now before i get to the story i'd like to thank Sephiroth of the temple of aeris and sephiroth for his insights on where people end up after the game ends in his "jenova hunters" fanfic and i'd like to dedicate this story to my mom on this very nice mothers day.

now I give you drum roll please

Cloud looked up the path to the right seeing the roof tops of the village of Gongagga, he stared at them for a second dreading what he had come here to do, then taking a deep breath he took a step towards the small villiage.

He put a hand through his long, spikey hair wiping away the sweat and remembered the conversation that he'd had with Tifa before he left. "But why must you go?" she had asked.

"Because Zack was my friend." he had answered "he died saving my life, his parents deserve to know what happened to him and why."

And so he found himself here walking slowly towards the small hometown of his dead friend. The first person that he saw was standing over a grave with his head bowed in a silent prayer for the dead. This was a fitting first glance of the village Cloud thought, seeing as how he was here to break someone's heart.

He walked up to the house that he remembered talking to Zack's parents two years ago. They had seen his mako enhanced eyes and asked him if he knew where thier son was. Back then he didn't even remember that there had ever been a Zack. he had wanted to be like Zack so badly that when Zack died he, in his own mind, somehow became Zack. Back then he couldn't tell fantasy from reality, if it weren't for Tifa he would still believe that he was Zack.

Cloud paused before knocking on the door, mentally going over what he was going to say to the two old people that he was about to talk to. He raised his hand and knocked on the door loudly. The sound echoed through the house it sounded like it was completely hollowed out. An old man opened the door and looked him over for a second. "yes" he said "what is it?"

Cloud took a deep breath and said "I've come to tell you about your son"

The old man stared at him for a second like he was deciding whether or not he really wanted to go through the pain of finding out his son was dead. Not knowing like he did he could always say that his son was alive somewhere out there, but he wouldn't be able to do that when he knew for sure that Zack was dead. The old man took a step back and said "please. come in."

"thank you" Cloud followed him insideto a small room where a little old woman sat reading a book.

The little old woman took a look at cloud and seeing his eyes dropped the book imediatly. "Oh." she said "they've finally come to tell us about our son."

"Please young man." the old man said "have a seat"

Cloud unslung his huge sword and sat down resting it on his knees. "my name is Cloud." he said "About nine years ago i first met your son at the Soldier academy. We became very good friends, i thought that you would like to know what became of him."

"Go on young man please." Zack's mother said.

Cloud proceded to tell them the entire story of what happened, how he and Zack had been friends, how he had not made it into Soldier, and Zack had, how they had met again on the same mission to NIbelheim, and how Sephiroth went insane and had mortally wounded both of them. "Zack and i awoke floating in some kind of liquid in the Shinra mansions basement. he got us out of there, I couldn't even stand having been still healing from my wounds. he dragged me to saftey and didn't leave my side. when the Shinra found out that we'd escaped they send Soldiers after us. it seems that we were part of some experiment to Clone sephiroth or something and they didn't want to let us get away. he died protecting me cause i couldn't protect myself."

Cloud stopped talking for a second not wanting to do what he planed to do next. he held up the sword and said "this was his sword, I think he would have wanted you to have it. It's saved my life on numerous ocaisions much like Zack did." he handed the sord to Zack's father who took it and stared at it's gleaming blade.

"Your son saved my life, and died for me. If there's anytihng that I can do for you . . . anything at all please don't hesitate to ask." Cloud said he felt like crying, remembering his friend brought out all of the grief that he had felt when Zack had died.

The old man handed the sword back to Cloud. "This sword was mine once, given to me by my father and to him by his father before him and so on. I gave it to my son hoping that he would give it to his son and continue the tradition. my son is dead, and i have no use for it. seeing it would only remind me of him, and that is too painful right now. please i want you to have it it has served you well and shall continue to do so."

Cloud looked disbelievingly at Zack's father. "are you sure?" he asked

"positive. now young Cloud It seems that you have a long journey ahead of you, Why don't you spend the night here, that old crab at the inn will charge you an arm and a leg for a bed."

"John" Zack's mother exclaimed "don't talk about your brother like that."

"it's true ain't it." John answered. "besides we can't turn this poor boy away after coming so far just to tell us about our Zack"

"thank you" cloud said "You are very kind. but I have to get going, i have to get back home before the end of the week, My friend would kill me if i missed her birthday one more time"

"nonesence, you'd only get five miles before dark and have to sleep in the bushes, Stay please stay." Zacks mother said

"Alright" cloud said " i don't want to intrude too much"

"you're not" John said " do you know how long it's been since we had some decent company."

Cloud tossed and turned on the couch for a while before he finally fell asleep. he dreamed of the city of the ancients. Such a strange out of place dream it was. he hadn't dreamed of that place for years, but this was a stranger dream tan he had ever seen. instead of seeing Aeris die he sat looking out over the pond in which he had laid her to rest. Green tendrils of lifestream slithered thier way out of the walls of the cave, and came together to form Aeris floating above the water.

Cloud sat back and watched her thinking about haw stramge dreams can be some times. Aeris walked over the water towards him, he could see through her and her voice when she finally spoke to him sounded distant. "Cloud" She said. "you're in danger. but this is like no other danger you have ever faced. It's not over yet . . .Not . . . over . . ."

". . .yet" Cloud sat up straight covered in sweat. He didn't know why he had awaken the small house was completely quiet. Then something caught his eye, the glint of the moonlight shining off of a blade. Cloud turned to look it the direction of the intruder, the intruder seeing that he had been seen charged towards Cloud. A single gun shot sounded in the quiet of the night, and the chest of the intruder exploded outward as the man fell to the ground dead.

Cloud looked around for the source of the gun shot. His eyes came to rest on a dark figure standing just outside the window, he stood up and walked over to the window, the dark figure let the hood of his cloak fall to reveal his face. It was a man that Cloud hadn't seen in two years, not since Midgar. Reno looked out of place not wearing his Turks uniform.

"Wha. . . ?" Cloud said not quite understanding what was going on

"well well." Reno said "I went from trying to kill you to saving your life Quite a change isn't it?"

The only thing that Cloud could think at that moment was what the hell is going on here . . .