The Fifth Act, Chapter 7
Title: The Fifth Act
Rating: T for violence.
Summary: FFVII Time-travel. Gen. Cloud has an accident with a Time Materia.
Author's Note: This was a fun chapter to write.
Previous Chapter
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The Fifth Act
Chapter 7
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The nest of dragons was an hour’s hike from the village - far too close for anyone’s comfort. Nibel dragons normally preferred to nest closer to the peak, past the reactor, and on the east side where they could warm themselves in the morning sun. Three of them had settled in a cave - two females, and one horn-headed male apparently. He’d need to take out the bull first.
Cloud navigated carefully across the rocky ground, sticking to the uneven shelves of slate instead of the more inviting concourse of loose pebbles. Experience had taught him early in childhood that a stable surface on Mount Nibel was far more reliable than a gentle gradient. In retrospect, it had been rude - not to mention reckless - of Mayor Lockhart to not even to offer him a guide up the mountain, but luckily, he didn’t need one. Hopefully no one thought to question why he already knew the safest path up.
Before he got that far, though, a confrontation with his shadow would be necessary.
The blond hunched his shoulders and tried to lengthen his stride, hoping to leave his follower behind. He could guess at the owner of the clumsy footfalls trailing him, and wasn’t looking forward to the conversation. It didn’t strike him as a good idea.
It didn’t work, of course. The steps just scrambled to keep up. He always was too stubborn for his own good.
“You might as well come out.”
A little sheepishly, a head of spiky blond hair poked out from behind a tree.
Cloud met the bright, round blue eyes - no mako glow, no bitterness, just the innocent naiveté of youth - and for one second, expected the universe to end. His younger self, oblivious to the gravity of the moment, just blinked owlishly and asked, “Are you SOLDIER?”
He didn’t know what he expected. Considering he already altered the timeline by giving Aeris’s water to Genesis, what more damage could meeting a younger version of himself do? As far as he was aware, none of his memories had changed to match. “Not exactly. I don’t work for ShinRa.”
The young boy frowned. “Who do you work for then?”
“Nobody. I work for myself.”
The kid looked fascinated. Cloud winced, wondering if he’d always been so easy to read. “Doing what?”
“Bits and pieces. Deliveries.” Though he didn’t have his business set up here, and couldn’t do so without Fenrir. “Fighting monsters. I’m kind of a mercenary.”
Those blue eyes widened to the point where they looked as though they might pop out of his skull. “What kind of monsters?”
Brow creasing, Cloud fished about for some examples. “Anything, really. Coeurls, bat-eyes, wolves, thunderbirds, bom-ombs…”
At each name, the boy grew more excited. “Nibel wolves?”
Beginning to feel awkward at the shine in his childish doppelganger’s eyes - could things get any weirder than being interrogated by your past self? - Cloud nodded.
“Those are huge! What about dragons?”
“Dragons, too. I’m going to take care of the nest nearby now. Which is why you should go home.”
At the mention of home, the reserved, awkward youth returned. Scuffing his shoe on the ground, the younger blond stuttered, “Are… are you…?”
Already knowing the question the boy wanted to ask, Cloud answered, “Yeah. I’m your uncle.” The lie felt awkward on his lips all of a sudden, though it rolled off so easily before.
“I’ve never heard of you before.”
“It’s new for me too.” And for one second, he felt a spike of resentment for the child who still had his mother, his innocence, his hopes and dreams and carefree days - except he knew there were cares, he was still an awkward runt of a kid in a small town at the mercy of bullies, even if those problems seemed so trite in retrospect - and yet here he was, chasing after a fake uncle instead of cherishing what he had, and what Cloud couldn’t have, not anymore.
“Why does Ma hate you?” he asked, voice scarcely rising above a whisper. “She wouldn’t tell me.”
“I don’t know either. I think my fath-your dad’s family,” he corrected mid-word, “must have done something really terrible.” He didn’t have any real curiosity about it anymore. When his mother died, he resigned himself to never knowing, and the mystery stopped bothering him. It became hard to dwell on the issue when so much of his time was taken up with other psychological crises.
The boy nodded, biting his lip. They matched stares for a long moment. Cloud couldn’t make the mental connection - this couldn’t be a younger version of himself. It was just some kid that looked like him.
“…Ma’s nice. She might come around, y’know, once she knows you’re different. You seem like an okay person,” came the timid offer.
Shaking his head, Cloud replied, “Don’t burden her with it. I won’t be here for long. I’ll just stay out of her way.”
“You’re not staying?” As soon as the words left the boy’s mouth, he looked away, and Cloud could track the thoughts running through his counterpart’s mind. Disappointment, bitterness, the knowledge that things weren’t going to change after all. Disgust at himself for daring to hope when he knew better.
Things would get a whole lot worse if he sat around Nibelheim forever, though. “I have things I need to do. And it will make your mother uncomfortable, the longer I stay.”
The silence stretched, but then those clear, blue, mako-less eyes sharpened, and that soft chin, still rounded by baby fat, jutted out determinedly. “You’re going to fight the dragons now, right? Can I come? Just to watch!”
The request shouldn’t have been a surprise, but Cloud started all the same. He scrambled for an excuse. “Your mother-” So hard to remember not to call her ‘Ma’. “-will be worried.” And might shoot at him again if she knew her son followed him out of town. The gunshots didn’t have to connect to hurt.
“I promise I won’t get in the way,” the boy whispered, as though someone might overhear.
He wouldn’t get in the way, either. Cloud could remember that much about himself. But…
If he knew himself at age thirteen, he’d try and follow anyway, and probably get into trouble for it.
“Fine,” he said. “But stay back, and don’t do anything I don’t tell you to do.”
His young counterpart nodded eagerly.
They resumed climbing. The rocky mountain paths hadn’t changed a bit. At least this time, he wasn’t scrambling along in the dark, driven by rage and grief, smoke in his lungs and his mother’s blood still coating his hands. Cloud shivered, and pushed the memory to the back of his mind. These were things he was working to prevent.
His pint-sized doppelganger didn’t say much on the journey there, though the weight of his innocent blue gaze bore into his back. Fortunately, what questions he did ask were the typical sort you could expect from a young teenage boy - ‘where did you get those materia’, ‘what do they do’, ‘how good are you with a sword?’. Personal matters were taboo. That much hadn’t changed.
His enhanced hearing picked up the heavy rumble of a dragon’s breath long before the beasts were in sight. He held up a hand for quiet, and listened carefully. Just a little further to the east. They left the path, creeping through the shrubbery as quietly as possible.
There. Just beyond the end of the tree line, a rocky outcropping protruding in front of a granite cave. The rocks within the recess carried a faint glow, and the ones closer to the entrance sparkled like crystals in the sunlight. A sure sign of a mako fountain inside. That wasn’t good.
The first female rested near the edge of the outcropping, basking leisurely in the sun. The bull lumbered into view a moment later, raising its head and sniffing the air. Cloud tensed. Nibel dragons weren’t known for their keen senses, but if the mako had caused mutations…
The bull lost interest, ambling over to the resting female. The advantage of surprise still rested in his hands.
How best to take them out? The bull was larger than average and might pose a problem, but on the narrow outcropping, it wouldn’t be able to move around easily. Speed was more important with dragons than anything else, once you considered First Tsurugi being tough enough to cut through the natural armour - Bahamut's hide made dragon scales look flimsier than Cait Sith's fortunes.
Three blades, he decided, breaking apart the sword, joining the lightest piece with the materia segment. He stabbed the others into the soft earth, swapped the Fire materia for the Restore materia, and ran one last check on his equipment, making extra certain the materia concealed in his pockets were secure. A repeat performance of the zolom fiasco was the last thing he needed.
“Stay here,” he whispered to the younger Cloud, and crept from the cover of the trees. The last female must have been resting inside - ideally, he wanted to take care of the first two before they could retreat into it. Dragons were easier to deal with from behind, away from their teeth, claws, and fiery breath.
Ducking low to stay out of the line of sight, he stealthily made his way downwind, sword in hand. The bolt spell would take a few seconds to get off - he’d open with that. The shock ought to stun and confuse them while he moved in on the bull from behind with his sword.
Once in position, he concentrated. The green materia slotted into First Tsurugi brightened, then crackled as the air split with a torrent of electricity. The bull and female let out simultaneous shrieks, a mixture of pain and surprise. They lumbered to their feet, disoriented.
Cloud pushed off, enhanced speed bringing him to the bull’s flank in the space of a single breath. Slow it down first. First Tsurugi plunged into the thigh, severing the tendon just above its knees, and the dragon let out a guttural snarl as its leg collapsed beneath it. The serpentine neck whipped around, enormous teeth snapping blindly, but Cloud had already leapt to the other side and repeated the process. Lightning split the air once more, the female let out another shriek, the bull turned its attention back that way, and he moved again, running up the dragon’s back in half a dozen quick steps. He leapt into the air.
In one swift strike, First Tsurugi split its skull. It never saw him coming.
The body thudded to the ground, head flopping around grotesquely. The female let out a keening cry, and Cloud barely dodged the stream of flame belching from its mouth. The heels of his boots still warm, he dove for the ground, sliding underneath the dragon, First Tsurugi tearing through the tender underbelly, and rolled out of the way before it could collapse and trap him under its weight. A double-handed strike followed, separating the body from the head in one swipe. A quicker, cleaner death than the alternative.
Two down. Just the last female left.
A brief glance confirmed his younger self remained safe and hidden in the trees. Cloud turned towards the cave next. This one he’d need to take head-on, but the females were smaller, and their flame less intense.
A growl rumbled inside the cave as the blond approached. First Tsurugi held at the ready, he peered into the darkness, taking a moment to let his eyes adjust.
The scrape of scales across rock grated against his ears, and the dark mass at the back of the café shifted, coming closer. The thing to catch his attention, however, was the three round, speckled shapes bathed in the warm green light of a natural mako fountain.
Cloud cursed under his breath. A mother… with eggs.
He ducked back outside the cave, wincing at the blast of heat from the gushing wall of flame that followed. As soon as the torrent of fire abated, he swung back around, darted to the left and slashed at the front flank, kicking up embers in his wake. The mother’s head swung towards him, teeth snapping at his hair, forcing him back. The strike wound up being a shallow slash that only served to anger the beast.
Cloud dodged, advanced, and retreated, never in any real danger but unable to find a good opening to take the mother out. He flattened himself against the cavern’s side to avoid another blast of fire, and the dragon paused, eyes searching the cave when its flame failed to meet its mark.
Mako eyes made it hard to hide in the dark. He ran for the entrance - it was too difficult to dodge the fiery breath in such close quarters, and while he would survive a direct hit, that didn’t mean it wouldn’t hurt. The dragon lumbered after him, rage enough to draw it away from the eggs. It roared and swiped with its claws, but Cloud saw the strike coming and sidestepped easily. It followed with a snap of its jaws. Left wrong-footed from his previous evasion, the blond raised First Tsurugi.
Shock travelled down his arm, and he slid back a fraction in the soot. A twist of the wrist, and his sword locked the dragon’s open maw in place. Slitted eyes focused on him, glittering with wild, animalistic rage. Warmth began to flow from its gullet. It was going to spew fire any moment.
In the space of a second, Cloud snapped off the smaller blade, and plunged it into the mother’s throat.
The building heat abated, and smoke began to curl from the dragon’s nostrils. Cloud twisted the sword once, and then pulled it from the neck, standing back as the body slumped.
Mission accomplished.
A burning smell lingered in the air, mixing with the tang of mako and the coppery taint of dragon’s blood. Just to be sure, he headed into the cave, being careful to stay clear of the fountain. He’d experienced mako poisoning two times too many not to be leery of the stuff.
He cracked the first egg with the hilt of his sword, wrinkling his nose at the foul stench and sticky liquid that poured from the broken shell. The embryo inside was misshapen, and flecks of mako crystals clung to its skin. A mutation. These dragons would one day grow up to become the monsters even your average SOLDIER would think twice about engaging.
With a small amount of regret, he repeated the action for the other two eggs. They weren’t likely to hatch with their mother dead, but one could never tell what might happen with mako involved. Best to nip the problem in the bud.
Outside, his younger counterpart had left his hiding place and poked nervously at the felled bull, body dissolving as it returned to the Lifestream. He scrambled to attention at the sound of Cloud’s approach. “That was amazing! You were so fast!” The shyness had vanished in favour of boyish enthusiasm. “And your sword separates! How did you learn to use a sword like that?”
Startled, Cloud didn’t manage a response. Fortunately, one wasn’t required.
“I didn’t think anybody could be so strong outside SOLDIER. How would you rate against a SOLDIER in a fight? Do you think you’d win?”
This question Cloud could answer. “One-on-one? I could take on any SOLDIER ShinRa could throw at me.” Hardly an empty boast - at one stage, he’d done so.
“Even a First Class? They’re supposed to be super-strong.”
“Even a First Class.”
“Not the Generals, though,” he asserted.
Cloud’s lips quirked into a half-hearted smile. “I fought Sephiroth to a draw recently.”
The younger blond just about fell over at that. “You’re not lying?”
He probably shouldn’t have told any kid he’d fought Sephiroth to a draw, even if that child was himself. That sort of information could cause him trouble. “I think I had the element of surprise. Don’t spread it around. They let me walk away that time, but if ShinRa hears about it, they might come after me in a group. I wouldn’t do so well then.”
His young counterpart nodded solemnly, alleviating his worry. He’d always been the sort to carry secrets to the grave. Thinking about it in retrospect, it was probably the only reason a runt like him ever made corporal in the regular forces. They needed troopers they could send on sensitive missions who wouldn’t gossip.
Fishing for a change of subject, Cloud noted, “You sure know a lot about SOLDIER.”
He received a quick nod and a small smile in response. “I want to join SOLDIER one day. I’ll be strong, and nobody will ever think about messing with me. Like Commander Rhapsodis!”
Genesis? He must have become the new Hero of Wutai then, with Sephiroth taking a backseat. He probably ought to find a newspaper sometime, find out how the war ended, even if he wasn’t sure he really wanted to know.
The familiarity of the words sent a chill down his spine, though. The hero might be different, but the result would be the same.
Cloud gathered up the pieces of First Tsurugi, rejoined them, and slung the sword into its harness. “You should stay out of SOLDIER,” he said, voice rough. “It’s a den of monsters.”
His younger self fell silent at those words, but Cloud didn’t look back. If only he’d listened to Zack, if only…
It wouldn’t have made a difference. But he’d make a difference now.
“You can be strong without becoming SOLDIER. I’m not SOLDIER, but I still took care of those dragons, right?”
There was no response, but Cloud could see the wheels turning in the boy’s head. He doubted it would be enough to dissuade his past self, but at least he’d planted the seed of doubt. “…You sure you won’t stay?”
“I really can’t. And your mother…” he trailed off, not wanting to think about that, not when fighting the dragons finally succeeded in getting his mind off the topic. “But if you ever leave Nibelheim, you can come look for me. I won’t be hard to find. Take care your mother in the meantime. She needs you, more than SOLDIER does.”
‘Stay here, just a little longer,’ he thought, ‘And I’ll change fate for the both of us.’
……………………………
Zack Fair was not having a good day. Not at all. His simulation session in the training room with his mentor had been rescheduled for an impromptu mission, just for starters. One of Hollander’s experiments had broken out of the lab or something - all he knew was that one moment he’d been enjoying a peaceful lunch in the SOLDIER cafeteria, and the next the whole building had descended into chaos as weird hybrid monsters ran amok.
“Where’re Sephiroth and Genesis?” Zack yelled out to Angeal as he hacked at some gargoyle that might have once been a coeurl.
“Sephiroth’s guarding the President and Genesis is clearing out the Science labs!” Angeal called back. He dispatched another monster. “Looks like this floor is clear. We’ll- just a minute.” He pulled out his buzzing PHS. “Director Lazard?”
Zack’s PHS beeped as well. He flipped it open and read the mission mail. Top-priority. Great, the monsters had made it out of the building and onto the street.
“Zack-”
“I got it, I got it,” he assured the SOLDIER First. Angeal could be such an old man sometimes. Hefting his broadsword, he dashed out onto the street, almost immediately running into more gargoyles harassing some civilians. He pulled their attention with a low-level fire spell, then set to work with his blade. “Too easy!”
“Don’t get cocky!” Angeal warned, taking out some misshapen wolf with nothing more than his fists. The courtyard clear, they headed deeper into Sector 4.
“What the hell was the Science Department thinking, anyway?” Zack complained as he sliced down some weird flying insect… thing. Whatever it was, it was way too big! “Who forgot to lock the door on the specimen cages?”
“Maybe they were let out on purpose.” Angeal’s comment held an unusually dark tone to it, despite the wry smile on his face.
“Why would anyone want to do that?” Zack growled, and kicked away another mutated wolf. How the heck did it see without eyes?
“You really should pay more attention to politics.” Angeal grunted as he knocked aside another monster. “Get out of here!” he shouted towards some cowering civilians. “It’s not safe on the streets!”
“In here, miss!” Zack called, holding open one of the bar doors. “Just stay indoors until ShinRa sounds the all-clear. We’ll take care of this right away!” The ground shook under their feet. “What the heck was that?”
Angeal’s PHS buzzed again. “Angeal here. Yeah? …This is ridiculous. Where are the rest of the Firsts? …Uh huh. No, we’re out here already. Okay, but I’m writing this up when I get back.” Looking as though he’d just seen what really went into ShinRa’s cafeteria specials, he snapped the PHS closed. “Explosion over by the Sector 5 reactor. We’re heading there next.”
“What the hell is going on? How many of these things are there?” Zack groused.
“Stop whining. Weren’t you just complaining about not getting enough real action yesterday?”
“Yeah but-” His rebuttal was cut off when he caught sight of a new monster lumbering into view. “Angeal!”
A marlboro - nasty monsters normally, and this one had to be a good two to three times larger than the norm.
“Change of plan! Zack, you head for the Sector 5 reactor! I’ll sort out the marlboro and catch up with you!”
“Gotcha!” He took off at a run, ducking under a flailing tentacle. Even at a distance, it smelt foul. The SOLDIER Second didn’t envy his superior officer in the least.
The streets were empty by now, as ShinRa’s emergency broadcasts did the trick. Zack made a beeline for the reactor, unhindered but for the occasional small-fry monster that popped up in his path. They didn’t even slow him down. That promotion to First-Class was so his after this!
He squinted, just barely able to make out the faint green tinge to the sky. The Sector 5 reactor lay just ahead, but he didn’t see any smoke or evidence of massive explosions.
There was, however, an enormous behemoth lumbering his way. And suddenly he wished he stayed back to fight the marlboro after all. A behemoth! Those things always knocked him flat in simulation!
Then he heard the helicopter. Turks. Which could only mean…
“Crap crap crap!” Zack pivoted mid-stride, but even SOLDIERs couldn’t outrun missiles.
It really, really, really wasn’t his day.
The missiles struck their target true, and the behemoth disappeared in a flash of light and a booming explosion. The concussion from the blast sent Zack flying - why didn’t he drop to the ground? Angeal was going to lecture him until he turned blue in the face.
Air whistled past his ears, and he was falling, falling, and he crossed his arms over his head but dammit it was going to hurt…
The breath jumped from his lungs when his back finally collided with something. Wood splintered and cracked around him, and he crashed through, splinters and dust raining down with him. His journey to earth finally ended with a bone-jarring thud. Everything went dark, until…
“Helloooooo?”
Zack Fair’s terrible day got a whole lot better.
Next chapter
Rating: T for violence.
Summary: FFVII Time-travel. Gen. Cloud has an accident with a Time Materia.
Author's Note: This was a fun chapter to write.
Previous Chapter
__________________
The Fifth Act
Chapter 7
__________________
The nest of dragons was an hour’s hike from the village - far too close for anyone’s comfort. Nibel dragons normally preferred to nest closer to the peak, past the reactor, and on the east side where they could warm themselves in the morning sun. Three of them had settled in a cave - two females, and one horn-headed male apparently. He’d need to take out the bull first.
Cloud navigated carefully across the rocky ground, sticking to the uneven shelves of slate instead of the more inviting concourse of loose pebbles. Experience had taught him early in childhood that a stable surface on Mount Nibel was far more reliable than a gentle gradient. In retrospect, it had been rude - not to mention reckless - of Mayor Lockhart to not even to offer him a guide up the mountain, but luckily, he didn’t need one. Hopefully no one thought to question why he already knew the safest path up.
Before he got that far, though, a confrontation with his shadow would be necessary.
The blond hunched his shoulders and tried to lengthen his stride, hoping to leave his follower behind. He could guess at the owner of the clumsy footfalls trailing him, and wasn’t looking forward to the conversation. It didn’t strike him as a good idea.
It didn’t work, of course. The steps just scrambled to keep up. He always was too stubborn for his own good.
“You might as well come out.”
A little sheepishly, a head of spiky blond hair poked out from behind a tree.
Cloud met the bright, round blue eyes - no mako glow, no bitterness, just the innocent naiveté of youth - and for one second, expected the universe to end. His younger self, oblivious to the gravity of the moment, just blinked owlishly and asked, “Are you SOLDIER?”
He didn’t know what he expected. Considering he already altered the timeline by giving Aeris’s water to Genesis, what more damage could meeting a younger version of himself do? As far as he was aware, none of his memories had changed to match. “Not exactly. I don’t work for ShinRa.”
The young boy frowned. “Who do you work for then?”
“Nobody. I work for myself.”
The kid looked fascinated. Cloud winced, wondering if he’d always been so easy to read. “Doing what?”
“Bits and pieces. Deliveries.” Though he didn’t have his business set up here, and couldn’t do so without Fenrir. “Fighting monsters. I’m kind of a mercenary.”
Those blue eyes widened to the point where they looked as though they might pop out of his skull. “What kind of monsters?”
Brow creasing, Cloud fished about for some examples. “Anything, really. Coeurls, bat-eyes, wolves, thunderbirds, bom-ombs…”
At each name, the boy grew more excited. “Nibel wolves?”
Beginning to feel awkward at the shine in his childish doppelganger’s eyes - could things get any weirder than being interrogated by your past self? - Cloud nodded.
“Those are huge! What about dragons?”
“Dragons, too. I’m going to take care of the nest nearby now. Which is why you should go home.”
At the mention of home, the reserved, awkward youth returned. Scuffing his shoe on the ground, the younger blond stuttered, “Are… are you…?”
Already knowing the question the boy wanted to ask, Cloud answered, “Yeah. I’m your uncle.” The lie felt awkward on his lips all of a sudden, though it rolled off so easily before.
“I’ve never heard of you before.”
“It’s new for me too.” And for one second, he felt a spike of resentment for the child who still had his mother, his innocence, his hopes and dreams and carefree days - except he knew there were cares, he was still an awkward runt of a kid in a small town at the mercy of bullies, even if those problems seemed so trite in retrospect - and yet here he was, chasing after a fake uncle instead of cherishing what he had, and what Cloud couldn’t have, not anymore.
“Why does Ma hate you?” he asked, voice scarcely rising above a whisper. “She wouldn’t tell me.”
“I don’t know either. I think my fath-your dad’s family,” he corrected mid-word, “must have done something really terrible.” He didn’t have any real curiosity about it anymore. When his mother died, he resigned himself to never knowing, and the mystery stopped bothering him. It became hard to dwell on the issue when so much of his time was taken up with other psychological crises.
The boy nodded, biting his lip. They matched stares for a long moment. Cloud couldn’t make the mental connection - this couldn’t be a younger version of himself. It was just some kid that looked like him.
“…Ma’s nice. She might come around, y’know, once she knows you’re different. You seem like an okay person,” came the timid offer.
Shaking his head, Cloud replied, “Don’t burden her with it. I won’t be here for long. I’ll just stay out of her way.”
“You’re not staying?” As soon as the words left the boy’s mouth, he looked away, and Cloud could track the thoughts running through his counterpart’s mind. Disappointment, bitterness, the knowledge that things weren’t going to change after all. Disgust at himself for daring to hope when he knew better.
Things would get a whole lot worse if he sat around Nibelheim forever, though. “I have things I need to do. And it will make your mother uncomfortable, the longer I stay.”
The silence stretched, but then those clear, blue, mako-less eyes sharpened, and that soft chin, still rounded by baby fat, jutted out determinedly. “You’re going to fight the dragons now, right? Can I come? Just to watch!”
The request shouldn’t have been a surprise, but Cloud started all the same. He scrambled for an excuse. “Your mother-” So hard to remember not to call her ‘Ma’. “-will be worried.” And might shoot at him again if she knew her son followed him out of town. The gunshots didn’t have to connect to hurt.
“I promise I won’t get in the way,” the boy whispered, as though someone might overhear.
He wouldn’t get in the way, either. Cloud could remember that much about himself. But…
If he knew himself at age thirteen, he’d try and follow anyway, and probably get into trouble for it.
“Fine,” he said. “But stay back, and don’t do anything I don’t tell you to do.”
His young counterpart nodded eagerly.
They resumed climbing. The rocky mountain paths hadn’t changed a bit. At least this time, he wasn’t scrambling along in the dark, driven by rage and grief, smoke in his lungs and his mother’s blood still coating his hands. Cloud shivered, and pushed the memory to the back of his mind. These were things he was working to prevent.
His pint-sized doppelganger didn’t say much on the journey there, though the weight of his innocent blue gaze bore into his back. Fortunately, what questions he did ask were the typical sort you could expect from a young teenage boy - ‘where did you get those materia’, ‘what do they do’, ‘how good are you with a sword?’. Personal matters were taboo. That much hadn’t changed.
His enhanced hearing picked up the heavy rumble of a dragon’s breath long before the beasts were in sight. He held up a hand for quiet, and listened carefully. Just a little further to the east. They left the path, creeping through the shrubbery as quietly as possible.
There. Just beyond the end of the tree line, a rocky outcropping protruding in front of a granite cave. The rocks within the recess carried a faint glow, and the ones closer to the entrance sparkled like crystals in the sunlight. A sure sign of a mako fountain inside. That wasn’t good.
The first female rested near the edge of the outcropping, basking leisurely in the sun. The bull lumbered into view a moment later, raising its head and sniffing the air. Cloud tensed. Nibel dragons weren’t known for their keen senses, but if the mako had caused mutations…
The bull lost interest, ambling over to the resting female. The advantage of surprise still rested in his hands.
How best to take them out? The bull was larger than average and might pose a problem, but on the narrow outcropping, it wouldn’t be able to move around easily. Speed was more important with dragons than anything else, once you considered First Tsurugi being tough enough to cut through the natural armour - Bahamut's hide made dragon scales look flimsier than Cait Sith's fortunes.
Three blades, he decided, breaking apart the sword, joining the lightest piece with the materia segment. He stabbed the others into the soft earth, swapped the Fire materia for the Restore materia, and ran one last check on his equipment, making extra certain the materia concealed in his pockets were secure. A repeat performance of the zolom fiasco was the last thing he needed.
“Stay here,” he whispered to the younger Cloud, and crept from the cover of the trees. The last female must have been resting inside - ideally, he wanted to take care of the first two before they could retreat into it. Dragons were easier to deal with from behind, away from their teeth, claws, and fiery breath.
Ducking low to stay out of the line of sight, he stealthily made his way downwind, sword in hand. The bolt spell would take a few seconds to get off - he’d open with that. The shock ought to stun and confuse them while he moved in on the bull from behind with his sword.
Once in position, he concentrated. The green materia slotted into First Tsurugi brightened, then crackled as the air split with a torrent of electricity. The bull and female let out simultaneous shrieks, a mixture of pain and surprise. They lumbered to their feet, disoriented.
Cloud pushed off, enhanced speed bringing him to the bull’s flank in the space of a single breath. Slow it down first. First Tsurugi plunged into the thigh, severing the tendon just above its knees, and the dragon let out a guttural snarl as its leg collapsed beneath it. The serpentine neck whipped around, enormous teeth snapping blindly, but Cloud had already leapt to the other side and repeated the process. Lightning split the air once more, the female let out another shriek, the bull turned its attention back that way, and he moved again, running up the dragon’s back in half a dozen quick steps. He leapt into the air.
In one swift strike, First Tsurugi split its skull. It never saw him coming.
The body thudded to the ground, head flopping around grotesquely. The female let out a keening cry, and Cloud barely dodged the stream of flame belching from its mouth. The heels of his boots still warm, he dove for the ground, sliding underneath the dragon, First Tsurugi tearing through the tender underbelly, and rolled out of the way before it could collapse and trap him under its weight. A double-handed strike followed, separating the body from the head in one swipe. A quicker, cleaner death than the alternative.
Two down. Just the last female left.
A brief glance confirmed his younger self remained safe and hidden in the trees. Cloud turned towards the cave next. This one he’d need to take head-on, but the females were smaller, and their flame less intense.
A growl rumbled inside the cave as the blond approached. First Tsurugi held at the ready, he peered into the darkness, taking a moment to let his eyes adjust.
The scrape of scales across rock grated against his ears, and the dark mass at the back of the café shifted, coming closer. The thing to catch his attention, however, was the three round, speckled shapes bathed in the warm green light of a natural mako fountain.
Cloud cursed under his breath. A mother… with eggs.
He ducked back outside the cave, wincing at the blast of heat from the gushing wall of flame that followed. As soon as the torrent of fire abated, he swung back around, darted to the left and slashed at the front flank, kicking up embers in his wake. The mother’s head swung towards him, teeth snapping at his hair, forcing him back. The strike wound up being a shallow slash that only served to anger the beast.
Cloud dodged, advanced, and retreated, never in any real danger but unable to find a good opening to take the mother out. He flattened himself against the cavern’s side to avoid another blast of fire, and the dragon paused, eyes searching the cave when its flame failed to meet its mark.
Mako eyes made it hard to hide in the dark. He ran for the entrance - it was too difficult to dodge the fiery breath in such close quarters, and while he would survive a direct hit, that didn’t mean it wouldn’t hurt. The dragon lumbered after him, rage enough to draw it away from the eggs. It roared and swiped with its claws, but Cloud saw the strike coming and sidestepped easily. It followed with a snap of its jaws. Left wrong-footed from his previous evasion, the blond raised First Tsurugi.
Shock travelled down his arm, and he slid back a fraction in the soot. A twist of the wrist, and his sword locked the dragon’s open maw in place. Slitted eyes focused on him, glittering with wild, animalistic rage. Warmth began to flow from its gullet. It was going to spew fire any moment.
In the space of a second, Cloud snapped off the smaller blade, and plunged it into the mother’s throat.
The building heat abated, and smoke began to curl from the dragon’s nostrils. Cloud twisted the sword once, and then pulled it from the neck, standing back as the body slumped.
Mission accomplished.
A burning smell lingered in the air, mixing with the tang of mako and the coppery taint of dragon’s blood. Just to be sure, he headed into the cave, being careful to stay clear of the fountain. He’d experienced mako poisoning two times too many not to be leery of the stuff.
He cracked the first egg with the hilt of his sword, wrinkling his nose at the foul stench and sticky liquid that poured from the broken shell. The embryo inside was misshapen, and flecks of mako crystals clung to its skin. A mutation. These dragons would one day grow up to become the monsters even your average SOLDIER would think twice about engaging.
With a small amount of regret, he repeated the action for the other two eggs. They weren’t likely to hatch with their mother dead, but one could never tell what might happen with mako involved. Best to nip the problem in the bud.
Outside, his younger counterpart had left his hiding place and poked nervously at the felled bull, body dissolving as it returned to the Lifestream. He scrambled to attention at the sound of Cloud’s approach. “That was amazing! You were so fast!” The shyness had vanished in favour of boyish enthusiasm. “And your sword separates! How did you learn to use a sword like that?”
Startled, Cloud didn’t manage a response. Fortunately, one wasn’t required.
“I didn’t think anybody could be so strong outside SOLDIER. How would you rate against a SOLDIER in a fight? Do you think you’d win?”
This question Cloud could answer. “One-on-one? I could take on any SOLDIER ShinRa could throw at me.” Hardly an empty boast - at one stage, he’d done so.
“Even a First Class? They’re supposed to be super-strong.”
“Even a First Class.”
“Not the Generals, though,” he asserted.
Cloud’s lips quirked into a half-hearted smile. “I fought Sephiroth to a draw recently.”
The younger blond just about fell over at that. “You’re not lying?”
He probably shouldn’t have told any kid he’d fought Sephiroth to a draw, even if that child was himself. That sort of information could cause him trouble. “I think I had the element of surprise. Don’t spread it around. They let me walk away that time, but if ShinRa hears about it, they might come after me in a group. I wouldn’t do so well then.”
His young counterpart nodded solemnly, alleviating his worry. He’d always been the sort to carry secrets to the grave. Thinking about it in retrospect, it was probably the only reason a runt like him ever made corporal in the regular forces. They needed troopers they could send on sensitive missions who wouldn’t gossip.
Fishing for a change of subject, Cloud noted, “You sure know a lot about SOLDIER.”
He received a quick nod and a small smile in response. “I want to join SOLDIER one day. I’ll be strong, and nobody will ever think about messing with me. Like Commander Rhapsodis!”
Genesis? He must have become the new Hero of Wutai then, with Sephiroth taking a backseat. He probably ought to find a newspaper sometime, find out how the war ended, even if he wasn’t sure he really wanted to know.
The familiarity of the words sent a chill down his spine, though. The hero might be different, but the result would be the same.
Cloud gathered up the pieces of First Tsurugi, rejoined them, and slung the sword into its harness. “You should stay out of SOLDIER,” he said, voice rough. “It’s a den of monsters.”
His younger self fell silent at those words, but Cloud didn’t look back. If only he’d listened to Zack, if only…
It wouldn’t have made a difference. But he’d make a difference now.
“You can be strong without becoming SOLDIER. I’m not SOLDIER, but I still took care of those dragons, right?”
There was no response, but Cloud could see the wheels turning in the boy’s head. He doubted it would be enough to dissuade his past self, but at least he’d planted the seed of doubt. “…You sure you won’t stay?”
“I really can’t. And your mother…” he trailed off, not wanting to think about that, not when fighting the dragons finally succeeded in getting his mind off the topic. “But if you ever leave Nibelheim, you can come look for me. I won’t be hard to find. Take care your mother in the meantime. She needs you, more than SOLDIER does.”
‘Stay here, just a little longer,’ he thought, ‘And I’ll change fate for the both of us.’
……………………………
Zack Fair was not having a good day. Not at all. His simulation session in the training room with his mentor had been rescheduled for an impromptu mission, just for starters. One of Hollander’s experiments had broken out of the lab or something - all he knew was that one moment he’d been enjoying a peaceful lunch in the SOLDIER cafeteria, and the next the whole building had descended into chaos as weird hybrid monsters ran amok.
“Where’re Sephiroth and Genesis?” Zack yelled out to Angeal as he hacked at some gargoyle that might have once been a coeurl.
“Sephiroth’s guarding the President and Genesis is clearing out the Science labs!” Angeal called back. He dispatched another monster. “Looks like this floor is clear. We’ll- just a minute.” He pulled out his buzzing PHS. “Director Lazard?”
Zack’s PHS beeped as well. He flipped it open and read the mission mail. Top-priority. Great, the monsters had made it out of the building and onto the street.
“Zack-”
“I got it, I got it,” he assured the SOLDIER First. Angeal could be such an old man sometimes. Hefting his broadsword, he dashed out onto the street, almost immediately running into more gargoyles harassing some civilians. He pulled their attention with a low-level fire spell, then set to work with his blade. “Too easy!”
“Don’t get cocky!” Angeal warned, taking out some misshapen wolf with nothing more than his fists. The courtyard clear, they headed deeper into Sector 4.
“What the hell was the Science Department thinking, anyway?” Zack complained as he sliced down some weird flying insect… thing. Whatever it was, it was way too big! “Who forgot to lock the door on the specimen cages?”
“Maybe they were let out on purpose.” Angeal’s comment held an unusually dark tone to it, despite the wry smile on his face.
“Why would anyone want to do that?” Zack growled, and kicked away another mutated wolf. How the heck did it see without eyes?
“You really should pay more attention to politics.” Angeal grunted as he knocked aside another monster. “Get out of here!” he shouted towards some cowering civilians. “It’s not safe on the streets!”
“In here, miss!” Zack called, holding open one of the bar doors. “Just stay indoors until ShinRa sounds the all-clear. We’ll take care of this right away!” The ground shook under their feet. “What the heck was that?”
Angeal’s PHS buzzed again. “Angeal here. Yeah? …This is ridiculous. Where are the rest of the Firsts? …Uh huh. No, we’re out here already. Okay, but I’m writing this up when I get back.” Looking as though he’d just seen what really went into ShinRa’s cafeteria specials, he snapped the PHS closed. “Explosion over by the Sector 5 reactor. We’re heading there next.”
“What the hell is going on? How many of these things are there?” Zack groused.
“Stop whining. Weren’t you just complaining about not getting enough real action yesterday?”
“Yeah but-” His rebuttal was cut off when he caught sight of a new monster lumbering into view. “Angeal!”
A marlboro - nasty monsters normally, and this one had to be a good two to three times larger than the norm.
“Change of plan! Zack, you head for the Sector 5 reactor! I’ll sort out the marlboro and catch up with you!”
“Gotcha!” He took off at a run, ducking under a flailing tentacle. Even at a distance, it smelt foul. The SOLDIER Second didn’t envy his superior officer in the least.
The streets were empty by now, as ShinRa’s emergency broadcasts did the trick. Zack made a beeline for the reactor, unhindered but for the occasional small-fry monster that popped up in his path. They didn’t even slow him down. That promotion to First-Class was so his after this!
He squinted, just barely able to make out the faint green tinge to the sky. The Sector 5 reactor lay just ahead, but he didn’t see any smoke or evidence of massive explosions.
There was, however, an enormous behemoth lumbering his way. And suddenly he wished he stayed back to fight the marlboro after all. A behemoth! Those things always knocked him flat in simulation!
Then he heard the helicopter. Turks. Which could only mean…
“Crap crap crap!” Zack pivoted mid-stride, but even SOLDIERs couldn’t outrun missiles.
It really, really, really wasn’t his day.
The missiles struck their target true, and the behemoth disappeared in a flash of light and a booming explosion. The concussion from the blast sent Zack flying - why didn’t he drop to the ground? Angeal was going to lecture him until he turned blue in the face.
Air whistled past his ears, and he was falling, falling, and he crossed his arms over his head but dammit it was going to hurt…
The breath jumped from his lungs when his back finally collided with something. Wood splintered and cracked around him, and he crashed through, splinters and dust raining down with him. His journey to earth finally ended with a bone-jarring thud. Everything went dark, until…
“Helloooooo?”
Zack Fair’s terrible day got a whole lot better.
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