I wish I didn't have such a severe case of Writer's block. I have been trying to write updates for at least five other stories, but this is the only one that's been seeing any progress. I've got most of chapter 31 for Saving the Lost finished, but its still not ready. It's the closest to being ready followed by Present from the Past which is over half-way done. I know many are waiting for the next update for Strife: SG-1, and I'm sorry, but you'll have to wait a bit longer for that. There's just a lot going on in my personal life and I think it's starting to affect my writing. Holiday stress - it's amazing what it can do to a person.

And don't worry Mrs. Strife, your son couldn't be safer now that Zack's taken him under his wing. ;)

I hope you all enjoy this latest update. :)

He thought he could hear a voice. It sounded familiar, but he didn't dare to hope that anyone was looking for him. Who even knew he was out here anyway? Besides, what they were calling him wasn't his name.

"Kid! Hey, can you hear me?"

Zack was doing his best to follow the snow prints. After leaving Nibelheim behind, Zack mentally made plans to return to Midgar, but not without that kid. The boy's trail had been easy enough to follow until the wind started to kick up. Now the tracks were slowly being covered over and despite his better-than-average tracking skills he was having a hard time finding his way.

"Oh man, why'd I just let him go off on his own? If anything happens to that kid I'll never forgive myself," he said to himself as he cupped his hand to his mouth. "Kid! Are you out there?"

Strife slowly lifted his head as the voice drew nearer.

"Zack?"

Had he really come looking for him? He got his answer when he heard him calling out again. Strife tried to get up, but fell back down with a yelp of pain when he tried putting weight on his injured foot. The impact of his fall caused the ice to crack. He held his breath and kept still, praying that the frozen surface would hold. He let out a small breath of relief when it still held. He then heard Zack calling out again, but it was quieter this time. With a fresh wave of fear Strife realized that he was moving farther away.

"Zack! I'm over here!"

Nothing. Strife tried again and the voice was still growing distant. He tried to raise his voice but the ice began cracking more.

. . .

Over an hour had passed. Zack called and called until his voice was sore. The wind wasn't helping and it seemed to muffle his efforts. He also feared that he'd pass by the kid. with the wind blowing right at him it made hearing anything really difficult.

"This is the last time I take any snow-themed missions. Next time it'll be a tropical island paradise with hula girls, drinks with little umbrellas and someone in the background playing a ukulele!" He had just passed under a tree where it offered some defense against the wind.

"Spiky! Where are you? I'm sorry about before! Come on kid!"

The snow from a tree branch fell and landed right on top of him, coating his spiky black hair and stinging his eyes. When he opened them he had to rub them to make sure he wasn't seeing things. A wolf was standing a few feet in front of him. It was different from the normal Nibel Wolves and unlike the others it wasn't baring its fangs at him. It was just standing there.

"What? Never seen a guy get pelted with snow before?" asked the SOLDIER.

The wolf walked passed him and headed off in the direction Zack had just come from. Zack turned to watch it and blinked when the wolf stopped and turned its head back to him.

"You want me to follow you?"

The wolf turned then and headed off. Zack shrugged and followed it.

Zack was getting a bit irritated. The wolf had made him retrace his steps pretty far by the time he noticed the creature stop. The wolf was sniffing at a frozen stream. Zack only shook his head.

"Sorry Fido, the water's frozen over. You can't quench your thirst here."

The wolf kept sniffing and headed further downstream. Zack shook his head and followed.

"Look, it doesn't matter how far you go. It's too cold, you'll never find water around he-" Zack stopped when he saw a small branch where a patch of furry material was sticking to it. He took the material from the branch and looked at it more closely. It was just like the coat that the kid had.

"Wait, you've been leading me to Spiky?!"

But as he turned to look around the wolf was no where to be seen. Zack followed the stream that was now going down a slanted path.

"Spiky! Spiky, where are you?"

He had to stop himself when he almost fell from a steep drop. It was then that he looked down and saw him. The kid was lying face down right in the middle of the frozen pond. What scared Zack most was that the kid wasn't moving.

. . .

"Spiky!"

He opened his eyes slowly. He was so cold and his foot hurt too much to move. But he thought he had heard a voice.

"Spiky, can you hear me?"

The kid looked up then, realizing that he wasn't hearing things. "Zack?"

He looked over the top of the frozen waterfall that he had fallen from and saw him standing there. His spirits soared when he realized that Zack had come back for him.

"Zack!" He shouted as he jolted up, but that's when the ice gave way and he fell into the frigid water.

He tried to fight his way back to the surface, but his thick coat and the rest of his supplies was weighing him down and with his injured foot he couldn't kick his way back up. His strength gave out and as the precious bubbles of air escaped his mouth a strong hand grabbed his arm and started pulling him up. He felt the weight of his supplies vanish and within seconds his head broke the surface and he was choking up water.

Zack shoved him out of the water before hauling himself up. The kid was shaking like a leaf and Zack did the only thing he could. He pulled off the kid's clothes which were soaking wet and doing far more harm than good. Next he ran over towards where he had thrown off his sword in order to dive in. In his haste, the top of his SOLDIER First uniform had gotten caught on the blade's strap and been pulled off with it. Now he was grateful for it as he took the sweater-like vest and wrapped it around the kid.

"Z-z-z-Za-ck?" he asked through chattering teeth.

"I'm here kid. You're gonna be okay."

"I'm s-s-sorry ab-bout bef-f-fore."

"Don't worry about that right now, focus on staying warm." Zack looked around for anything else he could use to warm the kid up. He was freezing as well, but with mako coursing through his system he knew he'd be fine. the kid was a completely different story.

He didn't want to move the kid, but they couldn't stay here. It was hard to tell how much time had passed through the thick clouds, but Zack guessed that it wouldn't be long until sundown. Strapping the sword to his back, Zack then made sure the sweater was wrapped firmly around the kid as he picked him up and carried him in his arms. Zack hated that the kid felt cold as ice and his blonde spikes were starting to freeze.

"Hey, you gotta stay with me kid. Don't you dare go where I can't follow. Screw it, I'd still go and drag you back. It can't be any different than plunging into ice water and freezing my ass off, right?"

The boy fought to keep his eyes open, but he couldn't help but offer a small smile. "I-I'll s-s-stay p-put," he replied quietly.

Hearing this, Zack smiled.

"Good. Now you just stick close to me and I'll have us sitting on a nice beach, drinking tropical punch in no time."

Strife nodded and curled tighter against Zack's chest, trying to keep warm. It wasn't long until he slipped into the quiet darkness of the realm of unconsciousness.

. . .

When the world came back to him, the first thing Strife noticed was that he was no longer freezing. In fact, he was warm and very comfortable. He pulled the blanket closer to him and breathed into the soft fabric. Slowly he opened his eyes and realized that he was lying in a bed with a cooking fire burning in a stove nearby. The small door had been left open to heat the room. Looking around it looked like he was in a cave, but it felt different from the one he and Zack had taken shelter in,...ZACK!

The boy sat up quickly and was about to throw off the blanket when a voice greeted him.

"Welcome back to the land of the living."

Strife looked around, seeing no one except for the large creature lying in the corner. It was red with a small fire burning at the tip of its tail. The creature resembled a cross between a wolf and a lion. Strife wasn't sure which he resembled more. The creature sat up then and scratched behind his ear with a hind paw before shaking his head and offered what appeared to be a smile.

"Good morning young one, My grandfather said you would be waking up sometime today."

"Wh-who are you? And where am I?"

A purr rumbled in the creature's chest in what Strife guessed was laughter.

"There's no need to be alarmed. You're quite safe here. This is Cosmo Canyon and I am Nanaki. My grandfather is the headman of the village and is currently showing your friend around."

"My friend? You mean Zack's okay?"

Nanaki nodded, "Overly energetic is the term that would describe him better at the moment," Nanaki replied. "I'd take you to him, but your foot needs to heal more. It's a pretty bad sprain."

Strife looked down at his foot which was now wrapped in bandages. His clothes were on a table next to him, all folded and they looked like they had been recently cleaned.

Nanaki stood up and stretched before heading for the door, "I imagine you'd like some privacy in order to get dressed. I'll inform my grandfather and your friend that you're awake, Spiky."

Strife blinked, "Thanks, but my name isn't Spiky. It's Cl-"

"All this time, I can't believe it! the planet really is an amazing place!"

Nanaki opened the door with his muzzle just in time for Zack to come bouncing by. He seemed both excited and angry at the same time which was an odd sight to see. His anger vanished the moment he saw his friend sitting up in bed.

"Spiky! You're awake!"

Strife smiled at him, "Thanks to you, I am."

Zack merely shrugged his heroism off. "Pfft, n'ah it wasn't just me. Furball over there deserves half the credit."

"All I did was keep the boy warm and offer shelter," Nanaki humbly replied.

Strife nodded to the cat as he made his leave, "Thanks Nanaki."

The cat nodded back and headed off to find his grandfather. Zack walked over to a chair and sat down before running his hands through his hair. "Man, I have got a lot of re-thinking to do."

"That could be dangerous," Strife joked.

Zack shot him an amused glare before huffing in mock offense. "So's running off into the mountains on your own."

Strife closed his eyes in defeat, but couldn't mask his smile. "Okay fine. I was stupid and made a mistake, but what do you expect from a country bumpkin?"

Zack snorted before unleashing his laughter. "And you think Gongaga is any better? A bit warmer maybe, but that's it. Trust me Spiky, I've made my fair share of mistakes, but that doesn't make me a country bumpkin, so that excuse won't work on me."

Strife looked down at his hands which were resting on top of the blanket.

"I never did tell you my real name."

"The villagers called you Strife," Zack replied.

The boy looked up at him then, "There were survivors? How many?"

Zack felt his good mood vanish. He didn't want to put the kid in a bad mood, but he wanted to be honest with him. "Nine."

"Just...just nine?"

Zack nodded. "Four men, two kids and three women." His gaze focused on a rock sticking out of the wall. "They weren't very nice people either. I wanted to punch that one guy's light's out. He was so eager to throw the blame at someone else for what happened."

"Sounds like Cassidy. That guy was always looking for a way to point the blame at me for something." Strife replied. "His younger brother was one of the ones that always bullied me a lot. One day I got tired of him and gave him a bloody nose. He went crying to Cassidy and the next day he was telling the mayor and everyone else that I was seen stealing from people's houses."

Zack's jaw dropped open at hearing that. "Well shit! I really should have punched him out then,"

Strife shook his head. "Wouldn't have done any good. He's the type that never learns."

Zack sat back and folded his arms, "Okay, so you don't like me callin' you Spiky and I don't like Strife because it doesn't really suite you, what should I call you?"

The kid smiled at him then,

"Cloud."

"No seriously, what's your name?"

"Cloud."

"I like Spiky better. I mean, what kinda name is Cloud?"

"What kind of name is Zack Fair?"

Zack sighed, "Fair enough."

The two blinked at the hidden joke and erupted into laughter.

Just outside of the door and out of Zack's SOLDIER hearing range Nanaki and his grandfather had been listening in within a secret room.

"Cloud Strife and Zack Fair. The planet has been waiting for these two for quite some time."

Nanaki looked up at the old man, "What does the future hold?"

"Nothing is for certain, Nanaki, but I do know this. Those two will bring about great changes. Both for the planet and each other."

Next Chapter: Home Sweet Home, Stowaway, The General.