Anne was just trying on a dress which she had stitched for herself when Caius returned to her armoury. It just so happened that the material she had used was white because she couldn't find anything else. Caius observed her spinning around then pulling the skirt of the dress down a bit. It reached up to her knees at least, she must be really self-conscious. With a satisfied smile, Anne reached over to the sandals she had put together with the dress and tried them on, huffing softly.

"I knew they would be too small," she muttered after prying them off "Need more leather…"

Caius cleared his throat and Anne snapped her head up with a gasp. She blushed in embarrassment.

"I'm sorry, how long have you been there?" she asked timidly.

"Just a couple of minutes."

"Oh, OK, let me just get changed and I'll be with you in just a sec!"

Caius quickly averted his eyes when Anne pulled her dress off, exposing her nudity to the world. Quickly and clumsily, she pulled on her shorts and top before turning back to him with a pleasant smile.

"How may I help?" she asked.

"I can take you to Cosmos's territory for a while, you can study and scavenge any materials we find."

Anne's eyes bulged and she froze up.

"R-Really?" she asked excitedly "You'll take me over?"

"For a while," Caius nodded.

He stumbled when Anne launched herself and hugged him tightly.

"Oh thank you!" she cried "Thank you so much!"

Caius watched her break away from him and take her bracer and bat. She eagerly skipped ahead of him, making him hasten his pace to steer her in the right direction of Cosmos's territory.

Forget slowing him down, Anne was tiring him out! About half an hour of chasing after her, making sure she went in the right direction, abruptly halting whenever she stopped to scavenge materials and keeping an eye out for Cosmos's warriors, Caius contemplated getting a leash for the hyper-energetic blacksmith.

"Eep!"

"Careful!"

Anne fell over another ledge and Caius snatched her wrist to stop her from falling.

"Ah, that's a long drop!" Anne whimpered as she clung onto Caius's hand.

"Don't look down," Caius instructed before heaving her back up.

She was more work than protecting Yeul! Anne sighed as she brushed herself down.

"I'm sorry for causing so much trouble," she murmured.

"I've dealt with worse," Caius reassured her.

Anne looked around thoughtfully and ran up to the rocks, feeling around. Caius watched as she began using her magic to get through the rocky wall whilst keeping an eye out for enemies. He turned his head when he thought he saw a Chocobo then realised it was a human.

"Anne, we might need to go into battle," he informed.

"Hm?"

Anne turned after retrieving the precious stone in the wall and stood, shoving it into her thigh satchel. She readied her bat and bracer as she ran to join Caius in the upcoming battle. The warrior had spotted them now, charging at them with his massive sword unsheathed. Anne swallowed nervously as the distance was closed and their opponent's blue eyes landed on her first.

"Anne?" he said with a surprised look.

Anne frowned up at the man.

"Do I know you?" she asked.

Caius raised his sword warily as the man took a step towards them. The man looked at him before frowning at Anne.

"I suppose you don't remember me then," he said.

He turned his sword towards Caius and Caius narrowed his eyes.

"Anne, run back the way we came," he instructed her "And please don't fall off any more ledges."

"But…" Anne protested.

"Go!"

Anne fled when their swords clashed and ran as fast as she could away from the fight. She screeched to a halt and held her bat up when a woman who looked similar to her stepped into her path.

"Come on, Anne, let's go!" she urged and held her hand out.

"Blizzard!"

The woman jumped back in surprise to avoid getting hit by Anne's magic. She frowned, placing her hands on her hips as Anne backed away.

"Anne, stop playing around, this isn't the time for games!"

"Caius, we're surrounded!" Anne squeaked as her back met his.

"Duck!"

Anne ducked as Caius swung his word around, hitting both of their opponents. Anne turned and fired a Thunder spell at the swordsman. She then lunged and punched the stunned blond before falling over backwards when a pain seared through her head.

She was in a temple of some sort? There was a lot of water and sun filtered through the ceiling. That blond swordsman was standing in front of this woman…wait, she knew that woman. Her name was Aerith, she knew her, she was a good friend. Anne smiled when she saw her praying but that swordsman…he was going to kill her!

Anne's eyes flew open and she jumped up to her feet then kicked the swordsman in the nuts for good measure.

"Anne, come on!"

Anne took Caius's outstretched hand and ran with him back to Chaos's territory.

Tifa crouched beside Cloud as he groaned in pain.

"She always had a good kick," he grumbled and Tifa giggled despite the circumstances.

The martial artist looked up at where the purple-haired swordsman and her younger sister had retreated and frowned.

"Why is she working for Chaos?" she asked "Anne's too…nice to be working for him."

"Probably got her memory wiped and someone from Chaos found her first," Cloud muttered.

Tifa grimaced as she helped Cloud up to his feet.

"Let's go after them," she said.

"Wait, just the two of us? The manikins get awfully stronger the deeper we go."

"I can't let him just take away Anne like that!" Tifa said, determined and ran off, leaving Cloud at a loss in what to do.

"We should be safe now," Caius said as he let go of Anne and watched her flop onto the beach they were at.

Anne stretched her body out before emptying her contents of her thigh satchel. She sighed happily as she sorted out what she had collected in between her breaths. Caius ascended a rocky ledge to scour the area. That martial artist had started chasing them but was held back by some manikins. Caius wasn't so sure how good she was but couldn't promise that they'd be safe from harm for long. He watched over Anne happily play around with her ores and precious stones like a little girl, holding some of them up in the air to examine them. She turned to Caius and smiled.

"Caius, hold still for a minute," she said as she got up and ran up to him.

She stood up on her tiptoes after pulling a needle and some thread from her satchel and began stitching eagerly at his bandana. A new little string with a small precious stone attached fell next to his other accessories and Caius blinked.

"Thank you for taking me over," Anne smiled "I hope it stays on, it's poorly made for a field job…"

"It'll stay on," Caius reassured her and allowed a small smile "Thank you."

Anne grinned happily and skipped back down to the beach to pack her materials back into her satchel.

"There you are, you silly girl!"

Caius and Anne looked up to see Kuja descend in front of the young girl, hands on hips.

"Sephiroth is searching the whole world for you!" he said "Did you know he accused me for upsetting you and making you run off?"

"Sephiroth's looking for me?" Anne squeaked and Caius sighed in frustration.

"We'd better get back," he said.

"No, I'll go on my own," Anne said "I don't want you to get into trouble."

Caius opened his mouth but Anne shook her head furiously. Without another word, she ran off, past Noctis and Nero who had also been searching for the blacksmith under the stress of Sephiroth's rage.

"Don't you think you're overreacting a little bit, Sephiroth?" Emperor Mateus sighed as Sephiroth stormed past him, searching for Anne "She might have gotten bored, went out for a walk, perhaps decided to test some weapons and armour."

"You wouldn't understand," Sephiroth said in a hard tone.

"Sephiroth!"

Both men whirled around and saw the youngest warrior of Chaos running towards them. Sephiroth strode towards her and towered over her.

"Where have you been?" he asked fiercely, making the poor girl whimper and cower.

"W-Walk…" Anne stuttered out "I got lost, I'm sorry. Kuja found me and told me that you were looking for me and…I'm sorry."

"If you wanted a walk, I could have come with you for peace of my mind," Sephiroth said as he sighed softly.

"Please, you're not my bodyguard," Anne sulked and folded her arms.

Sephiroth opened his mouth then hesitated and frowned. Anne hadn't stuck up for herself before…

"You didn't run into any fights did you?" he asked slowly.

"No!" Anne shook her head.

Sephiroth snatched her bracer and glanced at it.

"Warm, it's been used," he said "You lied to me."

Anne snatched her arm back.

"Practicing magic," she said.

"For what?"

"In case I did get attacked."

"Anne, stop lying to me," Sephiroth gritted out.

It hurt, why did it hurt?

"You're just not believing me!" Anne raised her voice, tears pooling in her eyes.

"You've changed…" Sephiroth stepped back as he remembered another memory "You…"

He turned away and gritted his teeth.

"Just don't do it again," he said as he walked away from her.

The flames consumed the village hungrily, devouring the bodies of both adults and children. He stood in the centre, triumphant of his vengeance, taking in the wonderful scenery that was his work. And then he saw her, beside a black-haired swordsman, hand covering her mouth in horror. She was crying. As the swordsman ran up towards him, she turned and ran away from him. Each step she took away from him hurt and Sephiroth easily shoved the swordsman aside and called for her.

"Anne!"

"Stay away!"

Why? Why would she run from him? She only ever looked up at him with wonder and the innocent childish admiration glinting in her red eyes. But now, all Sephiroth could see was betrayal, anguish and despair. Why?