A/N: Here's the second chappie, please enjoy everyone, and thanks so much for the reviews.
Disclaimer: Square Enix owns everything.
"Have you gone bananas, Spikey? You're ought to kick his scrawny ass into hell! And I'm ought to kick your sorry ass for dragging me into this! Why would you wanna talk to him for anyways? He's better off dead, like that jackass Rufus said." Barret growled as Cloud started off down the hallway without a word.
There was only grave silence, and a slight shake of the blonde-spiked head.
"I think we've all had enough headache for one day, Cloud..." Tifa commented gently, walking alongside Barret and Vincent keeping up just behind them.
"It's over now." Cloud muttered, almost to himself, heading down the chrome-walled corridor toward the room where Kadaj was kept under close scrutiny.
"You keep sayin' that, but nothing' ain't over yet. Why can't you just listen to reason, man? That boy's trouble, I'm telling' you. Once a scoundrel, always a scoundrel."
Cloud ignored the badgering and kept walking.
"He's just a kid." Cloud replied stubbornly.
"He's more than that, and you know it, spiky!" The big man persisted.
"I know what you mean, Barret. But you've got nothing to worry about. Sephiroth is defeated. There is no coming back for him. Kadaj is free of his influence."
"He IS Sephiroth, dammit!" Barret sighed heavily and shook his head in disgust, turning to Tifa with a grim look. She shrugged her slender shoulders and glanced at Cloud worriedly.
Cloud paused in front of the chrome door and lowered his pensive blue gaze, his voice dropping to an unexpected softness.
"No. Please understand, Barret, it's not my decision alone. She wants him to live. She wants him to have a second chance…I know." He closed his eyes briefly.
"Whossat?" Barret glowered.
Tifa walked up to Cloud and gently placed a hand on his arm, searching his face intently.
"Aeris…" She whispered quietly.
Mako-blued eyes opened, glittering with a fierce determination. Cloud turned and faced his friends.
"Sephiroth was born tainted with Jenova cells. He never stood a chance. His madness was not his own design, but a path pre-ordained by the crazy ambitions of a demented man. This time, as Kadaj, he gets to actually choose his own path. That's why Aeris cleansed him. I heard her, Barret…I heard her as clearly as I'm hearing you now."
Barret sighed deeply and folded his muscled arms across his chest. There was no reasoning with Cloud it seemed.
"Hmpf, you've taken one too many blows to the head I reckon, that's what it is. Looks like you're gonna have your way no matter what we say." Barret grumbled.
Cloud reached for the door handle, then paused, flicking Tifa a sidelong glance.
"Are you coming?"
The last thing Tifa wanted was to go in that room, and face Kadaj again. But she knew that look Cloud just gave her, she could not deny his silent plea; he needed her support now.
"All right, let's do this and get it over with." She said, and was rewarded with a rare, warm smile. Cloud knew she would not let him down.
"What? Have you both gone crazy? This is bullshit!" Barret sputtered, and threw a pleading glance at the ex-Turk who was silent as a marble statue beside him. "Yo, Vincent! Say something, man!"
"I see little reason why I should interfere. This matter is out of our hands, Barret." Vincent replied with a cool detachment.
"Good man." Cloud nodded in approval, while Barret cursed softly. "Screw this! Screw yous all!"
"Barret, we won't be long." Tifa assured him.
"Yeah, whatever. I don't get you Cloud." Barret frowned. "You're makin' a big mistake, but go ahead, I'll be right here waitin' like the sucker I am."
"If it's any consolation, makes two of us, Barret." Vincent said impassively.
……………….
Kadaj fixed his anxious teal gaze upon the door as it opened, and then the two people who just stepped inside. He regarded them listlessly, suspiciously.
"First the president, now you two. Make it quick, would you?" Kadaj snarled softly.
Tifa leaned against the wall, silently watching, while Cloud approached the young, half-naked man strapped to the long operating table rather uncomfortably. Physically, the youth appeared to have improved remarkably, though he was still very pale, and it seemed most likely those wounds that ran the length of his slender, but powerful torso were going to scar despite the materia's healing energy. It was a wasted effort in Tifa's opinion.
"How are you feeling?" There was a gentle pitch to Cloud's voice, which only served to heighten Kadaj's unease.
"What do you want from me?" The youth asked harshly, his silver brows set in a deep scowl.
"I'm given to understand you will be able to get out of here sooner than I thought." Cloud continued, ignoring the younger man's attitude.
Kadaj looked taken aback for a second, his voice dropping to a murmur, anger fading from his eyes, replaced by faint uncertainty and sorrow.
"Then what…?"
"It's up to you, I suppose." Cloud shrugged.
"Oh, don't give me that it's up to me crap! I don't know what you're concocting but I'm not about to fall for your so-called altruism." Kadaj snarled.
Cloud patiently waited for more abuse, let him get it off his chest, he thought sagely, surprised at his own ability to keep his annoyance in check.
"Just tell me why you're doing this…why are you helping me?" Kadaj muttered instead.
"Because everyone deserves a chance in life." Cloud said firmly
"I don't need your sympathy..." Kadaj said tersely and clamped his trembling pale lips, returning his weary eyes to the ceiling, cursing himself for being so weak. His mouth was suddenly too dry, his eyelids prickling…
"I bear no grudge against you, Kadaj, no one does, as far as I'm concerned." Cloud said emphatically, recalling another time, 2 years ago in Mideel, when he had been on the verge of breaking, wracked with insecurity and self-loathing. He knew how hard it was to face your demons and he knew what it felt like to be a puppet. Even now, Cloud wondered if he would be here, where he was now, without Tifa and others' support. She had been there for him at his darkest hour. Kadaj had no one.
No-one but Cloud. He had to take this one step at a time.
"Tell you what. You can come to live with us for a while until I set you up somewhere else."
Tifa's expression darkened at this, but she kept quiet, watching the young man warily. She resented the idea of having to put up with that…remnant…in 7th Heaven, but there was no helping for it, Cloud was determined to play the knight in shining armour. How could Cloud have so much faith in Sephiroth? Why did Aeris or the Lifestream for that matter, choose to spare the likes of him?
Like Barret had said, Kadaj was essentially Sephiroth, right? She could glimpse his dark, foul essence in the similar features, and every time she looked at him, she felt her anger rise. She just couldn't bring herself to feel sorry for him, no way. Not after what Sephiroth had done to her father, and to Aeris…Let Cloud do the forgiving, Tifa thought miserably, for she could not, would not, forgive him.
As though having sensed this faint undercurrent of hostility, Kadaj grimaced, turning away, subdued. The expression on his angular face was forlorn, doubtful, afraid…Tifa had seen Cloud like this too, broken and dying slowly inside…How easier it would have been for her if Kadaj actually fought back. How easier it would be to hate him with passion…Her dark brown eyes grew turbulent with the contradicting emotions, and unseeingly she stared at Kadaj…At the regal lines of his arresting face, the softly flickering aquamarine eyes, the frown-creased silver brows, the sensually brooding curve of his mouth that would have entranced her 7 years ago…
"What do you say, Tifa?" Cloud's voice snapped her out of her brief reverie.
"Yeah, you can stay with us until you get your own place." Tifa mumbled half-heartedly, rolling her eyes at her childhood friend, not caring if Kadaj saw.
"Well, in that case, are you ready to go?" Cloud asked him with a faint smile.
Before Kadaj could answer, a booming voice protested from the doorway.
"Wait a minute! He ain't comin nowhere near Marlene!" Barret barged in, glaring at the lot.
Vincent calmly observed the drama, his arms crossed in front of his torso.
"I'll take him in." He said finally, promptly drawing relieved glances from Tifa and Barret both. Cloud looked unconvinced.
"Kadaj?"
The silver-headed youth stared at the group blankly, his mind working quickly, coming to a decision.
"Just get me out of here…"