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Tifa shrugged her shoulders as Aerith's question sank into her mind. She had no clue where to start. The city of Midgar was so huge, which meant that trying to find her friends would be like trying to find a needle in a haystack. Nearly impossible. Also taking into accountance that her friends were always on the move, so it would be hard to know where to look at the right time. And knowing her luck, she would show up at the wrong time and end up missing them. She'd never find her friends then.

However, her thougts went interrupted as a familiar voice cried out towards the two, causing Tifa to snap her attention towards the source of the voice. At the sight of a tiny ninja running towards them, the fist fighter sweatdropped. Great, just who she had wanted to see. Out of all her friends, why did -this- one decide to show? Forcing a smile onto her face, she waved towards Yuffie. It was best to just try and show that she was glad to see her...even though she wasnt. No, she hadn't forgotten about that rather embarrassing incident that happened to herself and Cloud back at the Ghost Hotel. It was still haunting her memory in the back of her mind, causing her to shudder gently at the thought.

Tifa lowered her eyelids midway at the hyper-active ninja as she went on about how cool she was for stealing Cloud's bike. She thought she had already went over this before, "I didn't steal it. I borrowed it... There's a difference." Okay, so maybe she borrowed it without permission, big deal. Didnt make her a bad guy in her eyes.

The brunette folded her arms neatly across her chest as she gave Yuffie a side glance, tapping a finger idly against her forearm as she spoke, "Me? Become a part in your little schemes? Hah, dont make me laugh!" It wasnt even that hard to take anything from Cloud. You could swipe his shirt right off his body and he probably wouldn't even notice. Besides, the fact that he always left his key in the Fenrir's ignition was always a plus. All she had to do was sit on the bike and take off. Surely that didnt make her some sort of 'Master Thief'.

Tifa shook her head at Yuffie, her hair swaying gently with her movements as she did so. Her expression still held a slight frown upon her features as she continued to tap a finger against her forearm, "Sorry, none of that strikes my interest. Besides, I'm no thief. I'm a martial artist. Always have been, always will be." The brunette nodded to herself reassuringly, feeling confident with her answer. She had always been a hands on fighter, never anything more than that. Sure, she's tried other occupations before, but she just enjoyed this one much better. Though, that Knights of the Round offer was rather appealing.. She tapped a finger against her chin as she glanced upwards in thought. Hmm, stealing the Knights of the Round materia.. Not a bad idea for a practical joke. She'd keep it in mind.

Blinking her attention over to Aerith, she turned her body to face the direction that the Flower Girl had notioned her to glance towards. Her deep brown eyes studied the oncoming individual carefully, making sure that he wasn't going to be causing her any trouble. Tifa gave a small smile, nodding in greeting towards the samurai, "Hm, pleased to meet you."

Tifa merely gave a blink towards Jack as he spoke of this.. 'Savior'. Savior, what Savior? She glanced over towards the Flower Girl's direction, staring at her momentarily. Did he mean Aerith? "..Huh." The thought made her want to make a remark on the title of 'Savior', but she kept it to herself, hiding her emotions with her calm expression. She was a master at hiding her feelings. She listened in carefully to his words, nodding at him as the samurai gave his explanation as to what a Guardian of the Ancients were. "I see.." was her comment. So Aerith had a guardian now? She gave soft shrug, supposing that it was for the better good for the Cetra's safety. Ever since the Sephiroth incident, one could never be too careful..

The fist fighter simply remained silent as Jack ended his 'speech', taking in the words that were said to her. It was all very interesting, she applauded him for taking the responsibility to protect Aerith when she needed it. Though...it did make her wonder.. What was it like to have a savior? What was it like to know that someone will always be there to back you whenever trouble arises? What did that feel like..? Tifa glanced downwards, becoming consumed within her world of thoughts once more, "...Hmm.."

The one part he never really liked about being a Guardian was that he could hear the thoughts of others. There WAS a way to turn that off inside his own head, but he couldn't remember exactly how (despite the oldest of the Guardians left.) Looking to Tifa, he pondered slightly on why she felt like that. He paused in his thinking as he reached into his bag and pulled out a small, hardback book. What did the Order say about such things? Weren't Guardians supposed to protect the people important to the Ancient?

He quickly flipped through it as he heard the Savior's own thoughts. He would have to react to those in a moment as he found the page. Sighing with joy intermixed into it, he looked over to Aerith and spoke slightly.

"Creepy or not, Miss Gainsborough, you are the last of the Ancients. The only living survivor of your heritage. Thus you are very important to keep alive. Without you, the Ancient legacy will die out and we Guardians won't have much reason to stay in this world."

He looked over to Tifa next and spoke as he held out the book for her to look at. It was about what he wanted to know. If he was to protect the friends of the Ancient as well, in which the book said on it, was actually yes. When he discovered someone was a friend or very important to Aerith, he was to protect them at all costs.

"Please take this and read the fourth paragraph on the page to the right. It'll answer your questions that you wanted answers for."

Finally, he turned his head over to Yuffie as he replied to her remark on him calling Aerith the "Savior" and calling him a 'stalker'. So what the reports on this girl were true. She did have quite a mouth on her.

"Keep in mind Miss Kisaragi. That if Miss Gainsborough had not sacrificed herself at the shrine, Meteor would have blown the world to hell and back, regardless if you stopped Sephiroth or not. And I'm not a stalker. It is my duty to keep Miss Gainsborough alive. Of course, I would suppose your friend Mr. Strife won't take to it too well....But now that I have revealed myself, I haven't a choice. So, Miss Gainsborough, will you explain the matter to him?"

Yuffie stopped her laughing fits, the girls expression going from cheerfull to a rather emmotionless stare.Man, he was a party crasher.He may of been right, but still.No matter how the young ninja would look at it she would always find it strange.

"Welllll.....uh.." She tryed to think of something else to say, some sort of remark though nothing wanted to come to her.That was a first.Yuffie didn't like hearing about the past events of what happend to Aerith.She hated even thinking of it.Well, now that her hyper mood was demolished the ninja stepped away,eyeing the Finrir. "Heh..Good luck on that. " She really didn't think Cloud was going to like this whole thing, after all, wasn't it -his- job to protect Aerith?

Shrugging, Yuffie gave a small grin toward Tifa, before walking away from the three, heading toward Clouds lovely bike.She just wanted to check something! Her slow walk begain to pick up into a jog,until she stood infront of the Finrir. "Hm..Lets see. Which butten is it? " She inspected the sleek bike.There was a way to make the sides open and revial all the swords. She thought,maybe one of them would have some good materia inside, Prefureing the Knights of Round, of course.A nice joke on Cloud would be fun!


Aerith haveing turned her atention to Tifa as she recived the small black book.She could almost tell the fist fighter wasn't very interested in it, But with the kind heart the brunette had she had to be kind about it.The cetra just stood there quietly, There wasn't to much for her to say at this point,the only thing she could of done was give Jack a small nod to his comment.It would be rather strange, explaining such a matter to him,but she would try.Though the thought remained... "But, you said you only come when something happends. This means you wont be following me everywhere, Right?" She had to know. Aerith loved spending time with people, but she didn't want to be chased around like some sort of defenceless person.

Vincent walked up to where the group was...his Turk uniform gone, as he was back in his usual garb...his red cloak seemingly longer than usual...but hey, people always thought the thing was posessed by a demon...they didn't know how close they really were. " Yazoo and Loz escaped.......where is Reno?" Vincent had calmly nodded to the Samurai as he idly clicked his claw against his hand. " I dont hear him, or smell his whiskey....." Vincent narrowed his crimson eyes as he looked around. " It's a bit...worrying...is it not?"

Cody waited in Wutai, Yuffie's servants had taken care of the unconcious Elena, and he sat, pristine and calm in a chair outside the house, basking in the starlight...but in his mind....it was anything but calm.... He looked out over the peaceful village, as he argued with VampRei....his features had stayed the same, but his eyes, which he could now see out of, were a dark blood red, and his hair was long and black. His clothes even were slightly different...he still wore a suit...but it was black, with a red shirt, the jacket of the suit was open, and he wore a long black trenchcoat with a rather interesting tribal design in bright red down each sleeve.

Jack merely nodded back at Vincent as he marked in his head another of the Eight down. Only 5 more and they would all be there. Hearing what the red-cloaked man had said, the samurai spoke up to answer him.

"So far as my knowledge draws, he was on the outskirts of town battling Loz. With the spell I casted on him, I don't believe he could have gotten hurt badly enough that he would go unconcious."

Jack had said as he ran a hand through his spiked back hair. His fingers tapped along the handle of his blade as he looked about for any signs of danger. Nothing. Giving a light shrug, he looked over to Aerith as she spoke to him. Hearing her words, he pondered why she said them when he just informed her that he would be coming along regardless.

"That is good to know. Thank you."

Now back in Sector 4, that same sick man in the barrel suddenly snapped to as the woman who was taking care of him was given quite a fright. He peered around slightly as he looked down at the clothing he wore...Where was his uniform? What the hell had happened? Looking over to the woman and then around the whole tube itself, he blinked and finally spoke.

"Uh....Three things. Where am I, what year is it and where is my uniform?"

The woman looked slightly shocked as she began to explain what happened. It seemed that he managed to come through the door to Sector 5 where someone had found and helped him to this tube. That someone had disappeared long ago but the residents of Sector 4 had been taking care of him ever since. It seemed it was almost 6 years after what happened to him. She then opened a trunk and pulled out some sealed clothing inside. A little dusty but they were good. It was his SOLDIER uniform.

Standing up, he asked if she could please turn away while he changed. Nodding, she did as he asked and turned as he quickly began to change into his old uniform. He stopped for only a moment to look at the scars on his chest from the bullets. How did he survive? It didn't matter. At the moment though, he needed a weapon.

"Excuse me, ma'am? Did I happen to have a sword with me when I was brought here? Or any money or materia?"

She also informed him when she turned around that he was pretty much bare sans his uniform and money. Seems the person who dragged him to the tube had stolen his materia. He could, however, think of only one person who would have his sword....Cloud.

"Oh. By the way ma'am. My name is Zack."

Raising a brow, Jack took off after her without a word to the others. He hadn't a clue what this was about but he needed to stick with Aerith anyway. Twas his job after all. His feet sped off against the ground lightly and without sound. Almost like that of Yuffie herself.

His hand gripped his blade tightly as he managed to keep a good distance from Aerith to leave her the space she would want. If something did attack, he could go faster then lightning itself. Finally seeing her stop in front of a dented tube, he quirked a brow and relaxed as she shouted someone's name. A 'Zack' apparently.

Zack merely gave a turn of the heel as he was combing his hair slightly. His long, black, spikey hair had gotten cut so it was now at his mid back. Before it was at his butt. He hadn't placed the voice to the person just yet or even the person herself. It took a few minutes but he finally realized it. Oh man, how could he be that stupid?

"AERITH!"

He shouted in joy as he tumbled past the woman still in the tube and brought Aerith into a bear hug. He was overjoyed to see his girlfriend once again. But wait...It's been 6 years. She probably has found someone else. However, that didn't deter him from giving her a hug as he twirled her around and finally set her down.

"Oh man....Aerith. It's you. Geez, I have no clue what has happened for the past 6 years. I've been in...Here in Sector 4. Oh geez. I have so many questions. How have you been, how is your mom, how is your church?" He rolled all these things off rather rapidly. It was great to see a very familiar face after waking up from whatever trance he was in.