Final Fantasy - All Series Fan Fiction ❯ Ryus Final Fantasy ❯ Chapters 1 - 10 ( One-Shot )

Ryu's Final Fantasy

A world full of magic, fighting and friendship revolves around a young boy… Read on as he is dragged into an Epic battle for the planet

This was my first ever fanfic. I wrote this about 2 years ago. I've read through it recently and laughed… Geez what the hell was I thinking? Anyway, I hope someone will enjoy it. (All the chapters are on one document and it is unfinished. If I get some good feedback I may end up finishing it later on.)

Chapter 1

Although he was strong, he was not strong enough to take on four boys of the same age. As they came close to him, he attacked first, punching the first boy to come close to him. The others after seeing this jumped at him and tackled him to the floor. He tried to fight his way up but the three were too strong as a group.

"Get him up."

The three got him up and held him to face the boy that he hit.

With one swift movement he ran at the boy that was being held and smashed him in the ribcage with a metal pipe. The boy shrieked in pain and went face down to the floor, gasping for air. He then felt another attack, this time on his back; he let out another cry of pain. The punishment continued, as he was kicked for what seem to be hours.

He was held up again when one of the boys spoke.

"We'll see ya tommora Ryu," the rest of them laughed at this remark, and threw him to the floor.

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He waited for a few minutes before trying to get up. He finally staggered to his feet using a nearby tree for support, his body still burning with pain… and anger.

But it wasn't like it was the first time this had happened; this was a daily occurrence for Ryu. Although he kept himself to himself, he was loathed by everyone.

He finally got home after a very painful walk. He opened the door to find his father sat in his usual seat, laughing at the television. Ryu walked straight past him without saying a word. He headed for the stairs when he heard his name.

"Ryu?" The voice made him turn.

It was his mom, well step-mom to be accurate. She was standing in the kitchen doorway.

"Ryu? Are you…" she stopped and looked at her stepson. "Oh no, not again"

"I'm fine mom, just a little cut, that's all," he said calmly. "I'm just going to get cleaned up, then I'm going to rest in my room," he turned back to the stairs.

"Was it the same people as before?" she asked before he took a steep

"Yeah," he said in a saddened voice.

He headed up the stairs and turned into the bathroom. He looked into the mirror that was hung on the wall. He had a cut above his eye and seemed to have a bust lip.

He went over to the sink and washed the blood off his face. He could feel that his abdomen was already bruised, and his back was hurt seriously too.

"Are you sure your OK?" he looked to the door and saw his mom peering in at him.

"I'm sure, just a bit sore, that's all," he said still looking into the mirror.

She came into the room and sat on the rim of the bathtub looking at the back of her son.

"Where about were you?" She asked.

After a long pause, he answered; "I don't want to talk about it," he turned to face her

"How have you been?" he asked.

"Fine…" as she answered, she lowered her head to hide her face.

He lifted her head gently with his hand and moved her hair from he face. Doing this he discovered a bruise on the top, left-hand side of her head.

"Are you hurt?" he asked.

"No…" she answered lowering her head as before.

"Why do you even stay with him, he's nothing, you deserve much better," he lifted her head again and gazed at the bruise for a second time.

"Don't speak that way about your father," she tried to sound angry, but Ryu knew she wasn't.

"He's not my father," he said slowly "I don't have a father…"

She smiled at him and stood up.

"You look tiered, why don't you go and get some sleep?" she walked over to the door and turned back to face him.

"This is just a bad patch, we will soon move on to a better life when we leave here," she smiled once more and left down the stairs.

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Ryu left the bathroom and walked slowly into his room clutching his ribs. As he entered his room, he closed his door and locked it. As he turned around from the door his attention turned to what was on his bed…

A yellow crystal stone, with some kind of mobile phone next to it. With a confused look on his face, he walked to his bed and picked up the stone. He examined it for a few minutes and placed it back down on his bed. He then picked up the phone.

*RING* *RING*

The phone went off as soon as he picked it up and gave him quite a fright. He flicked the case down and put the phone to his ear.

"Hel - Hello?" He waited for an answer.

"Ah Ryu, we've been expecting you," the voice on the phone sounded unfamiliar.

"Err… Who is this?" He says sounding very confused.

"This is someone who you don't know, but we know a lot about you."

"Oh really? Prove it," Ryu was sure that this call was a hoax.

There was a pause…

"We know that you yearn to leave this life" the voice continued "We know about the physical pain you go though each and everyday. We know about the mental pain you go though with your father, and how you try and protect your stepmother."

Ryu was shocked. "Who-who-who is this?"

"There will be time for questions later, if you will come to us that is…"

Ryu thought for a second. "Why do you want me?"

"Like I said before, there will be a time for questions, but only if you come meet us."

"Where are you?" Ryu asked

"A place far far away, somewhere where you have never been, and where you would never go," the voice said slowly. "However once you come to us, you will not be aloud to return for a number of days. If you help us, we will protect you and your stepmother from any danger."

Ryu thought a second before saying, "Protect us both?" pausing for a second or two, he answered, "OK, I'll come, how will I find you?"

"The yellow materia next to you is the doorway to us, pick it up," Ryu picked up the orb, "this?" the voice replied, "Now you know what to do…" the phone went dead. "Hello…? Hello…?" Nothing

Ryu dropped the phone onto the bed. He held the orb out in front of him. "This is stupid," he said to himself. He lowered his arm and let out a snigger to himself.

An orange light covered the room. Ryu looked back at the materia and it was shining a bright yellow glow. He held it back out in front of him and a yellow beam circled around him, then another and another. He was lifted up in the air and the whole room was filled with light. When the light had subsided, Ryu was gone…

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Chapter 2

Darkness…

He found himself laid face down on a cliff side. He picked himself up and dusted himself off. Looking up he found he was on a small cliff, and beneath was a huge ocean. He heard a noise behind him, and turned to find a town about a mile away. He saw what looked like a huge space rocket tilted on a platform.

As he was observing the town, a small plane rose from the town and flew in his direction. As it got just outside the town boundaries, the bright light of gunfire was around it.

It was hit, and a vast amount of smoke was running out of it. It started losing altitude and flew straight over Ryu and crash-landed into the ocean. However it looked as if it was floating on the water. They seemed to be three people on top of the plane and some kind of dog.

He heard yet another noise behind him, but this time it was a lower, rumbling sound. He turned to find 5 trucks travelling towards him. They stopped about 30 meters away from him. About 30 soldiers climbed out of the backs of all 5 trucks. They were dressed in blue, and all were armed with rifles.

"Stop right there!" one soldier shouted out to Ryu.

"He has materia…" another one said

Ryu looked down to find that he still had hold of the yellow crystal stone.

"What? This?" Ryu held the stone out in front of him.

"Argggh, He's going to use it, quick FIRE!"

The guards opened fire with their rifles and the only thing Ryu could think to do was jump off the cliff, into the water.

He jumped…

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It seemed like time stopped when he was in mid-air, but he still hit the water with a tremendous splash.

After being under-water for a few seconds, he swam to the surface of the water. He looked up to the top of the cliff to find the soldiers peering down on him.

"Hey!" The voice came from behind him.

He turned to see three people looking down on him from the floating plane. Two men and one woman.

One man wore all blue. He had spiked blond hair and a huge sward was on his back (Cloud)

The other man had short blond hair. He wore a small blue jacket, black trousers, and goggles oh his head. He carried a spear.

The woman had long brown hair. She had on a white T-shirt, a black miniskirt and long gloves (Tifa)

"You from the ******* Shinra?" The man with the short blond hair asked

"Shinra? What's Shinra?" Ryu asked

"Ryu? Is that Ryu?" The voice came from none of the people he could see.

"Err… yeah it is…" he answered the voice

A wolfs face appeared and looked straight at him. The wolf was a red colour and its tail appeared to be alit.

It turned to the man with the spiky blond hair and asked:

"Could you get him out of the water please?"

Ryu was a little shocked that a wolf was talking, but the man helped Ryu onto the plane.

"Right we need to get out of here, away from the Shinra, Cid can you drive this in the water?" Cloud asked Cid.

The Cid nodded and went to the controls of the plane.

"You must be confused?" the Red asked Ryu "Well let me explain…"

The plane started to move though the water and the other two people walked over to the pilot of the plane.

"My name is Red XIII, but everyone here just calls me Red. The woman stood over there is named Tifa, and the man beside her is named Cloud. The pilot is called Cid. They're a few other members to our group, but they are doing something else at this time."

"Why am I here?" Ryu asked

"Because we want you to help us. We know that you are a very powerful fighter. Just you being here shows that you have power. No `normal' person can use material."

"What do you want me to do?" Ryu asked, "I-I can't fight anyone…"

"And why not?" Red asked, staring at Ryu

"Because I'm nothing special, I just know a few different fighting skills, that's all. You could of picked a world heavy-weight boxer… why me?"

"Because Ryu, you are special, you have a very strong magic field that surrounds you…"

"I'm no magician…" Ryu interrupted

"Although you don't realize, you can use magic, and you can fight physically with your fists," Red stopped and shouted over to Cid, "Cid, can you stop on the nearest beach, I wish to show our young friend what he is capable of…"

"Sure thing!" Cid shouted back, and the plane/boat turned towards a beach.

"You want us to come too?" Tifa asked Red

"If you would," he replied

"Here…" Red tossed over another gem, this time it was green.

"More materia? What do I do with it?" Ryu asked Red

"This is Lightning materia, while you have this, you can attack using lightning. If you put all your concentration into the materia, then your opponent will be attacked," Red explained.

"Who is the opponent though?" Ryu questioned

Red smiled showing all of his sharp teeth, "You will soon see Ryu…"

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The boat came to a sudden halt and Ryu noticed that they had stopped at a beach. Everyone jumped off the small plane onto the beach and Ryu followed. They all walked off the beach onto a grassy area.

"Where are we going?" Ryu asked

There was no answer.

All of a sudden two animals flew over the party and landed in front of them. They were green dragons with red faces and red wings.

"What the hell!?" Ryu shouted

"These are 2 of the many crèches of the world. Most will fight because they don't like humans. Some will fight to keep us off their land. Some will fight just to fight, but we have got to fight back," Red said fast

After this was said, one of the dragons lunged forwards at Ryu and tried to swipe him with its claw, but Ryu managed to just jump out of the way.

"HELP!" Ryu shouted to the others

"No Ryu, you have to help yourself," red answered back

Once again the dragon lunged forwards to swipe, but once again Ryu dodged out of its way. As the dragon was returning back to its position, Ryu swung out with his fist and hit the dragon in its head. This dazed the dragon and Ryu punched it again, and again, then kicked it in its abdomen. The second dragon then tackled him to the ground and clubbed him in the head with its huge claw. The dragon was still above him clawing at his face when it was blown away with a fireball. Ryu got to his feet to see Tifa fighting beside him.

"What was that?" he asked her

"Materia, fire materia" Tifa answered before running to the beast and giving it a right punch and a right kick. The dragon went down.

The second dragon flew up behind her about to attack when it was hit with a lightning bolt from Ryus materia. The dragon went down, but struggled to its feet moments later. Ryu ran full speed towards it and punched it again in the head. Just before it went down, it blew out a black smog from its mouth covering Ryu.

Pain embraced Ryus body, and he fell to the floor. Each breath he took hurt more and more. Red, Tifa, Cloud and Cid stood above him.

"Urg… I think I'm dieing…" Ryu said slowly

"Don't worry Ryu, your just poisoned," Cloud told him

"Is it bad?" Ryu asked

Cid laughed, "I'll go and start up the Tiny Bronco."

Tifa held out another green materia, "This will make you feel better…" she spoke softly

A cloud of yellow smoke covered Ryu.

"Is that better?" Tifa asked

"Much," Ryu answered the pain from inside has disappeared "… My heads banging though…" he told Tifa

"We can get rid of that…" she held out yet another piece of green materia and Ryu felt a serge of energy go though the whole of his body. He stood up with no effort at all.

"That was a cure spell, it cures all the cuts and burses on your body. And the spell before cures poison," Tifa explained, "There are tons of different kinds of materia…"

"Although he needs to know all this, this is not the time or the place," Red continues to say, "Maybe if we get on the Tiny Bronco we can start to explain everything to him."

The walked over the beach and climbed back onto the Tiny Bronco.

"Where to then boys?" Cid asked, sitting in the pilot seat

Tifa give him a wicked look "HEY!"

"Oup… Sorry Tifa," he says quickly. She smiles back at him.

"Anyway we still need somewhere to go."

"Well we're looking for the keystone, correct?" Cloud asked and the others nodded. "And I think our new comrade could do with a weapon, so how about we go to the weapon shop, east of Gongaga. Get him a weapon and ask about the keystone."

"Good idea hotshot, you can tell me `bout what we're doing to… Remember I have just joined the group too…" Cid added

"Let's get going then," Cloud pointed out into the ocean and the Tiny Bronco departed from the beach.

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Chapter 3

"We're looking for a man named Sephiroth. To cut a long story short, he wants to destroy the whole world. He is going to do that with a piece of materia named Black Materia. He will use the materia to call upon a meteor which will crash into the planet, instantly killing everybody…" Red told Ryu

"So why don't you just go and…stop him?" Ryu seemed embarrassed and couldn't think of any other way to finish off his sentence.

"As easy as that may sound, he is extremely powerful, and all of us taking him on in a battle would probably end with him still standing. So our plan is to obtain the Black Materia and keep it away from him until we think of a way to stop him."

"Where is the Black Materia?" Ryu asked

"It's in The Temple Of The Ancients. We don't know much about the temple, but we do know that we need a stone called the keystone to get into it, and that is what we're searching for now," Red explained

"But where do I fit into all of this? Ryu asked

"We have been told by my grandpa Bugenhagen, that you are very powerful indeed and we may need your help throughout our journey," Red answered

"And if I help?" Ryu questioned

"Then you and your stepmother are welcome to live in our world."

"Hmm…"

"Now if you will excuse me, I wish to speak with Cid," Red got up onto all his four legs and walked over to the pilot.

Ryu stayed where he was, peering out into the beautiful ocean. He sat on the end of the small plane with his legs hanging off the end.

"So, how did it feel?" a voice behind asked

He turned to find Tifa stood over him.

"How did what feel?" Answering a question with a question

"Your first battle…" Tifa answered

"Oh… well actually it was kinda scary at first. But it was like something took over me…"

"Yeah I know what you mean. I feel the same with every battle, actually I think everybody dose," Tifa paused "I must admit, when you got hit in the head, I didn't think you would get back up."

"I've been hit worse…" still looking into the water, "The days not complete unless I've been beaten," he sniggered to himself

"Don't worry Ryu," she placed her hand onto his shoulder "We'll protect you from now on."

He looked up and smiled. She smiled back and turned to walk back over to Cid, Cloud and Red.

He faced the sea again, "Thanks for everything Tifa…" He felt his face turning red,

"… Helping me in battle, and curing me… And for what you have just said…"

She looked back and smiled again, but Ryu did not see. She walked back over to Cloud and started talking.

Ryu still sat on the end of the plane, tried to put his feelings into some kind of order.

He started thinking to himself about his usual life.

"If I stay, I will be free of the pain and the suffering of my normal life. I could live here and protect mom… This may be the last chance I will ever have. I have to do this for the both of us, for me, and mom…"

A shudder of the Tiny Bronco broke his concentration. They had docked onto a beach. A couple of hundred meters away stood a house.

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The group jumped off the Tiny Bronco and walked over to the lone house. Cloud turned the doorknob and they stepped into the house in single file. It was a small house with two floors. A man stood looking into a box on the first floor. He looked up to see the party staring straight at him.

"Welcome, what can I do for you all?" the shopkeeper asked

"We're looking for a item called the keystone," Cloud responded

"Let's go look for a weapon for you," Tifa whispered to Ryu

She walked up the stairs to the second floor and started looking around. He followed her up the stairs and went to the end of the corridor.

"What about gloves? I wear them for battle," Tifa shouted over to Ryu, but he had his eye on something else.

"No, I want these…" Ryu pulled out two knuckle-dusters from a metal box. He placed them over his fingers, onto his knuckles. He swings his fists in midair.

"You want them?" Tifa asked

"If that's ok?" Ryu answered

"Of course," she smiled and walked back downstairs to the first floor. Ryu pursued moments later.

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"Thank you," Cloud said to the shopkeeper

Cloud walked over to Ryu who was stood on the bottom step of the stairs.

"Here, put this on," Cloud handed him an Armlet, which Ryu equipped to his arm.

"This Armlet will protect you in battle. Although it won't take all the damage of an attack, it will take some. And the little round slots that are in the Armlet are there to fit materia into."

Cloud handed him a few pieces of materia.

"You already have the Transport materia, and the Lightning materia, but here are a few more, make sure you equip them into the Armlet."

"Thank you," Ryu said cheerfully

"You want them as your weapons?" Cloud looking at the knuckle-dusters

"Yeah, if that's ok?" Ryu replied

"How much for them?" Cloud asked turning to the shopkeeper

"Them peaces of junk? Take `em. There useless when you could have a blade."

"Thank you," Ryu said to no one particular

The group left the shop and stood outside.

"So what did you find out about the keystone?" Tifa asked

"Well that guy had it, but he sold it…" Cid reported

"To Dio, the owner of the golden saucer," Cloud added

Cloud went into his pocket and pulled out a phone that looked like the one Ryu found in his home

"DOA?" Cloud blurted down the phone, "Yeah, it's me Cloud, You with the others?" Cloud paused, "Well all of you get to the golden saucer. That is where the keystone is… Cya there," Cloud put the phone back into his pocket.

"All the rest of the group will meet us in the Golden Saucer. We only have a short distance to travel so we will be there soon," Cloud looked around the entire group "Let's go!"

They all turn to see two men and one woman stood ten meters away from them. Each was staring straight at the group.

One man was tall, black and bald (Rude). The other man had long red hair and was carrying a small rod (Reno). The woman was small and had short blond hair (Elena). All were wearing dark blue suits.

"…Turks…" Cloud whispered

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"What do you want?" Cloud shouted over to them

"We want the keystone, so hand it over… NOW!" The young woman shouted back

"Elena… Shut up" the Reno muttered

"What?" she turned to him, "… Sorry Reno" she apologised

The red haired man walked over to Ryu

"Oh… A new member for the goon squad?" Ryu stayed silent "Well let me introduce myself. I am Reno. The other man is Rude, and the blond is Elena. We are the Turks."

"I'm…" Ryu started, but was cut off by Reno

"I don't care…" Reno turned to Cloud, "We hear that the keystone was in this shop. How about you just hand it over now?"

"We don't have it…" Cloud told him

"It's a lie!" Elena shouted out

"Maybe…" Reno shrugged, "We'll just have to search them," by this time he had walked back to his friends

"You're not searching us!" Cloud shouted and drew his sward

"Guess we'll do it the hard way then…" Reno said nodding his head

Cloud, Cid and Red made a line and Tifa and Ryu got behind them. On the other side, Reno and Rude made a line of two and Elena stood behind them.

Both teams waited for the other to make the first move, and finally Rude and Reno jumped forwards to make their first attack.

Reno hit Red with the rod he had been carrying and Rude tried to punch Cid, but Cid quickly darted out of the way. Cid and Cloud surrounded Rude but they both were hit with an ice spell from Elena. Cloud got to his feet quickly but was knocked back down with a boxer blow from Rude. Reno went to hit Red for the second time, but Red's quick reactions cause Reno to miss. Red was behind Reno ready for the attack, but was blown off all his 4 feet by a hand grenade that Elena had threw moments earlier. Cid made it to his feet after the ice attack, only to be face-to-face with Rude. Rude pulled his fist back ready to attack but was hit with a lightning spell from Ryu!

He stepped in front of Cloud and Cid to protect them. Rude got up and stood along side Reno. This brought back memories of the beatings that Ryu faced everyday. Red tackled Reno from behind and Rude ran straight for Ryu.

He swung for Ryu but missed. Ryu took a swing but also missed. They went on with their fistfight but no one gained an advantage until Rude placed a painful blow to Ryu's stomach. Ryu became short of breath and was hit again, this time in the face, which caused him to fall to the floor.

He turned his head to see Cid, Cloud and Red up on there feet, attacking Elena with spells. He noticed Reno was also laid on the floor. He looked up to see Rude towering over him.

"This is it boy…" Rude quietly muttered

"Oh no it isn't!" the voice came from behind Rude

He turned to investigate, but was hit with three punches to the face and a boot to the chest. This brought him to one knee and gave Ryu a chance to get up. As he did Tifa cured him and whispered

"Let's finish him off."

Rude stumbled to his feet and Tifa went for the finishing blow, but Rude was faster and cast a fire spell, which knocked her of her feet.

Ryu saw his chance when Rude turned his back on him to cast the spell. Ryu grabbed Rude and with all his might, threw Rude over his head, and he slammed into the wall of the shop. Rude was down, but not out. He made it to his feet slowly using the wall of the shop for support, still dazed from hitting it. Ryu ran full speed at Rude and smashed him in the face with his right fist. Rudes head smashed off the wall. Rude slid down the wall and ended up in a sitting position. He did not get back up.

Ryu turned to find all the Turks were down and the battle was over.

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Chapter 4

The Tiny Bronco set off from the beach to the Golden Saucer. Everyone had cuts and bruises from the fight with the Turks, but no one was severely hurt. Tifa had cured everyone including herself, nevertheless They were all extremely tired from what has happened throughout the day, especially Ryu who didn't quite know if this was all just a dream, or reality…

They stopped at another beach and departed from the Tiny Bronco. They walked for what seemed like miles past a huge sand pit. They past monsters and beasts that posed no threat to the team what so ever. Ryu had saw nothing like them before in his life, some were beautiful crèches, but also deadly.

They finally made it to a run down old town. It was a dump, yet people still lived there.

Tifa informed Ryu, that years ago, the Shinra army had burnt this town down. The town was called Corel.

They all walked up some steps to find a blue rocket. There was a rope attached to the rocked and it seemed to disappear into the distance.

"This is the ropeway station, it will take us to the Golden Saucer," Tifa told Ryu

"Let's get on!" Cloud instructed the others.

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They had not been travelling for long before fireworks turned the sky deep shades of blue green and red. Ryu looked out of the window to see a gigantic gold structure. It was full of colourful lights, roller coasters and thousands of people.

"The Golden Saucer is a…Theme park?"

"'Course it is, wadidya expect?" Cid busted out

"Remember Cid, he has only been in our world for tow or three hours," Red replayed

"Yeah, give him a break," Tifa added smiling as she watched out of the window

Cid said nothing as he sulked in his seat.

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The rocket travelled though a tunnel, and stopped. They all got off and walked to the entrance of the Golden Saucer.

"Welcome to the Golden Saucer. You will need a ticket into the park. A single pass is 3000 Gil, and a lifetime pass is 30,000 Gil," an employee notified the group

The group paid 30,000 Gil

"Here in the Golden Saucer we use a different kind of currency called GP. You can use GP only in the Golden Saucer…" the employee was cut off by Cid

"Cut the crap, we know all the rules," Cid ran into the park closely followed by everyone except Red who apologised to the Golden Saucer employee, who was now crying over Cids comments.

The reception room had six holes in the wall; each hole had a name under it.

Ghost Hotel

Round Square

Event Square

Speed

Chocobo Racing

Battle Square

"Hmm… Now where could Dio be?" Cloud muttered to himself

"He takes pride in his Battle Arena, maybe he's there?" Red assumed as he walked into the room

"Hmm… He could be anywhere…" Cloud said as he looked around

"Well how about if we split up?" Tifa suggested

"Good idea Tifa. If we each go a separate way, then we will surly find him quicker," Red assumed

They all went to a separate hole, all except Ryu

"I dunno who we're looking for," Ryu said to all the others

The others turned to Ryu

"We're looking for Dio, ya know, the manager of the Golden Saucer," Cid explained

"Well what dose he look like?" Ryu asked

"He's a big butch man," Tifa joked

"Tifa!" Cloud said astonished at the remark

"Te-he-he. It true though," she smiled at Ryu, "He's normally wearing nothing, but leopard skin shorts."

"Yeah, the guys a wacko!" Cid added

"Oh… Ok…" Ryu said with a shocked look on his face

"Ryu, just jump down that hold that has `Ghost hotel' underneath, and look for the man we just described," Red told Ryu

They all jumped down their separate hole, Ryu last.

He found himself in a graveyard with gravestones with titles on like the holes in the reception room. These must be the ways to get to different parts of the park from here Ryu though.

He looked behind him to see stairs, leading up to an enormous mansion surrounded by shadows and lightning.

He walked slowly up the stairs keeping his guard up in case anything jumps out of the shadows at him. But he got to the doors without an incident.

He opened the door to see a big room with `scary' props like cobwebs and spiders. There was a desk to the right, probably to book a room. A shop was on the right and at the top of the room were stairs leading up to the hotel rooms. Next to the stairs were three settees and six people were sat on them.

He walked over to the front desk to find there was no one there that he could talk to. He waited for about ten seconds and realizing that nobody was coming, he rang the bell that was on the desk.

A dead body in a noose feel from the ceiling and gave Ryu quite a scare. On closer inspection the `deceased corpse' was plastic.

"Hello! I am Mr Hangman, manager of the Ghost Hotel. How may I help you?"

"Hi, I'm looking for a Mr Dio. Have you seen him?" Ryu asked pleasantly

"No, I'm sorry but Mr Dio is not here," Mr Hangman replied

"Oh… Well do you know where he…" A man interrupted Ryu in mid sentence

The man ran over to the front desk and pulled out a pistol. He aimed it at Ryu.

"Gimmie all the Gil in the cast register, or I'll shoot this boy!" the man hollered of the plastic prop

Mr Hangman did as he was told and handed the man the money. The man then hit Ryu in the face with the handle of the gun and headed to the main entrance.

Three men blocked the entrance and the man couldn't get though

One man had a huge body. Had black hair and black skin. And strange enough had a gun for one of his arms (Barret).

Another man wore black with a red cloak. His face was hidden with his long black hair and instead of his left arm; he had a metal claw (Vincent).

And the last man dressed all in black. He had short blond hair and had a black bandanna tied around his head (DOA).

"Hey! Get outt'a the ******* way!" The man bellowed

The three men looked up

"Hey, is he talking to us?" DOA asked

"I think so…" Vincent replied

"I'm giving ya to the count of three to get outta the way!" the man shouted frustrated more then ever.

The three did not move but just stood watching him.

"One…Two…" The man paused, "Thr…"

Ryu kicked the gun out of his hands from behind. DOA pulled out two pistols from his belt, Vincent pulled out a bigger gun from his belt and Barret aimed his gun-arm at the man. The movement of the three men was immediate.

"Lay the **** on the floor NOW!" DOA screamed at the man

A second after the robber saw the four guns, he fainted.

"Hey, not bad kid," DOA said to Ryu while placing his guns back into there holsters

"Yeah, pretty quick thinking," Barret threw in

"Indeed…" Vincent added

"Thank you," Ryu became pleased with himself

Cheers came from the other side of the room, from the people who were sat on the sofas.

Two women and one… Ryu didn't quite know what it was. It looked like a stuffed toy with a cat on its head (Cait Sith).

One woman wore all pink, had long dark brown hair and carried with her a large rod (Aeris).

The other female had short black hair and dressed very strangely indeed. She had on a small green top with white shorts. Her socks went up to her knees and she had a cast/shield on her left arm. She had a cross weapon and all four points looked sharp (Yuffie).

"Well done boys, oh and who's your little friend?" Aeris asked. She seemed to smile non-stop

"I'm called Ryu…" Ryu answered

"Well Ryu thanks for helping the boys out," she kept on smiling

"Yeah, I don't think the could'a handled him by themselves," Yuffie added

"Shut it ya little runt!" Barret snapped back

"Yeah, we had it covered," DOA added looking at Aeris

"Of course you did…" Aeris turned and winked at Ryu. He smiled back.

"But… We really did…" DOA hung his head

"All three of ya's couldn't even take on one measly bum!" Yuffie chuckled. Barret turned to Yuffie and she could see the anger in his face. She ran and hid behind Aeris, sticking her tongue out at Barret from behind Aeris's shoulder.

"Let me introduce you, I am Aeris. The girl hiding behind me is Yuffie…"

"I'm not hiding!" Yuffie interrupted

"The man wanting to kill Yuffie is Barret. The guy over there (she points at Vincent who is now sat down on one of the settees) is Vincent. And this is DOA."

"Hey what about me!" the big stuffed toy came hopping over to them

"Oh… this is Cait Sith, but we all call him Cait," Aeris explained

Ryu was going to ask if the cat on the stuffed toys head was talking. But he thought that he had seen much stranger stuff today.

"Nice to meet you all!" he smiled to the group and they all went back to sit down on the sofas. Ryu checked to see if the robber was not seriously hurt.

Just then, five Golden Saucer guards came rushing in along with Cloud, Tifa, Red, Cid and Dio

"What happened here!?" Dio demanded

Ryu explained what happened minutes earlier, and Mr Hangman backed up his story. The guards dragged the robber away.

"Oh… Well I am very grateful indeed! If there's anything I can do?" Dio offered

"Well actually, we came here for the keystone…" Ryu said slowly

"Say nothing more, I'll just go get it for you…" Dio walked out of the doors

"Cloud! Tifa! Red!" DOA shouted from the sofa. The rest turned around to shout the same thing, all except Vincent who just sat there, impassively. They all jumped off the sofas and ran over to the other group.

________________________________________________________________ _____

Hundreds of questions came from the whole group. When it settled down, they all went back to sit on the sofas.

"We have two new members to the group," Cloud pointed to Ryu, "This is Ryu…" he then pointed to Cid, "And this is Cid…. The Shinra shot his plane, `The Tiny Bronco' out of the air. We can use is still though, but as a boat to cross shallow rivers," Cloud explained

Dio walked back though the Ghost Hotel doors. He was holding a light green gem in his hands. He saw Ryu, and walked straight over to him.

"There you go my boy," he handed the gem to Ryu

"The keystone…?" Ryu muttered, "Thank you."

"No. Thank you. You saved me a lotta money, I'm very thankful. But you will have to excuse me because I'm a very busy man," Dio turned and walked out of the doors

"We now have the keystone. It's now off to the Temple Of The Ancients I suppose?" Barret asked

"No time like the present…" Cloud responded

________________________________________________________________ _____

The group were at the main entrance of the Golden Saucer. They were just about to board the rocket that will take them back to Corel village, when a Golden Saucer employee stopped them.

"I'm sorry but the Ropeway has broken down…" the employee informed the group

"So?" Cloud said angrily

"I'm really sorry. But you won't be able to leave today," the employee hung his head in shame

"Hey, it happens," Cait told the group, "I know the manager of the ghost hotel pretty well. I'll go get us some rooms."

"I guess we'll go tomorrow," Cloud supposed

________________________________________________________________ _____

The man wore a black. He had long grey/silver hair. He carried a huge sword. He was stood face to face with Cloud.

Cloud walked slowly over to him and handed him Black Materia.

The scene changed to a circle rock, where Aeris was knelt down in the middle prying. All of a sudden the man in the black shoot down from the ceiling, and impaled Aeris on the end of his sword.

Once again the scene changed to high above the sky… in space where a huge meteor hits the planet, destroying everything.

________________________________________________________________ _____

Ryu awakens with a sudden jolt. He looked around and remembered that he was in the Ghost Hotel. He got up knowing he couldn't sleep any longer. He made his way over to the window thinking about his dream.

It must be because of all the information that I have been told today. Or maybe the excitement of the day he thought to himself. Either way he couldn't sleep.

He decided to go have a look around the Golden Saucer. He opened his hotel room and walked down the stairs to the lobby of the ghost hotel. He made it out of the doors of the hotel to the `graveyard'. He went over to the gravestone that had on it `station'. He pressed the button on the gravestone and the floor opened at his feet and he fell down.

He was in the reception room. A Golden Saucer employee was in the room.

"Hello sir. Everything is free tonight because of the ropeway situation," the Golden Saucer employee said with a smile, "We have a play showing in the Event Square."

Ryu nodded and jumped down the Event Square hole.

The Even Square had hundreds of chairs and a giant stage at the front. About 200 people were sat down already.

Another Golden Saucer employee was stood at the Event Square entrance.

"Hello sir. Today we have a special show on where two lucky people from the audience are picked to act on stage. It should be jolly fun. You may take a seat if you wish to watch."

Ryu nodded and walked down the stairs to take his seat. After waiting for about 5 minutes, the lights went out and the show started.

The show was about a dragon that had kidnapped a princess and the king hired a knight to slay the dragon to get his daughter back.

To Ryu's surprise, the knight was DOA and the princess was non other then Aeris.

The play ended when DOA kissed Aeris and the dragon was defeated by true love.

Ryu waited in his chair while everyone left after the show. When he got up he saw Cloud and Tifa walk out of the Event Square. He ran up the stairs to find them but when he got to the main room of the Golden Saucer no one was there.

Feeling tired again, he decided to go back to his room and sleep.

________________________________________________________________ _____

He awaked after a night of the same dream. He witnessed Aeris's death, and the destruction of the planet. He dreamt it over and over again, but still took no notice of it.

He walked out of his room and down the stairs to the lobby of the Ghost Hotel.

"Hey!" the voice came from the sofas direction. Ryu turned to find DOA sat down.

He walked over and sat opposite DOA.

"Hi," Ryu pleasantly said

"Hi, did you sleep well?" DOA asked

"Not really. I had a whole night of nightmares," Ryu honestly answered

"Aww man. That's to bad…" DOA sympathized

Ryu and DOA talked for about an hour more about different things like the Transport Materia that brought Ryu to this would, was DOA's. And how DOA did not need Materia to cast any sort of fire spells. Ryu explained what his `world' was like and he talked about his stepmother. They talked on and on and Ryu thought of him as the best friend he had ever had, even though he had only knew him for a day and only talked to him twice.

"I saw the show you were in yesterday," Ryu smiled as he informed DOA on this

"You saw that!?" DOA questioned

"Yup. Hey you're a pretty good actor," They both laughed, "Why were you out at that time anyway," Ryu asked

"Oh well… I kinda… took Aeris…out," DOA said not looking at him

"Oh… I didn't know it was like that," Ryu replied quickly

"It isn't, it isn't," DOA paused "But I wish it was," he smiled at Ryu, "We've been friends for ages, but I don't think she sees me in that way."

"In what way?" The voice came from the stairs and DOA and Ryu looked up to see Aeris, looking down on them smiling as the usually dose.

"AERIS!!!" DOA jumped out of his seat and started glowing a unique shade of red

"Hi boys," she walked down the stairs and sat next to DOA who had sat down by now, but was still red in the face.

They talked, and Ryu started finding out about how Aeris and DOA had known each other since they were kids. He found out that the Turks were always after Aeris, but DOA always protected her.

Cloud came down the stairs next.

"We have a problem…" was the first thing cloud said

"Yeah, they forgot my bed and breakfast too," DOA replied making Aeris giggle

"No, we had the keystone stolen for us yesterday by the Turks."

"What!? HOW!?" DOA jumped up and yelled

"It seems that Cait Sith was a spy from Shinra. While I was out my room, he snuck in and stole it," Cloud explained

"Well let's go and get it back!" DOA shouted

"We can't, he's already pasted it on to the Turks,"

"God Damn It!" DOA paused, "Well let's go get Cait… and KILL him!" DOA was furious

"We can't…" Cloud quietly said

"And why the hell not!?" DOA asked loudly

"For two reasons. Number one, he's only a stuffed toy. We would be able to harm him. And number two, he kidnapped Barret's daughter and is holding her prisoner."

"****" DOA sat down, "So what do we do now?" he asked

"We'll just have to go to the Temple Of The Ancients. Of course, we'll get there after the Turks do, but we'll just have to live with that…"

After about another hour, everyone was down in the lobby

"Right, we'll split up into groups of three, and one group of two," Cloud informed the others

"Excuse me Cloud, but you'll be going into the temple first right?" Aeris asked

"Yeah, my group goes in first, then the second group of three, then the third group of three. The group of two will stay outside of the temple incise anything goes wrong…"

"Well I want to go into the temple first, so may I go with you?" Aeris asked

"Me too" DOA added looking at Aeris

"Ok…Ok…" Cloud paused "These will be the groups…"

"First group is me, Aeris and DOA."

"Second group will be, Tifa, Red and Cid."

"The third group will be, Barret, Vincent and Cait, I want you to keep an eye on him (he points at Cait)."

"So the last group will be, Ryu and Yuffie."

"What! I don't even get to go in?" Yuffie asked angrily, "And I have to wait outside and baby sit him?" She looks over at Ryu

"Poor Ryu," Barret grumbled

________________________________________________________________ _____

Chapter 5

The Tiny Bronco stopped at a beach and the whole group departed onto the beach.

DOA stayed close to Aeris and Ryu and talked to them when they weren't fighting enemies. After walking a short way on the short grass, they came to a vast forest.

"Right people, be prepared for anything," DOA talked to everyone

They all walked into the forest and were attacked immediately by giant caterpillars and other giant bugs. But the bugs were no match for the eleven warriors. They soon saw the temple coming close to them.

When they reached it, there was a long rope ladder leading up to the entrance of the temple.

Aeris ran onto the rope ladder and started talking to herself…

"I can hear… What is it…? I'm sorry but I don't understand…"

She ran back to the group, "This is the Temple Of The Ancients… The words of the Ancients are telling me that there is danger or maybe evil…" she stumbled

DOA ran to Aeris and held her in his arms, "It's ok Aeris."

"Right, this is where we separate. We go in first, then five minutes later group two go in, then in another five minutes group three go on. Remember, Ryu and Yuffie… Stay outside encase anything happens," Cloud reminded the group

"Oh gawd, do I have to wait outside with him?" Yuffie asked

"I gotta leave ya now Ryu. You gonna be aright with her?" DOA whispered to Ryu

"Sure. Have fun," Ryu smiled and DOA

"You too," He looked over to Yuffie, the looked back at Ryu, "Your gonna have ya hands full," he turned and walked over to Aeris and Cloud

"Hopefully…" Ryu whispered to himself

Cloud, Aeris and DOA walked up the rope ladder and though the main entrance. The rest of the group were left talking until five minutes later when the first group set off up the rope ladder. Five minutes later the next group entered the building leaving Ryu and Yuffie outside.

________________________________________________________________ _____

"Oh gawd. I can't believe I'm out here!" Yuffie shouted into the air

She started pacing up and down. She then stopped and looked at Ryu.

"We should go in. They can't handle anything without me," she bragged, "They wouldn't even be here if it wasn't for my ninja skills. Then they have the courtesy to leave me out of the action… To baby-sit you." She turned to see Ryu not paying any attention to her

"HEY! You listening to me?" Yuffie followed his gaze to the entrance of the temple

Ryu started walking up the rope bridge, still not paying any attention to Yuffie.

"He- Hey!" She paused, "Don't leave me alone out here!" She scampered up the rope bridge to the entrance where Ryu was waiting

"Think we should have a look in?" He asked her

"Well we're here…so we might as well…" Yuffie answered

They both turned their heads to the entry of the temple. They saw a shape of a body inside the temple. Suddenly a small ball landed at their feet. They looked down and Yuffie asked

"What's that?"

The ball exploded into a ball of flame sending Yuffie and Ryu into the air. They landed painfully onto the stone floor outside the temple.

Ryu shook his head and struggled to his feet. He found that Yuffie was already on her feet.

"What the hell was that?" she asked

"I dunno," Ryu replied

"YOU BASTARDS!" The voice came from the temple entrance "You killed Tseng! And now you will pay!" The shadow came into the light to reveal Elena from the Turks.

She fired a fireball, which sent Yuffie soaring into the air. Yuffie flew over the rope bridge and landed to the grass below. She seemed not to be moving.

Ryu turned back to Elena, who had already fired another fireball, but this time at Ryu. He jumped to the side and felt the heat as it passed by him. He turned back and fired a lightning bolt in retaliation. It was a dead hit, but only took her down to one knee. She quickly recovered and pulled out a pin from one of her grenades. She threw it at Ryu, but he caught it in mid air and threw it back at Elena. She ducked and the explosive soared over he head and dropped to the ground just below her. As it hit the floor it exploded causing Elena to rocket though the air, landing painfully on the floor. She didn't get back up, just laid motionless where she landed.

Ryu edged over to her to see if she was still conscious. As he got closer he thought that she might possibly jump to her feet and start fighting again. However she stayed still on the floor.

He suddenly heard a rumbling sound coming from the temple. On closer inspection he found that it was the whole temple rumbling.

Although she was his enemy, Ryu picked Elena up and carried her across the rope bridge, to the grass and put her down softly. He then turned to Yuffie who was still laid on the floor. He walked over and knelt beside her.

She's cute when she isn't talking, Ryu thought to himself.

Just then, the whole party that went into the temple, ran back out, all except Cait.

"What going on?" Ryu asked

"We found the Black Materia. But the Ancients who built this temple, built it around the Black Meteria," Aeris explained

"If we take the Black Materia, them temple will grow to the size of the Meteria which is only small. It will crush anyone inside it at the time." DOA explained further

"So how do we get the Meteria out then?" Ryu asked

"Cait volunteered to get it. Since the toy isn't alive, the person controlling it won't be hurt," Cloud answered

Just then the temple rumbled again, this time louder then before. Smoke covered everything and no one could see momentarily. When the smoke cleared, the temple had disappeared leaving an extremely large hole in the floor. At the bottom of the hole was the Black Materia.

"The black Materia!" Cloud exclaimed looking over the edge, "I'll go get it."

"I'm going to," Aeris said quietly

"Well then I am too," DOA turning to Aeris

"No, I have to do this for myself," she took hold of one of his hands and looked into his eyes, "I'll be fine."

He didn't reply for a moment, he just gazed into her beautiful green eyes. He then nodded, "Ok, be careful…"

She nodded back to him and turned.

Cloud jumped from rock too rock down to the bottom and walked slowly over to the Black Materia. He picked it up and held it in his hands.

"I can't believe such a small piece of Materia could do some much damage…" Cloud talked to himself

"So what are we going to do with it?" Aeris asked, still out of breath from scaling down to pit.

"…Keep it away from Sephiroth…" He replied

"Oh, is that so?" the voice echoed so everybody could hear

The man that Ryu saw in his dream glided down into the hole in the floor and landed in front of Cloud.

"Sephiroth!" Cloud yelled

No one could move with the exception of Cloud.

"Now why don't you be a good boy and bring the Black Materia to me?" Sephiroth said slowly in a cold voice.

Cloud fell to his knees shaking his head. He then returned to his feet and walked slowly to Sephiroth.

"Wh- What are you making me do!?" Cloud hollered at Sephiroth. He held his hand out and Cloud placed the Black Materia into it.

Sephiroth flew into the air knocking Cloud down. He flew into the clouds and out of sight.

Aeris ran over to Cloud, "Are you ok?" To her surprise, cloud was smiling!

"I - I give the Black Materia to Sephiroth" he mumbled slowly

"It's ok Cloud" She said softy

Cloud jumped to his feet, and beat Aeris in the head with his fist knocking her to the ground.

"WHAT THE **** ARE YOU DOING!?" DOA shouted to cloud.

Cloud continued to beat Aeris on the floor.

All of a sudden, a bright light covered DOA that made Ryu cover his eyes. When the light died down, DOA had changed. He had wings made of fire on his back and his eyes were ablaze.

Wasting no time DOA jumped head first down the hole, flapping his wings at the bottom to stop and land.

DOA grabbed hold of Clouds collar, turned him around, and struck him in the face with his burning fist.

Cloud flew across to the other side of the hold and collided with the wall. He bounced of the wall and landed on the hard stone surface. He did not rise back to his feet.

DOA returned back to the way he was. He ran over to where Aeris was laid. He sat beside her and held her in his arms.

The whole group was silent except for DOA.

"Aeris…? Please wake up! Aeris…"

________________________________________________________________ _____

Chapter 6

After the incident, they rode over the sea on the Tiny Bronco and visited a small town named Gongaga. The town didn't have it's own hospital so they laid both Aeris and Cloud in the beds at the inn… in separate rooms...

The whole time Aeris was asleep; DOA did not leave her side. He just sat beside her, not sleeping, not eating, not anything, just waited for her to awaken.

Night fell and the group decided to take a break from their adventure and rest in the inn.

________________________________________________________________ _____

Ryu found himself in an enormous, beautiful forest. The sun shone through the leaves and there was a bright light to the north.

"I hope you don't blame Cloud… He couldn't help it," A familiar voice talked to Ryu

"Aer-Aeris?" Ryu called out into the forest

She appeared from behind one of the trees, her face covered in bruises.

"Are you ok?" he asked her

"Yeah… but I want you to do something for me. Tell everyone to stop worrying, I'll take care of everything," she smiled at Ryu, "That includes you."

"Ok I'll tell them," he paused and looked around, "Where are we?"

"This is the sleeping forest, beautiful isn't it?" she turned to Ryu "I'm counting on you to tell everyone."

"Ok," he replied

"I have to go now. Don't worry, everything will be alright." She turned and ran into the light to the north. Ryu tried to follow but found himself running on the spot.

"She's going to be trouble," A cold voice from above roared down

"Sephiroth!"

He landed in front of Ryu. He's cold eyes staring into Ryu's.

"She could spoil everything… And we can't have that…" he said impassively.

Sephiroth the turned and walked in the same direction as Aeris did.

Just then Ryu felt his body lift into the air. He flew up into the sky and looked downwards. He saw the town that the sleeping forest was touching. He then fell to the floor…

________________________________________________________________ _____

Ryu awoken in a bed and remembered that he was still in Gongaga.

"Yet another dream… The first has already came true…" He thought to himself, "I should go and tell someone… but whom?"

He walked out of his room and into Aeris's room. To his shock DOA was asleep and Aeris was nowhere in sight. He ran over to DOA.

"DOA! DOA!" He grabbed hold of his shoulder and shacked him till he woke up.

"Oh…" DOA opened his eyes, "Aeris?" He looked over to the bed that she rested on, "Damn it! Where'd she go?"

"I dunno, I came in and she wasn't here," Ryu explained

"She woke up…"

"What!?" Ryu replied

"She wore up and talked to me… She said not to worry and she's going to handle everything…" DOA told Ryu, "But then she said `Sorry' and I fell asleep…"

"I have something to tell you…" He looked straight at DOA

"I had a dream when we were at the Golden Saucer about Cloud handing the Black Materia to Sephiroth, and it came true. Then I just had a dream about Aeris…"

"What about her?" DOA interrupted

"She told me that we shouldn't blame Cloud for what he did. She also told me that she would take care of everything." Ryu told DOA

DOA paused for a minute, "That's exactly what she told me…" He paused again, "Did she tell you were she was going?"

"No but we were in a forest called `The Sleeping Forest' and there was a town next to it. Looked like it was made out of animal bones…"

"Hmm… Bone Village. That's where we're gonna go" DOA stood up

"Shall I go tell the others?" Ryu asked

"No, we shall go alone…"

________________________________________________________________ _____

The two stole a small boat at a town called Costa Del Sol. They sailed for 3 hours until they came to a beach where they departed. They both ran into a forest and many scary monsters came to attack them. DOA taught a lot of fighting skills to Ryu.

DOA's powers were amazing. He moved swiftly across the floor and attacked his foes with full force. He used fire attacks mostly, however he didn't have any fire Materia. He used a Materia that would stop time for everything momentarily except him. He also used Materia that would teleport him to wherever he wanted to go.

They finally came to a small village, and there was a man digging in the soil.

"I found it! I found it!" The man shouted

Lots of lights came on in the small huts, and many little men came out.

"You found the Lunar Harp?" One of the men said

"Yeah!" The man came down a ladder and showed all the rest of the villages the harp he had in his hands.

"Hey" DOA shouted over to the group of villages

They all turned and one shouted back, "Who goes there?"

"That doesn't matter, we need to get to the sleeping forest. I hear it's around here?"

The villagers turned back to each other and started whispering to each other. They turned back to Ryu and DOA.

"What lays past the sleeping forest is very dangerous, we would advise you not to go there."

"Where going though that damn forest if you help us or not," DOA replied angrily

The man paused for a second, "Very well, we shall help… But I must recommend that you go tomorrow morning."

DOA paused for a second, "Ok…" He turned to Ryu, "We'll set off tommora morning."

________________________________________________________________ _____

"DOA?"

"Yeah Ryu?"

"The dream I told you about. The one I had at the Golden Saucer…"

"Yeah?"

"I dreamt something else as well…"

"Which was?"

"It's Aeris…"

DOA raised his head off the pillow and looked across the room where Ryu was laid.

"What about Aeris…?"

"…In my dream… Sephiroth…Killed her…"

There's a long pause until DOA speaks up.

"Don't worry kid... I'll look after her…"

"…Thanks DOA…"

________________________________________________________________ _____

Ryu awakens with the dream of a comet hitting the planet.

"Morning," DOA said looking out of the window, Ryu could see the sunrays shining though the window.

"Urgh… Another dream…" Ryu mumbled as he sat up

"Oh yeah? What about?" He turned to Ryu

"A massive comet hits the planet destroying everything…" Ryu informed DOA

"Hahaha… Kinda puts a downer on everything we're fighting for don't it" DOA stood in silence for a minute or two. "Anyway, we gotta get going if we wanna find her…" He turned and exited though the door.

Ryu got ready and followed DOA out of the door. Outside Ryu found DOA talking to the same man he talked to last night.

"Are you sure?" DOA asked

"I'm sure" the man replied

DOA turned to find Ryu stood behind him.

"What's wrong?" Ryu asked

"This guy said he saw a girl in pink walk though here… then a man in a black cloak went into the forest after her."

"Sephiroth!" Ryu yelled

"Come on we have to go," DOA turned and ran into the forest

________________________________________________________________ _____

The forest was just like Ryu saw in his dream. The sun was shining through the leaves and the forest was beautiful.

"The guy said I had to play this," DOA held a harp up to his lips and started playing it…not very well though.

The whole forest started moving like it had a mind of it's own.

"I think we can go now," DOA muttered with a smile

They travelled for what seemed like days, never stopping for a break or food.

The finally came to the end of the forest. But they did not know where they were.

The whole place was made from stone and what looked like animal bones, none of them had ever seen anything like it. There were monsters here to which caused a problem to the two.

They kept following the winding paths and came to a fork in the road, four ways to go. To the left or right, straight forwards or back the way they came.

"What do you think?" Ryu asked

"Hmm…" DOA stood thinking, "I… don't have a clue…" He sniggered, "Lets just go anyway and hope that we're lucky."

They chose the right path. The path lead them to two stone houses. They had a look in the first, but nothing of importance was there. In the second house they found three beds, and chose to rest for a little while.

________________________________________________________________ _____

She knelt on a stone circular platform praying. She lifted her head and smiled at Ryu. All of a sudden, Sephiroth was floating above her. With his sword drown and pointed at Aeris below him, he started falling. Although Ryu shouted out to Aeris, she seemed not to hear.

He stopped about five meters above her. Ryu watched, as Sephiroth wasn't moving at all, either was Aeris. Aeris suddenly disappeared, and reappeared next to him. He looked down to see that she was still knelt with her hands in prayer position.

He looked back up to Sephiroth. To his horror, DOA was stood where Aeris once knelt.

Sephiroth started moving downwards again, but before he touched DOA…

Ryu awakened suddenly to find that it was dark, and DOA was nowhere to be seen. He climbed out of the bed he slept in and made his way to the door of the hut he was in. He looked outside and still, DOA was nowhere.

He started hearing a sweet soft voice. Without even noticing he was doing it, he flowered the voice to the cross road he came to when he was with DOA.

The voice seemed to be coming from the wired shaped `building' which was the centre path. He ran down the path to find himself in front of a small building with water around it. He walked around the left side of the building and entered a door.

The building spiralled upwards, and had small glowing rocks on shelves. He walked up the spiral and found a piece of green Materia. He equipped it to his Armlet. At the top of the spiral was an opening into the centre. He went though…

________________________________________________________________ _____

The place was huge. The steps that he walked on seemed to float in the air. Everything was a light blue colour.

The steps spiralled downwards into a little hut. Ryu walked though the hut and was stood on a square shaped platform. To his left were five stones. Each stone seemed to be taller the last. The stones lead up to a bigger circular platform. On the platform was Aeris…

He walked over to the five stones and jumped on the first.

"Ryu!" The voice came from the hut. Ryu turned to find Cloud, Tifa and Yuffie. They all ran over to him.

He stopped them by putting his hand up and shaking his head. They all nodded and took a step back.

Ryu turned and scaled the other four stones. He jumped onto the large platform, which Aeris was knelt on. Ryu was not sure what was going to happen next…

He walked over to Aeris until he was close enough to touch her. He felt a powerful force pushing him backwards. He stood on the edge of the platform not taking his eyes off Aeris.

She raised her head and smiled.

Sephiroth appeared above her. With his sward pointing downwards he started falling to the platform. Ryu's instincts took over him and he ran towards Aeris, but he stopped half way in between him and Aeris.

In fact, everything around him had stopped. Sephiroth was suspended in mid air. Even Ryu couldn't move. It was like time stopped.

Aeris suddenly disappeared and reappeared next to Ryu.

DOA appeared where Aeris once knelt, and time started again…

________________________________________________________________ _____

The sword passed through DOA like it would have passed through thin air. The sword was a light red colour as it appeared from his back. Blood trickled to the floor.

Silence…

Strangely DOA was still on his feet, starring into Sephiroth's eyes. Sephiroth starred back without emotion. As quick as lightning, DOA drew his two pistols and fired six shots into Sephiroth's skull.

Sephiroth let out a huge inhuman roar and fell backwards pulling the blade out of DOA abdomen. He let out another huge roar and flew back into the air and out of sight.

Ryu could see that DOA's back was covered in blood. He glanced at Aeris, by this time she was standing.

"DOA…?" She muttered softly

He turned to her and smiled, covering his wound with his hands. He took one steep towards her, and fell.

She ran over to him and knelt down beside him, her eyes glazed over. She held his head in her arms and his eyes opened up slowly.

"Aer - Aeris?"

Aeris said nothing, just gazed into his light blue eyes, which showed no fear at all.

"Aeris… Don't cry…" he muttered slowly. But she couldn't help it… Seeing him in that way. Tears trickled down her cheek.

"Wait," Ryu stepped over to the two, "This can't be the end, it just can't be!" Ryu held his head in his hands

DOA just lied, struggling for air.

Aeris was still silent. She couldn't help but think that this was all her fault. If she didn't come here, then maybe DOA wouldn't be like this…

"I've got an idea… But it's not foolproof," Ryu held out the Transport Materia, "Maybe I could transport him to a hospital… or a doctor…or something!" Ryu knelt down beside Aeris, "You can't die… You're the only friend I've ever had…"

DOA gazed into Aeris's beautiful green eyes, "I don't want to lose you Aeris…" He looked back at Ryu, "Send me…Somewhere…Nice…" He smiled at Ryu, and then gazed back at Aeris.

Ryu stood up and held the Transport Materia out in front of him. DOA took hold of Aeris's hand and spoke, "I'll… be waiting… for you… Because Aeris…" The orange light surrounded him, "I love you…" The light flashed, and when it subsided DOA was gone…

________________________________________________________________ _____

Chapter 7

"Where did you send him?" Cloud, Tifa and Yuffie now stood on the circular platform

"I'm not quite sure," Ryu said slowly

"But he's going to be ok…right…?" Yuffie asked Ryu

Ryu shrugged his shoulders, "If he was to stay here, he would of surly died."

Aeris still knelt on the stone platform. She sobbed, but didn't burst into tears. Countless thoughts ran though her mind but the only person she could blame was herself. "Why did he do it…Why!" she though to herself. She climbed to her feet and rubbed her tears away from her eyes.

"Are you ok?" Ryu placed his hand on her shoulder

She shrugged his hand off and ran past cloud. She jumped down the five pillars, run though the hut and up the blue coloured steps.

Cloud sighed "We need to find Sephiroth, we don't need this now."

"Hey, give her a break, she just lost her best friend!" Ryu yelled at Cloud

Ryu walked past Cloud and jumped onto the first pillar.

"Wait!" Ryu turned to see that Tifa was watching him, "What about we split? We go after Sephiroth, and you find Aeris?" Tifa suggested

"Whatever, I'm going after her anyway" Ryu turned as he replied

"Ryu!" He turned back "Take this…" Tifa threw over a strange shaped phone, "It's called a PHS. We can keep in contact if you take it with you."

"Thanks. I'll see ya when I see ya." He turned and walked out the way Aeris walked.

________________________________________________________________ _____

He came to the sleeping forest. It seemed less beautiful then before.

After a few minutes of walking, he found Aeris sitting in the grass, picking flowers next to a shimmering stream. He strolled over, and sat next to her.

He watched and not once did she raise her head. The whole forest seemed silent and still.

"I'm sorry…" Ryu broke the silence, "I wish I could say more…"

She didn't reply or give any signs that she heard what he had just spoken.

"It was like I had knew him forever… He was the first person ever, to treat me like a human being… He was my best friend even though I had only known him a few days," as Ryu spoke, Aeris raised her head

"DOA…" she spoke, "I have known him since… since I can remember actually… He has always protected me…" Ryu could hear her voice tremble and more tears emerged from her eyes, "He always treat me right… he looked after me whenever he could… we were best friends…"

"You still are best friends…" Ryu interrupted

She looked up at him and gave him a faint smile. She picked another flower and held it eye height.

"But yet again I've got him in trouble… I might have even got him…" she looked to the floor, tears rolling down her cheeks

"No! He isn't dead, he can't be!" Ryu stood up

"Heeeyyy!" The voice came from behind Ryu. He spun around to see Yuffie

"What wrong?" He asked her

"Well I wanna come and find DOA with you…" Yuffie answered

Ryu smiled, "Has someone got a little crush?"

"No! It's nothing like that… I… erm…" she paused for a second, "I… want his materia when he's done with it," she smiled, "That's all"

Aeris stood up, "Wait, we're going to find DOA?"

Ryu never thought of it before but it seemed like a good idea, "Yeah sure Aeris."

"Any ideas where to go first?" Yuffie asked

"Well I suppose Cloud and the others and going up the icy mountain, so that leaves us with the Tiny Bronco," Aeris turned to Ryu, "We will find him, won't we…?"

Ryu thought it's best not to make her sad in any way, "Of course we will. We should set off down though and maybe we can make it back to Bone Village before it gets dark."

"Ok," both Aeris and Yuffie said at the same time

As Ryu and Yuffie walked on, Aeris picked one more flower.

"DOA…" she thought

________________________________________________________________ _____

They made it to bone village before nightfall, but unfortunately they only had enough Gil for one room and one meal, which they split between themselves. Ryu persuaded Aeris to eat even though she wasn't hungry.

Aeris and Yuffie shared the bed and Ryu slept sitting up in a chair. Once again he had nightmares though the night, but this one was different.

Ryu, Aeris and Yuffie were in some kind of small wooded area, but the woods were alight in a strange black flame. As the flame covered them he woke from his nightmare.

The two girls were still asleep. Ryu didn't have the heart to wake them so he went out into the village. Everyone in the village seemed to have been working for hours already. Most of the people were digging in the soil.

"Had a good night?" the old man who rented them the room asked

"Not really," Ryu answered

The man looked puzzled, "You went in there with TWO pretty women and you didn't have a good night?"

"It's not like that."

"Oh… OH! Your one of them people are ya?"

Ryu was confused about the question, "One of what people?" he asked

"Oh, nothing, hey I got to go," the man scurried off in a hurry

Ryu walked around the village for a little while longer until he saw Aeris and Yuffie both come out of the hut.

He walked over to them. As he did she saw no that Aeris still wasn't smiling as she usually did. She had a kind of straight face on her, not happy, not sad.

"Hi. Did you two sleep well?" Ryu tried to sound as cheerful as he could

"No, I didn't get much sleep," Aeris answered

"What!? You were snoring nearly all night!" Yuffie criticized

Aeris placed her hands oh he hips, "Well at least I don't talk all night in my sleep!"

"Oh yeah… what did I say?"

"Something about…Ryu!" Aeris winked at Yuffie and Yuffies face changed to a bright red colour

"What about me?" Ryu asked

"Oh nothing, nothing, anyway… don't we have to go?" Yuffie said quickly before she ran to the entrance of the village

"What was all that about?" Ryu asked Aeris

Aeris shrugged her shoulders, "I dunno, it's just the way she acts. But she's right, we do have to get going."

________________________________________________________________ _____

"So… Dose anyone know how to drive it?" Ryu asked

They were stood on a beach where the Tiny Bronco had been parked.

"Well I watch Cid drive this thing before and I think I could get it to move" Yuffie said in reply to Ryu question. She jumped up onto the plane and sat in the control seat.

"Do we really trust her?" Ryu asked sarcastically

"Guess we have too."

They both climbed on and the engines started with a thunderous roar. Ryu walked over to Yuffie who was smiling like a lunatic and turning the steering wheel left and right.

"Where to then?" Ryu asked her

"I dunno... Do we have any clues at all?" Yuffie replied

"Hmm… Maybe if we go looking in hospitals? That's what I concentrated on when I teleported him."

"Where is there a hospital though…?"

"How about if we go to Cosmo Canyon?" Aeris shouted out, now sat on the other end of the plane with her legs hanging off the end, "Maybe the elders know something."

Yuffie shrugged, " `s fine with me," the Tiny Bronco shuddered and then started accelerating.

Ryu turned and sat next to Aeris.

"It's strange without him. It feels like so long since I've been with him," she looked into the sea and watched as it rushed past her, "we've been friends since we were little. I was always getting him into trouble… Hehe… I think this is the longest we've ever been apart."

"It's only been three days…"

"I know, it feels like months and months," she paused for a few minutes, "I think he liked me the first time we met… And I think I liked him to."

"So why aren't you two… `Together'?"

"He always asks me the same question, and I don't really know the answer. I think it's because we always have to help the planet stay alive for a little while longer."

"But if you didn't have to do all that?"

"Maybe…" she looked up and smiled, "I wish he was here…"

"Don't worry Aeris… We'll find him." Ryu was still not sure… But he couldn't say that they won't find him.

"Aeris, can I ask you something?"

"What is it?"

He turned to face her, "Why did you run away?"

"… I had to… It's hard to explain because you weren't here in the beginning… But the only force that we know of that can stop the meteor is Holy… I am the last Ancient in the whole world… I had to summon Holy…"

"And did you?"

"I'm not sure…" She bowed her head, "Maybe DOA has been killed for no reason… He might be dead and it's all my fault…" A tear ran down her cheek

"Aeris…" He paused, "Well, how do you know that you haven't done the total opposite. DOA might be running around trying to find us, and you might have saved the whole world from ending!"

"Maybe…"

"You're a hero Aeris!"

"There was one hero in that place and it wasn't me…" Ryu bowed his head, "Ryu, could you leave me alone for a while please. I need to think about… Things…" Ryu nodded and stood up.

He walked over to Yuffie was still driving, "You ok there?" he asked

"Oh… Yeah"

"It's been a hectic few days hasn't it?" Ryu asked

"Um… Yeah it has been," Yuffie could feel herself turning red in the face

"Is something wrong?" He asked

"N- No…"

"It's just that you seem a bit edgy…"

"No, I'm fine," she turned to him and stuck her tongue out, "We'll be there soon, about five more minutes."

The two talked for the rest of the journey. As the two talked, he noised that Yuffie was getting a little less… Shy. Aeris sat at the end of the plane for the rest of the journey. She seemed to be in deep thought none stop.

The Tiny Bronco approached the beach, but instead of stopping, it went straight up onto the land.

"Oppes!" Yuffie shouted with a cheeky grin.

________________________________________________________________ _____

They walked up a steep rocky hill and came to a village on a Cliffside. Natural steps lead the way to the village.

The sun was low, and the sky was a deep orange colour. They walked into the centre of the village where a bonfire was burning bright.

"So who are we here to see?" Ryu asked

"A very spiritual old man named Bugenhagen. He might know where DOA is…" Aeris answered and ran up some more steps into a building

"Esh, the cheek of that woman," Yuffie shouted putting her hands on her hips, "Bugenhagen will probably be in his observatory, I'll show you the way," She ran up the same way as Aeris did and Ryu followed.

They came to a weapon shop, but didn't have time to stop and look around. They climbed a few more steeps and turned left. They were outside on the second floor. They walked up two more sets of stairs into another building. They then climbed a ladder and came to a lone house with a giant telescope sticking out of the roof. They went inside.

Aeris was stood talking to an old man who seemed to have no legs, but he was floating in the air!

"Ah Ryu, I wounded when I would have the opportunity to finally meet you," The old man said

"Ryu this is Bugenhagen. He is a very wise…" Aeris paused and thought to herself, "… Old man."

"Ho Ho Hooooo. A fine choice of words!"

Aeris gave him a weak smile, "We're looking for a member of our party… I don't know if you will remember him, but his name is DOA"

Bugenhagen paused for a moment, "Yes I remember him from last time you were here. But sadly that was the last time that I had seen him…"

All of a sudden the planet seemed to roar. The sound was ear splitting.

"What that noise!?" Ryu shouted over the thunderous roar

"I'm not quite sure!" Bugenhagen shouted back, "Quickly, follow me!" He opened a door that lead to the back of the house. "Quick, get on the elevator!" Bugenhagen still trying to shout over the noise.

Ryu walked quickly over to a circler platform where Yuffie and Aeris were already stood. Bugenhagen turned and pushed a lever down on the wall. The elevator raised into a small universe. The roar seemed to stop unpredictably.

He could see many different planets, stars and moons. It was amazing!

"What is this?" Ryu asked

"This is our universe. Everything that happens in here, is happening somewhere in the sky. This is the planet we are on," He pointed to a planet.

Ryu watched and for a minute or two, nothing happened. Then the planet roared again.

"Here!" Bugenhagen pointed again at a stop on the planet.

He pointed to a vast creator. An aircraft seemed to fly out of the creator. After a second or two it was followed by six huge crèches. The crèches separated and spread out to different parts all over the planet.

"What are they?" Yuffie asked

"Hmm… These could be the Weapons…" Bugenhagen supposed

"Weapons?" Ryu asked

"Yes… I have heard that when this world is in great danger, the planet its self will release `protectors' who will protect the planet in its time of need…"

"So could these stop Sephiroth?" Yuffie asked

"No… They have been sent to destroy anything that could hurt the planet, that includes us…"

"… That's not good is it…?" asked Yuffie

________________________________________________________________ _____

Ryu was thinking about everything that's happened. DOA is missing, presumed dead or hurt. We are alone, me Aeris and Yuffie. No cloud. No Tifa. No one else. And now a new threat, the weapons…

He couldn't sleep. He laid in bed all night, looking up at the ceiling. He had so much on his mind that he never even thought about closing his eyes. Gradually the sun started to appear in the sky and before Ryu knew it, morning had arrived.

He still laid in bed, but turned his head to stare out of the window. A few minutes later he heard a quiet sound coming from the other side of the room. Yuffie was sat up in her bed. She held her arms out in front of her and stretched. The sun gleamed down on her as she ran her hand though her black, short hair.

A feeling surged through the whole of his body, one that he had never felt before. Although he knew it was rude to stare, he couldn't take his eyes off her. She stepped out of her bed one foot at a time; she then stretched her whole body. It was the first time Ryu had saw her wearing none of her `ninja' clothes, (She was wearing her white shorts and green top).

"You know… It's rude to stare," Ryu turned the other way and saw that Aeris was sat up in her bed, smiling at Ryu. He could feel his face becoming warmer and he knew that he was blushing, "She's pretty isn't she?" Aeris asked quietly so Yuffie could hear.

Ryu turned back at gazed at Yuffie. He then turned back to Aeris. He smiled and nodded.

He felt his bed shake and when he turned he found Yuffie sat close to him, on the side of the bed.

"Heyyy. Are you telling secrets behind my back?" Yuffie asked in a kid voice

Aeris smiled, "No, we were just talking."

"About what?" Yuffie asked in a more grown up voice

"About how pretty you are," Aeris answered with a smile. Ryu could feel his face turning red again. He looked over to Yuffie who looked very embarrassed with the remark, "She is pretty isn't she Ryu?"

There was a long pause and Ryu knew that both were waiting for an answer. He looked up at Yuffie again and his eyes fixed on hers. He nodded his head and Yuffie gave off a dazzling smile.

"What do you think of Ryu, Yuffie?" Yuffies eyes light up and she jumped off the bed, "I… Gotta get changed!" She shouted loudly. She ran over to her bed and started sorting through her clothes.

Aeris giggled and Ryu slumped his head back onto his pillow. He looked back out of the window, and smiled.

________________________________________________________________ _____

They talked for an hour or two about past times. Aeris talked a lot about DOA whereas Yuffie talked a lot about Wutai, her hometown. Ryu kept quiet and didn't talk about himself at all. It felt good to have people talking nicely to him instead of all the shouting and swearing he got back home.

Suddenly a villager burst through door, "You have to help! They are taking Bugenhagen!" The villager shouted before running out of the door.

The 3 jumped up from where they were sat and sprinted through the door. They ran through the inn door to the outside and found a group of fifteen Shinra soldiers.

"It's AVALANCHE!" One pointed and shouted, the rest turned around

"What should we do?" another one asked

One man dressed in white steeped forwards, "Ahh… If it isn't the Ancient."

"My name's Aeris. I took the courtesy to remember yours, so you should do the same."

The man threw his head back and started to laugh, "everyone around the world knows my name!"

"I don't…" Ryu spoke up

"Is that some kind of joke? I am the president of Shinra!"

"What do you want Rufus?" Aeris asked

"I hear the old man knows a lot about these weapons… I also wish to use his lab."

"Well we're not going to let ya!" Yuffie shouted

"I don't care if you would let me or not," Rufus pulled a small shotgun out of his white jacket, "You really think you can stop me?" He pointed towards Aeris, Yuffie and Ryu, "Get them!"

The fifteen soldiers lunged at the group, most of them with rifles drawn. The group spread out and the battle begun.

One soldier ran at Ryu and swung a punch, but Ryu ducked it and as he was rising he punched a soldier in the jaw, breaking it instantly. He was then kicked forwards from behind into a handle of a rifle. He was kicked several times on the floor until he cast a lightning spell that hit all four soldiers that were around him. As he got up, three soldiers did also. One soldier ran at him with his fist in the air whilst another aimed his rifle at Ryu. Ryu spun around the soldier that was running at him, and kicked him in the back. The other soldier took a shot but tragically, he shot his comrade. Ryu then ran at the soldier with the rifle and punched him once in the chest, once in the stomach and then once more in the head. Ryu turned to the last soldier and was hit to the floor with an ice spell. He tried getting to his feet but was kicked in the face. He tried again to get to his feet, but once again he was kicked down. Ryu then used a piece of materia, and was transported behind the soldier. Ryu kick the man in the… (Let's just say it was below the belt). The man bent over leaving Ryu to give him a knock out punch to the head.

He turned and saw that Aeris was trying to fight off two soldiers. He ran over and grabbed one's arm, he the preceded to kick the soldier in the chest three times, and with the other hand, punched him in the face. The other solder then ran at Ryu, but Ryu was faster with the attack and kicked him in the stomach. The man fell backwards and was hit in the head with Aeris's staff.

Yuffie had already defeated her foes and ran over to Ryu and Aeris. A clapping noise came from in front of them. Rufus had not moved off his spot.

"Hehe… Well done on taking out a few of my men. I'll remember this day," he turned and headed for the exit of the village.

Ryu ran up behind him for a sneak attack but to his horror Rufus span around on the spot with his shotgun pointed straight at Ryu.

"Don't get too cocky!" Rufus pulled the trigger.

The shell seemed not to hit Ryu full force, but it still had the force to hit Ryu off his feet.

Rufus turned and exited the village. Yuffie and Aeris ran over to Ryu who was still laid on the floor.

" What happened?" Ryu asked

"Yuffie cast a barrier spell on you when Rufus turned. It took most of the damage for you," Aeris explained

Ryu got to he feet with help from both of the ladies. He turned to Yuffie, "Thank you."

She smiled back at him. "What happened to Bugenhagen?" Aeris asked

"Let's go see!" Yuffie shouted in a kid voice.

The climbed the ladder and were outside Bugenhagen's house. Two guards were stood outside, but they were taken care of with a poison spell from Yuffie. They entered the house.

The house was a wreck. Mostly everything had been broken. They group looked to the door that leads to Bugenhagen's lab and it was slightly ajar.

They walked in to find that the elevator was up and Bugenhagen was hiding on it.

"Ho ho hoooo! Am I glad to see you!" Bugenhagen shouted down to the group.

He floated down to the group and Aeris asked, "Are you ok?"

"I'm fine," he answered, "But I have some bad news. The meteor has been summand by Sephiroth. I can see it though the telescope, it's far away now, but it will soon be here."

"I still think we have a chance," Aeris told him, "There's still holy."

"But will it be powerful enough?" He asked

"To be honest, I don't know, but that's the only thing that could stop it…"

There was a long pause until Bugenhagen spoke," There is some more bad news… They ruined my house," He looked up at the team and smiled

"Nothing we can't help with," Aeris told him

"What!" Yuffie screamed, "I'm not doing house work!"

________________________________________________________________ _____

A few days had past since the attack at Cosmo. They thought that it might be a good idea if they wait in the village in case DOA shows up, and if there were any clues to where he was, Bugenhagen was the one to find out. The team helped anyway they could, helping Bugenhagen clean up his house, helped the local shops that had been attacked and also helped all the villagers that had been hurt.

The team were in their room in the inn. They all looked out of the window and watched the stars sparkle in the black sky night.

Ryu had gotten to know both of the girls very well by now, and there wasn't a trace of shyness when they all talked. He made two different bonds with the two women.

Aeris was older then Ryu, and although he thought of her as a friend, she cared for him like a mother would care for her child.

With Yuffie he had a close friendship bond. They would laugh and play silly little games. He found that they were very similar in many ways but he thought this was because they were both sixteen.

Ryu had noised that since DOA had not been with them, Aeris hadn't smiled the way she used too when he first met her. Whenever she `tried' to smile it was like she was forcing it to show on her face. He knew the reason for this though.

As they were talking, a loud ringing noise came from Ryu. He checked his pockets to find the PHS that Tifa give him.

"He-Hello?" He answered

"Yo, that Ryu?"

"Yes…"

"This is Cid. Sommet has happened to Cloud, looks pretty bad."

"Where are you?"

"We're in a village called Mideel. Come find us…" The PHS went dead.

Ryu looked around to find Aeris and Yuffie staring at him.

"So? What's up?" Yuffie asked

"…" Ryu stayed quiet. He couldn't bear to tell them that something else bad has happened, "We have to go meet the group at Mideel."

"Why? What's happened?" Aeris asked

He still didn't have to heart to tell them what he had been told, "Nothing, they just want to meet us…"

Aeris squinted her eyes slightly, "Ok…"

"Ohh! Can I drive again?" Yuffie asked with a big smile on her face

________________________________________________________________ _____

Chapter 8

The next morning they said their goodbyes, and left on the Tiny Bronco.

The boat trip was a quiet one. Aeris believed that something had happened, but Ryu denied that he knew anything.

They arrived at a beach near a small woodland area. In the centre of the wood was a small village, which Aeris pointed out it was Mideel. They encountered many different monsters whilst travelling though the wood, but they were quickly defeated with attacks from Ryu and Yuffie. Aeris healed any pain that was inflicted on the party.

The sun was high in the light blue sky when they made it to Mideel. As they entered the small village they immediately saw Cid, Red and Vincent stood outside a building talking to each other.

"Hey. Look who decided to show up," Cid said in a sarcastic way

"Hi Cid, how are you all doing?" Aeris asked

Cids eyes dropped to the floor and he shuck his head once, "Not good, not good at all."

"What's happened?" Yuffie replied

"All hell has broken lose. First of all, we got the black Materia back, but dumb ass Cloud give it back to Sephiroth. The northern creator started collapsing and we got away on Shinra's aircraft, the `Highwind'. Most of us got imprisoned but managed to break out thanks to Cait. We stole the Highwind and flew here where we found Cloud…"

"Is he ok?" Ryu asked

Cid pointed to the building that they were stood outside of, "He's in there."

Aeris walked past Cids pointing finger and entered the building, closely flowered by Yuffie, then Ryu.

He entered the building to discover that it was a small hospital. A doctor and nurse stood talking to one another.

"Excuse me, I believe there is someone called Cloud here?" Aeris asked

The doctor pointed to a screen door that separated the room into two, "But I must warn you…"

Aeris pulled away the plastic screen to find Cloud in a wheelchair and Tifa knelt beside him. Cloud had no life in his eyes, however he was still nodding his head and making noises like a baby would.

"Wh - What's… What happened?" Aeris walked over to Cloud, but he did not answer. Aeris looked over to Tifa to find tears rolling down her face. She stood up and burst into tears. Aeris hugged her and whispered in her ear "It'll be ok."

"Maybe we could talk outside?" The doctor whispered to Ryu. Ryu nodded and followed the doctor out of the hospital. After taking one last glance at Cloud, Yuffie followed.

"We found him next to the Life Stream. He has a sever case of Mako Poisoning. I've never saw such a bad case like his. I'm surprised that he is still living now…" The doctor explained

"What is the Life Stream?" Ryu asked

"The Life Stream is said to be made up by all the soles that have `returned to the planet'. When a person dies, their sole will return to the planet and join the life stream. But that's all I really know about it."

"So what is Mako Poisoning?" Ryu asked the doctor again

"Mako Poisoning is where to much Marco has be forced into somebody, in this case Cloud."

"And you get Mako from the Life Stream?"

"Yes, that is the power that the Life Stream can be turned into."

"So how do ya fix him doc?" Yuffie asked

"Like I said before, I have never saw a case as bad as this, I'm not sure if he will ever snap out of it?"

"That's all ya gonna do!?" Cid asked furiously

"That's all I can do…" Replied the doctor

________________________________________________________________ _____

Tifa and Aeris stayed behind with Cloud whilst the others boarded the Highwind. The feeling of hopefulness fell over Ryu, and the whole of the group. They had lost both of their `leaders' and two of their friends.

"So what now?" Ryu asked the group

"Dunno. I don't think waiting around for him the get better is the right thing to do. We still have a job to do," Barret answered, "First thing, we need a new leader. I though it coulda been me, but there's way to much responsibility."

After a short pause, Red spoke, "Well it will have to be Cid then."

"Why Cid?" Barret asked

"Because he is the captain of this ship. Plus no on else wants to be and he's the only one who can't stand up for himself at this point of time."

Ryu was confused about what Red just said and he looked over to Cid. Cid was lent up against a metal board near the controls of the Highwind, fast asleep. Barret walked over to him and bent over so he was face to face with Cid.

"CID!" He shouted in an enormous voice

Cid jumped up to his feet, still half asleep, "Wh - What?"

"You've been picked as new leader," Barret told him

"Hey, Ryu?" Yuffie whispered to Ryu

"Yeah?" He turned to her

"Erm… Can we go and see Aeris. I wanna see how she's doing."

"Sure…" Ryu replied, "I'd like to see if her and Tifa are ok too."

They both turned and walked out of the main room of the Highwind. They then went up the stairs so that they were on the outside of the ship. The then descended the ladders so that they were on the floor.

They were on the other side of the wood that surrounded Mideel. A lot of the trees had been burnt down and there was thick black smoke in the air. Ashes were laid all over the floor.

Instead of investigating, they decided to move on through the wood to Mideel to check on Aeris and Tifa.

About halfway through the wood they came to a tree that was ablaze. Next to the tree there laid a body.

Ryu and Yuffie ran to the body and knelt down next to it. Ryu placed his fingers over the mans neck, "He's still alive!" The man had a mix of burns and bruises all over his body.

Ryu picked him up onto his back and started carrying him to Mideel. A short while afterwards they made it to the village.

Once they arrived, four villages noised the man and took him from Ryu. They then rushed him to the hospital with Ryu and Yuffie closely following.

"I'm sorry, but the doctor is helping the man, if you wish to see him, please come back later," the nurse said at the door of the small building. Ryu nodded and walked back down the path.

"What now?" Yuffie asked

"Maybe we should go back to the Highwind?" Ryu asked

"Erm…" Yuffie pointed into the sky and Ryu followed the direction. The Highwind rose into the air, and flew straight forwards until it was out of sight.

"Aww man, why is everything that is happing to us… bad?" Ryu asked rhetorically

"And let me add that this village doesn't have an inn," She smiled at Ryu, "I guess we're going camping!" she shouted in her kid voice

________________________________________________________________ _____

They thought it would be a good idea to camp in the village because of what happened to the man with the burns. They set up the tent that Yuffie had and started a fire with fire Materia. The orange sun turned into a silver moon and the blue sky turned into blackness.

They sat close together next to the campfire and Ryu felt strangely nervous. Ryu asked her questions about her childhood. She told him how her dad was the ninja that trained her, but then he sold out his village to tourism.

As she was talking, Ryu did nothing but stare at her. He had the feeling that he had at Cosmo… And he liked it.

She noised him staring and stopped talking, "What's wrong?" She asked, yet he still stared.

After a moment or two he answered without thinking, "You're really pretty." A second later he realized what he had said and before he could talk again…

"Thank you." Her face had turned a bit red yet she was smiling. However Ryu knew that his face was already bright red, "You know… I think your…" She paused for a moment, "…Cute." Yuffie then turned a darker shade of red.

Ryu was shocked. This was the first ever compliment he had ever had about his physical looks… Well the first from somebody other then his step-mum. It made him feel exceedingly… `Good' about himself.

He smiled at her and she smiled back.

"I hope I'm not disturbing…" Ryu turned from Yuffie and saw Aeris standing about five meters away from the campfire.

"Aeris!" Ryu and Yuffie jumped up to their feet, they both asked different questions at the same time.

"Are you ok?"

"Is Cloud ok?"

"How's Tifa?"

"He's going to be ok isn't he?"

Etc

"Wow, you two calm down, I'll answer all of your questions once we sit down. It's been quite a day…"

They sat down not once taking their eyes off Aeris.

"…Cloud doesn't look so good, the doctor or any doctor for that matter doesn't know any type of cure for him… They only thing we can do is wait… I really don't know what will happen to him. What I do know is that Tifa will be by his side no matter what happens…"

Silence fell over the whole group; neither of them could put their feelings into words.

"… But we need to do get on with what we have been doing. We need to defeat Sephiroth… And it looks like we are going to have to do it without Cloud… Or DOA…" Aeris said in a saddened voice

"But we could still find DOA. And Cloud could get better," Yuffie believed

"But on the other hand, DOA might be… and Cloud could be the same soon…" Aeris still saddened by her words

"No!" Ryu stood up, "DOA is still alive," He turned to Aeris, "I know he is. Do you really believe that he is dead!?" Ryu raising his voice at her

"I don't know… I just don't know… I really hope they both will be ok. But I know that if they could communicate with us, they would tell us to go after Sephiroth. That's why I believe that we should."

"Well can we at least get some rest before we kick his ass. I'm wrecked!" Yuffie got to her hands and knees, and crawled into the tent.

Ryu headed for the tent, "He is going to be ok, isn't he?" Aeris asked

Ryu turned his head to her. He decided to tell her the truth about what he thought, "Of course he is," he said softly with a smile

________________________________________________________________ _____

"I'm here…"

"…Who is this?" Ryu answered

"I'm close to you…"

Ryu opened his eyes to see that he was in the wood near Mideel. He looked though a bush and saw the tent that he had slept in.

"… He - Help… Me!" The voice called out into Ryus mind

He didn't control the body, but it seemed to jump out of the bush. It ran forwards and stopped next to the campfire. His arm was held out and a ball of black flame emerged in the palm of his hand. It aimed at the tent.

"N - No! I… Won't… Let you!" The voice yelled

The arm seemed to have jerked it's self away from the tent. The black ball of flame was fired up in the air and it hit a tree branch that was above the tent. The branch was immediately alight in a black flame.

"Ryu! Wake up! You have to wake up!"

Ryu eyes opened suddenly and he realized that the roof of the tent was on fire. Not usual fire, but the black fire he saw in his dream. He looked around the tent but could only see Yuffie. He picked her up in his arms and carried her to the outside.

He laid her down on the grass. "Yuffie? Yuffie!"

Her eyes opened slightly "Wh - What is it?" she said in a grumpy voice

"Look!" He pointed over to the tent that was still standing

"What happened!?" she jumped up to her feet

"I think the person who did this is in the wood," Ryu told her

"Why?"

"I just… Do."

"Where's Aeris?" Yuffie asked

"I dunno, she wasn't in the tent"

"So where is she?"

"Maybe she saw the person who did this and went after them?"

"Well let's go then!" She shouted

________________________________________________________________ _____

After being in the wood for ten minutes, Ryu found it strange that there were no monsters attacking them. It was so quiet…

As they were walking they heard a snap of a twig in front of them. They both stopped where they stood, and looked straight ahead but saw nothing but darkness.

"Is there…" Yuffie started

*BANG*

A light removed the darkness for a split second.

"AHH!" Yuffie fell to the floor letting out a scream of pain

Ryu went down to his knees and found a small hole going straight though Yuffie's left leg. Blood poured from the wound and Ryu couldn't think straight. He picked he up in his arms and sat her up against a tree.

"Is - is it bad…?" Yuffie asked not looking down

"I think so…" Ryu replied

"I… Don't think I can get up…" Shy said slowly

"It's ok, I'll deal with this one myself," He smiled at Yuffie who was still in tremendous pain

He stood up and turned. "Who's there?!" He shouted into the darkness

Nothing but silence. "Show yourself!" He shouted

Silence at first… Until the faint sound of footsteps coming closer. Ryu prepared himself for whoever, or whatever could be coming towards him. After a minute or two, an outline of a person appeared in the shadows of the darkness.

"Who's there?" Ryu shouted out to the figure, but it kept walking slowly closer. It finally stopped ten meters away from Ryu.

"Who are you?" Ryu yelled out for the last time

There was a short pause before, "…He…Hehehe! You don't remember me!?" He bellowed out in a cold deep voice. Ryu stayed silent. "Well, let me remind you!" The figures arms pointed outwards from his side, and two huge fireballs fired from each hand. The fireballs hit two sets of trees and lit up the section of the forest they were in.

Ryu had only seen one person do that before. He turned to the shadow, "…DOA?"

________________________________________________________________ _____

DOA smiled an evil smile. "So… You do remember me."

"What are you doing?" Ryu asked. He realized that the wound that Sephiroth inflicted was gone. "Are you ok?"

"Ok…? Ok…? This is the best I have ever felt!" DOA told Ryu

"And why is that?"

"Because… I'm about to kill you, and your little girlfriend!" DOA yelled

DOA pointed both hands at Ryu and fired a black fireball that hit Ryu in his chest. Ryu flew through the air and slammed into a tree. Ryu opened his eyes to see another black fireball speeding towards him. He quickly rolled out of the way and the fireball hit the tree, exploding on impact. Ryu jumped to his feet and ducked a punch from DOA. DOA then swung his right fist at Ryu but Ryu blocked it. DOA then swung his left fist but as before Ryu blocked it. With both arms grappled with each other's, DOA kicked Ryu in the stomach causing Ryu to fall to the floor. Ryu looked up to see DOA in the air, falling with his fist ready to strike. Ryu rolled out of his way and DOA struck the floor.

"I don't want to fight you!" Ryu yelled out now behind DOA

"Well then, stand still and die!" DOA shouted back now facing Ryu

DOA ran at Ryu throwing many different punches at him, but Ryu blocked them. DOA swung his foot at Ryu face but Ryu ducked. After spinning around, DOA tried to sweep Ryu but he jumped backwards and avoided the sweep.

"Ryu! You have to fight back! If that was DOA, he would never try to hurt us!" Yuffie shouted over.

Ryu took his eyes off DOA for a split second, but that's all DOA needed. The punch into Ryus chest burnt as if his blood was on fire. He was hit with another fire attack, which sent him hurdling through the air. He landed a few feet away from Yuffie; he couldn't get back to his feet. He felt like all the power within him had drained out.

"Ryu, get up!" He heard Yuffie yell

Footsteps came closer to him, yet he couldn't raise his head. DOA head appeared above him. His eyes a black colour rather then his usual light blue.

"Everyone thought you could save this world… You were sposta be the special one… Ha!" DOA disappeared from Ryu view. He heard a small scream. DOA then appeared again with Yuffie held in his hands.

"I'll give you a break… I'll kill her first!" DOA yelled

Ryu felt his body burning. His teeth grinded together, his fists clenched and his heart beat twice as fast. He hit the floor with both fists and bounced to his feet.

"No… It can't be!" DOA shouted

Ryu hit both of DOA's arms, and he dropped Yuffie to the floor. With amazing speed, Ryu let lose with punch after punch onto DOA's chest and face. Ryu punched DOA over to a tree and hit him over twenty times in ten seconds. DOA slid down the tree and his black eyes closed slowly.

Ryu waited for a second, but DOA did not move. Ryu limped slowly back over to Yuffie who was now sat up.

"Yo - You saved me…" She said slowly

Ryu smiled and just as he was going to reply…

"It's not over yet!" DOA shouted from behind him

*BANG*

The bullet went straight through Ryus shoulder. Blood splatter onto the tree and Ryu fell to the floor. Ryu span over and sat up in pain. His T-shirt started turning a dark red colour. He looked up to see DOA on his feet, staggering over to him with his gun drawn.

"DOA…STOP!"

"…Aeris…?" DOA mumbled slowly. He turned to see Aeris stood in front of the fire

She walked slowly towards him, "DOA…" she spoke softly

He held his head in his hands, "…Aeris…Don't come any… Closer… Argh!" He looked up and pointed the gun at Aeris

She smiled at him; "You couldn't shoot me…" she kept walking

His hands were shaking and he eventually dropped the gun, "Aeris… Please… Keep away!"

She was about ten meters away from him, still walking slowly. "Fight it DOA…" she said softly

"I - I can't!" He held his hands out to her and suddenly fired a black fireball but Aeris did not move out of the way. She just kept walking…

The fireball stopped right in front of Aeris and disappeared. "You can't hurt me DOA… Because I know you're in there… fighting for me..."

DOA fell to his knees, "He - Help…"

Now close enough to touch, she placed both her hands on his shoulders, and knelt with him. Looking into his eyes she whispered to him, "DOA… I love you…"

DOA looked up and his body stopped shaking, "Aeris…"

He suddenly screamed out loud and jumped to his feet. He held his stomach and shouted out in pain. A bright beam emerged from his stomach. A dark shadow rose up through the beam as DOA screamed in pain. The beam rose into the sky and out of view, the wood became dark again.

As Ryu looked at DOA he noticed that the gash that Sephiroth inflicted had appeared back on Ryu stomach.

He looked up at Ryu and said quietly, "I'm sorry…" The blood now poured from the wound and DOA fell to the floor.

________________________________________________________________ _____

Chapter 9

The team struggled to get DOA back to the hospital, but he was soon in the care of the doctor. He was laid in a bed next to Cloud who didn't look better at all since they last saw him. Tifa started asking Aeris what had happened the moment they came through the door. As she started explaining, the nurse came over the group and asked two to leave. Ryu and Yuffie accepted to leave and they made there way to the main entrance. On their way they came to the man that they saved the day before.

"Thank you so much for saving my life! If there's anything I can do for you, please let me know," The man told them

"Well… If you have any material…" Yuffie was interrupted

"Yuffie!" Ryu stared at her and she stuck her tongue out at him. He turned back to the man and smiled, "Just get better."

"Wait, have you got a place to stay?" The man asked

Ryu remembered that the tent had been destroyed, "…No."

"Well I'm stuck in this place for another few nights… How about you take care of my house till I can get out?"

"Sure. Where is it?"

"It's the house next to this hospital. Just go out and turn right, you can't miss it." The man threw over a key.

Ryu and Yuffie thanked him and left to the hospital. They walked down the path and turned right just like the man told them. The house had two floors and the second floor had a balcony on it. They walked down the path to the front door and unlocked it.

Although Aeris had healed their gunshot wounds in the forest, they were still in pain so Ryu suggested the idea of getting some rest, which Yuffie agreed on. They both climbed into their separate beds that were next to each other, and gradually fell asleep.

________________________________________________________________ _____

Ryu woke in the early morning from a night of pleasant dreams, which he found strange. He had never had a good dream since he had been to this `place'. The dream was about himself and Yuffie, although he couldn't remember the whole of the dream, he could remember them being in a meadow full of yellow flowers.

He sat up in his bed and saw that Yuffie was not asleep; she wasn't even in the room. Her `ninja' clothes were spread on the floor next to her bed. He rubbed his eyes and stepped onto the cold floor.

"Yuffie…?" He murmured to himself

He looked around the room and noised that the door to the balcony was slightly ajar. He yawned and stretched at the same time before walking slowly towards the door. As it opened, a dazzling light stung Ryus eyes. He stepped onto the balcony squinting his eyes until he could see properly again. He looked to his right and saw Yuffie with her head in her hands, gazing at the sunrise. He walked silently over to her side and leaned onto the wall behind her.

"… Beautiful isn't it?" Yuffie rhetorically asked

"…Yeah…" Ryu focussed only on Yuffie

As she turned to face him, her eyes sparkled in the orange sunlight. She stepped closer to him, always smiling and never breaking eye contact. She took hold of his right hand with her left.

"Will you come and watch the sunrise with me?" She tilted her head and smiled

Ryu smiled back, "Of course I will," he answered

She led him back over to the barrier of the balcony still holding his hand. They watched as the sun rose into the air and turned from a dark orange, to a light yellow colour. He turned and admired how beautiful she was. Yet again, he found that he couldn't take his eyes off her. She turned to face him and took hold of his left hand as well as his right. They stood staring into each other's eyes, not saying a word, not moving a muscle. Their lips slowly moved closer together, they both closed their eyes and shared their very first kiss.

________________________________________________________________ _____

The sun was now high in the air, and everyone in the village was awake doing what they do everyday. Ryu and Yuffie decided to pay a visit to the hospital to check up on DOA, Cloud, Tifa and Aeris. They went through the main entrance to find Tifa and Cloud. Cloud still showed no sign of `normal' life as his head turned from side to side in his wheelchair. Tifa looked extremely tired, like she had never slept for weeks; her eyes, bloodshot and drowsy as she sat in a chair next to Cloud.

"Tifa, are you ok…?" ask Yuffie

"I'm… I'm fine…" She answered in a slow, hazy type of way

"How about Cloud?" Ryu asked

"He's showing no signs of getting better yet…" She replied

"What about DOA?" Yuffie asked

"…Aeris is helping him… Some kind of spell…" Tifa mumbled to herself and drifted off into her own little world. Ryu placed a blanket over her legs and moved onto the next room.

As they approached the door, they saw incredible colours flying around the room (from the window on the door). Light blues, sea greens and vivid whites, all drifting swiftly around the small hospital ward. In the middle of the room lay DOA on a bed, and Aeris sat on a chair next to him. Her hands above his body moving in some kind of pattern, and her voice was low as she chanted softly to herself.

Ryu felt it was the best idea not to disturb her and made his way with Yuffie outside the hospital.

As soon as he stepped outside of the building, the floor started to shake.

"Wh - What's going on!?" Yuffie cried out

"Look!" A villager shouted out as he pointed into the air, "It's a Weapon!"

Ryu and Yuffie looked up to see a huge black dragon flying through the air. It roared a tremendous roar before swooping down and attacking the village.

Ryu and Yuffie hit it with their most powerful spells but to no avail. The monster fired down a powerful beam that knocked both Ryu and Yuffie to the floor. As Ryu got to his feet he was hit with one of the Weapons huge claws. The attack sent him flying into the air and colliding with a tree.

He felt drowsy and couldn't see straight. He looked up to see the Weapon above him, it rose its giant foot above Ryu ready to slam it down on him.

Suddenly, a green smoke covered the Weapon knocking it backwards. Ryu turned to his side to find Cid, Red and Vincent fighting the monster.

"Hey kid, they're waiting for you on the Tiny Bronco!" Cid shouted back to Ryu

Ryu got to his feet and staggered away into the forest and out of the village. He found himself jogging to his destination, ignoring every enemy on the way. He finally found himself climbing onto the Tiny Bronco, nearly slipping off twice.

He found Yuffie trying to start the engine of the small plane. Aeris was sat next to DOA who was still unconscious.

Ryu felt his eyes closing, and seemed to lose control of his body. Everything went black and he fell to the cold metal of the planes roof.

________________________________________________________________ _____

"Please wake up… I miss you so much… If only I stayed and helped… Instead of running… Scared…" Ryu could hear the voice, yet he could not move his body or open his eyes. "We escaped on the Tiny Bronco before Mideel was destroyed by the weapon… But everyone was ok, only minor injuries. The Lifestreem `burst' and Cloud and Tifa fell in… But when they were washed back up, they were both fine, Cloud is back to his normal cocky self. Everyone is a bit happier now since he is back, everyone but me that is…" The voice seemed similar, however he wasn't thinking straight and couldn't match the voice to the face. "DOA is still unconscious and Aeris is still trying to cure him, but nothing seems to work, although the wound on his stomach has seemed to heel… She hasn't had any sleep since it happened, she must really love him…" Ryu heard a small clanking noise, and then another voice started to talk, but he couldn't understand what it was saying. The familiar voice spoke again, "Ryu, I have to go for a while, I promise that I'll come back soon, just keep getting better," He felt a kiss on his forehead, "I'll cya soon…" He listened as the footsteps gradually became gentler and then they stopped completely.

He lay helpless, not being able to move or see. He felt himself becoming more and more tired and every little bit of power that he had was no longer inside of him. Although he wanted to jump out of the bed there and then, he knew he couldn't, and finally, the feeling of sleep got the better of him.

________________________________________________________________ _____

Aeris, DOA, Yuffie, Cloud, Tifa, Red, Cid, Barret, Vincent and himself were stood in a circle around their enemy. He just stood, looking impassively at them all, no remorse about what he was trying to do.

With sudden speed and agility, Sephiroth drew his sword and sprinted towards Ryu. Ryu watched as the sword pierced through his body as if it was just air. Ryu looked down expecting to his body to be cut in two, however there was no wound in sight. He looked back up to Sephiroth who looked rather shocked. He held his sword high into the air yet Ryu was not afraid. The sword penetrated through Ryu's stomach, but Ryu felt nothing.

Ryu held his hand up to Sephiroth, and he felt a huge force that hit Sephiroth into the air and back into the centre of the circle. The invisible force surrounded Ryu and he felt it as it drove into his body. Sephiroth scampered back to his feet and swung his sword at Ryu once more, but like before it inflicted no damage.

With a sudden burst of speed, Ryu grabbed Sephiroth's blade, and with no effort at all, he crushed it width ways. Using no strength at all, he punched Sephiroth, which sent him back to the centre of the circle. Ryu held the half crushed sword in front of him, then threw it behind him.

Sephiroth rose to a crouching position. He stared straight into Ryu's eyes but Ryu was not worried. Sephiroth staggered to his feet one more time, but this time he looked different. He had a different look in his eyes… The look of a defeated man…

________________________________________________________________ _____

A bright yellow glow shined into his eyes. Everything he could see seemed blurry and misshapen. He watched as the shapes turned into objects that he could recognise. He turned his head and could see that he was in a small room with two beds in it. There was one door that was closed and two windows which when he looked out, could only see the light blue sky. The soft sound of waves crashing down onto sand echoed through the room.

After lying in bed and listening to the sound of the waves for a few minutes, he raised his head up, then his back so he was in a sitting position. He slid his legs of the bed and stood onto the warm carpeted floor. A dizzy feeling shot through his brain for a couple of seconds before he felt fine again.

He staggered over to the window and looked out to find he was at a beach. The sun shun down on the gold coloured sand; Kids were jumping over waves as they splashed up onto the beach; and Ryu could see huge boats in the distance which looked like little toy boats from where he was.

The door behind him made a small rattling sound as it opened. Ryu turned and found Yuffie stood in the doorway with a surprised look on her face. She just stood watching with the same expression on her face for a few moments. She finally snapped out of her daze and ran towards him. As she got close to him she jumped and clutched her arms around his stomach, her head rested on his chest. Ryu placed his arms around her body too, holding her as she held him.

"I missed you…" Yuffie said softy still holding him in the same way. Ryu smiled and held her tighter. "Are you ok?" She asked

"…Yeah, just a bit dizzy, that's all…" He replied. She let go of him and pushed him onto the bed then she sat next to him.

"I was really worried, Cid told me that it hit you pretty hard. Woulda killed a `normal' person…" Yuffie said, lowing her head, "I'm sorry…"

"What for?" Ryu asked puzzled

"…I left you… I'm really sorry…"

"… Look, we all get a little scared sometimes… It's ok to run…" Ryu said raising her head with his hand

"But… It could have killed you…" She said slowly

"But it didn't…" He smiled at her, "I am immortal, and I will believe that until the day I die." Ryu told her, not actually believing it himself

She tilted her head and smiled at him, "Your so cute when you sleep," she closed her eyes and stuck her tongue out at him.

"You watched me sleep?" Ryu asked

"All the time…" her face started turning red, "I was even talking to you. I hoped you could hear me… But that's just silly…"

"…I heard you," He told her

"You did!?"

"Yup. I remember everything you said."

"Oh, I forgot to tell you, Aeris wanted to see you when you woke up. Maybe we should have a walk over and have a chat with her?"

"Sure!" Ryu agreed

Both Ryu and Yuffie got up from where they were sat and made there way to the door.

"You were asleep for three days. A lot has happened since that time. Cloud is now better and he's running around being the `leader boss man' again…"

"He fell into the Lifestreem with Tifa didn't he?" Ryu asked

"How'd you know?"

"You told me…" Ryu stuck his tongue out at Yuffie

"Oh… Well anyway… Cloud, Tifa and Vincent attacked the Shinra scientist and killed him before he blew up a large part of the planet… Rufus the Shinra president was killed from an attack from a Weapon, which means The Shinra has no leader now… And the barrier that surrounded the cave where Sephiroth is hiding has be destroyed, so we will be going after him soon…"

They walked out of the door and Ryu realised that he was in an inn. They walked to the door next to the room that he was just in. Yuffie turned the door handle and they both walked into the door.

Aeris was sat in a chair, laid across an empty bed. She seemed to be asleep.

"Wh - What!?" Yuffie shouted

"What's wrong?" Ryu asked

"DOA was in this room, she had been heeling him non stop since we got here, but now she's asleep and he's gone!" Yuffie ran over to Aeris and tried to wake her.

Without thinking, Ryu ran out of the room, and into the lobby of the inn. From there, he ran to the main doors and opened them up.

The sun was as bright as ever and the heat was so intense that heat waves appeared in front of his eyes. He looked around but couldn't see very far because of the hordes of children and tourists. As they pasted, Ryu walked forwards and found himself on a pear looking down onto the sparkling blue sea.

As he looked to his right, he noised him immediately. He was stood with his back facing Ryu with the same black coloured trousers, the same black coloured T-shirt, the same short blond hair and the same black bandanna with the letters `DOA' on it.

He turned with a smile on his face, as if he knew that Ryu had seen him.

"DOA!?" Ryu turned to find Yuffie and Aeris stood at the entrance of the inn, "You're ok!?" Yuffie shouted over again.

Aeris walked over to him with a smiled on her face, whilst DOA just stood and watched. She grabbed hold of both of his hands, and kissed him passionately on him lips. Without saying one word to each other, she let go of one of his hands and led him inside of the inn.

By this time, Yuffie was stood beside Ryu.

"Wow, I haven't saw her smile like that for ages…" Ryu said

"Or him," Yuffie added

"Yeah…" Ryu agreed

"We can't really go back to our rooms NOW…"

"I spouse not, but where will we go?" Ryu asked

"How about we sleep on the beach? I hear that lots of tourists do that." Yuffie answered after a short pause

"Well ok… You can tell me what's been going on too," He said looking into her eyes

They both looked back at the inn doors.

"Ohh… He's gonna get some tonight!" Yuffie shouted out

"YUFFIE!!" Ryu shouted, astonished at what he just heard

She giggled and ran onto the golden coloured sand. Ryu shortly followed, as he waived around the mass amount of tourists.

________________________________________________________________ _____

Three ice creams, two candyflosses, one blanket and a sunset later, they were alone on the beach with each other. The stars twinkled in the blackness of the night sky, and the waves caused a dull soothing sound. Although it was night, the heat was still intense. They were both laid side by side with each other on the blanket that they bought hours earlier.

"Cloud and the others will be coming to pick us up tomorrow on the Highwind," Yuffie told Ryu

"Where to then?" Ryu asked

"Sephiroth…"

"Is that the plan? Just run into the cave and get him?"

"That's all we can do Ryu… What else is there?"

Ryu couldn't answer.

"Are you scared?" Ryu asked her

"…Me? Scared? No way!" She smiled her usual smile, "I'm never scared!" she said in a tough voice

They both laughed together before she laid her head on Ryus chest.

"You think them two will be ok?" Ryu asked

"It's me that you have to worry about!"

They both laughed again. After a five-minute pause, Ryu spoke up…

"Yuffie, I've got something I have to tell you… I've never felt this way before about anyone… But you… And I think I'm falling in…" Ryu looked down to find that Yuffie was fast asleep. He smiled and wrapped his arms around her. He felt her heart beating as she laid her body next to him. He finally fell asleep sensing an extraordinary feeling of security.

________________________________________________________________ _____

He was blinded by sunrays as soon as he opened his eyes. He quickly shielded his eyes with his left hand and soon got used to the sun. He looked down to find that Yuffie was still asleep. He wanted to get up onto his feet, but he didn't want to leave Yuffie. He watched her as she slept silently, thousands of feelings rushing through the whole of his body. Minutes later she awoken hugging her arms around Ryu.

"You better not of been watching me sleep!" She shouted as she stretched

"I wasn't!" He said, rolling his eyes

"Stop being so cute," she said to him as she stood up, "You think it's safe going inside?" She said with a smile

"I dunno…" He answered

"Hmm…" She paused for a minute, "We're gonna have to go in sooner or later so…"

"Soooo we just walk in?"

"Why not," Yuffie said, "What's the worst that could happen?"

"Well, we could walk in on our friends doing…"

"Oh now come on… How do you know that they are…" she stopped and tried to think of a `nice' way to say it, "Doing it…?"

Ryu laughed, "Are we staying, or are we going?"

"Umm…" She paused for a second, "…Going…"

They strolled over to the steps that lead back onto the peer. As Yuffie stepped onto the first step, the doors of the inn opened. Aeris and DOA stepped out, hand in hand.

"Heyyyy!" Yuffie ran up the steps and straight up to them, "Are you two… Ok?" She winked as she asked

Aeris squinted at Yuffie, "What's wrong with your eye?"

Yuffie stopped winking and replied with a dark tone, "Nothing…"

"You two ok?" Ryu asked now stood next to Yuffie

"Fine," DOA answered, "We were up all night talking,"

" `Talking'?" Yuffie repeated with a smile on her face

"Yeah… Talking…" DOA replied tilting his head

"You sat up… `Talking'… All night?" Yuffie asked

"Yes, what did you think we were doing?" Aeris asked back

"Agghhh!" Yuffie walked straight past Aeris and DOA, and entered the inn

"What's wrong with her?" DOA asked

"Oh… Nothing… Just usual Yuffie" Ryu replied with a smile, "I should really go check on her…"

"OK, but be quick, Cloud contacted me on the PHP, They're coming to pick us up in the Highwind soon," Aeris said

"OK." Ryu walked past Aeris and entered the inn. He first went to the room that he woke up in the day before. He changed his clothes, and equipped himself with his Materia and his weapons. He walked back out of his room and turned. He stopped outside of Yuffies room, and knocked softly on the door.

"Just be a minute!" She shouted from within the room. He waited a few seconds, then heard a click as the door opened slightly. He opened the door fully and walked into the room. Yuffie was once again dressed in her ninja clothes. She packed something into her backpack and turned to Ryu.

"Can you believe them two?" She asked rhetorically

"What ya mean?"

"Well… You can tell that he likes her, and she likes him. Why don't they just get together?"

Ryu just stood in silence

"Esh…" She trailed off. "Anyway, what do ya want?" she asked

"Erm… The Highwind will be coming for us soon, we better get ready."

"Oh… Well just give me five more minutes, I still have stuff to pack."

"Ok," Ryu said nodding his head. He walked out of the room, and out of the inn.

He watched as everyone was playing games and laughing. Running up and down the beach and playing in the sea. Fathers and sons build sand castles together, one father was even teaching his son how to swim.

It seemed strange to Ryu how everyone could be so happy. "The world could end tomorrow, yet everyone is happy," he thought

"Hey! Ryu!" He turned his head away from the beach and saw DOA and Aeris sat on the end of the peer, "Come here!" DOA shouted over whilst waving his hands

Ryu waited for a group of kids to run by him, the he walked over to where his friends were sat.

"Hi," he said to both of them

"Hi," Both of them replied at the same time

DOA rose to his feet and turned to face Ryu, "Ryu… I'm sorry for what happened."

"What do you mean?" Ryu asked puzzled

"Well the whole fight thing we seemed to have had. I saw what was happening but I couldn't control my body… I found myself in that forest attacking anybody that I saw. It was really terrible. I tried shouting your name out but to no avail."

"What was wrong with you?" Ryu asked angrily

DOA looked to the floor, "… I'm really sorry…"

Aeris then stood up and turned to Ryu, "It wasn't his fault. You saw what happened before he collapse in the forest…"

Ryu looked to the sky and thought for a second. A picture of a shadow emerging from DOA stomach lodged into Ryus brain. He looked back at Aeris and nodded his head. "That black shadow?"

"Yes, I know it may sound strange, but I think that could be something to do with Sephiroth's sword."

"How do you mean?" Ryu asked

"Well I think it could have been some kind of poison on the blade. If he didn't kill someone with the sword, the poison would kill them eventually," Aeris stopped, "DOA said that he couldn't stop anything that he was doing yet he could see and hear everything… And the shadow that appeared."

Ryu nodded, thinking it all made sense, but still not trusting DOA.

"Poison or not, I'm still really sorry. I really hope you can forgive me, if not now, later," DOA pleaded to the both of them

"Well I do," Aeris said softly looking into his eyes.

He smiled and turned to Ryu, "…"

"You were my first ever real friend… And if what Aeris said is true, then of course I forgive you."

"Well I don't!!" A voice behind Ryu shouted

Yuffie walked straight up to DOA and looked him straight in the eye, "You tried to kill us all!"

DOA looked down at his feet, "I'm… Sorry…"

"Your sorry? Sorry? You shot me in the leg, and then tried to kill me!"

"Yuffie…" Aeris started

"No! Don't try and stick up for him!"

*Ring* *Ring*

The noise came from Aeris direction. Aeris pulled out the PHP that was in her pocket and placed it onto her ear.

"Hello…? Yes we are… Oh, Ok, see ya soon," Aeris put the PHP back into her pocket. "That was Cloud, he should be flying over us in the Highwind and minute."

They all looked up into the air except DOA who was still looking down to the floor. After twenty seconds or so they all see a spec of silver flying through the air. Every second made the blob bigger and bigger. After five minutes or so, the Highwind was in full view, the sun bouncing off the silver sides. They all watched as it landed just outside of the Costa del Sol village.

________________________________________________________________ _____

Yuffie was the first to board the Highwind, followed my Ryu, then Aeris then DOA. Tifa was there to greet them.

"Hi all!" she shouted out with a smile. Yuffie walked past her without saying anything or looking at her at all.

"Hi Tifa. How have you been?" Ryu asked as he walked past her

She gave him a heart-warming smile, "Fine thank you,"

"Aeris!" Tifa shouted. She ran over to her and hugged her, "I missed our little talks," Tifa said as she smiled.

Aeris smiled back, "Me too. You going to show me the rest of the group are?"

"Ok, come with me." They both turned and followed Ryu into the bridge of the Highwind

DOA entered the Highwind, "Hello…? Anyone…?"

________________________________________________________________ _____

"So this is it people… Maybe the last few days of the world… But I don't see it like that; I see the beginning of a new world. A world without Hurt or Evil. A peaceful world full of happy people. But there's one person who stands in front of that world… Sephiroth," Cloud paused for a second, "This could be our last battle… We all could be killed… But I know if we all stick together, we will prevail," He paused again, this time for a couple of seconds, "I want each one of you to do something. Find what you are fighting for. Go back to your hometowns, go visit your relatives and your friends, do whatever… And if you don't want to come back and fight with us… Then don't…"

________________________________________________________________ _____

So everything has come down to this. Everything that I have been fighting for… This could be the last night of my life… Or tomorrow could be the first day of the rest of my life… I am fighting for everyone… The people of this planet… My friends… My family… Myself…

Ryu stands alone at the front of the Highwind. He looks out of the front window to find that night has already fell.

I am Ryu… And I will never give up…

________________________________________________________________ _____

Yuffie, Tifa and Cloud were the only three who didn't show. Ryu stood at the back of the room, watching everyone talk among themselves

"Can you hear them?" Barrett asked

"No…" Cid answered

"Hey! You shouldn't be listening!" Aeris yelled at Barrett

All the group (except Ryu), were stood near the front window, watching Tifa and Cloud who were outside on the ground below the Highwind.

"Hey wait… They're coming back to the Highwind. Cid start the engines, time to be amoving," Barrett said

Cid ran over to the controls and started pressing a few buttons and pulling a few leavers. The huge plane started to shake and Ryu felt a sudden jerk as it lifted into the air.

"Your all here!" Tifa shouted as herself and Cloud ran into the room

"Of course," Red said

"We couldn't just leave yas," Barrett said straight after Red

"… Thank you all…" Tifa said with nothing but happiness in her voice

"So it's onto Sephiroth now?" Cait asked

"Looks that way…" Vincent replied

"Well… There's no time like the present," Cloud added

"Wait!" Tifa yelled, "Where's Yuffie?"

"Looks like the little runt didn't show…" Barrett replied

"Well it was her own choice, if she wanted to leave us then that was up to her…" Cloud said

"Hehehe!" The laugh seemed to come from all directions

"Yuffie?" Tifa called out

Suddenly Yuffie just down from her hiding place, the light on the ceiling.

"You think I wouldn't show? Well if I was to do that then you wouldn't give me all your materia after we kicked Sephiroth's ass. Plus you need my skills to defeat him too, you'd have no chance without me," She smiled smugly, "Anyway, I'll be in my usual place if anyone needs me… I'm starting to feel kinda sick," Her face turned a pale white colour and she ran out of the room

"Err…"

"Well, at least everyone is here," Tifa said

"Yup, and from here on in", Cloud stopped and looked at the group:

`There's no stopping this train we're on!' The whole group shouted out

"Next stop… Sephiroth…"

________________________________________________________________ _____

Chapter 10

Cid was the last to descend the ladder. The group stood in straight line looking onwards into the dark, sinister cave. The Highwind was parked above the huge cave, and the group had already climbed down a rope ladder to get into the cave. The first thing each of them noised was that there was a choice of three smaller caves to enter.

"I guess we'll have to split up…" Cloud said slowly looking from cave to cave, "Me, Red, Cait and… Aeris will take the left cave."

"But…" DOA started but watched as Aeris walked past him and stood beside Cloud

"Barrett, Tifa, Yuffie and DOA take the middle cave," Cloud continued

"Do I have to be with her?" Barrett grunted at Cloud whilst pointing his finger at Yuffie

"Quit Whining!" Yuffie shouted back

"Why you little…" Barrett started, but was interrupted by Cloud

"And Cid, Vincent and Ryu will take the right cave. Hopefully we can meet somewhere, PHP me if anything goes wrong." He pause for a second or two and looked at each individual, "Well… Let's mosey."

Cid, Vincent and Ryu turned to their cave, and walked into the darkness.

"Jesus, is it dark," Cid said ten meters through the cave

"Well it is a cave Cid," Vincent pointed out

"I know, but I thought it would be a little…Brighter…"

The cave started turning to the left. As the group followed the path, it became so dark that Ryu couldn't see his hand when he put it in front of his face.

"I don't think we can keep going like this," Ryu finally said

"He's right…" Vincent agreed

"Well what do ya's suppose we do?" Just as Cid asked, a bright flash followed by a loud bang filled the cave with light and noise.

"What the f*** was that!?" Cid shouted out

"Me…" Vincent replied

"Well why the f*** did you do that!?" Cid now irate

Suddenly another bright light came from Vincent, this time a fireball was glowing in his hand. He pointed it to the floor a few meters away from Ryu, and fired it. It flew through the air, and hit a pile of wood setting it aflame. Vincent walked over to the burning wood, crouched down, and picked up one of the splints. Vincent then looked over to Cid and threw the wood to him.

"…Thanks…" Cid said sarcastically

Vincent picked up another burning piece and passed it to Ryu, he then picked up a last piece and kept it for himself. He the rose to his feet and kept walking in the same direction as before.

After walking a couple more yards, they came to another fork in the road, this time going two different ways. Each way looked exactly the same as the other. Each had cold stonewalls, each had low stone ceilings and each were too dark to look into.

"So… Which way?" Ryu asked turning to Cid

Cid looked at one road, then the other, then the first again. Obviously by the look on his face, he had no idea which way to pick.

As Cid looked over the two ways once more, a deafening roar came from the cave on the left hand side.

"What the hell was that?" Cid asked peering into the dark and dingy cave

Suddenly, the cave lit up with a dazzling bright light. As the grouped watched, the light became larger and Ryu noticed that it wasn't just a normal light, but a fireball. He jumped to the floor and the ball of fire past just over his head and hit the ceiling three meters away from him.

Another huge roar was heard, this time closer then before.

"That thing sounds nasty…" Cid said as Ryu climbed to his feet, "Maybe we should give it a miss?"