Author's Note: Can heartless overcome a whole group of heroes? Let's just say Cloud will never let himself get a little 'rusty' ever again. A certain silver hairedvillian appears, (these days, it could be anyone) what will they do?

Disclaimer: I don't own Square, or these people.

Cloud hummed softly as he barbecued on his grill. Aeris, Rinoa, Quistis, Yuna, and all the other ladies sat at the table, chatting. Some of the men including Squall, Barret, Cid, Ivine, Zidane, Red, Tidus, and Zell were playing their own version of blitzball. Vincent sat off on the sidelines as the goalie, and this game really needed one considering all the foul play. The lamps had come on to illuminate the area since the sun had just set. After dinner the girls would go out their late night shopping expedition while all the guys played poker.

Suddenly, a small black creature walked its way into the yard. It seemed strangely innocent, almost cute, but it twitched disturbingly. The mixed 'aws' and 'ews' of the girls seemed to say they thought the same thing. Then several not-so-small black creatures invaded his yard, trying to attack. Zell, Red, and Barret started retaliating immediately, with Vincent not far behind since he always seemed to have his gun. The others made a mad dash for their weapons. In about thirty seconds those black things were dead meat. They should have known better than to mess with this troop.

Then about five hundred more surrounded them, glaring at them with alien eyes.

"Squall, these things must be everywhere!" Cloud yelled.

"We should go see if we can help the town. Yours and Zidane's group should stay here, but we'll go to help," Squall replied. The groups split up and went their separate ways.

Squall ran down the streets, twisting and turning with Zell, Quistis, Selphie, Rinoa, and Irvine behind. After about twelve minutes of dodging creatures they had made it to the square. It was like hell had decided to bubble out of the ground. Even though his gunblade slashed through more heartless than he had time to count, two just came to replace the last. He obtained a growing amount of cuts and bruises, and could hear Irvine healing Selphie for the third time a little desperately. This was so wrong, how could it be happening?

"Elena! Rude! Tifa! It was all Ansem, you have to get the hell out of their before his heartless army swarms you! God damn it, run!" Squall heard a voice cry out. He didn't know where it came from, and though it seemed incredibly loud to him, the others showed no sign of hearing it. Ansem? This made no sense, and there was no time to think.

After a half hour of fighting, the others were out of any magic energy or cures, and were seriously exhausted and hopeless. Somewhere deep inside, despite Irvine's assurances to Selphie that they'd somehow pull through, everyone knew they were going to die here.

"SELPHIE!" Irvine cried out in horror. Squall twisted, seeing a blur of yellow dress hit the ground before it was covered in a twitching mound of heartless. Irvine shot with careful calculated aim, melting away layer after layer of the heartless that barred hi way. Squall sliced up as many as he could, finally revealing a the limp form of a tiny brunette.

"Cure!" Irvine said, sounding very strained. Squall knew at once that Irvine had no power to do magic at this point, and shouldn't have even done that. Still, a green wisp of magic flew around Selphie with the pleasant tinkle of bells. Irvine got down on his knees next to her. Her eyes flickered open, immediately fixing on Irvine. With a small sigh, her eyes closed with a smile on her face. A pinkish thing burst out of her chest, disappearing as a heartless leapt up and consumed it. Squall didn't need to feel her pulse to know Selphie was gone.

"NO!" Irvine said in disbelief. "Life! Cure! Cure! Cure!" Irvine said repeatedly, brokenly. Already at a dangerous point, Squall knew he couldn't afford it. He shook Irvine.

"Stop it! You're going to kill yourself! She already dead! Dead!" he said, knowing it was harsh. As if to prove his point, her body disappeared into a shadowy smoke, instantly scattered away. Irvine stared at him in anguish, and then his eyes went strangely blank. He simply sat there with that unseeing stare that made Squall shiver inwardly.

"Come on, Irvine, get up," he said. Irvine didn't resist as he helped him up, but then he just stood there, still as unresponsive as when he had been sitting down. A low whistle came through the air as a rocket ship landed into the square, squishing a few yards of heartless. Cloud and Zidane jumped out, followed by their fellows.

"Cid's getting us out of here!" Cloud yelled. "Find anyone you can and take them with us, especially woman and children!" Large heartless began to flood the marketplace, some with large shields, spikes, magic, and horns. Rinoa grabbed Irvine gently but firmly by the arm and led him to the ship. Squall mentally thanked her, quite able to believe Irvine would just stand there staring out into space until he died left like that. He ran through the ruckus, finding a frightened and crying child. He grabbed the girl up and hauled her into the ship, then went back for another...

(Switch)

Cloud jumped out of the ship and fought his way through a large force of creatures. He could here the frightened cry of a kid right beyond them. Once he made it through here, and he'd see him or her. But behind each line of things there was a next one, and each line made him more desperate to get to that kid.

Finally he broke through. A small child sat on the ground, cowering up against the wall. It had silver hair, 'how old for a child,' Cloud thought. Suddenly the kid stopped cowering and got up. In that one motion the kid seemed to expand and grow and when he was to his feet, Sephiroth stood before him.

The silver haired man laughed chillingly. "I'll take care of Aeris for you," he sneered tauntingly. Then he raised his hand and sent a large wave of multicolored light through Cloud. Though it just simply passed through, he felt like it was trying to take his insides with it. The hero cried out in pain, falling to his knees. His back burned, and he let out another cry as the burn because a white hot searing. He didn't need to be able to see his back to know that a wing had just burst out of it, he just knew. A weird sort of fire burned through his head as well. Sephiroth was gone, but that didn't matter now.

Cloud stared at the area around him, shady and quiet. He had killed so many of these things, that their black blood drenched his sword, hands, and most of his clothes. Weirdly enough, the wing had disappeared, and he could get a rational thought in again. His head still spun slightly from the kill fest he had just been in, though. Cloud looked around the empty ally, and then noticed a crimson blur at the far end. He had just cleared this area of heartless, but it was painfully obvious that there had been heartless here. Vincent Valentine sat against the wall, his crimson eyes open in that glassy stare of someone unmistakably dead.

Cloud's head finally stopped spinning, and he felt an almost overwhelming pull of grief. He walked over to Vincent and bent down next to his late friend. He gently removed Vincent's armored claw gauntlet, revealing an even paler arm from lack of sunlight. The arm was covered in scars from needles that Vincent must have received from his episode with Hojo. Cloud didn't blame him for wanting to cover it up, no one needs to be reminded of the shame of that.

What had happened just then? He hadn't really transformed, except for that wing, but his mind had went totally kill happy. Cloud put on Vincent's claw and also took his cape, wrapping the almost totally shredded piece of cloth around him.

"I'm just like you now, I guess," Cloud said gravely to Vincent's corpse. "Too bad you aren't here; I really could have used some advice."

Cloud returned to the ship just in time to avoid having search parties sent after him. They didn't say anything about the added claw or cape, but he did inform them of Vincent's death. They told him many others had died, including almost all of Zidane's party. Zidane seemed the same as usual, though he stared out into space a lot and him trying to make light of things seemed a little weak. Irvine had been completely devastated by Selphie's death, and seemed almost like a hollow shell. It wasn't exactly a coma, since he moved around; but he only moved if someone directly told him to. Quistis had tried to get him to talk, but so far hadn't had any luck. His eyes only seemed one step above the glassy stare of Valentine that he had seen only five minutes ago.

The things, which Squall identified as heartless (How the hell did he know?), turned their attention to the ship, and Cid had no choice but to take off. Out into space they flew. It was the first time this rocket ship had been tested. Sure, people had gone up to the moons, but going off somewhere without a destination was just idiotic. Suddenly their whole planet was doomed, and it made Cloud feel as if everything he had ever done pointless and stupid. Some people were looking at him as if wondering whether he would become the new Vincent. He probably looked that way, wearing Vincent's cape and claw while sitting silent and grim in a corner.

Suddenly he saw this whole thing as so pointless, so strange, that it was hilarious. He laughed loudly, knowing it sounded maniac but not caring. Every head jerked towards him in amazement and confusion, and Zidane made a rather nervous quip. He continued laughing, wondering why they couldn't see it, and then his world dissolved and everything went black.

End Note: Can you tell it was getting a little too early for me there? I think that was about 2:30 am. If you couldn't see it this chapter, the next one'sa given.