AN: *bows* Thank you for the favorites/watches! I know that the time traveling thing has been done so many times before, but I'm still grateful that you've decided to read this anyways. And a huge thanks to those who took the time to type a review. Like all writers, good or bad, it's nice to know what people are enjoying and what I need to work on!

Ratings, Disclaimer, and iWarnings! are still the same.

Unstable
(By: Adema)

Chapter 4

His head was throbbing. It felt like a massive bag of cotton was overstuffed into his brain.
His thoughts were scattered, his body was sore, his throat was dry.

But it was quiet and warm and tranquil. Cloud was on a couch that rode unusually low to the ground and incased in a soft dark fabric. As he became more aware he took alarm to the fact that he was half naked while in an unknown home and was covered with only a light blanket. Careful not to move to loudly and alert anyone, he cautiously looked around the room. He didn't want a confrontation until he could remember what had happened.

The room felt… home-like, modern, and silence accentuated the given serenity even more so. Rain pattered on the windows, and from outside came a loud thunderous rumble that caused the house to lightly shake. A groan escaped from his lips at the small twinges of discomfort in his head, and the events coming up to this moment were swiftly recalled.

He never made it into SOLDIER, but mako had still been in his bloodstream. Professor Hojo had secretly abducted him to study different types of experimental mako and the amounts that human bodies could contain. His limits were reached too many times and his mind had gone into shock. For a long time he'd forgotten about who he really was and believed himself only to be a failed experiment. And a number… it seemed so important back then.
Recruitment.Training was fun now with Zack there again; though, the SOLDIER went easy on him from the lack of his own enhancements.
Rain… theStorm; it was chaos outside as the winds blew. Mako was gushing out of the tubes from on top of the Shinra building and carried by the winds as it rained down. It was as if it were a hurricane infused with mako. Materia, Gaia… Time. He'd been reaching for the Time Materia. He didn't know what it would do, but Aerith and Zack had died while trying to keep it out of Sephiroth's hands… and there were still so many unanswered questions.
Water… the pool, he'd almost drowned!

'We're friends, right?' Zack spoke to him on the back end of a truck. They'd been on the road for days while running from something that he couldn't remember.

Panicked, Cloud's eyes widened as his senses kicked in. Where was he? How did he get here? He was going out to the pool to work on his swimming, but he was also reaching for the Materia.

Was this because of the Time Materia? The orb was so small, so powerful... could it really have controlled the flow of time? He'd woken up with two sets of recent memories and the overwhelming certainty of which timeline it was only proved his thoughts. It could, but it was bizarre! When Aerith had told him what it was, Cloud had assumed it was some powerful Haste, Slow, or even Stop… something that Sephiroth wouldn't be immune to.

His mind was rapidly sifting through thoughts, but he allowed himself to relax as common sense told him there was no one else in the room. Otherwise, someone would have come in to check on him when he made noise. Taking a closer look around, he saw that the kitchen, living room, and dining room were all adjoining. The only thing separating the kitchen from the dining area was a table peninsula paired with windowed ceiling cupboards.

There was enough natural light to clearly see as dull rays came in through the window, but there was an oddity; it was storming outside. A bolt of lightning hit particularly close and made the room light up vibrantly, almost blinding, and Cloud jumped when following close behind came a deafening thunder that sent the house trembling.

Amazed, the blond slowly got up from the couch and quietly walked over to the window. The room was at least thirty floors high, so he deemed it safe to assume that it was an apartment complex. He observed the rain as it fell heavily, but there were parts to the north and south that were still sunny and clear. This place… only one area had weather as crazy as this.

"Junon," he whispered aloud while stupefied at the wonder of the Materia, hoping to bring more realism into this surreal situation. He brought a hand to his throat and delicately ran his fingertips over his developing adam's apple. His voice wasn't as deep, yet it was still the same. The warrior looked down at his small frame, stretching the muscles and moving his arms. It felt seemingly unchanged, yet alien, and he wasn't nearly as strong as he remembered… although there was definite improvement compared to a few weeks ago.

This was really weird, and he still didn't recall how he'd gotten here, in this house. It clearly wasn't where Zack stayed, or anyone else he knew, for that matter. More memories clashed and blended together as he walked away from the window, and he grabbed a hold of something solid when wave of dizziness washed over him. He never would have imagined to be pulled back and have two consciences slammed together like this. The Materia was definitely something else. It was amazing.

When his head cleared enough to actually see what was in front of his face, Cloud noted that he'd grabbed hold of a shelf filled with movies, tapes, and pictures. One of the pictures that caught his interest contained two men who appeared in their late twenties, but what he noticed first was that one of them was carrying Zack's sword. That brought up questions.

So absorbed in the picture, he didn't hear the door when it opened or closed behind him. Even if he had kept his mako-enhanced hearing, the soft footsteps still would have been unnoticeable.

*~0~*

The General cursed the press as he headed back to his apartment. Though reporters weren't allowed on the grounds, it didn't stop them from slipping in and hiding until they got a bite. He'd barely gotten the blond out of the water when Angeal and Zack burst through the door, apparently they were training nearby and saw him run in, and Sephiroth told Angeal to put the other in his room while he went outside to take care of the vultures.

For three hours he had to make repeated statements of 'no comment' when questioned about his brave action and, god forbid, relationship toward the recruit. He wanted to know what they'd seen, what did they catch on camera? The media finally gave up trying to interrogate him and attempted to follow the Lieutenant to try and question the soldier when he woke up. Fortunately, Zack and he were capable of blocking their way without using, as Shinra liked to put it, excessive force and the reporters were escorted off of the premises when reinforcements arrived.

Sephiroth gave another curse as he trudged up the stairs, and it seemed as if each step he took was heavier than the last. He chose to walk because he needed to help work off some steam that had been building up, and muddled thoughts were cluttering his mind as to just who was in his apartment was finally setting in.

No matter how many times Sephiroth had told himself that Cloud didn't matter, that Zack could become his new sparring partner, he was aware of a small part inside of him that was still waiting for the old battles to come back. It wasn't because of the way Cloud fought, or how strong the other was, but because the blond-haired warrior didn't care that he was the General. Real battles were based on fighting with the intent to kill, and Cloud had tried.

Only…

This Cloud wasn't the same one he wanted him to be. This version was different in every sense of the word; weaker, unable to hold his own, limited. Sephiroth had finally realized this when he'd pulled the blonds' limp form from out of the water.

He didn't have his battle for mother, he was still the General that nobody wanted to harm, and the furious swordsman that had fought him with unreserved strength was probably lost forever. In his place was a soldier with some strangely misplaced infatuation, if what happened when he woke up was anything to go by. He felt bored, useless, lost, and now the unguarded young man was resting on his couch.

Sephiroth made it to his floor, slowly crossing the hallway until he paused in front of his door. He licked his lips, trying to forget the way Cloud's teeth had scrapped over them, and thought. 'I should apologize. Somehow. Why did he kiss me? The old him would never consider it."

He quietly walked into his home, stepping lightly as to not wake the blond. He shut the door and took off his shoes. Turning, the General saw that the other was already awake and standing by the bookshelf. The blond's hair was even more of a mess from sleep.

'It's not him.' Sephiroth took a few steps closer and gave off a presence that only he could achieve. 'It'll never be him.'

"Soldier," he said, but the word felt forced. The young man jumped and gave a startled gasp. This, of course, was accompanied by the sound of broken glass as the picture he had fell to the floor. It didn't faze the General; he should have expected a reaction like that anyways, having gotten it enough times from raving fans. "I trust you are well enough to head back to your barracks?"

The soldier's vivid blue eyes continued to openly stare and he seemed to stop breathing.

"Sephiroth." The words eventually came out.

The General's pupils dilated as the name slipped from the other's lips and a look that could never come from idol worship was painted on the blonds' face; dread.

And a strange feeling of hope flared as he gladly answered. "Cloud."

Sephiroth gave a feral grin as all thoughts from earlier swiftly fled from his mind. Instead a diabolical plan took its place as he realized who was in front of him. That look. That tone. That fear. It could only come from his rival.

The two warriors stared each other down, eyeing one another with careful apprehension. Sephiroth smirked as Cloud's gaze shifted to the door; even through all of the battle experience and training, the other was still so easy to read. Right now he was uncertain. He didn't know that Sephiroth too had been brought back. He had no idea.

Sephiroth knew that Cloud was panicking, trying to keep a level head while staring in the face of what should be an opponent, and he only watched while the other cautiously stepped around the couch to get to the door.

*~0~*

Cloud ran down the end of the hallway. He glanced back to make sure he wasn't being followed while the panels to the elevator glided opened, and once inside he rapidly pressed on the number to get to the first floor.

'Sephiroth. It was Sephiroth. Oh, Gaia, it was Sephiroth!' His mind repeated over and over.

His hands and knees were trembling and he felt nervous. The home he'd been in, it was Sephiroth's. It was like a deathtrap, and he didn't particularly enjoy running into those. 'Sephiroth, Sephiroth, Sephiroth. He doesn't know, can't know, wouldn't know'. Cloud placed his forehead on the cool metal wall and tried to calm his breathing.

His mind flashed back to the way his name was sadistically rolled off the other's tongue. 'No, I must have heard it wrong. I was the one who was brought back, not him. If it were him then he'd have already killed me.'

His heart felt like it was going to burst from inside his chest.

Cloud mentally smacked himself for not paying more attention back in the room. How could he have let his guard down so carelessly while in unknown territory? That voice, when he heard that voice all his muscles had tensed, and the only thing that had worked properly was his fight or flight response. His body was weak and unenhanced, and he wouldn't have stood a chance if the other chose to kill him right then and there. But…

But Sephiroth didn't kill him. The other had stood far away from the door to make the escape route easier. If Sephiroth meant to kill him then it wouldn't have been so obvious that the space was meant to make use of.

The elevator gave a ding as its doors opened to allow him off, and a chill crawled up his spine as his body began to cool from being in the warm room. It was chilly inside the building, and he only had a pair of partially dried swim trunks as protection. It only reminded him as to how this situation came to be in the first place.

He wanted to moan in frustration at how unlucky he was. Why couldn't the Materia have spontaneously sent him to Aerith's place?

It finally dawned on him; Aerith was still alive! And Zack! Hell, of course Zack was still alive, his friend was practically mentoring him! Cloud frowned at that. When the first battle with Sephiroth ended, he'd spent almost a year in solitary trying to remember things about the past. Though back then there were a lot of holes, everything now seemed filled up to the parts that hadn't happened yet. Zack and he were friends, good friends, but…

'I don't remember him working with me before.' His eyebrows furrowed as he wondered if something could have changed. Why was Zack teaching him now? He cut off the thought at the bud, assuming it was just memories he never recalled from before. It must be how they had become so close. Why else would Zack risk his life for him?

He gave blissful sigh when he caught sight the front desk, and that meant the way out. Thanking Gaia for small favors, Cloud quickly found the doors and headed out into the open with the full intent to go to his bunker and change into something warm. After that, he had plans to make.

*~0~*

Sephiroth was, yet again, looking down from his window to the vacant streets below. It had taken a while, but the blond had finally made it out of the building and was assumingly heading back to the soldier barracks. He contemplated on almost telling the other that there was nothing to fear from him, that Jenova wasn't in control.

But the urge to get him back was strong. Get him back for everything. The dirty fighting, the annoying friends, that kiss... It was amusing, just an hour ago Sephiroth was about to swallow his pride and give the other another chance, but now that Cloud was back he wanted the other warrior crushed… and crush him he would.

He quickly put a stop to the dark throaty chuckle he was giving the moment he realized he was doing it. Grabbing a dumbapple from the kitchen, he took a bite. Now all he had to do was plan on all the ways he could make Cloud's life miserable.

Heavy footsteps were heard running through the halls and then was accompanied by the sound of a knob slamming against the wall as his door flew open.

"Where's Cloud?!"

Sephiroth sighed as Angeal's puppy barged in.

"Is he gone? Where'd he go?" Zack looked back and forth across the room.

"He just made it outside, most likely going to his room," Sephiroth responded. A polite knock on the doorframe alerted Angeal's presence.

Zack let out a dejected groan, "Aw… we just missed him? I didn't see him comin' up though!"

"He might have gone a different way," Angeal said. "Most get lost in this building if they're unused to it." Zack turned to run out the door and catch up to his blond friend, but before he could make it Angeal stopped him. "You can see how he is later; you need to get some rest. Your tests will be starting soon."

"UH? But what about Cloud?!" Zack exclaimed and it was Angeal's turn to sigh.

"I'll talk with you tomorrow," Angeal bid goodbye to Sephiroth and walked his charge out the door.

The General watched as Angeal and Zack left out the same door Cloud did only minutes before. He unconsciously liked his lips as he recalled... he willed himself to forget about the way Cloud kissed him.

*~0~*

The room was quiet except for the occasional shuffle of paper. Hojo was at his desk, the single light was a small lamp that lit up the area while darkness enshrouded the rest. He didn't mind, he was far too absorbed in the data he'd memorized a million times over. The man who'd written this so many years ago had been brilliant, but not brilliant enough to escape from his fate the moment he chose to run from Shinra.

Hojo had been second only to that man, who was the sole reason as to why he had to follow someone else's work and not freely experiment the way he wanted to. He's been forced to study under the 'lead scientist' from the first day the new science division had developed. The Professor scowled at the memory. He hated being thought of as second. He was second to no one! Not even Prof. Hollander would take his title away from him!

The notes he held were old. The beginning of the research had been written with eagerness over the new finding, informative as the results mapped out to a conclusion, and then had abruptly ended. That's where Hojo's own notes began, but something was off. There was something that had been in the original project before that hadn't been written out, and therein laid a secret. Hojo knew about the alien, he'd known the same moment the late Prof. Gast found out, and at the time both were thrilled over the new discovery. However, Gast's excitement faded over time… grew to be wary, and then suddenly he disappeared.

Hojo was sure that the man had sensed his growing resentment. It didn't matter when Gast had run because Hojo had been given permission to use the Turks and search for him. They had found Gast with a woman in some remote location near an isolated town, and after Hojo had gotten rid of them he had confiscated all the research that the other had continued with. Though with the information right in front of him, Hojo still couldn't find the answer he was looking for.

In other files there were samples of Prof. Gast's blood work. Though why the man seemed almost paranoid of his own blood samples was a mystery. They were the same as the results from the physical examination at Shinra. Hojo hated to admit it, but the man that had been considered to be one of the most brilliant minds in the world. His research and notes didn't make sense!

What was Gast studying that had made him try to destroy the Jenova project? Did he try to destroy it because he realized that Hojo was planning his 'accidental' death and didn't want his student to take full credit for their work? Hojo was certain that at the time neither one of them knew what the alien had done to the Ancients, nor could a happy-go-lucky man like that have ever sensed bloodlust.

"Something, something, something," the Professor mumbled to himself as he flipped one of the pages back to reread it. He still got nothing! Somewhere in the files laid a tape, a worthless piece of garbage that should have been thrown in the disposal. He already knew what it contained.

"Visual tapes 1-47 had been destroyed along with documentaries and data that I had collected," Gast had spoken into the camera. His voice was smooth and didn't carry any of the panicked tone a hunted man should have. "The original Project J will end, though I only hope I destroyed enough to make it cease to continue. Another project has also ended, all data destroyed."

A woman was moving in the background, clearly pregnant. She looked up when she saw her husband working and humbly moved back out from the room as to not disturb him.

"I was saved."

The video and all else that could have been Jenova related was ended there.

Hojo angrily tossed the tape behind him. He should have thrown it out after first watching it, its presence only served to cause him more irritation. Beside his elbow lay two other files just recently acquired. The soon to be late Professor Hollander had given him all the research he needed. The projects would soon follow under his name just as the late Professor Gast's had done, but only this time Hojo could rely on natural causes. Professor Hollander was suffering a strange illness, had been for a long time.

There wasn't even a need to wait for the man's death to get started! Hollander was a gullible man. The other would begin the process and get the containers ready for the new experiments so Hojo wouldn't have to waste precious time.

The Professor chuckled in his usual high tone. Soon he wouldn't have to compete with anyone, and he'd get two new specimens to continue his project. He would find out what Prof. Gast had known, and he would take the name of the world's top scientist for himself; a name that should have been given to him from the beginning!

To be continued…

AN: Also, anyone notice that in FF7 Cloud only crosses rivers/streams that are one foot deep? If you want to cross something larger/deeper you have to use a vehicle. So, my conclusion is that he can't swim! *cackles*
I wanted a little Zack time in there, but I need him gone cause tests are starting for SOLDIER….

Have any questions? I might have matching answers!

Please review! (Criticism accepted as long as it's constructive…)