[Fic] A Long Road to Destiny - FFVII/FFX - Zack, Cloud & Sephiroth - 10/26?
I woke up this morning at 4:30 and couldn't get back to sleep, so yay, have the next chapter. *yawn* I need a better userpic for this fic. *shuffles off to find something more appropriate*
ETA: There, that's better. ^_^
Title: A Long Road to Destiny
Series: FFVII/FFX fusion
Pairing: Cloud, Zack & Sephiroth
Rating: R
Warnings: violence, angst, swearing, the usual
Chapter length: 4839
Total length: 52,600
The summoner's journey is a long, hard path to walk. Having guardians you trust makes all the difference in the world.
The echo of Zack's scream rang in Cloud's ears even after the thunder had faded. It was as if a switch had been flipped, and he could think clearly again. "Zack. Zack!" he shouted frantically, but there was no response.
Choking on his sobs of grief, Cloud threw himself towards the aeon. Lightning blasted him the moment he made contact, and he cried out as he was flung away again. Was there no way for him to stop it? Why hadn't Sephiroth or Rufus summoned another aeon to fight it?
The aeon neighed again, and Cloud grimaced as he felt another surge of power building inside him. It was going to strike again, and there didn't seem to be anything he could do about it.
Wait. If he could feel the power rising, did that mean it was coming from within him? Was there any way for him to cut it off?
Blocking his ears with his hands, Cloud squeezed his eyes shut and tried to concentrate. It was hard - he could still hear people shouting in panic and the angry screaming of the aeon. Reaching deep inside himself, he sought the source of the power the aeon was using.
Ramb sa, he begged Jymavun and Evned. Bmayca. Help me!
As if the aeon was angry at his attempt to block it, the lightning suddenly turned inward. Cloud screamed as bolt after bolt slammed into him, trying to tear him apart from the inside out. If you fail, I will destroy you from within, the fayth had said. It felt like he was making good on his promise.
Cloud didn't even care anymore if he died - knowing he was responsible for Zack's death had already killed his heart. But he refused to allow the aeon to use him to hurt anyone else, first. He forced himself to focus through the pain, through the grief, through the panic and confusion around him.
He found the flow of power, but stopping it was another matter. It was like trying to grab hold of a stream of water. Desperately Cloud struggled to contain it, to cap the flow. He felt Evned and Jymavun with him, steadying and supporting him but not actually interfering.
He could not give up. He could not lose. The aeon had already killed Zack, and next it might well kill Sephiroth. He had to stop it.
The pain stopped so abruptly that for a moment Cloud thought it really had killed him. He gasped and felt the air sear his lungs, and only then was he able to convince himself that he was still alive. Something snorted above him, and Cloud opened his eyes to find the aeon standing before him. It seemed calm now, head lowered so it could sniff his hair.
In his mind, Cloud heard the voice of the fayth. "Not bad," it said. "Perhaps you have the will we need after all. Remember this, and remember the consequences of losing control."
The aeon vanished, gone as if it had never been. Cloud thought he might be sick. Remember the consequences? How could he ever forget, when the lesson had come at the price of Zack's life?
Burying his face in his hands, Cloud tried not to sob as he waited for the final blow to fall. Surely by now Rufus had finished summoning and would blow him to pieces, or the man's guardians would kill him for daring to attack their summoner. Part of him hoped it would be the aeon - it seemed fitting for his life to end the same way he had ended Zack's. He wouldn't even blame Sephiroth for standing back and letting them, not after what Cloud had done.
Something warm loomed at his back, smelling of spice and magic. Terrified that D'jose's aeon had returned to wreak more havoc, Cloud jerked his head up. His view was blocked by a solid wall of leathery skin and feathers. After a confused moment Cloud realized Jymavun was standing behind him with her wings wrapped around him, protecting and sheltering him. She crooned in wordless concern, then unfolded her wings and planted her beak firmly in the small of his back. A tiny shove nearly flattened him, and he was forced to let her herd him towards Zack's body. She stayed behind him, and he realized she was shielding him from Rufus and his guardians.
Sephiroth was kneeling beside Zack, his hands spread and a look of intense concentration on his face as he poured magic over his fellow guardian. Cloud's heart leapt. Nobody wasted magic to heal a body the life had already fled. Certainly not that much of it. But that meant...
Zack coughed and thrashed weakly, and Sephiroth restrained him with a hand to the shoulder. Cloud threw himself at Zack, not believing his eyes until he felt the rise and fall of his guardian's chest beneath his own hands.
"Zack, rusa tavaht ic, are you okay?" he choked out, too distraught to pay attention to which language he was using. "I swear, I'll never summon again, just bmayca pa ugyo!"
"You know I can't understand half of that," Zack rasped. His voice was harsh and still full of pain, and it was the most beautiful sound Cloud had ever heard. "What do you mean, you'll never summon again? You're a summoner, stupid."
"Not if I have anything to say about it." Rufus sounded coldly furious, and Cloud looked up to see the other blond glaring at him from behind the wall of his guardians. Jymavun mantled her wings and hissed at him, but he didn't so much as flinch. "You're not just a threat to Spira, you're a menace. I'll see you stripped of your aeons and locked away in the dungeons of Bevelle for this."
"Why didn't you summon?" Cloud demanded. The threat didn't bother him - truly it was no more than what he deserved. "You could have stopped it, maybe even saved Zack. Why?"
"The aeons refused to answer my call," Sephiroth answered him, his eyes narrowed as he looked up from healing Zack. "I suspect the same was true of Lord Rufus."
Cloud gaped at them. The disgruntled look on Rufus' face said that Sephiroth was correct. "They wouldn't answer you? Any of them?"
"Not even Netzach, who has had no contact of any kind with you that I know of," Sephiroth said grimly. "Whatever it is that the fayth are trying to accomplish with you, it is plain they will brook no interference."
"Inciting the aeons to rebellion, attacking another summoner - Bevelle will have your head for this," Rufus said.
"I didn't incite anything, they did it themselves!" Cloud protested.
"Pay him no mind," Sephiroth advised. "He is a summoner, not a priest. As such he has no right or authority to do anything to you unless you pose a direct and immediate threat to the wellbeing of innocents. And," he raised his voice to be heard over Rufus' protests that Cloud was a danger. "Unless the rules for determining precedence among summoners has been altered in the last ten years, the fact that I possess all five aeons while Lord Rufus has only three means that I am the ranking summoner, and the decision lies in my hands."
"You're biased," Rufus accused. "You're his guardian, you cannot judge him."
"As are you," Sephiroth retorted. "Your personal grudge against Lord Cloud had already been well established previous to him summoning the aeon. As there are no other summoners present and we are equally biased, rank must determine the outcome."
Rufus looked so infuriated Cloud thought he might actually strike at Sephiroth. The older summoner merely stared him down, his expression cool and impassive, daring him to argue.
Rufus was the first to look away. "Elena. Reno. Gather out things and inform the innkeeper that we will not be staying after all. I will not sleep in the same building as an Al Bhed heretic. Rude, fetch the chocobos. Tseng, with me." He straightened his clothes and slung his staff across his back.
Then he looked straight at Cloud, and Cloud flinched back without meaning to. He'd been glared at with varying amounts of hatred and malice by Spirans over the years, but he'd never seen such venom. That it came from features nearly a mirror image of his own made it all the more unnerving.
"Don't think this is over," Rufus said, his voice poisonously soft. "Sephiroth may outrank me at the moment, but he is far from being the highest possible authority. I will see you stopped, for the good of all Spira."
With that he turned and snapped his fingers. His guardians gathered around him, bags and chocobos ready, and shortly all Cloud could see of them was the dust kicked up by their birds.
A punch to his shoulder brought his attention back to Zack. His guardian was still pale and sweating, and leaning on Sephiroth's arm in order to remain sitting upright. Even so the scolding look on his face made Cloud's shoulder's hunch. "What was that all about, huh? I know you've got a bit of a hate on for annoying Spirans and I don't blame you, but that was completely out of control. I've seen you lose your temper, but never like that."
"I..." Cloud's throat closed on the words, and he hung his head in shame. Saying 'the aeon made me do it' sounded like the worst kind of excuse.
"Out of control," Sephiroth repeated thoughtfully. "Didn't the fayth tell you that you would have to demonstrate control to him?"
"Take control from him," Cloud corrected miserably. "I asked him for a chance to prove myself. I never thought... if I'd known it would be like this..."
"Another test, huh?" Zack grimaced and pushed himself to his feet. He had to lean on Sephiroth to get there, but once up he was able to stand on his own. "Figures. Does this mean you passed?"
"Eqeuh." Cloud closed his eyes, trying not to sound as pained as he felt. That one short word had nearly cost him everything. "The aeon's name is Eqeuh."
"Then let us hope that means it will not attempt to test you again." Sephiroth sounded unhappy, though his face remained expressionless. "Zack, must I lecture you once more about a guardian's duties?"
"Huh?" Zack's eyes went wide. "What are you talking about? I was doing my duty!"
"Your job is to protect Cloud, not any other summoner, regardless of the danger they are in," Sephiroth said.
"I was protecting Cloud," Zack protested. "I was buying you time to summon so it wouldn't turn on him, and I was hoping the shock would snap him out of it. Besides, if worse came to worst, I figured they'd have less excuse to arrest him for the death of his own guardian than for killing the son of a maester."
Clearly taken aback, Sephiroth just blinked at him for a moment. Then he nodded and clasped Zack briefly on the shoulder. "I stand corrected. Carry on."
"Well, I still think he's an idiot," Cloud said, glaring at Zack and trying not to let his eyes water. "I thought you were dead, I've never been so scared in my life!" He didn't admit that he'd only wanted to die himself as a result - Sephiroth would no doubt only lecture him about a summoner's duty to Spira, and Zack would be horrified.
"Trust me, I've never been that scared in my life either," Zack said. "Getting hit by lightning is even less fun than I thought it would be. You look wiped, and no amount of cure magic is going to make me steady on my feet after that, so what say we just go hide in our room at the inn for a while?"
"That sounds like an excellent plan." Sephiroth gestured for Zack to go first - Cloud had a shrewd notion he wanted to be able to catch the other guardian if he collapsed. It also allowed him to hang back and speak to Cloud with a semblance of privacy.
"Odds are very good that one or both of us is going to sacrifice ourselves to save you," he murmured. "No high summoner has ever reached that status without losing at least one guardian." He let Cloud digest that shocking statement in silence for a moment. "If you are not prepared to make that sacrifice, turn back now."
Cloud took a deep breath, and looked him in the eyes. "I'm already the exception to just about every rule about summoners," he said. "I'll just have to be the exception to that one, too." Despite his brave words, his heart quailed. Not even one high summoner had failed to lose a guardian? He'd known the journey was dangerous, but only in his head. This knowledge struck him in the heart.
Zack turned and ruffled his hair, apparently not as oblivious to the conversation as Cloud had hoped. "That's the spirit," he said. "We'll show 'em all how it's supposed to be done. Tomorrow," he concluded as he held the door open for Cloud and Sephiroth to enter.
Dead silence fell the moment Cloud stepped over the threshold. Warily Cloud looked around, and found that almost all of the travellers gathered in the main room were staring at him like they expected him to demand an infant for his dinner. Those who weren't staring were pointedly ignoring him; so pointedly that Cloud almost thought he preferred the staring. At least that was an honest reaction. There weren't many people, but there were more than enough to intimidate Cloud.
Beside him Sephiroth had gone tense, and he heard Zack mutter something that sounded rude under his breath. Finally the innkeeper stepped forward to break the tension-filled stalemate. "We have no rooms available," he said, voice shaking a little. He couldn't seem to meet their eyes, and Cloud didn't miss the fact that he hadn't offered the bow to a summoner.
"That's bullshit," Zack said, his voice low. "Rufus and his four guardians left not ten minutes ago. Nobody's arrived since then but us."
Instead of intimidating the innkeeper by calling his bluff, Zack's words apparently served to strengthen the man's resolve. He raised his head and glared at them, defiant. "We have no rooms," he repeated more firmly.
"You..." Zack took a step forward, only to be halted by Sephiroth's hand on his chest.
"We won't trouble you, then," Sephiroth said, his voice frozen but polite. He nodded at the room in general, and then turned and stalked out of the room with regal grace, herding Zack and Cloud ahead of him.
"What the hell?" Zack burst out as the door closed behind them. Cloud was actually mildly impressed that Zack managed to hold his tongue until then. Not that the thin wooden barrier would prevent those inside from hearing the coming explosion, but it was at least less obviously confrontational.
"Perhaps it is just as well," Sephiroth said. He sounded weary, as if even he was having trouble believing his positive words. "This inn is too close to the temple, and doubtless the priests would have descended shortly."
"Yeah, but..."
Whatever further protest Zack might have made was brought up short as they reached the chocobo pens. A large 'closed' sign hung in plain view on the gate, and the proprietor was nowhere in sight.
"You've gotta be fucking kidding me!" Zack kicked the fence hard enough to crack the wooden post.
Cloud bit his lip and struggled not to give in to frustration or despair. "They were short on birds because of the fiend," he pointed out. "Maybe Rufus and his guardians took the only available fresh birds, and they really are closed."
"There's not that much daylight left," Zack said. "Without a bird we'll never make it to another inn."
"As they are generally spaced more than half a day's ride apart, we wouldn't make it before nightfall in any case," Sephiroth said. "Given that Rufus will undoubtedly be spreading rumours about us as he travels, our wisest course of action may be to return to Rin's to recover..."
"No." Cloud set his jaw and tried to look firm instead of petulantly stubborn. "We're not backtracking. What good would that do us? We can't stay there forever, and I doubt they'll be any happier to take us anywhere else no matter how long we wait. It will just give the rumours more time to spread and grow in the telling."
"Yeah, but you're still not completely recovered from the journey here," Zack argued, frowning. "We were supposed to stay longer in Luca and didn't manage that, either."
Cloud shook his head and started walking, taking the turn towards the Moonflow. If they wanted to stop him from moving forward, they would have to physically drag him away. After a moment he heard Zack sigh and follow him, and when he glanced back he saw Sephiroth matching his pace as well.
"Wouldn't it maybe be a better idea not to risk catching up to Rufus?" Zack tried.
"They're on birds," Cloud reminded him. "We'll never catch them on foot. Anyway, I refuse to let him intimidate me into following days behind him. I'll never be high summoner that way."
"How much damage can Rufus actually do?" Zack asked Sephiroth. "I mean, he is old man Shinra's only child, he must have some serious pull in the temples."
"He cannot change Yevon's precepts, so the only way for him to block Cloud from the temples would be to prove he has no Spiran ancestry. Obviously, that would be impossible." Sephiroth looked and sounded unruffled, but there was tension in his muscles that told Cloud he was more worried than he was letting on.
"What about having him declared a rogue summoner?" Zack persisted, brow furrowed.
"A possibility, but unlikely." Sephiroth inclined his head and smiled faintly. "As you so thoughtfully ensured the only casualty was not a civilian or another summoner..."
"See, I told you I was doing my job," Zack said, sticking his tongue out at Sephiroth.
"Anyway, not giving Rufus more time to spread nasty rumours about me seems like another good reason to keep moving forward," Cloud said.
"Agreed." There was reluctance lingering in Sephiroth's voice. "We should try to at least reach the shore of the Moonflow before we make camp, if we can. That should give us enough time tomorrow to catch the shoopuf, cross the Moonflow and make our way to Guadosalam."
That sounded like an awful lot of walking and most of it in the dark, but Cloud forbade himself to complain. It was his fault they had to do this, after all.
Soon the sun had set, and the fiends seemed to think darkness was an open invitation to attack. After the first few Zack was staggering, not having had a chance to recover from nearly dying, but the Blitzer never once complained. It shamed Cloud, both because it was a reminder of his guilt and because all he could seem to think about was how much his legs were aching and the way his feet had gone numb.
Then he realized that he shouldn't have been able to see Zack at all. The whole area was illuminated by a soft glow emanating from somewhere ahead of them. "Oh," he exclaimed, perking up as much as he could muster the energy for. "We're almost there."
"How can you tell?" Zack asked through a yawn. "Looks the same as every other patch of road we've passed."
"Yeah, that's how you know we're close," Cloud told him. "You can see it." The glow was growing stronger as they walked, and now he thought he could see it flickering. The water had to be right on the other side of the hill.
Zack looked rather adorably confused. "What are you... oh." They rounded the last bend and the huge river came into view. Pyreflies hovered in the air like a curtain of tiny lights, and the surface of the water was so smooth it reflected them perfectly. It made it look like there was no river at all, only an endless stream of pyreflies reaching up to the stars and down to the heart of Spira.
"Some say the best time to view the Moonflow is at sunset, when the pyreflies rise in dense clouds," Sephiroth said softly. "Personally I have always thought it was most beautiful at moments like this."
"No shit." Despite his irreverent words, Zack's voice held a distinct note of awe. "Okay, I'm impressed. I mean, I'd heard about it, but the stories don't do it justice. I didn't realize they'd be so bright."
"There are a lot more pyreflies than when I passed through here," Cloud commented.
"The ironic tragedy of the Moonflow," Sephiroth said, and made the bow of respect towards the water. "Its beauty is at its peak when Sin is on a rampage."
Cloud bowed his head. It was so easy to forget that all of those pretty flickering lights were actually life essence - of a person or an animal, it didn't really matter.
"Well, tragic or not, I think it's gorgeous," Zack said, still staring out over the water, entranced. "I could stand here for hours."
"I just want to soak my feet in the water," Cloud groaned. He'd been standing still long enough that the numbness had worn off, and now his feet hurt.
"Why don't I see about finding a good place to set up camp, while Zack keeps you company here?" Sephiroth suggested. His smile was indulgent. "Since we are in no rush to cross, as a summoner usually is upon reaching this point, you both might as well enjoy it while you can."
"But that's not fair to you," Cloud protested, though it took everything he had not to just kick off his boots and wade right in.
"I have seen it many times before," Sephiroth replied. "I crossed it often, before and after my journey. I will doubtless have the opportunity to see it again."
And Cloud wouldn't, was the unspoken conclusion. True enough, and Cloud wasn't going to keep arguing. He toed off his boots and waded into the shallows with a sigh of relief. A swarm of pyreflies scattered away, but after a moment they began to drift near again. Cloud studied them in fascination. He'd never seen so many from so close before.
"Shouldn't somebody Send them?" he asked.
"Summoners have tried, but they just keep drifting along," Zack told him. "Some people think this is where the Sent ones go, gathering on their way to the Farplane. The Moonflow does run straight to Guadosalam."
He waded in as well, deeper than Cloud, apparently not caring that he was soaking his shorts. He looked relaxed and happy for the first time since they'd left D'jose, which only made Cloud feel all the more guilty for his shameful loss of control. "Zack..."
"Don't."
"Huh?" Cloud blinked at him. Zack turned and gave him a wry smile.
"You were going to apologize, right? Don't. You have nothing to be sorry for. I knew when I signed on as a guardian that there was a good chance I was signing my death warrant. If my life is the price for you to become high summoner, I'll pay it gladly and be grateful you've still got Seph to watch over you."
"Don't say things like that!" Cloud burst out. "Don't you understand? You're the only real friend I've ever had, the first person who ever believed I was more than just an Al Bhed bastard. It would kill me to lose you, and if it was my fault, I don't think I could go on."
"Hey." Zack's voice was stern, but when Cloud met his eyes he found his guardian's expression was gentle. "Summoners have a lot of privileges, but giving up isn't one of them. Especially not for you. If you quit halfway, then everything that jerk said about your journey causing problems will be true. You've gotta go the distance, no matter what, so that people will understand that you do have the right."
Cloud lowered his eyes. Zack's words felt like physical weights pressing down on his chest, smothering him with the burden of responsibility. "What if I just don't make it?" he asked hoarsely. "What if I do everything right and just get beaten to it, like Sephiroth did? Won't I have caused even more problems?"
"Maybe, maybe not. If someone manages to destroy Sin even with a 'heretic' like you supposedly screwing everything up, then I think at least some people will be smart enough to figure out for themselves that you weren't sabotaging anything." Zack paused, and his voice took on a grim overtone. "Fact is, I don't think the fayth would be pushing you so hard if they weren't pretty damn sure you'd make it first."
Cloud doubted they had any way of being so certain, but if it comforted Zack to think so, he wouldn't argue. "I think I can promise not to give up if something... happens to you," he said, forcing the words past the lump in his throat. "But not... not if it's my fault. My doing. If I can't even control myself well enough to not kill my own guardian, then Rufus is right. I don't deserve to be a summoner."
"Well, then we'll just have to make sure that doesn't happen. I doubt it'll ever be that close a call again," Zack said. "So you promise to keep going no matter what, and I'll promise to do everything in my power to always be there for you. Deal?"
Cloud looked up to find Zack's hand extended towards him, and a smile firmly on his face. Cloud searched his eyes for some sign of fear or reluctance - he'd nearly fried the man with his most feared element just a few hours ago, after all. But there was nothing in Zack's expression but sincere friendliness and determination.
Silently Cloud sent a prayer to the fayth for strength, and felt the three aeons within him rise in response. He could only hope that he possessed half the resolution and sheer goodness that Zack did. He could start by making the promise Zack needed to hear. "Deal," he agreed, stepping forward to reach for Zack's hand.
Something brushed against Cloud's leg just before their fingers touched, and he had a brief second to think 'oh, a fish' before it curled around his ankle and yanked. Abruptly he was underwater, with no chance to draw air or warn Zack.
He flailed wildly as the water closed over his head, but there was nothing to grab. Whatever had hold of his foot was dragging him steadily deeper into the centre of the Moonflow. Twisting, Cloud saw a many-legged fiend with baleful orange eyes glowering back at him. One thick, rope-like appendage was twined firmly around his leg.
Already Cloud's lungs were burning with the need for air. A sudden flurry of bubbles and churning water marked where Zack had dived beneath the surface, but the fiend had pulled Cloud out of his reach. Through the murky water Cloud could just barely make out the desperate expression on Zack's face as he swam hard towards Cloud.
He wasn't going to make it in time, Cloud realized with rising panic. The fiend was a faster swimmer than Zack, even dragging Cloud's dead weight along. The urge to inhale was almost overwhelming, and Cloud wasn't going to be able to fight the instinct to breathe much longer.
In desperation he fumbled his sword out of its sheath and tried to hack at the fiend's limb. He landed one solid blow that made the creature writhe, but it didn't cut deep enough to force it to let go.
In the back of his mind the aeons were clamouring for release, but Cloud forced them back down. Maybe Eqeuh was done testing him, but maybe he wasn't. Cloud didn't dare release any of them unless he was absolutely certain he could control them, not even to save his own life.
The burn in his lungs was growing unbearable. Cloud clamped his hand over his mouth and nose, but he knew it was a useless gesture. Power surged within him, and then drained out of him abruptly. The water churned madly as something massive splashed into the river. To Cloud's horror, Eqeuh appeared out of the bubbles, lightning already charging at the tip of his horn.
Eqeuh tossed his head, as if he was neighing, though the sound was distorted by the water beyond recognition. Cloud saw Zack throw his hands up as if to shield himself, and then the whole world was full of the crackling lash of electricity through the water.
The fiend thrashed and writhed, and finally released his ankle. Too late - Cloud's body rebelled, expelling what little air he did have in a rush of bubbles, and fighting to draw more to replace it. Water rushed in, stinging all the way down, and Cloud choked and thrashed. It was too reminiscent of smothering in smoke as his house burned down around him. The memory brought the ghost of pain along with it, and his body convulsed.
He had just enough time to contemplate the irony of his last thought being of fire when he was dying surrounded by water, and then he was aware of nothing at all.
ETA: There, that's better. ^_^
Title: A Long Road to Destiny
Series: FFVII/FFX fusion
Pairing: Cloud, Zack & Sephiroth
Rating: R
Warnings: violence, angst, swearing, the usual
Chapter length: 4839
Total length: 52,600
The summoner's journey is a long, hard path to walk. Having guardians you trust makes all the difference in the world.
The echo of Zack's scream rang in Cloud's ears even after the thunder had faded. It was as if a switch had been flipped, and he could think clearly again. "Zack. Zack!" he shouted frantically, but there was no response.
Choking on his sobs of grief, Cloud threw himself towards the aeon. Lightning blasted him the moment he made contact, and he cried out as he was flung away again. Was there no way for him to stop it? Why hadn't Sephiroth or Rufus summoned another aeon to fight it?
The aeon neighed again, and Cloud grimaced as he felt another surge of power building inside him. It was going to strike again, and there didn't seem to be anything he could do about it.
Wait. If he could feel the power rising, did that mean it was coming from within him? Was there any way for him to cut it off?
Blocking his ears with his hands, Cloud squeezed his eyes shut and tried to concentrate. It was hard - he could still hear people shouting in panic and the angry screaming of the aeon. Reaching deep inside himself, he sought the source of the power the aeon was using.
Ramb sa, he begged Jymavun and Evned. Bmayca. Help me!
As if the aeon was angry at his attempt to block it, the lightning suddenly turned inward. Cloud screamed as bolt after bolt slammed into him, trying to tear him apart from the inside out. If you fail, I will destroy you from within, the fayth had said. It felt like he was making good on his promise.
Cloud didn't even care anymore if he died - knowing he was responsible for Zack's death had already killed his heart. But he refused to allow the aeon to use him to hurt anyone else, first. He forced himself to focus through the pain, through the grief, through the panic and confusion around him.
He found the flow of power, but stopping it was another matter. It was like trying to grab hold of a stream of water. Desperately Cloud struggled to contain it, to cap the flow. He felt Evned and Jymavun with him, steadying and supporting him but not actually interfering.
He could not give up. He could not lose. The aeon had already killed Zack, and next it might well kill Sephiroth. He had to stop it.
The pain stopped so abruptly that for a moment Cloud thought it really had killed him. He gasped and felt the air sear his lungs, and only then was he able to convince himself that he was still alive. Something snorted above him, and Cloud opened his eyes to find the aeon standing before him. It seemed calm now, head lowered so it could sniff his hair.
In his mind, Cloud heard the voice of the fayth. "Not bad," it said. "Perhaps you have the will we need after all. Remember this, and remember the consequences of losing control."
The aeon vanished, gone as if it had never been. Cloud thought he might be sick. Remember the consequences? How could he ever forget, when the lesson had come at the price of Zack's life?
Burying his face in his hands, Cloud tried not to sob as he waited for the final blow to fall. Surely by now Rufus had finished summoning and would blow him to pieces, or the man's guardians would kill him for daring to attack their summoner. Part of him hoped it would be the aeon - it seemed fitting for his life to end the same way he had ended Zack's. He wouldn't even blame Sephiroth for standing back and letting them, not after what Cloud had done.
Something warm loomed at his back, smelling of spice and magic. Terrified that D'jose's aeon had returned to wreak more havoc, Cloud jerked his head up. His view was blocked by a solid wall of leathery skin and feathers. After a confused moment Cloud realized Jymavun was standing behind him with her wings wrapped around him, protecting and sheltering him. She crooned in wordless concern, then unfolded her wings and planted her beak firmly in the small of his back. A tiny shove nearly flattened him, and he was forced to let her herd him towards Zack's body. She stayed behind him, and he realized she was shielding him from Rufus and his guardians.
Sephiroth was kneeling beside Zack, his hands spread and a look of intense concentration on his face as he poured magic over his fellow guardian. Cloud's heart leapt. Nobody wasted magic to heal a body the life had already fled. Certainly not that much of it. But that meant...
Zack coughed and thrashed weakly, and Sephiroth restrained him with a hand to the shoulder. Cloud threw himself at Zack, not believing his eyes until he felt the rise and fall of his guardian's chest beneath his own hands.
"Zack, rusa tavaht ic, are you okay?" he choked out, too distraught to pay attention to which language he was using. "I swear, I'll never summon again, just bmayca pa ugyo!"
"You know I can't understand half of that," Zack rasped. His voice was harsh and still full of pain, and it was the most beautiful sound Cloud had ever heard. "What do you mean, you'll never summon again? You're a summoner, stupid."
"Not if I have anything to say about it." Rufus sounded coldly furious, and Cloud looked up to see the other blond glaring at him from behind the wall of his guardians. Jymavun mantled her wings and hissed at him, but he didn't so much as flinch. "You're not just a threat to Spira, you're a menace. I'll see you stripped of your aeons and locked away in the dungeons of Bevelle for this."
"Why didn't you summon?" Cloud demanded. The threat didn't bother him - truly it was no more than what he deserved. "You could have stopped it, maybe even saved Zack. Why?"
"The aeons refused to answer my call," Sephiroth answered him, his eyes narrowed as he looked up from healing Zack. "I suspect the same was true of Lord Rufus."
Cloud gaped at them. The disgruntled look on Rufus' face said that Sephiroth was correct. "They wouldn't answer you? Any of them?"
"Not even Netzach, who has had no contact of any kind with you that I know of," Sephiroth said grimly. "Whatever it is that the fayth are trying to accomplish with you, it is plain they will brook no interference."
"Inciting the aeons to rebellion, attacking another summoner - Bevelle will have your head for this," Rufus said.
"I didn't incite anything, they did it themselves!" Cloud protested.
"Pay him no mind," Sephiroth advised. "He is a summoner, not a priest. As such he has no right or authority to do anything to you unless you pose a direct and immediate threat to the wellbeing of innocents. And," he raised his voice to be heard over Rufus' protests that Cloud was a danger. "Unless the rules for determining precedence among summoners has been altered in the last ten years, the fact that I possess all five aeons while Lord Rufus has only three means that I am the ranking summoner, and the decision lies in my hands."
"You're biased," Rufus accused. "You're his guardian, you cannot judge him."
"As are you," Sephiroth retorted. "Your personal grudge against Lord Cloud had already been well established previous to him summoning the aeon. As there are no other summoners present and we are equally biased, rank must determine the outcome."
Rufus looked so infuriated Cloud thought he might actually strike at Sephiroth. The older summoner merely stared him down, his expression cool and impassive, daring him to argue.
Rufus was the first to look away. "Elena. Reno. Gather out things and inform the innkeeper that we will not be staying after all. I will not sleep in the same building as an Al Bhed heretic. Rude, fetch the chocobos. Tseng, with me." He straightened his clothes and slung his staff across his back.
Then he looked straight at Cloud, and Cloud flinched back without meaning to. He'd been glared at with varying amounts of hatred and malice by Spirans over the years, but he'd never seen such venom. That it came from features nearly a mirror image of his own made it all the more unnerving.
"Don't think this is over," Rufus said, his voice poisonously soft. "Sephiroth may outrank me at the moment, but he is far from being the highest possible authority. I will see you stopped, for the good of all Spira."
With that he turned and snapped his fingers. His guardians gathered around him, bags and chocobos ready, and shortly all Cloud could see of them was the dust kicked up by their birds.
A punch to his shoulder brought his attention back to Zack. His guardian was still pale and sweating, and leaning on Sephiroth's arm in order to remain sitting upright. Even so the scolding look on his face made Cloud's shoulder's hunch. "What was that all about, huh? I know you've got a bit of a hate on for annoying Spirans and I don't blame you, but that was completely out of control. I've seen you lose your temper, but never like that."
"I..." Cloud's throat closed on the words, and he hung his head in shame. Saying 'the aeon made me do it' sounded like the worst kind of excuse.
"Out of control," Sephiroth repeated thoughtfully. "Didn't the fayth tell you that you would have to demonstrate control to him?"
"Take control from him," Cloud corrected miserably. "I asked him for a chance to prove myself. I never thought... if I'd known it would be like this..."
"Another test, huh?" Zack grimaced and pushed himself to his feet. He had to lean on Sephiroth to get there, but once up he was able to stand on his own. "Figures. Does this mean you passed?"
"Eqeuh." Cloud closed his eyes, trying not to sound as pained as he felt. That one short word had nearly cost him everything. "The aeon's name is Eqeuh."
"Then let us hope that means it will not attempt to test you again." Sephiroth sounded unhappy, though his face remained expressionless. "Zack, must I lecture you once more about a guardian's duties?"
"Huh?" Zack's eyes went wide. "What are you talking about? I was doing my duty!"
"Your job is to protect Cloud, not any other summoner, regardless of the danger they are in," Sephiroth said.
"I was protecting Cloud," Zack protested. "I was buying you time to summon so it wouldn't turn on him, and I was hoping the shock would snap him out of it. Besides, if worse came to worst, I figured they'd have less excuse to arrest him for the death of his own guardian than for killing the son of a maester."
Clearly taken aback, Sephiroth just blinked at him for a moment. Then he nodded and clasped Zack briefly on the shoulder. "I stand corrected. Carry on."
"Well, I still think he's an idiot," Cloud said, glaring at Zack and trying not to let his eyes water. "I thought you were dead, I've never been so scared in my life!" He didn't admit that he'd only wanted to die himself as a result - Sephiroth would no doubt only lecture him about a summoner's duty to Spira, and Zack would be horrified.
"Trust me, I've never been that scared in my life either," Zack said. "Getting hit by lightning is even less fun than I thought it would be. You look wiped, and no amount of cure magic is going to make me steady on my feet after that, so what say we just go hide in our room at the inn for a while?"
"That sounds like an excellent plan." Sephiroth gestured for Zack to go first - Cloud had a shrewd notion he wanted to be able to catch the other guardian if he collapsed. It also allowed him to hang back and speak to Cloud with a semblance of privacy.
"Odds are very good that one or both of us is going to sacrifice ourselves to save you," he murmured. "No high summoner has ever reached that status without losing at least one guardian." He let Cloud digest that shocking statement in silence for a moment. "If you are not prepared to make that sacrifice, turn back now."
Cloud took a deep breath, and looked him in the eyes. "I'm already the exception to just about every rule about summoners," he said. "I'll just have to be the exception to that one, too." Despite his brave words, his heart quailed. Not even one high summoner had failed to lose a guardian? He'd known the journey was dangerous, but only in his head. This knowledge struck him in the heart.
Zack turned and ruffled his hair, apparently not as oblivious to the conversation as Cloud had hoped. "That's the spirit," he said. "We'll show 'em all how it's supposed to be done. Tomorrow," he concluded as he held the door open for Cloud and Sephiroth to enter.
Dead silence fell the moment Cloud stepped over the threshold. Warily Cloud looked around, and found that almost all of the travellers gathered in the main room were staring at him like they expected him to demand an infant for his dinner. Those who weren't staring were pointedly ignoring him; so pointedly that Cloud almost thought he preferred the staring. At least that was an honest reaction. There weren't many people, but there were more than enough to intimidate Cloud.
Beside him Sephiroth had gone tense, and he heard Zack mutter something that sounded rude under his breath. Finally the innkeeper stepped forward to break the tension-filled stalemate. "We have no rooms available," he said, voice shaking a little. He couldn't seem to meet their eyes, and Cloud didn't miss the fact that he hadn't offered the bow to a summoner.
"That's bullshit," Zack said, his voice low. "Rufus and his four guardians left not ten minutes ago. Nobody's arrived since then but us."
Instead of intimidating the innkeeper by calling his bluff, Zack's words apparently served to strengthen the man's resolve. He raised his head and glared at them, defiant. "We have no rooms," he repeated more firmly.
"You..." Zack took a step forward, only to be halted by Sephiroth's hand on his chest.
"We won't trouble you, then," Sephiroth said, his voice frozen but polite. He nodded at the room in general, and then turned and stalked out of the room with regal grace, herding Zack and Cloud ahead of him.
"What the hell?" Zack burst out as the door closed behind them. Cloud was actually mildly impressed that Zack managed to hold his tongue until then. Not that the thin wooden barrier would prevent those inside from hearing the coming explosion, but it was at least less obviously confrontational.
"Perhaps it is just as well," Sephiroth said. He sounded weary, as if even he was having trouble believing his positive words. "This inn is too close to the temple, and doubtless the priests would have descended shortly."
"Yeah, but..."
Whatever further protest Zack might have made was brought up short as they reached the chocobo pens. A large 'closed' sign hung in plain view on the gate, and the proprietor was nowhere in sight.
"You've gotta be fucking kidding me!" Zack kicked the fence hard enough to crack the wooden post.
Cloud bit his lip and struggled not to give in to frustration or despair. "They were short on birds because of the fiend," he pointed out. "Maybe Rufus and his guardians took the only available fresh birds, and they really are closed."
"There's not that much daylight left," Zack said. "Without a bird we'll never make it to another inn."
"As they are generally spaced more than half a day's ride apart, we wouldn't make it before nightfall in any case," Sephiroth said. "Given that Rufus will undoubtedly be spreading rumours about us as he travels, our wisest course of action may be to return to Rin's to recover..."
"No." Cloud set his jaw and tried to look firm instead of petulantly stubborn. "We're not backtracking. What good would that do us? We can't stay there forever, and I doubt they'll be any happier to take us anywhere else no matter how long we wait. It will just give the rumours more time to spread and grow in the telling."
"Yeah, but you're still not completely recovered from the journey here," Zack argued, frowning. "We were supposed to stay longer in Luca and didn't manage that, either."
Cloud shook his head and started walking, taking the turn towards the Moonflow. If they wanted to stop him from moving forward, they would have to physically drag him away. After a moment he heard Zack sigh and follow him, and when he glanced back he saw Sephiroth matching his pace as well.
"Wouldn't it maybe be a better idea not to risk catching up to Rufus?" Zack tried.
"They're on birds," Cloud reminded him. "We'll never catch them on foot. Anyway, I refuse to let him intimidate me into following days behind him. I'll never be high summoner that way."
"How much damage can Rufus actually do?" Zack asked Sephiroth. "I mean, he is old man Shinra's only child, he must have some serious pull in the temples."
"He cannot change Yevon's precepts, so the only way for him to block Cloud from the temples would be to prove he has no Spiran ancestry. Obviously, that would be impossible." Sephiroth looked and sounded unruffled, but there was tension in his muscles that told Cloud he was more worried than he was letting on.
"What about having him declared a rogue summoner?" Zack persisted, brow furrowed.
"A possibility, but unlikely." Sephiroth inclined his head and smiled faintly. "As you so thoughtfully ensured the only casualty was not a civilian or another summoner..."
"See, I told you I was doing my job," Zack said, sticking his tongue out at Sephiroth.
"Anyway, not giving Rufus more time to spread nasty rumours about me seems like another good reason to keep moving forward," Cloud said.
"Agreed." There was reluctance lingering in Sephiroth's voice. "We should try to at least reach the shore of the Moonflow before we make camp, if we can. That should give us enough time tomorrow to catch the shoopuf, cross the Moonflow and make our way to Guadosalam."
That sounded like an awful lot of walking and most of it in the dark, but Cloud forbade himself to complain. It was his fault they had to do this, after all.
Soon the sun had set, and the fiends seemed to think darkness was an open invitation to attack. After the first few Zack was staggering, not having had a chance to recover from nearly dying, but the Blitzer never once complained. It shamed Cloud, both because it was a reminder of his guilt and because all he could seem to think about was how much his legs were aching and the way his feet had gone numb.
Then he realized that he shouldn't have been able to see Zack at all. The whole area was illuminated by a soft glow emanating from somewhere ahead of them. "Oh," he exclaimed, perking up as much as he could muster the energy for. "We're almost there."
"How can you tell?" Zack asked through a yawn. "Looks the same as every other patch of road we've passed."
"Yeah, that's how you know we're close," Cloud told him. "You can see it." The glow was growing stronger as they walked, and now he thought he could see it flickering. The water had to be right on the other side of the hill.
Zack looked rather adorably confused. "What are you... oh." They rounded the last bend and the huge river came into view. Pyreflies hovered in the air like a curtain of tiny lights, and the surface of the water was so smooth it reflected them perfectly. It made it look like there was no river at all, only an endless stream of pyreflies reaching up to the stars and down to the heart of Spira.
"Some say the best time to view the Moonflow is at sunset, when the pyreflies rise in dense clouds," Sephiroth said softly. "Personally I have always thought it was most beautiful at moments like this."
"No shit." Despite his irreverent words, Zack's voice held a distinct note of awe. "Okay, I'm impressed. I mean, I'd heard about it, but the stories don't do it justice. I didn't realize they'd be so bright."
"There are a lot more pyreflies than when I passed through here," Cloud commented.
"The ironic tragedy of the Moonflow," Sephiroth said, and made the bow of respect towards the water. "Its beauty is at its peak when Sin is on a rampage."
Cloud bowed his head. It was so easy to forget that all of those pretty flickering lights were actually life essence - of a person or an animal, it didn't really matter.
"Well, tragic or not, I think it's gorgeous," Zack said, still staring out over the water, entranced. "I could stand here for hours."
"I just want to soak my feet in the water," Cloud groaned. He'd been standing still long enough that the numbness had worn off, and now his feet hurt.
"Why don't I see about finding a good place to set up camp, while Zack keeps you company here?" Sephiroth suggested. His smile was indulgent. "Since we are in no rush to cross, as a summoner usually is upon reaching this point, you both might as well enjoy it while you can."
"But that's not fair to you," Cloud protested, though it took everything he had not to just kick off his boots and wade right in.
"I have seen it many times before," Sephiroth replied. "I crossed it often, before and after my journey. I will doubtless have the opportunity to see it again."
And Cloud wouldn't, was the unspoken conclusion. True enough, and Cloud wasn't going to keep arguing. He toed off his boots and waded into the shallows with a sigh of relief. A swarm of pyreflies scattered away, but after a moment they began to drift near again. Cloud studied them in fascination. He'd never seen so many from so close before.
"Shouldn't somebody Send them?" he asked.
"Summoners have tried, but they just keep drifting along," Zack told him. "Some people think this is where the Sent ones go, gathering on their way to the Farplane. The Moonflow does run straight to Guadosalam."
He waded in as well, deeper than Cloud, apparently not caring that he was soaking his shorts. He looked relaxed and happy for the first time since they'd left D'jose, which only made Cloud feel all the more guilty for his shameful loss of control. "Zack..."
"Don't."
"Huh?" Cloud blinked at him. Zack turned and gave him a wry smile.
"You were going to apologize, right? Don't. You have nothing to be sorry for. I knew when I signed on as a guardian that there was a good chance I was signing my death warrant. If my life is the price for you to become high summoner, I'll pay it gladly and be grateful you've still got Seph to watch over you."
"Don't say things like that!" Cloud burst out. "Don't you understand? You're the only real friend I've ever had, the first person who ever believed I was more than just an Al Bhed bastard. It would kill me to lose you, and if it was my fault, I don't think I could go on."
"Hey." Zack's voice was stern, but when Cloud met his eyes he found his guardian's expression was gentle. "Summoners have a lot of privileges, but giving up isn't one of them. Especially not for you. If you quit halfway, then everything that jerk said about your journey causing problems will be true. You've gotta go the distance, no matter what, so that people will understand that you do have the right."
Cloud lowered his eyes. Zack's words felt like physical weights pressing down on his chest, smothering him with the burden of responsibility. "What if I just don't make it?" he asked hoarsely. "What if I do everything right and just get beaten to it, like Sephiroth did? Won't I have caused even more problems?"
"Maybe, maybe not. If someone manages to destroy Sin even with a 'heretic' like you supposedly screwing everything up, then I think at least some people will be smart enough to figure out for themselves that you weren't sabotaging anything." Zack paused, and his voice took on a grim overtone. "Fact is, I don't think the fayth would be pushing you so hard if they weren't pretty damn sure you'd make it first."
Cloud doubted they had any way of being so certain, but if it comforted Zack to think so, he wouldn't argue. "I think I can promise not to give up if something... happens to you," he said, forcing the words past the lump in his throat. "But not... not if it's my fault. My doing. If I can't even control myself well enough to not kill my own guardian, then Rufus is right. I don't deserve to be a summoner."
"Well, then we'll just have to make sure that doesn't happen. I doubt it'll ever be that close a call again," Zack said. "So you promise to keep going no matter what, and I'll promise to do everything in my power to always be there for you. Deal?"
Cloud looked up to find Zack's hand extended towards him, and a smile firmly on his face. Cloud searched his eyes for some sign of fear or reluctance - he'd nearly fried the man with his most feared element just a few hours ago, after all. But there was nothing in Zack's expression but sincere friendliness and determination.
Silently Cloud sent a prayer to the fayth for strength, and felt the three aeons within him rise in response. He could only hope that he possessed half the resolution and sheer goodness that Zack did. He could start by making the promise Zack needed to hear. "Deal," he agreed, stepping forward to reach for Zack's hand.
Something brushed against Cloud's leg just before their fingers touched, and he had a brief second to think 'oh, a fish' before it curled around his ankle and yanked. Abruptly he was underwater, with no chance to draw air or warn Zack.
He flailed wildly as the water closed over his head, but there was nothing to grab. Whatever had hold of his foot was dragging him steadily deeper into the centre of the Moonflow. Twisting, Cloud saw a many-legged fiend with baleful orange eyes glowering back at him. One thick, rope-like appendage was twined firmly around his leg.
Already Cloud's lungs were burning with the need for air. A sudden flurry of bubbles and churning water marked where Zack had dived beneath the surface, but the fiend had pulled Cloud out of his reach. Through the murky water Cloud could just barely make out the desperate expression on Zack's face as he swam hard towards Cloud.
He wasn't going to make it in time, Cloud realized with rising panic. The fiend was a faster swimmer than Zack, even dragging Cloud's dead weight along. The urge to inhale was almost overwhelming, and Cloud wasn't going to be able to fight the instinct to breathe much longer.
In desperation he fumbled his sword out of its sheath and tried to hack at the fiend's limb. He landed one solid blow that made the creature writhe, but it didn't cut deep enough to force it to let go.
In the back of his mind the aeons were clamouring for release, but Cloud forced them back down. Maybe Eqeuh was done testing him, but maybe he wasn't. Cloud didn't dare release any of them unless he was absolutely certain he could control them, not even to save his own life.
The burn in his lungs was growing unbearable. Cloud clamped his hand over his mouth and nose, but he knew it was a useless gesture. Power surged within him, and then drained out of him abruptly. The water churned madly as something massive splashed into the river. To Cloud's horror, Eqeuh appeared out of the bubbles, lightning already charging at the tip of his horn.
Eqeuh tossed his head, as if he was neighing, though the sound was distorted by the water beyond recognition. Cloud saw Zack throw his hands up as if to shield himself, and then the whole world was full of the crackling lash of electricity through the water.
The fiend thrashed and writhed, and finally released his ankle. Too late - Cloud's body rebelled, expelling what little air he did have in a rush of bubbles, and fighting to draw more to replace it. Water rushed in, stinging all the way down, and Cloud choked and thrashed. It was too reminiscent of smothering in smoke as his house burned down around him. The memory brought the ghost of pain along with it, and his body convulsed.
He had just enough time to contemplate the irony of his last thought being of fire when he was dying surrounded by water, and then he was aware of nothing at all.