Zack final reached the director's office and carefully knocked on the door, but he received no reply. He knocked again but still received no reply, so he opened the door and peeked in through the small opening, spotting Reeve engrossed in his paperwork "Hello, am I interrupting you?"
Reeve looked up from his work startled at the sudden appearance of his guest standing at his office entrance "Oh sorry there Zack I didn't hear you, Come in" He gestured his guest to come into the office and take a seat in front of his desk.
"It's okay mister director, so how goes the materia fusion?"
"Sorry, still no results on that one. We've tried every materia in our inventory to try reproducing the float materia. As for the one you original handed us, we didn't want to lose it in the fusion process, so it's still in containment. Since it seems to be taking longer than we hoped, I'll give you a wheelchair so that she won't feel bad."
"It's alright; it was hard to create in the first place. By the way, why aren't people using materia that much anymore?"
"Well, after the meteor incident everyone agreed that the planet needed a lot of energy to repair the damage, so the less materia used, the more energy the planet can use"
"Well, that makes sense. Say, are Aerith and me still wanted by Shinra?"
"Shinra is composed of Rufus and four of his Turks who are trying to correct what they did wrong, so they are not interested in the old president's experiments. Besides if they chase after you two, they'll have to get through Cloud and the entire WRO army."
Zack sighed in relief leaning back on his chair "Yeah, thanks for reassuring me, Reeve."
Reeve moved his papers around, till he found the document he needed. "One more thing, Can I ask you for a small favor. I will pay you for your hard work of course."
Just then Shelke walked into the office, attracting both men's attention "I've found some things that you both need to see."
~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~
On the road to Junon, Cloud was on his way to the village just outside of Junon to deliver a package. To him this was just another typical delivery day, the vast empty road, the wind in his hair, the sound of the Fenrir's engine reaching his ears, and the flies bouncing off his glasses, he could do without that last one. But suddenly, black feathers started falling into his view from above 'A bird? No, the feathers looked too big. Probably a Garuda is aiming to attack me, ' but they don't usually take aim at someone riding a vehicle. In any case, he wasn't going to take any chances and pulled out the lightest sword he had and searched for the source of the falling feathers.
He finally found the annoying target, but it wasn't a Garuda, it wasn't clear whom or what it was, just a small moving black dot up in the blue sky to him. When he focused on the black dot, he realized that it was actually two figures that appear to be fighting each other. Although they were busy with each other he didn't put back the sword, just in case, they decided to gang up on him later.
His eyes kept following the dots in the sky till he sensed something dangerous ahead of him. He directed his view back to the road spotting a Behemoth crossing 'Why in Gaia would a Behemoth cross the road?' Cloud placed the sword in its place and steered away from the giant beast, barely avoiding its swinging tail by a hair. 'That was close' Cloud sighed but as he turned to face the road a sharp long sword came in very close contact with his right cheek, leaving a light scratch in its place. Because of the sudden shock, he felt his grip on the bike loosened and the Fenrir slide across the pavement, pushing on one side. He was thrown out of the vehicle and tumbled on the hard ground cracking some of his bones. Most of the pain came from his leg where the bike crashed on it seconds ago. As he forced opened his eyes and took off his shattered glasses, his blurry gaze was greeted by two tall figures fighting each other. He couldn't make out who they were, but one of them had a somewhat black shape behind him. The figures also have bright objects with them. 'Materia maybe?' But Cloud couldn't stay awake to confirm that and slowly lost consciousness. Everything faded to black.
~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~
9 PM, 7th Heaven Bar...
"Cloud's not answering his phone" Tifa complained, putting her cell phone away in her pocket. He had promised to call her at 6 o'clock Edge time, but it's been two hours since the suggested time, nothing yet. The bar was in its final hour, so only the regulars were around for the last round, Cloud was supposed to have returned hours before. And since Zack had a sudden assignment from Reeve, both her bouncers were absent. Thankfully, Barret took the position for the night.
Aerith rolled her chair next to Tifa; Reeve had given Zack the wheelchair as an apology for not having the materia in time. Sitting in her chair, Aerith watched her friend express her worry through her facial expression while staying silent. For a short while she was till she had enough, "I should focus on work now, Cloud may call later when he remembers. He could handle himself if he was ever in trouble." She lectured herself and walked around the bar helping out the customers, doing her job in short.
Aerith, on the other hand, kept staring at her as she made her rounds. Tifa was worried about Cloud, but as she mentioned, He can handle himself. With that thought out of the way, she went straight back to cooking. She is no longer thinking of Cloud, but of her boyfriend, Zack. As he soon as he came by in the afternoon and surprised her with the wheelchair, He left for an assignment from Reeve.
The mission was to slay some beasts around her old church and collect some of the healing spring there. She would have loved to call him, but sadly either her nor Zack got their cell phones, till they received enough Gil. She'll have to bare with it for the time being. She rolled her chair into the kitchen to resume cooking.