Project Rebirth.

L stared blankly as the battle ensued. He didnt know what to think... this whole time he has suspected that Namine would need to be saved. And now, Namine looked as if she could handle just about anything.
That was no matter at all though... The main issue was, why was she doing this? And... would he be next?
"N-namine....."

Yuffie approached him, "Hey, snap out of it!" she began, "Ryuzaki, you're the only one that can give Namine the strength to fight Sephiroth off!" she said, "Come on!!" she said with a stern look on her face. It was true... Neither Yuffie nor Cloud meant enough to Namine to give her the will to fight Sephiroth off.

In the meantime, Cloud held his sword ready and charged into the battle. Looking at Namine, he called her name.
"Cloud--!!" she struggled. "You have... to get on the ship!" she said, struggling out of Sephiroth's mental grasp.
"... Right." he said, fighting soldiers off from Namine. He got on the ship and immediately encountered Raine. Taking out her gun, she pointed it at Cloud.
"Surrender." she said firmly.
"No." Cloud said, quickly rushing behind her and holding the sword to her neck. "Let us use this ship, or Namine will get you eventually anyway. Think of it as me sparing your life in exchange for this ship." he said. Raine frowned as she realized that he was right, then ran off the ship and called her soldiers away.
Cloud then flew the ship to where Yuffie and L were.
"Get on the ship! Quickly, we have to save Namine!"
"Maybe she's right...." L thought, blindly following Yuffie to the air ship. ".... If she is right, than I have to do this.... for Namine!"
They had made their way to the speaker, while still countless Shinra soldiers were killed in Namine's uncontrollable rage.
"Namine!!" he yelled, as he watched her. Everybody had seemed to stop.

Namine's eyes widened as she recognized the voice to be Ryuzaki...
Lawliet.....
"L-Lawliet......" she repeated as she thought the name, the teal in her eyes seemed to drain away. The Masamune vanished from her grasp as the soldiers seemed to retreat.
Cloud sighed with relief. "Good....."
Yuffie yelled to her, "Namine, get on the ship!!"
Cloud reached his hand down towards her and she smiled up at them, grabbing his hand as they pulled her up on the ship, and she nodded.
"Thank you....."
Cloud smiled back to her, gently. "Anytime..."
L collapsed next to the wall. "Good," he thought.
Namine looked over towards L, pausing quietly before Cloud pushed her forward gently.
"Go on..."
Namine walked over to L, kneeling down next to him and putting a hand on his shoulder. "... Lawliet..?"
L looked over to Namine, slightly shaking, "Y-yeah?" He replied quietly, trying to steady himself.
He calmed himself a bit and shook his head, "What is it, Nami-san?"

Namine smiled gently at him, then said in a soft tone-- a tone with new-found hope.
The tone of a somebody...
"Thank you..." at that, she stood up and faced the group. "All of you."
She walked to the edge of the deck, holding the railing as the airship on auto-pilot traveled it's way over the clouds.
"This journey is far from over..." she said. Cloud's blue eyes were fixed on her as he remembered who she sounded like now. Not just one person, but many...
The one that stood out the most, was Kadaj.
Yuffie, though, stared at Namine in awe.
She idolized that girl... not ever before until now.
"I can become Sephiroth's successor..." she said. "Believe me, the idea of using that power whenever I want to is appealing... but....." she looked up to the sky. "I will not let you all down. I will not fail Lawliet-- Iwill not fail you, Cloud nor Yuffie..." she paused, her voice became distant at her thought. "I will not fail you, Kadaj..."
There was a short silence before she proceeded. "I have to find Roxas, or this journey will never end. I promised you, Lawliet, that I would help you stop Kira... and this is a promise that I will not go back on. Had I not left, perhaps I could have stopped Kira when he was still a criminal." she turned to face them.
"This journey is not over... and I plan to pursue it until the end. Only then will we know what will become of, Namine." she said, referring to herself as more of a subject then a person.
"Who's with me?" she said, holding her hand out towards them.

Cloud walked over and placed his hand on top of hers. "I'm your guardian, Namine, but I am also your friend... I will never leave you." he said.
Yuffie hyperly found a new optimism inside her and jumped over to the two she'd been so close to this whole time.
"CYEAH! If I didn't stick with you two, where else would I go!?" she said, slamming her hand down on top of the others'.
Then, a gentle hand placed itself on top of Yuffie's that only Namine could see. She smiled, not even glancing up at the owner.
The one who's reflection had replaced hers in the window of the gondola at the golden saucer.
The one that had talked to Kadaj to push Sephiroth away.
The one that had been fighting Sephiroth off inside Namine for so long.
Cloud gave Namine a slight smile, whispering to her; "Kadaj would be proud of you, Namine..."
The teenager gave almost a smirk as she nodded back to him, then looked to Ryuzaki.
"... Lawliet?"
Her speech was inspiring...

"Namine...." He started looking in awe at this newly assembled group, then he shook his head and smiled lightly. "I wouldn't dream of anything else!"
L stood up and began to walk over to them and add his hand. But he paused mid-way and his heart made one major beat that felt as if time itself had stopped.
"What in the world is this?" he said, even though his voice was silent and his lips didnt move.
"What is going on??"
The figure of a young man with sad eyes and long ginger hair came to memory.
"Judai...."
"The sadness.... the darkness that has shrouded my heart....." The voice echoed.
"What??"
"I couldn't take it.... So I give it to you... Please, I hope you understand...."
L was frozen, "Kurgh... argh..." He fell to his knees, gripping his stomach.
Namine looked over at him with confusion. What just happened? She thought that the drama was over!
"... Damn it." Cloud mumbled as Namine knelt down next to L.
"Lawliet..!? What's wrong?!" She placed a hand on his shoulder.
L's head rose and he had a more angry look to his normal blank face. Part of his hair changed before their eyes into a brownish-reddish color and his eyes were now yellow.
"Lawliet?" He said an insulted tone, "Please do not call me by such a punitive name. Haou...."
Haou....
Namine took a frightened step away from him and backed closer to Cloud. Her eyebrows quirked together in confusion and she frowned. "Haou?"
To her, it wasn't just a name. It was a total change in history, and she didn't like it. Something made it almost unbearable to her. She raised an eyebrow as she heard Yuffie's laugh from nowhere.
"..." Namine paused, from then on ignoring Haou.
She noticed that her materia was gone...
"Cloud... check your materia." She said sternly. She sounded more like Sephiroth, now...
"... YUFFIE!!!" Cloud instantly yelled as he saw the ninja girl land not far from them and she jumped down from the ship and was falling down to her hometown of Wutai.
"SUCKERS!" she yelled on the way down.
Instantly, Namine ran over to the edge and stepped up on the railing, then jumped over the side with a short wave to Cloud.
"Namine!" Cloud yelled, then running to the edge and staring over the side, down at Namine as she drew her sword.
"Yuffie!" Namine yelled as she fought against the ninja girl in mid-air. Yuffie held a mischevious smirk as she used her shuriken to block an attack, then pushed off from the sword in the air, disappearing from Namine's view. Namine then landed on two feet in the middle of the town of Wutai. Cloud soon parked the airship outside of Wutai and ran into the town, gesturing for L to follow.
As Cloud approached Namine, he asked; "Where'd she go!?"
"I don't know." Namine said calmly.
"But we will find her."

L paid absolutely no attention to them and looked around the town. "Another weak town, I'm guessing... It's nothing like the Dark World...."
He wandered away from the others looking for something inexplicit. Everyone who had past him was given an evil glare, and there for the entire populace of Wutai had avoided.
"Boku wa Haou Eru... Daku worudu no Kami-ka...." he whispered to himself.

Namine looked around, not even catching a glimpse of L.
"We should go get him..." Cloud said, looking around.
Namine held up her hand, silencing cloud immediately. "Forget it..." She said. "If he wants to do this, then let him... It's his choice." She said.
Cloud, astonished at how easily she'd passed judgement, nodded. She was beginning to act a little too much like Sephiroth...
"Right... Let's find Yuffie." Cloud said as Namine nodded and they ran off to find Yuffie.

Haou then vanished from Wutai on his own accord.

Namine and Cloud had searched through Wutai, inside and out, until the reached the mountains.
Then, they saw her.
"Yuffie!" they called. The ninja girl looked down at them, wide eyed. She was covered in blood.
"Yuffie!" Cloud called again as Namine ran up to her, then he followed.
"What happened to you!?" Namine asked, putting a hand on her shoulder.
"R-Raine... Raine took the materia..." Yuffie stuttered shakily. "Sh-She said she won't give it back until we surrender Namine..."
Namine and Cloud looked at each other. Cloud nodded.
"Let's go." Namine said, turning around as Cloud picked Yuffie up on his back. Namine ran off towards the town and Cloud brought Yuffie back to her home.
Namine soon stopped in the middle of a field near their airship.
"We knew you'd come back here." came the voice of Raine.
Namine didn't seem phased as a group of soldiers surrounded her.
"Or..." Namine began softly. She really was the image of Sephiroth. "Maybe I knew you would be here."
She looked up at the soldiers as they all attacked her. She drew her sword and ducked to the ground, almost doing a split as one hand touched the ground and the other held the hilt of her sword, which she held up and all the soldiers' blades clashed into her own sword. She smirked and flipped upside-down to be balancing on her hand, then swinging her feet around to kick them all in their faces.
They all jumped back and began shooting at her with the guns. Namine put on a stunning show as she dodged every bullet, holding them off.
It was uncertain if this was her own ability, or if she was using Sephiroth's power...
Until she began to show fatigue. She was breathing heavily and the grasp on her sword was loose.
"HIIIY-YA!" came the all-to-familiar voice of the ninja girl as a shuriken sliced the back of many soldiers before returning to Yuffie's hand. She landed with a limp, completely cleaned of the blood. On the other side of Namine, Cloud had attacked the soldiers Yuffie didn't attack. Namine smiled at them.
"You came!"
"We couldn't just leave you here." Cloud said, then Yuffie and Cloud were back to back with Namine in a triangle.
A silence passed before Raine sent them to attack again.
"Go!" Cloud yelled as he, Yuffie, and Namine attacked the soldiers.

On the sideline, Haou Eru had risen the Dark world army and taken over Healin.....

The battle was now over, Namine and Cloud had their swords on either sides of Raine's neck. Raine frowned at them, a serious look on her face as she said; "The materia is in the cave of the mountains in Wutai."
Cloud took his sword away from her and looked at Yuffie.
Yuffie nodded and the two of them ran off to get the materia. Namine took her sword back and stared at her.
"Why does ShinRa want me so much?"
Raine smirked. "You have the power over memories..." She said, "We want you to restore Midgar... Make it how it used to be."
Namine frowned as Raine quickly dropped a smoke bomb, vanishing from her sight. Namine stood there calmly, then turned to look towards Wutai.

"Shinra Denki Dōryoku Kabushiki-gaisha...." L said to himself, "This name is unacceptable... " Haou no Shinra Kanpani... Much better."
Haou was walking through the newly acquired Shinra capital of Junon. Raine being gone, along with Shinra's main force, Haou saw little resistance in his take over.
Zure, the Knight of Dark world had approached his lord Haou and bowed slightly, "Kira is gone... our troops has tried to capture them, but all of our scout parties were annihilated. We presume that Kira going to be joining in with Raine Shinra."
Haou only listened, "Very well, we'll work on capturing the remaining land in Gaia... After all of our troops have returned we can arrest Raine and Light...."

Namine walked back towards the ship as Yuffie and Cloud had already went into the cockpit. As they reinstalled their materia, Namine walked on the deck as they took off. She looked over the edge as they were on their way to the Ancient City before they saw a flare explode where L was.
Namine stared off in that direction.
"Even if the morrow is barren of promises, nothing shall forestall my return..." She said, "We will meet again; allies or adversaries... and only then will we know what was meant to be." She said, then walking in to the cockpit as Cloud hesitantly landed outside the source of the flare. Yuffie stayed on the ship to keep watch as Namine and Cloud exited, running to find the source. Namine pulled out her sword as Cloud gripped the hilt of his own, then ran off to find the problem-- Namine was sure it was L, while Cloud expected Sephiroth or Raine.