A/N:

This is sort of an interlude as I wanted to get this backstory out there so things could make sense.

I hope it seems believable and feels like a natural extension of the story.

Thanks to the lovely Shivani for her assistance with certain parts of this!

(Though any and all mistakes are still mine and mine alone!)

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Claudia Strauss had been left an orphan after the Dark Winter.

The 'Dark Winter' was the winter when over half of Nibelheim came down with a strange illness and over half of that half perished. The illness had baffled the town doctors and the Shinra scientists who had been called in to investigate. All the usual indicators of an ailment were missing, despite the fevers, extreme fatigue, and others various garden-variety symptoms the sufferers experienced. All the bloodwork came back clean, nothing was in the lungs, and no other physical indication that something was wrong presented itself to the healers.

The illness had mostly affected the eldest and the youngest of the town and most of those who recovered were the younglings; nearly every person over the age of forty who fell ill passed before the first daffodil of spring unfurled from its bulb.

Claudia had been twelve and scared out of her mind. She had sat in her family's humble home, numbly watching her father's body slowly dissolve into threads of Lifestream, absently wondering if it would not better for her to take her father's hunting knife to her flesh rather than face life on the mountain without her Ma and Da to guide her.

Before Claudia could finish that grim train of thought, however, Brenna Strife had come barreling through the front door- a door that that Claudia had long since barricaded; mostly to keep out the cold, as her family's finances had been drained by the sudden illness of her parents- and swept the young girl up into a fierce, warm hug.

Brenna Strife towered over most of Nibelheim's residents, including her husband. The curvaceous blonde woman usually had her waist length hair spun up in braids, could swing an axe better than just about everyone but her husband, and was a thirteenth-generation mountaineer. Brenna could trace her lineage on the mountain to a time before Nibelheim had existed in its present state. Her family and the Strife family had intermarried countless times over the years culminating into a common joke among those born in raised at the base of Mount Nibel as Brenna's family name had been Harmony before she had married Sven Strife.

The Harmony family and the Strife family were among the last of who still spoke Old Nibel. As opposed to the more common Modern Nibel that the town had adopted over the past century as trade with the Midlands and other places brought in new visitors- some of whom chose to stay- and the spoken language slowly drifted as the result. Recently the Schoolhouse had ceased to teach the written form of Old Nibel. The reasoning behind the decision was that as technology improved and Nibelheim became more connected to the rest of Gaia, most trade was done in what had been dubbed 'Gaiinese'.

Therefore even to Claudia's native Nibelheim ears Brenna's voice was accented, the vowels rougher and the consonants harsher despite the kindness and compassion in her tone.

"You'll be coming with us, Audi." Brenna had informed the girl briskly once Claudia had been set back onto her own two feet. The words were spoken briskly but kindly and Claudia absently noted the calloused hands that ruffled her limp hair as Sven wandered past her and deeper into the humble Strauss home. Sten, the only child of Sven and Brenna Strife that had lived to see his teens, came to stand beside Claudia, wrapping an arm around her waist and allowing the younger blonde to loll her head against his steady shoulder. "I won't be entertainin' any arguments either, missy. You're Sten's best friend and a good girl, an' I won't be leavin' ya here to struggle alone. Have I made myself clear, missy?"

Claudia hadn't even tried to argue with the mother of her best- and only, truthfully- friend.

Sven and Claudia had always been best friends, but from that point forward they were something more. Fiercely protective of each other and about ten shades of adventurous the next few years had passed in a blur of happy moments gathered around the fire with the whole family or Claudia and Sten challenging each other as they helped cut wood for the family livelihood.

Then came the day that Papa Sven was killed by a tree dropping in the wrong direction. Mama Brenna had withered without her gentle bear of a man beside her and her dearest wish had been to see Sten happy and married before she joined her husband in the Lifestream.

There were many things Brenna Strife understood but the lack of a desire to marry was not one of them.

Claudia, well aware of her best friend's, (her brother and confidant and soulmate), predilections had taken Sten aside and begged him to marry her so that Mama Brenna could pass on peacefully. Sten, ever concerned for Claudia, had been extremely reluctant to trap his beloved friend in a marriage that would prevent her from ever being able to have a proper family with a husband who adored Claudia as a lover.

Claudia, naturally, had passionately defended her proposal.

"I don't care!" Claudia cried, wisps of blonde hair swirling about in the breeze as she tried to get Sten to see reason. "I love you. Maybe not like a wife should, but it is still genuine love! I would rather Mama Brenna be happy and you be safe from those-those gossipy hags than nothing at all! I don't even like any of the idiots who want to bed me! You know this!"

"Audi." Sten discouraged lowly, patient and kind and so very, very tenderly. "I can't-"

"You can and you will." Claudia had hissed in the same manner as an offended feline, poking her dainty index finger into her friend's burly chest. "You will allow me to marry you, to protect you, because it is what I want and what we both need. We can figure out the logistics later and you can keep me warm at night with your ridiculous body heat but you will not deny me, do you understand me, Sten Strife!"

That spring when Mama Brenna had passed on to the Lifestream, Claudia Strauss had become Claudia Strife.

The marriage had not stopped the most vicious of the gossips, not when Claudia had been highly sought after as a potential bride and Sven had snubbed more than a few local princesses. Yet they were happy together and when Sven started seeing Gavin Greenhart, Claudia had been happy for them. The blonde had been more than willing to provide cover for them by spending long nights curled up near the fire with a good book while they explored each other in the safety of the windowless spare bedroom.

Over time, though, even more vicious rumors began to swirl as Claudia and Sten remained childless. The Strife couple really did not pay any mind to them, but it was during all this that he had arrived.

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Reeve Tuesti had arrived in Nibelheim to study the Reactor and plan for it to be upgraded. He had been led up the mountain by Sten Strife and had easily become friends with the gentle bear of a man.

Reeve, having a rather acute set of senses, had quickly divined the true nature of Sten's relationship with the town's Herbalist. Being a man of honor, and having met the lovely Claudia Strife both in town and as a guest in the Strife home, he had confronted his friend about the 'affair'.

Sten had come clean about the true nature of his relationship with Claudia and the arrangement they had come to regarding their sexual needs.

Nearly half a year later a broken-hearted Reeve had departed Nibelheim, with a fervent desire to never return to the sleepy little town.

Reeve did not blame Claudia for breaking off their quiet relationship, not with the rumors that had begun to run through the town and how it had affected the family's livelihood.

Even still, Reeve's heart was broken. Claudia was vibrant and intelligent and everything Reeve had ever wanted; but she belonged to Sten, belonged to Nibelheim, and Reeve-

-well, he would move his parents to Midgar and keep himself busy. Eventually he had married but that had ended fairly quickly and Reeve had mostly kept to himself and his projects when not spending time with his folks after that particular disaster.

However, as Reeve stared at the reports that Tseng had slipped to him after the executive meeting that afternoon Reeve wished that he had fought harder or even just gone back to Nibelheim one last time.

Cloud Strife was Reeve's son.

Reeve and Claudia had made a baby and that baby was now a grown man.

Ruvie- Reeve's mother and the sweetest woman alive- had a grandson that she had never met.

Reeve sighed heavily and allowed his eyes to drift over towards his prized Cait Sith. The little robotic toy had been why he had known about Cloud and Cloud's connection to Claudia; had been why he had cashed in a favor and asked Tseng to have Mark Hollander run the tests that sat before him in clinical black-and-white.

The Slums and the living conditions of the people there were a constant source of concern for Reeve. Therefore when Cait had come across a park with flowers in it Reeve had been interested. That interest had multiplied once he had discovered the rudimentary- but highly effective- air circulation system near the park. The newly-tapped fresh water source had only cemented his desire to somehow become involved.

Reeve had needed to run a bit of interference to keep Shinra from noticing the changes, but most of the people who had noticed were interested in letting the situation continue. Even Tseng had been unnaturally sharp when Reeve had asked about Cloud- his son, his and Claudia's son- and Reeve held no illusions that Tseng would have silenced him had Reeve planned to oppose Cloud's progress.

Reeve was desperately curious as to why that was, exactly, but given what he knew now, Reeve was just thankful.

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Feel free to leave me a note on your way out~!

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A/N Part II:

I made Reeve older than the timeline says he is. He's an engineer and architect for the Reactors so I've always pegged him as being older than it says he is.

Uhm, please don't hate me?