The house was filled with silence but for the crackling of the fire in the hearth at Nanaki's proclamation. Corent looked at Cloud in disbelief; he was short, skinny and his eyes were downright disturbing in the shade. "I, uh..." He scratched the back of his neck, then pointed at Cloud and looked at Nanaki and Vincent. "This is Cloud Strife, the man you told us stories of?"

"That's right," Nanaki said.

Corent looked back at Cloud. "Him?"

Yuffie rolled her eyes. "Yes, him! That's Cloud." She looked at Nanaki. "What'd you tell him, that Cloud was seven feet tall and a total beefcake?"

Nanaki shook his head. "I suppose he's not as impressive in person...until he starts fighting, that is," he said as the spiky haired warrior looked his way.

Cloud put his hands on his hips. "So Denzel had some kids?"

"Yes, but Corent is mostly of your blood, not Denzel's," Vincent clarified. "There are others here and in other villages and towns, but your blood runs strongest in this family."

"...My blood?" He looked down. "I didn't think I could have kids...Was it with Tifa?"

"Should we ruin the surprise?" Nanaki playfully asked.

"As if this isn't a surprise!" the spiky headed warrior remarked as he motioned his hand towards Corent.

"Yes. You had three children with her. Two sons, and a daughter." Vincent let out a soft chuckle as he sat below a window and next to Nanaki. "Tifa told us you were so surprised the first time it happened you babbled in Nibelese."

Cloud glanced at him and smiled weakly. "I guess I can't give her that pleasure, now that I know." He wondered if this would somehow change the future. Cloud looked about, but nothing seemed to change.

"Corent, are all of them staying with us?" the girl asked as she straightened out her little white apron.

"Y-yeah. Y'better prepare dinner, Vesta. Dilys is gonna have a stroke," Corent commented as he scratched the side of his head. "I'll go get some firewood and some supplies before the market closes." He left without saying another word; the young man was still in a slight state of shock.

Not that Cloud and Yuffie weren't, either. They supposed they had more practice at working through a moment of shock than Corent would. Cloud figured it would hit hard when he finally tried to rest, that's when it always did for him. Yuffie, he thought, would act out in her sleep as always.

Yuffie huffed and plopped down next to Vincent, wrapping her shoulders in his cape. "Nobody seems to care who I am! I'm the White Rose of Wutai, I should be sung as a folk hero or something," she groused.

"In Wutai you are," Vincent replied, and she looked his way. "I make sure your descendants know who you are. It was one of the things you requested I do."

"Oh." She situated herself under his cloak. "Are they as impressed with me as Cloud's kids are?"

Vincent smiled warmly at her, and she couldn't help but feel happy knowing that the centuries had let him show more emotion. "If anything they would jump at the chance to outdo your escapades."

"Hm. So who did I shack up with?"

He turned away and looked at Cloud, who was sitting facing the fireplace with his knees tucked in and Vesta eyeing him as she prepared the cooking pot. The Combination Sword laid on the ground next to him. "Just some fellow you fell in love with, for one reason or another."

"Oh, come on. Cloud found out who he was havin' kids with!" she protested.

Vincent looked back and shook his head. "As if that would come as a surprise to anyone."

Yuffie shrugged. "He was ready to propose to her, y'know."

"Oh. That was about the time Tifa announced the pregnancy, if I remember right," Nanaki said offhandedly.

Cloud turned his head to them. "She's pregnant already?"

"Er, maybe. Sorta. You're kinda oblivious and I may have put two and two together with her crabbiness and puking and the bloating thing where she complains about her shorts feeling tight..."

He sighed heavily, then looked at Nanaki. "So, I have kids with Tifa and die of old age. Now my descendants are living in a small house by the sea. What happened? Why is Edge abandoned, and how come there's no high technology?"

Nanaki tightened his jaw and looked at his cubs before looking at Cloud again. He supposed he couldn't wait until dinner to tell him what happened. "You didn't die of old age," he began. "You and Tifa died fighting a Weapon that destroyed most of Edge. You were almost sixty."

"What?" Cloud stared at the red beast in disbelief and scooted closer to him, making the cubs cower behind him. "A Weapon? We defeated them all! Why did the Planet attack us?"

"Now, some of this was gifted knowledge from Aerith before she became closer to a background voice within the Lifestream, just so you know. She always had a way with dreams..." Nanaki took in a deep breath. "Because after Deepground...the Planet thought that it was not man that was the threat to it, but technology. A man named Genesis took the body of Weiss the Immaculate to the Northern Crater, and it was divided for use between Weiss and Nero. The souls were spliced apart with the body, and they were used as a germ to create new Weapons: Pearl and Onyx. Genesis himself became Garnet Weapon.

"This took decades to achieve. Technology was flourishing and Reeve was on the verge of creating an abundant energy source that didn't need mako or oil and coal." Nanaki sighed. "Humans had a hopeful future. Cid in his old age would have had his space program and the Planet would never have to worry about humans sucking its blood for a comfortable life ever again."

"You were having dreams, Cloud. Aerith was trying to warn you to evacuate the city, that's what you told us. You just couldn't make out why." Nanaki paused as he collected his thoughts. "Pearl Weapon attacked Edge a year later. You and Tifa both perished during the fight, but Denzel and your children finished the monster off."

Cloud nodded quietly. Denzel, his Denzel, helped defeat a giant rampaging monster. He felt sad about the circumstances of this world but proud of his boy, even if it hadn't come to pass for him yet. Their children fought, too. They raised warriors.

"What about the other two Weapons?" Yuffie asked.

"Onyx Weapon attacked Rocket Town and Corel, or more specifically their oil and coal stores. Corel is uninhabitable now, the mountains choked with black smoke from the continual burning of coal seams. The oil of Rocket Town met a similar fate, and since there was no more readily available energy stores, the world was thrown back into steam power.

"Garnet Weapon attacked Junon. Shelke, Reeve's robotic creations, Vincent..." Nanaki sighed. "Well, Vincent survived. Tseng found him near death on the beach and decided to return an old favor."

Cloud bit his lip. The planet they worked so hard to save ended up killing its saviors like an overreacting brat. "What about Barret, Cid...Marlene?"

"Barret perished in Corel, but his bullets knocked a piece of Onyx Weapon's armor off. Yuffie rode on me and stabbed it with her shuriken after she put in some poison materia so it would slowly weaken. Cid's son helped take it down, along with Yuffie's daughter and son."

"Cid had evacuated Rocket Town with Shera's help, and had been able to set off some explosive charges that slowed down the monster's trek towards Corel. Marlene healed the survivors of Corel after they escaped the mountains," Vincent said.

Nanaki nodded. "Eventually we found everyone's remains and gave a proper burial. Barret is buried at the base of Mount Corel, Shelke and Reeve are buried in Junon, and you and Tifa were buried behind the remains of the church."

"That mound?" Cloud asked, his voice barely hiding his surprise.

"Yes. I try to visit everyone's grave at once a year, and so does Vincent. I'm getting a bit up there in years, however." He chuckled a little bit, then reclined on the floor. "This is the future you fought for."

Vincent nodded. "Now the question that remains...Why are you two here?"

"And can we get back..." Cloud mumbled. It was a lot to take in. He wondered if Aerith tried to stop it at all, and he figured she had. The warnings were all she could do at that point, probably.

Now he found himself in a world that was little better off than an Iron Age culture. Cloud promised himself that if he could find a way home, he would put a stop to those Weapons somehow. He looked to his side and noticed Vesta studying him with her blue-green eyes. "Um..."

She looked away. "Sorry."

"No, it's fine...Your name is Vesta, right?"

"Mhm."

He gave her a smile that he hoped didn't look too strained. "I hope I'm not too much trouble, staying with your family. Will your parents be home soon?"

Vesta shifted uncomfortably and looked down as she scrubbed something in an earthenware pot. "Um..."

"Cloud." He turned to Vincent's voice and leaned towards him. "Their parents died during a bandit attack six months ago," he said quietly. "It may be five hundred years in the future, but your family kept your stubborn fighting spirit."

"O-oh."

Yuffie fidgeted under Vincent's cloak. "I need somethin' to do. I can't think like this," she stood up and walked towards Vesta, who took a step back as she looked up at the ninja. "Ya mind if I help with dinner?"

"Yuffie's not a great cook but please just keep her busy, when she gets bored she tends to steal shiny things," Nanaki said with a tired smirk. Oh, he missed this banter so much!

Yuffie looked back and scoffed. "I got all the shiny things I need, Red!" She turned back to Vesta. "C'mon, let's make'em dinner, Da Chao knows none of them can cook."

"O-okay." The blonde haired girl tentatively took Yuffie's hand and brought her towards the hearth, quietly talking about her food preparation.

Cloud rubbed his face, then stood up and picked up the Fusion Sword. He took it to a corner of the house and leaned it on the wall, then took off his back sheath and placed it on the ground beside it.

He and Yuffie were stuck in a post-apocalyptic world, his family consisted of three siblings that lived together in a small house, and he had no idea why they were here or how to get back. He would find a way, he thought as Corent came through the door holding a course looking sack with a young woman following him in.

He would fix this. He had to.