Bodulfr
Disclaimer: I don't own FFVII. Or the references/similarities to the manga/anime 'Ah! My Goddess!'. And ignore the blatant Dark Knight reference. It was too good to pass up.
Note: Bodulfr, according to good old Wiki under the article Beowulf, is Icelandic for 'war wolf'.
Prologue: Nornir Three
"You know Minnie, we really have to do something about our beloved Cloud," a loud, feminine voice announced. Minerva, the Goddess, the All-Mother, both giver of life and destroyer of it, frowned at the use of her nickname. "Are you listening to me?"
"Urd, what in Creation are you babbling now?" the Goddess demanded. Minerva did not appreciate the fact that her lounging was being interrupted.
"Cloud!" Urd bellowed.
"I think she means Cloud Strife," Verdandi said. She, along with Urd and Skuld, appeared before Minerva's throne. "Greetings, All-Mother Minerva." The genteel Norn curtsied.
"And so the three goddesses of Fate stand before me..." Minerva muttered. She sighed. "Now what is this about Cloud Strife?"
Urd narrowed her eyes. "He has suffered much from our mistakes in regards to the tending of the Yggdrasil system," she stated. Her sisters nodded in agreement.
Minerva clucked. "I told the Lord that controlling all of existence with a magical computer was bad news. And what happens? Your system fucks up Gaia's entire story starting with the arrival of Jenova and ending with Cloud Strife's misery."
Skuld, the youngest of the three Norn sisters and goddess of the future, cleared her throat. "That's why the Lord sent us to fix it if he so chooses," she said.
"Ah."
"Let us explain..." Verdandi trailed off when Minerva held up her hand.
"Oh no, you explain it to Cloud Strife." Here Minerva smiled viciously. "I do believe my Chosen will have a few choice words for you Nornir." The three goddesses of Fate winced.
Chapter One: Ouroboros
The winds blowing across the cliffs of Midgar were strong this morning. But Cloud Strife, used to such weather, merely shrugged it off. Instead he stared with glowing blue eyes at the slowly decaying Buster Sword. He could almost hear Zack grumbling about the state of his mentor's most beloved blade. Cloud had never met Angeal Hewley though there were vague memories of his time as a Corporal being thrashed by the former General's copies. Something told him, though, that General Hewley would probably have had his head for the Buster's rust, wear, and tear.
"Sorry, sir," Cloud muttered to the wind. "But I have no right to wield her. That's a sword for heroes and me? I'm not a hero. Not like you, not like Zack." He shook his head. "Even Genesis and Sephiroth were more heroic than me. There's a story with a quote that I'll always remember despite the state of my other memories. 'You either die a hero... or live long enough to become the villain.' I wonder if I've lived long enough to become the villain. I think I have. People went from worshipping me as a hero to reviling me as a coward for walking away from them."
The wind howled in response.
"Ah, well I can't save them all the time. I'm tired of saving people. You really want to be saved; then save yourselves. I can't fix every damn problem that crops up, you know. Turn to WRO, hell turn to Neo-Shinra and their new solar energy plan. Whatever. Not all of us are cut out to be heroes. I saved to world for my own selfish reasons, sir, really I did. It had nothing to do with honor or dreams. Zack once told me, I think, about how you always lectured about those two things. I don't remember the exact words or if I just simply stole it from his memories. I'm a dirty thief, General Hewley. I'm ashamed of myself. If I had only died when Nibelheim burned Zack would have been able to escape; he would have been able to live instead of dying to protect my sorry ass. And my mother... my poor mother...."
"What if you could change all that?" a soft voice asked from behind him.
Without blinking Cloud pulled out First Tsurugi, whirled around, and slid into a defensive stance with his blade steady and his electric blue eyes trained on three very strange women. The markings on their faces rang bells in his head and a soft voice that once told stories of goddesses and gods and giants and elves and dragons whispered to him. "Who are you?" he demanded.
"We are the Nornir of Past, Present, and Future," the tallest woman with bronzed skin and platinum colored hair said.
"Urd, Verdandi, and Skuld..." Cloud whispered.
"Ah, you remember the Lore, that's good," the woman standing between the other two females said. Her voice had been the one that had alerted him to their presence.
Cloud was unnerved by the fact that he had never even sensed the three approach him. "I don't remember anything!" he snarled. "Now who are you?"
"Cloud Strife, once you knew the Lore, passed on to you by your mother and your mother's mother. Unfortunately it appears the memories of the Lore were stolen from you," the smallest of the three with midnight hair said sadly. "So much has been stolen from you."
"Who are you?! How do you know my name?"
"We told you, we are the Nornir. Geez."
"Urd, be nice. He's frightened and confused."
"Yeah, and he's waving a sword at us. I can see that!"
"Please Cloud, try to calm yourself. We want to help you."
Cloud shook his head and took a step back. "The hell you do. I remember now. The goddesses of Fate, that's what you are. You're the ones who fucked up everything. Enjoy your game, I hope?" he sneered.
"No! We would never enjoy the suffering of others!" Verdandi declared, wringing her hands. Her beautiful face twisted in anguish. "We can turn it back. Time and space. We can take you back."
"Oh? So I have to fix what you fucked up, is that it?"
"Taking you back in time is the only thing we are allowed to do by the Lord. Be glad he deemed you worthy of a second chance," Urd snapped. "Either way the Yggdrasil system has been restored. One chance to turn back time, your choice."
We're friends, aren't we?
I will... never be a memory.
My mother! My village! Give them back!
Cloud slowly lowered First Tsurugi. He could sense the comforting presence of the Buster Sword behind him. His mother's voice, barely remembered, whispered of goddesses and gods and giants and elves and dragons. A chance to go back. The three Nornir stared at him. "Do it," he said. His glowing blue eyes were calm now, steady and rational. "Take me back."
"With pleasure," Urd said. Wings of pure white appeared on their backs with a flash. They clasped their hands in prayer and began to chant.
Cloud closed his eyes and tilted his head back. He savored the sound of the wind and the voices of the goddesses. Then he knew no more.
000
Being eight-years-old again sucked balls. Bullies and Tifa Lockheart were driving him insane. Damned kids. Cloud huffed and scuttled along the tiny ledge jutting out from the hill that was deliberately carved out around the old Shinra Mansion. Enough was enough. He was old enough and big enough now to wake up Vincent Valentine.
Three years ago Cloud Strife had been an adult in a post-Meteor, post-Deepground Gaia. Then he had three goddesses send him back in time and lo and behold he was in his tiny five-year-old body. Good grief, he had definitely forgotten almost everything about his life pre-Meteor. Ha, well except for the whole incident with Tifa trying to cross the mountains to find her dead mother. Cloud was cruel enough to not go after her. She survived anyway without his following the damned girl. The boy had made it a point to avoid Tifa and every single person in Nibelheim except for his mother since he couldn't exactly escape from her. Not that Cloud wanted to run away from his mother. He enjoyed her company and her storytelling. It felt wrong somehow that such a vibrant and loving woman was stuck in a such an unforgiving and dreary town.
Cloud's eyes lit up when he spotted the ash tree that was pressed up against the cut hillside. He nimbly jumped onto the branches and shimmied down the trunk. Good, he was in the backyard. The young blond made use of the clumps of weeds and scraggly bushes. He didn't want to take any chance for a stray monster to get the jump on him. He was still only eight-years-old with just a low level Fire Materia equipped. Cloud popped into the mansion through a hole that he barely managed to wriggle through. Good thing he had been such a scrawny kid at eight. The boy was careful to be swift and to stick to the shadows. The monsters within the mansion didn't even notice him.
The secret entrance to the basement barely creaked as it opened. Cloud slipped in and scrambled down the spiraling steps. Now he was on high alert since the monsters down here was nastier than the ones upstairs. He was pressed tightly against the wall that would lead to the first door within the basement, the door that would lead to Vincent. When he reached the locked down, Cloud crouched to make himself look even smaller. Straining his ears, eyes, and sense of smell he waited a few moments. He barely allowed himself to breathe. The blond then quickly pulled out his homemade lock-pick kit from inside his jacket and set to work. He mentally thanked the Vincent from his previous life for teaching him the basics of lock picking and Reno for making him perfect those skills. Within a few moments Cloud had the lock undone and he slipped in through the crack of the barely open door. He firmly shut it behind him. He had no desire for a curious fiend to slip in after him.
The dim Mako lights in the room made the empty coffins look creepier than usual. There was a single still closed coffin in the middle of the room. Jackpot. Cloud carefully examined the room first. He chortled softly to himself when he found Vincent's Quicksilver. It was in perfect condition and, despite his small fingers, quickly loaded the weapon. He wasn't a crack shot or a super gunslinger like Mr. Valentine but with both hands Cloud could easily aim and shoot the gun with a good chance of hitting his target. The first time so long ago in another time Vincent Valentine had been a hard man to convince to wake up. But then Cloud had approached him like a SOLDIER. For once Cloud would think and act like a Turk first. With a hard kick the lid to Vincent's coffin slid of with a loud thump. The red-cloaked man abruptly sat up and before he could blink the sleep from his eyes Cloud Strife had a gun pointed at his heart.
"Who the hell are you, mister?" Cloud demanded in his squeaky, eight-year-old voice. He knew when to sound like a kid and when to creep out people by sounding like an adult. His question was a mix of both to throw off the usually unflappable ex-Turk.
"Do you even know how to use that?" Vincent Valentine rasped. Boy and immortal man stared at one another.
"Wanna find out?" the blond said, raising his eyebrows.
"I suggest you leave."
"And I suggest that you leave, weirdo. My mama told me there were bad things here but I didn't think there was a vampire." Not once did Cloud's aim or concentration waver.
Vincent looked as amused as he could get. "What's your name?" he asked.
"Nuh-uh, you tell me yours first."
"What year is it?"
"And how long have you been sleeping that you gotta ask that?"
"Are you always this disrespectful?"
"Do you always answer a question with another one?" Cloud quipped.
"I could rip you in two."
"But you won't."
There was a tense pause. "I suggest you leave," Vincent suggested once more.
"Why?"
"Foolish child. This is the place of nightmares."
The corner of Cloud lips quirked up. "Trust me, this place ain't got nothing on my nightmares. Now who are you?" He undid the safety on the Quicksilver and prepared to fire. Cloud would take no chances since this Vincent didn't know him, didn't know anything beyond his own suffering.
"My name... is Vincent Valentine."
Cloud didn't lower Vincent's gun. "I am Cloud Bodulfr Strife." Then he quirked a smile. "But you can just call me Cloud."
"Cloud? It doesn't suit you."
"You aren't exactly hearts and cupid arrows, are you?"
Vincent smirked. "Touché." He stared a bit more. "Now put my gun down."
"How do I know you won't try to eat me?"
The red-cloaked man flashed fangs in an amused almost smile. "You don't," he said.
000
It was amusing to Cloud when Vincent had set him down on the desk in the library of the secret basement. He kicked his legs back and forth and watched the gunslinger turn every single forged book into ash with Cloud's Fire Materia. Which meant that all the books in the library, supposed research and journals, were being systematically destroyed. Cloud had to hand it to the former Turk for being so through. But then that's what they were trained to do even during Cloud's era, both in this life and his previous one.
"How did you know how to come down here?" Vincent asked calmly.
"Looked suspicious to me," Cloud replied.
"And the lock picking?"
"I'm not sweet and innocent despite my appearances."
The dark-haired man snorted. "I noticed." He paused and looked over his shoulder. "Bodulfr?"
"Hmm?"
"Why aren't you telling me the truth?"
"Because the truth is so fantastic that I barely believe it myself," Cloud answered blithely. "They say that the Nornir weave and unravel the threads of Fate as they see fit. Back and forth on the loom of Existence as they tend to Yggdrasil."
"You're not making sense."
Cloud just smiled.
000
Time was flying by and it made Cloud nervous. But he was too young, too untrained to do anything yet. By Fenrir's chains, it had been difficult to convince Vincent to teach him how to properly shoot a gun. He was going to have a hell of a time trying to persuade the gunslinger to part with any more of his fighting expertise.
"Pay attention!" Vincent barked just as Cloud took a shot. The bullet went wide. The blond threw a dirty look over his shoulder at the smug Valentine. "Told you so."
"Bastard," Cloud muttered.
"I heard that, Bodulfr."
"Well darn, I'll have to whisper lower next time." His remark earned him a smirk then a hard cuff against the back of his head. Cloud never remembered being this cheeky in his previous life. Huh, weird.
"Get your head out of the clouds, Cloud Strife."
Cloud huffed. "Don't call me by my full name, damn it," he said. Another smack bounced against his skull. He really needed to learn how to curb his tongue. Too much time with Reno back in the day...
000
Cloud was eleven-years-old as of today. He had finished his birthday breakfast of rice porridge pancakes and a baked cheese omelet and was on his way up into the mountains. Vincent had been living in the old abandoned sheepherder's cottage to the west of Nibelheim. The blond was going to the gunslinger for more lessons in combat. Never mind that it was Cloud's birthday. He didn't care about such things except only to keep track of when he could go to Midgar to join the Shinra Military Academy, which was in three years time. Three more years and then it would begin. By ten o'clock he had arrived at Vincent's place.
"Early, aren't we?" was the gunslinger's greeting.
Cloud shrugged. "I was up at sunrise," he answered.
"Aren't you always?" Vincent snorted. "Never you mind, Bodulfr. Get inside to eat then we'll train."
"Sure." Cloud hopped into the kitchen and watched as Vincent fried up some strips of lamb meat and egg. The blond set the rickety table for two and sat. They ate quickly and set to work. Three years was too short to waste on dilly-dallying.
000
"You'll destroy Jenova's body from the reactor, right?" Cloud asked on the afternoon of his fourteenth birthday.
"I will take care of it, Bodulfr," Vincent said. He eyed the blond. He was not used to the boy being so anxious. Sometimes he wondered if Cloud was even human with the kid's uncanny ability to know everything and yet nothing at the same time. Was he some sort of messiah sent from the Goddess? But then Vincent didn't believe in hocus-pocus despite the fact he had four nasty alter-egos. Of course science had shoved those into him, science, Hojo, and the two-faced Lucrecia Crescent. Love, grief, and hate warred inside him at the mere thought of her.
"Hey sunshine, you gonna break down?"
"You are damned rude, Bodulfr."
Cloud flashed a grin that was all teeth and no mercy. "Not to my mama," he said cheekily. "Anyway, you do know I'm leaving tomorrow, right?"
"Cloud, shut up and go home before the sun sets," Vincent said gruffly. "I'll see you after you save the world."
The blond boy eyed his mentor suspiciously. "How much do you know?" he asked.
"Can you handle it?"
Cloud just smiled and walked away.
Vincent watched him go. And he wondered to himself. Was Cloud the hero or the villain?
000
This was it. Cloud was on a boat headed for Junon. Surprisingly he didn't get sick on the truck ride to Costa del Sol and he wasn't getting sick on the boat. Yet old memories from his previous life flooded him.
The blond looked to the horizon. Soon enough Cloud would be in Midgar. "Will I be enough?" he wondered aloud. Only one sailor spared him a glance. The young man didn't even notice. He was too busy contemplating the chances of success.
Sadly enough, from where he stood, the chances looked slim....
000
TBC
PS: I'm me, Diaphanous. Lol, I'm gonna be using this account for any shonen-ai or yaoi that I feel like writing. Which means this will have yaoi/shonen-ai. Not telling the pairings yet. XP