The Story.

Quick rundown of FF7. Spoilers included.

Cloud is introduced to us as an ex-member of SOLDIER, the megaconglomerate Shinra Corporation's elite special forces unit. For mysterious reasons, he is accompanying AVALANCHE, a ecoterrorist organization, on a mission to blow up the Planet-life-sucking Mako reactors that surround the megalopolis of Midgar. He at first comes off as callous and cold, caring about nothing except doing his part so that he can get paid--much to the chagrin of the group's leader, Barret, who strongly believes in saving the Planet by destroying Shinra, Inc.

As the game presses on, we are introduced to Tifa, another member of AVALANCHE, and Cloud's childhood friend. Tifa seems to want to express feelings of caring to Cloud, and asks him to continue his missions with AVALANCHE, despite his wanting to leave. After a botched mission to destroy another Mako reactor, Cloud seperates from the group temporarily and meets Aeris, a flower girl with a dubious past, and protects her from being kidnapped by Shinra. Over the course of the game, a love triangle revolves around the three, in which Cloud seems to express more interest in Aeris.

It turns out that Aeris is an Ancient, or the first race of human beings that inhabited the Planet. These people seem to know all of the secrets to the universe, and Shinra finds this valuable to their money making schemes. They are eventually successful in kidnapping her, which leads the party to Shinra HQ to retrieve her. Here, after several people in Shinra are gruesomely murdered, including the president, the name Sephiroth is thrown around. Cloud explains to the party who Sephiroth is.

During a flashback, Cloud explains his past as he remembers it. Sephiroth, a name who everyone in the world of FFVII knows of, was once Shinra Army's greatest general. Many myths and legends revolve around him, citing his strength and ability in battle to be unreal and unlimited. As a teenager in SOLDIER, Cloud fought alongside Sephiroth and became friends with him. Sephiroth is recalled as calm, collected, and rational. He tells the story of how five years prior to current events, he traveled to his hometown of Nibelheim to investigate a malfunctioning Mako reactor and violent creatures roaming the area as a result. Two regular Shinra infantrymen and Tifa, as a guide, accompany them.

Sephiroth briefly tells Cloud about his past, saying that his mother's name was "Jenova," but he never knew her, as she died in childbirth. While investigating the reactor, Sephiroth notices a large chamber connected to many smaller pods; above the chamber is inscribed "Jenova." Sephiroth and Cloud examine the pods and after seeing beastly creatures inside of them, Sephiroth explains that they are humans exposed to high concentrations of Mako--similar to the SOLDIER-making process, but far more extreme.

Sephiroth becomes enraged as he puts the pieces together and suspects that he was created the same way. After returning from the mission, he locks himself away in the basement of Shinra Mansion, reading old science reports from up to thirty years prior. Years ago, Shinra scientists had apparently discovered a two-thousand year old creature that was buried underground, and believed it to be an Ancient. From this, they began conducting experiments on Shinra personnel in an attempt to hone soldiers into killing machines with the powers of the Ancients. He goes insane from what he learns and burns Nibelheim to the ground, slaughtering the villagers, including Cloud's mother and Tifa's father. Tifa, who was present as a guide during the mission, discovers this and attempts to avenge her slain father by confronting Sephiroth herself. Sephiroth nearly kills her, and Cloud confronts him in her place. After that, Cloud's flashback ends, as he doesn't remember what happened next.

As Cloud explains this, Tifa seems uncomfortable, but doesn't explain why. The party leaves the Midgar area to begin their journey, chasing after Sephiroth.

Along the way, they learn that Sephiroth is seeking the Black Materia, which harbors a powerful magic capable of destroying the world. Cloud is able to retrieve it before Sephiroth does, but with many memory lapses and questionable behavior along the way: several times he forgets who he is or has some sort of a psychotic episode. Twice, he attacks Aeris. Anytime an event like this occurs, his teammates are terrified and decide not to tell him about it.

While passing through the City of the Ancients, Aeris is killed by Sephiroth as she prays. Emotionally traumatized, Cloud leads the party to the Northern Crater, where Sephiroth is said to be hiding. Shinra also follows close behind, still searching for the Mako-rich "promised land" that the Ancients allegedly know of. Here, Cloud and Tifa are approached by Sephiroth in the form of a flashback, in which Sephiroth taunts the two of them. He attempts to get Tifa to admit that Cloud is delusional, and that there is something wrong with his story, for she should recall not seeing Cloud five years ago at Nibelheim. Tifa becomes upset, but is reluctant to deny Sephiroth's words. Cloud tries to be confident, but as he retraces his steps in his memory, he has a memory lapse, and then a psychotic episode.

After finding Sephiroth, Cloud surprisingly hands the Black Materia over to him without any given reason. Hojo explains to the confused party that a theory had been placed a long time ago that if Jenova were cut into pieces, all of the pieces would eventually move to the same place: In Nibelheim, Sephiroth took Jenova's head and both he and it were never seen again until the Northern Crater was reached: the visage of Sephiroth was simply him projecting himself. Therefore, the body, and any human being that had ever been injected with Jenova cells had "reunited" at the Northern Crater, including Cloud and other tattooed men in black capes who were previous experiments. Hojo reveals Cloud to be a failed Sephiroth clone.

The ground caves in, and the party escapes with Shinra, leaving Cloud behind, and are taken prisoner. In the sky lurks a huge meteor, which Sephiroth summoned using the Black Materia, waiting to plummet to the ground and destroy the Planet. After escaping, they find Cloud in Mideel, an island to the far south, in a vegetative state. Having contracted Mako Poisoning from falling into the Life Stream, Cloud is left behind with Tifa while the rest of the party attempts to stop Shinra from destroying various towns in order to collect Huge Materia, which they plan to ram into Meteor in a rocket.

Once this mission is complete, the planet's Life Stream swallows up Mideel, and Cloud and Tifa find themselves in a dreamlike state, where the truth about Cloud's past is discovered.

In reality, Cloud and Tifa were never friends in childhood. He admired her from afar, but she preferred the company of other boys, and because he was considered "different," he was always left out, shunned, and ignored. After the death of Tifa's mother, Tifa attempted to climb Mt. Nibel, believing her mother might be there. Cloud followed her, and they both fell off of the mountain. Cloud was fine, but Tifa was placed into a coma, and he was blamed for it, further isolating him from the rest of the community.

About five years later, when Cloud was fourteen, he asked Tifa to meet him by the well to tell her that he would join SOLDIER to be great like Sephiroth. However, even then, Tifa and Cloud weren't close friends as he had remembered. He even admitted that he had really just wanted to impress Tifa and prove himself.

During these flashbacks, the truth about the Nibelheim Incident is also discovered, and Tifa's doubts come to light: Cloud was at Nibelheim, but he never made it into SOLDIER. He was there as one of the infantryman accompanying Sephiroth and Zack, a SOLDIER First Class from Gongaga. He didn't reveal himself to Tifa and kept himself hidden behind his helmet out of embarrassment. After Sephiroth went insane, Tifa confronted Sephiroth, and when she was injured, Zax attempted to as well, and was also injured. Enraged, Cloud confronted Sephiroth next, and was impaled by the Masamune blade: but to Sephiroth's surprise, Cloud lifted Sephiroth up off the ground while impaled, and threw him over the edge of the reactor. He fell into the Life Stream, explaining how he ended up in the Northern Crater.

Finally coming to terms with who he is, Cloud returns to the party and prepares to fight WEAPON, huge creatures that the Planet creates and deploys when it's in imminent danger. Shinra builds a large cannon on Midgar, powered by the Mako reactors in the city, and fires it towards the forcefield barricading Sephiroth in his Northern Cave. During this battle, Shinra Headquarters is destroyed, and most of its executives are either dead or missing.

In a small side-quest, it's also discovered that directly after the Nibelheim incident, Cloud and Zack were taken in by Shinra's scientific department and experimented on for years. A healthy Zack escaped with an incapacitated and drugged Cloud and watched over him up until he was gunned down by pursuing Shinra soldiers. Cloud witnessed this happen, and assumes Zack's identity. The rest of his memories from the time he was fourteen were fantasies that he had assimilated into memory.

With the barricade gone, Cloud and the party face Sephiroth and destroy his two physical forms: the last battle with Sephiroth is what PN believes to be a metaphor. Cloud faces Sephiroth in human form, in a dark void, and uses Omnislash to destroy him and cast him out of his mind