Chapter Nine: Rain to Acid

A quiet eternity, a never-ending silence, that rips at ones soul until the end of time Isn't it funny how much pain you feel after you die?

-Exert from Linger by Aros Shinra; Former President of Shinra Manufacturing

Rufus stared at Tifa across the bar; the rest of AVALANCHE was out helping Reeve with the WRO.

"Your food's going to get cold if you don't eat it," Tifa said. These were the first words Rufus had heard out of her all day, besides the yelling at Barret for leaving her alone with him. She finally had calmed down when Vincent promised to come back early, or at least send one of his demons here to comfort her. To Rufus, he couldn't see which of the options were better. In case one, she'd have an undead ex-Turk to comfort her, but in the latter, she'd have to deal with one of his psychotic demons. Which was worse? Either way, she's getting a demon.

"I don't eat a lot, normally," Rufus replied, pushing the plate from his body.

"No wonder you're so fail and tiny," Tifa muttered, taking the plate. She tossed the whole thing, plate, silverware and all, into the trash. Obviously, she didn't want to deal with his germs. He pushed back from the bar, swinging around off the stool and walked to the door.

"Where are you going?" Tifa asked, looking at him with sour eyes.

"On a walk," he replied simply. "My appearance, since I am borrowing some of Cloud's old clothing, is extremely altered, and I'm going to wear a hat, so you don't have to worry about me being noticed. Thank you for the concern, Ms. Lockhart." He walked out the door, ignoring her glaring eyes with a simple smile.

As he walked away, Tifa noted how scripted his words were to her. Almost as though he had said them before; many, many times before.

The glaring sun woke him; it bled through his eyelids onto his sensitive, Mako-enhanced eyes. He opened his eyes a little, adjusting to the fading light. It was dusk.

When did I black out?

He looked around the Rufus' room without lifting his head. Everything was back to normal. Someone had righted the bedside table and picked up the easel. He felt a warm hand on his shoulder, as though someone was trying to comfort him, but not wake him up.

"I wonder if he's feeling better," Tseng muttered. His voice was hushed.

Cloud's eyes glanced back at the easel, then to the floor.

"Maybe we should have waited to pull him out of the hospital." It was Elena's voice. Cloud looked around again, without moving his head, to see Rude over in the corner, looking back at him. Elena was sitting in a chair she had brought up from the dining room, and Reno was leaning against the door.

"He's fine," Reno said, "probably just some nightmare. He gets them all the time."

"Yeah, but….you never know…" Elena muttered. Cloud saw Rude start to fidget.

"Don't worry, guys, Shi's fine," Reno pressed.

"And how are you so sure, Reno?" Tseng asked, standing. Reno shrugged.

"He looks fine to me," Reno said simply.

"Yeah, and now he's perfectly fine! Magically! Poof, he's fine!" Tseng hissed. Elena threw her hands in the air.

"Just because you say he's fine, Reno, doesn't mean he is!" she said.

"You can't just deduce things that you have no idea about!" Tseng added.

"Coming from the guy who doesn't believe Shi half the time he confronts him about something. Do you see why he trusts me more that you?" Reno growled.

"Trusts you? He doesn't trust you, Reno. He doesn't trust anyone. He never has! I raised him, and he doesn't even trust me. I just think Rufus wants to toy with you! All this talk about jumping off buildings and living, and flying with wings! Ha! I think he's playing a game with all of us! He's said these things before, Reno. We ignored it, we didn't fuel the flames, and he stopped. It's just like a child. Fuel their anger, and they make it worse. He's just doing this for attention!"

"So you don't believe he's an-"

"Analect Degran or whatever it's called? No! Of course not! He's just doing this for attention, like the last time he talked about this!" Tseng yelled. So much for not trying to wake me…Cloud thought. It was odd, though. Tseng's voice sounded strained; Cloud knew from earlier that Tseng was lying…but then Reno….

"I have no idea what you two are yelling about now, but maybe Reno's right," Elena said.

"Stay out of this," Tseng growled. Elena backed off.

"Hey, let her know! Hey everyone! Rufus is the Analect Degran! He can fly; bring back people from the dead, and other cool things!" Reno shouted. "And did you forget, Tseng, that I helped raise Rufus too? Sure, you did most of it, but I helped too, ya know!" Rude clenched his fists.

What is with them. Tseng….and Reno…this sounds…so…rehearsed.

"Shut up, RENO!" Tseng screamed. "He's just playing his stupid game!"

"It's the truth, Tseng, and you know it!"

They have done this before…and Reno know something….Reno…how much does he know?

"SHUT UP, BOTH OF YOU!" Rude yelled, throwing everyone into silence. He was panting, his eyes hidden behind his sunglasses. "How do we know this is a lie, Tseng? Do you have any proof?" Tseng began to stutter something about it not being physically possible, when Rude cut him off.

"If it's not physically possible, then how did Sephiroth summon the Meteor, or Hojo use Weiss to massacre people to create Omega? How do you know?" Tseng was silent. Rude only shook his head. "How about you go ask him?"

"What do you mean?" Tseng said.

"When Rufus gets up, ask him," Rude said, leaving the room. Reno nodded.

"I bet he's awake right now, actually. We were yellin' pretty loudly," Reno said, leaving.

"Rude, wait! What are you saying?" Tseng asked, running out of the room. Elena stayed behind. She walked over to the bed. Cloud closed his eyes and pretended to mummer in his 'sleep.'

"Don't worry, Rufus. No matter what you say or think, I'll believe you," she said, lightly caressing the side of face. Cloud allowed his eyelids to flutter before opening them slightly to look at the rookie Turk. Elena quickly pulled back her hand, flushing.

"Ge-get some rest, Sir. You haven't fully recovered," she said quickly. "I….I have to go keep my boyfri-I me, the boss from killing Reno. I'll come get you when dinner is ready." Cloud didn't even have a chance to blink before she was gone from the room.

What the hell just happened?

A calm wind blew over the remnants of Midgar, picking up dust and small pieces of debris. Chaos balanced effortlessly on a long I-beam, waiting. He turned the Proto Materia over in his hand, almost like a stress ball; the cracks that he had created earlier had been repaired.

"Wait long?" asked a mortal below him.

"Ms. Lockhart hold you back?" Chaos mused, smiling. Rufus Shinra, dressed in some of Cloud's old blue jeans, some sort of graphic tee-shirt, and black hat, looked up at him from the ground below…or, correctly, the bits of the plate that still remained. Human destruction fascinated the old demon; it never tired to him…and always disgusted him.

"She was complaining about me not eating my breakfast," Shinra said, climbing up so he could be at least eye to eye with Chaos.

"I wonder why she'd care, Master Shinra," Chaos muttered, stretching his long wings. "It matters not, though, my good friend." He glanced at the mortal as Rufus stifled a laugh; good friends they weren't…or at least, not yet.

"You have an interesting point, Cha!" cackled a voice. Rufus looked up, startled, but Chaos already knew he was there.

"Galian! Come down! Keep us company!" Chaos laughed. Galian Beast stuck his head out from beyond a rubble pile and hopped down to join Chaos.

"Pleasure to meet you Master Shinra… Aros, right? Or is it Feymos?" Galian Beast said, extending a hand to shake. Rufus hesitated at the mention of his father and grandfather.

"Pleasure…but my name is Rufus," he said simply, shaking Galian's hand. "Feymos is my father, and Aros is my grandfather. May both rest in peace…" For they both lay in peaces…thought Rufus.

"I'm…sorry….I have my issues remembering offspring…I'm just scatterbrained like that," Galian said apologetically.

"It is alright," Rufus said. "Do you remember our agreement?" He looked back at Chaos and pulled a piece of paper out of his pocket; it was the same one that Reeve had read earlier. Chaos took it, reading the words.

"I remember this," he whispered. Rufus couldn't tell if Chaos meant he remembered the agreement or the words on the paper. It bothered him.

"Could you go to Tseng's house and get the poem from the box on the top shelf of my bookcase. Scratch that, just bring the whole box. And maybe my easel too…God only knows what Cloud has done to my things."

"Love too. I wanted to see how Cloud was doing anyway," Chaos said, bowing. "It seems, however, one of your guardians has figured out that you are not there."

"That would probably be Tseng," Rufus said, nonchalantly. Chaos laughed.

He spread his long wings and lifted from the beam. "Galian, escort Shinra back to Tifa's!"

"You got it, Cha!" Galian yelled, waving. Chaos saw Rufus nod a thank you and begin his walk back to Edge. Chaos looked to the sky.

"How much longer will we be able to hold out, Genovia?"

Cloud was drawn back to reality by a tapping on the window. He put the book he was reading (Rufus's diary from when he was nine- he had really good handwriting for such a young kid) down on the bedside table and walked to the window. He jumped back a bit when he saw Chaos brooding there.

"Why the hell are you brooding outside my window?" he whispered. Chaos floated past him and settled into the room's only chair.

"One, it's not your window, and two, I have a pick up. None of this, however, pertains to you," Chaos said coolly, and then in a creepily gleeful voice, he asked "how are you?"

"Fine….why do you ask?" Cloud said, plopping down on the bed.

"Just wondering. And might I add that white isn't your color," Chaos laughed. Cloud glared at him. "But in all seriousness, I am only here to pick up a few things for the real Rufus." Cloud rolled his eyes.

"Look at this, Shinra even had the Demon Lord on a leash!" Cloud said, throwing his arms in the air.

"Shut up Cloud," Chaos warned, retrieving the box from the top shelf. He also picked up the easel.

"I wouldn't take those paintings…" Cloud muttered. Chaos looked back at Cloud.

"Why not?"

"They're haunted," Cloud stated. Chaos shook his head.

"I think I can handle it, Cloud." Chaos smiled back at the ex-SOLDIER calmly and took off into the morning sky.

Cloud watched Chaos go, lightly offset by the demon's attitude. Something was up. He stood up and stretched, just now noticing a piece of paper on the floor, next to the bed stand. He picked it up and looked it over. All the paper said was:

Second from the door, seven up, seven right, behind the big, green bound book.

Cloud looked it over for more words, but found none. He recognized the handwriting as Rufus'. It was similar to that of the writing in the diary. He decided to see what was behind the green book. He went to the far end of the bookcase and found the book second from the door, then counted seven up, seven right, and found the green bound book. He pulled it out and looked at the empty space. All there was in the space was an old black book. He pulled it out, reading the faded gold written cover. Linger, by Aros Shinra it read. Cloud flipped through the book, stopping on and off to look at photos and hand drawn pictures. He paused at a family tree, looking at the names written in the author's clean and precise writing; all expect for Rufus's name, which had been written in by another. Cloud flipped the page to see Aros's writing, along with someone else's note added in at the bottom.

"Dear Father in Law Aros," read the added note, "I hope you didn't mind me adding little Rufus's name to your magnificent book. He wanted to write his name in, bless the little boy, but I don't think either of us would have been able to read his six month old handwriting. He said your name today. Sounded something like 'a rose' but I knew he meant you. All is well, and we miss you down here. Rest in peace you happy go lucky fool. Lilly sends her love. Laugh it up in the life stream for us!

Yours truly,

Feymos"

Cloud flipped back a page to see where Feymos lined up on the family tree, shocked to see that he was Rufus's father.

What?

He had always thought that Akito was his father, because that was what Reeve told AVALANCHE. He found Aros's name too; he was Rufus's grandfather. He thought it odd that Feymos had written the note as though Aros, long time dead as of some of the other notes he had read from other entries of relatives, could read it. He continued flipping through the book until he came across a few poems. It was the last page of the book. Cloud read them aloud.

"In this world of Disbelief, a man stands mourning in his grief. He takes a weapon to his head, and with a smile, joins the dead." Cloud glanced up from the book. The sky had turned a dark shade of grey, the wind began to howl, and rain began to pelt the ground. He looked back at the book and began to read the second poem.

Rufus looked up through the window at the darkened sky. He felt ill, his body was cold, shaking beyond control. Something bad was happening. He just could hope that Cloud wasn't being pulled into something he tried to hide. All he could do was hope.

"Cloud, I hope you don't read it…" Rufus muttered. Even as he said this, Rufus knew it was too late. He ran to the roof, throwing the door open; running into the windy rain. It beat against his marred skin, burning him. Rufus screamed, his voice changing like the weather around him.

He let the Analect loose.

"STAY A WAY FROM CLOUD, OMEGA!"

"Rain to Acid, by Aros Shinra.

"When did Rain turn to Acid? When did its healing drops become Infected? When did its soothing drops turn Hurtful? When did Rain turn to Acid?

"When did Acid begin to Fall? When did it cascade onto this beautiful Planet? When did it destroy this only Reality? When did Acid begin to Fall?

"When did rain become Harmful? When did it start to decay our Flesh? When did it burn out plants to Nothing? When did rain become Harmful?

"When did Acid engulf the Light? When did Sun disappear beyond the Clouds? When did it break the Façade? When did Acid engulf the Light?" A hollow laugh followed by thunder took hold of Cloud's attention. The book was taken from his hands. Cloud looked in awe at the man holding the book in front of him. He had blonde hair, blue eyes, and a black/silver marking under his left eye. His clothing was all black, expect for the white cross that hung around his neck. He was semi-transparent.

"When did Rain become Harmful? When did Acid begin to Fall? When did Acid engulf the Light? When did Rain turn to Acid?" the man read. He looked up at Cloud, shutting the book. "Why did Rain turn to Acid?" he finished. Cloud backed up.

"Wh-who?" Cloud stammered, looking back at the man. The man took a low bow.

"Isn't if funny how Death Isn't Always the Finale?" Cloud felt his blood run cold.

The rain stopped.

And acid began to fall.

I'm having too much fun re-writing this...I hope you all like it better.