"Cid!" Vincent's cry was unheard by the passed out pilot. He quickly jumped over to the plush captain's chair, and frantically pushed buttons in hope that one would save them. Water began to gush in from the open door. Damn it, one of you work! he thought. We'll never save Tifa without an airship! C'mon, work! Vincent then noticed a button labeled EJECT. Having pushed all of the controls there to no avail, he pushed it in hope that it would save himself. The rapidly sinking ship was half full of water when Vincent finally pushed a button that helped. Vincent's seat sprung out of the sinking airship, and he landed on the ever weak pier with a thump.

"Wait a second... Cid!" In his short last stay on the Shera, he had forgotten about their pilot! But it was much too late to save him. The ship was far underwater now, and the only thing that could be seen coming from where the ship was was bubbles of air escaping from the ship.

"What happened?" Nanaki and Barret asked Vincent at the same time.

Vincent pulled himself together. He could not lose his stoicness in front of his two teammates, or they might not respect him as much.

"The dumbass Cid landed on obviously weak wooden piers here, that's what happened." Vincent said to his fellow fighters, regaining his scariness immediately and without flaw. "So the airship fell into the water. I tried to save him, but he was passed out. It was either me or him, and which would you honestly prefer?"

Nanaki and Barret pointed at their gunman leader in a way that made him the obvious choice.

"But now, Vince. We have no airship now. We won't ever be able to catch him without it." Barret responded logically.

"That's why we're here. How do you think people get here? Boats and airships." Vincent stated to his fighters. "So we're gonna hire one of them."

"That's your plan?" Barret yelled at the gunman, "C'mon, foo'! That's some bull right there! Why can't you make a betta' plan, foo'?"

"Well then," Vincent was beggin' for trouble again. "do YOU have a plan?"

Barret was silent as Nanaki broke the newly created ice, "Let's hire a pilot already!"

Vincent knew this as well. Pilots costed money to rent them and their airships, and a tactician to make them a battle plan would be too expensive. "C'mon." The new leader began walking away and towards the huts, the wolf standing on two feet following behind him.

"Aww," was Barret's statement as he followed them.

Cid awoke from a drunken slumber. Huh, what the hell? He walked to a window of his airship, and looked outside. Fish, eh? That's screwed up. And where am I supposed to be? Port... Junon, right? It was then that he noticed that he was waist deep in water.

"Ahh!" he screamed in shock at the water. I must've fallen asleep as I was flyin' or something! Cid walked over to the other side of his airship, and looked out of the window. He noticed wooden poles jutting from the bedrock. A pier? More like a city of... piers. He walked over, through the water on the slowly dissolving cheap plush, to the pilot's chair. Funny, someone used the eject chairs feature. The cursin' pilot walked over to the "assistant pilot's" chair. He had never had an assistant pilot in his LIFE. He kept the flight controls there, and the random unnecessities at the main control pad. He pressed a series of red buttons on his control panel to turn the airship into a submarine. All of the water was forced out, and the ship rose to the surface.

What he saw was not a coastal, somewhat tropical town.

He saw a disaster.

Is that really Sephiroth? Cloud asked himself as he followed the target. Within a minute he learned how to control these 'antigravity boots'. He noticed, again, that Aerith wasn't talking to him. Of course. I can only talk to her when my body is in her Sanctuary. But where... am I? Has this all just been a dream? Because I would still be in it... but I must catch Sephiroth! I will! He shall escape! He found his Buster Sword and drew it, and suddenly became aware of the slots playing across the Buster Sword's hilt. One was a zero, the second was a zero as well. But the last one was still spinning, and spinning, and spinning still.

Cloud tracked Sephiroth for about 5 minutes before he started to descend. He hadn't noticed me. Excellent. Sephiroth descended towards the Temple of the Ancients, when he noticed Sephiroth holding something. Is that Tifa? That means that Vincent was lying! Tifa didn't sleep with him! He wishes... but I've gotta save her! Aerith, lend me the strength to... Cloud suddenly felt something virulent within him. A virus? I just appeared here not more than 6 minutes ago! He began to drop, spiraling still. Cloud fell unconscious in a mere 10 seconds after he fell. That's when he began to reawake.

But he wasn't on Earth at all. He awoke on a giant platform, with a picture of a beautiful woman in the mosaics on the platform. Aerith? Where the hell am I? This entire adventure has sucked! A few seconds later, an image appeared of Sephiroth. He recognized it almost immediately.

'Aerith? Are you here?' Cloudy-woudy said to the image. The image was Sephiroth, carrying Tifa away from him. He remembered it from Nibelheim... to his knowledge, at lest. Tifa was unconscious in his arms and Sephiroth's grin couldn't be eviller. But then, he saw the image being sucked away from the platform, and afterwards, the platform began to disappear as well. Shadows began to engulf him, and suddenly, he felt powerless to jump away or fight the shadows. This isn't worth it!

"Gah!" Cloud panted and panted.

'Cloud!' Aerith's soothing voice appeared in his head.

"Are you alright, son?" The British man said to him. "You took a little spill there." The emo chocobo headed swordsman then looked up. He had lost a leg! Cloud felt the urge to scream as loud as he could, but only mustered up the strength to ask what happened.

The accented noble held his hat in disgrace as he spoke. "You were right, Cloud. We had false information, the bomb exploded, and you were already unconscious. Your weird little armlet thing stopped spinning though. Here it is." The man handed the slots bracelet to Cloud, who looked at it. It shone, two zeroes and a...

Sephiroth's evil grin did not help Tifa's scaredness as they flew. Out of nowhere, Tifa felt the urge to scratch right behind her knee. She reached to do so, and apparently, Sephiroth's hand beat hers to the spot!

"That tracking device is ugly, Tifa." Sephiroth spoke again, and Tifa's hand flew back to her side. Sephiroth allowed her a half second glimpse at the device, and then threw into the ocean. Tracking device? Who put it there, and what is the thing that Sephiroth wants to show me? Please, oh PLEASE let it be something not painful! Sephiroth began to descend towards the Temple of the Ancients, and Tifa sighed. She was growing more and more nervous by the second, as Sephiroth grew more and more evil by the second.

In a lightning quick dash, Sephiroth tied Tifa back down to the altar which Aerith died on, and looked into the water. Next to Aerith's dead body was... Cloud's dead body? And they're even holding hands, too! Thanks a lot, Cloud Strife! Way to keep your promise! I hate you!

Just then, a vision of Cloud appeared to her. 'Tifa! You've got to survive! Listen, I thought you were dead! You weren't anywhere!'

Because I was staying at Nibelheim with Vincent... This is all my fault. If I'd just waited a tiny bit more for him to get home... if I hadn't hired a drive to Nibelheim and gone in with him. But Cloud had just broke my heart, on the most important night of the year for us! I had no one else to go to!

Tifa's thoughts stopped when Sephiroth said to her, "Tifa? Your surprise is right here and waiting." He pulled out a...

A/N:Sorry that my chapters have been being short lately. Like I said earlier, I am swallowed up in FFX and Warcraft 3 again, and my vacation from school's ended. :P

And before I go... HAPPY 10,000th word in this novella, self!

-Master Tauren Chieftain