Chapter Twenty-Six

Interlude: Family

Cloud sat at the dining table of his mother's new Midgar apartment as she fussed around in the kitchen. Denzel was sitting next to him in silence, fidgeting nervously as the minutes passed. He had insisted that they did not need anything to eat, but his mother had insisted on stopping their conversation long enough to get some lunch in — after all, Denzel was a growing boy, as she insisted. It seemed more like an interruption so she could have some time to think.

Luckily it did not take too long before she came out with some fresh sandwiches and drinks on a tray, putting them down on the table with a matronly smile. "There you go boys, you'd better eat up!"

"Ma, I dinn—" Cloud cringed and bit off the word even as he said it. He hadn't realised that being around his mother would bring back his stupid backwater accent that he had worked so hard to lose. It was even harder to accept since his mother had kept her perfectly normal Kalmian accent, and Denzel trying to stifle his giggles was not helping at all. "I brought Denzel here—"

"When the army took you, my only worry was that you wouldn't come back to me. You're not even gone a year and I'm dragged out of my home because you're a big Shinra executive and then this boy tells you come from the future?"

"Ma, 'this boy'—"

She continued talking over Cloud, not pausing for breath as she poured out all the worries she had stored up over the past few days. "I missed out on half your life because I let you go to Shinra and I'll never get to see you grown up and I'm so happy that you're alright and I'm so proud that you're successful but I lost my little boy, Cloud. I missed out on half your life and I wasn't there to protect you and I wasn't able to see you grow up into this man that you've become."

"You'll be able to watch Denzel grow up," Cloud said when he finally find a gap in her stream of words.

"What?" She looked up in confusion, wiping a few tears away from her face.

"Denzel is my son. Your grandson."

She stood speechless for a moment, her eyes welling up further as they remained fixed on Denzel. "Oh, my boy," she exclaimed, wrapping her arms around Denzel and pulling him into a tight hug despite the protesting squawk. "A grandson? Oh, I have so many questions."

"My parents died when the plate fell." When talking about how they would handle his mother, Denzel had wanted to get that out in the open first, before too many assumptions could be made. "Cloud found me, and he and Tifa took me in."

"Tifa? I'm glad you got together with her, Cloud. Now, tell me about yourself, Denzel. I want to know more about my grandson."

They settled in for a long evening of storytelling, with Denzel telling the story of his escape from the destruction of Sector 7. He talked about Ruvie Tuesti, who had taken him in as he wandered the streets of Midgar, alone and devastated over the loss of his parents. He skipped over much of their suffering from Geostigma, instead concentrating on the life he lead in a scavenger looking for scrap metal with his friends in the slums, then his heroic rescues by Cloud as he once again saved the world from Sephiroth.

It was Cloud's own stories that took the longest, though like Denzel he too glossed over much of the heavier burdens life had thrown his way. He described the burning of Nibelheim in only a few words, his imprisonment below the Shinra mansion in fewer, and the debilitating disease of Geostigma in only three: "I got sick." While he did not explain anything in detail, he had resolved to leave nothing out of the story he told his mother. He still yearned for the approval of his mother and even so many years on, he was still glad that she offered it so easily.

The streetlights were on in full as they left the apartment, Cloud leaving behind some last words of warning to his mother: do not trust Shinra and tell no one you're my mother until this is all over.

With that, they split apart as a family, Cloud and Denzel going back to their life on the inside of Shinra.

"I hope you have something for me, Cissnei."

Tseng leaned back in his desk, fixing his gaze on the young Turk. Perhaps he shouldn't be taking his frustrations out on her, but days of getting nowhere with Reno had taken its toll on the Turk leader. It was a complication he could ill afford, both in terms of getting their much needed information about Strife as well as just the general cohesion of the Turks. He needed to trust his team, anything else was deadly.

"I'm sorry sir — I do have something, I just don't know what it is."

Tseng put a hand up to his forehead, trying to ward off the impending headache. Of course, he had come to expect this with the new professor. The big details, the important ones, they all fell into place. The little details, the ones that shouldn't matter, they made no sense at all.

"He is from Nibelheim, I was even able to talk to his mother."

Tseng looked up. "Then surely…"

"Well, that's when it stops making sense. They're all convinced that he's fourteen."

"Even his mother?"

"Especially his mother."

"This doesn't add up."

"I know, sir. I asked everyone I could, but they all said the same story. He was born in 1986 and he lived in the town for thirteen years. He left earlier this year to join Shinra and become a SOLDIER."

Tseng pulled a piece of paper from his desk. "And yet this is his medical licence. Mideel, two months ago. Full practicing certificate for Cloud Strife, age twenty-seven."

Cissnei raised an eyebrow.

"It's not a forgery."

"Then I don't know what else to tell you, sir."

"Was there anything else of note?"

"Just a childhood sweetheart, I guess. When I was asking her about Strife, she said… well," Cissnei said. She pulled a piece of card out of her jacket pocket. " 'Stupid boys, always getting into trouble', " she quoted. " 'I should have known! Now I have to go to Midgar and save him!' "

"Is that relevant?"

Cissnei shrugged. "She asked if she could come back to Midgar with me."

Tseng raised an eyebrow.

"Of course, I agreed. She's waiting in interrogation room three."

Tseng rose from his chair and straightened his jacket. It was something, but indeed… he was not sure what it was. "Her name?"

"Tifa Lockheart."