Forget planning,' he thought sarcastically to himself, 'let's just rush into danger headfirst!' After a moment, he stood and followed Zack, resigned. Cloud's last name was Strife, he was practically destined to be horribly unlucky, he thought wryly.
To say Sephiroth was surprised was an understatement. Of course he knew that there was another person traveling with his student and he had even thought the other voice sounded familiar. But Zachary Fair? No, he did not expect that. Neither fugitive had drawn their weapons, so Sephiroth kept his hand from reaching for his beloved sword's hilt. He was getting that itching feeling under his skin, like something bigger was going on and he had only scratched the surface. He didn't like the feeling.
Sephiroth's left arm twitched. A mild burning sensation was dancing across the skin under his sleeve. He ignored it, mako often did strange things when Soldiers experienced stress. Unbeknownst to him, a dark area of decaying skin was slowly, slowly spreading over his arm.
NEW MESSAGE
SUBJECT: Zachary Fair
FROM: Sephiroth
TO: Angeal
How much do you trust your student?
...MESSAGE SENT
Deep under Midgar, under the plate, in the ruins of a church in the slums, a girl prayed for the future. Her eyes were wet with unshed tears, saddened by the loss of someone she had yet to meet. The world had been nearly broken in those days and she still felt it in her very bones, even though those days were a long time away.
But even in all the pain and loss, there had been hope. There had been happiness and bravery and selfless love. It was like her church, she thought. The soil was dead and nutrients gone, but flowers grew there nonetheless. Beautiful things could be found, even in the most desolate of circumstances. Gaia was still worth saving.
Cloud stepped forward, unconsciously shielding Zack, "Why are you following us?" he demanded, as if it weren't obvious. Sephiroth looked grim, but not particularly angry or unstable. It was a good sign, but still not solid proof that Sephiroth was safe.
"You're both considered deserters of Shinra. You, Strife, are also a suspect in the bombing of the Nibelheim reactor. I am your mentor, did it not occur to you that I would try to find you before the Turks do?" Sephiroth replied.
Cloud snorted, 'It's a little late for that,' he thought to himself. Outwardly, he just shrugged. Honestly, he'd considered Sephiroth bothering to come after him as a distinct, albeit highly unlikely, risk. He didn't intend to volunteer any such information however.
"Why did you leave Shinra?" Sephiroth asked after a moment.
"I had to save the world," Cloud replied. It was a true statement, although Cloud knew it wasn't even remotely close to what Sephiroth was asking.
"What do you mean?" Sephiroth demanded.
"There was a... threat to Gaia. I was... chosen to deal with it," Cloud said slowly, as if testing the words as he said them.
"By Shinra?" Cloud merely shook his head in reply. No, certainly not Shinra.
"Avalanche?" Sephiroth tried again. Cloud frowned, then shook his head again. He didn't know the Avalanche of this time, but from the stories that aired on the news, their policies were nothing like the Avalanche of Cloud's time.
Sephiroth was frowning openly now, most likely growing frustrated with Cloud's lack of information. He asked, "What was the threat?"
Cloud paused at that. He didn't have to think very hard to know that Sephiroth still considered Jenova his mother at that point. How to explain Jenova without actually saying her name? "...A disease," he said at last, "A disease that mutates Soldier cells and kills civilians. It can drive people to madness and delusion." To be fair, as far as Cloud remembered, Sephiroth and Cloud himself were the only people Jenova had driven to madness, but the point was still valid.
"How... how did you 'deal' with a disease that dangerous? Were you not affected?" Sephiroth questioned suspiciously.
"I destroyed the source and... well, I'm not as immune as I once thought, but I've recovered," Cloud explained. A twinge of pain danced up his arm, as it always did when he was around a high concentration of Jenova. The geostigma was long gone, but the damage, well.
"Destroyed the...? Nibelheim. The disease was in Nibelheim," Sephiroth realized.
Cloud nodded. It wasn't his best plan– admitting to destroying a reactor– but he had promised to give Sephiroth a chance.
"Can you prove any of this?" Sephiroth asked.
Cloud had to think for a moment. No, he couldn't exactly 'prove' anything. The proof had gone up in smoke with the research notes in the manor's basement. That had rather been the point. Cloud couldn't risk Sephiroth finding those notes, even now that Jenova was gone.
"Yes." Cloud whipped his head around to stare at Zack, who had spoken for the first time, "I can," he said quietly.
"When I was younger, there was a man I admired. He was a true hero; brave and honorable. He was a Soldier. I wanted to be just like him. He was like a father and brother to me.
"But... As you know, the Soldier program was an experiment, at first. Parts of it weren't tested thoroughly. My men- ...the man I admired, he got sick. His body started changing; mutating, and... no one could do anything. Ashamed of his mutations, he left Shinra. He was disgraced, called a deserter, a traitor.
"He died, believing himself devoid of the honor he had been so proud of. And Shinra– Shinra did nothing. They continued the experiments, allowed the disease to survive. That's why... I'll do whatever it takes to make sure his name is remembered with respect."
Sephiroth had been around Hojo and his experiments long enough to know what insanity did to a person. It tore at a person's mind. It wore them down, until they just died of it. The two deserters looked better than he had seen them last. More sane, if anything. They showed none of the signs of insanity that Sephiroth was used to. Cloud was apparently even protecting Zachary. Considering that, to Sephiroth's knowledge, Cloud had absolutely no friends, it was certainly a good sign to see him caring for another person's well-being.
Of course, that did nothing to simplify the situation in Sephiroth's eyes. From where he was standing, there were too many variables and he just couldn't add them together.
If what Zachary and Cloud were telling him was true, was Shinra wrong? Was he wrong? He had never quite been able to convince himself that Shinra was the ultimate good. Some days, he found it hard to believe they were 'good' at all. The story though, well, it was something else. It sounded like Shinra had known about the disease, but had chosen to do nothing. That was... well, if he was honest, it wouldn't have been altogether unbelievable.
Sephiroth noticed, to some surprise, that he was developing a headache. That was unusual, to say the least. The only headaches he had recently were from Mako treatments. If any situation was worthy of a headache though, it would probably be this one.
Suddenly, almost between one blink and the next, Sephiroth was on his knees. His head was reeling and everything was blurry, like a Mako fever, but ten times worse. His arm felt like it was on fire and he tore at the cloth covering it. The cloth came away in his hand, mottled with a dark fluid. Parts of his arm almost looked as if they were rotting and bruised at the same time. He stared down with hazy, wide eyes. In all his life, he couldn't ever remember being so terrified.
The spots weren't large, but he was convinced he could see them growing before his eyes. He couldn't stop the panic that slammed through his system, sending his heart racing and breath rasping. With the sudden rush of blood to his brain, black clouded his vision and Sephiroth lost consciousness.
Cloud was running before Sephiroth hit the ground. Zack, he noticed, was somewhere behind him; advancing, but more cautiously. Cloud wasn't thinking about caution anymore though. He knew geostigma when he saw it and it was something he never wanted to see again. Not on Sephiroth, not now, not when everything was looking up.
NEW MESSAGE
SUBJECT: RE: Zachary Fair
FROM: Angeal
TO: Sephiroth
Where are you? We need you here. One of the bombing suspects escaped and Zack is missing.
...I trust him with my life, of course. Do you know where he is? I'm worried about him.
...MESSAGE SENT
A/N: I had planned on posting this last night, but I sort of... forgot. A friend recommended a new game and I might have stayed up really late playing it... Anyway, if we go by my three week plan, this is actually on time (but if we don't, well). I'm guessing we're still pretty far from the end, but it's hard for me to tell. Honestly, this chapter probably surprised me more than it surprised you...