Hello all and welcome back to a brand new story idea here. I am back with my friend and faithful co-writer Riku Kingdom Hearts. We just keep coming up with random FF7 story ideas lately. This is one we've had for a bit and finally decided to post and are doing it on my page since we have a couple on hers about FF7 already (go check them out if you haven't already). It all spawned from a random photoshop by Riku, and it just kinda went from there; so, we did our own cover too! So without further ado, let's get to the story. XD

Ch.1

A young, 5-year-old Cloud ran around in the backyard of his house. Playing with the little chocobo plush that he had. At the moment he was pretending he was riding it and going really fast. His attention was quickly changed though when he saw something moving off in the distance. Since his house had no fence, he could easily see far away from it. And there he saw it… a small Nibel wolf.

"Wolf puppy!" Cloud exclaimed as he ran towards the little pup.

The little wolf puppy saw Cloud and immediately turned the other way and started to run. Cloud though, didn't stop running. He wasn't going to let the little puppy out of his site. He tried to run faster, but the puppy was getting further away.

"Come back wolf puppy! I wanna play with you!" Cloud shouted as he chased it further.

The faster he tried to run though, the less he paid attention to where he was going. It seemed as though he had been running for a good distance, but the only thing he paid attention to was the puppy in front of him. Then, without warning his shoe caught onto a rock and he fell forward. Cloud hit the ground with a thud, but it wasn't as bad as he thought since his chocobo plush that he still was holding softened his fall.

Cloud groaned slightly as pushed himself up into a sitting position. He looked around quickly in all directions but didn't see the wolf puppy anywhere now. Cloud frowned as he stood back up and saw where he was though. He was just inches away from the scary, old manor that was just outside of his town. He took a step back as he remembered his mother telling him he was not suppose to go near that place. But then a small bit of curiosity slipped into his mind and he walked closer to the front gate.

The old looking place still gave him the creeps so he backed away once again and turned around. Though he froze up as he looked around at his surroundings. He had ran farther than he had thought from town, and he now was at the manor. Not only that… but he didn't know how to get back home. Never before had he been that far away from home. Cloud clutched his chocobo plush tightly against his chest as he frowned. What was he going to do now? He was lost and he had no idea where to go.

Though just as he started to cry he heard footsteps faintly in the short distance. He turned around to see someone walking out of the manor and towards the gate. Cloud noticed that it was a man, probably older than his mother, walking in the direction which he was. The man had a long white coat that he wore, which flapped ever so slightly with each step he took. It was the most noticeable thing to Cloud and the only thing he could really see well enough as he wondered what that meant.

After a few seconds, Cloud snapped out of his thoughts and looked back up to see that the man was getting closer. Now, he could see more about him. He had on what appeared to be brown-colored pants with some black boot-like shoes that accompanied his every step. Under the coat was a white shirt, and he wore a blue tie down the front as well, which also fluttered as he continued his strides.

Finally looking at the man's face, Cloud could definitely tell that he was older than his mother. His face was elongated, and it also looked slightly sunken in. His eyes were a darker color with round-brimmed glasses covering the front of them. He possessed long, black hair that seemed to be tied in some kind of ponytail, and he had bangs that draped down the sides of his face. The expression he wore on his face was one of indifference, like he did not have a care in the world.

That face had gotten closer and closer as Cloud had been lost in trying to ascertain the looks of the strange man. He had not noticed until just then that the man was standing in front of him. Cloud assumed he must have tuned out the footsteps when he was thinking. Cloud had no idea what to say, but he didn't have to as the man started to grin slightly.

"Well what do we have here? There's just a little test subject out here all alone. Come with me boy. I'll take good care of you."

Cloud stared up at the man, not really understanding some of the words he had said. He wondered what the man meant by 'test subject', but Cloud quickly forgot about that as he wanted to figure out what to do first. "Hmm? Who you mister? Are you tryin' to help me? I'm lost," Cloud admitted with a sigh of defeat.

The man pushed up his glasses slightly, still giving a slight grin. He slowly unlocked the gate to the manor and stepped forward. "Oh is that so? Well that's just too bad. I can help you though."

"Oh really? So you can help me find my mommy? I don't know how to get back home and don't know really how I got here. I'm scared," Cloud replied slowly as he sniffled, looking back down at the ground for now.

The man bent over and chuckled a little. "Yes I can help you find her. In fact, I know just where she is. Come with me and I'll show you" He then held out a hand towards Cloud.

Cloud stared at the man for a moment, not knowing what to do. He knew his mother told him not to talk to strangers, but he was lost. He was lost and he didn't know what to do and where to go. Plus this man said he knew where Cloud's mother was… that meant he could trust him right? All of these thoughts swirled in his head as he did not know what to do. The only thing that's certain is that he knew he could not get back home without help.

"Well okay, I guess. I'm not supposed to talk to strangers...but if you know how to get home and where mommy is then it's good," Cloud reasoned as he reached out and grasped the man's hand. "I'm ready to go," Cloud added as he slightly smiled at the prospect of being able to get back home again.

"Good, now come with me. And you'll get to see your… mother."

Cloud nodded as he followed the man back towards the manor and inside of the gate. Soon after, the man closed the gate back and locked it once more. Cloud did not seem to worry about that, not knowing that he was actually getting farther away from his mother. Little did he know that as soon as he stepped inside the manor and the doors would close, his fate would be sealed.

And there we have the end of the first chapter. It's a short start, but hopefully you can get the idea of what might be happening here. This will be quite a deviation from original events, and we already have quite a lot planned for this already. So I hope you guys enjoyed the start of that, and let us know what you think. We will see you next time!