~Cloud's POV~

"Ow! What the heck is wrong with you!" I yell at a tree that dropped a coconut on my head.

"You alright over there?" Light raises an eyebrow.

"It hurt me!"

"You're so stupid," she scoffs.

"Well then. Love you too, Lightning," I roll my eyes and eye her reddish face. "What?"

"Nothing," she shakes her head.

"Okay, that you said 'Nothing' tells me it's something because you didn't say 'What do you mean what?'."

"... I hate you," she grumbles, looking out over the cliff we're by.

"So if we're just going to some ancient ruin, why are we walking instead of teleporting?"

"Because walking is better for you," she frowns. "Why? Are you too out of shake to walk?"

"Hey! I'm not out of shape!"

"Whatever you say, fatty," her frown grows into a smirk. I sigh and grab my sword.

"Let's go kill something."

"Now you're talking," she nods and follows me out of the grassy area and into the plains. Suddenly, a loud noise and a flash draw our attention. "What was that?!"

"No idea," I shake my head, hurrying toward where we saw the light come from.

And when we get there, there's nothing.

"Maybe it was just Lightning," she suggests.

"You don't have to refer to yourself in third person, you know," I tease. She rolls her eyes and steps closer to me.

"I told you, it's Claire."

"And I told you that I like it."

"No you didn't," she scoffs. "But I'll just pretend you did."

"You don't have to," I cock my head to side with a mischevious look on my face as I meander closer to her. "I like it."

"Too late, pal," she shakes her head, fighting a smile.

"You sure about that?" I ask, lifting her face slightly.

"Quite."

"Mhmm," I hum sarcastically before releasing her. "Then I'm sure that I don't want to kiss you." Boom! Take that, Claire. The incredulous look she gives me makes me want to laugh, but I manage to hold my smirk steady as she composes her stoic face.

"I'm fine with that." Then she simply turns to walk away, leaving me the one that's pouting.

"Okay, fine, I change my mind," I give up.

"Too late."

"No it's not!" I follow her. I can almost seems her proud smirk by now. Butthole.

"You sure?"

"I think I..." She swivels around and cuts me off with her lips. She's making a habit of doing that... Anyway, I pull her closer by her waist, basking in the warm feeling flooding me. It's been a whole year.

"So Spike, I see yer finally hittin' it off with the ladies." I jump so high I end up falling onto my butt and scrambling to my feet.

"Cid?!" I look incredulously at the chuckling pilot.

"Heck yeah! But I ain't the only..."

"Cloud!"

"Marlene?!" The small girl hugs my leg tightly, her huge father stumbling over his large boots to follow her.

"Yo Spiky! What're the chances of you bein' here?"

"More likely than the chances of you," I say slowly. "Uh... What're you guys doing here?"

"Could ask you the same thing," Cid snorts. "Tryin' to run away? Anyway, there was some stupid meteor shower thing that was supposed to destroy the whole frickin' planet, and so Reeve had us grab all the people we could and shove em through the portal."

"It was just a meteor shower," Lightning rolls her eyes.

"Kid, each of these things was a quarter of the size of the real big Meteor..."

"You aren't making any sense."

"Light," I sigh. "Remember the Meteor that was going to destroy our world?" She nods. "Each one was a fourth of that. That's massive. Three times the size of Midgar massive."

"So where's everyone else?"

"Jus' poppin up," Barret shrugs, three people appearing behind him. Four more. A dozen. Two more. It just doesn't stop. I see Shera come into view as she looks around her, astonished.

"Um... Captain?"

"Where're the kids?" Cid raises an eyebrow at her. On cue, one small figure and two short appear.

"Emily!" Shera yells. "Bradley and April, get your butts over here and leave the dirt alone!" My eyes widen. Okay, so maybe the woman wasn't as quiet and shy as she was before... Cid catches my look of slight shock and nods.

"Yeah, it ain't fun when she's mad."

"I understand," I glance at Light, who gives me a moody scowl.

"So I guess we've gotta find places for all these people now?"

"Relax, it'll give some people jobs," I remind her. She sighs and shakes her head. "Fang's not gonna like people not from Oerba in her city."

"Fang's got a city?!" Cid gives us a confused look.

"About a hundred citizens," Light nods. "Vincent's over there with her." Cid face palms and I laugh.

"You were looking all over for him?"

"He's gone so much I wouldn't know the difference between him gettin' teleported and him hidin' in his ol' coffin."

"Tifa's here too."

"Figured as much. Dropped her gloves in front of the portal. Yer materia was there."

"Hello Cloud," Reeve says, walking over. "Lightning. How long has it been? A year?"

"Yeah," Light lifts her chin.

"And nearly two weeks since I've seen you," he addresses me. "Tifa and Vincent got here safely too?"

"Yep," I nod, the amount of people becoming overwhelming. Thousands. "Er, how many people did you get?"

"Grabbed whoever would come from every town I could," the pilot shrugs.

"Cid! Can you get him!?" Shera yells as a little boy runs by him. Cid quickly snatches the giggling kid and shakes his head at him.

"Brad, what're ya doin'? Go back to yer mom."

"K Daddy!" He squirms away and runs back to Shera.

"Frikin twins," Cid mutters.

"That's your kid?" Lightning raises an eyebrow.

"Got three. What's yer problem?"

"You just never struck me as a child person_" she defends.

"...I wasn't."

I see four people in dark suits and one in white approaching with stoic looks on their face, though the blonde woman looks a little more jittery and the red head a little worried.

"Rufus," Reeve nods. The young president nods and looks at me skeptically.

"Good to see you again, Cloud."

"You too," I lie.

"Hey, have either of you seen.." Reno starts.

"RENO!" Someone shrieks, running toward him so fast it knocks him backwards onto the grass.

"Yuffie?!" We all awkwardly turn away from the scene of the two kissing all over each other's faces at random.

"What's up with that?" Lightning furrows her eyebrows.

"Dating," Rufus, the Turks, and I all clarify flatly at the same time. She blinks at us like we're crazy before shaking her thoughts away and pulling out her phone.

"Gotta call Fang and Snow," she grumbles. "So much for time away."

"I must say, it smells peculiar out here."

"Yeah, kinda different," I nod to Nanaki.

"What is the meaning of this?" Some Wutain person says at least fifty times in a row before someone from Kalm yells for them to shut up.

"It's chaos," Rufus sighs.

"I agree," Tseng mutters, Rude silently nodding and Elena clinging to his arm. Reno's still making out with Lord Godo's daughter. Actually, I think I see Chekhov and Shake right now... Reeve starts issuing orders for the Turks to calm the people down, and soon enough, the talking dies down and people all turn to look at everyone in front of them. Thats consists of: me, Light, Cid, Reeve, Rufus, the Turks, Yuffie, Shera and co., Barret, Marlene, and Red. Awkward.

"Snow said he and the others are coming via waystone."

"Okay," I nod. And there they are, all the lovely crew from Pulse, plus Tifa and Vince. Cid chuckles when he sees the dark haired man, relived that his friend wasn't crushed. Fang purposely bumps him and he absentmindedly nudges her back, eyeing all the people in confusion. Reeve quickly explains the situation and Fang nods.

"We've got an area by Oerba that would be pretty good for the Wutains. And there's a waystone there."

"A what?" Reeve frowns.

"Teleportation," she sighs. He nods and looks at Snow.

"Uh, there's a town? But it's not big... We'll just have to expand, I guess."

"Lightning," I look at Light. "Those ruins. Would they make a good place to stay?"

"There's a giant building," she shrugs. "Made of marble and such. But..."

"It'll work," Reeve nods. "You don't mind?"

"Even if I do, you guys need somewhere to stay," she shrugs. He nods.

"Please don't get the impression I'm taking over."

"I wouldn't let you." The commissioner laughs it off and looks at the people. "They'll probably still want to be divided by town."

"The ruins are yours to build on," Sazh shrugs.

"Yuffie!" Vanille cheers, hugging the ninja tightly. This might take a while...

~|~|~|~|~

When everyone gets sent to where they are supposed to be living now, a couple of our Pulse friends going with each, Light and I wind up in Tsubaddran Highlands. The place is beautiful, but citizens of Rocket aren't exactly pleased by the fact that monsters are pretty common, more so here than Gaia. Cid actually seems kinda happy to pick up his spear and tackle a few foreign creatures, like a giant white beast with neon orange claws and massive teeth that Lightning calls a Uridimmu. We tackle a couple of those, flying flower things called Triffids, and a couple dragon like animals before the area is cleared and the people start to walk around.

"Those cliffs look dangerous," Shera muses.

"We can block them off," Lightning nods, walking over to the waystone. "Watch." She murmurs something and fiddles with the stone before a tall, red barrier appears, translucent and harmless.

"A force field?" Shera's eyes scan the magic barrier.

"We don't want the kids falling off, do we?"

"Thank you!" She smiles and pushes her glasses up. The waystone glows and Hope appears before us, looking kinda grumpy.

"Snow told me to get lost." Lightning laughs.

"Why am I not surprised?"

"Hey! I was only trying to help him..."

"Well now you can help us," I grin, ruffling his hair. "Cid's here anyway, he's cooler than Snow, right Gramps?"

"I ain't old," Cid huffs, stomping out his cigarette. Lightning eyes it for a second.

"You know there aren't any of those around here, right?"

"Was about time I quit," he grumbles irritably before walking away to find the child that Shera was screaming at now. Chill, woman.

"Who got the Turks?" I look at Light.

"Snow. Though I'm sure Reno will be using the waystone a lot."

"Probably," I nod. Well, now we have something to do. That's what whining about being bored wins you. A new civilization to build.