“President Edmund.” Edmund looked up from his paperwork he had to do and looked at his cackling intercom in annoyance.
“What is it?” He barked, and he almost felt his secretary flinch at his harshness. He smirked. That’s right, he thought smugly, fear me. Like Rufus, he used fear, instead of wasting his precious money. It worked better than money anyway. He didn’t have to worry about being betrayed, the people feared him too much.
“S-S-Sir, A-A-Avalanche broke in and they… they…” the secretary trailed off, obviously fearful of his reaction. On the other hand, Edmund had been expecting this, but where had his guards been? He should speak to the guard leader soon.
“What did they do? Break in and rescue the Cetra? No matter, I will get her soon enough.” Edmund said, smirking as he remembered Jenova’s ‘pleasant visit’ this afternoon. It was nice to know he had a powerful ally, soon to be more when her ‘sisters’ arrived. Funny, he had always thought that she had been the only one.
“They did something else too sir. They destroyed all of the Jenova two specimens Koji was working on.” That got Edmund’s attention.
 “What!” he snarled angrily, getting up hastily, heading straight for the guard’s lobby.

“Something bad is going to happen, isn’t it?” Sephiroth looked at Christy startled, as she stared calmly at the stars, which seemed to be looking at each other nervously. The planet wasn’t singing, but it wasn’t crying out in pain either. It was just deathly silent.
“It depends on what we do.” Sephiroth said, neither comforting, even if he wanted to so badly, nor prophesizing doom. He didn’t want her to worry, but his awkward tries to comfort her would most likely be wasted. Christy sighed, looking up at him, and Sephiroth was surprised not to see the twinkling eyes that he had grown to love so much. They looked like shrouded sea, no longer glistening with happiness, but misted with worry. “We’ll make it. I promised I’d protect you, right. You don’t have to worry.” Sephiroth stuttered, not used to giving out reassurance. Christy smiled, closing her eyes and leaning against Sephiroth’s shoulder, a content look on her face.
“Good. That’s all I wanted to hear.” She whispered softly, entwining her fingers with his.

“Hey Natalia! What are you doing out here so late?” Natalia turned around to see Chris’s head poke out the door from the group’s part of the Shinra building.
“Watching the stars.” Natalia said softly, turning her eyes back to the veil of black with glittering stars. It was breath takingly beautiful, and it was such a shame no one else in the Shinra building noticed the beauty that was right under their noses.
“Anything special?” Chris asked, a little joking in his voice as he stood beside her, his hazel eyes also turned skyward.
“Yea, you.” Natalia said flirtatiously, giving Chris a wink before turning back to the stars, a slight blush on her face. She couldn’t believe she just said that!
“Right back at you.” Chris said, slipping an arm around her waist, and for some strange reason, Natalia let him keep it there. It felt oddly comforting, and not wanting to disturb the moment, she said nothing, just soaking in the beauty and simplicity of the moment.
 

“Isn’t that sweet?” Tifa said dreamily, staring at the same stars that Sephiroth and Christy were looking at. Reno looked at her, an eyebrow raised.
“It’s not nice to spy on the happy couple.” Reno teased, wagging a finger in front of Tifa’s face, as she giggled. She hadn’t meant to find Sephiroth and Christy out here, but then again, she and Reno weren’t the only people who liked to observe the stars.
“I wasn’t spying, just observing.” Tifa stated, while Reno rolled his eyes, plopping down right next to her.
“What’s the difference?” Reno asked, and Tifa shrugged, smiling as she looked at him as he slid an arm over her shoulders, drawing her to his comforting warmth. Serious all of a sudden, she looked at Reno silently, nibbling on her lower lip, a nervous habit.
“Do you think we’ll be able to beat Jenova and her sisters? It was hard enough just beating one.” Tifa stated, and Reno sighed, leaning back and looking up at the stars.
“Of course we will. We have you and the others, right? It can’t be that hard.” Reno said, and Tifa smiled, giving him a playful punch on the arm.
“Since when were you optimistic?” She asked, and he grinned, looking up at the stars.
“Since everybody started to be pessimistic. Have to be a rebel somehow.” Reno stated, and Tifa smiled, looking back at the stars with renewed hope. Maybe Reno was right. Just as things were looking up, a scream startled everyone out of their cozy thoughts.
“Jenova!” Tifa heard Christy scream horrified.

Cloud came running out as soon as Christy’s scream had pierced the air, his sword ready to defend his little sister. When he saw the evil alien however, his jaw dropped, along with his sword.
“J-J-Jenova?” he asked startled, not sure if his eyes deceived him, even though her cold black eyes told him that this really was her. It seemed that she had learned miracle plastic surgery, for she no longer looked like a horrible alien; instead she looked like some model, with wavy green hair and deep black eyes.
“Yes child! What do you think?” Jenova cackled, giving a half twirl, smirking at everyone’s shocked expression.
“It’s the inside that counts you ugly b****!” Yuffie snapped, and Jenova glared at her, then her eyes widened in what seemed like shock.
“You’re a Saquri! What is with the planet today?” Jenova snapped, clearly irritated, and then turned behind her, snapping her fingers. As if on cue, ‘Jenova’s Children’ came out of the shadows, and Yuffie suppressed the urge to cry, ‘they pulled a Vincent!’. “Have fun with your new friends, children!” Jenova cackled, disappearing in a cloud of horrible smelling mist, making Avalanche cough loudly, trying to get the water out of their eyes. With a yell, Jenova’s Children charged out of the mist, weapons and fists raised in battle stances.
“Let’s do this!” Avalanche shouted together, also falling into battle stances.

Elena inwardly cringed as Natalia’s rod came down where she had been seconds earlier with a loud clang. Quickly loading her gun with bullets, she fired two quick shots, missing once and the other getting her on the shoulder, making the purple haired girl glare at her with golden eyes. Twisting around, she turned and brought the rod crashing on her stomach, making the blonde bend over in pain. About to deliver a finishing move, Natalia suddenly jerked forward, blood dribbling down her lips. Startled, Elena looked up, only to see a familiar shuriken lodged into the poor girl’s back.
“Thanks Yuffie.” Elena whispered gratefully as the ninja girl dove down, dodging Malanda’s energy ball as she grabbed her shuriken, giving Elena a quick wink before jumping back up. Elena wouldn’t say that she wasn’t relieved to have Yuffie over whatever grudge she had been holding, and that she had actually helped her out too! Elena turned to notice Chris’s hazel eyes burning with hatred as he stared at the young ninja. Seemed like someone had a crush on the rod swinging girl…

Cloud ducked, barely missing Brad’s incoming sword. Brad swung over again, clanging with Cloud’s buster sword with his own short sword, gritting his teeth as he swung the massive sword away. Twisting his body, Cloud ducked, delivering a quick slash to Brad’s stomach, making him groan in pain, kneeling over, his hands pressed desperately against his wound. Before Cloud could deliver the final blow however, he rolled out of the way, gritting his teeth over to Malanda, who stopped shooting energy balls at Yuffie to heal him. Seems like she is the magic person of the group. Cloud couldn’t fault Brad for the will to live, and he could admire how he actually moved with that wound of his.

Christy paused for a precious second before turning to fire another round of bullets into an unsuspecting enemy when a clammy hand clamped itself over her mouth, startling her into dropping her ammunition.
“I have her, mother.” Christy heard, and she saw a stray piece of dark hair come into her vision. It was that whip girl! What did she want with her? Suddenly, she felt the air around them grow cold, and a familiar presence grew stronger, clouding Christy’s mind like thick smog of smoke.
“Good work my child. This will certainly get us somewhere.” A familiar cold yet sweet voice stated, and Christy’s sea colored eyes widened in shock. Jenova! What did she want to do to her? Before she could ponder this further, she felt herself slowly disappearing, her whole body beginning to burn with fire. Before she disappeared fully, she let out a scream, hoping anyone could come and save her.

“Christy!” Sephiroth shouted, turning away from James, who smirked. He had heard her familiar distressed scream, and it seemed by the look on everyone else’s face that they had too. Everyone had stopped their battling, and were looking toward an alleyway where the same mist Jenova had disappeared in was creeping out of. Jenova had taken Christy! Sephiroth pushed James down on the ground, his sword held to his throat, right on his Adam’s apple. “Where is she taking her for and why?” Sephiroth hissed dangerously, and James laughed cruelly, his eyes showing no fear at all.
“How does it feel to have a loved one taken away from you? How does it feel?” James asked, and Sephiroth pressed his sword tighter against James’ throat until it drew a trickle of blood.
“Tell me!” he hissed again, ignoring James question.
“Sephiroth.” He felt a calm hand on his shoulder, and he turned to see Tifa looking at him in concern, and Sephiroth sheathed his sword, knowing her hidden message. They would get her back, just like they had saved Tifa from that cell, even if it was the easiest rescue Sephiroth had ever performed.
“You’re lucky the lady is here.” Sephiroth snarled, giving James a savage kick to the stomach, making him curl up into a ball before he turned and followed the others, Reno and Cloud trying to support a heavily wounded Barret, Yuffie’s materia not doing any good since Yuffie had run dangerously low on MP.

“I don’t think I should go on.” Barret wheezed, still trying to breath with a huge bandage wrapped around his large waist that was stopping the bleeding from the wound he had received from Chris.
“Why do you say that, Barret?” Cloud asked, and Barret took another wheezy breath before answering.
“I should be a betta’ father ta’ Marlene, and besides, I only get in tha’ way.” Barret stated, and the look on his stubborn face meant he wasn’t going to change his mind.
“If that is what you want to do Barret, its fine with me.” Tifa stated, a knowing expression on her face. Yuffie nodded in agreement, not really sad to see him go. She and Barret had never really gotten along well anyway. After giving Barret a brief farewell, everyone trooped out of the room, Reno giving a casual two fingered salute, signifying he’d watch over her before following the rest of Avalanche out the door.

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