Chapter Six

Chapter Six

Subtle Answers

"Good morning, Zeno," Tifa said softly as she glanced up from where she was cleaning dishes. Cloud echoed her greeting just as quietly, ocean-blue eyes watching Zeno as the young man wandered into the kitchen. "Did you sleep well?"

"As well as I usually do lately," Zeno replied dryly, pulling up a seat at the wooden dining table. "Which is to say, not that well." He planted his elbows on the currently clear tabletop and rested his chin in the palms of his hands, sighing sleepily. "Maybe I should get checked for insomnia."

Zeno didn't mention that the reason why he had been tossing and turning all night was because of that distinct pulling that had visited him even stronger than before ever since he had seen that vision in the Wutai stream and heard the voice of a stranger in his mind. He wasn't sure what that insistent tugging was trying to say, but he could pick up on some feeling that was telling him to go north. He kept seeing flashes of a large hole in the ground surrounded by trees, and then that scene was cut short by a rolling mass of shimmering green liquid that seemed to be trying to block him from the place he had been shown. Confused and more than just upset, Zeno had always jolted awake and stared out of his window for hours, watching the moon and stars shift in the night sky and scared of returning to sleep. Each time he had drifted off again, the dream came back, more urgent than the last time and scaring him even more than before.

What does it mean? Zeno wondered as Tifa drifted around the kitchen. He twitched his head around just in time to catch Cloud avert his eyes quickly, just barely picking up on the disturbed, brooding look in his "uncle's" eyes. What's going on?

Just then, the front door slammed open, the startling boom followed immediately by the familiar, slightly shrill voice of Yuffie.

"Hey, everybody! I'm starved!" She announced as she marched into the kitchen, whacking Zeno in a "friendly" manner on his back. She traded a look with Cloud and Tifa that conveyed message after message between them while Zeno looked on, ignoring his stinging back and trying to decipher the code the trio sent to each other.

"What's going on?" Zeno asked in a deceptively calm tone, voicing the question that ran through his mind earlier. "Why are you all doing that?"

"Doing what?" Tifa asked, trying to sound smooth and unworried as she slid a bowl of oatmeal across the table to Zeno and went back to get another bowl.

"Don't go into acting as a permanent career, Aunt Tifa," Zeno advised sarcastically. Once more, Cloud started in surprise and looked quickly at Zeno with wide, almost scared eyes. Zeno didn't catch the look this time, keeping his searching gaze on Tifa's back as she fidgeted nervously. "You wouldn't make it. And you know what I'm talking about, so don't act innocent. You three are all up to something, and it's about me. Any idiot with eyes and an adequate brain could figure that out."

Yuffie gave a low whistle. "You're right, Cloud; this is serious." She crossed her arms over her chest and sat down on a chair opposite of Zeno, leaning back and putting her boots on the table.

"Get your feet off the table, please," Tifa requested, obviously stalling for time as she returned, handing Cloud the second bowl and going back for Yuffie's. Yuffie ignored her, watching Zeno with shrewd brown eyes over the tips of her boots.

"We might as well tell him," she murmured, winking at Cloud so quickly that Zeno didn't see it.

Cloud nodded slowly. "All right." He turned his chair so that he faced Zeno on a slight angle. "Zeno, you told me that you…felt like you didn't belong here—as if something was calling you. Am I right?"

Zeno dropped his head forward in slight acknowledgement.

"So…we all decided that…we would all leave Wutai together and see if we could find that crater you were being called to."

"I didn't tell you that something was calling me to a crater."

Zeno's flat comment hung in the air with an ominous note. Cloud and Yuffie both froze momentarily, eyes going to each other in sudden helplessness and urgency. Tifa gasped and dropped Yuffie's bowl of oatmeal that was still on its trip to its future consumer. The sound of the ceramic container shattering on the ground with the oatmeal making a mushy splat noise weighed heavily against the silence until it broke through as Tifa bent down to clean up the mess. Zeno shifted his eyes down, noting the fact that the young woman's hands were extremely pale and shaking as she tried to pick up each bit of the bowl.

"There's something that you aren't telling me, isn't there." Zeno's sentence wasn't phrased as a question but as a definite statement that demanded a response. His light-devouring eyes were on Cloud once more, piercing through the sapphire fabric of Cloud's eyes like an eagle's talons through the body of its prey.

"Um…" Cloud's stammering response was the affirmative that Zeno was waiting for. He surged to his feet, anger flaring in his eyes that had freed Cloud from their grasp.

"What is it?!" he demanded angrily, glaring around the room. "What is it that you aren't telling me?! How much do you all know, anyway? Who am I?! Who am I?!"

"Damn you for an indecisive jerk, Cloud," Yuffie muttered out of the corner of her mouth as Zeno shook with barely controlled rage. Luckily, with Zeno's flaming emotions pounding in his ears, he couldn't hear her whispered comment.

"I…I didn't know what to say," Cloud mumbled back, his limbs locked in terror as he stared at Zeno. "He's almost out of control, Yuffie! What do we do? He wants answers, and if I knew Sephiroth, he's not going to stop until he gets them!"

"I thought we agreed not to mention that bastard's name ever again!" Yuffie spat out, her voice rising high enough for Zeno to finally hear her. She leaped up, joining Zeno in his standing position as she grabbed Cloud's collar in a firm grip. "You idiot—now you've ruined everything!"

Zeno inhaled so sharply that Yuffie, Cloud, and Tifa all looked up at him in alarm. His hair was flying in his face from the force of some invisible wind that seemed to be emitting from his form while his eyes snapped angrily, shifting from dark black to a pulsating meld of colors. "Tell me," he growled from between gritted teeth. "What—are—you—hiding—from—me?"

Tifa darted from her crouched position and grabbed Zeno's arm, shaking him out of his enraged aura. "Stop it, Zeno!" she cried. "Stop! We'll tell you, just stop whatever you're doing!"

The fear was plain in her voice. Cloud instantly understood why she was so afraid; a vision from more than four years ago struck him, one of a village burning while a silver-haired figure walked through the dancing flames.

Oh, God, not another Nibelheim…

Zeno calmed down instantly, Tifa and Cloud both relaxing at the same time. He slid back into his seat, confusion clouding his midnight black eyes. "What…what was I doing?" he asked, slowly and timidly like a child trying out his first words.

Tifa kept a motherly hand on Zeno's shoulder. "Shh, Zeno. You were right. We shouldn't have kept it from you, but we weren't—and still aren't—sure. We…" she hesitated before going on. "We think that you are the reincarnation of some man from the past. He was…very ruthless and powerful. He had the strength, desire, and power to destroy the whole Planet. We…have to be sure. That's why we have decided to leave Wutai."

"Oh." Zeno closed his eyes, visibly calming himself down. "But…how did you know that I was being called to a crater of some sort?"

"We've had visions too." Tifa smiled forcedly. "Sometimes they're true."

Zeno shook his head sluggishly as if he had a headache. "Now I think I want to go back to sleep."

"That's fine." Tifa backed away as Zeno got up. "We're leaving in a few days. Don't worry, Zeno. You just rest and we'll take care of everything. All right?"

Zeno nodded as he disappeared up the stairs. "All right…"

The trio waited for Zeno's door to close before they began speaking in hushed tones.

"I can't believe you, Tifa," Cloud hissed. "Zeno said that you shouldn't go into acting, but you sure can be pretty believable once you get into the act."

Tifa shook her head. "It was partly Zeno," she admitted. "Something inside of me wanted to protect him from the truth. He's not ready yet, Cloud. As much as he looks like an adult, he's just a child inside. He's just not ready."

"But he knows a little bit of the whole scheme," Yuffie added quietly. "Even though Tifa didn't tell him everything, he still knows some. And that's going to have to keep us on our toes as long as he's in our presence."

Cloud nodded. "You're right, Yuffie. We'd better start packing…The sooner we leave, the better, and the sooner we get our answers…the better." He started to leave before he turned back.

"What is it, Cloud?" Tifa asked softly.

"I forgot to say it, but…Be ready, both of you. Bring your weapons and start training yourselves again if you have to. We have to be ready to defend the Planet and ourselves again if we need to…"

…And if the need ever arises, we have to be ready to take down Zeno…

Go to Chapter Seven

Return to Fanfiction