Yuffie ruffled Denzel's hair as she sat in Cloud's office chair, the boy worried. "You guys are safe here with Aunt Yuffie watchin' the place!"

He frowned. "I'm worried about Cloud and Tifa. Marlene said monsters were coming after them in her dream."

The ninja creased her brows. "It was just a dream, Denzel..."

"She's been dreaming about a lot of things that happened."

Selphie and Quistis came into the office, peeking in worriedly. "Hey, Yuffie?" Selphie started, looking about the sparse room. "The radio's been saying that there were attacks in the...plaza?"

Denzel looked from them to Yuffie, fearful. The ninja stood up from the chair and peeked out the window, noticing some pedestrians running off from that direction, but not much else. She turned around and walked past the two women frowning and then went down stairs; the rest of the group was huddled there, listening.

"Reeve! Where's Cloud?"

The man put a hand to his forehead. "Almost at the church."

She bit her lip. "See anything weird yet?"

Reeve shook his head. "No, a lot of media in front of the WRO building, however. Or there was, when..."

Yuffie nodded. "Right. Right...Okay...So there's attacks in the plaza, huh?"

"That's what the radio was saying." he sighed. "There's interference, so it's getting harder to understand."

She looked around at the group again, her senses screaming at her. "Get the kids down here, Reeve. I gotta get something in the garage." Her voice was deadly serious and quiet, different from her usual loud and obnoxious persona. She walked towards the garage, rustling being heard after a few minutes. Reeve quickly made his way upstairs, asking the two whispering women to help him corral the two children who had returned to their bedroom.

"Uncle Reeve, are you gonna take us downstairs?" Marlene asked as soon as he opened the door.

He nodded. "Aunt Yuffie thinks it would be best." he said in his most comforting voice.

The girl nodded and stood up, taking Denzel's arm. "I hope Cloud and Tifa come back soon."

"Me too."

The group came into the galley as Yuffie walked up, carrying a box to the counter and placing it down. "So, you aren't from here and like, we need you guys to have a little more power." She opened the box, and a glowing mass of colorful orbs greeted the large group. "This is materia. It's mine, but you can borrow it for now!"

Selphie squealed. "Oh, I read up on them! They're little balls of that Lifestream stuff, and they let you do magic!"

Yuffie nodded, giving a small, nervous smile; they were running out of time. "Yeah, a lot of them do! Some help without actively focusing on it, some make others work better, and still others let you do things you thought you couldn't, or summon great beings." The ninja took a few out and placed them into her shuriken, replacing the ones she had earlier, then adding a few to her armlet. "You don't have slots on your weapons, but you can either put them in an armlet or hold them when you need to use them."

Laguna scratched his head, then tentatively took a green orb into his hand. A whisper formed in his mind: Heal. "Heal...I best stay to the back and help however I can, huh?"

Bughe chuckled, taking another green ball. "I think we both should." He looked down at Nanaki. "Which do you want? These are dire times."

Quickly the group set about distributing the materia, occasionally hearing ominous sounds from outside. A scream here, a gurgle there. Eventually a scratching noise made its way to the door, and the group tensed.

"Remember, everyone...use the materia when you absolutely have to. Overuse causes mental fatigue." Reeve said in a wary voice.

Zell came to the front of the bar, preparing himself. "These purple materia almost make me feel like I have a Guardian Force in me." he mumbled to Quistis.

The woman nodded. "Not quite the same, but they're hopefully going to give us the edge we need..."

Irvine cocked his gun, aiming towards the shuddering door. "So, guys...What do we do if we have to retreat? There's a garage so I'm assuming there's transportation..."

Yuffie snorted. "Only Cloud's bike, sorry. But, I have a plan..." She looked down at the children. "You two, go hide in the garage." A loud thump echoed through the bar as the children ran off, putting the ninja further on edge.

Nanaki growled. "This is it...they smell terrible..." His tail twitched from side to side.

The door burst open with a loud crack, and the group began their defense; the monsters amalgamated corpses howling for their flesh as Irvine blasted a head off and Nanaki assaulted a thorny arm. A barrage of magic shot forward, Selphie whooping as she connected with a creature attempting to wiggle through, impaled on magic ice.

"Materia's easier than I thought it was gonna be!"

A few more slipped through as they cracked the door frame, Zell or Quistis making easy work of the small fry. But there was an obvious wave of monsters pressing through, and the walls surrounding the bar's door wouldn't hold up much longer. Nanaki used his Sled Fang to push back the largest of interlopers, ripping through flesh and bone with a swift movement. He bounced back into the bar after looking about, a semi-circle of monsters closing in on him.

"The road is completely infested. All those people..." His eye showed fear and anger, then turned as they began to tear into the bar again as they ripped at the door, widening their entrance. Looking back, he nodded. "I think we should take our leave."

Irvine sent out several shots as they retreated behind the counter, and then Yuffie threw an object in the midst of the monsters; after a few moments a thick mist enveloped the bar as the party escaped to the garage.

"Damn!" Quistis whipped at a claw pushing the garage doors open, the metal dented by angry fists and claws. Irvine and Zell watched the door they came through after it was shut, and Selphie knocked another mutated hand away with her nunchuku. Quistis looked back at the ninja, slightly panicked. "What's the plan?"

Yuffie looked around, tossing a strange object that seemed to electrocute the hands that were tearing into the garage metal. "Marlene, Denzel? Come on out." The noise from the banging and howling grew louder, and the group quickly converged as the first monster ripped its head through the weakened metal of the garage doors.

All Cloud could see was white, he was floating in white light for what felt like forever. After an impossibly long time, voices began to make their way to his ears.

"...Nanaki said he wasn't a threat."

"He shouldn't be...what happened to you, Cloud...?" The warrior weakly grunted at the gentle voice, so close to his face...

"Och, laddy! wake up, we dinnae got time fer a nappy!" Something was poking his chest.

"Oh, Tifa. It's not quite what you think." His fingers twitched.

Boots clomped towards him. He felt he was laying on something hard. "Spike's always getting himself into trouble!"

Cloud slowly, painfully opened his eyes. "I'm not tryin' to." His sight settled on two blue eyes on a grinning face, crowned with ebony spikes cascading down his head. Cloud smiled tiredly, raising an arm towards his best friend. Zack took it, and helped him stand again.

He looked around, his eyes no longer burning. Tifa was hugging the life out of Aerith, Zack was grinning like a madman at him and rustling his hair, and Squall was eyeing him suspiciously as Rinoa rolled her eyes, holding Cait Sith. The warrior nodded at the teen. "...Thanks for saving Tifa."

Squall looked taken aback by the sincere gratitude, then returned the nod. "You could thank me by telling me what the hell happened."

Cloud stiffened, shaking his head. "It wasn't what he could do before...it was an illusion. A trick. You looked like monsters trying to kill a bunch of normal people, and I couldn't...I was confused..." He rubbed his eyes with a hand, sighing heavily.

"...Before?"

Rinoa hummed. "Oh. Sounds like sorceress magic to me."

"It was." Aerith said, walking towards the group with Tifa. "Well, we're here, just like we said!" She gave Cloud a hug, the warrior slowly returning it as if she was some fragile apparition that could dissolve at any moment.

"Aerith, Zack...thank you." Cloud frowned, trying to remember something...His eyes widened and he looked at Tifa. "The bar! He sent those things to the bar!"

Tifa gasped and began to run past the group, kicking away dead monsters. "The kids!" The group quickly pushed themselves through the dead mounds of monsters, leaving the church behind as quickly as they could. There were creatures here and there in the ruins, but became more and more numerous as they pushed closer to the plaza.

"Damn. What happened to these people...?" Squall asked, but he worried he knew the answer already.

Cloud sighed as he sliced through another beast, Zack smashing another one with the Buster Sword he acquired in the church. "It's Sephiroth's fault. I'm really not sure, but...he's only affecting the dead, I hope."

"I hope so too, Spike!" Zack said as he playfully cut down another creature. "Last thing we need is you ending up like them."

Cloud groaned at his friend. "Yeah..." He charged another beast, Zack next to him; he couldn't help but crack a smile as they both whittled the thing down together.

Aerith rolled her eyes. "Those don't do anything anymore."

"Wait, you're infected?" Squall asked.

"A lot of people are infected with Jenova cells, though they're dead." the warrior responded cryptically. Of course, he didn't want to divulge at that those who had Geostigma and were cured had dead J-Cells that were slowly purged from the body. Not yet, at least, considering the trouble they were in. But Cloud, as fortune would have it, had S-Cell DNA melded to his own from his stint in a mako vat and all the mako that was running through his body at the moment; the WRO lab stated his blood serum was half mako to his surprise. Why he hadn't grown a third arm or Gaia forbid a wing, he didn't know.

Cloud assisted Tifa with a particularly troublesome monster before glancing over at Cait Sith, the robot sending a plume of fire into a monster as he rested in Rinoa's arm. "Cait Sith, how is the bar?"

The cat looked over, frowning. "There was a scratchin' at the door, laddy, but I cannae hear my good friend right now!"

Cloud bit his lip and began to press harder into the creatures, his mind on the verge of panic. 'Everything you cherish...I'll take it away...!' He clenched his jaw and used his spirit energy to slice a short path through the monsters using Blade Beam, angrily swinging through to get a way into the plaza. The others helped, Squall taking out a particularly large and ugly beast with a Renzokuken and soon the sound of quick gunshots made their way to the party's ears.

A wave of bullets barraged the creatures in front of them, and they were soon met by a very angry and determined looking man, tall, muscular and dark skinned, sporting cornrows and a strange cannon for a hand. Rinoa looked him up and down, hoping he was perhaps a friend. A moment later the stranger waved, beckoning them to him. "Spiky, the hell you've been?!"

"Barret..."

Barret looked behind him and immediately locked eyes with Aerith. She waved at him as she walked forwards, and found herself in a crushing bear hug. "...How're you here...?" he whispered in her ear.

"With help from our new friends, Barret. It's good to see you again." she replied, smiling.

"Barret, the bar is under attack..." Tifa said, moving forward with Squall and Rinoa.

He looked towards her, tense. "They ain't touchin' my Marlene!" Barret let out another barrage of bullets, the group moving out of the way and then cutting through whatever was left standing afterwards. Tifa quickly introduced her old friend to the newcomers, though leaving out a few small details; names were all that was needed right now.

"I hope you didn't leave those kids by themselves!"

Cloud snorted, looking angrily at Barret. "I'm not stupid! Yuffie, Nanaki, Reeve and their friends were there, too." He waved a hand at Squall and Rinoa before smashing First Tsurugi into a particularly ugly beast; Squall leaped and lopped off its head with a shot of his gunblade.

Barret shook his head. "Yuffie ain't gonna make a dent in these numbers!"

"Good thing my friends are there, too." Squall said dryly as he hacked at another monster.

Rinoa focused on her sorceress powers and weaved it through her hand, a holy fire incinerating a small mass that was blocking their way; the bar was almost in their sights now, the road much clearer.

"Damn! What kinda materia you got, girl?" Barret inquired as they ran down the road. She blushed, but didn't give an answer.

"We're almost there!" Tifa chimed.

Cloud pushed himself as hard as he could, slicing through any lingering opposition that thought it wise to attack. He was filled with anxiety, and he could feel it coming from the others, too. His family, their friends, everyone was hoping they were safe, the bar was safe.

He froze as he came to the front of the bar, his blood running cold as he came to the caved in front wall of Seventh Heaven. Cloud looked about desperately as the others swiftly approached, then leaped into the large hole, looking about for someone, anyone that could still be there. Zack followed behind him, a concerned frown on his face.

"Oh, no..." Rinoa whispered as she examined the damage to the bar. A pile of corpses partially plugged the gaps torn into the walls by claws and bony extremities. She crawled inside as Squall followed her protectively, both apprehensive and worried; the bar was cloaked in silence.

Tifa was next to them now, Barret charging up the stairs while screaming for Marlene. Her eyes were distant, as if lost in a memory; the sorceress went to touch her shoulder, jolting the bartender out of her thoughts and bringing her ruby orbs to meet Rinoa's dark, almond eyes. "I'm okay, Rinoa...thank you. They might have left..." She was obviously trying to be optimistic.

"Ah still cannae hear me old man!" Cait Sith squeaked with dismay. "I dinnae think he's dead, but it'd be nice if he could just say somethin'!"

"Sephiroth is probably interfering as best he can," Aerith said as she looked about. "do your cell phones work?"

Tifa took hers out, and tried to call Yuffie's number. Nothing. "Ah..." She tried calling Cloud's, still nothing. "Nothing..."

Barret shouted Marlene's name from the second floor, finding no one. He came down the stairs with a despondent look upon his face, his hopes crushed. Cloud appeared out of the garage, his face unreadable but his eyes unfocused; he looked down at the area near the cash register, something glimmering out of a tipped box...

"They aint upstairs! Cloud, is there any sign of 'em in the garage?" Barret asked desperately.

"The garage is completely trashed." he sighed, crouching to examine the box's contents. Cloud grunted, looking it over; slim pickings. "Yuffie equiped them with materia..."

"Huh?"

Cloud picked up the box and placed it on the counter. "I think they're still alive. Look, most of the materia is gone..." He doubted the monsters took it; almost all the summons were here along with a few other orbs they might have a use for, maybe. He picked up a red orb, examining it warily.

Rinoa cocked her head, coming close to examine the baubles. "So this...this let's you use magic?"

Barret snorted. "You got some, don't ya?"

She blushed. "Um, no..."

The dark skinned man looked her up and down with a hard expression. "Then how'd you use magic like that?"

Tifa sighed, a hand on her eyes. "Reeve didn't tell you..."

He snapped his head towards the bartender. "Tell me what?!"

The woman explained their story as Cloud pocketed the dangerous materia that was left, socketing four into his bracer as a precaution, two purples and a red connected to a blue. He looked at Rinoa, his expression dour; he reached his closed hand out to her, and she brought her hand to his. Something warm fell into her hand, and the sorceress brought it to her eyes: materia. She was finally holding the knowledge of the Ancients.

"This...Bahamut...Bahamut is in here." she mumbled to herself.

Cloud nodded. "He's not the only one. The books talk about mental fatigue, but summons can do a number on you." He handed another to Squall, the teen taking it. "You'll both have to use them by hand, looks like our bracers are gone..."

"...Enemy Skill...?"

"Yeah. Get accustomed to the magic in there, it's an extremely useful materia."

Squall nodded, pocketing the orb. "Thanks."

Barret was yelling, Tifa was telling him to shut up, and Cloud groaned. "Look. The garage was torn apart, but I think they escaped somehow. Aerith would have said something if they died, and there was no blood or...body parts."

Rinoa blinked. "Is it because of the Lifestream...?"

"Kinda. Aerith was a Cetra, so she probably would have heard their voices..instead of Barret's right now." He glared towards his noisy friend.

"Wha'do we have here?" came a drawling, lazy voice. Cloud looked towards the entrance and sighed.

"Reno."

The Turk gave a two finger salute and approached the counter with Rude next to him. "Looks like those things did a number on your bar, man." He looked towards Aerith and Zack, the two waving and the Turk raising his brows. "Sight for sore eyes, but we can catch up later."

Rude coughed behind him. "They're beginning to move to north Edge."

Cloud pursed his lips. "Survivors?"

Reno shrugged. It seemed uncaring to the two aliens, but to the those that knew him well enough it was a sign of agitated uncertainty. "We don't know. Been hiding out on this street and they seem disinterested in anything that's not movin' out on the street, yo." He waved his hand. "And here, of course."

Tifa walked towards Cloud. "Where did you hide?"

"Classified, yo."

Barret shook his fist menacingly. "It don't matter where they hidin', we need to find my Marlene!"

Rinoa nodded. "We have to find the others..."

"...Maybe you can track them?" Rude offered quietly. She blushed at the suggestion, the Turk shrugging. "You have a power, why not use it?"

Squall sighed. "Where we're from, sorceresses aren't looked upon kindly."

"Why not?" Tifa asked.

Rinoa turned her head to look at her new friend. "A lot of sorceresses aren't very good people."

"You seem pretty nice, though." Zack offered. "You're not on your world, so it's not like people are gonna care. They'll probably think you have some bad-ass materia!"

Aerith nodded. "Yep. A blank slate."

"A blank slate..." Rinoa whispered. She closed her eyes and focused, trying to find her friends; she concentrated on the familiar energy of Selphie, attempting to find her. The darkness of her eyelids gave way to a vision of a flat place...an airport of some sort? Her friends came into view one by one, from a sewer.

The vision warped, the group fighting monsters and slowly losing and being consumed by the virus as the northern skies grew black with a million shimmering feathers of darkness. A green cat eye watched her, and laughter ripped into her brain again. "You can't save them."

She grimaced and doubled over, pushed back. "They came out of a sewer, it looked like an airport or something...flat, and monsters coming from the south, darkness from the north." Squall held her as she gasped for air. "He's watching..."

Cloud bit his lip, looking at the group. "That's the WRO airfield to the north. Maybe we can pincer the monsters..."

Reno tsked. "It's several city blocks away, yo."

Rude grunted. "There's a truck outside of our hideout."

"That's for escortin' the president."

"And Tseng said our main priority is assisting Strife."

Reno shrugged. "Alright, partner." He looked at the others and motioned with his head. "Let's go on this suicide mission."

Cloud nodded. "Thanks."

"Thankin' Shinra..." Barret mumbled as Tifa grumbled at him to cut it out as they walked out of the ruined bar and up the street. A truck with just enough room for the group was resting outside a detective agency, Cloud familiar with the owners.

"Is Vits alright?" Cloud asked slyly.

Reno raised his hand flippantly. "Pissed we're stayin' there but-" He turned angrily towards the smirking warrior before entering the driver's seat, pointing his finger at him. "That wasn't fair, yo!"

Rude was trying to hide his small smile as he entered the passenger seat, the others entering the back quickly. "Hold on, Reno drives like a maniac."

"Please don't." Cloud said, despite there being no choice in the matter. He felt the truck lurch as the Turk floored the vehicle, and the warrior waved back and forth in an effort to keep his breakfast where it belonged. "Ugh."

Squall looked about, the streets of the scrap built city almost deserted. "Cloud."

The warrior brought his gaze to the knight. "Hm?"

"...You said a lot of people are infected with those cells. Including you."

Cloud nodded. "I'm gonna assume it's a secondary infection, the first one...they're dead cells." He looked away. "I would think it started in the WRO building, and I'm hoping it's just taking advantage of the recently dead." He took a deep breath, waving back and forth a little more desperately.

Rinoa blinked. "How can you be so sure?"

Tifa interrupted. "It's a long story, we can talk about it later."

Squall frowned. "But earlier, in the church-"

"Look...when we get a chance to sit down, I'll talk. He can't control me anymore." Cloud said in quiet voice. "There's a link, but it's not the same."

Aerith nodded, the flower girl holding Cait Sith in her lap. "It's true. Sephiroth isn't very happy about it, though." she said with a soft smile. The Cetra looked over at Squall and Rinoa with her serene green eyes. "Sephiroth is powerful, but he overestimates himself, or underestimates his opponents. Just remember, he's not a god, as much as he'd like to pretend he is."

The couple nodded, Rinoa rolling the red materia in her hand. "How can we stop him, though?"

"Get him to finally fragment into the Lifestream. He already purged his memories of when he was a man, so, we have to dissolve him here and there." Aerith said, looking up at the sky.

"Hey slick, we're almost there." Reno said from the truck cabin. Cloud rolled his eyes as he sucked in a breath and held his stomach as they hit a rough patch of street.

"Good."

"Reno, there's a wall of monsters." Rude said.

Cloud looked over at Rinoa and nodded towards her. "This might be a good time to call up a summon." The warrior glanced towards the truck cabin. "Reno, slow down. We're gonna blast them out of the way."

"Oh ho. By all means, Cloud." The truck decelerated, the sounds of the monsters ahead still growing louder. They had to save their friends, before these things tore them apart.

"Thanks."

Rinoa focused on the materia, names whispering in her ear. Phoenix, Hades, Ifrit, Shiva and Ramuh. Even more came, giggles from a moogle and grumbles from a giant, the sound of watery roars. A strong voice made its way into her mind, the sorceress raising her brows.

'I need to save my friends from an army of monsters.'

'Call on me. Tell me where to strike. Release me, if only for a moment.'

Rinoa swallowed hard before raising her hand to the cloudy sky, a pressure building up around it from the materia as a glow pulsed from it. Suddenly it released like a gunshot into the sky, and the sorceress opened her eyes wide as she and the rest watched the sky as the grey clouds churned in a circle.

"Who did you summon..." Squall mumbled.

His query was answered with a roar as the clouds gave birth to something made of green strings that descended down towards the Planet, solidifying into a large dragon that took off towards the army of mutants.

"It called itself Neo-Bahamut." She said. Rinoa looked up at the dragon and nodded. "Take them out!"

Yuffie peeked out of the manhole, then pushed it away as soon as she noticed the coast was clear. Soon a stream of party members appeared out of the darkness of the sewers, the ninja assisting the two children out while Irvine and Zell gave Nanaki an extra boost as they entered the clearing.

"Looks like we're on the north side of Edge, now. This is the air base." Yuffie said.

Reeve scratched his head. "A shame we have no transportation at this time, but I'm sure news of what happened has reached Junon and beyond by now."

"One could hope," Nanaki grumbled.

Selphie and Quistis looked about. "So. We're kinda out in the open here, and that's just as bad as being stuck in the buildings over there."

Irvine nodded. "She's right. Squall and the others are gonna be searchin' for us, too."

They didn't have much time to rest; the skies to the north darkened further and sounds to the south put them on edge. Yuffie looked at Reeve. "Where do we go from here, leader?"

Reeve gave a withering look. "We're going to have to fight one way or another, but...if we can find an adequate place for fortification we might be able to survive this ordeal until we reunite with the others."

"I don't think there's gonna be time for that." Zell said quietly. They looked towards the south, the first trickle of monsters quickly headed their way.

Selphie hopped up and down. "Then let's make a fortification outta bodies!"

Some howling aberration charged across the field and Selphie impaled the creature with ice before it fell to the ground, dead. Another came and Irvine blew its head off. They trickled in, slowly, and Yuffie frowned as she took back her shuriken. "Why aren't they pushin' into us?"

She was answered by a howling like a wind tunnel. Looking to the south something squirmed in the distance, as if hundreds of monsters were rearranging themselves into something gargantuan. It began to slither towards them, the imprint of former human bodies melting away into leathery armor on the worm like entity.

"What...the hell." Zell said, gawking.

Nanaki growled. "The power of Jenova." He instinctively kept his body between the enemy and the two children who hid their faces from the hideous transformation. Laguna and Bughe came to the children's sides protectively.

Laguna gawked. "Man, we're so screwed, aren't we?"

Yuffie growled and hopped in place. "Settin' my materia to fire, 'cause I'm gonna barbecue this thing!" She swung her shuriken about angrily as it charged towards them, then let a powerful fire spell explode in its maw. It did less damage than the ninja would have liked, and she scowled.

Quistis focused on the little yellow orb in her armlet, and soon the entire party sensed some mysterious protection; Nanaki let out a long howl as energy cackled silently around him, the party feeling stronger and faster. Irvine aimed at what looked like an eye and blew it away, the beast thrashing at the loss of some of its sight as he came closer.

A horrible, brackish gas seeped out of its deformed maw that enveloped the group, choking them even as Laguna and Bughe attempted to shield the children from the worst of it without collapsing on them. "Ah...How do I use this?!" Laguna panicked. He held both Marlene and the materia, the little girl holding to his white dress shirt for dear life. "Focus focus focus..." The Estharian president felt it finally, and he directed the esuna into the children one at a time before focusing on the other group members.

A few stragglers charged during the attack, and Nanaki clumsily mauled one despite the gas blinding him. Reeve moved in front of Bughe and took a bite to the arm, Zell bashing it in the skull several times as Laguna's esuna came into effect; the monster eventually let go and collapsed to the ground as the martial artist continued his assault.

A roar issued from somewhere in the distance as they fought the worm monster, Laguna and Bughe attempting to get the children further away from the fight in a futile gesture to keep them safe; nowhere was safe. Yuffie ripped her shuriken out of a monster's head. "What now?!"

She was answered with a bright light beyond the front line of the enemy, and squinted her eyes. When it faded she looked up and noticed a dragon dissolving into lifestream in the distance. Yuffie whooped. "They're here! They're here!" The ninja dodged the worm's tail but kept her cheer; they were okay! "You're gonna get it now, buddy!"

Irvine took another shot at it. "If we can hold out long enough."

"I'm with Yuffie! This thing is gonna get smoked!" Selphie chimed as she hit the monster with an ice spell, she shook her head and sighed; the mental fatigue was setting in finally.

Reeve used the Comet materia he held; he was pleased it actually caused some sort of damage to the hide of the monster as it came in to thrash at Irvine. It came in to attack Nanaki, the beast leaping out of the way and releasing a green mist that caused it to howl in pain; Ultima.

It shuddered a moment before it grew gangly, mantis-like limbs on either side of its belly, six spears of hardened serrated bone ripping through the air. It lowered them on the group in slashing movements, nearly decapitating Nanaki and slashing Zell's chest. Quistis fell back and shot out Beta, causing it to howl; another came down on a distracted Yuffie who was pushing away Irvine before it impaled him. She had enough time to look up as it came down towards her.

"Yuffie!" Selphie screamed.