The Fifth Act, Chapter 29

[sinnatious]

Title: The Fifth Act

Rating: T for violence.

Summary: FFVII Time-travel. Gen. Cloud has an accident with a Time Materia.

Author's Note:  Lots of new faces popping out of the woodwork in the comments, I clearly need to thank a mystery somebody for a rec.

Previous Chapter

Comments

[ixtey]

lksdzhfjksdf buried in work right now. BUT I SWEAR I'LL READ AND COMMENT BETTERER WHEN CRUNCH TIME'S FINISHED. T___T darn this is going to keep me in suspense for the rest of the day. :))

[sinnatious]

D: Working on a weekend? The horror.

[ixtey]

Teachers of every subject thought it would be a good idea to give out project specifications on Wednesday, then have them passed on Monday. Students are starting to think that it'd also be a good idea to bash their brains out. :\

Honestly, it's as if they didn't know we had Saturday classes and a giant presentation to practice for. *sigh*

[yukitsukihana]

yaay! update!

and soon li'l Cloud will come into the picture! yaaay!
and Sephiroth is realizing his connection with Cloud! yaaaaay!

...but they're going to Nibelheim where Jenova might be and I don't want Sephiroth to go crazy! nooo! D:

...also, is this "mysterious somebody" Lizeth? because I followed her rec here chapters ago XD;;

[sinnatious]

Hee, no, at least, I don't think so. Stragglers!

[anonymous]

Wow, you weren't kidding when you said this next one would be short.

OH NOES CLOUD! Almost, almost had the creepy bastard there... And Sephiroth finally making the connection, yes! Genesis being all jealous of Seph's connection with Cloud is cute. :3

Am so going to be on pins and needles til next week.

[sinnatious]

Not that short. XD Nine pages instead of fourteen, which put it only a little under the average. Last chapter was actually the weird one.

[kaorismash]

How is it, that so many of your chapter endings have me wanting to hold my breath with all the suspense you're just pouring down on us. And the anguish because we knows things but they don't.

Though of course, that's what's keeping us waiting viciously every Sunday afternoon. /:) It's a lovely thing to come home to, y'know, a new chapter. The suspense you leave us with is, not so nice. kjashlkja

I lovelovelove that you made Cloud reappear outside the bars. I don't entirely comprehend what your mind probably does with all those experiments you have Hojo conducting. Why everything is in almost perfect clarity for Cloud when everything's frozen, why Cloud didn't reappear in the same area he was originally in, GOSH IT ALL GOES OVER MY HEAD BUT IT IS AMAZING. If I didn't know any better I'd say you were a time traveller! ;D

Probably like EVERYONE IN FANDOM (or, mostly everyone) I was so rooting for Cloud to snap Hojo's neck. I mean, of course it wouldn't be so easy, what with you being the writer, but that didn't stop me from hoping

[sinnatious]

PRACTICE? :D

There are a few more details about how the experiments and the time travel work coming up, but I don't want to bog down the fic with faux science, so they're kind of drive-by blink-and-you-miss bits. Also, Cloud isn't a scientist, and is kind of only figuring out what's going with incomplete scraps of information. IS TOTALLY A TIME LORD WITH A TARDIS, SHHH, DON'T TELL ANYONE.

Are there any actual Hojo fans out there, I wonder? Hmm. I must admit, I took a great deal of pleasure in writing that scene.

Suuuuuure you aren't. I'll be making Angeal a personal challenge now. :| MAYBE ONE DAY I'LL TRY AND WRITE A FIC TO MAKE YOU LIKE MOMOSHIRO. :D

In Genesis's defence, he wouldn't equate water and flowers with the cure. Again, we are omniscient audience. :(

You are still such a good reader with your insightful comments. <3

(Edit for grammar fail)

[teekoness]

Are there any actual Hojo fans out there, I wonder? Hmm. I must admit, I took a great deal of pleasure in writing that scene.

Hojo fans? I'm sure they exist. Weirder things have happened in fandom.

That being said I think there's a lot of people who are interested by him (myself included) in a can't-help-but-watch-the-train-wreck sort of way. I've been tempted to write him a number of times and I've definitely gone out of my way to read fics featuring him.

[laleira_granite]

YES, Cloud will be a Jumper. Heeee.

What I was hoping for with all my might was for Sephiroth to meditate on Cloud's location again. Because they're taking HOURS AND HOURS of break at this exact moment, right? It's the perfect time!

... Oh. My. GOSH. I just realized that Kunsel is probably going to meet Little!Cloud on his mission.

This will be amazingly awkward. And what strange new conclusions will it cause them to come to? I can't wait!

[daemoninwhite]

ASDFGHJKLASDFGHJKLASDFGHJKL. :fails wildly: THE CODE. AERITH'S CODE. IT IS THERE. AND AND AND NO ONE KNOWS BECAUSE CLOUD'S TRIPPING THROUGH THE TIMESTREAM. AND HE WAS SO CLOSE TO KILLING HOJO. SO CLOSE.

AND OH MY GOD OH MY GOD OH MY GOD, SEPHIROTH'S REALISING. HE KNOWS SOMETHING'S UP. OH NO, HIS CLOUD SENSES ARE TINGLING. Also, don't think I missed that bit in the last chapter, where you said that it was as though Cloud disappeared for hours at a time. IT'S BECAUSE IT'S TRUE, SEPHY-POO.

Lol, abuse of capslock much?

You get a real sense of the plot moving forward in this one. Of threads, once diverged, coming back together. I must admit, one part of me wants to see it all come together - to see everything happen in one massive explosion of Sephy, Hojo, Cloudykins and everyone else.

(Huh, barely five chapters ago, everyone was wondering when Hojo would come. AND NOW IT'S LIKE HE'S BEEN THERE ALL THE TIME.)

Also, my apologise for the fail of fic update. Please take an extra long one in apology.

[sinnatious]

What an awesome reaction. XD Capslock ftw.

Yes, we are getting to that part of the story where I need to start taking care of loose ends, pronto. :| Or you know, it'll be like Lost, which can't possibly explain everything in the remaining season.

*___* Looking forward to next fic part, it is so incredibly shiny, you seriously need to post it somewhere other than the comments it can get some love! alfjsfjaskfjafkj *is going to go re-read the last two parts*

Naw, you're such a sweetheart.

[daemoninwhite]

All in all, Zack reflected as they trudged towards the mansion, Cloud was pretty awesome. He also had pretty awesome right hook. Still, what kind of kid took waking up in a miniskirt almost completely in stride? Admittedly, it would have been cooler had Cloud not attempted to break his jaw, but beggars can't be choosers. And that meant that Cloud had got his revenge out of the way immediately, because really, nothing was worse then waiting for Cloud's revenge. The kid was fucking devious sometimes. Like that one time, when Zack had pushed him into the chocobo stables and then had ran away - shit man, he didn't sleep for like, a month afterwards, waiting for Cloud to get him. The kid had gotten him eventually - how did he manage to get past SOLIDER level security? Ah well, it wasn't really like he was embarrassed over the fact that he sang in the shower - he was more than a little impressed that Cloud had managed to rig a water proof radio transmitter in his shower without him noticing. Really, that sort of thing took time and effort

Re: Naw, you're such a sweetheart.

[daemoninwhite]

When he stumbles across the door to the mansion, the first thought that had gone through his cold-affected mind was that he had somehow stumbled across the doors to Hel. He'd struggled to get the door open - the wind was blowing him flat against it, Cloud a worryingly dead weight on his back. He had finally got them open, and had to abandon Cloud in a heap just inside the door in order to attempt to close the door. It took a long time, too long, and when he'd finally finished, Cloud had been half buried in a snowdrift.

If it didn't scare him so much, it would have been kind of cute.

But Cloud had been so cold before - he'd been wet, and that amount of snow would simply turn to water to frost, if not to ice. Zack had seen what happened to those people hit by an Blizzardga, how their fingers and toes and nose went first blue, then purple, then started to rot, and that was if you'd dug them out straight away, and he hadn't, he'd left him to freeze and Cloud deserved so much better than that and