---------Chapter 2: Lots of Questions, Not enough Answers-------------

A man glanced up as I entered the Pub, an almost frightened look on his face. Plumes of smoke assaulted me from every direction and the Pub reeked of stale ale and old tobacco. I then noticed how eerily quiet it was for this amount of people. Almost all of the tables were full but no one was talking to one another. Apparently no one wanted to talk about current news like they would normally do. They probably thought that if they avoided the subject, it would just go away. But I was not so naive as to believe that if you ignore a problem long enough, it just goes away. After everything we have been through, I knew better. I saw Reno wave to me from a small table in the back corner. I made my way there, navigating through the pub as if it were a minefield. I didn't want to look at the expressions of the people around me because I was afraid of what I might find. I took a seat to the left of him and stared at the menu in front of me. Why WAS Sephiroth there? Why, after three years, would he come and fight me hand to hand?

"Hey, you listening to me Cloud?" Reno asked, staring at me. "I said stay away from anything with chicken in it. The chicken made me sick as a dog the last time I ate it, yo."

"Huh, yeah. Stay away from the chicken. Got it." I said yawning.

"You look horrible. Have you gotten any sleep lately?"

"Not really."

"Your gonna need some rest man. Something big is going down and we need all the help we can get yo."

"What is going on? All I have heard about is that one incident in Kalm."

Reno waved a waitress over. When she arrived at our table, she had the same haunted look in her eye as most of the customers. Reno gave her his order and, since I didn't know the place that well, I just ordered the same thing as he did. She thanked us and said it would be out in a few minutes. Then he turned back to me.

"What did you hear?"

"About Kalm? I heard that a week ago, a highly organized group of people came and started kidnapping people. Plucked them off the streets and drug them out of their homes.By the time they were done, no one was left in the town. Only a few got away."

"Well, what you didn't know is that one of the ones that got away swore it was a military operation, blaming Shinra for the disturbance."

"It wasn't Shinra?" I asked.

"Hell no. Rufus didn't even know about it until this one guy showed up at the door."

"Is that what he told you? Maybe he's lying. Maybe he started experimenting on people again." I said, getting more angry by the second.

"How is he suppose to profit from the corporation if he is kidnapping entire towns? It really doesn't make sense to cause a big scene like that." He said, "Besides, that's not the only thing this guy told us."

The waitress came back and set our orders on the table. I actually realized that it had been five days since I had a good meal and that I was actually hungry. (It was pork fried rice with a side of barbequed beef.) After a couple of minutes of eating I looked over to Reno, "Do you think they were Mercenaries?"

"Do you know a faction of mercenaries that organized?"

"No. But it doesn't mean that there isn't one."

He looked up from his plate and sighed."We couldn't make any sense of this one guys story. He didn't look like he could be rattled easily. And yet, when we asked for the descriptions of the people that kidnapped the townsfolk. What he said didn't make any sense."

"So, What did he say?"

"He said that him and two others escaped; But just barely. Said that when he went back to find his son, he saw one of the guys with his headgear down."

"And?"

Reno looked over at me. He reached into his coat pocket and grabbed a small carton of cigarettes, put one between his lips, and lite it. After a few seconds he exhaled. He looked at the ceiling, shifting slightly.

"He said the guy had fangs."

"What?"

"That's what I said. I asked him if he had seen wrong. I mean, people were panicking and several fires had broken out. Your mind can play tricks on you in all that chaos. But he insisted that the guy had fangs. Says he couldn't mistake something like that."

"Did you talk to the other two survivors?"

"Yes. We found them just outside Nibelheim. Said they were too afraid to go in because of the screams heard the night before."

"What? Something happened in Nibelheim too?"

"Didn't you know? The entire town of Nibelheim is gone too."

"What? How?"

"We still don't know. We've sent a search and rescue team in to retreive anyone who might still be there. But," He took another long drag on his cigarette, " We lost contact with them three hours into the mission." he said, his eyes growing distant.

"What happened?"

"That's what we need you for. Before we lost contact, they reported seeing a lot of blood, but no bodies. Then all contact stopped. This whole incident has lite a fire under Rufus's ass. He wants to know what the hell is going on."

I heard some sort of noise emanating from his left breast pocket. He suddenly looked down and pulled out a small black cell phone.

"Hello? Yeah. How many? What the fuck? Rude what the hell is going on? Yeah. So where the hell were they? Alright, I am coming in now. Yes, Cloud's with me. Okay." He shut the phone and shoved his chair back.

"So, whats going on?" I asked, also standing.

"That was Rude. He says that 1200 people just disappeared from Junon. Also there was movement spotted in Kalm. We are to see Rufus Shinra to be briefed of the situation."

"Movement? How much? What situation?"

He stamped out his cigarette in a nearby ashtray."It seems that the 1500 people that were reported missing a week ago, are back."

--------------------End Chapter 2-----------------------

AHHH a Cliffhanger. I just love it when that happens. Don't worry I am halfway through the next chapter, so it wont take me long to post the next Chapter.