Technology was amazing. Earbud headphones had microphones now, so he kept the side with the microphone in his ear even the cord ran down the back of his shirt and into the auxiliary port on his phone. He knew the keypad and had memorized the shortcuts, so he could call people blindly and subtly so long as he kept one hand free. Such was how he dialed Captain Reid.
"Raul, I heard I should be expecting you. You made good time."
"The perks of being owed a favour by the turks, Sir." It felt... Weird, calling other people 'sir' but it wasn't like he had an actual rank after all. "I'm just outside the Charleston, but protocol dictates that I report in and I wanted to speak with you before engaging. Is there anything I should know? Hostages, altercations...?"
"Not at this time. All we know for sure is that one was seen through the window and neither of them have left the building in two days."
"What is the likelihood of this being a set up, an elderly individual or someone with simply poor fashion sense?"
"Already investigated each of those angles. Reception says the room was rented privately, over worldwide network, and that she was instructed to leave the keycard in an envelope by the staff entrance."
"Bribed, or threatened Sir?"
"Threatened. They emailed her a picture of her daughter and cat. We've already taken the liberty of evacuating as many people as we could, as we heard you would be arriving. Buildings on either side are empty as well."
"Both of them?" The clone frowned, and it must have reflected in his tone as Captain Reid sounded somewhat sheepish with his response.
"We all heard about the attack on the base, Raul. No offense."
"None taken. How long ago was everyone evacuated, Sir?"
"About an hour ago."
"Thank you Sir." Raul disconnected the call, and looked up at the building. Six stories. He should have asked what room they had rented.
He felt... Restless. It was all the confirmation he needed that they were there. He could recognize it this time around, like static across the back of his neck that made the short hairs stand on end. The beads that weighed his bangs down clicked quietly, and he paused in the stairwell to adjust and space them out a little bit better to reduce the noise they might make. The feeling grew stronger as he approached the fifth floor, lessening slightly as he passed it and causing him to back track. He stilled as the door from the fifth floor creaked quietly open. A child poked their head out. Ashen blond, small, vulnerable. The head turned this way and that and the clone was part-way through rising from his crouched posture before he noticed the feline green eyes that scanned the shadows.
A weight settled into the pit of Raul's stomach as their eyes met, before the child turned and scampered presumably down the hallway, door closing with a quiet click. He wasted no time, dialing with one hand as the other traced along the handle of the Murasama.
"Raul."
"There is a -child-." The clone practically hissed out the words as he leaned against the wall. "They know I'm here. The child has feline green eyes."
(The first time he had killed a child it had been an accident. He had been in the slums on an extermination mission as a 'birthday gift' that was meant more to test how strong he was growing, and the desperate didn't know who he was. He hadn't even been anyone particularly famous at that time, and he had been cornered.)
"Calm down. I'm an hour out. Try and stall for time. Tifa should get there before I do."
"I'm on the fifth floor."
"Be careful, Raul." The call disconnected, and the clone took a deep breath before squaring his shoulders and moving to the door. There was no point in relying on stealth, they knew he was there, after all. A glance down the hallway revealed two rows of closed doors, save for one halfway down on the right that was cracked open. Deliberate? Accidental? Any of these doors could have enemies behind them.
(He had the feeling they would talk before attacking. They were intrigued by him, after all. He as an oddity. He could armor himself with confidence and that would stay their hands better than any threat. They weren't desperate children. Shoulders squared, chin dipped only slightly, one hand on the hilt of the sword while the other hung loosely at his side. He had practiced it for hours, and learned that if he walked as if he was on a balancing beam it made it look like he was stalking forward. Intimidation was something that must not be underestimated.)
He chose to interpret the open door as an invitation and made his way smoothly down the hall. His free hand came up to brush the door the rest of the way open before he stepped in, coming face to face with three children with identical eyes and Loz. He offered the taller of the group a slight nod.
"Loz. What game have you chosen to play today?"
"Brother said I can't play with you today." The remnant sulked, folding his arms. "I have to babysit. It's a very important job, and Brother said he's counting on me."
That meant Yazoo wasn't likely there. He could take Loz by himself, but let his gaze drop to the three children. Two girls, one boy. All of them with ashen blond hair. "It's a very important responsibility. Did your family grow? Are these new siblings?"
"They are! Oh, but Yazoo said I shouldn't tell anyone anything." The remnant pouted, shifting from foot to foot.
"But I thought of a wonderful game we could play. It's not as exciting or fun as roughhousing around, but it's called two truths and a lie. Do you know how to play it?" Raul quirked a brow, letting a smile tease across his face. "Of course you do, you're Loz. You know all the most fun games, don't you."
"Of course I know how to play it." He huffed, before looking a little uncertain, if excited at the prospect of a game. "I just... Haven't played it in forever."
"It never hurts to know house rules either. Two truths a lie, where you say two things that are true, and one thing that's a lie, and everyone else playing has to guess what the lie is. I'll start. My hair is black, my eyes glow, and I'm waiting for a friend. Which one is the lie, Loz?"
"You're not waiting for a friend, duh. I can see your eyes and hair from here." The remnant grinned.
"Very good." Raul canted his head to the side. The static was getting worse, which meant that Yazoo was probably getting close. "Your turn."
"Okay, uhh... Oh! I'm Loz, I'm waiting for my Brother and... And I like trains!" The remnant beamed, straightening as the clone pursed his lips and made a show of thinking about it.
"Hmm... A tough one... But I'm going to guess that... You don't actually like trains." He let another smile tease across his face as Loz pouted.
"No fair, you cheated somehow!"
"Just a lucky guess. My turn." Now came the delicate moment. How best to weave his guesses into 'truths' and 'lies' about the children. "These children... Something was done to them to make their eyes look like that, you brought them here from far away and... Yazoo isn't expected to be back for a while."
(A gamble. There were no reports of missing children from the area, and Yazoo was picking up speed on his way up the stairs.)
Loz dithered for a moment, trying to figure out which one was the lie before perking up, looking relieved. "Silly. Yazoo's behind you! That one was the lie!"
"-What-, precisely, are you doing with my brother."
The momentary relief regarding his suspicions concerning the 'natural' state of the three children was tucked away as the clone turned his head just enough to look over his shoulder. "Loz was bored, so we were playing a game."
"Haha! It was fun! But he's -stupid- 'cause he said he was waiting for a friend but that was a lie. We should take him with us!" The burly remnant's expression was delighted with the idea, but fell quickly as Yazoo narrowed his eyes.
"I told you not to talk to anyone while I'm not around, Loz."
"I'm... I'm sorry, Brother. I was just so bored, and-"
"Don't blame him. I invited myself in and engaged him." Turning somewhat so that he could look back and forth between the two remnants, he weighed his options. He could -probably- grab all three kids and make a break for it out through the window. They might fight him, though, and he only had one hand to spare. He could take -Loz- and make a break for it through the window, but again he only had one hand to spare. He could continue trying to talk to the two of them, but Yazoo seemed far more cautious and reserved. It would be harder to get them to let things slip. But maybe...
He'd never thought that the colour of his hair might come in handy for once. He just had to hope that Loz was too stupid and caught up in the moment to think back to his lie earlier. He could also improvise and try to spin it as if he had been waiting for Yazoo.
"You know, I'm not so different from the two of you. I have silver hair as well. That's why, when I came up here... I just wanted to talk. To be around people that were different, the same way I am." That got their attention, and he removed his hand from the handle of his katana to start removing the beads from his bangs, letting them defy gravity. "I dye it, so that people... So that people don't hate me."
"You..." Yazoo's eyes widened as he paced around, studying the profile and smiling slightly. "You're like us then. The humans, they're only using you. They only want to hurt you, you know."
"I know, but..." Raul dropped his gaze, shoulders slumping slightly. His voice shifted to take on a softer tone, almost a whisper. "... But I'm afraid. I'm afraid that they might hunt me down, if I don't fit in."
"See Brother? He should come with us! We could show him everything, teach him what the stinky humans refuse to. He could learn the truth!" Loz surged forward, clamping a hand down on the clone's shoulder even as he looked to the slender remnant with hope stamped across his features. Outside, a floorboard quietly creaked, and to cover it Raul sighed loudly.
"But I'm worried. The humans, they're very strong. And there's a lot of them. More then there are of us. Millions of them, versus the three children and pair of you and me."
"Don't worry, Brother. Our family's way bigger than this. We've been-"
"Loz." The burlier remnant jumped slightly, raising both hands and staring at Yazoo with wide eyes as the gunman's lips pulled into an ugly scowl. "He... He can't hear her. He can't hear Mother. I've been trying to sense a connection, but there isn't one. He just looks like one of us. Nothing more."
"The humans did something to me-" The clone shut up as a gun materialized out of thin air and was aimed swiftly at his face.
"No. No more lies. You're stalling."
"Broth-?" Raul slipped to the side quickly, behind Loz before kicking the burly remnant towards Yazoo. The gunman was already moving, however, already adjusting the angle and trajectory and firing rounds off.
Tifa could hear everything clearly from the hall as she waited for Cloud. As far as she could tell, Raul was doing a good job of keeping them occupied.
"But I'm worried. The humans, they're very strong. And there's a lot of them. More then there are of us. Millions of them, versus the three children and pair of you and me."
Three children. Cloud's message had mentioned one. It must have been a new development. The building across the way was empty, though she didn't quite have the sheer physical strength to punch holes in the walls to get inside it. She had seen a few balconies, however. If she grabbed two, then Raul could grab one. But what about the remnants...
"Don't worry, Brother. Our family's way bigger than this. We've been-"
"Loz. He... He can't hear her. He can't hear Mother. I've been trying to sense a connection, but there isn't one. He just looks like one of us. Nothing more."
The atmosphere in the room changed, and she glanced down the hall to check the elevator and door to the stairwell. No change. Cloud wasn't due to arrive for another fifteen minutes anyways.
"The humans did something to me-"
"No. No more lies. You're stalling."
"Broth-?"
She heard the impact and sprang into action, crossing the final few feet to the doorway and coming in low. Shots rang out, piercing through the plaster and she took only the briefest of moments to take stock of the situation before angling to her right. Raul had his sword drawn and was batting shots out of the air with one hand, the other outstretched towards the children who, as one, crumpled to the ground. Breathing, so she realized they must have been asleep. She hit Yazoo with every ounce of force she could muster, catching him by surprise before he rounded on her and she was twisting, dodging as fast as she could as she ignored the sting of the shots that grazed her.
"Swap!" It was Raul's voice. She didn't hesitate, turning and dropping into a slide tackle to take the burly clone's feet out from under him even as the clone went sailing past, katana in both hands to send bullets ricocheting harmlessly away. The cramped space worked well for them, save for one, small detail. Out of the four of them, Tifa was going to get tired first.
(Really, Masamune wouldn't have worked in such a cramped space. He was surprisingly glad to have the shorter katana on hand.)
"Tifa. You know what I am going to ask of you." Yazoo had produced his second gun, and the clone was forced to step twice as fast to keep the fighter behind him from getting shot.
"If I had time, we would argue about that!"
"But we don't. Please. It will be different this time." Tifa didn't waste her breath huffing, though as she dropped and swept out with a foot to try and re-trip Loz she did snort.
"I'll need a hole."
(He remembered how Cloud had moved, hacking through falling debris before their swords met. He was fast enough. If the -puppet- could do it, then there was no reason to think he couldn't either.)
(He protected the people that were his. Nobody was expendable. Nobody could be replaced.)
Raul let go of the sword with one hand, pivoted, and drew the sheath of the katana across as hard as he could as Tifa coiled under his swing. It caught Loz across the jaw and sent him head-first against the wall, disorienting the burly remnant for a moment. The crack of both of Yazoo's guns snapped his attention back, and he brought his sword around in an ark to sweep both bullets from the air as the fighter uncoiled like a spring with the tension released. She was on all three children in a heartbeat, scooping them up before kicking through the window and vanishing out of sight.
Of course, this left him in a confined space with two particularly fast, enhanced people who seemed to have some sort of psychic link, considering they never seemed to be in danger of harming one another without him bodily moving one into the path of the other. Using a weapon in each hand divided his attention, and they worked hard to make sure he was flanked at all times. Curiously, (he was counting the shots) the guns Yazoo's hands never ran out of ammunition nor needed a moment to be reloaded, whereas both of the armaments Loz used had a half-second delay between the initial contact and the electrical discharge.
The sheath in his left hand was starting to look cracked and damaged as he hooked the tip past the burly remnant's forearm and spun, sweeping aside the jab that would otherwise have caught him even as he tipped his blade up to spoil the slender remnant's aim. He was starting to discern their patterns, left hand shot right hook, followed by right hand shot and a left straight. The remnants mirrored one another so that their attacks never crossed the space to the other.
That in mind, he went into another spin and brought the katana around with him, startling both as the attack was aimed at neither of them and saluting with the sheath as the floor gave out from under him to drop him into the room below. Loz jumped in after him, landing and catching sight of him as he exited through the glass door and got onto the edge of the railing of the balcony. A jump allowed him to catch the balcony of the room the gunman remained within and he swung himself over even as he ignored the bullet that burned its way through his shoulder. A quick reversal of his grip on the katana was paired with the first step as he burst through the glass door there as well, and as the slender remnant hopped backwards to get over the hole he launched the blade like a javelin.
It caught Yazoo in the shoulder and carried him back against the wall, pinned and looking panicked as the clone brought the sheath down with both hands to crack it against the remnants skull.
(One down, one to go.)
"Brother, no! You'll pay for that!" Dropping down the hole with the sheath in hand, he paused and blinked at the empty space even as he felt half of the static 'receding' at a rapid pace. Glancing up, he jumped and cleared the hole, landing lightly on the edge of it and turning to make sure the slender remnant was truly out cold with a liberal application of sleepel before he recovered his blade, sheathed it, and hauled Yazoo to the stairwell so that he could start picking his way down.
He fought in a war, and certainly not to protect his biological family. I will always headcanon that Sephiroth was dedicated to the safety of his troops because when you're in life and death situations, the people at your back are usually the reason you keep going forward. Your squad becomes closer than any blood relation.
I will also always headcanon that Sephiroth utterly loathed Hojo, because Sephiroth -knows- he's different, -knows- that children aren't supposed to be raised that way and interacting with all sorts of people who know that too would very likely make him resent it even if he didn't remember the pain of mako injections. Hojo was never portrayed as anything more than a bunghole, too. So Sephiroth, who hates Hojo, would always try and protect his troops from the scientist.
Man, I should focus on work, but I'm having fun writing this.
-KD