Cloud looked at the sleeping silver haired boy, who couldn't have been more than five years old.
How could some one so sweet be so evil? Cloud thought, sighing heavily. He prodded the boy carefully, seeing if he would get a response. The boy rolled over, gripping the sheets tightly.
"Mama," he mumbled quietly in his sleep.
Cloud blinked and rose a brow. It was so odd to hear the future threat to the planet say 'Mama'. Looking around the room with his dark blue eyes, he really felt sorry for the sleeping boy.
It was a laboratory. Everything was made of some kind of metal, mostly steel. It had to be below zero degrees Celsius, because Cloud could see the mist of his breath. The machines that packed the large room were all mostly turned on, and humming nonstop. The professor had made his own son sleep in this room, on the floor, without any blankets. Cloud was the one who had stolen the blanket off of the couch in the upstairs living room.
He was glad that the kid apparently wasn't claustrophobic.
"MAMA!"
Cloud's eyes shot back to the silver haired boy, who was now sitting up and sobbing quietly.
There was an annoying pang of guilt in the blonde's heart. He wrapped his arms around the boy, hugging him tightly.
"Shh, it's okay, Sephy, it was only a dream." He felt Sephiroth's body tense. "What's wrong?"
Sephiroth looked up at Cloud, his tears beginning to dry on his face. "Please don't hurt me, I swear I'll be good!"
"I'm not going to hurt you, Sephiroth," the older man replied gently. "I'm here to help you, Sephiroth."
Sephiroth's brilliant green eyes lowered to the floor. "How do you know my name," he asked quietly. Cloud sensed the fear in the voice.
"I'll explain it to you later. Right now, we don't have enough time. I need to get you out of here, away from these scientists, and away from Professor Hojo."
Sephiroth shook his head. "But I don't even know you," he protested, "and I don't know how you know me. I've never seen you before in my entire life."
Cloud sighed. Sephiroth had such an extensive vocabulary at such a young age. He picked Sephiroth up, along with the blanket, and carried him out of the lab. He covered Sephiroth's mouth with one hand, just in case Sephiroth tried to verbally protest. So, since the boy couldn't scream, he kicked and punched at Cloud instead. The blonde man ignored this, as a five-year-old's punches and kicks weren't really affective. But Sephiroth was quite strong already. Pretty soon, a bruise would form if he beat on Cloud long enough.
As Cloud ran out of the lab, out of the apartment, and out of Shinra HQ, into the streets of Midgar...He wondered if this was the right thing to do. He remembered how everyone had protested. How he was the only one who wanted to go along with the plan. The only reason they let him go was so Aeris would be resurrected. So would a plethora of other people. Tifa's father, Zack, maybe, the people of Nibelheim, and his own mother. Cloud's beloved mother.
"Cloud, are you insane!? Going into the Life Steam to get to the past!? How stupid can you get?" Tifa shouted, slamming her fist on the table in her Seventh Heaven Bar. "Do you know what could happen? Your soul could be destroyed! You could be stuck in the past forever if the portal closes!"
Cloud sighed again. For what must have been the tenth time that hour. "I know, Tifa, but don't you want Aeris back? Don't you want everyone back who Sephiroth killed?"
"Of course we do," Vincent said, speaking up for the first time all night. "But what if it doesn't work? Say you do manage to get back here with a younger Sephiroth. What if Sephiroth goes insane again?"
"There's nothing here to make him go insane! Professor Hojo is gone, Jenova is gone, and we can show Sephiroth his mother, Lucrecia!"
"What if he asks whom his father is?" Yuffie asked from her spot at the table.
Cloud looked at everyone. From Tifa who was getting nothing but even more angrier, to Vincent who obviously wanted Sephiroth back, but wouldn't admit it because he cared about the sake of humanity. Then to Yuffie who didn't seem to pleased with the idea of bringing Sephiroth back, to Cid, Barret, and Red XIII, whom had all firmly said no to the suggestion. Their minds would simply not be changed in the least.
Cloud shrugged to Yuffie's question. "We tell him that Vincent is his father."
Everyone stared at him.
"What? It's possible you know. There was no DNA proof that Professor Hojo was actually Sephiroth's father. It could have been Vincent who was the father."
"You know, that's possible," Yuffie said quietly. "Sephiroth does look a lot like you, Vincent. Especially the shape of the face, the hairline, and the eyes. They may not be the same color, but they are the same shape."
Vincent silently stood and walked off. They had no right to interfere with his past personal life. So what if he lost his virginity to Lucrecia on the night Professor Hojo took Vincent and experimented on him. They didn't need to make a public issue out of it.
So that night, Cloud went to the Life Steam, where it was still visible in Mideel. He slid into the small portal that had formed last week. Cloud and the other's weren't stupid. They tested the portal to see what lay on the other side, and also used guinea pigs, such as Ex-SOLDIERs and Ex-Shinras. Shinra was no more anyway.
Cloud skidded to a stop by the portal, which was slowly closing. A hard punch to the face from Sephiroth had knocked him back to reality. With a sigh, he went into the portal, back to the present.
Cloud and the others knew that the future would be changed by bringing Sephiroth from the past and into the future. But how drastically, they never had a clue, not a clue.
