Update 8/13/17: This work has been edited and beta'd by the lovely and awesome ChaosBalance over on Ao3 who has been an amazing help throughout this journey.


He kept his breathing at a steady pace when he realized that he was finally waking up. The voices beside him were hushed and upset as he struggled his way out of the darkness. The ex-mercenary slowly used his senses to scout his surroundings so as to not alert the people near him of the fact that he was awake.

This first thing Cloud realized was that he still had his enhancements. They felt different though. It was as if it was pure Mako from the lifestream and not the diluted JENOVA crap that Hojo thought was oh so superior, the idiot. 'Thank Gaia,' he thought though. There would be no way to really save the world if he couldn't fight against SOLDIERs. Can't fight SOLDIERs without enhancements. Really though, if things worked out the right way he wouldn't have to worry about fighting them.

The second thing to hit Cloud was the smell of pine, fire, and bread. Smells that all meant one thing, Ma! With that he slowly opened his eyes; he had to be sure. As the blurriness eased away he saw her. Her blond hair pulled up into a messy bun, with strands going every which way as if they were trying to escape the elastic holding it all in place. Her small hands, calloused from years of hard labor, were balled into fists at her sides. Her short frame was drawn up to its fullest height, back straight and shoulders squared. He couldn't stop his gasp as he saw his Ma. There she stood in all her glory quietly yelling at the Mayor, full of life and hale and alive.

Rain Strife ceased her quarreling when she heard the gasp. Turning around quickly she saw those watery ocean blue eyes staring at her with tears running down flushed cheeks. She was there immediately pulling her boy to her and wiping the tears. "It's okay sweetie, Ma has you."

Cloud just cried that much harder as his mother hugged him to her. All of his poignant feelings regarding his mother's deaths resurfacing, and slowly easing from him as he was held in her embrace. He just buried his head further into the crook of her neck. "Ma," he breathed. He didn't know if it was okay to believe that she was real. It had been too long since he had seen his mother.

"You may leave now Mayor." She looked up at him with disdain clearly written on her face. "I need to tend to my son. You know where the door is." And with that dismissal she focused on her son wrapped snug in her arms. There was no reply from the Mayor, which was just as well. So with a gentle soothing voice she asked, "Are you okay? Are you hurtin' anywhere?"

Cloud just shook his head. He knew he wouldn't be able to lie to her, but he wasn't ready to talk. He instead focused on the footsteps fading away until he heard the sound of a door opening and closing. He tightened his grip on his Ma just a bit. He wasn't ready to let her go.

He was worried about what would happen in this life as well. He was going to save his Ma, he knew that for a fact. He couldn't survive failing her again. There were so many possibilities this time around though. He also needed to figure out who remembered their previous lives and who was in the dark. That is if Aerith really had found a way to make more people remember. It would make things easier with more people to back them up. Those were thoughts for another time, when he wasn't out of it from just waking up in the past. He had to gain control of himself, and then figure out where to go from there.

"Okay sweetie, I'm here when you're ready." Rain rubbed her son's back in gentle circles. She hadn't been able to find anything physically wrong with Cloud over the past week. There was the fact that his eyes were brighter and glowed, although she knew that could happen with Mako-poisoning. Other than that, to her it seemed as if he had more muscle definition, was a bit taller and overall seemed healthier than before the fall. That didn't mean that the Mako he fell in hadn't affected him mentally. Though she was skeptical on that last bit. Cloud was strong, even if no one else saw it but her. "What in Ifrit's Hel were those kids thinking? I know you're on the smaller side, but to bully you into going up the mountain like that? It's just luck that Tifa followed you up there like you followed her when she went up the mountain. I don't want to think about what could have happened or the story that they would have spouted. Though Tifa can be a sweet girl. Even though I'm still not happy she didn't tell the whole truth last year. Kinda sad she's not your soul mate, but there's a reason for everythin'. I can't believe the Mayor for sayin' it's your fault! I could skin him alive!"

The laugh was a startle to them both. Pausing her rant Rain looked down at her son in surprise. Cloud slowly pulled away from the hug. He had wide red rimmed eyes with tear tracks flowing down his cheeks, and a giant smile on his face. "I love you Ma," and he lunged back in for another hug. The ex-mercenary had forgotten how out spoken his Ma could be. And how protective too. It was nice.

"Oh sweetie! I love you too." Rain squeezed her little boy to her chest, even though he didn't feel so little anymore. She didn't know what she would have done had Cloud stayed in a coma. He was her world. She would never regret not telling his father about him. That would have been a disaster waiting to happen if he found out. Besides the man didn't need to know that he had one more bastard child in the world for him to ignore, or worse. A one night stand with someone never turned out so wonderful for her. With no possible soul mate in the world for herself, she was okay in that knowledge.

With his head buried in his mother's neck Cloud's voice came out muffled when he started to talk. "I'm not the same anymore. I'm not the same Cloud I was before I fell in that Mako Pool. There's a lot I have to tell you, and you probably won't like most of it. No, I know you won't like most of it." He took a deep breath and was quite for a minute. "It's going to be a lot to take in and even harder to accept. I have proof that what I'm saying isn't a lie. It wasn't a hallucination from the mako or anything like that." There would be no hiding the fact that he was a man in a child's body from his Ma. The changes would be too drastic and would make him stand out. Besides, his Ma deserved to know the truth of his life.

Rain furrowed her brows in thought as she held her son to her. There was anguish in his voice that she had never heard before. It hurt her to hear her baby's voice like that. No mother wanted to know that their child suffered any pain, let alone pain that bled through their voice to rake at your heart like Cloud's did. He also cried in her arms in a way that she had never seen, even when he was younger. It was almost like he was mourning or grieving. "Okay. I can already tell somethin's different. I can't say I won't come unglued hearin' any of this, but I'll try to keep my composure 'til you're through with your story," was Rain's response as she laid her cheek on the top of his head. There was more that could have been said, though she figured he already understood. Rain was worried. She didn't like where this was going.

After relaxing into his Ma's embrace, Cloud pulled back to be able to see his mother clearly. This was it. He would tell her his story. "To start… I've been sent back in time. This is actually the second time, but it will be my third life." He closes his eyes for a minute before telling his Ma the whole story.

It took a while but he got through it. Cloud broke a few times on hard parts, like when Zack was taken from him both times and when he had to kill his hero over and over. He told her of all of the problems with SHINRA and that he knows who his father is. "Don't worry I want nothing to do with the man, and I don't blame you for not telling me about him," he said when she looked at him with concern and an apology shining in her eyes. "He is ruining the world and is only out for himself with little care for anyone else. The man can go rot in Hel for all I care." Then Cloud told her about all the friends he had made and lost, and about how he saw the world fall to ruin twice.

Rain had never seen anger or pain so strong in anyone before. She had to stop herself from gasping at the sight of in on her little boys face. Rain would agree that there was no love lost to the man though. He might have sired her son but he was not a father. The only other time she saw the same anger is when he is talking about a Professor Hojo. The name rang a bell, and when Cloud said that the experiments were based in their town of Nibelhiem, she knew why. All those that went missing years ago and she could never prove it was him. It sickened her to know that her son was at the mercy of that man at some point in time.

Towards the middle of the story she realizes that she has tears trailing down her cheeks. Rain didn't know when she started crying. If the wetness on her cheeks and on her shirt was any indication, she had been crying for a while. This was no sweet bedtime story like she used to tell him. Cloud was telling his life's story and it was breaking her heart. No one should be put through so much pain, especially not her sweet little boy.

Cloud finished with the main parts of his story, only to finish it all by telling her more about Zack. It's always a good topic even with the loss he had to suffer. He tells her everything but the secrets between him and Zack, because well, those are theirs. From the look on her face he assumed that she was happy with his soul mate.

That's when it hit him. "I don't know what my new bond mark looks like. Would you look at it with me?"

Rain remembered her son having a part of an hourglass on his left calf. He told her that when he was brought back the first time it had been a cocoon. It made her wonder. She helped him situate himself so that he could comfortably roll his pant leg up.

It was breathtaking. A butterfly wing with blue and violet swirling together, and at the edge there was a sliver of silver where there should be a body connected to it. Rain had never seen anything like it.

"It's not complete! That doesn't make sense. The mark has been complete ever since our first kiss in our original timeline. There should be no missing pieces." Cloud was scared and upset. What in the world did Gaia do to his bond mark? "I can't be without Zack."

Rain spoke in a calming voice, "Maybe you have been gifted with others in your bond. If Gaia can change your bond mark so easily, then maybe it's just as easy for her to add people to your bond. Unfortunately, all I know about soul mates is from books and other people." Rain's voice grew quieter as she talked. She locked her pale blue eyes onto Cloud's bright sky blue ones. "I haven't told anyone this and the only ones who knew were your grandparents. Your Ma doesn't have a bond mark. Gaia does thin's for a reason. You are smart and one day you will figure out why she has given you this gift. Everythin' will work out. You will put your knowledge to good use." She slowly stood from Clouds bed and started walking to the bedroom door. "I need a little bit of time to wrap my head around this and I'm sure you're starvin'. I believe you, but it's all a bit of a shock. I'll let you know when food is done," and with that she left.

Cloud sank back into his bed. 'There's someone other than Zack that's my soul mate?' That thought raced around in ex-mercenaries head for a while. It was only them for so long. 'Who are they? What are they like?' The questions kept growing. Cloud knew he had to stop. He slowly let go of everything that was out of his control. Let it slip out of his mind and not dwell on it. It had taken some time to learn that skill.

Instead he made a list of things that needed to be done. The short-term list of goals he needed to accomplish was fairly small. Get a phone to call Zack. Wake up Vincent and see what Tifa was up to. Take out JENOVA before leaving town. Take the reactor offline while he was at it. It wasn't like the town used any of the power that came from it anyways. It was always too unstable. He was grateful that he wouldn't have to do any strength training since he had Mako running through his veins.

Getting in touch with Zack was priority number one. Luckily, Cloud had Zack's Shinra PHS number memorized. The downside of that knowledge was that Cloud didn't have a PHS of his own. Yeah he could use the public phone in town but he needed a secure line that couldn't be hacked. Well, Zack would need one as well. He figured he would work that out while he went to wake Vincent up. He also wanted to see Tifa. The ex-mercenary mused about all of his different options that he had in front of him. That was until he could smell the home cooked meal coming from the kitchen.

Cloud climbed out of bed and allowed his nose to slowly direct him to the food. He had to let it sink in more that he was back in time with his Ma as he took in the little house that was his childhood home. The nostalgia and warmth that it brought to his heart was priceless. For so long these memories were lost to him. It made the smells and sights almost overwhelming. He took a few minutes in each area of the small house just to soak it all in. It was nice being able to let it all wash over himself without feeling like he was weighed down by it all. Once the ex-mercenary reached the dining area he paused to watch his Ma putter around the kitchen getting food ready.

With a look outside he assumed that it was about midday. Maybe he'd venture out to the mansion before night fall. For now eating some of his Ma's home cooked food sounded like a divine idea. His Ma's voice broke him out of his thoughts.

"Last week you were adamant about going to join SHINRA and becoming a SOLDIER. I take it that's not your plan anymore?" Rain had to ask. She would support her son no matter his decisions, but after everything he had told her, she needed to know.

"With everything I know, I don't want to go that route again. I'd rather move us out of this town and start my own business." He closed his eyes. "How old am I?" He asked with scrunched up confused face.

"You're sixteen as of last fall." Rain said as she started placing the prepared food on the table.

Well that was a new change. It would make certain things easier, that was for sure. With his eyes still closed, Cloud saw visions of everything that had ever went wrong playing out on the inside of his eyelids. Cloud ripped himself from those thoughts. "I'll be able to do more good without joining SHINRA then."

"Well we can take our time to think thin's through. I'm all for movin' out of this forsaken town. I just don't wanna see you hurt more than you already have been." She paused as she brought the rest of the finished food over to the table. Rain was chewing on a thought as she sat down. Eventually, "I'm stickin' with you. I'll do what I can to help you with any dream that you want to achieve, no matter what that dream is."

Cloud stared at his Ma for a full minute before reaching across the table to take her hand. "I love you. Now let's eat before this gets cold. I'll worry about the future and think about packing later. For now I want to enjoy having my Ma back in my life." With that both of the Strifes ate their meal in silence and basked in each other's presence. This was just as important as all the plans the ex-mercenary would eventually have to make.