Some of you have seen the TR 2 preview file. Some of you know the whole deal behind it. Basically, it's an FF7/Sliders crossover. TR 2: The Rift of Time will get MUCH MORE planning than this story received (read: very little), as well as some other stuff I've been exploring.

 It was a nice, sunny day. Birds were chirping, flowers blooming, kids playing. But one kid wasn't playing. She was sitting on a bench, thinking. Playing was the absolute last thing on her mind.

 Ramza enjoyed the beauty of Junon very much. Ever since Rufus was put out of commission, the people and Reeve ran it pretty much to an actual habitable place. Lower Junon became less polluted, and looked less like the slums of Midgar. Upper Junon had parks built, and became a better place to live, without that giant canon around. All in all, it became a better city. The people actually wanted to live there now. Ramza didn't, for an obvious reason.

 "Why hasn't he made me do something yet?" She thought to herself. Murdoc was eviler than to sit here and let her squirm, but she kept that thought as a half-truth in her mind. Perhaps he is just playing mind games with her, she's just here for his amusement. Suddenly, a young girl came by and tugged at Ramza's pant leg.

 "Lady, would you like to buy a flower?" The little girl was dressed up in standard Junon garb: a T-shirt and a pair of jeans. But this girl's T-shirt was torn at the bottom, and her jeans were too small. Ramza felt pity for the girl, but realized she would like some of the nice flowers she had.

 "How much are they?" Ramza asked.
 
 "Just one gil each," The little girl replied.

 "I'll take two." The girl gave Ramza two flowers, and Ramza gave the girl five gil.

 "Wow! Thanks, lady!" The girl skipped off, counting her newfound goodies, to be put to use for new clothes. Ramza set one flower down on the bench, and took the next one, and started tearing petals off of it.

 "He loves me, he loves me not, he loves me, he loves me not..."

 Nate was lost. He never did understand maps, he thought to himself. He looked at the map of the Fort Condor area, but couldn't get it lined up properly. He scratched his head, and put it down. Something off the horizon caught his eye. It looked like a house, more exactly, a cabin. He got in his jet car, and rode over to it. He got to it, and knocked on the door.

 "Hello?" No answer.

 "Hello, is anyone home?" Nate knocked again. The cabin looked abandoned. Nate kicked the door open. True, it was abandoned. There was a computer terminal, and some paper, and a chair in one corner. On another side looked like a construction site. There was parts, and blueprints. He went over and looked at the blueprints, and gasped when he found out what they were: bomb blueprints. The parts on the table were bomb parts. There was a bank of monitors, that were carelessly left on. Nate looked at them, and found them to be cameras positioned around the world. One was outside of his house. Another one just happened to be watching his parents. He saw that they were sitting there and talking to Cid and the others. Since there was no audio feed, he couldn't hear what they were saying. Suddenly, he realized who was there.

 "This is Murdoc's cabin..." Nate said incredulously. Suddenly, he began tearing through it, trying to find any information on his current whereabouts. Papers were flying, and things were moved as he tried to find some sense of a clue as to his location. Finally, he found it.

 "Junon... why there? The only thing of importance there is... Reeve... oh God." Nate dropped the papers immediately, and ran out of the cabin. He ran into the jet car, fired it up, and headed to Junon at max thrust.

 The sky was clear of all bad weather conditions. "I should've added a windshield," Nate thought to himself. The wind was whipping his spiky hair around, eventually blowing it back. Junon was coming into clear view. It was on the horizon, and it was growing bigger by the minute.

 "Murdoc has a lot of gall to do this... after all we've been through. It's a bitch," Nate thought to himself. As soon as he got to Junon, he'd work his way up, that's the plan. And if he met up with Ramza, then it happened. He would get Murdoc, then they would escape, and try to lead a decent life. Minute by minute passed. Soon, he arrived at the outskirts of Junon. He hid the jet car in a nearby forest, and entered lower Junon. He hadn't been in lower Junon, ever. He did remember what his father told him about it being a stank pit of dirt, but there was gold under that dirt. Nate started walking towards the big elevator. Someone was shouting "Cloud, Cloud!" in his direction, but he ignored it. Suddenly, something pulled at his shirt. He turned around and saw a sixteen year old girl behind him.

 "Cloud! You came back!" He didn't recognize this girl, but apparently she thought that he was his dad. "When did you dye your hair black? And you said you'd marry me!" Nate was silent for a brief moment.

 "I'm sorry, miss, you have me confused with someone else."

 "Cloud, it's me! Priscilla! You saved my life! Remember?" Suddenly, Nate remembered a story Cloud had told him, it was about saving this little girl that was about to drown, and reviving her. Her name was supposed to have been Priscilla.

 "Umm, I'm Nathan Strife, Cloud's son. I've heard about you. Look, I don't have time to talk. I have to get to upper Junon immediately.

 "Then I will join you! You probably don't know your way around. You're Cloud's son?? That's impossible! You look twenty something, and he's only about thirty right now!"

 "Look, I can't explain right now. If you want to follow me, fine." Nate turned and walked towards the elevator. Priscilla started after him. They walked into the elevator, and it went to upper Junon. Nate and Priscilla walked out, and Nate gasped. He saw Ramza sitting on a bench in the park some ways away, tearing the petals from a flower.

 "Do you know that girl?" Priscilla asked. Nate nodded.

 "She's my best friend. Without her, my life has no meaning. As if it had one right now." He and Priscilla walked over, and Nate tapped Ramza on the shoulder. She looked back, then back at her flower, then Nate again. It was a classic double take.

 "Nate!!! I missed you so much! How did you find me?" She asked. She hugged Nate and kissed him on the cheek. He pulled away, and motioned towards Priscilla.

 "This is Priscilla. I met her, she knows my dad. She's gonna be with us. And let's just say, it was a stroke of luck that I found you. Come on, we gotta get Murdoc." Nate started to walk, but Ramza stopped him.

 "We can't. He's unstoppable! I tried to stop him, but I failed. And, he's watching me." She pointed to the little device strapped to her wrist. "It tells him where I am, but it doesn't tell about video or audio conversations and not. First, we'll sneak into my quarters. There, we can storm him at night. Priscilla, you can come too. Follow me."

 They arrived in Ramza's quarters. Nate was immediately impressed by the things that were in it. But Ramza detached him from the surroundings.

 "Don't let it fool you. It's just a fancy face on what is an elaborate prison." That sentence sent a chill down Nate's spine. He couldn't imagine this as a prison. He reminded himself to loot the CD's before they left.

 "So, here's a few ideas I have..."

 Reno was watching Ramza. He was inside of a glass box. She was sitting there, then she got up. She started singing. The scenes around here changed as she sung.

 "/Daddy's gone... 'cross the ocean.../"

 "/Leaving just a... memory.../"

 "/The snapshot in the... family album.../"

 "/Daddy, what else... did ya leave for me?/"

 "/Daddy, what d'ya leave behind for me?/"

 Reno pondered these thoughts, as he watched Ramza looking through a photo album, of pictures of things he was not too proud of. One of them was when he was too drunk one night, and got arrested by the police. Another one was when he was at a party and everyone was making fun of pregnant Elena, which caused her to go nuts and punch out a few people.

 "/All in all it was... all just.. bricks in the wall.../"

 "/All in all it was... just a brick in the wall./"

 Reno awoke. He had another dream. He didn't know what they meant. He got up from bed, and went into the family room, and took out a book. It was a photo album. He looked through pictures. He had it sorted out. One section was Ramza's section. He saw all sorts of memories. Ramza's first portrait at Lee's Photos. She was so fidgety that day. He thought and contrasted the differences between "this" Ramza, and the one that was three inches shorter than him. Sure, the younger one was cuter, and was sweeter. But the older Ramza was more mature. She was just like him. Except that she looked more like her mom. She didn't have a mouth, or an attitude, though. Those were things Reno had barely managed to keep under control. Then, he saw another picture, this time him and Elena at a theme park. He read the caption on his shirt.

 "Shit happens. Deal with it."

Author's Notes

 As you can see, I'm starting to move towards the climax of the story. Remember, TR 2 is taking up most of my thought process threads right now, so expect to see a lot of that when I get done with it. Till next time.

Kefka Floyd