Okay! Thank you @blooming_amethyst for bringing this to my attention! Let me correct myself here, Cloud is 21 in this while Bella is 13, when in Advent Children comes around Cloud is 23 while Bella is 15, turning 16 and when FFXV happens, it had been three years since then, Cloud is 26 while Bella is 19. I hope that clarifies things for people!(: I had to fix that, thank you for understanding!

I think I'll end the Flashbacks here until next time and continue Bella's story for the trip to Altissia, who's ready?

~

Laying on Kirara near the door, they waited for Cloud for a half-hour, but Bella couldn't do it anymore, her eyes failed her and she fell asleep. Bella was sleeping softly against the Kirara when Cloud opened the door, he snorts and walks to the bed and sets his sword down beside the bed and laid on it, falling asleep himself. Thinking back on what just happened.

What a long day...

It was a dreamless sleep for both of them, it was nice for once instead of having nightmares of something that didn't make sense, especially for Bella.

After the morning hit, Cloud slowly woke up throwing his hand around making Bella jump off Kirara and gasps awake looking overseeing Cloud staring at the door.

"Cloud-Cloud?"

"Get ready, something's wrong."

Bella lets out a breath, nodding her head putting her guns behind her. Dusting off her dress and follows him. "Cloud!"

"Tifa?"

"Come with me, quickly!"

They all rush and Kirara lets out a deep growl, seeing the ghosts floating around. Bella grabs her guns and aims them at the ghosts, Kirara keeps her ground. After beating the first wave, they pressed on, running into obstacles on the way. Bella was shaking, wondering what these were. As they reached Seventh Heaven, Bella lifted her weapons and continues shooting them, wondering none of her bullets were hitting them.

"Ah!" Bella yells being pulled by them being surrounded by them. "Cloud!"

"Bella!" Tifa calls out worriedly, rushing up to help her, trying to kick them away. Cloud helps as well with Kirara's help trying to get to Bella. After defeating them, Bella leans up seeing the ghosts gone. Tears falling from her eyes as Kirara went up to her and started growling at them. "Keep her safe, Kirara!"

Kirara roars loudly, keeping them away from Bella. "I'm okay... I'm okay..." Bella keeps whispering under her breath, drying her tears. "Cloud is here... Kirara is here... I'll be okay..." Kirara looks at her wondering what she was muttering under her breath. Watching them beat them while looking overseeing them attack Jessie.

"Jessie!" Bella calls out, after she lands on the ground, Bella rushes up to her after the ghosts left. She touches her and she was still breathing. Jessie sat up and looked at everyone while Barrett yelled at everyone.

Cloud picked up Jessie and brought her into Seventh Heaven, Bella follows him with Kirara in tow. When they got in, Bella stayed near Cloud while they discussed the mission, Barrett asking him if he wanted to join. Cloud said he wanted a raise and Barrett agreed, Cloud looks at Bella who looks back at him.

"Bella, I need you to stay here and guard,"

Bella takes a deep breath. "... What?"

"It'll help Wedge in case those things come back, can you do that for me?"

Kirara nudges Bella and she looks at her while Kirara nods. Bella sighs and looks up at him with a nod herself. "Fine... But when you get back, I expect to get something..."

Cloud nods, touching her head gently, letting her know he cares about her. "Cloud-Cloud..."

"Hm..."

"You'll... You'll come back, right?" asks Bella nervously, as she twiddles her thumbs together nervously. "I can't imagine losing you, too..."

Cloud quietly snorts, rubbing her head, and brings her head up to look at him. "Don't worry, I'll come back, I'm not leaving..."

Bella slowly nods, taking his hand, and holds it against her head. Making sure she remembers his touch. She was scared, she couldn't lose him too. Bella lets out her breath and hugs him quickly. Cloud stumbles a little bit while looking down at her. Bella lets him go and rubs the back of her head with a stupid grin on her face. Cloud shakes his head and chuckles then looks at everyone.

~'*'~

What felt like days later, Bella walked back to Seventh Heaven seeing Barrett and Tifa there, Bella smiles and runs up to them.

"Hey!" calls out Bella waving to them. Tifa looks at her with a saddened look. "Tifa... What's with the look? Where's Cloud?"

"I don't know..." Tifa answers. "We lost him after Mako Reactor 5..."

Bella froze as everything around grew cold; her stomach dropped along with her heart. Bella's mind was racing a million miles a minute, wondering where he was. Should she go look for him? She can't last without him after everything that he has done for her. Pinching her lips together, Bella looks up at Tifa and lets out her heavy sigh.

"Don't worry, Bella, we plan on getting him back,"

"How?" asks a very angry Bella. "You don't even know if he's alive!" Bella throws up her arms and turns around and then turns back to them. "I want Cloud back!"

"We understand that..." Barrett chimed in, walking up to Bella and touches her shoulder with his hand. "Give him time, I'm sure that son of a bitch is still alive somewhere out there."

"...You better hope you're right."

~'*'~

It had been a few days and still no word on Cloud and when he was coming back. Bella sighs a little bit while sitting next to Kirara in the apartment and picked at her nails. Tifa and Barrett tried to get her out and do things, but she didn't want to, not without Cloud. As selfish as it sounds, she trusts Cloud more than the other two. It had always been her, Kirara and Cloud, and no one else. Just them. Letting out another sigh, she heard a knock at the door again. Bella stands up, stretches out her back, and walks to the door.

"Whatever you wanna say, Tifa, I've heard..." She opened the door and saw Biggs standing there and she blinks. "Okay, whatever kind of joke this is, I'm not laughing."

"It's not something we're laughing about, I actually wanna take you out and do missions with you here around Sector 7,"

Bella raises a brow and frowns, crossing her arms. "Why?"

"To get you out of here for a little while, get your mind off of the merc for a little while."

"Listen, whatever attempt this is..."

Biggs raises his hand to make her stop talking, she closes it and listens to him. "Just for a little while, that's all I ask, Bells."

Bella groans, looking back at Kirara who gets up and shakes herself, and walks to the door. "I guess we're doing this, huh girl?"

Sighing a little bit she follows Biggs out of Sector 7 into the barren land beyond the gate with the monsters. Biggs was explaining the mission to her making sure they exterminate the monsters that were around once again. They thought Tifa and Cloud got rid of them the first time, but Biggs thought it was weird seeing them once again. Grabbing her pistols out of her bag behind her, Kirara transforms into her sabertooth form, Biggs finally got a good look at Kirara.

Kirara stood just a few inches taller than Bella when standing fully. She was a tan cat with two tails, black rings surrounding her tails and black feet that touched just to her elbows, a black diamond in the middle of her forehead, and red eyes. Taking a deep breath, Bella looks around for the monsters with Kirara in tow, Biggs was impressed with how trained Kirara was.

"Do you have questions about her?" asks Bella not looking at Biggs, Kirara growls lowly. "Feel free to ask away, don't be shy."

"How was she made?"

"Scientifically," Bella bluntly answers while they round the corner. "My older brother had her made for me to keep me busy while he was on missions, sometimes he would take me with him – sometimes that would end in disaster, but – he took care of me." Taking a deep breath. "Ah well, it's in the past."

"Is that how you ended up with the merc?"

"Cloud?" Kirara growls a little bit as they round another corner, their feet pressing against the dirt as they walked. "There's more to it than that, but I'd rather not get into it," Kirara growls louder as her fur stands up while Bella brings up her pistols. "Here we go!"

~'*'~

After the mission which took a few hours to do while Bella and Biggs walked back to the apartments, Bella was staying at.

"How ya feelin'?"

"I'm alright, don't worry about it," Bella tells him while he looks down seeing Kirara sitting on her shoulder. She was a plain tan cat with no hint of black on her. Not even the diamond, her eyes were even a golden color instead of the red. "Yep, she changes when she's small vs when she's big." Bella chuckles when he held a confused look on his face. "Although, I am hungry, let's stop by the bar and have Tifa feed us!"

Biggs laughs as they all walk to the Bar. Biggs saw improvement in her attitude when he took her out, after some begging from Tifa to help her since Wedge and Jessie were on a mission, Biggs caved and helped out.

Now, hopefully, she won'tthink about Cloud so much for a little while.