Nineteen years had passed since Chaos had disappeared. Omega was destroyed and there was a great peace that had spread across the land. Midgar had become the peaceful city that it was originally meant to be. There was no more desert, no more decay, and all of the building were sturdy and re-built recently. Business was kicked off about fourteen years ago for Cloud and Tifa, their delivery business becoming the UPS of Midgar. Usually things didn't work out that way if you had a child before then.

His name was Zack. Named after a friend of his father's that had passed away some time ago. He didn't know exactly why this person was so important as to why his father would name his son after him, but he wasn't the type to ask many questions. At the age of seventeen, he was able to get pay for most of the things he helped out with in the family business, delivering random knicknacks to people throughout the city on his bike. To him, life was easy, seeing as the Mako Reactors had been up and running again, without the city's content however, so there were riots that started up outside of the Shinra building almost every day for the past few years.

He drove by, his brown hair wavering in the wind as he did. He looked like him, Zack. But the only real difference was the hair color, well that and his eyes weren't blue, but a darker green. He was wearing was his father's old uniform, seeing as it was the only thing that fit him at the moment. He was never informed of where the suit had come from, or why his father had it, or even what his father worked for. All he knew was that the pants were comfortable.

"Floor twenty-four?" he asked himself as he pulled into the parking lot of the electric company. "Top floor? The hell...?" Zack asked himself. He shrugged, it was worth it. Ten bucks compared to giving someone a box was nothing. He un-hooked the package from the back of his seat and walked to the front doors of the building, swarming with enraged civillians. "Excuse me..." he pardoned as he shimmied through the mass of people, making his way to the steel doors that blocked the way. He entered and shook his hair out, noticing a nearly empty room. A plant in the corner of the room, and a receptionists desk, but no-one was there.

He moved lazily over to the desk, leaning ontop of the counter and looking around for someone. But there was no-one. He frowned slightly, confused as to why there was nobody there, after all it was a large company. "Guess I'll take it up myself." he sighed out as he shoved himself from the desk and headed into the elevator that stood nearby. The doors opened slowly, suggesting that this part of the building hadn't been renewed quite yet. He leered his vision over to the level buttons, pressing the one marked '24' and the doors closed. He stepped back from the switches and leaned against the back wall as he felt gravity take hold of him, pushing him lightly to the bottom of the small compartment.

Soon, he was at the top floor, the doors rolling open slowly, and to his surprise, it was the roof of the building. He stepped out, taking a quick glance around he noticed he'd made a mistake. He lifted the box to his face, checking the floor number again, '24'. This was it. But where was he supposed to drop this thing off? He looked around again, there was nothing but the gray tint of the roof around him. He walked forward slowly, looking down on the city from the top. He could see everything, the buildings, the people, the cars, everything.

"Zack Strife." a voice spoke from behind him. The voice was low, dark and somewhat raspy. Zack turned around slowly, seeing a man dressed in a red cloak, his face covered by his long, black hair.

Zack gave him a skeptical look, "Who're you?" he asked as he stepped back. The man shook his head and walked forward.

"So, your father's hidden everything from you, has he?" the man asked. "What a shame, you could have been so much help to us."
"What the hell are you talking about?" Zack asked, stepping forward with some urgency to his step. "Are you the one who ordered this thing?" he asked again, shifting his eyes to the box, then back. The man nodded. "Well then..." Zack said, throwing the box to him. "Have a nice day, sir." He then walked over to the elevator, pressing the button and waiting for the rust-bucket to get back up. Zack looked over his shoulder, trying to think of how he might know this guy, where had he seen him before? Then it came to him, when he was younger he remembered seeing him. Vincent. That was his name. "Valentine...right?" Zack asked cautiously.

The man nodded again, "That's right. I knew you couldn't be that dull as to not remember me."

Zack turned around, "What do you want with me exactly?" he grunted.

Vincent looked into the distance, pointing to a purple colored cloud that began to peak over the hills. "Zack, listen to me. The words I speak may seem a bit hard to understand at the moment, but something's after you."

"You're crazy." Zack said, moving closer to the elevator.

"You have something it needs. Something that somehow got passed from your father's genes to yours. We thought there were no more who were born with it, as a matter of fact, you may be the only one, Zack. Years back something landed here. J.E.N.O.V.A. It was something from another planet. You have something called J.E.N.O.V.A. cells in you. The reason being is because your father was a S.O.L.D.I.E.R."
"Meaning?"
"Your father cleansed himself of something called the stigma, it only emerged from those who had J.E.N.O.V.A. cells, it plagued Midgar about twenty years ago. Everyone was cured, but somehow you managed to get the cells. Zack, you have to come with me." Vincent said sternly, turning his attention back to Zack.

Zack looked on at the clouds, a white lightning bolt occasionally going off. "What about Mom and Dad?" he asked.

Vincent shook his head, "They knew." he said calmly.

Zack nodded. "It figures." he sighed, "But how do you know they know?"
Vincent huffed, "Open the box."

Zack looked at it curiously, the box was long and wide. He took out his knife and opened it, looking inside he found a mess of blades that looked oddly familliar. "Dad's sword?" he asked himself. "But..."
"Isn't that proof enough? Now come with me." Vincent said, turning around as the winds picked up, blowing his cape around as he did. Zack looked up from the blade quickly only to see Vincent was gone, and with him the purple clouds. The sun shone down on Zack, and the wind ceased itself. Questions raced through his mind like rapids through a raging storm. He then stood up and looked off of the roof, everything was how it was, there was not a thing out of place. But if nothing had happened, what was that whole episode? Where had Vincent gone?

Zack rubbed the back of his neck, what now? What was he going to do? If all of this was true, then he had something to worry about. He really couldn't doubt it all, seeing as he was now in posession of his father's buster sword. "Guess I'll put this thing together..." he sighed out as he sat down next to the box, taking out all of the blades and examining them all. He took out what looked like the main blade, gripping the handle tightly and turning it so the sun reflected onto the others. "Let's see..." he said to himself as he picked up another, fitting it into the main blade's back, locking it into position and so on. Before he knew it, there it was. He was holding the buster in his hands. He smiled as the wind blew through his hair. Zack stood up, walking back over to the ledge and looking over the city. "I guess this is...goodbye." he said solemnly as he put the buster on his back, the magnet where the straps he wore crossed holding it in place. "Yeah." Zack said to himself. "Goodbye...for now."