Please enjoy.

Cloud Strife didn't know why he kept traveling back in time and, after so many repetitions, he'd long since stopped trying to figure it out. He'd written it off as the Goddess deriving amusement from the madness that always came to surround his life no matter what he chose to do with it. If he signed up for SOLDIER, he went straight into the thick of things with the AWOL commanders and Hollander or got disappeared by Hojo. Choosing to join the regular army instead let him stay in ShinRa with more anonymity, but there would always be A Mission™ that dragged him into Rhapsodos' command in Wutai, or Zack's, or even Sephiroth's just in time for the chaos to start. He was even abducted into the Turks in three separate lives after getting caught in restricted areas or for other illicit behavior.

And if he didn't go straight to ShinRa? They would come looking for the zolom killer (he had to protect his chocobos), or the blacksmith (he finally learned how to make rune-enchanted swords), or the terrorist (he wasn't involved in AVALANCHE, that explosion was an accident), or the mako specialist (targeted sabotage was even better than an explosion if he knew what to sabotage). They would track down the thief (no matter how difficult to pull off, grand theft airship was always funny), or the mercenary (he wasn't even in Wutai, so how he'd caught their attention when there was a war going on was still a mystery). A dedicated task force was established just for the warrior (the only mako-enhanced fighter Wutai had, Wutai's counter to the Silver Demon, the Leviathan-sent swordsman).

After so many different lives, Cloud no longer had any overarching goals. He would follow whatever fancy struck him as soon as the only two things on his What To Do After Being Reborn checklist were complete: the utter annihilation of Jenova and the gratuitous death of Hojo. If left alone, those two never failed to cause problems, so it eventually became his habit to deal with them before getting on with his newest life.

Which started on Choco Billy's ranch, in a chocobo stall, enveloped by masses of warm yellow feathers. The rancher never saw the cause of the chorus of warks that woke him up early one morning.

Considering Cloud's proximity to Midgar, Hojo was getting checked off the list first. He stole a Chocobo Lure, caught a wild chocobo on the plains nearby, chucked the stolen materia back into the outside chocobo pen, and rode to the City of Mako.

Lifetimes of experience carried him through the slums below the plate, to the train station, up, and to ShinRa tower. It was a journey he'd made so many times, he hardly had to think about it. His feet carried him up an unforgivingly high emergency/maintenance stairwell while his mind wandered around the subject of materia. Maybe he'd spend this life collecting them? Then take them to Wutai and turn his delivery of power into a treasure hunt for the princess. That sounded good.

One pickpocketed keycard got him to Hojo's research floors. Was he in his labs right now? Cloud didn't want to waste his time searching through the whole building for the man. Or sitting around in a stolen lab coat.

A cursory survey of floors 67 and 68 ended with a trio of poison materia in his pocket but no ponytailed professor. Only two assistants were present, likely overnight monitors for whatever specimens Hojo was currently experimenting on, but one was nodding off and the other asleep. Neither noticed him.

Two dozen floors below lay his next stop, the SOLDIER medical offices. Hojo didn't spend as much time in them as he did in the research labs, but he did have an office there, and the equipment to enhance and treat the mako-given needed regular maintenance.

There were more people on this floor, but again Cloud went largely unremarked. His eyes were proof enough of his permission to be there, though the sword at his back got a few second looks. No one blocked his path to Hojo's office, and Cloud was glad to hear the grating voice mumbling behind the closed door.

He couldn't stop the grin from appearing as he knocked politely on the door and disregarded the voice that ordered him to go away by opening it. "What do you want!?" Hojo snapped.

"I'm here on behalf of Lucretia Crescent," Cloud informed him. He waited just long enough to see the aggravated look on Hojo's face turn to pure shock before pulling one of his sub-swords free of First Tsurugi and darting forward.

The blade sank into the wall a mere inch to the left of his target's neck. Cloud blinked. Masamune was still there between them. "Oh, hello Sephiroth. Didn't see you there. How have you been?"

(In hindsight, Cloud should have made sure Sephiroth wasn't present before attacking Hojo.)

Ultimately, Cloud failed to kill the scientist, but not due to lack of trying. If it had been only Sephiroth in his way, there would have been no problem; Cloud could have easily incapacitated the silver-haired SOLDIER long enough to inflict at least one fatal injury on Hojo before he could escape. The problem with being on the SOLDIER floors, however, was the fact that there were SOLDIERs. Sephiroth was a foe that demanded full attention, something Cloud simply couldn't give him when he had to defend himself from bright-eyed reinforcements.

Their brief running battle ended with Cloud pinned to the back wall of the SOLDIER gym two floors down. Sure, it was Masamune that held him in place (straight through the chest but miraculously not through his heart or a lung; it was weirdly nostalgic), but he attributed full blame for it to Angeal Hewley. The unanticipated appearance of Zack Fair's mentor had distracted him at exactly the wrong moment.

"Hey Angeal. Came to join the fun?" Cloud asked as he let the much taller man disarm him.

The First Class frowned, and turned to Sephiroth as he retreated with the buster-style puzzle sword. "Who is this man?"

"His identity is unknown. He came here to kill Professor Hojo, presumably because of someone named Lucretia Crescent." Sephiroth's attention did not waver from the blonde swordsman who'd displayed unexpected skill and strength.

"Lucretia Crescent?"

"Hojo's wife," Cloud supplied. "Also Sephiroth's real mother."

"What."

"Yep. Hojo covered it all up of course—he's an evil bastard like that—and, on top of that, I bet he's tried to convince you your mother's name is Jenova." Cloud knew from personal experience and first-hand evidence that this was true, but Sephiroth's twitch response was telling and Angeal didn't miss it either. "Thought so. You should ask the Turks about it. I'm sure they still have the records buried somewhere, especially since Lucretia's bodyguard was a Turk: Vincent Valentine. Hojo erased him too when he started getting a little too attached to her and protested her involvement in Project S."

Cloud lifted his hands to grip Masamune and let his eyes drift from the blindsided General to the Lieutenant beside him. Since he was already stirring up shit, why not go all in? As long as he was able to escape in the end and complete the other task on his To Do list, he was willing to let Hojo live a little longer and watch chaos unfold instead. "Speaking of projects, you should ask Gillian about Project G. Sephiroth isn't unique, after all."

Angeal frowned. "My mother?"

The other SOLDIERs in the room began shifting out of someone's way. There was a flash of white lab coat from between the blue, burgundy, and black uniforms. "Hey Hojo! Do you think Projects S and G are like brothers, or would cousins be more accurate?"

The addressed shoved forward furiously until he was at Sephiroth's side, opposite Angeal. "Where did you get this information!?" he nearly screamed. "Who are you!?"

Cloud laughed and locked eyes with Hojo. "I wonder." He shifted his feet and leaned forward a fraction of a degree. Hojo was still staring him in the face—perfect. "Want to see something interesting?" The nearest SOLDIERs all tensed and Hojo's eyes narrowed suspiciously.

With a psychotic grin on his face, Cloud willed his S-cells and J-cells (neutralized but not gone, never gone) into an active state. Hojo choked on his own breath. The other two people who could see his eyes clearly both froze.

Cloud lunged, ignored the feeling of folded steel running between his ribs, and punched Sephiroth in the face. His grip broke as he fell back. Masamune's guard hit Cloud's chest and the impaled man's momentum pulled the opposite end of the infamous sword free of the wall behind him. Now unrestrained, he bodily shoved Angeal, pulled First Tsurugi out of his hand, activated a green materia in the bangle on his arm as he dodged back, and then vanished in a flash of light, all in less than a second.

Cloud reappeared in the emergency stairwell on the landing of the same floor. Alone, he fell to his knees gripping his head in one hand. He had to subdue the S-cells and J-cells with mental brute force quickly, before Sephiroth caught on to the Reunion sensation and used it to track him down. It only took a moment—he had too much practice at this—and then he was on his feet again.

Heaviness in his chest dragged his attention down to the hilt of the Masamune. In spite of the pain, he had to laugh. He didn't have time to pull it out so he braced it with his free hand instead and ran all the way back down ShinRa tower and out into the night.

That was one way to steal a sword.

His imagination entertained him with images of Sephiroth staring at his empty hand in disbelief. He was willing to bet he'd never been disarmed quite like that before.

After pausing to finally pull the sword out of himself, Cloud headed off to ShinRa's airfield. A few Turks had to be subdued—he may have been a little too enthusiastic with the redheaded, slovenly one—but no major obstacles prevented him from hijacking a helicopter.

He had a special reactor to visit.

Which do you think is best: Shinra, ShinRa, or Shin-Ra?

Unfortunately, I don't know where I'm going with this, but I would appreciate hearing your take on it!