Upon entering the threshold, Sephiroth took a deep breath and walked inside the reactor, with me stepping close behind him. Debris littered the floor and there was a distinct metallic smell. I guided my feet carefully around broken glass, crumpled leaves and random papers stained with what appeared to be blood as I started up the stairs to where Jenova was originally kept. I only got to the third step when I started to feel lightheaded.

"Oh no...not again..." I swayed on the step and before I lost my balance, Sephiroth was right there, holding me at my waist.

He shot me a look of concern. "Are you alright? Your face has lost its color," he said as he brought me to a seated position on the steps.

I shook my head slowly and brought my hand to my chest to catch my breath, and a sharp pain flared through the middle of my palm. "Ouch!"

I moved my hand away and noticed I had palmed my necklace right to my chest. The moonstone had turned a bright white, and started shining brighter and brighter. "What the..." Sephiroth strained to look at me with the glare from the stone in his eyes. He put his hand up on his forehead like a visor.

"Tifa...it all makes sense..." Sephiroth pulled out a needle and pricked his finger, just enough to make room for blood to drip through. A drop of blood fell to the floor, and immediately glowed. The glow separated from the blood, which faded to an average blood red color, and the glow itself floated up like a mist from the floor and straight towards the necklace.

As I struggled to keep consciousness, I watched the bright white from the stone turn a brilliant blue, as the glow connected with the stone. After that, the stone stopped glowing, and I passed out.

XxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXx

"Tifa," Sephiroth's voice was faint, but I fought the nausea and dizziness long enough to bring myself back. "Seph...Sephiroth...what happened...?" I asked as I attempted to sit up, but realized it was too soon, and stayed down.

"I understand," he said, almost to himself. "I understand what Aeris was saying. She said to you that an entrance to the Promised Land was close to your heart and soul..."

"Ahh yes, my creation isn't a total failure after all," a harsh voice came from the entrance of the reactor. Hojo. He walked with a slight limp towards Sephiroth and me, blood covering his face and a wicked grin on his face.

At the sound of Hojo's voice, I sat up against my will to stay down, pushed myself to my feet with all the strength I had left, and turned to face him. "Hojo," I snarled. As angry as I was that Hojo managed to find us, I was terribly concerned about the others; they were outside when we came into the reactor. I hoped that they were okay.

Sephiroth also jumped to his feet, his sword in hand. "You have lost, father," Sephiroth said with derision. "You will never gain access to the Promised Land to destroy it!"

Hojo's face fell from a grin to a sneer as he continued limping towards us. "So, my son, you've learned to control your cells then?"

Sephiroth face fell slightly, but regained composure in a split second and growled. "I'm warning you... leave now, and I'll give you a head start before I hunt you down and kill you." Sephiroth took a step forward towards our attacker, but I noticed a slight hesitation in his step. My heart started to race. We both knew that Sephiroth had not had a chance to learn to control his cells, and we were very quickly running out of time. I had to do something.

I took a step towards Hojo and watched Sephiroth's eyes widen in surprise. I reached down to my chest, grabbed my necklace and pulled it forward to show Hojo. "Is this what you want, you coward? Hojo's eyes left Sephiroth and went straight to my necklace. "Answer me!" I bellowed.

Hojo took a step, though unlike my confident one, his step seemed unsure. "Ahh, the entrance to the Promised Land. I assume you got a visit from the flower girl then?" His continued to wear a face of intimidation, but for some reason his voice seemed to falter. I took a quick glance at Sephiroth, who also noticed by the look of his slightly confused face. I continued to stall.

"Yes, we saw her...and she had very interesting things to say about this particular entrance to the Promised Land...would you care to hear? Or do you already know?" I took a chance and it worked. Hojo's expression completely changed, from angry to scared.

I was glad my bluff had worked, but I wasn't sure where to go from there. However, Sephiroth seemed to have come to an epiphany, and took yet another step forward. "You'll never gain entrance to the Promised Land; Jenova's cells are strong, stronger than yours, and they have been looking for you..." As he walked, his eyes appeared to glaze over and his skin started to glow.

"Jenova's cells are strong, and they have been looking for you..." Cloud's voice repeated Sephiroth's words from behind Hojo almost as if he were in a trance, his skin glowing just as brightly as Sephiroth's.

"Jenova's cells are strong, and they have been looking for you..." Vincent's voice came from above as he floated above Hojo, more Jenova cells glowing underneath his skin. The three Mako-infused men continued to chant over and over, their skin glowing brighter and brighter.

I jumped as the necklace I was holding burned again. This time when I looked down, I saw bright blue flames within the center stone, which seemed to be fighting to get closer to the surface and get out, fast. Upon instinct, I ripped the necklace off and threw it to the ground in front of Hojo, where the blue flames exploded out of the stone and created a funnel of blue energy.

Hojo started backing away. "No...this can't happen..." Cloud cut him off and grabbed him from behind, and a blue mist started to seep from Cloud's his skin and circle around Hojo. Above Hojo, more of the mist swirled off Vincent, beginning to encircle the deranged doctor. "No...how would you know!?"

Sephiroth robotically stepped forward and grabbed Hojo by the front of his collar, his gaze burning into Hojo's terrified eyes. "…they have been looking for you…and they FOUND you!"

The mist from Sephiroth, Cloud and Vincent hit Hojo from all three sides and circled around, forcing Hojo forward towards the blue flames of my necklace. "Stop! You can't do this...STOP!"

As Hojo's body was pushed into the blue flames, he screamed. "NOOOOOOOO...!" But before he could utter another word, his body began to disintegrate, with the mist twinkling in the blue flames, until there was no body left. The flames gave one last explosion from the necklace, shattering the stone inside, and then everything went black.