Hello everybody! Sorry for the obscenely long time it took for me to update this story. I had a lot of other things to do, and they distracted me from this story. That and I kept getting new ideas for stories that wouldn't go away. Once again, I'm sorry for the long wait and I thank all of my loyal readers for being patient with me. This story is almost done and I have no intention of abandoning it at this stage.

Just be prepared for another long update for this story since I'm about to start college in a month and I'm right now in the groove of my other stories. Rest assured, though, that this story will be finished sometime in the future. I hope this chapter was worth the wait for all of you. Don't forget to leave a review.

Please read some of my other stories while you patiently wait for this one to be updated and finished. Thank you and see you at the next update!

Chapter 35: The End of a Nightmare... Or Is It?

After traveling down the barricaded section of the highway for a couple of minutes, the two teens finally found what they were looking for. They found the truck that the others used to escape parked on the side of the road next to a couple of heavy-duty construction equipment. Next to the truck was Adeus, who looked as though he was trying to prevent Angeal from climbing into the vehicle. A few yards away from them were the three Turks huddled together and seemingly communicating with Tseng on one of their phones.

"Well, it looks as though we went the right way after all Cloud," Zack stated as the roar of Fenrir's engine quickly caught the attention of the people who rode their way here in the truck. "I guess there's no need for you to feel stupid about going the wrong way now, right?"

Before Cloud could reply, the young SOLDIER slammed on the brakes and turned the wheel at the same time so that the motorcycle would slide to a stop at a sideways angle. Once they fully stopped, he quickly kicked the bike stand down and hopped off of it, motioning for the blond to do the same.

"Humph, it's about time that you two showed up," Angeal said as he walked away from the truck and calmly towards them with Adeus following closely behind. "I was beginning to wonder just what was taking you so long to get here. I was about to go and see for myself."

"It sounded more as if you were really worried about them than just innocent wondering," Adeus said as he approached them, looking better than he did when they last saw each other. "You were complaining about how unnaturally long it was taking for them to get here. If I wasn't here, you'd probably be driving back to the Shinra Building in the damn truck trying to figure out what was holding them up."

"I'd rather that you don't speak of that again Adeus," the older SOLDIER requested coolly as his cheeks had ever the slightest tinge of red on them, although it was hard to see unless you really took a hard look at the man. "They don't need to know what happened during the few minutes they weren't here. Besides, it's something that I find embarrassing and would rather that they stay in the dark about."

"Sorry but it's kind of a bit late for that, Angeal," Zack replied as he had his trademark grin on his face in combination with a small chuckle at seeing his mentor embarrassed, a sight that was totally rare for him. "It's nice to know that you were worried about me and Cloud here, though. We're you really that worried, though; that you wanted to try and ride the truck back to the Shinra Building just so you could see what was taking us two so long? It kind of sounds a bit extreme in terms of how you normally act and all that."

"True worry and terror comes in all kinds of different forms Pup. If allowed to take over your system, it can cause you to do things that you wouldn't normally do. I had one such episode, and I'd rather you didn't rub it in. That was not one of my brightest moments as a normally calm SOLDIER."

"I'll say," the raven haired teen playfully rubbed in, despite what his mentor had just asked him to not do. "I never thought that I would here you, of all people, having a panic attack like that. Good old Angeal having a panic attack over his student and his cadet friend being left inside a building of death is something I never thought I'd be hearing about in a million years."

At this remark, the older SOLDIER simply shook his head at his student's childishness of the situation. He half expected for Zack to have been acting this way, and even though it was not the most favorable attitude he preferred, it was still one he found relaxing. After all, it was in the puppy's nature to act that way and it would be completely different if he acted any differently. He would not want the teen to be acting in any other way than this.

"Ahem, if you four are done messing around with each other," Reno addressed them in a rather amused tone with as he cleared his throat in a rather obnoxious way. "I need to tell you about how we're planning to be proceeding from here on out. We just finished talking with Tseng and he's thinking on landing his helicopter here on this empty part of the highway."

"And how long is it going to take for him to get here?" Cloud asked after he took a quick look behind him. For some odd reason, he had a weird tingling sensation running down the back of his spine and he felt that something was behind him. "I don't think I really want to be in this city anymore, not after what I went through inside the Shinra Building."

"I don't really blame you for feeling that way Cloud," Angeal said in an agreeing tone as he looked back in the direction they came from. "I'm feeling the same way as you, as a matter of fact. Besides, I'm sure the four of us earlier tonight said that we were going to part ways with the company once we got out of there alive. What did you say your plans were again?"

"I'm going straight back to my home in Nibelheim and go back to living with my mom," the blond answered as he looked at the others around him. "It's the only place I have left that I can call home and run back to where I can hopefully try to forget everything that's happened here tonight. I'm telling you, this is one nightmare that I really don't want to remember."

"Oh, I hear you loud and clear on that buddy," Zack agreed with the young cadet as he ruffled the spiky blond hair in a playful way. "I don't think anybody here wants to remember tonight. I'm going to be doing the same as you, except that I'm going to go back to Gongaga. I haven't been back to my hometown ever since I became a SOLDIER here, so a visit back home is long overdue at this point."

"Well, once Tseng gets here with the helicopter, I'm sure it'll be more than easy to get you guys to where you want to go," the red headed Turk said after being left out of the conversation for a while now. "After all, we can practically go anywhere with that thing of his."

"…If we had your helicopter with us, then we don't really have to wait for him," Rude stated as he turned his head from Cissnei, whom he was speaking with still. "Then again, I guess it couldn't have been helped that it decided to have engine problems right before we landed here. I can only imagine what's happening to the poor thing sitting by itself just outside of the Midgar walls."

"Uh, you do know that it wasn't really my fault, right Rude?" he asked with a raised eyebrow. "These technical difficulties sometimes like to come up at the worst of times. This just happened to be one of those moments. How was I supposed to know that something like that was going to happen? It was just a totally random thing that decided to happen at the worst time possible."

"As unfortunate as it was to lose the helicopter in such a fashion, I do admit that the cruel act of fate wasn't your fault," the bald Turk admitted coolly as he took off his shades and quickly cleaned them before he placed them back over his eyes. "I acknowledge that what happened with the engine was a complete random act of fate. I was just merely stating the facts here, however unfortunate and possibly discouraging they may have been."

"At least we managed to get through to Tseng before he got too far from here," Cissnei added in a pleasant tone. "It would have been bad if he had gotten too far and couldn't turn back to pick us up. Now we just need to figure out what we're going to do with the situation inside the Shinra Building. I still can't believe that it's overrun by all of those zombies and killer monsters. I find it even harder to believe that it was Professor Hojo who made all of those abominations and let them run loose throughout the entirety of the building."

"Well, it's time that you start believing it, Cissnei," the young raven haired SOLDIER replied with a small sigh escaping his lips. "I always knew that there was something off about the guy when I first met him for the routine check-up of all would-be SOLDIERs. He just had that weird aura about him, and I see that I was right about that the entire time. I hope that shows someone that I wasn't just imagining the whole thing the entire time."

"It was normal for me to think that you were just coming up with excuses in order to avoid seeing the professor for your physical," Angeal stated as he knew that Zack was talking to him on that. "Don't forget that I've been a member of SOLDIER longer than you pup. I've seen and heard a lot of things that other SOLDIER hopefuls have done. I knew that you didn't like him a lot, and I thought you were just trying to fool around with me until I cracked and said that you could skip seeing him. I see now that I was only half-right on that."

"Well, I suppose it's better late than never, right?" he replied with a small shrug of his shoulders as he stole a glance back at where the Shinra building was, even though he could not see it from his position. "I still can't believe that Sephiroth was actually in league with the professor on this and wanted to make himself a part of the Lifestream so he could govern the entire world from there. I didn't think that such a respectable man like him could stoop to such a level and throw everything that he had created for himself away as if it were nothing but useless trash."

"Well, figuring out that you have a chance at immense power and all that other good stuff can easily mess around with your head, regardless of who you are," Reno stated as he played around with his bangs a bit out of boredom. "It'd have to take a great sense of both righteousness and will power in order to resist the urge to do anything to achieve great power. In the general's case, he might have had the will power to move away from it, but he lost his righteousness somewhere along the way. That's what pretty much did him in there."

"…I never thought you'd be able to come up with something as philosophical as that, Reno," Rude stated with light surprise lacing his monotonous voice. "This is literally the first I've heard of you talking like this in all the years I've been partnered up with you. Did you happen to get hit in the head or something sometime during our fight with Sephiroth earlier?"

"Just because I don't usually spit out these kinds of things doesn't mean that I don't have the capability to do so, Rude," the red-head replied with a slight snarl as he stopped playing around with his bangs. "I just prefer to not talk like that. It makes me sound all sappy and stupid instead of the cool and chill style I prefer. You get what I'm saying here?"

"Speaking of Sephiroth," Adeus spoke up after being quiet for most of the conversation, "what happened to him when we left you and Cloud behind, Zack? I don't think you just simply managed to get away from the general without at least coming up with something to preoccupy him. You probably wouldn't have been able to get away otherwise."

"Well, we managed to make the crazy guy distracted for a moment while trying to sic a zombie on him," Zack explained as he smiled widely at the memory. "Believe it or not, that plan actually came from Cloud here. He was the one who thought of me distracting the guy while he casually found a zombie and push the thing onto Sephiroth. It wasn't easy, but we somehow managed to make a dent in his concentration long enough for that plan to work."

"And I must say that that was not the proudest moment of my life," an all too familiar voice cut through the Midgar night, scaring the entire group out of their wits. "I have truly underestimated the abilities of all of you. Now that I know your true potential, I will not be running the risk of making the same mistake again."

Frantically, the entire group started to look everywhere around them in search of the location of the voice, Sephiroth's voice. They looked at every spot they thought he could possibly be at, but they could not find him anywhere. That was when they heard him laugh in a rather evil fashion.

"I find it rather amusing that you are all trying so hard to find me and failing miserably at it," the General continued to laugh as he watched on from wherever it was he was hiding. "If you are all so intent on finding me, then I suggest you look up rather than all around you. I guarantee you that you will have better luck if you do so."

Taking the man's advice, they all simultaneously turned their heads upwards and were instantly surprised at what their eyes saw. Up in the sky was the man who they were looking all around for. Despite what reality was telling them at this point, there was no denying that they were really seeing what they were seeing. Sephiroth was floating in mid-air with his Masamune gripped firmly in his left hand as he looked down upon them with an evil smile adorning his lips. His eyes gleamed dangerously under the light of the city around them. The source of his flotation was located on his back; a single ebon black wing that was almost overlooked in the pitch black sky lazily flapping every second or so in order to maintain constant altitude.

"I believe that the time for games is over now," the man stated monotonously as his evil smirk continued to grow along with the malice being reflected in his eyes. "Once I finish you all off, nothing shall stand in my way of my plans to go into the Lifestream and governing this world!"