((A/N: Here we go again (again)! ; singing to herslef a song you don't care about AANNNNYHOW! Here's the next chapter in my 'enthrawling' story. I'm begining to love this one, so there's a good chance that I'll continue it. I realized that Cloud probably SHOULD have been all dizzy and fucked up before, but oh well. I just realized I probably shouldn't have so much swearing in a PG 13, but I want you all to be able to find it, so I'll keep it until they ban me. ;; Anywho, please enjoy. This chappie is for my buds Steffers and Shadows! U gyz r teh r0x0rz))

"What did they say!?" To the others in the hospital waiting room the tiny girl being so demanding to a full-grown man, especially one like Vincent Valentine, was so out of place it was almost comical. Almost.

"Calm down." He said, sitting down on a chair next to her. She knelt up on the chair facing him and still barely reached his shoulder. "They said that he doesn't seem to have any internal injuries, just a few fractures and a break or two. A day of monitoring and a few hits off a cure materia and he should be fine..."

"I wanna go see him..." She said, jumping off the chair. "Where is he?" Vincent stood swiftly and lead the child down the hall off the waiting room, into the ICU and to one of the rooms furthest from the nurse's station. "Thanks.." she mumbled before she dashed into his room, her eyes worried.

There were two beds in the room, seperated by a curtain. The first was a mess, with strewn sheets and a rank smell. A man in his early twenties stood near it, unscathed, with a cold expression in his eyes. She was sure she'd seen him before, but didn't want to think of where right now as she continued to the curtained off area where Cloud lay.

When she saw him, her blood ran cold. Vincent said he'd be fine, but he didn't look that way to her. He looked pale and fragile, laying still in the bed with monitors snaking from his small chest and tubes running from his nose. His eyes parted slightly as he heard her stiffled gasp and he smiled half-heartedly.

"There you are..." he mumbled, his speech slurred. Tifa ran closer to him, and she seemed to lose her ability to even keep a cool as her face poured out her every fear. "Don't worry... I'm fine..." he assured her, but in the worst way. In the way that he could hardly form the words, and she could hardly decipher them.

"You think I believe that? Look at you... everything's all broken in you, and you're hooked up to all these machines...."

"And I'm fine... I sound like shit because of the drugs." he spoke slowly, hoping it made him sound a little better.

"I'm scared, Cloud..." she whispered, inviting herself to sit next to him on the bed, her legs crossed in front of her, holding tightly onto his hand.

"...and I'm telling you there's no reason to be scared, Teef..." he was becoming tired, she could tell, as his eyelids drooped and willed themselves shut from time to time. She sighed in resignition, though only because she knew he needed sleep,

"alright, alright." she puncuated her words with another sigh, "Just go to sleep and I'll stop nagging you about it."

This was a deal Cloud greatfully made and he fell asleep almost instantly after summoning Tifa down for a quick kiss.

"When I heard Shera's voice over the intercoms.... when I figured out she was the numbskull who stayed down below, I wasn't as shocked as I should've been, I suppose. But I was worried... she was the only gal in the village I could get along with without wanting to kill, as completely bad as that sounds. Now anyways, when she said it was all beacuse of that damn broken oxygen tank, I was fuckin' pissed. It's one tank out of seven... what's the worst that could happen with one less oxygen tank, y'know... I mean, they must give you extra for a situation like this, right?

"Well, apparently she don't believe in doin' her shit half-assed, because she's sittin' down the hall with burns over half her goddamned body. I guess the temperatures were already gettin' somewhere, and she got somethin' like a second degree sunburn, right through the fuckin' clothes. Damn...

"Now, back to my little story... This was my dream for as long as I remember... to go into space. Not even to be one of the first, just to go. I've always wondered what it might be like to just drift with the stars, but I guess it wasn't in my best interests if it ain't happenin' for the second time now... fate just don't like me, now does she?

I guess Lady Luck ain't my biggest fan either, though, huh?

"Well... after the launch failed the last thing I needed was a bunch of little media fucks gettin' kicks an' ratin's off my failure, so I escaped up to my favorite point up in mount Nibel... a little look-out point that shows everythin' of the ocean. I figured I could escape everyone I didn't wanna be by there.

"My old man showed up later, so I guess I was wrong, huh? Well, he was ready to give me his 'I told you so, you fuckin' pussy' shit, and I wasn't in the mood. I tried to get him to stop, but the only thing I could do...." A pause in his voice, a rage in his eyes, but no sorrow to be found, rather a suspicious hushed voice,

"I pushed him over the goddamned ledge. Down a hundred feet or more, straight to the rocks...."

If ever Vincent Valentine was shocked by a story, it was now. To think that the man he fought along side with was a murderer. But then again, weren't they all? AVALANCHE had caused the deaths of thousands, probably millions actually, and he was dwelling now on the solitary one commited by this man, barely even an adult. Perhaps it was because he was he saw this as a more personal assault. He pushed him over with his own hand... he knew and meant to kill this man first hand. Still, hadn't they done the same against Sephiroth?

Sephiroth, however, was evil. Cid's father? Perhaps he was mislead, naiive, an ass even, but evil?

"So that's basically what I'm doin' here."

Vincent had gone silent, as he usually was. Perhaps this is why Cid didn't take the time to wonder just how Vincent felt about his story. If, maybe, he disapproved. He just silently assumed that Vincent was the one person who would find this as close to commonplace as he did. Of course, it wasn't at all the normal day-to-day thing, but it wasn't the earthshattering event Cid was sure everyone else would make it into either.

"So... now you know how I got here.... what the hell are YOU doing here?"

"Okay... now explain this to me again, Aer, because I don't think I've heard you quite right. You're saying Cloud... Cloud STRIFE is responsible for this?" Zack's huge gray eyes were wide and confused as he listened to her story. They were heading down an overgrown path, thick with weeds and grass sprouting through the once well-used trail that lead from Gongaga through Rocket Town, and subsequently to Nibelheim, where the two were sure to find just who Aeris was looking for.

"It's the only thing I can think of. I mean... who else would be dumb enough to go change the past? And it's not as if he isn't in it for all the right reasons, if I know him..." Zack sighed as his future love spoke. Zack had known Cloud, and he wasn't the noble, kind, heroic type Aeris was describing. He was just another bratty MP, like every other. Zack's lessor. Damn close to nothing as far as SOLDIER went.

"I guess he must've changed over the years, huh?" Zack smirked. Sure... he and Cloud had their share of drinks when they were in SOLDIER, but he never seemed like this. He knew for a fact that Cloud had a girl back home he had high hopes on impressing, but beyond that, he wasn't the most upstanding person. More than once had he been dragged back to his room, later waking with a mean hangover to testify his stupidity.

"What do you mean by that?" Aeris' eyes met his for a moment before he concentrated his back on the road.

"Well.... how well did you know the boy, Aer? You say he was out to save the world... but... you think maybe he was just saving his own ass?" Zack knew better than to trust Aeris' perceptions. Sure, she was a nice girl, bright in her own respects, but naiive. She took whatever she saw as what she wanted to see, and Zack knew that better than anyone.

"He was intent on defeating Sephiroth...." Aeris suggested, though not as confident as before. She knew that she could be a little off base at times, but Cloud was always a subject she thought she had down pact.

"A lot of people were intent on killing that bastard." Zack said plainly, and stopped walking now. He sat down right in the middle of the path and motioned for Aeris to do the same, which she did. "I really don't think Cloud's any different."

"Then I really don't think you knew him." Aeris contested, her voice clearly agitated. She'd fallen hard in love with Cloud, probably even harder than she'd fallen for Zack. How could someone that she loved be as bad as Zack was making him out to be?

"I wanna tell you about Cloud, Aeris... and I want you to listen good. It's a long ass story, and I wanna know that you're ready for it. It ain't pretty, and if you love him because of what you think he is, you're probably gonna fuckin' hate him after I'm done. You sure you wanna hear this?"

Aeris was hesitant. Cloud was everything she looked for in a man. Maybe he was only that because it's what she was looking for, though. If she heard Zack's truth, then she would know Cloud isn't the man she wished. But she'd also be consoled, as he'd still be the man Tifa had won.

"I wanna hear it." She finally said.

"Then make yourself comfy, because we're gonna be here for a damn long time."

"So what are you gonna do?" Reeve's lips curled up to hear his good friend's voice in the reciever of the pay phone.

"I'm gonna be there in the morning." He said, his eyes darting around. His mind was made up, and nobody was gonna stop him. He couldn't stay another moment on the streets with his mom. He'd decided long ago that he was too good turn out that way, and this was his only option at the moment.

"Really? You promise!?" He laughed when he heard Elena's excited voice. It had been only weeks since she'd left to join Shinra in hopes of becoming a Turk, a highly trained group of, basically, thieves and murderers.

"I already called the HQ. They're gonna set me up to take the test at three. Can ya sneak out to see me before then?" They were close... maybe lovers, but probably just close friends. The kind of friends that you want when you're a teenager... the kind you can fool around with.

"I'll do my best."

"That's all I can ask" He still smiled more excited than he before realized that he'd be seeing his friend soon."I'll see you then." she said happily then, "Love an' peace, babe!" before she hung up. He burst out into laughter at this, hanging up as well.

"God, Elena, I swear..." he smiled, but his anticipation vanished as soon as he turned away. His eyes were looking above the head then down into the eyes of his mother.

"So... where AREN'T you going tomorrow, exactally?"

"So... I guess we headin' back soon, huh?" The large man had let himself fall onto the bed, his eyes willing themselves shut even as he turned to look at his friend.

"Looks like it. Don't think there's much more we can do here. 'Sides that, The gals are probably outta their minds waitin' for us." The other man shot his friend a wide grin from his bed. "But y'know, Bear... it's more than that. Eleanor would kill us both if we were gone much longer."

Barret Wallace grinned and nodded. While he hadn't seen Corel in weeks, this was still a signficantly shorter trip than most. There were times where he and Dyne were gone for months at a time. Everyone should be happy with this arangement. Of course, Dyne's wife, Elanor was always the one to worry. And this time they were coming back with good reason...

Lydia was left in her care for the time being, stable when they left, but all knew her days were numbered. It pained Barret more than he would let anyone know to see his young wife lay dying, but there was little he could do for it. The illness was mysterious and her symptoms severe. Finding a cure seemed impossible, especially on the days when it seemed there would be no more.

"Yeah..." he murmered, finding himself lost in these thoughts of the ones they left back home. Was it really worth it? A few missions out in other towns already too far gone to really be saved? His time left with his wife was severly limited, and now he was wasting it with these goddamned lost causes Dyne cared so much about.

"Bear... sup? You seem.... out of it." Dyne's frown carried into his voice and Barret sighed. He didn't know why, but he dreaded telling his old friend that this seemed like a waste of time right now. Asking him if he could just lay off until... he couldn't seem to form that part in his mind. Taking time off waiting for someone he loves so deeply to die- what a plan.

"Just tired." he finally mumbled, not in the mood for explanations or excuses. This wasn't a lie, but by no means the complete truth.

"Whatever you say, Bear. We did kinda have a tough day today... get some rest. Tomorrow... we're home." This thought comforted Barret more than anything, and his dreams were few but pleasant.

((A/N: Sorry this took soooo long to complete, but I really just needed a break from everything. Now I'm gettin' in over my head, though, with all these stories going. Anyways, I suppose the next chapter or two will be a flashback type thing with Zack about Cloud, then I'll move on in some sort of semi-logical procession. Plus, I haven't introduced Yuffie, Nanaki, or any of the Turks apart from Elena. Blah... this is gonna take a bit.))