"Mm?" Cloud glances up. "Sure, why not? Most kids waited another year or two, but thirteen wasn't unheard of or anything." What the hell do teenagers even do with themselves all the time in her world if they can't get jobs?
Once Fred starts reading again, the file says that a few years passed with no change in Cloud's situation, and since he was too ashamed to report back to his mother and Tifa that he was a failure and all that boasting had come to nothing, he just...didn't go back to visit the village at all.
Things started to look up for Cloud when he was sixteen, because he was assigned to a mission with Zack Fair, SOLDIER Second Class - a name Fred likely recognizes as a warden on the Barge. Zack was impressed with how well he kept up and how he never hesitated to give everything his all regardless of the odds. They became fast friends, which was something Cloud had never had before. Zack was supportive and upbeat, and he encouraged Cloud to embrace his dreams - to keep his head up, keep trying. Cloud looked up to him as both his best friend and a role model, especially after Zack's promotion to First Class.
Eventually, they were both assigned to a mission with Sephiroth to inspect the mako reactor just outside Nibelheim, taking Cloud home for the first time in nearly three years. That mission was the first time he'd had the chance to spend any time with Sephiroth, and found the hero a quiet, thoughtful man full of curiosity and gentle sass, who was kind to Cloud and spoke to him warmly despite the massive gap between their ranks.
The shame of Cloud's continued failure (as he saw it) led him to keep his helmet on so none of the villagers would know it was him, including Tifa - and then everything fell apart. Sephiroth learned of his origins as a science project for Shinra, a hybrid of human and alien DNA from an ancient, excavated corpse. He spent a week obsessively devouring every scrap of information about the project he could find, and then he burned the entire village to the ground and killed the villagers. Cloud tried to save his mother, but passed out in the attempt after desperately texting Zack for help. By the time he came to, everyone was already dead.
He followed Sephiroth and Zack all the way up the mountain to the reactor. By the time he got there, Sephiroth had defeated Zack, killed Tifa's father, nearly killed Tifa, and was in the process of stealing the remains of Jenova - the alien he now believed was his true "mother." Cloud grabbed Zack's enormous sword and took Sephiroth by surprise, stabbing him in the back. Sephiroth survived and was furious. Cloud tried to finish him off but ended up impaled on Sephiroth's sword instead. Somehow, he managed to drag himself further along the blade and then use it to fling Sephiroth into the reactor's core, killing him.
Cloud and Zack were in the process of bleeding out when Hojo, the scientist responsible for the Jenova Project, captured them and took them back to his secret lab.
no subject
Once Fred starts reading again, the file says that a few years passed with no change in Cloud's situation, and since he was too ashamed to report back to his mother and Tifa that he was a failure and all that boasting had come to nothing, he just...didn't go back to visit the village at all.
Things started to look up for Cloud when he was sixteen, because he was assigned to a mission with Zack Fair, SOLDIER Second Class - a name Fred likely recognizes as a warden on the Barge. Zack was impressed with how well he kept up and how he never hesitated to give everything his all regardless of the odds. They became fast friends, which was something Cloud had never had before. Zack was supportive and upbeat, and he encouraged Cloud to embrace his dreams - to keep his head up, keep trying. Cloud looked up to him as both his best friend and a role model, especially after Zack's promotion to First Class.
Eventually, they were both assigned to a mission with Sephiroth to inspect the mako reactor just outside Nibelheim, taking Cloud home for the first time in nearly three years. That mission was the first time he'd had the chance to spend any time with Sephiroth, and found the hero a quiet, thoughtful man full of curiosity and gentle sass, who was kind to Cloud and spoke to him warmly despite the massive gap between their ranks.
The shame of Cloud's continued failure (as he saw it) led him to keep his helmet on so none of the villagers would know it was him, including Tifa - and then everything fell apart. Sephiroth learned of his origins as a science project for Shinra, a hybrid of human and alien DNA from an ancient, excavated corpse. He spent a week obsessively devouring every scrap of information about the project he could find, and then he burned the entire village to the ground and killed the villagers. Cloud tried to save his mother, but passed out in the attempt after desperately texting Zack for help. By the time he came to, everyone was already dead.
He followed Sephiroth and Zack all the way up the mountain to the reactor. By the time he got there, Sephiroth had defeated Zack, killed Tifa's father, nearly killed Tifa, and was in the process of stealing the remains of Jenova - the alien he now believed was his true "mother." Cloud grabbed Zack's enormous sword and took Sephiroth by surprise, stabbing him in the back. Sephiroth survived and was furious. Cloud tried to finish him off but ended up impaled on Sephiroth's sword instead. Somehow, he managed to drag himself further along the blade and then use it to fling Sephiroth into the reactor's core, killing him.
Cloud and Zack were in the process of bleeding out when Hojo, the scientist responsible for the Jenova Project, captured them and took them back to his secret lab.