Disclaimer: Final Fantasy 7 and all that's associated with it are not mine but Squaresoft's. And the story is originally from my friend Agrias.

CHAPTER 2

Crash

"Rios! Get down here this instant! You're going to be late for school again!" his dear mother shouted for the tenth time early in the morning. The seven year old boy only groaned and pulled his pillow to cover his face. He mumbled something incoherent and drifted back to sleep.

"Rios! Don't make me go up there!"

Another groan. He turned on his stomach and covered his head with his pillow.

"Rios!"

Alright, alright! Rios grumbled and threw his pillow somewhere. He sat up, opened his eyes and scanned his room.

Yep, same room, he thought and then another shout, "Rios! For the last time!"

"Mom! I'm awake! Stop that already! We have neighbors, you know," Rios said loud enough for Tifa to hear, but respectful enough not to hurt his mother's feelings. He finally stood up and felt the room sway. He shook the sleep from his head and proceeded into the bathroom that connected his room with his mother's.

The moment he entered the rather small bathroom, he frowned at himself as he faced the mirror. He grabbed a comb and started combing his hair vigorously. He smiled when his hair stuck to the sides of his head but then again, his hair shook and reinstated themselves into that spiked look, making Rios frown and sigh heavily.

Damn it all! They always stick out like freaking spikes on a maul! Oh well... Rios thought and proceeded to bathe himself. He should control his language, though. It's not proper for a kid his age to be saying those things older people love to say.

In the kitchen, Tifa was busy busying herself with nothing. She was walking around the place, picking up the broom then putting it up against the wall, and then picking it up again. She was so restless this morning. She seemed to can not figure out what she was supposed to do. It was as if she was anticipating something, waiting for something to happen. But what?

She walked over to the couch and smiled down at her sleeping ninja friend who was dribbling saliva out from her open mouth. Good thing she brought her own pillow, Tifa thought grinning at that. She wanted to wake Yuffie up, but then again, Yuffie would wake by herself. Tifa had been shouting to wake up Rios, but all that noise did not earn so much as a twitch from Yuffie.

Tifa sighed as her mind started to wander off to the old times. Yes, the old times. The action, the adventure, the emotion, the exhilarating feeling of saving the planet and all the people in it, and the pain that goes along with it. She remembered her friends who were there together in happy times and times when everything seemed to be devoid of hope. The kind and beautiful people whom they met in their travels, as well as the not-so-beautiful selfish people who only looked out for themselves. Then there was Barret's love for Marlene, Cid's dirty mouth, Red XIII's family, Reeve's Cait Sith, Vincent's mystery, Yuffie's obsession... And there was Aeris' death and Clou...

"Hey mom, what's for breakfast?" her thoughts were interrupted by the cheerful good-morning greeting from her son.

Tifa smiled gently as she watched the boy saunter across the living room towards her. He was wearing his school uniform and on his back was his two-year-old backpack that looked as new as the moment they bought it from a store in Rocket Town.

He was smiling back at her, pleased at the wonderful sight of his mother. But his smile faded when he turned his head and saw his aunt Yuffie sleeping on the couch with her mouth open as if inviting flies to live in it, and worse, she was salivating all over the couch.

"Jeesh! She could have told me she had nowhere to sleep but that couch! I could have slept there instead with her in my room!" Rios said.

Tifa grinned and said, "Well, she insisted she sleep on the couch. She said rooms give her the creeps, and guess what, I have exactly no idea why!" Tifa ushered her son into the dining table where his generous breakfast was waiting.

After the satisfying meal, Rios kissed his mother goodbye, waved at Yuffie's disgusting sleeping form, and left for school.

Tifa sighed as she watched her son go, not noticing that Yuffie had gotten up and sneakingly walked up behind her watching Rios as well.

"Wow!" Yuffie suddenly exclaimed, making Tifa jump and glare at her. Yuffie grinned at her sheepishly and proceeded, "He's growing up too fast, doncha think so Teef?"

Tifa eased her look at Yuffie and turned to watch Rios as he faded into the distance. "Yeah... he is growing up too fast. It's as if it was only yesterday that I had him in my arms as he was squirming to get a better look at me and a better chance to grab my hair so he had something interesting to do such like pulling on it and making me say 'ouch!' and then he would smile that toothless smile and then..." Tifa sighed. "And then now, he looks like Cloud! It would be a matter of time until he'll become as tall as his father."

Then Tifa paused as if pondering on something.

"Mako, huh?" Yuffie asked.

"Probably," Tifa replied with a sad look in her eyes, and then shook her head. "He's taller than kids his age, and he's a lot stronger. And then there are his eyes. They're getting more intense as days go by. And there's this feeling that something is going to happen, Yuffie."

Yuffie looked at her friend gently. She held Tifa's hand and squeezed assuringly.

"Don't worry, Teef. Everything will be fine."

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

"So, boss... how did you end up in Junon?" Reno asked as he munched on some of the food Rufus had stored in his sleek white private plane.

"I don't like nosy people," Rufus replied while looking into some papers his secretary gave him before he left his office in Junon.

"Yeah, I know, but how exactly did you get here? I mean, we all practically saw your building blow up in Midgar, and we were practically sure you were dead, with much mourning in our hearts of course. And now, you're here heading a large industrial empire that transformed that godforsaken Junon into something like Midgar Sector 1, but much better!" Reno asked again.

"Have you no other things to do? Can't you see I'm busy?" Rufus said without looking up at Reno.

"So... did you get a girlfriend already? I mean, how old are you now anyway? 30? 28?"

"Please do shut up."

"Or was it 27?"

"Reno..."

"Do you have a girlfriend? Or a wife?"

"Shut up."

"Oh ok..." Reno looked around Rufus' private plane and when he saw that nothing's out of the ordinary except for the fact that the whole white over-alls in the interior of the plane were driving him to crazed blindness, he stood up from his chair and picked up a wine glass from the bar.

"How in the world did you ever start this empire thing anyway? Were your old back accounts active? Which reminds me, there weren't, were they? Reeve tried to gain access to the banks that held your investments, but well... the banks just don't exist anymore, so that would probably mean that's the end of your money... But you managed to lift Junon to glory!" Reno paused. "What a success story!"

Reno turned to Rufus to see what his boss has to say about what he said. He was rewarded by the nonchalance of the blonde man. Reno shrugged and walked over to the window. He looked down at the passing small and large islands as the plane flew over them. He watched ships shift their sails to gain more wind power. He watched bare grasslands stretch into forests by the distance. He watched small villages waking up as people the size of aphids go on their daily routines. He watched chocobos running freely across the lands with something looking like a man running after one trying to capture it.

Reno sighed. Eight years. Eight long years since the fall of Sephiroth and Shinra. If everything did not happen – Cloud and his comrades saving the world and all – would all of these things ever possible? Perhaps not. Perhaps so. Who knows? Someone could have stopped Sephiroth one way or another, but then again, Strife and AVALANCHE were the ones brave enough to do it. The world seemed alright then, but then not much really happened after that. Yeah, the heroes were celebrated much after the incident, but now, everything seemed ordinary – as if nothing really happened. Sephiroth was gone. End of story.

Reno shuddered.

Mt. Nibel. What was up there? He could tell something was wrong with those mountains. Valentine was right about that. The Turks, including him, had gone to the place prior to the defeat of Sephiroth and the feeling that he had was that Mt. Nibel was dead. But when they visited the place most recently, the mountains seemed to exude some energy that left them confused. The air changed too. It was one hell of a scary place. Was it haunted or something?

"What the..." Rufus suddenly said that interrupted Reno's wandering thoughts. Reno was too engrossed in thinking about Mt. Nibel that he didn't notice the slight rumbling of the plane. It was only when Rufus spoke up and him losing his balance that he snapped back to reality and heard an alarm go off. Suddenly, the door of the plane leading outside flew open and a very large ugly creature stuck its head inside, eyeing Rufus and Reno. It had glowing red eyes, three horns, and three rows of sharp teeth. It started bellowing and scratching the floor of the plane as if trying to get a firm grip with its huge clawed paws.

"What in the world!" Reno exclaimed as the monster went further inside the plane. He was frozen on the spot, but turned to the clicking sound of a gun being loaded. He turned to Rufus and found him calmly raising his double barreled shotgun at the creature, aiming without hesitation, pulled the trigger. His bullet pierced the creature's skin which made it shriek loudly making Reno cover his ears. The shot should've dislodged the monster from its hold on the plane, but it only toughened its resolve to finish what it had started. Its red eyes started glowering intensely, and its roar getting louder. Rufus cocked his shotgun once again and aimed at the monster. But before his could pull the trigger, a strong rumble made him lose his balance and fall. The monster, now with its torso fully inside the plane, made a move to raise its claws against Rufus. Reno snapped out of his stupor and pulled out his own shotgun. He blasted it against the monster making it shriek with pain, but the creature still manage to hit Rufus with its enormous claws. Rufus tried to keep the pain inside so that the only sound that escaped from him was a disgrunted groan. He immediately grabbed his shotgun and shot at the creature which was still busy dealing with the damage inflicted by Reno, not minding that his insides were in the danger or falling off because of the deep wounds on his torso. His bullet hit the monster at its right eye making it scream louder.

Reno shot at it once again and again until it retreated at the door. One last shot by Rufus sent it falling off from the plane.

The ordeal left the duo breathing deeply and sharply, but before they could even think that the threat was over, something heavy went atop the plane. A loud roar was heard before the roof of the plane started caving in with the pounding of the monster on it.

"Dammnit!!!" Rufus exclaimed as he shot at the roof, but the monster kept pounding on it. He then noticed that Reno was not doing something about it. He turned his attention to his companion and found him looking outside the window of the plane.

"Hey you! What are you doing?!" Rufus cried but Reno just kept looking outside and then in a slightly audible whisper, he said, "Rufus..." and then he pointed at that something he was looking at.

Rufus followed where Reno was pointing at and found out that the plane was on the verge of crashing against the mountains of Nibelheim.

About fifteen seconds after, a loud crash shook the northern side of Mt. Nibel.

But it was too far away that no body in the town, which was located on the other side of the mountains where the plane crashed, heard nor even felt it.

Nobody, except for one.

- End of Chapter -

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A/N

Hey guys! Thanks a bunch for the reviews! And guess what, I decided to get on with the story! I edited some parts of Chapters 1 and 2. I know Agrias would not mind... Anyway, now is not the time to make Rufus and Tifa meet, as you well know if you read the chapter. But they will in the next, if I decide Rufus will not die, that is. I tried to make the characters act the same as Agrias made them act originally. I hope I'm not messing it up. Actually, I have no idea where this story is headed and Agrias had not told me what her plans for this fic are so please bear with me if something is not quite right...

Constructive criticisms are welcome, but no flames please... I have blood type A, so I'm a bit on the sensitive side...

Anyway, please do leave a review of the chapter. It would be much appreciated to know how the readers feel about this...

Thanks!!! :)

Valen Locke