"Castle Of Glass"
By Linkin Park
Take me down to the river bend
Take me down to the fighting end
Wash the poison from off my skin
Show me how to be whole again
Fly me up on a silver wing
Past the black where the sirens sing
Warm me up in a nova's glow
And drop me down to the dream below
'Cause I'm only a crack in this castle of glass
Hardly anything left for you to see
For you to see
Bring me home in a blinding dream,
Through the secrets that I have seen
Wash the sorrow from off my skin
And show me how to be whole again
Reno and Cloud sat at the bar drinking like old friends. After Meteor and the Remnants they often met for drinks and talked about the past and what they were working on at the moment. Cloud couldn't help but wonder if it started as a way to get him closer to Shinra. In the end it didn't really matter, Reno and he had become almost as close as brothers.
On this night they were both pretending to be a bit drunk, the mako that was in their blood keeping them from ever being truly intoxicating. The bar around them was not as loud or as busy as it could be at this time of night but that was more from the savior of the world being back in temporary residence then the bar not being popular.
Reno was brooding once again, his mind back on the time when the Turks were forced to drop the Plate. Tseng had been held as collateral as well as Rufus so they had to do as they were told. As the red head stared into the bright green liquid in front of him his friend was also deep in thought.
"Have you ever thought about what you would do if you could go back and change things?" Cloud asked with his eyes on a picture that hung on the wall behind the bar. It was a picture taken a few weeks after the geostigma incident; in it were all the surviving members of the hunt for Sephiroth and the last of the Turks as well as Rufus Shinra. Cloud couldn't remember exactly who had talked them all into taking the picture, or even who took the picture. He often found himself staring at it and wishing the people that they had lost were also in it.
Reno turned and looked at the blond, his mind going over the question. "There is a lot I would change, but not a lot I could really do on my own, yo. It would take too long for me to climb the ranks to be able to really change anything, a few things but without someone changing things in the SOILDER database it wouldn't be much of a change, yo."
Cloud sighed as before downing the last of his drink, an electric blue that actually reminded him of Zack's eye color. "Same here, I managed to find the codes for the SOILDER database but wouldn't have a chance in hell breaking into the Turks systems. I could remove certain things, like the Shinra mansion, from the equation but anything else…" He trailed off before picking up his thought process. "The information about where Jenova is and Hojo's plans would be in a different system and I'm not computer savvy enough to get to the information I would need."
"Why are you two even thinking about this? It's not like you'd actually be able to do it." Tifa broke in before placing new drinks in front of the duo. "So why bother even thinking too deeply about it."
Reno and Cloud turned to one another and each raised an eyebrow as they turned back to her.
"Okay, that's just kind of creepy." Tifa couldn't believe the change that had come over the two since becoming friends. Cloud had taught Reno about wielding a sword, though the red head preferred blades like a rapier, and Reno taught Cloud some of the small things Turks learned. Such as how to hold a whole conversation with eye movements and subtle twitches.
She walked away as they turned to one another and began their conversation anew.
"I think that if Genesis never deserted, than most of it never would have happened yo." Reno stated while looking up at the ceiling.
"Degradation correct? I remember bits and pieces and we've talked about it before. That does seem to be the starting point. From Zack's memories I know that Sephiroth wasn't always that cold. That it only happened after his friends were gone, leaving him to handle Hojo and SOLIDER on his own." Cloud responded as his eyes found their way back to the picture behind the bar. "So many people could have been saved from happening if those two idiots hadn't have messed with Gaia's work."
"True, yo." Reno responded. "Actually I imagine that someone outside of the company could have saved us all if they simply passed the right information to the right people before the shit hit the fan."
Cloud hummed for a moment. "From what I have heard Genesis would have acted just as he did even if given the information earlier. Sephiroth, well, with him it would have depended on when he got the information. The Turks would have already known. Rufus wouldn't have wanted to do anything at that point. So the only other person would have been Angeal."
They continued talking till long into the night, eventually moving the conversation into Cloud's room above the bar. That night there may have been two people conversing but two more were listening in with grins that would have had the non-SOLDIER and Turk backing away with worry, had they physical forms to be seen.
Okay, first yes I know what in Gaia's name am I doing starting yet another story. Sorry I kinda fell into the FF7 hole and have no wish to crawl back out. I will be working on all my stories but this one just wouldn't leave me be.
Second, this will not be a TT story where Cloud goes back and joins SOILDER. You'll see what I mean soon. And yes Reno goes back too. Anything else you'll have to wait and see.
Third, this can be considered AU (in my opinion all fanfics are AU). I have read more fics then I have played the game so this may as well be fanon not canon.
Pairings will most likely consist of slash and het. There will be no mature content on ff and if I write it I will post it on aff separately. Concrete pairings will be Zack/Aerith, Vincent/Lucrecia. I am not really sure who I am going to pair Cloud with. It will either be Seph, Gen or Reno. Maybe Tseng. What do you all think?
Updates will be sporadic as my life is complex.
Any questions or comments, feel free to pm me! Read and review my lovelies!