Part I: One of My Turns

Gatoris was awakened with a start. Actually, he was woke up by a phone. He glanced at his clock. Who, he thought, would be calling me at 7:00 am? He let his answering machine get it. "Gatoris, this is Serena..." He grabbed the phone. "What now?"

* Note: Dialog time! *

Serena: Remember when we met last week?

Gatoris: Yeah, I can still feel where Luna bit me!

Serena: Well, that’s kind of why I’m calling.

Gatoris: What now? Did Luna get a restraining order on me?

Serena: No, no, no. Far from it! She wants to...

* Luna butts in *

Luna: I want to apologize. I was not in the best of moods that day.

* Serena jerks the phone away *

Serena: She and Artemis had an argument before you showed up. I had to calm her down, otherwise she would have tried to kick ME out!

* Luna jumps in again *

Luna: True, Serena. But I want to apologize for my actions. I really didn’t want to banish you...

Gatoris: All right, apology accepted. Just do me a favor next time you call.

Serena: What would that be?

Gatoris: * Yelling * Don’t call until about noon!

Luna: Why?

Gatoris: * Groggily * I am NOT a morning person. Good-bye.

Serena: Later, Gatoris.

Luna: See you later.

* Gatoris hangs up the phone *

* End Dialog *

Gatoris was trying to roll back into bed. He then heard Aerith talking to him. "Who was that?" She asked. "You know Sailor Moon’s dimension? That was one of them." Gatoris told her. "Why on earth would they be calling you?" She was more curious about why some young girl would be calling him, not at the fact that the call came from another dimension. Gatoris explained himself. "Before I got here, I accidentally landed in their dimension, and on that cat, Luna. She banished me from there. She was just calling to apologize to me." If this was any other person, Aerith would be suspicious. But she somehow understood. "Nice try, Gatoris." He was startled by Aerith. "You are not going back to bed! It’s a beautiful morning, and I feel like taking a walk." Gatoris slowly made his way to the kitchen. "Let me get breakfast first, OK? I do better on a full stomach." Aerith agreed to that fact. They walked to the kitchen, where Gatoris’ tonberry servants were waiting.

"Where’s the coffee?" Gatoris was infuriated. He needed some caffeine to get going, but the tonberries couldn’t figure out where the coffee was. "Guess I gotta resort to this..." He pulled out his materia, and a bag of coffee was on the counter. Aerith talked the servants into letting her cook. Apparently, Gatoris did not realize she couldn’t cook anything. The flames went three feet high, and the smell of burned bacon and pancakes filled the air. Why me, he thought to himself. I’m too young for this! At this rate, I’ll look like Krillin in year and a half! Suddenly, there was a knock on the front door. Thank god, he was thinking to himself, that must be Elmyra. He rushed to the door. He was right, Elmyra was there and needed help with some suitcases. She greeted him in an odd fashion. "I see Aerith tried to cook again." Gatoris was confused. How could she know? "You got a bit of sausage behind your ear." He felt behind his ear, and sure enough there was sausage there. Being hungry, he ate it at the risk of breaking his teeth. "Yeah Elmyra, she did. Someone should have warned me. I don’t have that much sanity left." "By the way, where is she? I want to say hello to her. I haven’t seen her in weeks." At this point, Gatoris trailed off. "I... left her... in ... the kitchen... oh, crap!" He rushed to the kitchen in time to have hot Spam fly into his face. One of the tonberries remarked in his native tongue "Not your day, master?" Gatoris just stood there, Spam burning his face, and said in a hateful tone (and a bad British accent, to boot), "Oh, shut up!" He then proceeded to peel the meat product from his face and eat it, slice by slice. "At least it still tastes good." Elmyra then bust into the room. "Aerith! How have you been, darling?" Gatoris, still standing there, offered the girls some Spam. After a long talk, Gatoris butted in. "Anyone up for a walk?" Elmyra declined. "I just had a long trip from Kalm. I’m worn out!" Aerith added, "I got a few things I want to catch up on." "All right," Gatoris exclaimed "I’m off to get some fresh air." He added to the tonberries, in their language, "If she gets near the kitchen, stop her!" He then proceeded out the door, with a piece of Spam still stuck on his chin.

Gatoris promptly teleported to Cloud’s villa, and he rang the doorbell. Yuffie decided to see who it was. When she opened the door, Gatoris gave her a cold stare. "Y... you have some Spam on your chin..." Yuffie was trying to be helpful. Instead, Gatoris grabbed the searing hot Spam and slapped it on the materia thief’s forehead, and closed the door in her face. That is when he felt something hit his head. When Gatoris turned around, a man wearing a suit of armor and holding a chicken was behind him. Gatoris asked him sarcastically, "was that needed?" The man nodded his head, and hit Gatoris atop the head one more time.. He then promptly left.

"Well, here I am..." Gohan exclaimed as he landed near Icicle Inn. He then looked around. "Wait a minute. This doesn’t look right!" He started to wander to the nearest house asking where he was. After determining where he was, he flew to the southeast. After a short flight, Gohan saw Castle Tonberry on the horizon. When he landed, he knocked on the huge front door. A tonberry greeted him, and let Gohan in. Gohan told Aerith why he was there. She then picked up the phone and dialed Gatoris’ cell phone number.

Gatoris landed on an island and answered his phone.

* Another Dialog! *

Gatoris: Yes?

Aerith: Gatoris, you have a visitor.

Gatoris: Who is it?

Aerith: It’s Gohan.

Gatoris: I can talk to him over the phone. Put him on.

Aerith: He... he wants you to come here.

Gatoris: OK, OK! I’ll be there in a flash.

* Gatoris hangs up *

* End Dialog #2 *

Suddenly, Gatoris appeared in his living room, scaring the crap out of Gohan. "What is it, man?" Gatoris was still groggy. Gohan was too embarrassed to say it in front the girls again. So, they went into Gatoris’ room. "What is it, boy?" He was wondering why Gohan would come all this way just to talk to him. "Well... I... um..." Gohan was nervous. Gatoris was losing patience. "Spit it out, man! What do you want??" Gohan muttered something inaudible. "What? Speak up, Gohan!" He finally began to speak up. "You know Serena...." "Sailor Moon, right?" Gatoris couldn’t figure out where this was going. "Well... I think... I think..." Gohan wasn’t able to muster the strength. Gatoris was about at his boiling point. "Don’t think it, say it!" Gohan finally blurted out his secret. "I... I think I have a crush on her." Gatoris fell from his bed. "What do you want me to do about it?" Gohan replied sheepishly, "Would you put a good word in for me?" "Gohan, I hate to tell you this, but I have three problems: first is I am not really on speaking terms with that dimension. Two, I hate to break it to you, but she’s taken. Finally, and remember this one: Inter-dimensional relationships won’t work!" Gohan was unfazed. "Can I at least meet her?" Gatoris’ caffeine buzz wore off. "Ah, why the hell not. I got time to spare. Let’s go." Gohan was overjoyed. Gatoris told Aerith what was going on, and the two men left.

A short time later, the two were in front of Serena’s door. She answered the door before Gatoris could knock. "Oh, hello Darie.... Gatoris! what are you doing here?" She looked slightly upset. Gatoris asked her a question. "You know Goku’s dimension?" Serena nodded. "Well, I got someone with me from there who wants to meet you." Serena’s eyes lit up. "Is it Trunks?" Gohan was visibly upset, and blurted out, "no, it’s not Trunks! It’s Gohan!" Serena looked puzzled. "You mean this little runt?" Gohan was dejected. "Let’s go home, Gatoris" So they did. After they left Luna woke up. "Who was that?" Serena was apathetic about the whole thing. "Ah, just Gatoris and some weakling from Goku’s dimension"

"I told you it wouldn’t work!" Gatoris was yelling at Gohan on the way to his house. Gohan looked depressed, and refused to talk. "You’ll get over it. There’s other girls in your dimension who’ll like you, I’m sure." Gohan was angry. "No, there is not! They all want Trunks! I don’t see what’s so great about him." Seeing where this conversation could lead, Gatoris teleported back home, leaving Gohan to gripe about Trunks by himself. When he got home, it was about ten o’clock. Aerith was already in bed, but Elmyra was still up waiting for Gatoris. "How’d Gohan’s problem go?" "Not too well," Gatoris explained. "We got there, and when I tried to introduce them, it all went sour. I think I last left him to deal with the anger." "Well, I think your love life will do just fine. You and Aerith are lucky to have each other." Elmyra’s comment seemed out of context to Gatoris. He just said good night to Elmyra and rolled into bed. After a long, taxing day, Gatoris thought it was time for eight hours of peaceful sleep.

He was wrong. After a while, the words he told Gohan echoed in his mind: "There’s other girls who’ll like you, I’m sure." Gatoris then thought back to his former dimension, and about his love. He was in love with a girl who was already taken. Gator had accepted the fact she chose the other guy, but had told him that if anything happened to her, he’d have Gator to answer to. Suddenly, he saw three gravestones. One, he could tell was his, for it had the date he left his mortal coil: September 18, 1999. He saw another stone with the same date. He could sense it was someone he knew, some guy to be exact. The final headstone puzzled Gatoris. It had no date of death as of yet, but he could sense that it would soon hold his beloved. Sorrow filled Gatoris’ heart. Ifalna , coming from nowhere, told him a story about what had happened the night he was ‘drafted’ (for lack of a better term). It seemed that the girl’s boyfriend had admitted to cheating on her. She, not surprisingly, was heartbroken. He had remembered what Gator had told him. He had shamed himself, as well as hurt her. He feared what Gator would do to him if he ever found out, so he decided to play chicken with a train instead of facing him. That had happened an hour after Gator’s departure. "Jason Steele..." Gatoris muttered, calling him by name, "Why? I wouldn’t have killed you. It’s not like I was going to shoot you, just beat the crap out of you." Ifalna stood solemnly and kept commenting. "He must have feared you a lot." "... Or loved her enough to die as punishment for a misdeed. I do not know why you’re showing me this." Gatoris was visibly upset. Ifalna patted him on the back. "In case you are wondering, Angelina’s still alive. If you want to see her..." Gatoris just nodded. Suddenly, he was teleported to her window.

Gatoris could not get up enough guts to look through the window. Ifalna coaxed him to do so. From his vantage point, all he could see was a framed picture. There were three people in the picture: him, Jason, and Angelina. It was taken shortly after their university’s homecoming game about a year ago. Those were good days, thought Gatoris. Why did they have to end? Why did I have to leave this world, and leave her with nobody? He began to cry. He then heard someone else crying. It was Angelina, the one he lamented over. Her baby blue eyes, which always seemed to reflect the warmth of the sun, were cold and wet. Instead of her happy little smile, she was frowning. "I cannot see anymore!" Gatoris was losing all happiness. "I want to go back!" He turned to ask Ifalna to take him home, but he was alone. All he heard was Ifalna’s voice trailing off. "You didn’t have a chance in your previous life, but you have another one in this dimension. Show Aerith how you feel..."

With the last echo of the phrase, Gatoris awoke with a start. He looked at the clock. It was 2 AM. He thought long and hard about what he just dreamed. After the thought of it ran through his head, he got up out of bed and walked into Aerith’s room. Gatoris kneeled beside her bed, and, for the first time since he came into this dimension, kissed her on the forehead. He then whispered in her ear "I love you." This woke her up. She whispered back "I love you too, Gatoris." They then proceeded to hug until dawn.

Part II: The Limberry Incident

... Or so they were hoping. About 5:00, the phone rang. Gatoris had no clue who it was. They left a message saying that a vampire resembling Sephiroth was attacking Junon. Gatoris knew that could be only one person: "Elmdor. I’ll be right back, Aerith." Gatoris went to his room, put on some jeans and a T-shirt, and teleported away.

When he got to Junon, Gatoris was face-to-face with one of his nemeses: Mesdoram Elmdor of Limberry. "Why, Elmdor, I was just going to call you!" mocked Gatoris. Elmdor had the same cold stare he reserved for everyone. "I like what you done with your hair, Sephiroth." Gatoris was puzzled, then he caught his reflection in a window. He was still wearing his contacts from his coffin bit. Dammit, he thought. How did I leave my contacts in for a week? He promptly took them out and placed his glasses firmly on his face. "So, Gatoris, we meet at last." Elmdor seemed confident for some odd reason. "You are dumber than I thought, leaving Aerith by herself. Now, she’s easy prey for the likes of me." Gatoris was unwavering. "You don’t have the balls, dead boy!" Elmdor gave Gatoris a sly look. "That what you think? Vormav! Come over here!" Sure enough, Vormav came to Elmdor’s side, with a woman on his shoulder, and commented "I think this is yours, Gatoris." He looked closely at the woman: he had been duped! The call was a clever ruse to lure him away long enough for Elmdor to kidnap Aerith. Gatoris was about to go off the edge. "You mangy cur! What did she ever do to you?" Elmdor just smiled. "I’m just going to show her a good time, that’s all." Gatoris had all he could stand. He rushed at Elmdor, but he was met by Elmdor’s Masamune to the right side of his face. It cut him from the top of his eyebrow down to his jawbone in one, clean cut. However, his eye was fully intact, and his glasses were in one piece. Gatoris showed no pain from the deep gash in his face. Elmdor was slightly rattled. "He must love you a lot to die for you," he remarked to his unconscious captive. "You bet your sweet ass I do!" Gatoris’ voice sounded duo-toned. Elmdor realized that this was the cue to leave, before Gatoris could go berserk and try to kill him. After they left, Gatoris weeped uncontrollably for ten minutes. He was not doing a good job of protecting the last Cetra. At this rate, she’d be dead in a year. He then came up with an idea. He would gather allies from his dimension and others, and assault Castle Limberry, the probable location where Elmdor would have taken her.

Gatoris teleported immediately to Cloud’s villa. Oddly, Red XII was the only one there. It appears the crew had gone to investigate reports of people being found in the ruins of Midgar. There was no time to lose, thought Gatoris, and he headed for the ruins of a once bustling city. Upon arrival, the gang were rummaging through the rubble. Yuffie was the first to notice him. The gash on Gatoris’ face made her nauseous, and she promptly puked on Cait Sith, shorting him out. The resulting explosion got everyone’s attention.

"What the hell happened to you?" Cloud asked "Did you run into Sephiroth?" "Close, but wrong dimension. It was Elmdor. He’s taken Aerith." Gatoris began to break down. "I hate to sound insensitive," Tifa butted in, "...but doesn’t that gash on your face hurt?" Gatoris felt his face. He had been so filled with rage that he hadn’t felt the pain of the sword slicing up his face... or the chunk of it that was imbedded just above his eye. He popped it out and examined it. It was the tip from Elmdor’s Masamune. Apparently, it broke off when it hit the frame of his glasses. Gatoris then tossed the bloody bit of metal behind him. "Let me guess..." Vincent spoke (probably for the first time since he first met Gatoris) "You want us to help you." Cloud jumped in. "Sure, why not? She is our friend, so we have an obligation to save her, right?" It was then Yuffie showed signs of cowardice. "You can go, but Elmdor’s outta my league. I don’t fight the undead." Vincent promptly slapped her in the back of the head. "Thank you all." Gatoris’ expression became serious. "Now, to get some of my other allies to help."

Gatoris grabbed his cell phone and called Goku’s house

* You know what’s coming, right? *

Goku: Son house.

Gatoris: Goku, I need your help. Aerith’s been kidnapped, and I need some more muscle.

Goku: Sure, why not? Me and Gohan are ready for a fight!

Gatoris: Good. Get to my dimension A.S.A.P.

Goku: We’re on our way!

* Goku hangs up. Gatoris calls Vegeta *

Vegeta: You better not be another telemarketer....

Gatoris: Vegeta, I need your help. Someone’s taken Aerith, and I need more firepower to get her back. Think you’d help?

Vegeta: I don’t know....

* Gatoris uses King Vegeta’s Voice *

Gatoris: You going to help, Vegeta, or do I have to kill you?

* Vegeta panics *

Vegeta: I’ll be right over!

* Vegeta hastily hangs up. Gatoris tries Piccolo’s number.

Piccolo: Who is it?

Gatoris: Is this Piccolo?

Piccolo: Yeah. Why do you care?

Gatoris: It’s me, Gatoris. I need you to help me out with something.

Piccolo: Fire away.

Gatoris: Aerith’s been kidnapped, but I do not have enough manpower to get her back. You game?

Piccolo: Like I have anything better to do. * Sound of checkers hitting a board *

Dendae * In Background * : You need to practice, Piccolo.

Gatoris: Get here as soon as you can! Please!

* Piccolo hangs up before Gatoris can finish *

* It’s over. Happy? *

About two minutes later, Goku and Gohan show up. Followed by Piccolo, and bringing up the rear was a shaky Vegeta. "All right," Gatoris stated, "We’re all here. Let’s go over the plan. The portal will take us to the entrance of Elmdor’s castle. You guys," pointing to the saijiyans and Namek, "shall secure the perimeter. You," gesturing to Cloud and the bunch, "shall help me storm the castle. Once we are in, I’ll get Elmdor myself." Vegeta laughed. "That plan’s suicidal! You’ll be lucky to run into just Warmech!" Gatoris gave him a stern look, and opened up his hand. Vegeta immediately ducked under the table. "Are we agreed on the plan?" There were no objections. The party jumped through the portal, one at a time. Gatoris entered last. No one saw the figure behind them that grabbed the bloody hunk of sword.

After a short battle, Goku, Gohan, Vegeta, and Piccolo had easily thwarted Elmdor’s outlying defenses. When the rest of the party entered the castle, they were greeted by Elmdor himself. "My, my, Gatoris! Don’t you know how to knock?" Gatoris retorted mockingly "Don’t you know it is not polite to kidnap a woman?" Elmdor looked calm and collected. "I guess you are here so your left side of your face to match the right. Too bad. It seems I broke the sword on something." Gatoris held up his glasses. "You mean these?" He was growing impatient. "Dammit Elmdor, let’s fight it out here to see who takes Aerith home!" Elmdor drew his sword. "You came unprepared, I see." "Not quite," Gatoris quipped. He opened his hand, and the Holy Masamune materialized in his fist. "To the death, Elmdor!"

Meanwhile, Vormav was guarding Aerith. Seeing how he wasn’t undead, he was hungry. Aerith sensed this and came up with a plan. "Hey! You hungry?" Vormav looked up. "Well, untie me and I’ll cook you a feast!" Vormav, being the idiot he is, thought this was a good idea. He then conjured up a stove, and asked Aerith to make a soufflé. What a dolt, she thought. He deserves what’s going to happen. She whipped up the ingredients, and began to bake them. When it came time to pull it out, that’s where it all went bad for Vormav.

Gatoris heard an explosion from the basement. A faint smile came to his face. Elmdor was growing impatient. "What? Are you happy that you’re about to die?" Gatoris was coy. "No. You’ll see what’s going on." All of a sudden, Vormav bursts into the room, food all over his face. "Master! Master! She’s escaped!" Gatoris’ smile broadened. Vormav tried to explained himself. "I was hungry, so I figured she could fix me something to eat..." Elmdor whapped him in the face with his hand. "Fool! I told you she CAN’T COOK!" Gatoris used this distraction to his advantage. He charged Elmdor while he was occupied, and cleaved him in half. The problem with this attack was it didn’t kill Elmdor. He had seen better days, though. "I’ll get you for this, Tonberry!" were his last words before vanishing. Vormav followed. Aerith then ran into the room. Gatoris got on his knee, and waited for her to get there. She then kissed him on the forehead and thanked him for coming to save her. "I... I’m sorry." Gatoris said, holding back tears. "I failed you. I left you vulnerable. I failed my job." He laid his sword on the ground and walked away solemnly. "Wait!" Aerith yelled at the top of her lungs. "You did not fail! You didn’t give up when they took me. You came to rescue me, so you did your job. You can’t always watch me. In those cases, you only fail if you do nothing." Gatoris pondered these words for a while. Suddenly, he heard a voice echo in his head: "Show Aerith how you feel ... Show her you care for her!" It was then Gatoris realized his dream. He was given a chance to do what was right, and what was right was to keep Aerith alive and happy. He turned to face her, and his tears dried up. "You are right," Gatoris began. "I came to save you. I did not fail you. You are still alive, and I did my job." Aerith ran to hug him. "Let’s go home." she whispered in his ear. "It’s been a long morning. Why don’t we go home, and I’ll cook breakfast..." Gatoris stopped her there. "Uhh... let’s leave the cooking to the tonberries. I want to keep you alive, thank you." Oddly, Aerith wasn’t insulted by his remark. Without another word being spoken, all the heroes went home.

Later in the day, Gatoris and Aerith were eating lunch on a hill overlooking the ocean. She had finally noticed the wound on her bodyguard’s face. "How did that happen?" she wondered, pointing on the now-scarring gash. "Oh, it’s nothing. Elmdor did it to me before he took you." That must of hurt, she thought. "No, I didn’t feel it, believe it or not. I was more focused on getting you back." "You did not have to put yourself through that pain for me..." Aerith said. "I realize that," Gatoris stated, "but no one is hurting you on my watch!" Aerith was awestruck. Only one other person would have gone to those lengths to protect her. She unexpectedly hugged Gatoris, then she went to kiss him. He began to squirm away, though. Aerith was puzzled. "I... I can’t do it, Aerith. I just can’t..." What she said next surprised Gatoris: "It’s Angelina, isn’t it? You got to let go. You said it yourself: Inter-dimensional relationships can’t work." "How did you know... Ifalna, right?" Gatoris asked. "I should have known! She’s trying to play matchmaker. I have one thing to say about that..." He paused for a moment, and looked into Aerith’s blue-green eyes. They seemed to be glowing with the light of the sun itself. "... she can take a break. We got enough of a head-start." He then looked at his sandwich. "Wait a minute... I distinctly remember telling the tonberries to make CHICKEN sandwiches!" Aerith blushed. "You did, but I had another idea. I decided to cook hamburgers." Gatoris trembled. "Is the kitchen intact?" Anyone else would have been offended by a similar remark, but not Aerith. "Of course it is, silly! Otherwise, we wouldn’t be here!" Gatoris then kissed her. They kept hugging until sunset.

When they got home, it was rather late. They both rolled into the sack and nodded off. Gatoris had another odd dream. It was similar to the last dream, but he was alone. He also had an armful of flowers. He put some on Jason’s grave, and then looked at his own grave. He pondered it for a moment, but decided not to put them on his grave. He instead put them on Angelina’s, although she was alive. Ifalna appeared. "That was unexpected. I figured you’d put at least one on yours." "I didn’t want to seem vain," Gatoris decreed. "Besides, a beautiful lady always deserves flowers. It’s also my parting gift to her." Ifalna began to understand. "Not to worry, you will see her soon." Gatoris got such a puzzled look on his face, it’s impossible to describe. "All will be revealed soon. In the meantime, watch out for Hojo." Gatoris’ face got worse. "You mean that nut’s still alive?" "Yes," she replied, "and he’s up to old tricks. You will have new enemies soon..." With that Gatoris woke up. He wasn’t worried though. He was happy for the first time in years. He had a new love, and a new purpose. (Not to mention a new facial feature. That gash scarred up rather fast.) He’d take what the day gave him, good or bad. Unluckily for him, it was going to be rather bad.