This took much longer then I thought it would and I apologize. If something seems off about Rain's development through the story let's just chalk it up to being caused by her genetics and Hojo. I tried to make this as close to being as average baby development as possible, but I needed to make her develop a bit faster than normal, even found a site that gave me the average development stages from newborn to one-year-old and decided she would develop one month faster then what that site said was the average development. Also, you get a bit more detail about how Cloud lives while with AVALANCHE and how he loves and raises his daughter, and the suspicions the others have about Rain's biological mother.

I don't own Final Fantasy 7. Enjoy.

Chapter 3

Cloud knew he had fucked up when he approached the Highwind behind Yuffie. He knew the instant he saw Tifa standing before the ship, her hands on her hips, battle gloves on, furry on her face, and eyes living flames. He knew when he saw Barret and Cid turn around and walk onto the ship when they saw him, hell even Vincent shot him a pity glance and then hurried onto the ship to avoid Tifa's wrath. And suddenly, Cloud wanted to turn right around and head to the lodge by himself and never see his friends again. Unfortunately, he had already told Yuffie what he was doing and where he was going, and he did have to go back to leading AVALANCHE, so that was off the table. Maybe he could make whatever made Tifa mad up to her by working twice as hard once Rain was old enough to be left alone by her self for a few hours to a day. Maybe she will have forgotten by the end of the week.

"Cloud Strife," Tifa greeted, her voice as cold as steel. "Do you have any idea how long we have been waiting for you to show up after leaving us in the dark and ignoring all our calls?"

"Since a dragon ate my phone?" Cloud asked, silently praying to whatever deity was listening that Tifa would take his question as the apology it was meant to be. Curse Tifa for scaring the ability to talk right out of him!

"So you didn't get a new phone or find a way to tell us that you lost it because?" Tifa questioned.

Cloud was suddenly very grateful for the sling holding Rain to him at the moment, he was beyond positive his hands were shaking to badly to even hold her at the moment.

Cloud looked away from her eyes when he answered Tifa, unable to look her in the eyes any longer. "Shinra has access to everything on the phones and I was in no position to go see Revee or force one of the Turks to get the new phone scrambled from the system without someone finding out that shouldn't. That and as a Shinra Specialist for the Regular Army I had no reason to use my limited just getting by funds buying a new phone when I have a working Shinra issued phone on my person, that also couldn't be scrambled or I would have been killed by the Army for being a spy even if I wasn't."

"Your full of excuses aren't you?" Tifa growled, moving to stand before him, her walk more like a predator stalking its prey than a mad friend approaching a friend. "Tell me the truth Cloud and I won't punch you into next year."

Cloud could feel his body trembling, could feel his fear skyrocketing as Tifa got closer. He could hear a stronger heart next to his head beating faster and faster, and then he collapsed to the ground on his knees holding his head, pain and terror fighting to consume him. He barely heard Tifa shout his name and then start shouting for Vincent, he barely felt Yuffie place her hand on his arm, trying to pull him out of his panic with her presence alone. What he did feel more vividly was when someone else picked him up and pulled him away from the heartbeat he clung to and then everything snapped back into place again for him.

"What the hell was that?" Tifa whispered, pulling his gasping and trembling body closer to him, holding him in a hug as she watched Vincent for answers, only to get nothing.

It took Cloud a long while to regain himself again, so long the afternoon sun had turned to dusk, but no one had dared move more than necessary, for fear of setting off another panic attack in Cloud.

"Cloud?" Yuffie asked, catching his attention. "Cloud are you back with us?"

"Yeah," Cloud nodded, shaking slightly still as he pulled away from Tifa's hug, but not away from her calming presence. "What happened?"

"You were being pulled into someone else's mind," Vincent stated, making Cloud look up at him. He looked out of place cradling the pink blankets holding Rain, keeping her calm and close to him. "And since you only started calming down when I pulled the girl away from you, I'm going to tell you it was her mind you were being pulled into."

Cloud sighed, reaching his hand out to motion Vincent closer to him. "I'm back again, Vince. Let me have my daughter back, please."

"Cloud it isn't safe for you to have her so soon after one of these attacks," Vincent began, his voice soft but firm in a way only Vincent could ever manage.

"I know okay!" Cloud yelled, slamming his hands into the ground, watching as droplets of water fell onto the back of his hands. "I know its dangerous, that I could get pulled in again, but you don't understand! None of you will ever understand!"

"Then make us understand Cloud," Tifa calmly said, placing her hand over his. "Tell us so we can help you. You are our friend and if you need help we will be there for you. So tell us so we can understand, please."

"I don't know how to make you understand," Cloud whispered. "All I know is that when I'm holding her, I feel complete like I'm holding another part of me. And it's different than when Sephiroth made me a puppet, or that one life when Jenova managed to make me her pawn instead of Sephiroth and I fought to get free because completion with her felt wrong and evil. Rain doesn't feel like that, she makes me feel at home like you guys do. Just let me have my daughter back, please."

Vincent nodded, then carefully put Rain back into the sling still hanging on Cloud. "Come. Let's get you into your room on the Highwind. You can tell us everything when your feeling better."

"Thank you," Cloud whispered, wrapping his arms around Rain's small form, not even trying anymore to hide his tears as he looked down at his sleeping daughter.

~FINAL FANTASY 7 HYPE~

When Cloud's mountain lodge came into view from the Highwind's observation deck, Cloud was standing close to the glass holding Rain in a sitting position against his chest so she could see her new home.

"Look, sweetie," Cloud cooed softly, moving her so she was closer to his chest. "Were home now."

Cloud smiled as Rain gurgled and squealed in delight. He knew she shouldn't have this kind of understanding yet, something inside him was screaming so, his inner parent probably, but Cloud knew her father was Sephiroth, and Hojo had her for lord knows how long, so the enhanced parent and then Hojo's meddling probably sped things up a lot, but hopefully not too much.

"Remind me again how we were roped into calling that castle a 'mountain lodge'?" Cid called out from the helm, looking down at the beautiful expansive grounds and the towering building in the middle of it all. "How many rooms does that thing have again?"

Cloud frowned as he looked down at the building again, shifting so Rain was cradled against his chest instead of sitting against it. "I think it has twelve master bedrooms with the attached master bathrooms and two walk-in closets per room, ten guest bedrooms, five guest bathrooms, a kitchen, two living rooms, a den, an armory, a library, music room, inside and outside greenhouse, a meeting room, and a rec room. Outside it has a hangar for your ships, a workshop for me to tend to Fenrir, a training ground, a flower garden, a pond, a mini forest for the wolves, and an obstacle course or as Marlene puts it, a playground. Did I miss anything?"

"Right," Cid laughed. "Your personal castle in the mountains, but no, you're too modest to call it a castle so it's your mountain lodge."

Cloud grumbled under his breath, shifting while hiding his face from view. "Shut up. It's a lodge if you compare it to Shinra's tower. Don't judge me."

Cid kept laughing harder and harder, so hard in fact that his laughter brought the rest of AVALANCHE up to the observation deck to figure out why Cid was dying of laughter so badly he didn't even realize he turned on the intercoms.

"What is going on?" Tifa asked, hands on her hips looking at both of them, a frown on her face.

"He won't stop laughing at me," Cloud said. "He keeps doing this every time we go to my lodge together."

"You mean your castle?" Tifa asked, trying hard to not laugh at Cloud as well.

"It's not a castle Tifa!"

"Yes, it's not a castle," Vincent agreed. "A castle has at least three kitchens and five dining halls, along with ballrooms and a throne room. No, if anything this is a warrior encampment inside one building that was a manor."

Cloud groaned and dropped his head onto the glass. It was his house damnit. He built it up with his own two hands, even had Vincent and Cid help build up the shops and the armory, and they continuously make fun of him for it. "You bastards helped me build it. Just land the damn ship and let me off already. Then you can go back to doing whatever the hell it was you were planning!"

The others just laughed and shook their heads in amusement. Cid did, of course, gather himself enough to land the Highwind in its designated landing pad, only after circling Cloud's home a couple more times while still laughing.

~Cloud has a big house. Enjoy!~

Cloud frowned as he balanced a tray on one hand and baby bottles in the other. Working in the bar was good and all for getting things like this done alone without making a mess, but he wished he had help damnnit!

Why that leather-wearing bastard choose today of all days to bring his passed out friend to him was unknown, but it was becoming a hassle that Cloud didn't want to deal with. Couldn't he have at least waited another day or two until at least Arieth's group was back?!

Cloud nearly dropped the tray when he pushed the door open with his back, losing balance with the man within pulled it open on him.

"I understand the medical supplies on the tray," the man began, eyeing what was in Cloud's hands. "But I don't understand the baby bottles."

"Not for your friend," Cloud bit out, moving around the man to place the tray on the table. "Now tend to your friend and then get both of you out. I don't need mercenaries making my life harder, leather-wearing bastard."

"You dare-!"

"Yes, I dare!" Cloud growled, turning to face the man again after cutting him off. "I am the owner of this place, and I don't see you as guests. You are just nuisances who fell onto my land injured who I will help then kick-off. Like I have with everyone else who enters my land without my permission!"

Cloud turned on his heels and stormed out of the room, baby bottles clutched tightly in his hand, teeth gritted in anger. He ignored the man who screamed profanities after him, focused solely on returning to his daughter's playroom to make sure she was okay and happy.

It had been two months since he left Shinra with Rain, two long months of watching her grow worried that she was developing too fast for her body. Thanks to the medical files Revee managed to send them through Cait, Cloud now knew when Rain was born and had her health records till the day Hojo threw her to face Sephiroth, her confirmed biological father. He was also curious as to who her mother was as no woman was noted being her mother or was willing to carry her to term. It worried Cloud that Hojo may have done something bad to her mother before he sent her off to a man who didn't know anything about babies or could even care for her on his own with his mission schedule. Sephiroth was a military tactical genius and gifted in many ways with many skills, child-raising wasn't one of them.

Cloud sighed as he opened the door to see Rain crawling around, giggling happily as she played with the puppy Zack had sent them last month as a present to his baby niece. Not that he was complaining, having a companion for his daughter to play with was always a bonus when he couldn't be with her because travelers had fallen on his land. He could even teach the puppy how to protect her if something bad was happening in the house and he had to leave her alone with the pup.

What he was surprised about was that Zack remembered their past lives, every single one of them, and Cloud's absolute favorite dog breed, the German Shepherd. What surprised him even more, was that Zack was actively trying to leave Shinra with the three firsts, even going as far as to plan with a man he called 'Red' in his letter on how to get Angeal, Genesis, and Sephiroth to leave Shinra with Zack when he left. He had also bought Cloud a new phone, claiming to his superior when asked about buying a new phone, which verified Cloud's story about people asking about why they would buy phones, that the phone he bought was for his girlfriend, because she broke hers and he wanted to get her something nice so she could stay close to him in spirit. Though why Zack decided to let him know in a letter he wrote then sent off with Arieth along with the three-week-old puppy was unknown to Cloud, but might have to do with the fact that Zack was always everywhere and nowhere at once when he was thinking.

Cloud snapped back to reality when he heard a throat being cleared behind him. He turned his head to see the man and his friend standing a few feet away, watching him.

"We thank you for your help," The one in leather said. "We'll be leaving now. Sorry for intruding on your property and endangering your family."

Cloud only nodded, watching as they walked away, pulling up his security cameras on his phone to watch them leave the grounds and then see them off for good, all while laying on the floor of his daughters playroom, smiling lightly as she started playing with her dolls, happily babbling nonsensical sounds, her puppy companion happily playing with her.

Cloud pulled up his contacts after the men were gone and scrolled to find the one he was searching for, pressing the call icon when he found the proper contact.

"Hey, it's me," Cloud started. "Can you find a nice fancy dress and a tuxedo? I'm going to sneak into Shinra's annual ball with Vincent in six days. And I don't think Vince will be able to pull off the hot but shy rich girl act as well as I can."

Cloud looked over to see Rain watching him silently as if she was categorizing him or analyzing him, maybe even judging him. It was really cute how she watched with wide-open eyes but also super creepy when you remembered no matter how fast she was growing, Rain was still only four months old and shouldn't be able to have that level of cognition no matter what that creepy bastard had done to her.

"You're looking more and more like your father every day with your eyes," Cloud said out loud, then startled when the person on the other end started yelling at him for not paying attention. "I'm sorry. Please calm down. I'll wear anything you ask as long as it's not that purple dress from hell."

After an hour on the phone with his 'fashion designer', Cloud sat up and stretched, blinking down at Rain sleeping happily with her bottle and her puppy curled close to her. He had made his plans and had Tifa ready to watch Rain for the few days it would take to do this little mission.

The hardest part of this mission was leaving Rain to be cared for by someone else. Cloud didn't like having to leave his little girl alone, for the simple fact that he hated how the bond between them caused her sorrow and confusion to reach him even harder than without the damn thing, and force him to replay them over and over long after he couldn't feel her through the bond. It hurt him, even more, when he let his mind remembered the sorrow and pain he felt the morning after Zack's party through his bond with Sephiroth and the utter confusion as to why Sephiroth was hurting so badly. He hated being reminded that his greatest enemy was once human too.

"Sweet dreams pumpkin," Cloud whispered as he stood up. His movement caused the puppy to look up at him, so he smiled down at the pup. "Take care of her Daila."

He smiled softer when he turned and heard Daila move closer to Rain, softly thumping her tail.

As the door closed behind him, his features hardened until no softness was left. It was going to be a long trip and he didn't want to make any stupid mistakes while in the heart of Shinra's domain.

~Ball scene will appear as a separate story connected to this one. My brother and I are trying to think of stupid things Zack could do to make Cloud's life harder and what prank wars or fights they could indulge in while never leaving the ball. That will be out as soon as we come to an agreement and I type it up.~

Cloud looked at Aerith in confusion. "Excuse me? You want to what?"

"Cloud," Aerith began, placing her hand on his shoulder. "I want to have a DNA test done on you and Rain. She's about to be nine months old, so now is the perfect time to either confirm or deny what I keep finding myself thinking."

"Aerith, you understand how crazy you sound right?" Cloud said, but confusion and doubt could be found in his eyes trying to crush the spark of hope that was slowly forming. "I'm a guy, I can't be Rain's biological mom."

"Please Cloud, just taking the test won't hurt anything," Aerith said softly, reaching across the table to place her hand on his. "We won't think any different about you if it's positive, and no one will change how they feel about Rain if it's negative. All we are doing is giving you another way to tie Rain deeper into this family."

Cloud sighed and flipped his hand over to hold Aerith's. "Okay, we can do the test, but it happens in this house with someone we trust. No doctors or scientists that would report this to Shinra."

"Thank you," Aerith smiled. "Now hows my adorable niece doing? I haven't seen her ages!"

Cloud chuckled as he stood up and started walking towards Rain's room. "You saw her last month before you went to see Zack and help the others in Wutai. That wasn't ages ago."

"Dilly Dally Shilly Shally," Aerith chanted, skipping to catch up to Cloud. "A month is too long!"

Cloud chuckled and watched as Aerith skipped ahead of him to get to Rain's room. "She will be happy to see you. She misses Auntie Aerith."

Aerith's laughter drifted behind her as she started hurrying up the stairs to get to Rain's room. Cloud shook his head with a smile on his face as he followed her up, catching up to her in time to see Rain's door being opened and to hear the excited squeal that followed.

Cloud spent the next few hours watching from the doorway or being dragged into playing with them until Rain was ready for a nap.

"Has her mental progress slowed down?" Aerith asked, tucking Rain into her bed, before giving the sleeping girl a kiss on the forehead and petting Daila, Rain's constant companion.

"Thankfully yes," Cloud sighed out. "Let's go somewhere else to discuss this please."

Aerith nodded, and they both moved to the sitting room on that floor, which Cloud had made using one of the unused bedrooms. When they were both comfortable on the sofas and loveseats, Cloud sighed.

"I haven't gone on many missions with you guys and only ask if you succeeded in what I sent you out to do when you get back," Cloud began. "And I'm sorry for that, but being here with Rain has let me see just how fast she is developing."

"How bad did that creep hurt her?" Aerith asked softly, her mother hen side coming out for comfort, but also to scare Cloud into spilling everything he had found out.

Cloud sighed and began talking, looking right at Aerith, or down at his hands as he reported to her. "According to the guide to new parents, other than being able to move a week or two before other babies, she hasn't shown any physical differences from a normal child, but it's her mental development that has progressed to fast. Rain can understand everything I say, even going so far as to try to repeat it. She hasn't spoken her first word yet, but she is getting close to being able to copy the sounds I make. She still can't make the sounds, but she's getting closer to actually speaking instead of using nonsensical sounds every day."

"So she is developing faster mentally and physically than other babies, but she has trouble making sounds that babies should be able to make at her age?" Aerith asked, trying to make it easier to understand.

Cloud chuckled and nodded. "Basically she might have a speech impediment, but she is too young to be able to come to that conclusion. The book said it was the average growth rate for babies, and to not be scared or worried if your child isn't developing like the book says exactly because all children develop differently, but see a doctor if the child is struggling with one of the growth marks when they reach a year old, as all children should be able to make vowel sounds and say at least mama by the time they are one."

"So we just have to keep talking around her and encouraging her to talk with us to get her back on track with the average?" Aerith asked, sinking farther into the couch she was sitting on. "Sound's easy enough. Reading books and encouraging her to read them with us should fix that."

Cloud laughed as Aerith began digging book after book all for children out of the bag she had thrown into the room when she got back earlier that day. Sure his daughter was developing differently than the average, but he wasn't worried. His friends were around to help him set things right anyway.

His thoughts changed drastically in the next two months as all the females made it their mission to make Cloud do all the improvements to Rain's speaking skills, and by the time Rain was about to turn twelve she could make vowel sounds and what sounded like mama.

~So, imagine everything Shinra has been trying to do foiled in some hilarious way, and that's basically what all of AVALANCHE but Cloud has been doing for like ten months.~

Cloud sighed for what seemed to be the thousandth time that day. Someone decided that a family field trip out to the nearest town was in order, but the nearest town just so happened to be one of Shinra's biggest military towns, so the only one not in some disguise to have fun was him and Rain. But he should have told them to forget about the disguises. Not a single SOLDIER or trooper were in the town that day because of something happening in the headquarters in the military encampment just outside the main gates.

So, here they were sitting at an outside table in front of a quaint and homey cafe in the middle of Kalm, waiting for their orders to come out while talking about silly things like who was making dinner that night, who was going to help clean out the Chocobo stables that evening, what they needed to buy while they were in town before they left, etc. It was really quite bizarre of an experience for Cloud as it was quite different from all the fights and battles, from staying at home taking care of Rain, or hunting down wildlife to bring home to cook and jerky. It was really a novel experience for our favorite blonde hero to be so at peace in this outdoor cafe in the middle of the biggest military encampment that the biggest evil corporation owned, at risk of being found by one of the top four SOLDIERs at any moment or for someone to blabber to the troopers that a strange group of people were eating in the middle of town. It was really nice.

"Mama," came a soft coo from Cloud's lap, and Cloud thinking nothing of it, hummed in response, until the fact that the table had gone silent had sunk in a moment later.

"What?" Cloud was sitting up straight, looking down at his bight eyed, smiling little girl sitting in his lap. Rain was smiling and looking proud of herself, so proud it made Cloud feel proud as he realized what Rain had said.

"Mama! Mama! Mama!" Rain chanted again and again, smiling and laughing.

Everyone at the table smiled and laughed along, watching Rain and Cloud with love and adoration in their eyes, their features soft and at peace in this loving moment between Cloud and Rain.

Cloud was in awe with the simple word that Rain was chanting, he was happy, Rain was calling him Mama. This was one of Cloud's happiest moments of his life and he didn't think anything could ruin it.

Well, that was until Rain pointed behind him and screamed "Dada!" as they walked through the streets back to the Highwind with all the bags and items they had bought.

Cloud spun around, along with everyone else in his group, and stopped dead. At the end of the street, looking right at them was Sephiroth, Angeal, Genesis, and Zack. When Sephiroth took the first step towards them, his eyes focused on Cloud and Rain, Cloud reacted faster than the others.

"Vincent get Cid to the ship and get it ready for take-off now," Cloud ordered quitely. "Everyone else needs to run as fast as you can. We need to leave now."

And then it was absolute chaos as Vincent grabbed Cid then vanished, the others ran faster and faster towards where the Highwind was located, and before Cloud turned his back and ran with them, he saw Zack trip in front of Sephiroth, Genesis, and Angeal causing them to all collapse into a groaning tangled mess. The topping point that had Cloud and the others cracking up later as they flew away from Kalm safely on the Highwind, was that as Cloud ran, Rain waved back at Sephiroth and called out "Bye Dada!"

What wasn't funny was how Zack, bloody and broken, showed up at the gates to Cloud's home a month later and said something bad had happened and they needed to talk.

Hope you guys enjoyed and sorry about the cliff hanger. This chapter had almost hit five thousand words before I was finished with it, and if I went into Zack's part it would take even longer to get out. So, hope you guys enjoyed it and look forward to the next chapter, which should be out hopefully before December 2019.