Author's Note: So after beating the game 3 times now, I'm ready to start writing fic for it! I very rarely replay a game that many times. Wow is Remake ever good. And I think I played the demo about 10 times x.x

Gotta start with a time travel fic cause it's my favorite trope! ;)

Spoilers for Crisis Core's ending/Remake's ending and the original game, just in case you've only played the Remake.

-Black Haired Guy-

Zack woke up to the sounds of soft panting breaths and the scrape of metal against rock. A part of him reflexively cringed, his old mentor's frequent scolding to care for his blade ringing in his ears.

What did that poor blade ever do to you?

The uncomfortable feeling of a hundred little rocks digging into his back clued him in to the fact that he was lying face up, arms spread away from his sides. Which was strange, last he remembered he was standing.

What had happened again? Zack's brow furrowed as he tried to remember.

He'd fought off all the Shinra troops that'd found them on the outskirts of Midgar, he knew that much. The euphoric feeling of victory was sharp in his mind. He'd then gone to pick up Cloud, telling his friend how the hero had prevailed once again. His last memory was of Midgar on the horizon as they limped forward together.

But then nothing. Did I pass out?

Guess he'd been closer to losing the fight than he'd been willing to admit. But that didn't matter. He needed to move. They needed to move. Every minute they stayed here was more time for Shinra's reinforcements to arrive.

The scrape of metal against stone jerked his heart into overdrive when he realized it was coming from right next to him.

Shinra must already be here! I need to get up! I need to protect Cloud!

He forced his eyes open, squinting up into the bright sun.

He flinched, startled, when it sunk in that there was a blade pointed at his face. And not just any blade, but his own Buster sword!

The nerve of this guy!

"Dude, not cool." He groaned.

The sun was still at the person's back, so Zack couldn't make out his face, but going from the uniform, a SOLDIER must have caught up to them. Which sucked. Why couldn't his luck have held for just one more day?

On the bright side, the SOLDIER hadn't killed him yet. The downside being, of course, that he'd have no trouble taking out Zack in his current exhausted state. Maybe he was hesitating to kill someone so famous? Maybe he didn't believe whatever lies Shinra had told him about Zack?

"Where's Tifa and the others?" A hard voice asked.

Zack squinted past the edge of his Buster sword to the person carrying it. He recognized that voice? But that wasn't possible. He must've heard wrong. And anyway, who's Tifa? What others?

"Huh?" He blurted.

"Hmph. If you don't know anything, then you're useless." The voice said but Zack wasn't able to process the words. He was too busy freaking out over how familiar the voice was.

But there's no way!

The sword lifted from his face, and Zack would have sighed in relief, if he didn't recognize the body language of someone about to deliver a finishing blow. The mystery SOLDIER was just raising the sword to gain enough momentum to cleanly slice through his neck.

"Whoa whoa wait!" He cried, his arms finally responding to him and coming up to wave between himself the sword. His exaggerated movements hiding the fact he was bracing himself to catch or deflect the blade if it was brought down onto him.

"Can't we talk about this?" He pleaded, buying himself time while he tried to figure out what to do.

The blade halted its ascent, hovering over him for a moment longer. The man shifted, causing his shadow to fall over Zack's eyes and finally letting him get a good look at the SOLDIER threatening him.

"Wait-" He choked, unable to believe his eyes. "It is you!" He cried. Guess his ears hadn't been playing tricks on him. "Cloud! Stop playin' around man, you scared the crap outta me!" He laughed in relief.

Phew! That'd been a close one!

Zack sat up, no longer needing to play harmless, while Cloud backed quickly away from him. If he wasn't so excited, he might have noticed that something was wrong about that. But he didn't.

"I can't believe it!" He cheered, bracing himself with his hands. "You're standing! On your own! This is amazing!"

"What happened? How long was I-?" Zack looked around to see the dead bodies of more Shinra troops around him. Recently dead too, going by the blood still gushing out of one of them. He twisted his boot away from the growing puddle. Ew.

"Guess I didn't get all of them after all." He said more to himself than to Cloud, habit making him share his thoughts. It was ingrained from months on the road and the hope that Cloud could hear him through the mako addiction. It was his way of trying to help the blond come back to himself.

He must have let his guard down when he thought he'd killed all those troops sent after them. He was so lucky that Cloud had woken up enough to defend them.

"Way to save us buddy! Guess even a hero needs backup sometimes eh?" He said, patting himself down to see if he'd gained any new wounds in the fight. But a quick check revealed nothing new.

Cloud's continued silence made him glance up as a thought hit him. Had Cloud already fallen back into his head? Was this lucidity only temporary?

But no. Cloud was still standing next to him, Buster sword lowered at his side. His eyes were briefly diverted at the shock of seeing his old friend holding the Buster sword one-handed. A slight niggle of trepidation returned when he saw the unfriendly frown Cloud was levelling at him.

"Who... are you?" Cloud asked, the blue of his eyes almost completely washed out in mako green.

"Huh? You... don't remember?" Zack scratched the back of his head, a nervous habit his mentor hadn't been able to train out of him. Shit this was bad.

So pro: Cloud was standing on his own and speaking in clear sentences. Con: He didn't remember who Zack was and who knew what else.

He suppressed the part of himself that felt hurt and forced himself to remain optimistic. "That's ok! No biggie! I know the addiction makes it hard."

Cloud backed away from him like he thought Zack was a crazy person, frowning down at him even harder. It was a reaction Zack sometimes got from people.

"Anyway, I don't mind reintroducing myself. I'm your buddy Zack-" He cut himself off when Cloud immediately clutched his head in pain and stumbled back a few steps.

He tried to surge to his feet, but ended up back on his butt when his legs didn't take his weight. Guess he wasn't quite as recovered as he'd thought.

"You ok Cloud?" He asked in lieu of something to do.

"It's nothing." His friend brushed off, casually slinging Zack's sword around to his back and clipping it on. Zack almost protested and asked for his sword, but the casual way Cloud did it weirded him out a bit too much.

And even though it was clear to Zack that it was clearly not nothing, he was hesitant to speak up. Cloud was still clearly suffering from mako addiction, if the amnesia hadn't clued him in then this would have. He'd never heard of people recovering from the addiction and emerging with different memories. But that was just the kind of information Shinra would suppress. Not to mention he'd never heard of someone being exposed as long as Cloud had and recovering.

He eyed his sword on Cloud's back as his buddy turned his back to him and appeared to be looking around. He debated with himself on whether he should ask for his sword back.

Zack squinted at the sky when a few drops of rain hit him in the nose, the clouds that had been threatening on the horizon had finally moved in. As the rain picked up, the many cuts to his face and exposed arms started to sting like a cactuar poke.

"Hey so... as nice as this break has been, we need to get outta here." Zack tried once again to stand but had to pause while on one knee, already struggling to catch his breath.

"You do what you want. I'm not leaving till I find Tifa and the others." Cloud said over his shoulder, while he looked around the battlefield.

"Uhhhh. Ok. Look. Shinra sent all these guys to kill us. They're not gonna give up."

Cloud didn't respond, instead walking away from Zack and to the edge of the cliff facing Midgar.

"Hey? Cloud?" Zack asked when Cloud didn't seem to have heard him.

Zack decided to leave Cloud to it for the moment, and tried to get the rest of the way to his feet, keeping one eye on Cloud the whole time.

It didn't take long before he fell back on his ass with a grunt.

"Hey Cloud? Gonna need some help walking. Can uh, can I have my sword back? Don't get me wrong, it looks good on you, but-" Zack stopped his babbling as soon as he realized Cloud was subtly clutching his head again. Weird.

As soon as he stopped talking Cloud straightened back up.

"No. Walk on your own." Cloud glared over his shoulder.

"Ouch. That's harsh man. Were you always so cold?" Zack tried to laugh Cloud's behaviour off, the only way he knew to hide how much Cloud's dismissiveness hurt.

Cloud tisked. "Whatever, I don't have time for this."

Zack couldn't stop himself from wincing.

"You're not gonna leave me for Shinra to finish off are you?" He hated the desperation in his voice.

But all he could think was that Cloud couldn't leave him. Not after all this time. Heck, Cloud was the main reason he'd made it this far. Without his friend to look after, and give him a purpose, he didn't know what he would have done. He'd possibly still be stuck in a mako tube, slowly turning into the monster the other experiments had turned into.

"Listen, I've got a girlfriend in Midgar." He hoped. "She's got a place we can stay. If Aerith's mom is feeling generous maybe-"

Zack cut himself off when once again his words set off Cloud. Could it be related to mako addiction symptoms? Zack had seen some junkies lose focus and react to things that weren't there, but he'd never seen symptoms quite like Cloud's.

Zack waited for a moment, hoping his friend would turn around and help him, even if deep down he knew it was unlikely. Even in the darkest most hopeless circumstances, he tried to keep things positive.

Cloud shook himself and turned to walk along the edge of the cliff, away from Zack, clearly looking for a way down.

No. He can't leave me behind!

"Wait! Cloud!" Zack called, scrambling to his feet. Cloud stumbled away from him, one hand still on his head, obviously trying to fight off the symptoms.

Zack stumbled after him but was only able to make it a few steps before dizziness hit him.

He won't remember hitting the ground.

-Cloud-

Cloud stepped into the glowing portal, following Aerith's lead, and walked out onto the hard packed rock of the Midgar wastes. He stumbled as he did so, something making it difficult to immediately get his feet under him.

He quickly realizes why. One of his arms was slung over the shoulder of someone. The man was limping heavily, barely supporting Cloud's light frame.

And not only that. The hell was he doing with Cloud's sword? How dare he take it and use it as a crutch!

Before Cloud could do anything to the thief, a few things happened in quick succession. One, he heard the sounds of multiple boots on the hard rock. Two, Cloud planted his boots firmly on the ground to stand on his own. Three, the black haired man carrying him turned to look over his shoulder, triped, and collapsed into the dirt.

From there Cloud didn't hesitate to reclaim his sword and block the immediate gunfire from the Shinra troops. They were tougher than the usual grunts, and actually required him to pay close attention. Though that may just be due to his own exhaustion from fighting in that strange, otherworldly place.

He called out to the others. But got no response. Neither to call out that they were on their way to back him up or that they needed help. His worry galvanized him to make quick work of the troops.

As soon as they were dead and he was able to focus on more than just fighting, he was taken aback by the sight that greeted him. All along the cliff he'd woken up on, were dead Shinra Soldiers. Not only that, but there were even burning helicopters in the distance.

A cursory glance told him they were all killed with a sword. The severed limbs were a clear sign. But then who killed them? Had he done it? But then where was everyone else?

When no one answered his yell once again, he turned to the one person who could give him answers. Assuming they were still alive.

He was still tired from the marathon of fights he'd had to go through, between rescuing Aerith, escaping Shinra, and then the giant monster followed by Sephiroth. His exhaustion showed in his panting breaths, his slow steps, and the fact that he couldn't quite muster up the strength to prevent his sword from dragging on the ground.

What followed was an incredibly confusing and headache inducing conversation. The man obviously recognized him from his days as a first class SOLDIER. But Cloud had no memory of him and it was suspicious that he claimed to know Cloud. Maybe he was a 'fan'?

The random headaches made him quickly decide he needed to get away from the unknown man.

How the hell had Shinra caught up to them? Had the others been captured? That was the only reason he could come up with for why they were nowhere in sight. He must have blacked out after killing all the troops sent after him. But that still didn't explain why the black haired man was being overly familiar with him.

There was no way the others would've just left him behind. He refused to believe it. Even though a part of him thought it would make the most sense. Wasn't he always the outsider? Always the one left behind?

But no. Both Tifa and Aerith were different. He didn't even think Barret would do so. And then it would only be to make sure the others were safe. Barret would trust Cloud to look after himself. His actions on the roof of the Shinra building proved it.

Cloud stared down at the collapsed black haired man out of the corner of his eye. The man had passed out again after trying to follow Cloud. It hurt to look at him directly, so this was the only thing he could do.

The SOLDIER claimed to have killed all the Shinra troops. But he also claimed to be friends with Cloud, which was clearly not true. Cloud would remember someone like him.

Cloud sighed his annoyance at the whole situation. He couldn't just keep standing here, he needed to make a decision. Not to mention the rain was starting to pick up, and it would be useful in using it to hide his trail.

A cool, cold, battle hardened mercenary would leave the man where he was. And really, the stranger was not his problem. He had bigger things to worry about.

But...

For some reason the thought of walking away from the man made Cloud's chest ache. And his feet refused to move him even one more step away.

Maybe... an enemy of Shinra could be a useful ally. And the least Cloud could do was make sure the man wouldn't get picked up by Shinra's military.

Cloud begrudgingly swung the man over his shoulder. The Soldier was taller than Cloud, so his feet dragged along the ground. It was awkward, especially with Cloud's sword still magnetized to his back, but he managed. He'd have to drop the guy immediately if they were attacked, but he'd make due.

As the rain picked up, Cloud began the long trek back to Midgar.

While he walked, something he'd noticed while looking for Tifa and the others caught his attention again. The city's skyline was bothering him.

For one, he couldn't see the fiery wedge from the collapse of the sector seven plate. The scar on the city had been something the three of them had stopped to mourn multiple times on the climb up the tower.

But not only that, as the sky darkened with heavier storm clouds, it looked like all the reactors were running. The lights of all seven of them becoming clearly visible in the gloom. But that was impossible. There was no way Shinra had fixed them that fast.

Aerith had warned them that stepping into the strange portal would change things. But this was more extreme than he'd thought.

So for now he resolved to make his way back into Midgar. He figured the others would do the same. At least to investigate how much Midgar had changed. The hunt for Sephiroth would have to wait for a few days.

What could have caused the two reactors and the sector seven plate to magically fix themselves?

Note: I have a bunch of other ideas I plan to post but don't know which I will finish. Some will just be one shots and some will be multi-chapters like this one. I have promised myself I will finish my two main WIPs first so this will be sporadically updated when I take breaks from them.

I've been avoiding reading any fanfic for the remake (except a few Andrea focused ones) until I finish getting at least the outlines of my ideas down so any similarities to other people's work is an accident.

Hope you all enjoyed! Next chapter will be Tifa and Barret reacting to the thread tangling.