(Chapter two…*sniff sob tissue*)

She trailed off and buried her face in her hands. "Then…everyone's…really gone?" Asked Reno slowly, disbelievingly. She nodded. Elena came over and put an arm around her, and they all let her cry for a little way, feeling her tears as the embodiment of the grief they themselves could not seem to show. Soon she straightened, and cleared her throat. "There's only one person who fought and survived, besides you three. Everyone else was hidden in the observatory. But poor Reeve, he's-"Reeve??" Asked Reno, jumping up. "He's alive?" Shera nodded sadly. "Alive, yes, but I'm afraid he might have been better off dead. He doesn't see, doesn't speak, and just stares out the window all day. Poor Deanna…maybe he'd recognize you! You ought to go see him, really…"

A few minutes later, Shera knocked on a door marked 427. It opened a crack, and a dark haired woman with large circles under her eyes watched them for a moment, then, after Shera's hurried explanation, let them in. She didn't even blink an eye at the Turks' revival. Elena supposed the woman probably felt she couldn't be surprised by anything anymore. They walked into the room, and found that it was completely dark, except for the light coming in from a single open window on the far side. Silhouetted in the window was a bedraggled form, which stared out of it, not turning or even noticing as they came in. Reno stepped closer, and identified the poor creature as Reeve, cut and bruised all over.

The dark haired woman walked towards him, put a hand on his shoulder, and whispered something in his ear before gently steering him around to face Reno, Elena, and Rude. He stood there for a moment, looking at them, and Elena knew he couldn't see them. He was looking right through them, and Elena knew he was probably seeing the battles over and over in his mind, from the tortured look in his eyes. The poor man was lost to them forever, lost to an alien species far far away. They'd not managed to get his body…but they'd undoubtedly got his mind.

After a while, Reeve turned back to the window, and the dark haired woman hung her head, shaking it in sadness, before sitting down at a nearby table to be comforted by Shera. The Turks walked out of the room, leaving them alone for a while. None of them said anything as they walked down the hall, until they realized they'd ended up right outside the front entrance, that would lead them out into the tortured world beyond. The sight of their old comrade had left them shaky and saddened, but somehow they were now prepared to see what was left of their planet. Without anyone speaking, Reno knew that if he turned back, Elena and Rude would go with him. This was something they had to face together. Still not speaking, he stepped forward, and pushed into the revolving door.

What met their eyes as they stepped outside was wasteland. Nothing but barren, broken wasteland. There were no trees, no water, no buildings, no signs of human habitation within their line of vision. Elena closed her eyes to blot it out, but Rude put a hand on her shoulder. "…No," he said, and she opened her eyes, knowing she had to see it, had to come to grips with the destruction. Then she nodded, and stepped forward, walking onward into the distance, to try and find something, anything that was left of this place. Any building, street, forest, tree, puddle of water, anything to prove that there had once been people living here, that this place had once been teeming with life.

They walked for a long time without seeing anything. Then, just as they were about to give up hope entirely and head back, Elena called out excitedly. "Look, there's something over there, really!" Reno and Rude followed her as she ran to look, and then stopped dead, staring, and hanging her head. "Look," she whispered. The large iron observatory stood, half melted away on the top, with a huge sword stuck into the ground right next to it. Elena ran forward and picked it up, hanging her head as she recognized it. "He really wasn't such a bad guy," she murmured, passing Cloud Strife's weapon to Reno. "We were enemies with the wrong people for so long. So many people we didn't get a chance to get to know, already dead-!"

Elena had looked up to where the sword had been, and to her immense shock, a body was lying there, a body that had been hidden by the sword. It was perfectly intact except for a large hole in one arm. They all stared at it, perfectly preserved by the sand and dust around them, until Rude walked forward and propped up the head, resting it against him, and looking into the face. "…Tifa," he said sadly, as he crossed both her arms over her chest. Elena rushed over to him, and grasped his hand. "Rude," she said excitedly, "maybe Yale can…well, cure her! Maybe it's not too late, so don't give up! Come on, let's take her with us, there's still a chance for her, please!" Rude looked up at Elena and Reno, then picked up Tifa carefully, and headed off with the others towards the city that they knew should be nearby.

When they reached it, it was a horrible disappointment. There was almost nothing there, except a few broken walls. Reno recognized a smashed window, looking in on the only partially intact building in the whole place. He alerted the others as they walked into the shell of the "Dark Flower Restaurant," and sat down, exhausted from walking and dealing with what had happened all around them. Reno found a bottle of wine in the corner that seemed to be intact, as well as a few paper cups that must have been used in the kitchen. He poured each of them some of it as they sat on the dusty ground where the floor used to have been, and stared out the hole where the ceiling should be. "Well," Reno said, trying to smile, "We always said we'd come back…"

Then he dropped his head and sobbed unashamedly.