This sort of spawned from a conversation in the comments of SHINRA Secrets, and turned from a one - shot chapter into a full blown story. Beta - edited by ChaosBalance (from AO3) (more like co - written with in my opinion). Hope that you enjoy, and here's the first chapter. (I own neither the Skyrim franchise or the FFVII franchise, but kudos to them for creating such wonderful masterpieces. But Keith is of my own creation, so I can claim him at least!)

Even Heroes Have Limits

Chapter 1: The Problem Of Being A Hero

-o0o-

The one problem with being a hero is that you are expected to always be able to help.

That applied to every circumstance, no matter how ridiculous or risky the consequences were.

(Per example, the dress incident).

And now here he was again, made the hero in a time where he shouldn't even know about these things.

The goddess had been kind enough to at least send him back to a point where he would be able to have an impact, but still . . .

Being a SOLDIER cadet sucked.

Thus, the reason why he was yet again in the situation of being the runt of the litter, and currently had three older, burlier cadets ganging up on him.

However, it seemed that fate had another path for him today.

Cloud had heard about the Head Janitor of Shinra, who had much more power than a normal custodian. In his timeline, he had never even heard of the janitors (deciding then and there Minerva had sent him to an alternative dimension of sorts).

So it was reasonable that he was flipping surprised to see a tall, blonde man in the standard blues of the janitorial crew come out of nowhere and throw the biggest cadet (who Cloud was pretty sure had been binging on steroids) into a wall with such a solid thump that paint peeled off.

The other two fled pretty quickly, and Cloud was left with a curious janitor who seemed to have already been pissed off at something else beforehand, and had thankfully taken out his rage on the unfortunate cadets that had lain in his path.

It was there and then Cloud realised that his job would be a little easier than the first time around.

The thing with being constantly dunked into the Lifestream a couple of dozen times, gave him a few extra abilities that even Aerith hadn't known about.

The Lifestream was basically made up of the energy of the Planet and is the cycle of souls, both the dying and the newly born. Destiny is not planned out by anyone, even the Goddess herself didn't have control over the flow of fate, but the Lifestream itself has a small amount of control on which influential souls it releases.

Sephiroth was unfortunate enough to be one of those that had been saddled with one of the worst destinies, but that could be averted if someone else with a destiny just as great got involved. And due to his multiple dunks in the Lifestream, Cloud had been able the see the strings of fate ever since the fall of Deepground.

He hadn't told any of his friends because, if he knew their band of misfits correctly (and of course he did), they would do whatever they could to help, and Cloud did not want to burden them with a task that they had no chance with succeeding in. (It wasn't like it was affecting him in a bad way; it just got a little distracting).

And now, as he stared at the janitor who was brushing his hands clean of imaginary dirt, he could see this man's destiny.

This man held so many strings of fate that Cloud was almost blinded, a rainbow of colours that spread out throughout the entire tower, leading from one person to another. It was a sight to behold, and it terrified him that this man held so much power but did not realise to what extent.

He would have to get close to this man in order to have at least one hand on the steering wheel of the road of fate.

Cloud wasn't sure how he was going to do that, but in the coming days, he didn't really need to be that worried.

Keith had apparently adopted Cloud into his makeshift family the moment he found the bigger cadets bullying him that day.

And Cloud found himself enjoying Keith's company, Keith was like the big brother he never had, and he wished that this man had been part of his own life back in Nibelheim (it turned out Keith was raised in Nibelheim most of his childhood), and they enjoyed grousing over the townsfolk, Keith had some good blackmail on the villagers and some good revenge stories.

Over the next few weeks, he found himself genuinely enjoying his time in SHINRA. He had become friends with Zack again (vowing at some point to get the Gongagan native to meet Aerith), Reno had of course become interested in Keith's latest ward (which gave him an ample cover as to why he knew the ventilation systems inside out).

It was a month after he met Keith when he ran into Professor Hojo; alarmed to see the scientist lurking in Keith's office. He was even more surprised when the Professor actually started a conversation up with him; this Hojo was unlike the scientist he had unfortunately fallen into the clutches of, but a genuinely nice man (as long as you didn't have a problem with his fascination with chaos and destruction).

It was reaching the three month mark of him being returned to the past, and so far things were working out for him.

He was a friend to a person with an influential soul, had access to a scientist with morals (ignoring the fact the scientist in question revelled in chaotic destruction), and had a new fluff-ball companion to protect him from the bigger cadets.

But of course, something bad had to occur.

(He was pretty sure Karma held a grudge against him, if said karma was an actual entity).

It was Keith's day off, and his classes were cancelled for the day as someone *cough*Zack*cough* had pissed off Commander Rhapsodos enough that the man melted a hole in the floor. Which happened to drip molten rock onto the floor below and the heads of the cadet lecturers for the day. Nobody died, but the afflicted men would have minor burns as result. No amount of Cure materia could get rid of all the scar tissue.

Keith didn't have to deal with the clean up as he wasn't qualified to repair floors (but everyone was sure he could if given the chance).

So Cloud decided to stay with Keith for the day, until his night patrols. He had no idea what he would do for eight hours if Keith hadn't given him permission to hide in his office whenever he wanted.

But on his way to the Head Janitor's office, Cloud felt the familiar and yet strange sensation of an inter-dimensional portal (he couldn't really explain how he could sense them, but he had gone through enough to know when one was being opened) forming right behind his back.

Mini-Cloud shrieked shrilly and bounced off down the hallway as Cloud felt a rather familiar, disgusting energy grasp him. A greasy slime that trapped him with the strength of thick mud, drawing him in with an oily embrace.

He wasn't able to escape the portal's bruising hold.

-o0o-

Cloud woke slowly, dimensional travel was never fun, and looked around.

He jolted up when he realized he was on the back of a cart with his hands tied up in rope. The blonde-haired man with the braid asked him if he was alright, having been dropped straight into the middle of an ambush, but Cloud ignored him. The most important thing was getting his bearings. He did look at the blonde in shock at the comment of 'the end of the line' though.

This brown haired brat asked him for his name, before confirming he wasn't on this 'list'. Cloud had to speak up though when the superior officer coldly stated that he was to be sent to the block with the others.

"I was sent here through a portal from Terra, and my name is Cloud Strife. This is Nirn, from what I can hear, and I know that those who cross should be treated as guests until a pathway is found. Besides, I have more than earned the epithet of Ultima, and the Calamity's Nightmare wasn't able to kill me on any of the attempts made."

A roar had everyone looking around, before a soldier walked over and started conversing with the officer. The officer's eyes narrowed, and Cloud knew that all she cared about was seeing heads roll. It didn't help that she had a strong scent that was mostly comprised of dried blood. He was more pissed off by the fact she completely dismissed what he stated, clearly none of them had a visitor from outside their dimension in a long time.

Cloud took his place among the lines of men, ignoring what was obviously a commander talking to the high-profile prisoner that had been in his cart. The second roar had mostly everyone nervous, and a priestess stepped forward to give the last rights. Cloud merely scoffed and walked over.

"I couldn't be killed by the one that tried to destroy my world. What makes you think that you will succeed?" as Cloud tossed this to the officer; the commander startled and stepped forward.

Unfortunately that's when the Strife luck kicked in and the Dragon showed up.

Cloud's face blanked of all emotion as he looked up at the scaly horror.

"Let me guess, you are going to try your claw at killing me as well?"

-o0o-

A/N: This is the first chapter of many, I'm working off walkthroughs and have never played the game, so please don't get offended if I screw up some of the game lore or leave out details. But ChaosBalance has been a great help with providing details about the game.

LuilfrLokison out! :3