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icedark_elf Apr. 2nd, 2007 10:39 pm)
icedark_elf Apr. 2nd, 2007 10:39 pm)Title: Coming Together
Author: GW Katrina aka![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
icedark_elf
Beta:forgottenlover, any mistakes are my own.
Fandom: Final Fantasy VII-Nibelheim Burning
Characters: Zack, Cloud, Aeris, Sephiroth
Rating: PG-13
Word: Memory
Wordcount: 3,317
NB Total Story/Wordcount: 4/7,136
Previous stories found here.
Coming Together
Zack stared at the orders blankly for a few minutes. He had only been back on the job for a week or so, mostly due to the fact he refused to stay in a room alone. Too much time to think, and he really didn’t need that right now. Hells, he was still camping out on Seph’s couch, sometimes laying there and just listening to Sephiroth’s breathing as the man had rested in his room. That was partially his choice, partially Seph’s twitchiness whenever Zack left his sight.
It was the quiet, the silence that really bothered Zack. He was sure he could hear things whispering in the darkness when he was alone. Things whispering about pain and aches, and if it hadn’t been for the fact that he had been hearing them in the lab as well, during the quiet hours when the only light was Mako and he was alone, he would have been sure they were from Hojo’s mistake.
He could feel the scar, along the base of his skull. It was faint, but it was there, and he absently wondered once or twice out loud to Seph just what the man had scrambled. The look on Seph’s face had not been pleased when he heard Zack talk about that. Not that Zack was really pleased about it either. Things felt off, and he really had no idea what Hojo had done to his brain. Making a mental note to go see Aeris sometime and see if she could tell, Zack shifted in his chair and looked at the orders he held again.
They had only been back in the office two days, which was just four days after Seph had sprung him from the hospital. Probably should have been resting more, but that would require being alone, and Zack simply wasn’t willing to do that, even if Seph let him.
Weren’t they a pair? Both too twitchy to leave the other alone. He was scared the second they got Seph out of his sight, one of them was going to vanish. And his friend seemed to be expecting the same thing, so neither really went anywhere alone. There had been one call to the labs for Seph, which was promptly ignored, and now a set of mission orders.
Sephiroth was to check out the Nibelheim reactor, with a squad of his choice, and clear the area of the monsters that were being reported in ever increasing numbers. Nibelheim was the oldest of the reactors, and nobody in Shinra wanted the monster reports getting out and stirring up fears that the reactor was the cause of it.
It was a simple mission. Too simple for sending Sephiroth. It made the hairs on the back of his neck stand on end, and Zack did not like that. At all. Even the fact they were letting Seph pick out his people so freely made him twitch. Shinra was not so kind as to let his pets have too much freedom. Especially when he seemed to fear them going mad.
Going mad....
Looking at the report again, a germ of an idea started to form in the back of Zack’s mind. A horribly violent plan. People would die, but not many, and it would get Seph out of this place, to safety, where he wouldn’t have to worry about people trying to corrupt his friends into becoming his assassins.
Nibelheim. He knew that name.
Scratching down a few words on a bit of paper, he took the mission orders and the scrap and placed them on Sephiroth’s desk. The other man looked over the paper, then the orders, and then nodded at Zack.
That was all Zack needed. Now to wait for lunch so he could place a call in a non-suspicious way.
Let’s see if he couldn’t take this germ of an idea and make it a plan that would work.
///
Tucking the phone away in his pocket, Cloud was curious to what that was about. He was actually on the last few days of his leave, having taken it to help Aeris out around the church as a distraction for both her and himself. After Zack had suddenly popped back up out of nowhere, Cloud had been the one to take the news to the woman, who still seemed to be fairly worried. He wasn’t sure if there was a reason, or if she just would stay worried till Zack had come seen her himself.
Which looked to be sooner than expected. Zack had just called him and said that he and a friend were going to be dropping down below the Plate for a visit, and asked if Cloud would give Aeris the heads up. When Zack said that, he could only mean Sephiroth, which was impressive, because Zack had been trying for months to introduce Sephiroth and Aeris. Cloud wondered what had happened to make the man finally agree to it.
Maybe it was the fact that Zack wanted it, and he had been missing for so long, so now Sephiroth was going to indulge him. Not that Cloud could blame him. It was Zack, after all. Zack was the central part of the group. That was something his dad had always talked about, but Cloud had never gotten till he had met Zack.
As he found the train he was looking for, Cloud wondered absently just how many people in the company connected him with his father. He was sure Hojo did, and that was one reason for the situation with the SOLDIER program, where Hojo had declared him unfit. Tseng in the Turks he was pretty sure knew as well. He had spotted the man once or twice, just watching him. It was fairly creepy, but he could understand why the man did it.
Cloud didn’t really remember a lot about his dad. The man had died when he was five, though not in the way most of the town had thought he had. They had been told he had fallen into a ravine while fleeing arrest, and they listened. Nobody wanted to disagree with Shinra on something like this. And, Cloud did admit, his father had been where he shouldn’t, but it was something that was the right thing to do.
He was curious what records his dad had left from his days as a Turk. It was something he always wanted to hear stories about, but his dad had said those days were long behind him. Not until Cloud was getting ready to head to Midgar did his mom tell him that once a Turk, always a Turk, and explained what had happened to his dad.
Turned out that while doing something or another, he had found records of something in the basement of Shinra. A person, someone who had used to be a Turk.
The minute his mom had told him that, Cloud understood most of it. His dad always said his days as a Turk were behind him when they moved to Nibelheim, but he still taught Cloud the basics. That Turks were loyal, to the point of dying for each other. They backed one another up to the death. That was just who they were.
One day, his dad had told him, Cloud would find his own group. Those would be his people, just like the Turks were the President’s people. Loyal, dedicated, and there for each other. They would be people who would do anything to help him and he would be willing to do the same for them.
Then his dad had died, and Cloud just didn’t understand that, though he wanted to. It was one of the few real, clear memories of his father that he had, and he wanted to understand what the man meant.
It wasn’t until after he had joined and then met Zack that he understood. Zack was one of those people, the ones that drew people to him. Charming, energetic, and just someone that seemed to stand out more than anyone around him. Cloud had found himself drawn to Zack even as Zack seem to be drawn back. He didn’t understand why the older man was so willing to be his friend, but he was. And so Zack became that person for Cloud, that one person more important than anyone else.
Sephiroth and Aeris were part of that group as well, in his mind. They were Zack’s people just as much as Cloud was Zack’s person, which meant that they were all each others people. People to stand back to back with in the worst situations and to spend the good times with as well. People to be dedicated to, who deserved that dedication.
Watching the stops as his thoughts curled around each other like snakes, Cloud wondered why Zack had asked him to warn Aeris that they were coming and to get something to eat ready.
Something was up, something big, and he wasn’t sure what to think of it.
///
Something was happening, though she didn’t know what. It was frustrating at times, to hear the voices, but not understand them. It was like listening to a crowd, way off in the distance. She could hear the fact that the talking had grown, that it was far more active now than it had been, but she didn’t understand what was being said, or even the mood of the voices. It was just too indistinct, and that was starting to wear on her nerves some.
Most days, she wished that she had never been born with this blood of hers, that her mother had never given her the voices like she had. It was so frustrating to never really be able to understand, caught between two worlds. One side growling like an over protective dog over pups as Shinra continued to damage the planet, making it cry out more and more, so loudly that she heard it even here, in the heard of the Mako reactors, which muted out so many things. She almost dread what it must have sounded like outside the city, which was part of the reason that she had never really thought about leaving.
The other reason was much simpler. If she tried to leave, Shinra would leave off trying to “convince” her to come back and bring her back by force. At least in the city, even under Plate, she was in their backyard, so to say.
And the human side of her was tired of hearing things that made no sense, and just wanted it all to stop. Though it seemed clear enough that if there was some way to stop Shinra, then both sides would get the quiet they wanted. Which was why she was so interested in the news of AVALANCHE, the terrorist group targeting Shinra. Still, they were just as bad at times with their damage, but at least that was mostly human, not the core deep damage to the planet that Shinra was inflicting.
Though another reason for her jitters the last month or so was Zack’s vanishing. He had never left the city, she would have felt that. He vibrated, kinda, a low grade hum that seemed to match well with Sephiroth’s. Sometimes she wondered if they had Cetra in them as well, not as much as her, but some low quantity, brought about after years and years of interbreeding with humans.
So that had told her that, whatever had happened to him, he was in the city. And angry. More than that, she hadn’t been able to tell, all the Mako muting things too much. Still, when Cloud told her that Sephiroth was looking for Zack as well, she told him to stay in the city. Cloud had given her a funny look, but was starting to get used to her random statements. Which was good. Two weeks later, she had gotten the message that Zack had been found, and was pretty sick. If she could have, she would have gone to see him. Given the situation, though, she couldn’t, and had sent her love through Cloud. Now a month had passed, and Zack was out. Which was good, and she expected a visit any day.
Still, that left her with a lot of nervous energy, and rather than just let it wear her down without being productive, she put the energy to work as she worked on her flowers. They were doing very well now, having been her focus of distraction the time Zack had been gone.
So that was what she was doing when Cloud dropped in. The moment he did, she was working on carrying over some good fertilizer that she was able to get fairly cheap. Without a word, he moved over to help her, lugging the basket over next to where the light streamed in.
“Thank you,” she said cheerfully. “So, what brings you down here so early? Aren’t you usually running errands this time of the day?”
He nodded. “Got a call from Zack. They’re at lunch right now, and I think he’s finally getting Sephiroth down here for a visit. Probably using the fact he’s sick shamelessly to his advantage.”
A laugh. “Probably. He never is one to let an advantage go like that, especially as I know he’s been working hard to get the man down here. You’d think I had cooties with how hard Sephiroth’s been avoiding me.”
“You do,” Cloud told her, expression blank. “Girlie cooties, the worst kind. I, luckily, have had my shots, thus am immune.”
She gave him a purely speculative look, and grinned. “So, just how do they give those shots? They won’t tell girls, and we are so desperate to find out the greatest boy secret ever.”
“Sorry, ma’am, sworn to secrecy. Can’t tell you.”
“Can I bribe it from you? I might know of the location of an apple pie or two, still warm from the oven and just waiting for some ice cream to melt and soak into the top crust.”
He gave her puppy eyes. “That’s fighting dirty.”
“Like those eyes aren’t just as bad?”
They grinned at each other. Then Cloud sighed. “I’m not sure what happened, but I think something is happening. Zack sounded odder than normal on the phone. If I didn’t know him so well, I’d wouldn’t have heard it, but something is up. At least I think there is.”
Thinking about some of what Cloud had told her about his visits to the hospital, Aeris wondered what had really happened to Zack. And how it was affecting him. “Well, we’ll find out later, I’m sure. So, you said they’re coming down?”
He nodded. “Said he was bringing a friend. Which I’m pretty sure means Sephiroth. He wanted to give you warning in case you wanted to bribe the man with ‘the world’s best home-made pie.’ He’s really shameless.”
“Oh, yes. Which is why we both adore him.” She stood. “Well, if he is expecting food, we should go to my house. Mom is at her friend’s, and you are all casual today anyway, so we should be fine. What kind of pie do you think Sephiroth will like?”
Cloud blinked at her, then pondered the question. “Apple, I think. It’s the only fruit I’ve ever seen him eat. Zack buys them for him on occasion, so that’s my best guess.”
“Well then,” she said cheerfully, standing up and dusting off her hands. “If we start now, I think we can just beat them back here from the time they get off of work.”
Finally, a chance to get a good look at Zack. She wondered what she would find.
///
Sephiroth could smell the church before he could see it, due to the way the roads twisted and curled under the Plate. Fresh food and the scent of flowers. He hadn’t smelled fresh flowers since the last time he was in Wutai. Too often he was in the middle of cities, dealing with issues he shouldn’t have to touch, and he found he missed the smell of greenery. It had been too long since he had seen something that looked like a plant and wasn’t made of plastic.
Following Zack, who was still unsteady enough occasionally that he wanted to keep a close eye on the man at all times, which he was aware was most likely something of an over-protective response, but he wasn’t positive. He had never felt especially protective over anything before.
But whatever this was, he wanted to make sure no more harm came to Zack, and he was afraid it would. He had the basic idea, but they had still not had their talk over what had happened when Zack had been gone. He had seen the scars, and had shamelessly looked over Zack’s chart while the man was still unconscious. The words “brain damage” had made things chill in his chest and he had felt relief when Zack had woke up and acted very Zack-like.
Zack-like.
There were some things that were off. The way he reacted to the doctors, the way he stayed close to people and hadn’t want the visits to end. The man was people-oriented, but that level of almost needy fear had felt all wrong. Once Zack had mentioned punishment, Sephiroth had a sinking feeling of some of the things the man had gone through, and the want for people, especially people he could trust, was not a surprise.
The scar on the back of his friend’s skull had only added to the mystery, but it was the part that made him itch to crush Hojo’s skull in his hands. The man had done surgery on Zack’s head. On his brain. It was the only answer for everything, and he wasn’t sure how much damage had been done. Zack was Zack, but he wasn’t Zack at the same time.
Oh, for the most part, he still acted like himself. But there was a feralness, and feel that the stability that Sephiroth had depended on so many times was a bit...cockeyed, now. Somehow, the man was more...harsh, than he had been, quicker to snarl about someone, even in the dubious privacy of Sephiroth’s office. He never said anything that would get either of them a visit from the Turks, but there was a bite there than had been much better hidden before.
Sephiroth wasn’t sure what else had been done to his friend, but he was going to find out. Even if he had to break every bone in Hojo’s body to get his answers.
Chattering, sounding much more like his normal self now that he was out of the Shinra buildings, Zack lead him towards the church, which was sturdier looking than Sephiroth had expected. He was feeling somewhat nervous over this first meeting, which made no sense to him, so he put most of the feeling to concern of Zack. Which was almost as odd, but something he had gotten used to.
The chattering died the second Zack opened the doors and looked around. The smells that Sephiroth had been detecting for at least three streets over filled the air, and he found himself the focus of two sets of eyes. Cloud’s, and who he decided must be Aeris. She looked at him with serious green eyes, then focused on Zack, frowning slightly as if trying to figure out what he was doing.
She was not the only one. After a moment, Cloud and Sephiroth were also looking at the man, who was scanning the church. After a moment, he nodded, then tugged Sephiroth further in, shutting the door behind him.
“We’ve had a situation, and I might have an idea how to fix it,” Zack said, almost cheerfully.
“But first, is that apple pie?”
Author: GW Katrina aka
icedark_elfBeta:
forgottenlover, any mistakes are my own.Fandom: Final Fantasy VII-Nibelheim Burning
Characters: Zack, Cloud, Aeris, Sephiroth
Rating: PG-13
Word: Memory
Wordcount: 3,317
NB Total Story/Wordcount: 4/7,136
Previous stories found here.
Coming Together
Zack stared at the orders blankly for a few minutes. He had only been back on the job for a week or so, mostly due to the fact he refused to stay in a room alone. Too much time to think, and he really didn’t need that right now. Hells, he was still camping out on Seph’s couch, sometimes laying there and just listening to Sephiroth’s breathing as the man had rested in his room. That was partially his choice, partially Seph’s twitchiness whenever Zack left his sight.
It was the quiet, the silence that really bothered Zack. He was sure he could hear things whispering in the darkness when he was alone. Things whispering about pain and aches, and if it hadn’t been for the fact that he had been hearing them in the lab as well, during the quiet hours when the only light was Mako and he was alone, he would have been sure they were from Hojo’s mistake.
He could feel the scar, along the base of his skull. It was faint, but it was there, and he absently wondered once or twice out loud to Seph just what the man had scrambled. The look on Seph’s face had not been pleased when he heard Zack talk about that. Not that Zack was really pleased about it either. Things felt off, and he really had no idea what Hojo had done to his brain. Making a mental note to go see Aeris sometime and see if she could tell, Zack shifted in his chair and looked at the orders he held again.
They had only been back in the office two days, which was just four days after Seph had sprung him from the hospital. Probably should have been resting more, but that would require being alone, and Zack simply wasn’t willing to do that, even if Seph let him.
Weren’t they a pair? Both too twitchy to leave the other alone. He was scared the second they got Seph out of his sight, one of them was going to vanish. And his friend seemed to be expecting the same thing, so neither really went anywhere alone. There had been one call to the labs for Seph, which was promptly ignored, and now a set of mission orders.
Sephiroth was to check out the Nibelheim reactor, with a squad of his choice, and clear the area of the monsters that were being reported in ever increasing numbers. Nibelheim was the oldest of the reactors, and nobody in Shinra wanted the monster reports getting out and stirring up fears that the reactor was the cause of it.
It was a simple mission. Too simple for sending Sephiroth. It made the hairs on the back of his neck stand on end, and Zack did not like that. At all. Even the fact they were letting Seph pick out his people so freely made him twitch. Shinra was not so kind as to let his pets have too much freedom. Especially when he seemed to fear them going mad.
Going mad....
Looking at the report again, a germ of an idea started to form in the back of Zack’s mind. A horribly violent plan. People would die, but not many, and it would get Seph out of this place, to safety, where he wouldn’t have to worry about people trying to corrupt his friends into becoming his assassins.
Nibelheim. He knew that name.
Scratching down a few words on a bit of paper, he took the mission orders and the scrap and placed them on Sephiroth’s desk. The other man looked over the paper, then the orders, and then nodded at Zack.
That was all Zack needed. Now to wait for lunch so he could place a call in a non-suspicious way.
Let’s see if he couldn’t take this germ of an idea and make it a plan that would work.
Tucking the phone away in his pocket, Cloud was curious to what that was about. He was actually on the last few days of his leave, having taken it to help Aeris out around the church as a distraction for both her and himself. After Zack had suddenly popped back up out of nowhere, Cloud had been the one to take the news to the woman, who still seemed to be fairly worried. He wasn’t sure if there was a reason, or if she just would stay worried till Zack had come seen her himself.
Which looked to be sooner than expected. Zack had just called him and said that he and a friend were going to be dropping down below the Plate for a visit, and asked if Cloud would give Aeris the heads up. When Zack said that, he could only mean Sephiroth, which was impressive, because Zack had been trying for months to introduce Sephiroth and Aeris. Cloud wondered what had happened to make the man finally agree to it.
Maybe it was the fact that Zack wanted it, and he had been missing for so long, so now Sephiroth was going to indulge him. Not that Cloud could blame him. It was Zack, after all. Zack was the central part of the group. That was something his dad had always talked about, but Cloud had never gotten till he had met Zack.
As he found the train he was looking for, Cloud wondered absently just how many people in the company connected him with his father. He was sure Hojo did, and that was one reason for the situation with the SOLDIER program, where Hojo had declared him unfit. Tseng in the Turks he was pretty sure knew as well. He had spotted the man once or twice, just watching him. It was fairly creepy, but he could understand why the man did it.
Cloud didn’t really remember a lot about his dad. The man had died when he was five, though not in the way most of the town had thought he had. They had been told he had fallen into a ravine while fleeing arrest, and they listened. Nobody wanted to disagree with Shinra on something like this. And, Cloud did admit, his father had been where he shouldn’t, but it was something that was the right thing to do.
He was curious what records his dad had left from his days as a Turk. It was something he always wanted to hear stories about, but his dad had said those days were long behind him. Not until Cloud was getting ready to head to Midgar did his mom tell him that once a Turk, always a Turk, and explained what had happened to his dad.
Turned out that while doing something or another, he had found records of something in the basement of Shinra. A person, someone who had used to be a Turk.
The minute his mom had told him that, Cloud understood most of it. His dad always said his days as a Turk were behind him when they moved to Nibelheim, but he still taught Cloud the basics. That Turks were loyal, to the point of dying for each other. They backed one another up to the death. That was just who they were.
One day, his dad had told him, Cloud would find his own group. Those would be his people, just like the Turks were the President’s people. Loyal, dedicated, and there for each other. They would be people who would do anything to help him and he would be willing to do the same for them.
Then his dad had died, and Cloud just didn’t understand that, though he wanted to. It was one of the few real, clear memories of his father that he had, and he wanted to understand what the man meant.
It wasn’t until after he had joined and then met Zack that he understood. Zack was one of those people, the ones that drew people to him. Charming, energetic, and just someone that seemed to stand out more than anyone around him. Cloud had found himself drawn to Zack even as Zack seem to be drawn back. He didn’t understand why the older man was so willing to be his friend, but he was. And so Zack became that person for Cloud, that one person more important than anyone else.
Sephiroth and Aeris were part of that group as well, in his mind. They were Zack’s people just as much as Cloud was Zack’s person, which meant that they were all each others people. People to stand back to back with in the worst situations and to spend the good times with as well. People to be dedicated to, who deserved that dedication.
Watching the stops as his thoughts curled around each other like snakes, Cloud wondered why Zack had asked him to warn Aeris that they were coming and to get something to eat ready.
Something was up, something big, and he wasn’t sure what to think of it.
Something was happening, though she didn’t know what. It was frustrating at times, to hear the voices, but not understand them. It was like listening to a crowd, way off in the distance. She could hear the fact that the talking had grown, that it was far more active now than it had been, but she didn’t understand what was being said, or even the mood of the voices. It was just too indistinct, and that was starting to wear on her nerves some.
Most days, she wished that she had never been born with this blood of hers, that her mother had never given her the voices like she had. It was so frustrating to never really be able to understand, caught between two worlds. One side growling like an over protective dog over pups as Shinra continued to damage the planet, making it cry out more and more, so loudly that she heard it even here, in the heard of the Mako reactors, which muted out so many things. She almost dread what it must have sounded like outside the city, which was part of the reason that she had never really thought about leaving.
The other reason was much simpler. If she tried to leave, Shinra would leave off trying to “convince” her to come back and bring her back by force. At least in the city, even under Plate, she was in their backyard, so to say.
And the human side of her was tired of hearing things that made no sense, and just wanted it all to stop. Though it seemed clear enough that if there was some way to stop Shinra, then both sides would get the quiet they wanted. Which was why she was so interested in the news of AVALANCHE, the terrorist group targeting Shinra. Still, they were just as bad at times with their damage, but at least that was mostly human, not the core deep damage to the planet that Shinra was inflicting.
Though another reason for her jitters the last month or so was Zack’s vanishing. He had never left the city, she would have felt that. He vibrated, kinda, a low grade hum that seemed to match well with Sephiroth’s. Sometimes she wondered if they had Cetra in them as well, not as much as her, but some low quantity, brought about after years and years of interbreeding with humans.
So that had told her that, whatever had happened to him, he was in the city. And angry. More than that, she hadn’t been able to tell, all the Mako muting things too much. Still, when Cloud told her that Sephiroth was looking for Zack as well, she told him to stay in the city. Cloud had given her a funny look, but was starting to get used to her random statements. Which was good. Two weeks later, she had gotten the message that Zack had been found, and was pretty sick. If she could have, she would have gone to see him. Given the situation, though, she couldn’t, and had sent her love through Cloud. Now a month had passed, and Zack was out. Which was good, and she expected a visit any day.
Still, that left her with a lot of nervous energy, and rather than just let it wear her down without being productive, she put the energy to work as she worked on her flowers. They were doing very well now, having been her focus of distraction the time Zack had been gone.
So that was what she was doing when Cloud dropped in. The moment he did, she was working on carrying over some good fertilizer that she was able to get fairly cheap. Without a word, he moved over to help her, lugging the basket over next to where the light streamed in.
“Thank you,” she said cheerfully. “So, what brings you down here so early? Aren’t you usually running errands this time of the day?”
He nodded. “Got a call from Zack. They’re at lunch right now, and I think he’s finally getting Sephiroth down here for a visit. Probably using the fact he’s sick shamelessly to his advantage.”
A laugh. “Probably. He never is one to let an advantage go like that, especially as I know he’s been working hard to get the man down here. You’d think I had cooties with how hard Sephiroth’s been avoiding me.”
“You do,” Cloud told her, expression blank. “Girlie cooties, the worst kind. I, luckily, have had my shots, thus am immune.”
She gave him a purely speculative look, and grinned. “So, just how do they give those shots? They won’t tell girls, and we are so desperate to find out the greatest boy secret ever.”
“Sorry, ma’am, sworn to secrecy. Can’t tell you.”
“Can I bribe it from you? I might know of the location of an apple pie or two, still warm from the oven and just waiting for some ice cream to melt and soak into the top crust.”
He gave her puppy eyes. “That’s fighting dirty.”
“Like those eyes aren’t just as bad?”
They grinned at each other. Then Cloud sighed. “I’m not sure what happened, but I think something is happening. Zack sounded odder than normal on the phone. If I didn’t know him so well, I’d wouldn’t have heard it, but something is up. At least I think there is.”
Thinking about some of what Cloud had told her about his visits to the hospital, Aeris wondered what had really happened to Zack. And how it was affecting him. “Well, we’ll find out later, I’m sure. So, you said they’re coming down?”
He nodded. “Said he was bringing a friend. Which I’m pretty sure means Sephiroth. He wanted to give you warning in case you wanted to bribe the man with ‘the world’s best home-made pie.’ He’s really shameless.”
“Oh, yes. Which is why we both adore him.” She stood. “Well, if he is expecting food, we should go to my house. Mom is at her friend’s, and you are all casual today anyway, so we should be fine. What kind of pie do you think Sephiroth will like?”
Cloud blinked at her, then pondered the question. “Apple, I think. It’s the only fruit I’ve ever seen him eat. Zack buys them for him on occasion, so that’s my best guess.”
“Well then,” she said cheerfully, standing up and dusting off her hands. “If we start now, I think we can just beat them back here from the time they get off of work.”
Finally, a chance to get a good look at Zack. She wondered what she would find.
Sephiroth could smell the church before he could see it, due to the way the roads twisted and curled under the Plate. Fresh food and the scent of flowers. He hadn’t smelled fresh flowers since the last time he was in Wutai. Too often he was in the middle of cities, dealing with issues he shouldn’t have to touch, and he found he missed the smell of greenery. It had been too long since he had seen something that looked like a plant and wasn’t made of plastic.
Following Zack, who was still unsteady enough occasionally that he wanted to keep a close eye on the man at all times, which he was aware was most likely something of an over-protective response, but he wasn’t positive. He had never felt especially protective over anything before.
But whatever this was, he wanted to make sure no more harm came to Zack, and he was afraid it would. He had the basic idea, but they had still not had their talk over what had happened when Zack had been gone. He had seen the scars, and had shamelessly looked over Zack’s chart while the man was still unconscious. The words “brain damage” had made things chill in his chest and he had felt relief when Zack had woke up and acted very Zack-like.
Zack-like.
There were some things that were off. The way he reacted to the doctors, the way he stayed close to people and hadn’t want the visits to end. The man was people-oriented, but that level of almost needy fear had felt all wrong. Once Zack had mentioned punishment, Sephiroth had a sinking feeling of some of the things the man had gone through, and the want for people, especially people he could trust, was not a surprise.
The scar on the back of his friend’s skull had only added to the mystery, but it was the part that made him itch to crush Hojo’s skull in his hands. The man had done surgery on Zack’s head. On his brain. It was the only answer for everything, and he wasn’t sure how much damage had been done. Zack was Zack, but he wasn’t Zack at the same time.
Oh, for the most part, he still acted like himself. But there was a feralness, and feel that the stability that Sephiroth had depended on so many times was a bit...cockeyed, now. Somehow, the man was more...harsh, than he had been, quicker to snarl about someone, even in the dubious privacy of Sephiroth’s office. He never said anything that would get either of them a visit from the Turks, but there was a bite there than had been much better hidden before.
Sephiroth wasn’t sure what else had been done to his friend, but he was going to find out. Even if he had to break every bone in Hojo’s body to get his answers.
Chattering, sounding much more like his normal self now that he was out of the Shinra buildings, Zack lead him towards the church, which was sturdier looking than Sephiroth had expected. He was feeling somewhat nervous over this first meeting, which made no sense to him, so he put most of the feeling to concern of Zack. Which was almost as odd, but something he had gotten used to.
The chattering died the second Zack opened the doors and looked around. The smells that Sephiroth had been detecting for at least three streets over filled the air, and he found himself the focus of two sets of eyes. Cloud’s, and who he decided must be Aeris. She looked at him with serious green eyes, then focused on Zack, frowning slightly as if trying to figure out what he was doing.
She was not the only one. After a moment, Cloud and Sephiroth were also looking at the man, who was scanning the church. After a moment, he nodded, then tugged Sephiroth further in, shutting the door behind him.
“We’ve had a situation, and I might have an idea how to fix it,” Zack said, almost cheerfully.
“But first, is that apple pie?”
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
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And icon love there. Now it's canon. Zack's a glomper.
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Almost....
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You have a brain-scrambled Zack, an over-protective Sephiroth, a pissed Aeris, and a Cloud who thinks that everything is for the group, and someone is going to have some serious problems.
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You know, we never do find out much about Cloud's dad, and I seriously doubt the Turks wouldn't be hunting for a missing member who so conveniently "vanished" while on a fairly simple mission. So it just fit well. And explains so much about this Cloud, at least.
And, look, opening for Vincent to show up.
It's going to be fun. I have a few vague plans, but these series keeps changing on me. *eyes it* Can't wait to see what the muses drop on me next.
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Yeah, Shinra is going to -hate- this group.
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Edgy-potentially-nutty-Zack! And (over)protective Seph! And doggedly determined Cloud! And lethal apple pie wielding Aeris!
::purrrs happily::
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I'm pleased with how this story set is going.
Glad you like this.
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Of course, all sorts of plans go out the window with the introduction of Jenova.
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And now you've got me feeling all apprehensive and looking anxiously forward to the next chapter.
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Not long now till things are FUBAR.
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Not long now till things go pear shaped.
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Oh dear sweet merciful gods and goddesses in haven, hell, purgatory, and limbo. Is Zack hearing the Planet or Janova?
*twitch twitch*
They are all so very screwed. Zack is more farl and Seph is out for blood. Need I remind anyone that Cloud is pretty much the only one out there that has the potential to take them down? Or that once Aeris finds out what was done to her Zack, she's no longer going to be the calming influence on any of them?
Love it and want more!
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Yeah, that little safety of ethics that Zack had? It went bye-bye. Sephiroth is, well, -Sephiroth-, Aeris is a little unhinged herself in this verse due to the fact the planet won't shut up, Cloud cares for little outside his chosen group. And, at the moment, he couldn't take either Sephiroth or Zack out without luck being on his side.
*hums*
Oh, things are coming to a crisis point. And then there will be the cleanup.
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ho boy.
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Heh, how wild would the fringes on Zack and Cloud's necks be? *snicker*
Oh, little typo in the work.
I’d wouldn’t have heard it
Nothing big, just thought I'd point it out.