The Fifth Act, Chapter 33
Title: The Fifth Act
Rating: T for violence.
Summary: FFVII Time-travel. Gen. Cloud has an accident with a Time Materia.
Author's Note: We must be getting close to the end, because the average length of chapters is slowly creeping upward! Not such a bad cliffhanger this time, since you should see it coming. This chapter and the next one have been giving me no end of grief, so please don't hesitate to point out any inconsistencies or mistakes you might find. <3
Previous Chapter
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The Fifth Act
Chapter 33
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Kunsel stumbled blindly along the rocky mountain trail, heartbeat thudding in his ears, so loud he started to get paranoid someone else might hear it. No pursuers yet, but it wouldn’t last. He needed some kind of cover or shelter; ride out the night to get his strength back. He couldn’t remember the last time he’d been this exhausted. Not since he’d made it to SOLDIER, at least.
He clenched his fists and pressed on. Reminded himself that he could still take out a couple of troopers, if necessary. Hojo had a handful of staff at the mansion, maybe even a Turk if he was unlucky, but he wouldn’t want to risk sending them all out after one escaped specimen. Reinforcements would take at least twelve hours to arrive, and that was assuming they came in on helicopter instead of truck. He calculated out the remaining possible formations in his head. The terrain would make it tough, but he could escape that net. If he made it a little further without getting detected, he had a real chance.
Where to go after, though? Cloud was still back at the mansion. He needed help, but his options were severely limited. Couldn’t go to ShinRa - he’d be killed, or more likely, tossed right back into the lab where he’d be as good as dead anyway. How had Cloud lasted that long?
Maybe if he contacted Zack directly. He wasn’t too sure about the General or Commander, but Zack would try to help.
No, couldn’t do that either. The Turks would be notified he’d escaped - they’d be watching his friends and contacts. No chance he’d endanger Zack, not after hearing Cloud’s story. That lovable moron had probably made First Class by now. There had been a good chance of it happening while he was away. Which meant at any time here on in…
Best not to think about it right now.
Except Kunsel was the guy who never stopped thinking about things. He couldn’t help it. People were always overlooking details staring them in the face, things they would easily uncover if they stopped and considered, and maybe asked a couple of obvious questions. He felt sure there was something important he was missing.
Not enough information. It felt crippling. He needed a PHS. His PHS, preferably, but the Turks probably had that, too.
Stumbling drunkenly, he eventually came to a rest beside a boulder, bracing himself while he caught his breath. Where the hell was he going? He needed to focus, gather his runaway thoughts, but it felt like trying to herd cactuars into an office cubicle.
“Damn, what’s wrong with me?” he muttered. Hazy vision, loss of balance, muscle weakness, difficulty focusing?
Ifrit, he knew these symptoms. Classic signs of a budding mako addiction. He grimaced as the path blurred in front of him. Wasn’t a severe case, but in his current condition, he ran the risk of slipping into shock.
Had to keep moving. He lurched away from the rock and continued along the path, hoping to skirt the edges of town.
Nearby, a wolf howled.
Kunsel stilled, and swore under his breath.
He’d looked into Nibelheim when Zack first mentioned it as Cloud’s hometown. Like most remote towns with reactors, it didn’t have much else of note. No exports of any financial significance. Far too remote and inhospitable to be a tourist spot. It was a subsistence economy, with the only outside funding coming from ShinRa. A lot like Banora, really.
The one thing it was known for was the vicious wildlife. Specifically, Nibel dragons and Nibel wolves.
This was not his lucky day.
Kunsel fumbled for the dagger he’d liberated from the guard. Materia would be better, but beggars couldn’t be choosers. He took stance, senses as alert as he could get them through his mental haze.
He didn’t have to wait long - mere moments later a lithe grey shape came loping down the mountainside towards him. He faintly registered shuffling and growling in the undergrowth on either side of him. A small hunting party, by the looks of it, but in his state, even one wolf would give him trouble.
The beast slowed as it approached, snarling and circling him warily, his fighting stance combined with the scent of mako probably making it think twice. It was a magnificent brute - thick grey coat, wide shoulders, and a set of jaws large enough wrap around his head whole.
The moment stretched as the pair faced off. Kunsel remained peripherally aware of another two wolves emerging from the brush nearby, but kept his eyes firmly fixed on the one facing him.
Then suddenly, movement.
The wolf on the left leapt towards him, snarling. He turned and slashed, but it twisted aside at the last moment. The blade tore a shallow cut on its right flank, and the snarl became a yelp.
The growling rose in pitch. Blood had been drawn. The two other wolves were on him in an instant, a whirl of grey fur and snapping jaws. Kunsel fought as best he could, hacking and jabbing at anything that came close enough, never getting anything more than a shallow cut for his efforts and barely keeping them at bay. Desperately, he spun in place, lashing out with his foot. His boot connected, and with a crunch of bone, finally knocked one of the wolves away.
Too little, too late. “Damn it!” Teeth sank into his left arm, and the wolf hung off it stubbornly, growling and dragging him towards the ground. Dangerous. The shoulder guards and helmet made it tough for them to get at his neck, but once he hit the dirt it would be over. The first one he’d slashed was already coming back for another go.
Too slow. Too busy thinking his strategy through instead of just reacting.
The wolf growled, teeth stained red from the blood pouring down his arm.
Kunsel shoved the dagger into its throat.
The jaw suddenly slackened, and the monster fell away, blade still embedded in its neck. The bite wound it left behind looked ugly, crimson bubbling from the puncture wounds. He ignored it. There were more immediate problems.
He wavered on his feet. Just two left. And the one he’d kicked earlier was limping.
“C’mon, I might not be First Class, but I can handle this much, right?” he muttered.
Hand-to-hand wasn’t one of his strengths, but Cloud hadn’t got him out of that place only for him to get taken down by a pack of monsters!
They ran at him again, eyes wild and slobber flying. Kunsel leaned to the side, dodging the first one, and barrelled into the second with his shoulder. They rolled in a tangle, and somewhere in the melee, he managed to wrap his arm around its neck.
Nibel wolves were strong. But a desperate SOLDIER was stronger.
The neck cracked. The wolf went limp.
He shoved the body aside and lurched to his feet, head spinning. Not good. Still one remaining - the big one that first came running down the mountain at him. And to make matters worse, the adrenaline had started wearing off, and his injured left arm was flaring with agony after that last tussle. He probably couldn’t use it anymore.
He managed a weak grin. “Heh. Is this as far as a Second Class can go?”
The wolf snarled. Kunsel grit his teeth, and braced himself.
The attack never came. All of a sudden, a blur of white and black blocked his vision. The wolf yelped, then went suddenly quiet. There was a prolonged shuffle of feathers and a crunch of bone, until finally the black blur moved away. He blinked. The wolf had changed. Its fur had darkened, its tail turned serpent-like, and most confusing of all, it now bore a pair of majestic white wings.
Kunsel spent a moment staring in disbelief, then stumbled and dropped to his knees.
Someone spoke. “Hey. Are you okay?”
He retched, spitting out a mouthful of bile and mako. A warm grip caught his shoulder.
“Hang in there, SOLDIER.” The voice sounded far away, like it was underwater.
How was it they hadn’t drowned in the mako, anyway? He and Cloud had been submerged for hours at a time, possibly even days. Maybe it was the same reason why SOLDIERs could hold their breath for so long. Civilians would normally suffocate after three minutes - SOLDIERs could go for twenty.
Damn, his thoughts were drifting again. This must’ve been how Zack felt all the time.
Blearily, he tried to focus on the speaker. Big, black shape. He couldn’t make out the details, but his gaze was drawn to the white blur stretched out behind him. Some kind of wing? An angel?
“Hallucinations,” he mumbled, closing his eyes. “Must have a worse case than I thought.”
“That’s a new one. Nobody’s called me a hallucination before.”
Kunsel didn’t reply. Even if your hallucinations talked to you, you were still okay so long as you didn’t talk back.
He had a weird feeling he’d forgotten something big, though. Something important… but the thought slipped through his fingers like smoke. Great. Forgetfulness setting in too.
Distantly, he heard footsteps. A single set. He tensed, but it didn’t sound like a monster, or even heavy enough for a trooper.
“Hey-” he started to say, but then realised the presence at his side had suddenly vanished. Just a dream?
Kunsel frowned at the white feathers scattered across the ground.
With a heavy groan, he dropped and rolled over on to his back. His arm blazed with pain, the skin around the bite tingling as mako worked on healing the wounds.
Lying down probably wasn’t a good idea right now, but his body didn’t want to cooperate anymore. How was he supposed to get off the mountain like this? And he really needed to look into those footsteps. Did the fight with the wolves attract someone’s attention?
With the last of his strength, he craned to his head to see who was approaching. Huh, a chocobo?
Too small for the distance. Running, now. Had to be human. No red lights from a trooper helmet. Just blond spiky hair.
“…Cloud?” he slurred.
The little blue-and-blond blob stooped over him. Saying something.
A kid, he soon realised, managing to focus enough to make out his features. Too short to be Cloud. Hair was spikier, too. Must have been a local.
Didn’t Cloud say he grew up in Nibelheim?
“…know my name?”
He peered at the kid with renewed interest. Without the mako eyes and the scary expression, he reminded him a little bit of the new Vice President. If he wore glasses and slicked down the spikes, he could have passed as a mini-Director, too.
Huh. He’d have to look into that.
“Mister?”
The kid said something else, but Kunsel was already drifting away.
…………………….
The naked light bulb buzzed and flickered, casting an eerie light on the mako-stained tiles. Nearby, a lonely monitor beeped, and beeped, and beeped.
“I appear to have underestimated you, Specimen C.”
Cloud stared at the ceiling, refusing to meet Hojo’s assessing gaze. He’d woken up here, bound to the cold table, with the scientist pacing by his side. The mako and the glass from the broken tank had already been cleared away, and his hand, though still aching fiercely, appeared to have more than halfway healed.
“Not even the Chaos Project in its fully transformed state could break out of this tank design. Quite impressive,” he commented, patting his knee in a parody of affection. "You truly are one of my creations."
“That’s funny. I remember being called a failure,” he remarked coldly.
“Is that so? In that case, I must say I’m rather embarrassed at the lack of scientific sense my future self must have displayed.” He adjusted his glasses. “And you even managed to incapacitate twelve of the guards before the sedative could take hold.” At last he started to sound annoyed.
In the remaining seconds before the tranquilliser had finally won its battle, Cloud had done a lot of damage, breaking noses and ribs and arms without care or discrimination. He might have even killed a couple of guards. At this stage, he honestly didn’t care. Zack had slain hundreds of ShinRa troops throughout the course of their escape. During his days in Avalanche, Cloud had probably killed just as many. That was the price of freedom, these days.
At least Kunsel made it away.
Hojo peered at him, oily black strands of hair slipping free from his ponytail to hang over his shoulders. “Hmph. Don’t be feeling pleased just because one of you escaped. He was an inferior specimen. I doubt he made it far in his state. You won’t be lonely for long, Specimen C.”
Cloud inwardly seethed, but didn’t comment. Kunsel hadn’t looked great, true, but he was sure he’d escape, and he had every intention of following. Hojo would slip up eventually - at some point he would get called away to Midgar and trust an assistant to deal with them instead, and the assistant would eventually grow lax and overconfident, and then he could break out again. As many times as it took.
“Of course, this has interrupted the multiple-subject transferral testing.” Hojo scowled, and cast a glance at the empty tanks. “And temporarily delayed the mako factor testing as well. A shame. We won’t be able to resume until either the other specimen is recaptured, or a new batch of mako has been processed.” His glasses had slipped down his nose again, and he pushed them back up with a bony, crooked finger. “But what to do with you in the meantime, Specimen C? What to do.”
His skin crawled as Hojo leaned over him, staring him up and down as one might inspect a prize chocobo. “You are a unique specimen. In progressing the technology to leverage the hidden potential of Time materia, I have not had much opportunity to properly investigate your genetic makeup beyond the presence of S-cells. Your case is rather fascinating. I have of course experimented in the past, but introducing active alien matter to an already developed organism has only ever resulted in runaway mutation, eventually resulting in death.” His eyes narrowed. “How did I solve the conundrum of rejection? Perhaps it lies in your mako enhancements - I haven’t seen a specimen survive with these levels since Sephiroth.” He prodded his healing hand. Cloud flinched, and closed it into a fist.
“Don’t touch me,” he hissed.
Hojo indulged him with a thin-lipped smile. “Your battle with Sephiroth in Wutai has become quite famous, you know, even though the company never mentioned it in any official capacity. I wonder… could you truly defeat him, Specimen C? My greatest work?” He chuckled to himself. “Though if you were to defeat him, that would then logically make you my greatest work. Yes, I do wonder…”
Cloud’s stomach churned at the reverence in Hojo’s voice. It was a tone the scientist normally reserved for talking about Jenova.
At the height of his identity crisis, he’d yearned for such acknowledgement. Begged for it.
“Professor… please give me a number… Please, Professor…”
Now, the very memory made him sick. How incredibly wrong he’d been. How terribly misguided.
He now knew, with chilling certainty, that being one of Hojo’s failures was a far kinder fate than being a success.
…………………….
Zack disembarked from the train with hunched shoulders and a heavy heart.
Two weeks. Two weeks since he’d received his promotion. Two weeks since the notice of Kunsel’s death had been posted.
Two weeks, and they hadn’t been able to do a thing.
Lazard had been blocking them at every turn. Now, none of them could so much as get out of Midgar, much less all the way to the West Continent. It was absurd. Three of the highest-ranking SOLDIERs, stuck to internal duties and the occasional low-level monster hunt in the area? As far as he was concerned, that was proof something was up.
Not that he didn’t understand the General’s viewpoint. Going against the Turks - against Tseng, and Cissnei, and Reno and Rude - wasn’t something he was eager to do. He’d worked with them enough to know how ruthless they could be. Nowhere in the world would be safe. And, as Sephiroth already pointed out, they wouldn’t be able to help anyone from inside a cell. But he was going insane, just sitting around waiting for something to give! Genesis was noticeably antsy as well - though he preached patience and caution, he was downright terrible at it. Worse than Zack, even.
Which was why he had come to the slums to visit Aeris. She always seemed to have the answers, and when she didn’t, she still never failed to make him feel better.
Forcing his shoulders up and his eyes forward, Zack headed off towards the church. The people nearby didn’t pay as much mind to him anymore, having become used to the sight of him in the area. For his part, the SOLDIER First had learned not to stare either, depressing as the place could be. Sometimes it seemed like everything in the slums came in various shades of brown. To the right, brown. To the front, brown. To the left… blond?
Zack’s head whipped around faster than Don Corneo’s eyes at the Honeybee Inn.
He wasn’t imagining it. No way to mistake that spiky blond hair!
“Cloud?”
To his surprise, the person jerked, whirling around to look at him. A pair of bright, blue, mako-less eyes took in his uniform in one glance, and grew wide as dinner plates.
Then he bolted.
“Hey!” Zack called out, dashing after him. “Oof, sorry miss, excuse me, coming through-” He fumbled his way out of the crowd and took chase.
The blond was spry and agile, but he didn’t have a hope of matching the speed of a SOLDIER. He didn’t get more than two blocks before Zack snagged the back of his shirt. “Gotcha!”
Then the little hellion kicked him in the shins.
“Ow, what was that for!”
“Help!” the kid hollered.
“Hey, I just want to-” Zack barely got to finish the sentence before having to dive to the side, dragging the boy with him. “Watch out!” A gust of air from flapping wings whooshed overhead. Monsters?! He pushed the kid behind him and drew his Buster Sword. “Don’t worry, I got this!”
To his shock, though, the blond dashed from his side over to the monster. “Run, he’s SOLDIER!”
Zack felt his grip on the Buster Sword weaken as he stopped to properly look at their mystery attacker. “Wait - I’ve seen that kind of monster before.” The chimera-like appearance. The black fur. The crooked white wings.
The kid was already edging away, trying to urge the monster with him, but the beast regarded the SOLDIER for a moment, then tossed its head and sat on its haunches.
It was so surreal.
Zack lowered his sword, and approached the chimera. Before he could reach it, though, he suddenly found himself staring down at a pair of angry blue eyes. “Don’t hurt him! He didn’t do anything to you!”
The kid was scared, Zack observed. Terrified. And yet, still glaring at him.
“I’m not going to!” he protested. “I was just going to pet him, see?” He reached around and ruffled the fur just behind the monster’s ears. It titled its head slightly at the action, showing off more of its neck and chest as it did so.
There it was. He hadn’t imagined it before. A pattern in the fur that looked eerily like Angeal’s face.
Zack withdrew carefully. “More importantly… Cloud, did you shrink?” He looked, what, barely fourteen? Not exactly a child like he’d first thought - must have been short for his age.
“How do you know my name?” The blond asked suspiciously.
“You’re kidding. It is you?! Did someone cast Mini?” But then, why would Cloud not remember him? “And then Confuse? Was it a marlboro?! Those things are vicious.” He paused. “Hey, no mako eyes though. And I thought you were immune to status materia!”
Finally, a bit of the fear and suspicion receded, to be replaced with cautious hope. “Could it be, maybe, you know my uncle?” he ventured.
Zack’s mouth dropped open.
Cloud Strife, an uncle?
“Oh man, I can’t believe this! You look so much like him! What brings you to Midgar?” His brain worked furiously behind the scenes. Another clue to Cloud’s situation?
Hesitation. Then, with visible reluctance, he confessed, “I’m looking for him. My uncle, I mean.”
Zack’s shoulders sagged. So much for that hope. “You don’t know where he is either, huh?”
His only reply was a confused expression. Great. If the kid had come all the way to Midgar, Zack really didn’t want to be the one to break the news, but he had a right to know. “Your uncle’s been missing for a while now. I’ve been looking for him too, but I haven’t had much luck. For a second I thought you were him - that’s why I chased you. Sorry if I scared you.”
He felt even worse watching the whole range of emotions play out across the guy’s face. Shock, disappointment, worry, panic, before finally settling on something close to despair.
“Don’t worry,” he tried to reassure him. “Your uncle’s tough. No matter how bad a situation he’s got himself into, he’ll probably be okay.” Even if he didn’t really believe his own assurances anymore, he couldn’t bear to leave the kid looking so heartbroken. “We’ll find him. The General himself is looking into it!” That didn’t appear to lift the blond’s spirits much, so next he tried, “What did you come to find your uncle for? I know I’m not family, but maybe I can still help! I owe him one, you know.”
There was a pause - the awkward sort where you could see the other party wavering between a variety of responses in their head, trying to gauge the safest one. Zack rode it out like a pro. This Cloud didn’t have a bar on his uncle’s uncomfortable silences.
Eventually, the blond asked, “Do you promise to keep it a secret?”
Zack thumped his chest. “Cross my heart! On my honour as a SOLDIER!” The kid still looked unsure, so he prodded him by asking, “What’s the problem?”
More hesitation. The finally, “Maybe it would be better if I showed you.”
Zack shrugged. “Sure. I probably do better with that kind of explanation anyhow. Where are we going?”
“This way.” Cloud Junior headed in the opposite direction to the train station. Zack followed at an easy pace. He kept an eye on the Angeal-like chimera, which followed them for a few steps before taking off to glide above the rooftops.
“What’s with the monster?” He already had his suspicions, but it couldn’t hurt to ask.
The blond glanced up towards where the silhouette of the chimera soared overhead, barely discernable against the grey underside of the plate. “It’s kind of a guard dog.”
“A guard dog,” Zack repeated, dubious.
“It’s not mine. It’s a stray that just kind of… helps out. I found it with…” He trailed off, seemingly lost as how to proceed.
The topic appeared to be making the kid nervous, so he quickly changed the subject. “I guess this is your first time to Midgar, huh?” Zack asked with a grin.
Cloud jerked. “How did you know?”
The kid was too tense. “I can tell. You’re a country boy!”
He flushed. So easy to tease! Zack laughed. “Hey, don’t be embarrassed! I’m a country boy too, you know. How else would I know?”
“Oh yeah? Where did you come from?”
“Gongaga.”
A muffled cough. “Hey, don’t laugh!”
“Sorry.” The brat didn’t sound sorry at all.
“Ha! As though you’re any better off. What about you?”
“Nibelheim.”
Zack fell abruptly silent.
He shouldn’t have needed to ask. It made sense that Cloud’s nephew would come from Nibelheim too. But just the name of the place… it gave him a bad feeling now.
“What’s wrong?”
He shook himself, and flashed a bright smile. “Sorry, just got distracted.” Only then did he realise they’d reached the boundaries of Sector 5. “We’re going through Sector 6?”
“Yeah. I’m staying at a hotel there.”
At a hotel? In Sector 6? “Is it safe?” he asked. “You know, on your own?” He got a frown for that, so swiftly amended, “I mean, even troopers move in squads in the slums.”
Cloud glanced up at the sky in response. “Oh, right, the ‘guard dog’,” Zack conceded. The shock of being dive-bombed by a chimera would be enough to drive off any group of thugs.
The newly-minted First hadn’t visited Sector 6 much before, though it didn’t look that different to the Sector 5 slums. It had the same overpowering stink, too, underlaid with the taint of mako.
For once, he wasn’t the only one wrinkling his nose in disgust. “Bet you’re missing the country air now, huh?” Zack commented. “Don’t let the locals see you making faces. Nothing makes a tourist stand out more.”
“You’re doing it too,” the kid pointed out.
“Hey, I’m a SOLDIER! Our noses are a lot more sensitive, I’ll have you know.”
The blond went quiet again at that. Strangest things made him clam up. Definitely Cloud’s nephew.
Zack filled the silence by chatting aimlessly about inane Midgar trivia, trying to get his companion to loosen up. It helped, but it seemed the closer and closer they got to their destination, the more and more nervous the kid became. Second-guessing himself? Or did a trap lie in wait?
He doubted it, but he checked he had his PHS handy to call for backup. Just in case.
They had to stop and pause a few times for the kid to get his bearings, but eventually they arrived at a modest four-story building. “This is it.”
The hotel wasn’t that bad, really, considering the location. No broken windows or bullet holes in the doors, and hardly any rust to speak of. Relatively tidy, too - rubbish had a way of accumulating below plate. In gutters, under eaves, anywhere people didn’t walk. Nobody had anywhere else to throw it.
Cloud’s nephew hesitated at the entrance, however.
“What’s the matter?” Zack asked.
He bit his lip, staring up at him with wide blue eyes. “Can I really trust you?”
Definitely the super-cautious type. “You said your name is Cloud too, right? Same as your uncle?” The blond nodded. “I don’t think I introduced myself properly. Zack Fair, SOLDIER First Class. And Cloud, you can trust me. I swear it.”
The kid still looked uncertain, so for good measure, he added, “You know, I’m kind of trusting you here too. For all I know you could be leading me here just to knock me out and rob me blind.”
Cloud almost tripped over in his disbelief. “What? Me? Mug a SOLDIER?”
Zack put his hands on his hips, looking him up and down suspiciously. “I don’t know. You might look innocent, all dressed up like a civilian, but I can’t forget who you’re related to. I’ll be walking along, not worried at all, and BAM, you’ll pull out a Neo Bahamut summon and it’ll eat my sword!”
It was at that point the blond appeared to cotton on to the fact that he was being teased. He scowled. “Eat that big thing? It would even give a summon indigestion.”
Zack laughed and grabbed Cloud in a headlock, ruffling his hair. Oh, he liked this kid. He looked all timid and nervous, but when the chips were down he talked back, even though he was only a civilian and Zack was a SOLDIER First Class. “Don’t make fun of the sword!”
Cloud smiled - a soft, cautious kind of grin, and when he saw it Zack was struck by an overpowering sense of familiarity. “We should get inside.”
The interior was dark and musty. Cloud picked up the key from the front desk - the clerk didn't even bat an eye at the sight of a kid accompanied by a SOLDIER - and led the way up a dim, narrow staircase, stained with coffee and smelling of smoke. Zack winced as the steps creaked under his weight, but they held, and besides, if he could survive being blown off the expressway into a church roof, a measly little fall through a half-rotten staircase wouldn't kill him.
They climbed all the way to the top floor, and headed to the room down the very end. It took some manoeuvring with the bent and dented handle, but eventually the blond managed to get the lock undone, and then had to put his shoulder into it to unstick the door from the frame. Zack stood back, waiting patiently, even though he could have probably done it lot quicker. The kid looked like the fiercely independent type. Probably came from a poor family. He seemed pretty comfortable in the slums for a country boy.
All of those thoughts fled the instant Zack saw what was in the room.
”Holy shit.”
He rushed to the bed, scarcely believing his eyes.
"Kunsel?!"
Next chapter
Rating: T for violence.
Summary: FFVII Time-travel. Gen. Cloud has an accident with a Time Materia.
Author's Note: We must be getting close to the end, because the average length of chapters is slowly creeping upward! Not such a bad cliffhanger this time, since you should see it coming. This chapter and the next one have been giving me no end of grief, so please don't hesitate to point out any inconsistencies or mistakes you might find. <3
Previous Chapter
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The Fifth Act
Chapter 33
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Kunsel stumbled blindly along the rocky mountain trail, heartbeat thudding in his ears, so loud he started to get paranoid someone else might hear it. No pursuers yet, but it wouldn’t last. He needed some kind of cover or shelter; ride out the night to get his strength back. He couldn’t remember the last time he’d been this exhausted. Not since he’d made it to SOLDIER, at least.
He clenched his fists and pressed on. Reminded himself that he could still take out a couple of troopers, if necessary. Hojo had a handful of staff at the mansion, maybe even a Turk if he was unlucky, but he wouldn’t want to risk sending them all out after one escaped specimen. Reinforcements would take at least twelve hours to arrive, and that was assuming they came in on helicopter instead of truck. He calculated out the remaining possible formations in his head. The terrain would make it tough, but he could escape that net. If he made it a little further without getting detected, he had a real chance.
Where to go after, though? Cloud was still back at the mansion. He needed help, but his options were severely limited. Couldn’t go to ShinRa - he’d be killed, or more likely, tossed right back into the lab where he’d be as good as dead anyway. How had Cloud lasted that long?
Maybe if he contacted Zack directly. He wasn’t too sure about the General or Commander, but Zack would try to help.
No, couldn’t do that either. The Turks would be notified he’d escaped - they’d be watching his friends and contacts. No chance he’d endanger Zack, not after hearing Cloud’s story. That lovable moron had probably made First Class by now. There had been a good chance of it happening while he was away. Which meant at any time here on in…
Best not to think about it right now.
Except Kunsel was the guy who never stopped thinking about things. He couldn’t help it. People were always overlooking details staring them in the face, things they would easily uncover if they stopped and considered, and maybe asked a couple of obvious questions. He felt sure there was something important he was missing.
Not enough information. It felt crippling. He needed a PHS. His PHS, preferably, but the Turks probably had that, too.
Stumbling drunkenly, he eventually came to a rest beside a boulder, bracing himself while he caught his breath. Where the hell was he going? He needed to focus, gather his runaway thoughts, but it felt like trying to herd cactuars into an office cubicle.
“Damn, what’s wrong with me?” he muttered. Hazy vision, loss of balance, muscle weakness, difficulty focusing?
Ifrit, he knew these symptoms. Classic signs of a budding mako addiction. He grimaced as the path blurred in front of him. Wasn’t a severe case, but in his current condition, he ran the risk of slipping into shock.
Had to keep moving. He lurched away from the rock and continued along the path, hoping to skirt the edges of town.
Nearby, a wolf howled.
Kunsel stilled, and swore under his breath.
He’d looked into Nibelheim when Zack first mentioned it as Cloud’s hometown. Like most remote towns with reactors, it didn’t have much else of note. No exports of any financial significance. Far too remote and inhospitable to be a tourist spot. It was a subsistence economy, with the only outside funding coming from ShinRa. A lot like Banora, really.
The one thing it was known for was the vicious wildlife. Specifically, Nibel dragons and Nibel wolves.
This was not his lucky day.
Kunsel fumbled for the dagger he’d liberated from the guard. Materia would be better, but beggars couldn’t be choosers. He took stance, senses as alert as he could get them through his mental haze.
He didn’t have to wait long - mere moments later a lithe grey shape came loping down the mountainside towards him. He faintly registered shuffling and growling in the undergrowth on either side of him. A small hunting party, by the looks of it, but in his state, even one wolf would give him trouble.
The beast slowed as it approached, snarling and circling him warily, his fighting stance combined with the scent of mako probably making it think twice. It was a magnificent brute - thick grey coat, wide shoulders, and a set of jaws large enough wrap around his head whole.
The moment stretched as the pair faced off. Kunsel remained peripherally aware of another two wolves emerging from the brush nearby, but kept his eyes firmly fixed on the one facing him.
Then suddenly, movement.
The wolf on the left leapt towards him, snarling. He turned and slashed, but it twisted aside at the last moment. The blade tore a shallow cut on its right flank, and the snarl became a yelp.
The growling rose in pitch. Blood had been drawn. The two other wolves were on him in an instant, a whirl of grey fur and snapping jaws. Kunsel fought as best he could, hacking and jabbing at anything that came close enough, never getting anything more than a shallow cut for his efforts and barely keeping them at bay. Desperately, he spun in place, lashing out with his foot. His boot connected, and with a crunch of bone, finally knocked one of the wolves away.
Too little, too late. “Damn it!” Teeth sank into his left arm, and the wolf hung off it stubbornly, growling and dragging him towards the ground. Dangerous. The shoulder guards and helmet made it tough for them to get at his neck, but once he hit the dirt it would be over. The first one he’d slashed was already coming back for another go.
Too slow. Too busy thinking his strategy through instead of just reacting.
The wolf growled, teeth stained red from the blood pouring down his arm.
Kunsel shoved the dagger into its throat.
The jaw suddenly slackened, and the monster fell away, blade still embedded in its neck. The bite wound it left behind looked ugly, crimson bubbling from the puncture wounds. He ignored it. There were more immediate problems.
He wavered on his feet. Just two left. And the one he’d kicked earlier was limping.
“C’mon, I might not be First Class, but I can handle this much, right?” he muttered.
Hand-to-hand wasn’t one of his strengths, but Cloud hadn’t got him out of that place only for him to get taken down by a pack of monsters!
They ran at him again, eyes wild and slobber flying. Kunsel leaned to the side, dodging the first one, and barrelled into the second with his shoulder. They rolled in a tangle, and somewhere in the melee, he managed to wrap his arm around its neck.
Nibel wolves were strong. But a desperate SOLDIER was stronger.
The neck cracked. The wolf went limp.
He shoved the body aside and lurched to his feet, head spinning. Not good. Still one remaining - the big one that first came running down the mountain at him. And to make matters worse, the adrenaline had started wearing off, and his injured left arm was flaring with agony after that last tussle. He probably couldn’t use it anymore.
He managed a weak grin. “Heh. Is this as far as a Second Class can go?”
The wolf snarled. Kunsel grit his teeth, and braced himself.
The attack never came. All of a sudden, a blur of white and black blocked his vision. The wolf yelped, then went suddenly quiet. There was a prolonged shuffle of feathers and a crunch of bone, until finally the black blur moved away. He blinked. The wolf had changed. Its fur had darkened, its tail turned serpent-like, and most confusing of all, it now bore a pair of majestic white wings.
Kunsel spent a moment staring in disbelief, then stumbled and dropped to his knees.
Someone spoke. “Hey. Are you okay?”
He retched, spitting out a mouthful of bile and mako. A warm grip caught his shoulder.
“Hang in there, SOLDIER.” The voice sounded far away, like it was underwater.
How was it they hadn’t drowned in the mako, anyway? He and Cloud had been submerged for hours at a time, possibly even days. Maybe it was the same reason why SOLDIERs could hold their breath for so long. Civilians would normally suffocate after three minutes - SOLDIERs could go for twenty.
Damn, his thoughts were drifting again. This must’ve been how Zack felt all the time.
Blearily, he tried to focus on the speaker. Big, black shape. He couldn’t make out the details, but his gaze was drawn to the white blur stretched out behind him. Some kind of wing? An angel?
“Hallucinations,” he mumbled, closing his eyes. “Must have a worse case than I thought.”
“That’s a new one. Nobody’s called me a hallucination before.”
Kunsel didn’t reply. Even if your hallucinations talked to you, you were still okay so long as you didn’t talk back.
He had a weird feeling he’d forgotten something big, though. Something important… but the thought slipped through his fingers like smoke. Great. Forgetfulness setting in too.
Distantly, he heard footsteps. A single set. He tensed, but it didn’t sound like a monster, or even heavy enough for a trooper.
“Hey-” he started to say, but then realised the presence at his side had suddenly vanished. Just a dream?
Kunsel frowned at the white feathers scattered across the ground.
With a heavy groan, he dropped and rolled over on to his back. His arm blazed with pain, the skin around the bite tingling as mako worked on healing the wounds.
Lying down probably wasn’t a good idea right now, but his body didn’t want to cooperate anymore. How was he supposed to get off the mountain like this? And he really needed to look into those footsteps. Did the fight with the wolves attract someone’s attention?
With the last of his strength, he craned to his head to see who was approaching. Huh, a chocobo?
Too small for the distance. Running, now. Had to be human. No red lights from a trooper helmet. Just blond spiky hair.
“…Cloud?” he slurred.
The little blue-and-blond blob stooped over him. Saying something.
A kid, he soon realised, managing to focus enough to make out his features. Too short to be Cloud. Hair was spikier, too. Must have been a local.
Didn’t Cloud say he grew up in Nibelheim?
“…know my name?”
He peered at the kid with renewed interest. Without the mako eyes and the scary expression, he reminded him a little bit of the new Vice President. If he wore glasses and slicked down the spikes, he could have passed as a mini-Director, too.
Huh. He’d have to look into that.
“Mister?”
The kid said something else, but Kunsel was already drifting away.
…………………….
The naked light bulb buzzed and flickered, casting an eerie light on the mako-stained tiles. Nearby, a lonely monitor beeped, and beeped, and beeped.
“I appear to have underestimated you, Specimen C.”
Cloud stared at the ceiling, refusing to meet Hojo’s assessing gaze. He’d woken up here, bound to the cold table, with the scientist pacing by his side. The mako and the glass from the broken tank had already been cleared away, and his hand, though still aching fiercely, appeared to have more than halfway healed.
“Not even the Chaos Project in its fully transformed state could break out of this tank design. Quite impressive,” he commented, patting his knee in a parody of affection. "You truly are one of my creations."
“That’s funny. I remember being called a failure,” he remarked coldly.
“Is that so? In that case, I must say I’m rather embarrassed at the lack of scientific sense my future self must have displayed.” He adjusted his glasses. “And you even managed to incapacitate twelve of the guards before the sedative could take hold.” At last he started to sound annoyed.
In the remaining seconds before the tranquilliser had finally won its battle, Cloud had done a lot of damage, breaking noses and ribs and arms without care or discrimination. He might have even killed a couple of guards. At this stage, he honestly didn’t care. Zack had slain hundreds of ShinRa troops throughout the course of their escape. During his days in Avalanche, Cloud had probably killed just as many. That was the price of freedom, these days.
At least Kunsel made it away.
Hojo peered at him, oily black strands of hair slipping free from his ponytail to hang over his shoulders. “Hmph. Don’t be feeling pleased just because one of you escaped. He was an inferior specimen. I doubt he made it far in his state. You won’t be lonely for long, Specimen C.”
Cloud inwardly seethed, but didn’t comment. Kunsel hadn’t looked great, true, but he was sure he’d escape, and he had every intention of following. Hojo would slip up eventually - at some point he would get called away to Midgar and trust an assistant to deal with them instead, and the assistant would eventually grow lax and overconfident, and then he could break out again. As many times as it took.
“Of course, this has interrupted the multiple-subject transferral testing.” Hojo scowled, and cast a glance at the empty tanks. “And temporarily delayed the mako factor testing as well. A shame. We won’t be able to resume until either the other specimen is recaptured, or a new batch of mako has been processed.” His glasses had slipped down his nose again, and he pushed them back up with a bony, crooked finger. “But what to do with you in the meantime, Specimen C? What to do.”
His skin crawled as Hojo leaned over him, staring him up and down as one might inspect a prize chocobo. “You are a unique specimen. In progressing the technology to leverage the hidden potential of Time materia, I have not had much opportunity to properly investigate your genetic makeup beyond the presence of S-cells. Your case is rather fascinating. I have of course experimented in the past, but introducing active alien matter to an already developed organism has only ever resulted in runaway mutation, eventually resulting in death.” His eyes narrowed. “How did I solve the conundrum of rejection? Perhaps it lies in your mako enhancements - I haven’t seen a specimen survive with these levels since Sephiroth.” He prodded his healing hand. Cloud flinched, and closed it into a fist.
“Don’t touch me,” he hissed.
Hojo indulged him with a thin-lipped smile. “Your battle with Sephiroth in Wutai has become quite famous, you know, even though the company never mentioned it in any official capacity. I wonder… could you truly defeat him, Specimen C? My greatest work?” He chuckled to himself. “Though if you were to defeat him, that would then logically make you my greatest work. Yes, I do wonder…”
Cloud’s stomach churned at the reverence in Hojo’s voice. It was a tone the scientist normally reserved for talking about Jenova.
At the height of his identity crisis, he’d yearned for such acknowledgement. Begged for it.
“Professor… please give me a number… Please, Professor…”
Now, the very memory made him sick. How incredibly wrong he’d been. How terribly misguided.
He now knew, with chilling certainty, that being one of Hojo’s failures was a far kinder fate than being a success.
…………………….
Zack disembarked from the train with hunched shoulders and a heavy heart.
Two weeks. Two weeks since he’d received his promotion. Two weeks since the notice of Kunsel’s death had been posted.
Two weeks, and they hadn’t been able to do a thing.
Lazard had been blocking them at every turn. Now, none of them could so much as get out of Midgar, much less all the way to the West Continent. It was absurd. Three of the highest-ranking SOLDIERs, stuck to internal duties and the occasional low-level monster hunt in the area? As far as he was concerned, that was proof something was up.
Not that he didn’t understand the General’s viewpoint. Going against the Turks - against Tseng, and Cissnei, and Reno and Rude - wasn’t something he was eager to do. He’d worked with them enough to know how ruthless they could be. Nowhere in the world would be safe. And, as Sephiroth already pointed out, they wouldn’t be able to help anyone from inside a cell. But he was going insane, just sitting around waiting for something to give! Genesis was noticeably antsy as well - though he preached patience and caution, he was downright terrible at it. Worse than Zack, even.
Which was why he had come to the slums to visit Aeris. She always seemed to have the answers, and when she didn’t, she still never failed to make him feel better.
Forcing his shoulders up and his eyes forward, Zack headed off towards the church. The people nearby didn’t pay as much mind to him anymore, having become used to the sight of him in the area. For his part, the SOLDIER First had learned not to stare either, depressing as the place could be. Sometimes it seemed like everything in the slums came in various shades of brown. To the right, brown. To the front, brown. To the left… blond?
Zack’s head whipped around faster than Don Corneo’s eyes at the Honeybee Inn.
He wasn’t imagining it. No way to mistake that spiky blond hair!
“Cloud?”
To his surprise, the person jerked, whirling around to look at him. A pair of bright, blue, mako-less eyes took in his uniform in one glance, and grew wide as dinner plates.
Then he bolted.
“Hey!” Zack called out, dashing after him. “Oof, sorry miss, excuse me, coming through-” He fumbled his way out of the crowd and took chase.
The blond was spry and agile, but he didn’t have a hope of matching the speed of a SOLDIER. He didn’t get more than two blocks before Zack snagged the back of his shirt. “Gotcha!”
Then the little hellion kicked him in the shins.
“Ow, what was that for!”
“Help!” the kid hollered.
“Hey, I just want to-” Zack barely got to finish the sentence before having to dive to the side, dragging the boy with him. “Watch out!” A gust of air from flapping wings whooshed overhead. Monsters?! He pushed the kid behind him and drew his Buster Sword. “Don’t worry, I got this!”
To his shock, though, the blond dashed from his side over to the monster. “Run, he’s SOLDIER!”
Zack felt his grip on the Buster Sword weaken as he stopped to properly look at their mystery attacker. “Wait - I’ve seen that kind of monster before.” The chimera-like appearance. The black fur. The crooked white wings.
The kid was already edging away, trying to urge the monster with him, but the beast regarded the SOLDIER for a moment, then tossed its head and sat on its haunches.
It was so surreal.
Zack lowered his sword, and approached the chimera. Before he could reach it, though, he suddenly found himself staring down at a pair of angry blue eyes. “Don’t hurt him! He didn’t do anything to you!”
The kid was scared, Zack observed. Terrified. And yet, still glaring at him.
“I’m not going to!” he protested. “I was just going to pet him, see?” He reached around and ruffled the fur just behind the monster’s ears. It titled its head slightly at the action, showing off more of its neck and chest as it did so.
There it was. He hadn’t imagined it before. A pattern in the fur that looked eerily like Angeal’s face.
Zack withdrew carefully. “More importantly… Cloud, did you shrink?” He looked, what, barely fourteen? Not exactly a child like he’d first thought - must have been short for his age.
“How do you know my name?” The blond asked suspiciously.
“You’re kidding. It is you?! Did someone cast Mini?” But then, why would Cloud not remember him? “And then Confuse? Was it a marlboro?! Those things are vicious.” He paused. “Hey, no mako eyes though. And I thought you were immune to status materia!”
Finally, a bit of the fear and suspicion receded, to be replaced with cautious hope. “Could it be, maybe, you know my uncle?” he ventured.
Zack’s mouth dropped open.
Cloud Strife, an uncle?
“Oh man, I can’t believe this! You look so much like him! What brings you to Midgar?” His brain worked furiously behind the scenes. Another clue to Cloud’s situation?
Hesitation. Then, with visible reluctance, he confessed, “I’m looking for him. My uncle, I mean.”
Zack’s shoulders sagged. So much for that hope. “You don’t know where he is either, huh?”
His only reply was a confused expression. Great. If the kid had come all the way to Midgar, Zack really didn’t want to be the one to break the news, but he had a right to know. “Your uncle’s been missing for a while now. I’ve been looking for him too, but I haven’t had much luck. For a second I thought you were him - that’s why I chased you. Sorry if I scared you.”
He felt even worse watching the whole range of emotions play out across the guy’s face. Shock, disappointment, worry, panic, before finally settling on something close to despair.
“Don’t worry,” he tried to reassure him. “Your uncle’s tough. No matter how bad a situation he’s got himself into, he’ll probably be okay.” Even if he didn’t really believe his own assurances anymore, he couldn’t bear to leave the kid looking so heartbroken. “We’ll find him. The General himself is looking into it!” That didn’t appear to lift the blond’s spirits much, so next he tried, “What did you come to find your uncle for? I know I’m not family, but maybe I can still help! I owe him one, you know.”
There was a pause - the awkward sort where you could see the other party wavering between a variety of responses in their head, trying to gauge the safest one. Zack rode it out like a pro. This Cloud didn’t have a bar on his uncle’s uncomfortable silences.
Eventually, the blond asked, “Do you promise to keep it a secret?”
Zack thumped his chest. “Cross my heart! On my honour as a SOLDIER!” The kid still looked unsure, so he prodded him by asking, “What’s the problem?”
More hesitation. The finally, “Maybe it would be better if I showed you.”
Zack shrugged. “Sure. I probably do better with that kind of explanation anyhow. Where are we going?”
“This way.” Cloud Junior headed in the opposite direction to the train station. Zack followed at an easy pace. He kept an eye on the Angeal-like chimera, which followed them for a few steps before taking off to glide above the rooftops.
“What’s with the monster?” He already had his suspicions, but it couldn’t hurt to ask.
The blond glanced up towards where the silhouette of the chimera soared overhead, barely discernable against the grey underside of the plate. “It’s kind of a guard dog.”
“A guard dog,” Zack repeated, dubious.
“It’s not mine. It’s a stray that just kind of… helps out. I found it with…” He trailed off, seemingly lost as how to proceed.
The topic appeared to be making the kid nervous, so he quickly changed the subject. “I guess this is your first time to Midgar, huh?” Zack asked with a grin.
Cloud jerked. “How did you know?”
The kid was too tense. “I can tell. You’re a country boy!”
He flushed. So easy to tease! Zack laughed. “Hey, don’t be embarrassed! I’m a country boy too, you know. How else would I know?”
“Oh yeah? Where did you come from?”
“Gongaga.”
A muffled cough. “Hey, don’t laugh!”
“Sorry.” The brat didn’t sound sorry at all.
“Ha! As though you’re any better off. What about you?”
“Nibelheim.”
Zack fell abruptly silent.
He shouldn’t have needed to ask. It made sense that Cloud’s nephew would come from Nibelheim too. But just the name of the place… it gave him a bad feeling now.
“What’s wrong?”
He shook himself, and flashed a bright smile. “Sorry, just got distracted.” Only then did he realise they’d reached the boundaries of Sector 5. “We’re going through Sector 6?”
“Yeah. I’m staying at a hotel there.”
At a hotel? In Sector 6? “Is it safe?” he asked. “You know, on your own?” He got a frown for that, so swiftly amended, “I mean, even troopers move in squads in the slums.”
Cloud glanced up at the sky in response. “Oh, right, the ‘guard dog’,” Zack conceded. The shock of being dive-bombed by a chimera would be enough to drive off any group of thugs.
The newly-minted First hadn’t visited Sector 6 much before, though it didn’t look that different to the Sector 5 slums. It had the same overpowering stink, too, underlaid with the taint of mako.
For once, he wasn’t the only one wrinkling his nose in disgust. “Bet you’re missing the country air now, huh?” Zack commented. “Don’t let the locals see you making faces. Nothing makes a tourist stand out more.”
“You’re doing it too,” the kid pointed out.
“Hey, I’m a SOLDIER! Our noses are a lot more sensitive, I’ll have you know.”
The blond went quiet again at that. Strangest things made him clam up. Definitely Cloud’s nephew.
Zack filled the silence by chatting aimlessly about inane Midgar trivia, trying to get his companion to loosen up. It helped, but it seemed the closer and closer they got to their destination, the more and more nervous the kid became. Second-guessing himself? Or did a trap lie in wait?
He doubted it, but he checked he had his PHS handy to call for backup. Just in case.
They had to stop and pause a few times for the kid to get his bearings, but eventually they arrived at a modest four-story building. “This is it.”
The hotel wasn’t that bad, really, considering the location. No broken windows or bullet holes in the doors, and hardly any rust to speak of. Relatively tidy, too - rubbish had a way of accumulating below plate. In gutters, under eaves, anywhere people didn’t walk. Nobody had anywhere else to throw it.
Cloud’s nephew hesitated at the entrance, however.
“What’s the matter?” Zack asked.
He bit his lip, staring up at him with wide blue eyes. “Can I really trust you?”
Definitely the super-cautious type. “You said your name is Cloud too, right? Same as your uncle?” The blond nodded. “I don’t think I introduced myself properly. Zack Fair, SOLDIER First Class. And Cloud, you can trust me. I swear it.”
The kid still looked uncertain, so for good measure, he added, “You know, I’m kind of trusting you here too. For all I know you could be leading me here just to knock me out and rob me blind.”
Cloud almost tripped over in his disbelief. “What? Me? Mug a SOLDIER?”
Zack put his hands on his hips, looking him up and down suspiciously. “I don’t know. You might look innocent, all dressed up like a civilian, but I can’t forget who you’re related to. I’ll be walking along, not worried at all, and BAM, you’ll pull out a Neo Bahamut summon and it’ll eat my sword!”
It was at that point the blond appeared to cotton on to the fact that he was being teased. He scowled. “Eat that big thing? It would even give a summon indigestion.”
Zack laughed and grabbed Cloud in a headlock, ruffling his hair. Oh, he liked this kid. He looked all timid and nervous, but when the chips were down he talked back, even though he was only a civilian and Zack was a SOLDIER First Class. “Don’t make fun of the sword!”
Cloud smiled - a soft, cautious kind of grin, and when he saw it Zack was struck by an overpowering sense of familiarity. “We should get inside.”
The interior was dark and musty. Cloud picked up the key from the front desk - the clerk didn't even bat an eye at the sight of a kid accompanied by a SOLDIER - and led the way up a dim, narrow staircase, stained with coffee and smelling of smoke. Zack winced as the steps creaked under his weight, but they held, and besides, if he could survive being blown off the expressway into a church roof, a measly little fall through a half-rotten staircase wouldn't kill him.
They climbed all the way to the top floor, and headed to the room down the very end. It took some manoeuvring with the bent and dented handle, but eventually the blond managed to get the lock undone, and then had to put his shoulder into it to unstick the door from the frame. Zack stood back, waiting patiently, even though he could have probably done it lot quicker. The kid looked like the fiercely independent type. Probably came from a poor family. He seemed pretty comfortable in the slums for a country boy.
All of those thoughts fled the instant Zack saw what was in the room.
”Holy shit.”
He rushed to the bed, scarcely believing his eyes.
"Kunsel?!"
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