Timing: After the game and before Advent Children – Sephiroth is defeated and Rufus is supposedly killed.

Pairings are mainly SephirothCloud and RufusReno, meaning Yaoi, so if you are homophobic I politely ask you to leave now.

SUMMARY: After the game, Reno and Cloud silently grieve for the death of their lovers. Due to (at the moment) unclear circumstances the two of them fell into the Lifestream, and are taken into another world. In the new world, Sephiroth and Rufus are still alive and perfectly sane. To Reno and Cloud, this is their second chance. To Rufus and Sephiroth, Reno and Cloud are new rebels whose power demands them to be killed or recruited to ShinRa's side.

"For far too long you have been obeying my old man, his ideas and methods are out of date. It is time for the old to fall, and the new to rise. In the past, all we had to do was give certain people money to keep the peace. All we had to do was threaten to send in the army and the people will be too afraid to do anything." The blonde turned to look at the assembled group "This is no longer the case; there are rebels and terrorists everywhere now. I intend to fix all this" Rufus ShinRa's voice turned cold, filling up the entire room "and I plan to start now."

Unbeknownst to him and the rest of those in ShinRa itself, another group was approaching. They wore the clothing of a low class soldier grunt, and unknown to the naked eye each member had an explosive hidden on them. They walked down a corridor, heading for another room that also contained a ShinRa – The president himself with several of his Turks.

"Those rebels and terrorists are getting bolder and bolder, they may think what they're doing benefits the people, but that is wrong. Exactly how does blowing up places or starting gunfights help the people? If anything, it makes their situation worst. All they accomplish is killing numerous average, normal people just doing their job here."

Not far off, a few patrolling SOLDIER members nodded briefly to the approaching group. The Soldiers were about to move on, but without warning the approaching group seized them by the throats. Several twists and the Soldiers dropped to the floor silently, dead.

"They must realize that no longer is force the only way to solve a problem. I too, would no longer tolerate their opposition. From now on, we are to show and remind the people on a daily basis what we are capable of. With the way my old man rules, sooner or later the terrorists are going to come knocking at our door."

Two members of the same group arrived to the president's room and saluted the guarding SOLDIERS, who returned the gesture before stepping away. Once they were gone, the SOLDIER replacements, actually Rebels in disguise, started setting up dynamite and other explosives. Nearby, the rest of the group did the same throughout the area. It took only a few seconds before everything was set and the 'okay' signals were passed along. Their temporally leader, a man with dark hair by the name of Ben and one of the two 'guarding' the President's room, gave the same signal. The rebels disappeared, and not long after the doors they were guarding opened. President ShinRa, along with a group of men and a few Turks, walked out. Ben and his partner subtly lowered his head as they passed, listening to their footsteps and mentally counting the seconds; three….two….one.

Rufus was about to continue his speech when he heard a loud explosion nearby. The Turks sprang to their feet and drew out the weapons. A few surrounded him, protecting him from any attacks; while another threw the door open. Smoke drifted in quickly as several more explosions went off. Rufus' eyes narrowed, the terrorists really had crossed the line. Ignoring Tseng's warning shout, he drew out his gun and dashed out of the room.

The rebels were dismayed when they saw that the explosion had only taken two Turks out, one of which remained alive and even shouted "protect the president!" At this rate, their explosions would be wasted. They rushed forward, shoving the President's group closer to the fire. This only resulted in the group turning around and fighting them. A few physical attacks were exchanged before the gunshots began – two of the 'ShinRa dogs' apparently had guns and were firing at the rebels. In response, the rebels either started fighting back or tried to flee. In the chaos that followed, it only escalated higher when Rufus appeared, firing several shots to the rebels; Ben knew it was almost over. He pressed down the button on the small device he held in his hand.

An even bigger explosion came up, causing more smoke to rise. The fighting momentarily ceased and Ben ordered his companions to leave. Almost as soon as he said that, he felt a bullet pierce through his skin, and looking up he saw the Vice-President staring smugly at him. Ben knew it was over when he felt several more bullets pierce through his skin. At the corner of his eyes he saw a Turk helping the President escape, so the plan had failed. He wondered whether the other rebels managed to escape. The Vice-President moved forward towards him, gun still pointed.

Rufus was about to pull the trigger when several bullets flew towards him. The first one knocked the gun out of his, the second pierced through his hand. He let out a yell of outrage, and he cradled his bloodied hand. No one had ever seen him bleed before, no one. Rufus looked back up, and saw the terrorist he had shot at was dead. Yet his partner knelt down and half dragged, half carried the body out. Before disappearing into the smoke the terrorist raised his eyes up to the president. Rufus caught a glimpse of turquoise eyes that carried a tint of Mako in them, the face otherwise covered by a piece of cloth, before the terrorist and the body disappeared.

The Vice President knew it wasn't over; he turned and ran out of the corridor as fast as he could. Barely a few seconds later, another explosion happened behind him. It triggered several more, creating a small series of them, and practically chased anyone who could still run out.

xXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXx

'I bet none of them felt anything at all.'

At a quick glance, the middle-aged man and woman sitting on the worn couch would appear to be sleeping. No scars marked their faces, nor were there any blood splatters. No evidence at all of being tied, beaten, or tortured. There was no sign of a struggle or even a break in. A coffee table in front of them still carried two cups of tea, unfinished. The television in front of them was still on, the person talking about local news that did not concern him.

He moved back to another room, this time smaller than the first. Two little girls lay on their beds, sleeping by all appearances. Yet, they didn't stir even as a nearby man opened their drawers and peered through the contents. No mark or sign of a break in the room either; the window, half covered by stickers, was still locked. Unconsciously he reached out and touched one of the girls' forehead, it was cold; dead, and lifeless. He couldn't tell how long she had been that way. Her face, like the rest of the family, showed no signs of pain or struggle.

"Hey, leave the body as it is, you don't want your DNA over it and then face charges about being the murderer." The nearby man said. The hand was quickly withdrawn, and the owner took a few steps back. He considered checking on the son, but already knew what he would see. Perhaps the boy would also be in his bed, sleeping in another undisturbed room, except it would be a sleep he would never wake up from, and the room would have no doubt been disturbed by someone who knew how to leave no trace of it.

A father, a mother, two little girls and an even younger son; all murdered in their sleep by a murderer who left no evidence behind him. Hopefully the forensics would be able to find something, because at this rate they would have no clue where to start looking for the murderer.

Not that the higher ups would care, they'll just yell at them to go find the killer and while they're at it, figure out how the murderer managed to do this without leaving any trace. If the killer was really as great as the rumors were starting to say he/she was, they must be disposed of; or recruited to ShinRa's side, as the vice-president had said.

'Not likely, if the victims are all related to ShinRa.'

He needed some fresh air, or at least air as fresh as you can get around here. Turning, he moved quickly out of the room. A few men glanced at him as he stepped past, probably wondering where the joker in him was. It was common belief he was a light hearted joker and never got down. Common belief can also be unreliable.

'Besides', he thought, 'Who could be happy when they know that there's a murderer on the loose who could break in and kill without leaving a trace?'

Outside, he let out a long sigh. He didn't know much about the family, but the husband had once been a SOLDIER trainer. It was an odd selection for the rapidly growing-infamous graceful killer. Before this family, there had been that couple who were killed in a similar fashion, and the two had been ShinRa scientists. Before that couple, it was another family of a rather old couple living with their son and his wife – all of them ShinRa employers and all killed in their sleep. Zack didn't miss them; they were well known self-absorbed people who wouldn't care for those 'beneath their level'. He was pretty sure the people living below the plates would be celebrating by now.

So the murdered victims were all heartless people, that still didn't make it justified that they were being killed off. Heartless or not, when you kill people without a declaration of war, it was murder. He knew it was hypocritical of him, since he too was killing off people that really sometimes were not even a threat to ShinRa. He winced; they were getting a taste of their own medicine, weren't they? Normally it was the Turks who dealt with such matters, but Sephiroth was starting to become interested, so ShinRa simply allowed them access. Of course, as Sephiroth's self-proclaimed best friend, Zack had to tag along.

'A lot of good it really did', Zack thought. 'Nor have we gotten the reports yet, the murders happen so quickly that the forensics still haven't had time to thoroughly examine each body and their crime scene.'

As if on cue, a man appeared and approached him. The clothing identified him as one of the forensics, and Zack expected the man to walk pass him. However, the man stopped in front of him and spoke "Mr. Knightblade?"

Zack nodded, and the man continued "I am Jonathon Frostpine, forensics, you might want to look at this." The man handed him a folder, and Zack skimmed through the contents quickly. A majority of the words flew past him, but he got the general idea.

"Electric shocks?"

"It explains the lack of obvious bruising, all of them to some degree or another came in contact with an electric device. Some of the victims already had problems that would have contributed to their death – cardiovascular conditions or some type of drug, most likely medicine. As for the scene itself, we still haven't found anything that could tell us how the murderer got in, but because of this we can consider the possibility that the murderer was let in or had a key to the house. Meaning it could be somebody the victims knew, or they were good enough to steal the key, run a copy, return it before it could be reported missing, and then break in."

"Probably the latter, with regards to the ShinRa break-in" a terrorist group recently had tried making fake IDs and other keycards to get into the ShinRa building. Though they did not succeed in killing the President, the damages done were high. At least some of the terrorists were killed, he was pretty sure that Cornson played a role in shooting several of them….

"Cornson" He suddenly said, Jonathon blinked.

"Excuse me?"

"Cornson" Zack repeated, he jerked a thumb back towards the house. Jonathon nodded, the dead family inside were the Cornsons. Zack then pointed to the doorknob "You said yourself that that they might have broken in by getting a copy of the key first. The last time this happened was during that ShinRa break-in, when you think about it, the incident isn't even a week ago. Cornson and Danfork were the only two who managed to injure the terrorists." Realization was starting to draw on Jonathon's face "The victims so far were all active ShinRa members, the Cornson family were not. Though we have no real proof yet, it appears as if our killer works closely with the terrorist group, probably a new member."

"So Somnus (1) is actually another terrorist?"

"Just a guess at the moment, we'll have to look further into it"

"Hold on a minute, if Cornson was killed because of some revenge plot, shouldn't Danfork…"

"Oh shoot!" Zack came very close to swearing, but Zack being Zack decided against it. He turned around, about to start dashing to his car while probably calling for someone to check on the Danfork family, but his cell phone beat him to it. He picked up hastily "Hello?" He listened for only a few seconds before his shoulders slumped. He hung up and turned to Jonathon, giving the man a bitter smile.

"Too late, the Danfork family are also dead; Somnus got there quicker then we could."

xXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXx

Loud cheers and applause filled the room the moment he walked in. The boy, actually a young man with too much experience, couldn't help feeling a tiny part of him scream in anger and disgust. Yet the rest of him accepted the applause easily, pleased at his success and the fame it brought him. To him, it was simply another job well done. He better get a good paycheck on this.

"You did it!" A man shouted. "You actually did it! You've avenged our comrades!"

"ShinRa isn't so mighty now!" A girl shouted "You've shown them what we're capable of!"

"You should have heard the rumors spreading nowadays! The people are crazy about you! It's a pity we have to keep your identity secret from the public still, here you are as Somnus, but to the outside you're still our sex symbol! Rwrrroow, go you sexy beast! Ow, ow, ow, that hurts!" Laughter erupted around the room as the speaker found himself caught in a headlock.

"It's true though!" Another person shouted "you should have heard them! They were guessing what you were like, and descriptions went from you being some steroid taking muscular man to a really old guy with powerful magic. Since your gender is still undefined to the media, some people are hoping for some chick dressed in tight black leather. I swear, none of the rumors come close to who you really are!"

"Want to go out for a drink?" One of the more senior members shouted over the noise "My treat!"

"It's not like we'll look suspicious anyways! Not just us who would celebrate! Join the masses!"

The chatter died down as Somnus raised his hand, no doubt about to speak. The silence was almost immediate, the people knew to listen.

"I'll love to celebrate, yo" he smirked "however, I have something to do first, so I would be joining all of you later"

"Cheking oz da cute one an I cant beath!"

"Yo, sorry" Reno let go of the man and gave him a pat on the back, looking nowhere sorry. He turned his attention back to the crowd "Yes, I am going to drop by my friend's place first. I have to see how he is doing, after all."

"Loyal, my boy, loyal" one of the older men said with a smile "Ever since your arrival, we all thought it was for the money, but you've proven us wrong."

"Hum-hum" Reno slipped gracefully to another man. The man had dark hair with a tint of green and sharp, blue eyes. Reno didn't stop to gaze at the wheelchair the man sat on. He simply went behind the seated man and draped his arms around the man's neck "Yo, Orion"

The man let out a laugh, and reached inside his jacket. He pulled out an envelope and Reno took it gracefully, looking through the contents with his arms still around the man's neck. Straight cash, and in the exact amount, that was the condition Reno set for his jobs. Orion, the leader of the group and the one who gave him the money, always followed it willingly. After counting the cash and seeing that it was, once again, the right amount Reno smiled and pulled back.

"Thanks, yo"

"And Reno…" The redhead, nicknamed as Somnus, stopped his departure from the room and turned around. Orion stared at him and continued "If you wish, you could just tell us and we'll have your friend here in no…"

"No thanks, yo, I know him well enough; he wouldn't like waking up anywhere else but among those flowers." Reno gave one of his waves to the man as he walked away "Ta-ta, boss. I'll see you later at the bar."

"Seventh Heaven then?" One of the men shouted.

"Of course!" Reno called back, and he heard the laughter start again, accompanied by jokes being passed along that he must be watching that bartender again. Reno would stay back, thank you very much, Tifa knew how to throw a punch in one world, and most likely she would in this one too. Chuckling, he stepped out the building and into the streets, where he began walking towards his destination. His thoughts took a turn to his dilemma, to what had happened for these past few days. Even now he found it hard to believe, but reality was always there, reminding him he wasn't playing the role of a ShinRa Turk anymore. His former training still lingered on him, because it took only a few seconds for him to know he was being followed.

What a nuisance.

Reno quickened his footsteps, tucking the envelope into his jacket more carefully. Judging by what he was hearing, there seemed to be two of them. If this was more elite, they would actually have another watching him somewhere far off, but Reno wasn't going to underestimate his pursuers. He walked even faster, and heard his pursuers do the same. Those idiots, they could have at least tried to minimize the volume of their footsteps. Someone like Reno knew when he was being followed, especially when his pursuer no doubt had no training on the art of stalking. The redhead turned a corner and stopped, damn, it was a dead end. Reno wasn't worried the slightest, he waited till the men came in, and spoke without turning around.

"Yo, are you punks looking for trouble?" He asked without turning around. "Coming back down from the plates to visit a friend, and you want to deny me of it?" He heard the men spring into action, and even before they came close to him Reno had his knives out and ready. Just as one of them came close to him, Reno whipped around and brought a knife down.

The fight lasted only for a few seconds. There had actually been three men, one who was supposed to stay behind and watch. In those few seconds, two of them were lying with a slit throat and the third was cowering against the wall as Reno approached him with a bloody knife. The blade pressed against the stranger's neck and Reno spoke "So, who sent you?" The boy was shaking terribly; Reno frowned and pressed the blade deeper.

"No one!" He blurted out "no one! We were just looking for food, sir!"

"….a thief?" Reno stared at the boy for a few seconds and saw the panic and fear, too much for somebody who had even the slightest training in some rebel group. He studied the boy closely and finally pulled the knife back, but he remained standing in his spot. "Would there be more of you that I have to deal with?"

"Damn right you do!" A voice shouted from behind, and without warning something struck him. Reno hissed and turned to see a man, much bigger then him, struck again with a baseball bat. The knife in Reno's left hand was dropped when that bat hit him there, and Reno jumped out of the way to avoid the next blow on his right. The man let out a growl as he raised the bat again and took several swings, all of which missed their target. But suddenly the swings ceased and he froze, then he slumped forward to the redhead, who quickly scrambled out of the way. Reno stood up, a metallic rod now in his left hand. A weapon he tried limiting the use of; his Electro-Mag.

Ignoring the thief, Reno kicked the man over and checked his pulse: alive. In his mind, he calculated the pros and cons of sparing the man's life, but already he could see the cons outweighed the pros; especially since the last thing he needed was the rumors of his obviously-high-technology-maybe-ShinRa weapon to spread, it would blow his cover. Reno picked up the discarded knife.

He left the scene with four bodies behind him.

xXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXx

The air had that slight difference of freshness around here. Despite all the pollution they were surrounded by, there was something soothing here. The few times he came in here, he was usually hostile, but no longer. Reno pushed the door opened and walked into the room, careful that his feet did not step on the flowers. The sweet smelling air wasn't overpowering, but pleasant. Arriving to the centre of the room, he spoke "how is he?"

A kneeling figure with long brown hair turned to look at him. Green eyes the color of spring regarded him with a soft smile. Ribbons of pink wound around her hair, fitting with her long pink dress. The young woman answered "he should be close to recovering by now; there should be nothing wrong with him, any moment we can expect him to wake."

Reno settled on one of the empty benches at the side. At this distance he could see the figure almost hidden by the flowers. The figure lay on his back on the soft earth, surrounded by flowers and their sweet scent. The hands lay clasped over his stomach, and the eyes remained closed. Spiky blond hair spread around his head like some sort of halo, except it was jagged and sharp. At least he no longer looked as pale as before, Reno couldn't help feeling a wave of relief. By appearances, at least the motionless form now looked better then before. Allowing something close to a smile grace his face, he reached inside his jacket and pulled out the envelope he had gotten earlier. Taking out some of the cash, he walked over to the Ancient and handed it to her "here, thanks for watching him for me."

"Oh no, if this is what the planet wants, I can't make you pay for it."

"It'll make me feel better, besides, where can you go without some cash? Take it. In the meantime, let me speak to the ancients." He stared hard at her, and he noticed the subtle change. The green eyes lost their sparkle and instead were replaced by an ageless wisdom and power. When the Ancient spoke again, it was in a different, older voice.

"Calling us, so soon already?"

"Yo, why is Cloud still like this? As for your comment about soon, it's almost two weeks already."

"A year for you humans is but mere days to us" The voice answered through Aerith. "Those under are but mere hours, as for your companion" A delicate hand lightly brushed over Cloud's forehead "He is alive, and he will recover. When he does, he will wake and join this world."

"That is, if he could survive the shock of actually coming here" Reno pointed out. "It was an accident, yo, he and I fell into the Lifestream, and you think it's funny to throw us into another world? The timing is going to kill him, at this time our crazy general is not only alive but a sane man. To wake up and know he has to kill his former lover again, this time not because the man's crazy but because he has to die before he becomes crazy, might just be the thing to break him. I nearly died of shock when I saw the people worshipping Sephiroth and the man is still alive."

"As is the one person you ever thought you loved. Rufus ShinRa is alive too, is this not another chance for you as well? Don't look at us like that, you miss him as well. Do not think your true feelings are hidden, the Lifestream hears your grief as well as it hears your friend's" A gesture made to the sleeping – Reno believed him sleeping and not dead or something as serious – form beside her. "This is another chance for you, for him, for the fire that died in both of you to ignite once more."

"Already I've damned him, yo" Reno answered. "Because I needed money to keep us alive, I took up jobs from those terrorists, and while none of those in ShinRa know my face, sooner or later they'll catch on. Somnus is infamous enough, once they find out who I am, my face would be known everywhere and all of ShinRa forces, SOLDIER and Turk alike, would start hunting for me. When that happens, Cloud would probably interfere and try to help, soon he'll become involved. Considering his skills, he'll be just as infamous as I would soon become."

"A reversed position for you now, is it not?"

"What do you mean?"

"Prehaps it is time, for you to learn about the other side and how they operate, along with what truely motivates them. You once thought that the terrorists were to blame in getting your first lover so distracted from you, and to some degree it was the same with Rufus. Now, you would be at the receiving end of their obession, and no longer can you blame them for causing trouble because you are now part of it."

(1) Somnus is actually the Roman Personification of Sleep. In mythology his twin brother is Mors, Personification of Death. One can see the connection here, with the murderer giving them death while they sleep.

To readers of my Kingdom Hearts fic This Vampire's Addiction. I have a bit of Writer's Block so I just decided to try writing something else. Have no fear, I will continue that story soon! The Orion here is not related in any way to the Orion in Addiction, these two stories are completely different, I simply like using the name.

To new readers, thanks for reading this far! So what do you think? Was it exciting or boring? Any suggestions or questions? Leave your comments in your review! Sephiroth and Cloud will join us pretty soon, but that depends on the number of reviews I get