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.

0o0o0

Kadaj's smile almost slipped, but he wrestled it back into place, doing his best to conceal the hurt and the irrational anger he was feeling. He stood on the long wall that served as the outer most defenses of the fortress, hand extended and face struggling to maintain his expression. Cloud was eyeing his open palm like it might bite him, his frown more severe than usual.

"Come on Ni-san, just take my hand. I'll show you how to summon the Lurkers." Kadaj encouraged softly, trying not to spook his body-shy brother. Cloud took a deep, shuddering breath and visibly forced himself to raise his hand, stopping just shy of actually touching Kadaj. The youngest of the Advents held very, very still, somehow sensing how monumentally important this small action would be. The slight breeze brought the faint scent of sweet smelling flowers and Cloud slowly, painstakingly lowered his hand until his fingers rested lightly in Kadaj's palm.

Kadaj smiled brilliantly and latched hungrily onto the connection the contact forged between them. He pushed, lightly at first, but with ever increasing pressure at the barrier that shrouded Cloud's mind, seeking a place where they could meet on equal terms. He found the blonde in a small glade, filled with flowers and light. It contrasted quite harshly with the black thundering emptiness that begun just beyond the borders of the tiny glade and stretched out into infinity for as far as the eye could see. Kadaj studied the darkness with a frown on his face, not understanding where the darkness had come from. Hadn't his Ni-san had a good life, raised by a mother that loved him? Hadn't he found glory in SOLDIER? Why was his mind so bleak?

"Kadaj." Said the dream Cloud, bringing his attention back to the blonde he'd come to find.

"Ni-san! Are you ready to learn about the Lurkers?" he asked excitedly, eyes glowing bright. Even if his mind-scape was damaged and strange, this was the closest his Ni-san had ever allowed him. He'd even touched him of his own free will, knowing that they would be even closer! It was a huge victory.

Then his Ni-san did something very strange. Mid-nod, the blonde's figure…flickered. For half an instant his short, blonde and moody Ni-san had looked tall, black-haired and happy. Kadaj blinked and by the time his eyes were open again, Cloud looked just like he normally did, frowning at him and everything.

"Um, right, so hold on to my hands and feel what I do ok?" said Kadaj, holding out his hands and brutally suppressing his automatic reaction of connecting to Yazoo and Loz to share what he'd seen. There would be time enough for that later. Cloud frowned but moved to take his hands, with noticeably less hesitation this time around. Kadaj wondered at that before the answer brushed against his thoughts, so closely intertwined with Cloud's own. There was no one here to see him, no one here take advantage of that momentary weakness. The silver-haired Advent felt an echoing instinct in himself, a reaction trained into him from the labs. Only family got to touch him. He realized with something like shock that he had a very similar reaction to anyone else that wasn't either his family, or someone he felt he could absolutely take out without a problem, that tried to touch him. His own reaction was much weaker and better controlled than his Ni-san's but it was there. He suddenly understood why his brother flinched away from being touched with perfect clarity. Or rather he understood the reaction, though the memories of the reason were hidden from him.

Cloud tugged lightly on his hands to get his attention and then gasped as Kadaj reflexively Summoned, remembering what he'd come to do and doing it in the same instant. A single Lurker appeared inside the glade, whining at the darkness that surrounded them before it vanished.

Cloud frowned, eyes narrowed in concentration, 'feeling' in a way he'd never felt before. He had 'felt' with this new strange sense the movement of energy through Kadaj, had 'felt' the thought mix with that energy and made a startling discovery. The Lurkers were not something that just waited to be summoned from somewhere; they were literally a part of Kadaj. They were a physical manifestation of his own life energy, or rather, they came from within Kadaj. Idly, Cloud recognized that this explained why the Lurkers were totally unaffected by the lack of Lifestream in Middle Earth while their Materia had not been so fortunate.

"Again." He said and concentrated on what else he could 'feel' about the process. Kadaj obliged him without a word and another Lurker manifested into his mind-scape. Now that was looking for it, he saw and 'felt' that the Lurkers were somehow, inexplicably, made from Kadaj's shadow. The darkness was somehow charged with thought and energy and made into a Lurker. He didn't quite understand how to do it, but sort of understood the concept behind it.

"How?" asked Cloud, knowing that Kadaj would know exactly what he was asking. Kadaj dropped his hands and tilted his head to the side, eyes rolling skyward. He tucked one hand under the opposite elbow and tapped a finger from the other hand on his chin.

"Hmmm…I don't actually know. I just…do it." Said Kadaj, giving his brother a helpless shrug.

Cloud scowled at him and crossed his arms over his chest. Suddenly Kadaj was in a well furnished apartment, the methodic hum of a ceiling fan and the quiet ticking of an ornate clock filling the posh home. Kadaj whirled in surprise, hand reaching automatically to the small of his back where Souba swung in her sheath. Sephiroth walked out of what Kadaj assumed to be the kitchen with a steaming dish in his hands, completely ignoring him.

"Aniue?" he asked, but Sephiroth didn't react at all. So absorbed in his shock at seeing his eldest brother, the one Mother had praised and whispered about for all his life, he didn't even notice the other person in the room. Sephiroth set the dish on a beautifully carved wooden table in front of another man. Kadaj sucked in a harsh breath as he caught sight of that other man, recognition and confusion flooding his mind. The black spiky hair and broad shoulders matched the man that his Ni-san had looked like for that brief flickering instant. Even the clothes were the same.

"This is your first time cooking right Seph?" asked the brunette as he licked his lips clean of the bite he'd just stolen from the dish.

"Use the plate Zachary." Said Sephiroth with a frown as he took a seat across from the other SOLDIER.

"Zack." The other corrected automatically, reaching for the large serving spoon on the table. Kadaj's eyes narrowed as he studied the suddenly much more interesting stranger. So this was his Ni-san's 'Zack'.

"What did you do? Suck culinary knowledge out of Betty Crocker's soul?* Seriously man, how do you do this?" asked the dark-haired man with a chipper smile as he loaded his plate with some sort of delicious smelling casserole.

"I don't know. I just…do." Said Sephiroth, staring at the steaming dish with a blank, but somehow troubled expression.

Cloud shook his shoulders, a furious snarl on his face. Kadaj was back in the glade, all traces of Sephiroth and Zack gone as if they'd never been.

"What did you see?" demanded Cloud, thunder crackling dangerously in the darkness that surrounded the little glade, the temperature rising with Cloud's anger. Kadaj had never seen his Ni-san so angry before and for a moment he was frightened. He jerked his hand back, shaking his head to clear the light dizziness that breaking their connection had left him with. Cloud, with much less experience, stumbled backwards, catching his balance against the wall as he shook his head and blinked rapidly, trying to shake the disorientation.

Yazoo put a hand on Kadaj's shoulder, asking without words if he was alright. Kadaj watched Cloud carefully with mako green eyes as he put his hand over Yazoo's, the slightly distant look in the middle child's eyes giving away the depth of their internal communication. Loz frowned and set a hand on top of Kadaj's, his expression going from a sullen pout at being excluded to surprise and then concern. Cloud ignored them all, eyes screwed shut as he battled with dredged up memories he was only half certain were his.

Warm hands were suddenly on his shoulders and he jerked sharply, a blind panic sending him scrambling for the hilt of a blade.

"Peace my friend!" said Elrohir, hands held up before him, palms out. The elf began to speak soothingly in his own language, taking slow, but deliberate steps towards the jumpy blonde.

"Peace, your are safe here my friend." He said watching as Cloud calmed himself and eased his hand away from his weapons. The SOLDIER looked away from the advancing elf and took a steadying breath, his body shaking ever so slightly. Elrohir slowly held his hands out and carefully placed them back on Cloud's shoulders, stubbornly ignoring his flinch. Cloud glared at him, but allowed the contact.

"Do you want to tell me what that was all about?" said the dark-haired beauty as he looked down at the much smaller blonde. The elf's eyes showed nothing but genuine concern and a steady sort of kindness that refused to be tainted by the ghosts of Cloud's past. The blonde let those kind eyes steady him until his shaking stopped and he felt strong enough to speak.

"Kadaj was teaching me how to Summon Lurkers." Said Cloud, taking a deliberate step backwards to break the contact between them. He gazed at the elf, his eyes more clear than before, but his stance unwelcoming. Elrohir, having had many a long year to become acquainted with all the subtle nuances of body-language, read the blonde correctly and turned to face the trio of silver-haired SOLDIERS that were still quietly communing among themselves. He kept his posture firm, but not confrontational, and Cloud eventually relaxed once he was no longer the center of attention.

"And how did that go Kadaj?" asked Elrohir, doing his best to watch all of their faces for their reactions. Kadaj disentangled himself from his brothers and pushed Loz forward with perhaps a touch more force than necessary, his expression sunny, and not the least bit telling.

"Go, Loz." He said, a very clear order. He then turned his single-minded focus to Elrohir and gave the elf a serene smile.

"Ni-san got the basics down, now Loz will teach him technique. Then Yazoo will walk him through a real-world Summon." Said the smallest Advent cheerily. Clearly, this had already been arranged, as Loz was nodding and Yazoo looked unhappy but resigned.

"And will this 'teaching of technique' cause the same reaction as before? We need you all to be in top form. Estel estimates that our enemy will be upon us come nightfall." Said the elf, casting a slightly worried expression towards Cloud, who was moodily facing away from them, shoulders hunched as he stared out across the empty fields of Rohan. The sun was already on the decent, painting the sky in brilliant colors as it struck the clouds.

"We'll be fine Elrohir-san. If Ni-san can Summon, it will be one more advantage for us. We'll need that advantage to help counter-balance the loss of our Materia." Said Loz, as much to Cloud as to Elrohir. Cloud shrugged his shoulders, shifting his sword holster around a bit before he nodded, seemingly to himself and turned to face Loz. He eyed the bigger man stoically, waiting.

'You have to offer him your hand Oni-chan.' Said Kadaj waspishly, the sting of his words softened somewhat but the affectionate nickname. Cloud glanced sharply at Kadaj, a touch surprised that he'd heard a thought that was obviously intended only for Loz. The eldest of the Advents blinked and then strutted confidently over to Cloud and presented his hand with a flourish and roguish smirk. Yazoo rolled his eyes, but Loz ignored him. Elrohir leaned against the wall and watched them all with interest.

Cloud glanced around himself and then studied Loz's hand for a moment. Showing just as much caution as he had with Kadaj, he carefully set just the tips of his fingers on Loz's open palm. The switch to mind-scape was much faster than before, Kadaj having already found a path through Cloud's mental defenses for Loz to follow.

Loz and Cloud stood together in the small glade full of flowers and light, the darkness that stretched out beyond the glade now seemed to have the outline of Midgar's city-scape off in the distance and a huge rusted sword stuck into a ledge floating along in the dark, higher up than the city. Loz only spared these a passing glance before he held his hands out, eager to show off his clearly superior Summoning technique, that's why Kadaj chose him to show Ni-san how to do it after all.

The blonde grimaced but dutifully took the offered hands and settled himself in to 'feel' how it was done. Loz Summoned, and to Cloud, it seemed as if he'd somehow slowed the whole process down, letting Cloud 'feel' every nuance of the energy flow as Loz did when he Summoned. Cloud frowned and tried to duplicate it, getting a thin wisp of shadow to form at his side. Loz's Lurker sniffed at it and it vanished. Far from discouraged Cloud tried again, this time getting a bigger shadow, though it still had no definable shape.

Loz smiled at him encouragingly and demonstrated again, that same slow process. Cloud withdrew his hands and pushed his energy into the correct pattern, watching as something huge and four legged began to take shape. Slowly, the Lurker's features became more defined. Shaggy fur twitched and swayed as the Lurker moved and Cloud lost his hold on it in surprise. The almost finished Lurker vanished in a puff of smoke.

"You almost had it." Said Loz, beaming.

"Why did mine have fur? The Lurkers all look the same don't they? Why is mine different?" muttered Cloud, knowing that Loz would hear him no matter how softly he spoke.

"You are different from me." Said Loz, as if such a statement explained everything. Cloud frowned at him but then, he supposed it did make a sort of strange sense. The three Advents would all have the same Lurkers that Sephiroth had, because, technically, they were Sephiroth. Or at least, they didn't have anything that Sephiroth didn't have, genetically speaking, so all three 'pieces' of him would be able to Summon the same kind of Lurker. He was very different from Sephiroth, and by virtue of that, very different from the three Advents. He supposed it would only make sense then that his Lurkers would be different, seeing as that they were made from within him.

Keeping this in mind, Cloud tried again, pushing with his energy and his thought, noticing that this time was a little easier than the last time and the big Lurker formed a little more quickly. When the new Lurker had lost all of its misty edges, it shook out its fur and let its tongue loll in his direction. Cloud smiled ruefully.

"Figures I'd get a Nibel Wolf."

"Now that the shape is defined, you should have a much easier time Summoning Ni-san. Ready to try it outside?" said Loz, not even waiting for Cloud's reply before he broke their connection and withdrew his hand. Cloud blinked as he came back to himself, this time with no dizziness at all. In fact it felt not dissimilar to switching back and forth from when he spoke to Aerith. Of course, he wasn't really angry and upset this time around either.

"Well?" asked Yazoo snidely, a pair of Lurkers springing into existence behind him. Cloud met his challenge silently but pushed with all his might and was pleased when the familiar form of a Nibel Wolf rose from the shadows to pace at his side. The Wolf was easily as large as the Lurkers, and the three massive predators gave each other curious sniffs. Summoning in the real world was a great deal more difficult than in his mind scape, but Cloud knew that if he practiced he'd get better at it, and he'd be able to Summon more than just the one. He looked at the setting sun and grimaced. It wouldn't be long before sun set and that was all the time he had to get better at his Summoning.

"I guess we'd better mosey then, right Hati?" he asked his Wolf and pushed.

0o0o0

*I shamelessly stole this line from sephcounttheways' story Kittens. It's a totally awesome fic, go read it!

To the people who left comments wondering how Cloud would learn to Summon Lurkers and being all excited about it: This chapter is entirely your fault. I was all poised to just be like: "And then Cloud randomly and magically could Summon Lurkers! Hurray! On with the fighting!" But then my muse was all like: "That's a great opportunity to dreg up some more interpersonal issues!" And I was totally over-ruled. Plus she got to write Sephiroth, which is always a plus, cuz he's…you know, Sephiroth. So, my muse is cackling evilly and screaming "SUCKERS!" at the top of her lungs. I guess the battle gets to wait another chapter. But I guess the stuff in this chapter was kinda cool, not as cool as flying Orc guts, but still kinda cool yeah?