Chapter One

Curiosity

A man stood by a lake with waters that shone colors of pure sapphire and deep azure. Surrounding him were trees of ivory. Along with the surroundings were the sounds of a peaceful night. It was a beautiful sight, indeed. The man smiled as he simply stood by the edge of the vast lake, enjoying the view of the Forgotten City

This particular man was tall for his age. He dressed in pure black clothes that consisted of buckles and straps. His hair was blonde and spiked up in a naturally unique way. He was also young, and in his early twenties. His eyes only held a bright aquamarine shade, brighter than usual.

Still, he was alone in these woods. The only thing other than himself and the simple surroundings of the Forgotten City was his onyx motorcycle parked nearby only a few feet away. Nothing else was near. At least, that's what it seemed.

Suddenly, a deep aura filled the atmosphere. It was such a negative one, such that brought chills beneath the man's flesh. Memories started to come back to him of this type of feeling. It was all too familiar.

'No…no' He thought. 'I finished him…he's not here' He simply consoled himself. He was referring to someone else whom he despised for many reasons. It was only two weeks after the defeat of him. 'There's no way' He kept thinking.

"You're wrong, Cloud." A deep voice answered. The man turned to the direction of where it was heard, drawing out his sword. This was ridiculous. He couldn't come again. Not now. It was already settled.

The man narrowed his eyes, ready for a fight, "I thought I finished you off before. You're not back already."

The voice merely chuckled, "Is that really what you think? I promised you before…and I still promise now: I will never be just a memory."

Suddenly, the man was brought to his knees. A shocking feeling shot through him. Images flashed through his mind rapidly. He grunted at the pain he also felt jolt from his left arm. "No…" He muttered.

A dark figure rose from the depths of the water. He had long, silver hair that ran down his back. His clothes were black and made of leather. His facial features looked much older. In his hand, he held a long katana sword that reached the length of about six feet. His lips curled to a smirk. "Well, it won't matter how much to deny this. I am alive, Cloud. Maybe not as alive as before, but I have just enough power now to finish the task I've been meaning to do." Before there were any more words spoken, he slashed at the man with one quick movement.

Cloud Strife awoke with a gasp. He looked around at his surroundings, his breath extremely uneven. He sighed. He was only in his room after all. Looking to his side, he noticed the other bed where Tifa Lockhart, his close friend, was simply in a deep trance of sleep.

Reluctantly, he found himself getting out of his bed and stumbling over into the hallway, where he made his way downstairs to the bar. It was barren of course, for no one would be up at this hour. He didn't turn the light on, just placed both shaking hands on the sink. Meko blue eyes stared into the drain, trying to pushed the memories out of his mind.
'It was a dream… a dream… nothing more, Strife…' He thought, though that didn't work. Bright aqua eyes were still looking at him with that bloodlust, that smirk was still on his face…
The male left out a gasp and quickly turned the water on, cupping his hands to capture the cold liquid. He tossed it into his face, repeating the process until even his bangs were soaked. He gripped the counter once more, a sigh escaping his lips.
Cloud's eyes wondered over to a clock. Three ten. It was too early, much too early. He should go back to sleep, forget the dream ever happened.
One shake of the head sent water droplets all over the kitchen, but the male showed no sign of caring. He forced his legs to move up the stairs, and back to his bed. As soon as his head was down on his pillow, he suddenly heard some sort of shuffling nearby.

Out of shock, he sat up quickly. Looking over at Tifa, he noticed she was asleep quite peacefully without any trouble at all. At the moment, he envied her, but reluctantly got out of his bed again and made his way over to where he heard the noise.

Apparently, the sound was out of the room. Cloud made his way through the hallway, listening closely to the constant sound of some sort of movement around. He paused in his footsteps and narrowed his eyes, listening closely. He felt paranoid without a doubt, but with such a dream, could he be blamed for such a thing?

Then, a familiar voice was heard. It was a grunt, but the voice was much like a young boy. Alas, he knew, it was Denzel. Something was probably wrong with him. Sighing from his own foolishness, he walked straight in the direction of the young boy's room. He stopped in front of the door to listen closely. It sounded like he was tossing and turning about, and when he opened the door, he was right.

Denzel was appearing to be having a bad dream as well. Quite a bad dream it was from the appearance of the boy. His forehead was beginning to soak his hair with sweat, while it appeared that both his fists and teeth were clenched. He also started mumbling, but couldn't quite understand it.

Cloud sighed. He made his way over to the boy and kneeled at his bedside, about to put a hand over him to shake him awake, but then the mumbling came clear again.

"I'm…not…weak!"

Cloud was puzzled by those words, but still listened closely.

"I-I…can stop…y-you…just…like…he can…"

Again, Cloud was confused of those words.

"D-don't laugh! I…c-can defeat…you…"

'Don't laugh'? At first, it didn't make sense, but Cloud thought a bit more about those words. Then, his own teeth clenched, "Sephiroth…" He muttered.

Quickly, he shook the boy awake. He made sure not to shake him too roughly. Denzel gasped awake and jerked himself up to a sitting position. Cloud moved closer and put an arm around his shoulder with his other hand holding him steadily. The boy was breathing so unevenly and his balance was weak.

"Denzel…" Cloud spoke softly, being careful not to startle him too much, or wake the others in the building.

The boy's breath started to get more even, and slowly he turned his head to Cloud. His eyes were weary and his face was flushed. He looked quite pitiful.

After a little gulp, Denzel found words to speak,

"C-Cloud…what's happening?"

Cloud held him a little tighter and kept his tone as calm as he could. "It's only a dream, Denzel. Calm down." He put a hand to Denzel's forehead. It was warm.

"You have a fever." He said. Standing up, he kept his hold on the boy, guiding him out of bed, "Come downstairs and rest there a bit. You've had too much of a bad dream."

Denzel nodded and simply followed the man down to the bar on the first floor. It was none other than the bar that Tifa owned. When not in use, it was useful for storing medicine, food, or other materials needed. Cloud sat Denzel down on a bar stool and started to soak a cloth with cold water.

Cloud closed his eyes for a moment, "Denzel, I know that dream must have been a frightening experience, but I need you to tell me what happened."

Denzel rested his arms on the counter in front of him. He still breathed a bit unevenly, but he gasped a few words, "I…don't remember all of it…"

Cloud nodded his head, "Alright. Here, then." He handed Denzel the cloth, which had a layer of ice in-between the folds of it. The boy took it and held it to his forehead, cooling the fever down just a bit.

As Cloud prepared a cup of warm medicine, he continued to talk with Denzel. "Do you remember some parts of it? Was there a particular place you were in?"

Denzel still held the cloth to his head and thought through, remembering his dream a bit. Then, he suddenly had an answer. "I was in this church…there was a broken roof. I remember seeing flowers there too, all in a little field …below the spots of the building with no roof."

Cloud raised his eyebrows, "What color were the flowers?"

Denzel's eyes looked up at the man, "I think they were…yellow…and white."

The man finally finished preparing the concoction and handed it to Denzel, "Drink this. It'll help. It might be a little bit sour though."

Denzel took a sip of the medicine and grimaced, "I can tell…" A small smile formed on his lips. "But thank you."

Cloud's heart was warmed by that smile, yet he still needed to know more about that dream. He knew the place described to him was Aeris's Church. "Did you see anyone that you recognize in your dream?"

Denzel took another sip of the drink. His voice started to become whole again, "Yeah…I did."

Cloud nodded, "Who was it?"

Denzel was frozen for what seemed like too long, but the words escaped his lips, "Sephiroth."

The ex-SOLDIER stiffened, his breathing stopped, and all his organs seemed to stand still as the boy said the man's name.

There were numerous things he wanted to do at that point. None of them were helpful. But the state of utter panic is fragile to the emotions of the heart…and so actions always take place almost at once.

Yet Cloud took another sigh and did his best to keep his facial expression calm, though it was difficult.

"Did he do anything particular?" He asked him.

Denzel went silent for a moment, but said, "Well, I know that he appeared out of nowhere. Before that, I felt some sort of sensation like darkness came over me. Also, I felt my forehead start hurting. Then, I remember arguing with him because he wouldn't stop calling me weak." He paused to unclench his tight fists.

Cloud kept his gaze on the boy, "What else?"

Denzel took another sip and continued, "I continued arguing with him. Then, he attacked me." His eyes looked up at the ex-SOLDIER. "Then I woke up."

Cloud's eyes drifted away. This was getting scary. First, he had a dream so similar, almost too similar. The only differences were Denzel's reaction and the environment. He suddenly felt suspicious if possibly…no. It can't be. His eyes looked back to the boy, who gulped the rest of the medicine down without much satisfaction of the taste.

After a few moments, he finally spoke again, "Well, how do you feel?" he asked Denzel.

The boy replied, "A bit drowsy now, but alright."

Cloud smiled slightly, "That's good. Well, let's forget about this for now. Just get some rest. Okay?" He suggested.

Denzel nodded, "Okay, Cloud."

Together, they walked upstairs and parted ways back to their beds, where they spent the rest of the little time they had of the early morning having dreamless slumber.

"Cloud, wake up." Tifa said, shaking him slightly. It was not too early in the morning, but quite late for the man. The sun's rays were blazing through the shades on the windows, where Tifa walked over to and opened, filling the room with complete light.

Cloud squinted his eyes and turned to his other side away from the windows, but that didn't seem to improve on anything as soon as Tifa opened the shades on the other side of the room as well.

"Now's not the time, Cloud." Tifa said with an annoyed tone. "I don't mean to nag, but it's about nine-thirty right now. We're going to have to open the bar soon and you're still in bed. Not to mention we have delivery orders!"

Still, the man simply grunted and sat himself to a sitting position. He didn't really sleep that well during some of the night, and he was by far not ready for the morning. He knew, though, that work had to be done. Either that, or risk being attacked by his friend.

"Jeez…" Tifa said, shaking her head, "What the hell is with you?" She felt a little irritated. With much to be done on the simple Monday morning, she noticed he was quite different. It was almost like he was sick. Yet, from the looks of it, he was fine. There was no sign of any type of sickness on him. She knew though, something was up.

Cloud yawned, and started waking up a bit, then remembering the early incident, he thought for a moment. Again, he was still. But after a moment, he replied, "Just…something weird…strange…last night." He wasn't completely awake yet.

Tifa was obviously confused. Something was definitely wrong, now. "Cloud…" She spoke softly, coming near his side, "Cloud, get yourself together, now. What's going on? What happened last night?"

After being quiet for a moment, the male just looked up at her. "Nothing. I didn't get to sleep until early mourning. That's all."

It wasn't the best answer, but Tifa knew he wasn't going to tell her anything else. So she turned from the room.

The ex-solider watched the female leave the room, then sighed and forced himself to get up. He knew he should have told her about Sephiroth but to weigh her down with his problems…. No, he wouldn't do that. Now, it was time to start the day.