"Alright" Cloud said, taking off the Shinra trooper helmet, "We're aboard, let's find the others, they probably made it aboard too."

"Got it." Gordon replied.

Gordon and Cloud were currently on board Rufus Shinra's ship that was en route to a different continent, and while they haven't run into Sephiroth or Benrey yet, Cloud had a feeling they were gonna bump into them real soon.

Both of them were walking down the engine room, as they were walking an engine worker was waving at them, trying to get their attention.

"Wonder what they want." Gordon said, "Should we investigate?"

"Go over and see what they want, I'll head up and see if anyone's on the bridge." Cloud said.

"Alright." Gordon said, as both him and Cloud went their separate directions.

As Gordon got closer to the worker, he noticed they were shorter than the other workers and had a white headband on.

"Wait a sec." Gordon said, "Yuffie? Is that you?"

"Yeah." Yuffie said, "How're you Gordon, you and Cloud get on with no problems?"

"Well we had to march in a parade." Gordon replied, "But other than that zero issues. Is everyone else on board?"

"I think so." Yuffie said, "I saw Aerith earlier but I'm not sure about the others. We all separated to avoid drawing suspicion."

"Alright." said Gordon, "I'm gonna blend in until we get to shore, you do the same."

"Wait Gordon!" Yuffie said, "Do you have any meds or anything on you? I'm getting seasick!"

"I got nothing on me." Gordon replied, "Just bare with it for now. It probably won't be long until we've reached shore."

"Oh no." Yuffie said, looking green in the face.

On the bridge Cloud was walking around trying to look as busy as he could to not draw attention. As he was walking he bumped shoulders with another Shinra trooper.

Who happened to have long black hair tied at the bottom.

"Tifa!" Cloud loudly whispered, drawing her attention.

Tifa turned around in surprise to face Cloud, taking her helmet off in the process.

"Cloud!" Tifa whispered back, "Let's go somewhere more secluded."

They both went over to a corner of the bridge that was far away from other troopers and officers.

"How did you and Gordon fare in making it on board? Any issues?" Tifa asked.

"Besides having to be in a parade, no issues getting aboard." Cloud said, "But there's something I want to talk to you about, it's about Gordon."

"What is it?" Tifa asked.

"Rufus wants him captured alive, no idea why though, and judging from the look on his face when we heard about it neither does he."

"Huh." Tifa said, "Where is he now?"

"We split up to look for you and the others." Cloud replied, "You're here but what about the others?"

"I was able to run into everyone else earlier. Barret tried to get at Rufus earlier but I was able to talk him down." Tifa said.

"Right" Cloud said, "Keep a low profile for now, we should be getting to shore so-"

An alarm then went off as Cloud was talking, followed by a robotic voice.

"WARNING! WARNING! SUSPICIOUS INDIVIDUALS SPOTTED ON THE SHIP! ALL UNITS SPREAD OUT AND FIND THEM!"

"Crap, could they be talking about us?" Tifa asked worriedly.

"No, if it was, we would have had a swarm of troopers to deal with." Cloud replied,

"This can only mean one thing: they're here."

"Who?"

"Sephiroth, Benrey, they're on board somewhere." Cloud said, "Round up everyone and meet me down in the engine room."

"Got it." Tifa replied.

Cloud, Gordon and Tifa, along with the rest of the party were all gathered in the engine room (all of their disguises were off), where bodies of Shinra troopers were piled around, some with their torsos cut, others with holes in their heads.

"What the hell happened?" Barret said.

"Sephiroth." Cloud said, "He was here, and the troopers with bullet holes must be Benrey's work."

"Where could they be though?" Aerith asked.

Almost answering her question, a gunshot was heard behind a door near them. Everyone responded by drawing their weapons.

"Careful." Cloud whispered, slowly moving toward the door and reaching for the handle.

As he slowly opened the door another gunshot rang out, followed by a scream.

The party responded by rushing into the room.

Inside, a Shinra trooper was on the floor, pleading for his life.

Standing above him were two familiar figures.

"Please, don't! I have a-"

BANG

The smoke emitted from Benrey's Desert Eagle, which had a laser sighting on it. The Shinra trooper fell down, now a lifeless corpse.

Gordon squinted his eyes when he saw Benrey's gun.

'Hang on a sec, that's not the gun Benrey uses.' Gordon thought.

Benrey then looked up at the party, with Sephiroth coming to stand next to him.

"Hey." Benrey said to Gordon.

"Uh. Hello Benrey." Gordon said, "What the hell are you doing?"

Benrey looked over at Sephiroth, then back at Gordon.

"Hanging out with my best friend. What's wrong with that?"

"What?" Gordon said, "Since when did you and Sephiroth become friends? When did this event occur?"

"We've been friends for a long time!" Benrey exclaimed, "And he's a way better friend than you ever were!"

"We were never friends!" Gordon shouted, "And what do you mean you've been friends with him for a long time!?"

Benrey didn't respond, but instead went over to the Shinra trooper he killed, crouched down, and started blowing teal balls around the corpse, a high pitch noise emitted from him.

"What the?" Barret said, "What the hell is he doing!?"

Tifa meanwhile was stunned at the pair she was looking at.

'Wait a minute, isn't that-'

Before Tifa could process another thought, Cloud hunched over on his knees, grabbing his head in pain.

"Cloud!" Tifa said, running over to check on him.

Sephiroth then went over to Benrey and put his hand on his shoulder, this caused Benrey to stop and rise up.

"Don't worry, I'll make sure they don't interfere with our new world." Sephiroth said, "They'll be dealt with swiftly."

Sephiroth then hooked his arm around Benrey, and they both arose to the roof and no-clipped out of the ship.

Almost immediately after they left a giant monster figure appeared before them. The party all got into battle stances.

Cloud's head slowly began to clear, as he arose and drew his buster sword.

"Cloud…" Tifa said, concerned about Cloud's wellbeing.

"It's JENOVA." Cloud said groggily, "We need to defeat it here and now."

Wasting no time, Barret opened fire upon the monstrosity. JENOVA backed away as it got hit and responded by swinging one of its arms at the party. Everyone was able to dodge.

Yuffie casted Ice on it and the monster flinched in pain as a giant block of ice fell on top of it. Barret continued shooting but most of his bullets bounced off of JENOVA.

"Damn! How tough is this thing?" Barret shouted.

"Just keep at it, it'll come down soon enough!" shouted Red XIII, casting fire on JENOVA.

Cloud rushed it with his buster sword but JENOVA saw it coming and hit him with its arm. Cloud flew across the room and collided with a nearby wall.

"Cloud!" Tifa shouted

"I'll cover you!" Gordon shouted, "Go check and make sure he's alright!"

Tifa nodded as she rushed over to Cloud. Gordon stood in front of her firing at JENOVA.

Tifa stood by Cloud who was on one knee.

"Cloud! Are you alright?" Tifa said.

"Y-Yeah." Cloud said, as he stood up a blue aura formed around him. He and Tifa looked over at Gordon, who had just cast Barrier on him.

"Just to be safe." Gordon said.

Cloud nodded at Gordon, grabbed his buster sword and rejoined the fray with Tifa behind him.

"I got an idea!" Aerith shouted.

She then stood before JENOVA, and a red and yellow aura surrounded her.

A giant blue and feminine figure appeared and was facing JENOVA. Soon, a rush of ice, almost like a blizzard descended on JENOVA and a giant ice block appeared underneath it, impaling it from the bottom.

JENOVA screamed in pain. Cloud, wasting no time, rushed right towards it, jumped up in front of its head and delivered a swift cut across its neck.

The head slowly rolled off the main body and fell to the floor. The rest of the body dissolved and became a gooey mess.

The only thing that was intact was a singular arm from JENOVA.

"Damn that was impressive!" Barret said, "Where did you get that kind of power?"

"Pricilla gave it to me." Aerith said,

"She said we would need it on our journey, and she was definitely right about that."

"That's summon Materia." Red XIII said, "We'd be fortunate to find more on our journey."

Cloud walked over to JENOVA's arm and examined it.

"This was at Shinra Tower." Cloud said.

"Cloud, what's going on?" Tifa asked

"It's Sephiroth." Cloud said,

"This all happened five years ago when he went rogue. He tried to reach the Promised Land so he could essentially rule the world. Now that he has JENOVA with him he has a chance of obtaining that goal."

"But how does Benrey factor into this?" Aerith asked.

"I don't know, but maybe-"

But before Cloud could say another word, a sloshing noise came from the goo pile, the party all turned to face it.

A skeletal arm shot up from the goo pile, and slowly more skeletal parts arose. A full human skeleton soon stood before them.

"Holy shit a skeleton!" Yuffie shouted.

The skeleton then began to slowly walk towards the party. Everyone drew their weapons, everyone but Gordon.

The skeleton stopped a few feet in front of them.

"Can I see your passports?" The skeleton asked, in what sounded like Benrey's voice.

"What.." Cloud said.

The skeleton then slightly tilted its head at Gordon.

"We're not supposed to be here."

Before Cloud could say another word, gunshots went off.

Everyone turned to see Gordon unloading onto the skeleton while walking towards it.

The skeleton fell to the ground, but Gordon kept firing until it was reduced to pieces and ash. He noticed a red orb from inside the ashes and picked it up. It was another summon Materia

Gordon gave a frustrated sigh as he held onto the red orb.

"That was one of Benrey's in case you were all wondering." Gordon said.

"Was that Benrey?" Yuffie asked, "Sounded like him."

"No, unfortunately it wasn't." Gordon said,

"He has these fucking skeletons that hang around him. I should've known we would have to deal with them too."

"But that one went down easy." Barret said, "What's there to worry about?"

"There's a shit ton of them." Gordon said, "I'm more than certain we'll see more in the future."

"We'll be prepared then." Cloud said.

"Come on, let's get to the hangers, we should be reaching land soon."

Everyone turned around ready to leave.

"Wait!" Gordon shouted.

"What is it?" Cloud asked.

"It's about what Rufus said." Gordon replied.

"What did Rufus say?" Barret said, turning to face Gordon.

Gordon sighed before continuing.

"Before me and Cloud boarded we overheard a conversation between Rufus and Heidegger: Shinra wants me captured alive."

"Huh?" Aerith asked, "Why do they want you?"

"Being one hundred and ten percent honest: I have no idea." Gordon said.

"Are you sure?" Barret said, "Seems kinda fishy they want you alive but us dead."

"I know but-"

"And what did that skeleton mean by 'We're not supposed to be here.'

"I don't know! I-

He looked over at Cloud and Tifa after he said that. He started to grow frustrated when he looked at them.

'Great, now they're gonna have all the reasons not to trust me. It's always the fucking same wherever I go! Everyone's against Gordon Freeman!' He thought, giving a loud, frustrated groan.

"Look, I know this doesn't look good for me. Shinra wants me alive and I don't know why. And Benrey's fucking skeletons are running amok! I'm completely in the fucking dark here! I don't know anything about the Promised Land or why Benrey is teaming up with Sephiroth! I JUST GOT HERE!"

He huffed.

"If you all wanna distrust me then fine! I already got this crap back at Black Mesa! But I want to nail these assholes, especially Benrey, just as much as any of you! If you all want to treat me differently then by all means go ahead!"

He turned around from the group, upset and placing his hand on his left eye.

'For fucks sake! Why does the AI always have to treat me differently!? Why is it like this, why is my life like this!? Just for once can they at least try to-'

"Gordon."

He turned around and Tifa was right in front of him.

"It's alright, we don't expect you to have all the answers."

She put a hand on his shoulder.

"I know you don't." He said, drained after his rant,

"But what can I do to show you that I'm not working with Shinra and I'm not collaborating with Sephiroth and Benrey?"

"What you're doing right now is fine." She said,

"You could have just continued fighting JENOVA but you cast Barrier on Cloud just to make sure he was safe."

"Just thought it was the right thing to do." Gordon said.

"And besides" Aerith chimed in,

"Without you we wouldn't know what to do against Benrey, you're our best shot at defeating him!"

"Thanks but-" Gordon said, walking over towards the rest,

"If I'm being honest, the only one who has a shot at beating Benrey is Dr. Coomer."

"Who's that?" Cloud asked.

"One of my scientist friends, and probably one of the strongest people I know."

"Really?" Barret asked, "Well where can we find them?"

"I don't know." Gordon said, "We more or less got separated after Black Mesa. But I have a feeling we'll run into him in the future."

"Well that's good to know!" Barret exclaimed.

The same robotic voice from earlier spoke over the intercom.

"WE WILL BE DOCKING MOMENTARILY! ALL UNITS REPORT TO YOUR STATIONS!"

"Right." Cloud said, "All of you get back to where you were and blend in, we'll meet shoreside."

Everyone nodded and left the room. Gordon and Barret were the only ones left.

"Hey Gordon." Barret said,

"Sorry about accusing you earlier, you're in this mess just as much as we are and I didn't mean to draw any discord between us."

"It's fine." Gordon replied, "Let's just get through this together."

Barret nodded and left the room, Gordon was about to as well.

"Gordon."

He turned around and saw Tifa was still in the engine room with him.

"Feeling better?" She asked.

"Yeah…….thanks for that." He said.

"One more thing" He then handed the red orb to Tifa who took it.

"You sure Gordon?" She asked.

"Yeah, you'll need it more than I do." He replied, leaving the room.

'Alright' She thought,

At least I was able to get him back into good spirits. I still need to figure out how he knows Cloud's background with SOLDIER.'

She then turned her thoughts to Benrey and Sephiroth.

It's been a while since I saw him…'