Author's note: Long story shortened to the best of my wordy abilities, I've posted both IV and V at the same time since I won't be around Thanksgiving weekend (and also because V is pretty short). I'll be out of town. I hope you have a beautiful Thanksgiving!
Author's note #2: I've had several "anon"s ask me via email (I thought I turned that option off? Oh well... I don't really mind) if this fic will contain yaoi, when and who. The answer is: Yes, there will be some male on male/yaoi/homosexual (male) shebangs, but as I am not writing a PWP, it's not blatantly pointed out so until then, let's be patient at the tameness =) As to when and who, well, we'll have to wait and see! And as always, thank you for reading!
Disclaimer: NO!
[ V ]
It was the wee hours of the morning when Cloud arrived in Kalm. He had spent the rest of the previous night putting Terra and Sora to rest in the small graveyard of the small fishing village below Junon. The villagers obliged him without a fuss to which he was thankful and without sleep, Cloud paid to be flown back to Midgard. When he arrived, instead of going home, he rode back out to Kalm.
He sat on the edge of the bed in the inn, stared at his phone and finally dialed out. Reno answered on the third ring.
"Hello?" Cloud heard the sleep in Reno's voice.
"It's me."
There was a shuffling. Reno had sat up in bed upon hearing Cloud. "So you finally decided to call, and at the dead hours of the morning?"
"Sorry."
"You better be. I was having a nice dream, yo."
It was hard for Cloud to imagine but he went on with business. "What did you need?"
Reno let out a dramatically long sigh. "The Boss wanted to meet with you to discuss some important findings on the Gold Saucer."
"What is it?" Cloud stared at the off-white wall between two drawers.
"I'll have him call you. But I should warn you, for the love of my own sanity, that you shouldn't take the Boss lightly."
"I'll decide how to deal with him. Have him call me right away or I'm going to be busy."
"Doing what?"
"Things that require me ignoring you and your Boss."
Reno held out his free hand before him, palms outward. "Chill, yo. He just wants to talk. I think."
Cloud snapped the phone shut and threw it on the bed and laid back. He really should call the others and check on their progress and also to let them know he was fine. Maybe it was a little too early yet to wake them up. He decided he'd wait an hour but changed his mind. Just as he reached for the phone again, it rang. An unidentified number lit up on the screen. He flipped the phone open and waited.
"Cloud, good morning."
"Rufus." He returned the exchange with a light nod of his head.
"I'm elated at the opportunity to finally speak with you. Reno made quick with me. You're a hard man to please, Cloud."
Cloud sat silently, phone pressed to his ear.
"My proposition still stands, Cloud. Allow us to meet alone, and I'll hand Reeve over to you. Or at least get him to contact you. I've heard you've been in a very difficult situation very recently. My condolences."
For just that moment, even though it was Rufus, Cloud wanted to just fall completely into the man's sympathy and whine a little about the unfair death of two innocent people and how he felt he was being crushed alive by an unseen force but he closed his eyes instead. He counted to ten and reopened them. Rufus was not the man to turn to, even if he were the last man striding around The Planet.
"Oh, I also have some things that you'll be exceptionally thrilled to see," Rufus continued. "But you'll have to agree to my terms."
"Just get on with it," Cloud ushered.
"Is that a confirmation?"
Cloud whirled the thought around in his head and nodded. "Go on."
"Excellent. Tonight at eight. Come alone to the old Headquarters. Reeve will contact you shortly."
"In Midgard?" He sat up. Didn't Diamond weapon destroy it? He laughed softly to himself. Of course Shinra would reconstruct it at some point, he thought almost bitterly.
"It's a date then, Cloud. I look forward to seeing your handsome, stoic face."
He disliked the fact that Rufus was getting his way. The man knew how to get things done, that's for sure. Cloud's phone rang for a second time. An encrypted number showed up and Cloud reached for the phone faster than he'd ever done in his life.
"Reeve!"
"It is I. So Rufus has finally gotten a hold of you," Reeve stated.
"Yes, he has. What can you tell me about the Gold Saucer?"
Reeve seemed to ponder the pros and cons of the information he was holding and when he made up his mind, he said something that Cloud hadn't expected. "For the record, I had intended to call you the day of the incident but Rufus had a hold of me. He wanted you to see the damages and hoped you'd come to a conclusion of some sort. Afterward, he asked me not to contact you about any information. Shinra privacy, you know."
Cloud clenched and unclenched his fists. He wanted to scream, "To hell with Shinra!" but opted to keep his cool. "What was he hoping I would find? Sephiroth? I don't find him. I never have and never will. He finds me."
"Which leads me to my next point. Rufus will show you some footage from the Gold Saucer. You'll be pleasantly surprised."
So, Rufus was indeed a step ahead of the game. "I don't believe 'pleasant' would be the correct word, Reeve."
"No matter. You watch yourself, Cloud. I'll send Cait Sith out to let the others know you're okay and explain things."
"Thanks." Cloud felt a little relieved, as small as it was, because he didn't feel up to explaining things to the crew and have them all come along with him and having Rufus call off their deal. "Just... make sure you don't tell them til after the fact. I can't have them barging in and make Rufus withdraw."
"Of course," Reeve acknowledged, "and if you need anything else, Cait Sith will be around. Goodbye."
Cloud was left staring at the silent phone. He could only hope that Cait Sith was around long enough and often enough for them to actually keep in contact with Reeve. He wished he could simply ask where the man was located and how to contact him besides waiting for him to do the contacting, but as he verbalized before, he felt that Reeve wanted things that way so he respected the man's rights.
Just as Cloud decided he would take a long-overdue nap before getting into business, his phone rang yet again. He glanced at the caller ID and saw Reno's name. Without thinking much of it, he picked up.
"It's Reno. Uh, I just thought that as fellow... warriors that I should warn you about tonight, yo."
"What?"
"Well, The Boss suspects Sephiroth may show up one way or another, according to his calculations so, just a friendly neighborhood Turk warning."
Cloud didn't smile or laugh at Reno's cheeriness. Instead, he frowned. Was that the "surprise" that both Rufus and Reeve had mentioned? He regretted not having the two men elaborate on that when he had the chance to.
"Thanks," and the conversation ended as easily as it began.
After taking a hot shower in the inn and helping himself to a light complimentary brunch, he was ready to once again, face the day. Outside, Cloud was swiftly met with confusion as the people of Kalm were flustered here, there and about. People were in deep conversations with worried expressions. If it were one or two people, he wouldn't have guessed anything was afoot but having seen the majority of the population in some kind of disquieting mood made him curious.
"Get your daily Edge! Only a handful of copies left!" A middle-aged man was waving around a stack of newspapers as he spoke into a megaphone. Seeing the loudspeaker, Cloud quickly wondered if Cait Sith had already begun his journey from wherever he was.
"I'll take one," Cloud said as he neared the man.
"3,000 Gil," the man answered, holding out a tin can filled with Gils.
Cloud dug out some Gils from his pocket and handed him the 3,000 Gils in exchange for the paper and quickly flapped the paper open. In large, bold letterings, the headline read, "MASSACRE AT GOLD SAUCER REVEALED TO BE WORK OF EX-GENERAL SEPHIROTH?"
He hastily skimmed the columns, stating that footage was found on surveillance cameras of the ex-General, thought to have been dead over a decade ago. But didn't the people realize that Sephiroth had been back two years ago and even before that? He halted his thoughts as he realized, only those directly involved knew the truth behind all the things that went on. The regular citizens of the world probably didn't know what really caused all the destruction in the past. He started wondering too, how many people may have actually witnessed the Weapons that had appeared on The Planet years ago, and how it caused the ruin of both Midgard and Mideel, though the latter suffered most greatly.
He shook the thoughts away and returned to the paper. There was a still image of what appeared to be the shape of a man with long, flowing silver hair and a familiarly long Masamune in the far corners of the camera's field of vision. Cloud pulled the image closer to his face, trying to see it clearer but the pixelations only grew, defeating his purpose.
Toward the end of the article, some of Cloud's thoughts were answered. There were detailed explanations about a being called Jenova, beings called Cetras, what had happened at the Nibelheim Reactor (excluding Sephiroth's conclusion that he was made by Shinra), what went on in Nibelheim, and the death of Sephiroth. Then it went on to talk of Shinra's bravery in Midgard that resulted in a one-on-one with the Mako powered Sister Ray and Diamond Weapon. It also carried on about Sephiroth's defeat at the Northern Crater by the Weapons that the Cetras had left to protect The Planet. It was not very surprising that Shinra had left out a lot of details that pertained to themselves and their wrong-doings. Cloud and his friends were also removed from the equation; possibly in an effort not to have to fill in unnecessary plot holes that the world didn't need to know. Or at least that's what Shinra believed.
He folded up the paper and looked around once more. There were some people huddled here and there, reading over each other's shoulders about the news they had been deprived of for so long. He turned and went for Fenrir. It was still too early to head to Midgard so he decided to return home, hoping that Cait Sith hadn't made it there yet. And if he did, Cloud would just have to remind the cat not to mention his meeting later that night.
Late afternoon rolled around when Vincent marched into 7th Heaven. He seemed a little distressed to Tifa's observant eyes but she didn't ask. He walked past Tifa and into their dining area but instead of seating himself, he went to the far wall and leaned against it in silent contemplation. The door opened and closed and Tifa saw Barret saunter in, obviously in a down mood. She summed it up as neither of them having had any luck finding Reeve or Cait Sith. When Barret saw Vincent standing in the next room, he joined the man and sat at the table with his arms folded over his chest.
"Can I get you guys anything?" Tifa asked from behind the counter.
"Nah," Barret grumbled.
Vincent shook his head.
The front door swung open and closed behind Cloud, lighting up Tifa's face. "Cloud!"
Both men looked up upon hearing Cloud's name and peered around the corner to the front door. Sure enough, the blond was standing there in the flesh. He too, seemed to be weighing something on his mind, Tifa noticed.
"Sorry guys, I thought I'd come back in person. Reeve contacted me this morning," Cloud announced half-heartedly.
All eyes enlarged and all three voices queried him at the same time about what was new and what Reeve had to say about the situation. Cloud pulled the folded paper from his back pocket and held it out.
"I was in Kalm this morning and everyone seemed on edge. Especially here, with this high of a population, word gets around faster."
Tifa grabbed the paper first and took it back to the bar counter to read aloud so all of them could hear. Vincent was calm throughout the whole article but Barret was his usual hot-tempered self, pounding the counter top, scoffing and pacing. Every once in a while he'd make a comment that made the rest of the guys glad that the children weren't there.
"That does look like Sephiroth. A little," Tifa commented at the picture.
Vincent nodded in agreement. "It would make sense."
"For cryin' out loud, doesn't he know when ta stay dead? No one wants him around!"
Cloud finally joined them at the counter. While Tifa was reading the article, he had been debating whether he should tell them about Terra and Sora. He felt the urge to let his friends know that those two loving people had once lived and lived a beautiful life. He wanted other people to know about them having existed. He missed the chance when Vincent spoke.
"I was being watched the other day while I was scouring Midgard."
Cloud noticed that at Vincent's words, both Tifa and Barret tensed at his side. "Watched?" Cloud narrowed his eyes, "What do you mean by that?"
They looked at each other and Tifa answered by repeating Yuffie's story about seeing Sephiroth watching them from the rafters at the Gold Saucer. Then, Vincent told his story about Chaos' uncomfortable attitude the moment the two had arrived in Midgard and how Chaos had said Sephiroth had been keeping an eye on Vincent.
"Did Chaos actually see him or did he just feel him?" Cloud asked.
Vincent was quiet for a minute before responding. "He says he saw the man atop the broken bridge when we stepped foot in and appeared here and there sporadically in the distance, watching us."
All of them sat quietly, seemingly pondering the similarity between the two accounts. Then, Cloud broke them all away from their brooding thoughts. "Where are the others?"
"The kids are at the 'funny man's' with Nanaki. Cid flew back to Rocket Town and will fly back if needed," Tifa listed off. "And Yuffie's sleeping upstairs. Babysitting made its toll on her."
Cloud nodded and stood. "Cid being on standby is good. It'll take some time to get here but remind him to look over the ship at least once. Just in case."
The other three nodded. "What should we expect?" It was Barret.
"The unexpected," Cloud said with a small frown. "I have some things to see to. Don't follow me. I mean it."
"At least tell us where you're headed."
He let the idea sink in as he looked at Tifa. She was always saying those things straight into the open air. None of the other guys could ask such questions, except for the occasional times that Yuffie did but he supposed it was easier for the women to ask rather than the men.
"To see Rufus."