Chapter Three:
Not Just Anywhere
Rani violently threw his blue Shinra helmet upon the grass-covered ground. He was tired of waiting.
The young commander looked up at the monstrous dome of fiercely glowing white energy before himself, his feelings a mix of boredom, frustration, and worry. After testing what affect the energy field would have on an object (it should be mentioned that this test consisted of thrusting a stick into the field, then removing it), President Reeve himself had ordered two squads of Neo-Shinra soldiers to the site of the energy. One squad was to enter the energy and survey the area within, if possible, while the other kept watch, allowing none near the vicinity of the dome. Sure enough, one group had entered the massive field, while the squad commanded by Rani had remained outside to keep watch. It was fortunate that Rani had, in fact, remained to patrol the perimeter of the energy field, as they had found a man lying unconscious upon the ground at its border.
That had been three days ago.
Rani was a man of action. If he had nothing important or exiting to do, he would become bored very quickly. Thus, it is no surprise that he was fed up with waiting for the other squadron of soldiers to emerge. He had his orders, however, and would not go against the wishes of his superiors and travel into the dome. Besides, the other squadron could be dead, for all anybody knew; the dome may not have been as safe as was thought to begin with.
"Commander." A fully uniformed and helmeted man who had approached behind him cut Rani's thoughts short.
Rani ran a hand through his sweat-dampened black hair and placed his helmet on his head before turning around to face the soldier. "What do you need?"
"The young man we found the other day is waking up, sir," the soldier said, the helmet distorting his voice slightly. "He seems pretty disoriented, but I think he might be able to tell us about the origins of this...thing."
"All right," Rani said with a nod. "Take me to him."
"Right this way, sir. We have him in the medical tent."
As Rani and his subordinate walked trough the camp, the young commander noted that all of his soldiers were at least as bored as he was. Though some played cards or dice, few did anything of any entertainment value. The vast majority of the soldiers simply sat in small groups and spoke little, being hot and tired from having to wear their full suits of standard-issue Shinra armor all day. Though they were also required to carry their machine guns at all times, the soldiers had been allowed to disregard the rule by Rani, who had quickly become tired of it himself.
When the two soldiers reached their destination, Rani threw open the flap of the spacious medical tent and walked in briskly. Though interrogation was not his forte, he was bored enough to do just about any task available to him.
* * * * *
Luts held his head in his hands, his eyes closed due to the pounding pain that seemed to originate within his head. He rubbed his eyes, allowing them to adjust to the light, and took in his surroundings. He appeared to be sitting upon an uncomfortable cot within a large, white tent that seemed to be used for field medical purposes, judging from the various medical equipment located within. However, all of the medical equipment appeared to be quite antiquated. He did not have a great deal of time to think, however, for a man clad in modern blue battle armor soon confronted him.
"I'm sure you would like to know where you are, if you haven't already guessed," the man said. "You were found at the site of quite a strange phenomenon, to say the least, but you are probably quite acquainted with that. We brought you into our camp three days ago."
Luts cleared his throat. "So...I've been asleep for three days?" he asked.
"That's right," the man answered. Luts noted that his blue helmet seemed to muffle and distort his voice to some degree.
"So who are you people?" the mercenary asked. "Where...are we, exactly?"
The man before Luts removed his helmet, revealing a thin face with black eyes and hair. "I'm Commander Rani Garas, squad leader of Neo-Shinra Squadron Beta-zero-eleven. We're right outside something you couldn't possibly have missed: a large dome of unidentifiable white energy." Rani eyed Luts oddly as he finished speaking.
Luts sighed. "Neo-Shinra? Is that some sort of military? If it's anything like SeeD-"
"Where are you from?" Rani said. "Wutai?"
"No, I'm not really from anywhere. I'm a mercenary."
"Then you've surely heard of Shinra. It practically owned the world at one time." Rani paused. "It's mako reactors once supplied the entire free world with power. Where in hell have you been for the past twenty years?"
Luts stood up with a bit of effort. "Look. I really don't know much about the Centra Continent. If you could just tell me where the guy that was with me is, I'd appreciate it."
"You were the only one we found," Rani replied with a shrug. "And I have no idea what the Centra Continent is. There's no such landform in the world."
"All right," Luts said angrily. "What the hell kind of a joke is this? It's not funny, and it's starting to piss me off." Despite the protests of Rani and his soldier companion, Luts stalked out of the tent and into the Shinra camp.
Unfortunately, the sights of the camp simply served to further confuse Luts. Looking around, he found that he was being stared at by quite a few soldiers dressed in similar battle garb as those he had already spoken to. Though he could not discern their expressions, as the dark visors of their helmets hid their faces, Luts could plainly see that most of the soldiers regarded him with suspicion, as if he were a prisoner of some sort. Feeling quite uncomfortable, Luts quickly reentered the medical tent and addressed Rani.
"Where's my sword?" he said nervously. "I'm getting out of here."
Rani shook his head. "I'm afraid that won't be possible. President Shinra wants to talk to you."
"Damn it, I don't want to talk to any presidents! I just want to get out of here and find my friend, so if you could just give me my sword and let me go, I'd appreciate it."
"Sorry," Rani said simply. "I-"
"I don't need a fucking apology!" Luts screamed. He breathed deeply, then sat upon the cot abruptly. "Just...leave me alone. I don't want to talk to anybody right now. I need to think."
Rani shrugged. "As soon as you give us some helpful information, we'll leave you alone."
"All right, damn it. What do you want to know?"
"Let's start from the beginning," Rani said. "What is your name, and where are you from?"
"The name's Luts Vanguarde. Like I said, I don't really have a hometown, but I used to be a member of the Galbadian Army. I quit when that Sorceress took power in Galbadia, because her plans of world domination didn't really interest me. Besides, things were getting too violent back then." He sighed. "Of course, if you've never heard of the Centra Continent, you've probably never heard of Galbadia, either. Where are we, anyway?" Luts added as an afterthought.
"Just south of Junon," Rani replied confusedly. "You know, the city that's famous for two things: the fact that it is now the location of Neo-Shinra Headquarters and the fact that the Junon Cannon blew Emerald WEAPON's head off four years ago."
Luts sat up suddenly. "What the hell...WEAPON?" He scratched his head. "This might sound like a stupid question, but...what year is it now?"
Rani shrugged. "2005 AC. Why?"
"No, it's not possible," Luts argued. "2005 AC...the ancient past? The Age of Legends? There's no way...no..."
"Ancient past? Age of Legends? Perhaps I shouldn't ask you where you are from, but when."
"17936 AC was the year I was hit by that god-forsaken energy. Is it possible that I was..."
Rani, however, paid no attention to Luts' musings. He had already produced his PHS, a silver, boxlike communications device, from a compartment in his armor, and was pressing several buttons upon its surface. He lifted the device to his ear and began to talk into a small speaker located opposite the end that he held to his ear. "Yes, I'm Commander Rani Garas-...Yes, the commander of the Beta Squad sent to the site of the-...What do I need? I need to talk to the President! If you could just...but...damn it!" He angrily pressed a small button on the side of the device and returned the PHS to its original position. "Well," he said to Luts, "It seems like President Reeve is busy at the moment, so we won't be able to figure out when in hell you came from and why you ended up here for a while, if time travel is, in fact, the case in this situation. The only thing we can do now is wait."
"But Clest..." Luts muttered. "He was also hit by the energy field."
"If he was thrown through time, as well, he could be anywhere."
Luts sighed dismally. "Anywhere..."
* * * * *
"Hyaa!"
A swift slash. Another thick log chopped in twain by an unrealistically gargantuan sword.
The sun had not yet risen above the small mountain town of Nibelheim, but Cloud Strife was restless. He had had trouble sleeping as of late, and could think of no better way to pass time than cutting things in half in his own backyard, a pastime he had always found quite entertaining when bored. Thus, the swordsman scratched his head, causing sweat from his wild yellow hair to moisten the flesh of his hand, and placed another log upon the stump he often used for chopping firewood. Taking a battle stance, Cloud's eyes narrowed and focused upon the log before him as best they could in the darkness.
"Hyaa!" With a loud cry, the warrior slashed his target diagonally, creating a clean cut in the wood with his massive weapon. Tired from his laborious chopping, Cloud collapsed into the dew-laden grass and lay back, his eyes gazing up at the stars above the town.
The stars. It seemed as if the stars above Nibelheim were the only part of the town that had not been completely changed by the wicked, corrupt Shinra Corporation of the recent past. Yes, Cloud knew full well that the Nibelheim in which he lay was not the Nibelheim in which he was raised; that Nibelheim had been burnt to the ground by the maniacal Sephiroth nine years before, and had subsequently been rebuilt by the Shinra of the time in its attempt to cover the madman's tracks. In fact, Shinra's only motivation for restoring the town to its former state, at least in appearance, was to hide their "failed experiment," as they called Sephiroth, from the eyes of the world. Surprisingly enough, this cover-up had worked for quite a long period of time, and had only been unveiled when Cloud had been forced to return to his hometown in his search for Sephiroth four years before.
Regardless of its changes, Cloud and his wife Tifa could not bring themselves to keep away from Nibelheim for any great length of time. It had actually been Tifa's decision to return; she believed Cloud needed to return to his place of birth so as to get over the death of the first woman he had ever loved.
Had he truly loved Aeris? Cloud was not certain himself. He had certainly been physically attracted to her, as she was a beautiful woman; however, had he actually loved her? The two had met unexpectedly in a time when both had mixed emotions, though Cloud's were much more chaotic and maddening than those of Aeris. Perhaps he had merely been trying to rationalize with himself, trying to convince himself of his own humanity for reasons he was then unaware of. It was also possible that she did not actually care for Cloud as even she herself thought she did. In fact, it was quite possible that she had only loved cloud due to the fact that his personality had been derived from that of Aeris' former lover, who had been a friend of Cloud during his days as a Shinra soldier and had been infused with mako and Jenova cells alongside him. Whether or not there existed true mutual feelings between them was insignificant, however; when Sephiroth killed Aeris, Cloud felt as he had years before while watching his hometown burn to the ground around him.
It had taken Cloud quite a while to overcome the grief and emptiness that remained within him after Aeris' death, and he had only done so with the help of his close friend Tifa. By the time he had overcome his grief completely, Cloud's feelings and stolen individuality had matured to the point that he realized he was actually destined for the woman who had helped him overcome his problems so many times in the past.
The very woman of whom his thoughts were focused upon interrupted Cloud's thoughts.
"What are you doing?" Tifa muttered tiredly. "Do you know what time it is?"
For a long while, Cloud could only stare at his wife, her features dimly illuminated by the light upon the porch on which she stood. Her black hair hung down to her thighs, and was splayed haphazardly over her deep brown eyes; she had obviously just risen from bed. Finally, the warrior rose from the ground and leaned against his sword. "I couldn't sleep," he said. "I was just thinking about...things."
Tifa shrugged. She had been doing quite a bit of thinking lately, as well, but her thoughts generally involved the intricacies and financial demands of having a third mouth to feed in the household, or lingered wistfully upon questions of how things would be if she were pregnant. "Why don't you come back inside. It's cold out here."
With a sigh, Cloud approached his wife and wrapped his arms around her. "I'm sorry for waking you," he said, staring intently into Tifa's eyes.
Tifa smiled. "You can make it up to me..." she muttered, her face ever nearing that of Cloud...
A loud, constant buzz shot through the air, effectively ruining the couple's reverie.
"Damn it," Cloud cursed, releasing Tifa and storming into the house through the back door. "PHS." Reaching a steel box upon his kitchen counter, Cloud proceeded to pull a smaller box away from its position upon the larger box and brought the device up to his head. "Hello?"
The voice of Reeve, the president of the Neo-Shinra Corporation, responded. "I'm sorry for waking you, Cloud, but we've got a bit of a problem up here at Junon."
Cloud sighed. "No, we were already awake. What's the problem?"
"You've already heard the news of that odd field of energy that has shown up just south of town, right?"
"Yes," Cloud said with a shudder. "I haven't seen anything like it since...Sephiroth..."
"No, this has nothing to do with HIM, thankfully," Reeve was quick to respond. "But it may be that this particular incident is far more intriguing than the barrier of the North Crater. You see, I have recently received a report that a young man was found at the site of the incident by one of my patrol teams. He claims to have come from the year 17936."
"Time travel? What the hell..."
"As strange as it sounds, I have a feeling that we can't just disregard what he says. Also, I sent a squadron of soldiers into the energy three days ago, and they've disappeared. If time travel is an option, there is no telling where, or when, they could be. I'd really appreciate it if you would come to Junon right away; maybe you'll have some idea what is going on."
"How should I know?" Cloud muttered. "You should probably call Nanaki. He'll know what to do."
"I can't get in touch with Cosmo Canyon. You're the only person I could think of to call."
Cloud thought over the other possible candidates for the job of identifying the odd energy. Barret? No, he was too busy with Corel. Cid? They might just need his particularly speedy modes of transportation anyway. Vincent? There was no telling where he was. Yuffie? No. End of story. "Well..." Cloud muttered, "All right. I've got to go now." At that he hung up the PHS.
"Who was it?" Tifa asked tiredly.
"It was Reeve," Cloud replied. "He wants us to head over to Junon. It's something about that energy field we thought was just a Neo-Shinra experiment."
"So it isn't just an experiment?" Tifa questioned.
"No. There's a bit more to it than that, according to Reeve."
Tifa approached her husband and put an arm around his waist. "We can head there tomorrow," she said, settling her head against his well-muscled arm. "For now, let's just try to enjoy the rest of the night."
Cloud was happy to comply.
Not Just Anywhere
Rani violently threw his blue Shinra helmet upon the grass-covered ground. He was tired of waiting.
The young commander looked up at the monstrous dome of fiercely glowing white energy before himself, his feelings a mix of boredom, frustration, and worry. After testing what affect the energy field would have on an object (it should be mentioned that this test consisted of thrusting a stick into the field, then removing it), President Reeve himself had ordered two squads of Neo-Shinra soldiers to the site of the energy. One squad was to enter the energy and survey the area within, if possible, while the other kept watch, allowing none near the vicinity of the dome. Sure enough, one group had entered the massive field, while the squad commanded by Rani had remained outside to keep watch. It was fortunate that Rani had, in fact, remained to patrol the perimeter of the energy field, as they had found a man lying unconscious upon the ground at its border.
That had been three days ago.
Rani was a man of action. If he had nothing important or exiting to do, he would become bored very quickly. Thus, it is no surprise that he was fed up with waiting for the other squadron of soldiers to emerge. He had his orders, however, and would not go against the wishes of his superiors and travel into the dome. Besides, the other squadron could be dead, for all anybody knew; the dome may not have been as safe as was thought to begin with.
"Commander." A fully uniformed and helmeted man who had approached behind him cut Rani's thoughts short.
Rani ran a hand through his sweat-dampened black hair and placed his helmet on his head before turning around to face the soldier. "What do you need?"
"The young man we found the other day is waking up, sir," the soldier said, the helmet distorting his voice slightly. "He seems pretty disoriented, but I think he might be able to tell us about the origins of this...thing."
"All right," Rani said with a nod. "Take me to him."
"Right this way, sir. We have him in the medical tent."
As Rani and his subordinate walked trough the camp, the young commander noted that all of his soldiers were at least as bored as he was. Though some played cards or dice, few did anything of any entertainment value. The vast majority of the soldiers simply sat in small groups and spoke little, being hot and tired from having to wear their full suits of standard-issue Shinra armor all day. Though they were also required to carry their machine guns at all times, the soldiers had been allowed to disregard the rule by Rani, who had quickly become tired of it himself.
When the two soldiers reached their destination, Rani threw open the flap of the spacious medical tent and walked in briskly. Though interrogation was not his forte, he was bored enough to do just about any task available to him.
* * * * *
Luts held his head in his hands, his eyes closed due to the pounding pain that seemed to originate within his head. He rubbed his eyes, allowing them to adjust to the light, and took in his surroundings. He appeared to be sitting upon an uncomfortable cot within a large, white tent that seemed to be used for field medical purposes, judging from the various medical equipment located within. However, all of the medical equipment appeared to be quite antiquated. He did not have a great deal of time to think, however, for a man clad in modern blue battle armor soon confronted him.
"I'm sure you would like to know where you are, if you haven't already guessed," the man said. "You were found at the site of quite a strange phenomenon, to say the least, but you are probably quite acquainted with that. We brought you into our camp three days ago."
Luts cleared his throat. "So...I've been asleep for three days?" he asked.
"That's right," the man answered. Luts noted that his blue helmet seemed to muffle and distort his voice to some degree.
"So who are you people?" the mercenary asked. "Where...are we, exactly?"
The man before Luts removed his helmet, revealing a thin face with black eyes and hair. "I'm Commander Rani Garas, squad leader of Neo-Shinra Squadron Beta-zero-eleven. We're right outside something you couldn't possibly have missed: a large dome of unidentifiable white energy." Rani eyed Luts oddly as he finished speaking.
Luts sighed. "Neo-Shinra? Is that some sort of military? If it's anything like SeeD-"
"Where are you from?" Rani said. "Wutai?"
"No, I'm not really from anywhere. I'm a mercenary."
"Then you've surely heard of Shinra. It practically owned the world at one time." Rani paused. "It's mako reactors once supplied the entire free world with power. Where in hell have you been for the past twenty years?"
Luts stood up with a bit of effort. "Look. I really don't know much about the Centra Continent. If you could just tell me where the guy that was with me is, I'd appreciate it."
"You were the only one we found," Rani replied with a shrug. "And I have no idea what the Centra Continent is. There's no such landform in the world."
"All right," Luts said angrily. "What the hell kind of a joke is this? It's not funny, and it's starting to piss me off." Despite the protests of Rani and his soldier companion, Luts stalked out of the tent and into the Shinra camp.
Unfortunately, the sights of the camp simply served to further confuse Luts. Looking around, he found that he was being stared at by quite a few soldiers dressed in similar battle garb as those he had already spoken to. Though he could not discern their expressions, as the dark visors of their helmets hid their faces, Luts could plainly see that most of the soldiers regarded him with suspicion, as if he were a prisoner of some sort. Feeling quite uncomfortable, Luts quickly reentered the medical tent and addressed Rani.
"Where's my sword?" he said nervously. "I'm getting out of here."
Rani shook his head. "I'm afraid that won't be possible. President Shinra wants to talk to you."
"Damn it, I don't want to talk to any presidents! I just want to get out of here and find my friend, so if you could just give me my sword and let me go, I'd appreciate it."
"Sorry," Rani said simply. "I-"
"I don't need a fucking apology!" Luts screamed. He breathed deeply, then sat upon the cot abruptly. "Just...leave me alone. I don't want to talk to anybody right now. I need to think."
Rani shrugged. "As soon as you give us some helpful information, we'll leave you alone."
"All right, damn it. What do you want to know?"
"Let's start from the beginning," Rani said. "What is your name, and where are you from?"
"The name's Luts Vanguarde. Like I said, I don't really have a hometown, but I used to be a member of the Galbadian Army. I quit when that Sorceress took power in Galbadia, because her plans of world domination didn't really interest me. Besides, things were getting too violent back then." He sighed. "Of course, if you've never heard of the Centra Continent, you've probably never heard of Galbadia, either. Where are we, anyway?" Luts added as an afterthought.
"Just south of Junon," Rani replied confusedly. "You know, the city that's famous for two things: the fact that it is now the location of Neo-Shinra Headquarters and the fact that the Junon Cannon blew Emerald WEAPON's head off four years ago."
Luts sat up suddenly. "What the hell...WEAPON?" He scratched his head. "This might sound like a stupid question, but...what year is it now?"
Rani shrugged. "2005 AC. Why?"
"No, it's not possible," Luts argued. "2005 AC...the ancient past? The Age of Legends? There's no way...no..."
"Ancient past? Age of Legends? Perhaps I shouldn't ask you where you are from, but when."
"17936 AC was the year I was hit by that god-forsaken energy. Is it possible that I was..."
Rani, however, paid no attention to Luts' musings. He had already produced his PHS, a silver, boxlike communications device, from a compartment in his armor, and was pressing several buttons upon its surface. He lifted the device to his ear and began to talk into a small speaker located opposite the end that he held to his ear. "Yes, I'm Commander Rani Garas-...Yes, the commander of the Beta Squad sent to the site of the-...What do I need? I need to talk to the President! If you could just...but...damn it!" He angrily pressed a small button on the side of the device and returned the PHS to its original position. "Well," he said to Luts, "It seems like President Reeve is busy at the moment, so we won't be able to figure out when in hell you came from and why you ended up here for a while, if time travel is, in fact, the case in this situation. The only thing we can do now is wait."
"But Clest..." Luts muttered. "He was also hit by the energy field."
"If he was thrown through time, as well, he could be anywhere."
Luts sighed dismally. "Anywhere..."
* * * * *
"Hyaa!"
A swift slash. Another thick log chopped in twain by an unrealistically gargantuan sword.
The sun had not yet risen above the small mountain town of Nibelheim, but Cloud Strife was restless. He had had trouble sleeping as of late, and could think of no better way to pass time than cutting things in half in his own backyard, a pastime he had always found quite entertaining when bored. Thus, the swordsman scratched his head, causing sweat from his wild yellow hair to moisten the flesh of his hand, and placed another log upon the stump he often used for chopping firewood. Taking a battle stance, Cloud's eyes narrowed and focused upon the log before him as best they could in the darkness.
"Hyaa!" With a loud cry, the warrior slashed his target diagonally, creating a clean cut in the wood with his massive weapon. Tired from his laborious chopping, Cloud collapsed into the dew-laden grass and lay back, his eyes gazing up at the stars above the town.
The stars. It seemed as if the stars above Nibelheim were the only part of the town that had not been completely changed by the wicked, corrupt Shinra Corporation of the recent past. Yes, Cloud knew full well that the Nibelheim in which he lay was not the Nibelheim in which he was raised; that Nibelheim had been burnt to the ground by the maniacal Sephiroth nine years before, and had subsequently been rebuilt by the Shinra of the time in its attempt to cover the madman's tracks. In fact, Shinra's only motivation for restoring the town to its former state, at least in appearance, was to hide their "failed experiment," as they called Sephiroth, from the eyes of the world. Surprisingly enough, this cover-up had worked for quite a long period of time, and had only been unveiled when Cloud had been forced to return to his hometown in his search for Sephiroth four years before.
Regardless of its changes, Cloud and his wife Tifa could not bring themselves to keep away from Nibelheim for any great length of time. It had actually been Tifa's decision to return; she believed Cloud needed to return to his place of birth so as to get over the death of the first woman he had ever loved.
Had he truly loved Aeris? Cloud was not certain himself. He had certainly been physically attracted to her, as she was a beautiful woman; however, had he actually loved her? The two had met unexpectedly in a time when both had mixed emotions, though Cloud's were much more chaotic and maddening than those of Aeris. Perhaps he had merely been trying to rationalize with himself, trying to convince himself of his own humanity for reasons he was then unaware of. It was also possible that she did not actually care for Cloud as even she herself thought she did. In fact, it was quite possible that she had only loved cloud due to the fact that his personality had been derived from that of Aeris' former lover, who had been a friend of Cloud during his days as a Shinra soldier and had been infused with mako and Jenova cells alongside him. Whether or not there existed true mutual feelings between them was insignificant, however; when Sephiroth killed Aeris, Cloud felt as he had years before while watching his hometown burn to the ground around him.
It had taken Cloud quite a while to overcome the grief and emptiness that remained within him after Aeris' death, and he had only done so with the help of his close friend Tifa. By the time he had overcome his grief completely, Cloud's feelings and stolen individuality had matured to the point that he realized he was actually destined for the woman who had helped him overcome his problems so many times in the past.
The very woman of whom his thoughts were focused upon interrupted Cloud's thoughts.
"What are you doing?" Tifa muttered tiredly. "Do you know what time it is?"
For a long while, Cloud could only stare at his wife, her features dimly illuminated by the light upon the porch on which she stood. Her black hair hung down to her thighs, and was splayed haphazardly over her deep brown eyes; she had obviously just risen from bed. Finally, the warrior rose from the ground and leaned against his sword. "I couldn't sleep," he said. "I was just thinking about...things."
Tifa shrugged. She had been doing quite a bit of thinking lately, as well, but her thoughts generally involved the intricacies and financial demands of having a third mouth to feed in the household, or lingered wistfully upon questions of how things would be if she were pregnant. "Why don't you come back inside. It's cold out here."
With a sigh, Cloud approached his wife and wrapped his arms around her. "I'm sorry for waking you," he said, staring intently into Tifa's eyes.
Tifa smiled. "You can make it up to me..." she muttered, her face ever nearing that of Cloud...
A loud, constant buzz shot through the air, effectively ruining the couple's reverie.
"Damn it," Cloud cursed, releasing Tifa and storming into the house through the back door. "PHS." Reaching a steel box upon his kitchen counter, Cloud proceeded to pull a smaller box away from its position upon the larger box and brought the device up to his head. "Hello?"
The voice of Reeve, the president of the Neo-Shinra Corporation, responded. "I'm sorry for waking you, Cloud, but we've got a bit of a problem up here at Junon."
Cloud sighed. "No, we were already awake. What's the problem?"
"You've already heard the news of that odd field of energy that has shown up just south of town, right?"
"Yes," Cloud said with a shudder. "I haven't seen anything like it since...Sephiroth..."
"No, this has nothing to do with HIM, thankfully," Reeve was quick to respond. "But it may be that this particular incident is far more intriguing than the barrier of the North Crater. You see, I have recently received a report that a young man was found at the site of the incident by one of my patrol teams. He claims to have come from the year 17936."
"Time travel? What the hell..."
"As strange as it sounds, I have a feeling that we can't just disregard what he says. Also, I sent a squadron of soldiers into the energy three days ago, and they've disappeared. If time travel is an option, there is no telling where, or when, they could be. I'd really appreciate it if you would come to Junon right away; maybe you'll have some idea what is going on."
"How should I know?" Cloud muttered. "You should probably call Nanaki. He'll know what to do."
"I can't get in touch with Cosmo Canyon. You're the only person I could think of to call."
Cloud thought over the other possible candidates for the job of identifying the odd energy. Barret? No, he was too busy with Corel. Cid? They might just need his particularly speedy modes of transportation anyway. Vincent? There was no telling where he was. Yuffie? No. End of story. "Well..." Cloud muttered, "All right. I've got to go now." At that he hung up the PHS.
"Who was it?" Tifa asked tiredly.
"It was Reeve," Cloud replied. "He wants us to head over to Junon. It's something about that energy field we thought was just a Neo-Shinra experiment."
"So it isn't just an experiment?" Tifa questioned.
"No. There's a bit more to it than that, according to Reeve."
Tifa approached her husband and put an arm around his waist. "We can head there tomorrow," she said, settling her head against his well-muscled arm. "For now, let's just try to enjoy the rest of the night."
Cloud was happy to comply.