A/N: My original of this was called 'Ghosts' and was a little different. I like this version better. Cloud/Zack, Reno/Cloud. slash. Nothing heavy.
Remnant
Midgar had been saved once more by the hero Cloud Strife. Even though it had been five years now, his memory still wasn't right.
Shinra soldiers surrounded them, there was no escaping this battle. Not this time.
"Cloud run!" He ran as fast as he could, trying to get away. When he came back, the other had fallen... the other?
Who is he? Cloud asked that question a thousand times, and every time the answer came to him, it slipped away again. He knew his promise to the man who saved his life, the real first class SOLDIER. That he would live out both of their lives. Cloud could picture him perfectly, the spiked black hair, blue-green mako eyes, muscular body, black SOLIDER uniform... But why no name?
"Hey Cloud, are you alright?" Reno asked. Cloud had tried so hard. He really did like Reno, but there was so much of himself that he didn't know... how could he show someone else?
"Yeah, fine. Just... it's nothing." Reno sat down.
"Come on Cloud, tell me. You never tell me anything. It's always nothing, but I see that look in your eyes. It's not nothing."
"I... I just can't remember someone's name. Someone important. But his name won't come to me no matter how much I think about it."
"...Oh. Someone... important. Someone you... love?"
"He was my first love."
"I see. So, you'd want to find him?"
"I know where he is. I just want to remember his name." Reno gave a confused look.
"Then why don't you go and ask him?"
"Well, that's not entirely possible. He's dead."
"I'm sorry. What was he like? Where was he from?"
"He... he was a real first class SOLDIER. You know all the memories I have of being one? They aren't mine. They're his. He was a hero. And he always said that he wanted to be one..."
"Wait, he was a SOLIDER? 1st class? When? How long ago?"
"He died five years ago. Why?"
"I've been a Turk for a long time Cloud, and I worked with a lot of SOLIDERs. If you can describe him, I might be able to come up with his name." Cloud's eyes lit up. It was something Reno had never seen, and now he desperately hoped he'd known Cloud's SOLIDER boy.
"He had spiky black hair, and carried my sword... cheerful disposition." Reno smiled. He knew the SOLIDER that Cloud spoke of. Reno had always regarded him as a hero, and his words, that were really the words of his teacher, had stuck with him for years.
"Cloud... I knew him. Follow your dreams... and stay true to your SOLIDER honor." A memory triggered in Cloud's head.
He pressed his sword to his forehead.
"Boys, you're all going to come back. This is some advice... no, an order. Follow your dreams... and stay true to your SOLIDER honor." Cloud had looked on him as a hero, like so many others, but in the end, his life had been the one that hero chose to give his life for.
"Are you okay?"
"I... I just remembered something. A memory of him saying those words."
"He said them often. It's sad that after he was labeled as killed in action, Sephiroth was hailed the hero. People always forget the martyr."
"How well did you know him?"
"Not as well as Cissnei. But she resigned after his death. Haven't heard from her since. Tseng worked with him often though. He helped defend Sector 8 in Midgar with me, Rude, Tseng and Cissnei. That's the best memory I have with him," Reno explained.
"What... what was his name?" Reno smiled. He hadn't thought about him in a long time.
"Zack Fair," the name escaped his lips, and he couldn't remember the last time it had been said, "and the man who's sword you now possess, was Angeal." Cloud's memory started to flood back to him.
"Angeal... Genesis... Sephiroth..."
"The three first class SOLIDERs that were most famous. It's sad that Zack never was. He killed all of them."
"Zack..." Cloud said. He remembered the name, and it was now almost insane that he'd forgotten it.
"How did he die Cloud? No one really knows. Because official records say he was killed in Nibelheim, but that's the same for you and Sephiroth, and we know that wasn't the case."
"He... he died saving my life. Shinra soldiers... they attacked us, got me hidden away behind some rocks... I... I thought he'd make it. He always did. But that day, he gave his life for mine. Zack..." Cloud looked into space, trying to remember how he'd got there. What happened between there and Nibelheim. Reno put an arm around Cloud's shoulders, and kissed his cheek.
"Cloud... thank you, for telling me. It means more than you know."
"I just wish I could sort out all the memories. It doesn't make sense... because I remember attacking Sephiroth, and not like the convoluted memories that were actually Zack's... I..." Cloud tried to remember, but once again it slipped away.
"Officially, Zack and Sephiroth killed each other. Was it you that killed him?"
"I don't know. I remember taking Zack's sword... And I remember hitting Sephiroth with it, he was really badly injured... But he... he got me too... None of it makes sense." Reno embraced Cloud, who happily took refuge in the redhead's arms.
"It's okay Cloud. The past isn't always the answer to the future."
"I know that Reno, but I want to know who I really am."
"Cloud, you don't want to know who you are, I know who you are. You want to know who you were. And I don't care about that." Cloud's eyes met Reno's.
"You... you know who I am?" Reno's hand slid up Cloud's back and neck to his cheek.
"I do. You're Cloud Strife, my boyfriend." Cloud smiled and blushed a little. He still wasn't used to that word being used... especially being in reference to him. Reno's phone started to ring, causing him to groan, and answer.
"Reno here," he sighed, "I hear ya... Okay... I got it... Yeah, yeah, I know... Thanks Elena... Yes I'm with Cloud... That's none of your business... Just shut up and tell Tseng I'm on my way." Reno turned back toward Cloud.
"I'm sorry Cloud I..."
"Go Reno. I promise I'll be here when you get back."
"I won't be long."
"I know you won't. Good luck."
"Thanks Cloud. See you soon." Reno left, leaving Cloud still in his muddled thoughts. He laid back, and looked at the clock. Ten thirty. He sighed and dismantled his SOLIDER armor that he now wondered how he'd acquired. It had been beat to hell, stitched back together, and patched up so many times, it hardly looked like the original uniform now anyway.
Now just in his underwear, Cloud felt tired, and decided to get some sleep, hoping Reno would be back by the next night.
Cloud... wake up. Cloud...
His eyes opened slowly at the calling of his name, and standing over him, was Zack.
"Z.. Zack?"
"Finally remembered my name eh?"
"Yeah. I... I don't know why I ever forgot it." Zack laughed.
"You made yourself forget Cloud. It hurt. But now, you're ready to remember. Only you know the whole truth about what happened, why everything went the way it did. You were there for most of it, and what you weren't I was."
"What do you mean?" Cloud asked sitting up. Zack sat down on the edge of the bed.
"Sephiroth... you should understand why he became what he was."
"Why does it matter? He's gone now." Zack smiled.
"You have to make sure what happened to Genesis, Angeal and Sephiroth doesn't happen again. Do you remember what happened to you?"
"What do you mean?"
"You were never a SOLDER. But you have the mako eyes. Do you know why?" Cloud now realized he didn't. He did have mako eyes, but no memories of being a SOLDIER that were truly his.
"No. I don't."
"After the incident at Nibelheim, we were both test subjects in Hojo's experiments. Me, I got weaker. I was already a SOLIDER and so I already had mako in my blood. But you weren't. You only got the S cells."
"S cells?"
"Sephiroth." Cloud's eyes widened. He shuddered at the name.
"What?"
"You have Sephiroth's cells," Zack laughed, "why do you think you're so strong? That you can do the same things Sephiroth can? That you managed to kill him?"
"But, wait, then how did I escape? I don't remember it... Nothing makes sense. There's a huge gap in my memory..."
"Well, let me try to help you then. Angeal... no, Lazard, who had become an Angeal copy, pulled me out. You were next to me, so I pulled you out. You were... incapacitated. I carried you from the labs into the mansion. My thought was a mako addiction, so I got you out of your mako soaked Shinra uniform, and I found a SOLDIER uniform..."
"The one I still wear."
"Yes. After that, I carried you out of the mansion, trying to get us away. Shinra soldiers didn't want us to leave. They tried to take you away... I killed all of them. But I was getting weaker and weaker. I had to take you back to the Shinra mansion to recover. We left at dawn, to Gongaga. I rescued you again from Genesis and Hollander... Cissnei let us go with Lazard to Banara."
"Banara?"
"It's gone now. Do you remember dumbapples?"
"Dumbapples...?"
"I guess not. Banara was where Angeal and Genesis were from. Shinra set it up in flames... twice. When I went back, I killed Genesis. Lazard stayed with you."
"I was still unresponsive?"
"Yeah. When I came back, I was pretty rough, and we tried to escape, but Shinra soldiers..."
"I... I remember that."
"Thought you might. You'd come to by then."
"But, wait, there's one other thing... Sephiroth, you and I were listed as killed in action at Nibelheim... but I don't remember you killing Sephiroth."
"That's because I didn't. You killed him Cloud."
"But... but... that's not possible! I was just a solider! I didn't have S cells, or mako or anything!" Zack smiled.
"Exactly. I failed to kill him. You picked up my sword, and wounded him. He came at you again, and stabbed you through the stomach, you can see the scar there, but you grabbed his sword, and pulled it out of you. Cloud, you threw Sephiroth into the reactor. I didn't kill him. You did.
" "That's not possible..." Cloud now remembered everything Zack was saying, but still didn't believe it, "how?"
"You were brave. Sephiroth had hurt Tifa, and hurt me. I told you to kill him. You stood up, and did it. We both landed on the stairs in the mako reactor, and Shinra troops found us. Hojo took us back to be experimented on. I still don't understand how Nibelheim recovered..."
"No one there remembers it being set on fire... no one but me and Tifa."
"I suppose I don't have all the answers. But I do know that memory of Sephiroth in the flames haunts you."
"It does. What happened to Angeal?" Cloud asked.
"I killed him. He'd injured you and Tseng, went insane. He forced me to fight him. The last thing he did, was hand me that sword," Zack replied pointing at the Buster Sword sitting in the corner.
"Just like when you died."
"Yeah."
"So, you killed Genesis too?"
"I did. Angeal, Sephiroth, Genesis..."
"What happened to them? I mean, thinking through, all of them were normal at one time... no, they were heroes at one time."
"They were. I looked up to them. To Angeal, Sephiroth, and even Genesis. But all of them had no idea what they were... and when they learned... they changed. Angeal decided he was a monster. Sephiroth became a monster. Genesis... he tried to destroy everything. I don't know if you remember this, but they were friends once... all of them."
"Sephiroth... had friends?"
"Angeal and Genesis... well, Genesis wasn't just a friend for a while. But they were all normal. You're right. It's sad what happened." Cloud sighed.
"It is. What was the difference between Angeal, Genesis and Sephiroth? I mean, what did Shinra do to them?" He asked.
"Genesis was the first. He had the cells of a woman named Gillian, mapped onto him before he was born, cells that would make him able to absorb other's genes. It's complicated. Anyway, as he started to grow, his body began to... degrade. When I met him he wasn't yet thirty, but he was aging quickly. His hair turned gray... his body started to fail. Then Angeal was born, he was Gillian's son. They grew up in the same town, Banara. Best friends. With Genesis degrading, and Angeal a success, Hojo created another, from the cells of Jenova."
"Sephiroth."
"Correct. He always said Jenova was his mother, but I've since learned differently, ask your friend Vincent Valentine, he knows more about that part of Sephiroth's life. But what I know, comes later, when they all were 1st class SOLDIERs. I know that they all looked out for each other. Sephiroth and Genesis got particularly close... but Angeal... he was different. He looked out for the SOLDIERs. For me. I cared about him."
"Zack... you don't have to sugar coat it. I... I do have a boyfriend."
"Oh! Well then I suppose I don't have to protect you anymore do I? I've always loved Angeal. He took care of me. Cared about me... Loved me."
"I understand Zack. You were the same with me. I mean, you carried me out of Nibelheim." Zack smiled.
"You were young Cloud. I couldn't leave you behind."
"So... I think my memory is sorted out now."
"That's good. So, I know I'm dead, but I'm still a nosy punk... boyfriend?" Cloud smiled.
"You know him. He's a Turk."
"Tseng?"
"No. Tseng would never look twice at me."
"Makes sense. He was always a bit standoffish. Sexy, but standoffish. So... Rude maybe? No... it'd never be Rude... wait a minute..." Zack looked at Cloud with narrowed eyes, looking him up and down, "Reno?" Cloud smiled.
"Yeah. Reno."
"How is he?" Zack asked. Cloud looked down and blushed.
"That good huh? I never would have guessed, but I guess he is feisty..." Zack trailed off, Cloud still slightly embarrassed, "come on Cloud, you gotta give me something here! I'll tell you how Angeal is!"
"Please don't..."
"Don't leave me hanging here Cloud!" The blond swordsmen sighed and laughed.
"Reno is..." Cloud smirked as he thought of the perfect way to describe the sexy redhead, "fiery."
"Ooo. Fiery. I can see that. Angeal is more... hm... sensual." Beside Zack, silver hair started to materialize.
"Hi Seph. Came to see Cloud too eh?"
"Yes. Cloud, I wished to apologize. My mind was muddled, cloudy. I should never have attacked you or Zack."
"I understand."
"Zack, we must go."
"Where?" Cloud asked.
"Back to the lifestream. We're dead still. I think you can go on now, Cloud," Zack said.
"What is it like there?"
"I can't really tell you. But I can tell you this, everyone you remember falling in battle, Aerith, Genesis, Angeal, Sephiroth, Jesse, Kadaj... All of them are there."
"So I will see them again?"
"Yep. All of them are there. We'll see you again soon," Zack said.
"We will meet again, Cloud." Sephiroth and Zack vanished, Cloud fell asleep.
When he awoke the next morning, the apartment in 7th Heaven he shared with Reno was still empty, but a small note was left on the table.
Cloud, after we left, I remembered something I needed to tell you. You were born from normal parents, and became a hero. But, you still have cells from Sephiroth, Angeal's sword, and Genesis' drive to do what you believe is right. And from me, a kind heart with room for all of your friends. You're the last remnant of that past. No one else remembers what happened there. Not even Rufus Shinra himself knows. Don't allow history to repeat itself, and don't let the planet suffer, and really don't let the people suffer. We're counting on you Cloud. Make the planet a better place.
-Zack
P.S. Tell Reno hi for me... and maybe do another couple of things too. Knowing him he'll appreciate it.
Cloud shook his head, and got dressed in casual clothes. He went downstairs into the bar, where Tifa was doing last night's dishes.
"Morning Cloud. Where's Reno?" Denzel and Marlene were sitting at the bar playing a card game.
"Elena called late last night. He said he'd be back soon."
"I see. How are you Cloud?"
"I'm fine... why do you ask?"
"It's just... it's the anniversary of Aerith's death." Cloud had totally forgotten. With Zack appearing last night, and starting to think about getting serious with Reno, it had slipped his mind.
"I forgot actually. I suppose I should go to the church..."
"She'd like that." Cloud smiled as he sat down with the kids.
"Cloud! Can we go with you?"
"I don't see why not." The door opened, and Cloud turned to see Reno standing there, still in his suit and fighting gloves.
"Mind if I join you too?" Cloud stood, and went to Reno. He went to hug him, but when Reno caught him, their lips met. Neither of them was opposed to it. As they parted, Tifa laughed.
"Would you like to change while I get the bar closed up?" She asked.
"Yeah, that'd be great Tifa." Reno took Cloud's hand, and the two went upstairs. The redhead pulled off his suit jacket, and started to unbutton his shirt. Cloud couldn't help but wrap his arms around Reno's chest and kiss his neck.
"They are waiting on us you know," Reno whispered. Cloud smiled.
"Tifa will just be pleased I'm not sulking somewhere." Reno turned around, slipping his arms around Cloud's waist.
"No turtleneck and armor today SOLDIER boy?"
"Thought you preferred me not to wear it."
"It's a bit of a toss up Cloud, the SOLDIER uniform is sexy, but easier access to your neck..." Reno's lips met Cloud's neck, "how quick do you think we ca-"
"Reno! Cloud! Are you coming?" Marlene yelled pounding on the door. Cloud laughed.
"I'm so glad we can never have children," Reno sighed as Cloud let go of him. He picked up his jeans off the floor where they'd been cast aside a few nights earlier, and slid into them. Cloud picked up a t-shirt from the other side of them room, and tossed it to him.
"Thanks," Reno said as he sat down to put on his shoes. He saw the note from Zack.
"Cloud...? What's this?"
"It's... hard to explain..." something now occurred to Cloud, he turned quickly toward Reno, "it doesn't matter though. It's in the past."
"You ignoring the past? That's a new one," Reno replied.
"You were the one who said I should move on." The redhead smiled as he pulled his shirt on.
"I did. But I never recall you listening to anyone Cloud."
"That's actually not true. If you are counting, I've listened to you more times than anyone else... well except maybe Zack, but that was before..."
"Cloud!" Marlene yelled again. Reno laughed.
"Come on, let's get moving before Marlene busts the door down... when we get back though..." Cloud laughed. The two went out the door, and down the stairs.
"We're ready."
"Good. Let's go!" Tifa said. They started to walk toward the church. Reno slid his hand into Cloud's. Maybe Cloud worried about the future, and lived in fear of his terrifying past, but allowing it to affect the present could go on for no longer. A smile spread across his lips.
"What is it Cloud?" Reno asked.
"It's... nothing." For once, Reno believed him, and he should have. Cloud was simply happy to be there, to be alive, and to have whatever time with the people he cared about that he did.
"Come on Cloud and Reno! You guys are so slow!" Marlene yelled. The usually stoic swordsman let go of Reno's hand, and sprinted at full speed.
"Bet you can't catch me Reno!" He yelled. Reno smiled, as he chased Cloud. They may not be happy forever, but they were happy now, what happened later, could be dealt with later.
A/N: This was written a while ago... right after I finished CC. But I love a Cloud/Reno relationship. It's cute. Feel free to leave a review. :) they're apperciated!