Chapter 21

Cloud cradled his forehead in his palm, wondering why exactly he'd kissed Leon. Sure, he'd only kissed the man on the cheek, but he'd still kissed him! Leon was probably hiding right now, fantastic. However, the blond was too embarrassed to go hunt him up. Cloud should have known better, but knowing that Leon had changed the order on the cake, well, damn it! It had been such a saccharine gesture. And Cloud was a sucker when it came to his brothers. That Leon had done that for them, well he was grateful and now he was starting to feel like an ass for kissing the man when he knew that Leon wouldn't react well to it.

There was no way that Cloud was going to apologize for kissing Leon. He probably should talk to him though. There was no denying that Cloud was attracted to the brunette, but he didn't want to chase Leon away either. Which he might have already done.

Sighing, Cloud rubbed his face and decided to find Leon.

His house wasn't that large, so he started for the stairs thinking that Leon would find refuge upstairs away from other people. He nearly ran into Vincent and Leon coming in from the back porch.

Cloud yelped when Vincent grabbed his arm and dragged him back to the kitchen.

"Vincent, what's going on?" He demanded, breaking the man's hold. He was ignored until they reached the kitchen.

"Get down!"

Cloud felt his eyes widen and then he dived for the kids, knocking some of them to the floor where he growled as he saw splashes of punch and spatters of frosting on his tile floor. Easily cleaned, absolutely. Willingly done, definitely not. He stopped thinking about his floor as soon as he heard the sound of gunfire and bullets slammed into his house.

Looking over at Zack who was holding down Sora, Cloud pointed to his living room. The former SOLIDER nodded and waved to Sephiroth; there was no point in talking over the din of bullets shredding Cloud's house.

The blond shouted into the ear of the teen he'd knocked over, "Stay down." Then he crawled to the living room where, lying in a case on the floor, were war swords. He passed his Buster sword to Zack, taking out his First Tsurgi. Angeal reached over and pulled free one of the smaller swords, but he had no doubt the man was deadly with it. Sephiroth had taken off with Vincent earlier. He still carried Masamune in his long coat hidden with flat space technology. Cloud hoped no one saw exactly where he got the long sword. Knowledge of flat space was supposed to have been destroyed with Gaia's army.

Angeal shouted, "Vincent is on the roof."

Cloud nodded and they rose as one and made for different entrances. Angeal would go to the roof to watch out for Vincent, Zack went out the back and Cloud stormed out the front door. These bastards were going to pay for destroying his new paint job. Tearing apart the pieces of the old sword, Cloud charged the car two of the shooters where hiding in. Too late they realized their driver had been shot and Cloud slashed through the car at both of them. Pivoting, he blocked three rapid shots, glaring before throwing his smaller sword. In an instant another was in his hand and he was chasing a carload of gunmen speeding away. A hurried slash caught their tire, but it didn't stop them.

Four dead including the driver Vincent had gotten out front.

Angeal shouted from the rooftop, "Clear!"

Zack came around from the back, "Clear back there, too."

"Where's Seph?"

A moment later the tall man came sauntering down the, blood covering the front of his coat and what appeared to be a car hood in hand with his sword lazily resting on one shoulder. Cloud winced as he saw that Sephiroth was carrying a man with the thing shoved through his arm.

"And I thought we were done with the loony bin." Zack muttered.

Cloud had to agree that the man did make a rather macabre sight, especially since he was smiling. "Uh, Seph, I get the prisoner, but what's with the hood?" Cloud asked.

"Evidence."

Snorting the blond acerbically replied, "I hope they have insurance."

Cloud turned to look at his house and wished he hadn't. It was a mess. The kids, he needed to check on them. Man, combat was different in a peacefully occupied residential zone. Running inside, he shouted, "Roxas, Sora, Leon!"

All the teens were still in the kitchen, staying on the floor like they'd been told. Leon wasn't with them.

"He left shortly after you guys did. I think he said something about Terra."

Cloud paled and bolted for the stairs. The sight he found was not entirely unexpected.

Leon was holding a clearly lifeless Terra to his chest, his body shaking with choked sobs. The boy had been shot in the head.

"Leon." Cloud stumbled over, adrenaline and mako leaving him and his body was shaky.

Leon never looked up, never let go of Terra as Cloud practically fell beside him, tears pricking at his eyes.

As he tried to comfort Leon, Cloud realized two things. Terra had been executed. Whoever had been after Terra had also been after Roxas. Organization 13.

"He only wanted to be left in peace. It was all he wanted. There was no need for him to die for it." Leon's voice was quiet and controlled. Cloud knew that Leon was angry. That he might do something foolish.

"Leon, watch over the kids for me please. This won't take long." With that Cloud ran downstairs and out front.

"Sephiroth, Terra's father, whoever he is, I think he may be part of Organization 13."

"What?"

"Terra was executed."

Sephiroth turned to his prisoner, twisting the sword, "Are you part of the Organization?"

The man tried to hold out, but ended up blurting out his confession within a few minutes.

"Damn! Zack! Angeal!" Chances were they had already packed up and skipped town, but Sephiroth might find something that was left behind.

After Sephiroth had left, Cloud wandered back inside, giving orders as he went.

"Sora, call Aerith and see if she'll put us up for a while. Saix, see if you can get the rest of these kids safely home."

Leon's voice startled them all from the doorway, "Sora, don't bother Aerith. I know a place we can go." There was a collective gasp as they say Terra's lifeless form in Leon's arms. Sora started to cry and silent tears slipped over Roxas' cheeks.

"Come on, kids. I'll see to it that you're taken care of."Saix arrested their attention from Leon and began to shepard them out of the room. Cloud briefly thought about taking Terra from Leon, but decided against it, given the firm grip Leon had on the body.

"Leon, why don't you put him down in the living room. The coroner will have look him over just for records." Cloud spoke softly, hoping that Leon would set the kid down. He wanted to pack some things and get them in the truck before this was turned into a crime scene. Some things were better left in the past.

The blonde breathed in relief as Leon laid down the body.

"Alright, grab your bags. If we're going to this place of yours we don't want that stuff on lock down cause this is a crime scene."

Then he followed Saix and the children, "Roxas, Sora, Dixcyn, grab some clothes and anything else you might want for a month or so."

To everyone's surprise Leon spoke, "Don't worry about taking much. Where we're going you won't need a lot except your clothes." Leon then disappeared again upstairs.

Leon couldn't believe that Terra was gone. His steps up the stairs were heavy, measured. Pushing open the door to the room where Terra had slept, Leon paused beside the bed. He would find the person responsible and he would make them pay. He'd hone his skills, and overcome his fear to avenge the boy who'd wanted nothing more than to have some peace in this world.

"I swear I'll find them, Terra. I'll try to give you some measure of peace, even though you were unable to find it on your own." Leon scowled at the bed for a moment, then quietly left and pulled the door shut.

After the door shut, a heedful of brown locks peaked from the closet. Maybe the scarred man wasn't so bad after all.

A/N Sorry, I could actually do it, I just couldn't kill him. I mean he already gets his body stolen in the game, I couldn't really kill him. Betcha thought so though XD