Chapter 4 - The Regretful Reunion
Streaks and blurs covered Cloud's vision. He tried to rub his eyes, but his hands were unable to move. They were bound behind his back and around a wooden pole. The bindings were heavy too, from the feel of them and the noise they made, Cloud identified them as chains. Upon further observation he noticed that his fusion sword was gone, as well as his phone.
There were to figures standing over Cloud, he couldn't quite make out who they were but they appeared to be kissing. Cloud tried to make some smart remark but he ended up just groaning. At least that got their attention.
"So, the traitor awakes," That voice, that was Seifer "it seems like you're losing your skill in battle. The younger Cloud would've seen my smoke bomb coming, actually that Cloud wouldn't even be in this situation. He wasn't a traitor." At last Cloud's vision was coming back and he could make out the faces of the people in front of him. He was right about Seifer and the other, the one he was kissing, was…Yuna?
"Yu..na..?" When Cloud said her name Seifer motioned to her to leave the two alone. Cloud was quickly woken up by a bucket full of cold water being thrown into his face. His muscles tensed and his eyes were wide open. Adrenaline ran through his veins and the grip he had on the chains tightened.
"Why did you do it Cloud? Why did you kill all of those Ronso families? Why did you blow up those buildings in Bevelle? Huh?" Cloud made a confused face which was met by a backhand slap to the face. "Don't act dumb! We saw you kill them!"
"I don't know what you're talking about, I've only been on Spira for a week if that," Cloud was greeted by another backhand, "is this how it is Seifer? You get your info by torturing your prisoners? Do the others know about this?"
"Shut your mouth!" This time it was a punch in the gut. That confirmed it. The others had no idea about his unethical methods. Cloud had started breathing heavily after that last blow, it knocked the wind right out of him. No matter how much it hurt, Cloud needed to provoke Seifer so that he would get frustrated and try to get information from him later, that would give Cloud some time to escape.
"Your punches couldn't hurt a kid, let alone a mako infused SOLDIER," another strike to the stomach, "come on! Make an effort!" Two more hits came in which caused Cloud to cough, "that's the best you can do?"
Seifer grunted and punches Cloud one more time before walking away in frustration. Cloud let out a deep breath of air when he was out of sight, Seifer couldn't know that Cloud was weak after that. More than anything, Cloud was angry. What was Seifer doing kissing Yuna? Why was Yuna letting him? That could wait for a later timer, right now Cloud had to find a way to get out of these chains.
What was it that Zack had told him when they were training together? A team is always stronger than an individual person, maybe this applied in Cloud's current situation. If he focused on breaking a single link rather than pulling apart the entire chain maybe he could break free. It was worth a try, Cloud went to work on one of the links. With each pull, each twist, each bend the metal got hotter and softer. Slowly it became easier to bend the metal link and eventually it snapped causing all of the chains to fall off of Cloud's hands.
In Seifer's frustrated state he must've forgotten to send someone to keep watch of Cloud as no one was there to stop him from sneaking away. He stealthily made his way round to where the temple used to be, it was the same building but it seemed to have been converted into a workplace for Seifer. That was probably the best place to start to get back his things. Just as he approached the building an airship passed overhead. Could that be Seifer?
The old temple was heavily guarded, Cloud was almost caught quite a few times but he had made it to the room on the far right of the temple. There was a notice on the door 'restricted', that must've been where they were keeping his things. When he entered the room, his sword was on a table and blueprints were on top of it, it seemed like Seifer was trying to make a copy. Cloud's phone was also there hooked up to a computer, on the screen there was a location from a bird's eye view. He took his phone and sword and proceeded back outside heading for the beach.
Cloud didn't expect to see her on the beach. It was Yuna. She was standing a few centimetres away from the sea and she was staring out at the horizon. At first he thought that it was another hologram, but when the water from the sea splashed against her and not through her he knew she was real. Cautiously, Cloud removed his scabbard with his sword in it and approached her unarmed.
"Yuna," Just as Cloud expected she whirled around and pointed her gun at him, it was good to see that she still knew how to defend herself. He put his hands up and carried on talking "Listen, I've got no idea what's going on. I haven't even been on Spira for a full week yet and I found out that I'm somehow a terrorist."
"Why should I believe that when I saw with my own eyes you killing those Ronso!" Yuna had taken a few steps forward to look Cloud in the eye. How could he prove that it was really him? Maybe there was something wrong with the imposter. His mind lit up and he reached for the necklace he had around his neck. When Yuna moved in closer he slowed down and pulled the necklace out from underneath his shirt. He placed it on the floor and took a few steps back to allow Yuna to collect it.
"That's why you should believe me, would a terrorist care about that? Would a terrorist cherish that?" Yuna's face looked puzzled. She opened the green pendent and found the picture of herself.
"But, I saw you destroy this. You did it right in front of my face and that's how we broke up." Broke up? This made things complicated. Cloud knew he hadn't been on Spira for long, Auron told him which meant someone was posing as Cloud and giving him a bad name. If things didn't go the way he wanted to here, that would be his next move.
There was a sudden ringing sound coming from Yuna's pocket, it was her phone. She took it out and answered it keeping her gun pointed at Cloud. He could hear the speaker from here, they were shouting that loud. It was Seifer and he seemed to be in some sort of distress.
"Cloud's here! He must've escaped and snuck on board! He took the family, we need help fending off his men!" Cloud and Yuna both looked at each other, she knew the truth. Quickly she told Seifer that it was an imposter and that he had been framing Cloud for the past two years. What did Seifer say? 'He took the family'?
"Where are they?" Yuna's answer wasn't what Cloud wanted to hear. "They're at a house where you stayed for two days according to Seifer's analysis of your phone location."
Although Cloud wanted to hug Yuna and talk with the others, he couldn't. Immediately he picked up his scabbard and swords up from the floor and made his way into the village.
"Cloud, wait!" He felt a pair of arms wrap around him in relief. Cloud wanted to savour the moment but they didn't have enough time. "I knew it couldn't be true, you would never do any of those things."
"Yuna, we need to help this family. I didn't know them long but they did so much for me and I need to repay the debt." The look in Cloud's eye informed Yuna how serious he was about this. She nodded and lead him to the second airship.
Cloud was in the ship with Yuna, Kimahri and Barret, the latter two didn't seem convinced of Cloud's story, however Yuna assured them it was true. Kimahri hadn't taken his eyes off of Cloud since he got on the ship, he didn't blame the Ronso though. This imposter had killed innocent Ronso families, if an imposter of Kimahri killed a bunch of people in Nibelheim he would be doing the same right now.
"One wrong move and yo' spiky ass is goin' overboard!" Barret towered over Cloud as he threatened him, he just remained calm. It was too early to start cracking jokes, once Cloud caught the imposter that would prove his innocence.
"There they are!" Yuna pointed out of the window and down on the ground where Seifer, Wakka and Paine were fighting men dressed in sleek black clothing. Cloud made his way above to the deck, ignoring the shouts from Barret. He drew his sword and jumped down to aid his allies.
Wakka had thrown his ball at an enemy and another was about to strike him down until Cloud blocked the strike mid air and flipped over the top of the enemy. He landed on his feet and struck from behind, slashing the enemy diagonally downwards from the right along his back. Wakka was confused and had loss his sense of fighting strategy.
"Duck!" Cloud commanded Wakka who did so, causing a sword belonging to the enemy to cut through the air and miss Wakka. In retaliation Wakka elbowed the black suited foe in the stomach following with a kick to the chest.
When Wakka regained sense of what was happening Cloud left him and moved further towards the house. It seemed like the followers of Cloud's doppelgänger thought he was their ally as they didn't attack him, that made things a lot easier.
Paine was up against a wall being attacked, it looked like she was struggling. Cloud grabbed the back of the collar of the enemy and pulled him away from Paine. He feinted left then struck from the right knocking his opponent down on the ground.
Inside the house, Seifer was using some kind of gun that made a wall of energy or something. Cloud couldn't comprehend how he was stopping three well trained warriors back with it, but they were starting to get the better of him. Cloud ran in front of Seifer and slashed all three of them across the body in a perfectly straight horizontal line.
Cloud called for the kind family that took him in but there was no answer. Seifer has positioned himself in front of the door and was trying to question Cloud, however he just barged past and went straight to the enemy he knocked down. He grabbed the grunt by the ruff of his collar and gave him two options.
"Either you tell me where you took the family or I break your legs, the choice is yours." Cloud was looking at him right in the eye, piercing through his mask of bravery.
"I-I don't know, I swear. All I know is that one of the kids got away, the girl, just don't hurt me please!" Cloud threw him back on the floor and let Seifer cuff his hands.
Yuna, Kimahri and Barret had just arrived and stood next to Paine and Wakka, who were looking confused as to why Cloud helped them. He didn't blame them, for the past two years they thought he was a terrorist and a murderer.
"I know, you're confused but I'm not the enemy. Someone has been impersonating me for the past two years, I've only been on Spira for about a week now. I know it's hard to trust me but lives are at stake here."
When Cloud finished explaining and Yuna backed him up the others looked to Seifer for orders, which was unusual for Cloud. He was used to everyone looking to him for orders, was Seifer the new leader?
"We need to look for-" Cloud tried to take the lead but Seifer interrupted him and started splitting the party up. Wakka, Paine and Kimahri were told to find the location of Sarah and Jack, Barret was going to Kilika to check on the others which left Cloud, Yuna and Seifer to find Lilly. Seifer was obviously still suspicious of Cloud, but he didn't care because he had nothing to hide.
Cloud never did like following orders, why should he only look for Lilly? He could look for all three of them, but Seifer wasn't letting him. Did Cloud really care what Seifer thought if he didn't follow orders?
There was something missing in the house, Sarah's phone was nowhere to be seen. This was a turning point.
"Hey, fearless leader," Seifer didn't appreciate Cloud's joke but he still acknowledged him, "if I ring Sarah's phone, you think you can track the location?"
"We're supposed to be looking for the girl not the mother." Hearing that made Cloud annoyed, they had names. He gave Seifer a look that said he wasn't going to take no for an answer. Seifer nodded although he didn't seem happy that Cloud was challenging his authority. The phone rang and Cloud waited for an answer.
"H-hello?" That wasn't Sarah's voice, it was the voice of a scared, innocent girl. "Zack?" Lilly sounded shaken by what she had seen and Cloud wasn't surprised. She knew his real name but still called him Zack, it must've been because she had come to know him as Zack and not Cloud.
"Yeah, it's me. Listen sweetie, the man that took your brother and mom wasn't me, he's been pretending to be me for the past two years. You need to trust me, alright?" Seifer pointed to his laptop screen which showed that her phone was coming from the blitzball stadium.
"I need you to go to the guardian memorial, you think you can do that for me?" Cloud heard a sound that sounded like a yes and hung up. He wasted no time, Yuna and Seifer were scrambling to get their things together.
Cloud couldn't lie, the fact that those two were a couple now hurt him a little. He knew that things couldn't just go back to how they were before, it didn't work like that. It could be that they stay together forever and Seifer would always be the leader of the group, only time would tell. The flirting from Seifer didn't help with Cloud's anger either. As they travelled that was all he could hear coming from behind him. Yuna was giggling but Cloud could tell she was trying to contain it to try and not hurt him.
It didn't take them long to get to the memorial. Cloud was back where he started and it was good to see the Buster Sword still standing high along with the other weapons. He was surprised they left the Buster Sword there, then again could anyone without mako enhancements pull it out of the ground?
Cloud saw Lilly sitting beside the memorial and approached her. He didn't know what to expect, but as long as she was safe it was fine. Unexpectedly she ran to Cloud and hugged him. Her tears seeped into his clothes, he could almost feel the fear being transferred to him.
"Don't worry, I'm gonna find your mom and Jack." Seifer was on the phone to the others behind Cloud, he was informing them that they had found Lilly. They needed to drop her off somewhere, they couldn't bring her with them to fight Cloud's imposter.
"Where's Tifa and the kids?" It wasn't just the fact that they needed to keep Lilly safe as to why he asked, Cloud hadn't seen Tifa, Denzel or Marlene in so long and right now he needed to see them. Kilika was the answer he got and Yuna could see that Cloud was desperate so she suggested to Seifer that they drop Lilly off at Kilika.
As the airship landed Cloud saw through the window people running over to take pictures of them. Seifer and Yuna exited first with Lilly following behind them looking rather flabbergasted by the situation. Cloud didn't know what to expect when he stepped out, would the people cheer him or be shocked into silence. Seifer told him that he had informed the authorities and news stations that Cloud wasn't a terrorist, but news surely didn't travel that fast did it?
Looking through the exit Cloud saw Tifa greet them, Denzel and Marlene were by her side too. He took a deep breath and stepped down. The sound of his boots turned everyone's gaze towards the airship and away from Seifer and Denzel.
When Cloud's face appeared there were some gasps and a few claps from the people who must've heard the news. There was only three people Cloud was looking at though and their eyes were fixed on him as well.
A smile crept onto Cloud's face as his childhood friend came rushing to him with open arms. Denzel and Marlene soon followed and all three of them were in his arms. They didn't say anything, they just stayed there embracing each other for a few moments.
Tifa eventually released her crushing grip on Cloud and her face instantly changed from happy to angry, she punched him in the arm and started shouting.
"You jerk! You had us all thinking Jenova had control of you! Where have you been!?" Cloud just chuckled at Tifa's way of saying I missed you.
"Heh, yeah I missed you to Tifa," That changed her expression back to a mixture of happiness and relief, "I missed you guys as well. I hope you've both been practicing your fighting." Cloud had crouched down to Denzel and Marlene's height. He didn't have to go down very far though, they had grown so tall.
Cloud's eyes widened, there was fast movement coming from behind the crowd. Their reunion would have to wait. He wrapped his hand around the hilt of his sword readying himself for battle. What came out from behind the crowd wasn't what he was expecting.
"Big C!" Rikku launched herself over the crowd and on top of Cloud causing him to fall over. Denzel and Marlene piled on top of him and joined Rikku in trying to crush him. They were all laughing, that was something Cloud hadn't heard in a while.
"The Kinderguardians? And you're both apart of this?" Denzel had told Cloud about the group he and Marlene were in along with Pacce and Shinra. They went on small adventures looking for spheres on the island, they were like a mini version of AVALANCHE.
"Me and Pacce are the sword fighters, Marlene is the puncher and Shinra is the brains." Cloud smirked a little. It seemed like they had it all figured out.
"You'll have to bring me along on one of your adventures then." Denzel nodded and ran to his team members to plan their next move, it was good to see they were getting Lilly involved. For Cloud things weren't all fun and games though, he entered Tifa's hut where everyone was waiting for him.
Seifer must've started without him because he was in the middle of saying something when Cloud walked in.
"You decided to show up then? Under my leadership tardiness isn't tolerated, you'll do well to learn that." What was with Seifer? Cloud didn't like to swear but he was being a dick about everything recently.
Cloud didn't reply and just meant against the wall behind the seats. Yuna, Tifa and Rikku occupies the sofa while Seifer had taken the single chair facing the sofa.
"As I was saying, the boy likely had his phone on him. All we need to do is find a way to reach that phone and I'll be able to track the location," Cloud wasn't completely satisfied with Seifer's plan but it was the only one they had, "we can use the mother's phone that the girl had with her tomorrow, but until then we should rest."
Everyone had gone to their rooms, Tifa was in her hut with the kids and Yuna Rikku and Seifer were using the cabins on the airship. Cloud was supposed to be staying in Tifa's hut but he gave up his bed to Lilly who needed it more than him. He was going to stay in one of the cabins on the airship but he couldn't stand the sight of seeing Yuna and Seifer together.
Cloud made his way to the docks. All of the huts had been moved to where the forest was. At least three quarters of the forest still remained though and there were still a few stores on the dock.
The slight tingle of the orange glow had faded away a few minutes ago now and Cloud was stood at the end of the dock being bathed in the moonlight. All he did was stare out at the sea until he noticed that he wasn't alone anymore.
"Again? What is it this time?" The lifestream spirit was back, what was her connection to Cloud? Why did she choose him and not one of the others?
"You don't sound very happy about me being here. What troubles you?"
"It's just, every time you show up it's always because something bad is about to happen." Her appearance only put Cloud in a worse mood. Something bad always happened when she showed up, she would never answer any of his questions and she wouldn't even tell him who she was.
"I assure you that nothing bad will happen, I thought it was time you got some answers that's all." Was the spirit actually cooperating with Cloud for once?
"How can I be a Cetra if I can't use the powers of the Cetra?" That question had been on Cloud's mind for a while now. The powers of the Cetra were said to be legendary so if he was a Cetra why couldn't he use these powers?
"The powers of the Cetra have been lost for generations. The Cetra are the planet protectors chosen by beings of the lifestream just like I chose you. Although you don't have the powers the title of Cetra is still bestowed upon you."
So it appeared that Cloud had the title of Cetra, but he didn't have their powers. To be honest, Cloud didn't mind. Over time he stopped relying on magic and summon materia and focused more on using his own skills and enhancing them with command materia. It was safe to say that he wasn't the flashy type.
"One more question. Do you know where my imposter is?" The spirit nodded and Cloud thought for a moment. This was his problem, he needed to do it by himself. There was no doubt that Seifer had planted a tracking device so they would be able to pick him up when he had finished the job. Although, would the others become suspicious of him? He could still ask where the imposter was at least.
"They're right here," the response confused Cloud and evidently so as the spirit continued on, "not too far from the forest there's an abandoned island, that is the hideout." before Cloud knew it the spirit faded away leaving him alone in the shining moonlight once more.
If Cloud told Seifer where they were there was no way that he would believe him. Maybe the others would but they wouldn't go against Seifer's orders. It was time for Cloud to go on a solo mission, but he didn't know where this island was or what it looked like. How was he meant to find it? That was it, Cloud knew exactly what to do. Would he succeed in his mission? Only time will tell whether he would be able to rescue Sarah and Jack as well as confront his imposter.