Sorry for the long wait, but I'm posting again because I am fairly confident that I've got the story plotted for finishing. I'm hoping to make weekly updates and get it all done, at long last! I only hope that the way I write it doesn't detract from the reader's enjoyment, because getting the tone of the place that their in has been extremely difficult. Anyway, I hope you like it, and thank you all for sticking with me to see this one out.
Nibelheim was even more of a backwater town than Sephiroth had first imagined. The Aid Station run by ShinRa was the only building not hundreds of years old. The little circular shape of the village only reinforced the feeling that Nibelheim did not like the outside—all of the houses faced inwards, their backs to the rest of the world…all except for a rather romantically Gothic mansion on the outskirts and a few outcast cottages scattered here and there.
The exhausted quartet exited the transport, the time change and the long travel taking their toll. The ShinRa issued transport required someone to be with it at all times, necessitating two people on a rotating basis. Cloud would dearly have loved to volunteer but the task rightly belonged to one of his Corporals and Sephiroth beat him to it anyway, saying, "One of you two stay with the driver and make sure the vehicle is kept prepped for departure at any time. Fair and you two, come with me."
Cloud frowned and put his borrowed helmet on, not about to walk into the town he hated with his failure stamped on him for everyone to see. He was worn out, grumpy, and not at all pleased to be back home. He saw people milling around at the Inn, their shocked faces pressed to the windows to see the infamous Sephiroth in their beloved little town. Cloud idly wondered if his mother was still around, and if his father had ever come home. He wondered what would happen if he went to go see her…would she even be glad to see him?
Sephiroth's smooth, cool voice interrupted Cloud's thoughts when the man said, "It's been awhile since you've been here in your hometown, hasn't it?"
Cloud stopped as the General stopped, all of them halting just at the entrance to the square proper. He didn't answer Sephiroth, he didn't even acknowledge that he had spoken.
"How does it feel?" the man asked, looking back over one shoulder at him, unperturbed by Cloud's silence even though Zack was getting riled up on the tension. "I don't have a hometown of my own…"
"What about your parents?" Zack asked, trying to lighten things.
Sephiroth turned all the way to address the young First Class, telling him, "My mother's name is Jenova. She died giving birth to me. And my father…"
He trailed off, uttering a self-deprecating laugh and touching his forehead at a low, insistent pain throbbing there, sighing, "What am I doing? Enough nonsense, let's go."
Without another word, he strode into the square with Cloud and the other MP at his heels.
Without meaning to be, Cloud was concerned by Sephiroth's odd response just now – it wasn't like the man to speak of anything personal in front of others, and to see the great General so distracted made him leery. He was already on edge being back here; adding Sephiroth's sudden unusual behavior on top of it and Cloud was feeling a biting, uncomfortable sense of oppressiveness.
He wasn't the only one – Zack was anything but his usual irrepressible self, and even Sephiroth had a queer sense of foreboding about this miserable little place. It felt uncannily familiar to him, and the moment he stepped into the square, he didn't feel quite alright. It was as if that soft thread of awareness had suddenly grown stronger, and it seemed he was aware of too much of everything everywhere. When he looked back at Cloud, he could swear he heard the young man's soft voice say, "Don't, don't, or I'll break again and I can't allow it…"
It made his cyan eyes narrow with concentration, and he felt the undercurrent of certainty grow stronger, that he wasn't like the others, that he was the best because he was not only better, but superior. He could taste destiny on his tongue but had no idea why such a pathetic excuse for a town would incite such feelings of startled triumph in him.
"Are you the SOLDIERs sent here to do the investigation?"
Sephiroth drew up short and glanced down, eyes narrowing when he found a young, inappropriately dressed girl gazing up at him in frank assessment. Just as he gathered himself to chastise her, Zack pushed his way to the front, saying, "Yeah. I'm Zack of SOLDIER, 1st Class."
Sephiroth surreptitiously watched Cloud, who kept nervously pulling at his helmet as if afraid it might slip and reveal his face. He realized that bringing the young man back to his hometown was not necessarily a happy homecoming…but then, he hadn't known that Cloud had been assigned to this mission. Out of nowhere, for no reason he could think of, he thought of Hojo and wondered if the Good Doctor had somehow arranged this. After all, whatever he'd done to Cloud, he'd done in Nibelheim, and having the young man go with Zack would assure Cloud being left alone at some point. It smacked of a setup and Sephiroth quietly considered it as the little girl took herself off to friendlier parts.
"If you've quite finished, Isaac?" he asked, acid coolness in his voice. He disliked being delayed, even though his thoughts had more than preoccupied him during Zack's brief conversation.
"Yeah," Zack said, and flushed a little. "Weird kid."
Sephiroth brushed him off and looked at the two MPs hanging behind them, addressing them lowly so that eager village ears wouldn't overhead, "We will begin our investigation of the mako reactor tomorrow morning. I suggest getting some rest this evening, I'll need you to maintain watch tomorrow. Consider this a free evening, but use it wisely."
He didn't wait for a response, he turned and strode into the Inn where the clerk wordlessly handed him a key. His thoughts were moiling with suspicion, with musing about Cloud and how Hojo was connected to him. Professor Hojo was sly, very sly indeed, and Sephiroth would not put it past him to have planned this whole thing out. That he himself was here to protect Cloud would only deter the man and make him realize that Cloud was not for hands such as his.
He was for Sephiroth's alone.
He took the risers two at a time and paused at the window of the landing, gazing out at trees, fields, and the mountainous terrain. Had he seen pictures of this? Why was it so familiar? Familiar enough to have caught his eye.
He heard Zack come bounding up the stairs and absently shifted so that the assured collision was reduced to a near one. The perky SOLDIER First Class bounced on his toes for a moment before shoving his way closer, asking curiously, "Whatcha looking at?"
"The view," Sephiroth murmured. "It's very familiar to me somehow. What took you so long?"
Zack cocked his head and flushed a little, but his grin was as wide as always, if not just a little worn around the edges.
"Just gave the MPs some instructions," he said.
Sephiroth gazed down at him, an unwelcome, errant thought bubbling up from a welling spring of suspicion. Perhaps it was just his fear that this was a trap by Hojo, perhaps it was just a jealousy he had no experience in, perhaps it was his newly building awareness, but for some reason he was questioning just how close Zack was to Cloud.
'He's just so pretty and sad…'
"I'm sorry?" Sephiroth asked, confused. "What did you just say?"
"I didn't say anything," Zack said, worried, looking at him with those puppy-dog eyes.
'He just needed someone to turn to, and I needed someone, too…'
Sephiroth shook his head, touching his temple with his fingers.
"Isaac, humor me," he said, frowning. "But were you thinking of Cloud just now?"
"Yeah!" Zack crowed, delighted. "How did you know?"
Sephiroth's eyes swept closed as he tried to control the rising tide of his temper, so his words were clipped and short when he said, "Best get some sleep, Isaac. We have a long day ahead of us tomorrow."
"Okay," Zack said, swinging back to concerned now. "Are you alright, Sephiroth?"
"Fine," the man lied, ready to throttle him if he so much as thought about touching Cloud. "Go on."
Looking like a scolded puppy, Zack hurried off to his room, leaving Sephiroth standing there on the darkening landing as the sun fell behind the shadow of the mountain.
***
Cloud slowly made his way down the alleys towards his mother's cottage, thinking about Zack's melancholy and how different he seemed now than he was back when Cloud had first met him. He'd seemed reluctant to go after Sephiroth, lost in his own musings, but he'd still offered his usual friendly smile to Cloud and the others when he'd dismissed them.
Cloud had checked on the men at the transport, made sure they had sleeping and eating arrangements worked out, and then – with nothing better to do and too much restless energy to get rid of – he'd decided it was now or never.
He was going to visit his mother's cottage.
'She doesn't even live here anymore,' he scolded himself, trudging up the rocky trail to where the little house sat perched on the stone. 'The second you left he came back for her and they moved someplace warm and sunny…'
The darkening sky made the way treacherous, but Cloud was used to this trail, and even after years away he still remembered every inch of it. Without him even having to think of it, he found every sure place to step and managed to make it to the cottage door without trouble.
Golden light glowed through the small front window, sending a square of illumination onto the scraggly shrubs and rock next to the front door.
Cloud swallowed hard and moved closer, nervous suddenly. He steeled himself for disappointment – a stranger would answer, would tell him she'd moved away, would tell him they didn't know anything about her…
He forced back his fears and lifted his fist to knock on the door but stopped short when he saw someone through the window.
It was his mother, and his heart lurched painfully when he saw her familiar features, her thin face.
His hand dropped unnoticed to his side as he looked at her, watching her stir something over the fire. She was smiling a little, lost in her own thoughts, perfectly happy to be in her cozy home on a cool night, safe against the wolves and creatures that abounded in the mountainous terrain.
Who was he to come ruin this for her? Who was he to come waltzing back into her life, a disturbance to her obvious peace?
He frowned and took a step backwards, nearly falling off of the small porch. It creaked loudly when he stumbled down it, and as he turned his back on the house to walk away, more light fell on the ground at his feet.
"Cloud?" his mother cried, and for a second he was sure she was angry with him, but the tears of joy he heard cracking her voice were unmistakable when she sobbed, "I've missed you so much!"
A/N: Some parts of the dialogue are straight from the game, credit where credit is due. I was trying to stay true to the run of events, here :D
