Hi everyone! I'm not really much of a writer, but I always have these ideas floating around in my head. I know I don't have the skill or perseverance to write them into a full story, so I thought I'd take a shot at writing a kind of "prologue" for the idea(s). If anyone wants to use the idea in whole or in part for a full one-shot or even a full story – I'd be thrilled! You don't even have to ask, although leaving me with a link to your story once it's up would make me ever so happy. I've purposefully left these ideas gen, so any authors can spin the story into whatever pairing they like (or if they want, genfic is fun too). Most are going to be written Cloud-centric, although at the bottom I might put some "alternate scenario" notes on how I think the idea could be used with a different character.

First up features…

Post-Advent Children Cloud rides to Nibelheim one last time, but the Planet has a little surprise for him…

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Cloud was playing chicken with rocks. Even though he'd driven this way countless times, he'd never really enjoyed it. He was always trying to get his deliveries done (or pretending to get deliveries done as an excuse not to go home, but that's beside the point). Ever since the Remnants, ever since geostigma was cured… he'd felt lighter. Like the weight of the world was easier to bare. Seeing Aerith, seeing Zack, know without a doubt they didn't blame him, that they wanted him to live…

It made him feel warm. It was a little scary, actually, having his guilt and his anger gone. He'd felt it for so long that he didn't know what to do now that he was, well, happy. Yes, he was happy.

He had decided to visit Nibelheim one last time. He'd come there before, of course, but the reconstructed village had both saddened and angered him. There was no evidence of everything that had happened there, nothing except his own memories of that day. And really, the remembering whole event was like seeing double – he had his own scattered recollections, and Zack's clearer, but no less incomplete ones. Every time he went there before he was weighed down by his guilt and sadness and anger.

But, he felt like he could let go now. He could visit his mother's unmarked grave, he could see the Shinra-made Nibelheim, and let go a little.

He rode through the tiny village slowly, remembering. Sure, there had been some bad times – the whole village had basically shunned him after he 'almost got Tifa killed' – but it hadn't been all bad. He remembered his mother, and how she called him her 'little dream-Cloud' all the way up until he left for Midgar. He'd been so embarrassed when he was younger, when he'd hear her calling him home he would always run home as fast as he could, hiding his burning face in shame. He smiled a little at the memory.

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Cloud sighed as he gazed at Nibelheim. He didn't think he'd be back here again – the ghosts had been laid to rest.

As he turned away, the wind shifted, carrying the sweet smell of flowers through the barren town, and a piercing wail broke the still air.

What…? A baby? Out here?

Cautiously, Cloud crept toward the noise. There, lying on the ground as if it had sprung from the dirt, was a baby swathed in a white cloth. Screaming and crying. And probably pretty cold.

He hurriedly picked the baby up, awkwardly holding it while trying to shelter it from the wind and calm it down. What did he know about babies? Almost nothing, he's a fighter not a caretaker for Planet's sake.

As the noise quieted, he looked down and almost dropped the baby in shock. There, swaddled in cloth was a little silver-haired, green-eyed baby, who, despite the pudgy baby face, looked like a baby version of Sephiroth.

For a moment, he was torn. Here was his enemy, a defenseless baby. It would be easy to… no. It was a defenseless baby, Jenova has been destroyed and this Sephiroth hasn't done anything wrong yet. Besides, the baby just appeared out of nowhere, and the smell of flowers…

Obviously, Sephiroth was being given a second chance. A chance to grow up outside the labs, away from Hojo and Shinra and SOLDIER. His eyes still had the glow of Mako, but they weren't silted like old-Sephiroth's were. This is a Sephiroth without Jenova's cells, and he had a chance to become his own person, one that wasn't… crazy and broken.

Decision made, Cloud walked back to Fenrir.

Now, how exactly was he going to get a baby home on a bike…

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Aaaannd that's it! I've seen some similar ideas (ie, Young!Sephiroth) but I haven't seen anything quite like this, so I hope it's unique. Some notes/other ideas:

- I guess it would be hard for it to be totally clear it's Sephiroth reborn. It could easily be mistaken for a baby clone, or a remnant like Kadaj or something, so if you want it to be questionable whether it's actually Sephiroth that's fine, I just decided not to go into it.

- This can be based in whatever kind of alternate FFVII universe you like. If you want Cloud to be with Tifa, you can probably leave it as-is since they live together, but if you want Cloud to be with someone else you probably want him with his own place. Personally, I like slash pairings for Cloud, so AR would be awesome. Seeing as we're bringing people back from the dead anyway, you could probably get away with Zack or Aerith being in there.

- I think Big Brother!Denzel would be so cute! Especially when he hits those awkward teenage years. You can decide if Marlene will still be with Tifa (and thus a fairly regular part of Sephiroth's life), or living with Barret now that he's rich on his oilfield (and thus more of an occasional visitor).

- Alternative character: Vincent. This one's pretty obvious, Vincent goes to Nibelheim, finds baby Sephiroth and decides to raise him. If you like the fanon, Vincent-is-actually-Sephiroth's-father plot, you can have that, but it's perfectly plausible that Vincent would take him in simply for being Lucrecia's son.

- Alternative character: Tifa. Tifa obviously has a connection to Nibelheim too, although she's not nearly as morose about it as Cloud is, so she could potentially be the one to find Sephiroth, and she has the disposition to take him in despite everything too, I think. This one might be pretty similar to one with Cloud, just with Tifa as the central, narrating character rather than Cloud.

- Obviously, this story can be fairly humourous or fairly dark depending on how you do it, so hopefully it appeals to someone!