Review Responses:
Kurogane7: He does have motives…I hope I explain them better in this chapter. Also, I read what you have posted of "Dying," and I really quite like it so far, even though I'm blubbering all over myself at the plot. The flashbacks are really sweet, though. It's quite good, I must say. Nineveh03: Ah, gotta love Shinra. Thanks, I had fun with everybody just suddenly like, "Gasp, oh noes, Dr. Fair!" And…Mother's blood is a bit different in this story…I'll explain someday…And yeah. "Cured" just kinda happened without me realizing. I was like, "…Wait, why are they still in here?" ken08002: Well, he has SOME objective in mind…It'd be nice if he, y' know, TOLD somebody first… xTincampi: Sorry, the fluff is back this chapter. Glad you liked the last one, though! TenkaCat: I love that scene in ACC. I always squeal, 'cause you really can't insult Kadaj worse than that, can you. "Bad son!" Makes for giggles. I'm glad you liked Aerith—I'm finally beginning to get a grip on her lately. NamioftheSea: …Yeah, you just about summed it up. Hah. Sh*t's about to go down… Berenice63: I know, I have problems with Tifa, I'm sorry…I've never written a girl like her before, so sometimes I kinda lose touch with Badass!Tifa…But I'm getting better, I hope. Please don't give up on me! vLuna: Well, he IS in the Help Center, and everybody here just seems to go nuts as soon as they walk in the door…but he has motives, I swear. Vanilla Raindrops: Aww, you don't suck, I love you! I know, the flashbacks were a blast, thank you. Yeah, Rufus is a bit…odd. I have no idea where that bit came from. Also, hooray for someone who appreciates my random lines! I love lines like those. Zack = much love, indeed.
WELCOME TO FAIR HELP CENTER
Chapter Twenty-One: Cloudburst
(See, the whole concept of a disclaimer is just odd. If I owned it, wouldn't this be canon, and why would I be posting it on ? It's just illogical. But yeah. I don't own it.)
Three minutes left.
He can feel his hands and his feet to the ankles, and he thinks he can shift his arms even though he can't actually tell if it's working. His vision is blurry but returning, but he can't hear anything but the echo of his own breathing in his ears.
Three minutes left.
Zack held Aerith tight against his chest and pressed his face into her soft bangs, inhaling the scent of her, as if to remind himself that he hasn't lost everything he loved. Her fingers came up and clenched into the familiar fabric of his coat, as they'd done a hundred times, a thousand times, and the gesture was comfortingly real. The familiarity of it opened his throat enough that he was finally able to force out:
"It wasn't…for nothing…was it? All those people, everyone that fought, everyone that died…even Angeal…there's no way they all died for nothing. Right? It made a difference. The world will remember. Won't it?"
Aerith sighed into his shoulder and reached up to lightly slap the back of his head.
"You're being overdramatic, Zack Fair," she scolded teasingly, attempting to lighten the mood with her tone even as her words were solemn. "Would Angeal have cared if the world remembered his name? Would he want a statue of him raised in the middle of Midgar? He wouldn't and you know it. Not one of the men in that war died for nothing—they died to stop a man who wanted to kill everyone. Angeal didn't die for nothing, Zack. Angeal died for me, for Cloud, for Tifa and everyone who lives on this earth and breathes this air. Angeal died for you."
She stretched up onto her toes to plant a light, tender kiss on his scarred jaw before grinning shyly. "Even if the world never knows, Zack, you'll always remember. You're the proof that he existed. You're his living legacy."
Her last words were nearly drowned out by a sudden roll of thunder, violent and long and terrifyingly near.
Zack was still standing a bit awkwardly in the hall, so Aerith turned to find the nearest window to peek out of. "That's strange," she murmured quietly, staring up at the sky, suddenly thick with low, dark clouds. "It was clear this morning…"
"It's just a cloudburst," Zack declared confidently, coming to stand behind her, placing one hand on the sill on her other side, subtly bracketing her between his arms. "It'll be over in less than half an hour."
Aerith slowly turned her head, nose brushing his cheekbone, and found him smiling gently. A grin crept across her face before she could stop it, and Zack looked down at her and his smile widened in response.
"It's fleeting and short," he murmured as thunder crashed again and rain pounded viciously on the window. "But that doesn't mean we won't remember it."
The world outside the window flashed white as lightning struck.
"Fair."
Instinct had Zack stepping away from Aerith in a blink, and he whirled on a heel to find Shinra standing with Reno and Rude and a wad of bandages pressed to his left eye.
Impossible, unfounded horror filled him, and his eyes wandered inexorably downwards to find a ring of keys in Rufus's hand.
His mouth went dry.
"Rufus," he whispered in horror. "What did you do…?"
…
Two minutes left.
He has sensation in his legs up to the knees and most of his arms. Aside from a bit of blurring, his vision is back as well, his hearing still coming in muffled but definitely functioning again, and his nose was slowly filling with the sweet stench of Mother's blood, smeared all throughout the hospital. Taking mental roll, he found them all; five with trace amounts, two with none at all, one that was steeped in it—little brother—and three…
Oh.
Three more surviving experiments.
With still-numb facial muscles, he smiled coldly.
Two minutes left.
"Come here, Yuffie."
It took no more encouragement than that for Yuffie to clamber up into the arms Vincent held out for her. His eyes went soft and gentle as he balanced her neatly on one hip, supporting her easily with only a single arm carefully tucked under her thighs and knees. She giggled giddily as he carried her from the room, waving enthusiastically to Cloud as they passed. "A girl could get used to this whole 'carried everywhere' thing, ya know."
Vincent grunted quietly in response, the equivalent of a hearty chuckle from anyone but him. "I'll simply have to ensure that I am always there to carry you, then," he muttered quietly, his tone utterly serious, not betraying a single hint of teasing. Yuffie blushed violent pink and threw her arms around his neck so she could bury her face in the red cloth on his shoulder. Pausing in his walk, he made a quietly inquisitive noise.
"I just realized the best thing about being carried all the time," she murmured into his shoulder.
"Oh?"
"Yeah," she murmured pensively, straightening in his hold. "I'm finally at the right height to do this." Her hands clamped down on his jaw, twisting his head to the side and tilting his chin up just the slightest fraction until she was at the perfect angle to lean in and press her lips to his.
There was the subtlest of smirks on his mouth as he kissed her slowly, patiently, courting her mouth carefully as she clung to him for support. His tongue lightly touched the soft sweetness that was her upper lip, a careful question, and he waited patiently for her mouth to open for him before he deepened the kiss.
The world outside the Help Center flared brilliant white as lightning struck.
Inside the hospital, everything went black.
Within a breath, Vincent had wrenched himself away from Yuffie's too-distracting lips and readjusted his grip on her, holding her with both hands as he backed into a wall to orient himself.
"…Well, that was unexpected," Yuffie blurted awkwardly, and, in the darkness, a corner of Vincent's mouth quirked.
"Must be a storm," he rumbled, swiftly patting Yuffie down to make sure she was uninjured, even though he knew she was fine. "Lighting strikes the building, power outage. Happens all the time. I didn't see clouds this morning, so it's probably just a cloudburst. It won't last long. And generators should power up the building soon."
Yuffie hummed in his arms and snuggled her head into his shoulder contentedly. In the darkness, where she couldn't see, he smiled tenderly and rested his cheek against her hair.
In the darkness, she was small and soft and warm in his arms…
In the darkness, thunder rolled.
They both stiffened simultaneously.
Slowly, soundlessly, he lowered her to the ground. She went with him, bending her knees to catch her weight on the balls of her feet, and Vincent held out an arm to keep her behind him as he slid carefully, silently, into a crouch.
In stillness and silence, they waited.
A full two minutes later, ordinary ears, unenhanced by scientific torture and years of ninja training, could pick up the footsteps and hushed whispers in the hall.
"Brother said to bring it!"
"But Mother—"
"Big Brother wouldn't do anything without Mother's permission!"
"So why can't we—owwie, I cut my hand! Loz, you idiot, walk slower!"
"Shut up, both of you! Big Brother said bring it, and Big Brother knows Mother better than anybody, so it must be okay."
Yuffie's whisper was little more than a breath of sound in Vincent's ear, more felt in the air against his skin than heard in his oversensitive ears: "The brothers. What've they got? Can you see?"
He shook his head, knowing she would feel the motion from her proximity. He could sense the movement of her chest as she sighed in disappointment.
Lightning painted the world bright white, and Vincent stepped into the middle of the hall.
"What are you carrying, children?" He asked, voice low and cold and dangerous.
Thunder rolled.
Another flash of lighting cast electric white onto silver steel, and the ex-mercenary's eyes widened as the three silver-haired young men clenched bleeding hands around Sephiroth's sword.
"Yuffie," he growled out of the corner of his mouth, even as he locked stares with Kadaj, catching the green eyes with amber. "Find Cerberus. Bring it to me."
…
One minute left.
Everything is fuzzy and a bit distant, his movements slightly uncoordinated, but move he does, to stand and balance and tug against the chains on his wrists.
The first tug affords nothing. He puts more force behind the second and the chains rip massive chunks of concrete out of the walls. Deprived of balance, he falls flat forward.
But he is smiling as he blearily struggles to his feet.
One minute left.
Cloud stared at Tifa.
Tifa stared back at Cloud.
I'll never stop thinking I'm a monster, his eyes whispered, endless sorrow, despair without a bottom or a limit.
I'll never care even if you are, her eyes told him in return, pure acceptance, a love that knew no bounds or end.
The silence in the room was heavily laden with thousands of words.
Outside the window, thunder rolled.
And the Help Center was plunged into the darkness.
For one moment, there is silence again.
Then, a thread of sound in the poignant stillness of the room, whispered, "…Cloud…?"
"Sorry," he rumbled quietly, reaching down to carefully take her hands in his own. "I forget sometimes. I can see better in the dark than you can." Pulling her carefully to her feet, he tugged her close, not quite embracing her, just standing near and basking in her warmth.
"Can you take me to the window, then?" She whispered, one hand dropping his to grope for his face in the dark.
He caught it and pressed her palm to his cheek gently. "Of course. Should I carry you, like Vincent did to Yuffie?"
"Cloud," she half-chuckled, half-chastised, pinching his cheek. "Leading me will be fine, thank you." He hummed in response and pulled her hand from his face. Keeping tight hold of her other fingers, he tugged her gently across the room, carefully steering her around chairs and rugs and pillows, until he curled her fingers around the windowsill and she could look up into the black sky.
"That's funny," she murmured, and only Cloud's eyes could catch the way the tiny, too-dim rays of light filtered through the rain on the window and cast shadows on her skin, dark blue ghosting over pale white like starlight across the ocean. "It was clear all day today."
"It's a cloudburst," he explained quietly. "It won't last long. Just one overburdened cloud dumping all of its weight at once."
And, without warning, those words filled her with terror.
Just like that, she wondered as the sky lit brilliant white with lightning. Someday…just like that, will Cloud collapse under this weight…?
Will Cloud, too, fall apart?
…XxX…
It is time.
He stood and straightened and glared at the open door.
His little brothers should have been here by now. They had heard him calling, he knew—and he knew they could have found what he asked for. It wouldn't be like Fair to destroy it…
Very slowly and carefully, he stretched each muscle in his body, one at a time, gently, thoroughly. He loosened easily, the familiar strength returning rapidly, even as the drugs still in his system fought his awareness down. It was just a bit of dullness on the edges of his senses, but it worried him slightly…
And his brothers were taking too much time.
He growled irritation, straightened his shoulders, and stalked furiously out the door.
If you want a job done right…He grumbled as he went in search of three rejected test subjects.
…XxX…
"What have I done, Fair?" Rufus asked, nothing more than a voice in the darkness. "I've set you free."
"Rufus!" Zack bellowed, his hand tightening on Aerith's as she clung to him in confusion and fear. "Give me a straight answer, now!"
Lightning screamed.
Rufus Shinra's bloody face was illuminated for a split second.
"I let Sephiroth loose."
Aerith's hands flew up to cover her mouth, and Zack ran a desperate hand through his hair and scratched at the back of his head viciously, running through all his nervous twitches, all his stress-relievers in one instant and finding them futile. In the next second, he was across the hallway, hands fisted in the perfectly pressed lapels of Rufus's white suit, hissing into the man's face even as the lightning faded and the shadow claimed them both:
"Do you have any idea of what you've done?"
Then there was cold steel pressed to the back of his neck. Zack's head turned pointlessly to find the source when Reno spoke from the darkness. "Don't make me hurt you, Fair. I like you well enough, but the President's the boss."
Gritting his teeth, Zack released Rufus and backed a few steps away, pacing a quick circle to try and burn off stress. Then he rounded on Shinra again.
"When?" He snarled desperately. "Why?"
Ice-cool in the shadow, Shinra spoke. "Approximately three minutes ago, I'd say. He ought to be able to stand and move by now, if my estimate is correct. As to why…
"Do you know, Fair, why I hated my father? It was the way he ran things. Money. He called it the great motivator. My father always believed that any man could be bought, with the right amount of cash. But I? I believe in power by strength. By fear. I believe we should be safe because others fear us, not because we're stuffing tax dollars into their pockets. Isn't strength better than bribery, Fair? Which would you choose?"
Zack gnashed his teeth wildly and breathed heavily, trying to calm himself. "Get to the point, Shinra, or I'll make sure your head rolls before this is over."
Lightning tore the earth to shreds.
Painted white, Shinra gripped Zack's forearm. Somewhere deep inside himself, he shoved up and out and pushed The Mask off his face and truly looked at Zack with honest eyes.
"I detest speeches, Fair, so let me be brief. You need me. I need you. Right now, Tseng and Elena are getting all the patients out of this hospital, save your little friends in this wing. I am the President. I hold power. But that power doesn't exist without strength and people behind it.
"Kill Sephiroth for me. It'll be public. It'll be dramatic. It will show the world that we in Midgar do not operate on bribery and fat men with fatter wallets. Men like you, men of honor and dignity, are the core of this country. Show the world that we are strong."
"I'm not a man of honor anymore," Zack growled into the darkness. "I sold my honor to your father."
A pale hand rose out of shadow to slap him across the face. This time it was those thin, bony hands that rose to clench in a white lab coat and shake violently as Shinra vented furiously into Zack's face.
"Don't fuck around with me, Fair! Who are you? Are you the man my father wanted you to be—Doctor Fair, a man who locks up good people and leaves murders alive for no reason beyond personal monetary gain? Or are you Sergeant-Major Zack Fair, a man of honor, a soldier of the absolute first class? There is no time left for indecision. Don't think of your patients. Don't think of your mentor. Don't think of your girlfriend. Look at yourself! Now tell me—who are you?"
There was silence.
In the silence, thunder rolled.
Zack breathed in.
"You know what, Shinra?" He murmured, almost too low to be heard above the sounds of the storm. "Screw that."
The next sound was that of a lab coat hitting the wall and the thick rubber heels of boots clicking together. "Sergeant-Major Zack Fair, reporting in for duty, sir!" Zack chanted.
It felt so good to stand at attention again.
Unseen, hidden by shadow, Rufus Shinra grinned like an idiot.
"Sergeant-Major, all the men and women within this wing are now under your exclusive command, by order of the President."
"And our orders, sir?"
In the darkness, the clouds burst forth in rain.
"Kill Sephiroth."
…XxX…
A/N
…It's one-thirty in the morning.
Also, I have a math quiz tomorrow. CRAP.
In any case, finally got this posted. It's a bit late, as I said, so please forgive any errors—although I'd be much obliged if you pointed them out so I could fix them.
I have to admit how much crazy fun I had writing Shinra's epic speech at the end there. For someone who claims to hate speeches, he delivers a damn good one.
Also, EVERY battle scene is more epic in the rain. And I randomly fell in love with the word 'cloudburst' this week. Don't ask me why, but it set the theme for my whole dang chapter. Curse my life.
Next week is finals for me, so I apologize if the next chapter is a bit slow in coming, but I'll try my best to get it out in a timely manner anyway. Thank you, much love, PLEASE REVIEW, it makes the muses happy and the chapters come faster!