Disclaimer: If I owned the FF characters, than Yuffie would be mine, all mine!!! Erh... *looks around nervously embarrassed* ...I... heh... *takes off in a run in the opposite direction*.

Chapter 2: Herald of the Return

When Cloud awoke, he was being held by two ShinRa soldiers and a man with unruly brown hair and a lab coat stood over him, peering down at him through steel-rimmed glasses.

"Who... who are you?" Cloud managed to mumble drowsily.

"I am Lierba, and who might you be?" the strange man answered.

"C-Cloud," Cloud forced out.

"I'm sorry, but while you were knocked out I had to inject you with a Serpentine Receptor Inhibitor, so you may feel a bit... paralyzed... for a while," Lierba explained.

"Wha-what did you say about snakes?" Cloud asked, inciting an irritated growl from the scientist.

"I said nothing about snakes!"

"B-b-but you just said..."

"I said nothing about snakes!"

"W-w-what are you doing here?"

"I am the herald of the coming of the Cetra."

"B-b-but the Cetra are d-dead."

"All but two of us."

"W-w-what do you mean b-by 'us'?"

"I am one of the Cetra."

"And the other?"

"Some girl born on the northern continent... connected with my enemy Hojo... lost track of her near Midgar."

"Aeris?"

"...something like that, yeah."

"Aeris is dead."

"Well than, I'm the last."

"If all the Cetra are dead, how are they g-g-going to come?"

"That's what I'm experimenting with, 'mako reconstruction'. By extracting mako of a specific life energy marker, I can recreate the body, mind, and soul of the being... but it's one reactor per resurrection, so now I need this one."

"Y-y-you're going to revive the Cetra?"

"This world is ours, and we're going to take it back." With that, Lierba turned to the console behind him and began to tap various buttons on it, "Status!" he commanded to the various other soldiers who stood at consoles around the room.

"Mako containment ready," one of the soldiers called back.

"LEM sensors ready," another soldier said.

"Mako extraction system ready," a third added.

"Alright, LEM selected, 564-395-326-957," Lierba said.

"LEM coordinates found," the second soldier responded.

"Initiating mako extraction," the third interjected.

"Mako screen operating at full capacity," the first informed Lierba.

"12 percent of the LEM extracted," the second chimed in.

"Mako containment within acceptable perimeters," the first said.

"26 percent... 32 percent."

"Mako condensation program activating," a fourth guard said.

"46 percent."

"Information extraction complete," a fifth soldier said, "I'm inputting the data now."

"51 percent."

"Mako condensation aligning, the physical body is being generated now."

"68 percent."

"Physical aspect generation completed."

"81 percent."

"Inputting neurological data."

"94 percent."

"Mako containment at critical!" As the soldier reported this last bit of information, the entire reactor was racked by an explosion.

"Guards! Go see to the subject!" Lierba commanded. The two guards that held Cloud dropped him and proceeded to the reactor core. While Lierba was still preoccupied with his instruments, Cloud half walked, half dragged himself after the soldiers until, after climbing/falling down a chain, he came to the central core where a woman was lying, surrounded by scrap metal. Cloud's eyes widened as the blond subject lifted her head and, because of seeing Cloud, her eyes widened in, perhaps, a mixture of every emotion possible.

Sephiroth dragged his feed slowly over the hard, arid land and through the hot, dry desert air. The urge to sleep overpowered him, but he felt weaker since his return and was unsure of whether or not he could have survived, so he struggled on in search of a town. A strong wind, focused by the cliffs on either side, whipped by Sephiroth, sending his cape forcefully out behind him as he trudged along.

Sephiroth soon came upon a town built of huts in the side of one of the cliffs and he hurried to it as fast as his weakened body would allow. Dragging himself up the stone steps, Sephiroth collapsed at the hard, sandstone entrance of Cosmo Canyon.

As Sephiroth forced his eyes open, he found himself on a rather hard cot and, as he struggled to sit up, he heard a voice next to him growl, "Don't." Sephiroth eased himself back down and turned his head to look at the voice, finding a red, wolf-cat thing. "Do remember, I've only kept you alive to ask you some questions."

"You're that Red... seven, or eleven, or something," Sephiroth mumbled.

"It was Red Thirteen," Red said with a growl, "but my name is Nanaki."

"Alright Nanaki, what do you want to know?"

"How did you get back?"

"I don't know, I awoke with some ShinRa soldiers looking down at me, than black, than I woke up... on the shore north of here."

"Alright... that answers my next question... what are you planning?"

"What do you mean?"

"Your scheme, you always have a scheme... you're like Hojo." Hojo... just the name Sephiroth visibly shudder... bat that really was true, it was truer than Hojo would like to admit.

"I'm nothing like Hojo!!" Sephiroth yelled, in a voice that filled the canyon, as he leapt to his feet. Nanaki tensed, ready to attack. Intent on showing Nanaki he had no hostile intentions, Sephiroth quickly and deftly unclipped the Masamune from his belt and dropped it to the floor in front of the red wolf-cat. Nanaki growled in understanding and calmly sat down as Sephiroth did the same.

"What are you planning?" Nanaki asked again.

"I need to find out who brought me back and see if they pose any threat."

"To whom?"

"To me. Someone shouldn't have that much power, that, I think, is something that we both agree on."

"True."

"For now, I have no other scheme."

"For now?"

"For now."

"Someone with the power to revive the long dead... this could disrupt the nature of the lifestream itself. And we may very much need your help to stop him. That's the only thing keeping you alive."

"To draw out mako... he would need a reactor."

"Midgar, Junion, and Fort Condor are on the other continent, so we should go there last. That means the only two active reactors are in North Coral and..."

"Nibelham." Now that Sephiroth felt stronger, this was the time to mess with Nanaki's mind. With super-human speed, Sephiroth snatched up his Muramasa and took off at a run. This wasn't very effective, but he'd gotten used to it while dealing with Cloud, besides, Nanaki was his back up plan. For now, Sephiroth had only one goal, making it to Nibelham.

Alright, is this better or worse than my last chapter? Feel free to answer my philosophical question from the last chapter, if you read this story, review it!!!!! Or at least leave something!! I want to see how many people are reading my story... that's all. By the way, are there any other members of the Yuffie fan club out there. Also, anyone who can get the flashback in Kalm, please check what the name of Sephiroth's sword is when he's in your party. It's been a while since I last played the game and no one can give me a straight answer on which name it is.