"Marlene!" Aeris cried and ran to the cage and tried to open it. But the lock wouldn't open. She called for someone to help her and Ash decided to see what he could do.

After a minute or two of playing with the insides of the lock, a click was heard and the cage door swung open. "Tada!" he exclaimed triumphantly, holding his favorite lock pick up in the air.

Aeris pushed past him and went to her friend. "Marlene," she said sadly. "What have they done to you?" Although she was alive, Aeris didn't expect any reaction from her friend. But her eyes began to flutter open.

"Aeris?" She weakly asked. "What are you doing here?"

The girl smiled and hugged her friend. "We came to get you." Marlene began to smile, but a frown began to grow on her face after Aeris spoke.

"We . . ?" Marlene began looking around. "Who are your friends?" she asked, looking at the group.

Aeris helped her friend to her feet. "There are the people who helped me find you. You know Jet and Nanaki." Marlene nodded. "Well, Ash is the one who got you out of this cage. Alan is the son of a chocobo farmer. We used his birds to get here. And those over there are Victor and Rathena."

Marlene looked at each new person that Aeris introduced, but couldn't take her eyes off the two figures in the back. Rathena and Victor were there names. She looked at them for a minute, trying to think of why they looked familiar.

After taking another long look into their eyes, she saw that they weren't the strange shade of brown that she thought they were, but the eyes were red. And the only other person she knew of that had red eyes was a man named Vincent, from long ago.

Now that she thought about it, the boy seemed to look like a smaller version of the man that had been a friend and ally of AVALANCHE. Although she wanted to talk to him about it, now was not the time.

"So tell us what happened to you," Aeris said, getting out a cure materia, and using it on her friend.

Marlene sighed as the materia's power flowed through her, easing her aches and pains. "Well, All I really know is that there people are called the Black Cloak, and have been hired by someone to find the remains of Sephiroth. I don't know what they want with them, though."

Marlene's eye's dropped to the floor. "And they're gonna get them too. They've got our parents and forced them to t-tell." Marlene's voice began to brake when she remembered what had happened to Cloud. "They k-killed him after he told!"

Nobody said anything as she sobbed. They all knew who he was. Aeris and Nanaki tried to sooth their friend. "Don't worry," Aeris said. "We'll get the murderers who did this, and make them pay."

That seemed to calm Marlene down a bit. "Yeah, I guess so," she said. But suddenly she looked as if she remembered something. "And I know where they are!"

"Where are they," Victor suddenly spoke up. Although she couldn't really tell, she thought that she heard venom in the boy's voice.

"They've taken out parents and gone to the crater to retrieve Sephiroth's remains. I don't know what they want though."

Nanaki nodded. "We should head out at once to the Crater." Everyone nodded in agreement. Marlene looked around the group. "But maybe we should better equip ourselves first. I know that if we go now, we won't stand a chance against the monsters that live there."

They all nodded knowingly. Although they didn't have to do much fighting to get this far, it was unlikely that they would be this lucky from now on.

"Hold on a sec," Marlene said as they turned to leave. Aeris blinked and looked at her friend. "What is it?" she asked.

Marlene walked over to a chest that was in a corner and opened it. She reached inside and pulled out her bag and weapon. "Can't leave my stuff," she said smiling. She put the glove on and Ash and Jet just gaped at the clawed weapon. "Nice huh?" she said, seeing the expression on their faces.

It was hoping for too much to leave without an enemy encounter. And just as they were about to exit the abandoned reactor, a Dragon attacked them. It seemed abnormally large, and its power was almost radiated from its body.

"Holy S#IT!" Ash yelled as he saw the monster. "Where the f**k did that come from?" He pulled out his Nightstick and charged it.

"I'm not certain," Nanaki said, dodging a Flame Thrower attack. "But I believe it may have been left here by the Black Cloak."

"Brilliant observation, Professor," Ash sarcastically said. He maneuvered closer to the beast and sent a jolt of electricity into its neck. But all that seemed to was make it mad.

It roared in anger, and swiped at him with its sharp claw's. Ash tried to dodge, but had moved in too close, and couldn't move fast enough. The blow hit him hard, and he was sent flying.

"Ash!" Jet called out, seeing his friend being attacked. His anger began to grow, and he launched himself at the Dragon. His spear was held out in front of him, poised for attack.

The monster swung its head around trying to bite at him, while swinging it's tail at Aeris. Jet moved with surprising speed and dodged the attack. As he moved past its large body, he swung around and drove his spear into the beast's side.

It did some damage and the beast was momentarily fazed. That allowed Jet the time Ash didn't have, and he moved away before the dragon could attack him again. He left the dragon to his friends and went to check on Ash, who seemed to be at a loss for words.

Alan too advantage of Jet's distraction and swung his rod at it's head. It looked like it saw stars for a moment, but quickly recovered. He swiped at it again, but it turned it's head and grabbed the weapon in it's jaw's. It's pulled it's head away quickly, yanking the rod out of Alan's grasp. It raised it's head, and bit down on the weapon hard, and bit it in two.

Aeris lunged at it's throat as it raised it's head. She swiped the sword across it's neck, but only drew a bit of blood.

Marlene looked on as this was happening and reached into her bag. The group was pretty strong to be holding their own against that monster. But it wasn't doing any good. She could tell that this was a mako enhanced beast, and almost any attack they threw at it, wouldn't do much.

Victor and Rathena were shooting at it's eyes trying to distract it, Aeris was trying to inflict some blows. Alan's weapon had been broken, and Ash was recovering from the blow. Marlene knew she needed to help, but just couldn't find what she needed to finish the battle. She was afraid that the Black Cloak hat taken it.

Ash got up and jumped at the monster again. "Wait!" Jet called, trying to stop him. But Ash's adrenaline was pumping and he moved with amassing speed. He raised his fully charged Nightstick, and stopped directly in front of the monster.

"Hey! Over here!" He called, trying to get the monster's attention. It worked and the monster swung it's head over to Ash, trying to bite at him. But Ash was ready and mercilessly swung his weapon in the beast's eye.

It recoiled and grabbed at it's head, howling in pain. It's tail thrashed out, trying to hit what had blinded it. But Ash had already moved out of the way.

"Aha!" Marlene exclaimed, finding what she was looking for. In the hidden pouch in her bag, was her most powerful materia. She had been growing it since Cloud gave it to her. That was ten years ago, and it had grown considerably stronger.

She pulled out the red orb, and held it in front of her face admiring it's strong glow. "Get back!" she called out, warning the other's.

As they backed away from the monster, Marlene focused on her materia. She looked deep into it and fealt the magic. Then she directed the magic forces at the dragon. "Ultimate End!!!" she cried.

Chapter 19