Writer's Note: This chapter has not been betaed, nor did I get as far as I liked, but it's been so long since I've updated that I really felt like I should give you amazing people something. (Thank you to EVERYONE who reviewed and bugged me here and on Tumblr, you are all fantastic.) Happy New Year everyone, and maybe this will be the year I write so much GD that I actually finish it!

Green Dreams

Chapter Thirty-Eight: Out Hunting

Following the successful injections with Vincent, the increased distance from Zack, and the continued lack of Sephiroth around Shinra HQ, things had been looking up for Cloud. So when the other shoe dropped, Cloud had been expecting a summons to the General's office, a confrontation with Zack, or an order to see Hojo about his heightened mako levels—but not this.

In his hands he had a weathered, slightly yellow letter that was covered in stamps and smudged ink from its long journey. He didn't know how long it must have sat in the Nibelheim post office through the snowstorms or been waiting to be sorted in Shinra HQ before it reached him. Too long as it turned out.

Cloud Strife
SOLIDER Cadet Program
Shinra Headquarters
Migar

The address was full of misspellings, as though Mayor Lockhart could not have cared less that the letter would only find its way to Cloud after being manually sorted by Shinra's postal staff, been stamped as "wrong address" twice, and the corner ripped off in transit before finally making it's pathetic way into his mailbox, which Cloud checked once a week if that.

So the letter was three months too late.

Cloud Strife,

We regret to inform you that your mother, Elanor Strife, was found dead this last November 3rd. Please come and claim any possessions and deeds within the month. She will be buried in the local cemetery as per her request.

Condolences,

Mayor Brian Lockhart

By noon that day Cloud left Midgar with a small sack of his possessions, an illicitly taken buster sword, and five materia. He left nothing but a Leave of Absence form with the box "bereavement leave" checked in Captain Harke's mailbox, and a curt PHS message to Vincent.

"I'm sorry to ask this, Zack. Youta said he confirmed with Strife at breakfast he'd be there, but he didn't show."

Zack rubbed one eye as he leaned back in his office chair with the PHS to his ear. "It's okay Harke, I'll find him. I appreciate you bringing this to me and not the Shinra Military Police." It wasn't that Sephiroth couldn't squash an investigation, but that was the sort of favoritism that went beyond friendship and into questionable territory.

"Strife's a good guy," Harke said gruffly on the phone. "And it's not like he's slacking off to gamble and drink. Just doesn't do teamwork."

"Yeah, I know," Zack groused as he ended the call. Cloud was missing again. Zack had understood why Cloud had skipped their one-on-one session last week; he even forgave him for disappearing all weekend to nurse his self-loathing—not that he liked it. But it was getting ridiculous and now dangerously close to court-martial territory. Zack would not see his friend go down that way, so he was going to drag Cloud's unwilling ass the same way he'd nearly bullied Sephiroth into friendship.

Zack checked all Cloud's usual haunts, including the pool locker room after a Second tipped him off that Cloud had been lurking there before. No blond turned up, though the weapon's lock-up was missing a buster sword, so Cloud was training somewhere as usual.

"Department of Administrative Research, please wait while we triangulate your position and move the snipers."

Zack couldn't quite stop himself from cracking a smile at Reno's greeting. He didn't much like the Turks, but he could appreciate why Cloud liked this one. "Reno, it's Zack."

"If Cloud's not where he's supposed to be then I don't know anything about it," the redhead said immediately.

"You don't, do you?" Zack asked skeptically.

Reno groaned under his breath and added what was likely a curse to Cloud's name.

"We're both friends of his, Reno," Zack tried, hoping there was something more than sarcasm and ambition in the redhead's heart, "and I'm worried about him. He's gonna get court-martialed if he skips out on more practices and doesn't sign out weapons. You know he's up to something."

"Leave off him and he'll be fine," Reno answered bluntly. So much for soft appeals.

"And if that something gets him killed?"

"Cloud's tougher than that. Beat you up didn't he?" Somehow the jab didn't sound as strong as it could have. Reno might stick by a strong fighter like Cloud for selfish reasons, but as Sephiroth had proven, Cloud had a way of wiggling into the cracks of the heart.

"I've got a feeling Cloud's getting in over his head. Or rather, I'm not sure his mind can take it." Zack felt a little guilty voicing it, but it was obvious Cloud's head was a jumble of terrible memories.

Reno definitely hesitated for a breath. "Look, I don't know where he is. Cloud's not 'all there' all the time but there's a lot of shit you don't know about him so—"

"If there's something you know that I can do to help him, Reno—"

"It's pretty damn clear to him you'd make it worse," Reno snapped, cutting Zack off.

" 'To him' but not to you?" Reno cursed again and hung up before he had to respond. Unfortunately, while Reno obviously knew more than he was saying, Zack was also sure he didn't know where Cloud was. The blond never put all his chocobo hatchlings in one basket.

There hours later, Zack was staring at a hastily signed piece of paper and seriously questioning whether Cloud even cared about SOLDIER anymore. It had been his dream, Zack knew, but this paper and his behavior recently were telling a different story.

"It's marked today," he noted, thumb brushing the date at the top of the Leave of Absence form. Bereavement leave… Cloud only had one family member left that he knew of. Which meant he was going to only one place.

…The same place, of course, that he'd destroyed two buildings and quite possibly suffered immense abuse at as a child.

"Technically he needs approval before going, but he must have left in a hurry. Or…"

"That'll be all, Captain Harke," Zack said shortly, reverting to official names to forestall any questions. "I trust that Cloud was honest on this, even if he skipped authorization. He doesn't do teamwork or red tape well." That cracked a small smile on Harke's face, but the man still looked worried as he saluted and walked out.

Zack rather wanted to bang his head on the table, but instead he took out his PHS and speed-dialed the one person who was both in the area and the last thing Cloud would want to see.

"Sephiroth, Cloud's left."

"Left to where?" The General asked sharply, voice crackling a bit over the line. It sounded like he was in a truck.

"Nibelheim it looks like. He took bereavement leave and his mother's the only family he has. Had."

"Then it's unfortunate I'm on an airship halfway to Midgar." The engine sound was fading as Sephiroth walked on the deck.

"If I catch a transport now—"

"We have something to discuss when I return. Without an airship it will take Cloud at least a week to reach the mountains."

Zack ran a hand through his hair and had to consciously remind himself that just because Sephiroth sounded calm and controlled didn't mean he was. "And if he doesn't return?"

"His PHS has a tracking device in it."

"He's gonna expect that," Zack warned.

"He will not expect the one I embedded in the hilt of the training buster sword," Sephiroth replied almost smugly.

Zack could feel his shoulders slump a bit and knew he shouldn't really be so relieved that they had two tracking devices on his friend. "Well, bereavement leave means four days off not including travel, so if he's not coming back this way in two weeks time I'm gonna drag him back."

"I will drive the car," Sephiroth promised.

Cloud caught the 0930 transport bus from Midgar to the port, arriving a little after lunchtime. He bought a sandwich with a few gil and immediately secured a seat on the next cross-channel ship bound for the Western Continent. It would be an hour's wait before he could board though, so after stowing his things in one of the lockers Cloud wandered off the docks and into the first weapons shop he saw.

He needed to buy a whetstone because the buster sword he currently had was blunted for training. There wasn't a locker big enough for the sword, so he'd drawn more than a few stares cutting a swath through the docks. His eyes' faint mako-glow warded off questions just as they had in the other timeline.

"A buster sword!" the proprietor of the local weapons shop cried excitedly when Cloud walked in. "Don't see many of those around."

"…"

"You must be a SOLDIER," he amended more politely, though the burly man continued to eye the sword on Cloud's back with fascination. "Be needing a new hilt wrap? I've got six different colors, including ones to match your rank Mr.…?"

Cloud ignored the man's questions as he examined the glass case on one wall that had various sized whetstones, oils, and cloths. The owner didn't give up though, pulling something out from behind the counter that rattled as he set it down. "If you're a man who appreciates swords then you might like to see these beauties I bought at auction recently…"

"The second one," Cloud interrupted flatly, pointing to one stone. The man abandoned whatever he was trying to sell to Cloud to pull the whetstone case out. As it was hurriedly wrapped, Cloud's gaze drifted across the usual tableau of broadswords, daggers, and firearms. On the table the sword the proprietor had been trying to sell to Cloud glimmered just a bit in the afternoon sun slanting through the window, illuminating saw-like teeth for an edge.

In two strides Cloud was standing over twin blades unique in shape not just for their size—too large for broadswords but nowhere near the size of a buster sword—and their serrated edges. Cloud recognized the longsword-style grip, the shape of the teeth, and the fine silver color. These were the twin back blades of his fusion sword.

He was staring at them so hard he almost palmed his small dirk when the proprietor slid the box with the whetstone across the counter to him.

"Like them, do you?"

"Where did you get them?" Cloud asked. He didn't mean to sound demanding but he did anyway.

"Auction," the man replied a bit startled. "Some old man died and these were in the basement. Not sure what they're made of yet but sharp as anything I've worked." He was starting to wilt under Cloud's stare, and his words tapered into silence.

The blond didn't ask permission when he hefted one of the blades up. The grip was long enough for two hands, but Cloud was pleased to see that he only needed one for these smaller blades as he had before. It made a unique whistling sound in the air as he swung it, the heft and weight the same as he remembered, and Cloud felt a brief shot of exhilaration. If there were these two pieces here, then he could find the other parts of the fusion blade. It would take a lot of retooling and work to make them fit together as one, and without the main blade First Tsurugi it wouldn't be possible, but…

"How much?"

The proprietor perked up at the thought of a sale. "The material is quite amazing, sir, and hasn't needed any maintenance since I got it, not to mention the finery of the work themselves, so the price is on the higher end, per say…"

"Name it."

"50,000 gil. Each."

Exorbitant didn't quite do it justice. The most expensive blades Cloud had ever bought were around 20,000 gil. 100,000 gil, even for two fine swords, was a hefty price. Cloud didn't have that kind of money and stealing wasn't in his nature. But these two blades… the fusion sword was much more adept for fighting, and he'd grown to rely on having a handy blade no matter the circumstances.

"A trade. This buster sword for those two."

"What?" the man guffawed. "Busters swords aren't common, but they're not worth that much."

"This one is," Cloud nodded to the one strapped over his shoulder. He didn't bother to make up a history for it. Everyone knew of Angeal and Zack and their infamous blades. If Reno had taught Cloud anything, it was that letting people draw their own conclusions was best.

"Blunt if you need a whetstone, eh? I'll halve my price and take the sword too and call it a deal."

"Blunt because it's been abandoned for a year."

The man started to look a bit nervous as the meaning of that sunk in. "I don't want the Lieutenant General of SOLDIER coming down on me for his master's blade," he said with less confidence, eyeing the blade over Cloud's shoulder.

Cloud's gaze slid down to the twin blades again, and he knew what Reno would have recommended doing right now. The owner was portly and not enhanced; threatening him and taking the swords would be the easy way out, especially with Cloud's boat leaving so soon.

"Mastered Earth materia." Cloud pulled the glowing ball out of his pocket and put it on the counter; he wasn't a thug threatening a man trying to make a living. Mastered materia were worth a lot and the blond was reluctant to part with any of them, but of all the materia he had, Quake was the most dangerous to use, especially in mountainous regions like Nibelheim. He could give it up if it meant having part of his fusion sword back.

The greasy man still looked skeptical, but greed was winning out. A named blade—so he thought—and a Mastered materia were well worth two mysterious swords that would be difficult to sell for all their novelty. Not many people in the world could dual-wield two full-sized serrated blades and collectors were rare.

"Deal."

Cloud unstrapped the training buster sword and laid it on another cloth on a different countertop before picking up the familiar twin blades. Just as before, their grips seemed to mold perfectly to the shape of his hand. He didn't have a proper harness for them, but once the proprietor had confirmed the Earth materia was genuine he quickly cobbled together a leather vest with straps for them both.

He gingerly touched the swathed handle of the buster sword as Cloud saw himself out, and was not surprised he didn't feel guilty about swindling the man. These swords… the fusion sword had been his, and neither the materia nor the training blade were as valued.

"Well? The preliminary report stated mission failure but there's something else?" Zack asked, lounging back in his usual chair in Sephiroth's office pretending he hadn't jogged all the way here from the training hall in anticipation when he'd heard the General's airship arrive.

Sephiroth had been waiting for him, still wearing the leather outfit he wore in the field and a duffle bag tucked in the corner of the office. He looked impeccable, but there was tightness around his glowing eyes that showed he was unsettled. "I met with one of Genesis' clones."

Zack perked up. "And?"

"It didn't know anything about the three silver-haired men, but had quite a bit to say about Nibelheim." Sephiroth had opened a map before Zack arrived, and he turned to stare at the detailing of the Western continent. Nibelheim was a tiny dot on the map amidst the Nibel Mountains.

"What? Nibelheim? Since when did that town get so famous?"

"Since Hojo used it for experimentation. That's been confirmed from the evidence of the destruction wrought by Cloud and what I found in Hojo's files. The clone said—" and there was the barest hesitation—"that my mother had been there."

Zack stopped lounging and sat up. "Your mother? Je…?"

"Jenova."

"Jenova." Zack rolled the name for a moment in his mouth. Sephiroth had only mentioned her once before to him, and that was about all her knew of his mother. "Isn't she… dead?"

"I was under that impression," Sephiroth said a bit stiffly, and one of his fists clenched for just a moment. "I was also under the erroneous impression that Professor Hojo was my father."

"Wait, what!" Zack yelped, staring at Sephiroth incredulously. "You thought Hojo was your father?"

"As he stated it, he was the primary caregiver in my infancy, and thus accepted the role of father even when biologically he was not. He never told me." There was a burning anger deep in Sephiroth's eyes that might have made another man cringe back. Zack had seen this look only a handful of times before.

"And you believed that?" Zack said indignantly. Sephiroth's eyes flicked away for a second. "You have less in common with that man than you do with a Dual Horn," the First insisted. He reached out slowly and grabbed Sephiroth's forearm. "Pretty sure that monster—and I don't mean the Dual Horn—couldn't get laid if he tried. With your looks your parents were probably doing just fine." Zack shared his usual smile with Sephiroth, still tinged a bit with forced cheer. Sephiroth's own lips twitched for just a moment.

"I learned this after looking for any files about Cloud in Nibelheim. My father's DNA was on record. Any files concerning my mother are under the tightest security." A small wrinkle appeared for a second on Sephiroth's brow. "I do not know why Jenova is so heavily guarded."

"Genesis has to be wrong," Zack said, hand still on Sephiroth's forearm. Something about this talk was making him nervous. Sephiroth had a tendency to obsess when he didn't have an answer, and Hojo's secrets were a dangerous line to cross, even for the General. "Cloud wouldn't kill an innocent. He said himself he destroyed the Mansion and Reactor. Do you really think he wouldn't have saved her if she was there?"

"Inside the reactor…" Sephiroth could picture those tubes from the pictures, shattered on the ground and spilling the mangled limbs of former humans. If his mother had been like that…

"Cloud would save anything he found there. I know he would," Zack said firmly, gripping Sephiroth's arm hard enough to make the man look him in the eye. "I talked to Reno when I couldn't find Cloud after his episode—when he broke my wrist. He said himself Cloud's incredibly protective. He's trying to protect us—not just from his revenge that will likely take him straight to Hojo, but also from pain in general."

"Like finding my mother mutilated and experimented on." Sephiroth said it so flatly it hurt Zack to hear it. Dealing with emotions was never Sephiroth's strong point, and the man had always chafed at the idea of being guarded.

"He wouldn't tell you. Hell, I wouldn't tell you."

"Cloud may inadvertently have destroyed the S-cells then," Sephiroth said, mind jumping between the clones' words, Zack's theory, and what he knew himself. His mother occupied little thought for Sephiroth, and emotionally he'd always been distant from the woman who had seemingly abandoned him to a scientist as a child. Whether she did it willingly or not mattered little in the scheme of things. If she had been alive in some fashion in Nibelheim it disturbed Sephiroth, but if Cloud had truly destroyed everything, then practically demanded he move beyond it.

"What are you thinking?" Zack said somewhat warily. He finally removed his hand from Sephiroth's arm. Sephiroth didn't rise to be the General just because he was the strongest SOLDIER and made the President cower—he had a good eye for patterns too that made him excellent at strategy.

"Genesis is looking for S-cells to cure himself, and Hollander must have known the original experiments had been done in Nibelheim. Cloud's revenge—as far as we know—has no connection at all to Hollander's experiments. He admitted himself the leveling of the Mansion and reactor were personally motivated, likely to eliminate evidence of himself."

"Thus inadvertently destroying the S-cells there," Zack repeated. "Do you think he freed the three silver-haired men? If he thought them innocent…" The horror of the thought seemed to catch up to Zack just then.

"It has crossed my mind," Sephiroth admitted. "The Genesis clone had no knowledge of the three either, but it's likely Genesis is hunting them down too by now. They may have S-cells also."

Zack looked slightly sick at the implication of their relationship to Sephiroth, but the General had used the time in the airship to compartmentalize his own feelings regarding the three violent men. His mind was turning back to Hojo, who was the only one who knew how all these threads connected. Why had he created clones of Sephiroth? In case he failed? Why did he keep his mother in Nibelheim, if Genesis was right? Where did Cloud fall into this scheme of things?

"Hojo still holds the most cards," Sephiroth said finally. Too many gaps meant too many assumptions.

"And Cloud." Sephiroth glanced over at Zack, who was staring at the dot of Nibelheim on the map as he spoke. "Hojo doesn't explain Cloud's ability. He knew what he was doing with the buster sword—knew better than I can explain. I never taught him those advanced techniques, and there's no way, no way, he got that good by watching me."

"And you do not believe Angeal was involved?"

"No. Well, I want to. Cloud was sincere when he said no though; I know he was. But that means there's someone else out there. Maybe it was a clone of Angeal?" Zack had one hand in his hair and he looked pained. After Angeal's death, degradation was a quick process for a clone, and surely Cloud would have realized at some point the clone wasn't telling the truth about its origin. Assuming it even had that much autonomy.

"All right, enough of this," Zack declared, standing up. "We're going in circles like usual. I'm going to load up the tracker and see where Cloud is. You need to work off this energy. Jax and two squads under him are shipping out tomorrow—see if you can still whip them even with all this on your mind." Zack waved a hand at the map and the stack of files on one shelf that were solely dedicated to Cloud. Then he turned and exited the office for his own.

Sephiroth felt unwieldy as soon as Zack left. He liked to fix his mind on one objective and focus on it, but the net kept getting wider and wider. Not only was there Cloud's murky past mixing into the secrets of Hojo, but now Sephiroth's own mother, potential copies, genetic history, and old friends were added in. The answers were mutually inclusive, but how?

He didn't get much sleep that night, but he did beat Jax's two squads and three other Firsts at the same time in a bid to work off his frustration and uncharacteristic indecisiveness.

"For troublemakers you're not easy to find," the scientist said, looking at the three silver-haired figures with carefully hidden interest. Each of them had characteristics of the famous General, but none were quite like him either. That was a component of cloning Hollander had never seen before.

"We were told you're looking for Mother too," said the youngest with barely restrained disgust. He eyed Dr. Hollander with contempt, lingering on the worn word 'Banora' written on his t-shirt. His eyes flicked up to the First in red watching them, challenging.

Genesis remained in the shadows though. He had wanted to strike the three down at once and test their cells after they were dead, but they'd proven an effective trio against the myriad of copies Hollander had insisted guard their temporary base. Genesis might be Hollander's greatest success, but neither of them wanted to take an unnecessary risk. Bad enough they'd accidentally lured three rampaging beasts into their den—SOLDIERs would be coming soon to investigate the commotion if they were still monitoring the area.

"Jenova is Mother to the whole world, and we want to share in her bounty too," Hollander declared.

The youngest laughed in a high-pitched, manic way that was made all the more frightening by the lack of reaction from his brothers. Genesis stepped out from the shadows finally, looking down on them from the railing above. "What will you do when you have her?"

"Reunite with her and fulfill her wishes!" cried the youngest, and a kind of feverish devotion filled the three men. The crackling electricity on the burliest man's arm spat and jumped as he flexed. Hollander took two involuntary steps back. It had been his idea to try and coerce the three clones, but they were more volatile than he expected.

"And if I asked for Mother's blessing?" Genesis asked, descending in a careful glide to the lower floor. He flicked his hair out of his eyes in a practiced gesture.

"Beg and she'll consider it," sneered the middle one, who was irritatingly smug. The small feathers close to Genesis' back bunched up at the affront. Hollander sensed their window was closing on this.

"Shinra has your Mother-" he started, but a blur grabbed him up into a bruising grip before he could finish.

"Where is she!" the burliest demanded, holding Hollander a foot from the floor. The long-haired one stood right beside him, a look of deepest loathing on his face.

"Mideel!" the scientist yelped, feeling the lower part of his arms start to go numb as the blood was cut off from the grip on his biceps. He grabbed at the long-haired clone to steady himself. "There's a SOLDIER outpost there and an old lab in Banora! That's where she is!" Hollander stumbled as he was abruptly let go. By the time his arms started to prickle with feeling again, the three silver-haired clones were gone.

"Follow them," he gasped to Genesis. "They can sense Jenova."

"What are they?" Genesis demanded, turning that angry glare on Hollander. Ever since Angeal's death the two had been barely united in their cause, and Hollander could see Genesis' patience with him fraying even more at the inclusion of these three.

"Copies of another kind. Aspects more like. It means the General has weaknesses and we've got a hound for Jenova. You want those cells? The source is the best."

"You let them go without taking any cells at all," Genesis snapped at him.

"Blood would have been better, but a hair will tell us if they have any at all." Hollander proudly held up the short silver hairs he's pulled when the burly one picked him up.

"I'm taking Friday off," Zack announced the moment the penthouse elevator doors opened. Sephiroth had just stepped out of the kitchen with a cup of tea. "Cloud's GPS signal hasn't moved in two days. I'm going to retrace his steps."

Sephiroth looked out the window, staring out at the distant ocean. "I cannot go with you. I have an appointment with Hojo and both of us should not be gone at once lest we create suspicion."

Sephiroth certainly sounded like he wanted to go, and Zack felt more determined than ever to find Cloud.

"I won't leave the continent. Can't really, not with Heidegger wanting three Firsts for that inspection in Midgar. But I'll find out what happened with the GPS signal. Maybe he's just sitting on a dock fishing."

"I do not think Cloud's leisure time consists of sitting quietly and thinking," Sephiroth said, but he turned away from the window and looked pointedly at Zack's booted feet on his white carpet.

"Alright, I'm going. I'll check in every few hours, and let me know if the signal moves."

"He is not a baby chocobo fallen out of the nest," the General admonished, smirking outright as Zack walked back to the elevator.

"Says the man who planted two GPS devices on him!" Zack called back as the elevator doors shut.

It was still early when he reached the SOLDIER garage and signed out his motorcycle. The last few days had seen Zack habitually checking the tracker's signal on his PHS to the point that the other Firsts were joking about his new beau. One tracker hadn't moved since the outskirts of Midgar, which Zack was sure was the PHS one, but the other had stopped dead in the Midgar port and hadn't moved since. Had Cloud been forced to leave his weapon behind at the dock and go without it? Or a better question: could anyone force Cloud to leave his sword behind? Zack was sure it would only happen when someone pried it out of Cloud's dead hands.

The thought left an unpleasant feeling in Zack's stomach as he raced out of the garage, haphazardly putting on his helmet as he skidded around a turn, and zoomed out of Midgar.

Twenty minutes out he was almost on top of the first tracker signal. Midgar still loomed behind him, and after ten minutes of searching Zack's sharp eyesight spotted a dusty little chip on the side of the road. Tossed out of the back of a transport, no doubt.

It was a two-hour ride to the port at high speed. It was an industrial center, full of packing and shipping companies, box and crate making factories, and row after row of tankers and cargo-laden ships. The sea breeze was hard to pick up when it was mixed so thoroughly with the fumes of oil and coal burned to keep the behemoth ships moving. Zack wrinkled his nose as he drove up into the small commercial area where passenger ships took off.

Crowds melted around him as he approached the ticket booth for the passenger lines. When he leaned down to talk to the cashier the man's face went chalky white. "I'm looking to speak with the manager and maybe your head of security," Zack said politely, flashing his Shinra ID.

The manager of the business appeared a minute later from a side door to greet him, face almost as sallow in color as the frightened cashier. His spiky black hair, glowing eyes, and giant sword said it all. Yeah, they knew who he was.

"General Lieutenant, sir!" he said as he approached, subtly wringing his hands behind his back. "This is unexpected. Please let me assist you in any way I can." He led Zack into the back, leaving behind the whispering crowd. Normally Zack would never do an investigation this way—in fact, he'd never investigated much in person because of his fame from the war—but it got results fast.

"I'm looking for this SOLDIER," he said, holding up a datapad with Cloud's Third Class photo on it. "He was here on Monday and likely bought a ticket for the Western Continent. Think you can find him on a security tape?"

"Yes, sir!" the manager jumped, quickly walking Zack to a security booth. While the manager rustled up a receipt, Zack skimmed the Monday morning tapes looking for that quintessential blond hair.

It took almost fifteen minutes of skimming to finally find a shot taken at 12:23 of Cloud standing in line to buy a ticket. Everyone was standing three steps away from him, and his eyes were strangely bright compared to everyone else's when he casually glanced up at the camera.

The security tapes didn't have any audio, but Cloud was there only briefly. Within five minutes he had bought his ticket, the training buster sword strapped to his back, and left. So he still had the sword when he arrived here, confirming that much. The hilt didn't look tampered with, and taking out the GPS system would have required some tools, according to Sephiroth.

"Here's the receipt, sir," the manager said as soon as Zack stepped out of the security booth. "One-way ticket to Costa del Sol, departure time 1:30pm."

Zack took the copy, thanked the manager, and left the ticket office. If Cloud had walked away with an hour free before departure that was the best window for getting rid of the tracker. But without tools he wouldn't be able to get the grip off without ruining the sword.

So Zack walked away from the docks and into town, full of tourists from Midgar and port-savvy sailors looking for sundries before finding a drink in one of the seedier pubs down the way. If there was one place Cloud was sure to go to, it was a weapon's store.

"Welcome to Mick's—" The man didn't even finish the greeting before he was choking on air and turning white at an alarming speed. Zack in full uniform plus a buster sword usually got a variety of reactions, but utter fear wasn't a normal one.

"He- he said you wouldn't come!"

Zack stopped dead in the doorway. "He? He wouldn't happen to be a blond SOLDIER, would he?"

"Uh, y-yes sir. Blond hair sticking up everywhere, blue glowing eyes." The owner was sweating badly as he eyed the handle of Galatine over Zack's shoulder.

"What did he do here?" Zack asked. Was this how the Turks felt interrogating someone? Or how the Wutain people responded to Sephiroth during the war? Zack wondered. He didn't like the terror he was inspiring in this average civilian.

"T-Traded me. I had two nice matching blades, high quality. Traded a Mastered Earth materia and a-a buster sword."

"A buster sword?" Zack said a lot more calmly than he felt. Cloud traded a buster sword for twin blades? Twin blades that as far as Zack knew Cloud had no training in how to wield? That sounded incredibly out-of-character for the man who'd been using Galatine with such skill last week.

The proprietor hurriedly disappeared into the back room and brought out the training buster sword on a rack with wheels. It had clearly been sharpened and shined, and there was an unfinished plaque on one side that said "Previously owned by First Class SO".

Zack stared at it in growing alarm. This wasn't like the Cloud he knew at all. Not only had Cloud traded a weapon he considered somewhat sacred but that plaque meant he'd probably fudged the origin too if not outright lied. And thrown in a mastered materia all for two blades?

"Tell me about the swords you traded him," Zack ordered, unconsciously channeling Sephiroth. The man in front of him hunched over like he could hide somehow.

"I- I got them at an auction. Two serrated blades, two-handed grips but obviously meant to be used together even if they're too heavy for all but SOLDIERs. Finest silver polish I've ever seen, not scratched or dulled at all even though they'd been in that basement for Planet knows how long!" He was speaking quickly, spittle flying from his mouth. "I don't know what they were made of or where the old man got them. Bought them for half their worth, I swear that's the truth."

Twin blades. Serrated. Cloud was through-and-through a buster sword user. Zack was having trouble imagining this.

"Did he say where he was going? Anything about the blades?"

"N-no, nothing. Just asked where I got them and then demanded a trade." The man wiped his brow with a handkerchief and his gaze skittered to the training blade he'd buffed so nicely.

"Got security tapes?"

Ten minutes later Zack was calling Sephiroth from the docks, staring out west to the other continent like he'd be able to spot Cloud out there. By now Cloud was well on his way to Nibelheim—if that was even where he was going—and they had no trackers on him. The urge to get on a ship was strong enough that Zack turned around to give the sea his back when Sephiroth answered.

"General speaking."

"Seph, he sold the buster sword. Or traded it rather."

"Pardon?" There was a quiet disbelief in Sephiroth's voice that reinforced Zack's own.

"Traded it for twin serrated blades. Smaller than buster swords. I've never even done dual-wielding with him before." The small detail of the swords was almost easier to fixate on than the bigger picture of what Cloud was up to. Zack ground the heel of his hand into his temple to stop a headache from starting. He hated feeling helpless for his friends and he'd strived all his life to better himself for them. But Cloud… Cloud made that exceptionally difficult.

"I need to go after him, Seph. He's getting deeper into this hole," Zack said. He swung back to look at the ocean and felt uncharacteristically like cutting something into a hundred pieces and then doing it fifty more times. That was more of a Sephiroth-like behavior.

"Your orders are to return to Midgar." Sephiroth wasn't playing around if he was making actually orders, so Zack reluctantly turned and headed back to his bike, knowing he was going to gun it all the way back just to outrun this feeling of helplessness.

Two days later Zack was feeling less charitable than ever. His bad mood was compounded by Sephiroth's, who was still exasperated by all the loose ends and now one of the few men who outranked him: Heidegger. Sephiroth could intimidate the Head of Public Safety, but only to a point. And when Heidegger wanted three Firsts, Sephiroth could wiggle out, but the next there highest ranked SOLDIERs couldn't. So Zack had been forced to stand as security—him, a First—while Heidegger belittled and guffawed his way through inspections for two days.

It left Zack with a lot of time to speculate where Cloud was, what havoc the three clones must be wreaking somewhere, what Genesis was planning, and how long it was going to take before Sephiroth cracked.

On Friday he felt his nerves getting particularly stretched as Heidegger ate a sumptuous meal of veal and roasted potatoes with pineapple—imported from Mideel—while overlooking the slums. The three on security had to simply stand there and watch as the cow of a man chewed and spit all over his food.

"I'm takin' lunch," Zack nearly growled to the other two Firsts, because he could only keep up appearances of good cheer for so long. At least they were in Sector 6, and it was a short hop over to see Aeris in her church. If there were anyone who could put the bounce back in Zack's step it would be her.

"Aeris?" he called as he opened the heavy doors to the church. The scent of flowers came through clearly even from the doorway. "You here?"

There was movement in the rafters, just the slightest whisper of cloth and the barest squeak of a step on wood. Without enhancements Zack wouldn't have heard it at all.

"You in the back?" he asked, though he already knew Aeris wasn't here. Someone was above him though, and as he walked down the aisle no one called down to him. Not a Turk then.

Zack faked nonchalance and strode over to the back room, which wasn't visible from the rafters in the main hall. He made sure to kick a couple boxes around to make it sound like he was rummaging, and then as quietly as possible climbed up until he could access the rafters too.

The moment he crossed the rafters from the back room to the chapel he had a triple-barreled gun at his cheek.

"Who are you?" Zack demanded despite his disadvantage. Sometimes it was best to ignore the gun to the head—particularly because the very act unnerved people. "Aeris is my friend."

"I mean her no harm." The man in red had a dark, flat voice with a rough edge like a smoker's. His face was still in shadow so Zack couldn't see anything but the black-gloved hand holding the gun and the tattered end of a red cape.

"But you're still here. And that's a custom gun. Turk?" The gun didn't move. Zack played it dumb. "I'm just here to make sure Aeris's okay. Where's your suit?"

The gun was lowered, but whoever it was persisted in standing in the single darkest corner of the church. As Zack turned he could make out the thick black hair and the sharp cheekbones of his face, culminating in startling, hard red eyes.

Zack had met a lot of dangerous people in his life, but this was not a face he recognized.

"Who are you?" he said, taking a step forward.

"Don't," the man said, but Zack had already taken one more, and their combined weight on the rafter was a little too much. The wood had been creaking ominously, but now it splintered, and with a deafening crack broke beneath them. Zack fell as the beam gave out and he dropped two stories before tucking forward and rolling as he hit the ground, coming up unharmed.

He didn't expect the same of the red-caped man, but the man landed lightly given the drop. He was crouched on both feet, one gold hand on the ground next to the gloved one. It was a lethal looking claw, matching the sharp boots and the gold trim on the gun.

"You're enhanced," Zack said, falling into a ready stance. He had his sword but drawing it would be even more threatening.

That red gaze locked on him, assessing from behind the cover of his cape, which was pulled to cover the lower half of his face. The man couldn't be much older than Sephiroth and yet he radiated experience and warning. This wasn't the sort of person Aeris consorted with—he screamed assassin.

"Who are you?" Zack demanded.

No response. Zack, who had been riding the edge of his patience for the last week, found himself getting angry. He wasn't leaving until he knew who this guy was. He'd had enough with not knowing anything.

The fight was brutally short. The red-caped man was faster than Zack expected and a lot wilier, but Zack had overconfidence drilled out of him, so he compensated quickly, pushing his body to move as fast as it could. He slammed two fists in quick succession to the man's torso, just missing grabbing the cloth as his wrists were crushed under a powerful downward blow. They dodged and wove around one another before Zack managed to get his knee up and into the man's thigh, just barely missing the headlock and taking two hard punches. He was lucky to evade the neck strike that would have knocked him out, and in a reflexive move too fast for anyone not a First, Zack grabbed the man by the hand and whipped it back hard enough to dislocate the wrist.

Except it didn't because that metal hand couldn't be dislocated. Still, it was leverage enough for what Zack wanted—

"Got it!" Zack snarled, holding a scrap of cape and more importantly, the guy's PHS, as he kicked out and skidded them both out of range. It was an old Shinra issue PHS, kind of clunky but therefore also easy to hack. Zack waited for a resumption of the fight, but the red-caped man only watched him warily. Keeping one eye on the clearly dangerous man, Zack deftly opened the PHS and clicked on call history. Everything had been erased, as had any messages, but the contacts list had exactly one name he cared about.

"You know Cloud!" Zack said incredulously. Cloud. Seriously. He'd have to double check if that were Cloud's number, but it wasn't like there were a lot of people wandering around with that name. Of course it led back to him. Of course.

"…"

"He's one of your three contacts. How do you know him?" Zack demanded.

"…"

The man in red made no move for his gun and no indication he was going to explain.

"Cloud is my friend," Zack said, trying for an appeal like he had with Reno. "I want to help him."

"…I know."

"Then help me help him."

"It's Cloud's decision."

"Cloud's not here anymore."

"…"

Zack memorized the number on the phone and tossed it back at the red-caped man. "Tell me how you know Cloud."

The man turned around and started to walk away. Zack sprinted to get in front of him, but just before he could pass him, the man jumped up—and not just over Zack's head, but high enough to reach the rafters in one go.

"Where did you get your enhancements?!" Zack yelled up at him, but not even he could make a standing jump like that.

"Shinra has made a lot of mistakes," the man said calmly from above, staring down at Zack in a weirdly familiar empty look. It reminded him of the expression Sephiroth used to wear before Zack's friendliness wore him down. "Cloud is correcting them."

"Then let me help," Zack offered. "Shinra's ruined my friends and is getting more corrupt everyday. I want to help Cloud."

But the red-caped man just walked away, and before Zack's eyes he seemed to melt into the cape and then into nothingness.