Chapter 2

After hearing Vincent's end of the conversation, they resumed their places around the rectangular table, but Yuffie remained standing. Vincent returned to his corner by and leaned against it casually.

The speakers made a crackling sound when Vincent plugged in his hand phone. There was a moment of silence, and then they heard a girl's voice coming through the speakers.

"I did an SND and I might have found one of maybe hundreds of reasons DGS wants Bernice."

"That's the first good news I've heard today," said a cheerful Cat Sith. He flipped once on Nanaki's back, sending yellow stars flying in all directions.

"It says here that Bernice is special in a way. Her brain constantly stays in the alpha brain wave mode. It is very rare that she would change into beta or delta waves. She is also a strong Visual Learner, giving all her competitors a run for their money."

Shelke was interrupted when Barret half-shouted to the speakers. "Talk in English Shelke, not all of us here are geniuses."

"Um, sorry, Barret." Shelke took a moment to stifle a chuckle, and then continued. "What I meant was that she learns things very quickly if taught by a master without much stress and hard work. In addition, she learns even faster if she was shown an actual demonstration…but there are conditions."

"Like?" asked Cloud.

"For example, you could teach her how to run, but that doesn't mean she's going to be the fastest runner on the tracks. Apart from her unique learning ability, she is more in-tuned with her instincts than most, especially in areas which she shows interest in. There is a saying in that world: I love what I do, hence, I excel at it. She shows positive thinking in the martial arts."

Suddenly, Vincent and Tifa's eyes widened as they both said, "Cloud!"

'I know, go, and hurry."

Vincent grabbed his phone and he and Tifa burst through the door and started running to the hall, the only place that was big enough to open a portal to another world. WRO soldiers hurried out of the way of the two commanders as they rushed down the hall.

Everyone shot Cloud a questioning glance. "What was it that you knew?" asked Yuffie.

They had never seen Cloud so serious since the time they battled the bahamut a year and a half ago. Cloud said, "The worst, we now know the ultimate reason why they wanted the girl." His face grew solemn. "They are rebuilding the Tsviet."

These words left everyone in the room dumbfounded.

"I hate to be the one to bring this up too, but you all know what that means. If Bernice is going to be a Tsviet, she would need a teacher," Cloud said.

"Vincent didn't kill Weiss, did he?" Yuffie said it so softly, it was almost considered a whisper.

Shaking his head, Cloud said, "No, Yuffie, I guess he didn't. It looks like we have some unfinished business to attend to."

Vincent and Tifa rounded the bend to face a large double door. The two doors slide aside and they ran inside.

Once inside, Tifa turned to Vincent. "Um, you do know what you're doing, right?"

Vincent nodded. "I hope you're right, Chaos." Vincent thought to himself. "Ready, Tifa?"

Vincent took out two glowing materias, one of which was silver in colour and the other black. He handed the materia to an awestruck Tifa. "What are…?" Tifa started to ask.

Vincent waved away the question and said, "Time is of the essence. I'll explain some other time…Now, with the right combination of materia, an inter-dimensional rift should open. You've got ten minutes until they disintegrate. Once placed together, they become unstable and must be pulled apart within the time limit."

Next, Vincent took out a pocket-sized time-piece and handed it to Tifa. "Here, use this." He then took several tentative steps backwards.

Tifa nodded silently. She set the timer for ten minutes, took a deep breath and with an almighty heave, jammed the two materias together.

The materias joined as one. A brilliant light erupted from them, followed by a dark aura, which soon engulfed Tifa. Her head spun for a moment. She felt her feet leave the ground, and then…

THUD! Tifa felt her body collide with what felt like solid ground. Thankfully, the grass beneath her had somewhat softened her landing. Placing her hand onto her forehead, she groaned. She was dizzy, and her muscles felt as if they were expanding and contracting at the same time. She stood up, and found herself swaying. Strange…I feel so…heavy. Tifa tried shaking the disorientation from her head. It got worse. Okay…mental note…never do that again.

She sat back down. Then, she remembered the time-piece. She took it out and checked it. Good, seven minutes to go.

Up ahead, she heard someone yelling, familiar growling noises, and then, the sound of people running, running…TOWARDS HER!

Tifa looked towards the direction of the noises and saw that the person who was running towards her was a girl. She was being chased by figures in glowing blue uniform…DEEPGROUND!

All sense of dizziness left her as she saw her worst fears realized. She felt the adrenaline rise. It's Go time!