I Cloud Strife, the reject Sephiroth clone was enjoying a nice long rest exactly one year after beating that bastard Sephiroth. I was all relaxed in my old home back in Nibelheim with my childhood friend Tifa Lockheart. I was sitting in my bed looking at the ceiling and thinking "What to do now?" when I nodded off. I had the weirdest dream that day.
I dreamt about the day when Sephiroth killed a trusted friend and ally Aeris Gainsborough. Right in my dream when she got stabbed in the back, I woke-up in a deep sweat, my heart racing, and had a short breath. I shook it off and went back to sleep and that was when it got even weirder. Once I got to sleep Aeris' soul or that is what I thought, was trying to talk to me.
"Cloud help!" she seemed to yell. "Sephiroth is after me!" she shouted. "Sephiroth?…but he's dead." I said to her. "Cloud I need your help!" she called to me. I suddenly woke-up again. This time I did not have the symptoms I had before. Right as I awoke, I heard a knock at my door. I nearly went through the roof.
"Cloud are you there? I need to talk to you," the voice said. It was Tifa's voice. I opened the door and she ran in. She seemed very scared. "What's the matter?" I asked. "I just had the weirdest and scariest dream! Areis' soul was being chased by that evil P.O.S. Sephiroth," she said. "That's so strange…I just had the same dream!" I said.
"It just doesn't make any sense!" I said. "If it makes you fell better you can stay here in my bed for the night. I can sleep on the floor," I said. That night we both had the same dream and Aeris showed up again. "Find the old man who knows much about Materia and you will get to my destination," she said to us.
That made me confused. "I'm not…" she said but was cut off by a knock at the door. I opened the door and there was letter at the foot of the door.
Dear Cloud,
It is your old buddy Barret. I have written this letter because I had a very disturbing dream while I was taking my afternoon nap (Yes grown men need naps too). I dreamt that Aeris was still alive. My roommate Red XIII had the same dream as I.
We are coming to Nibelheim to discuss this with you. I have also informed Cid, Yuffie, and Cait Sith 2. We should be there in a day or two. The others should be arriving the same day as us.
Sincerely,
Barret
"What does it say Cloud?" Tifa asked. "It says Barret and Red XIII had the same dream and he has informed the others and they all arrive on the same day to discuss this...I wonder if the others had the same dream as well?" I said to Tifa. All of a sudden, there was a knock at the door.
I opened the door. One by one all my trusted friends filed into the house. Barret still had his rugged look but his gun arm was different and he had a black dragon tattoo on his upper right arm. Red was still the color red and still had his doggish look. He also had a new tattoo on the back of his neck that said, "AVALANCHE".
Cid still had his blonde hair, blue eyes, pilot outfit, and a cigarette butt in his mouth. Yuffie still had her girlish look and looked like her Conformer was just sharpened. Cait Sith 2 had his bulkiness and microphone in hand. "Let's get this shit over with," Barret yelled. "I take it we all had the same dream two days ago," Cid said.
"I had time to think this over," Red said. "I believe Sephiroth's soul has escaped from Hell and is now tormenting Aeris' soul and won't leave it alone," Red explained. "Aeris also said to look for an old man who knows much about Materia and we will be able to find her," I said. "Well how the hell are going to find this guy?" Cid said. "That's the tricky part," I said. We were all in a deep thought when there was another knock at my door.
When I opened the door no one was there but there was a slip of paper on the doorstep. "Who is it Cloud?" Yuffie asked. "It's a piece of paper," I replied. "A piece of paper? That's fuckn' impossible," Barret said. "I mean someone left a piece of paper," I said. "Duh!" Cid said. "What does it say?" Tifa asked. "It's a riddle…It reads:
To Cloud a young man full of fame,
I am the old man without a name.
You will not find my name in a phone book,
But I am in the last place you would look."
"What does that mean?" Red asked. "Well duh! It means that we have to think of where we would look for an old man! Geez … I cannot believe I kept you around. If it weren't for your skills I would smack the fuck out of you!" Barett yelled. "I guess we'll have to go to every last town till we find him," Yuffie said.
"No. It says the last place we would look," I said. "I know!… He might be in an underground cave!" Tifa said excitedly. "Well I guess we are going to ask every cave person if they know of any underground caves," I said. However, Red was still in deep thought.
I was not sure what he was thinking about but it sure seemed to trouble him. We all set out to find the mysterious unknown old man. But we didn't know where to start. "How the hell do we find this fucking guy," Cid said. "We could just go looking but that could take forever," I said. "Well, there is always the Shinra Directory Office in Shinra Head Quarters," Red said. "…………….shit," Baerret said.
"Cid, go get the Highwind….we're going back to Midgar," I said strapping my Ultima Weapon to my back. As Cid left to retrieve the Highwind, the rest of us got our supplies together. Once we got our stuff ready, we went to go meet Cid in the Highwind. We all bored and we flew straight to Midgar. Cid told his crew to keep the Highwind airborne till he requested our retrieval.
We all got our parachutes and walked up to the deck. We jumped off the Highwind the exact same way we did back when we first parachuted into Midgar. We landed on a smoldering pile of metal. "where the fuck are we?" Cid said looking around. "I don't know but it looks familiar to me," I said. "yeah I know what you mean, almost like we have been here before," Tifa said.
"We have Tifa. Its been a while but we were here once," Barret said looking down. "I don't think I get what you mean Barret…" I said looking towards him. "This is the place where the slums were destroyed. When Shinra blew up the pillar and all those innocent people died, including Biggs, Wedge, and Jessie," Barret slowly said as he let a tear run down his cheek but was visible to him trying not to fully cry.
"Who the fuck are they?" Cid asked rather insensitively. "They were part of AVALANCHE but Shinra tried to destroy the slums by blowing up the Sector 7 pillar, and in out attempts to stop them we failed and the pillar blew and crushed all those in the slums including those three who were still on the pillar as the plate fell," Tifa said choking back her tears.
"Lets go before we loose track of Sephiroth," I said. Barret gained his composure and jumped across the wreckage towards the Wall Market We ventured into the Wall Market and stopped short. "Holy shit, that's a lot of Shinra!" Cid exclaimed. The Wall market was "infested" Shinra Guards. How in the hell we gonna get past them? Yuffie asked.
"I say we go straight through them," Barret said with anger in his eyes. "Yeah, and remember when we did that the first time we ever tried to get into Shinra?" I said to him. He looked at me and shrugged. "sigh. We almost got killed!" I yelled at Barret. "Oh right," he said. "Maybe if there's a way to isolate them into small groups we can take them out quickly and with less effort," I said to everyone. "Sounds like a plan to me," Yuffie said smiling. "Yeah, Lets do it!" Tifa said.
"Okay my idea is this, we take the Choco/Mog summon Materia and we use them to isolate the guards into groups. That way each group of two will take on each group of guards till all are taken down, " I said holding out my Choco/Mog Materia. "But Cloud, we only have on Choco?Mog summon, and you are holding it," Tifa said. "Damn," I said. "But we do have all the other summons…" she said to me smirking. "Let's do I Cloud, you know you wanna…" Barret said laughing a little.
"Lets do it then." I said jumping up. We all took out our Red sparkling Materia and stood up and call them all forth. The sky grew dark and all the guards looked up at the sky. Lightning begun to strike down from the clouds. And Ramuh came down and pushed the lightning towards the guards making them fall to the "Judgment Bolt".
The air got frigid as Shiva came down from the clouds next. She swayed her arms around and through her power down freezing the guards with the affects of "Diamond Dust" The coldness went away quickly as the air became airid and dry as Ifrit came down. He gave all the guards a sinister look as flames rose from his mouth. Ifrit roared and dove down at them exploding with no mercy as "Hellfire" engulfed them.
The earth began to shake as the next came flying down from the clouds and struck the earth harshly. Titan dug his hands into the ground and grunting as he pulled up the ground and pushed it over making "Anger of the Land" noticed. The earth shakes yet again as the snorting of Kjata is heard. He charges and slams them with "Tetra Disaster".
The Heavens rain down, soaking the ground. A mist comes in and Leviathan emerges sending his "Tidal Wave" sinking them. The ground open sup and Alexander pulls his way out and slams them with "Judgment". A horse whine is heard as Odin gallops on his steed raising his sword high and bringing down "Steel Bladed Sword".
The dark clouds grow darker as Hades becomes visible and with his "Black Cauldron" he spreads his disease. The darkness opens up and winged beasts, Bahamut, and Neo Bahumut, float down. They charge up and release "Mega Flare" and "Giga Flare" reducing the ground to not much than rubble. When the dust clears we got up and the path through the Wall Market was open.
We all ran straight ahead through the out guards. "Wow, those summons leveled the playing field," Yuffie said looking down at the guards. We ran more and we stopped and saw the Mansion of Don Corneo. I looked over and saw a dumpster full of old dresses. I smirked as I said to the others, "Hey guys…I got me an idea…"
My party all looked at me rather strangely. "By my calculations…that smirk on your face is an indication that what you're thinking isn't good…" Red said. "We'll…we should dress up as females and run into Corneo's place and
mess around with him," I said starting to laugh. "What? You sick minded white boy!" Barret said shocked and appalled.
"Yes but I know you wanna get that perv once and for all," I said. "Yeah, I don't want that sick fuck around when Marlene gets older," Barret said shaking his fist. "then lets go and say hello," I said evilly. "Okay, les go then," Barret said walking to the dumpster. The five males including Red and Cait Sith grabbed dresses from the dumpster and looked at what we picked.
"Hey Barret that blue one you picked really goes with the bag you picked…." Tifa said chuckling. "You think so?..." Barret said pressing the dress up to his body. "Wait were we supposed to get accessories to?" Red said looking in the pile of disguared purses. Cid slapped his forehead and shook it in disgust. "Can we just get this over with?...I'm starting to feel rather…fruity…" Cid said looking almost sick.
"But Cid, you look so cute," Yuffie said giggling. "Okay Guys lets go, we'll go to the Clothing Shop to get dressed," I said walking in the direction of the store. We all walked in the store and the clerk turned to us. "Hey! I know you, you were that guy who wanted to look pretty," she said seemingly glad to see me. "Um…yeah hi,." I said to her.
We first went to the caves that were closest to our town. The first one belonged to Al. "Are you the one they call Cave Dweller Al?" I asked.
"Sure is," Al said. "We are looking for an old man who might be in an underground cave and we need his help to find someone," I said. "There aren't any more cave people in these parts, they all abandoned their caves when they heard Sephiroth was killed. Check out the caves by Cosmo Canyon. There's a whole bunch of them over there," Al said.
"Isn't that your home town Red?" asked Yuffie. Nevertheless, Red was a thinking trance. "Hey Cloud? I think Red needs our help too," Tifa whispered into my ear. We walked several miles until we reached Cosmo Canyon. "Cloud, we need a rest," Yuffie whimpered.
"Fine, we'll take a rest now and look for the caves later," I said. We all wound up sleeping until mourning. Well rested we set off to the underground caves to find the old man. "I don't see any underground caves do you Cloud?" Tifa asked me. "No I dooooooooooooonnnnnnn'tttttt aaaaaaaaaaah!" I screamed as I fell down a hole in the ground.