"-" conversations
{-} personal thoughts
italic flashbacks

[CHAPTER 1: THE LAST PAGE AND THE FIRST]
[PART 4: CORRUPTED INNOCENCE]
16/4/99

A steady drip of mako could be heard echoing through the long, dark tunnel. Cloud grimaced, hastily taking his hand away from the cold wall. His skin burnt painfully with the familiar sensation of mako. The greenish liquid seemed to be seeping into the entire place.

Cloud realized there must be hundreds of pipes pumping mako to wherever this tunnel was heading. The thought gave him the chills. He clenched the broad sword in his hands tighter. In his ears, the soft hum of machines was crystal clear. It was no doubt that there was another secret lab hidden somewhere at the end of this dark passageway. The blond trooper stopped when he arrived at a wooden door without a handle.

A rather solid looking barrier that stood between him and something he might not want to see. Cloud sheathed his buster sword back. There was no way he could open the door with only one hand.

Eyeing the heavy looking thing doubtfully, the obvious way was to push it open. At the back of his mind, something fluttered fleetingly before disappearing into the forbidden depths. Cloud paused for a second to retrieve it.

Unfortunately all he remembered was emptiness.

Cloud scowled darkly. If it was possible, the blonde did not want to know was behind those walls. Already, there was bad vibes vibrating through the door. It was so strong he could almost see them. "Ah, to hell with it" he murmured, scolding himself for being a coward.

Slowly, he raised his hands to push the door open. Cloud stopped. Something emerged, tickling his conscious mind, he remembered.

He glanced upwards expectantly and reached up. His fingers outlined the hidden hole with practiced ease.

As soon as his hands touched a small panel cleverly concealed behind a stone, the door slid open. Bright neon light sliced through the darkness. Cloud stepped into the spacious room without hesitation. The feeling to this room was familiar, he been here before, but something was not right.

Mako mingling with a strange smell invaded his nostrils. Blue eyes blinked once adjusting to the dim light before widening in terror.

{No....not again}

----------------------------------------------------------

~RRRRRRRIIIIIIIIIIINNNNNNNNNNGGG!~

Tifa paused in taking a taste of Elmyra’s delicious stew. Instantly, everyone at the dinner table stopped eating to stare at the offending object. The PHS, oblivious of the annoyed stares it was getting, continued to shriek in a shrill tone. Barret got up from his place at the head of the table.

Muttering a few obscene words, the dark skinned man picked the gadget up. For a moment from the look of his face, Tifa thought he was about to simply throw the thing out of the window.

"Yo, Barret here" he snapped, obviously in a foul mood. There was a short silence in the air. Tifa glanced curiously at the agitated man from her seat.

"Dammit Cid, you better have a DARN GOOD REASON for interruptin’ me during dinner"

Tifa winced at his choice of words. Even though she was used to it, the dark haired girl quickly looked at Marlene who was peacefully eating her meal. Apparently the kid was ignorant to the harsh words her father was barking down the phone. Elmyra caught Tifa’s eye. Both of them shook their heads silently in agreement.

‘Sometimes Barret could be a bad example for Marlene’, Tifa mussed feeling a little more than amused.

A slam accompanied with a loud curse caused her to jump. Tifa shot Barret who was striding back into the dinning table a slight glance.

"What did Cid want?"

Barret paused in his cursing. His face was grim "There is some really bad news"

"Bad news?" Tifa inquired lightly although she had a gut feeling about what Barret was about to say was bad, really bad.

" Damn Cid found something in North Crater" Barret placed the PHS on the table pushing his still partially filled plate away. "Come on, we gotta go"

Tifa looked confused. "Go where? What did Cid find?"

The dark skinned man turned around to face her. Tifa never thought that Barret’s face could look so stern yet so angry. She saw him wore that expression only once. When Sephiroth took the black materia from Cloud....

{No, it couldn’t be}

"Cid found Sephiroth’s masamune near the tips of North Crater" Barret’s tone was neutral.

"But....t-that’s not possible" Tifa cried out "We KILLED HIM"

Elmyra took Marlene out of the dinning room as silently as possible so not to disturb the two. Barret nodded his approval at the elder lady before turning back to Tifa.

"Damn right we did"

"So why?..." The brown eyes narrowed "Maybe the masamune was carried out by the lifestream.."

Barret stuffed the PHS into his pocket. "Maybe and maybe not. Right now we need to get our asses to Neo-Midgar. Cid will meet us there."

Tifa looked up at him, worriedly. "Is Sephiroth still.....?"

Somehow she couldn’t bring herself to complete the sentence. It was terrifying to think of him being among the living and creating havoc once again.....and Cloud. Her eyes widen.

{Will Sephiroth try to wreak his revenge on Cloud?...}

"Sephiroth? Alive? I dunno but Reeve might have the answer" replied Barret. "Or I will skin his sorry ass" he added under his breath.

The duo collected their weapons and loaded them with materia. The chocobos stamped impatiently on the dusty ground. Tifa stared out into the wide ocean that separated her and Neo-Midgar. She felt a forbidding about all that was happening right now. A slightly wind stirred the brown hair.

{Cloud}

In Nibelheim, the sky was dark and the mountains loomed over the small village. A low rumble of thunder could be heard.

------------------------------------------------------------

"No"

"No"

In his desperate attempt to get away from the vision in from of him Cloud backed away. Unable to tear his gaze away from what was in front of him, Cloud tripped over a wire and slammed into a large control panel. The machine gave out a little buzz. A faint sound of metal scrapping against metal echoed on the hard cement. From the far side of the room, an unearthly growling could be heard.

Far away, human screams of horror and panic spilled out into the evening air as hell broke loose. Lightening flashed, black clouds gathered in the sky.

----------------------------------------------

In a large empty office room overlooking a rapidly growing town, a desperate voice called over the static.

"REEVE! WE NEED HELP! THEY ARE ----........."

-----------------------------------------------

In a conference room, not far from the Cargo area, Yuffie sat on a chair with her hands on her head. Due to the air turbulence from upcoming storm, the large airship was rather unsteady. The ninja girl decided for the hundred time she would never get into Highwind again. Looking at the plush red carpeting at her feet, her stomach gave a groan. It’s owner groaned as well.

{Dammit! I HATE travelling}

During her thoughts of blowing Highwind up into smithereens, an unusual sound caught her attention. Yuffie’s gaze flew towards the small airtight window beside her. Firmly telling her stomach to behave she glanced out into the horizon.

All she could see was the evening sky with it’s setting sun staining the clouds dark crimson. Yuffie looked again. One particular cloud seemed to have an irregular black patch, which seemed to be growing. At first she thought her eyes was playing a trick on her.

An optical illusion was the just polite word for hallucination.

Yuffie snorted and was just about to turn away when a gut feeling pressed her to glance out of the window again. The ninja girl shrugged blaming it on curiosity. Seeing there was no harm in indulging her curious nature, she peeked out of the window.

"What in the world....??"

It wasn’t her imagination. She realized something that made her skin crawl. The patch was growing because......it was coming nearer. This time the ninja girl’s face turned pale for another reason.

{It’s heading towards us!}

She backed away from the window; her gaze still glued onto the ever-growing patch of darkness.

"CID!!"

Yuffie ran out of the room, yelling the Highwind captain’s name.

"CID!"

----------------------------------------------------

"Turn back! Turn back!"

Cid spun around at the sound of Tifa screaming through the PHS. "What the hell?" he demanded; grounding out a cigar. A frown graced his forehead as he snatched up the gadget from his belt.

"Nibelheim! Cid, you’ve got to turn back!" It sounded as though the girl was on the verge of being hysterical. Her voice was so shrill it made Cid winced. The night air blew onto his face. Cid frowned, standing on the deck.

What was that sound? It was the same thing he heard that afternoon while he was with Yuffie.

"Tifa, would you calm the hell down and-"

"Cid! Go to Nibelheim! Quick! Something’s wrong!"

"Just what in the HELL are you talking about" Cid said feeling quite exasperated. He couldn’t understand much from Tifa’s panicky babble. Bad enough her voice was on extra high. He could only make out the word Nibelheim. Wasn’t there supposed to be a thunderstorm predicted over at Nibelheim, he wondered absently. It would be crazy trying to fly through a thunderstorm.

A slight sound made its presence heard again. The Highwind captain paused to listen. Wind whipped around his ears. It howled loudly but another sound overrode it.

{....the sound of wings flapping sounds....as though.....it’s-...getting nearer?}

Tifa’s voice cried out from the PHS. "Cloud contacted me. We need to get to Nibelheim! There are monsters everywhere!"

"Whoa! Slow down! Monsters? You kidding me, girl?" Cid’s gaze skittered over the horizon. The sun was painting the sky red but far to the right he could see lightening flashing. Thunder rumbled not far away where the clouds gathered.

"Dammit, Cid! Will I be kidding you at a time like this! There might be PEOPLE DYING over there!"

"What?! SHIT!! DAMMIT!" Cid snapped up as rain suddenly started pouring on him.

{Hell with the sounds!}

"Fine, I will meet you over at Nibelh-!!" Highwind jerked violently to one side causing its captain to lose his balance. His footing slipped on the wet deck as rain pounded on the airship.

In a split second, his world was spinning wildly as he was thrown to the banister. The PHS fell from his grasp and disappeared into the heavy canopy of a jungle a few thousand meters below. The Highwind felt air swoosh out of his lungs when he hit the hard metal bar. Looking down, he realized how high he was.

He jerked his head away when he saw something flashing across his face. A neat cut sliced across his cheek. Crimson liquid oozed out of the small wound. The sound of wings flapping was unmistakable. Cid looked up. At first all he saw was the dark sky then lightening flashed. Far below him, the Highwind captain could hear the screams of panic from his pilots but he could only stare.

--------------------------------------------

Cloud didn’t feel a thing until it hit him. The impact was so strong; it sent him flying through a glass tank. Thick glass surrounding the cylindrical tank that sat in the middle of the room shattered into tiny fragments of sharp crystals. His buster sword flew out of his grasp and clattered uselessly on the floor. The blonde ex-trooper managed a gasp as he banged on the hard wall across the room. Mako mixed with blood covered his vision. Cloud could only make out a dark figure in front of him.

More out of instinct than luck, the youth leaped to his right, narrowly escaping a lethal blow. Unfortunately another blow caught him on the right arm. A razor sharp blade sliced deeply into the skin.

Feeling very much like a rag doll, the blonde slammed into a wooden desk causing it to tip over. Cloud wiped his eyes and clutched his injured arm. He could hear papers fluttering and glass breaking. Along the edges of the threatening growl, Cloud thought he could distinctly hear people screaming. Ignoring the cool drench of water on his arm along with the sharp pain that followed it, Cloud trained his eyes on the beast in front of him.

It was definitely incredibly ugly. Dark brownish skin with gruesome streaks of green and red running down its sides. It’s mane was black with crimson falling wildly along the lean savage back. Saliva dribbled down the foaming mouth. It reminded him of one of the monsters he encountered in the Shinra lab. The blonde youth could feel its lust for fresh blood, for the kill, the pain. Bloody red eyes glared at him. Cloud startled. Was there a twinge of glowing green in those blood-shot eyes? His feet crunched on a broken test tube.

A blur caught his eyes. The blonde dodged the incoming blow.

{Shit! Damn thing is FAST!}

Cloud’s gaze flew towards the buster sword across the room then to the creature that looked as though it was about to pounce at him. He realized he had two options, one was to sit there like an idiot and wait for the beast to attack or jump through the broken glass tank to get his sword. The jagged glass did not seem inviting.

{Talk about being between the devil and the deep blue sea}

A split second before the creature leaped to tear him into little pieces with the razor sharp fangs; Cloud dove for his weapon. He winced as he felt the sharp edges of the broken glass rip through his armor, cutting into the skin. Thankful he didn’t get torn into two, Cloud skidded painfully on his knees to a halt. His skin screaming in abuse from the careless landing on sharp, broken glass. Cloud felt the warm wetness soaking his clothes and figured he was bleeding pretty badly.

Quickly grasping the hilt of his buster sword and casting a slow spell in one fluid motion. Dumping a cure spell on himself, he dodged a few well-aimed slashes.

{Okay, I can manage. It’s only FIVE TIMES as fast as I am!}

After a few hits and spells, Cloud shifted his blade again. A frown fleeted through his face as he moved his right arm. Blood tickled staining the dark uniform almost black. The creature seemed realized his distraction and swung it’s spiked tail at Cloud. Its speed was uncanny. He dodged, rolling to the doorway. When he was about to get a swing at the creature, intense pain assaulted his nerves. Cloud hesitated which was his ultimate mistake.

Suddenly, Cloud found himself held paralyzed. The azure eyes widen in understanding. It was a trap; and he fell into it. Cursing himself for being so stupid, Cloud watched helplessly as the creature circled around him. The bloody red eyes stared hatefully at him. It rose its sharp claws....then...stopped.

An eerie howl rose outside.

Growling, the beast left the room with surprising speed. Cloud blinked as soon as the spell wore off.

{What the hell?}

Cloud unable to help it, sank bonelessly onto the floor. Summoning all his energy he cast another cure spell on himself to stop the bleeding. Already his clothes smelled of the rusty red liquid.

Touching the wound that was rapidly fading on his arm due to the cure spell, he frowned. Something felt not right. He could still feel the stinging coldness on his skin or was it inside his skin? Didn’t something dripped onto the wound just now? Somehow he couldn’t remember. All he recalled was the creature hitting him so hard that he slammed into the table. And.....

{ a....broken test tube.....filled with..?}

Another nagging question arose from the chaotic depths. Why was the creature so fast? And so strong? For some reason he couldn’t figure out an answer. Maybe he was still in shock. The need of getting out of this place was overpowering. It reminded him of something he didn’t want to remember.

The ex-trooper took one last swift glance around the room. The azure eyes took in the smashed cylindrical tank and broken table with most of its contents broken on the floor. A swarm of questions flew around his mind.

A feeling of familiarity poked at him, something about that creature, about this place...but he pushed it away. There was no time for remembering memories of the past. There was a creature outside that could easily kill thousands of people in a day. Cloud had no doubt that even if it killed everyone on this planet its lust for blood would not be satisfied.

{As for this place,.........}

He grasp the buster sword firmly without another thought was running swiftly out of the laboratory. Icy pain laced around his arm.

----------------------------------------------

Tifa leaped off her chocobo as soon as she reached Nibelheim. The alarming state of chaos greeted her. Tifa was unprepared for the state Nibelheim was in. Flames burst out from houses, devouring them greedily. Winds howled wildly only serving the fire to spread. People were running wildly down the streets while blood stained the pavements. Smoke filled her vision making it hard to see. Tifa froze. The scene in front of her reminded her of another at a different time.

{.....only there were not many living people screaming.....not many at all....}

She shuddered at the sudden chill that invaded her body. Screams of terrified people from the present and past rang in her ears.

"Tifa! Look out!"

Barret’s warning came just in time before a deadly blow from a beast hit her shoulder. Tifa dodged, smashing into a broken piece of brick from a wall. At once pain radiated through her body. Blood spilled onto the ground. Her eyes watered from the intense heat.

Smoke was all around like a thick, suffocating haze. Tifa could only make out the bright flames through the dark smoke. Gun shots and curses filled the air. In the distant greenish light glowed eerily as cure spells were being used. She bit her lip. How could she fight when she couldn’t even see the enemy?

All she saw was the mocking green eyes reflecting the red flames and her own father lying in his own puddle of blood. Death, Aerith with the masamune buried deep within her chest. Sephiroth smirking as he stood behind the body of her father.....

Suddenly a familiar roar rang out. Amid the flames, Tifa saw Chaos engaged in a vicious fight. The dark demon wings blended well with the black smoke and bloody background. She spied Barret and Red 13 were nearer to the houses also fighting. A yell rose as Barret cast a spell. Deadly ice crystals emerged out of thin air slicing everything in its path. The beast howled causing Tifa’s goosebumps to rise. It sounded unearthly like a demon unleashed into the world of the living.

Up in the skies, Highwind hovered over their heads. The strong gust of wind swept away the smoke making it easier to see. Tifa blinked at Yuffie whom suddenly appeared out of nowhere. The ninja winked at the astound girl. Yuffie grinned at the whole scene "Come on, slow poke! Time to party!" The enthusiastic teen whooped in delight.

Cid grunted, holding Venus Gospel. The Highwind captain wiped a trace of blood from his cheek. Without a word, he joined Vincent in the fray. The tip of the blade cut through the air.

"Where is Cloud?" the ninja girl enquired, trying to see through the smoke. "Shouldn’t he be here too? Reeve said he was."

Hundreds of thoughts ran through her mind making her confuse. Tifa placed some pressure on her arm to stop the bleeding. A blast sounded and smoke grew heavier. Yuffie’s face was as eager to wreak some serious damage as her Conformer was deadly. The young ninja moved with ease into battle without a second thought.

Tifa wondered at the almost over enthusiastic delight the ninja girl was showing. It clearly showed that the younger girl was trying to hide her terror.

{But terror of what?.....finding Sephiroth’s masamune? Sephiroth is alive?....}

She shivered again. Yuffie leaped out of the way before yelling out, "SLOW!" Already there were bloodstains on her shirt. Her face was a picture of concentration as she dodged a bloody clawed hand.

Cait Sith popped out from the heavy smoke. Somehow his pure white mog managed to stay clean even with all the dust flying about.

"Don’t forget to add me in," the little cat cheerfully cried before casting a spell at a lone monster. Tifa noted how fast and effortless it took the beast to dodge the attack spell. Dark figures moved about in the shadows. Both senses of violence and death filled her nerves. Somewhere she heard Yuffie scream followed by the sound of crashing rocks. A growl sounded from their far left. Barret cursed but immediately deafen by his own gunshots.

{time to fight....get up, Tifa, get up....}

"Why are we still standing here?" it wondered aloud. The mog glanced sideways at Tifa. Then the little cat blinked at the young youth still kneeling down on the ground.

"Are you coming?" Concern laced around its question. "Don’t worry about Sephiroth’s masamune. We will deal with that after this"

The growl grew louder as the monster approached.

{Come on, you can do it....Cloud’s waiting...}

Tifa smiled, getting on her feet. Things will make sense later. Now they had bigger things to deal with. She wiped the blood from her face and ignored the grim that was all over her clothes. Her fist clenched tightly as she slipped into battle mode.

"Yeah, I’m coming"

-----------------------------------------------------

Cloud slumped at the doorway of the mansion. Somehow the spell had backfired and the wounds were reopening. He didn’t know what was going on. Everything was a huge blur blot. Nothing made sense. Sounds and visions that his brain couldn’t comprehend swept his senses. He was cold despite the heat surrounding him. Slipping into unconsciousness was so much easier than dragging himself half dead out into the open. Cloud pushed himself up with the buster sword.

{One more step...}

A few eternities later, he found himself leaning on the rotting gates to the mansion. How he managed to drag himself there was a mystery. Cloud felt his head spinning.

{Poisoned?}

He wasn’t sure but certain that he was losing an immense amount of blood. Whatever the creature did to himself was not good. Cloud stared wearily at the sight below him.

The smell of smoke was unmistakable. Other than that his vision was blurred. He wished that it was all a dream and he would soon wake up. But the sickening acid smell of Mako that still clung onto his clothes added with the aching limbs confirmed reality for him. Cloud grimaced at the pain that spread through his body like wildfire. His hand was already slick with blood causing his grip on the buster sword to slack.

{...I don’t understand...the cure spell should have worked.....}

Cold ice like sensation ran over the rawness of his skin. It centered on the deep cut on his shoulder. Cloud placed his hand over it to find that it stopped bleeding although the rest of his wounds were still had not. There was something incredibly wrong. His senses were screaming at him.

{What?....}

Pain overriding everything else blotted his thoughts in seconds. Cloud fell lifelessly onto the floor. His blood, staining the entrance to the mansion.

--------------------------------------------------

Tifa wiped away the beads of perspiration from her face. Her left hand hung limply at her side. Soot made its presence on her white shirt staining it with black streaks. A long line of crimson dribbled down her shoulder. Her dark hair was heavy with the rain. She glanced at everyone, making sure they were all right. Yuffie was casting a cure spell on Vincent who was leaning tiredly on a nearby broken wall. His pale face looked weary. Tifa had no doubt the fight took a lot out of the tall, lean man.

Near one of the creature’s corpse was Cid. He carefully nudged the creature to make sure it was dead. It sagged lifelessly under his feet. Cid paused then threw a fire spell on it for a good measure. Reddish raw flesh jerked up at the flare. The corpse hissed and released acidic yellow smoke as the flames touched the dead skin. Cid moved aside, out of the way.

Cait Sith took one look at the burning corpse and shook his head. "Purely acidic"

The Highwind captain glanced at him. He rubbed the small cut on his cheek, which he obtained in Highwind. It still felt rather sore. Cid cursed at the trail of yellow steam. "Damn right it is! Could have burnt my ass off!"

The little cat, if possible, turned red upon hearing Cid’s choice of words. For some reason Reeve could never get use to Barret’s or Cid’s swearing. Cait Sith blinked at the charred buildings. His nostrils twitched at the rusty smell of blood.

"Funny....I could have thought the smell was coming from nearby" The cat shrugged. It had to be his imagination. The mog shook off some water out of its white fur. Recent thunderstorm had finally blew over and what was left was a light drizzle.

Barret lumbered towards the small group. "Where the hell did they come from?" he demanded rather angrily.

Cid scowled. "How the hell am I supposed to know? Do I look like some ESP shit?"

Red 13 sensing an upcoming argument interrupted. "Where is Cloud?"

"Do I look like the spikey headed ass’s keeper to ya?!" Barret questioned, his dark eyes flashing dangerously. Only 3 monsters had caused so much trouble in such a small amount of time. Barret hated to imagine what a dozen of them could do to the world in the matter of days. He gazed at the charred buildings. What was left of the residents were either bone fragments or pieces of flesh here and there on the street. Barret didn’t want to explore the charred homes to see what was inside. He had a good idea it won’t be a pretty sight.

{What was the use of killing Sephiroth if the world ends up like this town?}

"DAMMIT!!"

Without another word, Barret strode off towards the Shinra mansion that lay a distance away from the town. Tifa was just about to call him back when Red 13 held out a paw.

"No, let him go"

Tifa shook her head. "I just don’t understand. Why did the monsters attack this town? Why were they so powerful?"

Red 13 glanced away. "I am not sure myself."

Cid scratched his head. "Maybe some crazy natural cause of something?" he suggested. "Maybe the planet’s way of saying thank you?"

Red blinked his golden eyes at the Highwind captain.

"Fine, it was just a suggestion. Don’t need to look at me like that."

Yuffie snorted. "Hah, as if---"

"SHIT! GUYS GET YOUR BUTTS OVER HERE NOW!!"

The ninja girl paused. "Was that Barret?" she wondered aloud.

Tifa stared at the direction the burly man’s voice came from. "Come on! He might be in trouble!" she exclaimed running towards the Shinra mansion. At once the whole group perked up and raced to the mansion.

Tifa was the first one to reach to the mansion. She saw Barret leaning over a figure.

"BARRET!! What’s the matter—CLOUD!!

Hastily, the brunette brushed Barret away. For a moment, Tifa was almost afraid that Cloud could be seriously hurt or even dead. His hair was stiffened with dried blood and his clothes were dark with the liquid. There were even traces of blood on his face. His sword lay uselessly by his side. The only sign he was alive was his chest that was moving in short swallow breaths.

"Cloud?" Tifa said gently "Can you hear me?"

Slowly the blonde lifted his head up. She couldn’t see his expression clearly but Tifa was sure that he was in great pain.

"Cloud?" she tried again. "Please say some-?"

Barret behind her was fumbling for an elixir, when he heard the pause in her sentence. His head jerked up. "Tifa? Is there something wrong?"

Tifa hesitated for a second. "No, I am sure it’s nothing" she answered. Barret looked at her worriedly.

"Ya sure?"

"Yes, I am sure," she murmured. Barret glanced sharply at her before dumping the elixir on the unconscious boy.

"Ugh, what...?" Hazy blue eyes glanced up at them. "Tifa? Barret?"

"Yo, kid!" Barret couldn’t help grinning seeing the kid was okay. "How does it feel being among the living?" Tifa shoved him away.

"Don’t tease him" she turned to Cloud. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah...I think..." Cloud paused to look at the whole group gathering around him. His azure eyes shifted from one face to another then narrowed into a frown. "What are you guys doing here?"

Cait Sith blinked. "Well, after I called you there was a report about--"

Cloud nodded. "Some really vicious monsters on the loose, huh?"

Cait Sith’s ears dropped at the word. The little cat looked sadly at the burnt town all around them. "And you can see what they did"

Barret angrily pounded his fists together. "Why did they attacked THIS place?"

"No, the real question is "where the monsters are coming from", Red 13 said thoughtfully. Yuffie fingered her Conformer.

"Must be somewhere near..." Her head snapped up. "HEY! Didn’t we exterminated all the possibly dangerous monsters after Sephiroth’s death?"

Cid frowned. "Funny, how can we miss such a breed?" His blue eyes glanced at the two other dead corpses. Cait Sith shook his head. "I don’t know, there could be a mistake on our part"

The little cat’s head looked up at Cloud. "Did you came across anything? Maybe a place that has enough Mako that could mutate such monsters?"

Cloud paused for a moment before getting onto his feet. His brain whirred trying to remember what he was doing before he met the others.

{Did I find anything?...}

"No, nothing" he answered shortly picking up his buster sword. "I didn’t came across anything at all."

For a split second, the azure colored eyes glazed over in pain.

{Glass shattering....test tubes...}

Tifa immediately noticed his reaction. She placed one concern hand on his arm. "Are you sure you are all right?" The blonde youth nodded jerking away from her.

"Yeah, ..just a little dizzy"

"Talking about being dizzy, I feel a little dizzy too" Cid muttered, massaging his temple. The whole ordeal was proving too much for him.

"We should go back to Highwind" Vincent quietly suggested. Red 13 nodded his approval. "Never know what is lurking around here now and its getting dark"

Yuffie stared at the still burning fires. "Can’t we do anything about those? Maybe put them out?"

Red shook his head. "No, the rain with put them out for us." He whisked his tail out of a puddle of wet mud. "Mother Nature has her ways of taking what’s hers and repairing them." Red murmured silently. The golden gaze swerved to the charred buildings before turning away.

Cloud spared one look at the fallen corpse of the beasts. Greenish puss oozed out from its multiple wounds turning the clear rainwater into stained crimson. The once hate-filled eyes were empty. Cloud felt a shudder running through his own body.

{There is something....something about that thing....}

The group slowly made their way back to the ship. On the plank Cid suddenly gripped the rails. "Ugh, damn headache" he grumbled waving away Cait Sith’s help.

"Get on, I will be fine. Just give me a minute"

Cid straightened shifting Venus Gospel in order to give him some support. He took a few deep breaths before shifting a little more. Everything seemed fine. He took one step then the world began spinning uncontrollably. Unable to keep his balance, the Highwind captain staggered and fell onto the ground.

The end of Part 4 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, please do not continue reading. The authors will not entertain any flames or complains concerning the yaoi pairing/pairings involved in the fanfic.

Thankyou