Salkas and Yuffie were still plodding about in the LifeStream; it seemed that they had been down there for hours. After a time,
they finally came to a fork.

Right or left? asked Salkas.

Hmmm…right.

They began to head in that direction when a tremor shook throughout the LifeStream, a strong current pushed past the pair.

Uh, left? Yuffie corrected.

That can’t be good… thought Salkas, then, run!

Run? Yuffie questioned.

Swim, do SOMETHING.

The two began frantically swimming down the left path, never looking back for fear of what they’d see. After what seemed like
forever, they came saw a light shining down.

Oh, thank GAWD! Yuffie seemed relieved.

So, they swam towards the light.

“So that’s how it is…” Vincent was saying, his voice sounding impatient, “Did Tseng ever tell you where he got the gun?”

“He said it was from some place called Eldridge.”

“Well, I must be going now….”

“Oh please, Vincent, won’t you stay for just a little longer?”

“Afraid not, hearing your stories has added upon me another sin.”

“Vincent…” she called after him.

“Goodbye Lucrecia,” it was best not to worry about her feelings, for that would probably force him to go back, it was better to
go on, and forget Lucrecia forever.

As he exited the cave, much to his surprise, he saw a young man climbing out of the center of the small ‘lake,’ which Lucrecia
called home. This kid could mean trouble. He drew the Death Penalty, which had come from a mysterious country known as
‘Eldridge,’ and aimed it at the back of the kid’s head.

“Stop where you are and put your hands where I can see them,” he stated quietly but firmly.

When Salkas emerged from the LifeStream, he thought that the popping sound was just his ears getting used to being above
ground again. Mistaking the voice, however, was impossible.

Without argument, Salkas raised his hands in a show of surrender, knowing that he had no chance against the unseen foe, for he
was weaponless and the other man had the element of surprise on his side.

“Ok, good. Now turn around…slowly.”

Salkas began to do so, when Yuffie poked her head out of the water.

“Gee, Sal, you shouldn’t swim so fast, I think we lost it.”

This distracted the other man enough that Salkas had time to quickly turn and dislodge the weapon from the man’s hands. A
shocked look spread across his face as he drew the Outsider and aimed it at the same time Salkas turned his own weapon
against him.

He glanced to the left, “This one yours, Yuffie?”

Salkas looked confused, “Do you know this guy?”

“Salkas, put the gun down.”

He looked at the gun then hamded it back to its owner. “Uh, sorry about that,” he apologized to the man dressed in black with
the red cowl.

“No problem. I must keep in practice, if this were to happen more than once, it would be fatal the second time.”

“Well, I’m Salkas,” he said extending his hand.

“Vincent.”

After a time Salkas withdrew his hand.

“Uh, guys?” they seemed to have forgotten Yuffie.

They turned around to face her, “Shouldn’t we be worrying about that thing that was behind us.”

As if on cue, the ‘thing’ that was behind them burst from the middle of the lake. Yuffie and Vincent gasped at what they saw. It
was Jenova.

“Do you have a weapon?” Vincent asked Salkas.

“No….”

“Then take this,” he said, tossing Salkas the Outsider, “I trust you’ve used a gun before?”

“Yeah, sure.”

“Well enough chit chat, lets take her out!” Yuffie yelled.

Since all three were equipped with long range weapons, they all spread out as far as they could, hugging the cliff wall. Vincent
struck first, launching a volley of bullets at the monster. The bullets appeared to have no effect as the deflected harmlessly off
Jenova’s outer covering.

Yuffie readied the Conformer and hurled it at the beast, but again, there was no effect. She pulled out a fire materia and yelled,
“Fire!”

An inferno appeared from nowhere and fried Jenova, at least it seemed that way. What little wounds they had given it began to
heal. Although Salkas had done nothing yet, he saw the futility in the battle.

“This is hopeless, let’s get the hell out of here.”

Yuffie seemed to agree, “Vincent, are there any exits through this cave?”

Vincent lowered his weapon and appeared to think, “Not that I know of, but I don’t think we have a choice….”

Vincent, Salkas, and Yuffie turned and entered the cave.

Vincent looked around for an exit and believed he saw one. He started forward but the form of Lucrecia lurched out and
grabbed him, “You cannot escape the mother!” she cried in a ragged gasp.

Vincent merely cast her away with his claw arm and continued on, unaware that she had already begun to change. As Salkas
walked by, a tendril snaked out and pierced him in the thigh, he cried out as he fell to the ground. He pulled out his gun and shot
the Jenova crazed woman. She let out a shriek and began to grow again.

“Damnit!” Salkas yelled as he turned and began to hobble away, the wound looked like it was beginning to fester. It was
probably poisonous.

“Hurry up! I’ve found an exit!” Vincent exclaimed from near the back.

Salkas started to follow the sound of his voice, then stopped. Where was Yuffie? He called out her name but received only
silence in return.

He rushed back to the spot he had been at before. His leg was killing him but he forgot it all as he saw Yuffie entangled in
several of the Lucrecia-thing’s tentacles.

“Yuffie!”

The thing heard him and turned toward him. Before he could raise the gun, another of the creature’s limbs swatted it away and
encircled him, it flailed him about wildly, almost making him lose consciousness. Salkas saw no way out of it, he had no choice.
He closed his eyes and began muttering, seemingly to himself. Blazes of fire appeared from nowhere and enveloped the beast.
Sweat beaded on Salkas’ forehead as he concentrated. The creature began to slowly burn away, its death cries could be heard
for miles as the creature became ashes, and eventually even the ashes disappeared. Salkas collapsed to the ground with a heap.
Yuffie scampered over to him.

“Salkas! Are you alright?” she shook him gently, trying to awaken him. He began to stir and opened his eyes.

“Yuffie…” he said simply.

She helped him to his feet, “Gee, we’re so lucky that you had that fire materia, if you didn’t we would of…” she paused, she
didn’t see any materia, “Hey wait a minute. Where is your materia?”

Salkas gulped, this was the moment he had been dreading, if he told her would it begin again? The endless persecution?
The…experiments? “There is no materia,” he said finally.

“No materia? Then how…” she never got to finish her question, because then the cave was rocked with the force of Jenova
again. Vincent appeared in the archway near the back of the cave.

“Hurry up,” it wasn’t a suggestion, it was a command.

Yuffie looked down, "Salkas! You're hurt!" she was referring to his leg.

"I'll be fine! Just go, I'm right behind you!"

Yuffie took off after Vincent and Salkas, as promised, wasn't far behind.

                    _______________________________________________________

They were almost at the Chocobo stables when it happened again. Cloud went crazy. Rambling on about some foolishness like,
‘A secret wish…no one can ever know…’ Stuff like that, it was a wonder he hadn’t gotten them killed yet.

He had gotten so bad, what with trying to kill Tifa and all, that Cait had to club him over the head with his megaphone. And not
just once, Cloud was a strong one and Cait Sith had to whack him a few more times, before he submitted to unconsciousness.
Now he slept lazily on the lean-to he and Tifa had constructed.

Cait again silently thanked Reeve for granting him sentience. In fact, all that Reeve had done was program his own brain
algorithms into Cait’s central processing unit. He was a Reeve ‘clone’ if you wanted to call him that.

And now Reeve was missing and Cait was on his own for the first time. It was understandable that Cait was scared, although
he could never really ‘die.’ If he did, Reeve would just build another model. It had happened before.

And it will happen again.

There it was again, the voice, was it a conscience? It was possible. Along with intelligence came the good and the bad. Cait
Sith sighed as the approached the cabin.

“Something troubling you?” said Tifa, who was walking alongside him.

Cait didn’t know if he could convey his true feelings to the woman. He decided that he would try.

“It’s just that it’s hard. You know, being alive,” he said the words with wonder.

“Yeah, it’s tough sometimes.” T

he two continued exchanging small pieces of idle chatter until they came to the cabin’s door. Tifa went up to it and knocked.
She stood and waited, there was no response.

“That’s strange…” she tried the door and to her surprise it was unlocked, “Bill…” she called out into the obviously empty
house. She turned to Cait.

“I’ll look here and see if there’s any clue to his whereabouts, help me drag Cloud onto this bed in here. He needs rest.”

Tifa and Cait dragged the wounded ex-SOLDIER into the room and laid him onto the bed.

“Ok, now I’ll stay here and you go see if he’s out at the barn.”

“Ok,” Cait agreed. As he left the cabin, Tifa didn’t even notice as the black-clad figure approached her from behind. When she
heard the advancing footsteps, it was too late. A solid object struck her in the back of the head and she collapsed in a heap.

Cait entered the barn and immediately was confronted by a screaming boy.

“He killed Pa!” the child exclaimed and Cait recognized it as the rancher’s son, Billy.

“Easy… Now what happened?”

“He killed him!”

“Who killed him?”

“The dark man!”

Cait knew that was about as much as he would get out of the boy, he was obviously distressed. Cait found his eyes wavering to
the beam standing in the center of room. Cait was appalled by what he saw.

There, hanging on the beam, as if some mental patient’s idea of a crucifixion, was William Hunter, known affectionately to the
world as Choco Bill. Cait hugged the boy close to him.

“Where’s your sister?” Cait asked.

“Chole is back in on of the pens, I tried to stop her, but she ran off when she saw father…” Billy began to cry.

Cait again looked at the carnage, the man’s throat was slit, and the flies were buzzing around his carcass. In his life, there was
only one person the entity who possessed Reeve’s memories had known to be so ruthless. It was no surprise when he turned
around and saw the ‘dark man’ carrying two bodies, one of each shoulder. The one on the right was Tifa, the one on the left
was Reeve. Cait wasn’t really surprised at that, for the man in the center was Tseng.

                    _______________________________________________________

Elena was still sitting in the guestroom of Lord Godo’s mansion when Gorkii came in. He thanked her for the thousandth time,
apologized for what seemed like the millionth time and then gave Elena what she really wanted, information.

“Ten years before Miss Yuffie was born, Godo was borne a son by his most honorable wife, the Lady Lei. That son was
Reniashou. Reniashou was a promising young man who showed the best traits of both his father and mother. Reniashou, or,
‘Reno’ as you call him now, made friends with a local boy who was a few years younger. When he was thirteen, the boy, who
was at the time seventeen, was sent to fight in the meaningless war. Many men died that day, including Reno’s friend. Reniashou
never forgave us for sending his friend out to die and one day disappeared. Yuffie was only three when this all happened, so she
remembers nothing, if not, very little.”

Elena leaned back in the chair. This had just began to sink in, “So that’s you Reno. You could have been a king, instead you
settled for us…”

“Miss Elena….”

“Leave me.”

“As you wish.”

Elena watched as Gorkii departed, she didn’t like talking like that with him, it was just her job beginning to grow on her. She
didn’t like being known as the ‘soft’ Turk, but it was true, nonetheless. She sighed and tried to get some rest. She, Reno, and
Rude would go their separate ways in the morning.

To Chapter 5