by Angelfire

The Highwind landed outside Corel. Barret was the first one off the airship running towards his house where Elmyra looked after his daughter. Tifa, Cid, and Aeris followed. Cloud waited at the bottom of the ladder for the rest of the group to disembark. "Wait here everyone, when the Turks show up tell them what has happened. We will be back in a few minutes." Cloud ordered, entering the village.

"That is just great." Yuffie moaned. "Waiting for a bunch of losers." Taking hold of her shuriken she started to practice throwing it and catching it.

"I heard that!" Reno said from behind the Highwind. Yuffie turned and went pale. "Do you want to prove that one on one?" he inquired.

"That is enough." Red said stepping between them. "Cloud is going to find out how Marlene was kidnapped."

Angel, listening to the conversation, looked up. She could see Meteor approaching. Pulling out the Holy materia she could feel it becoming warm in her hands and wondered what she was supposed to do with it *Angel, you must use Holy to stop Meteor before you confront Jenova.* the planet said inside her mind. Making sure no one saw her she slipped away. After she had gone quite a distance away she saw a Gold chocobo. * Use this chocobo to get to Midgar * the planet said as she mounted the chocobo and headed away.

Reeve walked towards Sephiroth. "Where is your sister?" he asked. Sephiroth looked round but could not see her. "I don’t see her, she was over there a few seconds ago." he replied.

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

"Aeris, you’re alive?" Elmyra stared at Aeris in wonder. "I thought Sephiroth killed you!" she walked up to Aeris and hugged her, tears running down her face.

"Yes mom, I was killed. Angel restored me to life." Aeris replied. "I’m sorry, I’ll explain later, but we need to know how Marlene was taken."

Cid, Barret and Tifa sat down on the chairs provided. Cloud paced up and down the room in agitation. He knew that he was supposed to have protected Aeris the last time, but had failed.

"Cloud sit down." Elmyra said to him. "It happened when I turned my back for a minute. Marlene was playing out the back on her own when I heard a scream. A horrible creature had appeared in the garden and picked her up in one of its tentacles. I ran outside but it was too late, the creature. . . . . and Marlene had vanished." she explained breaking down into tears, Tifa moved to comfort her.

"Elmyra, there ain’t nothin’ you could have done." Cid said. "Jenova is very powerful." Aeris looked up towards Barret.

"We will get her back." she said with steel in her voice. "Jenova had better watch out."

Elmyra looked at her in amazement. "Can you tell me if the rumours are true? Has Sephiroth returned?"

Cloud looked embarrassed and Cid looked away. Tifa started to find her hair very interesting.

"Yes, he has." Barret said. "After his sister resurrected Aeris, she managed to stop Sephiroth."

Suddenly Yuffie and Sephiroth ran in, interrupting her explanation of the situation.

"Cloud, we have a small problem." Sephiroth stated

"What is he doing here?" Elmyra asked in anger pointing to Sephiroth.

"Mom, Sephiroth is on our side now." Aeris calmly said walking over to him. "What sort of problem?"

"Angel has gone!" Yuffie said. "She just left the area. The Turks are out looking for her."

"We found chocobo tracks nearby." Sephiroth finished.

Cloud looked at them. "We had better find her then. I hope she has not gone to fight Jenova alone."

"She hasn’t." Aeris said. "She has gone to destroy Meteor."

"Why didn't she wait for us?" Cloud asked, running towards the door.

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

Angel looked down the cliff at Midgar. Overhead, Meteor loomed large. She knew that it would hit Midgar if she did not stop it.

"Angel, what in ^%^%$^ are you doing?" Cid called from the deck of the Highwind. Next to him the rest of Avalanche and the Turks watched wondering what she was up to. Only Aeris watched unconcerned. "Be careful Angel, if Jenova senses what you are doing she will retaliate." she told her.

Angel ignored them and concentrated on Holy, looking up she saw that the Highwind was in the way. "Cid, move the Highwind! This is going to get dangerous!" she yelled up to him as the Highwind slowly moved away.

Cloud watched as her wings appeared and she flew up into the air. He heard her cry out one word, "HOLY!" before all the world turned white. Once his eyes cleared he saw Angel send a beam of white energy directly at the meteor, which pulsed once and exploded, sending fragments too small to harm the planet in all directions.

" . . . . . God, that circlet definitely increased her magic power!" Reeve exclaimed in awe as silence reigned. No one could believe the force that Angel had just unleashed. Sephiroth, looking around for his sister, saw her falling towards the ground. He flew down from the deck of the airship and caught her in time to stop her hitting the rocks below. Angel was unconscious. He carried her back to the Highwind where she could recover.

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

"No use. I can’t wake her." Tifa told the group. "She is in a coma and I don’t know how to snap her out of it."

"She used most of her strength to destroy Meteor. She will recover, but we will have to stop Jenova without her." Aeris said.

"What made her do a stupid ^$% thing like that?" Cid asked as he plotted a course to the Northern Crater.

"Like Aeris, the planet talks to her. I know that for Jenova to be destroyed the black materia has to be destroyed." Sephiroth said.

"What does that mean?" Red asked. "If the black materia was destroyed meteor would vanish, wouldn’t it?"

"No." Cloud said. "I understand. Meteor would blow up, destroying the planet in the process."

Reeve scratched his head. "Well, at least that won’t happen." he said.

"North Crater ahead." Cid said concentrating on landing the airship. "This time I am taking her right in."

The Highwind landed near the bottom of the crater. The Turks got out first, with Cloud and Sephiroth behind them. Cid, Barret and Vincent walked towards an opening in the wall "I don’t like the look of this place." Reeve said behind them. "It seems too quiet."

"Stop tryin’ to jinx us." Barret said nervously looking around.

"Shush everyone, I thought I heard something." Red said, looking around trying to see what was there.

A large dragon appeared from behind a solid looking wall.

"Shit! I told ya that you would jinx us." Barret told Reeve

"Shut up." Reeve replied raising his gun and shooting the creature.

"Turk Light!" Reno called hitting the dragon with energy from his night-stick. Sephiroth moved in slashing the monster with his sword. The dragon hit him with a lightning spell. Falling back, Sephiroth cast one of his more powerful spells. "Ultima!" that did little damage to the creature.

"Bolt 3!" Aeris called.

"Freeze!" Red shouted.

"Comet!" Vincent said.

"This isn’t working!" Yuffie called as Elena punched the dragon and Rude healed everyone that it had hurt.

"BEAT RUSH! SOMERSAULT! WATERKICK! METEODRIVE! DOLPHIN BLOW! METEOR STRIKE! FINAL HEAVEN!" Tifa yelled, using her limit break attacks.

Cloud, seeing that the dragon was still alive after the final blow, pulled out a red summon materia. "Ultimate end!" he called as 13 knights attacked and finished the dragon.

"Come on before any more show up." Cloud said to them, running through the opening in the wall. Everyone followed him.

The chamber beyond was large. The walls were covered in a crystal like substance that reflected all light and in one corner Barret saw his daughter behind some metal bars.

"Marlene, are ya alright?" Barret called to her, running towards the prison.

"Daddy, that nasty thing is here, waiting." Marlene wailed, looking up. Her eyes were wet with tears.

"Marlene, don’t cry." Aeris said coming up behind Barret. "We will get you out."

"Flower lady?" Marlene asked. "You came back?"

Barret tugged the bars. "These are strong. Cloud, can you bend them?" he asked.

Cloud walked up and started to tug at the bars. "No, I can’t." he said, giving up "These are too strong to bend, maybe hitting them with our swords will work." he continued hitting the bars with his weapon.

Aeris walked up. "I think I can break them." she said touching one of the bars. The metal glowed white and turned to dust under her hand.

"How did you do that?" Reno asked as Marlene stepped out of her prison.

"Simple, I used Holy. This metal was created by evil. Holy can destroy it." Aeris replied.

"Reno, I know you want to help but I need to ask a favour of you." Cloud said to the Turks. "Will you take Marlene back to the Highwind and guard them?"

"But…" Elena started

"Elena, shut up!" Reno said. "Yes, I know that last time you almost got killed when the Lifestream erupted here. We’ll keep an eye on our escape route."

"That‚s nice of you!" Sephiroth observed hiding a smile

" Well, it will save their skins." Yuffie sniggered.

Reno looked daggers at her as Rude and Elena left the cavern with Marlene in between them. At that moment the cave started to shake and Jenova came down from above.