"I never want to see another staircase in my life."

Sephiroth chuckled at this, finally letting me walk of my own will once again. I stretched out and made sure my legs still worked, then latched on to his arm. He spoke to the guards, who briefly chewed him out for using the fire escape again, but he casually reminded them just who he was. He then escorted me past them and up, not quite so surprisingly, another couple flights of stairs. He explained on the way that the elevators all have cameras, and that if my presence was to remain a secret we'd have to avoid them entirely.

Upon entering floor sixty-one we were greeted by a familiar raven-haired truck. I accepted a bone-crushing hug while Seph gave him the look of death when he went to try the same flamboyant affection on him. He soon stopped and rethought this course of action.

"I should warn you two," Zack began. "Reno's here, and he already got to the punch, so don't go anywhere near it little lady." He gave me a patronizing pat on the head, to which I responded with a playful pout.

Sephiroth was busy scanning the crowd. "Figures," he finally said nonchalantly, with an edge to it that seemed angry and irritated with a hint of despair, as if he just watched a bomb tick down to zero and the world was about to explode.

"What? What is it?" Zack said.

"For some reason Professor Hojo is here." Sephiroth locked his eyes with mine before continuing in a serious, yet mildly amused tone. "If I were you I wouldn't drink or eat anything, there's no telling what he did to any of it. For all we know just breathing this air might make you think your mother is a Malboro."

I giggled. "I'll keep that in mind. Shall we?" I tugged on Sephy's arm.

He hesitated. "This might be a bad time to tell you this, but I can't dance..."

"Great, neither can I."

He looked to Zack imploringly. "Go ahead man, I'll find other ways to entertain myself while I wait for the next one." Zack, you evil, evil man. I love it.

I didn't give Sephiroth any further warning before dragging his socially-awkward self into the mass of people flailing to the music.

Cloud was at a loss. He desperately wanted to prove himself to Zack, but he was beginning to doubt he was even born with a spine. And now he couldn't even approach Zack to talk about it because he was now occupied with talking to the Great Sephiroth himself. So he found himself going to lean up against a nearby wall, and found that a bald Turk still wearing his sunglasses had already claimed it.

"Sorry," Cloud started awkwardly. The man's eyebrow twitched, either in acknowledgement or annoyance, then continued to stare ahead. "Okay, so maybe you don't mind then?" No response. "Uh, right."

For a minute or two Cloud tried to figure out what or whom he might be staring at. He couldn't figure out what could be so captivating. And the presence of his sunglasses made it that much harder to track what he might be looking at. Finally, the taller man in Turk blue turned his head to glower over the young blonde.

Cloud sighed and moved to pace nervously back and forth infront of his wallflower friend. "Well, since you don't seem to be the type to criticize... Okay, so my friend Zack has dragged me into this, and he says I can't leave until I ask someone to dance. Now, there's a girl over there," he pointed out Elena on the edge of the crowd. "But she's been fighting with that guy and his tie for the last hour or so. Zack tells me they're not dating or anything, but I'm not so sure..." He held the back of his neck and continued to pace, eyes downcast. "And what if she says no? This is so stupid... It's not like I'd even know what to do out there..."

The Turk seemed to turn away as if to ignore him, but Cloud took it as a sign to stop whining about it. "You're right. I'll just wait." He leaned against the wall next to the taller man once again.

"I'm quite sure that was my foot."

"Eee, sorry!" I gave my unwilling dance partner an apoligetic smile.

"I feel ridiculous."

"Just, I don't know, move to the music. There's no instruction manual on it or anything, you know."

"Really? Well, there goes that idea."

I laughed. "Say, when you practice fighting and stuff, do you play music and follow the rhythm?"

"Only with Zack, and only when he insists."

"What does he do?"

"Flails around like an idiot, for the most part."

"Try that then."

"What?"

"Flail like Zack."

"That's not happening."

"Oh come on! There must be some awesome never-before-seen dance moves that the Great Sephiroth can do."

I had done it. I had challenged his name, his title, and maybe even his honour. A lesser man might get angry and try to defend himself verbally, maybe even violently. But not Sephiroth. He considered this for a moment, then that tastefully malicious grin I had seen only once before returned briefly.

"Wait here," he instructed. He left to approach the disc jockey for the dance and spoke briefly to him. A moment later he returned as the last song stopped before it was finished and was replaced with another. Something more foreign, something I had heard maybe once before. He offered his hand wordlessly and I took it.

In Wutai the lords of the land at one time held ceremonial dances in celebration of birthdays, marriages, even funerals, and the dance each time was much the same. Wutai being a nation of skilled ninjas and assassins, the dance itself flowed with an eerie and methodical grace. It was symbolic of life renewed, each step symbolic of a step in the journey. Tseng had taught it to Elmyra and myself a year ago around my birthday because I had asked him about it, but Sephiroth was a true master of it. He had managed to perfect Wutaian ballroom dancing.