天の龍 ~ 「俺の運が変われると思う…」 (kiraya) wrote in drops_n_ripples, @ 2009-04-09 20:56:00 |
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Entry tags: | butterfly effect |
Butterfly Effect: Chapter 35
Authors: Bard Linn and Kiraya
Genre: General/Drama
Pairings: Zack x Sephiroth, assorted past pairings
Rating (Overall): PG-13; R for this chapter.
Warnings: Graphic descriptions of gore, particularly foul language, brief intimate contact. (One of these things is not like the others.)
Summary: “‘Awful’ doesn’t even begin to describe it.”
Disclaimer: Final Fantasy VII and all associated characters and symbols are the exclusive property of Square Enix and its associates. We’re just borrowing them for a while.
Chapter 35
“Gods.” Cloud stared at the wreckage in shock. What little remained of the No. 1 Reactor wasn’t a pretty sight. “Do we know what kind of explosives they used?”
“Not yet,” Zack replied, looking up from the newest reports in his hands. “Techs’re still studying it. Initial results indicate it was pretty primitive.”
“Primitive,” his companion echoed, disbelief in his voice as he took a couple of steps towards the wreckage.
“You don’t need to go over there yet,” the other man cautioned. “Medical hasn’t finished searching for bodies.”
“I’d get a better feel for the blast if I went now,” Cloud insisted, well aware Zack was trying to spare him the full horror of what had happened here, but not dissuaded; he needed to see exactly what they were up against. The other SOLDIER’s lips thinned slightly, but he didn’t say anything else.
It didn’t take Cloud long to see exactly why Zack had wanted to keep him away from the wreckage.
The first body he encountered had been torn nearly in two at the waist, the bottom half scorched to the bone by the explosion. The top half had been so badly sliced up by shrapnel that it was nearly unrecognizable. Cloud forced himself to walk away from it, gingerly sidestepping gruesome remains as he headed deeper into the ruined reactor, looking for patterns in the debris. He wasn’t a bomb specialist, but Vincent had taught him enough that seeing the results of an explosion firsthand should give him more insight than a mere report.
He judged he’d covered about half of the blast’s area when he was stopped by a medic. “Sir, I’m afraid you can’t go past this point. The Mako hasn’t settled enough yet.”
Cloud nodded in understanding. “Is there anything that I can do while we wait?”
The medic looked briefly surprised, but then nodded. “We’ve got a live one, but he’s wedged in pretty tight.”
“Just tell me what you need me to do.”
As Cloud helped raise the slab of twisted metal the medic had indicated, he got his first sight of a survivor of the blast. The victim in question was a man not that much older than he was himself; the SOLDIER forced himself not to stare at the stump where the man’s right arm had been, or the third-degree burns that had seared the skin from his left leg. After the medical crew carefully eased him free, Cloud let the metal go with a crash, abruptly remembering the Restore in his armlet. “I can—”
The chief medic shook her head. “Thanks for the thought, but no. They’re suffering enough from Mako overexposure as it is.”
Cloud nodded at that, sobered. “How many survivors?”
“At the moment, six,” the medic replied, “though that’s likely to change throughout the night. Most folks don’t live through Mako poisoning this bad, and the rest, well… would you want to live in their shape?” She shook her head. “We have twelve confirmed dead and seven still unaccounted for.” A sigh. “We were lucky this happened when it did. Another hour and it would have been shift change, and we’d likely have twice as many casualties.” She checked a device on her arm, then looked at Cloud and pulled a similar-looking machine from her pocket, examining him with it. “You better get back to your superior officer, where it’s safe. You’re getting close to overexposure yourself.”
The Second Class blinked, only now becoming aware of a slight headache and shivers running down his spine. SOLDIERs might’ve been more resist to the effects of Mako than most, but being saturated with the stuff tended to make it inadvisable to stay long in areas like this. Nodding, he turned to go. “Good luck.”
The medic smiled. “Thanks. And thanks for your help — most SOLDIERS don’t even bother to get this close.” She made a shooing motion, and Cloud did as requested, moving quickly back to the edges of the destruction where Zack sat poring over reports.
He couldn’t help feeling a bit angry at the other SOLDIERs — why didn’t they help at all? Yeah, he knew the threat of Mako poisoning was unpleasant at best, but… He sighed, knowing most of his fellow SOLDIERs shared neither his occasionally ‘idealistic’ tendencies nor his more personal connection to the blast. It had occurred to Cloud more than once that his father could have easily been one of the bodies he’d passed, if Fastred Strife had lived long enough to see his son into adulthood.
“You all right?” Zack asked.
“I will be,” Cloud replied, sitting down and grabbing a water bottle as Zack silently handed him a patch specially made to help SOLDIERs deal with high levels of Mako exposure. “Saw what I needed to, anyway.” Gulping down his water, he pressed the patch onto his arm, letting the chemicals take effect while he thought. “This might seem like an odd question,” he said after a moment, “but why aren’t our friends in the suits handling this?” Generally speaking, SOLDIERs handled monsters and large-scale assaults, while the Turks took care of smaller assignments like this, particularly clandestine ones.
“Well, they have been looking into it,” Zack began, “but this group—”
“AVALANCHE,” Cloud supplied.
“Who’d wanna name themselves after a bunch of falling rocks is beyond me.” The dark-haired SOLDIER shook his head. “Anyway, they’ve actually managed to… retire a few of the Turks.”
Cloud’s eyebrows met his hairline. Whoever these people were, then, they had to be a force to be reckoned with. He supposed that also helped explain the number of Turks that’d been showing up at the Dragon of late, their faces serious as they spoke quietly with each other about things they let no one else hear.
“In any case,” Zack continued, “they picked us to go ‘cause we should be able to handle ‘em just fine ourselves, and you’re the closest to a Turk we got, which might come in handy.” He passed Cloud one of the packets he’d been studying. “We’ve had reports of activity in Sectors One, Four, Five, and Six. Figured we better check there first.”
“Got a map?” Cloud asked, looking the report. Nodding, Zack unrolled it on a nearby crate. The other SOLDIER studied the map carefully for a long time. “Sector Seven,” he decided finally. “Either that or Eight, but I’m kinda leaning more towards Seven.”
“You sure?” Zack asked, surprised. “The others thought Three might be a better choice.”
“Pretty much.” Cloud pointed to the map. “Look, all of their activity points link back to Sector Seven. Plus I know for a fact there’re more connections to Seven than on the map — I’ve seen ‘em.”
“Cloud, it’s Midgar. Just about everything links together,” Zack pointed out.
“Yeah,” Cloud allowed, “but considering the timing of their attacks, Sector Seven’s probably our best bet. Plus there are some pretty vulnerable parts of the power system there, not as well-guarded as some of their other targets, and yet nothing’s happened there.”
Zack nodded slowly. “Because who wants to blow up stuff in their own backyard? I follow.” He looked at the map. “Any idea where?”
Cloud shook his head. “Don’t really know Sector Seven that well. We’ll just have to go looking.”
“Well, then.” Zack rolled up the map and put the papers away. “Might as well get it over with. We’ll call for some backup and go.”
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
“Duck!”
Cloud dodged behind what was left of a table, Shiranui held loosely in his left hand. Never before had he been so grateful that Scott had helped him train with his opposite hand, considering the gunshot wound in his right arm. The bullet had missed the bone but buried itself deep in the biceps, and it hurt like hell.
Zack darted from behind a broken mass of chairs, a stray shot after that volley just missing his shoulder, and crouched beside him. “You okay?”
Cloud nodded, noting the First had his share of grazes as well. This Hades-damned bar was an awful place for a SOLDIER to fight in and a perfect one for militants. The terrorists were quite secure, having wedged themselves behind the bar where they could rain bullets on their attackers. Even that might not have been much of an issue, but then a little slip of a girl had released a powder ball into the air. They’d lost a SOLDIER right then, and Cloud was only thankful regulars weren’t usually equipped with materia.
Aidu powder was any materia user’s worst enemy. Vincent had warned Cloud about it, even though it wasn’t used much these days; in fact, it had been a relic even before Vincent’s time with the company, and the former Turk hadn’t even known if anyone knew how to make it anymore. The powder had the interesting effect of causing charged Mako to release all its energy at once. It was, of course, highly dangerous to enemy and ally alike when around reactors — might be a component in their bombs, come to think of it — so its use was avoided. Even materia were only safe around it if inactive, or better yet, not equipped at all.
Actually, that might explain how they’d knocked off a few Turks. Many had a habit of equipping an Elemental combination, and if it had activated while the powder was around…
“Troops got the back door surrounded, so they aren’t going anywhere, but we gotta end this soon.” Zack shook his head. “Potions alone ain’t gonna cover the wounds ‘round here.”
Cloud nodded in agreement with the older man’s statement, though he felt another twinge of annoyance at himself for getting shot like this. Admittedly he was more used to close-range combat, but he had the feeling Vincent would be Very Disappointed if he found out about this.
The bar went quiet as some of the dust started to settle, the only sounds those of the ShinRa troops shifting in their crouches and some of the insurgents reloading their guns, a bit of soft cursing from behind the bar as their accompaniment. They had to be running low on ammunition by now — this standoff had lasted nearly an hour, with the terrorists shooting wildly at any sudden movement.
The silence was abruptly broken by the sound of machinery as the pinball machine near the wall shuddered and sank into the floor. As the SOLDIERs watched in astonishment, it rose again, only this time with a little girl hunched down in front of it. She looked around cautiously, clearly upset. “Daddy…?”
There was the sound of worried whispers from the rebels, some harshly muttered curses — and then a big dark-skinned man lunged from behind the bar towards the girl, gun-arm blazing as he shot wildly at the ShinRa barricades, trying to cover his sudden dash out of hiding.
“Barret!” several voices cried.
As easily as if they had rehearsed it a thousand times, Zack and Cloud bolted around the battered remains of the table — straight into another volley of bullets. Thankfully, they suffered no worse than a few grazes as Cloud closed in, using all his strength to sever the terrorist’s weapon from its mounting before reversing his motion so the sword lay against the man’s throat. At the same moment, Zack scooped up the child with one arm, the Buster Sword in his other hand. “I suggest you surrender!” he declared, holding the struggling girl with ease. “We don’t want any innocent casualties.”
The bar went silent again as the child began to sob, and for a moment, Cloud thought they were going to be foolish and insist on continuing to fight, despite the very real threat of killing their comrade and a child. Finally, though, the blond heard the telltale sound of guns dropping behind the counter. He didn’t relax until some of the regulars entered with binders, securing the prisoners under the SOLDIERs’ cool gazes.
“Daddy!” the little girl cried, fighting to escape the hold of the SOLDIER Zack had passed her to. “I’m sorry, Daddy…”
“It’s okay, baby,” the big man said kindly, smiling reassuringly at her even as another SOLDIER tested his bonds to make sure they were secure. “It’s not your fault.”
The child’s expression loudly proclaimed she didn’t believe him, and really, Cloud couldn’t blame her. “But—” she protested.
“Be good, Marlene,” her father told her as they started to lead him away. “Keep quiet and behave yourself, don’t do anything to make them angry at you, and I’ll come get you as soon as I can, okay?”
She nodded tearfully and tried to put on a brave face… but she was clearly still very shaken, and it didn’t last too long. “Daddy!” she sobbed. “Daddy!”
Cloud shook his head sadly as Zack dragged him out of the bar. It was really a terrible thing, that innocent people could end up tangled up in such grim situations simply by association…
“Have a Restore on you?” his friend asked, fussing over his wounds.
“I can do it myself, you know,” Cloud insisted as he slipped off his armlet and passed it over.
“The grazes, sure, but wounds like this—” the dark-haired man nodded towards Cloud’s arm “—are better for someone else to take care of, if possible. Heal better that way.” Zack slipped on the armlet, then pulled out a bottle of antiseptic he’d filched from the medic who’d arrived on scene, pouring it over the wound and his own hands. Cloud tried not to squirm as Zack’s fingers poked and probed; it felt—
“Want a souvenir?” the other SOLDIER asked, half-teasing, as he held up the bullet that had lodged in Cloud’s arm.
The blond shook his head. “Think I can do without,” he replied dryly.
Zack shrugged, but made no reply. He carefully placed his hands on Cloud’s arm again, pressing the edges of the wound together, eyes narrowing in concentration.
Cloud had never been Cured by someone else before — except during that whole incident with the dragon when he was little, but as he hadn’t been awake at the time that hardly counted. Usually he just grabbed a potion or Cured himself. He hadn’t been expecting the sudden warmth originating from Zack’s hands, nor the comfortable, pleasant lassitude that followed it. It was pretty unnerving, actually — and didn’t seem to go away even after Zack removed his hands. He hadn’t even noticed the usual itching sensation of the wounds coming back together. Glancing down, the Second observed he was in perfect shape; there wouldn’t even be any scarring.
“There. Now Vincent won’t kill me.” Zack stripped off the armlet and tossed it to his friend. “Care to return the favor? A first-level spell should be fine.” Cloud nodded, but cast the spell at a distance rather than touching Zack as the black-haired man had done for him. He was slightly disgruntled that Zack didn’t react in the least as the green glow faded, merely nodding. “Thanks. Now, let’s get out of here.”
“What about—?”
Zack waved a hand dismissively. “You saw the Turks show up. They’ll take care of the rest of it.” Cloud nodded, and they set off.
“Well,” Zack said after a few moments, “now that this mess is cleared up, how d’you feel about heading out east for a mission?”
Cloud cocked his head. “Mission?”
“Just a routine monster hunting thing.” Monsters had become a great deal more prevalent over the last decade than they had seen in years, and SOLDIERs were often sent out to keep them under control. “The swamp over by the chocobo ranch seems to be coming up with all sorts of delightful new beasties to make life difficult, so we’ve been keeping a rotating detachment there. Just watch out for the Zoloms — heard they’ve been getting nastier lately.”
“Who’s in command?” Cloud asked. Usually a more experienced Second or First lead the group while he managed some of the troopers.
“You are.”
Cloud stared at his friend in surprise — so Rogers had been right after all! — but Zack waved it off. “You’re more than ready for the command experience. Along with the usual regs, you’ll have a few Thirds with you, too. Seph’ll brief you when they get it all together. It’ll be a few days at least.” Zack stretched. “In the meantime, though, why don’t you go catch some shut-eye? I’ve got the report covered, and if Seph wants personal statements on what happened he’ll call you in.”
Cloud hesitated. “I’m… still a little too wound up to sleep,” he admitted. “Wanna grab a bite to eat before you get started on those reports?”
Zack gave him an easy grin. “Sure thing.”
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Rufus Shinra smiled at the figure across from him, seemingly unperturbed by the man’s struggles. Barret Wallace was not the type most would expect to be an effective leader of anything. He certainly didn’t fit the media’s “lone hero leading a band of rebels” stereotype. When you got right down to the core of it, the man was nothing more than a hothead with a predilection for foul language, which he tended to direct towards ShinRa. One wondered how he managed to plan anything, let alone carry it out.
Still, he had managed to gather people to him despite all of that, or perhaps because of that. Wallace had convinced himself, and others, that they were truly helping the Planet by hampering ShinRa’s plans however they could, attempting to gain revenge for the various wrongs they felt the company had inflicted on them.
It would be very satisfying to pick that delusion apart piece by piece.
Rufus didn’t particularly mind having groups like AVALANCHE around, as long as they didn’t interfere with the company operations too much. They were a viable target for the army, made wonderful media scapegoats, and allowed him to know just what the people were complaining about. If AVALANCHE hadn’t developed Rufus might have been tempted to start a little group himself, just for the benefits.
Now that they were captured, however, it was time to assess their true worth. They’d been more of a problem than most rabble-rousing groups, which should make them far more valuable to the company than others. Take Miss Cooper, for example, the creator of the aidu powder. None of ShinRa’s currently employed scientists knew how to make the stuff, and so she would make a fine addition to the team. Getting her over to ShinRa’s side had been almost too easy. She had blamed them — correctly — for the deaths of her parents, who had both been lab technicians. Rufus had simply presented her with proof that Hojo had been behind their murders, shared a sob story about his own father’s death, and then introduced her to Matheson, who had firmly swayed her allegiance. He couldn’t help his amusement that someone who was so transparent and bloody honest, characteristics that usually hampered a department head, was so good at convincing people to work for the company.
While Miss Cooper was undoubtedly the gem of the group, however, the rest weren’t without their own merits. The quickest way to coax them into a change of heart, though, would be to convince their leader to abandon his cause.
Once he’d been brought in, the Turks had gone to work, pulling together a massive file on the man. Originally from the Corel area, Wallace had been involved in the mining operations that had been replaced by Mako energy. An interesting twist, there — a man claiming to be a champion of the Planet supporting coal mining, a practice that had been shown to have many hazardous environmental effects. Lack of coal hadn’t been the only reason Mako energy had been embraced by the public; it had been thought to be a less dangerous solution than other fuels. Wallace was also one of the survivors of the Corel incident — Rufus had made a note to keep him away from Scarlet— after which he’d adopted his best friend’s daughter and moved to Midgar, joining up with and later leading AVALANCHE.
It was the daughter who would be the crux of Rufus’s plan.
Seeing that Barret had finally roused his anger to the point where he could hardly speak for rage, Rufus slid a photograph across the table. “Do you recognize this girl?”
Wallace glanced at it, then did a double-take. The girl looked a great deal like his adopted daughter Marlene, or more accurately what Marlene would look like in about six years. The terrorist gave Rufus a dark look. “No.”
“Her name is Rebecca Kellen, and she’s going to have to be placed in foster care,” Rufus replied matter-of-factly. “Her mother isn’t in any sort of mental condition to be able to take care of her.” Another member of a group fighting against ShinRa, Marie Kellen had been a brilliant strategist for the insurgents until Rufus’s father had seen to it that she suffered a traumatic head injury during the group’s capture. ShinRa had been most sympathetic that she had suffered so, of course, taking up the cost of medical care without ever letting it be known that she had been a plant in the first place. Her husband hadn’t known at all. Marie was little more than a listless doll most days, barely able to function on the same level as a very young child. “And her father very recently passed away.”
“Another death ShinRa caused,” Wallace growled. “That’s all you—”
“Actually,” Rufus interrupted smoothly, cutting him off before he began another long tirade, “you killed him.” He slid another photograph across the table, this of a twisted body burned by Mako radiation. “He worked in the No. 1 Reactor.”
It was amusing to watch the man’s face, as shock and uncertainty fought with his long-sustained rage. Still, he couldn’t really enjoy it; allowing Wallace time to regain his composure, as unlikely as the possibility seemed, would spoil things.
So Rufus placed another photograph on the table. “This is Emily Peterson, the shift manager. As of right now, the doctors still don’t know if she’ll make it.” Peterson had sustained third-degree burns on over eighty percent of her body from the explosion. Even if she did survive, she’d be a monster to everyone she met thereafter; not even thousands of gil worth of cosmetic surgery could remedy that much scar tissue.
Another photo joined the line. “This is Emmanuel Baydar, who worked in a café near the reactor.” The man had been pierced by a chunk of shrapnel nearly as large as he was. “I suppose he only got what he deserved in your eyes. After all, he was selling out to ShinRa employees day after day—”
“Jus’ shut the hell up!” Wallace roared, struggling to escape his restraints. “You don’t fuckin’ understand! If you goddamn ShinRa weren’t killing the Planet, we wouldn’t have to do this!”
Rufus didn’t so much as blink, though inwardly he was pleased. Time to move in for the kill. “I assume, then, that you are unaware of our recent efforts to replace Mako with alternate energy sources such as solar and wind power. In fact, tentative plans had the No. 1 Reactor going offline permanently within the next two years.”
Wallace deflated, flopping back in the chair. “You mean—”
“Your constant sabotage attempts in the last year have set us back, of course. It takes a great deal of time and money to transfer the burden to another source without upsetting the power grid.” Rufus picked up the photos and replaced them in the folder in front of him. “All the death and destruction you and your people have caused has only hindered our efforts.” He rose to his feet. “I hope you enjoy your time in prison. Your daughter… well, we will see she is placed in an appropriate foster care facility. Maybe she can join young Miss Kellen.”
“No!”
Rufus turned back towards his captive, raising an eyebrow in silent inquiry.
“I don’t care what you do to me,” Wallace said defiantly — of course he’d play the martyr, Rufus thought dispassionately — “but I won’t let her be raised by ShinRa or anyone affiliated with them, not after everything you bastards’ve done!”
“Fair enough,” he said with an offhand shrug. “I’m sure she’ll manage to adapt as well as any other slum orphan.”
The prisoner growled. “You rotten son of a—”
“You brought this upon yourself,” Rufus said simply. “But I suppose you’ll have plenty of time to think on that during your incarceration.”
“What about Marlene?” Wallace pressed.
“What about her?” Rufus asked. “You don’t want to see her under our care, you don’t want her set loose in the slums… If you’re so insistent on caring for her yourself, I suppose we could imprison her with you and your insurgents…”
“No!” the terrorist snapped again.
Rufus waited.
“…You can put her in your damn foster care,” his prisoner finally ground out, glowering. “But I want to see her daily.”
He couldn’t quite help the touch of amusement in his voice. “You’re not exactly in a position to be making demands, here, you realize.”
“Weekly, then,” Wallace amended, “and… I’ll give you a written oath or whatever that I won’t attack your reactors again when you let us go, as long as you don’t teach her your bullshit propaganda.” He looked away, clearly hating to make such a concession.
“Hmm.” Rufus regarded him coolly. “…I have a better idea.”
This pronouncement was greeted by a distrusting stare.
“Our science department is severely understaffed at the moment. Provided you remain cooperative, I will have you transferred to Dr. Matheson’s jurisdiction.”
Wallace exploded. “You want me to work for you?!” he bellowed, fighting against his restraints once more. “Are you out of your fucking mind?!”
“Hardly,” Rufus said mildly. “I’m sure you’ll be able to provide us with some unique and interesting perspectives, considering your industrial experience… and it certainly beats rotting in prison indefinitely and never seeing your daughter again, I would think.”
The terrorist grunted, still glaring at him.
“If you need some time to consider this proposition, that’s fine,” he said generously. “If you accept, I guarantee your daughter will come to no harm under our care, and we will arrange supervised visits every week. If you behave yourself for… two months, let us say, we will have her returned to your care.” He turned to leave, allowing a pause for his prisoner to deliver any last retorts or defiance he could come up with while so clearly conflicted.
“…Before I agree to anything,” Wallace said finally, grudgingly, “I want to meet this Matheson guy.”
Rufus Shinra smiled.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Cloud was having the day from hell.
Once he’d gotten back from the mission Zack had told him about, he had indeed been put into the officer training class Rogers had mentioned. Unfortunately, it had started four days before he’d returned to Midgar, and was apparently taught by an old general who believed that before practical leadership exercises could be commenced his cadets had to survive countless dull lectures and readings, and write up sample reports besides. Cloud was more than a bit annoyed at that; they weren’t at university, for Odin’s sake! He was privately of the opinion that it was all just busywork, like much of the paperwork Sephiroth had to deal with.
Cloud had had a pretty full schedule before. Now, though, he was staying up until one in the morning almost every night, getting up by seven at the latest (five if he had early duty) and running nonstop all day. For once, he found himself grateful he didn’t have a girlfriend — he didn’t have time for it. He was only getting down to sparring sessions with Tifa and Aeris once every other week as it was.
Cloud was still making his lunch dates with Sephiroth and Zack most days, but it was getting increasingly hard, even more so now that Zack had come up on rotation to teach a combat class to a group of Thirds. Still, he found himself helping Zack out more than ever with this errand or that message. He knew he could say no, and was often tempted to, but… he always found himself saying yes, no matter how much work he had to do.
Zack’s brilliant, grateful smile always seemed to make up for his hectic schedule, anyway.
Today had just taken the cake, though. He’d stayed up until three to finish a paper and submit it, then had overslept, barely managing to grab an apple from the mess before sprinting to morning duty. Lunch was a hurried affair, snagging bites between pages of the latest dry tactics manual they’d been assigned. Zack had given Cloud sympathetic looks while scarfing down his own lunch. Lucky bastard had missed out on the special ‘class,’ having gotten a field promotion during the war. Besides, this particular incarnation of the class was a relatively new thing, only about two years old.
Likely intended to keep the smartest, most dangerous SOLDIERs busy, a little voice in the back of Cloud’s mind remarked coolly, sounding a lot like Vincent.
The afternoon hadn’t gotten much better, though he had managed to skim most of his reading before he had gotten called to fill in for a sick comrade, teaching some of the new SOLDIER cadets. It was hard for Cloud to think that he’d once been in their place — how many years ago was it? Three? Four? The time had just flown by, it seemed.
By the time he had been released from that duty, though, Cloud was in no mood for further book work. Instead, he headed to the mess for dinner, where Scott and Paul waved him over to their table. He’d been looking forward to talking to his fellow Seconds… until he remembered that Scott had just returned from a three-week tour of duty. While the pair weren’t being completely obvious about it, Cloud could tell they were more focused on each other than on their conversation with him, so he’d finished up his dinner, murmured an excuse, and left for his room.
Having picked up on it in his friends, Cloud found himself noticing other heads close together as he crossed the compound. The signs were subtle enough that he probably wouldn’t have picked up on it a few years ago, but romance was definitely blossoming in ShinRa again. Intellectually he knew these things tended to happen in cycles, and it wasn’t just restricted to SOLDIER, of course, but dammit, it was almost summer — shouldn’t this spring fever nonsense be over by now?
He bit back a sigh as he opened the door to his room. And he’d just gotten all this overthinking about relationships out of his head, too…
“Day went that well, huh?”
Cloud rolled his eyes at his roommate’s comment. He’d rarely talked to Joren Wyldon before his promotion ended up placing them as roommates, but he was a good man. Sometimes he could be a little vain — his pale skin and dark hair made Joren well-liked by the ladies, and he was quite a flirt because of it — but he was a competent SOLDIER and generally a pretty nice guy. “It’s been hellish,” Cloud admitted, “least, far as duty goes, and the lovebirds thing happening all over sure isn’t helping.”
“They do seem more enthusiastic than usual, don’t they?” Joren chuckled. “How ‘bout you? Gonna head down below, see your girlfriend for a bit?”
The blond shook his head. “We broke up ‘bout a month ago. You know that.”
Joren waved the comment off. “Sure she won’t change her mind?” He smirked a little. “After all, it is the season—”
“No.” Cloud shook his head. “She’s pretty damn adamant about it.”
“Too bad.” Joren stretched. “You could use a spring fling of your own, I think.”
Hardly a new thought from his lips. Joren had offered numerous times to help his roommate “take care of things,” but Cloud had always just waved him off. He snorted. “As if I had time for that.”
Now Joren looked serious. “Seriously, Cloud, you really gotta start taking things easier. You aren’t gettin’ enough sleep, and SOLDIER or no, you’re going to get sick if you keep this up. Just ask General Sephiroth to give you less duty hours.”
“I can’t do that!” Cloud objected. “It’d be—”
“Oh, come on — it’s not favoritism!” Joren shot right back before Cloud could even finish. “We all know you’re practically his second aide. You do about twice as much work around here as most of the rest of us.”
Cloud shook his head stubbornly. “That’s not—”
“Do you want the specialists to come knocking with orders to suspend you from duty? Because there are easier ways to get a vacation, you know.” Joren pushed his roommate over towards his bed. “Just tell me who to call and I’ll clear your schedule.” At the other’s frown, he clarified, “At least for the rest of today. That okay?”
Cloud sighed, finally relenting. “No other obligations today, sir.”
“Good. Now, strip — I’ll get you some tea.”
Pulling his shirt off, Cloud shook his head, then reached from his boots. “Not that junk from the mess — and don’t doctor it!”
Joren waved a hand. “Yeah, yeah, I know. Got the hot plate already plugged in.” SOLDIER Seconds might not get proper kitchen facilities, but most of them had rigged setups to make drinks or warm up food. Joren picked out one of Cloud’s specialized, expensive teas — one of the few things besides weapons and materia the other man willingly splurged on — one for relaxation and sleep. A few minutes later it was steeping in a cup.
“You’ve gotten good at that,” Cloud observed, watching his roommate prepare the drink.
Joren shrugged. “Watched you do it often enough.” He brought the tea over, taking a seat on the bed next to him. Cloud had stripped to his boxers and was stretched out, head on his pillow.
“You’re a lifesaver.” He took the cup from Joren, feeling their hands brush together — and why did he feel like his roommate had done that on purpose? He sipped at the tea, sighing a little as he relaxed slightly.
“Think that’ll be enough to get you to sleep?”
There was no doubt what Joren was offering (again), with that hint of innuendo plain as day in his tone and his eyes even to Cloud, now that he was paying more attention to this stuff. Normally, he would’ve sidestepped the issue and waved his roommate off. But…
You know what? I’m tired of this. To hell with overthinking this crap — after all the drama and nonsense he’d gone through with this relationship stuff, it was about time Cloud got a break. He knew Joren was a good guy — he wasn’t going to turn on him or anything. Stop being so paranoid and enjoy yourself, for once. “…Maybe not,” he said finally, setting his teacup aside on the nightstand.
The other SOLDIER smiled brightly at that, and without further preamble leaned over to kiss him. Cloud responded as best he could; he was pretty clumsy with this, he knew, but Joren didn’t seem to care. Actually, it’s not that different from kissing a girl, part of him observed clinically as Joren stripped off his own shirt, and as he pressed closer Cloud shifted, a little surprised by the unexpected skin-to-skin contact. Strange, but not bad…
This was further than he had gone with any of the girls he had dated, and his body was definitely appreciative of it, enough that he felt a pang of annoyance when Joren pulled away for a minute to growl at his boots, yanking at the fastenings.
The sudden ringing of a PHS surprised both of them, and sent Joren diving for his, biting back a curse. “Hello?” He listened for a moment, lips twitching downward. “Oh, hey. No, I didn’t forget— yeah. Really? I— Shit, I didn’t even notice the time. Right. Listen, I gotta go. Meet you in fifteen.” A pause. “No, I’m not backing out.” A muffled sigh. “Yeah, I know, but I’ve only met her twice. Can’t be sure how it’ll work out.” He shook his head. “Love you too, sis. Bye.” The dark-haired SOLDIER carelessly tossed his PHS on his bed, then turned to his roommate with a crooked, sheepish smile. “Sorry. ‘Fraid I’m gonna have to take a rain check.” He reached for his shirt, bending to refasten his boots. “Forgot I was s’posed to meet somebody tonight.”
“A sister you’ve only met twice?” Cloud inquired dryly.
“….you seriously gotta stop with the Sephiroth impression like that,” Joren remarked, shaking his head. “But nah — she’s trying to set me up on a double date with her best friend.” He slipped a knife into his boot and rose, looking apologetic. “Sorry to leave you hangin’…”
“Par for the course, today,” Cloud said with a long-suffering sigh. “Go, go — have a good time. I’ll be fine.” Joren hesitated only for an instant before he nodded and left. Waiting until he was sure his roommate had gone, Cloud rolled out of bed. Might as well get a shower; that way, at least, he could kill two birds with one stone.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
The minute Cloud walked into the bar Tifa knew he was annoyed. Nobody could stay in her line of work for six months without picking up the signs of a storm brewing, and Cloud had them all over. Before he could ask, she poured him a shot and slid it across the bar. The blond made a face at the taste as he threw it back — it was a lot stronger than what he normally drank, and a little more costly, too, but Tifa had a hunch he wouldn’t be complaining about that, not tonight.
And who knew? Maybe it’d help Cloud block out the noise of the amateur band over there in the corner. The Dragon was really hopping tonight; the university had finished classes yesterday, but instead of studying for finals, it seemed all the students were determined to get completely smashed before the semester officially ended. At least a couple shots might actually loosen the SOLDIER’s tongue enough that he might be able to get whatever had happened today out of his system. Cloud was, quite frankly, too good at bottling up emotion and never letting it out.
Tifa let Cloud stew through a few more shots before casually asking, “So, how was your day?”
The blond grumbled. “‘Awful’ doesn’t even begin to describe it.” Tifa nodded sympathetically as Cloud talked through his day, ending with his escape into his room. The poor guy really was dealing with too much right now. “Then I couldn’t sleep, so I figured I might as well come down here.”
“That’s rough,” Tifa agreed. “Well, a couple more shots of that stuff should relax you enough to get you to sleep.”
“What is it, anyway?” Cloud studied the liquid, which was more translucent than colorless, with a hint of white to it.
“Moonshine Elixir — brand new on the market, made special for SOLDIERs,” Tifa replied. She slid him another glass as he drained that one, then walked over to the other end of a bar to take care of a tipsy student who’d flagged her down to pay his bill. Catching Aeris’s eye as she walked in, Tifa nodded over towards Cloud.
Bad day? the other woman mouthed, frowning, and Tifa nodded. Undoubtedly Aeris was as worried as she was about their friend.
Tifa gave the student his change and sent him on his way, heading back down to Cloud. Aeris quirked an eyebrow at her as she came over, settling on the stool next to Cloud, and as Tifa poured him another she tried to convey “working on it” with her expression.
“Y’know,” Cloud said finally in the tones of someone about to start on a rant, not even bothering to acknowledge Aeris’s presence, “it really wouldn’t be so bad if it didn’t seem like the whole city’s gone all crazy lovey-dovey.” He rolled his eyes. “Guy can’t even just walk through the compound anymore without seein’ someone getting all sappy on someone else. Even SOLDIER — Scott and Paul’re the worst, but I swear, if Zack shows up with one more sugary pastry thing for Sephiroth, the man is gonna kick ‘im out of Midgar for a month.” A shake of the head. “Honestly, y’think Zack’d know by now that he doesn’t like sweets, right? I mean, ‘s not like they haven’t been close for ages.” He knocked back his glass again. “Sometimes you gotta wonder while they’re all still guessing, ‘cause I mean, Zack ain’t exactly that subtle ‘bout it, y’know?”
Tifa stared at him, nearly dropping the glass she was drying, and Aeris froze in her seat. He couldn’t possibly mean… could he?
“I mean,” Cloud was saying, “yeah, he tries, but he’s got that huge sappy streak, y’know, and sometimes the way he looks at ‘im, when his eyes go all soft and he smiles that stupid little smile, it’s just so obvious.” He let out the heavy sigh of someone feeling rather sorry for himself… then frowned. “Um—”
Aeris had been worrying her lip between her teeth while Cloud spoke, but now she turned abruptly, her stool squeaking against the floor and headed for the door without looking at either of them. The SOLDIER started in surprise, as if the fact of her presence had only now sunk in; Tifa, meanwhile, bit back a curse, waving Bill over to take her place, then hurried around the bar and wove through the crowd, hurrying after the other woman. Her thoughts were all a blur. While she and Aeris had talked on and off about the fact that Zack had more likely than moved on — she had broken up with him and not the other way around, after all — and Aeris had seemed to accept it, this still had to be a shock. Worse still, it wasn’t just another woman, or even any ordinary man — it was Sephiroth. Who could ever compete with ShinRa’s Silver General?
Tifa’s boots hit the ground rapidly as she ran, the sound drowned out by the sounds of the crowd around her. She glanced back and, spotting Cloud, shook her head firmly, breathing a silent sigh of relief when he slowed his steps, stopping not far from the bar. Good. As much as she cared for him, this… probably wasn’t something he should handle. Not yet.
Turning her eyes back forward, Tifa hissed in frustration as she realized she’d lost her quarry. Aeris knew the streets of this crazed city better than she did, and had only gotten more familiar with them since she’d becoming involved with the MMG Project. Still, Tifa had a pretty good idea where she was headed; it might just take her a bit longer to catch up.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
She’d seen it coming, Aeris thought as she hustled through the slums back towards home. Cloud’s hesitance when she’d seen him again at the station waiting to meet Tifa had been the first clue, and Reeve’s careful explanation that first night they’d had dinner above the Plate had supported it. She just… hadn’t wanted to listen.
It had really been too much to ask, she rationalized, that Zack wait for her for… Gaea, how many years had it been? Four, almost five, now? He was one of those people who needed to be needed, and really, she should’ve known he’d have moved on. But… She shook her head. The Zack she’d known had always been a flirt, a real ladies’ man, and the knowledge that he’d fallen in with a guy was… well, unexpected, to say the very least. But she could’ve accepted that, even. It wasn’t like she was some country yokel who’d never encountered the idea before.
Honestly, the part that had really hit the hardest was the fact that it wasn’t just any old guy, but that it was Sephiroth, the General, the company’s star SOLDIER. And she knew, she knew it wasn’t just some casual little fling, either; she was intimately familiar with the look Cloud had described, having been on the receiving end of it before, and—
She shook her head fiercely. Well, there wasn’t a damn thing she could do about it now, was there? Stupid, stupid, stupid.
You should’ve tried to find him yourself instead of just waiting, a traitorous part of her mind pointed out, but she ignored it, slipping through a knot of people waiting to get into a strip club. That just hadn’t been feasible for a long time—
But it’s not like you haven’t been going topside for a while, now, that hateful little line of thought continued, and she silently snarled.
“Aeris!” came Tifa’s voice, still some distance behind her, and she hesitated briefly before shaking her head and moving on. She really wasn’t in the mood to deal with anyone right now.
“Aeris, wait!”
She paused again, turning to look back at her friend, who also stopped, her expression concerned. Suddenly feeling very tired, she sighed. “You shouldn’t be out here. You’re working.”
Tifa shook her head stubbornly. “This is more important.”
“Tifa,” Aeris said, surprisingly calm considering how jumbled up her feelings were, “I really don’t want to talk about it right now.” What she really needed was to be by herself for a while to sort things out. She just hoped Tifa would understand.
The other woman backed down a little, though her eyes were still sympathetic. “…All right. But if you change your mind—” Aeris had already disappeared into the crowd, though, and Tifa sighed. “…I’ll be here.”
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
It took a few seconds for Cloud to react to Tifa and Aeris’ abrupt departure — and that right there told him just how powerful the stuff he’d been drinking was — but once it had sunk in, he bolted to his feet in an instant. Drunk or not, he was still fast enough to catch up with Tifa pretty quickly — but his pace slowed as she fiercely shook her head at him, implying he should stay put. Truth be told, he was happier to do just that. He certainly had no idea what to say to Aeris. Besides, there’s someone else I really should talk to about this… He walked away a bit from the crowds for a little more privacy, then pulled out his PHS. It was only out of a sense of duty that he was able to dial the number — he really wasn’t looking forward to this conversation.
“Sinclair.”
“Hey, Zack, it’s me.” Cloud paused, glancing around. No one close enough to hear their conversation clearly, and it didn’t look like anyone had a good angle to read lips, so he continued, “Do you have company?”
“No more than usual. Why?”
Sephiroth, then, but nobody else. Cloud would have preferred to confess without the General around, but he was involved too, so… He took a deep breath. “Look… I’m sorry. I really screwed up—”
“Hey, whoa, calm down. I can hear you flipping out from here,” Zack replied. “What happened?”
“I, uh…” He glanced around one more time to check for eavesdroppers. “…sort of mentioned some of your recent breakfast habits.” There was only silence on the other end, as Zack waited for him to continue, so he elaborated, “The thing with the pastries.”
“…Oh.”
Cloud didn’t really like the sound of that. “And,” he babbled, “well, the way I said it kind of made it obvious that, uh—”
“Yeah.” Zack’s tone implied that he knew where Cloud was going with this, for which Cloud was grateful; he really didn’t want to actually have to say all of it, especially where he could be overheard. After all that working together, they could read each other almost effortlessly, even without being able to see each other. “So, who heard?”
Zack wasn’t flipping out, yet; this was good. “Well, I was down at the Dragon, and the place was full of university students, so it was pretty noisy. I think it was just Tifa—”
“Good. She knows how to keep her mouth shut. Couldn’t be working for our friends in the suits even indirectly otherwise.”
He was right, of course, but it wasn’t Tifa Cloud had been worried about. “—and… Aeris.”
Ominous silence on the other end of the phone. Cloud fidgeted. “…Oh,” Zack finally said, his voice carefully neutral. “I guess she… didn’t take it well.”
“Tifa’s trying to talk to her now, but she seemed pretty upset,” Cloud admitted. He closed his eyes, taking deep breaths. Everything was starting to seem a bit out of focus — undoubtedly an effect of all the alcohol he’d drunk.
“Shit.” Zack sighed. “This is mostly my fault anyway. I should’ve gone down and seen her right after Hojo left, but... Look, the important thing is you didn’t actually let slip anything too major — just the stuff that there’s been rumors about floating around the company for ages, anyway. Could’ve been a lot worse.” He paused. “What were you drinking, anyway? You never let anything slip like that.”
“Tifa called it Moonshine Elixir.”
Zack whistled. “And you’re still standing? That stuff’s pretty strong, I’ve heard.”
“Things are getting kinda fuzzy,” Cloud admitted. Now that the adrenaline rush was gone, he was starting to feel the alcohol’s effects more.
“Better come back topside, then. It’s probably going to get worse before it gets better. I’ll meet you at the station, make sure you get back to your room in once piece — think you can manage up till then?”
“Yeah.” Cloud couldn’t help a little sigh of relief at that. This conversation had gone a lot better than he’d envisioned. “Thanks, Zack.”
“No problem. I’ve told you before — SOLDIERs stick together, no matter what. You remember that, all right?”
“All right.” He took a deep breath. “I’ll see you soon.”
“You bet.”