Cloud was in a deep sleep, dreaming about taking Tifa and the orphans to the costa rica beach, and maybe inviting some of his old companions and friends to come along. When Cloud woke up he found himself looking up at a blue sky and could hear the waves of the sea crashing into the shore. At first he didn't question his surroundings, believing he was still dreaming, seconds later after fully awaking he realised he wasn't home.

Cloud stood up and looked where the sound was coming from and saw the open sea.

"Where am I? How did I get here?" he asked himself.

Cloud turned around and was shocked to discover this was no ordinary beach, it was a beach in the middle of nowhere. There was no sign of civilization, not even a small structure in the distance. The only thing that was visible was sandy terrain that looked like it went on forever.

It didn't take long for Cloud to spot his bike nearby, without thinking he ran to it. He searched the bike for anything useful, wondering how he rode it here and why he doesn't remember. In the side compartments he found his fusion swords and noticed his bike was full of petrol.

"At least I am armed and fuelled." he told himself.

Discovering he had his weapons and bike Cloud began to feel slightly better about the situation and had a more practical attitude towards dealing with it. He pulled his phone out of one of his pockets and flipped it open, went into contacts, highlighted seventh heaven, pressed the call button then put it to his ear. There was no ring, not even a dead tone. Cloud looked at the phone and the message on the screen said "No signal".

Cloud scratched his head and gave a confused look at his phone. Cloud put his phone back in his pocket planning to try later if he could.

Cloud decided it would be best to ride his bike in one direction away from the sea to try to find somebody or something that can tell him where he is and help him get home. Cloud mounted his bike, looked behind, turned himself around and made a tyre track. Cloud took notice of the tyre track that had formed and thought it was strange there was no tyre tracks trailing behind where the bike had been sitting from the journey here, the petrol gauge being full was also strange. Cloud shook his head hard, trying to get the thoughts of all this confusion out of his head that was starting to irritate him.

"I need to focus, I wont get answers if I remain here." Cloud told himself.

Cloud pulled the ignition then the bike shot forward and sped away into the land of sand.

A few hours later Cloud was still riding through the desert and it seemed like he had barely moved, the terrain always looked the same. There were no natural rocky structures here, or hills, the land was completely flat. The climate was also unusual, the weather wasn't unbearably hot like you would expect in a place with lots of sand and no shade, it was just warm enough.

After a few more hours of riding Cloud was beginning to tire and any hope of getting back home was starting to leave him. "No matter how far I ride, there is still nothing but more sand. Is this place is some kind of prison?" Cloud asked himself beginning to loosen his grip on the bike handle that twisted back slightly making the bike travel slower. "Something is very wrong, I should of found something by now."

Just as the last thought crept in Cloud saw a welcome site in the distance. A built structure. "That looks like Midgar." Cloud thought. "But that's impossible, Midgar has been in ruins for well over 2 years." But it didn't matter what it looked like, he had finally found civilization and regained the hope he lost. Cloud twisted the bikes handle all the way like before and returned to the bikes former speed.

As Cloud got closer he realised it wasn't Midgar, although it did bare resemblance to how the ruined city use to look, surrounded by a massive ring barrier. The barrier was a thick shiny metal similar in appearance to silver except it looked more sturdy.

Cloud circled the city for a while until he found a gate into the City. He pulled the break hard causing the bike to skid across the sand then put his foot down as it stopped. Cloud looked at the gate and around it for a control panel to open it but suddenly a loud microphone screech pulsed through his ears. Cloud put his hands over them and closed his eyes tightly. When it was over he removed his hands from his ears then a voice spoke to him.

"Who is it?". The voice asked, the voice seemed to be coming from some kind of intercom installed into the gate.

Cloud was hesitant to answer. Unsure if it was wise to speak to a voice that did not show his face, but as he looked at his sandy surroundings he realised he didn't have much choice, he looked back at the gate and noticed a camera installed above it.

"Hello?" the voice asked impatiently.

"Hello." Cloud answered looking a the camera.

"Please identify yourself."

"I am Cloud."

"Cloud... Oh, Cloud! Welcome, We have been expecting you."

Cloud gave a confused look to the camera "I am expected?"

"Yes, Please come through"

The sound of moving parts noisily rang through Cloud's ears as a gap in the gate near the ground appeared and got bigger as the gate slided up the silver wall until it was big enough for Cloud to fit through. Cloud started his bike up again and sped through the gate into the city.

Cloud found the city to be much bigger than he thought it would be, the barrier outside the city made it look much smaller than it was.

"Time to look for answers," Cloud thought, "I hope someone can point me in the direction of Edge." then suddenly Cloud's stomach rumbled loudly, he looked down at it not realising until now how hungry he was. "I should eat first then look for answers." he told himself.

Cloud rode through the city looking for a car park he could leave his bike and after a short while he found one. Cloud parked in the first space he found and hastily began to walk out the car park until he saw a sign that read "NO FREE PARKING. 20 Gil per vehicle."

Panic shot through Cloud as he suddenly realised he didn't even know if he had any Gil. He checked his pockets then breathed a sigh of relief as he felt a lot of Gil in one of his pockets which was surprising as it was relieving. He pulled it out his pocket and counted it, it came to 25,000. Cloud scratched his head. "Where did all that come from?" he asked himself. "I guess it doesn't matter right now. I can buy a ticket for the parking and get some food, that's the important thing." He walked to the ticket machine, payed the 20 Gil and took the ticket the machine produced.

He walked back over to his bike and took the swords out of their compartments and merged them together to create the fusion sword and put it in his sword belt. He didn't expect he would run into trouble here, but knew it was better to be safe than sorry. He made sure the bike was secure then left the car park

As he walked along the pavement, keeping a lookout for places to eat he began to ask himself questions about what happened at the gates. "How did they know I was coming? Why would they be expecting me? How do they know my name? And who exactly are they? Are they friends or foes? Are they going to come and find me? If so when and how?" There were so many questions Cloud wanted answers too and hoped they would be answered soon. To say it had been a strange day would be an understatement, Cloud was beginning to wonder if this was Sephiroth's doing, that he had somehow come back again and was trying to confuse him. He doubted it but he wasn't going to rule that out just yet.

Suddenly his eyes spotted a restaurant across the road causing him to run over to it without even looking to see if there were cars coming, which luckily were not. He opened the doors and entered.

The restaurant was small but was big enough for the owners to fit six picnic tables in and still move around easily if they wanted to. There were stools customers could sit on that were near where the food was being cooked, it reminded Cloud of Midgar's Sector six wall market restaurant. As Cloud walked to the stools some of the children in the restaurant took notice of his sword and began to point and admire it as he walked by them. When Cloud had sat down on one of the free stools a middle aged lady approached him who was behind the counter and asked "What will it be?"

Cloud looked up at the menu. Most of the names of what was available on the menu were unfamiliar to Cloud but when he saw that they had chicken and rice his stomach began to ache harder than it ever had before . "I'll have the large bowl of Chicken and Rice."

"That's 80 Gil please." Cloud reached into his pocket and handed her the Gil. "Thanks, it shouldn't take long."

The lady went away to get the bowl of food and returned quickly with it. She placed the food in front of him then reached under the till and gave him chop sticks.

"Thanks." Cloud smiled looking down at the delicous food in front of him. He grabbed the chop sticks and wolfed the food down as quickly as he could, in no time at all the bowl was empy and he was nearly stuffed. He let out a breathe of appreciation for the food then the lady who had noticed Cloud had finished eating came and collected his empty bowl then began to walk back into the kitchen.

"Excuse me?" Cloud called to her.

She turned around and said "Yes?"

"Do you know the way to the city Edge?"

"Edge." she repeated to herself quietly, looking confused. "Sorry, I've never heard of it."

"Never heard of it?" Cloud said quietly looking at her in disbelief.

"Sorry, no."

Cloud could tell from her facial expression she was being serious and didn't know where Edge was. He got off his stool and said "Okay, thanks anyway."

"Have a nice day." she said then walked into the kitchen.

Cloud exited the restaurant with many of the young sword admirers taking notice as he walked past. Cloud was confused as to how Edge could be unknown to someone when it was built to house the people of Midgar after meteor nearly destroyed thw whole of Gaia. Cloud soon put the thought out of his mind telling himself there were others he could ask.

Cloud decided to continue walking in the same direction he was before he spotted the restaurant. After walking for a few minutes he spotted a newspaper stand. He smiled as he thought that he could find out where he was by looking at a newspaper. As he approached the newspaper booth the news distributor nodded at him, Cloud nodded back then picked up the newspaper and held it up so he could read it.

"Hey!" the news distributor said loudly. Cloud looked at him, surprised by his raised voice. "Don't think just because your a mercenary you get things for free. You pay 50 Gil like everyone else"

Cloud was unsure why the distributor thought he was a mercenary, other than the sword he was carrying but Cloud didn't waste time arguing with him, he reached into his pocket, pulled out some Gil and gave the man what he wanted. Cloud moved away from the stand with his newspaper and looked at the front page.

"Christle City news." Cloud read, "So that's where this is huh? Why haven't I ever heard of it?" Cloud looked at the top for a date of distribution but there was none. He scanned through the rest of the newspaper knowing it was far less likely it would be there either and still found no date. Confused Cloud walked back to the stand.

"Excuse me?" Cloud asked the news distributor. The news distributors eyes moved and gave Cloud his attention. "Where's the date of distribution in here?" Cloud asked pointing at the newspaper.

"Date of distribution?" he asked.

"Yeah."

The man massaged his chin with his thumb and index finger, looking deep in thought, after a moment he said "I am not sure what you mean"

Cloud felt an almost over bearing urge to slap his palm on his forehead in defeat and frustration as to how someone could not understand what he meant by "date of distribution." Cloud was close to losing his patience after the day he's had so far and was in no mood for jokes.

"Is this your idea of a joke?" Cloud asked trying to remain calm but not convincingly "I'm not in the mood right now, so tell me what I want to know!"

Unbeknownst to Cloud Some of the pedestrians nearby were starting to shoot concerned looks at them both. The distributor looked clueless and slightly intimidated.

"Look pal, I don't know what your problem is, this no joke, I am being serious, I don't know what your talking about." the distributor said sounding frightened.

"The numbers that tell you what day, month and year it was when something was distributed." Cloud said slower while aggressively poking the part of the paper where the date usually was.

Before the man could answer Cloud got patted on the shoulder. Cloud turned around aggressivly and saw the patter who was with two men who were standing behind him on both of sides. They each wore a helmet and uniform that reminded Cloud of the uniform Shinra troopers wore, except the difference was the helmet looked more advanced technologically and protection wise, and white stripes that went down the middle of the sleeves and the helmet.

"Can I... Help you?" Cloud asked sounding more calm.

"Sounds to me like your the one needing help." the leader put bluntly. "I take it your Cloud?"

"How do you know my name?" Cloud asked sounding his usual self again.

"The one you spoke to at the gates was my colleague. We have been asked to collect you and take you somewhere"

"Take me where?"

"Somewhere else." he answered bluntly

Cloud let out a breath of frustration, he wasn't planning on cooperating with them.

"Look, don't you think it is strange we knew you were coming to our city? Don't you want to get home?"

Clouds eyes widened. "How do you know about my home?"

"We know many things about you, we know you've never been to this city before. If you want to get home you need to come with us. If you don't then you'll never get home. What will it be?"

Cloud sighed, "Okay, I will come with you." he didn't like it but, right now this was his only option.

The leader turned around and began walking in the same direction that Cloud was walking before he spotted the Newspaper stand. Cloud followed him and ignored the people that were still watching him because of the incident with news distributor. The other two troopers followed closely behind him.

Not even 5 minutes later a car beeped from their side of the road. The leader waved at the driver and made way for the car to come partially on to the pavement as did everyone else. The car was black and shiny with a boot as big as the rest of the car. The leader opened the back passenger door that was on the pavements side and gestured Cloud to get in. Cloud looked hesitant and it was picked up on by the leader and the other troopers.

"Are you getting in?" the leader asked.

"I can't" Cloud said not taking his eyes from the car door.

"Why not?" the leader asked almost sounding annoyed.

"My sword wont fit in there." Cloud answered, looking at him.

The leader gave a look to the troopers behind Cloud, one of them shrugged and the other grinned. The leader grinned, looked at Cloud and said "That's a problem that's easily fixed, we can fit it into the boot. Just give it to one of those two over there."

One of the troopers stepped forward with his hand out stretched saying nothing.

Cloud ignored the trooper and looked hesitant still at the leader, not liking the idea of not having his sword with him.

"Look Cloud you need to trust us, when we no longer need the car, when we arrive where we're taking you, the sword will be returned to you, I promise." the leader reassured him

Cloud knew that if he refused them they would turn on him then he'd have to fight and since this was possibly the only way he could get answers that would be a bad move. He looked at the trooper with his hand stretched out, took his sword from its belt and said "Careful, its heavy."

The leader smiled as Cloud gave the trooper his sword. The trooper with the sword carried it to the boot and put it in with little difficulty, amazing Cloud. The leader who was still stood by the open door gestured Cloud to get in once again. Cloud ducked his head as he got in the passenger seat of the car. The leader shut the door and went to the other side of the car by running round the front. He opened the other back passenger door, sat next to Cloud then shut the door. Cloud and the leader felt the boot slam shut as the trooper pulled it down.

"Okay driver" the leader said, "Take us to where we need to go."

The driver waited for a few cars to come pass, put the car back on the road and continued driving. Cloud crossed his arms and hoped he had made the right decision.