Second plot:
Crossover with Final Fantasy X, featuring the ever-awesome Auron and Young!Cloud.
This one's kinda random…
~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~
The day Auron came to Nibelheim was like an omen. The weather had been unseasonably warm (although still pretty cold by anyone else's standards), and a thick fog hid the entire mountain range from view. From the mist stepped probably the strangest man that had ever come to Nibelheim, and with all the weird people that used to hang about Shinra Mansion, that's saying something. He was dressed in red, one arm tucked against its body like it was injured, the other holding a long, wide monstrosity of a sword. The man was not young, for certain, and a gash marred his face.
To a seven-year-old Cloud, he seemed like the most interesting person he had ever, or would ever meet in his life.
The villagers extended him suspicious hospitality as they whispered behind closed doors, A man walks down from Nibel Mountain when no one saw him go up?
Most people were afraid of Auron, but Cloud not-so-subtly stalked him everywhere he went.
It wasn't that Cloud wasn't afraid (he was), but he had long resigned himself to being a virtual outcast in Nibelheim. He was too shy, too short, and too awkward to really make friends with any of the other children, and it's hard to be "friends" with adults, much less adults who have children your age, too. It wasn't that anyone was mean to him, just that no one really sought him out to play because they were a friend.
Despite his shyness, Cloud was determined to try being friends with Auron.
Two weeks after Auron arrived, he finally acknowledged his short follower.
"You may as well come sit," he said.
Cloud jerked back in surprise, but quickly scuttled over to sit next to Auron.
"What're you doing?" Cloud asked.
Auron said nothing.
Cloud bit his lip and sat beside Auron in silence, trying his very best not to fidget.
~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~
Two days later, Auron suddenly turn around, and swung his sword at Cloud's head. Cloud small squeak and threw himself to the ground, squeezing his eyes shut.
He looked up when he heard a low chuckle.
"Well, at least you're quick," said Auron, "You should work on your technique, however. Now you're trapped."
Auron slowly brought his sword down until the blade almost touched Cloud's head.
Cloud rolled to the side, "Well, um, what should I have done?"
"Hmph." Auron put his sword back on his shoulder and walked farther away from the village.
"Um, wait up!" Cloud scrambled up and ran after him.
A while later Auron stopped and picked up a long stick from the ground and examined it. It seemed to meet his approval, for he held onto it and kept walking, Cloud still trailing behind him in confusion.
Not much later, he picked up another long stick and looked at it too. Then he suddenly turned around and threw the stick at Cloud.
Cloud yelped in surprise and only barely managed to catch it.
"Um…"
Auron stared at him for a long moment, "Well, do you want to learn or not?"
Cloud gapped in surprise before smiling brightly.
He wasn't smiling when he came home that night, bruises and muscles aching, but he still felt the happiest he'd ever been.
~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~
5 years later…
Twelve-year-old Cloud struggled to hold his ground. It didn't really help that he couldn't lift the sword off the ground. Every so often he would get the chance to practice with Auron's sword, but it's still way too heavy for him to actually attack with.
But it makes a decent shield, anyway. Cloud hand developed a technique where he would lift the hilt off the ground and hold it with both hands in front of his face, with his elbows straining under the weight. Then, he could rest the tip of the sword on the ground, and use the blade's wide upper portion as a big, flat, metal barrier between him and whatever Auron was trying to hit him with.
Still, he wistfully imagined he could actually lift the stupid thing.
Auron stopped attacking, and gave him a small nod. It was a fairly big sign of approval, and Cloud grinned back.
As they walked together, Cloud realized Auron was heading to the edge of town, toward the road leading up the mountain.
"Auron?" Cloud asked.
"Cloud," Auron said, not looking at him, "I'm leaving. There are other things I have to do, other stories I have to see. I'm sorry… I won't be here to see yours."
"But…"
"I'm sorry."
"I'll um… miss you."
Auron glanced down at Cloud, who was looking at his feet.
"Here," he said, holding out his sword, "I can get another. It's yours."
Cloud looked up, blinking back tears. Auron started walking, and a deep mist rolled in, blanketing everything in white. Cloud watched the red figure until he was absolutely sure he couldn't see any hint of red through the fog.
He held the sword's handle with both hands, and slowly dragged back home, doing his best not to cry.
~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~
The end! But only if no one likes the idea ;).
Story notes/explainations/futher ideas:
- So the idea here is, if Auron can piggy back on Sin to go see Tidus, what's to say he can't pop up in other worlds/alternate universes? Plus, Auron's awesome, so even if it's not plausible well, it's fanfiction. Anything can happen.
- Speaking Final Fantasy X timeline-wise, this would be during the time between Braska's death and Yuna's pilgrimage. So, during the calm, basically. Tidus had met Auron before, but there's what, ten years of calm? I think it's possible Auron could have spent some time watching Tidus, and also spent 5 years hanging out in FFVII-verse with Young!Cloud.
- It would be implied (err, maybe more explicitly then I did…) that Auron had some attachment to Cloud because he looks a little like Tidus, who he's supposed to be looking after.
- So the way I see it, there's two main paths you could take from here:
1) Cloud goes and joins the Shinra army trying to get into SOLDIER like canon, but since he's already got an idol in Auron he's not nearly as enamoured with the SOLDIER Firsts (like Sephiroth, who we know canon-Cloud admired in a big way). He also has some skills, although I tried to convey in the story that I didn't want him to be super strong or anything. You can certainly change that point if that's what you want, but I think Cloud being a promising SOLDIER candidate in a perfectly normal way would be interesting too. Or, since he has that slight build, the Turks could pick him up. Not sure what would happen with Nibelheim, Sephiroth, etc, but I'm sure most people have plenty of ideas about that.
2) The other option is Cloud doesn't care about SOLDIER in the slightest, because in-person Auron is way cooler than still shots of SOLDIERs in the newspaper (okay, so Auron's just way cooler than almost everyone all the time, but anyway). So Cloud hangs out in Nibelheim, training himself until he's a fairly competent with Auron's sword and at 16… guess who comes to Nibelheim. And guess who their guide up the mountain is going to be. What happens from there is up to you.
- It could be interesting to bring in the FFX world, or more characters from it, anyway, but it could potentially get messy and complicated.
