He didn't care if she was to die; he would survive without her… Of course that wouldn't help his quest with Kadaj. He groaned loudly and received a questioning look from Ningit who walked a few steps a head of him. He glared death at her and she just narrowed her eyes in anger. "Stupid brat…" she muttered underneath her breath. That made Sephiroth even madder at her and really considered if he needed her as much as he thought.

They didn't bother each other during the walk, and he just searched the place for anything filthy that might decide to disturb this 'peaceful' walk that he and she enjoyed so much. Sephiroth almost laughed out loud at his sarcasm, which he had been told was more than annoying and lastly utterly humorous. He began to think of all the wonderful ways he could kill her, stabbing her, cutting her from the waist and up, stabbing her eyes out and then stab her through the heart, pushing her off a cliff. Oh, he really enjoyed those thoughts.

"Sephiroth…" she asked. He groaned inside but still he turned his head to look at her. "What?"

She was silent, and Sephiroth felt the irony make its way; she asks him a question but doesn't answer herself, she was amusing. She turned her head and stared into his green mysterious mako eyes. "Sephiroth, what do you know about Ancients?" He stared at her like she was nuts and she ignored the many whistles from 'hungry' men on the streets. Flipping his hair over his shoulder he shrugged careless. "I don't know more than any regular human, my dear scientist, so why do you bother asking me such a ridiculous question?" 'Ancients were the ultimate race that ever existed on this planet. Something pure they said something…wonderful. But what are ancients? Where did they come from? How did they get here? What do they want?' Sephiroth frowned when he remembered the words of Hojo.

Hojo had desperately tried to search for any clue about the Ancients, but in vain since he couldn't retrieve the information from Gast. Sephiroth clearly remembered the scientist redhead that was full of fury and anger.

All of sudden, the familiar tune of his phone ringing broke the silence at the streets. He picked it up with ease and saw to his surprise the number of Tseng. His graceful fingers pushed the green button and took the phone to his ear, wondering why he would call him of all people.

"Yes?"

"Sephiroth, we need your help…"

--------

Aerith ran through the crowded streets, watching as the Turks laughed at her pathetic attempt to escape them. She cursed her tears as she realised that her mother was right, she wasn't supposed to walk in the streets so late and not when she was only thirteen.

The many people that looked at them just ignored the fact that she didn't deserve this. Trying to breathe rationally and not let fear make her panic she ran into a alley. It was dark, and watery, the sounds of rats frightening. Aerith pushed herself up against the dark walls; the chances that they found her like this were smaller than if she hid anywhere else.

Out of nowhere she felt a hand grip her mouth, closing it shut, and the sounds of laughter at her frightened look. She gazed at him with her shinning emerald eyes, and whished that the Planet would somehow help her. A hand on her hip made her come back to reality, pretty roughly.

He licked a spot on her throat, and she gulped as she felt his arm brush against her bare legs. She did not want to cry, yet she felt the tears come slowly and painfully.

"Let me go…" she whispered; an attempt in vain, she knew that. He just chuckled and kept on seducing his way up her skirt. Aerith felt angry, angrier than she had been in months. However, she couldn't do anything; her staff lay on the ground along with her materia, and he had somehow managed to trap her legs and arms, so she couldn't move them either.

She wasn't fit for fight, and she regretted not practising a bit more in defending herself. As she felt herself close her eyes to think on something else, than his disgusting hands roaming her young body, a voice spoke.

"Materia?" she tried to look at the person at the other end of the alley, and to her surprise she saw a woman. She was alone, and she didn't look very healthy. Aerith widened her eyes as she felt a familiar presence…

The woman wore this monotone face, and stared at the staff she held in her hand. The man just glared at her, "Don't you dare try to do anything you b……"

"FIRE3!" her voice echoed, and the man immediately caught fire. Aerith stared upon the man in shock as he fell to the ground, his breathe could not be seen. She gasped and turned to the woman. "H… ho… You didn't have to kill him!" she screamed.

Two pair of emerald eyes looked at each other in the darkness; no one answering the other. Aerith felt like screaming; this woman, how dared she, there was no need to kill him. However, two words changed her whole perspective of her, of the one woman who seemed cruel yet kind.

"Follow me…"

Aerith who was too tired and exhausted from all the running decided that it couldn't get any worse. So she followed her, not sure who she was, until she stepped into the light…

-----------

Sephiroth was mad, not mad like irritated or confused mad, no; it went to the core of his veins making him feel like destroying something. His hands crackled every time at the thought; he could hear the small groan from within his throat, a terrifying sight indeed. His silver hair flew as he ran through the streets, seeming like a flash of lightning every time he passed anyone. His emerald eyes turning into slits as he tried to improve his night vision, his hand ready on the swords handle.

Ningit ran beside of him, staring at the people who screamed, the velvet nightmare was loaded and ready for action just as Sephiroth. The lab coat had been replaced with a brown cotton jacket that matched her own hair that swung in the air as she searched every street corner.

"Where did she go…?"

Sephiroth didn't turn to answer; instead he kept on running, trying desperately to find the missing person. Ningit frowned at his lack of response and muttered coldly "What a perfect partner…", she smiled shortly when she felt his deadly stare in her back; yes, he was easy to annoy and easy to tempt. She waved shortly to ensure him that she was perfectly fine, as she continued to open the trash cans looking for clues.

Ningit had the velvet nightmare close in her hand, her sweaty palms proved both excitement and fear, mostly the last one. She envied Sephiroth for being calm in a situation like this, he walked casually around and the only thing indicating that he was ready for battle was that his sword was drawn. She cursed underneath her breath as she made a noise and received a horrible hiss from her partner at the other end of the alley. However, she just glared back, hoping that he somehow got hurt.

Who were they searching for anyway? All she knew was that Sephiroth had received a phone call about a girl, who had to be caught since she had managed to escape the Turks once more. She frowned even deeper, that girl must have been dangerous and have high importance if they would send Sephiroth to find her. And as the situation was, Ningit had been forced to leave with Sephiroth; she saw no other choice than helping him.

She discovered that Sephiroth indeed was a bossy person like the rumours said; constantly telling her to be quiet or not to disturb anyone, easy for him to say. So she did the best she could, but in vain; he yelled at her, lectured her and lastly glared at her. She was slowly beginning to get very angry at this young general. It would be a matter of time before she would seriously consider pulling the ticker and shoot him in the head. Well, she could try. Sephiroth was a tough one and the chance that she would actually hit him was very small compared to the chance he had of killing her.

Now she continued to search the dark alley where the rocky walls stretched far up into the sky and covered the place in a mysterious sensation of secrecy.

"Sephiroth…do you hear it?" she asked, trying to hear the sound even clearer; it sounded like some kind of machine pumping and pushing, which caused a deep frown on Ningit's face. Trailing down the alley she kept her gun grimly within the hand, her breath hard with fear and her feet moved by brute force. The humid air made her nauseas and she wanted more than anything to return to a more normal street, but something caught her interest and she felt the urge to go there right away.

She walked for a few minutes and saw to her surprise a left turn, her head turned around the corner and looked outside, nothing special, except that the street let to one of the cinemas that showed the new movie 'Loveless.' There was nothing and yet Ningit decided to examine the place further. It was dark like the other places and it had the most horrible stench; it was enlightened with a certain green atmosphere that seemed to capture the eye of every human.

She dared to walk a bit further, her hand touching the wall for mental support. She was glad that she somehow had gotten rid of Sephiroth, who was a real pain in the ass at times. Examining the green light she felt herself go numb at the realisation. Lifestream…

She fell to the ground and clutched her head in a violent manner, trying to suppress the pain that rushed through her veins. Gasp after gasp she tried to stay conscious and not fall into the depths of darkness; she couldn't surrender to the pain even though it shook through her whole body.

"Damnit!" she cursed as she made her forehead touch the ground, her hands pulling in her hair and her voice cracking, making her unable to scream her pain out. It hurt too much to actually scream. She slowly gained her eyesight and sanity back and stood up. Surprised and shocked by the fact that she had reacted so violently to the lifestream this time, she did not hear the footsteps of a man behind her. Rubbing her sore head, she didn't feel the harsh breath on her throat and didn't see the hand grasping through the air.

Her eyes widened when she saw the leather cloaked hand grab around her face, closing her mouth hard and made her bite her tongue in surprise. Ningit felt her blood run cold and tried her hardest to get lose from whoever that had caught her. Her eyes wandered quickly to the Lifestream and felt a heat she had no idea where from, an intense heat that felt nauseas and disgusting, her legs grew weak and her eyes saw the person hold a hyperaemic needle within his hand.

He released her and she fell to the ground. Slowly, she could feel the strange cold liquid stream through her heated blood, making her dizzy and feeling slightly nauseas. With a curse she embraced the darkness, while feeling herself being lifted unto the shoulder of someone.

"Damn…it…"

------------------

Sephiroth cursed as a dark person ran beside him, carrying something on his shoulders that seemed awfully similar to a human being. It wasn't the fact that Sephiroth cared about the man; it was the fact that he had distracted him from finding any clues that could indicate where the girl might have run to. An ancient they had said; just to tell him that she might trick him with her magic or something.

Sephiroth sighed; he could just give up now and return to the tower with the scientist, there wasn't much to do here anyway. Not with him getting distracted in such an awful manner. So Sephiroth decided to just walk the way back and if lucky catch a train that would make it a whole lot easier, if Ningit found the time to actually come back. He groaned as he continued to wait on the troublesome woman, what took her so long anyway? Sephiroth obviously didn't have time to search day and night for that stupid woman, who had decided to go of on her own.

Groaning loudly once more he began to investigate the valley himself. It was a creepy place for any normal person, the awful stench of death and rotten food from the cabbage cans, the moist atmosphere that made the air hard to breathe. However, Sephiroth was used to places like this. The Wutai War had been full of people slaughtered by his hand, their faces holding the most horrific expressions.

He could clearly remember the first time he killed a human being. A little girl it had been, whose only crime was being the heir to another company, but the president had wanted the kid gone. Sephiroth couldn't have been more than eleven years old. He had hated the way his sword had cut through her twisting body and it got stuck, and he had panicked so much that he had screamed more than the girl herself. The look in the girl's face was nothing but pure hatred to him, her eyes twisting in pain as she sobbed tears and coughed blood.

When she finally died, Sephiroth was numb. He stood there for over twenty minutes, trying to figure out what the hell he had done. His eyes had witnessed the most sickening thing he had ever seen, so he did the only thing he could think of. He puked.

After a while, he had grown used to the sight of blood and slowly the feeling of arousal began to overwhelm him every time he could feel the sword connect with human flesh. He didn't exactly enjoy the feeling, but he didn't despise it either, it made some of his frustration disappear and for a short amount of time letting him imagine that it was those people who had made him suffer, that his sword connected with and died in pain.

That was what the alley reminded him of, even though the sour smell would make any man nauseas. He would just keep on walking, that was until he began to think.

'The man carried a womanly figure on his shoulders…'

'Brown hair…'

'A woman on his shoulders'

'Same alley she walked into'

'A woman on his shoulder!'

'With a brown cotton jacket!'

'A woman!'

"DAMN IT!" he groaned even louder than before, and took his phone, dialling the number of the Shinra Company, the scientist had to be found despite the rumours that might occur around him. He could always kill those who said anything bad about him.

-----------------

"Is she awake yet?" the voice of Elfé echoed through the room as she moved with ease. She was a young, yet experienced girl who just had been asked to join the forces of AVALANCHE. The person, who watched over the body of Ningit, moved his glasses a bit higher up the nose, as he continued to examine the new outfit of his leader. "No, not yet, Elfé… I guess that Shears gave her a bit too much of the injection I provided him "

"Oh… What? She was with the general from Shinra, there is no way I could let her scream… There is no way I want that man on my back!" Shears shrieked annoyed from his chair.

Elfé frowned a bit deeper and crossed her arms, "So Sephiroth was with her, right?" she said, turning her head towards Shears who just waved his hand, while giving her a glare. She decided to just glare back; "Well?" "Yes, she was with him… I think they were searching for someone…"

Fuhito turned in his chair, fumbling a bit more with his glasses while rubbing his hands. "I can see that she has been in contact with Mako, or Lifestream to be more specific, and it seems that she reacts strangely to the substances…" Elfé was silent, her eyes gazed at the ground, and her feet brushed against each other; "It makes sense…" Shears stared at her and his mouth big in surprise, "What? How can tha…"

Fuhito silenced him and supported his hands on his knees while speaking.

"It seems to fit with the reports of Lucrecia Cresent…" "Lucrecia Cresent!"

He coughed shortly before continuing, "If it is true, what you say about the girl reacting violently to Lifestream, then there is hardly any other possibility…" Elfé's look darkened even further as she seemed to circulate in deep thoughts; "What does this mean? Sending this to us…" Fuhito dried the sweat of Ningit's brows, making sure that she wasn't going to die from heat under all those sheets that covered her body, "I don't know… but the Planet must have a reason for doing this…" he turned around in his chair beginning to search through the piles of papers at his side.

Shears sighed and leaned further back into the leather 'beast' he was seated in. "I don't like this at all…" "Maybe the planet is asking us to fight…?" Elfé said, staring at her companion; Shears waved the thought away with his hand, "Maybe, but I doubt it…" Elfé sighed at Shears's statement, he was right and she knew it. "So… where shall we begin our search?"

Fuhito took a piece of paper from the stack and sighed in satisfaction making both Elfé and Shears look at him. He waved the little piece of paper in his hands, and took the ID card he had found on Ningit forward. "See… I think I am able to translate her name…" both Avalanche members walked towards him in curiosity, and stared at the paper within his hands.

"One of the AVALANCHE members snatched this from the Shinra library… it is a translation of old Ancient…" he said, placing the ID card beside the paper. "This says that her name is Ningit. According to these translations it means snow…"

Elfé spoke with confident as she snatched the translation and card away from him. "It must be the northern part of the planet then…" her eyes wandered to Shears who smiled shortly like he could read her mind. "Icicle Inn it is then…"

She nodded and walked out of the room with hasty steps, "I'll make sure that we will go as soon as possible…"

Shears looked at the awfully quiet girl in the corner; she had been like that ever since Elfé had brought her to the headquarters. Twisting his head slightly to one side, he asked in pure curiosity. "Hey… you girl…" she didn't even flinch. "Girl in the corner!" he spoke mockingly, and made a weird face at the scared girl. She turned her head slightly and emerald eyes bore into him like she could see through his very core. It was a disgusting sensation.

"I have a name…" she said with a tone of annoyance, Shears just shrugged nervously, "A… and what might that be…" "Aerith…" "Eh, what?" "Aerith Gainsborough…"

"Oh… Oh, yeah. Okay…" this girl was really amusing, it wasn't the fact that she was young, but the first thing she had actually yelled at Elfé's face was that she had to go home to her mother straight away. Who in their right mind thought about their mother first? Suddenly, Fuhito fumbled with the sheets covering Ningit who seemed to drift in and out of consciousness. Her continuously mumble made all in the room focus on her ramble and it seemed to catch the eyes of Aerith even more than the others. Without a word of warning, the girl's pink skirt flew across the room, and the young girl held unto Ningit with happiness shinning in her eyes.

"So, it was true after all!" Aerith's sobbing could be heard fiercely as she clutched the woman hard, Fuhito tried desperately to remove the sobbing girl, but in vain. Shears sighed in annoyance, this just wasn't his night.

----------------

Elfé studied the content within her hand, the report of Lucrecia Cresent, which they had managed to retrieve after a successful mission to Nibleheim. However, it had proven more valuable than previously known, and now they might be able to solve the remaining mystery about the Planet's abilities. Taking the first piece of paper up from the file she read it carefully.

Showing signs of recovery, reacting perfectly to the substance of the CHAOS that I have replaced within his body.

Day 3.

Is becoming unstable once again, seems to have trouble in controlling CHAOS, had to poison him to maintain the balance between the two souls within him now.

Day 6.

First glimpse of CHAOS, scary was the first thought, and it seems like he isn't going to wake up any time soon. CHAOS provided me with valuable information about the planet; I think the Planet is even more complex than thought. It seems the it is able to materialise into many different kind of things, like animals and such, maybe it would be able to materialise into a human if that is, but wouldn't that mean the Planet would die?

This has to be studied even further. I cannot let Professor Hojo do this, after all he did to my precious baby… I can't let him take the last salvation I can get, just this once I will discover it myself. I, Lucrecia Cresent, will discover the truth behind the Planet!

ICICLE INN:

What I found here is most priceless, even the meeting with an old companion. I desire nothing more than to write this down, but he advised me not to since it would be most likely that if it was found the Planet would be in danger. However, I cannot bear the guilt on my shoulders anymore, I cannot, I need to make my being become Data. I need to redeem my sins…

Elfé flipped the report together and took her phone, dialling the number to the helicopters, waiting for someone to pick it up.

"Yes, this is Elfé, I need a helicopter and supplies for cold weather right away…"

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