"-" conversations
{-} personal thoughts
italic flashbacks

[CHAPTER 1: THE LAST PAGE AND THE FIRST]
[PART 2: SOMETIMES A MINOR CAN BECOME A MAJOR PROBLEM]
16/4/99

The day was a gorgeous as the dawn promised. The clear blue sky with puffy white clouds chasing each other across the horizon. The sun allowed its golden rays to softly caress the earth's surface. Foamy waves gently sweeping the sandy beach with their snowy flecks. The sea was calm. Its waters were a delicious shade of bluish green. The early afternoon wind lazily blowing through the sea carrying with it the scent of salty seawater.

A few kilometers away from Fort Condor, a quaint little house could be seen. It sat on the near the edges of a cliff. It’s windows gazing at the wide expense of water far away. Pretty wild flowers grew along the borders of the wooden fence surrounding the house. Although the fence was low, it served its purpose in keeping stray animals out of the area. The house itself looked new and well taken care of. But as the saying goes "do not judge a book by its cover" proved right once again for inside the house a ghastly mess could be seen.

Cloud Strife yawned finally rousing himself from his sleep. His aching muscles screamed in protest when he carefully rubbed his sleepy eyes and stretched. The blue eyes narrowed into a slight wince as his brain registered the pain that was shooting up his nerve system. He had been helping the nearby villagers in getting rid of some monsters wandering around the area. Surprisingly the whole pack put up quite a fight but gradually Cloud managed to wear them out. Those years of hard training paid off after all.

He raked his fingers through the messy blonde hair trying to put it back into order. As always, the blonde mess he called hair ignored his feeble attempts. Cloud sighed a little wearily and slipped out of bed.

His gaze fell onto the broad crystal sword on the floor. For a moment he stared the Ultima weapon lying in the middle of the room. Cloud remembered how tired he was when he got home and how late it was after laying the stubborn monsters to rest.

In the middle of the night, or if he rightly put in the early morning, he had neglected his stomach and dumped the Ultima weapon onto the floor. After that he immediately disposed himself on the bed allowing his tired muscles to rest.

So now he was awake...with his stomach demanding something edible or it would threaten a disastrous gastric.

Hastily, the blonde stored the broad crystal sword in a cupboard. He then made his way towards the kitchen skillfully avoiding the "obstacles" on the floor. It was a skill he obtained from long practice. Since he lived alone he had to clear his own mess, which if one looked at the state of his house, did not do so as frequently enough to keep it moderately clean.

Once in the kitchen he eyed the kitchen stove wearily. When he was a Shinra trooper, it was compulsory that the troopers could actually cook a decent enough meal to keep himself alive. It was easy, a bonfire, a saucepan and anything that looked as though it was not poisonous or possibly dangerous to mankind. Or in other words the trooper's stomach.

That was the cooking and survival training as far as it went.

Cloud blinked at the stove again. Was it his imagination or did he just see the stove smirking at him. He shook his head and fervently rubbed his eyes.

{Okay, I am sleeping early tonight}

Carefully, he turned on the gas and lit it. Many times before Cloud had told himself it was much easier to cook on a stove than a bonfire; his fellow troopers once told him.

But after the fateful incident among others that almost burnt down his entire house, Cloud was positive that cooking applicant had a grudge against him. Before he could even cook something his stomach could digest, a well-known stench rose into the air. Cloud snapped out of his reverie to see a blackened meal...fried extra crispy.

{Dammit, building this house was much easier!}

Cloud sighed at the mess, dumping the pan into the basin. He was obviously not gifted in cooking among other domestic chores. The blonde was so bad at his chores it wasn’t funny. Cloud allowed a half amuse smile to cross his features while remembering Cid’s response to his woeful confessions about his so-called ‘skills’. The captain was practically rolling on the floor laughing hysterically.

For the whole day, Cid would not stop cracking jokes about his certain ‘gift’ in cooking. Not before long, Barret decided to join in the fun. Cloud had made a mental note never to tell the Highwind captain anything related to cooking in the future. He also decided that the easy 1-2-3 microwave oven was his new best friend.

The blonde ex-trooper settled for a bowl of cold cereals, again.

After getting through the usual breakfast routine, Cloud gathered his wits and walked off to the laundry room which in his personal opinion the ‘room of hell’.

The room got its nickname due to the ‘rather small’ accident that revolved around a miniature flood and the shrinkage of his favorite clothes. As much as Cloud hated the kitchen stove, he would gladly dismantle the washing machine without a second thought.

Preferably using his ultimate limitbreak, the omnislash.

The blonde pondered how did Tifa got her chores done without any unfortunate mishap. The fact that maybe he was jinxed when it came to housework crossed his mind several times. It seemed that fate always managed to somehow make life uncomfortable for him in one way or another. If it didn't bother him in a major way, it pestered him in little things that summed up to be a total annoyance.

For a moment Cloud wondered if the male population was also as unfortunate in domestic chores as he was.

{If they were, instant noodles would have been categorized as a rare item in the discovery channel and owners of laundry shops would be billionaires}

Taking a deep breath, he was about to open the laundry door when his PHS rang.

Cloud released the breath he was holding and if not, scrambled away from the laundry room. Some monsters were best left unprovoked and some chores were best left alone. He ignored the tiny voice calling him "chicken" from inside his head.

The blonde ex-trooper gazed at the state of the living room. He blinked wondering how in the world did his living room managed to get so messy. Cloud toyed with the idea of getting himself a tractor to mow out the PHS.

Lucky for him, the ringing tone of the machine gave him a pretty good hint where it was. In a few seconds, Cloud peeked under a stack of books to find the PHS glaring at him. He picked it up, ignoring the fact that the whole stack of magazines tumbled onto the floor adding to the mess.

"Hello? Cloud here."

"Hi, are you sleeping? You sure took your time"

A smile fleeted across his face when he heard the familiar voice of his friend who was now the head of the Shinra cooperation. Reeve was also making good progress it seemed from the papers he read. From time to time, Cloud picked up news about what Reeve had been doing to help smooth out problems that popped out after Mako usage was banned.

Shinra’s image in the eyes of the public was already rather high. There were actually some people who now thought of Shinra as leaders instead of some madmen that were trying to conquer the entire world.

However it was still funny hearing Reeve’s real voice instead of the oddly cute mog’s.

"Yo, Reeve. How is Neo-Midgar doing?"

More often than not, Cloud caught himself wishing that he could go back in time when the whole gang were still traveling all over the world in their quest for peace. He sorely missed their company. In that short space of time, he felt complete and whole. When the world was at stake, it was easy enough to dismiss his own personal problems and feelings. At that time to consider such details were petty and selfish.

But now when he had nothing else to worry about except his own life, the blonde ex-trooper found out he was not used to handling such delicate matters. Cloud stared thoughtfully into a space.

After the long journey to the planet’s core, Cloud settled down and slipped into a person’s normal everyday routine. He had enough money to ensure he lived comfortably so he accommodated his house with a few luxuries he could afford.

Cloud was reasonably happy with the way his life was going. There was the tranquil feeling of peace and contentment he felt every day. Although there were still undeniably certain things that made him uncomfortable in his now more or less stable living.

Firstly it had to be the empty feeling he felt. It lingered at the back of his mind all day. Sometimes Cloud managed to ignore it but it persisted on being acknowledged. A void in his soul refusing to be filled up. The silent ache that hovered, never quite vanishing no matter what he did. Cloud tied it up with Aerith’s death.

After she left his life, he felt a deep regret for not being able to protect her even though he knew it was not his fault. The fierce pang of unmeasurable guilt assaulted him before slowly ebbing away to this now ever-present emptiness he was enduring. Unable to deal with it, Cloud shoved it to the edge of his consciousness hoping time would help close the empty gap.

Next would have to be the dreams that he was encountering almost every night. Dreams of the past that never quite fitted into his memories. They were always bizarre, hazy and filled with mixed emotions. That particularly striking resemblance in each dream was the only connection Cloud could make out.

Other than that he could not remember much except the strong emotions that contradict each other while a feeling of great loss quietly presented itself at the background. Almost mindless rage battled with piercing guilt in his dreams. Cloud sometimes was almost torn between his own feelings. The sheer sense of loss also made Cloud intensively uneasy. Like snips of broken jigsaws, they made his head spin trying to piece them together.

Cloud found it rather troubling.

{The sense of guilt could be linked up to Aerith’s death but the rest? }

{What about the dreams? What do they mean?}

Somehow he could not concoct any rational explanation for it. As experience as he was in leading others, he was definitely not scoring any points in leading himself to the correct way he wanted to live. With such intense and misleading emotions that was building up slowly but surely, Cloud predicted it was going to be incredibly hard to keep life peaceful and serene in the near future.

Reeve’s voice pulled him out of his thoughts. The Shinra president told him about the dramatic increase of monsters in Nibelheim. Cloud silently shook his head as Reeve told him about the monsters appearing out of nowhere. Unpleasantly he remembered the oh-so-recent set of monsters he fought the day before.

{Did they come from the same pack?}

The startling blue eyes narrowed as he silently stored the information Reeve was telling him for later reference. His past experience never failed to show him that even a small piece of information could be proven vital during battle.

"Cloud, there might be something going on in Nibelheim" Reeve said half buried in his mountain of work. "I don’t know what it is about. The only scrap of information is that Vincent is injured because of some monster attack. Do you think you could check it out?"

Unknowingly he thought of the exact question Reeve had asked himself not so long ago.

{What kind of monster could stand up to Chaos?}

Carefully the ex-trooper went through every single Reeve had said. The statement perked Cloud’s curiosity and old memories. For an instant he could almost smell the fresh mountain air with the unforgettable tinge of salt water. The villagers……

{The heavy smoke and the fire…with crimson blood all over the floor…}

Cloud remembered once not to long ago where the bloody carnage took place. He closed his eyes, banishing the sight and pulled himself to the present.

{Strange things happening. So it all comes back to Nibelheim all over again}

Reeve felt slightly guilty for asking the blonde ex-trooper this favor but there was no further options. The rest of the group was busy doing their own duties. He himself could not take on the job however much he wanted to. There was too much workload to handle with.

He tapped his pen nervously on the desk. Reeve fully understood if Cloud would declined what he was asking of him to do. There were still painful memories that have left deep scars, which his friend had not managed to heal yet. The head of Shinra once again cursed his work for not leaving him the choice.

"Don’t worry" the blonde reassured the Head of Shinra, "I think Old Nick and I can take a quick ride over to Nibelheim"

Reeve sighed in relieve. "Thanks. I really appreciate it"

{At least that’s one thing off my list}

Putting down the communication gadget, he glared at the workpile in front of him.

{Now I just have a couple of millions left to go}

The end of Part 2 of Chapter 1

NOTE TO ALL READERS

Please be noted that the story takes place 6 months after the game. There is also a YAOI content. So to all readers who do not approve to such pairing or dislike the idea, do not read anymore than chapter 4 or 5. The authors will not entertain any flames or complains concerning the yaoi pairing/pairings involved in the fanfic.

Thankyou