Its part four! Whoo-hoo. Sorry it took so long to get part 4 in. Lots of school stuff. College 
applications, term papers, projects, you know what I mean. The plot picks up in this part, so 
enjoy!  
	
	Part 4: I'm going to start doing summaries of previous parts now, since some of you may 
have forgotten what's happened. 
	Well, to put it simply Jenova, Sephiroth's mother, has crashed on Squall's world. Cloud 
and his buddies learned that Jenova was still alive, and were sent to Squall's planet. Meanwhile, a 
bunch of other stuff has been happening on Squall's world. Squall recruited Zell to help in a little 
plot that he's hiding from Rinoa, Zell himself has been dating Quistis, two new SeeDs, Kura and 
Syric, have showed up, and our old pal Seifer has been tasked by Laguna with guarding a 
mysterious black orb, and it turns out that Seifer happens to have a crush on Kura. Hmmmm.....its 
getting interesting, no? 

	Scene 12: Stuff That Falls From the Sky (The Return of Odine!)
	"Now zes iz interezting!" Doc Odine stated, looking around at the vast city forged from 
what appeared to be shells and coral reefs. Laguna Loire, standing next to him, nodded.
	"Look at ze architecture. Ze builderz muzt have been very advanzed."
	"Mmm-hmm." Laguna replied. "One thing, doc."
	"Yez?"
	"We're here to figure out what a giant city of coral reefs and shells that three hours ago  
rocketed down from the sky surrounded by green energy and made a suprisingly soft landing that 
barely rippled the surface of the sea is doing here on our planet," Laguna said in one whole breath.
	"I know zat!" Odine replied indignantly. The doctor gestured to his team, who were 
unloading equipment from a Ragnorok airship. "If zose ztupid glorified petri-dish washers vuld 
hurry up, zen Odine could get to verk. But noooo. I have to deal wiz a bunch of"-Odine glanced 
back at the team unloading the equipment-"IDIOTZ FOR AZZIZTANTZ!!!!" He spun around and 
stormed off in the direction of his team. "NO! Zat iz NOT how it zhould be unloaded!" he roared 
at one of the techs. "It zays, 'Handle Wiz Care'! Not 'Zquash Ze Roaches Wiz Ze Box!' You 
are...IDIOT!"
	Laguna watched Odine loose all nine hells upon his team, and shook his head. He looked 
up at a flock of seagulls flying overhead. He was reminded of the Lunar Cry, and then thought of 
the ominous pair of meteors that had crashed in Esthar only three weeks ago. And now, this city of 
coral and shells had splashed down. What would hit next?
	"Errrgh." Laguna grunted. "I hate stuff-" 
	Just then a warm bit of seagull crap hit him on the forehead.
	"-that falls from the sky."
	Laguna pulled out a hankerchief and wiped the crap off. As soon as he finished, an aide 
ran up to his side.
	"Mister President?" Laguna hated being called that.
	"Yeah?"
	"We have a situation." Laguna didn't like the sound of that, and something told him it had 
to do with that red shell in O Lab.
	"What is it?"
	"We discovered what was in that shell in O Lab." 
	'I hate it when the only time I'm right is when bad stuff happens,' Laguna thought.
	"What is it?" he asked, for some reason very apprehensive. 
	"Jenova."

 
	Cloud stood at the head of the table in the Highwind's operations room. His friends were 
gathered around, ones who had fought by his side against the worst possible disaster imaginable. 
Now, they were about to prevent that near-disaster from being repeated.
	Except that they were on a totally new world, one that they knew almost nothing about. 
All the information that they had gathered so far was from long-range sensors.
	"Okay, this is what we know." Cloud began. He gestured to the screen on the wall, which 
showed a map that had been compiled from the sensor data. "North of our current position is a 
massive continent that is mostly snow and mountians. Not too many people there, except for a 
large compound of some sort in the mountains." His hand moved to the large eastern continent. 
"East is another continent, seperated from the northern one by a large mountain range. One-fourth 
of its landmass is occupied by one massive city."
	"Like Midgar?" Barret asked.
	"No," Cloud answered. "This city makes Midgar look like Mideel. It's huge, and the 
technology is much more advanced than our own." He pointed to the western continent. "This 
continent is mostly flat landscape and sheer canyons. Lots of cities, towns, and villages." Cloud's 
hand dropped to the southern continent. "The southern continent is mostly barren plains, deserts, 
and mountains. There are a few villages scattered here and there." His hand ran from the western 
contenent to the eastern one. "There's a long railway connecting these two continents here," He 
pointed to a small island-continent, west of their position,"This is where we are headed. The island 
has a small harbor town and a large compound of some sort. The northern third is mountains, and 
that looks like the best place to hide the Highwind for now." 
	"Urrgh..." Yuffie said, looking up from her bucket. "Why are we hiding?"
	"Well," Tifa answered, "how would we respond if a giant city surrounded by green energy 
just plopped down in the middle of our Planet?"
	"Yeah," Cid added, "they're pretty advanced here. Just a couple of hours after we left they 
were already checking out the Forgotten City. Pretty nice technology, especially those dragon-
airships of theirs. The only thing that kept them from spotting the Highwind was that new stealth 
system I had installed."
	"Right," Cloud said. "We need to evade detection for as long as possible.I'd prefer to kill 
Jenova without revealing our presence to the natives, but that's unlikely. Once we set down, we'll 
need to scout the area, and get a feel for the local populace. We have to gather as much 
information as possible without being seen, got it?" Everyone agreed. They began to formulate a 
plan, but suddenly Yuffie hurled into her bucket again.
	"Urk!" she said. "I need a new bucket...this one's full..."
	
	Two hours later, the Highwind was safely hidden in the mountains, and Cloud and his 
friends had split up to scout the region. They avoided getting too close to the population centers, 
instead gathering data from a distance. Knowing that monsters probably roamed the region, 
everyone paired up. Cloud paired with Tifa, Barret with Red XIII, Vincent with Reeve, and Cid 
with Yuffie. Bugenhagen stayed on the Highwind. Six hours later they returned to the Highwind 
to report. 
	"Okay," Cloud said, calling up a more detailed map of the region that the Highwind's 
crew had made. He and Tifa had checked out the small town. "This harbor town is named Balamb. 
Basic small community, with a large fishing fleet. They've got some sort of underwater train lines 
that run to the western continent."
	Barret was next. He and Red had scouted the western part of the large compound.
	"From what we saw, the place is called Balamb Garden. Looks like some sort of 
university."
	"Military academy." Vincent corrected. He and Reeve had scouted the northern area of the 
facility. "A military academy for teenagers. We identified dorms, a cafeteria, a large park, an 
enclosed forest, and-"
	"Another one of those dragon-ships!" Cid broke in. He and Yuffie had observed the 
eastern sector of the Garden, and he had been suprised at the presence of another dragon-airship. 
"Parked right outside the vehicle garage. I'd like to get to know more about it. Looks sweet."
	Cloud considered the information that they had gathered.
	"We'll have to risk contact with the locals." he finally said. "It's probably the only way 
we'll be able to learn where Jenova is. Agreed?" The others nodded. 
	"Okay, here's the plan..."
	
	Scene 13: Crossing Paths
	One could imagine Cloud's surprise when he found that the Gil he had was very similar to 
the kind used on this planet. Tifa, however, was overjoyed when the shop accepted the Gil that 
they carried. That meant she could actually go shopping on this recon mission, rather than "just 
looking". Thus, Cloud was forced to follow her around Balamb while she went from store to 
store, trying on clothes, buying souviners, and even examining the weapons and tools for sale at 
the junk shops. But at least they were acting in character, pretending to be wealthy tourists from a 
far-off country. Cloud's exotic hairstyle attracted a lot of attention, but that was perhaps a good 
thing, because while he and Tifa distracted the general attention of the locals, Reeve, Barret, and 
Vincent met at the train station.
	Barret had put his old clothes into a suitcase, and was now dressed in Hawaiian-style 
clothes, complete with sunglasses and a lei. He'd also removed his gun-arm, leaving just the 
cybernetic stub that the gun would link to. The stub was disguised by a cast, in order to not draw 
any more attention than necassary.(Though Barret himself was attention-grabbing enough)
	Vincent looked like a Mafia enforcer. His long black hair was swept back into a ponytail, 
and he'd stowed his normal cape, black suit, and gauntlet in his suitcase. They were replaced by 
his old Turk suit. His disturbingly inhuman eyes were hidden behind a pair of sunglasses as well.
	"Uhh, tell me again," Barret asked, "Where we goin'?"
	"First, you two are going to the city called Timber," Reeve began, explaining their part in 
the intelligence-gathering operation. "Then, you two will split up. Vincent, you will go to the 
eastern coastal country called Dollet, and Barret, you'll go the northern city of Deling. They're the 
two biggest cities, and if any news related to Jenova gets out, there's a good chance that the news 
will be heard in one of those two places. If you find anything, contact Cid with your PHS, got it?" 
The other two nodded, and a few minutes later they boarded the train. They had worried that 
they'd need to sneak aboard, but since it turned out the Gil they used was the same on this world, 
they could just buy tickets, and there wouldn't be any need for sneaking around. 
	After Barret and Vincent boarded the train for Timber, Reeve spent a few hours walking 
around town, eavesdropping on conversations and asking a few questions here and there about 
Balamb Garden. When he was satisfied, he headed back to the entrance to the town, where Cloud 
and Tifa showed up around thirty minutes later.
	While they were returning to the Highwind, Reeve told Cloud and Tifa what he'd learned.
	"So let me get this straight," Cloud said as they passed through the forests on their way to 
the Highwind's hiding place. "Balamb Garden trains SeeDs, who are mercenaries that specialize in 
fighting Sorceresses, which are special women with natural magical powers."
	"Right." Reeve said. "And about a year ago, a SeeD named Squall Leonhart fought a war 
against a Sorceress named Ultimecia from the future."
	"What?" Tifa said, "The future?"
	"Yeah. At least, that's what the locals say. Apparently, this Leonhart is an amazingly 
powerful fighter. From what the Balambese say, I figure he might be as tough as you, Cloud."
	"No way!" Cloud exclaimed. "I'm the best!" Tifa burst out laughing.
	"Come on Cloud, it's just a local story. I doubt anyone can match you." she said.
	Cloud was about to answer, but then a T-Rexaur crashed through the trees, charging 
straight at them, hunger in its eyes. 
	Cloud had left his sword on the Highwind, since it would have been way too conspicious, 
and Reeve couldn't fight without Cait Sith, so that left Tifa to face the huge dinosaur alone. But 
she was up to the task. Cloud and Reeve darted to the side, and the beast stopped, considering 
whether to attack the fleeing prey first or the one that stood before it. Tifa made the decision for it. 
She shot forward at an impossible speed, and executed a powerful spinning kick into the monster's 
left knee. It roared in pain, and Tifa felt part of the knee give under her blow. Wasting no time, 
Tifa ducked between its legs and ran out behind it. She quickly whirled and launched a furious 
barrage of punches and kicks against the back of the beast's right leg. The T-Rexaur stumbled 
forward, and then it found Tifa leaping onto its tail and running up its back. It swung its head 
around, trying to bite her. Tifa dodged the clumsy attack and began pounding on the back of its 
neck with her fists. The monster tried to bite the vicious human assaulting it, but couldn't twist its 
neck around tightly enough to hit Tifa. She brought her right leg up and then thrust it down into 
the base of the beast's neck. The T-Rexaur felt something snap just before a profoundly deep 
blackness engulfed its vision. The huge beast collapsed to the ground, dead. Tifa hopped off its 
back, a big smile on her face.
	"Now I see why you like her." Reeve said to Cloud. Cloud simply grinned, and they 
walked on.

	From a sheltered vantage point fifty feet away, Irvine and Selphie, who had been going on 
a walk in the woods, watched Tifa bring down the T-Rexaur. 
	"Now that's a woman." Irvine whispered admiringly. Selphie glared at him, and slapped 
the back of his head. "Hey, I'm just kiddin'!" he said. Selphie continued glaring at him, then 
looked back toward the strangers.
	"Who are they?" she asked.
	"Dunno.But whoever they are, they're dangerous. Did you hear them say something about 
Balamb Garden?"
	"Yeah. I think we should tell Squall."
	"Hmmm...I don't think they're heading for Garden. It looks like they're going north," 
Irvine mused, and then an idea popped into his head. "I've got an idea."
	"Wow!" Selphie said playfully. "That's a first!"
 	 "Let's follow 'em and see where they're going." he continued, unfazed by her remark. 
Selphie nodded. "Maybe we can figure out what they're doing here." 
	"Good idea." With that, they rose from their hiding places and silently shadowed the 
mysterious strangers.

	Meanwhile, Zell and Nida were standing in the entrance walkway to Balamb Garden, 
discussing Nida's current relationships with women(or lack thereof).
	"Jeez, you guys are so lucky," Nida muttered. "Squall's got Rinoa, Irvine's with Selphie, 
you've been dating Quistis for nearly a month, and if the rumors are right, Seifer's got a thing for 
the new SeeD, Kura, and she likes him too. How do you guys do it?" Zell shrugged in response.
	"Well, Squall saved Rinoa's life repeatedly, and I kind of got Quistis by having a T-board
accident right in front of her, then asked her out." he answered Nida's question. "Irvine and 
Selphie, well, they just sort of got together."
	"Thanks, that's a big help." Nida replied, his voice holding no small amount of sarcasm.
	"Well, maybe if you would just ask a girl out for once, then you could have a bit more 
success."
	"You want me to ask a someone out?!" Nida replied with an incredulous look. "I can't
even get past 'would?'. I'm a wussy." Then something caught Zell's eye. Or rather, someone.
	"Heeeey, look over there." he said, nodding with his head.
	"What?" Nida asked, looking in the indicated direction.
	"Little chick with the black hair. Doesn't look too bad, eh?" Zell arched an eyebrow. 
"Maybe she's you're type?" 
	"Hmmm..." Nida replied, seeing the girl he meant. She was dressed like a usual teenager, 
and didn't really seem to stand out. He hadn't seen her before. A transfer student from Trabia, 
perhaps? He had to admit that she looked pretty good, if a bit goofy.
	"Go on..." Zell muttered softly, pushing Nida with his elbow. 
	"No way!" Nida answered, just as quietly.
	"Just at least say 'hi'. If she's new, maybe you could show her around."
	"No!" Nida shot back. "I'm probably just gonna choke up again!"
	"Nida, you'll never know if you don't try! Just say hi." Zell nodded in her direction. "Go 
on." 
	"Okay, okay." Nida took a breath. "All right, I'll try." He stepped away from Zell and 
walked over to the new girl, who was looking around in amazement at the beauty and sheer size of 
the Garden.
	'Crapcrapcrapcrap,' Nida thought. 'I'm gonna kill you for talking me into this, Zell.' He 
reached the short girl, and then, forcing himself to relax, said, "Ehhh, hi." She turned to him in 
suprise, and gave a goofy sort of grin. 
	"Oh, hi." she replied, and Nida found himself smitten. She wasn't the most insanely 
beautiful girl in the world, but for some reason Nida kind of liked her.
	"Uhhh, you new around here?" Nida said nervously.
	"Yeah, sort of," she answered, also a bit nervously.
	"Oh. I'm Nida. Nice to meet you." he said, holding his hand out to her.
	"My name's Yuffie." She shook his hand. 
	"You, uh, want me to show you around?" Nida asked her.
	"Sure!" Yuffie replied. "This place is huge! I've never seen Balamb Garden before." 
(Author's note: And yes, that really is theYuffie we all know and love-er, well, sort of love.)  
	"Okay. Come on, I'll show you where everything is." Nida said. As they walked towards 
the Garden entrance, Nida glanced over in Zell's direction. The tatooed martial-arts fighter grinned 
and gave him a discreet thumbs-up. 

	Scene 14: Boredom
	Kura was bored. She wasn't on the mission roster for this week, so she had nothing to do 
at the moment. Well, actually, that wasn't true. Kura still had plenty books about Sorceress lore 
and history left to read, but she didn't really feel like studying them right now. So instead she lay 
on her bed in her quarters, staring up at the ceiling, thinking.
	Thinking about Seifer Almasy.
	That wasn't strange. Excepting Squall, Seifer was the most popular guy among the girls of 
Garden. And Kura found herself attracted to him, like many other girls. She was attracted not only 
by his good looks, but also by his confident, charming, almost knightly demeanor. But there was 
one thing that seperated Kura from all of the other girls who had crushes on Seifer.
	Seifer was in love with her as well.
	He hadn't said it, but Kura had figured it out very quickly. Seifer always choked up when 
he was around her, and whenever she spoke to him he'd blush, stammer out something, then move 
away as quickly as he could without looking like he was running. So it was rather obvious.
	But from what Kura had heard, Seifer was actually a real ladies man. Smooth and 
confident, Seifer had the mojo to win any girl's heart. But around Kura, however, he was a 
bumbling dolt. She was amazed he'd even been able to dance with her when they'd first met at her 
graduation party. 
	Kura was drawn away from her thoughts about Seifer by the door to her room opening. 
She looked down to see her huge friend Syric, wearing his cape, armor, and Bahamut helmet as 
always, enter her quarters.
	"Hey." Kura said as he walked in. He nodded and shut the door behind him.
	"Still thinking about Seifer?" his voice rumbled from within the helmet.
	"Yeah." Kura replied. "I wonder where he went?" Syric shrugged, causing his cape to 
ripple.
	"He left a few days ago, on the train for Timber. He could have gone anywhere."
	"Pooh." Kura muttered. 
	"Were you hoping he'd be coherent enough around you to ask you out this week?" Syric 
asked.
	"Yeah..." Kura said, then she sat up. "I'm bored. Since Seifer's not around, why don't we 
go do something?"
	"Like what?"
	"I don't know. Maybe go somewhere?"
	"We could go down to Balamb." Syric suggested.
	"Nah. How about Timber? Or maybe Dollet?"
	"Hmmm..." Syric considered it for a moment. "I've heard the Anacondaurs around Dollet 
taste good..." Kura smiled at that.
	"Okay then." she said. "Let me pack up a few things, then we can go."

	Twenty minutes later, they were ready to go. Kura informed the Headmaster, as per 
Garden regulations, that they were going to Dollet, and he had no objections, so Syric and she 
headed for Balamb. They didn't own a car yet, and Garden only used their vehicles for missions, 
so they had to walk. Fortunately, Balamb wasn't too far away. But while Kura and Syric were 
walking, they stumbled across a small swarm of hungry Bite Bugs.
	Kura took a quick glance around.
	"Anyone nearby?" she asked.
	"Nope." Syric replied, shaking his head. "No one else in sight."
	"Good!" Kura said, a smile appearing on her face. She pointed a hand, palm outward, 
fingers spread, at the Bite Bugs as they closed. "Check this out, Syric!" Kura closed her eyes and 
began focusing. "Veetha nath kor toron!" she shouted, her voice seeming to be somehow 
unnaturally amplified. A conjuration of golden-white energy in the shape of a full-sized wolf leapt 
out from her outstretched hand at the Bite Bugs. It reached them and exploded, and the swarm of 
insects were enveloped in intensely hot flames, and within moments were reduced to ashes.
	"Hey, that's pretty good." Syric commented. Kura smiled and stretched.
	"Yeah," she said. "All that Sorceress research and talking to Rinoa about her powers 
showed me some insights that helped me to develop my own powers. Pretty impressive, huh?"
	"Quite." Syric answered. With that, they continued on to Balamb without any further 
incidents.

	Scene 15:  The Awakening
	Squall pushed his way through the wall of people that surrounded the cafeteria's lunch 
counter, carefully balancing the tray laden with both his food and Rinoa's. 'Barbarians at the gate' 
was the term used by the kitchen crew for the reaction of the student body whenever new hot hot 
dogs were on sale, and Squall agreed with them. After making his way through the crowd Squall 
headed for the table where Rinoa was waiting, unfortunately next to the table of complaining 
students.
	Squall set the tray down on the table, and sat down next to Rinoa. She immediately began 
attacking her food. Squall was amazed at how much food Rinoa could eat. It seemed as if she 
could eat as much as Squall and Zell combined, and still not gain any weight. Her stomach was 
like a miniature black hole.
	Squall began eating his food with a little less gusto, but then Rinoa noticed that their 
drinks didn't have any ice and pointed that out to him. Squall shrugged.
	"The ice machine's broken."
	"Oh, well that's no problem." Rinoa replied. She pointed a finger at her glass, and 
whispered something. A trio of small spheres of ice materialized and plopped into her glass. She 
repeated the process with Squall's.
	"Nice trick." Squall said. It was Rinoa's turn to shrug.
	"It's nothing big. I still can't make cubes yet. The ice just forms into a sphere."
	"Hey, if it makes my drink cold, its fine by me." Squall said with a smile. He put his arm 
around Rinoa's shoulders.
	Just then Zell walked in, spotted Squall and Rinoa at their table, and headed in their 
direction. 
	"Hey, s'up?," Zell said as he plopped down into the chair across from Squall. He stretched 
and smiled.
	"What, you're not getting in line?" Rinoa sked. "At the rate they're going, if you don't get 
up there fast there won't be any hot dogs left.
	"Oh, that's not a problem," Zell said, a big grin appearing on his tatooed face. "I had them 
reserve a few hot dogs for me this morning." Zell stretched again."I'm feeling good."
	"Why?" Rinoa asked.
	"I just hooked Nida up." he said, grinning.
	"What?" Squall said. "You got Nida a girlfriend?"
	"Well, not really," Zell replied. "Its more like, well, I helped him say 'hi'. He took it from 
there."
	"Who is she?" Rinoa asked, after swallowing her next bite.
	"Some new girl. Her name's Yuffie."
	"Yuffie?" Squal said, thinking. "I don't remember there being any new students named 
Yuffie." He shrugged. "Whatever. There's too many new students coming in for me to keep track 
of." Then Squall noticed that Zell was looking oddly at the ice cubes(spheres) in their glasses.
	"We get a new ice machine or what?" Zell asked.
	"The ice machine's broken." Rinoa replied. "I made these ice spheres."
	"Oh, well I'll go fix that problem!" Zell said cheerfully, hopping out of his chair. He 
strode up to the lunch counter, pushing through the mass of humanity. Leaning over the counter, 
he shouted,
	"Hey! Heard you had a problem with the icemakers!" The cashier nodded. "Can I check it 
out?" he asked.
	"Sure." she said. "It's over here." Zell vaulted over the counter and followed her.
	"Hmmm..." he said, looking over the machine. He spent a few minutes looking it over, 
then nodded. "I can fix this." he said.
	"Really! Thanks Zell!" the cashier said. 
	"No problem." he answered. "BOOYA!" Zell shouted, then he kneed the machine. It 
promptly began humming. Zell tapped the dispenser button, and ice began to fall out. "There you 
go."
	"Thanks again, Zell," the cashier said. "You want your hot dogs now?" 
	"Sure!" Zell said. Just then Headmaster Cid's voice resounded from over the intercom.
	"Squall Leonhart, Quistis Trepe, Zell Dincht, Irvine Kinneas, Selphie Tilmitt, and Rinoa 
Heartilly report to my office immediately. This is urgent." Zell shrugged.
	"Oh well, maybe later." He vaulted back over the counter and joined Squall and Rinoa, 
who were already heading for the elevators.

	"So, what's wrong?" Squall asked Cid as they walked into his office. Quistis was already 
there with him. Cid looked around for a moment, confused.
	"Where ae Irvine and Selphie?" he asked. Squall shrugged. 
	"They probably went for a walk outside Garden."
	"Bad timing..." Cid said. "We have a...situation...in Esthar."
	"Another Malboro outbreak?" Squall asked. Cid shook his head.
	"From what they're saying, its much, much worse..." the Headmaster said gravely. He 
tapped a button, and a holographic projection of President Laguna materialized in the center of 
Cid's office. "We recieved this holographic recording about twenty minutes ago."
	"Hey, Headmaster Cid, what's up?" the recording began, with Laguna's usual goofiness. 
"Ummm...we have a...problem. About one month ago a pair of meteorites landed in Esthar. One 
of them contained a large, heavy red shell, and to be honest it gave me the creeps. The other 
meteorite contained a small black orb, which I assigned Seifer Almasy to guard and remove from 
Esthar. The shell was moved to O Lab, where Doc Odine and his people began to study it. 
	"About 5 hours before this message was recorded, some creature emerged from the red 
shell. It was a huge, hideous, disgusting, bloated, red and purple snake-like thing with lots of 
tentacles, two arms and a head that looked sort of like a greyish, eyeless, jawless, hollowed-out 
human skull covered in thin grey flesh. After breaking out of the shell, the technicians realized it 
was a she, because when she identified herself she spoke with a sort of feminine voice. She 
identified herself as..." Laguna glaced at someone that was outside the holocam's view. "what was 
the name?" An indecipherable voice was heard, and he nodded. 
	"Right. She identified herself as Jenova.
	"At this point Jenova began to slaughter all the technicans and soldiers in O Lab, using 
what was confirmed by the surviving instruments as Sorceress magic." Squall glanced at Rinoa, 
and saw a shocked and slightly fearful expression on her face. He grasped her right hand with his 
left and squeezed it reassuringly.
	"Then Jenova blasted out through the roof of O Lab. When she first emerged an alert had 
been sent out, and the nearest Ragnorok-class airship, the Crimson Hound, was moving to O Lab 
when Jenova emerged. After a brief but vicious battle, the Crimson Hound was destroyed and we 
believe Jenova may have been damaged as well, since she began retreating to the southwest. We 
tried pursuing her but we lost track of her, most likely due to her Sorceress magic.
	"I believe that this Jenova creature constitutes a serious threat, and due to SeeD's 
capability in dealing with Sorceresses, I am requesting an immediate SeeD deployment to Esthar 
to deal with this creature. Included with this recording is all the data that we have on Jenova so 
far." With that, Laguna's image froze in place, signaling the end of the recording. 
	The office was still for several moments. Zell finally broke the silence.
	"Well, damn," he muttered. "This Jenova bitch took down a Ragnorok. This is serious." 
Cid nodded.
	"You have to deploy immediately." he said. "Obviously, we need our best on this mission, 
but if Irvine and Selphie don't return in the next hour, which is all the time we can spare, you'll be 
launching without them." They saluted, and Zell and Quistis left the office immediately. Squall 
and Rinoa remained, however. Rinoa was silent, and she was looking down at the floor, lost in 
thought.
	"Sir, why did you call in Rinoa too?" Squall asked. At that, Rinoa glanced up. Cid 
scratched his chin thoughtfully for a moment.
	"When Edea and I first formed Garden and SeeD, we realized that to most effectively deal 
with a threat presented by a Sorceress, we would need one ourselves. A Sorceress to help us 
understand their powers and counter them, and to aid us directly in the battle against them. We 
had intended for Edea to be that Sorceress." He looked at Rinoa solemnly. "I'm sorry to put such a 
great responsibility on your shoulders, Rinoa." Rinoa shook her head and smiled.
	"I...understand. Don't worry, I'll do my best." She saluted Cid, the motion still not as 
perfect as her SeeD friends.  Squall glanced over at her. Rinoa was nervous, but she was trying to 
hide it under her usual cheeriness.
	"One more thing, sir." Squall said.
	"Yes?"
	"I have to assume the Sorceress Protocol is in effect?" Squall was reffering to a new 
policy within Garden, created immediately after the conflict with Ultimecia. It stated that "Garden 
would act instantly, unhesitatingly, and with all necassary force in any serious situation regarding 
a Sorceress, regardless of her location, nationality, or any treaties, alliances, or agreements made 
between Garden and any other party." In other words, if a Sorceress caused trouble, SeeD would 
deal with the problem.
	 "Yes.You are authorized to do whatever is necassary to end the threat posed by this 
Jenova monster."
	"Understood." Squall saluted, and he and Rinoa exited the office.

	Meanwhile, thousands of miles away, in the middle of the vast ocean, a new structure had 
appeared. Once it would have been called the Deep Sea Research Center, a.k.a. Battleship Island. 
Now it was in a completely new form, twisted and reshaped from its original design by Sorceress 
power. It was reformed into a disturbingly familiar shape: a vast, hovering Gothic castle, 
reminiscent of Ultimecia's old haunt. The outer sections of the castle were similiar to those of 
Ultimecia's castle as well, featuring the hidious gargoyles, Gothic archietecture, and the generally 
creepy atmosphere.
	The inner sanctum, however, was far different. The external appearance of the interior 
keep was the same as that of the other parts, but inside, the generally Gothic castle was replaced 
by what could best be described as the "hive." The interior was illuminated by a soft purplish-
green light, emitted from luminous organic bulbs created for the purpose. The walls, ceilings, and 
floors were constructed entirely out of a living, sweating, pulsating organic material. Gooey, sore-
like constructs sprouting from the ground like some twisted type of fungus released heat and water 
vapor to keep the inside of the "hive" warm and humid; this created the optimal growing 
conditions needed to construct the perversions of living creatures that were bred and raised in the 
disgusting spawning pits of the inner sanctum. Shadowy forms, some looking like bloated, 
oversized maggots, others very disturbingly humanoid, moved about.
	This place was a vast den of pure evil, stinking with corruption. And in the center of it all, 
like a vast, hideous, demonic queen of an anthill, was the ruler of this central hive of evil.
	Jenova.
	She was tired. She'd escaped from the humans with relative ease, and had even destroyed 
one of their airships. Then she had sought out a place where there was an abundant amount of 
Spirit Energy. She'd discovered a place far from any human settlement, and quite fortunately had 
found some ruins that her Sorceress powers could transform to fit her needs. The transformation 
of the human ruins had taken less than two hours and the construction of her "hive" less than one. 
Now she had the first of her minions, corruptions of the humans that had spread throughout the 
universe. These weren't actually humans, but instead perversions created out of a vile 
transformation made to the basic structure of human DNA.
	As her spawning pits continued to breed more beasts, Jenova rested from the tiring duty 
of building her lair. While she rested, however, Jenova sensed something interesting. She had not 
even been fully awake for 6 hours and already two seperate Sorceresses had used their powers. 
Once a Sorceress used her powers, Jenova could track her anywhere. And Jenova needed a 
Sorceress for her plans.
	She called over the first batch of spawn that she had created. Winged, clawed humanoids 
that sprouted tentacles...she was proud of these nasty little creatures. She telepathically sent the 
locations of the two Sorceresses to the beasts, and commanded them to bring back at least one of 
them alive. She watched the beasts fly out of her lair, and then turned her attention over to a new 
creature she was breeding, one that she was even more proud of. It wasn't quite complete yet, 
however. Oh well. She had plenty of time. Once she was finished resting, she would construct the 
next structures she would need, one in which to gather needed Spirit Energy, the other to house the 
soul of the creature that had created her. Once those were completed, all she would need would be 
a live Sorceress, a lot of Spirit Energy, and the Black Materia. Too bad it had been seperated from 
her during the arrival. Soon, Jenova would begin seeking out the Meteor as well. So far, her plans 
were progressing excellently.
	 "Yes..." Jenova thought, "Soon...I will begin the Ressurection..."
	
	End of Part 4
	Wow. That was loooooooooooooooooong. Jeez, it took me over a month to do that, too. 
Part 5 is coming soon, and the fighting really starts then. Whoo-hoo!
	In the meantime, E-Mail me! Peptuck3@aol.com