Important note: As of this chapter, Two of a kind goes on hiatus. I know, this is a very scary word for readers. It's a bit scary for me too. But chapter 11 signals the end of the first half of the story and I need to not have to worry about updating so I can focus on the second half, which is giving me a lot of grief right now. I know exactly what the main plot points of that part of the story will be, and I know how I want it all to end. But I need to do some serious research and a lot of writing.
Please note that I have been writing fanfictions for more than ten years now (this isn't my first account on the site) and it's been a very long time since I've just given up on any story. I have every intention of finishing this one. That being said, life happens, and I can't promise I'll make it. I can promise, however, that if I can't finish it, I'll warn you not to expect anything more. That's the way I do things.
I hope you still enjoy this chapter! And, you know… if anyone feels like whipping up fanarts or other fan materials about ToaK, it'd really make my day and help a great deal to keep me on track! :)
Published on: 11/16/2013
Corrected on: 11/14/2015
Chapter 11
"What the hell?" Tifa shouted.
She jumped to her feet in indignation, hissing when the movement jostled her shoulder.
"What do you mean, your name is Cloud Strife?" she yelled at him. "You squatted in his head, and now you want to steal his name too?"
"Tifa, calm down," Cloud implored. "He's not lying or stealing anything. We really do have the same name."
"How is that possible?" Zack asked, rubbing the back of his head in perplexity.
Genesis stood up and brushed past him to approach the table, his burning eyes trained on Rain.
"It's not a coincidence, is it? Two persons with the same name and such a striking resemblance…"
He leaned over him. Rain just stared back.
"A copy?"
He barely held back a flinch. It had been a long time since this word had been flung at him, and yet, he discovered he could still feel the ancient, dull pang of grief and yearning he had fought so hard to bury. He struggled to remain impassive, acutely aware of Sephiroth studying every single one of his reactions from across the small table.
"Of Cloud?" Angeal said, doubtful. "Who would want to clone an unenhanced trooper?"
Rain sighed. They were going to run away with ridiculous theories if he didn't try to be a little more forthcoming.
"Tifa, come over here. Cloud, give me your right arm."
Cloud blinked but readily deposited his forearm in his waiting hand. Rain tugged his long sleeve up. Tifa warily came closer. He nodded at her and pointed at a white, faded line that ran from the base of Cloud's thumb to about an inch above his wrist.
"Recognize this scar?"
She took one look at Cloud's forearm and her eyebrows furrowed.
"I guess," she said with false nonchalance. "It's from that accident back when we were kids, when I fell down the mountain and Cloud tried to catch me. Right? So what?"
Without a word, he turned his wrist and presented the underside of his arm. It was even fainter, so old as to be nearly invisible, but there was no denying the white line on his skin. When he glanced up, he found everyone gathered around, staring at the two arms on the table. If it hadn't been for Rain's rougher hand and slightly bulkier muscles, they would have been identical, down to the tone of their light gold skin.
"I'm guessing copies don't get the original's scars," he said.
Genesis drew back, puzzled.
"No… No, they don't. They only reproduce genetic material."
Tifa had paled a bit.
"What does that mean?" she growled. "Who are you really?"
"I'm Cloud Strife," he repeated, retrieving his arm. "Only, not the Cloud Strife you know."
"Rain and me," Cloud reluctantly said, "to a certain point… To a certain point, I guess you could say we're the same person."
"No way, man," Zack laughed. "You two are as different as night and day!"
Rain blinked at him.
"Really?…"
"Sure! I mean, no offense but you're kinda distant, man. Cloud may be a bit shy, but he is much more open than you are! More trusting, too."
"Oh…"
He looked down, pensive. He shouldn't have been surprised. Of course he was more jaded than Cloud.
"One can drastically change after traumatic events," Sephiroth said, echoing his thoughts.
Rain whipped his head up. Sephiroth stared right at him and, for a moment, he felt completely naked before him.
"Like the burning of one's hometown…"
The words fell from his lips like heavy marbles. He could hear the challenge in them, the relentless thirst for answers. Cloud shifted next to his shoulder, snapping him out of his cold anxiety.
"What does he mean, Rain?" Cloud asked nervously, pleadingly. "Burning… your hometown?"
Rain closed his eyes and swallowed bile. There were plenty of things he hadn't told Cloud, things he had firmly believed he didn't need to know. But Nibelheim… Nibelheim was the start of it all, wasn't it?
"He's right," he said, eyes boring in the tabletop. "In my memories… in the end, it all began there. The day Nibelheim burned."
Cloud and Tifa's shocked gasps echoed in the room. He didn't look at them.
"Wh— when did that happen?" Tifa shouted, her voice shaking. "Everyone was… was fine when I…"
He cursed myself. Why did he have to phrase it like that? Before he could move to correct my mistake, Cloud snapped out of his shock and rushed to her. He hugged her and she hid her wet eyes in his chest.
"No, no! Tifa, calm down, please. That's not what Rain meant. Nibelheim is fine, I promise."
"But he, he said…"
Cloud shot him a pleading look above his shoulder.
"It won't burn," Rain could only say. "I made sure Nibelheim wouldn't burn, not this time. Tifa, please don't cry."
Zack dropped in a series of nervous squats, reminding him that they had an audience.
"I don't get it," he confessed. "Nibelheim burned, but it won't? What?"
He exchanged confused glances with Angeal and Genesis. Sephiroth, however, had gone very still. There was a feverish glint in his eyes.
"You are a time-traveller."
He claimed it with the certainty of one coming to a long-awaited conclusion. Rain didn't know whether to be relieved someone had said it for him, or alarmed at how quickly he was catching on. He wordlessly nodded.
The others' only reaction was Tifa's outraged splutter, but before long, even that died away to a heavy silence. They were glancing between Cloud and him and down to their forearms, turning all these little bits of information that had previously made no sense in their heads over and over. Cloud remained by Tifa's side, sadness in his eyes. Vincent stood in a corner of the room, coldly observing them all.
Finally, Zack broke the stillness.
"Uh… guys? Are we… buying that?" he asked with a helpless gesture.
"It's the only way to explain what Aerith and I saw in the Lifestream," Sephiroth said.
His voice was calm and matter-of-fact, but his neutral composure was doing a poor job of hiding a fierce curiosity. Aerith nodded to Zack's questioning look.
"Yes, I believe him too," she said with uncharacteristic certainty. "From the moment I met him, I knew Rain was special in some way. The Planet… it reacts to him. It knows him. I trust Rain, Zack."
Genesis had a theatrical sigh and an elaborate shrug.
"Well, if even Sephiroth is on board, we might as well hear the rest of it. 'Infinite in mystery is the gift of the Goddess', but… how? And why?"
"By what miracle are you here?" Angeal added.
Rain looked down at his hands.
"A… miracle, uh?" he breathed.
If he closed his eyes, he could still see it as if it was happening right in front of him; the end of everything. Already, he could hear the screams of every living and dead souls on the Planet, picture the exact shade of sickly green of the Lifestream as it was ripped from the earth, cracking the ground in apocalyptic destruction and killing billions… and at the centre of it all, these burning eyes where nothing even remotely human remained, taunting him, mocking him with his utter defeat…
He wasn't sure what a miracle was anymore.
"Are you the Envoy?"
Aerith's voice jerked him out of his dark memories. The girl was leaning toward him, eyes bright with curiosity.
"… What?"
"Sephiroth said the spirits of the Lifestream mentioned something they called the Envoy," she cheerfully explained. "Is that you?"
He turned to Sephiroth, incredulous.
"The Lifestream talked to you?"
Sephiroth didn't look too fond of the remembrance.
"I wouldn't say 'talked to' so much as 'screamed at'."
Rain grunted in acknowledgement. He wasn't surprised, considering the Planet had tried to bring a whole city down on Sephiroth's head last time he had gotten close to anything she deemed of importance. Conveniently forgetting she also risked crushing said thing of importance.
"Maybe?" he told Aerith, hesitant. "I don't exactly talk to them on a daily basis… but I guess it would make sense?"
"So the Planet is the one who sent you back, right?" she insisted. "That's why she recognizes you, why she knows who you are."
"… I suppose."
That this Planet knew who he was and where he came from would explain why she reacted so badly to Sephiroth. Rain was pretty sure she shouldn't have been aware of him as a threat before Nibelheim.
"And that's why it answered your plea to heal Genesis," Angeal breathed, astounded. "You have a tie to it!"
"A tie?" he couldn't help but mutter, bitter. "More like it's got a leash on me."
He clenched one fist closed.
"The Planet seems to think I'm her errant boy. When she realized she had no other way out, she dumped me in the past and left me to figure my way out from there. She has a vested interest in my survival. Otherwise, don't expect miracles. As far as I can tell, her helping Genesis just because I asked was a complete whim."
"Dude, the Planet sent you back?" Zack exclaimed. "Why? What the hell is that supposed to mean, 'no other way out'?"
He kept silent for a moment, frowning. He didn't know how much he could afford to tell. How much he should…
"The Planet… the Planet was dying," he finally said. "She had had safeguards, plenty of them, to prevent her destruction, but by the time it happened they were all unusable."
The WEAPONs, Chaos and Omega, they had all been gone by the time the end had come. Omega should have made it possible to relocate the Planet's living essence somewhere else in the universe, but to do so, Chaos would have had to kill every living being on the surface. They hadn't wanted that. To them, Chaos had been just as much the enemy as Jenova. Rain still didn't believe they had been wrong.
"That makes no sense," Angeal said. "If the Planet can't settle her own problems, what could one man do?"
"Unless the source of her problems came from men," Sephiroth remarked.
Rain glared at him. Since the beginning of this conversation, the man had made it a point to guess at things that made him uncomfortable. If he could deduce so much from what little he was saying, maybe it was time Rain clammed up before that unnervingly brilliant brain took a shot at things he wasn't ready for him to know.
"Then again, your interventions so far have been awfully focused."
Rain's face closed under the shock. Something icy was unravelling in his chest.
"Your point?" he said blankly.
"Well, let's see. These past few months, you have been spending your time rescuing Angeal, rescuing Genesis, destroying—or trying to destroy—a being that is a threat to all three of us, and otherwise sharing confidential Shinra information with me. Given that the age difference between you and Strife cannot be greater than a decade and a half, which would place the Planet's end pretty close in time, one would think you would have more pressing matters to attend."
The atmosphere in the room thickened.
"Which means… what?" Zack prompted, shifting on his feet in discomfort.
"Nothing," Rain snapped, his eyes boring in Sephiroth's.
He noticed the others exchange surprised and dismayed glances, taken aback by the uncharacteristic steel in his voice.
"Nothing any of you need to know," he continued in a tone brooking no argument. "I shared what I did out of good will, because my acts have had a great deal of impact on all your lives and you deserved to know I was responsible for it and why. But I won't accept you digging for information I'm not prepared to give."
He stood up and Sephiroth followed suit, livid.
"Now, wait a minute! I think I have a right to—"
"In any case," he interrupted him in a louder voice than he remembered having used in a very long time.
He looked unflinchingly in Sephiroth's eyes, the burning mass of emotions that he always managed to light in him spreading like a familiar fire in his veins. Didn't he get it already? He wouldn't bully Rain into spilling all of his secrets for him to feast upon. He wouldn't stand for it.
"In any case, most of what I needed to do has been done. This universe has already diverged a lot from what I knew. What you saw in the Lifestream won't happen. It's nothing but memories, now. Your future is your own, and you need to gear up and write it. Don't use me as an excuse to be lazy."
Something very rare happened: for a moment, Sephiroth looked floored, unable to believe he was being reprimanded like a disobedient child. It made him look so human, so young and normal, that Rain had to turn away. His usual bundle of hate, grief and despair, he could handle. This new twinge of yearning…
Everyone else was silent, apparently struck speechless by the intensity of their conflict.
"I'm going to take a cold shower," Rain told Sephiroth, tense. "I suggest you do the same if you want to get rid of the Mako burn."
He strode out. Nobody made a move to stop him. He was already climbing the stairs when he heard Zack call after him:
"Wait, does that mean that wasn't your first dive in the Lifestream? What the hell!"
When Rain limped back downstairs, feeling better and calmer, the living room was empty save for Cloud and Zack. They turned at his arrival. Cloud offered him a pale, troubled smile and rose to approach him.
"Hey, Rain. Sorry I wasn't very helpful earlier…"
He shook his head.
"No, it's my fault. I shouldn't have dumped that on you all of a sudden." He hesitantly carded a hand through his hair, still damp from the shower. "I… didn't really want you to know about Nibelheim. But Sephiroth…"
Cloud shrugged.
"Well, I shouldn't have been so shocked anyway. I mean, you told me about the end of the world. What's one village, uh?"
He smiled crookedly. Rain didn't call him out on his transparent attempt to appear brave. He tilted his lips up in answer.
"Remember—"
"Our future is our own," Cloud quipped, grinning now. "It's ours to build. I know. You're right."
Zack came forward, looking at Rain like he would have at a strange alien species.
"So… you're… uh, Cloud?"
A pang of sadness stabbed Rain through the chest. He grimly pushed it away. He had had months in Cloud's head to see this precious, precious man alive once more, get reacquainted with him, even learn so much more than he had in the distant past… Cloud was closer to Zack than he remembered ever having been. Meanwhile, he… was just a strange man Zack knew very little about. And it would have to be alright.
He tried to smile, knew the expression fell short.
"Rain is fine. It's been my name for ten years, now. No need to make it more complicated for everyone."
"Well, okay, but your real name is Cloud."
"… Yeah."
Zack peered closer. Uncomfortable with the scrutiny, Rain looked around.
"Where is everyone?"
"Sephiroth is hogging the downstairs bathroom and the others went outside. The girls shouldn't be far, Tifa just wanted to sunbathe for a while," Cloud answered.
He glanced between Zack and Rain in a peculiar way.
"Hey… maybe I should go check on them… since we still don't know if Shinra can find us here. Be back in a moment, okay?"
"Uh? Hmm…" Rain said, taken aback.
Cloud was already moving to the door. He gave his brother a pointed look and a nudge while passing him, as if trying to tell him something.
"Have fun!" Zack called to him.
Once Cloud was gone, he scratched his head.
"That was quick. What do you suppose that was about?"
Rain shrugged, rather helplessly. Why had Cloud left them alone? He had no idea what to say to this Zack. He was trying his hardest not to compare him to the man in his memories, but it was more difficult with him than with Tifa or Vincent. Zack was just… Zack.
And true to form, he didn't let awkwardness settle between them. He turned back to Rain with a brilliant grin.
"So, Cloud! Did we ever meet, where you come from?"
"Sure. During the Modeoheim mission, too."
"Yeah? Did we become good friends?"
He shifted, ill at ease.
"I guess…"
Not that good, but he couldn't bring himself to say it. If he remembered correctly, it had taken a little while for him to come in contact with Zack again after Angeal's death. In fact, it had come as a surprise when Zack had acted like they were old friends the next time they had met by chance. But even once he had been done grieving, he hadn't been as close to Rain as this Zack was to the trooper who had saved his mentor's life.
"Well… time to start again, then!"
"Uh?"
Zack extended a hand to him.
"Hi! I'm Zack Fair. I hope we'll be friends from now on!"
He stared at him in wonder. This bright smile, this confidence and boundless energy, above all this unquestioning acceptance, he had missed them so much… Despite himself, he felt his eyes start to water. He blinked rapidly, trying to hide how moved he was.
"Yeah," he breathed. "I'd like that."
He took his hand. If Zack noticed anything wrong, he said nothing about it, which he was pathetically grateful for.
The sound of a door opening echoed from down the main corridor. Rain tensed, remembering the only person left in the house with Zack and him. Even if Cloud hadn't told him, he would have recognized that self-assured, purposeful stride. Sephiroth paused for a moment at the living room entrance to observe them. He was back in his leathers and his left hand loosely held Masamune. His hair shone wetly in the light.
"Heya, Sephiroth," Zack said. "You going out? I think Angeal and Genesis said something about training in the woods."
Sephiroth glanced at him for a moment before going back to staring at Rain. He stared back, unblinking. Finally, Sephiroth nodded and stepped away without a word. They heard the front door close behind him.
"Man," Zack sighed, again scratching his head, "after all this time, I still have trouble getting this guy. One thing's for sure, that's some tension you two've got going!"
"… I need a new sword," he sourly commented.
"I don't get what's with men and swords," Tifa idly commented.
"Hmm, I don't know," Aerith said. "If someone is going to fight… don't you think a sword is kind of a noble way to go about it? Guns are so… harsh. So cold. I don't really like swords, but… they are not so bad."
"Aren't you just saying that because your boyfriend has one?" Tifa teased her.
"Well, Cloud uses a sword too," she giggled back. "Right, Cloud?"
"Yeah," he smiled. "I know how to use guns, but I don't like them either. Any idiot can shoot a firearm. Going right up to your enemy with a short-range weapon means you'd better know what you're fighting for."
"You can do that without a phallic accessory, though," Tifa argued, sinking in a fighting stance and raising her valid fist in demonstration.
"Tifa!" Aerith scolded her, torn between laughing and blushing.
Tifa flashed her a smile and tilted her head toward the two SOLDIERs whose training they were watching.
"Well, it's true! You've got to wonder why they need such big swords, unless they're compensating for something. Don't you think so, Cloud?"
He reddened and crossed his arms, indignant.
"I don't really feel comfortable with this conversation."
Tifa laughed at him. Oh well, better this than her tears.
He caught movement out of the corner of his eyes and turned to see Sephiroth enter the vast clearing where Angeal and Genesis were engaged in friendly sparring. Cloud, Tifa and Aerith had taken position atop a nearby rock outcrop to watch them. Although Tifa was obviously not impressed, Cloud was counting himself fortunate to be able to see the training of such legendary fighters. Sephiroth's appearance only heightened his interest. Would he join them? Would Cloud actually get the incredible chance to see the three original Firsts compete?
But Angeal and Genesis didn't seem to notice his arrival and Sephiroth stopped at the limit of the trees. He crossed his arms and just watched them. Cloud couldn't read the expression on his face. His friends were trading jokes and laughs as they fought. They seemed to be having a lot of fun. Cloud hoped Sephiroth wasn't feeling left out.
He and his nerves were debating approaching him when he noticed Zack and Rain wandering down the forest path towards them. Zack was chatting away with animated gestures and Rain was listening to him with a content half-smile Cloud decided he very much liked seeing on him.
"Hey guys!" Zack hailed them. "We followed the sweet sound of clanging blades!"
Tifa hmphed at him.
"Are you here to prove your masculinity by swinging oversized weapons around, too?"
Aerith gently elbowed her, her cheeks red, but her eyes shining with laughter. Rain blinked and Zack planted his fists on his hips, confused.
"What?"
"Don't mind her," Cloud sighed. "Are you going to train with them?"
The two SOLDIERs had stopped and noticed the newcomers.
"Anyone want to join us?" Angeal yelled across the clearing. "Sephiroth, Zack?"
"Nah, I'm good! You guys keep at it!" Zack retorted, waving his arm to carry the point across.
Sephiroth signalled his refusal with a simple hand gesture. Angeal and Genesis nodded and returned to their mock fight.
"I don't want to interrupt them," Zack explained, rubbing a hand against the back of his neck. "Looks like they need the time together, you know?"
Cloud jumped down to join Zack and Rain at the foot of the rocks.
"Yeah," he agreed quietly. "Angeal and Genesis seem to be doing okay, but I'm a bit worried about Sephiroth. Shouldn't he want to spend more time with the two of them?"
Zack shrugged.
"I think he and Genesis are still walking on eggshells around each other, if you ask me. Well, they'll resolve it on their own, I guess. Not much we can do about it."
He turned to Rain with a grin.
"How about you and I spar, though? You could borrow Cloud's sword! I've kind of wanted to take you on for a while."
"Zack!" Aerith huffed before Rain could even open his mouth. "Rain is injured and he's barely woken up."
"Oh, yeah," Zack acknowledged guiltily.
Rain sent him a reassuring smile.
"In a few days, all right?"
"Yeah, sure!"
This exchange made Cloud see Sephiroth's idleness in a new light. Maybe it wasn't that he didn't want to join his friends. Maybe he just needed to be careful with his own wounds. Cloud couldn't see his bandages from this distance, and Sephiroth was so unflappable he made it easy to forget he wasn't at a hundred percent. Zack ended up drifting over to talk to the man, which relieved Cloud. He didn't like seeing him alone, but he would have had no idea what to say to him.
Since the girls were chatting together above them, Cloud seized his chance to turn to Rain.
"I'm glad you were able to work things out with Zack."
Rain nodded, his smile laced with a familiar bittersweet happiness.
"Yes, me too. It feels good to be able to speak with him after all this time…"
"Good!" Cloud whole-heartedly approved. "I wouldn't have wanted you to butt heads because of a misunderstanding."
"A misunderstanding?" Rain repeated, clueless.
Cloud blinked at him. Surely Rain had not forgotten what he needed to talk to Zack about? Cloud had given him a golden opportunity to settle the matter.
"Yeah, you know, about Aerith…"
"What about me?" said girl called down to them, making him jump.
"Er… Nothing much," he fibbed.
She sent him a curious glance, but didn't pursue the matter. However her intervention seemed to have put an ill-timed stop to their conversation, for Tifa had already grabbed Rain's attention. Cloud nearly groaned aloud. Rain had forgotten, hadn't he?
Still, he let himself be distracted by the way Tifa was now hounding his brother with all kind of ridiculous questions to try and ascertain if he really was one version of Cloud Strife. Rain pointing out that he would know all that anyway because he had spent years in Cloud's head had her huffing, glaring at him and proclaiming that no matter who he was in the end, he was kind of an ass. Cloud and Aerith had to respectively laugh and giggle at the helpless look on his face.
The house was a bit small for nine people. There were only two bathrooms and three bedrooms. The girls had one of those to themselves. Rain shared another room with Cloud and Zack while Angeal, Genesis and Sephiroth squeezed in the last one. Vincent had claimed the sofa downstairs, which wasn't very surprising. He wasn't one for close quarters.
"Man, it feels like some sort of summer camp," Zack commented, vigorously towel drying his hair.
He leaned through the open door and called down the corridor:
"Hey, anyone else has a sudden craving for s'mores?"
Aerith's giggles answered him, followed by Angeal's amused rebuke:
"We're not making a campfire so you can roast marshmallows, Puppy."
"Yeah, yeah…"
He retreated inside the bedroom, sighing.
"I don't think we even have marshmallows here. How miserable is that?"
"I'm sure we'll survive, Zack," Cloud retorted with a lopsided smile.
He was sitting cross-legged on one of the beds and fidgeting with the blanket.
"Are you really okay with sleeping on the floor—"
"Ah ha!" Zack interrupted him. "None of that, Cloud! You took the floor last night, it's my turn."
As if to make his point, he flopped down on the heap of bedding laid out on the floor in the middle of the room.
"And tomorrow night, Rain'll be healed enough Aerith won't manage to guilt trip me into letting him keep the bed."
He winked at Rain to take the edge out of the joke. Perched on the second bed, Rain smiled back. He had tugged one leg of his sleep pants up and was using a Restore Materia on his wound. The monster's claw had speared straight through his thigh and healing it would take a while, but it looked healthy.
They heard the upstairs bathroom door open. Bare feet began running down the corridor and Tifa rushed past their bedroom.
"My turn this time!" she triumphantly claimed.
She nearly slammed the door on her way in. There was the sound of Genesis huffing in something like outrage.
"Say, Rain," Cloud said out of the blue. "Since I finally have the time to ask you… I was wondering, do you know what happened when you were pulled out of my head? How does it factor in with, uh, time-travelling?"
Zack was now lying on his blankets, hands crossed behind his head, but he too looked up at this, curious. Pensive, Rain stared at the gently glowing Materia he was holding.
"Hmm… Well, I don't really know why I ended up in your head in the first place. I didn't exactly get a written explanation from the Planet. I can make a guess, though."
"Yeah?" Cloud eagerly prompted.
"Well… I'm pretty sure the Planet messed up. I mean, I don't think time-travel was anywhere on her original contingency plans. Why not, since she could do it? There had to be a reason she waited until she had no other choice. And she was weak by then. My guess would be she ended up sending my body and my mind at two different times."
He put the Materia down and extended his hands in front of him, parallel to each other.
"My mind was sent the farthest back in time. It got there alone, and I guess it had no choice but to latch on to the body that it felt was closest to mine."
"Which would be mine," Cloud said.
"Right. Time passed…"
He slid his left hand toward his right and clapped them together.
"… and we reached the time where my body had been sent. Was being sent. Whatever. And I guess when it happened, my mind was instantly yanked back to this body, which is even more compatible than yours."
He took notice of a powerful presence in the doorway. He glanced up and was unsurprised, but disturbed to find Sephiroth standing there, looking at him. He awkwardly let his hands drop.
"That's my idea, anyway. But I'm not exactly an expert."
"I guess that would make a twisted sort of sense," Zack mused. "What about that weird city and the Mako pillar, though? Oh, hey Sephiroth, how long were you standing there?"
Rain gave a stiff shrug, declining to answer any further questions. He didn't want to start talking about the Forbidden City, especially with Sephiroth right here. The first time the SOLDIER had gone to the ruins, Aerith had died, and the second time, the Planet had thrown a memorable tantrum and collapsed the whole town down on them. The less curious the man would be about the place, the better.
Instead, he fished the Restore Materia from atop his sheets and lobbed it at him. Although Sephiroth had been glancing at Zack, he caught it without looking. He was only wearing pants, and his bandages were starkly white against the skin of his torso.
"Thank you."
"Did you want something else?" Rain asked him, purposefully turning away.
"To talk to you, actually."
Rain threw him a baleful glare, to which he had no outward reaction. Sighing in impatience, he tugged his pant leg back down and got up. Sephiroth rewarded him with a satisfied smile and moved aside to let him pass.
"Don't wait up for me," Rain muttered to his two bunkmates.
He caught the sympathetic smile Cloud sent him before turning in the corridor. Without a word, he made for the stairs. He heard Sephiroth's light footsteps following him to the ground floor. Like he had expected, Vincent was nowhere to be seen. He was probably out doing a last check of the perimeter.
He took a seat in the living room and crossed his arms, on the defensive.
"I told you I would only answer questions at my own discretion," he warned.
Sephiroth sat across from him. He calmly started removing his bandages.
"I got that message loud and clear, don't worry. It's obvious some conversation topics make you… nervous."
The loaded glance he sent him was only making him more uncomfortable. Rain was once more acutely aware of his blatant lack of weapon. To his relief, Sephiroth slid his eyes back to his task.
"I was hoping, however, that you would be less reluctant to share information about yourself."
He blinked.
"… Me?"
"Surely not everything of importance to your character is sensitive enough that you would feel the need to keep silent about it?"
Confused, he had to resist the urge to fidget.
"I… I don't understand. What do you want?"
Sephiroth seemed none too impressed with him. His bandages unravelled and slipped down to rest around his waist, revealing three long, scabbed claw marks. He raised the Materia to his chest where it began to glow.
"It's not that complicated, Cloud," he said, and Rain couldn't stop a flinch at hearing his real name from this man. "I don't have any hidden agenda, or any dastardly plan to trick you out of information you are not prepared to give, like you seem to believe. I simply want to know more about you, as a warrior and as a man."
"I… Why?"
"If you absolutely need a reason, how about the fact that you already know much more about me than I would have willingly shared with anyone?"
He glanced away, unnerved. He blamed his unease with this strange conversation for what slipped out of his mouth next.
"I don't know that much," he whispered. "I don't know you."
Sephiroth tilted his head. He forced himself to hold the gaze of these slit pupils, defiant.
"Would you like to?"
The question was so unexpected it took him a few seconds to realize it had really come from Sephiroth's lips.
"What?" he rasped, wide-eyed.
"I want to know you," Sephiroth continued, unperturbed. "Without even taking in account your many secrets and the mystery of your very existence in this world, you are an intriguing man. Stubborn, selfless, wounded but never broken, and utterly unafraid of me. I am not ashamed to say I want to understand you."
He couldn't find anything to answer, struck speechless. He could feel himself shaking faintly. Never in a thousand lives would he have expected to hear this from this man. He had always been insignificant to him, hadn't he? First a nobody, then a toy, barely a threat to his self-claimed godhood. These vivid green eyes had only ever glanced at him to laugh at him, at how powerless he was to stop him. Jenova, the Meteor, seeing the Planet die, waking up in Cloud's head years in the past… Everything paled before the surrealism of these simple words, uttered in a cosy living room only lit by the moonlight and the green glow of their Mako eyes.
He shook his head as if to clear it.
"I— I…"
He stopped there, the words gone once more. Unruffled, Sephiroth finished his spell and laid the Materia down next to him. He crossed his legs.
"You mentioned your appointed task was as good as over. What do you intend to do now?"
Rain breathed easier. This was a neutral question, logical and uninvolved.
"I don't really have any plans. See how things play out for you guys and do my best to help, I guess."
"And if our current company were to split?"
"… Your point?"
"Do you intend to shadow me?" Sephiroth asked frankly.
Rain retreated in his seat, wary. If Sephiroth were to go a separate way from Cloud, Zack and the girls, who would he follow…? He didn't need to think for long.
"Yeah."
As long as he wasn't certain, as long as there was still a risk… Thankfully, it didn't seem to aggravate Sephiroth. He merely nodded, and there was something like satisfaction in his eyes.
"In that case, we might as well do our best to get along, don't you think?"
This again. Rain glanced away.
"I don't plan on becoming friends with you, Sephiroth," he rebuked coldly, ignoring the wide-eyed teenager in him who wanted nothing more than to do just that.
"You clearly don't plan on killing me either," he retorted, "even though our little trip into the Lifestream made it clear you have plenty of reasons to want to."
He shrugged, uncomfortable with this evocation.
"I'll be watching you," he breathed. "That's all. I'm just the safeguard."
"And if what you're watching for never comes?"
He shrugged again. Then they'd never have to cross blades, and he'd be the first to rejoice. Sephiroth was right: he didn't want to kill him. It would have been easy to leave him to die in the Forgotten City, but against his will, Cloud's boundless hope had rekindled something in him. He wanted to be wrong. More than anything, he wanted Sephiroth to be strong enough to escape his fate. But too often had he believed in victory and peace only for it to be destroyed in pain and blood.
Sephiroth stared at him with a hint of annoyance.
"You actually expect me to prove myself to you, don't you?"
Rain nearly flinched at how easily he saw through him, but didn't bother denying it.
Sephiroth was the one to have broken nearly every bit of hope and faith left in him. It seemed fair he would have to win them back if he intended for Rain to stop breathing down his neck.
The SOLDIER carded a hand through his hair. If Rain hadn't known better, he'd have thought he looked frustrated.
"As always, you have quite the nerve, Cloud. But fine, I will."
"You… will?" he repeated, uncomprehending.
"Win your trust," he claimed, looking him right in the eye.
Then he stood up and strode to the door.
"Good night, Cloud."
The moonlight reflected one last time on his long hair before he disappeared in the staircase, leaving Rain alone in the silent living room.