AN: Hey hope you all enjoy the next chapter. Know you have all been looking forward to Cloud's appearance more in the story. Well, that is going to be happening a lot more from now on.

Oh, and just wanted to say a big thanks to Obsidian Skye for being willing to be my beta reader, and to help fix all those mistakes that I know drive a lot of people crazy. Lol

Sephiroth flew low to the ground. He had been following Rain for half the night and only just now seemed to be catching up to her.

He could see her dim figure moving in the far distance. At first, when Rain ran off, Sephiroth had only tracks to follow. He had no clue how she had managed to use the mako to get such a lead, but the effect left a very strong mako scent for him to follow. After an hour, he had come to a place where Rain had apparently stopped and made a call judging from the abandoned cell on the ground.

Sephiroth had picked it up knowing that a guard's cell would have a tracker, one that Zack, or at least Angeal, were hopefully following by now.

From then on Rain seemed to have slowed down, still maintaining a good SOLDIER speed, but nowhere near what she had been doing, and Sephiroth was catching up and fast.

Suddenly, something else caught his eye far, far off in the distance. It was a ship, an airship. Sephiroth's eyes narrowed and he increased his speed, pushing his wing to the limit for one final sprint. Sephiroth knew for some reason that if Rain got to that ship it would all be over. Any hope of getting her back would suddenly become extremely difficult.

As if sensing that too, Rain picked up speed. She was getting close, too close. People were beginning to come out of the ship and there was one figure that Sephiroth recognized even at this speed. The brother; of course he was here, and Sephiroth was beginning to suspect he was much more than just a brother given the mode of transportation in which he had arrived; one the Wutai General was known to frequent. Sephiroth had sensed there w as something between Rain and the Wutai fighter when he had watched the pair battle.

Pulling his wing in tightly against his body, Sephiroth let momentum carry him the rest of the way. Shooting him like a bullet straight at Rain's unprotected back, he knocked aside the bullets with Masamune that were coming from the ship's occupants who began to open fire.

With his other hand, Sephiroth reached out to grasp Rain around the waist, but she must have sensed him coming, for she threw herself sharply to the side. Rather than dragging her by the one arm he had around her and risk losing her in the air once she put up a struggle, Sephiroth allowed himself to be pulled to the side along with Rain. This enabled him to secure her firmly against him with one arm around her shoulders, pinning her to him, while the other arm held Masamune defensively in front of them as they rolled to a stop.

There were four of them, all with weapons raised; three women, two with dark hair, one Sephiroth recognized as the escaped Wutai Princess, but the other he had not seen before. If looks could kill, however, Sephiroth would have been dead. The third woman Sephiroth thought he had seen before, but could not place where. She was dressed in pink and held a staff in her hands and was the only one that did not seem to be threatened by his appearance; rather she stood resonating calmness, simply staring at him.

The last figure had most of Sephiroth's attention, for it was he whom the General deemed the most threat, though that girl dressed in pink is unnerving for some reason. It was the red-cloaked man that had broken into the Shinra base in Wutai. Sephiroth remembered the creature that lay inside the man and the way it had taken out Tseng, but it did not seem to be stirring right now, which was good. Any man Sephiroth could handle; it was the unknown creatures of the Planet that could present a challenge.

Wait! There was only four! Sephiroth could not spot the brother. Where is he?

Though Rain had not struggled in the least, Sephiroth's grip tightened around her nonetheless. Did she realize struggling against him would be useless or was there something else going on? Something he was not seeing?

Slowly Sephiroth moved to his feet, bringing Rain with him until he stood facing the four, Rain leaning heavily against him head down as if she had given up.

The dark, long-haired woman took a step forward, fists clenched. "Let her go, monster."

Sephiroth shifted Rain in his arms, fitting her more securely against him as a way of response. The Wutai princess shouted a profanity at him, looking ready to attack him if it weren't for the woman dressed in pink whose restraining hand on the girl's arm kept her at bay.

Abruptly, Rain stiffened in his arms, her head snapping up. Sephiroth followed her gaze and every muscle in his body tensed. Standing on the top of the airship was a figure holding something out in front of him that flapped in the wind. Time seemed to freeze as Sephiroth instantly recognized the bright red leather jacket that stood out sharply against the sun's early morning rays. Sephiroth stared at Genesis's jacket for a moment then turned his gaze to the man holding it.

The face that gazed back at him was so familiar that if Rain was not in his arms Sephiroth would have had reason to believe it were she on top of that ship.

The man's voice was quiet and only Sephiroth's mako hearing allowed him to hear it. "If I die, so does he."

"Cloud, no!" Rain's hoarse voice shouted. Her plea startled Sephiroth, but he did not take his eyes off of the man. So his name was Cloud. It made sense that there would be a real one.

"What makes you think I have any intention of killing you?" Sephiroth's tone matched Cloud's.

"You intend on taking her," Cloud gestured to Rain in Sephiroth's arms. "That means you are going to have to kill me in order to do it."

Sephiroth felt his fingers tighten around Masamune. For some reason, Sephiroth suddenly had the unnerving uncertainty of what would be the outcome if they fought. For the first time in his life Sephiroth doubted his ability in facing an opponent and he had no idea why. There was nothing from previous experience that deemed Sephiroth was inferior to this man. He had even seen Cloud fight, and though he was a good fighter, nothing suggested this man was better than him.

Then why was he feeling he had done this before? That he had fought this man before and lost? Where was this coming from?

Rain's voice again, "Cloud, what have you done?"

For the first time, Cloud broke their stare and looked down at her. "What needs to be done."

Sephiroth heard Rain draw in a sharp breath and Cloud continued. "Release Rain, Sephiroth. Let us leave and do not attempt to follow. When I feel we are safely away I will release your friend."

Sephiroth smirked. "What guarantee do I have of that? Your word?" The last part came out as a sneer.

"You have mine." Rain's soft voice broke through the rising tension like a knife; even Cloud looked surprised. Rain moved and Sephiroth allowed her to turn in his grasp so she was facing him when she spoke. "You have my word nothing will happen to Genesis."

Rain must have seen Sephiroth's doubt because she closed her eyes in frustration. "I know I have given you little reason to trust my word. What can I give you that I have proven you can trust me?"

The answer came before Sephiroth could even think. "Your honor."

Rain opened her eyes in surprise, and even Sephiroth was startled by the response. It appeared Angeal's lectures were rubbing off on him more then he thought.

"You are correct," Sephiroth continued. "You have given me no reason to trust your word. You have gone against it many times, but you have never gone against your honor as a SOLDIER. Even Angeal has recognized that, which is why he allowed Zack to go after you."

Rain stared at him then nodded. "You have it." A pause then, "I'm so sorry."

Sephiroth let his arms drop and for a moment, she stayed where she was, but then slowly she took a step back and then another until she turned away. A moment later the airship was in the air.

The silver-haired General stood where he was as he watched it get further and further away until finally it disappeared in the distance. It took him that long to gather his thoughts and figure out which approach he was going to take. Genesis just added a new dimension to things, but did not change his objective. Sephiroth had no intention of letting Rain go.

He was not exactly worried about Genesis directly. Genesis could readily take care of himself, and if he was on that ship it was most likely because he wanted to be there. It would not do, however, to have him used as leverage against Sephiroth to impede his movements.

There was something about that man, Cloud, which was unpredictable and dangerous. Sephiroth would prefer not to let Genesis get in the line of that man's fire. What Sephiroth needed was a distraction!

Checking his phone, Sephiroth studied the direction the tiny dot on his screen was heading. He had slipped the small tracking device from the guard's abandoned cell phone onto Rain's pocket before he had let her go.

Satisfied, he started dialing a number he took care never to have in his phone, but know it all the same.

The need for a distraction grew and he could not use any of his power in Shinra to get it. By now his absence, along with those of his three commanders would be felt within the company, and there would be a lot of paperwork waiting for him before he could count on any air support.

There was only one other person Sephiroth could manipulate for an air raid of that caliber.

After two rings the phone was picked up by a very ticked-off sounding male, demanding to know how he had gotten this unregistered number. Apparently they had caller ID and did not recognize Sephiroth's number.

Sephiroth interrupted the Turk's rant half-way through, "I have no desire to attempt intelligent dialogue with you. Put the royal brat on the phone." Sephiroth definitely had been hanging around Genesis too long if he was using his particular vocabulary for the various people of Shinra.

Pinching the bridge of his nose as a stream of insults poured from the phone, Sephiroth tried to keep his temper. This Turk had a personality that annoyed him just as much as the red pony-tail-haired Turk.

Somehow he managed to keep his voice even, despite the growing urge to kill something. "Tell Rufus, General Sephiroth is willing to take care of his little family problem."

There was silence on the other line then the Shinra heir's voice came on the line, "General, to what pleasure to do I owe this call?"

Finally he was getting somewhere. "I have a proposition. You already know what I am offering. You are currently stationed in Junon, correct? In exchange for my…assistance, there is a certain aircraft that is coming your way. I need the aid of your resources in an air strike."

AN: Remember please, please review! I will try and get the next chapter up as soon as I can, but March is what I like to call term paper month. So I might be a little slow in getting the next one up. Sometimes after a day of term paper writing I don't even want to look at my computer, no less think of forming a sentence.