Loren awoke to see her dark ceiling above her. She looked at her clock. 5:07 a.m. She rose out of bed and went to the bathroom. When she got out, she looked out her window and realized that it was raining. It was raining very hard, at that. Lightning flashed. 'Wow, this is so strange. I had seen not so much as a cloud in the sky last night. What would bring on such a powerful storm?' She thought. Thunder nearly shook her entire apartment. 'I wonder if all the others have woken up due to this.' For some reason, something didn't feel right to Loren. Lightning flashed again and this time, she saw someone sitting on her bed. The person's eyes were glowing brightly, even in the darkness of her room. Lightning flashed again and she could finally see who the intruder was.

"Sephiroth," she muttered.

The silver-haired monster smiled and laughed softly, but the laughter wasn't humoristic. It was evil. Lightning flashed again, and he was gone. Her blood ran cold. She walked to the door and jiggled the door handle. It was locked. She turned the handle over and over, but it wouldn't budge. She kicked the door with all of her strength, but it didn't even creak. She began to get afraid. She saw the lightning flash again behind her, and began to cry out in desperation.

"Vincent! Vincent, help me! Get me out of here!"

She felt leather covered hands grip her shoulders and she froze.

"They aren't going to hear you."

"What do you want?"

She felt his breath tickle her ear.

"Are you sure you're on the right side?"

Her back stiffened.

"Of course I am on the right side!"

A soft chuckle escaped his lips.

"Well I suppose that is just too bad."

The hands disappeared from her shoulders. She sighed in relief, but the end of the sigh got caught in her throat as a sword ran through her abdomen. She looked down and saw the cruel tip of the Masamune coming out of her stomach. She mustered up the rest of her strength and let out an ear-splitting scream as he laughed manically before she fell into everlasting darkness.

Loren awoke, screaming, being held down by a pair of strong hands.

"Loren, Loren! Its okay, you can stop fighting now. It's over."

The deep monotone voice snapped her back to reality. She leapt forward.

"Vincent! Vincent, you're here! I'm so glad! I thought I would never see you again!"

Vincent's voice caught in his throat. She was worried that she would never see him again. She used two more contractions. Was he changing the way she acted? He held her as she clutched his shirt, strangely beginning to cry again.

"What did you dream about, Loren? What made you so afraid?"

The next word that she whispered hit Vincent profoundly.

"Sephiroth."

He held her away from him and looked into her steel-gray eyes. They were rimmed with worry.

"He was in my room. He kept disappearing. I called out for you, but he said that you could not hear. He then asked if I was on the right side. I said that I was and he said that it was too bad. I felt relieved, but he then stabbed me through the stomach with the Masamune and I screamed before I died. I was so afraid. I did not think that I would see any of you ever again."

Vincent all of a sudden remembered his new sin and let go of her.

"Do you feel better?"

"Yes, thank you Vincent."

Vincent nodded and rose. He turned to leave, but paused to listen to Loren's inaudible muttering. He could hardly hear, but he heard catches of sentences like, "what is happening to me?", "strange feeling", "careless", "weak", and "how foolish". He left her room and went back to his old spot. She had dreamt about Sephiroth questioning her loyalties. He had moved her heart. She probably had feelings for him; strange how she had hated him at first. He sat there for more than half an hour before she came out, now in black pants and a white tank top. 'At least when she wears a white shirt, her skin looks pinker and not so pale.' Vincent thought. She moved towards the kitchen, deciding to make breakfast since it was 6:12 a.m. She fished a box of eggs out of the fridge and took out a package of bacon. She filled a can with water and dumped it into a coffee machine. She stuck coffee grounds in the machine and started it up. She used the entire box of eggs and used the entire package of bacon. What would you expect? She had to feed nine people, including herself and all but three of the people were men. She was so glad that she had bought a deluxe apartment. Strange thing was that all of them had slept in the living room and had chosen the floor over the room next to hers. Eventually the smell of coffee, eggs, and bacon began waking people up and drawing them to the kitchen. Yuffie was the first to arrive other than Vincent because he was already there. She smelled the food longingly and gave Loren pleading eyes. She acted like a strict mother.

"I will not let you eat until everyone is up."

Yuffie pouted and asked where the bathroom was. Loren told her and Yuffie ran off. The next to come was Red XIII. He sniffed the food and plopped down next to Vincent, waiting patiently. One by one, the heroes came to the kitchen and sat at the bar. When Yuffie came back, she tenderly presented the food to everyone and allowed them to get their fill. She got herself a cup of black coffee and sat, satisfied with her work, sipping her coffee quietly. Vincent eyed her. 'She seems so at peace with what she has done. She seems so selfless right now. I don't know what I'm going to do…the odd feeling is growing stronger in me every day.' He gave another genuine smile and continued to eat his breakfast. Loren and a couple others caught his smile, but kept it to themselves. Yuffie walked up to Loren.

"Umm…can I have what you're drinking? It looks and smells really good."

Loren gave Yuffie a confused look.

"Haven't you ever had coffee before, Yuffie?"

Yuffie stopped and so did many others.

"Did you just use a contraction?"

Loren gazed around at the rest of the faces. They were all asking the same question. Heck, she was even asking herself that question. She quickly regained any composure that she had lost.

"Yes, I did. Is that such a problem?"

"No, it's just that we've never heard you use a contraction before," Cloud stated.

Most nodded in unison.

"Oh. I guess it is kind of strange, isn't it?"

Yuffie shook her head.

"Definitely strange."

Loren poured a cup of coffee and asked Yuffie if she wanted cream. Yuffie nodded and Loren poured the cream in it. She added two teaspoons of sugar and mixed it all together. She handed the cup to Yuffie and she took a small sip. It was hesitant at first, but eventually she was downing the stuff like Kool-Aid. Loren had a bad feeling about this. 'She's probably going to get so hyper she'll be bouncing off the walls.' Loren mused. She had no idea how right she was.

Two hours later a super-hyper Yuffie was rambling on about materia and the Materia Bunny.

"You see, materia is watched over and delivered by the Materia Bunny. It goes 'wee!' and 'skree!' and then POOF! You have a super powerful materia in your hands. It's nothing like the Easter Bunny where it's allll happyyy and pink and whatnot and delivers chocolate eggs and confetti eggs and poopy eggs and whatever. The Materia Bunny is a huge mechanic robot bunny that gives out whatever kind of materia you wish for. I have always wondered why the bunny had so many arms, though. I think I was a bad girl and fought it once with you all. We might have destroyed him, but the Materia Bunny always returns!"

Cloud whispered to Tifa, "I think she's talking about Materia Keeper."

Tifa nodded and stifled a giggle. Yuffie continued her rambling, but when she stopped talking all of a sudden, everyone turned to see her unconscious. Loren got to her first and felt her pulse. It was steady, but Yuffie showed no signs of waking up any time soon. Loren laughed lightly to herself.

"It's okay. She's only in a temporary sugar-induced coma."

Some looked doubtful. Tifa spoke up.

"Are you sure? She seems kinda…dead."

"You still don't have to worry about that. If she dies, you can just use a Phoenix Down on her."

Everyone gave each other glances and agreed with her logic. Even if she did die, they could just as easily bring her back. The room got silent and a few stared at the screen that they came out of. Barret asked what was on those people's minds.

"How did we get here anyway? And how does this thing work?"

Loren walked over to the frozen Playstation.

"I honestly don't know. I know that I had spilled my coke on the Playstation and that it had frozen up on me. You seem to have come of your own will in anger for the treatment that I had been giving you. Speaking of which…have I apologized for that yet? If I haven't, I am truly sorry for treating you the way I did. But back to the how does it work question, I only know how to play it. If you want to go back, I have no idea how you're going to do it. Why don't you try to touch the screen?"

Cloud stepped forward and slowly sent his fingers toward the screen. Everyone held their breath. His fingers were only a few inches away now…3…2…1…#POKE#. His fingers touched the glass screen, but they didn't go through. Loren heard many breaths being loosed. Tifa slammed her fist into her other fist.

"Damn, we're never going to get out of here, are we!"

Loren didn't voice her thoughts, but her mind understood Tifa's words in the wrong way.

"Don't get your hopes down. It could be like a periodic portal. At times, it could be on, and at times it could be off. Just don't give up on going home."

Vincent studied the tone of Loren's voice. It sounded sad, as if saying what she did was against her own wishes. He understood her. He didn't want to leave quite yet. He still had to know more about her.

"We still have plenty of time. Why don't we get out of my apartment and stretch our legs and have a little sun? I'm off for the next week because there's going to be no one at the office. All of the doctors will be gone on training or something like that, so come on, let's go outdoors. I know you all probably need a break from all the fighting right?"

A soft groan reached everyone's ears and they saw Yuffie sit up, rubbing her head. Tifa was immediately by her side.

"Hey, Yuf. Are you okay?"

"Oi."

"You wanna come with us? We're gonna go walking."

"Oo." (she is saying oooo, not making a face.)

"Okay. Do I take that as a yes, or a no? Come on, Yuf. We're gonna go buy stuff. They might have materia in this world."

Yuffie brightened considerably.

"Oo oi!"

Laughing, Tifa helped Yuffie up while everyone began walking outside. Loren grabbed her keys on the way out, thanking any deity that heard that she lived near a mall. She turned off the lights and locked the door.

Vincent continued to study her movements. She had wanted everyone to get out of her apartment. She was acting a little too peppy. Was it because of something, or was he having that much of an impact on her? Either way, he didn't really care. He wanted to continue observing her and learning of her.

Loren turned around after locking the door and found Vincent waiting for her. Her heart skipped a bit, but she continued to walk. Everyone was waiting in the bottom floor. Cloud looked at everyone, then at Loren.

"Don't you think people will find it strange that freaky-looking people are walking around in a huge group?"

Loren shrugged.

"If people stare at you, ignore it. Even though I hardly show it, I consider you guys my friends and my friends shouldn't give a damn what other people think of what they look like."

Yuffie squealed with glee and jumped on Loren.

"Yay! You can be like my sister or something! We'll go hunt for materia together and drink lots and lots of coffee!"

Loren smiled and she let out what she hadn't done in years. She laughed. She laughed and gave Yuffie a noogie and taunted her, daring her to chase her around. Yuffie took up the challenge and ran around the lobby, chasing her new-found sister. Vincent smiled to himself.

"She's changed so much in the past few days," Vincent muttered under his breath, "how interesting. It's strange how much me and everyone else can change her. Especially me.That makes me feel good inside…but why, when I think about it, do I actually feel so bad?"

"Hey Vince! What'cha doin'? What were 'ya sayin'?"

Yuffie was crouched on the floor and was staring up at Vincent's face. He gave a small grin.

"I was just voicing my thoughts. Thank you for asking."

Everyone was relaxed and they left together to explore this new world. Had they remained in Loren's apartment, they would have caught the Playstation emitting electricity and the TV screen rippling. Had they been at her apartment, they would have seen a black-gloved hand grip the edge of the screen.

A/N: dun-dun-duun! Hey thanks for the reviews! My, I love you all for being so generous and kind. Bluedranzer, you may kill Sephy as much as you like, but be sure to resurrect him. I need him for my fic now that he decided to join. Be sure to tell me how much you kill him, though. He can only be killed 1,000,000,000,000 times before dying forever. Crazycari, I know that they didn't seem to care, but that was because they came of their own free will and knew what they were doing. I bet they've been to several other fanfic worlds anyway. OceanSoul, I don't know what you meant by Tifa acting like Aeris, but I'll have to figure that out, huh? Thanks so much for reviewing, you guys. I hope you all review once again, or I'll throw materia loaded muffins at Yuffie and make her go insane and wreak havoc everywhere!Coffee rocks, man. Oo oi!