Can We Start Over?

Why.......why me?

Seph's POV
(slight spoiler warning for FF7CC if you don't know what happens in Zack's story arc)

A week. That's how long I've been feeling miserable and depressed, here I was just laying down on my black leather sofa in my office. My desk, currently a few feet away and over flowing with a butt-load of paper work I was reluctant to do. I didn't care if Director Lazard or Angeal were scolding me over this, it really didn't matter. As I laid there on the sofa a whole stack of paper tumbled to the floor -because gravity- but I still didn't care, not like I was going to clean it up.

I really hadn't heard anything concerning Cloud, not a single word from him directly either. If that were the case then why am I even here? Did he leave me here to change the past all by myself? He couldn't have, could he? Cloud isn't that cruel towards me is he?...............What am I saying, Of Course He Is! It's all I could think of now: Cloud currently sitting in the Lifestream watching me struggle. That little bastard!

A knock at my door interrupted me fantasizing how I should punish Cloud in the most torturous way possible. "Hey Seph! I'm back from my mission, and Director Lazard wanted me to hand you this paper work." Zack exclaimed as he barge into my office. His attitude was a bit off to me somehow, from how he talked I couldn't tell if he was serious or excited to see me. Bottomline it didn't really sound like his usual self. "Oh....and~ I see you've got...a new look going on...ah well-I'm digging it."

I took a look at myself after a while, to be fair Zack's right about my look. Today I didn't even try to put in the effort to be in uniform. I actually was in simple clothes for once in my life, I was wearing a plain black shirt with simple jeans that went with a matching denim jacket. In general something I didn't wear everyday. Or at all. No rhyme or reason behind it, just simple.

Now back to Zack, around this time if I remember correctly Zack was a 2nd Class SOLDIER, he didn't get promoted to 1st Class until after Angeal disappeared. Now that I think about it, I could probably prevent that from happening since I'm here now.
Of course since I'm in the past right now.
"Oh.....ah~..."

"Just add it to the pile...."

"Okay~"

It was the same basic paper work that I got tired of the first three days I decided to crunch time. The typical stuff: Mission Reports, Missing Cadet claims, Complaints of weird sounds coming from Hojo's Laboratory -when is there never weird sounds coming from that bastard's Lab?- nothing really noteworthy for me to do. Shouldn't their be employees in this company that can take care of this type of stuff? Why do the SOLDIERs need to take care of the paperwork?
As I sat up to stretch and contemplate what else to do with my time, Zack had picked up the pile that fell from my desk earlier. Trying to neatly stack everything, a paper from the stack he brought in slipped from the top and conveniently landed at the foot of the sofa. Of course I had to pick up, the minute I saw it I let out a hard-suffered sigh, it was yet another Missing Cadet claim. But when I read the description it nearly floored me on the spot, of course I didn't show it.

MISSING CADET APPLICATION

Name: Cloud Strife

Rank: 14th rank of second division

Last seen on duty: Guard duty in the Sector 7 slums train station

Physical description: He's 18 years old with the height of 139 cm. A scrawny looking kid but a hard worker. He has naturally spiky blonde hair and his eyes are a dull greyish-purple.

Reported missing by: Zack Fair, 2nd Class

Please contact 8********** to authorize a search for said missing cadet if been missing for more than a month.