Chapter 7: A new plan of action
Sephiroth walked over to the girl, "I don't recognise these clothes she wears"
"Her and the boy were both wearing similar stuff, I think that it's a uniform. And from the way they acted and pulled out their weapons, I'd bet that they were from some sort of military organisation, like SOLDIER." Cloud said
Sephiroth looked over at Cloud, "You can hardly call them boy and girl, when you look younger than them."
"I suppose, boss. But even though I don't look like I'm over puberty, doesn't mean I can't act like I am."
Sephiroth burst out laughing, "You have to go through it all again!"
"What do you mean again? As I said a few days ago, I can't remember going through it before. But at least I don't have to shave anymore!"
Vincent looked at the girl and picked her up as Sephiroth gestured him to. She seemed to be a hardened fighter, she had a scar running up the side of her face, and looked physically powerful, she had no materia equipped that he could see, so was most likely weak with magic attacks. Vincent followed Sephiroth, with Cloud trailing behind, as he led the way to a building that seemed to have most of it still standing after the downfall of Midgar. The building looked like it was once some sort of small food store, and was about a 10-minute walk from the crater site. Vincent placed the girl of the floor, next to the counter.
"Leave" Sephiroth ordered
"Yes, Master." Both Cloud and Vincent said and headed for the door
"Do not come back here, go back to the crater and keep watch, if you see anyone coming to look for her or the boy, kill them. I will come and collect you in a couple of hours once I have the information I require from this girl."
They nodded and left the ruined building, but not before Cloud took some chocolate from the stand next to the till.
"Right then, first things first, I'll have to wake her up…" Sephiroth said to himself once they had gone.
2 hours later
"It's been 2 hours now, the boss should be here in a bit." Cloud said absently rolling out the empty chocolate wrapper into a cone shape then smoothing it back out again.
Vincent kicked another stone down the crater, he felt restless and annoyed, normally when he felt like this he would clean out one of his guns, but since he didn't have them any longer he watched Cloud polish the Ultima Weapon, and while he kicked a few stones and other bits of rubble down the hole. Cloud hadn't even given him any of that chocolate either! He sat down and looked over to where the building was where Sephiroth still was with the strange girl.
Cloud finished polishing his sword and put it to one side, trying not to wince as he twisted round. His ribs were starting to hurt really bad, he would probably have to go to hospital, or find a doctor who could fix them for him, it was a shame that Cure materia wouldn't heal broken bones. He kept his face straight and refused to let the pain show, something that he had been taught how to do in SOLDIER. Cloud was worried that one of the broken ribs might pierce his lungs, or some other organ. The blond warrior scratched his right temple, 'Is there a cut here too?' it felt like there was, but it also felt half healed, he was glad his body healed quickly. He hoped that Sephiroth wasn't going to make him fight any more battles until he could get his ribs sorted out, but then again he hadn't seen any monsters since leaving the Northern Crater, 'strange, I wonder why'. Vincent had just kicked another rock down onto the beach, watching it fall, Cloud smirked, 'at least Vincent doesn't know how much pain I'm in, 'cause if he did then he wouldn't be stood here. If he decided to run off, I couldn't chase after him to bring him back.' Vincent spoke up, "The boss is coming…" his ears picking up the faint footsteps of the man before Cloud could.
Sure enough Sephiroth turned around a corner just as Vincent had finished speaking. Cloud raised an eyebrow, his hearing was way above the average person's, but Vincent's was really something else! Sephiroth walked up to them and briefly told Cloud of what he had learnt off the girl.
"It seems as though in her world there has recently been some trouble with some women called Sorceresses, there are two known women like these in their entire world. A man named Squall, commander of a military academy, similar to SOLDIER, like you thought, defeated a powerful Sorceress from the future called Ultimecia, along with various other people, several months ago. Now their world is at peace, and although the countries and cities still have their petty squabbles, none have got to war with each other due to peace treaties they have all signed. There are two military academies, although there used to be three, due to a fall in cadets and people getting too old to carry on. Each one trains its members to be something called SeeDs, these are like mercenaries or gun for hires, they will do anything for money. But their main reason for existence is to keep any sorceresses in check, though not many people know this." Sephiroth said
"What is a sorceress, boss?" Cloud asked
"The girl said that it's someone that can cast very powerful magic, and can do so without any materia, or Drawing as they call it on their world. The girl couldn't or wouldn't explain Drawing well, so I am not sure what this means."
Cloud nodded, "What happened to the girl I brought back? Where is she?"
"Don't worry, you won't be seeing her again." Sephiroth grinned
An hour later; Balamb Garden, Training Centre:
"Squall!"
Squall sighed, why wouldn't Zell leave him alone? "What?" He asked, as he turned around, tropical-type trees filled the Training Area, making good hiding places for monsters to lurk in.
"Wait up man" The tattooed faced teen panted as he got nearer to his leader
"What?" The gun blade master asked again
"Have you heard anything from the two newest SeeDs? They're missing, I was assigned to keep an eye on them, but I've lost them! They're called Stev and Kea, last seen heading to the beach."
"No, why are you asking me, Zell? Quistis deals with the students, not me, you should know that."
"Well, you're the Commander, and I've looked every where! It's liked they've just disappeared off the face of the planet! Quistis has sent out groups to try and find them, but they've found nothing so far." Zell let his head hang down, Squall hadn't seen Zell this upset since he had told almost the whole world that Seifer was from Garden when he was attempting to kidnap President Deling. "I thought that they might be with you, you know training or something, now that they're SeeDs."
Squall shook his head while keeping a look out for any signs of monsters attacking while they talked, "I've not seen them since I promoted them a couple of weeks back."
Zell sighed, "It was worth a shot. Thanks anyway, Squall. If you see them would you contact me over the PTA system?"
Squall nodded as a Grat scuttled over to them from behind a bush, waving its limbs about in the air.
"Thanks, man."
The next day; the Midgar Crater:
"Since the Planet has decided not to let me control the world through meteor and the life steam, I have been contemplating on other ideas on how to achieve my goal. Since I do not believe that there is any way to become God-like without meteor, I have decided on a new plan of action." Sephiroth was walking back and forth along the edge of the crater, watched by Cloud and Vincent. "This new world, that meteor has opened up, has led me to believe that I can not only have Planet, but as many planets as I want, once I find a way to access them all. I want this new world; it sounds interesting, but it is powerful. But not too powerful for you, Cloud. I want you to get it for me, but I want you to do it in such a way that they don't know what's happening until it is too late. I have a feeling that a full-scale war wouldn't be the best way to deal with this world, especially since it has SeeDs to protect it. The peace treaty that the countries have signed sounds fragile, I believe I can use this to my advantage with careful planning. Stealth is the way, not force…for now anyway." Sephiroth stopped his pacing and turned to look at Cloud
Cloud nodded, "Yes, boss."
"Good, I want you to enrol in this Garden-place, and destroy them from the inside. If you get the chance to meet any influential people, that could help to stop me from taking over once I arrive, kill them. With you looking like a 17 year old, or younger, people will be pushed to blame you for anything, as long as you act how you look, and not act like an adult." 'As if you could, I saw you stealing that chocolate,' "Do you still have your PHS?"
Cloud grinned, this sounded like fun, "Yes, boss I still have it. Want me to take Vincent? If I ask to join with a 'friend' they might be less suspicious than if I joined on my own, and I can keep an eye on him." Vincent frowned at Cloud, he wasn't the kid he looked like, he didn't need to be babysat, he wondered if Cloud had some hidden motive.
"Yes, do that. I no longer have any need for him. I want you to go ASAP, and give me your PHS number in case I need to contact you, the window to the other world should be enough to keep the link open between the devices."
"Yes, boss."
Two hours later:
Cloud and Vincent were ready to go, Cloud's ribs had stopped hurting and had gone completely numb, Cloud was worried about this, but still hadn't mentioned it to anyone. Both teens had small packs on their backs, containing only food, medical supplies, the PHS, a tent each and a compass, Cloud carried some spare materia in his pack in case he needed any other than those in his weapon and Escort Guard. Neither had a spare change of clothes. Cloud and Vincent had lived off less when trying to stop meteor, so felt like they were carrying too many items in their packs. Cloud had his sword under his bag, still magnetised onto his top, but the pack was easy to slip off, so he could quickly fight any monsters coming, that is if there were any in the new world.
"Be careful, Cloud, don't slip up. I don't want to have to come and rescue you and give away the element of surprise. By the way, if anyone asks, you and Vincent are brothers."
"What?!?! Why? I have to pretend I'm related to him?!?! We look nothing alike!" Cloud complained
"Yes you have to pretend to be brothers, so you can talk to each other quietly and work together without raising suspicions, you don't want me to dye your hair black to make it look more convincing do you?"
Cloud grabbed one of his blonde spikes protectively, "Hell no!"
Sephiroth laughed, "Well get going then, find the person in charge and ask to join, but I don't want you to give away how strong you are, so hold back when you fight, but not too much that they kick you out. Got it?"
Cloud nodded
"Good. Oh, another thing, I'd advice you not to let them take any blood samples, after all, Cloud, you have a very high amount of Mako in your blood after Hojo got his hands on you, and then you absorbed even more Mako when you fell into the life steam a few months ago, also both you have Jenova cells in your blood and body, it would be best if they didn't know about that either."
Cloud shuddered, "Right, boss."
"Vincent, do what Cloud says, or you'll answer to me. Because if you disobey him, you're disobeying me, and you know how I don't like that. Cloud, Vincent is disposable, your not, don't fail me"
Vincent gulped, and stepped back, and said "Yes, boss," as Cloud said "Right, boss."
"Good, now get going."
Cloud and Vincent took one last look at Midgar and jumped down the crater, landing on the soft sand beneath.
Sephiroth watched Cloud and Vincent land, look up at him while talking, and then start to walk towards where the girl said that this Garden place was. He hoped Cloud never woke up at 3 am while out of his range, the puppet hadn't so far, but there was always a chance. Sephiroth didn't want Cloud awake at that time because for an hour everyday he had to let Cloud of out his control in order for Cloud to keep his sanity, he had chosen 3 am because Cloud was never awake at that time and so was unaware of his period of freedom. Sephiroth hadn't told Cloud this in case the blonde sword master ran away or tried to kill him when he slept if he woke up at 3 am on purpose, but with them both in separate worlds there wasn't much chance of this happening. The silver-haired man sighed, time to get started on this world, so everything was ready for when Cloud's mission was complete. He turned and walked away from the Midgar crater, heading for the outskirts of the town, and eventually to Junon and the remains of SOLDIER.
Cloud and Vincent landed; Cloud's ribs didn't hurt when he landed, he put a hand on his chest, it felt very hot. He frowned at his chest, 'what was going on?' He turned to look at Vincent who was frowning at the sky. "What?" Cloud asked looking up and seeing Sephiroth's face framed by the ruined city.
"I can not see Midgar anymore."
"Huh? Really?" Cloud turned to look at Vincent, then back towards the window in the sky
"Yeah, where is it?"
"Its right above us, Vincent. Can't you see it?"
Vincent peered into the sky, his eyes narrowing to slits as he searched, "No I can't. Maybe only someone with Mako in them can see it, I noticed that the girl you took looked up into the sky before you cast Sleep on her, if she had seen it I'm sure that she would have had some sort of reaction, but she had none. Or else maybe its just you."
Cloud nodded, glad that Vincent couldn't see his way back to Planet, so the raven haired man couldn't abandon him and try to get back and warn others about Sephiroth.
"Come on, let's get going." Cloud turned and started towards the road to the north, Vincent sighed and followed him to Garden, there was no turning back now, there mission had begun.
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Authors note:
I've had a few people telling me that parts of this fic don't make sense, if you don't get something, e-mail me and I'll explain it to you and change that part in the fic so that others can understand it better. But if you don't tell me, then it'll carry on not making sense.
Thanks
Mako Majic