Chapter has been edited as of 1/21/24, mostly cosmetic changes
Chapter 38: Cloud's bad week
One week earlier...
Cloud burst from the pool of mako and water, gasping and choking on the stinging fluid. He coughed a few times and then shoved some of the dissolving crystallized mako out of his way. Ignoring the typical laws of physics, the crystals floated in the mixture of water and mako like ice cubes in a soft drink. Unfortunately for Cloud and Zack, they were at the bottom of the metaphorical glass when the ice and soda were poured in.
A thrill of horror shot through the blond and as he whipped his head back and forth, searching the shimmering water for any sign of Zack. There was too much shattered crystal in the water for him to see through the larger floating fragments. Coughing a few times in a vain attempt to ease the burn of mako in his sinuses, he half swam, half crawled through the wreckage to the shattered rubble of the walls.
One of the mako shards sliced a deep gash down the length of his right forearm. Blood swirled in the mako mixture, the crimson briefly spread in ribbons, then the red faded to brown and finally vanished into the luminous green of mako. Hissing at the acidic burn of the liquid in the wound, the blond swam on until he finally managed to crawl out of the pool. The liquid dripping from his clothes steamed faintly and he rested a moment on his hands and knees staring unseeing at the crystal rubble beneath his hands and the growing rivulets of blood meandering through the detritus around his right hand. Half of him wanted to dive back into the mako to get Zack, the other half wanted to curl up and cry himself to sleep. He couldn't decide whether that part of him was lazy or just weary, but it also reminded him that SOLDIERs couldn't drown in mako.
Swift on the heels of this thought came a blast of self-recrimination. The possibility that Sephiroth could control Zack hadn't even occurred to him. It should have. They both suffered under Hojo's treatments so the possibility was always there. Ever since Sephiroth played him like a puppet in the Temple of the Ancients he'd felt Sephiroth's sway was due to some flaw in himself. Cloud had refused to believe it was anything more and thus never even considered warning Zack against Sephiroth's control. He clenched his fists and told himself the liquid running down his face was mako and water, not tears.
He grit his teeth and forced his swirling emotions down. He needed a cool head so he could process what he needed to do next. He ignored the terror of what Sephiroth had done to Zack, the fear that the madman now possessed the Black Materia, and attempted to ignore the agonized screaming of his body at the injuries from the chamber collapse and the shocking influx of mako into his blood.
What he couldn't ignore, however, was the sensation of something staring at him. He turned around and looked up… and up… and up at the glowing golden eyes of one of five massive machine and biological hybrids. Gleaming sapphire spikes protruded from its body and a massive blade-like fin emerged from the top of its head. A small turn of his head revealed four more distinctly different behemoths silently gazing down at him. A core of resentment burned in Cloud's chest and he scowled up at the Weapons, daring them to judge him.
And judge they did, they judged him unworthy of their interest. The five massive beings turned from the man and the pool of mako like one might gaze a moment at a strange pebble on the ground and then move on. Despite their size, the Weapons moved with an incomparable speed, either climbing from the crater or flying away at supersonic speeds. With their departure however, their mass no longer displaced the mako and water. Like a flushing toilet, the mako and crystal mixture swirled in ever swifter spirals and then drained with an obscene gurgle. Judging from the rushing sounds emitting from the hole left behind, the chamber below was enormous.
"Right," Cloud sighed and quickly chugged a Hi-potion for his wounds. He shivered at the adrenaline rush and tingles from his swiftly sealing injuries before carefully crossing the loose stones to the edge of the pit. He peered at the hole, then looked up at the darkening sky, his eyes blazing so brightly from the mako exposure they cast shadows among the remaining rubble. "Let's hope you're easy to find Zack, something tells me I'm going to wear out my welcome pretty quickly down here…" Treading carefully on the mako-slick spiral chute leading below, Cloud entered the maze of caves.
Much like the mako rich caverns of the Nibel Mountains, the vast chambers below the Northern Crater glimmered with mako and natural materia. The brilliant glow paired with the variety of colors decorating the wall and ceilings of the caverns made Cloud feel almost like he was floating in the depths of space rather than traveling deeper and deeper below the ground.
Unfortunately, the rush of mako and water didn't prevent mako enhanced monsters from inhabiting the subterranean space. Following the ever diminishing trickles of mako hoping to find his friend washed aground somewhere, Cloud's attention wasn't on his surroundings. Only a faint scrape of a leathery foot on the ground gave the blond a chance to dodge the knife in the dark from a master tonberry. The vaguely turtle-shaped beast retracted its blade and shuffled towards Cloud again. He wasn't sure how he had missed its approach considering its lantern and the golden star that hovered above the bluish creature's head.
Heart thudding rapidly in his chest after the near escape, Cloud widened his senses to see if there were more lurking out of sight. When he determined the short, caped monster was alone, he drew his Organics and went on the offense.
Tonberries often ended up in the barrack tales as the ultimate boogey monster. They were slow, as their turtle form suggested, but also painfully methodical and as difficult to stop as a glacier. Your only hope was to escape or carve deep enough through their near impenetrable defense to kill them. If they managed to stab you, there was little hope of survival, especially if you were alone. There was some strange substance or power imbued in the seemingly innocuous chef's knife the creatures bore that made the inflicted wounds almost instantly fatal. Some of the men Cloud went through Basic with theorized Sephiroth's Masamune was crafted from melted down Tonberry knives. He doubted the story was true or at least that such a process imbued the six foot blade with instantly fatal properties since he'd been stabbed twice and survived.
Taking into account that he was alone, his first blow was to cast his strongest poison attack at the monster. Through painful trial and error, he whittled away the monster's health. The monster gave as good as it took, however, as Cloud was barely clinging to life after it used its special attack "Everyone's Grudge". Only his physical speed, his HP Absorb materia, and copious amounts of healing potions kept him going. The battle drew on so long, Cloud felt his chances of reaching Zack slipping through his fingers like wisps of smoke. Snarling, he took the chance to use the morph materia he found in the temple of the Ancients. Instead of flinching from Cloud's Organics' blade, the Master Tonberry spun in place, shrinking and flattening. When the lightshow faded, a Ribbon fluttered gently to the cavern floor.
Cloud stared at the item and then gaped at the innocuous materia sparkling on his bangle with horrified awe. "And Barret thinks my bag is crazy," he muttered. Shaking his head, Cloud scooped up his prize and wandered deeper into the caverns. This time taking care to pay attention to his surroundings. And if he stumbled upon another Master Tonberry on his way? All the better.
Despite his renewed eagerness to hunt down Master Tonberries, Cloud wasn't interested in attempting to face the varied mutated monsters that inhabited the underground labyrinth. They were several times stronger than the enemies he faced in the crater and now he didn't have the assurance of back up should he falter or get surrounded. He skirted strange pools and hugged the walls of vast chambers, ducking behind stalagmites and rock formations whenever an ashy colored Dark Dragon walked by, the hairs on the back of his neck standing up in fear of their power.
He wasn't certain how long he'd been underground when he finally had to stop. He gazed despairingly at the massive lake of mako at the base of the cavern. The trails and rivulets ended here and there was a high possibility Zack did too. For one agonizing moment, Cloud debated stripping down to continue his search for his friend under the stinging liquid depths but two things stopped him. That… sense inside told Cloud that Zack wouldn't be reached from this location, and instead he felt an insistent tugging to the south. The other hindrance was a strange barrier rising from the depths of the mako. While it didn't move considerably fast, much like the ponderous pace of an elderly woman crossing the street with a walker, it expanded with each faint pulse of light.
Cloud wrenched a chunk of rock from where it wedged between two small stone formations during the mako draining and hurled it at the barrier. The pearlescent surface sizzled and popped, launching the stone back at Cloud with enough force to shatter it against the cavern wall over his shoulder. Brushing the fragments from his hair, the blond sighed and said, "Looks like I'll have to find another way. But I will find you Zack."
Following the ever increasing inner tug, he whirled and carefully but swiftly made his way back through the caves. The barrier increased speed the longer Cloud traveled. He was torn between relief and annoyance that the monsters passed through the barrier with no harm, but couldn't come back once they'd gone through. By the time he returned to the surface, the wall expanded at the speed of a light jog. Grimacing at the mangled landscape he had to cross from the crater center to the walls, he muttered, "I'd better move fast or it will catch me."
His grim prediction turned out to be prophetic. He was three quarters of the way across, when the menacing pearlescent wall sped up even further. Cloud bit his lip, gazing forlornly at the shattered pathways back to the Gaia cliffs. He couldn't possibly cross that safely, not without wings or a really good grappling hook. Taking a sharp turn to the east, the blond scrabbled over less fragmented paths to the wall of the crater. By this point, he could hear the rushing, popping noise of the barrier behind him. Stones sliced his arms and bruised his fingers when he scrambled up the wall, the heat of the looming death crackling at his heels. When he threw himself over the lip, barely clinging to the cliff side with desperate fingers, the dome snapped into place around the edge and finally stopped.
His breath wheezed in his lungs while his feet quested for footholds on the side of the cliff. Outside of the crater's warm micro-climate, his breath fogged around his face and the droplets of sweat on his skin from his mad scramble started to freeze. Reeking of mako and trembling from the overdose and frantic escape, Cloud wasn't entirely sure how he managed to crawl down the cliff and into a thankfully uninhabited cave shielded from most of the wind. Shivering not only from the cold, but the shock and the stresses and horrors of the day, he curled up in the fabric of a Tent that couldn't expand properly in the cramped space.
His dreams were troubled. Fragments of memories he thought lost to the mako in Hojo's lab drifted and mingled with his adventures with friends and strange sights and vistas he'd never thought he'd see. He traveled through the ocean, swifter than a dolphin and passed the wreckage of a plane in a small inlet, the structure reeking of treasure and danger. Zooming far north, skirting the ocean bottom he avoided a pair of enormous creatures fighting in the liquid depths; their massive armored bodies moved with unexpected buoyancy and grace as they weaved and dodged around each other. One was a rich sapphire in color, the other a vibrant emerald. He faintly recognized them as two of the five Weapons that emerged from the crater.
Why were they fighting each other? The pull inside Cloud deemed the question unimportant and urged him on.
Darting past the conflicting Weapons, the cool water cooled to freezing, forming an icy clarity as he traveled from the southern continents further and further north. A glowing hand pointed to an underground cavern at the base of a steep cliff. Cloud's eyes traced the glowing hand up its arm to the brilliant figure drifting beside him. The only features he could discern were the person's laughing blue eyes. The being lowered its arm and then grabbed Cloud's wrist, shooting for the ocean's surface like a plastic bottle full of air. They shot from the water without a ripple, rising further and further into the sky before he was transported over the entire world.
The mysterious figure would pause over a mountain or cave, point and then drag him on. After visiting a dizzying array of locations, some he knew, like Cosmo Canyon and Bone Village, and some he didn't but instantly could pick off of a map once he saw them. Cloud's head spun with the rapid speed of the transitions, a faint uneasiness growing in his stomach like the motion sickness he'd stopped suffering after falling in Hojo's hands. Finally, the being took him to one last location. It pointed down at a small cottage in a lonely green valley cradled by snow capped mountains. Cloud knew this place as well, but he hadn't thought of it in many years.
The person finally released his wrist and Cloud rubbed the aching joint with his other hand. Distracted by the minor ache, he didn't have time to move away when the glowing figure pulled him into a hug, the light engulfed Cloud and then sunk into his skin infusing him with its brilliance and sudden warmth. His wrist throbbed once, twice, and then Cloud woke up.
He was still warm, and the lethargy urged him back to sleep. The dream was odd but there was no reason to wake. Another pain in his wrist dragged him toward consciousness. He moaned and slowly opened his eyes to darkness. Something cooed behind him and nudged his back soothingly. He was so tired, and so warm, it was dark so he should just… go back to sleep.
His eyes drifted shut once more and the pain in his wrist was accompanied by an indignant "Wark!"
Wark?
Cloud pulled his eyes back open, struggling to focus on his situation. Awareness and realization snapped his eyes wide open. A pair of black feathered chocobo huddled against his body. In the night his meager shelter had slipped away and the cold penetrated his limbs in stinging sensations as well as the dangerous warm lethargy before a much more permanent sleep.
The larger chocobo had Cloud's wrist in his beak, clamping down when the blond started drifting asleep again. "I'm awake now," he rasped, patting the chocobo's beak with his free hand, "you can let me go."
The chocobo obliged, rubbing his head up and down Cloud's chest before climbing to his feet and warking back at the other bird. The chocobo behind Cloud nudged his back, pushing the shaky blond to his feet. He staggered and stomped his feet in place as the feeling painfully returned to his arms and legs. The chocobo by the entrance butted his head into Cloud's chest, pushing him to his still crouched companion.
Still a bit dazed by his frighteningly close brush with death by hypothermia, the dazed young man asked, "You want me to ride?"
Both chocobo warked impatiently and he sighed, shrugged, and carefully settled on the crouching bird's back. As soon as he was settled, she stood, ruffled her feathers and warked to her mate before dashing out of the cave.
In the dizzying ride that followed, Cloud was grateful he no longer got motion sickness. Black chocobo were rare but highly valued for their intelligence, speed, and their uncanny ability to run across rivers and mountains like they were flat ground. This hardly comforted Cloud when they jumped straight down the east face of the Gaia cliff and then dashed up and down the ensuing mountain ranges.
Cloud might not get motion-sick anymore, but the speed they flew up and down mountains and valleys threatened even his mako-born resilience. Dozens of miles and snow capped mountains flew by until the pair of birds took him to a small, green valley cradled in the Northern Continent's vast mountains. At the center stood a small wooden hut smoke lazily drifted from the chimney of the modest home. The pair took Cloud to the door and warked loudly to announce their presence. The female crouched slightly so Cloud could slip off. He leaned on her side while the feeling returned to his legs and his reality settled. The sun had sunk behind the snow capped mountain and he gazed at the building in the fading light of twilight.
The door popped open and a short round figure in a purple robe waddled out. A strange woven cap perched on the head of the small man and an enormous braided white beard peeked out from beneath it. "Thank you Blackie and Charcoal, I'll take him from here." The two chocobo took a moment to nuzzle the old man before they vanished over the range of mountains. "Well Cloud, you certainly are living an interesting life," the old man chuckled. "Now come give your grandfather a hug."
"While I'm always happy to see my grandchildren," the Chocobo Sage spoke while smoothing a strange ointment over the reddened gash on Cloud's arm. For some reason, the many potions Cloud drank didn't put a dent in the mako infused wound. "Sending out some chocobo to keep you from freezing your fool head off wasn't the way I hoped it would happen."
Cloud flushed, his ears reddening and carefully scooped another mouthful of stew in his mouth with his off hand. "You should keep that up," the old man mused, pointing to Cloud's left hand. "Being able to equally use both hands will serve you well in the future. It gives you more options in battle."
Cloud didn't respond, he merely continued to eat. It had been so long since he'd had a good meal back in Marcus Holzhof's cabin. His brain was still fuzzy from the stress of the last few days and if he could sleep soon, he didn't care if he had to share a stall with Goldie, his grandfather's gold chocobo. She'd probably prefer that actually, the bird practically considered Cloud her chick.
"Dark times, dark times," his grandfather muttered, wrapping a bandage around Cloud's arm. "Certainly have tangled yourself in a mess my boy." He tutted and tied off the bandage, patting Cloud's arm before releasing it and handing him another spoon. "Let's see you go at it with two hands!"
Cloud gaped at him.
"No? Ah I suppose not, you have two hands but just one mouth." He shook his head, chuckling at his little joke. "It has been too long since you and Kunsel visited me. I've missed you. Are you ready to take my mantle yet?"
Cloud shook his head sadly, "Grandfather, we discussed this when I was fourteen. I may have the chocobo affinity, but the sage ability never…" Cloud trailed off.
The sage patted Cloud's shoulder and took the blond's empty bowl. "Sometimes we bloom late. There's no shame in that. It is too bad your mother never believed in our ability... you must know I tried so hard to get her to move from that cursed town." Cloud froze, his eyes wide and stinging from shock at the revelation. He didn't know that. He'd wondered why Kunsel's family moved away shortly after that visit. If his mother had listened she wouldn't have...
"Now dear boy, there's no use clinging to lost chances and dwelling on 'what-ifs'," the old man sighed, stroking Cloud's hair gently. "Let's get you washed and in bed, you've got a long journey ahead of you and many stops on the way."
Dazed, Cloud let the tiny man lead him to the small tiled washroom. He washed in a daze, climbed into bed, and then drifted into a fitful sleep.
Once again he floated in the air and a glowing figure grabbed his wrist, taking him to various locations across the globe. A strange circular island, ringed by mountains, a narrow island with a desolate sea cave. An abandoned mine. Location after location flitted through his mind until the glowing figure stopped over a small, jungle-crowded island. A pair of men carried a large man on a stretcher to the village.
Cloud cried out in shock. Despite the glowing sludge dripping from his limp black locks, Cloud could recognize him anywhere. It was Zack. The scene faded and the locations repeated, stopping once more on the scene with Zack. They repeated again and again before Cloud howled in frustration, "Okay, I get it!"
He jerked upright, heartbeat racing at the whirlwind dreams and the intense need to leave. "Ah my boy, it is hitting you hard, isn't it?" The small man sat on the edge of the bed and pulled Cloud's head to his small chest.
"I-I can't," Cloud wheezed, his fists tightening in his grandfather's robe, "I can't always control it but it didn't used to invade my dreams like this… Why is this happening?"
The Chocobo Sage ran his knobby fingers through Cloud's hair and hummed gently, "Think child, you know the answer."
Cloud frowned, his fists tightening and relaxing. What could have caused his powers to spike so dreadfully? They'd been increasing rapidly since he arrived in Midgar and before that… Cloud pulled back and met his grandfather's kindly blue eyes with vibrantly glowing blue. "The mako," he gasped. "Hojo's treatments broke my wall and the second dose the other day messed up my progress."
"There you go," he hummed proudly, "I knew you'd reach the answer." He patted Cloud's spiky hair once more and hopped off the bed. "It is early yet, but you have lots of distance to cover so it's best to get started on the day."
"But," Cloud protested, throwing off his blankets and swiftly dressing. "What good will I be if I can't even stay in the present? How will I learn how to control this?" he asked, following the elderly man into the main area of his cabin.
"Don't you worry," the old man soothed, lighting the stove with some materia and tossing a few rashers of bacon on a cast iron pan. He bustled about the small kitchen, shoving a few things in a cloth bag while humming a strange tune that sounded hauntingly like the Golden Saucer's theme song. "Why don't you go say hello to Nugget," the Chocobo Sage suggested since the kitchen's appliances were built for his much shorter stature and Cloud would be more of a hindrance than a help.
"Nugget?" Cloud asked, looking into the chocobo pen in the front room. A young gold female warked at him sleepily from her position on the straw flooring. "What happened to Goldie?" Cloud asked, gently stroking the young bird's feathered crest. He tried and failed to keep the distress out of his voice at the loss of the familiar gold chocobo.
"Ah don't worry about Goldie," the sage cackled. "She's just pouting. I told her to stay away from Pyrite but well, there you have it." He gestured to the pen where Nugget fell back asleep. "She'll be alright though, I think heading off with you will give her a chance to recover her pride and give me a chance to give Nugget a little training without a worried momma hanging around. Now come on over and eat all this food I made, heavens know I can't eat it all!"
He cackled and gave the pot of porridge one last stir before heaving it to the table. It always bewildered Cloud how his grandfather could whip up enough food for a barrack full of young men in the space of one conversation. Of course, Cloud was still running on a calorie deficit so he packed away a pile of scrambled eggs, half a rasher of bacon, half a pot of oatmeal with cinnamon, brown sugar, and a dollop of cream, fried mushrooms, and three blueberry muffins.
"I always say it isn't good to starve yourself, my boy," he chided gently while he allowed Cloud to kneel at the sink and clean the dishes. "Now that you've got the Lifestream flowing in your veins, you'll need to keep up a good amount of eating or you'll lose your connection to your body." His voice grew quieter as he spoke, "Leaving you as nothing but a shade of yourself."
The old man fell silent and despite himself, Cloud remembered the shades of the Cetra in the Temple of the Ancients. It felt like months ago when really it had only been a few weeks.
When he finished drying the dishes, the sage handed him a proper bedroll, an Enemy Skill Materia, and said, "Now don't think I'm shooing you off, but I'm afraid with the Black Materia in play, time isn't something we'll have a lot of without you and your friends stepping in."
"Has the Black Materia already been used?" Cloud asked, looking up from lacing his boots.
"Sadly it has. You'll only notice if you look for it right now, but the signs should be apparent in the sky for anyone to see by tomorrow." After saying this, the old man stepped outside into the cold winter darkness.
The blond frowned, equipped the materia, and stuffed the bedroll in his pouch before following his grandfather outside. With his breath misting around his face even in the shelter of the valley, he gazed up at the velvet sky, glittering with stars and then flinched. The sage was right, near the moon an angry red splotch marred the majesty of the heavens.
The sage shook his head and muttered, "Ugly sight and ugly business. Now, before you call Goldie and head off on the treasure hunt you've been assigned," he chuckled at Cloud's pained grimace and continued, "I don't want you to worry too much about your changes or training. Once you bring them back and the nasty business with the Black Materia is settled, you'll have plenty of time to train and learn." Not waiting for his response, he patted Cloud's arm and returned to the warmth of the cabin.
Torn between confused and comforted, Cloud shook his head and called, "Gold-oof!" He didn't even finish calling the bird's name before she appeared at his side, headbutting his chest enthusiastically. She warked and churred and chirruped at Cloud before preening his hair in a mothering tone.
"Alright, alright," Cloud laughed, "I'm pretty sure Blackie and Charcoal fixed my hair last night!"
Goldie hissed and moved a few more locks before nodding her head and squatting for Cloud to mount. "We've got a long way to go, are you up for it?" The imperious look she shot over her shoulder at him seemed to say, "I'm waiting on you, silly."
"Right," Cloud laughed, shaking his head. He took a deep breath, eyes closed and drew the memory of his dream in mind. A map of the world formed, glimmering locations connected with a fine tracery of golden lines flowed from the center of the Northern Mountains to multiple locations all over the globe. Mentally tracing his route, adjusting for his current orientation and position, he exhaled and opened his eyes, the blinding glow lighting the grass and shining in Goldie's eye before it faded to normal levels. He nudged her with his knees until she pointed east. "Let's go," he said. The pair seemed to vanish before the words left his mouth.
While riding a black chocobo is unnerving, oftentimes the travel on the back of a gold chocobo is even worse. Riders tend to fall into two camps, the ones that get so traumatized by the experience they never want to ride a chocobo again, and the adrenaline junkies who grow to love the breakneck travel speed. Much as Goldie loved Cloud, this was his first time riding her and for the first few minutes, it looked like he'd end up in the first camp. Once they broke free of the mountains and reached the open space of the ocean the exhilaration hit.
While Black Chocobo run over mountains and rivers like they're flat ground, gold chocobo are so fast their feet don't have time to break the surface tension and they can run over the ocean like normal ground. Cloud looked over his shoulder in the dawning light and whooped at the massive wake so far behind them he didn't even get splashed. Cloud laughed and Goldie warked joyfully in response, they were already an hour or so from his first stop, a circular island ringed in mountains.
That strange something inside told him Zack hadn't yet emerged from the Lifestream, so he hoped to hit all the locations from his dream before then. Although, it probably wouldn't be a good idea to mention to the others all the extra steps he took along the way.
Present
"Oi, you alright there Spike? Ya' drifted off on us,'' Barret huffed, scrubbing the younger man's hair and breaking him from his thoughts. "Ya zoned off after mentionin' when ya' sent me and Teef off."
Tifa folded her arms and glared, "You mean when he put me to sleep?"
Cloud scratched the back of his head and grimaced at Tifa's accusatory scowl. "Sorry about knocking you out. If you had stayed you might have died. I'd rather you were alive and angry with me than killed when I could have prevented it."
"Ye canna have known that!" Cait Sith protested and looked around to the others and their suddenly somber expressions. Some of the strange events and actions of Cloud came back to his mind and in a weaker voice asked, "Or… could ye?"
Cloud didn't answer, the frown on his face deepening. Tifa huffed and relented, laying her hand over his clasped fingers, "Alright, I'm not happy about it, but I can move on from it. What happened after we left?"
Accepting her concession, Cloud sighed and continued, "Sephiroth was there, encased in a giant chunk of crystallized mako. I wasn't able to snap Zack out of Sephiroth's control before he handed over the Black Materia."
Cloud looked up and locked eyes with Aerith, "Zack's really going to need our support, especially yours, when he wakes up. You thought my guilt after the Temple of the Ancients was bad…" He shook his head, mouth twisted down in a pained frown. "He woke up from Sephiroth's control before the chamber collapsed, it was obvious he realized what he'd done."
"Well damn, that sucks," Cid muttered. "Sure hope he doesn't turn as broody as you did, cause that was just awful and pushin' him off the Highwind is a bit more extreme than off the wing of the Tiny Bronco into the ocean."
Cloud nodded, the corner of his mouth twitching slightly at the small dose of levity.
"So why didn't you get sucked into the Lifestream like Zack did?" Yuffie asked, burying her chin in the enormous stuffed chocobo Vincent won for her at the Golden Saucer. (She'd happily retrieved it from Cloud's pouch for "storytime").
Cloud grimaced and rubbed a hand along the bandage on his arm. "I crawled out of the mako and water to try and get a view of Zack's location. When the weapons left, the vacuum sucked it all down into the cave system below the crater…"
Vincent hummed thoughtfully and nodded. "That makes sense, there was no sign of the creatures when we entered the crater and there wasn't enough flying stone for the ground to have been solid around them."
"So what happened next?" Tifa asked, her fingers tightening over his clasped hands.
"The caves were complex and the monsters… too strong to safely fight on my own, though I had a few battles anyway." Cloud continued. "When I finally reached the pool of mako at the bottom, there was a barrier emerging from it. After I realized contact with the barrier would likely result in death, I had to rush out of the caves and crater. I was a little worried I wouldn't make it to safety in time but I managed to make it."
"Well how did you manage to get off the cliff and Northern Glacier?" Cait Sith asked. "You didn't pass by Holzhof's cabin at the base of the cliff and no one in Icicle saw you pass through."
Cloud shook his head and admitted, "Yeah, the crater floor was so broken up, I had to escape on the wrong side so there wasn't as easy a trail down."
"Which again begs the question of how you made the descent," Red XIII prodded.
He shifted nervously, a faint blush dusting his cheeks. His eyes flicked to Aerith, her interest in his story drained some of the despair from her eyes so he pushed on. "Have you ever heard of the Chocobo Sage?"
"The wha?" Barret gaped at Cloud, a disbelieving chuckle escaping his mouth.
Vincent narrowed his eyes and murmured, "Actually I have. Several ancient legends speak of a man of great wisdom and power."
"Oh!" Yuffie perked up, "I think I've heard that one too! He left humans to live with the chocobo because they were without guile, right?"
Vincent nodded and tilted his head to peer closely at Cloud, "The legend is ancient though, one of many tales that fascinated my father. In fact, the legends say he hid himself in the frozen north."
Cloud nodded, "That's right. Well, he sent a pair of black chocobo to come rescue me. I stayed the rest of the night with the Chocobo Sage." Cloud continued his heavily edited story. "In the morning he loaned me Goldie, one of his gold chocobos, so I could leave the valley, make a couple of stops and then meet with the good doctor who was treating Zack." The blond paused to shoot his friend a concerned look.
He shrugged and shook his head, brow creasing with worry, "I heard over the news about the execution mess and since the mako fried my old PHS I couldn't reach out to any of you. Instead, I hopped on Goldie and headed to Junon. By the time I got there it was already over so I ran a few more errands before I came back. I guess I took longer than I thought, I hoped to meet you here and break the news gently. I'm sorry I couldn't do that, Aerith."
Aerith waved off his apology and sighed, "There's really no good way to hear the person you love is in a mako induced… trance. I'm just glad you're okay."
"Zack is resilient," Cloud reassured her. "I managed to pull through mako poisoning, I'm sure he'll pull through too."
She smiled weakly and nodded but didn't verbally respond, her fingers tightening around Zack's.
"Well that's all fine and good," Cid huffed and folded his arms, "But I wanna know why this chocobo sage supposedly not only called some black chocobos to save you, but just up and gave you a golden chocobo."
"'S a good question," Barret agreed. He narrowed his eyes at Cloud and folded his arms. "I ain't gonna ask if ya' know why he helped ya' out. What I wanna know is if ya' plan on sharin' with the rest of us."
Cloud rubbed the back of his head, the tips of his ears reddening. "He's blushing!" Yuffie squeaked. Cloud buried his face in his hands. "Why are you blushing?" Yuffie prodded. She hopped up and tried to peer at his face around his hands.
Vincent sighed and pushed off the wall. He grabbed the back of the young woman's shoulder harness and lifted her clear off her feet. She yelped in surprise, her legs and arms curling up like a kitten grabbed by its scruff. "Aw Vincent, why?" she moaned when he set her down by Cait Sith. "Don't you wanna know why?"
"I suspect," the former Turk began sternly, "The cause of his blush is fear of ridicule which you appear to be showing without anything being revealed in the first place."
If she had been the kitten she acted like, her ears would have drooped, "Oh. Sorry, Cloud. I guess I just got over excited."
"Are you going to answer though?" Aerith asked hopefully.
Cloud's shoulders dropped in defeat and he lowered his hands from his face. He looked down and away and answered, "Just to preface, I'm not embarrassed about my relationship to him, but how I imagine you'll take it." He puffed out a breath of air and pressed on, "The Sage helped me because he's my grandfather. He's Kunsel's grandfather too if you were wondering."
To Cloud's relief, no one burst out laughing at the revelation. They sat or stood quietly, absorbing it before Cid snorted and threw his hands in the air, "Heck, that ain't the weirdest thing I've heard from ya'."
"Huh," Barret mused, "So the whole chocobo thing is a family deal, not just 'cause of the hair?"
Cloud held out a flat hand and rocked it back and forth, "Kind of. Though with Kunsel… well, sometimes family gifts skip."
Tifa frowned thoughtfully and then sucked a breath in so fast she choked on her own saliva. Laughing between coughs she gasped, "The eggplant disaster?"
Cloud smirked and hummed, "I didn't say anything." Tifa's laughter redoubled.
An unfamiliar ringtone sounded from Cloud's belt. He winced and without looking at the screen answered his new PHS, "Hello, Kunsel."
"You're dead to me, Cloud," he said flatly.
"Oh? Why is that?" Cloud asked lightly, his face the picture of innocence.
"Trust me Cloud, I have my ways," Kunsel warned menacingly. "If we didn't need you in this global disaster…" He trailed off and then grumbled. "Anyway, Reeve is about to give you some important information, make sure you pay attention." Kunsel ended the call.
"Aw, now he's mad at me," Cloud mock pouted to Tifa.
Her eyes widened at the implication of his words, but before she could speak on it, Cait Sith stiffened and cried out, "I've got some worrisome news."
Cloud pocketed his PHS and asked, "What's going on?"
"Something crazy is going down," he replied grimly, shaking his head. "Heidegger just called a meeting and he's acting too happy to be good for the rest of us. I'll broadcast what's going on, just listen in…"
Rufus rested his chin on his cupped hand and glared at Heidegger. "I hope you have a good reason for pulling me away from my work," the young businessman chided coldly. "Even if the world is ending, I have work to do and evacuation plans to approve."
Hojo looked up from his notepad and snorted, "I second the sentiment. I see no reason for me to attend this farce."
The rotund general huffed grandly, "I called you here for your scientific expertise. You should be able to appreciate the genius of my plan to save the world."
"I doubt genius has anything to do with it," Hojo muttered in a sotto voice.
"Yes. Do let us know why you've hijacked my meeting with Reeve," Scarlet drawled poisonously.
Rufus raised one brow with interest and hummed, "Oh really? What kind of project would my Head of Weapons Development and the Head of Urban Development collaborate on?"
Reeve stroked his goatee nervously and sent a side glance to Scarlet. She pursed her lips, huffed, and gave him a curt nod. Reeve returned the nod and then answered, "In light of the Junon cannon's success in defending the city from the invading Weapon, Scarlet wanted to know the feasibility of moving it to Midgar."
Rufus hummed, leaning back in his seat. "An interesting proposition. Unfortunately, that would only help should the Weapon attack from a fixed direction. A few degrees off and it would be a pointless expenditure."
Scarlet nodded. "We were thinking the same. Reeve suggested mounting the gun to rail loops five and twenty of the upper plate. While a few over-passing bridges would need destroying to make way for the rotation, that would conceivably give us about 300 degree coverage of the city."
"Why not 360 degrees?" Heidegger snorted in derision.
"It would have been 360 degrees," Reeve replied coldly, "but someone decided to drop one of the plates a few months ago. So naturally, that section of the rails is out of commission."
Heidegger flinched and shifted uncomfortably. The whole board knew the ill-advised plan came from him, just as they all knew it failed miserably in its efforts to exterminate Avalanche.
Diverting his glare from the general, Rufus nodded to Scarlet and Reeve and ordered, "Make it happen."
Scarlet shifted a few of her papers around, making a few notations on a pad of paper. "We're on it. We hope that by hooking the Sister Ray to Midgar's reactors we'll be able to cut down the cool-down time on firing the newly crafted Sister Ray."
"Interesting," Hojo mused, sliding one of the diagrams closer and peering at the schematics, "I assume you've planned for adjusting the reactor leads depending on the orientation of the gun?"
"We have," Reeve agreed with a nod.
"Good," Rufus tapped his pointer finger on the table. "Put that into motion, get with my secretary for budget and manpower allocation. If that's all-"
"But I haven't even mentioned my part!" Heidegger protested, his voice bordering on a whine. "My plan won't just take care of minor things like the Weapons, but save us from Meteor!"
Chin back in his palm and eyelids lowering in plain derision, Rufus sighed, "And what is your plan?"
Either missing the blatant disrespect or choosing to ignore it, Heidegger puffed out his chest and gave Scarlet a condescending look. "I discovered an asset Scarlet here foolishly abandoned. Huge Materia!"
"You little sneak!" The blonde hissed, jumping to her feet. "I knew someone had broken into my labs! How dare you spy on my work!"
"Too late now!" Heidegger guffawed. "I took the piece you left sitting around and I plan to recover the last three pieces from the reactors in Corel, Junon, and Fort Condor. My men already have their orders and are making their way there now."
Hojo raised one eyebrow and snorted, "I suppose in your ill-advised office espionage, you neglected to read my report on said 'huge materia'?"
Heidegger stiffened but didn't respond. At Rufus' curious look Scarlet summarized, "Despite being several times larger than the average piece of materia, nothing we did could prompt a reaction from them. Bottom line? They're mako charged, pretty paperweights."
Attention shifted back to the shuffling green-clad military man. "Mako charged!" He blustered desperately. "We'll use the combined mako charge to blow up the meteor!"
"And how were you planning to get it to the meteor?" Reeve asked curiously.
"Rocket number 26," Heidegger replied proudly, finally able to answer one of the questions satisfactorily.
"The meeting is still going," Cait Sith said wearily, cutting off the transmission, "But that's the most important section."
"Thank you Cait Sith," Cloud said and then addressed the room as a whole. "Alright, we need to stop this. The Huge Materia are important to the planet, we can't let them be destroyed by Heidegger's idiocy."
"Ya' damn right we gotta stop this!" Cid howled and shook his fist. "How dare they do this to my rocket!"
"Cloud is right," Aerith interjected, her free hand clutched to her chest. "The planet is… distressed over this news. We need to stop them but…" she trailed off, her gaze pulled to the lowly moaning and rocking figure of Zack at her side.
Cloud shook his head. "Don't worry about it, Aerith. You and Cait Sith stay here with Zack, we'll take care of this."
She settled back down by Zack's side, smiling weakly. "Thank you, Cloud."
"Alright, let's do this!" Cid roared.
"Before we go, I have an observation," Vincent spoke up, before he could leave the room. "There's another aspect to the legend of the chocobo sage. Gast suspected the sage was actually an Ancient. What do you say to that?" His crimson eyes locked on Cloud.
Cloud sighed and for a moment, he didn't say anything. Aerith gazed at him with shock and aching hope in her eyes. He grimaced, scuffing the worn toe of his boot against a rough spot on the floorboards. Shaking his head he admitted, "A few weeks ago, I would have told you that was highly unlikely."
"But now?" Aerith asked, a sheen of tears forming in her eyes. The desolation she tried to conceal at being the last Cetra always lurked like an unhealed wound in her heart.
"Now… I'd have to say there's a good chance the legend is true." Cloud agreed with a sigh. Aerith choked on a sob, struggling to her feet.
"What changed?" Vincent asked, casually steadying the young woman on feet numb with so long kneeling by Zack's wheelchair.
"The guardians in the temple," the blond admitted, scratching the bandage on his arm again. "My grandfather looks just like they do. It's a rather distinctive fashion statement," Cloud joked with a crooked smile.
Vincent's eyes widened, a faint memory rising to the surface. "You started to call something when we saw them… you were going to say 'grandfather' weren't you?"
Cloud nodded quietly. Aerith staggered to Cloud and fell into his arms sobbing, "I'm not alone!" Tifa tapped the arms or shoulders of the members of the party and gestured to the door with a jerk of her chin. They nodded and slipped out allowing the two some privacy.
He carefully embraced the young woman, giving her a chance to release the emotions and responsibility that weighed her down for so long. When she had a chance to calm a little, Cloud comforted, "If I'm Cetra, that means Kunsel is too, and who knows, there may be hundreds out there who either don't know they're Cetra or think they're the last ones as well."
Aerith pulled back and smiled through her tears. "I like that," she said thickly. "I hope you're right. Go out and stop Shinra's plan while I pull Zack back home so we can save the world. There are spells that help locate other Cetra, my mother taught them to me before she died, but they need more than one person to work. I thought I was the last one so..."
Cloud's eyes widened and he slowly nodded, "Let's do that. That might actually explain something weird my grandfather said before I left his valley."
Aerith beamed up at Cloud's support and stepped back so he could leave. "Thank you Cloud, you have no idea how much this means to me." She wiped some tears off her cheek and knelt back down at Zack's side. "It's like I just got a new brother," she huffed, lacing her fingers with Zack's limp right hand.
"Does that mean I should call you 'big sister'?" Cloud asked with a toothy grin.
"Oh you!" Aerith chided, throwing a damp tissue at the cackling young man's departing back. She shook her head, alone with Zack for the moment. She knew Cait Sith would return soon and despite being a little annoying to get a 'bodyguard', she was glad she'd have the chance to catch up on what was happening with her friends while they traveled. She looked down at the small stack of envelopes the blond pressed into her hands during the hug. Letters addressed to her in Zack's handwriting.
AN: In case anyone is wondering about the bit with the stuffed chocobo (like my beta, lol). If you recall on the Golden Saucer date night, Yuffie tricked Vincent into going with her as her "date". He won the chocobo for her at that time.