Chapter 2 - Resurrection

Angel dismounted the chocobo and led it into Bone Village, she could feel that her destination was close. The villagers moved out of her way as she walked through the village, she could feel the resentment of them and carried on walking.

A young girl picked up a stone and threw it at Angel’s unprotected back. She sensed this and turned, using her unique abilities, the stone only seconds away from striking her stopped in mid-air. The girl, seeing the stone hovering in mid —air, began to cry in fright, thinking that the stranger would punish her severely. Instead Angel walked towards her and said in a gentle but firm voice, "That was not nice little one. Please don’t do that again, you could hurt someone including yourself." She then started to walk towards the sleeping forest, the stone slowly dropped to the ground as she walked further away.

"You cannot pass through the forest when it is sleeping, use this harp to wake it." A villager came towards her with an ornate harp "Sorry about your reception here, but a couple of months ago a young lady was killed near here, in the city of the Ancients."

"Thank you for your kindness, but I don’t need the harp. The forest is awake." Angel replied not knowing how she knew this. "Could you look after this chocobo for me whilst I go to the city?"

"Sure, why not?" the villager said taking the reins from her hand "Be careful though, there are still monsters around."

She lifted her staff "I appreciate the warning, and I will return in a few days." She said setting off towards the Ancient city.

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

"Let me get this straight, the woman that we met earlier is Sephiroth's sister?" Vincent asked Cloud. "Then how come I was not told by Lucrecia? She would have known."

"Unless Hojo kept it a secret, so she would not object to Angel being used in the Jenova project." Cloud replied.

"Damn Hojo, if he was still alive . . ." Vincent broke off the sentence in barely suppressed anger.

Red who was listening to the conversation then butted in. "The thing I don’t get is why Angel tried to kill Hojo, and why he did not kill her!"

Cloud shrugged. "Don’t have a clue, she was not acting like Sephiroth when we saw her, or showing any signs of being a homicidal maniac>"

Tifa, who was polishing her Premium Heart gloves looked up. "She is the only woman ever to survive SOLDIER training, who knows what it did to her."

Cid looked up from piloting the Highwind. "We’re almost at Bone Village, let’s see if that ^%%$£ sister came here."

The Highwind landed outside of the village and Avalanche, all armed with their most powerful weapons and materia climbed out.

"Well I would say that she definitely came through here." Red stated to the group. "The chocobo that we lent her is over there." He walked towards the villager taking care of it. "Excuse me but did you see where the young lady riding that chocobo went?" he asked politely.

"Cool, Avalanche’s here! Oh yes, she came through here about fifteen minutes ago." the villager said looking in awe at the heroes who had saved the planet. "One of the children threw a stone at her, and she stopped it in mid-air."

Cloud looked at him in disbelief, Sephiroth could not make object’s levitate. "What happened?" he asked with a growing sense of dread.

"Nothing much, she just told the kid not to do it again and walked off towards the Ancient city." the villager continued.

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

* Come to the waterfall * Angel heard a voice tell her * You will be shown what occurred here* Looking around she saw a cascade of water that flowed around a platform high up in a building. Slowly walking up to the platform she saw a picture form of a young woman on an altar. Watching in horror she saw the woman get run through with a long sword.

"Who did this to you, and why?" Angel wondered, watching the image of a piece of materia fall into deep water.

* Find the materia and use it * the voice told her * Only then will you know the truth *

Walking towards the central building she pondered all that she had learnt, at the base of the building a voice behind her made her stop in surprise.

"There she is!" Cloud yelled. Angel turned and saw the people who she had lent the chocobo off.

* Run, they do not understand what you must do! * the voice told her.

She started to run towards the forgotten capital and the crystal stairs leading to the place where the woman was killed. Reaching the top of the stairs she realised that she would not be able to retrieve the materia if she ran all the way down. Spreading her arms, Angel dived off the top of the staircase into the dark water below.

Cloud reached the stairs after Angel hit the water, looking around cautiously for any sign of her, Ultima weapon drawn. The rest of Avalanche caught up with him and helped to look for her.

Then Angel, with the materia she had found at the bottom of the lake, started to pull herself onto the platform near the altar.

"There she is coming out of the water!" Tifa shouted. "Hell, she must have jumped from here to get down that fast!"

"She has some materia with her." Yuffie said straining hard to see what type it was. "Oh Gawd, She has Holy."

Red looked very worried. "Cloud, you have to stop her. Holy has the power to resurrect people, and she could only be using it to call back Sephiroth!" He exclaimed.

Cloud, knowing that because of his mako enhanced abilities he was the only one fast enough, started to run down the steps to stop Angel from using Holy. The others followed as fast as they could, but Cloud started to leave them behind. When he reached the bottom of the stairs he checked his weapon and started to climb the pillars leading to the altar.

Angel was standing with her back to him as he lifted his weapon to strike her down and prevent further damage to the planet. However he never got the chance, as his sword came down, hers came up with lightning speed to deflect his attack.

Cloud looked at his adversary, blue mako eyes meeting blue mako eyes, and he realised that unlike Sephiroth she was not insane. He suddenly felt afraid, Sephiroth was easy to defeat because through his insanity he thought that Cloud and his friends could not harm him. Angel was another matter, she could kill him easily.

Cloud moved into a fighting stance, unaware that his friends were standing at the bottom of the stairs watching, and he moved to attack, but as Angel moved to attack her sword shimmered and changed into a two meter long staff. Clouds‚ eyes widened as the staff swung towards him.

"CLOUD!" Tifa cried, seeing him flying away from the altar. Cloud, unconscious, did not hear her cry of alarm as he fell towards the water.

Suddenly his body stopped in mid-air. Vincent turned towards the altar and saw that Angel was using her abilities to prevent Cloud from falling to his death. She released his body from the levitation when it had reached the place where Tifa was standing.

Tifa knelt down next to him as he regained consciousness in time to see a barrier come into existence around the altar.

Red looked towards the altar as the barrier sprang into existence, and what he saw surprised him. Angel was watching Cloud recover but the look on her face was one of concern. Then she turned towards the altar, lifted the materia and called out a word that no one understood, except him.

"No . . . It can’t be!" he cried as the others turned to look at him. "She is using Holy to call back someone from the dead. That word means 'return' in the language of the Ancients."

"Oh %$(*(£!" Cid and Barret cursed.

"Shit, she must be calling Sephiroth back, get ready!" Cloud said. The group started to ready their weapons and magic, all eyes turning towards the altar.

The Holy materia glowed brighter and brighter, filling the altar with a brilliant, blinding, white light. When all the light had vanished and their eyes had adjusted, two people could be seen on the altar.

Yuffie gasped in disbelief. "Oh . . . . My . . . . GAWD !!!!!!"