Cloud and Vincent find a strange ring in the Forgotten City. Meanwhile, SG-1 is sent to a recently reactivated Stargate on a planet listed in the Ancient Repository.

Rated: T for Sci-Fi action.

I own only the words.

The Lost Planet

Chapter One: Discovery

Vincent Valentine is strolling through the Lost City again. Whenever he has a lot on his mind, which is almost always, he finds it best to take a stroll. He reaches the lake. The lake where a good young woman was laid to rest. As always, Cloud Strife is there.

"Cloud," Vincent greets.

"Vincent," Cloud answers. The two of them never engage in idle chat. Both of them prefer it that way. "I found something today," Cloud breaks the comfortable silence.

"Yes?" Vincent's curious. This is the first time they've ever found anything left in the city.

"A strange ring. It's buried about half a click that way," he indicates direction with a head nod.

"You left it buried?"

"It's not a ring you can wear; I'd guess it's about 5 meters tall."

"Ah. Have you told anyone?"

Cloud holds up his phone. "There's no connection out here. I'll have to head back to town to call anyone. I'm not in the mood to do that, yet."

"Understood." The two men sit in silence for some time.

"Does it ever get any easier?" Cloud asks.

"If it did, we wouldn't really be human," Vincent answers.

"After all that ShinRa did to me, maybe I'm not."

"With questions like that, you're close enough." They sit in silence longer. "How's your 'stigma doing?"

"Who else knows?"

"Nobody, as far as I know."

"I'm surviving."

"Tifa's worried about you; I think she suspects."

"I know." He thinks a minute. "How worried?"

"Enough to call me five times this morning."

"I'll head back to Edge, then. While I'm there, I'll hire a digging crew." Vincent nods once.


Four days later, Cloud returns with a digging team. They've already cleared a small area around the strange ring. As the team starts lifting the ring, Cloud notices several strange marking along the edge of the ring. None of them look familiar. Then again, Cloud never studied the language of the ancients and shrugged it off. The ring is made out of a strange metal that Cloud has never seen before.

Whatever the ring is made of, it took 100 men to lift it. After they lift it out of the ground, they set it against a small cliff face. Cloud walks up to the ring and studies the strange markings. Night is starting to fall so, Cloud dismisses the crew and pays them. He goes back to examining the ring.

Suddenly, the ring makes a noise. Cloud jumps back and draws his sword. The ring starts to spin in place. One of the small almost triangles on the edge moves and lights up. The ring then turns the other direction. The ring continues doing this. After the 7th light turns on, a burst of water comes out of the ring. Almost instantly, the water returns to the ring and makes a pool appear inside the ring. After a few seconds, the water disappears and the lights turn off. Cloud rushes out of the city to call for reinforcements.


Three and half hours later, Vincent is the only one to have arrived. The others told Cloud that they couldn't be there until morning. Cloud explains the actions of the strange device to Vincent. Not long after Cloud is done with his explanation, the ring repeats its behavior. While the ring is spinning, Cloud and Vincent hide themselves in the branches of a nearby tree.

After the ring is filled with water again, a small strange machine on wheels come out. On the machine is what looks like a small camera. The camera looks around the area. The machine sits there for a few minutes while 'looking' around.

Then, four people walk out of the water. The first one the two warriors notice is a large man with dark skin. He carries a staff. The way he's holding it suggests decades of training. He has dark, but graying, hair and a strange golden symbol on his forehead.

Next to him is a shorter man wearing glasses. He appears not to be a warrior but, he's carrying a pistol. He gives off the air of one who won't fight unless forced so, the warriors ignore him for now.

The next they see is an obviously well trained soldier though, perhaps not as well trained as the large man. This man carries some type of rifle. The way he's scanning the area suggests that he might be the leader of the small group.

The last one is a woman with dark hair. She also carries a rifle. Like the man in glasses, she doesn't appear to be a trained soldier. However, she doesn't have his peaceful presence.

"Let's take a look around boys and girl!" the one who might be the leader shouts. He then turns to the large man. "Watch our back, big guy!" The 'big guy' nods his head. That settles it, he's their leader.

The strange water in the ring disappears again. Cloud silently nods to Vincent. Vincent nods back. Cloud jumps down and trains his sword on the leader. The large man aims his staff at Cloud. The leader aims his rifle at Cloud as well. Vincent then jumps to the other side of the group and aims his gun at the large man. The other two aim their weapons at Vincent.

"Who are you?" Cloud demands from their leader.

To Be Continued...