#I just wish..I didn't have to make cloud SIX YEARS OLD in a goddamn war

[wow-thisismylifeiguess]

concept: a sefikura role reversal fic, but like...kinda? sdjhcdhvbdfh, this is gonna be awful, im sorry in advance to anyone who takes the time to read this, but yeah. i….have no self restraint, lol. (also, to anyone who cares, pls do correct me for any minor details i may get wrong in regards to actual canon events)

SO, essentially, cloud is going to be the “big bad” and sephiroth is going to be the one trying to stop him, but instead of it being like a complete role reversal, it’s just alternate events.

let’s start from the beginning. sephiroth is born the same way he canonically is, but the experiments don't go as well for him. instead of him being the best of the three (him, genesis, and angeal), he’s the /worst/. something about the mako tests and experiments simply make sephiroth weaker rather than stronger, but a frustrated hojo refuses to completely give up on him. jenova would talk to him, but in a degrading way, speaking of weakness and powerlessness.

now, i don’t know the details regarding jenova’s history and why she’s in...or near(?) nibelheim, but imma force my way through this anyway. so, cloud’s mother is pregnant and hojo continues with his obsession in making the perfect SOLDIER due to instead of hollander being disgraced, /he/ is. cloud and his mother are prime candidates for hojo’s attention due to the fact that claudia (is that….really her name?) is a single parents and the rest of the town seems to dislike/avoid her for unknown reasons (maybe its ‘cause like in that one fic, claudia is heavily religious in regards to norse myth). cloud is already believed to be a special child, by his mother, and a cursed one, by the rest of the town. hojo gets weirdly close to claudia and does the same thing he did to sephiroth w cloud believing that the second times the charm (it is). cloud is born, claudia dies, and hojo basically kidnaps cloud. nibelheim is happy about this (fuck them). so, unlike in regards to sephiroth, cloud is exceptionally strong as he grows up. he receives all of the training and teachings canon sephiroth went through all while au sephiroth is like ‘wtf, why not me?’. cloud hates it tho and actually becomes kinda close to sephiroth despite the fact that hojo HATES sephiroth for being his failed experiment (though cloud’s success raised his favour in shinra again). sephiroth starts off pretty cold to cloud ‘cause he feels like he’s been cheated, but cloud is like...super sweet and highkey shy and looks up to sephiroth in a brotherly way (due to sephiroth’s failures, he depends on intelligence rather than strength. cloud doesn’t have the patience for books and learning the way sephiroth does and depends on sephiroth usually to teach him information he thinks is interesting). oh, and genesis straight up hates cloud for taking the spotligh (I have yet to finish cc so my understanding of his and angeal’s personalities are v non existent)

it goes this way for a while w sephiroth growing up to become some sort of strategist within shinra and cloud being--

I JUST REALIZED CLOUD WOULD BE SIX/SEVEN AT THE START OF THE WUTAI WAR, HOLY FUCKING SHIT. okay, either i change his age or i keep it and this shit is even more fucked up because of my god, they sent a six/seven year old to fight in a war

--the youngest SOLDIER, but also the strongest. shinra gets a lot of shit for this because...he’s TINY, but his strength is enough for them to shut up about it, proving himself to be instrumental in winning against wutai. sephiroth has gotten stronger over the years, but is silent about it, hiding his development due to knowledge of how he’ll be treated and used by hojo and shinra if they were to find out. cloud absolutely hates his forced involvement in the war but is forced into it anyway and relies on sephiroth as comfort.

anyway, imma stop here for now because I just found the ff7 timeline and i know im gonna spend a lot of time reading and reading this shit to be able to understand any of it (like….why tf is 1999 followed by 0000???? WHY??). alright, im done