Disclaimer – I don't own FF7
Coeurl
By Crimson Skies
Chapter Seven – Interlude
"Hey there little boy, are you lost?"
Cloud glanced behind him to spot a middle-aged woman approach him from behind. The sound of her approach had alerted him long ago, but he had waited for her to address him. He studied her through dark sunglasses. She was wearing a dress that was several years too old to be in fashion and her graying brown hair was pulled back from her face. Kind grey eyes looked genuinely concerned. He felt no threat from her. Turning back, he continued to watch the sun rise from the rolling waves.
"I'm waiting for my guardian," Cloud told her. "I'm twelve years old," Cloud added, almost as an afterthought.
"I see. Pardon my saying this, but you looked younger, dear," she said when she reached him. "Would you mind if I joined you?"
"Feel free."
"Thank you."
He saw her take a seat beside him on the rock out of the corner of his eye. Moments passed in silence. The half-risen sun dyed the waves and sky mirror shades of scarlet.
"There's a saying among soldiers, you know," she said finally. "'Red sky in morning, sailor's warning. Red sky at night, sailor's delight.'" She quoted. "My husband was a sailor. He died the day of a red dawn. A storm kicked up from nowhere and the ship sunk. There were very few survivors."
"I'm sorry for your loss," Cloud replied. Red dawns set him on edge. They were a personal bad omen. The last time…The last time the day dawned red…
"Don't be. That was ten years ago. I've moved on, like he would have wanted. But I come here now and then to remember him. He loved this beach. It's peaceful here, isolated from the crowds of tourists."
"So you live here, in Costa de Sol?" he inquired.
"Hm, all my life." He could feel the smile in her voice.
"It's a beautiful place," he observed. When she suddenly giggled, he turned to face her.
"It's just, I realized the light makes your hair look like it's on fire!" she exclaimed. "And I couldn't help but think…you looked like a chocobo on fire!"
Cloud choked. The damn chocobo reference again. He'd seen the birds in the Golden Saucer once. He didn't resemble them that much. He twitched.
"I'm sorry, I see that I've offended you," she said, stifling her laughter.
"It's alright. I'm just a bit sick of being compared to a chocobo," he explained.
"I suppose you would get that a lot." She covered her mouth to hide a smile. He offered a small smile. "Oh, I completely forgot. My name is Carla Namon. Feel free to call me Carla."
"I'm Cloud."
"Well, that's an unusual name," she observed. "But, I think it suits you well."
"My mother loved the rain. She told me she wanted to name me Rain, but then I turned out to be a boy, and she thought it wouldn't quite fit," Cloud remembered aloud. He had almost forgotten. Closing his eyes, he savored the memory. It was one of his favorites. Not necessarily happy, but not sad either. He remembered the feeling of peace and contentment as he and his mother watched the rain pour down.
They continued to watch the sunrise in comfortable silence.
"Hey Vincent," Cloud said suddenly, his eyes never leaving the horizon.
Carla was puzzled, having no idea what prompted him to say that. A deep voice answered Cloud from behind her.
"I found us passage," the man said. Carla stood and whirled, shocked. She hadn't heard the man approach. Before her stood a sinister looking man garbed in black and a red cloak. If he had not been standing fully framed by the sun she would have called him a vampire. Despite the eerie look he possessed, he could not be called anything less than beautiful.
Cloud nodded at the gunner and stood, dusting himself off. "We're leaving soon then?"
"Twenty minutes," Vincent informed him. Cloud turned to Carla and smiled.
"I have to go now. Thank you for keeping me company," he said.
"Oh, um, no problem. Anytime," she stuttered, not quite sure how to act. The man gave her a brief nod in acknowledgement while Cloud grinned. As if by silent signal, they turned and walked away together. She was left staring at their retreating backs in bewilderment. The sun bathed them in a bloody light, and she shivered. Somehow, someway, she knew that their road was a long, hard one. The chocobo boy named Cloud who was far too mature and the vampire-like man called Vincent. She did not envy them.
COEURLBYCRIMSONSKIESCHAPTERSEVENINTERLUDE
"So Zackary, you've been promoted," Sephiroth stated dryly.
"Yup! Second Class SOLDIER Zackary Donovan at your service!" Zack declared proudly. In the last few years he had, not only graduated from Soldier, but had also risen in rank. The way things looked now he'd be in First Class in no time at all.
"I see. I heard you now have your own squad…" Had Zack been paying attention, he would have seen the gears turning in the General's head. Alas, he was too caught up in his joy.
"That's right! I'm in command of Squad Eight!"
"And they sent you to me for your new orders?" the silver-haired man arched an eyebrow.
"Yeah. I suppose not much gets past you here, eh?" Zack laughed. His laughter died off rather pathetically when he saw the look in Sephiroth's eyes. They were glinting almost…maliciously. "Uh…Sephiroth?" he questioned uncertainty.
"Well, Zackary. I will now give you the new orders you were sent for." He stood from his desk. Straight faced, but with eyes still betraying his amusement, he hefted a sizable stack of papers from the desk. Turning to Zack, he dumped them in the unsuspecting SOLDIER's arms. Zack barely had time to collect himself enough to keep from dropping the papers.
"What's this?" he gaped.
"Paperwork."
"Paperwork?" Zack echoed. "And why would you give me this?" he inquired warily.
"Why, I thought you would understand by now. You, my dim subordinate, have quite a bit of deskwork, now that you are an officer," he explained.
"But, I…" Poor Zack was at an almost complete loss.
"Oh I'm sure you'll figure it out Zackary. Now run along. You have quite a bit of work to do," Sephiroth evilly smirked. He quickly ushered the dumbfounded Zack to the door of his office. "Welcome to my hell!" he couldn't help but snipe as he shoved the unfortunate boy out the door. What sweet revenge for all those times Zack had bothered him while he was trying to work. Zack turned to him, mouth opened and about to protest when the General shut the door in his face.
"Damn it!" Zack cursed. He had stomped halfway down the hall when Sephiroth's head popped out of the door and called out to him.
"Oh, and Zackary," Zack turned to face him, "When you've finished with that stack you can come get the next one from me," Sephiroth added sadistically, before retreating into the office again. He laughed maniacally to himself.
"CURSE YOU SEPHIROTH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"
The General could not keep from grinning.
COEURLBYCRIMSONSKIESCHAPTERSEVENINTERLUDE
Vincent stood leaning on the rail of the boat, staring at the endless ocean. Cloud sat cross-legged next to him but facing the opposite way, watching the sailors scurry about the boat.
"I've never been to the eastern continent," Cloud said. He was fairly well traveled now. He and Vincent had traveled over much of the western continent. Besides a handful of tiny villages, they'd visited Rocket Town, North Corel, Golden Saucer, Gongaga, Cosmo Canyon, and Costa de Sol. They had also gone a bit out of the way to visit Wutai. They had stayed there first for a year to make sure the Shinra weren't looking for them. It had taken some time, but the people there had come to trust them, probably because of their mutual dislike for Shinra. They had also been fundamental in training Cloud in areas that Vincent could not. Really, Vincent wasn't one for edged weapons, which were Cloud's arms of choice. Vincent had taught him how to properly handle a gun, but still felt uneasy using one.
And during the three years of travel he and Vincent had developed and unusually strong bond. Cloud thought from time to time that the gunner was the closest thing he'd ever had to a father. Indeed, he was both mentor and friend. It was easy for Cloud to understand Vincent, and vice-versa. They had much in common after all. Including their mutual dry sense of humor.
"We'll be docking at the Junon harbor. Be careful. Shinra are crawling all over this place. It's a military city first and foremost. Unlike Midgar, the Shinra personal outnumber the citizens two to one. In Midgar it would be easy to blend. Here…" Vincent informed him. "It's just good that they aren't necessarily looking for us. Hojo would probably be the only one to recognize either of us, but it's best not to draw suspicion."
That was one of the cool things about Vincent. He usually didn't talk much, at least not to other people, but he always had useful little tidbits to share about many things. And he would never hesitate to teach them to Cloud. Actually, when he got started in a lecture it was sometimes a bit difficult to shut him up. It was amusing to see Vincent in teacher mode too. Just picturing the vampirish man wearing slacks, a dress shirt, and glass while writing on a chalkboard nearly sent him into hysterics. It was the worst visually disturbing thing he'd pictured in a long time. No doubt the children would run home, screaming that their teacher was going to drink their blood. Or maul them with his claw-arm. Or shoot them. Or sick Chaos on them. Just imagine a Chibi-Chaos running a classroom…twisted.
Cloud choked on a laugh.
"Something amusing?" Vincent inquired.
"Chibi-Chaos…school kids and vampires…" Cloud coughed.
"Kid, you have a demented mind," Vincent observed, somehow making the connection.
"If you could understand that, what does it say about you?" Cloud shot back.
"What can I say? We are, after all, both by-products of dear Dr. Hojo," the ex-Turk responded.
"Freaks flock together, eh? Some flock," Cloud snorted. "The Chaos Project and the Anima Project in one place."
"Creepy," Vincent agreed.
"This coming from the man who…"
Vincent glared.
"…resembles a vampire," Cloud finished.
"Better a vampire than a chocobo. Very cute."
"Shut up."
ENDCHAPTERSEVEN
Well, well, well. Three years have passed. Don't worry, I'll eventually let you know what happened after Cloud killed the wolf and what happened in the three years following. Eventually. MWAHAHAHAHAHA! What will happen next, I wonder? Don't ask me, ask the muses. They know best. Anyway, you know, I realized that I forgot to tell you where the Coeurl comes from, for those who haven't figured it out. You can find it in the Calm Lands in FFX. The minute I saw them I thought they were awesome. Definitely my favorite monsters. It's counterpart, the stronger version, is the Master Coeurl, and is gold-orange instead of white. There are similar monsters in several FF games, such as the Torama in FFXIII and the Cuahl in FF7, but I just like the Coeurl best. I can't remember the others.
Cendrillo – Yay! You reviewed again. That "Strange Things Concerning Chocoboy" bit was inspired. I have a file in my mind just like it for my cat. It's called "Weird Occurances Concerning Ginger a.k.a. PsychoCat a.k.a. Twitchy". She is the strangest creature I've ever encountered…barring myself. I have to say, you're one of my best reviewers. I immensely enjoy reading your reviews. I always look forward to getting one. Hehe. Ah yes, the Anima Project was inspired. It just kind of grew on its own, with very little help from me. It's good you found the idea interesting. I certainly did. I just hope it continues to work well in this story.
Sars Mortis – Another excellent reviewer! I'm glad you didn't think I was too obvious about everything. I tried to obtain a good balance. Indeed the plot does thicken. I had to add a bit of corn starch, but it worked. Um…just ignore the reference to cooking. Hehe. I had to do a lot of that for Thanksgiving, so it's still kinda on the brain. (I don't even eat gravy, why the heck was I the one making it?) I'm happy you like my way of introducing information. I try not to get too technical when I do that. I have a tendency to get carried away. I could easily have written several more paragraphs on the subject of the Anima Project, but I thought I might start putting the readers to sleep.
kk – Once more, a excellent reviewer. The idea of Vincent 'adopting' Cloud, so to speak, kind of crept up on me. It's a long story, but here goes. I was re-playing FF7, since it's the only thing I can do while waiting for Advent Children, when I got to the part where you find Vincent. A thought occurred to me. Vincent and Cloud spent years living practically as neighbors without knowing. So then I thought, what if, by chance, they had somehow met earlier. Of course, my mind began to sift through several scenarios at that point. (I had to turn the game off too because I was no longer properly focused on it.) Eventually, that idea, and several others I'd had concerning an FF7 AU, started to compile themselves and eventually this fic was born! Hope that wasn't too boring of a history. Honestly, I find the idea of using this as a doujinshi pretty cool and I would love to do it…but I'm not that talented. I combined this response for both of your reviews. Glad you enjoyed the story so much. Keep reading cough-andreviewing-cough Hehe.
schu – Another good reviewer. Seriously, I'm ecstatic that I got so many awesome reviews this time (Despite the fact that I only got five reviews. I'm grateful, really I am. I'm blaming it on the fact that FFnet was down for awhile.). Any review is good, but some are honestly more interesting than others. I was afraid than in that last chapter I'd revealed too much too soon. Thus being afraid I overdid it. However, I had to reveal some things sooner, because I'm not even into the main part of the story yet, and I need to keep from spending too much time on the beginning part, which I've been doing. It's going to be a very long story, and I was afraid of getting too caught up in the beginning and never getting on with it. I have a horrible tendency to do that. Speaking of Hojo, let's see, how do I describe liking characters who are supposed to be evil? Oh yeah. "He's cool in a World Domination kind of way." I used that to describe Itachi from Naruto. Not that I particularly like Hojo, but each to their own. Besides, Hojo's just plain fun to write.