This has been sitting on my laptop for several months now, so it was time to either publish it or delete it.
NB When this says 'Prologue', it means it – it's a slow start and is here for background and set-up.
I know that after Aerith's healing rain, Sephiroth probably isn't supposed to be able to come back (maybe, probably... I think) but he's a tenacious one and, here, he's already managed to come back twice more – I'll get to how later:
Prologue – After the Fourth Reunion
On their return from Edge's newest hospital, the blond man sat in the kitchen flexing his new prosthetic fingers.
"This changes things – everything." He said, frowning at his replacement hand.
"He cut your hand off, you were weakened by blood-loss and you still beat him. Concentrate on that, if you can." The dark-haired woman replied quietly, as she sat down next to him, taking hold of the new metal hand.
"I've always been so close to losing to him, though. And next time he comes back... or maybe the next one after that... I'm already over thirty, older than him now, since I don't suppose he ages, spending almost all of his time mostly dead or... whatever the hell he really is. Even as heavily mako-ed up as I am, I won't last forever, especially if he keeps chopping bits off me! He can, I'd guess – last forever, I mean. And who knows how many... pieces of the psycho alien bitch are still left? How many clones... other clones" he corrected bitterly, gesturing at himself "are still... held somewhere... in cryo?... Or... something? And even if there aren't, who's to say he couldn't generate more damned remnants somehow... And how the hell do we know what Jenova looked like to begin with? Maybe it could spontaneously generate new body parts... or..."
"Cloud." She interrupted, gently chiding, hiding her worry – deep worry because this just wasn't Cloud; he didn't talk like this. Actually, when he was especially anxious or upset, he usually didn't talk much at all.
"All right, so it probably couldn't and maybe he'll never come back and try for another Reunion, but this was the fourth attempt and... and we certainly can't be sure it'll be the last. And I'm so tired of it, Teef. This one left me with a false hand. The last one left me with..." He raised his metal hand to the vicious-looking scar that ran from chin to temple along one side of his face. "Well, let's just say I'll never again be the pretty boy who could drag up convincingly." He said with an attempt at humour that had a bitter edge.
Despite herself, her lips twitched at the recollection of Cloud in a dress, wig, tiara and make-up – apparently, he'd even gone so far as to acquire the right underwear. Cloud was always thorough and Aerith had always been very persuasive!
"You'd want to?" She asked, raising a brow, before bending forward to kiss him on the scar, where it ran down his cheek. He didn't flinch when her lips touched it; even just a year ago he would have.
"Planet, no! I don't think I've ever felt so self-conscious in my life! I think the only reason I went along was that I was still mostly Zack, in my head, and he never could say no to Aerith about anything!" He smiled fondly, though it was always bitter-sweet, thinking of the flower-girl who he had once been so confused about, the flower-girl who he'd failed, so spectacularly, to protect. Of course, Cloud been confused about pretty much everything back then.
Suddenly he flicked his new metal fingers and they transformed into a blade – the hollow blade which had, until two days ago, made up the front edge of his fusion sword. He looked at it for a long moment, a small frown between his brows and then it twitched and transformed back.
"Stop trying to second guess yourself." She said, interpreting the expression on his face. "You said it was the blade you used most often in your off-hand, so it makes most sense for that one to have been... grafted on."
"Maybe it'll become a theme for AVALANCHE. Maybe we could find a way to get Cerberus to transform into a gauntlet for Vincent."
"You do know you're in a really weird mood, don't you?" She asked, frowning, deciding to give up on the pretence that everything was right in their world.
"Hey, we just beat the dreaded Calamity, yet again, but not before he chopped my hand off and cremated it right in front of me; I have a right!... I'm also on enough painkillers to anaesthetise a large flock of chocobos." He rubbed at his face with his hands, wincing as he felt metal against his skin.
"Oh!" She said, finally realising that she should have remembered about the painkillers; they probably explained weirdly-talkative-yet-pessimistic-Cloud. She pulled his hands away from his face and held them in her own.
"The others are all coming round on Sunday, before they all head out from Edge. We can sit down and discuss what we need to do if... if he comes back again. Maybe... maybe we have to think again about what Reeve said a couple of years back about a new generation of mako-enhanced fighters. The monsters aren't going away and... if he comes back... I mean, Denzel, for one..."
"Is never going near so much as a drop of mako in his entire life, supposing I have to tie him up and sit on him until the day I die!" He interrupted.
"All he wants is to be just like you."
"He's sixteen, he doesn't realise what that really means, Teef!"
"I know, but... you need to talk to him about it again... please. As far as he's concerned you never really made it into the 'boring old dad' role, instead, you're like some über-cool big-brother he can hero-worship, even though he'd never admit to that. It's the way you have of saving the world a lot."
"The way we have." He corrected absently. "Hmm." Having known him all of her life, Tifa was pretty fluent in unintelligible-Cloud-noises. The tone of this one seemed to indicate that, while he wasn't sure if he entirely concurred with what she'd just said, he'd still do as she asked.
She got up and went to the sink and began to fill the kettle. Cloud came up behind her and put his arms around her, resting his chin on her shoulder. He insinuated his hands under her top so that they spanned the bare skin of her waist. Though she could have kicked herself for it, his new metal hand was unfamiliar and cold on her skin and she flinched, just a little.
By the time she turned, he had moved, obviously with enhanced speed, to the far side of the kitchen, and was now leaning against the dresser with his arms folded, a shuttered look to his eyes and a dark expression on his face. He hadn't left the room, though, which was probably a positive sign.
Oh, great! She thought. Something else for him to be overly-sensitive about! It had taken her the best part of two years to convince him that the facial scar wasn't hideous and didn't make him any less attractive in her eyes. Now this!
"For the Planet's sake, Cloud! Your new hand's metal; it was a bit cold. If you'd put your belt buckle or... or your earring against my skin and it was cold I'd have flinched – I can't help that. It doesn't mean I don't want you to touch me!" She was so desperate to make him take notice that she was almost shouting and so she tried to tone her voice down, knowing his enhanced hearing could be sensitive. She checked her watch and swore softly.
"If we had time, I'd drag you upstairs and make you run both of your hands all over my naked body just to prove how much I want you to touch me! As it is, the kids'll be home from school in less than twenty minutes."
He gave a flirty pout that she recognised as a mannerism more of Zack than Cloud; something which no longer happened often, and now amused, rather than disconcerted her, as it had when she first understood what she was seeing. When she moved back to the sink to finish filling the kettle, he moved back into his previous position and she was very glad when, even though his hand was still a little cold, she managed not to wince this time. She turned off the water, and turned around in his arms to kiss him.
He pulled back, a provocative smirk curving his lips. "So... quickie?"
She reflexively checked her watch again, then took him by the good wrist and hauled him into the adjacent laundry-room, just in case the 'quickie' wasn't quite quick enough for a family room like the kitchen, with the children due back.
A quarter-hour later, they'd nearly been caught with their pants down, so very nearly caught, in fact, that fourteen-year-old Marlene had immediately deduced just what they had been doing – unfortunately she was old enough to pick up on it, now – and they'd been treated to a round of "Ugh... yuk... you two are old... eww! Seriously?... Just... eww!" as they'd emerged, fully dressed but still straightening clothes, as well as somewhat flushed and flustered, from the laundry, as they'd finally heard her clattering through the house and into the kitchen, calling for them.
Having got over his embarrassment, especially strong as he knew he should have heard her much sooner, even if he was caught up in the moment – enhanced hearing and all that – Cloud eventually shushed Marlene, when she began to make exaggerated retching noises, and informed her, as sternly as he could manage, that Tifa and he were married and allowed to do what they wanted, where they wanted, in their own damned house!
With a slightly amused expression on her face, Tifa let him deal with it, while she rooted around in the fridge, trying to decide what to cook that evening – she was well out of it and it was fun to let Cloud deal with Marlene in this mood; he was getting so endearingly flustered. It also seemed to be keeping his mind away from dark thoughts – and she'd already done her very best to distract him from those, a few minutes before.
"Yeah, but you're way too old to be... you know... in the laundry. Eww!"
"I'm thirty-one, Marlene, that's not old. Teef's thirty! Gaia, why am I even having this argument? Fine! Whatever! The old people promise to try not to disgust your delicate teenage sensibilities by having sex all over the house, even when you aren't here! Not too often, anyway!"
"Eww!"
"Yeah, well, 'eww', if you like, but just shut up about it, and go and start your homework, okay?" Cloud said sharply, feeling harassed. "Where's Denz, anyway?"
"Standing on the corner, snogging Ferne, so I came on ahead to try to get away from that and you two are, like, a million times worse!" Cloud rolled his eyes as he turned away, not even acknowledging that. Marlene went through to the closed bar and he could hear her begin to take her books out of her school-bag huffily and arrange them on one of the tables.
He went to try to help Tifa with preparing dinner but was told to sit down again – told that he was newly out of hospital and was supposed to rest, adding that she knew better than to try to make him do anything more than just sit still, though.
He grinned and kissed her briefly.
"And us going at it like a pair of horny teenagers in the laundry was supposed to be 'restful'?" In response to that, she gave him a naughty smile.
"Let's call it... relaxation... at least until Marls almost caught us at it! Now, sit!" She pointed at the nearest chair.
Actually, let's also call it 'temporarily stopping you dwelling on the idea that the next time he comes back, you think it won't be him who dies! She added internally.
He sighed, as he reseated himself, reaching for the large cookie jar that was resting on the table.
"I was thinking... what you were saying earlier, Teef? New SOLDIERs could only be a bad thing... you can't tell me that Rufus Shinra would supply the scientific know-how for nothing... in fact, he'd almost certainly want to be the one who controlled any new SOLDIERs. I've already told Reeve!"
"Reeve knows all that, Cloud, but the monsters aren't going away and if he comes back again, surely you won't refuse the backup? Barret's closer to fifty than forty now, so is Reeve, Cid's not so far behind and, given that he smokes like a chimney and his knees are no longer up to all the jumps..." She shrugged. "Yuffie's the only one under thirty... well Vincent, I guess, is physically still in his late-twenties, and always will be. And Nanaki, of course, doesn't really age much, and it's not like it's Reeve who actually fights... all right, so most of us are still pretty much in our prime but, if he keeps coming back, there's going to have to be a younger generation coming through, some time."
"Well, thank-you for making me feel even older than Marlene just tried to!"
"You were the one who started on this theme, just after we got home!" She took a couple of deep breaths.
Okay, Tifa, bite your tongue; the painkillers are making him talkative and irritable...
"And maybe part of the other issue isn't just that I want you to want me to touch you with this hand, maybe it's how much I'm going to miss feeling how soft your skin is when I do that!" He muttered low enough that she only just caught it.
...and also morose and depressed. Oh Goddess!
She knew that the hand must be horrendous for him – it would be completely horrifying to anyone, but perhaps especially to such an accomplished, dual-wielding swordsman – but she'd hoped that he could try to focus on the positive; they'd all survived and he'd yet again killed off the entity who kept coming back from the dead to threaten the planet.
She put down the knife she'd been chopping onions with and went over to Cloud. Sighing, she retrieved the cookie jar, that he'd been systematically emptying, from his hands – a metabolism with his level of mako-enhancement could be so damned expensive in food – and plunked herself down in his lap, pulling him into a tight embrace.
"I'm sorry, Sweetheart." She said, moving her face so that she could look down into his.
The apology and the endearment drew a puzzled half-smile from him.
"What for, Love? You've nothing to be sorry for." His voice was gentle now.
"I don't even have the words for how sorry I am about your hand; it must be horrific for you. I'm sorry that there'll undoubtedly be more publicity; I know how you hate all that 'Saviour of the Planet' crap – Reeve's PR people have only managed to keep them away, these last three days, because you were in hospital – and I'm also sorry that your childhood hero keeps coming back from the dead to try to kill you." I'm sorry and terrified that the hand has knocked your confidence so much that you're more than half-convinced he'll succeed, if it happens again.
"Oh, as for that... I'm not sure if there's much of the 'Hero of Wutai' left inside that... thing, any more. I don't think I ever had a lot of specific Zack-memories of him, but Zack definitely liked him and, while Zack liked most people, I've definitely always had a 'sense' that Zack thought of him as a friend, of sorts; Zack was actually a lot more discerning about his real friendships than you'd suppose, considering how naturally gregarious he was.
"And... he was actually... kind, I suppose, the only time I met him... awkward but vaguely considerate on that journey to Nibelheim. I was huddled in the back of the truck, trying not to puke my guts up and, as the First of the Firsts, he shouldn't even have deigned to notice my existence, but instead he asked after my health, more than once, and tried to take my mind off it by asking me some things about Nibelheim – Zack must have told him it's where I was from, I guess. His manner was so stiff, and a bit distracted, but he was trying – he knew I was Zack's friend, and so was he, so he made the effort, even though I was just a grunt. I honestly don't think Sephiroth was exactly a bad man... before."
She stared at him as if he'd grown a second head.
"Haven't I ever said this before? I really don't think he was. It's not like it's ever held me back from killing what's left of him, but I don't think he was exactly a bad person before the psychosis, or whatever, set in. A bit peculiar, perhaps - only to be expected with his background and upbringing, poor bastard - but not bad or evil... or whatever."
"Hey, Cloud, Teef." Denzel said from the doorway. Unlike Marlene would have been, he was totally unperturbed by the sight of his 'parents' cuddling. "Why, exactly, is Marls doing her homework? It's Friday night." Cloud looked at him blankly, for a moment, while Tifa just smiled as she got up and went back to preparing the meal. Cloud sighed deeply.
"Probably because I told her to." He said, now looking slightly sheepish. "Because, I suppose you could say that... I've been a bit busy this week and I lost track of the days! And she probably realised that discretion was the better part of valour, since, if I had to hear 'eww' one more time, I'd have got really annoyed and sent to her room, even if she is getting a bit old for that now!"
"'Eww'?"
"Don't ask!"
"O-kay. We thought we might go out to the cinema, later. You two wanna come with, since Teef's not reopening the bar until tomorrow? Marls too; make it a family thing?"
It struck Cloud, not for the first time, that it was probably a bit odd that Denzel would occasionally ask his parents and sister along on 'dates'. Probably a by-product of the fact that Ferne had been his best friend for far longer than they'd been going out together and she had almost always shared in family outings when she was younger. Another orphan of the Geostigma, Ferne had first become known to Cloud and Tifa simply as 'the Moogle Girl'. She was a really nice girl... who, to Cloud's surprise, had just jabbed Denzel sharply in the ribs with her elbow.
"Don't you think the first thing you should have been asking Cloud is how he is?" She hissed at her boyfriend, before going over to Tifa and offering to lend a hand with dinner – she could easily lend any aid, as she was totally familiar with the kitchen, eating about sixty percent of her meals at this house. Cloud gave Denzel an amused, slightly sympathetic look.
"Oh... yeah. How are you doing?" The boy asked, grinning ruefully.
"Fine" he waggled his metal fingers at Denzel, pretending that they didn't bother him. "Seems to work okay."
"Blade too?"
Cloud nodded and flicked the fingers and the hollow blade replaced them.
"Cool!"
No, actually, Cloud thought morosely, it had been 'cool' to wield the secondary blade of his choice in his off-hand, but since his metal hand would never have actual feeling, or anything like the dexterity of a real one, a 'blade-arm' had seemed the best compromise. He flicked the blade and it turned back into fingers.
"So... do you actually want your 'old mum and dad' along, or have you just spent all your allowance and you're expecting us to pay?" He asked. Denzel looked uncomfortable.
"He has spent his allowance, and I've only got enough of mine left to pay for me, but it would still be really nice to have you all along, especially after... earlier this week. And you and Tifa are hardly old!" Ferne said from behind him. Cloud tipped his head right back to make upside-down eye-contact and smile at her.
"Tell that to Marls! I suppose... as long as we don't get mobbed by the fu- erm," catching Tifa's look for being about to use the f-word in front of the 'children' he quickly corrected to "damned tabloid press... Teef, you up for it?" He asked.
"If you're sure; there'll probably be some of them about. I'm fairly sure I saw one of them with a long-lens on the roof across the street, as you got out of the van. Denz, go and ask your sister if she wants to go. And tell her Cloud doesn't really expect her to spend her entire Friday night doing her homework."
Cloud listened to the inevitable argument that started between brother and sister as soon as the cinema was mentioned and they each expressed their very dissimilar preferences. Eventually they came in and consulted Ferne, then finally decided to ask the adults. Cloud really didn't care. After fighting and killing Sephiroth again, just earlier in the week, it was simply wonderful to be at home with his family, the warmth of them all around him and the smells of Tifa's cooking. Even the sounds of squabbling was almost music to his ears because they were all alive, fit and healthy enough to be bickering about something so trivial.
He would have to talk to the rest of AVALANCHE to see what ideas they had for protecting the Planet the next time Jenova and Sephiroth made a bid to destroy Gaia. He couldn't help feeling that it was 'when' and not 'if' and even the idea that he might slip, fail, was not something that could be borne.
Author's Note:
Damn! Given that this isn't my usual fandom, I was aiming for something slightly different to what I normally write, and what did I produce? Three-and-a-half thousand words that are nearly all talking – so exactly what I normally write! I guess I just have to stick with what I know!
Just to say, if you like your Cloud 'all emo', you probably won't like him here too much, since I intend him to have the full range of human emotions, not just the depressing ones. I don't entirely get where that comes from, really; I know the film plays it up, but the guy has a terminal illness during that, and the imagery seems to imply that the Geostigma is affecting his thought processes and mood on top of that so, I admit, he's not exactly Mr Happy, right then, but using his character in the two games as a better indicator (once he's stopped having such an attitude, at first, in the original), I just don't see him as being particularly depressive or even especially taciturn.
I'm trying to stay more or less canon-compliant with the background to this, but I originally had Cloud say "I'm not sure if there's much of 'Shinra's Silver General' left inside that... thing" and "the General" where it now says "First of the Firsts" but I've been replaying FF7 lately and there's nothing about Sephiroth having any rank other than SOLDIER First Class in it. Which makes sense; ShinRa is a company, not a country, so SOLDIER is more of a paramilitary than a military organisation, in reality, so why would they have a General?
(That's right, I've been totally corrupted by too much fan fiction! There's not one mention in FF7 of him being a General, and I couldn't remember anything in Crisis Core, either, so I did a bit of googling and discovered that 'General Sephiroth' is pure fanon. Any SOLDIER with a rank other than First, Second or Third Class is non-canon-compliant. I have to admit, I'm feeling almost shocked about this!
