Chapter Eighteen

Cloud felt as if he had done something wrong-no he knew he had, but he was unsure of what it was. Whatever he had done, he had done it with his buster sword otherwise he wouldn't have lost it. Now he had become troubled as he walked behind Zack and Aeris. All around him he could sense the presence of monsters and he could hear Zack and Aeris talking about him. His Mako eyes narrowed as he listened to them, but after a few seconds, he blocked them out of his mind.

His head hurt really bad, but the aspirin had dulled it, but it seemed to Cloud, as they get closer to Balamb, his head hurt worse. His mind wandered back to the images he had seen when he had been knocked out cold by the headache. He had been in the Lifestream, watching as Aeris, Zack, Hojo, and Sephiroth's souls faded from it, leaving shadows that stained the Lifestream's green hue. Then he remembered his other dream where Denzel was staring at someone with horror. Then there was Kadaj, Loz, and Yazoo, they were following Seifer, and Cloud realized, that whoever Laguna, Ward, and Kiros were, they would be a great deal of help.

Then came the images of his three newest enemies, Seifer, Fujin, and Raijin. He knew nothing about these three; Squall had never mentioned them or anything else for that matter. These three could be the biggest threat or they could be the smallest threat; Cloud didn't know. All at once, he noticed that they were at the entrance of Balamb. He blinked, noticing a familiar face standing just outside the entrance of Balamb.

"Cloud! How is everyone?" Zell's mother came forward, a small smile on her face.

Cloud blinked, "Just fine, where's the train station?" Cloud asked at once, his head suddenly searing.

Zell's mother smiled and pointed out the directions. When she had finished telling them, they all nodded and headed towards the train.

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Reno and Elena were getting closer to Galbadia. Both were still shocked at how they had seen Zack and Aeris. They knew Aeris was dead, but they both tried to focus on getting across the ocean. Elena didn't seem so angry anymore as their small little motor boat glided across the ocean. Reno thought that she would just love to return to Galbadia and see Tseng. That made him try to hold back a laugh.

"Elena, do you have a cell phone?" Reno suddenly asked, shattering the silence.

Elena turned to look at him with confusion, "Where's yours?"

"I think I might have dropped it somewhere…" Reno admitted, searching his pockets one more time, but they were empty. Elena sighed and shook her head and took out her cell phone and handed it to Reno.

Reno took it without a 'thank you' or 'thanks' and dialed Tseng's number. It rang about four times before Tseng picked up, "Hello?"

"Hi, Tseng, we'll be in Galbadia by nightfall." Reno cut to the chase, not bothering to explain what had happened earlier, but of course, that was Tseng's next question.

"Reno? Why do you have Elena's phone? And what happened earlier when you hung up on us?" Tseng demanded at once.

"Oh…I kinda lost my phone and Aeris and Zack are alive and their dog attacked us. Um…I'll give you the details when we get there." Reno explained hurriedly.

"No, you're going to give me the details now and then tell me how you expect to call us when you need us without your phone." Tseng growled on the other end. He sounded rather angry.

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Squall had managed to find a quiet place where no one else was and sat down. He closed his eyes, wondering when all this would end. Just moments ago, Barret cussed out Quists, who nearly beat him with her whip if it hadn't been for Red who had to drag Barret away. Then Tifa had vanished with Selphie and Marlene was running around, looking for a TV. He sighed, shaking his head. Then there was the problem with Irvine and Yuffie. Irvine had tried to show Yuffie how to fire a gun, but, sadly, when Yuffie had gotten the gun-she ended up shooting at a Moomba which attacked her. This place was chaos!

Squall had no idea where Vincent had vanished to, one minute, he had been there, the next, he had faded into the shadows and no one had seen him since. Squall thought that Vincent had left the Garden-that was good, Vincent scared the living daylights out of the smaller kids around fifteen or so. He sighed-he still needed to go ask Cid if he had something he could do.

Squall decided to do that now and stood up and walked out of the Quad and headed towards the elevator. He pushed 3F and went up to Cid's office. When he entered Cid's office, Cid looked up and smiled and offered Squall a seat. "Just the person I was wanting to see, Squall!"

Squall blinked, no emotion in his eyes, "Why?"

"Because, it just so happens that I have a mission for you and your friends. I need you to go to Centra and visit Edea. I want you to give her this." Cid handed Squall a small box and a letter.

Squall looked down at it, blinking and looked back up, "I'm not a delivery person, Cid," he commented bluntly.

That earned a laugh out of Cid as he spoke again, "I know Squall. I also want you to go to Esthar and visit Dr. Odine there. He told me something about a disturbance intercepting his radio waves from his space shuttle and the Lunar Gate. Go get some information on that. I know you've been wanting something to do, so I gave you these tasks. Oh yeah, we have word on Seifer-no that you'd care, but a SeeD member spotted him walking through Galbadia talking with some business like men who seemed to look as if they had a lot of money. The SeeD member says that he overheard some of their conversation."

Squall looked at Cid without care and interrupted, "Why are you telling me this?"

"Just listen, as I was saying, the SeeD member said that he heard something about a Cloud Strife and killing someone with a lot of money involved. I thought you might wanted to have known considering Cloud is here with the Garden." Cid finished.

Squall blinked in surprise. Why the hell would Seifer want to kill someone that e didn't even know? Well, he was getting paid-Squall shook his head and nodded. He stood up and went down the elevator and went in search of Irvine, Selphie, Rinoa, and Quistis along with all of Cloud's friends.

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Vincent now stood outside the Garden. He would not stay there any longer. He had to find another place to stay that wasn't so crowded-and he must find a way out of here. His red eyes flashed as he turned from the Garden and his friends and left, taking his gun out of its holster. He was ready to fight some monsters. As he walked across the plains, he came across Bite Bug.

Vincent raised his gun and fired, killing it instantly. All the monsters around here were way too weak. As he grew more anxious to fight, the demons in his mind grew restless, wanting out. Vincent fought them off, but soon-he knew they would be free, knowing they could kill because Vincent wanted to kill. That would not be a good thing.

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Kadaj sat in silence, wondering what he should do. He didn't know whether he should go and leave Sephiroth when he go the chance, or if he should stick with Sephiroth and fear for his life. If he stuck with Sephiroth, there would be a lot of killing and chaos, that amused Kadaj, but if he left Sephiroth and found Rufus, Kadaj could take back Mother. What to do, what to do? He sighed, unsure.