Cloud and Genesis continued riding on their motorcycles through the forest. Cloud saw the area they were in was very peaceful and calm. Cloud could see a building at the end of the cliff area they were riding near which was actually Healin Lodge. As they rode to the lodge, Cloud couldn't help but glance back at the unconscious Lightning behind him.

Cloud wasn't sure what it was but he felt a strange kind of power coming from her body. It was like a power on par with his, or maybe even beyond that. Other than that, Cloud found her very intriguing. For someone to have the power to fight on the same level as Genesis was pretty impressive. Not to mention she was very beautiful.

The two finally reached the building and got off there motorcycles, before heading up the steps to the top. Cloud climbed up the many steps with Genesis carrying Lightning behind him. When Cloud got to and opened the door, he quickly unsheathed the Main Blade from behind him. He swung the sword which made contact with Reno's Electro-Mag rod, which he had swung as well.

Reno backed off before running at Cloud and swinging again, but Cloud simply side stepped causing Reno to stumble outside. Cloud and Genesis quickly entered the building as Reno turned around. He quickly ran towards the door, but Cloud shut the door behind him. "Okay so you're good." Reno said from outside. Cloud turned and locked the door behind him as Genesis laid Lightning on the floor as she began to stir.

She slowly opened her eyes and groaned as she got up slowly. When her eyes were fully open, she saw she was in a new place from before. She turned to see Cloud and Genesis behind her. Lightning quickly stood up pulled out her sword and placed the edge at Genesis's throat. "Where am I?! What is this place?!" Lightning shouted.

"The Healin lodge." Genesis answered.

Lightning still kept her blade close to Genesis's throat. "Tell me Genesis, what's going on here and how do you know what it is?" Cloud asked.

"I know what's going on from my boss." Genesis answered.

"And who would that be?" Lightning asked.

"That would be me." a voice said from behind Lightning. A man in a wheelchair came out of the shadows into the open with Rude next to him. He was completely covered by a white blanket.

"It's been a while, hasn't it Cloud?" the man said. Cloud quickly recognized the voice.

"Rufus Shinra?" Cloud said in a somewhat surprised tone as he had a flashback of when the Shinra building was attacked by the WEAPON's and Rufus was caught in it.

"Yes, as you can see I'm still alive." Rufus replied.

"Do I feel sorry for you." Cloud said to Rude who said nothing back.

"Good work on bringing both of them here Genesis." Rufus said.

"No problem." Genesis replied.

"So why did you bring us here?" Lightning asked while taking her sword away from Genesis' neck.

"Because I need help. From both of you." Rufus replied.

"I have something to do. I don't have time for interferences." Lightning replied.

"I'm just a delivery boy now." Cloud added in.

"What I have to say is very important for both of you to know." Rufus assured.

"Fine. Say what you want to say." Cloud replied.

"Well you see it all started about three thousand years ago. During the time of the gods there was one in particular whose malice and blood lust was massive. His name was Astroth. He was the god of war and destruction. It was only through the god-king Balthazar's sacrifice that he was able to be stopped. Their souls were turned into swords, their hearts into amulets, and their bodies into crystals. The swords are known as the Lark Blade and the Nightingale Blade."

"So what does that have to do with what's happening?" Cloud asked confused.

"Because someone, and we're not sure who yet, is looking for those six sacred objects to resurrect Astroth. They think that if they resurrect him, then he'll have to be their servant in return. They'll only be betrayed and Astroth will use his power to rule the world, maybe even the whole universe, but I'm thinking they might also be trying to get the Heaven Blade and the Hell Blade for their own purposes."

"What are they?" Lightning asked.

"If the crystals and the amulets are put together with the two swords in a certain order, it will create either the Heaven, or Hell Blade. Rumor has it that whoever wields them will gain unlimited power. That's why we need your assistance Cloud. You're an ex-SOLDIER, we need someone with your skills." Rufus said.

"That was just something I made up in my head." Cloud replied.

"But Cloud, think about what's at stake here. Every living thing will be in grave danger." Rufus said trying to change Cloud's mind.

"I don't have the right to protect anything anymore." Cloud replied as he turned around and opened the door.

"Come on Cloud think about it. If we can stop these guys then together we can rebuild Shinra." Reno said.

"Not interested." Cloud said with a hint of anger as he walked out the door.

"Reno!" Rufus, Rude and Genesis shouted seeing him mess things up.

"Maybe I should've rephrased that" Reno said.

Loz and Yazoo returned to Kadaj after not being able to find Cloud. "We couldn't find him anywhere." Loz said.

"We're gonna have to find a way to lure him out." Yazoo suggested.

Kadaj knew they were right and was thinking of a way to do that. The answer quickly hit him. "If we're gonna draw him out, we'll have to do it in the right way. First, you two go to the city and bring together all the infected children. Then Loz, go to brothers place and see if Mother's there." Kadaj said.

"Right." the two said as they quickly headed off to the city.

Tifa was walking up the stairs of her house to Denzel's room. When she peered in she saw Marlene tending to the infected Denzel. Denzel was groaning in pain from his Geostigma. It seemed to get worse everyday. "Please come home soon Cloud." Tifa thought as she left.

Cloud was riding back through the forest on Fenrir. "Why in the world would I want to restore something like Shinra?" thought Cloud as he rode faster. He heard two more motorcycles behind him and looked back. He was relieved to see it was Squall and Tidus and not the two silver haired men from before.

The two rode up next to Cloud. "Glad to see you're doing well." Squall said.

"We haven't seen you in a while." Tidus added in.

"Let's just say things hsve been crazy." Cloud replied to the two.

"Come on, let's get back." Tidus said as the three increased their speed back towards Edge.

Meanwhile, Lightning was riding through the forest on a motorcycle Genesis let her have. She was heading back to where she was originally going. She needed to meet her team and report back to Cocoon as soon as she could. She was sure Serah was getting worried about her. Suddenly the sky turned dark and she skidded her motorcycle to a stop.

"Now what?" Lightning said in annoyance of enough interferences for one day. Suddenly a man appeared in front of her. He was dressed in black with a leather black jacket over his clothes and had brown hair that went to the bottom of his neck with sunglasses. He drew a broadsword from his coat and pointed it at Lightning.

"Hand over the crystal!" the man demanded.

"What crystal?" Lightning asked in confusion of what he meant.

The man didn't answer and charged at Lightning. She quickly drew Blaze Edge and jumped off her motorcycle. The man swung his sword and Lightning deflected the attack. She swung Blaze Edge at him, but he dodged the attack which just barely missed his head. The man brought his sword around towards Lightning, but she quickly jumped over the strike and landed a kick to the mans head.

The man stumbled before swinging his sword at Lightning again. Lightning swung her sword up hard and knocked the sword out of the mans hand. Lightning quickly swung her leg behind the mans legs and tripped him. When he hit the ground, Lightning quickly converted Blaze Edge into its gun mode and pointed the barrel at the mans face.

"Our master Astroth will return, and destroy you all." the man said.

"In your dreams." Lightning coldly said as she pulled the trigger.

Cloud, Squall, and Tidus continued riding through the forest while looking up at the dark skies. "Wonder if it's gonna rain?" Tidus said in wonder while watching the dark clouds move in.

"I don't think those are rain clouds." Squall replied as he also watched the clouds.

"Something's not right here." Cloud thought as he also watched the clouds with Squall and Tidus.

Suddenly, the three heard a gunshot go off, and they quickly skidded to a stop. "What was that?!" an alarmed Tidus said as he looked around for the source.

"A gunshot." Squall answered.

"It came from over there." Cloud said as he rode off in the direction of the gunshot.

"Hey Cloud, wait up!" Tidus shouted after him as he and Squall went after Cloud.

Lightning stood over the dead body of the man that attacked her. Suddenly his body was enveloped by green energy streams before it evaporated entirely. Lightning thought it was over, but she was wrong. Black portals suddenly opened up all around Lightning and men that looked exactly like the one she just defeated appeared out of them.

Lightning readied her sword when suddenly she heard the sounds of motorcycles approaching. She turned around to see Cloud, Squall, and Tidus stop their motorcycles behind her while running over a few of the mysterious men. The three noticed the large army of black clad men in front of Lightning who all looked the same.

"I think it's time for some fun." Tidus said as he got off his motorcycle and drew his Brotherhood sword from his motorcycles custom sheath compartment.

"Guess it can't be avoided." Squall said as he drew Revolver from his motorcycles custom sheath compartment. Cloud got off Fenrir and drew both of the Back Blades. The three walked up next to Lightning and readied their swords. The black clad men drew their identical broadswords before charging at the four.

The four attacked and began slicing through the enemies one after another. One slashed at Cloud who deflected the strike, knocking him off balance. Squall swung his sword and sliced the man down. Squall saw two more coming and used a Fire spell on both to kill them.

Tidus stabbed Brotherhood into one of the men's chests, before ripping it out and slashing another though his stomach. He saw one coming at him out of the corner of his eye so he swung his leg around and landed a powerful kick to the mans head.

Lightning slashed though one man before stabbing Blaze Edge straight through another ones chest. She quickly ripped it out before dodging slashes coming from the men. One pulled a gun out of his coat and fired shots at Lightning. She did a series of backflips and the incoming bullets hit other men.

Lightning did a larger backflip and she was sent high into the air. While she was upside down she switched her sword to its gun mode and fired shots at the men while upside down which took them down in an instant. When she landed she was quickly surrounded by men. She swung her leg around and tripped all of them at once.

Lightning jumped back as Tidus cast a thunder spell, incinerating all the men to ash. Cloud slashed through men quickly using the two Back Blades. He saw more coming, so Cloud quickly threw one of the Back Blades into the air before drawing the Main Blade from behind him.

He connected the other Back Blade on the Main Blade before catching the other Back Blade and connecting it to the Main Blade. Cloud did a large flip over the enemies before landing in front of Fenrir. He quickly grabbed the Hollow Blade and attached it to the Main Blade. While not the complete Fusion Sword, it was pretty close.

Cloud ran over and slashed through three men before he used Blade Beam. The blast tore through the enemies as the others continued slashing through more. There were only two left and knowing that they would die if they fought, they ran away.

Lightning and Cloud jumped into the air after them. They brought their swords down and sliced the two down. "Thanks for the help." Lightning said as she turned to Cloud.

"No problem." Cloud said back.

"It's Cloud right?" Lightning asked.

"Yeah, and you're Lightning, right" Cloud asked.

"Just call me Light." Lightning answered.

"Okay. So why we're these guys attacking you, and why do they look the same?" Cloud asked as he watched all the fallen enemies evaporate into green energy streams.

"Who knows. Probably should've left at least one of them alive. But the first one I killed before those other ones showed up said something about Astroth being his master, and me having some crystal." Lightning said.

"Maybe he meant one of the two crystals that Astroth and Balthazar's bodies turned into. You don't really have one of them on you do you?" Cloud asked as he turned to Lightning.

"No, but I don't understand why he thought I did." Lightning said as she thought about it.

"Yeah. Well, why don't you come back with us. I don't think you'll be able to get to Cocoon in this weather." Cloud said looking up at the dark sky, and sensing rain coming.

"Thank you." Lightning said accepting Clouds offer. She, Cloud, Squall, and Tidus all rode off back to the city. Thunder began booming as lightning flashed across the sky and small drops of water began falling from the sky. As they rode off, they didn't realize there was a man shrouded in a brown cloak behind them.

"Everything is now falling into place. But the real thing has yet to begin." the cloaked man said as he disappeared from the spot where he was standing.

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