A/N: Hey guys. I'm updating quick to make up for lost time so here goes. Not long till the end of my fic. But don't worry; there will probably be a sequel. I don't know.

Summary – Squall comforts Tifa and persuades her to0 share her secret. Tifa is pregnant, and Cloud is the father. Squall makes a promise to Tifa. If Cloud was alive, they'd find him. He didn't know that it may be sooner than he thinks.

Chapter 24 – Their Location Is Found

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Insert 'Reunion' music

She was in a black void. She looked around, but she couldn't see anything. There was nothing but darkness. She was frightened.

'Where…where am I?' she thought. Her thought echoed in the void, which sent chills down her spine.

She walked around, trying to find some clue as to where she was. There was nothing.

She walked, for what seemed like hours. In the darkness, she could make out a figure in the distance. They looked very familiar. She gasped and smiled when she recognised the spiky hair and huge sword.

"CLOUD!" she shouted. She was filled with joy over finding him. She ran to him and stood behind him. "Cloud?" she whispered.

He slowly turned round to face her. Tifa gasped. He was covered with deep cuts, burns and bruises. His forehead was bleeding badly and the blood ran down his face.

"Cloud, what happened to you?" she asked in a scared voice.

He looked as if he was going to pass out, but he spoke quickly.

"I'm sorry Teef." he said quietly. Tifa became very scared, "I couldn't stop them." As he finished, his eyes shut and he collapsed to the floor.

"Cloud!" Tifa yelled as she kneeled down next to him. His head was turned away from her, so she couldn't see his face. Instead she shook him from behind, "Cloud…" she pleaded with teary eyes, "…Please! Get Up!"

She heard two voices, laughing. One sounded cold, and evil. It was a male voice. The other was the same but feminine.

"Who's there?" she asked, frightened.

The two figures came out of the darkness opposite her and Cloud. One was, as she suspected, a woman. She had black markings on her face and her silver her flowing out behind her. Her bright yellow eyes scared Tifa. The second figure was a man. His silver hair strayed over his face and his piercing green eyes were filled with evil. This was the person who haunted both Tifa's and Cloud's dreams. It was Sephiroth.

"H…how?" Tifa stuttered, "It…it can't be."

He spoke in an icy voice. "Yes it can, my dear. Now we can both get revenge on our killers."

On the floor, Cloud started to get up.

"Cloud. Get away from them!" Tifa warned him.

But as he stood, he turned towards them. He walked forward until he was beside Sephiroth.

"Cloud?"

Sephiroth looked at Cloud.

"Cloud is my puppet once again Miss Lockhart. You were right when you said he was weak."

Tifa shook her head as she felt tears roll down her face. Cloud slowly started to turn round. His eyes were shut and he was facing downwards. His wounds were gone; there were no blood stains at all. He lifted his head and his eyes snapped open. Tifa gasped and stepped back in fear. His eyes matched Sephiroth's. They were piercing green and showed no happiness in them like they used to.

Tifa kept shaking her, not believing what she was seeing. This couldn't be the Cloud she knew, the man she loved, the father to her unborn child. She backed away, whispering.

"No. No. No. This…this can't be real."

"Oh…I think you'll find that it is." Cloud said. His voice wasn't normal. It contained another. It contained Sephiroth's voice.

Tifa turned and ran, as fast as she could, away from the trio. She ran and ran, through the darkness. She stopped when she started to see flashbacks of all that had happened in her life. Her mother dying, Nibelhiem being burnt, the Weapon's rising out of Northern Cave, the Mako-Mutants attacking Kalm, Cloud leaving on his summon monsters.

"STOP!!! STOP!!! STOP!!!" She screamed. She didn't want to see this. She kept screaming till she heard an urgent voice.

* * * * *

"TIFA! Wake up!"

Tifa yelled as she woke from her nightmare. Her eyes snapped open and she saw Squall looking down at her, concerned.

"You okay?" he asked.

"Yeah. I…I think so."

"Okay, I'll tell the others you're awake. We're going to Rocket Town today, to see Shera."

"Right."

Squall nodded and walked out of the room. Tifa sat up and rubbed her head.

It was only a nightmare. Or was it? It seemed so real. A part of her told her it was a dream, the other told her it wasn't

If it was…that meant Cloud was alive. But he was in trouble. They had to get him back. And she would help. No matter what.

* * * * *

They reached Rocket Town about midday. Tifa and Rinoa had set up meals for everyone while the rest talked. They told Shera of the attacks and of Cloud going missing. She was just as shocked as everyone else.

"You can't be serious!?" she asked as they told her. "Cloud was kidnapped?"

"Yes." Red XIII answered, "And unfortunately, we have no idea where they have taken him."

"But there must be someplace where they gather." Quistis said, "You know…somewhere they attack from."

"You mean like a hideout?" Zell asked.

"Yes. When they next attack…if they do…follow them and they'll lead us to it."

"That is a very good idea Quistis." Vincent said, "But there have been no attacks since Cloud's disappearance. I thought they might have started to search for Squall. They seem to want him too."

"Maybe they're waiting for him to come to them." Yuffie suggested, "You know…like a sort of trap."

"That's true." Irvine told them, "But what sort of trap could they come up with. I mean…they're just monsters."

"Not exactly…" Red XIII argued, "They seem more coordinated than that. I think they may be under orders from something…or someone."

Everyone stopped after that, because Tifa and Rinoa had come through with food. None of them wanted either of the girls to hear what they were talking about. But they hadn't done very well.

* * * * *

Tifa walked outside after the meal. She walked to the beach north of the town. It was only about a miles walk so she was there in no time.

She had been thinking about her dream all day. Seeing Cloud like that really scared her. Seeing Sephiroth again made it ten times worse. He had Cloud under control again. But how? Cloud didn't have his personality split anymore. Maybe it was that women. Maybe she was helping him somehow.

Tifa grew more and more concerned for Cloud. She looked up at the sky.

'Please…please…let him be alright.' she pleaded mentally, 'Let me find him…I can't stand this. I just want him back. Back with me.'

Tifa lowered her slightly head and looked towards the horizon. What she saw made her heart miss a beat.

Coming from the Northern Continent, were dozens of aerial Mako-Mutants. She saw an even larger one near the front. It was almost three times the size of the others. She started to retreat slowly but that quickly turned into a sprint, as she raced towards Rocket Town.

* * * * *

Squall sat on the coach, listening to the others conversation. He didn't have any ideas about the situation. He didn't care if they got him, as long as his friends were okay that's all that mattered. And those mutants won't be taking him without a fight.

He looked up when he felt someone sit next to him.

"You thinking again?" Rinoa asked.

Squall simply nodded and she cuddled into him, wrapping her arms around his waist and laying her head on his shoulder.

"You know what's weird…" Squall started. Rinoa looked up at him and saw him smile, "…we've been so caught up in this mutant business; that we still haven't tried to find a way home."

Rinoa nodded in agreement. "Are you missing Garden?"

"A bit but…not as much as I thought I would. This place feels more like home for some reason. I can relax more here."

"Maybe it's because you've got responsibilities in Garden. As Commander, you're under a lot of stress. And these guys don't look up to you as a leader. They look up to Cloud."

Squall nodded, realising that she had a good point. From what he had learned, both he and Cloud had been the leader of their group for over a year now. Cloud must be able to handle it easier because he was older. Or maybe it was because Squall had lived most his life as a loner.

"Yeah, you're right."

Rinoa leaned up and kissed his cheek. He turned his head and kissed her back. Their lips were locked together until they heard someone almost crash right through the door.

There stood a very flushed Tifa, she was panting from sprinting a mile.

"Yo Teef's! S'up?" Cid asked her.

"They're here. The Mako-Mutants. They're flying this way."

Everyone suddenly stood up and rushed outside. They each gasped as they saw the large pack of mutants. Their eyes widened even more when they saw the largest one. Squall stood in front of the others. The largest one looked very familiar. He saw a human on it but he couldn't make them out.

They didn't waste any time getting ready for the attack. Vincent, Irvine, Reeve and Barret loaded their guns and aimed.

Zell, Squall, Quistis, Cid and Yuffie, brought forward their Summons and GF's. Zell climbed onto his Quezacotl, Quistis and Yuffie climbed onto the Phoenix. Cid pulled himself onto his Bahamut. Before Squall mounted his GF, he walked over to Tifa.

"Tifa you need to stay out of this." he told her.

"But I want to help!" she protested.

"You can't! Not in your condition." he pointed out.

Tifa lowered her head, defeated. She nodded and Squall mounted his Bahamut. The five flying monsters took off and flew up high. When they were level with the mutants they stopped.

They each drew their weapons and readied their magic. The mutants charged. They darted past the monsters and swiped at anything they could reach. Down below, Rinoa used her Sorceress powers, to cast Protect on everyone. She then started firing Tornado spells to knock several mutants out of the air. The summons and GF's were using their elements and special attacks to defend themselves, and their riders used their weapons to help.

Everyone worked as a team. The gunners shot down any mutants that headed for Rocket Town while Red XIII, Selphie and Rinoa protected and healed everyone that was fighting in the air. Tifa stayed at the back, using Turbo Ethers to replenish everyone's magical energy. The others just kept attacking. In a few minutes, more than half of the mutants had fallen. They were slowly outnumbering them.

But the largest one wasn't attacking. The creature was standing on a cliff, far from the fight. Squall broke of from the fight and flew towards it. He stopped as the creature's shape became more noticeable. Squall gasped as he recognised it.

'Holy hell!' his mind screamed, 'That's Cloud's Neo Bahamut.'

The rider on Neo Bahamut wore a dark black cloak. His hood was up to conceal his face. He looked up and Squall noticed that he had bright green eyes. They were easily noticed through the darkness his hood provided. The summon rose into the sky and flew off towards the Northern Continent. Squall was disappointed. It wasn't Cloud on the Bahamut. He was about to turn back to the others when he remembered what Quistis had said earlier.

'There must be someplace where they gather. When they next attack…if they do…follow them and they'll lead us to it.'

Squall decided to go along with Quistis' idea and he followed. He kept a safe distance away from him and saw in suddenly dive down. Squall's Bahamut sped up and flew up to where he had disappeared. There was a small crater that went deep into the ground. In the wall, Squall could see a small hole, large enough to fit a Neo Bahamut in.

Squall smiled and flew back to his friends.

They had knew where they came from. There location was found.

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A/N: Hey guys, hope you liked this. Hey I just found something to recommend. Visit and scroll down. You can get every piece of music (apart from Trust Me) from FF8 for Realplayer. Download the remixes, they're brill. Especially Maybe I'm A Lion.

Shout-outs –

Fr33k S+Yl3 23 – Sorry Roxie, I can't tell you if it will be a boy or a girl. Wait till the sequel to find out. I hope you'll read the sequel. Anyway…I get the joke about being haunted in 10 years. And don't treat me like a god. I'll blush. LOL Oh and thanks for putting me on your fav authors list. Means a lot.

Brutal2003 – I usually find the big chatty bits boring. I'm more into stories where there's action most of the time. Glad you liked it though…if you did.

Jessica Holmes – Oh my god, Oh my god, Oh my god, Oh my god! You're going to update. *SQUEAL* I can't wait. LOL. Is it When Heart rules over Mind or is it your other one? That's another question. When you gonna update Near death brings new hope? I've been waiting for ages 'cause it's good. I can't wait to see it from Cloud's POV. And you're right…Cloud Jr. does sound kinda cute eh? ;D

Angelus' girl0-07 – I'm glad you like it. And thanks for putting me on your favs list.

CrystalTyres – Thanks for reviewing. I was thinking of putting Seifer in at the start but I decided against it. I didn't really have a part for him in the story.