AUTHOR'S INTRO

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Hello, my name is Peekay and this is my first fic! -Falls over-. I can't promise you anything

that would blow you out of the water plot-wise, but I do hope you enjoy reading this fic

nonetheless. As I continue to craft this story, I hope that my skills will improve with it.

Thank you for reading!

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A Seraph's Ghost CHAPTER I

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Cloud was trapped by clones. There was no way out. Every shadow on the wall, on the ground,

in the sky, was a clone of Sephiroth. All of them wanted him dead, all of them demanded

the same thing. "Where's mother...?"

The swarming masses then plunged forward. Cloud made a break for it. He ran through Midgar,

through the streets as an army of clones raced after. An unknown sense of terror that Cloud

had only rarely felt pumped through his veins as his legs carried him as far as he could go.

Blast! He was cornered. The junk fell from a nearby pile and obstructed his running path.

He turned around into the dark night. The identical shadows flooded towards him. The nearest

one reached out his hand.

Suddenly, sunlight flooded in. Morning had come in. A sudden rush of relief fell over Cloud.

"The same dream, for a month. Each time, it feels so real." He rolled over and pushed himself

off the floor he was resting on. He wiped off the sweat that the dream had caused and went

off into the streets of Midgar.

Midgar... this place changed after meteor almost smashed into the heart of the planet. It had

been so long, yet it never left him. In fact, he found it odd that ever since the planet

was saved, he kept having these nightmares about the ones looking for "Mother" in some way or another.

They had become increasingly worse and during this month, all of them had felt incredibly real.

"Ouch! Watch where the U)(#(&# you're going -- Oh, it's you Cloud!" Cloud had bumped into

someone and fell down. Barret looked down. "I keep tellin' ya Cloud. If you don't watch it,

yo spikey-haired ass is gonna get fried."

"Yeah, yeah, whatever." Cloud shrugged it off and got back on his feet.

"Just like you to act so apathetic. Even after all that shit that flew around." Barret chuckled.

"Haven't changed a bit."

"I changed enough." Cloud replied. He smiled. "Where's Tifa?"

"I dunno wasn't she in the bar witchuu?" answered a confused Barret.

"Haven't seen her around. Gonna go look for her. Gotta talk to her about something. Later."

"Later, yo!"

Cloud drifted into the less populated areas of Midgar. He wanted to talk to Tifa about something

important, but she was nowhere to be seen for some time. He passed by Aeris' church and some regret

filled him, remembering that time...it seemed so long ago, but it was like yesterday they first met.

"First person that bothered to ever understand me." he

sighed under his breath. For nostalgia's sake, he went in.

Tifa was with Marlene taking care of the flower bed there. Cloud went up to them.

"Flowers are good for the planet, right Tifa?" inquired Marlene.

"They sure are. They're all so pretty and smell nice too, don't they?" answered Tifa warmly.

"Yeah!"

Cloud looked down at those flowers, all of them so pretty. He wished that maybe one day, the planet would be filled in those wonderful things again one day. He crouched down.

"Oh hey, Cloud! Sorry I haven't been around!" greeted Tifa. "Marlene really wanted to see the flowers around here, so we've been staying here for a little bit."

Marlene ignored Cloud like it was her duty and decided that the flowers she was attending to were much more interesting than some guy.

"Lately, Marlene keeps saying that the sky is weird, Cloud. Everyday she looks out and there seems to be a 'hole in the sky' as she would say. I think she means the place where meteor came through, but everyday she says to me 'The hole keeps getting bigger'!"

"It's kind of like as the hole gets bigger, my nightmares become worse." Cloud muttered to himself. Tifa didn't catch it, so she went on.

"Lately I've been worried about her. She keeps looking out at the sky at night and says that the stars are pretty but the hole keeps eating them up. I don't understand what she could possibly be talking about. She's been refusing to back with me to the bar, saying that she feels safer with the flowers."

Tifa paused, a slight expression of worry crossed over her face. Cloud could understand it, because he was feeling the same thing. The hole getting bigger, his dreams getting worse… could it mean something? He touched his forehead as if he had a headache.

"Something wrong, Cloud?" asked Tifa.

"No, no. I'm alright. Just thinking about things, that's all." he assured.

She looked doubtful.

"Ti…fa… I see it…" came a small child's whimper. "The….hole…"

Tifa looked around. Once again, she could see nothing. Cloud turned around and looked in the same direction that Tifa did. Like her, he couldn't see this "hole". Marlene, on the other hand, had a face of terror. Tifa rushed over and held her close. "Everything's going to be okay. I'm here with you," she reassured, slightly stroking Marlene's brown hair.

Marlene started to sob slightly and clung closer to Tifa. She said "It's gonna take me away, Tifa. Don't let it do that."

"I would never ever let anything take my Marlene away ever again," hugged Tifa. "This 'hole' is going to have to go through me first."

Marlene started to feel safer, and went back to the flowers. Tifa was tough, she was strong. No way anyone could ever take her down. Tifa looked on and watched her.

Cloud sat down, thinking about all of this. What was this thing that kept causing delusions and struck fear in the conscience of everybody. Nobody could see Marlene's hole, nobody could see Cloud's nightmares. Maybe they were both still feeling pretty paranoid from the meteor, even though a few years passed by. He suddenly remembered that he needed to talk to Tifa about something. "Tifa…can I borrow you for a sec? We need to talk." She came over and sat next to Cloud. "What is it?"

"Tifa… have strange things… been happening for you, too? Or is it me just going senile?"

"Uhh, well, nothing too strange, I guess." Nervously chucked Tifa. "Other than Marlene's concerns, I really haven't been encountering anything too strange. But…there is something weird going on. It's hard for me to explain. Sometimes, the wind goes dead and it seems everything gets frozen."

"It seems like a bit of gloom has landed everywhere recently. Nobody's really at their best…maybe except for Barret." Commented Cloud.

Tifa laughed. "Barret's always like that. He's so serious but he can always seem so light-hearted about stuff. Although, it seems like even he's been sensing the weird things going on."

"Yeah." Cloud leaned back. He was thinking about it all. It was kind of like when it was how many years ago. The Planet seemed silent with his pondering. Unlike the silence that Cloud was reveling in, this silence was a different kind. It was almost kind of like it was deadly.

He reflected on everything that happened then. Everything from being the cold-hearted mercenary right up to realizing that he was something much more. He thought about the manipulation that Sephiroth tried to pull on him. Speaking of Sephiroth, it was almost like he didn't die when it came to the showdown. That was too ridiculous though, he obviously joined the lifestream after Cloud defeated him. He was back to where he started. Tifa was no longer next to him. She was looking around frantically.

"OH MY GOD. WHERE'S MARLENE?"