((A/N: wow... it's been quite a while since I did anything with this fic, but I decided I kinda liked it so I'm continuing it. Not to mention the fact that it gets my mind off real-life issues. sniffles a little and turns away Anyways, I guess it's all because o' one person that I'm doin' this because even now I don't want him to read shitty fics by me... I'm hoping to make this one good. I know the last chapter sucked, but I promise I'll make things better!! Now.. on to the story.. -Tif

OH, AND A WARNING: I use the word 'pussy' alot in this chapter.))

"Midgar is no place for a child." The woman argued, her words harsh and her eyes even worse as she glared into the adjacent man's eyes.

"And where the hell are we supposed to go, Uki? You think we got money to just pick up and leave? You think I'd be workin' for SHINRA if we did!?" His eyes were gray, and they burnt into the younger woman's soul. He was right, she knew, but this was still no place for the two to be raising their child.

"Look..." she began with a heavy sigh and no idea where she would be going with this, "...I know things will be hard, but look... Reeve's been sickly since he was born. He's a growing boy, but he can't do a damn thing because of this place... the polution is near toxic for adults, how can a child stand it, Rei? We need to get him some fresh air... give him a chance to actually live." The man merely snorted.

"He'll have plent of time for that when he has a job.. when he's payin' the rent and bustin' his fuckin' ass for every day's meals, an' to keep the hell out of the fuckin' slums. You should be thankfull, not complaining. That's all you ever fucking do... complain..." At this point, she had backed away a few paces from him. This would be the time when he would normally start throwing his punches. But not today, she wasn't going to let him do that again.

"Look, Rei... I've had enough of this...."

"So what the hell are you gonna do about it, Uki? You gonna leave? You really think you'll go a week without gettin' fuckin' killed? You need me, Uki... don't kid yourself!" He yelled, slowly coming closer as she now backed into the front den, where her sixteen-year-old son now sat, a pair of headphones giving off a low hum from across the room. His hair was slightly long and pulled back into a ratty pony tail, black tufts hanging out on the sides. His eyes shut tightly as he rocked back and forth to the music.

"I won't... I'm not gonna kid myself any more..." She grabbed her son's hand and pulled him forcefully, knocking the headphones off of him and spilling a drink that was in his hand. He began to protest but she had him out the door and running, for what she was sure to be their lives, within a matter of seconds.

"How is this possible?" Zax murmered, running his fingers through Aeris's hair, then looking himself over, then her again. "We should... both be..." his voice trailed but Aeris nodded, knowing that he was wondering the exact same thing as she.

"I... don't know. Cetra... at least as far as I know... they don't even have the power to turn back time..." the look of confusion in her eyes only added to Zax's frustration. The last he could remember was the gentle flow of the lifestream, then he was suddenly here... in Gongoga... alive.

"This doesn't make SENSE!" he growled, letting himself fall to the ground. He closed his eyes tightly and seemed to be concentrating on something. Aeris, on the other hand, seemed to be equally focused on everything.

"What does it matter?" she finally asked, her voice sounding infinitely more mature than her young body. "I mean... we're alive, right? So what's the use in worrying about it? We can do it right this time, Zax... no Shinra, no SOLDIER, no pain...."

"No Cloud?" and at this moment the back of Aeris's mind where she'd stored the events leading up to her death clicked over and she remembered Cloud. And it wasn't so easy any more... there wasn't a single sure choice where everything else is merely a joke. There was Cloud, and she still loved him.

The twenty-some year old man was deviastated.

Sitting on an overhang in the nearby Nibel mountains, nothing was all he could seem to do. Only hours before, the whole world had been going for him... the promise of a place in history forever with the launch of Shinra's first manned space launch. And in just a single moment, this dream was shattered like it was nothing. This was the first time Cid Highwind really began to hate fate.

Shera was everything he could've imagined in a woman for himself, though being the man he is he could never show that. She was kind and intelligent, soft spoken, and caring. Basically, Shera was everything Cid was not.

The past two years had been spent by Cid not only preparing for his space mission, but also trying to win over the young scientist's heart. He could recall a distant time when she left for college, but in those days her absence meant little to him. There were still many women in the village, any of which he decided he could easily have. He learned in due time that this was, however, not the case. Not only did he appeal to none of them, but, in addition to this, they all seemed to be what he didn't want. Prissy and snobbish, rude and arrogant. If he wanted someone like that, he'd be alone.

But at this point in time, even solitude seemed more appealing than the woman whom he had once loved, but now had destroyed his forever dream of traveling in to space. Not to mention the dreams of his entire crew, the shit he'd be taking from every man and woman working with him on that ship. And the heartbreak from the disappointment he knew his father would have for him.

"At least now he has a reason." Cid decided out loud, as the thought crossed his mind. Prior to this occasion, it all seemed meaningless disappointment and hate, but at least now he would have a reason to feel these things. This would be his only chance to fufill his dreams, and he passed it by because he didn't want to hurt one person. All was gone because he was too much of a pussy, he knew his father would say, to take just a single life in the crossfire. As if it weren't worth it, he also knew the old man would grumble.

Cid almost wished he could proudly say he was different than his father in that way, but he couldn't. He was ashamed of not being heartless and callous as his father was, as if by having emotions he was no longer the same level of man. Perhaps if his father didn't instill this belief within him, he wouldn't have it drilled into his heart, but that's not how things turned out for Cid, and he was what he was. That, in his father's eyes, was a wimp and a coward.

He took a last drag off the cigarette he'd lit and tossed it out over the cliff, the same way he'd tossed the better half of the pack. Immediately, he replaced it with a new one, never taking his eyes off the endless horizon.

"Cid!" now he did look up, hearing his father's gruff voice further down the trail. The old man was limping up towards him, but Cid was not brought to his feet as he usually was. He had no reason now, as he was sure he would never gain his father's respect.

"The fuck you want?" he growled in a low voice, no longer afraid of the consequences. His father held no power and all power over him, and right now he decided that whatever he would 'do' about his language would be, at most, a distraction.

"Watch your mouth!" he commanded, "And put that thing out..." he added before stopping at the edge of the lookout. Fenced in in front, with only one narrow exit point, Cid was left without escape. He knew exactally what was coming next; The straight-from-the-book 'stop being a fuckin' woman' talk. It was always the same, whenever he disappointed his father, and he was rather sure it began only after his mother's death.

A death his father caused. his mind always told him, though he would never be sure it was true. All he really knew was that one day he and his mother left, and only his father came back. There wasn't a single day when the old man mentioned his late wife, or even seemed a bit distressed by it, which was what gave Cid all the proof he needed to convict his father.

He took another long puff off the cigarette before he discarded this one the same as the last, knowing his father would only do it for him if he didn't.

"Save your breath, old man... I don't need to go through this again, you've done it enough damn times for me to know... I'm a woman, I'm a pussy, I'm a fuck-up, I'm a failure..." he began listing off the various names his father had given him over the years, only to be cut off.

"Can it, son... none of that this time." The tone in his voice was something Cid had never heard before, which made him build even more walls. He must have a good one for today, he'd assumed, his cold gray eyes finally meeting his father's. "I wanna say... you did the right thing..." he finally spoke, and Cid could now tell he was pained. Pain.. one of the many things the man had deemed womanly and pussy-defining.

"What? It was a damn fool thing, I did... Ain't never gonna get that kind of chance again..."

"...no, you're probably right about that." The old man paused, and Cid was sure that for the first time he could remember, his father was actually thinking before he spoke. "...but you wouldn't have gotten the chance to save that woman either, and her ass is a lot more important than your fucking sky-high dreams..."

"Thanks alot, dad." Now Cid saw where he was going. His father always disapproved of his 'dreams' and 'hopes'. More pussy talk, he deemed them, and that would not do. No, nothing that could be improbable, nearly impossible, would be thought of in his household. Cid was to own the shop his father was now running in town, and with risk of his father's fury, do a damn good job of it. This was just his way of saying 'told you so.'

"Listen, I wasn't happy when they offered you that job with Shinra. A bunch of crooks, I know them as... but you seemed to be keepin' out of my hair after it, so I went along with it. Now that you blew your chance, which was better than gettin' blamed for some stupid mechanic's death, it looks like I was right all along." Now Cid stood, he couldn't take it any more. The years had built up, and he knew his father would never change. He gave him every opportunity to do it, but he never took the chance. Now he'd had enough. Every put-down and let-down, profanity and insult had built up to put into motion a now unchangable turn of events. He barely knew what he was doing when his fist thrust into his father's abdomen, and even less as he gave him the extra shove to send him over the edge.

He didn't realize that he was smiling as he watched the old man fall, as he heard the sickening crack and break of the tree branches, the grin on his face as he headed down the mountain. He was totally unaware.

((A/N: I know this chapter was kind of short, and just a begining for each of the new chapters that will come after we take another chapter of Cloud and Tifa. Well, the next chapter will be Cloud, Tifa, Vincent, and the addition of CID to the party! woohoo! But will Cloud stay, or will it be down to three still!? Gasp gasp gasp! What will happen? Will you ever know? YES! I WILL UPDATE AGAIN SOON! ))