Upon waking the only thing Cloud Strife, the 23 year old renowned 'Savior of the Planet', was aware of was the pervasive presence of the color green.

It was all that he could see. In fact it was the only thing any of his senses could pick up, he heard the color green, felt the color green, tasted it, and even smell the color green.

Not that he could even guess how one would describe the smell of a color.

Trying to ignore the inescapable backdrop of green Cloud turned his thoughts to how he got wherever it was that he'd just woken up.

'Where am I?'

'What was I doing?'

'The last thing I remember is...'

Bolting into a seated position Cloud reached a hand to a particular spot on his chest

"Sephiroth…" his voice was filled with venom as he recalled the feeling of Masamune sliding between his ribs and through his heart.

He frowned hoping that he was reaching the wrong conclusion, but knew ultimately that he might have to accept the fact that he had fallen in the battle.

There is only so many times one can survive being impaled through the chest after all.

'Death, is it?' He frowned, clenching at the black fabric of his shirt. The set of his shoulders turned down. He'd failed, left his friends alone to face him without his help. He was just as weak as he'd always been, just hiding behind the mask of someone who was strong.

He'd thought he'd finally gotten it, had finally been ready to ask Aerith, ask everyone to forgive him. He'd been willing to ask for it, had even felt for a little deep down that he might have it.

Now there was nothing, despite all he was able to do. He'd lost.

Packing his guilt down deep he rose to his feet. There was one last thing he could try, and while he might not have always made the best of his stubbornness (running is not a viable solution to emotional problems) yellow chocobos would fly before he stopped trying now.

If he was truly dead that meant he would be part of the lifestream now, and that meant Zack and Aerith. Just maybe they could help him somehow.

Aerith was the one who always called him, the one who embodied this place for him, so where was she?

His thought process was cut off when a light gathered in front of him and formed a translucent wall. Two words, in large black text, were displayed across the makeshift screen.

Game Over

'…'

'…'

"What?"

The message shifted into two smaller pieces of text that again hovered at eye level in front of him on the large screen.

New Game

Continue?

"Continue what?"

Lines of text wrote themselves in the air, making little to no sense to him.

Loading…

Primary Save Data Corrupt_

Secondary Save Data Corrupt_

Auto Archive Data Corrupt_

Running Recovery…

Primary Save Data Lost_

Secondary Save Data Lost_

Auto Archive Data 68%_

Loading…

New Game Start_

New Save File Created_

Archive Transferred_

Loading Program…

Tutorial Activated_

Auto Save Activated_

Game Configuration

Audio – Normal

Video – Normal

Tutorial – ON/OFF

Auto Save – ON/OFF

Confirm?

Suffice to say Cloud was, for lack of a better term, freaking the hell out at this point.

"I died… right? This is the Lifestream? Aerith? Zack? Are you here?" Confusion edged his words as he called out to the distance hoping for some form of explanation or reply.

When no answer was forthcoming Cloud sighed, settling his face into his palm and rubbing wariness from his face.

He turned away, intent on leaving the anomaly behind but the surface simply rotated with him until it settled once more at the centre of his vision. Cloud narrowed his eyes and scowled.

He was blaming Zack for this. He didn't care what was actually going on; he'd learned long ago that when things took a turn for the weird chances were it was all Zack's fault… or Yuffie's, maybe Shinra's, the planet seemed to do some strange things every once in a while too.

Another scan of the scenery revealed no change and it was likely that it wouldn't change given any more time. He wasn't one to really be overly cautious but he also wasn't the type to jump in head first. Then again…he'd already died what was this thing going to do to make it worse?

Confirm?

Well he had already decided to try hadn't he? So he'd try this. Focusing once more on the text in front of him Cloud braced himself.

"Confirm"

Configuration Confirmed_

Loading…

Save File I Set_

Loading Archive Data…

Cloud raised a brow 'Achievements?'

A long scrolling list replaced the blinking words. A quick read through of the list had his other brow joining its brother. Hissing in displeasure "This can't be serious."

Listed in all their ridiculous glory where seemingly random events and accomplishments from his life, ranging from impressive to distinctively embarrassing. With points assigned.

Achievements

They grow them in Nibelheim – Complete the Prologue in Nibelheim

In Crisis – Survive the Crisis Core Timeline

Last Reverie – Survive the Final Fantasy Seven Timeline

Child of the Advent – Start the Advent Children Timeline

Spiky – Befriend Zack Fair

Childhood Sweetheart– Befriend Tifa Lockheart

Pity the Fool – Befriend Barrett Wallace

Mane and Tail– Befriend Nanaki

Ai Captain! – Befriend Cid Highwind

Cat King – Befriend Cait Sith

Slum Flower – Befriend Aerith Gainsborough

Tall, Dark and Handsome – Befriend Vincent Valentine

Cultural Exchange – Befriend Yuffie Kisaragi

Diamond Weapon - Defeat the Diamond Weapon

Ruby Weapon - Defeat the Ruby Weapon

The Fantasy Part I - Defeat Sephiroth Unenhanced

The Fantasy Part II– Defeat Insane Sephiroth

Performance Enhancer – Receive Mako enhancements

Outclass – have trait "Third Class"

Highclass – have trait "Second Class"

Overclass – have trait "First Class"

Braver – Learn Limit Break Braver

Omnislash – Learn the Omnislash Limit Break

Battle Square - Start a battle in the Battle Square

Golden Feather – Obtain a Golden Chocobo

Treasure Hunter – Collect at least one of each materia type

Master Materia – Master at least one type of materia

Get Down Mister President – Save Rufus Shinra

Sword Smith – Design and build First Tsurugi

Ragnarok – Design and build Fenrir

Papa Chocobo – have trait "Father Figure"

The Nibelheim Bastard – Reputation in Nibelheim in Negative

Social Outcast – Reputation as Shinra Cadet in Negative

Cadet Drop Out – Fail the SOLDIER exams

Kalm Fried Chocobo – Claudia Strife lost to you

Frozen Over – Nibelheim Destroyed

Under the Knife – Become an unwilling experiment

Out for the Count – have trait "Comatose"

Living Legacy – Zack Fair lost to you

Questionable Sanity – have trait "Broken Memory"

Miss Cloud - Cross-Dress Unconvincingly

The Last Ancient – Aerith Gainsborough lost to you

Mother Knows Best – Succumbed to Jenova

No Time for the Little People – Over 1000 Bystanders killed

Ground Zero – Meteor Dropped

Please Leave a Message – Ignore more than 250 Calls of your cell phone

The Plague – have trait "Geostigma"

The Silver Demon – Killed by Sephiroth

Funeral Expenses - Die for the first time

No Complete Trophy Sets

Achievement Obtained!

Dividing By Zero – Something appears to have broken, how did you manage that?

New Character Model Unlocked!

Continue?

A bitter frown accompanied the end of the list, having a good amount of your personal history both good 'what little of that there is' and bad 'quite a bit more of that' dredged up into the forefront of your mind was an unpleasant experience.

Though the look quickly slipped from his face and was replaced with the much more common visage of neutrality. He should move on.

"Continue"

Loading…

Character Model Selection

CLOUD STRIFE

MISS CLOUDIA STRIFE

MECHANIC CLOUD

RANCHER CLOUD

THIEF CLOUD

CLOUD STRIFE+

CLOUD STRIFE Selected

Confirm?

The old text as removed from the screen and the new list took its place. Alongside it was an image. A projection of his younger self smiling gently back at him. He hadn't seen himself like that in a long, long time. To see himself with that kind of expression was strange. The fact that the image was moving and waving at him was… unsettling.

Cloud turned his head to the list and in the interest of what little of his mental health remained ignored the younger version of himself. Beneath the highlighted CLOUD STRIFE were a few sentences of information.

Cloud Strife

This young man hails from the backwater town of Nibelheim. He's a on the small side and has trouble making friends but kindness comes to him easily and his determination is strong.

This model comes with the perk (Focus) which increases a random stat by 1 each level.

Basic Model: select for original in game bonuses and restrictions.

"Character… selection?" Cloud murmured glancing at the head of the list once more. The words Cloudia Strife sent an uncomfortable shiver down his back as visions of purple silk, badly styled wigs and fruity perfume were hastily shoved to the back of his mind. He was about to speak the command just to get this strange process over with when the last title on the list caught his eye.

"Cloud Strife Plus?"

The image in the mirror changed to reflect almost the exact image as before, the only difference being that the new image had a small content smile on its face and a gleam in its eyes that Cloud never had growing up. New lines of text followed the image shift.

Cloud Strife+

Unlocked: Achievement – Dividing by Zero

This young man hails from the backwater town of Nibelheim. He's a on the small side and has trouble making friends but kindness comes to him easily and his determination is strong. Not entirely satisfied with his lot in life this young man seeks to better himself in order to help those that he treasures. Surely he is destined for great things.

This model comes with the perk (Focus +) which adds 3 points to a random stat each level.

This model comes with the perk (Will +) which allows for the allocation of perks every 5 levels instead of 10, beginning at level 10.

This model comes with the perk (Going Places), which adds 8 points to CHA every 20 levels the target of interaction is above your level.

This model comes with the perk (Divisible by Zero), which eliminates the LUK stat and causes every LUK check to be automatically passed. This perk is locked into this model and is unavailable in any other model.

Plus Model: select for the most flexible playing experience. The choices are limitless.

Cloud sighed in confusion. Very little of this was actually making sense and he wondered if this was actually leading up to anything. But as the only part of the situation that was actually changing was these words he'd go along with it in favour of standing around waiting for something else to happen.

Once more he spoke a clear yet quiet "Confirm."

Cloud Strife+ Selected

Loading…

With a sound like shattering glass the screen broke apart in a dazzling light show. Small pinpricks of light grew larger and larger until the light was practically blinding. The light obscured even the wispy scenery of what he had assumed to be the lifestream. Cloud flinched back trying to hide his eyes but the glare only became worse.

Just as it turned unbearable something shifted and he felt himself tilting back, phasing through where he'd been standing before, as he started to freefall the light from above became smaller and smaller. Numbness slowly spread over him and his awareness began to slip as he tumbled down and down.

What had he gotten mixed up in this time?

Loading Complete

Game Start