Chapter seven of Whispers about Angels.
Disclaimer: Final Fantasy VII and all its characters still belong to Square-Enix and I'm just borrowing them for fun. No profit is made with this fic.
Warnings: some bad language and spoilers for AC (just a little).
Chasing shadows
Today … seemed a good day for surprises, or maybe a bad day considering that those surprises were mostly bad news, which again was not really a wonder, cause most things here were. Whatever the reason for those, they certainly hadn't expected to find one of them there, sitting almost innocently on one of the remains of what were once proud buildings, back when Midgar was at its finest.
"What are you doing here?" Tifa couldn't help but ask the silver-haired teen, half inquiring half gasping. She also wasn't sure if what she was feeling was shock or anger; maybe it was a little of both, mingled with a good portion of puzzlement because he looked too innocent for her to be comfortable with. It was almost like he was a different person, but that didn't seem quite right. No, she thought, whatever the reason he was here right now … couldn't be anything good.
Everybody was looking or more so, staring, at the teen, who didn't seem to acknowledge them and kept staring at the floor. Only after several moments, which might be mere seconds or several minutes because of how long it felt, he looked up, slowly and in a way that said that he didn't care about anything they might decide to do about this, him being here. Truly, how stupid did they think him to be to be worried about something ordinary like that, now that everything was … as it should have been from the beginning.
Yes, Kadaj thought, everything was going to be just like Mother wanted it to be, It didn't matter that his brothers were still missing, because he knew that they were still alive, even if he didn't exactly know were they were right now.
Everything would be fine in the end.
"It's too late..." The silver haired teen answered finally, sounding nearly emotionless yet he looked strangely lost at these words; pretty much like people would feel lost after they lost their purpose they had in life yet somewhat different, like he was almost happy to feel this way. He was fingering Souba in what looked like an almost nervous gesture of sorts – and for some reason he wasn't meeting their gazes but instead kept his eyes firmly focused on his weapon.
"What!" Another voice, much harsher sounding, interrupted. "What are ye talking about?" Barret eyed the teen with more than a little suspicion, knowing that whatever had caused the teen to act like this couldn't be good, not that anything involving Shinra or Jenova could be any good any time soon in eyes, though.
"Big brother's with Mother now." Kadaj stated calmly, looking up for the first time since they met him here. Shadows seemed to loom around his lone figure at these words, almost like they wanted to give them even more weight, but that might be just an illusion brought up by the gloomy thoughts the words brought up all along.
"I thought you wanted to resurrect Sephiroth." A third voice asked, coming seemingly out of nowhere, pretty much like the owner of it, gazing at the only remnant with serious ruby eyes.
"We ... don't need to, not anymore." Kadaj shook his head, looking down once again. "We don't need to because ..." He smiled at his words, which made his look like the teen he really was now. He was indeed happy, happy for the first time in his life, because he felt that they would be together soon, Mother, his two older brothers and the three of them. Yes, his family would finally be complete.
"He's already back, isn't he?" Vincent continued, sounding as calm as always while asking the very words the others thought about, but didn't want to speak aloud. The calm was only on the outside, but there was nothing giving away how he felt about this, nothing of the sadness, anger, and the mixed emotions that belonged to his four demons was there. There was only calm determination to do what was needed; duty coming first, because it was the only way.
"Yeah, he is." The remnant smirked at that before his look turned once again serious. "Yes, he's out there." He sounded nearly hysterical at that, but no one but Kadaj himself knew why.
"Sephiroth's with Jenova?" Everybody gasped in a mix of horror, shock and not little dread at these words, which was little bit odd because it was something they should have expected by now.
Again the remnant surprised them when he shook his head at that. "No, I don't think so. I think he's a little angry with Mother."
"How ... do you know this?" Tifa asked, frowning at the silver haired youth. No, she didn't know what to make out of this or if she should believe it at all.
"How?" Kadaj repeated, frowning slightly like he was thinking about the meaning of the question. "I don't know how. I just know he is, just like I know that he's calling big brother to him."
The remnant didn't get to say anything more because they were interrupted by a pair of angry, disturbed looking pair of turks. What ever, something bad must have happened to leave them in such a state so everyone froze, staring at them but didn't seem to find the courage to ask what exactly it was that happened.
"Where is he?" Reno nearly growled. He was simmering with fury and it was only the knowledge that he knew, somewhere in the back of his mind, that they weren't responsible for the hero's insane actions that held him back from taking further actions. Yeah, insane, he thought, fighting back a shiver at the memory of it but he couldn't stop thinking about that look and what it meant.
Strife had acted alarmingly like one of these blasted remnants, no, he was worse, Reno decided. The way the blonde had absent-mindedly caressed the box containing the last remnants of that alien bitch, the way he had smiled then – that had been more than unnerving. Worse, Reno was a turk, so he couldn't help noticing that Cloud's eyes looked a lot like Sephiroth's now. Oh, yes, they were still blue, but they possessed the same damned slotted irises and he even had a fucking wing, just like the late one-winged-angel.
"Who? Who did what?" Tifa frowned, feeling more confused than ever for she'd never seen the redhead lose it like this. It simply wasn't like Reno to act emotional, so, something big had to have happened to have him into a fit like this. It just didn't fit his image of the deadly turk he's supposed to be.
"Blondie, of course." The turk spat out. It sounded more like a curse than anything else. Reno looked like he was about to attack but he was pulled back by his partner, placing a firm hand on his shoulder and all.
"He'd gone all Sephiroth on us for all I care, stark raving mad." Reno retorted, snorting at that. Yeah, that was right, they'd be probably dead as well if they weren't turks and very well trained at that. Maybe not exactly, but Cloud had been on the verge of killing him and Rude just seconds before he froze in his motions only to turn around, then pulled the boss in one smooth motion on his bike and left with him. Whatever that was, it certainly had saved him and Rude, but he couldn't help feeling that it wouldn't turn out as anything good.
"Tifa, it's Cloud, he took Rufus." Rude explained with a voice, thick with tightly controlled emotion. "He'd just took off with him on that bike of his." He was fingering one of his shades, but didn't put it on like he'd usually do. It was a sure sign of the anger he held inside, anger which wasn't so much about what happened, but the fact that he hadn't seen it coming even while all the signs had been in plain view for everybody to see.
"He ...did what?" The reply came in muted voices, which just showed how shocked by the idea of their friend was behaving like that, that it felt unreal, like everything had just been a bad dream.
Well, they knew that it wasn't, but it was the sheer helplessness to stop what was happening that had them in a tight grip. Monsters they could fight, even Sephiroth and Jenova, but Cloud? He was their friend, even if he seemed insane now, so how could they fight that?
"That ... can't be right..." Tifa muttered, fighting to keep calm but it was hard, seeing as this sort of thing reminded her so much of those times during their hunt when Cloud had been behaving strangely. Worse, part of her was wondering if she could've stopped some of this if she hadn't been so frustrated and had forced him to talk about his, about their issues. She shook her head in another bitter, helpless gesture of defeat, knowing that all these thoughts were useless now.
"Sure it is, Teef," Reno retorted and snorted once again. "Took him, right after he fucking tried to kill us."
"He ... tried to kill you?" Vincent interrupted, sounding calm as ever but he couldn't help the curiosity out of his voice or maybe he'd added that on purpose as well. "What did you two do?"
"Reno isn't lying, Valentine. We just tried saving the boss, nothing more." Rude interrupted then frowned, looking at a small hand-held device he held in his hand. "And we better stop lamenting about what happened and start doing something, cause he's taking Rufus abroad now." Yes, there was no misunderstanding seeing as the small dot on the green screen has left the shore and was now heading towards the continent on the other side.
xxx
When Rufus Shinra woke he hadn't recognized his surroundings at first, feeling a little dislocated after what had happened. He could only notice that they were on a ship of sorts and obviously in one of its cargo holds as well. The smell of it was a death-give-away for sure.
Where was Strife? He frowned, realizing that he was indeed alone again. He was alone with an empty room and strangely hollow sounding sounds which could be only the ship's machines, which also made him realize that they had to have left the shore for quite a while.
"Why did he this?" He mouthed to himself, unable to come up with an explanation that made actually sense, but the closed thing he could came up with was actually almost too frightening to consider. Rufus Shinra realized that he must've been more exhausted than he thought to have been caught by surprise that often in just a few hours or was a day now?
"Why?" He asked aloud into the silence surrounding him, not really expecting any answer but flinched when he saw something, someone moving towards him. Strife really wasn't that tall so why did he seem to loom above him now? Rufus thought, trying hard to find to something to distract him from the sense of something other, something not entirely human glinting in those pale eyes.
"I don't exactly know, Shinra." Cloud's voice sounded strangely void of emotion, an effect, which was only amplified with the metallic echoes caused by the ship's cargo space.
"Why did you take her?" His cool blue eyes were watching the last Shinra with something akin to intense curiosity mixed with something else ... like hurt? It was almost like Cloud didn't know how he should feel that Rufus had taken Jenova's remnants from the Crater like he had done. Part of him was angry about the foolishness of this action while the other part of him was mad that he'd dared to take her away from him, which was madness of course, but he couldn't help it.
"Why did I ..." Rufus began, at first not sure what he's referring to then blinked while realizing that Strife had to mean the remnants of Jenova his turks had retrieved from the crater. "Hope, I suppose." He finally said, gesturing towards the tell-tale signs of his Geostigma that was eating his flesh away.
"I hoped to find a cure somehow. You know it's an overreaction of ones body to the Jenova Cells, which causes this disease and ..." He trailed off, thinking of how the man facing him now had more of them than anybody else, but he seemed not affected by this plaque at all, just like those three silver-haired Sephiroth clones. By what he could gather from Hojo's files Strife was one as well, albeit a failed one, but seeing him like this made Rufus question that fact. The blonde didn't look much like a failure to him.
Maybe Hojo didn't fail after all, not that that was a soothing thought, no, not at all. He heard that scientist sometimes used to label experiments as failed, which scared them somehow, not that Rufus could imagine anything scaring Hojo, but well, it was a possibility. Or maybe it just hadn't been the result the scientist had been looking for?
"A cure?" Cloud frowned at him then nodded, looking strangely at ease and more calm than he ought to be. "I know I shouldn't but somehow I believe you." He said then smirked at the obvious unease the other blonde showed on his face. "Well, she doesn't think you deserve one, a cure I mean."
"She?" Rufus stared at him with open shock written all over his face, which was almost comical seeing that the signs had been there all along and he really should have known better than to be surprised by this happening. Maybe he was more exhausted then he thought, but it certainly was a bad sign about the state of his mental health that something like this could take him by surprise.
"Oh, yes, did you really believe that she was be gone for good?" Cloud laughed at this, thus surprising Rufus once again and it would've amused him greatly under any other circumstances, but not like this. It wasn't a pleasing sound, no, instead it chilled him to the bones for it sounded too much like Sephiroth had laughed on that recording they had were he killed his old man.
Not that Rufus had ever cared about his father, though, but he didn't have a dead wish either.
xxx
Back in Edge Cloud's friends were still rather much in shock and somehow did all but stare at the pair of Turks, practically forgetting the one single remaining remnant on the other side. Kadaj looked rather uncomfortable, but it was also rather obvious that the others seemed to ignore him now. It was the perfect chance to sneak away, which he did to finally do what he had wanted to all along: looking for Yazoo and Loz.
They argued for a while on how to proceed, on how to follow their friend, knowing that they had the means of transportation to go after him, meaning Cid's airship, but no idea where to look for him. Something the turks had, but they weren't exactly on friendly terms yet, even while they hadn't really fought each other in a long time.
"So, you'll continue just standing here, doing nothing?" A gruff yet high-pitched voice asked into the shocked silence. "We'd gonna follow him, have to..."
"Yes, of course. You're right, Yuffie." Tifa smiled sadly at the dark-haired ninja besides her then glanced over to where the two turks stood. "So, you're with us?" She smirked slightly seeing Reno's eyes widen slightly with surprise, then finally nod in agreement.
"Yo, sure, gonna save the boss." He said, more to himself and Rude, not that he had to convince himself about this, cause he knew that together they had the best chance to pull this off. But maybe, he needed to convince himself that everything would end up well, just maybe.
A few minutes later they were aboard the Sierra, following the dot on this strange radar device they turks had. They eyes were still glued to it, Tifa noticed then frowned at seeing a uncomfortable expression pass over Rude's normally stony face.
What was wrong now? She couldn't help but think and moved closer to them, trying to see what they were seeing.
"What's wrong?" She finally asked aloud, trying not to sound as nervous as she felt like now. What ever was going to happen it could very well mean that they'd lose Cloud for good or worse had to kill him. No, she'd better stop thinking about that now or she'd go mad as well.
"Better ask what is not." Reno murmured, "Yo, better ask not at all." He tried to sound relaxed but he really couldn't fool anyone with his attitude, but he just had to at least try to keep things as normal as possible.
"Rude?" Tifa scowled very unladylike, realizing that the red-head wasn't going to answer her question any time soon.
"Here." He handed her the device in return, thinking that it explained things better than words ever could. Rude was right, of course, because it was rather obvious what the direction of the signal meant.
At first the pattern made no sense, especially since it was quite obvious after a few hours that Cloud wasn't heading for the Crater like they all had expected at first. It wasn't much but this mistake caused them to be behind a few days instead of a few hours like they had hoped at first.
Even with the Sierra as their means of transportation it seemed like their friend was faster, which most probably only was because the signal had been gone for two days until it reappeared once again.
Reno looked grim when he showed the device to them, not saying anything, because that hadn't been necessary. No, the signal spoke for itself, showing something they had avoided thinking about until now.
Tifa frowned, trying comprehend what the screen showed to her. It couldn't be ... yet here it was, plain as daylight. There simply was no doubt now, because of the familiar direction the pattern pointed to. No, she thought, then cursed under her breath, both for being so blind to not being able to see this … for it was rather obvious if one thought just hard enough about it.
Tifa blinked, once, twice but the word just continued to echo in her mind like the bad omen it was.
Just one word, over and over again ...
Nibelheim.
Cloud was heading for Nibelheim of all places he could have chosen to go.
I wish you all wonderful Holidays and also a great New Year!
Hope you enjoy this chapter,
Mia
tbc
