Title:By the Grace of God
Characters: Sephiroth, and others.
Rating:PG
Word Count:1254
Summary: Gods should have the power of life and death. Thus far, all they have seen is the latter.

Notes: A bunch of short stories revolving around Sephiroth. Kind of like Sephiroth: The Chronicles, which I wrote forever and a day ago. I'm having trouble getting inspired for Alone, but that doesn't mean I hate writing in that setting…the reverse, actually. May or may not be CC compliant, because I liked Lazard but pretty much disliked the rest. Sorry for CC-lovers.

On Alone: I really, really want to rewrite it. I mean, reading back, I had Zack join only after the Wutai War! What was I smoking when I wrote that? *steams* Also, I want to put more Lazard, Rufus, and Turk in it. I'll see again when the semester ends. I actually have a fragment of Chater One Reboot hanging around somewhere…

Zack: A Demonstration

After the parade had ended and Zack had helped Cloud pick his jaw off the floor, they went off together to their favourite bar, Cloud leaning into the curve of Zack's arm with his eyes fixed dreamily skywards. "That," he said, "was the most amazing thing I ever saw." He sounded as though he had been struck in the head several times and was currently on his way out of an elixir rush. Zack rolled his eyes and flagged down the barmaid, choosing to ignore Cloud's rambling in favour of the pretty, dark-eyed girl. He ordered their drinks. Then he turned back and grinned as Cloud, realizing belatedly that he had lost his audience of one, gave him a mock-sullen glare that wasn't as effective as it could have been thanks to the bright chocobo-yellow hair that gleamed bright as the sun even in the smoggy air.

"Careful, Spikes," he said. "The way you keep going on, it's indecent." He put a hand to his heart and looked mournful. "I've never had to play the jealous boyfriend before. Wouldn't like to start."

Cloud smirked. "Cut it out, Zack. You already have a girlfriend."He rested his chin on his hand and sighed as loud and long as any lovestruck swain. Zack was tempted to crack a joke about the General and his rigorous training regimen, but decided against it. For someone who had survived a few years in the filthy underbelly of Shinra's military, Cloud had emerged somewhat tarnished but still surprisingly innocent. Innuendo flew over his oblivious spiky head no matter how Zack angled it. He settled instead for, "Your first time seeing the parade?"

Cloud smiled proudly. "You bet. Last year and the year before that I was stuck on guard duty on the other side of Midgar. I had to call in some favours, pull some extra time to free up my slot. But it was worth it." He sounded like a fresh new recruit instead of the jaded cadet he was supposed to be, and Zack had to hide a smile. But then, they all joined up for one reason only, didn't they…

"So," Zack said wickedly, leaning forward. "As a loyal subordinate of the General, I have to ask: what exactly are your intentions towards Sephiroth?"

Cloud subsided into a coughing fit. He wiped the back of one hand against his mouth and looked up, bug-eyed. "Zack, what the hell!" he sputtered. "I like him, but not that way!" He was blushing now, the redness of his cheeks clashing horribly with the blond hair. Zack gave in to temptation and ruffled the spiky hair affectionately. "Are you sure?" he pushed. "He's actually pretty lonely, you know. Cries in the night, cuddles Masamune, because the big mean President keeps him locked up in his castle when he isn't being shown off. Maybe what he needs is love to melt his icy heart." Zack seized Cloud's hand. "You are worthy, Cloud!" he cried, oblivious to the stares pinned on them. "Go forth! I choose you!"

Cloud yanked his hand away, hiding his face behind an exaggerated swig from his drink. "Clearly, standards for SOLDIER have fallen if they allow clowns like you into their ranks," he said with studied indifference into the glass. "I guess I had better sign up for the next round as soon as possible."

Zack's face fell. Oh. "Good luck, Cloud," he said with forced cheer, suddenly heavily aware of the treacherous ground between them, the black ice where one might slip and fall with lack of care. Still, he tried. "You know, this is pretty nostalgic. Not too long ago I was some kid from a backwater town with nothing but the shirt on his back and some coins saved up from odd jobs. But hey—life is unlikely. I worked hard, I got there. You're a lot like myself, Spike." He offered a smile. "Don't ever give up."

Cloud didn't smile. "Sephiroth was the youngest man to have ever made General," he said thoughtfully, turning his drink round and round so that the lamps threw interesting, shifting patterns of light and shadow through the glass onto the stained table. "He didn't give up. I won't either."

"It wasn't like I took a back seat in the Wutai War, you know," Zack pointed out, deliberately keeping his tone casual. He'd been teasing Cloud all this while about Sephiroth, but something about Cloud's expression was making him nervous. "I'm a much better role model, for one. I don't continually act like I have a Masamune stuck up my—"

"Oh, please, Zack." Cloud rubbed his forehead, irritated. "If you didn't find enough to admire today, you ought to have found other times. You served with him in the war—you would have died a dozen times over without him, right? Heck, Shinra mightn't even have won the war!" For a moment he looked stricken at the piece of blasphemy that had just left his mouth, and looked cautiously behind his shoulder, missing the frown that came over Zack's face.

It wasn't just the implication that his fighting skills weren't up to scratch—it was more…Zack shut his eyes. It was the envy. Good Mother Planet, was it really that much of a privilege to fight with Sephiroth? For Cloud, it seemed to be. "We watch each other's backs," he said absently. "It's the way of SOLDIER."

"So…" Cloud said. "Did you ever save his life, Zack?"

Zack shrugged, conceding the point. "Saved him a few scars, maybe. I owe him a lot more than he owes me," he admitted. "He's the best out of us all—"

And Cloud was nodding, in that satisfied manner, as though Zack was confirming some long-held theory of his, with that hungry look in his eyes, and all of a sudden Zack wanted to reach out and shake him, and say open your eyes.

Yes, there was plenty to admire in the controlled environment of the parade grounds, and plenty more to admire when the man was in his natural element, if you didn't flinch from the sight first. Once you got past the blood and the gore and the screaming, watching Sephiroth fight had been rather a treat. Assuming you could get past all those formidable obstacles…

Zack liked and respected the General, he really did. Yet in the long nights after Wutai he hadn't been able to close his eyes without seeing the red imprinted on his eyelids and the lean black shadow moving through it all like a very lethal ghost…

It hadn't been a carnage. No, carnages were messy. Sephiroth was nothing if not efficient. It had been an extermination: man by man, woman by woman, child by child. It had been a very careful and thorough campaign and it—

Had been absolute Hell.

"Zack?" Cloud was saying. The boy waved a hand in front of his eyes. "You zoned out there for a minute. Looks like you daydream about him too, hypocrite." The boy was grinning, oblivious, and in an instant Zack's anger turned to sadness and some sort of self-rebuke. Cloud was young, he told himself, there was no harm to let him believe…

"Yeah," he said, raising his half-full glass with a smile. "You've got me there, Spikes. A toast to our vaunted General!"

And they clinked their mugs, drank to the General's health, and if Cloud noticed that Zack made sure to steer the conversation away from Sephiroth afterwards, he did not say anything.

-end-