Twenty minutes had gone by since the car had arrived and picked Cloud and the lead trooper up. Cloud was looking out the window, tapping the sill feeling irritated by what was going on, "What is up with this guy?" Cloud thought as he looked at the troop leader who was looking out the window on his side. "Why is he being so secretive about where we are going? And how does he and who he works for know so much about me?" Cloud turned his head back and looked out the window, "Nothing makes sense, I know I went to sleep in my own bed last night so how did I end up waking up in middle of nowhere?" He asked himself, for what seemed to be for the millionth time.

The troop leader hadn't spoke since they had set off for where ever it was they were going and from the way he was sitting it was clear he was trying to avoid any further interaction with Cloud. This only added to the irritation Cloud was feeling then suddenly something inside of Cloud snapped "I can't take this silence any more."

"Hey." Cloud said loudly looking over at the lead trooper. No answer. "Hey!" Cloud said louder, leaning over then lightly shaking his arm. The troop leader turned his head to Cloud and despite wearing a helmet that covered half his face Cloud could see he was not pleased he had reached over and grabbed him.

"I need answers."

"Don't we all" the leader responded turning back to the window .

"Look," Cloud insisted angrily, "I have been asking myself question after question since before I got to this city. I came with you because you said I wouldn't be able to get home without your help. I have cooperated with you so the least you could do is tell me who you work for."

The lead trooper who had looked back at Cloud while he was in the middle of speaking turned and looked into the rear mirror of the car at the reflection of the driver who was shooting a concerned look at what was going on in the back of his car. The lead trooper nodded at him to let him know everything was all right then turned back to Cloud.

"I guess your right." he said surprising Cloud. "I guess we can tell you who we work for. We work for the great king Perlaxes." he said proudly.

"A king?" Cloud questioned.

"Yeah, a king. What is so confusing about that?"

"There are no kings in Gaia." Cloud said insistently, "I have travelled across the whole of Gaia before so I would know."

"Not the 'whole' of it, it would seem." he said mockingly. If you had, you would know how to get back home from here right? Anyway the king wants to meet you so we are taking you to him."

"Right." Cloud said in a quiet voice feeling more confused if that was even possible. "What does he want with me?"

"How should I know," he said turning away to the window again. "I just work for him, I don't ask questions."

Cloud wasn't sure if the lead trooper was telling the truth. Why would a king go to all this trouble to meet him? Cloud doubted he just wanted to give him directions back home, there would be other reasons.

"How did you know I was coming?"

"Well...

"Leader, We're at the palace." the driver interrupted.

"Okay." he responded loudly.

The car began to slow down then the driver took Cloud's half of the car over the curb and stopped.

With his hand gripping the handle of the door on his side the Lead trooper said "Lets not keep the King waiting."

"Why did the journey have to end just as I was getting somewhere," Cloud thought frustratingly as the leader got out the car. "I was so close."

Cloud got out of the car and looked up at the building they called a palace. The best word to describe it was 'Gigantic' the width, length and height were on a bigger scale than Cloud had ever seen. The windows were big enough to make the ones in churches like Aerith's look tiny in comparison. The walls on the bottom storey were a dark brown colour while the rest of the building was silver. The strange thing about this structure was that it was in not shaped like a palace, its was rectangular like most city buildings. Cloud was amazed.

Cloud heard a loud noise coming from nearby, looking to his left, down the road where it was coming from he noticed the troop leader who was standing close by also looking. As it got closer he recognised it, motorcycles. Suddenly two of them flew by at impressive speed but still managed to stop a few metres in front of where the car had parked. the riders were the troops that were with the leader earlier. Cloud immediately recognised them. Cloud was astonished by the speed and brake strength of the bikes, "Whoever made those bikes are truly talented" he thought to himself but couldn't help wonder why he would of never heard of bikes with that much power.

The troopers dismounted their bikes, put them on their bike rests and walked to Cloud and the troop leader, the troop leader approached Cloud and said "Lets get going." then turned to the entrance.

"Wait a second!" Cloud shouted as the leader took a step away.

The leader stopped, turned around and said "What now?"

"I thought you said that when we no longer need the car, my sword would be returned to me."

The trooper looked surprised as if he was counting on Cloud not to remember the sword. "Oh yeah! I did say that didn't I? Sorry about this but I forgot that they don't allow weapons to be carried around in this building."

"I'm not leaving my sword behind." Cloud said insistently.

"That's fine, I don't expect you to. You can take your sword, but they will want you to give it to them through security. It's to ensure the kings safety, I am sure you understand?"

Cloud nodded, he understood but doubted the leader had forgotten, he had just made that promise before so Cloud would get in the car.

The leader looked over at the two troopers and said "Give Cloud his sword." One of them nodded then went to the boot of the car and opened it. He reached in, took the sword by the handle and lifted it as if it was a regular piece of luggage.

"How is it they have the strength to lift the weight of my sword when they are regular foot soldiers?" Cloud thought to himself.

The trooper gently placed the flat side of the sword against the car, closed the boot then picked it back up. He walked to Cloud and offered him the sword. Cloud took it by the handle and thanked him. the trooper stayed silent, then walked back next to his guard partner.

"Now we have that sorted, please follow me." the leader said turning to the entrance again.

Cloud placed his sword back in its belt and followed the troop leader while the two troopers followed behind Cloud.

Seconds after entering the building Cloud's eyes had already begun to explore the surroundings. The room was a yellowish white. There were many paintings on the walls, most if not all were of children looking out of the painting, pulling different expressions that reflected what was happening in the background such as a boy grinning widely and in the background there were large mountains, vegetation, a clear sky and a sun shining down on everything. But in another the same boy was crying while a village was burning in the background.

"You a fan of art?" the leader shouted to Cloud.

Cloud was so distracted by the painting he had not realised he had stopped following him. "Not usually," Cloud replied turning away from the paintings "the paintings here feel different from the few I have seen."

"How so?" The leader asked looking up at them.

"I don't know, the children in these paintings seem so... real."

"That's no surprise, that's the great work of Dr Zerbert, the king's artist. Many have claimed they feel a connection to the children in the paintings for different reasons, some claim its because it mirrors something that happened in their lives, but we're getting distracted here, the king may grow impatient so lets get moving."

"All right." Cloud said, thinking "I'm growing impatient too, for answers."

They walked further into the room and approached the security barrier. The leader turned to Cloud and said "There is the security," pointing at a desk with a young man who looked barely eighteen sitting behind it. "Take your sword and any other weapons your carrying to that area and then you'll be clear to meet the king."

"Okay." Cloud said and started to walk over to the desk while thinking it was strange they would put someone who looked so young and inexperienced in a security job. As he got closer he noticed cameras attached to the wall behind the desk that had machine guns attached. He quickly concluded that they were the real security. The cameras took notice of Cloud and began to target their weapons on him which made him feel uncomfortable. The young man who was staring into the computer screen on his desk immediately took notice of Cloud and said "Dropping off your weapons?"

"That's right."

"I'll just get the door for you."

He reached under the desk and pushed a button that made a door that was disguised as part of the wall push out and slide to the left, revealing a doorway.

"Go in and place your weapons where you please." the young man ordered Cloud.

Cloud walked to the opening and entered the room then began to look for a space to put his sword. As he walked through the long room he admired some of the familiar and strange shaped weapons that were stashed here. Cloud put his sword in a space he found and felt a sadness as he put it there, he didn't realise it until he gave one of his troopers his sword, but, he had grown attached to it, ever since he first laid his hands on it and had never had to part with it before. As Cloud was about to walk away another sword caught his eye, he recognised it in the corner of his eye but still couldn't believe it, he turned his gaze on it completely to make sure he wasn't mistaken and sure enough it was the buster sword.

"What's this doing here?" Cloud wondered reaching for the handle to make sure it was real. Cloud was certain this was the buster sword, but it couldn't be the same sword he left to mark Zack's grave, it had rusted some time ago, but he was also certain that the buster sword was unique and had no copies. "Things just keep getting weirder and weirder" Cloud thought to himself himself. "I need to find out who the sword belongs to."

Cloud rushed towards the exit of the room desiring to find out who the owner was right away. As he was about to come through the doorway the Troop leader appeared, stopping Cloud in his tracks.

"Are you done yet?"

"Yeah," Cloud answered, "I need to speak to the security guy at the desk though."

"We have wasted enough time as it is besides, he's not even there at the moment."

Cloud looked round the leader, the desk was empty. Cloud let out a frustrated growl surprising the leader.

"Is there something wrong?"

Cloud thought about telling him but knew he wouldn't understand why he was being this way about a sword so he said "Nothing."

"Okay, lets get going then."

A frustrated Cloud followed the troop leader through the security barrier with the other two troopers following behind him to a elevator that travels through a tube. The troop leader took out a key and put it in the control panels key hole calling the elevator to them. The elevator was circular and very large, it could fit a dozen people inside. After they all entered the leader turned to cloud and said "Grab a hold of something, this thing goes extremely fast." Cloud took his advice and gripped a nearby railing then the troop leader pressed a button out the dozens that were on the control panel that caused the doors to close and the elevator to start moving. The sudden shock of power the elevator produced when it started to move caused Cloud to nearly fall over. This was no ordinary elevator, not only was it so fast it felt like a ride at the gold saucer, it went sideways, diagonal ways and every other way you can think of. After just under a minute the elevator arrived at its destination.

The leader stepped out of the elevator first with Cloud following and the other two troopers behind him. The building looked different here, the walls were an oak brown colour and the floors were crimson red. As they walked to where cloud would meet the king, the leader made conversation.

"What do you think of the palace Cloud?"

The question and tone it was asked made Cloud suddenly remember how different the troop leader was acting before they arrived here. "It's nice, but does it need to be so big?"

"The obvious answer would be a no but kings are generally obsessed with size as is the case with many people wouldn't you agree?"

"Yeah, but there is big then there is this."

"The king only wants the best. The whole of the army lives here with him and we are a very big army believe me and we still don't fill the place up. some of the floors here have probably gone unvisited for some time as well since no one uses them."

Before he didn't seem to want to interact with Cloud but now he had become more friendly. "I wonder how big it is distance wise. I bet it took years to build this place?"

"Heh, weirdly no one knows the answers to any of those questions. It's a complete mystery."

But Cloud was about to meet the king and get answers so Cloud decided it wasn't important enough to wonder about. "How is that possible?"

"I don't know, that's just the way it is. Have to admit, apart from the size part, I never would of expected someone like you to be interested in any of this stuff."

"Like me?" Cloud asked looking clueless.

"Yeah you know, the kind of guy that walks around with a massive sword..."

"I'm not usually, I've just never been inside a building like this before."

"Very few have." He responded. "Here we are. The kings room."

Cloud looked up at the big double doors before him that reached to the ceiling, they looked very chunky, it would take a great deal of effort to force them open. The leader walked to the panel on the wall that was near the door, it required a key. He took the same key he used at the elevator and put it in the lock, turned it and spoke into the panel's microphone.

"My lord, we have brought Cloud to you as you requested."

Suddenly the doors started to open slowly. Cloud was beginning to get a bad feeling about this, but he couldn't turn back now, this could be the only way he could get back to Edge. When the doors had fully opened Cloud saw no one had opened them, they had been opened by some invisible force. Cloud stayed standing where he was as if he was waiting for permission to enter.

"Go right in." The leader insisted. "You want to find your way home don't you?"

Cloud looked at the leader with a helpless expression, he didn't want to go in because something felt off, but knew he had to because like the leader said, he wanted to get home, no, he had to get home. As Cloud entered he looked around the room but couldn't see anyone, the room had a red carpet and royal green wallpaper.

The doors suddenly slammed shut, shocking Cloud, causing him to turn round.

"So your Cloud?" a soft otherworldly voice behind him asked.

Cloud turned and saw a man standing there that wasn't before. He had his back to Cloud, seemingly admiring a painting on his wall. The man had a muscular physic, thick silver hair that went down the back and sides of his head, down to his shoulders.

"Yeah. I'm Cloud. How do you know me?"

"I am the king of this land. It's my business to know everything about those who come here, and you interest me a great deal Cloud."

"Why?"

"That's easy, because you managed to defeated the greatest soldier in existence not once, not twice but three times. The great Sephiroth."

"How do you know about that?"

"Like I said, It's my business to know."

"I see." Cloud said realising it was useless to try to get a straight answer out of this guy.

"Cloud. Do you know who I am?"

"I know your name and title but other than that nothing. Look I don't have time for this I really need to get back home."

Perlaxes chuckled madly shocking Cloud. "Relax Cloud. Tifa, Marlene and Denzel wont even realise your gone, no one will."

"What do you mean by that?" Cloud asked, beginning to get angry.

"Do you even know where you are? Or maybe you should wonder where you aren't?" he asked provoking him further.

"Enough of these games Perlaxes," Cloud snapped, taking a step towards him, "Tell me what is going on, tell me all you know."

Perlaxes let out another loud chuckle that had more madness in it than the last. "Okay Cloud, but your not going to like it."

Perlaxes began to turn around slowly revealing his face but keeping his eyes closed. When his face was fully in Cloud's view Cloud thought he recognised it, then the king opened his eyes and revealed the green eyes with a cat like slit that Cloud all too well recognised that made the fear and hate inside him for Sephiroth pulse through his body causing it to shake.

"Cloud, I will ask you again. Where do you think you are?"

Cloud said nothing, he was too overwhelmed to answer.

"I will tell you." he said, seeming to enjoy this more every second. "You are in a place where a town called Edge doesn't exist, where a girl called Marlene doesn't exist. Where a woman called Aerith never existed. Do you understand now?"

"Shut up! Sephiroth!" he shouted, clinching his fists. "You can't fool me that easily."

"Sephiroth?" Perlaxes chuckled. "What makes you say that?"

"Don't play dumb, you both talk the same and almost look the same, there's no way anyone could look that much like him and not be him. I know this one of your illusions, so you may as well take us back because I know this isn't real."

"You do amuse me." Perlaxes said coldly with a smile. "But I can't take you back because this is no illusion and I am not Sephiroth, this is exactly what I told you, a place where..."

"I told you to shut up! It doesn't matter how many times you say it I wont believe you!"

"I thought you wanted answers? It's not my fault if you do not like the answers now is it?"

Cloud glared at him and said nothing.

Believe what you want to believe Cloud, but you will never get home. You will stay here forever and never get back to your planet."

Cloud's eyes widened as he let out a gasp.

"That's right Cloud, this is not your Gaia, this is my Gaia."

Cloud suddenly felt a sharp pain in the left side of his neck, he touched where the pain was coming from and felt something thin and metallic. He pulled it out and looked at it, it was some kind of metal dart.

"And in my Gaia, Cloud Strife is one of the gladiators that will spend eternity entertaining his king and his citizens."

Cloud felt like the world was beginning to shake and his vision was going blurry. The next thing he knew his body was falling to the floor then there was blackness.