Komi: Okay this is just a random thing; say after defeating Sephiroth, Cloud is wracked with guilt and somehow gets sent back before the incident to keep Sephiroth from going nuts.
Cloud: The hell?
Komi: Shush. Now let's say that he manages it, Goddess only knows how, but he does.
Cloud: Hey! I am perfectly capable-
Komi: Didn't I just tell you to shush? Let's also imagine that he accomplished this all without letting Sephiroth know he was there. You now see why we're going to have to pretend all this yes?
Cloud: I could sneak past Sephiroth if I had to!
Komi: Do you want this to be a death fic?
Cloud: ….
Komi: I thought not. Contrary to all this silly stuff this IS supposed to be a semi serious story. Please review.
Disclaimer: I don't own the rights to Final Fantasy VII in any way shape or form nor am I making money from this. So you can't sue me. Ha. Thank you.
Beginning
He was alone.
Again.
With Sephiroth still sane there was no need for him to travel.
No need to see Tifa or meet Barret, Biggs, Wedge and Jessie.
No need to help Areis, rescue Red XIII or find Yuffie.
No need to ask Cid for his plane, or to discover Vincent in the dust of the ShinRa Mansion.
No need for Reeve to stalk them in the robotic guise of Cait Sith.
No need for…anything.
With Sephiroth sane, what did he have?
Well, he had his 21 year old body and mind.
His sword and Materia…
But what else?
No work…
No Friends…
No…home…
Nibelhiem…was not home. Not anymore.
Too many memories.
Good and Bad.
The Fire that hadn't happened…
The slaughter that had never occurred…
The friends he now, would never have…
Why had he stopped Sephiroth?
Why had he kept him from the brink?
To save the world?
To save Aries and Zack?
To save the people of his former home town?
Or was it really…
To save himself?
To keep from having to kill the man he idolized, and…
Loved…
To keep his mind from breaking…
To keep his soul from shattering…
To keep his heart from dieing…
Yes.
It was a selfish reason.
Middle
"You there! Stand and deliver!" Cloud looked up from his thoughts to note the blue clad figure in front of him. A ShinRa foot soldier, a grunt.
"What?" The obviously young man waved his gun in a vaguely threatening manner, voice breaking.
"Identify yourself!" the blonde wondered what he should say.
I'm a man from the future who's changed the past and now I'm stuck here?
He got the feeling that saying that would merely frighten the poor boy more than he was. It was the sword, Cloud decided.
Ultima weapon had a way of making people uncomfortable.
"Who I am is none of your business." He started walking again. Junon was an okay city. Too small to get lost in, but thankfully too big for everyone to know everyone else.
"H-halt or I'll shoot!" the swordsman was getting slightly annoyed now. Why wouldn't the guard leave him alone? With a sigh he took the time to notice his surroundings and realized he was heading into the barracks. This cleared up many issues.
"Ah. I see." He shrugged.
"My apologies." He turned around leaving the trooper to stare after him as he left.
"You. Stop." That voice. The one voice that could kill him, or revive him.
He kept his back to it forcing his body not to tremble or shudder.
"Your name." He did not answer.
He could not.
"I will not ask again." From somewhere inside of him the small mischievous boy he had been, before his father's death, before Tifa, before…anything, spoke through his mouth
"You promise?" a smile twitched his lips as his thoughts presented him with a revelation.
He'd saved everyone…
The bubble popped.
Except the planet. The Mako reactors still burned. Midgar was not yet the cesspit it would become, but it was on that path.
Nothing he could do to stop it, short of pulling a Sephiroth and assassinating the President of ShinRa…of course Sephiroth hadn't done that so he couldn't call it pulling a Sephiroth because it hadn't happened and…
"Your. Name." The voice was annoyed now. He turned his head slightly to look over his shoulder. Sephiroth looked just as Cloud remembered.
Lustrous silver hair swayed in the fresh sea breeze, the beach not yet contaminated. He was as tall as ever, posture stiff as he studied the man in front of him. Masamune was sheathed, always a good sign. Cat like, lifestream green eyes met his own Mako enhanced blue and Cloud smiled sadly.
"Mako reactors kill the planet you know." The apparent non sequiter took the slightly elder man aback.
"What?" Cloud looked up at the sky, his back still to the man he'd saved.
"Mako is the life blood of the planet. You take the mako away, and you kill it." There was silence as General and trooper stared at him.
"Do you know why Bolt2 happens when you use a bolt Materia? It's a memory, the planets memory of a lighting strike."
"Then what's a summon?" Cloud turned slightly to look at the trooper, letting Sephiroth get a good look at his face for the first time.
"The memory of a creature long gone." He turned his gaze to the silver haired general.
"Tell the president that. Tell Hojo that. He may say it's unscientific, and it is. But tell him it is also unscientific to lie to someone about the identity of their mother." Sephiroth's eyes became cold.
"What do you mean?" There was a threat in those words, Cloud was sure.
"Her name is Lucretia. A lovely woman, a scientist as well. Maybe he thought that would make them compatible." Cloud slowly sank into the mist of memory.
"Didn't know she was pregnant when she married him though…maybe that's why he used Vincent…" Cloud made up his mind to go to the ShinRa mansion to find the slightly vampiric man once he got to the next continent.
"Who are you?" the black gloved hand was on Masamune now. He smiled; it was a small smile, sad and slightly insane. Could he assume? Did he dare? How could he be sure? He decided it didn't matter
He pulled himself up to his full height of 5'7".
"Cloud Strife: experimental Jenova clone, Mercenary First Class."
Twist
Sephiroth had been looking out his window at the sky. Ever since his return from Nibelhiem he'd felt…incomplete, lost.
As if he'd blinked and in that split second, had ended up on the road less traveled.
It was…worrying to say the least. To close your eyes in frustration at a meeting, and see behind your eyelids people you did not know. A woman with long brown hair, fists raised, had reminded him strikingly of their guide.
A bear of a man with a machine gun for an arm, and what looked like one of Hojo's canine "projects".
Closing his eyes to pinch the bridge of his nose resulted in flashes of a ridiculous robotic cat riding a stuffed mog, followed by a middle aged man with blonde windblown hair and sky blue eyes.
An image of a woman with a long braid dying on his sword had woken him that morning. Her death had been watched, a wutaian girl, and a dark haired man who made him feel scarily young…
It was frustrating because he knew them, but he didn't know them.
He could almost feel them but they weren't there.
It was driving him slowly insane. He had pressed his head against the cool glass eyes drifting shut; almost dreading what he might see next…but there was nothing…
His eyes had snapped open in disbelief, that couldn't be all, there was another one he was sure.
But…how could he know when he didn't know what he was seeing? A flash of blonde had caught his eye, and a tantalizing flash of sea blue had driven him to open the window and jump, just in time to keep the stranger from leaving.
But…now what? He had his name, and more information than he'd ever dreamed of having, especially since the Nibel Mountain mako reactors desolate appearance, and the Mansions empty library.
And in his mind the space filled, the missing piece…
He wasn't lost anymore; someone from the road more traveled by had come.
"I know you." And the eyes went wide, hope and fear combined with the slight insanity he saw in his mirror every morning, all staring back at him out of brilliant blue windows.
"…How?" His senses were screaming to grab the man before he could disappear.
"Trooper." He felt as though frost coated his throat.
"Dismissed." The blue uniformed grunt nodded and snapped a salute.
"Y-y-yes sir!" Both warriors waited until they could no longer feel his presence.
"…"
"…"
The attack was sudden and swift, steel rang on steel.
"I know you…" Parry, slash, riposte.
"Yes…" Dodge, slice, counter.
"How?" sidestep, cut, retreat.
"I…can't tell you." Spin, thrust, parry.
The dance began again.
But it felt wrong…like, standing at a cross roads, knowing your facing the wrong way, but the directions say go THAT way. But do they? The letters are smudged. What do you do?
Blades met, locked, held.
Eyes snapped together, blue meeting green, a swirling abyss of color.
"And I, I took the road less traveled by, and that has made all the difference…" The younger man blinked and Sephiroth pressed the advantage.
Lips met, teeth clacked tongues tangled.
Hearts healed, or were at least patched.
The swords clanged to the ground, black gloves tangled in blonde hair.
Tanned hands gripped the leather of his coat, and the world was right again.
Even as it was wrong, it was right. And what did he need his mother for? He had a name, if not a face, and now, the last piece of the puzzle was his.
His alone.
End
Komi: What happens when you carry a metaphor to far…Yeah…Like I said, just a little bit of pretending going on.
Cloud: …It's like that time you were doped up on cold medicine.
Komi: glares
Cloud: eh-heh. puts hands up in placating manner Not that I'm complaining!
Sephiroth: I am. She made me a nut-job!
Komi & Cloud: Ummm...
Sephiroth: growls
Please Review!