The ground falls out from below; Childhoods are relived; No stars;
The importance of extinct fruit goes unnoticed; Cloud is not a fan; Everyone has their own opinion
Shera balanced the wooden tea tray on her hip with one hand, and fumbled open the door handle with the other. The china on the overloaded tray clinked ominously, but nothing fell off before she got both hands supporting it again. She stepped out into a pleasantly warm Rocket Town day, kicking the door shut behind her. The afternoon breeze played with her brown bangs as she walked though her back yard, out to the airship that was her husband's pride and joy. Their friend, Barret, had found some old components of an airship while drilling for oil and called Cid over to take look at them. Her husband had been fascinated with them. He'd dug the parts up and hauled them back to Rocket Town for reconstruction. It had taken some time, but the finished ship was truly a remarkable feat of engineering, combining the ancient ship parts with the latest modern technology. It was the most advanced airship in the world. That Cid had named it after her was heartwarming. For a long time their relationship had been a deep pit, oozing guilt, depression and anger, but they had managed somehow to fill in the hole and build a nice little house on top. Cid was still, in many ways, the hard-headed, bullish man who she had spent so long trying to make up with, but they had indeed made up. No longer did he hold the failed rocket launch against her. He was gentler towards her, and he was even trying not to swear so much.
"Those shitfaced, bat-eyed morons!"
Of course, that part wasn't going so well. She kind of didn't even want it to. Cid wasn't, well, Cid, unless the air was turning blue around him. All the same, she could tell the difference between his general conversational vulgarity and his genuinely angry swearing. Shera sighed and made her way onto the airship's bridge. The polished wooden floor creaked as she walked to where Cid lay on his back under the helm with tools spread out around him.
"Cid. Tea," Shera stated as she knelt next to him. Pouring a cup of the sweet and fragrant drum mountain white cloud tea imported from Wutai, she waited for her husband to finish whatever he was doing. He grunted in acknowledgement, and moments later scooted out from under the wheel to take the offered white and blue cup.
Cid took a sip of the nutty flavored tea, blew on it, took another sip before speaking. "D'ya know what those blithering nitwits did? They fucking screwed up the damn wiring for the damn off side engine. What the hell were those retarded lame-asses even doing?" Cid paused in his colorful tirade to blow on the tea again, then took a large gulp. "I don't fucking get it. They were supposed to just go and check the rutt'in monitors an' tell me what the fuck was wrong. Not goddamn try to fix the fricken' problem themselves. Some people are just blundering bird-brained dumbbells. They aren't worth the-"
Cid was cut off by a brilliant flash of light through the large observation windows, white-hot as a thousand flare spells all going off at once. Blinded momentarily, Cid swore loudly. Shera echoed the sentiment internally, eyes clenched tight against the brightness. Had they been attacked? It had been a while since anything had happened, but Cid was a well-known member of AVALANCHE and the group's main provider of transportation, so being attacked first was not a very far fetched idea. Groping to find the metal wall in the back of the large space, she pulled herself to her unsteady feet. She needn't have bothered, for the next second the entire ship lurched sickeningly, as though the ground below it had vanished, and dumped her back to the floor. She slid with the tools and tea cups across the waxed flooring as the nose of the ship dipped. She scrabbled for something to hold on to. Her knee rammed with bruising force into the helm, and she bent double to get her hands around the base of the wheel. She clung on for dear life, yelling out to Cid in desperate confusion. "Are we falling?!"
She got no coherent response, just a string of angry, panicked cursing. There was a roaring, rushing noise, growing louder and louder. The ship was in a free fall while pressure built almost to a breaking point. Shera could feel herself being squished on all sides as the air in her lungs was squeezed out of her. She gasped painfully. Her eyes were throbbing, and it felt like a vice had been wrapped around her head. Her joints creaked and every muscle in her body burned. A hideous jolt of impact shook her bones, and she sobbed once and squeezed her eyes shut as the jolt rattled through her aching head. The sense of free-falling stopped, and the noise of falling and sliding objects. Gasping and shaking slightly from the receding pain, she persuaded her watering eyes to peel open, but it made little difference. The warm light of afternoon no longer came in through the bridge's many windows, and the place was pitch dark. Her ears were ringing, but through that she heard a noise like tires screeching, and the ship shook with one last reverberating thud.
Cid swore. How in the hell had he managed to be knocked down the wooden stairs from the helm to the deck when his ship wasn't flipping turned on?! That hadn't felt right to be an earthquake and they hadn't been attacked, or the Shera would have alarms going off. And that damn falling sensation! They'd been on flat ground for fuck's sake.
"What the fucking hell just happened?" he said aloud, pulling himself to his feet and aiming towards where the wall (hopefully, probably) was. He took a few steps forward, hands out in front of him, only to trip over a body sprawled out on the floor.
"Ack! Who the hell just stepped on me?"
Cid knew that voice, even if it was squeakier than normal. "Yuffie?! What the fuck you doin' on my ship?!" A horrible, likely thought struck him. "This is your doin', ain't it, ya scrawny little brat!"
"No way! If I'm on your ship, it's probably your fault!"
"Cid? Where are we? What happened?" Shera called out from higher up in the darkness.
"Yo, Cid, you here too? What the hell's going on?" came a deep, rumbling voice.
"Is that... Barret?" a more urbane voice asked.
Cid couldn't deal with this on top of being unable to see. "Don't ya'll get your panties in a twist. Fucking hold still and just let me find that rutting switch." The pilot shuffled along until he found the wall, fortunately not tripping over anything or anybody else on the way. He knew his ship well, so from there it only took a moment to find the light switch. The sudden light flooding the interior of the Shera made him blink a couple times. Turning around, he was met by a rather unusual scene. Tools, broken china and tea splashed or scattered everywhere; a much-younger-than-he-remembered Shera kneeling by the helm with her white knuckled hands wrapped tightly around the base of the wheel; a tiny black-haired girl with a greenish complexion sitting on the deck; Barret, or rather a lanky boy who looked like a fourteen- or fifteen-year-old Barret; and another dark-haired teen about the same age, holding Cait Sith and standing next to a large over stuffed moogle.
Cid took a moment to survey the scene. Everyone else did the same, their eyes huge in their pain-stressed, younger-than-they should be faces.
"What. The. Hell."
As though Cid's profane question had given them permission to break the silence, they all started to speak at once.
"Are ya'll fucking kidding me?!"
"Cid? What's..?"
"This some kinda weird dream or somethin'?! Somebody been fooling 'round with a materia?!"
"Why am I, like, ten?! Why are we all kids?!"
"Now, everyone, let's calm down and.."
"Calm down?! We're kids! And this ain't where I was a minute ago!"
"No, none of you were here. How did you get here? How did this happen?"
"SHAUDDUP!" Silence. Everyone turned towards Cid. Or rather, the fifteen or sixteen year old boy who talked (and swore) like Cid. "None of us know what the hell's goin' on, or how we fricken' got here, but first I think we should find out where the fuck here is. Because if you numbskulls haven't noticed, it's supposed to be daylight! And if it's night, where the hell are the damn stars and moon?" Looking out through the observation deck, they were met with darkness, pitch darkness.
Before anyone of them could voice a theory, the bridge door whooshed open and a small voice rang out like a bell. "Daddy?"
"Marlene?" Barret blinked. There was Marlene, backlit by the light from the hallway, and she looked same as ever. Standing next to her was Denzel, also same as ever. Behind them though, was... Tifa? And... Red? The black haired fighter was maybe... thirteen? And Red...well, he had supposedly been a cub the entire time they'd known him, but now he looked like it.
"But how?" Barret rushed over to Marlene, and scooped the little girl up into his arms. "How did ya get here?"
"We were back home at Seventh Heaven," his girl reported calmly. "Then there was this flash, and then we were falling. And then we were here in one of the bunks. Why do you all look like that?"
"I was in Cosmo Canyon," Nanaki growled, obviously annoyed with his sudden reduction to kitten-hood.
"How come Denzel and Marlene didn't get younger?" Yuffie whined. "That isn't fair!"
"Perhaps it is because they are already children," Reeve offered.
"I don't want to hear some hypothetical musings. I want some fucking answers," Cid said, and crossed his arms.
"Well, I'm not out of questions yet," Yuffie interjected. "If all of us are here, where are Cloud and Vincent?"
"I'm here." Again everyone looked to the sound of the voice. Stepping out onto the bridge from behind Tifa was a very short Cloud. So short in fact, that the only ones smaller were Yuffie and Marlene.
"And how old are you supposed to be?" Barret commented in a saccharine voice, not letting the opportunity to tease the blond pass by. Cloud glared up at him. His eyes hadn't lost any of their blue Mako glow.
"I was always short for my age."
"What I find interesting is that First Tsurugi shrunk with you," an eleventh voice slipped into the conversation. A teenaged Vincent stepped calmly out of one of the scarce patches of shadow. "The same goes for your arm, Barret, as well as the Shera. While we currently seem to be children, apparently our equipment and enhancements shrank with us." He raised his clawed hand, clicking the fingertips together to emphasize his point.
"Well, damn. Everybody's here. But... FUCKING HELL! You're right! The Shera did shrink!" Cid felt on the verge of a heart attack. His ship might not have shrunk a whole lot, but indeed everything was sized so that a bunch of teens and pre-teens could reach it easily. But before Cid could go on any sort of tirade, Reeve distracted him by requesting for the exterior lights, so they could find out where they were.
Cursing under his breath, Cid flipped the requested lights on, only to see rock outside the windows. Rock in front, rock on the left, rock on the right, rock behind and above. "We're in a rutting cave. A fucking, rutting cave." Usually Barret yelled at Cid to watch his language when Marlene was present, but this time he was preoccupied with the same confusing facts all the others were.
"We're in an airship, in a cave, and we're all kids," Yuffie said flatly, which summed it up quite well. "Am I the only one getting a headache? 'Cause none of this makes sense." Vincent moved over to a control panel and hit the button that would open the ramp, his armored finger clicking faintly against the metal. As soon as the ramp was down, the party spilled out into the spacious cave, intent on finding out where on the planet they were.
As it turned out, they were in the middle of a broad, shallow, underground lake. It was easy to see, because in addition to the lights on the Shera, there were large glowing crystals growing from the dark, shimmery rock. Stalagmites and stalactites grew from the floor and clung to the roof while shelf-stone grew in the water. At one end of the cavern was a waterfall emptying out into a room below, and across from the waterfall was a passage leading up to another area.
Cid whistled, "Don't know where we are, but it sure is something."
After grabbing some lights from the Shera's supplies they started up the far passage in hopes of finding an exit. They'd only gone a short way up the passage before the party heard a strange thumping and clacking noise ahead.
"Damn. Probably some cankering monster. Hang on, I got Venus Gospel back on the ship." The blond pilot took off for the Shera, calling over his shoulder to the rest of the party, most of whom were unarmed, "Be right back, and don't ya fuckin' dare take it on without me. I need some good ol' fashion' monster hunting stress relief."
Back on board the Shera, Cid headed for the armory. This was where the group had dumped all their old weapons, armor, items and Materia. He had complained about the Shera not being a storage shed, but after Kadaj's little 'reunion' it had been decided to keep all the spares and extras in one mobile place so the group could have easy access to them in emergencies. But as Cid looked around, he noticed it wasn't just spares and extras any more.
"Odin on a pogo-stick." Cid gazed around, slack-jawed with disbelief. The room was full of all their best equipment. A whole pile of mastered summons and rare Materia, their best armor and accessories, Tifa's Premium Heart, Yuffie's Conformer, Vincent's Death Penalty. Damn vampire was probably already packing Cerberus. But, fuck, it was all here. Snatching up his spear and the other ultimate weapons of the group he quickly headed back to his companions. As he handed out the gear, he was met with statements of disbelief.
"But how...? This was in my dresser at Seventh Heaven!" Tifa exclaimed, taking her knuckle dusters.
"No fucking idea. But it's all there in the armory. Every last fuckin' thing." Cid passed Conformer over to its wielder.
"They even shrunk with us," Yuffie cried, grabbing on to the giant five point shrunken.
Cid rolled his eyes. The damn thing might have shrunk, but it was still almost half the size of the pint-sized ninja.
Continuing on, he passed Limited Moon to Shera so she could clip it into Nanaki's black mohawk.
"There. Will that work?" she asked the cat. His mane had shrunk quite a bit and was now only short spiky fluff.
Nanaki gave a quick shake. His gangly limbs and looser skin exaggerated the motion, and Cid had to repress a snicker. Nanaki either didn't notice, or elected not to, and simply nodded, "It will do. Thank you."
Cid thrust Death Penalty out to Vincent. "I know ya probably already got your ruttin' hand gun, but here's your damn rifle."
Vincent stowed the gun under his tattered red cloak, but other than that he made no acknowledgement to Cid.
"As for you, Reeve, I left Cait's HP Shout back on the Shera, seein' as that damn annoyance ain't out here."
Reeve looked a little miffed, probably more on behalf of Cait Sith being called an annoyance, than on going unarmed. Reeve wasn't really the fighting type, after all.
Now that everyone who could fight was armed, they set off. The passage led to a maze-like area full of narrow tunnels and paths with high vaulted ceilings. Protruding from the rock here and there were more of the glowing crystals. Cid's best guess was that they were crystallized mako. In his book, if it glowed and was green, then it was lifestream-related, and better off not being touched, though that didn't stop Yuffie from clambering on them. She yelped and fell off one as a sizable egg shaped monster floated out from behind it.
Cloud wasn't one to let their opponent get in the first strike. He drew First Turugi, bent his knees and leapt, cleaving the grangalan in two.
"Huh...must not have very strong monsters here," Yuffie said with a tilt to her head. She stuck out her lips and pouted, a little disappointed that the thing hadn't been more of a challenge and that she hadn't been able to steal from it, little kleptomaniac that she was.
Of course, a party that wasn't leveled to fight planet-destroying monstrosities might have had more of a fight. As it was, the large grangalans, gargoyle relatives, and the handful of malbroros that they encountered were more annoying than any sort of real challenge.
"No signal," Reeve muttered as he returned his PHS to his pocket. Not that he had really expected any in a cave. He looked around at his companions, who were busy poking around and exploring the different passageways. He could see their lights flickering down the various winding tunnels, casting strange shadows on the walls. Part of him had often wanted to go with the rest of AVALANCHE on adventures, instead of relying on Cait Sith. But first as a Shinra board member, and later as the head of the WRO, it just hadn't been possible. Now though, he was reminded of the old saying 'Be careful of what you wish for.' Just what sort of adventure was this?
A furor by one passageway indicated the party had discovered which way the exit was, so he went to join them. He matched strides with Denzel. The boy nodded, but didn't comment. It seemed that most of his attention was on Cloud. Reeve wondered what it must feel like, to see the person you looked up to the most suddenly as a kid, quite possibly your own age. He fished around for something to say to the youth. Well, he thought, why not the topic at hand?
"It must be strange to see us as teens. I myself am not quite used to it." It was indeed an odd experience. They looked enough like themselves to be recognizable, but different enough to be disorienting. It seemed that he did a double-take every time he turned around.
"Yeah."
It looked as if Denzel was picking up Cloud's curt manner of speech. Reeve sighed. In a certain way, he felt like an older brother to Denzel, as the boy had been taken in by Reeve's own mother after his parents had died. Now he was Cloud's and Tifa's adopted son, so no matter how you looked at it, the boy was as good as family. In that moment, Reeve couldn't help but feel apprehensive. He had turned down Denzel when the boy had applied to the WRO, because he felt strongly that children should never have to fight. Depending on what lay ahead of them, that resolve might face some serious testing.
Passing through a narrow rocky crevice, the former saviors of the planet stepped out into the pale light of early morning. An unfamiliar landscape of rolling green hills dotted with palm trees and windmills met their eyes. The most unfamiliar sight of all was the strange, silvery trees that arched over the roads winding amongst the hills.
"Wha... I thought we'd been everywhere on the planet. But I don't recognize this at all," Yuffie pronounced, looking dumbfounded. Reeve sighed. Judging by the chorus of groans and curses around him, he wasn't the only one disappointed by the lack of recognizable terrain.
Tifa walked to one of the strange trees, and pulled off a pale silvery-skinned apple, wet with dew. She sniffed it gingerly. "These are Banora Whites. Dumbapples. I have an old bottle of Banora White wine back at the bar," she stated in amazement, turning the apple around in her hand.
"So, what's so important about apples?" Barret huffed.
"Because they don't exist any more. They're all gone," Tifa said, shaking her head.
"Well, looks like someone's been hoardin' 'em then." Barret was obviously not very impressed by the orchard of supposedly extinct fruit.
Reeve noticed that Cloud was looking at his PHS, frowning slightly. Reeve had worn that expression not too long ago, doing the same thing. "What's wrong?" he asked the blond.
"No signal. Still." Sighing, Cloud put his PHS away. "Come on. Standing here won't help us find out where we are." With that, Cloud headed off into the orchard. Reeve picked a dumbapple himself as they walked, but didn't eat it. He took a deep breath, smelling a sweet crisp scent he hadn't encountered in almost a decade. Tifa was right, it was odd finding such a expansive orchard. Surly someone would have tried marketing the fruit in Edge by now.
It wasn't a very long walk through the winding hills, even with their newly shorter legs, before they stood on the rise of a small hillock overlooking a quaint little village. The town was laid out in a circular pattern. A few modest white plaster buildings, their brown support beams visible surrounded a public fountain. Windmills littered the scenery. On a neighboring hill was a larger brick house with the largest dumbapple tree they'd seen so far growing in its yard. Disbelief seized Reeve's throat.
"Well, any of ya' idiots know where we are?" asked Cid.
"I think my family once came here on holiday," Shera murmured.
"Really? Then what's it called?" Cid looked over at his wife expectantly.
Reeve finally managed to choke out, "Banora. But... that's impossible!"
"Banora? Isn't that the creator near Mideel?" Cloud looked at him skeptically.
"Yes. Shinra firebombed it, years ago. But this is exactly what it looked like." None of this made any scene. Unlike Nibelheim, Shinra hadn't bothered to reconstruct Banora. In addition to the town being burnt to ash, some of the tunnels below the town had collapsed, leaving the crater. In the middle of a war, it hadn't been worth the time or expense to rebuild. Shinra had ignored it from then on, except for explaining the catastrophe as the work of terrorists. Now in addition to the problem of why they had all appeared as children aboard the Shera, they had to determine why they had appeared in a cave next to a town that supposedly no longer existed.
Marlene spoke up then, her tone suggesting sweet annoyance that none of the grown-ups were thinking of the very simple solution. "Why not just ask someone where we are?" An awkward pause followed, as they looked at each other, and tried to come up with some less embarrassing way of locating themselves than having to ask a local. In the end, many pairs of eyes settled on Cloud.
Cloud grit his teeth. Leader of the rag-tag crew once, leader of the rag-tag crew always, it seemed. He was at a loss for ideas beyond Marlene's, though, so he said "Fine. Tifa, Reeve, come with me. The rest, wait here."
As they made their way down into the village, Cloud thought hard about what he would say. What story would someone buy as to why there were three lost teens on their doorstep? This looked like a small town, and Cloud knew well the insular nature of such towns. Strangers always had to explain themselves. When he reached the fountain, he paused and surveyed the buildings. Most of them looked like houses. There was an inn, however, and one store... a mercantile by the looks of it. He decided on the store as the least likely to need a cover story prepared for, and headed for it, Tifa and Reeve behind him. The shopkeeper, a portly man in his mid-forties, looked up as the door opened and a bell jangled.
"Morning. What can I get you kids?" The man asked genially.
Eyeing the offerings on the shelves, Cloud replied, "A case of Banora White juice and your most recent newspaper."
"Sure thing, kiddo."
He tried not to bristle at the diminutive. It had been a long time since he had been a kid.
"Alright, here you are," the man said, setting down a carton of juice cans with a thunk on the counter. "That'll be twenty gil."
Cloud handed the gil over, thankful that their money had traveled with them. "Do you know how far it is to Edge?" he asked calmly, taking the newspaper the man handed him.
"Edge, you say. Don't think I've head of it. What's it near?"
Cloud exchanged a quick look with Tifa and Reeve. This guy hadn't heard of Edge? "How about Kalm then?"
"Kalm, you say. Well, that's quite a trip. You'll need more than just that Banora White juice if you plan to head there." The owner said with a laugh.
Great, this guy wasn't much help. Looking down at the paper he held in his hand, Cloud's blood ran cold. Staring back at him from the front page was Sephiroth. A young Sephiroth.
All sound temporarily faded. The picture in the paper seemed to expand, blocking out all other sight. Those callous green eyes had looked straight into the camera, so that now the man in the picture appeared to be staring straight at Cloud. The store keeper said something, but Cloud couldn't hear him properly. His arm ached where the Geostigma had taken its worst hold. His chest ached where the Masamune had speared him. He couldn't breathe.
Tifa grabbed his elbow, her strong grip bringing him back to reality just in time for the shopkeeper to repeat his question. "I said, you a fan of SOLDIER, kiddo?"
"No."
"Really? Dressed like that and carrying such a sword around, you kinda look the part."
"I am not a fan," he ground out. "Come on. Let's go." He strode out, clutching the newspaper in his hand.
Tifa grabbed the case of juice and hurried after Cloud. Reeve nodded to the store owner as they departed; the poor man looked confused.
"What did he mean, a fan of SOLDIER? Hey! Cloud! Are you alright?" Tifa lengthened her strides to catch up to the seething swordsman, and peered concernedly at him.
The only answer she got was Cloud thrusting the newspaper at her. She scanned it, mouth forming an oh.
"But this is...1997? How?" Stopping, she looked around. "Then is this...really Banora?" Reeve caught up, and she passed the paper to him. His jaw tightened, but he said nothing. They hurried to catch up with Cloud, who hadn't stopped, just continued stalking angrily up the hill.
The three were quiet as they made their way back to the others. If it was really 1997 and they were in the past, what could they do? All Cloud knew was that he wasn't going to go through everything again. Not ever again. Nibelheim, Jenova, Shinra, Sephiroth, Meteor, but also... Zack, Aerith, even his mother. They were still alive. He wasn't going to stand by and watch them die. Did he have a younger self here? In 1997 he would have been... what...eleven...twelve? Was that the age he was now? No... he was older, but not by much. He had forgotten just how short he was at that age. Perhaps the first thing to do was to find out how being turned into children had affected their combat skills, and then... they could see what they could do about fixing things. Judging by the monsters they had just fought in the caves, there wasn't a big difference in the party's capabilities from their usual standard. It was mostly just their reach that had changed. Still, it would be better to know for sure.
The rest of the party was sitting around just over the crest of the hill. Seeing Cloud, they stood up and started clamoring for answers. Cloud didn't stop moving, just motioned for the others to follow, and headed back into the cave. Tifa and Reeve pushed through their confused companions silently, wrapped up in their own thoughts.
"Well? Are any of you going to tell us what happened?" Yuffie inquired.
"Later. Back at the Shera," Cloud responded curtly.
Once they were all back on board, Cloud asked Tifa to pass the newspaper around. It was interesting to watch the different reactions as the newspaper made its way through the group. Cid's swearing could peel paint. Shera looked petrified. Barret looked as if he couldn't make up his mind whether to tear the paper to shreds or shoot it. Marlene and Denzel were both shocked, Nanaki was puffed up and growling, Yuffie started going on about the war and Cloud was surprised the paper didn't catch fire, given how intensely Vincent stared at it.
When everyone had seen it, Cloud spoke up. "Alright, now that you know where and when we are, we need to decide what to do."
"What to do? We need to save Wutai!" Yuffie was practically shrieking. The combination of her high, childish voice and the stress wasn't doing her any favors in the "easy listening" department.
"The same thing as last time," bellowed Barret. "Bring Shinra down an' stop it from draining the life blood of the planet. And kill that bit..." He cut himself off, glancing at Marlene. "And get rid of Scarlet," he finished.
"I don't think getting rid of Shinra is the best idea," Reeve interjected.
"That's because you worked for them bloodsuckers," Barret growled.
"No," Reeve answered, his placid expression betraying no sign that the jab had hurt him. Cloud glared at Barret, who at least had the grace to look a little chagrined. "It's because at this moment in time, for better or worse, people rely on Shinra... and on mako. We all know the difficulties of building a new power structure on the ashes of the old, and the current Shinra is not mostly-destroyed, as ours was. The Company is at war; its defenses are high. Furthermore, we are not in the same position ourselves." His voice began to raise. "We are a bunch of teenagers and children, in a cave in the past, with no clue why, and we have no idea on how to get back to our own time." Reeve sighed, calming himself, and continued, "Everyone here has regrets. I wonder how many hours we've wasted, collectively, thinking about what we could have done differently?" He looked around, meeting everyone's eyes in turn. "I merely suggest that, as we now have a chance to correct things, we work to change Shinra's direction, as opposed to destroying the company. We could get rid of mako power and replace it with clean energy. We might even be able to go as far as replacing the board of directors with more... ethical people."
Tifa blinked, and asked slowly, "Are you suggesting that... that we take over Shinra?"
"Not as such," Reeve answered, "but imagine if we could show Shinra that the cost of war and mako energy is far more costly than the clean, renewable energies used in Cosmo Canyon."
Nanaki shook his head, his tiny fluff of a mane swishing. "I believe that numerous parties tried demonstrating that fact to Shinra, and all met with failure."
Reeve smiled. "But in great part, Shinra's interest in mako was fueled by Hojo's stories about the Promised Land. If we expose those as the lies they were, Shinra will be less invested in mako, and will also lose its principal reasons for invading Wutai." He nodded at Yuffie.
"You've thought a lot about this." Nanaki commented, looking thoughtfully at Reeve.
"I've had years to wonder about the 'what-ifs' and 'might-have-beens', even while I was on the Board," Reeve said with a shrug. "If I had known then the things that I know now about Shinra, I might have been a more effective force. I am not above blackmail."
"You make a hell of a case, Reeve," Cid said, scratching his ear. "But there's one or two loose threads, there. Shinra ain't the only goddamn threat to the world's health."
"We'll also need to destroy Jenova and Sephiroth," Cloud stated, and beside him, Tifa nodded.
"Why? Hojo and Jenova, certainly. But why must Sephiroth die for something he has not done?"
Everyone turned and stared at Vincent as if he had sprouted a second head.
"Not done? More like, not done yet. He's a threat. He will. He's built to do it," Tifa said with conviction. Cloud glowered wordlessly.
Vincent's eyes glowed eerily, even under the bright fluorescent lights of the bridge. "For whatever reason, we have appeared in a time when most of our party's traumas have yet to occur." He let that hang in the air for a moment, leaving it unsaid that 1997 was too late to fix his own sad history. "We have been given a second chance, and it is not only for ourselves. Everyone present has someone they wish to save. Surely, Lucrecia's child deserves a chance as well."
Cid recovered more quickly than the rest from the shock of Vincent's suggestion, (and also probably from the shock of Vincent saying so many words in a row). "Sure... let's kill Hojo, Jenova, Scarlet, that lardass Palmer, let's throw that over-stuffed ahriman Heidegger in for good measure, but not that psychopathic, good for nothin' egoist?! You shittin' me? If ya don't remember, he's the the one that tried to destroy the world just so he could become a fucking god!" Cid spat out his cigarette in disgust, and turned away to light up a new one.
Cloud agreed with Cid, though his voice remained paralyzed. As far as he was concerned, all of Shinra's top brass, excluding Reeve, were excellent targets. But to take them out and not Sephiroth? Sephiroth was the biggest threat to the planet. Vincent might as well have suggested not killing Hojo.
"Vincent has a point," Reeve commented. "As I recall, Sephiroth was not the only 1st Class SOLDIER who went mad and became a danger to the Planet. I remember two others. I think, if possible, all three of the top SOLDIERS should be given a chance. What happened to them was not their fault, but Shinra's. They lashed out at the world, only after discovering the horrors Shinra had inflicted on them. If they never found out, or if the information was presented in a less dehumanizing manner, I doubt they would pursue the same courses of action." The voice Reeve was using made Cloud wonder if this was how he had sounded at board meetings. It was smooth, calm, and sensible, a voice that made you feel like agreeing with it.
"There were more of those monsters? Shit, I thought Sephiroth was bad enough." Barret's brow was crinkled from trying to recall the events from the end of the Wutai War.
"Yeah, a pair of commanders or somethin'. Din't they go AWOL?" Cid, too, was trying to sort through his memory.
"They weren't monsters. Well, not originally. I'm afraid I'm not clear on the details," Reeve apologized. "I believe they had some sort of wasting illness, a result of the experiments performed on them."
"Sephiroth only went mad after coming in contact with the Jenova core. Destroy her and he should be fine. Perhaps that would work for these other two as well," Vincent mused.
Reeve shook his head. "No, I don't think so. I'm fairly certain their madness stemmed from the illness, rather than an outside source. In the end, I think the disease killed them."
"No. That wasn't what killed them." Cloud kept his face averted from the group, facing toward the cave walls. The dark windows made a mirror, reflecting his glowing gaze back at him.
"You know what did." It wasn't so much of a question from the quiet marksman as a statement.
Cloud only nodded. He didn't want to go down that path of Zack's memories. The expectant silence from the others, however, meant he wasn't going to slip out of this without some sort of follow up.
"It wasn't an illness, exactly. Not that it mattered. There was no cure for what they had."
"A strange disease without a cure... Was it similar to Geostigma?" Tifa's question was quiet, but Cloud could hear the heaviness of the hidden meanings behind it.
"Do you think water from the well spring would help?" Reeve sounded hopeful.
Nanaki looked up at him, "Cloud? Do you have any of Aerith's spring water with you?"
Cloud didn't want to have to think about whether it might help or not. He could tell Zack's memories apart from his own, now, but there were still gaps, and odd places where the memories overlapped, and they were nearly all blurred and disorienting, still tinged mako-green. Furthermore, he was still reeling from Vincent's suggestion that they let Sephiroth live. It was such an enormity, such a wrongness, that he was having a hard time even letting the thought form in his mind.
"Cloud?" Nanaki tilted his head, waiting for an answer.
"No, I gave the last vial I had out on my last delivery," he said quietly.
"Hmm... That's not good. If I remember correctly, the General was deeply affected by what happened to his friends. Perhaps it was even one of the catalysts that led to his insanity." Now it was Reeve's turn to be lost in thought.
"Maybe we could ask Aerith for help?" Again, Marlene's comment was followed by an awkward pause.
"Well? She made it rain and cured Denzel and Cloud. Won't she help?" The look in Marlene's eyes was determined, but so innocent and unjaded, that to tell her that this Aerith was not the same Aerith and might not be able to help, seemed cruel. But...
"She might not know how, sweetie. She would still be a child," Tifa explained.
"So? So are all of you."
Well, Cloud thought, she had them there.
*Notes*
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