AN: I do not own Final Fantasy VII or it's characters, they belong to SquareEnix. However, there are some custom characters that DO belong to me.

WARNING: This Fanfic is rated M for a reason! Very graphic fighting and sex scenes! If you are under 18 years of age, I'm warning you against reading this fic! If you choose to do so anyways, that's your choice, and no fault of mine! I warned you!

Summary: Cloud and Tifa's relationship has grown since Advent Children and Dirge of Cerberus, but Cloud has been having nightmares that are testing it. Meanwhile, two companies struggle for dominance over the worlds energy supply. Someone wants Cloud dead, Demons arise from the shadows, and things are not always as they seem. Not to mention the possibility of a new danger that could threaten the very Planet. Sounds like another day in the life of Cloud Strife, but can even he stop this, or survive it?

PROLOGUE

PREMONITION

Time, is going so much faster than I

I'm starting to regret not spending all of it with you

Now I'm wondering why I kept this bottled inside

So I'm starting to regret not telling all of it to you

So, if I haven't yet, I've gotta let you know

Sparks flew as blades connected. The man was thrown backward by the force of his opponent, landing hard on the rubble-strewn street. His companion jumped at their opponent from behind. Fast as a cat, the blonde warrior spun, parrying the pipe and using his attackers' momentum to slam his elbow into the man's temple. Falling to the ground, the would-be-attacker gave a soft grunt before hitting ground. Nothing moved; the wind had stilled. A groan filled this silence.

Shaking his head, Cloud Strife picked his way across the broken and littered floor to the first man. He found him trying to get to his feet, painfully slow. At least he's alive. Cloud hated killing these sorts – scavengers, desperate in desperate times. It wasn't their fault they had fallen on hard times. Due to the increasingly hostile dispute between the two leading companies of energy production, money had become fragile and food scarce. It came down to coal and a new material found near the Forgotten Capital called Black Ore. Black Ore needed to be extracted in large facilities called depots. They may be called depots, but they reminded Cloud of the Shinra Reactors, which was as good a reason for him not supporting them as the fact that one of his best friends, Barret Wallace, was the President of the competing company.

Watching the injured man struggling on the ground, Cloud wished there was someway to end the dispute quickly and without further collateral damage. He hated killing men like this, but it had happened.

"Stay still; you'll only injure yourself further." Cloud bent down, left hand outstretched to aide the poor wretch. If he had been less sympathetic, he would have seen the dagger long before it slashed his wrist. Clenching his teeth, Cloud pulled back, First Tsuguri ready.

But the man stayed where he was. I must have just startled him. A sudden searing in his wrist – much too painful for a simple cut to account for – forced him to drop his sword, clutching his left arm in pain. It wasn't until then that he noticed the white halo surrounding the scar. Looking closer, he saw that the halo was slowly spreading outward, away from the cut. Another thing that caught his attention was the border of the halo – small tentacles squirmed and flailed as the hallo moved. It was clear to him that this halo with its mane of tentacles, was inside his skin.

Breath heaving, he looked back to his attacker. A smile split his face in two, his body suddenly bloated. "The enemy of my enemy," he spoke in a raspy, baritone voice. Very inhuman. Standing on his feet – seeming to have no trouble now – he pointed the dagger at Cloud, dripping with his blood. "Is my enemies' enemy, nothing more, nothing less!" The last was a high-pitched scream as his body bulged, inflating like a balloon. A whirring sound filled Clouds ears as the man – the thing – continued to grow. His eyes and mouth were covered by the bulging cheeks and forehead. It was like watching someone being filled with water to the point of exploding.

The ever-growing mass then stopped growing. It stood still, twenty stories high, doing nothing. Then, all at once, the thing began deflating. Faster then the growth, the shrinking was over in a matter of seconds. When it became once again the size of a man, a blast of hot air nearly knocked Cloud off his feet. Cover his face from the heat.

Then it was over. The whirring noise, the hot air, it all stopped. What remained was a silence so complete, he could hear the oxygen moving through his lungs – or so it seemed. He was still breathing hard, sweat covering him like a second skin.

Opening his eyes, he stumbled over to where the man, or whatever it was, had been. He was not sure what he saw exactly. It looked like three twigs bound together by thread, two of the twigs crossing the third horizontally. One horizontal twig was near the top of the third, leaving an inch sticking up; the other horizontal twig was at the very bottom, letting nothing of the third beyond it.

He wished the sweating would stop; he needed to brush his un-injured hand across his eyes so he could see clearly, only to need to brush his eyes again as the sweat muddled his sight.

Was it a fever? No. His temperature felt normal. His breathing was anything but. The pain in his wrist was growing. What is wrong with me? Then he saw it. The formation of the twigs looked like…a man. A human, at any rate. A twig-man? His breath caught in his lungs, his body clenching as the pain in his arm numbed everything else, even thought. Almost unconsciously, he looked back down at the scar and its white halo.

What in Gaia? The halo had taken another shape. The glow around the shape seemed to fade in and out, like a flickering flame. Then the glow grew as bright as sunlight, nearly blinding Cloud. But he did not turn away, did not close his eyes. He didn't blink. The glow vanished and left the shape black on his skin, like a tattoo. Turning his hand so that the cut was closest to him, he saw what the image was.

A meteor. It was pointed at his cut like…that was its destination. Gaia, not again!

*******

Opening his eyes, he gasped. Throwing the covers off him, he sat up. The cold of the night made goose bumps spread across his exposed body. His body was caked in cold sweat, his hair matted to his head. Turning, he dropped his legs over the side of the bed and placed his face in his hands, trying to calm down.

"Cloud?" a sleep-muffled voice called out behind him. Looking back, he saw he had pushed the covers down too far, as they exposed the woman's very generous chest. Fixing the blanket so she was properly covered, he stood up and walked to the door to the bathroom.

"Cloud?" her voice called out again, less muffled than before as she began to wake. "What's the matter?"

Stopping at the door, he steadied himself, not looking back at her as he answered. "Nothing, Tifa, just a nightmare, that's all. Go back to sleep, I'll be out soon."

She wasn't fooled. "The same one?" He couldn't help wincing. "Cloud, you can't keep it bottle up inside. You can't –"

"It's just a nightmare, a dream!" He couldn't keep the bitterness from his voice. "Dream or nightmare, that's all it is, Teef." Opening the bathroom door, he entered.

"Cloud, I just –"

He slammed the door shut, pressing his back against it, taking a few deep breaths. His knees buckled under him, and he slid down the door. Feeling the emotion rising, he pushed at it. But tears welled up in his eyes. He couldn't stop it. Bringing his knees to his chest, he wrapped his arms around them. As the tears began falling, he hid his face behind his knees.

Sniffing, he brought his head back up, glaring at his reflection in the mirror. Why are you so weak? He silently asked his mirror image. Moving his knees away, he pounded his fists against his chest, trying to drive the tears away with pain. Breath heaving, he stopped, blinking the remaining tears away. Giving himself a few slaps in the face, he shook his head to clear it.

Standing up, he walked into the shower stall, closing the glass-panel door behind him.

*******

Tifa Lockheart tried to ignore the sounds coming from the other side of the door. Cloud was crying and she wasn't there to cry with him. Gaia knew she wanted to. The door banged against its framing. Then she heard the shower turn on. Burying her face in her pillow, she began to cry. Oh, Cloud, why won't you let me in? Why do you want to be alone?

They had gotten together shortly after Geostigma had been cleansed. Cloud had told her that he had needed time. He had had strong feelings for Aeris, and he had blamed himself when she died. But he needed to let her go. Tifa couldn't help feeling like the rebound, but her feelings for him far outweighed anything else.

It had been a gradual process, but they had been living with each other for nine months by the time they took on Deepground, now a year past. Two months after defeating Omega Weapon, Cloud had started having nightmares. He had brushed them off, and she had thought nothing of them at first. But when they continued, Cloud's stoicism began to fade, and her concern grew.

The water stopped and she heard him moving around. He came out and she could tell he thought she was asleep and didn't want to wake her. She wanted to confront him, but couldn't bring herself to do it. She heard him rummaging around, putting on his clothes. Then the door opened and closed softly. She listened to his footsteps going down the stairs into the bar below. Then the bell hooked up to the entrance jangled. She heard a motor start up and knew he had mounted his motor-bike, Fenrir. Tires squealed as he drove off.

Getting out of the bed, she wrapped herself in a robe and walked into the bathroom, fearing what she'd find. There was a circular crack in one of the mirrors, as if he had punched it. Then she found a white pill in the sink. Thinking the worse, she searched around, looking for a prescription bottle. She found it in the garbage, empty. When she read the bottle, she dropped the bottle and ran, throwing herself onto the bed. Tears began anew as she cried herself back to sleep.

Onyx Weapon: My first attempt, so try to go easy. Read and Review, please. Constructive criticism appreciated.

Lyrics are to the song "Never Gonna Be Alone" by Nickelback, Dark Horse.