Cloud, Vex, Aeris, Tifa, Barret and Red 13 all have gone to sleep. They hopefully dream a dream about not being in prison because that's where they are now. Vex looks disturbed in his sleep and is moaning something in his sleep. He's moving and tossing, for he's having a nightmare.

Vex: (Looks around the darkness) "Where am I?"

Sephiroth: (Talking to him from beyond the darkness) "Ha ha ha..."

Vex: (Stares into the blackness) "Who's there? Come on out!"

Sephiroth: "You...have been awakened."

Vex: "Awakened? What in the world...geez, you talk funny." (Glares at the darkness) "I don't see you but your voice sounds familiar from somewhere. I don't know..."

Sephiroth: "You don't know, do you? Well...I'm not going to tell you about why you're here. The only thing is that you can't defeat me. Not as you are now..." (Jumps down from the shadows and confronts Vex. His sword is drawn and his eyes cold and hard.) "I know why you're here."

Aeris: "Wake up!!"

Vex: (Suddenly wakes up and looks into Aeris' gentle eyes.) "What happened? I dreamt that I was in a darkness and there was this creepy, girlie guy that confronted me."

Aeris: "Creepy girlie guy?"

Vex: "I didn't see him but...I could hear his voice from somewhere."

Cloud: (From his cell, he woke up and saw that his cell door was opened.) "What happened? Why is it unlocked?" (He walks to a soldier with a fatal stab wound. The blood was leaking out onto the floor.) "What happened to him?!" (Searches his body and finds the cell key. He opens Aeris' and Vex's door.) "Come out here. Something's wrong."

Vex: "How'd you get in? Are they letting us go?"

Cloud: "...In a matter of speaking..." (Runs to Barret and Red 13's cell and opens it.) "Barret, Red 13 come quick. Something's wrong."

Barret: "Who let you out?"

Cloud: "I don't know but...the guard is dead."

Red 13: "What?!" (Red and Barret run out of the cell and everyone crowds around the body.) "No human could have done this..."

Aeris: "This is kind of creepy."

Tifa: "Do you suppose this was done by..."

Red 13: (Runs in the direction of the blood smears.) "It goes this way..."

Vex: "Right, let's just follow the blood." (Runs after Red 13 and they turn the corned.) "Whoa! Check it out...more bodies!"

    Cloud and the others followed Red 13 and Vex all the way up to the next floor. There they found more bodies and more blood on the ground. Vex looked around and saw a guy on the control floor. Vex leaps up there and jumps to him. The Shinra worker is terrified and Vex gave him a hard stare.

Vex: (Looks at him seriously) "Did you do these killings?"

Employee: (Trembling and obviously out of it) "No! I, It wasn't me. It was a man...a man with a black cape and a giant, slim sword! I almost could have thought it was...that general or high ranking member of soldier who apparently died...I saw it in the newspapers five years ago."

Vex: (Rolls his eyes) "I didn't ask for your life story! Where did this creepy soldier guy go?"

Employee: "He w, went to the upper level..." (Hands Vex a potion and a phoenix down.) "Take these to show you I'm not your enemy!"

Vex: (Jumps down from the upper level and lands right in front of Cloud.) "The bloody guy went upstairs. Lookey at all the stuff the guy gave me for not killin' him! We should shake people down for stuff more often!"

Cloud: "Let's go, everyone."

    Cloud and everyone else ran up the stairs to floor 68. Floor 68 was mostly just a plaza and a couple of Secretarial offices. There was a coke machine at the elevator entrance but there wasn't much else of interest. Cloud pointed to the path of blood that led to Floor 69...The president's office. They went up the grand stairs to the office and saw again the president's huge office...only the President was slumped over his immense desk. There was a sword in his back and it had blood running down from the wound to the floor. Barret approached the fallen president first.

Barret: (Slowly approaches the president's desk.) "He's dead...the head of the Shinra is dead..."

Vex: (Runs up to the dead president and lifts his arm. It thumps back down to the desk and he lifts it over and over and over and it kept slumping down on the desk.) "Yup! Cold as a cod!"

Cloud: "You don't suppose that sword in his back is..."

All: "Sephiroth's?!!"

Tifa: "...But isn't Sephiroth supposed to be dead?"

Palmer: (Timidly creeps out of the President's bathroom and tries to escape but when he runs by Vex, Vex sticks his arm out and grabs Palmer from behind.) "Pl, Please don't kill me!!"

Vex: "...I don't know, you seem like the killable type. But since you're polite about it..." (Vex takes him by the ankle and drags him over to the rest of the group.)

Palmer: "Ouch!" (Squirms to get free of his grip.) "I, I, I, saw Sephiroth!"

Cloud: "Really?"

Palmer: "Would I lie at a time like this?! I heard his voice too! He said something about not letting us have the promised land."

Tifa: "So Sephiroth came back to keep the Shinra from getting the promised land? To save the planet?"

Barret: (Turns to them) "So he's a good guy then?"

Vex: (Looks down at the ground.) "...I don't think so..."

Cloud: "Save the planet? A good guy? No way!! I know him! His mission is different!"

Barret: "Who cares? The president's dead! It's the end of the Shinra!!"

Vex: "Sephiroth's out for himself. Not the planet...but why do I know this? There HAS to be a reason." (Releases Palmer and he runs away and the sound of a helicopter is heard.) "What's going to happen now?"

Barret: (Looks along with everyone else at the window and they see a helicopter boarding the building.) "Sh%#!! Rufus! I forgot about him."

Cloud: "Who's Rufus?"

Barret: "The vice president of the Shinra. The president's son."

Tifa: "I heard he was assigned to reign over another area."

Red 13: "I only know his name."

Aeris: "I heard no one's ever seen him bleed or cry."

Vex: "This guy is from the Shinra so I'll automatically assume he's a jerk. Let's go get 'em!" (Runs onto the stairwell that leads up.)

    Cloud, Tifa, Barret, Aeris and Red 13 all follow Vex to the top level, floor 70. The floor wasn't really a floor but a helepad and a station to make sure helicopters land safely. They see the helicopter land and Rufus getting off. He was wearing a suit of white and had blond hair but despite that getup, he was not innocent. He smiled in his evil, grouchy sort of way when he saw them.

Rufus: "Right...and who are you?"

Cloud: "I'm ex-SOLDIER! First Class!"

Barret: "I'm from AVALANCHE!!"

Tifa: (Stretches and gains a fighting stance) "Me, Too!"

Aeris: "A flower girl from the slums."

Red 13: "A research specimen."

Vex: (Shrugs) "Dunno...guess you could say I'm along for the ride!"

Rufus: (Shrugs) "What a crew." (Walks away from them and clears his throat.) "I'll let you hear my coronation speech." (Saunters around and inspecting everyone.) "My Father ruled the world with money and that worked fine for him...You work at Shinra, get your pay...If terrorists attack, the Shinra army would help you. It worked great on the outside. (Walks up to Vex and Vex gains a fighting stance.) "But I do things differently..." (Walks away from Vex) "I control the world with fear. It's too much to do it like my old man." (Turns to the crowd) "A little fear will control the minds of the people, there's no reason to waste good money on them."

Vex: (Jumps up.) "I'm gonna do my own speech now. You just sit tight and open your ears K? (Jumps again, over the President) "My name is VEX! I'm against the Shinra in every way! Don't know why I was born or even IF I was, frankly I don't really care. I joined these guys because I think saving the planet is more important than money or fear." (Turns to Rufus and glares) "You want to control the world with fear right? HA! I'm not afraid of you! You may be a tough case for a psychiatrist to examine but you can't scare me! Your speech sux! Mine rocks da house! Savin the planet is better then makin' people scared of you. After all...you can attract more flies with honey then with vinnegar...or in your case...radioactive cyanide land mines that smell 10 times worse than vinegar!"

Rufus: "You're a little rat."

Vex: "And you're a big rat! In fact, you're the NEXT KING VERMIN!!" (Jumps back from him.) "Your crown should be a gold version of those Mickey Mouse ears you can buy in disney world."

Cloud: (Turns to Barret) "Quick, Barret! Get Aeris out of the building! This is a real crisis for the planet!"

Barret: "The hell that means!?"

Cloud: "Trust me! I'll take care of him."

     Barret led everyone down the stairs and they ran to the 68th floor elevator. Tifa stopped and Aeris walked up to her. Tifa looked kind of worried and Aeris picked up on that. She walked up to Tifa and looked her in the face.

Aeris: "What's wrong?"

Tifa: "I just thought of something... I'll give you my Materia. I'll wait for Cloud but you please get out of the building! Go with Barret and Red 13 down to the bottom floor. We'll catch up."

Aeris: (Nods and runs into the elevator. He pressed the button down and they all heard a noise.) "Huh?"

Barret: "What the hell...is that?!"

Vex: "I agree! What the hell is that?!"

Red 13: "We'd better get ready! It's going to attack us!"

    They saw the unwieldy looking machine on another elevator. They saw it position its machine gun and opened fire. The glass around them shattered and they shielded their eyes. The monster could only be reached by Barret and magic so they had to implement a plan. Aeris took out a lightning materia, Red had his fire materia and Vex was preparing for another one of his magics. The hundred gunner prepared to fire but Vex shrugged. He leapt back and fell into meditation. "Majikkuhando...okibi ...SEISHOU!!!" Several red rings of energy appear around him and fly up to his hands which were raised. The ball of energy formed and got bigger until it flashed with red and yellow. Then Vex shot the energy at the soldiers engulfing them in a fiery explosion. He cleverly aimed the explosion so it was just in front of the machine. The force knocked the hundred gunner back and it fell clear off of the elevator.

Vex: (Smiles.) "That's a quick fix!"

Aeris: "Thanks, Vex!"

Barret: "Look out! Here comes another!!" (Pointing to the Heli-gunner that was approaching.)

    The heligunner shot a yellow laser at them. It exploded point blank and the blast nearly knocked them off of the elevator. Vex smiled but frowned again when he noticed that the Heligunner was an airborne enemy and looked to them. They shrugged and they started to attack. Aeris summoned a bolt of lightning which crashed down on Heligunner, the sparks and electric currents buzzed and crackled. Heligunner countered by shooting a greenish laser that hit the ground below Aeris and the blast area shined with a greenish light. Aeris by the end was laughing and spinning around, acting like a crazy person. Vex came up and slapped her hard in the face. She awoke from her trance and looked at him and he replied. "Don't let that beam hit you! You totally lose it!" Red 13 summoned a blaze of flame which scorched Heligunner's body. It looked more and more ragged. Barret shot at it with his gun arm and tore it up more and Vex effortlessly summoned a shine of ice that coated and continued to wreck Heligunner. Heligunner attempted to shoot them with its rifle but Barret took his aim and shot the Rifle right off of the matallic frame. Vex effortlessly summoned a bolt of lightning which blasted Heligunner's propellers. Heligunner finally gave up and crashed down on the elevator and smoked with flames. It was toast.

Vex: "Alright! We got it!"

Aeris: "We're almost to the bottom level." (They finally got off of the elevator)

 Meanwhile, Cloud and Rufus were giving each other hard looks. Cloud took out his sword and Rufus took out his gun. Rufus looks at him and shrugs and walks around.

Rufus: (Walking around, pacing) "Did you know Sephiroth is an ancient?"

Cloud: (Gets in a fighting stance) "...Whatever. You want Sephiroth and the promised land...? Well I can't let you have either of them."

Rufus: "So I guess we can't be allies..." (Jumps back)

    The battle between the two began. The only thing was that Rufus also had a pet or a monster named Dark Nation with him. Dark Nation howled and suddenly a barrier surrounded Rufus. The barrier was translucent and gray, a magic barrier. Cloud instead attacked Dark Nation and sliced it in half, it howled in pain and anger and slowly died. Rufus raised his gun and shot Cloud in the arm. Cloud flew back and landed on the ground but removed the bullet and got back up. Cloud used the lightning materia he had with him and summoned a bolt of lightning that struck Rufus. He fell to his knees and raised his shotgun for another shot but was slow and Cloud dodged the bullet and attacked with his sword. The barrier took the hit and shattered. Rufus got the chance to attack back and struck Cloud with his Shotgun. Cloud was knocked to the ground and countered by using his lightning materia again and struck Rufus with another electrical discharge. Rufus saw his helicopter and smirked at Cloud. "Heh, that's all for today." Rufus ran to the helicopter and grabbed one of the landing bars. He stared at Cloud as the helicopter he was on flew out of sight. Cloud ran down the stairs to the President's office and ran down another flight of stairs to the lobby. He saw Tifa and ran up to her.

Tifa: "Did you do it?"

Cloud: "I couldn't get him, things are gonna get complicated." (They both run to the elevator and begin their decent down to floor 1)

    At floor 1, Barret, Aeris and Red 13 along with Vex get off the elevator and ran to the main plaza. The bodies of the guards were still there and were starting to stink. Barret ran to the door and cursed to himself. He ran back to Red, Aeris and Vex and looked quite worried.

Barret: "Sh&%!! We're surrounded!"

Aeris: (Lowers her eyes to the floor) "You leave while you still can. It's not you they're after... it's me."

Barret: "Well that ain't happenin!" (Runs to the door and arms his gun.) "Alright...playtime's over, Jackasses..."

Aeris: "Thank you Mr. Barret!"

Barret: "MR?! That don't sound right!"

Red 13: "...As long as we're talking, shouldn't we be getting out of here? Let's get a plan."

Barret: (Turns to the red creature who was staring at him, eyes intense) "Okay...man you're cold, man. Cold like someone else I know."

Red 13: "What was that?"

Barret: "Not a damn thing."

Vex: "So what are we gonna do now? The whole tower is surrounded and...Sephiroth is no longer here. We need to get out of this building! How though..."

Tifa: (Gets off of the elevator and runs up to them.) "Everyone! Get over here!"

    Tifa walks over and everyone else follows her to what she wanted to show them. Cloud comes down the stairs riding a huge motorcycle and reaches the bottom of the stairs. Tifa looks to the others and points to a truck that was in a huge display case. They go through the glass by Vex shattering it and they get into the truck. Tifa and Aeris get into the cab and Barret, Red 13 and Vex get into the back of the truck. Tifa hot-wires the car and they get it to start. They see Cloud and he gives them a nod and Cloud crashes through the window and hits the highway. The truck follows closely. And they hit the highway. Everything was perfectly fine until they spotted more motorcylers advancing on them. They were the Shinra pursuit force and their objective was to stop the fugitives from leaving Midgar. Cloud now realized he had to protect his friends from them.
    A motorist attacked and Cloud knocked him over with his sword. He wiped out and took out two more cycles coming up behind him. More cyclists were approaching and he fended them off. One tried to take a swing at Cloud but Cloud moved to the side and the Motorist lost balance and fell off of his motorcycle. More and more were approaching and they were ramming the truck, trying to knock some of Cloud's friends off of the truck. When one of the motorists attacked Vex, Vex countered by poking the motorist in the eye. He staggered and lost balance and fell of of his motor bike. Another attacked and Vex deftly ripped off the guy's helmet and hit him over the head with it. He also lost balance and fell.
    Everything was fine from then on. More Cyclists approached Barret's side and Barret just coolly armed his gun and shot them. They fell off their motorbikes and their bikes crashed into the bikes of the upcoming Motorists. The bikes crashed into them which caused the new guys to lose balance as well.
    They managed to finally shrug off the Shinra Pursuit Fleet. They heard a rumbling noise and saw in horror and confusion at the odd looking monster truck like monster that followed them. Cloud and the others saw the end in the road and they all slammed on the brakes. They turned and went to fight the monster truck monster and saw the name "Motor Ball" painted on the side.
    Motor Ball attempted to run into them but everyone scattered. Aeris took out her lightning Materia and summoned a bolt that slammed down on Motorball and it was knocked back. Cloud did the same and the bolt damaged the metallic monster rather effectively. Motor Ball then brought itself into position and unleashed a flame thrower like attack called the Twin Burner which burned them all. The burns were bad enough so Red 13 combined a Restore and an All materia to heal them. Red summoned a heavenly breeze which healed their burns and made them ready for the next attack. The Motor ball suddenly jerked and transformed itself into a robot like monster with two arms armed with blades. The Motor ball bent over, trying to slice them up with its blades but it was too unwieldy for such a task. Cloud jumped back and summoned another bolt of lightning which came down on the Motor Ball's head. Motor ball was starting to jerk and crackle due to the metallic buildup the lightning was causing. Vex approached the monster and smiled. "It's time for more fire! Majikkuhando...okibi ...SEISHOU!!!" Several red rings of energy appear around him and fly up to his hands which were raised. The ball of energy formed and got bigger until it flashed with red and yellow. Then Vex shot the energy at the soldiers engulfing them in a fiery explosion. The blast knocked Motor Ball clear onto it's back and it was almost destroyed. Cloud and Aeris and Red 13 all combine their efforts and casts 2 lightning bolts that both slammed Motor Ball at the same time and the Motor Ball caught on fire thanks to Red 13's magic. The Motor Ball Jerked and Fell on its side. It shook violently and everyone took cover behind the Shinra Truck they stole. Motor Ball ignited and exploded, sending out fire and light as bright as the dawn.
    Dawn itself was approaching and everyone looked at the sky with a happiness. They somberly turned to one another and saw the road ahead. Cloud turned to everyone and started to make a speech.

Cloud: "Sephiroth is alive...I have to settle the score."

Barret: (Turns to him) "Will that save the planet?"

Cloud: (Nods to Barret) "It seems so..."

Barret: "Well! I'm going then!"

Aeris: "I'm happy...I'm going to learn about myself..."

Cloud: "About the ancients?"

Aeris: (Nods) "Many things."

Tifa: "Right...I guess it's good bye Midgar..."

Vex: (Smiles at them) "We're on the road! Ahead on our way, holding out heads up high and our thoughts in our hearts!"

    Cloud gets a cable from the construction sight they were at when Motor Ball attacked and secured a way down. They all climbed down and they all stood around, wondering what to do now. They all enter a discussion and talk about many things.

Tifa: "I wonder if we'll ever come back here?"

Cloud: "You hate traveling?"

Tifa: "Well...I've got nothing left in Midgar so it doesn't really matter whether I like traveling or not."

Cloud: (Turns and walks to Aeris and she turns to him.) "Well..."

Aeris: "I guess this is the start of our journey!"

Cloud: "Really? Are you worried?"

Aeris: "No...well, maybe a little. I do have a bodyguard though...!"

Red 13: (Turns to Cloud and walks up to him.) "I'm going with you back to my hometown, I'll go with you as far as that."

Barret: "I told Marlene and Elmyra to get out of Midgar...I wonder if they're going to be okay?"

Cloud: "I think so."

Barret: "Well, I heard they wanted to get out of Midgar...so maybe it's for the best."

Cloud: (Turns to all of them.) "So...Let's go!"

Barret: "Wait! We need to pick a leader." (Smiles and buffs himself) "Of course that should be me..."

Tifa: "Really? I think Cloud should be the leader..."

Barret: (Nearly collapses in response.) "Sh&%...all right. Who's going to go with you? We're goin' to the town of Kalm first."

Cloud: "Okay. Barret, Red 13, Vex and Myself."

Tifa: "Interesting..."

Aeris: "...Combination."

Tifa: "Well, have fun...boys..." (Turns to leave and Aeris goes with her.) "Remember, we're going to Kalm."

Aeris: "We'll meet you there." (They both leave)
 

That's the end of Chapter 8. Finally we're out of Midgar! Now there's lots of room for...additions. Come on! Tell me what you think.