Redemption
A Final Fantasy 7/ Lord of the Rings crossover
By: Lazeralk
Standard disclaimers apply.
Once again, ("blah") denotes things said in Sindarin. 'Blah' is the Advents and Cloud sharing thoughts.
A little note at the bottom for a reviewer.
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"What in Shiva's name is your problem?" demanded Yazoo angrily as he threw the piece of wood in his hands down on the ground. The timber fractured and broke into hundreds of pieces on impact, but the silver haired youth ignored it.
"I don't know what you're talking about." Answered Cloud.
"Why the fuck are you driving us like animals? That crazy old man with the attitude problem assigned us grunt work and you're all fucking gung-ho about it. We're just moving weapons. Transport work. Regulars could do this shit. We're SOLDIERS." Said Yazoo, his voice dripping with condensation and indignation.
"They don't have any idea what SOLDIERS can do Yazoo." Began Cloud, only to be cut off.
"So what? This about proving we can do this? That we're better than them?" yelled Yazoo, his face a mask of fury.
"No! This is about making them understand, to not underestimate us." Cloud yelled back, his own face drawn in tight lines.
"It about respect Aniki. They don't respect us. We're outsiders, unknowns. The king dismissed us as hotheaded kids with chips on our shoulders. That's why he gave us this job, because he didn't take us seriously at all, but he didn't want to risk offending Elrohir." Said Kadaj from the sidelines, were he stood, arms crossed over his chest as he watched his two most volatile brothers fight. Loz also watched, his face panicked as he fidgeted uselessly.
"Respect?" sneered Yazoo, his attention on Kadaj.
"Yes Yazoo. Respect. This is about making them respect us, respect Zack, respect SOLDIER." Said Cloud firmly, sending a quick look to Kadaj that said without words that he was pleased his youngest brother understood and was willing to back him up. Yazoo caught it and was all the angrier for it.
"Who the fuck is Zack?" demanded Yazoo, highly agitated.
"I don't want to talk about it." Said Cloud, his face at once losing all expression. He turned around and reached for a new piece of wood.
"You said Sephiroth killed him at Nibelheim. Was he your friend?" asked Kadaj.
"I don't want to talk about it." Repeated Cloud, his back still turned to his brothers, his tone flat.
"You're-!" began Yazoo.
"Enough! We all know why we're doing this now, and why Ni-san wants it be as efficient and impressive as possible. Like you said Yazoo, this is grunt work, so it should be nothing for four SOLDIERS. Just shut up and do it." Commanded Kadaj, already moving to gather more wood.
The four of them were building a new wagon to hold all the weapons and armor that they were moving. The plan was to have just the one wagon for everything, but the wagon had to be able to hold the weight of all the cargo and move at a fairly high speed without breaking. The issue was structural integrity. Wood wasn't going to be strong enough to do all that, the weight of the weapons was too great, but they didn't have enough wood to make four separate wagons. They had decided to pull the wagon themselves, leaving the horses to carry people or be used for other things. The four of them were more than strong enough to handle the weight, but they couldn't carry the bulk of the weapons and armor without a wagon.
"I think we need to cut new wheels. The ones that Hama gave us are too thin." Said Loz quietly from his crouched position by the rough body of their partially constructed wagon.
"Yeah." Agreed Cloud, raking a hand through his bangs.
"Ok, Kadaj, cut us some new wheels. Yazoo and Loz keep working on the siding. I think if we reinforce the axles with some of the swords that aren't useable anymore, we can use the extra wood that would have gone there to reinforce the bed."
"Yeah, we could do that." Said Loz.
"We need chain." Grumbled Yazoo to himself as he worked, ignoring Cloud who was going through the pile of archaic swords on the floor.
"I'll ask Hama on the way out." Said Kadaj as he walked towards the door, grimly holding Souba in his hands. Cutting wheels with his precious sword was just so wrong, but she was the only blade that was both thin enough and sharp enough to do the job. The elven long knives were lovely, but folded steel wasn't stronger than materia enhanced folded titanium.
Hama was curious about the need for chain; but dutifully retrieved several bundles from the dungeons. Kadaj slung them around his shoulder and then told Hama he was going up into the mountains to get more wood. The Rohiric soldier eyed him strangely and informed him that the trek into the mountains and back would take him several days and that all of Edoras would be at Helm's Deep before he returned. Kadaj just smiled at him and took off running, black shadows swirling around his feet.
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"Cloud." Said Elrohir softly as he entered the barn where his friends were reported to have locked themselves away. A monstrous wagon without wheels sat on the floor, three of the four brothers still adding pieces here and there. Cloud glanced up at the elf and then returned to his work.
"Cloud, you must come quickly. Kadaj is causing a panic." Said the elf sternly, moving more fully into the room.
The blonde stood in alarm, focusing his attention inward and seeking Kadaj's mind with his own. What he found made him both want to laugh at and strangle his youngest brother. Kadaj had made record time into the mountains and back, three and half hours in total and had brought back several trees worth of extra wood.
It was how he'd accomplished this that was making people panic as he came back into Edoras. The six huge trees he'd returned with were strung together with the heavy chains from the dungeons, and being pulled by a pack of shadowy beasts, each five times the size of any horse. Kadaj rode at the head of the pack on the shoulders of the biggest Lurker, who was pulling a truly massive tree trunk, cut short to only about ten feet in length. The look on his youngest brother's face was positively smug.
"Cloud?" demanded Elrohir, now standing directly in front of him, a frown on his absurdly beautiful face.
"Let's go." Said the blonde as he turned and walked out of the barn and into the streets on the outskirts of Edoras. Loz and Yazoo followed, both smirking as they too watched the scene through their brother's eyes.
"Ni-san!" called Kadaj from the back of his Lurker as they made their way back into the city. The smallest of the Advents then leapt from the shoulders of the great beast to approach the trio walking towards him. People pointed and whispered, gawked and balked at the beasts. Women ushered their children into houses and slammed doors shut.
"What is the meaning of this?" demanded a voice. Cloud turned to find a small grouping of Rohiric soldiers storming towards them, the twins, Aragorn, Legolas and Gimli trailing after them. Another group of soldiers were escorting King Théoden down the path that lead from the Meduseld to the commotion they were causing.
'You want that respect Ni-san? Perfect opportunity right here.' Whispered Kadaj in Cloud's mind as the youngest of the Advents eyed the King's approaching form.
"Answer me boy! What devilry do you bring into our lands?" barked the soldier. The four brothers completely ignored him, all of them watching the King come closer. Aragorn noticed their attention and frowned, he moved to step forward, but was halted by a hand from Gimli on his arm.
"Ne, Ni-san. Think you can cut this one into four even pieces?" said Kadaj as he absently waved his hand in the direction of the largest log.
"The wheels?" asked Cloud, turning and walking over to it. He eyed it critically for a moment before nodding to himself. The sound of approaching feet had stopped, the King of Rohan was watching.
"Loz, I need you to throw this log into the air as high as you can. Yazoo and 'Daj will catch the pieces." Said Cloud as he pulled First Tsurugi from his back and carefully broke it into two swords about equal in size.
"Ok." Said Loz casually as he approached the log and easily tipped it so that it rested on its severed base rather than its side.
"What's going on here?" asked Théoden.
"We need to cut new wheels. The ones you gave us aren't wide enough to support the weight of the wagon and the cargo." Said Yazoo snidely, as he walked past the king to position himself opposite of Kadaj, with Loz and Cloud between them.
"Just say when Ni-san." Said Loz as he carefully tipped the log just enough to get one hand underneath it. Cloud twirled his swords twice before he nodded, settling his shoulders.
"Go."
Loz heaved with all his strength and flung the log high into the air. Cloud leapt after it, his two swords a blur as he cut into the wood mid-air. Four huge disks fell towards the ground but were expertly caught by Yazoo and Kadaj, a disk in each hand. Cloud flipped once to help him control his decent and landed neatly next to Loz, swords already assembled back into one giant blade.
"Ai Elbereth." Whispered Legolas. The others stared at them, mouths agape and eyes full of shocked disbelief. Cloud regarded them all calmly as he turned to address Kadaj, First Tsurugi still grasped in his hand.
"Ok, 'Daj, start cutting the wheels. Loz, Yazoo, let's get these other trees cut into planks." Said Cloud. Yazoo smirked at Théoden as he placed the two disks he was holding at Kadaj's feet, then turned to help his other brothers get the chains off the trees. Loz lifted one of the trunks and threw it, doing his best to keep it as close to a ninety degree angle as possible. Cloud leapt again, cutting the tree bottom to top, maintaining as straight a cut as he could.
Théoden watched grimly, a grudging look on his face before he turned and walked away, his contingent of soldiers scrambling to catch up. The twins and the remains of the Fellowship stayed behind, and watched the Advents make quick work of the logs. It was only after the last of the wood had been moved into the barn that the five witnesses returned to the Meduseld, their minds and hearts full of conflicting thoughts and feelings.
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And that's all for chapter 15. Thanks to everyone who reviewed, it gives me motivation to keep writing. I only had one review with a question in it, so I'll answer that below.
1. To the person (in chapter 4) who asked about Zack dying early and Cloud not being experimented on for five years: Cloud lied. He'd just met Elrond for the first time, no way in hell he's going to talk about that with someone he just met. It will become an issue later, cuz the Advents don't know about it either, but they'll find out.