Hey guys! This is my first fanfic and I hope you like it. I've categorized it under Final Fantasy 7, though it has characters from FF 7, 8 and 10. It's basically about the relationships between the characters and the struggle that all of them go through individually. But, if it was just that, it'd be pretty boring, so you can expect some lemon, violence and blood and gore as well. Anything to keep you entertained! I'm already working on Chapter 2 and I hope to be uploading it soon. Please, please, please review!! Be as brutal as you like, tell me if I suck, tell me if my story blows!! Flaming welcome! I accept anonymous reviews just in case you're the shy type and don't like to reveal your identity. Well, I've yapped on long enough, so here we go…

Summary: Cloud, Squall and Yuna, all orphaned at young ages were taken in by the kindly old woman known only as Nene. Now, fifteen years later, upon Nene's death, the trio (along with their respective lovers) reunites to pay their respects and spend a weekend at Nene's luxurious mansion deep in the heart of the mountains. The plot is (oddly enough) loosely based on the film "Four Brothers" (although there's three of them, and one of them is female). However, the groups relaxing weekend is soon shattered by an evil plot to resurrect the dead Sephiroth, the object of Cloud's nightmares!

Rated M for lemon, language, violence, character death and descriptions of gore

Disclaimer: Will I really get sued if I don't write one of these?? Oh well, just to be on the safe side, all characters of Final Fantasy are licensed trademarks of Square Enix and I claim no ownership to them. Happy?

Chapter 1: Emotions Frozen in Time

Cloud stalked among the silence of the sun dappled trees with felinely grace, his foot falls making not a sound on the early spring grass. A warm breeze rustled through his blonde quills of hair and he paused a moment to take in a whiff of the lovely spring air. It carried the aroma of mountain flowers and honeysuckle.

A cheerful, female voice suddenly shattered the stillness from over his shoulder. "Cloud, why do you behave like you're on a combat mission? We're on vacation for goodness sake!" Tifa's voice was melodious and soothing and Cloud loved the sound of her school girlish giggle.

"Sorry Tifa." Cloud apologized, turning about to face her. "That old SOLDIER training never really goes away." Cloud and his grin faded slightly. It had been nearly three years since Midgar. Three years since…him! Sephi-no!! Cloud reused to even think his name. He was dead now and he could never hurt another living soul ever again. Cloud silently cursed the name of the demon that had taken his Aerith from him. Damn him. Damn him strait to hell…Cloud forced the thought from his mind and focused on Tifa again, her eyes reflecting unspoken concern.

"Cloud, you okay sweetheart?" Tifa's tone was concerned, but still soothing, like the sound of waves licking at the golden shoreline, and Cloud welcomed her touch as she entwined her hands around his neck. "You seem…distant. Like you used to be…"

"And what is that supposed to mean?" Cloud asked playfully, putting his hands on her waist and giving her a reassuring caress. She swiveled her hips back and forth under his touch and something in the way she moved made his blood stir.

"Well…ya know, when I used to look at you, it was like you didn't even see me. You're eyes were just…blank." She smiled "but not anymore" She touched his lips and traced the edge of his mouth with her index finger. Cloud reveled in her velvety touch

He smiled as she kissed him. It wasn't the heavy, furious kiss that she gave when she wanted him to perform his male duty. It was light, slow and passionate, a warm display of affection that reverberated through both of them. When their lips broke, Tifa added with finality.

"I like the new you much better" she gave him another of her heart melting smiles and the two drifted apart and continued walking.

Cloud paused, letting out the breath he didn't know he'd been holding. Tifa was right. The new him was a vast improvement. He used to have blood-soaked nightmares and violent emotions and images of him swirl through his mind like a hurricane, and he'd dealt with these feelings by running from them, running from the world. But he found that once he'd begun courting Tifa, the visions occurred less and less frequently and the anger and frustration subsided. The closer Tifa got to him, the more his fury faded until it was nothing at all. She was his cure, his remedy, his shield against the world, and he loved her dearly.

Tifa paused and looked back at him, another warm breeze curling it's fingers through her luscious, black locks. She called out to him with a grin "Hey slowpoke, are you bird watching back there?"

Cloud shook himself free of his daydreams at the sound of her voice. He gave her an apologetic grin as jogged over to her, but his mind was still wandering.

"I'm happy aren't I? I should be. I have everything I need and the love of a good woman. So…why do I feel so…dissatisfied?"

Tifa sensed the absent look in his eye again and fell silent. She knew that look well. That was the look he wore when he was thinking about Aerith. He'd looked like that for nearly a full week after she'd died. But…she'd been gone for three years. 'But why…' Tifa thought 'Why would Cloud be thinking about Aerith when he was with her?' the question terrified her, but the answer terrified her even more. She loved him and the thought of loosing him caused a heavy squeeze on her heart.

The couple walked on in silence.

A silent tension was weighing down upon both their shoulders. Both felt it, but both were powerless to stop it. Cloud searched in vain for something to say. The right words, the perfect words, but nothing came to mind. His mind was on Aerith, and Tifa knew it. He fingered the fabric on the inside of his pocket nervously.

Tifa broke the silence first. "Cloud…"she stopped dead in her tracks. "Do…do you love me?" her voice was empty, without expression and Tifa found it impossible to make eye contact with him, so she stared at the ground at his feet instead.

The question hit Cloud like a punch in the gut. "I…I…" he was taken completely aback. "Of course I do!" Tifa had always been the one person he could rely on, the one always there for him. He loved her dearly…didn't he? "Tifa? Do you even need to ask me that?" She was still looking down at his shoes, so he tilted her chin up to his eye level. "Tifa?" he asked coaxingly," caressing her jaw. "What's the matter?"

"When you…" Tifa was on the brink of tears, but she fought them back valiantly. "When you look at me, you're not seeing me are you? You're seeing her!" Despite her best efforts, a few tears pinched through her defenses. "It's l-like you're not with me at all.! Is that the only reason we're together? Because I remind you of her?" Damn! Her voice had quivered. She took a deep breath to steady herself.

Cloud's face looked absolutely mortified as, somewhere deep down, he realized that she may have been right. But she couldn't be right! He'd had a crush of Tifa long before he'd ever met Aerith! "Tifa, that's not true! Aerith's…dead. I know. I'm the one that released her body into the lifestream. Believe me. She's not the one on my mind!" Cloud found himself lying. But why?

"What is it then?" Tifa's sorrowful tone seemed replaced by annoyance.

"I've just been thinking about a lot of stuff lately!" Cloud said.

"What? What could possibly be so important? It's been a year since Kadaj attacked the city and it's been almost four years since Seph-"

"DON'T SAY HIS NAME!!!" Cloud barked, his tone sounding a great deal louder and harsher than he'd intended. Tifa looked almost hurt by his outburst and Cloud immediately felt a twinge of guilt stab through him. "I'm sorry" he said softly "I just…I want to forget him…but I can't" Despite his best efforts to forget him, he was always there, haunting the darkest reaches of his soul. Tormenting him. Cloud sat himself down on a conveniently placed rock and hung his head in defeat. He'd won. Sehpiroth had won and he was tormenting him from beyond the grave.

Now it was Tifa's turn to feel guilty. She hadn't meant to stir up bad memories, but in her defense, she really had no way of knowing that he'd taken it so hard. "Cloud?" she said his name gently. "Listen. I want this to work." She knelt beside him and placed her hand over his "You've seen some pretty bad stuff in the past and I can help you heal, but you've go to let me in first!"

Cloud smiled at her "Tifa, you got your own set of keys long ago!

They both shared a chuckle and, soundlessly, they continued.

The forest was beginning to darken when worry began to pull at Tifa's chest. She didn't like the idea of being walking around in a strange forest at night, but the fact that she was with Cloud was a little comforting. But even so, shouldn't they have been there by now? Come to think of it, Tifa barely remembered where they were headed.

"Um, Cloud?" She asked.

"Yes?" his voice didn't seem the least bit worried, as if he knew precisely where he was headed. Then again, maybe he did.

"Where exactly are we headed again?"

"Shiori Manor. Old Nene passed away, so we're headed there to have a little reunion slash weekend getaway and pay our respects."

Tifa didn't know why, but the sound of Cloud's voice lifted the doubt from within her and drove her worries away. She felt comforted, but at the same time, she was filled with new questions. 'Reunion with who and who was this Nene person?' This was the first she'd heard of any of this. Cloud had just told her they were going to a funeral and then a weekend retreat.

"Whoops" Cloud said "guess I forgot to fill you in!" He chuckled slightly, but Tifa's wasn't bemused. "Old Nene was the woman who took us in when we were very young and orphaned. When we had no where to go, she gave us shelter and food, but more importantly, she gave us a family." Cloud trailed off. A family. He couldn't help but think about Tifa's belly getting round…

Tifa's eyes softened a bit at his story. She'd never known that about Cloud, but she wasn't surprised that he'd never told her, him having the emotional capacity of a brick and all…

"So, who's 'we'?" She asked, still not sure of the other people Cloud was referring to.

"Huh?…Oh! Me, Squall and Yuna. She took me in after the SOLDIER labs were destroyed, Squall was orphaned by the war, and Yuna's parents were killed by Sin. She took all of us in and raised us as her own. All things considered, Yuna's the only one who turned out halfway normal." He chuckled.

Now Tifa understood "Why didn't you tell me everyone was going to be there?" Tifa exclaimed. Tifa, Yuna and Rinoa, Squall's girlfriend, had been good friends for some time, and Squall and Cloud had always been like brothers. "The way you described it, I was expecting to spend some dreary weekend at a funeral!" Now that Cloud mentioned it, Tifa did vaguely remember Yuna mentioning something about a Shiori Manor once, but she hadn't thought much of it. That had been almost a year and a half ago. Jesus, had it really been that long since they'd seen each other?

"So, what's this place like?" Tifa asked, full of anticipation.

"Shiori Manor?" Cloud said "It's beautiful. You'll love it Tifa. It's a gorgeous, huge mansion nestled in the mountainside. It overlooks the western shore of Lake Crystalgaze and it's connected to a bunch of trails through the deep parts of the forest that I remember exploring when we were kids. There's a hot spring too I think…"

Tifa stopped. "A hot spring?" She prayed he was right.

"Uh, yeah I think so. Yeah, cause I remember Nene yelling at me and Squall for trying to peep on Yuna taking a bath." Cloud said.

"Oh really??" Tifa asked, her eyebrows raising "You never told me that either! What other lecherous things did you and Squall do to poor Yuna?" She wasn't going to let him off the hook easily on this one.

"Tifa, it…it wasn't like that! We were young and we'd never seen a girl naked before, so…tried to spy on her in the hot spring. It didn't work anyways. Nene caught us. Okay? That was it!"

She stared at him, obviously not happy about the way he'd phrased it. "What do you mean 'that was it'?" She was just about tripping the threshold of shouting. "you spied on her in the bath for god's sake!" She put her hands on her hips as she so often did when she was angry, but to her surprise, Cloud laughed. "And just what the hell is so funny?"

Cloud couldn't help it. Tifa just looked so…cute when she was mad, that he couldn't help but chuckle. "You look like a five year old pouting" he giggled. Cloud had an uncanny ability to tell when she was genuinely upset, and she simply wasn't. Tifa wasn't the type to get upset over ancient history, and he knew that she was just testing him. Normally, he wouldn't have poked fun, but he knew she wasn't serious.

Tifa smiled despite herself. She still wasn't too happy about his childhood escapades at poor Yuna's expense, but it warmed something inside her to see Cloud joke and laugh and act like a normal human being again. If he ever was normal…

Minutes ticked off the clock, but time did not flow. The world stood still, and no matter how much they walked, they never got any closer to their destination. The night was getting darker and more foreboding with every step, fatigue began to drag at Tifa's feet and hunger clawed at the insides of her belly and sleep made her eyelids heavy. She was exhausted. It took all her energy to not fall asleep on the roadside.

"Cloud, how much further?" she asked with a kind of muffled sigh. He didn't answer, he didn't even move. He was frozen dead in his tracks, scanning the trees, as if his senses were on high alert. Like a deer in the head lights. Or a lion on the prowl. Fear gripped her. "Cloud, what-"

"Shh!!" Cloud hissed at her. He made a hand signal to her indicating there was someone or something blocking the road up ahead. Something that wasn't friendly. She nodded, knowing exactly what to do.

She found her hands curling into fists and her body dropping into a fighting stance. Her senses instantaneously sharpened, becoming more alert, heightened. Her body instinctively prepared itself for combat. Maybe Cloud was right, that old training really did never leave you.

Cloud could see a shadow of a silhouette blocking the path up ahead, robed in darkness and still as a tomb. The moonlight glinted ominously off the blade in his hand. The figure spoke in a tone that was alien and yet, somehow familiar…

"This road belongs to me!" the stranger barked, raising the blade and pointing it at where Cloud stood on the road, strait as an arrow. "And the toll for passage…" he said with an evil grin "…is death!!"

I realize that no a lot happened in that chapter and it may have been kind of boring, but I had to introduce characters and yadda, yadda, yadda...Next chapter will be better! And I am officially promising you some lemon and a little action in the next chapter. Read and review! Until we meet again…