"Ah" Cloud yawned once again. He was still working with the reports that he had to write about his last mission. He still has not heard anything about Sephiroth. For all he knows he could still be hiding himself in his office. He quickly organized his papers and stood up to go home. On his way out he saw a large group of people yelling and panicking at the front desk. Naturally he was curious so he went up to the scene before him.
When he got closer he noticed that some of the people were injured. Blood flowed freely from one man's side where he was clearly cut deep. Others had burn marks and were bleeding all over. "Why is he doing this?!" one man yelled. "You have to stop him" cried one woman. She was holding a child. The child laid limp in her arms. "Is Shinra responsible for this?!" someone further in the crowd asked. The one question sparked an uproar from the crowd. While looking into the crowd he saw Zack. Two people were carrying him by his shoulders in Cloud's direction. He was completely unconscious. Cloud could see cut marks all over his friend's body. Zack was so strong so Cloud never saw him injured. Looking at Zack's current state worried him. He moved out of the way so the two men could take his friend to the infirmary. He had a feeling that Zack would be okay.
Cloud went to a small child sitting at one of the chairs near the window. The child held his head down. Cloud bent down and got a closer look at the boy. "Hey little guy. What's wrong?" he asked with a concerned look on his face. The boy did not say anything at first. After a few seconds he lifted his head up to look at Cloud face to face. Cloud noticed the severe burn that the boy had received on the area of his right eye. "The general..." he cried. Tears started to flow heavily from the boys good eye. "The general...He's destroying everything. Homes...Stores..." and under his breath he whispered "...people..."
Cloud ran down the hall and quickly change out of his uniform into his usual black outfit. Once he was dressed he pushed open the emergency exit to escape outside. The sky was full of clouds and the moon slowly shined down on the earth below. Cloud walked to the parking lot and hopped onto his motorcycle and rode to town. At first it seemed like balderdash to Cloud. Sephiroth doing such things can't be true. It must be some sort of ruse, he thought. He then began to ruminate the past few weeks. He remembered how Sephiroth started to act. They way his eyes looked. How deep and bottomless they were. Before he even got there he could see smoke and flames consuming everything. Sephiroth! Cloud thought.