Disclaimer:

We all know I don't own anything from FF7 or square-enix/soft. No characters. No locations. No vehicles. No Chocobo. All I own is myself, and I'm not even sure about that one.

Oh well, at least this story's mine. See, I can see the silver lining to every Cloud... :-p

Sorry, couldn't help that one :-p

Don't upset the Lifestream... I want to share the fun too! Wait for meeeeeeeeeee!

Part 1: Lost Generation.

It had all started as a rumour in town. Worried whispers travelling around. The ex-SOLDIER stopped what he was doing and listened.

It's happening at the central square, said one woman, I've seen them lined up around the Meteor monument.

What do they want with the kids? I've recognized some of them; hadn't seen them around lately, said another man.

And I've never seen those guys either. Who are they? They look like Him.

That brought a collective shiver to the group.

We've… we've got to tell them to leave. We've just started to rebuild our lives. And those kids…. Always so lively. I think I saw that little boy who lives at the Seventh Heaven too, with them. All so silent and… and immobile. What happened to them? The woman's face whitened. What did they do to them?

Should we go there…?, continued another one.

But Johnny had heard enough. Seventh Heaven- Denzel. Tifa needed to hear this; the boy was part of her family and meant a lot for her. Wordlessly, he left the bar and ran towards the main street. Once there, he burst into Tifa's closed bar and pushed past two guys whom he recognized as being Turks.

"Tifa! The central square…! You have to come, quick!"

"Someone…!P-please! Help!"

A young woman dressed in kaki pants and grey shirt stumbled into the weapons shop at the very end of the cul-de-sac. Her breath was coming in gasps, as if she had run as fast as she could, for a very long time. Tears were streaming down her pale face, half-blinding her as she crumbled to the floor.

"Please… help… the-the kids… monsters…please!"

The old shop keeper shuffled as fast as he could to help the terrified young woman to a seat as she sobbed on the floor.

'What…?'

Vincent Valentine stepped out of the narrow doorway. This was a side-street of Edge, far from the central square and Seventh Heaven. But even from here, if he listened well, he could faintly hear the disturbance of hundreds of people screaming in panic. His face darkened: Kadaj.

"Monsters… never thought I'd see they day those would be loose here. Bah, never thought Midgar would fall either." The old man peered at the grey heavens and pushed up his glasses.

"Something bad's happening. That young lass's blabbering 'bout kids in a fray over there… I hope nothing bad happens to 'em poor mites. Suffered enough already, what with Geostigma and living on the streets with no one to care for 'em. Heard that that Tifa lass was trying to help, but they've been on their own almost two years now."

The children had roughed out after the war and made it out alive, making a new life on the streets of Edge for themselves; the old man understood all too well their reluctance to put themselves back in the care of grown-ups. After all, who knew when another war would happen, and the same old nightmare would happen all over again? They had already lost their family, and they certainly had no wish to lose another one. Because when once you start to care, it's too late to go back; all you can do is to hope that nothing bad would happen ever again and pray that your heart would stay whole. And hope was hard to come by these days, very hard indeed.

"Take these." The old man pushed some clips of ammo in his gloved hand. "Go help these kids, like you helped those in Midgar, young man."

"…How…?"

The old man cackled… "Ah ha ha, I remember you; you're a hero of the JENOVA war. I remember you because you helped me save my wife back in Midgar, on that day..." His eyes misted over as he looked at the red-cloaked man. "She died of Geostigma some months ago. I have never seen anything like this,mister, and I've lived a long life. Something's wrong with the planet, and it's affecting everyone. It's been two years, yet no babies have been born since; not around here, anyway. There used to be so many of them kids… and now, these may be the last left."

Vincent looked at the clips in his hand. "I…"

"…I fight for those who live, and for those who have given their lives so that we may live. I fight because this is what I owe to this planet, to its inhabitants and to my friends. Remember what it was like, Vincent. You cannot have forgotten…"

To remember… A meadow full of flowers… their scent carried by the warm breeze. The blue sky dotted with woolly white clouds… her eyes, her smiles, the peal of her laughter… so many… hopes and dreams for the future…

And then, darkness. So much sadness and pain…

"…Give me back my son! I don't care about the experiment! Just let me see him once! Please!…please!…"

Her disembodied voice rose from his fragmented memories… he didn't know when or where he had heard her utter those words. But her pain was all that he could remember. The longing, the anguish and the regrets of a mother for her only hope, her child. Sephiroth. Orphans…

His hand closed around the clips.

"I will fight."

Author's Notes:

Made major changes in 'Watashi no Tenshi'- details at the end of that document. I... suggest you re-read it; it may help later on.

This chapter is rather short-ish, as my standards go. I planned to do a chapter about the fight... but i'm asking myself if i should not skip it altogether. SQ-EX did a good job of covering all of the aspects for those intense fights, so I can't really see what i could contribute to that wonderful work. However, I might, when ACC comes out... Bah, time will tell.

So my Advent Children arc is almost complete./yay/

Also, do you remember Johnny/wink, wink/ for those of you who haven't read 'On the way', he now owns a café, much like Tifa's bar, but much less known. that's where he is when this chapter starts. Strange guy, Johnny. After all these years, he still has a mega crush on Tifa and does nothing. Could it be the same for Cloud?? If yes, wassup with those Nibelheim boys:-

on a totally different note: I used "...Him..." I think it's rather clear who i am referring to here. I used the capitalisation for a couple of reasons, namely the fact that Sephiroth scared ppl shtless when word that he was the one to summon Meteor got around. /think You-Know-Who/ same difference for both.

And the movie is called 'Advent Children' . for those of you not catholic or christian and din't bother to look up the term, Advent means 'The Coming of the Saviour'... and also refers to the second coming, when that same God will be back as a judge; ok, let's not get lost in theology here. Anyway, you can make the link with Seph rather clearly, ne?

BUT, this might not only be about Sephiroth. When we speak of a God, we are also referring to a supernatural being with powers, usually benevolent. So if we push the advent definition a little more,and we get Cloud... and even AVALANCHE as a whole. because all of those kinda get a come-back.

Let me know what you think of this,.

Celeste.