R e m i x
By Chaxra-san
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Summary: Two months after Advent Children, all is peaceful until Cloud finds Kadaj alive in Aeris's church. Can he keep the remnant's survival a secret?
A/N: Omg I'm terrible... Another new story... And I've still got four other stories running too!! Ah well. This came into existence after I was listening to the song 'Innocence' by Avril Lavigne, and after I heard the lines 'I'm waking up to see that everything is okay The first time in my life and that's so great'. Then I thought, what if Kadaj was ressurrected (Sp? Seriously, I hate spelling that word) and ended up living with Cloud... Thus is this. I am aware that are lots of other stories along the lines of this plot... Please don't be discouraged by this. Fans of Lithium will be pleased to know I am updating today. Also, cheers for the fact that this is my first multi-chapter story with no OCs!! WOOT!! Please, if you like my writing style, please please please look at my other fanfictions! -Chibi eyes-
Disclaimer: For once I can finally say that there is NO-ONE and NOTHING that I own except for the story.
On a final note, Denkigaku-chan, would you please hurry up and join FanFiction already?!
-Prologue-
Cloud was sitting in Tifa's bar, staring down into his drink. Vincent sat next to him, doing exactly the same thing; only he was staring at Reno with raised eyebrows.
The redhead Turk was completely drunk, and was practically falling off his chair.
"Hey, Laney... Why don' we get outta here?" he slurred, leaning on Elena's shoulder.
Elena promptly shoved him onto the floor.
Reno's hand stuck up in the air from behind the table and waved at Tseng, who was quietly talking to someone on his cell phone.
"How 'bout you, Tseng-Tseng?" asked Reno.
Tseng glared at him.
Tifa walked out from behind the counter, holding a bucket full of cold water. She handed it to Elena, who tipped its contents over the drunk Turk.
"FWAH!"
Reno sat up, swept his soaked hair out of his eyes and shook his head, sending droplets of water spraying across the floor.
"What the hell was that for, yo?!" he demanded.
His eyes came to rest on Elena, who had one hand on her hip and the other holding the now empty bucket.
"Well, at least you're slightly sober..." she sighed and gave the bucket back to Tifa.
Reno muttered obscenities under his breath as he stormed off to the bathroom in search of a towel.
The bar doors swung open and Yuffie bounced into the room, followed by Cid.
They went up to Tifa and said, "We need alcohol!"
While Tifa served them, Vincent turned to Cloud.
"Cloud... Are you alright? You've been distant," he said.
Cloud looked up at him, and answered, "I don't know... It just feels like something important's gonna happen today."
"Gawd, Cloud, what've you got to worry about? Sephiroth's dead, so are those creepy remnants (shudder) and there's no crazy guys trying to take over the world!" said Yuffie, lightly tugging on one of the spiky parts of Cloud's hair.
The swordsman sighed and shook his head.
Reno came back, holding a towel and still looking damp.
Upon seeing Yuffie, he said, "Should you be in here, kid?"
The ninja bristled at the emphasis he put on the word 'kid' and shot back, "Yeah, old man, I can drink legally now. So there."
Reno stuck his tongue out at her and walked back to where the other Turks were sitting.
"Laney, do you know just how hard it is to make my hair look good? You've ruined it!" he whined.
Tseng looked as if he was about to bash his head into the table.
He raised his voice slightly, still talking on the phone.
"What was that, sir? Pay decrease for Reno? Sure."
Reno gave him a horrified expression and grabbed the phone off him.
He then retreated to the corner, where he engaged in a whispered desperate sounding conversation with the president of the Shinra Company.
Elena reached forward and shook Tseng's hand, both with smirks on their faces.
Cloud drank the remainders of his glass and stood up.
"Cloud, where are you going?" asked Tifa.
"The church," he answered, avoiding her gaze.
"But you promised that you'd stay here today and spend some time with the kids!" protested Tifa.
Cloud shook his head and muttered, "I have to go there."
"No, you don't! Why can't you just let go and move on?!" she said, slamming her hand on the counter. "She's dead, Cloud! She's not coming back, so get on with your life!"
Cloud abruptly turned and walked out the door. Tifa sighed angrily and started drying glasses with such ferocity that Vincent was sure they'd break.
"Ooh, drama," said Reno, after handing the phone back to Tseng with a disgruntled expression on his face.
Elena hit him over the back of the head.
--
Cloud parked his bike outside the church. He stared up at it for a moment, before entering it.
The dust stirred up around him as he walked down the aisle.
He stopped suddenly as he saw something lying in the flowers. Something black... and silver...
His eyes widened as he realized that it wasn't a thing, it was a person. A person that Cloud recognized and knew to have died two months earlier. Kadaj.
Slowly he walked up to him.
The silver-haired teenager was either asleep or unconscious, Cloud noted as he drew closer. The floor creaked underneath him, and he froze. The remnant stirred slightly but didn't wake up. Cloud relaxed again and knelt next to him. He sat watching him for a few minutes, unable to bring himself to wake up the teen.
He was uninjured, and was wearing the same leather outfit that he had last time they met.
'Should I kill him now? I don't even know how he got here...' Cloud thought. 'Probably kill him, it'll be better in the long run. Then the others will never need to know...'
He quietly pulled out one of his swords and held it over Kadaj.
He hesitated, remembering the events after their last battle, on the tower.
Kadaj had looked so... pleadingly at him, like he didn't want to die.
Cloud cursed himself inwardly. 'I can't think this way! I need to get rid of him! But... what if the other two are alive as well? Then they might try to do another reunion or something...'
Unfortunately for Cloud, Kadaj woke up to see his enemy kneeling over him holding a sword.
Kadaj frantically crawled backwards, and Cloud, startled by this, stood up. The remnant's panicked stare flicked to the swordsman, then behind him, where the open door was.
He made a run for it. As the flash of silver sprinted past him, Cloud turned and followed him. He managed to trip over Kadaj onto his back and pinned him to the floor, where the younger man struggled.
He tried to kick Cloud but missed completely.
"Just stop moving already!" said Cloud exasperatedly.
Kadaj ignored him.
"Stop moving or I'll hit you," he warned.
Kadaj continued to thrash around, much to Cloud's irritation. He slapped the remnant across the face with his free hand.
He stared up at the blonde with a shocked expression.
'I told him I would, so why's he so surprised? Anyway, shouldn't he expect that from an enemy?' thought Cloud, confused.
Then he noticed that the teen wasn't looking at him, but at the space to his left.
A warm hand touched his shoulder and he jumped.
A girl's voice giggled and whispered in his ear, "I didn't know you could be so twitchy, Cloud."
"A-Aeris?!" said Cloud, wishing Kadaj wasn't there so he could confirm the flower girl's presence.
"Yup! Oh, and you can let go of Kadaj now, the doors are shut," replied Aeris.
"But..."
Cloud looked up and saw that the doors were definitely closed. Hesitantly he sat back and allowed Kadaj to sit up.
The remnant scuttled around the other two and retreated to one of the fallen pillars.
Cloud turned around to face Aeris.
"You're here," he stated quietly.
Aeris smiled at him then said, "I suppose you're wondering why Kadaj is alive?"
He nodded.
"Kadaj, come here please," called Aeris, but he shrank back behind the pillar.
"I'll get him," said Cloud and advanced on Kadaj; now searching for escape again.
Cloud scooped up the struggling teen and carried him back to Aeris, who looked amused.
They sat down on a bench, with Kadaj in the middle.
"You put up quite a fight earlier," commented Aeris.
Kadaj scowled at Cloud and folded his arms.
He sat glaring at the floor, until he asked, "...Why am I here?"
"You've been given another chance. To make things right, in a sense. Although there's not much you can do to change what you've done, is there?" Aeris replied.
"So what, I have to look after him or something?" interrupted Cloud.
"Yes," said Aeris cheerfully. "Cloud, it's not like the world's ended," she added, after seeing his horrified expression.
"Where are my brothers? They were alive when I died, so where are they?" asked Kadaj.
A pained look crossed the flower girl's face, and she replied gently, "Kadaj, they're dead. The building exploded just after you died, and it killed them too."
Kadaj stared blankly at her.
"I'm sorry, Kadaj," she finished sadly.
The remnant got up and ran to the end of the room and sat in the corner, not looking at either of them.
Cloud half rose to bring him back, but Aeris stopped him.
"Let him be alone for a while."
Cloud watched Kadaj, wondering what he was feeling, if he could even feel at all.
"The others hate him though, what will I do?" asked Cloud.
When he thought about it, the only ones that wouldn't immediately kill Kadaj if they saw him would be Vincent and himself.
"They don't have to know right now. Why don't you just not tell them?" she suggested.
"Tifa's gonna hate me when she finds out about this..." groaned Cloud.
"Look after him, okay?" said Aeris and stood up.
Cloud blinked, and then the girl was gone.
--
Read & Review nicely, if that's okay.
To be honest, I hate saying this, but if you have nothing nice to say, don't say anything at all, please.
And also, to the person who calls himself/herself/itself 'still stupid' or whatever the hell you choose involving the word 'stupid'; you really must be stupid to call yourself stupid, then flame people and say their story is stupid when you appear to be more stupid than the story. I find that ridiculously idiotic. And I'm begging you, for your name USE CAPITAL LETTERS AT THE START OF EACH WORD!! They were not invented for people to blatantly abuse them!! Also, I would like to enquire as to what exactly you think your latest victim has done to violate the TOS? Because I see nothing in those stories that is wrong with the way we're supposed to write. And I am the kind of person who looks through things carefully, and notices mistakes. I believe you are an idiot. Apparently you do too. Enjoy your pathetic amusement, flamer.
Please review the fantastic authors of Slightly Sinister Sinestra, who was flamed by the above cretin, yet has incredibly good stories. One of theirs that you may have seen around is Mental Highschool.
You can pretty much gather the idea of the story from the title, lol. And as you can see, I love having a go at a flamer who has a fair amount of untruthful thoughts about people stories. 'Cept for FanFiction Eater. You're cool. ;)
My apologies for any typos in A/Ns. My keyboard sucks. Apologies also for my ranting. There is usually a lot of ranting in the first chapter, then it eases off.
