Shadow Puppets
"Damnit! Someone's been screwin' with the master program, and now the damn buggers are a mess!" Cid's cigar remained tenaciously hanging from his mouth, the glowing butt wobbling with each curse and expletive. Cloud had always wondered how it was physically possible for the man to keep the cigar from ever falling out, and had always been rather transfixed by the bobbing ember. He stared at its hypnotic path as Cid's cursing continued. It could go for quite some time, he knew, but he'd never been affected by the words so much as the cigar that was ever-present and forever dangling at that precarious angle. He allowed himself to be mesmerized for a few moments longer before shaking his head, bringing his attention back into focus. Things needed to be done, and it wouldn't do for him to lose sight of the mission now. He forced himself to speak, interrupting a rather colorful train of swears coming from the older man's mouth.
"So you need us to get down to the main computer system, is that what you're telling us?" Cid glared at him for interrupting, but nodded, taking the cigar from his mouth. Cloud watched the movement, but said nothing, as the former pilot would finally come to the point.
"I need someone down there to stop the flow of those damn nobodies and heartless, keep 'em at bay while I work on a way to patch up the system and get that Tron program back up and running" he grumbled, puffing away at the stub and scratching his chin stubble. "It'd be a hell of a lot easier if we had the kid here to take 'em out, but since we don't, you lot will have to do." There was a squeal of indignation from Yuffie as Cid said this, but the older man ignored her, pointing to a map of the town.
"Leon, Cloud, I want you two to head on down to the castle, see if you can figure out what the hell is going on with the damn system. I sent up a message to the kid's ship, maybe those striped squirrels will be able to get a hold of him and get 'em all over here to help out. Til then, you're in charge of making sure they don't get any farther than they already have. Girls," he said, turning to the peevish teenager and Aerith," I'm givin you two cleanup duty here in town, to clear out the ones who've made it this far. Merlin'll do what he can to help, but in the meantime, I need to get this program sorted out. Go on, now, get out there and get to work!" And with a final mumbled curse under his breath, Cid turned to his computer and began pounding away at the keyboard.
Aerith placed a hand on the still fuming Yuffie's shoulder, and nodded, which seemed to calm the girl down a bit. Then she looked up at Cloud, smiled, and headed out the door, taking the ninja with her. Leon looked to Cloud, who was already heading out the door.
"Do you want to hit the maw, or take a look at the computer?" the brunette asked as they picked their way through the borough streets. So far, the heartless were fairly easy to fight, and they seemed to be more interested in fighting against the nobodies anyway, so that was something, at least. Who knew how long that would last though? Cloud peered down at the castle, then looked to the chasm where the enemies were pouring out.
"I want to go take a look at the situation, see if I can do something to distract them to give you a little more time. You head to the castle, and let me take care of the heartless." He shifted the weight of his blade to the other shoulder, frowning at the fighting black and white forms. "I don't understand... where did the nobodies come from? They've been here before, but not in such great numbers... do you think one of the organization members is here?" Leon's usually somber face darkened.
"Probably. Keep your guard up, and call me if you need backup. I'll be as quick as I can." Cloud nodded, and the gunblade weilder jumped off the broken edge of the wall, cutting his way through up the path and quickly disappearing from view. Cloud turned his attention back to the black and white battle going on below him, frowning as the nobodies were slowly but surely pushing the heartless back. The dusks swayed back and forth as the shadows jumped at them, then melted back into the ground to pop up at another point. To see the obvious confusion of the dusks was, admittedly, rather amusing, but he didn't have time for fun. He studied the movements of the creatures, watching as a nobody destroyed a heartless, only to be destroyed in return. Things might have continued like this forever, but Cloud was hardly one to sit and wait for things to happen.
Jumping down into the middle of the group, Cloud struck out with his sword, catching some of the nobodies off-guard as they scattered under the force of his blade. Getting over their initial surprise, however, they quickly changed tactics and grouped against his exposed side, dodging the large sword and darting in to jab underneath the blade. Cloud gritted his teeth, irritated. Heartless were bad enough by themselves, nobodies equally so, but smart heartless and nobodies really took the cake. He deflected another attack and sent the large metallic heartless into a gaggle of nobodies. He hoped Leon would hurry his ass up and get out here again. Not that Cloud couldn't handle it, it was just annoying having to take them all on by himself.
The decline in the number of heartless attacking him and the increasing number of nobodies surrounding him didn't phase him. The sudden swell and resurgence of their numbers, however, did, and he was pushed back up the broken steps, backing slowly across the shambles of the decorated ground. The nobodies stopped, however, right outside of the frame of the square, swaying back and forth and looking rather miffed. He stopped, surprised, until he realized he hadn't looked behind him yet. He spun, and sure enough, a hooded figure stood behind him. To make matters worse, the man was laughing rather derisively, and clapping his hands.
"Bravo, Strife. Bravo. Really. Good job," said the man, stepping towards Cloud, "I was wondering how the 'Great Cloud Strife' would do against so many. Not bad, I must say. But I must say, you're still not as efficient at killing as your late superior, I'm afraid. Close, but not quite there yet. Really, and here I thought you were so intent on killing Sephiroth too. If you can't take out a few nobodies though, will you ever be able to face him? Whoa!" The figure leapt back and Cloud struck out at him, the wide blade coming centimeters from contact. Cloud drew back the sword and prepared for another try.
"Shut up, you. I don't recognize you, where the one who's usually coming around here? Where's Demyx? And who are you?" Cloud paused as the figure pushed back his hood to reveal flaming red hair, staring openly. This seemed to irritate the redhead.
"What? You've never seen anyone with red hair before or what? I'm the master of flames, I should have red hair! No one, and I mean no one- except maybe Roxas- who says anything about my hair gets away with it! So, you have something you wanna say to me or what?"
Cloud lowered his sword, still staring.
"Zack?"
Whatever the redhead had been expecting, it wasn't that. The indignation blew out of him like smoke, deflating him somewhat.
"What? No, my name's Axel," and, gaining back a little confidence, he posed, tapping his head, "commit it to memory!" Cloud was nonplussed. He was, in actuality, very confused, moreso than usual, anyway. He ignored the redhead's adamant insistence that his name was, in actuality, Axel, instead pressing on as though he hadn't heard the other man.
"Zack, I can't believe it's you! It's been... years. I thought you were dead!" he shouted, pointing an accusing finger at the other man. Axel just stared at him. Cloud continued. "I heard you'd been killed by the Turks, and here I was, thinking my best friend was dead when in reality he'd just gone off and got a really bad dye job somewhere and called himself a weird variation of his former name. Zack, how could you?"
Axel raised his hands in defense.
"Hey, don't look at me. My name is Axel. I don't have anything to do with this Zack guy, and I'd appreciate it if you stopped making fun of my hair." Cloud took another step towards Axel, sword raised again. Apparently listening wasn't one of his skills.
"You left and went off and did whatever the Hell you wanted, without once thinking of any of us! You didn't even say goodbye to me," he muttered, looking down in thought, then he looked up again, his blue eyes narrowing. "What's more, you didn't say anything to Aerith! How do you think she'll feel when I tell her you left us to do God knows what? That you're now actually working against us? That's as good as siding with Sephiroth! Zack-" Cloud stopped as Axel disappeared from in front of him, and stilled as an orange tinted blade came against his throat. Axel's voice was rather light, given the situation, though the low voice was chilling.
"Listen up, Strife, I'm only going to tell you once more. Name is Axel. I'm the organization's number eight man, and even though that might not be all that close to number one, eight is still a decent enough number, and it deserves some respect. The only reason I'm not killing you right here and now is because Demyx probably would be pissed when he found out I came down to his turf while he was off doing things, and I really don't want to have to deal with him when he gets back. I've got enough things to worry about as it is. So, just be the good guy that I'm sure you're angsting to be and call a guy by his name, ok? Axel. Got it memorized?"
Cloud drove his elbow into Axel's gut, making the taller man go "oof!" before disappearing to avoid the blade that was whistling towards him. He reappeared, back in his initial position across from Cloud, and sighed, shaking his head.
"Man, you're one tough cookie, you know that? Ah well. Much as I'd like to play "dodge the insanely-oversized-sword" all day, I'm afraid duty calls. Lovely meeting you, Choco-boy." Axel stuck out his tongue, and turned to leave.
"Wait!", said Cloud, stopping Axel's retreat, though not turning him. The redhead put up his hands, sighing.
"Look, I don't know what else I can do to explain to you that my name is-"
"Axel, wait."
This succeeded in catching the redhead's attention, and he looked back over his shoulder to see Cloud staring at him. And not talking anymore. Axel frowned, raising his eyebrows to indicate 'what?' Cloud looked away.
"You're a nobody." Axel sighed again, running fingers through his hair.
"Well, thank for the obvious, Strife, it's been a pleasure, but-"
"You're his nobody." Axel laughed, turning to face Cloud once again.
"C'mon, I might look like your friend, but I'm telling you, my name is Axel, and-"
"No, you've got to be. Same build, same hairdo-though you didn't look quite as crazy with black hair-, same cocky, care-free attitude..." Axel shook his head at each one.
"And you're saying that there can't be other guys out there who happen to have the same characteristics?" Cloud shook his head.
"I'm saying there aren't any other guys out there who have the same characteristics, and who know my last name," Cloud said, putting down his sword again," I didn't tell anyone what is was when I came to Radiant Gardens. They just know me as Cloud." Axel opened his mouth to say something, but closed it with a snap, folding his arms and looking away. Cloud smiled as he recognized the gesture.
"Also," he said, walking over to the shadow of his friend, "no one but you ever called me 'Choco-boy'." Axel frowned at him, and turned. He was silent for a moment, then spoke softly.
"I couldn't remember anything when I first woke up, and in the organization, I didn't need to. By the time I remembered most of what happened, it didn't matter anymore, because I was already in it for the long haul. Besides," he said with a sudden laugh, "I had to watch over Roxas. That kid needed all the help he could get when he started out. Clueless beyond compare. Also angsted enough to rival you," he said with a wink in Cloud's direction. His face suddenly got sad, and he turned again. "Being around him, made me remember the good times we had, before- well, you know. And I knew he was a special kid, so I tried to help him out best I could. When he left... well, there was nothing more for me to do except hang out at the organization, you know? Otherwise, I would've done something more to help him out."
"He's still alive, you know," said a voice behind them both. Had Cloud been the excitable kind, he would have jumped. As it was, he simply continued to watch Axel. As for Axel, he cringed a little, then gave a weak smile.
"Yeah. I know. But it's not the same, you know? Not that Sora's not a great kid, I'm sure he is, but... Well, it's different when you don't have a heart. I don't know how else to explain it. Roxas was great because he understood, or at least, he knew enough to know we were different from others, and that he was different from everyone else. Haha, you should've seen the expression on his face when he'd beaten Riku the first time that punk came to try to 'collect' him! Grinning like an idiot and strutting around, reminded me of when I got into SOLDIER, or that time we managed to prank the General before he realized we'd changed the password response to 'give us a kiss'. Hehehe.." he quieted down, then smiled at the two of them, grinning somewhat malevolently.
"You know, Cloud, if you stopped moping all the time, you might notice the girl you were angsting over is perfectly alright now, and that you've got friends around here that'll help you out. Speaking of which... I think Squeon is coming back, so that's my cue to leave. It's been great reminiscing and all, but things to do, hearts to steal, places to go and all that." He mock saluted and began to saunter off, then stopped, as though a thought came to him.
"Sora'll be ok, I know he will because I know Roxas. But I'm gonna keep an eye on him, just in case. I'd hate to think anything would happen to that guy." Cloud wondered which 'guy' he meant, but said nothing. Aerith spoke up again instead.
"That's good to know, Zack, and I'm sure he'll appreciate it. But, will we see you again?" Axel laughed, shaking his head.
"Nah. Just thought I'd stop by, see how you guys were doing, then go on my way. I've gotta run, guys. I think Demyx'll be coming back soon, so keep on your toes, look smart, keep your nose clean and all that. Cloud, don't talk to shady men with long silver hair, Aerith, don't forget to water your flowers. See you guys around!" He waved over his shoulder and disappeared into the darkness, taking the remaining nobodies with him. Leon joined them again a few moments later.
"So," he said, "was it the organization afterall?" Cloud stared off over the cliff overlooking the maw, then shook his head, heading back to the borough.
"It was a shadow puppet, one that's broken free of its strings and is only now understanding the true meaning of freedom." and with that, the blonde left the scene.
Leon, never one to admit to not having a clue as to what the Hell the enigmatic blonde said meant, did not want to be outdone in a battle of wits, nor did he wish to lose his 'cool' attitude by admitting he was confused as to what had just happened. So, he fell back on the ritualistic response he always gave when he didn't feel like thinking it through all the way.
"Hnn." was all he said, and headed back after the blonde.
Aerith looked back over the maw, and smiled softly.
"Goodbye Zack, Axel. We'll meet again someday." And then, she too headed up towards Merlin's house, pausing only to watch the gummyship descending through the clouds. Cid would doubtless have new orders for them, and with Sora's arrival, she was sure they would be able to get everything back to normal soon. With a smile, she picked up her pace, and began to plan the new garden she would plant when everything had settled down.
owari
