Me: Hey guys! OK, this version of this fix is a little out of date. I'll be able to get it back up to date soon but, if ya'll can't wait check in out on AO3. Everything falls under the same category so feel free to check it out there. :) Anyway, thank you all to my loyal readers and reviewers. Sorry to make you all wait so long to get the new chapters!

Responses to reviews.

Shade the Hero: Thank you for the review. I love them too. :D He sure is and it's only going to get worse from here. I hope this meets your expectations.

Wynter Sprite: Thanks. :) I was going for something a little different, so no total angst Cloud. Then again this is rather different anyway because we have older Cloud if the younger's life. Either way, I'm glad you like this.

XXTakaraXX: They most definitely will show up, one sooner than the other. :) I'm not gonna tell *evil smile* All I'm gonna say is that it's gonna be interesting. :)


Even as Sephiroth went to seek out the Wutian Turk down in the labs Professor Hojo was making some interesting discoveries himself. After a rather concerned medical doctor came in with a vial of a patient's blood that had a high mako content Hojo had been hard at work to discover how it was the man wasn't in a coma from mako poisoning. As it turned out the man in question seemed to have a remarkably high mako tolerance and had been able to absorb all the extra mako, preventing him from succumbing to the sickness.

He was about to discard the sample when something interesting caught his attention. It was something that should not be present in a man who had no connection to Shinra. Dark eyes narrowed as he focused the microscope on the anomaly. They widened almost immediately as he realized that what he was looking at was dormant and not active like it should have been. Scowling Hojo pulled up one of his studies of Jenova Cells and found that nothing, at least in any of the tests he'd conducted thus far, should have been able to force the Cells into a state of dormancy. There was nothing stronger than Jenova Cells. She was practically a god! Nothing stood higher than the gods!

Going back to the blood sample he confirmed that the anomaly was indeed dormant Jenova Cells. As strange as that was Hojo found himself highly eager to get his hands on the person the sample had come from. Already his mind was formulating the perfect way to get the man down to the labs. He was going to have to be very careful with his execution of the plan though. Because of the high mako content, which rivaled Sephiroth's by the way, he would have to use as much if not more of his special tranquilizer just to get the man complacent enough to either be dragged to the lab or to come down on his own.

Laughing softly the scientist whispered, still looking at the computer screen, "Yes, you will be an excellent specimen, once I get you down here that is…"

-Meanwhile-

"Tada! Home sweet home!" Zack cried as he threw open the door to his apartment.

Cloud looked past the black haired 2nd and into the practical black hole he called home. Glancing back at the other he gave the man a raised eyebrow. Zack just smiled sheepishly as he scratched the back of his head. Cloud rolled his eyes, a small smile tugging at his lips. The bouncy 2nd flounced into the apartment, trying in vain to clean up a bit as he went. Unfortunately he was just making messes elsewhere by trying to clean.

"Zack, it's fine," Cloud said stepping into the apartment. "But, if I'm going to have to stay here long it will need a deep cleaning."

Zack smiled sheepishly at the blond, "I know I just wasn't expecting company so…"

"I get it Zack. I'm the same way. We're just going to have to change that if we intend to stay sane though," the blond smiled as he lightly sidestepped a teetering pile of… stuff…

"That should be doable. Especially if we can get Seph on board with it."

"Why would getting Sephiroth involved help?" Cloud asked after a moment.

Zack just stared at him for a moment before laughing. Cloud frowned slightly and searched his memories of the Silver General for anything that would indicate why Zack would say that. After coming up with nothing he simply crossed his arms and looked at Zack, practically demanding an explanation with his body language alone. Zack smile before flopping down on the couch.

"Dude, the guy is like, a total neat freak! You should see his apartment. Sure it's really impersonal and all but it's still really clean," the 2nd said, casually waving a hand around. "I think he spends the time when he isn't on missions, in the office, or training, cleaning."

Cloud blinked and was about to argue when he remembered. The way Zack saw Sephiroth was the complete opposite of the way Cloud saw him. Cloud only knew the insane mad man Sephiroth had become after Jenova had gotten her claws into him. Zack knew the real Sephiroth. The sane man who was the world's greatest general, the most powerful man in the world (aside from President Shinra that is). That was a rather sobering thought. That and the fact that the more time Cloud spent with the black haired teen the more he was going to get to know this Sephiroth. It was going to be a bit interesting, considering what he knew but he was willing to give it a shot.

Nodding slowly at the 2nd Cloud moved over to the couch, setting his sword aside as he did, "Alright. Well if that's the case we need his help ASAP."

Zack floundered for a few seconds before he realized that Cloud was smiling at him. Pouting the spiky haired man threw a pillow at the blond. Cloud dodged with a laugh and plopped down on the couch himself. He sat for all of about two seconds before shooting back to his feet and staring at the couch. The other stared at him for a few seconds before shooting up as well. They shared a look and Cloud pointed at Zack's PHS.

"Call him now. We need a neat freak," Cloud said looking at the couch warily. "Now."

Zack just nodded frantically at the blond and was already dialing even as he did. Cloud reached over to his sword and with a soft click pulled the Hollow Blade away from the Main Blade. Swinging the blade around he poked at the couch, earning a soft protest from Zack. Shooting a mild glare at the dark haired man he poked the couch again, half expecting it to leap out at him. As it was whatever was inhabiting the thing hissed darkly at the blond. Cloud merely gave Zack a raised eyebrow as the 2nd spoke into his PHS. From his tone Cloud could tell that it was going to be a bit before Sephiroth was able to come by. Sighing the blond settled in to wait for the Silver General, but not before setting fire to and subsequently dousing Zack's couch.

"Cloud!" the black haired man cried.

"Zack, there was something inside you couch that made it come to life. There was no saving it," Cloud said poking the charred remains, pleased when it didn't move in response. "Trust me on that one."

Zack pouted before going into the kitchen and getting a pair a stools. The two settled down to wait, trying their damndest not to touch anything else that might have become sentient. Cloud sighed when Zack turned it into a game. It was going to be a long wait.

-Meanwhile-

Sephiroth strode purposefully down the hall, his very demeanor screaming at people to leave him alone. People scurried left and right to get out of the seemingly pissed off General's way. In reality the man was just in a bit of a hurry to try and get his answers. Getting bothered by people who needed little inane things would do nothing but actually piss him off. Finally arriving at his intended destination he swiped his cardkey across the access panel, sending the door sliding back into the wall.

Inside was full of black suited men and women. A few of them looked up when the door slid open but most went back to their work when the realized that it was just Sephiroth. He snorted to himself at the thought, wondering why it was that only the new Turks actually seemed to be intimidated by him. Shaking his head slightly the General made his way to the back of the room. He knew that the man he was looking for would be there, simply by the virtue of hearing a very familiar drawl. A drawl that could only belong to Reno who, as it turned out, loved to try and piss his boss off. Shaking his head again Sephiroth knocked on the door.

"What do you want, yo?" Reno drawled from inside.

"I need to speak to Tseng," Sephiroth replied, voice cold.

The door swung open, revealing the redhead in question, "Hello, General. What do you need to speak to our boss about, yo?"

"None of your business, actually," Sephiroth shot back brushing past the redhead and into the office.

Tseng was sitting at his desk typing at his computer, apparently ignoring everything that was going on in the room. That was not the case, however, especially considering the way his eyes flicked up toward the door. Behind him Sephiroth could feel Reno tensing up. At a subtle shake of the head from Tseng the redhead shrugged and walked out. Once the door clicked shut the Wutian turned to give the General his full attention.

"To what do I owe this visit, General?" he asked folding his hands on top of the desk.

"I need some information on someone," Sephiroth replied not bothering to sit down.

"Let me guess; Cloud Strife, right?" Tseng asked leaning forward slightly.

At the General's nod the suited man turned back to his computer. After a few moments of rapid typing a mildly surprised look crossed the man's face. Sephiroth just gave the man a raised eyebrow but didn't say anything. A few more minutes passed before Tseng sat back and sighed. The Silver General shifted slightly, redrawing the Wutian's attention to him.

"Well?" the tall man asked.

"I found some information but none of it makes sense," Tseng said sitting back in his chair, looking back at his screen.

"What doesn't make sense?" Sephiroth prompted.

"All I found, that I could access mind you, is that his name is Cloud Strife and that he was born in Nibelhiem. Beyond that his file is a jumbled mess of encrypted data and completely top secret classified blocks that I can't access. And all of it keeps changing, even as I watch it. It makes no sense," the Turk replied gesturing at his computer screen.

"Show me," was all the General said.

Tseng gave him an odd look before turning the computer for the General to look. Sure enough the only thing the Turk had been able to dig up was his name, birthplace and a photo. The rest of the file was either totally covered in red and black lines, indicating classified information, or it was all a random jumble of numbers and symbols. Even as Sephiroth's green cat-like eyes watched the way the numbers and symbols as well as the classified markings were positioned changed. Out of the entire file only three or four words were even readable. Even then they were totally out of context so none of it made any sense at all. Sighing and feeling a headache begin to form Sephiroth turned the computer back around.

"Is there any way to get past all of that mess?" he asked, resisting the urge to rub at his forehead.

"No. I've tried everything. Even…" the Turk was interrupted by Sephiroth's PHS ringing.

Pulling out the devise with an irritated sigh the silver haired man flipped it open without even looking at who was calling, "What?"

"Hey Seph!" Zack's overly chipper voice sounded from the speaker.

"What do you want, Fair?" he growled his headache taking on full form.

"Umm… Could you come up to my apartment please? We need a little help with something," the 2nd replied toning down his chipper attitude upon hearing the growl.

"We? We who, Fair?" Sephiroth asked sighed, finally giving into the urge to rub at his forehead.

"Cloud and I. We need… Cloud!" Zack broke off of his explanation to shout at the blond man.

"Zack, there was something inside you couch that made it come to life. There was no saving it… Trust me on that one." Sephiroth heard dimly on the other end of the phone.

That had the General blinking slowly before sighing, "You need help cleaning you apartment, don't you?"

"Please? Cloud just torched my couch because it came alive and tried to eat us," Zack replied a pout obvious in his voice.

"Fine. I'll be up there in a few minutes," he said snapping his PHS shut on the black haired man's enthusiastic reply.

Giving a brief nod to the smirking Turk the Silver General turned on his heel and left. That had gotten him nowhere. Despite his (albeit minor) faith in the Turks that had given him far more questions than he really wanted. Questions like; why was Cloud's file so heavily encrypted that it was constantly changing? Why did the blond act quite a bit like a SOLDIER when he had never been in the army before in his life? How did he acquire his rather impressive sword? All of those questions and more were buzzing around in the General's head, topped off by the biggest (and probably most important question of all), just who was Cloud Strife exactly?


Me: Welp, that's that. Hojo knows, Seph is totally confused and Zack is... well... He's Zack. What can I say? Next chapter will bring Seph, Zack, and Cloud back together and Seph tries to get some answers from the source. As for Hojo he takes it upon himself to do a little "research" of his own. Hope ya'll will stick around to see what happens!