It was still dark when I opened my eyes. I was more rested than I had ever been. The pain in my body was gone but something was different. After getting dressed, I checked my makeup to see Cloud had actually done pretty well. I strapped a knife to my inner thigh in case I decided to go out again. I walked down to the bar and filled a glass with water.

"Fayte?"

I turned to see Tifa. "Oh hey," I said.

"You're up early" she stated. "Couldn't sleep?"

"No, I actually slept pretty well" I replied. "I feel much better."

"Cloud seemed worried about you" she said with a sigh. She walked over to the bar and began to wipe down glasses.

"What do you mean?" I asked.

"He actually showed emotion. He didn't seem so cut off from the world when you were mentioned. I think you brought him out of that shell he spends so much time in" she said.

I thought it over. I didn't know Cloud so I didn't know what she was talking about, but I did notice jealousy in her voice. 'No…' I thought. "Do you like Cloud?" I blurted. Her jaw dropped and she seemed to enter a state of shock. "Sorry, I don't know what I was thinking" I said, putting up my hands in a show of submission.

"No, it's okay" she said. "How did you know?"

"Wild guess" I shrugged. I lifted my glass and took a sip.

"Do you like Cloud?" she asked. The question was sudden and unexpected and caused me to spit out my mouthful of water. As I brought a hand to my mouth, she muttered, "Sorry."

"No, I just wasn't expecting it" I said. "But I really don't know."

"What do you mean?" she asked.

"It's not him as much as it is me" I said. "I guess I'm afraid of getting attached to anyone. The last man I tried to love died. Now, I'm going to die any day. I don't want to leave anyone with that burden."

"Now you sound just like him" she said.

"I do?" I asked.

"You do" she concluded. We continued what we were doing in silence for a short amount of time. "You said you didn't know" she spoke, breaking the calm. "Well… maybe you do."

"I'm sorry, do what, exactly?" I questioned, having completely lost her.

"Maybe you do like him" she said.

"Tell me why" I said somewhat sarcastically.

"Well, you say you don't know but then you make a comment about the 'last man you tried to love' and say you are afraid of commitment. That sounds more like denial to me" she said.

"Wouldn't it bother you if I got with Cloud?" I asked.

"Well, yeah…" she admitted. "But it's a hell of a lot better than seeing him alone."

"Then you'd better keep him away from me or he'll be miserable and alone again soon enough" I sighed.

"Why are you so hellbent on dying soon?" she snapped. "I may not have known you for long, but I still consider you as a friend and I don't want you to die. I didn't want to admit it to myself either but Cloud cares about you! It would really hurt him to see you die!"

My eyes widened. Cloud cared about me? Why? We hadn't any reason to really care about each other. There couldn't have been a real connection there. "Speaking of Cloud, where is he anyway?" I said both acting aloof to her outburst and trying to change the subject at the same time.

"I think you care about him, too" she accused, her tone bothered me.

I turned and shot her a nasty glare, about to come back with a nasty comment when something caught my nose. The smell of geostigma rushed in and weighed heavily on the air. "Do you smell that?" I asked absently, forgetting our would-be-fight.

"Smell what?" she asked, my question confusing her.

I barely heard her as I realized it was the scent of the orphans, but one scent, now distinct to me, was missing. "He's not with them" I muttered.

"Who?" she asked but I didn't hear her this time. My nose was screaming to go check this smell out.

"The geostigma is back, I think" I finally said. "Or the orphans and children have returned."

"What makes you say that?" she asked.

"The nose knows" I answered with a smile. "I can smell geostigma miles away, but then they could be miles away."

"Can you tell where it is coming from?" she asked.

I shook my head. "No, but I can tell that Cloud's not with them."

"Can you guess?" she asked.

"No, but Atlatl can" I realized. I set the glass I was holding down and smiled again. "Want to go look?"

"There's not much else to do and I'm worried, so yes" she answered.

I shrugged a bit and gestured for her to follow me. We went out to the small garage and Atlatl stood. "Where are we going?" she asked as I strapped on my belt and buster sword.

"Do you smell the geostigma?" I asked her. Tifa stared at me like I was crazy, talking to the large cat. Atlatl nodded as I pet her back. "Tifa" I said as I held out my hand. "I'll help you on." She nodded and I took her hand to balance her as I hoisted her onto Atlatl's back. After she was steady, I leapt up in front of her. "Put your hands on my shoulders if you need to" I instructed her. "I'll tell Atlatl to be careful."

"How do you tell her?" she asked.

"Telepathy" I answered. "She's a friend, we don't want to get her thrown off and killed so be careful" I added to Atlatl. She growled her acknowledgement and took off at a trot. Tifa let out a squeak of terror and her hands moved to my shoulders. It made me want to laugh. Silly first time riders.

We rode for what seemed like hours. It probably was hours, as it got quite a bit brighter out. Atlatl took us on a grand tour of the city, not finding anything, just going. I figured it was payback for being locked up so long. Tifa had been completely silent but she seemed to get more comfortable as time went on. We continued to see nothing but as we came closer to the monument ShinRa had built, we could hear a crowd.

Atlatl threw me a sideways glance and I nodded. She turned us towards it and ran. When we got there, I was hit strongly with the scent of geostigma and we found an angry crowd… and the children! They were in a circle around the monument I recognized at Meteor, keeping the crowd back. Tifa and I got down. Before we walked into the crowd I instructed Atlatl to hide and come if I called her.

The crowd was furious and frantic, and I soon saw why. Loz and Yazoo were in the middle with long chains attached to the monument.

"Denzel was with them, wasn't he?" Tifa suddenly asked.

"Yeah" I said. I sniffed the air and caught his scent. "He's here, too."

"He must be in the circle then" she said. I nodded in agreement. We split up and entered the crowd. People were everywhere, yelling.

"Hey, what are you doin'?" one man yelled over the crowd.

"How do you justify this?" yelled another. Loz and Yazoo ignored him and looked away from him. "Hey, look at me when I'm talking to you!" he yelled again.

I saw the two men look at each other and Loz nodded. Yazoo suddenly released the black demon-like creatures that had originally been used against Cloud. "Shit" was all that came out of my mouth and I ran forward through the now panicking and screaming crowd. Tifa wasn't far away now. She suddenly ran over to a boy in the ring of kids. I immediately recognized Denzel and ran over to join him.

As I ran, one of the monsters charged me. It slammed into my side and sent me flying. I tucked and rolled to avoid its claws as it chased after me. 'Guess I have no choice' I thought as I pulled out my buster sword.

I expertly swung my blade at the monster, it glimmered and whistled as it twirled through the air. Most of my movements were blocks, this one seemed to be especially smart. I leapt over its head and turned, striking at its back and then as it turned I went to slice its jaw but someone beat me to it, smashing its head in with a rod. I looked over to see Reno and Rude.

"Hey, beautiful" said Reno. "You look a lot better."

"You shameless flirt" I smirked.

"You know it" he said. "So, what's going on here?" he asked.

"Ask them" I said as I pointed to Loz and Yazoo.

The two men at the monument were preparing to pull it down when when we walked over. "And what are we up to?" Reno asked. They turned to face our group and smirked as we stopped.

Yazoo gestured to the statue "We know Mother is here."

"Oh yeah?" said Reno.

"Yeah" answered Loz. He nodded to the statue behind him. "This, uh, thing – monument thing – ShinRa made it."

"Oh no, you're just too clever" said Reno, tapping his head.

Rude pointed at them " Except, you're wrong."

"And wherever she is, we just don't know" added Reno. The looked at each other and chuckled.

"What?" Yazoo said, stepping forward. "The peons aren't trusted?"

Reno growled and then looked back and forth between them and Rude, who looked like he was choking.

"I guess they don't trust the daughter either" Yazoo added, nodding to me. My jaw dropped. He had taken that one step too far. A monster popped up behind me and I didn't even look as I sliced it in half. Reno and Rude stared drop jawed at me for a moment before I leapt over their heads at the men.

My buster sword extended, I ran at the men but something caught my nose.

"Father?" I asked as I stopped and turned to look at the building I thought it was coming from. A bright shining light appeared on one of the upper floors and was suddenly launched, like a rocket, into the sky. I immediately recognized it as a summon and watched, partially in horror as the water in the clouds above us swirled and twisted and formed a huge, ugly monster. It soared down towards the city and landed next to the monument. Leaping up onto the monument, it let out a primal scream.

Reno stopped n the middle of his charge and hit Rude in the head on the backswing. His face became the picture of shock as he looked upon the creature. Rude stood up, nearly un-phased by Reno's hit and adjusted his glasses.

"Oh boy" said Reno. "Heh… hello…"

'Double shit' I thought as I looked at the creature with a shocked look that rivaled that of the two men in front of me.

"Oh no" said Reno.

"Bahamut-sin" I whispered as they took off in the opposite direction, Reno nearly clobbering Rude again.

Yazoo and Loz chased after them, seeming to forget me. I watched as Reno and Rude grabbed some of the nearby children. Tifa was now crouched over Denzel, using her body as a shield. Bahamut-sin lifted its wings and began to lift from the platform of the statue. Its red eyes glowed as a blue light appeared in its mouth and began to grow larger.

I slammed my buster sword into the ground and held on tight just in time for Bahamut-sin to unleash the stored up energy in a ball and blast the monument. People went flying but I remained anchored with my buster sword. After the blast dissipated, it screamed again. There was burning debris everywhere.

Loz and Yazoo had flown past me as well and they were now after Reno and Rude. I watched as Yazoo jumped onto a building and Reno climbed up after him. Loz and Rude were engaged in a fist fight. The two of them seemed to be fighting a losing battle. Loz threw Rude and Yazoo landed a nasty kick to the side of Reno's face. As Rude got up, a huge sign fell on his head and then Reno.

As they stood, Reno stepped on Rude's glasses. He looked hurt and shocked but he pulled out another pair as he stood. I almost laughed at that but I was soon caught in my own ordeal. Five of the shadow monsters surrounded me. It was also then that I saw the shock wave had knocked out Tifa. Bahamut-sin began to dig through the rubble of the statue as the creatures attacked me. Before they could leap on me, I jumped up above their circle and then brought my sword down on all of their heads simultaneously.

I ran to Tifa and Denzel. As I approached, Denzel woke up and pushed Tifa off of him. "Tifa?" I heard him ask. When she didn't awaken he yelled, "Son of a bitch!"

I chased Denzel and nearly grabbed him when a large man stepped in. He yelled as his arm became a machine gun and he shot at Sin. Tifa stood behind us and the man turned to Denzel. "You look after Mom!" he said.

"Barret" said Tifa.

"Marlene better be safe, huh!" he yelled before going after Sin.

A cat riding the back of a red dog-like animal ran past us, too. The dog jumped and latched onto Sin as Barret fired more. I watched as they were flung off Sin and hit the ground as Barret fired. A shiruken hit it in the head as it charged Barret whose gun failed him. A girl came down on a parachute and caught it.

"All right, who's been touching my material?" she asked.

"The bad guys, naturally" said Tifa. The girl growled and charged at Sin.

Denzel looked to Tifa. "Who's that?" he asked. She smiled as monsters surrounded us. I raised my blade to strike but a man dropped out of nowhere and hit them with a spear. He slung them around in a circle and flung them away from us.

"She's a beauty" he said as he pointed up. "My Shara, latest model." I stared up at in awe at the huge flying machine. It had helicopter-like blades. "I'll give you the grand tour afterward!" he yelled as he ran to the fight.

"Where can I buy a phone?" said a handsome dark-haired man with red eyes and a red mantle.

"Who's he?" asked Denzel.

"They're our friends" said Tifa.

"Names?" I asked.

"The first was Barret, then Yuffie, Cid and finally Vincent" she said.

I heard a motorcycle behind us and smiled as I turned around, my voice came out as a whisper, "Cloud…"