Disclaimer: Final Fantasy 7 and all that's associated with it are not mine but Squaresoft's. This story is continued from the fanfiction Agrias started.

PROLOGUE

Escape

"Hey! Wake up!" A gruff voice that could only come from the old man who owned this old place rang in his ear "Come on! Rise and shine now. The new chicobos need to be checked on to see if their are still in one piece or already chyme running down that damned solon's intestines!"

The blond-haired man groaned and turned over his straw-sewn, poor excuse of a bed. He longed to shout at his boss the fact that he just slept about an hour ago since the barn where his poor-excuse-for-a-bed was located reeked of the smell of darn chocobos.

"Come on, Wraith!" the chocobo man (I forgot what/who he's called) called again.

"Yeah, alright, I'm coming!" Wraith replied, sitting up and rubbing his eyes from sleep, if one would call that darn snooze sleep, that is. He brushed the straw from his face and hair and climbed down the ladder that lead up to his 'room' inside the barn.

The chocobo man was waiting for him right below. Funny, but he did not look quite well this morning.

"Heyyah, Wraith," he began, "You look like hell. Didn't you get any sleep?"

Before his worker could answer, he continued, rather nervously, "Uh... I... Hey Wraith! Don't get mad, ok?"

Wraith raised an eyebrow at that. "Why?"

The chocobo man seemed to shiver. "I... Well... The farm... The farm... Well..."

"Can you just get on with it?" Wraith sighed heavily, producing sweat on the older man's face.

'Man, he's sweating like a...'

His thoughts were interrupted when the chocobo man continued, "You're fired..."

It was neither among surprise, disappointment, nor anger that registered on Wraith's face, but wonder. The chocobo man, after delivering his two-word statement, turned a mixture of gray and green, looking as if he's going to get sick.

"Well," he continued, although just barely, "I didn't mean to say it like that Wraith... It's just that you're like a son to me now and it just bugs me seeing you work like a stable boy, trying to make enough money to buy a chocobo for yourself, to cross that damned swamp without worrying Midgar Solon will come and eat ya..."

Wraith, honestly, did not mind being 'fired' since he was planning to leave the farm soon anyway. But the wonderment how the chocobo man managed to say all those things without being sick all over him was enigmatic. And now, he was still continuing what he was going to say.

"I, well... I contacted someone from Junon and asked if he needed someone with skill. He said he needed a mechanic. So... Wraith... I'm sending you over to Junon. You could be a mechanic there."

"What makes you sure that I know a mechanic's job?" Wraith asked.

"Well... You know a lot of things, that's for sure. And you're intelligent. Makes me wonder where you really came from. You'll not be having any trouble learning how to be mechanic and do your thing. When you came here, it was clear from your face you never tended chocobos and you did fine. I never had fine chocobos like the ones you raised before you arrived. Junon will be a better place for you to work in. It's a good city with more opportunities. More opportunities than staying here in the barn, anyway. And who knows, you may be the one to rebuild Midgar and be powerful as those Shinra's!"

That surprised him. But oddly touched by what the small elderly man said, Wraith nodded and said, "Thanks."

--- --- --- --- ---

Wraith chuckled to himself as he finished packing his stuff and walked over to the golden chocobo the chocobo man was kind enough to offer, without payment of course.

He was glad not because he was leaving the chocobo farm. Actually, he was rather sad he was. The chocobo man was really something. Something he never really had in his life. With that, he reflected how this nowhere place changed him, or changed a part of him, at least. He remembered himself as an arrogant bastard who had a bastard of a father, not considering his 'mode' of birth. Well, he was still an arrogant bastard now, only which he just had a 'break' from it working at the stables.

But he was glad. Glad that he was beginning to get somewhere. Junon will be a good place to start making real money and do what he is supposed to do. In a year or two, or maybe three at most, he would be able to stand as a formidable man once again and the glory that was once his will be in his grasp once more.

Smiling with that thought, he mounted the chocobo the chocobo man oddly named Rufus, bade goodbye to the elderly man, who returned the gesture, and rode towards Midgar Solon's swamp. He would be in Junon in less than twenty-four hours.

Yes, formidable. Just like he once was. Just like Rufus Shinra once was. After achieving what he's supposed to achieve in less than three years, he only needs to find his Dark Nation to rock the world once again. He flipped back his very blond hair and stroked his double-barreled shotgun. Some things never change.

--- --- --- --- ---

The woman by the window sighed against the darkness as the blanket of the starless night loomed over still-tiny town of Nibelheim, now turned a mining town because of the large deposits of materia in the ranges of Mt. Nibel. Her eyes roamed over the empty streets below and reflected upon her future, which was never sure. The future was never sure. But then again, when she really thought about it, she was a lucky one. Not everybody who experienced what she had undergone reached this far in life. Yes, she was a miner-- one of the very few female miners in the town, in the whole world for that matter, and all of it was only a sign of the hardships in her life.

'So much for heroes who were left to face the world alone.'

She chuckled. Well, at least, the time of the shovels and pick axes were through. I WAS a miner, yeah. But I've got my old life back. I've got my life back, after seven years.

Her thoughts were distracted by a shuffling noise behind her. She looked back and found her pride and joy smiling back at her.

"Hey," he said, his intense Mako-induced eyes searching her sad ones, but keeping a subdued smile on his lips, "Are you alright?"

"Of course," she said, her smile matching his, "Why wouldn't I be?"

He shrugged at that.

"How's your day?"

"Hmph! That sad-ass twerp won't be showing his pig face around here anymore!" he said, and laughed heartily, his spiked blond hair swaying with the movement of his head.

"What did he do this time?" she asked, walking over to the kitchen to prepare their meal. Their house was a mediocre one so anyone in the house could see everything from wherever he stood, except for the two bedrooms and the bathroom which were covered with doors. Her old house in Nibelheim was demolished years before to accommodate rather small houses for people who came to Nibelheim to mine on the mountains. The only 'original' house that stood was the Shinra mansion.

"He called the bar a place for... you know... Hmph... I wonder how kids these days get those kinds of thoughts... weird!" he bent down and removed his boots. He then motioned to throw them onto the couch.

Too bad, Tifa saw him first.

As he did, "Rios! Do that and you'll be sorry! The last time your boots had something unpleasant under them!" a high-pitched voice interrupted his routine which made him jump, his boots flying into the air and into the fireplace.

"Mom! Look what you made me do!" he said and rushed over to the fireplace to retrieve his boots. He took them out quickly, padded out the ash from them, and checked for some damage. Luckily there was none, he realized, sighed and checked some more as if his boots were the most important things in the world.

Tifa smiled before the scene. Yes, her pride and joy. The only one who was left in the world for her. The one given by that certain someone whom she thought cared for her deeply only to find him gone one day to 'find himself' or so he said. The one person who kept her strong throughout the seven years of living with nothing but a broken heart and a pick-axe to let her come through. The one with Mako eyes, burning as that of the man before him, but instead of them the color of the sky, they were the color of blood. Yes, his son -- Cloud's son. Her son. HER son.

After he left, she had wasted her life away, even if she was pregnant. Good thing her son did not turn out a mentally retarded child. She spent her money on useless things until she had nothing left. Nothing left to support her child. Then she came into grips of all that's happened. Cloud's gone and there's a slim chance he would be back. He probably had found what he was looking for and now was celebrating the goodness of his life, while she waited for nothing.

She refused to remember the night he left. She only focused on what or who's laid before her. She now has her bar, and her Rios. She only prayed nothing or no one would take those away, especially the latter.

She placed Rios's plate on the table and motioned to call for him to dinner.

--- --- --- --- ---

"Good night," Tifa said, as she smiled and placed a kiss on Rios's forehead.

"G'night mom," Rios whispered and yawned, "See ya tomorrow". He drifted off to sleep even before Tifa pushed herself from his bed.

Sighing, she walked over to the window to make sure no windows were hanging open as if inviting the cold to come in.

But the darkness outside beckoned her to think about him again.

'Where are you, I wonder? Are you sleeping right now too? Are you warm? Comfortable? Oh how I need you right now. And he needs you too. Are you coming back? To see him? I don't care if you'll come back not to see me, but just come see him. He needs to know how alike you two are. Except for your eyes. And... and... PTA's coming. Are you coming back?'

A tiny tear escaped from Tifa's eyes. And then another. And another.

"Mom,"

Tifa jumped at the hushed voice. She turned to it.

"He's not worth crying for," Rios was sitting up in his bed, looking at her. He raised his arms toward her, beckoning her to come to him.

Tifa walked over to his bed, sat down and hugged him tightly. Tears were flowing from her eyes now.

"It's ok, mom, I won't leave you. I won't be like him. NEVER like him," Rios whispered, trying to soothe his mother.

After all that's over, Tifa slept, holding her son.

- End of Chapter -

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A/N

Hey guys! I made some major changes in the story. I made chapter 1 a prologue 'coz that's what it is...

I referred to Agrias before making these changes, of course, so that I wouldn't worry about cases of plagiarism.

Thanks for reading and oh... the former chapter 2 is now chapter 1 and so on...

Please do leave a review and if anyone was bothered by me changing chapters and all... I apologize!!!

Again, thanks and take care! :)

Valen Locke