Summary: There are a lot of time travel fixit fics in the FFVII multiverse. I enjoy a lot of them, but if I were the Planet (or Cloud), this is what I'd do.
Part 1: Try…
«FAILURE!»
Cloud groaned and held his head. The planet's voice was never soft. When it was upset, it was literally brain-pounding.
«Failure!»
"I know." He said it aloud. It was easier than trying to think it back.
«Again.»
Cloud opened his eyes. Unsurprised to see the white space mostly empty except for some of Aerith's white flowers. He hadn't seen anybody else since five – four? No, five attempts ago. Not even a whisper of Aerith's voice. If he looked very hard at the distance, the white was dissolving into greenish-black.
Cloud didn't look at the distance.
«Again!»
"Yeah, yeah," Cloud muttered. He'd just gotten back to the lifestream. He'd like a moment to recover. He'd only been sixteen when he died this time. Killed by Sephiroth when he'd burned Nibelheim. He'd known replacing Tifa as the guide wouldn't work but the planet was getting desperate.
However, the plan's failure gave Cloud leverage.
"This time we go with my idea," he said. Spoken words didn't echo in this white space. They had no resonance. Instead, they left his mouth and were absorbed.
«Dangerous. Final. No return.»
There were ideas, images, concepts, to go with the words the planet bellowed at him. They were confusing for someone who wasn't a planet to interpret, but they'd had this discussion enough times that Cloud understood.
His plan required him to go back nearly a decade before his birth, so if he died before that time's Cloud was born, his soul would be unmoored. It would be irretrievable by the planet, meaning there could be no more attempts until that world's Cloud died.
And even then, that world's Cloud would have to go through something similar to what he had gone through, which shouldn't happen if he changed things enough. So, no more attempts at all. The planet would be alone fighting the infestation of its lifestream.
It didn't help that the planet was not an optimist.
He repeated his insistence that they try his idea this time. "It's our best chance."
The concept of negative-rejection-denial pounded at him.
"We've tried everything else."
The planet was silent.
If Cloud had had the energy, he'd've called it pouting. Instead, he just breathed in the scent of the flowers that Aerith had loved enough to bring with her after death.
«Accepted.»
Cloud felt the swirling energy of the lifestream fill the space around him. "Please make me an adult!" he shouted before his awareness of himself was shredded and he was nothing once again.
Part 2: Try…
Cloud came to in a cave full of crystal.
He recognized it, of course. Lucrecia's cave, but there was no Lucrecia.
That was hopeful.
«Start. Change.»
"Yeah, yeah."
He lifted his arms to make sure the planet hadn't made him a kid. They were slim and smooth, lacking the muscles and scars he'd develop as he got older, so he guessed mid to late teens? Not great, but at least the planet hadn't made him a baby.
That had been annoying the one time it had happened. He'd survived, because he could now live essentially on air just like Vincent. However, it had been horrible waiting until he was strong enough to get to the nearest village. Once there, he'd been adopted by a loving, childless couple, and had had to wait another fourteen years before they'd let him leave their overprotective care.
He never went by their house.
Cloud shook off what had once been and instead examined what else the planet had given him and was unsurprised to discover it had let him keep his modified SOLDIER First uniform from his first life. They'd both been far more hopeful then.
He had the Ultima weapon. Even though he preferred his Fusion Sword, the planet always gave him Ultima
The planet's first gift to him.
If only he'd known how many strings came with accepting it.
"Right," he muttered. Time to get up. "Soonest started; soonest done."
He needed to find out the year. He needed to find the weapon he needed, but for that he'd need money. He wasn't that far from Mount Nibel. He'd grab the All materia and get to work.
.o0|0o.
Cloud killed his twenty-seventh Magic Pot and thought that the hardest thing about this now was getting to the Northern Crater.
He ate an apple while he waited. Not because he needed to, but because he was working his way through all the different varieties of apples to see if the Banora White really was the best.
So far, Zack's memories had his mentor being 100 percent correct.
From one of the side passages, Cloud heard the crackle of energy that surrounded Magic Pots. One final bite then he tossed the core to the side. Time to kill Magic Pots 28 and 29.
Maybe he'd wander over to the graveyard on the other side of the crater. Kill something else for a while.
.o0|0o.
"Are you sure you want to sell it?" the proprietor asked. "Your family probably spent a lot of years mastering it, and you're pretty young to be –"
"It's not a family heirloom. I do want to sell it. I know what I'm doing." He always had a version of this conversation when he was sent back looking younger than about 30. If he just kept repeating it, he'd finally get his money.
"Are you sure…?"
.o0|0o.
He didn't have the same problem at the weapon shop. The owner barely looked at him as she pulled down items as Cloud requested them.
"I also need a carry bag."
"Ten gil extra."
"No problem."
Part 3: Try…
Cloud parked himself on a mountain peak that should've been inaccessible. For anyone else (except maybe Sephiroth) it would've been. The remoteness, and the view of both the Shinra mansion's large back window and the sunken back entrance to the underground lab, made it the perfect spot to set up his blind.
He unpacked the sniper rifle he'd purchased and carefully assembled it, hearing Vincent's voice guiding him through the steps. He'd practiced with it out in the Corel desert where there was nothing but cactuars and snakes. He'd practiced with it in the northern foothills where the wind was more unpredictable.
He was comfortable with it He was familiar with its quirks.
He was ready.
He pulled the blanket over his head and settled in to wait.
He waited.
Helicopters arrived. Shinra minions in blue coveralls and white ballcaps industriously shifted supplies and equipment. All of it standard, none of it what he was looking for.
He waited.
Lights came on in the mansion, so Cloud settled in next to the rifle using the scope to hone his already enhanced vision.
Two women, both with long dark hair. One was Lucrecia Crescent. The other reminded Cloud of Aerith.
Ifalna Faremis. If Aerith's mother was here, then Gast Faremis, her father, was probably here, too. Or were they married at this point?
Cloud knew more history now than he ever had in his first life, but most of it was big things, momentous things. He didn't know when Aerith's parents had fallen in love.
No matter.
If Dr Faremis was here, it was a good bet that Hojo had already arrived.
He waited.
Several dark-suited individuals passed by the large window. Cloud couldn't tell if any of them were Vincent.
He waited.
Three days later, with the sounds of another helicopter coming over the ridge, Hojo finally emerged in a clump with Faremis and Lucrecia Crescent. All the scientific bigwigs, waiting for this one particular helicopter.
«Infection!»
It was all the confirmation Cloud needed. He took advantage of them all staring up and to the side to put a bullet through Hojo's temple. And then another through his chest. He'd used explosive ammo so Hojo's head and torso would shred into chunks.
Cloud didn't watch. Instead, he rolled and sighted upwards. Cargo area, two hits, and his last bullet went into the gas tank.
He was already tearing down his blind as the helicopter blew.
«Return?»
"Not yet."
The ledge he was on curved around an outcropping. He used it to cover his ascent to the top of the mountain. hopping from sheer cliff to sheer cliff. Once over the top he brought out his wings.
By the time the Turks got anybody up in the sky over Nibelheim, he'd be long, long gone.
Part 4: Again.
It took him a while to get to Midgar. Long enough for the headlines to say the trail had gone cold, but that Shinra Security Forces were redoubling their efforts at the crossing points.
Since he'd already crossed (and boy had his back ached after that journey) that meant fewer soldiers to run into around Midgar.
He stood on the mesa where a sword had once been plunged into the ground, and looked at the city that had defined so many of his lives.
It was only half built.
The structure was there – the pillars were rising up from the ground floor, the girders were extending out from the existing plates – but there were only five complete sectors and only six working reactors.
There were still green fields on the ground.
He was standing on grass. He'd never seen grass up here before.
It was weird.
He shoved Ultima into the ground.
«Query.»
Cloud had tried to explain sneaking and subterfuge to the planet before. It was futile. Like trying to teach poetry to a fish.
He'd bought a smaller, less aggressive looking blade at the same time he'd bought the sniper rifle. With it, he looked like a traveller, prepared for the regular dangers found on the roads, not someone ready to take on an army.
He had materia for that.
If he had to use it, he'd already failed.
He laid down in the grass and waited for dusk.
.o0|0o.
Nobody stopped him as he walked through the half-built sector. The few security troops barely looked at him. They would've if he'd been carrying Ultima, he pointed out to the planet.
The planet didn't respond.
Through Sector 4, into the tower which was, of course, open to the public. 'See, public,' it seemed to say, 'we're just a friendly company with nothing to hide.' It could've even been true at this point. The human experimentations didn't happen until after Jenova had been found.
On the other hand, this was the company who'd hired Hojo and Hollander – and Scarlet and Heidegger.
Even without Jenova, Shinra was rotten.
.o0|0o.
The first set of elevators in the Shinra Tower Cloud knew stopped at the 59th floor. In every iteration, they never went all the way to the top. Apparently, this was because the original tower only had 60 floors.
Cloud had never known that.
Made sense. As old man Shinra had grown in power and influence, he'd wanted to be closer to the gods and farther from the common people he exploited.
This top floor was still the president's office, but it was a little less grand than the one Cloud was used to. There was no helicopter pad, so no direct outside access. Cloud knew this because he'd tried flying up to it.
«Danger.»
'No shit,' Cloud thought as he inched his way through the vents. Like Shinra's office, these were a lot smaller than he remembered as well. Good thing he only had his skinny 16-year-old body
Between vents and back stairwells, he made his way to the 60th floor.
It was late, but not unreasonably so. Rufus had already been born, but President Shinra had never seemed to care much for his son when he was older, so Cloud was hoping he didn't care about Rufus when he was small either.
Cloud's hope was rewarded.
President Shinra was sitting at his desk, smoking one of his fat cigars. He had a curvy young woman sitting in his lap. With those curves and that hair, it could've been a young Scarlet. If it was then all the rumours in every lifetime had been true.
Cloud didn't actually care.
"Get out," he told her.
She skittered out like a fawn, so he guessed she wasn't Scarlet after all.
"Who are you?"
"Nobody you know," Cloud answered and cut off his head.
There was a click of a gun behind him.
"I should kill you."
Cloud put his hands up. Smiling he turned around. It wasn't Tseng.
"Yes, you should."
«DANGER!»
The spike of pain took Cloud's knees out from him. He heard the Turk swear, but behind that he heard the rising crescendo of Sephiroth's otherworldly choir – Jenova, cheering him on.
"Cloud…. Do you think this will change anything?"
Cloud forced himself straight. "I know it will."
"Who the hells are you?" the Turk demanded.
Sephiroth ignored him. "Everything you've done here, can be undone," he crooned. "I will track you through time."
"I don't think so," Cloud said, and called in Ultima from that lonely cliff edge.
Masamune grew in Sephiroth's hand. "Very well. We'll dance this dance again."
The Turk opened fire on Sephiroth. Sephiroth flicked his wrist, casual and quick, and sliced the poor Turk in half.
"Where were we?" he said. "Ah yes, our dance."
It was a croon, like a lover to their partner, darkly seductive and full of shared secrets.
In the lives where he'd fought Sephiroth in a group of people, they'd told him that Sephiroth sounded like he was trying to seduce Cloud.
Mostly, Cloud had been too busy fighting for his life to notice, but for some reason, this time it was obvious. Maybe because, like Cloud, this was a Sephiroth before his proper time. There were only their essences in this time, distilled down to basic emotions.
One of Cloud's basic emotions was determination, and he used it now to block Sephiroth. "You're not going to win," he said.
"Of course, I am." Sephiroth smiled. "Wherever you go, I can go too. Our bodies and our minds are linked. You know this, Cloud. You can feel it."
Cloud swung and parried in the well-known rhythm, letting the words flow over him. The taunts were just part of the pattern, no different from any other time.
When the moment was right, he spoke up.
"You may be bound to me," he said with a smile. "But I…" He put up his sword. "…am unbound."
Cloud hadn't blocked Sephiroth's swing. In fact, he'd stepped into it so that Masamune would get him cleanly through his torso. It sliced through him as easily as it always did. No potion or Cure could fix it.
Sephiroth's eyes widened in horror. "What have you done?"
Cloud watched the green glitter of dissolution overtake his extremities. "I've freed us."
As the top part of him fell to the carpet, he could see chunks of Sephiroth falling to the floor, melting into the black goo that marked Jenova's creatures.
Sephiroth screamed, but Cloud smiled.
Part 5: Restart
"Daddy! Daddy! Daddy! I heard the planet. Just like Mommy says she can."
Gast Faremis caught his little girl as she jumped. She was such an enthusiastic child. Far more dynamic than her baby brother. "So, what did it say?"
"Success!"
…/fin
AN: That's it. Written in one day because a time travel fixit I was reading discarded its plot to focus on Cloud and Sephiroth UST (and not so U). Still well written, but... but... plot!