Do you remember the first time we met?

Tifa: Yes…

I remember also, just like it was yesterday. Do you remember how old we were?

Tifa: Weren't we about 13?

Yes, 13 exactly…

The sun was shining brightly in the mid afternoon, prompting brightly colored flowers to tilt their beautiful petals towards the sun's rays. Young Cloud looked up into the bright sky, his innocent appearance showing the features of a young boy, a boy who had, just yesterday, turned 13. He was a teenager now, and old enough to officially be deemed the man of the house. His father had died when Cloud was extremely young, so his mother had raised him since birth. Thus, he had never remembered his father. Actually, he had never even met his father.

Cloud's dad was a soldier in the Grand Army, an organization that ran the peace committee for all worlds, with representatives from each planet. His father was a soldier in the R.G.C., or Radiant Garden Company. His father was a great soldier, and Cloud's mother used to tell him stories about his old man's brave feats, such as leading an army through a humongous battlefield filled with Schwärzung, which were early incarnations of what would later evolve into the more advanced "Heartless".

The Schwärzung were humanoid creatures that were tainted with darkness, which would completely destroy the creature's heart and soul. However similar these creatures were to Heartless or Nobodies, the main difference was their physical appearance, and the fact that they could bleed.

Tifa: That's kind of like the Heartless army that you, Squall, and Yuffie faced yesterday, isn't it?

Sort of, however, the creatures that we faced yesterday seemed to be evolutionary bodies of what were once Heartless. What makes these new creatures different from Schwärzung is that these are post-Heartless, not pre-Heartless.

Tifa: Interesting…

Yes, now where was I?

Tifa: you were talking about your father.

Oh yeah.

Cloud's father was known far and wide across many worlds as "The Shadow Killer", a term that referred to the astronomical number of Schwärzungs that had fallen to his father's mighty blade. After finding out about his father's power and strength from his mother's stories, Cloud had grown up with the dream of becoming a great warrior, a dream that he had held true all of his life.

However, with all the stories that his mother had ever told him, there was one that stood out in particular. This dream, to which Cloud begged for his mom to recall, was a tale about his father's death. According to his mother, Cloud's father had been such a great warrior that he had made many enemies, one of which was a dark warrior who traveled the world as an infamous assassin, carrying out dark deeds for astronomical amounts of munny. This warrior sought out Cloud's father on his own accord, just as an opportunity to taste the death of a famous adversary. The dark warrior had killed Cloud's father after a short fight, striking the final blow as the dying father begged for mercy.

The thought of such a thing made Cloud shake with anger. He had never met his father because a dark warrior had seen fit to murder his old man for the pure pleasure of doing so. However angry Cloud had become, he simultaneously felt curious. The puzzling part of the story was that the warrior had been dressed in pure black, with long, silky silver hair, neon eyes of green, and a long, menacing katana. No one had seen such a warrior alive, and most people who were questioned thought that the whole ordeal was a hoax. However, Cloud thought otherwise, and he had promised himself that he would find this man one day, and finish him.

As his blood boiled through his veins, a young girl had approached him, wearing a white tank top and short, black shorts. Startled, Cloud jumped back in surprise.

Do you remember what the first thing you ever said to me was?

Tifa: No…

"Why are you angry?" the young girl asked, a puzzled expression on her face.

"I'm not angry," Cloud replied stubbornly, his bright eyes staring furiously at the girl.

"Right, well, I guess I'll go."

"Wait!" Cloud said as the girl turned to walk away, "Sorry I was being such a jerk. Um, what's your name?"

"Tifa," replied the girl

You're blushing

Tifa: Am not!

"Nice to meet you, I'm Cloud."

"That's a nice name," Tifa said.

"Thanks. So, where are you from?"

"Traverse Town, it's a world far away from here."

"Wow! You come from another world!"

"Yes, my mother died of a rare disease a year after I was born, so my father and I travel around."

"Oh, I'm sorry that your mom died. My dad died when I was a baby."

"Oh, it's alright, I've accepted it. But believe me, it took a long time. I really loved her."

"Yeah…"

Remember, we talked for hours, about random kid stuff. I remember telling you about my dad and the games I liked to play, and also about my friends.

Tifa: Cloud, how does this have anything to do with the story?

Well, because eventually your dad came to pick you up and take you back to your ship. Once you left, I went back home…

Tifa: Cloud, what happened?

What happened? This was the single event that shaped my life up until I was 19; this is the memory that hurts every time I recount it. This is the memory that made me who I used to be…

As Cloud made his way back home, he recounted everything that he had talked about with Tifa, all the things that were important to him. As Cloud came up to a hill, a strange feeling crept across his skin. His blood froze, his hairs stood up on his arms, and his teenage muscles tensed in sudden fear. A Coldness, moving as a shadow, passed through Cloud's body, turning tendons and veins alike into ice. He could feel the dark spirit passing through his body, and the moment the coldness subsided, he raced off over the hill, only to see a sight that would scar his memories forever.

His house that had once been home to both himself and his mother stood in red flames, burning quickly in the intense fire. Shocked, Cloud immediately took off towards his mother's shed, swinging the door open violently. Hanging up on the far wall was a large sword, the sword of his deceased father. As quickly as possible, Cloud rushed to the sword and desperately tried to remove it from the large tongs that held it in place. Struggling to hold the giant sword, Cloud immediately ran back towards his burning house as fast as his legs would allow. His mother had been home that day, and the thought of her still being inside the burning house was horrifying. Using every last bit of strength, Cloud raised the sword in the air and sent it crashing against the house's wooden wall. The impact immediately made a large, gaping hole unto which a person could fit through. Throwing the sword aside, Cloud jumped in the hole, right into the large, burning kitchen. Before he could even begin to search, he had found his dead mother, her body half burnt in flames. Yet the sight didn't end there. Cloud stood in shock as her dead eyes stared at a nonexistent figure, her body hanging limp from the wall, hung up only by a long, wicked katana that stood piercing her chest, the blade embedding itself in the burning boards.