A/N: Squall has his Kingdom Hearts II appearance in here. If you don't know what it looks like then I suggest going onto the Kingdom Hearts wiki and looking up Leon.

Now let's get on to the chapter.


Cloud lead Lightning, Tidus, and Squall back to the 7th Heaven bar as the rain began to pour. The four stopped their motorcycles in front of the bar. Lightning admired the place and thought it looked and sounded unique, despite the fact that it was in a city like Edge. While it wasn't the fanciest place she'd seen in her life, it was pretty nice looking. Cloud brought the three inside and shut the door behind them.

"Nice place." Lightning as she looked around the inside.

"Come on, I'll take you to your room." Cloud said as he silently walked up the stairs with Lightning following him.

"Well, I think I'll take a nice long nap." Tidus yawned as he walked over and rested Brotherhood against the wall before he plopped down onto the sofa. He was instantly asleep within a few seconds.

"Whatever." was Squall's response as he rested Revolver against the wall and went over to sleep on the other sofa. Cloud and Lightning reached the upstairs and walked down the hallway. Cloud peered in one room to see Marlene and Denzel asleep. He looked into the other room to see Tifa asleep as well.

"Come on." Cloud whispered as he lightly and quietly shut the door to Tifa's room. Lightning followed him quietly to the end of the hall where there were two more doors. Cloud opened the door for Lightning and she walked in to see the room looked pretty decent even though it appeared that no one was using it at the moment. It had a bed in the back corner that looked very clean.

"Is this good enough for you?" Cloud asked.

"Yeah." Lightning answered.

"I'll be in the room across from yours. Just let me know if you need anything." Cloud said as he left the room and shut the door behind him. Lightning walked over to the bed and removed her sheathed Blaze Edge from behind her and rested it against the wall before sitting on the edge of the bed.

She continued to think about the strange men who attacked her and the crystal they mentioned. She just didn't understand any of what happened, but she didn't think now would be the time to worry about it. She laid down on the bed and fell asleep within a seconds.


Five hours later, Lightning started having a nightmare, but to her it seemed like a vision of some sort. Lightning saw herself standing in the midst of a burning town with bright, violent fires scorching everywhere. She felt a strong and dark power behind her. She quickly turned around to see something very strange.

In front of her stood a man clad in black, with metal shoulder guards, and long silver hair. In his left hand was a sword and the blade of the weapon was very long. He raised his head and stared into Lightning's eyes with his green cat-like eyes. As he stared into her eyes, Lightning felt something she'd not felt in a long time… fear.

The man turned around and walked away through the flames. His entire figure disappeared through the wall of fire. Lightning was confused, but then suddenly she felt a painful feeling in her stomach. She clutched her stomach in pain and looked to see what the problem was.

She saw a bright white light glowing inside of her stomach. However, she then suddenly felt a sharp pain in her upper right back. Lightning fell to her knees from the intensity of the pain. She groaned as the pain started to grow even larger. A large lump suddenly appeared on the upper right part of her back. Lightning let out a loud cry of pain as the lump got even larger. Suddenly, a large white feathered wing burst from her back. Lightning fell onto the ground on her side from both the pain from the wing sprouting and the pain in her stomach which came back again.

Darkness started to engulf the entire area and seemed to be drawn to Lightning's body. After engulfing everything, Lightning could only lie there in the pitch darkness while clutching her stomach in pain. Suddenly, an image of a dark figure wearing armor with spikes and horns and with glowing red eyes appeared in her head. "Soon you'll be mine." is what the figure said to Lightning before he disappeared from Lightning's mind.

Monstrous beings of darkness materialized out of the darkness surrounding Lightning. They drew close to her and raised their claws, ready to strike. Suddenly a bright white light shot forth from Lightning and pierced through the creatures. They all let out screeches of pain as their bodies disintegrated.

The light emitting from Lightning's body was spreading out further, and was destroying the darkness surrounding her. Now Lightning was in a world of bright white light. She slowly opened her eyes to take a look at her new surroundings. She noticed a pair of legs in front of her. Lightning sat up and looked up to see a beautiful woman standing before her wearing a knee length white dress, and royal jewlery. The strange thing was, the woman looked almost exactly like Lightning. The notable differences in her appearence was that she had longer hair that went down to the middle of her back and she had two white feathered wings instead of one like Lightning.

The woman extended her hand out to Lightning. Lightning, at first hesitant, reached out and took the womans hand. The instant their hands connected, a bright light shined from their hands which blinded Lightning. "It's within you." Lightning heard the woman say to her before the light faded.


With that her dream ended and Lightning awoke with a jolt. She felt her forehead to feel a lot of sweat dripping down it. She wiped the sweat away as she got up. "What was that?" Lightning asked herself, not being able to comprehend what she just dreamt.

"It was a dream, but it felt so real." Lightning said. She looked at her back to see there was no wing there.

"Yeah, just a wierd dream." Lightning said as she got up off the bed. She picked up her sheathed Blaze Edge and slung it behind her before she left the room. She walked over to Cloud's room to see he wasn't in his bed, meaning he was already awake. Lightning walked down the hallway and the stairs.

When she reached the bottom she saw Squall and Tidus were still asleep on the couches. She quietly walked to the door and opened it before walking outside. When she was outside, she saw Cloud leaning on his motorcycle. "Were you waiting for me?" Lightning asked.

"Yeah, I figured I'd take you to Cocoon since I've been a bother to you. It's the least I can do for you Lightning." Cloud answered.

"No Cloud, I think I'll stay here for a bit." Lightning said.

"But your mission."

"Don't worry. The team pulled back and left a ship for me to get back in. I've got plenty of time. Besides, I've always wondered what life here could be like. Now's my chance to see it." Lighting answered.

"Well, it's your call." Cloud responded. Cloud looked into Lightning's eyes and could see that there obviously was something bothering her.

"Is something wrong?" he asked.

"N-No, nothing's wrong." Lightning responded, hoping Cloud would drop the subject.

"Are you sure? You look like something's bugging you." Cloud said.

"No really I'm fine." Lightning responded. Cloud could tell she didn't want to talk about what was obviously bothering her, so he decided to drop the subject.

"If you say so." Cloud said as he got on Fenrir.

"Are you going somewhere?" Lightning asked.

"Yeah, I'm heading into the city. Wanna join me?" Cloud asked.

"Sure." was Lightning's answer as she got on her motorcycle as well, and the two sped off towards the what the two didn't, know that Loz and Yazoo were in the city at the moment.


The two were rounding up the kids in the city, telling them that they had a cure for Geostigma and would give it to them if they came along with them.

The children who had been told this quickly agreed to the offer. Their parents abandoned them so they wouldn't have to worry about their objection to this offer. Plus, once they were cured their parents might bring them back into their home. One by one, children were gathered into the truck Yazoo and Loz were using as the offer influenced them.

"Man they're really piling up." Loz said as he saw the large number of children they influenced.

"Loz, go to the church brother stays at and see if mother's there. I'll see if I can get a few more." Yazoo said.

"Sure thing." Loz said in return as he got onto his motorcycle and went off to the church while Yazoo went off to find more children.


Denzel was walking around the city while Tifa and Marlene went off to the church where Cloud had been staying for a while. Tifa opened the church doors and Marlene ran inside while Tifa followed behind her. Marlene was in awe at the sight of the flowers. She and Tifa then looked to the right to see Cloud's things on the floor.

Marlene noticed a bandage wrap on a white box. Marlene picked it up and saw a black stain on it. "It's just like Denzel. Is Cloud sick?" Marlene asked. The obvious proof left Tifa confused.

"Why didn't he say something?" she said as she wondered why.

"Did Cloud leave because he's sick?" Marlene asked.

"I think… he wants to fight it alone,"

"Fight?"

"No. I don't think he will." Tifa said with doubt in her voice.

"Tifa?" Marlene said as she was left confused.

"Well, why don't we wait here until he gets back? We can give him a good lecture." Tifa suggested.

"Uh huh!" agreed Marlene with a happy face. She couldn't wait to see Cloud again.


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