ateanalenn

—

There is a short, so painfully short, window of time, during which Sephiroth manages to escape her grasp.

One of the clones shoots Cloud in the back and Cloud falls and falls. Jenova is on him immediately, rushing after Cloud's consciousness, attempting to take over control of his body before the death Cetra can take hold of Cloud.

Meanwhile, Great Gospel's rain is falling on the three clones. Green smoke rises from their decaying bodies and Sephiroth's cells drip down to the ground, leaking along the broken buildings, soaking on the dead earth drop by drop. The clones are already more than halfway dead, their minds shattered from the loss of Sephiroth's cell and Jenova sudden lack of interest.

Sephiroth might have felt bad about it, years ago, but at this point, he just wants to rest.

He will never rest if Jenova manages to grab hold of him again, reforming his body and using him to cause more atrocities.

But right now, she's busy. Busy attempting to steal Cloud from the Cetra's grip, and Sephiroth already knows she'll fail as he can feel Zack's presence watching over Aerith as she pulls Cloud through the Lifestream and back to the old Church, in a pool of Great Gospel, away from Jenova's grasp.

He must go, before Jenova gives up and focuses on him again.

—

Time has little meaning, in the wave of memories and energy that is the Lifestream. What is little known is that the Lifestream moves around the planet, yes. But it doesn't simply move through space. It moves through time too.

Usually, no one notices, as people are rarely that important, that famous.

—

In a little, somewhat desolate town in the middle of the mountains, on the western continent, one certain blond boy finds a pretty red sphere. He also finds wolves, or rather they found him first. He finds the sphere while running and falling and crying, certain that death has come.

Then he falls face first in the snow, one hand slapping in a puddle of half water-half mako. The boy sucks in a breath as something is pulled from his body, pulled and pulled until he feels hollow, until he feels like one little knock will shatter him.

The wolves are on him. They jump—

—A man flashes between them, his sword swiping horizontally.

The wolves fall to the ground in parts and immediately start dissolving to the Lifestream.

Cloud stares for a long moment at the long, silver hair. He knows this, red materia means summons. But as far as he knows—and he knows, he's been studying as best as he could, because the only possible escape is away, at Shinra, and Shinra recently announced a new program of fighters. If Cloud can join...— As far as Cloud knows, this is no summon he's heard of before. The only human-ish summon he knows of is Odin and this man is not Odin.

The man turns around after one last glance at their surroundings, his sword dissolving as he decides that there is no danger left.

"Cloud," he says after a long moment spent staring at the body, sprawled on the ground.

"... Who are you?"

The summon hesitates for a long time, then says "Sephiroth."

"I don't know of a summon named Sephiroth."

"I'm new."

"Summons can be new?"

"Apparently yes."

"Are you my summon?"

The man stares silently for another long moment, then nods slowly. "Yes. I am your summon and I will protect you, Cloud."

—

'Why', Cloud asks several times over the years, but the man never answers. He does ask Cloud for favors ; to bring him to this place or that place, which is difficult for a child, even with the help of a summon, and it will empty the fund he's been putting aside to join Shinra's new faction of fighters, he argues.

Cloud gives up his idea of joining the new faction, after he mentions it for the first time to the summon. Sephiroth's face... He is mostly expressionless, but his face, as that precise moment, spells disaster and heartache to Cloud, if he joins.

Cloud spends what little money he has to leave with Sephiroth. He goes home with Sephiroth still present —something about powering himself from ambient Lifestream? Cloud didn't understand what he meant, only that the end result was that once out, Sephiroth could stay present for pretty much as long as he wished, and he could even from inside the materia, help Cloud pull him to the world of the living. His mother laughs when he explains, patting him on the head and promising to send them off with a few baked goods, when Cloud tells her that he'll be leaving with Sephiroth.

Sephiroth makes a face at that too, but Cloud doesn't know how to explain that since the accident, his mother doesn't quite comprehend consequences anymore.

Cloud is seven and Sephiroth carries him most of the time. They travel by chocobo, camp next to a fire lit by the summon, Cloud sleeps wrapped up in Sephiroth's coat. Sephiroth has certain things to do, he says, when they leave Nibelheim—Cloud smells smoke from the direction of the old Shinra mansion, but the summon ignores it. Then later, in the mountain, Sephiroth sets him up high in a tree, wedged halfway a hole in the trunk, with repeated orders to stay there and scream as loud as you can if something attacks, I won't be long. There's nothing around there except the brand new mako reactor, so Cloud is a bit curious, but the mountains without Sephiroth are infinitely scarier. He stays very quiet until the summon comes back and carries him back down the tree.

They go to the Northern Continent, visit the Wutai Continent, travel south of the Western Continent, ...

Cloud never thought he'd visit the whole world. Sephiroth almost never returns to his materia home.

It's nice, Cloud thinks, rolled up in Sephiroth's coat, his nose buried in the leather, even though they also have blankets and sleeping bags now. Sephiroth sits next to him, always at his side, never too busy, never with his head too far up in the clouds. Cloud sometimes wonders, guiltily, if that's what it should be really like, to have a parent.

He leans against Sephiroth's side, gently falling asleep to the sound of the Wutaian cicadas. Sephiroth sits and guards his rest as usual, serene.

—