Chapter Two

AN – Thank you for the feedback on the first chapter! Here we start hearing about what may (or may not!) have happened in Nibelheim – well, as per Cloud's interpretation of course. Updates to this are dependent on me finishing chapters, and as I'm mainly working on a different story it's a bit sporadic, but it will keep being updated!

Cloud blinked his eyes open, taking in the darkness of the room around him. It was still early then. He rubbed a hand over his eyes, still tired but knowing he wouldn't be going back to sleep. Snoring from the next bed told him that Barret was still sleeping, a gentle glow indicating where Red was lying on the floor.

Cloud slid out of his bed and crept to the door, grabbing his sword and harness on the way. Upon stepping into the hallway he found a large pile of freshly laundered clothes waiting just outside the door. He pulled his own clothes on in relief, leaving the borrowed trousers in their place. He was thankful that he could pull the black sleeveless turtleneck of the SOLDIER uniform on before putting the harness in place; Sephiroth might like walking around baring his chest to the world but Cloud didn't think it would be particularly comfortable.

The innkeeper must have retired for the night, but there was a teenage boy sitting by the front desk. He looked up with bleary eyes as Cloud passed by, waving one hand at him carelessly.

Kalm was just beginning to stir. The inn was on the main square, a large open space with a fountain in the middle. A couple of traders were beginning to set up stands at the far side, ready to sell their wares throughout the day. A yawning man waved sleepily at one of them before crossing the square towards an old truck, fully loaded and ready to start deliveries. The sun was just dawning, bathing everything in a gentle light. It was picture perfect.

But yet something about it made Cloud's skin crawl slightly. It was lovely – but almost too perfect. It didn't quite seem real. Everything looked a little bit too much like something out of a travel brochure. Cloud grew up in a small town similar to this, his memory may be patchy but he remembered the old creaking well built in the centre of the square, the slight angle to the town sign where old man Hanson had once clipped it with his battered pickup, the cracked cobblestones where tree roots pushed up from below when they had outgrown the space allocated to them. This place didn't seem to have those stories etched into the stones. But maybe that was because Cloud was an outsider, not privy to that unwritten history. He shrugged off the thought as he spotted a woman walking with a large tray of pastries out from one of the small houses. Checking the gil he was carrying, he made his way over to the stall she was setting up.

Sephiroth was leaning against the wall of the inn when Cloud returned. He had borrowed a flat cap from somewhere, his long silver hair twisted up into it to try to hide his identity. Cloud wasn't sure they really needed to worry here, but maybe it was better to be cautious. They were likely to stay another night and didn't need Shinra forces on their tail.

Cloud nodded at Sephiroth as he approached. The taller SOLDIER looked curiously at the paper bag Cloud was clutching. "Breakfast," the blonde explained. "You coming or are you going to stay out here longer?"

Sephiroth stood up straight and Cloud mentally cursed his short stature. Next to Sephiroth he felt tiny, his eyes were only level with Sephiroth's collar bones. Collar bones he could see in all their sharp-edged glory because Sephiroth had donned his customary outfit; long leather coat over a SOLDIER harness with no shirt underneath, black trousers topped with a large belt and black boots. The only thing missing were the huge shoulder pauldrons that were normally strapped on top.

"I wondered where you were," Sephiroth explained as he held the door to the inn open for Cloud. "You left early."

"I couldn't sleep," Cloud replied with a shrug. Inside the inn he could see the owner that they had met the night before had replaced the boy on reception. He must have spent longer than he thought in the town.

Entering their room, he was greeted by murmuring voices. Aerith and Tifa had obviously woken and come over from their room, they were sat together on what had been his bed, their backs against the wall. Barret sat on the edge of his, knees apart and his gun arm across his lap. He had a rag in his good hand and was oiling it. Angeal stood in the archway to the other part of the room.

"Yer back," Barret stated, still scrubbing at his gun. Cloud passed the bag of pastries to Aerith.

"Yay! Breakfast." She pulled out one, passing the bag around. Red pushed his nose past Angeal's legs and into their room.

"I didn't know what you ate," Cloud told him apologetically. Red did the leonine equivalent of a shrug.

"It is of no matter, I can find food easily enough." He lay down on the rug between the two beds, getting comfortable in the space.

Barret put down the cloth, wiping his fingers on it carefully before selecting a pastry. "So," he said as he dusted powdered sugar from his lap. "You gonna tell us why that crazy ass Sephiroth is so interested in you?"

Cloud sighed, walking past Red over to the window and looking out on the town. "It's a long story," he warned.

"But one that it is imperative that we hear." Genesis had also entered, meaning their whole group was standing in the one room. "I, for one, have many questions that I believe you must hold the answers to."

Cloud was aware that Genesis was waiting on answers from him, he'd referred to it before. But Cloud didn't know if he truly held the knowledge they were after, his memories were patchy at best. He turned to face them all, his back to the window. Here, they were all in view – the three SOLDIERs at the far end of the room, Barret to his left with Red lying just in front of him and the girls sitting on the bed to the right. Cloud crossed his arms and tilted his head back to stare at the ceiling, trying to pull his memories together.

"Take your time." Sephiroth was standing by the door now, one leg bent with his foot resting against the wall and his arms crossed in front of his chest. He looked up to meet Cloud's eyes. "Mako poisoning scrambles memories and the more you force it the worse it will be. Just tell us in your own time and if the order isn't perfect then so be it."

"Mako poisoning?" Genesis said quietly, tone wondering. "When did you get mako poisoning?"

Cloud huffed and shook his head irritably. "We'll never get finished if you keep interrupting." He sighed and closed his eyes. Filtering through the memories to work out which were his and which weren't was tricky. "Five years ago," he began. "There was a mission. Two SOLDIER First Class accompanied by a couple of infantrymen were sent to a small mountain town called Nibelheim."

"I knew it!" Genesis hissed, looking unrepentant under Cloud's annoyed glare. "What? I knew that Nibelheim must be something to do with it, the way you've been avoiding telling us anything about it as though it's a great conspiracy."

"Genesis." Angeal shook his head warningly. The red head settled with a toss of his hair. Sephiroth hadn't moved, his green cat eyes watching Cloud carefully.

Cloud tried to regain his trail of thought. "The SOLDIERs… one was the famous Sephiroth. The other…" The urge to say 'was me' came over him, but he shook away that thought. He tried to separate out the overlapping memories but it was difficult. He turned to Tifa. "The other was… First Class Zack Fair?" He checked with her, relieved when she gave him a small nod but her brown eyes were still confused. Aerith, next to Tifa, made a small movement and took Tifa's hand. A noise came from the far side of the room, where Angeal had almost slipped down the wall.

"Zack?"

Cloud frowned in thought. "Yes… I almost forgot you knew him." Not forgot, so much… he had memories of Angeal, memories that he knew weren't his own. But he wasn't quite sure of the connection between them.

"I am his mentor." Angeal confirmed quietly. He'd gone from being merely interested to listening avidly.

"Right." Cloud tried to focus on the past again. "So if Zack was the SOLDIER, that means I was one of the infantrymen accompanying them." Tifa startled at this, but it was Barret that interrupted.

"What? You telling me you weren't even SOLDIER?! That's false advertising!"

"Not quite." Cloud replied dryly. "Are you actually gonna let me finish?"

Barret subsided with an annoyed mutter, and Cloud tilted his head back to the ceiling again. "Nibelheim is difficult to get to as it's high in the mountains, so we were dropped off on the plains and then had to travel by truck…"

As Cloud started, he found the memories flowing through him, weaving the story as he recited it. A jumble of his memories and Zack's, that he tried to filter through as he narrated what happened in Nibelheim five years before.

-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-

The inside of the truck was hot and stuffy, despite the cold mountain air they were driving through. There was a strong smell of wet canvas and oil permeating throughout. The road was rutted and the driver seemed to be going out of their way to hit every single bump. Cloud was hunched over near the back, the nausea rising with every second he spent in this truck, but he held onto it firmly. He would not throw up in front of his idol.

Sephiroth was sitting calmly in the middle of the truck, perched on a crate. His long sword rested next to him, propped up against the back of the cab. The other infantryman, Cloud couldn't remember his name, was sitting by the small viewing hatch, chatting to the driver. They were probably old friends; the driver was also in the infantry but was doing nothing more than chauffeuring them around on this mission.

The fourth occupant of the back of the truck couldn't seem to keep still. Even when the SOLDIER was standing, he was fidgeting. When Zack wasn't standing, he was pacing; and when he wasn't pacing he was doing squats. Every now and then he came over to where Cloud was sitting.

"You alright, bud?"

Cloud tried to play it cool and pretend he was fine, but all that came out was "Eurk."

"It must suck, having motion sickness." Zack peered out of the back of the truck. "It sure is raining hard."

"Hey," Sephiroth spoke up at last, looking over at Zack. "Settle down."

Instead of settling Zack started squatting instead. "They gave me some new materia, one of the experimental ones. I wanna test it out."

Sephiroth shook his head, though the barest hint of a fond smile broke through his expressionless mask. "Just like a kid."

"So, you gonna brief us about this mission?"

Sephiroth crossed his arms and hummed slightly. "This isn't a typical mission. We are investigating an old mako reactor. There have been reports of it malfunctioning and producing brutal creatures. We are to dispose of the creatures before finding and neutralising the problem."

-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-

"It seems overkill to send two SOLDIER First Class out to a malfunctioning reactor." Genesis commented.

Cloud nodded at him. "At the time… I had no frame of reference, but it does seem a lot looking back at it." He reached out to a memory that flitted around at the edge of his consciousness, but couldn't quite grasp it. "I think there might have been some other reason at the time, but I don't remember."

"It is possible that with the end of the Wutai war the Shinra were trying to keep SOLDIER occupied." Sephiroth stated.

Genesis grunted but still had a frown on his face. He waved at Cloud to continue.

-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-

"So, how does it feel?" Sephiroth asked as they reached the wooden archway that served as the town entrance. "It's your first time back to your hometown in a long time, I believe?"

Cloud was too shocked by the fact Sephiroth –TheSephiroth – was addressing him personally to answer coherently. He stammered something unintelligent out, thankful his helmet was hiding his expression. Zack gave him a sympathetic look.

"I wouldn't know because I don't have a hometown…" Sephiroth continued, his gaze absent.

"Ummm… how 'bout your parents?" Zack asked curiously.

Sephiroth brought a finger to his mouth while he thought. "My mother is Jenova. She died right after she gave birth to me. My father…" he shook his head and laughed dryly. "What does it matter? It is time for us to proceed."

-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-

"Hold on! Wait just a minute." Barret waved his gun arm for attention. "Isn't that… I mean…" he glanced warily over at Sephiroth in the door. "Is that true?"

Angeal frowned, he'd heard that name before. But where?

Sephiroth turned his unsettling green gaze on Barret. "That my mother's name is Jenova? Yes."

"But that damn headless spook livin' in the Shinra building… didn't you say?" He looked uncertainly at Aerith, who straightened.

Oh. Oh no. Angeal's eyes opened wide with realisation. Now he remembered exactly where he had heard the name Jenova. His mind drew up the image of the headless body floating in mako, tubes drawing out of it. The purple sheen to the skin, the scales that covered most of the torso. That thing could not be Sephiroth's mother.

"Who told you that Jenova was your mother?"

Sephiroth turned sharp eyes towards him. "Hojo. You doubt his veracity?"

"I definitely do." Aerith had stood up and was approaching Sephiroth. "I'm sorry…" she said gently, "but Jenova wasn't your mother."

Sephiroth's brow drew together. "What reason would Hojo have to lie about my parentage?"

"He might have even believed it, in some way." Aerith sighed. "Jenova… isn't a person. It couldn't be a mother. Hojo used it in a lot of his experiments though. It is what the other Sephiroth took from the Shinra building."

Sephiroth looked lost. He shifted his gaze to Angeal, searching for answers.

Angeal blew out a breath. "There was something Hojo was keeping in the Drum, on the top level. It seemed to be what he was drawing on to power his creations. Aerith called it Jenova, I thought the name was familiar but I didn't put it together until now. I don't know what it was though, it wasn't human."

"It was the Calamity." Red spoke calmly, but his swishing tail betrayed his agitation.

"I do not understand." Sephiroth admitted, looking from one face to the other.

"I don't have all the answers," Aerith told him. "But I know that Hojo lied. About a lot of things. Please hold onto that. It's very important that you do."

Sephiroth nodded, staring at the floor. Genesis shifted closer and gently bumped his shoulder in solidarity. Aerith retook her place on the bed.

"I think we need to hear the rest of the story." Tifa suggested. "Go on, Cloud."

-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-

The town was quiet. Nibelheim was a small, insular town that never really trusted outsiders. The residents were in their houses, keeping out of the way. He and Sephiroth… no, Zack and Sephiroth were in the square, discussing the mission the next day. He and the other infantryman – Collins, the name eventually came to him – were waiting for instruction. Eventually Sephiroth told Collins to keep watch and for everyone else to rest before the next morning. He then told Cloud he could go and see his family and friends.

Cloud was still in his uniform, wearing his helmet. He hadn't wanted to come back to Nibelheim until he made it into SOLDIER and he didn't want everyone to realise what a failure he was. Looking back, it seemed silly – but he had only been sixteen and still very naïve despite the couple of years he had spent in Shinra. He went straight to his mother's house.

It had only been the two of them for as long as Cloud could remember. His father had died when he was very young and Cloud had no memories of him. Claudia didn't like to speak of him either. When he was being picked on by some of the other boys he used to dream that his father was an adventurer who only faked his death and would come and rescue Cloud and his mom, but it never happened.

His mom greeted him excitedly, she hadn't seen him since he left to join SOLDIER more than two years earlier. He passed a couple of hours there, catching up on the latest gossip and telling her all about his training. One of the topics she came back to repeatedly was whether he was seeing anyone.

"You really have grown. I'll bet the girls never leave you alone."

Cloud groaned. "Not really."

Claudia hummed. "I'm worried about you. There are a lot of temptations in the city. I'd feel better if you settled down with a nice girlfriend."

"I'm all right, mom."

Claudia laughed, tapping her finger against her lips thoughtfully. "You should have… an older girlfriend, one that'll take care of you. I think that would be best for you."

Cloud rolled his eyes at her, though a smile tugged at the edges of his lips. "I'm not interested."

It was nice to see her so well, looking her usual vibrant self.

Eventually, Cloud rejoined Zack who had been exploring the town and they headed to the inn together. On reaching it, they found Sephiroth standing and looking out of the first storey windows onto the main square.

"Hey," Zack bounced over to him. "What are you looking at?" Cloud hovered behind, not brave enough to approach Sephiroth despite being part of the same team for the mission.

Sephiroth turned to Zack with a pensive expression. "This scenery… I feel like I know this place." Cloud left them to it and retired to bed, but Zack couldn't get Sephiroth to say anything else either. They decided to get some rest, knowing that it was quite a hike up to the reactor.

The next morning, Sephiroth was waiting for them outside the Shinra mansion. It was by far the biggest building in the town, built by the edge of the path up Mount Nibel. Claudia had told Cloud that before he was born it was used as a holiday home by President Shinra himself, but it had long since been all but abandoned and had fallen into a state of disrepair.

Sephiroth was waiting impatiently by the time Zack arrived. Cloud, wanting to make a good impression, had been there well ahead of the scheduled time. Not that it seemed to work; Sephiroth hadn't spoken a word to them while they had been waiting.

"When the guide gets here, we're heading out." He told Zack. Just then a man came up, who Cloud recognised as Tifa's father and who was the mayor of Nibelheim. Ever since her mother died, he had doted on Tifa – which sometimes manifested itself as overprotectiveness.

"Listen to me, Sephiroth." The mayor started. "In case something happens…"

Sephiroth waved his concern aside. "Trust me."

Just then Tifa ran up. Cloud hadn't seen her since he'd left two years before, and she had definitely grown up since then. Wearing a wide-brimmed hat, sturdy boots and a crop top with mini skirt she looked every bit the mountain guide they had hired her as.

"I'll be alright, dad." She huffed impatiently. "I have two men from SOLDIER with me." She turned to Sephiroth. "I'm Tifa, the number one guide in this town."

"Hang on, we're going to find a lot of monsters on the way to the reactor." Zack frowned. "It's dangerous, you shouldn't be involved in this." Cloud privately agreed, he thought Tifa was still far too young. He knew he wasn't much older himself, but he'd been training in the military for a couple of years now.

Sephiroth stopped on his way towards the mountain path. "There's no problem if you protect her. It's time to go."

After a mandatory photo, they finally began their long climb up to the Nibel reactor. It was built on a high plateau, near the top of the mountain range. The climb was long and arduous, made more so when a wooden bridge connecting the Nibel peak with the next one broke as they traversed it.

Tifa and Cloud somehow escaped without injury, finding themselves at the bottom of the valley between the peaks. Sephiroth and Zack soon caught up with them, but Collins was nowhere to be found. Sephiroth made the difficult decision to continue without him.

-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-

Angeal interrupted there. "That doesn't seem like something you would do, leaving a trooper behind like that."

Sephiroth looked up from the spot on the floor he had been paying fixed attention to for some time now. "I have had to, previously."

"Yes, but that was in Wutai if I'm not mistaken, during a war. A simple mission to check out a reactor?"

Sephiroth shook his head slightly. "There would be no reason not to regroup and try again the next day. You are right, that is odd."

"How high was the bridge?" Genesis asked suddenly, looking at Cloud with a thoughtful expression. "If memory serves, the Nibel range is treacherous. How on Gaia did you survive?"

Cloud tucked his chin into his chest. "I don't… know. I don't remember."

"Zack grabbed me." Tifa said quietly, hugging her knees to her chest. "He somehow managed to get hold of the rope and slow our descent, then cushioned me when we slid down the side of the mountain. I'm pretty sure I owe him my life." She frowned a little. "S-Sephiroth and the other trooper just showed up… I didn't know it was Cloud. You never took off your helmet."

Cloud tried to remember, but there was nothing in the gap in his memories. "Maybe I hit my head in the fall."

-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-

Luckily, Tifa knew another route through the caves that the Nibel range was peppered with. They passed a particularly beautiful mako fountain, where Sephiroth explained that the abundant natural mako was the reason the reactor existed at all.

"It's so beautiful," Tifa commented, walking over to the fountain. She gazed at it sadly. "If the mako reactor continues to suck up the energy, this fountain will dry up too."

"Hmmm," Sephiroth approached the fountain. "Materia. When you condense mako energy, materia is produced. It's very rare to see materia in its natural state."

"How come when you use materia you can use magic?" Zack asked idly. Sephiroth shook his head.

"You are in SOLDIER and you don't even know that? The knowledge and wisdom of the Ancients is held in the materia. Supposedly, anyone who has this knowledge can freely use the powers of the land and the Planet, calling up magic."

"So it's, like, a mysterious power…"

Cloud was pleased his helmet covered his grin. Sephiroth didn't even try, laughing at Zack while Tifa giggled. Zack preened, obviously enjoying acting the clown. "Did I say something funny?"

"A man once told me never to use unscientific terms like 'mysterious power'." Sephiroth explained dryly. "It shouldn't, by rights, even be called magic. I still remember how angry he was."

"Let me guess… Hojo?"

"Hmmm. An inexperienced man assigned to take over the work of a great scientist. He is a walking mass of complexes." Sephiroth took one last look at the fountain. "We must move on."

It took another hour or two, but eventually they reached the reactor. Zack paused at the bottom of the steps up to the entrance.

"Tifa, you wait here."

"But I wanna see! Can I come inside too?"

Sephiroth paused on the stairs. "Only authorised people are allowed into the reactor, it is full of Shinra's industrial secrets." He looked over at Cloud. "Take care of our guide." Tifa huffed and went to follow the SOLDIERs in, but Cloud stood his ground and wouldn't let her past. She huffed, crossing her arms petulantly and stalked away.

"You'd better take good care of me then!"

Inside, the reactor showed its age. It was one of the oldest reactors, apparent in the rusting metalwork and layers of dirt that coated every surface. Its inaccessibility was probably a factor too as maintenance crews rarely made it out so far. Zack followed Sephiroth into the main reactor chamber, where a steep set of stairs with pods on either side ran up to a sealed doorway. Sephiroth stood by the door at the top, shaking his head slightly.

Zack read the name engraved above the door. Jenova. Sephiroth moved past him, back down the stairs. Zack carefully tested the door but it wouldn't budge. Shrugging, he went to join Sephiroth who was standing by one of the pods.

"This is the reason for the malfunction. This part is broken. Zack, close the valve."

Zack did as he was told while Sephiroth inspected one of the other pods. "But why did it break?" He looked inside the pod for a few moments before stepping away slowly. "Now I see, Hojo. But doing this will never put you on the same level as Professor Gast." He looked over at Zack. "This is a system that should condense and freeze mako energy into materia. But Hojo put something else in there. Take a look."

Zack did so, peering through the green mako of the pod. Inside, there was a humanoid visage, tentacles growing over the head and lips pulled back into a snarl. He leapt back with a yell, dropping onto his backside.

"What…what is that?!"

"A normal member of SOLDIER is a human that has been showered or injected with mako," Sephiroth explained. "It makes you different from an average person, but still human. But, what are they? They've been exposed to a far higher degree of mako than you."

Zack scrambled to his feet. "But what were they before they went in? And what are they now? Some kind of monster?"

"Exactly. And it's Hojo of Shinra that produced these monsters. Mutated living organisms produced by mako energy. That's what these monsters really are. And as for your first question…" Sephiroth thought for a moment, his hand on his chin. "I think it highly likely they were once human."

"Those are… people?"

"Were people." Sephiroth corrected. "Now reduced to simple monsters through Hojo's meddling."

"That's just… wrong." Zack stated. "But wait, what do you mean 'normal members of SOLDIER'? What about you? Or the others?"

Sephiroth flinched as though he was struck.

"Hey… Sephiroth? You ok?"

"No… was I?" He staggered, withdrawing Masamune and slashing at the pods. Zack was caught by a strong shoulder and thrown backwards. "Was I created this way too? Am I… the same as all these monsters? These were once human too… Ever since I was young I have known that I was different from the others. Special, in some way. But… not like this…

"Am I… even human?

-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-

Static filled Cloud's mind again and he had to stop. He shook his head, looking around at the room. His audience were watching him with rapt attention, with a couple of exceptions. Sephiroth was still staring at a point on the floor, his expression frozen. Angeal looked horrified, an expression mirrored on Aerith's face. She had her hands clenched in front of her mouth. Genesis and Barret looked disgusted, but Tifa was thoughtful.

"And?" Genesis demanded impatiently. "What happened next?"

Cloud frowned, rifling through his memories. "Then he shut himself in the Shinra mansion-"

"No, no!" Genesis interrupted. "What did he say after that? What happened at the reactor?"

Cloud shook his head, trying to remember. Static and pain filled his mind, he rubbed at his temple with his right hand. "I don't remember. I'm sorry."

"Then you." Genesis turned to Tifa. "You were outside the whole time."

Tifa looked up at the room. "Yes… yes I was."

"Do you know what happened?"

Tifa looked apprehensive, looking over at Cloud. "I…we…" She took a deep breath. "Right. We were outside the reactor. I didn't know the guard was Cloud, and I was annoyed at not being allowed inside. I was making his life difficult, when out of nowhere these strange monsters attacked us. They weren't human but were human-like, they used these odd weapons and lots of magic. Cloud… protected me, but they were very strong. In the commotion Sephiroth must have left the reactor, because the next thing I knew Zack was there. He fought them and beat them, but Cloud was injured. We had to help him down to the village."

"Do you think they were the monsters from the reactor?" Angeal asked.

"I don't know. Maybe? I didn't see tentacles but… could have been a different type, I guess?"

"I can't believe Shinra were making monsters. Damn them. The more I hear, the more I hate 'em!" Barret scowled, twisting a setting on his gun arm menacingly.

Tifa hummed in agreement. "I didn't know, until today… who would have ever thought the mako reactor held such a secret?"

"That would seem to explain the increase in the number of monsters over recent years." Red agreed with a flick of his tail.

Sephiroth turned and walked out of the door without a word, letting it slam closed behind him. Angeal straightened up, concern written all over his face that was mirrored on Genesis's.

"I think we should take a break." Aerith declared. "We need some supplies anyway, I'll head into town and get some. Anyone coming with me?"

"Hell, yeah." Barret stood up and stretched, his back cracking. "I need some air after all that heavy shit. Anyone goin' after him?" He gestured towards the door Sephiroth had disappeared through.

Angeal nodded. "Please wait for us to get back. As uncomfortable as it is, I think we need to hear the rest." He followed Sephiroth but closed the door more gently.

Red stretched out, pushing his front paws forwards and arching backwards. "I believe I could use a leg stretch. May I accompany you?"

"Sure," Aerith smiled. "Tifa? Genesis?"

Genesis shook his head, slowly walking over and sitting on the edge of Barret's vacated bed. "I will wait here."

"Me too," Tifa added, drawing her knees back up to her chest again. "A cup of tea would be welcome, though."

"I'll ask downstairs." Aerith squeezed her hand before leaving with Barret and Red. Cloud rubbed the back of his neck.

"I'm going for a quick walk. You ok?" He asked Tifa, who nodded wanly.

The fresh air in Kalm helped to settle Cloud's mind. His head was still aching from the delve into his scattered memories. He walked aimlessly for a while, letting his feet take him in any direction while he continued to sift through his thoughts.

Eventually, enough time had passed and he thought he should probably return. There was, after all, a significant amount of the story he had yet to get to. He shook his head with a sigh, the first part had gone down badly enough. He really didn't want to tell them the rest of it but he knew he needed to. They needed to hear it.

He wandered down a nearby alley and tipped his head back against the wall, his eyes shut. His thoughts drifted idly to Sephiroth as he wondered whether Angeal had managed to find him after all.

He opened his eyes to take in the clear blue sky, not covered with the smog of Midgar or the plate. A slight noise drew his attention to the top of the building next to him and he jumped in surprise.

As though Cloud's thoughts alone could conjure him, Sephiroth himself was sitting on the edge of the roof, a dark silhouette against the cloudy sky.