AUTHOR'S NOTE: Ok, since a lot of people seem to be getting confused about this, I'll explain.

Bahamut does have the ability to see partially into the future. When he first used it, he saw scenes from FFX and FFX-2. However, those scenes aren't exactly what the future would be. As Bahamut implied, what he was seeing was something like hallucinations (like from taking LSD or 'Shrooms). What he saw in them was partially futures and possible futures, but most of what he saw was distortions of reality. That's why Shinza and Dr. Maester looked different from what they really were, and while Sin was a planet-destroying monster in his vision but was really only a Yalorian Battleship in the real world. The reason I did this is keeping with the themes of FFX and FFX-2 in which the world is a "dream of the Fayth". Essentially, the worlds of FFX and FFX-2 (at least in this fanfiction) don't exist outside of the realm of Bahamut's dreams.

As for how he knows more things about Ragnar, part of it is due to him conferring with the planet about Ragnar and his destiny. Part of it is him seeing partially into the future. Something that I haven't made clear before now is that Bahamut can see generally what will happen in the future, but when he tries to see something important that represents a "fork" in time's river, he gets sent to the world with the doors and the Keyblade.

(While I'm at it, I might as well explain that too. I am in no way suggesting that Kingdom Hearts and Final Fantasy takes place in the same universe. The most that I'm suggesting is that Kingdom Hearts takes place in an alternate universe parallel to Bahamut's own. Mostly, I just inserted Sora, the Keyblade, etc. to present an interesting way in which Bahamut can see the future, and to pay homage to the game rather than suggest a crossover.)


"Tifa! If you're still awake, you better come here."

Ragnar had been dragged through one of the doors on the side of the bar at this point. However, instead of leading to a kitchen or storage area, he found it led into some sort of entry room for a house. It was very rustic and old looking, much like the rest of the bar. But it was nice. It was dark inside. After all, it was 1 AM. Cloud continued to walk Ragnar forward, past a staircase. Overhead, a yellow light turned on, but Ragnar went past it before anyone came down. He took him on into the living room. There were only a few amenities here, such as a table, a reclining chair, a small TV, and a sofa. Cloud took Ragnar to the sofa, and set him down on it.

"Don't lean back." He told him as he did so. "Tifa will kill me if you get blood on her furniture."

Ragnar slowly exhaled in reply, feeling good to be out of the rain again, but now becoming more aware of his pain. He looked around weakly. It looked to be a basic living room, much like the ones at Icicle Inn. It was a bit better than Ragnar's family's had been, but not much. The people here had to be fairly poor themselves.

The youth heard a clicking as something was leaned against the wall next to him. He turned, and opened his eyes a bit wider on seeing it. A sword even bigger than his was lying against the wall now. It was also much thicker and heavier-looking, and it seemed almost as if there was another blade inside the larger one. Shortly thereafter, however, Cloud came back over to him, andreached forRagnar's sword.

On doing so, the youth immediately grabbed the strap around his chest, and held it protectively.

Cloud hesitated. "…I'm not going to steal it, kid."

Ragnar sighed, and looked up to him. It hurt a bit, but he bore with the pain and looked into the man's eyes. "I'm not a kid. I'm twenty."

"That sounds awfully familiar…"

Ragnar opened his eyes a bit, as he heard this phrase come from the stairway. Moments later, he heard footsteps come down the stairs, and then a body turned the corner of the post and stepped into the room. When it did, the person there froze and stared at them. Ragnar looked back. Dark as it was…he could tell it was the hostess from earlier.

She looked at Ragnar a moment, and then frowned and crossed her arms. "We meet again." She spoke, in a tone that sounded like she was ready to scold him. "A bit sooner than I thought. Looks like your friends weren't happy to see you when they met."

Cloud turned and looked to the woman, and gestured down at Ragnar. "You know this kid?"

Ragnar frowned again. "I'm not a kid."

"We've met." The woman answered, still staring at him in disapproval. "I see you're back to your old tricks…saturating whatever room I'm in at the moment."

"Could you get the first aid kit, Tifa?" Cloud called out to her. "The back of his head is bleeding. He got jumped."

The woman, Tifa, frowned at Ragnar. "I told you it was rough outside on weekend nights…" She reminded him, and then turned and went for the cupboard. She opened it up, and immediately began to fish around. "Take off your clothes before you soak my couch."

Ragnar grimaced a bit at that. He wasn't sure he wanted to do that in front of a bunch of strange people he had just met. However, in the end, he complied. He started by removing his sword, and, after staring uneasily again for a moment, set it down at his feet, next to the couch. He then pulled off his wet cloak, and began to pull off his shoes with his feet and remove his wet pants.

"Now…I don't suppose you would like to tell me what exactly you were doing outside of the bar at one in the morning, would you?" Cloud asked as he did this.

Ragnar hesitated as he finished pulling off his wet pants. After doing so, he grimaced and continued, moving next to his shirt. "…You wouldn't believe me if I told you."

Another chuckle from Tifa, as she removed the first aid kit and began to walk back into the room. "Try us." She spoke back. "Nowadays…if you stay in Midgar two years you'll see just about everything, but you'd be rather surprised if you knew half of the stuff Cloud and me have been through. Just keep it down. Denzel and Marlene are asleep." The woman was back in the room now, and she set the kit on the table and opened it up. She hunched down to the floor and turned to the youth.

Ragnar slowly finished pulling off his shirt, and now felt a bit embarrassed to be sitting in a strange house in front of two strangers, seemingly friendly as they were. What more, he was still wet, and shivered a bit once he was down to his skivvies.

Cloud pointed to the edge of the couch, where a blanket was folded up. "You can wrap up in that, you know."

The young man hesitated and looked over to it, and then suddenly seemed to realize it was there. He gave a nod, and then turned and reached for it. However…that was his first big mistake. He couldn't twist his body without showing off some of his scars. He had barely touched the corner of the blanket, when Tifa was suddenly on top of him, putting her hands on his arm and pulling him back. She was getting a better look at all that was there.

"Oh my…" She began to say, but cut herself off. "Good god… Cloud, take a look at this guy."

Ragnar turned red and felt rather embarrassed, but it was too late. Cloud now stood and looked over him as well. In the end, he could only bow his head and frown as they did so. After a few moments, they leaned back. Ragnar lamely pulled the blanket out the rest of the way, and pulled it around his backside and the rest of his body. It was a little late now, however. Cloud looked down on him again.

"…Either you make it a point to frequently get jumped, Ragnar," He addressed him. "Or wherever you came from wasn't that great of a place."

Tifa paused at this, and turned to Cloud. Then, frowning again, she turned back to the youth. "So…you could tell Cloud your name, but not me?" She half-scolded. "I don't suppose that whoever gave you those scars on your back also burned you hand too?"

Ragnar bowed his head slightly and looked uneasy again. The two older people looked at him, and waited for an answer. The youth suddenly did feel like some sort of kid who had been caught in the act of lying. He frowned. "…Thanks for your help, but I'll be on my way…"

"Sorry, you're staying the night at least now." Tifa answered, putting a hand on him as he tried to rise. To his surprise, she easily pushed him back down, despite how strong he was. Was he that weakened? Or was she that strong?

"Answer the question." Cloud darkly added.

Ragnar sighed again in response. He supposed that there was no way out of it, in the end. He reached up a hand and ran it through his hair, and continued to wince for a moment. He moistened his lips once. "Alright…the truth…" He slowly spoke aloud. He was silent again for a moment after that. Then, he inhaled, raised his head, straightened up as much as he could, and in the most normal fashion he could muster began to speak.

"…Six months ago, I escaped execution from the New Shinra HQ Dome. I was a mining slave before then. I worked my way south to the City of the Ancients, where I met the legendary esper Bahamut in human form. He told me that I was chosen by the Planet to save it, and he set about training me after giving me the sword Ragnarok. Two days ago, I went back into the Icicle Inn area, liberated my fellow mining prisoners, and we freed the town. The refugees have now fled to the City of the Ancients, and Bahamut gave me a piece of paper with instructions on it telling me to be at the corner of Rufus and Third tonight at 1 AM as the first step of my journey, which has the goal of eventually forming an army to conquer New Shinra and save the world."

Tifa stared in stunned silence. Even the stoic Cloud looked surprised at that sudden response. The room was silent for a brief time, and Ragnar grimaced and looked back to the both of them lamely, figuring that they wouldn't believe him. After a moment or so longer, Tifa turned to Cloud and gave her own shrug.

"He didn't look high when he came in at eleven."

"I'm not on drugs!"

"Shh!" Tifa quickly hushed, turning back to him and making him quiet down. "You'll wake the kids!"

Cloud himself looked rather skeptical. He stared at Ragnar for a moment after he had finished his story. The young man himself sighed and looked to them, not expecting either of them to believe him. However, in the end, the older man looked down to the ground, and saw the hilt of the sword lying against it.

"…I lost Ragnarok around the City of the Ancients a year ago." He said out loud. "But that's not it."

Ragnar's eyes widened a bit at this. He forgot about his story for the moment, and eagerly looked to the man before him. "So it was you? You were the one who owned Ragnarok before me?"

Cloud sighed slowly and leaned back a bit. "Yes, but that's not it. The sword I had was long and flat and white. This is something totally different."

"No, wait!" Ragnar responded. He immediately went down, and picked up the blade from the ground. He drew it out of its sheath, and showed it off before the two of them. Even in the dim light of night, it continued to sparkle and shimmer like flame. "Bahamut told me it changes form for the user…and that's what it did to me! It was originally a long, flat white blade for me too! But once I drew it out, it turned into this!"

Tifa frowned and crossed her own arms. "How many times did you get hit in the back of the head, Ragnar?"

Cloud said nothing. He looked at the blade in front of him for a moment, silent and contemplative. After a moment, however…he reached up one of his hands for the blade. Ragnar continued to hold the sword before him, and waited. A second later, and Cloud slowly put his hand down and rested his fingers against the metal.

A moment later, Cloud's eyes went wide, and he grit his teeth in what looked like pain. He drew his fingers back like they had been stung, and grasped them with his hand. Both Ragnar and Tifa saw this, and looked to him in puzzlement.

"What's the matter?" Tifa asked.

"It burned me when I touched it…" Cloud remarked aloud. "It felt like putting my hand into a fire…"

Ragnar blinked in surprise at that. He looked down to his sword again. It felt fine to him. A bit uneasily, he raised his hand and reached out to the same spot Cloud had touched. He was a bit nervous about checking it out, but in the end he put his own fingers on it. He felt nothing. The blade was quite cool to the touch, and felt just like it should after having been in cold rain for so long.

Tifa looked puzzled as well, and reached out and touched the metal part where Ragnar had touched it. Moments later, she too looked agonizied. She actually let out a small cry before she pulled her fingers back and clutched them as well. "Ow…" She remarked aloud, wincing and hissing in between her teeth. "How are you holding onto it, Ragnar? You don't even have gloves…"

"But it's not hot." The young man insisted. To accent this, he put his hand flat against the blade where Tifa had touched. He moved it up and down the sword with the same effect. "See?"

"It was when I touched it." Cloud responded, having recovered mostly from his burn by now. "If I held on for more than an instant, it would have left a burn."

"It was like putting my fingers on a red-hot stovetop." Tifa added, still holding her hand back.

Ragnar was confused at all this. "But…it's really not hot now. See? My hand is right on it."

Tifa at this point was definitely not going to touch it again. Cloud himself stared at it uneasily for a moment. Ragnar kept his hand on it the whole time, not shifting. At last, the man decided to try again. He reached his other hand up to the weapon. He held back a moment, and hovered his fingers over the blade right next to Ragnar's hand. Then, in the end…he reached forward and touched it once more.

Ragnar felt no change whatsoever. Not the slightest bit of heat. But as for Cloud, he cursed under his breath and yanked his hand back again. "It's still burning hot." Cloud remarked out loud, holding his fingers in a fist. "Aren't you feeling it?"

The youth shook his head. "It didn't change at all to me, and I was right next to you."

"So…" Tifa spoke out loud, venturing again. Her voice was a bit uneasy and slow. "This sword…Ragnarok…whatever it is…it burns everyone who tries to touch it…except for you?"

The young man hesitated, and shrugged. "I really don't know. No one else except me has touched it. Even Bahamut always had me pick it up myself, and he had me draw it out of the rock myself."

"Bahamut…" Tifa echoed. She was no longer simply dismissing Ragnar as crazy or delusional, but her face was still uneasy and unbelieving. She stared at Ragnar now with a calculating stare. "Bahamut as in…the big dragon we summon from materia? Neo Bahamut? Bahamut ZERO?"

Ragnar gave a nod. "But he wasn't coming out of a materia. He was right there in front of me. I lived with him for months."

Cloud put a hand to his mouth, and stared at the young man. He showed no sign of any change or what he was thinking, but he appeared to be examining Ragnar for a moment. In the end, however, he spoke out again.

"…What was that you said about 'New Shinra'?"

"Those are the guys who branded me, and gave me the scars on my back." Ragnar responded. "They're still up north, holed up on the Northern Continent in the Icicle Inn area."

"But…the Shinra Corporation is gone." Tifa answered, looking a little confused. "They went out of business with Meteor."

"I don't know what's been going on down here," Ragnar continued. "But up north…they're still in business or whatever you want to call it. I and the rest of the townspeople, along with anyone else they could enslave, built their new headquarters. We've been mining for them. They have a huge army up there. They showed up right after Meteor was destroyed. They said they were waiting for something…some shield to be destroyed on the Great Northern Crater so they could get some guy… But they stopped receiving orders, so they took us over instead. Now they're building an army secretly to try and take the rest of the Planet over."

Ragnar apparently said something that left a credible impact at that. Tifa and Cloud both seemed to lose some of the color in their faces. They turned and looked up to one another. Both of their eyes had traces of anxiety or fear in them. Tifa gradually began to look more worried. As for Cloud…his face began to grow colder. In the back of his eyes, there was something dark growing. The youth looked helplessly to both of them, waiting for an answer.

"…You think it's possible, Cloud? We haven't ever gotten an order from Icicle Inn since we started business…" Tifa slowly suggested.

"There's one way to find out." Cloud darkly responded. A change had come over him now, and he began to look rather charged and cold. Abruptly, he rose up from where he had been squatting, and went back over to the wall. He took up his large sword in a flash, and then turned and began to make back out for the door. Ragnar was surprised. What was Cloud doing? At any rate, Tifa seemed the same way. She rose from where she was and called out to him.

"Where are you going, Cloud?"

"To pay a visit to Healin Lodge, and I want to be there by morning so I'll have to leave now." The man responded. He continued to walk until he reached the door to the bar. He opened it, and then turned and glared back at Ragnar, pointing a finger out at him. "Kid…stay here until I get back." He ordered.

Ragnar groaned yet again. "I'm not a…"

It was too late. The door was shut again, and Cloud was already gone. Tifa kept her back to Ragnar for a moment. She crossed her arms and slowly sighed. The youth looked up to her. Some sort of deep melancholy seemed to have washed over the woman all of the sudden…as if she had seen something that she had witnessed before. She kept her arms crossed, and she rubbed against her arms as she stared at the door. There was silence in the room for a short moment. Then, at last, she turned back to the young man on her couch. She managed a smile to him.

"Alright…let's get you cleaned up so you can get to sleep. You look exhausted."


High up on the side of the New Shinra HQ Dome, there was a portion that could slide open and closed. It was sealed now. It was only designed to open for special events on the pavilion, which currently didn't exist. However, where it opened into was the most important part. It was a special installation in the top levels of the Dome, where administration resided. It was up here, and through this door, that the main executive officer was located.

Just inside the sliding hatch was a long, tall, metallic room. It was rather simple, but it was sleek and polished, making it look technical and new. It lacked most details. A set of metal sliding doors were at the back, and a small metal railing surrounded its sleek interior. Blue banners hung from the ceiling near the closed opening, dangling down almost to the floor. On each were the red insignia of New Shinra. It was more bold and harsh than the previous corporation symbol, emphasizing the new impetus.

Sitting closest to the hatch, facing the rest of the room, was a hard-looking, cold man. He looked to be in his late fifties to early sixties. His uniform was highly decorated, and had changed to green color from the previous red that it had been when he arrived in Icicle Inn years ago. After all, he was the High General now. His hair was flecked gray where it had once been black, and his eyes were narrow and cool, calm in all situations and having no patience or softness for delays. A thick gray mustache was across his lower lip, and his jaw was square and heavy set. He raised a rather large, powerful-looking hand to it now, and slowly stroked it. His hard, focused eyes were currently resting on what was in front of him, which he slowly turned through.

This part normally acted as a desk. The metal table lamp, phone, pen holder, and everything else an office desk needed was located there. This was much more elaborate than at the rest of the long table he sat at. Each other spot only had a small lamp and a place to set whatever files they were bringing to the table for the given meeting. Currently, the man in the lead focused only on an open file in front of him. It was filled with a brief technical report, and various pictures. Each showed much of the same things. Naked, dead soldiers… Soldiers lying in the snow from blows to the head… The torn up Icicle Inn with sixty-eight dead soliders inside… It was a mess. A massacre. And it had happened right in the middle of a secure area.

In the end, the man slowly sighed, and then closed the file up again. After that, he folded his hands in front of him and looked up ahead at the table. Other highly decorated officers were seated around it, and staring back at the man. They showed nothing on their expressions. There was silence for a moment.

At last, one particularly thin, cruel-looking woman, wearing a slightly different uniform from the others, and seated just to his left, reacted. Her hair was bright red and tied back under a special hat. This was the head of the as-yet unused New Shinra Navy, and wasn't a particularly nice person to be around. She gave a scowl and shook her head. "This wouldn't have happened if we would have had deployed the fleet by now. We've been ready since fall of last year."

Another man a bit further down, this one white-haired with a black mustache, yet a somewhat "fresher" look than the one at the front of the table gave a snort. This one was in charge of local security, but was also the head officer of the 1st New Shinra Army. "I hardly see, Admiral Ashiah, how the navy would have made any different to what was happening three hundred miles inland."

"It would have destroyed any pitiful hope they had of getting off the Northern Continent, thereby making a revolt moot." Ashiah retorted darkly.

"There is no way off of the Northern Continent now." The man answered back. "The only way off is on one of our boats. They're probably still on the continent, trying to hide."

"I am not interested in things that have happened in the past…"

Everyone went silent at this. They turned their heads and looked back to the man in front of the table. He folded his hands in front of him, and glared out darkly at the people at the table.

"I am interested in seeing how we are going to deal with this. It's been three years since we've encountered any trouble. Now…we suddenly have a revolt and a massacre, right when we're so close to being ready to deploy."

"General Leers…" Another woman began from a bit further down the table. This officer was dressed more like the regular ones. However, she was much older, in her mid-sixties by now. Her hair line was gray, and she had a bit of a wrinkled face. Still…she did appear to be younger than most women her age, and her mind was as crafty and keen as one half of her's. She was the head of weapon development and research, and was as clever as a room full of chess masters. "This won't really matter. The most they got away with was a heavy machine gun. We have sweepers more armored than that already. And as Colonel Zed pointed out, there is no way off of the continent."

The general slowly inhaled, and clenched his hands more tightly together. "What I am more concerned about right now, Colonel Martiza, than our ability to destroy our enemies…which proved rather ineffective two days ago…is finding out why exactly, after three years, this town suddenly turned over as one unit and attacked. I'm not that eager to have it happen again…and I definitely don't want to see it happen again with these sorts of results. It's very strange, you see…" Leers' volume began to rise at this, and he reached down and somewhat stiffly picked up the photos. "I'm seeing some hundred of our troops dead in these pictures…each one heavily armed and trained for battle…" His eyes began to blaze here, and his neck muscles tightened.

"But I don't see a single body of an ignorant, piss-ant, mountain hick brandishing a dull pick axe anywhere!"

With this, Leers threw the photos down the table at the officers. They recoiled a bit on seeing them scatter, and began to become nervous. They bowed their heads and tried to appear small. Slowly, the general calmed down, and he began to lean back into his chair. He was silent again, looking over the people at the table. He folded his hands and slowly drummed his fingers against them.

At last, the white-haired man, a Colonel Zed, was the one who got the courage to speak. "All I know is…that area hadn't had any real problems in six months. Nothing other than theoccasional crazy making a break for it. Not since that one prisoner murdered his taskmaster."

"Prisoner 0083: Ragnar Vice?"

The other officers looked up to who had spoken. What they soon saw was the man on Leers' right. He too was a colonel. However, this one was one of the more high ranking ones. He was in charge of the forces within the Dome itself. He had no facial hair, just a close military cut on gray hair and a youthful face. He had a small file in front of him as well.

"I was looking forward to seeing him personally executed six months ago." The man continued. "But he was clever. He's the only one who ever managed to escape, disguising himself as one of us. By the time we managed to track his path to find where he had gone, he was already an hour away on one of our snowmobiles."

"Well, well…Colonel Seth…" Leers slowly responded, turning his head over to the officer. "You surprise me. You, I think, are the first officer I've ever encountered who came to a meeting boasting of his own ineptitude to catch a prisoner."

The man paled a little at that, but then continued. "I only wanted to point out that the man hadn't been executed, and he had been part of that work crew. It's possible that he could have come back and attempted to liberate it."

Ashiah chuckled. "That's quite a task for one scrawny man."

"We found that some outside party was likely involved." Colonel Zed threw out. This caused everyone to halt again and turn back to him. He gestured ahead to General Leers' report. "We found that at least thirteen of those reported dead were killed with a blade of some kind. The pick axes were too blunt for slashing, and many of the wounds were too deep for a combat knife. There were no swordsmen deployed in either the mine or the city. It's likely that another came in with a sword and did it."

Leers turned to Seth at this. The man shook his head. "Vice was a troublemaker, but he wasn't a swordsman. No one in Icicle Inn had combat capability."

The general sighed and leaned back in his chair again. "I don't really care who he is. If he's still here, I want him dead, something that should have been done six months earlier. Find the escapees and execute them as well. I was ready to move to take the rest of the continent in one month, and in one month I better be bathing my feet in the ocean. I'm not going to let one freak revolt ruin everything we've been working on."


A powerful blow from the other side snapped the door right out of its bolt, breaking through the wood. The door flung open so hard afterward, that whenit smashed against the opposing wall, it nearly broke off of the hinges. Shortly thereafter, Cloud, face cold and looking angry, stepped through the now open doorway and into the room.

It was rather simple inside, much like the last time he had been here. Mostly just a few items of furniture, and a few other amenities like pictures and interior design one would expect in a home of a millionaire. The shade was still pulled on the giant window, only letting dim light in the lightly brown painted chamber. However, Cloud ignored all of this, and zeroed in on one particular man sitting in a reclining chair with his arms crossed. He was looking a lot more like his old self, especially since the last time Cloud had seen him here. The same white coat was back with the black and white suit underneath, and once again his own youthful features were exposed, and his nearly combed red hair was put over one eye.

The man stared back at Cloud momentarily, and then slowly sighed as he lowered his coffee cup from his mouth. "Won't you come in…" He half-muttered in response to the manner in which Cloud had entered.

The ex-mercenary responded by looking around the room for a moment. He even looked to the ceiling. However, nothing seemed out of the ordinary or out of place. In the end, he snapped behind him as well, but still saw nothing but open air. Finally, he turned back to the room, and walked in.

"Where are your 'doormen'?"

"We never owned the Turks, Cloud. Wewere justtheir most frequent customers." Rufus calmly answered. "I hired them only to get the head, and then defend me while I had it in my possession. Once the contract was complete, we were finished. It's not like I could afford to hire them again, anyway. If you're looking for them, they're probably on the market for another customer." He began to sip after this.

"…Like the New Shinra?" Cloud answered with a sharp edge on his voice.

Rufus halted in mid-sip. "Oh." He simply said, as he pulled his cup away. "That's what this visit is about. And here I thought we were hitting it off together."

"Did you know?" Cloud immediately challenged.

Rufus sighed again and slowly set his cup back down on a nearby arm table. After that, he folded his hands and looked back to the man standing over him.

"Things kind of slipped my mind after Meteor. You know. Having half of your face burnt off, about seventeen broken bones, falling about three stories, and then spending the next nine months in a coma inside a hospital the world forgot tends to make you lose track of what's going on for a time. When I did wake up, I found that I was bankrupt and quite possibly the most hated man alive. With the HQ Building destroyed, all records of our accounts were wiped clean. What wasn't gone from the power failure was lost when fires and tornados destroyed the hard copies of records, or just plain stolen in the riots before and after the 'end of the world'. All of our supply depos, weapons caches, and records of our military personnel were gone. Any factory or warehouse I could recall from memory was raided and sacked. Any reactor with the name Shinra on it was deactivated and then systematically destroyed by vandals. Someone even sold my vacation home in Costa Del Sol. About the only thing I had left to my name was a trust fund account from my college days, about 3,000 shares of Shinra Inc. stock that were about as useful as toilet paper, and Healin Lodge. Since that day, everything that I can find and prove ownership of I've liquidated, and those funds were immediately eaten up by my attempts to clean up the mako waste and improve Midgar, so that hopefully one day I'll be able to set foot inside a city without being lynched and murdered."

"Quite a sad story." Cloud remorselessly replied. "It didn't answer my question."

Rufus rolled his eyes and sighed again as he leaned back into his chair. Moments later, he bowed his head and shook it slightly.

"…I knew there was a probability."

There was silence after that. Cloud opened his eyes a little, leaned forward toward the man, and then responded. "Excuse me…did you just say you knew there was a probability? What is that supposed to mean?"

Rufus frowned slightly. "It means that I knew I had deployed most of our army north, in one last desperate attempt to kill Sephiroth if the Sister Ray Operation succeeded. How else did you think you got into Midgar so easily? Or that Hojo got to the control panel? After the incident, most of our records were gone. What was left concerning the army was only useful for decommissioning, assuming that any of them would actually go through the motions. There was no way of tracking them down, and it was reasonable to assume that they had died in the seven days of chaos after Midgar went to the dogs and when Meteor arrived.

"If you're wanting to know that I knew that someone had cleaned out our accounts and raided our old munitions storehouses, then yes. Most of them were already clean by the time I woke up. The others soon followed. I had no idea who raided them. There are hundreds of militaristic thugs running around nowadays who would sell them on the black market or use them for their gang wars. Now, I did know that several of our large accounts were hacked, but I had no way of knowing who did it. There was the possibility that if some of our army was still around and organized, they could have cleaned it themselves based on executive chain of command procedures.

"And yes…I've had enough time to notice that more and more mercenaries are getting hired. I also noticed that I've seen less and less ex-soldiers from our former army around. That could mean anything. I didn't think that it would mean that someone would be using my company's name as a standard. But I am not in command of this operation. I only knew about it as a rumor for months. I didn't even know they were using the name, 'New Shinra', until you walked in here."

Cloud slowly sighed. So…it seemed as if the guy was right. He had been telling the truth about some of it, at any rate. That's didn't help things much though. The ex-mercenary bowed his head, and turned and walked a bit in the room, thinking about this. "It doesn't make any sense…" He said after a moment. "Why would they still be doing this? Shinra is finished."

"You're thinking of Shinra as a country, Cloud." Rufus calmly responded, causing the man to turn and look back to him. "Countries do fall when their leader is gone. But not corporations. Life goes on. Business goes on. You saw how easily we transitioned when my old man was assassinated. There wasn't even a single day of panic when you nearly killed me, and I had to postpone inauguration a week. If nothing else, history will remember Shinra as the first example of a new form of government: the corporation-state. And as any good cutthroat CEO can tell you…it can be very hard to stomp out a big business."

"That's just it." Cloud responded. "They were employees, not soldiers for a country."

Rufus merely smiled and snickered at this. "Cloud, I don't know if Kadaj hit you hard enough to cause more memory loss…but obviously you've forgotten about what you had to deal with. All the forces we sent against you. The Fort Condor operation. Hell…the war with Wutai. SOLDIER. To say that we didn't have a well disciplined army that was ready to fight and die for us would be a joke. At the time of Meteor, we still had the largest, most powerful army on the Planet. Heck, we had the only army on the Planet. Why else did you think that I had to take charge when Sapphire WEAPON started tearing the world apart?"

"But they thought you were dead. Why didn't they disband?"

Rufus chuckled again at this. He turned his head slightly, and shook it at Cloud, as if he didn't understand something very simple. "Oh Cloud…have you looked around lately? Noticed things? The mako waste is gone, but industrial waste is piling up from new industries. A cloud of smog is starting to form over Junon in the wake of switching to oil. There are more orphans on the streets of Midgar now then there was while we were in power. Highways have been built, but robberies and murders on them are up. Entrepenuers are on the way, but have you tried working for any factories lately?" He snickered. "Even you went from being a well-paid mercenary to being stuck running deliveries for a nickel-and-dime bar in Edge. Shinra may have been killing the world, Cloud…but it was employing quite a few people to help them do it.

"There aren't any jobs or places for ex-military men. We hired them, trained them, paid them, and rewarded them handsomely for being soldiers. You heard me yourself that day we fought. I was reorganizing Shinra to operate on a power basis. I recruited officers and soldiers who were designed to beat our opponents into submission. What were they supposed to do now? There wasn't even a Shinra Inc. left to send them to mop up reactors, like we used to send SOLDIERs out to after the Wutai war…which I'm sure you know all about." He hesitated here with a smile. Cloud showed nothing, but continued to stare.

Rufus took up his coffee and sipped it again. "My guess is that some of them did disband, but they soon found out that Shinra offered the better deal. Now they have a chance to form a real nation, and it should be easy for them, considering the muscle they have. They're still the only army left."

Cloud was silent again, as he watched Rufus slowly set his cup down on the table once again. He looked at him for a moment, but then spoke up once more.

"…Who's in command?"

"There were four officers I sent north, on the recommendation of General Heidegger, and reviewed and edited as necessary by me…because personally I thought the stupid horse-laughing son of a bitch couldn't even tie his shoes without screwing up. I'm still guessing he's the one who lost us the Highwind. I was reviewing people to replace him as soon as things were stable enough for a good transition. Who I was going to pick was Colonel Marco Leers. Highly decorated. Excellent leadership capabilities. Veteran of the Wutai war. I ended up sending him north instead."

"Who else?"

"Captain Pharia Ashiah. I never trusted her. I trusted the Admiral that was her superior officer. He was killed the third day into my war against Sapphire WEAPON. I realized ships were useless against things like that, so I sent her north with what was left of my fleet to keep it out of trouble. She was about as unstable as Scarlet. However…she did have access to our plans, including the new type of ship we were working on."

"And?"

"Commander Selina Maritza. She occupied a rather interesting position. She was somewhere between Hojo and Scarlet. Weapons development was her forte. She was a genius. Apparently, she had been working for the company since Gast first signed on. She shared a lab assistantship with him. She had her penchant for making destructive little abominations as well. However, she was a bit more stable than Hojo. Her problem was just the opposite from his. He treated his experiments like garbage. She grew attached to them." Rufus snickered at this. "You know…she was the one who initially wanted Red XIII nabbed. The reason for capture on her list was simply, 'Cute'."

"And the last one?"

"Commander Georgio Seth. Another highly decorated officer. He was great at battlefield engineering and communications. I figured I'd throw him in to help round things off. I had everything else I needed. I don't know how their ranks have changed since I deployed them. They've most likely promoted themselves by now, after forming this new organization. I'm a little curious as to how you know about it. I've barely gotten word myself…"

Cloud ignored this obvious inquiry. "Can't you call them and tell them to stand down?"

Rufus smiled and snickered yet again. "Sure. I'll just dial up Colonel Leers on his cell phone, tell him that he and everyone else is fired, and to get back here immediately and start looking for another job as a civilian. I'll make sure that he disarms all his weapons on the way here too, so I can liquidate them all. There's only about a hundred tanks and forty destroyers…assuming they haven't built more, and ignoring what they've had to have acquired."

The ex-president leaned a bit closer to Cloud at this. "Frankly, Cloud…Leers is in a good position, as is his army. They're pretty much poised to take what they want. The only explanation I can think of as to why they didn't come back right after Meteor was destroyed to take Midgar is because he thought it would be good to further consolidate his power. And as far as I can tell…he's done that job very well."

Cloud stared down at him for a moment. In the end, however, he too bent down and looked coldly into Rufus' eyes.

"…Here's my source. I have a scrawny kid looking like people have tried to flay the skin off his back for some time sitting in my house. He claims he escaped from up north in a New Shinra labor camp. He also says they're getting ready to come south on a full scale attack. How do we stop them?"

Rufus stared back for a moment, but then calmly leaned in a bit closer, putting himself practically in Cloud's face.

"…You're the one with the friend of the Planet, Cloud. I suggest prayer."


Ragnar let out a loud yawn the next morning. He adjusted himself slightly on the couch cushions. He felt great. He hadn't slept off the ground in a long time, and after working himself so hard for two days it was wonderful to lie down and rest. He didn't even care that he could feel the glare of the sun against his face, meaning he had slept in. Just being able to relax somewhere soft and comfortable was fine. He slowly cracked his eyes open and looked ahead of him into his surroundings.

The living room was much brighter than last night. And he could hear moving around close to the back of the living space. Something sounded like cooking eggs or bacon. He hadn't eaten eggs or bacon in over three years… However, he also happened to notice that he was no longer alone in the room.

A young boy, looking about seven, was sitting down and staring right at him. His hair was too long, and it was swept back a bit out of his eyes, which were now totally transfixed on Ragnar. He had his elbows on his knees, and was holding up his head on his hands to make himself more comfortable. The young man looked a bit uneasy after a moment, seeing this new visitor staring at him, and looking like he had been doing so since he was asleep.

"Hello." The boy finally said.

Ragnar made a slightly unnerved face, but then gave a nod from where his head rested on the pillow Tifa gave him last night. "Um…hello."

"Are you a mercenary?"

Ragnar's eyes expanded a little, and he blinked once. "Why do you ask?"

"You have a big sword like Cloud. He used to be a mercenary."

The youth swallowed. "…No, I'm not."

"Are you moving in with us?"

"No."

"Are you staying the night tomorrow?"

"…I don't think so."

"Have you killed anyone with that sword?"

Ragnar began to look uneasy. "…You've been thinking of a lot of questions while I was asleep, haven't you?"

"Tifa told me it's not polite to answer a question with another question."

The young man stared at the boy a moment longer, but then looked up. "Um…Tifa?" He called out.

Luckily, around this time the sizzling stopped, meaning that the cooking was almost done. A moment later, Tifa came through the door from the bar wearing an apron. Obviously the kitchen was back through there. She stepped in and quickly surveyed the situation. After a moment, she seemed to understand what was going on. The woman calmly began to undo her apron and walked forward. The boy turned and watched her as she came in. Ragnar's own look pleaded with her to help him out. In the end, she turned to the boy. "Denzel…why don't you go help Marlene finish setting the table?"

"Alright." Denzel answered, seeming to be ok with that. He turned to Ragnar next. "You can tell me about it later, ok?" Hethen turned and began to walk back out the way Tifa had come. After a few moments, he had passed back through the doorway, and left the two adults in the room in silence. After that, Ragnar sighed in relief, and turned back to her.

"Thank you. He was asking me if I ever killed anyone."

Tifa sighed, and gave a shrug in reply to that. "He's still a bit fuzzy on the life/death thing. Right now, he thinks it's 'cool' if you kill 'bad guys'. It's Cloud's fault, really. When he asked him that question, he told him yes. I'm afraid he's going to be attached to you too, now that he thinks you're a warrior as well."

Ragnar couldn't help but snicker a bit at this, as he leaned up and out from the couch. It just seemed a bit silly to him. However, at that age, it wasn't so bad. Kids that young always asked their fathers in the military if they had killed the bad guys. The media and books made it look like there were always bad sides in everything, and that things were just a matter of getting rid of the bad people and everything would be alright. It really wasn't that disturbing of a notion when you thought about it.

"So…have you?"

Ragnar froze. That question had come from Tifa. He slowly turned and looked to her, and saw that her face had turned perfectly serious, and was now staring at him. The young man swallowed again, and felt himself grow a bit more nervous than before. In the end, he turned back down to his body.

"I…um…have nothing to wear."

Tifa stared at him in silence a moment longer. But then, she let it slide. She turned to the side and went to the armchair. Lying in it was a pile of clothing. She grabbed it, turned, and presented it to Ragnar. "These are some of Cloud's old things. He won't mind. They'll be a bit baggy on you, but he used to be a string bean too, so it shouldn't be too bad."

Ragnar decided to take that as a neutral comment, and proceeded to throw off the covers and dress himself in what he was presented with. It was pretty basic. A dark blue set of pants, somewhat baggy, and a dark blue sleeveless sweater on top of it with a bit of a collar. He was finished quickly. After putting on the socks he was offered, Tifa next held out a pair of brown shoes to him, obviously Cloud's. These were closer to Ragnar's size, however. The rest of the clothing did hang a bit.

The youth saw this, and then shook his head. "Oh, that's alright. I've got my own shoes."

"No you don't." Tifa instantly responded. "Those things were full of holes and threadbare. I threw them out last night before I went to bed, along with those rags you had. These are your shoes now."

Ragnar grimaced slightly. However, he took them from Tifa soon after, and then began to put them on. Once he had finished tying both, he rose up from where he was and stood in front of Tifa. She stood as well and gave him a once over, and then a nod.

"Great." She commented. "Come on into the bar."

Tifa turned and began to walk back to the door. Ragnar hesitated again, just long enough to turn back and take up his sword and sheath. He tied it around his torso again, and then walked after her. He didn't want to leave Ragnarok lying around anywhere. Soon, both of them were passing through the door and into the bar area.

This place was nice even in daytime. It was very homey and inviting. The early morning sunlight came through the windows in just such a way to make it look rather pleasant and clean. However, what attracted Ragnar the most was one of the bar tables set up in front of him. That was where he smelled breakfast. And there it was…a bowl full of scrambled eggs, a basket of biscuits, and a plate of bacon. Ragnar felt his stomach do a barrel roll. He had to be in heaven. Along with all of this, there were two children seated at the table already. One was Denzel. The other was a young girl about the same age. She turned and looked to him when he walked in. Remembering from last night, Ragnar supposed that was the one named Marlene.

This one turned and looked to Ragnar as he entered. "Hello." She called out to him.

Ragnar gave her a nod and a small wave. "Hi."

Tifa pointed over to one of the unused places. "Just sit there, Ragnar." With that, she turned and began to walk to the other unused place. Ragnar himself walked over to the place Tifa indicated and drew the chair back. However, before sitting, he looked up to her. "What about a place for Cloud?"

"He never eats breakfast with us." Marlene explained before Tifa could answer. "He's usually gone by then."

"Oh." Ragnar simply answered. He finished by sitting down in the chair. The four began to pass the food around and give some to each member. Ragnar, at this point, could barely restrain himself from taking monstrous helpings from each. He remembered, he had to be polite to his hostess…and he tried to think of it as a self-discipline exercise that Bahamut would have given him. He could still barely restrain himself into giving just a normal scoop of eggs, a few strips of bacon, and one biscuit for starters.

However, once everyone was served, he dug into his meal like a hungry lion into a piece of meat. While Tifa just began to salt and pepper her eggs, she looked up in a bit of amazement as Ragnar shoved the whole mess of eggs onto his fork and crammed it into his mouth. He then began to shove the first strip of bacon in, while reaching out and taking a carton of milk and filling his glass. The moment he was done, he quickly began to down it while reaching for another strip. But at that point, he gave a pause. He suddenly noticed that Marlene, sitting just across from him, had her hands folded and her head bowed.

Ragnar felt a bit embarrassed as he swallowed what was still in his mouth. He looked uneasily around the table. "Oh…I'm sorry." He apologized lamely.

However, to this Marlene opened her eyes, and then looked up and smiled at him. "Oh, that's alright." She responded. "I was just saying a prayer for the Flower Girl."

Ragnar crooked an eyebrow at this. "Um…flower girl?" He turned inquisitively to Tifa.

Tifa had just gotten her first fork of eggs, but then hesitated. Something seemed to ripple through her for a moment, but then she looked up to Ragnar and shook her head. "It's a rather long story…"

Marlene, however, wasn't done. She turned and indicated a long braid in her back hair with a loose pink ribbon tying it back. "See? I wear my hair just like hers now. She's the one who stopped Meteor. And she sent the rain that healed Cloud, Denzel, and everyone else of the Geostigma."

"Um…Geostigma?" Ragnar asked in puzzlement.

Tifa sighed a bit from the front of the table. "Like I said…it's a rather long story."

"You didn't have the Geostigma where you lived?" Denzel suddenly asked. He was seated at the left of Ragnar, and now looked over to him.

The young man turned to the boy, and after a moment shook his head. "Um…no. Should we have?"

"No…but I wish we would have known there was a place where you couldn't get it." Denzel answered slowly in response, turning his head down a bit when he said so. He began to look a bit uneasy. "I had it. I just remember being sick and tired all the time… But sometimes when I'm outside playing, an adult will yell at me and chase me away. They say I did a lot of strange things when I had it. They say I'm a monster. Me, and the other kids who had it."

"Eat your breakfast before it gets cold, Denzel." Tifa suddenly said, cutting off this line of talk. Ragnar looked away from the boy and looked over to Tifa. Her face was expressionless…but he could sense something in her eyes. It looked like a touch of…sadness, and she was staring blankly at the boy. Denzel, on his part, complied and turned back to his food. Ragnar hesitated for a moment, but then began to understand. He didn't know what this was, but apparently it had caused a bit of trouble for this family. Tifa obviously wanted the subject closed. In the end, he turned back to his own plate again. Acting as normal as possible, he took up another strip of bacon and crammed it down, and followed with a bite from his biscuit. There was still an uneasy silence over the table.

In the end, Ragnar decided to try changing the subject. After swallowing his bite, he leaned up a bit and gave a slight smile. He looked to Marlene and Denzel. "Well, I don't know about you two…" He addressed, causing them both to look up to him. He pointed to his plate. "But your mommy makes the best breakfast I've ever had."

Tifa flushed red for a moment, and nearly dropped her fork. She cupped a hand to her mouth. Denzel and Marlene, on the other hand, looked to each other with puzzled expressions. Then they turned back to Ragnar. The girl shook her head.

"Tifa's not my mother."

Ragnar's smile began to fade shortly thereafter. He heard a sigh from the head of the table, and cast a glance up just to see Tifa trying compose herself again and act normal once more. The youth began to feel uneasy. He looked down to Denzel next. The boy shook his head as well.

"I don't have a mom or dad."

The young man felt like he had stuck his foot in his mouth once again. He nervously cast a glance up to the front of the table, and saw Tifa slightly hunched over with a hand to her forehead. She looked up once and cast her brown eyes in his direction, in a rather cross-seeming manner. Ragnar wished he could shrink down at this moment and scurry off into some hole in the floor. He bowed his head down, and nervously put his hands into his lap.

"Um…er…" He slowly began to say. "I…think I need to use the…"

Before Ragnar could say another word, the door to the bar was opened. This broke the uneasy mood over the breakfast table, and caused everyone to look to the front of the bar. Both of the kids soon lit up. Ragnar watched and saw Cloudcross the threshold. He shut the door quickly behind him. Ragnar could immediately tell that his look was troubled. It was grim again, like last night, but this time it was much more so. One look at him told Ragnar that something was on his mind. Wherever he had gone last night…the youth assumed he found out that he was telling the truth.

"Cloud!" Marlene and Denzel called out in joy together.

The man, despite his bleak mood, somehow managed to form a smile for a brief moment, and looked up to them. "Hey, Marlene. Hey, big guy." He addressed to them both. After doing so, however, his demeanor quickly turned dark again. While both of the kids continued to smile at him, Ragnar noticed that Tifa did not. She seemed to pick up on his mood immediately, and soon she began to look dark and troubled as well. The man turned to her in the end, and stared hard and serious at her for a moment.

"…We need to talk in the back."

Tifa immediately gave a nod, although her face looked worried and somber. She pulled away from the table and stood up. She turned for the back room and began to go that way. Cloud soon followed behind her, moving rather quickly.

Ragnar hesitated a moment, and began to gesture behind him. "I…um…I'll just be off to the bath…"

"I'm talking to you next, kid, so wait there." Cloud coldly cut off, and continued to walk with Tifa to the back. Soon, both of them had passed through the door and shut it behind them. They left Ragnar, Marlene, and Denzel in silence in the main bar area. Ragnar swallowed again, and slowly lowered his hand once more into his lap. He was now getting nervous himself. Uneasily, he looked down and back to his plate and the two children around him. He suddenly felt he had lost his appetite.

After a moment, Ragnar realized something. He turned to Denzel, and saw that the boy was staring right at him just like he had before. The man hesitated as he turned back and saw him.

"So…have you killed any bad guys?" The boy finally asked.

Ragnar slowly sighed. What a trip this was turning out to be.


To be continued...