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Slowly, slowly, I pick my way through this fic. Look, I'm still alive, everyone.
Chapter One: Escape
Interlude One
Chapter Two: Clean Up
Interlude Two
Chapter Three: On the Run
Interlude Three-Part One
Interlude Three-Part Two
Interlude Three-Part Three
Interlude Three-Part Four
Chapter Four: Plans Begin
Interlude Four-Part One
Interlude Four-Part One
Chapter Five: In The Inn
October/November 1994
It had been a positively busy day today.
Happily counting the gil he had made, the innkeeper was a bit surprised that there had been so many people renting rooms. Or maybe not. Shin-Ra had their tailfeathers all ruffled up, and had military people all over. And out here, more than a few people had things they wanted to keep to themselves, to not let the people in charge know all about it. It looked like a few more of those had been disrupted.
Okay, so maybe two rooms to three people wasn’t all that much to some, but out here, they were lucky if they saw two or three people in a month, let alone in one day.
One had been that set of brothers. Both of them slim and on the shorter side, though the blond was definitely taller than his younger brother. Poor kid. Both of them were as pretty as girls, though the younger, his brown hair all shaggy and in those wide green eyes, was definitely girl slim as well. Ah, he’d bulk up when he got older. Shy kids, both of them. But polite. Very polite, and he wondered why they were avoiding Shin-Ra. Probably something to do with their parents.
And then there had been that young man, older than the two who had come a few hours before him. He had messy black hair, all pulled back and knotted out of the way. Kid looked positively wild, but happy. It was that cheerful nature that finally let him agree to rent the kid a room. Bright violet eyes almost seem to glow as the boy had basically danced in place happily.
Sometimes, he wished he had that sort of energy. Other times, it made him tired to just think about it.
There were a few other rooms, but nobody else came to rent any. It was a good day. Dining room full of people, good food cooking on the fire. Some guests to help things go a bit smoother in the gil department.
He didn’t know about the two men who slipped in later, sliding in through a window left open, with just a bare flash of light off silver. Or that the energetic kid had waited until the place had quieted down, and people had gone to sleep, before moving to go knock lightly at the door of the first renters. He slipped in when the door opened.
The innkeeper was just happy to have guests, and was sleeping well that night. He didn’t know that his guests were the entire reason that Shin-Ra was searching. All he saw was some good kids, just three of them, all of them male. None of them were wearing anything to do with Shin-Ra, trooper or SOLDIER. And he hadn’t seen the war hero, Sephiroth, either.
Better for everyone, honestly.
///
Shifting some, Sephiroth watched as Aeris started digging through the bag she had been carrying. They had collected more things over the last week or so, just so they would blend in better. Just before coming to town here, he and Aeris had both made the sacrifice of cutting off their rather distinct hair. His more than hers. Not many people had silver hair. Which was another issue they were going to be dealing with here shortly.
He grimaced over that.
Another shift. It was odd, not wearing his leathers. It had taken a lot of work, but both he and Vincent were in more...regular clothing. Zack had “lost” his SOLDIER uniform along the way, selling part here, part there, and just throwing the belt into a river. Sephiroth had done the same with his. They didn’t need anything that marked them as out of place, and people with Shin-Ra marked gear would stand out. And with the army searching for them, they didn’t need to leave any more hints than they had anyway. Still, his leathers had been his for a long time, and it was hard to adjust to materials that were so very different than the well worn clothes he normally wore.
So, they were hiding. Which was why Aeris was hiding out as a boy. She and Cloud had played brothers to get this room, and Zack had gotten a second. It made good tactical sense. Spread them out some, so if there was an ambush, there was at least one group here to help out the other.
Watching the lone woman in their group empty out her bag, Sephiroth had to grimace again. Haircuts weren’t the only thing they were going to do. If they could afford to deal with the complications, he would almost suggest that they get contacts. But SOLDIER eyes and contacts did not work well at all.
So it was down to this.
Hair dyes.
Another grimace, just at the mere thought of it. He knew it had been coming, but as long as they hadn’t actually stopped like this, he could ignore it.
His hair. It was going to be pink. Of all things.
Aeris had tried to explain that they had to pick a pale color for him. Anything else would just look unnatural for him. So he was going to be some sort of blond. How a blond became -pink-, he didn’t know. And Cloud didn’t have an answer for him either.
Zack had tried to say it wasn’t pink, but Sephiroth knew pink when he saw it.
Though he didn’t know why he had to be the most ridiculous looking one of them all, he wasn’t the only one who was getting his hair color changed. Aeris was doing something to bleach her’s out some. Not to blond, but lighter brown. Cloud’s was being dyed a darker color. Pale brown, if Sephiroth recalled correctly. He and Aeris were going to keep up the sibling game as long as possible.
As for Zack and Vincent, their hair was just too dark to do any coloring with without going to extreme bleaching methods first. Vincent had started pulling his back in a low tail, and Zack’s was such a mess that nobody could tell was it was supposed to be. Aeris said she could so something, braid it so that it looked flat. He wasn’t sure about that, but it had been faintly amusing to see their reactions when they realized that his hair spiked rather well when it was short. Not as much as Cloud or Zack’s, but a surprising amount.
The smells of the dyes made his nose wrinkle, and from the looks the others were giving, he wasn’t the only one bothered by it. Though it didn’t seem Aeris was going to waste any time. She made Cloud and Sephiroth both join her, working on Cloud’s, then Sephiroth’s right after each other. As it was setting, she looked to Vincent.
“Come here,” she said. Watching the man, mostly to keep himself from scratching his scalp off, Sephiroth was amused by the vaguely alarmed look Vincent suddenly took on. He did move closer, warily, as if Aeris was some sort of wild animal.
Actually knowing her, Sephiroth knew she was like a sort of wild animal at times. It was best some days to just let her have her way and not even bother fighting. Given the look in her eyes, today was one of those days.
“Yes?” Vincent asked after a moment, eyeing Aeris, then the box she was holding.
“Well, we can’t really make your hair a very different color, but I want to try this red on it. It’s pretty dark itself, so it might stand out. Just enough to put people off a little.”
She was already switching gloves, and Vincent gave a faintly wide eyed look around the room. Cloud, who was settled next to Sephiroth, just shrugged. “You might as well. She’ll make you do it anyway, and if you try fighting, it’ll just end up with that stuff streaked all over.”
Shirtless, Sephiroth shifted so his arm was brushing Cloud’s, taking comfort in the contact. It had been such a long time that he was still finding moments just to touch. He had not enjoyed that time period, and he was still working on forgetting it. “He’s right. Might as well get it over with.” His own tone was dry, and he gave the older man a bland look. If he had to put up with pink hair, everyone else had to suffer as well.
Seeming to realize that everything was against him, Vincent surrendered his shirt and allowed Aeris access to his hair. While the colors were still setting, and Vincent had joined the other two, she went to work on Zack’s hair. There was some hissing growls from the man as she managed to find knots he hadn’t gotten out with the brush, and if Sephiroth hadn’t been getting pink hair, he would have had a bit more sympathy over how tight Zack’s hair was getting pulled back.
But, amazingly, when Aeris was done, Zack’s head looked totally different. Everything was pulled down, caught in thin, tight braids that were clipped and folded under at the ends. If Sephiroth hadn’t known the man, he would never have known Zack’s hair was usually on end.
Then, finally, he was able to wash out his hair, getting the chemicals off his skin. Once Aeris gave him the okay, he was scratching as his scalp. Thankfully, this should be the only time he had to turn his hair pink. By the time this grew out, they would either be safe, or dead. Hopefully the former. He didn’t want to be held up as dead with pink hair.
“Seph?”
Still scratching lightly at his scalp, Sephiroth looked at Zack, who was looking back at him with a rather amused look on his face. “If you come over here, and promise to not bite in a bad way, I’ll help with the itch.”
That got a half moment of debate, and he moved to sit in front of Zack, who was as good as his word, fingers working on soothing the itch. Cloud, who didn’t seem to itch nearly as bad, just came over and rested his head on Sephiroth’s leg, eyes shutting. He had been sleeping so much that Sephiroth worried. But for right now, he just ran his fingers along the former blond’s shoulder and upper arm, encouraging him to rest.
In the bathroom, Aeris was working on her own hair, Vincent having been drafted to help her.
“We’ll be safe soon enough,” Zack said, as he worked on Sephiroth’s scalp. “This is darker than I expected. More of a red than blond.”
“It’s pink.”
Zack had the audacity to laugh at him, and if Sephiroth had been anyone else, he would have pouted. Maybe. Zack just leaned down and kissed his still wet hair. “It doesn’t look bad on you, Seph. Makes your eyes look a darker green.” It was a soft murmur, and the man knew his friend was trying to make him feel better.
Scowling some still, Sephiroth sighed. “It’s pink.”
But it would help them get away. So, maybe, he could live with it. Too late now, in any case.
Though he would make the others suffer for this indignity. And he hoped they realized it.
///
When everyone had finally been dealt with, Sephiroth and Zack had slipped back to the room Zack had rented, though it was obvious that Sephiroth would have prefered to have stayed there. But it really was safer if they kept a bit split up while sleeping. And so now Cloud was laying here, listening to Aeris and Vincent breathing. He wasn’t sure if Vincent was asleep or not, though Aeris was.
He should be able to hear them. That he expected.
The fact that he was positive he could hear Zack and Seph as well was a bit of a surprise.
Though maybe he shouldn’t be so surprised. How often since he had been in the labs had it been quiet? There were always voices murmuring in the back of his head anymore. Most of them were low, just a sound that he ignored. One was a bit more persistent. Singing about her children and how her good sons would come back to her. It didn’t happen all the time, that one, but it rose up often enough that it was an irritant.
Reaching out, touching lightly on the ones he cared for, Cloud tugged on them, just a tiny bit. Just enough to catch a thread of “them”, and pull it towards him. Shouldn’t do any damage. He didn’t think so, anyway. In a way, it was a connection that none of them would lose, and he would always have that thread to follow if he got lost in the voices again. Which was a scary, yet plausible idea. There was still so much that Cloud didn’t understand about these things. He had never had a chance to just sit down and focus on it.
Maybe, once they were settled a bit more, he could talk to Aeris about it. She made the voices sing, so she had to know something about it, right?
Taking the threads, he wove them into threads of his own, working on building something to help protect him from the voices. To keep a shield between him and the abyss. No need to tempt fate, and Cloud had spent enough time being lost.
He was here, with them, and he didn’t plan on going anywhere. Not if he could help it, no matter how seductive some of the voices sounded.
Now, once this was settled some, he would always have his family with him. With them, he would always be able to stay free. And, if it worked like he hoped, he’d always be able to keep them free from the voices as well.
It was an idea. Cloud had no idea on where it came from. But it was there. And he hoped it was correct.
His loved ones had come for him. He wasn’t going to abandon them now.
No matter what he had to do.
Snuggling into his blanket, he let the murmurs that said “family” to him wash over him. Much better than random voices he didn’t know.
Much better than -her-.
Shutting his eyes, Cloud finally slept.
///
Perched in the tree, Zack kept watch as the others rested. Cloud still needed rest breaks fairly often. Which Zack was just as happy to take as well. He was reminded a bit too much of Wutai.
Speaking of Wutai..... “We need to talk, you guys.”
The others quieted down, and he looked at them. “We need to figure out more details than “run to Wutai.” For instance, Seph is still pretty much wanted dead over there.” A pause, and he sipped at a water bottle. “For that matter, so am I. And I find I rather like being alive. So, what do we do when we get there?”
There was a bit of a frown on Sephiroth’s face. Apparently, he had been avoiding thinking of that. Or it really hadn’t occurred to him. Zack knew everyone saw Seph as this great, all knowing general, but the man did have a bad habit of focusing on the goal, and not on what to do -after- said goal was reached. Not until they got to that point. Not that Zack was much better some days, but this was fairly important stuff. This wasn’t just his life, or Seph’s. This was for Spike and Aeris as well. It was their lives that Zack and Seph were gambling if this went bad.
“You might try going to the capital. Lord Godo still lives there, yes?”
The question from Vincent threw Zack for a bit of a loop. He hadn’t expected much commentary from that direction. After a moment of thought, he nodded. “At least, he was still living there last time I was in Wutai.” Which had been a bit more recently than Seph. “Why?”
Vincent nodded. “My mother was from Wutai. As as the Lord of Wutai, the man can bring you in as one of his vassals. You’ll have to prove yourself worthy, but...” He paused, studying them. “They just fought a war. Fighters are most likely more scarce than you would think. To bring in not only fighters, but the ones who turned the tide for Shin-Ra....” A small lift of a shoulder. “The test, though, would not be easy. He would not trust you, I think.”
Now it was Sephiroth who nodded, a slow shift of his head as he thought about it. “I would be surprised if he did. However, if we could convince him, it would be in our best interest. Zack, you had a friend over there, did you not?”
Zack wrinkled his nose. “Not so much of a friend as a personal leech. She’s Godo’s kid, though she didn’t seem too impress with her dad. Don’t know if it would do us much good.” He went to run his hand through his hair, scowling as he hit the braids, then put his hand back down. “But I’ll see if I can’t get a hold of her. Have to find a phone, though.” He smiled down at them. Good. Had people thinking about future things.
“So. Now is the big question. How obvious do we want to make it that we went to Wutai?”
///
The answer to Zack’s question was apparently “Not very,” Aeris thought to herself was she rested against the railing that surrounded the deck. She, still disguised as a boy, would have to head down soon to help cook food for dinner. But right now, she was enjoying her moment of fresh air. Up above, Zack and Cloud where both helping tie things off, and scrambling along the ropes as if they had done this before.
Which, she found out as they had bartered for passage, they had. Both of them had to get across the ocean to the same continent as Midgar somehow. And it seemed as if both had bartered passage for work on the way to join up with the military. While they weren’t excellent at it, they knew enough to help out more than hinder, and the captain seemed pleased to have a few extra hands.
Poor Vincent and Sephiroth, on the other hand, had been stuck doing some of the nastier jobs that nobody wanted, but didn’t take a lot of skills to do. Vincent had done a good deal of slinking around to find them a ship with a captain who wouldn’t ask too many questions, and he had done a good job of it. But the passage over wasn’t paid that way, and while they had the gil, it also gave the boys something to do instead of getting bored.
The jobs weren’t too bad, though mostly they kept getting relegated to keep watch. It hadn’t escaped the captain’s notice when they had both spotted that monster long before the man in the crow’s nest had. So that got them out of the fact they had to clean, even if the two watches they stood were incredibly boring to do.
As for Aeris, all she had to do was help cook one meal, and they hadn’t even asked her to help do any of the other things. She smiled. It was nice to see people enjoy her food. Though it was still very odd learning to respond to “Boy” all the time. It didn’t do a thing to cheer her up that it was so easy to trick people into thinking she was male. But then Zack would give her that look that made her feel all right again. Or Seph would wrap an arm around her for a momentary hug. The man was still so stingy with contact that she enjoyed those moments.
They were almost there, though. The night before, the captain said it would probably be one more day.
From there, it was two days of travel to get from port to the main city, at least by bird.
Once they hit the city.... Well, they would see when they got there.
Pushing away from the rail, Aeris headed for the door down, easily moving along with the sway of the ship.
This had been an interesting trip to Wutai, she would admit that.
She had never seen a sky so blue as it was right now. One day, she hoped she could grow a flower that blue.
Right now, though, she had people to feed.
Remember, reviews make me write more. Cause I'm a whore for them.
Chapter Wordcount: 3,463
OGToF wordcount: 46,377
Chapter One: Escape
Interlude One
Chapter Two: Clean Up
Interlude Two
Chapter Three: On the Run
Interlude Three-Part One
Interlude Three-Part Two
Interlude Three-Part Three
Interlude Three-Part Four
Chapter Four: Plans Begin
Interlude Four-Part One
Interlude Four-Part One
Chapter Five: In The Inn
October/November 1994
It had been a positively busy day today.
Happily counting the gil he had made, the innkeeper was a bit surprised that there had been so many people renting rooms. Or maybe not. Shin-Ra had their tailfeathers all ruffled up, and had military people all over. And out here, more than a few people had things they wanted to keep to themselves, to not let the people in charge know all about it. It looked like a few more of those had been disrupted.
Okay, so maybe two rooms to three people wasn’t all that much to some, but out here, they were lucky if they saw two or three people in a month, let alone in one day.
One had been that set of brothers. Both of them slim and on the shorter side, though the blond was definitely taller than his younger brother. Poor kid. Both of them were as pretty as girls, though the younger, his brown hair all shaggy and in those wide green eyes, was definitely girl slim as well. Ah, he’d bulk up when he got older. Shy kids, both of them. But polite. Very polite, and he wondered why they were avoiding Shin-Ra. Probably something to do with their parents.
And then there had been that young man, older than the two who had come a few hours before him. He had messy black hair, all pulled back and knotted out of the way. Kid looked positively wild, but happy. It was that cheerful nature that finally let him agree to rent the kid a room. Bright violet eyes almost seem to glow as the boy had basically danced in place happily.
Sometimes, he wished he had that sort of energy. Other times, it made him tired to just think about it.
There were a few other rooms, but nobody else came to rent any. It was a good day. Dining room full of people, good food cooking on the fire. Some guests to help things go a bit smoother in the gil department.
He didn’t know about the two men who slipped in later, sliding in through a window left open, with just a bare flash of light off silver. Or that the energetic kid had waited until the place had quieted down, and people had gone to sleep, before moving to go knock lightly at the door of the first renters. He slipped in when the door opened.
The innkeeper was just happy to have guests, and was sleeping well that night. He didn’t know that his guests were the entire reason that Shin-Ra was searching. All he saw was some good kids, just three of them, all of them male. None of them were wearing anything to do with Shin-Ra, trooper or SOLDIER. And he hadn’t seen the war hero, Sephiroth, either.
Better for everyone, honestly.
Shifting some, Sephiroth watched as Aeris started digging through the bag she had been carrying. They had collected more things over the last week or so, just so they would blend in better. Just before coming to town here, he and Aeris had both made the sacrifice of cutting off their rather distinct hair. His more than hers. Not many people had silver hair. Which was another issue they were going to be dealing with here shortly.
He grimaced over that.
Another shift. It was odd, not wearing his leathers. It had taken a lot of work, but both he and Vincent were in more...regular clothing. Zack had “lost” his SOLDIER uniform along the way, selling part here, part there, and just throwing the belt into a river. Sephiroth had done the same with his. They didn’t need anything that marked them as out of place, and people with Shin-Ra marked gear would stand out. And with the army searching for them, they didn’t need to leave any more hints than they had anyway. Still, his leathers had been his for a long time, and it was hard to adjust to materials that were so very different than the well worn clothes he normally wore.
So, they were hiding. Which was why Aeris was hiding out as a boy. She and Cloud had played brothers to get this room, and Zack had gotten a second. It made good tactical sense. Spread them out some, so if there was an ambush, there was at least one group here to help out the other.
Watching the lone woman in their group empty out her bag, Sephiroth had to grimace again. Haircuts weren’t the only thing they were going to do. If they could afford to deal with the complications, he would almost suggest that they get contacts. But SOLDIER eyes and contacts did not work well at all.
So it was down to this.
Hair dyes.
Another grimace, just at the mere thought of it. He knew it had been coming, but as long as they hadn’t actually stopped like this, he could ignore it.
His hair. It was going to be pink. Of all things.
Aeris had tried to explain that they had to pick a pale color for him. Anything else would just look unnatural for him. So he was going to be some sort of blond. How a blond became -pink-, he didn’t know. And Cloud didn’t have an answer for him either.
Zack had tried to say it wasn’t pink, but Sephiroth knew pink when he saw it.
Though he didn’t know why he had to be the most ridiculous looking one of them all, he wasn’t the only one who was getting his hair color changed. Aeris was doing something to bleach her’s out some. Not to blond, but lighter brown. Cloud’s was being dyed a darker color. Pale brown, if Sephiroth recalled correctly. He and Aeris were going to keep up the sibling game as long as possible.
As for Zack and Vincent, their hair was just too dark to do any coloring with without going to extreme bleaching methods first. Vincent had started pulling his back in a low tail, and Zack’s was such a mess that nobody could tell was it was supposed to be. Aeris said she could so something, braid it so that it looked flat. He wasn’t sure about that, but it had been faintly amusing to see their reactions when they realized that his hair spiked rather well when it was short. Not as much as Cloud or Zack’s, but a surprising amount.
The smells of the dyes made his nose wrinkle, and from the looks the others were giving, he wasn’t the only one bothered by it. Though it didn’t seem Aeris was going to waste any time. She made Cloud and Sephiroth both join her, working on Cloud’s, then Sephiroth’s right after each other. As it was setting, she looked to Vincent.
“Come here,” she said. Watching the man, mostly to keep himself from scratching his scalp off, Sephiroth was amused by the vaguely alarmed look Vincent suddenly took on. He did move closer, warily, as if Aeris was some sort of wild animal.
Actually knowing her, Sephiroth knew she was like a sort of wild animal at times. It was best some days to just let her have her way and not even bother fighting. Given the look in her eyes, today was one of those days.
“Yes?” Vincent asked after a moment, eyeing Aeris, then the box she was holding.
“Well, we can’t really make your hair a very different color, but I want to try this red on it. It’s pretty dark itself, so it might stand out. Just enough to put people off a little.”
She was already switching gloves, and Vincent gave a faintly wide eyed look around the room. Cloud, who was settled next to Sephiroth, just shrugged. “You might as well. She’ll make you do it anyway, and if you try fighting, it’ll just end up with that stuff streaked all over.”
Shirtless, Sephiroth shifted so his arm was brushing Cloud’s, taking comfort in the contact. It had been such a long time that he was still finding moments just to touch. He had not enjoyed that time period, and he was still working on forgetting it. “He’s right. Might as well get it over with.” His own tone was dry, and he gave the older man a bland look. If he had to put up with pink hair, everyone else had to suffer as well.
Seeming to realize that everything was against him, Vincent surrendered his shirt and allowed Aeris access to his hair. While the colors were still setting, and Vincent had joined the other two, she went to work on Zack’s hair. There was some hissing growls from the man as she managed to find knots he hadn’t gotten out with the brush, and if Sephiroth hadn’t been getting pink hair, he would have had a bit more sympathy over how tight Zack’s hair was getting pulled back.
But, amazingly, when Aeris was done, Zack’s head looked totally different. Everything was pulled down, caught in thin, tight braids that were clipped and folded under at the ends. If Sephiroth hadn’t known the man, he would never have known Zack’s hair was usually on end.
Then, finally, he was able to wash out his hair, getting the chemicals off his skin. Once Aeris gave him the okay, he was scratching as his scalp. Thankfully, this should be the only time he had to turn his hair pink. By the time this grew out, they would either be safe, or dead. Hopefully the former. He didn’t want to be held up as dead with pink hair.
“Seph?”
Still scratching lightly at his scalp, Sephiroth looked at Zack, who was looking back at him with a rather amused look on his face. “If you come over here, and promise to not bite in a bad way, I’ll help with the itch.”
That got a half moment of debate, and he moved to sit in front of Zack, who was as good as his word, fingers working on soothing the itch. Cloud, who didn’t seem to itch nearly as bad, just came over and rested his head on Sephiroth’s leg, eyes shutting. He had been sleeping so much that Sephiroth worried. But for right now, he just ran his fingers along the former blond’s shoulder and upper arm, encouraging him to rest.
In the bathroom, Aeris was working on her own hair, Vincent having been drafted to help her.
“We’ll be safe soon enough,” Zack said, as he worked on Sephiroth’s scalp. “This is darker than I expected. More of a red than blond.”
“It’s pink.”
Zack had the audacity to laugh at him, and if Sephiroth had been anyone else, he would have pouted. Maybe. Zack just leaned down and kissed his still wet hair. “It doesn’t look bad on you, Seph. Makes your eyes look a darker green.” It was a soft murmur, and the man knew his friend was trying to make him feel better.
Scowling some still, Sephiroth sighed. “It’s pink.”
But it would help them get away. So, maybe, he could live with it. Too late now, in any case.
Though he would make the others suffer for this indignity. And he hoped they realized it.
When everyone had finally been dealt with, Sephiroth and Zack had slipped back to the room Zack had rented, though it was obvious that Sephiroth would have prefered to have stayed there. But it really was safer if they kept a bit split up while sleeping. And so now Cloud was laying here, listening to Aeris and Vincent breathing. He wasn’t sure if Vincent was asleep or not, though Aeris was.
He should be able to hear them. That he expected.
The fact that he was positive he could hear Zack and Seph as well was a bit of a surprise.
Though maybe he shouldn’t be so surprised. How often since he had been in the labs had it been quiet? There were always voices murmuring in the back of his head anymore. Most of them were low, just a sound that he ignored. One was a bit more persistent. Singing about her children and how her good sons would come back to her. It didn’t happen all the time, that one, but it rose up often enough that it was an irritant.
Reaching out, touching lightly on the ones he cared for, Cloud tugged on them, just a tiny bit. Just enough to catch a thread of “them”, and pull it towards him. Shouldn’t do any damage. He didn’t think so, anyway. In a way, it was a connection that none of them would lose, and he would always have that thread to follow if he got lost in the voices again. Which was a scary, yet plausible idea. There was still so much that Cloud didn’t understand about these things. He had never had a chance to just sit down and focus on it.
Maybe, once they were settled a bit more, he could talk to Aeris about it. She made the voices sing, so she had to know something about it, right?
Taking the threads, he wove them into threads of his own, working on building something to help protect him from the voices. To keep a shield between him and the abyss. No need to tempt fate, and Cloud had spent enough time being lost.
He was here, with them, and he didn’t plan on going anywhere. Not if he could help it, no matter how seductive some of the voices sounded.
Now, once this was settled some, he would always have his family with him. With them, he would always be able to stay free. And, if it worked like he hoped, he’d always be able to keep them free from the voices as well.
It was an idea. Cloud had no idea on where it came from. But it was there. And he hoped it was correct.
His loved ones had come for him. He wasn’t going to abandon them now.
No matter what he had to do.
Snuggling into his blanket, he let the murmurs that said “family” to him wash over him. Much better than random voices he didn’t know.
Much better than -her-.
Shutting his eyes, Cloud finally slept.
Perched in the tree, Zack kept watch as the others rested. Cloud still needed rest breaks fairly often. Which Zack was just as happy to take as well. He was reminded a bit too much of Wutai.
Speaking of Wutai..... “We need to talk, you guys.”
The others quieted down, and he looked at them. “We need to figure out more details than “run to Wutai.” For instance, Seph is still pretty much wanted dead over there.” A pause, and he sipped at a water bottle. “For that matter, so am I. And I find I rather like being alive. So, what do we do when we get there?”
There was a bit of a frown on Sephiroth’s face. Apparently, he had been avoiding thinking of that. Or it really hadn’t occurred to him. Zack knew everyone saw Seph as this great, all knowing general, but the man did have a bad habit of focusing on the goal, and not on what to do -after- said goal was reached. Not until they got to that point. Not that Zack was much better some days, but this was fairly important stuff. This wasn’t just his life, or Seph’s. This was for Spike and Aeris as well. It was their lives that Zack and Seph were gambling if this went bad.
“You might try going to the capital. Lord Godo still lives there, yes?”
The question from Vincent threw Zack for a bit of a loop. He hadn’t expected much commentary from that direction. After a moment of thought, he nodded. “At least, he was still living there last time I was in Wutai.” Which had been a bit more recently than Seph. “Why?”
Vincent nodded. “My mother was from Wutai. As as the Lord of Wutai, the man can bring you in as one of his vassals. You’ll have to prove yourself worthy, but...” He paused, studying them. “They just fought a war. Fighters are most likely more scarce than you would think. To bring in not only fighters, but the ones who turned the tide for Shin-Ra....” A small lift of a shoulder. “The test, though, would not be easy. He would not trust you, I think.”
Now it was Sephiroth who nodded, a slow shift of his head as he thought about it. “I would be surprised if he did. However, if we could convince him, it would be in our best interest. Zack, you had a friend over there, did you not?”
Zack wrinkled his nose. “Not so much of a friend as a personal leech. She’s Godo’s kid, though she didn’t seem too impress with her dad. Don’t know if it would do us much good.” He went to run his hand through his hair, scowling as he hit the braids, then put his hand back down. “But I’ll see if I can’t get a hold of her. Have to find a phone, though.” He smiled down at them. Good. Had people thinking about future things.
“So. Now is the big question. How obvious do we want to make it that we went to Wutai?”
The answer to Zack’s question was apparently “Not very,” Aeris thought to herself was she rested against the railing that surrounded the deck. She, still disguised as a boy, would have to head down soon to help cook food for dinner. But right now, she was enjoying her moment of fresh air. Up above, Zack and Cloud where both helping tie things off, and scrambling along the ropes as if they had done this before.
Which, she found out as they had bartered for passage, they had. Both of them had to get across the ocean to the same continent as Midgar somehow. And it seemed as if both had bartered passage for work on the way to join up with the military. While they weren’t excellent at it, they knew enough to help out more than hinder, and the captain seemed pleased to have a few extra hands.
Poor Vincent and Sephiroth, on the other hand, had been stuck doing some of the nastier jobs that nobody wanted, but didn’t take a lot of skills to do. Vincent had done a good deal of slinking around to find them a ship with a captain who wouldn’t ask too many questions, and he had done a good job of it. But the passage over wasn’t paid that way, and while they had the gil, it also gave the boys something to do instead of getting bored.
The jobs weren’t too bad, though mostly they kept getting relegated to keep watch. It hadn’t escaped the captain’s notice when they had both spotted that monster long before the man in the crow’s nest had. So that got them out of the fact they had to clean, even if the two watches they stood were incredibly boring to do.
As for Aeris, all she had to do was help cook one meal, and they hadn’t even asked her to help do any of the other things. She smiled. It was nice to see people enjoy her food. Though it was still very odd learning to respond to “Boy” all the time. It didn’t do a thing to cheer her up that it was so easy to trick people into thinking she was male. But then Zack would give her that look that made her feel all right again. Or Seph would wrap an arm around her for a momentary hug. The man was still so stingy with contact that she enjoyed those moments.
They were almost there, though. The night before, the captain said it would probably be one more day.
From there, it was two days of travel to get from port to the main city, at least by bird.
Once they hit the city.... Well, they would see when they got there.
Pushing away from the rail, Aeris headed for the door down, easily moving along with the sway of the ship.
This had been an interesting trip to Wutai, she would admit that.
She had never seen a sky so blue as it was right now. One day, she hoped she could grow a flower that blue.
Right now, though, she had people to feed.
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Chapter Wordcount: 3,463
OGToF wordcount: 46,377
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