Horizon ~ Chapter One
Title: Horizon ~ Chapter One
Fandom: FF7, Last Order, Advent Children, Before Crisis / AU for different elements of the last two
Beta: The talented ladylore, who catches all my slips ^.^
Rating: Eh... PG-13 ish because of language
Notes: Well... ignoring the whole thing where this chapter is three times as long as I'd intended it to be (and darned if I don't anticipate the other chapters following this trend), it was fun to write. ^.^ Also, just as fair warning - updates on this story will be slower than molasses. It took me a month to get this out, and the other chapters will likely take as long. I have also developed an intense hate for putting italics into livejournal, which is unfortunate because they're necessary. ::shrugs:: Ah well. Win some, lose some, right? XD
Previous Chapter: Prologue
"There are some things you learn best in calm, and some in storm.” ~Willa Cather
Chapter One
“… and honestly, Zack, I cannot even begin to fathom why you have dragged me here with you.” The voice was calm, but with a hint of genuine bewilderment laced through it. Cloud lay back, listening to it from behind closed eyes. Zack… the name sounded familiar.
“It’s called moral support!” retorted a different voice. Where the first had been cool but friendly, this one blazed like a fire - warm, passionate, and wild. He had been right, Cloud decided, when he thought it sounded better when it wasn’t angry. Angry? When have I heard it angry?
“Besides,” the voice continued, “you’re good at stopping me when I’m about to really put my foot in it, and that’s something I’m going to need, and you would have met him sooner or later anyway, so it’s just as well-“
“I see.” The calmer voice again, amusement laced through it as it breezed through the air. Cloud snuggled deeper into the covers, feeling the soft pillow beneath his head. Covers? Soft pillow? We don’t have things like that in the barracks… Where on the Planet could I be? Cloud thought for a moment about trying to figure it out before letting the drowsy lethargy block such thoughts.
For a long moment, quiet reigned supreme. Then…
“Well?” The cooler voice, and Cloud could picture the expression that would go with the word even if he still hadn’t managed to put a face to sound, could see what was going through the man’s mind.
“Wha-? Oh, yeah, yeah, just trying to figure out how best to do this.” The fire voice, but muted somehow, drawn to a much more controlled blaze. Then it was back to a roaring blaze as it continued, “Well, no time like the present, right?”
A door swung open then, somewhere nearby, and Cloud debated opening his eyes, the thoughts of doing so sliding through his pleasantly hazy mind as he decided to ignore them. Footsteps approached, one set stopping farther away and the other coming closer. A clanking sound, and then pages being flipped as something squeaked across the floor to his right.
“Zack.” The first voice, cool and gentle, but closer now. Cloud smiled hazily at it. “They’ve got him on a combination of diazepam and morphine - you should probably wait until he’s coherent again before you try to tell him whatever it is you came here to say.”
“Hmm… yeah, I guess you’re right.” Something callused and cool brushed the hair that had been tickling his nose away before coming to rest on his forehead. A hand maybe? I don’t think a washcloth feels like that... He sighed contentedly, surprised by how pleasant it felt. It lingered there soothingly. All was still for a moment.
“We should probably let him rest.” The calmer voice, sounding vaguely expectant. He heard the clanking sound again, and the space where a response should have gone, only it dragged on in a way that felt too long. Still, Cloud couldn’t quite bring himself to care particularly much - not while that nice cool thing remained.
“This is all my fault.” Whose voice was that? It had sounded like the fire one, but the quality of it had changed so much that he couldn’t be sure. It sounds… sad, almost… I wonder who it is? They shouldn’t be sad… For the first time that day, he felt compelled to open his eyes.
“Yes, it is.” Quiet, almost reluctant. Cloud struggled against the million ton weights that weighed his eyelids down. Wonder what he looks like... He…? Yeah, he… Maybe tall? Hmmm… For all that he gave a valiant struggle, the weights remained as he heard an exasperated sigh.
“Listen,” said the fire voice, burning with just the tiniest sparkle of mischief, “I know you’re new to this whole moral support thing, so I’ll let that one slide. In the future, though, here’s what you do when someone asks you a question like that: you tell them that they couldn’t have known, or something nice and comforting like that.”
“…so you’re telling me to lie to you, or to others, for that matter?”
“No, that’s not what I meant!” Seemed like the burning voice hadn’t caught the sparkle of amusement in the other one. I wonder how… it seems so obvious to me… “Geez… I just meant… ah, screw it, I’ll explain it some other time.”
“As you will.” Satisfaction. That was definitely satisfaction. That he distracted the warmer voice…? Cloud concentrated twice as hard, growing steadily more curious as to what was on the other side of the dark veils obscuring his sight.
The cool hand brushed his forehead again, and it occurred to Cloud to be confused as to how someone who sounded so warm could be so chilly to the touch. At least, he thought it was the warmer voice touching him. If I could just get my eyes open, I would know! Still, they remained shut.
“We should let him rest, shouldn’t we?” Reluctance in the warm voice. The hand ran gently through his hair before the sound of scraping was heard and it pulled away. No, don’t… don’t stop… don’t leave… But then there were footsteps, heading away from him.
“Sleep well, kid.” The warm voice again, but further away then it had been. Cloud forced his eyes to open just in time to catch a glimpse of something long and silvery before the door shut, leaving him once again alone in the room.
Not… worth… it… Cloud let his eyes close once more, and then things seemed for a long time simply to drift…
“Cloud.” A voice calling, familiar and feminine. Someone’s hand on his shoulder, shaking him. Where’d they go? Where’s my pillow, this thing feels lumpier… Cloud shook his head as the arm continued to try to force him awake.
“Cloud! Wake up!” More insistent that time. It’s cold... His blanket seemed to be missing, too. He went to roll over, and hopefully to find a source of heat, but the hand upon his shoulder staunchly refused to let him. “It’s time to go! Wake up, Cloud! We need to go stop Sephiroth!”
Sephiroth?
Cloud’s eyes shot open, the weights that had been holding them shut suddenly gone. Above him, the red tint of the sky announced the approaching dawn. Beside him, a girl with long dark hair released his shoulder and rose to her feet. Tifa… Cloud shook his head once before sitting up.
“Finally.” Tifa said, watching as Cloud slowly stood. “I thought something had happened to you for a moment there. C’mon, the others are waiting for us!”
“Yeah, all right.” He replied. No wonder I thought it was cold… The Northern Crater, covered in snow, felt every bit as chilly now that he had woken as it had when he was half asleep. Cloud grabbed his satchel of supplies from the ground, where it had been doubling as his pillow, and tied it once more around his waist. The vision of his dream crossed his mind all the while.
Was that… a memory? One of… my memories? It didn’t seem impossible. His waking mind recalled all too clearly that one of the voices had been speaking with someone named Zack, and while Zack might have known another Zack, it didn’t make nearly as much sense as believing that this particular memory had been one of his own.
Sephiroth… that other voice belonged to Sephiroth, it must have! Did I… know Sephiroth? Zack… Zack knew Sephiroth, but did I? Hundreds of potential implications dashed their way across Cloud’s mind as he squinted into the morning sun, a view distorted by the hazily ominous glow of Meteor approaching. I…
Cloud reached for the memories of his time in Shinra and not for the first time met only with a blank empty space and a steadily growing sense of frustration.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Travel by boat had never really been Zack’s favourite. Boats rocked. They generally reeked. They meant being trapped in one place for a long period of time. Worse, his previous experience with boats had shown that not only were you trapped in one place, you were trapped with one group of people, generally at least one of whom you absolutely couldn’t stand; for instance, Scarlet, Heidigger, Rufus - pretty much all of the Shinra higher ups, actually.
Most of all, though, boats were just so damn SLOW!
Realistically, Zack had been lucky to find anyone willing to take him to the Northern Crater. With Meteor fast approaching, most people had decided to live it up for what little time remained. It had been just Zack’s luck that the couple who ran the air show had decided to spend their time in Mideel, taking the only airplane in the area with them. Bike, motorcycle, hell even just running - he’d considered them all, and nothing would get him to the Crater fast enough. Just as Zack had been debating how fast he’d have to swim to get there in time, his current host had approached him.
“Look,” she’d said at the end of a tense and somewhat suspicious conversation, Zack still expecting Shinra to show up for him any minute, “if you don’t come with me, you’ll never get there in time, and then we’re all screwed. That doesn’t work out so hot for me, so would you just come with me already?”
Logic like that was hard to argue with, and so Zack found himself feeling unendingly grateful that he’d never been prone to motion sickness.
Cloud…
Zack leaned back on the deck, staring at the sky above him as his friend’s namesakes floated above him, the approaching Meteor casting an ominous glow upon them. Is Cloud like that now? Something pure, twisted into something gruesome and threatening? Not for the first time, he cursed Hojo and the man’s demented sense of what was appropriate treatment of other living beings.
He remembered with terrible clarity what it had been like in the lab. Hojo had wanted Zack for experiments, wanted him specifically. He’d never have gone to Nibelheim, never have seen Cloud if it hadn’t been for Zack.
“You know, don’t you, Specimen Z, why it is that I’m experimenting on your friend and not on you?”
The words ghosted across his mind, and Zack shut his eyes to block out the images they created.
“It’s so simple, Z.”
The dark haired man reached up to adjust his glasses before grinning malevolently at him. Zack stared back, unable to move from his spot, floating in the midst of the Mako. He felt like he should be choking, but he couldn’t breathe to choke, Mako filtering in and out of his cells to keep him alive rather than air through his lungs. He wanted to reply, to snarl that it was as simple as Hojo’s own death would be when he got the chance, but could not move to do so.
“You’d be just as good a specimen, you know.” He smiled sinisterly, and Zack changed his mind. Hojo’s death would be slow if he got any say in it. “In a way, I suppose I should say you are just as good a specimen.”
“Yes,” Hojo continued, wandering around the tube in a way that left Zack feeling completely vulnerable. For a split second, gratitude flashed across his mind at the Mako, which made his small shudder invisible by stilling the motion. “Humans are such interesting creatures. The way you respond to his pain… it’s almost more interesting than the experiments I’ve done on him so far.”
Hojo turned his back on him, and grabbed a stack of files from the desk. He shuffled them into a neat pile before wandering slowly down the hall. Cloud… What was he doing to Cloud now…? The vacant tube of Mako beside Zack stared at him mockingly as the doctor stuck the files into the shelves on the wall and came back towards him. The door opened, and a pair of guards entered and took up positions at either side of it.
“Have those imbeciles managed to follow my instructions?” Hojo asked. Zack’s sense of apprehension grew.
“Sir, yes sir. Jenova has made contact with Specimen C,” replied one of the guards. Hojo looked delighted, a grin that could not entirely be called pleasant lighting his face. Smiling, he flipped a switch, the switch, and the Mako began to drain from the tubes.
Jenova made contact with Cloud? What on the Planet is that supposed to mean? At least it’s over for now, at least Cloud’s probably still alive… They wouldn’t bring him back in here to stuff in a Mako tube if he wasn’t, would they? Hojo isn’t that twisted - well, wait no, Hojo is that twisted but -
All thoughts were abruptly cut off as his blond friend was pulled back into the room.
Zack had seen Cloud look pretty bad before. Weeks, months - however long they’d been here, he really couldn’t be certain - but it had certainly been enough time for him to get a sense of how Cloud usually looked when he came back from “visiting” with Hojo. It had been bad. Most of the time, the blond would stumble in, or be half-dragged by the guards almost like the times when he’d been drunk and I was stumbling with him or dragging him but so different and so very wrong and pushed back into the tube. More than one occasion had seen him being carried back, conscious but obviously in too much pain to move. Zack had seen Cloud beaten, bruised, at various stages of the healing process, ashamed, embarrassed to his ears, furious with him beyond the telling, even unconscious, but none of that could remove the truth of the situation.
This was worse.
His eyes are empty. Cloud’s body hung limply between the two guards, a parody of perfect health save for the terrible vacancy in the glowing orbs that were his eyes. Horror spread across Zack’s face, and he hated himself for granting Hojo the satisfaction, but he could no more have stopped the reaction than he could have grown wings and flown away. The guards dragged Cloud closer to the tubes, and Zack reached for him without thinking.
What? The glass…?
Zack stumbled forward when his hand met no resistance, moving quickly towards Cloud. He threw his arms around the blond, pulling the shorter man protectively into his own grasp. Zack’s own strength, so recently sapped by the Mako, had not yet returned, though. They tumbled gracelessly to the floor, landing with a sharp thud that resounded in the quiet lab. Should have expected it, it’s always the same, never strong enough right away, knew it, knew it, stupid. Lying on the floor, his strength slowly gathering, Zack reached for Cloud again, grabbing the blond by the chin and forcing his face towards him. Sightless eyes stared at him without seeing, fixated on a point in the distance which Zack didn’t dare to contemplate.
“Come on, Chocobo Head, snap out of it.” Zack said, shaking his friend by the shoulders. Cloud’s head rolled limply in response, tilting backwards and forwards, following the movement of his shoulders. Where are you, Cloud? What did Hojo do, what can I - what did he do? The sound of a pen scratching across a page echoed in Zack’s ears as the blond before him remained silent.
“Interesting, Z, very interesting.” Shut up, asshole. Zack ignored the dark haired man behind him in favour of positioning Cloud so that he could ruffle his hair like he always did, attempting to draw one more disgruntled squawk from the blond at how undignified it was.
Hojo circled them slowly, all the while making notes on his chart, and Zack worked all the harder both to ignore him and to keep their faces angled away. Son of a bitch - Don’t know what you did to him, not sure I want to know, gonna kill you, gonna rip your throat out - Leave us alone, won’t give you the satisfaction, leave us alone, leave us alone! The ex-SOLDIER’s hand ran slowly through his friend’s hair now, stroking it in a soothing gesture like his mother used to do for him. Kid, kid, what am I going to do with you?
“Intriguing. You realize he won’t respond to you, but you keep attempting to get his attention.” Hojo’s voice grated ever more closely on Zack’s nerves, but he had become all too aware of their reality - of the guns pointed straight at them both, ready to destroy them in an instant if they moved too far.
Bastard. BASTARD! Get you one of these days, absolutely destroy you, you and your henchmen. Carefully, Zack forced his hands to remain steady, his body almost calm in appearance. Hojo wanted him tense, wanted him upset. Wouldn’t do to satisfy him, would it, kid? Kid, you’re such a mess…
“Release him, Z.” Zack glanced up then, saw the complete detachment on Hojo’s face. Bastard. Guns pointed at him, and Zack knew from experience that they would not hesitate to shoot him. After all, Hojo had long since found ways to patch him up from just about anything they could do to him. Zack released his friend’s body, refusing to betray by gesture or motion the reluctance with which it was done.
Hojo turned, and motioned towards the guards. “Take them to the cell.”
Cell…?
“Don’t worry, Z, nothing too unpleasant, I assure you.” Hojo said with a sickening smile. The two guards who had been dragging Cloud earlier grabbed him again, as the others focused their weapons on Zack. “C is too weak to handle anything more, and putting him in contact with substantial amounts of Mako so soon after connecting to Jenova could result in setbacks. Since it’s only fair for you to have the same accommodations, you’ll be sharing the alternative space with him.”
Liar. If you treated us equally, I’d be lying there next to him.
“Whatever you say, professor.” Zack replied, innocuously highlighting the word professor in a way that satisfied his envenomed belief that Hojo still envied Gast the title and acclaim the other scientist had earned. He shrugged in a forcedly casual way and allowed himself to be led.
The trip to the cell had been short - it had, in fact, been right down the hall, hidden carefully behind a rotating bookcase. Zack walked into the dark area, his own Mako bright eyes glowing and adjusting to the light. As they did so, he saw clearly for the first time that Cloud’s also glowed, his in the almost too-bright way that Sephiroth’s eyes once had.
“Sleep well.” Hojo said, and the door swung shut behind him. Zack allowed the forced mockery of cheer he’d sustained in front of the man to drop, glaring unabashedly at the door. He sprinted across the room to where the guards had left Cloud, grabbing him by the shoulders and holding him upright.
“Cloud, you all right, buddy?” he asked, his voice tighter and slightly more tense than he had meant it to be, but what does that matter, with Hojo far away? “Come on, buddy, look at me for a second here. I need you to focus, okay?”
Cloud’s head lolled limply, and Zack realized in an instant that his desperate hopes that Cloud had been faking something to catch a break from Hojo would not be fulfilled. He steadied the blond against the far wall, crouching beside him, and lifted his chin gently. His younger friend had clearly been pumped full of more Mako than was healthy. The Mako poisoning, though, was nothing new. Cloud had been pretty out of it since they’d gotten here, and in some respects Zack was grateful for that. Oblivion hurt less than awareness.
“All right, let’s try this.” Zack said when the vacant eyes began to become too much for him. “Blink, Cloud. Just close your eyes for a second so that I know you’re still there. We made a deal, and damned if I’m not gonna hold you to it, so let me know you’re with me, okay?”
The seconds stretched hideously long, and then…
Blink.
“Great work there, Chocobo Head.” Zack said, hiding a sigh of relief by releasing Cloud’s chin and stretching. “All right. I guess Hojo really did a number on you this time, so I’ll tell you a story while you come back from wherever it is you’ve gone. Did I ever tell you about the first time Seph and I went on a mission together?”
Time blurred, and Zack found suddenly that he had no idea what he’d been talking about any more, that his throat hurt and his voice was hoarse. His shoulder was fast approaching numb from the weight of Cloud’s head upon it, the arm wrapped around the blond’s shoulders growing stiff and the other nearing exhaustion from his wild gesticulation. It was worth it, though, when Cloud’s head moved along his shoulder of its owner’s own accord.
“Zack.” Definitely worth it. Zack’s smile felt brighter, even to himself, when the blond spoke as he paused to take a breath. Grinning, he turned to face the younger man.
“What’s on your mind, Chocobo Head?” He replied.
“Zaa-ack.” The dark haired man burst into laughter at the twist of annoyance in the blond man’s voice, his fears of the blond’s potentially prolonged catatonia assuaged for the moment. Cloud seemed to be having slight problems catching his breath, almost coughing when he spoke his friend’s name before unsteadily gathering more air.
“All right, all right, I’m just teasing you.” Zack said, turning so that he was once more crouched in front of Cloud. It was easier to see the blond that way, easier to look at him now that his eyes had regained a bit of their spark. He smiled, and waited patiently.
“Zack… if I… if I…” Cloud paused, seemingly unsure of the words. He took a slow deep breath, and continued, “if I… like Sephiroth, if I… you have -“
“No!” The dark haired man cut his friend off vehemently and stood, stalking across the small space like an aggrieved cat. He paced the length of the room before whirling on the blond. “You’re not going to ask me that, Cloud. You’re not!”
“Zack-“
“NO!” He shook his head, raking a hand through long dark hair. “You know there was a reason he asked that of us, but there’s no reason for you to ask me to do the same for you. None! It won’t happen!”
“Then promise…” The voice was soft, and Zack found his own eyes drawn by an irresistible force towards the pair of glowing light blue ones that stared straight at him, alert, awake, and alive. He tried to turn away, but couldn’t move his head. “Promise…”
Zack felt tempted for a moment, seriously tempted, to cut the blond off again. If he promised it wouldn’t happen, that he wouldn’t let it happen, maybe that would be enough. Cloud was weak now, wouldn’t have the energy to protest. But I don’t know if I can keep that promise… The thought staggered him, and Zack resisted the urge to look away.
“Kill me…” Cloud said, too quietly, his eyes bright and aware. “If I… like Sephiroth… promise… kill me.”
“Cloud…”
“Promise!”
The unexpected feel of a hand on his shoulder jolted Zack sharply from his reminiscence, and he began to reach for a weapon before realizing that not only was he not wearing it, but he actually had no need for it.
“You all right?” The owner of the boat asked, eyeing him nervously.
“Yeah, yeah, I’m fine.” Zack replied, ignoring the blood singing in his veins, pounding sharply in his ears. “No worries. What’s up?”
“Just thought you’d want to know that we’re getting close.” She pointed to the opposite side of the ship, where Zack could now clearly see the outline of the Northern Continent. “Shouldn’t be more than a day or so now.”
“Great.” Zack replied, flashing her a smile as he took a deep breath and settled back against the deck. “Thanks.”
She nodded back, and walked away. Won’t be long now. Zack closed his eyes and soaked up the still warm sunlight. Don’t worry, Cloud.
I promise.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Midgar lay in shambles. The city had been all but destroyed by the Weapon’s attack, especially after the Plate had fallen. Some sections of the city had been completely crushed, while others had managed to survive with only some damage. The people of the city had, for the most part, been spared. Early sightings of Weapon’s approach had driven most of them away long before it had actually arrived, avoiding a greater loss of life than would have occurred. Even now, they had begun returning, picking up their lives from where they had left off. As it was, only the diehards who refused to leave had actually met their fate that day.
Stubbornness was never one of Rufus’s more attractive traits.
Turks had cursed the height of the Shinra building for ages. The only way to have a building that tall without it being a complete fire hazard involved more staircases than could feasibly be patrolled, and cameras were notoriously easy to circumvent. It had been seen as a security risk, as a likely cause of assassination attempts, and had increased paranoia for years.
Now, though, it was the only reason the last Shinra might still be alive, and isn’t there something entirely ironic about that - a security nightmare keeping a Shinra alive.
When the Plate had fallen, it had tilted. The top of Shinra tower had started to fall back towards Kalm, while the Plate supports on the ocean side of the tower collapsed under Weapon’s attack. The downward shift of the ocean side had lifted the Kalm side of the Plate, bringing it up quickly to meet Shinra tower. The Plate had been falling by the time it hit the tower, but the important part was the slanted angle at which it had hit, decreasing the overall velocity of the tower’s fall by providing an upward force that, however temporarily, slowed the effects of gravity. The executive suite, farthest from the pivot point that was the base of the tower, had received the most benefit from the impact. Moreover, the tower’s height had contributed to the potential salvation of its executive by allowing the lower floors to absorb most of the crumbling force even as the Kalm side edge of the Plate steadied the building from complete collapse.
Janice’s report from the helicopter confirmed that the executive suite still seemed somewhat intact.
“It looks like it landed on top of the north part of sector five,” she said, her voice fading a bit because of the poor reception that the PHS was unsurprisingly producing. “One side of it is smashed in, but the other side looks pretty unscathed. There’s definitely still a chance that he’s alive. You need to - ”
“Yeah, yeah, we got it.” Reno replied lackadaisically, running a hand through his hair. “We got it covered, right, Rude?”
The bald man stared at him from behind his dark sunglasses, saying nothing, and Reno shrugged. Elena stood beside him, anxiety written across her face.
“We got it.” Reno repeated.
“All right, then we’ll leave it to you!” Janice answered. In the background, he could hear the whirring blades of the chopper for a brief moment before the sound abruptly cut off as she hung up. Reno clicked off his PHS and put it away, glancing idly at the large number 5 painted on the wall behind him.
“Seems the president is just a little north of here.” He commented casually to his companions. Rufus, you asshole, if you’re dead, I’ll find a way to bring you back so I can kill you myself. Reno hoisted his nightstick to his shoulder and turned to face them. “Let’s go.”
“Do they know if he’s alive?” Elena asked, her face drained of color, and Reno carefully restrained himself from cursing all the generations of the Shinra line. He could make it through the first ten without too many problems, but after that the insults had to get creative. Man, she’s still a kid… what a mess this all is.
“He’s Shinra - they’re kinda like cockroaches, you know - pretty hard to kill.” Unless you’ve got a good boot heel - but she doesn’t need to know that. Rude nodded affirmatively.
“Hey, don’t speak about the president that way!” Elena protested, an angry flush rushing into her face. She’s angry, and that’s good. At least if she’s angry, she’ll forget to worry. Reno didn’t bother replying as he turned and started walking. “Just because he’s not here doesn’t mean that you should say things like that about our boss!”
The blonde darted around him, glaring as she walked backwards hastily in order not to slow the pace of their mission. Her blue eyes were lit with fierce determination. Rude walked easily to his side, his long legs quickly making up the distance that Elena had had to fight to obtain, then easing back to the same pace that Reno himself was setting.
“You talk too much, Elena.” Reno replied with a shake of his head.
“I do not!” Elena said, glancing behind her to make sure that the path was clear before fixing him with a heated stare. “And that reminds me! Was it really all right to just let Avalanche go?”
Cloud Strife.
“You defied a direct order while we were on company time! Tseng is going to have a field day when he finds out, never mind what the president will say!” She didn’t stop there, but that was right about the time that Reno stopped listening to her and concentrated on walking just fast enough that she wouldn’t think he was slowing down for her but also wouldn’t trip herself.
The shadows created by the noontime sun had a reddish cast that day. How appropriate - Midgar looking like the hell that it is. Meteor was steadily approaching. Soon, nothing would be able to stop it. It might even have already been too late.
Strife, you gotta stop that son of a bitch Sephiroth if any of us are ever gonna make it through this. You gotta -
Reno’s attention jolted back to reality as his head jolted sharply to one side, the sunglasses he had been wearing breaking at the ear piece.
“Damn it, Elena, what was that for?” He snarled, shaking his head as he pulled the glasses off and eyed them speculatively. They had been a decent pair, one of the few he had found that looked cool without hiding his tattoos. After regarding them for a moment, he tossed them into a nearby pile of the rubbish that simply sat upon the streets these days.
Damn. Gonna be a bitch to find a new pair like those, isn’t it?
“You’re not even pretending to listen, Reno!” She railed at him, crossing her arms across her chest and turning her back upon him. “This is serious, here. You could be executed for pulling a stunt like that.”
“Look, Elena - just chill, all right?” Reno eyed the ominous horizon as he kept heading north. He continued in a careless voice as he closed his eyes, sauntering after her. “Either Strife stops Sephiroth and Meteor doesn’t fall, or he doesn’t and we all die. Either way I’m good - not gonna kill me for letting the man save the world, are they? Doesn’t much matter the other way, right, Ru- oof! What the hell, Elena?”
Elena had frozen in her tracks, which had naturally caused Reno to walk straight into her. He ran a hand lazily through his hair as he looked up to see what had her startled, and sure enough, there it was.
Rufus.
The executive suite looked much different when viewed at eye height through the windows then it ever had while standing inside it or circling it in a helicopter. Not that the windows themselves were there - the glass was gone. There, in the middle of a heap of rubble, sticking up slightly, the red light fell upon white fabric that had not yet faded to the gray around it.
“Let’s go!” Rude shouted, dashing towards the spot, and Reno said a quick prayer to the gods he didn’t believe in as he ran after his partner, Elena close behind.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Cid carefully shielded his cigarette from the wind as he tried once more to light it. If the world ended today, he sure didn’t want to miss his last chance at a smoke.
“Damn wind!” He cursed violently as a particularly strong gust blew out the tiny flame before he could bring it into contact with his cigarette. Sighing, he reached in his pocket for the matchbook and went to strike another match. It lit for a moment, flickered oddly and would have gone out had not the window suddenly ceased to blow. Surprised, Cid looked around.
“It would have gone out again.” The raven haired man whose long red cloak was raised in front of Cid as a wind shield said disinterestedly. Grinning, Cid nodded his appreciation and hurriedly lit his cigarette. Vincent nodded, dropped his cloak, and turned away. Man, that guy is weird. Blissfully, Cid drew in a breath.
There really is nothing quite like a cigarette when a man is about to die.
He took a long drag off the cigarette, turning to look at the rest of this crazy group he’d somehow joined. The big cat had curled up in the one corner that didn’t seem to be getting much wind. The ninja girl sat beside him, petting him until he looked ready to bite her. Just as the kitty’s patience started to wear thin, she withdrew her hand and laughed at him. Mr. Vampire and Gun Arm stared unblinkingly at each other across the fire, though neither seemed to really be all there. Not that either of them is usually all there, but that’s not the point… The-well, Cid didn’t really know what to call it-robot thing merely sat there, and Cid found himself almost wistfully wishing the other two members of their party would get up and join them so they could get this over with already. Slowly, his attention turned to the large cavern to his right.
Sephiroth is in there. The knowledge of it made him shiver, glad of the cold as an excuse to cover should anyone ask. If we go down, we’ll go down fighting. Maybe we’ll even take him down with us… Eight on one certainly puts the odds in our favour, even if it is Sephiroth. Tifa ran over the crest of the hill, Cloud following behind, and Cid shook away the thoughts. We’re strong enough… We’ll manage, somehow, to be tough enough for this… though it kill us all, the Planet will survive.
“This is the center of the Planet…?” Cloud’s soft tenor said as he approached the entrance. His eyes glowed in an odd way that couldn’t have just been the Mako in them, and suddenly Cid found himself thinking about how much older he himself was than the rest of them.
“We finally made it here.” Nanaki replied, stretching and rising to his… paws. He shook the snow loose from his fur and joined the growing circle around the fire. Cid took one final drag from his cigarette and tried to ignore the growing unease he felt.
“Let’s just get this over with!” He interjected, dropping the remains of his smoke to the ground and grinding it under his heel. Planet’ll forgive me if we save it, and if we don’t it won’t matter anyway.
Vincent snorted, and Cid turned to glare at him. He stopped, though, when something caught his eye. Is he…? The corners of the man’s mouth had turned upward slightly, and Cid couldn’t help but think that for the first time since they’d met the man he might actually be smiling.
“Being with you all is not so bad,” he said, and Cid found himself oddly pleased to be in the man’s good regard. Then again, at the end of the world, what really matters? He turned sharply away.
“Awright, this is the last dance!” Cid didn’t even need to look to know that gun arm boy was doing his dance, psyching himself up for what was to come. Does he not get it? Do any of them really understand?
“This is it!” Her voice was heartbreakingly sweet, young and still fairly innocent.
“Well…” So the robot was active again. “Shall we get going?”
Cid turned back to face the group. Slowly, their leader faced each one of them in turn, waiting until they nodded in expression of their own readiness before tipping his own head sharply.
“All right everyone, let’s mosey!” Innocent… far too innocent, and far too young…
“Damn! Again!” Cid swore, the others all turning to look at him. “Stop sayin’ it like a wimp! Can’t you say ‘Move out!’ or somethin’?”
Cloud raised a hand to scratch the back of his head, the vaguely childish gesture of embarrassment drilling home just who had been chosen to save the world. He was grateful when the boy nodded, and stood straighter. Suddenly, the man Cid had chosen to follow looked much older than his mere 21 years would suggest, and Cid was thankful for it.
“Move out!” he said, complete with dramatic gesture as he spun to face the cavern once more, his sword glinting in the morning light as he headed into the darkness. Crossing his fingers and looking for what might be the final time at the light of the sun, Cid grabbed his lance and followed.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Next Chapter
Fandom: FF7, Last Order, Advent Children, Before Crisis / AU for different elements of the last two
Beta: The talented ladylore, who catches all my slips ^.^
Rating: Eh... PG-13 ish because of language
Notes: Well... ignoring the whole thing where this chapter is three times as long as I'd intended it to be (and darned if I don't anticipate the other chapters following this trend), it was fun to write. ^.^ Also, just as fair warning - updates on this story will be slower than molasses. It took me a month to get this out, and the other chapters will likely take as long. I have also developed an intense hate for putting italics into livejournal, which is unfortunate because they're necessary. ::shrugs:: Ah well. Win some, lose some, right? XD
Previous Chapter: Prologue
"There are some things you learn best in calm, and some in storm.” ~Willa Cather
Chapter One
“… and honestly, Zack, I cannot even begin to fathom why you have dragged me here with you.” The voice was calm, but with a hint of genuine bewilderment laced through it. Cloud lay back, listening to it from behind closed eyes. Zack… the name sounded familiar.
“It’s called moral support!” retorted a different voice. Where the first had been cool but friendly, this one blazed like a fire - warm, passionate, and wild. He had been right, Cloud decided, when he thought it sounded better when it wasn’t angry. Angry? When have I heard it angry?
“Besides,” the voice continued, “you’re good at stopping me when I’m about to really put my foot in it, and that’s something I’m going to need, and you would have met him sooner or later anyway, so it’s just as well-“
“I see.” The calmer voice again, amusement laced through it as it breezed through the air. Cloud snuggled deeper into the covers, feeling the soft pillow beneath his head. Covers? Soft pillow? We don’t have things like that in the barracks… Where on the Planet could I be? Cloud thought for a moment about trying to figure it out before letting the drowsy lethargy block such thoughts.
For a long moment, quiet reigned supreme. Then…
“Well?” The cooler voice, and Cloud could picture the expression that would go with the word even if he still hadn’t managed to put a face to sound, could see what was going through the man’s mind.
“Wha-? Oh, yeah, yeah, just trying to figure out how best to do this.” The fire voice, but muted somehow, drawn to a much more controlled blaze. Then it was back to a roaring blaze as it continued, “Well, no time like the present, right?”
A door swung open then, somewhere nearby, and Cloud debated opening his eyes, the thoughts of doing so sliding through his pleasantly hazy mind as he decided to ignore them. Footsteps approached, one set stopping farther away and the other coming closer. A clanking sound, and then pages being flipped as something squeaked across the floor to his right.
“Zack.” The first voice, cool and gentle, but closer now. Cloud smiled hazily at it. “They’ve got him on a combination of diazepam and morphine - you should probably wait until he’s coherent again before you try to tell him whatever it is you came here to say.”
“Hmm… yeah, I guess you’re right.” Something callused and cool brushed the hair that had been tickling his nose away before coming to rest on his forehead. A hand maybe? I don’t think a washcloth feels like that... He sighed contentedly, surprised by how pleasant it felt. It lingered there soothingly. All was still for a moment.
“We should probably let him rest.” The calmer voice, sounding vaguely expectant. He heard the clanking sound again, and the space where a response should have gone, only it dragged on in a way that felt too long. Still, Cloud couldn’t quite bring himself to care particularly much - not while that nice cool thing remained.
“This is all my fault.” Whose voice was that? It had sounded like the fire one, but the quality of it had changed so much that he couldn’t be sure. It sounds… sad, almost… I wonder who it is? They shouldn’t be sad… For the first time that day, he felt compelled to open his eyes.
“Yes, it is.” Quiet, almost reluctant. Cloud struggled against the million ton weights that weighed his eyelids down. Wonder what he looks like... He…? Yeah, he… Maybe tall? Hmmm… For all that he gave a valiant struggle, the weights remained as he heard an exasperated sigh.
“Listen,” said the fire voice, burning with just the tiniest sparkle of mischief, “I know you’re new to this whole moral support thing, so I’ll let that one slide. In the future, though, here’s what you do when someone asks you a question like that: you tell them that they couldn’t have known, or something nice and comforting like that.”
“…so you’re telling me to lie to you, or to others, for that matter?”
“No, that’s not what I meant!” Seemed like the burning voice hadn’t caught the sparkle of amusement in the other one. I wonder how… it seems so obvious to me… “Geez… I just meant… ah, screw it, I’ll explain it some other time.”
“As you will.” Satisfaction. That was definitely satisfaction. That he distracted the warmer voice…? Cloud concentrated twice as hard, growing steadily more curious as to what was on the other side of the dark veils obscuring his sight.
The cool hand brushed his forehead again, and it occurred to Cloud to be confused as to how someone who sounded so warm could be so chilly to the touch. At least, he thought it was the warmer voice touching him. If I could just get my eyes open, I would know! Still, they remained shut.
“We should let him rest, shouldn’t we?” Reluctance in the warm voice. The hand ran gently through his hair before the sound of scraping was heard and it pulled away. No, don’t… don’t stop… don’t leave… But then there were footsteps, heading away from him.
“Sleep well, kid.” The warm voice again, but further away then it had been. Cloud forced his eyes to open just in time to catch a glimpse of something long and silvery before the door shut, leaving him once again alone in the room.
Not… worth… it… Cloud let his eyes close once more, and then things seemed for a long time simply to drift…
“Cloud.” A voice calling, familiar and feminine. Someone’s hand on his shoulder, shaking him. Where’d they go? Where’s my pillow, this thing feels lumpier… Cloud shook his head as the arm continued to try to force him awake.
“Cloud! Wake up!” More insistent that time. It’s cold... His blanket seemed to be missing, too. He went to roll over, and hopefully to find a source of heat, but the hand upon his shoulder staunchly refused to let him. “It’s time to go! Wake up, Cloud! We need to go stop Sephiroth!”
Sephiroth?
Cloud’s eyes shot open, the weights that had been holding them shut suddenly gone. Above him, the red tint of the sky announced the approaching dawn. Beside him, a girl with long dark hair released his shoulder and rose to her feet. Tifa… Cloud shook his head once before sitting up.
“Finally.” Tifa said, watching as Cloud slowly stood. “I thought something had happened to you for a moment there. C’mon, the others are waiting for us!”
“Yeah, all right.” He replied. No wonder I thought it was cold… The Northern Crater, covered in snow, felt every bit as chilly now that he had woken as it had when he was half asleep. Cloud grabbed his satchel of supplies from the ground, where it had been doubling as his pillow, and tied it once more around his waist. The vision of his dream crossed his mind all the while.
Was that… a memory? One of… my memories? It didn’t seem impossible. His waking mind recalled all too clearly that one of the voices had been speaking with someone named Zack, and while Zack might have known another Zack, it didn’t make nearly as much sense as believing that this particular memory had been one of his own.
Sephiroth… that other voice belonged to Sephiroth, it must have! Did I… know Sephiroth? Zack… Zack knew Sephiroth, but did I? Hundreds of potential implications dashed their way across Cloud’s mind as he squinted into the morning sun, a view distorted by the hazily ominous glow of Meteor approaching. I…
Cloud reached for the memories of his time in Shinra and not for the first time met only with a blank empty space and a steadily growing sense of frustration.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Travel by boat had never really been Zack’s favourite. Boats rocked. They generally reeked. They meant being trapped in one place for a long period of time. Worse, his previous experience with boats had shown that not only were you trapped in one place, you were trapped with one group of people, generally at least one of whom you absolutely couldn’t stand; for instance, Scarlet, Heidigger, Rufus - pretty much all of the Shinra higher ups, actually.
Most of all, though, boats were just so damn SLOW!
Realistically, Zack had been lucky to find anyone willing to take him to the Northern Crater. With Meteor fast approaching, most people had decided to live it up for what little time remained. It had been just Zack’s luck that the couple who ran the air show had decided to spend their time in Mideel, taking the only airplane in the area with them. Bike, motorcycle, hell even just running - he’d considered them all, and nothing would get him to the Crater fast enough. Just as Zack had been debating how fast he’d have to swim to get there in time, his current host had approached him.
“Look,” she’d said at the end of a tense and somewhat suspicious conversation, Zack still expecting Shinra to show up for him any minute, “if you don’t come with me, you’ll never get there in time, and then we’re all screwed. That doesn’t work out so hot for me, so would you just come with me already?”
Logic like that was hard to argue with, and so Zack found himself feeling unendingly grateful that he’d never been prone to motion sickness.
Cloud…
Zack leaned back on the deck, staring at the sky above him as his friend’s namesakes floated above him, the approaching Meteor casting an ominous glow upon them. Is Cloud like that now? Something pure, twisted into something gruesome and threatening? Not for the first time, he cursed Hojo and the man’s demented sense of what was appropriate treatment of other living beings.
He remembered with terrible clarity what it had been like in the lab. Hojo had wanted Zack for experiments, wanted him specifically. He’d never have gone to Nibelheim, never have seen Cloud if it hadn’t been for Zack.
“You know, don’t you, Specimen Z, why it is that I’m experimenting on your friend and not on you?”
The words ghosted across his mind, and Zack shut his eyes to block out the images they created.
“It’s so simple, Z.”
The dark haired man reached up to adjust his glasses before grinning malevolently at him. Zack stared back, unable to move from his spot, floating in the midst of the Mako. He felt like he should be choking, but he couldn’t breathe to choke, Mako filtering in and out of his cells to keep him alive rather than air through his lungs. He wanted to reply, to snarl that it was as simple as Hojo’s own death would be when he got the chance, but could not move to do so.
“You’d be just as good a specimen, you know.” He smiled sinisterly, and Zack changed his mind. Hojo’s death would be slow if he got any say in it. “In a way, I suppose I should say you are just as good a specimen.”
“Yes,” Hojo continued, wandering around the tube in a way that left Zack feeling completely vulnerable. For a split second, gratitude flashed across his mind at the Mako, which made his small shudder invisible by stilling the motion. “Humans are such interesting creatures. The way you respond to his pain… it’s almost more interesting than the experiments I’ve done on him so far.”
Hojo turned his back on him, and grabbed a stack of files from the desk. He shuffled them into a neat pile before wandering slowly down the hall. Cloud… What was he doing to Cloud now…? The vacant tube of Mako beside Zack stared at him mockingly as the doctor stuck the files into the shelves on the wall and came back towards him. The door opened, and a pair of guards entered and took up positions at either side of it.
“Have those imbeciles managed to follow my instructions?” Hojo asked. Zack’s sense of apprehension grew.
“Sir, yes sir. Jenova has made contact with Specimen C,” replied one of the guards. Hojo looked delighted, a grin that could not entirely be called pleasant lighting his face. Smiling, he flipped a switch, the switch, and the Mako began to drain from the tubes.
Jenova made contact with Cloud? What on the Planet is that supposed to mean? At least it’s over for now, at least Cloud’s probably still alive… They wouldn’t bring him back in here to stuff in a Mako tube if he wasn’t, would they? Hojo isn’t that twisted - well, wait no, Hojo is that twisted but -
All thoughts were abruptly cut off as his blond friend was pulled back into the room.
Zack had seen Cloud look pretty bad before. Weeks, months - however long they’d been here, he really couldn’t be certain - but it had certainly been enough time for him to get a sense of how Cloud usually looked when he came back from “visiting” with Hojo. It had been bad. Most of the time, the blond would stumble in, or be half-dragged by the guards almost like the times when he’d been drunk and I was stumbling with him or dragging him but so different and so very wrong and pushed back into the tube. More than one occasion had seen him being carried back, conscious but obviously in too much pain to move. Zack had seen Cloud beaten, bruised, at various stages of the healing process, ashamed, embarrassed to his ears, furious with him beyond the telling, even unconscious, but none of that could remove the truth of the situation.
This was worse.
His eyes are empty. Cloud’s body hung limply between the two guards, a parody of perfect health save for the terrible vacancy in the glowing orbs that were his eyes. Horror spread across Zack’s face, and he hated himself for granting Hojo the satisfaction, but he could no more have stopped the reaction than he could have grown wings and flown away. The guards dragged Cloud closer to the tubes, and Zack reached for him without thinking.
What? The glass…?
Zack stumbled forward when his hand met no resistance, moving quickly towards Cloud. He threw his arms around the blond, pulling the shorter man protectively into his own grasp. Zack’s own strength, so recently sapped by the Mako, had not yet returned, though. They tumbled gracelessly to the floor, landing with a sharp thud that resounded in the quiet lab. Should have expected it, it’s always the same, never strong enough right away, knew it, knew it, stupid. Lying on the floor, his strength slowly gathering, Zack reached for Cloud again, grabbing the blond by the chin and forcing his face towards him. Sightless eyes stared at him without seeing, fixated on a point in the distance which Zack didn’t dare to contemplate.
“Come on, Chocobo Head, snap out of it.” Zack said, shaking his friend by the shoulders. Cloud’s head rolled limply in response, tilting backwards and forwards, following the movement of his shoulders. Where are you, Cloud? What did Hojo do, what can I - what did he do? The sound of a pen scratching across a page echoed in Zack’s ears as the blond before him remained silent.
“Interesting, Z, very interesting.” Shut up, asshole. Zack ignored the dark haired man behind him in favour of positioning Cloud so that he could ruffle his hair like he always did, attempting to draw one more disgruntled squawk from the blond at how undignified it was.
Hojo circled them slowly, all the while making notes on his chart, and Zack worked all the harder both to ignore him and to keep their faces angled away. Son of a bitch - Don’t know what you did to him, not sure I want to know, gonna kill you, gonna rip your throat out - Leave us alone, won’t give you the satisfaction, leave us alone, leave us alone! The ex-SOLDIER’s hand ran slowly through his friend’s hair now, stroking it in a soothing gesture like his mother used to do for him. Kid, kid, what am I going to do with you?
“Intriguing. You realize he won’t respond to you, but you keep attempting to get his attention.” Hojo’s voice grated ever more closely on Zack’s nerves, but he had become all too aware of their reality - of the guns pointed straight at them both, ready to destroy them in an instant if they moved too far.
Bastard. BASTARD! Get you one of these days, absolutely destroy you, you and your henchmen. Carefully, Zack forced his hands to remain steady, his body almost calm in appearance. Hojo wanted him tense, wanted him upset. Wouldn’t do to satisfy him, would it, kid? Kid, you’re such a mess…
“Release him, Z.” Zack glanced up then, saw the complete detachment on Hojo’s face. Bastard. Guns pointed at him, and Zack knew from experience that they would not hesitate to shoot him. After all, Hojo had long since found ways to patch him up from just about anything they could do to him. Zack released his friend’s body, refusing to betray by gesture or motion the reluctance with which it was done.
Hojo turned, and motioned towards the guards. “Take them to the cell.”
Cell…?
“Don’t worry, Z, nothing too unpleasant, I assure you.” Hojo said with a sickening smile. The two guards who had been dragging Cloud earlier grabbed him again, as the others focused their weapons on Zack. “C is too weak to handle anything more, and putting him in contact with substantial amounts of Mako so soon after connecting to Jenova could result in setbacks. Since it’s only fair for you to have the same accommodations, you’ll be sharing the alternative space with him.”
Liar. If you treated us equally, I’d be lying there next to him.
“Whatever you say, professor.” Zack replied, innocuously highlighting the word professor in a way that satisfied his envenomed belief that Hojo still envied Gast the title and acclaim the other scientist had earned. He shrugged in a forcedly casual way and allowed himself to be led.
The trip to the cell had been short - it had, in fact, been right down the hall, hidden carefully behind a rotating bookcase. Zack walked into the dark area, his own Mako bright eyes glowing and adjusting to the light. As they did so, he saw clearly for the first time that Cloud’s also glowed, his in the almost too-bright way that Sephiroth’s eyes once had.
“Sleep well.” Hojo said, and the door swung shut behind him. Zack allowed the forced mockery of cheer he’d sustained in front of the man to drop, glaring unabashedly at the door. He sprinted across the room to where the guards had left Cloud, grabbing him by the shoulders and holding him upright.
“Cloud, you all right, buddy?” he asked, his voice tighter and slightly more tense than he had meant it to be, but what does that matter, with Hojo far away? “Come on, buddy, look at me for a second here. I need you to focus, okay?”
Cloud’s head lolled limply, and Zack realized in an instant that his desperate hopes that Cloud had been faking something to catch a break from Hojo would not be fulfilled. He steadied the blond against the far wall, crouching beside him, and lifted his chin gently. His younger friend had clearly been pumped full of more Mako than was healthy. The Mako poisoning, though, was nothing new. Cloud had been pretty out of it since they’d gotten here, and in some respects Zack was grateful for that. Oblivion hurt less than awareness.
“All right, let’s try this.” Zack said when the vacant eyes began to become too much for him. “Blink, Cloud. Just close your eyes for a second so that I know you’re still there. We made a deal, and damned if I’m not gonna hold you to it, so let me know you’re with me, okay?”
The seconds stretched hideously long, and then…
Blink.
“Great work there, Chocobo Head.” Zack said, hiding a sigh of relief by releasing Cloud’s chin and stretching. “All right. I guess Hojo really did a number on you this time, so I’ll tell you a story while you come back from wherever it is you’ve gone. Did I ever tell you about the first time Seph and I went on a mission together?”
Time blurred, and Zack found suddenly that he had no idea what he’d been talking about any more, that his throat hurt and his voice was hoarse. His shoulder was fast approaching numb from the weight of Cloud’s head upon it, the arm wrapped around the blond’s shoulders growing stiff and the other nearing exhaustion from his wild gesticulation. It was worth it, though, when Cloud’s head moved along his shoulder of its owner’s own accord.
“Zack.” Definitely worth it. Zack’s smile felt brighter, even to himself, when the blond spoke as he paused to take a breath. Grinning, he turned to face the younger man.
“What’s on your mind, Chocobo Head?” He replied.
“Zaa-ack.” The dark haired man burst into laughter at the twist of annoyance in the blond man’s voice, his fears of the blond’s potentially prolonged catatonia assuaged for the moment. Cloud seemed to be having slight problems catching his breath, almost coughing when he spoke his friend’s name before unsteadily gathering more air.
“All right, all right, I’m just teasing you.” Zack said, turning so that he was once more crouched in front of Cloud. It was easier to see the blond that way, easier to look at him now that his eyes had regained a bit of their spark. He smiled, and waited patiently.
“Zack… if I… if I…” Cloud paused, seemingly unsure of the words. He took a slow deep breath, and continued, “if I… like Sephiroth, if I… you have -“
“No!” The dark haired man cut his friend off vehemently and stood, stalking across the small space like an aggrieved cat. He paced the length of the room before whirling on the blond. “You’re not going to ask me that, Cloud. You’re not!”
“Zack-“
“NO!” He shook his head, raking a hand through long dark hair. “You know there was a reason he asked that of us, but there’s no reason for you to ask me to do the same for you. None! It won’t happen!”
“Then promise…” The voice was soft, and Zack found his own eyes drawn by an irresistible force towards the pair of glowing light blue ones that stared straight at him, alert, awake, and alive. He tried to turn away, but couldn’t move his head. “Promise…”
Zack felt tempted for a moment, seriously tempted, to cut the blond off again. If he promised it wouldn’t happen, that he wouldn’t let it happen, maybe that would be enough. Cloud was weak now, wouldn’t have the energy to protest. But I don’t know if I can keep that promise… The thought staggered him, and Zack resisted the urge to look away.
“Kill me…” Cloud said, too quietly, his eyes bright and aware. “If I… like Sephiroth… promise… kill me.”
“Cloud…”
“Promise!”
The unexpected feel of a hand on his shoulder jolted Zack sharply from his reminiscence, and he began to reach for a weapon before realizing that not only was he not wearing it, but he actually had no need for it.
“You all right?” The owner of the boat asked, eyeing him nervously.
“Yeah, yeah, I’m fine.” Zack replied, ignoring the blood singing in his veins, pounding sharply in his ears. “No worries. What’s up?”
“Just thought you’d want to know that we’re getting close.” She pointed to the opposite side of the ship, where Zack could now clearly see the outline of the Northern Continent. “Shouldn’t be more than a day or so now.”
“Great.” Zack replied, flashing her a smile as he took a deep breath and settled back against the deck. “Thanks.”
She nodded back, and walked away. Won’t be long now. Zack closed his eyes and soaked up the still warm sunlight. Don’t worry, Cloud.
I promise.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Midgar lay in shambles. The city had been all but destroyed by the Weapon’s attack, especially after the Plate had fallen. Some sections of the city had been completely crushed, while others had managed to survive with only some damage. The people of the city had, for the most part, been spared. Early sightings of Weapon’s approach had driven most of them away long before it had actually arrived, avoiding a greater loss of life than would have occurred. Even now, they had begun returning, picking up their lives from where they had left off. As it was, only the diehards who refused to leave had actually met their fate that day.
Stubbornness was never one of Rufus’s more attractive traits.
Turks had cursed the height of the Shinra building for ages. The only way to have a building that tall without it being a complete fire hazard involved more staircases than could feasibly be patrolled, and cameras were notoriously easy to circumvent. It had been seen as a security risk, as a likely cause of assassination attempts, and had increased paranoia for years.
Now, though, it was the only reason the last Shinra might still be alive, and isn’t there something entirely ironic about that - a security nightmare keeping a Shinra alive.
When the Plate had fallen, it had tilted. The top of Shinra tower had started to fall back towards Kalm, while the Plate supports on the ocean side of the tower collapsed under Weapon’s attack. The downward shift of the ocean side had lifted the Kalm side of the Plate, bringing it up quickly to meet Shinra tower. The Plate had been falling by the time it hit the tower, but the important part was the slanted angle at which it had hit, decreasing the overall velocity of the tower’s fall by providing an upward force that, however temporarily, slowed the effects of gravity. The executive suite, farthest from the pivot point that was the base of the tower, had received the most benefit from the impact. Moreover, the tower’s height had contributed to the potential salvation of its executive by allowing the lower floors to absorb most of the crumbling force even as the Kalm side edge of the Plate steadied the building from complete collapse.
Janice’s report from the helicopter confirmed that the executive suite still seemed somewhat intact.
“It looks like it landed on top of the north part of sector five,” she said, her voice fading a bit because of the poor reception that the PHS was unsurprisingly producing. “One side of it is smashed in, but the other side looks pretty unscathed. There’s definitely still a chance that he’s alive. You need to - ”
“Yeah, yeah, we got it.” Reno replied lackadaisically, running a hand through his hair. “We got it covered, right, Rude?”
The bald man stared at him from behind his dark sunglasses, saying nothing, and Reno shrugged. Elena stood beside him, anxiety written across her face.
“We got it.” Reno repeated.
“All right, then we’ll leave it to you!” Janice answered. In the background, he could hear the whirring blades of the chopper for a brief moment before the sound abruptly cut off as she hung up. Reno clicked off his PHS and put it away, glancing idly at the large number 5 painted on the wall behind him.
“Seems the president is just a little north of here.” He commented casually to his companions. Rufus, you asshole, if you’re dead, I’ll find a way to bring you back so I can kill you myself. Reno hoisted his nightstick to his shoulder and turned to face them. “Let’s go.”
“Do they know if he’s alive?” Elena asked, her face drained of color, and Reno carefully restrained himself from cursing all the generations of the Shinra line. He could make it through the first ten without too many problems, but after that the insults had to get creative. Man, she’s still a kid… what a mess this all is.
“He’s Shinra - they’re kinda like cockroaches, you know - pretty hard to kill.” Unless you’ve got a good boot heel - but she doesn’t need to know that. Rude nodded affirmatively.
“Hey, don’t speak about the president that way!” Elena protested, an angry flush rushing into her face. She’s angry, and that’s good. At least if she’s angry, she’ll forget to worry. Reno didn’t bother replying as he turned and started walking. “Just because he’s not here doesn’t mean that you should say things like that about our boss!”
The blonde darted around him, glaring as she walked backwards hastily in order not to slow the pace of their mission. Her blue eyes were lit with fierce determination. Rude walked easily to his side, his long legs quickly making up the distance that Elena had had to fight to obtain, then easing back to the same pace that Reno himself was setting.
“You talk too much, Elena.” Reno replied with a shake of his head.
“I do not!” Elena said, glancing behind her to make sure that the path was clear before fixing him with a heated stare. “And that reminds me! Was it really all right to just let Avalanche go?”
Cloud Strife.
“You defied a direct order while we were on company time! Tseng is going to have a field day when he finds out, never mind what the president will say!” She didn’t stop there, but that was right about the time that Reno stopped listening to her and concentrated on walking just fast enough that she wouldn’t think he was slowing down for her but also wouldn’t trip herself.
The shadows created by the noontime sun had a reddish cast that day. How appropriate - Midgar looking like the hell that it is. Meteor was steadily approaching. Soon, nothing would be able to stop it. It might even have already been too late.
Strife, you gotta stop that son of a bitch Sephiroth if any of us are ever gonna make it through this. You gotta -
Reno’s attention jolted back to reality as his head jolted sharply to one side, the sunglasses he had been wearing breaking at the ear piece.
“Damn it, Elena, what was that for?” He snarled, shaking his head as he pulled the glasses off and eyed them speculatively. They had been a decent pair, one of the few he had found that looked cool without hiding his tattoos. After regarding them for a moment, he tossed them into a nearby pile of the rubbish that simply sat upon the streets these days.
Damn. Gonna be a bitch to find a new pair like those, isn’t it?
“You’re not even pretending to listen, Reno!” She railed at him, crossing her arms across her chest and turning her back upon him. “This is serious, here. You could be executed for pulling a stunt like that.”
“Look, Elena - just chill, all right?” Reno eyed the ominous horizon as he kept heading north. He continued in a careless voice as he closed his eyes, sauntering after her. “Either Strife stops Sephiroth and Meteor doesn’t fall, or he doesn’t and we all die. Either way I’m good - not gonna kill me for letting the man save the world, are they? Doesn’t much matter the other way, right, Ru- oof! What the hell, Elena?”
Elena had frozen in her tracks, which had naturally caused Reno to walk straight into her. He ran a hand lazily through his hair as he looked up to see what had her startled, and sure enough, there it was.
Rufus.
The executive suite looked much different when viewed at eye height through the windows then it ever had while standing inside it or circling it in a helicopter. Not that the windows themselves were there - the glass was gone. There, in the middle of a heap of rubble, sticking up slightly, the red light fell upon white fabric that had not yet faded to the gray around it.
“Let’s go!” Rude shouted, dashing towards the spot, and Reno said a quick prayer to the gods he didn’t believe in as he ran after his partner, Elena close behind.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Cid carefully shielded his cigarette from the wind as he tried once more to light it. If the world ended today, he sure didn’t want to miss his last chance at a smoke.
“Damn wind!” He cursed violently as a particularly strong gust blew out the tiny flame before he could bring it into contact with his cigarette. Sighing, he reached in his pocket for the matchbook and went to strike another match. It lit for a moment, flickered oddly and would have gone out had not the window suddenly ceased to blow. Surprised, Cid looked around.
“It would have gone out again.” The raven haired man whose long red cloak was raised in front of Cid as a wind shield said disinterestedly. Grinning, Cid nodded his appreciation and hurriedly lit his cigarette. Vincent nodded, dropped his cloak, and turned away. Man, that guy is weird. Blissfully, Cid drew in a breath.
There really is nothing quite like a cigarette when a man is about to die.
He took a long drag off the cigarette, turning to look at the rest of this crazy group he’d somehow joined. The big cat had curled up in the one corner that didn’t seem to be getting much wind. The ninja girl sat beside him, petting him until he looked ready to bite her. Just as the kitty’s patience started to wear thin, she withdrew her hand and laughed at him. Mr. Vampire and Gun Arm stared unblinkingly at each other across the fire, though neither seemed to really be all there. Not that either of them is usually all there, but that’s not the point… The-well, Cid didn’t really know what to call it-robot thing merely sat there, and Cid found himself almost wistfully wishing the other two members of their party would get up and join them so they could get this over with already. Slowly, his attention turned to the large cavern to his right.
Sephiroth is in there. The knowledge of it made him shiver, glad of the cold as an excuse to cover should anyone ask. If we go down, we’ll go down fighting. Maybe we’ll even take him down with us… Eight on one certainly puts the odds in our favour, even if it is Sephiroth. Tifa ran over the crest of the hill, Cloud following behind, and Cid shook away the thoughts. We’re strong enough… We’ll manage, somehow, to be tough enough for this… though it kill us all, the Planet will survive.
“This is the center of the Planet…?” Cloud’s soft tenor said as he approached the entrance. His eyes glowed in an odd way that couldn’t have just been the Mako in them, and suddenly Cid found himself thinking about how much older he himself was than the rest of them.
“We finally made it here.” Nanaki replied, stretching and rising to his… paws. He shook the snow loose from his fur and joined the growing circle around the fire. Cid took one final drag from his cigarette and tried to ignore the growing unease he felt.
“Let’s just get this over with!” He interjected, dropping the remains of his smoke to the ground and grinding it under his heel. Planet’ll forgive me if we save it, and if we don’t it won’t matter anyway.
Vincent snorted, and Cid turned to glare at him. He stopped, though, when something caught his eye. Is he…? The corners of the man’s mouth had turned upward slightly, and Cid couldn’t help but think that for the first time since they’d met the man he might actually be smiling.
“Being with you all is not so bad,” he said, and Cid found himself oddly pleased to be in the man’s good regard. Then again, at the end of the world, what really matters? He turned sharply away.
“Awright, this is the last dance!” Cid didn’t even need to look to know that gun arm boy was doing his dance, psyching himself up for what was to come. Does he not get it? Do any of them really understand?
“This is it!” Her voice was heartbreakingly sweet, young and still fairly innocent.
“Well…” So the robot was active again. “Shall we get going?”
Cid turned back to face the group. Slowly, their leader faced each one of them in turn, waiting until they nodded in expression of their own readiness before tipping his own head sharply.
“All right everyone, let’s mosey!” Innocent… far too innocent, and far too young…
“Damn! Again!” Cid swore, the others all turning to look at him. “Stop sayin’ it like a wimp! Can’t you say ‘Move out!’ or somethin’?”
Cloud raised a hand to scratch the back of his head, the vaguely childish gesture of embarrassment drilling home just who had been chosen to save the world. He was grateful when the boy nodded, and stood straighter. Suddenly, the man Cid had chosen to follow looked much older than his mere 21 years would suggest, and Cid was thankful for it.
“Move out!” he said, complete with dramatic gesture as he spun to face the cavern once more, his sword glinting in the morning light as he headed into the darkness. Crossing his fingers and looking for what might be the final time at the light of the sun, Cid grabbed his lance and followed.
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