Title: False Memories
Fandom: Final Fantasy: Advent Children
Characters: Cloud, Rufus Shinra
Prompt: 002 - Middles
Word Count: 314
Date finished: 06/07/2006
Rating: G
Summary: Cloud remembers things that never happened to him.
Author's Notes: Not a great fic, but it was the best I could do. I got an idea and ran with it.
Disclaimer: Characters are owned by Square Enix and Sony Pictures as far as I know.

"…We were interrupted by the same three who attacked you - Kadaj and his gang," Rufus Shinra explained.

"Kadaj," Cloud repeated, and flinched as images slammed into him, of the two who had attacked him, only this time with names attached: Loz, with short hair and a muscular build, and Yazoo, slender with longer hair. There was more, painful experiences, experiments that felt familiar.

And went further, changes in body structure, a constant voice he recognized from his own dreams - memories. Pain, companionship…

"It seems he doesn't want us finishing what we started."

Shinra's words snapped Cloud back to the present, but he struggled to keep his mind on what Shinra was saying. He was so disoriented that he nearly accepted the other man's offer to join him, and only Reno's timely "Together we could rebuild Shin-Ra!" saved him from making that mistake.

And the rest of the day wasn't any better. He wanted to talk to Tifa about what had happened, but he never had the chance. She'd spent most of the time until he headed for the Forgotten City unconscious thanks to the battle with whoever - Loz a voice whispered to him and he shrugged it off - and then berating him. He had to admit she was right. He spent much of the trip out to the Forgotten City sorting through the memories - some of which were disturbingly current - that had been dumped in his head.

But eventually those gave way to his memories of what had happened the last time he'd been there.

He felt caught in the middle between the child he'd been and the person he wanted to be, held back by the things he'd done - or, in the case of this place, not done.

And then, suddenly, he wasn't on Fenrir anymore, and his heart lifted just a little at the sound of Aerith's voice.

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