Chapter 3
 

 I heard a faint, male voice.   “Revive.”   I groaned.   Revive?   How about ‘fullcure’ followed by traction?   My body hurt, my hair hurt.   Geez, after a fall like that even my clothes hurt.   I tried to get up.   A cold metal hand stopped me.   “No, don’t try to get up.   You’re probably broken up in many places.”   The same voice.
 “My eyes?”
 “One looks swollen shut, the other is bleeding very badly.   Don’t try to open them yet.”
 “Vincent?”
 “Yes?”
 “The Turks?”
 “Gone.”
 “Sephiroth?”
 “Same.”
 “Tseng?”
 “Killed by Sephiroth.”   I didn’t want to ask about my pilot, I already knew.   He went down with his plane.
 “Who’s the ShinRa informant?”
 “Cait Sith.   Who he actually is we don’t know.”
 “Make him tell Rufus I went with the plane.   I’m going to need a short amount of freedom.”
 “Cloud’s coming with a cure materia, we’ll have you up shortly.”
 “My gun...”
 “Found it with your bag.”
 “Enemy-Skill.   Use Angel Whisper.”   It took a good half hour for it to full work.   When it did I only felt stiff.   Not like I was dropped a few hundred feet through razor blades.   “I’m going to skin Sephiroth alive.”
 “I thought you were married to him.”
 “Yep.   ‘Til death do us part.   Well...it’s time to part.”   He laughed.   “By the way, why was Hojo allowed to grab you?   It’s extremely rare he’s allowed to mess with the Turks.”
 Vincent visibly stiffened before he replied.   “I’m against human experimentation.”
 “Oh.   The irony.”   Oh boy.   If looks could kill the one he gave me would have scorched me to cinders instantly.
 “When this is over you and I are going to go a few rounds.”
 “Be nice to me Vincent.   I know where Lucrecia is.”   He froze.   I gave him the most beautiful smile I could muster then trotted off towards Aeris.   “How are you feeling?”
 “Worried.   Sephiroth has to be stopped.”
 “I know.   The question is how?”   She smiled, she had a plan.
 It didn’t take too long to reach Bone Village.   When we got there the majority of us went to sleep.
 I ended up sharing a tent with the lion.   They called him Red.   He was an interesting companion.   He was quite knowledgeable about a great many things concerning the Ancients and the Promised Land.
 I awoke early.   I had an empty feeling about me.   I peeked outside and caught a glimpse of Aeris running towards the Sleeping Forest.   I closed my eyes in dread.    ‘No, not alone.   He’s too dangerous.’   I woke up Red and Cloud then soon enough all of us were racing after Aeris.
 Upon reaching the Ancient City we were forced to split up.   There was too much ground that needed to be covered quickly.   I ended up with Cloud, Red and Vincent.   They were the only ones that remotely trusted me.
 We found her kneeling in prayer.   Cloud began to approach her as if he was going to strike her down.   After much yelling from the three of us he started to back away.
 It seemed that time had stood still, all four of watched as Sephiroth dropped in.   Seconds before Masamune connected and sliced through her Aeris looked up at us and smiled.
 It was gruesome, steel tearing flesh.   In seconds the dais Aeris was on was a pool of blood.   Cloud raced up to cradle her in his arms.
 I didn’t hear the conversation that passed between them, my mind was frantic.   This was my chance, it was the real him, again.   I could feel it, the voice that had pegged itself as Jiminy Crickett was screaming for me to save him.
 Vincent, Red and Cloud were getting ready to attack Sephiroth, but I knew he wouldn’t hang around for a confrontation.   I finally spurred myself to action when Sephiroth levitated up to teleport out of the city.   It was my only chance to find out where the hell he was hiding.   At full speed I charged, gracefully leaping over the pillars that led to the dais, on the last pillar I lept towards Sephiroth with all the strength I had.   I dropped my gun (the only weapon I brought).    I was successful.   I caught him and with the physical contact I was teleported along with him.

 I hadn’t realized that I had been knocked out, but as I awoke I took in my surroundings.   I was underground, locked in a make- shift crystal- like cage.   From what I could tell I was in the same place that my first bizarre dream took place.   I looked towards the ceiling, and there he was.   As in my dream he was cased in crystal, eyes closed, but no smile.   I panicked and looked at my clothes.   I hadn’t changed, but my weapons were gone.   A female voice sent chills through my body.
 “Nice tie Anne.”   I looked around trying to locate the source of the voice, there was faint movement in the shadows.   “I always thought that people who purposely tied a noose around their neck were kind of...stupid.”
 “I didn’t get to pick my uniform.”
 “The choice is yours as to whether or not you wear it.”   I had to nod in agreement, God knows I hated uniforms and had been remanded repeatedly for failing to wear it.   “Here, Sephiroth brought this for you...”   She materialized from the shadows with an ornate formal gown draped over her arms.   My jaw dropped... the dream... it was the same gown from the dream, but it was also the gown I wore the first night I met Sephiroth.
 More importantly I saw her, in the flesh.   Resurrected, very alive and very powerful.   My heart sank.
 We would never beat Jenova.   She would forever be a plague, a virus that kept manifesting itself as time goes on.   More importantly I realized this, she was no Cetran... at least not like any Cetran I had ever seen.   She was something else, something we had never seen before.   Something that was unbeatable in the arenas of this planet.   Whatever she was planning was going to catapult her to the status of a god.  My mind began screaming the only survival tactic I could fathom... ‘join them.’   I slammed my eyes shut.   If I joined them the blood of the people of this fair planet would be on my hands.   ‘But you’ll survive.’
 “Give me the gown Jenova.”   She smiled and handed it to me, then made a hasty retreat and reclosed my strange cell.   Something clicked in my mind.   ‘Why did she hurry from your presence?’   That question kept floating in my mind... then it fell into place, as simply as a child’s’ puzzle.
 She was afraid of me.   I smiled and repeatedly chanted that in the recesses of my mind.   ‘She’s afraid of me... afraid of ME?’   The inevitable question struck...Why?

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