Chapter Ten

The next day Squall awoke, wishing that yesterday had all been a dream. He knew it hadn't though. All the memories were too real. Balamb was still gone, and the girl, he didn't know if she was okay. He hadn't seen her in the infirmary when he had gone in there last night. Squall got out of his bed changed into his normal clothes. Then he grabbed his Gunblade and headed towards the Cafeteria for some breakfast.

When he entered it, none of his new friends were in there. Rinoa, however was, talking with Selphie. She looked up when he came over with his tray of food. He sat down, still feeling tired. "You seem tired." Rinoa commented, pointing out the obvious.

"And you don't…" Squall grumbled, eating some of his pancakes.

Rinoa shot him a look and replied teasingly, "I see someone's woken up on the wrong side of the bed today!"

Squall didn't reply. Instead he just glared at her before continuing to eat his breakfast. He noticed out of the corner of his eye Selphie leaning over and whispering something into Rinoa's ear. Rinoa laughed quietly, glancing at Squall.

Squall rolled his eyes, this was nice. Now Rinoa and Selphie were talking about him…wait-was that supposed to be a good thing, or a bad thing?

&&&

Cloud awoke, his whole body was stiff. He looked around him, cracking his neck as he did so. He noticed Tifa was asleep in the chair a few feet off. He didn't see the nurse anywhere. He blinked and looked around him, searching for the clock. He found it and saw that it said 6:07. He had woken up early…

Cloud blinked, wondering if he could stand. He flinched at the stiffness in his muscles as he climbed out of the bed. He stood up, feeling the blood pounding through his legs. At first, Cloud wasn't sure he could support himself, but he took a few steps and then he felt a slight pain in his legs. Now he knew, that he could walk, though it might be painful.

He headed towards the door, feeling rather hungry. Cloud felt the stabbing pain from where Sephiroth's katana had stabbed him, but he tried to ignore it. He opened the door, hearing many voices speaking. He knew the whole Garden was awake. Cloud stepped outside, limping over to where the Cafeteria was.

When he reached it, Cloud wondered if anyone else was in there that he knew. Cloud soon realized that a lot of people were casting him looks. He wondered why, and then he realized what a mess his hair had to be in! Or maybe it was the fact that he was all cut up…who knew?

Cloud ignored them and went into the Cafeteria. He went over to the lunch ladies and got some breakfast. "Hey Cloud!" someone called.

Cloud turned to look at the person who had called his name. He saw that it was Rinoa who had called over to him. She was sitting with Squall and Selphie. Cloud smiled lightly and walked over to their table. He sat down, "Hey," he greeted.

"You feeling any better?" Rinoa asked, blinking as she took a bite out of her bacon.

Cloud shrugged, "Depends what you mean." He looked over at Squall who looked rather glum. Cloud blinked, wondering what was up with him. "What's up with Squall?"

Rinoa only smiled at him, but she didn't respond. Instead it was Squall, "Oh nothing! It's just that Balamb has been destroyed and everyone I know is dead!" Squall groaned, his voice holding anger.

Cloud sighed, eating some of his pancakes and responded, "I know how that feels…" He sighed again and then continued, "Sephiroth, just after he found out about JENOVA and everything about him being a Cetra, went insane with his rage towards the Planet and all humans. He killed my mother and Tifa's father. He burned Nimblheim to the ground and killed everyone in it. No one except for Tifa. She almost died, she had taken the Masamune, Sephiroth's sword, and tried to kill him with it because he had killed her father. But Sephiroth had gotten it back and gave her a near-fatal blow."

Rinoa was looking at him with shock, Selphie was staring at him, Squall wasn't doing anything, but looking at his plate. "What happened then? Why didn't he kill her?" Rinoa finally asked.

Cloud blinked, "Um…well I know he went to go find JENOVA, his mother and I remember stabbing him. And throwing him in the Mako reactor but…"

"But what?' Selphie asked.

"I don't remember." Cloud responded, looking down as he tried to remember what had happened. He remember only flashes. He remember Tifa laying at the bottom of the stairs. He remembered being stabbed twice by Sephiroth had nearly dying, but nothing else.

Squall looked up at that, "How long ago was this?"

Cloud blinked again in utter confusion. How long had it been? Five years? No, seven! "I think it was seven years ago…I'm not sure…"

Cloud didn't understand. Why couldn't he remember anything past the part of Sephiroth's death? Sure, he remembered Aeris, but he couldn't remember how he had met her or anything. He knew she was dead, but he couldn't remember how she had died or who had killed her. Cloud sighed, his mind racing. Why couldn't he remember? Stress seemed to get to him because all at once, his head seared with pain. Damn! The headache was back!

Cloud really needed to learn not to stress himself…

&&&

Vincent was sitting on a bench outside. He had been out there all night. Apparently he had fallen asleep at some point in time in the early morning, but he didn't know when. He decided he'd better go get something to eat before Barret awoke and ate it all. He wouldn't like that. Vincent picked himself up and went over to the door and pushed it open.

While he made his way to the Cafeteria, he wondered how Cloud was. Yesterday, Cloud seemed to be in a lot of pain, and according to Tifa, he seemed confused about something. Vincent had gone in there last night because he had gotten frustrated about this place and knew Tifa was the only one awake. When he had gone in there, Cloud had been asleep, so after a few minutes, he had left.

He still could not figure out what their purpose was for being on this damn planet. Vincent was still frustrated about it and the few people that dared give him a funny look, his narrowed his red eyes, reaching for his gun. They backed off at that.

When he entered the Cafeteria, he found Cloud, Squall, Rinoa, and Selphie sitting there. He got himself a small breakfast and listened to Cloud say something about not remembering something. Then, just as Vincent approached them, he heard 'seven years ago'. What were they talking about that was dealing with seven years ago?

He decided to ask them as he stood behind Cloud, "What are you guys talking about?" Vincent asked, his crimson eyes flashing.

Cloud turned around in his chair to look at him. At once Vincent saw something he hadn't expected. Cloud's eyes weren't blue anymore. Instead they were a horrible green. Vincent's eyes narrowed, leaving only red slits as he took a step back from Cloud and moved to a chair and sat down. "What is wrong with your eyes?" he asked, his deep voice sounding slightly harsh.

Cloud blinked, "What do you mean?" As he blinked, Cloud's eyes became Mako blue again. Vincent shook his head, maybe he was seeing things.

"Oh nothing, I think I was just seeing things…" Vincent replied bluntly, unsure of what to say. Then Vincent noticed Squall. He was looking at Cloud and then Vincent. Vincent narrowed his eyes. "What were you four talking about?" he asked.

Cloud glanced towards Vincent and replied uncharacteristically, "Oh nothing," The way Cloud had said that told Vincent that Cloud wasn't going to tell him. He sighed and ate what little he had on his plate. He didn't have time to fiddle with Cloud's strange ways of thinking at the moment.

"How do you suppose we get out of this place?" Vincent asked after he had finished eating. He doubted Cloud would have thought of an idea, but it was worth a try.

"I don't know. I don't even know how we got here." Cloud responded bluntly, resting his head on his palm. His Mako blue eyes looked at Vincent with a dull glint of boredom. Vincent sighed again and looked back at Rinoa who was looking at him.

Vincent glared at Rinoa. He hated people looking at him and he would be damned if Rinoa started looking at him funny. She blinked and looked away. Vincent turned his attention back to Cloud, "Neither do I Cloud. I only know that I was heading to the Seventh Heaven when I found myself here, but I want out of here now." Vincent growled, looking around him as if indicating that he found great displeasure in being in this place.

"Why?" Cloud asked. Vincent turned to look Cloud straight in the eye. His red eyes blazed with anger and sorrow. Cloud was blind to it though. Vincent looked down, muttering, "Because Cloud, I can not speak to Lucrecia. And this place is too strange. Too crowded for me."

He looked back up at Cloud, his eyes shadowed. He looked rather haunting and as if he truly hated everything about this new world. "Oh…" was Cloud's only response. Vincent felt anger rise within him, but he didn't understand why. He wasn't mad at Cloud, was he? For what reason? For what had happened to him? It wasn't Cloud's fault, Vincent knew that, he had met Cloud only because Cloud had found him in the ShinRa basement. Maybe Vincent just felt as if he had to be mad at someone…and Cloud was the only one there. But of course, Reno and Elena were somewhere around. He could put a few bullets in-Vincent shook his head. He didn't want to put a bullet through the Turks' heads.

&&&

Kadaj sighed. This really, really sucked! He had ended up at the damn ocean! He glared at it, wishing that it would just go away. It was mocking him! He swore it was! Actually Loz swore it was mocking them, but okay. "Damn! That guy lied to us and now I have no idea where we are!" Kadaj snarled.

Yazoo, who had been looking around, suddenly spoke up, "Hey Kadaj," He raised his hand to point at a cave, "There's a cave over there do you think we should go check it

out?"

Loz, who had been throwing rocks into the ocean, interrupted Kadaj just as he was about to speak up, "No, Yazoo, for all we know, there could be-"

"Shut up Loz, we're going to check it out. There might be something in there." Kadaj growled. He was the leader of the gang, so Loz couldn't boss him or Yazoo around. So what if Kadaj was the youngest? He was the one Mother had chosen, right? Right? Right!

Kadaj nodded to himself and got off his motorcycle. He hid it behind a tree and motioned for the others to do the same. Loz was going to object, but Kadaj glared at him and silenced him with a swift movement, drawing out his double-bladed sword. Then Kadaj made his way towards the cave. When he made his way down the pathway and entered the cave, Kadaj was shocked.

Heat surrounded him. It felt as if he were being roasted. Kadaj only needed a few glances around to figure out that this place was full of fire and lava. They were in Fire Cave; and if they had none where they were going, they would have run into Balamb Garden and AVALANCHE, but alas, Kadaj had no earthly idea where he was.

All three of them quickly backed out of the cave. "See? I told you that cave was evil!" Loz snapped childishly. Kadaj and Yazoo turned to glare at him. Considering Loz was the oldest, he wasn't the mature one, in fact he was the most childish of them all. Yazoo was quiet and hard to tell; while Kadaj was the most mature. He was the leader and took up all the responsibilities. Kadaj did have his faults, like the other two though. He could act rather childish at times, but when he was angry, he was serious and there was no joking involved. He considered himself better than both his brothers because they did his dirty work for him. Now, he needed to find Mother for the Reunion. But he needed to find civilization first. There was one person in particular he wanted to see first. Rufus ShinRa.

&&&

Rufus ShinRa sat back in his chair, sipping some alcoholic beverage. They had rented rooms at the Inn for the night, but now, it was time for plans to be made. His eyes rested on Tseng and Rude, who were waiting for his answer. "Well? What do you think we should do? We need to find our other 'allies' before we leave this town." Tseng looked at Rufus, speaking with a business-like tone.

Rufus narrowed his eyes, "Can you be so sure that we have allies here? What if they are spread out?" His voice was smooth and had a strange twisting tone to it as if he were using someone, trying to convince them of something that was not true.

Tseng shook his head, "No sir, we cannot guarantee it. You are right, we will have to leave."

Rufus smiled lightly, twiddling his fingers, "I did not say that. I think I've met someone who can help us. You both know about Kadaj and his gang, right?"

Tseng and Rude nodded, "Yes sir, but what do we have business with the likes of them?"

Rufus's smiled widened. He glanced around him and then pulled something out of his white jacket and sat it on the table. "We have this." It was a metal box that was a pretty good size. Tseng had no idea how Rufus had been able to hide it. There were labels yellow on it that said 'SEAL'.

"Is that what I think it is?" Tseng gasped, staring at it.

"Yes, JENOVA…"

&&&

Zack awoke at the crack of dawn. He blinked, used to waking up at such an early hour. He sat up and looked at Aeris. To his surprise, she was already up, just sitting there. She was looking at him with her emerald eyes. Zack smiled, wondering how long she had been up. He stood up, grabbing his buster sword. Zack walked over to Aeris and offered her his hand. She excepted it and he pulled her up.

Neither spoke as they headed on their way across the mountains. Zack wasn't really sure what to say. Everything Aeris had told him yesterday still baffled him. How come he didn't know about any of this? Where had he been all these years? He sighed in frustration, "Aeris," he looked over her, breaking the peaceful silence, "I'm sorry for not being there to help you."

Aeris looked over at him, her facial expression sympathetic, "You don't need to apologize. It isn't your fault, and besides, I did what I had to. Sure, I hadn't expected Sephiroth to come from out of no where and stab me in the back, but at least I save the Planet. And Cloud, he came and tried to save me. He killed Sephiroth for me, and you." Aeris seemed calm about it, as if nothing were wrong.

Zack, on the other hand, found everything wrong. He should have been there for Aeris and then she wouldn't be here in this predicament. She had come so close to death just a few hours ago. Sure, Zack was relieved that he had stopped to take a look at the figure that had happened to be Sephiroth, but still. He didn't speak anymore about 'that' with Aeris, but he did ask her a few other things, "Did you ever meet Cloud's friends Tifa?"

Aeris smiled, "Yeah, why do you ask?"

"Was she okay after Sephiroth did that to her, you know, cut her?" Zack asked, feeling rather stupid. His head ache was returning steadily, but at least his stomachache was gone.

Aeris nodded, "Yeah, she's fine. She owns the Seventh Heaven at the Edge."

Zack nodded. He didn't know what the Seventh Heaven was, but he guessed he just been out of everything for the past few years since being taken by Hojo and experimented on. He shuddered at the memory of Hojo. Zack hated Hojo, but at least he hadn't let Hojo complete what he had started. He had helped Cloud escape and then…and then what? Why couldn't he remember? Why? He remembered riding in a truck to Midgar with Cloud, he remembered the Turks trying to shoot them, not much else though. What was up with him?

He felt pain in his head again and muttered a swear word just low enough so Aeris couldn't hear him. Suddenly Aeris spoke up, "Hey Zack, did you ever know that I am a Cetra?" Her voice sounded troubled.

Zack blinked in surprise, was Aeris kidding? He didn't know, so he juts played along, "No, no I didn't."

"Well…you know a Cetra can talk to the Planet. Well the Planet isn't responding to anything I ask it. I don't understand why…" Aeris sounded Serious. Zack blinked again, realizing that Aeris was dead serious and troubled. He didn't understand completely, and he didn't know what to expect.

"That's a bad thing…right? So if it is…then maybe…" Zack had had his growing suspicions about what he was about to say. He had ever since he had walked through the fields and past that village and over here. And this only proved his theory, "Then maybe we aren't on the Planet anymore."

Aeris looked up at Zack with shock, "But why? How?" He shook his head. He didn't know. "Is Cloud here?" Aeris asked at once.

Zack didn't know, but he refused to believe otherwise. He would find his friends again. If Aeris, Sephiroth, and him were on this planet, then they had to be! But Zack didn't answer Aeris because he didn't want to get her hopes up. Instead he kept his eyes on where he was going and his senses high for danger.

Aeris was still looking at him, waiting for an answer, but it soon came apparent Zack wasn't going to answer. Suddenly she jumped as the bushes nearby rustled. Zack spun around to face them, drawing his buster sword. He expected it to be a monster, but no, it was a dog.

The dog looked half-starved and it was cut up and bleeding. "Oh you poor thing!" Aeris cried once she saw what the animal was. She was about to rush forward when Zack stopped her.

"Be careful Aeris, the dog might be sick." he warned her. But regardless of Zack's warning, Aeris approached the dog. The dog wagged her tail, looking at Aeris with dark brown eyes.

Aeris dropped down next to the dog. Zack kept his buster sword out as he came up beside her. Then he noticed a collar around the dog neck. He dropped the buster sword into the leaves and looked at the collar. The name on it was faded, but Zack could read it. The name read 'Angelo'.

"Her name is Angelo." Zack stated, petting the dog lightly. Aeris was checking the dog for injuries.

"Zack, this dog is lost." she told him, looking at a scratch on the dog's neck. It wasn't deep.

"I can see that." Zack replied bluntly, grabbing his buster sword and standing up straight. He sheathed it and shook his head. His head hurt like hell now.

"Can she come with us?' Aeris begged.

"No, she could still be sick with something." Zack growled. He really didn't feel like looking after a half-starved dog when he was hungry himself. Suddenly his vision flashed. Zack blinked, his vision blue. Everything was different for a moment, but as soon as his vision changed, it fixed its self. He shook his head again, "What the?" he muttered to himself.

"Please?" Aeris begged again, using puppy-dog eyes.

Zack sighed and rolled his Mako blue eyes. The dog might run off realizing they didn't have any food anyway. "Fine, you can keep the dog, but you're looking after it."

"Of course! Besides, you have to look out for monsters!" Aeris smiled brightly at him, beaming. That made Zack feel better. At least she's happy, I'm stuck here with this damn headache! But I can live with it, she's safe, that's all I need to know. Zack thought and turned back to the direction they were going.

Aeris stood up, walking over to him. Angelo followed after a moment's pause. She seemed to realize that she was with friends.