A/N: Sorry for the lateness of this update, but I had to format the ol' computer which was a pain in the ass.

Chapter 8

Tifa was finishing washing the last dish from lunch when she heard the loud rumble of Cloud's motorcycle come up the street and park outside the door. Even though she had tried to not show it, she had been worried about him and was fixing to call him to see if he was all right. But now that he was here, she hurriedly wiped off her hands on a towel and quickly walked from behind the bar and went towards the door. Shelke, who was at her usual position by the window stopped typing rapidly and looked out into the street. Nanaki, who was resting on the floor beside Shelke's table, looked up and yawned towards the doorway. When Cloud opened the door, the first thing Tifa noticed was the bandage wrapped around his arm.

"Cloud what happened?!?" she said as she ran up and reached for his arm.

"Hmm? Oh, a Guard Hound scratched me, it's nothing," he said, trying to not make her worry. But when she took his arm, he didn't protest. Tifa led Cloud to a chair and he sat down while she undid the loosely tied bandage. She frowned when she saw the semi-healed deep cut on his arm.

"What did you put on it?" she asked.

"I put some hi-potion on it and wrapped it up. It's nothing, really." Cloud tried to stand up but Tifa pushed him back into the chair and gave him a stern look.

"You didn't put much on it. Shelke, can you fetch me the first-aid kit behind the bar?" Shelke lightly nodded and retrieved the medical kit. When Shelke saw the wound, she looked at Cloud and lightly raised one of her eyebrows. Nanaki too was also inspecting the wound.

"One Guard Hound caught you by surprise?" Nanaki said with a slight hint of humor as he looked up at Cloud with his one good eye, his flaming tail flickering about playfully.

"There were more than just one, probably a hundred. Ow! What are you doing?" Cloud said with a wince as Tifa poured something that was a luminescent blue onto the cut. She placed the small glass bottle back on the table and put the cork stopper back in.

"Now hold still, it's only a little elixir. You should have known that a hi-potion wasn't going to do the trick." Tifa tried to keep her stern look going, but Cloud gave her his usual apologetic puppy-dog look and she lightly just shook her head and smiled. As she began to wrap Cloud's arm with another fresh bandage, Cloud looked at Shelke and tried to figure out how best to ask her what he wanted.

"Shelke, what's Stagnant Mako?" Shelke's brow lightly furrowed for a moment before it returned to normal.

"Stagnant Mako is what was injected into the Tsviets instead of the usual Jenova Cells like other members of SOLDIER." Cloud already knew that, but lightly nodded and asked another question.

"But what was it really? Reeve said it was Mako that the Lifestream tried to isolate. Is that right?" Shelke let out a sigh and pulled out a chair and sat down. For a moment she only watched as Tifa continued to wrap the bandage around Cloud's arm, but she then turned to Cloud and spoke.

"What Stagnant Mako was is difficult to explain. In essence, something foreign was introduced into the Lifestream and the Planet did not want it to integrate, or infect the Lifestream. So in defense it isolated it and it remained this way. Before, I did not know what it was that was introduced, but after hearing about your previous actions, I believe that it was Jenova." Cloud looked down at the table for a moment before he replied.

"Jenova? But how could Jenova have entered the Lifestream when the Cetra sealed her away?"

Shelke merely shrugged her shoulders and titled her head slightly.

"I have never seen Jenova, but Vincent told me that she was not fully complete." Tifa finished wrapping the bandage around Cloud's arm and placed the glass bottle back into the medical kit.

"Yeah, her head was cut off by Sephiroth in Nibelhiem," Tifa said with a tone that showed that she had not thought about those events for some time.

"Not just that," Cloud said as he tried to remember back. "Even before he did that, she wasn't completely whole. It looked like what was left of a corpse after a battle. Maybe those other parts were what contaminated the Lifestream."

"Perhaps," Shelke said and after letting a moment of silence pass, she was about to get up from her chair and return to her computer.

"Shelke, there's something else I wanted to ask you. How does someone get into Deep Ground?" At this question, Shelke's usual calm and placid demeanor collapsed and her face turned to one of shock. Both Tifa and Nanaki shared a look of uncomfortable awkwardness at the mentioning of the facility.

"Why do you want to go there, Cloud Strife?" she asked in a quiet and soft voice. Cloud cursed himself for having to push even further into a past that she was trying to escape, but he had to know.

"The same person who broke into the Mideel Data Facility might try and break into there. He's looking for something that's stored there," Cloud explained, carefully trying to not say too much. Shelke broke her gaze at Cloud's eyes and looked towards the sunlight coming in from the window. For a brief moment, Cloud thought she had phased out, but she briefly looked down at the ground and spoke.

"The only entrance to Deep Ground is the basement of the Shinra Complex, main building. Look for the President's entrance. But be warned, there were many security traps set up to impede intruders from getting too far. Many things were stored inside Deep Ground, but the best place to look for what you seek would be a section called Level 5. That was the only location that was off limits to everyone, regardless of rank." Shelke took her eyes off of the floor and looked directly at Cloud. Cloud could see that her blue eyes were filled with moisture. "I have told you once before, Cloud Strife, to be safe. Inside Deep Ground you must maintain your focus on your surroundings. It would not do well to be hurt inside, because there is no way to communicate with the outside world." Cloud realized that she was right. The Deep Ground facility was entirely underground so there was no way for a cell phone signal to penetrate its depths. Cloud returned Shelke's gaze and nodded firmly. Shelke lightly returned the gesture and went to her usual place beside the window.

Cloud slowly flexed and moved his arm with the new bandage and was about to smile his thanks to Tifa, but when he looked up, she only gave him a dirty look and motioned for him to follow her upstairs. Cloud sighed and followed her, knowing what she was mad about. When they reached the doorway to their bedroom, Tifa turned around quickly and pointed and angry finger at him.

"Why did you have to ask her about Deep Ground? You know we all agreed to not make her think about it. Damn it Cloud, that's ten years of her life she's trying to forget, and you go and bring it right back up to the surface." Cloud began to open his mouth in protest, but he knew that she was right. Shelke herself never spoke about those ten years unless it was in a resigned way. Though she had never said that she didn't want to speak about it, everyone had just agreed that it would be for the best. Cloud know knew that he had overstepped his boundary and probably only made it worse for her. After all, when Cloud himself was going through a similar situation, he never wanted to openly talk about it with just anyone; his only confidant was Tifa, and that was because there was more there than just friendship. If Shelke did speak about it to anyone, Cloud didn't know, but if he had to wager a guess he would pick Vincent. Of course he didn't know if she confided in Vincent for the same reason that he confided in Tifa, but it really didn't matter. Cloud knew that he was wrong, and he knew he had to apologize.

"I'm sorry Tifa, I guess I wasn't thinking. It's just that I need to get in there and Vincent never told me how to do it."

"Well why didn't you call Vincent?" Tifa said, folding her arms across her chest. Though she was still mad at him, it was beginning to wear off and Cloud was grateful for that.

"I dunno," Cloud said as he shrugged his shoulders. "Vincent doesn't like people calling him and Shelke was right there. I just wasn't thinking, that's all." Tifa shook her head and let out a sigh as she turned to enter their bedroom. Cloud entered behind her to collect what he needed from his supply case, but Tifa was already going through it and picking out different items.

In a neat manner, she placed several hi-potions, a small bottle of elixir, and a roll of sealed bandages on the bed. As she placed them into a small bag, Cloud reached under the bed and pulled out the large silver security case. Tifa stopped tying a knot in the bag momentarily when she saw the box, but she then finished the knot and placed the bag close to Cloud. Cloud lightly nodded with a small smile and opened the box, revealing dozens of brightly glowing materia orbs. Cloud didn't like using them too often since they took their power from the Planet, but this was one of the rare occasions when he thought he might need it.

All of the materia was from their original fight against Sephiroth four years ago. During that conflict, many of the orbs matured into their most potent state and were far more powerful than your average materia. As Cloud rummaged through and selected several of the essentials, like Fire, Ice, and Lightning, he smirked as he remembered how hard it was trying to keep Yuffie from stealing it all after Meteor had been destroyed.

After he found the orbs he was looking for, he closed the box and slid it back under the bed. Tifa looked at him and lightly smiled.

"You be careful, okay?" she said gently. Cloud nodded, and since they were in the privacy of their room, he took her in his arms and embraced her with all of his heart.

When they came back downstairs, Tifa followed Cloud until she reached the middle of the bar and watched as he headed towards the door. Cloud reached for the handle of the door, but stopped and looked at Shelke.

"Shelke, I'm sorry I had to ask you about Deep Ground. I shouldn't have done that." Shelke seemed to be a bit confused, and gave him a strange look.

"There is nothing to apologize for. While I do not look favorably back on my experiences in Deep Ground, they help make up who I am and I cannot forget that. I was slightly taken back when you asked me about the facility, but it was not with fear that I responded, merely shock." Shelke then gave Cloud a smile and returned to her computer. Cloud lightly smiled back, and after giving Nanaki and Tifa a farewell nod, he opened the door and left.

As the sound of Fenrir came to life and faded away, Nanaki sat back down on the floor and closed his eye to rest. "Cloud certainly has improved his demeanor after he forgave himself," Nanaki said from the floor. "And it would seem that your time spent here has helped you too, Shelke." Shelke briefly looked up from her computer to survey the room, and Tifa smiled at her before she returned to the area behind the bar. Shelke smiled to herself and nodded in agreement with Nanaki. For one that was supposedly only an adolescent, she thought he was quite wise.

Cloud brought Fenrir to a stop and pulled his sunglasses down off of his face. From the hilltop where he now stood, he could see the massive ruins of Midgar in all of its tremendous, and yet dreadful, splendor.

He hadn't been there since the assault on Deep Ground nearly a year before, but the ruined city hadn't changed much at all. The hulking mass of the former city seemed to be slumping over upon itself as if it were wallowing in its own despair. Much of the cold, lifeless steel structure was tarnished with soot and twisted by the incredible force that occurred between Holy and Meteor as they fought four years ago. Cloud remembered the talk that said Midgar was a barren city where no plant could grow, but he could visibly see the wild lush green foliage that seemed to be pouring out of what was once Sector 5. Cloud thought to himself that it wouldn't be long, maybe a dozen years or so, before the old city would be covered in the wild green vines with yellow flowers.

Cloud came out of his mental wanderings when the sound of a distant roll of thunder came to his ears. To the west towards Junon, Cloud could see a dark blanket of black clouds moving his way. From within them, the bright flicker of lightning coursed through, soon followed by the booming report. Knowing that it wouldn't be long before the storm reached him, Cloud quickly cranked the throttle and raced down towards the once great city.