Updated and revised: November 6th, 2014
Original publish date: December 22nd, 2012

Title: "What Have You Done"
Characters: Cloud Strife, Hope Estheim, Tidus
Warnings: Character death.
Disclaimer: I don't own Final Fantasy VII, X, or XIII (aside from my PS2 and PS3 discs), nor do I own the song "What Have You Done?". They belong to Square Enix and Within Temptation respectively, I only use them for my own entertainment.

Screeching and cawing echoed through the forests of Gran Pulse. The land beneath Cocoon was still swarming with monsters of all sizes, but each kept to themselves while a young silver-haired boy walked through the flora and fauna, head down in thought. He went about aimlessly, paying very little attention to what direction he was headed. He was bored and left with no friends to keep him company, making the possibility of entertainment slim. A sigh left his pale lips as he turned his green eyes skywards, watching the blue-colored atmosphere with an air of loneliness.

After they saved Cocoon, Hope found himself abruptly thrust back into the routines of a normal lifestyle. It contradicted everything his l'Cie instincts had ingrained in his mind, leaving him confused and sometimes bedridden. He was still young when he received his brand, so when his developing mind became introduced and forced together with something inhuman and distinctly primal, he latched onto the other conscious with the need and dependence of a hatchling. The instincts became a part of him; the others were fully grown and didn't require the care of a parent or guardian, so the fluttering in the back of their minds that whispered 'survive' and offered basic assistance faded away without effects. While he lay in bed lethargic and nearly comatose, everyone else returned to their daily lives with ease. Their times were taken up with work and the reconstruction of Palumpolum and its surrounding areas.

Most days had him restrained to the estate he shared with his father, but today was a long-awaited stroke of luck. He had enough energy and focus to wander about freely, so with his father's compliance (and an intense puppy-eyed stare from Hope as he begged) he was allowed to travel down to the Gran Pulse lowlands and explore a bit. It was today that had Hope doing a happy dance in his mind; he would see his brothers soon, after the unwelcome five-month hiatus Tidus and Cloud had dropped on him for 'saving the world' reasons. Not much had happened to the ex-l'Cie that he wanted to share, but he had sorely missed his siblings' company. He understood why they had to leave so suddenly, and the thought of their time apart made him irritable, but it was all the more reason to be excited to see them again.

His keen hearing caught the crunch of dry grass underfoot coming up behind him. The teenager's shoulders tensed and he fell into a crouch, turning on his heel to face the newcomer. His expression was wary before it melted into one of joy at the sight of blond spikes poking over the enormous leaves of a giant fern. A man dressed in all black with three broadswords strapped across his back stepped around the leafy plant, his mako-infused eyes sweeping the path in front of him until they landed on Hope.

A toothy grin graced his lips as the silver-haired l'Cie let out a happy cry of "Cloud!" and made a beeline for his older brother, his arms outstretched in a oncoming embrace. As he neared the swordsman he caught a flash of something in the other's eyes but paid it no mind. The warmth he anticipated to feel when Cloud's arms were to wrap around him was thrown to the wind when he suddenly halted, a look of surprise crossing his features. Cold, bitter and biting it was, flooded through his torso. The boy stared down at his stomach in shock, seeing one of his brother's swords piercing him, impaling him halfway through. A choked noise that sounded close to the elder's name fell from his lips as he fixed Cloud with a stricken look, his body jerking and crumpling to the ground as the sword was roughly pulled free from his gut.

Cloud looked down at the boy, his gaze devoid of any emotion. This was nothing personal, he thought as he wiped some of the excess blood on the younger's shorts. Sephiroth had 'passed on' only two months prior in his time, the threat of the Remnants gone as they dissolved into the Lifestream. But Hope's silver hair was key evidence that he may have S-cells inside of him, and his connections with Cloud made the factor too large to ignore. This was business, this was the only way. The enemy could not be allowed a single way to return, and his brother's death was a prevention of that possibility.

But even in the eyes of death, Cloud was not a heartless man. He moved the boy's body onto a soft patch of grass, laying him facing upwards and crossing his wrists over the gaping wound in his abdomen. His touch was gentle as he ran his fingers over the boy's eyelids, closing off the glassy emerald stare that was emptied of the life they once held so enthusiastically. Once he was satisfied his younger brother looked to be resting peacefully, he found a place to sit against a fallen tree nearby. He kept the monsters at bay from the body while he cleaned the red from his blade with a spare rag. He didn't have to wait long; the tell-tale whoosh of a portal opening, followed by a startled cry echoed quite loudly through their part of the forest announced the arrival of his other brother, Tidus.

The tanned blitzer was running as soon as his feet touched the ground, collapsing to his knees beside Hope's fallen form. He took the boy's head in his hands and cradled him close, muffled sobs already leaving him. His hand brushed tenderly over the stomach wound, recoiling instantly as lukewarm blood stuck to his fingers. Cloud remained where he was as the middle sibling cried over the corpse, annoyed at the way the blitzer's voice hitched with every other breath. Tidus was always emotional at a scene of Death's deliverance.

After several long minutes did the blond finally raise his head, blearily looking around the path - most likely for the monster that slew Hope. He froze when he spotted Cloud seated close by, nonchalantly rubbing an old cloth over the steel of his blade. His eyes locking onto the droplets of crimson on its tip, Tidus asked the elder in a strangled voice, "You did this?"

Mako met ocean and the elder nodded solemnly, face carefully blank. He didn't move at Tidus' scream of disbelief, didn't react when the young adult staggered up to him and grabbed him by the collar of his shirt, picking him up with almost superhuman strength and shoving him against the tree, elbow pressed painfully against his windpipe. He couldn't bring himself to care when tearful eyes held him still with a look of betrayal.

The younger's temper was teetering on the edge between pissed and livid, repressed only by will and his gritting teeth. "Explain why."

Cloud slowly blinked, keeping silent.

"Answer me, damn it!" A fist connected with his cheek, the skin instantly splitting from the force of his blow. The taste of blood filled his mouth as the impact jarred him, forcing him to accidentally bite down on his tongue. Cloud's hand instinctively raised to touch the swollen area, wincing as he probed the wound. Tidus had been training during the break, it seemed.

He chuckled quietly, a low, grim rasp that barely stuttered past the arm cutting off his oxygen supply. The hit was nothing. This was nothing. He had seen and felt and done so much worse, he knew. "Hope's hair was silver. He was my brother, and through me he was a risk. I have S-cells inside of me, and the probability that he held some of his own was too great to forgo action." He cracked a half-smile, empty and dead like the boy a few feet away. "It was the only way to make certain Sephiroth will never return," he explained. His next words were whispered, gone unheard by the blitzer. "She said it was the only way."

Tidus dropped his older sibling, pulling his hands back to tear through his shaggy blond locks. The tears finally fell, silent rivers as he kept his pain to himself. Breath catching in his throat, he clenched his hands into tightly balled fists and turned his back on the other blond, head hanging as he grieved. "You are no longer any brother of mine, Cloud," he stated fiercely, letting the words bite as hard as he could make them.

The ex-SOLDIER pretended to not feel the pang of guilt that twisted in his heart at those words. "So be it."

With no hesitation, Tidus knelt by his youngest brother's side and gathered the boy into his arms, cradling him against his chest like a newborn child. A soft blue-white glow came from his blitzball pendant as he summoned a portal, not once looking at Cloud as he carried the silver-haired boy towards his opened Gate. But he paused before stepping through, his eyes falling to the pale teenager in his hold. "Do you know what day it is?" he asked.

There was only silence as his answer, but Cloud had shaken his head.

The dirty blond laughed mirthlessly, shoulders quaking with each tremor. "It's Hope's fifteenth birthday." From where he stood, he failed to notice the elder's eyes widening almost comically. "He'll never forget your present."

Without another word between them, Tidus passed through the Gate, the only sound left behind the odd vhirrsh as the portal collapsed in on itself. Cloud slumped back against the aged tree, eyes transfixed on the odd blades of grass where Hope had lain, flat and stained an ugly red. A thick lump formed in his throat and his teeth sunk themselves into his lower lip, a vain attempt to stifle his breathing. Tears began to streak down his pale cheeks, tracking a shimmering trail through the blood and dirt as ex-brother, traitor, and murderer wept for the brother he had lost.