Jeanne: So, yet another chapter of Other Plans. And hopefully a short author's note! Colette! Say something uninteresting! For the lulz
Aeriths-rain: -blinks- something uninteresting?
Jeanne: Good enough! To the Disclaimer!
Disclaimer: They own nothing! Otherwise I wouldn't exist.
"So let me get this straight," Zack waggled his fingers, amusing Cloud slightly with the gesture. "Seph's mom was some hot scientist who married Hojo, a slime ball, got it on with said creepy basement scientist, and then let her son be used for experiments... I don't know if we should tell him."
"Zack if he finds out what Jenova really is he might not take it to well," Cloud piped up. "Sooner or later he'll be sent on a mission to check the Nibelheim reactor because Hojo will pull strings."
"Good point," Zack murmured, shifting in his seat. "He would have been here this time but he managed to stick you in his spot at the last second!" Zack grinned, congratulating Sephiroth despite the fact the man was all the way in Midgar.
Cloud nodded, frowning awkwardly. "We will have to tell him. Even though he wont want to know that, he has to know. Or it will be used against him." He didn't want their friend hurt. "Why would ShinRa send him here if they knew about this stuff?"
"ShinRa used Sephiroth's existence as an experiment," Vincent announced, staring straight at the two confused SOLDIERs. "Hojo would most likely want to see how someone with such a large amount of live Jenova cells would react upon coming within distance of her body. A final experiment."
Cloud shuddered. To hear his dear friend spoken of in that way was simply barbaric. "He has to know." He pulled out his cell phone, staring at it in confusion as he tried to work out how he could explain. Saying the truth could be too much at once, and might cause Sephiroth pain. He couldn't think of a way of explaining that wouldn't cause hurt.
Zack closed Cloud's phone gently, a frown on his face. It seemed so out of place on the spiky haired SOLDIER. His face was meant to smile, charm stoic people like the blonde in front of him out of their bubble. "We have to tell him in person. I think we should be loyal to Sephiroth first and foremost. ShinRa's proven many times now that they're corrupt, SOLDIER is meant to uphold the peace, and ShinRa, I think, is part of the problem. The General will decide what we do and then we follow him. That's that! Vincent, Teef, you're coming with us!" Zack spun around facing the other two, a bright grin on his face.
Cloud nodded, staring at the phone in his hand. "You're right.. I shouldn't... I'm sorry.." He murmured, pocketing his phone. "You have to come back with us. You could explain." Sephiroth deserved to know the truth, and to know it in a way that would cause minimal distress.
"Master Zangan thinks it's time I leave Nibelheim anyway," Tifa stood up, brushing her skirt off. "This is the perfect time to do it huh? Cloud?"
"If it helps Lucrecia's child, I shall accompany you," Vincent stood as well, staring at the floor.
"We've got a grand party! Let's get going, I don't think I want to visit the reactor now," Zack chuckled and rubbed the back of his neck. "We'll just write in the mission report that everything was fine!"
Cloud nodded. "Zack, we need to get the grunts as well. We can't leave them behind." Zack laughed slightly.
"Yes, them as well, thank you Cloud. I'm not that forgetful!" Well, not most of the time. He paused, leading the way from the mansion.
Everyone came to a halt aswell, looking at him. "Zack?" Cloud waved a hand in his superiors face, worried. Zack was known for being odd but spacing out like this wasn't something he'd ever done.
"Huh? Oh, let's go! To the inn and beyond!" Zack pointed wildly and with much gusto. Giggling, Tifa informed him the town, and consequently the inn, was in the opposite direction.
Undeterred, he span around and walked off in the other direction. "To the inn and beyond!" Tifa rolled her eyes but followed him, whilst Cloud lagged behind to comfort the other man. Though he seemed to be coping well, this was the first time Vincent had left the mansion in decades.
Sensing Cloud's intentions, Vincent's eyes drifted away from the object of his attention, the sky, and over to Cloud. "It has been awhile since I last saw the sky," Vincent murmured though the blonde still heard him perfectly fine.
"Thirty years?" Cloud asked, slightly awkward because Vincent was someone new and someone so much more experienced than anyone he had ever known.
Vincent nodded, body tensing slightly. "A long time." He was being offered a chance to finally atone, and he knew that if it went well then he would be able to help Lucrecia's son, to save him from the torturous future she had foreseen. It was far too late, but it was a chance to apologize and repent for his actions.
Cloud hummed in response, watching Zack talking animatedly to Tifa whom merely nodded as she tried to keep track of what he was saying. The blonde couldn't imagine thirty years without seeing the sky, let alone a hint of the sun. Vincent had not even had artificial light. "Sephiroth will want to ask you... a lot of questions I think," Cloud replied, looking up at the sky. "He might not ask them though."
"I am there to talk to him when he wants.. I think it could be good for him to talk, if you could get him too." Vincent spoke slowly, every word considered. He nodded at Cloud. "You are friends with Sephiroth? That's good to hear. He should have friends." He paused. "Do you have a photograph?"
From the way Vincent was talking, he didn't ask questions to often. "I don't," Cloud shook his head, wondering why he trusted Vincent so soon. It certainly wasn't because he was a former Turk. Cloud normally avoided the ones he met. "Zack might."
"Zack might what little fella?" Cloud nearly toppled to the ground when somehow Zack pounced on his back, grinning widely.
He blinked up at him. "Have a photograph of Sephiroth? Vincent wants to see..." He smiled, scrambling to his footing as Zack searched through his phone to find a picture.
"Here. He's the grouchy one with silver hair." Vincent stroked his fingers over the picture, nearly gasping a little. The eyes, despite their unnatural colouring, looked just like hers.
Tifa peered over Cloud's shoulder, looking at the famed General in a regular setting. The man was sitting at his desk and glaring slightly at the camera which someone else must have been holding. Zack himself was lying sprawled across the desk, paperwork scattered about him, and giving Cloud a noogie. Every last one of them was looking at the camera though, they were all smiling too.
Vincent's lips twitched slightly, and for a second he looked like he was smiling. Soon his normal stoic expression returned, and he continued looking at the picture. "Thank you." His voice seemed a little sore with emotion, and he handed it back to Zack. He nodded, looking away to gather his thoughts.
"No problem Vince!" Zack clapped the man on his shoulder before running off, yelling that they needed to collect the grunts. Cloud chased after him, aware of the kinds of things that could happen when one let Zack run off.
As predicted the man was attacked by a bomb not even twenty feet away from town. "Awh man this just ain't right Cloudy!" Zack whined, reaching for his sword. An Ice spell nearly clipped his shoulder, causing Zack to turn to see where it came from. Tifa's glove was glowing a bit, and despite Zack nearly being stuck the Bomb was disposed off. "Nice Teefers!" Zack grinned, dragging Cloud with him. The blonde had chosen a bad time to completely catch up to him. After all he was now being dragged by his wrist.
Zack squealed, bouncing along. "Why do they always attack me?" What was initially a throwaway question became a point of importance to him, and he mused on it as they searched for the grunts. "Maybe my blood smells good? Or they like my hair. I'd say it was mako but it doesn't happen so much to Seph. What do you think Cloudy?"
Cloud groaned, trying to block out his friend's rambling. Zack was drawing quite a lot of attention from the villagers and that was never good. "Zack please let me go," Zack glanced back at him before his grin widened and his grip tightened.
"No can do Cloudy! So. Maybe I'm so sexy they all want a piece of me! I mean, I am the great Zack Fair!" Zack cheered, pumping his free arm into the air as he continued his search. "Oh is that one of them Cloud?" He pointed wildly in the opposite direction of where they were going, nearly poking Cloud in the eye.
Cloud yelped, squirming worse. "There.." He muttered, moving Zack's hand in the direction of where he had caught a glimpse of one of the grunts. Entertained by Zack's speech, Tifa raced off ahead to stop the grunts and talk to them.
Zack arrived a few moments later with Cloud in tow. "We've got what we needed so we are leaving. Do you need anything or can you guys leave now?"
"I need to get some things from my house," Tifa raced off. The grunts pointed to the packs positioned on their back, each grinning at the fact they were prepared. Grinning, Zack lead the way to the town gate. All they had to do was wait on Tifa and they would be on their way to Midgar.
Jeanne: So yeah, please review or sommat. Okay guys? We'd love to know what you think!
Aeriths-Rain: We really would! Hope you enjoyed it!