Hello, my fellow Readers. A quick bit before you read this first chapter. I was trawling through my Christmas list of music and absently wishing there was a new FFVII Time Travel fic I could read that didn't involve explicit screwing of the intimate bedroom type, bedroom being optional. When, it hit me: write my own. But, what to write? Then I heard one of the songs, from a very well done movie. I'll let you know what movie when it gets to the part with the song, which won't be until close to the end, and I warn you now, I have no freaking clue how long this is gonna be. I'm expecting minimum of ten chapters, maximum of thirty, if that.

The title is from a mix of what happens in this story, and the words passed down the Angeal-Zack-Cloud student-teacher line. There may be other songs I mix in, and you will have who sang them and where I heard them at the end of each chapter. If not, review and tell me or PM me about it, and I'll fix it.

Now, on, to my musically inspired madness . . . *ominous, overdone cackling is heard*

~O~O~O~

Cloud had been dreaming when they offered to help him save what was lost.

To explain, the 'they' in question were none other than Zack Fair -who he'd thought he was until he figured out his head was screwed on wrong and then realized the man was his best friend and blood brother (1) - and Aerith Gainsborough - who he loved as a sister if only because of Zack, loved her as a woman because he to a degree thought he was Zack, then went back to square one feeling supremely awkward about square two (The Dress Incident did not help. Stop looking at him like that. And stop laughing.)-, who he learned were entirely more meddlesome then when they were alive to cause havoc and mayhem in his life.

It went roughly like 'hey, you wanna travel to the past, save most of everyone who died, screw over the baddies, make the Planet live more than just the century it's got left and generally rearrange things more to your liking?' spoken in a tone of voice as one would use while asking about the weather, how was your day, did you get a new haircut, things like that. Which is why it took a full half minute for Cloud to hear the words instead of the tone, because he'd been tuning Zack out in revenge for his toilet prank last week (Lifestream had surge up out of the Hangover Throne of the Porcelain Gods, who Cloud had never actually had cause to pay homage to, and scared the ever-loving shit out of him. Cloud could swear he heard Zack hiccupping in between raucous laughter). When the words got though, Cloud turned and stared at him, as if he'd said he'd known exactly what Hojo was up to and condoned the whole thing.

"Don't look at me like I killed your motorcycle, Spike. And I'm serious. Me and Aerith can send you back. How far, we're not sure, so we're putting our all into it. We just need your permission." When Cloud just continued to stare at him blankly, Zack, already wound tight as a strung bowstring from all this, panicked. When he panicked -in a non-combat situation, anyway-, he did as he always did.

He began to ramble. "Well, we don't really, but you've had enough shit shoved at you and Aerith and I both refused to even consider it unless you said yes which kinda ticked the Goddess off-"

"Alright" Cloud agreed, knowing Zack wouldn't actually hear him for a moment yet.

"-but She can't force a Cetra to do anything they don't want to do and I'm under Aerith's protection so she can't force me to do anything, which I guess is some Old Magick thing, but please Cloud, there are so many things that can be fixed and you wouldn't be alone at all-"

"Zack." Cloud emphasized the word in a way that only those who'd been in a military setting would understand, and only those who'd been under command of such a voice would listen to. (2) Zack snapped to attention, sharp salute and all. "At ease." Zack went to parade rest, looking confused as to why he'd done so. "I said I'll do it. How long will it take for you and Aerith to be ready?"

Zack squirmed. Cloud was instantly suspicious. "Weeell," Zack drew the word out, looking around like he expected some thing to leap out at him. Or, more likely, hoping something would. Cloud Looked at him. He caved. "Aerith and I need to gather as much energy as possible. For the next year and a day - which I know is Old Magick - there will be no births. No new plant life. The old and frail, the weak and sick, will die. All of which will be used to punt you as far back as we can, where this will never have happened. So."

Cloud thought about that. On the one hand, it was morally reprehensible and the kind of thing he'd normally be fighting fang and claw against. On the other, it'd save so many millions, and the entire process of using it would make it so it wasn't used. Ow, headache. "I'm going back to the past, where it will not have happened. It's a terrible thing to do. But it will save so many more than it sacrifices, and the Planet will live longer." He didn't like it. He also hadn't like killing Sephiroth, any of the three times. But he'd done it, first in revenge, the to protect the Planet, then to save the Planet. Surely, this would go well. And, nothing would go wrong.

Famous Last Words, said the shiver going down his spine that went ignored.

~O~O~O~

A Year Later, One Day Until the JUMP, Aerith's Church

As expected, it was eventually noticed. Certain people also noticed their hero and savior doing exactly nothing, as if it weren't blatantly unnatural for it all to be happening. They'd hounded him, and he put all his anti-social brooding to use by summarily avoiding all but Vincent, who could not be avoided so much as politely sidestepped, and that was if he wasn't interested in stalking you. If he was, you had no privacy. It was merely Cloud's bad luck - or Fate fucking with him one last time, the bitch. He knew gods existed - that Vincent got Cloud cornered on the very last day before it was all to happen.

So, seeing as there were literal minutes until this timeline completely unraveled, Cloud gave him an edited version, leaving out only what would happen to this time. Vincent stared, actually shocked into muteness, as two specters, a man and woman, appeared above the blessed water. One was Aerith as he'd known her. The other must have been the much-missed Zack Fair.

Contrary to all stories told of the slain hero, he was dead serious. It made the faint x scar on his jaw stand out, despite not being corporeal.

Cloud looked Vincent straight in the eye, said only "I want to be sorry, but really, I can't be." And stepped toward his intangible friends.

Before Vincent could formulate even a wisp of a thought -because really, what?- Cloud had taken their hands -what?!- stepped onto the water as if it were solid ground -seriously?- and vanished, as if he'd never been.

Unnoticed, all around Vincent, all around the world, everything began to unravel.

~O~O~O~

(1) Blood Brother meaning, in this instance, that they were really brothers in all but blood and name, and then some. Their respective spouses would be as sister/brother-in-laws to each other, they would be godparents to each others children upon birth/adoption of said children preceding any and all other contracts or oaths, they would provide for the other when they themselves could not, and unquestionably help each other, if not without teasing and/or whining and bitching involved. They would lie, cheat, steal, kill, foreswear all but their own blood-kin for each other, and even that was iffy. It's Old Magic of the Mountain, that Cloud told Zack about before his memories when disco ball on him. This definition, I did not get from anywhere. I cobbled together bits and pieces from memory of such things and put in a dramatic flair of my own. Don't swear by this, because it's mostly codswallop.

(2) The tone of voice used is like a Drill Sargent(sp?) would use, except spoken softly instead of shouted. Cloud didn't need to raise his voice to be heard. He spoke softly, and you listened, or he would have your hide for it. This was common to the shy mountain boy way back before Zack got his hands on him. He just didn't like doing it, because it'd scared him. By the time of Advent Children, he simply no longer gave a damn, and when confronted with rampant stupidity -or hyperness to rival Zack- he was not afraid to be firm, stern and intimidating as your angry mother wielding a wooden spoon. Which is about how people felt, when he did that. To date, the only one who figured it out was Vincent Valentine, and that only because he recalled a tiny graying woman that reminded him vaguely of Cloud who'd gotten the best Turks to back down, behave and eat her delicious homemade cookies by giving them a Look. Later, when asked, Vincent found out the woman was Cloud's paternal grandmother. Which made Vincent feel old, for the first time.

Review, review, review. What you liked, didn't like, spelling errors my two-days-no-sleep mind missed, sparse detail in places, or, hell, even just to tell me what kind of ice cream you like. I like Hot Fudge Pecan Royal. Mostly for the salty pecans in the sweet ice cream. The fudge is a bonus. The whipped cream, I can do without, and the cherry I am indifferent to.

~O~O~O~

Preview of the next chapter. Possibly.

~O~

"Thank you for joining this expedition, Storm Strife. We can use every bit of help available." Cloud merely looked at the man with laughing green eyes, and knew there was a god or goddess, somewhere, that despised his very existence. "My pleasure, Professor Gast Faremis." They were gonna make this hurt.

~O~O~O~

I am going to bed before I hurt myself, likely by tripping over nothing. Goodnight, my fellow Readers.

Hello, my fellow Readers. It's been edited a bit. I went over it and saw that the footnotes were a bit bothersome. Got rid of a few, changed one other. Review, and tell me how you like it. I'll be doing my best to get the second chapter out this week. So no lynching me. XP

And a thank you, those who have favorited

Amayelle, Inside Us Only Stars, Janneia, Jayde5, MaeveFaye, Nucima, chess211, misminor, scarletavatre, sdphantom10, and survan75.

The followers,

Amayelle, Azalie-Kauriu, DarcyJackson, Dog Lover 120, Escagirl, Janneia, Lost Socks and Leprechauns, Mystic 777, SnowLeopard167, Twix03, VioletisinPain, kuro-okami13, misminor, santanaann4524, scarletavatre, sdphantom10, surban75, tatiana1989 and vampirewishes.

And last, but most certainly not least, the reviewers.

sdphantom10, Dog Lover 120 and Mystic 777, who's comment prompted me to take another look-see at this chapter.