"Jessie, do you think you could look for him in Shinra's files?" Tifa tucked a strand of hair behind her ear as she looked down at Jessie, who sat by her computer. She had spoken to Cloud a little more here and there, and she couldn't help but feel something was very, very off about his story. He was still asleep in the guest room, but she figured he would be up soon and probably quite hungry.

That was how he had been for the last two days. He would mostly sleep, wake up when she or Jessie came in to feed him, then go back to sleep. Cloud still looked practically emaciated but somehow he was still strong enough to stand up when he needed to use the bathroom. Shinra, she reasoned, had really done a number on their Soldier members. All the better for him, she thought. Not that she wasn't happy to have him.

To have someone from Nibelheim with her again after so long, even if it was the problem neighbor that barely talked to anyone in the village, was a blessing. There were maybe a handful of people around her age that were still alive if Shinra hadn't killed them yet to keep the Nibelheim Incident's official story straight. Perhaps they were the only two left alive now.

Jessie was tapping on her retro-looking keyboard, something she had bought for cheap at a flea market a week ago after her old one had finally given up the ghost. It was a light grey color with big, clunky keys. Her fingers danced across it deftly as the hacker did whatever it was that was needed to get into the conglomerate's system.

"They never fix this little backdoor," Jessie began with a slight tinge of arrogance to her voice. "But I suppose when you don't have any real enemies and you control the media, you can let things like this slide a little." Granted, she had been trying to weasel her way into some of the other departments' files, but the military rooster was the least protected of the them all. With the Wutai War years behind them, Shinra could rest on its laurels. It wasn't as if it was classified whether someone was in Soldier or not, anyway. They were almost all like a flock of peacocks, showing off the glow of their eyes and proud as any of what they were.

A list of names came onto one of Jessie's three screens. "What's his first and last name?"

"Cloud..." Tifa squeezed her eyes shut in thought. What was his last name? "Ss...Strife. Cloud Strife."

Jesse typed in the name, and waited. "Hm, no one is showing up. Not for any of the military files."

"Are you sure?" Tifa glanced back at the closed door holding the boy next door. "He said he was going in for Soldier, and he has the uniform and eyes..."

Jessie shrugged with uncertainty. "Let me check a few other files, here..."

The two watched as countless names came and went on the three monitors. Infantrymen, sergeants, Soldiers. Nothing. Tifa frowned at the monitor. "Can you look up Zachary?"

"Last name?"

The bartender shook her head. "I don't remember. He was a Soldier First Class, though. There couldn't be that many of them."

Jessie slowly nodded. She typed in the first name she was given and checked the First Class roster.

FIRST CLASS ARGENT, ZACHARY: εуλ 1999—PRESENT, ACTIVE

FIRST CLASS FAIR, ZACHARY: εуλ 1998—εуλ 0002, MIA

"Either of those look familiar?"

MIA. Missing In Action. That must be the Zack from Nibelheim; he went missing the same year Sephiroth rampaged through her village. But where was Cloud? He was wearing the outfit, and those, she knew, would not be laying around just anywhere. What could she have forgotten? She was sure she wouldn't forget seeing Cloud there, would she? He was the quiet type, but how could she miss that spiky head of blond hair?

She heard a soft thump from the guest room and Tifa walked towards it as Jesse exited the list. Cloud peeked his head out of the door a moment later, then the rest of him appeared. Despite the fact that he was a former member of Shinra's superhuman army, he looked more like a child sheepishly leaving their room in search of a glass of water.

The black T-shirt he was wearing was rather large on him, but Tifa knew he would fill out as he recovered. The pajama pants were just right, once he tied the strings on it tight enough. His spikes were beginning to droop from the length of his hair, and he still hadn't shaved.

"Good morning, Cloud. How are you feeling?"

He straightened up and shrugged. "A little restless." His voice was still rough.

"I bet. Do you feel well enough to walk around?"

Cloud looked down at his bare feet and then at the floor in his vicinity. He looked back at her and nodded.

"Alright. Let's take a few easy laps, okay?" She gave him an encouraging smile, and she swore the glow of his eyes brightened just a moment. He swallowed, then looked towards the far side of the dim hallway. Slowly, he began to walk.

They were small, stiff steps, not much different than the shuffle he had been doing whenever she had seen him out of the guest room. He smelled strange—a faint mix of musk, sweat, and mako—but he hadn't been to the shower since his first day here. Clean water was available to the bar through some branch of Shinra, but it was always best to conserve. Those who spent the most time up in the bar took the most frequent showers.

Cloud's feet were becoming surer as they turned to go back the way they came. He subtly wiggled his spine, earning a crunch or pop here and there. His eyes began to glance about, as if he were finally taking in his surroundings, and a look of disrelish crossed his face. "It's a far cry from home, isn't it?"

Tifa slowly licked her lips and nodded. She completely understood his feelings on the matter. "Yeah. But, we make do with what we have." She inhaled resignedly through her nose. "And what we have here is a lot better than what most have in the slums."

"Hm. I see." Cloud looked over at Tifa, and she kept her eyes from wandering away from his. "How long have you lived in the slums?"

She looked down, as much from thought as from avoiding the blue lights studying her. "Almost five years." Tifa slowly looked back up at him, and she took note at his set jaw. Was he upset? A slightly smug smirk came over her lips. "Hey, I made it alright. The bar is safe with everyone here."

A small grunt came from his throat, and he looked towards the bathroom door as they neared it. "It's just a lot to take in."

Tifa shrugged. "After what happened, we both made do, didn't we?"

"I...yeah."

As they made their way back to the guest room, Tifa continued their conversation. "I woke up in a clinic in the Sector Eight slums, my tab paid by Zangan. I...was all alone," she sighed out. "I had to learn how to survive here, and sometimes it was hard." Tifa paused as she thought back. He didn't need to know about the strange men that stalked her because of the accent she had hid away.

"I found work here, at this bar, eventually." He didn't need to know about the sheet metal shack she lived in for a year. "I met Barret and Marlene soon after." He didn't need to know that the three of them had to share that shack. "Then, the owner of the bar died, and I took over."

"Huh." Cloud slowly sat on the edge of the bed as Tifa sat on the stool. He looked around again. "The owner had this hiding under his bar?" His eyes went from her to the door.

She gave a half-hearted shrug. "I'm really not sure what he had in mind. We put up walls to make rooms, but I think he was making himself a bunker of some sort. He was always a little paranoid." Just not when it counted most.

A growling grumble came from the door. "Yeh don't need t'be askin' questions like that." Tifa turned to face Barret, his face stern and his gun-arm attached. Her stomach dropped. His dark eyes traveled to her, and he nodded curtly. "He looks good enough to answer some questions now."

"Oh." She looked back at Cloud with an apologetic look on her face. He was looking between them both. "Barret is just a little concerned about your past..." Not that she wasn't, but not for the same reasons. Maybe they hadn't known each other very well despite being neighbors, but she remembered. She remembered how he hugged to his mother when he was young, how he would try his best to hide the bundle of wildflowers from everyone else as he brought them into his house—but of course she saw them from her window.

Cloud may have been a part of Shinra in the past, but no matter if he were at Nibelheim or not, he never would have been on board after that. She hoped.

The blond mercenary lifted a hand dismissively. He didn't look happy with the situation, but resigned. "Fine."

As his other hand rested on his knee, she gave it a gentle pat. His skin was very warm; she was still unsure as to it being caused by an infection or because he was a superhuman. He hadn't suggested the latter when she had taken his temperature the other day, but there was so much uncertainty and surprise in his voice after she had asked. Time would tell, she told herself. "I'll be back later with some food, okay?"

He nodded. "Thanks."

Barret shut the door behind Tifa after she gave him a stern but pleading glare. He went to sit on the stool, all the while keeping eye contact with this supposed ex-Soldier named Cloud. Barret could admit he looked like absolute hell, and that was one of the reasons he hadn't shot the glowy-eyed freak where he slept the first evening he was here. Still, he was sorely suspicious of this man Tifa claimed as an old friend.

Cloud was giving him a cocky, withering expression, acting unimpressed by his gun-arm while straightening up his back.

"I'm gonna need you t'answer some questions," Barret began. "And if you give me an answer I don't like, you're leavin' here in a burlap sack."

"Good morning to you, too," Cloud drawled out as he scratched his scruffy cheek with a finger.

"It's the afternoon yeh jackass." Barret let out a sharp huff. He was going to be a handful. "So, you was in Soldier."

"Soldier First Class," Cloud clarified with pride. "I was best of the best, and don't you forget about it."

Barret raised his brows. Now that was a surprise. First Class was exceedingly rare, and the most dangerous of opponents. With that out of the way... "Tifa says you're childhood friends."

Cloud's stoic face took on a look of veiled excitement, and he nodded. "Yeah. We lived next door to each other."

"That it?"

Cloud stared at him like he was an idiot. "No...We were friends, like I said."

Barret rolled his eyes. "So, what'd yeh do together? How friendly were yeh two?" He wasn't going to settle for just neighbors.

"I—" The dark skinned man swore Cloud's eyes did something more unnatural than just glow. "—We hung out at the old well in the center of town, if you just have to know."

Barret grunted at the answer. "So yeh hung out a bit. But you had to leave to go work for the Shinra." It was more an accusation than a question.

Cloud took in a breath, then heaved it out. A few moments later, he answered. "We lived in a backwater. What should I have done? Become a goat farmer?" He shook his head. "I wanted more than the village could give."

"So you ran off to Shinra for that."

"Yeah, I did," the blond replied curtly. "I don't know how it was where you're from, but Nibelheim didn't have many good options."

Barret narrowed his eyes. "Yeh, you don't know how it is where I'm from!"

"I just said that."

"Fine! So why join Soldier?" Barret demanded.

Cloud lifted his hands in a shrug, asking his interrogator, without words, if he didn't see the obvious. "They were offering guts and glory to a teenager. Of course I took it."

Fair enough. "Awright, so why'd yeh leave?"

Narrowed blue eyes met hard dark ones. "Because of what they did. If Tifa didn't tell you, I'm not repeatin' it."

Barret shrugged his shoulders. "For all I know you're more loyal to Shinra than your own family and friends. All I know is you got them eyes and Tifa talkin' bout you when she never said a peep about no spiky-headed jackass before."

Cloud sneered at him, the bed springs squeaking as he leaned in ever so slightly. Finally, he looked menacing. "Look. I don't know you, and I don't care to know you or get you to get to know me. But don't accuse me of being a Shinra lapdog just because I used to work for them. I don't care about Shinra."

"Good to hear. So whatchu been up to since then?" Barret quirked up a brow as he continued to look him in the eye, acting unphased by those eerie blue lights.

The so-called mercenary actually looked lost when asked. He looked down and held his head, then seized up. His torso stretched and his shoulders came up sharply, frozen in place as a tremble became noticeable on his fingers. At the moment, Barret actually felt bad for the scrawny asshole, and he was ready to catch him if he were to fall from the bed.

Then he dropped his hands, and looked at Barret as if nothing happened. Cloud lazily lifted a brow. "Hm?"

Barret let out the breath he was holding and frowned at him with disbelief. "You jes had a seizure!"

For once, Cloud actually looked concerned. "I—I did? Just now?" He looked down at his feet.

"Shit, I jes asked what yeh did between quittin' Shinra and now!"

Cloud looked up, his cocky almost-sneer plastered back on his face. "I did odd jobs. You know, killing monsters, escorting, that sorta thing." He sniffled. "Why, ya interested?"

Barret looked him up and down. "Dunno. You look like you haven't been doin' as good a job as yeh'd like me to think."

The blond scowled, but not before his eyes did that thing again. "I got ambushed outside Midgar. It was just a setback."

"Hm." Interesting. There had been drunk talk from a few grunts last week, about a Soldier fighting off an ambush until he could barely stand. He had despised their presence in the bar, but Jessie had been correct about using them for some form of information, and perhaps Cloud was the one they had been speaking of.

He studied him some more, generally avoiding his eyes unless he felt he had to. He was much too skinny to have only just been ambushed, no, he had been on the run for a while now. "How long you been runnin'?"

Cloud sighed through his nose and ran a hand through the side of his scalp. "Too long," he admitted in a harsh whisper.

Barret leaned back on the stool and weighed his options. There was an ex-Soldier recovering under Seventh Heaven, who either had something to hide or didn't know himself. With the seizure, he felt it may be the latter. But was he unstable? He was downright dangerous if he snapped like a dry twig. "How're you up here?" He tapped his forehead.

For just a moment, the facade fell from Cloud's face. Then it was back up in spades. "Never had trouble before."

"You had a seizure. Now, I know you've been through some shit, we all been there," Barret began, still not trusting this stranger but not without some modicum of compassion for him. He was Tifa's friend. "But if that Soldier makin' process pickled your brain, or you got hit in the head too hard, I wanna know."

Cloud was silent, his pale lips a thin line, as if he had been insulted by the very thought. Barret tensed his jaw and pointed a finger at the closed door. "I ain't lettin' no one hurt Marlene, understand?"

"...Why would I hurt...Marlene?" The blond shook his head. "Soldiers don't just snap out of the blue."

Barret's finger went from the door to Cloud. "From what Tifa said, Sephiroth did."

A flash of anger, hate and fear came from those icy blue eyes. "She wasn't watching him."

"Were you?"

Cloud's eyes flitted down and moved side to side. "...Yeah."

"Well," Barret encouraged with his rough voice, "why did he snap, but you thinkin' you won't?"

A grimace passed over Cloud's face as he looked back up at Barret. A few moments of silence passed between them; he was reluctant to speak of Nibelheim, and he couldn't be blamed for it. Barret himself didn't like speaking of Corel. "...He read something under the mansion. I don't know what."

He looked down again and muttered, "he called me a traitor..."

"What could be so important underneath a mansion...?"

"You have no idea," Cloud said in an uncharacteristically clear and sharp voice. Barret eyed him, but the next moment his voice was rough and scratchy again. "Shinra crap. Anyway, we aren't mental cases."

There was a knock on the door. Barret looked towards it, then Cloud. "We'll see what we can do with yeh later." He stood up.

Cloud rolled his eyes. "Great. Just hand me your contract when you're ready," he said sarcastically.

"Jackass," Barret muttered before raising himself up to go see who was at the door. Opening it, he saw it was Tifa, holding a large bowl of watery porridge. "Can I talk to yeh for a few?"

She nodded. "Yeah. Let me feed him, first."

Tifa slipped through the threshold. After a lingering glance at the spiky headed mercenary that took interest in the brunette that came to see him, Barret turned to head off into the now empty living space. Jessie could be heard playing with Marlene in one of the bedrooms. He sat on the old, red, moth-eaten sofa that rested next to the wall opposite the lift.

His eyes caught rusted metal: that oversized kitchen knife the ex-Soldier had been lugging around with him. His mind went back to Marlene. An adult could swallow their unease, but a toddler wouldn't. Cloud looked similar to an old folklore creature that roamed Mount Corel, gaunt with eyes that could freeze one where they stood. Barret never told his daughter the tales, and with him roaming the bar he was glad he hadn't.

Barret heard feet coming closer and looked over as Tifa reclined on the other side of the couch with a weary sigh. He put his gun-arm on the arm rest, then shifted himself to look towards her more. "Your friend is gonna be a pain in the ass, I can tell yeh right now."

Quietly and without looking at him Tifa nodded, then she turned her head to look at her dark-skinned friend. "He's always been a bit of a handful."

"Huh." Barret rubbed his forehead with his thick, meaty fingers; Cloud was going to get on his nerves, he just knew it. Before he could say anything though, Tifa again spoke up. "When he gets stronger, maybe we can get him to help with our plans."

"Maybe? Tifa, he don't care about nothin' but himself!"

She pursed her lips, her eyes ruddy in the dim light as she thought it over. "Well, maybe we can hire him."

He snorted in disbelief. "Hire his scrawny ass? He owes us for bringin' him in off the streets!"

"I owe Tifa, not you," Cloud called out from behind the door.

Tifa hushed Barret, then scooted closer to whisper. "Either way, we need someone as strong as him, that knows Shinra. Someone we can trust."

"I still don't trust'em."

"Well, I do."

He wasn't sure if he believed that. She didn't sound as convinced as she should be. But, Barret was sure Cloud wasn't Shinra anymore. The sound of disgust and disregard towards his former employers was convincing enough, and he didn't seem an actor. He was most certainly ill, in more ways than one. "We'll work on our plans with the others first, then go from there."

Tifa brightened. "Sounds good."

"Just remember," Barret warned. "I don't trust his skinny ass. I'll give him a chance, but I'm gonna watch him like a goddamn hawk."

She nodded in response. "Fair enough." Tifa looked towards the door to the guest room, her gaze lingering there until she looked back at her friend. "I'm sure he'll join us eventually. After everything that happened, he would want to make Shinra hurt, too."

"Dunno 'bout that. Bet he only cares about himself," Barret grumbled. Still, whether he joined of his own volition or if he was hired for a job, Cloud would be a huge asset. "Gotta see what he's good at, besides killin' things."

"Even that would help us out," Tifa pointed out.

That was true. The slums were downright dangerous, especially outside the clusters of human settlement. Monsters and mutants roamed beneath the rotting pizza just as much as gangs and Turks did. Barret stood up. "I'll be watchin' him."

He stomped towards the lift and pressed the button to summon it. This Cloud character would change the fate of this makeshift family, for better or for worse. As he stepped next to the pinball machine, he wondered the possibilities, good and ill.