Continued from page 2

After leaving Cosmo Caynon, the party heads for Tifa and Cloud's hometown, Nibelheim.  Nibelheim should be in ashes and ruins...but the town is still there???  UNCHANGED??  Talk about a cover-up.  Everyone insists that nothing happened!  Even Tifa is confused.  Also, there are hunched figures in black cloaks with numbers tattooed on them.  The search for Sephiroth has brought them to Nibelheim.  Why on earth would he come back here after all these years?  The crew decides to explore the Shinra mansion.  A letter from Sephiroth gives them clues on the combination to the safe on the 2nd floor.  Cloud opens it, and a monster, Lost Number appears.  This is a tough fight, but Cloud and Co. easily come out on top.  They then decide to explore the basement.  In one room there are coffins.  Examining one reveals a man.  He has been in there, asleep, for who knows how long.  He talks about Sephiroth for a minute, then asks about someone named Lucrecia.  After that, this stranger goes back to sleep.  The crew goes on, and winds up in the library that Sephiroth had been in for so long all those years ago.  Sephiroth appears, says something about a reunion, then disappears.  The trio goes to leave, and the stranger, Vincent emerges.  He joins the party, and they head out to climb Mount Nibel.  The path up the mountain is twisty and meandering.  Finally, the group encounters an enemy blocking their path.  The Materia Keeper.  After slaying him, they can continue on to Rocket Town.  At Rocket Town, the team is told to speak to the Captain.  They go to his house, and a woman there tells them to go to the Rocket.  The Captain is there.  He is expecting the Shinra.  Perhaps they are going to re-start their space program.  Cloud climbs up the Rocket, and the Captain is there, working.  Cloud noticed that the Captain owns a small plane.  He asks if the crew can borrow it.  The Captain says no.  The trio returns to the Captain's house.  He shows up, and the woman, Shera, gets it.  He yells at her, and at Cloud and Co.  He is blustering, but kind-hearted.  Shera explains that the Captain, Cid, was to be the first man in space.  She was an engineer, and was trying to fix a faulty oxygen tank the day of the launch.  Cid aborted the launch to save her life.  Now, his dreams of reaching the stars are only that--dreams.  Rufus shows up soon after Shera finishes her story.  Rufus also wants to borrow the Tiny Bronco, as the small plane is called.  Cid is not about to let him have it.  Shera tell the party to take it.  Out back, Palmer of the Shinra, is trying to steal the plane.  The trio fights off Palmer, and the plane starts moving??  Cid races and catches up to them.  He leaps aboard.  The Shinra shoot the plane out of the sky.  It is still savagable, as a boat.  The four head for the island of Wutai.
Yuffie runs ahead, after stealing the party's materia.  Great.  Looks like the chase is on.  The group reaches Wutai, and learns that Yuffie is Godo's daughter.  Godo runs the place.  They go to his house, and soon Yuffie shows up.  She and Godo get into it.  After playing this odd hunting game for awhile, the party finally finds Yuffie.  She and Elena have been taken by Don Corneo.  They are tied up on the Da-chao.  The Don has another pet for the crew to play with.  After defeating Rapps, the Turks show up.  They dispatch the Don and rescue Elena.  The Turks are on vaction, and the two crews leave without incident.
The team has learned that they must get to the Temple of the Ancients.  Problem.  They need the Keystone to get in.  They set out for the Weapons Dealer near Gongaga.  He had the Keystone, but sold it to Dio, the owner of the Gold Saucer.  They head to the Gold Saucer.  Dio is willing to give the Keystone to them, if Cloud will do some battling in the Battle Arena.  This he does, and the Keystone is theirs.  Uh-oh.  The tram is out of order.  Cait Sith, however, puts them up in the Ghost Hotel.  The party discusses what to do next: how to stop Sephiroth.  Finally, they all go to their rooms and call it a night.
Aeris shows up in Cloud's room a little later.  She wants to go out and explore.  This night, all the rides are free.  Aeris and Cloud ride the gondola, and get a breath-taking view of the Gold Saucer.  They also have an intriguing conversation.  Looks like romance could be in the air for these two!
They exit the gondola, and see Cait Sith.  He has the Keystone, and is giving it to the Shinra?  Looks like Cait Sith is a spy!  Cait Sith says that now that Cloud and Co. know he is the spy, he can stay.  Maybe Cait Sith can help them out...
Morning comes, and the team heads out for the Temple of the Ancients.  Once there, Aeris, Cloud, et all see Tseng.  He is laying on the floor of the Temple, gravely injured.  He has the Keystone.  The crew places it on the altar, and is transported to the heart of the Temple.  The heart is a serious of puzzles which the party must solve.  After solving the puzzles, the team comes to a room covered in heiroglphys.  Also, a Red Dragon is there, guarding the Temple.  Afer killing this beast, the team further examines the walls.  They show the Black Materia being used to summon Meteor.  They also explain that the entire Temple is the Black Materia.  Sephiroth shows up and exclaims that he will soon become a god.  The team decides that the only way to stop Sephiroth is to shrink the Temple and keep the Black Materia with them.  But, the puzzles that must be solved for the Temple to shrink must be solved inside the Temple.  Cait Sith volunteers his stuffed body for sacrifice.  The others leave.  On the way out, however, the team is caught in a battle with a Demon's Gate that doesn't want them to leave.  Finally, the team overcomes the foe and exits the Temple.  Cait Sith is solving the puzzles, and soon the Temple shrinks.  Cloud picks up the shrunken Temple, now the Black Materia.  Sephiroth makes an appearance, gets Cloud to give him the Black Materia, and then leaves.  Cloud passes out.  He dreams of a surreal forest.  Aeris is there.  She says that she is the only one who can stop Sephiroth.  Cloud tries to stop her.  But it is too late.  Sephiroth is onto her.  Cloud wakes up in Gongaga.  He, Tifa, and Barret head out to the North, looking for the entrance to the Sleeping Forest.
They go to the excavation site at Bone Village and get the workers to dig up the Lunar Harp.  With this instrument, they are able to enter the Sleeping Forest.  Cloud and Co. follow it to the City of the Ancients.  After exploring for a while and not finding Aeris, Cloud and Co. go to one of the abandoned houses and go to sleep.  That night, Cloud is awakened by Aeris's voice.  He and the others follow it to the house in the center of the city.  There is now a long crystaline stairway that leads down to a forgotten capitol.  Cloud and the other two descend and see Aeris kneeling at the altar, praying.  Cloud goes over to her, and begins to freak out.  His every move threatenes Aeris.  Cloud's teammates stop him, but Sephiroth doesn't mind getting his hands dirty.  Descending from the sky with his masumne blade drawn, Sephiroth stabs Aeris in the back.  She slumps over, dead.  The White Materia she inherited from her mother drops into the water below.  Sephiroth makes a few stinging remarks, then leaves to find the Promised Land.  He does give the party a gift: another Jenova creature.  The party, angry and sad over Aeris's murder, quickly chops Jenova to bits.
The team takes Aeris up to the lake in front of the central house.  They say good-bye, and Cloud carries her out into the water.  He lets her sink to the bottom, returning her to the Planet she gave her life to protect.  Later, Cloud swears vengenance, and the party heads out for Icicle Inn and the Gaea's Cliff.
End of Disc One.

The team must traverse the fatal Corral Valley Cave to reach the Icicle Inn.  Once there, Cloud and Co. explore Icicle Inn.  They find the house of a man who went exploring the Gaea's Cliffs.  He has a map that the party may borrow.  Then, the crew visits a kid who injured himself while trying to snowboard.  He loans the group his snowboard so that they will be able to reach the Cliffs.  The last place they visit is Ifalna's house.  Watching several of the tapes that Proffessor Gast left behind, Cloud learns about the Cetra, the truth about Jenova, and about the WEAPONs.  Ifalna was Aeris's mother, and Proffessor Gast was her father.  Finally, the crew heads to the back of Icicle Inn.  Elena shows up, infruiated about Tseng.  She goes to punch Cloud, but he easily steps aside, and Elena goes rolling out of Icicle Inn.
The party snowboards down the hill and reaches the Great Glacier.  They traverse it to find the entrance to Gaea's Cliffs.  At the base of the Cliffs is Mr. Holzoff's house.  He is an explorer, and has traveled these parts extensively.  He warns Cloud to stay warm on the long climb up the Cliffs.  Cloud heeds this advice, and the entire entourage of seven ascends the Cliffs to the Crater.  In the last series of caves, a boss fight ensues.  Schizo, an ice/fire elemental is easily defeated, and the seven continue on to the Crater.  At the Crater, many black cloaked figures are journeying, or have fallen aside.  What is drawing them?  The Crater has several barriers where only good timing can permit crossing.  Finally, the team reaches Sephiroth.  Sephiroth is just finishing off a few of the black cloaked figures.  He flies off, leaving yet another Jenova creature for the crew to fight.  After the fight, Cloud, Tifa, and the rest climb on.  Cloud and Tifa are taken back to the scene at Nibelheim.  It is the same, only this time, Cloud is not there.  Some guy with black hair shows up.  Tifa is shaken, but Cloud says that this illusion will not trick him.  He is Cloud of Nibelheim, childhood friend of Tifa.  Sephiroth shows them another scene, the one where Nibelheim was ablaze.  Cloud was not there.  He shakes this off also.  Tifa is again unnerved.  Sephiroth shows Cloud the truth.  Going over the to boy who had taken their picture before they went to the reactor, Sephiroth shows Cloud that he was not there.  Tifa can not hold the story together any longer. She breaks down.  But, she continues to assert that Cloud is her childhood friend. Cloud is thoroughly confused.  Sephiroth insists that Cloud is a creation of Hojo's, another Jenova-filled puppet.

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