WE FINALLY MADE IT TO CHAPTER 55! This is NOT THE end though! We just decided that for easy reading reasons we are splitting into parts (so it doesnt became 2000 chapters lol). Anyways enjoy the final part of Part 1!
Ch.55
The days since the Banora mission seemed to stretch on and on. Still barely anything changed and it was driving Cloud and Zack up a wall. Though between the two it was really more of Zack who was becoming extremely anxious over the situation. He still wondered whatever happened to Angeal and Genesis, since no further word had been given since the last time.
Though, Cloud had his fair share of issues with waiting. Sephiroth was still as distant as ever, and while they had occasional training days, they barely interacted otherwise. There was just no telling what Sephiroth was thinking and Cloud could never get the proper moment to just go and ask him about it. He didn't even know how he wanted to ask even if he could.
At least he had some time to think again after another day of training and preparing was done. That's all he'd known to do without any other directives. Sephiroth wasn't even there anymore to monitor the training anymore, it was all prepared. At least, he personally hadn't been assigned to any new mission outside of Shinra. Had anyone else?
His thoughts flayed to his brother Zack. 'I bet he's been sent on some since...well, that incident. Haven't even seen him all day, or heard from him either.'
Cloud didn't have the liberty of staying in thought too much longer. As he neared the elevator, the lights in the area suddenly started flashing red, accompanied by the alarm sounds. His eyes darted up and down the corridor, and sure enough, he wasn't imagining things. The sound was like a bullhorn and was nearly deafening, as he wasn't used to such a noise.
They had all learned and experienced different protocols for Shinra in the past, but never thought any of them would actually happen. And there was only one instance in which this type of alert would go off.
"We have intruders in the building!" a voice echoed over the loudspeaker.
Intruders. But, how? Why?
There wasn't a whole lot of time to question it though for various strange little mech robots were crawling along the floor now, approaching him slowly. Right away he took out his sword and engaged in the fight against the machines, all whole wondering just what was happening. He knew that whatever it was, standing idly was not going to get him anywhere.
He tried to quickly dispose of the enemies, but they were proving to be a bit more difficult than first anticipated. Maybe it was because he was tired after the training? That was probably it, but it didn't matter. Though, when he paid more attention, he noticed something familiar about the units.
"Wait, aren't these… Shinra tech?!"
He couldn't wrap his head around it. Something was off, he knew that much, but whatever it was was far beyond anything he could have imagined. He knew one thing though, and that was to defend the building as best as he could, even if the threat was Shinra's own tech.
He could see that various employees scattered away from the oncoming tech, but he decided to charge right for it. Shortly after he took out another series of machines he noticed that none other than Zack was running towards him. It was hard to miss that spiky head anywhere.
"Yo, Cloud!" he yelled while waving his hand. "Were you doing some training today? What happened here?" Zack asked swiftly as he stopped in his tracks finally.
"Just cleared out some mechs. But, I don't understand. What's even going on? It just happened out of nowhere," Cloud replied, hoping to find some answers.
Zack rubbed the back of his head. "To be honest, I'm not sure about all the details, but basically-"
"Wait!" Cloud cut him off abruptly. The blond began to look more closely at Zack, inspecting him as he walked around. He then stood in front of his brother again, a surprised look on his face. "That's a 1st uniform. Why are you? When did you?..."
"Yeah you're right! Actually, it happened just about just a little bit before the security breach. And then… well, all this," he motioned his hands to everything around them.
"Wow, that's really good Zack. I don't know what to say," Cloud finally uttered, still shocked. But if he was honest, slightly jealous.
"Listen, we can discuss that later. I'd love to chat, but we are under attack of course.."
"But why? Were you told anything?"
"I don't know. I was supposed to head toward the entrance but the elevator stopped here and I cleared out some mechs on the other side of the floor. For you though, clear out as many baddies as you can and protect anyone that needs it. Got it?"
"Yeah, okay. But what will you do?"
"I should get back to heading to where Lazard told me too."
"I'll come with you then."
"Sorry, but you need to stay here. You're one of the only capable SOLDIERs on this floor at the moment. And I trust you. You trust me?"
He almost hesitated, but nodded. "Sure, of course I do! All right, just keep me posted when you can."
"Got it, good luck Cloud. We'll meet up after this is over!" Zack said loudly as he ran past Cloud and around the corner out of sight.
With a deep breath Cloud went back to patrolling the floor, trying to see if there were any more mechs or any one that may have needed his help. The lights still flashed their ominous red above the entire time, really bringing down the mood to a dreaded feeling. Cloud could not help but think back to Zack for many reasons now that all of this was going on.
Not only was there some severe attack happening at Shinra, but his own brother was 1st Class now and there hadn't even been time to properly discuss it. He wished he could have offered better congratulations to him, but he knew in the end it was going to have to wait. But either way… Zack finally was reaching their childhood dream. He had made it to 1st Class. Now all Cloud had to do was catch up again.
After much more time had passed, Cloud had been through most of the floors. Since he knew Zack had headed quickly to the entrance he decided to take it to hand to check the rest of them, or at least as many as he could. Eventually, the alarms inside the building subsided and he could breathe deeply again. He was just taking the elevator back up to the SOLDIER floor to make sure all was well. Suddenly, his phone rang and he lifted it from his pocket to answer.
"Cloud, there's been a development. On Angeal. I'm asking you to come along because you know the situation, even though you are only 2nd class," the voice spoke quickly from the other end. It was Sephiroth.
Cloud gasped slightly, a little shocked that Sephiroth had finally reached back out to him properly. It took this much for Sephriroth to come back around to giving him assignments again. Though honestly it was probably needed regardless of the situation that happened.
With a deep breath Cloud answered. "All right. What do I need to do?"
"You need to head to Mako Reactor 5. I've already sent Zack there after we finished clearing out some more copies here in Sector 8. You should meet up once you arrive."
"Okay, I can do that. But… what will happen once we find him?"
"The army is already on the move, so we have to beat them to him."
"But we're not gonna… you know…?"
"Of course not. That's why you two are assisting me. Now hurry Cloud, I'm counting on you to be there."
"On my way then," Cloud spoke quickly as he snapped his phone closed.
He wanted to say more to his mentor, but his legs were already moving before he even really thought about moving them. He was surprised at the last part, but it seemed Sephiroth wasn't upset with him at all. Cloud breathed a sigh of relief as he ran, a small smile appearing on his face.
"All right, let's do this! Hope that I can make it there in time…"
Zack had been staring down at the strange thing that had Angeal's face. It almost didn't make any sense, but Sephiroth said that apparently copies could also be made of Angeal too. After that there was nothing else said between them at first, only the echoing sounds within the reactor.
Sephiroth walked towards him, and then passed him in silence, only the sounds of his footsteps being heard. Zack's eyes followed him and eventually, Sephiroth stopped all together. However, Zack could have sworn he heard the clatter of metal coming from somewhere else Whatever it was, it seemed to be getting closer.
"Do you hear that?" he said as he hopped to his feet and turned around toward the noise.
He readied his sword in front of him, thinking it might be another copy of some kind. Or maybe it was Genesis, or even Angeal. He could only hope about that last one.
"There's no need for that Zack," Sephiroth stated as he held out his arm in front of Zack to stop him from moving forward. "Seems he's made it at a good time."
"He? Wait who…?" Zack asked, slightly confused by Sephiroth's calm statement.
Familiar blond hair came running along the walkway soon enough with a confused and surprised look towards the dead Angeal copy on the floor. "I'm here!" Cloud stated. "But uh what's that?"
"It's… It's um a…" Zack started to say as he glanced down at it again. "I don't really know…"
Sephiroth sighed and faced the boys. He looked so distant and calm, like he did when Cloud first met him, but this time there was a hint of sadness, something Cloud did expect. He closed his eyes for a moment and began to speak.
"The company training room… We used to sneak in there for fun, when the 2nds were out… Genesis, Angeal, and I."
"What do you mean?" Cloud asked confusingly.
"You guys were pretty tight then?" Zack asked.
"Hmm, I wonder," Sephiroth spoke as he paced around them.
Cloud watched as Sephiroth began to talk again, this time starting a story about a time that he was training with Genesis and Angeal. Cloud and Zack listened closely as Sephiroth detailed quietly just what it was that went down one training day and how it almost could have ended in tragedy. When he was finished with the story he closed his eyes again and waited. He moved forward to look out over the rector, standing right up against the railing.
"Wow…" Cloud thought to himself. "I have no idea something like that could have happened… They really fought in such a way and just…"
He heard Zack ask a question, but he had been too focused thinking about the story to hear what it was. But he did hear Sephiroth's answer at least. "Yes, as far as Genesis was concerned… But as for Angeal…"
"Angeal?" Zack asked quickly. "What happened?"
"Later, I received one of his famous lectures."
"You mean those you always talk about Zack?" Cloud questioned his brother curiously.
"Hey, I don't always talk about them," Zack scratched his head.
"Whatever the case, they're always the same. Discipline, dreams, honor, et cetera…"
"Ah, one of those, huh?" the two uttered in near unison.
Sephiroth nodded before he moved over to the fallen beast that had Angeal's face. "So it's true… they're in league with Hollander."
Cloud sighed while Zack should his exasperation for the matter. While Cloud was also upset over what had been transpiring, he knew Zack had more reason to be on edge. It was his mentor who was gone and a part of whatever this was after all. If Sephiroth had disappeared in the same fashion as Angeal did, Cloud would have been pretty upset over it too.
Carefully he placed a hand on his brother's back trying to console him. "I'm sorry, Zack."
"I just refuse to believe he's doing this on purpose. There has to be a reason!" Zack loudly spoke with frustration rampant in his voice.
He stood up and started pacing around. "So what are we gonna do now?"
"We go find Angeal and Genesis, same as before," Sephiroth announced as Zack had already started to walk off.
Cloud began to follow behind Sephiroth after he nodded. But his mentor stopped him. "What is it?" Cloud pondered.
The silver-haired man stared at him. "I want you to go see if there are any remaining Angeal copies. There's bound to be. I want you to deal with them."
His request reached Cloud's ears but the blond didn't quite understand it at first. "But, why?! I need to stay and-"
"Cloud, I need you here. Someone has to keep the area safe and you are the one I am trusting with this. Don't let me down," Sephiroth spoke quickly as he turned swiftly, his coat flipping back around him.
Cloud sighed, knowing he could not argue against Sephiroth. He had to do what he was told and hope that Sephiroth would be happy with his results. With the other two already gone he began to wander around the area. Soon enough the copies that Sephiroth mentioned showed up and he began to fight. Even if he wished he could do something else, he was going to try and do the best job that he could.
He wasn't exactly sure how much time had gone by, but after a while the reactor felt fairly quiet. There was no sign of any Angeal copies or anything else. There were only the strange and eerie echoes that the reactor gave off. At first Cloud thought he would check through the reactor once more in the area that Sephiroth told him to work through, but soon he was starting to wonder if Sephiroth was still here.
He was ready to pull out his phone when he heard fast paced footsteps. He turned on point in the direction of the sound to see the flow of some familiar silver hair. "Sephiroth?"
"Cloud, we need to get back to Shinra HQ now, there's no time to waste."
"But wait, where's Zack? Shouldn't he be with you?" Cloud questioned worryingly.
Sephiroth sighed. "He went after Hollander and I'm not sure what happened to him after that," his mentor explained as he held his arms out by his side.
"But he's my brother! We can't just-"
"Cloud," Sephiroth interjected. "You're right, he is your brother. And a 1st Class SOLDIER now. Do you not trust your brother's skills? Do you think he is not capable of taking care of himself?"
The blond started to answer but held his tongue. He wanted to dispute what Sephiroth had said. Zack was his brother after all and he wanted to make sure he was okay. But the questions pierced every corner of his mind. Would he really be looking down on Zack if he protested as he was? How would Zack then react to that?
Cloud confused himself with his own questions, but the answer was clear. "I guess you're right. I know my brother better than anyone…"
"Then you should know he will be just fine, no matter what situation he's in," Sephiroth followed up bluntly. "Now, come on," he finished as he whipped around to walk back, his coat flapping against the wind.
"Y-Yes sir," Cloud answered in an unsure but obedient tone. "But, what is going on at HQ now? I thought we cleared out everything," he wondered as he followed closely behind his mentor.
"Genesis is going back to lay siege to the place himself. Possibly attack the President. We cannot let that happen."
'How did that even happen?' Cloud asked himself this internally, expecting the only thing he would get from Sephiroth would be a cynical and indirect answer. So he kept his thoughts to himself, trying to consider what they would even do once they were back there. But he couldn't help but allow his mind to wander to something apparently more pressing, despite his reassurances.
'I sure hope that Zack is okay, wherever he is…'
Thank you all so so much for staying with us this whole time! We hope to see you in the next part!
