Disclaimer: I do not own Final Fantasy VII

meeresstern1983: I want to thank you for taking the time to write down your thoughts. I really appreciate your opinion and because it has been asked before, I have been watching a walkthrough of Crisis Core on Youtube and I have decided to include Angeal and Genesis. I think it can definitely make the story more interesting and it does provide some more background.

But because the past is different in my story I will have to slightly change Crisis Core's story. For now I can only say that Angeal is dead since Zack has the Buster Sword.

Also thank you to all the awesome people who favorited/followed this story! You guys absolutely rock!

Sorry for the slow update, I had a lot of work to do for my studies. Here's chapter 10!

Enjoy!

Chapter 10: Hope And Despair

"What do you mean you don't know?!"

Aerith felt the little girl beside her suddenly clutch onto her dress when Zack's angry, loud voice reached their ears. She put a comforting hand on the girl's shoulder and sighed deeply.

They had pulled over on a dusty road on their way to Junon. After the bombings in Midgar, the confusion had made it possible for them to escape with little to no problems at all. Because of Zack's fear of Shinra finding out about his betrayal, they had driven a long time before he dared to pull over. All this time, the silence in the jeep had caused the tension to rise with every passing minute. No one had dared to ask Zack about what was going to happen and certainly not Barret. So now, Zack was unleashing his bottled up anger and frustration on Barret and it wasn't pretty to see.

Aerith actually felt sorry for him. Zack hadn't even given her the time to tend to his wounds and now his young daughter had to stand by and watch how her father got yelled at.

"I... I just saw him arriving in a chopper..." Barret quietly said, Aerith could barely hear his voice.

His head hung low while he pressed a piece of dirty cloth against the wound on his left shoulder. Zack was towering over him as Barret sunk back into the ground and leaned against the jeep.

"You didn't see where he went?" Zack asked for the third time and Barret's answer was still the same.

"No..."

"And Tifa? Where is she?"

"I-I don't know..."

Aerith turned to Marlene and crouched down to be on eye level with the little girl. She placed her hands on her tiny shoulders and softly smiled to calm her down.

"I'm going to talk to Zack okay? Can you wait here?"

Marlene sniffed as she rubbed away the tears that were about to roll down her cheeks. She hesitantly nodded when Aerith slightly squeezed her shoulder.

"It's going to be okay. I promise." Aerith said, while Marlene didn't react and just looked down to the ground.

Aerith felt the urge to take the fragile, little girl into her arms and to hold her tight until all of this was over, but Aerith didn't know when this would end. She had absolutely no clue what was waiting for them in Junon. She just prayed they would be safe there.

When Aerith was about to leave, Marlene looked up to Aerith with fear in her eyes.

"Is he going to hurt my papa?"

Aerith was slightly shocked because of her question. Zack wasn't an aggressive person and she never would have thought a child could think that way of him, but she supposed the way he was yelling and raging at Barret made him look like a bad guy.

"Of course not. He's just worried." Aerith said and saw Marlene nod once.

After she reassured the little girl, Aerith walked over to the two men while Zack was still dominating the conversation.

"Zack, please. You're scaring Marlene, stop yelling like that!" Aerith immediately said to him when his eyes met hers.

Zack opened his eyes wide in surprise and then just sighed while shaking his head. "Sorry. I'm just-"

"I know. You're worried, but Barret doesn't know where they are. I'm sure he's just as worried as we are."

Barret looked up to Aerith for a moment and then back down to the ground, slightly shaking his head.

"It's my fault... I never shoulda let her join..." he muttered and Aerith crouched down in front of him, lifting his hand and the cloth covering his wound.

While she inspected the bloody mess, she softly smiled at him.

"There's nothing we can do about it now." she said while she pressed the skin around the wound to observe how far it had been healed and how much it still hurt. Barret grimaced as she touched the sore skin and then she looked at Zack.

"Can you get me the first-aid kit we found in the car?" she asked and saw the struggle on Zack's face. She knew he wanted to put up a tough act to dominate over Barret, but the man was in need of medical attention and Aerith wasn't going to wait any longer.

When Zack saw Aerith's stern look, he quickly got her what she asked for. Barret was quiet except for a few growls of pain while Aerith disinfected the wound and effortlessly stitched up the gap in his skin.

"There we go." she proudly said after she had sealed off her handiwork and smiled.

"Thanks... I ain't worth this..." Barret suddenly mumbled and Aerith shook her head.

"Oh hush, don't be like that."

When Aerith got up to hand over the firs-aid kit to Zack, Barret struggled back to his feet. He was still having trouble walking with his bruised leg, but Aerith thought he was healing quite fast.

"Why'd ya save me?" Barret suddenly asked Zack.

Zack looked the other way and folded his arms.

"... I couldn't leave her without her father..." he paused while gazing at Marlene and then looked Barret in the eye. "Even if he is the one who caused this mess."

Barret's shoulders dropped down and he nodded as he looked at his daughter who now ran his way. Aerith could see the pain in his eyes, but also the relief of still being there for Marlene. With his good arm, he caught his daughter and a wide smile appeared on his lips.

"Papa, are you okay now?" Marlene asked while hugging her father close.

"Yeah."

Aerith glanced at Zack who nodded to her with a soft smile. She knew he was thanking her this way and she was happy they finally had been able to leave the anger behind. As they all got back in the jeep, Aerith noticed how Zack glanced at his phone every now and then. She knew as well as he did, a phone call from Cloud would be the most likely way to reunite them with him and Tifa. So she prayed and hoped they would soon hear their voices.

Zack didn't hold back the huge yawn that escaped his mouth while he was driving along the narrow, dark and deserted road towards Junon. He wasn't even that tired, but because everybody else in the jeep was sleeping, he also felt the urge to close his eyes for a few minutes. He rubbed the sleep away from his eyes and glanced to Aerith beside him, he couldn't help but to smile at her adorable face. Then he looked into the rear mirror and saw Marlene sleeping in Barret's arms. It was actually very heartwarming to see and yet Zack was still not that comfortable with having Barret in the car. It were his selfish actions that had put all of his friends in danger and now he didn't even know if Cloud was still alive.

Zack swallowed hard and wiped his sweaty hands off on his shirt. He didn't want to think like that, but the last hours he couldn't help but to consider the possibility of Cloud being dead. If Shinra had gotten their hands on him and he was caught in some big misunderstanding, he could have been executed. Together with Tifa probably.

No, they're still alive. They have to be.

It was too unreal to think that Cloud would be killed by the company he adored. There wasn't a SOLDIER more loyal Shinra than Cloud. Surely they must have taken that into account. They had friends in Shinra, powerful friends. The President couldn't have ignored all of them.

But he could. That selfish bastard.

Zack shook his head. He refused to believe it. Cloud wouldn't be that easily killed. He was nearly as tough as himself.

*Begin Flashback*

"Well, at least we're all in one piece. We'll be alright!" Zack said when he saw Tseng and the other SOLDIERS getting back on their feet after the helicopter crash.

He brushed off the snow on his uniform and saw how Tseng tried to get a signal on his phone. Zack knew up in these mountains, their phones wouldn't be of much use. Tseng finally gave up on the phone and looked at Zack who was already walking through the snow.

"Well...Thankfully, we have someone used to this kind of terrain." Tseng said and Zack rolled his eyes.

"Yeah, yeah, I'm the country boy..."

Tseng ignored Zack's reaction and walked past Zack.

"Alright, then. We would have reached Modeoheim by now if we hadn't crashed. So we're going to need to make up for lost time."

"Alright, follow me then!" Zack cheerfully shouted and easily made his way through the deep snow.

After some time, Zack looked back and chuckled when he saw the rest couldn't keep up with him.

"Yo! Don't fall too far behind!" Zack laughed as he yelled to Tseng who was probably rolling his eyes. Zack was still chuckling when he looked at the SOLDIER 2nd class that had joined them for this mission. He smiled at him.

"At least someone's keeping up!"

"Well, I'm a country boy too." the SOLDIER said and Zack was pretty surprised to hear that.

"From where?"

"Nibelheim. How about you?"

"Me? Gongaga." Zack said and frowned when the SOLDIER started to laugh. "Hey what's so funny about that! You know Gongaga?"

"No, but it's such a backwater name."

"Ditto Nibelheim!"

"Like you've been there."

"I haven't, but there's a reactor there, right? A mako reactor outside Midgar usually means..."

Zack paused for a short while and then both of them finished the sentence together. "Nothing else out there."

They both started to laugh and Zack turned around again to wave at Tseng who was quite far behind them.

"Good news Tseng! Me and..." he started to shout and then looked to the SOLDIER who quickly took off his helmet to reveal his spiky blond hair and nodded to Zack.

"Cloud."

"Me and Cloud are both backwater experts. Oh yeah!"

"Good, carry on then." Tseng shouted back and he and Cloud continued their way through the snowy mountains.

"So you're 2nd class huh? I don't think I've seen you around." Zack suddenly asked and Cloud nodded and Zack could see the pride that lit up Cloud's eyes.

"My promotion was pretty recent and I've been away on mission a lot, so..."

"Well you keep that up, you'll make 1st class in no time!" Zack smiled and Cloud nodded with a grin on his face.

*End of Flashback*

Zack tightened his grip on the steering wheel and shook his head.

Cloud, please be alive.

They had been driving for quite a while now and Tifa was starting to get tired. She supposed it was the adrenaline that had kept her moving before, but now it was slowly fading away and she could feel her body scream for rest. Despite being a 1st class SOLDIER, she knew Cloud was also getting tired by the way the Fenrir was gradually slowing down. It wasn't only their body that needed rest, also mentally they were absolutely exhausted. So when Cloud suddenly stopped near a small forest, Tifa let out a sigh of relief when she slipped off the bike.

"We'll rest here for a while." Cloud said and Tifa nodded to him, grateful for finally being able to stretch her legs.

While she walked around the forest and slid her hand over the tree trunks, as she felt the rough texture underneath her fingers she realized how much she had missed the trees and the smell of grass. A soft breeze lifted her hair and tickled her neck and for a short moment it felt like she was back in Nibelheim.

But I'm not...

Tifa stopped walking and gazed at the ground. Without any warning, a single tear escaped her left eye and she sniffed, rubbing the moisture away from her face. She took a deep breath and held the tears back when images of Jessie, Biggs and Wedge flashed through her mind.

I'm so sorry...

She bit her lower lip, she had not only lost her best friend, but she also had to cope with the uncertainty of Barret's safety. The last thing she had seen was him falling off the plate and she didn't have a clue about where he was or if he was still alive. Tifa shook her head when that thought popped up and clenched her fists. Barret was still alive. He had to be. He was a tough guy, he wouldn't be killed that easily.

She let out a long sigh when she realized she was just reassuring herself and then walked up to Cloud who was staring at nothing in particular. Even though Tifa knew Cloud was still angry with her, they had to talk about what they were going to do next.

"Cloud?" she softly whispered, afraid she would startle him.

He just let out a deep hum.

"We need to find them." Cloud suddenly said and Tifa frowned in confusion.

"I saw Zack running away with Aerith and Barret before I passed out." he continued and Tifa widened her eyes and shortly after she started to smile.

He's alive! I knew it!

"And I know they got out of Midgar." Cloud continued and Tifa let out a short happy laugh.

"Thank goodness." she mumbled and noticed Cloud was glaring at her.

She shivered slightly when she looked into his cold bright blue eyes. She was annoyed that he didn't seem relieved or happy to know his friends got away from the chaos. Tifa just looked to the ground and put a hand on her hip.

"If Zack is helping Barret, Shinra will hunt them down and kill them..." Cloud paused and Tifa could already feel the accusations coming her way so she dropped her head down even more. "And now Aerith's not even safe anymore."

Tifa swallowed when she felt his words cutting through her skin and the worst part was that she knew she deserved it. Even though she had never intended for them to be involved, she should have known it was a possible consequence and now she felt even more guilty. With all of her willpower she held back the tears and sadly nodded.

"You're right." she simply said, but didn't dare to look him in the eye. She was too ashamed.

"We're close to Kalm, if we're lucky, they are there."

Tifa knew how unrealistically optimistic that sounded and knew they probably wouldn't be that lucky.

"And if they're not... We'll have to go and find them." Cloud added.

Tifa nodded in agreement and shifted her weight to her right. Her arm slightly brushed against his and she sighed. Even though she would never admit it, she secretly wanted him to hold her close and tell her everything was going to be alright, but she knew she could never ask for that. Not after everything she had done.

"I... I never meant for all this to happen." Tifa softly said and Cloud looked at her.

"Well, it's a little too late to be sorry now."

He was right and that stung even more. Tifa walked away from Cloud and towards the road they were following. She looked to her left and sighed. But then she suddenly noticed movement in the distance and squinted her eyes to try and identify what was coming their way. She widened her eyes when she saw the figures were approaching very fast and they probably were coming for them.

"Cloud..." she said, while reaching out to his shoulder while still observing the movement in the distance.

Tifa then swallowed and tugged on Cloud's sleeve.

"Someone's coming!" she exclaimed and pointed to the approaching figures in the distance.

Cloud followed her gaze and growled. They immediately got back on the Fenrir and drove off as fast as they could.

"Shit."

"Can we outrun them?" Tifa shouted while still looking back.

"I can try!" Cloud answered and accelerated as much as he could.

Tifa saw the figures moving closer to them and she could see they were two SOLDIERS.

"They're coming!"

Right after Tifa had shouted to Cloud, their pursuers started to fire at them. Tifa gasped in shock when she noticed they weren't shooting with regular guns. The loud bang sounded behind them and Tifa ducked away behind Cloud in a reflex and saw the bullet shooting past them way too close for her to be comfortable. The bullet crashed into the ground in front of them and made Cloud spin the bike around, but as a result they lost a lot of speed.

"Ah!"

Another bullet hit the ground and made Cloud steer away again, losing even more speed. When Tifa looked behind them, the two SOLDIERS rushed past them on their bikes and Tifa let out a shocked scream when one of them grabbed her by her arm and pulled her along with them.

"Tifa!"

She cried out in pain when her right arm hit the ground at full speed. She rolled further away and then widened her eyes when the Fenrir was coming right at her. In the next second Cloud threw his weight back and crashed the bike. In the few extra seconds Cloud had given her, she pushed herself away from the ground and just barely avoided the heavy bike crashing into her.

When she got up she was relieved to see Cloud had been able to get his sword before crashing. She immediately turned to the two SOLDIERS. They had just gotten off their bikes and Tifa could now take a good look at them. They both wore the standard 2nd class SOLDIER uniform and also the trademark helmet. She swallowed, if she was supposed to fight one of them, it wasn't going to be easy. To calm the nerves she took a deep breath and clenched her fists. She stepped back when the taller one suddenly rushed at her. In the corner of her eye she saw how Cloud had tried to get to her, but was stopped by the other SOLDIER. Knowing she was probably on her own for this, she threw her arms up in front of her face and blocked the SOLDIER's hard blow. When she saw the disgusting smirk on his lips, Tifa smacked away his hands with her left hand and with her right fist she tried to hit him in the face.

"Too slow!" he laughed when he caught her fist.

She gasped when he pulled her whole body along and hit her in the stomach. She yelled out in pain and clutched her stomach as she stumbled back. The SOLDIER came at her immediately after, but now she was ready. She ignored the pain and side stepped to dodge the blow, she immediately followed up with crashing her right elbow down on the SOLDIER. Before he could retaliate, she jumped back and waited to see his next move.

"You hit pretty hard." he said and smirked. "But not hard enough!"

She glanced back at Cloud's fight and then immediately regretted it when she didn't see the next punch coming. She was smacked against a tree, but before the SOLDIER could follow up, she ducked and kicked away his leg. When he stumbled back, she threw her fist in his chest and made him crash into the road. Not giving him time to recover, she ran after him and wanted to grab him when he suddenly appeared behind her.

She gasped when she saw him flashing away and then felt the hot burning fire hit her in her back. Just a little too late she was able to jump away, but she was panting and grimaced when she felt the pain all over her body.

"Shit..."

She saw his fist coming her way, but she was too tired to react. She widened her eyes when he flashed away and screamed out when his fist collided with her back. The next thing she knew, he held her up by her throat and she could hear her name being called in the distance.

"Ugh..."

With every passing second, Tifa could feel the air slip out of her body and she tried desperately to get free by kicking and hitting the SOLDIER however she could, but he barely felt her weak hits. She started to panic when she couldn't gasp for air anymore and tried to blink away the black spots that threatened to drag her into unconsciousness.

Suddenly the SOLDIER loosened his grip on her throat and Tifa used all her energy to punch away his arm, but he immediately grabbed her left arm and pulled her towards his own body. When she looked at his lips and saw the dark smile, she widened her eyes and noticed the glow of materia lighting up her face. The ice magic swirling around in his arm exploded with such great force that she was sent flying back. The moment her head hit the ground, Tifa felt nothing anymore.

"Tifa!"

Cloud watched in horror how her body crashed into the ground. He let out a deep, dark growl when he aggressively struck down the SOLDIER he was fighting with and started to run towards Tifa's motionless body. Before he could reach her, the other SOLDIER fired a lightning spell at him, which he barely dodged by jumping backwards. Immediately after, he clashed swords with his first opponent and yelled out loudly when he managed to smack him into a tree.

"Tifa!" he yelled again, hoping she would hear him and wake up.

Just when he was about to reach out to her, he saw the SOLDIER coming at him with the green glow of the materia in his arm nearly blinding him. Cloud acted fast and blocked the elemental attack with his sword and immediately grabbed the SOLDIER's arm, pulled him towards himself and with a heavy blow, he yanked away the materia.

Cloud kicked away the shocked SOLDIER and spun around to dodge the other one's attack. He had already absorbed the materia in his right arm and smirked when he could feel the magical power swirl around inside his body.

"Heh."

With a powerful icy beam, Cloud blasted away the two SOLDIERS and immediately ran after them, charging another spell to throw at them. Before the two could realize what was going on, Cloud hit them with a lightening spell and impaled the first SOLDIER with his sword. He twisted the sword around inside his body and saw the blood streaming down from the man's mouth. Cloud hissed at him when he saw the SOLDIER take his last breath and then pulled his sword out of the corpse.

He knew the other SOLDIER was coming at him from behind, but before he could do anything Cloud saw a flash of silver and heard a very familiar humming sound. He widened his eyes when he saw the familiar long silver hair dancing in the wind. Cloud stumbled back in shock when the tall man in front of him stood up and gracefully pulled out his narrow sword out of the body of the SODLIER.

"Hello Cloud."

Cloud didn't know how to react. He was still processing the fact that he had just killed a SOLDIER. It didn't make any sense. Why was he here? Was he here to kill Cloud? Why would they send him?

"Sephiroth." the name came out as a short whisper, as if Cloud didn't believe he was actually there.

A flicker of joy appeared in his unnaturally bright green eyes as he smiled at Cloud. The red glow of the setting sun, made the blood dripping from the Masamune stand out even more and Cloud swallowed when Sephiroth casually wiped off the blood from his sword and turned to Cloud.

"What are you doing here? Did Shinra send you?" Cloud immediately asked .

He didn't know if he had to put down his sword or if Sephiroth posed a threat to him. Cloud found it difficult to keep up his guard around the man he respected the most. Sephiroth had always been his idol and he had always felt proud to stand beside him, but now Cloud felt uneasy in his presence. Surely Sephiroth knew about Cloud's betrayal.

"Not even a proper hello?" Sephiroth said and chuckled. "But no, Shinra did not send me."

Cloud was even more confused, why would he go find Cloud by himself?

"But then... why ar-?"

"I came to see you."

Cloud didn't say anything, he was just so confused. He heard how Sephiroth let out a short chuckle and then he walked towards Cloud.

"You see, I had grand plans for you, but this changes everything of course."

"What are you talking about?" Cloud asked and frowned, he was getting more suspicious of Sephiroth by the minute. Cloud closely followed Sephiroth's movements with his eyes and tightened his grip on his sword.

"You've always been a hard fighter, you were always striving for more power." Sephiroth paused and also stopped walking around. Cloud swallowed slightly when his mentor suddenly smirked ominously at him. "Well I'm able to give it to you."

"What is this about? I don't understand." Cloud yelled as he took a step back when Sephiroth slowly approached him with the Masamune firmly in his left hand.

"Then you will soon enough!"

Sephiroth suddenly dashed forward and Cloud immediately brought his sword up in front of him to protect his body from the impact. He pushed back and made Sephiroth jump away. In a matter of seconds Sephiroth swung the Masamune back at Cloud and started to push Cloud back with powerful blows. Even though they were both 1st class SOLDIERS, Cloud knew the general was still a great deal stronger than him and so he quickly unleashed a blade beam to gain some time to reposition himself, but Sephiroth didn't allow it. Cloud let out a short cry when Sephiroth swiftly cut his left arm.

Cloud growled in frustration when he eyed the bleeding wound and then heard Sephiroth laughing.

"Why are you doing this!" Cloud yelled in anger and Sephiroth simply smiled.

"Because I have a very important task for you."

"What?"

Cloud frowned, but before he could ask more questions, Sephiroth was already racing at him with his sword ready to strike. Cloud braced himself and took the blow and then retaliated with a powerful blow of his own pushing Sephiroth back. Cloud used the little extra time to quickly separate the hollow blade from his main blade and jumped back with the two blades firmly in his hands. He managed to dodge most of Sephiroth's attacks and then moved forward, attacking with the two blades at the same time, but Sephiroth suddenly kicked him in his stomach making Cloud fall back.

"Argh!"

Cloud rolled back and lost the hollow blade in the process. He gasped when Sephiroth came right at him and tried to dodge the attack, but he yelled out in pain when the Masamune cut deep into his right leg.

"Let's finish this." Sephiroth suddenly said and Cloud widened his eyes.

Using all of his remaining energy, Cloud pushed himself off the ground and dived into Sephiroth, sending him backwards with fast and powerful blows. He quickly spun around to grab the hollow blade to be able to attack faster. However, before Cloud could get to the blade, Sephiroth put his boot down on it and Cloud look up in shock. Sephiroth smirked and kicked Cloud away, making him fall on his back.

In the next second Cloud let out a horrified gasp when he felt the cold metal pierce through his skin and then his chest. The pain came a few seconds later and Cloud let out a loud scream. He started to cough up blood and he could feel his body going in overdrive to try and heal the fatal wound in his heart. He could feel the mako in his veins try to strengthen his body, to stop the bleeding, but Cloud knew he wasn't going to come back from this. He nearly choked on his own blood and dug his nails deep into the ground. Sephiroth stood next to him and had a devilish smile on his lips.

"Don't worry, I won't let you die." he said and Cloud started to feel lightheaded as the pool of blood he was bathing in grew with each second.

"I want you to meet someone Cloud. I want you to meet my mother." Sephiroth continued and Cloud widened his eyes when Sephiroth reached for a small black box in his coat.

"Wh-Wha?" his voice was barely noticeable, but Sephiroth chuckled shortly.

"I know you will appreciate her power." Sephiroth said and Cloud looked up to him in shock as he started to open the small box and moved towards Cloud. "I won't let you disappoint me as well."

"S-stop!" Cloud sputtered and tried to move away even though his body couldn't bring up the energy to move. Sephiroth just scoffed and suddenly pushed down on the Masamune, making the sword dig into Cloud's body even deeper. He screamed out and then gasped when Sephiroth started to pour the green liquid in the box onto the narrow sword. Cloud widened his eyes and shook his head while gasping for air. He was starting to panic when he saw the green liquid roll down on the sword and towards his body. He tried to move once again, but all of his efforts were in vain. He was completely paralyzed.

"N-No! Stop!" Cloud managed to get out, but Sephiroth answered with a laugh.

"You can't stop it Cloud. You'll soon understand."

Once the liquid reached his skin and the wound in his chest. Cloud yelled out until his voice couldn't take it anymore and faded away. The green liquid immediately disappeared inside his body and Cloud had never felt anything this painful before. He felt like puking his guts out, but luckily all of the pain soon started to fade away together with Cloud's consciousness. When nearly the whole box was absorbed by Cloud's body, his head rolled to the right, motionless. The last thing he could see was Tifa's pale, bruised body and in one last attempt he tried to reach out to her.

Tifa...

He smiled satisfied when Cloud's body finally gave in and lay motionless on the ground. Carefully Sephiroth pulled his sword out of Cloud's chest and flicked it to get most of the blood off it. He stepped over Tifa's body and then reached for his phone that had begun to ring.

"Have you found it?" he asked and a while later an annoyed sigh escaped his mouth. "Then look harder."

"Tell the President I'll be there soon. I have news for him."

As he pressed the red button on his phone, Sephiroth clenched his fist and glared into the dark of the night.

I changed Cloud to SOLDIER 2nd class and Zack to 1st class when they became friends during the mission in Modeoheim. It would be more realistic for Cloud to be 2nd class (and not an infantryman) since he was promoted to 1st class 2 years after Modeoheim and one year before Tifa came to Midgar.

I'm sorry if the thing with Sephiroth is still a little unclear, but it will be explained in later chapters.

Once again, I'm sorry for the long wait. I'll try to get the next chapter up faster, but with deadlines and finals coming up I don't have a lot of time to write.

I hope you guys like the story so far. Please don't forget to review/fav/follow! Tell me what you think because it's kind of pointless for me to keep writing if I don't know if you like it or not.

Next chapter: A quiet town called Kalm