[AN: Remember how this story used to be fun and happy?

I'm sorry.]

Chapter Eleven

'There isn't a little boy born who wouldn't tear the world apart to save his mummy. And this little boy can.'

The secret compartment on the wall slid open and Zack stepped out, looking weary. It was a look that Cloud had never seen on him before, and the fact that he was wearing it in the Shinra Mansion, one day before the Nibelheim Incident, was enough to make Cloud sick.

'Don't go down there,' Zack said.

'Is he…?' Cloud hesitated, because he'd been about to say 'all right'.

'Hell if I know,' Zack said, leaning back against the hidden entrance. 'He wants to be left alone so he can read, but there's like a bajillion books down there. It'll take him weeks to read all of them.'

Three days, Cloud mentally corrected. Or, at least, three days to read enough of them.

Out loud, he said,

'I want to talk to him.' He took a step forwards but Zack put a hand up to halt him.

'Seph doesn't want to talk to anyone. He's in a bad mood.' He indicated at his forehead, where a red bruise three inches across was beginning to appear. It would be purple by the afternoon. Cloud wondered exactly what Sephiroth had thrown at him. Probably one of the books.

'That's why I need to talk to him,' he said. 'Zack, those books are… I need to stop him.'

Zack shrugged and stepped away from the wall.

'Your funeral.'

Cloud charged down the stone tunnel so fast he almost tripped on one of the gaps between the boards and fell the rest of the way down. On the bottom floor, he hesitated by the wooden door that he knew Vincent was lying behind. He wondered if he should let him out now, or perhaps slip him a note. If he could get him up, maybe Vincent could explain Jenova to Sephiroth...

You may change only one life.

With a huff, Cloud abandoned his friend to a few more years of solitude and hurried to the more immediate problem of Sephiroth's descent into madness.

'Zack, I told you to leave!'

Cloud ducked and something smashed against the door behind his head. He saw glass on the floor: Sephiroth had thrown a beaker. The glass was dry, though, so at least he hadn't resorted to chucking acid at anyone yet.

'I'm not Zack!' he called, preparing to dive out of the way if Sephiroth decided that he didn't care.

No projectiles came his way for several seconds, and then Sephiroth said,

'Cloud?'

His voice suddenly sounded small, and that was even worse than the shouting – even though Cloud had never really heard Sephiroth shout before, either – because it made him sound vulnerable, which made him seem human, which made Cloud feel like he wasn't an enemy in the making.

'It's me,' he said softly, creeping further into the room and finally seeing Sephiroth in the hallway around the corner. He was holding a book in one hand, fingers clasping so tightly there were lines in his leather gloves.

'I'm busy, Cloud,' Sephiroth said, tone still quiet but with a hint of irritation seeping through. 'Ask Zack if you need something.'

'I wanted to talk to you.'

Sephiroth put the book back on its shelf with forced care. His hand closed into a fist at his side. He looked at Cloud. Any other time, Cloud knew no one could hold a gaze like Sephiroth, but today he glanced away. His eyes, in fact, were never fixed anywhere for long.

'What do you want?'

'Seph, those books…' (Cloud hesitated because Sephiroth had actually winced at his use of Zack's nickname), 'well, they're not true. None of them. Hojo was wrong, Jen—'

'You've read them?' Sephiroth cut in sharply, and for a moment he actually did manage to keep his eyes on Cloud's face.

'I— yes, some of them,' Cloud said. Sephiroth turned his face away and started to tremble, and for a moment Cloud thought that he actually might be crying, but then he glanced back and there was a smile on his face.

'Oh, that explains everything now, doesn't it?' Sephiroth said.

'It… does?'

'You knew what these books said,' Sephiroth said. 'You'd had a lifetime in Nibelheim to read them. But when you came to Midgar, you chose to tell me nothing about them… you even tried to keep me from coming to Nibelheim at all, to prevent me from ever discovering my mother…'

'They're lies!' Cloud cried. 'You're not a monster; you're a human. You're a person, just like me and Zack—'

'Get out,' Sephiroth hissed, and although he spoke at half the volume of Cloud, his words cut right across him.

'No!' Cloud steadied himself, ready for an attack, because Sephiroth looked absolutely ready to tear his throat out. 'I'm not leaving until you listen to me!'

Sephiroth cringed, and Cloud knew why. She was speaking to him.

'Jenova's not your mother,' he said. 'Don't listen to her; she's not your mother!'

Sephiroth lunged at him and he side-stepped, but not far enough to avoid the snatching hand that came immediately after. Sephiroth grabbed him by collar and dragged him to the door.

'Get out!'

'Let me go!' Cloud shoved at Sephiroth's chest and clawed at his wrist, but the man was made of stone. 'I want to help, Sephiroth, let me go!'

Sephiroth tried to throw him through the door, but Cloud caught hold of the frame and hauled himself back inside. He slammed the door shut behind his back and started to pace closer to Sephiroth, arms open and unthreatening.

'She's not your mother, Sephiroth. Hojo lied to you. Stop and think for just five minutes will you?'

The only response he received was for Sephiroth to slowly reach towards the nearby desk and pick up Masamune. Cloud's chest ached as if from an old wound.

'I can't fight you,' he said.

'Then leave.'

'You won't hurt me.'

Sephiroth jabbed forwards and Cloud had to dart back a few steps again to avoid the tip of the sword. Sephiroth's face was a picture of pain and fury. Her cells weren't even in Cloud's body yet, but he could almost hear Jenova screaming in Sephiroth's head nonetheless.

'Don't listen to her,' he repeated, as gently as he could while struggling to keep his voice from shaking. 'She's nothing; just an angry monster that landed on the Planet long ago. She's not your mother; not even an Ancient. Let me he—'

The only reason he didn't get skewered the second time Sephiroth attacked was because someone had grabbed the back of his shirt and pulled him out of the way. He was dragged, yelping, out of the door and pulled back behind a body much larger than his.

Zack, who must have snuck in while Cloud was talking, planted himself in between his two friends.

'Are you going to kill me too, Sephiroth?' he snapped. Sephiroth slammed the door closed. There was a heavy thunk as the bar was dropped over it, for all intents and purposes locking Sephiroth within the room, alone with Jenova.

'I told you not to go in there, man,' Zack said, but Cloud was already rushing forwards to start hammering at the door.

'What've you done?' he cried.

'Uh, saved your arse,' Zack said. 'You're welcome.'

Cloud didn't even hear him. This door wasn't as strong as the one at the reactor had been; it was only made of wood. He could break this one down, and good Planet was he ever going to break it down.

'Sephiroth! Let me in! Sephiroth!'

'Dude, he is not letting anyone back in there.'

'SEPHIROTH!'

'Cloud.'

'SHE'S NOT YOUR MOTHER!'

'Cloud.'

'LISTEN TO ME!'

'Cloud!'

'JENOVA IS NOT YOUR MOTHER!'

'Cloud, for fuck's sake shut up!' Zack effortlessly snatched Cloud away from the door and placed him down a few feet away. 'You sound like a crazy person!'

Cloud gasped for a few moments, and finally gained control of his frustration enough to stop from flinging himself at the door again. He jabbed a finger at it and said,

'When he comes back out of that room, be ready to fight him like he's the most dangerous madman in the world.' He swallowed. 'Because he will be.'

He spun around and charged down the passageway.

'And where are you going?' Zack called after him. He looked back over his shoulder.

'To warn everybody!'

'Tifa! Tifa, wait!'

She hesitated in the town square. She had a bag on her shoulder; she'd probably just been to the shop, and didn't look very impressed to be stopped by a masked Shinra employee on her way home.

'What is it?' she said. Cloud got the impression that she hadn't quite forgiven him for keeping her out of the reactor and then getting so angry when he wasn't allowed in. It probably seemed hypocritical to her, and someday Cloud would explain to her why he had done it. Right now, though, he couldn't care less.

'Everyone has to evacuate.'

Her face was blank.

'What?'

'Everyone in Nibelheim has to evacuate the village, right now.'

Her fingers tightened around the strap of her bag, and Cloud was uncomfortably reminded of the angry wrinkles on Sephiroth's gloves.

'Is it the monsters? Are they coming?' She wailed. 'I thought you fixed the reactor!'

'No, the reactor's fine. It's Sephiroth.'

Once again, Tifa's face went blank. She shook her head, clearly thinking she had misheard.

'Sorry, S-Sephiroth?'

'He's… look; he's just not safe to be around right now, okay?' Cloud said.

'But Shinra sent him and Zack to protect us!' Tifa protested. 'Is this a SOLDIER thing? Is Zack okay?'

'Zack is fine – well, he's got a bruise, but he's fine – really.' Cloud gripped Tifa's arm. 'You have got to get everyone out of the village, right now, or they're going to get hurt.'

At last, she nodded and hurried home. Cloud looked at the door to his own house and considered going inside, saying goodbye to his mother before she got shepherded off into the mountains. But there would be time for that later, when they had all survived Sephiroth's psychopathic rage.

And they all were going to survive, this time. Tifa knew her way around the mountains; she'd find somewhere safe to put everyone. Meanwhile, Cloud had other things to do.

He remembered why he hated Nibelheim when he finally found PHS reception halfway up one of the mountains behind Shinra Mansion. It wasn't even his phone; he didn't have one. He'd borrowed Zack's.

He skipped through the names in Zack's contacts list, stomach clenching at the first name – Aerith – until he got to the one he wanted.

It rang ten times and then went to answer phone. Cloud called again, with the same result, and then twice more.

'We are sorry, but the person you are trying to contact is not available at this time. Please leave a message after the tone.'

'Pick up your fucking phone!'

There was a click, and:

'Director Lazard speaking. I've picked up my fucking phone. What do you want, Zack?'

'Lazard! It's not Zack, it's Cloud.'

'Cloud…?'

'Cloud Strife. I'm not in SOLDIER; I'm in the Shinra Militia. I'm working on the Nibelheim Mission with Zack. I've borrowed his PHS.'

'What seems to be the problem, Cadet Strife?'

'It's Mister Sephiroth, sir.'

'He's injured?' There was a definite change in tone with those words; Cloud could practically hear Lazard sitting up in concern.

'He's sick,' Cloud said. There was a pause.

'First Class SOLDIER Sephiroth is… sick?' Lazard said, clearly expecting a tasteless prank of some kind. This was Zack's phone, after all.

'Very sick,' Cloud said firmly. 'Zack is watching him. We have limited medical supplies and our only transportation at present is a truck. It would take hours to get him even as far as North Corel, let alone Midgar. I'm requesting an immediate extraction.'

'Granted,' Lazard said instantly. He was probably thinking that if a disease was bad enough to make Sephiroth sick, it needed to be dealt with as fast as humanly possible. 'I'm sending a helicopter. It will be there sometime tonight.'

He was just about to hang up, so Cloud added:

'Sir! Sephiroth, he's… I think he's hallucinating.' It was amazing, he thought, how easily the lies came to him in times of crisis. 'He's already attacked two of his teammates.'

'We'll be prepared,' Lazard said tightly. 'And we'll keep you posted. Keep watching Sephiroth. Call if his condition worsens.'

'Yes, sir.'

Cloud flipped the phone closed. Only a few more hours. This incident was going to be averted if it killed him.

'How is he?' Cloud asked, upon re-entering the Shinra Mansion. Zack was no longer standing down in the passageway. He was lounging in the upstairs bedroom, near enough the secret passageway that he could meet Sephiroth if he came out, but far enough away to show that he really wasn't all that concerned about him.

'Quiet,' Zack said. 'Honestly, I think he's gotten over it now. He was shouting for a while and breaking things, and then I could swear he was laughing or something, and then he just went quiet and he's been quiet ever since.'

'He was laughing?' Cloud said.

'Well, if it was anyone else I would've have guessed crying but, y'know, I don't think Sephiroth even can cry, do you?' Zack's eyes creased with anxiety. 'I mean, I've seen him in like the worst pain ever and his eyes don't even water. I'm not even sure if he has tear ducts.'

Cloud sighed.

'Why don't you go to bed? I'll keep an eye on him.'

'What are you going to do if Sephiroth storms out to murder everyone?' Zack asked, but it was put playfully. He had no idea.

'Come and wake you up,' Cloud said simply.

He got a text at four in the morning. The message claimed that it had been sent at eleven o'clock in the evening, which meant that it had been struggling with Nibelheim's weak signal for five hours. It read:

Helicopter encountered technical issues. Will arrive in the morning.

Cloud curled up in a ball, rested his forehead on his knees, and tried hard not to fall asleep.

He was woken up by Zack carrying him bridal-style out of the room and towards a bed.

'What time is it?' he muttered.

'Eight thirty-five AM,' Zack said. 'You suck at keeping watch. Go to sleep.'

He dumped Cloud only half-gently on a bed that creaked loudly at the addition of even Cloud's pathetic weight.

'Watch Sephiroth,' Cloud said. He grabbed Zack's sleeve to stop him from leaving. 'There's a helicopter coming for us. They know Seph's sick. Watch him.'

'He's still locked up in the basement. He's not going anywhere,' Zack said.

Cloud regretted staying up all night. He had known that Sephiroth wouldn't emerge until the third evening; why had he thought it was necessary to guard his door until then? He was panicking, and it was making him act stupid.

He woke up at half past five in the evening, and leapt out of bed. He never usually slept for so long; eight hours was plenty for him. All of the stress was probably tiring him out more than he knew.

He ran down the hallway and slipped on the floorboards, because Zack must have taken his shoes off while he was sleeping and he was only wearing his socks.

The helicopter should have come by now. Why would Zack have left him asleep if the helicopter had come?

Maybe it had come, Cloud thought. Helicopters were only so big, and it had to fit a furious Sephiroth in it with enough drugs to keep him sedated all the way to Midgar. There probably hadn't been enough room for Zack and Cloud to get on board as well; they'd just have to make a longer trip home while Hojo explained everything to Sephiroth and fixed the voices in his head—

Cloud rethought his idea and ran faster. Really, he wanted anyone but Hojo to explain Jenova to Sephiroth.

He burst in the door and there was Zack, sitting on a chair and polishing up the Buster Sword.

'The helicopter—'

'It hasn't come yet,' Zack said, 'and Sephiroth is still sulking downstairs. You know, I just realised he hasn't eaten in three days. I offered him a sandwich but he just kind of snarled through the doorway so I left him alone. He's going to be starving when he comes out.'

Cloud had only caught the first few words of that rant.

'The helicopter hasn't come yet?'

'It's only half five. There's like, six and a half hours left of today still.'

'It was meant to come this morning!' Cloud screeched. Zack frowned.

'Oh.'

The phone in Cloud's pocket chose that moment to start beeping. He rifled it out – how had he managed to sleep on it? – and flipped it open.

Message from LAZARD

'Hey, is that my phone?' Zack said. Cloud opened the message up.

Engineers set helicopter on fire trying to fix it. Sending another ASAP. Will arrive tonight.

Cloud closed the phone and put his head in his hands.

'Helicopter's coming tonight,' he said. 'Tonight.'

All of the energy he'd had running here from the bedroom was gone. He wondered again whether he could get away with waking Vincent up, and getting him to talk it through with Sephiroth. Then again, Sephiroth wouldn't even listen to Cloud; why would he listen to a strange man who'd been sleeping in a coffin for thirty odd years?

Maybe Vincent would give Cloud a spare coffin to sleep in for the next few years. That felt a more reasonable option than trying to stop this tragedy: to just sleep right on through it.

But he'd gotten this far.

'Okay,' he said, handing Zack's phone back to him. 'How's the village evacuation going?'

Zack stared at Cloud as though he'd started speaking Wutaian.

'Ev… ac… uation?'

Cloud managed not to scream, but he wasn't sure how. Zack had been up in the Shinra Mansion watching over Sephiroth all day. He probably hadn't even noticed what was going on in the village. Everyone had probably snuck away already, leaving a clear path for Cloud and Zack to storm down to the reactor right now, hack Jenova into little bits, take the bits back to Midgar in separate containers, attach them to one of Palmer's rockets and send them out of the atmosphere.

The thought of dismembering and blasting Jenova away filled him with peace.

'I'm going down into the village,' Cloud said. 'Just stay here and keep an eye on Sephiroth for a bit longer, okay?'

'You got it.' Zack mock-saluted his friend. 'Don't forget your helmet.'

He chucked the item at Cloud, who nodded his thanks and shoved it on, although he doubted there'd be any need to wear it now no one was left in the village. When he glanced at Zack, it was clear from his expression that he really thought that Cloud should be the one safely locked up in a basement, not Sephiroth.

It was quiet outside the mansion doors, but when Cloud got to the gates—

'Is everything okay?'

Zangan stood there with his arms folded, along with Tifa's father and a man Cloud did not know the name of. He came up short some way away from them, and they all watched him expectantly, thinking he'd come bearing news.

'Is something wrong with the SOLDIERs?' Zangan pressed. Cloud opened his mouth to answer, but all he managed to say was,

'You're still here?'

'We're not leaving until we know everything's okay,' Tifa's father said.

'No!' Cloud said. 'Everything is not okay! Everything is horribly wrong! That's why you were supposed to leave!'

'Kid, there are monsters all over these mountains,' Zangan said. 'No one wants to go running away from the safety of their homes when they don't even know if there's really a problem.'

'There's a problem,' Cloud snarled, wishing for the hundredth time that he had the strength now that he would in his twenties, full of mako. He wanted nothing more than to punch these idiots out and lead all the villagers up into the mountains himself. 'The problem is Sephiroth is on the verge of a violent mental breakdown and you've left innocent people within reach of him.'

Zangan did not look impressed.

'Young man, I'm a martial arts instructor. I've taught people all over the Planet how to defend themselves. I think I can handle one man gone wacko.'

'You think that you can protect an entire village from the greatest First Class SOLDIER who's ever lived?' Cloud said. 'The man who, incidentally, won his fame by defeating entire armies in Wutai single handed? The man who hasn't lost a single battle against a fellow, mako-pumped SOLDIER, since he was a teenager?'

Zangan began to look uncomfortable, but his arms remained folded and his stance was still defensive. He went to speak, but Cloud's voice doubled in volume to speak over him:

'You are absolutely confident that you could fight Shinra's most elite warrior and come out victorious, without any collateral damage… but you think it would be too dangerous to take the villagers up into the mountains where there are a few monsters, less than half as strong as Sephiroth?'

The three men looked decidedly sheepish, but not particularly afraid. Cloud could see why; death threats – even regarding Sephiroth – weren't exactly frightening when they were coming from a boy half your height, whose voice still occasionally broke when he talked too loud.

On the other hand, Cloud was really too angry to give a damn whether he was frightening them or not. His chest ached from how hard his heart was beating, and he wasn't sure that he wouldn't be sick. He was frightened.

'If you have someone you love in that village,' he spat, 'you should probably go down to them and explain why it's your fault they're about to die.'

'We're not moving until we know it's safe,' the other man, the one Cloud didn't know, said. He pushed past him.

'It's not safe,' he said. 'But suit yourselves.'

Nobody was outdoors, down in the village. They had all locked themselves up in their homes to be safe from the monsters, unwittingly making it nice and easy for say, an angry human being, to burn them to death in their sleep. It was getting late now: late enough that the sun had gone down behind the surrounding mountains and the village was sitting in the last grey lights of the day. Cloud couldn't remember what time the incident actually started, but he didn't think it would be long.

'Mum!' he slapped his hand on the door, and reflected that he'd been doing a lot of banging on doors recently. 'Mum, let me in!'

There was a scuffle inside and she opened the door with a worried expression.

'Sweetheart, is that you?'

Cloud grabbed her wrist and pulled her outside.

'It's me,' he said, and lifted his helmet a little with his free hand to prove it to her. 'Mum, we've got to get out of the village, right now.'

'Are monsters coming?' she gasped, allowing herself to be pulled along through the square.

'Pretty much,' Cloud said, thinking by now that there was no use trying to explain. His mother, however, suddenly dug her feet down and snatched her hand back.

'We'd be safer waiting in the house,' she told him. 'We've gotten monsters here before—'

'Not this one,' Cloud said. 'It's going to tear right through every building in the village. We have to get out, now, and stay away all night. Come on. Please.'

She looked like she believed him, which relieved Cloud so much it almost hurt, because he was getting really sick of everyone thinking that he was the crazy one when, at least at this point, he actually wasn't. But her eyes were flicking about with indecision, and she seemed happier to flee back to her home than to run into the dangerous mountains.

'We have to warn everyone else,' she said.

'They won't believe us. Zangan and Tifa's dad were supposed to evacuate everybody, but they think they can handle it. They're wrong, Mum, honestly—' he added, because she'd begun to look dubious at the idea that such respected men were unruffled at the approach of this 'monster', '—I've seen it before. Zack wouldn't be able to beat it.'

'The SOLDIER you came here with?' Now she was worried again.

'Yes, now let's go!'

She took a few long breaths, as though she was planning to plunge herself underwater. Finally, she said,

'All right. I'll get us some coats; it'll be freezing up in the mountains all night, and dead of cold is just as dead as killed by monsters. You go knocking on doors; try to make them believe you. Keep your helmet on: people respect a Shinra uniform. Get everyone up and out. Go, go!'

She shooed him towards the other doors and dashed back inside the house.

Cloud ran across the square, ran to the first house and started banging on doors, windows; anything. When he turned around, the sun was set. The village was dark. He brought a hand up to his helmet and turned the night-vision on, bathing everything an even brighter red that it had been before.

There was a crash from the hill up by the Shinra Mansion, and someone was yelling.

The Nibelheim Incident had started.