Disclaimer: Characters in this story are copyrights of Square Enix. They are by no means mine. Only the storyline belongs to me. If by any chance I have used any ideas similar to those of existing authors, please inform me so that I may change the details. If there is no notice, I will take it that usage of the idea is permitted. Thank you.
Legend
"…" conversation
'…' thoughts
break
Chapter Ten: Time
Time…an entity that is ever moving, ageless yet the oldest to ever exist. Never stopping, never waiting, once lost, unredeemable. Time is without mercy, stretching to an eternity but will come to an end. Time heals all and destroys all. Time…is what they are fighting for, and what they are fighting against.
"Find Sephiroth…"
Cloud closed his eyes in a frown.
'I don't understand, Aerith… Why him? Why now?'
His mind was in a state of confusion and his heart uneasy. The dream vision gnawed at him, anxious, restless, vivid. It did not once cross his mind that the dream was just that, a dream. Because dreams were a form of reality to someone like Cloud.
A soft knock on the door distracted him from those thoughts. Tifa stood at the doorway, a concerned look upon her face.
"How's he?" asked the blond quietly. Tifa shook her head.
"The fever's gone down a bit, but he doesn't seem to be improving by much."
Cloud looked distantly at nothing in particular, jaw set tensely. There were so many things he had to deal with right now, so many things he needed to confirm.
"Tifa?"
Both of them looked up and found Loz. He glanced uncertainly between the two, wondering if he had walked in on something private.
"What's wrong?" asked Tifa, hoping it was not about Kadaj. Loz hesitated. Tifa got up and exited the room with him.
Once outside, Tifa looked at Loz questioningly. The young man seemed to be in distress, and for good reason.
"Kadaj's fever…it's not any ordinary fever, is it?"
"I don't know, Loz. I really don't know." Tifa dared not put anything into absolute. "Is he having the old symptoms?"
Loz shrugged, "He's not having nightmares, if that's what you mean. Not yet, anyhow."
He leaned heavily against the wall. Tifa noticed that his eyes seemed a little sunken.
"Didn't you get any sleep last night?" Loz shook his head.
"Yazoo and I were supposed to take turns to watch Kadaj, but we were too worried to actually sleep." Loz mused, "I'm kind of worried about Yazoo, too. Kadaj's regression seems to have jolted him quite a bit. He's been very quiet."
"I guess it must have been hard for him. After months of quiet living, something like this happens. He must be feeling insecure right now."
Loz raised his eyebrows in mock astonishment. "Wow, you sounded like you really cared about him. I guess you don't hate him that much."
"Hey!" cried Tifa as she punched Loz lightly on the arm. Loz laughed and pulled Tifa into an embrace.
"Don't worry. Everything's going to be all right." Tifa assured. Loz only nodded.
Sephiroth sat in a corner seat, diverting all his attention to a particular speck on the wall beside him. The speck, however, was not enough to block out the whispers coming from the other end of the cabin. Even though Sephiroth was a master of masking his emotions, he still couldn't help but feel uncomfortable.
Boarding this airship had been a bad idea, and the person who suggested it was seated across him, staring unblinkingly at him. Fifteen minutes ago, Yuffie had been complaining about her stomach doing somersaults and tangling her intestines into knots, retching helplessly and groaning pitifully. However, after getting an ice pack on her head (and being told that if she kept her mouth shut she'd be less likely to throw up), she decided to use the time to try to identify every pore on his face. Since then, those large, curious eyes had never left Sephiroth.
Four hours ago:
"How do you plan to get to Midgar? It'll take us days to walk there, and days to locate them."
"I'll see if there's any vehicle we can borrow, Sephiroth." Vincent headed for the door. "I won't be long."
Half an hour later, Vincent trudged home a disappointed man. There weren't very many people in this small town, and it appeared that none of them owned anything remotely like transportation. The only thing that moved in and out of town was a truck that sent in goods to the local grocers, and the truck only came once a week. Any chance of hitching a ride on that truck quickly evaporated when he discovered that they missed it yesterday. Standing at the doorstep, he heaved a great sigh.
"Vinnie!"
Vincent turned around and was attacked by a green blur before he could see it. Crashing through the door, Vincent took a moment to regain his breath and clear his spinning vision.
"Yu-Yuffie?"
"Vinnie, Vinnie, Vinnie! I missed you!"
"Yuffie, what in the world are you doing here?" asked the winded gunman.
"Vincent, what's wrong? I heard a crash…"
Both Yuffie and Vincent turned to look at Sephiroth staring at them from the top of the staircase. Their reactions were fairly predictable.
"What is he doing here?" Yuffie sprang to her feet, drawing her shuriken in the process. Just as quickly, Vincent held onto the young shinobi's shoulders to stop her.
"Wait, Yuffie!"
"Are you here to hurt Vinnie?" demanded the Wutaian. Sephiroth's guard rose.
"It's okay. Sephiroth's with me."
Yuffie nearly twisted her neck to look at Vincent.
"What?"
"He's living with me here." Vincent dared not relax his hold on Yuffie.
Yuffie's eyes were bulging. "You're living with the scary general?"
The term caught Sephiroth's attention and he almost raised an eyebrow in amusement, but this was not the time.
After some persuasion on Yuffie's side, the three of them were seated at the dining table. Vincent prudently set the Wutaian and Sephiroth apart. The gunman did all the talking, since his lover was too busy being wary. Sephiroth once again had on the expression of cold indifference, and that upset Vincent quite a bit. So it was with a bit of impatience when Vincent explained why he and Sephiroth were staying together, leaving out the special status of their relationship.
Throughout the whole conversation, Yuffie punctuated it with a good deal of shocked staring and an occasional "But…" Once he was done, Yuffie was still looking at Sephiroth with caution in her eyes, but anyone who was Vincent's friend demanded her respect.
"Fine!" she pouted, holding out a hand to the former general. They shook hands stiffly.
Vincent felt a twinge of relief.
"Okay, Vinnie. Back to what I wanted to ask, why were you being so gloomy this morning? I mean, you've always been gloomy but you're extra gloomy just now."
Vincent recounted to her their problem of getting to Midgar and Yuffie waved it aside.
"Oh, if you're really in a hurry, I can call for Cid to bring us there."
Vincent frowned, "Yuffie, I don't think it's such a good idea. Cid is harder to convince than you."
"Don't worry 'bout it! Leave it to me!" beamed Yuffie with a cheeky grin. Vincent looked at Sephiroth questioningly. Somehow, he had a feeling that this was not going to turn out very well.
"Your Wutaian friend changed her attitude rather quickly, didn't she?"
"Yuffie means no harm." Vincent actually agreed with Sephiroth, but he chose to trust his friends rather than dwell on unfounded suspicion.
About two hours later, Cid arrived at their doorstep. His reaction when he saw Sephiroth was perhaps even more exaggerated than Yuffie's. The shinobi pulled him aside and for a while, they were in an argument that involved a lot of cursing, yelling and ultimately, Yuffie bashing Cid over the head. Vincent and Sephiroth watched the exchange with slightly stunned expression as Cid finally gave in to the smaller girl.
"Well," said the man gruffly. "If those kids could turn for the better, maybe you could too, eh?"
"Those kids?" asked Vincent.
"Kadaj and the others, who else?"
"You know where my brothers are?" Sephiroth finally said something.
"'Course I do! Fine, I'll give you a ride, but I'm charging you extra for this, Vincent! I'm on tight schedule, ya know? Ow!"
Yuffie had promptly bashed Cid on the head again.
'So that's why they accepted me readily.'
Sephiroth wasn't expecting them to be so trusting, but Kadaj's transformation justified it. It didn't stop Sephiroth from being cautious though. Letting his mind drift, Sephiroth thought about meeting Kadaj, Yazoo and Loz. In a way, he was their older brother and it was somehow strange to realise that he had relatives, sort of.
Vincent entered the cabin and handed him a glass of water.
"Are you okay?"
Sephiroth nodded. "You should be worrying about her." He indicated towards Yuffie, who had taken to lying on the seats.
"Yuffie will be fine. She gets airsick every time. Are you really okay? I understand if you're uncomfortable in their presence. Maybe we shouldn't have come aboard."
"Vincent, they're your friends, right? Maybe I'm a little uncomfortable but I'll try to get used to it. I don't want you to compromise yourself for my sake." Sephiroth whispered, "Besides, I'm more worried about the moment we land."
Both men were quiet. Cid had told them when they boarded the airship that Kadaj and the others were living with Cloud and Tifa. Vincent was worried. Yuffie and Cid had been easy, but Cloud harboured a great distrust, if not outright hatred, for Sephiroth.
"Do you want to go back then?"
Sephiroth shook his head, "I can't, this is too important. Just let me handle this myself, okay?"
"I'll be with you," Vincent resisted the urge to kiss Sephiroth. "All the way."
The sky bore an ominous air as thick, heavy clouds cast the land below them into darkness. Tifa looked out worriedly, anxiety gnawing at her heart just as the chill gnawed at her skin. She shut the window and headed into the kitchen to immerse herself in the usual washing. It was as if the routine gave her some form of comfort, a reassurance of things unchanged.
Upstairs, Yazoo was sitting beside the window, watching Kadaj sleep. A soft knock on the door made him avert his gaze in time to see Loz enter the room. He had brought Yazoo a mug of hot coffee. The long-haired youth hadn't left Kadaj's side at all.
"Thanks…" muttered Yazoo as he took the mug. Sipping the coffee, he was grateful for the warmth.
"How's he doing?"
"Okay. Other than the occasional twitching, he's been sleeping rather peacefully."
In the next room, Cloud was standing at the window, staring out into the distance. Everything around him felt sluggish, as though time was just trickling by in some anticipation. As though something was about to happen… Just then, his blue eyes caught a form in the clouds. Wordlessly, Cloud headed downstairs, stopping to gather his sword. He had a feeling that he might want it near him.
It was Cid's airship, the Sierra. But that was not what made Cloud stand frozen on the spot. It was the man who had just alighted from the craft. In regal black, silver hair whipping sharply in the wind, Sephiroth was almost exactly as Cloud remembered him. Almost, because Sephiroth was not carrying Masamune with him and there was an unreadable expression on his calm face.
Questions and outrage whirled in Cloud's mind. Why did Cid bring him here? Why was Vincent standing behind him with worry on his features? Why was Sephiroth even here? Aerith's warning flashed through his mind. Cloud tightened his grip on his weapon.
"Why are you here?" Deathly quiet, too calm a voice…
"I'm here to see them." He was sure the blond understood. Tifa had come out now.
"Lifestream's corruption…have you anything to do with it?"
"Perhaps, perhaps not."
Anger, a flash of red. Body reacting faster than thought, Cloud attacked.
A/N: Phew! That was quite a chapter to work on. The part with Yuffie and Cid was totally random, absolutely. But I picked them 'cause they're more versatile than other characters. They would believe Sephiroth after seeing Kadaj and the others, others might react like Cloud. Cliffhanger…next chapter should be more interesting to write. Mood swings from solemn to light-hearted to solemn again… Hope it's all right, though I personally think something is missing. Hehe, sorry for the late update. I'm about to enter college, so there are lots of preparations to make. Plus my computer died on me last week. Reviews are much appreciated!
PS: To MyraHellsing, don't worry! I'm determined to see this fic through! I might update less often now that I have to go back to studies but I'll make it point to update as soon as opportunity presents itself. Also, to all the anonymous reviewers whom I did not reply to, know that I appreciate each and every review that you have made. I might not be able thank you personally, but your reviews are always a delight, and they contribute to helping me write better. Thank you so much!