Final Fantasy - All Series Fan Fiction / Tenchi Muyo Fan Fiction ❯ Cetra Muyo OAV ❯ Party on the Highwind ( Chapter 6 )

Cetra Muyo OAV
(No Need for a Cetra OAV)

written by K-chan

Episode Six: Party on the Highwind!


The debris from the destroyed bridge of Yggdrasil were drifting along in silence as Sephiroth stood on what was left of the holy tree, clutching onto the remaining pink cloth of his beloved Aeris. He was thinking all sorts of gruesome ideas to kill Hojo for what he had done, but his eyes caught onto Red-Ohki floating by.

Instead of staying in space where oxygen was absent--but apparently he was grieving so deeply that he just forgot the MINOR detail--Sephiroth immediately teleported onto the main deck of Red-Ohki, where Rufus, Cloud and Reno were still in shock from the horrible incident. Reno was the first to snap out of it, glaring at Sephiroth, "Weren't you f**kin' captured?!!"

After hearing that, Rufus's briefly void eyes were filled with rage, directing it at Sephiroth now, "WHY DIDN'T YOU ESCAPE SOONER?!! WHY?!!" He turned away and dropped his head in his hands, "Why?!! Why, Aeris? Why did you risk your life for someone so unworthy?!!"

"Now is not the time for mourning," the silver-haired man announced, "It is vengeance that we must seek."

Rufus covered his ears in frustration, denying that Aeris was truly gone, "SHUT UP!! JUST SHUT THE F**K UP!!" Sephiroth just threw the bloody fabric in Rufus's face to get him to see the truth. The blonde just stared wide-eyed at the item in his hands. His lips trembled, not sure nor able to form any words.

Cloud watched his brother with great concern, but he knew he couldn't console him with any words right now. He had to face it on his own, but Cloud himself was torn inside at the acceptance of Aeris's death. She was like the sister he never had, and like the others, he had grown fond of her.

Reno, on the other hand, was too pissed to worry about the others. His mind worked similiar to Sephiroth's but ten times as irrational and filled with obscene words, directing it at Hojo, of course. Aeris was the first (and only) girl to ever treat him with respect, despite his classless personality, and for someone to kill the most kindest person in the universe was outright sinful (not that he would care about sins).

"I will board the Highwind," Sephiroth broke them out of their thoughts, holding a nice gleaming Masamune he had just sharpened, "and kill Hojo myself."

"No, Sephiroth," Cloud interrupted, "You're not going alone." He looked at his brother and then to Reno and said, "We may have our differences, but one thing we have in common is Aeris. We all have to avenge her death, and we're also doing it for the future. Aeris wouldn't want a madman running loose in the universe."

"F**k the universe," Reno shouted, "but Hojo will pay with his life! I'm in!"

"Red-Ohki!" Sephiroth called. The ship immediately roared with intensity as it charged at the Highwind with everything it had. Red-Ohki pierced the target's shield and crashed into the ship. The four, young men reappeared from their ship onto the Highwind, all decked out in their battle outfits (which pretty much was what they usually wore) with weapons in hands.

There were two main hallways, and they silently agreed on splitting into two groups: Sephiroth & Rufus and Cloud & Reno. Being quite competitive against Sephiroth, Rufus wasn't about to let the ex-Space SOLDIER any chance at killing Hojo first. Besides that, Reno would never openly admit his fear of Sephiroth, but the long-haired man just gives him the creeps. And Cloud couldn't care less to who he was paired with.

The two groups proceed down their different paths, both facing robots and monsters varying all sizes--even tiny ones that Rufus accidently stepped on, ruining his boots. He lifted up his boots and cringed at the purple slime oozing to the floor, "S**t, these were my favorite pair," he grumbled. He looked over at Sephiroth to see how the guy was doing and facefaulted at the sight of silver-haired man covered in the purple slime after slicing and dicing through an army of monsters.

Rufus blasted several shots at the robotic arms coming through the walls. After the hallway was cleared, he called, "Sephiroth."

"What?" He swung his sword aside, flinging off the excess slime, and then sheathed through his belt hook 'cause he really didn't have a sheath for it.

"You reek," he said, pinching his nose, and walked at a far distance from him. Sephiroth just stared blankly ahead, and after a few seconds, he lifted his arm to his face and sniffed the slimy odor. He put it back down to his side, keeping a passive look, and concluded quietly, "Hojo, you're DEFINITELY a dead man."

~ * ~ * ~ * ~

Meanwhile, Hojo was sitting in front of his organ and looking through a booklet to pass the time away. He was peculiarly immersed in what read 'Pipe Organ Lessons by Kagato' on the cover. After a few pages, he tried his hand at the instrument before, TRYING to sound better, but it was STILL not working.

If it was possible to have a word from the author of the book, one can certainly predict his words: 'I'm not a miracle worker,' Kagato would say. [SD-K-chan sweatdrops: Just stick to science, Hojo.]

~ * ~ * ~ * ~

While this was all happening in the Highwind, something awesome was about to occur in space. At the wreckage of the Yggdrasil bridge, Aeris was wholly encased in some sort of bubble, but the blast really did a number on her body of cuts and bruises. Then faint waves of glowing green began to appear and circle around Aeris, who remained unconscious. The green streams continued to gather around her, radiating brighter every time, and soon, she disappeared in the flash of green light.

~ * ~ * ~ * ~

Back on the Highwind, Cloud just finished cutting through several robots. He placed the Ultima Sword in its place on his back and wiped the sweat from his forehead. He saw ahead, where the two hallways converged, that his brother and Sephiroth were moving on, but when he heard a beeping go off, he glanced back at Reno. The red-head threw his favorite words in the air as he fumbled with the TURKS's device, "I f**kin' swear this thing's out to get me."

"Then, why the hell do you STILL have it?!" the blonde said, annoyed. "Just throw it away! We have to catch up to the others!"

"Fine fine! I'll get rid of the damn thing." Giving up on it, Reno threw it over his shoulder, but what neither expected was it to emit a blinding light that absorbed them into a parallel subspace of the Highwind. After the light faded away and Reno picked up again, thinking maybe it COULD be useful. He hurried after Cloud to catch up with the others, neither realizing that they had been pulled into a parallel subspace--a plane different than that of Sephiroth's and Rufus's. The lost pair passed through an archway of the so-called mirror world, similar to the others in the real one.

~ * ~ * ~ * ~

Sephiroth and Rufus arrived in Hojo's main chamber, glaring at the form of the scientist as he continued to play horribly on the organ. To make matters worse, Hojo started to play "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star" for the hell of it, and it pretty much annoyed Sephiroth who yelled, "STOP IT, YOU EVIL, MUSICALLY-CHALLENGED, LITTLE TROLL!!"

Hojo stopped and rose from his seat to greet his visitors, "Kukuku~, the talent runs in the family." He bowed to Rufus, "Welcome aboard the magnificent Highwind, Your Highness... It will be your burial ground!"

The blonde fumed and aimed his shotgun at the man while Sephiroth pushed him aside, "This is my fight!" The ex-Space SOLDIER charged forward at Hojo and executed a sword technique with the Masamune, but Hojo continued to remain untouchable (not that anyone would want to touch him) because of the main shield generated inside the airship. The collision against the shield only forced Sephiroth back while Hojo laughed at his uselessness.

"Stupid Sephiroth," Rufus scoffed, "you forgot that minor detail, huh? It's my turn now." Raising his weapon at the madman, he chanted some words in another language that began to gather various colored energy around him, and the colorful light show delighted the giddy Hojo at such power. "SHINRA RAGE!" Rufus yelled, forcing his energy into the shotgun, and pulled the trigger. The powerful energy ball shot out at the barrier, trying to drill into it, as Hojo doubled the power of the ship into keeping up the defense, and in the end, the shield flared up and disintegrated Rufus's energy ball. The shockwave knocked Rufus unconscious, meters away, leaving Hojo the only one to be standing between the two.

"That power is no match for me," Hojo laughed and then started coughing from the excitement.

"You'll just die of old age later on," came Sephiroth's voice from behind Hojo, "but I'll do you a favor and end it now." While Hojo was distracted with Rufus's attack, Sephiroth was able to sneak up from behind and thrusted the Masamune through Hojo's throat, but the man suddenly disappeared. Dumbfounded to what happened, Sephiroth was caught by surprised when a hand grabbed him by the neck. Hojo emerged from the shadows, smiling, while Sephiroth tried to struggle free from the tight grip.

"You're losing your edge, Sephiroth," he taunted. "Don't you know I'm the greatest scientist in the universe?!! And clones are nothing to me! Ha ha--aack!" After a few minutes of gathering his composure, he then turned Sephiroth to stone and dropped him to the ground. Leaving the failure that is Sephiroth, he turned his attention to Rufus and began to search within his mind on the secrets of the Cetras (since the two royal families were close).

~ * ~ * ~ * ~

Meanwhile on the mirror side, Cloud and Reno had reached the equivalent of Hojo's main chamber, but they didn't see Rufus nor Sephiroth anywhere, not even Hojo himself. Cloud was too confused to utter a word, but that didn't stop Reno, "What the hell?! That bastard Hojo must've killed them!!"

"Hey! Don't say that!" the blonde admonished.

"What else could've happened?!" he retorted, "They're definitely not having tea time!"

"Of course not!" he said quietly, thinking that with Rufus's and Sephiroth's clashing personality, they wouldn't be able to have a pleasant, quiet tea time for five seconds before they'd be in each other's face... and right now, it was TOO quiet. "I'm sure they're around here somewhere," he tried to convince himself.

"So it's just the two of us now," Reno sighed, "But that doesn't matter! I'll kill that f**kin' Hojo! I'll avenge Aeris's death!!" While he continued to ramble on, Cloud began to explore the empty room. Up on the platform was a huge crystal with two giant snake statues on both sides, and just as Cloud stepped near them, the snakes became animated and started to attack him.

Cloud dodged them and realized Reno hadn't noticed yet. "RENO!" he shouted, running over to the red head, and tackled him from danger.

"Oh s**t! What the f**k are those?!"

"Obviously, they're giant snakes wanting to eat us," Cloud stated calmly. Reno glared at him but not for long when both had to split up to avoid the oncoming head attack from the two snakes. Cloud gathered himself and turned around to face his opponents. He ran straight for one with the Ultima Weapon in his grip, and he jump aside just as the snake slipped by him and slashed it with the blade. He looked back at the creature, but his attack didn't have any effect on it, probably because it had been stone to begin with... and Cloud started running again.

Reno wasn't doing so great either, only able to run and dodge the snake that was chasing him, and onto a more annoying note for him, his TURKS's device was beeping like crazy again. Running back and forth on the platform, he took the thing out of his pocket, cursing, and threw it randomly into the air. With everyone (and/or everything) preoccuppied with either saving their lives or hunting for food, they didn't notice the device had struck the crystal wall, which began to slowly crack apart.

"DO SOMETHING, RENO!" the blonde prince yelled, "The Ultima Weapon is useless against them!"

"DAMMIT! ALWAYS ME!! RENO THIS, RENO THAT!! F**K IT ALL!! DO I LOOK LIKE GOD OR WHAT?!!"

"NOOOOOOOOO!! THAT'S WHY I'M ASKIN' THE DEVIL FOR HELP, IDIOT!!"

Not realizing that Cloud had insulted him, Reno drew out the nightstick and started throwing out a wave of flames at the snakes, which was working. They were kept at bay, but only for a while because the flame was slowly dying out. "Aaawe s**t," he said, trying to shake more power out.

"What's going on?!" the Shinra prince asked impatiently.

"Hmm... the batteries are low." Cloud slapped his forehead. "Hey, simple mistake." Because of that little mistake of forgetting to recharge the batteries, it would be the death of them.

The fire would soon die out, so Cloud had to think of something, but what? That was when he heard a crack behind him. He saw the lengthy fissure in the crystal, and what surprised him more was in the crystal was someone trapped inside. He couldn't think of anything else to do, so he used the Ultima Weapon and smashed the crystall wall to pieces. Just as the shattered crystal fell to the ground, Reno's fire went out too... but it was then the snakes began to tremble in fear. He was puzzled at to what had caused it until he looked back and saw Cloud watching a figure come out from the broken wall of crystal.

"*!#&%*$ ^!#&*!# &$^@ %!&#@! Hojo ^!#&*!# *!#&%*$ %!&#@! &$^@" came the foul mouth -- worse than Reno's -- of the new face, who was all dressed from head to toe in a pilot's uniform. The only thing that made it through Cloud's ears was the name Hojo, and it wasn't said nicely either. "Who the hell are you people?!" the blonde pilot demanded, holding a spear in their faces.

"I'm Cloud Strife, second prince of SHINRA-SEI. This is Officer Reno of the TURKS Force."

"Huh, so you two set me free," he said, taking a cigarette from his jacket pocket, and lit it. Cloud and Reno glanced at one another, confused, while the strange man just took a smoke break. He looked pass the two and saw the giant snakes, "Dammit, what the hell did that f**kin' Hojo do to those snakes?! Last I saw, they were the size of worms!" He took the his spear and marched directly to the snakes and start shooing them away. They whimper away because of the cloud of smoke burning their senses. "Damn that Hojo, playin' God around here," he muttered, "still at it after six hundred and sixty-six years."

"Umm, so Hojo imprisoned you in the crystal wall?" Cloud inquired.

"Yeah, the name's Cid. Cid Highwind."

"CID HIGHWIND?!!" Reno repeated, "You mean THE Cid Highwind that created the first series of airships?!"

"Heh, that's right. And the one we're on is the very first, but that damn Hojo took over after he got rid of me. He's still causing more trouble than ever, huh?"

"That's an understatement!" Reno yelled, "That f**kin' bastard killed Aeris!! When I see him, I'm gonna ram the nightstick down his throat and--"

Cloud cut in, "After it gets recharged, right? And we have to find the others first."

With a wave of his hand, Cid made an unconscious Sephiroth appear before them, "You mean him?" The long-haired man was still suspended in mid-air as Cid observed him, "Hmm, I have to say that Hojo is talented, creating someone like Sephiroth... but nothing is perfect. He is still human after all."

"Right," Reno rolled his eyes, "Psychotics need to have their own category."

"Who's psychotic?" Sephiroth murmured, waking up, and his feet were on the ground once again.

"Nevermind," the red head grumbled.

"Are you all right, Sephiroth?" Cloud asked. "What happened? And where's my brother?"

"He's with Hojo," Cid said, watching a screen that has CHEF Hojo cooking a dish with Rufus tied to a stake in the background. "Hojo is one sick man," he said in disgust.

"He has always been that way," Sephiroth began, "searching for the secrets to the Cetrans his whole life. He'll never rest until he has it."

"No," the blonde pilot said, puffing out smoke from his mouth, "Not that. Only Hojo could ever make tomatoes into ice cream flavor." He, Cloud and Reno made gagging noises as Chef Hojo scooped out some tomato ice cream and put it on a cone, topped off with whipped cream.

"I'll kill him," Sephiroth stated coldly, glaring at the scientist's image.

"YOU will kill him?" Cid questioned with a raised eyebrow. "You will kill your own father."

"WHAT?! HE'S YOUR FATHER?!" came Cloud's and Reno's voice, and the latter added quietly, "I definitely saw the damn resemblance."

"He's NOT my father," Sephiroth seethed, "He's a weird, little troll with no musical talent. He needs to be killed for my nightmare to end... and... and just because I said so."

"Huh," Cid smirked. An ashtray appeared in mid-air, and he flicked the ash of the cigarette into it. "Whatever floats your boat, kid." Sephiroth grinned before fading back to the other side to continue his battle against Hojo. Seeing him leave, Cloud and Reno tried to follow him, but they just hit the transparent wall and fall back. Cid explained, "We're trapped in the mirror side of the Highwind. People and objects can only pass one way from the real plane to the mirror one."

"But wasn't Sephiroth just here?"

"That was just an astral projection of his body. His real body is still on the other side."

"Damn, this is so confusing!" Reno complained.

"And we're helpless to do anything," Cloud added with a sigh.

~ * ~ * ~ * ~

Back on the real side, Rufus woke up to find himself surrounded by darkness. After a while, a young Analfi appeared before him, with a gentle smile. "Analfi..." he whispered.

"Rufus... it's good to see you again... But would you tell me..."

"Tell you? What is it?"

"Tell me why you wanted to marry me? Why the Shinras and Cetras are to be united? What about us that draws you to us? Tell me..."

Rufus suddenly became angry, "You're not Analfi!" She started laughing, then cackling, and finally coughing like the familiar Hojo, whose form appeared from Analfi's. "You know," Rufus said dryly, "that would have been true horror and I would have wet my pants if this wasn't a humor story."

"That is a minor detail! Tell me about the Cetras, or I will do the utmost horrible thing there is!!" Hojo threatened.

The young prince only grew bored, "As if this wasn't horrible enough."

"THAT'S IT!" A bright light flashed, and Rufus snapped out of Hojo's hypnotic trance. He was still bound to the stake in a kitchen setting (that Cid and others were watching from before), where he could see the melting tomato ice cream, and cringed in disgust. "Hmm, then I must come up with another way to get you to speak..." At that moment of thought, Sephiroth appeared and stabbed the Masamune into Hojo's arm.

Hojo screamed like a girl and ran off...

~ * ~ * ~ * ~

Aeris slowly woke up and found herself in a clearing near a glistening lake. The landscape was beautiful with faint streams of green light drifting in the air, very unearthly like she was in another world. She then examined her body and realized the wounds from the explosion were all healed. She noticed a bright glow pulsing in the distance, standing up, and walked towards the center, where a huge tree like the Yggdrasil stood. In front of the tree was a young man with long, black hair, and he was dressed in a similiar outfit as Cloud. When he turned around to her, she stopped and gasped, seeing that he reminded her so much of Cloud.

"Feeling better?" he asked warmly. She nodded and noticed he averted his eyes else where, sort of sad. When he looked at her again, he smiled, "Don't worry, you'll be leaving soon. Those whose destiny is not over yet don't stay here long."

"What do you mean? Where am I, and who are you?" she asked.

"My name is Zack. And this place," he walked over to the lake, "is the Lifestream."

"Lifestream?" she repeated, following to the edge.

"Yes, all life throughout the Universe converge here."

"I see..." Although it was still unclear to her about the Lifestream, she didn't have time to bother with that when the safety of her friends came first. "Zack, do you know where my friends are?"

An image of the Highwind appeared on the water surface as Zack told her, "I can sense Cloud's key inside the ship."

"Cloud's key?"

"He always carries it around."

"Oh! You mean that big sword, the Ultima Weapon was it?" He nodded, and she turned back to the image with a grave expression, "I have to help them. Zack, please take me to them."

He nodded again, "But I won't be able to be with you when you face Hojo."

"I understand..."

~ * ~ * ~ * ~

On the mirror side, Reno was still complaing about how unfair it was that they were trapped there and Sephiroth was having all the action and fun. Cid and Cloud were about to gnaw on themselves to relieve their heads of the TURKS officer's insane ramblings, but after a while, he finally shut up, plopping down on the ground, "So what CAN we do on this side? You designed the Highwind, there has to be a way."

Cid sighed, "I designed the Highwind, but I didn't create the two planes."

"So Hojo devised this subspace," Cloud reasoned, "which means the way to get out of here is for Hojo to free us?"

"And he ain't gonna do that willingly."

"That f**kin' asshole has to die then?" Reno growled.

Cid smirked, "Probably."

"Great, we're depending on Sephiroth," he said sarcastically.

"But hey, we can watch the show from here." Cid made the screen larger than before and stuck a bag of popcorn into the microwave, "It'll be a good fight. My bets are on Sephiroth... Hojo's ass'll get whipped within fifteen minutes."

"Haa, not that soon. I'll give him at least half an hour."

"C'mon, guys," Cloud groaned, "Sephiroth's better than that. I give him ten minutes!"

~ * ~ * ~ * ~

Okay, back to the real side of the ship... where the battle was not going well for Sephiroth and Rufus, only because Hojo, after crying his heart out in the restroom, came back with a gigantic Gundam-ish robot thingie that he was piloting. [SD-K-chan: Heero-kun's gonna kill Hojo for taking his Wing Zero... so let's celebrate!] The two men had been trying to coordinate their attacks without any success. The thing was just too big to take it all out, and their energies were already weakening.

Rufus casted a barrier spell that confined the robot within its hold while Sephiroth summoned a large pillar to fall on it, but the robot managed to emerge unscathed from the combined attack, smashing the stone pillar like it was a soccer ball into Sephiroth. It hit the wall, but Sephiroth was able to faze through the the meteor before he was a dead pancake. [SD-K-chan blinks: But how can pancakes be dead when they're not living??]

While Hojo was distracted, Rufus sent a fireball directly at the chest, where the cockpit was, but the spell didn't do any damage to it. Hojo then shot out an energy bolt at the prince that knocked him to the floor. Sephiroth reappeared above the robot and plummeted downward with the Masamune ready to slice through the Gundanium metal, but he wasn't quick enough for the robot, whose arm swung and smacked him to the wall (again) like the annoying mosquito that he was to Hojo.

~ * ~ * ~ * ~

Cid and the others had been munching on popcorn as they watched the intense battle unfold on the humongous screen before them. Cloud silently wondered why Sephiroth wasn't fighting at his fullest since he had seen the ex-Space SOLDIER in action before, and then it hit him as he watched Sephiroth rescue Rufus from the energy beams of the robot. If Sephiroth used his full power, Rufus would die from the result. "Hey, Cid," he called, "Can you teleport anyone to the mirror side?"

"Huh? Yeah, sure. Why?"

"I want you to bring Rufus here. He's only in Sephiroth's way."

"Yeah, I kinda noticed that. All right, anything to kill Hojo." He pulled the TURKS device from his pocket that he had picked up earlier and pressed a few buttons to activate the process. Reno watched amazed at what the annoying item could do as a weak Rufus appeared on the mirror side of the airship.

Hojo's fuming face popped up on the screen and yelled, "HIGHWIND, YOU IDIOT!! WHY DID YOU GO AND DO THAT?!! NOW I CAN'T CRUSH BOTH OF THEM IN MY HANDS!!! YOU EVIL MEANIE!!"

Reno threw his bowl of popcorn at the screen, "You can't even f**kin' kill 'em with that s**tty robot! How in hell do you expect to even kill them with your OWN hands?!"

"SHADDUP!! YOU KNOW HOW HARD IT IS TO BE A VILLAIN AND STAY ALIVE WHILE KEEPING THE STORY GOING THIS LONG?!!! HMMM??!! EVERYONE'S SO UNGRATEFUL!!! JUST FORGET IT!!"

"Someone give me some aspirin," Rufus groaned from his weariness of the fight and now Hojo's yelling, and Cid handed him the super-size bottle. "Thanks."

~ * ~ * ~ * ~

Before Sephiroth could summon the ultimate spell at his disposal, he suddenly froze in his spot but struggled hard to break free of the invisible hold on him. He was Hojo's son but had always been more of a laboratory experiment more than anything else, and so being controlled once again came to as no surprise... but for Aeris, he would try his best... If only, if only he was stronger... If only his reason to kill Hojo wasn't to avenge Aeris's death... but to protect her, then it would mean more...

"You have tasted my power before," Hojo warned, "Unless someone tells me the secret of the Cetras, then I will destroy the Planet as part of an experiment." Being the villain that he was, Hojo didn't give them much time to answer. He fired upon the Planet anyway.

~ * ~ * ~ * ~

Rufus and Cloud started to panick since Aeris's family were still down there, and they watched helplessly as the beam soared to the Planet... but it never even came close to it as some sort of barrier absorbed the column of energy. Then the Highwind was attacked by several energy beams by an unseen enemy despite the heavy defenses Hojo had established. Eventually the attacker revealed itself as a a vessel, which was shielded by the six Ancient Fairy Wings. Rufus immediately gaped at the oncoming airship because he knew its identity, truly different from the Yggdrasil and even more powerful.

"The Ragnarok..."

~ * ~ * ~ * ~

Hojo's eyes seemed to twinkle at seeing the powerful Ancient Fairy Wings, and he drooled at craving for that power, like he did a steak sandwich. He had to snap out of it because the Highwind was no match for the Cetrans' legendary airship. He tried to squeezed Sephiroth to death, but the robot's arm was suddenly slashed off.

He gasped and looked in the direction of the attacker, seeing Aeris who was dressed in traditional Cetran battle gear that appeared to be similiar to a kimono of white, red and pink. Hojo then smiled a creepy yet amused smile at seeing the girl with again. He was even more delighted when she propped the Royal Guard with the three powerful materias in the center of the room and stepped back with her hands clasped together and her eyes closed.

"Kuku, I see you give it to me willingly," Hojo chuckled as the one-armed robot loomed over her tiny frame. "Very well, I shall grant everyone a quick and painless death."

"AERIS!" the guys shouted. A weak Sephiroth pleaded to her, "Aeris, escape from here... Run!"

She opened her eyes and stared at him gently, "It'll be okay, Sephy... This time, I won't let you down. I'll protect everyone." With great determination, her whole body radiated with a bright light of immense energy. It was a familiar energy that Hojo felt before... was it the same one from the Ragnarok?! It was the same energy that generated the Ancient Fairy Wings, the power of the Cetras that Hojo had sought after and also feared.

"AAAAAAAAAHH!! I'LL STOP YOU!! I'LL KILL YOU!! MY SCIENTIC GENIUS AGAINST THE CETRAS' LEGENDARY POWER!! WE'LL SEE WHO WINS!!" Hojo shot out everything he had from his robot right at Aeris, whose illumination began to expand and clashed against Hojo's artificial energy in a blinding light.

Everyone shielded their eyes from the brightness, also wondering what the results of the intense fight what, and when the light faded away, nothing of the robot nor Hojo was left. The pure Cetran energy of the Aeris's generated mini-Ancient Fairy Wings had completely disintegrated the madman and his inventions.

~ * ~ * ~ * ~

With the death of Hojo, everyone that was on the mirror side was now able to return to the real one, and both Rufus and Reno gazed at Aeris with great respect and admiration. They started running towards her, BUT Sephiroth tripped them on purpose, telling them, "I will be the one to give her a kiss."

Rufus and Reno fumed from their positions on the floor while Sephiroth turned around and nearly facefaulted at the sight of a smiling Aeris petting Red-Ohki (in his feline form, duh). He marched up to them and pulled his feline companion aside and admonished him, "Being long time friends, you should know better..."

Red-Ohki, in his usual calm tone, asked, "Know better about what?"

Sephiroth sweatdropped and then decided to leave it at that, but when he turned around to Aeris again, there was Cid, chatting away with Aeris, "Cid Highwind at your service, Miss Aeris. I would've loved to kick Hojo's ass to oblivion, but all the same, thanks for doing me that big favor. If there's anything you need, don't hesitate to ask!"

Aeris bowed, "No, it was nothing. I'm glad I was able to help, although..." She looked up, but Cid was already pulled aside by Sephiroth. She couldn't hear what they were talking about either.

"So what is it?" Cid questioned, rather annoyed too that Sephiroth just destroyed his positive mood.

"Stay away from Aeris," Sephiroth warned.

"Oh? She's your girlfriend or something?" he grinned.

"Just don't get any ideas," came his finally warning. He then heard Cloud's loud cry and turned in that direction to see a happy, teary-eyed Cloud embracing Aeris, and the others were around her too, praising her victorious feat and glad that she was alive and with them again.

Sephiroth stood in his spot, boiling silently with anger and jealous, but at that moment, the Highwind began to crack. "Oh s**t," Cid exclaimed, "Aeris's huge energy must've overloaded the ship." Everyone began to panick, but they were able to escape on Red-Ohki before the Highwind exploded.

~ * ~ * ~ * ~

The next day at the Gainsborough residence, a mailman dropped off some mail by inserting them into a slot in a wooden post. The two gateposts turned around, revealing themselves to be Tifa and Yuffie who have accepted their new duties as gateposts for the Gainsborough family. "Hey, thanks for the mail!" Yuffie chirped, scaring the delights out of the man, who ran off screaming.

"Geeze, way to go, Yuf," Tifa snorted.

"Hey! I didn't zap him at all!"

"But you TALKED!"

"Well, hasn't he seen a talking wood block before?!"

"You're hopeless!"

"You should talk!"

They continued to bicker, even admist the loud explosions in the background followed by Rufus, Reno and Sephiroth arguing and fighting while everyone was trying to calm them down. And this was the beginning of the usual routing in the Gainsborough household... get used to it.



MAYBE NEXT TIME... Episode Seven... SPECIAL... A Kiss Before the Carnival!


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Sorrie, everyone, for very long wait for the conclusion to the Hojo storyline. I'm hoping it won't end here, ya know, since the Tenchi Muyo OAV s had what, 14 episodes total, right? Anyway, I think I lost my touch on this one... It's not as funnie as the previous episodes... I think 'cause it was getting serious at some point, and I tried to salvage it with unnecessary humor... I kinda rushed through the end there... *sigh* Oh well, but I'd like to dedicate this episode to SailorLeo-chan! I know she, and like a few others, have been waiting forever for this episode! Once again, sorrie! Hope ya enjoyed it! *bow*