Thank you to everyone who sent a message asking if I was alright. Sorry about the long hiatus everyone! Hopefully this new story will make up for it!

=D

Cloud looked at his eyes in the mirror and sighed. If there was one thing he didn't like about himself, it was the fact he had such unusual eyes. It was a source of endless frustration for him, mostly because it made it impossible for him to be considered "normal" by Nibelhiem standards.

No one was entirely certain why Cloud was born with two differently colored eyes, but the village doctor assured his mother that outside of the unusual coloring her son was perfectly healthy.

His right eye was a deep blue the same shade as his father, if his mother was to be believed. It was the left that gave him problems...his left was a deep verdant green and most of the villagers, particularly the adults, found it unnerving.

This was because the green eye seemed to have a depth to it that according to anyone caught within it's gaze, would peer into your soul and would 'judge' you. None of the adults wanted to be caught within that gaze and be found wanting somehow.

Cloud sighed.

As a defense mechanism to that problem, he had started to read more. His mother was all for it, and he had read practically everything in the village at least twice. While it solved part of the issue by directing the gaze of his left eye away from anyone who could be caught in it, it made him an outsider with the other children.

Most of the kids in the village weren't big on studying. Not only was reading books boring, but most of their future prospects were rather limited. At best, they could hope to assist their parents or be married off young to start their own family.

The amount of jobs in Nibelhiem was limited, and the village was rather closed off to outsiders.

As such a bookish child like Cloud was considered mostly abnormal.

The only reason the other children didn't tease him was because Cloud was unusually skilled at avoiding them when they got in the mood to harass the bookworm. The boy was like a ghost and rarely joined in on the games they played.

About the only time he did get involved was during the incident with the Mayor's daughter Tifa.

No one was sure how or why Cloud had been up there with her. All that the adults knew was that Cloud had deliberately knocked Tifa out with his book shortly before the adults arrived to retrieve the children.

Cloud was given only a mild scolding for it, mostly because he had stopped Tifa from going onto the rickety bridge that collapsed shortly after she woke up. He hadn't really hit her that hard, so the girl watched with a pale face when she saw how close she had come to being dropped in the gorge below.

The mayor wasn't happy, but he also acknowledged that Cloud had saved his daughter's life.

Cloud turned away from the mirror with an irritated look. There was nothing he could do to change his eye color while he was in Nibelhiem.

But maybe he could get an edge for when he turned fourteen and finally hit the minimum allowed age for the SOLDIER application. After all, the ShinRa mansion was within easy walking distance of the village and it wasn't like any of the adults would care if he borrowed books from there. He heard there was a massive library inside, and hopefully the books were still safe.

Cloud waited until he finished breakfast. Unlike the other children, he was allowed to skip the boring lessons held by an older woman who lost her husband. In order to support herself and not be subject to the village rumor mill, she taught the children of the village for a set sum.

Cloud was already far ahead of what she could teach, and most of it was basic stuff, nothing too advanced. His mother had been both proud and exasperated, because attending lessons was one of the few times Cloud bothered to interact with the other children.

He took his small lunch with him, and slipped away from the village. That was another quirk that made his mother fret, as the monsters outside the village were rather dangerous.

It took him all of two hours to reach the mansion and he was breathing hard. Though the mansion was close, the road was rather rough as it had been over a decade since anyone used it. Nibel winters were hard and without any maintenance the road had taken quite a few hits. It really didn't help that Cloud was so short, and thus had to take even more strides just to traverse the distance.

Still he had made it, despite being heavily winded.

Who knew what sort of things he'd find inside?

Cloud's duo-colored eyes gleamed in anticipation.

Several hours later...

Cloud took it back...the mansion was a nightmare. He should have guessed some of the monsters would take up residence in the place and with his skills it was going to take forever to clear them out. He managed to slip past the worst of them, and he even found a strange note that promised treasure if he was clever enough to figure out the clues.

Unfortunately he had to return home. It was getting rather late and he didn't want his mother to worry.

Cloud reluctantly turned towards home, and got a rather stern scolding from his mother because it had just become dark when he returned. Worse, a storm was going to move in which meant he wouldn't be able to return to the mansion for a few days.

At least he had gotten some of the more interesting books from the massive library before he left the mansion.

Whoever thought putting in that massive thing inside the safe was an insane bastard.

Cloud barely managed to get away from it, once he swiped the contents of the safe. It was likely the mayor would have to call in ShinRa to deal with the thing, because there was no way a seven-year-old with only an unmastered summoning materia and not enough mana would be able to deal with that monstrosity.

The creature was preoccupied with the monsters he generally avoided, which gave Cloud the chance to duck into the library. He saw what looked like a secret passage a week ago.

It was awkward, and he almost fell twice off the stack of books he used to reach the lever. But he was rewarded when it swung open revealing a hidden passage that lead underground.

Hearing the monsters come closer, if only to avoid the creature he accidentally set loose, Cloud went down the passage without a second thought.

He had no doubts that the other monsters would be pissed and more inclined to chase after him if he encountered them now. Hopefully there was a way out that would get him far away from that monster in time to warn the village.

The lab gave him a really bad feeling, like certain men in the village did after one too many drinks. He avoided it and kept going, being as quick and quiet as he could so he could avoid the creatures in the ceiling.

He almost passed the ancient doors, except he had to stop and catch his breath. The monster was still rampaging upstairs, but it sounded like it was still in the foyer and nowhere near the library.

It probably couldn't fit through the narrow hallway. Hopefully it wouldn't get the presence of mind to break through the walls and to the outside world.

Cloud stretched on his very tip-toes, just barely able to slot the key into the lock.

It took him a few tries, but he was able to get the door unlocked. It took him even longer to get the door open, because it was heavy.

It was a crypt.

If it wasn't for the fact that going up would almost certainly result in his death and quite possibly the deaths of a good portion of his home, Cloud would have turned around right then and there.

He was tired, cranky and he just wanted to go home without having to worry about that thing trashing the upstairs.

He looked around the coffins for a bit, before leaning against the one in the middle with a grumpy huff.

He did not expect the lid to start sliding open, because he slipped and crashed on the ground.

Tears filled his eyes a bit, mostly from the nasty scrape he got on his hands trying to catch himself.

A single golden claw reached out from the coffin and pulled him up by his belt.

"Brat...what are you doing here all alone?" demanded an annoyed voice. "And what is making that racket upstairs?"

Cloud stared. It was the first time he saw someone with eyes almost as unusual as his own.

"There was a monster in the safe. I managed to get the key and the materia, but I'm too small to actually take it out."

The man stared at him.

"Why did you come here?" he half-asked.

Cloud shrugged.

"I already read all the books in the village, and none of the kids will come near this place."

The man looked like he had a headache.

"Is there anyone else here with you?"

Cloud shook his head.

The man eyed the upstairs, and then Cloud.

"Stay here. I'll deal with the monster you let out," he said firmly.

"Okay," said Cloud.

He was curious, not stupid. He knew he wasn't able to deal with that thing and it was really unlikely anyone in the village would be able to kill it either.

About thirty minutes later the man came back. Cloud knew the monster was dealt with, because it wasn't making any noise anymore.

The man sat down and pulled Cloud up to eye-level with him.

"Kid, why are you in this depressing place?"

Cloud wasn't afraid of him. Something inside told him this man wouldn't hurt him unless he did something really stupid. If anything the man felt tired and sad.

The man flinched slightly when Cloud's left eye caught his own red ones...like so many other adults, he could feel the ancient gaze behind that single eye, almost like a god of old judging you...weighing your life and soul against some scale you couldn't comprehend.

Then Cloud blinked, and the spell was broken. However whatever power the kid had behind that eye had definitely made Chaos sit up and take notice of the boy's existence.

Anything that attracted his attention was something to be wary of.

"I wanted to read from the library in here. The other kids are too boring and immature, and they dislike me anyway because my eyes are weird and the adults don't like looking at them either. Besides, the mansion is safer than wandering the mountains," he replied honestly.

He stared at the small child.

"You broke into this place...for something to read?"

Cloud nodded. Then he looked disappointed.

"I can't understand most of the words. The lady who does the lessons only teaches us the most basic of things because anything more isn't really needed since the jobs available are really limited in the village," said Cloud.

"What sort of job do you want?" asked the man, curious.

"I want to apply for SOLDIER. Mom wasn't too happy, since she said I would do well in a school, but that costs money. I figure if I can get into SOLDIER or even the infantry, I can earn my way towards attending school and becoming a doctor or something," said Cloud.

"Why SOLDIER? There's plenty of places that would hire a smart kid," he asked.

"Yeah, but they don't come with most of the living expenses covered on top of combat training," said Cloud. "Even though the pay won't be very good, I'll still save on the living expenses and learn how to fight."

It seemed the kid had actually thought this through to an extent most wouldn't bother with. Besides, the standard contract was only ten years for the infantry. That gave the kid plenty of time to save up to attend a decent college and possibly get a better job once he left the company.

"Kid, what's your name?" he asked.

"Cloud. Cloud Strife. What's your name mister?"

"Call me Vincent," said the red eyed man. He gave Cloud a somewhat calculating look. "Kid, how would you like to learn what the bigger words used in the books upstairs mean as well as early combat training?"

Cloud visibly perked up at the idea.

Vincent originally decided to train Cloud because the kid had a lot of curiosity and courage, but no real common sense to speak of.

Cloud had gone into a mansion just to access the library inside. The fact he had accidentally set that monstrosity of Hojo's loose and didn't have a proper plan to deal with it said far too much of his character.

Vincent would give the kid this much credit though. He hadn't run away screaming and had thought through his options rather logically before he almost got stuck in the basement because of his actions. If Vincent hadn't been sleeping in the crypt below the mansion, Cloud would have been in deep trouble. The only other way out of the area from the cellars was a pipe that lead to the reactor, and that was filled with even stronger monsters and next to no places where someone as small and nimble as Cloud could hide.

Cloud was smart, too curious for his own good and had next-to-no self-preservation when he smelled an adventure, but he wasn't stupid or lazy.

The one thing that briefly baffled Vincent was Cloud's reaction to the news that items such as color contacts existed. The second the boy learned that, he promptly hugged Vincent as hard as he could.

Such things were slightly expensive, but considering Cloud's unusual eye color would be perfect to keep attention from being drawn towards him later. Considering the animosity the other children displayed towards him for being so unusual, Vincent could hardly blame Cloud for the fact he wanted to get his hands on something so ordinary.

Vincent wasn't the least bit surprised Cloud threw himself into training extra hard in how to fight, if only so he could go monster hunting and hopefully save up enough money to buy said contacts before applying to ShinRa as a potential cadet.

However there were times...rare, but very noticeable...when Cloud acted and behaved like a completely different person. Vincent suspected it had something to do with the green eye and the fact Chaos seemed to watch the small child with eager anticipation every time it happened, as if expecting something.

It was hard to say how Vincent knew there was something different whenever these moods hit Cloud. It almost felt like he was dealing with a kindred spirit of sorts, as strange as that sounded.

During those times, Cloud's green eye glowed slightly from an internal light that Vincent knew damn well wasn't mako. Whatever it was made Chaos a bit too giddy for Vincent's mellow.

Vincent had to wonder if it was this other presence that had turned Cloud into such a bookworm.