This is the overview part of my website and it shows you pretty much everything about clouds past. You can find out this stuff later in the game but why not know now? It all starts out when a young boy named Cloud Strife who is living in his hometown of nibelhiem hears of an organization called Shinra. So he decides to leave and join SOILDER which is a military division of Shinra. He decides to leave because of his neighbor and somewhat friend Tifa Lockheart. He likes her but that is his deepest secret in which nobody knows and she hangs around these three other boys so that they do not hang out with each other. So he decides to leave nibelhiem so that he can create an image for himself and get stronger in the hopes that he can win Tifa’s heart and impress his town who thinks that he will never amount to anything. So he leaves but he gets rejected from SOILDER and becomes a very angry grunt who is very disappointed with himself. Then he meets a person in SOILDER who’s name is Zack and they become friends with each other. Then these two were assigned to accompany a top ranking SOILDER member named Sephiroth to the Nibelhiem mako reactor. Cloud being too ashamed of his failure of getting rejected from SOILDER kept his mask on when they arrived at nibelhiem so that his town would not know it was him and did not have to know that he got rejected from SOILDER. Also while Zack, Cloud, and Sephiroth were waiting at the gate the guide showed up that was going to take them to the reactor and guess who if you guessed Tifa then you are correct. When they reach the nibelhiem reactor Cloud stays outside to guard Tifa and since he still has mask still on {this becomes important later on in the game} Tifa does not know that it is Cloud and thinks nothing of it. Inside of the reactor, Sephiroth finds Jenova who is his birth mother and is a alien looking creature that you would see in the movies, and his mind slowly starts unraveling. He eventually isolates himself in the nibelhiem mansion library, and then he eventually burns the town to the ground in a rage. Zack and Cloud follow him to the reactor. Just as they arrive, Sephiroth slashes Tifa with his sword and Zack chases after him, while Cloud carries Tifa off to the side, fulfilling his childhood promise which was to always be by her side and protect her. Then Zack and Sephiroth battle in Jenova’s chamber, and Sephiroth sends him flying out of the room, mortally wounded. He leaves the room, carrying his sword in one hand, and Jenova's severed head in the other hand. Zack pleads with Cloud to kill Sephiroth and cloud decides to do it, so Cloud takes Zack's sword, then chases Sephiroth. When Cloud reaches Sephiroth, he turns around and stabs Cloud in the chest and lifts him into the air and this would normally kill a man but Cloud is no normal man he is a failed experiment of a Sephiroth clone by the Shinra scientist Hojo. Thinking Cloud is dead, Sephiroth lowers him back down to the ground when suddenly, Cloud grabs the blade of the sword, lifts Sephiroth into the air, and flings him into the liquid Mako. Since this Sephiroth is nothing but a clone of his former self he does not really die. Cloud then collapses right there on the spot. Some scientists find him and Zack, and place them in glass tubes so they can heal them, as well as inject them with Jenova cells as an experiment to make them more powerful. Cloud has a reaction to them, while Zack does not. During this period, Cloud and Zack were linked, which is why Cloud has some of Zack's memories, and yet sees himself in Zack's role later on in the game. It also explains why he has Mako eyes as the people in SOILDER do. They showered him with it to speed his recovery time. Eventually the two escape during feeding time one day. They then leave Nibelhiem, and begin trying to hitchhike to Midgar. There, they intend to become swords-for-hire, and earn a living. However, as they approach the city, they are found by a group of Shinra soldiers, who were searching for them. Zack is promptly shot to death, while Cloud, badly injured, is left to die. However, he manages to get to Midgar, where he slowly recovers. Finally, 5 years later, he finds Tifa at the train station in midgar. She at first mistakes him for Zack, because they look and act so similar. (The result of the link during their recovery.) Finally, she convinces Cloud to take the job with AVALANCHE which is a rebel group against the Shinra company. Well as I said in the beginning this is an overview of the past and to find out more just play the game.
