"Hi!"

Startled that someone is talking to him, seven-year-old Cloud looked up from his sitting in the alleyway between his house to see a white-haired girl, whom he had never seen before, smiling brightly down at him. His eyes widened at how the sun beamed over the girl's shoulder, creating a bright halo above her head. Her amethyst colored eyes twinkled in curiosity and excitement as she stared down at him.

This girl, whoever she was, was still smiling down at him, waiting for his reply. A bit skeptical that this girl was talking to him, Cloud looked around them to see if this was a prank from the other village kids. But when he saw that they weren't anywhere to be seen, he looked back at the girl.

A bit nervous that someone is talking to him, he nervously replied, "Hi."

Her smile spread across her face as her eyes brightened up at his reply. Giggling, she asked, "Why are you sitting here by yourself? How come you aren't playing with the others?"

He looked back down at the ground, sad at how he came to be here in the first place. To be honest, he didn't know how to tell her that none of the other kids wanted to play with him. Only because he didn't have a dad. Another reason that he didn't want to hang with them is that they would always say mean things about him and his mom. Which gets him into fights.

He was snapped out of his thoughts when he heard some feet shuffling. Forgetting that he wasn't alone, he looked back at the girl and saw her tucking her light purple dress under her knees and sat next to him. Surprised that she was sitting next to him, Cloud was about to speak up until she spoke.

"It's okay if you don't want to tell me. Not everyone likes to talk about their problems when they don't want to."

The blond quickly shook his head, "No, it's just… none of the kids in the village likes me. So I'm just surprised that you're talking to me."

Tilting her head, the girl frowned in confusion at his explanation, "What's not to like you? You seem pretty nice and not to mention you're cute too!"

Cloud blushed at her blunt honesty. Not once, has anyone ever complimented him before besides his mother. And it was from a very pretty girl too.

Looking away from her, he shyly looked down at his intertwined hands, "T-Thank you."

Giggling, the girl jumped onto her feet and turned to him. Holding a hand out, she smiled brightly, "You're welcome! Anyways, my name's Rei. Rei Hunter. What's your name?"

Looking at her outstretched hand, Cloud timidly took her hand in his, "Cloud. Cloud Strife."

"Barret!"

Hearing Tifa shouts at the gun-arm man to stop harassing the worker, Cloud focused his mind back at the mission in hand. He and AVALANCHE had just boarded the train and it has yet to leave. Looking around, he noticed that there weren't many passengers on the train today. Which was unusual considering that there would always be a lot of people.

He turned his attention back to Barret when he heard the man cuss, "&$#%! You lucky ^$#^$.!"

Cloud couldn't help but mentally deadpan at why he was partnered with this guy. Barret was so loud that he was surprised that Shinra hadn't caught them yet. Shaking his head, he watched Tifa bowed apologetically to the man before the two came up to him. Seeing as how there were no others on the train, Cloud knew that they would be spotted right away.

He turned to Barrett, "So, what are we gonna do now?"

The gun-armed man gruffly answered, "Shit! The hell you so calm about? You bustin' up my rhythm…"

Before Cloud could retort, the train rumbled as it started to move.

"Seems like they just finished connecting the cars. We're finally leaving," said Tifa, looking out the window to see that they were leaving the station.

Deciding not to argue with his employer, Cloud asked, "So what's our next target?"

"Hah! Listen to Mr. Serious-about-his-work!" Barrett huffed. Deciding to get back to business, he started to explain, "Awright... I'll tell ya! Jessie's probably already told you, but there's a security checkpoint at the top plate. It's an ID scan system checkin' all the trains."

Coming up to stand next to him, Tifa put a hand on her hip and sarcastically said, "Which Shinra is very proud of."

Frowning, Barrett crossed his arms as he grumbled, "We can't use our fake ID's anymore…"

If that were true, then that means that this mission would be a bit harder than their last one. Crossing his arms, Cloud couldn't help but feel that something might go wrong. Before he could voice this, the intercom starts up, catching the group's attention.

"Good Morning, and welcome to Midgar lines. Arrival time at Sector 4 Station will be 11:45."

Looking at the two, Tifa spoke up, "That means we've got only three more minutes to the ID Checkpoint."

Hearing this information, Barrett straightened up and looked at the two, "Alright, in three minutes, we're jumpin' off this train. Got it!?"

With that said, he went to go take a seat, relaxing until they reached the checkpoint. Tifa, on the other hand, didn't do the same. Instead, she ran over to the Railway Map Monitor.

Upon reaching there, she started to wave Cloud over, "Cloud, come over here! Let's look at the Railway Map Monitor."

Inwardly sighing, Cloud made his way down the aisle and stood beside her as he looked at the monitor, "What about the Railway Map that you wanted to show me?"

Looking up at him, she sheepishly smiled, "Oh, that's right. I forgot that you've been here before me. So you must've already seen this."

Cloud looked down at her, raising an eyebrow, "Yeah, I had to learn the system pretty quick when I first arrived here or else I would've been lost."

Giggling, Tifa smiled up at him, "You? Getting lost? I bet Rei would have a blast laughing at that since you always knew your way around."

Cloud couldn't help but smile. He knew that Tifa was right. Rei would have a blast laughing at him if he ever did get lost or went in the wrong direction. He remembered the day clearly with the girl laughing, her violet eyes shining bright as she joked about it.

He was taken out of his reminiscing when the alarm started blaring. Looking around, Cloud saw red lights flashing throughout the entire train cars.

"That's odd. The ID Check Point was supposed to be further down," said Tifa, wondering what happened to set the alarms.

Her curiosity was answered when the intercom warned, "Type A Security Alert! Unidentified passengers confirmed... A search of all cars will be conducted! Repeat! Type A Security Alert! Unidentified passengers confirmed... A search of all cars will be conducted!"

Surprised at this information, Tifa frowned, "What's happening?"

"What's goin' on!" shouted Barrett. The alarm was so loud that he had to raise his voice in order to be heard over it.

Cloud knew something would go wrong. But before he could figure out the reason, Jessie runs incoming from the other car. She was frowning while waving frantically for them to get into the next car, "We're in trouble. I'll explain later. Hurry! Get to the next car!"

Hating that news, Barrett slammed his fist onto the pole next to him, "^%# %! Someone blew it…"

"Unidentified passengers located in Car #1. Preparing for Lock Down," announced the intercom.

Clicking his tongue, Barrett waved the two towards the next car, "Let's go! Keep it up!"

Not arguing, both Cloud and Tifa did as he said and ran into the next car. However, the alarm didn't die just yet until the intercom announced, "Car #1: Locked Down. Upgrading to Level 2 Warning."

"Hurry!" shouted Biggs, holding the next car door open for them.

Wedge frantically waved them over, "They're gonna lock the door, sir!"

"Unidentified passengers located in Car #2. Preparing for LockDown."

"Just run! Changing to Plan 2!" shouted Jessie, running to the next car.

Not wasting any time, Cloud pushed Tifa to run ahead of him as they all ran into the next car. Once they made it through, the door to the car behind them automatically locked itself behind them. Looking up, they listened to the intercom, "Car #2: Locked down. Upgrading to Warning Level 3."

Frowning, Cloud starts to wonder what Warning Level 3 is until Barrett got his attention as the man asks his silent question to Jessie, "Awright! We clear!?"

The girl shook her head, "Not yet. They're starting another check. If we're caught, we're done for! But, don't worry. If we move up the train, car by car, we should get past it!" With that said, she ran towards the next car while punching a man who stood in her way.

Just when Jessie entered into the next car, the alarm came back on, "Unidentified Passengers: Moving to the front of Train. Currently tracking location."

Hearing this announcement, Barrett clicked his tongue, "Come on, let's get going!"

Nodding, they all started to make their way to the next car. Seeing a sneaking hand reaching out to pickpocket them, Cloud quickly grabbed and twisted it. The man cried out in pain from the action, "Argh! I'm sorry! I'm sorry! P-Please, let me go!"

"Cloud!" shouted Tifa, grabbing his arm that held the man's arm in a twisted position.

Barrett put a hand on his shoulder, "Come on! We don't have time for this!"

Glaring at the gun-armed man, Cloud knew that he was right. They only had a few minutes left before the door that leads to the next car locks on them. Squeezing the man's arm, he pushed the guy away from them before making his way to the next car. Both Tifa and Barrett looked at each other, the former looking worried while the latter just shook his head, before following right behind.

Entering into the next car, the door locked behind them as the intercom came on, "Car #3: Locked Down. Upgrading to Warning Level 4."

Not stopping, the three kept on running into the last car until the door locked behind them. However, when they arrived, they noticed that the other three had donned on disguises. Both Biggs and Jessie were dressed in Shinra uniforms while Wedge wore an overall.

"Car #4: Locked Down. Upgrading to maximum security alert!"

"All right! We made it!" shouted Barrett, running up to the three at the end of the car. Turning back to the two, he waved, "Yo! This way! Let's go! We're gonna dive outta here!"

Turning to Tifa, Cloud gestured for her to go ahead of him while he followed closely behind. They watched as Barrett grunt and opened the door, sliding it all the way. Once that was done, he waved an arm towards the open door, "Come on! There's no time!"

Taking a couple of steps towards it, Tifa watched how fast the train was going. She was a bit nervous since they were all jumping out of a fast-moving train. Turning to Cloud, she smiles nervously, "...Scary… huh."

Cloud raised a brow as he internally sighed with a mental eye roll, "Too late to be saying that now. Why'd you come along anyway?"

"Because…" Tifa trailed off, looking down at her hand.

She knew she couldn't tell him the truth. The truth that she wanted to see him and be by his side. However, she knew that he wouldn't care if she were to tell him how she felt because the only person who he held deeply close to his heart was Rei. Though she was jealous of the girl, Tifa knew that Rei would be the only one to make him truly happy. She was there for Cloud when Tifa wasn't. Therefore, she decided to just be near him whenever she could and if Cloud lets her.

Tifa was snapped out of her mind when Barrett shouted, "Hey you two! There ain't no time for that!"

Shaking her head, Tifa walked up to the open door. Putting her hands to the sides of it, Tifa nodded to her decision, "Yeah! I've made up my mind!"

With that, she jumped, leaving Cloud confused at what the girl had shouted about. Shaking his head, he decided not to dwell on it and made his way to the open door. Putting a hand on the side of it, he looks to Barrett, "You don't care if I go first?"

"A leader always stays till the end. Don't worry 'bout me, just go!" grunted Barrett.

Nodding, Cloud was about to jump out until the gun-armed man stopped him, "Yo! Don't go gettin' your spikey-ass hurt! It's only the beginnin' of the mission!"

Cloud mentally rolled his eyes before jumping off. The landing was rough considering he just jumped out of a sixty miles per hour moving train. Rolling on the ground. Cloud grunted as he felt rocks on the railroad ballast scrape itself on his exposed arms. Once he finally stops, he slowly pushes himself up off the ground and looks at the scrapes that the rocks left on him.

"Cloud!"

Turning to Tifa, he saw her running before stopping in front of him. He saw that she had received a bit more scratches than he did seeing as how she was wearing a tank and shorts. She huffed a bit before glancing behind him, "Come on, we should regroup with Barrett."

With a nod, both Cloud and Tifa jogged a bit down the railroad where the train had gone. It didn't take the two long until they heard cursings from a familiar voice. Speeding up, both Cloud and Tifa saw Barrett picking himself up from the ground.

They stopped in front of him once they were close enough. Patting the dirt off of him, Barrett looked to them. Seeing that they were fine, he nodded, "Good, so far everything's going as planned. Better not let your guard down till we get to the Sector 5 reactor. Biggs, Wedge, and Jessie got everything ready for us. So MOVE it. The reactor's just down this tunnel!"

Nodding, they started to run down the rest of the tunnel.

It didn't take them long until they were stopped by light beams. Cloud put an arm out to stop Barrett before the man could step any closer towards it.

"Those light beams are the Shinra's security sensors. We can't go any further."

"^%# %! We're supposed to meet with the others at another rendezvous point no thanks to this," growled Barrett, glaring at the sensor while thinking on what to do now.

Tifa walked up to him and put a hand on his shoulder, "We'll meet up with them, Barrett."

His only reply to her was a grunt before he turned to the ex-SOLDIER, "Got any ideas?"

Looking at the security sensor, Cloud knew that there is no way to be able to disable it. Because once they do, Shinra might be alarmed by it and that'll only make things harder on their mission. Deciding to look around, something had caught his attention from his left.

As both Tifa and Barrett chatted with each other on what to do, the former had noticed the movement of her childhood friend walking towards the wall. She gestured to Barrett when she saw Cloud inspecting something on the ground near the wall.

Walking up behind him, she looked over his shoulder as she asked, "Did you find something, Cloud?"

Moving a bit for them to see, he gestured towards it with his head, "There's an air duct here. It would seem it's our only way if we want to meet up with the others quickly without any delays."

Looking inside closely, Tifa inspected it, "...There seems to be nothing that'll get us stuck in this duct."

"Yeah. If we go down this duct, we won't be able to come back up here."

The two turned to look at the big man for his decision since he was the leader of the operation. Having a look at it for himself, Barrett saw how tiny it was compared to his stature. However, they couldn't delay this mission with him not liking being in tight spaces to be in the way so he sucked it up.

"Don't be wastin' time. Never know when the Shinra'll find us. Cloud you jes' gotta go."

Cloud couldn't help but raise a brow at him, "Are you sure? We can look for another way in since I could clearly see that you're not comfortable with it."

Barrett smirked, "What? Worried about me?"

Before Cloud could retort, Barrett frowned, "Jokes aside, There ain't no other way of gettin' to the Sector 5 reactor 'cept through here. So don't worry about me and focus more on the mission."

Sighing, Cloud shook his head, "Alright, I'll go in first in case there are any enemies in there."

They nodded before he started climbing his way inside.

"You guys, this way. The reactor's up this ladder," said Wedge, waving them over.

Sprinting up to him, Barrett asked, "Everyone made it?"

"Yeah. They decided to scout a bit ahead in the air duct in case there were any guards around."

Barrett nodded before thumbing at the ladder, "Come on!"

Without any hesitation, both Cloud and Tifa followed right behind him.

Coming into the spacious air duct, they saw Jessie. She was looking around, keeping her guard up in case there were any guards until her eyes landed on them. Her eyes widened as she ran up to them, "You're all alright."

Barrett grunted while Tifa smiled. Cloud, as usual, stood in silence as they interacted quickly before moving forward. However, before he could follow, he was stopped by Jessie.

"Cloud."

Turning to her, he saw that she was looking at the ground before she looked at, "I'm sorry.

The ID scan problem on the train was all my fault. I made your ID card special... So that's why it happened… I put my heart into making it. But I failed. Next time, I'll give you something more decent."

Putting a hand up, he quickly denied, "It's fine. Besides, I won't be needing it next time since this is my last mission before I leave."

Disheartened at his words of leaving, her face fell, "Oh. Okay then."

Turning away from her, he started to make his way to where Barrett and Tifa had gone. He couldn't help but be a bit guilty of what he had said to Jessie. The girl had worked hard on faking the ID. However, where he was going after this, he knew he wouldn't be needing it. He was going to be leaving Midgar and find Rei. No matter what.

Climbing up the ladder, it didn't take him long to get into the next room until he came face to face with Biggs. The black-spiked haired man smiled cheekily at him, putting a hand on his shoulder, "We're gonna pull out now. We'll meet up at the hideout. Cloud, we're countin' on you to blow the reactor!"

Nodding, Cloud stepped aside for the man to descend the ladder to regroup back with the other two.

"Cloud! Come on!"

Hearing Tifa calls for him, Cloud followed the two close behind, moving onwards into the reactor.

Arriving at the core of the reactor, Tifa had run up ahead of the two males while Barrett kept an eye on the back of the group. He especially didn't want a repeat of what happened to the first reactor.

Cloud was about to follow Tifa towards the core until his sight started blurring, a huge headache making itself known by pounding in the back of his eyes. Clenching his eyes shut, he gritted his teeth as he held his pounding head in his hands as he collapsed onto his knees. However, when his knees made contact with the floor, a slight memory flashed in the front of his eyes.

Looking around him, Cloud recognized the area in an instant. He was in Nibelheim's reactor. Five years ago to be precise.

Hearing a muffled sob, Cloud looked ahead and saw a fifteen-year-old Tifa crying next to a dead man, whom he clearly recognized as her father. Blood pooled around him as Tifa cried.

Taking a step towards her, Cloud didn't know what he could do until he saw the girl's hands clenched tightly on either side of her.

"Papa… Sephiroth!? Sephiroth did this to you, didn't he!? Sephiroth... SOLDIER... Mako Reactors... Shinra... Everything! I hate them all!" she screamed towards the ceiling, wanting the Gods or whoever that was out there to hear her hatred.

Looking away from the ceiling, Tifa noticed that there was something next to her father. She instantly recognized it as Sephiroth's sword. He was the only being who fights and kills his enemies with a long katana.

Taking the heavy weapon in her hand, Tifa glared harshly down at it when she saw blood coating the blade. Knowing that some of that blood belonged to her father, she glared ahead at the open door, knowing that Sephiroth would be there, and ran. Sword in hand.

Seeing her reckless action, Cloud reached a hand out to her to stop, but she was gone. Feeling a headache attacking his head, he gripped it with his hands. He yelled out in agony at how much stronger this feeling felt compared to earlier.

"Cloud!"

Hearing the voice he longed so much to hear again, Cloud's eyes snapped open immediately. The headache started to fade away while he slowly let go of his grip on his head. Silence. That was all he was hearing now. His heart couldn't help but longed to hear his crush's voice again. Even though it sounded a bit more mature than the last time he heard it from the little thirteen-year-old whom he had left behind five years ago.

Cloud was snapped out from his thoughts when Barrett slammed his hand on his shoulder, "Damn man, get a hold of yourself!"

"You all right?" asked Tifa.

Looking up at her, Cloud could clearly see the worry for him written all over her face. The memory that flashed itself in the front of his mind, when he had the headache, made him worried for the girl.

"...Tifa," Cloud started but stopped. He knew that now wasn't the time to ask since they all had a mission to finish.

Tifa hummed, "Mmm?"

Shaking his head, he looks away from her while he slowly picks himself up from the ground, Barrett removing his hand from his shoulder in the process, "No... forget... Come on, let's hurry!"

Watching him rush past her, Tifa frowned. Worried at what had happened to him just earlier. But, just as he said, they were in a hurry. And if he didn't want to tell her about what happened, then she wouldn't push it.