Wall Market. It was where men came for fun, women for the shopping, and an ll around busy place. People often tried to make a living in Wall Market despite the hardship of living there. It was not an easy place to come to and fit in like a regular person. Wall Market was run by the rich people of Midgar, which was now Don Coreno, a twisted man with a like for women. He wasn't a well liked man, actually hated by most, but he was a rich man and was used to getting his own way.

The chocobo carriage trotted up slowly to Don Coreno's home, coming to an easy halt outside without a prompt from the driver. The driver jumped off the seat, making sure the hood to his coat didn't slip back as he walked to the chocobo. The large yellow bird warked, searching for something to eat on the man's clothes. He found nothing, and turned away in disgust. It was hard to see, but the driver smiled and slipped a morsel of greens the chocobo licked up in an instant.

"I hate this place," the young woman behind the driver remarked.

"It'll be quick, Lilith," the driver told her, sighing slightly. "All we need to do is tell Coreno to keep his mouth shut now that we know AVALANCHE wants some information from him."

Lilith sighed, not trusting Cloud any. He was right, wasn't he? The plan was to slip into there, confront Coreno and leave before AVALANCHE came. Unfortunately, they also needed to trick Coreno into seeing them, and she was the bait. She felt awfully cold in the light blue dress. Her thoughts left the Don and back to Cloud as he slid an arm around her shoulders for comfort.

"Don't worry," he smiled. "I won't let anyone get their hands on you. Okay?"

Despite his comforting words, Lilith still didn't want to face Coreno. Giving in, she followed Cloud into the mansion Coreno lived in, it's false yellow and pink lights scorching the ground from over use. Cloud ventured in first, his hand falling to his side where his Firestar pistol was hidden. He personally would have rather been carrying his Buster Sword, but the thought of a chocobo carriage driver carrying a weapon like that was a little silly.

There had been no word of Rufus. Not even a body. Cloud thought for sure his friend was gone, but he still didn't give up hope. He would continued to look for Rufus when he could. In all his life, he had lost many and never shed any amount of emotion. How could he? He had never known what would come of it all...

His thoughts drifted as he followed Lilith into Don Coreno's home. He sighed at the pathetic excuse for a rich man's home. Cloud was by no means a rich man, but this was ridiculous. There was cheap oriental rugs on the floors, red carpeted staircases and each door had yellow trim around it, the door painted red.

This is how a pervert lives? Cloud thought to himself.

At the door they were not so friendly greeted by a man wearing torn up jeans and a blue shirt. His greasy hair was a mass of strangles on his head, and a cigarette had hanging out of the side of his mouth. The long tendril of smoke reminded Lilith of Rufus' bad habit of smoking.

"This girl for the Don?," he asked.

A chill ran up Lilith's spine. Did they really have to trick Done Coreno like this? It was simple enough for an Angel to confront him, but why weren't they? Hunter had explained it was because Don Coreno would never allow a Angel enter his mansion. It was true. It still didn't stop Lilith from worrying.

"Yeah," Cloud replied. "But I'm comin' with her." Lilith noticed Cloud was using a fake accent to throw them off guard. "It better not be a problem."

The man shook his head, and quickly pushed them inside the Don's mansion. Cloud nodded to the man behind the desk seated there, then he turned to look around the mansion. The inside was just as bad as the outside with the artificial lights and such. There were cheap oriental rugs on the floors and large red curtains covering the windows. He shook his head, then looked back to see if the man was gone.

He must have left just a moment before, but Cloud quickly pulled the cloak he wore off and threw it to the ground, revealing he wore his suit underneath. He directed Lilith to go upstairs while he gave the place a look around. Reluctantly, she obeyed and walked up the flight of stairs completely unhappy with her predicament. Cloud walked around the mansion, searching it for anything.

Inside he was still worried about what had happened at the reactor the day before. How could Zack be alive? It was five years ago that he last saw him, and he had seen him be killed. The only drawback was the fact Cloud had never seen who had done it. Hunter had told him it was Sephiroth, the SOLDIER that had come along on the mission. But why? Sephiroth was always a cold individual but Cloud never thought he would kill someone in cold blood like that.

Still pondering, he walked up the stairs toward Don Coreno's room. The thought of the old, fat, pervert made Cloud want to leave then in there, but he had promised Lilith he would stay with her until this was all over. All the Angels stuck together... but now. Now Rufus was dead. Cloud shook his head, as though he might be able to shake the memories of his friend. It would be wonderful to see him standing there now.

And then there he was.

Cloud had turned around for some reason, and there stood the very person he was thinking of, shotgun in hand a smoking from the barrel. Apparently it had been recently fired. Beside the man in white stood a young woman dressed in pink and red. Who was she? And that man... It couldn't be Rufus. Cloud had watched him fall. No one could survive that fall! No one...

"R... Rufus?," he asked.

The man turned to him. A slight smile appeared on Rufus Shinra's face. Cloud was truly surprised to see him, wasn't he? He wondered why Cloud was this surprised to see him. The two of them had pulled out of many more complications than falling from a reactor on one of the plates. He took a step forward, climbing up only two steps of the staircase near Cloud.

"Hey," he said calmly. "What, did you think I was dead?"

"Yes!," Cloud replied.

With a smile still visible on his face, Rufus motioned for Aeris to follow him up the stairs. He stopped by Cloud, resting a hand on his friend's shoulder. Cloud's eyes narrowed in confusion, but not one word left his lips.

"I don't look dead, right?," Rufus asked him. "Relax, huh?"

He procedded to explain everything to Cloud of his fall. Cloud nodded between a few noticed sentences, and glaned at Aeris occasionally. She blushed when she saw his Mako eyes on her, and Cloud was beginning to wonder who she really was. Rufus never picked people up off the streets in the slums. Perhaps she was different....?