Hello everyone, I decided to bring out this chapter because the prologue was too much of a cliffhanger. I'm trying a different style with this story where it does a bit of time-jumping back and forth. Mostly towards the beginning and nothing too crazy. I just though I'd point it out so no one gets confused. (like I did, lol xD )

If you have any questions feel free to ask in a review, but everything will be explained as the story progresses.

Enjoy guys!


Chapter One

How Sephiroth had ended up falling into the vat of mako he had no idea. The only thing he knew was that it was a miracle he had survived. Especially when he had no idea how he escaped or how he ended up so far from the Nibelheim reactor. What he did know was that he needed to get back to the others. What greeted him however was a colossal mountain of ruins. He had no idea where he was at first, until he saw what looked like Shinra Tower through the holes of the wrecked plate.

It took him two hours of navigating through the rubble, but he finally managed to reach the foot of the Shinra building. The General was never one to believe in the illusions of dreams, even if he had a few that had the 'so real' effect (as Zack would put it). Yes, they seemed quite real at the time, but once the General awoke he quickly reclaimed his footing on reality. This however seemed to question that footing. He wondered what on Gaia could have possibly caused this. Taking out his PHS he dialed Zack's number. All he got was static. He tried again and got the same result. He tried at least a dozen other numbers, from the Director's to the President's and even the head of the Turks. Nothing came through.

Perhaps whatever had happened was interfering with the signal. He'd have to get to higher ground. Without a second though he scaled the building. It was a tricky process. From scaling broken floors to leaping from one mound of jagged ruins to the next. It was nothing the General of SOLDIER couldn't accomplish, what made it difficult was the fact that he should not have to go to such lengths for a building he had called home for years. As he ascended he kept trying to figure out who had done this. Was it an accident, or perhaps, was it one of Shinra's enemies? He doubted AVALANCHE could pull off something of this grand a scale. Was it Wutai perhaps? But they had signed a peace treaty once the war had ended. Sephiroth himself had been there to witness to it. So then who?

When he finally reached the top of the tower he was fully able to see the complete devastation of the once mighty city. Sephiroth was rarely shocked by anything, but this was one of those rare times. He had only been gone a few days on a simple mission concerning checking on an old reactor and some suspicious sightings. How could this happen in such a short time? He kneeled in order to inspect the damage on what was left of the helipad. The evidence indicated that this had been done a lot farther back than a few days. It had to have been at least a year, and some other places he investigated showed at least a month's time. Unable to make sense of it, he looked at the surrounding landscape and for once today he saw something promising. A small section of Midgar seemed to have survived the devastation at the very edge of city. Aiming for what was left, he made his long way down.

. . .

The sun had just set over the city of Edge and the town's people were happy to call it a night after another day of hard work, trying to rebuild after not one, but two destructive events. It wasn't easy considering both times it nearly spelled the end of the world. Thankfully the tragedies had been averted thanks to a group of heroes. Some of the citizens headed over to a local bar where one such hero worked.

The Seventh Heaven was busy as usual as Tifa toiled away, filling drinks and serving dishes. It was nothing special, but she was good at what she did and the people knew it. Business was booming and as hard as the work was, Tifa enjoyed keeping busy. It was a good distraction from all of the nightmares she had faced in her past. Still, she remained cheerful when she thought of all the good things that came out of the tragic events. The sound of heavy boot steps behind her was one such good thing.

After curing the plague known as GeoStigma, Cloud had become a lot more involved in the lives of his friends. He was no longer avoiding them and instead kept his promise to Denzel and stayed at the Seventh Heaven. There he ran his delivery business and helped Tifa. Whether it was handling unruly customers who got out of hand after consuming one too many, or spending time with the kids, he had made a big turnaround. Even now he was trying to be helpful by wiping down the bar with a clean rag.

"I think I can manage that, Cloud." Tifa said with a smirk.

"You were busy with something else," he replied with a shrug.

Small footsteps clomped down the stairs as Marlene poked her head around the corner, "Cloud, you promised you'd help Denzel with his homework."

"I'll be there in a minute," he replied.

"Okay, but hurry. He's stuck on a math problem," she said before heading back upstairs.

Tifa suppressed a giggle as she cleaned a glass. "Sounds like she's enjoying the new princess shoes you got her."

"I regret buying them. Now she thinks she is a princess."

"Her father sure treats her like one," she remarked as she poured a drink for a patron who asked for a refill before sliding it over. "Go on, I've got things under control here. Besides, if anything happens you'll hear it."

Cloud nodded, knowing she was right (as usual) and headed upstairs.

The Gainsborough Academy was the first school to be built in Edge. Cloud and his friends had helped in the construction. No one had known what to call the school at first. It was Nanaki who came up with the idea to name it after their fallen friend. The final touch had been transplanting some of the flowers from the Church into the garden located in the courtyard. The flowers had not only survived in their new home, but thrived. Teachers who taught both above and below the plate volunteered to teach the lessons they knew and eventually it was ready to welcome new students. Denzel and Marlene were among the first and Barret was more than happy to see his little girl back in class. Cid had designed the building and commented it wasn't much harder than designing a ship. Reeve handled equipping the school with the technology by donating some computers and other devices.

When it was finished the children who had suffered the sickness were more than excited to go back to school, or in some cases, enroll for the first time. Denzel hadn't been in school since the Sector Seven plate collapsed and he had admitted to having mixed feelings about it, but after a few weeks he settled in nicely. Marlene eagerly jumped into her classes head first. Cloud was convinced it was her enthusiasm that helped Denzel come out of his shell.

The school itself was a large one - enough to hold a thousand students of different ages. It had three floors and was built with the garden in the middle. Within its walls however was Cloud's personal favorite room, or rather hall? It was the largest room in the building next to the auditorium and was called the Hall of Heroes. It was a place to honor those who were lost to the events of the tragedies of the past few years. A copy of the picture of Denzel's parents was there along with Aerith's picture and many others who had given or lost their lives. At the end of the hall was the inspiration for the space. A large portrait of a First Class SOLDEIR was showcased there.

After his fight with Sephiroth, Cloud had scaled the building to retrieve his swords which were still stuck in the concrete at the top of the Shinra tower where he had finished off his enemy. He hadn't had a chance to collect them after he had been wounded by Yazoo and Loz's final attack. He was on his way back down when the rubble gave way and he fell into an old apartment. Upon trying to find a way out he found something that surprised him, mainly because he was surprised no one had cleaned the place out after the SOLDIER had gone missing for four years. Cloud had found himself in the middle of Zack's old apartment. At first it was painful for Cloud, but as he looked around the room he learned some things about his friend that he had long forgotten. It was there that he found a small photo that made him smile.

It was Zack. He was all smiles and had his right hand up in a peace sign, or perhaps it was a victory sign. With Zack one could never tell. He was leaning over another man, a blonde-haired teen in fact. With his left arm wrapped around the teen's shoulder Zack seemed perfectly happy and the teen, although he seemed uncomfortable, was smiling too. When he got back and showed his friends the photo the others were in the middle of discussing the different rooms and had space for one more, but had no idea what to make it into. The photo solved their problems. Reeve took the worn photo and scanned it into the computer in order to reprint a restored copy and enlarged it. At first Cloud asked if there was a way to remove him from the image and just have Zack, but everyone flat out told him no. They said he deserved his place in the hall of heroes more than anyone else. Cloud still disagreed, but gave up the fight he knew he couldn't win. His friends were pretty dang stubborn when they wanted to be. So the large, restored image was at the head of the hall while Cloud held onto the original copy which he kept on his desk along with the pictures of his friends after their most recent victory.

Cloud had just finished helping Denzel with his homework and had returned to his office to finish filling out the schedule for tomorrow's delivery run when he noticed something eerie. The bar below had gotten quite. There was always a lull of chatter and clinking glass and a few cheers every so often, but it was never silent. Getting up from his desk Cloud made his way downstairs to check on things.

Everyone was crowded around the bar table and as Cloud made his way over to Tifa he noticed she looked pale as did most of the patrons who appeared to have sobered up. A man had his phone on the counter-top and was looking straight at it, as was everyone else.

"Now say that again Mark. What did you see?"

Tifa noticed Cloud out of the corner of her eye and motioned for him to come closer which he did.

"What's going on?" he asked quietly, feeling uncomfortable speaking louder in the situation. Tifa didn't answer, but the man on the other end of the speaker phone did.

"I pray I'm seein' wrong Tony, but I swear I'm seein' the silver demon! He's making his way from the ruins of Midgar and he's headed straight for Edge!"

"The silver demon?" asked the man named Tony. "You must be seein' things! The guy's dead! Cloud killed him!"

"Well, he ain't dead anymore, shit! He's seen me! I gotta split!"

The call ended as Tony tried to get more information out of him. "Mark! Mark you still there? How far out is he? MARK!" but it was no use. The signal was dead.

In the stunned silence that followed Cloud turned to Tony and his eyes glowed slightly with the possible threat of his enemy returning. "Where was your friend?"

Tony tried to think, "Mark was near the old highway, looking for more things he could salvage from the junk like he always does."

"Cloud!" Tifa called as the warrior headed for the door. He stopped and turned his head slightly to look her from the corner of his eye. "I'm not going to wait for him to come to me. This place is too populated," was all he said before heading out the door.

It was more than that he knew as he rounded the corner to where he had parked Fenrir. As he opened the compartments that housed the multiple blades that made up the Fusion Sword Sephiroth's threat came back to him.

"I will never be a memory."

"Tell me what you cherish most. Give me the pleasure of taking it away."

Never again.

Cloud would never let him get his hands on the people he loved. It had already happened once and he vowed that it would never happen again. Combining the sword together, he strapped to the harness on his back and headed down the street towards the old highway. A determined look focused on the task that lay before him. How the monster had managed to return this time he had no idea, but he'd find out and make sure it never happened again.