Author's Note:
So this next chapter came fairly quickly. I imagine the next few might come just as quick before slowing down a bit. I have a good idea of how this story is going to start, and roughly a good idea of how it's going to end. However once things get rolling through the middle, I'm likely to pivot or shift on some of my original ideas in favor presenting what best flows with the narrative rather than trying to cram in an idea that just doesn't work anymore.
Until then, I hope you all enjoy what I've got so far.
Cloud's hand trembled as he reached up to the woman looking down at him. There she was, right in front of him. Had he died in the crash? Was she here to return him to the planet? His fingers reached up to her cheek, but before they could graze her skin, she shot up and moved just out of reach as she gestured for him to follow her.
"Come on, Cloud! You're in danger here!" she exclaimed. "You need to get up!"
"It's really you, isn't it?" Cloud murmured, forcing himself into a seated position, the aches and pains of the beating he took in the crash reminding him that he was indeed still in the world of the living, miraculous as it may've been.
Aerith looked at the SOLDIER with soft eyes and a warm expression, an expression Cloud had never forgotten. "Of course it's me, silly" she said. "But we can talk later. You need to get out of here befo—"
A thunderous blast shook the air as the remaining VTOL engine exploded in a brilliant flash of white light, dousing the wreckage in scorching flames. Cloud covered his eyes to shield himself from the blinding light, the heat singeing the hairs off his arm. When he lowered his hand down, Aerith was gone, and in her place stood the towering form of a goliath of a man with long blue hair and amber eyes that burned with malevolence as the flames danced around him.
"What did you do to her?!" Cloud scrambled to his feet. He went to reach for his Fusion Sword only to find nothing there, immediately being reminded that he'd lost it in the crash.
"So they sent you here?" The man rocked his neck side-to-side without regard for Cloud's question, cracking his vertebrae before lifting a massive cannon at his side, fixing his sights on Cloud. "Unfortunately I don't have time to play. So you'll just have to die."
The booming roar of gunfire ripped through the air, tearing apart the wreckage and spewing chunks of dirt and rock everywhere as the cannon's rapid-fire burst eviscerated everything in its path. Cloud dashed for cover, keeping ahead of his opponent's aim as the massive man trailed the tip of the barrel along the SOLDIER's trajectory.
Out of the corner of his eye, Cloud saw the shimmering glint of fire reflecting off the edge of his Fusion Sword that stood upright, impaled into the earth. Moving into a swift dash, he darted for the weapon as the giant man finally managed to get Cloud in his line of fire.
He squeezed the trigger and a spray of high caliber bullets soared toward the SOLDIER as they gripped the hilt of the massive sword, using the flat end of the blade to shield themselves from the gunfire.
Cloud felt the bullets smashing into the side of the sword, and had to utilize every bit of his strength to keep himself steady against the onslaught. Yet his enemy gave no quarter and held down on the trigger, bellowing a deep laugh as he unleashed an endless barrage of death toward them.
"Eventually you will break," he snickered, gritting his beast-like fangs. However, his confidence came prematurely. The red-hot cannon barrel sizzled, and its automatic cooldown function kicked in to keep the weapon from melting in his hands. "Damn," he growled as the weapon ceased to fire.
Cloud didn't waste any time. Lifting up his Fusion Sword, he ran for the massive man and brought down the blade with an overhead swing. His blue-haired opponent grabbed the cannon with one hand on the trigger and another on the flaming hot barrel, giving no inclination of pain as he brought the weapon up to block Cloud's slash.
As their weapons remained locked in a flurry of sparks, Cloud got a good look at the man's fierce features, and his mako-ladden eyes went wide for no more than a flash of a moment before using his blade to push himself back and create some distance between him and his enemy.
"You… I know you." Cloud held his blade high while keeping the blade parallel to the rocky ground beneath his feet. "You're Azul the Cerulean," he said. "I thought you were supposed to be dead?"
"I'm not so easily felled," he growled, bearing a feral smile before throwing down his cannon and rushing toward Cloud. The SOLDIER was quick to parry one of Azul's mighty strikes as they went for a punch of prodigious strength straight for Cloud's chest. Though the edge of the Fusion Sword managed to connect with his huge arm, it only scuffed him as the telltale shimmer of a barrier spell illuminated around him.
"That's not good," Cloud muttered as he went for a counterstrike. The parry still left Azul open, and he had to capitalize on it. Cloud delivered a series of heavy strikes with his Fusion Sword at a speed one would think impossible for such a massive weapon. With all the rhythm and grace of a dancer, Cloud dashed left, and right, and left, and right, slashing the hard edge against his opponent with every blindingly swift step he took. However in spite of his efforts, the barrier spell remained steadfast, protecting the massive beast of a man from most of the damage Cloud tried to dish out.
"Are you quite done?" Azul snickered, bringing down a heavy fist toward Cloud's head. Cloud held up his sword and pressed his palm against the flat edge of the blade, using it to hold back the thunderous blow. The force from the hit vibrated through the sword and into his muscular arms. This man, if he could even really be called that, wasn't holding anything back.
A short distance away, something shifted beneath a pile of smoldering wreckage. The metal grinded and screeched as a monstrous fist smashed through it, sending a broken piece of the wing flying through the air as the claw gained purchase of the wreckage and pulled itself out like the undead rising from their grave.
Azul shifted his gaze toward the emerging creature as the monstrous arm morphed and shifted into a gauntleted hand. Before the rest of its bestial shape could come to light, the creature had fully shifted back, and it was Vincent's tall and lithe form that stood from the wreckage.
"How serendipitous," Azul sneered as he pulled back from Cloud and delivered a hard kick to knock them off balance before pivoting and rushing for Vincent with all the reckless abandon of a rampaging behemoth.
Vincent didn't speak a word as he brought Azul into his sights, aiming the triple-barreled gun directly between the Deepground soldier's yellow eyes.
With a squeeze of the trigger, a purple hue radiated from the barrel as three magic-infused bullets discharged from Vincent's gun. When they made impact with Azul's barrier, there was a crackling of violet as the magical shield shattered.
Azul wasn't deterred however. He continued to charge. Vincent fired again, but a slight shift of his opponent's head was all it took for them to suffer no more than a graze on their right cheek, sending a small stream of blood trickling down their face.
Vincent held up a gauntleted hand to try to shield himself from the inevitable impact as Azul crashed into them. Grabbing them by the chest with his gargantuan hand, Azul lifted Vincent off their feet and slammed them into a rocky cliff face, sending dirt and debris everywhere.
"Vincent!" Cloud regained his footing and soared for Azul's back. However, before he could get close enough to land a decisive strike, Azul spun and threw Vincent at Cloud, their body flailing through the air before smacking square into the SOLDIER, sending both of them crashing into the dirt.
"This is getting more complicated than I'd prefer," Vincent said as he and Cloud pulled themselves back to their feet.
"Didn't you kill this guy already?" Cloud quipped, taking an aggressive stance with his Fusion Sword.
"So I believed," Vincent replied. "Regardless, it seems that they're our rogue signal."
"You sure about that?"
"Without a doubt." Vincent brushed his arm against his lips, wiping away some dirt from his face. "That said, this still leaves us with more questions than answers."
"Are you two going to just stand there and talk, or are we going to finish this?" Azul roared, his features contorting as his hulking body started to shift and morph in a horrific manner. His muscles bulged and his limbs twisted as the sound of bones snapping filled the air.
"Vincent," Cloud said, his stern expression betraying the slightest bit of concern. "Is he doing the thing?"
"I believe he is indeed 'doing the thing'."
The two braced themselves for what was to come as Azul transformed into a monstrous creature that greatly resembled a behemoth, only bigger, and much, much stronger. His pronounced horns jutted from his head as he shifted onto all fours and let out a ferocious roar through a bestial maw that sent tremors through the mountains.
Cloud stepped forward, his blade raised high as the creature barreled toward him and Vincent. Azul's massive jaws opened wide, bearing their wicked fangs as they sought to close in around Cloud's body.
Yet before either could make contact with the other, a whirling star spun through the air with deadly grace, coming into view from Cloud and Vincent's peripheral as it arced its trajectory directly for Azul's head.
One of the four bladed tips of the metal spinning star pierced directly into Azul's left eye, lodging the weapon inside. The monstrous Deepground soldier didn't display any clear inclinations of pain at first, but that swiftly changed as a surge of electricity coursed through the weapon and sent it charging through his massive body.
Cloud didn't have time to assess where the unexpected support came from. He had to take advantage of the opening. With an executioner's swing, he brought the Fusion Sword down on Azul's thick neck.
Even with a direct blow, the dense hide served to shield Azul from having his head lopped off, but did little in the way of protecting him from the pain of the strike.
Vincent glanced to his side where he saw the face of a familiar young woman with short black hair and a headband tied around her forehead, her fingers bending and twisting into various hand signs that channeled surges of power into the weapon jutting out of Azul's eye.
"Yuffie?"
"The one and only!" She chirped back.
For a brief moment, Vincent mused over what the ninja from Wutai was doing here of all places, but those thoughts had to be pushed to the side for now. They had much more important matters to deal with.
Vincent reached into a pocket and produced a green orb of wind-aspected materia, slapping it into one of the empty slots on his gun.
Bringing his sights on Azul, who was now struggling to get up from the ground as Yuffie's electricity surged through him, Vincent pulled the trigger, launching three wind-aspected bullets into the beast that erupted into an explosive gust of magic, causing a devastating chain-reaction as it interacted with the lightning.
The ensuing detonation sent Azul's massive body reeling back as even more gunfire rained down upon them. Cloud and Vincent looked around as more support fire came in to find several WRO soldiers both on foot and in the air closing in on the crash site, unleashing everything they had as they encircled Azul. The foot soldiers emptied the clips of their smallarm rifles while the helicopters hovering above spewed out round after round from their chainguns.
The Tsviet gritted his mighty jaws, realizing that he was outmatched, for the time at least. With a violent thrash of his body, he managed to dislodge Yuffie's shuriken from his eye. With another ferocious lunge, he forced Cloud to back off of him just long enough to give him the opening to leap for the cannon he was forced to discard earlier, taking the weapon in his jaws before pivoting on his paws and darting for the westward mountains.
"He's getting away!" one of the WRO soldiers shouted, waving for their squad to pursue.
"Don't," Vincent said, holstering his gun. "As injured as he is, he'd still slaughter all of you."
"Well we can't just let him get away!" Yuffie exclaimed, retrieving her shuriken off the ground.
"You're right," Cloud said, strapping his blade to his back. "But we'll never keep up with him over these mountains.
"Uh, hello?" Yuffie gestured toward the helicopters hovering above. "We'll just fly!"
"I wouldn't suggest it," Vincent said. "This was what happened to the last aircraft to fly near him." Vincent waved broadly toward the wreckage of the VTOL.
"Oh…" Yuffie's exuberant energy dissipated as she looked over the crash site. A hunk of metal groaned for a long moment before a chunk of a broken wing toppled over into a smoking heap of scrap.
"Although your assistance was appreciated," Vincent said. "What are you doing here, anyways?"
"We got an alert a few hours ago about an incident in North Corel. Not long after we got there we heard the mayday and came to check it out. Then we…"
Cloud crossed his arms, and Yuffie's words faded away when he felt a presence nearby. Shifting his gaze, he caught sight of a familiar woman in a red jacket and a pink dress scurrying along the mountain path, vanishing behind a large boulder.
Cloud felt a sudden pull in his chest at the sight, and hurried down the path, leaving Yuffie and Vincent behind.
He rounded the boulder where he was met by Aerith's signature braid bouncing behind her as she walked down the path, much further ahead of him than Cloud had expected her to be.
"Aerith, wait up!" Cloud sprinted for her while the flower girl of Sector 5 maintained a steady stride down the mountain. "Aerith!" Cloud shouted again.
Aerith gave a sly glance over her shoulder and gestured for Cloud to follow her when she pivoted toward the mouth of a nearby cave.
Cloud hurried into the cave as Aerith was consumed by the darkness within it. His eyes dilated when he entered it, being forced to use his hands to carefully navigate through the rocky cavern until his sight could fully adjust.
"Aerith! Where are you?" Cloud slithered through a narrow crevasse, spotting a cool blue light glowing on the other side. Once he made it into the opening, the SOLDIER was met by the source of the light; a crystalline structure dripping with pure mako. Its branch-like appendages stretched outward like a tree, reaching for something unseen as the mako accumulated along the tips. There was a strange sense of calm that overtook Cloud as he neared the glowing formation, realizing he was gazing upon a lifespring, one of the miracles of the planet bearing gifts of the Ancients. As if answering some unspoken call, Cloud stepped forward and reached out to the branch that illuminated the brightest.
"Beautiful, isn't it?"
Cloud pivoted on his heel. He knew that voice. There was no mistaking it. With eyes wide with a mixture of hope and desperation he turned to meet it, and there she was.
"I can't believe it. You're really here."
"Don't be so silly, Cloud." Aerith smiled at him, taking a step forward. "I've always been here. You just weren't looking hard enough."
Cloud couldn't verbalize a response at first. He reached out to touch her, but when his palm finally rested on her cheek, flowing streams of green danced around his hand as Aerith's body dissipated at the point of contact, only to return to shape when she stepped out of his grasp
Cloud's expression lowered along with his hand as his arm fell limp at his side. Even when within reach, she was still beyond him.
"Oh, come on!" She giggled. "Don't make that face. It's still me! She stepped back and plopped down on a wide rock, patting the empty spot next to her.
Cloud said nothing as he slowly took a seat next to Aerith, stunned into silence and unable to avert her from his gaze.
"Aerith, what's going on? The last time I saw you at the church it was… You were…" a thousand thoughts raced through his mind, all of them trying to come out at once in an incomprehensible surge of barely contained emotions. "I-I tried so hard to find you again after that! So why now? Why is it that after all these years, I can finally see you again? What's different? What changed?"
"Easy, Cloud. Easy ." Aerith soothed, placing her hands on both sides of his face, sending green streams flowing from her dissipating palms as she touched his cheeks. "Take a second to breathe, why don't ya?"
The SOLDIER tried to compose himself, forcing his lungs to ease and his heart to slow. Aerith opened her lips as though she were sucking in a deep breath, which Cloud mimicked. Then after a long moment, she pretended to exhale. Following her lead, Cloud released the hold on his lungs as he breathed out.
"That's right," Aerith smiled. "Just like that. Now one more time, okay? In…" She opened her mouth wide and pretended to suck in a breath once more. Cloud followed suit, feeling his body ease. "...and out." The Soldier exhaled, then hung his head for a long moment before lifting it back up to gaze deep into Aerith's eyes.
"Is this because I've been dreaming about you again?"
"Oh?" Aerith smirked. "You've been dreaming about me, huh? I bet you say that to every girl you meet."
"I'm serious, Aerith!" Cloud felt like he was finally regaining a semblance of himself "Every night I have this same nightmare that you're…" he looked down to his boots, then back to her once he pushed the images out of his mind. "You're calling me for help."
"Am I?"
"Aerith, please. I need you to be serious for a second," Cloud reached up to grab her by the shoulders only for his hands to fall through her as spirals of green swirled around his hands. "Those dreams, what do they mean?"
The young woman swayed side-to-side with an almost playful expression before giving a small shrug. "Sorry to say it Cloud, but I think you might just be having silly dreams?"
"Silly dreams?"
"Mhmm," she nodded. "Just silly dreams. Can't you see?" She said with an exuberant smile, throwing her arms out to the side and presenting the front and back of her palms to him. "I'm just fine! Besides, don't you remember what I said the last time we saw each other back at the church?"
"Everything will be alright," they both said in unison, their voices harmonizing with each other.
"Exactly!" Aerith gave Cloud a thumb's up.
"But…" Cloud looked over to the lifespring as a clump of mako gathered along the tip of the brightest crystalline branch. "Earlier you said that I wasn't supposed to be here. What did you mean by that?"
"What I mean is, haven't you done enough already?" she replied, leaning in a little bit. "I mean, between Sephiroth, Geostigma, Omega even… don't you think you deserve to just, well, live your life?"
"Well yeah," he replied. "But whenever these sort of things happen, If I don't do something about it, then who will?"
"Well, me of course!" Aerith replied.
"But what about you? Don't you deserve a rest, too?"
"Cloud," she looked up to him as she idly kicked her legs in the air. "It doesn't work like that."
"Well if you don't get a rest, then neither do I."
Aerith looked over to the SOLDIER, her brilliant green eyes meeting with his mako blue, and her soft features lightened just a bit.
"You're sweet.
"I'm serious," he said. "If the planet is in danger again, then I'm not going to let you fight it alone," his features intensified as he came almost nose-to-nose with her. "But I need you to be honest with me, Aerith. What's going on? I can tell something isn't right, but I need you to tell me what it is."
"Fine," she said. "I can tell you're not going to let it go." Aerith let loose a soft sigh. "The planet is… well, it's sick."
"Sick?"
"Yeah," she nodded. "It's like, hmm…" she put a finger on her chin as she looked up to the cave ceiling deep in thought. "You remember how the Geostigma came from part of the Lifestream being corrupted by Jenova?"
"Yeah," Cloud nodded.
"Well, even though we cured the Geostigma, the infection inside the Lifestream that caused it never really went away, and it's been spreading." She quickly looked back to Cloud, sensing the concern coming from him. "Just only a tiny bit," she added, presenting her thumb and forefinger inches away from each other. "But it's still spreading."
"And does Azul have something to do with that?"
"I don't know," Aerith answered, turning toward the glowing lifespring. "Maybe? It's so hard for me to communicate with those portions of the Lifestream, but I know that I'm really close to breaking through it, and once I do I'll be able to see exactly what's happening over there. I just need more time."
"Then I'll make sure you have all the time you need," Cloud replied. "I'm not sure exactly what Deepground or whoever's behind this is trying to do, but I'm not going to let it happen."
Aerith brought her gaze back to Cloud with a warm smile. "I guess I can always count on you, huh, Cloud?"
"Always," he said, reaching out to put his hand on hers as the clump of mako on the tip of the lifespring's branch solidified and dropped to the ground. When Cloud's hand touched Aerith's, the green swirls returned, spinning around both of them as Cloud looked deep into her eyes, and for the briefest of moments, he thought he saw something falter in her expression. Before he could examine it further however, he heard a voice calling to him.
"Cloud," Vincent's voice echoed through the cavern. "What're you doing in here?"
The SOLDIER blinked and turned to the entrance where Vincent's tall form was illuminated by the blue glow of the lifespring.
"Sorry," he replied, looking at Vincent for a moment. "I was just…" he reared his head back, and saw that Aerith was gone, leaving behind nothing but an empty spot where she'd been sitting but a few seconds ago. "I… I was just following a trail is all."
Vincent peered over to the lifespring. "It appears your intuition is on point." He raised a gauntleted finger and pointed toward the materia resting at its base.
Cloud's eyes followed Vincent's guidance and stood from the stone as he approached the shimmering materia. He squatted down and plucked it from the ground. It was unlike any materia he'd seen before. It was clear on the outside, but inside it swirled with a vibrant green that flowed like water.
"Come on," Vincent said. "I caught Yuffie up on the situation. They're going to be giving us a ride to Nibelheim."
"Right," Cloud replied.
"Also," Vincent crossed his arms. "It seems they have Barret with them."
"Barret's here?" Cloud cocked his head.
"Mhmm," Vincent nodded. "It's almost like it's fate."
"Sure does seem that way, doesn't it?" Cloud said as he peered down at the shimmering materia resting in the palm of his hand.
XXXXX
Shalua stared into the monitor for a long moment, her eye unblinking as she rewound the video taken from the WRO helicopter. The footage was grainy, and partially obfuscated by the black smoke of the VTOL wreckage, but there wasn't a doubt about it; this was Azul the Cerulean, Tsviet of Deepground, and presumed dead two years ago following the Omega Incident.
"So what do you think?" Reeve asked, peering over her shoulder as he watched the video playback once more.
"It's him," she replied. "I'd recognize him anywhere. Not only that, but…" she kicked her heel off the floor and spun her chair to another monitor. Her hand danced across the keyboard as a map of the Corel Region came up, zooming in on a flickering red dot moving across the mountains. "He's the source of our rogue signal, too."
"Deepground coming back from the dead?" Reeve scratched at his beard. "That's certainly disconcerting, but the question is 'how'?"
"Technically speaking," Rufus said as he approached the two, his hands resting in his jacket pockets. "Rosso was the only one confirmed to be KIA. Azul, Nero, Weiss, and…" Shinra glanced over to Shalua. The two exchanged a brief look with one another before the former president turned back to Reeve. "Suffice to say, the official record is that the rest of the Tsviets are MIA. For that matter, my understanding is the WRO were only able to account for around half of the Deepground soldiers after the Omega Incident, correct?"
"Sixty-three percent were confirmed dead or captured" Reeve replied. "Leaving about fourteen-hundred unaccounted for, give-or-take."
"My point is that there's still a lot of information that eludes us, and at this point we're only going to find answers in one of two ways; either we capture Azul and pry the information out of him, or we wait for Deepground, or whoever is responsible, to show their hand."
"You'll never be able to get a word out of him," Shalua said, leaning back in her chair. "You'd sooner squeeze mako out of a rock before getting a Deepground soldier to talk. It's a part of their training. Even their most base level soldiers are conditioned to die sooner than hand over information."
"But they can be deconditioned, can't they, Shalua?" Rufus looked at her with a knowing smirk. The scientist shifted in her chair a bit, but was saved from any prolonged pressuring when Reeve cleared his throat to speak.
"Anyways, what we do know is that he's heading for Nibelheim, and whatever he plans to do there, must be stopped."
"Agreed," Rufus replied. "Shalua, keep an eye on our friend from Deepground. If there's any change in his trajectory, inform me as soon as possible."
"Yes, sir," she said as Rufus and Reeve departed from her office. Once they were gone, she spun her chair back around and pulled up a new screen to the Worldwide Network on her personal computer. After making a few keystrokes, she opened a private chat between her and another user going by the name 'Gh0stdiver'.
"Hey i need u 2 look into something 4 me"
Within seconds of sending her message, Shalua saw a notification that the other user was typing back.
"Sure thing. What do you need?"
"Sending u the info. Just do ur thing :)"
The scientist reached over to the other keyboard and made a series of keystrokes. After hitting 'enter', a loading bar popped up as the video of Azul was compressed into an encrypted file. Then with another series of keystrokes, the footage was sent.
Shalua closed out of the chat and let out a deep sigh as she slumped back into her chair, trying to remember when she last went to bed. Instead of thinking too hard about it, she forced herself up to her feet and headed for the coffeemaker.
Nearly fourteen hours into her day, and it was only just getting started.
XXXXX
"No!" Barret growled, yanking his muscular arm away as he reeled his battered and beaten body back in the oversized stretcher as the WRO medical staff tried to close in around him. "You ain't putin' that shit back in me!"
"Mr. Wallace, this is just an IV."
"Hell no! That thing ain't touching me!"
At the back door of the medical truck, Yuffie stood by and awkwardly watched the medical team continue to struggle to hold down the bulky man. She heard the sound of footsteps behind her and turned around to see Vincent and Cloud making their approach.
"The hell's going on here?" Cloud asked as he peered inside.
"Barret woke up just a bit ago, and it turns out he does not like needles. Ripped the IV out and everything."
"Cloud!" Barret screamed, reaching out toward the SOLDIER from the stretcher with a bandaged arm. "Help me!"
"Yeah," Cloud crossed his arms. "You're on your own on this one, pal."
"I think I've got a stick!" One of the medics exclaimed.
"Nooo!" Barret wailed. "Marlene, Daddy might not be making it home this time!"
Cloud shook his head and glanced over to Yuffie. "So what happened to him, anyways?"
"That big blue friend of yours passed through North Corel earlier," the ninja answered with her hands on her hips. "Barret happened to be there and was able to keep the townspeople safe, but…"
"Get down!" a medic shouted. From across the truck, a cart full of equipment went flying. Yuffie casually stooped forward, keeping her eyes on Cloud and her hands on her hips as the cart soared over her and crashed into the rocky terrain behind them before straightening her posture and continuing.
"He took a pretty good beating. Looks like it's not slowing him down much, though."
"So what now?" Cloud asked Yuffie, giving a sideways glance at the four members of the medical staff piling on top of Barret.
"Our convoy will carry you guys the rest of the way to Nibelheim. After that, we'll just have to play it by ear."
"Forget it." the lead medic sighed. "You win, Mr. Wallace. Can someone get some water back here to keep him hydrated?"
Cloud glanced over to the medical team once more before returning his complete attention to Yuffie.
"Sounds like a plan. Which truck are we taking?"
"That one over there," Yuffie said as she guided Cloud and Vincent to one of the transport vehicles toward the front of the convoy.
After all of the WRO personnel had been loaded up, Cloud, Vincent and Yuffie stepped onboard. Just as Cloud was about to step through the threshold, he felt something wet graze his shoulder. Looking up, he saw the skies were shifting into a steel gray and the distant roar of thunder reverberated through the mountains. Shaking his head, he boarded the truck. Once Cloud was inside, a WRO soldier slammed the heavy door behind him and hurried over to their seat next to the driver.
With a turn of the ignition, the engine rattled to life, barely overtaking the telltale taps of rain beating down on the truck. Cloud took a seat next to Yuffie while Vincent sat opposite of them with his arms crossed and his head lowered, keeping his face obfuscated by the high collar of his red cloak. Meanwhile, Yuffie groaned as the vehicle started moving. Though her motion sickness had improved somewhat over the years, the treacherous rocky roads were still more than she could handle.
Cloud leaned back in his seat and pulled out the strange materia he picked up earlier. In the darkness of the cave he wasn't entirely sure if what he saw was accurate, but underneath the sterile fluorescent lights hanging overhead, Cloud's suspicions were confirmed; it was indeed unlike any materia he'd seen before.
Clear like a crystal, but filled with dancing streams of green within.
Cloud tilted the materia in his gloved hand, watching as the streams flowed freely within, unbound by the laws of gravity and instead moving to an elegant path of its own choosing.
"Hey Yuffie, you mind taking a look at this?"
"Huh?" the ninja glanced over to Cloud as he tossed the materia over to her. With precise reflexes, she snatched it out of the air and looked it over. "Oh wow! I've never seen any materia like this before!" Whatever motion sickness she was starting to get was easily overcome by her fascination with the peculiar materia. "Where'd you get it?"
"I found it just a bit ago," he answered. "There was a lifespring inside one of the caves back there. This one had just sprouted from it."
"No way! Really? Why didn't you tell me about it earlier?!" Yuffie appraised the magical orb with a keen eye. "Maybe I could've found some!"
"It was the only one like it," Cloud said.
"Hmph!" she huffed. "Lucky. Was there something special about the lifespring? Like, was there anything weird or strange happening around it?"
"Uh…" Cloud scratched at the back of his head, uncertain how much he should disclose. "I don't know," he said. "It kinda felt different there, but…" As Cloud trailed off, Vincent lifted his head slightly, staring at Cloud for a brief moment from beneath the veil of his black bangs before lowering his gaze once more.
"Any idea what it does, at least?" the ninja asked, tossing the materia from one hand into the other, watching the flow of green inside it remain unfettered by her attempts to disrupt it.
"No," he shook his head. "Not a clue."
"Well," Yuffie tossed it back to Cloud. "When you figure it out, let me know."
"Yeah," The SOLDIER caught the materia and put it back in one of his pockets.
Without the new materia to distract her, the rocky road started taking its toll on Yuffie again. She lurched forward with a groan, resting her arms on her knees as she stared down at her feet, trying to keep her center.
While Yuffie struggled and Vincent kept to himself, Cloud exhaled, staring up at the fluorescent lights above, thinking back to his meeting with Aerith.
"The planet is sick."
Cloud spent several minutes in contemplative silence considering what the implications of such a statement could mean. Aerith, as much as he cared for her, had a bad habit of underplaying the weight of a situation. Whether it was a means to bring comfort to others or herself, he was never able to fully understand. What he knew for certain though was that she needed his help, whether she was willing to ask for it or not.
As the truck continued down the mountainous path toward Nibelheim, the raindrops started trickling down harder into an endless stream of taps and thuds against the truck. It was so loud that it was getting hard for Cloud to think, but the sense of anxiety inside him still lingered.
Standing up from his seat, he paced around a bit, keeping steady footing while the truck drove down the dark road, the windshield wipers swaying back and forth, back and forth. When the pacing wasn't enough, he put his hands to his sides and started doing squats to pass the time.
"Are you anxious about returning home again?" Vincent murmured, keeping his arms crossed.
"No, actually." Cloud replied, still keeping up with his squats as he talked. "I haven't given it much thought. Too many other things on my mind right now."
"I see." Vincent replied with a tone that Cloud didn't expect. It wasn't dismissive like he expected it to be, but rather… knowing, almost? As though the former Turk chose to let the subject go not because he didn't care, but rather because he didn't need to dig any deeper to understand the implications of Cloud's words.
Cloud's musings were soon interrupted by the sound of a hard crash as the side of the truck lurched and screeched to a halt. Cloud and Vincent reached for their weapons while Yuffie struggled to keep everything she'd eaten firmly inside her stomach.
"What was that?!" Cloud exclaimed. "Are we under attack?"
The driver of the truck remained silent for a long moment before slowly rearing their head back to look at the passengers. "Sorry about that," he said with an awkward chuckle. "Really bad pothole."
After hearing that, Cloud and Vincent put down their weapons and eased their postures a bit. Yuffie on the other hand merely whined and lowered her head back down.
"But, um…" The driver scratched at the back of his head. "I know this may be a bit weird to ask, but does anyone here know how to change a tire on one of these things? I uh… I missed that day of training."
Cloud and Vincent turned to Yuffie.
"Don't look at me!" she exclaimed, waving her hands in the air. "I don't even know how to drive!"
Cloud now felt Vincent's stern gaze shifting toward him. Turning to face the former Turk, the SOLDIER looked down at his boots and bit down on his lip before lifting his head to face Vincent, his gaze just slightly away from meeting them eye-to-eye.
"I can change one on a bike?"
Vincent stood motionless and unreadable for a long moment, shaking his head. After letting the moment hang just long enough for it to become uncomfortable for everyone in the truck as they stared at Vincent, he finally spoke.
"Can you at least hold the flashlight for me?"