Hey!
Kind (Girl): I made this one in a hurry last night and would be short, so please bear with it. Anyway, Cloud is a Lilikin from World of Final fantasy but this crossover made him into a regular human being in size. I'll explain more when I update more chapters.
Disclaimer: We do not own World of Final fantasy or Final fantasy VII.
CHAPTER - 2
Girl who doesn't know her name's Tea room
Within a pocket dimension outside of another ordinary realm, there was supposed to be nothing buta pitch dark space and yet their stood a humongous grandpa-clock as it ticks on without any trouble despite the dimensions void like an abyss.
Beside the clock stood a simple but beautiful table and three matching chairs to accommodate anyone to take a seat.
Right now, there were three beings taking such seats while one of them gently pouring tea for the other two.
All three were quite different from the other especially the auras they each express. The one who poured the cup of teas excluded a non- existence feeling as if she wasn't there and the other one expresses a normal feeling as he was just a normal but extra-ordinary mortal human-like being called a Lilikin.
"Have you come to a conclusion about your decision, my Champion?"
The last one of the three was a beautiful woman with gracefulness and elegance fitting for a transcendent being like her since she was literally a Goddess.
"..."
"..."
"..." The discussion between them has lasted for about 45 minutes and like some of the time passing by was dealt with silence.
"More tea?" The one who controls the dimensional room asked as she gestures the teapot near the Lilikin who was still silent while holding on an empty teacup.
"No, thanks." The little Lilikin spoke politely to the girl holding the tea cup and just kept staring inside the empty bowl.
"I will remind you once more my Champion."
The beautiful Goddess stood up from her seat and continues forward to a door that suddenly appeared upon her standing up. She was a being that could not take too much time out of her domain unless troubles will occur nonstop.
"This is a will and whether you believe me or not... you're very soul desires it. It is a wish many of your counter-parts across the many dimensions, worlds, past, present, or future asked and one of them held his will strong enough to defy fate to seek for my help despite being in a very difficult situation."
"I heard you the first time," The blond Chocobo hair cut Lilikin still was indifferent despite the words coming from a benevolent Goddess. "But I want a reason," He did not have time to meddle anywhere.
"...and what you gave me was not enough to convince me." He wanted to brush off everything she asked despite the unbelievable being she was. He did not care as he had his own issue to deal with.
"..." Placing her hand on the Lilikin's shoulder, the Goddess made a sadden expression, "I was once a very naive being and... I unlike most of my peers, I did not take action when the time was right."
The Lilikin and the girl who does not know her name listens carefully despite their indifferent expression.
"But then... I learned when my Champions came. I learned from them." Letting her hand off the Lilikin, the Goddess kept moving to the door.
Before she exited through the door, she still had something more to say, "I also learned from you Cloud, despite being on the opposite side, my Champion."
"..."
Silence filled the void dimensional room as the Lilikin name Cloud and the owner of the space sat quietly after the Goddess departure.
"I believe, you have a decision to make."
The tea girl who forgot her name then continues what the Goddess Cosmos asked and calmly explains her words seeing the uncertain expression on Cloud's face.
"..."
"It's alright, time here is very much different comparing to your world and the world you've been given to help though only through intervention."
"Intervention?"
"Yes, this is a place where fantasy can mend into reality. But please take your time; it is quite some time since I had a guest."
"Thank you."
"Oh, and if your decision is to accept, I will be your guide to the task at hand."
"..."
Believe it or not, the decision was eating the Lilikin out. Before the Goddess left, she had transferred to his pieces of memories all but mostly very similar his past apart for some since all of them were 'Jiants' and not 'Lilikins'. He always thought about his past as bad luck but what he received was more tragic than he ever wanted as he saw too many of his friends die as if it was a lost cause.
"Will I be able to return... back to Grimore?"
"..." The tea girl places her teacup and nods. It was all that Cloud needs to know since this was the few times he acts selfishly.
"I have decided."
Wutai
The Wutai war continues on as the Shiran Electric Company currently wanted more than anything to show the Wutai country that they're fighting to win when they had started it as a warning to them.
Placing a Mako reactor might've not been the greatest goal of the Shiran Company but right now they did not want resistance and thus a war resulted from a mere conflicted resistance from the Wutai's leader and his brethren.
Many people from each side, poor or rich entered the war upon the ordered of their superiors. And as history always tells us, not everyone comes out fine or alive.
Despite the high risk of death, the world was not kind to those who do not work and this lead to many young men married or form a part of a family to join in order to survive.
"The other divisions have already made a stalemate! We need to hurry!"
A high ranking Infantryman rushes into the smoke-filled area with dozens of other squadrons of infantrymen each holding every necessity for the war before their very eyes.
*!*
*!*
*!*
Despite the heavy machinery the Shiran's army held, the Wutai were all no pushover as most of them were train ninja with materia for the lack of long-range weapons.
Explosions after explosions occurred but both sides continued on since most of the sense it was a duty to keep on fighting to the end. Some might slow down by the number of corpses but still, no one took a second to stare since any hesitation could cause their life.
The once lush part area of Wutai now turned into a battleground where the soil is bathed in the blood of the fallen men.
"The SOLDIER's are here!"
"..."
"..."
"..." The stalemate the infantrymen were having with the Wutai warriors was getting slowly pushed back after the arrival of a certain class within the Shinra's army rank. A class of extraordinary warriors who did not need guns to fight and there were two of them.
"Support the SOLDIERs!" The infantry men's captain shouts and upon ordered the gunners to push forward and support the SOLDIERs fending off the stronger Wutai ninjas.
"!" The 2nd class SOLDIERs were indeed super soldiers as they fought without fatigue and strike with great strength and precision.
"Hey... Hey... Hey!"
"!?" One Infantryman blinks and looked around as if he just was woken up from an intense dream.
"I know the 2nd class SOLDIERs are amazing, but there's no need to gawk at them like that."
The infantryman turned to a fellow man wearing the same war attire like him.
"Come on, you don't want to stand there when orders are already given."
"Right, sorry."
The distracted infantryman breathes out a deep one and follows his fellow trooper as his eyes quietly glow a second under their standard helmets hiding them as well as his blond Chocobo like hairstyle.
...
"Intervening of reality, is that what you said? What does it really mean?"
"You... Cloud."
"huh?"
"Think of yourself as a fantasy piece, a piece that will be placed in Gaia's reality like a jigsaw puzzle... as if you were there from the beginning. It's not really hard if you don't think too seriously about it."
"And when will this happen?"
"Anytime, as long as you're ready."
Cloud thought back to the conversation he had with the tea girl mere minutes ago as he runs forward into battle under the disguise of a footman of Shinra.
*!*
So much fighting and a much more rate of dead corpses were displayed for anyone and the rate continues to grow but that wasn't what really made the disguise footman.
"Did she change me... but why?" The most surprising thing to him was the fact that he was a 'Jiant' meaning a full-grown tall human being far apart than his original form being a 'Lilikin'. This made him wondered if the all-powerful Goddess of Cosmos changed him.
"But still..."
Cloud jumps to the side avoiding multiple Wutai daggers that were thrown at him and his squadrons where only a few were hit.
"This feeling..."
Clouds duck, evades, aims and shoots upon their squad leader's order with the others as it was necessary to blend in before he could sort more details out. "Fire at will!"
"This grip too..."
Unlike his other squad-mates, he was exceptionally calm despite the loud noises of war everywhere around him. Indeed, he might not have been a certify SOLDIER but he was still made to be one.
"I still remember."
Before everything that had happened to him, he was a simple boy who joined Shinra as a footman since he could not pass the exam to SOLDIER but still did remarkably well for a footman as he could still precisely fire every shoot and evade when needed. Being made a SOLDIER also helped.
"!"
His senses were also sharp as he quickly jumps backward while pulling the other footman closest to him and saved his own as well as the other's life.
"Thanks, for a distracted guy... you sure have sharp sense; you might even make SOLDIER next exam." It was the same footman that called him earlier and unknown to him the man was quite grateful to be paired up with such a sharp guy like Cloud.
"..." Cloud did not respond back not because of the dangerous situation they were in and every sense was needed to survive it but due to the fact that those words reminded him how he had been when he was younger striving SOLDIER like many others like blind fools.
"You alright?" The other footman asked him since it was his first time meeting someone so reclusive and calm, especially in a war where everyone and anybody screams out their thoughts and emotions due to the high chance of death.
"I'm fine, let's go."
"R-Right."
Cloud sudden change in demure to rush in again as order surprised the other footman as he stumbles a bit to follow him.
"I can't get distracted. I need to play my part and finish this."
He was not here to play around in a war he could care who won but to ensure he would take the chance to save them as many as possible.
He, followed by his fellow footman rush in like many other infantrymen who were all ordered to fight without carrying for a single life amongst them.
It was awkward fighting without his large blade but he pushed the thought away as he uses the range attack weapon on hand to fire and smash the Wutai's warriors that came his way as he didn't want to kill if possible after all the reason for the war was mainly Shinra's fault. At the end of it, the only thing that went through his mind was the will to survive and see through it all.
...
"Man... I actually survive, I really can't believe this."
The infantryman that was beside Cloud the whole time sighs we in a relief tone as he and the other surviving footman like him finally returned to a safe checkpoint within the outer part of the war zone.
He wasn't any stronger than the average man or smarter especially since he only joined Shinra's footmen ranks as a way of getting a stable job as this shows the fact that he wasn't someone strong that would strife to get stronger.
"huh?"
The reason he even survives this long just walk passed him to take a seat available on the safe point they were in.
"Oye! You!"
The man rushed to Cloud side after taking his helmet off with a happy grin.
"hm? Yeah?"
Cloud wasn't really in the mood to stop and chat since he needed to sort his mind out after he was sent here by the girl who forgot her name and relaxes his new form of a Jiant since it was a bit different than his Lilikin body where he had total control over his reflexes.
"hahaha! Don't be so tense." The man puts his arm around Cloud as if they were old-time friends.
"I just wanted to talk to the person who kept saving my life on the battlefield." In reality, Cloud saved a bunch of fellow footmen as well as secretly saved some Wutai warriors from rushing to their deaths by blocking their paths after a quickfire on debris.
"It was nothing, glad I could help." Cloud didn't really felt like the need to be recognized for doing what he had done since in the past what he learned about the war made him want to see as much less of corpses before he could get out of the war.
"Why did she place me here? I should've been still a kid in the wartime..."
"Hey, are zoning out again?"
"..." Cloud snap out again after spacing out again and this made the man's life he saved looked at him in confusion.
"Maybe you should pull out the helmet, I don't' think it's working out for you after spacing out so much."
"huh?" Before Cloud could reply, the man pulls out the standard infantry helmet and thus showed his face to the world.
"Wow..."
Cloud turns his face to the side since he was now discovered after the man saw his face and that meant his eyes that signify him being a SOLDIER.
"My wife is a sucker for blue eyes and that face... Man, I think I need to rethink if I should invite you with a face like that. I don't want my girl to cheat on me." The man fell to his knees and smashes his fist on the ground at how unfair the world was to him after seeing the adinos handsome face of Cloud which had both a feminine and manly charm.
"?" The reaction of the person was entirely different than Cloud expected because his eyes should've clearly defined him as SOLDIER. Everyone in the Shinra's employment should've known a simple fact.
Don't worry Cloud; I took measures to hide them for now.
"!" Cloud quickly stood up after hearing the familiar voice of the one who sends him in the middle of a war. He really wondered who she was since she basically just felt out of place unlike he ever sense on anyone before.
"Men! Attention!"
Upon the word of a 2nd class SOLDIER's station with them, ever infantrymen that could stand stood up in attention as a figure of a young man passed through them.
"Hey, that's the genius SOLDIER right?"
"Yeah, the one especially send by the higher-ups for a great advantage in the war."
"His name... what was it again?"
The footmen while staying still murmur to themselves at the young man passing through with a long sheathed katana that surprise some of them.
"..." Cloud barely held himself down since he could not afford to blow his cover but the hatred he had for the silver long hair being walking before them boiled his blood in rage.
Calm down Cloud, the Sephiroth you see before you haven't turned against the world. He is but a child right now. Please, don't be rash.
Cloud held his rage and tried his best to not do anything stupid since he was still a professional fighter who knew when the right time to act or to stay put were.
"..."
"..."
"..." After the usual speech to encourage the footmen fighting spirit like any other wartime, everyone disperses after the SOLDIERs and Sephiroth went to the largest tent on the safe point.
"Sorry about earlier but gosh... that SOLDIER Sephiroth must be really amazing to be the major advantage we have against Wutai despite being such a young lad. Guess war has a fickle way of rushing even young men."
"Yeah..."
"It's just a thought but I wonder who his parents are? They must be proud to have a kid like him."
"..."
Whatever the circumstances, Cloud felt he needed to get away from the place since the person that ruined so many of his and his friend's life was nearby despite such things did not occur yet.
"Hold there."
His intention to leave and desert the safe area without anyone noticing now was put hold since the man beside him kept a hold on his shoulder.
"You saved my life and a bunch of the other guys too. No one knows it was you except me and since you're the kind of guy who likes to keep to himself I won't tell anyone. But..."
The man keeps speaking out a mouthful of words as Cloud felt really uncomfortable at the friendliness the man was giving him.
"I can't let you go until I repay you some way."
"You really don't hav-!"
"How about you come with me when we get our leave? Fortunately, my wife strike zone is someone older than her so it's okay to come back with me for a home cook dinner, how about it?"
"I..." Cloud needed to deny it but seeing the man begging face made it really hard to say no.
"Or if you have a family to go back to, I won't insist."
"..." Cloud sweatdropped at the man but ponder at his words.
He could remember his mom alone at home cooking for him with a smile when he came home back in his world.
But he could not consider the thought since this was not his world and if it was anything like his, the him in this world would only be a child.
"..." Cloud shook his head and didn't bother to say it out.
"If that's the case, I won't take no for an answer." The man then planned to drag Cloud wherever he went since he had a feeling Cloud would disappear if he didn't do something like this. "You're coming with me when we get our leave!"
The man paused for a second and turned to our hero, "Say... I didn't get your name?"
"Cloud Strife." The disguise SOLDIER answers as if it wasn't anything important as he wasn't going to be found out anyway. He knew that the girl who forgot her name must have done something since he checked his things and found out he really was enlisted in Shinra right now.
"Nice to meet you Cloud, I'm Gilbert Gainsborough."
And done!
Gilbert Gainsborough (Yeah, I don't really know the name of Aerith's foster mother's husband so I just made one up.)
Cloud's strength can be compared to how he was in Advent Children movie.
See ya!