Stargazers

Chapter 10

Zacks and Tseng faced each other, an air of tension between them. Zacks, however, seemed to be the only one who felt it. Tseng's face had the appearance of someone who was quite content with the situation.

"Unfavorable circumstances to be meeting under," Tseng broke the silence, in a tone that suggested he could have been talking about bad weather. His voice as calm and smooth as liquid. "But as you can see, we have clear confirmation on the rumors. I've already notified Rufus." Tseng raised his free arm lightly, drawing attention to the soaress stone lightly enclosed in his palm.

Zacks grunted unappreciatively, "Apparently." His concerns were focused on the blonde boy currently in Tseng's possession.

"…And this," He looked at the dazed Cloud still held in his arm, "Must be your new traveling companion I've heard about."

"Where's Elena, and the girl you should have with you? How long have you been here?" Zacks questioned in a voice that was not hostile, but uncharacteristically impatient.

"A hand for magic, hasn't he?" Tseng continued as if Zacks hadn't said a thing, the light confidence of a man winning a game of chess as he examined the boy at his side, the arm coiled around him moving upward to lightly grasp his chin. He offered Zacks a seemingly warm smile.

Zacks remained tense as he attempted to read the other man's actions. He'd seen Tseng with that same smile plenty of times before. He'd seen Tseng kill a man without it flinching.

"...He's very…" The Turk seemed to pause, searching for the correct word, as he casually stroked his thumb down the side of Cloud's cheek, "…Interesting."

Zacks repressed a growl, "…"

"…But then, you've always had quite an eye for interesting travel companions, haven't you, Zacks?"

Tseng curved an elegant brow upward as Zacks' grip tightened on his sword's hilt, still silent. Eventually, Tseng seemed to let it go, as though disappointed at not eliciting a better response from the other man, but satisfied with what he got.

"…But business, of course." Still holding Zacks' gaze, Tseng uncoiled his arm from around Cloud, and pressed him lightly between the shoulder blades to encourage him forward, "You'd best take hold of him, he seems a bit unsteady on his feet."

Zacks was instantly forward, sword sheathed and both arms around the fragile looking boy.

Cloud had just barely recognized the exchange. He lightly lifted his head to look at Tseng, who offered him a warm, yet predatory smile before returning his focus to Zacks. "We arrived here early this morning, and things were as they are now…"

Cloud's mind tried to focus, not registering the words being spoken; there was something important he was forgetting. His gaze wavered over his frozen surroundings, until he caught sight of a certain home. Recognition jolted his memory. Tifa's house. He attempted to sputter out her name, which resulted in more of a croak, but if was enough to get both men's attention. He felt Zacks' arms tighten around him and tried again, "Tifa…"

"…The girl is safe," Tseng responded, "Elena left with her, heading south, as soon as we saw the town's condition. It wouldn't have been good on the girl's heart to keep her here any longer. She's fine. Rather shaken, of course, but fine."

Cloud felt relief, hearing she was safe. His mind was having complications sorting out the reality of the situation, and if the answer had been any different, he may very well have shut down right then and there. He realized he was shaking, but no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't stop it. He felt Zacks draw him closer.

"…So you split up, then? Why did you hang back?" Zacks' voice was considerably more relaxed. The tension had slowly eased from the air the moment Cloud had been returned to him.

"Reeve sent me a message two days ago telling me you were headed to this area to return the boy home, just as we were returning his young lady friend. I told her to go ahead and leave with the girl while I investigated for any survivors or witnesses, or anything otherwise noteworthy," He casually adjusted the edge of his sleeve. "After I'd finished investigating the area, I knew you'd likely be arriving soon. I decided it would be wise to inform you of how we're going to deal with this recent turn of events, as well as what's cropped up concerning Vincent."

"And you couldn't have sent a soaress?"

"My soaress hasn't returned from reporting to Rufus, I'm afraid, so no. That," he smiled, "And it was a decent excuse to meet the little magic prodigy. Reeve seemed quite impressed."

A moment passed, Tseng just smiling contently, before Zacks pressed for the information Tseng had wanted to deliver, "You said you wanted to tell me how we're supposed to deal with the situation? And what news do we have on Vincent?"

"Rufus had plans for what to do once the rumors were confirmed, or if we found a lead on Vincent, but he didn't expect both at the same time."

Zacks raised a brow, "Surely they aren't related…?"

"Not at all," Tseng coolly cut him off, "By coincidence, Reno and Rude, who went west of Gavriel, managed to get a tip off mere hours before Elena and I arrived at this iced village. We need to prioritize what to follow up on, decide who goes where. We need to send someone to follow up on Vincent's possible location, which may be heading straight into the lion's den of Corneo's Traders. We need to decide how many are going to try to scour the location of the ones responsible for this village- or, at least, try to find where they were traveling from. If we run into them, you know their potential power as well as I. Dispersing our manpower, at this point, can be quite dangerous."

"…I see. Should we return to Gavriel, then?"

"The caravan headed to Lavitia has already headed out. Their route goes north to Rosen before turning southwest in order to avoid the forested area between Gavriel and Lordan, so they will actually be closer to our current location than Gavriel for a short time. Everyone's meeting the caravan there. That's all there is to know at this point. I'll be heading out to meet back up with Elena. See you in Rosen, Zacks." Tseng dipped his head in a gentlemanly gesture, then turned and began walking towards the edge of the village opposite where Zacks and Cloud had entered.

Zacks wasted no time guiding Cloud straight out of the village the same way they had entered, through the frozen forest until there was only a light frost on the ground. With the village effectively out of sight, Zacks stopped, and turned to face Cloud, placing two hands on his shoulders. Before he could say a word, however, Cloud suddenly dropped to his knees, gaze not lifting from the ground. Zacks quickly dropped to one knee in front of him, not moving his hands from the boy's shoulders. Cloud still hadn't said a word. He almost seemed calm, which worried Zacks far more than if he had been hysterical.

"…Cloud…" Zacks spoke lightly, trying to prompt the boy to look him in the eye. Slowly, Cloud lifted his gaze to meet Zacks' concerned features.

Zacks would swear he could practically feel the situation catch up to the blonde's mind as Cloud's eyes suddenly pulsed wider with a look of panic and disbelief, "IthinkI'mgonnabesick-" he blurted out and suddenly tore himself away, stumbling behind a thick path of undergrowth and throwing up.

The trip to Rosen was definitely shorter than the trip from Gavriel had been, but Cloud was sure it would have blurred together the same anyway. He had felt very cold, even when they had entered back into the normal climate, and hadn't taken his cloak off once.

The trip was also very quiet. Zacks had attempted, at night, to prompt him to talk, but Cloud had coldly turned him away. He needed to think. Life as he knew it had just been ripped up and thrown away. Everything had seemed as though it was going to be better. In Gavriel, at one point, he had felt almost sure that there was a chance- a good, fighting chance- that all of his problems might go away. He'd stopped feeling as bad about himself. He had started looking forward to what might come in the future. He had started feeling…

Hope.

Then, reality had delivered him a firm slap across the face. And Cloud realized he had just learned the hard way that problems never go away, they just change shape. They just metamorphasize, sometimes into something completely different altogether.

It was a lesson he wouldn't forget.

Rosen turned out to be completely different from Lordan or Gavriel. It was much more of a large town than a city, and there were far more flowers and plant life in general. The streets were lined with many small shops and homes, and a large windmill could be seen in the distance.

It was dusk when they arrived, and Zacks lead the way straight to the inn. Fortunately enough, most members of the caravan had already been situated comfortably in the various wagons and didn't want to leave their belongings alone, so there were plenty of extra rooms. Cloud made sure to ask for his own room. He headed straight up the stairs and locked himself in the moment he had the key.

As much as Zacks had wanted to follow right after him, he had to check in with Reeve and find out how long it would be before the caravan set out again, and who else they were waiting on. He sighed as he stepped out of the inn, running a hand through his hair. He wanted to comfort Cloud. When he had tried, while they were traveling, Cloud seemed as though he wanted to be as far away from him as possible. The fact that one of the only things Cloud had said to him was asking for his own room had hurt. Saying it was going to be difficult to console him was an understatement.

"We're going to be here for a few days to give Reno and Rude the chance to catch up to us. We'll be holding several discussions on the way to Lavitia, of course, to organize how many we have at our disposal and who'd prefer to go where- not that we'll really know until after Reno gives us a full report on the information he gathered- and then we'll have to meet with Rufus directly. We'll want to act as quickly as possible so we'll want to come up with the best options possible before we meet at Lavitia to get the final say…" The moment Zacks notified Reeve he was there, the other man started throwing a million pieces of information at him at once. It was to be expected, of course, but Zacks' mind was elsewhere. He could hardly concentrate on what Reeve was saying when the foreground of his mind was filled with worries over his currently devastated companion, alone in his room.

But in the meantime, he had to try and focus. The better he relayed the situation to Reeve and started discussing what to do about, the sooner they could go after the bastard responsible.

Cloud had thrown himself down on the bed and buried his head under the pillow, trying to block everything out. He'd been doing a fairly good job of it the past two nights. Sometimes he would recite some of the more complex theories of magic and elemental webs over in his head until his temples hurt.

There was still some color along the horizon outside his window, the last rays of the sun not yet dying out, but all Cloud wanted to do was shut his eyes away from the world, as though if he slept, the problem wouldn't be there in the morning. But it would be.

Time passed on, and the faint color along the horizon faded. Cloud moved to sit at the window sill. Time passed again, as it always does, and he found himself lying on the floor, arms crossed over his eyes. The evening sky outside the window turned a darker shade of blue, and he found himself on the bed again. His mind didn't know what to do with itself.

He had almost been home. They had been in his woods. The frost…when they first started seeing the frost, he knew something wasn't right. Then Zacks had told him to stay back… that serious expression had told him something was more than not right, and he'd started running without a thought. Then…

He moved again. This pattern continued for what must have been hours, and no matter how tired he was, the thoughts plaguing his mind were far stronger than fatigue. Several times he found himself crouched on the floor in corner of the room, leaning his head into the wall, hands gripping his hair tightly as his eyes burned and his stomach twisted. It was in this positioned that he finally succumbed to sleep, curled in the darkest corner.

When he woke, he wasn't alone. Zacks had gotten back late, well past the witching hour, but the first thing he did was check in on Cloud, a little lock picking aside. He hadn't seen him at first, and was alarmed at the seemingly empty room, until his eyes, still adjusting to the dark, caught sight of the blond fuzz in the far corner of the room. And as glad as he was to see that Cloud was there, it was heartbreaking to see the position he had fallen asleep in, tear streaks dirtying his otherwise peaceful features. The first thing to come to mind was to move the boy to the bed, but Cloud had clearly expressed that he didn't want to be touched at all when he had tried to comfort him earlier, before they reached the town.

So Zacks plunked himself down on the floor next to him. And when Cloud woke up, he was stiff, and sore, and a little disoriented at first, but he wasn't alone. And when he realized this, part of him wanted to be angry that the other man had let himself in, but the other part couldn't help but be touched that he was so concerned. So he compromised, and decided to just ignore it, for now. He realized how stiff he was, and started getting up, unable to help from cringing a bit as his sore muscles protested. He delicately stepped over Zacks and walked over to the bed, sitting down on the edge. He interlaced his fingers and leaned forward, resting his chin on his hands as he scrutinized the man still lying on the floor. Why do you care…?

Images of Zacks' various facial expressions drifted across his mind, and eventually so did the uncharacteristically serious one he had displayed when they first saw the frost in the woods… Cloud furrowed his brow, eyes narrowing. The frost had meant something to Zacks. There was something else going on, besides that Turk missing- Vincent, was it?

That other man…Tseng? What had he said…? Cloud shook his head- he couldn't remember much of that conversation other than learning that Tifa was safe.

Zacks stirred on the floor, and rolled over with a groan, "Th'hell's th'floor so hard for…?" He cracked open an eye and spotted Cloud sitting on the bed, watching him. He offered a soft smile, not sure what kind of mood the other boy was in, and sat up, propping his arms behind him to lean back. "…Good morning?"

"What was it?"

Zacks quirked a brow, "…Cloud?"

"That ice," Cloud responded, tone serious, "You recognized it. What was it?"

"…" Zacks watched the boy a moment, and then got up with a sigh, one hand scratching the back of his head as he walked over to sit on the bed next to him. "…I certainly hadn't expected it, if that's what you're thinking." He looked at Cloud, catching his gaze, and waited until the boy looked away, a small grunt telling him to continue.

"Alright, well… it started with these rumors. Well, actually, it really started eight years ago…" Zacks frowned, rubbing the side of his face as he thought of a simple way to explain it, and found he was really going to have to start from the beginning. "Okay…Once upon a time- don't look at me like that, Cloud- once upon a time, eight years ago, everything was peachy keen. Then odd…incidents started occurring. Of the magical sort."

"Incidents with magic…?"

"Yeah…they weren't really connected through anything else. Different elements, different places… honestly, it started off small enough that I suppose no one really knows when it began. Sections of forest having well toasted trees, small plumbing networks mysteriously freezing… Nothing that was too disconcerting, just very odd. They weren't all that note worthy, individually. It wasn't until they became frequent enough that you would hear people talking about it as you went from city to city. And people talked about it more, of course, when it got more serious. People and animals would get knocked off every now and then. Now, the world's always had murder in it, always will- but there aren't many homicidal mages around, because there aren't many mages in general. Especially not many powerful ones- and these ones were definitely powerful. They didn't just kill, they did it in odd, extravagant ways- such as turning someone into solid ice." Cloud flinched. "It was when whole towns were destroyed that Shinra's underground started pooling resources to go after the bastards responsible. It was usually small villages, a lot like yours, that were attacked. Started with a lot of ice in the east- sounding familiar? –and then fire came into use as well." Zacks paused, and looked Cloud to see how he was responding. He seemed to be in his own world, however, and simply waited for Zacks to continue.

"…It didn't really explode until Lordan, though."

"Lordan?"

"Yeah. Lordan is sort of split in two, y'know? There's a good side and a bad side- you wandered into the bad side, lucky you. It didn't use to be that way. Lordan was frozen, just like your village. Part of it- I guess about a third- was left alone. I guess whoever was attempting to freeze one of the largest cities on the continent overestimated their own powers. It's been pretty much rebuilt, but the part that hadn't been attacked sort of fell into neglect as a result. Anyway, like I said, the mage seemed to have miscalculated the extent of his own abilities, and he was caught. Turns out his powers weren't natural; he'd been exposed to some sort of potion that seemed to massively multiply his natural magic capabilities. It also turns out that it has some rather messed up side effects on your sanity. He told us an alchemist was the one behind giving him and other mages the potions, as well as dictating most of the attacks, except for the attack on Lordan- his own power-crazed mind had been determined to test his limits, it seemed. Anyway, to sum up what happened next, the alchemist was found, there was a big-ass battle between Shinra and the fire mage protecting him, Shinra won, alchemist blew himself up."

Cloud raise a brow, and was quiet for a moment, digesting this piece of the past. He was pretty sure he remembered bits of discussion when he was little, about mages attacking towns. It had seemed so distant and impersonal, however, that none of the kids had felt concerned… he must have been what, seven? When something wasn't in your own backyard, it was like it happened in another world. "…So now what? It wasn't really over?"

"Well… No, apparently not. I mean, everyone thought it was- for eight years, everyone thought was. But for this past month or so…little rumors started cropping up that trouble was starting up again, same way it started last time. Most people believed it was just paranoia, that some traveler wanting to start trouble had lied, or that it was unrelated. Of course, this being at the same time Vincent's gone missing, it was hard to put our attention to, but we were all told to keep our eyes out for the rumor's origin since we'd all be searching every rock and leaf for Vincent anyway. So when I saw that frost… I had a good idea what it might have meant…I didn't know how bad it was going to be on the other side of those woods… I didn't know if a magically pumped up psycho was still around or not… You really scared me when you took off, not that I can blame you…"

Zacks trailed off, and Cloud suddenly felt as though he owed the older man an apology. "…So we don't really know who did it this time, or why?" Cloud sat up straighter, "What was that alchemist trying to achieve the first time?"

"We don't now, that's the thing- he killed himself before anyone ever got the chance to find out what the hell he was thinking. We don't know how he made the potions that enhanced the mages, either- although I personally think that's for the better."

Cloud paused again, thinking, tumbling this information around with what was currently happening, "…Why did Rufus have everyone start moving from Gavriel? That seems a bit drastic, if he thought it was only rumors, and if it was so far to the east."

"Yeah, that… Well, Rufus has his reasons to be a bit paranoid about it. He was personally affected by the attack on Lordan."

"Personally affected…?"

"…He lost his mom."

"…" Cloud's mouth opened to respond, then shut again. He looked down at the floor, "Oh."

Another day passed in Rosen, and Tseng arrived with Elena. Now it was just down to waiting for Reno and Rude to arrive. Cloud had stopped avoiding Zacks, but still hardly responded when Zacks tried to talk to him. It was as though he was lost in thought, unsure of what he was doing. Zacks hated being called on for this or that- when he was this busy, it was impossible to watch over his blonde companion properly. Cloud, however, found Zacks' distractions quite to his advantage. He planned to make use of them.

Everyone who was had been at Gavriel when he and Zacks had stopped there should currently be with the caravan somewhere. This included a certain alchemist Cloud was now attempting to find. After asking around a bit, he found himself directed quite a ways down the wagon train, until someone finally pointed out the wagon where the Hojo should be found. Cloud walked up to the open side of the wagon, the inside obscured from view by a thick, purple curtain. He raised a small fist and lightly knocked on the edge of the wooden side nearest to him.

"Is there a problem?" A shrewd voice snapped, before the side of the curtain was lightly pulled back, allowing the alchemist to peer through his spectacles at whoever dared to interrupt his work. He raised an elegant brow as he saw the small blonde instead of whatever messenger he had been expecting. "Ah. …Cloud, isn't it?" He looked the boy up and down, scrutinizing his appearance, and noting his current demeanor was less timid and more serious than the first time he had encountered the blonde. He hid his smile; the boy was here with purpose. "…Come in."