A/N: Hello! I am happy! I have lots of reviews! Omg, it's so cool it's not even funny! Neko-Mitsuko, you are so cool, I have to give you a bag of materia shaped (and sized and colored) pastries, which have a filling which is characteristic of its color (red- strawberry or cherry…hmm, I could go on…etc.)! Or materia-loaded muffins. Either way, you need materia because you're cool. Hmm…or a life-size Masamune. Meh. Please enjoy, my beloved readers!

"It's quiet."

"Really? I didn't notice."

"Liar."

"What? I really didn't."

"Hmm…you just don't notice, do you?"

"…"

"Sephiroth."

"What?"

"You heard me."

Sephiroth averted her gaze.

"Sephiroth."

"I'm used to it. I've been alone for a very long time. Such things are oblivious to me."

Loren smiled grimly and put a hand on his arm.

"Don't worry. I'm here now. We're all here. Together."

"Though some are not exactly comfortable with my presence."

Loren shook her head. It was true; most of the group gave him strange looks and were tense, as if they were expecting him to attack at any moment. Loren had attempted several times to make them relax, but they were still wary.

"Well, don't let that get to you."

"Did I ever say that it did?"

"Well…sigh, fine. You confuse me sometimes."

Sephiroth smirked as she gave a mock pout and put and arm around her shoulders, pulling her close. Involuntarily, Loren turned a curious shade of red.

"I'm supposed to be. I have to keep you on edge, always trying to predict my next action. Besides, you amuse me when you're irked."

Loren glared at him and punched his arm as he laughed at her. A number of the members turned to see the two conversing so easily, some shaking their heads and looking away, the others in open awe at how much the feared Sephiroth had relaxed.

They were on the open area of the airship, watching the world pass under them. They had been traveling for at least an hour now and the atmosphere had been oddly silent, as smooth as ice, the only noises heard the air and the loud engines of the airship. Although the group had agreed to help, they still didn't trust Sephiroth. They had been chasing him around for nearly a year; it was expected that they didn't trust the man who had planned to destroy their planet and, of course, every living thing on it. It would take a very long time to completely accept him, and even longer for the scars he created to heal.

Sephiroth stood beside Loren and held the rail, overlooking the landscape below. He smiled as she calmed down and set her off again as he placed a gloved hand over her face and pushed her back. It was comical watching her stumble around, trying to balance herself with the movements of the ship and quickly sidestepped as she used her imbalance and the ship's movement to send her barreling towards him. He caught her before she hit the rail and held her to him, laughing. She hit his chest and relaxed in his arms.

'Sephiroth?'

He stood stock still as he heard the voice enter his mind.

'You hear me, right?'

"Yes. Who are you? What do you want?"

'No need to be rude. But then again, I think I deserve that for entering your mind without permission.'

"Answer me. Who are you?"

'Hee hee, okay okay calm down. I'm--'

"Sephiroth."

"Yes?"

"What's the matter?"

"Nothing. Someone was speaking to me."

"Do you know who it is?"

"No. I don't recognize her voice."

"Her?"

"Yes. A female. I've never heard her voice before."

Loren thought for a while. She shook her head.

"I'm not sure. Either that was the planet speaking to you, Jenova pretending to be a friendly entity, or…"

Sephiroth waited for her to answer.

"Well?"

She frowned and shook her head.

"I'm really not sure. My best guess is Jenova."

'I am not that wretched thing!'

Sephiroth slightly raised his eyebrows.

"She doesn't like you referring to her as Jenova. I don't think she's very fond of her."

"Humph. Are you sure she's not Jenova?"

'NO! I hate that creature, she ruined everything!'

"I'm pretty sure she's not Jenova. She wouldn't talk so badly about herself."

Loren took a breath and raised an eyebrow.

"Well, does this person or thing have a name?"

'I'm not a thing, you! I'm a person. And yes I have a name.'

"Yes. She has a name. And she's a person."

"Sigh Okay, well what's your name? Or should I call you Ghost?"

There was a slight pause, but cheery laughter resounded in Sephiroth's head after that.

'No. Don't be silly. My name is--'

Suddenly the ship lurched and Sephiroth held on to Loren as he held on to the rail. Cloud had a similar grip on Tifa and Barret was hanging on tightly to the rail. Red was using his body to hold Yuffie to the railing as she started turning greener than she already was. Vincent was looking around, more alert to his surroundings than most, one hand on the rail keeping him steady. Cait Sith was flailing wildly, his oversized hands not able to grip the rail. The poor cat flew off his moogle and was quickly approaching the open sky. Loren wrenched away from Sephiroth and with speed faster than she could normally accomplish, she caught little Cait's gloved hand. He cried out in protest, but held on to her with the other hand. She pulled him in close. He made a sound resembling a weak whimper and said 'I'm sorry' softly a few times. She smiled lightly and put him back on his moogle. He looked away.

"I'm sorry I've been treating you so cruddy. You really are a good person, aren't you?"

Loren smiled again.

"It all depends on how you see it. I did do some pretty bad stuff. And I apologize for knocking you out."

"I'm just a robot remember? I can't feel pain."

"Right. I'm sorry anyway."

"It's okay. You have your reasons."

Sephiroth gave Loren a look.

"Now isn't the time for apologies. We have bigger problems."

A gigantic, deep, mournful roar rang through the sky. Loren's eyes widened slightly. She remembered this. Sephiroth nodded at her recognition.

"Much bigger problems."

She looked to Cloud.

"How much materia have you mastered?"

"Wha?"

"Simple question, Cloud. How much?"

"Umm, fire, bolt, ice, quake, Shiva, Bahamut ZERO, a few HP plusses…I could go on."

"Do you have Ultima or some high end spells and Alls?"

"Yeah. Comet, Ultima, Destruct, All, Mime…"

"Do you have Barrier, Time and high end healing?"

"Yes. Why are you asking this?"

"You're going to need it. A lot. Make sure you have some turbo ethers."

Another loud roar met their ears.

"Okay. What the hell is that?"

Sephiroth smiled. Black filled their vision.

"That would be our enemy, Cloud."

Loren nodded.

"Ultimate WEAPON."

Cloud and co. looked at her. Tifa frowned in thought.

"Hey, that sounds familiar. Ultimate WEAPON…?"

Barret waved his arms in the air in irritation.

"Woman, don't you remember? It's that big-a$ black thing that attacked Mideel!"

Tifa's jaw dropped.

"When Cloud was sick? I remember!"

Cloud shook his head in silent annoyance. Loren nodded.

"Have you even bothered with Ruby or Emerald WEAPON yet? I know you already helped end Diamond and Sapphire brought its own doom."

"No."

"Right. You're not even level 99…"

Tifa looked confused.

"Huh? 'Level 99'?"

"Oh…uh, nothing."

Sephiroth took his fighting stance.

"No time. It's coming!"

Loren hunched slightly and drew Fiend's Lament. She held it as an assassin would hold her dagger, the flat end parallel to her forearm, held out behind her at an angle, her knees slightly bent, legs spread, and her other arm held out in front of her. Sephiroth looked at her. She looked serious, but there was a light in her eyes, as if she were going to enjoy this fight. He smiled. She looked at him out of the corners of her eyes.

"What?"

"You've been waiting for a fight like this, haven't you?"

She looked down for a moment, smiled a little and nodded.

"I've always wondered what it would be like to fight a WEAPON. Now I'll get my chance."

He nodded and looked to the giant creature before them. Ultima WEAPON was absolutely H-U-G-E. It roared again and it almost immediately began charging up for an attack. Cloud looked startled.

"…!"

Loren looked over at Cloud, noticing his expression. He looked back at her and nodded at the creature.

"How the hell do you fight this thing? You seem to know more than any of us do on this WEAPON, so tell us!"

She shook her head.

"I don't know much on it, except for its name. Just keep to the age-old strategy of casting Barrier, Regen, and Haste and watch out for its Shadow Flare! It will hurt you, and badly!"

The group nodded and began readying their spells. Something dawned on Loren. She looked over to Barret, Tifa, Yuffie, Red XIII, Cait Sith, Cid, and Vincent. They all had their ultimate WEAPONs. All except Cloud. Why hadn't she gotten his first? He stood in his battle stance holding the Ragnarok in all its glory. She nodded.

"Cloud!"

"What?"

"I'm asking if we can follow Ultimate WEAPON until we destroy it."

"What for? Don't we have other things to do?"

"Trust me, you're gonna want to destroy it!"

Everyone nodded hesitantly.

"Alright."

Ultimate WEAPON unleashed its first attack, casting Quake2 on the group. It was as if they were getting suffocated by rocks. Other than that, everyone was alright. Everyone launched into their own attack, but somehow it still had its sequential order, as Cloud, naturally led first, followed by Tifa, Barret, Cid, Yuffie, Red, Vincent, Sephiroth and then Loren. The creature roared again, but this time in anger and pain. It slashed at Loren with unnatural accuracy and precision and she flew backwards. Pain filled her senses, but she ignored it and did a reversal in the air, landing with a dull thud on the floor. She held her side as it began to grow warm with blood, and in a show of defiance, licked the blood off her hand, smiling wickedly. She along with everyone else, attacked, Cloud unleashing Comet, Yuffie miming him, Tifa casting Regen on everyone, Barret casting Barrier, and everyone else attacking, some attacking with their materia 4X Cut. Ultimate WEAPON quickly backed off and flew away. Loren started.

"Come on! We have to follow it! This is what I meant by following!"

Cid ran to the door and punched the intercom with his fist.

"Hey, get this big boat turned and follow that creature!"

A fuzzy voice reached his ears.

"Sir, have you lost your mind!"

He bit down on his cigarette.

"Don't question me, you &$#! idiot! Just Get! This! Thing! Turned!"

"Y-yes sir!"

The airship, despite its size, made a remarkably sharp turn and began to follow Ultimate WEAPON. Loren stood pensively as her wound healed.

'Hmm…considering how strong they are, they have to be at least level 65 or above.'

She grimaced as she held her side. That was going to be a nasty bruise later on. Ultimate WEAPON kept making several turns and finally hovered over a town. They crashed into it again and fought it once more. Like last time, it flew off when it sustained enough damage. They followed it and confronted it at least five more times, the heroes not hurt too badly, not like WEAPON. It almost seemed like it was slowing each time it ran away. Loren saw the critical point, the final fight. It finally stopped near Cosmo Canyon hovering like a slowly deflating, deformed blimp. Loren was making all sorts of realizations today.

'Strange, I feel like I've done this before. Shouldn't I already have defeated Ultimate WEAPON, Ruby, and Emerald?'

"What is the matter?"

'I should have done this already. Unless…oohhh…'

"What?"

'This isn't my first file. It's my second file. In the first one, I had everything mastered; the only thing missing was Sephiroth's defeat in the center of the planet. My second file was lacking in all that. Cloud was missing Ultima WEAPON, the WEAPONs alive, materia unmastered…it was the bane of all obsessive Final Fantasy players.'

"I want to ask you something."

'What?'

"Are you leaving when this is all over?"

'…'

"Loren?"

She was finding it hard to answer Death.

'I'm not sure. I want to find my father. I want to show my 'family' what they lost.'

"Is that all? Your father left you. He does not deserve your presence. Your family…if they had not left you out in the streets, you would not be the person you are today. You would not be as strong."

'Heh, I almost hate it when you're right.'

"I usually am."

'Heh-heh.'

"Besides, I know you would be hard-pressed to leave Sephiroth. You love him. He loves you. I would bet on it that you cannot be away from him for more than a day."

'I am NOT that attached! But yes, being away from him for an extended period of time would start to bother me. But that would be years or months. Just like anybody else.'

Sephiroth grabbed Loren's arm.

"Are you ready?"

"Yes. Hold on."

Loren got Cloud and co. together.

"Alright. Who has the Enemy Skills materia?"

Yuffie raised her hand almost nervously.

"Why?"

"You are going to be the one that kills Ultimate WEAPON."

"Wh-a-a-a-t!

"Don't worry; it won't be that bad. Just hit it with a good spell. You'll be alright. Or a Limit Break…"

Yuffie clenched her fist and launched herself into the air.

"Alright! You can count on me!"

Red XIII looked down at his home. His fur bristled and he growled warningly.

"Should that WEAPON decide to decimate my town, I shall be the one who destroys it."

Loren nodded agreeably and looked at the large thing. Why would a WEAPON that was supposed to protect the planet try to harm it? Sephiroth must have sensed her thoughts and shook his head.

"It assumes that all humans on the planet are harmful. It wishes to eliminate danger."

"Danger, huh? I…oh, what's the use?"

"What?"

"I just don't see why the planet would create something that would destroy it."

"Remember, humans didn't originally live here. We descended from the Cetra and the Cetra were nomads."

"I didn't come from the Cetra, Sephiroth. My world still debates whether we were created by a condescending god or if we descended from some damn monkeys."

Sephiroth seemed somewhat taken aback.

"I didn't know your world thought so lowly of their god."

She shrugged.

"That's just me. I'm not for a god, or gods for that matter, but neither do I believe in evolution."

Sephiroth bordered on confusion.

"Then what do you believe in?"

"I…I never thought of it much. It's like asking who or what created the universe. Science says we came from chimpanzees, and religious zealots all over the world say God was the creator. I decided to accept neither and the thought stays away from me as long as I say I believe in myself."

"You…are a strange one…you really are."

"Good. That's the way I want it to be. Now, are we going to kill this thing or what?"

Sephiroth smiled and assumed his battle stance. Loren got ready to fight, and almost as if on cue, the airship rammed into Ultimate WEAPON. The battle began anew and continued as it had before, except that every once in a while Red would scan it, checking its health. Yuffie was really getting into the fight, doing all sorts of acrobatic maneuvers but making sure she got back on the ship safely. Vincent was completely focused, leaping around on WEAPON's body, almost ghostlike. Cloud would deliver really strong blows to its head and arms, while Tifa would cast spells. Cait was a particular subject of attack for WEAPON, so Cait got to use his Slots quite a few times. Cid got the Highwind to launch dozens of missiles into WEAPON's body, and Barret unleashed barrage upon barrage of bullets into its large body. Sephiroth and Loren almost seemed to be dancing, sometimes alone, sometimes together. He would glide around on balanced sure legs while Loren would make several fast, light-footed jumps. Loren laughed to herself.

'I must seem like a bothersome flea.'

Red scanned again and he leapt toward Yuffie while making the announcement, even though it was obvious that WEAPON was near its end.

"Everyone stop attacking! Yuffie, deliver the final blow!"

"Alright!"

She let go of her pent up energy, using her Limit Break, Doom of the Living. In an interesting show of violet lights, she attacked WEAPON continuously, making sure she got in all the damage she could. In a final cry of rage, it retaliated with Shadow Flare. Yuffie flew backwards, screaming in pain. The yellow materia in her weapon flashed brightly, signifying that she had learned the skill. Vincent sprinted forward and caught Yuffie before she hit the ground. The poor girl was already unconscious, and was radiating heat, smoke like plumes rising from her body. Loren started for her, but Sephiroth reached her first, healing her completely. Loren took in the sight of Vincent and Yuffie together. They really did look good together. Too bad that Vincent had Lucrecia. Tifa strode up to Loren and pushed her. Hard. Caught unawares, Loren slammed against the metal railing, which she quickly backed away from. Tifa's eyes were alight in anger.

"You knew that Yuffie was going to get hurt! You had her kill Ultimate WEAPON so that she could get hit as its final counterattack! You deceitful monster!"

"Tifa…I had a good reason to do that."

Cloud looked at Tifa. Her eyes were burning and her hands were shaking with barely-contained rage. This wasn't going to be good. Once she was like this there was nothing they could do save for heal Loren after she was done. He knew that Tifa was really close to Yuffie, a mix between motherly and sisterly love, despite all the thieving and such that Yuffie had done. Cloud got ready to get into the middle of the fight, though it was completely one-sided. Tifa became insanely strong when she was mad.

"Yeah, I bet you had a good reason. You probably had some hidden agenda, as always. Probably because she had kissed Vincent when you came back to the inn, right? Yes, Yuffie told me about that. You seemed really mad when she did that. You probably wanted some sort of stupid vengeance, right?"

The group looked at Vincent and Yuffie, save for Loren and Tifa. Loren's eyes were downcast and Tifa was staring straight at Loren.

"Tifa, it's not like that. I let that go a long while back, back when I was at the mansion. I had Yuffie do it beca--"

"Don't lie to me!"

Not unexpectedly, Tifa launched her fist into Loren's face sending her flying, due to the rage behind the blow. It was much harder than she expected, with her eyes full of stars. She was going off the rail, far beyond it, actually. She closed her eyes completely, feeling the air rush past her face.

'Death…'

"I am way ahead of you."

Suddenly the air stopped.

"Oh no, you don't!"

Her eyes snapping open, Loren moved in a blur and caught Tifa as she was jumping out to meet her. She flew them back to the ship, her anger dominating for a few mere seconds. She had a hold of Tifa's shoulder and head, her grip stronger than it should have been. Though she had had Death's help, her eyes were sea-green, like Sephiroth's. Said man stared at her openly.

"Look, Tifa! Look at her weapon! You see that shiny little yellow rock? She learned Shadow Flare, so if that damn WEAPON were here right now, she could use it against it! If you had had the Enemy Skills materia, I would have made you do it. If it was Cloud, Cloud would do it. If it were a f&$#! moogle, I would make him do it! Get that through your skull! I have no grudges against Yuffie, or any of you for that matter! So just let up!"

Tifa stopped struggling and slumped in defeat. She knew Loren was right. The green in Loren's eyes faded a bit, so it was still green but not glowing.

'I haven't used the reserves of Sephiroth's power in a long time.'

"You are not tiring with me, are you?"

'No! I do feel like I'm overusing you, though.'

She heard a somewhat warm laugh.

"You forget. My 'services', my power, is yours as long as I can continue to draw power from you."

'Why have I never felt it?'

"Because I draw a minimal amount at a time. If I were to draw large amounts, you would be weak and could possibly die. Vincent has three demons to draw from him, if they drew even as much as I draw from you, he would show signs of weakness."

'Oh…'

Loren heard Death laugh and suddenly a wave of something inexplicable knocked her to her knees. As she looked up, shaking, she saw that Sephiroth was in the same state as her, on his knees and shaking. Cloud had fallen on his butt, a look of surprise and dazedness on his features. Sephiroth was trying to discern what would create such a reaction.

"Sephiroth."

'…'

"Come on, don't ignore me. Please?"

'Are you the one that caused this?'

"Yes. Trying to talk to more than one person is hard, you know."

Sephiroth heard Loren's voice in his head now.

'Wait a minute. I can hear Sephiroth and I can hear you. What's going on? Who are you?'

There was a brief pause.

"Cloud? Can you hear me, too?"

Cloud's eyes widened.

'…Wh…how…?'

It suddenly dawned on Loren who this mystery person was. Both Loren and Cloud spoke at the same time.

"…Aeris?"

A/N: Hello! Yes, this is strange. It's okay though. Strange is good. Very very good. I shall be all grr and yayness. Mwa ha hah ha hah! Erm clears throat right. Yeah, I'm going to move. Again. Luckily, that means I'll have more time to type because I have my own computer back home. I'm just using the school library. But yay, I'm very happy because my violin skills have improved. Ah…symphony here I come (in 5 years) happy tear. You all are wonderful; keep reviewing you wonderful people! YAYYAYYAYYAYYAYYAYYAYYAYYAY! Erm…yes. Mwahaha.