Cloud Strife lay underneath the vast sky, staring at the clouds blowing by. Boko, his personal chocobo, was grazing nearby, trying to root out some greens from the veldt. Cloud stretched out, running his fingers through the grass. A soft breeze blew over his body, serving to relax him all the more.

            This was the first time that he was able to rest in a long time. It had been two weeks since Meteor was destroyed, but instead of disintegrating completely, it had broken into thousands of pieces, some big, some small. Unfortunately a few of the larger ones fell into Midgar, compounding the damage already done, but most of the smaller ones burned up in the atmosphere. The ones that did fall needed to be contained, and some had been reported as far away as Icicle Village.

            Cloud sighed and fingered the ribbon in his hand. It was Aeris', her only surviving memento, aside from the White Materia that still lay wrapped within it. He could still play back that horrific scene in his mind; it was as fresh as if it had happened the day before. Aeris looking so peaceful, and Sephiroth falling from the sky behind her. Just the mention of that man's name sent shivers down his spine. The son of Jenova was dead, or at least they hoped, but Aeris was still gone. Not even the power of the Planet could bring her back.

            He heard a radio crackle to life, and Boko ran up to him, warking. Cloud got up, removing the radio from his saddlebags.

            "Cloud!" a voice spoke to him.

            "Cid? Is that you?"

            "Yeah!" The pilot's voice was difficult to hear and broken up by static.

            "I'm not reading you very well out here."

            "Well… get your ass back… a meeting… Reeve wants you…"

            "I copy." He sighed. "I'm coming back right away."

            "Great! See you…." The transmission died.

            Cloud mounted Boko and started towards Midgar. He had gone south, towards the Zolom swamps, and was thinking of going all the way to Fort Condor when he was recalled. The trip back would have taken an hour by foot, and half an hour by chocobo, but Boko was three-time Gold Saucer Champion. After escaping from the prison, he hadn't forgotten about the bird that let him out. The yellow creature flew over the grass, and 15 minutes later he was at the gates of Midgar.

            Yuffie Kisaragi had just returned from Wutai. She had reported what had happened with Sephiroth and Meteor to her father, and given him some more materia. The city had been in repairs after the incident with Don Corneo and the Turks, and she hoped that more money could speed the process. She had returned to Midgar to find a job, preferably working with materia. The cleanup jobs that Cloud and the others had didn't interest her. She wanted something with more excitement, and something that would let her send a little bit more home…

            She had heard of an abandoned materia shop in Sector 5, and had gone to find any "buried" treasure. She skipped across the huge piles of stone and metal brought down by Meteor's attack, humming an off-key tune as she did. Fortunately the Plate had held, but only barely. She was warned that kicking the wrong rock could bring it all down. No one stayed in the slums for longer than they needed to. Most of the city had evacuated to Junon or Kalm, but a few plate dwellers refused to give up their homes.

            She jumped to a clear spot on the ground in front of a large wooden building, then realized what it was. She opened the great wooden doors and walked in, stepping over the large beds of flowers inside. She walked down the aisles of Aeris' church, marveling in the stillness and the quiet. She had never been here before, but Cloud had told her about how he first really met Aeris.

            At the back of the room, behind the short altar, was a door, with the faint outline of a keyhole in the middle. She stared at it a moment, blinking. Cloud never mentioned this was here before, she thought. Maybe Aeris kept treasure there, or something. Deciding to find out, Yuffie put her hand to the keyhole. It began to shine with a bright light, forcing her to turn away as it did. When she looked back, the door had been outlined in the same light, and slowly started to open on its own, eliciting a loud creak and dust from the rafters..

            The young ninja peered around to the other side, almost afraid of what might be there. She stared at a great swirling mass of energy; as black as Sephiroth's cloak and twice as frightening. She shut the door quickly, fearful that the madman might come out of it. Forgetting about treasure, she ran back to the abandoned Shinra Tower where she knew her comrades would be.