The last seven years had passed in all but a blur for Cloud. It had been a bitter pill to swallow when Hojo's plan had somehow managed to work and the Barrier had come crashing down. He still didn't understand how something designed to heal things could end up causing so much destruction, but that hardly mattered anymore. The Barrier was gone now, and he'd been the one responsible for giving Hojo exactly what he needed.

At the time, he—and most everyone else—had expected the Ancients to swoop in and wipe them off the face of the planet for what they'd done. For his part, Cloud hadn't been sure if that would be such a bad thing. Except that hadn't happened, of course, and for a time, he'd done his best to survive on his own up until all of that had come to an end—once Tifa's parents learned about what had happened with his mom.

He didn't blame Tifa for it, not when he wasn't entirely sure if she'd said anything to them or not. After all, he knew his mom had been friends with them, so it had only been a matter of time before they'd found out anyway. What he hadn't expected was for them to insist on taking him in. For some reason, they'd seemed to find it completely unacceptable for a nine-year-old to be living on his own, even though he'd been doing a perfectly fine job of it. Mostly.

Living with the Lockharts hadn't been as bad as he'd initially feared it would be. The worst part had easily been the look that was always in Mrs. Lockhart's eyes when she spoke to him—like she was on the verge of tears and wanted to hug him. Everything else had been mostly the same, and he'd been free to do whatever he wanted—mostly staying in his room—as long as he wasn't supposed to be at school.

For its part, school also hadn't been too bad, even if he would have preferred not to go. The other kids had eventually stopped trying to hang out with him, leaving Cloud to focus on what he had to learn and not worry about anything else. Tifa had still occasionally tried to drag him into her circle of friends saying it would be good for him to get to know more people, but he'd always turned her down. They were better off without him anyway.

So, after all that time, it felt like a fog had lifted after Aerith's surprise visit. Initially, when she'd first told him that it wasn't his fault, he'd just gone along with her to try and make her stop worrying. Except he hadn't been able to stop thinking about what she'd said after that, and eventually, he'd realized she was right. Deep down, some part of him had always known what had happened to his mom had been out of his control, but it had been all too easy to allow himself to just shut down and stop caring.

If he was being honest, it was still tempting to stay closed off and allow the world to move on around him. Except Aerith's words kept repeating in his head every time he considered that.

"What do you think your mom would say if she saw you like this?"

He'd made his decision last night. Today he would do better. Today, he would try. Not for himself or even for Aerith, but for his mom. Because he knew she would want him to be happy, even if that seemed like an impossible task. He would start small and build on it, one step at a time, and right now that meant getting some real food inside him.

Walking into the kitchen, Cloud opened one of the drawers and pulled out the sheet of paper Tifa had dropped off with the instructions on how to prepare the meal she'd made back on his birthday. The steps seemed simple enough and she'd insisted it was something he could easily handle so it felt like a promising start. Quickly scanning over the ingredients it was immediately—and unsurprisingly—apparent that he was going to need to buy almost everything required. What even was garlic?

He grabbed his wallet and made his way outside, locking up the house before taking a right to where he knew the nearest market had set up instead of the normal left that led to the food factories. It didn't take long for it to come into sight, and once it did, he briefly considered turning around. There were just so many people swarming around, shouting, and making an incredible amount of noise. Taking a deep breath, he steeled himself, then moved forward, pushing into the crowd.

The press of people around him was immediately disconcerting. Why were there so many? Cloud couldn't recall ever seeing a gathering this large back when he'd been a kid, but no one else around him seemed to find it strange. Eventually, he slowly began to grow more comfortable, learning how to sense the natural flow of the crowd and move with it rather than trying to fight against it. Now he just needed to find what he was looking for.

Cloud was sure there had to be some form of organization that allowed people to figure out where different types of foods were but after spending several minutes trying to understand it, he couldn't figure it out for the life of him. Instead, he wandered around, doing his best to keep an eye out for the ingredients he needed—which proved to be particularly challenging, as he wasn't entirely sure what half of them were. Just as he was beginning to wonder if he needed to ask for help, a loud voice caught his attention.

"Fresh meat! Come and get it before it's all gone! Not much left for today folks, but I've still got a bit to add some extra spice to your next meal!"

Pushing his way in the direction he thought it had come from, Cloud found a medium-sized stand run by a smiling woman who had a variety of meats laid out behind a glass window. Compared to most of the other stands he'd passed by, this one was much less busy with no one waiting to be served. He would have seen that as a bad sign, except true to the woman's word, they did seem to be close to running out so there wasn't an obvious reason for the comparative lack of business.

"Um, hi," he said nervously, walking up to stand across from the owner. "Do you happen to have any steaks left, by chance?"

"I do indeed, and it certainly seems like you could use one. Steaks are pricy these days though, you sure you can afford one?"

Realizing the cost must be what was driving most people away, Cloud nodded. "I think so, how much is it?"

"Single steak will run you five hundred gil."

Cloud's eyes widened slightly. That was half of what he had in his wallet, was meat really that expensive? Making a mental note to thank Tifa once again for his birthday present, he dug the required money out and placed it on the counter. A pleased smile spread across the woman's face as she grabbed a slab of meat and wrapped it tightly in brown paper before swapping it with the coins.

"Glad to be doing business with you. If you ever want more then make sure to drop by in the morning, the good stuff generally sells out pretty fast, you got lucky today."

Nodding his thanks, Cloud tucked the package away into the bag he'd brought with him. With the meat taken care of, all that was left were the green beans and the garlic. Since both the vegetables and the steak needed garlic, he realized that maybe this woman would have some idea what it was. "One last thing, could you point me in the direction of where I could find some garlic?"

"Hmm? Ah, there's an herb and spice shop right around the corner over there," she said, pointing down the street to the right. "Just follow your nose, it'll be impossible to miss."

At first, he wasn't entirely sure what she'd meant about his nose, but as soon as he reached the intersection it hit him—an explosion of smells that was nearly overwhelming but also somehow comforting at the same time. Unlike the meat stall, this shop was packed with customers and had a line of people trailing out into the street. Despite that, it seemed to be moving at a fairly quick pace and it wasn't long before Cloud reached the front where a tall, thin man with glasses looked at him expectantly.

"What can I get for you, sir?"

"Oh. Um, just some garlic, please."

The man frowned softly. "The garlic is over there," he said, pointing to a wooden basket filled with white lumps. "Next time please grab what you need and bring it up with you. How much do you need? You can pay now and then just get it on your way out."

"Only one," Cloud replied, feeling his face heat up as he pulled out his wallet. At least he knew what garlic looked like now.

"That's it? Nothing else? Ten gil then, please."

Surprised at how much cheaper it was, Cloud slid the required money onto the counter where it vanished just as quickly.

"Next!" the man called out, already ignoring Cloud and looking at the person behind him in the line.

Cloud walked over to the basket the man had pointed out and inspected the contents. The garlic was certainly strange looking, like nothing he'd seen before. Just from examining it, he wasn't even sure how it would be used in cooking, but that was something he could worry about once he was back home. Reaching out, he picked one of the chunks at random and dropped it into his bag.

"Thief! Stop that thief!" a woman screamed and all of Cloud's muscles immediately tensed.

Resisting the urge to bolt for it, he frantically looked around to see who had made the mistake, preparing to explain himself. No one was looking in his direction, however, or even paying him the slightest bit of attention. Instead, everyone was craning their necks to look outside where a loud commotion had broken out in the middle of the street. Relaxing slightly, Cloud pushed his way through the crowd to see what was going on. A surge of anger replaced his fears as he saw two Shinra soldiers holding a young boy against the ground. The kid was weakly struggling as one of the men ripped a bag out of the boy's arms and turned to hand it to a woman with a flushed face.

"Sorry about that ma'am, we'll make sure this troublemaker gets the punishment he deserves."

"What am I supposed to do?" the boy yelled, still fighting to break free. "Shinra took my da, snatched him right off the street and he never came back! This is all your fault!"

The people around Cloud laughed, seeming to immediately dismiss the claim, but he frowned. Maybe it was because he was already biased, but he could easily see Shinra doing something like that, not to mention the kid had no reason to make up a story most people clearly wouldn't believe. As much as Cloud wanted to help him, it was clearly a bad idea with two, armed soldiers present so he held himself back, hating every moment of it as he watched them drag the boy away.

Was this what life in Midgar had come to over the past few years? Soldiers abducting people off the streets? It seemed hard to imagine, but after what he'd just witnessed, Cloud wasn't sure. He shelved his concerns for the time being since there wasn't anything he could do about it right away, not to mention he still needed to finish shopping. The final ingredient he needed was the beans and while it was oh so tempting to skip them . . .

"Oh, and don't forget to eat your veggies!"

Sighing, he pushed his way through the crowd to search for them. Unlike the garlic, he knew what beans looked like and there was a huge variety of shops set up all selling wide ranges of more green vegetables than he knew existed. They even seemed to be popular for some horrible reason, with plenty of people stopping to buy things. Picking one of the shops at random, he watched what people were doing to buy what they needed, not wanting to repeat his earlier mistake with the garlic.

Once he was confident that it was a similar manner of self-service before payment, he grabbed one of the plastic bags everyone was using and made his way over to the mountain of green beans. Just looking at all of them was enough to make him second guess himself, but Aerith had insisted and the ones Tifa had made had been pretty tasty. For vegetables. Even so, Cloud settled for a smaller handful before reluctantly doubling it after he noticed another customer eyeing his bag strangely. Bringing it up to the counter he almost hoped it would be too expensive and he'd have a reason to cut back a bit.

"Just the beans?" the woman who owned the shop asked. She set the bag down on a scale for a moment before turning back to Cloud. "That'll come to fifty gil."

All of these beans for that little? Compared to the meat it was basically nothing, which Cloud took as a clear sign that vegetables were indeed horrible and no one valued them highly. He exchanged the coins for the beans and placed them in his larger bag with everything else he'd bought. By this point, he'd grown comfortable enough with the market that it was almost a little tempting to wander around and see if there was anything else he'd be interested in picking up, but he resisted the urge. He already had plans for another trip later this afternoon and he'd likely need all of his remaining money for that purchase.

With all of the food he needed to make lunch purchased, it was time to head back home and do exactly that. He was nervous about how that whole process would end up, but he did his best to stay positive as he made his way home. He could do this. Thankfully, the market was fairly close to his home and it didn't take long before he'd made it back and was unpacking his purchases in the kitchen.

Now it was time for the hardest part—cooking. Deciding to get the worst out of the way first, he began with the beans. Tifa's instructions said to cook them with some oil while stirring vigorously to prevent them from burning. That certainly seemed easy enough, although it wasn't clear exactly how much oil to use. Since they weren't supposed to burn it seemed like using more would be better than less, so he poured in enough that there was a thin layer at the bottom of the pan before adding the beans. Turning on the heat, he immediately started to move them around with a wooden spoon.

It took a while for anything to really happen, but by the time the oil started to bubble none of the beans had turned black so he considered that a success. Now that they were apparently done cooking, the instructions said to steam them by adding the garlic, salt, and water before covering them for a few minutes. Once again, Tifa had left out the exact measurements so he used a palmful of salt and then stopped to stare at the garlic.

Cloud still didn't know what to make of it. Was it a vegetable? Something else? It was white, so it didn't seem like a vegetable, but it also felt more like . . . paper, than anything else. How was this used in cooking? Since he needed some for the steak as well he decided to just cut it in half and go from there. Once the knife sliced through, the garlic revealed its secret—inside there were several small bulbs around the size of his thumb. Making the assumption these were what he was supposed to cook, he added half of them to the beans, wincing slightly as they crackled on contact with the oil.

The final step was to add the water and then cover it so it could steam, so he filled up a cup and dumped it in. There was an immediate reaction as billowing steam erupted out of the pan, causing Cloud to jump backward in surprise. Some of the oil had splashed out of the pan onto the stove, but thankfully none of it had hit him. Tifa hadn't mentioned how dangerous this was! Or he'd messed up somehow, which felt like the far more likely explanation. In any case, there was plenty of steam now so he covered the beans and leaned back against the wall to wait.

All of this was certainly far more effort than just going to a factory and picking up an already made meal which was what he'd been doing ever since he'd gone back to living on his own. Sure, the food hadn't really tasted of much of anything, but that wasn't all that big of a deal. The look of concern in Aerith's eyes, on the other hand, when she'd first seen him had been what made him second guess that. It had been years since they'd last seen each other, and yet she'd immediately asked about what he was eating—not a good sign at all.

Judging that two minutes had passed by now, Cloud shifted the pan off the heat and cracked the lid slightly to let the steam out. With the beans hopefully finished, it was time to start on the steak. Thankfully, the instructions for it seemed far easier. He put a separate pan on the heat, used slightly less oil this time since it seemed like maybe he'd used too much with the beans, and then started coating the steak with salt and pepper.

Once that was done he placed it onto the heat, glad to hear the sizzling noise Tifa had mentioned. After roughly a minute he flipped the steak to do the other side and then added the remaining garlic to the pan. The next step was the only one he wasn't sure about—basting the meat with butter. He'd never heard that word before, and just from the way it sounded nothing jumped to mind. There was only one thing you ever did with butter though: smear it on stuff.

Using a fork, he took the meat out of the pan and transferred it over to a plate so he could evenly coat both sides of it in butter. It was a little tricky since it melted immediately, but he did his best. After it seemed well covered, he placed it back into the pan and finished it off with a few more minutes of flipping it back and forth.

By the time he finished, the kitchen smelled delicious. He took that as an encouraging sign, presumably, if he'd royally messed it up, then it wouldn't be making his mouth water. With the cooking complete, it was time to eat it and see how he'd done. Piling all of the food onto a large plate, he carried it out into the main room and sat at the table.

Cloud decided to start with the less interesting part first—the beans. At least visually, they seemed identical to the ones Tifa had made, although when he speared one on his fork it seemed to be a bit harder. Biting down on it confirmed his thoughts as he crunched through it. Even though that probably meant he'd undercooked them, they still tasted alright—if a bit salty—especially considering what they were.

Not able to wait any longer, he cut into the steak. The first thing he noticed was that unlike Tifa's, his steak was brown all the way through and didn't have any traces of pink inside. That seemed to make it a bit drier and tougher as he chewed, but once again it was still far better tasting than the slop from the factories. Considering this a modest success, Cloud finished off the meal, proud of what he'd mangled to accomplish on his first try despite having clearly made a few mistakes. Tifa had been right, this wasn't so bad after all.

Difficulty aside, there was undeniably the issue of cost—he obviously couldn't just go out and buy a steak every day, much less every week given how expensive they were. At least, not without some form of income. He had an idea for that, however, and with a full stomach, it was time to start working on it. Bringing his plate back into the kitchen, he dumped it into the sink along with everything he'd used to cook and covered them in water. Cleaning could come later. With that taken care of, Cloud made his way back outside. He'd noticed a board with postings down the street on his way back from the market and was curious if it was what he hoped it was. Coming to a stop in front of it, he was pleased to find that it was indeed a job board where people could post bounties.

"Missing Cat. Two hundred gil reward upon safe delivery."

"Rat Infestation. Up to eight hundred gil payment."

"Wyvern Sighting. Warning, extremely dangerous! Three thousand gil bounty."

There were a surprising amount of listings in total, beyond the ones that had jumped out at him, and he imagined there were many more like this in other areas of the city. It wasn't at all surprising to him that Shinra wasn't taking care of people's issues, leaving them to seek help in this manner. It worked out for him, at least. Cloud was more than willing to help people out in exchange for payment, but before he'd be able to do anything along those lines, he needed a weapon first.

The faint sound of clinking metal led him to the nearest blacksmith, a familiar location he and Zack had often visited as kids where they'd watch the smiths make swords and had often talked about someday getting one of their very own. Today was that day. Stepping into the store, Cloud's eyes scanned over the walls, taking in the wide variety of blades and trying to find one he liked.

His eyes immediately narrowed in on a massive, hulking sword that was somehow even taller than he was. Cloud had never seen a weapon so large as he walked closer to get a better look. Unlike the other swords, this one wasn't hung on the wall but rather propped against it—presumably due to its sheer size.

"Can I help you?" a gruff voice called out from behind him.

Half-turning, Cloud recognized the owner of the smithy and gave him a nod. "Yeah, I'm looking to buy a sword. How much is this one?" he asked, gesturing to the giant sword.

"What, that?" The smith shook his head. "I knew it was a mistake to put that monstrosity out. It's hardly a real weapon, more of a failure made my newest apprentice."

"It's awesome," Cloud said, his eyes tracing over it once again. "It looks unstoppable."

"Tell you what," the smith said, a chuckle in his voice. "If you can lift it off the ground then it's yours. Free of charge."

Cloud's jaw nearly hit the floor. "For real?" The man nodded once and Cloud leaped for the weapon, wrapping his hands around the hilt. Taking a deep breath, he tightened his grip and pulled upward with all of his strength.

The sword didn't budge.

Not even the slightest bit as he continued to strain against it. Eventually, he was forced to stop, panting heavily as sweat ran down his face. "You tricked me," he gasped. "No one could lift this thing."

Without hesitation, the smith walked over and lifted the blade with a single hand. "Liftin' it is the easy part. Actually using it as a functioning weapon? Now that I'll admit I'm not sure is possible."

"Someday I'll be able to do that," Cloud said, impressed. "And then I can have it, right?" Now that he knew it was possible, he was determined to train until he could use it.

The smith laughed. "Sure, as long as no one else shows up to buy it before then. For now, let's get you something more your size, eh?"

Cloud followed him to the other side of the room where several smaller swords were arranged across the wall. Reaching up, the man pulled one down and offered the hilt to him. In the smith's hands, it had seemed much smaller, but as Cloud grabbed it he was reminded of the wooden sword he'd trained with as a kid. This was certainly much heavier, but not so much that he couldn't swing it through the air. Using his other hand in addition made it even easier.

"Good, it seems you're at least somewhat familiar, although once you build up some more strength you'll want to only use a single hand. Blade this size isn't meant for two. It should go without saying, but you'll want to be careful swinging that around. Even with a dulled blade, whacking someone with that will still hurt."

Nodding, Cloud tried a few more practice swings before looking up at the smith. "How much is it?"

"Training blade like this will run you four hundred gil. It's the cheapest one we've got, so if that's too much then I'm afraid we can't help you."

"No, no, that's fine!" he hurried to say, pulling out his wallet. It was essentially all of his remaining money, but it was worth it, especially considering it was a sword and it cost less than a steak.

"I'll go ahead and toss in a sheath free of charge," the smith said as he took the money before walking over to a large basket and pulling out a leather case attached to a belt. "This should make it easier to carry around, not to mention you don't want to be walking around with a drawn weapon."

Sheathing the sword reluctantly, it took Cloud a moment to get it properly tied around his waist and then a bit longer to get used to walking with it. The sword kept swinging and bumping into his leg awkwardly, almost threatening to trip him at times, but after a few laps around the smithy, he felt like he'd gotten it mostly under control.

"Thank you," he said, pausing at the entrance. "I'll be back for the other one before long."

"I'm looking forward to it," the smith said with a chuckle.

Stepping back outside, Cloud took a deep breath. He'd woken up this morning with one goal in mind. Not shopping. Not cooking. Not even buying this sword, although it was the most closely related. The wait was over. He was finally ready to set his plan in motion. Determined, he began to make his way toward the center of the city.

It wasn't long until he reached the plaza in front of Shinra Tower. Without hesitation, he strode for the main entrance, only stopping when a guard stepped into his way directly in front of the doors.

"Excuse me, sir. I'll need you to surrender your weapon before I can let you into the tower."

Cloud shook his head. "I'll leave it sheathed, but I'm not giving it to you."

The soldier looked shocked by his reply, the man's mouth opening and closing several times before any words came out. "The rules specifically state that you're not allowed entry with a weapon!"

"That's nice. Still not giving you my sword." Cloud tried to step around him, but the guard matched his movement, using his body to prevent him from going any farther.

"Sir! If you continue to try and force your way inside then I'm going to have to use force!"

"What's going on here?" a vaguely familiar voice called out, and Cloud looked over to find Rufus walking towards them. Behind him were two of the Turks—Reno and Rude.

"Sorry for the commotion, sir," the guard said, snapping into a salute. "This man refuses to surrender his weapon, despite my insistence that no one is allowed to bring one inside unless they work for Shinra."

"Cloud? Is that really you?" Rufus's eyes widened slightly. "It's been years, but you look mostly the same. And I don't mean that in a good way."

Ignoring the insult as well as the smug look on Reno's face, Cloud turned to face the three of them. "I'm just here to see Hojo, can you tell this guard to let me through?"

"Hojo?" Rufus asked, one of his eyebrows raising. Cloud could have sworn a flicker of distaste also flashed across his face, but it was gone too quickly to be sure. "He's a busy man these days. Not really one to welcome uninvited guests."

"He killed my mother," Cloud ground out.

Rufus' eyebrows rose slightly. "Assuming that's true, it sounds like a reason he wouldn't want to see you."

"I'm seeing him. One way or another." Cloud dropped his hand to the hilt of his sword.

A smile slowly spread across Rufus's lips. "Oh, really now? Somehow I doubt that." He snapped his fingers and instantly Reno and Rude stepped forward.

"Well, well, look what the coeurl dragged in," Reno said, snapping out a metal baton. "An ex-Fang."

"One with a new tooth," Rude replied, cracking his knuckles as he began to circle around to Cloud's backside.

Recognizing that the only way this was going to end was with a fight, Cloud unsheathed his blade, holding it up in front of him with both hands. He was forced to move away from the building, towards the center of the plaza as the Turks drew closer.

"Looking a little unsteady with that thing, aren't you?" Reno taunted. "Maybe you should go back to a wooden one."

Not letting the taunt phase him, Cloud stepped towards Reno and swung, aiming for his side. The redhead easily jumped out of the way, snickering. The unfamiliar weight of the sword carried Cloud forward with his swing, making it impossible for him to do anything as Rude stepped in and punched him in the back. Hard.

The blow nearly sent him crashing to the ground, and he managed to stay on his feet only by planting the tip of the sword into the ground to help. Struggling to catch his balance, he returned to a fighting stance and watched the movements of his two attackers. This wasn't going the way he'd imagined it in his head.

"Is that really the best you can do?" Reno asked, shaking his head. "I was kinda looking forward to a rematch, but this is just pathetic, man. You ain't got shit on us."

Instead of attacking again, Cloud continued to wait, keeping his attention split between both of them. Reno moved first, casually stepping closer and swinging his baton at Cloud's chest. Bringing his sword up, Cloud easily parried the weak attack. Except something was wrong. His sword clattered to the ground, his fingers numb and unable to keep their grip on its hilt. It took him a moment to realize what had happened—Reno's baton was crackling, a surge of electricity running along part of its length.

"You're not the only one who's got a new weapon, although mine's a bit fancier than yours. Plus, I actually know how to use it."

Before Cloud could reply, Rude was standing in front of him, his arm pulled back. The punch didn't hurt nearly as much as the fact he could tell Rude had held back most of the force behind the blow. Even so, it was enough to knock Cloud to the ground and send him gasping for breath.

"Take the trash and throw him outside," Rufus said dismissively, turning and walking away. "And don't say anything about this to anyone, it's the least we can do to save him the humiliation."

Cloud tried to get back to his feet but collapsed again, his vision going blurry. "I don't need your pity," he gasped, but if Rufus heard him then he gave no sign.

"Bah. Boss is right, I can't stand to watch this," Reno said, moving to stand over him. Before Cloud could react, Reno's baton whipped down, connecting with the side of his head, and then everything was swallowed by darkness and pain.

Cloud is back! We've seen him from Tifa and Aerith's PoVs, of course, but it's been six whole chapters since we last heard directly from him. Thanks to Aerith's visit, he's decided to start trying again, and that begins with a... fairly poor attempt to mimic the meal Tifa made him. Safety Disclaimer: Please cook like Tifa and not Cloud. Adding water to boiling oil is extremely dangerous and should only be done with very little oil and plenty of caution. He does manage to complete the meal, with undercooked beans and overcooked steak, but it's progress and a good first step! From there, he checks a bounty board that might have some familiar-sounding missions before heading to his true goal: buying a sword. A certain sword makes a brief appearance, but Cloud is far too out of shape and, frankly, not large enough, to use it, so it will have to remain where it is for now... Instead, he buys a training sword and then makes his way to confront Hojo, cause that was totally gonna work out. Oh. It didn't. Whoops. While Cloud's been stuck in limbo, everything else around him has continued to push ahead, and he's going to have to work to catch up. Despite Cloud ultimately getting beaten up, I hope everyone still enjoyed his return!

Next week we'll be checking back in with our favorite Cetra!

Next Chapter: Ambush