Will You Always

This Story is intended to be a slash fanfic. Purely recreational, and I make no money from it. Sqare Enix owns all rights to the characters here in. Ignores DoC.

Everything leading up to this story is Canon, but this story is undeniably AU since everything changes.

The Planet dies, after a long battle to fight the poison infecting the lifestream. She must once more place her trust in her Hero, even if he doesn't know it himself.

I'm always looking for a beta who would like to not only read through and fix my typos, (Lazy Art Student) but to motivate me and kick my ass until I write more.

Though I do have everything pretty much planned out for this story, I do take suggestions, so if there is a pairing MM or MF you want to see or anything else, feel free to pester me. The more into it you are, the more into it I am.

Will You Always

Chapter one

Cloudy Skies of Uncertainty

Cloud Strife coughed into his hand, not even wincing when he was met with blood. How long had it been? Everyone was gone. It wasn't the first time he thought about it in the last few weeks. He thought after the healing waters that had saved them, that it was over. He thought he could finally rest.

He was the only one left. Their voices were nothing but whispers in the dying lifestream.

Yuffie has been first. She had only just taken her spot as the leader of her people. It was shameful that she had fallen so easily to the blackness. After the ninja, everyone else started dropping. Edge was now a ghost town.

There was nothing left. Tiffa, the kids, Vincent, Even ShinRa and the Turks were gone, taken by the lifestream.

Mako eyes stared listlessly up at the sun. He felt so helpless.

The normal shock of blond hair was matted with dirt and blood, crusted over and flaking off. His once strong limbs were nothing but thin skin stretched over bone. Could he not die? Why did he have to endure alone?

Depressing thoughts, to be sure, but Cloud had no other thought worth thinking. He felt forsaken. A tear would have fallen, had he the ability to cry. No, a madman had stripped him of that long before.

Zack.

Why did everything have to be so hard?

The sun really was too strong. The thought popped into his head as he lay his broken body down. He didn't need shelter. The monsters were gone, only he remained.

Weapon.

Cloud's eyes flew open.

The sun was…gone?

Where the sun should have lit the sky, Cloud's sight was met with green. The planet, now a desolate wasteland where nothing could grow was covered in a Mako Green Hue. It felt as though time was standing still. Cloud was reminded of the Astronomy tower in Cosmo Canyon.

Weapon. Save. Die.

The sound was crippling. Cloud could hear it in his bones, vibrating through his soul. Was this what it felt like to die? He thought, shuddering.

Cloud

"Aeris?" He knew that voice. It sounded so sad, though it could have been his imagination. He was passed the point of caring. He was nothing more than an animal, discarded.

Cloud, Forgive me.

Weapon. Save. Die. Tool. Use. Last.

The Planet's voice hurt.

Cloud was oddly aware of someone screaming. Odd since he had just wallowed that he was the only one left. Even with that knowledge it took him a few more moments to realize he was the one screaming. Mako had failed him long ago and he'd since given up hope he'd become anything other than what had befallen Dr. Crescent.

"Aeris. Make it stop." He gasped out. His body felt like it was going to rip in two. Would this be his torture for eternity?

Save. Weapon. Final. Fight. Calamity. Wrong. Threat. Weapon. Save.

Again and again. The same thing. He was going crazy.

He felt, rather than saw the planet give one last shuddering breath, before going still. Cloud seemed to be suspended, frozen in that one moment. He didn't know how long he had been there, a fixture in the stillness after the end. It could have been weeks, hours, months minutes, years or even a second, but the next thing he knew, the Planet exploded into a brilliant lightshow.

While That should have been the end, The planet winking out of existence forever, the fragmented power began to concentrate. How was he still alive? There were too many questions as he floated in space.

Everything was dark. He should have been dead? Why was his vision green again? Cloud turned his attention to the energy, the last will of his once beautiful planet, gathering. He felt… Peace.

The Beginning of the End Cloud.

o-This is a line-o

Sephiroth had finally lost his keepers, at least for the moment. He didn't really know where he was, but the thirteen year old didn't seem to care. He needed out; Away from the labs and away from the tests. Things had been fine until Gast had left. There was no one left to control Hojo.

He stopped when the trees had begun to thin. Where could he go? He had no one. Perhaps his getting out would cause them to move the lab? If, he could get someone to save him. The teen almost laughed. He was strong enough to fight anyone else, so why was he so afraid of Hojo? Was it normal, to fear ones' father? Sephiroth didn't know.

He was too lost in his thoughts that the sound of footfalls crunching in the snow almost didn't register. "Show yourself." His voice was low, deadly.

Mako eyes stared back at him.

A boy, no older than four stood at the tree line. What was a kid that young even doing out? His answer soon revealed itself.

"Ma's sick." A small hand reached out for him, beckoning him forward.

Mako Eyes.

Mako Eyes. Just like his own. He knew meeting this boy was something of destiny. With no other thoughts on the matter, Sephiroth took the last few steps to where the boy was, grasping his hand.

The boy, though small, seemed to know exactly where he was going, navigating the trail as though he'd done it before a million times. Impossible. Even Sephiroth would be hard pressed to travel these mountain trails. For a four year old to be able to, well, it would have been odd.

But what wasn't odd about the boy? Mako eyes, navigation, small hands… warmth. Strange when mako would make one's body freeze if not administered right.

It wasn't long before Sephiroth found himself sitting in a fire-lit room with a young Mako-Eyed enigma. Just who the hell was this kid?

There was a woman, in a bed by the fire, but she seemed still.

"Momma fell into a M…Mako pool." The boy said slowly, careful to say each word correctly.

Mako pool? Was the woman still alive? Mako could and would kill. "When?" He found himself asking, his eyes meeting with eyes too old for their owner.

"Before I was Bo…Born."

To say Sephioth was thrown for a loop would have been a gross understatement. That this little waif of a boy had been born after his mother was over exposed to Mako was almost unheard of. He made his way over to the woman, seeing her gaunt face beneath the quilts.

She was awake? Staring at him? The perception of thirteen years of training and logistics had been shattered in one instant by this backwoods family.

"The Pla-net is crying." The woman's weak voice whispered up at them. "Mistake… C…can't remember…"

"Momma? Don't talk." He placed his hand on hers, trying to give her strength. The little boy's eyes were misty, but not a tear fell. How cruel to be without tears. Sephiroth had never cried himself, but he never really felt any sadness.

Sephiroth placed his hand on the woman's head. She was cold. "Mister?" He turned to get a good look at those haunting mako eyes. He was sure they would have been blue, had they not been almost pulsing with green.

"Please… No one will… My son…" The woman once again got his attention. "My Son, no one will… look after… no one…. Will." She coughed, closing her eyes and taking a deep breath.

"Momma, Fenrir… I have her too and Ma." The boy insisted. "Can you help Ma? The Planet hurt her?" It was obvious that, though the boy was bright beyond his years, he was still just a child, lost and confused. Sephiroth felt a pang of regret, knowing there was nothing he could do to really help the boy.

"I'm sorry." The silver haired teen bent down too the boy's level. "I can't help you. Hojo…." Sephiroth's voice held in his throat. Could he really do that? Would the woman be better off dead than in the clutches of that man? "Hojo could…. Maybe..?" He, for once, didn't sound too sure of himself.

The woman seemed to reawaken at that name. "No!" She struggled to get up, fighting the Mako-Haze. Just how was this woman still alive with over four years of Mako Poison? She seemed to be holding on by a thread of life. "Monster…. Not a man…"

The boy turned white as a sheet. "No…" He shook his head. Sephiroth, for the life of him, couldn't figure out why this family acted so violently towards the man. He was sure Hojo never left the labs if he didn't need to. He was sure these people had never met the man. "Hojo bad. Fenrir said no Hojo."

Was that the boy's name? Or the woman? He had said it before, but he didn't think it was that woman's name. "I can't say I'd blame you."

"Ma?"

"The tears from the cloudy skies of uncertainty, rest the hope of knowledge." The woman's eyes were vacant, and it no longer sounded like her voice, but lighter, as though there had been nothing ailing her at all. She drew in a shuddering breath, and just like a felled monster, she vanished into the lifestream, leaving green wisps . The tendrils soon vanished, returning to the planet.

Something inside Sephiroth told him it should not have ended like that. There was something wrong. He turned back to the boy, looking down at those sad eyes, finally crying. Mako Tears.

"Boy?"

"I have a name!" He snapped, causing Sephiroth to wince. He had not expected such a temper. "Cloud. I'm Cloud Strife!"

A Nibel wolf cried in the distance. The wolfsong that followed could have moved a lesser man to tears. "Cloud…"

TBC

On the next Will You Always

Chapter 2

"Zack, why'd you stop?"

"What the hell Spike!"

"Sephiroth!"

The dreams just wouldn't stop! He could feel the sword running him through, though he never saw a face.