Chapter 1

“You know, I want to find out about Aeris and about me just as much as you want to know about you and about Lucrecia.”

 One year after Shinra, after meteor, after Hojo, Jenova and Sephiroth; the world looks ahead to the future. So much has changed in a year. Midgar, the once proud city, is nothing more then a wasteland filled with harmful Mako pollution. It is the most unsanitary place on earth. Not a soul, if it wishes to live, should wonder there. Yet, souls do wonder. Not all of them wish to live, but most do and they desire the same for others. That is why the members of AVELANCHE can be seen there each day. At first their mission was clear: get Midgar evacuated. Most left eagerly, but some where to attached to their homes and dismissed the warnings of the harmful pollution that came from the exploded Mako reactors. But as time passed the job became more gruesome. It was no longer a search for the living, but for the dead.
Each day, as he made his way from the camp AVELANCHE had made outside Midgar to the dammed city, Vincent would see the body of an innocent child dead on the cold ground. It’s open jaws and clenched hands stiff in the horror of the convulsion, his eyes filled with a fluorescent glow and his mouth overflowing with foam. Or he would see a woman grasp her bosom as she tried to inhale and exhale all to no avail, for the poison was clogging her arteries and seeping through her circulatory system. Not infrequently, Vincent and the others had no other choice, but to release these people from their pain. Today they awaken to the same horror, but will find a more intriguing terror as the heavenly stars overtake the sky.
“ I think it’s fair to say that our mission is complete. We’ve been finding more dead people then live ones. We don’t even find them dying anymore just dead. Its over.”
“ Yeah, it’s been too long. They’re all dead by now. Poor fools”
Cloud and Barret sat around the morning fire as the others listened in sadness. There was nothing they could do anymore. It was time for their lives to move on.
“ Guess the old fart is gonna be happy to see me” Yuffie said through a sad smile. She was so young and yet she witnessed the most gruesome things on earth. Barret didn’t tell her, but he always felt like a second father to her and like in his real father-daughter relationship he seemed to fail to protect her from the world’s terrors.
“ I don’t think anyone is gonna be happy to see you, runt,” Yuffie gave him an evil look. Barret just smiled cockily. “ But I’m sure Marlene is gonna be happy to see her daddy everyday, and you know what? So I’m i. Me, Elmyra, and Marlene, we’re probably gonna go to Corel and help undo what I’ve done.” He looked sadly into his bowl of oatmeal. Tifa had made it with blueberries, his favorite, but suddenly he didn’t feel like eating anymore.
“ Would you quit blaming yourself!” Tifa yelled from the side of the black cauldron as she served Cloud his third helping of oatmeal. “ Here” she handed Cloud the large bowl hastily. “ Listen Barret you gotta stop this. You know that it was Shinra, not you.” She gave the sad man a reassuring pat on his shoulder and sat next to him.
“ Guess it’s a habit,” he smiled weakly at her. “ So what are you guys gonna do?” he asked his crew.
“ I’m going home, but not before you hand me your materia! Remember you singed a contract!” Yuffie smiled greedily as she reached for the glowing orbs in Cloud’s bag. She found her nimble hands stopped mid way by the arm of a strong young man.
“ I don’t think so Yuffie,” Cloud said in between loud slurps of oatmeal. “ We already gave you the other ones we mastered.” He gulped the last of the oatmeal down and wiped his mouth with his forearm in one swift crescent movement. “ And I didn’t sing any contract!” he added.
“ You’re a big liar Cloud Strife” the ninja retorted with an angry face, but it soon turned to disgust when she noticed his manners. “ And a pig.” Cloud just shrugged as Yuffie stamped her feet.
“ You can have mine Yuffie. I doubt that I’ll need them at Cosmo Canyon.” Yuffie’s eyes lit up at Red’s words.
“Yes! Did I ever tell you that you were my favorite all along?”
“ So you’re gonna pick up your duties as guardian. Figures. Well, as far as I know I won’t need any materia in Nibelheim. I’m going to open a bar there.” Tifa looked at the object of her affections as she spoke, but he didn’t seem to react or take a hint. Instead he just seemed to be lost as he stared towards Midgard.  No doubt he was spacing off, thinking about some unshared sadness that he wouldn’t share with her. And why didn’t he share it with his best friend? She had gone into his consciousness once. Didn’t he trust her? Tifa wanted to help Cloud, but it wasn’t welcomed and she wasn’t going to pressure him too much about it. After all, what he would say might only cause her pain. He was probably just mourning about HER and considering the circumstances she wasn’t the best person to talk to. I’m so evil I resent her for dying. Oh why did she have to die? Things could have been so much easier. But I just can’t compete with the dead.  Immediately Tifa bit her lip. It was a habit she had picked up. Every time she was having what she thought were bad thoughts, she would tighten her fists and bite her lips.
“So I guess you’re going to Nibelheim too, huh Cloud?” Yuffie said as she collected all the materia in her small bag.
“Hey, don’t worry about me” he said with a shrug. Now Tifa really felt hurt. How could she not care? “Call Cid. Tell him this will be his last trip. I think he’s repairing something Reno blew up in the last infestation. He probably won’t get here until nightfall. That’ll give you a long time to pack up your stuff and arrange your trips to were ever your going.” He picked up the Ultima sword and walked over to Squall, his golden chocobo.
 “Wait. Shouldn’t you pack up too?” Tifa looked at him in despair.
“ No. I still have some business here.”
“What are you talking about! Business? Cloud, you said it yourself, there is only death in that city!" Her emotions were getting the best of her, but Cloud didn’t seem to care. He mounted Squall and turned his back on her. She wasn’t about to let this happen. Tifa ran next to the chocobo and grabbed the reins. “ You’ll go insane if you stay here. You should at least have someone with you.”
Cloud looked at her with kind eyes and a smile. “ Don’t worry Tifa. Vincent’s gonna stay with me. I’ll be fine”
“You’re counting on him to keep you sane? Do you even realize what’s coming out of your mouth? I’m staying with you!”
“Tifa, I think we all know I’ve never had a full set of marble. Now quit mothering me I’ll be fine! Go, live your life. Don’t waste your time.” He sounded harsher then what he meant. He toned down. “ Look, this isn’t good-bye. I’m going to see you again. All of you. Now, I’ll see you later.” He waved his hand and rode his chocobo towards Midgard.
“Harsh,” was all that Yuffie could say. The rest of AVELANCHE tried to cheer Tifa up. “Hey where is Vincent, anyway?” Yuffie wondered.
                      * * * *
 Vincent Valentine hit his chocobo’s backside and sent it off to camp. If the chocobo were to remain there it would have probably been poisoned in an hour. He put on his oxygen mask. Normal people would also need goggles along with the black gloves, or rather glove he was wearing. However, Vincent’s alteration made his eyes almost invincible to any poison or darkness of Midgard. His lungs were another thing. They didn’t agree with pneumonic Mako poisoning at all. Vincent entered sector 6. He’d have to wait for Cloud inside the church were Aeris’ flowers laid. Cloud took very good care of them. They were almost like his children.
 The beauty of the church was still preserved. The sunlight made a soft haze around the white roses and carnations of all different colors. Mainly pink Aeris’ favorite color. Vincent could relate to Cloud’s love and his torture and he could also understand why he wanted to preserve this place. It seemed to Vincent that Cloud had a little help from above.  Tough fighters like him, who know nothing but fighting, don’t just learn how to plant and maintain a garden. They just don’t learn how to grow the most beautiful flowers Vincent had ever seen by themselves without some kind of help. He knew Aeris had never left Cloud. Vincent also felt Tifa’s pain. He knew all too well the pain of an unrequited love. Lucrecia… No, he wasn’t about to put negatives thoughts into Cloud’s sanctuary. Instead he bent down and smelled the white roses and carnations that Cloud had poured all his love into. The sweet scents calmed his senses and relaxed his muscles. He could swear these things were magical.
 “You got here quick. I left half an hour before you,” he commented calmly as he took in the rich scent of a white rose.
 “ It didn’t take that long to explain to everyone we where staying,” Cloud said while he walked towards Vincent and the flowers with a large bottle of fresh water. “Plus Squall is way faster then Irvine.” He added cockily. Vincent stood up and let Cloud water the plants with the large watering jug that had a bright yellow daisy imprinted on it. He watched him as Cloud carefully inspected each flower with a serious face. Mainly he dawned over the ones he saw Vincent touch. A curse on anyone who would harm his babies. It was just so hilarious to Vincent or anyone who saw this spectacle. Here was the earth’s number one hero watering plants from a watering jug with a daisy imprinted on it, carefully and with all the seriousness he had ever possessed, monitoring the way the sun hit them, the amount of water they where getting, the richness of their soil and so on and so forth, all of this for a friend who was lost. That part of it deserved respect, which Vincent readily gave. A friend like Cloud is a true friend.
 “ You mean you explained to them that you were staying. I doubt that they needed to know about me. I’m mysterious remember?” Vincent said nonchalantly. “And Irvine is faster. Some people just like to take in the scenery” he added in the same tone, but Cloud understood it was a joke.
 “Whatever man. And they did ask about you,” Cloud fibbed. “Anyways, where is this lab we were gonna check out today?”
 “Its in Sector 1. It’s actually more then one lab it’s a whole building or at least it used to be. It’s the Shinra Bio–technology center. Hojo practically owned the building. He managed it and the 2 basements where for his eyes only, supposedly not even Heidegger could get in.”
 “I asked where it was and that’s it. Too much information,” Cloud said jokingly and hit his rather unemotional friend in the back. “ Well, I’m done for now.” Cloud dusted off his hands and looked at his flowers quite adoringly.
“She would be proud,” Vincent said.
“You think?”
“Yeah, definitely.”
“It’s too bad that I’m gonna have to leave them. Reeve and his buddies are tearing down Midgard. And some day new constructions are gonna come up.” Cloud said remorsefully.
“So why don’t you just pick them?”
“But that would be killing them! Not my babies!” Cloud yelled melodramatically, trying to make his quiet friend laugh or at least smile, which he did. “Ah. There is nothing’ like a morning smile. Hey! You are going to help me pick them later, right?”
“Why? Too much work for the world’s hero?” Vincent replied in a smug voice. “Come on we have to get going if we want to make the best of our time here. And put your mask on, or you’ll die.” Vincent said very seriously. His friend, Cloud didn’t like that all that much.
“ We’ve been over this. I’m practically a walking Mako reactor. I’ll be fine.” Cloud said much like a disobedient child talks to his mother. The two heroes started to walkout of the little piece of heaven that was Aeris’ church.
“And Squall is faster”
“You know he is not Cloud so drop it,” Vincent said in a monotone voice.
“Is too”
“Is not”
“Is too…” and the conversation went on and on and on….
                 * * * *
Back at camp, Tifa picked up her things morosely.
“Tifa, don’t worry there are plenty of fishes in the sea and most of them don’t have such dangerous hair.”
“You just don’t understand, Barret. He just needs time and then he’ll be ready. I mean he has gone through a lot his whole life.” She punched her clothes angrily into her bag.

“Well. I guess so. Just don’t let it get to you.” Barret went to pack his own stuff and left Tifa to her thoughts. Barret knew that some day Cloud would take notice of Tifa’s love. He had better take notice soon or I’ll kick his ass!
“ Hey Yuffie what the hell are you doin’ in Vincent’s tent!?” Barret spoke to the silhouette of a small girl with a large round weapon inside the Ex-Turks’ tent.
“Ah…. Yuffie? There’s no one in here by that name, this is Tifa” the ninja lowered her voice pitch and put two melons in front of her chest giving her an “exaggerated” version of Tifa’s chest. Although it was quite hilarious, Barret didn’t laugh. He entered the tent and looked dead straight at Yuffie who was still holding the melons. She just laughed nervously as she put them down where she found them.
“Return all his stuff right now! He wouldn’t be too against killing your ass and frankly neither would i.”
“Stop exaggerating. We all know he’s not that bad.”
“Better then you, you thief. Now put all his stuff back” Barret retorted.
“Fine! It wasn’t like I found any useful materia. The weirdo took it all with him. And so did Cloud, so don’t worry about me stealing anything from him neither.”
“Why would they need all that powerful materia? There aren’t that many monsters in Midgar. Their all dead or just weaklings.”
“How should I know?” Yuffie commented out of turn.
“Get the hell out of this tent!” Barret raised his fist angrily and chased Yuffie out of the tent.
“You old fart!!” She yelled back and hid behind Red.
“Well, perhaps they’re just being careful. After all, Hojo’s labs tend to have some pretty gruesome monsters,” Red said after his sharp ears picked up Barret and Yuffie’s argument. The young Ninja hid behind him.
“They’re going where!,” Tifa screamed across the encampment making Cid who was on the other line of the PHS, curse out loud. She tended to tune in quite well when the conversations where about Cloud.
“Hey! What in hell was that Tifa?” Cid asked
“Oh nothing, our fearless leader just decided to take Vincent and go on a tour of all of Hojo’s labs!” Came Tifa’s loud and completely outraged, sarcastic answer.
“Why the fuck would they do a thing like that?”
“They have their own specific reasons, but they both want information,” Red answered in calm deep voice, his flaming tail happily moving about. “Don’t worry so much. Nothing bad is going to happen.”
A loud deafening explosion interrupted Tifa’s planned come back.  Cid drew the phone away from his ears and the rest of AVELANCHE covered theirs, as Midgar seemed to roar in agony from the great damage it had incurred. Metal shrieked against metal. Corrosion begot corrosion. Midgar seemed to die all over again. Tifa gave Red a very mad “I told you so” look.
“Hey Cid you there? How fast can you come to Midgar?
“Not until nightfall,” he answered. “Reno banged the engine up pretty bad trying to kill that huge bug, but it’s not worst then what I just heard. What the hell was that?” Came the old Captain’s anxious query.
“Cloud’s cry for help,” Tifa replied worriedly. “ Get to Midgar as soon as you can and bring the Turks. We’re going to the dammed city.  God only knows what kind of danger our friends are in.”
* * * * *
 “A bug! A bug!” The spiky headed hero exclaimed. A shot rang out of a long rifle named The Death Penalty. Steam rose from its barrel as one of its bullets hit a bug, or more precisely… a moth.
“Cloud Strife that’s the second bullet you’ve made me waste,” came Vincent’s rather annoyed words. Oh how Vincent hated wasting bullets!
“Sorry, I just think it’s so cool, the way you can hit that across the room,” Cloud happily screamed so that his friend could hear him on the other side of Lab B1-8. The dark lab was like all the other 7, a rather large room filled with: lots of useless paperwork thrown around everywhere, a foul morbid stench, and a dark dreary look that made anyone’s skin crawl. Vincent Valentine gave out a sigh of annoyance.
“Did you find anything useful?” He asked as he walked towards Cloud.
“Well, this is the last file I dug up,” he meant that literally. “It’s different then the others.”
“You mean it’s really large.”
“Exactly.”
“Well then, what does it say?” Vincent asked now next to Cloud.
“Hold your horses. The moth stopped me from reading.” Cloud gave a small smile. Vincent wasn’t in the mood for joking, if ever he was in that mood. He forcefully snatched the large overflowing file from Cloud and started reading.
“You know, I want to find out about Aeris and about me just as much as you want to know about you and about Lucrecia.”  Cloud said in a rather somber mood. “But that doesn’t mean we have to get so stiff. Vincent, they wouldn’t want us….”
“Cloud, shut up and listen to this. It’s one of Hojo’s top secret projects.
  ‘Project N seems to be very resilient to the Mako. At this rate she should be poisoned, but I suppose her genes are too strong. Her body doesn’t oppose the Mako, but rather seems to welcome it. She shows some sort of consciousness in the Mako tube. She’s tried to brake it twice in some sort of reaction to the Jenova cells that I have injected in her. Her body rejects them with far more force then any of my other projects. It could be as a result of the evolutionary changes I made. I will leave her in this semi-conscious state until the end of this year. Perhaps then she will be more obedient to me.’”
 “Whoa!” was all that Cloud could say. The shock had left him speechless. Vincent was not surprised at Hojo’s inhumanity until he read the last part in the document. Cloud watched as Vincent read out loud, his eyes wide in quiet disbelief.
 “’Age of capture: 17, Projected age of release from Tube:23, Name of Specimen: Nemesis Hojo, former Turk.”
 “I was definitely NOT prepared for that one. Hojo was making another Sephiroth out of his other kid.” Not again!
  “According to this she’s been in a sort of conscious sleep for about 6 or 5 years,” Vincent said pensively.
“Does it say which year he plans on letting her out?” Cloud asked anxiously.
“No. It simply says ‘at the end of this year.’ Hojo was never good with dates.” Vincent remained cool and calm which only fueled Cloud’s anxiousness.
“You know what this means? It could be meteor all over again.” Cloud said both angry and sad at the same time. He grabbed the hilt of his sword as if he was ready to fight. Cloud’s heart began to beat faster. Images attacked his already weakened mind. /Burning buildings, a long sword piecing a lovely young woman, and the image of the one he hated the most. He who made him both strong and weak, the angel of death himself, laughing calling him his puppet/ Not again, I can’t bare it all over again. How many more will die because of YOU?
  “Cloud,” Vincent addressed him calmly stopping Cloud’s tortured train of thought. He put a reassuring hand on his friend’s shoulder. “ Don’t forget that foremost she is like us, victims of Hojo. From what it says here she went through treatments similar to both of ours. Imagine what he did to her. Our pains are her pains.” Vincent knew what kind of torture would come to that woman. He wasn’t about to fail again. Never again, Hojo.
 “Maybe. And from the sound of it she wasn’t all that thrilled about it.” Cloud said weakly. “But we still should be on guard.” I know I’m not about make friends with a demon.
 “I wouldn’t have it other wise, but lets give her the benefit of the doubt. We could help her the way our friends helped us.” Vincent’s honest words turned Cloud into his usual funny self.
 “You just love us don’t you?” he teased. Vincent ignored him.
 “The rest of this is just dosages of Mako and Jenova cells and there is also a book. ‘Sorrow and it’s Chaos’.” Chaos, how Vincent hated that name even in a word.
 “ Does it say where he left her?” Cloud interrupted.
“No. She could not only be anywhere in Migard or maybe even anywhere in the world, but there is a strong possibility that she may be dead. We don’t know what kind of special care she needed to survive or if her facility was crushed”
 “A so called ‘project’ like that. No way. Hojo, would have taken better care,” Cloud acknowledged softly to Vincent’s surprise. He was smarter then he acted. “ She could be in the last floor. You said so yourself that only Hojo was allowed down there.”
 “It’s possible. We’re going there now anyway.” Vincent replied and hoped that they would find her. He wanted to atone for his sins so bad, he forgot that he really should be thinking about the girl. Vincent gave Cloud the file and the book to Cloud, who in turn put it in a briefcase they had found. The two warriors walked through the broken down metal door and looked for the staircase. Suddenly there was a huge explosion everything seemed to shake. The reminiscence of the building above the basements began to crumble and fall, which seemed to cause a domino effect with the other buildings. A terrible shrieking sound caused the heroes to fall on their knees and block the ear-splitting sound.
“ What the hell is this?” Could both asked and exclaimed.
“Why it’s me, my failure,” a sinister voice answered. It sounded like a snake speaking, if snakes could speak. The voice elongated its speech with S’s. Smoke surrounded the very large creature making it hard to see what it was. The silhouette behind the thick sand colored smoke gave away the identity of the attacker. It was a creature much like a Zolom, but with small bat wings that let it fly above them.
“Vincent! Is it just me or is a flying snake talking to us?” Cloud asked confused out of his mind.
“Yeah Vincent. Is it really a flying snake talking to you?” The smug voice chuckled as it spoke
Vincent knew who it was and he wasn’t about to bother answering the mad man. Rage built inside his heart and he shot his gun at the head of the large snake that screamed in pain. His blood boiled and his lust for vengance was slowly giving away to darkness inside. Not yet! He forced himself not to give in. He wanted to remember how he killed his arch-nemesis.
“Cloud, it’s Hojo!” Vincent screamed in rage as he casted a powerful Fire3 spell that almost knocked the flying creature out. Cloud imitated the same angry rage and slashed at the creature who responded with a swift hit to Cloud’s head. The young man quickly got up. The smoke cleared and both the decaying green-man with a torn dirty lab coat and the large, flying Zolom where in plain sight of Cloud. Hojo’s new pet was quite impressive. It had large sharp teeth that oozed in thick hungry saliva, eyes that glowed in an iridescent yellow, a scaly body that was covered with grotesque skin tumors, and yet still, Cloud found it prettier then the man at it’s head.
“ Hey Hojo!” Cloud screamed. “You’re butt ugly!” The decaying scientist seemed to take this to heart. He ordered his giant abomination to take another shot at Cloud allowing the swift Vincent to levitated to the Zolom’s back. He climbed up stealthily, like a panther at night as the Zolom and Cloud exchanged blows. As Vincent neared the head he readied himself to pounce on the scientist and disembowel him with his claw. He leap high in to the air and readied his claw, but before he could get to his prey, Hojo grabbed him in mid-air with one of his many tentacles that grew from his back. The sick monster laughed maliciously.
“ I suggest surrender project C or you’ll find your loser of a friend here dead.” Vincent didn’t give Cloud time to surrender. His sharp metallic claw dug into Hojo’s tentacle. Once inside he grabbed the nerves and flesh and proceeded to rip them out of there. Hojo screamed in agonizing pain. He slammed Vincent unmercifully into the floor next to Cloud and his tentacle squirmed back to him. Vincent’s battered body got up again and the pale man smirked evilly at Hojo’s torture. The scientist held his tentacle in hand as it oozed and sprayed the red-green blood. He screamed in pain and anger.
Cloud took advantage of the momentary weakening of Hojo’s psychic connection with the mutated Zolom. He charged the beast with his Ultima sword and with one vertical swipe the beasts oozed in blood and its insides began to fall out. The creature gave a terrible deafening shriek of pain, as did Hojo.
“No!” Hojo screamed. “Flying Zolom A, Poison Gas!” The weakened flying snake stopped screaming, opened it’s mouth obediently and let out a green-gray gas that blinded both Cloud and the usually very sight gifted Vincent. Cloud coughed uncontrollably, but luckily Vincent’s mask made the poison less harsh to his lungs.
“Sorry, my failed specimens, but I must be going I have a rather prompt to date with a very important project. No doubt she will be more promising then you too.” With a maniacal laugh and a snotty attitude Hojo left the heroes. But he also left sounds, which told Vincent which direction he was going in.
 

Author’s notes:
 Who is this project? Who’s her mother? Do any of the Turks know her? How the hell did Hojo survive and what the hell is he up to? Keep reading guys. If you find this first chapter to hint towards a cliché fanfic, then you’re wrong. There will be a ton of surprises, after all I did call it The Masquerade for a reason. If you want to find twist and spins this is the fanfic. While you’re reading keep in mind that in a Masquerade only a few things are real even the name can mean two things.  But here is something that you can trust (or can you?) :) J-k. If you haven’t realized it, (I hope you have) in my fanfic Cloud and Vincent are tight. I just thought it made sense, they went through similar things. Hojo messed with them and they both feel like they failed someone they loved.  Please e-mail me with your thoughts, they’ll be sure to help me. Oh and I tend to miss grammatical errors, but it’s always readable.
 

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