~Authors Note~

This story takes place several years after the first game. In this story the events that occurred in Advent Children do not exist.

Disclaimer: I do not own Final Fantasy, or Square Enix.

Years have passed since the fight with Sephiroth and Jenova. The fight that had decided the fate of the Planet and the fate of every living being that lived on it. However, I still work as a mercenary/bodyguard. It's what I'm best at of course. But at least now I have something worth fighting for that isn't the fate of the planet. I fight to support my family. A few months after the final battle, I fell in love with Tifa. Luckily she was also in love with me. About a year after that we had a kid. Pretty cut and dry from there. She has her own bar and I work as a mercenary/bodyguard. I can only imagine Parent's Day at Cecilia's school once she's older.

Yes, my daughter's name is Cecilia. And yes I have a daughter. I just hope she doesn't turn out as aggressive as her mother.

"Cloud, what are you writing?" My wife, Tifa, asked as she looked over my shoulder and onto my Journal.

"N-nothing Tifa. Nothing at all." I said, closing the Journal and laughing it off.

"Don't bullshit me, Cloud." She said then picked up the Journal and opened it. "'I just hope she doesn't turn out as aggressive as her mother'?" She gave me a death stare. She then smiled and bent down to my level. "But sweety, I thought you liked it rough..." She said seductively as she bit my ear.

I winced, "No fair Tifa..." Then there was a bang, then heavy footsteps on the stair case leading to the upper floor of the bar. Cid burst through the door brandishing his spear.

"What the fuck do I have to do to get a drink around—oh shit, my bad. Didn't know you two were having a moment." He said awkwardly then left the room while scratching his head. Tifa and I looked at each other and laughed as we also exited the room.

The building was made up of four floors. The basement, the bar, the kitchen and living area, and the bedrooms. The basement was there to hold weapons, large stashes of Materia, and random liquors and beers for the bar. The first floor, which was the Bar, was a large square room with everything a Bar needed. There were circular tables scattered all of the room, several of them with chairs stacked on top. At the very back of the Bar was the actual bar, complete with swivel chairs. There was a jukebox in the corner left of the door. Nobody ever used it though, mostly because Barret hated all the music on it. Would you wanna piss off a large man with a gun for an arm? Yeah, thought so.

The whole gang was gathered on the first floor. Barret was kicking back drinking a beer, while Nanaki (or Red XIII) was sleeping by Yuffie's feet at the bar. The former Turks, Vincent was leaning against a wall while conversing with a drunken Reeve, the controller of Cait Sith. The actual robot was sitting in a corner. "So Cloud how was your and Cid's job today? Was the client please?"

"That whiny asshole of merchant wouldn't shut up the entire time. Its almost like he was trying to give away our position. Its because of him that the job was so rough! I say we shoulda got paid double." Cid yelled in his usual rude manner. We had taken a job that day that had involved a merchant and a rather large gang. It was pretty cut and dry, protect the merchant while he delivered some important goods. Too bad he was rather talkative. In the end he gave us away and we had to fight the entire gang. Of course we had to minimize casualties as much as possible, which is what made it harder. Its pretty hard to not kill someone when your weapon is a very large sword. Its even harder when you're Cid.

"Yo Cloud, what was that merchant delivering that was so damn important?" Barret asked finishing his beer and chucking the can into the trash bin.

"Dunno. Didn't care. Money is money ain't it?" I said, scratching my head.

"Yeah but now I'm curious. Dammit..." Barret said smacking the wall with his gun arm. "Ah well, nothing we can do 'bout it now eh? Hey Tifa, can I get another beer?"

Tifa threw Barret a beer while pouring Cid a bottle of vodka. "So Cloud, how's the kid?" Yuffie asked out of the blue in her regular cheerful manner. She wore her trademark smirk while swinging her legs above the Bar floor.

"She's sleeping at the moment. No need for her to be up so late." I replied while checking my Materia stock in a hidden compartment in the bar. "What'd you take?"

"Hey! My Materia stealing days are long gone," She said in annoyance, then tossed me the Lightning Materia she had taken, "starting now..."

I replaced the Materia, walked over to the table that Barret was sitting at and sat down. I set my Buster Sword on the table and began polishing it. "Yo, why do you do that every night?"

"I gotta take care of Zack's sword. He gave it to me, so I should take care of it." I said while still polishing. The room into a sort of boring silence. The kind of silence that occurs at a lame party or something. It wasn't too long before a random man in a black trench coat and fedora walked into the Bar. He sat down a seat or two away from Yuffie.

"Can I get you something, Sir?" Tifa asked while she wiped out a glass.

"Just a glass of water, please." He said gruffly. His voice was deep, kind of a sad deep. Like somebody at a funeral. "You're Cloud Strife, correct?" He asked without even looking at me.

"Yes, I am. Do you have business with me?"

"Oh yes, I have much business with you." He said in the same deep voice.

"Well come back tomorrow morning, this isn't a time to be talking business." I said, finally putting my sword away. "I'm sure whatever you need me to do can wait until tomorrow."

"No. This cannot wait." He said getting up and turning to me. "Your death cannot wait!" He yelled before throwing off his trench coat and ripping out a Materia orb from his chest. The man that had walked into the Bar had now changed into a large, red monster. He was about as tall as Barret, but way larger in build. Horns sprouted from his forehead, his hands turned into large, sharp claws and his feet turned into hooves.

Tifa and Yuffie jumped away from the bar, Nanaki still lie on the floor sleeping. He charged at me, knocking over several tables and chairs, while putting hoof prints into the Bar floor. I jumped away and threw a fireball into his face while Barret began shooting. Barret's bullets were absorbed by the monster's skin and my fire simply extinguished upon impact. I jumped away again as the monster threw a table in my direction. The table shattered off the wall as the monster threw even more of them aside. I heard a loud snap, and at that instant the monster stopped. I looked dumbfounded at the fiend, frozen in time.

"Was that so hard?" Vincent asked in a dull manner while holding the Time Materia.

~Author's Note~

Thank you for taking the time to read my newest story,

I do hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it. Be sure to write a review on what you liked and on what you think can be improved. Thank you :D