"Are you certain you don't wish to stay and fight with us?"
       Cloud averted his eyes so he wouldn't have to meet the gazes of Ramza, Agrias, and the others. It was a loaded question, but one which, in his heart, he knew there was only one answer to.
       "I'm sorry, but… I have to go back. I was whisked away to this world at a crucial time in my own," he answered, perfectly recalling the blinding flash of light that shone through the Highwind's large main window, the last thing he had seen before awakening in Besrodio's workshop, "and there's people there who need me. I know that the situation here is dire, but it's not my battle to fight."
       He overheard one of the party's dragon knights start to protest, but then, Ramza's voice silenced her. "Well, I'm not about to stop you if you have something important to attend to. Still, I was hoping we could convince you to stay, at least a little bit longer."
       "I understand, and I truly am sorry that I can't help you…"
       "But Cloud, there is one thing."
       "Yeah?"
       "Do you know how, or even if, you'll be able to return to your world?"

       Besrodio's workshop in Goug Machine City was even more cluttered than when he had first run away from it. The engineer himself was busy with the large contraption from which Cloud had emerged; doing what, exactly, the latter wasn't certain.
       "Hey, I'm back."
       Besrodio looked up from his work. "Oh, it's you—the soldier from a future world! What brings you here?"
       "I was wondering if there was any way I could return home."
       "Ah. Well, you dropped something interesting when you first ran away from here. I think that might be the key to getting you back to where you came from."
       "Really? What is it?"
       "This," Besrodio answered, presenting an odd handheld device to Cloud. It looked to be a remote control of some kind, with a rectangular digital display at the top and various buttons beneath it. "I'm not entirely sure what it is, but I think it may be something that guides the traveler to their destination."
       "Hmm," Cloud replied, taking the device from Besrodio and turning it over in his hands. If it was true that it was attached to him in the time-stream, then he had no idea of how it had gotten there. Still, perhaps the engineer was on to something…
       "At any rate, I can't send anybody anywhere unless the machine is activated again."
       "Well, that shouldn't be a problem," Cloud smiled, pulling the Cancer Zodiac Stone from the pocket of his white mage's cloak. "Borrowed this from Ramza. Mustadio'll be by to pick it up a few days from now."
       Besrodio gave Cloud a strange look. "Are you sure you want to do this? This machine is far more advanced than any other device presently in Ivalice. I just barely know how to operate it myself, and know next to nothing of its inner workings."
       "Send me back, Besrodio. I'm aware of the risks."
       "All right…"

       When he had first joined up with Ramza's party, Cloud had taken the "job" of a chemist; at the time, he was weaker than the others—probably as a result of the rigors of time travel—and would have not been of much help to the group as a fighter. Soon, he had moved on to the role of a Priest, or White Mage, and learned various healing magics during the course of his travels. Magic in Ivalice worked in a far more direct way than it did on his world, as the abilities themselves resided within his own knowledge, as opposed to that of the Cetra as contained within round pieces of materia. This method of magic-casting took him awhile to get used to, and also took quite some time to master; doubtless, the reason why individuals specialized in different types of magic in Ivalice was because they didn't have conveniences like his world's materia.
       Even though Cloud had never envisioned himself as a medic or healer of any kind, he came to like his work. However, he didn't enjoy it so much so that he could ignore the pangs of homesickness, and of obligation to his own world, his own time. Now, he was slipping through the time-stream, his red-trimmed white cloak wrapped close around him, as he carefully lifted the remote before his face. The display now bore an image of his planet, and on a counter, the years ticked by at the rate of one every two seconds. Directly beneath these numbers at the bottom of the screen was a large red button which, Cloud surmised, were the "brakes" of the device, should he wish to stop.
       It was now twenty-two years before his destination—the year of his birth. Cloud thought about all the events which had gone on in his life before now, his lonely childhood, his first day on the job as a Shinra MP, but most of all, a certain few consecutive days in Nibelheim, when Sephiroth discovered the disturbing truth about his origins.
       Upon reaching five years before his destination, Cloud—driven by instinct, impulse, or a force greater than either of those—pushed the red button.


       When the light and noise had subsided, Cloud found himself before his hometown's gates. The old blue pickup truck was off to his right, quietly rusting as it had done for several years before. Beyond the gate lay the mist-shrouded mountain village he had once called home. All right, Cloud thought, so I'm definitely back on my own world. But is this really the old, original Nibelheim, or simply the present-day replica? Guess there's only one way to find out.
       Pulling his hood low over his head, Cloud took a deep breath and stepped into town.

       He took a room at the inn, giving the innkeeper a false name, and then made his way to the general store, where he bought a copy of the Shinra Times. Judging by the date on the newspaper, he was indeed five years in the past… and only one day before Sephiroth was to set fire to Nibelheim.
       Cloud slammed the paper down on a nearby chair and ran out of the store. There wasn't much time to lose.

       Back at the inn, Cloud had managed to break into the room where his past self, Sephiroth, and Zack were staying. He had been too late to prevent Sephiroth's discovery of Jenova, but there was still time to stop him from reducing his hometown to cinders. However, he knew from past experience that this wasn't something he could do alone, and he also knew that Zack's help wouldn't be enough. He needed some serious firepower from Shinra, and out of the most powerful people at the company, there was only one whose PHS number he had handy. Problem was, Cloud didn't have a PHS, but fortunately, he remembered that Sephiroth had left his in their room while he was pouring over books in the Shinra Mansion's basement.
       What he didn't expect, however, was for Zack to be in the room at the time. The SOLDIER First Class bolted up from his chair, his hand sweeping up to meet the hilt of his Buster Sword, as the future Cloud shoved the door open.
       "Who are you?" Zack demanded. "What do you want?"
       Cloud bit his bottom lip. He had to be careful about this. "I… I'm here to prevent a great tragedy from happening," he replied, doing his best to alter the true sound of his voice. "Commander Sephiroth will destroy this town tomorrow evening if we don't act now."
       "What are you talking about?"
       "Sephiroth's been acting strange lately, right? Reading books all day in the Shinra Mansion's basement?"
       "Yeah, but—hey, wait a sec. How did you know that? Did you sneak into the mansion and see for yourself?"
       "That's not important. What is, is that if nobody takes care of Sephiroth now, then Nibelheim will burn!"
       "How can you be so sure? I mean sure, Sephiroth hasn't been himself, but I can't see him doing such a thing."
       Cloud chucked ruefully. "Well then, not only will Nibelheim be set on fire, but your friend Cloud's mother will die, and so will your tour guide Tifa's father. You won't die, but—"
       "I've heard enough," Zack declared. "Get out of here, you spying nutjob, before I report you back to Shinra headquarters."
       Cloud gritted his teeth, but turned to go all the same. As he did, he spied Sephiroth's PHS on a nearby table. He grabbed it, then dashed out the door. It was a good thing he knew this town far better than Zack ever did, so it didn't take him long to shake the SOLDIER. Not moving from his new hiding space, he waited a number of minutes before pulling out the PHS and flipping it open. Then, he punched in Reeve's number.
       "Shinra Electric Power Company Office of Urban Development, Chairman Reeve speaking," a voice replied once the phone had ceased ringing, the words running together in one long, well-worn string. "Is there something I can help you with, Commander Sephiroth?"
       "Reeve, it's not Sephiroth, it's me—" Cloud started, quickly adding, "Well actually, we don't know each other. Yet."
       "All right. Then who are you, and why are you using the Commander's secure PHS line to call me? He almost never has to contact me about anything to begin with, but—"
       "I don't have time to explain why I'm using Sephiroth's phone. Just listen. I'm trying to avert a disaster."
       "Eh?"
       "All of Nibelheim, save for the Shinra Mansion, will be completely burned down to the ground tomorrow evening. By Sephiroth himself."
       "What? But that's—"
       "Ridiculous, I know. But please believe me, it's the truth. Sephiroth will destroy this town and remove Jenova's head from the mako reactor at Mt. Nibel. An even greater disaster will follow five years from now if Sephiroth isn't subdued in time."
       "Jenova?"
       "You mean to say you maintain Shinra's mako reactors and don't even know what Jenova is?"
       "I'm afraid I can't speak to you on that matter."
       Damn, Cloud thought. This was not going well at all. "Look, just get some SOLDIERs or Turks or something to Nibelheim before sundown tomorrow, or this place is gonna be toast."
       There must've been something in the way Cloud made his demands, because after he did so, there was a brief pause, followed by Reeve answering, "I… I'll see what I can do."


       The following day Cloud bided his time near the mountain pass at the edge of town, his hood drooped low over his head, as usual. The sun set, and not a single reinforcement had arrived from Shinra. Was Reeve able to get them to begin with? Did Reeve even try?
       Then suddenly, without warning, Cloud was grabbed from behind, and a hand clapped over his mouth. As Cloud struggled, a skinny man in a dark suit came to stand before him; it was Reno of the Turks.
       "Simmer down, Oracle Boy. Or don't you want to see your crazy little predictions come true?"
       Cloud stopped struggling, but whoever was restraining him did not let go.
       "If you think we're going to release you now, you must be mad," said the voice of his captor, who Cloud now recognized as Tseng. "After all, nothing you've predicted has occurred yet."
       "Quiet guys!" hissed a third man, whose voice Cloud had never heard before. "Sephiroth's coming out of the mansion now."
       As he remained in Tseng's grasp, Cloud watched as it all unfolded before him once more. Sephiroth cast high-level fire spells on all the surrounding houses and plunged his sword into the few townspeople who dared to cross his path. As his childhood home erupted into flame, Cloud struggled to get loose from Tseng's grip with a greater urgency than before, his thoughts entirely occupied with his mother, alone in that house. In the meantime, Tifa's old teacher Zangan had arrived on the scene, and soon, Zack had emerged from the mansion.
       "That's it. I've seen enough," said the third man, who emerged from the shadows; he had shaggy, short brown hair and was dressed in a Turk uniform. "Looks like our oracle here was on to something after all."
       "So what's next, Saber?" Reno asked.
       "Let's go talk to the good Commander before he leaves town, shall we?" the third Turk, Saber, replied. "You, me, Tseng, and Oracle Boy."
       Reno and Saber went on ahead, while Tseng let go of Cloud and addressed him. "I'll be keeping a close eye on you, so don't try anything funny. Do you have any weapons or materia equipped?"
       By way of an answer, Cloud pulled the Materia Blade—a weapon he had acquired while in Ivalice—out from the folds of his cloak. Tseng stared at the fanciful sword, his eyes wide.
       "Where did you get that? Who exactly are you?"
       "Don't worry about that. Right now we must stop Sephiroth before he heads into the mountains."
       Tseng nodded, and the two walked out from the craggy cliffs, toward Sephiroth.

       The three Turks and Cloud fought the SOLDIER Commander long and hard, with barely any words passing between them. In the midst of their battle, Tseng had made a quick call to Rocket Town to request some firefighters, as Nibelheim's small volunteer force had been wiped out during Sephiroth's rampage. Though Cloud was able to get quite a few attacks in, he primarily served the role of the group's healer, casting curative spells on their party even though the only materia he carried was that which made up the blade of his sword. As he cast these spells, he thought of Ivalice and what he had learned while in Ramza's party. Were they the true Cetra? Was he now as knowledgeable in the ways of magic as an Ancient? He pushed these thoughts to the back of his mind. Whatever the case, it was not important; defeating Sephiroth was his first priority.
       After awhile, Sephiroth's legs wavered and he panted heavily as he clenched the hilt of his blade for his next attack. Cloud smiled and closed his eyes; it was time to unleash the spell he had worked the hardest to learn while in Ivalice. He clasped his hands together and recited a chant, calling upon Holy. Green wisps floated up from the ground, as if answering Cloud's call; they surrounded Sephiroth, winding around his body like thousands of tiny threads. Cloud watched all this in silence, fully aware of the three sets of Turk eyes now staring at this scene, with their accompanying mouths agape. When it was all over, Sephiroth had dissipated into several red streams, which were then pulled back to earth by the green ones. There was a flash of light, and they were gone. A pile of black clothes and mythrill armor lay where Sephiroth once stood; atop this pile, his Masamune sword had grown dark in color, and a long crack had emerged on the blade from the base of the hilt upward.
       "What was that?" Saber gasped.
       "Holy magic. Looked kind of different this time around," Cloud said, thinking of both Aeris' spell and the one he had cast a few times back in Ivalice, "but it got the job done."
       "Is that what your sword is made out of?" Tseng asked. "Holy materia?"
       Cloud shook his head. "The sword had nothing to do with this, and I don't have any materia equipped."
       "So you cast that magic yourself? Impossible!"
       "What's impossible?" a familiar voice interrupted.
       Cloud looked past the Turks to see a fair-haired man casually striding past the team of firefighters that had arrived about a half-hour ago. It was Rufus Shinra, the Vice-President of the company that bore his surname. With him were Hojo, Zangan, and Zack, the latter helping Cloud's younger self to walk.
       "Saber," Rufus started, "what is the meaning behind this abrupt decision to go to Nibelheim?"
       "Orders from the Chairman of Urban Development, sir."
       "Now that's unusual. I didn't even think to ask Reeve about this matter," the Vice-President murmured, brushing a stray lock of hair out of his eyes. "So, is this the person who predicted Sephiroth's act of arson?"
       The future Cloud stepped forward and nodded.
       "And everything you told both SOLDIER Zack and Chairman Reeve came true?"
       Zack replied, "Seems that way. Sephiroth did set fire to the town, and at least one of the deaths this stranger predicted happened as well." The future Cloud swallowed hard upon hearing Zack's words; even with his defeating Sephiroth five years early, some things had remained the same.
       "Just one of them?"
       "The other person he thought would die was at the mako reactor. Needless to say, Sephiroth never made it that far."
       "Interesting."
       "Sir, may we please be dismissed? My friend here needs medical attention right away."
       Rufus waved Zack away. "Go ahead. You may leave as well, old man."
       Zack and Zangan left the scene with the younger Cloud, while Rufus continued his questioning.
       "So exactly how did you know that Sephiroth would commit this crime? Did you overhear him talking about it?"
       "No sir," Cloud replied.
       "I see, and you didn't answer my first question. How did you learn of Sephiroth's plans?"
       "I…" Cloud started; he had to come up with an appropriate answer, and quick. "I know certain things, about the future. I have the ability to see as far ahead as five years."
       "Hmm," Hojo said, speaking up for the first time; he wore an unmistakable scowl on his face. "That is indeed very interesting. So tell me, what would Sephiroth had done had the Turks not been here to stop him?"
       "Sephiroth would've cut off Jenova's head and disappeared for five years, after which he would've emerged to kill President Shinra and lots of other people, and summon an ancient forbidden spell to kill nearly everyone on the planet."
       Hojo cackled halfheartedly. "Is that so…"
       "Yes, and you would think it was wonderful," Cloud seethed, his voice ripe with disgust. "You would even become his accomplice, offering him greater power to help him achieve his goals."
       Rufus shot a sidelong glance at Hojo, raising an eyebrow. "I knew there was a reason I never liked you. Remind me to fire you once I finally become President."
       Cloud took a deep breath and clasped his hands together. "I'm afraid it won't be that easy, Mr. Vice-President. There's only one way to solve this little problem," he said, drawing upon Holy once more. Unearthly screams came from deep within the old scientist's throat as the wisps of Lifestream engulfed him as they did Sephiroth. Rufus shot Cloud a furious look.
       "Turks—kill this oracle, or prophet, or whatever he thinks he is. Immediately."
       "Shi—!" Cloud took off running through the smoldering town, three sets of Turks' feet sounding close behind him, in hot pursuit. He hoped that his intimate knowledge of Nibelheim would serve to his advantage, as it had when Zack was the one chasing him, and ducked into an alley he remembered from when he was a kid. Then, all of a sudden, the ground opened up beneath him, and he fell into some cold, dirty water. Above him, a metal lid clanged shut.
       "What the—"
       "Shh!" someone hissed from the dark. There was a small click, and a string of lights came on overhead. Standing on a narrow walkway next to the algae-encrusted canal Cloud was now in was a bearded man of average height, wearing a blue suit. "Reeve!" Cloud whispered.
       "You look exactly like that MP that the SOLDIER was helping out up there," Reeve whispered back, offering his hand out to Cloud. "Well, save for the strange clothing and the mako glow in your eyes. Are you his future self?"
       "Huh? Oh…" It was now that Cloud noticed that his hood had come off sometime during his fall, exposing his distinctive hairstyle. He took Reeve's hand and was hoisted up to the walkway. "Yeah… I guess you could say that. Where are we?"
       "Sewer main. It goes all the way up to the reactor on Mt. Nibel."
       "Good. Come with me. We're gonna go destroy Jenova."
       Reeve said nothing.
       "What's wrong?"
       "Remember when you called me, and I said I couldn't talk to you about the Mt. Nibel reactor? It's because it's not in my jurisdiction. As the first mako reactor, it's always been in the hands of the Science Department."
       Cloud grinned. "That's all right. Hojo's dead now, so I'm sure we won't run into any major problems. By the way, you seem awfully calm for someone who's just met a man from the future."
       "Well, sometimes it's easier not to think too hard about the absurdity of these sorts of things, and just take them as they come along."


       They continued on to the reactor, Cloud talking about their future adventures together while Reeve listened on in silence. When they finally reached their destination, Cloud pulled his hood low over his head once again, and calmly made his way toward the pod room in the heart of the mako reactor. Reeve stared at the rows of pods, and at the door at the top marked "JENOVA".
       "So this is the Science Department's 'auxilliary lab', eh? I've heard it referred to as such, but to see it with my own eyes…"
       "Keep quiet," Cloud whispered. "We don't want to attract any unnecessary attention. I'll be right back."
       Cloud went in and took out Jenova in much the same manner as he did Sephiroth and Hojo, though even in her comatose state, she proved a tougher enemy to dispose of. After he had emerged from the chamber, he found Reeve standing at the foot of the stairs where he had left him, but this time, Rufus and the three Turks were at his sides.
       "Glad you could make it here so quickly, sir," Reeve told Rufus. The Vice-President merely brushed back his hair with a sweep of his hand and grinned up at Cloud.
       "Reeve!" Cloud yelled. "You double-crossed me! Again!"
       "'Again'?" Rufus inquired. "So you mean to say that Reeve has betrayed you before? Perhaps, sometime in the future?"
       "Yes he did, the spying bastard," Cloud grumbled. "Fortunately, he made up for it."
       "So, even though he never revealed it to you himself, you knew that he moonlights as one of our top spies."
       "Oracle Boy's good," Reno said, nodding his head.
       "Almost too good," Tseng agreed.
       "It's kind of scary," put in Saber.
       "But he's the genuine article," Reeve said. "He knows things that he's not supposed to, and plenty that has only been discussed in Shinra's executive board rooms."
       "For example?" Saber asked.
       "For example, the Shinra Space Program has currently begun researching the possibility of a manned rocket flight. They hope to send a man into orbit at least three to four years from now. The top candidate for the position of astronaut is Captain Cid Highwind, and the rocket will be the Space Program's twenty-fifth."
       "Twenty-sixth!" a furious Cloud corrected. "The manned rocket will be the Shinra No. 26, but the flight will be cancelled indefinitely because the launch date was scheduled too soon!"
       "What?" said Rufus.
       "You heard me! One of the tanks on the rocket won't be working correctly, even up to the time of the final countdown. The launch will be aborted and the Space Program put on indefinite hiatus!"
       "We won't have any such incompetence within the Space Program," Rufus replied. "I must remember to bring up this issue to Palmer. If there's one thing that neither my father nor I will stand for, it's inefficiency. So what else has Oracle Boy told you, Reeve?"
       "Would you guys quit calling me that?" shouted Cloud.
       "Well," Reeve continued, "it seems Cloud here knows of my department's plans to install a mako reactor in the Corel region early next year. As you may recall, Scarlet and I only just presented the surveyor's findings to the President yesterday."
       Rufus nodded.
       "What's especially interesting about this reactor is that there will be an explosion there approximately one year from now, only a few months after its installation. Not only that, but the people of Corel will take the fall, and the town will be destroyed by a brigade under Scarlet's command. Oh, and on top of the town's wreckage, the Company will build an amusement park, of all things."
       The Vice-President stared up at Cloud. "Where do you come up with this stuff?"
       "I only know the truth," Cloud shot back. "All I'm saying is, that when you build that goddamned reactor of yours, you might want to inspect it a little more carefully after it explodes, all right?"
       "All right, all right already. Tell you what—we'll do it before it explodes. An ounce of prevention, you know."
       "And a similar thing'll happen in Gongaga if you don't dig out the Titan materia that's laying beneath that town's reactor!"
       "Hmm…" Reeve pondered. "Perhaps we should look into that as well?"
       "I don't see why not," Rufus replied, before turning back to Cloud and demanding, "Well? Is that everything?"
       Cloud paused, thinking over Rufus' words. Hojo was dead, which would eliminate any other future problems that came to mind. "Yes, that's all I have to say."
       "Hmph," replied Rufus, smirking. "Saber, Tseng, Reno. Take Oracle Boy there into custody, and watch out for that weird magic of his. I'm sure there's a lot more about the future that we should know, and he's going to tell us, whether he likes it or not."
       As the Turks started to make their way up the stairs, Cloud gritted his teeth and fumbled with the time and space remote hidden beneath his cloak. He had worn out his welcome as it was.


       After a final brief sojourn through the time-streams, Cloud returned to the present, ending up in the same place from which he had been spirited away from: the bridge of the Highwind. However, instead of wearing a SOLDIER uniform and being in the company of friends like Tifa, Vincent, and Yuffie, he wore the regalia of a Shinra submarine captain. Before he could wonder why, he knew, as five years' worth of new memories flooded into his mind.
       Following the fire at Nibelheim, Cloud had been sent to Junon for medical treatment, where Zack had told him what had happened, up until the part where the Vice-President arrived. The story had left Cloud stunned, and depressed that there was nothing he had been able to do to save his hometown. That incident, coupled with a mission which had required him to travel by submarine, led to his becoming fascinated with the vehicles, and he'd promptly put in the paperwork for a transfer into the Shinra Navy. He had proved to be a formidable asset to the fleet, and eventually rose through the ranks until he'd become the captain of its lead vessel, Shinra Sub No. 1.
       In the meantime, Nibelheim had been rebuilt, and neither Corel nor Gongaga had fallen victim to reactor explosions. Nothing had changed at Fort Condor, but once while he was in that area, Cloud had witnessed a four-legged orange beast with a large scar over one eye fighting alongside the rebels. Another time, a teenaged girl had stolen a couple pieces of materia from him in a forest not far from Junon, and during a trip to Corel, he'd met a muscular mako reactor technician named Barret Wallace. On his most recent trip, to Midgar, Zack had introduced him to his ex-girlfriend—and Tseng's current one—a flower merchant named Aeris. As for Tifa, Cloud had not seen her since that mission in Nibelheim, over five years ago.
       At the airship's helm, Cid Highwind stood apart from the rest of the crew, not to mention the passengers, a cigarette wedged firmly between his lips. Knowing everything that he did, Cloud couldn't help but stare at him. Cid, for his part, was quick to notice.
       "What the hell're you lookin' at, Strife?" Cid barked.
       "Don't you mean Captain Strife?" Cloud replied, smirking.
       "Damn, we've got a real smartass here, eh? Listen, kid. When you're on my ship, I'm the only Captain around here. Got it?"
       "Yes sir, Captain Highwind."
       "Now quit yer starin'. I've gotta pull my baby in for a landing soon, and I don't need any distractions from the likes of you!"
       Cloud nodded, and headed toward the bridge. Their destination of Rocket Town, where Cid would finally take off the next day in the Shinra No. 26, was just barely peeking over the horizon.

       All of Shinra's top brass were in Rocket Town for the monumentous occasion, including Cloud himself. He shook his head as he wandered through the bustling village. How did he get here, to this point? Did those two days in Nibelheim really change the following five years this much? Just as he was thinking about these things, out of the corner of his eye, he saw someone he hadn't seen since that day, five years ago.
       "Reeve," Cloud simply said, coming up behind the man, who then turned around.
       "Oh, it's you," Reeve replied, shaking hands with Cloud. "So I hear you're head of the submarine fleet these days." Leaning closer to Cloud, he smirked and whispered, "I guess it beats being Hojo's guinea pig, eh?"
       Cloud grimaced. "I don't want to have to think about that—I still lived it, you know. So, how have you been?"
       "Fine, fine. Construction on Midgar's Sector Eight is right on schedule, and should be completed early next year. I can't wait."
       Now it was Cloud's turn to lean in closer. "And I guess that beats having Midgar take a beating from a giant meteor."
       Reeve cleared his throat. "Yes, well…"
       "But yeah, the future turned out pretty good, though it kind of makes me sad, in a way."
       "How's that?"
       "I never made friends with the people that I did in the original future. Not with you, or Captain Highwind, or many other people. Most of us are complete strangers."
       "What do you mean by 'most of us'? You aren't just talking about me, are you?"
       "Well for starters, there's an old acquaintance of mine who I haven't seen in years—I could never call her a friend back then. Her name was Tifa. Tifa Lockheart."
       Reeve said nothing. Cloud stared at him suspiciously.
       "You know something about Tifa?"
       "A young woman by that name came to Midgar a couple years ago to work at Shinra's headquarters, which is where I met her. One thing led to another and…"
       "Reeve!" called a familiar voice from across the street. "So there you are!" Cloud immediately looked in the direction of the voice to see Tifa, dressed in a blouse, miniskirt, and stylish leather boots. She ran up to Reeve, but stopped short once she saw Cloud.
       Reeve presented Cloud to Tifa, whom Cloud surmised was now the executive's wife, judging by the matching rings on their fingers. "Tifa dear, this is an old friend of yours, isn't it?"
       Hands behind her back, she twisted her foot in the dusty ground. "I do know him… but I'm not sure that we were ever 'friends'…"
       "I'll leave you two to talk alone, if you like. You must have much you want to catch up on."
       Reeve and Tifa exchanged quick kisses, then the executive walked off towards the rocket. Cloud glared at the retreating executive; however unintentionally, he had been betrayed yet again.

       As expected, his conversation with Tifa was incredibly awkward. It was then that she admitted, for the first time, that she had come to like him when they were kids, but kept her feelings largely to herself, mostly because of her father. After not seeing him since he first left Nibelheim all those years ago, she finally left town for Midgar, where she met Reeve.
       "I mean, he's more than ten years older than me, so I got a lot of flack from the other office girls about that. But… he's a nice enough guy, isn't he?"
       "Yeah."
       "Anyway, enough about me. I hear you're a high-ranking officer with the submarine fleet."
       "Yeah."
       "That's really impressive, Cloud."
       "I guess…"
       "So, you never became a SOLDIER like your hero Sephiroth?"
       "I killed Sephiroth."
       "What?"
       "It… it's a long story. Just forget I said anything." Cloud stood up. "Look, I really have to go. I've gotta get out of here."
       "But the rocket launch—"
       "I don't care about the stupid rocket launch!" Cloud barked. Tifa looked shocked, and he was immediately compelled to apologize. "Listen, things're just… really complicated right now. I just need some time alone."
       With that, Cloud stood up and wandered away, leaving Tifa behind.

       "I don't know what to do any more. I changed the past, which changed the future, and the world seems to be a happier place. But at the same time, everyone's still using mako energy, which is bad for the planet, and none of my old friends know who I am to begin with, and the people who do aren't really my friends, since they're completely different anyway."
       "Uh huh," said a bleary-eyed Vincent Valentine, his hand propping up his drooping chin as he sat up in his coffin.
       "Still, the world isn't suffering, and I killed my greatest enemies before they could do any real damage, so I shouldn't be too uncomfortable with the current state of things, right?"
       "Er…"
       "Vincent, what should I do?"
       Cloud was at the end of his rope. In changing the past, he had altered the course of history in ways he had not foreseen, and only now was he coming to have doubts about what he had done. He had left Rocket Town on foot and crossed the craggy Nibel peaks back to Nibelheim, which was as lively a village as he had known it when he was a child. In the abandoned Shinra Mansion, he'd found the key to open the locked room in the basement, and had given a rude awakening to the one "original history" friend he had not seen in all these retooled five years. He knew Vincent to possess a ponderous, and practical, mind, and hoped that the former Turk would have some wisdom to pass on to his foolish self.
       Vincent blinked, apparently still waking up from his long slumber, and stared at Cloud with his red eyes, frowning. "I think your problem here is that you meddled with something that was not intended to be touched in the first place."
       "So what you're saying is—"
       "That everything that dissatisfies you about this future you enabled is entirely your fault. That much is obvious."
       "But, let's say you were in my place. Wouldn't you want to do the same thing? To try and fix something before it has a chance to break?"
       Shaking his head, Vincent replied, "There has been a lot of pain and sadness in my own life… but no. Time must take its natural course, like everything else in the world. To do otherwise would probably be the most grievous sin of all. Even if our past actions—or inactions—cause us pain, it is our responsibility to bear it, and to one day overcome it."
       Cloud nodded slowly. "Somehow, I thought you were going to say something like that."
       "Now please, for the love of all that is good and noble in this world, let me sleep."

       That evening, he found himself back in Mt. Nibel's mako reactor, staring up at the door—or what used to be a door—where, beyond which, Jenova's old chamber lay. Sealed up with concrete, it was now a place that no mortal man would ever step into again. It was with that door that everything had started, and it was in this pod-filled room that his reckless editing of the past had come to an abrupt end.
       Cloud thought about his new life, and his new memories. Yes, a lot of good had come from his actions, and a lot of lives had been saved, but at the same time, there was something hollow inside of him. The fact that he had never, and would never, argue with Barret in the basement of Seventh Heaven, jump across rooftops with Aeris in Midgar's slums, or gaze up at the stars with Nanaki in Cosmo Canyon filled him with an indescribable sense of melancholy. Yes, Vincent was right. To meddle with the laws of time and nature was a grave sin, and perhaps he had just been lucky that the future seemed to turn out all right.
       Besides, bending nature to one's whim was something Sephiroth would've done, and indeed had attempted, in the correct past he had known before.
       The "correct" past… when did he first start thinking of it that way? Cloud shook his head; it didn't matter any longer.
       He drew out the time and space remote and turned it on.

---

Written January 2007, for the fifth anniversary of the Blue Shinra Project (February 2, 2007) | Copyright 2007, Reeve.