"Mom!?"

Cloud yelled as he ran inside the house coming to a halt as a man with silver hair, whom Cloud had never seen before ,stood arms crossed in front on him smirking down.

"Get out!" Cloud growled to the intruder.

The man raised a brow the way you would when you are being amused by a child who has said something particularly adult without knowing it meaning.

"What do we have here?" He asked.

Cloud took his eyes from the man to scan the room they stopped on a fallen form on the floor behind the man, he felt his heart skip a beat,

"…M-Mom?" he asked.

The man smirked and then asked, "You're a Strife?"
Cloud's eyes snapped from his mother to glare up,

"Yes! What of it!" He yelled.

The man, still smirking, then asked "When did he marry?"

Cloud was confused, "Who?"

"Your father of course!" the man snapped as if he had made question perfectly clear and Cloud was just being annoyingly ignorant.
Cloud winced, "I never met my dad… he was killed by his master longago!" Cloud snapped at the stranger.
The man thought about this for a moment,

"So the woman hadn't been lying…" the silver haired man muttered to himself.
"My mom never lies!" Cloud said.

"That's the reason my dad liked her so much…"

Cloud mumbled to himself almost forgetting the man was there.
"How would you know?" The man asked.
He said so himself, in the letters he wrote to my mom. She keeps them on the desk and I read them sometimes" Cloud said not sure himself why he was answering this man. The man walked over the desk and picked them up sliding them into his overcoat. He walked back over to Cloud and then glanced down at his mother and then to Cloud.

"You will come with me." He said.
"Like hell I will!" Cloud yelled.
"Stupid boy, your mother is dead!" The man yelled no emotion almost as if the woman was nothing more than a dog being put down.

"You will come with me and become my servant." He spoke again
Cloud took a step towards the door shaking his head, ", NO! No, no NO!" he spoke in-between pure anger and tears and uneven breathing "You killed—I hate you!" Tears streamed down his face "How
could you?!"
The man sighed, he didn't have time for this, taking a step forward to retrieve the blond he was surprised when the boy turned and ran away
"Shit!" The man swore, "the little bastard's pretty quick."
The man ran out of the house and jumped on his horse, galloping at full speed after his fugitive blond.
Cloud ran and ran afraid to look back; he had to get away from the man…the murder behind him.
Up ahead on the road another blond with cigarette sticking out of his mouth sat astride a black horse. The man, who was having an almost as shitty days as Cloud was, looked up and spotted a kid, running as if he were being chased by the hounds of hell, coming up upon him spooking his horse .This only served to worsen his mood. Blue frightened eyes shot up to meet the man's angry one's and the boy
suddenly fell. The older blond looked down on the kid while a voice he knew to be his Lord and master yelled to him.
"Don't hurt the boy!" The blond man looked too the side and saw his young master riding towards
him. He hopped down from his mount and bent down next to the boy.

God today sucked he figured if his lord thought enough of this kid to not let him get beaten by himself then it would be in his own best interest to see if the kid was okay.

"Hey kid, you alright?" he asked.

The boy's dirty face was streaked with sweat and tears, but even so, he still well, attractive for a brat.
" Cid, grab him before he runs again!" The silver haired man ordered.
" Don't Worry, he isn't going anywhere, my lord." Cid said.
Cloud hid his face in his hands and cried as Cid stood and looked curiously at his master,

"So who's the kid?" He asked.
" He is Richard Strife's son." He answered.
Cid's eyes widened and he looked down at the blond boy, "Does he know?"
"No, he believes me to be responsible."
Cid drew in a shaky breath and asked; "You are going to tell him right?"
"No. He's going to work for me."
"What? You mean You're going to make him a slave!" Cid yelled.
His master glared at him, "You have a problem with that Slave?"
Cid gulped, "No my Lord…"
"Very well then; pick him up and hand him up here to me."
"Yes but Seph…" Cid begins.
"Enough" the man snapped, "Just do as I say and hand him here."

Cloud heard what they said and didn't even try put up a struggle as the older blonde handed him to the young master, all he wanted now was to die. His eyes were empty and all he could feel was hate. Hate for this vile monster who had killed his mother. His master said nothing more as he sped away upon his horse towards the castle.

Cid stood frozen in place, finally allowing what his master had told him sink in. The boy was Strife's son and now his master Sephiroth was going to use him as a slave! He couldn't believe it. Strife had always been there for them; he had given his very life protecting his master's father and for this he and his family were given their freedom, yet here was Sephiroth, the one who had given them there freedom, taking the only surviving member of the Strife family and making him a slave! Cid was more than a little confused to say the least.

He sighed. He knew that Seph hadn't killed the woman, but someone else did. They didn't yet know who, or why but Cid swore that he would find out and when he did he would kill this person in the most painful of ways that he could. Whoever killed the wife of the only true friend he had ever known was going to pay and he would do all in his power to make certain no harm befell his fallen friend's only son…even if it cost him his own life.

"God this was really a shitty day"