Disclaimer: As always, I don't own any of the forementioned Final Fantasy characters used in this tale, but all minor characters such as Raechel and Nicholas and other minimal characters as fillers that come from my imagination to fill in this crazy, dragged out tale...they're copyright my insane subconscious mind.
AN: Heh. I know I promised I wouldn't take forever to get you guys a new chapter, but...things got nuts at my house, especially an unfortunate death of a family pet earlier this month which slowed down my creativity. And then now and again doodling drawings here and there that I promised to a couple of friends that I had promised MONTHS ago. Anyway, I know at this point, you guys are expecting a SPECTACULAR reaching climax to make you guys want to burn me at the stake for harming Cloud like I said I'm going to be doing...Unfortunately, I don't want to drag this chapter out to a point that you guys lose interest. Heck. Even if I was and had to cut this short and put the point after the last part of the last paragraph in this chapter onto another Document for creating a 27th Chapter. Which...will tie up a few loose ends that will bring into Chapter 28...the possible dark climax I have been hinting at here and there. 29 will probably be the summarized incident with 30 being the Epilogue where I've come up w/a happy ending for all.
ENOUGH OF MY RAMBLING. ENJOY THE CHAPTER...for those still following this and reading it.
Hey, you've reached the answering machine of Sephiroth Maximus. I'm not in right now, or I'm plunking away at another novel to keep Raechel off my back. Either way, you know the drill. Name, number and message. I'll get back to you as soon as I can…Raechel willing. And if this is Raechel…you know what to do.
Hey Seph, its Cloud…you really need to change the message…anyway, I was just calling to see if we are on for lunch today. I guess you're either still asleep or you've got that earpiece in your ear again or as it you said, plunking away at another novel. Anyway…get back to me when you get the chance…Love you, Seph.
Sephiroth? Its Raechel…I'm checking in on you because Cloud called here asking if I've heard from you. And, one of your neighbors; somehow got a hold of my number and told me to give you a call. They said they heard noises coming from your house last night. Seph, are you alright? Call me back when you get this. Please?
In life, we do stupid mistakes, mess with the wrong people, cross the wrong crowds, and the list goes on and on. Growing up, Sephiroth had planned five steps ahead of everyone else; in an utter attempt to avoid these individuals, but as all things in life go. There is always that one person out of all of those groups that is at least one or more steps ahead of your four or five steps. Nicholas was that one person that was one step ahead of Sephiroth. He was at least ten steps ahead of him. And one of those ten steps had been to knock Sephiroth out onto his back, leaving his world dark.
Dark to what had happened after Nicholas and his cronies had attacked him.
~Flashback~
"What do we do with him now, Boss?" one of the men commented as they stood back to admire what they had done to Sephiroth, "Want us to rough him up a little or something a little more evil?"
A dark smile crossed the man's face until a blow from Nicholas' hand upside his head threaded its stern fingers into the man's locks, slamming the man's forehead into the corner of the desk, "Save your little sick twisted intentions for another time. If I need your sick little fantasies, I'll ask for them."
"Sorry sir…" the man apologized through a faint lump of fear in his throat as his partner watched on with slight horror, but it was masked with a look of, 'Idiot.'
Nicholas released the man, "There is one little message I want to leave him with…pull off shirt and find something to write with. And before you idiots think of something sharp, think of what we want to do with him…we don't need him bleeding to death."
"Here you go, Boss…" the other man handed a red Sharpie that he found lying about, "You want me to write the same message on the wall, Boss?"
"That sounds tempting…leave an impressionable little message on his wall should he decide to wash this little message off," Nicholas could've cackled if he had the initiative to do so, "Alright. It's done. Now, let's get out of here before someone comes looking for source of all the noise in here."
"Right Boss."
The two men were the first to head out as Nicholas stuck around for one last glance at his little victim, "It was good to see you again, Sephiroth…Let's just say this is retribution for costing me a career in Journalism. I would've passed that class back then, but you…" the man's foot collided with Sephiroth's side, "you. You had to go and ruin that by being a stool pigeon for the Professor. Turning me in for plagiarism. We'll see one another again…very soon."
~End Flashback~
Raechel had never been a woman to give into the old myth or concept of "Woman's Intuition"; it was nothing more then a woman being over suspicious of things and she was never one for those kinds of things. But, lately, something had been nagging at her since she had begun typing at the keyboard to catch up on things that had begun to pile up on her desk. Most of the items on her desk were related to the novel Sephiroth was working on; it was starting to get the better of her, but something was starting to tell her to stop. Each time she begun typing a new line or a word, something pulled at her to call Sephiroth again; even to the point of drawing her attention towards her car keys. It was probably nothing, but something was pulling at her to go over.
No, he's probably fine, just keep working. There is a deadline here and there is still so much to do regarding getting this in order and getting it out there on the market, but…She looked over to her car keys again, …why do I get the feeling that this can wait and that something more important needs my attention compared to cover art for the story and setting up Book Release Tour Dates.
Her eyes hovered over to her cell phone, "No. If he wanted to be bugged he would've unplugged the machine and the phone, but…" she began to chew on her lower lip; her mind was at war on whether or not to call or just go over, "I guess one more call wouldn't hurt, right?"
As she began to reach for her phone, it began to ring with alarm causing Raechel to jerk away from it as if it were a snake, after the initial shock; she grabbed for it. On the other end, was Sephiroth's House Keeper that came over to occasionally clean for him; she sounded confused. Today was her day to come over and clean, but what she found shocked her to find the door ajar with a trail of red rose petals trailing through the Living Room.
"Why didn't you follow them?" Raechel asked with a sense of fear in her voice.
The House Keeper tried to sound calm, "I thought it was something between him and that young man he is with…but, something told me to continue and follow the petals and…and…"
"What happened…?"
"I found Mr. Sephiroth on the floor; I don't know if he's unconscious or dead but there is something written on his chest and all over the wall over his desk…Oh Ms. Raechel, I'm scared that someone might still be in the house…"
Screw whatever I've ever said about Woman's Intuition…
"Ms. Raechel, are you still there?"
"Y-Yes…Yes I'm here; I'll be right over…"
Women have their unique form intuition, but what about men? Men haven't been known to have moments of awkward feelings, but there is always that small number of them that have an inkling something is wrong. Zack had had a weird feeling something was off about Angeal the day he called him from Genesis' apartment before he was taken to the Hospital. Even in the days following the incident, he started to recall the small hints of foreboding that he brushed off as coincidence. There was no coincidence to it. Zack looked over and saw the coffee mug that belonged to Cloud; a crack began to form on it. It could have been overlooked, but Zack had learned his lesson about overlooking small things; he wasn't about to overlook it this time. Passing from the kitchen towards Angeal's bedroom; he peeked in to find him still sleeping.
"Angeal? You awake…?" Zack tried to hide the worry in his voice as he tip toed over to Angeal's bedside as he lightly shook him, "Angeal?"
A faint groan uttered as he started to flutter his eyes open, "What is it, Pup?"
"Just checking up on you…I just felt I needed to check in on you…"
Angeal could tell something was amiss with Zack; the last time this had happened, Angeal had walked into a kitchen covered in flour and other awkward things. This was a totally different horse of a different color. He knew Zack was still antsy on the best of days following Angeal's run in with his ex that nearly killed him, but they managed to get past it.
"Something's on your mind, what is it?" Angeal seemed to beckon Zack to sit on the bed, "Is about it about the kitchen?"
A soft shake of the head "No."
What else could he ask?
Angeal pondered that for a moment, "Did you break something?"
"I don't think it was my fault…it was fine when we moved in…"Zack's fingers began to play with the man's sheets.
"What was fine when we moved in?" something was starting to rear its head, "Zack, what is it?"
As if he had pulled it out of thin air, Zack showed Angeal the mug that Cloud used most often; there was a slight crack in the lip of the mug, "Do you believe in signs of trouble, Angeal?"
"Go get Cloud and tell him to try Sephiroth's place again…"
"Sweetie, you okay?" an old familiar voice reared its head as it laid down on its stomach, playing about the shag carpeting of the little room it had created in Cloud's mind.
Cloud had seemed slightly distant, in a manner of speaking, as he stared off into space. Sprawled out on his back there was something that was eating at him but he couldn't figure out what it was. He was ticking it up to the lack of response from Sephiroth not picking up his phone when he called earlier, but Sephiroth probably had his reasons for not picking up. Lately, Sephiroth had been like a bee from "Flight of the Bumble Bee" to get the last touches on the book done. Not to mention the last couple of times he had been over, Sephiroth had been in heated conference with Raechel with his arms flying everywhere. To someone who didn't know what was going on, it would've looked like the man was losing his mind. But Cloud had been around him for a while now; he would wait patiently for Sephiroth to finish his heated conference. And usually by the time he was done, Cloud had either decided to head for home, leaving a note or there were the rare occasions he would fall asleep on Sephiroth's sofa.
A faint nudge prodded at Cloud's subconscious, "Sweetie? Don't mean to sound like a worry wart, but, you're scaring me…"
"S-Sorry…it's just…something just feels off and I can't pinpoint why…" Cloud mumbled to himself as he rolled onto his side, "Do you think he's becoming tired of me?"
"Who sweetie?"
"…Sephiroth, I know that he's busy and all that, but…was I right in falling in love like I did…"
All Cloud could hear was the sounds of his inner self throwing a drama queen sized temper tantrum that was blocked out by the sound of Zack padding into the Living Room with a slowly padding Angeal in his wake, "Cloud, there's something I have to both show and tell you…"
"I thought Show and Tell was for Kindergarteners, Zack?" Cloud sarcastically remarked as he sat up; Zack sat down on one side of him with the mug in his hand while Angeal carefully sat on the other side of Cloud, "What's going on?"
Angeal nodded as Zack showed the mug, "Before you take it out on Zack, it wasn't him …we both have a feeling something's wrong or is going to go wrong…"
"How long ago did you call Sephiroth, Cloud?" Zack was at a loss for any stability as he held onto the mug while he grabbed for one of Cloud's hands.
"About an hour ago…"
Angeal sensed the worse as he shifted in his spot, "Zack believes that the mug has to do with Sephiroth…"
"What do you mean?" Cloud was trying to keep from exploding all over Zack and Angeal, "What do you mean it could mean something about Sephiroth?"
Zack gathered himself, "The day Angeal got hurt…I was sitting here in the Living Room and the glass I was drinking from, it got a crack in it. I just thought it was a cheap cup, but…after I saw Angeal I…"
Cloud didn't need any further words, "CLOUD WAIT!"
"Shit."
"…He'll be alright, Pup…"
When someone is knocked out cold on the floor, it's hard to imagine what their inner world looks like. Let alone hard to know whether or not they can hear us. Sephiroth felt he was surrounded in a haze as his mind slowly started to register that Raechel was yelling at him to wake up. He could faintly hear the sounds of the House Keeper trying to keep her mind intact without becoming a babbling fool. The phone was cradled in her hands; she had felt she needed to call the paramedics, but Raechel took over as the voice of reason in the room. Calling the paramedics would only raise suspicion among the News and cause a push back on the release of the book.
Which no one could afford, especially this far into the game.
"What do we do at this point? Do we try and wake him?"
Raechel checked on Sephiroth again as she cracked open one of his eyes, "I don't know…and I'm afraid of calling Cloud and worrying him…"
The sound of a car door slamming as the sound of running feet could heard running up to the apartment, "I guess we don't have to worry about calling Cloud…"
"Just don't tell him about finding the door left open when you showed up this morning…" Raechel softly hissed under her breath; the less Cloud knew the less drama she had to endure, "Here he comes…"
No one ever wants to find their significant other on the floor after getting their ass kicked by an arrogant bastard smut newspaper writer, just to prove a point. It's the same as a friend not wanting to find their best friend curled up in a ball, covered by a bed sheet with tears streaming down their face. A number of years ago, on the fateful night that Cloud found him self being used; Zack had been the one to come upon the scene. Cloud now had to face the same nightmare Zack had to face.
Sephiroth was none of those things.
"Darling, you're going to have to go in there sooner or later…you can't just leave him in there…"
But what if there isn't anything I can do for him?
"It's all a case of taking that first step forward and seeing what the damages are…"
I guess…I guess that is the first step…
"Then take that first step, sweetie…"
"S-stop, s-shaking…m-me…" Sephiroth managed to groan out through the shaking, "I-I'm, going to…h-hurl…"
Who ever had been shaking him, the shaking stop as Sephiroth opened his eyes, slowly, to find a tear stained faced blond staring over him with a snuffling nose, "Cloud, what's wrong?"
"Umph!" Sephiroth muttered as he felt Cloud all but dog pile him back onto the floor while his face buried into the man's chest.
"Glad to see you back among the living, Seph…" Raechel softly chuckled as she watched the man pry Cloud from him, "Care to tell us why your House Keeper found your apartment intact, but you are all battered and bruised, not to mention, unconscious on the floor?"
"I was on the floor?" Sephiroth seemed out of sorts as he looked about the room.
Cloud was beside himself, "That's it, you're going to the Emergency Room…You're getting yourself checked out by a Professional and then I'm going to call the Police about what happened and then…then…"
"Sweetie, you need to calm down before you pass out from anxiety and worry…" from inside his subconscious, the voice tried to rub Cloud's back to settle his nerves.