Title:Scars of Friendship
Chapter: 7/31
Comments: And in this chapter we have the return of some very important characters to the main plot. Hurray! Also, it might be interesting to read this chapter alongside chapter 2 of Twisted :3 For the reviewer who asked why Elfe hasn't been called out yet, it's because none of the characters who knew about it have been in contact yet or would have cared about it: Rufus, Reno, Rude, President Shinra, Elfe herself, Cloud, Zack, Sephiroth and Genesis.
Chapter Seven:
Initial Contact
Sephiroth moved through the building like a panther. Zack had always said that he moved that way, and he had never doubted his friend. He frowned.
Well not until Zack had argued against Mother…
It was cool in the Shinra Building. He had never found it to be especially warm, but now it felt colder than ever. He supposed that Cloud would have liked this climate, would have liked the slight cool as opposed to the oppressive heat of the slums and surrounding desert.
Cloud who had betrayed him in the end.
"An intruder! Seize him!" It sounded like Zack's voice but it wasn't him. Sephiroth knew it couldn't be him. The soldier didn't quite catch him unaware. He would never be unaware again now that Mother was looking after him.
Protecting him from the hurt he had suffered at the hands of these mere humans.
He despatched the soldier with a flick of his blade to just the right spot before he carried on moving through the building. He didn't need a team, didn't need reinforcements, not to do Jenova's work. Humans were pathetic creatures, snivelling and bleeding, needing rest and he did not need it. He did not need humans.
They only hurt and scheme and seek profit.
He carried on moving.
He came to the cells, destroying the guard there by turning his head around on his neck before he even raise a cry in alarm. Sephiroth looked around and noticed that all the cells were full. He began to stalk through the corridor silently. He could hear quiet murmurs and cut off cries coming from a cell at the far end of the corridor. There were humans here. Humans he could kill. He paused at the grimy window. He glanced inside.
No! You must not look! You must leave now!
Cloud was there.
Cloud was alive and breathing.
Cloud was dreaming and tears ran down his cheeks.
Cloud was…
Cloud…
You will not! You must not!
Sephiroth opened the door to the cell. The careless security of Shinra that they had not changed the security override in so many years.
His grip on Masamune tightened as he stepped inside. Cloud did not move, did not stir from his bed apart from in dream.
For a time Sephiroth stood, watching the boy who had… who he had…
He is nothing! He is a betrayer! A human! Leave! Depart! Your mission is to free Jenova!
He stepped forward, his gloved hand reaching out tentatively. Cloud looked so different. There were muscles where before there had been leanness. There were new scars, though they still looked old and faded. His hair was slightly longer, slightly spikier, less clean than Sephiroth remembered it.
His gloved hand rested on Cloud's cheek and he could feel heat, unnatural heat, coming through his glove. The heat of a SOLDIER.
He let his hand move down, hovering on the scarred cheek of his beloved-
TRAITOR! BETRAYER!
-before moving to his neck. He wished to remove his gloves, but he that would require going even further against Jenova's will. But Cloud… Cloud could… if he returned Cloud to the Lifestream, then perhaps Jenova would… perhaps she could…?
Blue eyes flew open and Sephiroth stared into their glowing azure. SOLDIER eyes. Eyes that his Cloud had never possessed. Eyes that had no place in that skull.
IMPOSTER! BETRAYER! TRAITOR! HUMAN!
Sephiroth left the room in a swirl of black before Cloud even opened his mouth. That was not his Cloud. It was a trick that someone had played on him. His Cloud… His Cloud had died at Nibelheim. Died the traitor he was.
As he made his way through the building the Shinra scum's blood sprayed down on him like rain and the stickiness of it was almost sweet compared to the sick feeling that racked his body. He licked his lips, tasting the sweet tangy flavour he associated with victory and turned to President Shinra, glowing eyes narrowing as he plunged his blade into the man's fleshy body.
Cloud's heart hammered in his chest. Had that been? Could that have been? It seemed like the remnant of a nightmare. Something from the time before. No. It could not have been Sephiroth. There was no way that he was here, not now.
But his door was still unlocked.
Cloud got to his feet, peering into the corridor. He saw the dead guard and swallowed, shaken to the core. Jenova was here, and now Sephiroth. That was no coincidence.
Cloud considered going alone, going to take on the destroyer of his town, but he knew he wouldn't have the strength to take on Sephiroth alone. Not again. He snagged the key card, trying not to look at the way the man's head was on backwards, and dashed back down the corridor.
"Everyone, wake up! We have a problem!" Cloud shouted. He heard the sounds of everyone stirring to wakefulness and began to unlock their doors. He left Aerith's until last, standing in the doorway of her cell and blocking her view.
"Something's wrong. We need to get out of here. Right now," Cloud told her. "There's a dead guy out here though. So don't be alarmed," he said. Aerith nodded. When she saw the body she breathed in sharply and closed her eyes, looking away quickly.
Cloud did a quick headcount. Barret, the creature called Red XIII, Tifa, Kunsel, Elfé and Aerith, all present, all unhurt.
"Cloud… did you do this?" Tifa asked, crouching beside the fallen guard and looking at him with critical eyes. Cloud let out a breath.
"No. He was like that when I woke up. Things are… going to sound insane. I'm not too sure what happened myself but… I think we need to leave. Now," he said. Tifa got to her feet, glancing at Cloud for a moment before letting her eyes slide away.
I was right. She can't look at me. I've done something to disgust her.
"We can thank whoever killed the guard for us later. We still have to get out of here undetected," Elfé said. Cloud swallowed, not sure if he could hold back who he thought it was any longer.
"Let's get out of here."
Reno sat in the helicopter tapping his feet against the floor and fiddling with his phone. He knew he was pissing Elena off, but the other wasn't about to say anything to her. He'd done what needed to be done and, well, the condemnation of a few of the higher ups was a price to pay. He'd done worse. He'd… almost done worse.
"Thank you for waiting. I hear that Tseng-"
Reno tensed when he heard Rufus' voice. The other paused in what he was saying as he sat in the back of the helicopter and buckled up.
"How long will this journey take?" Rufus asked and Reno clenched his fist in an effort to keep his voice steady.
"About fifteen or twenty minutes, boss," he replied, proud of how even his voice sounded. Rufus made a noise of approval.
"Good. I wonder which will be the headline in the press? The Sector 7 disaster or President Shinra's death and my succession. I must admit, I didn't think it would be this way," Rufus continued to talk. Reno listened to every drawled syllable, not wanting to admit how much he had missed Rufus' voice.
"Take her up Reno," Elena said after performing the last safety checks. Reno nodded and let the helicopter blades start.
"From now on, the Turks answer only to me," Rufus said, before the blades drowned out any other talk below shouting.
Reno couldn't help the shiver that went down his spine at that thought.
"This whole place is a graveyard," Kunsel said, eying the blood splashed liberally up the walls. "This is weirdly flashy though. To have done all this it would take an army…"
Cloud agreed, but he said nothing. He had been steadily trying to lead them out and away but no one was listening to him. Instead they'd ended up back at Hojo's lab, staring at the mess of the tank that had housed Jenova and the splatterhouse nature of the assassination of Hojo's lab assistant.
"We should-"
"-leave. Yeah we get it Strife. But I want to know what happened here," Kunsel said, kneeling down to dab at the blood to check it's freshness.
"You would put lives in danger over curiosity?!" Cloud felt his nerves beginning to fray. He looked at the others, hoping they would back him up.
"I wish to know what became of Hojo. If he is not quite dead, I should quite like to finish him," Red XIII said, sniffing the air. "I cannot scent him in the lab."
Cloud growled in frustration and looked to Elfé hoping that she might be a voice of reason.
"Do you know something, Strife?" she asked. Cloud shook his head. He couldn't say it out loud. If he did, the whole story would come out. Before his eyes, Nibelheim… flames.
"I don't want to be recaptured, but I do want to know what did this," Aerith said, her voice shaking slightly. "The blood leads up…"
"To the President's office."
The 69th Floor was silent and it made Cloud's heart freeze in his chest. He saw them all walk towards the desk and followed, not wishing to see what he knew must be there. Sure enough, the President was dead, slumped over his desk, his dead unseeing eyes staring at the computer screens before him.
But it was the instrument of his death that made Cloud stop, his breath coming short.
It had not been a hallucination.
Sephiroth!
you'vemilkmoustachei'vegotplentyofcouragegeneralyo ushouldn'tdoubtmesomuchit'sabigquestion'why'whydidthewutaiwarhappenwhywon'ttheterroristsgiveup whyarepeopledriventodothingsthatappearevilyou'llne verknowzackyouaren'tangealyouaren'tgenesistheymigh tbesufferinggreaterpainthanyoucouldeverknowforally ouknowhismothermighthavedeservediwanttostopthistheterrorismachievesnothingyoucan'tevenshootwithsuchminordistr actionsstrifei'mjustthinkingabouteverythingupuntilnowit'sbeenalongjourneytogethereandwellthere'ssomuchm orelefttodon-notlikethatimeaniwanttomoveinb-butiwa ntit'sit'simportanttohavethatspacedoyouhaveanyidea whatkindofcarnagethatkindofbombwillcreatesephIcan'tdothisi'llbeoutsideareyoureallyusingpsychologyonmethenibelheimerswouldneveracceptaShinrasoldieri ntheirvillageeveragainaftertheyabandonedthemi'mher togetrevengewhatwasinthatwineelféstillalivestrifesorrysirbuti'mnotsittingoutonthisoneiatleastknowso methingaboutdragonbehaviourinthemountainssephirothwouldneverhurtmewhylivinglegacy Cloud, why do you have Zack's sword?
Cloud clutched his head as his ears started to ring. Images and snatches of conversations he didn't remember echoing through his head. Faces, but not as he remembered them, touches but gentler than he could have ever imagined, laughter but deeper than he'd ever known. He felt tears come to his eyes.
What was he seeing? What was all this? He didn't… He couldn't…!
And like that it was gone, leaving only a lingering sense of loss in its wake. Cloud felt the fear that he had worn like a shroud drop away from him. Whatever that was, he could ignore it. He could ignore it and keep on going. He had to. He had to for Tifa and Nibelheim and all those that Sephiroth had murdered.
"He's dead... The leader of Shinra, Inc. is dead…" Barret said staring at the scene in front of him.
"This sword… I've seen it before I'm sure of it…" Tifa said, taking a step forward. Cloud grabbed her arm to stop her from going any closer.
"It's Sephiroth's," he said, letting his hand drop away. Tifa's mouth formed a thin line but she didn't move closer.
"Masamune showing up here? I thought Sephiroth was dead?" Elfé asked, turning to Kunsel. Cloud watched the ex-SOLDIER's face as hope and wariness seemed to war with each other.
"Only Sephiroth can wield that sword," Kunsel confirmed. "It was never confirmed for sure what happened to him five years ago…"
Cloud knew he could answer that question but as he opened his mouth to do so, the chubby man from the board room appeared round the side of the desk and tried to make a break for it. Elfé and Barret were on him so fast that his legs were still trying to walk forward when they caught him.
"P-p-p-please don't kill me!" he begged. Cloud recognised him then. It was Palmer, though he'd certainly put weight on…
"Tell me what happened," Kunsel hissed in Palmer's face. Cloud wondered what new information he possibly hoped to glean from the man.
"Se-… Sephiroth came." Palmer looked like he'd wet himself and certainly smelled like he'd done something in his pants.
"Did you see him? Did you see Sephiroth?" Kunsel pressed. Palmer's piggy little eyes bulged and he nodded quickly.
"Yeah, I saw him! I saw him with my own two eyes! I heard his voice too! Something about not letting Shinra have the Promised Land and… and some traitor or imposter or something. It was very confused," Palmer said. Kunsel's eyes narrowed as he stared down at the man.
"Does that mean that… the Promised Land really exists?" Tifa breathed, her eyes brightening. "Does that mean that Sephiroth is going to save it from Shinra?"
"Sephiroth's mission is different," Cloud said, his voice sounding hollow. He had not expected his response to have the reaction that it did. Elfé and Kunsel both looked at him sharply and their moment's distraction allowed Palmer to wriggle out of their grasp and make a run for the door. Cloud watched him go. There was no point in chasing the man.
"There is a helicopter coming," Red XIII warned. Sure enough there came the sound of a helicopter in the distance.
"It's got to be Rufus," Elfé said, taking a few steps away from Kunsel towards the window. "He wouldn't wait for his father's corpse to grow cold before sitting at his desk."
"What kind of person is Rufus Shinra?" Tifa asked and Elfé smirked at her.
"Ruthless. So ruthless that he used to fund AVALANCHE to try to get them to take out his old man so he could take the company over," she said. Tifa's eyes widened and Barret looked uncomfortable.
"I heard that no one has ever seen him bleed or cry," Aerith chipped in. Kunsel let out a bark of laughter as the helicopter touched down.
"It's difficult to do either when you're the heir to the largest fortune in the world and you're surrounded by Turks all day," he replied. Cloud clenched his fists.
"Don't underestimate Rufus Shinra," he warned. Again everyone seemed to look at him and he wasn't sure why.
"We should go and meet the new ruler of the world," Kunsel suggested. "And maybe he can explain what the fuck is going on."