Chapter 12: Esther
The Ragnarok landed in the president's own landing bay at the back of the Presidential Palace. Quistis climbed out and made her way through the back entrance of the building to the Presidential office, the SeeDs and two cadets followed.
"Whoa!" gasped Cloud as he looked out of a window that he passed in a corridor they were walking down. The entire city was shaped like a giant spider; with the building he was currently in being in the middle of it all. The buildings where all made of coloured glass, blue and white stones and metal. Even the most common of houses was intricately painted and cared for by its owners. There were high bridges and tubes connecting everything with everything, Cloud didn't know what the tubes were for, but the whole place looked…well…cool. If ever a place was the opposite of Midgar, this was it, though Cloud guessed that the attitude was the same as those who lived in the slums, 'we love our land and everyone in it', and this definitely showed here. Cloud wondered if all of the cities on Gaia looked like this, he hoped not. Feeling like a country bumpkin with all his staring, Cloud moved away from the window and followed the others, trying not to gape at the Palace as he went.
Quistis walked up to a young Asian man who was sat behind a large metal desk in the corridor, which had widened up into a room. The silver desk was beside a tinted glass door and an unusual looking tree, she guessed he was the receptionist from looking at all the papers and the computer on his desk.
"Excuse me, Sir?"
"Yes" He looked up at the group of teenagers and immediately eyed their weapons warily
"I am Instructor Quistis Trepe, from Balamb Garden, I have an important message for President Laguna Lorrie, he has been informed of our arrival and is expecting us."
The man looked at them all one by one, "Who are the others, I was only told to let you through as you'd be coming alone."
"The others are SeeDs; Selphie Tilmitt and Rinoa Heartilly, the other two are Garden Cadets; Cloud and Vincent Valentine. Commander Squall Leonhart thought that I would be travelling alone, but I decided to come with other SeeDs, it is dangerous for SeeDs or instructors to travel alone these days."
The man nodded his agreement while he wrote their names down, and then pressed a button on an intercom attached to his desk, he repeated their names and indicated that they wanted to see the President. Laguna's voice came through the intercom,
"What? They're here already? Let them in!"
"Go through the door here, fifth door to your right, it says President Lorrie on the plaque." The man went back to his work, ignoring them.
Quistis looked at Rinoa, shrugged, and then led the way to the office.
Cloud followed the others, tailing behind, carefully watching everyone they passed as he walked down the corridor, his SOLDIER training examined everyone he saw, none looked like the fighting type and only they themselves carried weapons. The corridor was made entirely of glass; the roof was made of clear glass, letting Cloud see the sky outside, whereas the walls and floor were a misty blue colour, not letting him see through them, doors were a misty white. It made him feel cold, and reminded him of the ice caverns in the Great Glacier and the Gaea Cliffs. They stopped after a while in front of a door that had a gold plaque with the words 'President Lorrie of Esther' engraved on it in flowing writing.
"Cloud, Vincent, wait here, this is Garden business. We'll be back in a few minutes. Guard the door and don't let anyone in." Quistis said as she opened the door, the two SeeDs followed her into the room. Cloud caught a glimpse of a middle-aged man with brown hair and a smiling youthful face before the door swung shut.
Cloud took the Ultima Weapon from his back and put the point of the blade on the floor as he leaned against it. Vincent watched him out of the corner of his eye, Cloud smiled, it seemed as through Vincent still didn't trust him, 'What a shame, but Vincent should know that if I wanted him dead he would be by now'. No one was in the hallway and as Cloud's enhanced hearing couldn't pick out the conversation in the room behind him, he started to get bored. But he had been on guard duty more times than he could count, and was used to long periods of standing still in complete boredom, so he kept quiet and waited.
"Cloud…?" Said Vincent breaking the silence
"What?"
"What did Sephiroth want when he rang earlier?"
Cloud swung his sword up to Vincent's neck, the blade less than a blur, and stopped the blade about half an inch from his skin. "Don't you ever say the boss's name you piece of scum, you aren't worthy enough to say it." Cloud hissed at Vincent, his eyes narrowed into slits behind the sunglasses. He could see the traitor swallow and try to back away, but the thick glass walls were pressed against his back and so he was pinned between the blade and the walls. "If I ever hear you say his name again you will regret it, as the boss said, you are expendable. Do you understand?" Cloud pressed the blade onto Vincent's neck, a line of blood appeared on the blade.
Vincent nodded his head slightly, 'Damn, Cloud can be scary when he wants to be'. He felt the blade moving away from his neck after a few seconds, he watched Cloud place the blade back on the floor, with the point of it resting on the misty-blue glass floor, with the hilt in one hand and the other routing through his pockets. Vincent brought a hand up to his throat, it was bleeding, not badly, but it would be noticeable to anyone who looked. He watched Cloud cautiously as he pulled out a bright green materia from his left pocket; Cloud tossed it to him as Vincent's eyebrows rose in surprise as he caught it.
"It's a Cure materia, it's fairly new, so it only knows Cure 1."
"…Why…?" He asked, confused at Cloud's actions, one minute the guy was calm, the next he was threatening to kill him, and then he was giving him materia, Cloud was simply even more complicated then he himself was.
"I don't want you keeling over if something happens, I need someone there to cover for me, and you're the only one who can do that. So keep that materia, I don't need it because I have a Master Magic materia equipped."
Vincent nodded again; he held the materia close and concentrated on it, "Cure 1!" Vincent glowed slightly as he felt the power building up inside him and his mp dropping slightly, a spiral of green light wove around his body as it healed him. Vincent could feel the skin on his neck growing and fusing over the cut and felt somewhat refreshed once the light had faded away. He glanced around, no one was in the hallway still, and thus no one had seen the materia work.
"So you want to know what the boss said?" Asked Cloud calmly
"…Yes" Vincent asked, not sure how he was supposed to answer the question
"He wants us to hurry up with the mission, I told him about that SeeD written exam next week, and he wants me to take it, which means you are too."
"Huh?" Vincent raked his brains, when had Cloud been informed of this? He couldn't remember.
Cloud must have noticed his slightly drawn together eyebrows, the subconscious action Vincent did when he was confused or thinking hard.
"Zell told me about it when we were in the Cafeteria, before you came when I left the Infirmary a few days ago."
"I see"
"When we get back I'm gonna enrol us on the exam rota. Oh, and I'm gonna kill President Lorrie today."
"What?!" Was Vincent hearing straight? Had Cloud just said that he was going to kill the President? He quickly glanced about, the corridor was still empty. Vincent took a deep breath; he was slowly losing his control over his emotions, and had been for a while now his mind suddenly noticed, but that was something he couldn't afford to do when he was playing such a dangerous game. Especially as though if he got angry enough he could accidentally let loose one of his monsters, and that wasn't such a good idea in such a populated area like Esther was.
"You heard me, I'm going to kill him, all you'll have to do is distract the girls when we're shopping, then I'll going to come back here and do what I must to ensure the mission goes well."
Vincent had never heard anyone decide to kill someone so calm and coldly, and he had been in the Turks! Vincent was about to reply when the door between them opened. The three girls came out and waved good-bye to the man inside. Cloud had definitely changed since the Northern Crater incident; he just hoped that Cloud could turn back to his old self again, and soon.
"See you soon, Laguna, we'll tell you if anything comes up!" Waved Selphie as she turned, closing the door behind them.
Cloud picked up his sword and swung it onto the magnet on his top, "So…?"
"So now we shop!" Shouted Selphie turning from the door "Whooo hooo!"
Cloud rolled his eyes, and followed the others who led the way along the corridor and eventually out onto the streets of Esther, acting as though he hadn't just been telling Vincent about how he was going to assassinate Esther's favourite president, and Selphie's personal hero.
The new Shopping District:
"Ohhhh, looky here! Cloud, this'll suit you with that blonde hair of yours!" Selphie said as Rinoa held up a mint green turtle neck jumper, Cloud sighed and walked over to them.
"I don't care, just buy it!" Cloud said exasperatedly, running his hands through his hair, hitting his face in the process with a bag that was dangling from his wrist.
"Come on Cloud, you've said that about the last 10 or so jumpers we've shown you." Said Quistis. Cloud silently prayed for a quick and sudden death to get out of this hellhole, they had been shopping for almost 4 hours!!!! Cloud and Vincent were weighed down with bags and boxes, while the girls carried none. Cloud sighed, this was why he had never gone shopping with women in the past, Zack had told him what Aeris was like shopping, according to him, she could go on for hours and so Cloud had avoided shops and women together like the plague. And Cloud still hadn't had the chance to sneak away and find the Presidential Palace.
Rinoa held up the top in front of Cloud to see how it looked, "Nice, I think we'll take this one too." She said as Quistis nodded in agreement and Selphie took the money that Xu had originally given to Rinoa. Cloud had quite plainly refused to try anything on, knowing how much longer that would make the shopping last and so they didn't bother asking him to try the new jumper on.
"I think that's enough now."
"Oh, come on Cloud, Vincent isn't complaining."
"I think it looks great too." Vincent said automatically, coming out of a self induced trance at the sound of his name
"Men!" Sighed Quistis and Selphie together
"Sorry?"
"Come on, there's a really good store over the road, its where I buy all Squall's clothes." Said Rinoa, once Selphie had paid for yet some more clothes for Cloud and Vincent
"No wonder he's suddenly started to get a dress sense, you're buying all his things!" Qusitis said, and then laughed with the other two girls at this newly found information.
Cloud heaved up a couple of bags that were starting to slip down his left arm, rolling the bandage down his arm and stopping at his gloves, scratching his skin with their weight, "Come on, the sooner we get there, the sooner we can go."
"Yeah, Cloud still has some space left to carry things, we can hang a couple of bags from each end of his hilt."
"Like hell you are!"
"Oh, Cloud, stop your moaning and be quiet."
Cloud muttered something under his breath and led the way out of the store.
Esther hotel; The New Life:
"Finally!" Cloud dropped the bags in his hand on the floor by the reception desk two hours later, while Rinoa pressed a bell for the owner to come. After a few seconds a man poked his head out of a door behind the huge wooden desk, and seeing them started grinning broadly, and walked over to where the group of five stood. The man was balding, the little hair he had was a bright red colour and had been cut short, and an apron that was tied around his waist was stretched across his huge stomach.
"Hello, and how may I help you?"
"We're looking for a room for the five of us for the night." Quistis said
"Well the only room that I have available on such short notice is a three bedded room, is that okay?"
"Sure, we don't mind sharing. How much will that be?"
"300 Gil for all of you seeing as you're only having three beds. If you want breakfast it will be served 8.30 till 10.30 free of charge."
"Thank you." Quistis said while looking for some money in her purse before remembering that Selphie had it.
The innkeeper smiled, "Up the stairs to your left, third room along." He handed Quistis a key with the number 3 engraved on it, "Oh, and could you please sign your name in the guest book before you go tomorrow."
He turned away and went back through the door, to what Cloud suspected to be a kitchen of some sort, coming from the smells and sounds emerging as the door swung open and then shut behind him.
"Come on then, Cloud pick up those bags" Quistis said as she started up the staircase, Vincent looked around, taking in the details of the building, from the outside, the inn had looked similar to the others, no big differences apart from the baskets of flowers hanging from hooks at either side of the door that most of the inns had lacked. Inside The New Life Inn, the innkeeper had furnished it in a way that wouldn't be out of place on most cities on Planet, it had oak floors and wooden furniture like the desk in front of the door, there was a door to the right of the room that he suspected led to the dining room. But the stairs were made of that strange hardened glass this city seemed to be so fond of, it seemed like a strange mix of the past and the future to Vincent's eyes.
Upstairs the inn had dark red carpets and wooden panelling on the walls; a few paintings of young women and bright flowers were hung on the walls. Qusitis stopped at a door,
"Looks like we're in here." She walked into the room, everyone piled in after her, Vincent closed the door behind him as he entered, "I hope you guys don't mind sleeping on the floor tonight?"
Vincent shrugged and the 'teens' threw their bags onto one of the beds, a few bags fell onto the floor "Hey!" said Selphie, "They could break you know!"
"Clothes can break?" Asked Vincent with a raised eyebrow
Rinoa and Qusitis started to laugh
"You know what I mean."
"Do I?"
"I'm going out for a while." Said Cloud interrupting Selphie as she opened her mouth to answer Vincent, he looked at Vincent pointedly, who instantly knew where Cloud was headed.
"Why?" Said Rinoa
"Because I need some fresh air." Cloud walked past the bed and was headed for the door, when he felt a hand grab his left arm
"Huh?" He said, turning around to see who had him
"Cloud…is this what I think it is?" It seemed it was Quistis who had caught him
"What?"
"…Your arm."
Cloud looked down at his arm, he hadn't noticed that the weight of the shopping bags had pushed down his bandage, showing everyone who looked the scars from the endless needles Hojo had injected him with, and monitor sensors that had stayed hooked up under his skin for years.
"It's nothing."
"Have you been taking drugs? We need to know if you have any...problems, we can help you get through this" Cloud snatched his arm away from her, 'what in Planet's name does she know? There's nothing she can do, its all in the past now', but Cloud couldn't help from shuddering as he remembered how he had got the scars. His arm was still slightly red even in all this time, his body was still healing itself, round, white scars and red lumps could be seen along his left forearm and on the inside of his elbow.
"No I haven't taken any drugs, not that it's any of your business. I'm going out now." Cloud hastily left the room before someone caught him again and accused him something else.
Cloud made sure that the bandages were tightly fastened before he left the inn and tucked the ends into his glove. He crossed the street and silently blended in with the night before vanishing into the shadows, he had a job to do, and tonight was the night to do it.