Final Devils Cry: Cloud's Story

Disclaimer: I don't own anything... Yet... Just wait.

Message from Drakan101: Ok I know it's been a while since we've updated and really am sorry about that. Just been busy with other stuff. Like my other fic, going on vacation. Stuff like that. Anyway here is part 2 of FDC. By the way from now on this part of the story will be in first person. BTW Crisis Core really helped with this chapter.

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Chapter 2: Introductions

Zack and I walked into the bar, of course everyone looked over in an instant. Yuffie instantly got up and ran over to Zack. After looking at him for five minutes I started to grow tired. I wanted to know how and why Zack is back on the planet. "Yuffie, could you stop checking Zack out?" I couldn't really resist saying that.

"Ewww! Why would I check out this creep? He just looks familiar that's all...Wait! I know where I know you from!" Yuffie clapped her hands and did a little jump. "Your the guy to help me get treasure when I was eight! You kept taking all the good stuff and left me with the crappy stuff! Eww, Once I found naughty magazines from the Shinra secretaries. Ewww!" She cringed a bit, but as usual she was being more dramatic then necessary. Zack laughed.

"Oh yeah! Your that really wierd kid that spammed up my handset! Wow, you've grown! Haven't really changed much though." Zack laughed once again. "Alrighty, Cloud, aren't you gonna introduce me to everyone?" Oh yeah, he only knows Tifa, Yuffie and I out of everyone. Guess I should introduce him to everyone then, I first walked over to Vincent.

"This is Vincent, he was a turk about thirty years ago,-" I started to explain but my former mentor interrupted me.

"I recognize you! When I was in Shinra manor, I found a coffin and you were in it! Man, you have no clue how much you freaked me out. I was scared outta my wits! Did you know that you snore?" Vincent smirked, never really figured he would warm up to Zack so quickly, then again Zack always had had a gift to make friends. "Well anyway nice to meet you, I'm Zack. Ex-SOLDIER first class." Vincent nodded. "Ok, who's the next person?" I walked over to Barret, Marlene sitting on the chair next to him, drawing something on a napkin laying on the counter. "Heya, I'm Zack!"

"Zack, this is Barret and Marlene. Barret used to lead AVALANCHE, an anti-shinra group, and Marlene is his daughter" Well adopted daughter but Barret is the one that raised her and isn't that what really makes a family? So what does it matter if she was adopted or not?

"Sorry, can't say that I've met you." Zack shrugged, shaking his head slightly.

"If you met me, you'd still be in the lifestream!" Barret raised his gun arm, I quickly got between the two. I thought quickly for a way to make the two get along, but apparrently Zack didn't need help.

"Hey! Awesome arm. How's the aim on that thing? I bet you could take down a lot of monsters with that! Geez it looks like you could literally be a one man army!" Zack smiled, and so did Barret, oddly proud of Zack's 'one man army' remark. Zack lowered his gaze down at Marlene. "Heya. I'm Zack, Cloud's buddy. How old are you Marlene?"

"I'm twelve." Shy as usual. She was so much like Tifa, maybe it's from being around her too much. I smirked to myself.

"Do you have any hobbies?" Zack asked, trying to get her comfortable with talking to him. He hasn't changed at all.

"I like to draw." She showed him the picture she was drawing. I was unable to really tell what it was.

"That's a really nice chocobo. Your quite the artist, unlike Cloud." Zack smiled and laughed a bit. I'll admit I was never good at drawing, or any other form of art. My question was... Was that really supposed to be a chocobo because it looked more like a car.

"Thanks. Chocobos are really interesting birds, don't you think?" That was a chocobo? He was able to tell it was a chocobo? At times I swore that Zack was psychic and now this was proof.

"Yeah very interesting. Very fun to ride on. Well, the tamed ones at least. Trust me I tried riding on a wild one once and I was in the hospital for an entire week." He shuddered at the memory. I remembered when he did that. He tried to tell me that it would be easy to tame it and that it was perfectly safe to ride on, to prove that point he got on the chocobo and the second he did, the chocobo ran off trying to get him off. Eventually Zack did fall off and on the way down he hit a rock. A big one at that. He was in the hopital for a few days, they did a bunch of tests to see if there was any major damage beneath the skin. The only problems were a broken leg and some brain damage, but assumed he already had some for getting on that chocobo in the first place. "I'm going to meet everyone else then I'm gonna come back and talk to you alrighty?" Marlene nodded and went back to drawing. We walked over to the still drunk Cid. "Who's this? The town drunk?" Cid threw his bottle at Zack and ordered another. Tifa placed some water onto the counter telling him that was all he was going to get, Cid stood and left not wanting anything 'lacking taste' as he put it a million times before.

"That was Cid. Believe it or not, he was supposed to be the very first man to go into space..." I explained what happened, everything up to now.

"Hmm. And who's the lady at the counter?" He looked over at Tifa. Tifa looked up at him and cocked her head to the side.

"You don't remember me? I was your tour guide when you were in Nibelheim." Tifa quickly finished washing the dishes and dried her hands.

"Oh yeah!..." Zack's smile slowly faded. "Do you still hate me?"

"I hate Shinra, and I only hated that you were involved with them. I don't hate you personally. And I should thank you for saving Cloud." Tifa watched happily as Zack got his goofy smile back. Realization then hit him.

"You never thanked me! You ungrateful little..." He walked over, caught my head in a headlock, and messed up my hair. "Say thanks, Cloud!" It was obvious that he wasn't going to let go without a 'thanks' so I eventually said thanks and fixed my hair. When I looked over he had a big smile on his face, I looked around at everyone, most of them were laughing. Tifa walked over and helped me fix my hair.

"Thanks Tifa, Is that why everyone was laughing?" She nodded and went back behind the counter. Once Zack was finished laughing, he looked around and walked over to Nanaki and Reeve.

"Hey Reeve, you went against Shinra?" Reeve shrugged.

"He sort of worked as a double agent, but he also gave them information about us." I glared at him, he obviously noticed, laughing nervously and nodding.

"Yes I did that." He looked back down to the newspaper laid out on the table, Zack shrugged and looked down at Nanaki.

"I didn't know you guys had a pet!" He started to scratch behind Nanaki's ear, Nanaki stood and walked away from Zack, "Grumpy isn't it?" I had to laugh a bit but I don't blame him. I thought Nanaki was just a plain animal when I first saw him too.

"That is Nanaki, and he isn't a pet. He helped us deal with Sephiroth." Nanaki glared over at Zack and fell asleep in a corner of the room. He may not be an ordinary animal but he's definately as lazy as one. Now I was begining to wonder where Denzel went off to. He was the only one left for Zack to meet. I went upstairs and into his room. I smiled, he was laying down half asleep. Zack can meet him later. I walked back down the stairs and walked back over to Zack who was trying to stirke up a conversation with Nanaki while he was sleeping, either that or Nanaki is ignoring him. "Hey Zack, come over here!" Zack stood and quickly walked over.

"What's up? Anyone else I need to meet?" Zack looked around but was clearly unhappy that he has met everyone in the room.

"There's one more person but he's sleeping right now. Or trying. You can meet him later." I looked up the stairs in case Denzel woke up, by the looks of things, he didn't. So I walked over to help Tifa with the dishes, Zack followed me.

"Can I ask you two something?" He looked between Tifa and I. Uh Oh.

"We're not married, or dating." I tried to keep my mind on helping with the dishes but my mind kept slipping over to what Zack was going to ask. Just what I needed. Zack, like everyone else, asking me about Tifa. She's beautiful, I'll give her that, she's also got an unbelievable personality, but she's more like a sister to me then anything else.

Why can't anyone understand that?

"Oh, Ok, just asking." Zack went back over and talked to Marlene a little longer. Once I was finished drying dishes, I went up to my room and laid down. I was completely exhausted.

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One last note: Sorry if I got Marlene's age wrong. Then again she was eight in FFVII, ten in advent children and eleven in DOC, and if I remember right, this takes place a year after so she should be twelve