Author's note: that's it, it's official. I've gone completely crazy! Another chapter so soon! It's been raining endlessly since yesterday so there wasn't much to do BUT write. Whatever, enjoy.

Chapter 3.

When Cloud opened his eyes again he was greeted with a familiar sight of endless white sky, and an equally endless field of colorful flowers. Knowing for a fact that Aerith wouldn't appear he didn't even bother standing up, so he simply sat up and rested his elbows on his knees. A perfect time to think and he needed to do a lot of that.

First off, the child he saw was definitely Sephiroth. The mad scientist laughing that bone chilling donkey laugh could have actually been Hojo! Probably was. There were SOLIDERs, Turks, the mansion was new, and the reactor was clean and practically polished, which meant it was probably relatively new…

There was only one logical conclusion, and no matter how absurd it sounded there was no other explanation.

This was the past.

He had been thrown back in time. When he had slashed the Lifestream's strings with First Tsurugi he must have done something to interfere with the Lifestream's very flow of time. The sword was after all made from the remains of the WEAPONS, and they were made from the Planet itself to be ridiculously powerful. That was probably another factor in his time leap.

Damn, he had no idea how he did it! Cloud really wished he had Reeve here. The man would probably rant an explanation for half an hour in words Cloud could barely comprehend and when he was finished, sigh dejectedly, then explain everything in words Cloud could understand. Over the years with him Cloud had come to understand quite a bit of what he was saying, but the engineer would always surprise him with something he had no idea existed, much less knew how it worked.

When he expressed even a briefest interest Reeve was only too happy to explain, brag or talk about it just because he liked to rant about mechanics. If he and Cid were left in the same room together unsupervised, they would either start talking in a language nobody could understand or transform some kitchen appliance into a robot. Needless to say, they could never be left alone without someone to watch over them.

Cloud was usually the mechasitter. Unless they managed to talk him into a conversation with them, usually by mentioning Fenrir. Which is how they couldn't leave any two of them in a room together in any way or combination. All three of them were fatal. Reno had once walked in the room while they were talking about the finer points of engineering and he ran out, screaming about his brain melting at too much nerdiness.

Cloud sighed. He couldn't believe that even after five centuries the little needle-like pain kept stinging in his chest every time he was reminded of AVALANCE. It also didn't help that he was deathly afraid of needles. Especially hollow ones.

Which brought him back to his previous point. If it was really the past, and Sephiroth was a child here, it meant all this was happening way before he was born! It would explain why he was an incorporeal ghost, but not what he was doing here? Then again, the Planet was pretty upset when he lashed out like that, maybe it was all a coincidence? That seemed like the most likely conclusion. But why this time frame? It was too close to his original life. But that might have also been a factor.

Cloud's head hurt. This was ridiculous! And as far as he knew, it never happened before. He had half the mind to try and get into the Lifestream itself and demand the answers from the Goddess, but that could result in another time loop. Even though anywhere but here would be a nice enough place to be, he didn't want to screw everything up again.

Cloud sighed. There wasn't really any point in dwelling here any longer than he had to. If he was going to get his answers at all, he damn sure wouldn't get them brooding here. Been there, done that. And the longer he stayed here with nothing but memories to occupy his mind, he would start having flashbacks. Mostly of his misadventures with AVALANCHE. There was nothing really wrong about them but it hurt that much more when he snapped out of it and was reminded that they were-

Cloud's head snapped up. If this was the past, then they weren't gone! Much younger than he remembered them and some not even born yet, like him, but they weren't gone! Cloud started to laugh in shock. They weren't gone! He would get to see them again!

Then his hopes were dashed again when he realized he couldn't. First of all, he was invisible. How do you contact a person who couldn't see or hear you? Second, they wouldn't even remember him. How could they? He didn't even exist yet, at least not in the way that counted.

Then there was another problem. Sephiroth could see him. It might have just been the effects of the Mako shower, but he was never the less the only one who could see him. What if he remembered him? Child or not, that was just asking for a disaster. But Sephiroth asked how he knew his name, so he probably didn't remember.

The blonde warrior let out yet another sigh. He was stalling, he knew, but he wasn't sure he could handle seeing his arch enemy again after such a long time, child or not. And he still needed to wrap his head around the fact that he leaped back in time!

Gaia REALLY hates me. But that is a given I guess.

Cloud closed his eyes and focused. For some reason it was harder going back to the real world than going to the rift. But never the less, decades and centuries of practice enabled him to perfect the transition and soon Cloud found himself sitting on the floor of the fixed Mako shower. He wasn't really surprised. Time flowed differently in the Lifestream than it did in the real world. What seemed like hours to Cloud might have been days or minutes in the real world.

And now it seemed it could go backwards too.

Not giving it too much thought Cloud materialized through the glass and started mulling around. The sight of test tubes he was once held in was enough to make him almost audibly shiver. He passed some assistants who were cleaning the equipment and chatting about something. Cloud almost bypassed by them until one word caught his ears.

Hojo.

Suddenly all too interested, he came closer to them. They were talking about Professor Hojo alright, but also about the incident with the Mako shower. His curiosity piqued beyond ignoring now, he came to stand on the other side of the desk with the vials they were cleaning.

"And that's not all! That freak child keeps claiming he saw an angel in there, even though it's been two days since then. Everyone wrote it off as a hallucination because of the Mako, but the kid's insistent. I'm telling you, he has some loose screws in his head." One of the lab assistants, a man, was telling his shorter female companion. She in turn glared at him.

"Don't be so cold hearted! You see every day what that poor boy is going through, it's probably just his way of coping. Besides, a kid having imaginary friends isn't very new. And he has no real friends." He looked at her disappointed. With a sigh he continued putting the vials in their proper place, not even looking at her as he spoke.

"He isn't a child. No human child has that eyes, no child of any kind could do half the things this monster can. He's not even a monster, even monsters can feel pain, he is a machine! Deus ex machina, though he's the machine that made the God."

"And in that idiotic equation of yours, if he's a machine, who is the God?" The female assistant looked ready to throw the vial she was holding in his face.

"ShinRa, of course. You know it's true, Stacey. You've been talking about how these experiments are morally wrong ever since you came here a month ago, and yet you have done nothing to stop it." The man glared at the woman, Stacey as he called her. On her face was written shame and even regret.

"It's because you're afraid of what ShinRa would do. We all are, but the rest of us are smarter than to go and complain about ShinRa's faults where anyone can hear us. The company pays, and that's all most people care about." He finished his angry tirade with a sigh.

"And you're just like them." Stacey angrily ripped the gloves off her hands and stalked off, clearly trying not to cry. The man sighed in irritation and continued to clean the bloodied tweezers with a faint hint of remorse on his face.

"Perhaps I am." After that he worked in silence.

Cloud watched this entire exchange feeling like his heart was being stomped on by an angry Cocobo. Is that what people thought of Sephiroth before he became ShinRa's hero? No wonder he had identity issues when he was older. Jenova had simply seen that one weakness in his heart and exploited it. Sephiroth was told his mother died at his birth, so for all he knew Jenova could have been his actual mother. She clearly wasn't alive when he first found her. In his mind consumed by madness, he thought she really offered the genuine mother's love he so craved as a child.

But a few things stuck out in their conversation. Sephiroth had said he saw an angel. Did he mean him? Cloud was a bit stupefied. As far as he knew, he had never sprouted wings. That was more of Sephiroth's area. Angel of Death, as Cloud remembered one story described him. He was the one who had a giant ebony wing, not Cloud. He almost turned around to check if he indeed had wings, but stopped himself. What a ridiculous notion. The silver haired child probably thought him an angel because he saw him appear out of nowhere and protect him before vanishing before his very eyes. For a kid who didn't know any better, even if that kid was Sephiroth, it made perfect sense.

Further snooping around brought him somewhere what looked like the control room. Monitors displaying what looked like every single room in the mansion covered the wall and an attendant was asleep at the control panel, a cold cup of coffee sitting forgotten next to him was a dead giveaway. Cloud stalked silent as a ghost to the control panel and looked for Sephiroth. And sure enough, one monitor displayed a room which looked more like a hospital ward with a desk and a shelf full of books above it. There was the silver haired boy sitting on the bed and reading what looked like a story book badly hidden by a textbook. The image made Cloud smile. He never pegged Sephiroth as a child who liked fairy tales, let alone like them enough to read them while he was supposed to be studying.

With a few soft taps, Cloud pulled up the information on where the room was. That done, he returned the monitor views back to their previous display and left as silently as he came, the man sleeping on his job completely oblivious to his presence. Cloud really thought the boss ought to have him fired. He had seen people fired from ShinRa for lesser things.

In an effort to navigate the basement better Cloud took the scenic route through the hallways. Walking through walls may be faster but so far he only knew how to dematerialize himself, and he never knew if he would have to be carrying something somewhere.

Like a child out of this wretched place.

Cloud shook his head. It wasn't really his place to change things. Well, change things more than he already had. He was threading thriugh dangerous territory here. Sephiroth already went mad once, he didn't have to do it sooner this time. He would have preferred he didn't go mad at all, but the only solution to that would be killing him, but that was-

Cloud froze in the middle of his walk. Sephiroth was a child here, and he could materialize at will. He could kill him, a single stroke of a blade, strong squeeze of the neck, and he could be out of there before anyone realized he had killed their prized weapon. The future would never have to happen, Zack would never have to die, Aerith would never have to sacrifice herself, Nibelheim would never burn, he would never be made a puppet…

The idea had more merit the more he thought about it. But there was also a coiling feeling in the pit of his stomach. Killing a child in cold blood? He was many things, with very few of them good, but child murderer wasn't one of them. Granted, that child was Sephiroth, but never the less, he was still innocent of the crimes he would commit as a delusional adult aided by a creature that called herself his mother.

Cloud suddenly realized he was just standing there in the middle of an empty hallway like some creeper. True, nobody could see him, but that made it all the creepier. So he continued to his original destination, albeit at much slower pace. He kept mulling the idea in his head as he walked. While it would solve so many problems, he wasn't sure he could bear the burden of having an innocent child's blood on his hands. Psychopath, sociopath, murderer… Those were all the things he would become, and so much worse. He had to be stopped, and what better way than now, when he wouldn't even be able to put up a fight against him?

He came in front of the right door all too soon in Cloud's opinion. Beyond that door lay one of the most difficult decisions he had to make in a very long time. But also one that would probably decide the fate of the planet's future, and if there will be one at all. He took a deep breath and without letting it out passed through the door.

Sure enough, there was Sephiroth sitting on the bed, but he seemed to have taken a pencil from the desk and was writing something down in the story book. No, a paper pressed on the pages of the book. He was drawing then. Looking at him like this reminded Cloud that he would soon become a murderer of an innocent child, no better than the mad General. But still he reached to his back to the handle of First Tsurugi, his death would be painless, he wouldn't even know his head was cut off before it was too late. The blade slid out of the sheath by an inch-

And Sephiroth's head shot up. Cloud froze. Those eyes… What had he been thinking? Those eyes were nothing like the ones that once looked at him with scorn that burned Nibelheim. They were wide, pupils do dilated that they could almost pass off as those of a human. There is no malice in them. No score, no hate, only surprise and… glee?

Indeed, a tiniest of smiles was stretched over pale pinkish lips, so tiny Cloud thought he was seeing things for a moment. Neither of them moved even an inch for almost a minute before Sephiroth opened his mouth, then quickly closed it before looking down on his lap.

"Are you real?" A tiny voice sounded from his mouth. Cloud furrowed his brow, confused. Why would he be asking that? Oh, right. Those lab assistants said Sephiroth was still claiming to have seen an angel, even though everyone else said he was an illusion. After everyone claiming him to be delusional, it wasn't odd that he was starting to have doubts.

"I guess you're not…" Cloud realized he must have been quiet for too long when Sephiroth drew his knees to his chest and buried his face into them. If it wasn't for his enhanced hearing Cloud would have entirely missed the words uttered too softly for anyone else to hear.

"I really am alone."

Cloud couldn't deny that his heart broke at that. His hand slid the sword back into its sheath and with soundless steps approached the child curled at the bed. As he sat on the bed he was a bit surprised that the bed didn't sink under his weight. His focus quickly shifted back to the silver haired boy crying at the head of the bed. Even though he didn't sob, Cloud could smell the tangy scent of salt near him. Cloud refused to admit how much it hurt him.

So he dropped his gloved hand on Sephiroth's head and rubbed the top gently. Two green eyes slightly red at the edges peered at him past the wall of knees. With what he thought was a subtle gesture he tried to wipe the tears away with the sleeve of his white shirt. It made Cloud smile sadly.

"I'm no less real than you are." Cloud said in what he thought was a comforting voice as he wiped the tears away with his thumb. It had been a really long time since he had to comfort a crying child and he was little rusty. He still had to suppress a flinch when a hand so much smaller than his came out to grip his with lightning speed. For a second he thought Sephiroth would try to break all bones in his fingers. Not that he could, because if raging Behemoths knocking him hundreds of yards away into some building hadn't had any luck in breaking his bones, there was no way a little boy could.

But Sephiroth only took his hand in both of his and took off his glove. He spread his fingers before kneading his palm gently. Confused as to what he was doing Cloud just let his hand be examined and prodded by childish hands. After about a minute Sephiroth looked him in the eyes. His face was so full of hope it made Cloud want to squirm for some reason. But he held himself, his reputation would be entirely ruined if he could kill a grown-up Sephiroth three times and yet be unnerved by his miniature version!

"You really are real, aren't you? You're not just a figure from my mind." Sephiroth said quietly. "I knew they were wrong." Cloud had half the mind to ask what he was talking about when Sephiroth's face was split by a huge smile. Well, it was actually pretty small by anyone else's standards, but since it was Sephiroth, it was enormous.

"Are you my guardian angel, like Miss Ifalna said?" Sephiroth's question threw Cloud for another loop. Sephiroth knew Aerith's mother? Then again, the dates did match… Wait a second, guardian angel? His confusion must have shown on his face because Sephiroth was quick to elaborate.

"Miss Ifalna says that every person has a guardian angel that watches over them and comes to help when they need them the most. That must be you, right? Will you stay?" The second those words left Sephiroth's lips, his eyes shining with hope and happiness, Cloud knew he could never go through with his original plan of killing Sephiroth. This wasn't the monster who tried to destroy the planet, this was an innocent boy whose sin was to be born with a destiny he was too hard pressured to fulfill. He was like himself…

"I'm not sure how I fall under that category, but if you want me to, I guess I can stay around for a while longer." Cloud smiled ruefully and ruffled Sephiroth's hair again with his ungloved hand. That same hair would one day make many fan girls swoon, and many young boys come to sell their souls to ShinRa hoping to be like it's famous General, but now, that hair was more of a fluff that just reached his shoulders. It just begged to be ruffled. Besides, if the little muffled giggles were any indication, Sephiroth seemed to like it too.

Suddenly a wide yawn split Sephiroth's face. His eyes went comically wide, like he was wondering what in the world possessed him to do that. Cloud couldn't help but chuckle and that made Sephiroth frown and look away in embarrassment. The ageless warrior just shook his head and glanced at the clock on the desk. It was past midnight. Cloud might have been a bit rusty on child-raising but he was pretty sure Sephiroth was supposed to be in bed three hours ago.

"Come on, it's past your bedtime." He admonished gently and picked Sephiroth up into his arms and on his hip. Sephiroth seemed surprised at being handled like that but he just clung tight to Cloud's neck and remained quiet.

Cloud picked up the textbook and the story book Sephiroth had been reading from the bed. As he picked up the thin hardcover book of fairy tales a paper slipped out of it. Leaving the books on the table Cloud picked up the paper. As hard as he tried, he couldn't suppress a smile when he saw a scribbled stick figure on the paper with spikes for hair, leather cape around the hip and a sword twice its size on its back. And behind the sword stretched two shapes that were spiked at the ends. Wings. Sephiroth, it seemed, really thought he was an angel.

The boy in his arms picked his head off his shoulder to see what the warrior was looking at. When he saw the drawing in the older man's hands he blushed lightly.

"I'm not very good at it…" He muttered. He had never had any desire to draw something and it suddenly just came to him to draw his angel. It was the first time he found his skills lacking in anything and he was embarrassed. But Cloud just smiled and set the drawing on the table.

"It's pretty." Cloud assured him and set the boy on the bed. Sephiroth quickly arranged himself in a comfortable position on his side, looking up at Cloud. Trying hard not to be unnerved by the stare Cloud tucked him in an on an impulse gently ruffled the silver hair again.

"I have to go now." Cloud said quietly, pulling his glove back on. For a moment Sephiroth looked stricken.

"Will you come back?" For a second Sephiroth could feel cold panic in the pit of his stomach. His angel was leaving? He just got here! He couldn't go! Because…

Because if you go I'll be alone again!

There was only one thing Sephiroth feared. A fear that would follow him into adulthood and through years of torment drive him to madness. He was afraid of loneliness. Not the kind one would assume, he was afraid of even thinking that he was the only one like himself. A monster. That there was nobody like him. That he was alone in the world.

"Maybe." The angel answers. It didn't satisfy the young child.

"Why do you have to go?" He was his angel, damnit!

"There is… someone I'm waiting for." He answered vaguely. "I hope to see her again."

Sephiroth tilted his head. The spiky haired angel had sounded kind of weird when he said that. Somehow… what was the word? Ah, longing. But who could he long for? Sephiroth wrecked his brain trying to think of who would be that important before the angel left. But the only one Sephiroth ever missed was the Mother he never met, and knew only from the stories Professor Gast told him. She sounded like a really nice lady. Miss Ifalna had said that she went to the Promised Land, the place of supreme happiness. It must have been the place his angel was talking about.

Wait…

"Are you waiting for your mother?" Sephiroth asked. The angel turned to look at him with an incredulous expression. Was he wrong? But no, the angel laughed.

"I guess you could say that…" He said. Sephiroth wasn't sure, but he thought he heard a hint of bitterness in his voice. He would have to ask Miss Ifalna why that was.

"But I will be back. I don't know when, but I will." The swordsman assured him. He started walking to the door, but before he even reached the doors, he faded away into nothingness, to the world he belonged to.

Sephiroth laid awake for some time pondering everything he had found out today. His angel was real, but not of this world. Nobody else could see him because of that. But why could he? But he couldn't think for long about it as he was lulled to sleep by the warmth of the usually cold bed.

Come to think of it, didn't it become warm only after the angel tucked him in?

He was asleep before he finished that thought.

Cloud found himself once again in the field of flowers. He never thought it would come to that, but he was really getting sick of them. Flowers once meant peace and comfort, and their smell always made him see Aerith's smiling face. They once meant a church with a broken roof, a place he called home once his real home forgot the meaning of the word.

But now, all flowers reminded him of was that he would probably never see Aerith again, and that the church he remembered was little more than a broken wreck, without any flowers growing in it. They left him feeling bitter, and Cloud hated it. He had been feeling bitter for too long before he learned to let go. He still hated it.

This time, he didn't even bother sitting up, so he just set his hands behind his head and relaxed. It was the only time he could be alone with his thoughts, and he needed some time to properly process everything he had learned.

First of all, he realized that death apparently eradicated every brain cell he might have had. What the Hell had he been thinking?! Killing Sephiroth wouldn't prevent the disasters he had to stop, at least not in the long run. Hojo would probably make another Sephiroth, if not simply try to clone him, or worse, create a clone the same way Cloud was created. Killing Sephiroth would certainly delay the inevitable, but it wouldn't prevent it. He had to strike the heart of the problem. He had to kill the one who had been the ultimate puppet master behind Sephiroth's corruption and the world's near destruction.

He had to kill Jenova.

And Hojo… Well, it was more for his own satisfaction, but he doubted anyone would protest.