Disclaimer: I own Final Fantasy VII. It was £44.99 from Virgin Megastores. I do not own Virgin Megastores.

Beneath the Sea of Stars

A Final Fantasy VII Fanfiction by

Teef

Chapter One. A Surprise Meeting

"He found a survivor on the Plate?" – Cid Highwind.

Cloud Strife scrambled through the mass of twisted metal and wiring that was once the huge urban metropolis known as Midgar. He had been scrambling through the ruins for what seemed like forever, though in reality it had undoubtedly only been a couple of hours. But still, the sweltering heat of the summer sun bearing down on Midgar (which had basically become one very large heat trap with all the scrap metal that was lying about), added to the notoriously unstable ground underfoot, made for slow, recreant mobility.

But Cloud pressed on. Ever since his fourteenth birthday, when he had decided to leave the home he shared with his mother in Nibelheim to join Soldier, hardship and simply being Cloud Strife had gone hand in hand it seemed. For the whole week since Sephiroth's defeat, not to mention the near-destruction of the entire planet, Cloud had been here, along with the majority of Avalanche, staying in the refuge camps on the outskirts of the city and working with the rescue teams in the search for any survivors.

It was only natural for them to return to Midgar. After all, this was the place where the whole big Meteor fiasco had began, and ultimately the place where Meteor had hit and the ensuing battle between itself and Holy had taken place. Love it or loathe it, no one could deny that Midgar and it's citizens had suffered greatly due to the events of the past year.

Cloud stumbled onwards, carefully climbing any debris that blocked his path. When Avalanche arrived, landing on the outskirts of the burning Midgar in their incredible airship, the Highwind, he and the others had been all but mobbed by a swarm of hysterical civilians who had no idea what was going on. Some of them had been separated from their families; others were simply confused and didn't know what to do. It was complete chaos, and as soon as word had spread that Avalanche, self-proclaimed protectors of the planet had 'Come to save them all', one could say all hell had broken loose.

Cloud suppressed a shudder as he recalled all those people; the tear streaked faces of mothers who had lost their children, the men who carried the bloodied bodies of their wives on their backs, searching in vein for a doctor. All those people, those hundreds of people, looking to Avalanche… to Cloud Strife for help.

And Cloud had frozen where he stood. There was no more Shinra. No president, no matter how evil he may have been, to turn to in time of need. These people were scared, and so completely alone. It was only natural for them to turn to the leader of Avalanche… the 'great defeater of Sephiroth', for guidance and leadership in such dire times. But he had done nothing except repeat the same phrase in his head over and over… This is all my fault… This is all my fault…

Tifa Lockheart, Cloud's comrade in arms and lifelong friend, had told him to stop blaming himself… that none of this was his fault and that no one blamed him, but it wasn't so easy. After all, Cloud had been the one who had given the Black Materia to Sephiroth, had he not? If not for that, Meteor wouldn't have been summoned, and none of this would have happened.

He was so wrapped up in his own dark thoughts that he didn't notice the bloodied, blue sleeved arm that was protruding from a small gap between two steel girders which would have once served as support struts for a nearby building… Didn't notice it until he tripped over it on went tumbling headfirst towards the solid steel wall that stood defiantly in front of him amongst all the other fallen rubble.

Shit…

"Ow… watch where you're walking!"

Jarring pain ran from his forehead around to his neck and down the length of his spine, ending in a prickling sensation in his fingertips, and for a brief moment Cloud found that he couldn't move, so he just stayed there, hunched over his knees, forehead resting against the steel plate, waiting for the pain and dizziness to subside.

After a bit, he groggily rolled over so that he was sitting on the rubble with his back against the plate and raised a hand to his aching forehead, and wasn't at all surprised when it came away tainted with blood.

"Stupid idiot" he berated himself as he shakily examined his bolt armlet, looking for his restore materia… and let out a long stream of angry cuss words that would have made Cid blush when he realised with some dismay that it must have fallen out of it's slot when he fell, seeing as it was not there now.

"That's just great!" he grumbled quietly to himself as he got down on hands and knees to look for the offending materia. Mastered Restore materia were incredibly valuable and nearly impossible to come across. And they took an absolute age to master yourself.

After a couple of moments of rummaging around, Cloud came to the conclusion that things were not cheery. The materia had probably fallen down one of the gaps in the debris... probably never to be seen again.

It was at this moment… the moment when Cloud had given up hope of ever seeing his prized restore materia again and was once again about to reprimand himself for his stupidity that something blue caught his eye. A blue sleeve, and the arm to go with it. After a couple moments of looking dumbly at what had undoubtedly been what he had tripped on, it dawned on him that the arm was probably still attached to a body, and the body was likely to be buried underneath the rubble beneath him.

And suddenly, the hand on the end of the arm moved…

Still alive…

"Hey! Are you alright? Can you hear me?" Cloud yelled down into the rubble, his own pain forgotten for the time being.

What happened next though, Cloud would never have expected.

"I'm still alive if that's what you mean by 'Alright!' Get me the hell outta here!" came a reply. It sounded like a young mans voice, and although the sound was muffled to within an inch of it's life, Cloud could tell the voice bore the thick accent of the Midgar Slums. What was he doing up here?

Cloud looked around, evaluating the situation, which looked bleak to say the least. Two steel support struts lay across the numerous steel sheets which lay between himself and the poor guy who was buried beneath it all, and Cloud was strong, but he was in no way strong enough to move the two steel struts on his own. He was gonna need some help.

"I'm working on that now, sir. Can you tell me your name?" Cloud asked as he picked up the PHS from where it was attached to his belt and started dialing for assistance.

"I could…" the voice from the rubble began thoughtfully. "But if I did, then I'd most definitely have to kill you."

Cloud raised a surprised eyebrow at this, momentarily taken aback by the stranger's bizarre answer. It didn't take him long, however, to recover his wits.

"I don't think you're in any position to be making idle threats." Cloud replied nonchalantly, putting the PHS to his ear, and he vaguely heard a grumbled response but didn't pay it any heed as the person he was dialing on the other end of the PHS suddenly picked up.

"Hello?"

"Hey, it's me." He said, and then abruptly held the receiver away from his ear as Tifa's somewhat 'loud' reply bounced back at him.

"Cloud! Where the hell are you? You were supposed to be back here over half an hour ago. Barret's had to leave with…"

"Sorry Teef," Cloud broke in before could go any further. He cared a lot about Tifa. She was his best friend and trusted comrade and liked by everyone, but damn, could she be a nag when she wanted to be!

"It's okay Cloud." Tifa's voice came again, softer this time. "I was just worried about you. I was expecting you back at half three."

"I know, I know. But I had a little accident and…."

"Are you alright?"

"Yeah, I bumped my head a bit," he started, raising a hand to his forehead and gingerly prodding at the bleeding wound, causing him to wince slightly, "but it's nothing a cure materia won't fix."

"I thought you had a Restore with you"

"I did, but I…" lost it when I fell, he was going say but stopped, realising he had gotton side-tracked.

"Listen, I found someone. A survivor."

There was a couple of seconds of silence and then…

" Where are you?"

Cloud stood up and took a couple of steps away from the 'arm'. He now had his bare hand pressed to his forehead in an attempt to stop the bleeding.

"I'm on the Sector Eight plate, near the old reactor." Cloud told her, and then "There's a lot of debris here and I don't think I can shift it on my own. I mean, I'll try… but I think we're gonna need some cutting equipment. How soon do you think you can get a team over here?"

He heard the brief rustling of papers through the receiver, and heard the muffled voice of Tifa giving instructions to someone before she replied.

"Hmm… I don't know Cloud. All of the teams are out at the moment… What's the victims condition?"

As if on cue an angry voice yelled out from underneath the rubble, "Would you quit it with the goddamned small-talk and get me the f^$& outta here?"

Cloud smiled.

"Surprisingly, apart from a severely bad attitude, he seems alright, but the ground here is really unstable. The sooner we get him out of here the better. I don't fancy being up here if the plate decides to fall"

'I see… Well Delta Team have just radioed in. They're on their way back to base now. I guess one more job won't kill them. I'll have them out to you within the hour."

"Yuffie's gonna love that" Cloud grinned.

Tifa laughed. "Yeah…tell me about it. At least you don't have to tell her."

Cloud snorted. "Oh well… Good luck!" he offered

"Thanks. I have a feeling I'm gonna need it" she replied.

"Okay then… see you later, yeah?" He said softly.

"Yep… later. Take care okay?" Cloud could tell she was smiling. He smiled back.

"Will do. Bye!" And with that, Cloud snapped the PHS shut and knelt back down.

"They're sending someone out now. They'll be here within the hour. Just sit tight, okay?' he said, rather stupidly, to the hand by his left knee.

"Like I have a choice." Came the muffled reply.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The four weary figures trudged their way through the mud and marshland that was now the former entrance to the Sector Two Slums, their skin and clothes now a rather fetching shade of muddy gray, and their faces a sooty black shade.

Delta Team; on their way back to camp after another hard day of searching the ruins for survivors.

Cid Highwind. Accomplished pilot, astronaut, chain smoker, Saviour of the world and now big ol' "Delta Team leader", plodded forward, an ever-present roll-up dangling from his thin lips.

Behind him was the petite ninja, Yuffie Kissaragi, the sixteen-year-old heiress to the throne of Wutai, self-proclaimed Materia Hunter extraordinaire and twiney, spoilt brat to boot. Honestly, the kid had done nothing but whine all day. Cid, My feet are sore… Cid, I'm hungry… Cid, when are we going back? I'm tired. Cid was on the end of his tether and just about ready to skewer her on the end of the Venus Gospel.

Behind Yuffie were two guys he couldn't even remember the names of... he'd never been good with names. He knew that one of them... the tall one, had once been a Shinra-employed firefighter and that the other guy was a surgeon or something like that. Both of them were more than qualified to take part in a rescue operation. Cid could understand why Reeve; formerly known to them as Cait Sith, the newly appointed 'Chief of Operations' had picked them for the team. What he could not understand for the life of him, was why he had picked Yuffie. Yuffie… of all people!

Okay, so too her credit, Cid had to admit she was an excellent fighter. There weren't many people he'd rather have by his side in a battle. This was attributed mainly to her agility and aptitude with magic. Hell, maybe that was why Reeve had picked her above so many people for the team. . After all, there were still many monsters roaming the Midgar area. It would be wise to have skilled fighters in the team as well as qualified ''rescue people''! That, and the fact that when she wasn't whining like the spoilt little princess she was, she was incurably cheerful, keeping the teams morale up without even trying. And she was small, meaning she could squeeze into spaces that neither Cid or the others could even dream of fitting into, if the situation required it.

Cid shook his head at himself. Maybe Reeve did have a good reason for putting her in the team after all, but he wasn't about to tell her that.

A shrill ringing sound echoed through the air and Cid nearly jumped out of his skin, the half-smoked roll-up dropping from his lips and landing smack dab in the middle of a muddy puddle.

"F*****g great." He cursed as he dropped to his knees and stared at the cigarette with a strange look born of both heartbreak and anger. That was the last one.

Behind him a unanimous chorus of groans could be heard as Yuffie pushed the answer button on the PHS and raised it to her ear.

Skipping the formalities, Yuffie decided instead to get straight to the point, and answered the phone with an angry "You have 'so' got to be kidding!"

She knew it was Tifa on the end of the line, and she knew what was coming next.

"I'm sorry Yuffie, and I know you're all tired, but Cloud found someone out on the Sector Eight Plate; just by the old reactor. The guys still alive, but he's trapped underneath the rubble and Cloud can't shift it himself, and the Plate's really unstable… it could go at any minute. How soon can you be out there?"

There was a moment of silence as Yuffie's weary mind tried to process all of the information Tifa had just given her, and formulate a reply. This took longer than usual as she was distracted by Cid, who was on his knees in front of her, holding his soggy cigarette up into the light and trying to dry it out with the flame from his lighter. Yuffie gaped. He'd just dropped the thing in a puddle of shit, and god-knows-what else, and he was still gonna smoke the thing? She was actually strangely impressed, if not saddened by the lengths to which he would go for some nicotine.

"Yuffie? Yuffie are you listening?

Tifa's voice at the other end of the line brought her back to the issue at hand.

"Yeah Tif, I'm still here. We're just near the Sector Two Gate coming out of the slums, so we could probably be there within the hour." She looked at her watch and added. "Say about fifty minutes. That should give us enough time to get up onto the plate. Is that okay?"

There was another brief silence as Tifa obviously struggled to believe that Yuffie hadn't put up more of a fight.

"Yeah, that'll be fine. I told Cloud within the hour anyways." Tifa sounded bemused.

To be honest, Yuffie was surprised she hadn't put up more of a fight herself. How totally out of character.

"Right. Well I'll see ya when a get back! Bye Tiffers!" she sang cheerfully, and snapped shut the PHS shut just in time to avoid Tifa's irate outburst of 'Don't call me Tiffers!'..

Cid stood up and turned to her; the now-dry cigarette lit and placed proudly between his thin, grinning lips.

"So, where we off?" he asked, seemingly satisfied now that he had some nicotine running through his bloodstream.

Yuffie decided against commenting on the shit covered cig for now, not wanting to put Cid in another one of his fabled bad moods, and instead gave him a straight answer.

"To the reactor on Sector Eight. Cloud found someone under the rubble there and he needs our help getting him out."

Cid took a deep drag on the cigarette and his tired blue eyes widened.

"He found a survivor on the Plate?" he asked incredulously. The two other team members looked surprised too; as far as everyone knew no one on the plates had survived when Meteor had hit.

"That's what Tifa said," Yuffie confirmed.

Cid took the cigarette from his mouth and flicked it back into the puddle.

"Hell, what are we waiting for then? Let's move out."

And with that they were off again, this time in the opposite direction. Back towards the Sector Eight slums, and the old Railroad which now served as a footpath up to the Plate, lugging supplies and cutting gear behind them on their way.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Cloud squeezed his eyes shut and then opened them again, trying to get the ground in front of him to stop spinning. It had been nearly forty minutes since he'd found the mystery man beneath the rubble, and it seemed the beginnings of a concussion were forming, given that after about fifteen minutes of trying to shift the steel supports off the unlucky guy trapped between them, he'd had to sit down before he was sick. He sat with his back to the steel wall that he had collided with earlier.

The nameless guy's condition had deteriorated somewhat. He had gone from fully alert and angry, to much more passive. Cloud could tell the guy was fighting to stay awake under there, and knew that if they didn't get him out soon then…

Cloud shook his head. He didn't even want to go down that line of thought.

"Hey!" Cloud suddenly called out, slightly panicked. He ignored the pain it caused him to do so. The nameless guy had been quiet for some time now.

"What do you want?" was the grumbled reply

Cloud relaxed a bit at this. "Nothing… you've just been quiet for a while. I wanted to make sure you were still awake. That's all."

"Well, I'm still awake. That's all." Nameless Guy sniped.

Cloud frowned. Jeez, was this guy always so rude to people. I mean, okay, he'd been stuck here for god-knows how long, but that was no excuse, right?

"So, are you gonna tell me your name or what?" Cloud asked impatiently.

No reply.

"That's fine" Cloud sighed dismally. Nameless Guy sure was secretive.

"What about you?" Nameless Guy mumbled, seemingly perking up a bit.

Cloud blinked. "Huh?"

"Your name…" the nameless guy clarified. "What can I call you?"

Cloud chuckled mirthlessly. "I don't think so…" he started. "You don't tell me your name, I don't tell you mine."

The guy was silent for a moment, then said complacently "I don't care if you don't tell me you're name or not. It's just that your voice is familiar. I thought I'd maybe met you."

"I doubt that…" Cloud replied, with a similar apathy in his tone.

"Oh I don't know…" the nameless guy stated. "I never forget a voice. Where do you work?"

Cloud smiled, resting his head against the wall and closing his eyes. "I'm in between jobs at the moment."

"So you're unemployed?"

"You could say that." He replied. How was he meant to answer that question? No actually, I'm the leader of the infamous Avalanche, Eco-terrorist, ex Shinra-Guard and Saviour of the Planet? Hardly!

There was another couple of moment's silence, and then the nameless guy said…

"Well I can tell you ain't originally from Midgar by you're accent. You're from the east aren't you? Gongaga, maybe? Did you ever work for Shinra?"

Cloud raised an eyebrow at this. The nameless guy wasn't far off with the accent. Nibelheim and Gongaga accents were very similar to someone not from the area. And how did he know about Shinra?

"Actually, yes I did work for Shinra once."

"I knew it!" The nameless guy suddenly exclaimed. "That's where I've heard you're voice."

"Really?" Cloud said skeptically.

"Hey, I'm telling you, I know you're voice. What's your name?"

"What's your name?"

"Oh, now you're just being difficult." The nameless guy moaned, and then followed up with a small coughing fit.

Silence again. Cloud raised a hand to his head, which felt like someone had planted millions of tiny bombs inside his skull which were now going off one after another, each explosion getting bigger and bigger. He lazily opened his blue eyes, taking a quick look around. There was still no sign of Cid and the others, and he had to keep Nameless Guy awake until they arrived.

"So I take it you've worked for Shinra before?" Cloud asked, not really that interested in the reply, but just to keep the guy busy.

"Yup. Would'a been nine years this August."

"Nine years?" Cloud asked incredulously. "What the hell did you do for Shinra for nine years?"

This time it was the nameless man below who laughed. "A bit of everything really. Recruitment… Intelligence… Hiring and Firing… the list goes on and on."

"So you were on the corporate side if things then?" Cloud mused.

The man laughed again, but this time it was a bitter and humorless sound. "No, we just did what we were told."

Cloud frowned, and was just about to open his mouth to reply to that somewhat obscure statement when he was interrupted by…

"There you are!" Yuffie explained, then "Yo Cid! I found them."

"Bout F*****g time!" Was the pilot's gruff-yet-relieved reply.

Cloud smiled at the four blurry silhouettes on the horizon. The Nameless Man was obviously relieved too, as he suddenly exalted…

"Whoopee. Here comes the cavalry!" And Cloud laughed.

Within moments, Yuffie's pretty face was in front of Cloud's as she crouched down in front of him, a look of motherly disapproval on her pretty Wutaneese face.

"What the hell happened to you?" She asked, taking in the ragged gash above his right eyebrow and the dried blood on his hands and down the side of his handsome, but very mucky face.

"Don't ask" was his simple reply. "Just give me a potion and I'll be fine."

Yuffie smiled at him then pulled a first aid kid from her pack. Opening the small box in one swift motion, she produced a small cotton-ball and a bottle of TCP.

Cloud's eyes widened. "What the hell is this? Just give me a potion and I'll be alright."

Yuffie poured a small amount of the smelly liquid onto the cotton-ball and lifted it above his eye. She was just about to dab it onto the wound, when his hand shot up and grabbed her wrist.

"Hey!" Cloud said.

Yuffie shook her head. "Sorry, but we're all out of potions, and there's no point in using a Restore since the wound's already closed up. All I can do is clean it up put a patch on to protect it from infection." Then added as an after thought. "And since you're obviously in no fit state for a lecture, I won't ask you what happened to your own Restore…" She didn't have to ask, Cloud thought. The look in her eyes said it all. Then she dabbed the gauze onto his forehead, perhaps a little harder than necessary.

"Ow, Jesus Yuff!" He grabbed her wrist again, holding her hand away from the wound.

"Yeah, well it serves yourself right!" She scalded, and Cloud let go, closing his eyes and gritting his teeth against the pain.

After a bit, it stopped stinging so much and he opened his eyes, glancing around Yuffie and watching as Cid and the other guy cut through the steel girders that separated them from the nameless guy under the rubble. They finished cutting through around about the same time as Yuffie finished patching up Cloud's wound. Using Yuffie as a support, he shakily stood up, hanging onto her for a few moments while the world stopped spinning around him. When he was satisfied he could walk in a straight line again; he let go and headed over to where Cid and the others were in the process of lifting the last steel sheet off the mystery man beneath the rubble. As they cleared it, Cloud looked down, eager to put a face to the voice he'd been talking to for the last ten minutes. But as the sheet was removed, and he took in the bloodied blue suit, the twin scars, the Mako blue eyes so much like his own and the tangled mass of spiky red hair his jaw dropped.

Reno looked back up at him, a similar look of disbelief marring his own face.

"Oh hell no…!"

Cloud felt entirely the same way.

End Chapter One.

Next Chapter--- Friends, Enemies and one Hell of a Concussion