By Angelfire

The villagers of Bone village watched in astonishment as Avalanche ran through their village at top speed with the woman who they had been chasing within the group.

Reaching the Highwind Cloud turned towards Angel. "I know what you did and what the planet has said about you, but as the leader I must ask. Can you be trusted?"

Angel looked at him with amusement. "Believe me, if I had wanted to kill you, I would have." she retorted, climbing up the ladder to the deck of the airship.

"What’s that supposed to mean?" he thought to himself.

"Cloud get your @$$ up here now!" Cid called from above him. "Reeve is waiting for us."

*******************

When the Highwind landed at Midgar, the members of Avalanche climbed out to wait for Reeve to appear. Ten minutes later he arrived carrying a large gun. "All right." he said. "This time I am coming in person."

He looked round and saw Angel standing behind the group. "Shit, Angel is behind you!" he exclaimed pointing his gun at her.

"Reeve relax!" Aeris said stepping out. "She is on our side."

"Wha‚ the?" he said in surprise. "How did you return, what’s going on?"

"Angel brought me back using Holy, she is a Cetra." Aeris replied as everyone entered the Highwind.

"I don’t believe this!!! Has anything else happened that I should know about?"

The Highwind climbed into the blue sky when a voice rang out. "SHIT!!!"

*******************

Angel sat on the stairs that led to the deck of the ship, after all that had happened in the ancient city, she felt alone. Her brother had become evil in the years she was imprisoned in Midgar and he had tried to kill her.

Hearing a noise below her, she looked down and saw Yuffie suffering from motion sickness. Angel sighed and got up, walking down the stairs she remembered that she had a tranquilizer potion with her.

"Here drink this, it will make you feel better." She said to Yuffie, holding out the bottle.

"Thanks." came the reply. Yuffie took the tranquilizer and drank it. "I feel a lot better."

Angel wandered towards the deck of the Highwind unaware that Cloud and Tifa had seen her act of kindness.

"That was nice of her." Tifa commented. Cloud nodded. "But should we trust her?"

"Yes, she cannot turn against the planet." Aeris said from behind them. "Cid wants to talk to you Cloud, I think it is about giving Reeve some materia." She walked past them and headed towards the deck.

Angel was looking over the rail that bordered the deck of the airship when Aeris walked up to her. "Thank you for what you did for me." she said making Angel turn round. "Do you have a limit skill that can heal?" When Angel shook her head Aeris continued "All Cetra have a holy healing limit called Great Gospel, I would like to teach it to you."

"But that is an ultimate limit, I already have one called Holy strike, you can’t have more than one." Angel argued

* As a powerful Cetra you need both Angel, to fulfil your role as guardian of the planet. Aeris let Angel teach you a limit skill to attack * the planet said to the two Cetra.

They looked at each other and started to talk in the Cetra language about the technicalities of the limit skills.

Cloud shook his head unable to understand what they were talking about and headed to the bridge.

*******************

"We had better get ready, Gongaga in three minutes." Cid called out. "Hey Cloud, where’s Aeris?"

"On deck talking to Angel about something. I could not follow what they said." he replied picking up his sword and strapping it on his back.

"What about some materia for Reeve?" Red asked, "There is no more mastered materia for him to use."

"He can have mine!" Angel said from the door. "I can cast these spells without the use of materia." she continued handing the orbs to Reeve.

"Lord, these are all mastered, Earth, Cure, Time, Lightning, Fire, Revive and Ultima." Reeve exclaimed examining the materia and putting them into slots on his gun.

"Next time give them to me!" Yuffie said with an expression of greed on her face

"No Yuffie, I think you have enough materia." came Vincent’s reply. "Reeve needs it more than you!"

"Spoilsport." Yuffie pouted.

"Cid has landed the Highwind." Tifa said to them interrupting the argument between Yuffie and Vincent. "We had better get going."

The group started to leave the Highwind when Cloud asked Angel, "What were you and Aeris talking about?"

"Limit skills." Came her reply. "Aeris has no attack limit, so I taught her a holy attack."

"Is it powerful?" Cloud wanted to know

"No, Aeris’ personality is not violent, I could only teach her a weak attack."

Cloud watched as Angel walked away from the Highwind, sword drawn. He realized that her power did not just come from the Jenova cells and mako inside her, but from her kind and forgiving nature. He had attacked her in the ancient city and she had not said a word of accusation against him or demanded an apology from him.

"Cloud are you coming?" Red shouted to Cloud, snapping him out of his line of thought.

Cloud ran to join the rest of the group. "We don’t know if the person responsible for this is still around, everyone keep your guard up."

"I bet it was that ^%£$^ Sephiroth." Barret said raising his gun arm.

"We don’t know that Barret, It could have been someone else." Vincent said as the group ran towards where the village stood.

Entering the village moments later, they stopped. What they saw horrified them. Burnt out shells of houses and many people lying dead on the ground.

"Oh my GAWD, who could do this?" Yuffie exclaimed in revulsion, turning away from the sight, Aeris and Tifa moved towards her.

Angel crouched down beside the body of a young child. "Sephiroth did this." she said in a tone of voice that did not hide her sorrow and anger. "They were killed by a sword thrust that could only come from a long sword."

"Angel, you scout north. Red you scout east, Vincent you check west. Look for survivors and be careful, Sephiroth may still be around."

Angel, Red and Vincent moved to carry out Cloud’s orders.

"Why did you sent them?" Yuffie wanted to know.

"Because they are the quietest. We’ll check over there to see if any of these people survived." Cloud replied. Cid, Barret, Cloud and Reeve moved to see if anyone in the village was still alive.

*******************

Angel listened for any sound to indicate that there was another person or creature around, but the woods were silent. Feeling uneasy she continued to walk deeper into the forest, her sword drawn and ready.

Five minutes later a voice rang out. "Halt, Identify yourself" a woman stepped out of the trees ahead of her with a bald headed man at her side.

"Who are you?" Angel asked holding her sword in front of her.

"We are the Turks, and I think we have found out the person responsible for this." Rude stated.

Angel stepped forward to protest when another person emerged from the trees behind her and Reno jabbed his night-stick at her back. A high pitched scream rang through the woods as she collapsed on the floor and passed out.

In the village Cloud heard the scream and called the rest of the group together. "I think I just heard Angel scream." Vincent and Red who had also heard the scream appeared and together they ran to help her.

Angel recovered more rapidly than the Turks realized, rising from the ground, slightly dazed from Reno‚s attack, she retrieved her sword. Reno hearing the noise Angel made turned to see her rising from the ground, sword in hand.

" ^%£$, she’s awake. . . PYRAMID!" he yelled. A transparent pyramid surrounded her. "I don‚t think you can break that." he smirked.

"Maybe not Reno, but I can break it for her. Don’t mess with any member of Avalanche." Cloud’s voice rang out. The Turks jumped as Cloud stepped into view closely followed by the rest of the group. "Angel, are you alright? We heard you scream."

Angel, still inside the pyramid, nodded. "I am alright, Reno’s attack surprised me." her eyes narrowed, she raised her sword and struck the inside of the pyramid. All eyes widened when the pyramid shattered. "What?" she asked bemused.

"How the..." Cid started.

"No one has ever shattered one of those from the inside." Tifa said interrupting Cid.

"Wait a minute, you said she is part of Avalanche, who is she?" Reno asked

"She is Sephiroth’s sister." Rude said.

"How the ^%£^%$£^%£ hell do you know?" Barret asked raising his gun.

"I saw her spar with Sephiroth on the morning she disappeared." Came Rude’s reply

"Yes, Reno I am Sephiroth’s sister, I am also a Cetra." Angel said

"You, a Cetra, don’t make me laugh. Sephiroth had those delusions as well." Reno laughed.

"I can vouch for her." Aeris said walking directly in front of Reno. "She is a Cetra, and the Guardian of the planet."

"Wait a minute, you’re supposed to be dead. And who else could be responsible except for her?" Reno readied his night-stick. Angel, realizing what Reno intended to do, changed her sword into her thin, two meter long staff and knocked his night-stick to the far side of the clearing.

"How did you do that?" Elena asked curiously. Reno looked daggers at her as he went to recover his weapon.

"I have no quarrel with you, as my friends can testify I was not here when the village was destroyed. I changed my sword into a staff because I have no wish to harm you." Angel said to the Turks. "However I can and will defend myself and as Rude knows I was a first class SOLDIER."

"It’s true." Rude said to his colleagues. "I saw her fight against Sephiroth when I first tried to enter the program"

"If what you saw could be called fighting." Angel said. "That was just a demonstration, if we were really sparring you would not have been so close. We also used magic attacks against each other."

Everyone looked at her in astonishment unable to believe what she had told them.

"But what has that to do with you not being responsible?" Elena asked, breaking the silence.

"Because it was done by Sephiroth. He has returned." Cloud replied.