Rain dripped down the window sills of a small hotel in the heart of Sector 5. The water had begun to fall steadily hours before and there was no sign of it letting up any time soon. Water fell quicker than before mixed with the sounds of soft thunder and the occasional flash of lightening. Gray clouds had come over the sky and blanketed the any area of Sector 5 with light within it. Midgar was a dark city, and when rain fell, Midgar was bleak and lonely.

Failed battles had begun to come to mind as the rain fell. The fall of the rain was like the fall of the Sector 7 pillar, only this fall would never cause the death of thousands of people. Thousands of voices that were quiet in complete and utter shock, then their own screams of terror were cut short. Silenced, never to be heard again.

The battle should have never been lost. It should have never happened. The battle was lost because of careless thinking of anger and the lust for power to win. Thinking it over, saving the Sector 7's people, the battle had meant only who was stronger. Of who would be able to survive this battle of the strongest and wisest.

And those people apart of this battle were too consumed in their own problems and hatred to even think of what the problem truly was. It was the lust for revenge that kept one moving, not the lust to do right or good. Right was a word, not something hands could touch. Not something that can be held onto.

Battles are lost, battles are won. Battles are wrong... Wrong is something hands can hold and remember. Haunting minds for all time with memories of fallen friends, lost women and children, soldiers dying in vain. For one thing. Glory was it? Glory was nothing more than a word also. It was a false word created to lead the minds of soldiers to think battles were for a reason. No reason ever that can be held though, reasons that are placed in the mind.

And life was the very essence of battle. Life is lost in battles and life was forgotten in these battles. Life... a false word of nothingness lost.

And this. This mug of amber beer, full to brim without a hand laid upon it. A tool used to forget all known in life. Even for a short time, losing one's thoughts was a past time well known to many. The taste and pleasure of it was nothing. It was the sheer forgetfulness of it all. This was not forgotten.

Thus Zack's hand held the mug of clear liquid in his gloved hand and his swallowed down the hard drink. Stupidity was what brought him here. Stupidity of his loss at the Sector 7 plate and for those lives lost their. Barret's daughter lost, AVALANCHE's members lost, the loss of the people below.

Loss. Loss was a fine word in his mind. Loss came to mind often. And life was nothing to him. Life was a loss. It was the forgetfulness, the loss of the battle, the loss of heart and mind. Loss was a simple thing, it was neither right nor wrong but what the word came to mind of. Loss.

And it hurt.

It hurt more than any pain one person could experience. Pain of heart and soul hurt as hell did but nothing like physical pain. This was pain of mind, a more deep thought out pain. This pain wasn't the loss of the battle but the pain of a past long forgotten. Forgotten over a series of tests of hell and solitude, not the short forgetfulness of a glass of beer.

This hurt.

A mental pain of those lost. People lost in life was a pain not anyone could understand. A pain of someone loved lost was like no other. It hurt more than anything in the world. It chewed and pulled and tore at one person's heart and mind.

And these thoughts.

This was a thought of nothing. He supposed it was the drink that brought out these thoughts within his mind and the darkness within it.

Words. Blind words. Blind then, a quote he now remembered. Life was cherished, lost, forgotten. And never forget the words of that man, the one of telling him these things. He taught him many things, in words, and the man's actions later in life. Actions that spoke louder than his words and realization of one man's lust to kill.

Perhaps it wasn't lust that drove that man to his peak. It was more like the man's strange disturbance with the entire world. As though he felt everyone had been against him.

Zack shook his head. He hated the conversations he had held with that man. Not only did the chill in his very voice disturb him but even the way the man looked at him. With those piercing eyes. When he looked at him, Zack knew he couldn't break such a glare as that. It was too hard.

"Zack..."

"Zack."

"Zack!"

The black haired man looked up suddenly to see Tifa's concerned eyes on him. Why should she bother? Ever since that chance meeting with that Angel she had been too wrapped up in her own thoughts to bother with thinking of anyone else. Even when Barret was nearly to his death as he was still trapped in the Shinra Building her thoughts had been elsewhere.

"Go away," he muttered.

Tifa looked stricken. It was not like Zack to act this cold. He was by no means a cheerful person but he never had spoken to her in that tone of voice. He had to be thinking of something important, or something that hurt. It didn't matter. If he was going to be this way, she knew she should return to her room in the hotel.

"All right, Zack," she said. "I'll be in my room."

She silently retreated up the stairs, not giving Zack another glance or saying another word. If he wanted to be like this she should allow him to and keep out of his own business. The fact was she had her own thoughts on her mind about other things.

That Angel at the plate was the first thought in her mind. He was so familiar but she never had the chance to speak to him because of the other Angel, the one that interfered so much. Who did he think he was doing that? Occasionally she felt as though she could flare up at the entire world for all the confusing things within it. Why was everything so confusing? Why couldn't everything go in a straight line rather this twisting road. It wasn't... fair.

"Life's not fair," she murmured to herself. "It's not..."

Shaking her head she pushed open the door to her room in the hotel, pushing the light switch as she walked in. Looking around the room she saw only the double bed in the corner, a small table, and an old TV against the wall. A common hotel in Midgar, small and almost cozy. Resting on the bed side she ran a hand through her chocolate brown hair, sighing lightly. If she could only sleep for a few moments. They could head to the Shinra Building any time that night, couldn't they?

She sat up again. She could not sleep when Zack was downstairs getting himself drunk at the bar there. Something serious was bothering him, and she couldn't help him with it, and she knew it. He had never made sense to her, he was always quiet and alone, but she tried. She wanted to know him better yet he was always the one to tell her to leave him be, to let him stay alone. The only judgment she could make was this man had a hard life he would not share with anyone at all.

This was something Tifa wouldn't let pass in her mind. Rising to her feet again she walked to the door, opening it only to pull it close to shut again. The dark haired man she had been thinking of was now walking down the hallway, coming toward her room. Quickly she shut the door and retreated to the bed, where she sat down again. She didn't look up as the door creaked open after a short knock; she knew who it was even if he didn't.

"We need to head to Shinra tonight," he stated. "Barret will be waiting for us, and we need to tell him about Sector 7. If you're up to it."

"Of course I am," she replied. "Any longer that Barret and Aeris...."

She trailed off. The young girl the Angel at Don Coreno's mansion had thrust into their arms had joined them to the Sector 7 plate. It was there the Angel, Cloud she though, joined the leader of the Turks in finding her. Before Zack or Tifa had gotten a chance, she was gone, in Shinra's hands. And for some reason, it had struck Zack more than Tifa thought possible.

"They'll be doing something to her," Zack told her while sheathing his sword across his back. "Knowing Hojo...." He said the last words in a lower voice.

Tifa said nothing more but simply rose to her feet. Zack looked her over for a moment before walking out of the room again, his eyes on the ground. She followed him as she pulled her gloves on, preparing herself for any attack they might come to.

No matter what, they had to get into Shinra's Headquarters.

* * *

Silently the young man walked down the streets of Midgar, his mind drifting through his thoughts slowly as if he did not need to sort them out, or he did not want to. This road was a place he traveled down often to think, but it made no difference where he was when he was thinking. Wherever he stood, wherever he tried to sort out his confusing life, there stood something blocking his pathway. There always stood something to turn him around, to keep him away from discovering anything more.

Cloud cursed. His friend was gone, hundreds were killed in the falling of the pillar, and he was at a loss. It was not often his mind came to this halt, this sudden and a quiet halt. Something stood blocking the pathway to discovery, and for once, this was something he could not push away. Before, before he could push it away. Not now, though. Not now. It was too large perhaps, too confusing. It was not fair.

Zack was alive. His best friend from the old days, until Zack had passed away in a rare incident. What happened? Why was Zack alive once again? With this sudden discovery, it led to the remembering of things long forgotten. Things he had forgotten long ago in some odd haze. If only he was not in this battle, this twist of fate with Zack. If only they were not so different. Then, maybe he could learn more about his own past. And Zack more of his own.

Why should he bother worrying about that? There were so many other things on his mind at the time. Rufus was in Junon, due to his father and Reno’s telling of Rufus’ 'betrayal.' He wished he had been able to finish of Reno then; he would have finally been able to rid the world of such a scum. Unfortunately, it was Hunter and Tseng that had managed to stop him. Hunter held a type of authority over people somehow, one no one would ever defy. Not even Cloud, nor Rufus, or any AVALANCHE member.

It confused Cloud to think about how Hunter had forced him to return to Shinra HQ in the middle of a battle, especially that battle, one that was incredibly important. Hunter knew more than Cloud had ever expected. It was the only conclusion he could come to. But there was always on more thing that made this idea dissolve. Even in his few memories of his past, he saw no one with Hunter’s appearance nor personality. He was nothing but confused as of the moment.

Voices caused him to turn to the right suddenly. Distinctly, he moved away from the source, hiding behind a wall of a building. Something was familiar about those voices, and as an Angel, one was to never forget his duty to Shinra Inc. If turned out to be someone that caused a threat to Shinra, it would be his duty to Shinra to report it. Though he never had wanted to turn innocent people into Shinra. Doing that always left an odd feeling inside him.

"Why is it all the Angels must hide from people?," came a light tone.

Cloud sighed and stepped forward. Upon hearing that voice he already knew who it was, a young woman perhaps a year or so older than himself and one of the executives of Shinra. Her name was Raoia Black, the Vice-President of Shinra, Inc. Once Rufus had given up the job he offered it to Reeve, but the man declined and Raoia was brought in from Junon, where she was one of the top executives. Regardless of the fact she was an executive and Cloud’s superior, he enjoyed her company. She always had a light outlook on the world, nothing like the other executives.

"We don’t," Cloud informed her. "I choose to."

"Ah." She brushed away a strand of her reddish brown hair, smiling slightly. "You’ve always been the kind of loner."

Cloud shrugged. It seemed all the executives knew him only by the fact he was a loner. Not being a social person, none of them really knew him, and he didn’t want them to. The select few of generous executives were the only people in Shinra he talked to on a human level other than his fellow Angels. Raoia was among them.

"Lone Wolf," she remarked.

Cloud gave her a look. "Enough with the nicknames."

She laughed lightly. She had known him since his second year as an Angel, and his personality had not changed yet. Working with Hunter could do that to a person. The man had hold over people Raoia didn’t understand, but it was something she did not appreciate. He was different of course; there was something about him that made him like that. What it was, was something she supposed no one would know.

"All right, all right," she replied. "What are you doing out here on your own anyway? I doubt they would send you here."

"Actually, I’m off right now. But I figured I might as well keep a look out for any suspicious movement around here. I’m gonna have to do a lot to get them to trust me again."

He looked to the ground as he put his hands into his pockets. It would take some time to regain the trust of Shinra after his little act at the plate. If he had not put his own problems before his duty nothing would have happened to make them think wrongly of him. But the fact that girl was so familiar was beginning to bother him greatly. Who knew where he recognized her, but he still did, and he wanted to know from where.

"Then you wouldn’t mind walking with me back to Shinra," Raoia began. "Unlike you, I’m still working."

"Sure," Cloud said. "I was thinking of heading back now anyway."

It was interesting how in a city as large as Midgar that in some areas there could be nothing but dead silence. That was one of the things that bothered Cloud as they walked along. Normally the city wasn’t this silent and it made him think that perhaps there was something going on. What, he had no idea, but it was a feeling. Still, he learned some time ago not to trust his own feelings. In fact, that was something Hunter had told him.

Shoving those thoughts away, he quickly followed after Raoia.

---