The progress was pitifully slow the first day, and only slightly better the second. The reason was primarily Missy, who had to be carried every so often, though Old Man Danvers was always lagging slightly as well. Lightning never complained, though. Cloud thought he understood why. Right then, all of the people in the group were keeping their suffering inside, but the first person to say anything about it would open up a dam of grief and rage. That was something that had to wait until they were safe.

Every now and then, monsters came for the group of ragged looking humans in search of an easy meal. They never came close, though. Vincent had indeed smoothed out over the course of the two days they walked. Every time he fired his gun, something died. Lightning had never needed to raise his sword. Without knowing how much ammunition Vincent had with him, Cloud could only wonder how long until that changed.

And there was never any sign of the man in black


They reached the outpost at the end of the second day. By law, the only people who should have had access to the outpost were the two employees hired to maintain it. In practice, it was different. It was technically property of the Shinra Company, but they only used it to store a pair of heavy all-terrain jeeps that were kept for use by any Shinra personnel who had to travel deep into the mountains. The majority of its use was by the people of Nibelheim as they went up and down the mountain road. It made for a safe place to sleep, had a telephone to communicate with the village or elsewhere, and there was always a stock of food, resupplied monthly, for anyone who was in need of a meal.

Cloud did not know the two men in charge, but he had heard of them from others. David and Noels, both Nibelheim boys who had gone to join the company when it was younger and returned later in life to hover around the outskirts of town. Neither of them had ever come to any of Nibelheim's festivals as far as Cloud could remember, nor visited their families. He had no idea why, but suspected it might have to do with why they left for the other continent in the first place.

There was no reason for the two of them to ignore a group of travelers, least of all a group with children, but when Lightning knocked on the door, no one answered it. He knocked louder and then yelled out that there were children in need of help outside. There was still no response. Finally, he just kicked the door down off its frame and went inside. Vincent was close behind him, and Cloud right after that. The boy only got two steps inside before Vincent suddenly grabbed him and wheeled Cloud around to push him back out of the building.

Blood. The air had reeked of blood, the smell a physical assault on Cloud's nose the moment he set foot in the entry hall.

"Stay here," Vincent said curtly and then stepped after Lightning, his gun out of its holster.

"What's going," and Mrs. Danvers stopped there, the smell of slaughter reaching her nose and turning her face pale.

It took almost ten minutes before the two men returned. Lightning had the keys to what Cloud guessed were the vehicles in his hand and Vincent was carrying a bag that clanked slightly with each movement. They both had something wet and shiny covering the bottoms of their boots.

"Two dead men in there," Lightning said without preamble. "Most of the place was trashed, but we found a bit of canned goods that looked okay. Thing is, the landline was cut and I'm not sure if they had any satellite phones or a PHS to use for a backup. Given the state of things, I'd say if they did it was almost certainly smashed. So, we can't call for help, which means if these," and he held up the jeep keys on one finger, "Are in anyway damaged, we are going to have to walk all the way down to Merry Weather."

It was a nasty announcement. Cloud had been telling himself not to get his hopes up, but after two days of traveling over the hard mountain road on foot, the thought of driving the rest of the way on a soft cushioned seat had been a beautiful dream. From the looks on everyone else's faces, he had not been the only one. To learn that not only would they have to walk all the way down after all, but that there was nothing to do but keep walking even after that….

"You're kidding," Nicholas said. "Just getting down from the mountain is going to half-kill nearly all of us. We can't walk god knows how many miles to the next town."

"What else can we do?" Lightning asked irritably. "The plan was to call for help, but that's out. No one knows what happened to Nibelheim, so there won't be any rescue operations, and I have no idea how long it will take a search team to show up asking why no one's heard from those two guys inside. If you want to stay and take your chances here at the station, I'll be sure to come back as soon as I get to Merry Weather and let them know what's going on. Bear in mind, you'd be shacking up in a bloody mess that is going to be a buffet signal to any predator with a working nose for the next fifty miles. And I'm not even going to mention Sephiroth, who I'm pretty sure is the one who did this. There wasn't any damage to the door – somebody let whatever killed them in. Get it?"

There was silence.

"You think he's nearby?" Cloud asked quietly.

"Probably," Lightning admitted without a trace of hesitation. "This is the easiest way off the mountain. Any other path would have him going over rough country or through the old caves to Rocket Town."

Nicholas looked ready to bring up another point, but Karen laid her hand on his arm and he grew quiet. His wife gave him a look that said patience, and then turned to Lightning and Vincent. "How about we look at the cars before we decide anything? They might be in perfect condition."

No one believed that, but it could have been true. The garage was behind the outpost, hidden from view. Vincent took the lead and when he stopped cold at the corner leading to the back of the building, Cloud already knew what they were going to see. The sliding garage doors had been ripped from their tracks and lay flat on the dirt. The two jeeps, monstrous cars that could have driven over mountain and snow, had been literally sliced apart. Pieces were flung all over the place, and gasoline and oil were leaking everywhere.

"Shit," someone spat, and Cloud nodded in horrified agreement.

"He must be frustrated," Vincent said quietly. "Just destroying the tires or the engines would have been enough. He could have broken away the steering wheels. This says anger."

"Yeah, a psychotic SOLDIER rip-off is so much better to deal with when they're angry," Justin muttered.

"They are, actually," Vincent said, in a matter-of-fact manner. "Angry means stupid."

They stared at the mangled wrecks of the vehicles for a few more seconds, then Lightning awkwardly coughed to draw attention towards him.

"I…can get rid of the bodies easily enough, but someone needs to help with the blood."


'Get rid of the bodies' meant 'set them on fire with my materia'. Cloud left the moment he had finished saying prayers for David and Noels, the smell of cooking meat bringing back horrible memories fresh buried. Inside the outpost, the women, George, Allen and Nicholas were scrubbing up the blood with any sheets, towels and rags they could get their hands on. A lemon scented disinfectant was being splashed over everything, and the soiled clothes were all dumped in a soon-to-be-burned bag. Even with all of that effort, Cloud could still smell blood everywhere and he would bet his boots the monsters would too.

In the kitchen area, Vincent and Justin were trying – and failing, it seemed – to piece together a working phone from the wreck that had been the landline unit. A spare phone cord had been found somewhere, but the unit itself was smashed to bits. Whatever magic was needed to fix it was likely beyond the power of electrical tape and super glue, but Cloud wished them the best of luck all the same.

The children were sleeping in the bedroom. Tifa and Missy were crammed together on the left twin bed, and Timmy was sprawled on the right one. Cloud tugged off his hiking boots and left them next to his backpack. His dad's hunting knife was taken out and left on the nightstand in easy reach. Timmy was a deadweight, but Cloud managed to shove him closer to the wall and claim a spot by the edge of the bed. The exhaustion he had been holding at bay all day finally caught up to him in a rush. Breathe in, breathe out. Breathe in, breathe out.

Sleep.


Noise.

Cloud's hand was reaching for the knife before he even remembered it was there. Then he stopped. The noise was a voice. No, two voices. The small window above Timmy's sleeping form was partially open to let fresh air in and lessen the smell. Outside the bedroom door, Cloud could hear the rest of the group going on with their work. But outside….

"…find anything?"

Vincent.

"No, nothing."

Lighting.

"If he is still nearby, I can't tell. He's better at this suppression thing than me. Kind of unfair, really."

"Don't complain. Knowing what you do, do you really want to be better at it?"

"…No. Better he comes after me. At Nibelheim… what he did-"

"Was not your fault. You did not know you had a madman following you."

"Sure doesn't feel that way. How are things with the phone working out?"

"Not well. Repairing it was a fool's hope. We will have to walk to Merry Weather after all. I wonder if it would be better to leave some of them here."

Silence and then a choking sound, followed by "Are you insane?! When he comes back-"

"If. If he comes back. He has already killed the two personnel stationed here and destroyed the vehicles, so why would he have stayed? We would know by now if he were still around. If he really is more interested in gathering more of JENOVA, there is no place nearby for him to do so. He would have to move on to a place that contained those samples."

"I…You're probably right, but it just… it feels wrong."

"I could stay with them. I'm not so clumsy anymore and if you are gone, he would have no reason to press an attack."

"Except out of spite."

"That would not help his goals."

"Oddly enough, he never seems to care about that part. He loves hurting people, Vincent. Making them feel weak, useless, and stupid. Killing the last of Nibelheim's people while I was away from them is something I can see him doing with a smile on his face."

A pause.

"…He truly hates you that much?"

A bitter laugh. "I was a wimp. I was a no-name, country boy, loser who always just barely scraped by in everything and I threw him into a reactor core. Then he came back when I was half-insane wreck and I beat him again. And then again. He thinks he's the greatest thing alive, the destined son of a god who will remake the world in his image. He thinks he's the golden boy, the shining general who never failed, the warrior who never lost a fight, the perfect human being, and I was supposed to just be another one of his toy soldiers. He is completely and utterly insane, but he believes that like nothing else. He is the chosen one and I punched his face in, repeatedly. Vincent, he doesn't hate me. He despises me."

More silence.

"…I suppose we can make a sled of some kind from the jeep hood that was not bisected," Vincent finally said. "The children could ride on it with the supplies. Either you or I pulling it would lighten the load for everyone else."

"Great plan," Lightning said. "Think you can get it done tonight?"

"Yes. Are you turning in?"

"Yeah. I haven't slept in three days now. I'm ready to fall over. Keep watch tonight, if you don't mind."

"I don't. Goodnight."

"Mmhm."

Footsteps. A door opening and shutting. Heavier footsteps in the hall. Fading footsteps outside. The sound of someone settling down outside the bedroom door. Silence.

Cloud stayed awake for another twenty minutes, but nothing else occurred. Eventually, he fell asleep again.


They set out again in the morning. Vincent had indeed crafted a sled (or something like it) from the remains of a jeep's hood. Even with all of their meager supplies piled onto it, there was still enough room for Missy, Timmy and Tifa to pile on. Vincent took the first shift for pulling them and Cloud decided to walk, rather than to crowd the sled even more. His feet no longer ached so much, so it was not much hardship. A night inside and on somewhat soft furniture had done wonders to restore the party's strength. Karen and Nicholas actually seemed to be somewhat cheerful, and Old Mr. Danvers hardly limped at all. If it weren't for the fact that all they knew and loved lay in ashes behind them, it could almost have been a good day.

As he walked, Cloud kept turning the previous night's conversation over and over in his head. He was almost certain he was misremembering parts of it – who the hell lived through falling into a reactor core? – but there were parts that stuck out clearly.

Lightning had been the reason that man had come to Nibelheim. The man in black who was probably still nearby and probably going to try to kill them again just to mess with Lightning.

Whether it was better to stay or leave him behind was the crux of the matter. Just how sure of a thing was it that the man would prioritize the villagers over these jenova pieces? If he came back and Lightning and Vincent were not there (silver light and red blood flying through the flames and steel ringing everywhere) it was not going to be much of a fight.

There was probably a better way of doing it that worked with subtlety and cunning and all that, but Cloud was twitchy and thirteen. Subtlety and cunning were not his strong suites.

"I need to pee," Cloud announced.

Lightning glanced over at him and nodded. The group stopped and the two blondes of the group wandered away from them. There was a bend in the road ahead and they went there. When they were out of sight and, Cloud hoped, out of earshot, he bluntly asked Lightning, "How safe are we with you?"

Lightning blinked. "I… I would never hurt any of – "

"Not like that," Cloud said irritably. Lightning was a bad liar, he decided. Even worse than him. "I mean, how much safer are we with you than going our own way? If you left us some materia and Vincent's gun, we could probably manage just fine now. Every second you're with us, that's another chance for that man to come looking for you and go after us instead."

That got Lightning's attention. His glowing blue eyes narrowed. "I'm not going to let him hurt anyone else."

"You kind of suck at that," Cloud said bluntly. "Look, do you think this guy is still here or do you think he went after those jenova things after he sliced up the outpost?"

"How'd you… crap, the window was open, wasn't it?"

"Yeah. Now, tell me."

Lightning looked like he wanted to be anywhere else. "I'm… almost sure he's putting the Jenova pieces over me. He actually needs those. Killing me is kind of his hobby."

"So you do know him."

"I.. um, kind of? Look, it's complicated, we should go back - "

"Is he really Sephiroth?"

"Ye- um, no… Kind of, just - "

"Did you really not know he was following when you came to Nibelheim?"

"No!" Lightning yelled. It was a bit frightening. "If I'd known that bastard was behind me, I would have torn him apart before he ever came near Nibelheim! I didn't – I never – "

"You never meant to leave them in my path," a dark baritone says from above.

Lightning's hand was on his sword and there was a five-foot long, twelve-inch wide, two-inch thick slab of razor sharp metal armed and ready before Cloud could blink. It also took about that long for Lightning to grab Cloud off the ground and throw him a dozen feet away. Cloud heard "Get Vincent and tell everyone else to run." Then he moved his head and looked up from the rocky mountain path.

The man was standing on a very tiny ledge, but he seemed perfectly at ease. His coat was a bit dirtier than Cloud remembered from the newspaper photos, but he supposes that should be expected. Then Cloud wondered why the hell he was focusing on the man's coat, only to realize he could not bring himself to look at the man's face. That would not do. The man killed his mother. Cloud could be angry at him, but he could not be scared of him. Not if he wanted to get justice someday.

Cloud looked up.

The man was smiling slightly, at some joke only he could see. There was something wrong with his eyes, beyond the fact that they glow green, but it was too far away for Cloud to make out. No matter how much he stared at those eyes, he could not see….

"Well, I never thought I'd see anything like this. Life is full of little surprises."

The man looked right at him and Cloud felt his bones turn to water.

"Good to meet you, Cloud."


I LIVE!

I wish I had some grand excuse for not so much as kicking up some dust these last nine months or so, but I don't. Just didn't feel like writing at all.

I've decided to change my writing of ShinRa to Shinra, if only to give Microsoft spellcheck less of a heart attack.

Next chapter, shit gets wild.

Edit: Realized I had switched tenses for some reason near the end of the chapter. Fixed 10/20/14.