This chapter is dedicated to darkemogirl, Fairheartstrife, and MtReload.
Beautiful Lie
Ignorance
Everyone is looking at me;
I'm running 'round in circles baby (circles baby)
A quite desperation is building higher;
I've got to remember this is just a game;
Beautiful Lie by 30 Seconds to Mars
The next day Cloud woke up a little later than usual. Blinking the sleep from his eyes he slowly slid out of the bed grabbing the shirt hanging off one of the posts as he did so.
Within a few minutes the blonde assassin was pretty much dressed in what had become his usual attire; he decided to forgo the leather half-skirt this morning as he just didn't feel like doing up all the belts on the thing at this moment. Priority one in Cloud's mind was head downstairs and find out the verdict.
So, with his hair a mite messier then usual from sleep, his one-sleeved shirt, leather pants, and gloves Cloud opened the door to his room and headed downstairs.
The bar was closed, Tifa cooking breakfast, and Zack reading through the sheets of paper Biggs had given him the other night more thoroughly when Cloud entered the room. Within seconds he found himself sitting with a plate full of steaming pancakes sitting in front of him.
Blue eyes blinked in slight surprise.
"You'll get used to it," Zack said from beside him, eyes not once having left the pieces of paper in front of his face. "Tif likes to fatten us up; claims we're too skinny," Zack pulled a face at that but continued to keep reading as Tifa told him sharply.
"You are too skinny Zackary Fair! Now eat!" she slammed a plate of pancakes down in front of the ex-SOLDIER who yelped slightly, pulling the papers away before they could get splashed by coffee and syrup.
"Jeez! Watch it Tif!" Zack cried and the added, "Eating!" with a squeak under the woman's glare.
Cloud watched the whole thing in thinly veiled surprise.
Zack was being civil.
Finally he seemed to get enough control of his vocals cords to let out a soft, "Hn," before slicing into his pancakes to appease the glaring brown eyes.
He'd also forgotten the dangerous temper Tifa had.
After a few minutes of silence Tifa finished cooking and began to clean up the area before grabbing two plates of pancakes and heading up the stairs. Cloud glanced in her direction, slightly confused but deciding not to ask.
"Denzel's upstairs," Zack said, back to reading the print outs, "with Marlene. The boy's sick and Barret's girl doesn't want to leave him alone."
"Sick?" Cloud mumbled but Zack didn't elaborate. Instead the ex-SOLDIER seemed to be staring at the print-outs in a mixture of surprise and horror.
"You killed the Shinra President?" he muttered, eyes scanning the list. "And the heads of the science department? Damn."
Cloud raised his head, brow furrowed slightly. He didn't know exactly what Shinra allowed AVALANCHE to get on him, however he knew that the young President would honor their agreement and keep anything that gave away his cover hidden; failure to do so and Cloud would kill him, great money source or not.
"When was this?" Cloud asked, peering at the papers from next to Zack; he decided not to look the gift horse of Zack being civil in the mouth. It wouldn't do to antagonize him anyway.
Zack, upon Cloud's question, raised an eyebrow in response and Cloud shrugged, glancing at the dates. He nodded after a second with a muttered, "Now I remember..." at Zack's other raised eyebrow Cloud added louder, "Everything tends to blend together during the two years I worked for Shinra."
"Huh?"
With a slightly irritated sigh Cloud pulled the papers from Zack's grip, flipping through them quickly. As much as he didn't want to show this to the other man, after all it was a weakness, he had to infiltrate the group. Gaining Zack's trust was top priority for that to happen. If Cloud had to give out one weakness--no matter how incapacitating it was--he would. Besides, one look at his medical record and the man would know the answer anyway. Keeping it secret wouldn't help him at this point in time.
He slid the papers back over to Zack, his finger tapping the page facing up. Zack looked down and blinked.
The page was a bit shocking too; Shinra let out quite a bit of that particular information to Cloud's distaste.
'Experiments?' Zack thought, staring at the page, mildly surprised. 'Biggs mentioned that but I hadn't gotten a chance to look....' Frowning Zack began to skim the words before sucking in a breath.
"You're mako sensitive?" he asked, wide-eyed. He went back and began to read through the information in greater detail.
"That's why I didn't get into SOLDIER," Cloud stated, standing and clearing up his now empty plate.
"You knew you were sensitive?" Zack queried.
"Before or after the agreement to be tested on?" Cloud questioned back.
"Before."
"Yes."
"You still let them do this?"
Cloud finished washing his plate off and glanced at Zack out of the corner of his eye as he said, "Weakness is a death wish as a mercenary." Zack raised his head, surprised at Cloud's calm yet cold dismissal. Cloud didn't look back as he started to head up the stairs. Zack's voice made him pause.
"I still don't like you," the ex-SOLDIER stated.
"I didn't expect you to," Cloud replied and continued up the stairs, passing Tifa on his way.
"Zack?" Tifa asked, glancing up the stairs where Cloud had no disappeared to and back to Zack.
Zack shook his head sharply and said, "It's nothing." He asked after a second, "How's Denzel?"
"Not any better, but not any worse either," Tifa mumbled.
"We'll find a cure, Tif," Zack muttered. "We'll find a cure."
Cloud was on his way to his room when he noticed the cracked door. Cautiously he glanced inside and blinked; a young girl was sitting diligently at the bedside of a sleeping boy. One plate of pancakes sat on the table next to the girl.
The girl raised her head as Cloud made to leave and spotted him. She called out, quietly but not too quiet to not be heard, "Who are you?"
Figuring it couldn't hurt the blonde mercenary stepped into the room with a muttered, "Cloud Strife." His eyes flickered to the boy as the girl spoke.
"Oh. You're the guy daddy hired to protect Tifa," the girl nodded. "I'm Marlene." She pointed to the boy and said, "This is Denzel; he's really sick though."
"Sick?" Cloud asked, stepping closer to Marlene and the boy on the bed.
"Mhmm," Marlene nodded and watched as Cloud stopped beside the bed.
"With what?" Cloud questioned the little girl, mako blue eyes looking down at her inquisitorially.
"I don't know," Marlene shrugged. "Neither does Tifa or Mr. Zack." Cloud was slightly surprised to hear that.
"Then how do you know he is sick?"
In response Marlene pointed to the small piece of cloth on the boy's forehead. Cloud glanced at her out of the corner of his eye as he gently brushed the cloth up to see what she was getting at.
He sucked in a sharp breath a second later and pulled his hand back as if burned.
"Mr. Cloud?" Marlene asked worriedly. "Do you know what this is?"
Eye's widening and narrowing sporadically, pupils flashing between cat-like slits and normal, and trying to ignore the sudden throbbing pain in his clothed arm Cloud hissed out, "Yes," between slightly clenched teeth.
"Then you know what the cure is, right?" the girl looked up at him hopefully and Cloud, eyes still focused on the mark upon boy's forehead, said in an almost pained tone, "There is no cure."
The assassin turned on heel and left the room quickly. He didn't want to face the questions the inquisitive girl would ask, and staying there was bringing him more pain--if Marlene had looked at Denzel closely she would've noticed him flinching in his sleep too.
He almost staggered into the room Tifa had assigned him, kicking the door shut quickly and with a flick of his pain-free arm Cloud had it locked.
"Damn it," he hissed out with a shuddering breath and practically collapsed against the dresser as he made his way towards it. Cloud weakly pulled at the top drawer, his right hand slipping through the minuscule gap to grope blindly, eyes practically unseeing in a haze of red and green flashes.
The world tipped and turned black seconds later.
"What does Shinra want with me?" he asked coldly, blue eyes piercing the cold and calculating gaze of the current executive.
"You're a well sought mercenary," the President stated coolly.
"And it has nothing to do with who I am?"
"The fact that you were born in Nibelheim might have some motivation..." the words were admitted, almost reluctantly.
"What do I get out of this?" his stance was guarded; he had noticed the executive's shadows, although he couldn't pick their exact locations he could still get a general idea of where they were.
"Is this an agreement?"
"It depends on what you're offering."
"You pride yourself on being efficient and ruthless," Shinra said, "and you fight even when weakened to better yourself."
"Weakness is death," he snapped.
"Yes, I suppose it is," the other mused. "From the medical records we have of you before...your defection...you have one major weakness, no?"
He stiffened.
"Ah, so you do know of what I speak," the words were calmly spoken, silken and deadly at the same time. "Our offer," he continued, "is that you allow some of our best scientists to submit you to a few...tests."
"I would consent to this why?" the tone was harsher now.
"You'd be fighting your weakness of course."
Blue eyes narrowed, "That's not all."
"Correct." There was a tense silence before Shinra continued. "Any jobs you take will be filed within the Shinra Corperation," he stated. "You will be paid handsomly for your continued cooperation with the tests; we require though that you perform your jobs after a session with our scientists. To combat the weakness, no?"
"If I agree I have a few conditions," his face was blank; it was a skill he found necessary rather quickly if he didn't want to get swindled.
"Name them."
"I will not work with any SOLDIER--while I am a mercenary for hire I am not one of your dogs and so will not be ordered around as such. I will consent to these 'tests'," the word was said almost sarcastically, "only after I have been told extensively what they are and what the expected outcome is. I retain the right to refuse any of these 'tests' if I find them not to my benifit. Finally I will only take the tests form sane doctors and scientists."
"Meaning...?"
"Keep Hojo and anyone who works under his rule the fuck away from me."
Shinra eyed him up and down; the conditions were more than he would like, but this mercenary had quickly become legend since his defection.
"I'll agree to your terms..." he finally said, "...if you agree not to kill any of my SOLDIER's out of revenge."
"The past is the past, Shinra," the words were almost growled.
"Indeed it is," Shinra murmured. His shadows shifted slightly in the thick quiet that fell, and then tensed, ready to spring forward at a moments notice as the President asked, "Do we have an accord?" coolly.
He eyed the other up and down, assessing everything mentally. In the end this agreement could go either way, but if Shinra kept his end of the deal it would benifit him more. After all, one of his policies was that if you broke the deal you paid for it, severely.
Finally he uttered, "We have an accord," in the same, cold tone.
Shinra allowed a smirk to gracefully fall across his lips.
"Good...I assume you wish to have a contract in writing?"
"Correct."
With a snap of his fingers one of his shadows stepped forward--a Turk--and calmly handed over a few documents.
"You knew what I would demand?" the words were harsh, accusing.
"No. I had this written as we spoke," was the softly spoken rebuttal.
He took the papers from Shinra's pale hands after the man signed them and quickly read through the words. It was straightforward, and included everything they agreed upon. It was hand written, giving credence to Shinra's statement that it had been created as they talked although he wouldn't put it past the man to be lying. Still, everything seemed in order and so, pulling out a pen from one of his pockets he signed the document.
Cloud Strife.
"Thank you for your services," Shinra murmured, taking the document and handing it back to the dark haired Turk. "We will contact you with the first appointment soon."
Cloud watched coldly as they left.
Yes, this would benifit him much more than Shinra in the end; of that he was sure.
end chapter.
Wow, that was a rather long flashback...anyway, I'm so sorry for not having finished this earlier! The original draft of this chapter just didn't sit well with me, so I ended up rewriting the first half, and then after that where I left the first half off didn't sit too well and since I was having a block on how to fix it I put it aside for a while.
Today I picked it up at around 3AM and skimmed through it (after having started reading a FF7 fanfic titled Anywhere which is rather well written; it brought back my passion for Cloud and Zack) and discovered that while I liked most of what I had previously written in the second draft, it needed some more editing. So I ended up almost rewriting the entire interaction with Marlene (again) before I hit the flashback.
So yeah...I'm truly sorry it took so long. I've been so distracted lately, and it just wasn't coming to me like I wanted.
Now on I want to get to the anonymous reviews...
FinalFantasyFan I so love your reviews. They are very helpful! I suppose I could've done more reflection on Tifa's part and I will definitely try to remember your advice there. I was afraid I was spending too much time on the situation but I'm glad you think I wasn't.
You mentioned though about Cloud's "need for control" and made a comment on one of my sentences. I would like to point out that your comment (in which you said adding "and he didn't like that" to the end of the sentence) that I had put in those very words at the end of the sentence. I don't know if you noticed it exactly...I know that sometimes when I read I tend to miss things sometimes because upon instinct (I suppose) I mentally reword some sentences in things I read (which makes it oh so hard to understand sometimes...)
I am very sorry it has taken an extremely long time for me to update (6 months, my god...) this chapter just wasn't working well as I've stated above. However I finally got it to where I wanted. I do hope you are still checking up on this story! I would hate to have lost you because I had trouble working this chapter out...for six months....
Again thank you; I really do appreciate your reviews. They always have some insightfull information or tidbit to help me improve.
Pushing past the anonymous reviews I would like to mention why this chapter is dedicated to darkemogirl, Fairheartstrife, and MtReload.
I chose these three for a few reasons. darkemogirl and MtReload spoke upon how they liked my portrayal of Cloud. Fairheartstrife was chosen (not just because she is the inspiration) because she mentioned the inner conflict going on...and that she liked the chapter so much she wanted a longer update right away XD I'm so sorry for the long wait Fairheartstrife!
That's everything I think...yup. That's everything.
Tata!
TK
Twin Kats