Well my fellow readers, I have just one thing to say to you. Well, many things, but I can sum it up in one simple sentence. "I love you guys!" This story only got this far because of the wonderful support you've shown for it. Sure I probably would have finished it and uploaded it anyway, but it wouldn't have turned out like it has, nor would it had taken this short a time to progress this far. Sure, two years is a long time, but it probably would have been over double that. I know I'm rambling, but, I can't help it. I'm just so grateful. Thank you all so very much. And this isn't directed at just those who leave reviews or drop a fav or follow, this is to everyone who has read it. You are all fantastic!
Now this is where things start to turn down a darker road for a short time. We're coming up on the tunnel as it were, but there is a bright light at the end, I promise you that. I tried to sweeten the ride a little bit though, but you'll have to reach the end of this chapter for that. ;)
The song that inspired this chapter was "Courtyard Apocalypse" (Extended version) From Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2, especially towards the end.
There may be a few mistakes here and there, but I tried to finish this chapter before work, so I may very well come back and fix them.
Until next time, my amazing readers.
Enjoy!
Tseng glanced towards Rufus and the vice president picked up on the serious expression and realized something important had been revealed, but as to what it was he wasn't quite sure. The general had dropped quite a few surprising remarks that seemed out of character while he received reports from his SOLDIERs. He nodded towards his top Turk, allowing him free reign over the conversation.
Tseng met the eyes of the general who had just declared that nothing would stop him from keeping his promise…whatever that may be.
"Am I to assume correctly that when you mentioned Vincent, you were referring to Valentine?"
Sephiroth didn't care to walk on eggshells any longer. He had the strength to go against anything this company dished out and if the Turks tried to take Cosmo Canyon they were in for a very big letdown. "Yes, I was. The ex-Turk that Hojo attempted to kill failed and then he experimented on him before giving up on him and locked him away under the Shinra mansion for decades."
Tseng and Sephiroth stared each other down while the other occupants didn't move. Reeve was nervous, Rude was calculating any support he could offer and Rufus was just sitting back and smirking at the showdown.
"So," Tseng concluded, "You set Vincent free and he destroyed the mansion and the reactor."
"No Turk is perfect, Tseng, not even you," Sephiroth replied, giving away nothing. "In the end we are all human, only our flaws define where our strength truly lies."
At this, Rufus perked up. "How so, general?"
"It all depends if you can overcome those flaws, if you can rise to meet the challenge then you show your true strength. It is easier for us SOLDIERs as we are tested against impossible odds, but we face it head on. Turks, by nature, hide in the shadows and strike like lightning. It's effective sniper tactics, but does every Turk excel when forced to fight face to face?"
He turned to Tseng then, "I'm prepared to take you on right now if needed. But can you honestly stand up to my power with merely your gun and lightning materia? Even if Rude offered support, his earth-based materia wouldn't bode well for the building's structure and your immediate concern would be protecting the vice president, not defeating me, allowing me to escape or strike back. Either way you are no match."
Tseng knew that the general was right, they both knew it, but the Turk would die before he ever admitted it. Rufus ended their standoff as he slowly clapped his hands. "Well played general. But tell me, what are you planning to do now? This mission you're setting out on, is it to rescue Strife, or are you planning something else?"
Sephiroth turned from the Turk and studied the Rufus carefully. "No, rescuing Strife would mean confronting Hojo and it would be stupid to challenge him solo. Hojo is responsible for my enhancements therefore he will know exactly how to counter them."
The vice president nodded in agreement. "Then do you plan to forsake him for the good of the whole? After all, he is one mere individual and it seems the impact of recent events will affect many. Would it not be wiser to save those you know you can?"
Sephiroth took one step towards Rufus which caused Tseng to stand and reach for his gun on instinct. The general radiated with an ominous power. "I do not care how Turks operate, nor do I care for your ideals, but as general of SOLDIER I will neverleave anyone behind, nor will I sacrifice my men especially to the hands of the science department."
Rufus leaned his head again this folded hands which were propped up on the table. "With all due respect general, Strife isn't one of your men, as part of the infantry he belonged to Heidegger's department."
"He was transferred to the cadet program recently sir," Rude corrected.
"Oh, that was official? I assumed it was part of the general's ruse to keep him out of Turk hands," the vice president carelessly replied as if none of this carried any serious weight, and it was pissing the general off.
"Back to the matter at hand," Rufus continued, "I believe you were about to tell us something important before you were interrupted."
Sephiroth turned his back on Rufus then, "It doesn't concern you. I see you're not ready to carry the weight of the future. Some lessons must be learned the hard way."
With that he left, but not before sending Reeve a glance that warned him to be careful of what he told the others. Reeve just buried his head in his hand out of frustration. This had been a bad idea.
Rufus just stared at the door and smirked. "Yes general, some lessons must be learned the hard way." He turned to Tseng then and stood. "Tell them to cancel the chopper. It won't be needed after all."
Of all the things that would manage to wake him up it'd be his motion sickness. That was something Cloud realized when he managed to regain consciousness right before he was overcome with a choking fit. He couldn't understand why he was unable to sit up or at least turn his head. It was as if he had no energy for the effort. Another thing he noticed was that this time felt different than others and it hurt. His mind still registered sound at least, as he heard the deafening sounds of the chopper blades, telling him he was airborne. He also heard a shout from someone positioned next to him.
"Aw gross!"
The figure next to him stood up and wiped his sleeve where something had landed on it.
"Turn his head so he doesn't choke himself," commanded another voice that Cloud couldn't focus on. The next thing he knew his head was turned to the side, which helped. He wasn't sure if they knew if he was awake or not, his eyelids still felt heavy, but he fought to stay awake. His gaze traveled down the length of his side and his gaze stopped roaming when he saw a large piece of metal sticking out of his middle.
He could feel it now, and he could tell it was sticking out of his back too, but he couldn't understand why these troopers were making such a stupid mistake. If he was impaled, then he should be laying on his side, not flat on his back where the blood could drip down the object and bleed out faster. He didn't even know how he got such an injury.
The trooper took off his helmet then, which was different from the infantry-issued kind and Cloud saw his messy, light red hair and it reminded him of Reno. That's when he remembered.
The reactor, the rubble, Jenova missing, He accused Reno of hiding information and then he remembered getting angry when Reno mocked him for being some miracle bestowed on the planet by the cetra. He remembered the collapse and how Reno froze when their exit was blocked, but Cloud saw a small opening. He knew there was only enough time for one of them to get through the space and Cloud shoved Reno through it. As angry as he was with the ex-Turk he wasn't going to risk the man's life.
Something about his argument with Reno felt like a repeat for some reason and as Cloud's mind kept flashing back to other events he remembered his arguments with Zack before he left. The tables had been turned and he was the one accusing Zack of the same thing Reno had accused him of. Cloud instantly felt a guilt settle in his stomach far heavier than the metal as he realized his mistake.
He tensed up as the pain increased and he tried turning on his side. The trooper tried to keep him still, but the blond managed to turn enough to see something off in the distance as it was slowly getting larger. As he struggled to focus he thought it looked like a rocket.
He started losing the battle to stay awake then and as his eyes closed he felt a gentle hand that didn't seem real brush his forehead followed by a voice that whispered from far away that echoed, "Fight back with every ounce of strength you have."
~*(Some time later)*~
The swaying motion wouldn't stop. Not only was it waking him up, but it was playing on his motion sickness once again. He felt himself wanting to retch, but didn't even have the strength to have his stomach contract with the effort. He tried to swallow, but only tasted blood for his efforts. Looking down his eyes widened slightly when he saw the jagged metal beam still impaling him through his middle. Blood also sealed one of his eyes shut and his hair was sticking to one side of his face from the blood that was drying from a wound on his head.
"Where…" he tried to speak, but choked on a fresh wave of blood as it tried to force itself up and out of his throat.
"Quiet," urged the scientist walking alongside the stretcher as it moved down the hall, one that reminded Cloud of a hospital, though this one wasn't very bright, nor did it carry the similar sounds and smells of a hospital and it felt way creepier. "Or you'll bleed out. We can't do anything useful with a corpse."
The blond didn't like the sounds of that at all, but he was in no position to even try to get away. Even if he had the strength to move, he would bleed to death the moment he removed the offending metal and he couldn't think clearly on top of that, but he wasn't sure if it was due to blood loss or the head injury. probably both.
The two guards carried him into a room the scientist pointed them into. They laid him gently on the table and were very careful of his worse injury.
"Here's the subject sir," the scientist announced to someone Cloud couldn't see as his back was to them. The guards had to lay him on his side to prevent the metal from moving.
"Hmm, we'll have to stabilize and repair the specimen before we can begin. The last time we tried it on an injured one the subject's organs exploded."
The detail of the last victim's fate, although gory, wasn't what terrified Cloud and brought him into full consciousness. It was the voice. He had heard it once before, back in Nibelheim when he and Zack were ordered to play ignorant and he didn't need his older self's presence to send the red warnings going off in his mind in the form of flashbacks. Cloud knew it was Hojo.
Fear and adrenaline kicked in and with a painful cough, he managed to roll off the table and land on the floor. The scientists and guards turned to look at him as the blond managed to stand up, though he was leaning heavily against the metal table. Cloud fought to keep his blurred vision focused to glare at Hojo. The fiend was just giving him a bored, annoyed stare in return, but there was something that caught his interest. For a short moment, Cloud's eyes glowed slightly.
The blond was losing strength, but he refused to give in. "Never agai-" he coughed up another mouthful of blood and his strength started to fade before he turned and tried to take a step towards the exit, only to black out. One of the guards caught him and the other helped him move Cloud back onto the table in the same position he had been before.
Hojo turned to the other scientist. "Mako eyes?"
The scientists flipped through the records he could find on the ride back. "Trace amounts, sir. This one is native to the Nibel region and has likely been exposed to mako there, how and in what amounts are currently unknown."
The sun was getting ready to set as Zack looked up at the smoke rising from the village. He and Reno had been traveling for two days from Nibelheim to reach Cosmo Canyon. They would have gotten there sooner, but Zack kept struggling and wanted to turn back and go after his friend. Despite what the general had said, he was blaming himself. He had just stood there and let them take his friend away.
It was Reno who had convinced him to finally see reason when he stated that even if they had managed to get Cloud way from them, the kid had some pretty serious injuries and he might not have survived the trip back. The two of them had started to blame the other and it had turned into a shouting match. It would have turned into a fist fight, but all their shouting had alerted a Nibel Dragon to their position and it attacked.
It was a tough battle, but the two were able to work as a team to bring it down. They decided to set their arguments aside for now and focus on getting back. Around the same time that they entered the village outskirts they bumped into Kunsel who was escorting a very irritated little girl, whom Zack recognized and gawked at.
"You're the girl from Wutai!"
"So what if I am, wanna make somethin' of it!"
"So you know the princess too," asked Kunsel.
"We've met," the First Class replied.
The four headed up the stairs and the guards prepared to confront them until they saw Reno and Zack before they let out collective defeated sighs and sat down to resume their increasingly meaningless post.
"This job sucks," one pouted.
Yuffie smirked at them. "If you want you can be my treasure hunters. It beats sitting there all day long."
"Come along troublemaker," Kunsel told her as they entered the village.
As they made their way towards the elder's house they were stopped when they heard someone calling Zack's name. Tifa jogged towards them from over by the candle when she saw them return. Her smile faded then when she realized Cloud wasn't with them.
"Where's Cloud?"
This was what Zack didn't want to deal with right now. "Spiky's…um…"
"The general needed him back in Midgar for a secret mission and only the scrawny chocobutt could pull it off. Somethin' about an old pipe that the general can't fit through," Reno covered for him.
Zack secretly hated how easy it was for Reno to weave a well-detailed story so quickly, but for the moment he was grateful for it as he saw the girl buy the fib.
"Oh, I see. I just hate that he left here so angry."
Reno nodded. "Don't worry, he'll be back here ranting and raving like a hungry chocobo before you know it."
Tifa nodded. "I hope so, poor Marlene misses him. I tried feeding her the other night and she wouldn't eat. Barret tried and even Aerith tried. She fussed until I pulled out a picture of Cloud and she calmed down, but that won't work forever. She wants the real thing."
Zack couldn't stand there any longer, the pain and regret was too much. He turned and walked away leaving Tifa confused, as well as Kunsel who knew that wasn't like the SOLDIER at all.
A few minutes later Kunsel found his friend leaning against the canyon wall with his eyes closed and his features exuding pain.
"Zack…Cloud's not headed to Midgar, is he."
Zack clenched his fist before letting out a slow, controlled breath. "No. Hojo's got him."
Kunsel's eyes widened behind his helmet, knowing what he had just found across the sea he knew what could happen. Zack didn't need to see the evidence he collected for the general. It was clear as he leaned his head back against the wall and fought back tears of bitter regret.
"Why couldn't it be easy? The plan was so simple. Change the company from the inside, save the people who didn't deserve to die, take out or expose the rotten apples and make the world a better place. How could we have screwed up so bad?"
Kunsel had a feeling there was a bigger plan than he had first thought, but he never imagined it'd be this big. He needed answers, but those could wait until he asked the general directly himself, right now his friend needed him. Zack had dealt with so much loss recently. Kunsel knew how hard losing Angeal had been for him and he had seen how the quiet, young cadet had helped his friend cope with that loss. Now that Cloud was in trouble Zack was dealing with the loss all over again and then some.
"Zack, I promise I'll do everything I can to help find him. Hojo can't keep running and hiding forever."
Zack nodded before looking back towards the center of the village. "I can't face her again. Not if she's going to ask me about Cloud. Sephiroth ordered us to keep the news secret. They don't need to mount a rescue mission. Not when they need to protect Aerith. Cloud wouldn't forgive himself if he found out they left her to help him."
Kunsel nodded, "And that's why we won't tell them. Sephiroth ordered us to return to Midgar anyway. We can just say he needs backup."
Zack nodded in agreement. "Okay, let's go. I'm tired, but the sooner we get away from here the better."
It had been a few hours after Zack, Kunsel and Reno had left. Aerith knew something was wrong with Zack as he said his goodbyes. She wanted him to tell her what was wrong, but he wouldn't and that bothered her. She knew it was something serious if he had kept it from her. He had only broken down once and it was with her as he grieved over his mentor's death. She had been there for him and vowed to always be there, so she knew he realized that, but if he wasn't ready to deal with the reality of whatever it was then she would respect that and be there for him when he needed her. The planet seemed to approve of them as she could hear it humming a gentle tune every time she thought of him.
It surprised her then when the planet uttered a warning when she listened in to try and figure out what this strange anxious feeling meant. It got louder suddenly and she turned around to see Vincent half dragging, half carrying a man in a worn red duster. His sheathed sword dragging along the ground and his paper-thin grey hair swayed in the breeze as if it were light as a feather, which startled her when she saw he had those too in the form of a giant wing that protruded from his back and hung limp, dragging along the ground as well. The jet black feathers were also turning grey.
Aerith looked up at Vincent then who wore an expression she wasn't used to seeing on his features. Worry and sorrow combined with confusion and urgency.
"Can you save him?"
Aerith blinked as she approached the man, his breathing was shallow and his pulse was weak. She could feel the taint of evil within and sensed just how broken he was as she tried to heal him with a healing spell from her unique materia. She could sense how his body was fighting itself and that it was tired and on the verge of failing. Already she could sense two major organs failing.
"This way, I can't do it alone."
Vincent followed her, carrying the dying man. A short time later Aerith was standing at the head of the table where he had been carefully placed as Bugenhagen, Nanaki and four other of the village's best healers stood around him. All of them carried pure healing materia created from the planet itself which was very rare and dangerous to use if you didn't know what you were doing, but with an ancient among them she could channel the power to fulfill its full potential. They had four between them, plus Aerith's special materia. It would be a challenge for her, but he wasn't going to give up on him. Not when she could tell how much pain he must have endured with such an aggressive ailment.
As the materia began to glow, the man stirred and his graying-blue eyes locked with hers and she saw regret and fear. Then he spoke and Aerith felt heartbroken that his words were his admission to giving up.
"To spare the sands, the seas, the skies, I offer thee this silent sacrifice."
Aerith found a resolve within herself. She vowed she would save him as she replied in turn, "Even if the morrow is barren of promises, nothing shall forestall your return."
His eyes widened slightly before the spell began, surprise plain on his features as she recited a verse he himself had invented. But he was given no more time to ponder over it as the pain forced his eyes shut and he prepared to endure whatever was to come.
Aerith focused her power and was rewarded when she could easily see what was wrong and with the collective power of the materia began healing the man from the cellular level. His entire body really was fighting to survive. There were his cells that were degrading as they fought against a powerful force that Aerith knew was the calamity which had wiped out her people. She did fear it, but she wouldn't dare leave him to lose the battle and allow it to claim his life.
She could feel the spell working as some color returned to the man, but then it seemed the entity took notice of her as the calamity cells activated in reaction to a cetra and used its power to shoot an aura at her, causing razor-sharp cuts to assault her, but although she was in pain from the wounds as they sliced into her cheeks, arms, shoulders, anywhere it could target she never wavered from her task.
The villagers were concerned as they saw what was happening. "Let's stop before it gets worse," offered one.
"No," Bugenhagen replied. "If the cetra wanted to stop she would say so. Her pain will be for nothing if we give in, now focus!"
Nanaki growled as he stood next to the flower girl, challenging the foe he knew they were fighting. "Fortunately for the creature it has no physical form or I'd finish it off with one swift bite!"
The entity seemed to have registered the threat as the man suddenly started to writhe in pain. His sword hand clenched before it started to reach for his blade. Vincent's eyes glowed as Chaos sensed what was happening and he reached over and took the sword from out of the man's reach.
"Be careful what you wish for. This is Jenova we're dealing with."
Nanaki nodded and focused his attention back into the spell.
The struggle seemed to go on for hours as Aerith worked to annihilate every last trace of Jenova within. Finally, the man had taken enough and a powerful fire engulfed him and shot outwards, forcing the occupants of the room back. Vincent protected Aerith, while Nanaki shielded everyone else with a barrier.
When the fire dissipated the man was laying there, his clothes were no longer faded, his wing was back to sleek jet black and his hair was a fiery red. Aerith approached with Vincent right beside her, in case the man tried anything. She felt his pulse and smiled when it was strong, his breathing was even and though he looked exhausted he looked far better than he had previously.
It was then that Vincent saw a red leather book laying on the ground where it had fallen from the man's pocket and opened it. On the main page it said LOVELESS, and on the inside of the cover a name was scribbled in fancy hand-writing: Property of Genesis Rhapsodos.