The Fifth Act, Chapter 10
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 chapter is a short one, so it comes out a day early. As a result, I suspect posting time will be out of whack for the rest of the week - you can probably expect the next chapter on Thursday, and the regular Sunday/Wednesday routine after that.
Previous Chapter
__________________
The Fifth Act
Chapter 10
__________________
The chocobo shuffled restlessly underfoot. With a sigh, Cloud dismounted and cancelled the Lure. The bird bolted immediately. Wild chocobos made for nervous mounts, even under the blond’s experienced hand.
Midgar loomed on the horizon, the haze of pollution robbing it of definition. Cloud scuffed the dirt with his boot. For many years, Buster Sword marked Zack’s grave at this very spot.
Maybe it was a little morbid to make this his stopping point on his return, but the reminder felt good. If all went according to plan, this point on the cliffs would remain nothing more than a boring cliff, indistinguishable among the kilometres of rock surrounding the basin.
Zack hadn’t even been able to turn his head in the end, to see the metropolis he’d worked so hard to return to. It took Cloud over a day to drag himself there, head awash with an influx of foreign memories, lugging Buster Sword behind him. It might have taken Zack only hours to make the same journey.
Another sigh, and Cloud began trudging towards the city gates. In the centre of that metropolis lay ShinRa headquarters, and thus Hojo and Sephiroth. He still didn’t know how to tackle that. Hojo was probably buried deep within the Science Department.
He’d have to find some way to infiltrate the building, and more importantly, the Science Department. He hadn’t decided how to do it yet, but figured he could pull off something similar to the plan Avalanche had adopted when they went to rescue Aeris. It would involve some steep bribes to get the necessary cards and disguise, but he had a little gil to his name now, thanks to a couple of days racing chocobos in the Gold Saucer. It was intended for room and board, but he could scrape together enough, and leave the city limits again to kill some monsters if he ran out. Anything to get to Hojo.
Then, once in, a certain head of the Science Department would find his career coming to an abrupt end.
ShinRa wasn’t going to know what hit them.
First though, there was a place he needed to see.
……………………………
Zack looked up at the newly repaired roof. “What do you think? Pretty good, right?”
Aeris tilted her head this way and that, finger on her chin. “Hmmm… it’ll do.”
“What? It’s way better than it was before!”
“The colours don’t match.”
“It’s more interesting that way though, right?”
She giggled. “I guess so.”
Zack grinned and flopped onto the ground, stretching out on the hardwood floor. Aeris knelt next to the flowers. “See, I told you I’m pretty handy with a hammer! I used to do all sorts of repairs on the house back in Gongaga. I’ll build you a flower wagon next, okay?”
“Midgar full of flowers, wallet full of money?” she quipped.
“You know it!”
She giggled again, tending the flowers quietly while Zack breathed in, taking a break after clambering all over the roof. The air in Midgar smelt foul compared to Gongaga, but inside the church, the fragrance of upturned earth and blooming flowers could almost fool him into thinking he was out in the countryside again, under the open skies and the warm sun.
After a while, you got used to the slums - they had a certain charm of their own, although in his case, the charm was called Aeris. He found himself wandering down to Sector 5 whenever he didn’t have a mission these days. Sometimes they’d go to the playground, or make a stop by Wall Market, but Zack liked the quiet moments where they sat around the church like this the best. He could never get tired of watching Aeris tend her flowers.
She paused, gaze going blank for a moment, as if she were listening to something Zack couldn’t hear. Aeris did that sometimes. "Oh..." She stood and dusted the soil from the hem of her white dress, looking towards the doors. "Someone interesting is coming."
"Interesting?" Zack asked curiously, still sprawled on the church floor.
"That's right. How do I put it?" She tapped a finger to her chin. "He's a puzzle."
“Hey, who are you talking about? You don’t have another boyfriend you’ve been hiding from me, right?” Zack teased.
She grinned impishly. “Maybe I have a hundred boyfriends.”
“You’re certainly pretty enough.”
Another giggle. “You’re sweet. That’s why I dumped them all for you.”
The door creaked open before Zack could reply. “Hello!” Aeris called out, voice echoing softly in the cavernous space. “I’ve never seen you around here before. Are you lost?”
The footsteps - heavy, booted - came to an abrupt stop.
"I forgot..." the stranger fumbled, and then quickly corrected, "I didn't think anyone would be here."
Zack laughed, leaping straight to his feet in a practiced move that never failed to impress his girl. At least, when he did it on sturdy ground. "The place is a bit run-down. It probably doesn’t help when people come crashing through the ceiling, either."
The stranger started at his voice, and Zack was similarly surprised by his appearance. The words were soft, so he'd expected some lost, nervous merchant. Instead, he faced a warrior. Covered in dust and grime, coiled power, quiet confidence, a sword on his back, and...
"Mako eyes," Zack breathed, hand reaching for his broadsword. "Get back, Aeris."
She tilted her head at him. "Hmmm? Why?"
The stranger appeared just as shocked. "...Zack?" he croaked.
Since Aeris didn't seem intent on moving, Zack put himself in front of her instead. "How do you know my name?"
He held up his hands, blue eyes wide. "Aren't you a SOLDIER?"
"I am, but I don't recall seeing you before." SOLDIER wasn't that large - after the losses in Wutai, there were maybe seventy across the three classes, and he knew most of them by sight.
"What? It's not- oh. I'm not in SOLDIER. I'm just..." Here the stranger actually looked embarrassed. "I'd heard of you, is all."
Zack wasn't convinced. "Heard of me?"
"…All good things?" The words were slow and uncertain.
“Zack, stop it, you’re scaring the poor man,” Aeris chided.
“He’s dangerous!”
“He’s not, silly, we haven’t even asked him who he is yet.” She stepped out from behind Zack and asked, “What’s your name?”
The blond had been staring at them in something of a daze as they argued, and jerked at the question. “Cloud.”
“Nice to meet you, Cloud. I’m Aeris, and it looks you already know this big silly Zack.”
“I’m not silly! Aeris, you should be more careful!” Zack complained.
“He’s right,” Cloud added, voice soft but somehow carrying effortlessly across the distance. “You should be careful. What if someone tries to kidnap you?”
Aeris latched on to Zack’s arm, giving him a winning smile. “You don’t see this big strong SOLDIER I’ve got here to protect me?”
Zack couldn’t help but swell up a little at that, but the look on Cloud’s face threw him for a loop. Such a sad, wistful expression…
Okay, so maybe the guy wasn’t dangerous after all. It really did seem like he’d just stumbled across the church by chance. “So what are you doing here? Are you new in town? And why are you dressed like SOLDIER?”
It took a long while for the blond to answer - he didn’t look like the sort talking came to naturally. “SOLDIER doesn’t have exclusive use of black jumpsuits. I’ve always worn this.”
Zack had to give him that. And it wasn’t like his uniform was an exact copy - only one shoulder guard, and the one he did sport wasn’t regulation. And SOLDIER jumpsuits didn’t zip up the front, either. Heck, there were imitation outfits sold for costume parties that were closer. But considering most of the Firsts flouted uniform regulations openly, he could be forgiven for making the assumption, right?
“It’s practical,” the blond added, with an air of having gone through the conversation many times already. Thinking on it, he probably had.
“Fine, fine, you’re not SOLDIER, even though you dress like one and have mako eyes. You still haven’t answered my first question.”
Cloud blinked, looking lost for a moment.
“What brings you here?” Aeris prompted.
They waited as the question processed. “…I just arrived in Midgar in today. I was looking for a place to rest for a while. Sorry. The church looked…” He trailed off, and the sentence hung in the air awkwardly.
“It’s okay,” Aeris assured him, all sunshine. “You can take a break here, so long as you don’t hurt the flowers.”
Cloud’s expression grew relaxed at the sight of the garden. “They’re beautiful,” he offered.
Her smile widened. “See? Midgar can be a nice place. I bet you’ll love it here. Do you have family or friends nearby?”
The blond shook his head, tensing again. “No, they’re… not around, anymore.”
Zack felt a stab of sympathy for the guy. From his uncomfortable manner, it didn’t look as though he were the type to have a long list of friends in the first place, and to lose what ties you had… Another case of some washed up mercenary coming to Midgar to make a fresh start, only to arrive here penniless and discover the city of dreams to be mostly lies. “Sorry to hear that, man. You have any work lined up?”
He shrugged, gesturing at his eyes. “It’ll be hard with these. Most people will think I’m ex-SOLDIER.”
“Yeah, about that… you sure you aren’t?” He agreed Cloud didn’t seem like a bad guy, but Zack couldn’t just ignore the mako eyes, or the great bit slab of metal on his back.
Aeris elbowed him. “Zack, stop pestering him!”
“Ow, ow, sorry! But aren’t you at least a little bit curious?”
Cloud smiled at their antics, though it was a tiny, tentative thing, and the SOLDIER Second Class was immediately beset by the urge to make it grow.
“Hey - oof - you know, ShinRa’s pretty much the only work in town,” Zack offered as Aeris finished bruising the last of his ribs. “You should apply to the army.”
It didn’t have the intended effect - the smile vanished as quickly as it came, replaced by the detached, cold mask of an indifferent warrior once more. Something felt familiar about it. Where had he seen that look before?
Oh yeah. General Sephiroth.
“…I’m not really sure if I’m cut out for the army.”
Zack wasn’t having a bar of that. “Are you kidding? You’ve got to be a decent fighter. Those materia look mastered.” He wanted to ask about those too, but Aeris kept giving him looks.
“I can fight fine,” Cloud defended. “It’s all the rest of it I don’t know about.”
Insecurity? On first glance he never would have imagined it from the guy, but then, appearances could be deceiving. “You’re worried about fitting in? Don’t sweat it so much! If Aeris likes you, you’ll do fine!” The pair shared a cheeky grin, and Zack nearly got derailed by how incredibly cute his girlfriend was! He’d landed the best girl on the planet, definitely. “You might even find some people you know! Everybody comes to Midgar these days. Where did you come from?”
“Nibelheim.” As soon as the word left his mouth, the blond’s eyes sparked with panic, and Zack figured he must have been embarrassed. But this, at least, he had experience in.
“Nibelheim! That sounds so backwater!”
Put-out, Cloud retorted, “Oh yeah, where did you come from then?”
Zack bounced on the balls of his feet. “Gongaga.”
“And that doesn’t sound backwater at all.”
He laughed, the sound echoing pleasantly off the church interior. “You got me there! Let me guess, there’s a reactor nearby and absolutely-”
“Nothing else,” they finished in unison.
“Boys,” Aeris declared with a fond shake of her head.
Grinning, Zack couldn’t even remember when he’d put away his broadsword. It explained everything comfortably. Sometimes kids growing up near rural reactors would pick up a faint mako glow to their eyes, though it normally faded when they got older or moved away. And anybody who dared wander beyond the city limits these days risked encountering monsters, so the sword and mastered materia weren’t such a big deal. Content with these conjured explanations, he relaxed for a few minutes as they traded small town stories, with Aeris occasionally asking the odd question. Cloud took the surprise at her sheltered city view in stride better than the first time Zack had been exposed to it, but then, the guy had a mean poker face. Maybe he was just polite.
Aeris started suddenly, looking towards the windows. “It’s getting dark. My aunt will be getting worried. I should get back.”
She was right - what little natural light made its way under the plate was rapidly disappearing. “I’ll walk you,” Zack offered. “Oh, but hey, Cloud - just in case you change your mind-” And he certainly would as soon as he saw the lack of any other kind of work in Midgar. “-I’ve got a solo mission tomorrow morning to go clear out a monster infestation in a Sector 8 warehouse. Why don’t you tag along?”
The blond looked stunned at the offer, so the SOLDIER Second barrelled along before he could protest. “I wouldn’t mind some backup, and you could get a taste of the sort of work you might wind up doing! I mean, you’ve got to pass an exam and stuff to get into SOLDIER, but if you’re a sword specialist, that’s where you’ll be aiming for, am I right?”
“I-”
“Great!” Zack gave him a hearty slap on the shoulder. “I’ll meet you outside Wall Market at oh-nine-hundred hours, okay?”
“But-” Cloud tried again.
“Don’t worry about it,” Aeris whispered to him as they walked past. “He’s made his mind up. You never stood a chance.”
Next chapter
Rating: T for violence.
Summary: FFVII Time-travel. Gen. Cloud has an accident with a Time Materia.
Author's Note: This chapter is a short one, so it comes out a day early. As a result, I suspect posting time will be out of whack for the rest of the week - you can probably expect the next chapter on Thursday, and the regular Sunday/Wednesday routine after that.
Previous Chapter
__________________
The Fifth Act
Chapter 10
__________________
The chocobo shuffled restlessly underfoot. With a sigh, Cloud dismounted and cancelled the Lure. The bird bolted immediately. Wild chocobos made for nervous mounts, even under the blond’s experienced hand.
Midgar loomed on the horizon, the haze of pollution robbing it of definition. Cloud scuffed the dirt with his boot. For many years, Buster Sword marked Zack’s grave at this very spot.
Maybe it was a little morbid to make this his stopping point on his return, but the reminder felt good. If all went according to plan, this point on the cliffs would remain nothing more than a boring cliff, indistinguishable among the kilometres of rock surrounding the basin.
Zack hadn’t even been able to turn his head in the end, to see the metropolis he’d worked so hard to return to. It took Cloud over a day to drag himself there, head awash with an influx of foreign memories, lugging Buster Sword behind him. It might have taken Zack only hours to make the same journey.
Another sigh, and Cloud began trudging towards the city gates. In the centre of that metropolis lay ShinRa headquarters, and thus Hojo and Sephiroth. He still didn’t know how to tackle that. Hojo was probably buried deep within the Science Department.
He’d have to find some way to infiltrate the building, and more importantly, the Science Department. He hadn’t decided how to do it yet, but figured he could pull off something similar to the plan Avalanche had adopted when they went to rescue Aeris. It would involve some steep bribes to get the necessary cards and disguise, but he had a little gil to his name now, thanks to a couple of days racing chocobos in the Gold Saucer. It was intended for room and board, but he could scrape together enough, and leave the city limits again to kill some monsters if he ran out. Anything to get to Hojo.
Then, once in, a certain head of the Science Department would find his career coming to an abrupt end.
ShinRa wasn’t going to know what hit them.
First though, there was a place he needed to see.
……………………………
Zack looked up at the newly repaired roof. “What do you think? Pretty good, right?”
Aeris tilted her head this way and that, finger on her chin. “Hmmm… it’ll do.”
“What? It’s way better than it was before!”
“The colours don’t match.”
“It’s more interesting that way though, right?”
She giggled. “I guess so.”
Zack grinned and flopped onto the ground, stretching out on the hardwood floor. Aeris knelt next to the flowers. “See, I told you I’m pretty handy with a hammer! I used to do all sorts of repairs on the house back in Gongaga. I’ll build you a flower wagon next, okay?”
“Midgar full of flowers, wallet full of money?” she quipped.
“You know it!”
She giggled again, tending the flowers quietly while Zack breathed in, taking a break after clambering all over the roof. The air in Midgar smelt foul compared to Gongaga, but inside the church, the fragrance of upturned earth and blooming flowers could almost fool him into thinking he was out in the countryside again, under the open skies and the warm sun.
After a while, you got used to the slums - they had a certain charm of their own, although in his case, the charm was called Aeris. He found himself wandering down to Sector 5 whenever he didn’t have a mission these days. Sometimes they’d go to the playground, or make a stop by Wall Market, but Zack liked the quiet moments where they sat around the church like this the best. He could never get tired of watching Aeris tend her flowers.
She paused, gaze going blank for a moment, as if she were listening to something Zack couldn’t hear. Aeris did that sometimes. "Oh..." She stood and dusted the soil from the hem of her white dress, looking towards the doors. "Someone interesting is coming."
"Interesting?" Zack asked curiously, still sprawled on the church floor.
"That's right. How do I put it?" She tapped a finger to her chin. "He's a puzzle."
“Hey, who are you talking about? You don’t have another boyfriend you’ve been hiding from me, right?” Zack teased.
She grinned impishly. “Maybe I have a hundred boyfriends.”
“You’re certainly pretty enough.”
Another giggle. “You’re sweet. That’s why I dumped them all for you.”
The door creaked open before Zack could reply. “Hello!” Aeris called out, voice echoing softly in the cavernous space. “I’ve never seen you around here before. Are you lost?”
The footsteps - heavy, booted - came to an abrupt stop.
"I forgot..." the stranger fumbled, and then quickly corrected, "I didn't think anyone would be here."
Zack laughed, leaping straight to his feet in a practiced move that never failed to impress his girl. At least, when he did it on sturdy ground. "The place is a bit run-down. It probably doesn’t help when people come crashing through the ceiling, either."
The stranger started at his voice, and Zack was similarly surprised by his appearance. The words were soft, so he'd expected some lost, nervous merchant. Instead, he faced a warrior. Covered in dust and grime, coiled power, quiet confidence, a sword on his back, and...
"Mako eyes," Zack breathed, hand reaching for his broadsword. "Get back, Aeris."
She tilted her head at him. "Hmmm? Why?"
The stranger appeared just as shocked. "...Zack?" he croaked.
Since Aeris didn't seem intent on moving, Zack put himself in front of her instead. "How do you know my name?"
He held up his hands, blue eyes wide. "Aren't you a SOLDIER?"
"I am, but I don't recall seeing you before." SOLDIER wasn't that large - after the losses in Wutai, there were maybe seventy across the three classes, and he knew most of them by sight.
"What? It's not- oh. I'm not in SOLDIER. I'm just..." Here the stranger actually looked embarrassed. "I'd heard of you, is all."
Zack wasn't convinced. "Heard of me?"
"…All good things?" The words were slow and uncertain.
“Zack, stop it, you’re scaring the poor man,” Aeris chided.
“He’s dangerous!”
“He’s not, silly, we haven’t even asked him who he is yet.” She stepped out from behind Zack and asked, “What’s your name?”
The blond had been staring at them in something of a daze as they argued, and jerked at the question. “Cloud.”
“Nice to meet you, Cloud. I’m Aeris, and it looks you already know this big silly Zack.”
“I’m not silly! Aeris, you should be more careful!” Zack complained.
“He’s right,” Cloud added, voice soft but somehow carrying effortlessly across the distance. “You should be careful. What if someone tries to kidnap you?”
Aeris latched on to Zack’s arm, giving him a winning smile. “You don’t see this big strong SOLDIER I’ve got here to protect me?”
Zack couldn’t help but swell up a little at that, but the look on Cloud’s face threw him for a loop. Such a sad, wistful expression…
Okay, so maybe the guy wasn’t dangerous after all. It really did seem like he’d just stumbled across the church by chance. “So what are you doing here? Are you new in town? And why are you dressed like SOLDIER?”
It took a long while for the blond to answer - he didn’t look like the sort talking came to naturally. “SOLDIER doesn’t have exclusive use of black jumpsuits. I’ve always worn this.”
Zack had to give him that. And it wasn’t like his uniform was an exact copy - only one shoulder guard, and the one he did sport wasn’t regulation. And SOLDIER jumpsuits didn’t zip up the front, either. Heck, there were imitation outfits sold for costume parties that were closer. But considering most of the Firsts flouted uniform regulations openly, he could be forgiven for making the assumption, right?
“It’s practical,” the blond added, with an air of having gone through the conversation many times already. Thinking on it, he probably had.
“Fine, fine, you’re not SOLDIER, even though you dress like one and have mako eyes. You still haven’t answered my first question.”
Cloud blinked, looking lost for a moment.
“What brings you here?” Aeris prompted.
They waited as the question processed. “…I just arrived in Midgar in today. I was looking for a place to rest for a while. Sorry. The church looked…” He trailed off, and the sentence hung in the air awkwardly.
“It’s okay,” Aeris assured him, all sunshine. “You can take a break here, so long as you don’t hurt the flowers.”
Cloud’s expression grew relaxed at the sight of the garden. “They’re beautiful,” he offered.
Her smile widened. “See? Midgar can be a nice place. I bet you’ll love it here. Do you have family or friends nearby?”
The blond shook his head, tensing again. “No, they’re… not around, anymore.”
Zack felt a stab of sympathy for the guy. From his uncomfortable manner, it didn’t look as though he were the type to have a long list of friends in the first place, and to lose what ties you had… Another case of some washed up mercenary coming to Midgar to make a fresh start, only to arrive here penniless and discover the city of dreams to be mostly lies. “Sorry to hear that, man. You have any work lined up?”
He shrugged, gesturing at his eyes. “It’ll be hard with these. Most people will think I’m ex-SOLDIER.”
“Yeah, about that… you sure you aren’t?” He agreed Cloud didn’t seem like a bad guy, but Zack couldn’t just ignore the mako eyes, or the great bit slab of metal on his back.
Aeris elbowed him. “Zack, stop pestering him!”
“Ow, ow, sorry! But aren’t you at least a little bit curious?”
Cloud smiled at their antics, though it was a tiny, tentative thing, and the SOLDIER Second Class was immediately beset by the urge to make it grow.
“Hey - oof - you know, ShinRa’s pretty much the only work in town,” Zack offered as Aeris finished bruising the last of his ribs. “You should apply to the army.”
It didn’t have the intended effect - the smile vanished as quickly as it came, replaced by the detached, cold mask of an indifferent warrior once more. Something felt familiar about it. Where had he seen that look before?
Oh yeah. General Sephiroth.
“…I’m not really sure if I’m cut out for the army.”
Zack wasn’t having a bar of that. “Are you kidding? You’ve got to be a decent fighter. Those materia look mastered.” He wanted to ask about those too, but Aeris kept giving him looks.
“I can fight fine,” Cloud defended. “It’s all the rest of it I don’t know about.”
Insecurity? On first glance he never would have imagined it from the guy, but then, appearances could be deceiving. “You’re worried about fitting in? Don’t sweat it so much! If Aeris likes you, you’ll do fine!” The pair shared a cheeky grin, and Zack nearly got derailed by how incredibly cute his girlfriend was! He’d landed the best girl on the planet, definitely. “You might even find some people you know! Everybody comes to Midgar these days. Where did you come from?”
“Nibelheim.” As soon as the word left his mouth, the blond’s eyes sparked with panic, and Zack figured he must have been embarrassed. But this, at least, he had experience in.
“Nibelheim! That sounds so backwater!”
Put-out, Cloud retorted, “Oh yeah, where did you come from then?”
Zack bounced on the balls of his feet. “Gongaga.”
“And that doesn’t sound backwater at all.”
He laughed, the sound echoing pleasantly off the church interior. “You got me there! Let me guess, there’s a reactor nearby and absolutely-”
“Nothing else,” they finished in unison.
“Boys,” Aeris declared with a fond shake of her head.
Grinning, Zack couldn’t even remember when he’d put away his broadsword. It explained everything comfortably. Sometimes kids growing up near rural reactors would pick up a faint mako glow to their eyes, though it normally faded when they got older or moved away. And anybody who dared wander beyond the city limits these days risked encountering monsters, so the sword and mastered materia weren’t such a big deal. Content with these conjured explanations, he relaxed for a few minutes as they traded small town stories, with Aeris occasionally asking the odd question. Cloud took the surprise at her sheltered city view in stride better than the first time Zack had been exposed to it, but then, the guy had a mean poker face. Maybe he was just polite.
Aeris started suddenly, looking towards the windows. “It’s getting dark. My aunt will be getting worried. I should get back.”
She was right - what little natural light made its way under the plate was rapidly disappearing. “I’ll walk you,” Zack offered. “Oh, but hey, Cloud - just in case you change your mind-” And he certainly would as soon as he saw the lack of any other kind of work in Midgar. “-I’ve got a solo mission tomorrow morning to go clear out a monster infestation in a Sector 8 warehouse. Why don’t you tag along?”
The blond looked stunned at the offer, so the SOLDIER Second barrelled along before he could protest. “I wouldn’t mind some backup, and you could get a taste of the sort of work you might wind up doing! I mean, you’ve got to pass an exam and stuff to get into SOLDIER, but if you’re a sword specialist, that’s where you’ll be aiming for, am I right?”
“I-”
“Great!” Zack gave him a hearty slap on the shoulder. “I’ll meet you outside Wall Market at oh-nine-hundred hours, okay?”
“But-” Cloud tried again.
“Don’t worry about it,” Aeris whispered to him as they walked past. “He’s made his mind up. You never stood a chance.”
Next chapter