Disclaimer: I don't own FFVII, Crisis Core, Before Crisis, or any other part of FFVII.
AN: Just as an early warning, there might be times when it seems like I'm just "replacing" Cloud with Zack in parts of the story. If it does, I wouldn't worry too much, because it probably won't last. Just thought I should say it ahead of time, seeing as there will be some segments like that in Midgar.
P.S. - There's now a forum up where I'll be discussing the items and/or the story.
"Talking"
Thoughts
-Flashback-
When someone was supposed to have died nearly five years ago, you don't generally expect them to come walking through the door. Tifa Lockhart is no exception to that rule. As such, her reaction was perfectly understandable. In fact, most people would probably do a little more than simply drop a glass. But Tifa wasn't most people, and before fully registering what she was seeing, settled for a simple "Zack?"
"Tifa?" And as the grin reappeared on his face, a more cheerful "Hey, Tifa!"
Despite her surprise, she couldn't help but grin at the former SOLDIER when he started wildly waving at her as if she, Biggs, and Marlene weren't the only other people in the room. Biggs was just looking at him like he was crazy, while she could hear Marlene giggling as he half-jogged over to the bar, looking like he was about to leap over the counter at them. Looking a little more sheepish as he arrived at the bar, he glanced down at the broken glass.
"Uh, sorry about the glass. Guess I surprised you a bit there. I'll pay for it. Y'know, if ya want?"
Snapping out of it, she glanced around for the small wastebasket they kept around for this kind of thing. Broken glasses were hardly rare, especially with some of the evening crowd. "No, no. Don't worry about it." Pausing to wipe the glass into the pale, she tried to figure out how to ask where he'd been. Well, nothing like the direct approach. "So, where've you been the last few years? Last time I saw you, you seemed a bit…Dead." So did Cloud. Could he still be alive? Honestly, she hadn't even been sure that any of the events in the Nibelheim Mako Reactor had really happened after Sephiroth had knocked her aside. She'd barely been conscious when Zack arrived, and was slipping in and out of consciousness when she thought she'd seen Cloud. She was partially convinced that her "knight in shining armor" appearing was all in her head.
Giving a quick laugh, he pointed a thumb at his chest, apparently knowing what she was thinking. "Oh c'mon. Me 'n Cloud are tougher than that. Ya really think Shinra or the General could keep us down?" Not a chance."
So he was there. "So Cloud, he's…?"
"Here with me? Yep. He was a little roughed up, but I think he'll be okay. He's a tough little guy. Even if he's actually caught by surprise, there's not a lotta people who can manhandle Sephiroth like he did back in Nibelheim."
"He did what? No, forget it. Where is he?" Please.
"I've got him stashed in the top floor of the weapon shop over yonder. If you wanna see him, he's probably half asleep, but I'm sure he'd be glad to know ya checked up on him. C'mon."
As it was, Cloud wasn't half asleep. In fact, he couldn't have gone to sleep if he'd tried. Aside from the fact that he'd been on edge without Zack around, the kid that lived at the little inn, Ted, had been harassing him almost nonstop. Apparently he didn't have a lot of people to talk to his age, and adults weren't interested in what he had to say. So when Cloud, too tired to complain about the company, decided that he'd lend the kid an ear until he fell asleep, he had no idea what he'd just agreed to. Apparently, closing his eyes and pretending to be asleep hadn't gotten the message across that he wasn't interested in hearing, for the hundredth time in nearly an hour, every reason why the Midgar Mauler was a better chocobo racer than the Branora Bandit.
Where did Zack go? He's been gone a while.
Almost as soon as the thought had crossed his mind, the door opened, and was soon followed by the familiar voice of said hyperactive ex-SOLDIER.
"Hey buddy, guess who I ran into? Check it out!"
Opening his eyes and rolling his head to the side to see what his friend was so excited about, his breath caught for a moment. Tifa? She started forward slightly, but hesitated, shifting nervously. "Cloud…"
Zack glanced back and forth between the two for a moment, and assumed they wanted to talk. Probably without him peering over their shoulders. "We'll just, uh, leave you two alone for now. C'mon kid." Ignoring the kid's protests, he hauled him up with one arm and picked up his pace a little as he headed for the door. Knocking the door shut behind him, he practically jumped down the stairs."Aw, come on! Why can't I stick around?"
"Mushy stuff.
"Gross. Why're grownups always doin' that kinda thing?"
"You'll get it when you're older."
"…So, you like chocobo races?"
What could it hurt? "Yeah, sure. I'd say I'm a pretty big fan."
And so it began.
"Cloud…"
He shifted, pushing himself up to rest against the headboard. "Tifa?"
If there was ever a time to confirm it beyond a doubt, Tifa figured it was probably now. "You…Were in Nibelheim, weren't you? Five years ago?"
"…Yeah."
"Why didn't you say anything?" I missed you.
I failed. "I couldn't. I never made it into SOLDIER. After all the things I said before I left, I just…I couldn't. Not after failing like that." He leaned forward, bringing his knees to his chest and closing his eyes. "I couldn't keep my promise. I'm sorry."
"You did keep your promise. You didn't fail at all." How could he think that?
"But I-"
"When I'm in trouble, my hero will come. That was what you promised. That when I was in a bind, you'd save me. Well," She spread her arms out as she continued. "I'm here, right?"
But it wasn't me. "Yeah, because Zangan saved you! I saw him before I passed out. It wasn't me."
"And what good would Master Zangan have been if you hadn't taken care of Sephiroth? You came when I was in trouble. Stop being so hard on yourself."
"But I," he stopped, considering her words "I…" I didn't, I mean all did was…His mind had been too hazy to think about much of anything when he had Mako Poisoning, and he'd been in and out of consciousness since coming out of it. He hadn't had time to really think about what had happened in Nibelheim. Or maybe he'd just been too ashamed of his failure to think about it. What had happened?
I stabbed him in the back. But then what?
-"Don't press your luck kid!"-
I attacked him…He just tossed me aside.
-There was pain, he was being lifted in the air, his chest was on fire.
"You're out of your league. You should have just stepped aside. I won't be so merciful this time."-
He remembered that. It was almost too painful to forget. But after that…
-It was rage. Rage, sorrow, desperation, despair, all rolled into one feeling, one moment. As he grabbed the sword, pulling himself further onto the blade to get a better footing, Sephiroth's eyes went wide, trying to rip his sword free from the unrelenting grasp.
Then he'd yelled. An angered cry that he'd felt again just recently, on the cliff overlooking Midgar.-
But that wasn't what he was looking for. Then Sephiroth…Said something. What did he say?
-Still hanging in the crushed wall, unable to move, Sephiroth looked into the teen's eyes, the cat-like irises meeting an unexpected Mako glow. He gave a slight show of surprise, as he seemed to notice. "Those eyes! Impossible…" Then he was calm again. "Hmph. Nothing will get in my way…"
Then as his eyelids began to droop, losing awareness of the world around him, his body fell away from the wall, down into the depths of the reactor.-
He'd been the one to do it. He'd killed the General. He'd killed Sephiroth.
Is she right? Did I keep my promise?
Feeling a hand on his shoulder, he glanced up at Tifa. Her smile still held a tint of sadness, but it was reassuring nonetheless.
I need to sleep. Just a little longer.
"You look tired. Get some rest." As she sat on the bed next to him, he leaned into her, resting his head on her shoulder. "I'll be right here."
"Tifa…Thank you." For everything. She understood the message.
"Of course."
As Tifa was busy attempting to make Cloud see a little sense, the innkeeper and weapon seller on the floors below were realizing that they might need to start screening their customers. Or at least locking Ted in another room when other chocobo racing fans were nearby. They'd been at it for half an hour.
"I'm telling you, this 'Midgar Mauler' of yours doesn't have jack squat on the Gongaga Griffon! Absolutely. Jack. Squat." Face reddening, the kid returned the insults in kind.
"There's no way a big city racer like the Mauler would lose to some mangy bird from some little hick town in the middle of nowhere!"
"Oh, you did not just say what I think you said!" Nobody insults Gongaga. Nobody!
"Yeah, I said it! Whatcha gonna do about it old man!"
"Old man? I'll show you 'old man' you little punk!"
Now imagine the surprise on Biggs' face when he walked into the inn looking for Tifa several minutes later, only to find a young boy suspended from the ceiling by his feet, with a certain ex-SOLDIER demanding that he "take back those blasphemous lies" as the two old men who ran thejoint cackled from their respective counters."Is, um. Is Tifa here?" I don't think she'd like people hanging kids on the roof by their feet…
"Yeah, she's upstairs with that friend I told ya about. They know each other from way back, so they're prolly catchin' up."
"Oh. Well, we kind of needed to talk about that job offer. We're getting' a bit rushed. Plus, we need to open the bar, but none of us can make a decent drink. Or a meal."
"I'll go drag 'em down."
"You really don't ne-" And he was gone, running up the stairs. Looking up at Ted, he noticed that the kid had started swinging himself around in an attempt to get loose. I thought there was a breeze.
"Should we, I dunno, let him down?" Surely they wouldn't just leave him there.
The old innkeeper spoke up first. "Nah, he needs a lesson in manners."
"Yeah, just leave 'im for a little while."
"Allllrighty then." Place gets stranger every day.
Cloud had woken up just a few minutes earlier when there was a knock on the door. It opened slightly, and the top of Zack's head poked through the opening."Hey, you kids decent in here?"
"Come on in, Zack. We were about to come down anyway."
Aw, they weren't embarrassed. It always bugged me when my parents did that kind of thing. Or when Angeal did it. Or Kunsel. Or Tseng…Wait a minute, why do all my friends do that to me?
"Biggs is here. Said he wanted to talk about a job. Hey, about this job, how long is it gonna take? Cause I've got a girl I need to talk to. Like, really bad. As in 'I've left her without a word for five years' bad."
Cloud gave a small grin as Tifa smiled. They didn't know Zack's girlfriend, though Cloud had heard about her, but they imagined Zack was pretty anxious to see her.
"It shouldn't take long. A day or two at the most. And you should have a few days before we have to go." She walked by him, nudging his ribs with her elbow as she walked by. "Think that'd be enough time to go see this girl of yours?"
The rest of the evening had been relatively uneventful. Zack had enjoyed it enough. They'd stashed the Buster Sword upstairs, as to avoid any complications. He'd sat around the Seventh Heaven, had a few drinks, even played a couple games with Marlene when things were slow enough for her to get bored. Or when he got bored. Ah, who cared about the technicalities? Cloud seemed content just sitting at the bar and watching people. Biggs had gone off to another corner of the room to talk with his usual crowd.
However, the night had turned interesting several hours later when a large black man with a gun replacing his right arm kicked the doors open, and practically threw everyone out. Unlike Tifa, Biggs, and most of the bar crowd, Zack hadn't been expecting something like that had happened. Naturally, he'd just barely managed to keep himself from vaulting over the counter at the gunman out of habit. It helped that Marlene ran up and jumped into the man's arms. Once the bar had cleared out, save for himself, Cloud, Tifa, Biggs, the man with the gun-arm, and two people he didn't recognize, Tifa spoke up.
"Hey, Barret. How'd things go?" The man with the gun-arm turned to her, but didn't answer, nodding over towards him and Cloud. Biggs answered the unspoken question before Tifa had the chance.
"Don't worry, they're cool."
The man with the gun-arm, Barret, looked them over for a second. After a few moments, he let out a grunt and turned back to Tifa.
"I don't like the look of 'em. But if you say so. Let's go." The next thing he knew, Barret, Biggs, and two otherswere ridinga pinball machine down through the floor. A pinball machine. Through the floor.For a second, he was pretty certain Tifa had replaced his drinks with something stronger, just to mess with his head.
"Zack, Cloud. Come on."
Walking over to the seemingly normal pinball machine, they stood on the "platform" they'd seen the others stand on earlier.
"There's a button on the bottom. Go on down, I'll finish up here and be right down."
He felt around the underside of the machine for a moment before finding the button, and had to catch himself as the elevator started down. I get the feeling I'm going to be more than a temporary bouncer.
The "basement" wasn't quite what he'd expected. It wasn't Shinra, but it was still relatively advanced. Or at least, the technological elements were. Various screens and hard drives were lining the corner to his right, the young woman that had come in with Barret busily typing away at something he couldn't make out. Biggs was casually leaning against a pool table, while Barret seemed to take out his anxiety on the already battered punching bag in the back of the room. The chubbier man that had come in with Barret was sitting on the other side of the room, tinkering witha small model plane that reminded him of the Gelnika.
Cloud immediately went to Biggs' side, hopping up on the edge of the pool table. Zack simply stood around for a few minutes, wondering if there was anything entertaining he could do that wouldn't interrupt what seemed to be a well practiced routine. He was about to comment on Wedge's model when the elevator started up again. Tifa hopped off, Marlene in tow, and hit the button sending the elevator back up.
"Sorry for the holdup. Let's get down to business."
Maybe if you guys would actually tell me what this "business" is, we could. "So, what's this job you guys keep talking about? Bodyguard? Bouncer? Roughin' up some people that are causin' you trouble? Nah, you could handle that. It must be something bigger than that. C'mon, I wanna know!"
Barret spoke up, cutting off the excited chatter.
"We're gonna bomb Mako Reactor One. And we're gonna do it tonight."
"…Oh." Well that's not quite what I expected.
AN: Well, there ya go. Seeing as it's Spring Break, updates should be slightly faster for the next week or two. Oh, and for those interested in the items descriptions/explanations, I've finally decided how I'm going to do it. There will be mentions of them in the story, but if you're interested in more specific information, I've got a forum up (Venath's Writing Corner) where you can find it. There's not much going on there, so it shouldn't be too hard to find. There aren't many up right now, but that should change pretty soon. Thanks to all, and make sure to feed the review monster.