To Hell and Back

By Chapin Mahoney

Chapter 4 – the beginning of your nightmare

4 weeks later.

(Cloud had just gotten his new job 2 weeks ago)

Cloud woke to see tifa lying next to him they had decided to wait for the AVELANCHE reunion and to tell everyone about their engagement.  He then shut off his alarm so as not to wake tifa.  He then left his bedroom to get dressed and to put on his battle gear.  Today he was testing out cadets for SOLDER.  He left the house and then got in the helicopter that took off immediately for the recently built base on the island of KOR.  They landed in a half hour and cloud entered his first cadet came and they dueled for a while his weapon was a sword cloud of course was the only one allowed materia but it was a high level cure just in case.  The battle had been going on for about 3 minuets when cloud had finally found out how good that guy was he quickly turned up the pressure and ended the battle in 30 seconds flat with the sword flew out of the man's hand and stabbed in the wall cloud did a spin kick and took down the man.  "Good match ill let you know in 5 minuets.  The man got up and limped away.  The hours passed until hearing a couple of men at the desk, "hey you cant be in there you %#$$#^&#@!@"!  Then a woman burst in knocking over the guy that was walking out.  "I want to test for SOLDER!" she pronounced.  Cloud had not seen such gall in a woman sconce tifa!  Then 2 top ranking solder's burst in but cloud held up his hand.  Cloud hesitated, "you know that only men can join solder".  "I want to prove a point that women can too!  By the way my name is Enkaru solain!"  "Alright ill let you try out I'm not guaranteeing nothing!"  Cloud got in to his fighting stance, when she drew out of all things the Masume!!!!  Cloud dropped his sword, "What the hell!?!?!  HOW IN HELL DID YOU GET THAT SWORD!!!!????"  Her face dropped in shock,  "I picked it up out of some snow buy the northern crater it was buried pretty deep to but I fell and touched the handle.  Cloud had calmed down some,  "So that's the Masume! How are you able to hold it much less whiled it only sephiroth could use that sword."  Encaru speculated, "Perhaps when he died, his magic over the weapon disappeared. I don't know?!"  cloud was still wide eyed as he asked, "Can I see it?" she extended it too him and he took it.  He swung it around he remembered then the final battle

Flashback:

Sephiroth was standing in front of him in his fighting stance cloud suddenly learning his level four limit break but before he could get out the word sephiroth cast a fire 3 spell on him!  Cloud blocked the spell with his sword but it burned his hand.  Cloud ducked and drooped to the floor as the sword cut above his head.  He kicked the sword out of sephiroths hands and was able to use it.  (he had later come to the conclusion that because they both had jenova cells in both of them.)  sephiroth dogged the first attack by cloud but then he used his limit break with the Masume  cloud yelled with all the hate and rage that had been built up by Sephiroth, "YOU BURNT MY HOME TOWN, YOU KILLED MY MOTHER, AERIS AND NEARLY KILLED TIFA AND NOW YOU WILL DIE!!!!!!!!!!, OMNISLASH!!!

With that he cut sephiroth with the masume and after the final strike he saw something in Sephiroths eyes that cloud hadn't seen in years, fear, "Cloud I'm sorry it was JEN-O-VA!  He had blood running down his face and in his final minuets begged forgiveness from the lifestream.  Cloud flashed back to the present and his eyes flew open NO!!!!  Encaru jumped back not quite knowing what the master swordsman was going to do. His eyes were filled with more horror than she had ever seen! Cloud gestured with the masume, "guards take her to the brig until I figure out what to do"  at this Encaru got into a defensive pose and was preparing to fight the guards but cloud who was about halfway across the room buy now backfilled up on the wall then pushed off the wall and had her in a death grip with the masume an inch from her throat, "now you will go to the brig or ill kick your ass!"  she then relented letting the guards take her, she could not believe how fast he could move and with that sword it looked like a extension of his lethal body.

Cloud instantly stormed out of the room and ordered his secretary to get Reeve on the vidcom in his private office.  He went to his office entered the special access code to get in to his inner office.  The call was waiting for him.  Reeve started at once,  "what is it cloud I just got pulled out of a very I'm…" cloud held up the masume  reeve couldn't speak for a moment but cloud knew what he was thinking, "yes its real and the person who brought it was a girl who picked it up on the northern boundary she wants to join solder but I'm debiting wither to let her live,  but the more important question is how she was able to use it only Sephiroth and I can you and the rest of AVELANCHE know that."  By know reeve was finally able to speak and said,  "Ill call a command meeting with the group I assume you and tifa will be there."  Cloud simply nodded,  "yeah so what should I do with the girl?"  reeve thought for a moment,  "if she still wants to join send her to training camp, with a different sword of course if she passes well then its up to you."  Cloud again nodded and turned off the screen. 

The meeting had gone as planned the team decided to put SOLDER on full alert and to put the Sword with cloud he could use it if he wanted to but he decided to put it in a vault that no one new about not even Tifa. 

After this cloud let Encaru Join the SOLDER training camp and she did quite well so he let her join.  He even let her use his buster sword as repayment until she found a suitable replacement.  The months came and passed and they fell in to a routine cloud went to work in a chopper everyday and came home to run the bar with tifa and before the new it was time for the reunion. 

Morning of the Meeting. 

They both woke with excitement and got dressed and equipped early cloud was once again wearing his huge Ultima weapon.  They had been talking about wedding plans when they heard the Highwind come down right outside cid came out, "!%%^&$#$ Cloud I cant %@$# believe it  Hey Yuffie you owe me 50 Gill " loud cursing could be heard from the front of the ship as they climbed up cid then gave the order rather unceremoniously to get to Cosmo Canyon.  They landed a few hours later and traveled as a group they encountered a large number of monsters but they quickly fell to the team.  They reached the legendary stairs to the entrance barret instantly started to complain damn I hate these things.  They climbed the stairs and were met by red  there were a round of greetings as they proceeded up the hill they arrived at the Cosmo Flame.  They sat around it and began to talk they talked mostly of cloud and where he had been and what had been doing but then nanaki stood up and said, "Well I think its been a long night and we should stop pestering cloud he explained about what happened and it is understandable but the reason I called you all here this year is because I have some startling news." Most of the team waited patiently that is except for cid yuffie and barret who finally shouted, "well????"  nanaki looked very hesitant, "As you all know we have not aged from the day that we defeated sephiroth" at this Vincent looked rather pensive and yet worried.  "I have also discovered something from tiffa's blood sample tiffa's blood contains… pathogens that are indicative of an cetra. I don't know what this means but I take it is a gift from the planet.  I am very glad that you are here cloud because I have a theory so after we are done here will you come with me to my lab?"  cloud almost flinched at the word "lab" he had spent more years in a lab then he cared to count. With hesitation he nodded and they all got up and left going their separate ways but before they left yuffie who had become more observant as of late said, "hey cloud you said that hojo's followers caught you right? Well what happened during that 5 year period?" but cloud did not answer instead he kept walking with nanaki.  Which left everyone even nanaki puzzled the rest of the group because they wanted to know and tifa because she wondered if he would ever tell them.