Cloud was…a little bit confused. Mostly happy, because it was impossible not to be happy when Zack was there and real and alive, but still. Confused. He'd been so sure he knew where he was in the timeline—after all, hadn't he managed to get to Rhapsodos in time?

But he was pretty sure that he and Zack weren't supposed to have met yet, much less have become friends.

Did I forget when we became friends? he wondered at Zack-voice, face still mashed into the center of real-Zack's knit top. He smelled familiar. Safe. So much so, and after so long of being on the knife-edge of danger, that Cloud found himself melting into his lost friend like butter on a hot stove.

Did I forget when we became friends? Zack-voice responded, wailing in anguish, and if he'd been something other than a questionably-real voice in Cloud's brain he would have been dramatically clutching handfuls of his hair. Spiky! I've failed you! Again!

You could never fail me, Zack. As if able to sense his thoughts, real Zack brought a hand up to cradle the back of his head as he curled around him protectively.

Oh —wait, maybe that had something to do with Sephiroth's sudden and unexpected presence.

"You didn't drink the water!" Cloud said immediately, wiggling around in Zack's grip just enough to look at the man and point an accusing finger. Sephiroth blinked at him, as if surprised, and for a split second he doubted himself. Wait, we did give him the water, right? Cloud double-checked with his voices.

Yeah, said himself-as-Zack and Zack-voice. We definitely did, Tifa-voice agreed.

"Yeah, you didn't drink the water!" Cloud repeated, pointing harder. If he had drank the healing water, Cloud wouldn't be able to sense his presence any more. But he could sense it, and that meant Sepiroth hadn't drunk the water he'd worked so hard to get.

"Water?" said real-Zack, chest rumbling. "What water?"

"The same water he gave me earlier," said Genesis, and Cloud jolted in surprise at his voice. Angeal and Kunsel of all people were there too. It was a real party huh?

Pay attention, Tifa scolded. He missed whatever Genesis said, but that reminded him. He had things to do if he wanted everyone to make it out alive.

Cloud carefully squirmed out of Zack's grip, offering him a consoling pat on the arm when he seemed reluctant to let go. "Drink the water," he told Sephiroth again, glancing around at his surroundings. Stairwell, floor 36, west side of the Tower. Perfect. Why was there laundry on the floor? That seemed a little weird, even for Shinra. "Seriously. I want it to be gone when I'm done."

"Done with wh—?"

Cloud hopped the railing and plunged straight down into the void between the stairs. Startled cries followed him, including Zack's, which hurt a to hear, but he couldn't stop. Not yet. He still had things to do if he wanted to make sure Zack didn't get gunned down by the Infantry.

Then again, Cloud had already been gunned down by the ShinRa Infantry in this go-around. Maybe that would be enough to satisfy destiny.


Angeal was worried. Angeal was worried about everyone at this point. Cloud was erratic and only marginally more coherent than before. Zack was suddenly behaving like a cornered dog. Genesis was keeping secrets, and now was so giddy with the resolution of said secrets that he was sowing shameless chaos. Sephiroth was hypothetically suffering something similar to what had plagued Genesis.

Kunsel...Angeal didn't know what was going on with Kunsel, but he was willing to bet there was something to be worried about.

Cloud and Zack were in their own world as Sephiroth came running down the stairs to join the impromptu little intervention. His eyes swept over them quickly, narrowing slightly when he saw the muted smugness of Genesis's expression. Even a split-second assessment was enough for him to tell that Genesis had done something. They'd known each other for too long not to.

"Seph," Angeal greeted tiredly, one hand against his temple.

Zack moved, curling around his little trooper friend and putting his own body between him and Sephiroth. And again, his eyes held a strange, haunted kind of wariness that made Angeal's stomach go cold. Where had he learned that? And why directed at Sephiroth?

Cloud, for his part, didn't seem to notice anything at all.

"You got my message," Sephiroth observed, coming to a stop on the landing where they were all gathered.

"We did, thank you," Angeal said, nodding. Zack's expression twisted with betrayal, one hand coming up to cover the back of Cloud's head. Angeal sighed when he saw it, somewhere between impatient and worried. "Zack —"

He was cut off when Cloud suddenly snapped one hand up, pointing unerringly at Sephiroth, and declared (half muffled in Zack's chest) "you didn't drink the water!"

Everyone paused, blinking in surprise at that. Sehpiroth, in particular, took on a very strange expression. "How did you —?"

But Cloud seemed to be lost in his own world again, not hearing Sephiroth's trailing question. After a worrying delay, he finally snapped back to reality and pointed again. "Yeah, you didn't drink the water!"

Shiva, that kid definitely needed to go back to sleep for a day or five. He probably needed more food too. Angeal mentally tripled his grocery list.

"Water?" Zack asked, bewildered. "What water?"

Genesis, who looked very entertained by all of this, hummed in amusement and crossed one ankle over the other as he leaned back against the handrail. "The same water he gave me earlier," he reminded Zack. Cloud jolted in Zack's arms, twisted around to see Genesis and Angeal. He looked surprised, blinking huge blue eyes still underscored by dark circles.

Oh yeah. He definitely needed to go back to sleep. Angeal wondered if he would just pass out standing up given enough time.

"Now, what is that look for, little bird?" Genesis asked, amusement ratcheting up a notch. Cloud didn't seem to hear him as he squirmed free of Zack's protective grip and patted his friend on the shoulder. "Drink the water," he told Sephiroth sternly, and he was so serious with his bare feet and short stature and sleep-mussed hair compared to the tall, composed, adult Sephiroth that it made for a very comedic picture.

But, despite the comedic juxtaposition, there was something about the way he glanced around as he spoke that made Angeal's spine go rigid —despite his seeming dazed state, and his disconnect from reality, his eyes were sharp and focused. "Seriously. I want it to be gone when I'm done," he added.

Sephiroth looked incredulous. "Done with wh—?"

Cloud jumped the rail.

"CLOUD!" Zack shrieked, lunging to follow as the rest of them yelled in surprise at the sudden leap. Angeal intercepted him on reflex, wrapping an arm around his student's waist and yanking him back. Sephiroth ended up being the first to jump, flying gracefully down into the void between the stairs in pursuit, and Genesis followed on his coattails with a loud, delighted laugh.

"Let me go!" Zack shouted, struggling. Angeal, realizing there was no reason to stop him — indeed, he needed to follow his fellow Firsts too —let Zack go. He jumped. Kunsel had also vanished, though not directly after Cloud. Where he'd gone, Angeal hadn't seen. With a short, frustrated sigh, Angeal jumped too.

He was surprised , though maybe he shouldn't have been, that they were all forced to chase after Cloud at full speed. He couldn't see the kid's bright head of hair anywhere below him, only Zack following the distant forms of Genesis and Sephiroth. By the time he hit the ground floor and burst out into the anteroom before the atrium proper, Zack had vanished and Genesis and Sephiroth were arguing.

"You were in the lead! How could you possibly lose him!"

"In the same manner you lost him, Genesis," Sephiroth snapped back, irritated. "You were not that far behind me. You saw and heard as well as I did that he vanished."

"What?" Angeal asked incredulously, coming to a stop beside his friends. "You lost the kid?" They'd lost a barefoot, barely-coherent, sleep-deprived teenager? In less than three minutes? "Where'd Zack go?"

"Out the front door," Genesis said, no longer amused by the situation. He jerked his chin in the general direction. Angeal took off again, jogging through the sparse late-evening crowds of ShinRa employees toward the front entrance. He could see Zack running back and forth just outside through the polished glass of the doors.

A flash of bright gold reflected in that same glass caught his eye. He paused, turning his head up and around to see —

"You've gotta be kidding me," he groaned. Cloud, somehow without anyone else in the lobby noticing, was hopping from light fixture to light fixture as casually as if he was using a trail of stones to cross a river. Angeal picked up his pace, sprinting after the kid just as he hopped from the last fixture and onto the third floor. "How did you even get up there?" he muttered to himself, giving up on subtlety to leap from the handrail along the side of the open stairway and ascend to the third floor in a few powerful jumps.

It wasn't exactly the first time a SOLDIER had performed such feats around the Tower. Most of the employees just moved out of his way with mildly annoyed chuffs.

He got to the third floor just in time to see Cloud vanish down a hallway that he knew was a dead end. "Oh thank Shiva. Kid! Cloud!" He sprinted down the hallway, skidding to a confused halt when he couldn't see the teenager anywhere. "What —?" Methodically, he checked each of the rooms that lined the hallway, including the bathrooms. He even double-checked that the only window hadn't been opened and, in fact, couldn't be opened at all without ripping the entire housing from the wall.

And all that effort left him baffled, standing in the middle of a dead-end hallway, scratching the back of his head.

Cloud had vanished, seemingly into thin air.

"Next time I see that kid I'm going to stick a homing device on him," he muttered, pinching the bridge of his nose and heaving a sigh. Well, nothing for it. He pulled out his PHS and fired off a text to Genesis, Sephiroth, and Zack. If they were going to find Cloud, it would take a much more coordinated, and far wider, effort than running aimlessly around the Tower.

It was time for another meeting.


Cloud slithered through the vents, humming quietly to himself. Explosions Plan, Explosions Plan…

He'd already forgotten entirely about the SOLDIERs who'd been chasing after him . Actually, he hadn't much noticed them following in the first place. All the voices in his head were in agreement on the Explosions Plan. First they needed to get down into the Labs, then they needed to use —

Cloud paused suddenly, going still, and scowled as he let his forehead thunk down against the bottom of the vent. Ah shit! I forgot the materia.

The voices went quiet as they, too, realized the massive oversight. Cloud didn't have any of his usual gear —actually, he had even less than what he'd had before. He didn't even have shoes. His bare toes wiggled against the cold metal.

Knights of the Round would be nice, Zack said wistfully.

We don't want to bring the whole Tower down, Tifa scolded. Not yet, at least. Phoenix?

Phoenix for one, Hades for the other, Cloud-as-Zack voice mused.

Cloud frowned into the metal his face was mashed against. We have to go get them first. So it has to be something we can actually find quick.

Everyone was silent for a little bit, thinking. Crossing continents was just too much, but the summon also needed to be pretty damn powerful to pull off the Explosions Plan.

A quiet, hesitant voice that Cloud hadn't heard before piped up. What...what about Commander Rhapsodos's summon materia?

Cloud's head shot up. ME?

He got the impression of the voice shrinking back with wide, startled eyes.

You're me! Different me? Cloud paused, thinking hard. His heart plummeted. Oh, shit. You're...small me, aren't you?

Maybe, Small Cloud said, so quiet that his voice would have been lost beneath the others if they'd tried to speak. It's hard to tell where you start and I end.

Cloud's heart ached. Shit, kid...I'm sorry.

Why are you sorry? Small Cloud asked, puzzled. We're saving the world! I got to meet Sephiroth! We're a total badass! This is the coolest thing ever!

Yeah, but...you were awake for your own execution.

...we were EXECUTED?

Cloud froze. Uhhhhhhh...you know what, let's not think about that right now. What was that about Genesis's materia?

Small Cloud felt spooked, but also...faint. If anyone has the most powerful summons, it's him, he said. I...think I'm gonna go to sleep now. I'm tired.

Wait, no don't sleep! Cloud said, eyes going wide with alarm. Gods, what if he never woke up again?

It's okay, Small Cloud reassured him, even fainter. I've spent most of my time asleep. I just...don't...talk...much…when I'm...awake... His presence faded away into the back of Cloud's head. Now that he'd felt it, he could tell where it was against the rest of the churning chaos.

...well, said Tifa.

She couldn't seem to find any words to elaborate beyond that.

No one else could either.

OKAY, LET'S GO STEAL FROM GENESIS! Zack finally declared, loudly.

YEAH! everyone agreed, and Cloud squirmed around to head in the opposite direction. First up, then over, and —oh yeah, they'd been chasing him earlier hadn't they? So they probably wouldn't be in their apartments for a bit. Hopefully that meant easy pickings, but if Genesis kept the good summons on his person, then Cloud would adjust the plan and take them directly.

Shouldn't be hard. He'd already pulled off a surprise assault once, right?