AN: I see that many of you seemed confused if the reviews I read are anything to go by. If you need clarification, then please continue reading.

BTW, Pairings! Who would you like to see the main three with? Each other? Other characters? OCs? Forever alone? Or what? I already have a poll up in my profile about something else unfortunately, so you'll have to review and tell me.

Warning for this chapter: Really long, possibly boring description of the surviving cultures/languages and stuff after the second change in PoV. You can skip it if you want... After the two sentences on religion, there's actual plot going on.

εуλ 1984 - Shinra Mansion, Nibelheim

"Harriel?" A small boy with shoulder length silver hair and cat-like green eyes called softly as he walked into his twin brother's room, looking around at the white walls and obsessively neat space. Then, he froze as cold metal met his throat. He restrained a gasp as he fought to stay still and not instinctively strike back.

The dagger was then removed from where it had rested. "Oh, it's just you, Seph. What have I said about calling me Harry?" Sephiroth looked up into his twin's face at the white bandages that were where bright green eyes should be. Silver locks framed the younger boy's face in a messy way. They were shorter than Sephiroth's own, but only because they were messier.

"You said I should always call you Harry and not Harriel because it's shorter and you like it better," Sephiroth promptly answered.

There was a slight pause before Harry chuckled softly. "I didn't mean for you to answer me literally, Seph. But, yeah, that's what I said," the younger boy smiled at Sephiroth warmly. "Here's another reason, since you seem to be unsatisfied with the two. Giving each other nicknames can show our fondness and love for each other as brothers."

Sephiroth nodded thoughtfully. That made sense, in an odd kind of way. "Alright."

"So..." Harry drawled, walking over to the immaculately neat bed and sitting on it, rumpling the sheets, before gesturing for Sephiroth to join him. Sephiroth quickly obeyed, staring at the bandages that obscured his smaller twin's eyes. "What did ya want to talk about?"

Sephiroth licked his lips in an uncharacteristic gesture of nervousness. "Today, when I was going through my tests in the lab," Sephiroth saw Harry tense, "I-I asked about... Our parents." Harry tensed further.

"What did... Hojo say?" Sephiroth flinched as Harry snarled out the name. Sephiroth understood anger very well, despite not understanding other emotions that well, and was unsure of why Harry was always so angry about Hojo. "What lies did he tell you this time?"

"He... He didn't mention our father, but he said that our mother is Jenova, a woman that died in childbirth..." Sephiroth trailed off sadly, eyes downcast. There was silence for a while before an arm settled around Sephiroth's shoulders.

"He's lying," Harry said with certainty. Sephiroth looked at his smaller twin before nodding, choosing to believe the other. Despite the fact that Sephiroth was technically the older twin, he really looked up to and admired his brother. His brother was just so knowledgable and mature that he couldn't help but believe everything that the other said. It was as if Harry was the older one and Sephiroth was the younger. It was a serious case of hero worship, really.

However, Sephiroth knew that Harry wasn't invincible and that the other was, in fact, weaker than him. At least, Harry was weaker physically.

Abruptly, Harry began coughing and Sephiroth, startled from his thoughts, quickly held onto his twin, worried and awkwardly patting his back. "I'm fine..." Harry croaked before being cut off by coughing again. Sephiroth hovered awkwardly, wanting to help but not knowing how to do so. He had become more and more concerned during the days after Harry's last 'meeting' with Hojo.

There had been some sort of complications with it which had caused Harry to temporarily loose his sight and quick reflexes. He would make a full recovery though, but he had been excused from training.

There was something else plaguing Sephiroth's mind though... Something he wanted desprately to ask Harriel about. "Harry...?"

"Yeah, Seph?"

Sephiroth was silent for a moment longer, finding himself fidgeting a little. Harry waited for him to speak, silent and comforting. "Am... Am I a freak?" He blurted out. He knew that the way he was acting was very unlike him, but he couldn't help it. Harry was the only person Sephiroth really felt anything for. Usually, he just felt indifference for people, but Harry was different in a way Sephiroth couldn't describe. Harry was... Precious to him.

He felt Harry stiffen next to him and he tensed as well, heart beating in fear of the other's judgment. He had heard the scientists and assistants whisper about him, about how unnatural he was. Occasionally, he would garner looks of pity or fear. Mainly though, the people tended to look at him as if he were a thing. He could tell, because their gazes were so different from Harry's. "You aren't a freak. And anyone who thinks you're abnormal is a real freak," his brother reassured him, accepting him.

Sephiroth smiled in relief. Now, he just hoped his brother would recover. Soon.

εуλ 0018 - Shinra Tower, Ruins of Midgar, Flashback

"Midgar? Shinra?" The young, female cub asked, tilting her head up to look at her father.

"Yes," Nanaki replied, smiling down at his daughter. "This is Midgar, the Shinra building. Or, at least, what is left of it."

A second cub looked around, sniffing the air slightly. "Why are we here this time and not at Edge? Usually, you make sure we stay on the other side of Edge, dad. And that's when we come here, if we come here."

"Vincent wanted to show us something he found. Cloud and the others are coming as well," Nanaki explained to his son, looking around for a sign of the dark gunman.

"Really?" The two cubs' faces lit up in delight.

Nanaki gave a small chuckle. "Why is it that you two sulk all the time when meeting up with Vincent but like Cloud so much?"

"Vincent is too... Moody..."

"Melodramatic..."

"Brooding..."

"Silent..."

"Not to mention boring..."

"So very not...

"Entertaining."

Nanaki chuckled again, smiling down at his two cubs. Then he spotted a few figures making their way over to him carefully. "And here they come..."

"Cloud!" The two cubs shouted simultaneously, bounding over to the approaching figures and bowling over the blonde that headed the group.

"Oof! Get off, you two. You're heavy!" Cloud complained, looking at the two small cubs on his chest, his small, rare smile ruining the effect of his annoyed glare.

"I do believe that Cloud needs to breathe," Tifa added.

"Nuh-uh! We aren't getting off!"

"We've finally caught you and we're not letting go!"

"There's enough time to play later," a voice cut through the joyous laughter coming from the group. Nanaki turned and there was Vincent in all his dark glory, looking even more somber than usual.

Cid raised an eyebrow. "What's with the frown, Vincent. You look more moody than usual," he commented, a hint of a joke in his words.

"Yeah, you should really be happier!" Yuffie chirped.

"This isn't the time!" The gunman snapped, startling everyone into silence with his agitation. The break in his calm mood was enough for the light atmosphere to dissolve. The cubs got off from Cloud and the swordsman stood up, his previous smile gone as if it had never been there.

"What happened, Vincent?" Cloud asked, voice serious.

The gunman's semblance of cool came back together almost immediately, although this uncharacteristic shifting betrayed him. "Have... Any of you had trouble with your materia recently?"

Most of the group looked confused or slightly worried at that.

"Well, I can swear that mine were duller when I was polishing them," Yuffie finally spoke up. There was a scoff from Cid.

"I haven't had any trouble recently, unless you count Yuffie stealing my materia and switching them with weaker ones," Cloud said.

"Hey! I have done no such thing!" The ninja protested, pouting, "Why do you people always blame meeee for taking your materia!?"

"Because that's what you always do?" Barrett suggested, being met with sounds of agreement from the other members of the group. Yuffie just pouted further.

"Look," Vincent once again cut into the friendly banter, stretching out his hand, palm facing upwards. The group gathered around to look, seeing several pieces of materia sitting there. Although... They were a bit strange...

Yuffie was, of course, the one to snatch one from the small pile. She frowned, examining the materia. Then, her eyes widened. "It's... Dead."

The other members of the group took a closer look, surprised.

The little crystals were, indeed, 'dead'. They were dull, lifeless, lacking the distinct glow they should have had.

"They are..." Tifa agreed, frowning.

And, Cloud realized, that this moment was probably the beginning of everything.

εуλ 1987 - Near Midgar, Traveling towards Midgar

To be honest, he was surprised. Surprised at the uncanny similarities between the previous muggle world and the current world.

Then again, it would be likely that things would follow the same pattern as before. Not a lot of things were truly lost from the world before. Plus, necessity was the mother of invention and, humans being humans, the people would still need, or want, the same things as before. Let the development of human technology never be underestimated.

A better form of communication? Bam, a cell phone. More entertainment? There you go, a television. Faster transport? Wah la, a car.

Although, what really surprised him was the fact that so many literary works and other arts survived. Shakespeare for one.

Except, he thought to himself as he looked down at the book he was reading, some of Romeo and Juliet appeared to have been lost or seriously misinterpreted.

The ending was happy in his book. Even though the entire prologue had been salvaged.

What optimists... "Do with their death bury their parents' strife"? Yeah, what a comedy, Harry snarked mentally. Then, he paused to wonder if Snape really had that much of an effect on him. He could see Sephiroth's brows furrow in confusion next to him.

From what Harry had gathered from his definitely-way-too-advanced classes, he could sum up that the surviving Asians had banded together despite the tension between the two Koreas, and China and Japan. The Westerners, on the other hand, had spread out, going wherever they felt most comfortable. Unfortunately, while he could see traces of African and African-American culture in the current world, actual people with that kind of heritage and legacy was rare and they had mainly hidden away from the rest of the world. This meant that he didn't know if those people still existed as a race. It was most likely that the few survivors had been assimilated. Harry blamed it on the fact that while people were open minded before The Race Purge, there just wasn't enough interest (due to previous racial prejudice) in the study of their culture for them to be understood. Harry mourned for that loss. After all, humans had originated from that area and their magic was wildly different from the controlled forms in Asia and the West and their culture was just as important as any other. Only Egyptian culture really survived, thanks to its pyramids.

The common language was a language very similar to English, but not exactly like it. Traces of Latin (where the hell did that come from?) and Proto-Germanic (obviously, since English was a Germanic language) had been mixed in. The previously extinct East Germanic language had also made a reappearance, several words coming from that subsection. Not so much the Romance languages (except for Latin, of course), which Harry found odd, considering the influence Rome had on the world. The accent, however, often bordered on Australian, something else Harry found weird. He would have expected the accent to be American since America had so much influence back then.

Variants of other languages were spoken, too, but only in the more isolated parts of the world, including the North, which spoke a mixture of the Romance languages and Russian, but with an American (Canadian?) accent. The first time hearing that had creeped Harry out, because it was just so different from what he was used to. The accent and the words didn't match, at all. Instead of being all flowing, it sounded choppy and that was weird for Harry, though other people weren't bothered with it.

Wutai was, by far, the place that interested Harry the most. Their written language was Chinese, definitely. It was almost exactly the same, if not for a few small changes. Harry was glad that the spoken language was, however, Japanese with some Korean and Cantonese thrown in. Chinese just had way too many dialects for Harry to wish to learn to speak it. The culture was also a mix of Japanese and Chinese and, also, Indian. Much of the food was either Indian or Chinese. Wutai apparently had too much land for seafood to really be a big part of its cuisine. Harry was sad that there wasn't much Korean and other, smaller Asian nations' culture influencing Wutai. It was understandable though, the smaller nations experiencing much the same as the Africans and Korea having more casualties due to being the first to experience nuclear warfare thanks to the tension between the North and South. The reason so much of Japan and China survived so much was Japan's successful neutral status in the beginnings of the Third World War even when it became The Race Purge. They had enough nuclear weaponry to be a serious threat, so other countries were happy with them being neutral. The relations between their magicals and muggles had always been good, too. The only thing he was really confused about were the ninjas.

Much of the various religions of the world survived, though he wasn't too surprised at that. Everyone needed something like God to keep them going back then, after all.

"Harry!" Harry's mind snapped back to the present at the shout. "Look at that!" And there was Sephiroth, looking for all the world like the excited seven year old he should be. Harry smiled and nodded, watching the steadily growing blood of grey that was Midgar approaching from the distance.

He was quite proud of the progress he had made on Sephiroth, making sure that Sephiroth could at least have some of the childhood that Harry himself was denied. Sephiroth was still very much emotionally stinted, but he was able to drop his cold persona around Harry and feel. The scientists had all treated him as a lab rat and Harry was the only one Sephiroth could learn to be human from. Hojo had failed in his mission to turn Sephiroth into an emotionless weapon and that made Harry smug.

But, today... Harry's smugness faded to be replaced by nervousness... Today, they were joining the SOLDIER program as cadets. The Professor had finally deemed them good enough to test out in the real world. There was a good side to this though. This way, they could actually have some semblance of freedom.

There were a lot of things he had to do, a lot of things that Gaia was whispering into his mind, but they could wait for later. Even Gaia seemed to approve of his current actions.

"That's Midgar, Seph. That's our new home."

εуλ 1995 - Nibelheim

It was his ninth birthday.

And he couldn't believe it, but he was happy.

Apart from his mother and Tifa, Cloud thought that nothing else in his home village would really bring him any sense of happiness. The horrors he had endured in the village was enough to make him avoid it before... All this.

It had been more than a surprise when he had woken up seven years ago to find himself still alive. It was more than a surprise when had realized he must have gotten another chance, somehow, to change the past.

Gaia had, somehow, sent him back.

At first, he had been highly confused at both his feelings and memories. They had been a jumbled up mess that didn't make sense. Then, he had been depressed at realizing that he had no power to change anything in his current state. Well, that was until three years ago when he started receiving nightmares.

He also started receiving mako. As in, he just woke up with mako in his bloodstream.

While he was grateful for this boost in power, he still mourned for the loss of his beloved sword, First Tsurugi, and his bike, Fenrir.

For the past three years, he had been planning and training. He knew that the war Shinra was waging with Wutai was raging on and that Sephiroth would soon come into public view. He planned to follow the news closely this time around. If there was one thing good about his mother collecting those weird gossip magazines that spewed Shinra propaganda was the fact that he could follow current events. He was still wondering if he should join SOLDIER or not, but decided that joining SOLDIER would, most likely, help him in the long run, even if it meant that he would be limiting his options for a while. He would have more access to Sephiroth while there.

Meanwhile, he kept a low and unassuming profile in Nibelhiem, making sure to not appear to prodigious, but very capable and independent.

He was, currently, still wondering what to do with Vincent and Jenova though, the two things that he could take care of while in Nibelheim. He knew that without good reason, Vincent would never join him. Especially while Sephiroth was being hidden from public eye. Jenova, on the other hand, he was sure he had sufficient power to take care of her, but he wasn't even sure if she was in Nibelheim's reactor right now.

The reason for his joy, however, was the fact that he had managed to stop Tifa from her attempt at crossing the Nibel mountains. It made his life much easier and, unlike in his last childhood, he wasn't bullied, at all. He wasn't too sure how he had convinced her, but he had done it in a way that she was still willing to be friends with him. Amazing, considering the fact that his sweet talking and negotiating skills were nearer to the bottom of the spectrum.

"Mom, I'm home," Cloud called out after making sure there was no blood or monster gore on him.

"Cloud," his mother greeted as she appeared in the doorway of the kitchen. Their house was rather simple and small, but cozy. The front door opened into the living room/dinning room. There was a door that led to the kitchen and a small toilet. The stairs were on the other side of the room with two small bedrooms, one for him and one for his mother, upstairs. They still had a stove, as they couldn't afford air conditioning.

Cloud gave his mother a small smile, an action that was becoming more and more familiar the more time he spent in this life. Then he realized that she was holding something in her hands, looking down at it once in a while. It was a magazine.

"What're you reading, mom?" Cloud asked curiously, taking off his boots and exchanging them with slippers.

"Oh, this? Something new has come out about SOLDIER's newest elite."

"Really? Let me see." Cloud walked over to his mother and his mother handed him the magazine. At the flash of silver hair, Cloud felt a rush of anticipation and quickly looked over the picture before stopping and just staring.

This could not be happening.

On the page of the perfectly innocent magazine were two epicly posing men with silver hair. One with long, silver hair, holding a ridiculously long sword. The other had short hair that would have looked like a bird's nest if it were not silver in color. In his hands, he held a large, scythe like object, looking for all the world like the angel of death. Two pairs of glowing green eyes stared out from the page Along with the words in big, bold letters:

Shinra's Newest Elite: The Silver Angels, Sephiroth and Harriel

Cloud only had one thought in his mind.

Who the fuck is Harriel?