At Zack's arrival and comment, Cloud turned and just looked at him. "Thanks for reminding me." He held his bag out so it was practically under the SOLDIER's nose. At least he was sitting with someone who'd put up with him and might not throw a fit if he somehow managed to upheave any remnants of last night's dinner into his lap. "Here. Though I can't promise I won't want the bag back later." Without the contents, of course. Though the bag might be too flimsy to be of much use.
Was the bus already moving? ...No, that was just his imagination. Great, they weren't even going anywhere yet and his subconscious was already expecting the bumpy ride ahead. The blond pinched the bridge of his nose and closed his eyes and that actually seemed to help for a moment.
"There should be seat belts," he complained. "Anyone could just slide out into the aisle - maybe even get stuck there, since the walkway's so narrow." Barret would have been in trouble. "And these seats..." he bounced in his and listened to it squeak, "they aren't secure at all. This is an incredibly shoddy design and they shouldn't be allowed to sit people in it."
When the bag was shoved in his face, Zack blinked before taking it from his friend. Right, food wasn't really the best thing to give to someone who had motion sickness issues. He had to admit that he was a little surprised Cloud still suffered from it, all these years later, but it probably wasn't something you just grew out of. On the other hand, he wasn't sure if he could eat two bags of food, and so he set one of them down on the floor near his feet for the moment.
"I'll return it to you, don't worry. Although you might want it to toss your cookies into, if it comes to that," he pointed out with a small smile. It was mean to tease, but Zack would be sure to get Cloud's mind off of it sooner rather than later.
Right as he was about to start talking about the basement, though, the blond went into a rant about how unsafe the buses were. Zack held back a smile, trying to take the words seriously... But there was just something amusing about how much misery his friend was in. On the other hand, Zack was determined to take care of him.
"Sorry to break it to you, but I don't think they're that worried about our safety here. Anyway, you're over-thinking things." He laid his hand on Cloud's shoulder and gripped it to steady him. "Everything'll be fine." This honestly couldn't be any worse than the truck they'd had to take to Nibelheim, for instance. Still, bringing that up would just plunge both of them into a series of bad memories, and so Zack kept quiet on that point.
"I'm not over-thinking things," Cloud argued. "I've been in plenty of vehicles in the past and this one-" The buses roared to life at that moment, and Cloud gripped the seat automatically with white-knuckled hands. It wouldn't have been as bad if the bus had been empty, but it wasn't. Crowded vehicles were the worst.
If he'd been driving it he would have been able to ignore the way it bumped around, for the most part. That always worked for him in the past. However, it was highly unlikely that he was going to be let anywhere near the steering wheel in this case. So he was stuck on this crowded bus for however long it took them to reach town, which he could only hope was only a couple miles away.
He glanced at Zack's hand on his shoulder. It wouldn't improve things any, was liable to make it worse, but he wasn't willing to release his death grip on the seat long enough to knock it away. Somehow, he had to get his mind off the moving vehicle. "...Wonder how safe this place'll be."
It was true, Cloud had been in plenty of vehicles. That included the motorcycle Cissnei had given him and some rickety truck they'd managed to get a ride in. Zack doubted that his friend remembered much of that, but it couldn't have helped his little problem. Mixing mako sickness with motion sickness... Zack had to admit he was pretty lucky Cloud hadn't ever puked on him during that long journey.
Still, thinking back on that wasn't going to keep his mood up, especially with how it'd all ended. When the bus started up, he felt Cloud tense under his grip and then moved his hand instead to his friend's back, rubbing it. "You mean the town? Well, I don't think it'll be anything other than safe, since it's during the day," he guessed. Good, they'd managed to get the topic to something other than Cloud's urge to vomit.
"How was your night, anyway? Mine turned out to be pretty interesting." Zack was more than happy to get into the details, but he figured he'd give Cloud the chance to speak first. Thinking about something other than the vehicle moving under them would probably be for the best. Zack had dealt with Cloud like this before, so he knew how to be patient with him.
Given that his motion sickness was almost purely psychological and he hadn't felt it at all while he still thought he was a 1st class SOLDIER, chances were that he wasn't even aware of it while comatose in Zack's care. That aside, Cloud was very much aware of it now, even as he tried not to be.
And he felt like such a sissy, what with Zack rubbing his hand on his back as if he was a child. He thought of telling him to knock it off, but the truth of the matter was that it was helping. He'd rather look like something of a wuss than be making a mess of his friend's shoes. He closed his eyes again. Why did the bus have to jostle them around so much.
"Yuffie... said something about zombies last time they were there. Something about them being left there after dark..." And he was willing to believe her on this point - not that she was a compulsive liar about this sort of thing anyway. If she said there could be trouble, then there could very well be trouble. "I can't trust any place they take us to."
Way for Cloud to totally ignore his question. Zack didn't take it personally, though. For one thing, he doubted his friend was doing too well at concentrating on anything at the moment. For another, the information he had was pretty important in comparison to what Zack had been asking about.
In fact, it took him by surprise enough that he granted Cloud's wish by pulling back and removing his hand as he thought it over. "Zombies?" He wondered if Yuffie was just using some weird ninja code, but Zack was going to assume the worst. If Cloud believed her, then Zack knew he could too. It figured that any good thing had a nasty underbelly (kind of like Midgar, come to think of it), but once again, the bad stuff only came out at night.
"Sounds pretty gruesome," he admitted. Which didn't mean he was scared, but the thought wasn't pleasant. Especially when it occurred to him that he might be classified as a zombie in his own right. "At least we've got a warning in case it happens again, though." He still didn't have a sword, but no one would have their weapons if they got attacked in some random town...
Which meant that once again, it went back to improvising. "How long does it usually take for you to get over your nausea these days?" he asked. Zack had to be certain Cloud would be up for a fight once the time came.
A warning that they were all about to be hit by a huge mako bomb wouldn't stop them from being hit by said bomb if they were trapped with no way out. Still, Zack was right. It was better to have no warning than none, even if he wouldn't know what to do with a zombie or seven if he actually ran into some.
As for Zack's question, Cloud turned to look at him blearily. "Not as long as it used to. Half hour at most, I think, but usually shorter. Had places to be, after all. Couldn't go holding everyone up." Of course, with there being no rush this afternoon he might end up taking his sweet time getting over it without meaning to. There wouldn't be that added adrenaline flow, plus there'd be no emergency to spur it on. Not that he wanted there to be an emergency, of course. A peaceful afternoon would be good for everyone.
Geez. He was bouncing around so much you'd think the seat was nothing but springs. He wanted to claw his way out of the window beside him, but there didn't seem to be any way to even get it open. It looked like the seat edge was still the best thing to hold on to for now. Where were the 'oh shit!' handles when you needed them?
A half an hour was nothing. Well, it probably felt like an eternity for Cloud in that moment, but the point was that he'd be well over it by the time they might have to start worrying about zombies. How did you kill undead things, anyway? He got the feeling that Hojo might have an idea or two about that, but Zack didn't want to follow that thought any further.
Still, something about what Cloud had said brought up a series of questions that he'd been eager to ask his friend. He wasn't sure if now was the best time for it, but he figured that anything that got the blond's mind off of his stomach was probably good.
"Places to be, huh? You know, I keep hearing that you and Aerith met up and went on some big journey, but I never got the details. Care to share?" He glanced over at his friend, but Cloud's gaze was steadily directed at his lap. All of a sudden, Zack flashed back to seeing him in that pose, when Cloud had been really sick, and he was forced to look away for a moment.
His hands crinkled at the paper of the bag that he was still holding. "Oh, and... do you mind if I eat?" He was starting to get hungry, but he'd wait until after they were off the bus to have his breakfast if chowing down was going to make Cloud feel worse.
He did mind. Oh man, did he mind. But Cloud didn't want Zack to have to go hungry either, so he just shook his head. It might be something he regretted, but his friend had a tendency to be far too self-sacrificing. And this was not at all an ironic thought.
The blond was starting to look a little green, but he turned his head up to address the other man's first question. He would have thought Aerith would have explained some of that, but apparently she'd been just as elusive about it with Zack as she had a tendency to be with other things. That meant it was up to him, and this really wasn't the best time, but there wasn't much else to discuss.
"Big journey?" He laughed lightly. "Is that what she said?" Cloud shifted until he was sitting upright, leaning his head back against the seat behind him. "I guess you could call it that. It wasn't just her, though - Tifa, Yuffie... Nanaki's here too, now. Red... he's not originally human."
There was really only one way to sum it up when it all came down to it. "...Sephiroth came back, Zack."
That nod that Cloud gave wasn't particularly convincing, and so Zack decided to just eat the apple for now. He got the feeling that was less likely to make his friend's stomach turn (even more), and he tried to eat it as quietly as he could. Which wasn't easy, but he did his best.
Zack wasn't entirely sure of what was so funny, but he nodded in response to the question. Aerith hadn't gotten into too many details when they'd spoken, but that was partly due to the nurses breaking them up. On the other hand, the girl had a tendency to understate things. She'd kept the fact that she was the last of the Ancients from him, after all! He was sure he'd get more direct answers out of Cloud here.
So Yuffie had gone on this journey with them. As had Tifa. It was still so uncanny that they'd all found each other and decided to team up, but it also felt right somehow. Zack was just glad that things had worked out in one way or another after his death. He had no clue who Nanaki or Red were, but chances were that Cloud wasn't feeling well enough to realize that.
He was about to ask about it, but that was when Cloud dropped a bombshell the size of Heidegger. Zack paused mid-bite, and then slowly pulled the apple away from his mouth. His features hardened as he was struck by a combination of complex emotions. Sephiroth was the man he'd looked up to, but his betrayal had in some ways been the most painful of all.
It kind of figured, though. If anyone could come back from that, it would have been him. But with Cloud's tone, it was clear that Sephiroth's return was far from good. "Guess he just didn't want to lose to you, did he?" he asked quietly, almost calmly, as he stared at the seat in front of him. He wasn't sure of what else to say.
"Heh." Didn't want to lose to him, huh? He'd had nothing to worry about on that regard at first, what with how he spent so much time pulling his strings. Having him deliver the Black Materia - all that manipulation was likely to make up for that original defeat. He had managed to set the man's plans back five years. Or had that just given him more time to develop his strategy?
Cloud shook his head again. Talking on this subject would help keep his focus elsewhere. "Originally, I'd just joined up with an anti-ShinRa group Tifa was a part of, but in the middle of our efforts to save the planet on an environmental level, we ran into greater problems." He swallowed. "Sephiroth murdered President ShinRa and stole the body of Jenova from the HQ. He wanted to destroy the world and make himself a god in the process."
There was so, so much more to it than that, but it would take a while to be able to relate all of it to his friend. Much of it he didn't want to tell at all, but at some point he'd need to. "That's what Aerith meant by an adventure. She joined up with our group in Midgar. I would rather she hadn't, but you know... she's very persistent."
So Cloud had decided to try and save the environment originally? That came as something of a shock, since the environment was really Shin-Ra's last concern most of the time. Then again, maybe that was the point. Maybe Cloud had wanted to position himself as far away from the company as possible once he'd gotten his head on straight. Still, it sounded like his efforts had warped into so much more...
Hearing more about Sephiroth only served to sour Zack's mood. It had been one thing to have the memory of that one nigh in Nibelheim, floating around in his head. But to know that the former general had returned to do so much worse -- that his insanity had only worsened as time had gone by --
The comment about Aerith was a decent enough distraction; it gave him an out so he didn't have to try and vocalize his thoughts on Sephiroth, at least. With the way Cloud was talking, it sounded like the man had been put out of his misery once and for all, and that was one thing Zack could be grateful for. "Yeah, she definitely is," he said, though his tone wasn't quite as convincing as it could have been. Still, he wasn't surprised that Aerith had invited herself to go along with Cloud. After letting him leave only for him to never come back, Zack could see where she would be reluctant to let it happen again.
As much as he wanted to avoid it, though, Zack had to know for sure. He leaned forward in his seat slightly, trying to make eye contact with his friend. "You stopped him, right?"
Save the environment, join a terrorist organization for money... same thing. Not worth delving into at this point in time. That had just been to set up the explanation, anyway, and there were more important matters - such as the one Zack's question addressed.
"Yeah." Cloud nodded with a little smile. "You know me... he never stood a chance." In the end, yes. His essence had broken apart into the lifestream. He was no longer a threat to the planet. What that had cost them, though... It was obvious that Aerith hadn't told him about her death. If she hadn't, then he wasn't going to mention it yet either. Not without her permission.
The destruction of Sector 7, the northern crater, the Weapons, Hojo... He'd tell him everything eventually, he was sure. He owed it to him. Little bits at a time, though. There was no need to overwhelm him, and certain things were going to be harder to take in than others.
The buses were coming to a stop now, and Cloud leaned forward to rest his head on the seat in front of him. "Go on ahead. I'll get out once my body gets more used to being stationary."
That cocky little remark from Cloud earned a full-blown grin from Zack. While it was painful to imagine his former general and his friend fighting to the death once again, Zack was still glad to know that Cloud had taken care of it, even in his absence. He'd done well, better than Zack could have ever imagined. He still couldn't kick that overwhelming feeling of pride for his friend.
"Sorry I wasn't there you give you a hand," he said sincerely. Zack would have loved to hang around and see Cloud really mature, but at the same time he wondered if his friend had gotten so strong because he hadn't been around. It was a headache to think about, but in the end he knew none of it could be changed, as much as he might wish for it.
It was enough of a miracle that he was sitting here and chatting with Cloud right now.
But that was when the bus stopped in town, and Cloud urged him to go on ahead. Zack frowned and hesitated for a moment, but it looked like his friend needed a moment to get his bearings. "All right. Feel better," he said, standing from his seat and giving Cloud's shoulder a quick squeeze. Now, to see what this Doyleton place was all about...
Was the bus already moving? ...No, that was just his imagination. Great, they weren't even going anywhere yet and his subconscious was already expecting the bumpy ride ahead. The blond pinched the bridge of his nose and closed his eyes and that actually seemed to help for a moment.
"There should be seat belts," he complained. "Anyone could just slide out into the aisle - maybe even get stuck there, since the walkway's so narrow." Barret would have been in trouble. "And these seats..." he bounced in his and listened to it squeak, "they aren't secure at all. This is an incredibly shoddy design and they shouldn't be allowed to sit people in it."
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"I'll return it to you, don't worry. Although you might want it to toss your cookies into, if it comes to that," he pointed out with a small smile. It was mean to tease, but Zack would be sure to get Cloud's mind off of it sooner rather than later.
Right as he was about to start talking about the basement, though, the blond went into a rant about how unsafe the buses were. Zack held back a smile, trying to take the words seriously... But there was just something amusing about how much misery his friend was in. On the other hand, Zack was determined to take care of him.
"Sorry to break it to you, but I don't think they're that worried about our safety here. Anyway, you're over-thinking things." He laid his hand on Cloud's shoulder and gripped it to steady him. "Everything'll be fine." This honestly couldn't be any worse than the truck they'd had to take to Nibelheim, for instance. Still, bringing that up would just plunge both of them into a series of bad memories, and so Zack kept quiet on that point.
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If he'd been driving it he would have been able to ignore the way it bumped around, for the most part. That always worked for him in the past. However, it was highly unlikely that he was going to be let anywhere near the steering wheel in this case. So he was stuck on this crowded bus for however long it took them to reach town, which he could only hope was only a couple miles away.
He glanced at Zack's hand on his shoulder. It wouldn't improve things any, was liable to make it worse, but he wasn't willing to release his death grip on the seat long enough to knock it away. Somehow, he had to get his mind off the moving vehicle. "...Wonder how safe this place'll be."
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Still, thinking back on that wasn't going to keep his mood up, especially with how it'd all ended. When the bus started up, he felt Cloud tense under his grip and then moved his hand instead to his friend's back, rubbing it. "You mean the town? Well, I don't think it'll be anything other than safe, since it's during the day," he guessed. Good, they'd managed to get the topic to something other than Cloud's urge to vomit.
"How was your night, anyway? Mine turned out to be pretty interesting." Zack was more than happy to get into the details, but he figured he'd give Cloud the chance to speak first. Thinking about something other than the vehicle moving under them would probably be for the best. Zack had dealt with Cloud like this before, so he knew how to be patient with him.
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And he felt like such a sissy, what with Zack rubbing his hand on his back as if he was a child. He thought of telling him to knock it off, but the truth of the matter was that it was helping. He'd rather look like something of a wuss than be making a mess of his friend's shoes. He closed his eyes again. Why did the bus have to jostle them around so much.
"Yuffie... said something about zombies last time they were there. Something about them being left there after dark..." And he was willing to believe her on this point - not that she was a compulsive liar about this sort of thing anyway. If she said there could be trouble, then there could very well be trouble. "I can't trust any place they take us to."
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In fact, it took him by surprise enough that he granted Cloud's wish by pulling back and removing his hand as he thought it over. "Zombies?" He wondered if Yuffie was just using some weird ninja code, but Zack was going to assume the worst. If Cloud believed her, then Zack knew he could too. It figured that any good thing had a nasty underbelly (kind of like Midgar, come to think of it), but once again, the bad stuff only came out at night.
"Sounds pretty gruesome," he admitted. Which didn't mean he was scared, but the thought wasn't pleasant. Especially when it occurred to him that he might be classified as a zombie in his own right. "At least we've got a warning in case it happens again, though." He still didn't have a sword, but no one would have their weapons if they got attacked in some random town...
Which meant that once again, it went back to improvising. "How long does it usually take for you to get over your nausea these days?" he asked. Zack had to be certain Cloud would be up for a fight once the time came.
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As for Zack's question, Cloud turned to look at him blearily. "Not as long as it used to. Half hour at most, I think, but usually shorter. Had places to be, after all. Couldn't go holding everyone up." Of course, with there being no rush this afternoon he might end up taking his sweet time getting over it without meaning to. There wouldn't be that added adrenaline flow, plus there'd be no emergency to spur it on. Not that he wanted there to be an emergency, of course. A peaceful afternoon would be good for everyone.
Geez. He was bouncing around so much you'd think the seat was nothing but springs. He wanted to claw his way out of the window beside him, but there didn't seem to be any way to even get it open. It looked like the seat edge was still the best thing to hold on to for now. Where were the 'oh shit!' handles when you needed them?
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Still, something about what Cloud had said brought up a series of questions that he'd been eager to ask his friend. He wasn't sure if now was the best time for it, but he figured that anything that got the blond's mind off of his stomach was probably good.
"Places to be, huh? You know, I keep hearing that you and Aerith met up and went on some big journey, but I never got the details. Care to share?" He glanced over at his friend, but Cloud's gaze was steadily directed at his lap. All of a sudden, Zack flashed back to seeing him in that pose, when Cloud had been really sick, and he was forced to look away for a moment.
His hands crinkled at the paper of the bag that he was still holding. "Oh, and... do you mind if I eat?" He was starting to get hungry, but he'd wait until after they were off the bus to have his breakfast if chowing down was going to make Cloud feel worse.
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The blond was starting to look a little green, but he turned his head up to address the other man's first question. He would have thought Aerith would have explained some of that, but apparently she'd been just as elusive about it with Zack as she had a tendency to be with other things. That meant it was up to him, and this really wasn't the best time, but there wasn't much else to discuss.
"Big journey?" He laughed lightly. "Is that what she said?" Cloud shifted until he was sitting upright, leaning his head back against the seat behind him. "I guess you could call it that. It wasn't just her, though - Tifa, Yuffie... Nanaki's here too, now. Red... he's not originally human."
There was really only one way to sum it up when it all came down to it. "...Sephiroth came back, Zack."
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Zack wasn't entirely sure of what was so funny, but he nodded in response to the question. Aerith hadn't gotten into too many details when they'd spoken, but that was partly due to the nurses breaking them up. On the other hand, the girl had a tendency to understate things. She'd kept the fact that she was the last of the Ancients from him, after all! He was sure he'd get more direct answers out of Cloud here.
So Yuffie had gone on this journey with them. As had Tifa. It was still so uncanny that they'd all found each other and decided to team up, but it also felt right somehow. Zack was just glad that things had worked out in one way or another after his death. He had no clue who Nanaki or Red were, but chances were that Cloud wasn't feeling well enough to realize that.
He was about to ask about it, but that was when Cloud dropped a bombshell the size of Heidegger. Zack paused mid-bite, and then slowly pulled the apple away from his mouth. His features hardened as he was struck by a combination of complex emotions. Sephiroth was the man he'd looked up to, but his betrayal had in some ways been the most painful of all.
It kind of figured, though. If anyone could come back from that, it would have been him. But with Cloud's tone, it was clear that Sephiroth's return was far from good. "Guess he just didn't want to lose to you, did he?" he asked quietly, almost calmly, as he stared at the seat in front of him. He wasn't sure of what else to say.
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Cloud shook his head again. Talking on this subject would help keep his focus elsewhere. "Originally, I'd just joined up with an anti-ShinRa group Tifa was a part of, but in the middle of our efforts to save the planet on an environmental level, we ran into greater problems." He swallowed. "Sephiroth murdered President ShinRa and stole the body of Jenova from the HQ. He wanted to destroy the world and make himself a god in the process."
There was so, so much more to it than that, but it would take a while to be able to relate all of it to his friend. Much of it he didn't want to tell at all, but at some point he'd need to. "That's what Aerith meant by an adventure. She joined up with our group in Midgar. I would rather she hadn't, but you know... she's very persistent."
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Hearing more about Sephiroth only served to sour Zack's mood. It had been one thing to have the memory of that one nigh in Nibelheim, floating around in his head. But to know that the former general had returned to do so much worse -- that his insanity had only worsened as time had gone by --
The comment about Aerith was a decent enough distraction; it gave him an out so he didn't have to try and vocalize his thoughts on Sephiroth, at least. With the way Cloud was talking, it sounded like the man had been put out of his misery once and for all, and that was one thing Zack could be grateful for. "Yeah, she definitely is," he said, though his tone wasn't quite as convincing as it could have been. Still, he wasn't surprised that Aerith had invited herself to go along with Cloud. After letting him leave only for him to never come back, Zack could see where she would be reluctant to let it happen again.
As much as he wanted to avoid it, though, Zack had to know for sure. He leaned forward in his seat slightly, trying to make eye contact with his friend. "You stopped him, right?"
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"Yeah." Cloud nodded with a little smile. "You know me... he never stood a chance." In the end, yes. His essence had broken apart into the lifestream. He was no longer a threat to the planet. What that had cost them, though... It was obvious that Aerith hadn't told him about her death. If she hadn't, then he wasn't going to mention it yet either. Not without her permission.
The destruction of Sector 7, the northern crater, the Weapons, Hojo... He'd tell him everything eventually, he was sure. He owed it to him. Little bits at a time, though. There was no need to overwhelm him, and certain things were going to be harder to take in than others.
The buses were coming to a stop now, and Cloud leaned forward to rest his head on the seat in front of him. "Go on ahead. I'll get out once my body gets more used to being stationary."
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"Sorry I wasn't there you give you a hand," he said sincerely. Zack would have loved to hang around and see Cloud really mature, but at the same time he wondered if his friend had gotten so strong because he hadn't been around. It was a headache to think about, but in the end he knew none of it could be changed, as much as he might wish for it.
It was enough of a miracle that he was sitting here and chatting with Cloud right now.
But that was when the bus stopped in town, and Cloud urged him to go on ahead. Zack frowned and hesitated for a moment, but it looked like his friend needed a moment to get his bearings. "All right. Feel better," he said, standing from his seat and giving Cloud's shoulder a quick squeeze. Now, to see what this Doyleton place was all about...
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