Final Fantasy VII - The Other Promise

Pairing: Cloud x Tifa

Summary: What if Cloud had kept all of his memories instead of being under the assumption of a 1st Class Soldier after Zack's death? How would the story unfold with this small change? Retelling of Final Fantasy VII but with a few twists...

"Talking..."

'Thoughts...'

"Flashback..."

Limit Break

Magic/Materia/Summon

[Play/End Music]

Chapter #1: The Bombing Run

[Play FFVII OST - Opening Theme/Bombing Mission 1:10]

"Halt! Hands up!" yelled a Shinra trooper with another stood beside him with their guns ready, but it was pointless as Cloud single-handedly eliminated them in an instant despite the fact he was swinging a sword as big as his body. Behind was AVALANCHE as Jessie, Biggs, and Wedge went ahead of him while Barret stood by Cloud.

"C'mon newcomer. Follow me." said Barret as he ran towards the entrance of the Mako reactor. Cloud followed as he met with the rest of the group in front of the gate huddled around Jessie who was crouched currently inputting a few codes to open the gate. Noticing Cloud's presence, Biggs turned towards Cloud.

"Wow! So you used to be in SOLDIER huh? he asked.

"Well I-..." Cloud said until he was interrupted by Wedge.

"It's not everyday you find one in a group like AVALANCHE." said Biggs as Jessie turned her head to face them.

"Still can't believe that a guy like you from SOLDIER would be here with us in AVALANCHE." said Jessie as she then looked away getting back to opening the door.

"I-uh..." Cloud stuttered seeing he wasn't going to have anytime to finish his sentence without being interrupted.

"Door is open." Jessie said as the gate started to open. Barret gave out hand signal in which both Jessie and Biggs advanced ahead.

"You should join AVALANCHE. After all, you're doing this for the planet, the same as us." Wedge said to Cloud.

"Not interested." Cloud replied as he really had no intention to stay with them.

"Wedge!" ordered Barret as he turned his attention to Cloud as Wedge nodded.

"Ex-Soldier huh? I don't trust ya!" Barret said before he ran to the reactor.

'I shouldn't even bother telling these idiots, especially him. Once the job's done I'm outta here.' Cloud thought in annoyance, before he looked up at the mako reactor and followed Barret leaving Wedge who was securing their escape route. They reached a sealed door that Biggs and Jessie were examining.

"Yo! This your first time in a reactor?" asked Barret.

"Hardly, I did used to work for Shinra you know." said Cloud.

"The Planet's full of mako energy and people use it everyday," He paused, clenching his fist. "It's the life blood of the of the Planet. But Shinra keeps suckin' the blood out with these machines."

"The life blood of the Planet," said Cloud. "So the Planet will eventually dry up and die?" he asked in which Barret nodded in response until the gate opened.

"Code deciphered." Biggs announced with a code-breaking device in his hand as another gate was being unlocked by Jessie with the same device Biggs has in her hands.

"Code deciphered." said Jessie as the gate opened to reveal an elevator in which Cloud, Barret, and Jessie entered leading them deeper into the reactor. Jessie stayed behind leaving both Cloud and Barret into the deepest part of the reactor. On the way, Cloud found a Restore Materia lying around on the floor.

[End OST]

"When we blow this place, it ain't gonna be nothin' more than a hunka junk," said Barret. He gestured at the main part of the reactor. "Cloud, you set the bomb." Barret declared.

"Why me? Shouldn't you do it?" Cloud asked.

"Just do it!" Barret demanded. "I gotta watch to make sure you don't pull nothin'!"

"Fine," said Cloud, walking up to the reactor. "I'll do it."

Cloud stopped in front of the reactor and set the bomb on the valve. For a brief moment, he was struck by another headache and Cloud could've sworn he saw a black feather gently fall towards the ground.

"What's wrong Cloud? Hurry it up!" said Barret impatiently.

"Yeah, sorry…" said Cloud as he recovered. He set up the timer for 20 minutes which should give them enough time for them to escape the reactor before it explodes. As his finger hovered over the button to activate the bomb, alarms started going off which got Cloud turned around with his hand on the hilt of the Buster Sword ready for combat. (1)

[Play FF7 Remake - Those Who Fight Further by Slayer Santiago]

"Huh? You double-crossing!" said Barret as he pointed towards Cloud.

Cloud ignored Barret as he heard something heavy approaching them making him tense. He then looked up finding the source of the noise dropping down from the ceiling.

"Heads up!" Cloud warned.

"What in the hell!?" shouted Barret as he looked up to see what came landing in front of them was a giant red mechanical scorpion.

"A Scorpion Sentinel!" said Cloud as he wasted no time rushing in close combat with his bandaged Buster Sword attacking the Scorpion Sentinel.

"Hey! How the hell do we fight this thing?" asked Barret firing from a distance.

"It's got reinforced armor plating-but the internals can be overloaded. Lightning magic." said Cloud as he hacked and slashed the Scorpion Sentinel before he dodge rolled away from getting crushed.

"No other option, huh? Hraaagh!" said Barret as he continued to lay bullets to the Scorpion Sentinel until it launched Mark 99 Launchers at Cloud.

"Shit!" Cloud cursed as he dodged the oncoming barrage of missiles targeting him.

"Uhhh, should I be worried!?" asked Barret as he saw the barrage of missiles. Cloud didn't reply as he continued fighting the mechanical scorpion and rushed at it with seven consecutive thrusting attacks using his Sonic Blade limit. (2) The Scorpion Sentinel jumped away from them and attached itself on the wall.

"It's on you." said Cloud seeing that his sword won't reach and Barret can with his ranged attacks.

"Guess it's my turn," said Barret as he fired his gun arm at the scorpion which began retaliating by launching more missiles at them which they dodged.

"Not good enough!"

The Scorpion Sentinel landed back on the platform where Cloud and Barret are and tried to attack until Cloud short-circuited it with Thunder.

"Aww yeah! Time for some hardcore payback!" exclaimed Barret as he started dealing some damage. "Going all out!" said Cloud as he started punishing the robot with some fast sword swings.

The Scorpion Sentinel recovered and jumped to the wall and crawled as it jumped again landing on the other side of the platform Cloud and Barret were as it lifted it's mechanical front legs and slammed them on the ground. Green hexagonal patterns started to cover the scorpion boss.

"The hell is that!?"

"A barrier? Never seen this defense system before…" Cloud remarked as he ran towards the boss.

"Tch, thought you were the expert!"

"So what's your brilliant plan, genius?" Cloud sassed back as he swung his sword at the robot but did no damage seeing as his attacks just bounce right off. He was then grabbed by the Scorpion Sentinel which then raised its tail at Cloud.

"It's my time to shine!" said Barret as he fired a charged focused shot at the robot which made it release Cloud from it's metal pincers. "Hey! Ain't there something you want to say to yours truly?"

"Bingo. Focus on that core!" said Cloud as he ignored Barret's smug and found a weakness of the Scorpion Sentinel beneath its tail and started slashing at it and rolled away from it as it slammed its body creating an electrical burst attack.

"Oh now he remembers. Don't keep me waiting in suspense next time!"

The Sentinel Scorpion's barrier defense system soon turned from green to red hexagonal patterns and started to leap onto the wall again, this time it shot missiles towards the ceiling making debris fall down before landing on the other side of the platform.

"Dammit. Need to heal up soon..." Cloud noted until he noticed the tail being raised and a laser being charged up. "Watch the tail! You don't want to be hit by that laser!" Cloud warned as he hid behind a piece of debris that provided cover and healed himself using a potion.

"Huh!? So whadda we do!?"

"Don't get hit! Take cover behind that debris!"

Barret hid behind another piece of debris nearby Cloud as the tail fired its laser at Cloud which didn't seem to penetrate his cover until the laser stopped.

"Strike now before it fires again!" As Cloud flips into the air swinging his Buster Sword downwards using his Braver limit with Barret following up with machine gun fire. "Suck on this!" Barret yelled.

A green glow started to surround the Scorpion Sentinel from underneath.

"Aw hell! What's it doing now?!

"An auto repair unit? Dammit-we gotta take it out quick or we're screwed!" Cloud said as he noticed the glow originating from the scorpion's left leg. "Aim for the left leg!"

"Don't worry about that," said Barret as his gun arm started to charge up a bright orange orb of energy charging his Big Shot limit. "This one right here is for the planet!"

Barret fired his Big Shot and it consumed both targets in a fiery explosion destroying the Scorpions healing unit, but the robot was barely managing until Cloud appeared in front of it.

"You're as good as dead!" Cloud said as he finished it off with his Cross Slash limit making three slash marks that made a 凶 kanji. (3)

The Scorpion Sentinel began to collapse until it raised its tail up charging another laser. Seeing this, both Cloud and Barret jumped to the side as the tail laser started to go out of control and hit the reactor.

"Shit! The bomb!" exclaimed Barret as he noticed and jumped back as pieces of debris fell down and caused the bomb to activate the timer.

"20 minutes until detonation…"

"C'mon let's get out of here!" Cloud said as he and Barret both started their escape out of the burning reactor that started its countdown to explode.

[End OST]

Final Fantasy VII - The Other Promise

(1) Final Fantasy VII Remake - E3 Sentinel Scorpion Boss Fight

(2) Sonic Blade - Sora's Limit from Kingdom Hearts

(3) 凶 is the kanji for 'Kyo' which translates "Misfortune" or "Curse"

AN: So this took about a week longer than expected. Honestly this whole chapter was just the Scorpion Sentinel boss fight in the FF7 Remake presentation from E3. Reason for this being was because of a few things that got me busy in life, also it may have been because I was in a bit of depression. Recently I received a review for this fanfic stating whether or not I'm illiterate, so yeah that kind of hit me.

I'm sure some of you have heard but very recently, Kyoto Animation was set on fire and over 33 people were killed. This pained me a bit seeing as I'm part of the anime community. I know others have mixed feelings with this and I do hope you share your condolences and hope for their recovery.

I'm kind of sad when I was writing this chapter because I want the FF7 Remake to come out already so I can get my hands on the Soundtrack CD that receive in the pre-order. Of course if you love Final Fantasy 7 like me, I order the First-Class edition. So when the remake does come out I'll update this as well as future updates with the remake OST, but for now please enjoy the OST that I'll be putting in the future chapters or you could just listen to the audio of the boss fight since it's basically what I got from YouTube to here. Plus shout-out to the "TAKE MY WALLET!" guy at the end of the FF7 Remake presentation.

Before any of you get on my case about why I gave Cloud the Sonic Blade limit which rightfully belongs to Sora, think about what I'm about to explain to all of you. Yes Sora does get it after the Coliseum World in KH1, but if you noticed Sora learns it after Cloud practically hands it to him. Plus Cloud was the first one to use the move when you go against him with his iconic "HAAAAAH!" war cry when he either uses it or spams it for like 2 minutes.

Also most of you know this already but I forgot to mention this in the last chapter, Steve Burton is no longer the voice actor of Cloud Strife. Yeah that kind of sucks since I've been accustomed to his voice in other titles such as Kingdom Hearts, Dissidia, and Advent Children. 17 years he's been the voice of Cloud Strife but just like Steve Burton said on his twitter about his role of Cloud, new doors open. Cody Christian is the new voice of Cloud in the FF7 Remake and personally he sounds great. In fact, I actually like the new voice cast we have so far for the FF7 Remake. Can't wait to hear how the rest of the gang will sound like Yuffie, Cait Sith, Vincent, Cid, and possibly Zack.

As Cody Christian stated on his twitter about voicing Cloud: "Steve, you paved the way. You made this character what it is and have contributed in shaping a legacy. Very big shoes to fill and it's both an honor and a pleasure. For all that you have done, and for all the fans, I won't let you down, thank you." Steve Burton has now passed down the role of Cloud Strife to Cody Christian making him his living legacy.

That's about it anyway so hopefully I'll be able to get the next chapter posted up sooner. I want to make this story big and those of you who follow/fav this story already, it means so much to me but thank you for your support. Oh yeah, I'll be keeping the story arcs up until I'm able to update it since I basically have all of Disc 1 planned out. So updates on future arcs for Disc 2 & 3 will appear later on. Until next time!

Final Fantasy VII - The Other Promise [Story Arcs]

Midgar Arc - Chapters #1-10

Kalm & Yuffie Arc - Chapters #11-16

Junon to Rocket Town Arc - Chapters #17-27

Wutai Arc - Chapters #28-31

To the Forgotten City - Chapters #32-38

North Crater Arc - Chapters #39-42

Mideel & Huge Materia Arc - Chapters #41-?

Next Time: Lingering Will

TO BE CONTINUED