Part II

By the time Sephiroth and Cloud arrived in Costa del Sol the sun was already
descending. Still the street were vibrating with life and filled with people,
especially in the harbour area where all the restaurants were located.
Cloud inhaled the atmosphere with great joy and ecxitment. He had never seen
anything
like this before, a city where life seemed to be all about having fun and
enjoying yourself. He had heard about this place before. When the war ended most
parts of the city had been rebuild, and then, it had just seemed to blossom over
night. People from all over the world travelled here just to relax and have fun
for a week or two. A place like this seemed highly unlikely to be able to exist
to Cloud. As he had grown up with the war shading all the parts of the world in
red the only reasons he had known for travelling was to get mercandices, materia
or weapons from other countries if there were none in your own.

"Come, we are going to the old part of town," Sephiroth said. He made way
through
the crowds of people. Cloud noticed the way people looked at Sephiroth,
obviously some of them recognised him even if they only had heard the stories
about him. Their laughter and conversations died out as the great warrior strode
by them. Cloud had the feeling the town had seldom been so quiet as it was in
this moment. He wondered how his master might feel, getting all this attention,
a mixture of fear and admiration. He glanced at his face as he was running by
his side, again having trouble keeping the same pace as the tall SOLDIER. But as
usually, there was no emoitions reflecting in his features.

They entered the old part of Costa del Sol and Cloud deeply wished they had
stayed in the new area. Here, the houses were derelict and some obscure smell
clinged to the streets along with the garbage people put outside their homes.
Even the warm climate for wich Costa del Sol was famous for didnït seem to reach
these parts. The air was cold still the heat seemes insufferable to Cloud.
"There is the inn," Sephiroth nodded in the direction of a big house across the
street.

A large-built cheerful man welcomed them as they entered the inn.
"Welcome my friends, how can I help you?" he asked with a big smile on his face.
"We need a room," Sephiroth said simply.
"Alright, and how long will you be staying sir?"
"One night. "
"But sir, thatïs is not nearly enough time to explore our lovely town, and there
are a lot of attractions to be visited in the outskirts sir. I can recommend the
Gold Saucer and..."
"One night will be enough," Sephiroth interrupted him, "we are just passing
through."
"I see sir, 'I'm sorry," the man stammered seeing Sephiroth was annoyed. He
handed over the key and Sephiroth took it without a word, then turned around and
started up the stairs. Cloud ran after him, not wanting to be left behind.

The room was small and not very well lit. Sephiroth threw his cape over the back
of a lonely chair in the corner. Cloud stowed away his belongings under one of
the beds. Then he realized he had by this chosen a bed before Sephiroth and was
worried the SOLDIER might be offended. He spun around to reel off some kind of
exscuse for this but his master was already sitting on the other bed, in the
same position he had earlier on the ship, reading his book. Cloud took a deep
breath in relief and Sephiroth looked up at him as he heard him sigh.
"Take a look at the town if you like boy, just stay out of trouble," he said
and returned to the book resting in his lap.
Cloud silently left the room and Sephiroth stared at the closed door. He put
the book aside and pulled out a map from his packing. He unfolded it and
found Costa del Sol rather quickly. He studied it thoroughly for a couple of
minutes. Where should they go next? Only a few of the towns on the map were
marked with names, most of them he had already visited and didn't think there
was anything Cloud could learn by visiting them. His eyes lingered at Cosmo
Canyon, an interesting place indeed, but to peaceful and quiet, that would not
serve them any good. He looked a bit further up on the map, at an area covered
with mountains. He found a town there, which would easily have slipped by even
his well trained eye.
"Nibelheim," he read. He knew the name from somewhere but couldn't recall from
where or when. " Maybe we should go there, it looks like an interesting area."
He thought about it a bit further and then he remembered. Nibelheim, Mount
Nibel, one of Shin-Ra's reactors was located there. Then the town was not to be
included in their journey, he didn't want to risk running in to any of Shin-Ra's
employees. He just wanted to forget about them all for these six months. Instead
he decided to keep to the nameless towns, surely they must have something that
would contribute to his student's training. He folded the map again and put it
back with the rest of his packing. He unshielded Masamune and started cleaning
the blade although it was only a couple of hours since the last time he did it
and he hadn't even used it since then.


Darkness was creeping around the corners of Costa del Sol, the night prepared to
enter the town that never slept. Sephiroth looked out the window. Outside a
different kind of people were moving along the streets. The honest and
goodhearted knew better than to stay out after the sun had set in these parts.
He sighed, Cloud should have been back by now. He silently whished for the boy
to be safe. He put on his cloak and left the inn to go and look for his student.


Sephiroth was walking down a filthy street which was framed by bars and
nightclubs. There was still no sign of Cloud. Suddenly, out of nowhere, someone
ran in to him and almost knocked him to the ground. He was able to regin balance
though and caught the person who had run in to him before she, as it turned ot
to be, fell to the ground herself. She was fighting to get out of his grip but
he wouldn't let go.
"Hey, take it easy," he almost screamed at her.
"Let me go," she screamed at him, shooting of some well aimed kicks towards his
legs. Still he would not let go. He noticed she was bleeding form several cuts
on her hands and arms, even some in her face.
"Let me help you," he said, trying to calm her down. Then, her body relaxed, she
felt almost lifeless in his arms. He looked at her face, seeing her eyes were
closed, she was concentrating on something. Too late he realized she was
summoning materia. Suddenly her body seemed electric, and a flow of shocks were
sent through his body. His limbs were numb for a brief moment and the world
blackened before his eyes. This was all the girl needed to make her escape. The
electric shocks she had sent off hadn't really hurt Sephiroth but they had been
enough to surprise him and knock him out of his otherwise extrem self-control.
He
cursed himself for letting his guard down and was just about to chase after the
girl when he heard Cloud's voice.
"Sir," he was breathing heavily, he had obviously been running both fast and
long because Sephiroth knew the boy didn't get exhausted so easily.
"What's wrong Cloud?" he asked.
"There was this...girl...sir," Cloud said, still trying to catch his breath.
"Did you see her? I wanted to..."
Sephiroth interrupted him;
"No, I haven't seen any girl," he lied. "Now let's get back to the inn."