Edited as of 4/27/2017
Chapter Twenty One: Summons
Zack watched Cloud wring his hands before him, a small, angry sneer crossing the blond's face. He had seen hundred scary things ranging from shrunken heads hung in rest stops in small towns to seeing monster-humans bubbling in large vats of mako, but Cloud in itself was perhaps the worst of them all.
"Cloud, you aren't going to start manically laughing and tapping your fingers together, right?"
Cloud turned, looking straight into Zack's violet eyes. "No, Zack; you have a really strange sense of humor, you know. I'm just thinking of ways to find that girl. Red said he was going to try tracking her, right?" His hands went to hair. It was speckled with dirt, Zack noticed, something that seemed to becoming more and more common as the days passed into weeks. It was disgusting to sometimes forgo showers because of the surroundings, but he had gone more than three weeks without any type of washing in Wutai. It could have been worse.
"Oh, okay, just making sure." Quickly tapping his foot on the ground, Zack rubbed his fingers against his pants. He was a bit jittery; an uncommon habit he had thought he escaped after he quit smoking.
After a moment Zack shook himself back into his thoughts. "Red said he was gunna go try and find the kid. The summons you had wrapped 'round your wrist wasn't common in any way and it left a distinct smell in the air. I guess."
Cloud shook his head and Zack watched in surprise as he situated himself on the ground, running his fingers through the dirt. "He's gonna try to eat you one of these days. You just keep teasing him and teasing him. Did you ever think that maybe he's uncomfortable about what he is? You wouldn't ask me who my father is, right? I don't like talking about what happened to create me. Maybe it's something similar with Red."
Scratching behind his ear at an unruly piece of hair, Zack gave a small grunt. "You're right. I've been kinda a dick... should quit bugging him. He just looks like he's—"
"Going to enjoy eating your jugular, Zack. Think; I know there's a brain hidden behind all of that spiky hair and attitude you wear like some medal of honor." Cloud looked up to Zack, his mako blue eyes shining. "Now, are you going to help me come up with some sort of a way to get my summons materia back, or am I gonna have to go bother one of the ladies? They found a little creek and I think they're washing their hair."
"Well." Zack hunched back, putting two hands cockily behind his head. "Maybe we can go sneak up on them, see them without their clothes on... I know you've been dying to see Tifa without a shirt on…"
"Not particularly, Zack. They're comrades; I understand why you'd want to check out Aeris, because she's your girlfriend and all, but why would I want to look at Tif?"
Cloud shook his head, strands of blond hair getting in front of his eyes. He lifted one hand to move them behind his ear. "She's Tifa," he mumbled, "I used to like her, kind of like the way you like Aeris, but that was a long time ago."
"But I thought you didn't remember the past five years?"
"I don't." Cloud placed his fingers in the dirt, drawing a small picture like it was a canvas, his fingers the brush. "It's just, I was thinking a lot about things when I was in Midgar, about Tifa and relationships. I don't think I can have something like what you and Aeris. I'm... I'm a little too fucked up right now."
"Honestly, Cloud? I'm not doing much better..."
Red hadn't found anything to lead anyone to the materia thief, but a small, teensy little problem that was going to make the entire process of finding her more difficult.
"What do you mean we ran out of forest?" Tifa asked. "Is that even possible? I thought we had at least a few more miles..."
The beast scratched at the ground with his paw. "There is no further forest beyond this area. Now, I do not believe that necessarily means that we will not find her, but it may take a bit more of luck and talent than previously thought. Now, Cloud..." Red looked up to Cloud, who was standing next to Zack, his arms crossed. Zack noticed tension running through the blonde's jaw.
"Yes?"
"I need you to inform me of exactly what this materia was. I know you have said it was a summons, but you must surely have some other information on it? Summons materia is not easy to come by."
Zack thought for a moment, attempting to think of what exactly Cloud had done with the thing. Nothing came to mind; all he could remember about it was the boy finding attached to that chocobo and putting it on his wrist.
"Wait." Cloud raised his hand before him, looking at Red oddly. The ex-SOLDIER knew that look; it was a blank stare, one that Cloud seemed to be perfecting as of late. "That girl, the one who took my summons, she had one too. It was that water beast."
Red snorted. "Cloud, she's a materia thief. All that summons means is that she was able to get her fingers into someone of high class, much higher than herself. There are no nobles who would allow their children to act like her. Now, I do not believe that she has left yet—I believe she has her eye set out for the rest of us. One summons must mean more summons."
"But how do we get her?"
"Zack, I believe the way to get her is rather simple." To show the man, Red motioned to a blank spot on the ground, digging his nail into the dirt. Crudely drawn were three people, Zack, Cloud and Harlot, all shown by the small lettering above their dirt faces. "If she's in this forest, within at least a three mile radius, it will be possible for us to catch her. The materia that you had on your wrist, even if you hadn't used it, had bonded with your magic."
"But I never used it," Cloud pointed out.
"Matters not," Red said gruffly, "all you needed was time to bond with it. It is yours now and you can call it back to you. It would have been easier for you if you knew at least what it looked like, but nothing can be done now. Do you remember what it felt like in your hands?"
Zack stood a great distance away from Cloud with the others. Red had said the magic outlash could possibly be dangerous for anyone within a certain distance and, because Red had yet to be proven wrong, no one wanted to play roulette with a fully loaded gun.
Zack strained his eyes, seeing a few strands of wispy smoke-like substance curling from Cloud's mouth. "Is that normal?" His eyes flickered from Red to the small tendrils. "It looks like something's coming out of his mouth."
It wasn't Red who answered, but Aeris.
"Yes, it's normal. Have you not heard of some of the legends, where the prince or knight use magic that comes out of their mouths, like fire for example, to slay the monster or dragon?" She spun a finger through her curling bangs, smiling softly. The conversation from before was almost completely erased—the burn that Reno hadn't meant to do, the anger of his affairs, the heartache of his indecisiveness…
Zack gave a small smile and leaned forward to whisper into the woman's ear. "Was his name Zack, that prince of yours?"
"No, it was the beast's name," Red answered. "Now, will one of you girls go find Barret. I do not sense him in the area."
"Oh! Of course." Aeris smiled to the red-furred beast, leaning down to scratch behind his ears before grabbing hold of Tifa's arm and disappearing behind several trees.
"They would not like to see what happens next if all goes to plan. I do not wish to make either think we are savages. That harlot will come, and when she does Cloud will…"
Zack finished his sentence. "Breathe fire onto them?"
"Essentially, yes," he answered bluntly.
Thirteen minutes later, the trees began to rustle aimlessly. Red put his nose into the air and sniffed. There was a small chill in the air and the feeling of something deep in the forest running around, warking, as they shot of handfuls of ice magic.
"What in the Planet is she doing That is not the scent of our human girl, but of a—"
"Chocobo!" Cloud yelled, Zack and Red snapping their heads down to where the blond was, a chocobo riding closer and closer to him with the little thief on its back.
"You can't catch me, old guys! Ha!" she yelled this as she grabbed hold of the reins and pulled on them, sending a crack through the air.
The next few seconds were a blur; the girl was bucked off of the chocobo, which disappeared into nothingness, and Cloud clapped his hands together, activating the materia in the girl's satchel. It wasn't just the summons materia set off, Zack noticed with a hint of fear—the girl was fighting against hordes of spells being fired at her from all directions. It was like color an explosions, a symphony of fireworks begging to be released.
She screamed one long, droning scream as she fell back into the mossy ground and lay still. As the last bit of smoke cleared from her body, both Red and Zack ran forward.
"What was that?" Zack got down onto his knees, checking the girl's pulse. It was steady. The black bag sat limply under her unmoving wrist. He turned his head to Red, who was sniffing cautiously at the girl. She gave a grunt when his wet nose rubbed against her cheek.
"Was that supposed to happen?" Zack asked, taking in a deep breath. He looked over to where Cloud still stood, his eyes large, staring out at the trees. He didn't look alright, sick to his stomach from the color tinting against his cheeks, and Zack looked back down at the small teenage girl. She was better off than Cloud, he noticed.
"I…I believe so, yes," Red answered a moment later, moving his nose away from the girl, a small streak of wetness across her skin. "I think he's exhausted himself. I can get the girl to camp but you should go pick him up."
Zack didn't need to be told twice. Standing and walking slowly to Cloud, he heard Red grunt as he somehow managed to get the thin girl and all of her equipment strapped to her back onto his own back. Her feet dragged, the ends of her brightly colored shoes scuffing against the floor of the forest, and Zack turned back around to Cloud, giving a small smile that he couldn't have seen.
"Hey, Cloudy." Zack hesitantly reached one hand up to the blond's hair, lightly scratching at the small place that had given him comfort such a long time ago, back in Midgar. His blue eyes moved little by little to Zack's face. When Cloud noticed Zack standing next to him he fell to the side, the morning's small breakfast coming up a few feeble inches between Zack's boots.
Quickly moving away from the vomit, Zack got to his knees next to Cloud, who was still coughing. He removed his hands from Cloud's hair and ran one over Cloud's back, in what he hoped would be soothing. The other would around the loose strands in front of his face, away from his mouth. "Okay, get it all out," Zack leaned forward, putting his nose into the blonde, fluffy hair, "yeah, it's alright."
Cloud sagged into Zack's arms a moment later, his face horridly pale, skin chilled not by the morning breeze. Slowly, as to not make him sick yet again, Zack picked him up in his arms. Cloud's head nestled in the crook of his arm.
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