The plan was going well. The human's partner wasn't expected to die; the illness wasn't Jenova's doing. In turn, the human wasn't expected to make The Deal so soon.

Originally, the child would've been born to a normal life, raised by his human parents in Nibelheim. When that child turned four, Jenova would've triggered an event, and The Deal would've been made. What the event would have been, Jenova hadn't decided, but it did not matter now. Having the human stay, and the child still a newborn complicated things. Four seemed like a good age: the child would've been old enough to interact, but still young enough to have his way of thinking and believing changed. A newborn was more complicated since it couldn't do much, but Jenova was patient. This was worth it.

Jenova had purposely left Sephiroth with Cloud. The human wasn't stupid, but very easy to manipulate. It only took persistence. Jenova had filled the human with hope and the idea that she could be saved. So, the human climbed up the mountain. Jenova had been there the whole time. She had watched the human from the start, seeing how far it could go before it gave up. It was then that Jenova showed herself. The human was reminded of what exactly happened. So, the human thought it was a dream, since either the creatures would have killed them or the journey itself would have. That led to the human following along, since anything could happen in a dream.

The human's survival wasn't based on luck, either. It had taken years to create the child, and having it die was not going to happen. The Planet and everything on it had been created by Jenova: the air, the plants, the creatures – everything. The creatures remembered that; the plants remembered that; the humans had forgotten. So, the wolves, dragons, and everything else steered clear of the human, allowing it to pass without incident. The human would never have let the child go, so killing it was out of the question.

Though Jenova despised humans with a part of her being, she gave it a little more thought and reasoned that she didn't hate humans, just their flaws. The way they turned against each other, stole from each other, intentionally hurt each other, killed each other.

But the pros were something to acknowledge. The Cetra were created with powers of healing and life, but never stayed in one place for too long. The only permanent settlement they created was in the North Continent, but it was impossible to find unless you knew where and how to find it. Eventually, the Cetra started to trade their power and give up their nomadic life for a life of stability and ambition. The ambition part was what Jenova liked.

The humans wanted a better way to preserve food. So, they invented the refrigerator. They wanted stories told by actions and words. So, they created plays and movies. They wanted to fly. So, they created planes. Anything they wanted to improve, they did eventually. That was why there were now movies with color and sound instead of silence and black and white. That was why telephones, boats, planes, and cars existed. It was this that fascinated Jenova the most: technology. She was obsessed with it. Everything electrical in the house had been taken apart and put back together at least once. It was like a game, finding out how the things worked.

Jenova snapped out of those thoughts and came back to the present.

The human's caring for its child was a good thing. It took a lot of time to create something; to give it a name; to give it traits; to give it its appearance; to give it its purpose. Cloud Strife's purpose was for two things, the first expected to occur when The Deal was carried out. The second would take place in the relatively distant future.

The human was brought to Mt. Nibel so Cloud's growth could be influenced. It would be much easier in the long run. The separation would leave Cloud grieving, but if Jenova played her cards right, it wouldn't be for long. Sephiroth was the key here. It was another reason to bring the human.

Sephiroth had to interact with Cloud as often as possible. It was imperative. Leaving the child with him was a great opportunity to start. All it took was a small amount of faith and trust to be put into the human to leave the child behind. The only thing left was to convince Sephiroth to go along with it. Jenova had been bothering him to go make a living for himself for a while, but made a compromise: stay with Cloud and help take care of him, play with him, things that he had done with his brothers so long ago. In return, Jenova would stop bothering him. The four of them were old enough to go do things on their own, so of course she would stop doing things for them. They were expected to make their own food (which was why Kadaj and Loz were giddy earlier) and help around the house. Nobody in Nibelheim wanted anything to do with any of them, so Jenova's bothering didn't help, but it did encourage Sephiroth to help out more.

Speaking (thinking) of Sephiroth... I'll be interrogated later, Jenova thought with amusement.

Sephiroth was too old for this. The last time he had to babysit, he was the equivalent of a teenager. Why the human brat was dumped on him, he didn't know. He was perfectly capable of helping. He had reached his mind out to Jenova, but only got "Now is not the time" for an answer. It didn't help that the turd had its eyes and mouth open like it was smiling at him. It was smiling at him. It was smiling at him.

A feeling not his own creeped into his mind. It was one of happiness. Pure happiness. It could have come only from the thing he was holding. A twinge of sadness flashed at being thought of as a thing, but it disappeared almost instantly. The bright blue eyes stared up at him, unblinking, and Sephiroth felt his eyes unfocus. His vision blurred, then cleared up a bit.

He swore he could see himself. It was completely blurry and hard to make out, but it was himself. The smears of silver gave it away. Sephiroth shook his head and his gaze was on the baby once more. It was still staring at him. The happy feeling continued.

"Whatever you're doing, stop it," Sephiroth said out loud. "Now."

Cloud's little smile faded and turned into a pout. His tiny blue eyes and bright blond hair (he had an awful lot for his age) made it impossible to resist. The little booger was cute.

"Ehh, ehhh..." came from the thing in his arms. "Ahh..." It was laughing at him. Sephiroth could feel the amusement.

In revenge, Sephiroth grabbed the little butt's nose and pulled. A spark of annoyance resulted from that. Sephiroth did a jump of victory in his mind. Apparently the potato felt it, too, because the annoyance grew.

"A little mystery you are," Sephiroth remarked. "Maybe we should steal you away more often." When the human had gone to sleep, Jenova had already explained that Mrs. Strife was going to stay for four years. The reason why never came. In the early morning, Cloud had woken up and wailed. The little screamer had a good set of lungs and Sephiroth didn't doubt that Cloud could have made a worse racket. Jenova had taken him from the room and fed him and changed him. She had shown him to Sephiroth and his brothers, saying that they should help out with him. Sephiroth couldn't fathom why. Jenova could have easily helped from afar. Bringing them here wasn't necessary. The baby was placed back in the room with his mother (who was still knocked out) when he fell asleep.

The morning after, they all had somewhat hidden their personalities around Mrs. Strife. Yazoo was quiet, but he was a bit quieter than usual. Loz still acted like a child, but he oozed more childishness for that moment. Kadaj normally did have a short temper, but he used the fact that his blanket was taken last night and replaced with a freezing one as a cover-up. Honestly, it didn't matter to him. Sephiroth would have stayed completely silent, but the child drew his interest. In fact, his curiosity grew over the short time he was alone with him.

The baby reached a tiny arm out to Sephiroth, curling and uncurling his fingers. Sephiroth allowed him to grab his finger. The happy feeling returned.

Sephiroth was going to get to the bottom of why he could feel what Cloud felt and see what Cloud saw. Sephiroth didn't remember that happening with Kadaj, Loz, and Yazoo until they were at least six months old. Hell, it shouldn't happen in the first place, considering that Cloud was human.

"How about getting to know each other, Cloud?" The happiness intensified tenfold.

Notes:

Started: 2013年1月24日（木）

Finished: 2013年1月26日（土）

That was fast! But... it's so short! o I was planning to explain the ages more, but I couldn't find a good place to stick it in without making seem like it came out of nowhere.

Something I forgot to mention yesterday... Time has a bit of importance here. That's why the date was the first thing back in Chapter 1. I'll be adding FF7 things and some bits of things that happened around that time in real life. I'm actually getting a little help with that from a website, though there's a footnote saying that it's a little inaccurate. The main thing that I'll reveal is that the events of Final Fantasy VII do take place in 1997.

This came out pretty fast, but I'll still have something up by the 31st. It is a day to celebrate.