COLLISION

Chapter One

The Landing is Always the Hardest

The Lifestream buckled under the strain, quivering as the traveller moved from one point in time to another. It was unknown how this had come to be, such a thing was unheard of, but the fact was that it had happened and now it had to be dealt with.

So the Lifestream pushed onward, completing the task at hand and the traveler followed along in its wake, unaware of the confusion their unexpected presence had caused.

He awoke with a start, jerking upward suddenly, only to drop back down onto the rocky ground beneath him with a groan. His head ached and the world was spinning at an alarming rate, far worse than the time he'd helped Tifa find a drink with enough alcohol in it to effect someone with enough Mako in their blood to kill a normal person. Wincing up at the grey sky above him Cloud Strife vaguely wondered where the hell he'd fallen asleep this time and if he'd at least had the foresight to bring something to help with the hangover after his apparant bender. Painkillers would have been lovely right at that moment.

It was only after he sat up to take stock of his surroundings that it all came rushing back to Cloud. He was back. Staring into the distance at the everlasting night sky above the now thriving city of Midgar, Cloud could barely believe Reeve and Cid had actually managed it between them. They had really sent him back to before the Crisis had occurred. He could stop it, he could save Zack and Aerith. He could save the Planet.

Naturally Cloud had been a little skeptical about Reeve and Cid actually pulling Time Travel off, which meant he hadn't exactly thought up a proper game plan as it were. In his defence it had seemed a little too far fetched at the time.

With these thoughts playing in his mind Cloud swore and scrambled to his feet, his head was still pounding, but he ignored it in lew of checking the area, and relieved to find Fenrir parked not far off. His multi-bladed sword still waiting in the various compartments within the bike, broken apart for easier travel.

Safe in the knowledge that he had his own transport and was not, as he'd feared for one brief moment, stranded in the middle of a monster infested desert. Not that the monsters were that big a problem, it had mostly been the 'stranded in the desert without transport' that had caused his worry.

Another thing Cloud was relieved over was that he was in his own body, there had been some debate, should the machine Reeve and Cid had built actually work, on whether he would be sent back physically or if it would only be his mind and soul that would travel back. That he was not currently laying in his bed at the barracks or his home in Nibelheim made Cloud a very happy young man, going through puberty twice would have sucked and it wasn't like he would have been able to much in the way of saving anyone as an army grunt. Let alone a small child. Foreknowledge could only get one so far.

Knowing that just staring at the city in the distance wasn't going to do anything than make him worry more, Cloud climbed onto Fenrir with a grimace and started the engine. He needed to know how far back he'd been flung and, more importantly, how much time he had before everything fell appart.

Cloud obviously wasn't thinking straight when he'd decided to drive above the plate once he was in the city. Stupidly he'd ended up parked in LOVELESS Avenue, which he knew was dangerously close to Shinra's main building in Sector Zero. He should not have been this close, but he reasoned that how else was he supposed to get up to date information on current events. Cloud was definitely not hoping to catch a glimpse of his, now living, best friend.

He'd wandered into the nearest café and ordered a coffee, settling down at a small table in the back of the store with that day's paper nestled under his arm. By the time his order arrived Cloud was dearly wishing he had ordered something a little stronger. It was 1997. Sephiroth was roughly eighteen years old and the war with Wutai had been going for around five years now. Cloud gulped down his hot coffee, barely noticing how it burned his throat on the way down. His eyes were glued to the newspaper in his hands, skimming through the Shinra propaganda to get a picture of when in the timeline he'd shown up.

When Cloud was done he leaned back with a sigh, he'd ordered another coffee when he was half way through and it had gone cold on him while he was reading, though it did little to stop him downing it as he had the first. He needed the caffeine after what he'd just read.

According to the paper things in Wutai had settled a little recently and some troops, mainly SOLDIER's, had been pulled back to Midgar for some reason not clearly defined in the articles. Strangely this included Sephiroth, though the more he thought about it, the more Cloud felt as though Hojo had probably had something to do with the sudden call back on SOLDIER. It seemed like it happened often enough, the reporters didn't seemed too excited about it, but they were likely paid not to be by Shinra so they weren't that reliable in reality.

Running a hand through his unruly blonde spikes Cloud wondered how far he'd get if he attempted to assassinate the president, not as far as he'd probably like, he suspected. Not with an unknown number of SOLDIER's and Sephiroth between him and the overweight megalomaniac. He needed a better idea than just storming the place single handed.

Paying for his two coffee's Cloud wandered out of the café, looking about him aimlessly, while following his feet without much thought as to where they were taking him. So when Cloud found himself looking up at the towering form of the Shinra building he couldn't help himself. He had to go in. Why not? After all, the first floor was open to the public. He could check security while looking at the displays he reasoned. What could go wrong?

Of course what Cloud did not expect as he wandered from exhibit to exhibit in Shinra's show room was for a teenage Sephiroth to walk up next to him with that smirk on his face and say the words, in that voice, that had haunted Cloud for years.

"Good to see you, Cloud,"

AN: Okay. This just kind of exploded in my brain tonight and I needed to get it out. Been wanting to write a time travel fic, but I could never think of a decent plot bunny that I hadn't already read to death. Then this hit me and I just couldn't resist. It's probably been done before, but I wanted to give it a try.

This will likely not be as frequently updated as TLA, but I would like to continue it...so we'll see how it goes.

Until next time,

RLK