A SOLDIER's Weapon

By Oniko

Chapter 21

… … …

"I did that?" Sephiroth asked, stunned by Yuffie's revelations. She nodded. He wanted to say that 'no, he wouldn't'. If he was given that order today, he wouldn't. If a war was fought he would fight it. But there were lines. He took a shake breath. But if he had been given those orders, six months ago, a year ago? Before Cloud's training? Sephiroth wondered, if he'd had even more years with only ShinRa's corporate and military culture, would his other self had even thought of another way. "How can you stand to be around me?"

"Because I am awesome at compartmentalization," Yuffie said, flashing him a huge grin and a thumbs up. "It helps that you're not really you. I mean, sometimes you totally act like you. Because you are you, and that's creepy. But for the most part you're just you, and that's okay."

Sephiroth blinked and tried to run through that tangle of words with no luck. He shook his head and tried another tack. "Is that why you decided to come here? The future was so terrible?"

"Not, really," Yuffie said with a shrug. She rolled up to lean on one arm. Sephiroth half wished he could tie her to a chair, just to hold her still for a moment. "Sure, we had some near disasters, but they had all been averted and people were working past it. Rebuilding, ya' know?" She tilted her head to one side as she thought carefully about the question. "Things were quieting down, then some guys from WolfHaven came by. They told us that they needed Cloud's help tracking down a thief who stole information and was screwing around with the order of events."

"Corneo?" Sephiroth asked.

"Uh-huh." Yuffie nodded. "As payment for Cloud helping them get their thief under control, Cloud would get to… help make things better."

He hoped that wasn't a euphemism for 'kill Sephiroth.' "I thought you said the future wasn't bad?"

"It wasn't, but it wasn't great either," Yuffie said quickly. "We lost some important people along the way. And I know that, regardless of what he might say, Cloud has a lot of regrets."

Sephiroth nodded. Much of what she said filled in holes and confirmed things that he suspected. If Sephiroth caused the Meteorfall that killed their friend—friends, how many had been lost?—killing him before the event occurred was a sound plan. Though he recognized the tactical value in the plan, part of him still cried out that it wasn't fair he hadn't done anything yet.

"But he had a lot to stay for, too." Yuffie pointed at one of the pictures. Sephiroth was surprised to see that it was a photo of Cloud. He looked happier than Sephiroth had ever seen him. Even though he wasn't smiling, there was a light in Cloud's eyes that had nothing to do with Mako. Next to him were two people smiling broadly. "That's Tifa and Denzel."

The woman with long dark hair stood next to Cloud in the picture. Though she didn't touch him, the way her body was turned towards him, open and unprotected as her head was turned away, focused on the camera, spoke volumes about their relationship. Between them stood a boy a little older then Rufus with dark blond hair and a possessive hold of Cloud's arm. Sephiroth felt like the air had been pulled from his lungs. Cloud had a family.

"How-" how was it possible? Sephiroth bit back that particular question.

"Denzel was a foundling from after Meteorfall. Kid lost his real parents and latched on to Cloud, and Tifa," Yuffie explained without him needing to articulate the question. "When he heard about the WolfHaven Project he wanted to go back, too. Cloud put his foot down. Everyone knew that the first chance that kid got, he'd run away to join SOLDIER like Cloud. He'd already tried to join the WRO, but Reeve nixed that idea."

Sephiroth took another look at the picture. "He's what twelve? That's old enough."

"Now, it is. Reeve raised the age limit to join the WRO to sixteen and a lot of companies and governments followed suit," Yuffie said. "Anyways, the whole situation was ripping Cloud up real bad. Then Tifa put her foot down, told him to go, and that she would stay and look after Denzel."

"What was she to Cloud?" Sephiroth asked, already half afraid of the answer.

"Oh, those two," Yuffie let out another sigh. "I only wish I had someone like that. Cloud's loved her forever. When they got together, it was inevitable. They're both from Nibelheim, you know. She was the one who found him and helped put his memories back together after Hojo scrambled his brain. No one else understands Cloud like she does. Which is probably just as well, I don't think anyone else would put up with his moody ass. I sure wouldn't."

I would. Sephiroth thought. He had been. Sephiroth stared at the picture through narrow eyes. "I thought-"

"What?" Yuffie prodded when he didn't complete the question. Sephiroth hesitated a moment before continuing.

"I thought he was gay." Yuffie stared at him incredulously before bursting into laughter.

"Cloud? You're kidding right? He is like, the straightest guy I know. I mean sure we teased him about… and Aerith could talk anybody into-" Yuffie wiped at her cheeks, then paused as her eyes widening with a look of dawning horror and pity. "You like him? Like, like- like him?"

Sephiroth took a step back, a defensive retreat that turned into a stumbling route as he reached for the door. He couldn't breathe, and Cloud really didn't- One hand rose to press against his chest, half expecting to find that his had been left gutted and bleeding and somehow hadn't noticed.

"Oh, Leviathan's tears, I'm sorry. I-" Yuffie said. He never noticed her standing or reaching for him. Sephiroth knocked away her hand with a snarl.

He opened the door with a sharp jerk and left, passing through the suite and opulent halls of the hotel barely registered as Sephiroth left the building. He was on the bike and two thirds of the way to the Sector Eight Gate and the open wastes before his brain caught up to what his instincts already knew. The simulations in the training room wouldn't be enough to wear down the tangle of emotions eating at him.

Once out in the open it didn't take long for a pack of Devil Rides to find him and box him in. Sephiroth let he lip curl into a silent snarl as he sent his bike careening into the monster to his left. He could feel the strange organic metal twist and crumple under his fingers as he crushed it. The thing howled before a sharp blow slammed it to the ground, killing it. The sword was in his hands before the monster had even skidded to a halt on the barren ground.

It was cathartic to focus all the pain and confusion and humiliation into pure action. No thinking, no feeling, just movement and the crack of bone and the spatter of blood. Unlike the sahagin in the sewers, when faced with a greater predator the creatures of the wastelands banded together to bring it down. Sephiroth soon found himself facing greater enemies than rides and fangs. Sweepers and other monstrosities of technology and biology that had never been catalogued in the area fell under Sephiroth's sword.

Even after the metal in his hands weakened and shattered, Sephiroth kept fighting. He was lost in the peace of the eye of the storm. The sound of death and battle was accompanied by the musical sound of the seven feather charm. Still tied to Ashura's hilt the charm worked itself free of his boot and chimed merrily with every step.

How long he was out there Sephiroth had no idea. He finally wore himself out and collapsed alone at the top of one of the ridges that overlooked the wastes and the distant Midgar. Absently his hand pressed over his chest again.

He no longer felt like he'd been dealt a mortal wound, but the edges were still raw. He still didn't want to think of what all it had meant, if Cloud never really cared. If everything were the means to some particular end, Sephiroth almost wished that Cloud had killed him back in the Train Graveyard. It would have been kinder.

Painful revelations aside, Sephiroth mind still kept working, piecing together a comment here and there to form a whole that was not at all expected. An old friend, she'd said, as had Zack, scratched and bleeding, in Nibelheim. Nibelheim that was strangely familiar. Those golden claws would certainly be able to do some significant damage if the man ever put his mind to it. Sephiroth fished out his PHS and called Veld. After a few moments the voicemail picked up his call.

"I may have found your missing Turk," Sephiroth said and hung up. That should get Veld's attention. He snapped the PHS shut with a sharp click and bent down to tuck the small charm back into his boot. Some of the silver paint had chipped off to show the dull tin underneath. It was an apt metaphor for how he felt at the moment. The shine had worn off, the truth underneath was a little grimmer but proved that he was a little stronger if nothing else.

Now, if only he could remember what happened to the damn bike.

… … …

Sephiroth had debated several scenarios of presenting the cure to Angeal and Genesis. In the end, by the time he got back to the building he was too tired play around with theatrics. When he saw them in the rec room on their barracks floor he simply dropped the small syringe in a surprised Angeal's hand and walked away.

When he got to his bunk, Sephiroth was surprised to find that, yes, he could still manage to muss up a measure of anger. His computer was blinking with a promotion notice to SOLDIER First Class from Heidegger. Not that he cared anymore. It couldn't give him what he wanted.

It probably never could have.

Sephiroth stripped out of his uniform and crawled into bed. He wished idly that he could wake up and find that the past day had been some surreal nightmare.

His PHS's ringing awoke Sephiroth out of a sound sleep. The vague sense of passing time and a lingering stiffness in his limbs before he even checked the clock let him know that he had been asleep for longer than usual. He could probably still sleep the rest of the day away, but it was already past noon. He eventually fumbled the PHS open and gave a slurred greeting.

"Where," the voice on the other end of the line demanded.

"One condition," Sephiroth said. He could practically hear Veld grinding his teeth on the other end of the line. "I come with you."

"This isn't SOLDIER business," Veld said coldly. Sephiroth smiled. It wasn't a flat out no, and that was practically a yes.

"I have it on good authority that Vincent Valentine will not be inclined to co-operate unless I am with you." Okay, so that may have been stretching it a bit, but Veld was his best bet at getting back out to Nibelheim again. If he tried to wait for something to come up on the mission boards, who knows how long he would be waiting. Getting these answers was becoming an end to itself, and right now it was the only thing Sephiroth had left. He was not going to be left waiting when he knew that the information he was looking for was just out of his reach. Nibelheim was where he had the 'psychotic break,' the answers would be there. He would find out what they were keeping from him. And once he had it, he was going to shove it in Cloud's face.

"Fine," Veld said. Lost in thought, Sephiroth almost missed the other man's capitulation.

"Nibelheim." There was a long silence. Sephiroth knew that Veld was also considering how close they must have been on that last mission of his. "When will we be leaving?"

"How soon can you be at the tarmac?"

"Give me twenty minutes," Sephiroth said.

"Pad 312," Veld said and disconnected. Sephiroth mentally cursed himself for not giving himself more time. He could really use another shower, blood and grease had matted in his hair and dried sweat left grit and salt abrading his skin under his clothes.

He skipped the ladder and simply rolled out of bed to land lightly on the floor. The uniforms in his locker had already been changed to the black of First Class. Sephiroth hesitated a moment, but he had nothing else clean, and if he didn't wear the new uniform people would wonder why. No doubt his promotion had already been listed in the company notices. So, he dressed quickly and finger-combed his hair into a rough plait. A splash of water on his face and he almost looked human again instead of some rampaging monster.

Grabbing a new sword from supply lockers on the SOLDIER floor almost made him late, but Veld was waiting for him in a small, sleek helicopter. Sephiroth tried not to wince at the thought of the long flight in the noise and the cramped space. Veld must want to get there as soon as possible if he was opting for a helicopter instead of a slower airship. Sephiroth didn't want to think about the strings and the rank Veld would have had to pull to arrange this, complete with in-air refueling as there were no landing bases, no land, between the two continents for them to stop at.

Veld gave Sephiroth a raised eyebrow at his no doubt still disheveled look, but he didn't comment as Sephiroth climbed in and strapped down his sword and himself. The flight crew shut and sealed the door. They were in the air barely before Sephiroth had hit the seat. Veld made a point of placing the in-flight communication headset on. Sephiroth did the same.

"You look like shit," Veld said with little preamble.

"It's been a rough- day," Sephiroth said, it already felt like forever and he really didn't want to talk about it. Not to Veld. Reeve, maybe. Though Sephiroth cringed at the thought of even that.

Fortunately, Veld seemed willing to let that subject drop. "Tell me what you know."

"Cloud Strife's WolfHaven associate confirmed contact with Vincent Valentine," Sephiroth said, letting the impersonal language of a formal briefing build a wall between himself and his emotions. "It was implied that Valentine was involved with Hojo and the early SOLDIER program though no details were provided. Since he was reported dead Valentine has remained in a self-imposed isolation, and resisted attempts to draw him from Nibelheim."

"But you think you can persuade him?" Veld asked, his voice came across flat over the headset, but Sephiroth imagined that he was both curious and incredulous.

"I-," Sephiroth hesitated, trying to explain the certainty he felt into words, though even this leap of logic and faith was difficult for him to follow. "The associate claimed that the last time Valentine left Nibelheim was only due to my name being involved in the—project."

Veld must have picked up Sephiroth's hesitation, he gave Sephiroth a narrow eyed and thoughtful look. "What project?"

"I wasn't able to get that information," Sephiroth said quickly. There was no way he was going to get into time travel and possible futures without Reeve there to back up what he was saying with some sort of semi-plausible explanation. Veld didn't look like he believed Sephiroth, but the Turk seemed to be more accommodating then Sephiroth was expecting and let this one slide as well. It made Sephiroth wonder what Veld really knew. "Were you able to glean anything from the disk?"

"Nothing directly relating to Valentine," Veld said, turning his head to look out over the expanse of clouds that stretched out below them. "I was able to verify the presence of ShinRa facilities in Nibelheim in addition to the reactor, a large residential building with extensive underground excavation and development was constructed by the Science Department under Gast Faramis and expanded under Hojo."

Sephiroth nodded as he listened. Both Hojo and ShinRa seemed unreasonably fond of secrets within secrets and a hidden lab would be just up their alley.

"We will assess the mansion and grounds before moving on to the reactor," Veld said. "Once Valentine has been located the primary objective is to convince him to return to duty. The secondary objective is to determine Valentine's reason for abandoning duty and act accordingly. In ShinRa's best interests."

'In ShinRa's best interest' was practically the Turk's motto. The one guiding principal that directed everything they did, no matter how off the books or hidden from the light of day. The flat affectation in Veld's expression as he said it sent a chill down Sephiroth's spine. He hoped, for Valentine's sake, the man had a very good explanation.

With that Veld removed the headset and set back on its hook. The briefing was over. Sephiroth turned away to do the same. He wished that they had taken an airship. It would have let him catch up on some more sleep, impossible in the noise helicopter.

Little had changed since Sephiroth and the troopers had left Nibelheim a few days ago. If there were a few more children playing tag around the water tower it wasn't really noticeable. Sephiroth reflexively looked for the blond head of the younger Cloud, or any hint of Zack, but found nothing.

A few of the natives paused to watch them carefully at they walked through the town. The flight crew and helicopter had been left in an open area just outside of the town. Veld led him to the large sprawling building on the ridge that Sephiroth had noticed earlier. The place still managed to look dark and foreboding, even in the bright summer sun. They slipped easily between the gates and up to the main door. It was locked.

Sephiroth could feel the hum of a Barrier being activated as they tested the door. A cheaper Barrier lock would just protect the lock and could be easily foiled by going around it. The better systems when installed by someone who knew what they were doing threaded the protection throughout the entire building. Judging by the thrum of Mako and magic across Sephiroth senses, this was one of the better systems. Now he knew that they found something. ShinRa didn't put this sophisticated a Barrier lock on just anything.

Veld had come prepared though. He took out a keychain that consisted of a single key and a ring of Materia slots, each one a shard of a Destruct Materia that was paired with a Barrier Materia that ShinRa, and probably a few others, used commonly for Barrier locks. The commercial-grade Barrier-Destruct Materia were manufactured in pairs and the Barrier would only be unlocked with the matching Destruct shard. Veld painstakingly slid a shard from the mounting ring to the key and tested it against the lock. When nothing happened he moved to the next Materia shard.

"Wouldn't it be easier to carry a single weapons grade Destruct?" Sephiroth asked. The higher quality Materia would be able to blast through any Barrier or Ward.

"Only if you don't want to lock the door behind you," Veld said with a shake of his head. "They have a tendency to melt the wires and crack the weaker Barrier Materia."

"Hm," Sephiroth said softly. He leaned against one of the columns framing the porch, waiting for Veld to finish testing the lock, and studied the grounds surrounding the mansion. They may have once been a generous expanse of gardens and tended lawns, though it was difficult to tell anymore, beside the onions and mandragora from the kitchen garden, everything else had been overrun by grasses and dandelions.

"Damn." Veld's soft curse drew Sephiroth's attention back to him. He was frowning at the sealed and warded door, the skeleton key no longer in his hands.

"What's wrong?" Sephiroth asked.

"None of the Materia work," Veld said.

Sephiroth frowned. "I thought all locking pairs were supposed to be registered with the Materia Sciences Department?"

"They are," Veld said shortly. "Someone's been flouting Company policy. I'd hate to have to destroy half the building to get inside-"

"We may not have to," Sephiroth said, searching his uniform pockets. He let out a soft sigh of relief when his fingers closed on cool metal. He pulled out the small brass key, stamped with ShrinRa's logo and a small green chip of Materia embedded into the metal. Veld's eyebrows shot up in surprise, but he stepped out of the way to let Sephiroth try the key. The door opened with a soft click.

"Do I even want to know how you got that key?" Veld asked.

Sephiroth shook his head. "Long story."

"I'm sure." Though he let it slide for now, it was equally as clear that he would be expecting to hear the full story later.

Inside the mansion was just as neglected as it was outside. Sunlight filtered through dusty windows provided an eerie twilight quality to the dim interior. Drab area rugs that had been worn bare in place were spread out across hardwood floors varnish yellowed with age. Closed doors and open hallways led off into the wings of the building. Sephiroth could hear the scratching of claw on wood and plaster and the chitter of monsters that roamed the abandoned rooms. A wide staircase led upstairs.

"Where to first?" He asked Veld.

"There won't be anything of interest in the building itself. It's mostly a front for the labs in caverns below," Veld said. "We'll need to find the access point. Reports I've received from Turks stationed here previously indicate that it's upstairs, but in light of everything else any information received may be suspect."

"You don't trust your Turks?"

"I don't trust anybody," Veld said curtly. "We'll start upstairs and work our way down."

Sephiroth knew better then to ask if Veld trusted him. If anything he was even more suspect. It was oddly comforting that at least he understood Veld's position and his reasoning.

The rooms upstairs were usually locked, but those were plain locks easily broken. Many were bedrooms ranging from small and cramped to large and lavishly well appointed. Someone was abusing ShinRa funding, Sephiroth though with a wry smile as they worked their way through the rooms. Finance would have a field day auditing this place's records. Some of the rooms though seemed more like small libraries containing nothing but books. Sephiroth flipped through a few randomly selected tomes and found a wide range of topics from history and science to literature all crammed into overflowing shelves with no sense of organization that he was able to determine.

During their exploration they were occasionally attacked by floating balloon-like monsters that were fairly simple to deal with. Veld held his own with a simple and severe looking handgun slotted with a Lightning-Elemental Materia pair that flashed golden light with every shot.

Sephiroth focused more on the monsters and left finding the hidden doors mostly to Veld. He wasn't sure what they were looking for. How did someone go about finding a secret door? Discreetly he watched Veld and echoed him on alternating surfaces. He tapped walls and examined cracks. He even tapped walls that he was fairly certain had no secret doors to compare the sound.

As frustrating as the search was, it wasn't a complete waste of time. He did find a few potions and ethers, as well as a Counter Attack Materia. It was raw and unleveled, but ever since he had seen Cloud's he had wanted one. And a ShrinRa Beta, it had a few extra single slots then the bangle he was currently wearing. Veld showed no interest in their unexpected bounty, so Sephiroth felt no guilt at swapping it out.

"It has to be here," Veld announced pointing at a curved stone wall that looked like part of a preexisting structure the East Wing they were in had been built around. While Veld fussed with the Scan Materia that was slotted into some odd machine, Sephiroth removed Ashura's broken hilt from his boot and rapped against the stone, decorative metal cap at the pommel rang loudly. The seven feather charm chimed with mocking laughter. He moved to another section of the wall and tapped again. Then lower. No difference. Through the doorway into one of the second story rooms, rapped the wall just inside the door. Nothing. He tried again a few feet over.

Sephiroth thought he imagined the dull thud at first. He rapped the wall again. There was definitely something off about this section. He reached out with his empty hand to grab at a protrusion of stone and dug his fingers in. The plaster façade crumbled into white powder. He glanced over his shoulder at Veld who had followed him into the room and was now watching Sephiroth curiously with his head tilted slightly, but no other expression on his face.

Sephiroth traced the edges of the door. The seam wandered back and forth between the stones like it was just another crack in the mortar and nearly invisible to the eye. He couldn't find the latch. He couldn't tell if the hidden hinges would swing the door outwards or inwards. In either case, this was the weak point. Sephiroth applied shoulder to the door, throwing his weight behind it. After a couple of sharp blows the door jerked sharply and had moved inwards about an inch. It took another couple of hard pushes before Sephiroth realized that the door was on a track that slid to the side rather than swinging inwards.

The secret door opened onto a circular stairwell that descended into the depths. Sephiroth had no doubt that it lead straight into the basement level. He stepped forward setting his foot on the old crumbling wood staircase. At the soft ringing of his PHS Sephiroth stepped back to let Veld descend alone as he answered the call.

"Sephiroth." At Cloud's soft voice Sephiroth almost hung up. "Yuffie told me what happened."

"Did she?" he asked coldly.

"I'm sorry, I wanted a chance to explain," Cloud said. "She doesn't know everything."

Which didn't mean that she had been wrong. Sephiroth felt a twisting pain in his chest. "Does anyone?"

There was a long silence before Cloud spoke again. "I never lied to you."

Sephiroth gave a short bitter laugh. "Of course you haven't. That would require telling me something to begin with. But that's okay, I can get my own answers."

"Your own-" Cloud stopped mid-question with a hitch of his breath audible over the PHS connection. "Sephiroth, where are you?"

"Nibelheim," he said shortly before he snapped the PHS shut and stepped down into the darkness.

Veld was waiting for him at the bottom. "Is everything okay?'

"Fine," Sephiroth said with a short snarl that was easily interpreted as 'anything but.'

The underground facility was a combination of the area's natural caverns and rough hewn stone to expand and connect, or close off, different areas. It was cool and the walls were damp. Dim yellow lighting illuminated the grey stone. Boxes and equipment were piled haphazardly in the open area. While there were several alcoves there only seemed to be one other actual exit, a tunnel to the north.

In the next room, boxes and equipment gave way to stacks of narrow coffins laid out just as haphazardly as the boxes in the previous room. After that the rough stone gave way to sheet metal and steel mesh walkways. The walls were lined with books, journals and reports. Small guard slots with commercial grade Elemental-Water pairs were everywhere to protect the books and repel the dampness that seeped from the walls.

The lab itself was sequestered in the very back. Like the rest of Nibelheim the place felt vaguely familiar. It was a feeling that he was growing to despise. The hidden lab was dark and oppressive, even with the emergency lights.

"So, where is he?" Sephiroth asked. The Turk had to be here somewhere. He knew it. It was the only scenario that made any sense.

"Maybe he left?" Veld suggested. He powered up one of the computers. "I'll see if there is anything in the computers."

"Unlikely." The computers and Mako tubes were covered in a thick layer of dust. It was obvious that no one had used them in some time. He turned and walked out of the lab, even being in an abandoned lab made him feel more than a little jumpy. Perhaps someone in town would have seen the man. Even a Turk would need to get supplies from somewhere and the next general store was down in the valley.

Sephiroth was almost to the ladder when he stopped dead in his tracks and spun around. The move was so sudden that Veld—who had followed him, leaving the computer to boot up—nearly crashed into him from following behind.

"What?" Veld asked, glancing around and reflexively reaching for his gun.

"They 'never could get him to crawl out of his coffin," Sephiroth said, echoing what Yuffie had told him that didn't make any sense at the time.

"What?" Veld asked again, confusion and irritation adding volume he may not have intended.

Not bothering to answer the question Sephiroth stalked towards the nearest coffin and ripped the cover off. Inside was a roughly humanoid creature, not unlike the Makonoids from the video. It was clearly dead, but even so the Mako left an unnatural glow in the creature's blank eyes. Sephiroth shoved the coffin aside and checked the next one. "He'll be in one of these coffins. She said that he wouldn't leave his coffin, so he must be here."

Veld didn't ask again. Instead he turned to a coffin on the other side of the room and pried the lid off. Systematically they worked their way through the room. Most of the coffins contained the remains of heavily mutated subjects. Sephiroth could only be certain that some had started out as human, but knowing Hojo he wouldn't be surprised to find that all of them had. They couldn't have been locals; a small town like this would notice people missing. They were probably from the Midgar slums where no one would care. The press gangs didn't care where their "recruits" went as long as they got paid for the head count.

A startled cry and the shriek of twisting metal had Sephiroth spinning around with his sword drawn. Veld was standing over an open coffin; his arm had been bent back at an angle. Bright Mako seeped through the dark cloth of his suit at the unnatural bend and dripped across the golden claws that held back Veld's arm. He already had his pistol drawn and pressed to the forehead of the man in the coffin, heedless of the gun pointing at his own. Sephiroth was almost afraid to breathe least he disrupt the frozen tableau.