Tifa breathed a sigh of relief as the Highwind shot away from the North Crater. Finally, they were finished. All they had to do now was to see whether or not Holy had any effect. They might not survive, but they'd done all they could. There was something oddly comforting in that thought.

She looked around at her companions, and felt a brief surge of pride. Together, they'd defeated Sephiroth. THE Sephiroth! The man was a legend, the guy every SOLDIER wanted to be, and they'd beaten him. The seven of them, together, had--

Wait a minute.

Seven?

She ran the names through her mind again. Seven. There had been eight of them when they went after Sephiroth. Who was missing?

She glanced around the airship again. Barret and Cid were alternating between giving each other high fives and chugging the beer that Cid had brought on board right after they'd stolen the ship. Cloud, all business, was giving the pilot directions. Cait Sith--well, Cait Sith had been deactivated for the moment--apparently, the Shinra had their hands full dealing with the panicking people in Midgar, and were too busy to check up on Cloud and his people now that the business with Sephiroth was finished. Red was pacing around the ship, and Vincent was apparently tuning up his gun, although she wasn't sure--she didn't know much about guns.

So, that left...

Uh-oh.

Tifa started to feel a sinking sensation in the pit of her stomach, the sort of feeling you get when someone says, "Gee, I wonder what will happen if I push this great big red button marked 'DANGER: DO NOT PUSH'?"

She gulped.

"Guys... has anyone seen Yuffie?"

Yuffie scowled and rubbed her head gingerly. ~Just my luck,~ she thought to herself; ~I finally catch sight of some really great materia down here, and the whole place caves in on me!~ She kicked the rock wall that now blocked the entrance to the tunnel she'd wandered down while the others were busy fighting Sephiroth. No one had even noticed when she'd left! She couldn't believe they could just forget about her like that. Of course, they had been slightly busy, what with the Holy, and the place caving in, and that cute flying guy who looked like he'd heard about how limbs were supposed to fit together but had never really gotten to grips with the idea. He'd been interesting. But then she'd seen something flashing down this tunnel, and then the ceiling had come crashing down--mostly on her head, she remembered, rubbing her head again--and now she was stuck here.

She sighed as the Fire spell she'd cast burned itself out, leaving her in the dark again. And she was almost out of MP, too. Oh, well; she'd just have to wait for her eyes to adjust, and find another way out. She stumbled over to the wall, then turned away from the rocks blocking the entrance. And froze.

Further down the tunnel, she could just make out a faint green glow, shining from just around a bend in the tunnel. She grinned to herself. "Materia!" she shouted triumphantly. She knew she'd seen something down here! She was right! Maybe it would be something that could help her get out of this stupid cave. With a short laugh, she took off in the direction of the green glow.

"Finally!" she exclaimed, rounding the bend.

And stopped short.

And stared at the man who was staring back at her. The man all in black. With long silver hair. And glowing green eyes.

"Um," she said weakly. "Um. Hello. Say, you haven't seen any materia around here, have you?"

From Kiti...
Comments, criticism, death threats, anything; send it! Desperately in need of feedback here. And if you liked it, yell at me to write the next part, or it'll never get done.