It was the perfect day for some introspection under the sun. Or clouds, as would be the case before long. A winter storm was on its way to the remains of Midgar, but for now the sky felt tense and cold. Like me, thought a blond man, perched on a cliff in the wasteland.
He had not been to this rocky outcrop in a while, but today was special. It was only fair that he returned to honor a friend's sacrifice. Seeing the approaching storm, he decided it would be best to head back soon. His patchwork family respected his need for space, but worried if he grew too distant. For good reason. I didn't do a good job of taking care of myself back then.
A few years ago, he was like this all the time, running away from his family to brood. Thankfully, the healing powers of time, closure, and firm friends had more or less allowed him to readjust. He still had nightmares and regrets—he always would—but he wasn't worse off than anyone else who'd been through as much. In fact, all things considered, the blond thought he was doing rather well.
He had found, contrary to what most people believe, that the pain of losing loved ones never leaves completely. It makes itself known in another person's laughter, in the way flowers grow, and it ebbs and flows like the tide. Grief served as a memorial to what he had lost, and as a reminder to cherish everything he still had. I've done my best to make up for all of my mistakes, to do his legacy justice, but…he was the one who wanted to be a hero. I just wanted the world to keep living.
A sudden ringing drew the man out of his thoughts. He pulled his phone out of his pocket. Reeve.
"Hello?"
"Cloud." Reeve said. "I know you're not very fond of phone calls, I so I'll keep this short. Tifa told me you were making some deliveries by chocobo around Wutai earlier this week. Did you happen to ride near the cave east of the coast? The one where we found the mime materia?"
Cloud had taken Terra to Wutai last week for some time-sensitive deliveries, but just to the mainland. "Not really anyone by there to make deliveries to, so no. Did something happen?" he asked.
"…Yes, but it's not important if you're busy right now." Reeve's words were nonchalant, but his tone was strained. He would have called Tifa if it really wasn't important.
"No, I want to hear it," Cloud replied. "I, uh, appreciate the conversation right now."
The man on the phone paused for a moment, presumably to gather his thoughts. Although Reeve was something of a world leader now, he still had the occasional trouble communicating effectively. Cloud could relate. "Well, I've been working on a personal project lately. A more advanced model of Cait Sith. I sent him out towards that unoccupied part of Wutai to test his recon programs, and…actually found something. That cave now has a functional computer system, set up like some sort of laboratory. If I'm not mistaken, there also appeared to be some sort of holographic device, as well as some other machinery I didn't recognize."
"Machinery you didn't recognize?" Cloud was impressed. Reeve was an engineer by trade and, considering he designed Midgar itself, anything mechanical should have been right up his alley. "Do you have any idea who could have built it, or at least be running it?"
"That's the problem," Reeve said. "Cait was getting a pretty good look around, and had started looking in the computer's database, but there was a sudden…termination of his operating system. The last thing I got from the cameras before losing the connection was a shot of someone Cait had not detected wearing black, and then static."
"That's…interesting, to say the least. That someone must have been pretty fast to sneak up on Cait. Faster than a normal person, anyway. Do you think…this has anything to do with Deepground?"
"I doubt it." Reeve sounded fairly certain, although Cloud had never been very good at reading people. "Vincent wrapped up that matter pretty nicely. What's most concerning about this situation is the location of the cave. Rare materia doesn't just randomly appear in caves; it forms over a long period of time from the natural mako present. The Lifestream doesn't come close to the surface there like in the Northern Crater or Mideel, but there's still a strong connection that isn't fully understood."
Cloud wasn't sure he liked where this was going. "So you're suggesting—"
"That whoever destroyed Cait Sith is experimenting with mako? Yeah," Reeve confirmed. "It's obviously not the only reason someone could be running a secret lab there, but it's the first that comes to mind. And our attacker definitely wasn't a part of Deepground, or Cait would have recognized them. The only other group of people we know of with that much mako enhancement is—"
"—SOLDIER," Cloud finished.
After a long silence, the blond took a deep breath. "And they're all gone." Myself not included.
"I know this sounds pretty bad," Reeve continued, "but I'm not suggesting it's your lab or anything, Cloud. We all trust you over here at the WRO, and frankly, we know you wouldn't be reckless enough to start experimenting with mako after everything you've been through."
"So what do you think is happening, then?" Cloud asked, as the wind started to pick up, bringing the scent of an approaching storm with it.
"Honestly? I don't know." There was a note of frustration in the other man's voice that was not lost on the blond. "Everyone who was involved with SOLDIER is dead, officially at least. Old man ShinRa was not above declaring a missing officer dead if they defected or 'disappeared' as was the case back in Nibelheim, but all of them were accounted for as of a few months ago. This person was definitely stealthier than most of them were, but they still needed to possess superhuman speed to surprise Cait, as well as a level of skill that only comes with experience. It's like they just…came out of nowhere."
Cloud breath hitched for a moment, remembering something he'd once said to Tifa. I couldn't finish 'em. This is gonna get complicated. That had been the understatement of the century. The whole planet had been in grave danger, and they'd gone through hell and back to save it. "Do you want me to go check it out?"
"…No. Whoever is behind this…we don't know what their motives are or what they're trying to accomplish. We don't even know if the attacker is the person responsible, or just a victim. You showing up could escalate things prematurely. I'll fill in Yuffie, see what I can do to investigate the cave again, and let you know as soon as I get more information." Another pause. "And Cloud?"
"Hmm?"
"I know you'll want to jump to conclusions about this, but I'll say it again—this isn't anything like we've dealt with before. There's no reason for us to believe that old enemies are making an appearance, if you catch my meaning."
"…Thanks," Cloud said gratefully. As childish as
it was, the verbal reassurance that their mystery attacker was probably not Sephiroth or Jenova was comforting. "I'm gonna go head back to the bar to help out Tifa for the night. You take care, Reeve."
"Talk to you later, Cloud."
And that was it. Some of the tension he'd been feeling before had went away, strange as it was. It was a weird feeling, and one he knew many of his friends wouldn't understand, but he never felt quite right anymore unless he was fighting, or working on solving a problem like this one. That's why he'd started his delivery service—having to fight monsters on a regular basis helped him maintain his sanity. Too long on the battlefield, or too many things lost. Best to get back before I start thinking about that too much again.
Cloud made his way over to Fenrir and drove back to Seventh Heaven with the storm close behind.
Within a bar in Edge, a dark-haired, pensive woman was polishing mugs.
The now-stormy afternoon had been a largely normal one for Tifa Lockhart. She had slept in later than the kids, with it being Saturday and the bar being open later than usual the night before. She had done her normal workout (sparring with Cloud was her usual way of relieving stress), and then had gone outside to garden. The flowers, although not thriving, were still alive, and that made Marlene happy enough that Tifa would keep trying.
They were yellow, and of the same variety that Aerith used to grow in the Sector 5 church, which was a large part of the reason why Marlene was so keen on taking care of them. The young girl missed Aerith just as much as the rest of them, and the pain of her loss had only dulled so much after three years. Tifa would do whatever she could to ensure the kids could grow up happy—or as happy as possible, given the world-changing events that had already happened in their lives.
I need to stop worrying so much, Tifa thought. They're good kids, and they're growing up strong. She couldn't help but worry, though, as she polished the glassware before the bar opened for the evening. It was tedious work, and would get boring to the action-oriented woman very quickly if she didn't find something to think about.
Like Cloud, for instance. The brunette had noticed him becoming more withdrawn again lately, and while it was still normal for him to go off to brood every so often, she suspected it was getting close to the anniversary of Zack's death. He'd never told Tifa the exact date, and she had a feeling he didn't know anyway. But she wanted to be there for him if he needed it.
Zack….there was a long period of time in which he was the most important person in Cloud's life. Just from the few days Tifa saw them together in Nibelheim, she could see that Zack balanced Cloud out in a way she and the rest of AVALANCHE never could. And after dying for him...her best friend had only really opened up about it once, but Tifa knew he felt like he owed the dead man everything, and that he felt somehow responsible for what happened. She could understand the feeling—after all, she and the others felt pretty much the same way about Aerith.
It had taken her more than two years after Meteor for her to get Cloud to open up to the rest of their friends about Zack. "It'll be therapeutic," Tifa had said as everyone gathered at the bar to celebrate the end of the Deepground business some months ago. She would know, being the one who had to piece Cloud's broken mind back together in Mideel. "I know it's hard, but talking about it will help. You need to get this off your chest so you can start to heal, Cloud. We all care about you so much."
And after some coaxing and quite a bit of alcohol, he did open up. He told them first about how more of his memories from his ShinRa days came back as time went on—that he would see or hear or smell something and be instantly reminded of something Zack had done that he'd thought he'd forgotten forever. Slowly, and with much silence in between words, Cloud told them about how the raven-haired man did everything he could to encourage him and make him feel included, even as the men in Cloud's squad ignored him or talked down to him. He told them how Zack could always cheer him up, and how his own presence always seemed to be enough to make the other man happy.
That, is, until Nibelheim. Cloud, for the first time, gave all of AVALANCHE the full and truthful account of what had happened in the reactor. He understandably glossed over the labs, but gave as detailed of an account of their escape from the labs as he could manage, stopping right at the ambush on the cliff.
Barret had been the most supportive of them all that evening. What Cloud managed to get out about Zack's death before losing the battle with tears reminded the older man a lot of his history with Dyne, and he did his best to assure the blond that he couldn't have done anything more to save him.
Cloud had looked down at his hands, and admitted that he felt like a proper traitor for what had happened afterwards. His sentences became a lot more fragmented, whether from the alcohol or the sorrow, as he talked about the period of time between Zack's death and the summoning of Meteor.
"'I won't forget,' I told him. And…then I went and did just that," Cloud had finished, in a tone so full of self-loathing that it broke Tifa's heart.
Everyone had told him that Zack would be proud, if he was here. That Cloud was the best living legacy anyone could have asked for.
Once their friends had said goodbye, Cloud had just sat with Tifa for a while, crying softly into her shoulder. She had just held him close until he fell asleep, used to being his rock. In the morning, he'd thanked her, and admitted that while talking about Zack had been painful, and even though he would probably never be able to fully move on, the fact that it wasn't all bottled up inside any more lifted a heavy weight off his chest.
And so Cloud had slowly started to get better, and started to let his broken heart heal.
A warm, calloused hand on her shoulder and the scent of rain brought Tifa back to the present. She turned around to find Cloud standing there with an amused look in his big blue eyes.
"You were spacing out, Teef. I thought that was my job," he said with a small smile.
Glad to see that he's not feeling too down. "Well, it's hard not to space out with all of these mugs to polish and no one to polish them with," she said teasingly, tossing a clean rag at him. "What kept you?"
"A phone call from Reeve, actually," he replied, getting to work on the glasses. "Something happened that he thought I should know about."
He recounted the conversation to Tifa, who tried her best to act nonchalant. It concerned her more than she would like to admit, but it was important for her to stay optimistic about the situation so that Cloud could do the same.
"Honestly," she said, trying to keep it from sounding forced, "if I were running a secret mako lab and a crown-wearing cat with a megaphone showed up, I'd probably destroy it too."
The blond laughed briefly at that, a beautiful sound Tifa had been hearing more and more often lately. "When you put it that way, I guess it's probably not much to worry about, at least not yet. Reeve will figure out what's going on over there, and if the mystery attacker is a threat, he'll call in a favor from Rufus and get the Turks involved."
Tifa was glad that he was staying positive about the situation, but she couldn't help but remind herself of all the ways similar situations had gone wrong before. It sounded an awful lot as though someone involved in SOLDIER other than Cloud had managed to survive, and that had never brought anything but trouble.
"That's not fair!" Denzel whine-shouted from the end of the table. "You can't give it such high numbers!"
"And why not?" Marlene shot back. "Your cards all have high numbers too."
A week had passed since Reeve's phone call, with no updates. They had all had gone back to their usual routines, and the kids were, as far as Cloud could tell, working on something for class.
"What are you two arguing about now?" he asked, pulling up a chair between them to join the conversation.
"Marlene thinks it's fair for her cards to have higher numbers than mine," Denzel said, in the manner every tattle-tale child uses when talking to an adult.
"That doesn't mean much without some sort of explanation. What are the cards for?"
"There's a contest going on at school," Marlene said cheerfully. "Whoever can make the coolest game by the end of the month—"
"—Is gonna win a prize," Denzel finished. "The top three teams are all getting big bags of candy!"
"Big bags of candy are truly a noble cause," Cloud said with a mischievous glint in his eyes. "Do you want to call in reinforcements?"
"Come on now, we'll be spoiling them!" called Tifa from behind the bar, where she was taking inventory of the liquor before her monthly order.
"Tiiffaaa," Marlene whined. "The teachers never said anything about having to finish the games by ourselves! Pleeease help us!"
"We're calling it 'Triple Triad' for now," Denzel continued, all business now that the adults were involved. "The basic idea is that each player has a deck of cards with a number on each side. The two players take turns placing cards down on a three by three grid—"
"—That's why we're calling it 'Triple Triad'— " Marlene chimed in.
"—with the goal of turning over all the opponent's cards," Denzel finished.
Tifa stopped her inventory for the moment and walked over to join the conversation. "So the cards get turned over based on the numbers on their sides?" she asked, resting her elbow on Cloud's shoulder. "Like, the higher number beats the lower number or something like that."
"Exactly," Marlene confirmed. "We just can't agree on what numbers each card should have on them, so the game can be, uh…"
"…balanced?" Cloud finished.
"Yeah, balanced," she agreed.
"Well," Tifa said, "it wouldn't be a fun game if some of the cards had really high numbers on all sides, right? So try giving each card a strong side and a weak side, so that the players have to be careful about which cards they're putting down, when."
The kids looked very enlightened at that idea. It's a good idea, too.
"Then it would be more like a strategy game than a luck game!" Denzel said. "Tifa, that's a really great idea. We'll totally blow the judges away with that one!"
"One other thing," Cloud said, having an idea of his own. "Right now the cards are all just plain. The judges, and the other kids, too, will think the game is way cooler if you add some sort of artistic element to it."
"What, like drawing wolves all over them?" Denzel asked with a shit-eating grin.
Tifa gave a sharp, clear laugh at that, and Cloud brought his hands to his heart in a gesture of mock offense. "Odin, no," he replied. "I mean, you could have one card have a wolf on it or something. But if each card has a different set of numbers on it, you could draw a different picture on each one." He picked up a card with medium-high numbers on it. "Take this lovely card, for example. It could be the Marlene card."
The young girl grinned cheekily at Denzel. "I like this idea," she said. "We could have a Marlene card, and a Denzel card—"
"—and a Tifa card, and a Barret card—"
Just then, Tifa's phone started to ring. "You guys have fun finishing your game, alright?" she said, before walking upstairs to answer the call.
Cloud watched the kids start drawing pictures on their cards for a minute or so before Tifa called down to him. "It's Reeve again."
He followed her back upstairs to their office, where she put the phone on speaker. "What's up, Reeve?" she asked.
"The situation with the lab has escalated somewhat," Reeve said. "It's still not a major concern for you guys as far as I can tell, but I thought you'd want to be in the loop."
"We appreciate it," Cloud said. "So what's changed?" Hopefully it's not too bad.
"I don't really want to discuss it over the phone, if that's alright with you. Yuffie and I are stopping by Edge later tonight, and we can talk over dinner."
"That works. I'll close the bar for the night," Tifa decided. "We'll see you later."
"Until tonight, then." Reeve said, hanging up.
"What could have changed that made him uncomfortable with discussing it over the phone?" she wondered aloud.
"Rufus still has control over the PHS networks. Whatever's changed, it's probably something Reeve doesn't want him to know about just yet," Cloud said. "We'll find out later though, right?"
Several hours later found the two of them seated at one of the bar's many tables with Reeve and Yuffie. They had eaten dinner without much conversation (Tifa's cooking was truly something to be admired) and were now nursing drinks.
"Let's cut to the chase," Cloud started. "What happened that's so unusual that it has to be kept out of Rufus's line of sight?"
"…There's two parts to this," Reeve anwered. "And I'm not sure which part is more concerning. First of all, I managed to get another Cait into the lab and investigate without running into the same trouble as last time."
"What'd you find?" Tifa asked, after taking a few sips of her beer.
"Well, it would seem that the computer system has actually been there for quite a while," Reeve said with a sigh. "That holographic system I mentioned? It's actually there to turn the whole console invisible, by projecting the walls to be much closer to the center of the cave. So the lab was probably there even while we were looking for that rare materia years ago, but we didn't notice it because we didn't have much reason to go probing the walls."
"So someone's been running a secret lab for a few years now," Cloud said. "But you must have found something more interesting in there, if it warranted not letting Rufus know about it."
"Yes," Reeve confirmed. "There was, as we probably should have expected, a mako tank in the cave. But it's an unusual tank in that it's operated from the inside."
What kind of person voluntarily sticks themselves in a mako tank? "That's…different. So our mystery attacker is enhanced, but they've been experimenting on themselves, or something to that effect," Cloud said. "Anything else?"
"I had Cait check through the computer's files—most of them were encrypted, which I'd expected. Surprisingly, they were so heavily encrypted that I couldn't understand them. It was almost as if they were written to run on something that's not a traditional computer, or at least not one with any configuration I'm familiar with."
Reeve stroked his goatee for a moment before continuing. "There were only a few files on the computer I could actually read, and they were very fascinating, to say the least. The most frequently used program was one that just…read messages to the user. They weren't even standard messages. Like "go to sleep now," and "forget about it," and the sorts of things that people usually just think to themselves. It seemed to be a completely benign program, too. It didn't have any effect on Cait, or on me looking through the camera."
"That's not all though, is it?" Tifa asked hesitantly, noting the slightly apprehensive look on Reeve's face.
"Unfortunately, it's not. The other program I could get my hands on was nothing more than a list, but it was a list of some very high-profile individuals, both living and dead. Yuffie's mother was on the list, as well as Vincent, Rufus ShinRa, Aerith, Ifalna Faremis, Genesis Rhapsodos…and, well…you, Cloud."
The blond had been on too many people's lists to be properly shocked by one more. "Genesis…he had something to do with the Crisis, right?"
The other man looked a bit surprised at Cloud's question. "You…don't remember him? He was one of ShinRa's top generals in your infantry days, alongside Angeal Hewley and Sephiroth. He defected towards the end of the Wutai war and caused us a lot of trouble for a few years. He fell at Modeoheim."
At the mention of Modeoheim, Cloud started to feel a bit dizzy, as forgotten memories resurfaced. "…I remember now. That's where I met Zack," he said, struggling to keep his voice even with the emotions that always came with old memories. "We were the only two in the group who didn't have trouble navigating the mountain terrain…I felt pretty smug about being able to keep up with a SOLDIER. He—" Cloud abruptly stopped, before he said something embarrassing or got too far off topic.
"…Do you need a minute?" Yuffie asked knowingly. She'd seen him have these sorts of episodes more than once. They all had.
"…No, I think I'm fine," he answered sheepishly, rubbing the back of his head. Stay in the present, Cloud. Sort through this later. "Zack fought Genesis in the reactor there and…he fell. I've seen that happen often enough to know how it ended. So, we've got a list. What I don't understand is the common factor between all these people."
"It can't be a list of ShinRa's genetic experiments, or else some…other names would be on there too," Tifa theorized. "You don't think it could just be a short list of people with near-death experiences?"
"Some of them had full-death experiences," Cloud replied bitterly, "but hell, I suppose Vincent, Rufus and I have all cheated death before."
"…I admit that I have no idea what the common element is, either," Reeve said, "but Yuffie's side of the story might account for some of the confusion."
"Let's hear it, then," Tifa said, entwining her fingers with Cloud's under the table and squeezing his hand reassuringly.
Earlier in the week, while Reeve was using Cait Sith to break into the mysterious lab again, Yuffie was chasing an incredibly agile thief from one of Leviathan's shrines.
She'd been standing outside a good distance away, training a group of kids in some shuriken techniques—no throws yet, just basic strikes to work on form. Good practice for when you take over from me, her father had said with a hearty chuckle. The weather had been sunny and fair, especially for this time of year—perfect for outdoor practicing. Yuffie was throwing her heart into the teaching, telling the kids (her students!) exciting tales of her materia-hunting days while they practiced line drills. She was just getting to the time she stole all of AVALANCHE's materia when she heard the door to the shrine close.
No one was supposed to be in there at this time of day, so the petite woman held a finger to her lips, gestured for the children to keep practicing without her, and tiptoed over to the door, pressing her eye against the keyhole.
She saw a rather tall man in an all-black ensemble that reminded her a bit of what the SOLDIERs who invaded Wutai used to wear. Something about his posture reminded her of them, too. His dark hair was wild and long enough in the back that she could probably braid it. Stop thinking about braids and pay attention to what he's doing, Yuffie scolded herself. Sneaky men in her shrine were serious business, and deserved no less than her full attention.
The mystery man was inspecting all of the urns around the shrine, the ones that contained the ashes of passed Kisaragis. It was all the passionate young woman could do to not barge in and yell at the man to knock it off. He honed in on a forest-green urn with a white rose painted on its side. Those are my mother's ashes, you bastard! The man picked up the urn and turned around for a moment, but didn't move.
Now Yuffie could get a better look at him. He had two blades, perhaps katanas, kept in a swordbelt at his side. He was wearing a black mask that covered the lower half of his face, and his hair looked a lot tamer from the front, although there was a single strand that dangled in front of his right eye.
Speaking of which, he definitely had mako eyes. They had the same bright yet haunted look Cloud's still got sometimes, and something about them seemed even more familiar to Yuffie than the strange uniform or the man's posture did, although she couldn't place it. But how could there be anyone left with mako enhancement? Between Deepground and everything else, all of them were either dead or otherwise accounted for. Who is he?
Just as Yuffie was realizing the full gravity of the situation, the man started moving towards the door. I am NOT letting him get away with her ashes! In a rash and split-second decision, she opened the door, slipped in, and shut it before he could get there.
Yuffie was unarmed, having been teaching the shuriken class empty-handed, so she would have to rely on her evasion skills to get her out of this situation. She took up a fighting stance and prepared to defend herself.
The strange man could apparently rival her for spontaneity, however, because he suddenly cut sideways and broke clean through the wall of the shrine. If I hadn't thought he was enhanced before, I sure would now.
Yuffie leapt after him. Her students and some of the nearby pedestrians turned to watch the chase, but none of them moved. They'd seen their princess involved in this sort of thing too many times to think anything of it, even if she was usually the one being pursued. The man (an ex-SOLDIER?) was cutting through the streets, running towards the path that led to Da-Chao's statue. Why he thought going up was a good means of escape Yuffie didn't know, but she sprinted after him, determined to get that urn back.
The man could probably run at a superhuman speed, but the fragility of the urn slowed him down, and Yuffie was pretty fast herself. She tailed him all the way to the top of the statue, where the lecher Don Corneo had held her and the Turk Elena hostage all those years ago.
"Nowhere to run, SOLDIER boy," the ninja said threateningly, putting her hands on her hips. He might have those blades, but he needs to be careful since he obviously wants to keep that urn. And I can still fight empty-handed.
At the mention of "SOLDIER," several different emotions became evident in the man's eyes. Anger, sorrow, determination…but ultimately, his expression became one of confusion and unrecognition. He began shaking where he stood, which both surprised the young woman a great deal and reminded her of the way Cloud had acted while he was unknowingly fighting mako poisoning.
Yuffie had no idea how to handle the situation. Tifa and Aerith had been the ones to bring Cloud back to reality when this happened, but she didn't even think she knew this man. Was he having a flashback of some sort? Was he dissociating? Was she overthinking this, and he was just chickening out of his thieving operation?
But before Yuffie could come to any meaningful conclusion, the mystery man pulled himself together, threw the urn at her, and full-on dived down the side of the mountain. She caught her mother's ashes easily and watched him descend, impressed at how he managed it without getting visibly injured. After some thought, she decided it would probably be best to call Reeve first.
Author's notes:
So..this is my first time writing fanfiction (and my first time doing creative writing in like...eight years). If you read this, and had literally any thoughts on it, please comment them! I have no idea what I'm doing yet and would really appreciate any feedback.
As for the story/characterization, I'm gonna try to stick to my own interpretation of their canon personalities-mostly from the original game, Advent Children, and Crisis Core, because I've never had a chance to play Dirge (so if I really screw something up with that please let me know). I have a general idea of where I want the story to go, but I don't have anything in detail planned out yet beyond, like...Chapter 5.
Chapter 2 is gonna deal with Cloud and Tifa's relationship, more of his feelings on Zack, and then the plot is gonna pick up again. I'm almost done editing it, so I should be uploading it in the next couple of days.