The newly paved road made the drive a lot smoother. Denzel had driven the truck for Cloud many times when they had multiple deliveries before the road was paved. The new mayor of Edge had started the road project almost five years ago. The construction was a pain for many of the residents with the traffic jams, closed lanes, and sometimes the alternate detours. The amount of potholes once you got out of the city proper, were ubiquitous. They wreaked havoc on the truck's shocks and tires. Denzel could remember many nights helping Cloud changing tires and doing emergency repairs on the truck. Sometimes Cid showed up late in the evening to help Cloud while cracking open numerous cans of beer.

Cloud would not allow Denzel any beer until one night after his sixteenth birthday, Tifa, Marlene, and Marle were having a particularly bad night when baby Aerith had gotten sick. The whole day had been going to doctors' offices, and the long wait. The healthcare system in Edge was available to everyone, but everybody knew you got what you paid for. It was an hour before midnight and Cloud had numerous deliveries in the morning. First, it was the axel and a warped rim, then it was the fuel pump too. Cloud didn't have a spare fuel pump lying around.

"Shit!" Cloud said with a crowbar in his hand wearing his black overalls in their garage next to the bar.

"What is it now?" Denzel sighed.

"It's the damn fuel pump now!" Cloud shouted angrily to himself.

"Damn!" Denzel backed up looking around until a loud squeaky noise erupted outside.

"There is a God!" Cloud's frustration turned into jubilation.

"No way!" Denzel exclaimed.

It was Cid in his truck full of parts. His truck hissed loudly to a stop. His rig blocked the whole front of the bar. Cid did many odd jobs including on the road mechanic for a lot of gil. Cid scaled his prices to what he thought they could afford with the cost of the part of course.

"What you doing up so late?" Cid said coming around his truck wearing his goggles and a black leather jacket with a yellow chocobo on the back and a pair of blue jeans.

"Am I glad to see you!" Cloud said shaking his hand.

"Problems eh?" Cid glanced back in the garage with the truck propped up.

"Damn fuel pump is stopped up and it's the original one, this truck is over ten years old!" Cloud explained.

They walked back to the garage and Cid got down on the ground examining it. After a minute he got back up nonchalantly and walked back to his truck, then he came out with a fairly good sized part.

"You're in luck!" Cid winked. "...but it's gonna cost ya!"

"How much?" Cloud asked with relief.

"If you'll help me and get a case a beer, we'll make a night of it" Cid smiled.

"You heard him Denzel, go grab a case and be quiet about it"

"Ok, but if Tifa catches me, I'm not taking the heat on this" Denzel shook his head.

"That's fine, hurry up and you can have a drink with us... if you're helping too that is" Cloud said.

"Sure!" Denzel disappeared back into the bar. Cloud and his family lived on the second floor and thankfully the floor had been sound proofed to keep the noise from being too loud upstairs.

"It might be an hour or two... mind if I have a smoke and drink before we start?"

"Not at all man, you saved my ass! I have so many deliveries tomorrow" Cloud shook his head.

"I'll try not to take too long. You're really going to let him drink?" Cid laughed.

"I was drinking when I was fifteen" Cloud chuckled.

"Thirteen for me" Cid said lighting his cigarette as they stepped outside.

"I hope this ain't going to be a problem for Shera" Cloud suddenly remarked.

"She's used to me coming in late. She don't ask questions, she has my number, she can call me anytime" Cid remarked blowing out a billow of smoke.

"Right" Cloud nodded not needing to know anymore about their odd relationship.

Denzel brought the case out full of many bottles of beer handing each Cloud and Cid a beer. Then he took the rest and placed them in the icebox in the back of the garage.

"Cheers" Cid said holding his beer up.

"Cheers" Cloud and Denzel held up their beer as they each took a long swig.

"It's going to be a long night" Cid said after taking another huge gulp.

"...and a long day, especially on such little sleep" Cloud said taking another swig.

"This your first beer?" Cid asked suspecting it wasn't.

"Um..." Denzel looked at Cloud.

"No it isn't" Cloud answered for him.

Denzel recounted what happened to Marlene as they drove around a windy road up in the crags to a private gated manor. The place had been finished last year and not many people knew much about the new residence.

"Cloud didn't get angry with you?" Marlene asked with a bit of a smirk on her face.

"Hell no, he knew last year I had snuck a beer one night from the bar. Then he covered for me when Tifa realized a bottle was missing"

"You know, I remember that evening Tifa saying something about a missing beer but Marle just dismissed it and said it was probably Cloud who forgot to mark it off the inventory"

As they were driving they came to a part where the road had been cut out of the crags. When they continued forward Marlene saw a black figure on all fours just leap to the other side like it was nothing.

"Denzel... did you just see something?" Marlene asked looking up.

"Not really, but I did see a shadow, what was it?" Denzel said lightly pumping the breaks cautiously moving forward.

"That's odd, no monsters have been sited around here in over a year" Marlene said suspiciously.

That moment, a plume of dust began to stir catching Marlene's attention.

"Denzel! Look out!" Marlene said pointing up. A fairly good size boulder came rolling off the cliff. Denzel quickly reacted putting the truck in reverse as the boulder came to rest in the center of the dirt road ahead.

"What is going on here?!" Denzel demanded getting out of the truck.

"Very odd!" Marlene said as she looked up on the left cliff as they passed through the gap.

"I don't think I"m going to be able to move that boulder by myself" Denzel said as he tried rocking it.

"I have some materia, I'll use a lightning spell" Marlene said focusing her attention for a split second then pointed to the boulder. A bolt of lightning blasted the boulder into a handful of medium sized chunks.

"Good thinking, I got it now!" Denzel said quickly getting to work moving the bigger rocks.

"I think we can get by now" Marlene smiled as they both returned to the truck continuing on.

They continued through the gap and down another trail and could finally see the compound up ahead on top of the hillside. Marlene began to feel strange and knew something didn't feel right. Denzel focused on the compound ahead already counting the crates that needed to be unloaded. As they drove away, a dark looking creature sat watching them as they drove up the road breathing heavily with a low unnatural growl and then simply vanished.