Chapter 14; Nanaki
When he woke up, Nanaki woke up to a world full of foreign scents. Nothing was at it should be.
He wandered alone for a while, shying away from the people crossing his path as even they smelled wrong, but eventually he started to make sense out of things.
Nanaki had always favoured logic over rash actions based on instinct, unlike his father, and once he had learned enough about this place, which some revealed they called the Promised Land, he set out to find the others.
He missed his mother and his pack, having grown used to their presence in the Lifestream, but Nanaki was curious to meet his father again.
It didn't take too long before he found Yuffie and Biggs. The two seemed grateful for finally seeing a familiar face and for the information he could give them.
The young ninja was all spitfire ready to take on the Cetra and save the world once again. The other one seemed more unsettled by the information, but Nanaki couldn't blame him.
The original crew of AVALANCE were the first to pay the ultimate price for fighting for the planet.
After that they tracked down a few others, Cloud, Jessie, Vincent, Barret and Aeris, before they dared to break in where they heard the Cetra had Rufus imprisoned.
They were all different here, friends and enemies alike, but Rufus was the one who made the fur stand along Nanaki's back.
He had no scent.
Yes, they were all different, smelled different, but Rufus was like a ghost.
He was there, but at the same time he wasn't.
Once they had Rufus back, everything was on a fast-track. The ShinRa heir knew exactly where they needed to go to find the others and where they should create their base.
There was so much Rufus knew, too much, and yet...
They were all gathered, strong, and no one saw the betrayal coming.
Nanaki didn't want to believe Yuffie was capable of what she did, but he saw it with his own eye.
With everything Rufus could see, why hadn't he foreseen this?
Or had he and done nothing?
Yes, Nanaki had always preferred to rely on logic rather than instinct, it was the only logical way to do anything, but he couldn't deny the gut-feeling that there was something wrong with Rufus.
Something very, VERY wrong.
"You don't give up, do you, girl?" Chaos' voice slithered through the darkness while the red eyes glowed with malice.
Dawn shrugged, sitting on the floor just out of reach from the demon hiding inside her father. "What can I say? I'm stubborn."
"Like your mother," Chaos sneered with contempt, glancing over towards the doorway.
"So they tell me." Dawn replied.
A brief silence followed before Chaos returned its attention back to the young woman. "What do you want? Why do you keep coming back here?"
Finally the demon appeared to be done playing. Dawn had actually started to doubt her own plan, but her patience had paid off.
She sat up straight, ignoring the stiffness in her back from sitting on the floor for so long, and put all her focus on the prisoner. "I want you to talk to me."
Chaos snorted a condescending laugh. "And just what have I been doing all this time?"
"No, I mean I want you to really talk to me."
For a moment, it seemed like the demon was gathering strength to start another round of taunts, but then she saw her father's shoulders slump slightly and Chaos leaned its head back against the wall with a weary sigh. "About what?"
"What do you want?"
At the question, Chaos' eyes flared up again and it shot forward to strain against the chains once more. "I want to be FREE! I want out of this jail made of flesh! I want to breathe, fly and see with my own form!" The chains trembled and squeaked as the demon strained with all its might. "And I want to kill every single last one of you!"
Dawn clenched her jaw, using everything in her to keep from shying away from the burning hatred. "Why? Why do you want to kill us?"
Slumping back, Chaos turned its head away with a disgusted huff. "The last time I told my story, I ended up captured in your miserable father. That two-eyed, lying scientist-woman stuck me in here."
"Lucretia?" Dawn didn't need Chaos to answer, she could see the tension at the mentioning of the mere name. "What did you tell her?"
This time the silence lasted so long that she thought the demon wouldn't answer her, but then it slowly turned back to face her. "This planet belonged to me and my kind once. Did you know that?"
Dawn shook her head, hardly daring to breathe.
"Before humans, before the Cetra, when this planet first came to be, me and my kind were the masters of this place. Soaring above the other little creatures scurrying around on the ground." The demon gave a faint smile that quickly turned sour. "Then those Cetra arrived. They discovered our lifeblood, the LifeStream they named it, was something they could manipulate. Once they were comfortable on our planet, they would capture my kind and take us apart, piece by piece, to create something new." Chaos leaned slightly forward again. "I heard their screams while the Cetra picked off their arms... wings... heads... and 'how' they wallowed in their own creations. They were like gods." The demon made Vincent's face cold and bitter. "And once Jenova arrived... it became an all out war. With my kind as ammunition. They fought, we lost. And in the end... me and Omega are the only ones left."
Dawn frowned, wondering why Lucrecia hadn't mentioned anything of this before, but stored it away for later use. "Then... why blame us? If the Cetra did this, why do you want to kill us?"
"Do I need a reason?" Chaos snarled. "The Cetra didn't. And you humans were always their favorites."
Dawn had to turn her gaze away, feeling exhausted by the hatred radiating towards her from the demon. So much hate. No wonder the demon had been driven insane over the centuries with that kind of hate burning inside it.
And shouldn't it worry her that she could understand that hate, if indeed the tale was true?
"What do you think you're doing?" Shera squeaked, waving her hands at Rufus. "Have you lost your mind for good this time?"
Rufus didn't take his eyes off the man he was pointing the shotgun towards. "I was worried it might lose it if I didn't find the traitor soon." He smirked. "But at least I caught myself a cuckoo."
Shera sputtered, gazing from one man to the other. She knew Rufus was unstable, dangerous even, but there was something about the smile on Cloud's face that made her skin crawl.
"What is going on?" She hissed, not caring which one answered.
The backdoor opened and Cid stepped inside. "Got him?"
"Yeah," Rufus answered, still not taking his eyes off Cloud.
Cid took up position by blocking the backdoor and crossed his arms. "Good." He nodded briefly at Shera. "Hey, babe."
Clearly they had all gone insane, Shera decided.
Rufus took a step forward, nudging the barrel of the shotgun against Cloud's forhead. "Now get that face off before I remove it permanently."
Shera was about to scream, but the sound died in her throat as she saw Cloud's face turn blurry and slowly morph into someone else.
Blonde hair turned black, but mako-blue eyes remained the same as the man became someone who could be Cloud's brother.
"I gotta ask," the man said, still grinning, "how did you know?"
"I know a lot of things," Rufus answered curtly.
"So I hear," the man chuckled.
Cid shook his head with a sigh. "Zack, man, teaming up with those lowlifes? Bad decision."
Zack shrugged, but didn't say anything else, no matter what they asked him.
Eventually Cid tied Zack's hands behind his back and guided him towards where he would become Vincent Valentine's neighbour.
They were half-way there when a voice called out.
"Zack?"
It was the first time any kind of true emotion appeared on the dark haired man's face as Zack flinched before turning to face the one who had called out.
Aeris made her way towards them with a look of disbelief, though it was nothing compared to the shock on Sephiroth's face as he followed her over.
"Zack, what are... Why...?" Aeris couldn't even finish her sentence, halting to stand in front of the prisoner.
Forcing a smile, Zack nodded a greeting. "Aeris." He could barely look at the silverhaired man. "Sephiroth."
"Why are you working for them, Zack?" Aeris asked, reaching out to place her hands on his arm in desperation, but lowered them when he jerked away. "Zack..."
"It's good to see you again, Aeris," Zack said, his voice dripping with poison. He cast another quick glance at Sephiroth before returning his attention back to the flower girl. "I see you've moved on as well." A light shrug. "Makes sense, I guess. Didn't take you too long before you traded me for Cloud, but why settle for a soldier when you could have a general?"
Aeris flinched as if he'd struck her physically, not just with his words. "Zack... I didn't..."
Sephiroth took a step forward and shook his head. "You don't talk to her like that, Zack. Ever." A clear warning. "Talk to her like that again and I will end you."
Placing a calming hand on his arm, Aeris swallowed hard. "Sephiroth, it's okay."
It was not, Cid realized, judging by the ashen complexion on her face or the burning fury in Sephiroth's eyes, so he cleared his throat and pushed at Zack to make him walk again. "Sorry. Reunion will have to wait. Got orders to bring him to his new apartment."
The pilot was suddenly worried that catching the chameleon might cause more problems than what it would solve...
"Did you hear?" Jessie asked, pausing in the doorway to watch Cloud shove some final items into his backpack. "They caught him."
"I heard." Cloud didn't pause in his movements, merely straightened the backpack and closed it.
Jessie hesitated, but finally had to ask. "Are you going to see him?"
"No." The blonde simply walked over and hoisted up the Buster Sword.
Unable to watch his indifference, Jessie walked over and made him look at her. "Why not?"
Cloud seemed to realize she was not going to let it go before she got her answers. He squared his shoulders and met her gaze calmly. "Because I have nothing to say to him."
"He was your best friend once."
A bitter smile flickered across Cloud's face. "No." He breathed a humorless laugh. "I was just someone he took pity on."
Jessie had to restrain herself to keep from following an absurd urge to slap the apathy out of him. "That's not true, and you know it, Cloud."
He merely shrugged and adjusted the sword. "Are you done packing? We leave within one hour, you know. And I want to check up on the boys before we hit the road."
Sighing, Jessie crossed her arms and studied the floor. "Yeah, I'm ready."
This place had left its mark on all of them, but maybe Cloud most of all. It was hard to believe he was the same man she'd known back in Midgar. Sure, there were times when she could see glimpses of the old Cloud, but mostly he was this... distant, uncaring soldier.
Jessie knew better than most that there was always a limit as to how much a person could handle before they would break, but she also knew that there were ways of gluing oneself back together again if you allowed others to help you.
Cloud kept everyone at a distance, even her, after Yuffie betrayed them, costing him the loss of his arm, and then they learned that Zack was also working for the enemy...
"Raito came to me and asked if he could help find the traitor," Cloud said. "I don't want him involved in this. Him or his brother."
Jessie wondered if he'd given up on protecting his fellow-fighters and if she should be relieved he still cared about his own family at least...
"Knowing that boy, he might try something while we're gone," Cloud continued. "I want to knock that idea out of his head before we leave."
"Not sure if that is possible," Jessie retorted, somewhere between resigned and faintly amused. "He is your son, after all."
That earned her something of a smile from Cloud at least, not something she saw too often these days, and maybe just a hint of pride in his eyes.
"Yeah, well, he better learn to do as his father commands or he's grounded for the rest of this war," the blonde mumbled.
He swirled the sword once before attaching it to the strap on his back. "We'd better hurry." The backpack was tossed over to Jessie. "One hour. Sephiroth never did approve of anyone being late."
Jessie still couldn't get used to the fact that the so-called hero of Wutai was on their team now. Aeris had tried to explain how he hadn't been aware of his actions when Joy and the others had summoned him to fight them, but it was hard to forget such a horrible sight. Seeing Sephiroth's rage unleashed was every bit as frightening as Chaos.
Her only consolation was that with Zack captured and them bringing Sephiroth with them, at least their base was a lot safer than it was before.