550 years later
Chapter 2: The road to Nibelheim
Nanaki, having just left his village for one last adventure up to the north cave, is full of energy. Jumping down the sheer cliff faces of the Cosmo canyon area is a breeze to him. So far he’s been using his pre-emptive materia to avoid the monsters from seeing him. He’s starting to get bored though; he decides to take on some monsters for fun. At the bottom of the cliff is a group of 3 Skee Skee, He goes invisible using his pre-emptive material and perches on a rock above them.
He pounces down biting one in the neck and throwing him into the rocks. The other two charge, Nanaki hits one with fire3 and tackles the other to the ground. On top of it he claws it across the face, the Skee skee’s head falls to the side, his beak opens and he spits out a pile of Gil. Nanaki stares down in horror as memories of Cloud making jokes like “ha that monster must have ate a wallet” or “man look that one just got his allowance” spill back to him. He starts to think about Cloud and everyone. Soon it’s a torrent of the past and he can’t help but think of his dead friends. Nankai starts to look around in a panic. “Dammit!” he yells through tears. He leaves the suffering Skee skee’s and staggers in the direction of Nibelheim.
It all started 547 years ago, with the death of Vincent. Vincent over did himself in defeating Omega. He destroyed his own body in defense of the planet. Shortly after him went Shelke, none of us could provide her with the mako she needed to survive after we destroyed the last mako reactors. She and Vincent were good friends, everyone liked to think they met in the after life.
Nanaki’s tears have dried up around the time he passes a family of Grand horns drinking from the river. He gazes over the river in its vastness, he has swum across it before, he can now, and it will just take some time. He wades into the shallow water and begins to swim with the flame of his tail poking high above the water.
Oh poor Barret, everyone knew the stress would finally get to him, but never the way it did. Barret had spent the years after Meteorfall trying to rebuild towns like Corel and Rocket town. He also invested thousands in finding alternative energy sources to mako. Those and his duty of defending places from monsters kept him spread thin. He hardly ever had time to see Marlene. He began to drink heavily and eat a lot more, he never actually thought about it. He just sub consciously drowned his sorrows in alcohol and fried food. Now physically he looked fine, do to all the exercise he got, but internally his liver started to fail and his heart problems grow more frequent. Finally one day in his late 50’s his body just gave out on a construction job, dropped dead yelling at a foreman. His memorial service was huge in Corel, after all the people he helped it wasn’t a surprise. Everyone from Meteorfall was there. No one saw much of Marlene after that, poor girl lost everything.
Nanaki, reaching the other shore looks around to see an endless field of green, well except the jagged mountains in the horizon. After walking a few miles he starts to pick up on signs of wolves, could only be Nibel wolves in this area, he was getting close. He stops for a moment to feel the grass on his paws, living in Cosmo he doesn’t get to see grass much anymore. He begins to feel alive with energy again and takes off in a sprint towards Nibelheim. The wind blowing through his hair, the force pushing him forward, sensations he hadn’t felt in years. He runs through the old areas where the forests used to be, all cut down in Barret’s “reconstruction” plan. It was sad really, getting rid of mako just lead us to go after other fuel sources that would destroy the world, just slower. Well there’s not many people left to destroy the world anymore anyway. Its rumored there is still a few colonies on the eastern continent, but none knows for sure.
Nanaki arrives in Nibelheim, greeted by rotting buildings. He wants to rest for the night but doesn’t trust the area. One building still stands high and strong, Shinra manor. Nanaki wanders up the hill to the manor. Wary of his surrounds, rustling in the trees, the gravel slips under his feet, and a man staring down on him from a window in Shinra manor. He smirks as he enters the house.
To be continued
Owden Community Member 
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