Xmas Giftfics 2013 Part 3
Okay, I give in, let’s have a trio of Fifth Act related giftfics.
Taking a break from all the travel posts to post some actual fanfic for a change, woo! Will probably only do one more post of these, apologies in advance to any I don’t get around to filling.
For gardensgnome
1. FFVII (I’m going to assume you meant TFA-verse with this prompt?)
2. Cloud and Kunsel
3. "You're showing a bit too much leg there. Maybe I should drive."
"Of course I'm showing leg. This is what happens when I'm stuck in a Gaia damned dress, trying to drive my bike and fight off monsters. I'd like to see you try."
AN: It basically wound up being 90% banter. I hope you like it.
The bike veered sharply to the right, throwing up a spray of grass and sand. The hounds howled for blood, claws scrabbling for purchase as they overshot.
Kunsel tossed another hail of ice into the pursuing pack, earning a handful of yelps. Several fell back, but the following horde surged forward, undeterred. "You know, you're showing a bit too much leg there. Maybe I should drive."
Cloud hit the release for the sword compartments, drawing out the smallest and lightest of his swords. "Of course I'm showing leg. This is what happens when I'm stuck in a Gaia damned dress, trying to drive my bike and fight off monsters. I'd like to see you try."
“No thanks. If Cissnei finds out I can pull off cross-dressing as well as you do I’ll never escape it. I’m not allowed to refuse missions like you.” Kunsel paused to lean over and cut down an oversized hound as it snarled at their heels. “Why did you accept this one?”
“It didn’t involve any cross-dressing when I accepted,” Cloud snapped, and gunned the accelerator. “Hang on.” Kunsel slung an arm around his waist in a crushing grip. The dark purple silk of his dress flared as they launched off an incline. The landing rattled their bones, but gained them precious distance from the pursuing mob.
“Seriously, I think I should take over. I can barely hit anything with the way you drive!” Kunsel said in his ear, then immediately proved himself wrong by throwing a bolt of lightning along their flank and taking out three more hounds in one hit. “Plus your hair keeps getting in my face. Can’t you take off the wig at least?”
“Does it look like I have a hand spare right now?” Cloud cut a sharp left, driving them into a thick grove of trees. Tree trunks whizzed past in a blur, twigs and leaves whipping their arms on a particularly close call. The hounds’ barking fell further back.
As the forest grew quiet around them, Cloud slowed the bike, pulling to a stop in a small clearing carpeted by dead leaves. He killed the engine, its sudden absence pressing on their ears.
“Think we lost them?” Kunsel asked when a solid minute passed in tranquil silence.
Cloud sighed, tucking the long blonde hair of his wig back behind his ears and tugging one of the loose straps back over his shoulder. His shawl had been lost somewhere near the start of the whole fracas, and he’d kicked off his heels somewhere on the bike ride so he could change gears quicker. “Probably not. But we’ve got enough breathing time for me to change into something more practical.”
“Ummm, yeah, about that.” Kunsel coughed into his hand. “When you took us through that creek…” He held up the muddy, sodden pack apologetically.
Cloud closed his eyes and rubbed a tired hand across his forehead.
“My offer to drive still stands. You know. It can’t be easy to steer in that.”
“You just want to drive my bike.”
“It’s a gorgeous bike,” Kunsel agreed.
“The answer is still no.”
“C’mon, Cloud, do you know how hard it is to -”
“Shhh.” Cloud went alert and Kunsel fell silent. Up ahead, the trees shuddered, leaves rustling as something passed through the forest. Something big. Something expressing low, rumbling, throaty displeasure at their presence.
The barking of the hounds at their back began to grow once more. And then, crashing into the clearing and rearing up on its hind legs...
“A grand horn,” Kunsel groaned. “Why the hell did I agree to go on a mission with you again? You’ve got even worse luck that Zack.”
For peangallery
A. Act V
B. Cloud & Act V
C. Would Act V people ever get to meet the Zack that's with(in) Cloud?
AN: This wound up way longer and not at all like what I’d intended but I hope it satisfies.
Genesis, naturally, was the first one to notice it.
“Cloud acts strange whenever he’s talking to the Director,” he opened without preamble.
“Which Cloud are you talking about?” Sephiroth asked.
“Don’t play stupid, you’re not fooling anyone. You know which Cloud.”
Sephiroth conceded with a tilt of his head. “How do you mean?”
“You haven’t noticed?” Genesis spent a long moment visibly struggling between smugness and indignation. Indignation won out. “I expected that from Angeal and Zack, but I thought you at least might have paid that much attention to your rival.”
“I’ve not had many opportunities to see them interact,” Sephiroth dismissed. “Everything considered, Lazard prefers not to assign us to the same mission.”
Genesis glowered at him, and then turned on his heel in a snap. “Very well then. Spend some time in Lazard’s office tomorrow. You’ll see what I mean.”
………………….
At first Sephiroth had been sceptical, especially when his old friend had insisted that he see for himself instead of explaining the source of his concern.
After Cloud had come and gone from both his mission briefing and subsequent report that day though, he began to see why. And he suspected Genesis’s insistence lay in the desire for a second opinion, as it was not a phenomenon easily explained.
“So?” Genesis demanded at the end of the day.
“You brought Zack and Kunsel for this too?” Sephiroth asked, directing a glance at the two. Zack gave him a cheerful wave.
“Naturally. They are often privy to information we are not.” Genesis emphasised this with a hard look at Kunsel, who valiantly kept his attention focused entirely on his PHS. It was no secret at this point that the Second Class knew far more about Cloud’s history than the rest of them, and resolutely refused to share any of it.
Genesis and Zack found it annoying. Sephiroth and Angeal found it worrying.
“You’ve all had the opportunity now to see it for yourselves,” Gensis continued. “What do you think?”
“I think you’re hypersensitive when it comes to Cloud,” Angeal said with a small smile.
“I think that I really don’t need to be here,” Kunsel announced, stood to leave the room, then froze under the combined stare of four First Classes. Shoulders slumping, he reluctantly retook his seat.
Mollified, Genesis turned his gaze on Sephiroth, imploring.
“I have to admit, I hadn’t noticed, but now… Genesis has a point,” he admitted.
Angeal raised an eyebrow. “How so?”
“Even among us, Cloud can be… taciturn.” It took him a moment to search for the most appropriate words. “But in Lazard’s presence he becomes… almost talkative. His stance changes. I wouldn’t say he was cheerful but…”
“He makes jokes,” Genesis interjected.
“Cloud makes jokes all the time!” Zack protested.
“I’m not sure if those lame sayings of his are meant to be jokes,” Kunsel muttered.
“Look, Lazard more or less sold him out to me and Hollander,” Angeal said in a low voice, plainly reluctant to even bring that memory up. “It’s hardly surprising that he acts a bit different.”
“The Turks were far more complicit when it came to Hojo, though, and he acts no different at all around them,” Genesis pointed out. “And in that event, doesn’t it make more sense if he were more silent rather than less? Like when he first came to ShinRa?”
“Why not just ask him about it?” Sephiroth said.
The room fell silent.
As always, Zack was the first to crack. “He’s got a point. What’s the worst that could happen?”
“He could try to kill Sephiroth again,” Angeal pointed out.
“Okay, so maybe Genesis can do the actual asking,” Zack amended. “…Is he still doing that? I thought we cured him of it.”
“I generally avoid testing my luck.” Sephiroth wasn’t sure which memory was the more unsettling - the sword biting into his shoulder, or Masamune piercing Cloud’s chest. “And Lazard has been brave enough lately to start complaining about property damages again.”
Zack remained undeterred. “Point is, worse that will probably happen is that he refuses to answer.” He crossed his arms. “It’s probably nothing, and we’re all just sitting here overthinking it.”
It was a valid point, and far more productive than having clandestine gossip sessions to guess what made their resident time traveller tick. Especially given their history of being fantastically incorrect in such respects.
With a plan made, they quickly dispersed - Zack’s PHS beeped with a message from his girlfriend in the slums so he disappeared out the door, and that seemed to signal the end of the discussion for everyone else.
Kunsel caught his arm before he could leave the room, though. Sephiroth blinked, staring down at the Second Class. He liked the SOLDIER well enough, but rarely did they ever interact directly. “SOLDIER?”
“Sorry sir. But just… when you go talk to Cloud, leave Zack behind okay? Make up an excuse, send him on a mission, anything.”
The request was odd, given the friendship the two SOLDIERs shared. “Why should we?”
Kunsel just shook his head. “I don’t think Genesis will let it go, so I won’t try to stop you bringing it up with Cloud. But please, sir. Just make sure you leave Zack out of it. He doesn’t need to know. And you shouldn’t put Cloud in that position.” His piece said, the Second Class slipped past him into the hallway.
Worrying, indeed.
………………..
Genesis wasn’t the patient sort. It wasn’t hard to convince him there was no need to wait for Zack for their ‘confrontation’. Angeal wanted to wait, but given the other two thirds of their trio were already halfway out the door, had no choice but to come along or be left behind. Kunsel, for his part, had made himself scarce - Sephiroth had not caught even a glimpse of the SOLDIER since that portentous exchange of words.
It was easy enough these days to track Cloud down now that Sephiroth had learned how to consciously exploit S-cells. He concentrated on the connection long enough to pinpoint the errant time traveller in one of the gyms of the lower levels - one which thankfully would be otherwise deserted at this time of day. Then cautiously sent a sort of burst of awareness along the link, to let him know they were coming.
Cloud hadn’t taken kindly to it to begin with, but he’d come to appreciate the ‘knock’ as good manners, and had even on occasion done the same in return. The social etiquette for managing their connection was still something of a work in progress, but there was progress.
As evidenced by the fact that when they reached the gym, Cloud was in the middle of reassembling his sword, instead of halfway across Midgar avoiding him.
“Cloud,” Sephiroth greeted.
“What’s going on?” he asked warily.
Genesis wasted no time on pleasantries. “You’ve presented us with yet another mystery, Cloud Strife. We want to know what your issue is with Lazard.”
Cloud blinked. A complex mishmash of emotions fluttered across his face before it shut down hard, back to the reserved, neutral Cloud they’d come to know. “What about it?”
“Genesis thinks you act a bit unnatural when dealing with him,” Angeal offered. “Rather than make assumptions about it, we figured it was better to just ask.”
Sephiroth kept quiet, watching carefully. Genesis huffed, crossing his arms with an annoyed glance at Angeal. “Your demeanour is dramatically different. You make jokes, and talk louder. It is not my imagination.”
Behind that carefully blank stare came the glimmer of realisation. “I... didn’t realise,” Cloud murmured. “It’s been so long since…” He looked strangely shaken by the revelation.
“Since what?” Sephiroth prompted.
“It’s… I guess you could call it a bad habit. Usually when I’ve been having a bad day, or I’m trying to hide something.” He hunched his shoulders, as though bracing against an invisible cold. “Every time I think I’ve finally kicked it, it creeps back in.”
“A habit?” Genesis repeated blankly.
Cloud didn’t respond to that. Just said, “Don’t worry about it. It doesn’t mean anything.”
“That’s a lie,” Sephiroth interjected. He didn’t even need the bond to tell that much. As difficult as Cloud could be to read, they’d all come to recognise his tells when he was being evasive.
Angeal gave Cloud a sympathetic glance and shrugged. “You know neither of them are going to let it go, you know. Zack either, when he hears about it.”
Suddenly Cloud’s gaze turned sharpened, swivelling to the SOLDIER with such abruptness that both Angeal and Genesis took a step back. “…If I tell you now, will you promise not to tell Zack about it?”
“Why-” Angeal started to ask, but Sephiroth cut him off.
“If it’s that important to you, you have our word.” He arched an eyebrow at Angeal, who looked displeased at leaving his protégé out for reasons unknown, but conceded easily enough. Like Genesis, he owed Cloud far too much to disagree with such an earnest request.
“In that case… maybe it’s best if I just show you.” Cloud straightened his shoulders, raised his head, and said, “Hey guys!”
It was only two words, but there was a world of difference between them. A certain swagger to his stance, a bolder projection to his voice, his vowels slightly snappier.
And Sephiroth suddenly realised why Kunsel had been so insistent that Zack not come.
Genesis didn’t make the connection immediately. “So you put on a more outgoing personality? What makes that such a terrible habit?”
“Ah, well, you see, there’s a little more to it than that…” Cloud rubbed the back of his neck, a trifle sheepishly.
That was when Angeal clued in. “Zack.”
Cloud turned and grinned - acutally grinned - at Angeal. And as unsettlingly different as that was, with the ghost of Zack Fair behind it, it didn’t look out of place on his face at all. “Got it in one.”
Then, as quickly as it had been donned, the cloak was shed, and Cloud Strife as they knew him stood before them once more.
“It’s a performance worthy of the finest of the actors,” Genesis murmured, in an envy threaded with awe.
“It’s not exactly a performance,” Cloud admitted in a voice now so low even Sephiroth strained to hear it. “And it’s a different Zack, to the one you know. Up to a certain point, until the Wutai War, they’re much the same, but after that…”
Cloud had always been reticent regarding their individual alternate histories - at least, beyond Sephiroth. It was easy to extrapolate that Genesis and Angeal would have fallen to degradation, and Cloud had mentioned never knowing Kunsel in his original timeline, but the matter of Zack Fair was never precisely settled. The death of his mentor may have driven him from the company, or he could have been felled in a mission, or even by Sephiroth himself.
This, however… this spoke of something far more unsettling.
“But why?” Angeal asked. “For what purpose?”
“It wasn’t - There was no purpose, exactly.” He shifted his weight, almost as though to turn and leave, but stayed his ground. He seemed resigned now that they wouldn’t leave without a more thorough explanation. “For months I didn’t even realise it. After the events at Nibelheim… I was messed up for a while.” They could all hear the omissions there, and could all guess what lay in those gaps. Hojo. The source of Cloud’s S-cells. “I don’t know exactly how it happened, but it might have been related to the fact that Zack was originally enhanced using the Project G method. I wound up with some of his memories. And since my memories were a mess…”
It was a disturbing notion. None of them had anything to offer in light of that.
“And when you did realise?” Angeal asked.
“I told you part of that story already. It took a while, but with the help of an old friend, I sorted out which parts were me and which… weren’t. But I’d been acting like that for so long, even after my memories were sorted out…” He shrugged.
“An actor struggling to let go of a role,” Genesis mused.
“Anyway,” Cloud concluded, “I didn’t realise I was doing it again. Thanks for letting me know, I guess - I should be able to avoid it in the future. And if you could not mention to Zack...”
All three of them nodded their swift agreement. And with that, the matter was closed. Cloud made his escape, and the three friends dispersed in awkward silence.
The answer to that mystery had been uncomfortable enough that none of them remembered to wonder what exactly Cloud wanted to hide from Lazard so badly.
AN: This one’s kind of a double whammy. Two fills for the price of one!
For Anon
A. The Fifth Act
B. Cloud (The older one)
You mention (imply?) in chapter 19 that Cloud had developed a fanclub at some point.
C. What does said fanclub do?
And also for tsuyuhime!
A. TFA
B. Cloud & whoever else you like
C. You implied that Cloud has fans in 'Highly Dangerous Merchandise', so I wanted to see something related to that (maybe a fan snapped a picture of Miss Cloud and it went viral, or something X3)
Cloud paused as his foot brushed the shiny card on the floor, very nearly kicking it under the lounge. Had one of the other SOLDIERs dropped their access card? He crouched to retrieve it - Gaia only knew Zack had lost his often enough and had to beg one of them to let him into the Equipment Room to look for it.
When he flipped the card over though, he stilled.
Kunsel chose that exact moment to wander into the SOLDIER lounge. “Hey, Cloud, I was just looking for - wait, is that one of the GC Trading Cards?” He leaned over his shoulder. “This one is really rare! It’s in good condition too. You know you could get some serious gil for this.”
Cloud fought for his voice. It came out slightly strangled. “It’s a photo of me dressed in drag.”
“I guess that’s why it’s a foil one,” Kunsel agreed, completely missing the point.
Cloud groped for a way to make some sort of sense of the nightmare he’d just stumbled in to. “Why am I on a trading card?” In drag?
“You don’t know? It was a thing started by your fanclub - you know, the Golden Chocobos?” Kunsel tilted his head at him. “Collectible cards, fifty cards all up. They started off just giving out a random pack at meetings, but lately the only way to get them is to trade or get them in one of their scavenger hunts or as prizes in a club event. It got really popular, actually, you’ve got the weirdest fans. Do you know they have an ongoing competition to see who can get closest to your high score in the Speed Square at the Gold Saucer?”
Cloud was, unfortunately, peripherally aware of the SOLDIER fanclubs, and once he became a First Class had resigned himself to the attention. It hadn’t been a big deal, he reasoned - nothing like Sephiroth’s fans, who formed an exclusive clique apparently, or Genesis’s Red Leather fans who outright stalked him. Overhearing the odd person recognising him on the street wasn’t all that different to the notoriety he’d been lumbered with back in his original timeline.
He’d considered himself lucky, all things considered. Until now.
“Who even took this picture?” He hadn’t seen a camera at all through that whole sordid ordeal.
Kunsel squinted at it. “Looks like it comes from one of the security feeds. Maybe you’ve got a fan in the Turks? I think I remember this getting circulated a couple of days after that mission. They were selling prints for a while.”
Shiva, how many copies of this were around now?
Wait. “You’re in the fanclub too?”
“Of course. I belong to all the fan clubs.” He fiddled with his PHS, showing Cloud his message list. Silver Elite, Study Group, Keepers of Honour, Golden Chocobos, Zack Fan Club… the messages went on and on and on. “Zack’s joined most them too. I think he even joined his own fan club.”
Cloud stared at the card in quiet horror, still struggling to process. “So you’re saving there are more of these.”
“Yeah, hang on, I think I have a couple.” He fished in his pockets, and came up with half a dozen cards. “I don’t have very many yet though. Genesis has the whole set.”
Cloud deliberately ignored that last sentence in favour of inspecting the cards in morbid fascination. They were all glossy and black-bordered, with the edging done in silver, framing a random collection of pictures. Some of them were normal enough - one of him fighting a monster in the slums, one of him eating in one of the diners in Sector 4, one that looked suspiciously like a photo Zack had taken in Aeris’s church.
Then there was one where he was halfway through unzipping his shirt. Then another one from the back where he wasn’t wearing a shirt at all. Another one where he was sleeping. Who the hell had even taken those?
“I don’t want to know anymore,” he muttered, and turned to go. Maybe he could request a mission from Lazard and kill some monsters until he could forget about it for a while.
“Hey, if you don’t want it, mind giving me that card? I don’t have that one yet,” Kunsel piped up.
Cloud threw it at him, and didn’t bother to see if the other SOLDIER caught it. Ignorance really was bliss.
Taking a break from all the travel posts to post some actual fanfic for a change, woo! Will probably only do one more post of these, apologies in advance to any I don’t get around to filling.
For gardensgnome
1. FFVII (I’m going to assume you meant TFA-verse with this prompt?)
2. Cloud and Kunsel
3. "You're showing a bit too much leg there. Maybe I should drive."
"Of course I'm showing leg. This is what happens when I'm stuck in a Gaia damned dress, trying to drive my bike and fight off monsters. I'd like to see you try."
AN: It basically wound up being 90% banter. I hope you like it.
The bike veered sharply to the right, throwing up a spray of grass and sand. The hounds howled for blood, claws scrabbling for purchase as they overshot.
Kunsel tossed another hail of ice into the pursuing pack, earning a handful of yelps. Several fell back, but the following horde surged forward, undeterred. "You know, you're showing a bit too much leg there. Maybe I should drive."
Cloud hit the release for the sword compartments, drawing out the smallest and lightest of his swords. "Of course I'm showing leg. This is what happens when I'm stuck in a Gaia damned dress, trying to drive my bike and fight off monsters. I'd like to see you try."
“No thanks. If Cissnei finds out I can pull off cross-dressing as well as you do I’ll never escape it. I’m not allowed to refuse missions like you.” Kunsel paused to lean over and cut down an oversized hound as it snarled at their heels. “Why did you accept this one?”
“It didn’t involve any cross-dressing when I accepted,” Cloud snapped, and gunned the accelerator. “Hang on.” Kunsel slung an arm around his waist in a crushing grip. The dark purple silk of his dress flared as they launched off an incline. The landing rattled their bones, but gained them precious distance from the pursuing mob.
“Seriously, I think I should take over. I can barely hit anything with the way you drive!” Kunsel said in his ear, then immediately proved himself wrong by throwing a bolt of lightning along their flank and taking out three more hounds in one hit. “Plus your hair keeps getting in my face. Can’t you take off the wig at least?”
“Does it look like I have a hand spare right now?” Cloud cut a sharp left, driving them into a thick grove of trees. Tree trunks whizzed past in a blur, twigs and leaves whipping their arms on a particularly close call. The hounds’ barking fell further back.
As the forest grew quiet around them, Cloud slowed the bike, pulling to a stop in a small clearing carpeted by dead leaves. He killed the engine, its sudden absence pressing on their ears.
“Think we lost them?” Kunsel asked when a solid minute passed in tranquil silence.
Cloud sighed, tucking the long blonde hair of his wig back behind his ears and tugging one of the loose straps back over his shoulder. His shawl had been lost somewhere near the start of the whole fracas, and he’d kicked off his heels somewhere on the bike ride so he could change gears quicker. “Probably not. But we’ve got enough breathing time for me to change into something more practical.”
“Ummm, yeah, about that.” Kunsel coughed into his hand. “When you took us through that creek…” He held up the muddy, sodden pack apologetically.
Cloud closed his eyes and rubbed a tired hand across his forehead.
“My offer to drive still stands. You know. It can’t be easy to steer in that.”
“You just want to drive my bike.”
“It’s a gorgeous bike,” Kunsel agreed.
“The answer is still no.”
“C’mon, Cloud, do you know how hard it is to -”
“Shhh.” Cloud went alert and Kunsel fell silent. Up ahead, the trees shuddered, leaves rustling as something passed through the forest. Something big. Something expressing low, rumbling, throaty displeasure at their presence.
The barking of the hounds at their back began to grow once more. And then, crashing into the clearing and rearing up on its hind legs...
“A grand horn,” Kunsel groaned. “Why the hell did I agree to go on a mission with you again? You’ve got even worse luck that Zack.”
For peangallery
A. Act V
B. Cloud & Act V
C. Would Act V people ever get to meet the Zack that's with(in) Cloud?
AN: This wound up way longer and not at all like what I’d intended but I hope it satisfies.
Genesis, naturally, was the first one to notice it.
“Cloud acts strange whenever he’s talking to the Director,” he opened without preamble.
“Which Cloud are you talking about?” Sephiroth asked.
“Don’t play stupid, you’re not fooling anyone. You know which Cloud.”
Sephiroth conceded with a tilt of his head. “How do you mean?”
“You haven’t noticed?” Genesis spent a long moment visibly struggling between smugness and indignation. Indignation won out. “I expected that from Angeal and Zack, but I thought you at least might have paid that much attention to your rival.”
“I’ve not had many opportunities to see them interact,” Sephiroth dismissed. “Everything considered, Lazard prefers not to assign us to the same mission.”
Genesis glowered at him, and then turned on his heel in a snap. “Very well then. Spend some time in Lazard’s office tomorrow. You’ll see what I mean.”
………………….
At first Sephiroth had been sceptical, especially when his old friend had insisted that he see for himself instead of explaining the source of his concern.
After Cloud had come and gone from both his mission briefing and subsequent report that day though, he began to see why. And he suspected Genesis’s insistence lay in the desire for a second opinion, as it was not a phenomenon easily explained.
“So?” Genesis demanded at the end of the day.
“You brought Zack and Kunsel for this too?” Sephiroth asked, directing a glance at the two. Zack gave him a cheerful wave.
“Naturally. They are often privy to information we are not.” Genesis emphasised this with a hard look at Kunsel, who valiantly kept his attention focused entirely on his PHS. It was no secret at this point that the Second Class knew far more about Cloud’s history than the rest of them, and resolutely refused to share any of it.
Genesis and Zack found it annoying. Sephiroth and Angeal found it worrying.
“You’ve all had the opportunity now to see it for yourselves,” Gensis continued. “What do you think?”
“I think you’re hypersensitive when it comes to Cloud,” Angeal said with a small smile.
“I think that I really don’t need to be here,” Kunsel announced, stood to leave the room, then froze under the combined stare of four First Classes. Shoulders slumping, he reluctantly retook his seat.
Mollified, Genesis turned his gaze on Sephiroth, imploring.
“I have to admit, I hadn’t noticed, but now… Genesis has a point,” he admitted.
Angeal raised an eyebrow. “How so?”
“Even among us, Cloud can be… taciturn.” It took him a moment to search for the most appropriate words. “But in Lazard’s presence he becomes… almost talkative. His stance changes. I wouldn’t say he was cheerful but…”
“He makes jokes,” Genesis interjected.
“Cloud makes jokes all the time!” Zack protested.
“I’m not sure if those lame sayings of his are meant to be jokes,” Kunsel muttered.
“Look, Lazard more or less sold him out to me and Hollander,” Angeal said in a low voice, plainly reluctant to even bring that memory up. “It’s hardly surprising that he acts a bit different.”
“The Turks were far more complicit when it came to Hojo, though, and he acts no different at all around them,” Genesis pointed out. “And in that event, doesn’t it make more sense if he were more silent rather than less? Like when he first came to ShinRa?”
“Why not just ask him about it?” Sephiroth said.
The room fell silent.
As always, Zack was the first to crack. “He’s got a point. What’s the worst that could happen?”
“He could try to kill Sephiroth again,” Angeal pointed out.
“Okay, so maybe Genesis can do the actual asking,” Zack amended. “…Is he still doing that? I thought we cured him of it.”
“I generally avoid testing my luck.” Sephiroth wasn’t sure which memory was the more unsettling - the sword biting into his shoulder, or Masamune piercing Cloud’s chest. “And Lazard has been brave enough lately to start complaining about property damages again.”
Zack remained undeterred. “Point is, worse that will probably happen is that he refuses to answer.” He crossed his arms. “It’s probably nothing, and we’re all just sitting here overthinking it.”
It was a valid point, and far more productive than having clandestine gossip sessions to guess what made their resident time traveller tick. Especially given their history of being fantastically incorrect in such respects.
With a plan made, they quickly dispersed - Zack’s PHS beeped with a message from his girlfriend in the slums so he disappeared out the door, and that seemed to signal the end of the discussion for everyone else.
Kunsel caught his arm before he could leave the room, though. Sephiroth blinked, staring down at the Second Class. He liked the SOLDIER well enough, but rarely did they ever interact directly. “SOLDIER?”
“Sorry sir. But just… when you go talk to Cloud, leave Zack behind okay? Make up an excuse, send him on a mission, anything.”
The request was odd, given the friendship the two SOLDIERs shared. “Why should we?”
Kunsel just shook his head. “I don’t think Genesis will let it go, so I won’t try to stop you bringing it up with Cloud. But please, sir. Just make sure you leave Zack out of it. He doesn’t need to know. And you shouldn’t put Cloud in that position.” His piece said, the Second Class slipped past him into the hallway.
Worrying, indeed.
………………..
Genesis wasn’t the patient sort. It wasn’t hard to convince him there was no need to wait for Zack for their ‘confrontation’. Angeal wanted to wait, but given the other two thirds of their trio were already halfway out the door, had no choice but to come along or be left behind. Kunsel, for his part, had made himself scarce - Sephiroth had not caught even a glimpse of the SOLDIER since that portentous exchange of words.
It was easy enough these days to track Cloud down now that Sephiroth had learned how to consciously exploit S-cells. He concentrated on the connection long enough to pinpoint the errant time traveller in one of the gyms of the lower levels - one which thankfully would be otherwise deserted at this time of day. Then cautiously sent a sort of burst of awareness along the link, to let him know they were coming.
Cloud hadn’t taken kindly to it to begin with, but he’d come to appreciate the ‘knock’ as good manners, and had even on occasion done the same in return. The social etiquette for managing their connection was still something of a work in progress, but there was progress.
As evidenced by the fact that when they reached the gym, Cloud was in the middle of reassembling his sword, instead of halfway across Midgar avoiding him.
“Cloud,” Sephiroth greeted.
“What’s going on?” he asked warily.
Genesis wasted no time on pleasantries. “You’ve presented us with yet another mystery, Cloud Strife. We want to know what your issue is with Lazard.”
Cloud blinked. A complex mishmash of emotions fluttered across his face before it shut down hard, back to the reserved, neutral Cloud they’d come to know. “What about it?”
“Genesis thinks you act a bit unnatural when dealing with him,” Angeal offered. “Rather than make assumptions about it, we figured it was better to just ask.”
Sephiroth kept quiet, watching carefully. Genesis huffed, crossing his arms with an annoyed glance at Angeal. “Your demeanour is dramatically different. You make jokes, and talk louder. It is not my imagination.”
Behind that carefully blank stare came the glimmer of realisation. “I... didn’t realise,” Cloud murmured. “It’s been so long since…” He looked strangely shaken by the revelation.
“Since what?” Sephiroth prompted.
“It’s… I guess you could call it a bad habit. Usually when I’ve been having a bad day, or I’m trying to hide something.” He hunched his shoulders, as though bracing against an invisible cold. “Every time I think I’ve finally kicked it, it creeps back in.”
“A habit?” Genesis repeated blankly.
Cloud didn’t respond to that. Just said, “Don’t worry about it. It doesn’t mean anything.”
“That’s a lie,” Sephiroth interjected. He didn’t even need the bond to tell that much. As difficult as Cloud could be to read, they’d all come to recognise his tells when he was being evasive.
Angeal gave Cloud a sympathetic glance and shrugged. “You know neither of them are going to let it go, you know. Zack either, when he hears about it.”
Suddenly Cloud’s gaze turned sharpened, swivelling to the SOLDIER with such abruptness that both Angeal and Genesis took a step back. “…If I tell you now, will you promise not to tell Zack about it?”
“Why-” Angeal started to ask, but Sephiroth cut him off.
“If it’s that important to you, you have our word.” He arched an eyebrow at Angeal, who looked displeased at leaving his protégé out for reasons unknown, but conceded easily enough. Like Genesis, he owed Cloud far too much to disagree with such an earnest request.
“In that case… maybe it’s best if I just show you.” Cloud straightened his shoulders, raised his head, and said, “Hey guys!”
It was only two words, but there was a world of difference between them. A certain swagger to his stance, a bolder projection to his voice, his vowels slightly snappier.
And Sephiroth suddenly realised why Kunsel had been so insistent that Zack not come.
Genesis didn’t make the connection immediately. “So you put on a more outgoing personality? What makes that such a terrible habit?”
“Ah, well, you see, there’s a little more to it than that…” Cloud rubbed the back of his neck, a trifle sheepishly.
That was when Angeal clued in. “Zack.”
Cloud turned and grinned - acutally grinned - at Angeal. And as unsettlingly different as that was, with the ghost of Zack Fair behind it, it didn’t look out of place on his face at all. “Got it in one.”
Then, as quickly as it had been donned, the cloak was shed, and Cloud Strife as they knew him stood before them once more.
“It’s a performance worthy of the finest of the actors,” Genesis murmured, in an envy threaded with awe.
“It’s not exactly a performance,” Cloud admitted in a voice now so low even Sephiroth strained to hear it. “And it’s a different Zack, to the one you know. Up to a certain point, until the Wutai War, they’re much the same, but after that…”
Cloud had always been reticent regarding their individual alternate histories - at least, beyond Sephiroth. It was easy to extrapolate that Genesis and Angeal would have fallen to degradation, and Cloud had mentioned never knowing Kunsel in his original timeline, but the matter of Zack Fair was never precisely settled. The death of his mentor may have driven him from the company, or he could have been felled in a mission, or even by Sephiroth himself.
This, however… this spoke of something far more unsettling.
“But why?” Angeal asked. “For what purpose?”
“It wasn’t - There was no purpose, exactly.” He shifted his weight, almost as though to turn and leave, but stayed his ground. He seemed resigned now that they wouldn’t leave without a more thorough explanation. “For months I didn’t even realise it. After the events at Nibelheim… I was messed up for a while.” They could all hear the omissions there, and could all guess what lay in those gaps. Hojo. The source of Cloud’s S-cells. “I don’t know exactly how it happened, but it might have been related to the fact that Zack was originally enhanced using the Project G method. I wound up with some of his memories. And since my memories were a mess…”
It was a disturbing notion. None of them had anything to offer in light of that.
“And when you did realise?” Angeal asked.
“I told you part of that story already. It took a while, but with the help of an old friend, I sorted out which parts were me and which… weren’t. But I’d been acting like that for so long, even after my memories were sorted out…” He shrugged.
“An actor struggling to let go of a role,” Genesis mused.
“Anyway,” Cloud concluded, “I didn’t realise I was doing it again. Thanks for letting me know, I guess - I should be able to avoid it in the future. And if you could not mention to Zack...”
All three of them nodded their swift agreement. And with that, the matter was closed. Cloud made his escape, and the three friends dispersed in awkward silence.
The answer to that mystery had been uncomfortable enough that none of them remembered to wonder what exactly Cloud wanted to hide from Lazard so badly.
AN: This one’s kind of a double whammy. Two fills for the price of one!
For Anon
A. The Fifth Act
B. Cloud (The older one)
You mention (imply?) in chapter 19 that Cloud had developed a fanclub at some point.
C. What does said fanclub do?
And also for tsuyuhime!
A. TFA
B. Cloud & whoever else you like
C. You implied that Cloud has fans in 'Highly Dangerous Merchandise', so I wanted to see something related to that (maybe a fan snapped a picture of Miss Cloud and it went viral, or something X3)
Cloud paused as his foot brushed the shiny card on the floor, very nearly kicking it under the lounge. Had one of the other SOLDIERs dropped their access card? He crouched to retrieve it - Gaia only knew Zack had lost his often enough and had to beg one of them to let him into the Equipment Room to look for it.
When he flipped the card over though, he stilled.
Kunsel chose that exact moment to wander into the SOLDIER lounge. “Hey, Cloud, I was just looking for - wait, is that one of the GC Trading Cards?” He leaned over his shoulder. “This one is really rare! It’s in good condition too. You know you could get some serious gil for this.”
Cloud fought for his voice. It came out slightly strangled. “It’s a photo of me dressed in drag.”
“I guess that’s why it’s a foil one,” Kunsel agreed, completely missing the point.
Cloud groped for a way to make some sort of sense of the nightmare he’d just stumbled in to. “Why am I on a trading card?” In drag?
“You don’t know? It was a thing started by your fanclub - you know, the Golden Chocobos?” Kunsel tilted his head at him. “Collectible cards, fifty cards all up. They started off just giving out a random pack at meetings, but lately the only way to get them is to trade or get them in one of their scavenger hunts or as prizes in a club event. It got really popular, actually, you’ve got the weirdest fans. Do you know they have an ongoing competition to see who can get closest to your high score in the Speed Square at the Gold Saucer?”
Cloud was, unfortunately, peripherally aware of the SOLDIER fanclubs, and once he became a First Class had resigned himself to the attention. It hadn’t been a big deal, he reasoned - nothing like Sephiroth’s fans, who formed an exclusive clique apparently, or Genesis’s Red Leather fans who outright stalked him. Overhearing the odd person recognising him on the street wasn’t all that different to the notoriety he’d been lumbered with back in his original timeline.
He’d considered himself lucky, all things considered. Until now.
“Who even took this picture?” He hadn’t seen a camera at all through that whole sordid ordeal.
Kunsel squinted at it. “Looks like it comes from one of the security feeds. Maybe you’ve got a fan in the Turks? I think I remember this getting circulated a couple of days after that mission. They were selling prints for a while.”
Shiva, how many copies of this were around now?
Wait. “You’re in the fanclub too?”
“Of course. I belong to all the fan clubs.” He fiddled with his PHS, showing Cloud his message list. Silver Elite, Study Group, Keepers of Honour, Golden Chocobos, Zack Fan Club… the messages went on and on and on. “Zack’s joined most them too. I think he even joined his own fan club.”
Cloud stared at the card in quiet horror, still struggling to process. “So you’re saving there are more of these.”
“Yeah, hang on, I think I have a couple.” He fished in his pockets, and came up with half a dozen cards. “I don’t have very many yet though. Genesis has the whole set.”
Cloud deliberately ignored that last sentence in favour of inspecting the cards in morbid fascination. They were all glossy and black-bordered, with the edging done in silver, framing a random collection of pictures. Some of them were normal enough - one of him fighting a monster in the slums, one of him eating in one of the diners in Sector 4, one that looked suspiciously like a photo Zack had taken in Aeris’s church.
Then there was one where he was halfway through unzipping his shirt. Then another one from the back where he wasn’t wearing a shirt at all. Another one where he was sleeping. Who the hell had even taken those?
“I don’t want to know anymore,” he muttered, and turned to go. Maybe he could request a mission from Lazard and kill some monsters until he could forget about it for a while.
“Hey, if you don’t want it, mind giving me that card? I don’t have that one yet,” Kunsel piped up.
Cloud threw it at him, and didn’t bother to see if the other SOLDIER caught it. Ignorance really was bliss.