"10 years you have to get ready for this and you still can't be bothered to be on time?"

"Shut the fuck up!" came the response from the pilot storming around his house in Rocket Town. "You're not exactly being useful, just standing there in the doorway Shera." She grinned and held out the keys he had been searching for. "What the hell!"

"Go, Cid." He took the keys, growled, then gave the mechanic a rugged smile.

"Going!" he said, jumping into the Highwind and tearing off.

Tonight was the 10-year reunion of the destruction of Meteor and the Saviors of the Planet were going to meet in a large meeting hall just outside of Wutai. They had actually moved the date about a week to situate it on Cloud's thirty-first birthday, August 19. Cid was already probably going to be the last one there, and he didn't want to be any later than he had to be. He tried to picture how the group would look. He himself had changed a fair bit in the 10 years…now at the age of 42, his usually blond hair had faded to gray and he had been forced to quit smoking at the insistence of both Shera and his doctor. Shera would have come with him, being the newly dubbed Mrs. Cid Highwind, but she insisted that she and the newest Highwind come later. The youngster, named Aeris for the beautiful flower girl everyone remembered and missed, was growing up to be a perfect little daddy's girl – she had already almost launched the toy rocket he had given her. At age 5, she was able to articulate what she wanted fairly well, and she had obviously gotten her father's personality. She expected that when she wanted you to jump, you asked "How high?" on the way up.

As for the others, they must have aged as well. Cloud was coming up on thirty-one, Tifa was thirty, Barret would be turning 46 in December, his daughter Marlene was 15, Nanaki was 58 (though he seemed to age rather slowly), Vincent would be 38 in October, and by the name of the Planet, Yuffie was coming up on 27. He could hardly wait to see them. Watching the towns pass under him, he nearly flew right over Wutai. He stopped the Highwind and lowered it into a patch of grass near the meeting hall. Walking in, he immediately saw the man of the night at the door.

"Cloud!" he said in his typical gravelly voice. The blonde, gray only just barely visible in the shock of hair, turned and smiled.

"Cid, it's great to see you." He shook hands with the pilot. "It's a surprise to see you not smoking."

"Yeah well, the doctor said I was going to die in a few months, so I decided to stop. Shera was worried anyway…good thing I quit when I did. Did you hear that I'm a dad now?" Cloud grinned and shook his head.

"No, I hadn't heard. That's great, Cid, how old are they?"

"She's 5 and already a handful. We named her Aeris." Cloud's eyes got a little sadder at the mention of Aeris, but he nodded.

"Good choice."

"We thought so." Cloud opened the door.

"Come on in, almost everyone's here…everyone except for Yuffie, actually." Cid smirked. It was completely like the Materia-hunting ninja to come late to an event in her own town. Cid walked in and immediately had someone at his side. He looked to his side and saw a very attractive brunette.

"Tifa?!" he exclaimed. She smiled and nodded. "Holy shit!" She grinned. He looked at her. She had barely aged. The gray hairs were few and far between, and she was still as stunning as ever.

"Hi to you too, Cid. How have you been?" He gave her a crooked smile back.

"I've been okay. I told you about Aeris, right?" She nodded. "Kid's giving me gray hairs."

"What's this about Aeris?" Cid turned and saw a young woman walking over to him.

"Who might you be?" Cid asked. Tifa hid a smile and the young woman grinned.

"It's just me, Cid, little old Marlene." Cid's eyes widened and he was sure his jaw dropped to the floor.

"Marlene?!" he cried.

"You've never guess it was my little girl, would ya?" came the usual grunt of Barret to his side. Cid glanced at the man. Barret's hair was easily as gray as his own, and he hadn't aged well. He looked worn down.

"I never would have guessed in a million years," he said, looking back at Marlene. "You, little missy, were never given permission to grow up." Marlene smiled. Cid turned to Tifa again. "So, Tif, no wedding ring from Spiky-head yet?" She grinned again and shook her head no. She pointed to the door where Cloud was walking in with yet another highly attractive young woman with long dark hair and was wearing the typical dress of the…Wutainians?

"Yuffie," came the soft comment from Barret confirming Cid's premonition.

"Holy shit, she wasn't allowed to grow up either," he whispered. She saw Cid and said something to Cloud, who nodded and kissed her cheek. She walked over and smiled at Cid, who was standing stunned, staring at her. She was fixed up like a true lady, dress, makeup, and all.

"Never would have guessed it was me, would you, old man?" she said with a smile. He shook his head. She hugged him.

"Shit, Yuffie, you look great." As the youngest in the group, she had no gray hair, but she had finally grown into her frame and was a gorgeous young woman. Cloud came over and joined the group, taking Yuffie's hand. "You two together or something?" Cloud shrugged.

"In a way." Yuffie rolled her eyes.

"We're only still dating cause Cloud says he's afraid of a major commitment. He says the last major commitment he made nearly got him killed several times over." Everyone laughed. Cid ducked out of the group and made his way to the fireplace, where Nanaki was sitting calmly, staring into the flames.

"Hey there, Red," Cid said. The dog-like creature glanced over at Cid.

"Cid, a pleasure to see you." Nanaki stood and turned to face Cid. "How have you been?"

"Well enough. You hear that I'm a proud father?" Nanaki shook his head.

"That's wonderful, Cid. Is it a boy or a girl?"

"She's a girl. We named her Aeris, she's about 5 now." Nanaki nodded.

"That's terrific." Cid looked around. "Looking for Vincent?"

"Yeah." Nanaki gestured with his flaming tail over toward the back of the room. He could just barely see the glint of Vincent's eyes in the corner, the man as usual shrouded by shadow. He stood up and walked over to Vincent. As first glance, Vincent looked no different…until you really saw him. His claw was tarnished and no longer looked like the powerful weapon it had once been. His eyes lacked the glow they held in the days Cid knew him, and he was seated in a wheelchair, Death Penalty leaned up next to him, looking as worn as its master. "Vincent?" The man looked up at him and there was a slight spark of memory in the man's eyes.

"Cid." The gunman's voice had changed and was no longer the confident statement it would have been pre-Meteor. It was a mere whisper, gravelly and pure at the same time.

"What are they doing to you?" Cid whispered, falling to Vincent's side.

"They're strong, Cid…stronger than ever. They're slowly killing me." Cid nodded. "I've heard you have a daughter?" Cid smiled and nodded.

"Yeah, she's supposedly coming later." Just then, the door opened and Shera and Aeris walked in. The young girl immediately spotted her father. "Here she is, speak of the devil."

"Daddy!" Aeris came tearing over and gave her father the biggest hug she could manage.

"Heya, kiddo. Aeris, I want you to meet one of Daddy's friends." Cid looked at Vincent, who was smiling. Aeris looked up at Vincent. "This is Vincent Valentine. He fought with Dad in the war against Sephiroth."

"Hi, Mr. Vincent. My name's Aeris. Daddy tells me that he can only hope I grow up to look like my namesake. Is that a good thing?" she rattled off, holding her hand out to Vincent. Vincent took the girl's hand in his own good hand, giving her a smile.

"You can just call me Vincent, Aeris. And yes, it would be a wonderful thing if you grew up to look like your namesake. She was a beautiful young woman."

"Okay." She noticed Vincent's claw. "What's wrong with your hand, Vincent?" Vincent glanced at his claw as Cid looked at his daughter, horrified.

"It's a perfectly logical question, Cid, stop acting like she said something inappropriate." Vincent turned his gaze back to the young Highwind. "Are you at all familiar with the scientist by the name of Dr. Hojo?" Aeris nodded.

"Dad doesn't like him. He always starts swearing when he mentions Hojo and then Mommy yells at him." Vincent smirked.

"He did a lot of tests on me, and he had to have something to test them on before he did them on me, so he cut off my arm and gave me this instead," he said, moving his claw.

"Can I see it?" Vincent nodded and held his arm out to Aeris. She looked at it, running cautious hands over it. "Can you feel things that happen to it?"

"Such as you touching it? Yes, the claw is tapped into my nervous system. I can feel it just like I can my arm."

"Did Hojo do anything else to you?"

"He made it so that if I get angry enough, demons in my head take over my body, and I transform into them." Aeris giggled.

"Daddy turned some guy that came to our house into a frog with a Materia once. But that's cooler than you turning into a demon thing. That hurts, doesn't it?" Vincent nodded. "I'm sorry." She leaned forward and gave the man a hug. Only mildly surprised, he hugged the girl back. She smiled and pulled away. "I'm go gonna tell Mommy I made a cool new friend named Vincent, okay?" Vincent nodded, his eyes twinkling.

"All right." She dashed off. Cid shook his head.

"She gives me more damn gray hairs every time she opens her mouth." Vincent just smiled, still watching the girl.

"She'll be just like Aeris when she gets older. I can see the flower girl's spirit in her." Cid sat down in front of Vincent, letting his legs stretch.

"So. You seen everyone?" Vincent looked at Cid and nodded. "Yuffie's changed."

"She has indeed. I never would have guessed that Yuffie Kisaragi would turn into a beautiful woman that would win Cloud Strife's heart." Cid nodded.

"I'll give them a year till a wedding invite comes in the mail." Vincent nodded.

"With Yuffie's persistence, I would wager less than a year." Vincent looked around. "However, I believe the most changed woman of the night is Marlene."

"Holy shit, you better believe it. She's gorgeous." Vincent nodded. Once again the door opened and a younger man wearing a dark suit walked in. He looked very nervous being with the group. Cid stood up, waved to Vincent that he'd be back later, and approached the man. "Can we help you?"

"I know I wasn't a very likable member of the party…but I thought I'd show up." Something about the voice was familiar.

"Who are you?" The man smiled, reached into his pocket and pulled out a piece of paper. Cid read it. You will see several long-lost friends tonight, and you will have an unexpected visitor. Your lucky number is 7. He looked back up at the man and smiled. "Well who do we have here but the mastermind behind Cait Sith." Reeve nodded.

"Like I said, I'm not the most popular AVALANCHE member…but Cait was in the group." Tifa walked over and gave Reeve a hug.

"Good to see you, Reeve. Where is your mechanical counterpart?" Reeve gestured with his head out the door.

"I didn't think you'd want him in here, but I pulled him back from Gold Saucer just in case…" Tifa nodded.

"Send him in." Reeve took a small machine out of his pocket and pressed a few buttons. The cat came bounding in atop of his stuffed Mog.

"Hiya guys!" Cait said, excitedly.

"Hi Cait," was the murmured reply. He bounced over to random members of the group and began telling their fortunes.

"I made him a bit more independent…I can't be watching over him all the time now that Neo-Midgar's up. For lack of anyone better, I've been put in charge of the new Shinra." Tifa smiled.

"That's great, Reeve."

"Everyone tells me that at age 35, I'm the second youngest president they're ever had." Tifa led Reeve off by the hand to a table with Marlene and Barret. Cid was about to join Vincent again when there was a rather sharp knock on the door. Cloud left his table with Yuffie to answer it. The door opened and a blonde-haired woman was standing there.

"Is this the AVALANCHE reunion?" she asked softly.

"Yes…can I help you three?" Three people filed in, all looking vaguely familiar.

"We wanted to tell something to the group." Suddenly Cid recognized them and walked quickly over to Cloud.

"It's the Turks, Cloud," he warned. Cloud just nodded, indicating that he knew.

"Go ahead and talk, Elena." She nodded to Cloud in thanks and cleared her throat.

"On behalf of all three of us, I'd like to extend an apology to all of you." Murmurs started circulating through the people. "Over the years, we've been thinking and we realized that though we were doing our job, the way we treated you was inhumane. We'd like to apologize." Cloud nodded.

"On behalf of the entirety of the old AVALANCHE, I accept your apology. It's been 10 years since any of that happened. We're willing to forgive and forget." Cid looked oddly at the group. Elena looked a touch older than before, Rude was as stoic as ever, and Tseng, though walking with a cane, looked infinitely better than the last time Cid had seen him. However, it was hard to get worse than lying bleeding on the floor from a sword wound…but there should have been a fourth Turk.

"Hey, Elena." The woman looked at Cid. "Where's the other one…Reno?" Her gaze fell and Tseng stepped forward to set a hand on her shoulder.

"He died in a shootout a week ago trying to protect Elena. She was fine…but he got hit pretty bad," was Rude's monotonous comment, though even the solemn Turk couldn't keep all of the sorrow out of his voice.

"He had this on him when he died," Elena said, calming herself down and handing Cid a piece of paper. Nearly every member of the old group surrounded Cid as he read it out loud. In Cid's voice, you could almost hear the cocky, self-confident Turk speaking.

To the Turks:

I know if you're reading this, I'm obviously six feet under, cause God knows I wouldn't let my soul be bared like this if I was still alive. There's a lot on my mind that you guys should know that I couldn't say out loud, cause it's too much not like me. So now that you've had a good cry about my death, I'll give you another one from the afterlife.

Tseng: You'll never know how broken up we all were when we thought we'd lost the leader of the Turks. I mean, come on! Once a Turk, always a Turk…and we were invincible! Even Sephiroth couldn't defeat us…but you almost proved us wrong. Good, you saved us from breaking another Turk code: a Turk is never wrong. Assuming you're still around when you read this, you better take damn good care of everyone now that I'm gone. I had to take over for you, and I don't want the job. These are good people you've trained, Tseng – keep my memory with you. Thanks for not treating me for what I was.

Rude: What can I say about you, man? You never gave me anything to work on! It's not like you ever talked to me. Well, there was that one time…nah, you know I'm kidding with you. No matter what anyone says, don't ever think you're mute. I know you can talk. Damn, you nearly talked my ear off that one night. You're a great guy, Rude, how the hell did you ever get mixed in with us rabble? You're too smart to be a Turk. Go be a surgeon or an inventor or a physics instructor or something where you can use that amazing intellect. Take care of yourself…and go for the gold with whatever girl you end up with. Hey, if you're lucky, maybe that Lockheart character is still single.

Elena…dear God, I can already feel the tears starting. There is so much in my mind about you, most of it not appropriate. I'm writing this Friday afternoon, just before we go to that bar thing for the kareoke night. I've got a weird feeling about some of the people there…I grew up in Junon and there's a lot a riff-raff there. Look at me, for God's sake. I'm just afraid someone's going to try something…and I don't want anything to happen to you. If for no other reason, my big brother cares for you far too much. Yeah, that's right, there's the secret of the hotheaded redhead – I'm Tseng's little brother. I guess it was fate for me to fall in love with my brother's crush…but it's okay. I know you're crying Elena, and I don't want you to cry for me. You've always been strong. You were an awesome Turk, and I'd do anything for any of the Turks…especially you. Keep being strong for me, Lena. You better take damn good care of my brother for me.

I guess that's all I've got, guys…if there's anything else I guess you'll never know. I wish I could just let my entire heart pour onto this piece of paper, but I don't think you'd be able to read anything with all the blood on it. I'll see you all in the Lifestream and I'll send that Cetra girl all your best.

-Reno Kirinari Tajiri

Everyone in the group had tears in their eyes, even Vincent, who had heard the whole ordeal from his corner. Cid put his arms around Elena as she sobbed. Cloud stepped over to Tseng and set a hand on his shoulder as the man tried to fight back the tears for his lost younger brother. Tifa stepped forward, much to Rude's surprise, and took off his sunglasses, revealing glistening blue eyes. She wrapped her arms around him and he just set his head on her shoulder, silently crying. Reeve set a hand on Tseng's shoulder as well and Aeris ran forward giving Elena a big hug. Marlene looked at her father.

"And these were the people you were fighting against?" Barret shook his head.

"No. We fought against the Shinra zombie imitations of these people. These are the real Turks…the people Shinra caught and tortured until they because their former selves." Barret smiled. "These are the real people."

Elena looked up and Cid stepped away from her. "I guess we've tied up enough of your time. Sorry for this interruption…we should probably leave." Cloud stepped away from Tseng and shook his head.

"You don't need to leave and you don't need to apologize. You're all part of us now. We're just fellow people that survived Meteor, AVALANCHE and Turk alike." Tseng smiled as all the others backed away from the people they had been comforting.

"Thank you, all of you." They stood, not moving for at least a minute or two, before Rude finally moved, breaking the silence. He made a swipe for Tifa.

"Give me back my sunglasses," he said. Tifa grinned and ducked away, wearing the Turk's sunglasses. The group laughed and resumed their original positions of talking, but this time Cid joined Reeve as he sat alone watching Tifa get chased by Rude.

"I think she likes you, Reeve," Cid commented. Reeve looked at him and shrugged.

"Maybe." Reeve grinned. "I knew I had to come when Cait gave me that."

"What?"

"The fortune I gave you. He came bounding in screaming for me, waving that paper around. I didn't understand until just now." Cid pulled the paper out of his pocket and reread it. You will see several long-lost friends tonight, and you will have an unexpected visitor. Your lucky number is 7. "Other than the lucky number, which shows up on everything Cait gives me, that's happened tonight. I've seen all of you, and the Turks came unexpectedly."

"That brings his total of real predictions up to two." Reeve grinned.

"I should offer him a pay raise." Tifa came back, still wearing the sunglasses. "Did he give up?" She nodded.

"He said he wants them back before he leaves and I agreed." She sat down next to Reeve and set her head on his shoulder. Cid gave Reeve a knowing glance and he rolled his eyes. Giving it a moment's thought, he put an arm around Tifa and Cid could see her slightly smile.

"Well, it's been an interesting night all around…" Cid said, glancing around. A cry went up from Vincent's corner and he turned to see Vincent speeding after Yuffie, still holding his own in his wheelchair.

"Aaaaahhhhhhh a crazy man in a wheelchair's chasing me," Yuffie screamed. The two red Materia orbs in her hand explained Vincent's race initiation.

"Give them back, Kisaragi," he growled, nearly as loud as he had been before Meteor.

"Mine now!" she cried, her youthful personality returning and contradicting her appearance. Finally Vincent got her close enough to the group that Cloud caught her and wrestled the Materia from her. Standing up, he gave the Materia back to Vincent.

"Thank you, Cloud. I return your girlfriend to you; I assure you she is in the same condition I got her in." Vincent wheeled back over to his corner to the sound of uproarious laughter from the rest of the group. Reeve smirked and turned to Cid, who was chuckling.

"An interesting night indeed," he echoed.