"Have you figured out the issue yet?" Cloud asked Barret, who had his head dug into the buggy's engine.

"No!" Barret shouted back.

The group were outside in a canyon and the sun was setting. They had traveled a good distance but the buggy had just broken down and Barret was going through its engine trying to figure out what the problem was. Yuffie, Tifa, and Red XIII went out to see if they could find any sort of civilization nearby.

"If anyone has any ideas feel free to share!" Barret shouted.

"I have an idea!" Tommy exclaimed.

"What is it Tommy?" Cloud asked.

Tommy then put both of his hands next to his mouth and shouted "Like a good neighbor State Farm is there!"

No one appeared as everyone was giving Tommy bizarre looks, Barret even popped his head up to look at Tommy before resuming work on the buggy. Gordon meanwhile was trying to contain his laughter.

"Tommy, it doesn't work like that." Gordon said while trying his hardest not to laugh.

"And I don't think Dio gave us insurance."

"And I don't think that's gonna help us right now either." Barret said, closing the hood.

"If I had to guess, we might have electrical issues."

"Damn." Cloud said.

It was then Red XIII, Yuffie, and Tifa could be seen coming back in the distance.

"Hopefully they found something." Gordon said.

"We're in luck!" Tifa shouted,

"There's a village nearby! We'll push the buggy there and see if they can fix it!"

"Alright." Cloud said, "Let's get to it then."

"We're really gonna push this thing all the way there?" Barret complained.

"Welp you're the muscle Barret, I'm sure you and Cloud can handle it!" Gordon said.

"Not so fast Gordon, you're helping too." Cloud said.

"What?" Gordon said, "I have to help too?"

He then looked at Tommy.

"What about him? Why is he getting a free pass?"

"He'll be on standby in case one of us gets tired." Cloud replied.

"Now stop complaining and start helping."

"Ah fuck." Gordon groaned.

"Are we there yet?" Gordon shouted, as him, Cloud, and Barret were pushing the buggy.

"Just one more mile!" Aerith replied, "You guys got this!"

The three groaned as they pressed on.

After what felt like hours they were able to push the buggy in front of a staircase leading up to the village.

"Now we gotta climb stairs!?" Gordon groaned.

"Quit complaining, this is the least of our worries." Cloud said.

"I'll go first." Red XIII said, as he ascended upwards.

The rest of the group followed.

When they reached the top they were greeted by a village resident, who went over to Red XIII.

"Nanaki, you're back!" The man said.

Red XIII didn't respond, but simply nodded.

"Bugenhagen will be happy to see you! He's up in the observatory!"

Red XIII didn't respond as he went further into the village, but before he climbed up the stairs he turned his head to the man at the entrance

"Let them in, they helped me along the way."

He then began climbing a pair of stairs towards the observatory which sat at the very top of the village.

"Nanaki?" Aerith said.

"Guess that's his real name." Gordon said.

"He also seems kinda different, let's follow up to the observatory."

The rest of the group nodded in agreement as they followed Red XIII up to the observatory.

As the party reached the entrance they saw Red XIII standing outside the entrance, when he saw them he approached them.

"You all made it." He said.

"Yeah we did." Cloud replied, "That guy back there called you Nanaki, where does that come from?"

"That's my real name." He replied, "And this place? This is where I grew up."

He then took a breath.

"My tribe were protectors of both this canyon and the Planet. My mother died protecting this place, the same can't be said for my cowardly father who abandoned us when the Gi tribe attacked. After they both died I became the last of my race and swore to defend this place with my life."

"Are you gonna leave us?" Tommy asked.

"I'm afraid so." Red XIII, "As much as I would like to help you all on your journey to stop Sephiroth and Benrey I must leave you all here."

Tommy turned his head to Gordon.

"Mr. Freeman are we going through Mr. XIII's arc now?" He whispered.

Gordon then slightly turned his head to Tommy.

"Yeah Tommy, something like that."

"Nanaki! Is that you?" A voice from the observatory said.

They turned around and saw an old man with a white beard wearing a blue cloak and spectral glasses.

"Grandpa!" Red XIII replied, "It's been a while."

"That it has!" He replied, "And I see you've brought friends! Why don't you invite them up!"

He then went back into the observatory.

"Come, there is much you can learn from grandpa." Red XII said, as he ascended the staircase leading up to the observatory.

"But only a few of you can come in!" He shouted from the top.

"Alright then." Cloud said, "Aerith, Gordon, come with me on this one."

"You got it." Aerith said, as she and Gordon followed Cloud up to the observatory.

'Why am I almost always tagging with Cloud?' Gordon thought.

As the three entered the observatory, they saw Red XIII and his grandfather in conversation.

"Ah! There you are!" Red XIII's grandpa said as he noticed the pair.

"Nanaki was just telling me about your mission. So you all intend on saving the Planet?"

"That's what we're planning to do." Gordon replied,

"And it's nice to meet you Mr. Uhhhhhhhhhhh-"

"Ah where are my manners! Bugenhagen is my name." He said.

"And I would like the three of you to come with me. There's something I have to show you."

He then went into an adjacent room.

"I'll wait out here." Red XIII said, "Grandpa wants to show his lab, and only three people are allowed at a time."

"Sounds like fun." Gordon said, as the three followed Bugenhagen.

Inside the room was a projector that was aiming upwards at the ceiling, the ceiling itself had a map of what looked like the milky way galaxy. The projector itself was mounted on a lift.

"Come." Bugenhagen said, monitoring for them to step on to the lift.

As they did, the projector turned on and the Galaxy map lit up, the lift then began to ascend.

It then felt like the whole room got bigger as suddenly the galaxy map became a huge 3D image, the platform they were on became bigger too.

"Damn!" Gordon said, clearly impressed,

"Wish I had this in my high school!"

A shooting star then flew by them, and as that happened a group of asteroids we sucked into a black hole.

It was like the whole place had a completely different atmosphere from the rest of the game, and Gordon felt like he never wanted to leave.

'This is probably the best thing I've seen in VR.' He thought.

'Sucks it's only temporary…'

"Now, let's get down to business." Bugenhagen said, floating around the 3D map.

"Eventually all humans on this planet will die, it's just a natural part of life." He said.

"We all know what happens to their physical forms, but what about their spiritual ones?" He pondered to the group.

"Their souls, like their physical forms, merge with the planet. And it's not just limited to humans, all living things are the same in that way."

"What do you mean?" Cloud asked.

"I mean that all of their souls will merge and become a part of the Lifestream. All living things are born and all living things will eventually die and become a part of it. That is the natural part of life. Although there are some exceptions. And it would be best if I showed you."

He then directed the trio's attention to the 3D model of the earth.

On it was a model of a human figure and a tree, both of which dissipated and became particles, one blue, one yellow. The particles then merged and turned green and went into the earth. More different colored particles formed around the earth as Bugentagen spoke.

"Spirit energy as it's called, is the source for life on this planet." Bugentagen said.

"With energy like this it's possible to form other planets as well. Even some…………unconventional."

Gordon swore he noticed Bugentagen slightly glancing at him as he said that.

"Without spirit energy-"

He then put out his hand and all the particles surrounding the earth came to him, as they did the 3D model of the earth started to become black and as all the particles surrounding it disappeared, the earth turned to ash.

The group didn't need to hear the rest to get the message.

"That is essentially the basics of Planet Life." Bugenhagen said.

"So wait." Gordon said,

"If spirit energy is basically the life force of the planet, then has Shinra literally been sucking the life out of the planet?"

"That is correct." Bugenhagen said,

"With every Mako reactor Shinra builds they drain the spirit energy out of our planet to make Mako. All living things are being processed for their needs. And eventually with enough Mako, Shinra will destroy the Planet."

"Fucking bloodsuckers." Gordon said.

Bugenhagen then shut off the 3D map and the lift descended.

"Bugenhagen." Gordon said,

"Before we leave there's something we wanna ask you. When we spoke with Re- I mean Nanaki he said that his father was a coward, do you know what that's about?"

"Nanaki said that?" Bugenhagen asked.

"Yeah, said something about his father abandoning all of you."

"I see…" Bugenhagen responded, placing his hand on his chin.

"Do you know what it's about?" Aerith asked.

"I might." Bugenhagen said, "You all passed by a sealed door on your way up here, correct?"

"Yeah, we did." Cloud replied.

"Then tell Nanaki to meet me there, there's something I need to show him."

Cloud, Gordon, Aerith, and Bugenhagen all made their way to the center of the village, where the rest of the party, including Red XIII, were all sitting and surrounding a bonfire.

"Nanaki." Bugenhagen said, getting Red XIII's attention.

"Your friends told me about what you think of your father. There's something I need to show you."

He then turned to Cloud.

"And I need you along with one other to come with us."

"You got it." Cloud replied, he then pointed at Tommy.

"Tommy, you're coming with me on this one!"

"H-Huh?" Tommy said.

"B-But what about Mr. Freeman? Is he coming too?"

"It'll be fine Tommy, just go with Cloud. I'll be here if you need me." Gordon said.

Tommy then reluctantly got up and went to follow Cloud.

Cloud then looked at Tifa (who happened to be sitting next to Gordon) and silently nodded at Cloud.

This was their best chance at finding out about Black Mesa, and they probably wouldn't get another like this.

Cloud then saw Aerith giving him a stern look, as if telling him to be nice to Tommy.

Cloud sighed as him, Tommy, and Red XIII followed Bugenhagen.

Hours then passed, and Gordon's thoughts began to drift.

'What the fuck am I doing here?' He thought.

'We were supposed to go to Xen. Instead we're in a completely different game, following its story. and besides Tommy we all got separated. What is going on?'

Tifa looked at Gordon as they sat by the bonfire.

'Alright, now or never.'

She took a deep breath.

"What happened at Black Mesa?" She said in a soft tone.

Gordon's eyes lit up as he looked at her, completely caught off guard by the question.

"Oh, u-uh-" He stammered.

"It's alright if you don't want to talk about it, but I can see that whatever happened there is still affecting you and-"

"I know." Gordon said.

"And I know what you're about to say, and you are right: I do need to talk about it, it might help."

Gordon then took a deep breath and rubbed his face.

"It all happened one day. I was late for work and I had an important test I had to do that day."

"What type of test?" She asked.

"We got some alien crystal we were gonna experiment with, and I was tasked with inserting the sample." He continued.

"So I got suited up in what I'm wearing now."

He pointed at his HEV suit.

"And made my way down to the test chamber. That's when I first met Benrey."

"You didn't have any interaction with him prior?"

"Nope, this was the first time I met him. I was heading to the chamber and he stopped me and started asking for my passport. I told him I didn't have it and he just started following me around, saying he needed to see it and to make sure I didn't get into trouble. He even followed me into the chamber!"

Gordon then took a breath.

"And then that's when shit hit the fan. I inserted the alien crystal and then all hell started breaking loose as aliens from another dimension started appearing and attacked us. They killed a lot of people I worked with."

"What about Tommy, Coomer, and Bubby? They were able to survive?"

"Yeah, they're way tougher than they look. You haven't met Coomer or Bubby yet but trust me, they're badasses. I've said this before but without them I probably wouldn't have made it out."

"What happened with Benrey after the experiment failed?"

"He somehow survived the whole ordeal. He didn't really help us much, he just tagged along and made shit as difficult for me as possible. Hell he probably caused the whole ordeal in the first place!"

Gordon took another breath.

"Then soldiers showed up to the facility. At first we thought they were there to rescue us but we quickly found out they were sent to contain the situation and to silence everyone who worked at Black Mesa to prevent the incident from becoming public."

"We're these soldiers with Shinra?"

"Maybe, I don't know it's all kind of a blur to me." Gordon said, rubbing his forehead.

"And we pretty much spent most of the incident fighting aliens and soldiers with little sleep as we made our way to the Lambda Complex. We were told that if we wanted to stop the alien invasion we had to go there. But of course it was the furthest thing from a smooth ride."

He then looked at his gun arm.

"I already told you how I got my gun arm."

"Yeah, you said Benrey had you lured into a room where you were attacked by soldiers, and they cut it off in the process."

"Yup, and I had to deal with a stump of an arm for almost a day and five hours."

"How were you able to live that long without it?"

"Adrenaline? A strong will to live? I really don't know." He said.

"But then we found ourselves in Black Mesa's potion department, and the scientist who worked there gave me a potion that let me have this." He said, still looking at his gun arm.

Tifa wasn't going to question this, she heard about it from Cloud and while it did sound very bizarre, that was the lesser of the things she wanted to know.

"Then we made it to the Lambda Complex. The scientists there were expecting us and had a teleporter waiting and ready to go so we could go to the alien home world and stop the whole ordeal. But….." Gordon paused, unable to think of what to say next.

"But what Gordon?" Tifa asked.

"Ah, I don't really remember." Gordon said, clutching his head.

'Just fake memory loss for now, it'll buy me some time.' He thought.

Gordon then took another deep breath.

"Look Tifa, I know that since I joined you guys I've been keeping a lot from all of you and I admit that I shouldn't be doing that, but I just didn't have full trust in any of you yet." He said.

"And- and I know that.." He paused, hesitating on what he was gonna say next.

"I know that there's some things I know about Cloud that I shouldn't know and I know that you're probably wondering how I know them. And I wish I could tell you but…" He paused as Tifa looked on at him, hanging on to what he was gonna say next.

"I can't. I know that isn't the answer you want to hear but I need you to trust me on this. Which brings me to another thing I wanted to discuss. I wanted to bring this up with Cloud but I'll tell you first."

Gordon then turned to completely face Tifa.

"I'm gonna make Cloud an honorary member of the science team, it's what we called ourselves during the incident. I know that doesn't sound like much but trust me, we were a tight knit-ish group during Black Mesa, and-"

He then leaned in.

"I want Cloud to get through this just as much as you do, I'm even willing to risk my life on it."

Tifa looked at Gordon, unsure of how to answer that.

They've only known Gordon for a few days and he's saying that he's willing to sacrifice himself to protect Cloud? But she could tell in his face that he was deadly serious.

"Alright." She said, "I'll trust you on this. But there is something I need to ask you too."

She then turned to face Gordon.

"Do you know about what happened at Nibelheim?"

It took a few moments before Gordon replied.

"Yes."

A few moments of silence passed, as they both looked at each other. Tifa gripped her knees.

"Then do you know-"

"Hey Mr. Freeman! We're back!" Tommy's voice said, as him and Cloud came over to the group.

Gordon looked over Tifa and waved.

"I'll be right there Tommy." Gordon said as he got up.

"What were you gonna say?" Gordon asked Tifa.

"Oh, uh nothing, just wondering if you knew about Sephiorth's role in it." She said,

Gordon nodded as he walked over to Tommy and Cloud, Tifa got up as well.

'That's not what I wanted to ask, but I'll need to find out eventually if he knows about His role in the incident.' She thought.

"Hey Tommy, Cloud." Gordon said, nodding to the both of them, "There's something I want to talk to you both about."

"What is it?" Cloud asked.

"This is something that I've been thinking about for a while: I think that you would make a great addition to the science team and I want to make you a member."

"Science team?"

"Yeah, it's what me, Tommy, Bubby, and Coomer called ourselves during the Black Mesa incident. You would only be an honorary member if that's alright."

Cloud stood there, thinking of if he should take Gordon up on his offer. He looked at Tifa who gave him an approving nod.

"Alright." He said, "I'll take you up on that offer."

"Very cool!" Gordon said, "Would that be alright with you Tommy?"

"Y-Yeah!" Tommy said, happiness in his voice.

Gordon then gave Tommy a confusing look.

'Huh, not too long ago Tommy wasn't Cloud's biggest fan. I wonder what changed.'

30 minutes earlier…

Cloud and Tommy were making their way through the caves of where Bugenhagen took them to rejoin the rest of the group.

They had just learned from Bugenhagen that Red XIII's father had sacrificed himself to protect Cosmo Canyon from the Gi tribe.

Bugenhagen told the both of them to leave so they could have a private talk.

"So Mr. XIII's dad wasn't a coward?" Tommy asked.

"Doesn't seem like it." Cloud said, "But this is probably the last time we'll ever see him."

"Oh." Tommy said, a sad look forming on his face.

As they walked along, Cloud took a breath, getting ready to ask Tommy the big question.

"Hey Tommy." Cloud said, coming to a stop.

Tommy stopped as well and turned to face Cloud.

"Yeah?" He asked.

"There are some things I want to talk to you about." Cloud said,

"First, I wanted to say I'm sorry."

"For what?" Tommy asked.

"For the way I treated you when we first met. I shouldn't have snapped at you like that and you didn't deserve it in the first place."

"It's okay Mr. Strife." Tommy said.

"No it's not." Cloud continued,

"You probably had a lot happen to you at Black Mesa and it was insensitive of me to treat you like that without knowing."

"Yeah stuff happened." Tommy replied, "But we all got through Black Mesa okay."

"What happened there if you don't mind me asking?"

"A lot." Tommy said,

"Me and Mr. Freeman along with Dr. Coomer and Dr. Bubby had to fight a lot of aliens to escape. We also fought the entire United States military too."

"The United States military?" Cloud asked

'That doesn't sound like Shinra.'

"Yeah but we wiped them all out, except for that one guy who took my dog hostage."

"One of them took Sunkist hostage?"

"Yeah but we were able to save them and I sent them home, the guy escaped though." Tommy said,

"But I haven't seen or heard from Sunkist so I've been looking for them."

"How did you all escape?"

"We all jumped into a teleporter that would've sent us to the alien home world. But we somehow wound up here."

"How did you all get separated?"

"Uhhhh-" Tommy stammered.

"I don't know but this is the first time I've seen Mr. Freeman in five years."

"Five years?" Cloud asked, "You've been away from him for that long?"

"Yeah and I haven't seen Dr. Coomer or Dr. Bubby in that time frame either."

"I see." Cloud said, "What about this alien home world, did you ever get there?"

"No." Tommy replied.

Cloud stood there and pondered what Tommy just said.

He doubted that Tommy was lying but a lot of what he told Cloud didn't add up, and he still needed to hear Gordon's side from Tifa.

"Alright." Cloud said, walking closer to Tommy.

"You've been through a lot and I can relate. Back when I was with SOLDIER I witnessed my hometown get destroyed by Sephiroth. And I just…" Cloud paused at what he was going to say next.

"I just wanted to let you know that if you need anything, I'm here."

He then awkwardly held out his fist to Tommy.

After several awkward moments of Tommy looking at Cloud's fist as Cloud getting more and more anxious as he stood their with his fist out, then a small smile formed on Tommy's face as he raised his fist and slightly bumped it against Cloud's.

Cloud silently breathed a sigh of relief as he lowered his hand.

"Alright." Cloud said, continuing to walk.

"Let's head back to the others."

"Okay!" Tommy said excitedly, as he followed Cloud.

Cloud, Gordon, and the others made there way through town towards the exit.

Barret ,with help from the village's residents, was able to fix the buggy and they were set to continue their journey.

"So Red XIII isn't coming with us?" Aerith asked.

"You heard what he said, it's his duty to protect this land." Cloud replied.

They were at the staircase leading towards the buggy when they heard a familiar voice calling for them to wait, they all turned to see Red XIII running towards them.

"Don't think you're leaving without me!" Red XIII shouted, as he ran down the stairs to the buggy.

"Guess he changed his mind." Barret said, as he walked down the stairs. Everyone else followed with Cloud and Gordon right behind.

"Don't leave yet you two!" A voice said.

Cloud and Gordon turned around and saw Bugenhagen floating over towards them.

"Cloud, I just want to thank you for everything you've done for Nanaki so far, please continue to look after him." He said.

"That we'll do." Cloud replied, "Why the sudden change of heart?"

"Let's just say he did some growing up." Bugenhagen replied.

Cloud shrugged as he turned and went down the staircase, Gordon was about to follow suit when Bugenhagen put a hand on his shoulder to stop him.

"Don't go yet Mr. Freeman." He said.

"Huh? What is it?" Gordon asked.

He then noticed Bugenhagen had a serious look on his face.

"I know what you are, along with your friend Tommy."

"Huh?" Gordon said.

"I know that you both along with Benrey are not from this world, and you came here under circumstances beyond my comprehension." Bugenhagen said.

Concern and worry started to bubble up inside Gordon.

"I-I-" Gordon stammered.

'Fuck! this guy knows I'm not from the game, is he just like Coomer? What the fuck am I gonna do!?'

Gordon's thoughts were racing as he started at Bugenhagen

"Well what are you gonna do?" Gordon said, trying to sound calm but panic was clearly in his voice.

A few tense moments passed.

"Nothing." Bugenhagen replied.

Gordon didn't know if that was a relief or another concern.

"But you should go." Bugenhagen said, "You have this world to save at least."

Gordon then stared at Bugenhagen for a few moments before descending down the staircase.

'Fuck fuck fuck! What did that mean!?'

The buggy was making its way through a grassy plain. They were still heading west in pursuit of Sephiroth and Benrey and were coming up on Cloud and Tifa's hometown: Nibelheim.

"We're almost there!" Cloud shouted from the driver's seat, with the town coming into range.

"Mr. Strife, didn't you say this place got burnt down?" Tommy asked.

"Yeah I did why-"

But as they got closer to Nibelheim, he saw it:

The town was in pristine condition, as if nothing happened.

"Uh, Tifa." Cloud said.

"What is it?" She asked, as she went to the front.

"Look."

When Tifa saw the town, shock was etched on her face, as if she saw a ghost.

"H-How?" She asked, barely getting the words.

Gordon meanwhile looked up front then back down at the ground.

'Oh boy.'He thought.

His ears then began to slightly ring.

"Gordon…."

A voice was heard in his head, it was faint but it sounded dark and almost demonic.

'What the fuck was that?' He thought.

But the ringing in his ears stopped before he could pinpoint the voice.

'Fuck, I really don't need this right now…'