Cloud sped through the crystalline trees on Fenrir, his sights set on the base, the Forgotten City. Now that Kadaj had the kids, who knew what he was doing to them. He could even be doing things to them that were as terrible as he had done to Fayte, although what he actually did to Fayte was still in question. At least she was somewhere safe, now. Cloud had instructed Tifa and the others not to disturb her. He figured she wanted her geostigma to remain a secret as well. It was hard to explain. He had only known the woman for a few days at the most and yet he seemed attached to her. They had so much in common and so much at stake. Maybe that was why he felt like he could trust her and he cared.

As he drove forward, the trees seemed to begin to blend together, their tame glow becoming blinding until Cloud was thrown into a world of white light. "Huh?" he said as he straightened himself up into a standing position. He stared forward for a moment before flowers appeared beneath his feet and a young, brunette girl appeared back to back with him.

"You came" she said in a content voice. "Even though you're about to break." She placed a hand on his cloth-covered, geostigma-ridden arm. "That's a good sign." She removed her hand and held her hands together in front of her. "So, why did you come?"

Cloud didn't look back. "I think I want to be forgiven… more than anything" he said.

"Something you and Fayte have in common, but the question for both of you is: by who?" she stated.

Shock filled Cloud and he began to turn around but found himself back on Fenrir. He seemed a bit confused but he was quickly removed from that state by gunfire. Swerving to dodge, he saw Kadaj and his gang firing upon him. He opened the sides of Fenrir to take out some buster sword parts, but as he neared them, Kadaj pulled out his blade and twirled his hand in the air. Suddenly, all the children dropped from the trees. With a jerk, he caused his bike to slide out from under him and he fell off to avoid the children, his buster sword leaving his hands.

Kadaj walked forward and leaned down as Loz stopped the bike with his foot. "I'm glad you could make it!" Kadaj said.

Cloud met his eyes "I only came for the kids."

Kadaj ignored him and began to walk around him, speaking to the children. "See this man? He's our big brother… but alas," he came to a stop in front of and pointed his double bladed sword at him. "In our happy flock, he's what you call a black sheep."

Kadaj raised his blade and turned away from Cloud. He was going to come back to attack when Marlene called out "Cloud!" The distraction allowed Cloud to grab his own blade and take a swing at Kadaj, who easily dodged and flipped to a nearby boulder.

As Cloud brought his blade up, a bullet deflected off of it, bringing his attention to Yazoo, who was shooting from a distance. Loz took the opportunity to charge, using his abilities to dodge his own brother's bullets as he ran towards Cloud. His body lit up as he approached Cloud, leaping to slam his fist into the man. Cloud spun to the side and blocked a couple more bullets before deflecting another kick from Loz. He blocked and dodged Loz some more as he continued to glow and strike at him. His attempts to strike back at the glowing man were futile and a hard hit caused him to flip back and skid to a stop.

Loz smirked and Cloud jumped forward to attack him again. As he approached him, Loz flipped on his back and propelled Cloud over and away from him with a kick. Cloud hit the ground on his hands and knees, dropping his buster sword again. He looked up and quickly retrieved the weapon only to be attacked by Yazoo. After he blocked the first swing, Yazoo kicked him in the chest and fired at him, point blank. Cloud blocked each shot and then flipped to the right and swung his blade at him. Yazoo blocked a swing and then stepped on his blade. He ran up it like a ramp while still evading Cloud and then proceeded to counter-attack.

Loz took advantage of Cloud's distraction and slammed his fist into the ground to send a wave of earth towards him. Yazoo lowered his weapon and smiled before back-flipping over the moving earth. He fired some more and Cloud deflected them before he was forced to face the approaching wave. The blade he had raised behind him became charged and he slammed in to the ground and sent his own wave of blue energy hurtling towards the other wave. The two collided in an explosion and stopped where they struck.

Cloud looked slowly up only to find Loz in his face. Before he could block, Loz punched him and sent him backwards and then gave Yazoo, who used him as a springboard, a boost after Cloud. Yazoo lashed out at Cloud as Loz joined the attack, shoving off Cloud and flipping over Yazoo as he attacked again. Cloud dodged Yazoo and leapt high in the air to avoid Loz once more.

Loz threw Yazoo up to meet Cloud in the air. He fired at him again before pushing off of him and shooting some more. One of the bullets hit Cloud's blade, causing it to fly out of his hand and bury its point in a nearby tree. He landed close to it and ran over to the tree, swinging up and landing on top of his sword. A laugh escaped Loz as he punched the base of the tree Cloud was on. As it began to fall, Yazoo walked down it towards Cloud, shooting as he did. Cloud blocked the bullets and removed his blade as Loz smashed upward through it at his feet.

Cloud spun and blocked both attackers, he and Yazoo pushed off each other. He landed on the trunk of a nearby tree and quickly assembled his buster sword into one blade. Looking up a bit, his eyes met Kadaj, who was still on the ground. He pushed off the tree aiming at Kadaj but being easily blocked and held in the air by Kadaj's multiple following slashes. Kadaj forced him back up into the air and followed, his final strike incapacitating Cloud.

Before Kadaj could strike again, a red mantle flew out of the trees and struck him. He landed on his feet and Cloud landed in a heap on the ground a short distance away. Cloud's cellphone fell out of his pocket and bounced into a nearby pool of water. The mantle flew down and surrounded Cloud. Bullets fired from inside the mantle caused Kadaj to swing his blades in a circular motion to block. Loz charged and Yazoo fired upon the mantle but to no avail. The bullets did no damage and Loz was too slow. After picking up Cloud and his weapon, the mantle quickly disappeared into the trees again. Kadaj scoffed, defeated.

The mantle had taken them to a safer place by a small lake. Cloud was sitting on the ground staring at his lap. "See? I knew I'd be no help" he said. He looked over to a man standing several feet away, owner of the mantle. "Vincent, what do you know about this?" he asked.

"I come here often" the handsome man said, lifting his crimson gaze and throwing aside a bit of his red mantle. He had long black hair and cloth around his head. On his left hand was a gauntlet and he looked as if he was in his twenties. "I've seen what Kadaj's group is doing" he added as he walked over and grabbed Cloud's geostigma arm. "The stigma, it's a symptom of alien matter infesting the body. The body tries to eliminate it and overcompensates" he stood from Cloud's side and walked in front of him and over to a tree. "Inside our bodies is a current like the life stream. That current is what fights off any malevolent intruders." He turned to face Cloud again.

Cloud had looked back down. "What do you mean by intruder?" he asked.

"The Sephiroth gene" answered Vincent. "Jenova's mimetic legacy, call it what you want."

"You're well informed" said Cloud.

"Tseng and Elena; they were brought here half dead" said Vincent. "They must have been brutally tortured. I did what I could to save them… but well, you'll see."

"Tortured?" asked Cloud.

"They had it coming" replied Vincent. "They got their hands on Jenova's head."

Cloud looked up. "Then when Kadaj says he's looking for Mother…"

"Heaven's dark harbinger - the calamity, Jenova" interrupted Vincent. "If they wanted to, they could recreate Sephiroth."

"What did they use Fayte for, then?" Cloud asked himself.

"Fayte?" Vincent inquired.

"A girl. I met her a couple of days ago. She has quite a history" Cloud said as he looked down again. "She's the adopted daughter of Rufus ShinRa, she was also a SOLDIER, the only female one, she told me she's the closest thing they ever came to recreating Jenova. She also has geostigma. Kadaj kidnapped her and dropped her off in the city, but she couldn't tell me what they were trying to do."

"Fayte… as in Project Fayte?" said Vincent.

"I don't know. You tell me" said Cloud.

"The description of the girl fits" said Vincent. "She must be around twenty now."

"How do you know?" Cloud asked.

"If she is who I think she is, she's supposed to be a myth now. Very few ever heard of the project. It was called Project Fayte, more commonly known as Project F but also known as Project Female and Project Failure."

"Failure?" asked Cloud.

"Yes, you see, ShinRa's adopted daughter was dying so she gave permission for them to perform gruesome experiments trying to make a better Sephiroth. When she came out, she was better but she suddenly ran away. The SOLDIER in charge of her claimed that he hadn't seen her disappear. The project was named Failure and shut down. They claimed women were too unstable" explained Vincent.

"Then what did Kadaj want with her blood?" Cloud wondered aloud.

"Her blood?" asked Vincent.

"They took some from her" said Cloud.

"She's very like Jenova, if the reports are right. Perhaps they saw her as a substitute for Jenova's head" suggested Vincent.

"I don't think it worked then" Cloud said. He looked back down. "Kadaj… what is he?"

"I'd rather not know" replied Vincent.

A sudden rustle in the bushes caught their attention. Cloud quickly stood and grabbed his blade. Vincent placed a hand on the handle of his gun. They both stood ready to fight as the bushes moved some more and suddenly a small girl ran out. She ran straight into Cloud, panting as Cloud placed a hand on her shoulder, and looked up at him.

"Marlene!" he said in shock.

"Cloud" she said as she caught her breath. "Denzel, and Tifa!"

"Tifa is alright" Cloud said calmly.

"I wanna talk to her!" demanded Marlene.

Cloud searched his pockets for his phone, unknowing that he had dropped it. When he didn't find it, Marlene turned and looked at Vincent.

"May I?" she asked. Vincent lifted his mantle to show he had none. "You don't have a phone?" she asked, shocked at the revelation. He dropped it, not offering explanation.

"Vincent" said Cloud. "Will you bring Marlene to Tifa? I'm going to go see ShinRa and get a few answers."

"I can't do that" Vincent shook his head.

"But, I" began Cloud.

"Forget it, Cloud" said Marlene, suddenly taking a step away from him. "Why don't you ever pay attention to us?" She ran over to Vincent and hid under his mantle.

Cloud's face showed shock "Marlene, please give me some time" he said. "There's battle to be fought but it's not as simple as just fighting, understand?"

"No, I don't!" she yelled.

"Cloud, are you sure this is about fighting?" asked Vincent. Cloud thought back to his conversation with Tifa.

'Dilly dally, shilly shally. Isn't it time you did the fighting?' Aerith's voice echoed in his head.

He opened his eyes. "Are sins ever forgiven?" he asked.

"I've never tried" said Vincent.

"You mean… never tried" he said, lost in his thoughts. He suddenly looked up. "Marlene, let's go."

Marlene peeked out from under the mantle and smiled, giving a big nod before running to join Cloud.

"Well, I'm gonna try" said Cloud as he turned away. "I'll phone in the verdict."

As Cloud's phone sank, the messages played.

"It's me, Reeve. How's it going? I saw your flyer. How do you ever stay in business? Heh, you never change, Cloud. If it's alright I was thinking about helping you out, but I guess I'll call back another time."

"Surprise! It's me, Yuffie. Fill me in, okay?"

"Survey is done so I should be able to see Marlene soon. You let her know, all right, Spikey?"

The phone hit the bottom and died slowly as Aerith's voice filled the void. "I never blamed you, not once. You came for me, that's all that matters."