9 PM, Sector 5 Slums of Midgar Ruin...
Zack sat on the steps of the Church, resting his overused muscles. The Buster Sword was stabbed in the sand standing next to him. Jags of healing water on either side of him, waiting for the WRO's trunk to come back and pick him up.
He shouldn't be this exhausted he admits. But seeing how long it's has been in battle, he could understand that he was behind in his training. He throws his head back to look up at the night sky; the stars looked good, too bad he was alone admiring them. Aerith would have loved to see this view.
Debry rustled nearby, not a good sign usually. He quickly got up to his feet, pulling his sword and getting ready for his adversary, whatever it was. To his rotten luck, it was a group of three Guard Hounds. They were smaller and average than the one that attacked him at the Shinra building. Still, they are going to be a handful to handle alone.
"Well whatever, this will do good practice." Talking to himself aside, he hoped that he won't feel sore waking up tomorrow.
The hounds pounced on him all at once, forcing him to move out of the way in the split second he had. Using the momentum of his retreat, he rebound back to the front, damaging the whip-like projection sticking from their back. This caused the hounds to jerk back from the pain. Taking the opportunity, Zack attacked again, giving, even more, force in his swing. The swing was strong enough that in throw the guard hounds towards a big pile of debris and rubble.
The hounds fell on the ground along with the rubble, crushed and killed from it. Zack sat on the floor, relieved that it was easy. A sudden shine reaching the corner of his eyes. Looking towards the direction, the pile of rubble that collapsed revealed a good looking motorbike, it had some missing parts but could be functional with a few fixes.
"Well, hello good looking." whistled as he got closer to the bike, forgetting about his fatigue. He was intrigued, examining the old bike. As he thought before, it wasn't badly damaged and an easy fix. It would help make his trips around and out of town easier now that he thought about it.
A truck horn reached his ear, the WRO had finally arrived to pick him up. It was finally to go back home.
~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~
10:27 PM, Open Road...
Cloud Finally woke up from his long sleep, feeling something wet and cold on his face. His eyes fluttered open, and his view was greeted with a behemoth cub licking his face. The morning sun he was riding through during the day had been replaced with the soft shine of the moon and stars of the night sky. 'Right, I'm in a behemoth infested area… just great.' he slowly sat up and looked at his leg. It looked like it healed over the course of his sleep, so that's good. He got up and carefully walked around the curious cub, heading over to his bike to get away from the area.
The Fenrir was still in good shape, and nothing from his stuff was taken which was confusing. Why knock him out and not take anything at all? He quickly got on the bike and drove off, away from the area; he wasn't fit to fight a fully-grown behemoth right now, so he needed to leave.
Now that he was away from the danger, his mind was free to think about the figures he encountered earlier. They weren't familiar to him, but the black wing-like thing reminded him of Sephiroth. It's impossible unless they were his remnants 'No! Not remnants! But then… who are they?'. The last thing he wanted was other remnants from Sephiroth.
He left the topic aside for now, favoring to glance at the clock on his phone. It was almost ten thirty, very late for any delivery. What he could do was call Tifa though when he gets to a hotel, he had a feeling she was worried about him.
~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~
11:50 PM, 7th Heaven Bar, Residencial Level...
Tifa quietly walked out of the children's bedroom after an hour of chatting and story telling, the kids finally gave in to sleep at almost 12 o'clock. This was usually what they would do to avoid getting to sleep in most weekdays, but they always gave in at about the same time every night. She should try getting them to sleep earlier than this though, she didn't want them to be tired and sleepy at school the next day.
She slowly closed the door behind her, leaving a small crack for if one of them got up later, then quietly made her way towards the staircase leading to the roof where she left Aerith almost hours ago after closing time. The former flower girl didn't want to stay alone in her room, so she asked her to let her sit on the roof to enjoy the night breeze.
On her way there, she pulled out her cell phone to check on her messages. There was the usual stack from Reeve on the happenings at the WRO that she needed to know, like the recent Deepground network being used, and also some messages from Yuffie. Yuffie's messages used to be childish and silly at the beginning, but recently she actually started receiving useful information from the silly ninja. The years may have finally had their toll on her, but maybe there was also another factor at play there? Either way, She was glad that the Wutai girl was finally showing some maturity although she still acted childish in some cases.
After going through all her inbox, she sighed sadly that none of them had been from Cloud. But before she could store her phone back in her pocket, it vibrated indicating that a new message had just arrived. She quickly brought the phone back to her eyes level and stopped to place all her attention on the phone screen. Finally, the message she was waiting for all day had arrived.
"Hi Tifa, Sorry I'm late in contacting you. Are you asleep yet?"
Of course, she wasn't! She was ready to stay up all night waiting for him to text her. But before she could reply, she had to arrange her thoughts in order not to give him the wrong message and then regret it later.
"Hi. Don't worry about it; you were probably occupied with something important. And no I wasn't asleep, I had just finished putting the kids to bed though."
"Really? Shouldn't they have been asleep hours ago?"
"They tried to stay up awake long enough for either you or Zack to get home."
"Zack isn't back yet?"
"No, he's still with Reeve."
"I see, you and Aerith should get some rest. Barret is leaving tomorrow so you shouldn't worry."
She paused typing her next text a to wonder if she should ask him about his trip. Whenever she did, however, he would just reply that it was dusty or the 'usual.' Maybe she needed to ask him something else then? But before she could think of one, Cloud texted her back a reply.
"So anything weird happen today?"
That was an odd way for him to ask her about her day. And even odder that he asked her in the first place since he knew how the bar usually was like. But there was something different today that's for sure.
"Nothing out of the ordinary, though there was this new customer that came by early in the morning after you and Zack left."
"How 'weird' are we talking about?"
"Well, he had Mako infused eyes like you and Zack do, and he was reciting Loveless. He even tried to flirt with Aerith."
"You should avoid telling Zack that last bit. As for the Mako infused eyes, he was probably an Ex-SOLIDER like Zack."
"That's what I thought too. BTW, you don't usually ask me this. Has something happened?"
"You could say that, but it's probably my mind playing tricks on me."
"How so?"
"Well, I thought I saw someone with a large black wing on my way to Junon."
"… Cloud, I think Zack's prank of Night of the Flames did a number on your brain."
"Maybe… but I know that I didn't imagine two people fighting while using materia."
"I see, maybe we could discuss this more when you get home?"
"Ok. If I'm not delayed then I'll probably be home same time tomorrow night"
"Then I'll be waiting for you tomorrow."
"I'd prefer for you to sleep if I were late Tifa."
"Not on your life ;p I already miss you so much."
"Me too. Goodnight for now, you have a busy day tomorrow."
"You too Cloud, stay warm."
She smiled as her last text message for the night got sent to Cloud. She had to admit that this was much better then not hearing from him at all, it made her happy to know that he changed for the better. Flipping her phone closed she tucked it in her pocket before continuing her way to the roof to finally help Aerith get down. Though Aerith may have not minded her tardiness seeing how much she gets absorbed in the starry sky. In fact, if no one was checking up on her every now and then she may have not minded sleeping there.
When she did get up there, she heard Aerith's excited voice calling out to... Zack? Tifa went over to the railing where Aerith's chair was, and her excited friend looking down on the street. And there he was, looking up at them with a grin. "Hi girls, good view up there?"
