The sound of heavy coughing coming from his mother's bedroom was like nails pounding into Cloud's skin. She'd seemed better last night at dinner, asking about his day and hardly seeming sick at all. When she'd decided to go to bed early saying she thought she'd wake up feeling as good as new, he'd wanted it to be true. Those dreams had been shattered when the first thing he'd heard after waking up had been more coughing.
Pushing the door to her room gently open, Cloud poked his head in. "Mom? You okay? This doesn't seem to be getting any better . . ."
She smiled wanly at him, looking worse than he could ever recall seeing her. "I guess this is a bit more extreme than I thought it was, huh? I think—"
An intense bout of dry, raspy coughing forced her to stop talking, sending a spike of fear running down Cloud's spine. He pushed into the room, dropping to his knees at her bedside before grabbing her hand.
"I think you're right," she continued once the coughing had stopped, weakly squeezing his hand. "I'll go and see a doctor today."
A flood of relief surged through him at her words. A doctor, at last. Hopefully, they'd be able to figure out what was wrong and make it go away. "Should I go get one right now? I'm sure if I let them know it was an emergency they'd do a house visit."
His mom shook her head. "No, it's fine, I can take care of it. Besides, isn't today a really important day for you? I wouldn't want you to miss out on that."
Castle Siege. The gang competition had completely slipped his mind. Sephiroth would be furious if Cloud didn't show up, not to mention it would almost certainly result in a loss for the Fangs since they were outnumbered in the first place. Even so, this was clearly more important than some silly game, he could find a way to make it up to them. "It's not important, I can miss it to take care of you."
"Don't be a silly goose. I appreciate you trying to look out for me, I really do." She paused to cough, then took a deep breath before going on. "But it's important for you to have a childhood too. I can take care of this myself, you need to go have fun with your friends."
"But—"
"Nope. No buts. You will go have fun today, young man. Do you understand me?" Despite her firm tone, she was smiling warmly at him. Or at least, as warmly as she could given her current condition.
Sighing, Cloud nodded. He knew when he was defeated. "Fine. I've gotta run if I'm going to make it on time, then. Please go to the clinic as soon as you can, maybe Mr. Lockhart can help if you need it . . ." He trailed off as she gave him a semi-serious glare. "Okay, okay, I'm off. I hope you feel better after the doctor takes a look!"
Bouncing to his feet, Cloud walked to the door, giving her one last look before closing it behind him. It was hard for him to focus on the upcoming competition, but he did his best to push his worries to the back of his mind as he made his way to the kitchen. As he grabbed a roll of bread to munch on for breakfast, he was reminded of the dinner he'd had with Aerith and how amazingly soft their bread had been.
While his roll wasn't technically as hard as a rock, it was far too close for comfort. Before that dinner, Cloud had thought that was just the way bread was supposed to be, but now he realized that wasn't the case. Unfortunately, there was no time for him to soften it up with a glass of water, so instead he stuck it in his mouth and sucked on it, trying to use his saliva to loosen it up a bit. Hurrying outside, Cloud broke into a sprint, hoping he wouldn't be too late.
By the time he reached the junkyard where the match would be happening, his bread had hardly softened at all. Reluctantly tossing it to the side since it was still inedible, he made his way over to join the other members of the Fangs.
Sephiroth shot him a dirty look as he approached. "You're late. I almost thought you were going to bail on us."
"Relax, Seph," Zack said. "I told you Cloud wouldn't abandon us, not for something this important."
"Don't call me that." The older boy whirled on Zack, glaring at him.
"Hey, Cloud, good to see you. Everything okay?" Tifa asked, her brow slightly wrinkled.
"Huh? Yeah, no, I'm good. Sorry that I'm late, just . . . a lot going on at home right now." He didn't want to bring up his mother's illness, even with his friends. Trying to find something else to talk about, his attention caught on a group of people he hadn't noticed when he'd first arrived—three of them, separate from the cluster of five Turks. "Wait, Avalanche is here?"
Tifa glanced over, nodding. "Yup, they showed up right after I did. Apparently, they heard about the match and wanted to watch. Sephiroth and Rufus said it was fine, as long as they didn't get involved." She gave the group in question a small wave.
"Go kick some butt, Tif!" Jessie called out, punching her fist up into the air.
Tifa's cheeks went bright red before she buried her face in her hands. Cloud was just relieved to see the relationship between the two girls seemed to be intact and that Tifa's earlier fears had been misplaced. He would have felt incredibly guilty if he'd ended up being responsible for damaging their friendship.
"Now that we're all finally here, let's get this started," Sephiroth muttered, turning away from Zack and walking over to the Turks.
Cloud, Zack, and Tifa followed after him, the three members of Avalanche joining up with them as they passed by.
"We're rooting for you," Wedge whispered to Cloud, giving him two thumbs up. "Teach those Turks a lesson for us!"
"At the very least, please beat the stuffing out of Reno," Biggs said, elbowing Zack lightly in the side. "He still won't shut up about last time, doesn't even realize it was just luck."
Tensing slightly, Cloud was relieved to hear Zack laugh it off. The two had been good friends for years, despite being in different gangs, and Biggs was one of the few people who could tease Zack and usually get away with it.
"Please," the black-haired boy retorted, rolling his eyes. "By the end of the match, Reno is going to wish he'd stayed in bed this morning."
"Oh, ho! Big words from—" Jessie cut off as Sephiroth's hand sliced through the air, signaling for silence as they drew close to the rival gang.
In a similar fashion, the chatter amongst the Turks died out before Rufus stepped forward to meet Sephiroth. "You finally ready? Was starting to wonder if we'd have to sit someone out."
One of Sephiroth's eyebrows lifted. "You'd do that?"
Cloud was just as surprised. He didn't know the other leader very well, but every impression he'd gotten of him was someone who would do whatever it took to win. If he was actually willing to even out the playing field, then maybe Cloud had gotten him all wrong.
"Of course not," Rufus said with a broad smirk. "We're number one and we're going to prove it right now."
Snorting softly, Sephiroth shook his head. "Whatever. Standard rules, except the Rulers are going to be Queens?"
Rufus nodded curtly. "Elena will obviously be ours and your new rookie will be yours. We'll take the far base." He jerked his head in the direction of the junkyard and the other Turks fell in step behind him.
"What are the standard rules?" Tifa whispered as they followed Sephiroth to where their base was on the opposite side.
"Wooden weapons only. No attacks above the shoulders or anywhere that could cause serious injury."
"Isn't that . . . everywhere?"
"He means the crotch," Zack said with a laugh. "This started out with only guys and no one likes taking a hit to the balls."
Tifa frowned, a twinkle in her eye. "That's too bad, it's such an effective technique, too."
Swallowing, Cloud was thankful she was at least on their side.
"Enough chatter, we're here," Sephiroth announced, turning to look back at them. "You three should be at the observation tower, not here," he added, looking at the Avalanche members. "Since you decided to show up we're expecting you to at least be useful and signal the start and end of the match."
The junkyard was the perfect location for Castle Siege. No one else ever came here so they didn't have to worry about getting interrupted and over the years, they'd converted it to meet their needs. There was a base on either end—small, single-floor buildings whose original use had been lost to time. Various paths had been carved through the debris between them, allowing for a variety of options when attacking the other team's base. The ones in the middle were more direct, but also less obscured, while the paths along the edges were longer and more suited for sneaking. In the very center, a lone outpost towered over the surroundings, offering an easy view of everything.
Running up to Tifa, Jessie gave her a quick hug and whispered something in her ear Cloud couldn't make out before giving Sephiroth a salute and everyone else a wink. "Have fun guys, we'll be cheering for you!"
As the three of them turned and walked away, Sephiroth waited for Avalanche to be out of earshot before he started talking. "Okay, here's the plan. We're going to split into pairs, I'll stay with Tifa while Cloud and Zack will be on offense."
Tifa bit her lip, glancing over at Cloud, but stayed quiet as Sephiroth continued.
"While you two focus on capturing Elena, Tifa and I will be hiding on one of the outer paths, not the base."
"Isn't that risky?" Cloud asked. "Why leave the base?"
"They already outnumber us, our biggest advantage is wasting their time trying to track us down. If we stay here then they know exactly where we are and it's not like the base provides any real advantage in a fight."
Everything he was saying made sense, forcing Cloud to admit that it at least seemed like a decent plan.
"What if they find us right away though?" Tifa was bouncing from foot to foot, her nerves clearly getting to her. "It would be way easier for them to get me back to their base."
Sephiroth smiled. "Then we crush them."
It was hard for Cloud to share his leader's confidence. One-on-one, he didn't think anyone stood a chance versus Sephiroth—not even Rufus—but that wasn't true for the rest of them. He knew that was why Sephiroth had paired himself up with Tifa—essentially making him the Ruler instead of her.
"Does that mean I don't have to be at the base at the same time as Elena for us to win?" Tifa asked.
Zack shook his head. "Nope. Whichever side gets the enemy Ruler back to their own base first wins, that's all that matters."
A loud ringing filled the air, coming from the central tower and signaling the start of the match.
"Let's go. Don't let us down you two," Sephiroth said, gesturing for Tifa to follow after him.
"Good luck," she whispered before turning and running after their leader.
"No pressure, eh, Cloud?" Zack cracked his knuckles before grabbing a sword where it lay propped against the wall and sheathing it on his back.
Mirroring him, Cloud did his best to push down his own nerves. He'd had a day less training than the others, and if he ended up being responsible for causing them to lose he'd feel horrible about it. "Right. Which route should we take?"
Zack looked thoughtful for a moment before shrugging. "Somewhere between the middle and the edge? We should be able to get enough cover to not be seen while still getting to the other side pretty quickly."
The two of them left the base, selecting one of the paths Zack had mentioned and carefully began making their way down it, keeping low and trying to make as little noise as possible. Before long, Cloud was sweating profusely under the beating sun. Each twist and turn in the path was a nerve-wracking experience since they could easily run into a Turk at a moment's notice.
After what felt like hours but couldn't have been more than a few minutes, the Turk's base finally came into view around the last bend. Crouched behind a metal sheet, Cloud scanned the exterior but couldn't see any movement.
"Okay, here's what we're going to do," Zack said quietly, his eyes locked on the entrance. "We rush in together. I'll go straight for Rufus and keep him busy. You need to quickly take out anyone else guarding Elena and then take her back to our base."
Cloud nodded. "What if there are more than two other guards? I don't think I can beat multiple Turks at once."
"If that's the case then we immediately fall back and come up with a new plan, I agree that two on four is too much. Pretty sure we don't have to worry about that though, it would mean they only sent one person to capture Tifa."
"Makes sense. Okay, let's do this."
Together, they sprinted across the open stretch and through the door, swords at the ready. Cloud immediately froze in place as soon as he stepped inside—he hadn't expected this.
Elena was completely alone, not a single other Turk in sight.
Cloud glanced over at Zack, a look of surprise on his face as well. There was no way they'd just left her like this, it had to be a trap.
"Hah! You've fallen directly into our trap!" she exclaimed, a victorious smile on her face.
Spinning in place, Cloud braced for the attack from behind.
And waited.
And waited.
And waited.
"Where is everyone, Elena?" Zack asked from behind him, almost causing Cloud to jump. Shooting a quick look over his shoulder he saw his friend checking the other rooms one by one.
"Capturing your Ruler, duh. They're probably already on their way back since they have twice the numbers. Not even Sephiroth can protect someone else with odds like that."
Sharing a look with Zack, Cloud felt his stomach sink. It was an incredibly clever plan when it came down to it, taking full advantage of the fact that the Turks had enough people to pull it off. They'd essentially sacrificed their own Ruler in the process, but given how cautious he and Zack had been, even if they rushed back with Elena they might not make it in time.
"Right. Well, you'll be coming with us now then," Zack declared, moving towards her.
Elena threw up her fists, glaring at the two of them. "I don't think so. I'm staying right here and there's nothing you can—"
She cut off with a wheeze as Zack's sword hit her in the stomach, knocking the air out of her lungs and dropping her to her knees.
Wincing, Cloud walked over to join them. "Think she's telling the truth?"
"Yeah, not much reason to lie and she really does seem to be alone. Damn Turks . . ."
"Come on, we haven't lost yet. I'll get her legs, you get her arms."
Rather awkwardly, they picked her up. They'd never played with Queens before, and Cloud realized they hadn't really thought this part through very well. Carrying another guy was easy enough, but hauling a girl around . . . He could feel his face heating up already. Doing his best to ignore his embarrassment, he led the way out of the base.
"You probably think you've won because of how easy it was to capture me, but just you wait. Tseng is going to swoop in, knock the two of you out with ease, and sweep me away to safety where we'll have sweets and laugh about how silly it was that you thought you stood a chance."
Cloud shared a confused look with Zack, his friend clearly struggling to hold in a laugh. He knew Elena was often going off on wild tangents, but this seemed a bit extreme, even for her.
"Wait . . . are you dating then?" Zack asked as they continued to drag her back to the base.
The question seemed to shock Elena, her already weak resistance almost completely fading away. "Dating?" she squeaked. "I mean, that's a pretty big step and while I'd totally be fine with it, I'm still the newest member of the Turks and Tseng has been around almost since the beginning so it's hard to just bring it up, not to mention—"
"So that's a no," Zack said, cutting her off.
Elena deflated, going loose in their grasp. "Yeah . . ."
Cloud couldn't help but feel a little bad for her, although it was certainly much easier to haul her back to the base now that she'd stopped fighting against them. He still wasn't sure how the topic had moved to romance, but at least it hadn't dragged on for too long.
"What about you?" Zack asked. "Anything going on between you and Tifa?"
He nearly dropped Elena in surprise. "Huh? No, we're just friends!" Were they seriously still talking about this?
"She's pretty cute though," Zack pointed out.
"I think Rude might have a thing for her," Elena said at the same time.
"What?!" Cloud and Zack yelled together, stopping dead in their tracks.
"Oh, uh . . . nothing. Just forget what I said. Please."
Cloud shared a stunned look with Zack before they once again began carrying Elena. Rude? Quiet but always serious Rude had a thing for Tifa? He struggled to imagine it but failed.
Unfortunately, Zack apparently wasn't done as he looked back over at Cloud with a grin. "Got your eye on someone else then?"
Ignoring the image of green eyes and brown hair that flashed through his mind, Cloud shook his head. "Nope, no one. There's no time for stuff like that, we've got more important things to be focusing on."
"Hey, fighting is great and all, but so are girls!"
Cloud rolled his eyes. "Sure, I'll take your word for it." Aerith had been special, but they hadn't spent all that much time together in the first place and it wasn't like he was ever going to get the chance to see her again. Even if a part of him buried away deep down inside very much wanted to.
"Someday you'll—" Zack stopped talking as both Reno and Rude stepped out of the doorway to the Fang's base.
"Yo." Reno was tapping his baton against his other hand, a smirk plastered on his smug face.
Cursing internally, Cloud shot a look over at Zack, but the other boy's attention was riveted on the two Turks.
"Hah!" Elena exclaimed, wriggling about frantically in their grasp. "Now you've fallen into our real trap!"
"What are you even doing here? Did you get lost and mix up the bases?" Zack asked, ignoring her. "We've already got your Ruler. It's over, you lost."
Rude took two steps forward, pulling on his gloves. "You haven't won yet. Elena still has to go through that door, and you know that's not happening unless you beat us first."
He was right, there was no way they'd manage to get her into the base while Reno and Rude attacked them. It was even worse, though, because as soon as they let go of Elena it would immediately turn into a three-on-two. They were so close, too, although in retrospect he should have known it would never be that easy.
Releasing her legs, Cloud took a quick step away before unsheathing his sword. Right behind him, Zack also let go, allowing Elena to stagger away as he fell into a fighting stance a short distance away from Cloud.
"Run back to the base Elena, we've got this under control," Reno said, slowly moving closer to Zack.
"No!" She stomped her foot, glaring at the red-head. "I'm sick and tired of you guys treating me like a rookie still. I'm a member of the Turks too, goddamnit, I can fight!"
Reno paused, his eyes widening as he shot her a look. "Oh. Uhh, fine. Help Rude then, I want Zack to myself."
The situation was going from bad to worse as Rude and Elena began to circle around Cloud. He did his best to keep them both in sight, but it was nearly impossible. This was exactly what he'd been afraid of, something he'd never trained for. One small positive was that both Rude and Elena fought with their fists, something he had been getting a lot of practice facing off against lately thanks to Tifa.
Rude attacked first, stepping in and throwing a punch aimed at Cloud's stomach. Pivoting to the side, Cloud avoided the blow narrowly before raising his sword to counterattack. Elena's foot crashing into his back caught him completely by surprise, knocking him off balance and forcing him to give up on his attack so he could instead dodge another of Rude's punches.
Scrambling away, Cloud struggled to come up with some way to handle this but only drew blanks. There was no good way for him to attack one of them without opening himself up to the other. Rude and Elena didn't give him any more time to think as they began circling around him again. Without a better idea, Cloud shifted into a defensive stance. If he couldn't beat them, then his best shot was to try and hold out until the situation somehow changed.
This time Elena moved first, her foot sweeping out in a low kick aimed at his legs. Normally, Cloud would have jumped over the attack to avoid it, but doing so now would just leave him completely open so instead he swung his sword to try and deflect the blow. Elena hissed in pain as the wood cracked into her shin before dancing back, a grimace on her face. There was no time for Cloud to celebrate his small victory as Rude threw a flurry of punches, driving Cloud backward as he desperately tried to parry all the blows.
One of them slipped through, catching Cloud right under his shoulder and nearly causing him to drop his sword. Shouting, he grabbed his sword with both hands and swung wildly, forcing Rude to jump back. It had been a clumsy attack, one Sephiroth would have strongly disapproved of, but at least it had given him a bit of space to breathe. Sneaking a quick glance to see how Zack and Reno were faring, he was unsurprised to see them evenly matched. On one hand, it meant he didn't have to worry about Reno joining in, but on the other, it also meant he couldn't count on any help from Zack either.
An idea on how to swing the battle in their favor abruptly hit him. He imagined Zack wouldn't like it, but he couldn't think of any other way for them to win. Before Elena could fully recover, Cloud gripped his sword tightly and glared at Rude, tensing his body to strike. The other boy fell into a closed, defensive stance, just as Cloud had hoped he would.
With a surge of motion, Cloud struck. Not at Rude, but instead turning and charging at Reno from behind.
"Reno!" Rude shouted in warning, but it was too late—Cloud's sword connected with the back of Reno's legs, sending him crashing to the ground.
If Zack was surprised by the assistance then he didn't reveal it. Without hesitating, he jumped on Reno, pinning the other boy to the ground with his sword. "Surrender!" he shouted.
Making a disgruntled noise, Reno threw his baton to the side. "So lame. You wouldn't have won on your own."
Zack didn't respond as he hopped back to his feet and moved to stand next to Cloud, facing off against Rude and Elena.
Surprisingly, Rude held up his hands, palms open. "I surrender. I can't take on both of you at once and prevent you from capturing Elena."
Cloud frowned, not entirely sure he believed him. Taking a step towards Elena didn't draw a reaction out of Rude at all, however. He'd never expected his half-assed plan to work out quite this well. Since Cloud had been struggling against two people so much, he'd wanted to turn it around and use the same strategy against the Turks. What he hadn't realized at the time and only recognized now, was that as soon as the numbers evened out, the fight skewed dramatically in their favor thanks to Elena being the Ruler.
Walking over to her, Cloud grabbed Elena's wrist and tugged her toward the base. She gave Rude a look, but he only shrugged back in response. Allowing Cloud to pull her, it only took a moment before she passed through the entrance of the base, and just like that, they were the winners.
The bell from the central tower rang out once again, signaling the end of the match. Or at least, Cloud thought they'd won. It seemed unlikely that Tifa would have been captured at the exact same moment. He wasn't even sure what that would mean since it had never happened before.
Zack ran over and gave him an almost painfully strong high five, a broad smile on his face. "Nice work! I wasn't sure we were going to manage to pull that off, but you came through huge at the end!"
A part of him had been worried Zack might get upset at him for interrupting their duel and his chance at revenge, so Cloud was extremely relieved for that not to be the case. He grinned back at his friend. "We did it, we actually did it!"
"Boring," Reno drawled, drawing out the 'o' sound while rolling his eyes. "If Cloud hadn't fought dirty there's no way I would have lost."
"Dirty? I just—"
"Don't be a sore loser, Reno," Rude said, walking over and offering a hand to pull him up. "We never agreed to duels in the first place, and Cloud was fighting outnumbered the entire time."
"Whatever." He grabbed Rude's hand and leapt to his feet. "Won't happen again."
Cloud shared an amused look with Zack and was thankfully spared from having to try and continue the conversation as Sephiroth, Tifa, Rufus, and Tseng all emerged from one of the paths at the far edge of the junkyard. Almost immediately afterward, the three Avalanche members appeared as well.
Running directly at him, Tifa threw her arms around Cloud, nearly sending them crashing to the ground. "You did it! We did it! We won!" Just as quickly, she pulled back and took a step away, her face flushed. He wasn't entirely sure why since they were inside now where it was cooler, but she had just run over after presumably facing off against Rufus and Tseng so it must have been that.
"We did," he said, smiling back. "How did things go for you? Have fun?"
She nodded vigorously. "Yeah, it was great, actually! Sephiroth's plan worked out super well. They only found us a few minutes ago and I managed to beat Tseng!"
"What?!" Elena looked horrified as she spun to the boy in question. "Are you alright?"
Tseng gave her a long look, one of his brows arched. "Of course I am. She merely caught me off guard with how skilled she was. Now that I know, we can account for it in the future."
"I see why you pushed for Queens now, Sephiroth. Clever. I suppose I should have realized you had some kind of trick like this up your sleeve." Rufus turned to face Tifa. "Tseng is right, you're quite good. If you ever want to join Shinra or the Turks, just let me know and you're in."
Tifa's jaw dropped and Cloud felt a brief spike of concern, but he quickly stifled it. She wasn't going to just up and abandon them—Tifa wasn't like that. Besides, she didn't even really know any of the Turks that well in the first place.
"What I want to know is why you two decided to guard our base instead of your own," Zack said, looking over at Reno and Rude with a baffled expression on his face.
"Like we'd ever explain our plans to you," Reno said with a laugh.
"All four of them charged down the center," Jessie cut in. "Once they realized the base was empty, Rufus and Tseng ran off to try and find Tifa. I imagine Reno and Rude stayed behind just because they didn't want to miss you guys coming back with Elena."
Reno shot her a dirty look and stormed out of the room.
"Well, I suppose with that we should take our leave," Rufus said, a half smile on his face. "No hard feelings on my part, you guys won fair and square. The Fangs are back at number one, just don't expect it to last for long." He turned to face Sephiroth. "I'll be in touch for when the next competition will be."
With that, the remaining Turks filed out of the base—Elena shooting a dirty look over at Tifa right before she vanished from sight.
"Woo! We're back on top, baby!" Zack yelled.
"Congratulations guys," Biggs said, slapping Zack on the back. "What's the plan for the victory celebration?"
It hadn't crossed Cloud's mind until Biggs brought it up, but of course there would be a party. Except as fun as it was sure to be, he was too worried about his mom to go celebrate with everyone. He knew she would tell him to not worry and to hang out with his friends, but the Castle Siege match had been enough fun for the day, and now he just wanted to get home and make sure she was alright.
"I've actually got to head home, sorry," he said, looking down at the floor.
Six pairs of eyes spun to face him, various expressions of shock and surprise—and one of bored indifference—spread across them.
"Wait, what?"
"Cloud?"
"Is something wrong?"
Multiple voices all spoke out at once, blending and overlapping together in concern. He'd been expecting it, but that didn't make it any easier to deal with and now there was no way he couldn't explain at least some of what was going on.
"Everything's fine. It's just . . . my mom is kinda sick so I need to help take care of her. Sorry. You guys should go have fun though, don't worry about me!"
"I'll also be passing," Sephiroth said, already walking towards the door. "I've got things I need to take care of, good work everyone."
There was a brief moment of silence at his abrupt departure before everyone turned back to Cloud.
"You sure, Cloud?" Tifa asked, taking a step towards him. "Maybe we should just wait and do it later. It doesn't feel right for you not to be there."
Zack shook his head. "Nah, you heard him. Plus, we can always celebrate more than once, right guys?!"
Biggs and Wedge cheered with Zack, but Jessie and Tifa didn't join in, both of them still looking at Cloud with that weird, soft expression only girls sometimes used and he never understood.
"Yeah, I'm good, I promise. Tell me all about it tomorrow, maybe we can do something else then." He hurried out the door before they could say anything else since it had worked so well for Sephiroth. Thankfully, none of them followed as he turned and made his way back home. They all deserved to have a good time together, and while he certainly wished he could celebrate with them, it wasn't like there wouldn't be any more parties in the future.
Only a few minutes had passed after he left the junkyard when Cloud realized someone was following him. At first, he assumed it must be Tifa, come to walk him home, and maybe even offer to help with his mom. Except when he stopped to wait for her to catch up, whoever it was stopped as well.
He froze in place, unsure of what to do. Maybe he'd been wrong and they'd just happened to reach where they were going. Slowly continuing on his way, he almost immediately heard the same heavy footsteps resume behind him, leaving little doubt as to their intentions. Shooting a look behind him, Cloud caught a brief glimpse of a tall man in a military outfit. The moment he realized he'd been seen, the mysterious man picked up his pace, marching towards Cloud with a determined look on his face.
Cloud bolted, sprinting in the opposite direction. He needed somewhere safe, somewhere to hide that wasn't home so whoever it was wouldn't hurt his mom. A crazy idea flashed through his head. Before he could second guess it, Cloud made a sharp turn, racing down the road—the sound of his pursuit close behind. It wasn't long before his goal came into view: the city gate.
Barreling past the guard, he ignored the man's shout of alarm, praying this would work and that he wouldn't get shot or captured. Please, help me, he thought, turning to look over his shoulder. He caught a brief glimpse of three men staring at him in shock before they vanished in a ripple of light—a familiar forest appearing out of thin air in their place. Cloud skidded to a stop, narrowly avoiding tripping over a tree's roots. It had actually worked. He was back.
The first (and only) big action scene of the childhood years! Given that they are still kids, this variant of Capture the Flag is pretty brutal compared to the normal game and hopefully further shows how much more intense their childhood is. Of course, this is still kids playing around at the end of the day, so there's plenty of fun tossed in as well, largely thanks to Elena and Zack. Cloud doesn't appear to be totally convinced on this whole girl thing, although a certain someone seems to be changing that a bit. There's also a tiny bit more of less subtle Cloti here, although it's very much a one-sided crush on Tifa's part and isn't going to play much more of a role in the future.
Back at home, Claudia's condition continues to deteriorate, unfortunately. She's at least acknowledging that this mysterious illness is worse than she thought and agrees to see a doctor. This ultimately leads Cloud to bail on the celebration party for winning the competition, which then turns into him getting stalked on his way home. It's unclear who these men are and what they want with him, so Cloud flees to quite possibly the safest place possible and manages to cross the Barrier for a second time. I know people were wondering how long it might take for this to happen, but there you go, upcoming Clerith reunion time!
Even though this chapter focuses more on developing the characters and a bit less on the overall plot, I hope everyone still found it enjoyable!
Next Chapter: Paradise