A/N: First off, apologies for any offence committed, astridoreoryo. It was not in my intentions. If it offends you, dismiss it, do not read it, I don't care. Though, I never said I was better than anyone else…. And I was in a bit of a foul mood when I wrote it.

Secondly, the first three chapters were posted together because I had thought that they were the shortest, the simplest, and a presentation of my ideas. They were not very well done, according to me, and it will get better along the way, hopefully.

I highly appreciate the reviews and comments and I thank you, no matter what has been said. Maybe I'll even post two chapters today…

P.S : PHS is the phone that they used in FFVII if there were some of you that didn't know. And, I suppose Sephiroth will get to have his own office with a computer. He needed one anyway.

Chapter 4

They were in the car and heading back to Midgar. Cloud felt absolutely terrible. His motion sickness came back in full force and he had forgotten what it had felt like after the many years of other worries. It was the same situation as before, only, it hadn't been as bad when they were heading towards Nibelheim. It was going back that was the problem.

He had been so worried about being sent back into the past that he had forgotten all about his motion sickness. Of course, now that his main worry was somehow thwarted, at least for the moment, his sickness was causing him immense grief.

"Hey, Cloud. You okay?" Zack leaned forward in his chair. "You weren't this bad on the way here, so what happened?"

"N-Nothing…" he grumbled. He closed his eyes and held his head to his knees, hoping for all the world that the car would stop moving.

Zack glanced over his shoulder at Sephiroth. What he saw was an amused smirk hidden behind a slightly upraised hand. Did he know something about Cloud's condition? Looking back at the boy, Zack also noticed that Cloud looked dead tired. His eyes were red and he was forming bags under his eyes.

Frowning, Zack brought this to his attention. "Didn't you sleep well last night? You look dead tired."

"I…couldn't sleep." He looked away from Zack.

"Something happen? Was it a nightmare?"

"No…"

He sighed. It was obvious he wasn't going to get anywhere with Cloud, so he decided to let it go. On the other hand, another one of them seemed to know something as well. He decided that it was worth a shot.

"Hey, Sephiroth." Zack looked towards the General.

"Hm?"

"What do you think is the matter with Cloud?"

Sephiroth merely looked at him, an emotionless façade, and put up an act of indifference. He turned to look out the window.

"I wonder…" he shrugged.

Zack let out a heavy breath. That was Sephiroth's equivalent to a normal person's 'Who knows'. He just couldn't get anything out of these two at all. What was his brain doing at a moment where he needed it the most? Coming up with nothing.

He scratched the back of his head in irritation before committing to some squats then sitting down in defeat. These two were so similar, sometimes, that it was scary.

Unfortunately for Zack, it was like this the rest of the way to Midgar.

xxx xxx

Zack stepped out of the car, giving a full stretch. The sun was barely shining, the clouds were everywhere, and the dirty view of the city was all he needed to know he was home. He did some squats before looking towards the other two. Sephiroth was already out of the car and making his way to Shinra while Cloud was still crouched in the same position that he was at the beginning of the journey back.

"Cloud." Zack peered back into the car. Cloud peeked above his arms and, when he realized that the car had stopped, he sat up straighter before getting up and hopping out of the car. He couldn't believe how bad his motion sickness was causing him to feel. Was it always like this? "You okay?"

He breathed in a deep gulp of air. "Yeah." He blew out.

"Hey, I have to go make a report so I can't stay but are you fine by yourself?" Cloud saw that Zack was tempted to just stay anyway and he couldn't help but smile a little.

"I'm fine, Zack, really." He put up his hand to stop Zack from saying anything else. "You should go write that report. I'm going to go walk around a little." He pushed Zack towards the Shinra building. Besides, he thought internally, I have to go see that girlfriend of yours who brought me into this mess in the first place. He smiled.

"Okay…. If you say so…" Zack looked unsure.

"I'll see you later, Zack."

"Yeah." Zack ran for Shinra HQ. Cloud watched Zack until he was out of sight before turning around and heading for the church in the slums. He had to talk to Aerith.

xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx

Sephiroth didn't understand.

It was puzzling. He had gone back to his office to finish up his missions report then to see if there was any filing about this mysterious cadet who seemed to know everything before it actually happened. His first thoughts went to how the boy had jumped Genesis, surprising all three 1sts, and had cut off what Genesis had been about to say. The timing was too perfect, like it was made so that he couldn't get enough information out of Genesis to put anything together. Putting his hand up to his forehead, he frowned and closed his eyes sighing.

The second thing that he couldn't piece together was how the boy had known he would go straight to the Shinra Manor in the middle of the night. Not even he knew until he had some time to think things through at the inn, coming to the conclusion that the answers he needed supplied were in the basement lab that Hojo had once abandoned. Apparently, though, Strife had also known what lie underneath and prevented his access to the documents. But, why?

There were too many unanswered questions surround Strife that Sephiroth almost had the urge to march straight up to him and demand his answers…but, of course, he could do no such thing. He sighed again. How could he be losing a fight he had barely just begun?

He looked towards the computer files he had pulled up for Cloud Strife and nearly looked away when he suddenly noticed a very distinctive flaw. In Strife's most recent photo, he had no mako in his eyes. How could that be possible when this was a photo from only several days ago? Mako was not something that just spontaneously appeared but something that had to be gradually injected, and it showed. On Strife, though, he seemed to have quite the bit of mako in him when there was no indication of him ever receiving any. And only Hojo would know if he had mako regularly or not, for the scientist was the only one who was ever in charge of injecting mako in anybody.

Besides that, the boy didn't even flinch when he had threatened him of his life back the Manor, as though he had been threatened by him before on a regular basis, which he couldn't have been. To his knowledge, he had never before spoken to the cadet, though Zack had once mentioned him and his distinctive features. He looked too soft and small to be a Soldier.

He rubbed his face, tired. He shouldn't think too much on him. It was driving him into the pits of confusion. He decided to think nothing more of the past events until he could get a handle on Strife. He would ask him straight out the next time he saw him. Until then.

Looking on his desk he pulled out some mission requests to certain areas requiring that he take two others again besides Zack. It was to a place called Wutai. He smiled darkly. This would be the perfect opportunity to corner Strife into giving him what he wanted.

xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx

Cloud walked through the slums in a dazed manner. Now that he had some time to think about the recent events of what had taken place, he wasn't too sure his strength was his own. He scratched his head in frustration. He recalled that Soldier, Genesis, telling him that he was the son of…what, Minerva? Who was Minerva and why did the "goddess", he had said, have such a similar name to Jenova. It didn't make sense.

He shook his head. His mother was still his mother and she was still alive. He was grateful for that. Maybe this time he would actually be able to become a Soldier and show off to his mom. The thought made him grin, and grinning, he made his way to the church he was sure Aerith would be at this time of day.

xxx xxx

Aerith was tending to her flowers while singing a happy tune. Apparently, being alive again had set her moods straight. Looking around, he felt Vincent was near their vicinity as well. It was probably because there were other Turks watching her at the moment. He had nearly forgotten about that.

Hearing a sound, she turned before her face brightened up. "Cloud!" Aerith clapped her hands together in delight.

"Aerith," Cloud approached closer, "why did you send us back?" Aerith turned away, her braid swinging around her, as she clasped both hands behind her back.

"You know, Cloud, the Lifestream can't absorb Sephiroth as he is now."

Cloud frowned. Aerith only glanced back at him, embarrassed. "What do you mean?"

"Well," she started, "there is a reason why you remember…." She turned to face Cloud fully. "It's so that you could change things, Cloud. Sephiroth…is the one being given a second chance."

Cloud closed his eyes and pinched his nose bridge. Somehow, he had known, somehow, and it was giving him a headache.

He glanced around, sensing new movement, and it wasn't Vincent. He sighed heavily. "Do you have anywhere else we could talk, privately?"

Aerith nodded. "We'll go to my house."

As they made their way over, he felt more than saw, Vincent and another strange presence following behind.

xxx xxx

Vincent, Aerith, and Cloud all sat around a large tree in the middle of Aerith's garden. Well, actually, Vincent was now standing up against the tree while it was only Cloud and Aerith who were sitting in the shade on the grass. It had been where Vincent would come and sleep most of the time and they decided that it was as safe a spot as any.

"You may have stopped Sephiroth this time, Cloud, but you shouldn't forget that Jenova is still out there." Aerith pointed out.

Cloud's face grew grim, "Yeah, she's still in the reactor in Nibelheim. I didn't get a chance to destroy her and Hojo knows she's still there." His eyes clouded darkly.

"What should we do?"

"For now," he turned his head away and looked out into the serene open area. "we should probably try and find time to go back to Nibelheim and move her somewhere her voice will never reach anyone ever again."

"Like where?"

"…I'm not sure." He gave a frustrated growl and slammed the ground. "Is there even such a place like that?" He fisted the ground. "If only we had some way of destroying her."

"Why can't you?" Aerith frowned.

He looked towards her then. "As long as even a cell of Jenova exists, she'll continue to exist." He pointed to his eyes. "Look at me, Aerith, even if I destroy Jenova now, it would do nothing but make her angry enough to cast meteor herself."

"It is unwise." Vincent interjected with agreement.

"Besides, it won't matter anymore if we find……" A look of enlightenment came across Cloud's eyes.

"What? What is it?" Aerith was curious. Even Vincent looked towards Cloud with curiosity.

"Maybe….maybe that'll work!" He cried out triumphantly.

"What? What?" Now they were really curious.

"Cloud?" Vincent stood up.

He stood and turned to face them with a grin. "We have to find Cid."

xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx

Sephiroth walked through the hallways of the upper floor of Shinra. It had been in vain when he tried to forget all thoughts on the cadet. He had been circling the entire building looking for Zack and, at the same time, partially hoping to run into the boy. Both were in vain as well. What he had noticed, though, was that, while marching through the many halls in Shinra, people were more than unusually skittish today. They seemed to take flight both left and right at his wake and he wondered why. Only did he find out later, when Tseng had pointed this out casually, that he seemed to be more than upset than was normal and had been frowning excessively throughout the day. He tried, unsuccessfully, to stop but when his thoughts reached Nibelheim again he couldn't help but do so. None of it made sense.

He let out a breath before returning to the higher floors for a cup of something warm to drink. He was running in circles for the two people who, obviously, weren't here. He needed to sit and relax while thinking things through.

This was going to be a long day.

xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx

Rocket Town:

Cid sat smoking and lounging on his sofa in his living room with Shera serving him tea. The dishware on the tray trembled and rattled with her coming. She was more nervous than she had ever been around Cid. The man had changed, drastically, about two week ago, and now he was mainly out of sorts, mellow in a way, and had stopped paying mind to her. It was as if he was in a trance most of the time and Shera left him be. Though, she was kind of scared.

Cid thought about the dream he had had a while before, really like a memory but nearly impossible. It had all been so real, so alive. HE had never felt so alive. He shook his head and looked down at his cloths enough to mind the ashes from his cig falling onto the floor. He shook his head again. Forget that the Planet had been in danger, he wished it were real.

He remembered that in the dream, he had helped a group of very unlikely people try and save the planet, and they had. He had his own ship, the Highwind, and even had people he could call his friends. They each had their own unique story and had gathered together for one purpose…, but they had lived, fought, and relished in their memories together. Now, he felt as though someone, or something, had stolen his most precious treasure from right under his nose…and it stunk.

"C-Cid?" Shera looked at Cid timidly before quickly looking down as though her shoes were the most interesting thing in the world. "Um…y-your tea's getting cold…"

Cid looked at his tea with a frown. In his dream, he and his team had all drunken booze together after their victories. He sneered before looking back up at the ceiling in a puff of white smoke. "I ain't thirsty."

"O-Oh, okay." She took the tray back into the kitchen to dump the contents. There was a knock on the door before someone came barging in a rush of hot air.

"Hey, Cid!"

"What?" he growled.

"There are people here to see you." The man looked thoughtful. "They look like strange people though."

"Well, I ain't seeing 'em. Tell 'em to go home." He stood to walk into his bedroom.

"'kay but they say it's real important. Said one of 'em's name was Cloud."

Cid immediately spun on his heels in complete surprise."What?"

The man jumped at the sudden exclamation. "He, uh, said his name was Cloud…?"

"Damn." Cid muttered under his breath before running outside. This had better not be a dream.

xxx xxx

Cloud, Vincent, and Aerith stood waiting outside for Cid to rush out any minute. They were discussing what they would do once they had Cid agreeing with them on their plan. Looking towards his house, they didn't have to wait very long until Cid came rushing into view.

Cid skidded to an immediate stop in front of the three unlikely people just standing casually around. They, none of them, seemed like they would enjoy that kind of company but apparently that was not the case.

"Tell me this ain't a dream." Cid whispered more to himself than to the others.

Cloud stepped up and smiled. "It's not and it's good to see you again."

He cocked an eyebrow. "Again?" he looked towards the other two and he knew clearly who they were. They were real.

"It wasn't a dream, you know." Aerith smiled with a wave of hello. All he could do was gawk in disbelief.

"Yeah, we could catch up later but right now we need your help. That and we have to return to Midgar as soon as possible." Cloud interjected. "They don't know Aerith and I are gone."

"They? And how'd you get here?"

"Shinra." He waved it off. "We got here through a cargo ship in Junon and rented a car at Costa Del Sol. It took awhile and we're hoping you could fly us back."

"B-But…I-I-I-I……" It was real! "I'm not dreaming?"

Cloud frowned, a look that brought back memories, not dreams he decided, except he was younger looking than before. "Cid, we need you to try and fix the shuttle."

"…Why?" His mind was still numb and processing data. All he could do was mutter at the moment.

A sly grin came over Cloud's face. "We're blasting Jenova sky high."

That did it. He wasn't dreaming. Jenova, Meteor, it was all real. "So this means, what, the mad pretty boy isn't mad?" He nearly growled, nearly. "Are we in the past?"

"Yes." Aerith smiled.

"Why?"

"To change things for the better?" Aerith was actually unsure herself.

Cid turned around and put his face to his hands. His cigarette had dropped to the floor ages ago. "You've got to be kidding me. Damn. My ship…, my life…, my crew…," he nearly cried.

"Cid?" Cloud called.

Cid suddenly snapped up in anger. "That's it. What the heck. If there's nothin' we can do about it I'll fix that damn ship and send that monster up into space along with it." He was grim in determination. He looked back. "But first things first. You said you needed a plane? Well hop on, it works fine now cause we ain't destroyed it yet." He grinned, cocky once again. "'sides, maybe I can hijack the Highwind again from Shinra. Let's go!"

xxx xxx

They landed right outside of Midgar, the Tiny Bronco hidden from view, and headed in for the city. They had all agreed on a plan of action and decided to call each other up if something happened. They all knew each other's numbers from a long time ago so there was no need to say them again. It was all by PHS.

Cid was smoking another cig by the time they reached the outskirts. He blew out smoke. "Look at that. One heck of a Planet killing machine." He blew again before turning his attention to the others. "Do the others know yet? That it weren't a dream?"

Cloud shook his head. "No, though I did meet Tifa. She didn't think it was me."

"Che, good thing too, otherwise she might've whupped yer be-hind straight to the lifestream." He puffed out.

Cloud smiled. "Yeah, maybe."

"Well," he stretched, "you go and do yer thing and I'll go see to the Highwind." He grinned evilly, "Don't worry, I'll be fixin' that rocket by the time yer ready for it. You can count on me." He pointed his thumb to his chest.

"Thanks, Cid."

"No way," he shook his head, "I got you to thank, Cloud." He laughed. "You made my dream come true. Well, see ya." He started walking in the other direction towards where the Highwind was supposedly docked and started whistling a merry tune with his hands in his pockets.

Cloud looked back at Aerith and Vincent. "I'll call as soon as I get Red's letter and come back whenever I can. Vincent, will you stay with Aerith?"

Vincent nodded.

"Okay! Good luck, Cloud. I'll see you soon." Aerith waved off before heading towards the slums with Vincent. Cloud saw them go before he headed into Shinra Inc.

xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx

Zack was swinging his blade around in the practice arena. He hadn't seen Cloud around in a while and it made him wonder if something had happened to him. Nah, he's just probably hanging out with some of his friends. Zack kept swinging and swinging, which he had kept up since morning, until he noticed another presence in the room. He glanced to his left to see who it was and quickly stopped when he realized it was Sephiroth standing there, looking really grim.

Taking a towel off the rack to wipe his sweat, Zack made his way over to Sephiroth. "What's wrong?"

Sephiroth merely looked down at him in a frown. Was he still that obvious? He realized he was still frowning and tried to correct it, to no avail. Sighing he stood from leaning against the wall. "Where is that boy you are always with? I need to speak with him."

"What, you mean Cloud?" Zack grabbed his bottle of water and started drinking from it. Finally, he shrugged. "Don't know, haven't seen him in awhile." His answer made Sephiroth sigh again. He had been sighing quite a lot lately.

"I see…" He turned around and started to leave.

"H-Hey, wait, Sephiroth!" Zack ran up to catch up with him. "I'm actually a bit worried about him too. I haven't seen him around at all, and neither have any of the other cadets."

Sephiroth's frown deepened before he turned to look at Zack. "I am not worried, Zack. I merely wished to speak to him." He pronounced each word separately, showing his frustration about something, obviously. To Zack, who grinned slightly at this, it meant that he was worried as well. And, if the frown was anything to go by as well, something must have happened between him and Cloud that was so drastic it could incite a response this extreme in the all proclaimed emotionless, ice-like, and stoic General Sephiroth. Zack grinned wide. It made him feel like he was watching a drama unfold.

Sephiroth glared at him. Apparently, Zack was finding his situation amusing and it was bugging him to no end. He needed to stop thinking about the boy, take a nice bath, and relax for the night. It was getting late and most everyone had already retired.

"Well," Zack stretched, seemingly reading his mind. "I'd better head to the bunks before I pass out. See you later, Sephiroth. I'm sure we'll find him tomorrow." And with a slight wave, Zack ran off in the direction of his room. Sephiroth was beginning to feel weary as well. He had used too much energy wandering around Shinra all day. He headed to his room. He would continue his search tomorrow, but for now he would be glad just to find the quickest way to his complex.

xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx

Cloud ran up the stairs and through all the floors of Shinra until he found the one where the cadets resided. The lights were mostly off and everyone had already retired for the evening so he would have to tread lightly. The ride on Cid's plane had taken a bigger toll than he had anticipated. It made him air sick and motion sick. Of course, there was no way he would show that particular weakness to Cid…, the man would never let him live it down. But now, it affected just how silently he could proceed through the halls of Shinra. He hated his motion sickness, how in the world was he supposed to ride the Fenrir now?

There was a sudden sound and Cloud snapped his head in the direction, but too fast because his head was spinning for a minor second. His vision cleared and he strained to see who it was at the far end of the corridor. He twisted around the corner and crouched low to peek around more safely. He silently crept closer.

He made out the shape of a man, slightly hunched over a clipboard, but most of him was obscured by the darkness and Cloud could hardly get a better look. Suddenly, the man stopped, which made his coat flicker just slightly into a dimmed light on the other side. It was a lab coat! Cloud quickly backed away and tried to turn into a position where he might not be seen. He noticed the man had his hair tied in a tail and glasses that reflected just slightly in the dark but he didn't want to find out who it was anymore, he had a fairly good idea.

Cloud turned the corner and tried walking silently away, he quickened his pace when he heard the other set of steps coming towards his direction. He desperately hoped the man would turn into the opposite split path because, otherwise, where he was headed was a dead end and he didn't want to be caught.

The footfalls didn't stop and, instead, turned towards his general direction. He had to escape but there was only a broom closet at the end. Thinking that was the best possible route in this situation, Cloud quickly dashed inside and silently shut the door. The footsteps came up towards the door, one minute, two minutes, three…. Cloud nearly gulped but held his breath. The man stood right outside the door, pausing just slightly.

"Hm…" A nasal voice considered the door in front of him. He had made a wrong turn while considering the scientific formula for ingraining mako in a soldier subject to enhance their trained usage in certain materia, therefore able to manipulate that certain materia to perform other menial tasks dedicated to it. He frowned. Coming down this hall had wasted his precious time; he quickly turned and walked away in the other direction.

Hearing the receding footfalls, Cloud let out the breath he had been holding. That had set his heart rate speeding like never before and he swore it nearly beat right out of his chest. He held up a hand against his heart, in case it actually did, and tried to slow the beating. That had been much too close.

He silently cracked the door open and slowly peeked outside. When he spotted nobody else he ran towards the cadet bunks to sleep the rest of the night off. He really needed to get some rest.

xxx xxx