Sorry to suddenly add this warning but... post-Dissidia spoilers as well. The actual spoilers will only come in chapter 5, but just an advanced warning.
ooxxooxxoo
The next few days passed by in a whirl of activity for Strife Delivery Service. Sora flying around town on his skateboard became a common sight. He was charming the people here as well, which was saying something, since North Corel was mainly made up of hard-boiled old-timers who were as stingy with their trust as they were with their pennies. Cloud didn't mind, of course. It was good for the business.
Because of the busy schedule, however, the niggling urge to question the boys about their giant keys and fighting skills was pushed to the back of Cloud's mind for quite some time. Until one fine day, when he overheard them talking again.
Sora was tinkering with his skateboard in front of the motel apartment they shared, and Riku was sitting at the porch, just staring out into the distance. Cloud was in the motel, sorting out his paperwork. The sliding doors to the apartment were closed, which was probably what gave the boys that sense of security to start discussing their future plans.
"I wonder how long we have to stay in this world," Sora started, his tone somewhat wistful.
Riku glanced over his shoulder at Cloud in the room briefly. Cloud feigned ignorance, keeping his eyes trained on the paper in his hands. "Until we finish what we were sent here to do, I suppose," Riku answered, when he was apparently satisfied that they were in an entirely private conversation.
This would be one of those times when Cloud was actually grateful for his inhuman hearing.
"But that's the thing!" Sora leapt to his feet and was gesticulating wildly. "We don't even know what we're here for, and we can't contact anyone to find out, either!"
"Exactly," Riku agreed, "which was why I told you not to touch that keyhole when it appeared."
The younger teen stopped flailing and became silent. "Sorry..." he eventually muttered, crestfallen. "It was just instinctive... you know? Keyhole, meet keyblade, and boom!"
Riku laughed. "I'm not blaming you for anything, Sora," he reassured, "but you're right in that we do need to find a way to figure out what is it we're here for before Mickey launches a multiverse search for us. Just think about all the explanations we'll have to give when they eventually find us."
Sora had all but abandoned his skateboard by now and was starting to pace the length of the porch. "Okay, well... the keyhole never shows up without a purpose. When it does show up it's either so that we can lock or unlock it. And if we do use it to travel to other worlds, we'll have to stay there until the keyhole shows up again... and honestly? I don't know what makes the keyhole show up." He threw both hands up in the air.
"Relax," said Riku. "The keyhole's never not showed up before, right? So it just means it's a matter of time, and probably a matter of what we do. At least we've found someone from your travels who may be the clue to locating that keyhole. For now, let's just stick with him and see how things go."
Cloud stood up, and his action attracted the attention of the two boys, who stopped talking and turned to look at him instead. For a short while, he waged an internal war over whether he should confront the boys about this whole key and keyhole business. It sounded like they were from another world, and the only other creature known to have landed on this planet from another world hadn't exactly been benign.
On the other hand, though, he didn't have enough information. Sora aside, Riku would certainly be able to answer his way out of anything damning, should Cloud really pursue the issue. The problem was trust. The boys simply didn't trust him. They seemed to think he held the key to something, but they weren't asking him for help, or even offering to explain about themselves. The Cloud from a few years ago would have knocked them out and let the rest of AVALANCHE deal with the information extracting. The Cloud now, however, saw and felt differently about things.
Cloud put a hand on the sliding door and opened it, his mind made up. They would have to meet halfway - him and the boys.
"I suddenly remember the day we first came to North Corel," said Cloud, and he saw the boys tensing up, "and I believe we need to have a good, long talk about that. What do you boys say?"
As he had expected, Sora immediately threw Riku a helpless look. Riku wasn't returning the look. Instead, he was looking at Cloud. Cloud could read nothing from his features - the boy was good at hiding when he wanted to.
"Come inside," Cloud beckoned, when no answer from either of them seemed forthcoming. Sora hesitated, but at Riku's nod, he slowly trudged his way into the motel apartment, followed closely by Riku himself. Cloud closed the door behind them but didn't draw the curtains. He didn't want to scare them that badly. Just enough to make them talk a little. "Sit," he pointed at the two other chairs in the room, sitting down in his own chair as he did.
The boys obediently sat.
Then there was silence.
Sora was, of course, the first one to be unable to stand the stalemate. He made a strangled sound and asked, "Would you believe us if we told you we were from another world?"
"As a matter of fact, I would."
Cloud's reply caused the two boys to look at each other in surprise.
"We've had otherworldly visitors before," the man clarified, semi-amused at their disbelief of being believed, "but it wasn't to help us. So I have a question for you now, which you must answer very honestly, because I can tell if you're not. Why have you come to this world?"
The boys looked at each other again. They turned in unison and said in unison, "We don't know!"
Sora stood from his seat and began gesturing. "We were at home, minding our own businesses, when this keyhole suddenly appeared in the sky and I just whipped out the keyblade instinctively because, you know? That's what you always do when keyholes show up! Riku was there, and he said no don't touch that thing or something to that effect, but... okay, this part I swear is true - I mean, the other parts were true too, but anyway: the keyblade moved and unlocked the keyhole by itself! Riku even tried to pull my hand away, but it didn't work! And I had bruises on my arm for days after that."
"It's not my fault your arm is as thin as a bamboo pole."
Sora made a face at Riku, who smiled good-naturedly.
As for Cloud, he was trying his best to process the onslaught of random information. "A keyblade," he repeated, deciding he would have to take the lead in this conversation, or he would never get anything out of it. "That's the weapon you used to fell all those monsters in the wastelands?"
"Yeah!" Sora said, much too cheerfully. In the next instant, the space in his right hand glowed and the keyblade appeared. "It's not really a weapon - it only works against dark creatures. And it's main purpose is to lock and unlock stuff. Though I guess it would really hurt if you swung it at someone's head..."
"Can I see that?" asked Cloud, trying not to let his curiosity show too much.
"Umm... you can try, I guess?" Sora inclined his head slightly and held the keyblade out.
Cloud wondered about that. He understood quickly, when he tried to hold the keyblade only to have it disappear and reappear in Sora's hand.
"See?" Sora shrugged apologetically.
"I see," Cloud leaned back into his seat. "What were you doing before you came here, then?"
And the floodgates were literally opened.
For the next few hours (Cloud kept his eye on that clock in the corner of the room), the boys recounted a magnum opus about light, darkness, Heartlesses, Nobodies, world-travelling, time-travelling, dream-diving, and their journey that started it all off. It was mostly Sora doing the talking, though he kept asking Riku to verify some of his statements. Cloud listened, very patiently, because the story was interesting. He had apparently met them in one of the worlds they had travelled to (but it was not this one). Him, Yuffie, Cid, Tifa, Aerith (?!), and even Sephiroth (?!) were all in it, along with a few other names he didn't recognise but found familiar.
"...and so now Riku's a Keyblade Master, and we were back in Destiny Islands for a respite when that keyhole showed up and... here we are," Sora finished his account and took a deep breath. A look of worry actually flashed across his face for a moment. "Um... was I going too fast?"
Cloud was staring, just staring at the both of them. The story was way too detailed to be a dream or made-up. Which meant it had to be true. So he was going to view it as such.
The problem was, where would that leave them?
"You can't go back," Cloud stated. "That's why you're following me around, right?"
Sora nodded. "The keyhole's not showing up."
"Can't you summon it like you do the keyblade?"
The boy shook his head. "It doesn't work that way."
"You guys don't know all that much about this whole keyblade thing despite having wielded them for such a long time," Cloud remarked drily, without malice.
"Circumstances, circumstances," Riku mumbled under his breath.
"Okay, while my subconsciousness is processing that epic story, you might as well start telling me what ideas you've already implemented in vain to get that keyhole back out."
The silence that next occurred was the pause for the look of utter confusion and disbelief on the boys' faces.
"You believe us? Just like that?" Riku was the one to break the silence this time. He was incredulous.
Cloud looked at the ceiling, thinking back about his own adventures and some of those of his friends'. "Sadly, yes." Then he lowered his glance to take the both of them in. "Now that that's out of the way, any of you keen on answering my question?"
The suffocating silence continued for just a while more, before Sora said, rather quietly, "The first few days we were here, we tried shooting our keyblades out into the sky to see if it would hit something. Or if someone from another world could see it."
Cloud nodded and made no comment. "Anything else?" he asked.
"Umm... we tried putting messages into bottles and sending them across the ocean..."
Again, Cloud nodded and said nothing to that. "Is that all?"
"Basically..." Sora was twiddling his thumbs now. "We'd only been in this world for a few days before bumping into you, after all."
Cloud slowly considered what to say. "Are you sure I'm the person you're looking for?" he eventually asked. "You probably don't know, but Aerith and Sephiroth are dead in this world, and have been for quite a long time." He was proud at how matter-of-factly he managed to report that.
His calm statement of fact, however, caused both boys to gape at him.
"What do you mean-"
"How can they be-"
The spluttering went on for a while.
After the boys had run out of breath, Cloud repeated, "They're dead and have been for a long time. If they've been showing up at your world, you may be looking for the wrong 'Cloud'," he reasoned.
Sora looked absolutely crestfallen. "But if you don't help us, we don't have any other clues to follow..."
"I never said I wouldn't help," Cloud clarified, and the boy's disappointment immediately transformed into expectation. How could a person change expressions so quickly? "I'm just saying there may be a need to look at things a little differently."
"How are you going to help us, then?" Riku, ever the level-headed one, enquired.
Cloud considered the question seriously. "I have some connections," he said. "If something as conspicuous as a keyhole in the sky has appeared somewhere, someone's gotta know about it. We'll start from there and see how it goes."
Relief slowly became evident on Riku's face, although it was Sora who next spoke up. "Riku's been trying to do that since Costa del Sol, but we weren't getting anywhere because we knew too little people here."
"Too little people who trusted a teenager obviously trying to probe, you mean," Cloud shook his head. "Asking about anything strange appearing the sky recently probably didn't help either, I suppose."
"Oh, but we did get some information about that," Sora brightened at the memory. "A giant asteroid was going to crash or something, right?"
"In not so many words," Cloud agreed. "Anyway, I'm glad you finally opened up. Now we can get things done." He stood up and flipped his clamshell PHS open. "Excuse me while I call in some favours."
ooxxooxxoo
As soon as the North Corel deliveries were done, Cloud herded the boys back to Costa del Sol, where they didn't have to constantly worry about being overheard. He explained to them that the Meteor event was still fresh in the minds of people, so letting anyone even so much as suspect they were not from this world would cause a lot more trouble than they could manage. Thankfully, the boys had not objected, though Sora lamented the fact that he wasn't going to be able to visit Goldsaucer.
"Can you tell me more about the Meteor event?" Riku asked Cloud one day, as they were sorting deliveries in the main basement area. Sora was out delivering things, because the boy had made a right mess the last time he tried to help with the sorting. He was thereafter permanently banished to deliveries.
Cloud looked up in unveiled surprise at the boy. "Why are you even interested?"
"It might provide some clues," Riku reasoned. "I'd really like to go back and tell our friends we're all right, as soon as possible."
"Well, what do you want to know about it?"
Riku looked thoughtful for a moment. "I know some people eventually stopped it from crashing into the planet, but what I'm more interested in is how it happened. The stories I've heard and read made it seem like the asteroid was purposely summoned to destroy this planet. If someone can summon an asteroid from another world, maybe... we could use the same method to open up the path that might lead us to other worlds?"
Not for the first time since knowing the boy, Cloud marvelled at Riku's astuteness. He had known all along Meteor was from another world, but it didn't occur to him that it could be of some relevance to this particular event with the boys. "Unfortunately for you, the man who summoned Meteor is no longer around," said Cloud, "but I'll see what else I can pull up about this."
Riku gave Cloud a funny look that was a cross between hesitation and curiosity. "Who summoned it?"
Cloud looked at Riku. "Sephiroth."
"Oh." Then, "What was he like? In this world, I mean."
"Famous war hero," Cloud said evenly, "before he became public enemy number one."
"I see," Riku lowered his gaze for a short while. "He was kind of low-key in Hollow Bastion. Stayed out of mostly everything that was going on, except when..." the boy shook his head. "I guess you wouldn't know about that, huh?"
Cloud raised his eyebrows slightly, but didn't pursue the issue, figuring he wasn't really interested what pseudo-Sephiroth was doing in another world, as long as he didn't suddenly appear in this world again. Then it struck him. "Hey... Is Sephiroth still around in that Hollow Bastion place you were talking about?"
"I don't know," Riku frowned. "Sora might be able to tell you more, though. He was the one who fought him, after all."
Sephiroth and Sora? Cloud tried to imagine that battle in his mind. For some reason, it kept ending with Sephiroth being buried by sunshine, rainbows, and fluffy bunnies. He shook those images out of his mind. "I'll ask him when he gets back."
"Ask who what?" Sora's head popped in from the stairwell. He didn't wait for an answer, though. "Um... Cloud? There's someone looking for you. I showed him to the sitting room, and gave him some tea..."
Cloud rose to his feet. "Who?"
"He said his name is Reeve..."
Reeve? To say Cloud was surprised would be an understatement. He hadn't actually seen the busy man in person since Deepground. They usually communicated by phone, messages, or Cait Sith. "Was he human or a cat on a giant mog?" asked Cloud.
Sora tilted his head in slightly confusion at that question. "He looks human to me?"
"Drat," Cloud mumbled under his breath, putting away the things he had been trying to sort. "This is probably serious," he rounded the stairwell and bounded up the stairs. "Both of you stay here," he instructed. "I'll be right back." He disappeared up the stairs for a second, then reappeared. "Riku! Make sure Sora doesn't touch anything!"
His piece said, Cloud made his way as quickly as he could to the sitting room. He threw the door open unceremoniously and scanned the interior. It was indeed Reeve himself, in the flesh, and he hadn't think to bring bodyguards either. "What happened?" asked Cloud, urgency in his voice.
Reeve stood when the door was slammed open, and he broke into a wide smile at Cloud's question. "I'm very happy to see you too, old friend," he quipped. "The tea is absolutely fabulous. Perhaps we should sit and talk?"
Cloud scrutinised Reeve's bearing. "Nothing serious happened?"
This time, Reeve let out a jovial laugh. "Sit down, Cloud," he commanded casually, and sat down himself. "Nothing interesting is happening on my end, unless balancing budgets with more zeros than my age counts. In fact, I should be the one asking you that question, don't you think?"
Cloud moved to the couch opposite Reeve and sat down slowly. "Is this about my message to you a few days ago?" asked Cloud, never one to beat around the bush.
Reeve's expression turned serious. "When you, of all people, ask to know if anyone has seen anything strange in the sky lately, I should think it would constitute a cause for concern that takes priority over everything else I have on hand."
Not really understanding, Cloud asked, "So you've found something, then?"
Reeve leaned back into the couch. "Unfortunately, no news of that sort has reached my ears yet."
"Well, then, what're you doing here?" Cloud pressed, annoyed and concerned at the same time.
"After receiving a message like that, I'm here to make sure you're alive and well," said the older man, in all seriousness. "And since it seems no one else has showed up yet, I assume you only sent that message to me?"
Slightly miffed at Reeve's perception, Cloud simply said, "Yeah. Seemed like a good idea at the time."
"Yes, considering the organisation I'm supposed to be leading, I suppose it is," Reeve agreed without bluster.
"Completely forgot you had enough intellectual finesse to survive under that wily old Shinra fox for years, though," Cloud grumbled.
"The damage is done," Reeve shrugged, still smiling, "and I now know you're hiding something. Why did you ask about that? What happened, Cloud?"
Cloud thought hard about it. "It's not my place to say, Reeve," he finally answered, "but I give you my word that it's not about anything that might threaten the fragile peace of the planet you've fought so hard to restore."
The very soft sound of tiptoeing feet alerted Cloud to the presences of his two housemates who were very subtly trying to eavesdrop from behind the door. Reeve continued oblivious, not being blessed - or cursed, depending on how you wanted to look at it - with enhanced hearing. "If you're doing somebody a favour," said Reeve, his perception once again astounding Cloud, "then I feel the need to warn you, perhaps unnecessarily, that not everyone on this planet is what they make themselves out to be."
Cloud sighed, trying to look as tired as he could. "I appreciate the concern, Reeve," he began, "but I can take care of myself. I know I don't exactly have a good track record, but I hope you'll just trust me this time. After all that's happened, I think I may have earned that right."
He was never one for pulling rank or emotional blackmail, but the strong urge to protect his two assistants was fuelling his motivation and turning him into a pretty good actor.
Reeve actually looked away. It seemed like the man was caught off-guard by Cloud's sudden show of raw emotion. It wasn't exactly uncharacteristic of Cloud, who had been prone to random displays of strong feelings in the past. Which was probably why Reeve wasn't suspecting anything. Yet.
"I do trust you, Cloud," reassured Reeve, when he eventually looked up again. "And yes, I do believe you have earned that right," the man held his hands up in surrender. "I'm just glad to see that you look fine. If you want me to help, however, I insist that you keep me updated about the status. I will continue to keep a lookout for the information for you, but if the situation ever evolves into something dangerous, I will not hesitate to take action, with or without your expressed approval."
"And I'm grateful for whatever help you can give me," Cloud nodded. "You won't tell anyone else too, right?"
"Unlike you, I'm well-trained in the fine art of fishing for information from unsuspecting allies and enemies alike," Reeve joked. "Really, Cloud. The first message I receive from you after such a long time is, 'Have you or anyone you know seen something strange in the sky lately?', and you expect me not to show up at your door?"
Cloud had nothing to say to that, so he didn't. Reeve was inspecting his cup of tea now, and Cloud took the chance to turn to the door.
"I know you're there, boys," said Cloud, in the sternest voice he could manage. It wasn't that he particularly cared if they were listening in to the conversation, since it was about them after all, but he didn't want Reeve to know that. "You might as well come in and say hello."
A short while later, the door creaked open. Sora had a hand on his head and a sheepish smile on his face. "Sorry... I was just curious... He didn't seem like a client, so he had to be a friend, and we've never seen any of your friends bef... Ouch!"
Riku had given Sora a smack on the head. He then navigated his friend into the room by pushing him to the couch where Cloud was. Turning to face Reeve, he nodded slightly in acknowledgement.
"Sora and Riku, my new assistants," Cloud introduced, and the boys sat down beside him. "Couple of homeless kids I picked up off the street."
"Well, well!" Reeve broke into a delighted smile. "I was wondering who that young man who could make such wonderful tea was! I'm Reeve Tuesti, and I'm very pleased to meet you."
Cloud was surprised to see the two boys gaping. "Reeve Tuesti?" Sora exclaimed. "That guy we keep reading about in the newspapers? The guy in charge of rebuilding the world?!"
So they had been doing their homework. Cloud was secretly proud.
"I'm not sure if everything written in the newspapers about me is 100% correct," Reeve laughed. "However, I am indeed in charge of a global organisation that has the goal of restoring the planet to its former glory."
"Wow!" Sora was bouncing in his seat by now. "That's awesome! I was seriously thinking Cloud didn't have any friends at all, and here the biggest wig in the world shows up!"
Reeve could control himself no longer. He collapsed into loud laughter, and Sora giggled along with him. Cloud silently endured the scene, though he could see Riku shooting him sympathetic glances every once in a while. Not sympathetic because Sora thought he had no friends - sympathetic because he had been saddled with the pest of a boy called Sora who didn't know how to keep his mouth shut when the situation called for it. Cloud briefly nodded at Riku to acknowledge his concern. Riku's eyes promised him that he would straighten Sora out after this debacle was over.
When Cloud decided that they had had enough fun at his expense, he cleared his throat. "If you're both quite done laughing at my alleged inability to make friends, perhaps we can return to the topic at hand and finish this conversation before any other false charges are levied against my person?"
Sora quieted down, but Reeve laughed even louder. He did stop, eventually, but he could not wipe that leer off his face. "Very well," Reeve spoke to his hand, not able to look at Cloud in the face yet, for fear he might break down into laughter again. "What were we talking about again?"
"Whether Cloud had friends or not," Sora prompted in a secretive voice, a mischievous grin on his face.
Riku stood up, grabbed Sora, and hauled him out of the room. "Sorry for the interruption!" he shouted across his shoulder before slamming the door shut.
Cloud and Reeve could hear Sora complaining loudly, until a door slammed and he became out of earshot.
"Still have that penchant for picking up strays from the streets, I see," Reeve remarked, taking a sip from his cup of tea. "I see you've chosen quite the difficult one this time."
"Reeve," Cloud grounded out, "was there something else you needed?"
"No, not really," the older man finished his tea and set the cup down. "But I'll be at the inn near the square for the next few days, if you need me for anything else."
"You're staying?" Cloud stared in disbelief. "What about the rebuilding work?"
"It's in good hands," Reeve shrugged as he stood up. "Taking a vacation is less suspicious than letting everyone know I'm looking for you on purpose. Shakes those guards off, too."
Cloud stood as well. "I'll just say this one thing then," he shook his head, almost fondly. "It's about time, you workaholic."
"I think you should really speak for yourself," Reeve turned around at the door with a knowing smile on his face. "I'm glad to see that you finally took my advice about getting some helpers."
After Cloud saw Reeve off to the door of the villa, he turned back and went to Sora and Riku's room. He could hear Riku lecturing Sora all the way from the entryway, actually, so he made sure he knocked before entering.
"Cloud!" Sora leapt to his feet from his bed when he saw him. "Save me! Riku's trying to make me leak brains out from my ears!"
Cloud didn't attempt to understand what that was supposed to mean. "So as you know, that was Reeve, and he's the contact helping me to look for your keyhole in the sky. There are some conditions to getting his help, of course. You must never, ever let him know you're not from this world, or that you know about Sephiroth, or that you can use your keyblades to keep monsters at bay. He's taking a vacation here in Costa del Sol for the next few days, apparently, and you will surely bump into him. It will not be a coincidence. He probably doesn't trust you all that much yet, despite appearances. Be careful what you say around him. Can you do that for me?"
A brief second was all Riku needed to nod his assent. Sora, however, was glancing furtively at the corners of the room. "I may have a problem with that," he finally admitted. The look on his face was that of panic. "I'll try, I promise I will, but..."
"It's all right, Sora," reassured Cloud. "He's one of the more level-headed ones. He won't jump to conclusions about you if you let slip anything, but it may be harder to get his help that way. And that's basically all. Don't worry."
That provided some relief for the boy, who visibly relaxed.
Looking at Sora made Cloud remember something Riku had said. "Sora, Riku said you've fought with Sephiroth before, in your world?"
The boy's eyes brightened. "Oh, yeah! I did!" he was about to launch into yet another epic narrative about his encounter with the man, when Cloud held a hand up to stop him.
"No, no, you don't have to tell me how the battle went." He didn't want to be stuck in this room for the rest of the day. "I just want to know if he's still there, in your world? And... is Aerith still there too?"
"He's not actually in my world," Sora crossed his arms in a thinking pose. "He flew off somewhere after the battle. I'm not sure where he went. We always thought you guys either went on to participate in an even greater battle or just returned to your original world. You know? Here? Doesn't seem like he's here, though. Oh, and Aerith's still in Hollow Bastion, last I checked. Why?"
Cloud didn't know what to say to that. He'd lived so long with Aerith having a permanent spot at the back of his mind that it was strange to think she was still around in another world. Not the Aerith he had known, of course. According to Sora's account, she had been in Hollow Bastion because the Heartless had taken over her home world when she was still very young. That definitely hadn't happened here, and as far as he knew, Tifa, Cid, and Yuffie hadn't gone traipsing to other worlds recently either. "I appreciate your telling me," Cloud nodded at Sora. "She was... a close friend, here. But I don't think the Aerith you talked about is the Aerith who was in this world."
"What?" Sora was flabbergasted. "How can that be?"
"It may be true, Sora," Riku interrupted. "It would explain why Cloud's so different from the person you said he was."
"You mean there are like, a few versions of Clouds all in different worlds?"
"Something like that, except it's probably more like, there are a few worlds where he plays a different role in each."
Sora was still gaping. "I don't get it."
"Neither do I," Cloud offered.
Riku just gave them both a small smile. "Keyblades seem to link the most unthinkable worlds together. If it can go into dream worlds, I don't see why not parallel dimension worlds."
Now that Cloud actually understood. "Is that your theory on what's happening to the both of you?" he asked.
"At the moment."
Cloud considered it. "So going by that theory, no one can cross dimensions without a keyblade, right?"
Riku nodded.
"Does Sephiroth have a keyblade?"
Sora actually laughed out loud at that. "No, but he has this really long sword that's like twice his height, I swear."
"Okay then," Cloud sighed. "No imminent danger yet, I suppose."
"From what?" Sora blinked.
"Stuff," Cloud shook his head. "Very dangerous stuff." He paused for a dramatic moment. Then, "All right, that's enough talking for today. Time to get back to work, you two."
3 May 2013
