Summary: Thanks to their crash landing, the P0s might be saved. Sephiroth must decide if and how he wants to continue.
Inspired by this prompt by @im-totally-not-an-alien
Please enjoy!
Chapter 4: Moving Forward
The wooden gate clattered open, pulleys activating with the same inserted key the trio had seen multiple times now. Three Rhadorans in white entered their cell fiercely, blades and firearms at the ready.
“Wait wait wait- if this is it it, can you tell Rosen to make a cup for me? Since we're not going anywhere for a while… haha…”
“Glenn, why are you like this…?” Lucia huffed as the first soldier lifted her by her arm.
“Get up.” Not a shred of mercy threatened existence in that voice. Each P0 struggled and involuntarily winced as they were pulled to their feet, some even coughing from their shifted weight alone.
“The elders have a proposition for you.” A fourth Rhadoran stood in the open gateway, the only visible difference being the slight gray of the very same cloth all their people bore. Worn down. Used. Experienced. Another silent threat if they attempted escape.
Before Glenn opened his mouth, Lucia glared and shook her head. Thankfully, he actually listened this time.
“You took mercy on Rosen and Refu. Would you be willing to help him and our people?”
“Why would we help a people that leave a child to live on an island alone?”
“Rosen decided that fate himself,” Matt interrupted and gained all the eyes in the cell. “It was his choice and his duty.”
Glenn grumbled, though the Rhadorans clearly agreed with the statement.
“Shinra is planning to exterminate us. Rosen will be the last to die once those greedy bastards spot the smoke.”
“Exterminate?” Lucia couldn't contain her confusion.
Matt shook his head. “Our orders were to find suitable land for a mako reactor and clear the area. Nothing more.”
“And what did you think would happen when your company attempted to build a reactor in our sacred temple?”
“Sacred?” The leader countered. “Those ruins are abandoned! They’re falling apart!”
“Those ‘ruins’, as you call them, mark the land of the greatest mana source on the island.”
“The mako concentration…” The ‘professor’ mumbled in realization.
“Precisely. And your company has no more use for you. You will die here for their greed, or you can take your chances with our word.”
It made sense. Perfect sense. Everything Rosen spoke of was true. And every assumption about Shinra wasn't far enough off.
“...What’s this proposition?” their leader questioned.
The gray Rhadoran held his hands behind his back. “We have reason to believe Shinra is developing a bioweapon, since they failed at creating a brute force weapon.”
“What are you talking about?”
“We have a few scouts on Shinra ships. They heard rumors of a new SOLDIER class. Why do you think we sent so many of our warriors to combat three of you?”
Their eyes widened.
“You thought they would send him… the golden child. The boy hero. The one man army. To save us?”
“To silence us.” The gray warrior made a small gesture, and the guards restraining the P0s loosened their grips. “SOLDIER failed. We’ve turned Shinra’s former weapons against them. The next logical step is to use their so-called science department and create a weapon no one has seen before. But that’s only an assumption and a rumor. We ask you three to find out if this assumption is true and report back to us. That is all.”
“...that’s it?” The woman’s voice broke the silence.
“Think it over.” Another gesture and the three P0s were slowly lowered to the ground. “We'll return tomorrow. Have an answer by then.” The superior glanced up to his men. “Bring bread and water. They will need their strength regardless of their answer.”
* * *
Three nights had ended. Three suns had risen. Three days had passed since Sephiroth put his faith in this mysterious blond stranger, the man who claimed to know the location of his mother. To know a name he never heard. To know a past painful and impractical. Impossible.
But he wouldn't deny the chance to see her. He needed to know.
“We'll be in Junon tomorrow,” Cloud mentioned, observing the final mountain between them and the port city. The remaining hilly plains would be a breeze to traverse. The sun hung low, bathing the land in sparkling orange light. “We'll rest tonight and enter during the day. Then we'll stop for new clothes, change in a public bathroom, and bribe our way onto the ship.”
“Would Shinra notice our change of clothes? Our odd uniforms will bring enough attention.”
“Unless they know exactly which camera to look at, they won’t know what we did until we're near Cosmo Canyon. …I hope.” Shinra must have been searching for Sephiroth by now. The effectiveness of that search would be tested in the port city as well as vacation town across the ocean.
“We take the chance. If our gamble fails, can we hijack the airship in Upper Junon?”
“Do you know how to fly it?”
“...No. Nevermind then.”
“What if we jump down from the cannon?”
“If we're on the cannon, it's already too late. All of Shinra will know we are there. ”
Cloud hummed. He knew this was a risk long before beginning this task, but with their enemies so close, they could not afford a single mistake.
“There's a cave half way up.” Sephiroth gestured. “We shouldn't risk a fire tonight.”
“...We have to be ‘very efficient’ tonight.” Cloud didn't want to say exactly what that meant. The teen knew anyway. “And we must hide your sword before we leave tomorrow.”
“Understood.”
The forested valley between the two and their shelter held many breeds of monsters. They remained deathly silent the moment any creature dared attack them for their presence, fighting fiercely and fluidly. Close but untouching, their even strength and speed felled every threat between them and their next campsite.
Cloud saved all edible meat and useful leather. Sephiroth waited without fidgeting as he scanned the immediate area. After packing everything away, they entered the crevice.
No fire. No light. One tent. One bedroll. No new meals. Leftovers only.
“Sephiroth.”
There was a pause. The Golden Child stood close to the mouth of the cave, staring ahead. He did not speak, slowly unsheathing his sword.
Cloud understood and allowed the child as long as he needed.
Inhuman eyes scanned every inch of the manufactured blade, manufactured specifically for him. Unique. Alone. Just like him, even within the dozens of other blades Shinra made him test. Mythril Type-0 Katana. Prototype Crimson Blade. CC Alloy Sword. Shinra Blade: Model I. Some enhanced materia potency. Some were thinner for precise critical damage. However, the weapon in his hand was simple. No special gimmicks. No secret ability. Only his own skill and his own expertise. His nameless blade could be replaced by anything, and the sword Cloud gifted him was undeniably well made. He would show his skill in other ways.
“I’ll bury this and return in a moment.”
The blond did not stop him. “Go ahead. I’ll watch your back and whistle if I see anything.”
Sephiroth nodded before leaving the cave.
Cloud let out a soft sigh as he surveyed the area. Did Sephiroth feel joy in any moment of his life? As a child, Cloud made the incredibly wrong assumption that Sephiroth’s entire existence was filled with the joy propaganda implied it to be. How could someone be sad after a thousand victories? Of course Cloud understood now.
When the silver soldier returned, they ate their meal, the tent’s fabric door zipped closed to give the slightest perception of shelter from the wilderness. Through the noise of animals calling came the chopping of helicopter blades, most likely air traffic from Junon. Hopefully. Hopefully it wasn’t a search party for them. Cloud finished his piece first, watching as the teen took uncharacteristically small bites. The silence was deafening this evening.
“What’s on your mind?”
Sephiroth held the piece away, not daring to take another bite until he answered. “...you once said you did this to save me.”
“I did.”
“You assumed to know my life.”
“Well… I know certain things, but-”
“Did you know this was to be my first real mission?”
Cloud’s mouth snapped open in confusion.
“I was to exterminate the people of Rhadore to make way for mako engineers. Everything needed to be perfect. Fast. Efficient. Effective. No lives lost on our side, even the P0s already on the archipelago.” He lowered his head, but Cloud couldn’t focus on his apparent grief.
“What are you talking about?”
“Shinra manufactured my achievements to sell the SOLDIER program and change their recruitment policy. Rhadore was going to be my first field assignment and they would promote everything I did there to push the program through.”
“Wait, if this is your first assignment then what about-?”
Sephiroth shook his head, cutting him off. “All lies. Every last one of them.”
Cloud stared with large mako blue eyes, bewildered and frustrated and desperate for answers to a question he didn’t mean to allow escape. “What did they do to you…?”
The silver teen turned away.
The blond did the same.
“...I’ll take the first shift.” Sephiroth made his way out of the tent.
“Are you sure?”
“Positive. Get some rest, Cloud.”
He nodded and zipped the tent closed behind the golden child. Guilt ate at Cloud’s mind as he attempted to rest. He was wrong. He was so wrong. He should’ve kept his stupid mouth shut. But if this was truly before Sephiroth’s first mission, then that severely increased his chances to save everything. And Sephiroth gave that information up without prompting. Was the boy… What was he trying to do?
Outside the tent, Cloud heard the softest whisper, the softest chant leaving Sephiroth’s lips, one he wouldn’t be able to hear without his mako and SOLDIER enhancements. He glanced up and tried to discern Sephiroth’s stance from the shadow against the tent wall. The silver soldier was holding something delicately in front of his face.
“Lucrecia Crescent… Lucrecia Crescent…”
Only one night until Junon.
.
.
.
.
To be continued…
Thanks for reading!
Author’s note: If Ever Crisis is going to keep delaying content then I will fill the void myself.
Cloud saves Sephiroth from Shinra before his first mission even began. However, the consequences were unavoidable and unpredictable.
Chapte
