(no subject)
Lookit. New chapter. This goes so quickly... Oo; And my beta is wonderful for betaing so quickly~ And, in other words... I WANT FFXII NOW. D: I don't want to have to wait half a year... *emotear*
Title: Storm
Summary: Jenova isn't asleep any longer, and she wants Gaia to bow down to her. Avalanche wants ShinRa to go down in a blaze of fire. Aerith, Zack and Cloud just want Sephiroth back.
Sequel to The Golden Chocobo.
Rating: PG-13 overall
Pairing: S+C, Z+A (and others)
Genre: AU, drama
Type: Multi-chapter
Disclaimer: FVII's not mine, just the idea~
Chapter 4
When they finally emerged from the Mithril Mines the next morning, it was a relief to see the bright autumn sun hanging like a jewel in the sky. Cloud hoped the threatening storm clouds he could see hanging somewhere on the other side of the ocean wouldn't come closer.
"What? What's wrong with Fred, Kali, or Black? The last describes her perfectly!" Zack exclaimed where he was walking in the front with Aerith and the black female chocobo, who had indeed stayed with them through the mines, and still didn't show any sign of leaving... to Cloud's dismay. Even if it would be practical to have an extra chocobo around.
"Zack... " Aerith sighed, but a small smile was still on her lips. She had, for whatever reason, vetoed all of Zack's suggestions for names... but he was glad she'd immediately shot down the "Let's call her Sex!" which had been accompanied with a grin in Cloud's direction.
"Zack. She told me a while ago that her name is Broken Feather. She got it while escaping from a human, who unfortunately managed to catch her brother." Cloud finally decided to butt in and make the stream of strange names stop. His friends turned around to look at him, Aerith with a grin and Zack with a faintly frustrated expression on his face.
"Why didn't you say so earlier, then?" He complained with a slight pout on his face, which looked rather ridiculous, if cute.
"You seemed to be having fun." Cloud shrugged, keeping the grin off his face as Aerith giggled.
"Let's call her Feather for short then. And now that you say it, Cloud, one of her head plume feathers is broken off." Stone had given way to grass while they'd talked, and their steps were silent now, rustling whispers in the thick, slightly yellowing grass of the Junon plain. The wind, carrying a sweet scent of late flowers and autumn forests, changed direction slightly, ruffling their hair. Cloud and the newly dubbed Feather cocked their heads almost in tune.
"Blood. Someone's been hurt. Could just be a monster, of course..." Cloud trailed off but the shared glance was disbelieving. There would be faint sounds of animals or monsters feeding if that was the case, but as everything was silent and the blood scent strong and close, that could not be it.
***
"What're you looking at?! Wanna fight?" The challenging cry died out in a wet cough, blood bubbling up. "I'll take you on! As soon as I've... rested some." Another cough, and the girl collapsed down on the grass, blood dyeing the yellow-green grass a dark rusty color. That she was still trying to move with blood seeping out of several large slashes on her body was impressive.
"At least she's not spilling innards everywhere." Zack pointed out as Aerith ran past him and went down on her knees beside the dark haired girl, green light and sparkling, star-like reflections cascading around the two. Cloud snorted and watched the slashes slowly close from gaping wounds to thin red lines only seeping blood.
Zack easily caught Aerith as she started to fall backwards, hugging her to his chest. The girl tried to get up almost immediately, but collapsed again, and Cloud's hand on her stomach kept her there.
"Just because Aerith healed you doesn't mean you've got your strength back. What happened? Who did this?"
Gray eyes blazed at him defiantly, but she seemed to accept her newly imposed limits, for now at least.
"You're not even gonna ask my name? It's Yuffie Kisaragi, and some guy with girly, silver-colored hair and this giant sword that looked a lot like it came from Wutai just jumped me, for no reason at all! The manners of some people!" Yuffie huffed, voice wheezing slightly at the end as she tried to sit up and flail her hands to emphasize her point. "Of course, I fought back and almost had him. He got away though. Why do you want to know?" Her eyes narrowed in speculation, and Cloud winced, wondering if he'd been so obvious in his eagerness.
Then he caught her gaze flickering from his face to slightly above his right shoulder... Glancing to the side, he wondered why she was staring at the hilt of Triad... Huh.
Maybe... Fingering the hilt with one hand, Cloud cocked his head slightly.
"He owes us a few things. Would you tell us which direction he went if I gave you this?" He loosened one of the materia he had equipped and held it up for her to see. Her hand twitched but was held still by sheer will.
"Maybe. You don't believe me do you? I can show you! And then I could just take all your materia!"
"You can't even stand, squirt, so how will you fight?" Zack looked up from where he'd been talking quietly with Aerith, smirking as Yuffie's face flushed and her eyes narrowed.
"I can take you, old man! Just come here!" And while Yuffie's spirit didn't lack in energy, her body wasn't really agreeing with her and she ended up groaning, face taking on a white tint as she moved slightly too much for her abused body to take, even if she was mostly healed.
"Stop teasing her, Zack." Aerith tugged at one of the strands that fell across Zack's forehead, grinning teasingly at his outraged expression.
"She called me "old man"!" Zack sounded downright scandalized, and Yuffie took the time to stick out her tongue at him before reluctantly giving in to her body's demands of lying back down on the grass. Not that that was too pleasant, what with it being drenched with her own dried blood.
"I'll take her to Fort Condor. It's closest, and she needs to rest." Aerith stood up, brushed off her dress and checked on her staff. Cloud frowned and stood up, grabbing Yuffie's hand almost distractedly and making her drop the materia she'd snagged off of him.
"But how're we going to get past the guards? They don't like ShinRa." Not that he was going to deny their right to dislike ShinRa and its army, but that meant they couldn't just traipse in and not expect any opposition. Aerith looked back over her shoulder from where she was helping Yuffie up on Feather's back.
"Yes, so that means you two are going to have to wait here while I get Yuffie to Fort Condor. That way we can avoid any unnecessary fighting. Be nice now, boys, and wait here for me. I'll give you your materia when you're settled in, Yuffie... and after you've told me which way the man who attacked you went." A quick kiss to Zack and Cloud's respective cheeks, ignoring Yuffie's momentary ‘damn, I’d thought they'd forgotten’ expression and then she led Feather away towards the rocky pike where Fort Condor lay.
Cloud and Zack were left standing by a spot of plains grass darkened by blood in the bright sunlight.
Aerith was fully capable to take care of herself, they both knew, but she preferred not to fight, and if she got tangled up in trouble... So when Feather, with Aerith sitting serenely on her back and giving a wave as she came closer, came into view, it was a relief.
"Don't look so serious, you two. I haven't even been gone two hours." Aerith shook her head, bright eyes sparkling in the sunlight. It's nice to have people care about you, after all.
"Did she tell you anything?" Cloud sounded subdued, but in the narrowed eyes and tight set of his mouth, there was determination. He seemed to have gotten something back, in the past two days.
"Yes. North-eastern direction, so Junon would be the most logical destination for now. I wonder where he... it?... is going..." Aerith muttered the last, but there was a faint frown that, despite it disappearing very quickly, gave the hint of that she had at the least an idea.
"So let's go! We won't get any closer to our runaway if we stand here dallying." Zack grinned and walked by Feather's side, shoulder brushing Aerith's knee every few steps. Cloud, while he'd have wanted to walk on Aerith's other side, didn't feel that comfortable with the obvious flirting behavior of Feather, and instead walked at Zack's side, ignoring his friends’ muffled laughs.
There were small copses of trees on their right side, soon growing into a forest with green leaves that were shifting into royal red, burning orange and a faint yellow. Almost like a sunset in the middle of the day, casting jeweled shadows over them as they walked along the fringe to get some cover from the still-strong sunlight.
The faint breeze didn't give much relief from the late autumn heat, but it did bring with it a scent of growing green things and grass, sleepily maturing and getting ready for winter. It was a hazy, warm stillness, almost dream-like in its lazy progression, and finding Yuffie lying there, bleeding on the plain behind them somehow seemed far away.
But the presence of the storm clouds, swollen blue-black with a tinge of purple on the underside over the ocean reminded them things were not as they should be... even if those clouds also seemed to add to the picture.
Cloud and Feather, and a bit later, Zack, smelled the city of Junon before they saw it by rounding the rolling, mountainous outcropping covered in trees; the scent of oil and salt water was sharp in the air, mingling together in a way that made both Cloud and Feather shake their heads slightly and give small, identical snort-sounds.
***
The small fishing village was shadowed by the giant structure of the Junon Cannon rising above it, still in clear view as they stopped a fair bit away from the town behind a hill.
"We can just walk in, and while it won't be too hard to get up on the elevator, we need some sort of explanation why we're here. SOLDIERs aren't that usual, and while any Trooper won't question us too much..." Zack trailed off with a shrug, and petted Feather's neck, passing her a green as he did so, and automatically giving one over to Cloud too.
"We could always pretend we're escorting Aerith for... the Professor." He had to force out the last, even just suggesting hiding behind his "uncle's" name and occupation was disgusting. Unfortunately, it was a good idea, and Aerith *was* someone Kevin would like to get his hands on.
"While I would like to say "no", just on principle..." Zack sighed and frowned.
"It is a good idea, and one that actually carries a measure of truth. In a way." Aerith finished the thought for them out loud, a frown present on her face too. It wasn't anything serious, or big, but the idea was just... unpleasant. But since the sun had gone down about an hour ago, it was fast becoming chilly and they didn't particularly want to stay out here for the night just to push the inevitable back to the next day.
"Well, just sit there and look pretty, Aerith, and we'll get in, no problem." Zack grinned in an attempt to lighten the atmosphere - such a little thing, and yet it got everybody so subdued - grabbed Feather's reins and led the way in to Junon, Cloud on Feather's other side for once.
***
A smattering of steps announced someone running in their direction, and they didn't seem to be stopping. A small body collided with Cloud's and there was a surprised oomph.
"Hey. Look where you're running. Someone could've gotten hurt." Cloud frowned and stepped back from the girl who had come running down the stairs of the house they had just walked past.
"Sorry. Bye!" She looked up quickly at him, bit her lip and then darted around him and around Feather's back.
"Kh-HEY. If you don't want to get hurt, don't run behind a chocobo!" It wasn't just for the girl's sake, or for Feather's, that he'd said that. He could feel his own leg wanting to kick out at the thing behind him when she'd run by. It was very unpleasant to have someone walk behind him when he couldn't see them.
"Sorry!" She didn't even pause, just waved a hand and ran on down to the only strip of beach still unoccupied by ShinRa. Stupid girl. One of these days she was going to get hurt if she didn't look out better.
Shaking his head, Cloud shrugged as Zack and Aerith threw him a glance and then they continued down the single street of the small village, to the steel and cable construction of the elevator that led up to Junon.
"Your business in Junon?" The Trooper shifted slightly as he was faced with two SOLDIERs, but his voice was steady and the hand on his rifle didn't tighten or shake.
"SOLDIER, First and Second Class. We're escorting a woman that the Head of the Science Department, Professor Kevin, is interested in." Zack's voice was kept in a steady, slightly irritated drawl, but the Trooper didn't seem to be impressed... not that you could see much of him or his expressions with the helmet and the scarf covering more or less all of his face.
"I see. But, Sir, since the parade for President Rufus is in two days, we can't just allow anyone up there."
Zack's dark eyes narrowed dangerously.
"Are you refusing us access to the elevator, Trooper? Do you really want to go against the Professor's wishes?"
"Oh, I wouldn't dream of it, Sir, and yes, I'd go against his wishes any day. The man gives me the creeps."
Cloud snickered silently as the Trooper tipped back his helmet and loosened the scarf slightly, revealing straight blond hair and dark brown eyes.
"Hey, Marle. I didn't know you'd been stationed here." Cloud waved and his former room mate shrugged, grinning slightly.
"I'm not. But due to the parade there's a god-awful amount of Troopers running around. The city's having a blast with all the profit they're accumulating due to this. Just go on up, Sir. You're lucky, since the last boat until the parade is over leaves tomorrow at noon, if it's a boat you need. But, some Turks came earlier today to keep an eye on the place and make sure it's safe for the President, as if we can't do that, so I'd be careful and avoid them if I were you." Marle shrugged and pushed the button to call the elevator with the butt of his rifle.
"You knew we were coming?" Zack frowned, not exactly happy about this, even if it only was one of Cloud's friends.
"Don't worry about it, Sir. Romero sent me a heads-up. It wasn't anything through official channels. And, he also told me to tell you if you came past, to be careful to not be seen by the Turks. They've apparently been assigned to find General Sephiroth, and that means keeping an eye on you too, since you're also after him."
The large doors opened with a soft hiss, admitting the three inside as Marle finished talking.
"I'll send word to someone on the ship that you're coming. Don't worry, I'll keep mum." Marle waved with his rifle as a goodbye as the doors closed and they started moving upwards. Feather shifted nervously, not liking the dim and enclosed space. Aerith petted her neck, the only sounds the muted clicking of Feather's claws on the metal, and the squeaking of leather.
***
They were utterly ruined. Scowling faintly, Cloud took off his blood-drenched and torn gloves, letting them fall to the ground nonchalantly. He'd take them with him when he left, but for now he just wanted to feel the air on his hands, even filled with the stench of blood from the impromptu battlefield.
Silver and black in the corner of his eye, and he instantly relaxed.
"I think we got them all, General. Do you want a report now?" It wasn't that hard to keep the relationships he had with Sephiroth separate. He was both lover-owner and superior, and they were both separate and the same. There was no conflict. Sephiroth shook his head, a faint curl at the corner of his lips the only indication of "well done".
"No. Look after your troops first, get back home, and have a report finished for the morning briefing."
Cloud saluted and then turned back to the battlefield in the middle of Midgar. A rebel cell had been found and they had been ordered to take care of it.
But why it had to be done in this fashion... frowning, he left those thoughts and went back to his job as the commanding officer and only SOLDIER, newly Third Class, who was around. Sephiroth had already left.
"How did it go?" Silent question-demand, and Cloud shrugged, leaning his head against Sephiroth's knee. He still rather liked this position.
"Alright. But I don't see why we have to--"
"Not that, Cloud. This was the first time you used your new sword for anything other than practice." Slight reprimand, and Cloud shrugged again, but did answer the question.
"Good. It gives me more versatility than a standard blade. It's harder of course to use all three blades, but I like it. And I'm used to it. Three claws on my feet as a chocobo." Really, it wasn't as if he suddenly was going to say it was too much work, too hard to use Triad... He'd trained long and hard to be able to use it effectively, he wasn't going to give up on it now. Sephiroth's hand in his hair tightened slightly, and he tipped his head back to meet the fire in those green eyes.
"Good. I was starting to wonder when you'd choose something for yourself, and not something for my or Zack's benefit." No expression except the softening of the fire in his eyes and of the hand in his hair, rubbing gently against his scalp.
Cloud smiled (even if Sephiroth had gotten it slightly wrong... getting the materia so he could turn human, the new sword... for him. He wasn't as selfless as Sephiroth probably thought... Seeking approval of those you loved was a rather selfish thing after all...) and leaned as well as he could into the touch with his head tilted back as it were and flexed his fingers, still getting used to the feel of gloves.
He didn't like gloves much, they were too constraining, but they were needed for the kind of work they did. And they did feel kind of nice on your naked body...
***
The shadows were chilly still as they hid in one of the alleys the next morning, Zack looking around a corner and then nodding.
"They're gone. This is starting to get ridiculous." Snorting, they quickly crossed the street and wandered down it until they came to the next alley that would win them some time, and hopefully some protection from wandering Turk eyes, as they tried to get down to the docks in time for the noon boat.
They had time left, still, but from the beginning of the morning when they'd barely missed the Turks wandering into the bar where they'd had some breakfast to this strange hide-and-go-seek where the Turks seemed to pop up on every street they had to cross, time was starting to feel short.
Their frustration stemmed from the fact that it was clearly pure chance that they were almost meeting all the time, since there were no questions from the Turks to the townspeople about two SOLDIERs and a pink-clad young woman, only the occasional frustrated statement that Sephiroth seemed to either be, or had been, lurking around the city, but no one had seen him since yesterday, and why where they looking up here, anyway, since he'd been seen closer to the docks? The last part had come from the blonde young woman, obviously a new fish, but doing rather well, considering.
They were crossing yet another street when the tell-tale dark blue suits suddenly came into view, and Zack and Aerith dashed into the alley they were aiming for, while Cloud had to stumble inside a shop, barely avoiding the curious glance from the blonde woman as he disappeared inside.
"Oh, my, what a handsome young man! Looking for something for your girlfriend?" The woman behind the counter tittered and Cloud coughed, shaking his head.
"N-no. I'm not. Sorry. I was just... just..." The heavy perfume scent from the bottles around was almost overwhelming, and he couldn't see any of the Turks through the large window... maybe they'd left? He inched back towards the door when it suddenly opened and he was side-to-front with the Turk woman.
"Was just waiting for my friend." He grabbed her arms and exchanged places with her, slipping outside and ignoring her surprised cry. She must have caught sight of him, however briefly and thought it worth to check up on.
The shadows of the alley were a relief.
***
"You're lucky you came in time, otherwise you'd have had to wait until tomorrow at the earliest, and it isn't certain you would have been allowed to go on that ship either." The crewman putting away the last of the cargo waved them aboard, showing them where they could let Feather stay for the trip over the ocean.
"Not often we have chocobos as part of the cargo. Unusual color too." He petted her and left, telling them to ask someone if they needed anything.
"Well, that was close. We were lucky she didn't get any real look at you, Spike. Otherwise they could have confirmed we came by here." Zack rubbed a hand over his face and sat down by Feather, Aerith smiling at the picture they made and as the ship started to move, she too sat down beside them.
"Urgh." Not even ten minutes into the trip, and he was already feeling nauseous. He didn't like anything that moved without him doing the moving, and his body didn't either, it appeared. A hand dragged him down to sit between Zack and Aerith, their bodies warm, a feeling of safety from the rather cramped position, almost making it seem as if everything was still instead of moving.
"Go to sleep, Cloud. You won’t feel nauseous then." Aerith's hand was soft as she gently tugged on a strand of spiky hair, pushing his head slightly so it was resting on Zack's shoulder.
~Absorb, be one, give in. Pale blue, flashes of red and magenta. Something pulling at him, carefully, demandingly. Incomprehension. Why so different? Let me see... He won't give in without you. Won't give in with you. Need. Let me see. Pushing against him, teasing with dripping dark poison trying to get in. Silver forcing the clinging pollution away, but... Absorb. Be one. GIVE IN.~
With a gasp, Cloud jerked upright, waking Aerith who'd been leaning her head against his shoulder. There was no one around except them and a crewman that had wide-eyed nervousness written all over his face.
"We've just arrived in Costa del Sol. If you could get off so we could start unloading, that would be good." The man fled. Cloud stood up, breathing sharp in his ears and heart thundering. What had that been? Something had been close... had been about to... but it had backed off, whatever it had been, leaving him with screaming nerves and tingling thoughts, feeling cold all over.
"Cloud?"
"I'm alright." Shaking his head, he bit his lower lip and left before his friends. They would be right behind him anyway, he knew, and the sun and heat of the early Costa del Sol morning was wonderful, even if the stifling heat made it somewhat hard to breathe. It chased away the last of the chill just as Aerith and Zack, with Feather in tow, joined him on the dock.
The familiar white coat in the middle of a small escort of Troopers, however, paused anything that might have been said and made all of them tense in preparation for confrontation.
"Professor Kevin." Who said it first, and who ended the sentence, between Zack and Cloud, was hard to know, the angry hiss almost being drenched in the moist heat of Costa del Sol.
"Nephew... And your SOLDIER friend and the Cetra woman. Come to hand her over?" Kevin didn't sound as if he believed it, but there was a certain greedy longing tinged with demand in his voice. He was pale, too. Paler than he'd been only a few days ago, blue eyes bright, almost painfully so even without mako, and his lips had a faint bluish tone, almost as if he couldn't breathe properly.
"Dream on, Professor. What're you doing here?" Zack's eyes were narrowed and he laid one hand on Aerith's shoulder. Had they been found out anyway, and followed? The man started chuckling, shaking his head and making the yellow strands dance... It almost looked as if they were moving slightly too much, moving on their own in a confusing illusion, leaving them to wonder if the hair really was moving or not.
"Following what is slipping between my fingers, even as I thought I finally had it. Won't you give me the Cetra woman?" There was an unpleasant sparkle in his eyes, but he shook his head, holding up a hand before they could say anything.
"No, no. Ignore that. She's not perfect anyhow." He turned around, voice falling into a whisper, but both Zack and Cloud could still hear him. "Perfection is the one they call Jenova. I almost had her. And now I have to go back home again for her... Not my day. Not at all..." Kevin muttered to himself and left with his escort, leaving the rather confused trio standing on the Costa del Sol wharf.
"Home... That'd be Nibelheim, since he's Mom's brother..." Cloud said softly, trailing off with a faint frown on his face. The Professor had been behaving rather strange...
"Nibelheim, eh? Well, at least we have a definite destination, but you have to wonder what Jenova's going there for." Zack scratched his scalp and then urged Feather on. It was early still, and they needed to get a move on.
Nibelheim...
***
(W00t. Finished for now. For some reason I really like this chapter. It feels good. Nibelheim next. Anyone who wants to get off the train before the brainbreak happens, better do so now. xD;)
Title: Storm
Summary: Jenova isn't asleep any longer, and she wants Gaia to bow down to her. Avalanche wants ShinRa to go down in a blaze of fire. Aerith, Zack and Cloud just want Sephiroth back.
Sequel to The Golden Chocobo.
Rating: PG-13 overall
Pairing: S+C, Z+A (and others)
Genre: AU, drama
Type: Multi-chapter
Disclaimer: FVII's not mine, just the idea~
Chapter 4
When they finally emerged from the Mithril Mines the next morning, it was a relief to see the bright autumn sun hanging like a jewel in the sky. Cloud hoped the threatening storm clouds he could see hanging somewhere on the other side of the ocean wouldn't come closer.
"What? What's wrong with Fred, Kali, or Black? The last describes her perfectly!" Zack exclaimed where he was walking in the front with Aerith and the black female chocobo, who had indeed stayed with them through the mines, and still didn't show any sign of leaving... to Cloud's dismay. Even if it would be practical to have an extra chocobo around.
"Zack... " Aerith sighed, but a small smile was still on her lips. She had, for whatever reason, vetoed all of Zack's suggestions for names... but he was glad she'd immediately shot down the "Let's call her Sex!" which had been accompanied with a grin in Cloud's direction.
"Zack. She told me a while ago that her name is Broken Feather. She got it while escaping from a human, who unfortunately managed to catch her brother." Cloud finally decided to butt in and make the stream of strange names stop. His friends turned around to look at him, Aerith with a grin and Zack with a faintly frustrated expression on his face.
"Why didn't you say so earlier, then?" He complained with a slight pout on his face, which looked rather ridiculous, if cute.
"You seemed to be having fun." Cloud shrugged, keeping the grin off his face as Aerith giggled.
"Let's call her Feather for short then. And now that you say it, Cloud, one of her head plume feathers is broken off." Stone had given way to grass while they'd talked, and their steps were silent now, rustling whispers in the thick, slightly yellowing grass of the Junon plain. The wind, carrying a sweet scent of late flowers and autumn forests, changed direction slightly, ruffling their hair. Cloud and the newly dubbed Feather cocked their heads almost in tune.
"Blood. Someone's been hurt. Could just be a monster, of course..." Cloud trailed off but the shared glance was disbelieving. There would be faint sounds of animals or monsters feeding if that was the case, but as everything was silent and the blood scent strong and close, that could not be it.
***
"What're you looking at?! Wanna fight?" The challenging cry died out in a wet cough, blood bubbling up. "I'll take you on! As soon as I've... rested some." Another cough, and the girl collapsed down on the grass, blood dyeing the yellow-green grass a dark rusty color. That she was still trying to move with blood seeping out of several large slashes on her body was impressive.
"At least she's not spilling innards everywhere." Zack pointed out as Aerith ran past him and went down on her knees beside the dark haired girl, green light and sparkling, star-like reflections cascading around the two. Cloud snorted and watched the slashes slowly close from gaping wounds to thin red lines only seeping blood.
Zack easily caught Aerith as she started to fall backwards, hugging her to his chest. The girl tried to get up almost immediately, but collapsed again, and Cloud's hand on her stomach kept her there.
"Just because Aerith healed you doesn't mean you've got your strength back. What happened? Who did this?"
Gray eyes blazed at him defiantly, but she seemed to accept her newly imposed limits, for now at least.
"You're not even gonna ask my name? It's Yuffie Kisaragi, and some guy with girly, silver-colored hair and this giant sword that looked a lot like it came from Wutai just jumped me, for no reason at all! The manners of some people!" Yuffie huffed, voice wheezing slightly at the end as she tried to sit up and flail her hands to emphasize her point. "Of course, I fought back and almost had him. He got away though. Why do you want to know?" Her eyes narrowed in speculation, and Cloud winced, wondering if he'd been so obvious in his eagerness.
Then he caught her gaze flickering from his face to slightly above his right shoulder... Glancing to the side, he wondered why she was staring at the hilt of Triad... Huh.
Maybe... Fingering the hilt with one hand, Cloud cocked his head slightly.
"He owes us a few things. Would you tell us which direction he went if I gave you this?" He loosened one of the materia he had equipped and held it up for her to see. Her hand twitched but was held still by sheer will.
"Maybe. You don't believe me do you? I can show you! And then I could just take all your materia!"
"You can't even stand, squirt, so how will you fight?" Zack looked up from where he'd been talking quietly with Aerith, smirking as Yuffie's face flushed and her eyes narrowed.
"I can take you, old man! Just come here!" And while Yuffie's spirit didn't lack in energy, her body wasn't really agreeing with her and she ended up groaning, face taking on a white tint as she moved slightly too much for her abused body to take, even if she was mostly healed.
"Stop teasing her, Zack." Aerith tugged at one of the strands that fell across Zack's forehead, grinning teasingly at his outraged expression.
"She called me "old man"!" Zack sounded downright scandalized, and Yuffie took the time to stick out her tongue at him before reluctantly giving in to her body's demands of lying back down on the grass. Not that that was too pleasant, what with it being drenched with her own dried blood.
"I'll take her to Fort Condor. It's closest, and she needs to rest." Aerith stood up, brushed off her dress and checked on her staff. Cloud frowned and stood up, grabbing Yuffie's hand almost distractedly and making her drop the materia she'd snagged off of him.
"But how're we going to get past the guards? They don't like ShinRa." Not that he was going to deny their right to dislike ShinRa and its army, but that meant they couldn't just traipse in and not expect any opposition. Aerith looked back over her shoulder from where she was helping Yuffie up on Feather's back.
"Yes, so that means you two are going to have to wait here while I get Yuffie to Fort Condor. That way we can avoid any unnecessary fighting. Be nice now, boys, and wait here for me. I'll give you your materia when you're settled in, Yuffie... and after you've told me which way the man who attacked you went." A quick kiss to Zack and Cloud's respective cheeks, ignoring Yuffie's momentary ‘damn, I’d thought they'd forgotten’ expression and then she led Feather away towards the rocky pike where Fort Condor lay.
Cloud and Zack were left standing by a spot of plains grass darkened by blood in the bright sunlight.
Aerith was fully capable to take care of herself, they both knew, but she preferred not to fight, and if she got tangled up in trouble... So when Feather, with Aerith sitting serenely on her back and giving a wave as she came closer, came into view, it was a relief.
"Don't look so serious, you two. I haven't even been gone two hours." Aerith shook her head, bright eyes sparkling in the sunlight. It's nice to have people care about you, after all.
"Did she tell you anything?" Cloud sounded subdued, but in the narrowed eyes and tight set of his mouth, there was determination. He seemed to have gotten something back, in the past two days.
"Yes. North-eastern direction, so Junon would be the most logical destination for now. I wonder where he... it?... is going..." Aerith muttered the last, but there was a faint frown that, despite it disappearing very quickly, gave the hint of that she had at the least an idea.
"So let's go! We won't get any closer to our runaway if we stand here dallying." Zack grinned and walked by Feather's side, shoulder brushing Aerith's knee every few steps. Cloud, while he'd have wanted to walk on Aerith's other side, didn't feel that comfortable with the obvious flirting behavior of Feather, and instead walked at Zack's side, ignoring his friends’ muffled laughs.
There were small copses of trees on their right side, soon growing into a forest with green leaves that were shifting into royal red, burning orange and a faint yellow. Almost like a sunset in the middle of the day, casting jeweled shadows over them as they walked along the fringe to get some cover from the still-strong sunlight.
The faint breeze didn't give much relief from the late autumn heat, but it did bring with it a scent of growing green things and grass, sleepily maturing and getting ready for winter. It was a hazy, warm stillness, almost dream-like in its lazy progression, and finding Yuffie lying there, bleeding on the plain behind them somehow seemed far away.
But the presence of the storm clouds, swollen blue-black with a tinge of purple on the underside over the ocean reminded them things were not as they should be... even if those clouds also seemed to add to the picture.
Cloud and Feather, and a bit later, Zack, smelled the city of Junon before they saw it by rounding the rolling, mountainous outcropping covered in trees; the scent of oil and salt water was sharp in the air, mingling together in a way that made both Cloud and Feather shake their heads slightly and give small, identical snort-sounds.
***
The small fishing village was shadowed by the giant structure of the Junon Cannon rising above it, still in clear view as they stopped a fair bit away from the town behind a hill.
"We can just walk in, and while it won't be too hard to get up on the elevator, we need some sort of explanation why we're here. SOLDIERs aren't that usual, and while any Trooper won't question us too much..." Zack trailed off with a shrug, and petted Feather's neck, passing her a green as he did so, and automatically giving one over to Cloud too.
"We could always pretend we're escorting Aerith for... the Professor." He had to force out the last, even just suggesting hiding behind his "uncle's" name and occupation was disgusting. Unfortunately, it was a good idea, and Aerith *was* someone Kevin would like to get his hands on.
"While I would like to say "no", just on principle..." Zack sighed and frowned.
"It is a good idea, and one that actually carries a measure of truth. In a way." Aerith finished the thought for them out loud, a frown present on her face too. It wasn't anything serious, or big, but the idea was just... unpleasant. But since the sun had gone down about an hour ago, it was fast becoming chilly and they didn't particularly want to stay out here for the night just to push the inevitable back to the next day.
"Well, just sit there and look pretty, Aerith, and we'll get in, no problem." Zack grinned in an attempt to lighten the atmosphere - such a little thing, and yet it got everybody so subdued - grabbed Feather's reins and led the way in to Junon, Cloud on Feather's other side for once.
***
A smattering of steps announced someone running in their direction, and they didn't seem to be stopping. A small body collided with Cloud's and there was a surprised oomph.
"Hey. Look where you're running. Someone could've gotten hurt." Cloud frowned and stepped back from the girl who had come running down the stairs of the house they had just walked past.
"Sorry. Bye!" She looked up quickly at him, bit her lip and then darted around him and around Feather's back.
"Kh-HEY. If you don't want to get hurt, don't run behind a chocobo!" It wasn't just for the girl's sake, or for Feather's, that he'd said that. He could feel his own leg wanting to kick out at the thing behind him when she'd run by. It was very unpleasant to have someone walk behind him when he couldn't see them.
"Sorry!" She didn't even pause, just waved a hand and ran on down to the only strip of beach still unoccupied by ShinRa. Stupid girl. One of these days she was going to get hurt if she didn't look out better.
Shaking his head, Cloud shrugged as Zack and Aerith threw him a glance and then they continued down the single street of the small village, to the steel and cable construction of the elevator that led up to Junon.
"Your business in Junon?" The Trooper shifted slightly as he was faced with two SOLDIERs, but his voice was steady and the hand on his rifle didn't tighten or shake.
"SOLDIER, First and Second Class. We're escorting a woman that the Head of the Science Department, Professor Kevin, is interested in." Zack's voice was kept in a steady, slightly irritated drawl, but the Trooper didn't seem to be impressed... not that you could see much of him or his expressions with the helmet and the scarf covering more or less all of his face.
"I see. But, Sir, since the parade for President Rufus is in two days, we can't just allow anyone up there."
Zack's dark eyes narrowed dangerously.
"Are you refusing us access to the elevator, Trooper? Do you really want to go against the Professor's wishes?"
"Oh, I wouldn't dream of it, Sir, and yes, I'd go against his wishes any day. The man gives me the creeps."
Cloud snickered silently as the Trooper tipped back his helmet and loosened the scarf slightly, revealing straight blond hair and dark brown eyes.
"Hey, Marle. I didn't know you'd been stationed here." Cloud waved and his former room mate shrugged, grinning slightly.
"I'm not. But due to the parade there's a god-awful amount of Troopers running around. The city's having a blast with all the profit they're accumulating due to this. Just go on up, Sir. You're lucky, since the last boat until the parade is over leaves tomorrow at noon, if it's a boat you need. But, some Turks came earlier today to keep an eye on the place and make sure it's safe for the President, as if we can't do that, so I'd be careful and avoid them if I were you." Marle shrugged and pushed the button to call the elevator with the butt of his rifle.
"You knew we were coming?" Zack frowned, not exactly happy about this, even if it only was one of Cloud's friends.
"Don't worry about it, Sir. Romero sent me a heads-up. It wasn't anything through official channels. And, he also told me to tell you if you came past, to be careful to not be seen by the Turks. They've apparently been assigned to find General Sephiroth, and that means keeping an eye on you too, since you're also after him."
The large doors opened with a soft hiss, admitting the three inside as Marle finished talking.
"I'll send word to someone on the ship that you're coming. Don't worry, I'll keep mum." Marle waved with his rifle as a goodbye as the doors closed and they started moving upwards. Feather shifted nervously, not liking the dim and enclosed space. Aerith petted her neck, the only sounds the muted clicking of Feather's claws on the metal, and the squeaking of leather.
***
They were utterly ruined. Scowling faintly, Cloud took off his blood-drenched and torn gloves, letting them fall to the ground nonchalantly. He'd take them with him when he left, but for now he just wanted to feel the air on his hands, even filled with the stench of blood from the impromptu battlefield.
Silver and black in the corner of his eye, and he instantly relaxed.
"I think we got them all, General. Do you want a report now?" It wasn't that hard to keep the relationships he had with Sephiroth separate. He was both lover-owner and superior, and they were both separate and the same. There was no conflict. Sephiroth shook his head, a faint curl at the corner of his lips the only indication of "well done".
"No. Look after your troops first, get back home, and have a report finished for the morning briefing."
Cloud saluted and then turned back to the battlefield in the middle of Midgar. A rebel cell had been found and they had been ordered to take care of it.
But why it had to be done in this fashion... frowning, he left those thoughts and went back to his job as the commanding officer and only SOLDIER, newly Third Class, who was around. Sephiroth had already left.
"How did it go?" Silent question-demand, and Cloud shrugged, leaning his head against Sephiroth's knee. He still rather liked this position.
"Alright. But I don't see why we have to--"
"Not that, Cloud. This was the first time you used your new sword for anything other than practice." Slight reprimand, and Cloud shrugged again, but did answer the question.
"Good. It gives me more versatility than a standard blade. It's harder of course to use all three blades, but I like it. And I'm used to it. Three claws on my feet as a chocobo." Really, it wasn't as if he suddenly was going to say it was too much work, too hard to use Triad... He'd trained long and hard to be able to use it effectively, he wasn't going to give up on it now. Sephiroth's hand in his hair tightened slightly, and he tipped his head back to meet the fire in those green eyes.
"Good. I was starting to wonder when you'd choose something for yourself, and not something for my or Zack's benefit." No expression except the softening of the fire in his eyes and of the hand in his hair, rubbing gently against his scalp.
Cloud smiled (even if Sephiroth had gotten it slightly wrong... getting the materia so he could turn human, the new sword... for him. He wasn't as selfless as Sephiroth probably thought... Seeking approval of those you loved was a rather selfish thing after all...) and leaned as well as he could into the touch with his head tilted back as it were and flexed his fingers, still getting used to the feel of gloves.
He didn't like gloves much, they were too constraining, but they were needed for the kind of work they did. And they did feel kind of nice on your naked body...
***
The shadows were chilly still as they hid in one of the alleys the next morning, Zack looking around a corner and then nodding.
"They're gone. This is starting to get ridiculous." Snorting, they quickly crossed the street and wandered down it until they came to the next alley that would win them some time, and hopefully some protection from wandering Turk eyes, as they tried to get down to the docks in time for the noon boat.
They had time left, still, but from the beginning of the morning when they'd barely missed the Turks wandering into the bar where they'd had some breakfast to this strange hide-and-go-seek where the Turks seemed to pop up on every street they had to cross, time was starting to feel short.
Their frustration stemmed from the fact that it was clearly pure chance that they were almost meeting all the time, since there were no questions from the Turks to the townspeople about two SOLDIERs and a pink-clad young woman, only the occasional frustrated statement that Sephiroth seemed to either be, or had been, lurking around the city, but no one had seen him since yesterday, and why where they looking up here, anyway, since he'd been seen closer to the docks? The last part had come from the blonde young woman, obviously a new fish, but doing rather well, considering.
They were crossing yet another street when the tell-tale dark blue suits suddenly came into view, and Zack and Aerith dashed into the alley they were aiming for, while Cloud had to stumble inside a shop, barely avoiding the curious glance from the blonde woman as he disappeared inside.
"Oh, my, what a handsome young man! Looking for something for your girlfriend?" The woman behind the counter tittered and Cloud coughed, shaking his head.
"N-no. I'm not. Sorry. I was just... just..." The heavy perfume scent from the bottles around was almost overwhelming, and he couldn't see any of the Turks through the large window... maybe they'd left? He inched back towards the door when it suddenly opened and he was side-to-front with the Turk woman.
"Was just waiting for my friend." He grabbed her arms and exchanged places with her, slipping outside and ignoring her surprised cry. She must have caught sight of him, however briefly and thought it worth to check up on.
The shadows of the alley were a relief.
***
"You're lucky you came in time, otherwise you'd have had to wait until tomorrow at the earliest, and it isn't certain you would have been allowed to go on that ship either." The crewman putting away the last of the cargo waved them aboard, showing them where they could let Feather stay for the trip over the ocean.
"Not often we have chocobos as part of the cargo. Unusual color too." He petted her and left, telling them to ask someone if they needed anything.
"Well, that was close. We were lucky she didn't get any real look at you, Spike. Otherwise they could have confirmed we came by here." Zack rubbed a hand over his face and sat down by Feather, Aerith smiling at the picture they made and as the ship started to move, she too sat down beside them.
"Urgh." Not even ten minutes into the trip, and he was already feeling nauseous. He didn't like anything that moved without him doing the moving, and his body didn't either, it appeared. A hand dragged him down to sit between Zack and Aerith, their bodies warm, a feeling of safety from the rather cramped position, almost making it seem as if everything was still instead of moving.
"Go to sleep, Cloud. You won’t feel nauseous then." Aerith's hand was soft as she gently tugged on a strand of spiky hair, pushing his head slightly so it was resting on Zack's shoulder.
~Absorb, be one, give in. Pale blue, flashes of red and magenta. Something pulling at him, carefully, demandingly. Incomprehension. Why so different? Let me see... He won't give in without you. Won't give in with you. Need. Let me see. Pushing against him, teasing with dripping dark poison trying to get in. Silver forcing the clinging pollution away, but... Absorb. Be one. GIVE IN.~
With a gasp, Cloud jerked upright, waking Aerith who'd been leaning her head against his shoulder. There was no one around except them and a crewman that had wide-eyed nervousness written all over his face.
"We've just arrived in Costa del Sol. If you could get off so we could start unloading, that would be good." The man fled. Cloud stood up, breathing sharp in his ears and heart thundering. What had that been? Something had been close... had been about to... but it had backed off, whatever it had been, leaving him with screaming nerves and tingling thoughts, feeling cold all over.
"Cloud?"
"I'm alright." Shaking his head, he bit his lower lip and left before his friends. They would be right behind him anyway, he knew, and the sun and heat of the early Costa del Sol morning was wonderful, even if the stifling heat made it somewhat hard to breathe. It chased away the last of the chill just as Aerith and Zack, with Feather in tow, joined him on the dock.
The familiar white coat in the middle of a small escort of Troopers, however, paused anything that might have been said and made all of them tense in preparation for confrontation.
"Professor Kevin." Who said it first, and who ended the sentence, between Zack and Cloud, was hard to know, the angry hiss almost being drenched in the moist heat of Costa del Sol.
"Nephew... And your SOLDIER friend and the Cetra woman. Come to hand her over?" Kevin didn't sound as if he believed it, but there was a certain greedy longing tinged with demand in his voice. He was pale, too. Paler than he'd been only a few days ago, blue eyes bright, almost painfully so even without mako, and his lips had a faint bluish tone, almost as if he couldn't breathe properly.
"Dream on, Professor. What're you doing here?" Zack's eyes were narrowed and he laid one hand on Aerith's shoulder. Had they been found out anyway, and followed? The man started chuckling, shaking his head and making the yellow strands dance... It almost looked as if they were moving slightly too much, moving on their own in a confusing illusion, leaving them to wonder if the hair really was moving or not.
"Following what is slipping between my fingers, even as I thought I finally had it. Won't you give me the Cetra woman?" There was an unpleasant sparkle in his eyes, but he shook his head, holding up a hand before they could say anything.
"No, no. Ignore that. She's not perfect anyhow." He turned around, voice falling into a whisper, but both Zack and Cloud could still hear him. "Perfection is the one they call Jenova. I almost had her. And now I have to go back home again for her... Not my day. Not at all..." Kevin muttered to himself and left with his escort, leaving the rather confused trio standing on the Costa del Sol wharf.
"Home... That'd be Nibelheim, since he's Mom's brother..." Cloud said softly, trailing off with a faint frown on his face. The Professor had been behaving rather strange...
"Nibelheim, eh? Well, at least we have a definite destination, but you have to wonder what Jenova's going there for." Zack scratched his scalp and then urged Feather on. It was early still, and they needed to get a move on.
Nibelheim...
***
(W00t. Finished for now. For some reason I really like this chapter. It feels good. Nibelheim next. Anyone who wants to get off the train before the brainbreak happens, better do so now. xD;)