Disclaimer: Final Fantasy VII and Final Fantasy X are copyrighted to Square Enix.
Word Count: 3242
Pages: 11
AN: Er, sorry guys fo the super long wait for an update. I feel horrible, that's why I churned out the last bit, after a lot of procrastinating. I honestly had no motivation at all to write, life got in the way a lot and I finished my second year of university so my last several months were really busy. This chapter is a bit weird, I wrote the beginning in the present tense, and then switched to the past tense in the last bit. Anyways, theres quite a bit of story developement, and they're finally out of Midgar.

I also rewrote the previous chapter somewhat, if you guys wanna check that out. And for whoever's confused about what Aeons are, those are the Summons in FFX.

A high arching ceiling comes into view as Yuna re-enters a conscious state of mind. Blinking to get the haze clouding her eyes, she sits up to get a better look at her surroundings. She's clearly in a place of worship, judging by the bench pews facing towards the front of the building where an altar was situated. There are two antechambers at the back, which might serve as living quarters for the resident priest, or possibly where one would go to pray for the assistance of an Aeon (that is, if this place had mystical figures of power like they did in Spira).

Not being able name to the architectural style, she determines it's not like anything she had seen in Spira, but all the elements marking it as a holy temple are here.

Sighing, Yuna closes her eyes, confused about her current situation; it seems like she never gets a peaceful moment of contentment.

"Good morning," a playful voice stated. It seemed vaguely familiar.

Heterochromatic eyes pop open to be greeted by vivid mako blue staring at her.

Letting out a soft sigh of surprise, Yuna hops backwards in shock.

"You okay?"

"Sorry, yes I'm alright, you just startled me."

Standing before her is a man dress in black attire not dissimilar to Cloud's purple military uniform, with spiky, black hair pushed back, and a single silvery wing growing out from his left shoulder blade.

"I know it's quite a site if you're seeing it for the first time." The man said, following Yuna's gaze to his wing.

Yuna realizes that she has been staring as her mouth hangs open slightly.

"No, it's not that, it just took me by surprise…uh, did you save me?"

"Yup, that was me!"

"Thank you,"

"I was…just flying in the local thermals,"

Yuna giggles lightly.

"And what is my saviour's name?"

The man is on the verge of replying when a flaming haired boy runs across Yuna's line of vision and throws himself at the raven haired man's legs.

"Vidina…?" Yuna muttered.

The little boy stares wide opened eyed at the former Summoner.

"Who are you?" he blurts in the obnoxious way curious children spit out whatever comes into their mind.

"She's-"

"I'm Yuna," The High Summoner of Spira takes the initiative to introduce herself kneeling down to boy's level.

"Hi…I don't know my name…but the big guy calls me Junior, 'cause he says he had a friend that has hair the same colour as mine!"

"Ah, you have woken up Miss," a new voice stated.

Yuna turns to see whom the voice belongs to. A serviceman of the temple had come out of the antechamber and walks to where she's standing by the front of the pews.

"Good day to you priest," Yuna bowed the traditional prayer of Spira.

"Good afternoon, miss…?"

"Yuna,"

"Miss Yuna, I hope you have slept off whatever was ailing you." The priest says bowing back,

"I think I'll be fine now, thank you."

"That is good news."

"Where am I?"

"You are currently in the Church of Macalania."

Yuna's eyes widen upon hearing the familiar name.

"I'm on Spira!?"

The priest chuckles, "You are still in Midgar, on the planet of Gaia."

Yuna's expression changes to one of slight disappointment.

"I must find my friends, how am I going to get back to them?"

"I don't know. They won't be in the same spot."

"Well we have to try. They can't be far. I won't give up-…huh?"

Yuna spaced out as a voice interrupts her train of thought.

"Hello, my daughter…" A faint voice whispers.

"Dad?" Lord Braska materialized in her view, standing in a field of white flowers.

"Yes, Yuna, welcome to Gaia."

"What are you doing here?"

"I am speaking to you, of course."

"But how did you get here? We are on a different planet, right? And how is it that you can speak with me here, but on the Farplane you were never able to?"

"Ah, the Farplane is merely a place of visit, where one can view the Pyreflies of loved ones, while the Lifestream is the direct energy of the planet. As for your first question, the Farplane and the Lifestream fused centuries ago…"

"So this is Spira's future…this is what our planet became?"

"No, it's rather complicated how the two spirit energies became one, but Spira and Midgar are two separate planets altogether."

"Then how is it that we-"

"Yuna, you ask a lot of questions, but you will know soon enough. Please help the people of this planet. It may very likely be yours from now on, as well."

"So we're stuck here?"

"It's a very strong possibility."

"What can I do to help?"

"Return to Summoning. The Cetran civilization was similar to our own. We even amalgamated at on a time. The Cetrans lived much like we did. They prayed to the Planet and were in touch with its life energy. They had the power to call upon the gods of the Planet and the ability to use the Lifestream to control the elements. The people of Gaia have lost this connect, but you still have it. Pray…Become a Summoner once more…"

"Yuna…" a distant voice called to her.

"Huh?"

"Yuna…"

"…uh…"

"Yuna!"

"What!"

Standing before her was no longer her father in the field of green grass and flowers but the raven haired man back in the church.

"Sorry, but you were in like a trance for like the ten past minutes. You were moving your mouth a bit, but a minute ago you just stopped. I thought you went completely catatonic!"

"Oh, I was…err, never mind. Priest, how can I go about receiving a Summon?"

"Simple," the priest replied, "All you have to do is pray…and get I touch with the soul of the Summon, but it should be simple enough for those who are strong willed and pure in thought."

"That should be simple enough!" Yuna grinsenthusiastically, "Just like on Spira."

"There used to be a set of challenges that you had to pass in order to get into the prayer chamber," The priest says, as he points towards the door at the back, "but they might not be working anymore; it hasn't been in use for decades.

"Right, well, I'm off then," Yuna states bravely as she marched towards the antechambers.

"Hey, wait up! I'll make sure nothing happens to you! Junior, you stay here!" The raven haired man calls after her.

"Aww, I never get to join in on the fun!" The flaming haired boy pouts.

Cloud, Tifa, Barrett, Red XIII, Baralai, Paine and Gippal strolled into the idyllic town of Kalm, noticing the cobblestones, and the architecture's use of primarily stone and prominent wooden beams. The entire town was surrounded by a tall stone wall, acting as a barricade to potential intruders.

The group trooped over to the nearest inn after marching through the open field between Midgar, the chocobo ranch, and Kalm battling monsters and slashing down mutated creatures that attacked them along the way, a well deserved night of rest is what they all deserved.

Entering their room, Barret plopped down on an armchair and addressed Cloud:

"So Cloud, tell us about this whole Sephiroth bringing his wrath on the whole world thing."

"Well, I joined SOLDIER so I could be like Sepihroth. We went on a few missions together and became friends." Cloud began.

A scoff from Barret interrupted the story.

"Barret!" Tifa cried in indignation.

"Well what kind of friend plans on destroying the world!"

"Even crazy people have or had friends," Paine stated.

Most of the group stared at her in morbid awe while Gippal wrapped an arm around her shoulders and stated: "Painey has a point, I stick by her still! Though she was sort of nuts originally…?"

Gippal's comment earned him a sharp elbow to the ribs, sending him wheezing to the ground.

"You brought it upon yourself, I hope you know that." Baralai told his friend, while helping up the keeled over Al Behd.

A chipper Gippal hopped to his feet with a grin on his face, "Yeah, but it was so worth it! Anyways, on with the story Cloud my boy!"

Cloud scowled at the other blond, while Red XIII shook his head muttering something that sounded like '…humans'.

"As I was saying, I guess you could call Sephiroth and I 'war buddies'. Anyways, I trusted him until we were sent on a mission to Nibelheim. We were sent to check on the mako reactors there. It's been a while but I was finally home. We got to talking about families, that's when I found out his mother's name was Jenova"

"Jenova! You mean that bluey headless whore we saw encapsulated at the ShinRa building!?"

"Barret!" Tifa chastise again.

"Sorry Tifa, but I was just-"

"How 'bout we let Cloud carry on with the story."

"Thanks Teef. Barret's right, Jenova was the decapitated being we saw in the building right before we rescued you guys," Cloud said, nodding towards the ex-Crimson Squad members who looked a bit puzzled about the statement.

"Yup, so Sephiroth gave us that night off, we were to go to the reactor in the morning. I visited my mom's house, then I went to see if Tifa was home."

"Aww, Cloud that's so sweet,"

"But she wasn't, instead I found a pair of orthopaedic underwear,"

"Hey! Cloud, that's so not true!"

"Who's the one telling the story again?" Cloud retorted, smirking at Tifa's pout. "The next day we ventured up Mt. Nibel, Tifa was our guide. We eventually reached the reactor, turns out Hojo, ShinRa's head scientist was creating monsters in there. In every capsule was what used to be a member of SOLDIER, but horribly disfigured and mutated by overexposure to mako."

"Bloody ShinRa! The more I know about them, the more I hate them!" Barret fumed.

"…who would have thought…" Tifa pondered.

"That would explain the increase in monsters," Red XIII stated.

"Then we saw at the top most capsule, there was a plaque with the named 'JENOVA' engraved. And within it was the creature we saw in the ShinRa building, except bound in a metal mask. Sephiroth came upon the realization that he was created in a not dissimilar fashion. He became angered and started destroying the other monsters."

"Tifa, you were waiting outside the whole time, right?" Baralai asked.

"Yes, the SOLDIERS didn't let me in, claiming ShinRa's secrets laid beyond in the chamber. I never knew how dark those secrets were…"

"After that, we returned to town. Sephiroth locked himself into his room and didn't even speak with me. We found him in the ShinRa mansion later on. He was in the basement when I finally went down, he was reading tomes upon tomes of information. Most of it was on Jenova, I remember his mutterings. He never stopped reading, I don't think, the lights were always on."

"So what you're saying is this Sephiroth guy went crazy from serious sleep deprivation!?" Gippal mocked.

"Well, I think it had little to do with insomnia and more with the fact that he went all nihilistic when he learned he was created by ShinRa as a weapon." Cloud pointed out, while the rest of the group stared blankly at Gippal.

"Oh come on! Don't give me that look! Someone could have just have cast a Sleep spell on him and this whole crisis could've been diverted!" Gippal tried to jest.

"Right, onwards then. He called me a traitor, because he believed he was an Ancient…a Cetra, and that my 'ancestors' drove the Cetra away. He said that 'they', those who didn't like the way the Ancients lived, that 'they' appeared, and started building their own shelters and cities, eradicating the Cetran lifestyle and without giving back to the Planet. He mentioned something about a disaster striking and the Ancients being sacrificed…I still can't make heads or tails of it."

Tifa growled, "Sephiroth? An Ancient? That's laughable, he knows only destruction!"

Cloud nodded, and then continued with his story, "He goes on to tell me about Jenova. Apparently Jenova was an Ancient that Professor Gast recovered, but ShinRa had other plans for it, and tried to create people with Cetran abilities by using Jenova's cells. And thus Sephiroth was produced."

"Produced!"

"Yeah. Then he rushed past me saying he was going to go see his 'mother'. I went after him, when I got out of the mansion the entire town was on fire. He killed just about everyone. I tried to save people, but most of them were gone already. I followed Sephiroth up to the reactor."

Tifa cut in at this point and carried on the story, "I went after him too, earlier. He killed my father just outside the pod room. It angered me so much; I picked up Sephiroth's fallen blade and ran into the next room. I tried to kill him with it, but he wrestled the sword away from me and…and…"

"And I was there to get to Tifa in time, I was afraid I was too late, but…" Cloud's words dragged out, and he couldn't carry on. Tifa wrapped him in a hug, and he returned a one arm hugged.

"The point is I survived," Tifa smiled sadly.

"I confronted Sephiroth after that. He ripped Jenova out her metal armour that kept it rigged into the centre pod chamber, claimed that he was the chosen one, and along with his 'mother' he would retake the Planet and rule it. I challenged him, I had my sword in hand, and he with his, and, and-"

"And what?" Barret interjected.

"…and that's the end of my story."

"Wait a minute! Isn't there more!?" Gippal asked.

"All I remember is incredible pain afterwards and then a large blank. But I couldn't have killed Sephiroth, his strength and power is insurmountable!"

"In the records it stated that Sephiroth was killed, I read it in the newspaper," Tifa added.

"Tell me why, again, are we trying to challenge someone who is unbeatable and can't be killed?" Gippal went into hysterics.

"Because if we don't who will? The Planet will suffer if we don't do anything. And besides, ShinRa owns the newspapers; they can print whatever they want. What I want to know is how I am still alive after all that."

"…I'm alive too." Tifa said.

"And Jenova? Surely, someone arrived at the scene afterwards if the creature was taken to Midgar,"

"Damn, don't none of this make any sense!"

"I say we get some rest, so we can get on the road tomorrow, in full health." Paine suggested.

"Good idea, let's go to sleep everyone."

While everybody was getting prepared for bed, and Gippal tried to start a spontaneous pillow fight, but his cushion rebellion was soon silenced by a sharp strike on the head from Paine, Tifa approached Cloud.

Pulling him to the side, she asked: "Cloud…how bad was I…when Sephiroth cut me?"

Cloud gave a heavy sigh, "I thought you were a goner…I was so full of fury, I just rushed at him."

"Cloud…"

"Yeah?"

"Thanks for keeping your promise," Tifa smiled and gave him a lengthy goodnight hug. Cloud smiled a small smile in return and wrapped his arms around his childhood friend.

AN: I hope you guys are happy with the chapter. There's some Clotish moments in the last bit, so fans should be pleased. Anybody want to guess who Yuna's new guardian is?

Kay, now go click the review button, and leave me your thoughts on chapter 9! I'll update when the story reaches 60 reviews. I have like 30+ people who put this story on alert, and I can honestly say that only about 3 of them reviewed. If you enjoy the story, why can't take abou 1 minute of your day to give me your opinion? So if you haven't reviewed so far, then please review.