dogmatix (dogmatix) wrote in areyougame, @ 2009-08-18 22:47:00 |
|
|||
Entry tags: | *final fantasy vii, author: dogmatix |
Paper Angel 4/5, Final Fantasy VII (Sephiroth and Zack)
Title: Paper Angel, 4/5
Author:dogmatix
Rating: PG
Warnings: Zack being not-Zack
Word count: short-ish
Prompt: Final Fantasy VII: Crisis Core, Zack and Sephiroth: role switch - Zack as the bad guy, Sephiroth as the good guy.
Summary: In the absence of Her Son, he will do.
A/N: Arg, sorry for the long delay - I finally realized I was trying to fit two parts into one. So, er, not quite done yet! ^^;
He was free, they were free. Still, it was like watching the world through glass, muffled and disconnected. Carrying the trooper over packed snow was no more significant than a morning stroll, and evading pursuit more a game than a challenge. It was, he suspected, something that should be worrying him. Oh well.
Avoiding the troopers was like playing at infiltration in the training room - playing, because when would he, Genesis, and Angeal ever really need to avoid a fight? He watched the last them disappear over yet another icy ridge.
Around this time the delicate balance of mind-altering drugs they'd pumped into him began to come apart at the seams, and the mako saturating his body made it a thousand times worse.
Images of Angeal and Genesis started to play in his mind. Only. They were dead. He'd thought about inviting Zack to the practice room later, but Zack was dead too, wasn't he. He realized that he was shaking, his breath coming faster and faster until he was gasping for air and the world was spinning around him. Everyone was dead. He was alone. Everyone was dead because of him, because of him it was all hisfaultnopleaseno! He was falling into a great dark pit of terror and couldn't seem to stop himself, the small cave where he'd hidden them drawing away to leave him cold and alone, always alone. Great gasping sobs tore from his chest.
Limbs growing weak and heavy, he grasped at Cloud, drawing the young man to him. "Cloud," he gasped, "Cloud, ans-answer me. Cloud. Cloud. Cloud!" he shook the boy by the shoulders, frantic for a response.
The boy remained silent, glowing green eyes unfocused and empty. No. No no no no, he couldn't have been too late. Again he shook the boy, "Cloud, wake up, wake up!"
It was like throwing a switch. The boy lifted his head to stare serenely at Sephiroth, showing the general monstrous cat-slit eyes that he'd only ever seen in the mirror.
"No!" Aghast, Sephiroth shoved the boy away hard, scrabbling to the other side of the suddenly claustrophobically small cave. Curled up small and hiding his face, he rocked back and forth. A broken litany of denial followed him into unconsciousness.
~((0))~
He had vague flashes of walking, of snow, and Cloud slung over his shoulder, but he couldn't seem to think-
~((0))~
Sephiroth came back to himself sitting under a small overhang, the late afternoon sun streaming over him and Cloud. He felt a little clearer, but a strange lethargy filled him. As the sun set, his apathetic mood fell with it, letting fear, sadness and a terrible lonely ache settle over him. He cried, quietly at first, and then in great wracking sobs as he clutched Cloud to his chest. 'It's only the drugs, only the drugs," he reminded himself over and over, clinging to the limp form in his arms as killing despair washed over him in waves.
Eventually sleep claimed him.
When he woke the next morning, stars just starting to fade into day, he found the storm, figuratively speaking, had passed. Mentally exhausted but feeling clear and sane again, Sephiroth took stock.
He and Cloud were alive, together, and free. That seemed to be a good start, all told.
"Good morning," Sephiroth said quietly to the boy. He was guiltily aware that the dried blood on the back of Cloud's skull was his fault, the memory of shoving the boy into a cave wall uncomfortably clear. Still, it looked to be healing, and didn't feel like a concussion to his carefully probing fingers. Tilting Cloud's head, he studied the eyes, which were normal human eyes, except for the blank stare and the mako glow. No slit pupils. A dream? It had seemed very real, but then so had his dreams about Zack.
He had the Masamune as well as one or two materia (low-level), they had clothes and shoes, and the snow would provide water. Some monsters were edible, and he knew a thing or two about surviving off them. His hair was still short. Damn. He'd been hoping that part was a dream, too. Sephiroth huffed. He probably looked very little like his old self, what with short hair and wearing a regular SOLDIER outfit. Which might be good considering that his previous appearance had been rather distinctive, and Shinra was looking for them.
Since Shinra pretty much ran the world, this was a problem. He briefly considered trying to hide right under their noses in Midgar, but quickly discarded that plan. He supposed he could head north, hide them somewhere in the icy plains up there, but the idea didn't appeal. Maybe to some of the smaller, more obscure islands off the northern or southern coasts but they'd just be living on the run (and freezing to boot, if they went north). Still, that would be the case anywhere they went, unless Shinra was gone.
It was a logical step, but he took a deep breath and held it for a moment before he could bring himself to face it.
Did he really want to go up against Shinra? Not alone, certainly. Ruefully he shook his head. First he helped spread the company's reach, and now he was going to oppose it? And facing his own men on the other side of the Masamune... he'd burn that bridge when he came to it.
Well, alright, hypothetically. If he were to bring down the company, how would he go about it? Find other people of like mind, first. Unfortunately most of the world had settled into subjugation, lulled into complacency by the ease of life that mako energy brought. The only place that might still have a viable resistance was Wutai, and his information was several years out of date on that.
Still, he knew Wutai. He'd fought there, lived there, killed there. He could disappear into the jungles almost as easily as the Cresent Units.
He'd be on foot and carrying someone, but if he were careful..
"We're going to Wutai," Sephiroth informed his comatose charge awkwardly. If the boy was awake in there, it was the least he could do. "I won't leave you behind." No response.
He picked Cloud up and struck out west. First, they'd need to get out of the Nibel mountains, then they might be able to steal a chocobo or two at Rocket Town.