Part 1: The End of the Beginning
It was a quiet day outside Costa Del Sol. Too quiet... Suddenly there was a rustling in the bushes! "I'm gonna get youuuuu!" Tifa cried out as she ran after a figure through the trees. "No you won't!" Alexis, her daughter of 5 years replied.
They were playing a game of hide-and-go-seek during their picnic. It was about fifteen years after the meteor incident. Tifa and Cloud had been married for over thirteen years now. They had two beautiful children, Kevin Strife who will turn nine in two weeks, and, of course, Alexis, who was, as she so bluntly put it, "5 and 2/3". Strangely enough, Kevin had Tifa's brown hair and reddish eyes, while Alexis had Cloud's wild blonde hair and shining blue eyes.
Speaking of hair; Tifa had finally persuaded Cloud to fix that odd looking mane of his. He had now adopted a shorter and less wild hairstyle. He had complained about it at first, but, when he stopped getting hair jokes, he had grown to accept it.
Now, back to the events at hand. Tifa was chasing her daughter while Cloud and Kevin were both hiding up in trees. Tifa gasped, "You kids! You're just too fast for me in my old age." She was 35 after all.
Cloud suddenly leapt down from the trees, giving Tifa quite a scare. "Old age huh?" Cloud asked, "I'm older than you and I feel fine!"
Tifa had something to say about that. "Well! You haven't been chasing these kids all day. By the way, I'm starved let's get something to eat."
"Sure" Cloud replied. "But only if you can get there before we eat it all!" He quickly dashed with the kids to the picnic they had set up.
"You guy's won't give me an inch will you!", she called after them.
"No way!" they all called back.
Tifa sighed and trudged after them.
But when they got there they saw something so horrible, so absolutely terrifying that it was beyond all possible description.
"Where's all of our food?!" Cloud exclaimed.
"It was here a minute ago!" Tifa panted as she finally caught up to them.
"Hey guys!" Barret yelled at them...through a mouth filled with their turkey sandwich.
"Hello!" Marlene also yelled, through a mouth full of apple pie.
"Barret!" Tifa said happily, but then she turned on that frown that Cloud had come to fear. "How could you eat all of our food!"
"What?" Barret asked after swallowing the last of the sandwich "I was hungry!"
"And Marlene!" Tifa continued "You know better than that!"
Marlene merely shrugged.
"Is that really Marlene?" Cloud asked "She's taller than her dad."
"Yeah," Barret replied. "and don't think she doesn't let me know it!"
Marlene was now 21, and head of the Alternate Energy Sources Division of the new government set up in Shinra's place. Her dad had received all the more gray hairs for it. He just couldn't believe that his little girl had become one of those "stuck up executive types" as he put it, although she wasn't stuck up or an executive type at all. In reality, Barret was very proud of his daughter and had expected no less from her.
"Nice to see you too." she said to Cloud. "I see Tifa finally did something about your hair."
"What makes you think she did something about it?" he replied.
"Just call it a hunch." she quietly said back.
"And it's about time!" Barret said while shaking Tifa's right hand. Ever since he had gotten the robotic prosthesis for his right hand he loved to shake people's hand. Cloud still couldn't believe it was fake. It molded perfectly with his arm. And since it used the neurological receptors that controlled his "gun arm", he could use it as naturally as his left hand.
"It's been, what, seven years?" Tifa said.
"Yeah, and the last time I saw you guys Kevin here was only a little guy I could hold in my hand. And Alexis here I haven't even seen. Hi, little Alexis!"
Alexis waved shyly from behind Cloud's leg.
"Sorry, Barret," Tifa said. "She's shy around new people."
"Yeah, I'd be shy if I saw someone as big as me too."
"And, it isn't all good size either" Marlene laughed while patting his stomach.
"Will you jes shaddup about that?" Barret snapped back.
"Well, we're rambling too much here, so let's get to the point."
Marlene said. "We're having a get together of the old crew out at Cosmo Canyon. You'll come won't you?"
"Of course we'll come!" Tifa said, "Just tell us when!"
"One week from now" Marlene said. "So don't say I didn't give ya enough warning!"
"She's starting to talk like her old man." Cloud said.
"We'll be there." Tifa said.
"Old man, hmmph..." Barret muttered.
One Week Later
"Damn, they're taking their time getting here", Cid muttered.
"Patience, Cid" Shera, his wife of 10 years, soothed him. He had been waiting a long time to see everyone back together again. He could wait another hour or so longer.
"Yeah, Daddy, patient." his daughter, Brittany echoed. "Patient."
"I know, I know." he laughed, lifting the 3 year old onto his lap. Cid and Shera had gotten too old to have kids by the time they had decided to get married, so they adopted little Brittany who had had an especially rough life. Her parents had died when Meteor hit Midgar.
"Cid! I really wish you wouldn't swear around her." Shera scolded.
"But it's so da... darn hard not to when those two lovebirds are taking their sweet time."
"Well then, take a nap." RedXII said, while curling up on the floor of the observatory's lounge.
"Nunaka!" Brittany exclaimed.
"She never could get his name right." Shera said while trying to hold in a laugh.
"Hello, everyone." Vincent said smoothly. No one had noticed him come in.
"Damn!" Cid said "Don't sneak up on me like that!"
Shera quickly stood up and gave him a light slap across the face. "Cid..." she said threateningly.
"Some things never change." Vincent said. He was still living in the basement of the Shinra mansion. Still feeling the loss of Lucrecia, he rarely came out, even to eat. But now that there was a reunion going on, he felt obligated to come and visit.
"You should talk!" Yuffie said. No one had noticed her come in either. Believe it or not, Yuffie is the president of a long line of materia stores now, and is doing very well as a businesswoman.
"Hey Cid, good to see you." Yuffie said. "Now that I'm here I can finally ask you: why did you give the Highwind to that museum?"
"I didn't have any use for it anymore." Cid said. "First of all, it's pretty much trashed, the thing can barely fly." "Second," he continued "now that I've got a family, I don't have much time for flying. Why do you care anyway? You hated the thing."
"Yeah," Yuffie sighed "but it brings back memories"
Everyone just gave her an odd look.
"Well, where is everyone?" she asked
"That's what I'd like to know." Cid replied.
"Well I'm here!" Cait Sith yelled.
"Da..." Cid was cut short by Shera's frosty glare.
"What's with them?" The cat asked.
"Shera has a no swearing policy while Cid's kid is around." Yuffie explained.
"Cid not swearing!" Cait said, "Will wonders never cease?"
"I'm under a no smoking policy too." Cid said " But it's worth it for my little girl."
"Kitty!" Brittany exclaimed, taking her eyes off Red long enough to notice the toy cat." She immediately ran up and plucked the cat from atop it's moogle before anyone could stop her.
"I thought this would happen" Cait Sith said.
"Why did you come like this, Reeve?" Cid said. He quickly directed Brittany's attention to the giant stuffed moogle long enough to pry Cait Sith out of her grip.
"Just for old time's sake." He replied.
"Hello, y'all!" Barret said.
"It's about damn time you got here!" Cid said.
Shera just sighed.
"It's awfully cramped in here." Cloud said.
"You're right," Cid said. "Let's go outside."
"Damn, man. Stop sayin it like a..." Cloud started.
"Yeah, yeah I get the point just lay off." Cid grumbled.
"Hey, Barret," Red said while they were all walking outside. "Where's Marlene?"
"She had some business to do where she works" he replied. "Somethin to do wit a big energy source or somethin."
"You're just one for the specifics, aren't you Barret?" Cait Sith said.
"Shaddup cat" Barret replied.
As they approached the Cosmo Candle it brought back old fellings of their adventurer days. And for Red, memories of his adopted grandfather, Bugenhagen. Some of them missed the old days, but none of them actually wanted them to return.
"I can't believe this thing's still burning." Yuffie said.
"It's an eternal flame," Red explained. "It only goes out in times great crisis."
"But the question is, what keeps it going?" Vincent asked.
"Probably the planet itself." Cloud said.
"Well, what's everyone been up to?" Tifa said, changing the subject.
"Well," Cid said, "Shera and I have been trying to figure out how to raise a kid. It makes flying the Highwind in a typhoon seem like a walk in the park."
"What's been even tougher for Cid is giving up his ciggies." Shera said.
"Cid!" Barret said "Giving up his ciggies?!"
"Well, secondhand smoke..." Cid said."
Suddenly a huge flame shot up from the fire that was Cosmo Candle. The flame continued to expand, getting brighter and brighter. Everyone backed off as fast as they could, but the flame was shooting nearly a hundred feet in the air. It enveloped the entire platform where the candle rested. Then as suddenly as it had appeared, it was gone! And there was no trace of Cosmo Candle except the wood it had burned from for so many years.
"What the hell was that!" Cid said, forgetting to hold his tongue.
"This is a very bad omen." RedXIII said.
"No s--t!!!" Barret yelled at him. He was shaking from head to foot from what had just happened. He couldn't take this in his old age.
The kids were cluching their parents, understanding no more about what had just happened than their parents did.
"What could cause the Cosmo Candle to behave so violently?" Vincent queried. Apparently, if this had shaken him, he wasn't going to show it.
"How the hell can you be so calm?!" Yuffie screamed. She was literally shaking in her shoes.
"Cait Sith," Cloud said. "Would Reeve know anything about this?"
"What the hell do I know aboout this mystic crap!? My department is politics."
"Wait," Barret yelled. "Marlene said sometin about a big energy source she had to check out today at work!"
"So?" Tifa asked shaking no less than the others.
"She jes might know somethin 'bout this!" he said.
"Well, then, let's get going!" Cid said.
Part 2: A Falling Star
To the Beyond the Looking Glass title Page