The Highwind, Bridge

Cloud had noticed the larger details of the three young men now that they were all on even ground and he was no longer focusing on their faces. Yazoo was the tallest of the three and very lean. Loz was rather bulky with muscle and was slightly taller than Kadaj. Kadaj was an average height and average build.

"So what is the story of you three?" Cid asked the new Oerbans after a long while of silence.

"They were made l'Cie three years before me and Fang," Vanille answered for them.

"We thought we'd never see 'em again," Fang said with no trace of sadness in her voice "So what did happen after you three left Oerba?"

The remaining flight time was filled with the three young men telling their story. Fang and Vanille had explained their relationship to the three. Kadaj had been Vanille's boyfriend before being made a l'Cie, Fang and Loz had been the best of friends for most of their lives, and Yazoo was like a brother to them all. It could be said that of Kadaj, Loz and Yazoo; Yazoo was the brains.

When the group arrived back on Cocoon, life slowed down for them. Days slipped by and turned to weeks as nothing big was happening anymore. The seat of Primarch remained empty because of what happened to Galenth Dysley and Cid Raines. People had started believing that the position was cursed.

When Serah and Snow returned from their two week honeymoon, Lighting greeted them with the news that she had bought them a house. Serah had spent three hours thanking and hugging Lightning for that consideration. The truth was she did not want to be in the same house as Snow anymore.

Ten months later

PSICOM had merged with the Guardian Corps and they began constructing a new city on Pulse. They had started construction at the ruins of Kalm by securing the ruins and the area around the town. The former PSICOM CEO, Yaag Rosch, resigned from the Guardian Corps in order to become the new Primarch and promised to lead the population into a new era of prosperity.

Every single person had started enjoying the time of peace. Cocoon citizens had ceased to fear Pulse after seeing the beauty of the lower world. However, there was still those that refused to have anything to do with Gran Pulse.

Avalanche had slowly started getting together less and less until it was a once a month get together. Most of them had put down their weapons and adapted to civilian life. Vincent and Fang had moved down to Pulse simply because they enjoyed the untamed wilderness more than the quiet, laid back life of cities. Everyone would occasionally hear from the two, from Fang specifically, and have a usual conversation about what has been happening.

The three other Oerbans, Kadaj, Yazoo and Loz, had joined the guardian Corps simply because it seemed like the most fun. Kadaj continued to use his sword, Souba, which was a two bladed katana. Yazoo had taken a liking to a pair of small gunblades called Velvet Nightmare's. Loz had decide to upgrade in his category, he manged to get an AMP power fist named Dual Hound.

Lightning and Cloud had gotten used to working with the three Oerbans and enjoyed having them as comrades. Cloud had a feeling though, similar to a small chill. Something about the three bothered him.

And Lightning still only let Cloud and Serah call her Claire. Cloud and Serah still had not told anyone, who did not know, Lightning's real name.

Villiers Residence, Bodhum; The Monthly Get-Together

This was the first time the event was held at the Villiers house, the first time Avalanche and the former l'Cie was going to see Serah and Snow in ten months. When everyone had arrived they were rather surprised by what they saw. Snow and Serah had decorated their house for the event. There were streamers, snacks and drinks. A few of the team members shook their head as they chuckled.

Everyone made themselves at home within minutes. Cloud and Vincent were off to one side of the room discussing something that seemed important, Snow was playing a card game with NORA, Cid, and Aerith. All the others, except Sazh, were scattered about in pairs as they shared or reminisced stories. Sazh had the TV turned on and had it set to the news.

Cloud waved Lightning over to him and Vincent walked away from Cloud, going into a different corner. Cloud took Lightning's left hand in his right and noticed that he lost most of his nerve.

"How long have we been together?" Cloud asked himself more than her "Ten months?"

"About that," Lightning answered with a smile. She couldn't help but smile as she looked into the artificial bright blue eyes. Lightning felt her smile get bigger and was only partially aware of the room getting quiet as Cloud dropped to one knee and pulled a small box out of his pocket.

"Lightning Farron," Cloud said while looking into her eyes "Will you marry me?" He said after opening the small box, that contained the ring that had a fairly large diamond with a red-ish tint that made it appear pink.

Lightning wanted to say yes to Cloud but her voice was refusing to work. She felt a tear of happiness roll down her cheek and just nodded quickly. Cloud showed a large smile and stood up to pull her into a strong embrace. Lightning locked her lips on Cloud's before he even had a chance to react. Everyone else had clapped or cheered for the two warriors that lost nearly everything, but had found a new thing to live for.

Once the ruckus had calmed down Vincent was the first to speak.

"I'm not wearing a suit again," Cloud looked over his shoulder in surprise. For the first time since they found him, Vincent had used a joking tone and had a smirk to accompany the joke.

Almost everyone had at least chuckled at Vincent's joke. As the room fell silent once again, the most inopportune thing happened to the newly engaged couple. Both their phones started ringing simultaneously, meaning that was a dire emergency at the base that needed immediate attention.

They both checked the caller ID of their phones and saw that it was the base that had interrupted one of the most romantic moments in their relationship. It was not a phone call though, they both had simply received a text message from lieutenant Amodar that had said 'Bodhum Hospital, ASAP.'

"Time may have stopped for us, but life goes on," Cloud said quietly to Lightning. They shared one more kiss before parting to head out.

"Should we go to?" Kadaj asked Cloud and Lightning as they walked by.

"Yes, since its an emergency," Lightning replied without turning or breaking stride.

The five had climbed into or onto their vehicles and hurried to respond to the summons. It took them approximately ten minutes to get to the large white building. The lieutenant was waiting outside for them and he had a very grave look of his face, which was unusual for him.

"What's the situation, sir?" Lightning said after snapping a salute.

"You'll see," Amodar replied quietly as he turned around and started walking to the building.

The five were led through the long hallways of the clean looking and smelling building. It reminded Cloud of the Shinra building, the reason he hated hospitals. The group of five followed lieutenant Amodar down into the isolation area of the hospital where there were seven people behind two air sealing doors and a decontamination chamber. The five looked through the thick glass wall of the room and were afraid of what they saw.

Six of the seven people had bruising in seemingly random places on their bodies. In some places it looked as if the bruised skin was decomposing while still on the people. The worst part was what was seeping out of holes formed by the decomposed flesh. The black sludge slowly crept its way out of the 'wounds' and trickled slowly onto the beds and floor. The seventh person was a doctor in a bio-hazard suit.

"This squad was stationed on Pulse a week ago," Amodar began to explain "They returned three days ago and . . . THIS started happening this morning," The doctor walked into the decontamination chamber took off the suit and left the room.

"Lieutenant," The doctor said with a grave look "Nothing is working. Whatever this is, it's not affected at all by any medicine. I would like to say that they only have a few days left," The doctor looked quickly at everyone giving him a strange look "The disease seems to be only affecting the skin and surface muscles. Those six will probably live for another six months, but they will be in an immense amount the entire time."

"Your sure you've never seen this before?" Yazoo asked the doctor, making everyone turn to him "This isn't the first time this has happened. It happened more than five hundred years ago, before the war of transgression," Cloud felt his eyes widen as he remembered the vision Sephiroth forced them to see when he appeared, just over a year ago.

"If that is the truth," Lightning said with zero emotion in her voice "All we can do is hope that it hasn't spread."

"Thats, more or less why I contacted you," Amodar said calmly "If you see anyone with an abnormal amount of bruising, report them. We can't risk this spreading. And don't tell anyone, Primarch Rasch doesn't even know yet."

The five snapped a salute then turned and left. They returned to the Villiers residence and just told everyone that it wasn't anything serious. Just a misunderstanding that made something seem like an armed robbery. Cloud though, broke the one of the rules Amodar gave them. He instantly told Vincent because the gunslinger would have found out eventually, if he didn't already know.

Over the next nine days, life was almost normal. Twelve people with 'suspicious' bruising were taken to the hospital and the hospital had put an entire floor under quarantine. On the tenth day after the meeting with Lieutenant Amodar, Kadaj, Loz, and Yazoo disappeared.

The next day, Cloud disappeared. All he left was a small piece of paper on Lightning's bedside table that said "I'm sorry."