Hello my readers,

I have no idea how the heck I came up wih this chapter, nor how ridiculously bad I think it turned out... Sigh... I think it's because I'm just so tired. I'll be writing a Tristis X Cloud one-shot for my friend because it's her birthday. IT IS NOT PART OF THE STORY. So if any of you guys read it, don't misunderstand, Tristis will go with Angeal and the situation I'll write about will have nothing (or almost nothing) to do with this story, Twenty Five.

I hope you enjoy reading this chapter.

I do not own anything to do with Final Fantasy VII (That right goes to Square Enix), I only own the original character, Tristis Memoria/Nix Somnium and the twists added to the plot.

Memory Chapter 4 - Kindred Souls

They had some sort of silent pact. It was between the three of them and if one died then it would be only the two of them. It was like some sort of timeline and ironically, they knew had an idea of what would happen.

Nix was an orphan with loving parents whom adopted her because they could not produce their own offspring. They had found her in a bundle of blankets on their doorstep with a piece of paper crumpled within the baby's hand. "Please take care of our baby." The note had said.

They did take care of her and they loved her dearly. They loved her so much that they packed all their things and began travelling to let Nix see the whole world because they certainly had enough money to do so and her father was the 'jack of all trades' so he could do almost anything to get money.

But when Nix wanted her parents to settle down again and live comfortably in a cottage anywhere in the country view, her parents agreed. They knew Nix had a lot of dreams she wished to accomplish but could not if she were to stick with them. They let her go to Midgar at a very tender age of fifteen, even if many of their family friends protested that she was far too young. Nix was naive, yes, but they knew that she could survive.

It was then that Nix had met Aerith. She was drawn to a church in the slums and found that she could not help but chatter with the girl amongst the flowers. At a young age, Nix too, loved flowers and their bond just clicked into something like a chain. They had noticed how similiar they looked to each other yet didn't question it. Nix knew the kind-hearted flower girl was a cetra. She just didn't know she was one too.

She was Aerith's cousin. The reason why they looked quite similar was because her mother was the twin sister of Aerith's mother. Even though they did get several traits from their fathers, they were practically the same.

Yet how Nix didn't know that was unfathomable. Maybe it was because she didn't know her birth parents or maybe it was because she had met (and was distracted) by the love of her life, Angeal Hewley or Aerith's mirth when it came to her boyfriend, Zack Fair. Maybe it was because she had met the most amazing people of her life like her three other friends, Cloud Strife, General Sephiroth and Genesis Rhapsodos.

Or maybe it was because she had finally realised that people could die at any moment.

She had ventured with Zack to go to Nibelheim because she was the naive flower girl whom thought she could talk to Genesis. To make him come back. She didn't realise that Sephiroth was having the same problem too. It was too late to talk to the General because words were useless when you're hanging onto dear life - hanging onto that thin, thin thread that would break in any moment.

It was too late to talk to Zack after being an experiment for four years with a unresponsive Cloud to protect too. What was she going to say to make him stop? He was a hero and if a hero could not live like one then they could die like one. But being shot down like some disgusting fiend by what used to be your comrades was not what she thought as a heroic death.

Knowing that you had to kill a precious friend once again did not improve her life at all. She had met new friends on the journey to save Gaia, of course. But Aerith was one of the ones she could not leave alone.

Vincent was one of them too. He had something inside of him and he had the sorrowful aura around him just like she had. She had no idea why Aerith didn't seem so sad about it as her... She had wondered whether or not it was because she could hear them within the life stream for she was a cetra. She wanted to ask her, but it seemed awfully offensive, especially since it was a touchy subject between them.

Vincent wasn't as eager to create a friendly bond between them but he did share some details about himself. They had this mutual understanding which Nix wasn't prepared to destroy from mistrust so she told him everything she could about herself and poured all her emotions within them. Why? Because she was naive and at that time, she was frightened.

When Aerith died (by her own friend's hands), her life just crumbled into debris. She only had one link to her past and that was Cloud. She was determined to protect him yet she felt so powerless too. Because who had to fight the last remenants of Jenova? Him. Who saved people from Geostigma? He did. And who couldn't save anyone, resulting in Cloud having to save himself or with the help of others like Tifa? Herself.

And as time progressed (or in her case, rewinded), she felt it hard to keep her original persona within her. She had changed from the naive flower girl to a tired, useless woman whom never experienced more than the age of twenty five. She was breaking apart at each failed attempt and literally couldn't take it anymore. Aerith's comfort was not enough because in the end, she would sacrafice herself to save the world yet again. The bond between them was straining because Nix was pulling too hard to reach the other's from snapping.

It was then that Vincent came in and pushed them back together. He had kept it a secret, Goddess knows why, but he was also cursed to repeat his life again and again. And when he saw how depressed Nix had become he had the urge to let her see that her intentions were not useless. For he had broken through his remorse and guilt for letting Lucrecia become what she had. He didn't know why, maybe it was the slow, yet budding friendship growing between her and him, but he wanted her to see the light that he had seen.

He had become the father figure and the lock of their trio relationship. Everyone had lost someone, yet Nix could only selfishly focus on her own loss. But the comfort from Aerith and the harsh, yet truthful words of Vincent had made her come to her senses. Aerith spilled the secret that Nix was also a half-cetra (in which Nix didn't find surprising because she had begun hearing voices from nowhere) and decided to teach Nix the ways of a cetra (which she had learnt from her mother).

They used the time as their advantage. Nix had trained herself to use swords and that was much more difficult because she had no one to mentor her, unlike in the ways of a Turk or martial artist. They trained their skills, memorised the certain dates of events that lead to the almost death of Gaia and searched out more answers to somehow use to their advantage. But sometimes, it never worked. Some things they tried had led to a worse situation than the original. Especially when they tried to kill Hojo at the start. It had caused a major riot within the world and ShinRa had tried to kill off all the problems it presented, resulting in casualities to both sides. It was unfortunate and even horrific, but this was all just 'guess and check'.

Their mission was simple. To save the five men from their cruel fates because that was how the cycle always started. The pact was simple too. They liked to think of themselves as the warriors of time (or was it just Nix?).

Nix Somnium was the past, Aerith Gainsborough was the present and Vincent Valentine was the future. If Nix failed then Aerith would rectify the wrongs of the past and if that couldn't eliminate the threat of the present then Vincent had to ensure the future would be safe before they retreated into the past again to prepare for the endless cycle.

I warned you, it was bad. Atleast, I think it was. But anyways, this chapter was just an insight of Tristis's past and a vague introduction to how Vincent came into this. I think I'm getting a cold now... Sheesh...

Thank you for reading and have a nice day!

-Lolimochi.