I'm soooo sorry I haven't put up anything until now...I hope all that have reviewed and wanted more are still reading this! I'd been really busy with finals, and then moving back home, and then getting a job, (not to mention having problems with the internet) that I haven't had a chance to put up chapters...so heres chapter 9, and I hope you enjoy it!

XxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXx

I pulled away from Sephiroth and looked at him, somewhat in surprise. His eyes were studying me, moving from my eyes, to my lips, and back again.

"Sephiroth…"

His hand finally moved away from my face and went up to his brow. He turned away slightly. "I'm sorry."

I tilted my head in puzzlement. "What? Why are you sorry?"

He shook his head. "I…I don't know… oh Tifa, I'm so sorry." His voice sounded rather unsteady as he stood up from the bed and started towards the door. I seized his hand and stopped him.

"What's wrong? Where are you going?" I felt tears start to well in my eyes. This can't be happening; not again.

He moved his hand away; not roughly, but very gently. "I need time." With that, he left the room and closed the door.

I sat on my bed, completely baffled and upset by his actions. I couldn't decide whether I was more angry, hurt, or just plain confused. Before I could think anymore, I heard a knock on my door.

"Tifa, are you in there?" said a mysterious low voice.

"…Yea, come in."

As the door opened I saw a tall man with a dark red cape walk in. "Tifa, may I have a word with you?"

"Sure Vincent, please sit down."

Vincent walked in and took a seat on the chair by my bed. "I just saw Sephiroth come from your room, and he seemed extremely agitated. I wanted to make sure you didn't quarrel."

I bit my bottom lip. This was not a topic I was very keen on discussing with Vincent. "No, no, we didn't fight or anything. We were just talking…"

He raised his eyebrows, and then spoke again. "From the moment I entered your home yesterday I could see something growing between you and him. And I must explain a few things to you if you choose to proceed with your actions."

Well, this was quite a surprise. I was half expecting Vincent to either fight Sephiroth for "threatening" me, or just walk out. I definitely did not expect him to give me advice about my feelings towards Sephiroth. "Alright, I'm listening."

Vincent took a breath and began to speak. "First of all, after Sephiroth was born, Hojo had taken him and put Jenova cells inside his body. He was to be molded into a strong, powerful being, which he indeed became. His goals were not to 'live life to the fullest', or get married and have children. They were to gain power, by any means possible. Don't you see? All of his emotions were installed into his mind. He wasn't programmed to love, or to care. He knew nothing of it. I know this because I too was programmed. I knew nothing about love until a woman named Lucrecia showed me how. From then on, I saw it everywhere. I saw it between you and Cloud a year ago, and I've seen it on my travels. And now I've seen it again; between you and Sephiroth. As Lucrecia showed me love and caused the feeling to well up inside of me, you have done the same for Sephiroth."

I stared at Vincent with wonder. "So…why did he walk out like that?" It felt rather strange discussing this sort of thing with Vincent, but I had to know.

"Could you imagine feeling an emotion that you've never felt your entire life? When Lucrecia caused me to feel love for the first time, I felt as if I were going insane. I had no idea what was stirring deep inside of me, only that it scared me. It was a wonderful, light feeling, but so mysterious at the same time. I could tell by the look in his eyes that he was feeling the exact way that I felt all those years ago."

He walked over and sat on the bed next to me. "I can tell that he cares deeply about you, Tifa. And I can also tell that you have feelings for him. Give him time for his mind to accept this new sensation of love." He stood up, put his hand on my shoulder briefly, and walked out.

I watched Vincent until he was no longer in view, and laid my head on the pillow of my bed. I had no idea that Vincent was also programmed; it was quite a shock to hear it, and in this particular conversation, too. I took in everything Vincent had told me until I felt the floor quake, then fall still. This indicated that we had landed in Cosmo Canyon. I looked in the mirror briefly and walked out of the room, still baffled by the events that just passed.

XxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXx

As I walked off the Highwind, I saw that Vincent, Nanaki, and Sephiroth were already outside. I saw Cid and Yuffie in the window of the control room, waving to us as they took off. From a distance, I could see Cloud standing on the upper deck, looking down at me. Barret was almost inside the Highwind until he turned around and looked at me.

"Be careful Tifa," he said. "If there's any need for us, use the PHS, and we'll be right there, ok?"

"Of course Barret. You be careful as well; once you get to Mideel and locate Hojo's old lab, call me, ok?"

"You got it," he said. The door to the Highwind closed behind him and the four of us watched it take off. Only when we couldn't see the airship anymore did anyone speak.

"Well, let's go to the Ancient Forest, and see what we can find," said Nanaki as he ran through the entrance of the Ancient Forest. Vincent and Sephiroth went after him, while I followed closely behind them. Huge red and yellow flowers grew all about, and many branches hunched low; making several small tunnels we had to duck through. The haze grew thicker the deeper into the forest we traveled. Several times I thought about talking to Sephiroth about what happened on the Highwind, but every time I decided against it. He'll talk to me when he's ready, I thought to myself as I trailed behind the other three.

After walking through the forest for about twenty minutes, I heard the footsteps in front of me come to a halt. I could barely see five feet in front of me; the mist was so thick. I walked with my hands out in front of me, until I felt someone's cloak. When I got close enough I saw that it was Sephiroth's cloak. "Sorry," I said.

Sephiroth just nodded. I saw Vincent pointing to the clearing in front of us, where the mist was quite thinner. There were many trees, almost as wide as I am tall, and most of them seemed to stretch upward for miles. Vincent's pointed directly towards the tree standing in the middle of the clearing. "That's the tree I saw Hojo go inside."

Nanaki crept close to the tree, scrutinizing the bark. "It appears that this growth on the tree is not natural; it's a switch."

I started to walk towards the tree, but Sephiroth threw a hand out in front of me and stopped me. His face was rigid. "Nanaki, get away from the tree."

Nanaki turned to Sephiroth, looking confused, but backed away from the tree. "Sephiroth, what's wrong?" he asked.

"We've got company coming," he replied. Nanaki's ears shot up and his head cocked to one side. His hair on his back stood up as a menacing growl sounded deep in his throat.

Vincent turned his head, and he too, seemed to hear something. I strained to hear whatever the other three were hearing, but still couldn't hear a sound. I realized that the others had better hearing than I did; Nanaki because he was an animal, and both Sephiroth and Vincent because they were somewhat inhuman. Before I could speak, I finally heard the breaking of branches far off in the distance.

Nanaki's nose went high in the air. "They're humans," he said as his ears perked up even higher than before. "It sounds like there are at least five of them, headed this way."

Sephiroth unsheathed his Masamune while Vincent took out his Death Penalty. I put on my gloves, and turned towards the sound of breaking branches.

Through the mist, I could see six men approaching. Each of them had a staff with a glowing red ball at the end of it. The four of us lined up, awaiting their arrival to the circle of trees.

The man in front, who appeared to be the leader, was wearing a black fitted long-sleeved t-shirt, with big baggy pants, a red sash tied across the waist, and a red bandana on his head. The rest of them were all wearing black shirts, black pants, and black bandanas. The man with the red bandana stepped up and spoke. "Well, well. What do we have here?" He said, with an evil grin on his face. "Eddie, did you invite these people here?"

One of the men behind him answered. "No, Cedric, I didn't." He smiled wickedly revealing a few missing teeth.

"Angelo?"

Another man spoke. "Nope, not me."

Cedric took a few steps closer. He looked at me carefully, his eyes lingering at my chest, and nodded to the rest of the men, who also looked at me with confusion, and then seemed to come to a realization. They all started laughing, and Cedric spoke once again. "The girl will come with us, and the rest of you will die. How's that sound?" He asked us as if we were speaking about going to lunch.

"Sounds like you don't have your head screwed on asshole," Sephiroth replied, showing no fear.

Cedric's smile faded. "Very well…get her!"

Two men came at me while the rest attacked Sephiroth, Vincent, and Nanaki. I had my gloves up and was ready to defend myself. One of the men, the one Cedric called Angelo, grabbed my arm and twisted it behind my back. He leaned his face very close to my ear as he put pressure on my arm. "Give me a kiss and I'll let you go," he said nastily. I twirled out from under his arm and elbowed him in his gut. "Fat chance, jerk," I replied as he toppled to the ground. The other man ran up to me and took a swing at my stomach. I dodged him easily and rewarded him with a roundhouse kick in the face. I turned quickly to see what was going on with the others. I saw Nanaki fighting two men at once while Vincent was fighting the toothless man called Eddie. But where were Sephiroth and Cedric?

I turned around behind me, quick enough to see sword and staff meet with a loud clang and sparks. Sephiroth and Cedric were head to head, fighting wildly. Cedric's moves were almost as good if not superior to Sephiroth's moves. Whatever move one of the men performed, the other blocked. Their strength and abilities were dead even. It was only when I saw Sephiroth thrown to the ground that I ran up behind Cedric and performed a sit kick at his legs. Cedric fell backwards and I watched him and his red bandana fall to the ground. As Cedric went down, I ran over to Sephiroth to help him up. Before I got there, Cedric was back on his feet, and his staff was pointing into my back. "I think not, my pretty miss. Don't move," he said threateningly.

Sephiroth went to get up, but before he did, Cedric grabbed my arm and pulled me to him. He put his arm around me and his staff against my throat. "Take one more step and she dies," he said. My eyes widened as he pushed the staff harder against my throat. I felt Cedric's breath against the back of my neck and struggled in disgust.

Sephiroth stood up but didn't move. Nanaki and Vincent had defeated the other men, but saw the commotion and ran over to help. Cedric saw this, and tightened his grip on me. I couldn't see his face since my back was to him, but I knew he was smiling that sick smile from when we first saw him.

Cedric began pulling me backwards. "Gentlemen, it was nice doing business with you, but I'm afraid I'll have to be going. I have an appointment with my master. Have a nice day," he said, and took out Exit materia. I gave one more valiant effort to get away, but Sephiroth and the others faded away as Cedric used the materia. We both started spinning as the dizziness took over my mind; finally, I blacked out.

XxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXx

Well, there you have it...this is the part where the adventure comes in, heh. I actually didn't really love this chapter, but it was necessary to the plot, and also gave a hint (hope you caught it!). Well, I'll try and get chapter 10 up ASAP, but I can't promise you it will be up next week. I hope you keep reading anyway! Sorry it took so long, and as always, R&R :)