Chapter 2: Atavus



Cloud looked down at the woman praying before him; she had barely noticed him as he stood there. He now realized where and when he was. In desperation he tried to warn Aeris, but could not speak or move. Cloud was paralyzed in a past he wished was only horrible nightmare. He was trapped, forced to watch the end Aeris' life.

Nothing was different, from the cool stagnant air to Cloud's vacant stare. The motions of both Cloud and Aeris stayed in timing as well. Everything remained in sync with that horrid day. Only one piece remained, and as it happened in the past, Sephiroth swoops down. He held the Masamune like a bolt of lightning sent down by some ominous sky. He pierces Aeris through the back, and stands there with his cold, green, indifferent eyes.

Masamune lay quiet in the gapping and mortal wound in Aeris, stained with warm blood. With the sword still skewering her, Aeris spoke softly. "You failed me, Cloud. You let me die. You were supposed to be my bodyguard."



With those words still echoing through his mind, Cloud awoke in a cold sweat. He sat up just as Tifa turns to comfort him. "Cloud, it was that dream again, wasn't it? The same dream you've been having the past three nights."

"Yes, but it seemed so real," Cloud began to breakdown.

"Cloud, It's not your fault. He came out of nowhere," Tifa tried to reassure her beleaguered husband.

"But I was supposed to protect her," Cloud sobbed softly.

Tifa knew that whatever was causing Cloud to relive his worst nightmare, happened on his trip with Caden. "Cloud, what happened in Icicle?"

Cloud was silent, because he didn't know if he could believe what he saw, but soon spoke, "I... I don't know if I can explain it."

"Try to, this is not healthy."

Before he could say anything, Cloud heard Caden in the chocobo stables. "Swift, you ^*#%$ bird, let go of my hair! Ow! Hey, hey, hey, get over here, I'm not done chewing you out!"

Tifa just fell back onto her pillow and said, "I knew we should have gotten him a dog instead."



By the time Caden got Swift under control, the sun had risen to about a quarter the way up in the sky. He picked up a crate of greens, and opened it. The fresh picked gysahls smelled like a spring after noon. He brought them over to his chocobo, "Now give me one good reason why I should give you any."

The chocobo gave a quick 'wark' and perked his head.

"Ehh… it's a good enough reason," Caden said as he filled a small troff with the greens. Swift happily munched on the greens.

"Little trouble with Swift," Caden turned to see Cloud just inside the stable.

"Nah, he's just testy in the morning." Caden put the now empty crate on the floor.

"Ain't we all. Come on, breakfast is almost ready," Cloud walked out of the barn.

"I'll be right in." Caden turned to his penned chocobo. "Now Swift, behave or no mimetts," and with that he turns to follow his father. However, he saw another man standing just inside the barn. Caden figured that he entered the stables while Swift was misbehaving and stayed hidden in the shadows. He could not say a word before the man.

"I was impressed with your skill in Asgard. If you hadn't shown up, well, I would have been a goner. You were better then I thought," the man said cloaked in shadows.

"You're the guy from the pier, but... who are you?" Caden stared cautiously at the man

"My true name is not important. For now, you may call me Atavus."

"What do you know about me, Atavus?"

"More than you even know about yourself, Number XIV." When man said this, Caden looked down at the tattoo on his hand questioningly. "Yes, I was there at your beginning. I watched as you developed from the pure genetic material extracted from Sephiroth to the man you are now. I watched as cells taken from the Ancient, were added to your Mako filled pod. I watched you as you learned to use your powers.

"You are very special. The last ancient and a perfect Sephiroth clone. You even carry his stance. Your abilities are being squandered here. Come with me! You can be something so much more! I can help you unlock your true power."

Caden just closed his eyes, laughed to himself, then spoke, "You are not who you say you are. I know the truth about you. Atavus is a long forgotten Cetra word. So forgotten, only three living souls know it. So either you stole my father's notes, or you are something ancient and forgotten yourself." Caden opens his eyes again as he pulls his sword from its scabbard. The two clear materia equipped into it glimmered in the little light.

The light glittered in the man's eye. "Believe what you wish, boy," he said as he escaped into the darkness.

"What was that about?" Caden asked himself.

"Wark wark," Swift perked his head again.

"He was strange… but very familiar. I couldn't sense his being. It was as if he weren't from the Lifestream; so alien... He must have been Jenova," and with that, Caden walk's out of the barn.



By the time Caden entered the house, Cloud and Tifa were already clearing the table. Tifa turned around and asked, "What took you so long?"

"I think I just met Jenova, or someone who was obsessed with the Jenova Project."

Tifa and Cloud both were now looking at him, eyes wide open. In unison they both asked, "You what?!?!"

"He must have slipped in when Father left. I think my materia scared him though," Caden pulled out his materia-equipped sword. "The light must have hit it just right. It looked like he knew what it was." Caden hesitated for a moment, but regained himself. "Father, this may be a good time to tell Mother about our uh… bonding experience."

"Tell me what? Jenova's dead, we were all there, and where did Caden get the White Materia?" Tifa know realized what the two small clear stones in Caden's katana were.

Cloud's face grew serious, "Tifa, darling, I think you should sit down. …We found more then ruins in Icicle. We found Aeris, or rather her ghost. The planet asked her to stay behind and protect the White Materia. The planet knew that Jenova was alive, and would try to destroy the Materia.

"Tifa, Jenova was never at the reactor, Hojo's lab, or the North Cave. We fought a puppet, and the true Jenova was the puppeteer. Caden was given the White Materia to protect, and use eventually."

"Then Caden is…"

"The last Cetra, and the descendent of Ifalonoe."

Tifa looked at Caden. "So this means that Caden is the Cetrae Angelus?"

"Yes."

" Does the International Union know yet?"

"No, but I am meeting with Nanaki in a few days. He's gonna bring it up with the Science Council as well as the Security Council."

"Hey wait a minute, ok so I look like Sephiroth and maybe have a similar style of fighting, but I am not a lab rat, or a risk." Caden felt threatened by the thought of the Security Council's meeting about him.

Sensing Caden's insecurity, Cloud tries to calm him down. "They're going to study the ancient text, and discuss the now apparent Jenova threat."

"Oh," was Caden's simple yet reassured answer.

"Anyway, I'm leaving for Cosmo Canyon today." Cloud turns to Caden and asks, "Weren't you going to meet Marlene in North Coral today, Caden."

"Oh shit! I almost forgot." Caden grabbed his sword and his coat as he runs out the door. "Swift, we gotta run!"

Tifa again tried her hand at sarcasm, "Forget a dog, we should have gotten him a watch."

Cloud and Tifa could here Caden outside yelling. "Swift, let's move. Hey! Let go of my hair!"

"How about a dog that can tell time?"

"Oh Cloud, you're terrible!"



"That was close. Hey! We're making good time, Swift. If we keep this up we may not even be to late… for once. Come on the Nibel-Coral border is just up ahead." As soon as he said that, Swift stopped abruptly. "Swift, why did you stop? Uh…oh, I see." What Caden now saw before him were two soldiers in blue uniforms with machineguns pointed at him.

One of the soldiers walked up to him, and ordered, "Get off the chocobo now!" Caden got off Swift with his hands in the air. "Nice and slowly."

The second soldier walked over letting his guard down. He walked right up to Caden. Caden smiled wryly and, with lightning speed, took his sword out slashing the soldier's gun barrel clear. "Got your barrel," Caden says sarcastically as he tossed the metal tube away. He then knocked the other soldier's gun away. Caden looked at the now fallen soldier. "Now, who do you guys work for."

"We're not talking!" one of the soldiers vehemently replied.

Caden raised his sword over the soldier's head, and brought it down on the soldier's neck. However, he did not so much as cut a hair. "Funny, I thought you were. Now talk before my hand gets tired."

"Alright! All right! I don't know who's all the way up at the top, but we're under the command of a guy named Lenox."

"Ok, now where do I find Lenox?"

"I-I don't know."

"Hmm… my hand is getting tired. I could slip, and you could have a severed carotid artery. Nasty way to go."

"M-M-Midgar Ruins."

"That's more like it." Caden put his sword back into its scabbard. "Oh yeah, one last thing. Fire!" Flame rose up and engulfed the two guns. Caden mounted Swift again and left, but not without him having one last word. "Oh! And, have a nice day."

The soldiers got up and were prepared to follow Caden, when a voice came over their radio. "Don't follow him. I got what I needed here. Return to Midgar immediately! We need to prepare our defenses. He will come, and he will come ready to fight."



"And as they come around the bend, it's Swift followed by Caden. Here they come to the finish line, and it's Swift by a beak."

"Ha ha ha, I'm not that late, Mar… am I?"

"No, your not. I'm actually surprised." Marlene turned around and stared at the cityscape behind her. "Ah North Coral, home for all these years. It wasn't like this when I was young though. If it weren't for Dio sinking so much money into the city's development, it would still be a shanty town... So Caden, how was the trip?"

"Don't ask."

Marlene turned around again, and faced Caden. "That bad, huh. So what attacked you this time?"

"Two soldiers, err, mercenaries, err… well, they wore blue uniforms and carried guns."

"The same soldiers that attacked us at the graduation ceremonies? The ones that you decided to go cowboy over?"

"The same…! Hey! They were after Kami Kisaragi."

"Alright, so the civilians weren't in any real danger. … I'm not getting into this argument again!"

"Actually, I'm beginning to feel like they have been coming after me for some reason."

"Caden, this is a new side of you I've never seen before; paranoia." Marlene looked at Caden, surprised.

"Heh heh heh! What am I going to do with you?" Both Caden and Marlene laughed. "So what are we going to do today?"

"Got your Golden Pass with you?"

"Yeah, but I'm fresh out of cash."

"You still have those 500 gold points."

"Hey! I'm saving those."

"Oh, you'll never save enough for that Masamune replica. I don't even know why you would want such a vile sword anyway. Too many died at the end of that blade… Hey! What about Swift?"

"What about Swift?"

"We could race him. Isn't that right, Swift?" Marlene asks as she scratches Swift's head. As usual, Swift responds with a quick 'wark'.

"Nah, Swift's not much of a race choc…" Caden was interrupted by his faithful, feathered friend's incessant hair grabbing. "Ow! Swift! Oh… alright, I'll race you." Swift 'warked' again. "Gees, persuaded by a bird. Marlene, how do you get him to listen to you?"

"Dunno. Guess he likes me better." Marlene then grabbed Caden's hair, and dragged him along. "Come on, let's go to the Gold Saucer."

"Why does everyone grab my hair? Ow! Hey! Ok, ok, you can let go."

Marlene let go of Caden's hair. "Oh, you're no fun! Well let's go already." As the three of them begin to walk, Marlene notices something off in the distance. "What is that thing? It looks like a tank with arms."

"Yeah, and it's coming right at us! And look what's next to it." Next to the mysterious machine were two soldiers in blue uniforms.

One of the soldiers began to bark orders, "Get the ancient!"

"Ancient? But I thought they were all dead." Marlene was puzzled.

"Shoot first, ask questions latter," Caden said as he pulled out his sword. "I'll tell you everything."

"Here they come!" Marlene yelled as she pulled a folded bow out of a long bag on her back.

"Foldable. Niiice!" Caden drew his sword into an attack position. He again looked at the on coming force. "The hell? Mar, look at that robot, what does it look like."

"It looks like someone got into the Shinra's old designs. That's the Slavedriver, but the whole project was scrapped after the Wutai Mine Revolts."

"So you didn't sleep through weapons tech class. Now do you remember what magic attack it was immune to?"

"No. Quake maybe?"

"Would make sense."

"Then electric attacks should work." Marlene looked at the attackers who were now before them. "Bolt!" The sky around them tuned to clouds and a lightning bolt came down and struck the robot dead on, but it appeared to absorb it. "Uh…, Caden, what just happened?"

"Shit! Now I remember. The mine it was test-bedded for was a lightning materia mine. The Slavedriver absorbed the hit. Well if lightning won't work then maybe this will. Ice!" Slavedriver was soon encapsulated in a block of ice. The block shattered and Airbuster was visibly weakened by the blast.

One of the soldiers stepped forward and fired a few rounds but missed Caden. Caden retaliated with a quick slash of his sword. The bloodstained soldier promptly fell. Before the other soldier could fire, Marlene launched an arrow straight though his heart. By this time, all bystanders in the area had already left, fearing for their lives, including Swift

"So, Mar, which robot do you want, the big one or the big one?"

"And I thought Papa had a lousy sense of humor."

Slavedriver began to fire its primary guns. The hit grazed Caden's arm. He didn't flinch, but with his usual sense of humor, decided to taunt the robot. "What are you aiming at? Your mama was a toaster, and your daddy was a rusty nail."

"Caden, don't… piss off… the murderous… robot!" Marlene said as if to have it register in Caden's head clearly.

"What's he gonna do?" Caden spoke to soon, because Slavedriver was already moving in to tackle him. "Oomph!"

"That's what! Now how are we supposed to beat this thing?" Marlene asks as Caden got up off the ground. However, before he could say anything, the upper body section of the robot exploded. The burning wreckage settled to the ground.

"That's… how?" Caden walked over to the flaming wreckage. "What happened?"

"I happened." Caden looked up to see a large man with an artificial arm behind the robotic corpse. He soon realized that it was Barret, Marlene's guardian. "A little plastic explosives, a little distraction, a little over protective father…" Barret kicked part of the mangled metal. "Never thought I'd hafta blow up another one of 'em."

"Papa you didn't have to. Caden and I were more then able to fight that thing," Marlene argued.

Barret turned his head towards Caden. "And what about you Caden?… Wait a minute… you got here on time?"

Caden jaw dropped. "Why is it so hard for everyone to believe that I can be punctual… occasionally?"

"Because, it's not you Caden." Marlene walked up to Swift, who just walked out of a street corner, were he hid. "And anyway, Swift sometimes doesn't like to go anywhere."

Barret's attention again focused on Caden. "Caden, what was that damn tin can attacking for?"

"One of the soldiers ordered robot to 'get the ancient.' I think they were after me, but… how did they know?"

"So Cloud finally got off his spiky ass and told you."

"He didn't exactly have a choice." Caden's face grew serious, and his eyes seemed to glow just a little more.

"Ok, ok, I was jes kiddin."

Marlene walked up behind Caden. "Is anyone gonna let me in on this secret, or will I be left in the dark?"

"It's a very long story, but you may need to know… We should probably talk about this at your place." Caden turned and began to walk. "Ya' coming or not?"

"Ok, this ought 'a be interesting." Marlene turned and followed Caden, and Barret was not far behind.



"So basically, I'm the only one that even stands a chance against this thing," Caden finished his story.

"Shit! The planet's in danger AGAIN?!?! Awright, time to come outta retirement!" Barret was all fired up.

Marlene just grabbed his arm and said, "Not with your back, Papa."

"Damn, ya ruinin all my fun." Barret sat back down. "So Caden, wut ya gonna do?"

"I'll eventually have to go into the ruins of Midgar. That's where all this seems to center."

"Caden, I'm going with you, and don't give me your same lame excuse. 'I can't get you involved,'" Marlene imitated Caden in a bratty kid's voice. "You've been saying that since we were kids."

"Runs in da family," Barret retorted. "But I will say it."

"Then what was the point of all those years of military training?" Marlene asked in response. Barret knew she had made up her mind already, so he stayed quiet. Barret knew that Marlene had grown up to be like him, stubborn.

"Ok, I get the point, but it'll be dangerous," Caden gave a half smile as he said this. "Probably need a stronger force then just the two of us."

Barret sat up, "Yo! Cloud's going to meet with Red XIII 'bout you, right."

Caden was puzzled, "Red XIII?"

Barret corrected himself, "Nanaki… sorry. It's wut we called him in the old days."

"Yeah, so what?"

"So go wit him and talk to the general assembly 'bout your case. They bin wantin' ta do sumthin' 'bout those terrorist."

"Not a bad idea. They will probably want to talk to me directly anyway. " Caden got up to leave, but said something sarcastically before he left, "Thanks, Mr. Barret."

"Shit! Stop callin me that!" Barret responded, knowing it was just Caden joking.

"Hey! Caden, wait for me!" Marlene said as she ran after Caden.



As they walked through the streets of North Coral, Marlene began to chuckle. Caden looked at her, and asked, "What's so funny?"

"Nothing, I just realized that I have my own guardian angel." Marlene stopped her giggling. "Well so much for the chocobo races."

"We'll have some other day for that, but now there is a greater need; one for the planet. Are you sure you're up to it?"

"For the last time, YES!"

"Then let's go." They both got onto Swift and left.