The slot machine spun round and round on top of the Gi Nittak and in front of Cloud. C'mon, PLEASE let it be cherries or zeroes. the suicidal hero hoped as he prayed that this slot mnachine would be merciful. Damn, this suspense really blows. Big time. Aerith was crying in the Cetra world, but still managed to stay in a praying position.

'Aerith, we've both got to stay strong!' the young hero mentally pronounced to the weeping flower girl. Aerith's mind tried to focus on a thought, that she and the hero would make it through this, and started to succeed. She stopped crying but was still shaking badly.

'Okay, Cloud, I'll try.' Cloud smiled at this. The wheel kept spinning, when Cloud mentally pronounced, 'Hey Aerith, if I defeat this creature, what happens?'

The Cetra responded, 'Y-You're supposed to appear next to me in the Promised Land.'

Cloud mentally regained his confidence. 'Well, let's kick some ass!' He raised his fists in the best battle position he could muster, and, even though he had no sword, was confident that his strength would lead him through. Suddenly, the beast said, "Retardo vester criminor!"

Cloud yelled back, "What?"

The Gi Nittak boomed again, "Si to criminor me, machina volo displodo, to voluntas intereo!"

"Like I said, what?"

Aerith sighed, then nervously responded, 'It's talking Latin, Cloud, and it's saying not to attack it because it'll explode the machine, and you'll die.'

'The slots machine?' Cloud was being somewhat stupid on purpose.

'Yes Cloud, the slots machine.'

A rat came out of the Nittak's composure, and spoke to the Strife. "Kumo-baka, seppuku!" The vermin bit Cloud's arm, and Cloud punched it off. 'Aerith, where are these voices coming from?'

'Gi Nittak may be trying to talk to you, in some way. I'd try to talk back. Here, say this.' Aerith told Cloud a sentence in Latin that it would understand. He quoted it to the semi-behemoth.

"Quis an quid are to, portentum?" Cloud recited Aerith's words precisely.

"Ego sum Thrall the herba compos! Auxilium me delecto!"

Aerith told Cloud something else mentally, which Cloud recited flawlessly, as well. "Quam vos fio hic mos?"

Thrall said back, in another language, which was more of a children's code that Cloud could understand. "Ia asway ansportedtra erehay ivefa inutesmay agoa, asay istha onsrositymay! Ia asway oldta otay illka ouyay, osa Iay ustma. Utbay etha otsslay achinema... Iay anca estroyday ita ifay ouya attackay ema anyay orma!

Cloud could understand this, and said mentally to Aerith, 'It's Pig Latin, Aerith, and he seems to be in the exact pickle as me.'

The flower girl sighed. She wasn't nervous anymore, and responded, 'Well, duh. It's not like I wasn't a kid once, Cloudy woudy."

"What did you just call me?" Cloud unfortunately thought this at the same time he said it. He saw something right above his head, and he looked at it. A huge arm came down on him, but he quickly jumped away and casted Bio3 at the beast. His ultimateria ultimastered at that point, glowing a bright green and giving off two dull greenish orbs from itself. The beast was hit by the gooey attack and fell backwards, but then sprang up and struck Cloud hard on the chin. A battle of fist parries and lunges began, and the first slot on the slot machine(out of four) stopped. It's color was a rainbowy silver, its shape an oval. It was a...

The vixen awoke. She tried to move, but soon found that she was tied up. She looked around. Hmm, a dark miserable, old basement? On fire? Tifa immediately knew where she was. She was in the Main Midgar Storehouse Reactor One. She had wandered into it on her first tour of Midgar. But someone had set it on fire... "Hello, young Tifa." A cold, cruel voice spoke to her.

"Seph... ir..." Something was making her weak, and the smoke was the probable cause of it. But then how come it wasn't affecting the evil guy?

"Tifa... let me tell you now," the captor said, "that you have every right to worry." It was him! Sephiroth had kidnapped her!

"Sephiroth, why are you..." Tifa grew weaker. Suddenly, the fire went out.

"Do you like the dark? It hinders not my vision." Sephiroth stood in bleak darkness.

"No! Please, put it back!" Tifa would rather be able to see than to be weak.

"As you wish, famula." The fire came back, and Sephiroth was clearly visible. "Now then, Tifa. You've been bad. You need to be punished."

Tifa winced at his words. She would be tortured badly, or even worse... She hoped she would merely be tortured. Sephiroth drew a spiked whip out of a small leather bag. Sephiroth's evil grimace was a heaven of angels turning evil and spreading despair. "Oh, Vincent, where are you?"

Sephiroth's grin diminished somewhat, and he asked the young girl. "Why don't you pray for our savior, Cloud?" Tifa's despair increased.

"He disappeared. You probably killed him! You bastard!" Tifa was now filled with rage. Sephiroth laughed evilly, and then talked to the vixen.

"However much I would've loved to kill that spiky headed idiot, I did not. But now, your torture." Sephiroth flipped Tifa onto her back and began maliciously whipping her. It's a psychological battle now. Tifa thought as she yelped in pain from each flog. She needed to convince Sephiroth to free her, or at least keep herself alive.

Morning came, and the adventurers awoke. "Well, ya other fuckers," Cid addressed his crew, and he was still not over from Barret's ruining of their reception. "ya better have this fucking ship up and runnin' in 30."

Yuffie blurted out, "Good thing I placed a never dying tracking device on her."

Vincent glared at Yuffie, and then began cooking up plain omelettes for the crew. He had no true mechanical skills, anyhow. His best use now was to cook Grimoire omelettes (as he dubbed them after his father) and serve them to the crew. His claw hand's increased dexterity allowed him to cook 6 omelettes at once, a very handy skill for feeding a crew of approimately 100. Using special vulture eggs, he made an omelette for Red XIII as well. Cid was adjusting the controls and otherwise supervising. Barret was helping the engineers put fuel in the Shera's fuel tank (Yep, he replaced it again.) while Yuffie was checking their weapons and materia settings, and somehow resisting the urge to steal the small, colored, magical orbs. As the bronze clawed man flipped eggs and cut vegetables, Yuffie walked into the huge, army surplus kitchen. Vincent probably wouldn't have noticed if it wasn't for the fact that she brushed his head with her ever long hair.

"Hello, Vincent!" the ninja said in a goofy manner to the stoic gunman.

Vincent sighed, then replied. "You really should be fixing up our materi-"

"Yep," she interrupted. "and you got Summoner duty!" She gave the gunman a red gemmed gun and a red and purple gemmed armor piece. Vincent sighed once more. He HATED summoner duty. The rest of the team would get materia like HP Plus, Steal, even Check, which benefitted a lot to each character's arsenal of magic. BUT the only new command he got was Enemy Skill, which was mandatory for the entire team. Each person had an Enemy Skill Materia, and held it on an old Copper Bangle, a harkening back to the beginning. But the Bangle was now the size of a ring, very convenient for the single materia it holds.

"You hate me, don't you?" Vincent responded. But before Yuffie could talk, he asked, "Is everyone else even close to ready? This is my last batch of omelette that I need to make."

"Well, Barret's done. He had to redo it after he shot a few holes in the tank, but he repaired it and now is ready to rumble!" Yuffie said in a childish manner. "Everyone else said they'll take about 15 more minutes."

"Here." the ex-Turk replied to the ninjq, giving her a HUGE stack of omelettes on plates. "Give these out to the crew, and tell them to thank me and Grimoire Valentine later."

Suddenly, the last omelette he was cooking (for himself) caught fire. The black smoke filled the kitchen almost instantly, and Vincent fell into another dream...

It was a huge grassy field, with no edge in sight. A swordsman figure approached him. "Hello, Vince. Look, you've gotta save her!"

"Cloud?" People from his past that he had not seen were becoming more and more apparent in his dreams.

A/N:Sorry about the time, once again. An hour is NEVER, EVER, nearly long enough to write a chapter.

-Master(Tauren)Chieftain