Chapter5
Cloud faced his opponent with a narrowed gaze, not flinching even as he heard the click of the gunblade being armed.
"You've done well to get this far, Strife. But now it's over." The man smirked as his finger squeezed the trigger. Cloud only just ducked in time to evade the shot, which, if it had hit, would have killed him there and then.
"This is far from over!" The blonde man gave an indignant cry and charged forward, swinging his sword down. Weapons clashed loudly and the two combatants stepped back, breathing heavily. Cloud was first to move again, swinging his sword at the other man's feet, but he jumped to evade.
"We'll see... we'll see just who gets where." A few shots whined past Cloud, and as he was about to ready his sword for another swing, his injured shoulder sent another wave of pain through his system. The blonde man gritted his teeth and had to rest his weapon on the ground. The other man saw his chance and swiped with the gunblade. Cloud couldn't dodge in time and ended up with a long cut in his side.
"This won't end well. For you." Cloud injected some confidence in his tone, despite the fact that his adversary was rather intimidating. He shunned the pain from his injuries and slashed at the other man, opening a nasty gash in his leg. The silver-haired man was forced to drop to the ground to stem the bleeding, and the blonde man took that as an opportunity to escape. He needed to keep an eye on Sephiroth, no matter what. Without any further hesitation, he headed towards the address that he had sent the man in the Black Cape to some time earlier.
Meanwhile, Sephiroth had only just made it to the arranged address. He took a minute to catch his breath before scanning the area. Was that man chasing him earlier one of the ones who wanted to convince him to do terrible things? A peculiar thought entered his mind. PerhapsIwasmeanttodothem. Where was this coming from?
The door to the building opened, and the man in the Black Cape noticed that the one who had opened the door was a tall, muscular man with one of his arms replaced by a gun-arm. He seemed familiar, yet strange. Irecognisehimfromsomewhere,Iconfrontedhim,butIdon'tknowwhen,whereorevenwhy.
Barret noticed Sephiroth standing there. "Yo! Whaddya think you're doin', standin' there? I've still not gotten over what ya did, but Cloud says ya don't remember it." He pointed his gun-arm at the other man.
Sephiroth stood his ground. "Cloud sent me here." He raised an eyebrow at Barret's statement. "What I did? Ever since I woke up in... in that room... it's been questions. Constant questions, about things that... that I don't remember. You aren't planning to question me as well, are you?"
"Damn, I got every reason to shoot ya if I wanted to! 'Sides, jes' because you don't remember it doesn't mean that it weren't your fault! That bloody Jenova whatsit, Meteor, you killin' a good friend o' mine an' Cloud's..." Barret kept his gun-arm aimed at Sephiroth even when the other man dropped to his knees, pressing his hands to his temples.
"Barret, what are you doing?" shouted a voice. The large man looked across at where the voice had come from.
"Cloud! Look... ya know, this guy, well..." Barret began. He lowered his gun-arm. "He was responsible for everythin', and damn, I wanna shoot the bastard!" Cloud shook his head before placing a hand over the wound in his side, gritting his teeth.
"Look, if we remind him, it'll probably make him go that way again. We'll be no different from those other guys who were after him." The blonde man was about to say more when Sephiroth tapped him on the shoulder.
"All of this... Cloud, this one says I did it. I remember that I was involved, but..." He trailed off. Cloud told him not to think about it too much. Barret was about to voice a protest but the blonde man hushed him. The three went into the building.
After Cloud had made them all drinks and sandwiches, they sat down to discuss their next course of action. With these mysterious figures wanting Meteor to happen again, the fate of the Planet now rested with Cloud and Barret for the meantime.
"The hell are we gonna do now?" Barret clenched his fist. "We ain't just gonna sit here an' let those morons get us, are we?"
"Quiet!" Cloud rounded on the large man. "I'm thinking." He stood up and paced agitatedly around the room, occasionally stopping to slap a hand to his forehead and groan in frustration. Eventually he faced the others. "Look, we may have to stay on the move at some point. But for now, we should go back to Shinra HQ and report to Reno."
"That place... it brings back uncomfortable memories." Sephiroth looked at Cloud, then at the ground. "It's as if... well... it doesn't matter."
Cloud sighed. "It's all I can think of right now. Besides, we could use all the help we can get."
Barret stood up and stamped his foot on the ground. "Damn, Cloud! Ya think we can really trust Shinra? Hell, I know what they're like." The blonde man sighed again and said that that was the only option for the moment. They then discussed how they were going to get there quickly, and the trio all agreed that public transport was out of the question. Neither Sephiroth nor Barret had a vehicle, and Cloud's motorcycle was some distance away with no fuel. Their only option was to ask someone for a ride, but there was a problem...
"Everyone knows what Sephiroth did, and they aren't gonna trust him. He mightn't remember, but the rest of us would. If we're gonna catch a ride from someone, we've gotta disguise Sephiroth enough so that he won't be recognised."
Barret scratched his chin in thought. "I think I got some old stuff we can use. Might be an idea if we all disguise ourselves, ya know, jes' in case." Cloud agreed.
"This seems ridiculous. Why should I be the one who has to hide?" Sephiroth gave Cloud a narrow gaze and snorted. "If anything, it should be you, since those idiots are after you."
"Those same idiots are after you too, and besides, I said that we'll all be going in disguise. It'll be safer for us all." Sephiroth sighed and nodded in response. Barret went upstairs to retrieve the things he said he had and brought them all down. The trio searched through them, picking out several things that would make a suitable disguise. Whilst they put them on, they discussed how they were going to communicate, and gave themselves fake names. After that was sorted, they all left Barret's house and walked some way away so that they might be able to protect the place from their enemies. They managed to catch the attention of a man in an off-road vehicle and they all climbed inside, asking the driver to take them to Shinra Headquarters.