Chapter Seventeen

Chapter Seventeen

Unwanted Insight

"We're splitting up," Bahamut growled before Cloud could protest again. "And that's final. The sooner we find Zeno, the better for us, for the kid, and for the Planet."

Cloud subsided, not liking the old dragon's plan in the least but unable to protest with it. "Fine. But I still don't like it! Jenova can just pick us off as easily as ever before if we're separated."

"Which is why I'm travelling by myself," Bahamut interjected calmly. "I can move faster that way. If all of you travel together, then you'll be safer, and I'll be able to use all of my powers without worrying about any of you."

"Bahamut," Aeris interrupted, clutching her hands together, "please, I want to go with you. I…I don't think I really fit in with the other people…"

Bahamut's eyes softened for a bare minute as he revealed his fangs in a toothy grin. "Aeris, it's all right," he told her in a soothing voice. "I'm sure they'll let you fit right in. Don't worry about it."

"B-but…" But I want to go with you…to find Zeno…

"If I find him before you do, Aeris, I'll bring him straight back," Bahamut whispered as if he could read her thoughts. "I promise." He smiled reassuringly before he turned back to Cloud. "Take the Highwind and try to get to all of the towns you can think of. Kalm, Mideel, the new Midgar—just make sure you thoroughly check through all of them. Try to remember what happened in the past, too. It's bound to repeat itself sooner or later, and with Jenova's twisted mind, she would probably lead Zeno in that direction. And…" he paused. "Be on your guards, all the time. There's no telling when Zeno or Jenova will appear; she's so powerful at this point that there's almost nowhere anyone can hide from her on this Planet."

"Right." Cloud nodded.

"And whatever you do, make sure you watch Aeris especially." Bahamut sent Cloud a warning look. "You do remember what happened to her last time."

Cloud paled slightly at the question that was stated more as a remark. "I won't let it happen again," he forced through clenched teeth. "Even if I have to throw away my own life."

"Cloud! Aeris! Bahamut! The Highwind's clear for takeoff!" Yuffie's blithe voice yelled from her perch on the Highwind's deck. "Hurry up!"

Cloud and Bahamut met each other's eyes, mortal to immortal, staring at each other as if they were sizing one another up. Finally, Cloud extended his hand to the immortal.

"Good luck."

Bahamut unhesitatingly clasped the hand with his own. "And to you, too." He turned and started to walk away when he stopped in his tracks as if a thought had occurred to him. With one smooth motion, he flipped a round, glowing red object at Cloud, who barely managed to catch it with his battle-honed reflexes.

Cloud turned the orb over in his hands where it nestled comfortably in the round cup of one of his palms. The sheen of sunlight slanting down on it set off a rich, ruby sparkle that spilled over onto his gloves and seemed to stain them with blood.

"What is this?" the ex-mercenary asked blankly.

Bahamut laughed softly. "Forgotten already, Cloud? It's a summoning materia—one of my own. Use it in your times of need, and I will come, Cloud—not the astral me from before, but the real me. I will help you in any way that I possibly can. Hold onto it." With that, he bowed his head to the ground, closed his eyes, and grasped his staff tightly in both hands. With the hissing murmur of the dragon tongue, Bahamut's form quickly disappeared into thin air—a disappearance that was not saluted with a puff of smoke or any sound, but with pure silence. The area he had stood in a moment before was simply empty, as if nothing had even thought of standing there a few seconds earlier.

Cloud reached over his back and instinctively slipped the materia orb into one of the many slots on his Ultima Weapon before glancing over at Aeris.

"Come on, we'd better hurry."

Aeris nodded and the pair went jogging off towards the waiting airship.

* * *

"Where to, Captain?" Dusk asked through her microphone as she maneuvered the Highwind into open sea.

Cid glanced at Cloud. "Um…"

There was no hesitation for Cloud; he immediately flipped the face his own microphone around and spoke into it. "We're going to Kalm."

"Affirmative," Dusk nodded. "Coordinates set for Kalm; approximate arrival in half an hour."

"Kalm? Why Kalm, Cloud?" Cid muttered to the blonde younger man out of the side of his mouth.

"Bahamut told me to go back to the past," Cloud replied. "Once Sephiroth returned, Kalm was the first place we went to. We also got some hints from the people there about Sephiroth, so…"

"And after that was the chocobo farm, the Mythril Mines, Fort Condor, Junon and it's harbor, Costa Del Sol, North Corel, the Gold Saucer, Gongaga Village, Cosmo Canyon, and N-N…" Tifa's voice that had suddenly joined in on Cid and Cloud's conversation through the earphones that were attached to the microphones faltered. "And Nibelheim," she finished. "At least, I think that's where we went. We're missing more places, aren't we?"

"What about Rocket Town?" Shera asked from her position in the mechanics room. "That's where you met Cid, remember?"

"I forgot about that," Cloud agreed.

" 'Forgot about'…Hey!" Cid yelled in an outraged voice. "Allow me to remind you that this is my airship you lunatics are flying in!"

"And what else?" Tifa continued, ignoring Cid's outburst.

"Wutai, but that's where we came from," Yuffie said, sounding surprisingly steady for one who was usually extremely airsick on any of the Highwind's flights.

"We might have to check that out anyway," Cloud mused. "There's a possibility that Zeno may return there, since that's where he was born and raised. Besides, we were just at Rocket Town, too, but I have a feeling that we should go back there just to be sure."

"Cloud, Tifa, Yuffie…come down to the conference room for a minute," Vincent's cold voice interrupted. "And remember to take off your earphones."

Cloud and Cid exchanged surprised looks before Cloud reached up and removed his earphones, setting them carefully down on a nearby console. "I guess I'd better go, then," he told the older pilot. "I wonder what he wants to talk about?"

"Whatever," Cid grunted. "Just don't keep that guy waiting. Vincent isn't really much for patience, I don't think."

Cloud laughed and headed out of the Highwind's cockpit, trotting over the metal bridge that extended from the cockpit's exit over the engines and to the other side, where stairs were located that led down to the engines. Yuffie was sitting on the opposite side, staring down at her hands. It was only the noise of Cloud's heavy boots clanking against the metal that made her look up.

"Cloud…Do we really have to…go back to Wutai?" Yuffie asked, her voice actually sounding as if it were pleading with him. "I mean…is it absolutely necessary?"

Cloud paused as he stepped off of the bridge, resting a hand against his hip. "Well…I don't see why you don't want to go back, Yuffie, but I suppose we can check it later on."

"Thanks." A slightly relieved look crossed the young ninja's face as she turned away from him, submerging once more into her thoughts as she headed to the conference room.

Cloud followed the girl towards the conference room, half of his mind wondering why Yuffie was against returning to Wutai and the other half trying to piece together why Vincent wanted to talk to him. It must be important, or else he wouldn't have asked us to talk to him, he thought. But still…why just Tifa, Yuffie, and me?

Vincent was waiting for them when all three arrived, one after the other. He stood in the darkest corner of the unlit room with his eyes glowing brightly in the dark, his cloaked form only completely appearing to them once Tifa had reached out and flicked the lights on. He immediately unfolded himself from his blood red cape and stepped towards them, coldness glittering in his crimson eyes as it usually did.

"What's this about, Mr. Vampire?" Yuffie asked right off the bat, apparently having recovered from her earlier pensiveness.

Vincent sent her a chilling look before he turned to Cloud, waiting for the door to firmly slide shut behind him before speaking.

"Don't call him Zeno anymore," he said without preamble.

"What?" Tifa asked intelligently.

"Don't call him Zeno anymore," Vincent repeated. "He is not the boy you knew before. Don't make it any worse by calling him by what you remember him as."

"Now, hold on one gosh darned minute!" Yuffie interjected, dark brown eyes narrowing. "What do you mean by that?"

"I mean that you three would only be hurting yourselves by giving him a name to which he does not answer to at the moment. You three," he continued, scanning the trio with his eyes, "remember Sephiroth well enough. And all of you should know that there might be a time in the future when we may have to take your 'nephew' down."

"But…but that doesn't mean we can't remember him as we used to!" Tifa sputtered in astonishment, still trying to make amends with what Vincent was saying.

Vincent closed his eyes in a gesture of patience; something that even Cloud had never seen him do before. Finally, he opened them again and fixed them all with his icy stare.

"Had I never raised Aeris, then I would not have brought this up to you three," he began again, speaking slowly and carefully as if he were afraid of the words that emerged from his mouth. "But I did, and because I did, I can now understand things concerning parental emotion. Therefore, I am warning all of you: Do not call Zeno by his name. I know that all three of you are close to Zeno on a certain extent, and I'm sure that each of you has some sort of maternal or paternal feeling for him. This was why Jenova chose to allow her son to be raised by normal humans; so that when she took him back and he destroyed everything, he would cause his foster parents more pain than anything else he could have inflicted upon them. Because I can imagine what that feeling of loss and betrayal must be like, I do not want anyone—not even you three—to go through that. To spare yourselves the emotional weakness that may come once we meet him, you must not remember him as Zeno—only as Sephiroth. For if we do end up fighting to the death against him, we will need everything we have to support ourselves and save the Planet from destruction. The Sephiroth now will not hesitate to kill any of you, just as he would not have paused in the past. All three of you must do the same. He is not your nephew, he isn't your son, he isn't your brother, he isn't even part of your family anymore. He is Sephiroth, and Sephiroth must be stopped from doing anything at all costs."