Cloud and Cid laughed and Vincent chuckled quietly. Until Erratic stepped into the cafeteria.

The others were at another table, and when Simon turned around, coffee spurted from his mouth onto the floor. Everyone stared at Erratic, who was followed by Politesse, Runner and Blazer. The latter three rolled their eyes.

"Pink?" Magdalena asked in disbelief. "Erratic, pink?"

"It's not pink," Eratic said smoothly, brushing off his new suit. "The colour is called maroon."

"Pink??" Simon exclaimed, one eyebrow raised in disgust. "Eeewww!! PINK??"

"Maroon, dammit," Erratic insisted.

"Pink," Storm said.

"Maroon!"

"Pink!"

"Maroon!"

"Pink!!"

"MAROON!!"

"You see what I mean?" Sephiroth asked to the background of "Pink! Maroon! Pink! Maroon!".

But at any rate, the group heading to the North were finally hustled onto the Highwind, where Magdalena was giving extended instructions to Storm and Simon on how to handle the large ship's crew. Lucrecia was speaking very seriously to Akiranni and Blazer hovered close by.

"You sure that was a good idea?" Magdalena asked Storm, nodding towards Akiranni, who happily skipped down into the lower decks. Lucrecia walked to Storm calmly.

"Please help look after her," she said simply. Then she put her arms about Storm's neck. "Come home safe," she whispered.

"I think Blazer's turned baby-sitter," Simon commented to Magdalena, ignoring Storm and Lucrecia as they exchanged a tender kiss.

"Blazes and Kira?" Magdalena blinked. "That'll be cute!"

"Yeah." Simon hesitated. "When we get back, wanna go out for a drink?"

Blue eyes blinked once, twice. "Sure."

Simon smiled awkwardly. "See you then."

Magdalena returned the uncertain smile. "Right." She turned to walk away. "C'mon, Lu! Quit kissing your boyfriend already!!"

Storm reluctantly gave up Lucrecia. "When we get back," he promised. She grinned before turning to run down the stairs.

Sephiroth looked down from the deck, hands gripping the railing. The Highwind slowly rose. Akiranni had come back up to wave to her parents merrily, apparently having lost her air-sickness. Lucrecia blew Storm a kiss. Cloud and Tifa were on the top of the building.

"Sephiroth!" Cloud shouted.

"What?" Sephroth shouted back.

"Make sure that boy doesn't do anything stupid!"

Storm muttered something beneath his breath while Blazer and Erratic laughed. Tifa elbowed her husband. "That wasn't a very nice thing to say," she told him.

Simon sat at a table in one of the decks, his rifle leaning on his chair and a cup of beer on the table. He looked morose. Erratic walked in and noticed immediately the almost-full cup.

"What's up?" asked the red-haired man.

Simon sighed. "Nothing."

"That don't sound like nothing, dude. I can see there's something wrong on your face. C'mon."

Another sigh. "Erratic, have you ever been in love?" Simon asked seriously.

Erratic pondered for a while. "Well.... there was a guy in Kalm once.... We were really close, until he got sick.... couldn't live very long, poor asshole...."

"Damn." Simon took the cup from the table and took a swig. "Never mind, then."

Erratic frowned, trying to discern the object of Simon's attention. Finally, he recalled a blue-eyed honey blonde back home. Yeah... she and Simon were together a couple of times, as far as Erratic could recall. But Magdalena was never ever serious about any of the guys she slept with. She was a creature of sensation, not one of long term desires.

"Oh, gods, Simon. Maggie??"

"I've known her all my life, Erratic. Why not?"

Erratic pushed his messy hair from his face. "Well.... she doesn't strike me as the loving kind of woman.... she smokes.... she curses.... errrmmmm what else.... she's.... well, just not the kind to settle down with."

"I don't want to settle down yet, either," Simon said dryly. "Let's not get thinking like Storm, who unofficially engaged to Lucrecia at twenty-four. Come to think of it, when are you ever gonna settle down?"

"As soon as I find a wife that don't mind my boyfriends."

Simon punched Erratic on the arm. "Get out of here, you perv."

Erratic chuckled. "All right... I just haven't found the right person yet. What about you?"

"Anytime.... but hopefully not soon."

"Then it's just a crush."

Simon snorted. "Crushes are for kids, Erratic."

"Not really. Even adults have 'em, too. It'll pass."

The blond man muttered a low oath. "Fine," he snapped.

Erratic sat in silence for a moment, then decided to liven things a little. "You wanna hear about my latest infatuation? This cute kid, he's an absolute sweetheart-"

"SHUT UP!!"

"Anything?" Sephiroth asked as he approached the young teenager at the railing, looking at the horizon. Akiranni was very much like her mother, but she looked very serious as her eyes scanned the area beneath the Highwind. Attentive and conscious of her surrounding, she definitely would have made it into SOLDIER First-Class.

"I thought I saw something flash," Akiranni muttered, more to herself than to Sephiroth. "Somewhere along the side of the crater... I could've sworn...." She turned to him. "You want me to check it out before we fly any closer?"

Sephiroth raised a silver eyebrow. "And just how are you going to accomplish that?"

Akiranni smiled. "Just tell Storm I've gone to check it out."

Sephiroth nodded, handing the girl a PHS. Akiranni put a foot on the railing and shot herself into the air, her wings sprouting as she fell, finally spreading out wide to allow her to glide through the air almost effortlessly. While she was still human, her skin had a reddish-orange tint to it and her face a little more feral than usual.

When she disappeared from sight, Sephiroth headed down to one of the lower decks where Storm was instructing the pilots. "Akiranni's gone to check out the Crater," he said straightaway.

"Huh? But she didn't even ask my permission!"

"Would you have given it anyway?"

"Well, no...." Storm turned to one of the pilots. "Connect to the PHS."

"Hi Storm!" Akiranni said cheerily when she answered her PHS.

"Kira, what the hell are you doing out there??" Storm demanded.

"Wait." There was a slight pause. "Oh, my... Storm, there is a huge vehicle down there!"

Storm and Sephiroth glanced at each other.

"Looks like someone dug it out from under a lot of rock," Akiranni commented. "Uh-oh. Hang on." Another pause. "Sorry Storm, I can't go any lower. There're quite a few monsters down there. They look like sentries! Um.... can I come back to the ship now?"

"Why? You're already down there."

"Because I'm feeling sick."

"Air-sickness?"

"No, dummy, those things are just ugly! I've never seen anything uglier in my whole life!"

Storm glanced at Sephiroth.

"Call her back," the older man said. Storm nodded.

"Akiranni, get back here before you - "

"Oh, SHIT!"

"Akira??"Storm shouted. "Akiranni! Answer!!"

There was a shrill scream, followed by several loud roars and animalistic shrieks. Blazer came running into the cabin. "Did I hear something scream in here?" he asked.

"It's Akiranni," Storm said grimly. "Full speed, pilots," he ordered.

"What about Akiranni??" Blazer asked, his eyes wide with alarm.

"She's either captured or wounded."

"Well, why the bloody hell did you let her get off the damned plane??" Blazer demanded.

"She went to check out the Northern Crater for us. Dammit! Can't this damned thing move any faster??" Storm turned to Blazer. "Tell Erratic and Simon to get ready! We're moving out soon!"

Blazer nodded sharply, running out of the cabin. "Simon!! Erratic!!" he burst into thec afeteria area where Erratic was still trying to commiserate with Simon. "Am I interrupting some atrocious mating ritual?" Blazer asked sarcastically.

"What bug ran up your ass this time?" Erratic asked, raising a red eyebrow.

"It's Akiranni. She went to check out the goddamn crater and she got caught by the monsters down there."

"Oohhhhhh," Erratic said in understanding. "Don't worry about your little girlfriend, man. She can take care of herself."

"She's not my girlfriend, dammit!"

"Then why are you acting this way?" Erratic murmured as he stood up, taking his rod into his hand.

Simon got up. "Oh, shut up, Erratic." He grabbed his rifle.

They ran up to the higest deck. Storm was waiting, pacing, his Ultima Sword strapped across his back. Sephiroth was off to the side, looking at the Northern Crater, as if wishing he didn't have to come back here. His masamune glinted in the sunlight. Simon loaded his rifle and checked the inside of his jacket to make sure he had many more bullets. Blazer did the same for his guns.

"There will be a lot of monsters to get through," Sephiroth said quietly to Erratic who'd come up beside him. The younger man nodded.

"Do you think we can get through?"

"I don't see why not."

"Are we ready?" Strom asked as the plane hovered to its landing.

"Yes," chorused the other young men.

"Let's go."

Simon stood with his back against the wall, his rifle in his hand. It was very well for the older generation to go busting around wherever they went, but this time, they had less ammo, materia was less powerful than before for some reason, and well, they hardly did any ass-kicking until recently.

Heading the group was Storm, with Sephiroth in the rear. It was uncomfortable being here.... there was an evil aura about this place.

"Okay," Storm finally breathed. "This is what we're gonna do."

"Errm... Storm? Whaddya mean, 'we'?" Erratic asked, his voice shaking a bit.

"Shut up, you chicken. We are gonna run. Like hell. Stick close and don't let any monsters get close. If anyone gets killed, I'm going to kick his ass when we meet again in the Lifestream."

"Ooo, we're so scared," Simon murmured. But he nodded sharply.

"Go!"

Storm dashed out, nearly smashing into a monster that was on its way to get him. He slashed out  fiercely, swinging around to kick with his heavy-booted feet. Neatly slicing off the head, he was about to lead on when three more monsters made them back into the corner they'd been hiding in once more.

Erratic released a fire spell at the middle monster, while Blazer took care of the other two with bolt spells. Simon and Storm literally jumped the monsters, with precision kicking two monsters out of the way and while Storm sliced the Ultima Weapon into the remaining monster, Simon held out his rifle and shot an incoming monster between the eyes.

As they ran like crazy, all four men couldn't help but glance behind at their senior, who had an expressionless face. Storm nearly mentally sighed, wishing he had the ex-general's opinion, but those thought disappeared as soon as yet another quartet of monsters came to face them off.

Blazer and Erratic swore and swung around to find Sephiroth taking out another beast in their rear. Blazer leapt up with his rod, smashing it down on the creature, casting an ice spell.

"Don't you have any summons?" Sephiroth asked.

"I don't know. Apparently after the Lifestream restored the Planet, we could no longer summon nor could our materia be as powerful as before." Blazer perform a leaping stance once again over Sephiroth's head, jabbing his rod into the eye of a monster that had come up behind Sephiroth. The latter nodded his thanks, and both of the continued looking out behind as the group continued.

"I think we're almost there," Sephiroth managed to say out loud. "The feel of Jenova...."

Storm closed his eyes. Help me! he shouted.

Sephiroth was startled to hear the young man's thoughts. The presence in his mind lifted for a moment, then returned. In that moment, Storm nodded and continued running. "This way!"

Simply because their leader had little inclination to fight the monsters that came to block their path, the men ran off the walls using momentum and all the acrobatic skills they possessed to dodge the roaring beasts. The adrenaline was hyper intense.. until they reached what appeared to be a wall of metal.

"Damn!" Storm swore.

"Why?" Simon asked, panting.

"They're behind that wall!" Storm turned to the others. "We're gonna have to find another way in."

"You were so damned sure this was the correct way!!" Blazer shouted.

"Yeah, but you can see-"

"I don't care, dammit!" Blazer yelled, striding towards the wall with sheer anger etched on his face. "AKIRA!!" he roared, leaning his ear against the wall. "AKIRA!!"

"I will wisely say nothing," Erratic quipped.

"We don't need your jackass comments now..." Storm growled.

"Did you hear that? I can hear her! It's not that thick a wall!" Blazer suddenly exclaimed. He began striking the wall with all the spells he could muster even in his weakened state.

"Take it easy, man!" Erratic yelled, running to his friend. "We need you alive!"

"Children..."

Everyone turned to see Sephiroth motioning for them to move aside, which they did cautiously. There was a loud bang and a bright flash of light. When the light cleared, the wall had been blasted in.

"Now, we can go in."

When the other simply gaped, Sephiroth snapped. "Will you hurry up?? There're monsters headed this way!!"


Storm leapt into the room, weaving among the corridors. This wasn't here when my parents first came here.... he realized. Nor has even SEPHIROTH seen this.... What is this place? Aeris!

Even as he almost blindly ran, he felt the distinct impression he was going the right way. And soon, loud yellings and curses that drifted down the moldy hallways confirmed his hunch. Akiranni sounded enraged, defiant, but not frightened.

"AKIRA!!"

"Oh, great."

"What's wrong with him??"

"I HATE YOU DAMMIT!! DO YOU KNOW THAT??? SO DOES MY MOTHER, MY FATHER, MY SISTER, MY BROTHER EVEN YOUR WIFE AND SON! YOU'RE A BASTARD! LET ME GO, YOU - "

"Such language!" someone gasped mockingly, causing Storm to stop short. Blazer, however, smashed into him, Simon behind him, then Erratic, Erratic having done that for fun. Sephiroth walked right up to Blazer and held the young man's arm.

"I'll kill him!" Blazer hissed in anger.

"Later," Sephiroth said flatly.

"YOU'RE WORRYING ABOUT LANGUAGE?? YOU, OF ALL PEOPLE?? YOU WANNA SEE LANGUAGE?? WELL, YOU GOT IT!!!"

The torrents of expletives that traveled down the corridors made all the men except Blazer wince. "Way to go, girl," he muttered. "Can we go now?"

Storm moved slowly toward the room where the loud curses were coming from. The rest followed, a bit more cautiously than he, because Akiranni's curses were pretty damn bad. Finally, they reached what looked like a door. It couldn't be called a door because it was just an opening in a wall. They stepped into, finding themselves on a wide ledge that spiraled along the walls down... down.... down....

And Akiranni's voice was quite steadily travelling upwards and then some.

"We are... gonna jump down there?" Erratic asked, looking over the ledge.

"No, we're going to fly," Storm answered sarcastically, also looking over the ledge.

Akiranni was in what could be called a cage, her hands gripping the bars and shaking them furiously. Her wings, larger than usual, perioidically slammed into the bars in an effort to get them to break. Hojo was smiling as he stood in front of the cage, watching her. In his hands, he held what looked like a collar.

As if sensing their presence, he looked up. "Ah. So there you are. I was wondering how long it would take for you to get here." He gestured, and a circular blue platform disc rose from the ground behind him and floated up to the top of the room. "Do, come down."

Storm glanced at the others, who were eyeing the disc with a large amount of suspicion which he supposed was healthy. Sephiroth's eyes narrowed. Storm shrugged and put one tentative foot on the disc. Then, he stepped with the other, looking at the others to see whether they'd do the same.

"What an absolutely delightful fellow for a son Strife has," Hojo said in glee. "Are the rest of you coming?"

Sephiroth took a step back. "I'm walking," he said coldly. "I don't trust him..."

Simon took his side. "Sorry, Storm, but I don't trust him either."

Blazer jumped onto the platform, eyes looking down at Akiranni. Erratic shrugged apologetically to Sephiroth and Simon, then got onto the disc. With a hollow sound, the three of them descended.