'Cloud? You ok?'

He glanced briefly over his shoulder to see Yuffie running in that high- heeled, slightly goofy way. Inwardly, he grimaced, but showed no emotion on his face.

'Yeah?'

She reached the edge of the cliff, where he sat, and took a seat next to him.

'Beautiful, isn't it?' she said, casually. Cloud chuckled.

'Yeah, if you like charred, broken buildings, and burnt out corpses,'

'You think they'll ever rebuild it? Midgar, I mean,'

He shrugged. 'Hard to say. Places like that…only get built once. Then, they're just rubble.'

Yuffie looked thoughtful. 'You think it's been left like that as some kind of warning, you know, don't let this happen again?'

'Could be. From here, you can still see what's left of the HQ.'

'Oh yeah.' Yuffie pointed to the right of it. 'Hey, that reactor you guys blew, there's still some ruins!'

Cloud nodded. 'Look deep enough, and you'll find Biggs and Wedge pretty close to No. 5,'

'Who?'

'Never mind.'

Yuffie stood up, scraped the dirt off her clothes, and headed back down the cliff.

'Byee!'

Cloud held up a hand in recognition.

Barrett was waiting at the base of the cliff, tapping his foot impatiently.

'The hell? You took your time. How is he?'

Yuffie smiled. 'He's fine, just sitting on the cliff, staring at the ruins,'

'Damn, I hate it when he does that,' Barrett growled. 'Makes me wonder if he gonna throw his pokey headed ass back down to sector five,'

'Relax.' Yuffie replied, patting him on the back. They turned around, passed Cloud's bike, and piled into the jeep. Red was in the back, licking his paws.

'Problems?'

Barrett started the engine. 'Nah, he's fine, just his usual damn weird self. Let's head back to the airship, its outside Kalm.' he reversed, then swerved away from the cliff, heading west. 'He'll be able 'ter get back 'ter…wherever the hell he lives,' they sped over a rocky hill. 'When the hell are they gonna build some damn roads around here?'

A few miles back, Cloud stood up, and headed back down the cliff. Up on the horizon, he saw Barrett's jeep speeding away into a brooding sunset. For a second, he looked back over at the ruins, frowned, and then jumped to the grassy area below. It was a cool evening, and he felt the breeze whisper past his shoes as Cloud headed over to the bike. Just as he reached for the handlebars-

'Going somewhere?' A cold voice from up above asked. It was low, slightly arrogant, as if whoever it was disliked Cloud, pitied him, even.

Sephiroth?

Cloud let go of the back, and looked up, to see it wasn't Sephiroth.

Nah. This is something else.

A tall, dark haired figure stood alone on the cliff. He wore a long, red battledress, similar to Vincents'-looked liked Vincent if it weren't for the shorter, slicked back hair that lifelessly from behind his ears and neck.

'Who the hell are you?' Cloud asked, reaching for his sword. The figure grinned.

'I would tell you, but I..' He raised one eyebrow, 'don't think it would be worth the bother…I came for a small favour.'

'Really?' Cloud asked.

'Hmm…' the figure suddenly swished back his long cloak, spun around and drew a long sword, all too familiar, Show me what you got, Cloud!'

No way...

The figure leapt from the top of the cliff, straight down to the ground, and slashed the Masamune at Cloud's feet. He leapt backwards, unhurt, and drew his own weapon, the buster sword. Catching his enemy off balance, Cloud aimed a swift, overhead chop at the man, but missed as he effortlessly ducked to the side.

'Not much for the man who killed Sephiroth…'

'Who are you?'

The cloaked figure sighed. 'I suppose it wouldn't do that much harm…my name is Laexande. A pleasure.' He bowed, and Cloud resisted the temptation to slice off his head, a decision he'd regret. Raising the buster sword, he ran at his enemy and swung the sword around his head, in a fast blur of metal, then slashed it at his enemy's face.

The moment Cloud had raised the weapon, Laexander had bent his knees slightly, with a little give. The spiky headed warrior had taken steps toward him, agile steps. Laexande braced himself, and, just as Cloud swung the sword, he leaned backwards as far as his spine would allow, the blade screaming inches above his face. Now, for a retaliation.

With his free hand, Laexande pushed off from the soft, springy grass and bounced back upwards, slamming his forehead against Clouds'. For a second, his vision blurred, but after seeing the enemy stepping backwards, holding his forehead, Laexande took a second strike. After regaining his balance, he stroked the glittering orbs set in the hilt of the Masamune.

'That thing may be powerful,' he sneered,' but what's the point if it can't hold much material?' A look of disbelief passed over Clouds face as he finally realised he'd been head butted. Then, slowly, he lowered the sword and raised a hand in front of his eyes to guard them from the spell. Strange lights were gathering around Laexande. Cloud brought the sword down heavily, waiting to feel the impact shoot down the weapon, into his arm like electricity.