The Past of the Future

Cloud was walking down the road with Zack and Sephiroth. They were so strong, so powerful. How was he assigned on a mission with them? Zack was renowned through out Soldier as Steel and Sephiroth had been named the greatest general ever. Cloud was some unneeded flunky with a machine gun. They were strong enough to do this mission by themselves. Why did he need to come? His gaze met the gravel of the road. Zack must have noticed this, because he said to Cloud, "What wrong with you bro?" Cloud looked up; Zack had a grin on his face, the same grin he always had. "Oh, it's nothing." A look of concern crossed Zack's eyes. "Hmph. Suit yourself."

Cloud scanned the room. Pathetic. He thought to himself. He gave them one day out of the month for drinking. They weren't alcoholics anymore, but they drank like them on "drinking day" as it had been dubbed. The bar was a mess. Drunken bar fights and cavorting reduced the room to a pile of broken chairs and tables. All the patrons in the room were drunk and incapacitated except for Cloud. He got up and walked over to Cid's drunken body. He smelled of booze. It was disgusting. Things haven't gotten all that much better, he thought. They still get drunk on "drinking day" and it's worse than usual. Cloud sighed. At least it's only one day a month. He checked Cid's pulse. Still beating. That was a good sign. Cloud stood up and walked over to the unconscious bartender and put a nice hefty stack of 100 dollar bills in his shirt with a note to pay for the damage. He then walked over to Cid and Seifer, hoisted them over his shoulders and walked out the bar door. He slumped the two drunken bodies against their motorbikes. Hmm. How is this going to work? He looked around for awhile. Then he had an idea. He grabbed a bicycle from a nearby dumpster and used a drill and to mount the bicycle wheels onto the sides of their bikes. He tied each of them to their bikes with a rope he kept in his seat compartment. He used the other rope he had and rigged their bikes to his bike. Just as he was about to take off for their hotel apartment, a sword came whistling through the air like an arrow and practically ripped his bike in half. What the…! Cloud was barely able to dodge in time. He looked up and saw a cloaked man falling from a rooftop. Vincent? Cloud thought. The cloaked figure landed on top of his sword, tearing it out of the ground and slipping it inside of his cloak. The man looked up. All you could see were his eyes. His powerful eyes. Eyes that stared into Cloud's soul. No, this isn't Vincent. This man has different eyes. This man's eyes show more sadness than anger. The man waked over to Cloud and stared him down.
"Well well, I've been looking all over for you, Cloud." The man's eyes opened wide and his pupils shrunk. Cloud froze and then went into some kind of trance.

"Get them! Get the subjects." Cloud awoke to these discordant shouts. He looked up to find himself in Zack's arms. Zack's face was covered in blood and sweat. His gray hair was tattered and messy. His clothes where torn and where they were torn were deep cuts.

"Z…Zack…What's g…going on?" Cloud muttered with weak breath.

"Shh, don't talk." Zack put a hand over his mouth. He still stared straight ahead. Cloud felt a pain in his body. It was the mako Jenova testing. He didn't react too well to it. Zack on the other hand was fine. He felt Zack put him down and shield him with the Buster Sword. "Ordinary soldiers can't beat me!" He was downing them one by one. Punch to the gut, kick to the face. They fell like flies. More soldiers came. "They are persistent! Let's go Cloud." He hoisted him over his shoulder. "I'd love to give you a longer break but these guys won't give up." Zack kept running. The soldiers just kept coming. "We're almost there Cloud!" There was a flash of light. Cloud couldn't remember anymore.

"Ungh!" Cloud fell crippled to the ground. "S…S…Sephiroth…" he groaned.

"Well, I can see you figured it out. This time though, I will kill you. I won't fail a third time." He walked over to Cloud's body and raised his sword over him. Just before the killing blow, Sephiroth's sword flew out of his hand. "What!" Standing between them was Seifer, gunblade in hand.

"Sorry, I can't let you do that." Cid jumped from behind a motorcycle and picked up Cloud.

"Hey, buddy. Don't die on us now." Cid lifted Cloud to his feet.

"You are fools. You can't defeat me." Sephiroth did a back flip and pulled his sword out of the ground. Even with all the movement he still didn't betray any part of his body to sight but his eyes and his arm. He brandished his sword at the three. "Time to die!" He charged.

"Not today!" A voice rang out from the buildings. Sephiroth steered to a halt.

"Who was that?" He looked around. He saw a shadowed figure jump the roofs of the buildings above him. "I see you!" He put his arm out and launched a blot of energy at the figure. It missed and crashed into a building.

"I'm over here!" A man came shooting out of an alley like a bullet and slammed into Sephiroth. He did a flip in the air and landed on his feet. The newcomer had longish auburn hair that partially covered his eyes, and his purple outfit seemed to have wings that hung downward. "You will not hurt these people."

"Damn, it's you…" Sephiroth stood back up. "I wasn't planning on this interference. In these circumstances I must retreat for now, but I will return for your heads." He leaped up impossibly high into the air and disappeared.

"There was something familiar about that guy," Cloud said.

"Besides the fact that he's Sephiroth?" asked Seifer sarcastically.

"Yes actually." Cloud pondered about it, but drew a blank.

"Well I'll have to say that was an extremely short fight." Cid said while adjusting his trademark goggles.

"I'd have to agree," piped in the mystery man, "but it's over now and I have to go pursue that man."

"Wait a sec, who are you?" Seifer asked.

"My name is Kratos Aurion. I come from the land of Yggdrasilia. I work for the broken organization Cruxis."

"Whoa, whoa, Yggdrasilia? Cruxis? That's all new to me." A bewildered Cid questioned the auburn haired man.

"Ah yes, I forgot. This is technically still on Earth." Kratos turned towards the three. "Sit down, I'll explain the whole story."