creatures in the area when the sun sets."

Mateel Surface

Outside

"But first I need to know that you're not here to get my wing." Sephiroth cautiously announced via communicator "Are you the person responsible for sending a text message to us? And why did you bring along Lawrence? Did you say come alone specifically?"

"For the answers of your questions – yes, I am responsible for sending you a message, though you may called me 'Master' from now on. As for Lawrence, you brought Yeager's robot in for security, so I might as well take Lawrence should you fire at me in a situation."

"…"

"And I am certainly NOT capturing you for the sake of getting your wing. This would be a good reason why I wanted you two and that robot here for a good reason."

"And that would be YESHUA is now part of this story, too?"

"You could say that. In other words, there is something deep within his body that even the R and D department in Y.E. was unaware when they found him some time ago."

"So what are you suggesting me to do?"

"Get that robot into a full progressive scan over at Second Eden and you'll see why. That's all I can say."

"…"

"Master, I hate to say this, but the monsters inhabiting Mateel are fast approaching." Lawrence told to 'Master' via communication, while taking out the 'mechanical bow'.

"What!" 'Master' exclaimed as the white MA took out its 'staff', while the roaring sounds of footsteps are approaching "And the afternoon is turning to dark "Get out of here, while you still can Sephiroth and Aerith! Lawrence and I will provide distraction!"

The pilots in Jehovah couldn't say on the event, but in spite of the situation, it had no choice but to flee and get to space. Meanwhile back on ground, the grizzly inhabitants were here and ready to strike on the two MAs.

Jehovah cockpit

"Why on Earth did that guy wanted us to get out of here?" Sephiroth frustratingly asked to Aerith, while controlling his arms at a greater angle and facing towards the blue sky.

"I don't know, but looks like you've got company!" Aerith replied in fear that she looked at the screen with the three bleeping red dots identify as enemies and the One Winged Angel cursed himself for not getting to space in time, even though it was reaching the point of the black blanket.

"Guess I have no choice. YESHUA, how far do we have to reach Vatican?"

"We are approximately five thousand kilometres away from the docking area in the Vatican. However, with the aliens inhabiting the planet Mateel, there may be a probability of fifty-six percent chance of getting to the Vatican alive." Announced YESHUA's voice.

"Fifty-six, you say? Well, I'd better raise the stakes!" With his energy coming out in full force, Sephiroth pushed his legs that control Jehovah' legs and once the black blanket of space was visible, he was ready to battle.

Jehovah pulled out Masamune once it arrived in space floating; one of the aliens began to strike by thrusting its tongue to 'her' wing, though 'her' kicks managed to avoid the alien's wrath and counterstrike with a sword slash. While the MA was rushing to the entrance of the Vatican's docking area, another alien intervene the opportunity and slashed the MA with its white fire breath claw hack.

But no matter what damage the alien has done to Jehovah, 'she' triumphed by attacking the alien and move on to the destination. Though, the third and final alien had its trick up in its sleeve as tentacles coming out of its back and tightens the grip to the torso of the 'One Winged MA'.

Jehovah struggled to get free from the wrath, but to no avail and despite many cuts from Masamune and tiny pieces of missiles coming from the 'wing', the MA was on the verge on giving up.

Bridge, Vatican

"Great!" Zack cursed himself as he couldn't help, but to watch on the holographic in the event that was happening. "I'm stuck here watching those three get crushed and what do I get?"

"Zack, please!" Eliza scolded as she was planning at the second. "If Jehovah' in trouble, then we have no choice. Yazoo, get into Lakia now." Yazoo, though halfway sleeping, woke up pretty quickly, when the Afro-Edian co-engineer gave him orders.

"What? But I've never pilot an MA before." The long silver-haired person replied with surprise.

"I'm not saying you are going to pilot Lakia, I am. You're just going to control the weapons and such, while I'll do the handling of this baby."

"Oh right, but still…"

Jehovah cockpit

Sephiroth struggled to move again, as the actions of the controls follow the same pattern for the MA itself.

"I…let my…guard…down…" he groaned to Aerith. "…sorry if I…got you…into…this…mess…guess that I have…to…give up…"

"Don't say 'sorry' to me!" Aerith exclaimed as she stood up and face towards in front of his face. "I know you, since we first met each other at the Olympus Coliseum and during the tournament; you never gave up the fight, even when battling against Bach. And then you saved me from Lawrence's crimson dragon when I couldn't find a way to be free from its grasp. Next, you saved me from being killed by an insane version of you back in Terra and then when you're in trouble with that blonde swordsman, I don't know what on earth the celestial wires are coming from, but it was my turn to save you.

And do I see you giving up right now? That's not the Sephiroth I know!" Tears are coming out of her face as she was protesting about the One Winged Angel giving up hope. "Please, for my sake, DON'T GIVE UP! Remember that promise you said to me over in Akagi?"

Sephiroth remembered that promise he gave to Aerith - I'll take you to the moonlit sky, where I'll show you can walk on the clouds and we'll dance behind the moon to our hearts' contents – and his eyes were on contact to Aerith's sad face.

That promise I said to her, he thought, while his body could not cope on standing still any longer I can't break that right? What were mother's words said to me, before we become separated again?

'Mummy?'

'Yes, Sephy dear?'

'What's a promise?'

'Hmm, you're such a curious boy, aren't you?'

'I just want to know.'

'Well since you ask the question, a promise is when you say to a person that you will do something for her or him. However, once you made a promise, that promise cannot be broken; even if the situation is dire.'

So that's what a promise is. If I can't break that promise, I must survive and do it…for Aerith.

"Yes. That promise I said to you. I can't break it right now, can't I?"

"Uh-huh, so are you willing never to give up and do that promise to me?"

"I guess so…" And Aerith smiled once again, seeing that he still remembered the promise he said to her.

"That's the spirit! That's the Sephiroth I know of! Together, no matter how tough the battle we're in, we can go through one hurdle at a time and never stop, until we reach our goal!"

Unfortunately for Aerith standing up, the shake of the alien pulling Jehovah made her fall backwards, before Sephiroth managed to get his right hand (as Masamune was actually on the left hand he still controls) free and caught her hand. Then out of the blue, a streaking azure lighting came from nowhere and cut the wires, to which, a holographic screen of Eliza came in front of Sephiroth.

"Phew!" she exclaimed in relief "Glad I'm came over and saved your butts!"

"Eliza?" he asked in surprise as he was fully able to be free and checked his limbs were not stiff enough to move "I thought only YESHUA can pilot Lakia."

"Well, I'm the engineer of YESHUA and I created Lakia, so I can pilot Lakia whenever I want to. Plus, with my assistant Yazoo doing the weapon controls, there'll be no troubles here. Now, hurry up and get back to the Vatican! Everyone's worried about you!"

Bridge, several minutes later

"You say YESHUA's got the secrets inside his body?" the engineer asked in surprise as she was walking in paces rather quickly and Yazoo, in the meantime, felt confused with the new situation.

"Well, at least," Aerith replied as she crossed her arms and put her left hand to her delicate soft chin "that person in the white MA told us about him."

"That is strange. I thought YESHUA was created by my director, Reeve Tuesti along with Andrew and me, but still, I have doubts that we had a full progress check for a long time to see if he was created by a different person."

"Would it be possible if we can check YESHUA's memory again?" Sephiroth asked intelligential, but also with some concern and caution.

"In a way, yes. However. In order to full check YESHUA's memory, I need to get permission from Reeve, before the progress can begin in Yeager Enterprise's Defragmenter Department." Then she faced towards the cyborg. "So, what do you think YESHUA?"

"I believe that a full progress check would be inventible." He replied quickly and unemotionally.

However…

Several hours later

Reeve's Office, Yeager Enterprise Research and Development Building, Serapha, Second Eden

"Are you out of your mind, Miss Kinja?" Reeve asked to Eliza rather very surprisingly and somewhat angrily, while fixing the parts of Cait Sith. "YESHUA is completely fine as he is."

"But sir," Eliza said with some compassion to her director "we haven't looked on his memory for the past few months, so shouldn't it be a good time to check for viruses?"

"What does Andrew think of this? I consider he does not agree with you."

"Oh, I've already talked to him via the visual communicator and he gave the go ahead to do it."

"What the? Did he?" He stopped fixing Cait Sith and then stood up, putting his hand on Eliza's shoulder "Eliza, you and Andrew have always been loyal to me, since creating YESHUA. However, once you do a full progress check, make sure you bring him back in one piece."

"You mean that's a 'yes'?" Reeve nodded in advance and Eliza was in a full good mood. "Thank you sir! I won't let you down!" And once she got out the office door and faced with Yazoo, Aerith, Sephiroth and Andrew. "He said yes."

"Finally!" Andrew exclaimed as he put his arms around Eliza unexpectedly "We can celebrate! All we need to do now is to check YESHUA tomorrow!"

"Uh, why not now?" Aerith asked with some curiosity.

"Well, preparations for the progress check needs to be set up for a while and it's not going to be complete until tomorrow. So, in the meantime, let's go nuts and drink in for the night!"

Next day, entrance to Defragmenter Department building

Sephiroth rubbed his head pretty hard after a somewhat party last night, while he, Aerith and the others walked to the entrance of the Defragmenter Department building.

"Did I just drink too much sake?" He asked to Aerith "And did I just punch someone last night?"

"Well, after Leon and the other guys went back to Second Eden from Genso and everyone celebrating at the Eleventh Heaven Bar, I think you punched Bach and Leon and then Adrian. But in other news, I think you only punch them a little and no harm done there Sephy, though the hangover..."

"Oh god…"

"But anyways, as long as you don't punch Leon in the stomach, I won't take revenge on you!" Yuffie jokingly remarked as she tagged the party along.

"It won't, for you Yuffie." Leon sarcastically replied as he walked behind Yuffie.

"Hey!"

Once they arrived in the building and went up in the lift until it went to floor sixty-six, they arrived at the room, which had full of weird, yet so cool technology and in the middle was YESHUA 'floating' as many wires were connecting on to his back. And then Andrew and the director, Reeve arrived in front of them, as they were in the platform with many people typing on the holographic keyboards.

"There you are, Eliza." The director quickly remarked as he walked to them. "Where have you been? The progress check is about to begin."

"Okay, okay! I'll go to my position!" Eliza shouted as she ran to her computer.

"Sorry, guys for the unnecessary mess out there. Well as you can see, the people behind YESHUA creation are now in position for a full progress check. I don't know how long this will take, but I assure that this won't as long as last year."

"Reeve, we're ready to go!" Shouted one of the engineers.

"Okay, now hit the switch!"

At the first few minutes, all would seem fine for the robot, until at the fifth minute, something went wrong. Sephiroth, at the viewers' room, felt something was actually inside and he coughed up a little blood as he covered his mouth. Aerith, being the only woman beside him, looked at him, to which she was concerned gradually at the second.

"Sephiroth, are you okay?" she asked in fear.

"Aerith, I don't feel so normal." He replied gradually weakening his voice. "I need somewhere to sit…"

Then a warning siren was heard and the room went red.

"Reeve!" shouted one of the female engineers "There's a silent virus coming in from nowhere and it's spreading on YESHUA's memory bank!"

"WHAT?" Reeve exclaimed as he typed the holographic keyboard so fast "Dammit! So there is a virus! Yazoo, have you got any ideas to where it came from?"

Yazoo, in a while, trying his best to type the keyboard, as several of the screens popped up and said quickly "Twenty percent are coming from the XIII Order and the rest are from an unknown group! There's too much, sir!"

"XIII Order? Shit! And now it's spreading!" And within the few minutes, a pandemic was struck with many people trying at best, preventing the virus from damaging YESHUA's memory. However, several minutes into the event and another was created.

"Sir, the virus is spreading fast and it's heading to the main system in the Defragmenter Department!" shouted Andrew with panic in his face.

"What the? That's impossible! I thought the virus is only spreading at YESHUA, but why the building?"

Meanwhile, Sephiroth's black wing was shredding more feathers than he thought and with his face growing paler, he was coughing blood.

"Sephiroth! Are you really okay?" Aerith cried as she grew more concern for his health and gave her support by putting her arms on back.

"Aerith, just find me a…" Unfortunately for his sentence to finish, Sephiroth fell down with his face on the floor and fell unconscious in front of her and everyone else, apart from the engineers working their best to prevent the virus.

"Sephiroth? SEPHIROTH?"

Bright light appears and Sephiroth could not believe where the heck he is. Until he can hear a male voice from his back and it came from the same person from the memory Jenova showed to them. A black-haired person, wearing a lab coat.

"You would be probably being thinking where you are Sephiroth." He remarked calmly.

"Who are you?" Sephiroth asked with fear bringing in for the first time.

"I came here to tell you. The past that I've tried to seal so that everyone can live in peace for over a thousand years. I came to save you from what our world has become over a thousand years ago – an inexpressible tragedy that left many people in suffering – and I did by doing something that I shouldn't mess with by playing God and sent you into the future, along with your mother to live in a good life."

"You haven't even answered my question!"

"I'm someone who would be very familiar when I say my name. I am Hojo and I'm the person who saved your mother and you. I'm the one who inserted the Noir Wing Key transfusion liquid into your body. I'm your father, to whom you are my only son to have survived the effect."

"Father…? Noir Wing Key…? Over a thousand years ago? Impossible…"

"There isn't much time. Should you seek to find the truth more, come into the robot's memory and all shall be revealed."

"You mean YESHUA?"

"For the love of Genso, YESHUA's going AWOL and he's shutting down his system!" Eliza shouted as she looked in horror as YESHUA couldn't take the strain any more and decided to his system down by automatically taking the wires out, without using the limbs.

Meanwhile, Aerith tried her best to 'revive' Sephiroth by performing something that would be a little embarrassed. A kiss of life or CPR.

"Sephiroth, please don't die!" She cried as she placed her hands and gets him 'moving'. No response. And yet, she continued to do so, until when the last wire was cut from YESHUA's body, Sephiroth was barely woken up and his eyes opened to Aerith with tears flowing.

"Aerith…" he said in a pale voice and he can hear voices of many people murmuring about YESHUA shutting down by himself and saw a couple of engineers getting off the computers and start helping the mess. "…we need to go inside YESHUA."

"What are you talking about?" She asked "There is no way we can get into YESHUA's body."

"I think there is a way." Yazoo remarked as he and Eliza came to them. "Though it requires bravery, I think the only way to sort YESHUA's virus, is to go 'submerge'."

"Submerge?" Aerith, Sephiroth, Leon and Yuffie asked in curiosity.

"Yes. Although it will not work on humanoids, such as Alda, it seems only you four, among with Rufus and Adrian can do it by using the special glasses and dive into YESHUA's memory mentally."

"But why not Eliza, Bach or even Zack?" The One Winged Angel asked.

"Eliza is checking to see whether you are going to lose your mind once you go into his memory; Bach's got technophobia when it comes to submerging the robots and Zack…well, he couldn't be just bothered, but to go out into Eleventh Heaven Bar every day. So I guess it's down to you."

Several hours later

"Are you ready to submerge, guys?" Eliza asked as she was typing, while Yazoo was checking to see any check inside the control room.

"Remind me, why are we wearing these funky glasses again?" Yuffie wondered as she was messing with the red-tinted glasses with much text coming out of the glasses themselves; while Sephiroth, Aerith, Leon, Rufus and Adrian were wearing one each.

"Yuffie, please put them on, otherwise your mind would leave the body forever without wearing it. Now, when you give me the signal, it's time to go inside YESHUA's memory bank!"

"I'm ready." Rufus said in a quick reply.

"Submerge me, whenever you're ready!" Yuffie replied happily, now wearing the glasses.

"Just make this quick ASAP" Leon replied without a second to hesitate.

"Ready." Adrian replied.

"I'm ready." Aerith replied, but then she moved forward to Sephiroth with a whisper "Could you hold my hand, please Sephy? I'm afraid to go alone."

"Okay." He whispered to her, to which he held her soft small hand and then replied to Eliza "Okay, I'm ready."

"Right, submerging in three…two…one…" And once she pressed the all important button, the party were thrusted into the light and now were submerging into an unknown territory – inside YESHUA's memory bank.

Author's Notes: This will be the last chapter, before going into the A2 Summer Exam this year (Sobs like Loz). Yes, I know some fans, like Lily Silver, and me have to do some bloomin' revision in the summer, but at least, at the end of June, I can write some more chapters just to please you.

Right before I say to you, I'm not good at action scenes, so do that in your head and you can make it as short or long as you like it! And two new characters are coming here, though from FFVII. Reeve, now Eliza's 'boss', is now revealed as the creator and director of YESHUA and then the mad scientist and Sephiroth's father (yes, you heard me), Hojo, who is not so mad anymore and still is Sephiroth's father. Now before you say '(BLEEP!) Hojo's not Sephiroth's dad!' go to type 'Vincent Valentine' on the search engine or something and look at the trivia. Don't say I didn't warn you. By the way, I have a blog that has extra features (okay, not really yet) on Nimbus Exploration, called Fan Novel Approach and if you click on my username and look for the 'F-N-A' link, you should go there for just a bit of fun and take a look, though you can comment, as long as you don't talk rubbish.

Right, first things first. Big thank you to Foi, Lily Silver, Tish; turtlerad17 and many AeriSeph fans! Keep those reviews coming in, except for hate mails. And as a special treat, before I go into revision hell, here it is another Nimbus Detour mini-chapter and for the disclaimer note, I DO NOT OWN GUITAR HERO and its music. Harmonix and RedOctane do own the game, among with various artists who made the music.

Nimbus Detour – Bypass Two – Guitar

Kinja Residence, Serapha, Second Eden

"SEPHIROTH!" Cloud shouted as he came from nowhere and entered the garden, where Sephiroth, Aerith and Kei were enjoying themselves by a game of Go, before the blonde swordsman interrupted the game to where Sephiroth's black piece nearly captured Kei's white pieces. "SEPHIROTH, YOU BASTARD! WHY HAVE YOU STEAL AERITH TO BE YOUR GIRLFRIEND!"

"Steal? Girlfriend?" Sephiroth asked in a curious manner "Listen, first of all Cloud; where the hell did you come from? Second, Aerith and I are not into a serious romantic relationship (at the moment) and thirdly, I'm not into a good mood into fighting you, right now."

Come to think of it, Sephiroth was right. Cloud did wondered how he got in Second Eden from nowhere and not to mention what sort transportation did he travel, but regardless of it, he shook his head and continued glaring at the One Winged Angel. "Listen, because you did a terrible act that might change the face of the situation, I'm challenging you to a duel!"

"What? With swords again? You know you're going to win against me, because you're always having impossible strength that I would lose again and again, every time we duel against each other."

"Not this time! I'm through with swordplay, so it's time for…"

Next morning in Kinja Residence

"Tell me again why would Sephiroth want a PS2 and a copy of Guitar Hero?" Bach asked in interest as he was very confused with the situation.

"Well, my dear old friend Cloud wants to challenge Sephiroth for a guitar duel and whoever can last on strumming on every song in expert mode the longest wins." Aerith answered with a little confusion and a few minutes later, the two rivals came in style, each with a case with their custom design guitar. The gentlemen put down their cases and opened in a way that would be indescribable.

Sephiroth's guitar consist of the normal five buttons and a 'strummer', except the guitar was shaped very similar to Masamune, but with Gibson SG modified, with jet black and silver design and named it 'Killy'. Cloud's, however, was the same controls as Sephiroth's, but with the Buster Sword shape and named it 'Aslan'. Once, the guitars were plugged into the PS2 controller ports and the game 'switched on', it was down to business.

"Right, shall we go to 'November Rain'?" Cloud asked to Sephiroth bitterly.

"Nah, how about 'Smoke on the Water' for a start?" The One Winged Angel replied.

Several minutes of rock music and strumming later

"Man, I don't know when these men get tired!" Kei surprisingly exclaimed as he handed some drinks to Aerith and anyone else who were just curious to see the rivals strumming their way, while despite the need for going to the toilet, Sephiroth and Cloud were strumming their strings, desperate to show who can be the true victor. With the One Winged Angel in the Sonic Youth position and Cloud in the Ramone position, there was no sign of these men breaking down of their fingers crippled. Once the song was finished…

"That's 'Take Me Out' sorted and 'Bohemian Rhapsody' done and out of the twenty-eight songs, it's a draw." Sephiroth announced, while he worked on his hands.

"Yeah but it isn't over with one last song – 'November Rain'." Cloud snarled as he chose the song and got into position. "Now we can see who the winner of being a guitar hero is!"

And they began to strum their way, until at halfway point of a very long song suddenly; the PS2 was switched off abruptly by Bach.

"HEY!" The two 'guitarists' protested angrily "WHAT GIVES YOU IDIOT?"

"I'm tired of you two of overheating my PS2, so I pulled the plug and make sure you two don't have lazy eyes, like those gamers had."

"Oh really…" Sephiroth said evilly as he unsheathed Masamune.

"You just paid the price of interrupting the duel between Sephiroth and me…" Cloud replied evilly as he took out his Buster Sword.

Few minutes of slashing and hacking later

"Shall we call it a truce for now?" Cloud asked rather politely and bitterly at the same time to Sephiroth.

"I guess it would have to be, since our duel was interrupted." Sephiroth replied as he smiled for once that he did not lose by the blonde swordsman for once.

And so, for the first time, the guitar duel was not won by Cloud Strife as usual, nor Sephiroth, but a draw, where the guitarist interrupted their 'fight' and finally has a truce for a while. As for Bach, well, uh…he paid the price for interrupting the scene.

"Ouch." He painfully said.