A/N: Sorry, Sly and Rogue insisted on doing this. Cheers for Reno and Cloud! They'll both need them.

Feathers

After getting his two reports done, Reno was able to focus on investigation again—namely of the files Sly had hijacked from the Science Lab. He was the first to admit that 'scientific jargon' was difficult for him to make sense of, but once he got it, he got it just fine. Numbers often helped with that, and the files had a lot of those in them, so plugging away through it was helping him grasp the process of how the clone had been made and how it was developing. The files also had notes on the most recent records Hojo had taken from Sephiroth directly, which put into perspective the corresponding data regarding the clone.

He was beginning to realize why trying to fight 'The Nightmare' would be so hard on Cloud, both physically and mentally, because there was a whole lot wrong with the numbers he was looking at.

Sephiroth's records as the General and as himself the way Shinra currently knew him were on the high end, but well-rounded, and there were other SOLDIERs and Turks who were capable of scoring at least some of those numbers. Granted, there was really no one else who scored them all at the same time, but just that others could achieve those numbers meant they were doable, and Sephiroth only counted as a 'prodigy'. At least some of that could likely be put down to, as Cloud had once said, his training and education—he'd been alive long enough for that to be viable.

When he looked at the clone's numbers, they were often around double Sephiroth's, in most of the categories they were scoring. While they were 'often' around double, they most certainly weren't stable, and they tended to randomly either skyrocket or collapse into nothing, making them reliable only about fifty percent of the time. If they skyrocketed, they tended to backfire on the clone—something Sephiroth had never experienced—and if they collapsed, so too did the clone. Hojo was trying to fix that, but was having no luck yet, and part of that was probably because the clone had been grown too fast to actively learn to control its own abilities.

That didn't account for all the oddities, however, and Reno often found himself wondering if Hojo even had a brain, or if he just wanted to create a random patch job of a monster so it could destroy everything for him. On the other hand, if he had Jenova cells in him, and The Nightmare had also been sent back because he'd never dissolved into the Lifestream, having The Nightmare in the clone's body probably made it a lot more viable than if it wasn't. If he had to guess, Reno thought The Nightmare's first attack on Cloud and Sephiroth had been planned for when he'd been at his best—which was possible to plan for, due to the average length of time the stable skills lasted for.

Anyone who had fought The Nightmare in that other lifetime must have been very, very lucky, very, very creative, had Minerva's support, or all three. Hence Cloud.

He was startled out of his musing as several shiny black feathers drifted down over his computer screen from above, making him blink, then look up—at Sly, sitting smugly on top of the screen. The raccoon then turned and headed for the vent again (the cover was off, so he'd obviously been out once already), and Reno looked down at his keyboard and desk. Which were both now covered in about twenty-ish of those shiny black feathers. And they weren't really small feathers, either—each was nearly as long as his forearm.

Before he could sigh and go back to what he'd been doing, Sly returned to the top of his computer screen—and promptly dropped another twenty or so of those black feathers. Reno blinked again, then looked up at Sly in utter confusion as the raccoon gave him an obvious smirk, then returned to the vent. Rather than try to go back to work, he watched the vent for Sly's return, which he did a couple moments later, with another bunch of about twenty feathers. Which he once again dropped onto Reno's keyboard from the top of the screen.

That actually made Reno's brain break for a moment as Sly went back to the vent again, and when the raccoon returned with another batch of feathers, Reno asked, "Do ya think you could put 'em all on the desk instead o' droppin' 'em on my keyboard, yo?"

Sly paused in what he'd been doing to eye the red haired man for a long moment, then randomly tossed the feathers on the desk, so Reno sighed—and sighed again as Sly returned to the vent again.

"What the fuck, yo?" he muttered as he swept all the feathers over to the middle of his desk and grabbed up a few which had fallen outside the general range of the rest to add them to the growing pile. However, he kept one in his hand to examine it closely as he tried to puzzle out where it might have come from. Sly's interest in them may have been the shiny factor, but only up to a point—he'd gathered way too many for that to be it. On the other hand, they generally just looked like any other bird feather, though off a rather large bird. A Zuu, maybe? Were any of those in the Lab right now?

As Sly jumped out of the vent again, Reno's jaw dropped—the vent had just turned on, pushing air through the vents at a pretty good clip—

And an entire cloud of black feathers was shoved out of the vent with the air pressure.

Of course, a cloud of black feathers drifting to the floor of the Turks' office caused everyone else in the room to turn to stare in surprise, and Sly was actually eying the drifting feathers in annoyance. The ones he was carrying, he quickly deposited on the pile Reno had made on his desk, then Sly began scrambling around to collect all the drifting feathers to add them to the pile. Through most of that process, literally all the Turks (at least, the ones present in the office), Rufus, Scarlet, and Reeve just stared at Sly and the feathers in confusion.

"Reno...What is Sly doing?" Cloud asked in bemusement suddenly.

"Collectin' shiny black feathers, yo," Reno replied in irritation. "What's it look like 'e's doin'?"

"That's an awful lot of feathers, though..." Verde put in, sounding amused.

At around that time, Rogue climbed up onto Reno's desk, and all the Turks held their breaths to see what would happen. Sly dropped some feathers on the pile and went back to collecting them, apparently choosing to ignore Rogue entirely, and Rogue sniffed the pile before sitting back and looking at Sly with his head tipped to the side in confusion. Reno mentally snorted at the action, since virtually everyone in the room was doing the same thing—trying to figure out what the fuck Sly was doing.

"Here's another question, then," Scarlet offered. "Where did he get them all?"

"No clue," Reno returned. "My best guess is if there's A Zuu in the Labs or somethin', yo."

As Sly put more feathers on the pile, Cloud got up and made his way over to the pile to pick up a feather, gazing at it oddly for a long moment before saying slowly, "These look like the feathers off the wings people like Sephiroth and Genesis have—them in particular because theirs are black. Maybe you could call Genesis and ask if he's molting?"

Everyone gaped at Cloud in shock, except for Sly, who scrambled up onto the blond boy's shoulder, hugged him around the neck (feathers in his grip and all), then jumped from his shoulder to the desk to add those ones to the pile, and was off again for more feathers.

"Why Genesis?" Eonna asked in surprise.

"I'll second that," Rufus agreed.

"Sephiroth's in Wutai, and the clone is still young—his feathers wouldn't be this size yet," Cloud replied flatly. "By default, that leaves Genesis."

"...Okay, fair," Reno agreed after a momentary glance at the data on his screen. That part was true—the clone was now only around thirteen thanks to the development slow-down he'd had when he'd tried to fight Sephiroth before. If the data was right, he had to be sixteen to reach his full size, which was also when the wing feathers would reach their maximum length. With a faint sigh, he pulled out his PHS and put in the call to Genesis.

The man answered it with the question, "Did you need me for something, Reno?"

With a snort, the Turk replied, "Sly's bringin' me a shit-load o' feathers, an' Cloud said I should ask ya if you're moltin'. So, are ya?"

There was a pause on the other end of the line, then Genesis burst into rather exuberant laughter. After a few minutes, the phone apparently moved away from him, and a familiar girl's voice said, "Genesis won't stop laughing, so what did you need? Maybe I can help?"

"Hey there, Little Mage," he replied with a grin, watching Sly add more feathers to the pile. He then repeated the question he'd ask Genesis to her, which made her giggle.

"Everyone seems to like his feathers. Even Kunzel and Kariya kept some, but I'd thought Shalua and I got the most. I didn't know Sly had been here," she told him before he could worry he'd set off another 'laugher'. "I guess he loses a lot of them every time he pulls them out? But because there's two now when there only used to be one, and he spent hours teaching Diva how to use her wings with them, he lost piles of them."

"...Right," he sighed. "So, Sly hijacked tons of 'em, probably while he was busy teachin' Diva, an' unless he wants 'em back, I dunno what ta do with 'em."

"Make Sly a feathered hat or something?" Shelke suggested.

"Hat," Reno repeated, tone going dry. "He brought me so many I could make 'im an entire suit of 'em...an' probably still have enough left over ta fill a dozen pillows, yo."

That made her (and most of the Turks listening to the discussion) chuckle again. "You don't have to use them all at once. I make things—crafts and stuff—with feathers, so if you're ever bored, I could tell you things. Or you could ask me to make things if you give me the feathers I need for them."

He sighed and sat back to stare at the pile on his desk, then commented, "Ya know, if you make somethin' for Sly, it'd probably upset Hex if she didn't get anythin', so if you're makin' pairs, it'd use more up at once." Sly paused to look at him for a moment, then just went back to collecting them, no further response, either positive or negative, given. If Sly wasn't going to protest some of the feathers going to Hex, that was a good thing, and he wouldn't question it any further.

"So you want me to do that?" Shelke asked happily.

"Please, yo! I ain't got no time or idea what ta do with a bunch o' feathers. You can come get 'em, or I could give 'em to ya at your place," Reno agreed.

"I'll use the feathers I already have to make them, and when I give the made ones to you, you can give me back the amount of feathers I used to make them," Shelke replied. "Until you run out of feathers to trade off, anyway."

"Sure thing, Little Mage," he agreed with a smile. "Drop in whenever ya get a pair done, then."

"I will. Thanks!" she agreed, then paused for a long moment. In the background, Reno could hear Genesis still laughing, but it had calmed down some. Then, the girl said, "If he's going to be teaching Diva to fly, chances are Sly will collect a lot more feathers from him. If I've made everything I can think of for them and you don't want to keep the rest, you could just give them to me to use for random things, like—down blankets and pillows and coats, stuff like that. Or more artistic things, like dream wings (1)."

"That might be doable, 'specially if I get some o' those things ya make, too," Reno agreed. "Like I said, I really don't need 'em, so if you can make shit with 'em, feel free. Well, unless Sly's especially possessive of particular feathers."

"Oh, he can keep some, but I don't think raccoons use them much, and you should still have plenty to let me use," she assured him. "Between me and Sly collecting them, it probably won't be long before all the Turks and the SOLDIERs I know have at least one of everything I know how to make."

"Sounds good. See ya later, then, Little Mage," he agreed, and they said their goodbyes and hung up.

When he looked at the pile again, he blinked as he saw five of the feathers sitting in front of Rogue, who had one paw on them possessively, and Dark Nation (who was now always where Rufus was) grabbed a feather right then to drop to the floor, where he heard Tyra (who wasn't visible behind his desk) give a happy yip. Everyone else in the office began snickering as Derin sighed tiredly and made to reach for the feathers Rogue had collected. To both Reno and Derin's surprise, Sly smacked Derin's hand away from the feathers in front of Rogue, then went back to collecting the rest of them off the floor. Minus the one Tyra was apparently now playing with.

Wait, Sly didn't care if others took them, not even his 'rival', Rogue?

When the raccoon had gathered the last, he sat proudly beside the pile on Reno's desk, so Reno asked, "Are there any 'special' ones ya wanna keep fer yerself, yo?"

Sly just gazed at him for a moment, then dug in the pile to pull several out, and Reno realized right away that every one of those ones had mottled gray and black, the gray parts looking like shiny silver when the light hit them at the right angle.

"Okay, then," he told the raccoon. "You can keep those ones with yer other things in your bed. The rest, I'ma trade off ta Shelke so she can make things with 'em, some o' them things you'll get, too, yo. Good?"

The other Turks blinked as Sly nodded, but Verde commented, "I think Sly and Hex really did get a Mako mutation, but in their case, it was beneficial since it increased their intelligence and comprehension. That's a rare result, but not unheard of. Hex generally puts it to good use, and I suppose we'll have to see with Sly—they're still not fully adults themselves, and raccoons never seem to fully grow up to begin with."

"Well, some o' the things he hijacks 're actually good fer us," Reno commented in amusement. "An' most o' the employees ain't so afraid o' Turks anymore, now that Sly's started hijackin' things an' I gotta return 'em. I'm just glad most o' 'em see it like a game."

"I think we're all grateful for that," Doriss snorted from her seat, and the words produced amusement and agreement from the others.

"Yeah," Reno agreed, then eyed the pile of feathers again. It covered over half his desk and was over a foot and a half tall. "Now...How'm I gonna get this all home?"

Extended amused laughter was the result, but Reeve quietly approached him and offered him a sack he'd apparently been keeping on him, saying quietly, "Return it the next time I'm here. Usually, Cait Sith brings me things a lot more useful than feathers, but sometimes, he brings me so much I need a way to move it all. So yes, I know how that feels. Next time you're in the city, you might want to invest in a large bag you can use to carry things—just in case Sly does this again."

Reno snorted. "Noted. Thanks, Reeve," he added as he took the bag and began shoving feathers into it. After this absurd interlude, he'd be happy to get back to the files he'd been working on.

MB

Cloud absently returned to his seat, still holding the feather he'd picked up as he eyed it—and tried to shove away all the memories it triggered. How many times had he seen The Nightmare's feathers flying around? He'd never had wings himself (based on the experiments Hojo had done to him, in theory, he should have ended up with them), but all his memories were of those black wings, those black feathers, The Nightmare on a rampage.

Genesis in Nibelheim—he hadn't imagined that, he was now sure of it. When Sephiroth had finally lost it, Genesis had been there, too. Had he helped instigate it? The red haired man had given that impression, but Cloud had thought it was guilt talking—he knew that feeling all too well.

Memories weren't easy to deal with when the cause of most of them was just a few floors above him.

Happy yipping made him turn to look at Tyra, who was playing with one of the feathers by alternately sort of batting it around on the floor and batting at it while Dark Nation held it in his mouth. That made him blink, then tip his head to the side in puzzled confusion as he realized his mind and emotions were going in two different directions.

Yes, he had memories of the feathers, but the feathers had never been a cause of anything. When The Nightmare had used his wings, that had been problematic, but feathers by themselves weren't wings, and otherwise, his memories had nothing to do with either wings or feathers. What had always been singularly the most harmful in his memories had been the people.

Had it really taken him so long to realize objects had nothing to do with it?

To be fair, phobia was a thing, and he had good reason to be terrified of Masamune, as he'd been actively attacked by it more than once. Always because it had been in The Nightmare's hands, but by it directly nonetheless—which was what created a phobia (unless the phobia had no known origin point in the person's memory). The feathers weren't like that, though. They had never hurt him, and had more often represented his victory rather than the attack on him. There was no tangible reason for him to associate them with those memories, or with the negative elements of them. Being terrified of Labs and scientists had a lot more logical premise.

:Who ever said emotion was logical?: Fenrir asked him in dry amusement, and he blinked in surprise. :In fact, the very definition of emotion is a lack of logic.:

:Does that mean I'm supposed to toss it in the trash?: Cloud asked in reply in annoyance.

:No. Not everything can be solved by logic alone—most things actually need input from both or you'll royally screw something up,: Fenrir answered, his tone more amused than dry at that point. :Even if you logically shouldn't associate them directly with The Nightmare, you've seen him with that wing, molting those feathers, often enough. They're associated with one another in your mind. Whether their appearance was good or bad for you isn't the point—it's that they invariably belong to him. If you can overcome that, you're a lot stronger than even I realized, and I already knew you were strong.:

Processing that statement took Cloud a few minutes, during which he watched Tyra play with the feather Dark Nation had hijacked for her. Since Sly didn't seem to mind, he just left them to it, only then realizing Sly also didn't mind him carting one away. He supposed he could say that about the raccoon—for the most part, he wasn't either territorial or possessive. He also obviously thought he'd done something amazing by bringing back all those feathers, and that made Cloud wonder why he'd done it. In that regard, he'd probably never know, but still...

Since he hadn't quite made it back into his seat, he turned towards the vent thoughtfully and made his way back to it to climb onto the desk below it and peer inside. And promptly snorted in amusement as he realized Sly had missed some of the feathers—it looked like five hadn't been blown out the vent when it had turned on. Reno had cleared the rest off his desk, and Sly was now sleeping in the cleared space on the desk and on top of the seven feathers he'd wanted to keep, so Cloud reached into the vent to pull them out and stick them in his pocket.

It was also around then when Rogue decided it was time to spice things up by doing a full-on activation of Hot Springs under Sly, even as he snatched his own claimed feathers off Reno's desk and bolted for Derin's. The exclamations at the spray of water and Reno's swearing as his computer got wet made Cloud reach up to pinch the bridge of his nose.

"Really?" he muttered, ignoring Sly's angry shriek and Rogue's responding alarmed one. Shaking his head, he turned back to his seat—only to find both pets scaling him.

And he snapped and sent out an explosion of Lifestream energy (Limit Break energy) so strong it sent both Rogue and Sly flying so far and hard they hit the wall near Vincent's (technically Veld's) office door. Both lay there, stunned, for a minute as everyone else gaped at him, but he was still flaring with energy when both pets shifted to stare at him.

He glared and them and said coldly, "Enough is enough. We're already letting you get away with things like stealing, so don't push your luck. Your fights aren't funny."

Then, he felt a paw on his foot and looked down—and blinked at Tyra, who was just staring up at him, one of her front paws on the top of his foot and sparking with energy he hadn't been expecting to see. Actually, if he was grasping the 'sparking' right, it was activating to protect her from the energy flaring around him. And it wasn't her he was angry at, so he closed his eyes with a sigh, drew in several deep breaths, and let the Lifestream energy around him ebb. When it was gone, he opened his eyes to look at her again, seeing that she had stopped sparking, too.

Cloud then reached down to pet her, saying quietly, "Thank you, Tyra." She gave a little yip and whine, then licked his cheek.

Finally, he returned to his seat, and to work on the topics needing interventions he'd been working with Derin on—only to find the room utterly still and silent, even after he'd clearly gone back to the notes they would have to go over. Ansha was still working on the actual data taken and how far back it went, so until she finished, it would only be him and Derin, but that shouldn't have meant the office was completely silent.

Slowly, he looked up—and found everyone staring at him in surprise. "Seriously?" he asked in annoyance. "What's wrong with all of you?"

Vincent's amused voice came from the door to the office (which had previously been shut), saying, "Cloud...This is the first time anyone in this room has seen your actual power when you hit your Limit Break. I'm already used to you, but they aren't. Did you actually think you'd get a different response?"

"That's not strictly accurate," Rufus replied dryly. "I've seen his Limit Break before, but it didn't look like that—it was an actual attack like most SOLDIERs have. This was just a flare of raw energy so strong we could feel it coming off him in waves. I had no idea a human could put out so much energy without being incinerated."

"That's the result of getting doused in extreme amounts of Mako," Cloud replied flatly. "Assuming you didn't end up as a Makonoid first." He felt Tyra settle on his feet again and wondered why she'd decided to stop playing when she'd obviously been having fun.

"So, not to be rude or anything, but what in the world was so different today that it set Cloud off like that?" Scarlet asked curiously. "I mean...he's dealt with Sly and Rogue fighting plenty of times before, so why was this one different?"

"Bad memories and bad timing. And I'm sick of them fighting," Cloud replied flatly. "Obviously, they don't have to behave like that—all the other pets get along just fine once they get used to one another, so why do these two insist on being a pair of brats?"

Several blinks were the result, then Reno smacked his forehead with one hand as he said, "The feathers brought back memories o' The Nightmare, yo. 'N' Rogue 'n' Sly had really, really bad timin' ta try ta use you as a climbing post." Many pairs of eyes widened with realization as they all began trading looks.

"So, are you okay, Cloud?" Scarlet asked him worriedly.

"Once I finish calming down, I'll be fine. Getting back to normal work will probably help, if you all don't mind?" the blond answered in annoyance.

Thankfully, everyone began going back to work as Vincent called over to Reno, "How's your computer? Do you just need a few replacement parts—like the keyboard—or is the whole thing toast?"

Cloud had to sigh faintly as Reno said, "I kinda think it'll hold long enough fer a backup, but once it's shut down, it just ain't gonna start again, yo."

"I'll get you a backup drive, then. Make sure your disks and memory sticks are up to date in the mean time," Vincent replied.

It was right at that moment when Cloud realized Sly and Rogue were still sitting by the wall, both being ignored by their owners. Maybe that would do what nothing else had—make them realize even their owners didn't like their behavior.

He could only hope. And hope The Nightmare hadn't felt the surge of his power.

Notes:

(1) Since this isn't Earth, I didn't really think I had a premise to use 'dream catchers' as a thing, so the Gaian variant is 'dream wings'. They still have a central circle base, but with a center more like a net than a 'web', and each side of the outer ring has an arching, curved piece like a wing, onto which several feathers would be attached in a facsimile of wings. They may also have tassels, beads, and other features seen on dream catchers, and are normally made (like dream catchers) with twigs or other flexible wood pieces wound with leather.