Chapter Two

'There are fixed points throughout time where things must stay exactly the way they are. This is not one of them. This is an opportunity! Whatever happens here will create its own timeline, its own reality, a temporal tipping point. The future revolves around you, here, now, so do good!'

No, wait! Wait Aerith! Ae—

'—rith! Aerith!'

He could feel his limbs again, but the sudden reappearance of the weight of his body came as a shock to them. His knees buckled and he fell down.

'Hey kid, are you all right?'

Cloud tried to answer them, but everything was still swirling in white and mako-green; he could barely see the face of the man squatting down to ask what had happened to him. He couldn't see anything else around it. He faintly heard someone mention something about getting a doctor, and then he blacked out.

It was a real blackout this time: no voices, no Lifestream. Cloud was reasonably accustomed to being knocked out, so the darkness came frankly as a relief.

He woke up somewhere soft, with no weight on his limbs. He shifted a little and felt a pillow behind his head, and when he opened his eyes he found that the swirls of mako had faded into a faint green tinge over his vision.

'Oh! Hey nurse, he's waking up!'

Cloud was in the infirmary. The Shinra Headquarters Infirmary. He looked around blearily. There was no dust anywhere, no rubble, no sign that the place had been hit with a meteor and left to fester for over a year. Everything was spotless. The sheets of the bed he lay in were pristinely white, the floors and walls clean and shining. The nurse suddenly bending over him wore a uniform starched into submission and lavender perfume.

'Can you hear me, Mister Strife?

'Y-yeah,' he said. With a little effort, he managed to sit upright. The room tipped sideways and then swayed back again. He groaned and pressed a hand to his forehead.

'You took quite a turn, Mister Strife,' the nurse said. 'Your friend said you fainted very suddenly.'

'My… friend?' Cloud stared blankly. This was too much.

'The infantryman guarding Floor 20 with you,' the nurse said slowly. 'Mister Strife, can you tell me your full name?'

'Uh… Cloud Strife.'

'Do you know where you are?'

'The Shinra HQ?'

'Yes that's right. Tell me the year.' The nurse was pinching his wrist and counting out his pulse on her wristwatch.

'It's 2008.'

The nurse stared at him for a long time.

'No,' she said. 'No, Cloud: it's 2000. Do you understand?'

Cloud went quiet, trying to comprehend the question that he had already been asked several times in the Lifestream. The room swung from side-to-side a few more times and her face blurred a little. It was the year 2000. No, she thought it was 2000. She must have been insane, he decided. Some insane woman was keeping the Shinra HQ Infirmary tidy because she hadn't realised the upper floors had been blown up and Midgar had been totalled my a meteor.

'No,' he said finally.

She sighed and took a thermometer out of her pocket.

'Probably a mild concussion,' she said, sticking it none too gently in Cloud's mouth. 'Do you know how you fainted? Do you remember how you got here?'

'Materia accelerator sent me to the Lifestream,' Cloud muttered around the thermometer. The nurse was silent for a moment.

'Concussion,' she said conclusively. 'I'd better do a blood test, too. Give me a shout when the thermometer beeps. And keep hold of this.'

She dumped a cardboard bowl on his lap, and darted away – probably to get some nice, big needles to stick in him. Cloud shuddered, and then slumped back against the headboard. What in sweet hell had happened to him? Why was there a madwoman trying to run an infirmary in a broken building? What in the world had Aerith been saying in the Lifestream?

'Fainting on duty huh? That's got to suck.'

Why could he hear Zack in his head?

'I did that once. Guess it doesn't count if you're passing out drunk, though.'

Cloud felt all of his muscles petrify at once.

That wasn't in his head.

He turned slowly, agonisingly, to look at the man in the next bed along – the man who had shouted for the nurse not five minutes ago. A mass of wild black hair spiked out around the bloody bandages wrapped around his forehead. It was cut shorter than Cloud remembered it, and he didn't have the scar on his cheek yet, but he was wearing the uniform of a SOLDIER and his eyes were so green they pierced right through the veil over Cloud's eyesight.

'Z-Zack?'

Zack Fair tipped his head sideways like a confused puppy.

'Have we met?'

'You're alive,' Cloud said. 'I'm in Shinra and you're alive and—'

He finished his sentence with a groan as the room swerved more violently than ever before and the contents of his stomach hurled up and out of his mouth. Now he knew what the cardboard bowl was for.

He set it aside with shaky hands.

'Back to fourteen,' he muttered, finally understanding. 'Back to when I was fourteen. I've… I've just joined Shinra!'

'Good for you,' Zack said, looking on in bewilderment. 'I think your first glorious contribution to the company should be taking a day off.'

Everything Aerith had said in the Lifestream made sense now. What were the rules? 'You may not tell anyone what will be'? Well, that was fairly obvious. He wasn't allowed to tell people about Meteor, or Sephiroth—

Sephiroth.

Sephiroth was still alive. And sane. Or, at least, as sane as Sephiroth had ever been. He was alive and he hadn't killed anybody yet, and he was almost definitely not expecting an attack from one of the Shinra infantrymen he walked past on a daily basis. If Cloud could find him, and kill him… he could change everything. This must have been why Aerith had sent him back. Cloud could save her, and Zack as well, and countless other lives. Everyone in Nibelheim could be saved before they even knew what they were in danger from.

The epiphany hit Cloud so hard he literally reeled from it, unable to do anything for some time but sit and stare with enormous eyes at the wall in front of him. Everything was going to be okay. He'd been given a second chance, and he could fix all the things that went wrong the first time.

Starting with Sephiroth.

The nurse came bustling back with a tray of medical equipment. There were several long needles in crinkling plastic packets.

'Okay, Mister Strife, let's do that blood test,' she said cheerfully. Cloud looked at her more carefully. She was blissfully unaware of what was coming. He wondered how long she was going to last; if she would stay with Shinra right until the end or if she'd leave; maybe find a better job somewhere else. Looking at the size of the needle she was unwrapping, he hoped rather bitterly that she got blown up.

'How was your temperature?' she asked. 'I told you to call me if it—'

Inside the cardboard bowl, the thermometer started beeping.

She hesitated.

'Oh,' she said. 'I'll… I'll get you another one in a moment.'

While she busied herself taking several bottles of Cloud's blood – why they needed so much he had no idea; perhaps the President fed on it – Cloud turned back to Zack. The older man was looking back warily.

'Sorry,' Cloud said. 'I'm… err. I don't feel so good.'

'You're telling me,' Zack replied. Cloud smiled and pointed with the arm not full of needle at Zack's bandaged head.

'How'd you manage that?'

Zack scratched at the back of his head – away from the bandages, Cloud noticed.

'My monthly games night went a bit crazier than usual,' he admitted.

'So you passed out drunk and hit your head,' Cloud said. Zack held his hands up as though in self defence.

'No, no! Next games night's not for another week. Sephiroth found out about the cactuars we'd smuggled in last month and… well, you have to run six feet to get out of the way of that sword. Six feet is a long way with a First Class SOLDIER's fury right behind you.'

Cloud chuckled, trying to ignore that his heart was punching the inside of his chest. The nurse squeaked as the blood she was collecting began to flow a lot more freely than before.

'You know Sephiroth?' he said. Zack 'pfft' and rolled his eyes.

'Who doesn't know Sephiroth? Man's a legend,' he said. 'But, as it happens, he does know me a little better than the other SOLDIERs. He'll probably be calling on me later to tell me what a drunken degenerate I am and how I should be bettering myself as an example to everyone looking towards Shinra as a beacon of hope and glory.'

Cloud was blank. Zack winked.

'I can make it so he has to say at least… five words to you. Just don't hug him or ask for an autograph. The last guys found that out the hard way.' He paused. 'I miss Neil.'

'Okay,' the nurse announced happily. 'Just running a few quick scans on the blood sample; we'll know if there's something wrong in just a… what the?'

Cloud turned back to her. The room was looking significantly less green now. In her normal shade, the woman was far more attractive, and now he thought about it the needles hadn't really hurt that much. He took back what he'd thought about hoping she got blown up.

'What?' he said. She turned to him with an expression in equal parts of awe and disgust.

'Mister Strife, your blood is flooded with mako.'

'Oh.' He stared back. 'It is?'

'It's no wonder you fainted; you're lucky to be alive.' She glanced back at the samples of blood. 'Or at least, you were. The mako's leaving your system so fast it's barely even present in the last sample. What on the Planet have you been playing with?'

Cloud stared.

'Umm,' he said. Zack laughed.

'Same thing happened to me when I swallowed an all materia once,' he said. 'I was a Golden God for about twenty minutes and then it all evaporated out of my system and I couldn't get up off the floor for a week.'

Cloud looked at the nurse pleadingly.

'I didn't swallow an all materia,' he said.

'I'm sure,' she said. 'I'm going to go and get a doctor to have a look at you. You just… wait there a moment.'

While she bustled off again, another, older nurse came in to check over Zack's head wound. There was barely a mark on his skin under the bandages, despite the fact that there was enough blood on the dressing to suggest he'd hacked an ear off.

'You're looking fine, Mister Fair,' the old nurse said. 'How do you feel?'

'Great,' Zack said brightly. 'Can't keep a SOLDIER down for long!'

'You certainly can't,' she chuckled. 'I think I can safely send you away now. Mister Sephiroth has been sending one messenger after another to ask about your recovery. He wants to see you straight away; seems he's quite concerned.'

Zack rolled his eyes.

'Concerned he hit me so hard he won't be allowed to hit me again,' he muttered, but he thanked the nurse anyway and hopped up to leave.

'Wait!' Cloud said, staggering out of his own bed. Zack hesitated, but he looked more like he'd done it in case he needed to catch Cloud if he fainted again than because he'd been asked.

'You're going to see Sephiroth?' he said. Zack stared.

'I am going to have my head beaten in by Sephiroth, yes.'

'Take me with you.'

Zack's eyes travelled slowly down to Cloud's feet and back up again. He did not look particularly impressed with what he saw.

'You've got to be kidding.'

'I'm fine. And… and I've got an important message for him,' Cloud said quickly. Zack rested his hands on his hips.

'Really?'

'Yes.'

Cloud tried very hard to look earnest. Zack sniggered.

'You're a crap liar, but I like the persistence,' he said. 'Come on, then. Try not to throw up on me. Take one of those bowls with you.'

Cloud had not been completely lying when he said he felt fine. He did feel a lot better; enough that he was capable of keeping up with Zack's long strides all the way through the Shinra building. He didn't remember Zack being absurdly tall, but he must have been, because Cloud never usually had to scurry to keep up with anyone.

If Zack had doubted that Cloud was new to Shinra, he couldn't anymore. Cloud peered in every direction with wide, lost eyes, and no idea of how much he looked like the brand-new recruit that he as supposed to be as he tried dizzily to take in all of the things he'd forgotten.

People breezed past him in suits, lab coats and SOLDIER uniforms. MPs in clunky helmets guarded several of the doors on each floor, as though Shinra thought that their keycard security system wasn't enough.

Had he not been so stunned, he might have laughed, knowing that even the extra infantrymen would not be enough to stop Avalanche breaking in.

Zack opened the door to Floor 49 and Cloud followed inches behind him.

'Hey there, survivor!' a redheaded man in a suit called, jumping up as Zack came in. Cloud had to look at him twice – not because he didn't recognise him, but because he couldn't believe he did. Minus a ponytail, Reno looked completely identical to his future counterpart. How did a man frequently caught in gunfights fail to age a day or even acquire any facial scars over almost ten years?

'Ye of little faith,' Zack tutted. 'Of course I'm a survivor. Seph won't kill me; he couldn't live without me.'

'Ha! Sure. Sephiroth has been demanding you go see him for four hours now. I think he's been working up a vengeance. Probably wanted to start at your feet this time; cut you up into little bits before he eats you. You might want this.' Reno offered Zack a familiar sword. It had been resting up against the wall, and he kept the tip against the ground and just rocked the handle of it towards Zack so he wouldn't have to lift it.

'Huh. I thought you'd have sold this by now,' Zack said, taking the Buster Sword and swinging it easily up onto his back. Cloud ducked out of the way to avoid being cleaved in half.

'Couldn't be arsed to carry the damn thing,' Reno said, and then pointed at Cloud. 'What's that?'

'This is Cloud, my new best friend and also my meat shield,' Zack said, dragging Cloud up in front of himself in demonstration. 'Also, Cloud is a person. That makes him a "who", technically.'

Cloud's face must have been hilarious, because Reno was smirking. He supposed that faces were hilarious when they didn't know whether to be terrified or grateful.

'Whatever, yo,' Reno said. 'If you die this time, I'm taking all your shit.'

Zack had not been joking about using Cloud as a human body shield. He pushed him into Sephiroth's office first and then ducked in behind him.

Cloud stiffened as a silver blade flashed forwards and halted right in front of his face. His eyes followed the length of the sword – all seven feet of it – to its leather clad owner, and that was when his brain gave up.

Silver hair swaying slightly after his sudden movement, there was Sephiroth. Sephiroth, whom Cloud had last seen ghastly white and bloody, bags under his mad eyes, the feathers of half a dozen torn white wings littering his feet. Sephiroth: the madman. Sephiroth: the enemy.

Sephiroth: the looking very ticked off but otherwise sane and healthy, pointing Masamune at Cloud's nose.

'What is this?' he said, peering at Cloud without recognition, as if he was unfamiliar bug he'd rather like to squash. Behind Cloud, Zack groaned softly.

'What is it with you people and pronouns? Cloud is a "who", not a "what".'

'If he is deserving of the correct pronouns then he is not deserving of facing my wrath as a human body shield. You are being a coward, Zack. Come out from there, you look ridiculous.'

Sephiroth lowered his sword a little and reached forward to push Cloud aside, at which point Cloud's brain finally kicked in.

Kill Sephiroth, save Zack and Aerith and the world.

He had no weapons on him, but there was one near him: one he knew and wielded exceptionally well.

He snatched the Buster Sword from Zack and immediately fell to the floor.

'Ah!'

He tried to lift the sword. His arms flexed and strained and his heart beat hard because any moment now Jenova's adopted son was going to flick his wrist and skewer him, but he couldn't pick it up.

It couldn't weigh this much. It had never weighed this much.

'Honestly Zack, this has been the worst plan you've ever had to avoid me.'

'Not true. There was that one time with the goat and the bowl of—'

'I remember, and stand corrected.'

Desperately, Cloud tried to at least get up and face Sephiroth, but couldn't even manage that. His fingers were trapped between the handle and the floor.

'Let me help you with that,' Zack said, just now noticing Cloud's plight. He hefted up the sword with ease. Cloud groaned and massaged his fingers as he got back up—

—and stood face-to-face with Sephiroth once more.

'Who are you?' Sephiroth repeated, with the correct pronouns.

'He has an important message for you,' Zack said, grinning. Sephiroth failed to notice his humour.

'Yes? What is it?'

Cloud opened his mouth, and that was when the mako poisoning returned for its glorious encore: he vomited on Sephiroth's boots and fainted on the rest of him.