"I can understand why you guys never came back..." Aeris trailed off. She held the Princess Guard in her left hand; standing like a shepard looking over her sheep. Tifa walked up behind her and looked from the small cliff towards Midgar.

"Yeah...Meteor wrecked it up pretty badly. You kept the whole planet from ending up like this" Tifa patted her shoulder. Aeris' face began to glow; the words lighting her heart up with good intentions.

"Oh hush. Stop it; you make it sound like I was the only person to help the cause. Still, why were they even checking around Midgar?" Aeris and Tifa both glanced to their left when they heard the footsteps approaching. Cloud strolled up the cliff-side with a casual ease.

"They wanna scout the area. Make sure its safe. I have no idea why they would even care" Cloud crossed his arms and looked out at the city. Tifa rolled her eyes and put her hands on her hips.

"I think they're looking for more than that. Shinra had so much money, so much technology...hell, so many weapons laying around. There are a lot of reasons to look in the city" Tifa commented as she tapped her left foot a few times.

"And monsters. Monsters still there" Aeris added.

"I was just there. Sure there is some stuff here and there. But really, nothing worth looking for" Cloud pointed out. Tifa stopped her foot from tapping and gave him a knowing look.

"Forgot about that; you going in there. Still, everyone who ever lived there probably wants to go back..." Tifa looked down at the ground as she jabbed her toe into the ground. Aeris took her right hand and put it on the Princess Guard while turning her head towards Tifa.

"Tifa, we all lost something there. It's not easy for me to be going back..." Aeris thought her words were just bouncing off Tifa; she stopped wasting her breathe.

"We got to get a move on. The quicker we find that monster the faster we get home" Cloud turned away and walked off the small cliff.

"Still gold with words of caring" Aeris spoke; it was intended for a thought. She threw her hands up over her mouth. And while Cloud had not heard, Tifa let out a laugh.

"He's already been back here. Plus, he never really called Midgar his home like we did" Tifa added. Aeris let out a sigh and looked back at the city.

"Plus, he's a guy" Aeris tilted her head and placed it against her staff. She felt a giggle eruption building in her. All it needed was a catalyst to set it off. And Tifa's own laughter set off hers. Soon both women stood at the top of the cliff; their laughter filling the air. Aeris used her staff to prop her up; she was still facing downwards giggling like a schoolgirl. Tifa lacked a prop; she fell to her knees laughing.

"Those two sure laugh alot" Cloud mentioned to the yellow chocobo to his left.


"Move-move" The leader of the Junon Scout Group screamed. The men rushed out of the two helicopters with guns raised. They quickly formed a perimeter around the helicopters. After a couple of seconds, the helicopters took off into the sky again. The men kept their perimeter until the copters were long gone; even their sounds a distant memory.

"Alright men, drop arms" The leader commented. The other men all dropped their guns and faced him.

"Listen up men. We need to set-up a base as well as scout out a mile radius area here. I want it done within two hours. Any questions?" One man, off to the far left rose his hand.

"Yes soldier?"

"Sir, when will the helicopters be bringing more personal?"

"Junon will send more troops once we have a firm base set-up. I estimate in two days. Anything else?" A soldier closer to the leader rose his hand.

"Yes soldier?"

"Sir, where did that boy go to?"

"Excuse me soldier?"

"That boy...the kid with silver hair. Where'd he go too?" With that, all the soldiers began to look around. But Phoenix had vanished; he had left before any of them had a chance to wonder why he had come in the first place.


"They troops landed in Midgar about an hour ago"

"Very well"

"We estimate it will take Project B-6363747 forty minutes to find them, given the helicopter noise"

"Very well"

"We believe they sent the young boy who stopped the assassination attempts on Reeve as well. Shall we continue with our attempts on his life?"

"Are we still leaving a trail?"

"Of course"

"Then yes. He is a thorn in our side. Between his Shinra roots and his affiliation with the boy, I want him gone"

"Yes sir. We believe Project B-6363747 killed the scouting group from Kalm"

"That should keep Kalm out of our business"

"Yes sir. Sources say a few people from Kalm may attempt a rescue mission. Even so, I doubt that"

"Let them; Project B-6363747 needs more testing before I feel ready to approve more"

"Yes sir. That all sir?"

"For now Overton. For now"


"I remember when I left here. I was so excited. I had never been outside Midgar...not that I remembered. I never thought the city would be destroyed. Then again, I suppose it had to happen" Aeris stood in front of the broken fence around the city. She held the Princess Guard in her left hand; she kept tapping the bottom of it off the ground.

"I remember that day too. I felt so confused. I had just lost the bar...Jessie and Wedge and Biggs. Regardless, that's in the past. Gotta move forward" Tifa crossed her arms and held her head down. Aeris reached over and gave her shoulder a comforting squeeze. Having secured the chocobo's to a poll, Cloud came strolling over. Unlike the other two, he walked with a spring in his step.

"Alright. Be careful girls. This place isn't safe" With that, he walked right past them into the city. He used way to much energy to jump over the fence; he had energy to burn. Aeris blinked while Tifa fumed; she felt like her body was filled with fire.

"He's enjoying this" She muttered under her breathe. She watched him walking into the city; like a kid walking into a toy store. His grin was the type reserved for a newly-wed.

"It is nice...in a strange way. You know, us going looking for trouble" Aeris commented. The look she received from Tifa made her heart stop a second; its harshness rivaled that of sandpaper. After watching her walk after him, Aeris gulped.

"What I say?" With that, Aeris followed them both in. What remained of Midgar shocked her; she never thought it could look uglier than with board-ed buildings and foul language on overhangs. However, she yearned for a curse word on a billboard now that she saw what was left. Most buildings were now huge junkyards; broken glass and useless bricks laying in large groupings. A foul stench, one of death mixed in with sewage, filled the air. And while the smells and sights were horrible, the thing that gained Aeris' attention the most was the sound. There were none, except for a few steps of footsteps mixed in with garbage swaying in the wind. She felt forced to stop.

"Its worse than I could ever imagine" Aeris felt her breath coming to her harder and harder. The Princess Guard looked like a weather vane in a tornado.

"Hey Aeris, where...hey, what's wrong?" Cloud came jogging towards her. Her nose wiggled as she went past him; her focus on the former city around her. Cloud stared at no one while the girls walked around the outskirts of Section 5. "Guess I said something wrong" Cloud spoke to no one in particular as he turned back to the others and walked towards the girls. Tifa seemed to be in a fog; while at least Aeris was looking at the old city, she just strolled around like nothing was there. Aeris sat down on a broken cinder-block wall and looked over at her lost friend. She gripped her staff even harder; the blood rushing to her fingers.

"It's overwhelming" Aeris remarked as her heart-beat slowed down. Cloud strolled over next to Aeris. His attention was on Tifa, who just seemed to be sleep-walking. After a couple moments of watching her zombie-like walk, he turned his attention to the one who sat down and became like a plant. Cloud crossed his arms and shrugged at the same time.

"What's wrong with you two?" Cloud bluntly asked. Aeris tapped his leg with the staff and glanced at Tifa.

"We had a home and life here. It was a crummy town and few people thought it was perfect. A lot of us never wanted to call it home. But it was our home. It's tough to see it like this now" Aeris tapped his leg once more. Cloud craned his neck and looked at Tifa too. She bent down and picked up a piece of metal sheeting with a large Shinra logo on it. Tifa held the it in her gloved hands; her brown eyes focused on the logo and nothing else. After a minute passed, a horrid howl came from Tifa's body. She held the piece of metal over her head as her body emitted the deep-rooted cry.

"I hate Shrina! I hate it! I hate everything they did! They took my dad, they took my hometown, they took my life! I fucking hate them!" Tifa then began to bring the sheet metal down on the ground. Her body heaved it up and down; the metal began to bend more and more. Tifa began jumping as she brought the metal down, until finally the sheet cracked in half. The logo broke in half; the top piece bounced off the ground and fell into the scrap heap with the millions of others pieces of metal. Stopping when it broke, Tifa leaned over and pushed on the ground with the broken metal. After a moment, Tifa dropped the metal and just stood there. As she turned around, she saw that four eyes were locked onto her actions.

"Haha...sorry" Despite it, Tifa gave them a half-smile; her uneasiness seemed to have been thrown away with the top piece of the metal sheet. Aeris tilted her head and leaned on her staff more.

"No need to apologize; I think you did a wonderful job of making sure that metal plate wouldn't harm us anymore" Aeris smiled in her own way. Cloud shrugged and looked down at Aeris.

"Well, we could trip and cut ourselves on that piece that got away"

"Good point"

"Stop it!" Tifa let out a quick laugh and threw her arms down at her sides. Aeris kept her smile on while Cloud shrugged once more. Tifa wish she had a camera; if she could capture a moment of the two of them it was right then. Aeris' warm smile and Cloud's casual shrug; the essence of both of them. And for a moment; the world seemed perfect. Then something in the distance shattered that perfection.

"I hear gunfire" Cloud called out as he pulled Ultimate Weapon off his back and dropped into a defensive stance. Tifa instantly ran towards the eyes as her heard spun around.

"They're distant, that's for sure" Tifa stood to Cloud's left and kept her eyes scanning. Aeris spun the Princess Guard around in her hands a few times before stopping.

"No time like the present to get use to this again...so what are we waiting for?" Aeris questioned in a shaky tone. Her hands kept moving around on her staff; up and down with no pattern to their movement.

"No time to waste. Let's move out!" Cloud let a grin grow on his face. And while they ran off to find the gun-fire, they left all their supplies at the edge of Midgar.


"Damn Ray, I'd think we better get outta town!" Billy walked back and forth in front of the bar. Ray kept rubbing the bar glass with his rag; his hand swishing around inside it.

"He'd have killed us if he wanted us dead by now Ray. Overton didn't seem to be the type to fool around. I'm assuming we still got another chance-"

"Or they just didn't kill us yet! Let's fuck off now!" Billy slammed his right fist into the bar. Ray placed the beer mug onto the bar and just shook his head.

"Is there a Mr. Joseph present?" The man in the uniform at the door asked. Billy spun around and grabbed the bar with both hands. When he saw the man in uniform, he jumped over the bar and ducked down. Ray just rolled his eyes and nodded.

"That's me. Why, what to do you got?" Ray put his open palms on the bar and looked at this man; his uniform belonged to a messenger service and he looked no thicker than a railroad track. The man pulled an envelope out of his pocket and walked forward.

"Telegram sir" The messenger stopped in front of the bar. He held the brown envelope out in his hand; his eyes not daring to look at the larger man. Ray snatched the envelope away and snarled.

"I can tell that. Get outta here" Ray slapped the man's hand away and ripped open his telegram. Billy stood up and pounded a fist into the bar again.

"Yeah, get the fuck out before we make you get out!" Billy screamed with glee. The messenger turned around and ran out of the bar in a flash. Billy laughed as he watched the messenger escape. "Fuck off!"

"We got meet with him" Ray's voice was drained off all emotion; the paper dropped out of his hand and fluttered to the ground.


"Are you sure this is where the gun fire came from?" Aeris jogged behind Cloud and Tifa. After four steps, she looked over her shoulder. Seeing nothing besides the same old destroyed buildings and debris, she turned her attention forward again.

"Hope so. The guns stopped firing awhile ago. Maybe whatever it was, they killed it" Cloud kept shifting his eyes while he jogged forward.

"Maybe it killed them..." Tifa's voice trailed off as her body came to a stop. Aeris almost ran into her friend; she had to put her left hand into Tifa's back to stop her. Tifa jolted from the impact of Aeris' hand and spun around to face her. "Don't do that...sorry Aeris" Aeris saw the look in Tifa's face and did not respond; she just nodded her head. Cloud turned around and walked to the two of them. Upon reaching her, he placed a hand on Tifa's shoulder and gave it a gentle squeeze.

"Come on Tifa. You're not afraid of this...you're not afraid of this stuff. I know you!" Cloud's hand squeezed her shoulder more. Tifa reached up with her left hand and placed it over his hand.

"I just got a real bad feeling that we're heading into trouble. Like, something we never dealt with before..." Tifa looked back at Aeris; her hand still firmly holding Cloud's to her shoulder. "You have to feel something too...I mean, you're the one who gets these feelings. Something feels wrong" Tifa bite her lip and looked into Aeris' eyes. Cloud looked over as well; he opened his mouth and was going to speak until he saw the look on Aeris' face. His mouth shut instantly when he saw it. Aeris took a hard breathe.

"Something is going on here. I don't like this...something bad is out there; something that can hurt the planet. The planet is afraid of what is going on here" Aeris felt a cold chill run down her spine. Above them, the sky rumbled and shook in a rage. Cloud gripped Tifa's shoulder even harder now.

"Then I say we go find what's going on and end it. Then it can't hurt anyone else. We can handle this" Cloud's voice was filled with confidence; so much that some spilled over onto Aeris and Tifa. Aeris smirked and tapped her staff on the ground. Tifa's gloved hand squeezed Cloud's hand one last time before pushing it off.

"You're right. Look, let's just face this and get home. Well, where home will be. We can handle it" Tifa felt a smirk grow on her face. Aeris' new smirk fell off her face suddenly. "What's wrong?" Tifa quickly asked her.

"Just felt like someone was watching me. Maybe I'm just worked up. But you guys are right. Let's go deal with this" Aeris' smirk returned but held back somewhat. Cloud grinned and grabbed the Ultimate Weapon with both hands again.

"Right, let's move out" With that, Cloud turned forward and began jogging again. Tifa took a deep breathe before following behind him; her feet smacking off the cement ground hard. Aeris glanced around one more time; the Princess Guard held tightly in her hands. After looking around and seeing nothing but broken buildings and pieces of the upper plate, she started following behind Tifa. And while Cloud had warned her, Aeris could not help the feeling of sorrow inside herself. They were running over an up-scaled part of town; even for the plate section of Midgar. Once-fancy hotels and theaters were now all part of the same ghost town. Aeris came to a stop when, ahead of her, she saw Cloud, Tifa, and a mountain range forged of buildings.

"Dead end?" Aeris asked as she walked up towards her friends. She scanned over the mountain; it held a bank, an apartment building, and a theater. Above them, the sky was darkening over. Cloud just grinned and pointed towards the top of the building with the tip of his sword.

"You both climbed trees when you were young" Cloud placed his sword on his back and moved towards the building and placed his hands against. After reaching around for a few second, he began to climb up the former bank building.

"All our adventures seem to end up with us climbing something" Tifa casually mentioned as she began to follow Cloud up the building side. Aeris gulped down hard and untied a pink string she had around her waist. After a few quick knots, Aeris put her staff over her shoulder and tugged on the string holding it on. A tiny smile crossed her lips.

"Yeah for me" With that, Aeris grabbed onto the building and began to slowly climb up the side. As soon as she reached the the mid-way point of her climb, she felt eyes on her again. Her hair flipped all around as her head spun, looking for those eyes. "I hate this...wait up guys" Ignoring that feeling the best she could, Aeris began her ascent up the mountain of corporations. After ten more minutes, Aeris pulled her body over the top and looked at her friends. "So what's the view like"

"It's...creepy. Plain creepy" Tifa crossed her arms over her white shirt. Cloud kneeled down and looked below.

"It's like a huge crater formed here..." Cloud noted. Aeris walked in between them and looked downwards. In a day full of surprises, this one ranked up with the rest of them. The area was one huge crater; all the buildings and debris seemed to be pushed outwards towards the mountain they now stood upon. The ground lacked most the broken glass and old road signs as the rest of the city. Few pieces of litter remained on the ground along with a few tiny buildings. It looked like a farm at winter town; a dead brown ground that would be ready to be planted in spring.

"I think I can make out the other side...it's really far off" Tifa pointed straight ahead of herself. In the far distance, miles away, there seemed another edge of the crater. "This is so weird...hey...maybe this is where Meteor hit. Like, really hit" Tifa turned towards the others. Cloud leaned upwards and shrugged his shoulders.

"That sounds about right. Let's find a pathway down and explore..." He trailed off as he walked to the edge of the mountain top and looked downwards. A few pieces of debris fell off the edge of the cliff and down into the crater below.


"Got...got...got to kill..." A sole man reached for a semi-automatic rifle. Grabbing the ground, he inched his way closer to it. His bloody hand opened up and grabbed the handle of the gun. "Yes...yes..." He pulled it towards him with care. Then suddenly, a giant boot stomped down on his arm. "Noooooooo!" The man called out in horror; the boot went from his shoulder blade to his wrist, a span of more than any normal foot would take. "Nooo!" The man yanked on his arm with his other arm in a vain attempt to get free. Blood leaked out of his mouth as he forced his head to look up at whatever was on his arm. Before he could get a real good look, the beast reached down and grabbed him by the neck. With one quick yank, the man's arm was ripped off and left under the monster's boot. The man screamed in even more pain; his only arm left trying to push the monster away. In horror, he looked down at where his arm lay. He felt air-sick; he was at least two feet off the ground. When he looked back up, he screamed even louder.

"You are not human! You're some freak!" The man puked up more blood which splattered on the monster's face. The monster did not react to the blood; he just held up his other arm. The soldier stared at this arm; while it lacked a hand, the rocket launcher on the end more than made up for that. Tears rolled down the soldier's face; his feet churned like butter. Each kick bounced off the monster; not a single ounce of pain seemed to be felt.

"Boom!" And with that, the man never had to worry about crying again.