This was one long walk. I mean, sure I've done it time and time again, but for some reason it seemed longer. I remember when I first moved to this tiny town. I thought 'what the hell is here?' if I knew then what I know now, I would have never, ever asked that. My name is Zach, and I live in a small town named Rochester. It's a one stop light town, with a grocery store, gas station, and a ity bity library. I was heading home from said library, walking the back road to my house.

There hadn't been any cars passing me for a few minutes now, and even that one car that DID pass, was a shock. The road wasn't often used, and so the occasional car was interesting. I had gone to the library today to see if a book I had placed on hold had shown up, it hadn't, so I left early. I scuffed my black boots on the pavement, my baggy blue-jeans slightly dragging on the ground. The chain my wallet was attached to clinked with every step. I wore a simple black short sleeve shirt, with a magnet chain around my neck. My bleached blond Mohawk wasn't spiked today, so part of it covered my eyes. My blood red eyes were transfixed with the ground, watching every passing rock with semi-interest.

Lost in thought about what kind of hell work had in store for me tomorrow, I didn't hear the car coming, even though, now that I can look back, the damn thing was so loud, I'm shocked that I DIDN'T hear it. So, minding my own business, I get creamed by a Chevy truck! I get knocked into the ditch, it happened so fast, I didn't feel a thing, and I thank god that I couldn't feel the pain. My eyebrows scrunched together, I could see my legs, but it seemed that my waist was not pointing in the right direction. Blood was spewing out of multiple cuts and gouges in my arms, legs and chest. I looked back down the road, and the last thing I saw before slipping into unconsciousness was the disappearing tail lights of the truck.

I could feel a slight breeze blowing my hair out of my face. It was dark, seeing as I was afraid to open my eyes. I didn't feel anything, although at first I thought it was because I was still in shock. But then I DID feel something, grass, which was odd, because the ditch I was SUPPOSED to be sprawled and dying in was filled with gravel. I felt a slight nudge at my side, like a dogs nose.

"Well he's alive, but I don't know if he's in a coma or still out of it." A voice growled.

"Indeed, I will take him back to the camp, let Cloud and the others know that they should prepare a pallet." An icy monotone voice replied

"Alright Vincent, don't be long, we don't know what his condition is."

I could hear someone walk off. And a swish of a tail, so I figured that I was alone.

"You can open your eyes, I know your awake." The icy voiced called.

"The question is, will I like what I see when I open my eyes?" I calmly questioned.

"That depends entirely with you."

I slowly opened my eyes, above me was a tall figure, outlined in black by the sun that shown above him. I looked down at my lower body, waist in the position is should be, the only way I could tell anything had happened to me was the tears in my clothing, and the caked blood. Standing up, I got a better look at the man that was to escort me to the camp.

Dressed in all black, with long metal boots, and a flowing red cape that covered his mouth, the man was intimidating with me only noticeing THAT. Then I saw the golden claw that was covering his left arm. His hair was long and ebony in color, a red head band graced his forehead, although it seemed to have no real purpose, because his hair fell into his face anyways. A large three barreled gun was strapped to his hip.

"Who are you?" The man raised his eyebrow slightly.

"I am Vincent Valentine, and if anyone should be asking who is who, it should be me asking you."

"Sounds good to me. I'm Zach" I raised my right hand, he shook it with his clawed left "So, um, where exactly am I?"

"I believe you should save you questions until we get back to the camp." Vincent's tone left no room to argue, so I followed him back to his, and his friends camp.

Finally getting a chance to look around, I saw only and open field, as far as the eye could see. No trees, the only way I knew there was SOMETHING out here besides grass was in the far distance, a looming mountain range.

I could see the fire of the camp not fifteen minutes after my introduction to Vincent, and that whole fifteen minutes was filled with silence, which I was completely grateful for. I could see eight figures around said fire, and a dog like thing sitting next to a man with wild spiky blonde hair. The dog thing look at me and Vincent, and nodded his head in our direction, the blonde looked, and waved me over.

"So Red says that while searching for some twigs with Vincent, he found you unconscious. Do you remember what happened to you?" The blonde asked before I could even sit down. The brunette beside him elbowed him hard in the side.

"Cloud! Now is not the time to interrogate the poor boy! I mean look at him Cloud! He's a mess." She gave me a warm smile, which I gratefully returned. "So what's your name?"

"I'm Zach, and, um, where am I?" I looked around again, still confused about how I could have been moved from dying in a gravel ditch to living and in a expansive grassy plane.

"Your in between Midgar and the Chocobo Farm. And it's a pleasure to meet you Zach, I'm Tifa, this is Cloud" She pointed to the blonde "Over there is Yuffie, Barret, Cait Sith, Cid and Red Thirteen." She pointed to each, and each one gave a warm response.

"Okay, so now that we have that out of the way, where do you come from?" Cloud asked once more.

Sitting down in between Red Thirteen and Yuffie "I'm from Rochester, Washington." The look of bewilderment was the same look I had when they said 'Midgar' and 'Chocobo Farm'.

"I have never heard of this Rochester, or Washington, are you sure you haven't sustain a head injury?" Red Thirteen asked. My eyes grew wide, and everyone seemed to know what was going to happen next.

"Holy shit! You can talk?"

"Yes I can, and please refrain from talking like Cid." Red pointed to the older blonde.

"Fuck you, Red." Cid replied, lighting a cigarette.

Slowly nodding my head "Well, I don't suppose this is Earth, is it?" Again I was answered by looks of unknowing.

"This place is called the Planet. So this means you aren't from here." Red answered, staring off into the fire.

"So, Zach, how did you get all those cuts?" Yuffie poked a long cut on my leg, I jerked my leg back.

"I got hit by a truck. And the last thing I remember before waking up here, is seeing its tail lights disappear as it drove away." I looked into the fire, wondering why the hell I was here and NOT dead, not that I was complaining about being alive, I just wish I knew where 'here' really was.

"That's horrible!" Tifa walked over to me, and put a hand on my shoulder "Well until we can find a way to get you home, you can stay with us!" Cloud shot Tifa a look that said 'we're doing WHAT?'.

"Well, shit kid, looks like your stuck with us." Barret gave me a warm smile.

Tifa looked over at Vincent "Vincent, do you have any spare blankets?"

Vincent nodded, and tossed me a blanket, my hand zipped to grab it, catching it and bringing it down almost as if I hadn't moved at all. Vincent arched his eyebrow, and everyone else gasped.

"What? Cant a guy have fast reflexes?"

"Well sure!" Cait Sith said "But from what I'm guessing, your not a fighter, but you have reflexes like one, which makes me wonder."

"Um, okay?"

By this time, the sun had hit the mountains, and the puffy clouds in the sky began to light up with a bright pink color.

"Alright everyone, I'm going to start making some stew, so just don't go anywhere TO far." Tifa stated, give her companions, and me, a warm smile.

For some reason, that smile awoke something deep with in my heart, as if I had seen it before, but as fast as it was there, it departed. I walked over to Cloud, and sat down.

"So, Cloud, do u happen to have any spare weapons? Cause seeing the way you all have your own, I think it would be great if I wasn't just dead weight." Cloud smiled, and nodded.

Rummaging through his pack. Cloud pulled out a large bat with nails sticking out of the top. "Here you go, it's the lightest thing that I have." Cloud handed it to me, and he was right, it was light.

I walked out a little bit from the camp, and took some practice swings. I had never played on any baseball teams, but I had played for fun with my old friends back in middle school, even though now they would never have anything to do with me. It was like riding a bike after a long period of time of NOT riding. Once I got back into the grooves, I was cutting the tall grass around me in half.

"When we get to Midgar, we'll stop by a clothing store, and pick you up some new clothes." Cait Sith said, hopping/walking to me. I could tell the animal that spoke was a cat, but what it was riding was something totally new to me.

"What are you riding?"

"Oh this?" the cat pointed to the large white, thing "This is a moogle, a mechanical one, but a moogle none the less. I too am a machine, kind of. My name is Reeve, and I control Cait Sith." Cait Sith did a small bow "I had some business to attend, so I'll be meeting you and everyone else in Midgar."

"Ah, well since you seem well educated, can you give me some kind of guess on why the hell I'm here, and not dead?"

"Well, if your planet and our Planet were somehow connected, and someone in the Lifestream really liked you, then they could have brought you here, were you wouldn't die. But this is all guessing, seeing as I have no evidence as of yet about your Earth and our Planet having a 'bond' of some sort." Cait gave a shrug "Only time can tell, anyways, Tifa is almost done with the stew, so you should come back now, that way Cid doesn't eat it all." The machine let out a joyous laugh, and I couldn't help but laugh either, only because Reeve's laugh seemed contagious.

Back at the camp, Vincent and Cloud watched Zach train by himself.

"So, Vincent, what do you think about Zach?"

"…I think he is on the wrong world for a reason, and not just to save his life. He has a purpose here, and I'm sure it will be revealed to sooner than we'd like." Vincent looked at Zach's form, the technique was different than any he had seen before, and yet it seemed to be very effective.

"Do you think its Sephiroth again?"

"No." Vincent didn't miss a beat.

"Then what? What could be so bad that the Planet brought someone here from another world?" Cloud rubbed the back of his head.

"I don't think it is a different world."

Cloud turned to Vincent "What makes you say that?"

"His eyes." Vincent then stalked off to the fire, sat down, and stared at the sky.

"His eyes?" Cloud mumbled to himself, he looked at Zach's eyes as he and Cait Sith walked by, he saw dark red irises.