*Notes: Read FFVII: Another Story before you read this. And keep one thing in mind, writers are born liars, so don't expect this story to follow exactly what happens in the prequel.

Chapter 01

"Come Aeris," the little boy with blond hair giggled as he held the little girl's hand and ran, "I just saw some cute puppies."
"No, Cloud," the girl said but did not resist, "you're always up to something."
"Well suit yourself," the boy said, "but do come and watch."

The two of them ran toward the plain, laughed and chattered along the way, as if the whole world didn't matter to them anymore. They were together and that was all that mattered.

"Cloud…"

The boy stopped suddenly as a voice came out of nowhere.

"Who's there?" Cloud asked as he looked around but he could not see tracks of anyone else except his and Aeris'.

"Is everything all right, Cloud?" Aeris said with a concerned voice, "You look a little pale."

"Yeah, everything's all right," he shook his head wildly as if trying to rid himself of whatever it was, "I must've been hearing things."

"Ok," Aeris didn't appear to be convinced.

"Cloud…" there it was again, this time Cloud was sure he wasn't just hearing things.

"Did you hear that?" he turned to Aeris.

"Hear what Cloud? You're scaring me."

"Never mind," he sighed and said, "You know what, go back to the house and tell mother that I'll be back soon."

"But…" Aeris did not intend to let her childhood friend go off by himself, not when she'd been having a bad feeling, that if she could not hold on to Cloud for now, she never would.

"Please Aeris," Cloud turned to her and smiled, "I'll be okay."

As soon as Aeris disappeared from his sight, Cloud unsheathed his training sword, the one that his big brother recently gave him as a birthday present, and took a defensive stance.

"WHO ARE YOU?" he shouted but the only response was the echo.

"Cloud…"

"ARGH! SHOW YOURSELF!" Cloud began to swing his sword furiously around himself hoping to catch something. He could feel his anger rising, not a good trait for a swordsman according to his master and brother and almost everybody else. Knowing that it wouldn't do him any good, Cloud stopped his movements, closed his eyes, and calmed his breathing. That was when he remembered a technique that was used to prevent ambushes.

Cloud cleared his mind of everything, and filled it with nothingness. He imagined himself being one with the surroundings, trying to find the faintest smell or sound that belonged to the stranger. But again, he found nothing. Cloud knew that instant that no one was there but him.

"Cloud, come to me…"

A strange but familiar feeling came over Cloud. Somehow, he was not afraid anymore. It felt as if he knew the essence but could not tell who it was.

"Who are you? And what do you want from me?"

"Come back Cloud."

"What? Come back to where? Don't know what you're talking about!" though mature before his age, Cloud still could not make sense of what this voice inside his head (he assumed) was talking about.

"Take my hand…"

"Whaa…?" as astonished as he was, Cloud knew that the vision appearing right in front of him wasn't just an illusion, it was real. The young lady who now stood before his eyes though ghostly was of flesh and blood.

She reached out to him, in more than one ways, in both of body and mind. Cloud slowly walked toward her. He could almost feel an invisible force pulling them together. He raised his arm and touched hers. Cloud immediately sensed a connection between the two of them. It was he who unexpectedly hugged her. Cloud closed his eyes and breathed in the familiar soothing fragrance. He ignored the sudden burst of energy all around him, and the air rushing by his side. Deep inside, his heart knew that this is where he wanted to be. By her side was where he belonged.

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Aeris did not go home as she had promised Cloud. Her instincts had been too accurate to not be trusted. So she had gone back after Cloud and hid behind the bushes. She had watched his one sided conversation with not excitement but fear and confusion.

And when Cloud disappeared like he was never there, Aeris was terrified. She rushed out to where he had stood but no traces were left. She called for him, over and over till her voice broke but he did not reply as he had always done. Aeris collapsed onto the ground and sobbed.

"Where are you Cloud," she didn't bother to wipe away the tears, "Come back...to me."

Aeris gasped as she saw the ground beneath her…through her hands. Her hands were becoming transparent. Aeris scrambled back on her feet and was shocked to see that her whole body was having the same experience. Despite her effort at staying calm, Aeris panicked and turned around to run back home when she bumped into someone, at least that was what she'd thought it was…

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"Aeris…"

"CLOUD! YOU'RE FINALLY AWAKE!!" A loud voice boomed across the room even before Cloud could see a masculine man with a wood-colored skin rushed to his side, "GOOD TO HAVE YOU BACK BUDDY!"

"Please be quiet…" Cloud spoke weakly as he tried to sit up.

"…Barrett…" he added as an afterthought though he had no idea where that came from.

The man, Barrett, pulled out a chair and sat next to Cloud's bed, "Well, it's about time! You know how long you've been missing? One year! And just showing up on my doorstep all of a sudden with a fever, for heaven's sake! You know what Tifa thought of that? OUTRAGEOUS she said! But well, you know how agitated she can…"

"Do you know where Aeris is?" Cloud interrupted the man urgently, "and please tell me where I am."

Barrett face paled at the sound of Aeris, he lowered his head and looked down at the floor.

"Aeris is dead, Cloud. It was tragic but she'd died for our sa--"

"NO!" Cloud shouted furiously, "She can NOT be dead! NEVER!

"She can not be…can not…"

Barrett put his arm on Cloud's shoulder in sympathy, "Geez, I don't know how to say this but, in a way, she's still here with us Cloud."

"GET AWAY FROM ME!" Cloud shook Barrett's hand off and backed against the wall, "Tell me what the HELL is happening to me!

"Aeris…we were supposed to be together always…

"Why did it HAVE to happen?! And who the hell ARE you?! I don't even know who you are and yet I know your freaking name! TELL ME!"

Shocked beyond words, Barrett could do nothing. But then he saw the tears rolling on his friend's face, the friend who'd been closer to death more often than he could ever imagined, the same friend who did not show his moment of weakness when Aeris died. Barrett knew something was wrong here.

"Cloud, listen to me.

"LISTEN!" Barrett grabbed Cloud by his shoulders and held him still, "I have no idea what's happening with you, but I know that whatever happened, it was NOT your fault. So don't blame yourself pal.

"I also have no idea where you've been and what you've done for the whole year, and I'm not gonna ask unless you want to tell me. But just know one thing; I'm glad, we're ALL glad that you're back. Just in time to save the world again."

"But…" Cloud had calmed down and was now studying the man's face, "I am not who you think I am. I'm not your friend."

"Then tell me, who are you?"

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"So you're telling me that you're Cloud who has a brother and a childhood friend Aeris? And you met this mysterious lady who somehow teleported you here?"

"Yes," Cloud nodded.

Barrett rolled his eyes at the thought, "You sure you didn't hit your head somewhere, say… a big hard rock? Cause I just cannot believe this."

"CLOUD!"

Before he could react, Cloud found himself in the arms of a young woman with short brown hair.

"I'm sorry I wasn't here when you woke up!" She laughed out loud as Barrett's face was steaming up, "I had to drop Marlene off at her friends' house."

"What's the matter? It's me! Tifa!" She noticed to confused look in Cloud's eyes, "Is it my new hair? Marlene said I look cuter this way."

Still seeing the weird expression on his face, Tifa turned to Barrett, "What's wrong?"

"Well," he sighed, "It's a long unbelievable story."

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"ARGH! Everything that we've been through, and now THIS!" Tifa punched at the wall angrily.

"I'm sorry," Cloud said sheepishly.

"Our invincible warrior Cloud who had no trouble beating up anyone has fallen to amnesia? This is NOT possible!"

"It's not amnesia," Cloud snapped back, "I'm telling the truth."

"Ok, amnesia AND hallucination!"

Tifa took out a mirror and held it in front of Cloud, "Tell me, if you say you're 12, then why the hell do you look like this!! Like a freaking 30-year-old!"

"I-I don't know," Cloud touched 'his' face, "this is not what I look like. But somehow I know it's me…an older me."

"Perhaps I could explain this," said the lady who just stepped into the room.

"Aeris…" Barrett and Tifa both stood up at the same moment, "you're…you're dead… impossible."

"YOU!" Cloud got on his feet and rushed towards the woman named Aeris, "Take me back! I don't belong here."

"This is no time to be whining Cloud," she held him off with her deep gaze, "let me explain everything."

"But you ARE dead! You died!" Tifa finally regained her composure and was now very confused and afraid, "We…we saw Cloud with your…corpse…"

"Yes, and I am dead," Aeris answered smoothly, "I'm dead even as I'm talking to you. My soul is dead but a strange force is keeping me on this plane.

"To explain this, I'll have to start from the beginning. Please don't interrupt me as I don't know how long I have. And keep one thing in mind; future and past are just relative terms. Time is not a straight line as we've all thought. It's a continuous stream of movement. Everything that happens in the past shall have an effect on the future and vice versa, thus we call it the Wheel of Time.

"You see, Cloud and I were originally from Spira, a different dimension to yours. We were the chosen ones, sent to save Gaia from total destruction. We had successfully eliminated all threats and my soul was 'sent' back to Spira and reborn.

"Cloud…he died trying to find me last year and was also reincarnated," Aeris smiled at Cloud, "We were supposed to be together until the time when we're need comes. The time we knew as the Sephiroh Era."
"Uh, is it just me or did everything went BLEH there?" Barrett rolled his eyes.

"No, this is where the Wheel of Time applies." Aeris continued to explain, "There's a time loop working here. Cloud and I are supposed to grow up then be sent to fight Sephiroh of your time, and then we will die and be reborn in the 'past' as you would call it. And it just keeps on going, it never ends. You can say that we exist in multiple instances of time."

"So what you're trying to say is that---"

"We, Cloud and I, don't belong here. We're the people of your 'past'."

"Then what exactly happened?"

"We were taken to the wrong period of time. It has never happened before so I assume some evil force is at work here. Since we're here and not in the past, that means nobody was there to defeat Sephiroth."

"That's not true!" Barrett finally spoke, "Everybody was there, me, Tifa, Yuffie, good ol' Vincent, Cid AND Cloud! We did do the final battle and defeated Sephiroth. Then Materias had their own battle too."

Now Aeris was shocked, "How could that have happened?! I—"

Barrett quickly placed his chair under Aeris to stop her from collapsing, "Well, I still don't know what you're talking about but we have a big problem here ourselves.

"One of our plants was bombed a few days ago. And THIS is a shot taken at the scene," Barrett scrambled through his pocket, took out a piece of paper and gave it to Aeris.

"…The black meteor!" Aeris gasped, "Sephiroth? But like you said, he's dead."

"Well beats me," Barrett replied, "You ok Cloud? You look kinda white."
"I'm…fine," Cloud said nervously trying not to sound suspicious, "I just need some rest."

"Well, ok, go ahead. Me and Aeris will have a nice long talk while you're at it."

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That night, Cloud could not sleep for he knew something nobody else did.

"The Black Meteor…

"Big brother's signature…"