"Icicle?" Aerith stared at Tifa. "Winter will just be starting there, and it might be a bad one this year."

"We've never seen your hometown for just a regular visit, it'll be fun!" Tifa exclaimed. "And there's nothing like a winter holiday! It's just for a week!" she continued to plead.

Aerith was extremely concerned about her friend. Tifa was a clinger, not just to Cloud, but to her bar as well. If she wanted a vacation, something was wrong. She sighed in resignation. "When do we leave?"

"Two days, you won't regret it!" Tifa forced a smile to cover her own doubts.

"You...you made it!" Yuffie's voice trembled as Cloud walked into the chamber.

"Yuffie? Why are you here?" Cloud turned his head in the direction of her voice. He wasn't sure he could handle more surprises, and her hug aggravated his injuries.

"She can't share your fate unless you marry her before we fight." Godo informed him. "No wedding, no life."

Cloud's inner disquiet grew by leaps and bounds, but he kept silent. The trial had gotten totally out of control, but he had asked for it and Yuffie would definitely be killed if he forfeited now. He just had to figure out how to see it through without anyone dying. A Wutaian priest was already there, and he married Cloud and Yuffie immediately without any of the usual formalities...Cloud had some trouble with his part, being blind and injured, but he managed. It almost felt like a nightmare of a farce to Cloud as the priest concluded the ceremony. He was now married to the woman he loved, just before he and his new father-in-law battled each other in a fight to the death.

"I...I didn't know everything about the trial, I'm sorry." he whispered to his new bride in the moment alone they were granted.

"I know." Yuffie told him. "Just..." She couldn't bring herself to tell him to do his best, not wanting either of them to die. "I...I love you." she said instead.

"I love you too." Cloud replied, then the other Wusheng gave Cloud a nudge towards their leader and took Yuffie to the entrance to the chamber where they could watch the fight and kill her if he died.

"You've got five minutes left of your hour." Godo said as Cloud approached him. He gestured and the outer perimeter of the floor fell away, revealing dozens of bamboo plants, all cut to jagged points.

"What did you do?" Cloud asked, having heard the noise but not knowing what it was.

"We have a special kind of bamboo that has an incredibly fast growth rate, and we're now surrounded by it. If you fall off the battle platform, you're dead." With that, Godo took out his sword. "The clock is ticking."

The first blow missed as Cloud heard the sound of the blade moving and dodged. Wanting to fight him on an equal basis, Cloud listened for the second blow and grabbed the sword blade with his bare hands, drawing on all his strength to wrench the sword out of Godo's hands and throw it away. "Now we're both unarmed." he said, trying to ignore the pain in his now cut hands.

"Is that what you think?" Godo smiled maliciously as he blasted Cloud with a spell. The poison now spreading through his body took Cloud's breath away and Godo easily sent him flying with a well-timed blow. Cloud's hands felt the edge of the platform as he was falling and he grabbed onto it as hard as he could, grimacing as his feet landed on the jagged bamboo spears. He tried to pull himself back onto the platform, but he was too weak and injured. Cloud felt pressure on one of his hands and cried out as Godo's foot pressed down harder. "This is what happens to those who betray the Wutai nation."

"I never betrayed it!" Cloud grabbed Godo's ankle with his free hand and jerked as hard as he could. When Godo fell down onto the platform, Cloud found the strength to use him to climb out of the death pit. Taking a deep breath, he gripped Godo's robe around his neck and lifted it up, slamming his head against the floor with the frail strength he had left as the poison made him weaker and weaker. "Yield! I don't want to kill you!" Cloud exclaimed as the repeated blows to his head were inching Godo towards unconsciousness.

"No! Foreigners will never rule Wutai!" Staniv suddenly yelled and charged Cloud when it looked like he was winning. As he swung his ball and chain with a blow obviously meant to kill Cloud, Godo suddenly pushed the young man off him and blasted Staniv with a spell that sent him flying into the pit. His grotesque screams were silenced as he was impaled on the bamboo points.

"You win." Godo told Cloud. "Bring her here and leave us." he ordered the remaining Wusheng. Cloud was as confused as he had ever been as Yuffie helped him stand up. Once they were alone, Godo cast another spell, healing Cloud of the poison and his blindness. "Thank you for this. I long suspected Staniv was capable of unacceptable treachery. The Shagaro trial is supposed to be inviolate, his interference was traitorous. And I told you what happens to those who betray the Wutai nation."

"But..." Cloud still didn't get what was going on.

"I hope you will fight for Wutai with the same determination you fought for my daughter." Godo told him, patting him on his uninjured shoulder.

"You...you planned this, Father?" Yuffie found her voice.

"I hoped he would ask for the Shagaro trial. I wanted to know that he wanted you, not the leadership of the Wutai nation. I know how impulsive you can be." Godo smiled affectionately at his daughter. "Now you should go tend to your husband, you'll need to have your wedding portrait painted soon, but wearing the proper attire." Godo gestured again, and the floor closed again, hiding Staniv's body.