2 June 1984
The ground was soaked, and the rain continued to pour in waves, sometimes letting up but then suddenly coming back with a vengeance. Sephiroth had been ready to return to Mt. Nibel with Cloud, and still he waited, finding no chance of getting through the downpour without having Cloud get wet.
The seven year old shivered and got closer to Sephiroth. The man took off his jacket and draped it over Cloud to keep him warm.
"Won't you come inside, dear?" Mrs. Strife called through the still-open door. "It's getting cold."
Sephiroth nudged the boy, intent on waiting for the rain to stop. Cloud refused to move.
"You're coming inside, too," Cloud insisted stubbornly.
"I'll be fine," Sephiroth muttered. "Go inside before you get sick."
"I'm not going until you go," Cloud said, tugging on Sephiroth's arm. The jacket slipped and fell to the semi-dry ground. "Come on."
Sephiroth sighed in resignation when the boy wouldn't stop and stood up, following Cloud back into his mother's house. Mrs. Strife hurriedly shut the door behind them and wrapped a blanket around Cloud despite her son's small protests.
"What are we gonna do now?" Cloud said as he sat on one of the two beds in the house. "The rain doesn't look like it's gonna stop."
"It'll have to stop eventually," Sephiroth murmured. "We'll just have to wait for it."
"You're welcome to stay here as long as you need to, dear."
Sephiroth nearly snorted at that. Anything for the woman to be near her son. He really couldn't blame her. He looked out the window, slightly frustrated. Weather was not something he could control, though there were times where he wished he could do so.
He spent ages staring out into the rain, not moving or saying a thing. He declined Mrs. Strife's offer of dinner, listlessly hearing the background noise of clinking plates and silverware as Cloud and his mother ate without him. He didn't join in their conversations, either.
"Are you sure you don't want anything?" Mrs. Strife asked for the umpteenth time.
"I'm not hungry right now," Sephiroth said, keeping the small, annoyed tone that threatened to escape out of his voice.
"Come and eat, Sephiroth," Cloud said as sternly as he could given his age.
"No," Sephiroth replied teasingly.
"Yes."
"No."
"Yes."
"No."
"Yes."
"I will not."
"Yes you will."
"I will not."
"Yuh-huh."
"I will."
"Ha!" Cloud exclaimed triumphantly.
"...not."
He heard the scraping of a chair against the floor along with footsteps before feeling a sharp tug on his arm. Cloud pulled and pulled, trying his hardest to drag Sephiroth away from the window.
Sephiroth had to use some effort to keep his amusement from showing. He kept still, however, and waited to see how far Cloud would go.
The other tugged, almost slipping and falling onto his butt. "You're eating food, mister!"
"But I'm not hungry."
"Yes you are, you liar!"
"If he doesn't want to eat, it's okay, Cloud," Mrs. Strife said, standing up to pull Cloud away. The boy stubbornly kept his hold on Sephiroth, able to give Mrs. Strife more trouble now that he wasn't so little anymore.
"I'll eat in a bit, Cloud," Sephiroth resigned.
"No, you're gonna eat right now!" Cloud demanded, restarting his pulling.
"In a little bit. I need to figure out a way for us to go home."
"You can't go back in this weather," Mrs. Strife said, finally managing to persuade Cloud to let go. "You'll catch something, and I will not let my baby get sick."
"Mom, I'm not a baby anymore!" Cloud pouted.
Sephiroth let out an inaudible sigh, still looking out the window. "I don't know for sure whether we can stay or not. That's what the problem is."
"I'm sure there will be an exception for this..." Mrs. Strife said, hope lacing her tone.
"If the rain doesn't stop, then I suppose." There never was an actual limit to begin with...
Cloud snuggled up closer to his mother, unused to the feeling of sleeping next to her but still welcoming it. He felt her arms hug him close, and he hugged her back. He missed her so much, and he was glad that Sephiroth had decided to let them spend the night together. He craned his neck and looked back, seeing Sephiroth with his back still to Cloud and his mother and still not moving in the spare bed. Cloud turned back to face his mother when something suddenly caught his eye.
He saw a shadow moving. There were no lights on outside nor inside the house, so there couldn't be any moving shadows, and he knew that fact very well. Even so, he saw that shadow, and it moved slowly across the floor right next to him, sliding under the spare bed Sephiroth slept on. Cloud blinked; he swore that the shadow changed form for a split second.
That form looked suspiciously like Jenova to him.
Nice to see you again; it's been a while since you've been around. Terrorizing your victim again?
No.
Then?
You will not—
I will.
No.
It's my choice, and I stand by it.
You will not.
They are becoming more desperate as the months go by. It would be a waste of an opportunity.
You will not.
I will, no matter what you or my brothers say.
I won't. I can't.
He felt phantom hands embrace him.
I have to. It has to be me. I don't want any of you in my place.
No.
Yes.
No.
10 April 1985
As he dug through the closet, he found little which he thought would help him. All he really had packed were several changes of clothes and his wrapped sword. He looked once more, finding a leather trench coat. Folding it so it would take up as least amount of space possible, he tried to finish packing as quietly as he could before taking Masamune in hand and stealthily sneaking out of his room. He froze when he heard the bedsheets rustle.
"Sephiroth?" Cloud asked sleepily, rubbing one of his eyes. "What are you doing?"
"Go back to sleep, Cloud." Sephiroth opened the door and stepped into the hallway, closing the door behind him. He was partway down the stairs when he heard the door open and when he heard Cloud pad out after him. The long-haired man stopped in the living room, but didn't turn to look at the boy.
"Where are you going? Sephiroth?"
He didn't know how to break it to Cloud. He wanted to get away unnoticed, but that had failed.
"Where are you going, Sephiroth?" Cloud approached him and pulled on his shirt. "Hey. Where are you going?" he repeated for the third time.
Sephiroth finally turned around, putting his bag down and sitting on his haunches until he was at Cloud's level.
"...I'm leaving," he said simply.
"Where? Take me with you."
"I'm going somewhere far, far away to become a SOLDIER."
"Really?" Cloud beamed excitedly. "I wanna be a SOLDIER, too! Take me with you!"
"I can't, Cloud," Sephiroth said with great sadness. "I want to bring you with me, but I cannot."
The smile slowly erased himself from Cloud's face as he realized what that meant. "When are you coming back?"
"I don't know," Sephiroth admitted, looking down at the floor.
"Stay here," Cloud pleaded. "Please."
"I can't, Cloud. I have to do this."
"No, no! You don't have to!" Cloud grabbed onto Sephiroth's shoulders and attempted to shake the man. "Stay here! Don't leave me here!" Tears began to spill from Cloud's eyes.
Sephiroth hugged the boy, squeezing tightly without hurting him. "I want to stay here," he said honestly. "But I need to do this, and I can't take you with me, even though I so badly want to. I'm sorry, Cloud."
"No, NO NO DON'T LEAVE ME!" Cloud yelled, sobbing into Sephiroth's shoulder. "Don't go away!" he wailed.
Sephiroth reluctantly pulled himself away from Cloud. He wanted to do as the boy wished. He didn't want to leave Cloud nor his family.
But he had to. He had to destroy the Shinra from the inside out.
"I will come back as soon as I can," Sephiroth promised. He tried to leave for the door with as little trouble as possible, but he couldn't do much with Cloud chasing desperately after him. It took his brother Yazoo, who appeared seemingly out of nowhere, to be able to help Sephiroth.
The last look he could see on Cloud and Yazoo's faces were looks of abandonment and betrayal. The last looks he got from Loz and Kadaj on his way through town in the early hours of dawn were looks of mostly abandonment.
The look from his mother on the town limits was one of mourning.
Cloud hit and kicked for Yazoo to let him go, screaming and crying for the second eldest to let him go after Sephiroth.
"There's nothing we can do," the other said in what sounded like a calm manner to Cloud.
"Yes there is!" Cloud screamed. "I want him back! I want him to come back!"
"He's not coming back. Not for a long time."
Cloud punched Yazoo as hard as he could and did everything in his power to get him to move out of the way of the door, but Yazoo refused to move. In frustration, Cloud gave him one last kick to the knee and ran up the stairs in a fit of fury, throwing himself on the bed and screaming into the pillow. He sniffled and cried for what felt too long, and he eventually became tired. Instead of going to sleep, however, he went into the bathroom – still sniffling – to find something to wipe his nose with. He grabbed two sheets of toilet paper, blew his nose, and managed to let out another sob. He flinched when he heard a cough from somewhere close.
Cloud turned around and eyed the shower and tub which were covered by the curtain. Afraid, he walked up to nervously pull back the curtain. He screamed again, this time in fear, at what he had found.
Jenova coughed up more blood and twisted the knife embedded into her stomach area before pulling it out and adding another cut to her right arm. Cloud could only stare at the scene before he was broken out of his trance by Yazoo and Loz, who shoved him out of the way and forced the knife away from Jenova. Cloud ran from the bathroom, ran out of the room he and Sephiroth shared, and bumped right into Kadaj.
"Well, now we can actually bond with each other," Kadaj sneered, "little brother."
Notes:
Started: 2013年12月22日（日）
Finish: 2013年12月26日（木）
This chapter. This friggin' chapter. This was so hard to write, I had to completely scrap it and restart it. I wasn't planning on the next big date to be in here, but it made it in. All I can say is...finally! I've been waiting to get this part for so long. I can only apologize for the (very) long wait. It is not always easy to get into the right mood for writing this fic, nor is it always so easy to write because there is more going on in it compared to the other ones. Plus, it wasn't easy to get back into writing again after having to survive an entire month without a computer. XD I honestly wanted to get this updated first, but like I said, it was harder and more frustrating than I thought. I can only ask for forgiveness and thank everyone who's put up with this story, especially from the very beginning.
Some of you might have predicted this to happen! And yes, it does start to get more predictable from now on, but I do have a few monkey wrenches still hiding under the bed. :D