"Heroes are made by the paths they choose,

not the powers they are graced with"

- BRODI ASHTON

Tifa rubbed her eyes tiredly and rolled out of bed, the bar was quiet without Marlene and Denzel around, too quiet. They would be back later today, the buggy travels fast and Kalm wasn't far away, even with Cloud driving. Wearily Tifa dressed and open the curtains in her room, a flash of yellow in the street below followed by an incessant knocking, indicated one thing; Yuffie had just arrived. Suppressing a sigh Tifa quickly changed and made her way down stairs to let the excitable teen in, she did remember that Yuffie had promised, or threatened, which did seem a more appropriate term, to visit.

"Hi Tifa, hugs!"

"Oof!"

Yuffie had flung herself bodily at Tifa as she opened the door; if it wasn't for her martial arts training, she would have fallen over backwards. Yuffie bounced back and hit her head on the door frame.

"Ouwie! That hurt!"

"You okay?"

"Yeah, glad to get some sympathy not like Vincent that stick in the mud!"

"I don't think he is the sympathetic type..."

"No he is the vampire type! Really gives me the heebeejeebees."

She shuddered dramatically and made a show of looking over her shoulder, then she turned the full force of her beam against Tifa, who subconsciously checked her materia, she belatedly remembered she didn't have it equipped. Yuffie did a sort of pirouette and waved her hands about.

"So listen, I was talking to Reeve and the gang, and he had been talking to Red and the gang, and apparently Red said, that the planet said, that there was a disturbance" (when she said 'disturbance' she made a wavy motion with her hand)." she pointed to herself smugly and said "of course the first person Reeve deployed on this job was me! The Wutai super ninja with infinite skill and prowess and the instincts of a true warrior!" in Yuffie excitement and wild hand gestures she knocked her hand against the door frame.

"Ack!"

She yelped in a very Yuffie like fashion.

"So Super Ninja Yuffie how can I help you?"

Translation: how can I get rid of you?

Yuffie cradled her hand as if it were broken but then she looked sheepish

"Well you see, Reeve ask me to look into it, to see if I could find the source of the disturbance with my ninja powers."

Translation: keep Yuffie busy while the WRO got to work on finding the disturbance.

"But see, the problem is, I haven't got any leads and I was wondering if you had heard anything."

"Why would I have heard anything?"

"Well you're a bartender aren't ya? People get drunk they tell you things"

Tifa didn't like the built up trust between her and her customers being belittled but said nothing.

"Well actually there is something. Last night this strange guy came in, lavender hair, purple eyes and he was wearing Tonberry skin gloves."

"Yuck that is so gross!"

"Yeah but get this; he said he had been following a remnant and he had been able to tell that Cloud had JENOVA cells inside him."

"well that's not hard, Cloud has those mako-y eyes you know, he is bound to stick out in a crowd with his chocobo hair and as for the remnant stuff, he was probably bluffing and if not its not hard to tell them from the crowd either I mean most of the time they are like slow shuffling zombies (she put her arms out rolling her eyes back in her head then snapped them back putting her hands on her hips)."

"Yeah still he said strange things… anyway if there are remnants on the prowl don't you think that is something worthy of the Wutai Super Ninja's unique abilities?"

"Hey you're right Tifa! This mission is something only I can solve! See you round Tifs!"

She was gone within a few seconds. Thank Gaia! Any long time exposure to Yuffie was somewhat tiring. Tifa wondered how long it would take for Cloud and the others to return, the guy from last night had put her on edge, more then she would like to admit. Something about him, apart from how he looked and the strange things he had said, he seemed so sincere. She briefly wondered what he was doing now, but dismissed the thought before it had even fully formed; it was no use her worrying herself over a total stranger… still had he been talking about her father? And Biggs? How would he know about them? The more she analyzed it in her head, the harder things were to understand. She closed the door and opened the window, looking out at the sun nearing its zenith in the sky. So Nanaki had sensed a disturbance… it wasn't surprising these days with rogue Shinra employees on the loose and now these remnants, still Tifa had to wonder if it was something to do with the stranger from last night…

The Planet was screaming. Screaming at anyone who listened, it was wounded and in need of help. Efforts had been made to cut down on mako usage but just because people had stop bleeding the planet dry it hadn't healed the wound. It hurt to listen to the agonized cries of gaia... but it hurt just as much knowing what the consequences would be for mankind's indifference...

He opened his eyes and dropped down from the tree he had slept in, stretching lazily to get rid of the stiffness. He took the time to allow his clothes to dry, the storm had been fierce and being high up in the tree had its disadvantages. He could sense JENOVA's stigmatic leaching presence even here; it was sickening, even now that geostigma had been all but eradicated the stench remained. This land so close to Midgar, was still tainted with the sickly and acrid smells of processed mako and JENOVA; it took most of his restraint not to tear at the ground, in a crazy attempt to rid the soil of the unearthly scents. His trained eyes picked out a dust cloud on the horizon and soon a metal truck zoomed past, obviously driven by someone not used to dealing with trucks, his other senses told him that the blond remnant… Cloud as the woman from the bar had called him, he was in that truck. Cloud wasn't a threat though; the cells inside him were in a submissive state and were being kept in control, as long as they were under control he didn't care. He stared at his gloved hand and cursed bitterly while making a fist, why had the bartender touched his hand? He knew it had been an accident but that didn't stop him hearing the voices of the dead, the ones she held dear. The feeling will fade with time but for now it was an irreparable mistake, he would always hear them now, what a curse. His senses prickled as he felt another remnant closing in, a group , he corrected himself, small in number. Damn that Sephiroth and his determination, his knowledge of the planet allowed him to strike at it even now, from within the Lifestream. He was glad he couldn't hear Sephiroth in his head; he had been spared that, despite having physical contact with many remnants. Then again, was Sephiroth the one the remnants held dear? He let his senses tell him what was happening, the group was converging somewhere in Edge, they were heading toward Cloud. Of course! That high concentration of JENOVA cells! It was drawing them out, like poison from a wound. A slight growl escaped his lips, Cloud was a dangerous remnant, his good heart made it undesirable to kill him but the high concentration of JENOVA cells made him a prime target. He decided to make his move, pulling his hood up, the mysterious man set back toward the town at a run.

"I think I will keep the name Carl for now"

He whispered to himself

"After all I don't have one anymore…"