Special thanks to my beta reader SweetDragonSeeker

CHAPTER TWO:

Zen walked slowly through the gate into Midgar, and headed along a broken down street that led to the Sector Three slums. He kicked a fallen pebble as he wondered whether his house would still be there. The steel storage compartment of an old cargo truck might not seem very homey, but it was better than nothing.

Halfway to his house, he passed a group of children playing with a handful of marbles. He stopped and looked at them, but a voice, different than the one that he had heard the night before, spoke in his mind. "You don't want to talk to them." it muttered softly. Scared, he ran the remaining distance to the metal container in which he lived, wrenched open the door, hurried inside and slammed it behind him.

"What on earth was that?" He said aloud. Perfect; now I'm hearing voices! He began a short search for matches, which didn't take long, and soon the square space was glowing with flickering candle light. Setting his sword on the make-shift shelf on the wall, he picked up a small box and sat down in the only chair in the room. He slid a small key out of his coat pocket and unlocked the box. Inside was his mother's last gift, a glowing green orb of Materia. He looked at it quizzically, wondering what it was for. His mother had pressed it into his hands before telling him to run, the day meteor hit. His father had died in SOLDIER before he was born.

There was sudden knock at the door of the container. He quickly slammed the lid on the box and locked it.

"What?" he called to the closed door.

"Zen? Are you in there?"

"Whose there?" growled the voice that told him to leave the "marble kids" alone.

"It's me. Marlene. Are you in there?"

"I'm coming." He called.

He had met Marlene a short time back, while he was walking through the slums. She had seemed nice enough at the time. He hadn't seen her in a while, so he slowly crossed the room and opened the door. Marlene stood at the door in a neat grey dress. Zen was older than Marlene by seven or eight years, but she was like his little sister. Once Marlene had tried to convince him to come live with her, and Cloud…

"Cloud…" said the first, deep voice in the back of his head.

"Are you OK? You look a little out of it." Marlene said.

"Yeah, I'm fine. Thanks, Marlene."

Marlene looked at him for a minute before smiling.

"Do you want to have lunch at the bar?" she asked Zen as he closed the door behind him.

"Sure."

SSS

Zen had been in Seventh Heaven only once before. It looked much the same as it had the last time he had been there. Tifa stood behind the counter drying some glasses, but looked up and smiled when they came in.

"Hi, Marlene, HI, Zen!" she exclaimed setting down a glass.

"Hi, Tifa, can we have lunch?" Marlene replied.

"Sure, what do you want?"

SSS

After lunch Zen thanked and said good bye to Marlene and Tifa and headed for the door. When he reached for the knob, it was pulled open by a figure with spiky blonde hair. "Insolent traitor!" said the first voice.

"Hi, Cloud!" called Tifa. "Soon Cloud… Soon I shall triumph…" the first voice continued.

"Hey, you okay kid?" Cloud asked, looking at Zen's blank expression.

"I… I… I got to go!" Zen stammered, before pushing past Cloud, and running down the street.

"What was wrong with him?" asked Cloud.

"No idea… he was fine earlier." replied Tifa.

"Until He saw me…"

SSS

Zen slammed the door of his house shut and leaned against it, panting. Cloud was there, and though he didn't know why, he felt that Cloud was Bad news. "Cloud betrayed us long ago…but soon… with your aid… he will fall…" the deep voice said. "Traitor? But Marlene spoke so highly of Cloud. Why would he be a traitor?" the voice did not respond.

Zen seized his sword off its shelf and stared at it; it seemed to be in a little better shape than it had used to be, and possibly a little longer and heavier. He looked at a small round slot in the handle. It looked almost the right size for… No, the Materia could not possibly go there. But still, it looked like it was the perfect size for his mother's last gift to him. He removed the Materia from its box, and slid it into the slot; it fit perfectly and seemed to grow a little, so he could not easily remove it.

"Weird" said He.

He set the sword down on the shelf and lay down on the mattress that served as his bed and closed his eyes.

SSS

Zen slipped into a dream… He was standing atop the hill outside of Midgar, the wind blowing around him.

"The time is close…" said the first voice. What on earth? Zen thought.

He had an odd feeling; slowly, he turned around. Standing behind him were three figures. The one in the center had shoulder length hair and a childish smirk on his face. The one to the left had much longer hair and a slim figure, and was slightly taller than the figure in the center. The one on the right was shorter, and more muscularly built, with a buzz cut and sideburns. All of them had silver hair and glowing green eyes, with slit-like pupils.

"He's finally here, Kadaj" Said the one on the left.

"Yes. Now, quiet" said the center figure. The one on the right snickered. "You too Loz; you don't want to make a fools of us when brother gets here."

"Oh. Right." mumbled Loz.

"Who are you? What do you mean? Who's coming?" Zen asked looking first at Kadaj, then to Loz, then at the long-haired one.

"Very clever you know: putting the Materia in the sword. Do you know what it does? No. It's called a bolt limit Materia. It gives you the power of the thunder, in a way that none has ever done. Your moth…"

"Enough…" said a deep voice from behind Zen.

Zen whirled around. There stood a much taller figure, with very long silver hair, his long sword in hand. He strode past Zen, and stood in front of the other three.

"Brother" the three said together.

"It matters not whether his mother was wise. What matters is that Zen could very well be our way back on to the planet," said the new 'brother.'

"What! How?" Zen asked, Looking from him to Kadaj, and then back to the slim one.

"So you still understand nothing… my power is slowly being drawn into you. When enough of it has accumulated… well… I will be able to return to the world and take my revenge on that arrogant traitor, Cloud" Said the tall man standing in front of the others.

"But I don't even know who you are," said Zen, staring defiantly at the tall man.

"Well… I suppose that you have the right to be angry. For I have not even told you who I am… I am Sephiroth; former SOLDIER, blood of Jenova. The thing that you should know, and, remember is that… we are not your enemies; therefore you can trust us. It is Cloud and the others that you cannot trust."

"But; why should I not trust Cloud? He and Tifa have been very kind to me, and seem to be good people." Zen, said; looking questioningly at Sephiroth.

"Then they are fooling you. Do not trust them." Sephiroth said, taking a step closer to Zen.

"Brother; the time for him to wake approaches. We should not delay him further." Said one of the men behind Sephiroth.

"Indeed, Yazoo." Sephiroth said, turning to the slim brother standing behind him.

Sephiroth turned back to face Zen once more, and studied him closely.

"Remember Zen… Cloud and the others are not to be trusted." Sephiroth said, before turning and disappearing into the mist that began to form around them.

"We'll be in touch," Kadaj said before turning and following Sephiroth, with his brothers following closely.